Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Aaron Jones is back! Harrison Smith maybe?!? Murray visiting Vikings (Part 1)

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

Matthew Coller talks about a huge day in Vikings land with Aaron Jones returning, Harrison Smith possibly coming back and Kyler Murray and Jonathan Greenard rumors intensifying. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fandul, and we have so much going on in Minnesota Vikings land right now. Figured I would just jump on the live stream and talk it out. And if we get official news about Kyler Murray, then we will break that down. It seems like from reports, Kyler Murray is going to visit the Vikings and go through a physical. And every single insider is nodding and, winking and yep, yep, Kyler Murray is expected to be a Viking, but it is not official at this moment, though there are numerous reports that the Vikings are at the top of the list for Kyler Murray.

So until we get some sort of official word on Kyler Murray, there's actually a lot of other stuff going on with the Minnesota Vikings. So we'll run it down and then we'll talk about some of the things that are being said already about the potential of Murray to the Minnesota Vikings. Why don't we start out, though, with Aaron Jones is back. It was reported by Adam Schafter earlier last week that the Vikings plan to release Aaron Jones and that he was going to become a free agent, which made a heck of a lot of to me because of his expense and his age and his injury history.

It felt like, well, unfortunately, this is what happens with older running backs is they get banged up and they regress and they get expensive and they retire and that's what usually ends up happening. So when the news came out last week that Aaron Jones was going to be let go, it was like, okay, well, what's next for the Vikings backfield? And then as free agency began and the legal tampering period began, it was, okay, there's a running back off the board. okay, there's another running back off the board.

Okay, there's another running back off the board. And all of a sudden, the Vikings were reportedly in on Travis E.T.M. Who was a favorite free agent target of mine because of his past protecting abilities. He can catch the ball to the backfield. But then the offer from the New Orleans Saints was enormous. And he ended up getting, I believe, four years and $52 million from New Orleans, which clearly since the Vikings haven't spent any money at all, they were not really ready to go and do.

So you end up with the free agents off the board and not many options left. So the Vikings decide to bring back Aaron Jones on a one-year deal worth $5.5 million and $5 million of that is guaranteed. So when we look at the actual dollars spent and the commitment for Aaron Jones, well, it's not very much, right? One year, $5 million to keep him in the backfield, along with Jordan Mason. And when this combination was healthy last year, the Vikings had a decent enough run game. I mean, when you look at expected points at it or yards per attempt, they were above average overall running the football. Now, you can insert, of course, your jokes.

If only Kevin O'Connell would actually do it, understandable. And that was definitely true at times. But Jordan Mason averaged 4.6 yards per attempt, had a good overall season. I believe he was 12th by PFF grade. And then Aaron Jones, when he was healthy, when he was in, still was able to make an impact, but not the same as when he first arrived in Minnesota in 2024 when he was more healthy or at the end of 2003 when he was an absolute monster for the Green Bay Packers. He was more along the lines of an average running back last year when he was in.

And then he dealt with a couple different injuries, a hamstring right off the bat that set back his entire season. I think from the Vikings perspective, where this is important for them is to have the past protecting abilities and the receiving abilities of Aaron Jones. And then this is on the plus side and we'll get to the potential downside and whether this is a good move or not. but in terms of the reasons to bring Aaron Jones back, aside from his leadership, which is important and it is valuable to a locker room that if it takes on a brand new quarterback who's not necessarily known for his leadership, having a really good leader in the huddle like Aaron Jones might end up being important, but more important is his ability to catch the ball and his ability to pass protect.

