Photo By Brian Curski
Written By Sam Ekstrom
Football teams bring in veterans for a variety of reasons. To state the most obvious reason first: Veterans bring skill to a roster. Vets become vets by establishing themselves in the league, and longevity in the NFL is hard to achieve when considering that the average career fizzles out after three years. To have longevity, you have to bring skill to the table.
Vets are also acquired to nurture youth through on-field leadership and off-field accountability. Experienced players know the tricks of the trade on the gridiron – how to make that subtle push off without getting flagged or judging a snap count with expertise. They also know how to make themselves valuable in a locker room by demonstrating what it takes to stay in the league: the studying, the weight room, the personal conduct.
Captain Munnerlyn got paid over $11 million this offseason for all of the above reasons. The aggressive nickel corner started 50 games and created 11 turnovers during five years in Carolina, so he certainly possessed the skillset the Vikings’ needed. He also possessed a personality that could bring the best out of the team’s young cornerback group featuring second-year man Xavier Rhodes and third-year player Josh Robinson. The Vikings have gone from 31st in passing yards allowed last year to fourth through nine games this year. Munnerlyn has an interception in each of the last two games, including a momentum-shifting pick against Washington just before halftime.
“He brings that sort of veteran experience to that position, which helps us out a lot,” said defensive coordinator George Edwards earlier this season. “[He is] able to communicate different things, whether it’s to split the receivers, anticipation of down and distance, get the run and pass.”
The University of South Carolina grad was brought in to play the nickel corner position, which Robinson struggled with during the 2013 season. The switch has paid dividends now that Robinson is lined up against the outside receiver, where we is admittedly more secure.
“I think it was a lot of discomfort and a lot of thinking too much due to never being there, due to everything just being so fast,” said Robinson of playing in the slot last year.
“It's a tough position,” said Munnerlyn Wednesday, speaking of his position in the nickel, “but at the same time, you've just got to go out there and execute … It's very tough, man. Being the inside guy, I always joke with the guys all the time, 'Inside corners should get paid way more than outside guys' because the inside, man, the guy could go anywhere.”
Hindsight is always 20/20, but the Vikings may have been able to salvage their 2013 season if they’d possessed a nickel corner of Munnerlyn’s caliber. Minnesota cut expensive veteran CB Antoine Winfield prior to last season after the savvy corner spent nine years with the team shutting down opposing playmakers. That left the Vikings thin at corner, and the team suffered because of it, losing four games thanks to late breakdowns in pass coverage.
General manager Rick Spielman recognized and addressed the need by signing the former Carolina Panther to a three-year contract. In doing so, he brought in a player used to facing elite quarterbacks after years in the same division with Matt Ryan and Drew Brees. The 5-foot-9, Mobile, Ala., native was exactly who the Vikings needed.
Honesty is the best policy
Munnerlyn doesn’t sugarcoat anything. The sixth-year player is about as shy as Rex Ryan on “Hard Knocks.” He showed his assertiveness early on this season when he passionately refuted the team (and the league’s) decision to place Adrian Peterson on the commissioner’s exempt list. “If Adrian wasn’t in the limelight, I don’t think this would be coming up at all because you raise your kids how you raise your kids,” Munnerlyn said. “I think Adrian is a great guy, great dude, great father, great football player, and I just think the way he’s been treated is unfair.”
Munnerlyn was outspoken several days later when a personal foul call against him played a huge role in the Vikings’ 20-9 loss in New Orleans. A third down stop was nullified when Munnerlyn’s sack of Brees was ruled to be an illegal hit on the quarterback. “I think it was a bad call. It was a bad call,” reiterated Munnerlyn the day after the game. “The referee, he never blew the whistle. My coaches and I just watched it again, and he never blew the whistle until I already had him.”
The 26 year old is honest with his own emotions, which he wears on his sleeve. The Vikings were no stranger to Munnerlyn’s fiery personality after seeing it firsthand in a 2011 game. Munnerlyn and former Viking Percy Harvin got into a physical altercation on the Panthers’ sideline during a second quarter play that resulted in a Harvin penalty.
But now that he’s wearing Purple, and a different number than the ‘41’ he wore in Carolina, the Vikings have to enjoy seeing that incendiary personality on their own sideline. With the club’s two other starting corners having three combined years of experience entering the year, Minnesota needed somebody that would set them straight.
