Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - A look at the best and worst Vikings storylines of the 2021 season

Episode Date: January 8, 2022

Matthew Coller and Will Ragatz of Sports Illustrated talk about the best and worst storylines from the 2021 season, starting with how interesting the draft was last year when the Vikings chose Christian Darrisaw over Mac Jones. They talk about training camp's emerging players and Kirk Cousins vax storyline that was difficult to discuss and how Justin Jefferson truly became the Vikings' franchise player this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oh, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, possibly the final episode that we record before a game that Mike Zimmer coaches to not preview the game. That's not what we're going to do. Matthew Collar and Will Raggetts from Sports Illustrated. Nice to get back together with you, Will. This is in the post you blocked me on Twitter era, so things are different between us now. Complete accident, by the way. I was trying to mute the conversation after I retweeted you at least that's my theory because those buttons are right next to each other but yeah i think it took me like a week to realize what had happened uh which led to a slight bit of awkwardness but we're back

potting again been a little while so uh yeah excited to excited to get going so you unblocked me right before i had a great plan which was to print out a picture of Dikembe Mutombo and put it in your place at TCO Performance Center. So you would come in and see it and then either realize that you had blocked me on Twitter or be like, oh, he noticed. And now everyone knows that I blocked him, you know, or something. So I thought it was going to be a good plan. And I kind of wish I hadn't realized, but I think I would have just been very confused because I had no idea what had happened. So I would have been like, well, what is, what is, why is my tumble in my cubicle here? But, uh, Oh, well,

well, the thing about just me in general is that I understand sometimes folks get rubbed the wrong way. Yeah, I get it. But usually I know. Usually I know why. So then when I realized, so I didn't know that actually mute conversation was a thing on Twitter. And you introduced me to this by blocking me by accident. But wow. I mean, like world.

It's amazing. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's like, let me fire off this take, but I've got a lot to do, so I don't need my phone blowing up with a bunch of responses, everything else. Boop, mute that conversation, move on with my life. It's actually quite nice. No, it's great. And then you can go back and read through the replies and quote tweets at your own leisure and not have to have the notifications popping up. So, yeah, it's a game changer. Exactly.

So here's what I want to do. I want to sing a little boys to men. Maybe this is before your time, Will. You know, it's so hard to say goodbye. Maybe we could sing it together at the end. It's so hard to say goodbye to the 2021 season. Actually, it's not at all. But I want to talk about the

good stories and bad stories to cover for us this year as reporters the ones that were uh really interesting or fun or you know that kind of thing or like that vikings fans would have been excited about these stories that maybe you forgot about now because it just seems like a pit of darkness. And the ones that were just the biggest drag. So I want to go all the way back to the draft and talk about how fun the lead up to the draft was. Because I think that's where the season really begins. When you make that draft, then you got new players. These guys will be on your roster, OTAs, minicamp, rookie camp, all that sort of stuff, and then you go forward. So that's when the season really begins. When you make that draft, then you got new players. These guys will be on your roster, OTAs, mini camp, rookie camp, all that sort of stuff. And then you go forward. So that's

when the season really begins for me. The lead up to the draft, I thought was one of the most fun that we've had in a long time because of all the possibilities. There were all these edge rushers. There were all these quarterbacks. There was the realistic possibility and it had sort of been buzzing out there that they could draft a quarterback and then the way that the draft board fell the first night with here's you know mac jones sitting there for you to take them and then you decide not to but trade down and then it's derisaw and then we have this big conversation about whether they should have drafted mac jones or whether you know they made the right pick with Darisaw. I just enjoyed draft season last year, Will,

and I wanted to reflect on that because I feel like this next year could be like a 50 times crazier version of all the fun that we had leading up to the draft last year. Oh, yeah. And I just love the draft season in general. I mean, when you're covering an NFL team year round, five, six months of that is the season. So there's more offseason than there is season. But the great thing about the NFL is there isn't really an offseason.

I mean, there's a few slow months in the summer and like maybe February. But the draft season is really fun. And you just get to dive into all these prospects and consider all these different directions that they could go. And I get to convince people again, that as long as Rick Spielman is the GM, they will not draft an edge rusher in the first round because that's literally never happened. But yeah,

the quarterback stuff was fun. I mean, Justin Fields. I remember there was a time last fall in 2020 when we were like, Oh, Zach Wilson. And then he ended up going second because he wouldn't stop playing well for BYU. But yeah, it was a lot of fun.