And once again, if Kyler Murray ends up becoming the Vikings quarterback, if you watch back Kyler Murray games, which I had just spent the last two hours watching back the entire beginning of 2025 before he got hurt and then the Cardinals decided to tank. He throws to his running backs a lot. And the Vikings used Aaron Jones out of the backfield a lot. They lined him up in a lot of different places in 2024, maybe a little less last season. But if they're planning on having a good passing game, if it's an underneath passing game, more than it has been in the past, they need someone who can.

catch the ball. And Jordan Mason is just not an all-around back. He is a one-dimensional, I'm going to run through your face type of running back, but he's not a guy that is going to get back there in pass protection. When he was asked to do it last year, he was atrocious. He was one of the bottom eight pass protectors by PFF grade in the NFL last year. He only was on the field, I think, for 65 past protecting reps and allowed 11 pressures, which is just, just terrible. So, you don't want Jordan Mason having to do that. You want Jordan Mason to get the ball and run with the ball. And if you're asking Aaron Jones at one year, $5 million to play the role more so of a third down type of back, who's in their pass protecting, who's in there

catching the football out of the backfield, then that's effective for your team. If you're not going to start him and you're not going to lean on him, but instead the early downs, you're going to to lean on Jordan Mason, well, that makes a heck of a lot of sense to have Aaron Jones still around. However, I only like the move if they are still planning on adding someone else through the draft. Now, that I don't think precludes them from going the crazy route that Daniel Jeremiah mentioned the other day, which is trading up for Jeremiah Love. And I wrote about that at purple insider dot football.

the price that I came up with based on the traditional draft value chart was 18, a second, and a fourth to move up to ninth. I don't think you could go higher than that without giving up a first rounder from the following season, and that would be insane. But I think you could do that maybe thinking about how you've got an extra third round pick or something if Jeremiah Love dropped far enough on the board. Still not a huge advocate of trading up for a running back. but if he is Bejohn Robinson, Jemir Gibbs type of level,

Christian McCaffrey type of level, those top running backs, then maybe you could justify it. I still think it would be too much. As an enjoyer of analytics, I would have a really tough time accepting that, but it would be fun as heck, and he would bring more than likely a ton of dynamic elements to the offense. So I don't think that Aaron Jones coming back precludes them

from doing something crazy in trying to get Jeremiah Love, or if he drops in the draft for whatever reason, they could move up a couple spots and try to get him. If not, then you're looking much more at the second and third rounds. And having two third round picks definitely opens up the door for, you know, does a Jonah Coleman end up there? Does an Emmett Johnson from Nebraska end up there? I think Judarian Price from all reports should probably go around the second round,

but you never know. That could also be someone you target. But I don't think that Aaron Jones coming back means, they're all set folks they're good in the back field i think what they should be really looking for is a trio where you have jordan mason kind of that leroy horde you know run through your face short yardage first down traditional first down kind of running back who can get explosive runs and who can run over people and can be a patient outside zone runner and then erin jones is more of your third downback and then someone else as developing but also

with explosiveness. Mike Washington is the name that's come up a lot from Arkansas after he ran a four or three. He also averaged over six yards of carry in college as well. Somebody like that to form a trio that I think that they wanted with Ty Chandler, but it never really materialized with Ty Chandler. So I think you are looking to try to find that type of player to be able to mix and match and build a effective backfield. that maybe you haven't really had since Kevin O'Connell has been here. And is this the ideal situation? I do not think that it necessarily is.

They probably wouldn't have waited to do this. If it was exactly what they wanted, I think they did want to go out into the free agent market and bring in one of these running backs who can be more of the guy and then have Jordan Mason mix and match from time to time. But after all the running backs went off the board, and some of them at even surprisingly low prices, but the Vikings were not in on them.

