Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - A pre-Vikings/Chargers Fans Only pod

Episode Date: September 23, 2023

Matthew Coller answers fan questions, from Cam Akers' impact to the need for a nose tackle to an offseason move the Vikings might regret later Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

everybody welcome to another episode of purple insider matthew collar here and my original plan for this week was to wrap up in the episode talking with a couple of guys from the los angeles side and have that be it for the week and we did the x's and o's breakdown and everything else and maybe you could tell that my voice has gotten a little raspy once again, but I opened up my inbox and I got a lot of emails from fans, sending fans only questions through purpleinsider.com and through my direct messages at Matthew Collar on Twitter. And I thought, you know what? I want to answer these questions. So let's do it. Let's dive into your questions. I'm excited for this Vikings chargers.

We've talked about a lot of things, breaking down the game, how much it means to each team, but we've got just a little bit more to discuss here before we dive into it. And you can always go to purpleinsider.com, send me an email about whatever. I mean, sometimes I get emails about other things, but you can send me a question to put on the show, and I will do my absolute best to try to make sure that I get it about other things. But you can send me a question to put on the show,

and I will do my absolute best to try to make sure that I get it on the show. So feel free to do that, purpleinsider.com, anytime you like. All right, let's get in. So we'll start off with Colin, who says, I'm very concerned about the poor play of KJ Osborne and confused why he's still getting so many reps. His PFF grades are among the worst in the NFL for his position. Well, that is true that his PFF grades are not so good through the first two games. It's also through the first two games.

I mean, I think that what the Vikings offense is going to be is a lot of who's the secondary guy to Justin Jefferson, although they haven't needed a ton of production from their secondary players, but TJ Hawkinson, Jordan Addison, KJ Osborne, at some point, it might be a running back who runs for yardage or even maybe catches a screen and runs with the football. We did see that, you know, a couple of times from Delvin Cook with big plays last year. And it's going to be required that somebody is in position to make a play. Now, early in last season, K.J. Osborne was not that guy.

And there were even some times where we felt like, is he kind of on the same page with Kirk Cousins or what's going on there? And then as the season went along, especially toward the latter half, then Osborne was that guy and then he ended up having some good games at the end of the year but it's always going to be how does the defense play Jefferson and who is ready to step up tonight now I think what we've seen from Addison already is he's a legitimate deep threat that's for sure your 40 time which was only okay for Jordan Addison,

is not reflective of how you run routes and create separation deep. And we've already seen Jordan Addison do that at an exceptional level multiple times. And of course, that's caused by Justin Jefferson being on the other side and the defense paying a lot of attention that way. Although his long touchdown against the Eagles

was also a great design by Kevin O'Connell that drew in the safety to that side over to TJ Hawkinson. So there's going to be opportunities, I think, for just about everybody who is considered a weapon on this team. Unfortunately, Jalen Naylor goes to IR. So even if they wanted to replace KJ Osborne, they couldn't do it. But I think that you're going to have to be patient with this one.

It hasn't gone so great. But I also, when you talk about the PFF grade, I haven't seen anything from KJ Osborne route running-wise or receiving-wise where I would say, uh-oh, what's going on with KJ? I think that every year since he kind of emerged as a player on this team,

that's two years, he's been the same player both 2021 and 2022 where sometimes he's going to have a big week, he's going to step up, and then other weeks you're going to feel like they didn't go his direction. And he's going to be on the field a lot with Jordan Addison in three wide receiver personnel, and sometimes he's going to be on the field a lot with Jordan Addison in you know three wide receiver personnel and sometimes he's going to be out there when they have multiple tight ends I think he is a better blocker I don't think his grade so far and run blocking is good but I mean we can use our logic as well here that it's only been two weeks and Osborne is more of a proven blocker has more of the physical stature. And

let's be honest, you know, I mean, there have been some receivers who've gotten hurt in the past. I'm thinking of Chad BB laying a block and getting hurt on undersized guy. I don't know how much blocking I really want Jordan Addison do with his size. So you're going to have to kind of, you know, mix and match a little bit there, but I would not count KJ Osborne out of this season or say it's over for him or that Addison is clearly run by him. I think that all three receivers that are not Justin Jefferson calling TJ Hawkinson a receiver receiving options are going to kind of have their days. Hawkinson will be a little more consistent because he's the underneath guy and he's a check down option and he can catch a four yard little short pass that maybe they're

not going to do that with other guys. But I'm not ready to say take AJ Osborne off the field, run two tight ends and Addison. It's not. No, I think you're just going to have to give this one a little bit more time than just this two game sample size. But it would I be surprised at this point at the end of the year, if Jordan Addison ends up with a decent amount more targets than KJ Osborne?

