Gary Cuozzo/Norman Snead

Minnesota Vikings

Norm Snead or Gary Cuozzo? Minnesota Coach Bud Grant had to answer that question each week of the 1971 season and wound up using both. And the pro scouts feel there isn't much to choose between them, either.

Snead, an 11-year veteran acquired from Philadelphia who stands 6-foot-4, throws the ball just a bit better than Cuozzo. But Cuozzo, a nine-year veteran three inches shorter, reads defenses better.

And, if anyone wants to look back through the 1971 campaign, he might find that the basis for Grant's pattern was using Snead against teams with poor pass defenses and using Cuozzo against teams who were more susceptible to a grind-it-out attack. Neither, however, is a Joe Kapp when it comes to leadership, each getting only a 2 on the rating chart from the scouts.

Over-all, Cuozzo rates just a bit higher than Snead, his biggest margin being in the reaction under pressure department, where he scored 3 and Snead 2. The constant pounding Snead took in his days with Philadelphia appears to have taken its toll.
 

Cuozzo also has the edge in reading defenses, 3.5 to 3, and therefore appears more capable of running the disciplined-type offense the Vikings prefer.

When the 1972 season begins, Cuozzo also will have an age edge. He will be 31, Snead 33.
 

 

Norm Snead
Leadership	2
Reaction under pressure	2
Set-up speed	3
Throwing ability	3.5
Reading defenses	3
Total	13.5

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