Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - A Vikings OTAs Q+A (Part 1)

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

Matthew Coller answers Vikings fans questions about the first day of OTAs that was open to the media, including (and especially) about the quarterback battle between JJ McCarthy and Kyler Murray. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fanduil. Matthew Collar here, and if it looks like, I got a little sun on the face and maybe a little sunscreen residue. Well, I do because today I spent a couple of hours out in the sun at TCO Performance Center watching the Minnesota Vikings first open OTA practice to the media. And it was a little more eventful after practice with the press conference heard around the world already by J.J. McCarthy and we talk to Kyler Murray as well. But I want tonight, so we broke that down on the podcast earlier from TCO Performance Center with myself and

Dane Mizatani. So I want tonight to be open for you guys, questions, comments. I'm going to jump right in. So there's no big opening statement. It is just right from the jump, questions, comments, thoughts about OTAs. And I do want to remind you that as of this moment, there are like 80 something other players on the team other than JJ McCarthy and Kyler Murray. So if you have questions, thoughts, ask me about OTAs. There's only so much that is going on out there. There's only so much that can be watched at one time. A lot of the younger players are on a different field.

Call it the development field. And then you have the first and second teams working where I was standing, obviously, to watch the quarterbacks. You can't get a great look at offensive linemen or defensive linemen in this type of environment, but I'll do my best if you're curious about how someone looked. But we did get a look at some very basic alignments and things like that and the wide receivers and the QBs. But if you got any other questions that are out there just in general about the GM search, still ongoing, moves that need to be made, players in their trajectories for this year and so forth,

jump in the comments and feel free to ask. But I think I have a good idea what the main subject of tonight's conversation is going to be about. And I've got, you know, a lot more to say about it after learning of the response. Because when Dane and I earlier did our podcast, we had just come from the press conference. So we did our podcast. I drove home. I ate Taco Bell. And then I started to look at what people are saying.

And I think that unsurprisingly, there's more reaction than is necessary. to J.J. McCarthy's press conference. We broke it down, of course, because that's the thing that we were out there for is to see him practice and then talk to them after. But I also think that it might be going a little bit too far. So we'll dive into that as we go along. We'll start right out here in the chat with Joker, says, do you think J.J. McCarthy understands that he may never take another snap for the Vikings apart from the preseason. Do you think he believes that's fair? So I don't know what J.J. McCarthy truly thinks inside of his soul about whether he's going

to take another snap or be the franchise quarterback or if he believes that it's fair or not. I mean, we do know that last year when he was asked if he thought he had earned the right to be the team's quarterback at 2026, he did say that he thought he'd did enough to earn that, which certainly raised a little bit of an eyebrow with me because I thought, well, that's interesting. I mean, just based on the way that this went, I'm not sure where that would be. Like, where, where was it that you thought that you did enough to earn the right to be the quarterback?

And then that was a, a similar type of vibe today from J.J. McCarthy that when the idea of the competition came up and when Kyler Murray came up, it was much more defensive and curse than we have ever seen J.J. McCarthy in front of the media. So that was, it was notable. And when I say it's notable, what often the comment section says is, why do you hate J.J. McCarthy? Which is just like, I said it was notable. And it is notable. It is different from his approach to answering a lot of difficult questions last year. But those were all questions when he was the clear-cut franchise quarterback going into camp or when he was still, QB1 throughout the season.

Here's what I think of the bigger picture here with a more uncomfortable press conference than usual and more of a defensive tone a little bit from J.J. McCarthy. And then even the way that he approached the questions about Kyler, there was a very easy answer there. There was just, yeah, we're teammates. We're going to push each other. It's great. We're getting to know each other.

And may the best man win. And instead he said, I sit over here, you sit over there. I was like, okay, well, I guess they will not be doing the stepbrothers meme shirt with J.J. McCarthy and Kyler Murray anytime soon. But here's what I want to point out is we talked about going into last season. McCarthy was asked many times, dude, you've never lost before ever in your entire life. So what's it going to be like when you run into the hammer that is the NFL that just pounds people into the ground? because it is physically taxing, emotionally taxing, and you lose a lot. Even if you're Peyton Manning, you'd lose four or five games a year, even the best quarterbacks in history. Patrick Mahomes missed the playoffs last year. Like, it doesn't matter.

Everyone, Josh Allen has had massive playoff disappointments, right? Doesn't matter how good you are. The NFL will knock you off of your pedestal. Even Tom Brady, right? So that was a common question for J.J. McCarthy. And I think that last year, the roller coaster of the NFL really whipped him around good. I mean, from the injuries to the criticism to some high points where he was very good to some low points, where he was really, you know, taking it on the chin from the national media.

His franchise is getting hammered for letting go Sam Darnold and all those things, right, about J.J. McCarthy. Think about this. This has never happened before ever to him in his entire life. He has never stood at a podium-ish and been asked, hey, what about this other quarterback that they brought in who has a track record of being very good in the NFL and everyone's saying that they brought him in to be the starter because you didn't play well enough. This is a totally foreign thing to J.J. McCarthy. And I cannot imagine it's very easy to deal with, much less are you thrilled to go answer a bunch of questions about it? So as people go along in the NFL quarterbacks and they build up a lot more scar tissue And I'll give you a good example of this would be like Zach Wilson now I know Zach Wilson didn't work out

But Zach, I mean New York media thrown into the wolves at first and there were a lot of press conferences and moments when he was getting criticized That were like dude does this guy get it at all but yet he's been able to carve out now a backup quarterback career for himself and I wouldn't be shocked if someday Zach Wilson shows up as some team's quarterback at 27 years old or whatever, 29 years old. And he's a different guy than he was before. This is not that uncommon, but it's playing out right in front of us. And we're seeing it in real time of the, you know, harsh reality kind of hitting him for the very, very first time of someone who's never really failed in his career at all. And he's never been replaced or there's never been any.

question about who the guy was. And I'm also sure that what McCarthy feels a little bit is like, wow, you know, 10 games and some ups and downs. And now I'm just having to fight for my life here when just a year ago, you were talking about me as the franchise quarterback. Again, it is welcome to the NFL. It's that harsh. It's that, is that difficult. And this is why it does take some quarterbacks. Look at all the stuff. Baker Mayfield, the times that he stepped on his his own foot in press conferences in Cleveland and things like that. And now that's not what you hear from Baker Mayfield because he's been through it a little bit. And Mayfield had nothing but success in Oklahoma.

And you know what? There's another guy who's here now who is in phase two or three of that, which is Kyler Murray. Kyler Murray, massive success in high school, Heisman Trophy in college, offensive player, offensive rookie of the year. and then a winner pretty quickly, not a champion winner, but was winning a lot of games, getting a lot of accolades, being talked about a lot, and then has an injury and then has a setback. And then he's in a totally different scenario with the Arizona Cardinal situation.

And then they're saying, we're going to move on from you. And now he's here in Minnesota. But when he talks to us, it's from a grown-up perspective of he understands how this all works. But at times in his career, people talked about him as while he's immature or his personality is X, Y, and Z. And people still hold on to that all the time with Kyler Murray, even though everyone I've talked to over the last four months or whatever. How long has it been three months since they acquired Kyler Murray? All said that this doesn't really apply to the last couple of seasons under Jonathan Gannon because why? I can't imagine what would have happened to Kyler. Oh, yeah.

maturing, going on in your career, going through adversity, learning from it, understanding how to be more coachable, all those types of things, understanding that the world doesn't rotate around you, which a lot of young people think that it does. It's like there's a lot of things that can be chalked up to, this is the first time this person has ever dealt with it. And it's not like he said, yeah, I'm going to stuff Kyler in a locker. he just basically said if we're recapping and not quoting exactly, like, yeah, we're competing and it's not going to be best friends.

