I believe this should be a pretty simple answer but I'll try to take it into a little depth here. The most important reason the Vikings need to get Jared Allen signed to a new contract is for the team. I completely understand that Rick Spielman is implementing a youth movement but that doesn't mean that the entire roster needs to get younger, to have a winning team you need the perfect balance of veteran leadership mixed with youth. I know that's stating the obvious so it needed to be in here.
Can anyone remember the Viking anemic pass rush prior to 2008? Well I do. in 2008 Jared Allen recorded 1/2 sack less than Minnesota's top 3 players with sacks from 2007, a total of 14.5 sacks. It took Kenechi Udeze(5), Ray Edwards(5) & Ben Leber(5) to get more sacks than Allen. Now if you want to talk about just Defensive ends than Allen had just as many as the top 3 guys as you got Udeze, Edwards & Brian Robison(4.5). 2006 gets worse than that & we need to go all the way back to 2004 to have a Defensive End even reach double digits in sacks(Lance Johnstone 11.5).
Now if you can't tell by now Jared Allen makes defenses gameplan around him which makes it hard to put value on, sure he will be 32yrs old by the time next season start and that could be a number that scares some people off but it shouldn't be this way as Allen has put up atleast 11 sacks every season he's been in Minnesota and he still put up 12 sacks last season playing all year with a torn labrum which is very impressive.
The next reason he needs to be retained is that he makes the entire defense better as a whole. He helps out the opposite Defensive End. If you want proof of this look no further than Ray Edwards who just 2 seasons ago was supposed to be a prized free agent. He bolted Minnesota for Atlanta agreeing to a 5yr/30M contract with 11M guaranteed. I told people he should be a buyer beware free agent as he never once posted double digits in sacks playing opposite of Jared Allen and on a defensive line that also featured Kevin & Pat Williams. Defense's simply didn't focus on Edwards at all. Well over these past two seasons Ray Edwards recorded a total of 3.5 sacks all of them coming in 2011 and today he is currently out of the league at age 28, when he's supposed to be in the prime of his career.
Now obviously as I said earlier the Vikings are going through a youth movement but that doesn't mean everyone needs to be young. The Vikings have two other free agent defensive ends( Everson Griffen & Brian Robison). Griffen is the perfect compliment to Jared Allen as he can add pressure from the opposite side of the field and he fits the youth movement but a team that wants to contend should NOT have 2 very young starting defensive ends, atleast not if they want to win. While I have no doubt Griffen could hold his own opposing defenses won't game plan around him atleast not yet, which will make the entire defense's job a lot harder.
The last reason is that the Vikings will more than likely already have atleast three huge holes to fill next offseason depending upon how Christian Ponder performs this upcoming season that could change to four huge needs(QB, OG, DE & LB). There is also the question of what to do at DT. Now I don't see an issue of creating another hole by letting Allen walk. Now some people will say well they could just resign Brian Robison but he is only a year younger than Allen and if I had to choose between Allen & Robison I'd take Allen every single time, this is no knock on Robison though as he is a good player in his own right but he is no Jared Allen. Not to mention that Allen as a Superstar is willing to put in the work it takes and has a great attitude not to mention his locker room presence. At the end of the day if the Vikings want to continue to contend it should start with giving Allen a 3 or 4 year contract, the Vikings can afford it as his contract should go down from this season even if he will still be making 10M a year.
No comments:
Post a Comment