The Vikings have waived cornerback Bashaud Breeland, per a club announcement. The comes just hours after the team listed Breeland as questionable for this week’s game due to non-injury reasons.
Breeland “got into a verbal altercation” with coaches at Saturday’s practice, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero (Twitter link). Apparently, the veteran took off his cleats at some point during the fracas and got into it with teammates who were trying to restore order. After that, the Vikings acted fast to hand Breeland his pink slip.
After two seasons with the Chiefs, Breeland spent much of the offseason in free agency limbo. Finally, in June, the Vikings signed him to a one-year, $4MM deal. It’s worth noting that the Bears and the incumbent Chiefs were also in the mix.
The 29-year-old (30 in January) graded out as a midlevel corner in 2020, slotting him 57th at the position. This year, PFF has him ranked as one of the worst among all qualified corners — 117 out of 119. Teammate Mackensie Alexander, also in the midst of a rough year, is tied for dead last.
Breeland’s Minnesota run will end with 63 tackles and two interceptions across 13 games. The Vikings, sans Breeland, will face the Bears on Monday night in a game that could make or break their playoff hopes.
I know we’re lacking depth at CB but what took so long to dump this trash
I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why this guy was starting over Dantzler all year. Terrible signing and baffling choice to start him.
Breeland was awful in Washington… constantly got beat or drew penalties….
Wasn’t just in Washington… KC was glad he moved on too.
Breeland was pretty good in Washington, I thought. It was after he injured his foot before starting in Carolina when he went completely off track. I was shocked at how much worse he was. He was even pretty awful in KC I thought, but got bailed out by a couple of picks.
Breeland needs two circumstances to occur to succeed: the refs to allow a lot of hands on play and safety help over the top. He usually is good for a handful of “right place, right time” interceptions a year, and he’s pretty good at being around the ball. Thing is, he usually gets into that position by interfering with or holding the intended receiver because he can’t run with anyone anymore. If there’s a safety giving him help, he can peel off and go for the ball, which is where he’s gotten a few picks.
That of course requires you committing a safety to bailing Breeland out constantly, though. I’ve not seen a corner commit so many penalties (more than Xavier Rhodes after his decline, even), including ones that should have been called and weren’t. Breeland is smart, he knows what veteran moves he can try to compensate for his physical shortcomings, but his athletic ability is negligible at this point and he just isn’t worth the potential penalties, the prospect of getting burned, or the help he needs in coverage.
Was not impressed with Breeland.
Didn’t realize Alexander graded so poorly.
Not impressed with Danzler either – looks like a Whiff.
Too bad that the Vikes WHIFFED on using #1 picks on BOTH Gladney & Hughes.
Maybe Patrick Peterson can recommend SOMEBODY !!
Seems like the Secondary Coaches should be looking for work after this season….
Zimmer needs to be looking for a job. For someone who supposedly specializes in corners, he’s had a bunch of swings and misses lately.
I’m not a Vikings fan so I don’t watch them every week, but every time I see their games I see Dantzler either get flagged or toasted in coverage.
While I agree that the corner struggles have been atrocious for the Vikes the last two years, I don’t know if I hold it entirely against Zimmer. He has built more successful defenses than unsuccessful ones. He should, however, realize that those veterans he’s trusting aren’t doing a good enough job right now. If the Vikings can’t find good enough upgrades this offseason, I think it’s time to begin reconstructing that defense-with or without Zimmer.
In Daily fantasy I always looked to see who lined up against Breeland.
Guess you won’t be able to do that anymore lol
I thought Breeland was pretty good with the Packers and Chiefs, but he just took a nosedive here. He was always giving up big plays. Surprising they waived him though even with all this stuff going on
Danzler in for Breeland is not much of an improvement.
Considering Alexander so far this year, no help there.
Better have Woods helping Danzler all night long !!
Good news for Breeland.
Instead of having to go through the: travel, practices, meetings, and dressing and undressing for the game in addition to going out onto the field and doing NOTHING; now he can sit at home, watch the games on TV and STILL collect his paycheck !!
Somehow I think Breeland would rather PLAY football.