No, I would not be surprised by that based on what we've seen from Addison so far. But I think that if they start taking KJ Osborne off the field, you kind of got to say who they're going to put in instead. Are they just going to run Josh Oliver all the time or, or, you know,

who else? Because Naylor now is down. So it can't be him. And plus Naylor's done nothing in the NFL so far. Brandon Powell, like, and I think just, just roll with,

with KJ Osborne and he's going to have his weeks where he steps up. I think we know what kind of player he is after a couple of years. Jordan says, how badly do the Vikings need a real nose tackle? Very, very badly. That's the answer. No,

truly. It's not easy to find a guy who can truly dominate the center of a defense and who can take up two blocks and who has power and who could get after the quarterback if they need to uh you you had the pleasure of seeing Linval Joseph for a number of years and there was very few people who are better at playing that nose tackle role than Linval Joseph and we used to try to kind of write from time to time or I used to but I know that a lot of people have written it over the years about Linval Joseph. And we used to try to kind of write from time to time, or I used to, but I know that a lot of people have written it over the years about Linval. It's like, hey, he's kind of

the guy that makes this all tick. And there's a trickle-down effect of having a great nose tackle. Number one, I mean, you take up two offensive linemen because you're so powerful, you're just going to work one guy. There's another part of it, it too that if you watch the eagles game you'll see a lot of times the left guard has to reach the outside shoulder of the defensive tackle oftentimes harrison phillips to push him and create a gap and he's able to do that because he's able to get there and move it if you have a great nose tackle that's just not happening like you can't pull that off You're not going to get to that other guy's shoulder and move him because he's just going to stick you in place. And that's something where, okay, it's really hard to spot in real time, but when you go

back and you look and you can sort of feel the effect of that, like, why is the middle of the field just such a problem to run in? And if you have a great nose tackle, then you saw like when linval was there teams would always try to run to the outside and that's where kendrickson bar and harrison smith could track them down and they had good tackling corners at that time as well that's that's the effect if you can frustrate a team and make them not want to run up the middle of the field and then you kind of give i think an easier chance to force teams to the outside then the linebackers know where they're going the safeties know where they're trying to

bust it out to and they can get there and make plays the vikings don't have that and you know what yeah you could say they probably should have drafted jordan davis you know like yeah that well that's that's true uh but you know even when you look around the league, how many of these guys are there that are truly great, that are 330 pounds, that are your Pat Williams type of player that can pull that off? There are some, and the Vikings maybe should have searched for that. Instead, they have undersized guys. Jonathan Bullard is not tiny, but he's also not enormous. And Harrison Phillips, to me, is more of a run-stuffing three-tech than he is a nose tackle, but he's forced to play nose tackle,

which, I mean, I still think he's getting a decent amount of leverage and he's a good technician, but, I mean, that's just a lot to handle when you're talking about double teams. And he's about 300 pounds where, you know, other guys who play that position are three 20, three 30. And plus after seeing, you know, Vita Veya or Jordan Davis, that's like three 50. That's what those guys are usually doing. So, I mean, the answer is very, very badly, but also, you know, Akeem Hicks, isn't really a nose tackle. He's more of a three technique. I don't know if he wants to play anymore or how effective he could be. And like Lin ball was not that effective in a handful of snaps for the Eagles

last year. If there's a good one, this is the thing about those nose tackles. If there's a good one, teams got them. I mean, they're not letting them sit around in free agency in the middle of the fall, right? So the Vikings just have to hunt for answers. They just have to look for answers of how can you make it not a disaster like it was against the Philadelphia Eagles. And the Eagles are pretty special. I think, I actually do think this, that if they force teams to throw on a daily basis well a play-to-play basis they're forcing team to throw and say stick with the run we dare you a lot of teams will go away from it

a lot of teams will have one negative run and be like all right we got to go back to the pass and that's where you have the quickness element of the linebackers, the safeties. And I think that also Marcus Davenport's absence here is huge. I mean, yes, they need a nose tackle. That's not going to happen. But Marcus Davenport weighs somewhere between 265 and 280. And that's a guy who has the power to impact the run game. And he's been out. And now you're asking Patrick Jones and DJ Wanham,

just not the same style of player to handle those same duties. I think that's very difficult. This one comes from Fire Away. Does Cam Akers improve the passing game to bail out Kirk? Well, I guess I'm assuming you mean that if they have a running game, that it will help improve the passing game or maybe in pass protection. I think Akers is considered to be fine in pass protection. And when he talked to us today,

he said that 90% of the playbook and verbiage and stuff he understands right away. So you can step right in for the most part I mean this week is really hard he's coming literally in the middle of the week but not even when TJ Hawkinson was showing up Hawkinson even got there a whole day earlier so it's a very tough ask it doesn't seem like he's going to play on Sunday or be active so they're going to wait one more week for Cam Akers. Does he bail out Kirk by being a good running back? I mean, he's so far in his career when he's been healthy and not this year because he only carried the ball 22 times.