And I think, like you said, this year could be even more because we don't know. If there's a new GM, maybe they will draft an edge rusher in the first round. Maybe they'll draft a cornerback like they always do. Maybe they'll go offensive line again. I mean, I haven't really started to dive into it, but there's quarterbacks out there as well, and it's kind of a weak quarterback draft from what I've heard. But, I mean, you still know like two or three,

maybe probably like two of those guys of the five or six that are being discussed are going to pan out and be good NFL quarterbacks. So the excitement of it all I find really fun. And, yeah, this will be a, a big season, especially because we don't know who's going to be making the calls. We don't know if it could, it could be two different guys than the ones who've been running the show for the last eight years. And even if Kirk Cousins is still here and not traded, we are still having that quarterback conversation all the way up to the moment that the Vikings pick, which makes it

more interesting in general and did last year about, Hey, what if, you know, Justin Fields falls or could they trade up for Justin Fields, which they tried to in kind of a half-hearted effort to do so. But what order are the quarterbacks going to fall by the time you get to the draft? You're like, okay, I can't deal with any more Mac Jones's Kirk Cousins takes. But the whole time trying to figure out where everybody stands, what order, who in the NFL sees which guy, which way. I mean, anybody who listens to the show knows that I've looked into this enough to know that even the NFL is not good at picking out which quarterback is good. So, and certainly Chris Sims proved that he isn't either with the Kellen Mond is better than, you know, Justin Fields take or whatever else, right? Like no, nobody is.

So I don't mean to make fun of Chris Sims, but nobody, including the NFL people know which quarterbacks will work out. That doesn't mean it isn't really good conversation and entertaining for fans to look into these guys, to watch their tape, to read the numbers, to have everybody kind of give their spin on it. And then you decide what you think by the time the draft comes around. And I think we're going to go through that. And already you named what's going to be my least favorite storyline is there aren't any good quarterbacks in this draft. Okay. I don't know. What'd you think of Justin Herbert? Google.

I won't go off on this. We'll move on. I promise. Google Josh Allen overrated. Google Justin Herbert overrated. Google Mac Jones is, is no good and shouldn't be a first round pick good. Like every quarterback that has worked out, go look what people were saying about them at the draft time,

except for the guys who are number one, overall, everybody else is, Oh, Lamar's a running back or he can't throw or whatever like every one of them and the NFL is wrong all the time and sometimes they're right like Dwayne Haskins or Daniel Jones but I just refuse to accept that there is not a good football player playing quarterback at all in this draft that every one of them is just garbage and they're all be going to be Christian Ponder I refuse to accept no every year I mean it doesn't matter what the projections are there's going to be a couple guys that are good and well other than like 2013 I think when EJ Manuel was the top quarterback taken but like

I've seen you tweeting about this recently like if you go back and look over the past three four years look at all the quarterbacks drafted who are now on rookie deals, who are leading playoff teams, Kyler Murray. Like I, you can, you can list all these different guys. That's the number one overall pick,

but a lot of teams have drafted quarterbacks and it has worked out. Josh Allen's Justin Herbert's who had a lot of flaws coming into the, through the pre-draft process. And yeah, it just, you, you don't know. Like you said, nobody knows, but you have to take that swing

to have the chance of landing a Justin Herbert. And the way that that just catapults the trajectory of your franchise while that quarterback is on the rookie deal especially, but then even beyond that if they are really good. So yeah, it's going to be fascinating. I mean, there's all these six guys, whatever, Kenny Pickett, Matt Corral, Carson Strong, all like it's going to be fun to dive into them. And you can probably talk yourself into all six of them.

And then you can probably also find things in the pick and reasons why they're going to be bust. And ultimately, no one really knows. But that's part of why I think it's going to be really fun. And just an aside, and then we'll get to your favorite story that sort of existed in the pre-camp off season so you think about that for a second but even just i was watching sam howell play and i was like this guy's team is super bad oh my gosh uh and so people are going to look at his win loss record or his uh you know some of his traditional stats but they were like a top scoring team in the country and still somehow went six and seven sort of reminds you i'm not saying he's mahomes but of

like the mahomes well i don't know you know the texas tech team didn't win a whole lot uh but man college teams when they're bad it's not like nfl teams they are bad uh and that was north carolina this year so i'm intrigued by him because last year he's comes out of the previous season. Oh, he's going to be the number one guy. And then, well, now that's all changed because what North Carolina was bad. So I don't know. I feel like we saw that. And this is maybe where I was wrong about Josh Allen, where, you know, all his stats

in his final year, weren't very good at Wyoming, but you know, maybe Wyoming was just really bad. So anyway, moving on your favorite story in the offseason pre training camp from last year. Yeah, I so I wrote down a bunch, but they were all like this season based. So we're going on the fly here. But I thought the Vikings had a really interesting offseason. This is even before the draft, just in terms of how they approached free agency. I wouldn't say like sign who they signed was the most fun story, but it was just it was very interesting. Like the fact that they signed another nose tackle when they already had one just was kind of bizarre and was like a very Mike Zimmer thing.

