Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - A way-too-early look at the Vikings 2025 opponents

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

Matthew Coller and Manny Hill pick a made up schedule for 2025 and talk about all the Vikings' opponents outlooks for this offseason. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And I was thinking, Manny, the other day, it's like, man, with a Super Bowl matchup like this, that our audience is not into. I don't think that they really too much want to hear us break down offensive versus defensive line of two teams that they're not excited about. So I thought to myself, well, what can we do then for the next couple of weeks? And this is what, this is where I get to, I get to spread my wings like a pterodactyl and fly with creativity. So I've got some fun things coming up for our audience. And I thought one thing that would be great since all season long, you picked the

schedule would be for you to pick a 2025 schedule because after the super bowl, we've got some plans for the next few shows. So next week on Thursday, now I've already confirmed this. Brian Murphy is in for super bowl trivia. So it's going to be you versus Murph and maybe we'll put like a 50 bones on the line or something. You versus Murph for trivia, which I think you're feeling pretty good about your chances there. But, uh, so we're going to do that next Thursday. And I was like, man, well, well, what's on my mind for this week? You've picked the schedule all year long. Why not have you jump in and pick a 2025 schedule? Even though we don't know every team's off season, how new coaches are going to work out,

whatever. That's the fun part of trying to look forward. And along the way, we can have a look, see at how tough we think the Viking schedule is right now. And some of the main factors of those teams in the off season compare to the Minnesota Vikings. So, uh, you ready for this? Let's do it. I'm pumped. All right. Well, uh, before we get started, let me ask you a quick question about the Super Bowl. Do you feel any different than the other day? Because when we talked, it was Monday and it was right after. And I think there was a pang of disappointment from everybody. And this is not about the game. I think it's going to be good, but it's about more of there's no real storyline. And if you took every other combination of playoff teams and said they made the Super Bowl, you would have come up with something more compelling than this for any other possible matchup.

But are you still feeling that way or feeling a little bit lethargic about the Super Bowl? Yeah, I'm still kind of feeling the same way about it. I mean, I'm'm gonna watch the game because i never missed the super bowl even if i'd hate the matchup i'm still gonna watch um but i'm still just not overwhelmingly excited about you know all the storylines that are going to be because these are storylines that have been kind of harped on and talked about all year you know the the idea of the chiefs possibly repeating for the first you know and the first team to to the three-peat in the Super Bowl era

that's been talked about all year like going into this season people were talking about the Chiefs potentially doing that and the Saquon thing you know that's been a story all year as well as we've seen the Giants be you know an abysmal team and the Eagles have gone on, of course, to have a great season. And I feel like those are going to be the two things that are going to be talked about the most going into this Super Bowl. And those are storylines we've been talking about all year as an overall fan base of the NFL. So I'm still not super excited about the game, but I'll watch because we're going to see some of the best players on the planet go head to head in the biggest uh the biggest night of the year well and that's been my sort of message as well or that i've adopted just now which is look it's the super bowl get some pizza get with some buddies watch it everything doesn't have to be a crisis it's a

little disappointing but it doesn't have to be some sort it's a little disappointing but it doesn't have to be some sort of oh it's mahomes again will we ever win what am i gonna do with my life i can't stand football anyway it doesn't have to be that it's the super bowl we can actually have some fun uh watching football we kind of tried to urge people to do that i think the air went out of the room for me when i'm like what am i gonna going to say about this? I have a football show. I want to talk about it, but I just, no one wants to, uh, until after the game is over. And then if it's a classic, everyone will be like, all right, fine. It was a classic, but there's no real legacy on the line. Patrick Mahomes can lose the Superbowl and like, well, he's still the best quarterback of a generation because he's already had so much success.

And with Philadelphia, if they lose to Mahomes, it'd be like, oh, another team lost to Mahomes. Well, what are you going to do? And then that's pretty much it for even the reaction. So the game will be fun to break down if it turns out to be good. If it doesn't turn out to be good and it's a blowout one way or another, like 2020 was with Tampa Bay kind of trouncing the chiefs. Oh man. Then we are in for a kind of a long week of Superbowl reactions. So yeah, I haven't felt a whole lot different either. So why don't we get started? And just the disclaimer here, I'll probably say it a few times. Of course, this is a fake schedule for next year.

We have the Vikings opponents, so that's not fake. But I don't have them in order until May. I think everybody knows that by now, but just to put it out there, I'm not leaking the Vikings schedule way before they made it. But our reasoning is to take a look at what every other team that the Vikings will be facing is looking at for their offseason and then getting expectation. But here's what I want you to do first, Manny, before we dive into the schedule, I need you to decide who's playing quarterback for the Vikings for this schedule, because you can't pick the Viking schedule without saying

who you think is going to be the starting quarterback. I'm going to go with JJ McCarthy. Okay. I think it's just the most, probably the most likely scenario at this point that it's going to be McCarthy starting week one. I was hoping that you would say that. Cause I didn't want everyone to shut off the show. So I wanted them to keep watching. And so let's, let's go on that assumption. This schedule is picked with JJ McCarthy starting his first year as a Minnesota Viking. Okay. So here is my fake schedule. I have the Vikings in week one opening up against the Philadelphia Eagles. I decided to be maniacal. Now I think that they might do something different than that. The NFL put them against the chiefs or whatever they like to do that in week one but just

just to be that way uh i'm going to uh go with vikings and eagles and this game is at us bank stadium to start the 2025 season how do you think that that goes i will i will take the Eagles to open up the season at US Bank Stadium to win that game. So with the Eagles, they have drafted with each game. We're going to talk about the other teams offseason and kind of like what you're looking at there as an opponent. They have drafted so well. And I also looked at Jalen Hurts' contract. I don't know if anybody's ever looked at this. It's really funny because he doesn't reach $40 million on the salary cap until 2027. Now they put some insane void years at the end of this thing, but of course, you know

what they'll do. They will restructure it or they will extend it by the time he actually gets there. And when he reaches $40 million, Jeff Bezos will have bought the NFL for $11 billion. And they're going to play games on the moon by then. And the salary cap will be 500 gazillion and he'll be making 41. So the Eagles knew what they were doing with the, it just is sort of more evidence about the salary cap that if you want it to not look a certain way you can with the quarterback contract but the way they've drafted and the way Saquon has played for them and not had to take a ton of punishment because he's got such great blocking it's just hard to see them being anything other than great with the fact that they resolved a lot of their

interpersonal issues it seems with AJ Brown and with Nick Sirianni, that they will go into next year as team to beat again, even as hard as it is to repeat. They just have so many young pieces. It's hard to see them being anything but great for years. Yeah. I mean, I think Howie Roseman just does such a great job,

just building that team to the, to the point where even if they, you know they swing and miss on the occasional draft pick, it doesn't Because you're going to end up with A.J. Brown in free agency or via trade and signing him to a contract and that sort of thing. So they've done a great job of just building that roster and setting themselves up to where they'll always be able to have a little bit of money if they need to go dip into free agency a little bit and fill a hole that they may have lost in the offseason as well. So they've done a great job and you know, the more you win, the better your culture is going to be.