Tyler, Algier was one of them that I went, really. He went to Arizona for maybe like $6 million. But Aaron Jones does bring more to the table than your average run-of-the-mill running back as an all-around player. And maybe they viewed someone like Tyler, Algier as redundant. Like he's the same exact kind of back as a Jordan Mason,

whereas let's say Aaron Jones, what does he have to do to make it worth? it play 14 games run for 550 yards catch 35 passes and pass protect really well to make a one year deal worth bringing him back and then be a very good leader in the locker room so the bar is not high on the other side of that i mean just to justify the deal for someone like erin jones it's not that he has to run for a thousand yards to make this worth it and now when you see running backs who are getting pretty big contracts like kenneth walker and like trawker and like have a CTN, okay, well, you're not going to get that type of production, but maybe you can get

60% of it for a price that's way less than half of it without any commitment into the future. That's in the best case scenario. On the other side of this, if you are the person that's sort of rolling your eyes and saying, oh, typical Vikings, just falling in love with their own players, bringing guys back when they're after their prime, taking a risk on a 30 plus year old. running back who could have some injury issues. I can't really blame you because if we are doing the black and white type of analysis where we wash out any of the leadership stuff and even don't even consider the context

of maybe you need a running back who can catch the ball with a quarterback who likes to throw underneath or the fact that you can line them up as a wide receiver, good pass protector, super smart. Let's just remove those parts of it that all. important context and just look at production, injury history, age, and price, and you go, I don't know, there is risk there with a move like that because if Aaron Jones gets hurt again, then are you trading for Cam Acres again? I mean, are we going to go every single year?

It's Cam Acres. They do have Xavier Scott, who last year was good in terms of catching the ball out of the backfield, was good when they asked them to be a past protector. So it's still possible that Xavier Scott could develop and, you know, continue. I mean, he's not super young, though, but he could just have a role like he did last year. And maybe it's even a little bit more if Aaron Jones were to get hurt. But you cannot go into the season in my mind with just Jordan Mason and Aaron Jones. It's not much of an improvement.

And the ceiling on that, even if you are better, when it comes to the run scheme and the offensive line is healthier and you're blocking better, maybe you go get another fullback with C.J. Ham out or maybe, you know, I actually think that Josh Oliver's injury last year, midway through the season was a bigger deal than we give it credit for because it's a blocking tight end, but it does matter. Let's say everything works out there. Your ceiling as a run team is still not that high because other teams have Jemir Gibbs and Bijon Robinson and other teams have explosion out of the backfield. So if they're going to draft someone, you need some commitment from the coach,

unlike with Ty Chandler, where that's a guy that I'll always kind of wonder, all right, there were clearly some issues there. He could not pass protect. He had a lot of trouble sometimes understanding what the plays were. You'd see the quarterback getting confused. Hey, are you supposed to go that way or that way?

And there would be things like that. But I also go back to the Cincinnati. game that he played, the Lions game that he played in 2023 and go, I mean, at least there was something there with Ty Chandler and his explosiveness, but they never really trusted him, even though he was the one with the highest ceiling and had the most chance of breaking bigger runs. So it has to be a trust issue. And this is a thing that the offense clearly, clearly requires because you look at Chandler's numbers past protecting.

you look at Jordan Mason's numbers pass protecting. They ask a lot from that position. And it seemed like it was only Aaron Jones and C.J. Ham who could actually do it, who could handle it. And C.J. Ham is one of the smartest football players you're ever going to run across. He could take on that role and also a very physical player. And even asking Aaron Jones to pass protect as much as the Vikings like to keep their running backs in on third down and long, you know, that might be a lot to ask. even for Aaron Jones with his size and with his body and you can get to the right places,

but do you want him taking a bunch of hits from linebackers coming through? So I really think it would be a good idea for them to add someone else in the draft. And if you have to ask less in past protection, then figure out how to ask less in past protection because someone needs to have some big play type of ability. So there's your first thing. Aaron Jones, welcome back from the reporter perspective. Very, very happy to have Aaron Jones back in the building. Always great conversations with him, one of the smartest players you're ever going to run across,

one of the best leaders you're ever going to run across. And I totally get that from the coach's perspective, from the franchise's perspective, that if we are just our hardcore soulless analytics freaks, then we would say, I don't know, man. just it's probably too risky to do and there might be even somebody else out there who hasn't played much at all who could give you most of that production or more but that's not how the game is played it's not played just by soulless analytics freaks it also matters to have people like him in your locker room so aaron jones back folks have you noticed that social

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which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety effectiveness or quality. Prescription required. See website for details, restrictions, and important safety information. Item number two, we have a Harrison Smith update. So technically, Harrison Smith has been released by the Minnesota Vikings with a June 1st designation. But this is what we would call procedural. They have to, well, I mean, they have to release them based on his contract that was in place. But also, now he doesn't take up a roster spot as he makes his decision.

