VikesCentric: Captain Munnerlyn is improving along with the secondary

When your name is Captain, it might be difficult not to garner attention. Vikings cornerback Captain Munnerlyn came to the team as a free this past offseason and he has been at the center of things ever since.

Munnerlyn arrived in Minnesota from the Carolina Panthers with a decent reputation (he was ranked as the 10th-best cornerback in the NFL last year by Pro Football Focus). He also returned two interceptions for touchdowns in each of the past two seasons (five in his six-year career), yet struggled early in his job with the Vikings.

But two games ago, Munnerlyn's head coach Mike Zimmer (who brought him in to upgrade the secondary) gave him a simple message: "Be consistent." It must have been what Munnerlyn needed to hear, because since that time he has pulled in his first two picks of the season.

Certainly Zimmer was talking about more than making interceptions. Zimmer felt that Munnerlyn was trying to do too much and needed to let the game come to him.

"Thinking he's going to be doing something more than he should be doing," Zimmer told the Star Tribune of Munnerlyn's inconsistencies. "Sometimes it's guys' personalities of trying to do too much."

Whether or not Munnerlyn was pressing too hard to live up to his three-year, $15 million contract that he signed with the Vikings, he has been the first to say he needed to improve, and has worked to do so. He is playing on the number four-ranked pass defense, but he still feels like he can get better.

"As a group, those guys are doing a great job," Munnerlyn told the Star Tribune of his teammates in the secondary. "I told those guys, 'I've got to pick my game up to their game,' because they have really been playing very well. They've been picking me up at the same time I have been picking those guys up. So now the sky's the limit for the secondary."

If you take a look at Munnerlyn's stats overall, he is now tied with Josh Robinson for the second most interceptions on the team at two and he is sixth on the team in tackles with 36.

PFF has some good things to say about Munnerlyn--saying that the addition of Munnerlyn as a slot corner has allowed Robinson to play exclusively on the outside and therefore contributed to his improvement. According to PFF rankings, Munnerlyn is holding his own.

Munnerlyn's overall rating by PFF is a positive 2.0. That puts him at 33rd in the league, just four places behind his teammate Robinson who is 30th with 3.2 rating—and ahead of second-year teammate Xavier Rhodes, who is in 74th place (out of 109 cornerbacks, slot and outside) with a -3.2 rating.

Munnerlyn's strength is covering the run (exemplified by all the tackles), where he rates at 2.9—tied for fifth best in the league, right behind Darrelle Revis. Munnerlyn is clearly not afraid to stick his nose in on a play in run support and if he were just a bit better in coverage, fans might not be missing Antoine Winfield, as much as they often do.

"I'm okay with [how I've played]," Munnerlyn told the Star Tribune after the Tampa Bay game. "If I take a couple plays back here and there, I think I would be playing pretty well. At the same time, football comes down to four or five plays in a game and that's all on my mind. So I just let 'em go and move forward and try to be the best Captain Munnerlyn for the [remaining] games."

Whether his performance is where he thinks it should be or not, Munnerlyn is contributing greatly to one of the top pass defenses in the NFL. Having played both the left corner and in the slot, Munnerlyn has been on the field for 599 snaps this season, which is second to only one cornerback in the league, Philadelphia's Cary Williams at 605.

Thus far, Munnerlyn has helped do what Zimmer brought him in for—to move the Vikings secondary from the basement to one of the better units in the league. So far, so good. If as Munnerlyn says, he can always do better, that only bodes well for a very improved defense.

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