And it just seems like the Eagles are kind of trending in that direction right now. This shows you how funny drafting can be the Eagles. Cause I just looked up in 2019, they took Andre Dillard and then miles Sanders who did a little bit for them, but was not special. JJ Arcega-Whiteside, who I barely remember. Those were their top three picks. Now they took Hertz the next year, but as you mentioned, Rager, someone named Davion Taylor, someone named Kavon Wallace, someone named Josh, no, Jack Driscoll. And then the next year, Devante Smith, Landon Dickerson, Milton Williams, all three great players. And then the next year, Devante Smith, Landon Dickerson, Milton Williams, all three great players for them. The next year, Jordan Davis has not become a huge player for them, but Cam Juergens, uh, Nekobe Dean. I'm not sure if he's become a great player. And then Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith. It's just funny how drafting works that we all say, well, the Eagles,

man, they just know how to draft. And yet there's a couple of years in there where they just missed on basically everything, but their hits have been so good and they've worked through the rest of that roster. And this year they just absolutely crushed it. So that's just kind of the nature of the beast with the draft. I'm not making any specific quasi-offolfo-mento or Vikings point by saying that. So, all right. 0-1, fair enough. They stay at home and they play the Packers week two. I'm going hot off the start of the schedule. Again, for those just joining, fake schedule that I just made up for us to pick it and talk about other teams off seasons. So do you think

the Vikings in 2025, September, who knows what, will beat the Green Bay Packers at home. This is a tricky one. I was kind of debating on this one as you were texting me earlier today and I was planning this out. I'm going to take the Packers in this one. So I got the Vikings at an 0-2 start. That's not ideal, Manny. But I'm curious about the Packers.

And Wally makes a point here about Saquon Barkley. And feel free to throw in questions, comments, thoughts. We're going to slow play this discussion. So feel free to jump in, ask questions, respond to what we're saying. Saquon's going to be coming off 450 touches in a year older. Now that's true. I mean, the fantasy community is probably still going to pick Barkley at the top. There could be some regression. I was thinking along the lines of every time I see him play, I never see him get hit hard because they're all, he's always running for 70 yard touchdowns, but you

know, maybe, I don't know. When did Adrian Peterson really start to fall off 31? I mean, I think that there's a few guys that are just built completely different and he might be one of them, but you make a fair point. Christian McCaffrey last year was near MVP and then had an injury and fell off. I don't think that totally changes the Eagles, but it maybe, uh, maybe not in, in week one. So the Packers this off season, they're over there, Manny. They're, they're cut. They're grumbling. They're grumbling over there.

The Packers, you know, it's been a long time since the Packers have won anything. If you talk to them, you would think it was like two years ago, but now there are kids that are talking about getting driver's licenses soon who have not seen the Packers win a Superbowl. And the pressure probably begins next year on Matt LaFleur, this year, having to overcome Jordan loves injury and their roster still not really being at the point where it was peaking. They had a couple of other injuries. Christian Watson is always sort of hurt. They improved on defense. They went into Philly as a good team that I think a lot of people thought they could win. And then they got run over by a juggernaut. Uh, but I think that transitioning from Rogers to love that if you're in green Bay, you would have given them

a ton of credit for how they did it. It's back-to-back seasons in the playoffs. Love has established himself as a pretty good quarterback and maybe has another level to that. But now the honeymoons are very short in the NFL. And we've even felt this with Darnold and the Vikings. It's like after he wins his 14th game, this is incredible KOC coach of the year. Two weeks later, he can't call plays or something, you know? So it's, that's the nature of the beast. But I think that really, truly the pressure begins on Matt LaFleur next year with him and Jordan Love tied at the hip. Yeah, I agree. And I think, I mean, what you look back at the Aaron Rodgers era, you know, Aaron Rodgers took over as a starter after Favre left in 2008. And, you know, they went 6-10, didn't make the playoffs. You know, Rodgers played pretty well, but, you know, that team was not very good and they weren't ready to win yet. And then they turned things around pretty quickly in year two.

They made the playoffs. And then in year three of Rodgers starting, they went all the way to the Super Bowl on kind of a magical Cinderella type of run because they won a bunch of road games to get there and ultimately win it against a really great Pittsburgh team. So, yeah, I mean, I think, you know, if you're a Packer fan and you're looking at the're a Packer fan and you're looking at the way things sort of trended with Rogers, with him kind of getting that championship early in his run as a starter, you're probably expecting Jordan Love to take a significant leap, I think, going into 2025. A lot of those young players, those young receivers who've

been growing and developing the last couple of years. It's probably time for them to take another step forward as well. And then if you're Matt LaFleur, would this be year seven for him? 2025? Yeah, what was it? 2019, I think was his first year. Yeah, so you're looking at year seven of a head coach. And now, you know, a couple trips to the nfc title game but that was with rogers now it's time to take a step with a with a younger team that's um a lot of depth there but you know you're going to want to see some development and some growth from some of those

younger players the packers and the vikings are going to be a little bit in the same spot when mccarthy takes over as i think we all think is going to happen, but, uh, where you're going to have the same quarterback and you're going to keep trying to pour resources into the team around that quarterback, and then just pray to Roger Goodell that it works. I was just looking today, uh, for research for my written mailbag, purple insider.football, go sign up. Uh, the entire future of the Vikings series is over there. That's eight parts and like 30,000 words. So feel free. I spent a lot of keystrokes on it. Um, but I was thinking of, I was looking, just researching about quarterbacks and playoffs because I think, and I'm not saying that they should keep Darnold because of this, but, uh,

if you look at Matthew Stafford early in his playoff career, Peyton Manning started his playoff career three and six. Lamar Jackson is three and five to start his playoff career. Justin Herbert has played two playoff games, has a 60.4 quarterback rating, which is horrendous. And we all agree that he's good, but it's sort of how it goes sometimes for teams in the playoffs. Jordan Love had a good game against the Cowboys. He's lost his last two playoff games. And I don't think there's any other option other than you just sort of run back a good coach, run back a good roster, try to add to it, and then hope when you get to the playoffs that you don't get sent to

Philadelphia. And of course, if you get the home field advantage throughout, that's going to be a big benefit for you. I don't think it's a guarantee, but that's a big benefit. So you're trying to win in the regular season. But once that question is solved, that's when you have to just keep trying stuff with the roster around that quarterback. And I think the next step for Green Bay is to find a real true top wide receiver, but how they do that. I don't really know because is this a great receiver draft? It doesn't seem like it there's T Higgins, but the Packers traditionally don't go

out and spend $25 million a year on one free agent. So they've got a lot of questions to answer. I think for next year, before people start asking, can Matt Lafleur really get us over the top? But as far as our fake 2025 schedule with real opponents, you have them starting Owen too. So the next game that they have is on the road at the Cleveland Browns and shout out to Kevin Stefanski for still having a job. I mean, I don't know. That's pretty crazy to me. That's about as meltdown of a meltdown year as you can have.

But maybe Jimmy Haslam blamed himself for the whole Deshaun Watson thing. So do you think that they will win on the road at Cleveland? Yeah, it sounds like maybe the Browns are going to be using that top draft pick or what are they second second pick in a draft, know probably on a quarterback because the deshaun watson thing has been kind of a disaster and they don't really have anything else waiting in the wings right now um and it's just kind of a team that's really kind of in disarray out again like you said shout out to kevin stefanski for being able to keep that job i think he's a good coach. I think they're just in a really bad, bad situation right now because the Watson thing, they've just kind of fell flat on their faces with that.

