Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - A Vikings OTAs Q+A (Part 2)

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.

Son of beavers, the world needs to know how did Max Brosmer look. He was quarterbacking on the other field that I wasn't watching. So I did not see how Max looks. But I do know that Max is going to be a good teammate and he'll be ready. And we should give Max his credit, by the way. Max did help them win a game against the Giants last year. Give Max his credit. But he's going to be someone.

Max, I know he didn't play well when he got in the game. He had to play Seattle. That was tough. The Lions defense, who knows, this team really well. I think Max's approach is exactly the one that JJ needs to borrow from what we heard for Max last year. I mean, I know,

undrafted guy, but he gets it. So that's, he's a little older, too. Skull's Shadow, we still don't have a franchise quarterback on the roster. This will be entertaining at best.

Or top five pick at best, enjoy the chaos. I just, I would not, I would not. count Kyler Murray out, man, because the more that you look into where he was and what he was still able to accomplish. And then, I mean, the look on his face today when we were asking him about playing with

these receivers, he's just like, dude, it's ridiculous. And I think it is a top three group of weapons in the entire NFL. This is not something he's had before. And I asked him, and the Vikings tweeted this out so you could go listen to that quote if you want. But I asked him about working with Kevin O'Connell. And again, like the face lit up of just how good of a communicator Kevin O'Connell is. And if you ask anyone in Arizona, they will tell you how close he was with Jonathan Gannon. Like those two really clicked. And there's some similar energy. I think, you know, maybe O'Connell is better at the podium than Gannon was,

but some similar, like, positive energy there from Jonathan Gannon. I think that that could be really, really good for Kyler Murray to have somebody who is really enthusiastic and who is very good at explaining the why behind things. Like that's Kevin O'Connell's thing. I think he's really good at coaching this offense by now. And the experience that Sam Darnold had, he can really take away from because that was a veteran who knew other offenses that had similarities, but was not exactly the same. So I would not put the cap on Kyler Murray.

here as well, you know, just whatever, we'll see what happens this year. I'm not guaranteeing that. I just think that when you look at the talent level, the supporting cast, the coaching staff, and what Kyler was able to do at times in his career with a pretty mediocre, that's being polite franchise, you know, I could see it. And look, if Sam Darnold hadn't come in here in 11 games, then I would probably be more skeptical of the upside. but I think since he did, like, there's, uh, there's definitely a possibility there.

Um, Mr. Mayor, Kyler was offensive rookie of the year, multi-time pro bowler. He led a bleep team, uh, from, uh, to being the last undefeated team in the league a few seasons ago and has at times been discussed as a potential MVP, right? He's had stretches. He's had a lot of stretches. And what the goal should be for the Vikings is how do you even that out over a season? And the stretches often correlate to the schedule. If you go back to 2024, he is in the MVP conversation, the first half of the year in 2024.

While their defense fell apart, they blew some games close. But another thing is they ran into in three weeks, they played Seattle. There might have been a four-week stretch, four-week stretch where they played Seattle twice and the Vikings. So two or three out of the four games in this stretch against elite defenses, and those elite defenses gave him problems. Now, the question is, was that because of him? Was that because they didn't have enough around him? I mean, he's played well when he's played against the Minnesota Vikings, right? He played well against them in 2022.

And Arizona kind of blew that game. And then they definitely blew the game in 2024 against the Vikings. So, you know, he's had some good games against teams like that. But also, it might depend on, like, how strong your team is. Because this is something. I've really been thinking about a lot with the NFC is whoever has the strongest rosters, there is not a quarterback who is just the driving factor of a team. It's always who has the best roster around them.

So if we reverse engineer that and the Cardinals had one of the worst rosters around him, like that's asking Kyler to do a lot. I don't think the Vikings have the best roster in the NFC. I think it can be improved and I think it can be very good. I don't think it's the best. But I also think he falls into a similar. category as a lot of other quarterbacks who have a lot of good things that they do and some shortcomings and they can be beat on a given week by a really good defense. But if you give them a

complete team, they've got a really good chance to win. I think Brock Purdy is like this. I think the Dak Prescott can be like this at times as well. Jalen Hertz is shown to be like this. These are quarterbacks who have won a lot of football games. And I think that Kyler could potentially do that as well if the roster is strong and they stay healthy and he fits with these wide receivers. Blinkie says as Demand Claiborne looked at as Aaron Jones replacement down the line. It's hard to say that because he's a sixth round draft pick. So can you really point to a guy it's a sixth round draft pick and say, yeah, he's definitely going to be Aaron Jones replacement. I also don't think it's too hard if it works out to see a thunder and lightning

situation with Jordan Mason because Mason was really good last year, but he didn't break a lot of big runs. And Claiborne has that speed to him. So what if you have, you know, a Jordan Mason that, you know, plays, I don't know, 60% of the snap, 65% of the snaps. And then you have Claybourne mixing things up after Aaron Jones, which is probably the end of the road after this year. I could see it. But they, you know, there's a long way to go for DeMond Claiborne because we like Ty Chandler when he came in. We like Kenny Wong Wu and not all these guys who are the later round draft picks that have lightning speed end up working out. So, uh, big Hig. How did our draft picks look today? So the two guys that I saw the most of were Charles Demings and, uh, Jake Golda. I mean, Dominique Orange, big.

Like, you know, they're not, they're not doing a lot up there. But, uh, Gold day and his movement skill, it's not quite as fluid as Andrew Van Ginkle, who is, I mean, you would think from the way Van Ginkle moves, he looks like he's about 220 pounds, it's like 240. So it's not quite that. Like he's a big dude, but he covers a lot of ground in coverage. You could see that movement skill that they would have liked. It's going to smooth itself out as he plays more and more. But being that good of an athlete at 6'4 and 240 pounds, you notice that guy out.

there immediately. So I definitely noticed him run around in coverage. And then Demings is another guy where when we talk about what the Vikings should be drafting, who you're trying to build your team around. The one thing I respect from this draft class is that they went toward guys that were 90 something percentile in something. So Dominique Orange, 90 whatever percentile in size and strength. Caleb Banks, 99th percentile in size and strength. Max Bredesen, 90 whatever percentile is a blocker or Demon Claybourne in his speed. Charles Demings is that. I mean, Charles Demings is a freakish athlete.

And his movement skill, which you can see right away is it's not just a track skill. I mean, he is very, very light on his feet. And did I watch every single rep? No, but I did make a point to focus on him a couple times just to see what it looks like. It stands out. He's going to need work. He went to Stephen F. Austin. It's going to take time.

But I was impressed by the way Charles Demings look. And I also wrote about him over at purple insider dot football. So make sure you go check that out. I would love if you guys gave it a read. Purple Kool-Aid. Kirk Cousins would have streaks where he was on fire almost every season. We'd get Dark Horse MVP chatter. He's shown promise, but we haven't seen it in a game yet.

Oh, you mean like with making the Murray comparison? I really think that there is legitimately a lot of similarities between Kirk and Kyler. But the thing with Kirk is under KOC, he went 17 and 8 and played more consistent football than we ever saw during Zimmer, except for maybe 2019. But I don't know if that was even consistent. That was like Kirk Tober and then everything else. With Kyler, though, that's, I mean, that's really the main goal. It has been stretches and streaks. but it has not been full seasons all the time.

And that's what has to happen here. Or you are going to end up as a nine win type of team where you win five out of six and then stumbled the rest of the way. So it really is going to be fascinating to see how they try to smooth out the rough edges there when Kyler is not having the greatest games. And this is where, though, here's an interesting thing for you that Mike Sando brought up when he was on this show a few weeks ago. Mike Sandel had this stat,

and this really blew my mind, that during Kyler's career, no quarterback has been let down more by their defense and special teams than Kyler Murray. By, I think it was expected points added. That was his number. And I was like, that's crazy. That is absolutely crazy that, you know,

he's not had good defenses. He has not had, I don't know that they've ever had a good defense. I don't think that the Arizona Cardinals ever had a top 10 defense when he was there. And special teams, like, that's something I would have never thought of, but apparently the Cardinals were trash at that too, as good at special teams as they were building a gym with regular floorboards. So, uh, you know, there's those ups and downs when you live or die on whether your quarterback is playing like an MVP. I mean, this team last year won with, I forget what it was. Was it three net yards for Max Brosmer? Like, this team can win grind fest games where maybe your

quarterback is not at his best. That's something that Arizona just couldn't do. It was, if Kyler's not great, they're not going to win. Danny, good to see you. Long time listener, Danny. Got to learn to downplay stuff that's not an issue. Oh, you're talking about with McCarthy. Yeah, we're both here competing.

