The Vikings Made This Key Mistake With Alexander Mattison
If you’re an OG reader, you already know this part. I’ll still reiterate it for the new audience. This site is called Vendetta for a reason. This is my way of striking back. I’ve wanted to be a general manager for a sports team since I was a little kid. I’ve been preparing for that moment my whole life. Today we’re going to talk about Alexander Mattison and the crucial mistake the Vikings made when evaluating the player.
It’s truly infuriating to watch general managers make mistakes that I learned from when I was six. Trey wouldn’t have made the mistake that dope Kwesi Adofo-Mensah made here. It’s the classic mistake in misevaluating your backups. Teams do it over and over again.
Nick Foles might look good in a four game stretch. What happens when you hand him the job full time? Teams have botched this element and have made the same mistake over and over again. Ryan Fitzpatrick and Gardner Minshew are two more examples. This is going to happen in the NBA with the Celtics, by the way, with Sam Hauser. Looks good in spot duty to hit a couple shots. Not so good when the guy is given a real role.
Teams over-evaluate their backups all the time. The smart teams like Miami develop them and let guys like Gabe Vincent and Max Strus walk when it’s time. The Vikings let the talented one out of the building so they could pay the mediocre talent. It’s never going to be a strategy that works. It’s applicable for any sport.
This is where the Vikings botched things with Mattison. Even the coaching staff was ready to blow their load when talking about Mattison this offseason. Mattison was never an RB1 talent. When given that type of responsibility, the wheels have fallen off. Now he’s an overpaid backup making starter level money.
Mattison was never going to just step in and replace Dalvin Cook. If you thought that, you don’t know how to evaluate talent. It’s not even just about the running stuff. Watch the way Dalvin catches the ball compared to Mattison. Dalvin at his peak was just a different tier athletically. Something Mattison was never going to match.
Mattison, 25, was terrible to start the season and prompted the team to add Cam Akers. I’m not sure it was an accident that he was immediately better this past week against the Chargers. The weight of carrying the load has been lifted even if Akers hasn’t made it onto the active roster yet.
At some point, we have to evaluate the evaluator. WTF has this Kwesi guy done since he’s been in charge? He’s bombed draft after draft and now the roster is so thin that Minnesota can’t buy a win. It’s not arguable. He’s bombed the draft this year. Sorry, but you need to do better than nailing your first round pick. A five-year-old can get that part right. I’m just going to tell everyone this right now. The guy running the Vikings is clueless. That’s been obvious since the moment he botched the trade value of the Jameson Williams trade down.
Use it as a lesson for the future. Just because a backup can shine in spot duty does not mean they should be compensated for a larger role. The Vikings learned this lesson the hard way as do teams across sports every single year.
Trey wouldn’t have made this mistake. Whenever one of these owners wants to win, my phone is open.
Subscribe to Vendetta’s Twitch
Subscribe to Vendetta’s YouTube
Check out the Vendetta Shop
Click here for more NFL content
