Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - A case of the Mondays for the Minnesota Vikings

Episode Date: July 28, 2020

Read Matthew Coller's written work at PurpleInsider.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Folks, do you feel like everything these days is go, go, go? It's non-stop, from work, to friends, to family, and a million pressing issues. Sometimes you just need to take a playoff and hit the reset button. That's when you reach for a Coors Light. It's made to chill. Hey, it's that time of year in Minnesota again to get out on the lake, go to the cabin, sit back, watch the baseball. Coors Light is the perfect refreshment to chill during these summer months. There's only one beer out there that's made to chill. The mountains on the bottles and cans turn blue when your beer is cold,
Starting point is 00:00:32 and that way you know it's time to chill. Hit that reset button with some mountain cold refreshment. Coors Light is cold lager, cold filtered, and cold packaged. It's literally made to chill. It's crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies. Coors Light is the one you should choose when you need to unwind, when you want to hit the reset button, reach for the beer that is made to chill. Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door
Starting point is 00:00:57 with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hi, Blue Wire listeners. I'm Greg Olson. I'm excited to partner with Blue Wire to bring you TE1, a podcast where I interview the tight ends who have revolutionized the position. Listen in as I have raw, in-depth conversations with the all-time greats like Shannon Sharp, Tony Gonzalez, Travis Kelsey, and George Kittle.
Starting point is 00:01:24 We'll explore how the tight end position has changed over the last 60 years and what it takes to be the very best. Subscribe to TE1 from Blue Wire Studios today so you're ready for the August premiere. Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with ESPN's Myron Metcalf. And Myron, I've got a game for you to play today after a no-good rotten Monday for the Minnesota Vikings. We're going to play a game called How Bad Is This? Are you ready, Myron? I'm ready. It seems like the perfect Minnesota Vikings game to play. So let's just start. There's a lot to get to that happened to the Minnesota
Starting point is 00:02:18 Vikings over just a couple of days span that was not great. The controversy of Mike Zimmer versus Delvin Cook's agent over whether Mike Zimmer said or was told that Delvin Cook is coming to camp. Zimmer on a Zoom call on Saturday said that he was told by Delvin Cook, and then Delvin Cook's agent said, no, you weren't. And then he said, no, but it was the running back who told me. And then his agent said, no, it wasn't. And then Mike Zimmer went on a radio interview and said, no, no, I never said that. But he did say that because I was there and I heard it and I have it on tape and I played it in one of my podcasts. So, Myron, this Delvin Cook situation, we don't know as we're recording this whether he's going to show up at camp or not
Starting point is 00:03:06 and I'm not sure the team is going to announce it if he is at camp how bad is this if Delvin Cook does not show up at training camp oh man it's really bad to me I just my dad
Starting point is 00:03:22 I'm a family of nine six brothers and sisters there are a lot of us man like I, my dad, I'm a family of nine, come from a family of nine, so six brothers and sisters. There are a lot of us, man. Like I remember my dad would walk in the door and if there was like bad news, he'd put his stuff down and just sit at the table. He's kind of had his head in his hands a little bit like, really, I got to deal with this, you know?
Starting point is 00:03:40 And that's how I feel about what's happened over the last four to five days. How do you mess this up in this situation? It's a very delicate deal where you obviously know what Dalvin Cook wants and he wants to get paid. You cannot get up there and communicate anything that's not Teflon when it comes to that conversation. and even if there is an exchange you'd better be clear on what transpired because as Dalvin Cook you're trying to control the narrative and if you've got a coach up there saying hey everything's fine nobody worry I would take offense to that and I'm sure he did and if his message this week is I'm not showing up to training camp, I'm going to show you how serious I am,
Starting point is 00:04:25 it's a really bad deal for the Minnesota Vikings. Because to me, in these situations with a guy who is at this vulnerable position where there just aren't that many guys who are going to get paid, but he's one of those guys that you would want to pay, I think this is the thing you have to salvage in the moment. But is Mike Zimmer capable of that? Because I think the message, if I'm Dalvin Cook, I'm going, if this is really how it
Starting point is 00:04:54 all went down, did this guy just lie to support the team stance? Did this guy just, you know, go up there and misrepresent my view and how I feel for the sake of the team? Because that's how I would see it if I were Dalvin Cook. Like, this guy's trying to take a stance as management, you know, and trying to put the team in a more favorable position to act like everything's okay so that when I come out and I don't show up to camp, it's like, well, what else do you want?