So that was just kind of fun from that perspective. And then you could talk yourself into, Oh, Michael Pierce and Delvin Tomlinson, the friends from Alabama, they're going to be the Williams wall. And of course that didn't happen. And they had a terrible run defense,

but I mean, Michael Pierce missed a lot of the season to be fair, but, and then signing Patrick Peterson, I thought was really fascinating just because it was his first time leaving Arizona where he had spent a decade and this potential future Hall of Famer and the whole angle of, okay, this guy's going to bounce back now that he's playing for Mike Zimmer and he's not going to be shadowing elite receivers

and he's going to be doing different things. And that ended up being a really fun storyline, I thought, throughout the season, especially just from our perspectives, getting to hear from Patrick Peterson most weeks, whether in press conferences or I would listen to his podcast sometimes. And just a really interesting guy. And I thought he had a good season. He was, he spoke the other day about how nobody really threw at him, which is true. But yeah, I just, I just think back to free agency and then the whole angle of them trying to

just rebuild the defense and bringing all these guys back like Sheldon Richardson and Mackenzie Alexander, and we're getting the gang back together. And it didn't work out, but there was a time where it was fun to talk yourself into, okay, this defense looks pretty good on paper. This, this is the thing about an off season like that is I enjoyed, I mean, even you and I had a lot of great discussions about how could it work? How could it not work? And well, but on the same side of being as fun as that is to break down and the fan excitement, I think was high when they were signing these people. One of the tough things to do, and I don't mean tough as in like, you got to be the person who works outside when it's 10 below, like a real job.

But I mean, just intellectually difficult is when you look at something and you know okay i just yeah i don't think the odds are very high of this actually working but also not wanting to rain on everybody's parade or the parade of exciting moves that you want to break down when your team signs a guy it's really fun for fans to go, wow, okay, we got this great nose tackle. And Tomlinson was good. But I remember saying to Sam Ekstrom, hey, if five different things have a 50% chance of working out, what's the chance they all work out? And this team needs them all to work out. And somehow Sam knew the answer to the math there. But that was the challenging thing going into this last season

because I didn't think that it was all going to work. Like you're trying to just tape everything together and hope that, you know, Darisaw is good at left tackle right away and hope that this nose tackle thing stops the run, which it didn't, and hope that Breland is not a lunatic, which he was. And it was like, if one thing goes wrong, if Hunter gets hurt, then all of a sudden, you're going to fall off the side of the earth. But you have to balance. That's how I think it's going to play out. But also, I could see this other world where it doesn't. So that created a

lot of very fun ideas. So did you start with your most interesting fun or obnoxious storylines of the year did you start in training camp or did you go to the season i mostly went to the season um okay well let me let me do this one then okay kirk cousins vaccination covid though yeah no i had the worst i had that down i had some bad ones from training camp, like that one and the whole Jeff Gladney thing. And there were I don't I'm trying to remember some fun stuff from training. I mean, it's fun for us to just be out there and watch everything. But yeah, go ahead. Well, the Kirk Cousins vaccination story, I think all of us had a sense for where he stood on the matter.

And we're just holding our breaths. Don't let this be a thing like right off the bat, because training camp was about to be full of, Hey, this team is good and look how good they look out there and everything else. Oh, the defense is rebuilt. Mike Zimmer was so happy the first day of training camp. And then we just get hit with a sledgehammer like the fourth day. And he's out and Zimmer's having the meltdown press conference. And I've always found it very challenging to talk about this because, you know, Josh McCown said in an interview with our friend Chris Thomason, he said, like, look, if you're not doing this, you're not being a complete leader like you could be

i thought man i i really see his point there um but then there's this other part that like a lot of people view this particular topic differently so even the other day when i tweeted well here's what kirk said about the vaccination obviously as a reporter he's factually incorrect but i said you know what? At this point, you guys can do your own fact checking. And mute conversation had to come out fast, my friend. I mean, this thing, every time it came up, it's like I had five radio stations that want me to come on and talk about Kirk being unvaccinated and everything else. And then people in the organization are arguing with him about it. And he's giving this cockamamie press conference where he can't even just

say, I made a decision and I'm going to move on with the season. He's got to talk about plexiglass. It's like, man, I would love to be talking about how the wide receiver battle is going on right now. And this is what you're doing.

So that, that one was, I think maybe one of the most frustrating stories I've ever had to cover because it was just really tough to like, give an opinion on it. I can give an opinion on the number three wide receiver. It, this one is like, I don't know. What do you want me? What do you want me to say? It's going to be a problem at some point. And then it was. Yeah. And it was a problem right away point. And then it was. Yeah.

And it was a problem right away. And I went without interjecting any opinions in here. It was just frustrating because they were like, people were asking him at that press conference, like, isn't you by you not getting this to, aren't you like hurting your team based on just what the protocols are for unvaccinated players.

