Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - A Vikings and Bears roast to end a sorry season for both teams

Episode Date: January 7, 2022

Matthew Coller and Lorin Cox of Locked On Bears roast their respective teams before heading into Sunday's meaningless game and in the process they discuss the futures of both clubs and what went wrong this year. They joke about and break down Justin Fields and whether he trended the right way this year. They break down why the Bears haven't had a good coach since Mike Ditka and talk about how the two teams have made funny excuses all year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to a very special episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and joining me from Lockdown Bears is Lauren Cox, making a repeat appearance. But Lauren, this one, this one is special. This is one of those episodes that you remember joining for the rest of your life, I think. It's one of those where you circle it on the calendar after I asked you yesterday, and you look forward to it and say, this is going to be a great day to talk about Vikings and Bears, Week 18, U.S. Bank Stadium. How excited are you?

Yeah, I told all my friends and family about the appearance, so shout out to my mom and dad. I know they're both listening, and all the aunts and uncles and cousins and grandma and grandpa, they're all tuning in because it's such a big monumental game coming up, and everyone wants to make sure they're ready to go. All right. So because this game is so incredibly pointless, I didn't want to bring you on to talk about,

like, hey, how's it going to look with Alan Robinson against Mackenzie Alexander? Like, right. Because who cares uh so what i figured we could do though is we could make fun of these two teams playing this meaningless game and we could roast them and then use that to talk about where these two teams stand what's going on with their futures and and where they're going to go and how they're going to inevitably still for the rest of our existence remain behind the green bay packers somehow so i'm just going to start i'm going to start the roast the little uh little opener and then we each have jokes about each other's teams

and we can start there so i mean first of all i'm really excited for the three people that are going to be in attendance to see this game i mean they, they cannot wait to see all the Vikings key starters that they want to trade get hurt. I mean, imagine that you were there for the day that Justin Jefferson tore his ACL playing in Week 18 against the Chicago Bears. I mean, it will definitely be worth it, but at least they kept Mike Zimmer on to run the ball 40 straight times

directly into Akeem Hicks. So I am excited for this game. be worth it but at least they kept mike zimmer on to run the ball 40 straight times directly into akeem hicks so i am excited for this game at least they have um you know some very good press box food i think we'll still have good press box food last year during uh the extreme pandemic times they just gave us cold bananas so that wasn't so good um but the game like but uh let me start out by saying this about the Chicago Bears. Love the Chicago Bears. I mean, I remember all those great times of watching incredible quarterback. No, no, that wasn't. No, that wasn't me. That was my great grandfather who watched the Chicago Bears play really good quarterback. In fact, Lauren, Mrs. McCaskey turned 99 this week. So exciting. Coincidentally, 99 years is the same amount of time that Justin Fields takes to throw the ball.

So that's good for you. Let's talk about Justin Fields. He's going to start in this game, and he takes 99 years to throw the football, as I witnessed in Chicago. So what do you think? You know, on the list of things with Justin Fields, it's a, it's, it's, it's lower on the, on the priority list.

Like, yes, he, he, he holds onto the ball too long, I suppose. But he, he is trying to, he's trying to make plays, you know what I mean? That's, that's the, he's, he's that guy who wants to be the hero and wants to do the spectacular thing. And to some extent, he has done some of those. He has had some of those moments, some of those impressive extended plays, finding somebody open downfield and hitting him on the sideline in a tight window that really only the receiver could catch the ball and the defensive back didn't have a shot at it. And then it's like those are the things that Bears fans point to and are like, oh, yeah, that's the that's the Ohio State quarterback that we traded up for.

And that's what we want to see more of. And then, you know, there have certainly been challenges along the way. A lot of turnovers, mainly mainly fumbles, although there have been some interceptions there. But it hasn't really been like mind numbing throw decisions where it's like, Oh my God, why did he, why did he throw that ball? Why did he put that there? I mean, there's been,

you know, batted passes and, and tip balls and, you know, just like little things of that don't necessarily signal a greater concern there, but you know, you'd like to see him maybe speed up the processing a little bit more.

And he has been a little bit quick to bail out of the pocket and scramble, but to some extent he's been coached to do some of that. They've told him to scramble a little bit more. And so like there's this, this feeling of like the coaching staff has not been in position to properly utilize him all season. And so as long as any of these mistakes haven't become full bad habits that the next coaching staff in theory should be able to do better,

or at least that's the only hope that bears fans have to hang their hat on. Yeah, I did think that when I was watching that game, Vikings and Bears at Soldier Field, I thought every play sort of asks him to be heroic in some way or another. It's either heroic as in he's got to pull the ball down and make an incredible run, or he has to make a really, really good throw. And what I think about when I watch just offenses in general is how many times does the quarterback out of his, say, 30 throws in a game, how many times is it super easy for him? I mean, how many times is it just step back, somebody's wide open, let them get the ball and go?