Starting point is 00:05:25 You know, I just think, I think Dalvin Cook, no matter what you think about what he deserves or what he should be paid, no matter what you think about the longevity of that position for a guy who has played, I believe fewer than 30 games over the last three seasons, no matter what you believe about those particulars, at a minimum you have to agree that he deserves a fair shake and a fair process. And my challenge with what's happened with Mike Zimmer going back
Starting point is 00:05:55 and forth with Dalvin Cook and his agent, I think it was unfair to Dalvin Cook, honestly, just how it all started off. And I would be furious. And if he doesn't show up, now you've got to go from just dealing with the numbers to now there's a relationship element there with Mike Zimmer and Dalvin Cook. Because if this is how it all went down and I'm Dalvin Cook, I got to know, hey, did you lie on me?
Starting point is 00:06:22 Did you make something up about what i said and if so how do i trust you going forward that's the kind of conversation matt as you know that gets people to to get a little crazy and say you know what man i won't be on this roster in 2020 you might as well trade me and go get what you can because i'm not going to stay in minnesota and and i heard have heard that delvin cook wants to be traded if this thing isn't going to get worked out. But just going back to what you're saying, this has been the criticism of Mike Zimmer that we have discussed on the show. It's not, can he scheme on defense? Everybody knows that the man is brilliant when it comes to designing his defenses, to developing players that you know every year you're going to have a top 10 defense. Everybody knows that the man is brilliant when it comes to designing his defenses, to
Starting point is 00:07:05 developing players that you know every year you're going to have a top 10 defense. It's always interpersonal issues. It's why did Norv Turner resign on you? Why did you have to fire John DiFilippo and then throw him under the bus a million times throughout that season in 2018? Why was Anthony Barr upset with you in the locker room in 2016? Why does Stefan Diggs not want to be here? Is it only because of the offense? Like, just, like, let's have this clear. Is it only because of the offense, or are there more things?
Starting point is 00:07:36 And Stefan Diggs had another little strangely timed tweet the other day when this stuff was going down as well that made me go hmm wonder what that's about and stefan diggs did not thank mike zimmer on his way out he thanks kirk cousins for the memories kyle rudolph adam phelan but not mike zimmer and now like you said why say to the media he told me he's coming? The way it goes down is our buddy Judd Zolgad asks, is Delvin going to show up? Zimmer says, yes. Judd says, who told you that?
Starting point is 00:08:16 He says, he told me. Like, we have the audio, Mike. You can't go back and pretend that didn't happen. And then, like you said, if you're Delvin's side, you go, oh, wait a minute, I didn't do that. That's not what happened. And then you put it out there that it was somebody else who said something else. Like, already you have manipulated this person, and that's not going to make him want to come to camp if he does, and it's not going to make him want to sign a long-term contract if he wants to. Now, you might just sort of shrug your shoulders and go, well, who cares? He's a running back.
Starting point is 00:08:46 Here's who cares. Everybody else in the locker room who doesn't look at Delvin is just another running back. And the proof is in what happened when the Vikings had healthy Delvin Cook and what happened when they didn't. I mean, you don't have a quarterback here who doesn't need Delvin Cook. Cook doesn't need Cook. Cook. Kirk Cousins needs Cook. He needs to be healthy.
Starting point is 00:09:07 Everyone's better on that offense when you have a healthy Dalvin Cook. That is undeniable. So certainly that locker room understands in a league where you can – the difference between being 10-6 and 6-10 is extremely close in terms of how close the competition is, you definitely want Dalvin Cook. And not just Dalvin Cook, you want a happy Dalvin Cook. You want a guy who feels like he can trust everybody. And to your point, to me, I understand criticism of this friendly coach generation, the Sean McVeigh's, the young guys who make a point of saying, you know what, I'm closer to your equal than your coach and kind of getting that level of respect.
Starting point is 00:09:55 And that works when you're winning. You know, I don't know how much it works if you're not, but that's certainly the new generation of coaches. Then there's sort of that old school group of, listen, man, I'm here to be your coach. I'm not here to be your buddy. But even that older generation of guys, and you've seen this with some coaches around the league, they've adapted. I mean, you know, Andy Reid certainly had a lot of that in Philly. But in Kansas City, he's mellowed out to some degree.