But there's still a bad team. I think this is a, this is a situation where the Vikings go into Cleveland and pick up the first win of the season in this fake schedule that we have for them. Is there any chance that Darnold goes to Cleveland? I mean, as I think the favorites are the Raiders and the giants, they make the most sense and maybe Tennessee, if they wanted him to be a bridge quarterback there, they could trade for him. Wally says Kirk will be in Cleveland, I guess. But if you're Stefanski, he likes to run the wide zone and bootlegs. I mean, Kirk has no legs, so

maybe one, but you need both to work in the NFL. So he couldn't even run play actions last year. It seems farfetched that they would want him, Russell Wilson, Mac Jones. I could also see Daniel Jones being the quarterback of the Cleveland Browns. I think if you draft Sanders or Cam Ward, I don't think that either one of those quarterbacks is ready to start right away. I don't, I like Shadur Sanders quite a bit as a prospect, but not on the level of like the guys we saw last year where you're like, okay, you've got an incredible prospects here in May and Daniels and Williams, and then very, very good prospects. Otherwise, I think he would probably slot in somewhere around Pennix McCarthy if he had gone in that draft or maybe below McCarthy. So I think Cleveland has to win. Like there's a few teams,

the Raiders, the Giants, and the Browns that just have to win or everybody is fired. And that should cause a lot of desperation for teams to call the Vikings about Sam Darnold. Yeah, maybe it's if you're Cleveland, you go the route, you bring in Sam and then you take Travis Hunter with that second overall pick and he can kind of bolster an already pretty good defense. You know, the Browns do have a very good defense and some good players on that side of the ball. It's just offensively in the quarterback position where they're having some trouble. So you do that,

you go the route, you bring Travis Hunter in to play, to be a pretty good corner for you, and then maybe sprinkle them in offensively as a weapon as well. You go that route. But I just think that with the way the things are going to be set up for the Vikings, I think Cleveland is a, is a situation where they can go in and pick up a win against the team that you're still just not really sure how good they're actually going to be. Mike suggests Justin Fields for Cleveland could make sense. I think that he's always needed that kind of system and no one's ever really given it to him and he might be a little better, but they need everything. Like Amari cooper's not there anymore that offensive line was once great i'm not sure it is anymore and they have two great defensive players what about the rest you sometimes every

once in a while manny when we get the inevitable comment of the it's been 60 years and the vikings have won nothing and like i get it i get it i get it. I get it. Sometimes I want to be like, you could be from Cleveland. Okay. There is no hope whatsoever. None. Zero. How will you ever win?

You won't. I, there is no route, no path, no journey. That's going to take you there unless they draft a quarterback who then suddenly becomes great. But I mean, even then you're still in the same division as Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson,

right? You still got to play those guys twice a year. And you did draft a good quarterback and screw that up. Yeah. The ownership element, the ownership element. Somebody asked me the other day, like, is it underrated? How good of owners the Vikings have? Like, yes. Yeah. I mean, of course it's, of course it's underrated because when you look at the teams that have crazy and bad owners, no matter what they do, it seems to be dysfunctional. I'll say one other thing that if I'm Cleveland, I'll tell you one guy that I'm going to check

in on is Zach Wilson, because just after seeing Darnold, I might take, take a shot at it with Zach Wilson. Apparently at a decent training camp last year, Gino Smith, like let's go three for three with former jets quarterbacks. They should be swinging at everything. So anyway, uh, in our fake 2025 schedule with real opponents, you have the Vikings starting at one and two and then playing now at home against the Cincinnati Bengals. What do you think of that? Bengals are an interesting one there. Are they going to be able to bring back T Higgins convinced?

I don't know if it's him to come back. It's going to have huge offers. It feels like the, you know, it feels like because they have a great quarterback they're never gonna be a bottom dwelling team you know what i mean they're always going to be at least 500 or or or better um yeah this year was not it's not a great year for them how do they bounce back as t higgins even still on the team? I'll call this a win for the

Vikings, but I think it'll be a close one. Yeah. Joe Burrow is going to give them a chance no matter what, but, uh, and look, you know, they're going to have Jamar chase and who the Vikings have chasing him around, if you will, is a big question because I like for the Vikings DJ Reed. I don't think he's going back to the New York jets. He is one of the best man-to-man corners in the league. And I think the Vikings need somebody who's tough and physical, and you can actually line up right over a wide receiver and leave them there. And DJ Reed is that guy. So if it's him versus Jamar chase, that could be quite interesting. But if the Vikings can't really solve this cornerback position to have a big time player,

then Joe Burrow is going to go to work against Brian Flores, his defense. He's not going to be Vikings can't really solve this cornerback position to have a big time player. Then Joe Burrow is going to go to work against Brian Flores, his defense. He's not going to be shocked by us bank stadium. He's played in the super bowl. Like he's seen it all, but Cleveland or not Cleveland, Cincinnati, how do they build a full roster? How do they build a complete roster? That defense is terrible. That defense is really, really bad. It fell apart outside of Trey Hendrickson last year, and it didn't seem like they really understood how to rebuild it. And their ownership is just very cheap.

So they have a tough time getting those top free agents to come sign there. Maybe that'll change this year. I don't know. But they feel like they're going to be a flawed team with a great quarterback. Kind of Drew Brees, New Orleans, during that run where he missed the playoffs a couple of years and put up like 5,000 yards a year. Now, how about this one?

This is interesting. Week five in my fake schedule with real opponents. How about, Oh, Dan Fout. That's a good one. Sean throws out Dan Fouts in the eighties with the chargers, just like put up all these points and everything else.

Their defense isn't very good. Burrow also kind of low-key takes a lot of sacks, which I think hurts them at times from putting up the number of points they should. But I've got them in my fake schedule with real opponents in week five going to face the Dallas Cowboys, who of course are having a totally normal offseason where they just let their head coach go

after weeks of negotiations and then hire the offensive coordinator. But you know, here's the thing with football, Manny. We always think we got it figured out. We think we got it figured out already about the Cowboys. Micah Parsons is going to come back. Trayvon Diggs is going to come back. And Brian Schottenheimer has been in the league a long time. He's won a lot of football games.

He's been an offensive coordinator for a long time with winning teams. I don't think it's a guarantee just because Jerry's dysfunctional as hell that they're going to be horrible. I think that with Dak back and the other injured players coming back, they will be a formidable opponent, but will the Vikings and JJ McCarthy go into Jerry world and get a win? I'm going to say no. I think that it has a chance to be a pretty high scoring game. We'll see what the Cowboys are able to do to kind of, you know, help rebuild their defense. I mean, obviously Micah's terrific, and Trayvon Diggs will have him back, two key pieces on that defense.

But what is it really going to look like? Is Mike Zimmer going to come back as defensive coordinator? Do we know? I think he said he's retiring. Is he retiring? All right. Well, good for Mike. Good for Mike.

He's had a nice time. Enjoy the ranch, Mike. Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, and that's going to be a thing, too, where they're going to have a different defensive coordinator now. Scheme is going to be, it's going to be basically the third different scheme in three years, essentially.