Well, okay, there's no rule in the book that says that you have to be. The only thing that I would say about it is as you go along in your career, you learn that there is a way to approach something publicly that doesn't have to be your authentic self. because it may have been very well have been today his authentic feelings about the situation and it kind of came across that way. And I think that JJ doesn't have that much of a filter. I don't think that he looks like it's like that's my choreographed answer or something. I think it was just that's how it is. And there were numerous times throughout last year that he said things in press conferences

where you're like, that might be a little too honest. You know, who else did this was an inexperienced general manager, Quasi Adaflmenza at times, where you're like, well, you know, that might be a little bit too much information that you're sharing with the public. And maybe that was a little bit of this today, that, you know, his personality in front of people is usually pretty open, right? And so if you're pretty open after you win against the Detroit Lions, but you're, you know, pretty open also after losses or in situations where the entire media has been saying you're not the quarterback anymore and you want to prove them wrong, well, you know, it's just going to be a little bit of a different vibe. So to your question, I don't know what he knows or what he thinks exactly, but I think we got a pretty good sense of it.

And even when he was asked if it's a true competition and there was a little bit of. I like, yeah, that's what I've been told. I thought, yeah, I mean, he, he, it's not like the writing is hard to read on the wall about this situation. But I think what would be best for J.J. McCarthy is, and I've always thought this too, because it's different, but media is a competitive world as well. And I think as you get older and you see how things work and this is like uncle, Matt's here to help you out.

but you understand that working together is always going to be better than working against each other or separately, even if it's not the most comfortable situation. Steve Young talked about this. I brought this up on the show. I hope that J.J. McCarthy has a chance to watch the documentary about the San Francisco 49ers. I would suggest it to him if he asked. He doesn't ask me for advice, but if he does, then I would tell him that. Like, watch how Steve Young approach that.

because at first, Steve Young was very unhappy and eventually just realized if I am the most helpful person and whatever role that the team asks of me, I'm going to get farther ahead. Even if I want to be a competitor, even if I want to play, even if I think that I would win a lot of games, being the best you can be for your team and for Kyler and for Carson Wentz and for Max Brosmer is going to get you farther than trying to work on different planes. So, you know, I think that what you saw there was one guy who's been through it and knows how to answer those questions and then one guy who is going through it for the very first time. So it doesn't, we don't need to make this into this. And I saw in the comment section for our earlier podcast is like, I don't, I don't what are people bored?

Because, I mean, the links are playing and they're really good. So if you want sports to watch, that might be a thing to do, rather than yelling at everyone in a comment section. but I'm sure there'll be some of that anyway. All right, let me carry on. I shot you 99 says I feel like McCarthy's press conference felt performative, didn't feel genuine, almost as if he was afraid of being himself and kept things short and stern because of things he said last year. Yeah, I can't really say for sure.

I mean, I kind of took it the opposite way. I kind of took it as this guy wears his emotions on his sleeve and when they win and when things are going well and he gives himself a. nickname, which again, for the hundredth time, I'm not the person who's ever going to criticize a guy for being a little over enthusiastic when he won a football game. It's really hard to win a football game in the NFL, the win in Ford Field. And, you know, he kind of does have a little bit of this alter ego goes out there. And, you know, in certain times, you see him, like, turn it up to another level.

So when he said it at that press conference, when he called himself nine, I was like, oh, okay. And then I go home and I'm like, what? the world, the whole, the whole world is throwing this in his face and everything else. Folks, if you find yourself hunting search engines for different hairstyles that might cover up your receding hairline, or if you're studying every actor and athlete you see of a certain age to see how they're handling their hair loss, well, maybe it's time to get yourself a solution instead of obsessing over what's happening on your dome.

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So that was another example, though, of, I. I felt like that was just him being in the moment, answering the question about how he felt and what he was thinking. And that was a little bit of today too. Now, I mean, yeah, there's probably a different way to answer certain questions in like a blowoff way, which I think, how about this?

Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold has become the best that you'll ever see at the sort of short and sweet kind of answer where you can never really read Sam Darnold. Darnold all that well. And when Sam was here, some of my colleagues were begging for better quotes. But my thought was, isn't that what you want? Like, isn't that what you want for Sam Darnold to just fly even and never really let on if he is super upset or disappointed or frustrated or like way over the top, enthusiastic

and thrilled? And that's another thing that comes along with a grown up quarterback who had been through it. Carson Wentz is a great example. Carson Wentz was criticized in Philadelphia. Former teammates, coaches leaking out stuff. Well, Carson Wentz is all about him or he doesn't have a great attitude or whatever. Well, I forget what the story, how the framing was. My experience with Carson Wentz so far is like, yeah, this guy is a pro's pro.

He's here to do whatever he can for the quarterbacks in the room and handled last year's stuff really well. And even when, you know, he got hurt. And a lot of us, including me, were criticizing Kevin O'Connell. he came out and said, don't, you know, don't do that. I wanted to play and whatever else. I don't know if Carson went at 23 years old or 24 years old would have handled that the same way. What happened last year. And I don't think he would have been accepting of being a really helpful backup quarterback who you can trust and can go in at any time and know the offense inside and out.

I mean, this goes for just about anything. I'm sure that if you're an adult my age and you went back to, I went to community, college first. If I went back to community college, I'll tell you, I would just get straight A's and crush it and be like, what's wrong with all you kids? You don't know anything because I'm an adult and I've been through a lot of stuff and I know how to do the work and everything else. So I think we always, and I know, look, it's year three and I'm not trying to like condescend by saying this. It's just that I bet you could find many examples of what happens when somebody doesn't have the success. they expect right away and they are young and inexperienced and have never gone through it

before, it's going to be a tough ride for them. And they are not always going to be, you know, I don't know, cheery about that. But I think that the, here's where the one miscue is a little bit when it comes to this. You play for a franchise that's paying you on a team that's trying to win a championship. And what you always hear from backup quarterbacks is I will do whatever it takes to help us win a championship. And that might be something to keep in mind for the future is that if you're Nick Mullins, then you think Nick Mullins didn't want to play? Dude, Nick Mullins was like, Nick Mullins after he was done playing in, in 2023,

he said that he thinks that he can be a starting quarterback in the league and the guy got super emotional about it. I mean, you don't think that that guy wants to be there so bad starting every week. He is incredibly competitive. If we think of these backup sometimes is, well, yeah, they're just happy with their role. That's not true. They want to be out there. But they also understand that they have a role.

They have a job. It is a job. And that might be J.J. McCarthy's job. And, you know, if he learns it and he takes things really away from watching from the sideline, or not getting the first team reps of seeing how Kyler goes about stuff. Because Kyler had today in his OTA practice, just a very professional practice. It just was like, watching Kirk. It was like watching Sam Bradford. It was just like, yep, that's how it's supposed

to look. The timing was pretty good. The accuracy was on point. Most completions, ball didn't hit the ball, the ground very much. It was like, yeah, that's what it looks like when you have a lot of experience. And, you know, J.J. McCarthy is, is still working his way there. So I think that if he learns from this, like not this press conference, whatever, like, we'll forget about this by two days from now. But if he learns from this experience, it can really benefit him in the long term. But it's a hard thing to like have that sink in. And I also think that, you know, he wants to, you know, maybe take on a little bit of a, all right. Like, if you guys are going to play this way, then I'm going to ramp it up a little bit more. I would have liked to have heard that from him,

though. I would have liked to have heard because we, you know, he's kind of teed up of, yeah, of course, it's motivation, you know, it's going to push me. and I'm going to be the best version of myself. We just didn't really hear that either from him. But again, it's an OTA press conference. It is not the NFC championship. Mr. Mayor, really excited to see how Kyler does this year. I hope people can appreciate real time instead of hindsight, like with Darnold.