I'm focused on myself coming in here every day, working hard, stacking good days. Yeah, I mean, that's right. I mean, and you're an adult, Danny, and you know how to give that answer because you've heard it a million times from NFL quarterbacks. And I think that, you know, I, I think it came off probably worse than he meant it to be. But the way that it came off was very much like not going to work together with that guy. He could stay over in his corner. I'll stay over in mine.

And this is just not a position that you want him to be taking right now when he's supposed to be also learning as well as improving. So, uh, Rache, if the situation was reversed and Kyler answered the question, JJ did every one of these JJ stands would be asking for Kyler to get cut. Yeah, it's actually funny because Kyler, who as a younger guy, probably had some answers like this or dispositions like this as a younger player, though he was having, you know, more success as a younger guy, but probably made, you know, or had similar type of things. And that's why people talked about the personality or whatever it may be.

and that's where you just, you have to mature and you have to go through stuff and you have to see different things and learn from them and so forth. And that's what J.J. McCarthy has to do here. But you're right. If Kyler Murray said he can go sit over in his own corner and don't talk to me, everyone would have been saying, this is typical Kyler and his selfish personality. Oh my gosh. How, I mean, the pearl clutching would have been insane if Kyler Murray had said that. But the standard is a little bit different. for a veteran quarterback who's been through a lot rather than somebody who's new to this still. Planet Yevin, I wonder if KOC will let McCarthy implode because it makes a move to trade or release him that

much easier. I mean, in the best case scenario, because a lot of you are now trading J.J. McCarthy, we don't have to do that over a comment in several comments in an OTA practice. I think the best case scenario for Kevin O'Connell is to work with both quarterbacks. Obviously, you're getting Kyler Murray ready to start as QB1, but doing everything you can to get J.J. McCarthy on track, to get him to develop as much as he can. And if we compare J.J. McCarthy, even despite the ups and downs, his physical tools,

his playmaking, his knowledge of the offense. I mean, I know that Wentz did play better than him last year outside of when his arm was about to fall off, but you'd prefer to have J.J. McCarthy potentially ascending as your backup quarterback rather than having, you know, Carson Wentz or Max Brosmer or anybody else. You'd like to see that's the ideal scenario. So I don't think that COC wants to sabotage JJ McCarthy or, as you said, let him implode. I think you still want to pour into him and still you might end up needing him in the season. You might end up needing him longer term in the next year if he is impressive to you.

I guess today with the way that he presented himself in this quarterback battle, it kind of made it feel like, well, you know, if I'm not the guy, then whatever, man, which is going to make it harder for KOC to be able to do that, to be able to, you know, continue his progression, if that's going to be to be the, the disposition, but still, even after today, it's not like McCarthy even had a bad practice. I thought it was totally fine. It's so you want him to continue to be ready to play and develop and get to a point where if it's week eight and you're six and two and Kyler Murray breaks a finger and he's going to

be out for three weeks. Well, you want your quarterback to win two of those three games. You'd like it to be J.J. McCarthy rather than Carson Wentz. So if you're KOC, I think you're still trying to walk that line. But you can only do it if McCarthy wants the coaching now and wants, you know, KOC to, you know, still pour into him and teach him and whatever else. If he's not going to have the attitude that he's still learning and developing and growing and just thinks he's been victimized, well, then he probably won't learn a whole lot.

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Individual results may vary based on studies of topical and oral monocidal and ferresteride. Featured products include compound drug products, which the FDA does not approve or verify for, for safety, effectiveness, or quality. Prescription required, see website for details, restrictions, and important safety information. Dan says, watch the interview. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be based on the show with Dane. I'll do respect to you guys, though.

Well, I mean, I really don't think that, I mean, I think that a lot of just people's reaction is to what we've said was way more defensive than, like, based on what we actually talked about. You know, I mean, I think Dane was fair in saying that it maybe should have had a different approach. But I mean, it's funny. You say that because I listen back to my own thing. And I was like, I don't really hear anywhere that it gets more of just sort of breaking down what he said and talking about how it took me by surprise. After, I mean, we've talked to J.J. McCarthy many times. And it's never been like that. So it was like, man, you know, like, I don't know. Uh, that's, that was really surprising.

That was really my takeaway from earlier. And also, I mean, Dane said missed the mark. I thought that was a fair way to put it. And then, you know, I'm looking at the comments and it's like, you guys should go jump off the highest bridge in Minnesota. I'm like, I don't really understand where this is coming from. But I also think that this is the way everything works now. It's like instead of working through the conversation,

it's like attack someone, insult them. Like, that's what you do. So I don't really even know what to do with that when that happens. Punisher, you could say all that, but I don't think anyone here can comprehend the level of hate and insult he is faced. I'm still seeing nine memes. No, and look, I've talked about that. I've talked about that. And that's what I'm trying to convey is like to have some empathy for where J.J. McCarthy stands right now.

I mean, last year, he goes into the season thinking that he is QB1. He's going to be the Vikings franchise quarterback. They're going to go to the playoffs. they're going to compete and it's going to go great. And then by week two, he's hurt. And by week, I don't know, 12, it feels like it's kind of over. It just sort of comes apart and things happen so fast. And then on top of that, you are being nonstop heckled over one kind of silly comment

in a press conference after you're excited about a win. I hate that stuff. And I told you guys with Sam Darnold, there was nothing that made me happier than Sam Darnold just dunking on the entire universe by winning the Super Bowl because that guy got memed into, you know, eviscerated with the memes and everything else and every broadcaster and every commenter and everybody else. I mean, people just threw that seeing ghost thing at him for so many years, no matter how good he was, every bad game, I can't stand that. I can't stand athletes being bullied and stuff like this over silly little nonsense.

and the internet is just incredibly mean. And I know that myself from my comment sections that I see all the time. I'm like, yeah, what a, why do you listen if you hate me so much? But whatever, like keep driving my algorithm. That's fine with me. But also, hey, I get to say, I actually get to say this. Because in, in one month, I'll be able to say, I'm a man. I'm 40.

So it's a little bit different. So I do have empathy for that. I think that's really tough on athletes today. and, you know, Olivia Miles made a comment the other day for the link. She said something about how, you know, she doesn't listen to the criticism or whatever. And I was like, man, who is criticizing Olivia Miles? She's been a star since kind of day one. And I was like, oh, yeah, right, the internet.

There's always somebody heckling, always somebody saying something, always somebody making a, you know, a meme or whatever else. And I think that makes this much harder on a young quarterback than it would have been years ago, where it still would have been hard. Matt says he looked tense and defensive showing the scars. I feel for him, but he does have to improve to get there. Yeah, I mean, the body language was, it was not what we're used to seeing from J.J. McCarthy, who has typically been really comfortable in front of a lot of people.

So it comes down to, can you shake off all the stuff that's happened and put it aside and focus on development and getting better? and rather than looking at Kyler Murray as an adversary, looking at him as a teammate. That's what that's what's going to have to come down to. That's, that is funny. Purple Kool-Aid. People are treating Kyler versus JJ like an election and the winner will be determined in the comments section. That's funny.

That's funny. Charles says JJ haters. I mean, Charles, when you start with JJ haters, you're immediately like not in a good place. Remember the Vikings drafted him. The same the Vikings dumped Kirk to let Darnold walk. The same coach that bailed on golf. And the only thing on his resume is taking another team's Hall of Fame quarterback. So this is somehow about Sean McVeigh.

A lot of you are just a little bit confused, it seems like, about what the conversation is about. Somehow, Sean McVeigh took astray, the Super Bowl winning coach. I don't know. Drew, who on the Vikings brain trust let Sam go, all of them. They're all responsible. They're all responsible for that. And Kyler Murray is cleaning that up. Joker, will Kyler Murray look more like Sam Bradford or like her cousins throwing in practice?