And sometimes that's like screen passes, or sometimes it's just slants that have somebody open or a bootleg where you're throwing to somebody who's fooled the linebacker and he's wide open over the field. And if you just sort of do that equation, Justin Fields has to be one of the lowest in the league for the number of easy throws that happen. And now there is another part of that, which is like the game's moving really fast and easy NFL throws are not easy college throws out of 30, 25 throws in college to Ohio state receivers are wide open. And maybe the best you could do is about 10 or 12 in the NFL. But I also think that anytime that we have judged a quarterback based on his first season, we've often been wrong. Like sometimes it's really obvious.

Josh Rosen is afraid to play football in the NFL. Okay, well, that's pretty clear. Yeah. This really good prospect is terrified of the NFL. I don't see terrified when I look at Justin Fields. I see extremely inexperienced and being asked to do way too much. Would you agree with that? For the most part, yeah.

I mean, I do think with rookie quarterbacks, you can tell obvious bust or still needs more time. Those are the ones that we can tell. But to your point with the easy throws, I've always felt this season that Justin Fields has done the really hard things really well and has not done well on the really easy things. For whatever reason, Matt Nagy has tried to make him

do a lot more short underneath quick rhythm passing. And that's not what he was at Ohio State. That's not what the Ohio State offense really asked him to do a lot. And so he struggled a little bit to just three-step drop curl route on his third step. And sometimes the footwork is a little bit off and the timing is a little bit off with the receivers, too, because he wasn't practicing with the starters until he entered the starting lineup in week three. So, you know, it's, it speaks to some of the coaching staff issues there, but also in the sense that it would seem like it's easier to correct some of the easy things that he doesn't do very well. And he's able to do some of the downfield throwing and

obviously playmaking his legs that you can't necessarily easily coach into someone. Yeah. You know, I've got a funny comparison for Justin Fields and tell me if you think this is ridiculous. I think he's kind of a lot like Ryan Tannehill. Now Tannehill is not as fast, but as in when he came into the league, Tannehill had been a wide receiver. So there maybe is a little bit of a difference there. Fields was always a quarterback, but he was just a little slow on everything. But you could see the arm talent was absolutely there, and the athleticism was there.

That's not as much a part of Tannehill's game as it is. But once they put him in an offense where he could just use the arm talent and he didn't have to be so precise on those, like you're saying, those drops and everything else where he could do a lot of boots and a lot of play actions and things and just let loose. I feel like it really shined what he could actually do when he was put in the right situation. I don't know that Fields is ever going to be like a quarterback that's just perfectly on time with everything in the NFL, or it might take many years. But there was always these debates of like, is Tannehill good? And he's

got a lot of really good throws. And then how much is Adam Gase and everything else? It feels to me sort of similar, except for Justin Fields is faster. Yeah. I think, I think there's some truth there. And I think there's some fairness there. I mean, I know bears fans are certainly hoping for better than that. You know, I think they're hoping for a higher ceiling, but like,

that's, that's not a bad floor. Like with all things considered, it's not, it's not a bad floor. Like with all things considered, it's not, it's not a bad floor. I mean, it could be, we could be more like Christian ponder level. You know what I mean? If we're thinking, if we're trying to talk about the range of spectrums here, it certainly is not in that level, but you know, like the, I think the comparison the bears fans are looking for is like Cam Newton in terms of like, you know,

there's some inaccuracy there sometimes and some throws that are just like, well, he's just not going to hit. He's just not going to be the 85 percent completion percentage guy. But if you can build an offense where you can use his legs and take downfield shots, you're going to you. Cam Newton was an MVP. You know, he goes to the Super Bowl. Right. I mean, that's that's the that's maybe the path Bears fans are looking at a little bit more. But Ryan Tannehill is a quality starting NFL quarterback and it's not sexy or exciting to put it there, but I see a lot of truth to that.

Do you have a Vikings joke? Quite a transition there. Well, I was thinking back to the, the, the Bears Vikings game the last time they played and just how, how stupid that whole game was and how ridiculous everything seemed to be. And like the fact that Kirk cousins could only get 87 yards against a bears defense that started tease Tabor at safety is embarrassing. Like in some ways, I think the Vikings lost that game.