Starting point is 00:10:24 He's been a little more fun, a little more lighthearted. Still Andy Reid, still have commands of respect, but he's had to balance a little bit with this new generation of players. Mike Zimmer strikes me as someone who doesn't give a damn. He ain't balancing for nobody. He's not changing into, he's not going to evolve as a coach when it comes to relationships because that's just not the way he does things. And I think it's hurting his locker room because I think he sees it as, I'm the leader,
Starting point is 00:10:53 you're the player, listen to me, we'll win games. And I think that dismisses how society has changed in many ways. Yes, these guys want to play, but they also want a certain bond that it seems like Mike refuses to entertain. That's one thing. It goes a step further to me if you've got someone who's just going to say whatever he's thinking at the podium
Starting point is 00:11:20 and not care how it affects the locker room. And there have been too many times, to your point, where Zimmer's gotten up there. He's beaten up players verbally. I'm not saying he's verbally abusing them or anything, but in terms of he's been critical of guys in a public format. We watched him destroy Case Keenum for a year. And Case Keenum was a guy who started off third string, had no business being in
Starting point is 00:11:46 that position, was playing the best football that anybody ever imagined. And we spent the year watching Zimmer go, man, this guy ain't enough. And at some point, after years and years of that, it catches up to you. And I think with Mike Zimmer, it's catching up to him in that locker room with a very good player who wants to get paid because he understands the changing market at his position. He has a history of injuries. He knows that he's going to get his money. He has to get it now. But for Zimmer to, I'll say, misrepresent potentially what happened and what he was told, that's one of those things where you might get Dalvin Cook back and you might get through the season, but that relationship never heals. And that might not matter if you're a 12-win team.
Starting point is 00:12:35 If you're 8-8 and you need everybody to be on the same page and you can't afford any disruption in the locker room, that's when it crushes you. That's when you don't have the talent to overcome that sort of breach in the locker room, man. And I just, you know, there's a lot to repair. And if that don't down the cook, it's on the head coach. Before we get back to the conversation,
Starting point is 00:12:58 I want to remind you to go to sodastick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. Baseball is back and soda stick just launched its latest partnership with hormel foods and the tommy watkins foundation to pay homage to the hormel row of fame it debuted in the metrodome in 1992 and though it's been long retired you have an opportunity to check out the latest t-shirt called the Wiener Winner. Great for lunch, great for dinner. You remember how the song goes. For every t-shirt sold, Hormel Foods will donate $10, up to $10,000,
Starting point is 00:13:32 to Tommy Watkins Foundation's Backpack Program supporting Twin Cities youth. We're going to hook you up also with free shipping for your Wiener Winner shirt. Use promo code PURPLEINS purple insider for free shipping that's sodastick.com s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k.com original minnesota sports inspired goods code purple insider for free shipping yep i totally agree there was no reason to say that he could have easily just said well uh i don't know i don't know what's going to happen there that's between him in the front office and hey nobody loves Delvin Cook more than me I want him to be on my football team this year but business is business I mean that's exactly what Gary Kubiak said when we asked him about it he was like hey I mean I want to coach Delvin Cook he's not a guy you can just replace but
Starting point is 00:14:21 business is business they'll get it worked out that's not on me to come out and say, he's going to be here. Like, why are you doing that? And you know what, if you even wanted to go back on it and just say, you know what, I just misspoke. That's fine. You can say that you can do that. You can put it out there to chapter or whoever you want and say, you know what, I just, I misspoke on, on Delvin. I had it in my head that someone told me that I was wrong. My bad. It reminds me a little bit Myron of when you get married, somebody inevitably will do something or say something stupid. And you'll, you'll be like, I, you know, I forgive you, whatever, but why did you say that? You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:14:58 Like it's paid. There's always going to be that little, like, what was that that happened around the time? You know? And I wonder if that's how this ultimately ends up going. For Delvin Cook, it would not be a great play to not show up to training camp. I think he should show up to camp and he should do what he's supposed to do and trust that the Vikings will pay him because that's always been their history. But I think now he's got to look at his head coach a little bit with why did you handle it the way that you handled it? And that's not great.