And he wouldn't, he wouldn't really say that. He was like, I guess you could, you could say that, like it was just a bizarre situation and not just kirk cousins i mean he's gotten so much attention but the vikings had a ton of unvaccinated players and like mike zimmer said basically all of them missed games this year and so did a lot of vaccinated players but for a while the protocols just made it so that if you were unvaccinated, there was a more likely chance of you missing a game or multiple games.

And they changed those late in the season. So, like, if Cousins had – he could have gotten it well-vaccinated and missed that Packers game anyway. But, yeah, a really just bizarre story. And a couple interesting things came out of that whole COVID thing. Now I'm thinking back to training camp. One was the Jake Browning special at that night practice at TCO Stadium, where we all were convinced that he was the next QB2.

And then he got cut like a mile. I think he's like the Bengals third string quarterback now or something. So good for Jake. But I mean, that was kind of a fun moment amid the chaos. And then also, I was just thinking back to a Mike Zimmer press conference that I watched recently, which was somebody asking him, don't you feel like you've just been putting out fires? This was like right away in training camp. And he was like, yeah, I think it's been like that for the past eight years.

And talking about how if he ever writes a book, it's going to be an interesting one. And I agree with that, by the way, for anything, any opinions you might have on Mike Zimmer. Uh, he has been through a lot of weird stuff in his eight seasons here. So I hope he does write that book someday. The Adrian Peterson and Norv Turner chapters. I will go right to those first and we could start there. Uh, but yeah, I mean, that was the Jake Browning thing on my list of stories that were fun and were for fans who showed up that night to that practice and saw Jake Browning hit some great passes to star wide receivers and stuff. They came in probably super miserable that Kirk Cousins wasn't there and then left thinking, wow, thisake browning and there were people asking me you know emails and dms and things like that being like hey could could jake browning like take kirk's job was like oh god no but i mean it was fun for the time and you know that's but but that's what camp is about for me is what

randoms show up and then sort of make themselves into something. And KJ Osborne doing that was also, I mean, maybe the only, you know, how there's that joke online of like heartwarming and then it's something terrible, but like heartwarming KJ Osborne fifth round pick who did nothing does some stuff like that. That was, I think that following that along, especially with how obsessed Sam was with KJ Osborne was one of their more surprising stories and a good story for this team to finally have developed a number three wide receiver. Yeah. And it was like right away in training camp, you saw, okay, this guy looks different than he did last year. I mean, he did nothing as a rookie. He couldn't even return punts,

which was the one thing he was focusing on um but then yeah it's a cool story he went out and he was working out with like jefferson and stefan diggs and receivers like that and he just showed up at training camp and every day you're like who's this guy making making these catches and these deep catches and short little routes and just all over the field he was making plays regardless of who was throwing the ball and And yeah, it turned into a fun story that lasted the entire season as he's almost at like 700 receiving yards and the most by a Vikings third receiver in the Zimmer era. So that was definitely a fun one.

And Kene Wongwu was the season. I mean, the two kick returns for touchdowns were very cool and just fun to talk about as the season was kind of hanging in the balance um but even back to training camp just watching him take some handoffs and just get to the edge uh with some speed that we haven't seen from really anybody in a vikings uniform in a long time was was pretty impressive so just various stuff like that when you're out in the the dog days in august at tco and just seeing guys show up and and offer some some potential excitement yeah and then when

wong got hurt it was like of course the guy who is the most fun to watch in training camp but there is a point there when we get around to next training camp i've sort of made a mental note to bring up like a we knew something wasn't right just in general with the team this year coming out of training camp but b we knew that kj osborne could actually ball we knew that kenny wong who had some sort of special speed and agility and and skill with the football in his hands and all those things came to fruition um so that's always you know see. Now, what did you have when it came to when the season started as a story that was filled with sadness? Yeah, so I had a few of them.

But I would start with just the whole beginning of the year offensive line, specifically Rashad Hill and Ole Udo, and just how the coaching staff was talking them up like, Oh, these, these guys can play. And they moved, they moved Ole Udo to right guard and like tried to convince us that that was going to work. And then it looked decent for like a game and then fell apart and, and playing Rashad Hill, who's a great guy and was,

he was doing his best, but was just in over his head. And they seemed like they took a while for Christian Derrissaw to get ready, whether that was injury or just Zimmer's general distaste for rookies, which was another thing I wrote down because so few rookies did anything this year. But yeah, that whole offensive line was a bit of a mess. And then that carried over throughout the season where they had to try Mason Cole and Bradbury was out for a little bit. And it was just kind of a disaster in some regards.