So, you know, Mr. Mayor, this is something I was thinking about a lot today. As I was watching the reaction to Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy's press conferences, and I thought, you know, there's a remarkable amount of people who are Vikings fans who show up here to listen to this Viking show who jump in the comments and say, you know, Kyler is not that good and, you know, his team let him go in Arizona and stuff, which, of course, like Arizona only makes great decisions, right? But it's amazing how people feel like if they're McCarthy fans, they have to tear down Kyler Murray. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me because if you are a Viking fan, which is not something for like the faint of heart, you usually don't pick out Viking fan out of a hat. Like, you, I mean, if you're doing that, you'd be Kansas City or something, right? Or Dallas Cowboys in a certain era or 49ers in a certain era. Like, you're not the front running type.

So I would think that if you were a Viking fan, you would want anyone literally. anyone who could be a good quarterback to be your quarterback. You would want best man wins, best quarterback, and I don't understand why you would tear down your own quarterback. I mean, I get it from our perspective where we do the objective analysis and everything and we look at the numbers and performances and sometimes they're not good and we'll criticize and we'll try to find the answers and stuff like that. But from a Viking fan perspective, it seems odd to me that people would, with Kyler coming in, be against him being the starting quarterback. He is clearly the best player at the position that the Vikings have.

He's one of the 15 best in the NFL, and don't take my word for it. That's what the folks in the National Football League have voted for him repeatedly in the Athletics Quarterback Tears article. So in saying he's a top 15 quarterback, it's not coming from me. It's coming from the actual evaluators and the data people as well. So you would think that getting a top 15 quarterback for essentially free in a world where we complained about her cousin's contract for so long would be pretty exciting. And I don't think that by, you know, being happy about Kyler Murray or whatever, you have to then not like J.J. McCarthy. I mean, I think that you can believe that McCarthy has it in there.

and also think this is the best option for the team at this moment unless things vastly change. I mean, this is my very first impression of Kyler Murray, but it looked exactly how I would have expected it to look for somebody who has this good of a track record. So that's a little bit bizarre to me the way that fans of a team could be going and tearing down their own quarterback because it's not the one that they wanted. Well, I mean, I guess I get it because there is disappointment. I think from fans, too. You make an emotional connection with the history of the franchise and how it's,

you've not had the franchise quarterback since Fran Tarkington, true, true franchise quarterback consistently for a long period of time. Dante was that Tommy Kramer was that. Teddy had a minute, Kirk, but it was always fleeting, right? So you're looking for who's the 10-year quarterback. Who's the, we were talking about Justin Herbert the other night. But one thing you can say for the Chargers is they're going to get a lot of shots at it with Justin Herbert over a career, that kind of quarterback.

Where can you find, this doesn't even have to be Mahomes or Allen, but somebody that's going to give you a shot. You're Eli Manning, a shot every single year at it, right? The Vikings have been missing that. And there were so many emotional eggs put in the McCarthy basket, especially after the team moved on from Sam Darnold. And then it was like, wait a minute. They're,

they're really believing this is happening. I think that's been hard for a lot of fans. So circling back to your comment, I totally agree because I spent the 2024 season doing live shows being like, why are you guys not buying into Sam Darnold? This is amazing. This is a great story. He's playing great quarterback.

It doesn't seem random. And yet you're not buying in because of someone who's not even playing just because he was a draft pick? Who cares how you got him? Which is how I feel about Kyler Murray. Who cares how he got here? What matters is the throw he made down the sideline to Jordan Addison today, which the Vikings tweeted and you can check that out if you want.

Mr. Mayor, how does the rest of the team seem to interact with Kyler? True or not? We've always heard so much about his personality and lack of leadership in Arizona. I feel like all the guys want and need is competence. So, yeah, I mean, one OTA, practice doesn't give me a really good sense for it. It gave me a sense for, well, he was on time with his throws. He was very accurate. He was in control. And then there were a couple of plays like where Brian Flores sent the house and was like, oh, yep, they didn't see. He didn't expect that because

I don't think they did that in Arizona, sending the house on a blitz and OTAs. But Brian Flores is a madman and that's what he's going to do. But so I don't know. But I tend to agree with what said, which is this team where they're at. I don't think they need motivation. I don't think they need friendship. I don't think they need somebody to sing kumbaya on play acoustic guitar around a campfire. I think what they need is someone to make the throws to Justin Jefferson. Jefferson is the franchise player. He's the one everyone looks to. And on the defensive side, they're missing Grenard and Harrison Smith, but they have veteran players. They have a great, great coach. They have their coach, Kevin O'Connell is a culture guy, motivator, everything else.

You really don't need Kyler Murray to be a rah-rah type of player. Leading a team doesn't have to be that anyway. It can just be doing your job and being prepared and being ready and knowing the offense and getting in there and running the plays like today on a regular old practice. But you know what? The receivers got evaluated. Dylan Bell looked really good to me. I'm just saying the receivers got evaluated, the tight ends got evaluated.

Like you went out there and ran a practice where the coaches could get a lot out of it for where you stand on things. And that's what good leadership can be as well. I also do want to point out that over the last three years, I tried researching this because I'm looking every angle of Kyler Murray over the last couple months. I tried to find anything over the last three years that would suggest that he didn't get along with the coaches, that players weren't happy with his leadership. I couldn't really find anything.

I mean, early on in his career, there were probably some things of, like we're talking about with J.J. McCarthy, of adjusting to how difficult the league is. Cliff Kingsbury, I think that his coaching track record is not really that spectacular. And maybe leadership was not like Kevin O'Connell. And maybe they didn't have the same level of leadership on that team.

But I think some of it does just come from, he's not going to be the loudest guy out there. He wasn't, when I talked, when I did a story about his high school career and I talked to those guys, they said, yeah, he was very soft-spoken. And every once in a while, you know, he might get upset on the sideline if things aren't going the right way. But aside from that, he's going to kind of go about his business. I think that that's perfectly fine for this team.

But in terms of like vibe or whatever, I mean, I don't know. They're all, they're all just like Justin Jefferson ran like three routes today. They're all just feeling their way into it, especially the people who have been in this offense before. Scamping around, how does the early vibes feel for you? Does it feel like Darnold 2.0 or does the JJ dynamic make it a different situation? It does not have the same feel at this point of Sam Darnold because, well, there's a lot that's really different. I mean, Sam Darnold, nobody knew, not the coaches. I mean, look, in hindsight, of course, you could say, oh, well, you know, I was the one that loved

Darnold and they loved them enough to bring him in. But it was a shock to them, how good Sam Darnold turned out to be. And I think as camp went on, training camp went on. They were like, oh, I mean, even I do remember OTAs and mini camp of Sam Darnold being like, wow, these are some throes. But I thought that he would probably throw it to the other team just as much. But there was a little bit of that wow factor when he first got to the Vikings. So I don't know that there's a arm wow factor to Kyler Murray,

but there's definitely a accuracy and arc and touch on the football wow that shows up right away. It's not quite Sam Bradford. Sam Bradford had the best arm talent that I have ever seen. It's the combination of velocity into tight windows and the touch on the football, which tells you that, you know, even with the best armed talent that I've covered, not that I've ever seen in my life in football, that I've covered. Aaron Rogers is probably the best, right?