So there's not a guy sitting there who might eventually retire. But what this does tell us, so that doesn't mean anything other than just it was a salary cap type of situation. And it gives them a little more time. But what it does tell us is that Harrison Smith has not made his decision, that he's, is not decided yet that he is going to retire or that he's going to come back. And the Vikings have been in contact with Harrison Smith. And he's, his representatives have talked with Rob Brzynski, which makes you think that Harrison Smith is really strongly considering coming back to the Minnesota Vikings.

And as we have that going on, also a number of the safeties have come off the board, including some guys that were talked about on this show quite a bit. Well, we didn't talk a lot about Kevin Byard, but he signed Jalen Hawkins, ended up finding a home. Alohi Gilman, we mentioned the other night, found a home. So if they are going to look to other free agent players at the safety position, well, they're not going to have a lot to really necessarily work with or pick from when they get there, which does open the door.

you know, if there's not a crazy Jeremiah love trade, it does open the door for them drafting one. And I would also say that even if Harrison Smith comes back, that, you know, it's very, very likely that they could draft one as well. And with the number of safety, it doesn't have to be in the first round, doesn't have to be McNeill Warren or Dylan Thineman or one of those guys could drop into the second. But there's also a second wave of safeties projected in the draft that have a good chance to be starting caliber players. AJ Halsey from LSU is maybe the favorite there.

So if Harrison comes back, you still can draft one. You could still go into free agency and get somebody with playing experience before. It's just that some of the guys who were the best names for that are off the board. I could take a look real quick here at the free agency tracker and see who's left. But the safeties, yeah, so Kevin Byard, Cam Curl, Brian Coole. Kobe Bryant, Jalen Thompson was another one that went off the board. Nick Cross, that's the one I was thinking of, just signed for two years, 14 million with the Washington commanders.

I mean, that is not a lot for a young player who has a lot of potential and look to me like he could be a possible fit. So Nick Cross, cross him off the board, read Blankenship signed, Jalen Hawkins signed with the Ravens, hopefully his, you know, never mind. It's just the jokes, the Max Crossy jokes. Hopefully his physical goes okay. That was right there. So Jaquan Brisker is the best name that's still out there at the safety spot.

And then after that, Nick Scott, old friend Xavier Woods, there's not a lot. There is not a lot left in a free agent safety group that I thought had plenty of options. And even someone like Cross at two years and 14 million seems very reasonable to me. and let's see, Gilman got three years, 25, that's a lot. But Jalen Hawkins from the Patriots, two years and 10 million. So I don't know if the Vikings are just not in on these or they think Harrison Smith's coming back. But if Harrison Smith doesn't come back, then you almost have to draft one in the first two rounds because the only guys on the team are Josh Mattelis, Jay Ward, and Theo Jackson. And I think that all three of those guys can play, but none of them are needle movers.

really in any way, other than Mattelis, who you want to keep as a guy who's a box safety. I mean, you want Mattelis in the role that got him the big contract and that he emerged to be a very good football player in rather than saying, okay, well, now actually Josh Mattelis, why don't you go do something completely different, which is what he had to do early in the season, and I didn't love the results. So a year later, a year later, you know what move looks really bad? last off season was already a total calamity for the Vikings as they made the releases of J. Van Hargrave and Jonathan Allen official today.

But you know what move was really brutal? Was letting go Cambinam, who I think wanted to stay and spending that money on Javon Hargrave or Jonathan Allen, when I just believe they undervalued Cam Bynum and maybe overbelieved in their ability to move up Theo Jackson into that role. And as much as I think Theo can play as a rotational type guy, and I think he is a playmaker if he gets opportunities, just didn't get a lot this year. I don't think he's the all-around player that Cam Bynum was.