Bradford could make a QB coach faint with the way he threw the ball. No one's going to match Sam Bradford. It will take many more. It'll take another 20 years. I'll be saying I'm a man. I'm 50 or 60 by the time I see someone throw the football like Sam Bradford in practice, because that was insane. The accuracy, I mean, there were entire practices where the ball never hit the turf at all.

And he wasn't perfect for sure on the field, but he was really good. And look, Bradford is another example. My gosh, Bradford, a guy who just got hammered on and hammered on. They used to go so hard on Sam Bradford. look how much money this guy made versus how many wins and everything else. And he really did prove people wrong as a Viking. It just didn't work out with his health. And he had setbacks because of his health and everything else.

I always want that person to succeed. I wanted it for Sam Bradford. I wanted it for Sam Darnold. I want it for J.J. McCarthy. You'd love to see somebody who gets knocked down, get up off the mat. But the difference between Darnold and McCarthy is that Darnold had the right attitude. And I don't know that he always did. I'm not sure.

I didn't cover him with the Jets or with the Carolina Panthers, and he may have matured his way into that. But Sam Darnold's attitude, you could be darn sure was one of the main reasons he was where he was in the position to have, like think about him going from Carolina's starting quarterback. That team was garbage. The coach was horrible,

had no idea what he was doing in the NFL, not sure he has any idea what he's doing in college either at this point. And that was the guy who gets fired. Darnold comes back in, plays pretty well, and Carolina says, get the hell out of here. We're going to go draft our quarterback and make a pretty rough trade with the Chicago Bears in order to do it. So get out of here. No team gives him a starting job. He goes to San Francisco.

They've got a number, what, three overall draft pick. And he beats the guy out. And then is a great teammate. This is a lesson for J.J. McCarthy. You can either take these or not. It doesn't matter. I don't care. And Sam Darnold doesn't either, whether you take them or not.

but he was a great teammate to Brock Purdy. And they worked together and Darnold learned and he grew. And he has repeatedly cited that year in San Francisco as a backup as the reason he succeeded the last two years. There's lessons everywhere. It's just if you want to take them or not. That's what it comes down to. But your question was about throwing the ball in practice. I mean, it's, it doesn't, I don't know how to put this exactly, but it doesn't have quite of the zip.

I would not say of Sam Bradford. Bradford was like 6-3 and was super strong. So Murray obviously is a little bit, a little bit. He's quite undersized. It has a real, it just has, it's like spiral-wise and it glides through the air. It doesn't flutter. It's not like, this is so weird describing how someone's catching a ball. But it has this lightness to it. It just floats into the receiver. hands. Even if he's throwing it hard, it sort of just clicks with them. It's not, it's not a heavy ball, which is kind of what J.J. McCarthy throws. But it's also not like he doesn't have accuracy, which was Nick Mullins. And I don't want to make it seem like he can't ramp up a little more velocity, but that's just kind of how it looks coming out of his hand and into the receiver's

hands. So it's somewhere in between because, you know, Kirk was good at anticipation throws as well. And Kirk would have some ugly ducks sometimes, but he threw a nice spiral most of the time as well. Son of beavers, lukewarm take. KOC can't develop rookie quarterbacks. JJ, Max, Jaron Hall.

He works better with veterans to fix them like Kirk, Sam, and Carson. I mean, I think every coach would have it a lot easier with veteran quarterbacks. I think this does play in Kyler Murray's favor that he doesn't have to teach the ground floor. But also,

I mean, look who you're talking about there. It's one first round quarterback. and then an undrafted free agent and a fifth rounder. I'm not sure that I mean, everybody's bad at quarterbacks until they're not. Like, every, I mean, this was like the, um, it's like how some universities have a bunch of quarterback busts. And then one of them works out. It's like, well, you're bad at quarterback development in college until you're not,

until that one guy works out. If you're the New Orleans Saints, my gosh, growing up, it was like if the New Orleans Saints could only get a quarterback, they must be cursed. and then all the sudden, breeze comes around, and it's like, you're cursed until you're not. The Buffalo Bills between Jim Kelly and Josh Allen. What?

I mean, you have JP Lossman and Kelly Holcomb and Drew Bletso going back a little farther than that. It's just a total mess. And it's like, here's Josh Allen. And suddenly you are the quarterback whisperer. I mean, I can't. It's way too small of a sample to say he can't develop someone. He's also worked with J.J. McCarthy truly for just.

one year. And if they hadn't put all of the eggs in the basket of McCarthy, we might be saying, man, you know, JJ's made a lot of progress because he was healthy and he's developed and everything else. But I also think, though, today, you know, it did draw me back a little bit to when Diana Rossini said that in one of her articles that one of the reasons they moved on from Darnold to go to JJ was they were afraid if they kept J.J. as a backup for Darnold, even for another year, that they would, quote, lose him, I think was in the article. And I was like, well, that's quite a comment. But he certainly didn't dispel that today.

Jim saying there's a high chance, hey, man, yeah, you know, there's not a high chance that Kyler Murray gets hurt and none of this matters. there is a chance for sure. There is a chance that that happens. Yes, that's true. Purple Kool-Aid. If Kyler comes in and lights it up, everyone will be happy.

I disagree. No one will ever be happy. Not everyone. They weren't happy when Sam Darnel was lighting it up. They couldn't wait for him to fail and get rid of him. You can say that sounds way cynical of me now, but there's a very high percentage of fans who were hoping that he would just not win that playoff game

and that they would get to J.J. McCarthy. So I think the same thing will exist. As long as McCarthy's here, that will exist. And the evidence is in the Justin Fields. Someone made the Justin Fields comparison to me the other day. And I thought it was perfect. It was like, that's yes. Because Chicago Bears fans, just a lot of them would not move on from the Justin Fields thing.

I'm not saying you have to move on from McCarthy. But they were so adamant that this is their franchise quarterback that no matter what happened, they, you know, didn't let it go until they got Caleb Williams. So as long as he's here, there's going to be those folks for sure, that if Kyler has a bad game, it's going to be like, why aren't you playing J.J. McCarthy? High boy time. Jefferson, 2,000 yards with Murray and watch out for Dylan Bell. I agree on the second part. 2000 is high. That was the Fandulul question of day, by the way. Fan duels rolled out a bunch of overunders overfandul.com. And one of them is

Justin Jefferson, 1,150.5 yards is his over under. That, I mean, anything can happen, but that one feels like it should be an easy, easy, easy over. Scamping around, don't want to miss any more of Jets Prime. Yeah. High boy time live in Arizona, and it was like Murray was blackballed from the team.

That organization as a whole, just you would not tell anyone to, shape the way that they build a football team around them. Purple Kool-Aid, Arizona has been regularly rated as one of the worst franchises by players, not a good indicator of success. Totally agree. Totally agree. And I actually thought when they hired Jonathan Gannon, they kind of did a good job of

bringing in a coach that had been, you know, had a good lineage. And then what did they do? They had a decent season. And then they were actually okay out of the gate, blew a game against San Francisco, but should have been probably three and two. if Marvin Harrison could catch a ball. And then Murray goes down. They lose a bunch and they tank and that's it.

Like, and now we're here. So to say, Charles, to say that they gave Kyler everything they could is a very funny statement. If you've done any research at all on Arizona. No, they did. Out of the gate, they gave him an amateur coach. They gave him a college coach who played in a system that doesn't work in the NFL. he did really well in it with DeAndre Hopkins and they went to the playoffs and he went nine and five

as a starter that year and had a great season and that was his highest graded year and then he got hurt after they shredded a lot of the roster and was brutal he's coming back from an ACL in 2023 and there's some ups and downs they get him a better coach but not an experienced coach or an experienced offensive coordinator the roster around him is absolutely brutal and my favorite stat I'll say a million times. And I was, I was, I was sharing this stat today at OTAs with other media members. Over the last three years, he's 13 and 17 as a starter. And anyone else is two and 19. I think that tells you a lot about the Arizona Cardinals. So, uh, Tasselios for the long term, I hope McCarthy could sit and learn. I don't see Murray being affordable next year. Well, it really

depends on one, what he thinks of being in Minnesota and how, I mean, how it goes. But let's say it goes well enough and he really wants to be in Minnesota, sort of like Daniel Jones in Indianapolis. It's workable. It's workable in the year 2027. It was not workable with Kirk's contracts that consistently took up 20%ish of the salary cap and were this big anchor immovable object at a time where the cap was not accelerating. It was. you go look, Pelliserro had a tweet about this a while back, but if you look at how much the salary cap has accelerated over the last even five years, it's insane. So now a $40 million contract is like if Kirk had made $15 million back when he first signed. And now the top quarterbacks

are getting 60, but he's not going to be asking for 60. I wouldn't think. I mean, I guess if he is, no one's doing that, more likely than not, but Daniel Jones has set a precedent. And if you play really well for a team, but there's still some question, $44 million over a couple of years is a really plausible number, but they've set up their salary cap to be able to deal with that. They are surprisingly younger now than they were just a year ago. So that's, you know, it's workable. It's not an impossibility anymore like it used to be.