How is that, you know, how are the guys, even the good players on that defense, how are they going to be able to adapt to that? I mean, Micah Parsons can do almost anything, so I wouldn't be too concerned about him adjusting. But, you know, how do some of those other guys adjust to yet another scheme change on that side of the ball? So I think you'll be able to move the ball on them a little bit. But I think just being down there in Dallas, Dak being back and healthy and CeeDee Lamb and some of those weapons they have on offense, I think it'll be too much for the Vikings to overcome. So I'll give the Cowboys the win there. Well, well and are they actually i love how you're breaking it down

as if the game is tomorrow this is why this bit is so perfect for you doesn't matter how i could be like manny 2029 vikings chargers like what do you think you'd be like well you know herbert is to be good and you know it's very it's perfect uh So with, with Dallas, I think the big question is, do they actually really invest this year? And they didn't apparently even look into signing Derek Henry, which is insane to me, considering they were coming off a 12 win season. They had no answer. They're a run first team. They had no answer at running back.

And then they bring back Ezekiel Elliott, which is just a terrible plan and really didn't spend a whole heck of a lot of money. And I've seen all the Dallas people talking about, well, yeah, you said you were going to go all in and then you didn't. So has Jerry been mocked so much by everyone that he's just going to sign some free agents this time, bring back, uh, oh, so dig as a we, uh, who everybody here wants, including me for the Vikings, or are they just going to let free agents go and kind of be middling again?

It's hard to put a finger on because Jerry seems to be getting crazier and crazier, which is a high bar for him. And it's harder and harder to figure out like what is it that they're doing as a franchise? Last year, when they failed to sign Dak Prescott to a it that they're doing as a franchise last year, when they failed to sign Dak Prescott to a contract that would have been $15 million cheaper if they had done it at the right time. He said that he did it on purpose to make sure they got attention from

the media. And you're like, you know, I don't think that the Dallas Cowboys are lacking for attention from the media. That's just one thing that I would never have said about the Dallas Cowboys. So, uh, they will probably pick a running back in the draft. Uh, Ashton Gentry is a name that keeps getting thrown out with them. So I still think they're going to be dangerous as a team. They're just having to overcome complete madness. So, uh, we'll, we'll make a couple of stop-offs along the way and talk about like, what if this happens? Like, so you've got them at two and three as a start. Let me answer Mike's question here. What are the chances of Dwight McLaughlin playing significant snaps next year? How can Dallas Turner get into more games with a Grenard and Van Ginkle still on board? Well, I think, um, the first part of that is with McLaughlin, it depends on what they do in free agency. I still think you're probably not penciling him in as a starter. I mean, he played zero, the corner stayed healthy. So I think you're probably

trying to sign starters there and then have him as a backup and he'll probably get in when people get hurt, but develop him for another year. He's an undrafted free agent. So you want to develop those guys over a couple of years. Uh, as far as Dallas Turner, I think that they'll let Patrick Jones go and Dallas Turner will slide into that role. So he's playing 500 snaps or something. Um, Preston, uh, did we say which quarterback has started? Yes, this is a JJ McCarthy, uh, simulation of the 2025 schedule. So if they're two and three, now they're going to Seattle to play the Seahawks. And after this, I want to stop and talk about what it means. So I don't really know what to make of the Seahawks. I'm not sure their coach really knows what he's doing, but he's

not like a complete schlub because they still won games and under different circumstances, they would have made the playoffs with their number of wins Gino has settled into just being kind of good at times bad at times mid-quarterback uh what do you think going out to Seattle for J.J. McCarthy yeah Gino's really interesting because you kind of wonder what is he 33 now 34 is something like that you kind of wonder like he's he's done a great job of sort of you know reviving his career in seattle and bouncing back after you know the jets basically failing him and then kind of bouncing around as a backup uh but you kind of wonder like at his age now is when when sort of that little drop off that that little dip as you get into your early to mid-30s for a quarterback, when that starts to happen.

And for somebody like him who hasn't really been extremely successful for the entirety of his career, you kind of wonder, like, has he already kind of hit his peak, you know, the last couple of years, and now he starts to take a dip. And so that's, I'm going to assume that that's going to start to take place. Like Gino's going to start to tail off a little bit, kind of making Seattle somewhat of a weaker team. And I'll take the Vikings going into Seattle and winning there for a second consecutive season. How about that? Okay. Yeah. I like that. I think that the best case scenario with Seattle is Geno. And this might be a little instructive for the Vikings, but they've got McCarthy to go to. But if the

Vikings were to have locked into Sam Darnold, this would have been the risk over a couple of years. If they hadn't drafted McCarthy and it was just Darnold, you would have been worried that it's one big year and then just mid after that. And even when it comes to bringing back Sam Darnold, my projection would not be 14 wins and a top 10 quarterback. It would probably be more like 10 and the 14th best quarterback because they're not playing the AFC South again. And that definitely bolstered all of the NFC North teams, except for the Chicago. And even actually it did bolster Chicago a little bit as well, because they got some of their better wins against the North. But the point about Gino is that I think even in the best case scenario for them, he's just kind of the 14th best quarterback in the league. He has a

great arm and he has some mobility and he can make some plays down the field that are magic but aside from that just sort of settled into being flawed it was exactly what we saw from the game that the vikings played against them there were five throws that blew your mind and then there were five throws that you went what do you think in there including the game losing interception how about this? Yeah. Wally brings up that Clint Kubiak is now the offensive coordinator of the Seahawks. Now look, all respect to Gary.

No disrespect to the goat, Gary Kubiak. It was an honor to watch Gary go to work in 2020. But I don't really get it with Clint. I just don't get it. I just don't really get it with Clint. I just don't get it. I just don't wait. Why, how does this keep happening? That people keep making him the OC. He was the OC of 2021. It was super mid. He was the OC in new Orleans this year, and they started out hot for their first, like three games. And then after that, and now he's going to go out there and I guess this time will be different. So I don't know. That's, that's an odd one to me, but you're going with a win there.

If the Vikings in the JJ McCarthy era face a tough schedule like that Eagles Packers, Browns, Bengals, Cowboys, Seahawks, and start out three and three, I think that's okay. This is something I've thought about a lot, Manny, is what the expectation is going to be if McCarthy does start. Because I think there's got to be a lot more patience. And when I get to the next few games in the schedule, you're going to be like, okay, all right. This is welcome to the National Football League, Mr. McCarthy.

I think that expectations of the team being a little over 500 or around 500, and we have no idea what they're going to do in the off season yet have to be somewhat realistic because 14 wins is just way too high of a bar for them to expect to get. Yeah. I mean, I, it's just so rare that that happens, that you put together a season good enough to where you win 14 games. And I think just having another new quarterback who's very young, who's not played a lot of football, the talent is there. We all know that. We're all anticipating the growth and development of J.J. McCarthy.

But there's going to be some, even though he's technically not going to be a rookie, there's going to be some rookie quarterback mistakes that he's just going to make. Cause we saw the guy, all the guys that played this year, they've made some rookie mistakes, even Jaden Daniels for as great as he was and getting to the NFC title game. He had a couple of games where you were like, Ooh, Jaden, not good. Got to get better kid. But obviously, you know, we are all anticipating him being fantastic.

And I think the future is very bright for J.J. McCarthy too. But I think to start out in 2025 and you're coming off of a 14-win season, so there's going to be some expectation that you don't fall completely flat from that. There's going to be a little bit of pressure. Now, I think what J.J. has going for him is that he was a national championship winning quarterback. So he knows what it takes to kind of win at a high level, albeit at the collegiate level, it's still winning at a high level. So he does have that sort of experience of being a leader on a great team that goes very far deep into their, into their season. So he'll have that going for him, but the NFL is still a different league. So we're going to see some mistakes made and that could lead to some, some regression overall from the team. Okay.