Starting point is 00:15:30 And everyone else, I think, in the locker room and the guys who have been around will go, yep, we've seen that before. Yep, we saw Xavier Rhodes. They wanted back for some ungodly reason, but they wanted him back. And he said, no, I'm going to go somewhere else. Trey Wayans, they probably wanted back. I i didn't hear for sure but he went somewhere else mckenzie alexander i know they wanted back he went somewhere else stefan diggs wanted to go somewhere else like this is there is a bit of a pattern of behavior recently with these things and that was a concern
Starting point is 00:16:01 for the ownership about signing him to a long-term contract. And now that it's done, I guess the Vikings can sit here and say with Delvin Cook, well, Zimmer has a long-term deal. And if he wants to go through this year and just play whoever at running back, you're probably not a Super Bowl team this year anyway. And he knows he's going to be the coach in 2021. So they do have the leverage um but not not not a good move for the locker room either to let Delvin Cook twist in the wind
Starting point is 00:16:30 because then a lot of guys this is their first impression of the organization if you're Justin Jefferson speaking of which how bad is this Myron Justin Jefferson ends up on the reserve COVID list reporting for the Vikings. Now, we don't know if he actually has it or if he's part of a contact tracing effort to quarantine players who were near someone who had it. So I got these tweets of like, oh, he's going to be behind in camp. I don't really know. And neither do you. But the Miami Marlins have a dozen players test positive. They've got to shut things down.
Starting point is 00:17:08 Vikings first-round draft pick shows up. He ends up on the COVID list. How bad is this, Myron? I know that, you know, according to NFL Network's Kyle Brandt, we don't want football as reporters, which is – I mean, I don't know, man. I've never wanted football. Actually, I don't even know why I do this show. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:28 I actually woke up and I was just hoping and praying for the cancellation of sports. I just canceled it all. That's my goal. I guess I'll say this, man, first and foremost. We got to stop treating positive case reports among athletes as if they're harmless because yes, that the statistics and the science suggests that these guys, whether this virus better than most, I mean, this is,
Starting point is 00:17:56 they're not as vulnerable as maybe an older population, but you can still get sick. So my first concern is, is he sick? How's he feeling? You know, because the thing that we're not doing a great job of in the media is covering some of the lingering effects that people are dealing with who have contracted this virus. So that's my first concern. But holy hell, man, like what the heck? What on earth, man man like camp started campus just now started and my overall question and eric sherman right obviously the guy who's in charge of
Starting point is 00:18:37 the covet 19 plan is tested positive my overall concern is not just about Justin Jefferson it's whether or not it's possible right now to play sports outside a bubble and the sports that can't do that logistically NFL, Major League Baseball, College Football
Starting point is 00:19:00 how do they pull this off because you know training camp is one thing college football, how do they pull this off? Because, you know, training camp is one thing, but if this happens on the Thursday before Sunday where the Vikings are set to play the Bears, how do you proceed with that game? I mean, how do you just proceed as if nothing happened? My overall concern is that this will continue to happen and that we might not be able to execute sports outside a bubble and that unless the NFL can somehow find a way to do that, even if it's by division.
Starting point is 00:19:45 And I know this sounds crazy, right? But I don't think it sounds crazy when you're potentially losing billions of dollars. Even if it comes down to division by division, however it works out, I just have a hard time believing, man, that we're going to be able to take teams that have positive cases, travel across the country for four months, shut down, pick back up. Okay, more positive cases. Let's stop for a bit. How do we do this, man? How do we do this? But this is, I'm not worried about Justin Jefferson missing camp and being behind. I want to know if he's sick and how he's feeling more than anything. Is he positive?
Starting point is 00:20:25 What's going on? Because that should be our main concern, that these guys are not just risking the season and their careers, their health. We'll get back to the conversation in just a second, but have you ever heard of DealDash.com? It's the best, most honest bidding site where you can win things you'd never expect at a price that you'd never believe. They have over 1,000 auctions every day on electronics, appliances, beauty products, home decor, even cars. Here's how it works. It's like an auction, but every item starts at $0 and then goes up one cent every time you bid.