And a lot of the teams, we went through this the other night, was it five of seven playoff teams had paid their quarterbacks last year in the NFC. So, uh, hands or Hans, uh, good to hear Golda is moving well, saw combine highlight of him tripping on the turf. Yeah. I'm sure they made fun of that. But if you saw his games in Cincinnati, uh, movement is a thing for him.

He just moves really well for somebody his size. He's got a little bend as a rusher. Uh, but I think what he does best is backpedals into space. And then if he needs to accelerate forward closing, it's, it's, it's, it's Anthony Barr like really. I mean, I think that is as good of a comparison as what, like Anthony Barr for how he moves, uh, as it is for someone like Andrew Van Ginkle, kind of similar there. Um, Nebel and Beal, easy for Kyler to come in as the veteran versus JJ, who from the beginning has been needing to prove he's a starting quarterback. Yeah. Um, yeah. Okay, now you're lying in

the second part, but sure. I mean, Arizona is tanking and I think they're doing a good job. I think they're doing a good job. I really do. I actually think that Arizona is doing the right thing. They're tanking. If you have Kyler Murray there and you win eight games, what good does it do you? You need to tank.

You need to lose a lot of games and you need to get high draft picks because no one's coming to Arizona as a free agent except for poor Tyler Algier, who they should trade. So, yeah, I mean, look, everyone in Arizona over the last couple of years, years that I have talked to has talked about his really good relationship with Jonathan Gannon and how he ran more of a complete offense, but there wasn't enough there. Their defense was poor in 2004 and the start of 2025, the weapons and the offensive line in the start of 2025 really struggled. When I watched that back on tape, I was like, geez, 2024 offensive line was actually

pretty good. Sometimes I'm just a little bit confused on some of the comments, but I'm doing it. my best. Blunts. Between us girls, how was Ju-on? That's funny. Thank you for changing the subject. Big.

That's the best way I can describe Joanne Jennings. Take the aggregators can take that as a detailed report from Purple Insider. No, Joanne looked good. He looked good. He made a couple plays. I mean, Joanne Jennings is big, though. And I was thinking about this. This is, because I was standing next to Mike Rand from the Star Tribune, you know, he's been on the show a number of times.

I've been on his show. And we were just chatting and we're like, when is the last time the Vikings had a big receiver like this? 6.3, like 220 pounds might be a little more than that who was actually good. So, LeQuan Treadwell was big, but he was not good. When was the last, I mean, is it Marcus Robinson? Like, when was the last Viking receiver who was big and good who could. kind of, because usually digs in Thielen, I mean, Thielen is big, but he's like 200 pounds big. He's not 225 pounds.

Maybe I'm giving two, what is, I don't know, what, what's Joanne listed? I think he's listed at like 2.15. I would go at least 220, but either way, 215, Thielen was not that big. He's big, but he's not that big. Like, you could confuse Joanne Jennings for a modern tight end. So, like, I, I'm not sure. I am actually not sure because Irv Smith sort of played wide receiver three in 2019, but that doesn't really count.

Rach's is one of the things that I came to appreciate about Sam Darnel was frankly how boring he was. I think being boring in the media is ultimately positive for a franchise quarterback. I agree with that. I mean, it's not so much. I thought that he could be interesting at times, but Sam Darnold was just not going to let you in. and he probably learned that very early in his career. I've seen that even from him as he won the Super Bowl. I mean, there's NFL films caught a couple little things of Darnold where you really,

like when he hugged his parents and stuff, gosh, that was awesome. But he's just not going to open up to you at the podium. He's not going to go out in front of the world and be like, let me tell you all my feelings. And J.J. McCarthy has been that really since day one. And when and when he's winning, everybody loves it. And when he's losing, then it comes across sometimes as not really reading the room quite. And that might have fallen under the category of today. So, you know, that's, it was one thing that I'm sure Sam Darnold developed over the years, though, of like, well, you know, I'm going to answer the questions.

And I never felt like he was disrespectful. He always answered the questions. But it was also who Sam Darnold was, though. When Sam Darnold came in and the first thing we're asking him is like, well, how do you feel about the quarterback? competition and what does he say? Man, I'm, you know, I'm just going to be a great teammate, do everything I can. And it's, we'll see what happens. And that's going to be up to the coaches, but I know I'm going to control what I can control. We can all answer this question of how you just give a very not, it doesn't have to even be disingenuous. That should actually be your approach.

I mean, that was the thing with Darnolds. I think a lot of it was actually genuine. It was like, I'm not, I'm not going to be, you know, overly emotional up. here. I'm just going to tell you guys that I can only control showing up every day, being a good teammate, running the offense, learning all I can learn. And then we'll see what happens. And that's why McCarthy has to take that approach because you don't know. Somebody else, you know, made a comment about an ACL or something, but it could happen. So you got to be ready. And if you're only going to be happy if the other guy gets hurt or something, like, that's a pretty tough place to be in. You know, I did not, I didn't, son of beavers, I did not look for Gavin Bartholomew.

I assume he was out there. If I had my, do I have my roster? No, I don't have it in my pocket. There were so many names. There's so many people. So I did a bad job of taking attendance, but I assume Bartholomew was on the other field. I saw a lot of T.J. Hawkinson and Josh Oliver today. Yeah, hi-boy time.

No one knows how it's going to go. Yeah, that's for sure. So, uh, purple Kool-A. who's looking like they belong and who doesn't. Too early for that, man. It's just, I hate to give that answer because I want to give you something. But, you know, that's why I've been mentioning Dylan Bell because he did look like he belonged, Bell, kind of right off the bat.

In terms of who doesn't, I mean, all the guys in the development field are not there yet. So, um, anyway, that's, uh, that's tough Joe bringing up the, uh, the Josh Jacobs thing. but that's something to watch what happens with Josh Jacobs. Oh, did it change? I'm sorry, I didn't really read that. Did it change the Fandual line? Let me look. I don't think that a running back having that happen.

If you didn't see, he was arrested with a lot of charges. But I'll check. I mean, I didn't, I don't think so. No, not really. Green Bay is still plus 250 to win the division. They're second behind the line. So it didn't really change anything there. I didn't think so.

But it is something to watch. And I know that it's really tough because I saw Green Bay people having a dialogue and conversation about this about, you know, when there's domestic violence and should we be talking about how it impacts on the field. But the thing is, we cover the team. And if a player's not going to be there, it does impact what's going to happen on the field. I think we can do it sensitively with all understanding that domestic violence is very serious and that Josh Jacobs should be. held to the extent of the law, but also innocent until proven guilty and, you know, the facts need to come out and everything else. But at the same time, he might be suspended and he might not be on the field. And I wouldn't be surprised if he's not. And that does change things

potentially for the Green Bay Packers football team. So you feel insensitive saying it, but that's, that's an absolute fact. Uh, it will be worth watching because he's a heck of a player. Um, yes, uh, high boy times. Jennings was out there today. Yep. Um, JP, uh, JP, What about Ty Ingram Dawkins and Elijah Williams? Do you think one of them will lose their spot to Smith, Wilbert, or Eric Johnson, or another D.T? I love that this is the second time Smith, Wilbert has come up.

That's a guy who signed from a rookie camp. I mean, I don't know. Like, you never know what's going to come of that. But I think they really like Elijah Williams. And I think that they see Ingram Dawkins is kind of a versatile type guy. Maybe I know I brought up Jihad Ward before, but he kind of reminds me of him as a bigger guy that could fit in multiple different places.