“Captain is a vocal guy,” said Robinson. “He's a guy that lets you know, 'Okay, that wasn't me, that was you. Get it right.' That's okay. It helps you know, ‘Okay, I've got to do my job’ because he's going to point it out if you don't. I'm fine with that.”
As any captain should, this Captain demands accountability. After the Vikings lost to Detroit in early October, head coach Mike Zimmer hinted at some undisciplined behavior on the team that included tardiness to team functions. Munnerlyn went on to send a message to his teammates. “Every person in this locker room has to be accountable for themselves, man, and just try to do the right thing. Like Coach Zim said, it’s a small thing, those small things can turn into big things. You do the small things right, we’ll be okay. We just gotta be on time when we supposed to, like Coach Zim said, we’re gonna start fining guys to the max. I’m sure that will get a lot of guys’ attention. Just do the small things, and me, being a leader on the team and being an older guy, just talk to the young guys and let them know, this guy’s for real, man. Take care of the small things and we’ll be alright.”
Munnerlyn practices what he preaches. For example, he’ll politely tell you exactly how Desean Jackson was able to burn him in the Vikings’ last game against Washington. If his actions cost the team, he takes the responsibility upon himself. Even though he disagreed with the controversial penalty called against him in Week 3, he still took the blame for the team’s loss. “I told my teammates, ‘I feel like I let ya’ll down.’ I got called for unnecessary roughness, and it changed the whole game in my eyes,” said Munnerlyn.
The accountable veteran has seen plenty of football games and also understands the toils of being young in the National Football League. He knows the temptation to get too overhyped, too wound up – perhaps the exact quality in the younger Munnerlyn that forced him into a fight with Harvin. If there’s one thing the current Munnerlyn harps on, it’s not to be too impatient. “I think that sometimes we might be too antsy and too excited instead of just locking in and focusing,” said Munnerlyn. “It’s something we have to work on and settle down and play football.”
When asked what Munnerlyn’s main teaching point was, Rhodes echoed the same sentiment.
“Just need to be patient at corner,” said Rhodes. “Can't be always antsy and ready to go. You've just got to let the receiver react and you react after. You just can't be the first one to make the move. You've got to allow the receiver to make the move first.”
An eternal optimist
While Munnerlyn doesn’t mince words when dealing with his cornerback counterparts, he lifts up morale with an undying positive attitude. When the team was 2-3: “It could be worse,” said Munnerlyn. “We could be 0-5.” When the team trailed the division by a game: “It’s the perfect place for us right now.”
Coming off a bye with seven games remaining and two games out of a wild card spot?
“We're still going to make that playoff run and make the Super Bowl run,” said Munnerlyn.
“Positive all the time,” said Rhodes of Munnerlyn, “Positive attitude, coaching us up, helping us with our technique, telling us where we need to be. Just being the Captain, basically. Living up to his name.”
Munnerlyn’s not being unrealistic when he says he anticipates a playoff run. He acknowledges that it will probably require a 6-1 finish in the final seven games at least – even 10-6 teams aren’t guaranteed a spot. He knows the Vikings will have to benefit from other teams dropping in the standings. He’s not being naïve; he just really, really believes in this team.
“We're coming off a bye. I think we're fresh,” said Munnerlyn. “We know we can win football games in this NFL. We've got the team to do it … We're going to take it one game at a time, but at the same time, all our goals are still ahead of us. We're still right in our division even though Detroit is playing outstanding and Green Bay is playing outstanding. But all our goals are still ahead of us.”
Robinson appreciates Munnerlyn’s glass-half-full attitude. He believes that it stems from Munnerlyn’s experience and knowledge of the game. The more Munnerlyn sees, the more he knows. And the more he knows, the more confident he becomes in his team’s success. “He's definitely able to give us confidence in there and be able to tell us, 'OK, we've got this this week. We can beat them. I played them three times.' Things like that,” said Robinson.
Munnerlyn’s words to Robinson must have been directly referring to this Sunday’s opponent, the Chicago Bears, who Munnerlyn has faced three times and never beaten. But for a guy who doesn’t rule his 4-5 team out of a Super Bowl run, beating the Bears must seem like a piece of cake.
Sam Ekstrom is a staff writer for Cold Omaha at 105 The Ticket and a play-by-play broadcaster in Burnsville, Minn. Hear him on 105 The Ticket weekdays from 2-3 p.m. on “The Michael Knight Show” or Sunday mornings from 8-10 a.m. on “The Wake Up Call.” Follow him on Twitter @SamEkstrom for further insights.