I would say he's been pretty effective. That's the way I would describe it. I would not say that he's been a superstar or that he has just run over people or been some huge explosive threat it's really been pretty solid i mean a little over four yards to carry grading out by pff pretty well and you know the kind of preponderance of the evidence says yeah okay this guy can play and he can have hundred yard games and he can be a starter if that's what they need him to be at some point although kevin o'connell uh said again that alexander madison is their guy and that he's rb1 but of course if cam acres comes in and plays great that could change how much it

truly impacts the passing game i don't know i think the passing game is really good i don't even think they need it to be awesome on the ground to set up the play action or anything else. Their play action has been really good so far this year. I think what they need is to, if you get a lead, to be able to pound away, but also like exactly what they talked about at the start of the year, which is you'll get a six yard run, set up second and four. Then you can do anything you want at second and four. So like, yes, it can help. It can help Kirk Cousins.

It could take a little pressure off him by being able to run effectively. That's if he does, that's when he gets in the game, how he looks when he gets in the game. I don't really know. I mean, there was only the one game that he played for the Rams and then they traded him, which does make you kind of raise an eyebrow a little bit. And Kevin O'Connell, you know, I asked him about if, you know, he was comfortable with whatever happened in Los Angeles. And he said that he understood what it was. And,

you know, obviously since he brought him here here was was comfortable with cam acres said he loves football and everything else and so we'll see i will see he's 24 there's no reason to think he should be washed or have you know any physical issues to hold him back it's how does he fit in to the team can he be more than just okay which he's been so far in his career and then it could have a positive impact on their offense but it you know really amazes me how little they have put in ty chandler which says kind of a lot about ty chandler considering that alexander madison hasn't set the world on fire you'd think you would be going to your backup a little more often, but they haven't, so they needed somebody else. Akers is here. We'll see if it works out. I don't think you need to run the ball super effectively to be good at passing.

I've never thought that. But you also can't average two yards carry. I mean, you need easy yards. And does Akers improve that if they don't block it better? Does he improve that? Or is he going to be a product of the blocking? That's probably the case, like most running backs. So that goes under the category of we'll see.

But does it bail out Kirk Cousins? No. I mean, it doesn't change what this thing is. It's a pass-first offense that needs a little bit of extra counter punch in the form of a running game. And if acres gives them that, then, well, then that's much better for the offense. And I do think that if they get healthy on the offensive line, you get Dalton Reisner in there somewhere, wherever he's going to be, probably right guard, that there's a decent chance, if not a really good chance, that this running game gets going and becomes effective.

But the first couple of weeks, the backup offensive lineman versus the competition and only really trusting Madison, a little bit of a tough ride. An extremely, extremely tough ride, actually, in the first two weeks for the running game. But Akers, I think, should theoretically improve that, give them at least like a Jarek McKinnon and Latavius Murray thing, where neither running back is truly special. But if they're both good, then your running game can be good.

But you got to block it. If you don't block it, you're 2016 Vikings. And then you average three yards to carry and make Sam Bradford throw a hundred thousand times that could happen. That could happen. So I'm not sure we're going to have to see. I think there's a wide range of outcomes with a cam acres. Folks. I am absolutely pumped about my prize picks this week because I crushed it. If you have not heard of it, prize picks is the easiest and best way to play daily fantasy, except instead of betting against thousands of other players or people who spend their entire life doing fantasy, all you need to do is pick more or less between two and six

player stat projections. Say a quarterback's number is 250 yards or a wide receiver, a hundred yards receiving, go more or less and bang, you're in, you're playing. And you can pick from hundreds of players and numbers this football season. And there are other sports that you can choose from as well. So last week, I nailed that Devante Smith, Justin Jefferson, and TJ Hawkinson would all get more yards than expected. Pretty easy ones to pick, if you ask me.

So it doesn't take an arm and a leg, money-wise, to be able to play. You can turn $10 into $250 with just a couple taps. Perfect way to fit it in in a busy day. Do it right before the game, whenever you want, at PrizePix. And we're going to be going in in a busy day. Do it right before the game whenever you want at PrizePix. And we're going to be going in on it all season long. You're going to hear every week making our picks. So go to prizepix.com slash purple and use the code purple for a first deposit match up to $100. That's prizepix.com slash purple. Use the code purple. Daily Fantasy Sports made easy. All right, from Michael.

After Sunday, no matter what the type of start for the Vikings have the division. Oh, yeah, okay. After Sunday, no matter the type of start the Vikings have, the division may never truly be out of reach. How do you feel after two weeks, the division will end up? Gotcha. Yeah.

Even if they go, Oh, and three, then it doesn't feel like it's over. But if you think about it, I mean, if Detroit wins, it's not a guarantee for their game,

but if Detroit wins, then already you're really chasing. I mean, you're really chasing. I mean, you're a couple games behind them from the word go. And that means you're coming from behind all season long, and you have some really difficult games coming up. You got two that you absolutely should win and two that no one's going to pick you to win. And if you lose one that you should absolutely win,

like they did against Tampa Bay, then it's over, right? Then your season is just collapsing. So the margin of error is very thin if they don't win. If they do win, I think they're fine. I mean, I think they're fine to turn things around quickly and compete for the NFC North because here's how I'm looking at it right now. And this could be one of those old takes exposed that everybody goes back and makes fun of. I look at the Detroit Lions as a bit above average team that sort of masqueraded this offseason as a really good team. But I think they're pretty good.

