Minnesota Vikings: 5 players who must improve in 2018

2. Andrew Sendejo

This one is a little bit personal for me. Looking a the stat sheet you’d see Sendejo had 80 total tackles last year, and he has at least 69 total tackles in four of the last five seasons while starting 53 games alongside Harrison Smith over that five-year span. Pro Football Focus was complementary of his work last year too, after not being so previously, with an overall grade of 86.8 to rank him No. 11 among safeties.

But the eye test shows Sendejo’s shortcomings. He often seeks and attempts to deliver a big hit, rather than going with a simple arm tackle. The Vikings have made some attempt to replace him as Smith’s running mate, but Anthony Harris, Jayron Kearse, and going back a bit further Antone Exum, have not really asserted themselves over the last few seasons. Sendejo has also missed at least two games in three straight seasons, with multiple ailments. The special teams kamikaze act does not work consistently as a starting safety.

Sendejo got an ill-conceived four-year contract extension in March of 2016, and he’s got two years left on the deal. The financial commitment ($3.45 million this year, $5.45 million next year) is not so much to be debilitating to the Vikings, and at this point they can cut him without consequence.

Playing with the league’s best safety, and on one of the league’s best defenses, can cover up someone’s deficiencies quite well. Despite how traditional and advanced data sees him, or has started to in terms of advanced numbers, Sendejo is patently inadequate.