But the combination of those things is just excellent. And look, there's no pressure. There's no pass rush. You're dropping back and you're trying to time it out well and put it into a spot. And that's what we saw him do. But the accuracy just jumps out at you. Even when you watch him warm up and just throw with his receivers, it's just like right on the money time and time. again. So clearly there's that. It's noticeable. And I imagine that his teammates are like,

okay, especially when you see the throw that he made today to Jordan Addison, you go, yep, that's a drop in the bucket that is very, very impressive. So it is different, though, because the expectations, the other thing, too, is at that point, when Darnold got here, the Vikings didn't know what they were. I mean, they were looking around going, you know what, we can prove some people wrong. They're over under was six and a half. Hey, let's let's be the team that sort of shocks the world. That is not the vibe now. I mean, the vibe now is you got to win. And I don't mean this from what practice looked like today. I just mean in general. Like, and O'Connell said that at the combine. Like, the timeline is different. And it's different for a lot of players. It's different for, you know,

Brian O'Neill and it's different for Blake Cashman. And it's different for a lot of people than it would have been two years ago. Joker says, seems like we have real depth this year. If guys like Jacoby Thomas, Dylan Bell can give us something, what positions have the best depth? Yeah,

you're totally, totally right that the draft class is a lot of depth at different positions, which I think is super valuable overall. I mean, that's, you're looking at cornerback. And I liked what I saw from Chuck Demings today.

which was not a ton, obviously, but just the way he moves and his explosiveness. I kept kind of looking over and seeing him with his back pedal and just tracking wide receivers. And you go, like, yeah, that's interesting. And Bell in both rookie minicamp and OTAs, I don't mean to make him sound like he's the next Percy Harvin. But there's something there. There's some juice there. And whether he can put that together and learn the offense and be a part of it, I don't know. but he's stood out both times because you see that jolt and that kind of lightning.

Jacobi Thomas was playing as backup safety today, which I would imagine any rookies going to, and you have Jay Ward mixing in kind of all over the place, Theo Jackson playing more of a traditional safety position. So which positions have the best depth? I think offensive tackle, and we saw a little bit of Christian Dersaw working in and out with the offensive line and Ryan Van der Mark popping in there. if tackle suddenly has good depth. We'll see about running back and just how that works.

It was, saw a lot of Aaron Jones today and Aaron looked, you know, pretty spry. Wide receiver, they're going to have to prove it. I mean, you have great depth as in Joanne Jennings, but past that, that's where it's very unclear. Ty Felton didn't have a really nice catch from J.J. McCarthy today where he was like a little out on the fingertips and he sort of Superman stretched out and grabbed it. So that was good. He needs to develop throughout this time and prove that he's that guy.

Where they have, well, I mean, I can think of the least outside linebacker is probably the least old linebacker with Jake Olday. He moves around really well for a guy of his size. He stands way out next to Ivan Pace and Eric Wilson. I mean, you're just like, yeah, he's towering over those guys as an inside linebacker, but he moves really nicely. So probably linebacker might have the best depth because even if Ivan Pace has to play, You can win with Ivan Pace. Scamping around any more updates on Harrison Smith's return, wait and see like the GM announcement. Yeah, it's definitely wait and see.

Definitely wait and see. The way that I am viewing it for Harrison Smith is that we'll all find out together because Harry's not the type to be, you know, I don't know, putting it out on social media, although, you know, he did the Prince thing, which was very funny. But like even that was totally unexpected. and it's classic Harrison Smith. So I imagine if he's coming back, maybe we'll get the prince. If you don't know that story,

Harrison was asked by a local reporter and a friend of mine, Chris Thomason, if he was going to return to the Vikings, I think two years ago and he sent him a picture of Prince. And, you know, then Chris tweeted that out. And so we got Harrison to sign a picture of it on a T-shirt for Chris when he left for Denver to cover the Broncos. but so maybe it'll be that maybe it'll be that picture which i think he tweeted out when he was coming back last year we'll see uh but i have no idea and the same thing with the gm announcement like i don't know

when they're going to make that decision i would imagine that people are coming in this week and then by the middle of next week or could be the end of this week then they'll have a decision uh joker says uh what do we not need in free agency oh that's what you mean by the depth well i think you know wide receiver, you're in good shape at the moment and at offensive tackle and linebacker. Safety, I think, but it depends on what they just think of these guys. Because it looks to me like Jay Ward is going to be your new player that is moving all over the place. And Mr. Merr asked, do the safeties look like they can cope without Harrison Smith?

Hope hitman retires now while he's still at the top of his game instead of risking a drop-off. I do think that, but it's a lot dependent on some development. I mean, Theo Jackson last year was not a disaster. I think Theo had to learn how to be a downhill tackler a little better, but I don't think he was a disaster in coverage. He had, I mean, mostly okay games and then some ones where it was pretty tough, but I don't think we've seen the best of Theo Jackson yet. Where I'm really curious is Josh Mattel is playing a normal safety position,

which there is no normal with Brian Flores. But playing in that Harrison Smith type of spot is an adjustment for him. He did get some of that last year. And so it's not his first time ever. But, you know, does Jacoby Thomas offer them a little bit of depth? Does Jay Ward become this sort of, you know, chess piece, as they say on the defense? That's what it looks like. I mean, Jay Ward today, and this is every disclaimer, but he's outside at corner.

He's inside a corner. He's back at safety with the second team. I think that there's a really interesting role being carved out there, which may end up following the same journey basically as Josh Mattelis. Joker, if JJ's mentality is, I deserve to be the starter, it's not fair. Then trade him now because it's not going to go anywhere if he doesn't get it and bring in Cooper Rush. Yeah, well, I mean, Cooper Rush is a proven backup quarterback, but I understand what you're getting at, which is, yes, if J.J. McCarthy, believes that he doesn't need improvement and should be the starter and the team hates him and whatever. I mean, if he's, if he's super delusional about what happened last year and how he's

performed and the injuries that, I mean, even just based on the injuries, you'd want another quarterback that could start a season just because you don't know when someone's had that many injuries. But if he is completely delusional about what's happened here and he is behind the scenes not being a good teammate and frustrating the team and everything else, then, yeah, I mean, there is a point where you have to call it. Now, I would not call it after a three-minute press conference at OTAs where he wasn't the usual J.J. McCarthy that we've seen because the circumstances have changed. But I think behind the scenes, they will get a sense for what's exactly happening here. And I mean, I did, you know, notice that Kyler spent extra

time with Josh McCown after practice. I think that relationship's going to be really good, but, you know, J.J. McCarthy should be there doing that as well, as much as he possibly can and pushing it to the limit as much as he possibly can, not having the attitude that he's been wronged. There was a player, somebody told me this story, Buck Show Walter back in the day, if you remember him, the baseball manager, and it was a twins prospect. And this is a secondhand story. So I can't confirm that it's 100% true.

I'm only telling you because it's applicable and it and it's a good story. So another disclaimer there. But there was a story that Buck Showalter was coaching Danny Valencia, who had been a twin and then they moved on from him. And he had a little bit of success, but sort of bounced around. And that Showalter had basically said, Danny, do you think that all these teams got rid of you because of what? Like, what was the reason?

Do you think that they were all screwing you over? And I guess Danny basically said, yeah. And he's like, and Bucks, don't you ever think it's you? So if that's the situation here, if the situation here is that he doesn't really understand and thinks that the team turned on him or the fans turned on him or the media turned on him or whatever, then that's a tough place to be because I think he has to understand that nothing is handed to you in the NFL, no matter where you're drafted. Quarterbacks higher drafted than him have been moved on from very quickly in the NFL

or a lot of guys in his ballpark if they didn't succeed right away. And then some of them stuck with it and found jobs elsewhere. I also think that you're in a scenario where Kyler's had some injuries and you just need to be 100% sure and ready because you could be in at any time. So if you're taking the stance of like a defensiveness of like they're wronging me, they should have done this, that, and the other thing, rather than I need to grow from this, then. then I don't know what's going to work here.