This is what they look so far. And that to me is about 10 wins. And some of this could be determined in those last couple of weeks when the Vikings play the lines. So I think they're like a 10 win team. Their defense is still flawed. Their offense still has maybe some more holes than they thought they did. We'll see when Jamison Williams come back, what that kind of looks like. But, you know, Jared Goff is who he is, which can be really, really great, but also failable.

I think they're a 10-win team. I think that the Vikings and Packers right now, Packers have the health issues. Vikings have the problems on defense. They look like 8-win teams right now at this moment. But that could easily flip. And the Bears, like, I don't know. I think the Bears will have their moments and people will be like, oh, maybe just a bit, but I don't know. It doesn't look good. It looks like a five-winner-less team

for Chicago. So if that's the way it plays out, that means that there could be opportunities in the final weeks to chase down Detroit with a couple of huge wins. If they're in reach, if they go to one and two, then I think they could be right there. But the way the Vikings look right now with their defense, with some of the weaknesses on the offensive line, even with Reisner coming in, some of the injuries that they've gone through, it kind of looks like an eight-win football team. That could change three weeks from now when they play the Kansas City Chiefs. And if they play really well, if they win that game, they can throw with anybody, right? anybody, right? So you can, if they win that game, then we're going to go,

wow, they can win the division. They're the best team out there. Right? So things change super fast in the NFL. That's how I view it right now. And that those three teams, the lions Packers and Vikings are in this race where the lions have a little bit of an edge and they're a little bit of a better team roster-wise. So we give them more benefit of the doubt. And the Packers were still trying to figure out what they are. They really blew it against Atlanta. And the Vikings shouldn't have lost the first game for sure. I don't know about Philly, but the first game should not have lost.

So they're kind of a one-on-one-ish type team that's passed the ball extremely well. I mean, it's, it's, you're right to say like the division may never truly be out of reach that I just don't see Detroit escaping and running away free and, uh, and cruising to the division wins. So I agree with you. Uh, but that's how I think it'll stack up right now. Right now, as of this moment, 10, 8, 8, 5. Okay, let's get to Brandon. Should the Vikings try to trade Louis Scene for Kier Elam from Buffalo? I mean, I don't see any team, no matter what the circumstance,

saying yes to a Louis scene trade at this moment. I just can't see it. I mean, if you're behind Theo Jackson, no disrespect to a guy who had a great training camp, Theo Jackson. But if you're behind a guy who was a sixth round pick of the Titans who got cut and has been a special teamer. And he made a great play the other night to get that interception. But if that, but if that's the case and you're a first round pick, I don't know what team is saying, let's give you something for this player. I mean,

I, yeah, I think that, you know, Elam, you're talking about a swap of players who haven't worked out. Maybe they should just hang on to him for another year. I just don't,

I don't know. I don't know i don't know that anybody's giving you anything for him so why bother i mean why bother trying to trade him they might as well just see if how it plays out go into next training camp let it be because if you do give him up and it was the injury that was holding him back which i don't think it was the injury that was holding him back, which I don't think it was. But if it was, then all of a sudden he becomes good. You kind of look foolish. And if the Vikings or if the Bills are in a similar situation with Elam, I think they have to feel the same way. Like, why give this guy up now for almost nothing?

And then if this high pick ends up turning out good, then we look like fools. So I think it's better to just kind of hang tight with that and, and not worry too much about it because I don't think that anyone is going to look at this situation and go, Hey, you know, Brian Flores doesn't know what he's doing. We should go trade for this guy.

No, Brian Flores knows what he's doing. He's going to play the right players. And I think everyone's going to give him the benefit of the doubt and not want to trade anything for Louis seen at the moment. And so you should just leave the door open and maybe it becomes something that it hasn't been so far. From John, I find it odd that you keep harping on the defense.

We always knew that the offense would have to drive this team and they have failed miserably. Well, you know, I guess that failed miserably is an interesting characterization. I mean, the fumbles have really hurt them. Two fumbles on the goal line is pretty tough. I don't know if I've seen that before, or I'm sorry, no, two turnovers on the goal line. So the interception with KJ Osborne in week one and then Justin Jefferson, like that back-to-back weeks, that doesn't happen very often that you get turnovers right at the goal line.

And yet they, you know, did that. So that is miserable that they did that. They also threw the ball very effectively in the first two weeks despite not so great blocking up front and a lot of injuries up front. They failed in the run game. There's no question there. But I also think, well, here's another point too. I harp on everything.