There were other positives about the offensive line, like Brian O'Neill not giving up a sack the entire season and Ezra Cleveland looking competent. And I think you can be encouraged by Derrissaw's rookie season for the most part. But, yeah, I'm just thinking back to the days of trying to be convinced that Rashad Hill and Ole Udo were going to fix the offensive line. You know, I think sometimes about, you know, how there would be in a movie, like a dream sequence where the person just sees this magical,

perfect world for themselves. And if only I could just, whatever it is, make it in Hollywood or something. That's us with the offensive line. Like maybe someday we'll have five offensive linemen who can play and we won't just scream ourselves into the abyss every training camp about the decisions they've made. I mean, this comes to when they look for new decision makers, which I think that they'll do very soon here.

I mean, one of the things on the why did you get fired or moved out of the way to another position in the organization, which seems likely for Rick Spielman, guard everyone. Just guard a position on the field that was super vital to your quarterback that you could never figure out and then every year it's you know elf line he's actually a right guard you guys thought he was a left guard uh you silly gooses it's he's a right and then he just thinks it right guard that well you so you see the thing is and then the only guy who played halfway decent brett jones they wouldn't play him.

I mean, it's just like. I will never interrupt you. I will never get over that Dakota Dozier in the year 2020 started every single game at guard for an NFL franchise, much less one that thought it was going to be contending for the playoffs. Like if, if Rick Spielman does get fired or reassigned or whatever, like just put that at the top of the playoffs. Like if Rick Spielman does get fired or reassigned or whatever, like just put that at the top of the list. Number one reasons why, or whether that was him and the coaching staff accommodation.

But I mean, to have nobody else who could beat out Dakota Dozier is one thing. And then to not even try anything else like Brett Jones or what, it just, it boggled my mind. I don't think I'm mistaken in saying this, that every year that I've covered them since 2016, and for you it's 2018, 19.

Every year that I've covered them, they've had somebody playing on the offensive line who has never played before a full season. Like, I mean, just going back, like Tom Compton or like you said, Dakota Dozier, those are backups, or a rookie Garrett Bradbury or a rookie Pat Elfline, or it's always somebody who's never played before. Like you can't get five dudes who like know what they're doing in these win now seasons. So, okay. That's a whole

other rants podcast, but I think that's a great selection. Mine is poor Greg Joseph, poor Greg Joseph. This guy has a great year. He was fantastic. What did he go? 31 for 35 on field goals or something. Good job, Greg Joseph. You did very well for yourself. You are deserving of no criticism for the season, but you did miss that one. And here's poor Greg Joseph doing his press conference and everyone has to ask him, sorryreg you know the history of vikings kickers and how bad they're like look greg joseph has nothing to do with that everyone there's no reason to be talking to this poor man about missing a field goal about blair walsh it's week two folks let it go this is not the nfc championship game this is not gary anderson or blair walsh it was week two and maybe you should

have got him a little closer i'm just saying and then the unfortunate uh broadcast snafu of thinking that it went in and then that went viral i mean that with the field goal it was one of those where you just go oh no oh yeah with the with the radio call yeah i thought it went in yeah i know i know what we're going to be talking about for seven straight days until there's another football game is this poor Greg Joseph. But he had a good year. So I guess that's a good and a bad story. And then he got carried off the field by his teammates after beating the Lions.

Which is also embarrassing, by the way. I'm sorry it is. Which was kind of ridiculous, yeah. Yeah, it is. To get back to two and three by beating the Lions on a last-second field goal. You carry off the coach who wins the Super Bowl, folks. Not the kicker who beats Detroit. Hell of a kick, though.

So that was my – I don't know if you have any follow-ups on that, but that was brutal. Yeah, no, it was – I mean, he did have a really – I just looked it up. It was 32 of 37 on field goals. And you will sign up for that every single time. But he did also miss four extra points, which happened to pop up at some times that caused problems later in the game as the Vikings tried to compensate for losing those points.

But, you know, he had a good season. And unfortunately, still one of the lasting memories as for years. Well, I don't know if people are going to care about this 2021 Vikings team for that much longer, but as people look back on it, I think one of the stories will be, oh, look how close they were and just that missed field goal and the Dalvin fumble that was close the week before and the hilariously bad Lions loss when Cameron Dantzler was playing eight feet, eight yards deep in the end zone.

So just real quick, somebody in the Friday mailbag asked me 10 years from now, how do fans remember this season 2021? And that's what I said. I said the Lions game. That's how it's the year they lost to the Lions when the Lions had no wins. I don't know if anything else will be like the lasting memory in a decade i think you're i think that'll be number one and i mean maybe the uh just maybe not the packers game just this past week where they it just got ended in such brutal fashion in prime time um but yeah i know i think the i think the lasting image will be cameron dantzler eight yards deep in the end zone, letting that winning touchdown happen. The end zone, any part of it counts. You've got to defend it.