Jude, I wish I did have a Demand Claybourne update, but Demand was with the other group, the younger group that was sort of the development field, which is a lot of rookies, UDFAs, so I didn't really see him. Also running in OTAs is not all that exciting. They kind of handoff, pretend to block each other and then the guy runs for a touchdown. So I saw a lot more of Aaron Jones today. but I'll keep my eye out and see what we can see from DeMond Clayboard. It was something I wanted to look for, but I just didn't get a chance today to really look at the other field.

If Kirk Cousins was still the quarterback, then I might have wandered over there for a little bit, but not today. Blinky, thank you so much for the super chats, as tonight will be heated, but I want to say, just a passionate Vikings fan who wants to get out of the quarterback carousel and try development. Great work. Thank you. I appreciate that. Well, I mean, this is what everyone should be wanting, Blinky, is for the best quarterback to win and for the team to have the most success offensively regardless of who the quarterback is. And in some ways, it feels like there are a lot of people that invested all of their emotional capital in J.J. McCarthy.

And when it's not working out, there's a pushback. And it could still work out because we never know what's going to happen with the quarter. If there's anything that we've learned over many years of following the Vikings, myself and you guys, is that you never really know what's going to happen with the Minnesota Vikings quarterback situation. So I don't think it's worth giving up on, but you certainly don't need to tear down Kyler Murray and say things about him that are unfair, untrue, or whatever else, just because you want J.J. McCarthy. And you also don't have to apologize for everything either. You can like J.J. McCarthy.

and you can believe he could still be a good quarterback and you can watch what happened today and be like, I don't know, man. I don't know that that was really the tone to take. And that's as far as you have to take it. You know, you don't have to take it into some wild opinion. You can just be like, yeah, I don't know. Because normally when there's quarterback situations like this, everyone kind of goes to the podium and says the right thing and then moves on.

But I think he showed some raw emotion today, which I also respect as well. Jude McCarthy needs to learn that he needs to earn his spot. Well, yeah, I mean, this is the thing about McCarthy. It's like these lessons don't come easy when it comes to the quarterback position because you are crowned. And when you're drafted and you have a good training camp and Kevin O'Connell says I've seen all the things I want to see and J.J. McCarthy and he's our franchise quarterback and so forth. I mean, it's how would you not feel like, wow, we are not that far removed from when you guys got rid of a 4,300-yard, 35 touchdown, 14-win quarterback for me. And now you're going in a completely different direction. Like, I get it.

I get it. It's always so much easier from our seats to be like, huh, why don't, why don't you understand these things? because we've watched what, you know, 30 years of NFL football and seen hundreds of players and hundreds of quarterback arcs and everything else, but it's not us at 23 years old. So it is a little bit different there. Mr. Mayor, how's the relationship looking on the sidelines between KOC and the quarterbacks? Does he seem to resent J.J. McCarthy as much as he did at the end of last season. I did not sense resentment from Kevin O'Connell.

I did not. but OTA resent, although, you know, Zimmer and Kirk actually had mini-camp resentment in 2018. So it is possible. But no, I did not get that sense so far. The only thing that I would say is that he looks pretty excited about, like, is, you know, Kyler Murray, but I don't know. I mean, Kyler was throwing the ball really well. So there wasn't too many flustered KOC poses over on the sideline.

hard to get a read on the head coach just with one OTA practice. But, you know, I think that the way that they're going to coach every quarterback is they're going to teach them the offense at this point. And where we start to see like what you're talking about would really be training camp. When you get two, three weeks into training camp, everyone is very tired. They are exhausted. It's been day after day. It's super hot out there. They just want to play some football.

Then you kind of get some of that like, body language or whatever, KOC's not a yelling and screaming, but you can get a sense for how everyone's feeling about things at that point. At this point, I mean, the pace is not super fast and it's all like the reps. Okay, here's what you did. And now we're going to have a conversation about it. They're going to look at it and meetings and stuff tomorrow.

It's just a much more methodical like Kyler Murray's trying to learn what the words mean. Some of the new coaches are trying to learn what the words mean for the offense. We're not at a point where it should be this intense, which is, I guess, maybe one of the main points here after seeing the reaction is like deep breaths, folks, deep breath. There's a long way to go. We need some deep breaths. Matt says, I know most of the conversation about McCarthy, but can you expand on the wide receivers that stood out to you? Didn't get much into it with Dane earlier. Sure.

I mean, really, obviously, George. Gordon Addison made a big catch. He didn't take a million reps either. These guys are valuable merchandise. And Justin Jefferson barely took any at all, as he should. He's out there to be their leader, and he's going to get warmed up and do individual drills. And that's probably going to be about it.

The last thing you need from Justin Jefferson is going up and having some, you know, young cornerback upend you and get hurt or something. Kind of happened with Jeff Okuda last year. That was the way that he got hurt in training camps. You're not doing that. It was really two guys. Dylan Bell, who I mentioned earlier, who has a natural quickness and speed to him

and might have more route running ability than was shown at Georgia. And I think that was one of the reasons that he didn't get drafted is that at Georgia, he was not running a lot of detailed routes. And I think that was mainly because of Georgia's offense. But we've said that a lot, right? We've said that about a lot of guys through the years, the Leviska-chanalts of like, yeah, just put the ball in his hands, the, who was Tavon Austin, you just get the ball in his hands.

So there's a little bit of that to him, but the natural quickness, that first step, we saw, we saw some separation today from him. And the other one was Dante Fleming, who is a deep roster guy, but he was there last year. And I thought when Fleming was there at first, I was like, well, you know, he's kind of this track runner looking guy, like tall and slender. So, you know, it's like, is this guy really a wide receiver? I don't know, right? And he proved that he could catch the ball on deep balls.

So he might be someone that they're intrigued by and he had a couple today that were nice. Kitt's dental plan, any notable absences? Oh, good question. I was so focused on the wide receivers that I did not take a detailed attendance. I'm sorry, at the quarterbacks, the quarterback. So that is, that's on me, focused on the quarterbacks. I don't think so. I didn't see anyone else say that there was.

But if somebody else saw that there was an absence that was notable, let me know. Because I don't, I don't believe so. Usually for these, they have really good attendance. Garrett, how explosive is Demand Claiborne in person? I got to see that a lot more in rookie camp than I did today because he was on the other field. But in terms of his explosiveness jumps right off the page. And it's not just explosive as in gets the ball in quick. It's in like angularly explosive.

That might be a weird way to phrase it. But it's you see this ability when he cuts to be very like low to the ground, not Barry Sanders, but kind of has this like quickness to him where it can cover a lot of ground fast. Jamir Gibbs will do this sometimes. And like a, I mean a bendiness to him a little bit. but I think it's more of just like exploding from left to right or straightforward for him. It's just very, very natural athlete.

So I'm intrigued to see how that ends up playing out with Daman Claiborne. But for now, he's on the side that's going to be just slowly learning. And then we'll see where he fits in in training camp. I'm intrigued to see if he ends up returning some kicks along with Miles Price. They did that with Ty Chandler before Chandler got hurt. That might be a plan too. Blinky is Jake Golda year one starter for you. No, I don't think so.

I think he's year one depth, but also depth is very important in this world of, you know, 17 games. And we've seen Cashman have injuries before, I think in an ideal world, you'd like to have Golda ahead of Ivan Pace on the depth chart. I don't think that would be if they played today. But ultimately,

you'd like to have him be the next man up if Eric Wilson or Blake Cashman were to get banged up or even, you know, fill in as an edge rusher because he's done that in college before. So I think he's going to be depth and he's going to be learning and he's going to play special teams. But I would guarantee almost that he's going to play. I mean, linebackers get banged up a lot. And that's part of the reason that you draft someone like that is like, now he's depth. But later, he's got a chance to be a start. for you and maybe even a really good player.