How often do we talk to each other? Every day. So everything involved with the Vikings, you could say I harp on. I've harped on the running game. I've harped on the offensive line. I've harped on the offensive line. I've harped on Dalton Reisner, like everything. We're going to talk about everything because that's the show. It's every day.

But on the defensive side, when you are capable of being run over by a truck in Philadelphia and just pushed right out into the lake by their offensive line. That's not a great sign. And they didn't play that well on defense. And of course, they'll talk about, oh, well, Philly was booing their players at the start. Okay. Well, they also put together when the circumstances were pretty equal in that game, a 16-play drive where they shoved you off the field. And then when the Vikings had a chance to get back in the game,

they, again, just pushed you off the field. So, yeah, the defense has, over two weeks, been pushed around way too much. And if that's going to happen every week, it's going to be very difficult for them to be a good team. And I think the secondary to some extent has played better than we thought over the first two weeks. Byron Murphy has been good. Caleb Evans got beat on what I think was a miscommunication. The safeties have been solid. I mean, Harrison Smith hasn't had a splash play yet, but Cam Bynum has had quite a few plays where he's come up to the line of scrimmage, made a good tackle. So yeah, I mean, I think that there

are parts of the defense that have looked good, but you just cannot get over giving up 259 yards on the ground. If you do that, you're going to lose a hundred percent of the time. So, you know, I think that it was worth talking a lot about how are other teams going to attack them do they now see this and go all right you could just push this vikings defense around and all those blitzes won't matter after that so it's worth harping on after the loss but also you know one of the things i like about doing this every day is there's so much to talk about. We try to cover every single part of it.

All right, let's get to PrizePix. You thought we forgot. We didn't. PrizePix.com slash purple. Make sure you go there and they will match anything up to $100, which is great for you. If you haven't heard of PrizePix, I'm going to show you how it works in just a second. But PrizePix is pretty cool. What you do is take stat projections here and you go more or less. So you look at what the PrizePix stat projection is, and I will show you here now on the screen if you're watching. But if you're listening, I'll just continue to explain it where you have all the players. You have quarterbacks, wide receivers, running backs,

a bunch of players in the NFL, and they've got numbers, and you pick more or less for the week's game. Last week went three for three. That was pretty fun. Got all of them right, and I think I went more each time and got them right. So now we are going to this week and I'm going to look at a couple of quarterbacks here. Of course, the Vikings and the Chargers, we're always going to have the angle of the game. The more or less number is 294.5 for Kirk Cousins. Now that is a interesting number. I mean, that that's, that's the expectation of Kirk cousins throwing for a gazillion yards in this game. But I also think that's pretty justified considering who their opponent is and how they've played so far against the passing game, but I'm going to go less in this game. I think that the running game gets going a little bit.

The Vikings get a lead in this game and they try to run the ball. And Kirk Cousins does not have to throw for 390 yards to win this football game. So I will go less than 294.5. With Justin Herbert, however, he will be chasing from behind, throwing a million checkdowns. I'm sorry, Justin Herbert. But he's going to have to rack up yards and he's going to throw for more than 283.5 yards. Now I could pick from any other quarterback. I like to do three. And now this is a hard one because a part of me wanted to go with Zach Wilson against New England because his number is low. 180.5.

I mean, that seems like a pretty good number to go over with. But I'm going to go Sam Howell. I love the way Sam Howell has played so far. 217.5 is his number. It's against a very good defense in the Buffalo Bills, but I think a true test for Sam Howell, and he will get more than 217.5 yards. So prizepicks.com slash purple. Give it a try.

That's how simple it is. You just go there, pick more or less, submit, and there you go. And if you use the purple code, then they'll match your first deposit up to a hundred dollars. So feel free to check that out. And we will be keeping track each week, how mine perform. All right,

back to your questions. Another John different John than the one before says, wondering if you could provide any insights on what you would consider a good offensive lineman, any certain measurables or metrics, what kind of influence does Ryan Grigson have? Oh, I'm not really sure about that second part, what influence Grigson has. I know that Grigson and Kwesi Adafo-Mensah got to know each other in Cleveland and that they've been close since then.

And I think they, you know, kind of connect on different levels. Like Grigson has this very football scouting traditional was like was a player and all that background. Kweisi has the more analytics background. I think they look at, you know, Kweisi looks at Grigson as someone he can lean on from the heart you know the football and scouting side of things and as someone who's been a general manager before and has been through it before and all those things so kind of a a right-hand man but i don't know as far as like exact influence how the power is diffied up i remember asking that or some probably wasn't me, but somebody asked about who has final decision and how that all works in the opening press conference for Kweisi Adafo-Mensa.