Like they got to win on the, on the, on the record sheet, but it feels like, it feels like they lost that game just in terms of like having dignity against the team that they had no business being that struggling as much as they did against the bears. And that was like, when you have, when you have Justin Jefferson and Dalvin cook, and I know Adam Thielen didn't play in that game, but you have such weapons around a quarterback like Kirk Cousins,

and now you have Garrett Bradbury picking up first downs for the Vikings. Why have they not been able to figure out an offensive identity? Why doesn't that work really, really as well as it clearly seems like it should on paper? Yeah, why was Garrett Bradbury their most dangerous weapon against the Green Bay Packers is a great question by a playmaker clearly just not the playmaker the fact that the ball was about to hit the ground and he was able to bend and grab it like that and then just take off as opposed to just falling down is really incredible balance I mean he is a remarkable athlete he just weighs as much as you do and that's sort of a problem for a center uh yeah so i wrote one about that about the cornerback situation in that game

my joke was i'm not saying the bears defense is washed but when they played the vikings i recognized five cornerbacks from the xfl that's that was yeah joke there. You know, that is it is really a great question about the end of the season and how their offense has just collapsed. At one point, they were in the top five of passing EPA and they have not touched that. I mean, at any point during Kirk Cousins playing quarterback for the Vikings and they were at that point, maybe midway through the season. And I was thinking, I think this was even after the green Bay game. Like, wow. I mean, they, if they can continue to do this, they can make the playoffs and they can make this argument that, Hey, the beginning of the season was bad luck, but look at us now. And instead it went completely the opposite way. A couple of theories there. Number one is they have always needed the running game to work. And this is one of the problems with paying a quarterback $35 million on the cap

is if he relies on the running game to work, then that's not someone you should pay that much money. And the common theme for all the games that you're talking about, whether it's the Bears or whether it's last week or whether it's against Los Angeles, is they couldn't run the ball. Everything seems to play off of getting to second and shorts, getting first downs through running the ball, and then setting up play actions. And I know that the broad numbers will say, hey, you don't really need to succeed with running to do play action and stuff, but you do need to be in spots where you can run play action. If you're on third and nine with Sean Mannion, you're not running play action. The other part of it, the other part of it is look at the, look at the teams that they had trouble against. And one of the common themes is interior pass rush or just pass rush defensive line in

general. And Akeem Hicks is one of the most destructive players to the Vikings over the last four years or five years I mean he has just demolished their interior offensive line he takes over games against them he played I think 30 snaps or something and it was like incredible 30 snaps he blew up every play it seemed like and then Aaron Donald comes to town he does what he does and even last week Green Bay has a good defensive line. The fact that the Vikings offense has always had a kryptonite during Kirk Cousins time here, I think, is really telling about this quarterback decision that they're going to have to make in the offseason. It's amazing that I mean, no disrespect to Dalvin Cook, but it's amazing that there's a team with Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson that can't be successful without being able to run the ball first. I mean, that's just, it speaks so much to not only Zimmer, but you know, Kubiak and maybe just somebody said Spielman, right? I mean, he's, I mean, I know that's,

that's one of the conversations here. And as I was, as I was looking through this, like look back at some Vikings drafts. And I was amazed how like they have a thousand draft picks every year and they get like maybe one decent player. Like at least I think Spielman might be the greatest GM in the NFL at drafting backup tight ends, like just phenomenal hall of fame for backup. It's like,

I love David Morgan coming out of the draft. He, I interviewed him. We follow each other on Twitter. Did really nice guy. Just like, and just a ass kicker of a blocker too. So Spielman,

Spielman and i definitely connect on that level but it's maybe not maybe kind of leaves them having some questions and i've heard too that like spielman might stick around in a weird organizational shift type role keep him in some new title new position and honestly the bears have talked well there's been rumors of the bears trying to do a similar thing with ryan pace so maybe both of these teams are going to be in the same boat of like pretending everything is okay and also changing everything at the same time i mean put that out front on a statue or something right but just like a statue of a 500 record that says pretending everything is okay right uh but that then now that was was by far your best joke of the day is the the backup tight end

thing but it's so true I mean Tyler Conklin Michael Pruitt is playing for the Titans he's been okay for them and David Morgan was a kind of a key part of what they did and that and that's the other third part of it too is with everything it's all a house of cards for the Vikings when you lose Adam Thielen to an injury late in the season, and all of a sudden your offense just can't work because you refuse to draft wide receivers before the fifth round. And K.J. Osborne is a fine player. He's a fine number three.

D.D. Westbrook, you spent $900,000 on him. I mean, should have built a new practice facility instead. I mean, just like one or another wing to TCO Performance Center, right? Instead of spending $900,000 on a useless receiver who was broken when you got him and didn't practice for pretty much the entire training camp. Like these are the decisions that get you to an offense that can't overcome anything. And then again, you don't have a quarterback who's going to make up for any of it. So, I mean, it really kind of comes all down to that is, well, yeah, their offensive line wasn't

that good. And yeah, the running game got stopped and yeah, receiver was hurt, but like, I don't know, is there a great quarterback in the league who doesn't overcome that to beat the bears and put up more than 87 yards, right? Like like a bear a bears team that's playing people that i have absolutely never heard of um so i think that's the answer to your your offensive roast all right i've got uh my next joke which is just um your team's last good coach was mike ditka that's the joke that's the joke hey we remember the dick geruran era fondly in Chicago. No, I'm kidding. I mean, that's the state of the franchise, though.

