The biggest question facing the Vikings in 2020 will be how the defense survives the loss of familiar faces like Xavier Rhodes, Trae Waynes and Mackensie Alexander.
The new-look cornerback group will be led by third-year players Mike Hughes and Holton Hill, along with rookies Jeff Gladney (1st-round pick) and Cam Dantzler (3rd-round pick).
While Rhodes was once an All-Pro cornerback and Waynes was a former top-10 pick, replacing these players won’t be as hard to replace as one might think.
This group was really bad last season.
Last season, Rhodes finished with a Pro Football Focus grade that ranked tied for 109th among cornerbacks. Waynes finished 48th. Alexander finished 51st.
That’s not ideal.
It’s certainly no guarantee that a younger group will do any better than this group, but it’s hard to imagine their rankings being much worse than the top-three cornerbacks on Minnesota’s roster.
There will be a challenge with the rookies especially not having a full offseason getting to know Mike Zimmer’s system, but young cornerbacks have succeeded under Zimmer before.
The Vikings hope they can do it again.
The bar isn’t very high.
