I predict Jay Gruden is our HC next year if it's not Marvin

[*Nately120*]

(12-15-2018, 03:28 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Its not just semantic.  The Vikings busted their salary cap to go from 13-3 to 6-6-1.

But, of course, the "get rid of Andy" crowd always ignore these types of outcomes.  

I thought the Cousins grab was a potential franchise-buster, to be sure.  Wit that being said, every year in the playoffs you see the usual teams that make it, plus a handful of teams that are on some magical one-year pushes, often bolstered by a QB who is playing beyond his usual resume.  Keenum was quite likely to be a one-year wonder as a QB (and he's not even outplaying the disappointing Cousins this year, anyways) so standing pat with him and giving him a long-term contract would almost certainly be seen as a blunder this season.  

Look at the Jaguars...they won their division (no huge feat there) and went on the road to beat the Steelers and then went to the wire with the Patriots.  They gave Bortles what looked like a stupid extension because there was a good chance this outlier of a season wasn't going to last.  Blunder, right there.

So let's see...playoff teams/QBs having inordinately successful years before reverting back to the pack the following year or soon after...

2017
Vikings and Keenum (to be determined, long term)
Eagles and Foles (to be determined, long term)
Jaguars and Bortles (both back to their losing ways)
Buffalo Bills (the 2017 team that didn't even seem like a playoff team, but made it anyways)

2016
Chiefs and the resurgent Alex Smith (end of the road for Smith whom they jettisoned for a new guy despite his success and the team's)
Raiders and Carr (one year wonders)
Dolphins and Tannehill (one year wonders)
Falcons and Matt Ryan
Giants and Eli "wish he weren't still here" Manning
Lions and Stafford (one year wonders)

2015
Bengals and Dalton (end of the road for winning ways?)
Panthers (15-1) and Newton (the MVP)
Cardinals and Palmer (one year wonders, reverted back to ho-hum after 2015)

2014
Colts and Luck (mostly Luck being injured, but they haven't had a winning season since and they are .500 so far this year)
Broncos and Manning (who was done in more than one way, but hell he got another ring)
Ravens and Flacco (haven't made the playoffs since)


That's the short of it.  At any rate, these are cases where a team that made the playoffs (some of which made significant pushes) followed up by reverting back to their true selves (Jaguars, Raiders, Giants, Lions, Bengals, Panthers, Vikings?, Eagles?) or just running out of gas (Palmer, Flacco, Luck via injuries, Broncos).  The short of it is that the Vikings going all-in on Cousins isn't something I'm defending, but the Vikings going all-in on Keenum after watching a bunch of teams and QBs do the one-year-wonder thing wasn't going to be a great move, either.

The 2017 had some 13-3 magic, but where has that magic gone?  The Vikings don't still have it, and Keenum didn't seem to take it to Denver with him.  There is no denying Keenum looked great last year (like Palmer and Newton looked great in 2015 before positing losing seasons the year after), but at the moment he looks like yet another late-round fill in the Broncos are playing because they busted on Paxton Lynch. Thus far, 2018 Keenum fits in fairly well with Osweiler and Siemian.