This is actually 2 questions:
- How do you proceed after the bye
- How do you proceed after the season
As you can imagine, Vikings fans have a lot of opinions here. You have your Kirk loyalists, your tank commanders and even your Dobbs defenders.
It’s a bit of a cluster, but I am confident /r/nfl will have the answers.
Let’s start with the 1st question. You have 3 options here:
-
Start Mullens: very likely this will give you the best chance to make a playoff run, but let’s be real… you are not going to do anything when you get there.
-
Start Dobbs: Maybe you could delude yourself into thinking last week was a blip and not his luck running out?
-
Start Hall: He looked good in the couple of series he played, why don’t you see what you have to get a more accurate picture for our next question?
Now on to question 2, again we have 3 options here:
-
Resign Kirk, make no mistake, you will not get a discount. Let’s assume it’s a market rate deal. He will be 36 for most of next season coming off the injury.
-
Fuck them picks and try to get in spitting distance of one of the top QB prospects in the 2024 draft.
-
Let it fall to you, take a QB in the top 50ish picks, have Hall and rookie QB dual it out, let the chips fall where they may.
It’s a complicated situation, and we need answers. Obviously Kwesi is here religiously so give him some good advice.
This year? I would start Dobbs. Monday was his worst game of the season, possibly his career. We can't overreact to one game. KOC needs to gameplan to Dobbs' strengths instead of re-implementing the gameplan he used for Kirk. They have totally different skill sets. Also, we actually really don't need to know what he have in Hall. He's going to be the backup next season no matter what, not the starter, and not off the team. I'd rather boost our comp pick we'll get for Dobbs. Starting Mullens is an admission that KOC can't build an offense for a mobile QB, which is my worst case scenario.
Next year? Draft a rookie. I think there's a great chance a franchise QB falls to the teens where the Vikings will probably be picking, and it's our GMs job to find him. I love Kirk, but this is the time to move on.