You know what I mean? And it's like the Bears have had the same, I mean, obviously same ownership, but same team president for the last 25 years and the same people that keep being involved in the same football decisions. And you can change general manager and you can change head coach. But how much has changed? I mean, like, of course we're, it's a joke and we're sort of overlooking Lovey Smith. I mean, like,

of course, like Lovey Smith was, he got the Superbowl. Sure. We're like, no, he's not going down as like this, this legend of, of Chicago Bears history. It was always in some ways underachieving despite getting to a Superbowl, but I think it's because he got to the Superbowl that it sort of then became underachieving, but I don't have, I don't have a good answer for you. Like, yes, they, they, they have picked bad head coaches and it's, it's been imperative every time it's like, Oh, this time they've got to get the right head coach for Mitch Trubisky.

You know, they got to get the right coach for Trubisky or they got to get the right head coach for Jay Cutler. Like if you just get the right coach for Jay Cutler, he can win you football games. You got to get the right coach for Jay Cutler, he can win you football games. You got to get the right coach for Cade McNown. And so now it's the same thing with Justin Fields, though. It's like, oh, if they could just get the right head coach for Justin Fields,

this time it's going to be different. Those other 10 times, no, no, no, no, no. Those were not – those were different. But this time is real. This time it's really real. And I'm getting to be old enough now to start to see through that a little more. Okay. So the real question though,

is how much of it with the failure to find coaches has been just that it's been failure to find quarterbacks or have the coaches not gotten the most out of quarterbacks? I just never buy that though. I mean, though. I mean, look at this Baker Mayfield situation. Like last year, it's, wow, Kevin Stefanski got the most out of Baker Mayfield. Then Baker gets hurt, starts throwing interceptions all the time. Oh, Stefanski doesn't know how to call play, does he? Really? It's the hot dog meme of, like, if we can only find who's responsible for this.

It's you, Baker, it's, it's, it's you Baker. It's you. And then, you know, when you can't just admit that you were bad, you have to point the finger at somebody else. And that's how it usually goes.

But the same for this, the rest of the NFL thought that Mitch Trubisky was worth a $3 million contract to be the backup for Josh Allen. I mean, it wasn't, you know, it wasn't like everyone's like, Oh, well, you know, it must have been Matt Nagy.

At the same time, though, I spend a lot of time talking with Sage Rosenfels, our friend of the show, who goes on Chicago radio, and so he watches a bunch of tape from Chicago and just loses his mind at the offense all the time. It just feels like it has not worked at all from Nagy, whether it was Trubisky or Fields. So, I mean, I'm going under the assumption that they're going to move on from Matt Nagy. Maybe you could tell me if that's going to be wrong.

But I think that however genius the next coach for the Bears ends up being entirely depends on whether Justin Fields is able to make a huge step next year or not. I think that's fair. In terms of the quarterback coach, the chicken and the egg thing, right? I mean,

we always, we always do want to make it one or the other. Is it, is it with Mitch and Matt Nagy? It was that, that was the debate for three years. It was like, is,

is Mitch Trubisky bad or is Matt Nagy bad? And it, I mean, it can be both. And I think most often it is when you talk about like past failed bears, head coaches, it's just because they've had filled quarterbacks. So it's like,

I mean, we all knew what, what Jay Cutler was, right? I mean, it wasn't like he wasn't great. He wasn't terrible. I mean, he was volatile, but like he was very sort of established in what he was and no one was convinced or no one was fooled by, oh, I thought he was going to be something different. And so like a coach, I would think a good coach is able to just find a way to make it work to a degree.

They can't be a miracle worker if the quarterback is truly just god-awful. Sure, but that was part of the thing with Matt Nagy in 2018 when they went 12-4. It was like, oh, Mitch Trubisky had very clear limitations that season, but you found a way to make it work in spite of those limitations. Obviously defense played a big role in that as opposed to purely, you know, scheme and, and, and weapons, but then you get GM in there too. It's like, if you, if you have a quarterback, that's not special, you know,

some teams have been able to go really far with the quarterback. That's not truly special because the, you know, they, they tailor an offense to what the quarterback is able to do. They surround him with a great supporting cast and strong defense. We're having this conversation now in Chicago with the Jim Harbaugh rumors of leaving Michigan and, of course, played for the Bears. People have reported that maybe the Bears would be his dream job. Anyway, it's a whole thing.