So I'm intrigued by both. I think that's a real battle. I don't know if I don't know which one they like more or believe has a higher ceiling. I don't think like Eric Johnson is someone who's just going to be depth. And the same for Isaiah, a louder milk if they make the team. They're just veterans you bring in as insurance policies. If someone gets hurt,

these guys have played NFL games before. They can stick their nose in and be okay. But you're hoping that the younger guys develop and are much better than them and you could just cut them at the end of training camp and say best of luck right so the development of ingram dawkins and elijah williams is a hundred percent worth watching because that can swing the defensive line in terms of its depth uh j p where did caleb ternan lineup i believe right tackle i did not make a note on that but i believe right tackle i think because i saw van de mark working in at left tackle obviously when there were some reps that darisal was in some reps where he wasn't

and Van DeMarc was working in. So I assume Tiernan was on the other side. When we get into some of these other OTA and minicamp practices, and it's not so much about Kyler Murray's first time out there, I'll try to do better when it comes to taking, you know, taking them a little more notes on some other guys. But Tiernan, I believe, is going to start at right tackle, and that's where they're going to develop him.

Joker, Ty Felton, and Dylan Bell, the best wide receiver quintet in the NFL. we'll see we'll see if those guys you know come along um purple kool-a to the fan dual question how did jefferson's hamstrings look if he could stay healthy then he's going to hit the over yeah the over under being 1,150 yards should be over yeah i've over or we riot slash panic yeah that's right that is absolutely right uh stephen do you think kOC pops uh is that props props rookies up too much too fast like dwayne mcbride or j j j mccarthy uh I think that KOC is always leaning toward positivity.

So it can come across that way sometimes. Yeah. I mean, I think that when it came to that franchise quarterback thing, he would probably undo it at that time. But you also have to understand that the first impression of J.J. McCarthy was really good. We were all talking about it that way.

I mean, I went back and watched, you know, just every once in a while, somebody will call me a Jerry McCarthy hater because it's very intelligent common. but, you know, if you're, I was curious, like, what did I say after his first preseason game? And I went back and watched it.

And I was like, yeah, that's how I felt about it. I, you know, I had felt that McCarthy had made great progress in his first training camp. And that by the time he reached that preseason game, we saw a lot of the things that everybody liked about him. I mean, he bounced back from interception. He showed the arm strength, the playmaking, little little pocket presence there. And, you know, last year, I think that circumstances. is played into it and then I think it snowballed, right? Like missing those five games coming off of a time where you missed an entire season,

it just kept setting him back to square one. But when KOC said what he said, I didn't think it was ridiculous. I remember writing about it in a hotel in Borea or whatever it's called Cleveland or Ohio and so not a place I want to return to. But I remember writing about it in the hotel that night and we did a podcast. probably me and Dane and we're like, yeah. I mean, everything that was said right there made a lot of sense about how he felt about J.J. McCarthy.

And we all thought at that moment that it was a temporary thing with Sam Darnold. So it wasn't a ridiculous comment. I mean, I don't know, Dwayne McBride. Like they, you know, he's going to compliment. They draft a player. They're going to compliment them. Sometimes, yeah, you can't go too far when it comes to like putting stock in that. If Mike Zimmer comments, compliments someone, you're going to maybe put.

a little more into because it doesn't always do it. But, you know, I think KOC's always going to lean toward being positive toward players. Rache, we should use our judgment when it comes to Pro Bowls. Yeah, Kyler's were legitimate, but, yeah, I mean, it's turned into absurdity. It wasn't always. That is only a very recent thing where it's turned into complete nonsense. But, yeah, it's fair enough. It's fair enough.

I can, whatever way you want to look at it, Kyler Murray has been ranked. in the top 15 every year of his career except one by the NFL executives who do the quarterback tiers article. I mean, that's probably the best way to put where he ranks in the NFL. And then by PFF, he's been 12th a couple times, top 10 once. So that's, that's kind of where he can be. Pete's good to see if Pizza Gary took a beating in the other chat. Oh, it is what it is, man. I mean, I have, I'm not new to this, nor am I concerned about it. You know, it's, that's how it goes. if I can get through Kirk Cousins' 2021 season with the tribalist fans, then this is absolutely nothing.

Well, one thing that people should know is, I mean, you've got to have figured out by now that you're not going to bully me out of an opinion. I mean, if that's what you show up to my comment section thinking you're going to do, best of luck. because I've been doing this for 10 years and I came up in a sports radio universe of people calling in and yelling at me all the time. I do not care. It does not bother me in the slightest, but it does help the algorithm. And the thing is that no matter what happens, there's a consistency there, which is I'm always going to do this based on the information that we have, right? No matter what it is. It's like we have this much information on Kyla Murray.

we have this much information on J.J. McCarthy. We have this much information on Ty Felton. We have this much information on KOC. That's how it's always going to be shaped where the opinions are coming from. So you can have whatever take you want. Strong football takes are great. I don't mind people getting upset with me or whatever else. I think if you're respectful, then you're always welcome here.

But when it comes to the opinions or, you know, how I'm going to lay it out, it's always going to be, here's the facts that are gathered, and here's what I think of those facts. And so whether it's a quarterback competition or a punting competition, that's how it's going to go. And man, I'm hoping we get that punt in competition. Charlie said that Murray was talking with McCown after practice. Did you see JJ go to McCown or KOC for extra details? I wasn't really looking for that. So I can't, I don't want to say, no, he didn't.

I just saw Kyler working with McCown after practice. I don't know if, well, McCarthy's press conference was up first. And so Murray was doing some extra stuff while McCarthy came over. It's really, it's not super relevant. It's just that I noticed it. I noticed that Murray was taking some extra reps. But I wasn't taking a note of, I was watching the rep. So I wasn't like looking, oh, is McCarthy going over to KOC or something like that?

Usually doesn't happen a lot in this scenario. Training camp is where they will have a lot more. of it's supposed to work this way. Usually with this, they go through it, they go back, they look at the details and then come back the next day. So grinding gears, odds that McCarthy is traded before the regular season, I would go like at this moment, maybe 25% after today. I probably would have had it at 10% before today.

I don't think it's going to happen. But if the disposition is going to be that he is really on. happy and frustrated and if he doesn't perform pretty well and it feels like it's just better for everybody to part ways, then it's possible. I mean, I still don't think it's a great idea. Purple Kool-Aid, you want to run the possibility of creating a locker room issue. No, it's not going to be that. It's not going to be that.

Not here. I think that that can happen, but I don't think it's happening here with the locker room issue and, you know, people taking some. I don't think that's really going to happen. I mean, you saw, like, veterans have just been through too much. And there's so many great veterans in this locker room. And, man, if you want to see how to handle something like this, just watch Justin Jefferson talk about it. Justin Jefferson was like asked 50 times in different interviews over the last few weeks and the press conference he gave with us.

So what do you think of the quarterback competition? And he said, hey, it's exciting, man. Like, let the best man win. We'll see how it goes. And I'm pumped for it. And like, that's how you kind of, oh, all right. Well, Justin Jefferson made no headline whatsoever and just sort of kept it kept it on the positive. And there you go.

But Jefferson's also a grown-up. So, Rache says, think he's gone July or August. It could happen. I'm not going to count it out entirely. Beaver's best friend. I know it's way too early, but how did Joanne Jennings look? Hoping the COC can soothe this animal spirit. So did he say that?

Is that something he said, the animal spirit? I don't know. I know he's a unique dude. But when we're talking about how he looked, I mean, I can really only say that fine. Like he's a veteran receiver and he caught a couple passes. I mean, he's not explosive. You're never going to see that, but powerful. I mean, that's what you can pick up on right away from Joanne Jennings is this guy is bringing something very different.

I'm too far behind in the chat to get answers if people gave them to me. But I was like, this is a big dude. This is a very big dude. Wild Central saw an article on the internet. Can Jake Golda be as versatile as Ben Lieber is? As a broadcaster, Ben is a very versatile broadcaster. No, he was a very good player as well. I don't think it's a bad comp.

I think if, and Ben is a big guy too, Ben Lieber, certainly bigger than most reporters from the shoulders. You know, I mean, I think that there's something there because comparing him to Van Ginkle is a little bit tough. Van Ginkle is one of one. He's really difficult to replace. He's so unique and it took a long time. Lieber might be a better comp of someone.