And there wasn't really an answer there. So I can't tell you, hey, does he go to Ryan Grigson and say, should we trade for Cam Akers or like, how does this work? I don't know that that's never been stated by anyone, but you know, he's in a position to kind of be crazy at off limits is right-hand man. To your point about what makes a good offensive lineman. That really depends on what we're talking about because each position is quite different and there are different ways to succeed. I mean, a left tackle, here's what makes a great one. Look at Christian Derrissaw. There you have it. Left tackles, oftentimes right tackles, but I think left tackles usually have to be physical specimens. You can't be an average athlete with normal arms and walk into a restaurant and not turn any eyeball or any heads to to look at you like you got to be an impressively sized human being with rare footwork and a lightness on your feet but also a just a technician's mindset where

you know you study defensive linemen so you got to have an intelligence to your game and things like that it's a very complicated position when it comes down to what they're trying to do to you versus what you have to do to stop them. It's not, I don't think it's one of the more complicated X's and O's positions versus say center. But I think it is from a technique of how are you going to prepare each week to stop what the opposing guy does really, really well. It's like the quarterback plays against all 11, but the left tackle plays against one. It's a one-on-one.

And that makes it very interesting. I think guards have to be powerful, but super technical, very, very tough, and I think really, really detailed, which means sometimes you have to push a guy the right number of steps. Sometimes you got to have your hand in the right, exact right position to turn somebody in the exact right way. And you have to understand all of that. And then there's a strength element. There's a toughness. Of course, there's athleticism. That's a big deal, but really, really technical. And I think from a center, you have to be able to sustain a super powerful impact right away

without having your full strength to go against the other person because you're snapping the football. That's really tough. Really, it's leadership and intelligence from that position, too, that are such a big deal, calling out the protections, directing the whole operation. So it's different stuff, I think, for each position. And the Vikings have a lot of elements of this.

I mean, Brian O'Neill at the right tackle spot, tremendous, tremendous athlete, very, very technical player. And Garrett Bradbury as well, I mean, is a very high intelligence, great leadership type of center. I think those guys need to have a little bit less size and be able to get out and move for screens, for pulls, stuff like that, which makes Bradbury a pretty good player. It's just that sometimes sustaining the impact from guys who weigh 40 pounds more

I think can be pretty difficult at times for garrett bradbury um but you know that that goes for a lot of centers in the nfl so i think he does a lot of those things well so i guess i hope that answers the question it's not that that i i mean complicated and as you try to relate it to the v Vikings, I think the issue for their guards is technique with the right guard. And I think there's, I don't want to say like a toughness element, but I think that it's hard for Ezra Cleveland sometimes He is not a natural guard. He was more of a natural tackle. There might be more of a tackles mindset with Ezra Cleveland. But yeah, I mean, I think that they have at least several players who are very ideal for what you would want in alignment. Alex asks, the level of production from the Vikings defensive line and edge defenders gives me zero hope that this team can be a true contender anytime soon. I would agree with you before you said anytime soon.

I mean, when you say true, like if you could see it, if you're listening, true is in capital letters. It's got stars next to it so i assume what you mean is 49ers cowboys eagles true contenders that vegas has in the top 10 top five it's not where the vikings are right now and one of the reasons it sure as heck is not justin jefferson right like the the root of the Justin Jefferson, right? The major reason is I don't think when you get into a playoff that over a whole playoffs they're going to be able to hold up enough and get enough pressure from the front and stop the run enough from the front

to be able to win multiple playoff games. That's the way it looks right now. Change my mind. If you've ever seen that meme where the person's sitting at it looks right now. Change my mind. You know, if you've ever seen that meme where the person sitting at the desk, it says, change my mind, like not going to win three playoff games. If that's what your D line looks like, change my mind. And the deal Hunter's been great, but I mean, the rest are just not. When you look at San Francisco, when you look at Philly, when you look at Dallas, different universe,

just a different universe on the D line. So I agree with you. But when you say anytime soon, okay, that's where I wouldn't go that far. Because I think if they go to the plan and Hunter status, who knows about that? But if they go to the plan, I don't think it takes forever to rebuild the defensive line. Some of these teams have drafted up there year after year after year, and even busts haven't hurt them like Javon Kinlaw in San Francisco. But they just went out, and they didn't pressure the quarterback from the interior last year, and they got Javon Hargrove. And he's a monster, and now they're freakish, terrifying. If you have the cap space to spend, you can sometimes get those players

or you could get Bradley Chubb through a trade like Miami did. I don't know if I'm sold on the greatness of Bradley Chubb, but you can often get a top tier free agent if you've got the cap space to be able to afford them. You have to draft some. I agree. If you're spending your first on a quarterback, then you're not spending it on an edge rusher.

