Minnesota had inconsistent cornerback play in 2019. With some of those veterans leaving, will the Vikings get worse at that position?
Bleacher Report thinks Minnesota is taking a risk with its defensive backs. A high turnover rate among the defensive back corps might come back to haunt Minnesota. Here’s what the outlet said about the Vikings:
“The Minnesota Vikings were a playoff team last year, but the pass defense was only average: 15th in the NFL at 233.6 yards per game.
Even that benchmark may be hard for the Vikings to hit in 2020.
Losing players in free agency is an annual event for all 32 teams. But this year was especially rough for the Vikings in the secondary. After a down 2019, the Vikings released veteran cornerback Xavier Rhodes, and Trae Waynes and Mackensie Alexander both signed with the Cincinnati Bengals.
That’s the Vikings’ top three cornerbacks from 2019—gone, gone and gone.
The Vikings didn’t sit on their hands at the cornerback position; the team traded back to draft TCU’s Jeff Gladney 31st overall and took Cameron Dantzler in the third round.
But there’s going to be a tremendous amount of pressure on an unproven Vikings secondary to grow up in a hurry if Minnesota is going to get back in the postseason in 2020.”
Alexander and Waynes are decent losses and it might be too much to expect Gladney to start out wide right away. That said, the Vikings letting Rhodes go could lead to an upgrade at that spot.