Garrett gut feeling, who's the GM? I'm still going to go with, I'm still going to go with Rob Brzynski having a role of some kind that is an elevation from his previous role because there should be something from the Wilf's of looking at what happened here in terms of how it operated this offseason and saying that was pretty good. It wasn't this unbelievable, the entire world's talking about. it, you know, it's not like some crazy thing that they did, but it was well executed, the entire offseason. So I think that you want him in a position where he is, uh, in, in,

in the decision making process and not just doing the salary cap and whatever else, but really in the decision making process. So I think Rob will be a part of that. I don't know in what way. And gosh, I mean, I guess as of right now, I might go with Nolan Teasley because I think you're looking for someone with some outside ideas. And he's the one that is a kind of true outsider here of the group where Reid Burkhart's been here before. Terrence Gray's been here before. That's not to be down on any of those guys. This is like you're asking me for a pure guess, but they could announce it five minutes from now. And I'd be like, oh, well, I was completely wrong. Not in those rooms. So I don't know what they're asking or what they want to hear.

but I would like the idea of bringing in someone from who grew up in a process that's been so successful at evaluating players. And that's definitely Seattle. But, you know, the Rams are always cutting edge. Always seem to have one step up on everybody. So if it's John McKay, then that's a good idea, too. Reed Burkhart was a rising star in Minnesota, rose up the ranks in Denver. Kind of has all the earmarks there. and I know is a very sharp evaluator.

So that's what you're really looking for with any of these guys. Mr. Mayor, what positions can you actually learn about in OTAs? Can you glean anything about the running backs? I would say not really know that you can't because even pass protection. I mean, how am I supposed to know watching what they were supposed to? Because the quarterback's not getting hit. So if the running back, I mean, I guess if the running back looked completely clueless and was like, oh, what am I supposed to football?

Then I could figure it out. But most of the time, you're not really going to be able to even tell that. Catching the ball, maybe. You could definitely see from a running back if someone had a natural receiving ability. It's really the offensive and defensive lines that you can get nothing out of. But you can see linebackers in coverage, corners and safeties and coverage, wide receivers. Obviously, it's really a receiver's type of camp, quarterbacks. But anything in the trenches is an absolute no.

there's just no way that you're going to get any sense whatsoever of what they're supposed to be doing up there. Iconic, beautiful throw from Kyler. It was. Yeah, I mean, he had a couple of very nice ones. Very nice. Like the throw to Dylan Bell, I don't know if the team has put that out on their video or not, but if they did put that in their recap, that was pretty good. And I don't want to act like McCarthy had no good throws. The one to tie Felton, I think it was on a seven on seven.

But he had a few. I mean, it reminded me of like, last year or the other times we've seen him. I didn't expect the offseason is not over with. That's the thing when we talk about McCarthy's progress. It wasn't like, boy, if this first practice, he doesn't look like Peyton Manning. It's over, folks. I mean, they don't play until September.

But, you know, there was a throw that was kind of a one that was behind and should have been maybe intercepted from McCarthy that wasn't picked off. And there were some other throws that were really nice from him today. He had, was it down? maybe it was, I'm trying to remember who it was two that he had kind of a line drive throw that was pretty good. And he put some touch on a deep ball that the receiver couldn't run under and get it, but it still, it was there. It was like catchable. So, you know, I mean, McCarthy looked fine and that we already know him. And when we're looking for signs of progress, it's really hard to figure

out a practice like this. Murray stands out because this is the first time we've ever seen him. skull shadow McCarthy still hasn't learned about adulthood and professionalism sounds like an ex-high school boyfriend blaming the girl's mom for why she didn't like him that is a that is a very funny metaphor uh i don't know that i would quite subscribe to that i think it's really just mccarthy is learning what it is like in the pros his first year he didn't really get to see that they won 14 games the team still went to him after they had won 14 games. In the pros, there's ups and downs for just about everybody.

There's hard times for everyone. And I also don't think that he was unprofessional with this press conference. Like, I don't think that we have to go, you know, too far. And, you know, in talking about this and in saying that he was unprofessional, I would not, I would not say that at all. And, you know, God's child says he hates Minnesota sports media. what did you expect JJ to say? Well, two things I told you that.

I've also spent this entire time saying it's really not anything to overreact to. So I think you're kind of being super defensive, which McCarthy folks, fans, like super fans, are very defensive about anything that is said about J.J. McCarthy. And I guess that's what it means to be a super fan. But I don't know. I told you what he could have said. he could have come to the podium and he knew he was going to get asked about Kyler Murray and the relationship.

And he could have said, real or not real, that, hey, like, I'm excited to get to know Kyler and we're both chasing the same goal. Our team is trying to win a championship here. And of course,

I want to be the starting quarterback, but I'm going to do whatever it takes. And that might be, you know, helping him or it might be learning from him throughout this process. He's a veteran quarterback. So I'm thrilled to have him here. even if it means competition for me and I've never shied away from competition.

So I'm ready to go and really excited to be here this year. It's that easy. Like it didn't have to, it didn't have to be so earnest. And like really paint a picture of, yeah, we are on opposite sides of that room. Okay, man. Like no one even really prodded. It was just, hey, so Kyler's here, you know? And that's where it came across as being like a little defensive and not

really knowing how to answer that question because he's never had questions like that before. And I also imagine, and this is something that younger players will do as well, is sometimes they'll take it very personally about, you know, the coverage, whether it's, you know, us or the fans and the reactions and things like that. But, you know, I'm sure that it hasn't gone unnoticed what people have been saying in the media about where he stands on this team. And I'm sure he's not thrilled to talk to all of us, which I wouldn't be either. So, but I, but I, I just would, would go, um, the other way about like the unprofessional. I would not say he was unprofessional, would not say that. Uh, real quick, I want to toss you guys a Fanduel

question the day. I've been too immersed in the conversation. So I want to bring that up. Uh, there is a Justin Jefferson over under that Fanduel has dropped over at Fanduel.com. It's a little on the lower side. 1,150.5 yards is the over under for Justin Jefferson. So over or under for Justin Jefferson. What I would say is, if it ain't over, is a big problem. Something went really, really wrong if it's not over 1,150.5 yards. But what's your reaction to that, that Fanduil has just posted?

Evan says, got a lot of heat for your take on JJ, but I agree. He brings up high school when asked about Kyler. it points to some immaturity and need for growth. He's still young and it shows it. You know, I watched back my podcast with Dane. When I was looking at the comments section, I was like, what did I say? You know, I mean, I don't remember every single word I've ever said. So I went back and listened to what I said.

I was like, I don't think what I said actually matches up with what was being said in the comments. So that's pretty typical. That's pretty typical because on this show, as you guys know, uh, nuance is king. Um, I live stream for hours. We've got all sorts of time to break down every facet of whatever the heck we want to break down. Cause this is my show. And so I thought that I was nuanced. And so was Dane Mizatani. Dane, the harshest thing Dane said was he thought it missed the mark, which I, is, seems fair. Uh, as I just demonstrated how easy it is to not make a big

headline out of your comment, right? Um, but, uh, he said that. He said that. And I said, look, you know, this is something that we don't need to break down like it's a football game. We don't need to dive into deep into every single word as if it has some much deeper meaning. The Kai is obviously not too thrilled to be asked about the other veteran quarterback who's been in multiple pro bowls who is very likely to take his job. And that showed. And that's really as far as it needs to go. But, you know, when you're talking about it of in terms of like, surety and things.

It's, there is a track record of not really doing things the way that you'd expect from someone in his position. And that was last year as well. And just a few examples on the field were him dancing into the end zone when his coaches told him not to. And every one of these things comes along with this, well, it's fine. Well, it's fine. And of course, you know, yeah, all right.