But I don't know about anytime soon, meaning in the big picture, like what are we talking about? Like three years, two years. I think it's easier to rebuild defenses in general because those guys do become free agents there's often a couple of very good maybe not like okay Khalil Mack and his prime level players but usually

there are some good free agents that are out there that you could start to rebuild that defensive line a little bit better I mean look they got Zedaria Smith last year look at Cleveland Cleveland had one guy last year, Miles Garrett. Now they have one of the better defensive lines in the league because they went and took two players from the Vikings that they let go. You draft a couple, you develop, you spend money. I mean, it really ties back into the quarterback contract and how much money you can spend. That's an area where I think clearly down the road they're going to spend. That doesn't mean I think they'll be San Francisco, but can they get to be

good again at some point? Anytime soon? Sure. That just takes one good draft pick. That just takes a couple free agents that you bring in here. Can they be prolific? That is probably going to take longer. That means usually spending a very high draft pick on somebody. Could they be prolific? That is probably going to take longer. That means usually spending a very high draft pick on somebody. Could they be like a Ravens team that has a bunch of good players and they make the most of them with Brian Flores? Yeah, they could do that by next year. They could do that by the year after. Do they have one that's good enough to be considered a contender?

Like eventually, yes, they could do that right now. It's not there. And I don't know what the answer is. And that's, and that's a hard reality to take where it's like, if you're really going to win anything, you're going to need the passing game for multiple playoff games to just throw for 400 yards and win you games. That's, that's very tough, but that's also way down the road from right now.

And we've got to see how some other things play out. But to your point, I, yes, that's going to continue to be a really difficult weakness to overcome over this season that they have not drafted in the past successfully to have players rotating in or solidified starters that are not Daniil Hunter. All right, let's remind you about some pizza. Who likes pizza here? Everyone. So that means you need to make Little Caesars,

the official pizza sponsor of the NFL, part of your game day. Order online during their pizza pizza pregame one hour before NFL games and get ready for some football and fun. Choose your favorite Little Caesars pizza or pick the toppings you crave. Either way, you win. And speaking of winning, everyone scores with convenient delivery or their in-store Pizza Portal pickup. So grab some friends and enjoy a few slices during the tastiest hour before kickoff

with Little Caesars. On to the next question. Adam says, are you feeling any different about Kevin O'Connell not playing the starters in preseason after two games? They came out sloppy and fell on their face. No, and I never will. I truly never will. If they start 0-16-1 or 16-0-1, I will not feel any different about the way Kevin O'Connell's gone about this. It's the exact right process to not play starters in the preseason. You are risking injury for extremely little gain. And when we talk about playing sloppy, well, let's talk about who's played sloppy. The right guard. Well, he played during the preseason in the first game. So he got preseason reps. Jay Ward lined up offside.

He played in the preseason. Brandon Powell fumbled on a very important punt return. Guess what? He played in the preseason. Brian O'Neill was hurt and didn't play in the preseason and yet has been terrific for them. And then they've had some bad luck otherwise with the injuries. Garrett Bradbury and so forth gets injured in week one. I mean, what are you going to do? And the same thing goes for Christian Derrissaw.

But there's a lot of players on this team that were in during preseason that have made some of these mistakes. Lewis seen not getting off the field or not staying on the field or whatever, costing him a timeout in the first game, played in the preseason. So I also don't think on a play-to-play basis, it's really been sloppy.

They lost to Philadelphiailadelphia because they fumbled and couldn't get run game going so forth you know how why they lost but also because they got pushed around on defense that didn't look sloppy that looked like they had more talent than you do because they went to the super bowl last year but it look it's first of all, I think there's almost no game to be had. And I also think that it's a total myth that teams play different. I mean, the Bills and Chiefs play their starters in preseason and they look more sloppy than the Vikings in their first week. Right. So, no, I don't feel differently about that.

I won't feel differently about that. And if they go to 0-3, I guess this is going to come up again, but you know, last year they didn't play the starters in the preseason and won 13 games and they came out and they won right away and they started the season eight and one. So I don't know. I think, I think we know the reasons that they're, uh, Owen two right now now and I don't think any of them correlate to the preseason uh Josh says can you remind me of a why the Vikings felt they needed to restructure Kirk's contract last offseason thus creating 28 million in dead cap yeah I mean I think if they could have that one back they probably would if they knew what the outcome

was going to be with zadarius smith and delvin cook maybe they would have just traded zadarius for almost nothing and cut delvin cook before that and just you know taking that cap space to get cap compliant um you know maybe it i don't. I don't know if that was what really helped them get Davenport and Byron Murphy. That was kind of like, we need to be compliant by tomorrow. So here we go. We're going to do this. I also wonder if they thought that there was still a chance that they would sign Cousins to an extension because the way that it was set up, it looked like a possibility that they could

extend Kirk and, you know, move out that 28 million over a couple of years and so forth that, that, that could happen. Let's say it was like a three year, $130 million deal or something with Kirk and you spread out some of that dead cap, push it back into the last years of the deal. Well, okay. I mean, you could do something like that. But then when that didn't happen, and I'm not sure how different it would have been. I'm just opining a little bit here if that was one of the reasons. And then it didn't happen. So now you're just kind of stuck with it. But I do think, yeah, I mean, if you could go back in time, knowing how the rest of it played out, that they probably would not do it the exact same way and they would just let it be and restructure brian o'neill right away

