ANXIOUSLY WAITING UNTIL 9PM GAMEDAY CHAT THREAD WHY CAN'T IT BE 9PM ALREADY

D line is a questions mark, pass rush is a question mark, corners are a question mark. We do know they have Bowman (assuming he plays like he used to and how he played in the preseason) and they have one of the best safety tandems in the league with Reid and Bethea. The unknown guys starting aren't trash pick ups of people on their way out of the league but are mostly recent draft picks who may or may not be good. The biggest knock on their defense imo is losing Fangio.

The only unknown on their offense is Carlos Hyde who is being anointed Frank Gore 2.0 with a total of 333 yard from scrimmage. He may be end up being good but its unknown. Whats not helping his cause is that offensive line which is weak from center over to RT leaving an entire side (60%) vulnerable. Couple that with Kaep's inability to be confident in the pocket leading him abandon plays too early and too often. Yes he might turn those scrambles into good runs a few times but that's not going to win them games on its own. I'm also not high on the Torrey Smith pick up for the same reasons I spoke about with the offensive line weakness, Kaep will have a tough time staying in the pocket long enough to complete a long pass to Smith. Boldin is good but old and we don't know if Vernon Davis' play last year was an indication of what's to come or if he will turn it around.

So in my opinion they have 3 elite players on defense and 2 (Staley and Boone) on offense. I'm not saying the team is bad at all and I think tonight's game will be a tough one but they have a lot of unknowns on defense that have potential compared to knowing 3/5 of their offensive line is bad and that Kaep's ability under pressure is subpar.

/r/minnesotavikings Thread Parent