It's not that big of a deal. But it's sort of a little bit of a pattern of, if you're coach, in college tell you not to do something and you do it. It's like, oh, well, like, that's our, that's our meal ticket to the national championship. We're not going to move on or bench him or anything. When you do it in the NFL, it's like, now, wait a minute, right? There's only a few guys who have earned the right to do whatever the heck they feel like doing out there. That's like a Mike Holmgren and Brett Farv relationship where there's a famous NFL films clip where

home grin tells farv do not run on this play do not scramble and he scrambles for a touchdown it's like well farv and that's lamar jackson josh allen patrick mahomes it's not j j mccarthy uh you didn't you definitely didn't earn the right to uh disrespect your coaches there and then you know kind of tell everybody about it so that's is at the end of the world is at the end of the world that he got a silly penalty in a meaningless game against Green Bay? No, it's not. But do you know how many starting quarterbacks get 15-yard penalties for celebrating a 12-yard run or whatever? None.

I mean, like, that's kind of the point here. It's like most of the time, what you would have expected from this answer would have been put on a brave face and say you're going to do whatever it takes for the team to help them win and just, you know, have it be that. And when it wasn't that, it's like, well, that's notable. That's, that's a, an honest way to go about it, I guess, like to let the world know where you stand, but where you stand is, it seems to be a little bit more about you than it is about doing the best thing for the team that pays you. So it doesn't come across the best way. And that's, that's really it. Um, Joker, what's the best, uh, positional battle punter number one defensive tackle opposite of

uh, Redmond. Yeah, I think there's going to be. DTs on the field a lot. I saw Elijah Williams playing with the first team. I am very interested in Elijah Williams. He came back looking pretty big, and this is from a distance, but I noticed it. I was like, okay, Elijah Williams looks like he's serious. And he was in there because obviously Caleb Banks is not. So he was in there playing some 3-4 DE.

So I'm intrigued by that. The defensive ends and how they're going to rotate them. Backup defensive tackle is certainly one, the safety position. backup corner, interior offensive line behind the starters. I'm very curious. And I think the best battle, especially because OTAs, many can't, we can see these guys so well. I think the best battle is behind Joanne Jennings. Who's behind Joanne Jennings?

Who's wide receiver four, five, who could be the contributing players is probably my favorite battle. Reconnected if Kyler starts, so they take the sea off McCarthy's chest. They vote for captains every year. So yeah, that would probably be a little different. Skull Shadow Murray said in his press conference, he had helmet hair. Yeah. Oh, yeah, because somebody mentioned the, yeah, the hat.

Murray is also from Texas. So 90 degrees today here is probably fine. I mean, he's played in Arizona and he grew up in Texas. This is not heat to him. And it wasn't that humid today out there. I thought it was pleasant. There was a little bit of a breeze. I thought it was nice.

But Kyler Murray wearing a hat in the middle of the summer is not. that shocking for somebody who comes from Texas and plays, you know, played in Arizona. Slide to play. How should someone react when someone is brought in to take their job? They wanted to light a fire under him, stop crucifying him. I mean, this is, this is just bizarre. Like, I think that you're not listening or, you know, you're just like lashing out here because crucifying is effing insane to, to the reaction of what I've been talking about. It's just literally nuts. Like there's, there's, I mean, in fact, that word, I mean, is hysterical, is literally like, I'm having trouble moving on because it's so funny that you would say crucifying.

Like, but you might want to AI, Google, want a crucifixion. It's like, what the, are you talking about? Um, yeah. So there's better ways that, um, you could present, uh, yourself in those questions to not make it so clear that, uh, you know, uh, you. you're kind of thinking about yourself there and not maybe more of the team or trying to be a good teammate or whatever else. There are different ways to come across better. I think we're allowed to say that, but apparently that is a crucifixion. That is crazy. No bunk beds for Kyler and JJ. That's funny. Mr. Mayor, he sounded like a grizzled veteran upset that a rookie QB is in the room,

except he hasn't earned the right to behave like that by a mile. Fair enough. I am normal, found it disappointing start for JJ. I think the quarterback for the next six years is an Egan right now, but I don't want it to be the guy that makes it about him. And that's, I think that that's really the point. And look, I mean, it's not as deep as some people are making it. And I think that in a world like this where football is by far the most popular sport in America

and also has the least games, that we go a really long time. So you're just looking for anything to have some sort of strong take on because we love football and we're really intense about it and everything else. And look who's saying this, right? The person who's live streaming for multiple hours a night answering OTA questions because I love football and you love football. And it's really fun to talk about. But I think we also need to keep perspective as well, right?

I don't want to go as far as to say McCarthy is selling. centered. He's selfish just because of this comment that he made and his overall disposition. I expected something different and I think something different would have come across better from him, especially if it was like, look, we are teammates at the end of the day. We're going to do whatever we can to push each other and get the best out of each other. And that's what teammates do. Like, that's what Carson Wentz came in talking about last year. And I know Carson came in as a backup and it's different, but, you know, any quarterback should kind of be presenting, like, do what's best for the team rather than coming across that way, because when you do come across this way, you know,

it's going to be a clip that they play on ESPN and they talk about it and they debate and it's going to be replayed a million times or quote tweeted a million times on social media. Now, like you're day one of OTAs and we've already got a stir that's going on by the backup quarterback. I mean, if you watch practice today, you. would have thought, yep, J.J. McCarthy is the backup quarterback. Not that the rep count was crazy in Kyler Murray's favor, but it was in Kyler Murray's favor. And you would have said one guy looks like the starter and the other guy looks like QB2. So, you know, that's not exactly what you're

hoping for is day one of OTAs that you have kind of a notable thing being said that's causing a lot of, you know, conversation, everything else out there. So it, yeah, and I think that purposeful or not, I'm sure it's not from J.J. McCarthy because everything I heard about last year was that the players in the locker room wanted it bad for him. They wanted him to succeed. They, they loved his energy. I got no sense whatsoever. And a lot of times, the place to get that sense is locker clean out. And I remember Kevin Sefer asking several players in scrums that I'm not. I was in about like did you guys how'd you feel about whatever and there's ways even if you're not trashing someone like there's ways to kind of be like yeah you know whatever and I didn't get

that sense I got the sense that they want that they really really wanted j.J. McCarthy to succeed and so forth and when you come across the way that he did today it does it has a feeling I don't think it's intentional but it has a feeling of like okay well I guess you know this yeah like you said like it kind of comes across like all right well it's a it's a little bit making it about you and saying you're not going to be a good teammate to kailer murray and that doesn't seem right so that's the way it came across i don't think that that's what he meant to do i think he just sort of meant to be like i don't know and we're both on the team and it's the coach's job to coach us up uh iconic when they announced j j's qb two he's going to have to act like he likes it or he'll be traded

Yeah, I mean, after today, I'm sure you're going to hear some of that of like the trade conversation, everything else. And, you know, I'm certain that KOC will probably talk next week or soon enough and quell, whatever, you know, there is to this and he'll be asked about it. It'll kind of be old news by that at that, you know, some point. And slide to place as to J.J. Kyler is not a teammate. Yeah, well, if that's your attitude and you can only ever be. QB1 or you don't want to play football, well, then don't play football because there's a lot of quarterbacks who have to be backups at times or who have to compete for their jobs at times. If you never want to compete at all ever, uh, or you're going to, you know, just be unhappy and

whatever else and you're not going to be a good teammate if you're having to compete for your job. It's not been named by the way. Um, then I don't know. Like this, then this league is going to be pretty tough for you. That's the way I'd put it. If you're not willing to be a good teammate while competing, this league, is going to be tough for you. Sam Darnold was a good teammate while competing with J.J. McCarthy.

Because he was a veteran. He's been through it. But I also think that's Sam Darnold. And as far as, look, when it comes to, he's going to have to work to be QB2. He's going to have to show command of the offense. And he's going to have to, you know, continue to improve on the throwing and all that sort of stuff. And he's going to have to be a good teammate and everything else. Or they're going to go with Carson Wentz. because look, Carson Wentz played better than him last year.