Starting point is 00:21:02 The kicker is that the auction clock restarts every 10 seconds. That means every time you bid, everyone else has 10 seconds to answer or the item is yours. If you go ahead and buy now, DealDash is offering up our listeners 100 free bids upon sign-up on top of their other discounts. Go to DealDash.com and use the offer code INSIDER, deal-dot-com-dot-fm-slash-insider. That is D-E-A-L-D-A-S-H-dot-fm-slash-insider. Does that stick here? Right. I mean, nobody wants to see this happen more than me, but it is a beast that cannot be contained and it is proven that this virus does not care
Starting point is 00:21:49 if you uh you know lights all down your surfaces or whatever it doesn't work that way i mean this thing spreads so easily there's a reason it became a pandemic worldwide is because it spreads so easily. It sits in the air. I mean, even masks do not 100% eliminate all possibility of you getting this thing. It reduces it, sure, maybe by whatever percentage, a huge percentage, and you should wear your masks if you want football. But as long as it's out there, as long as cases are rising in Minnesota, cases are rising in other states, or at least they're staying stagnant and continuing to be a huge problem, it's going to be incredibly difficult for 80 players throughout training camp and then 60-something players during the regular season to all avoid it. who can take every possible way of avoiding it, still ends up with it, then it tells you there's no amount of just, oh, we'll just put in these measures and everything else that's going to keep it entirely out. So the only hope is that everybody can, throughout training camp,
Starting point is 00:22:58 quarantine themselves enough to limit the amount of cases. But Eric Sugarman said people are going to get it. And then he got it himself. And I have the same fears as you. And I think that this is two things are being conflated really unfairly about NFL reporters is that everybody who covers the NFL knows these people. And you know Mike Zimmer and you know Gary Kubiak and you know Justin Jefferson. And you look at these people in a more human way and say,
Starting point is 00:23:28 I don't want these people that I cover to get this. It goes beyond just, hey, well, he's just out with COVID, no problem. He'll be back in two weeks. Well, what about the pitcher from the Red Sox who has heart problems? What about all the other things that have happened? And I'm not sure that there is a way to completely effectively avoid this outside of a bubble. And I mean the players, the coaches, everything else. If you do adhere to all of the measures and create your little team bubbles, essentially, you've got a shot at it. And that is the only thing we could do is just hope that they're able to avoid
Starting point is 00:24:19 it enough to not have to shut things down. Yeah. And that's the key, and I think, you know, listen, the whole thing about reporters rooting against football is not only ludicrous, it's dangerous.
Starting point is 00:24:35 Like, the idea that you've got some people putting out there these guys just don't want to play, when we understand the devastation that has happened in our industry over the last 20 years, like, come on, man. And we love the sport. Like, we're not doing this because we just want to get paid. I mean, like, we are generally, we're DMing during the week talking about football without anybody knowing because we just legitimately are wired this way.
Starting point is 00:25:05 It's just who we are. So it's silly for anyone to suggest otherwise. But we also have to be realistic in our coverage, man, and approach to trying to understand, like, what's possible. And I see a sport in baseball where at a minimum on the field of play, you can distance. You can put in measures to keep players apart, and they're dealing with it.
Starting point is 00:25:29 A sport where you have to be up close, and it's all about that physical contact like football, that's a completely different beast. And it's alarming that you start this way if you're the Vikings. And other teams are going to be in the same position are in the same position, dealing with positive tests. How do you bring it all together, man? And how at the beginning, we all said a bubble was impossible, right? I mean, that's what,
Starting point is 00:25:57 that was the conversation in March and April. NFL could never do a bubble. My concern is, are we going to look back a year from now and say, our conversation should have been, we're not going to do this unless we have a bubble. And let's start putting our energy toward what sounds like an outlandish idea. Let's start working toward that. Because if we don't get that, we won't get football.
Starting point is 00:26:22 And I think Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball, he was asked about, hey, why didn't you do a bubble? And he sort of hesitated a little bit. Well, we based it on what we knew at the time. But I think looking back, he's going to go, man, we should have gone after that. Roger Goodell,
Starting point is 00:26:39 all this talk about we've got a plan and we're going to figure it out. Matt, are we going to look back a year from now and say, as crazy as that idea sounded, that was our only hope to play football? Yeah, maybe they're going to look back for both sports and say regional bubbles would have been the only shot. And you could travel from bubble to bubble the week of a game or something if you have to.
Starting point is 00:27:02 But if you made it NFC bubble, AFC bubble, or even by division where you centered everything in say like Chicago or New York or wherever they don't have a super high rate of cases and they have facilities that you might be able to work around, but it does feel like it is really, really tough. And I also think that the people who say it, and I don't want
Starting point is 00:27:26 to direct this at Kyle Brandt, because maybe he just tweeted something dumb. We've all tweeted something dumb. But a lot of the people who are telling you, don't believe the reporters, just think about that for a second. Just think about it. The reporters are biased. Don't trust them. Anytime that's what someone's telling you, don't believe the people who know the most or have the facts. You should be concerned about listening to those people is all I want to say about that. Okay. Here's another one.
