Minnesota Vikings cornerback Bashaud Breeland, to the chagrin of fans who called for his ousting, appears to be safe in Minnesota.
Breeland, who signed a one-year, $3 million contract with the Vikings after making it to the past two Super Bowls with the Kansas City Chiefs, has had a complicated relationship with the fan base in his first five games in purple and gold.
Breeland has not lived up to his championship pedigree, ranking among the worst cornerbacks in the NFL in Pro Football Focus’ position grades.
Amid a frustrating second half against the Detriot Lions, Breeland committed pass interference; a penalty met with boos from the 66,538 fans at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
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Breeland welcomed the criticism and played better in the final quarter. However, he took to Twitter to air his frustrations with the fans in a NSFW tweet after the game.
Coach Mike was asked if Breeland would be reprimanded for his tweet, which the Vikings coach met with his all-too-familiar curtness.
‘We’ll Handle It’
When asked if Breeland would face disciplinary actions for his postgame tweet, Zimmer was short in a Monday press conference before pivoting to a defense of Breeland for past actions taken against a reporter.
“We’ll handle it,” Zimmer said before referring to a press conference where Breeland clapped back at Pioneer Press reporter Chris Tomasson for asking if his league-worst Pro Football Focus (PFF) ranking was embarrassing.
“I actually think he played pretty well. If I was asked the question by that reporter that he was asked the other day about being embarrassed about being 103rd in PFF, I think might go off on him too.”
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Here’s the exchange from Breeland and Tomasson earlier last week.
Breeland’s response to his “embarrassing” @PFF ranking, for reference: pic.twitter.com/pJtZ1PZQF3
— Heavy On Vikings (@HeavyOnVikings) October 12, 2021
Tomasson: Out of 103 cornerbacks, Pro Football Focus ranks you 103 and last. Is that embarrassing?
Breeland: That really don’t bother me. I mean if we do your ratings on your reports, you probably 101? That don’t bother me it just keep me going I’m just getting ready for the next game.
Breeland Improves vs. Lions, Still Among League Worst
Breeland is climbing an uphill battle this season due to his poor start to the season.
The 29-year-old corner allowed 18 receptions on 21 targets (85.7%) for 257 yards and four touchdowns in the season’s first three games for a nearly perfect quarterback rating of 157.2 when targeted in coverage.
He has since allowed five receptions on nine targets (55.6%) for 24 yards and no touchdowns in two games.
Breeland’s performance against the Lions was his best yet, granted it was while facing a Jared Goff-led pass game that has been unproductive, attempting the fifth-most passes and gaining the 23rd most yards in the NFL. He allowed three receptions on seven targets for 19 yards and posted a 50.3 quarterback ranking allowed in coverage.
However, his grade did not improve drastically. He ranks 167th out of 179 graded corners through five weeks this season and is the lowest-graded corner ( 42.1 PFF grade) of any corner with at least 200 snaps.
The Vikings face the Carolina Panthers this week, and it’s unclear how the team will move forward once Cameron Dantzler comes back from COVID-19 protocols. The second-year corner is currently the 13th ranked corner (76.2 PFF grade) in the league but has only 88 snaps to show for this season.
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