Lieber was a playmaker and he could blitz and get sacks and he was good against the run. He was a good all-round player. So, yeah, I mean, I could see something like that. Raw dog says, uh, respect your takes, but it feels like, uh, it feels like you've been taking everything. J.J. does or says in a negative light. People like Pelliserro are taking a relatively different tune. Okay. I don't,

I don't think so because I never think of anything in positive, negative. I don't put stuff into categories like that. I just look at it as here's what happened today. And my reaction is that I think there needs, if that's how he really feels, if it wasn't just something that came to mind and he said it, and it's how he really feels. is that, hey, we're just two guys in a classroom and he's over there and I'm over here.

And he kind of said it twice. So it's like it wasn't like a mistake, one off comment. Like, if that's, if that's how you feel, I think that you should shift a little bit in the way that you look at this and approaches. And the more you can learn from anybody in your life who's been through things or who has talents that you don't have, that you should take that approach. And when you are, if you are in. a backup quarterback position that what you should do. And look, I spent five years or so doing radio with Sage Rosenfels, former Vikings backup, journeyman quarterback.

I learned a lot about that world, right? And Sage had a career in part because, and look, JJ's got more raw talent than Sage did, of course. But Sage was around a lot longer than a lot of quarterbacks because of his approach, which was going to do anything it takes for the team, right? So if that's the backup quarterback, then I'm going to prepare the scout team the best I can. And that's why I was making the point about Steve Young. So, you know, I don't think it's on the negative side. And, you know, Pelliserro's got his takes. And I know Tom and respect him a lot. So he can view it the way he

wants to view it. But I'm not going to compare myself to somebody else. I do not listen to what anybody else says about this team because I'm going to give you what I think, not what somebody else thinks. So what I think is a press conference like today is certainly not the end of the world and it's not the end of McCarthy's career and they don't have to trade him after today or anything else. But I do think that this is a hard time for him. And I'm empathetic is what I said, which is again, funny that, you know, the comment section is going off and doing whatever it's going to do. it's like, I'm empathetic toward this. This must be very hard.

It must be very hard to face those questions when the last year he's being asked about being the franchise quarterback. But there are ways that quarterbacks traditionally in this situation have handled this, that's sort of the right way to pour water on the fire as opposed to gasoline. Abnormal says, you can't tell me, JJ didn't spend a large amount of time rehearsing the answer and probably running it by others. He knew what was up. I don't know.

I mean, I didn't feel. I didn't feel that way, but I mean, this is not, this is not something I could tell you. I mean, I'm not in J.J. McCarthy's head of whether it was rehearsed or not. But, yeah, I mean, obviously we all know how it came across. So, Joker, can we cancel our joint practices with the Ravens at the last minute go practice with the Raiders? I don't trust the scummy ratbirds. Why is that? That is a very random thing to say.

Eric, JJ put it all out there. don't blame him. Why does he have to be comfortable with the situation? A competition isn't comfortable in the approach of fighting fire with fire may be the right path. I mean, I don't. There's a reason why nobody does this. Like, there's a reason why you don't have every QB2 come out and say, I refuse to talk to the other guy. Because you're on a team and you're supposed to be all pulling the rope toward the same direction,

which would be Super Bowl. togetherness, right? Not, it's like, it's the coach's problem to teach him the offense or whatever. Like, I don't know. It just, that's just not usually how it's, how it's viewed. A chip on his shoulder is perfectly fine. But you also have to have the humility to understand that you don't know everything. And you have two veteran quarterbacks in that room that you can learn a lot from.

If you can see the bigger picture from J.J. McCarthy's seat and see the bigger picture and say, I have a long way to go in the national football league. And while I am mad as heck right now about this, I also have to make lemonade out of lemons and take as much as I can from these two veteran quarterbacks that I am blessed to have in my quarterback room and take the hard coaching to heart, even if it's not making me very happy. I mean, there's a lot of humility that has to go on here. And that's why I said empathetic.

That's very hard to do. It's very hard to do after you have been at the top of the mountain for the entire time. And I, you know, you feel it with Kyler Murray. You feel that Murray has been at the top and has been knocked down or top-ish and has been knocked down and is now in a position to come to the podium and say, yeah, it's great. If I'm working with a younger quarterback, would he have said that at 24? I don't know if he would have. But that's what comes along with maturity and experience.

first OTA presser and we have cult and crucifixion. You're right, you're right. It must be Vikings football. It might be Vikings football. Skull shadow, a very good thought here. Never let your opinion become your identity. That's a good thought.

That's deep. I like that. Sneedly didn't seem like JJ didn't seem to fit compared to Kyler's interviewed today, Kyler seemed to say the right things, whereas JJ seemed like a deer in the headlights. And JJ is usually very comfortable in those scenarios. Um, but it's a very different situation than he's ever been in. Kyler is answered for everything. Huge wins, big losses. Everything. He's gone through that a million times. So Dan said, I bet in JJ's next press conference, he will speak glowingly of Kyler and the, quote the organization. Probably, probably. We saw some

raw emotion today from him. That was the takeaway. Skull's shadow, if McCarthy cannot realize that he's the only, not the only quarterback on the roster with a contract in 2027 and cannot sit and learn to play a cool, he might as well ask for a trade. Viken, you were fair in your assessment of McCarthy and Kyler Murray. Appreciate that. I try to be.

I mean, I try to be fair for everything. And it rubs people the wrong way sometimes. I know that. I've been through that many, many times. And I've had people say a lot of nasty things to me because of it. It is what it is. Like I chose to cover the team and do live streaming or be on radio previously or whatever it is. So, you know, it's all right.

But I do appreciate that you feel that way. And that's always the main goal for me, no matter what, is always to try to present it in the most fair and accurate way possible. T.S. Blake, we need to chill on Kyler. He isn't good by the second half of the year. We'll be benched and playing call of duty. You sound very, very smart. Come on, man. We got to be better than that. My comment section has a high bar. Got to be better. Got to be better than that. If you want to make an astute point about Kyler Murray's inconsistency and you want to cite his QBR, which I did in an article about Kyler Murray when they got him, and how it's bounced up and down a lot. throughout his career, even on a game to game basis, then that is a very fair assessment. If you want to throw the call of duty stuff out there, you just sound like a dumbass. I mean, look, the guy learned the Drew Petzing offense, which is rooted in the West Coast, which came from Kyle Shanahan, which came from Gary Kubiak.

That's who he worked for. That's the offense Kyler was running and was the 12th best PFF quarterback in the league in 2024. that's who we're talking about here. So if he was just playing video games, man, I don't know how he learned that offense because there's a lot to it. Now, early in his career, did he have to learn stuff like Caleb Williams did last year and like JJ still does? Yeah, yeah, I think that's clear.

And did he let maybe his physical gifts, you know, just kind of take over a lot of times? I think so early in his career. But I also think what I've seen recently is that that wasn't the case as much, that he was playing much more within the system. and he still does make mistakes at times. But man, you know, making fun of a player for playing video games in 2026 is just lame. It's just lame. You know who plays video games?

Justin Jefferson. How will he ever do it? Kyler Murray played in a chess tournament yesterday and had a really good practice. Imagine. He was on chess.com. He lost to Justin Herbert. Oh, Justin Herbert's playing video games. Anyway, uh, Viking is anyone else completely sick and tired of hearing all the time?

spend on quarterback. Thank you for the insights on Elijah Williams. Yeah, I mean, look, quarterback is always in forever going to be the number one thing that people want to talk about. No matter what. I mean, I saw on the internet the other day, people were saying that John Elway wasn't that good and it got all sorts of engagements. Like, okay, great, great stuff guys. Good job. Internet. Take one of the greatest quarterbacks of all times. Say he sucks. What a model to get attention. Well done. But it's always going to be the big. thing. It is the biggest thing. With this franchise, it's always the biggest thing. Until you have it, until you know you have it, it's always going to be the biggest discussion. And you know what,

had McCarthy done what I said, then it wouldn't have been as big of a discussion today. There would have been more stuff that we would have talked about. Joker, the little shot at B-flow was great, creating an ultra-competitive environment. Yeah, I mean, that is going to be really interesting to watch as it goes along in the summer with Brian Flores. I just think that there's a lot more to what Kyler Murray can have around him than what he's ever had before. And that includes Brian Flores. And he's already,

he already said today, like that he's been talking with Flores and working things out. And that's, that's what Flores loved about Sam Darnold, that Darnold and he really clicked. And I think it helped with Sam Darnold a ton to click with Brian Flores. He's the best defensive mind of football. So again,

Kyleor Murray's deal. defenses just go ahead and Google them. They were really bad. This is a different scenario. Skull Shadow Murray has an injury history. I think Wentz was brought in because McCarthy cannot be trusted even as a second stringer. He's got to earn the second string job. Yeah.