But I was looking back at those 49ers. He goes to the NFC championship game with Alex Smith. And then the next season switches to Colin Kaepernick and goes to the Super Bowl and gets back to the NFC championship game a third year. Like Alex Smith, mediocre to, I mean, in some situations he was pretty good, but he was not a difference, like not a difference maker. And Colin Kaepernick had some rare traits and had some very strong flashes of moments of greatness, but was not, I mean, and obviously then the black ball thing kind of skews our evaluation of, well, he didn't get end, good running back, really strong offensive line, really strong defense. And he could make it work with a quarterback with limitations. And that's, that's to me, like a good coach can make it work with a quarterback with limitations. So I don't purely blame the head. I can't excuse the head coach just for having a bad quarterback. You know what I mean? But it does make it difficult

if you do have a bad quarterback. It's a, it truly is a group effort. I mean, when you have one of the great quarterbacks in the league, if you have your Tom Brady or Aaron Rogers, you kind of have to roll the ball out and then a few things have to work. Like Devante Adams has to stay healthy or yeah, right. Just some things or with Tom Brady, their strategy was to be like, you design the offense. Okay then.

And that's good because they weren't doing that in New England. And so they say, we'll give you some good receivers and then you decide what to do. And he's done that. So you can't like royally screw it up when you have one of the great quarterbacks. But if you're going to do it with almost anybody else, it has to be this alignment of a great roster, which the thing is, in 2018, Tariq Cohen was fantastic. Taylor Gabriel was fantastic. I mean, they had. Yes, it's a strong word for Taylor Gabriel.

But he played like a significant role in that team. I mean, like he was what, the third receiver or something and so when you when you have number two three receivers and running backs sort of showing up and and becoming these hybrid exciting players and the offensive line is pretty good and all those things and then everything kind of align to build around you know your trubisky and this is kind of like jared goff in los angeles their line was incredible their receivers were incredible uh their running game was fantastic and then jared goff can take you to the super bowl there's probably far more quarterbacks than we think that are capable but they have to be on rookie contracts usually the roster has to be great the coaching has to

be great everything has to come together that's what that's cleveland a couple of things fall apart all of a sudden baker's bad it's like oh is he good is he bad carson wentz like he's winning this year with with indianapolis they have the best running game in the league. They have a great coach. They have good receivers like, well, you know, I think that more than ever, there are a lot of guys who can be capable at quarterback, but it has to all come together. And with Matt Nagy and with Ryan Pace, they just didn't make it come together around Trubisky and they didn't make it come together this year with Justin Fields in the same way that, say, the Patriots did with Mac Jones. I don't get to see Kellen Mond. That felt so viscerally familiar to me, covering the Bears of when the head coach –

I mean, that was the joke in and of itself is Mike Zimmer's pause, the tone, the facial expression, just the – I see him every day at practice. Yes, is there more – like what – yes, so? I see him every day at practice. Yes. Is there more like what? Yes. So what? Play him up.

What? That was a better roast than anything we could do. Yeah, exactly. Like that. It just obliterated Kellen Mond in front of the entire meetup. I mean, he didn't. I mean, I don't know what exactly he's supposed to say, but like, what did you get?

What do you have to lose there? Again, when you have Dalvin Cook and Justin Jefferson, I know he lives on IR. And I know the offensive line is has COVID too and is up and down. I mean, obviously there's reason that Kirk Cousins has had success. So like, of course, Mond isn't going to step in and be a game changer, but it's, it's like it's week 17, it's week 18. You're eliminated from the playoffs. What do you, what do you have to lose?

Yeah, the roast there was I'm not saying Kellen Mond is bad, but they played Sean Mannion. Yes, I bet. Now, I mean, I mean, I agree from what I saw of Kellen Mond in training camp and preseason. There's no reason to play him. He's so far away, but you don't have to say it like that, man. I mean, come on. But, you know, it's sort of like if you need all those things to go right and your quarterback isn't perfect, that's what we are dealing with here,

that he's very expensive. And that's where, jokes aside, where Chicago has this huge opportunity that the Vikings can sort of decide to create for themselves or not. But the huge opportunity is that justin fields is just not going to be paid a whole heck of a lot of money next year and i don't know exactly by heart the bears caps situation i don't think they've done a great job with it yeah but uh even if you don't that's the other thing you have to be perfect with the cap and not end up with 19 million dollars in dead cap as the vikings have right now and not have any contracts go bust that you hand out for free agents,

like Patrick Peterson being an average player for $10 million and things like that. Like you have to – the window of like threading the needle becomes so razor thin for the Vikings that that was why even going back to 2018, a lot of us said, like, I don't know, man, it becomes really hard when you do that, when you set that situation up. So I think as it pertains to chicken and the egg, we've done that dance for four years.