Funny how that works. So what's next on your list? Well, I'll go to a good one. I just had various players written down that I just enjoyed covering and watching Justin Jefferson being one of them and just kind of how he basically replicated his insane rookie season and then went even beyond it and has a chance to break Randy Moss's single season record, which will be interesting if he does because of the extra game

and the fact that it doesn't mean anything. But he he's been fun to watch and he got the the Corey Stringer Good Guy Award for being kind of interesting and reflective in his press conferences, which not everyone is. So that was fun. I thought Michael Pierce, he was he was hurt for a good chunk of the season, but his debut against the Bengals when he had two sacks and then just whenever we got to talk to him, was a very interesting guy with a cool story coming back from the opt-out last year. And, yeah, I mean, various other ones. C.J. Hamm, the highlight machine. I mean, this one, there's a lot that you can, like,

angle as either good or bad or good and bad. Like the fact that CJ Hamm had a bunch of highlights probably doesn't say good things about your offense, but they were still cool when he juked that Panthers player out of his shoes on a 30-yard run or when he had the leaping catch against the Ravens down the sideline for like 30 yards. Cool plays.

I don't know why he's getting the ball in those situations when you have Dalvin Cook and Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen. But yeah, and CJ Hamm's dad jokes were pretty fun as well. So those are three players I'll point out. So on Justin Jefferson, it's almost unfortunate that he has been so great in a season that has, for fans fans been so rough all the way along, especially being teased for the playoffs only to have a December meltdown for this team because Jefferson has been historically great. I mean, putting out more yards in his first two

seasons, not even needing the final game than any other receiver ever and clearing Odell Beckham. And yet i think right he cleared odell beckham in the same game they lost to odell beckham is that right so like it's the perfect way to summarize the season is that they lost odell beckham twice this year which is kind of a wide receiver wins two and oh against the vikings but but like that's a perfect way to to sum it up is here's Justin Jefferson setting a record and his team losing and not being able to get him the football even enough early in that game.

It was until later that he got a lot of those statistics. And another good Friday mailbag question someone asked was about Justin Jefferson's stats. Like, what is he going to put up better stats for next year? Like, you know, if they throw to a more, it's like really, it matters when they throw to him and not waiting until you're down to touchdowns to start finding Justin Jefferson. I think that's more of the key, but not only, not only him putting up the numbers that he put up, but winning the Corey stringer award, uh, for media Good Guy, I know some people would go like, come on, who cares?

You self-indulgent dweebs need to give the award to somebody. Now, it's a way to honor Corey Stringer for us. So, I mean, that's kind of an important facet of it. But it also says something about this is a legitimate NFL superstar, the most important and lucrative and watched league in the world. The guy on the off week goes to sit next to LeBron at a Lakers game. But there was not any of that stuff that said, I'm a star and all of you stink and what's your problem?

Like Odell is that way with Cleveland. He was like, this stinks. I'm going to go somewhere else. And with, if you're the biggest star on a team, that's struggling. A lot of times you end up with that kind of attitude. And I thought the way he navigated this very difficult situation was about

as impressive as it gets for someone who's still, I don't even think he's turned 23 yet. No, he's 22 years old. Yeah. So that, that he's the face of an nfl franchise basically i think that was very impressive yeah i thought so too and i mean well i was just looking

at his his game log this year and remembering when i wrote uh hey clint kubiak uh why is justin jefferson getting four targets against the cowboys and five against the ravens in games that you lost that were huge losses and then maybe clint kubiak read my article because he had like an absurd four game stretch after that, averaging like 150 yards a game. But yeah, I think just the presence of Jefferson on the roster creates so many interesting talking points.

And he is just exceeded every possible expectation over these last two years from his rookie year. And then in the second season even topping it and just the clock that starts ticking every time you have an incredible young player on a team that isn't doing well and and you have two years left on his rookie contract I mean obviously they'll they'll pick up the fifth year option but you have to wonder like when when they're losing games late in the season and he's watching his buddies, Jamar chase and Joe burrow tear up the league and go to the playoffs.

And he's watching Devante Adams just have similar numbers to him, but in big games, like Aaron Rogers is dropping these dimes to him and Jefferson's got to play with Sean Mannion and just things like that. Like you, you start to wonder and there's been no hint of this whatsoever through his two seasons, any like discontent or or dig stuff, which has to be admitted, because that's what I think this fan base is still kind of just always grappling with. But this is a guy who won the national championship at LSU, didn't lose a game that season and now hasn't been in the playoffs once in two years. Has like they're like 12 and 14 and 18. But LSU didn't lose a game that season and now hasn't been in the playoffs once in two years.