He has to earn QB2 because last year, Wence was the better quarterback. Purple Kool-Aid. I don't think it's always factored in that KOC has some pride in JJ's development as well. If your first rounder, you pick it as a position, you're supposed to. to be a wizard imploded. It's a poor reflection, right. And so when there's this whole idea of, well, they're giving up on him or, you know, they're just by getting Kyler Murray, like, I don't think that.

I think that nobody wants it to work more than KOC. I think if you told KOC, yeah, actually, J.J. McCarthy's going to outperform Kyler in training camp this year. He'd probably be over the moon. He'd be like, oh, that's fantastic. Because then he's still under contract. and he can still be your quarterback. And if it fails with Murray, if you go two and four to start the season,

you could go to McCarthy and then off you go, right? I'm sure he'd love that to happen. I don't know where this came from, Hunter. Who is the NBA goat? I don't know. Or is this like talking about the, oh, like the tribalism? Yeah, yeah. Dustin, JJ sounded like he should, pissed off and motivated.

Local media wants him to say, I suck and I'll quit. See, every one of the comments like this just sound dumb as heck. I can't sugarcoat it for you. Every comment like that just sounds so stupid. Why would the local media want J.J. McCarthy to fail? I mean, we spent so much time. We spent so much time on J.J. McCarthy last year talking about every part of the guy. I mean, first of all, when he was at his best, he's a media darling at the podium. That doesn't matter so much to me. But I mean, I think J.J. McCarthy has come in to Minnesota and he's won a lot of people

over when he first got here and looked great from the start. And wouldn't it be nice for Purple Insider to cover the franchise quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings? My God, do you think I enjoyed this with Kirk Cousins where it was always a freaking debate over and over and over and over the same discussion? No, I didn't really have the greatest time always. the time with the same Kirk Cousins conversation, just like already we're into the same J.J. McCarthy conversation where if you point out the stuff about, you know, how this is,

how this is gone so far. Then also you're a hater. It's like, no, look, man, it would be so much more interesting to cover a team that was competing for Super Bowls with Justin Herbert or Eli Manning or whatever franchise quarterback, even if they weren't. weren't perfect than it is to cover another quarterback what's going to happen. So, yeah, I mean, I guess, I guess everybody just wants them to fail. It's, it's everybody else, right? Come on. I think we know that's not true.

Rache, Sam is a better, Sam Darnold, the better person than most of us. I think he said that he thinks the out indefinitely mononucleosis memes are funny. Yeah, that is funny. I don't know if he thought it was funny when it happened. So, anyway. Um, Mike said, uh, from the first few throws I've seen Kyler's light years ahead of JJ, even on air, McCarthy missing his spots late on his throws and McCarthy having the audacity to be salty after how he played is not good.

Um, one thing I'll give you, Mike is that, uh, you always bring some heat to the comment section. I'll, I'll give you that. Akeler is light years ahead of him as a thrower. Yeah. I mean, that's because he's more natural with it. You do not make it at five foot 10. the NFL if you can't throw that ball. So the reason, nor do you get picked as the top draft pick.

That does not happen in the NFL. You would not start if you're five foot 10 unless you really can throw it. So it was my expectation. And I'm not going to go too far in judging what you said about McCarthy. There were a few throws, yes, that were a little bit behind. There was one that probably, you know, or could have been an interception today. And then there were others that were accurate. I thought McCarthy had a fine practice. I wasn't like vomiting on the soccer. because it was so poor or anything, it looked fine. But when Murray's out there, it stands out. And it should.

Like, that's why they went and got them. So, goofster. If Bradford was healthy, we would have won it all in 2017. Yeah, I can't disagree with that. The way he played in the opener, my goodness. Honeybarrel, aren't the Vikings leaning into being mediocre by signing Kyler Murray? He's 28, and he is who he is. You may want to check out some other quarterbacks historically.

when you say he's 2080 is who he is. There are quite a few quarterbacks through NFL history. Was there a guy named Sam Darnold who was 27 when he showed up here? Yes. So here's what you need to keep in mind with Kyler Murray. Is supporting cast matters. It's a huge deal. If you can meet certain requirements of the quarterback position,

that's what's driving success. Jimmy Garoppola was not a great quarterback. You know, Jalen Hertz. is not always a perfect quarterback. These guys have reached Super Bowls because their supporting casts were good. And Kyler Murray has not had anything like this. So if you're saying he is who he is, well, that might be true,

but his supporting casts are not who they've been. That stat about the defense and special teams was wild from Mike Sando. That they were, that he got the least support in the league from defense and special teams. That's crazy. can we ban darn old discussion we wouldn't have won with him well you'll never know that and uh no i don't think we can i don't think we can forget that they gave away a guy who won a super bowl last year so i i don't think we're going to just pretend it didn't happen it happened uh hunter my stance on the jj interview is that uh this has been tough on him and he wasn't

really able to hide it that doesn't mean i think they should trade his ass immediately that's very fair that's and that was my point you know the raw emotion kind of came out there, I think. 12, mulatto, 22, like the idea of a Richardson, JJ swap. Kyler's going to be QB1 at the start of the year. It really depends on, I think, how Kevin O'Connell feels about J.J. McCarthy. If you are wanting to continue to push this and you might have to just fight through it a little bit with him being clearly down on the situation, then you shouldn't do it. then you shouldn't move him because he's under contract.

But if you feel like this is just sort of hit a wall and it's better for everybody to part ways, then maybe you do consider something like that. Hunter says much rather have a pick. Richardson is probably just a bust. Yeah, I mean, you're probably right about Richardson. That's a hard thing to overcome, not really being able to throw at all. But at the same time, I mean, he is a freak. He is an absolute freak and could be with health and development.

at least, well, I'm trying to think of like a backup type of quarterback who was a great athlete who could give you something. I don't know if the upside is ever going to be there, but Richardson has had legitimately good games and is a prolific runner, which raises the floor of him being in a game, gives him a chance to win. But, I mean, you might be right about that. you know, Mike, I always do give Arizona a hard time because they're a terrible franchise. That's why. I understand that they've got to a Super Bowl with Kurt Warner who's an all-time great quarterback. But since then, they have been as bad as Cleveland. They've been as bad as the Jets.

They deserve my commentary. So Skull's Shadow, remember the amount of people that comment on YouTube is like 1% of Vikings fans. You know, that's true. And it's always, you know, the most aggressive. Kerplupy thoughts on the Josh Jacobs situation that will have real NFC North implications. Yeah, you're right. It will. And it's worth watching is all I can really say.

I mean, who knows how that's going to turn out? But if you're the NFL and I was disappointed in the way that the NFL handled the Delvin Cook situation a couple years ago, and I'm very interested to see what they do with James Pierce and with Josh Jacobs. because after Ray Rice, they made a big stand with stuff like this. But also there's a legal system and people deserve their due process in the United States of America. So we can't say for sure what the facts are of the situation until we really know because it's pretty short on facts at this moment. And the Packers didn't reveal a heck of a lot more. But I also think if you're the Packers, I mean, this thing might not be resolved by week one.

What do you do? Can you just throw them out there? Like, that seems very callous. But it is the NFL and it's pretty callous. So I don't know. James Pierce, same thing. I think, but James Pierce happening a while back might result in a quicker suspension. I think the NFL has been very clear on leaning toward waiting until things play out legally before they act.

So Jacobs may be on the field or he may not. I really don't know. Dirty Mike will be huge having a receiver that could beat press coverage. Yeah, they got two of them. Thank you, Don Engy. Appreciate the compliment there. Hunter, it's going to be a long offseason. We need Kyler to win some games so people will shut up.