And Bynum went for $15 million, which is a lot of money. And some of these guys are not even going for that. But he's a good player. Playmaker could come up and make tackles, certainly one of the smarter guys in the room at any given time. So letting him go to Indianapolis and now the two guys that you signed in favor are not on the football team and you're having to redo Aaron Jones's contract doesn't exactly look very good for last off season as if it already didn't have enough bad looks for it. So there's the situation with Harrison Smith. If he does come back, there's always the concern with an older player about injury and he dealt with a health issue last year that kept him out for baseball.

basically half the season. And you're always concerned about losing that step and just not being the same player. And there was so much, including from us, celebration. And if you're just joining, Harrison Smith has not made an announcement. But the door is open for him to potentially return. But on the plus side of Harrison Smith, we all saw the end of the season, right? We all saw how that looked. And I think if Harrison had maybe gotten to a point last year where he was like, yeah,

this is probably going to be it. If there was anything that would make him second guess that, it's that he was great down the stretch. He was knocking down passes. He was getting pressures. He was picking off passes. He was all over the place. And if you're Brian Flores and you have this advantage that almost nobody else in the NFL has,

it's very rare to have someone who is as experienced and is intelligent as an intense and is so good at understanding, opposing teams, his preparation is unbelievable, that can go out there and call a defense on the field, that can look across at the offense and see what they're doing and make decisions based on what he sees. I mean, this is, this is not just, like, if you wanted to make a comparison of a pitcher, you know, like you could call in college baseball, they just sort of go like this and call the pitches from over in the dugout, which is kind of like a defensive coordinator just sending in the calls.

but if you're Greg Maddox, you're calling your own game from the mound. There's a big difference between everything you feel and see out on the field versus your defensive coordinator over there on the sideline. So having him back as the orchestra leader of the maestro of the defense could continue to be valuable for the Vikings and maybe possibly the reason that they have not gone after any of these free agent safeties because unless they really like Thineman or McNeil Warren and they're planning on drafting those guys. That could also be the case.

A safety situation with Josh Mattelis and Dylan Thineman sounds pretty good to me. And then Jay Ward rotating in or maybe you see Jay Ward take on that box roll. Like those things would all make sense. But I thought at the end of the season based on just how it felt with Harrison Smith that that was going to be it for him. He was emotional numerous times inside the locker room after games and talked about just how greatly he appreciated every opportunity to play and sort of sounded like a guy that was going into his last moments. And even, you know, the team, they, they didn't know at the

end of the season, whether he's coming back or not. But, you know, they have him on the big board and kind of celebrate him in front of the fans in the last day of the season. And all of that felt like a goodbye. But if he comes back, I think he can continue even at his age to be effective for the Vikings. not in the same way he was 10 years ago, but in the way that he was maybe four months ago with the Vikings at the end of the season. So we will see. Nothing has been decided there,

but at very least he has not decided that he is retiring either, which means there is a chance that he comes back. Another news item outside of Kyler Murray, which I'll get to as reports continue to kind of stroll in of, yeah, it's trending very strongly. in the direction of Kyla Murray to the Minnesota Vikings. I saw Josh Weinfuss of ESPN. He reported that there were two coaches who had been doing their research on Kyler

Murray. And those two coaches were Kevin O'Connell and Kevin Stefansky. And the Atlanta Falcons decided to sign to a tug of Iola, which I would definitely prefer to have Kyler Murray. But I wonder if part of that research was finding out where they think. Kyler Murray wants to go, and if that's why they pick Tua. Now, I also think that the jets and the move they made, which is now official today, to get Gino Smith, that means that they might have been concerned that the Vikings would go after

