Kevin O’Connell’s sophomore season as a head coach begins tomorrow at 12 p.m. CDT. In an ideal world, the youthful coach finds a manner of propelling his group to a glowing 1-0 document on the conclusion of the Buccaneers at Vikings showdown.

Giving followers a greater understanding of what’s to return entails PurplePTSD providing up a single statistic, citation, and matchup to remember. The hope, valued reader, is that the data contained on this piece can operate as a little bit of a primer for what’s to return in tomorrow’s matchup. Take pleasure in.

The Buccaneers at Vikings

1 Stat: $77,044,032

Is cash a stat? Technically, no. Nonetheless, let’s shoehorn it into the dialogue as a manner of illustrating the place Minnesota’s opponent finds itself.

Tampa Bay is in the course of a rebuild. Shifting on from Tom Brady will try this. The group is thus navigating a roster in transition, and a part of that course of entails burning off a mountain of lifeless cash. No group surpasses Tampa Bay in the case of lifeless cash. If issues proceed as anticipated, the “Lifeless Cash Championship” would be the solely notable award to reach for Tampa Bay in 2023.

Mr. Brady leaves behind a whopping $35+ million on the finances despite the fact that he’s nowhere close to the sector. In the meantime, gamers like Donovan Smith, Lavonte David, and Leonard Fournette are gobbling up $5 million or extra apiece, and that’s not even accounting for Akiem Hicks and his $4.9 million lifeless cash hit.

Add all of it collectively and we’ve received a group that’s undoubtedly in transition. The Viking ought to — emphasis on ought to — beat the pirates from down in Florida.

BONUS STAT: Mike Evans has had greater than 1,000 yards receiving since getting into the league in 2014. Pulling off the feat as soon as once more in 2023 would imply it’s a cool ten-straight seasons of eclipsing the benchmark. Personally, I discover it onerous to not cheer for Evans to place forth a decade of dominance, however Vikings followers will likely be hoping the Week 1 output doesn’t contribute an excessive amount of to the overall.

1 Quote: Kevin O’Connell’s Ideas on the Secondary

Vikings followers appear involved concerning the nook depth, or lack thereof. O’Connell doesn’t appear to share these considerations.

A lot of his confidence flows from having Brian Flores calling the pictures on protection alongside the group’s impressive safety depth. A solution from his current press convention reveals how he’s understanding the situation:

Kwesi and I had day by day dialogue, that included dialogue with Flo, and I believe we have been speaking about this the opposite day. From the interview course of all through sitting down with Flo as he’s form of constructed this protection, you discuss concerning the versatility and the a number of personnel groupings so much, however then as we talked about, whenever you begin to see it and see what it appears wish to have three safeties within the recreation. With the ability to play a number of variations of 5 DBs on the sector based mostly upon what we expect is finest to not solely apply what we’re doing schematically however what these gamers ability units are.

Shortly thereafter, the final supervisor notes how the half dozen safeties are able to serving to the corners and particular groups lots. Sure, Baker Mayfield is an uninspiring substitute for TB12, however the Bucs’ WR tandem — Mike Evans and Chris Godwin — is not any joke.

Tomorrow will likely be a troublesome take a look at for Brian Flores and the secondary. The safeties might want to step up.

1 Matchup: Vita Vea vs. the iOL

Tampa Bay’s highly effective defensive sort out goes to a handful.

Standing at 6’4″ and weighing 347 kilos, Vita Vea stands out as an enormous human being even among the many different large human beings. In 2022, the 28-year-old defender picked up 6.5 sacks and 13 QB hits. Most of his snaps featured him lining up within the B hole, so Ed Ingram and Ezra Cleveland will have to be crisp if the sample holds in 2023.

Instantly collapsing the pocket makes it difficult for any passer. Presumably, O’Connell, Wes Phillips, and Chris Kuper have been within the lab all offseason searching for to concoct new methods of guaranteeing the strain doesn’t arrive so regularly. In spite of everything, Cousins received sacked a career-high 46 times in 2022. Anybody who watched the Netflix collection will let you know that the QB1 needed to navigate some ache final season. Can the group keep away from that final result in 2023?

Reversing the troubling pattern can hopefully start in Week 1 because the Vikings discover a manner of corralling Vea so he can’t take over the sport.

Editor’s Be aware: Data from Pro Football Reference, PFF, and Over the Cap helped with this piece.

Okay. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been overlaying the Vikings full-time for the reason that summer season of 2021. He could be discovered on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.