Is it Zimmer? Is it the offensive coordinator? Is it the GM? Is it the drafting? Is it everything else? It's like, well, I mean, it really starts with that quarterback and how much you pay him and how much you can get out of him. Good thing he's only on the books for $45 million next year. Like, that's problem solved, right? Just keep dumping money into Kirk Cousins, and then you always have a scapegoat, right? You can always just say, oh, well, we're paying Kirk Cousins too much, so we can't.

Our hands are tied. Sorry. Like, he's already there. But I guess that or, what, give him a contract extension to spread that out a little bit more and lock yourself into more Kirk cousins. I mean, sign me up. Yeah. I think that when it comes to meeting with the Wilfs at the end of the year, there's going to need to be some surgeries after that because people will be finger pointing so hard that they're going to hurt themselves. Okay. Did you have another Vikings joke? I'm pretty much tapped out at this point. Okay. I've got more bears jokes then fire away okay so uh i'm not

saying that the bears have a bad offensive line but i'm pretty sure that i spotted them trying to recruit the guy who did the duh bears skit on snl bill bill schwarski is i think i can't remember the exact bill bill schwarski from from, from, from Chicago. Yeah. That's it's, it's weird because like they're almost, they've underachieved so much in that group upfront. And a guy like Juan Castillo as their offensive line coach, who carries such a reputation. And that's been a thing even before him, it was Harry Heaston, who was the Notre Dame offensive line coach, carries such a reputation. And that's been a thing even before him. It was Harry Heaston, who was the Notre Dame offensive line coach.

Like under Matt Nagy, the Bears have brought in offensive line coaches that offensive line people around the NFL and on Twitter and stuff say are, you know, they know their stuff. And like, they know better than me, right? I mean, I don't know. Former offensive linemen say they know their stuff. Guys who really know that position through and through say these are good offensive line coaches. And then they come to Chicago and players don't play up to their pretend.

You know, like Cody Whitehair and James Daniels are two of their second round picks from the last three years or four years now, because we're in 2022 and they've had some real ups and downs and we've seen them play at high levels. And then there's other times when, for some reason they're just there. I don't know.

They're, they're lost a little bit for a while. They were kept moving them back and forth between center and guard throughout the season. So they couldn't stay in one spot. And now, and now you've got your offensive tackles, your rookie offensive tackles are flipping back and forth where the bears

fifth round pick Larry Borum started at right tackle and then bumped over to left tackle. And Jason Peters got hurt when Tevin Jenkins wasn't available or when Tevin Jenkins got hurt. And then Jenkins was brought in as a right tackle. Then they were going to play him at right tackle and then bumped over to left tackle and Jason Peters got hurt when Tevin Jenkins wasn't available or when Tevin Jenkins got hurt. And then Jenkins was brought in as a right tackle. Then they were going to play him at left tackle. They're talking about right tackle. And like, just they can't just like pick spots for young guys and leave them there.

And it's, it's, it's, it's baffling. It's like, again, like these are supposed to be really good offensive line coaches and quality young players that the team has drafted and look like potentially positive

Ryan pace draft picks to like hang his head on a little bit. And then they get on the field on Sundays and it's, you never know exactly what you're going to get. You ever go to YouTube and watch like covers of songs that you like by different artists. That was like this moment for me. It was like, watch, it was like listening to you sing a song that I sing because it's the same thing. The Vikings have drafted these offensive linemen high, and yet they still are shuffling this guy around,

hoping that this draft pick can save them, hoping that they can get the most out of whoever, or this guy is going to take a big step forward, or yes, this guy is a developmental tackle, but he's really a guard. And like, I mean, and I... What else are you supposed to do? You're supposed to draft good offensive linemen early.

That's how you build a good, young, solid offensive line. Like that's the strategy. Both these teams are doing the strategy. How is it not working? I think one of the things, at least for the Vikings, is when you miss, you have to admit it. with with garrett bradbury and pat alfline the real similarity there they just missed and then they went the first down that he caught i mean he put him a tight end like i know he's the next spielman backup tight end is garrett bradbury it's perfect yeah they move positions so

much they might as well give him a shot uh i once was told that their worst, and you'll remember this guy, TJ Clemmings, the worst offensive lineman I've ever covered, that I was in a session with Rick Spielman where he said, what you guys don't understand, he's really a guard. And we're like, I'm going to lose my mind. This should be the way that we finish this show should be the gaslighting for both of these teams because it's actually become like a really fun sport of just the things that we're told that are so ridiculous from the very start and then of

course played out exactly that way that's one of my favorite of all time is what you guys don't understand is t.j clemmings guard like. Like TJ Clemmings is not a nothing. Like TJ Clemmings is a security guard at target. He is not a guard in the NFL. Okay. The chef's kiss here is that when the Vikings cut him, the bears signed him. He was a member of the bears for an off season. And I think, I don't know that he played, I appeared in any games, but I think he was one of their backup options.