and kind of go from there but the salary cap is complicated i mean the and the the plans are tricky i guess sometimes to figure out from the outside without Rob Brzezinski, the Vikings cap guy and much more. We call him that, but he does much more for the organization. But the guy who does their cap, he didn't send me an email and tell me exactly why they did this. I didn't really like it at the beginning when they did it. I thought better to let it play out, find that money elsewhere. But also, you know, Byron Murphy looks like he could be a player for them. So if they needed to do it to sign Byron Murphy, I don't know. Yeah. I mean, I, I get you, but I also think like there's a game, I guess the

chargers. And for now we got kind of a long way to go before we're worrying about next year's cap and dead cap space and so forth. So I don't know. I don't know. I wish I had a great answer for you, but sometimes I'm like, redoing like last off season, going all the way back to that. I'm not sure. Like they're going to just have to deal with it and move on.

I don't know. It's not a bad question at all. I think the same exact thing. I just think like we're playing a little armchair gm of what they did way back in march and a lot happened after that and there had to have been a reason why they did it uh just i'm not 100 sure what it is all right this says, could, let's see, could be sitting a quarterback be so successful? Oh, I see. You mean like Jordan Love.

Could sitting a quarterback be so successful because you don't expose them to playing in a really bad situation? I think many quarterbacks fail because of the roster around them is so bad. There's always going to be a little chicken and egg when it comes to that. Yeah, there's definitely always going to be that, that chicken and egg element of, hey, Joe Burrow played with a horrible team right away and then it got hurt and was still really good. And there are other quarterbacks who've sat Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, now Jordan Love, but it really worked for Mah homes and Rogers or did it,

or would they have been good anyway? Or do some guys need to sit and others don't like everybody thought Anthony Richardson needed to sit. And it really is awful that he got hurt. But, you know, I think that he looks comfortable right away as a starter when everybody thought he was going to need to sit. But now I'd be like, no, don't sit him. Like play that guy. Assuming he's good to go, but like play that guy. He looks great out there, you know, ups and downs and rollercoaster, but looks totally comfortable playing Bryce Young. That guy needs to sit. I think it's a little bit

case to case, but I do agree with you when it comes to especially offensive line so CJ Stroud is going to have a really tough time this year maybe they should have had a Brian Hoyer type start the season and play behind that offensive line try to survive it and then maybe CJ Stroud gets in later in the season or something because I think not only you're talking about confidence when you're getting beat up as much as he is, but also injuries. They happen when guys offensive lines can't block for them. So yeah, I think that there is definitely something to that,

that somebody's confidence can be destroyed pretty quickly by a terrible team. You know, maybe you're alluding to Justin Fields here. There's also, I don't know, because we've also seen many quarterbacks who succeed have to join teams that barely won any games and they figure out a way to at least be serviceable to start, at least show a little bit of the goods, at least show resilience. Justin Fields showed no resilience from when he first started on a really bad Bears team.

And I guess you could tell me he did last year, but I mean, they won three games. So it's pretty hard to tell me that that was really the case last year. And he's already kind of cracking right now. So that is a hard question. That was the Josh Rosen thing, where it's like, wait, their team is really bad. They should just sit this guy on the whole though. I am a strong, strong supporter of not playing the rookie in year one, strong supporter of that. But you know, who's not owners, owners who draft the guy and want him to play by the way, it will be very interesting to see if, uh, you know, it's Andy Dalton when the Vikings go to Carolina,

because if it's Bryce Young, you feel great about it. Like Brian Flores is going to blitz the heck out of this guy. He's going to confuse him. He's going to sack him. It's going to be ugly. But if it's Andy Dalton, he gets rid of the ball quick. And Andy Dalton's given them some heck before played well last year with New Orleans and, New Orleans and really well in 2020 when he beat them with Dallas. Like, I don't know. We were writing Carolina as an automatic win. But if Andy Dalton's starting, it feels like it's different. We'll see.

Chargers game. That's up next. After that, we'll see if we're playing more armchair Gia. And I don't mean you can't on the show. You always can. But sometimes I'm like reliving something from what they did in the past. Like, wait, wait, we've got a game. We've got a game.

See how this plays out. And then we'll see how armchair GM-ish we have to be soon or not. Because if they win, you've got a chance to go two and two seasons on a lot of teams are two and two. If they lose, maybe this is more of a discussion of what they did, how it sets up for the future, what they need to do, who they might need to trade. Should they keep fighting all those things? We will see huge game on Sunday. I will be there after the game. Dane Mizutani and I will do the post game. And wow, I am really excited for this one.

I feel like, you know, I saw our friend Tase Seth from Sumer sports tweeted out the watchability rankings that he's done. He's created this system. The Vikings and chargers were number one. And I agree. Should be really fascinating.

All right. Thanks everybody. We'll see you then.