We will get back to the schedule in a second, but we have sponsors for the show, which is fantastic. So I want to tell you about rocket mortgage. You sign up for something, then you totally forget about it. The trial period ends and now you're getting charged, but you don't look at your credit card statements. I don't, and I know you don't either. So you're getting charged. You don't even realize it. The subscriptions are adding up. I learned that 85% of people have at least one paid subscription that is going unused each month. Thanks to Rocket Money, I can see all of those

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That is rocketmoney.com slash purpleinsider. And then you know what you could do when you unsubscribe to some stuff you're not using. You can subscribe to my newsletter over at purple insider.football all off season long analysis, articles, columns, and, uh, lots of, uh, you know, fun theme weeks and things like that. When things get slow OTA coverage, draft coverage, everything of the written word,

and mailbags every single week with your questions. So go over there and subscribe when you're getting rid of all the things you're not using. Okay, so fake schedule with real opponents for the Vikings 2025. Week seven is the Baltimore Ravens, which they will play at us bank stadium. How do you think that one will go? Lamar's first trip to Minneapolis, huh? Um,

yeah, I don't think it's going to go too well. I'll take the Ravens to win. Fair enough. The Ravens are another one of these teams. They're just like Indianapolis with Peyton Manning to me. I mean, obviously it's a different style, but it's the same deal where someday it's going to happen for them.

But every time they go into a regular season, they're coming out with at least 12 to 14 wins. I mean, it's just who they're going to be with the top three quarterback alive in Lamar Jackson. That will be tough. The coaching matchup is tough. Their defense is usually good. They were bad the first half of the season. They got it together playing, I think a new system this year. So that will be a major challenge. Having

it at home helps, but I don't, you know, I don't even like for off season, what do we even say about the Ravens? Well, Lamar's back. So there you go. Just do that again. Teams like Buffalo and Baltimore, what do you tell them? What are you supposed to do differently? Just don't play Josh Allen in the snow. Don't play Patrick Mahomes. Would you QB sneak, hold the ball up to show where it is so we could see it? I don't know.

Stay healthy. It's a tough world. Stay healthy. Stay healthy, and you'll probably be right back in the playoffs that one's going to be tough so the vikings now in this fake schedule are three and four with their start and they go to ford field the scene of the crime but uh different quarterback this time in detroit now they're going to have a whole new coaching staff i have no idea how that changes things though manny and i have a tough time thinking that it does a ton because their new defensive coordinator gets Aiden Hutchinson back. That seems relevant to me. So off to Ford field to play the Detroit Lions.

Yeah. I'll put this down as a loss right now until the Vikings can show me different. You know, it's been, it's been a tough stretch here for Kevin O'Connell against, against the Lions. We're so, you know, my, my years of growing Kevin O'Connell against the Lions. My years of growing up watching the Vikings, the Lions were always like, maybe after the Barry Sanders years, sort of that when the Marty Morninweg era started for the Detroit Lions. It was like two free wins for the longest time. I don't think Ticey ever lost to him.

Chili did okay against them. Zim did pretty good against them. KLC's had a little bit of a tough time with them. Obviously, they've been very good. That's mattered in this as well. I think that losing streak continues in this game at Ford Field and I'll take the Lions to win that one. The Lions, surprisingly, have a lot of cap space for this year. And that, yeah, that's a disturbing reality for Vikings fans

because they can bring back someone like Carlton Davis, who's a free agent. The Vikings should like his idea too if they want to look into cornerbacks. But they've got some free agents, but it's not a million of them and they will be a major player in going out into the market.

And that's the truth for pretty much all the NFC contenders that there's other teams that are going to be hunting for these free agents. And I always think about how right now, when we make our free agent lists, you could take the red pen to about half of them because they resign with their own teams before they hit free agency, after they go to the combine and meet with agents. And then you got all this other competition. So I got a question for the mailbag today about how many big time free agents the Vikings have to sign in order for them to be quite a bit different

as a roster. I came up with three. I think they would have to get a big time guard, big time corner, and a big time defensive tackle to be significantly different as a roster. I came up with three. I think they would have to get a big time guard, big time corner, and a big time defensive tackle to be significantly different as a team. But even, even getting that many might be difficult in this market. I don't see it as robust as a last year's free agent market. So three and five home against the commanders, another team with a bleep ton of free agent dollars to spend what do you think boy if you're if you gotta if you're gonna be a season ticket holder for the vikings in 2025 you're getting some damn good quarterback coming into town yes yeah absolutely also good thing they kept brian flores yeah yeah no kidding. This is a hard quarterback schedule.

Yeah. Wow, yeah. Jalen Hurts, Lamar, Jane Daniels. That's pretty good. I'll take the Vikings to win. It's at home. I think Washington's going to continue this upward tick because I think they've got a really good coach,

obviously a great young quarterback, and some talent on both sides of the ball. But I think the Vikings being at home will kind of give them a little bit of an advantage in a matchup like this. And Washington kind of strikes me as a team that's going to be good and a playoff team again, but they're going to have a couple of losses,

kind of like Houston was this year, where they have a couple of losses, kind of like Houston was this year where they had a couple of losses where you're like, oh, that's a little uncharacteristic of them. So I'll give the Vikings a win here at home, and I think that puts them at three and four and five. Four and five. Young quarterbacks coming to U.S. Bank Stadium for the first time is usually difficult for them, except for Justin Herbert last year, but mostly inexperienced quarterbacks coming to us bank stadium for the first time is usually difficult for them, except for Justin Herbert last year, but mostly, mostly inexperienced quarterbacks. Speaking of which I have week 10 in the fake schedule with real teams for 2025 as being

against the Atlanta Falcons and Michael Pennix this time and not Kirk cousins. And we try not to snicker to ourselves about that so uh that'll be that'll be interesting i mean that'll be a battle of quarterbacks in the 2024 draft class yeah another another good one another good one to watch uh as for the u.s bank stadium crowd i'll take the vikings to win this one i'm curious to see to see what sort of steps, if Michael Panics takes another big sort of jump as he goes into year two with a full offseason as basically the starter and not having to worry about

trying to be a backup or anything like that. So I'll be curious to see if there's a jump there with him, but I'll take the Vikings to win at home for now. I know what I'm going to be thinking about that week, whether the Vikings, if JJ McCarthy and Michael Penix had been on the board, whether they would have taken Penix or not, because he was a much easier to project. And this was always my concern. And the Vikings and Casey Daffa Mensah said the same thing is that McCarthy just didn't play a lot of football. And so it made it so much more difficult to predict than somebody who had thrown 17, 1800

passes and had taken an offense to the top of the NCAA and passing for two straight years. Like you've seen a lot of this guy, whereas McCarthy was sort of limited in what they asked him to do. And he hadn't thrown as many passes. He was one of the youngest quarterbacks. And we saw the 24-year-old quarterbacks in the playoffs. They had a lot of success early on, whereas the younger quarterbacks did not.