Yeah, there's a long way till those games get played. I didn't expect this to be the main, I mean, I expected it to be the main discussion of how they looked, but I really didn't expect a press conference to be the main conversation. I can tell you that. Jared, I get what you're saying when you said it makes you sad that we've created a system where being open and honest and not behaving like a robot creates a huge media title wave. But I don't think that really applies here. I really don't.

I really don't think that J.J. McCarthy is being victimized by the media landscape in this case. He was very revealing in how he felt about the Kyler Murray situation. And yes, that's fair. But also, there's the reason why. There's like the reason why you act, I would say, professionally in front of the media when you're asked those types of questions is so you're not creating a distraction. You know what it's like out there. You know that anything like this is going to be discussed because it's May and everyone's looking for football conversations with OTA starting. So you know that that's what's going to happen.

No one is saying don't ever show any personality or anything else. But when you say something like, you know, we're like two high school kids at the other sides of the room. And that's how you're describing how you view the quarterback situation. I mean, it's, it's very notable. And it's worth discussing of where does how, how is he dealing with this? And it doesn't seem like the answer is great. So, yeah, that's just worth discussing.

I mean, media title wave. I don't know. Like, it's not life and death to have a conversation about somebody's, I mean, some people are acting like it in the comment section. That's for sure. But it's not. We're just having a conversation about what he said. So, I don't know.

I don't think it's that deep, man. Was Monkel Goodwine at OTAs? Whoever you are, thank you. That is, I have no idea. But that is a great, great pull. And the only reason I don't. is because they separate the UDFAs and stuff along with the first and second teamers who are like already pretty locked into their positions.

But I love that you asked. If Tiernan is at right tackle, Sionora to Brian O'Neill, no, I don't think so necessarily. I mean, it might be, it might be if they really love what they see. But at the same time, you know, with they were going to put them at right on the right side because Vandamark is the backup left tackle. And I'm sure that they'll cross-train a little bit there, but that just makes sense to me. Mr. J. Swan says Jacob Thomas and Jacoby Thomas are both 6'1 and 212 pounds. You're welcome for this useless knowledge.

That is great commentary, Mr. J. Swan. They do not look exactly the same, but their names do. Hunter, if J.J. could be traded for like a second, then I'm all in on it personally. I don't think that's possible. I don't think anyone is doing a second right now. Stephen, I understand the fan duel line on Jefferson, maybe more of an emphasis on running, and to quote Kyler Murray,

an embarrassment of riches at the skill position. That's fair enough, yeah, if you're distributing the ball and running and you lose some dropbacks by scrambling, yeah, I could see that. But 1,100 yards, someone like Jefferson, I feel like it's got to be higher than that.

Jay says, why are the coaches not saying QB mechanics for Kyler? He whips his leg more than JJ. Because Kyler is one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the NFL, so it doesn't matter. I mean, there's a right way to throw the football, but at the same time, you can't look at Kyler Murray's being similar to anyone and the leg whip thing. I don't know. I mean, just the level of stupidity of this thing is pretty deep.

But, yeah, they're not going to be, they're not teaching a pro quarterback who has been around this long and had this much success how to throw a ball. It's actually disturbing that they were teaching. J.J. McCarthy laid into last year trying to do it in the middle of the season. That's just not done in the NFL. You don't teach mechanics in the middle of a season. The fact that they felt that was necessary was really concerning the fact that it happened last year. Yeah, Jared, you know, let us remind ourselves that J.J. McCarthy is basically a kid.

That's exactly what I've said is that, you know, he's going through all this for the first time. Also, though, it's time. It's like year three. It's time. Your brain isn't fully formed. Come on, man. I mean, we just, look, look, it's just a press conference. We don't need to get into frontal lobe stuff.

Frontal lobes, crucifixions. It's been weird here today. I got to say. Gotta say. Let's not twist JJ's words. I didn't twist any of JJ's words. So, but this is, this is great. I didn't even get into this part of the comment section.

You're hired by the Vikings and this is biased content. I'm not hired by anyone. I own my own company. Why do you hate J.J. McCarthy? I don't. Okay. Probably time to wrap it up, but I am like amused. I'm actually amused.

I am actually amused at this point. Why do you hate him? Oh, I don't know, man. Because he's taller than me. I only like the quarterbacks who are shorter than I am. Oh, man. A little bit of silly, a little bit of silly season today. But you know, at least we had something to talk about.

is there is there bots though like are there is this are these real people that i'll just say the same thing over and over again um let's see don do you think Xavier scott could be cubby or rb two by thanksgiving no but i think he could be a contributor i do demand claiborne is very young you know inexperienced he played at wake forest so uh Xavier scott had some moments last year like I wouldn't be shocked if he plays a lot of special teams early on and is active on game day. They can bump him out to wide receiver. I liked a lot of what I saw from Xavier Scott. I don't think he's like a superstar, but I think he can get in the game.

I don't think, well, I see what you're saying, though. Actually, you know, I was dismissive, but I see what you're saying. If Aaron Jones gets banged up and DeMond Claiborne isn't ready, then Xavier Scott might play. So I see what you're saying on there. And I think that they like him maybe more than everyone else does. with Xavier Scott, but I also wouldn't be terribly shocked if they looked for one more veteran to bring in at that position. Thank you for asking about another position.

That was nice. So I think we've covered just about everything. But Hunter, I do appreciate, I do appreciate the fact that Hunter is trying to explain to the bot people about the way things went last year. I mean, look, you just, you can't, you can't change the facts. So this is probably a good time to call it a day. But I appreciate how, um, how interactive we were, uh, this evening. My, my thing is you, you, you can't really change, uh, the facts of the matter, right?

Um, the facts of what happened last year, the facts of why Kyler Murray is here. And J.J. McCarthy is aware of why Kyler Murray is here. And my thought for, uh, J.J. McCarthy is that he showed some raw emotion, uh, today. about how he's feeling about this quarterback situation. And I think that that's probably really, really tough. And if he had played better last year, he wouldn't be in this position. And if he fixed the mechanics, then he wouldn't be in this spot. If he had good timing and chemistry with Justin Jefferson, he wouldn't be in this spot.

But now he is. So he has to dig himself out of it. And no one can do it for him. That's what he has to understand, too. It's not us. It's not people on the internet. It's not Kevin O'Connell. it's not John Beck, it isn't anybody.

There's nobody else that can do it except for him. And I don't think that it's that helpful in toward doing it to talk about, to take this approach of like, I'm doing my own thing, you're doing your own thing and whatever else. I don't know that it's that helpful. I also don't know that every chip on the shoulder is a good chip on the shoulder. We always talk about it as if it's a good thing. But I've been around a lot of football players whose chip was too big.

and who thought everybody was out to get him. So you don't want to fall into that trap either. You don't want to fall into the trap of feeling like you're the victim. The stats are what they are. They tell the story of how you played last year. And it wasn't great. So there's a lot of things to kind of look at here with J.J. McCarthy, you know, and from what he said.

And to see going forward now, well, how is this going to play out between those two guys and where's it going to fit in? So overall, what a first day of OTAs? It wouldn't be Vikings land if it wasn't exactly like this. But I would also suggest that, you know, you folks in the comment section, hate this player, hate that player. You might just want it to take a deep breath because that's not how anything works at Purple Insider industry. So anyway, I'll have more over at Purpleinsider. Football. And make sure you check out my feature on Chuck Demings that's over there, the Vikings fifth round

rookie. I talked to his defensive coordinator for the story. Very, very interesting background stuff on him. So make sure you check that out. Purple insider dot football. So thanks everybody for stopping by and having this conversation. And we will definitely continue it going forward here. A plan is to be live again probably tomorrow night. And also I've got a conversation coming with Drew Dinsick from NBC Sports, who is a really interesting guy. And we do a show every year where we make predictions. And a couple of years ago, he predicted Kyler Murray to the Vikings. So we're going to talk about that.

So make sure you keep an eye out for that. And if you haven't already MFed me in the comment section of my breakdown with Dane Mizatani over on the channel, check that out too. That was our reaction immediately after J.J. McCarty's press conference. it. So thanks, everybody. And we'll talk to y'all again soon. Football.