Starting point is 00:27:54 How bad is this? Everson Griffin might go to the Packers. Oh, man. Oh, the latest episode of the Vikings Netflix show. You know, I mean, you can't make it up, man. You really cannot make it up. The idea was we understood that this could be the possibility, right? We're in the middle of a pandemic.
Starting point is 00:28:16 The market is interesting for guys like him because, you know, people are being more cautious. I mean, JV and Cloudy doesn't have a job yet, right? Or is he still looking for a job? So I think we all understood that this could be a possibility. He ends up right back with Minnesota. So for him to be in a position where it looks like, eh, there's not the kind of market he anticipated,
Starting point is 00:28:41 and he might go to Green Bay, oh, my goodness. Back to our original conversation, you know, I think the benefit of football financially is that you can't make a ton of money for most guys. You're limited in how much money you can really make. Yeah, if you're a big-time quarterback or a big-time skilled player, defensive lineman or something like that, yeah, you can get a bunch of money, but for the most part, you're not going to be extremely wealthy, relatively speaking, playing football.
Starting point is 00:29:12 So then it comes down to really desire when you're in Everson's position. Like, who do I want to be with? You know, yeah, first, who gives me the best chance of winning? All right, if you think Green Bay gives you a better chance than Minnesota, okay. I mean, it's not a significant difference if that's your calculation. I think for guys like that, it comes down to, man, where would I feel comfortable?
Starting point is 00:29:38 Like what organization do I want to be a part of? And for a guy like that who's been here, been a part of this culture, willing to not just go play for any team but the rival team, says a lot, man, about the culture of this organization because what I see in places like Kansas City, what I see in places like New Orleans, what you see in some of these places, Seattle, around the country where there is a clear like effort where guys make it public that they want to be a part of this. Yes, the money. Yes. But they want to be here and be a part of what this organization is doing, what this franchise is doing.
Starting point is 00:30:26 Minnesota doesn't have that. Minnesota, to me, has become a team where guys hope to win and then they hope to get paid. But I don't know that they want to be a part of this the way guys want to be a part of other organizations and franchises. And that should worry people that you've got a guy like Everson who everything suggests he should be right back here to maybe go to Green Bay. Man, what's going on in that locker room? What's going on with this team where you just don't have a lot of guys coming out and saying, I want to be a part of what they are doing.
Starting point is 00:31:10 And that suggests to me a challenge with the culture of your organization. We'll get back to football in just a second. But first, sports are coming back. So are your chances to bet on your favorite teams and events. Major League Baseball finally kicking off, and there's no better place to start wagering than our exclusive partners, BetOnline. Check out all the odds, features, and props to bet on,
Starting point is 00:31:35 all available at 24-7. So with the return of sports, BetOnline sat down with former players Eddie George, Harold Reynolds, and seven-time champion Robert Ori, see what they had to say and what it's like playing without fans in a series they're calling Fandemic. Visit betonline.ag for all of your odds and up-to-date sports news. And remember to use the promo code BLUEWIRE to receive your new welcome bonus.
Starting point is 00:31:59 That's promo code BLUEWIRE. BetOnline, your online wagering expert. And when you have last year the ownership has to put out a statement to say no we're not actually going to fire your general manager and coach after going 10 and 6 like 10 and 6 in hindsight now in late july it's like oh you know that was a pretty good season but if you you went through it, it was a very, very tense season. It had some great moments. It had some really fun games.
Starting point is 00:32:29 The comeback against Denver, really fun game. And the win in New Orleans is one of the craziest games that I've covered and the atmosphere and everything else and Cousins proving that he can win a playoff game, all that stuff. But throughout the year, it was very uncomfortable. It was very tense. And the loss in week 16 to Green Bay ramped up that tension. So anybody who was in that locker room at that time knows that.