They also got drafted to, well, one McCarthy got hurt, but they got drafted to the Patriots and the Bears. But the elder quarterbacks, even Penix when he finally got in was really good. And so is he going to take a step forward? What's he going to look like in 2025? I think is a huge question. And also, I mean, Falcons, you just and I know why they did it because their owner is

super old. And this seemed to be kind of a thing that they must have agreed on. Hey, let us draft a quarterback. We'll bring in Kirk to to win short term whatever but now mr pennix has to deal with the fact that his roster and their salary cap is troubled by kirk cousins dead cap not that we know anything about that but i mean that is just like not a great way to start your career if you're pennix with a bunch of dead cap from the previous quarterback. So that puts them at a 500 record. Let me answer some questions here,

and we'll talk about that. CJ, given that it was the year of the running back and JJ had a run-heavy approach at Michigan and Flores is coming back at the helm, I wonder if they could draft a running back and bring JJ and New Line along slowly. CJ, you are suspended from the show for suggesting on Twitter that the Vikings think about Kirk as a backup. So I shouldn't have answered your question. Um, no, I'm, I'm messing with CJ,

but he did do that. And he is like on probation for asking questions, but this is a good one, CJ. So we'll allow it. Uh, I do think that you would prefer if McCarthy is your quarterback to be able to run first, to play more methodical, to throw more underneath passes, to have a better screen game, to have a much, much better run game, to load up the offensive line and all that stuff. But I think we just know who KOC is. If McCarthy's your quarterback, if Darnold's your quarterback, if Bobby Brister or Brooks Bollinger or Spurgeon win, I don't care who the hell it is. KOC is dropping back deep and he's throwing it deep. Like that's just who he's going to be. He's just like Bruce Arians in this way. No matter who's playing quarterback, it's going to be a pass first and it's going to be more of a deep drop, which McCarthy looked great doing during

training camp last year. So I think he's got the arm to do it. It's just bring along slowly. What you mean? Like Josh Dobbs who showed up in the middle of the season and they had him throw 35 passes against the bears. Like it just not gonna happen so uh but the rest of the premise i fully agree with a running back in the draft should happen and absolutely two offensive guards yeah i mean i i think especially if if you are koc and you're gonna rely on this deep drop deep you know push the ball down the field passing game, you're just going to have to make some upgrades on the offensive line. You're just you're just going to have to. And, you know, that's in theory going to help your running game as well. So that when KOC does decide to run the football, it will be it will be effective. And maybe that compels him if the running game is really, really dominant early on,

it will kind of compel him to maybe run the ball a little bit more and try to control the clock, give Flores' defense a little bit of break at times, which is something that we kind of lamented over the course of this season. So, yeah, I mean, I think if you're going to look to have this type of offense and this is going to be what you're doing, then you've got to make the necessary fixes in free agency, in the draft. You're just going to have to address the needs that you have. I wonder about what they think about last year's running game because it was better than the previous two seasons. And Aaron Jones ended up with four and a half yards to carry. And I think acres was 4.6. So it's not like they had this God awful horrendous. I can't even look at it like

it was with Madison and a little bit of Ty Chandler the year before. But what they have to have, I think, is a little more diversity with the scheme, a little less predictability on when they run. Notice that last year they ran, it was first down and first down only when they were running. There's just got to be a little more attention to detail. But each offseason, KOC talked about, got to improve the run, got to improve the run. It hasn't really happened in any significant way for them to lean

on it. So I think that getting guards is a big deal, not to be guard guy, but it is a big deal for, for doing this. And it was good enough to at least be passable. I think they need to go from passable to you can actually rely on it and it can be a difference maker. And that would help significantly. Uh, Bob says, is the league going to change the playoff seating, uh, with, uh, 14 and three teams not be on the road? Uh, I don't think so. I imagine they're going to talk about it, but I still think they want to emphasize the winning the division. I think that's dumb i think that every other league doesn't do it that way so maybe it would be absolutely classic vikings

to go on the road and lose in the playoffs and then have the league change it so they would have been at us bank stadium where i think that game goes a lot different anyway just like the over just like the overtime rule after the nfc championship game against the saints yep uh dionte says it'll be a few good teams with cap space this offseason so the front office will have to make some shrewd moves yep totally agree there's going to be a lot of competition the one thing the vikings have is they have owners that pay cash and they have the culture of koc and the building and all that stuff that's a little bit of an edge, but Washington Detroit, these are now premier teams.

So where we left off with the fake schedule with real opponents was five and five for the Vikings. Now we'll speed up a little bit on these. Cause some of the teams will obviously be teams we talked about already in the NFC North or are not that interesting. How about the chargers away against the chargers so maybe a quasi home game for the Vikings extra home game out there uh if this was at the Rams I'd feel a little differently about that but if it's uh at the chargers yeah it's the chargers are – I'm wondering about them too because I thought Harbaugh did a really good job stepping in,

getting that team into the playoffs. But again, like Justin Herbert just kind of fizzled out when the lights were at its brightest, and you just kind of wonder about that. But I think the way the Chargersgers play where they want to run the ball and play really good defense um and do some play action passing with herbert that could potentially be a little troublesome for the vikings so i'll give the chargers the win oh wow okay you know you're right about that though i mean now this is going to be mccarthy against uh mccarthy against harbaugh and it's like that's going to be McCarthy against McCarthy against Harbaugh. And it's like,

that's going to be a whole thing that whole week, but they do have one heck of a run offensive line that they've built. Their defense was really good last year. They are looking to kind of take another step with Harbaugh. He turned them around, but you know, the next step for them is becoming a truly, truly real contender. Alexander says this exercise makes zero sense, given that the Vikings are going to look completely different with free agency. But that's the thing, though, about it never makes sense because we're always getting more information to go on. That's why it's so fun for me to pick the schedule with Manny. Because things are always changing. So after free agency happens, we'll do it again.

And after they make the quarterback decision, we'll do it again. We never have to stop picking schedules. I was picking the schedule during the season and stuff was changing as we learned more and more information. I don't even know the schedule. This is made up this is uh but this is really to do with i think looking at their opponents and kind of the off season and that they're gonna have is a major part of this but we don't we don't know who the this is the i like i like that part of it like we don't know anything and we're trying to guess how good they're gonna be that's great we're gonna get answers and we're gonna do more of these

and there's no one who can stop us. Okay. So you got them at five and six. They're going to be home against the Steelers who are playing Tommy Maddox, a quarterback. What is Brian St. Pierre? Who the hell is playing quarterback for the Steelers? Is it Wilson?

Well, I was going to ask, do you think this is a place Darnold could go? Yes, I do. I think he should I mean of all the teams that he could go to and actually win it's probably them and you know uh their offensive coordinator who gets picked on a lot Arthur Smith he was the offensive coordinator for Ryan Tannehill when he turned around his career a lot of running and play action and things like that. So what do you think? Is this a win? This is a road game. This will be a home game at US Bank Stadium, I think.

No, I'm sorry. It is road. Yep, you're right. It is in Pittsburgh. I was just thinking, when's the last time the Vikings won in Pittsburgh? They went there in 2017. This is another way to pick the schedule is by like funny stories about each team. They went there in 2017.