So he has to beat out Carson Wentz, too. Rache, the hardcore McCarthy truthers are a cult. Well, you know, I don't think of it that way. I think of it more as that if you get your guy as a franchise quarterback, it is so valuable. And you feel like every single year you've got a chance because you've got your guy. And look, I mean, ask, I've been using Herbert. He's not a perfect quarterback.

He doesn't have a Super Bowl. any Chargers fan, I'm sure 90% of them are like someday it's going to happen because we've got him. And I think last year with the way it started and the way that they had talked about them and even like responsible over here for reporting on the, the joint practice that went really well. But I also came out of that feeling very good about where McCarthy was at and everything else. And then it was a huge, huge letdown last year. And then, to have them go out. If they went out and got Gino Smith, we'd be like, you know, JJ's probably going to start.

But they went out and got Kyler Murray. They went out and got the one single guy that you'd say, it's not really competition. It's the only guy that was available. You'd say that. If they had Tua, you'd be like, yeah, I mean, Tua's been bad lately so. But Kyler hasn't. He has not been bad. Now, he hasn't been flawless.

But over his last two years of playing in the NFL, he's been far from a bad quarterback. So, and over his career at times, he's been an excellent quarterback. So they've got the one guy that you can't really put on the facade and say, oh, yeah, it's really a, you know, competition. I mean, he had options. He picked here because he wanted to be here as the starter. Purple Kool-Aid says, we criticize players and coaches for not giving real answers all the time. He didn't say anything crazy. People are reacting way too hard.

I agree with that. Yeah, I agree with that. I don't know that we actually do criticize players for not giving real answers. I mean, I don't know how often I've done that and said, how dare you not give me a real answer? So, but no, he didn't say anything crazy. But I also think that there were better ways to approach that that wouldn't have made this much noise. Yeah.

Yeah. Not likely, not likely that the stepbrothers thing is happening. Yeah, I agree with that. Mr. Mayor would honestly not mind trading J.J. McCarthy for whatever, even a conditional 2028, seventh rounder would be worth it. If it shuts up the McCarthy stands, well, this is a little bit of the 2020s problem, a modern era problem. And I was saying to Jonathan Harrison, producer here on Purple Insider earlier,

because we were chatting about this and, you know, just trying to figure out what I wanted to say this evening about it. And I was saying to Jonathan that what ends up happening in especially internet spaces, but probably all sports fandom is somebody mentioned a cult earlier. Cult is a pretty aggressive word, but the tribalism is a real thing where people sort of separate and decides. And I am not a politics person, but my understanding is this happens pretty strongly in that universe is people separate into, I am over here.

And I'm planting this flag and I'm going to spend every single day fighting for this sports opinion. And then other people are, I'm going to stand over here and whatever. And the reality of sports or any subject is that it's all complicated. And so if you've just decided that no matter what, you're going to log on every day and fight for the honor of J.J. McCarthy because that's the tribe you're in. I mean, it's how can you really have a conversation about football? And the thing I like so much about football and why we end up with these long epic live streams and everything else is because we can get into the nuance. And that's really the point is, you know, I think the biggest takeaway here to me is this would be my suggestion to J.J. McCarthy is if this is the way you're going to view it, it's not going to help you. That would be my biggest thing.

If you're going to view it as you sit over here, I'll sit over here and whatever, dude. For a quarterback who's been through as much as Kyler Murray, who's as good at throwing a football as Kyler, who also ran an offense that was complicated in Arizona the last couple years and has had as much experience as him and has seen every defense. And, you know, Kyler even threw a little shot across the bow at Brian Flores. He's like, you know, I've had some success against Brian Flores. I was like, oh, yeah, he actually has. But, you know, like he's seen a lot of stuff.

stuff. And if you're not going to take the approach that working together is better than working against each other when you're on the same team, it's not going to help you. It's not going to, I don't think he's going to ruin his life or his career, but it's not going to help you. And that's where I would have kind of my bigger takeaway is, I think you need to readjust a little bit, probably your approach to this quarterback competition. And also saying, you know, stuff like well, the organization's going to do what it's going to do or whatever. It's like, all right. Well, now you kind of sound like you're kind of coming across like everyone's against you.

And I don't think that that's really the case. I think that Kevin O'Connell would love to see J.J. McCarthy succeed. I think Josh McCown would love to see him succeed. I think his teammates would love to see him succeed. Right. So, no, the organization's not against you and the media is not against you and the fans aren't against you. maybe some of those idiotic Twitter accounts who just tweet memes all the time, they might be against you.

But I don't think that Kyler is again. I mean, when you listen to Kyler, it was like, and he didn't know what JJ said. So he was just like, yeah, no, it's fine. I mean, he's, you know, I'll work with him, whatever he wants to do. And it's like, yep, that's a veteran quarterback's approach to that question. So I think that working with Kyler and Carson and Max and KOC and KOC, and McCown and whoever else is the only way to get better. You don't do it on your own.

So I guess that's what I thought coming out of it more than anything. He didn't shame the Vikings franchise. There's much worse stuff that's been said, truth to all rumors at press conferences than what happened today. It's more of just, is this how he's going to do it? Or does he think that this sort of makes him come across as like, I'm a hard-nosed competitor. I'm not going to give an inch to Kyler.

It's like, because that really, I don't know that that's the way that this works, right? So, but this is what you find out over the years as you grow up. And if you have the attitude that you can always learn and get better and improve and learn from other people and work with other people, you're going to get farther than if you try to do it on your own. So Purple Kool-Late says maturity has been in question before media training is something someone who wants to be a franchise quarterback needs to learn. Yeah, I don't think it's, I don't think it needs training necessarily. I mean, I honestly think that he needs to, based on what he said, based on the, the, what he told us, he needs to kind of shift a little bit, I think.

Just, just shift to, I work here. And people who come into the league, they don't realize you work there. But that's, you work there. And I'll tell you, man, like, I don't think any of us really understand when we're a certain age of like what that means to work there, right? because it feels like, well, you know, I'm, this is, I belong here. So this is mine, right? But you work here and your job is to be ready regardless of what role they give you.

And if part of that job is to be a good teammate to Kyler Murray, then you should probably do that as well, right? It's just. And if you win the job, then, well, great. You know, that's fantastic. It's not, but it's, it doesn't increase your odds of winning the job to like not talk to Kyler Murray. It's okay. So that that's, so I don't know if it's media training. It's in fact, I think I think JJ is usually really good with the media, but I also think that he wears his heart on his sleeve and people who do that, uh, who run hot or, you know, that's a very on the

emotional side for him as a younger guy. I think we see a lot of this stuff. And then we end up talking about it a lot more than it needed to be. Matt says, I know it seemed unlikely that they'll trade McCarthy before the season starts, but if this is going to be his attitude. You think they do a swap with Richardson and give both a fresh start? I wouldn't hate it. I would, I would not hate it. I've always been in the camp of there is no reason to give up on a J.J. McCarthy. And he has opportunity to improve. And it's, this is good for him. It's a good situation for him. But you have to recognize it first, though. You have to recognize that it's a good situation for you and what you can learn.

and what you can take out of it. And if you don't recognize that, then it's not going to change. It's not going to get better unless you recognize it. So if it becomes an uncomfortable situation and you don't need a distraction, you need Kyler Murray to win football games this year. Not that I think that J.J. McCarthy being unhappy is going to cause Kyler Murray to overthrow people. It sure as heck didn't today.

But if you're looking for, all right, well, these quarterbacks are basically the same at this point. Their franchises have sort of, you know, run out of, uh, run out of time with them. Then a swap would make a lot of sense. I don't think it's that, that time yet to do that. So.