Starting point is 00:32:56 And a lot of those people have opted to go in other places. And Everson going to Green Bay, knowing what that rivalry is, would be like saying, yeah, I don't really want to be a part of you anymore. Now, this is another potential foot-in-mouth situation for Zimmer of saying repeatedly that he wants Everson back. If the front office doesn't want Everson back, and you're seeing all these reports, oh, Zimmer wants him back, but the front office is like, actually, we have no interest in doing that because we can't afford him, and we want to move on and have a Fadi Adenabo. Now, that would be a totally justifiable
Starting point is 00:33:30 position for the front office, but you're like, Mike, you're putting us in a tough position here because you're telling everybody that we want him back, and then he goes to the Packers, and that's going to look bad on us, like we lost him to the Packers. Now, from an on-field standpoint, let's pretend in magic land we're playing all the games. Again, really hope that happens. Everson is going to kick their ass. Zedarius Smith led the league in pressures last year. He got 90% of them against Kirk Cousins. Kenny Clark is a monster. Prest smith is very good after that they were kind of weak when it came to other pass rushers uh rashaun gary is a guy that they drafted in the first round
Starting point is 00:34:11 he didn't really do much his first year you add everson griffin to that mix with zadaria smith who might be the most underappreciated superstar defensive player in the league and kenny clark who just picked up garrett bradbury and threw him back into the quarterback. Like, your offensive line doesn't know who's playing guard yet. There's a problem for you on the field. Yeah, and it's amazing how Packers understood their weaknesses, right, when they're breaking the floor, and they have slowly built this terrifying defensive unit where if Aaron Rodgers, and I'm an Aaron Rodgers guy,
Starting point is 00:34:49 but if he can play at a top 10-ish level this season, man, this team's going to be right back in the NFC Championship game with a chance to go to the Super Bowl. Whereas at Minnesota, we're not only talking about some of the same weaknesses, offensive line. Now we're talking about losing some of these key pieces on defense and wondering if Mike can just coach him up. You know, I mean, you're going to have a lot of young pieces on that side of the ball. It's going to be interesting to see because Everson is a guy that you can bring in, bring back, who understands Zimmer, who understands the expectations,
Starting point is 00:35:31 the schemes. That's a lot to implement in most years. In a year where you've just had virtual mini camps and guys are legitimately getting on the field together for the first time in the coming weeks, that learning curve, man, is going to be difficult, more difficult for this group of young players and rookies than maybe any class before them. So the things that tend to make sense somehow go against the Vikings. Stephon Davis, it'd be nice to keep him.
Starting point is 00:36:02 Guy's pretty good. Nah, he's going to end up in Buffalo. Alright, well, at least an Everson Griffin guy like that, you'd think. Bring him back. Don't have to worry about a key position. Veteran. Still have some gas left in the tank.
Starting point is 00:36:19 Nah, he might end up in Green Bay. Well, at least we got Dalvin Cook. Dalvin Cook, he's ready to come back. Everything's great there. He wants some money. We're going to pay him some money. You can't mess this up, right?
Starting point is 00:36:32 You did kind of mess that up. Like, just stop right now. Just stop. If you're the Vikings, just stop. Take a deep breath and let's not mess up the next three to four weeks that will have a critical effect on the 2020 season well uh we do know this myron that things change quickly in the nfl so the vikings had just about the worst monday they could ever have with all the things that went on from you know the the Delvin Cook
Starting point is 00:37:05 situation, just Jefferson to their trainer, to Everson Griffin, all those things, not great. Whatever the opposite of ice cubes, it was a good day was the Viking. I don't know what the opposite song is, but that was, that was that. So I, you know, I am, I am excited to see how things play out when we start to see practices and what they look like. Even if they're not padded practices, we'll get a sense for who's playing where and how they're going to configure the cornerbacks, the offensive line. it is an intriguing team because we don't know whether some of these young players can step up right away and they can be very good and compete for the division or whether this will be a team that has to take a step back and it becomes even more hard to predict as we go forward with COVID
Starting point is 00:37:56 is our you know is every team going to have all those great starting quarterbacks that you have on your schedule or not what are the other rosters going to look like when you go to play them? And that will make this season, if it happens, which I, again, hope it does, it will make it even more of a wild ride than a Minnesota Vikings season already is. So, Myron, I appreciate you jumping on. I wish I had, like, but there was this one good news item. Not today. It's all bad.
Starting point is 00:38:26 It's all bad. It's all bad. Well, you are the best, Myron. I always appreciate you taking the time. And I promise for the next episode that you're on, it'll be like, hey, Justin Jefferson looks great in camp. Let's talk about that. Is he the next to find in?
Starting point is 00:38:46 All right, man.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.