I think in a regular season, I try and I try and burn that out of my mind, but I think we have both been gaslit by general managers for many years. Ryan Pace started this season by saying he thought one of the strengths of his team, and he was really excited about, was the depth and competition at cornerback. We're really excited about the guys we have there, and we think the depth of the competition is going to do really well for us.

And then we saw that against the Vikings tease table or at safety and a bunch of, like I said, XFL players. I mean, they, they held Kirk cousins to 84 yards. So maybe Ryan pace gets the last laugh there.

I don't know. 87, 87. Give him all three of those yards. He checked down to the fullback. No doubt. So, all right,

let me give you my favorite was actually my favorite was actually two years ago and but it kind of still goes with the theme what we uh when the vikies were one in five in 2020 um spielman had a press conference that he did every year he does it at the um at the whatever bi-week which is one of three all year it's never really made much sense to me what bears get from ryan pace oh really okay so you dealt with this as well so anyway he's going through the list of reasons that they're one in five and one of the reasons was that they had been without cam smith now you've never heard of Cam Smith, but here's what happened with Cam Smith. He showed up at 2020 training camp and he had COVID.

So they sent him to the doctor. The doctor discovered that he had a serious heart issue that required surgery immediately. Crazy story, right? So he has surgery. He tried to come back this year, decided I'm just going to hang it up because, you know, it's probably dangerous for him to continue playing. Whatever. But kind of like an amazing story, you know, like those the person who misses their flight or so. Well, I don't want to go that that dark, but like, you know, whatever.

Like, you know, one of those one of those one of those random you're going there. Yeah, right. I'll just stop myself there. But like one of those really random crazy life things and uh so spielman's running down the list of different well you know daniel hunter got hurt in training camp and everything else and uh you know we lost cam smith i'd like wait a minute cam smith was on the practice squad the year before and may have played like three games on special teams you are blaming the guy with the heart issue for the reason you're one in five and not the fact that your quarterback leads the league. The quarterback you signed to an extension led the league at the time in interceptions.

I think that's one of my favorite excuses and gaslighting ever is I'm supposed to believe that the reason you're you're one in five is because of poor Cam Smith. If we're competing with embarrassing quotes, there's one that I will never forget. And Bears fans bring this up all the time. From last offseason, as they said, we're going to run it back one more time with Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace. George McCaskey, grandson of Virginia McCaskey, the owner, he's the chairman of the board.

He's the face. He's the owner of the Bears. He's he's, he's the face. He's the owner of the bears for those. The, the quote was, have we gotten the quarterback situation completely? Right? No. Have we won enough games? No, everything else is there. And so whenever you make a decision, it goes, it goes on from there. Like the, the, the, the two most important thing, everything else is there though. Don't worry. Everything else is there.

We're going to be fine. We just haven't won enough games and don't have a quarterback. But we're there. We got it figured out. Trust us. All right, I'll give you two more that came to mind. That's incredible. I mean, just like – that actually sounds a lot to me like Mike Zimmer the other day saying saying well you know the reason that we're seven and nine

is uh we missed the field goal in this game and we fumbled in this game and we gave up game winning touchdowns like does that all count or you just you know can you can you submit it to the nfl board and be like look we missed the field goal can you just like let us in the playoffs yeah i mean that doesn't count hey i mean it's like did like, did, I'll just parody yours. Like, did we, did we only spend like $8 million on you know, all the other corners outside of Patrick Peterson? Yes. Like, did we hope that a third rounder and Cam Dantzler, who wasn't very good last year was going to just like stop people in big

clutch situations? Yes. Did we, you know, not pressure the quarterback at all because we don't draft and develop successfully defensive linemen sure but it was bad luck that we allowed those game-winning drives those things like we're doing great like yeah uh the other one one of my favorites is kind of random is um there's just been this thing since the v drafted DJ Wanham of where they really want to sell hard on DJ Wanham. They really want him to succeed. Good one. And now look, I mean, he's a, he's a good guy. It seems like character wise, they really like him that way. And he might be a fine situational player, but every time he's gotten to be a starter, it's been pretty rough.

I think he's got like a 50 PFF grade and that kind of thing. But my favorite excuse for why it's been so rough was Andre Patterson said that after he would have a good game, he would get way too high on himself. And then he would have bad games after. And I'm like, I think that's just being bad. I don't think he was like, I don't think. He's too cocky. He comes out on the field like, oh, I'm going to win. And yeah.