They're like 12 and 14 and 18. I can do math, seven and nine times two. So, yeah, it's going to be fascinating going forward. And the whole discussion of, OK, do you trade Cousins? Well, Jefferson's put up some really good numbers with Cousins. It hasn't led to wins, but I think he would be a guy where if you get a different quarterback in here whether that's a bridge free agent or a rookie or whatever and maybe if it's his numbers aren't quite as good for a year or two but it ends up leading to better things that he would be happy with that but then again if it's bad for the next couple years and then you're looking at is he trying to sign an

extension if i don't know there's a. There's a lot of different variables there. But, yes, I will say that he has been very fun to watch and cover over the past two seasons that have not been very fun to watch or cover otherwise. You are exactly right about how tricky it is. But then there's also chicken and egg of, well, if you draft a quarterback and you give him Justin Jefferson right away, I mean – That could help. Yeah. Well, I think what we've seen is that the quarterbacks, and I'm not saying this is entirely

it, but the quarterbacks that have success quickly in their careers usually just have really good teams. I mean, Jared Goff is a good example of this, of a guy who kind of goes as his team goes. He drops into Los Angeles. They get Andrew Whitworth at left tackle. They get a bunch of receivers, Robert Woods, Brandon cooks, Sammy Watkins. And all of a sudden he's thrown all over the place. They have a number one offense in the league and he's not even all that good.

And it's kind of like, okay, can you do that here? Because a lot of times when people say, oh, I don't want to be bad for like three years. Well, with Jefferson, Irv Smith, presumably feeling we'll see if the, you know, cook returns probably, though. I mean, you're not asking someone to come in and then just be like Zach Wilson with nobody to throw to and then look confused and frustrated. So that's always an interesting discussion.

It's like, yeah, he's put up the numbers, but I think that Jefferson actually is a guy that would rather win and get five catches than lose and get 10, which I'm not sure that that's all a wide receiver. So you, you touched on one of the least entertaining stories to discuss week in and week out, which was Clint Kubiak, poor Clint Kubiak. I mean, I know this when I was a little league baseball player, my dad was the coach. Now someone's dad is always the coach for every team because it's little league baseball so i'm not like alone here but it's like oh are you pitching because you're

the that you know the dad's son kind of thing and you know clint kubiak he needed to have an unbelievable season to escape the shadow of one of the great offensive minds in history in gary kubiak And then there were, I'm going to full out say reports now that Kalen Kaler said it on the show that Gary was involved behind the scenes, but that was kind of moseying out there from time to time. Players were kind of calling them out, including Jefferson showing his frustration a little bit.

Thielen took some jabs. Zimmer was in his face about not running the ball enough. Like I sympathize with Clint Kubiak. I think when you put somebody in an impossible position, they probably are going to have a pretty tough time. And they ended up, the thing is, though, they ended up with the same offense that I would have thought they ended up with. If we were picking where the Vikings will rank for the season,

I would have said like 11th, 12th. They ended up, what, 14th in one of those games as Sean Mannion. I mean, so, I don't know. I think he did the job pretty much the same as the last offensive coordinators and dealt with the same stuff the last offensive coordinators did with his frustrating quarterback and his frustrating coach. But Clint was not really built for this like Gary was or Kevin Stefanski was. Yeah, I think both things can be true, that he was put in a very tough situation where you can definitely sympathize with all of the voices that he probably had coming at him telling him to do this and do this.

And it could also be true that he probably wasn't the right guy for the job and it just didn't really work out. And it's kind of absurd that they've had a different offensive coordinator for six straight years. So I will agree with you that that one was kind of just a bummer to have to talk about. And someday they will have an offensive coordinator who is around for like three or four years in a row.

Maybe soon, maybe not. That's the point about hiring an offensive coach, is it not? Yeah, that's true. Then you don't have to – yeah, then that person – you're right. Then that person calls the plays and sticks around for a while because they don't leave to go take a head coaching job somewhere else or have to resign or get fired. Yeah. And I will say since you sort of did it that everyone should go listen to your podcast with Kalen about the nepotism because I enjoyed it greatly and it was very interesting. Well, thank you.

I appreciate that. She is a tremendous reporter and just did a great job of laying that out. And a Northwestern alum. Oh, there it is. So there's, there's a slight, slight connection.

How did I know that Northwestern would come up when talking with you? I watched their, I watched their, you know, my wife does play by play for the big 10. And so I watched their women's basketball game last night and they've got a pretty good team. Actually, you know, my wife does play-by-play for the Big Ten, and so I watched their women's basketball game last night, and they've got a pretty good team, actually. Veronica Burton had eight steals.

She is tremendous. I watched that game, too. She is awesome. Yeah, she's a great player. What, 20 points? It was like, what, you said eight steals, seven rebounds? She had 25 points, six rebounds, six assists, and eight steals. Man, she's a great player.