They tried a stupid fake punt with Ryan Quigley. They blew it. Case came out terribly. That's right. And our mutual friend, Judd Zolgan, and I were on the radio the next day. And we did the entire show about like look should they just go get kaepernick they just you know whatever forget that he's blackballed this season is over and we got all of the you know every wide range of opinion on that with the phone callers and

everything the next week they destroy the tampa bayucks I think right yeah they they killed him he threw for like yeah 369 or something and then off we go to a 13 and three season it was like yeah just like we thought just like we thought was gonna happen so uh you got this as a win or a loss I'll uh okay I'll put it to you like this I'll call it as a win because the vikings have not won in pittsburgh in a really long time but if it's sam donald i will call it a loss oh you think sam donald revenge game in pittsburgh beats the vikings okay yeah well because i think it gives them a i think it gives them a quality quarterback and that's a team that you know has a very good defense very good coach i think if you just give them some competency at quarterback, a guy who's young enough who can make some plays,

I think they can be pretty good. But if it's some iteration of Russell Wilson and Justin Fields again, I know it's not going to be those two guys, but if it's something like that, then I think it's a very beatable team. So I will, for now, because we don't know who that guy is going to be, I'll call it a win for the Vikings. Alexander, totally uninterested in my opinion now, says Manny, on a scale of one to 10,

how concerned should Lions fans be that 80% of their staff is being poached? A very specific question directed at you. I'll leave this one to you. Alexander only wants your opinion on this one. I'm just messing with you,lex uh i'll i'll honestly i'll say it's like maybe a four or five i think it's a little bit concerning but i think you still have a really good team a really good quarterback really good offensive line and weapons and you're

going to get a bunch of your guys on defense back theoretically um it's still going to be a really really good team and and i think dan campbell has a way of like connecting with his players. Now he's going to have to figure out who's going to be calling plays and leading his defense and all of that. But I think as a, as a leader and as kind of a CEO type of head coach, I think Dan Campbell's really, really good at that. And I think, I think the lions will be fine.

I think they'll get through losing. I still have them regressing overall because I have everyone Campbell's really, really good at that. And I think, I think the lions will be fine. I think they'll get through losing. I still have them regressing overall because I have everyone who's not playing the AFC South regressing. So the whole, the whole NFC North, how about, oh, so just for the heck of it, I put in a bi-week. The next week is the bi-week in my fake schedule with real teams home against the bears. They've not seen the bears yet. Now the bears have a brand new coach in Ben Johnson. I imagine that there will be some roster tweaks and

adjustments there as well. Are you buying that Ben Johnson is the answer to what ails the bears? This is a, the, this is home against the bears and Caleb Williams at US Bank Stadium? I think the Bears will be better because I think Ben Johnson will be much more competent than his predecessor, the predecessors. And I think the Bears will be better, but I think the Vikings being at home will still come away with a win here. Yeah, I'm just going to have to see it from Caleb Williams.

We saw at Soldier Field the see it from Caleb Williams. We saw at soldier field, the high end of Caleb Williams, but can he face Flores his defense and pick it apart and throw to the open receivers? I just am going to have to be sold on that, that he can go into a difficult environment and play this well. Now everyone is just directing their questions only at you, Manny,

Mike, Manny will,, Manny, we have a short intermediate passing game with JJ next season. I'll say no until we see it, just because, I mean, we just kind of talked about this, right, with KOC. He wants to drop back deep and throw the ball deep and push the ball down the field and be really aggressive offensively. So I think that they should incorporate that into what they do next year, especially with a young quarterback starting for the first time. But until we see it, I'm just going to assume that it's, that's going to be very similar to what we saw in 2020. If I'm allowed to comment on the question,

I will say that I think what JJ McCarthy will do is be safer with the football. I think that's more of in his nature. And I don't mean that as a criticism. I mean, it is like, I think he's more of a three level type of passer. And what I noticed in training camp is that I thought that he saw the field better than Darnold, that in terms of things in front of his face, where that could be TJ Hawkinson. I think TJ Hawkinson next year gets 95 catches because that's the perfect guy. If McCarthy is playing, that's the perfect guy for a young quarterback to just lean on and lean on and lean on. And if you don't see it exactly right, there were a lot of times where Darnold

for better and worse would just push it into a tight window where you'd prefer McCarthy just take that easy, don't go broke, taking a profit type of thing. I think he'll be a little bit sharper with some of his underneath decision-making because it's not that the throws were never there. In fact, Darnold greatly improved in that area over the season until he got to the end of the year. I think that they can build on some of that short stuff with him. So again, I know that was a question for you, but I'll throw it out there. That's my opinion. So anyway, are they, let's see,

we've got them at a six and six. Are they, and they're beating the bears at home. So seven and six, now they go to play the giants now this could be sam darnold and the giants or he might have gotten benched for shooter sanders or drew lock might be playing there or dave brown or kent graham or any other number of giants quarterbacks so uh vikings at new york who the hell knows what the new york giants are doing right now. I'll, I'll just call this a win. I still think it's going to be another bad year for the giants. I think so too.

I think that they're actually, their management did the right thing in totally tanking and looking to draft a quarterback. Maybe it's sugar, maybe it's cam ward and they let a lot of expensive and older players go. Even to say, Kwan was an older player and expensive, but I don't think you could just rebuild that in one year

and all of a sudden be great in that division. And their owner kind of came out and said, yeah, everyone's on the hot seat. Like what the heck kind of thing is that has to say? I think Brian Dable's not an idiot. So maybe they should give him a little bit more time. He inherited a really tough situation. He overachieved set the

bar too high and then when things went wrong they haven't had the answers so i think they need to give them time but i don't think they're a team that should win a game like this so seven and six going into the final three if i did i miss one going into the final three weeks okay oh i'm sorry. You're right. Seven was the bears. Eight is the giants. Now it is the first trip to Lambeau field for young JJ McCarthy. Eight and six, I think is a pretty darn good result for him through the first 14 games.

Now it is at Lambeau green Bay Packers. I will call this a loss. There's a, there are, there are great men who have gone to Lambeau and I made it late in the season. Cause it has to be, this was my one accuracy for the, uh,

the fake schedule is that these games in the division will be at the end of the season. That one's going to be pretty difficult to go there and beat that team in your first time in that environment. Yeah. Late in the year too. It's going to be, I mean,

this is what week 16, I think at this point. So it's going to be December, mid December. Yeah. That's going to be a tough, tough, tough sledding in that one out.

I'll give the Packers the win there. Okay, 8-7. They are in the hunt. Week 17, home v. Lions. I'll call this a win. Okay, all right. I think KOC gets off the snide against the Lions a little bit because I think at this point the Lions will have won,

I think, six in a row against the Vikings.ings at this point which i don't think has ever happened in the history between the two franchises i don't think the lions have ever won i think right now is the current longest winning streak in the history of the franchise so um yeah i'll give the vikings the win at home i think they'll play really well i think this could be a game where jj mccarthy like really breaks out and we really say like oh wow like he's i think he's played well at this point but he has just a great game and against a big time opponent and we're like oh okay yeah jj mccarthy has officially arrived and uh the vikings come away with a win against a good Detroit. All right. So an eight and eight starts and now they play the bears at soldier field. I did this to be funny.

I did this to just the, the, the place that has always been cursed for them, which actually KOC has been completely fine and has done nothing but win there. But still, we're going to talk about that until the end of time. Week 18 Vikings bears, which quarterback from the draft class has taken the big leap and can Ben Johnson actually coach football and the one thing is Ben Johnson has had the answers against Brian Flores's defense so is that going to come to fruition or not and this one might be for a playoff spot for the Vikings in week 18. It very well could be, and they've, I think we got them, what, at 9-7? Or is it 8-8?