I mean, when were the good games that he got so cocky off of? That's, you know. And then my favorite probably is Kirk Cousins yesterday saying that, I mean, whether I was vaccinated or not, it wouldn't have mattered if I, you know, I would have gotten it and ended up on the COVID list anyway. It was like, I mean, wait a minute. I don't think you understand how this works like i mean even even depending on uh where you get your information on the internet the rules are still different my friend yeah it's the nfl's rules that they provide to you sir like yeah yeah anyway so it's uh it's it's one of my favorite things to keep

track of all the different things that were sold for why this player didn't work out why they lost this game or that game oh actually last one just for me to give you is uh and i brought this up the other day so people will know it but mike zimmer saying that the tape looks better than the numbers in the run game like no it doesn't man i don't know like who's believing this the tape that looks but no the numbers are the numbers you got your ass kicked in the run game dude come on please just say that just say we didn't stop the run it's fine everyone knows well we know as we know really good looking tape wins football games so it looked good that's that's good enough hey usually when sony michelle completely dominates

you on the ground you did everything right that's what it means um let me just ask you one more question for you um well i'll i'll include one last one i kind of alluded to it in the open but the last joke that i wrote was you know how colts fans remember the good old days of like peyton manning and andrew luck um most of the bears fans who want to remember their good old days of quarterback player dead so anyway that was the last one that I had do you think that the Chicago Bears or the Minnesota Vikings within the next three years will win the NFC North that's a good that's a good question um if you had asked me that a few months ago I would have I would have said maybe, but all of the latest quotes from Aaron Rodgers have been very much like he's in a really good place with the Packers organization and will probably stick around.

He's never had this relationship with Brian Gutekunst before, and he's never felt this way. It seems like very clearly setting up for him to actually come back next year and mend that relationship for at least another couple of years. And so that, that more than anything I think about the bears and the Vikings is what leads me to that answer. But if, if indeed Rogers does go, yes, I do think then, I mean, that's purely what it, what it comes down to me is I think between the bears and the Vikings, I feel like odds are that like one of them will sort of figure something out. Not that they're going to become a dynasty powerhouse, but like one of them will have a quarterback, their next quarterback workout, whether it's Justin Fields or whether the Vikings trade Kirk Cousins to draft somebody or whether a new coach comes in and makes it work with Cousins to get to 10, 11, 12 wins in the next couple of seasons. Like the odds seem to suggest that one of these two teams should have some

moderate level of success. And if Aaron Rogers is not a green Bay, it will only take some moderate level of success. But I, I don't feel nearly as confident now that Aaron Rogers is going to leave. And so my answer is going to be no. Cause if, you know, fool me once, shame on me, fool me every year of my life. You shame or shame on you. Yes. Right. You did better than George Bush on that one. I stumbled at the end there.

So you, you never, you never know though, because with Aaron Rogers, everything seemed mostly fine last year. So it could always go bad at any time with him. Like and Brian Gutekunst seems like he is dead set on making Rogers mad. So maybe he'll give him off season reading of the communist manifesto or something. When, when,

when they pass on another first round wide receiver for a defensive lineman, then, then we'll might have this conversation. That was, that was my walk-off joke. So this has been great. A lockdown bears podcast.

It's always fun to get together with you, Lauren. We have a lot of fun. Even though the teams that we cover, I mentioned this, and when was the last time that your team was over 500? Because we were talking about this. Since I started Purple Insider, they have never been over 500, not even for a single day. That's a good question.

I don't think they, this year they started three and one. And this, I think three or three and two, I guess last year technically they started three and O and then ended up at five and one and then really kind of crapped the bed from there. So they've had, they've had some, some moments, but not, okay, this season they were three and two briefly when they beat the Raiders in week five, kind of crapped the bed from there. So they've had some moments, but not – okay, this season they were 3-2 briefly.

When they beat the Raiders in Week 5, they sat at 3-2, and that's as close to winning as it's felt. If that doesn't tell you where the Vikings are, that the Bears have been over 500 much more recently than the Vikings, then there you have it. So, well, enjoy the comedy show on Sunday as we are legally obligated by our jobs to watch it. And so, and then we'll go from there, but we will certainly get together again in the off season.

There will be a lot to talk about, not the bears first round pick, of course, but there will be other stuff to discuss. Bears have not had a lot of first-run picks in my life. And so, because they always trade away for Jay Cutler or for trading up for Mr. Risky. I've been trading up Justin Fields. Trade, trade, trade, trade. So I'm used to not having first-run picks.

But hey, it's fun. I'm happy to be back on here. You know, I'm trying to appreciate Week 18 as like, when it becomes like July and I'm so desperate for football, I'm going to wish I had cared more about week 18. You know what I mean? It's like I'll just I will take live actual football on my Sunday that I can actually like watch and enjoy. So I'm going to try and hold on to as much as I can. But it tends to be painful.

And maybe it's the Stockholm syndrome thing. Yeah. The last one of these Bears Vikings games that didn't matter. I think I ended up in the other side of the press box watching a TV to see the games that made a difference. So anyway, well, find your beach on Sunday, Lauren, and we'll talk again soon. Excellent. Thanks for having me.