So that was fun to watch. So I will give Northwestern that. that football team maybe not so much but um so just we'll give the two other stories that were very unfortunate for this year and then we'll end on some ones of uh a more positive light i suppose okay everton griffin and Delvin cook, just tough, tough to talk about, tough to deal with, uh, with Everton Griffin, just legitimately scary. Uh, I have never covered anything and I'm sure news reporters would laugh at me for this, but I've never covered anything where you're going throughout the day, not knowing how this is going to play out and wondering like, is this going to be the worst thing ever and luckily thank god that it did not turn out that way and he's getting help and everything else but when you see somebody in his state waving around a gun it is incredibly disturbing and scary and uh talking to mike zimmer i don't think i'll ever forget when mike zimmer said like we said is he okay or what's going on he said i don't know and it was just like oh it's ongoing yeah so that that and then i think um not

just sad for delvin cook sad for journalism talking about northwestern journalism school guess what they won't be teaching is how adam schefter handled the delvin cook situation shaping the narrative of very disturbing allegations against Cook before the story could fully come out. And I thought that right there is maybe a lesson about sort of these, what do you call like the pastors of mega churches? I feel like the mega reporters, you have to worry when one of them tweets out that Bill O'Brien is a great candidate for the Jaguars coach. You just look at that and you go, that's not legitimate folks. That's not legitimate. That's something that he's told to say, and he's saying it. Okay. No one freaking thinks that Bill

O'Brien's a good idea. All right. To run your franchise. So anyway, just the point that was when it's Bill O'Brien running a franchise, who cares when it's something as serious as Delvin cook, it matters. And that was, that was one of the hardest stories to deal with because not only are you dealing with like very tricky allegations and asking cook about them and everything else where you're trying to get all the facts, but then a reporter completely undermining the entire story from the beginning.

That one, man, that, that took years off my life. Yeah, no, I'll agree with you on both of those and even going back to gladney and in training camp just you never want to have to deal with those kind of serious off the fields off the field things um but yeah glad that the griffin thing kind of turned out uh the way it did and that he's getting help. And one thing I actually wrote down for, like I was trying to think of cool,

like small moments was Armand Watts against the Steelers. After he sacked Ben Roethlisberger, he did Griffin's sack celebration. I thought that was a nice tribute. So yeah, hoping for less stories of that variety next season. And I think that to end, we should say that maybe the best story for Vikings fans is that change is on the way that this season, the way that it went from a week to week basis was for fans, just the gut wrenching and difficult.

I thought Sean Mannion saying gut wrenching was like, yeah, what a way to describe the season. And yet as you go into this week 18 game, you can look not far in the future and say, you know, this could be very different very soon. And I know I've used the example of the Bills when they moved on from Tyrod Taylor and Rex Ryan, and then, you know, everything changed for them. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but even the possibility of not being trapped in purgatory i think might end up being the best story that ever came out of 2021 oh yeah i i absolutely agree

i mean i this this season i was just thinking back like every week regardless of who they played like vikings fans everywhere are like just heart pumping losing their minds at like 245 central because it's a one score game and somebody's got the ball late. And it's just like, it doesn't matter if it's the Cardinals or the Packers or the Lions. Like it's just, it was like that every week. And it was, it was just a wild season that was probably not good for people's stress levels and mental health. So yeah, I absolutely think that, um, just taking the optimistic view that, that things are gonna, things are gonna be different. Um, we think so that's something that, that people can look forward to and all the different exciting

possibilities of that. And even if it means you don't go seven to nine next year, maybe a little worse that maybe that could lead to getting a good draft pick at quarterback or whatever the case may be. And something other than just what we've been trapped in for the last four years of this Cousins Zimmer era. You want to sing it? It's so hard to say goodbye to 2021. Go ahead. Go ahead.

I don't, I don't, this is boys to men. You don't. Oh my God. This is boys to men. Oh my god. This is before my time. I don't mean to make you feel old here on the podcast. You never heard it. It's so hard to say goodbye. Come on. Every high school

class sings this song. Do they not still? It was probably not. I think there's other songs that they sing now. What do they sing no um i don't know all right i don't know well that's it then and that was the last podcast before the last game is me singing horribly which i think works no i think that's a fitting fitting way to go out well i've enjoyed covering it with you from you and I slathering the, you know, sunscreen on our very pasty bodies to all the way to now where

we're both in hoodies frozen. Because it's negative 10 degrees outside. Yeah. Great. So that is another season in the books, more or less, folks. So, well, you know, of course, thanks everyone for listening as usual. And this was fun to get together again, Will. And if you block me again, I'll never speak to you. Okay.

Sounds good. I'm excited for some skull searching. Yes, it's coming! It's coming! Skull searching. After this, it's on the way. So look forward to that.