Wait, is it 8-8 or 9-7? Not 9-7. It's all 9-7. Yeah, 9-7 because I got them beating Detroit. Oh, right, right, right. Okay, yeah, my bad. 9-7. But very much could be for a playoff spot.

Yeah. And this is at soldier field. Oof. Soldier field. No, you were loose. Or it's week 18. So probably. Yeah.

No, no, you were loose week 18. So this is what first week in January at soldier field. Oh, that field is going to be disgusting. Oh, it's going to be so nasty. I think I'll give the Vikings the win in a sloppy game. I think this is the game where KOC really leans on the running game because it's going to be sloppy and the weather is going to be nasty. Still with a very young quarterback.

I'll give the Vikings to win to finish 10. I love it. Okay. There you go. So this sets, this sets a bar. This sets an initial bar for us. And this is the reason to pick a fake 2025 schedule because we'll do it again.

After they make a quarterback decision, we'll do it again. After free agency, we'll do it again. After the draft, we'll do it again. When we get to training camp and everything else. And we'll just see how it moves around and how differently we feel about the Vikings and all their opponents and, uh, fun to talk about kind of other teams off seasons and where they're at, uh, by doing this. So I think that that's a very fair expectation based on their schedule

to be 10 and seven. And I think all the teams in the NFC North because of their schedules are going to regress. It should put you in the playoffs. If JJ McCarthy starts next year and they've done enough to be in the playoffs again, it's a hugely successful season. And then you build off of that and see him develop. And then the bar gets re-raised to, Hey, get back into that 12, 13, get a home playoff game, chase a super bowl. But if that's where he's at after one season, you would feel really, really good about where JJ McCarthy and where this team is going, how they handled the 2025 off season, the draft, everything else. Cause I still think a lot would have to go right for them to get to 10 wins with a new

quarterback that we have no idea how to project in his first season. Uh, speaking of projecting things, Manny, before we give our final thoughts on this, uh, want to remind everybody that if you really like projecting out in the fantasy world, the big board tournament, you can draft now. And it includes players that are going to be drafted. They don't even know who they're going to play for, but you can do it on underdog fantasy. It is the easiest place to play fantasy sports. A great sponsor of this show. Fascinating discussion for even who goes number one overall in the next year's big board. So you got to check out the pick them for the Superbowl, especially my goodness. There's going to be a million of them.

We'll do them on the show. Of course, where if you could go five for five, you can win 20 times your money there. So use the code purple to sign up, claim your special pick first time deposit offer up to a thousand dollars in bonus cash. A perfect time to jump in with underdog fantasy must be 18 or older terms apply concern with your play call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit ncpgambling.org so last question for you manny you got him at 10 and 6 10 and seven. I'll never get used to it. Uh, if they're, if they are 10 and seven, what would they have had to do? Cause I think that's a good season for them next year.

What would they have had to do in free agency in the draft to be a good enough team with that schedule to win double digit games? Like what's the checklist. They better do this, this, and this, or they're not going to get to that bar. I think you have to, I think you got to sign a guard of some sort and free agency. One that's pretty good.

Trey Smith would be great, but if it's not Trey Smith, just somebody that is, that is a really solid starting guard, left or right. Nice to get left and right to get both of those positions solidified. But I think you've got to get at least one to help up front. Running back of some sort in the draft, some young legs in that position as well,

and then just some upgrades maybe at corner. If you lose Gilmore and everything, you're going to get Blackman back, which is going to help. But yeah, I think those positions, definitely another interior defensive lineman, maybe just some help there as well. I think if they do all of that, I think they'll be in pretty good shape

to have a nice season in 2025. The thing about this team and talking about them for free agency in the draft and so forth is that they already have so many foundational pieces in place landing jonathan grenard on a long-term contract you have your and i know he's not quite miles garrett but it wasn't that far away from miles garrett this year you have your guy like when other broadcasts when they talk about you know i go on other shows before games and stuff in detroit or chicago or green bay they're over there talking about you know what are they going to do with this granard guy because he was at the top of

the league in pressures we didn't know that they were going to have that and then i think cashman is also a franchise type of player jefferson daraw, you've got these pieces that sort of set a floor for you. As long as your quarterback stays healthy, that you're going to be in the mix. And then it's everything else that makes the difference. I was working on this sort of back of the napkin math. What were the odds that they would have all the things go right that they did this year? I came up with 1.2%. I know that's rather specific, but that's what I came up with because it was kind of a coin flip that all the free agents would hit. It's a coin flip that you

stay healthy. Some years you do some years you don't this year. They did. It was worse than a coin flip. I gave it like a 20% chance that Sam Darnold in my fake math, a 20% chance that Darnold would have been this good. So for all the things to go, right, that's where I kind of landed on. I think to get to a winning season next year with McCarthy, that it's a lot higher than 1.2%. Like it's better than a coin flip that he'll step in and be pretty good because of the surrounding cast and what just happened with Sam Darnold. it's better than a coin flip that he'll step in and be pretty good because of the surrounding cast and what just happened with Sam Darnold. It's better than a coin flip that they improve at guard. In fact, it's like a 90% chance that they are going to be able to do that to be

a little bit better defensively with their personnel does not take that much, right? You probably got to get buying them back or Murphy, one of the two, but you can improve a corner because there's a lot of corners in the free agent market, the defensive tackle market, free agency and draft, bring them all to me. Like you get three of them. Like there's so many that are out there. I think there's a very good chance of that. And I also think you're going to have to be better next year than you were this year to even get to 10 wins because of the way the track is going to play out. So anyway, a little, a little touch longer than usual, but why not answer one last question? Because Sid's close personal friend, very clever says tired, tired Sam Darnold tag and trade wired no extension yet for Kweisi.

I suspect there's more to this story. You know, it's funny about the Vikings over the last two years, Manny. It seems like the fans and a lot of the people on the internet really want there to be conspiracies with the team. They really want something secretly going on behind the scenes. They want Jefferson trades. They want KOC trades. They want there's,

I don't know. There's 10 other things that until it happens, I'm going to kind of keep going back to the same things. Probably not though. They'll probably get it worked out and they'll carry on doing business the way that they are. And it'll be fine. If something changes, then Sid's close personal friend can come back and say, I told you so. And that happens sometimes.

But I just the fact that Schefter already tweeted that they're working on an extension for Kweisi. Things don't always get done the next day. I don't know. It's if we get to the combine and there hasn't been one yet then it's going to be a major question like what's going on there but until then i mean look for vikings fans if you went through the 2000s i could see why you're always thinking maybe there's something crazy around the corner and even of course z Zimmer Zimmer's era.

I mean, maybe, maybe an offensive coordinator just quits. Like, you know, I don't know. Those are some times, man. Yeah, exactly. So anyway, well, uh, I think this was a lot of fun to take a look at the Vikings early opponents for next year and make up a schedule and preview them. And someone said you have a master's degree in picking the schedule. You are a master of that, my friend.

So next week we will have lead up to the super bowl. And next Thursday night, you guys are really going to want to be here. It's going to be Murph versus Manny, super bowl trivia, play along in the chat. It'll be a lot of fun. We had a ton of fun with it last year

i gotta put that together but i'm already excited about it so manny we'll see you again on monday night i'll come up with something else silly to do and otherwise we'll catch everybody then purpleinsider.football go sign up thanks manny you got it football football Got it. Football. Football.