Gino Smith because there are so many moving parts to this. They wanted to make sure that they did not get left out of the dance and that they ended up, you know, at least getting the quarterback they wanted in Gino Smith. But once he went off the board, it's all right, now it's Kyler or Kirk or Aaron Rogers or somehow get Derek Carr out of retirement. And those are pretty much all your options left if you're looking for a starting quarterback in 2020. So the momentum is very clearly building toward the Vikings signing Kyler Murray. But nothing is official as of yet. Kyler, according to one report, I think Diana Rossini said that he is going to come to Minnesota

and go through a physical, which I don't think you do that if you're not very close to signing with the Minnesota Vikings. So we can talk about that more momentarily. But I wanted to get to one other news item today with the Vikings, which is Jonathan Grenard. Talk about moving parts, my friends. Holy cow, last night was insane. where you have Max Crosby signing or getting traded, Max Crosby getting traded to the Baltimore Ravens for two first round draft picks.

The Ravens then back out of the deal. They say it was because of a physical, but that's being debated by a lot of people. Did they just decide that they didn't have the money? They didn't want to spend it with him or they just felt like, I don't know. Oh, we've got some breaking news here. I'll mention that in just a second. So with that situation, there is a tumble down effect because Max Crosby ends up going back to the Raiders.

And now there are reports that he could just stay with the Raiders because their price tag that they want for a trade is two first. And if another team, even if everybody thinks that they're sandbagging, if another team failed his physical, it didn't like at least something about getting Crosby, then I don't know if another team saying, you know what, let's go all in with two first round draft picks. They had found their mark and then the Baltimore realized they were the mark. They back out. They signed Trey Hendrickson today. So Hendrickson is a Raven.

Crosby is still with the Raiders. And Jonathan Grenard is the number one target of teams who need a pass rusher. Enter the Philadelphia Eagles. And what Diana Rossini reported is that the Eagles are still contacting the Vikings about Jonathan Grinard. My answer to that is, no way. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not the Eagles, not them. Now, when you look at Philadelphia, they certainly don't look as strong as they did a couple years ago. A.J. Brown looks like it's possible that he could get traded. That's still being discussed. Their offense slipped last year. Their defense was very, very good last year, but

it's lost some key pieces, including Jalen Phillips and Reed Blankenship. So they might be a little bit down to Kobe Dean is another guy that they lost. But I'm just not, if I'm the Vikings, I'm just not giving the Philadelphia Eagles any help. They've had enough help. They were given A.J. Brown for free. They've signed and traded for Darius Slay that they got from the Lions because Matt Patricia couldn't get along with them. The Lions have been helped, or the Eagles have been helped along enough over Jayahe,

even going back a few years when they got him for kind of nothing. Miami. It's like people just say, oh, Howie Roseman, is that you? Sure, you can have what you want of mine. I don't know if you want to be that team unless they're going to pay an NFC tax, which would be a first round draft pick. If the Eagles came with a first round pick, even as much as Granard is great, and you know he's going to go there and he's going to do good things for them and he might help them in the playoffs and you might see him there and that's not what you want, a first round draft pick would be impossible to turn down. A second rounder, though, from the Eagles, I don't know.

I think you want to wait on that unless there is some move that you need to make still, some trade or something like that that you need to do right now that you need that cap space for. I would hold out because there are still plenty of teams and all the past rushers are off the board. Addafei OA is off the board. Trey Hendrickson now. It looks like Max Crosby is just going to stay with the Raiders. Maybe Quitty Pay will get his deal rescinded. or something and maybe he'll be back on the market, but Grinard is way better than him.

So that is a developing situation and the Eagles better pay up if they are the team that is going to get Jonathan Grinard. My estimation on the Grinard deal was a second and a third, but it might be like a 2027 third. I think that that's what he's worth to take on his contract. He'll need a new contract. And his performance and production is very good, but it's not. like you're, it's not like your, it's not like your, your Bosa or something. It's not quite of

that level in terms of his production. So we shall see, but at least those conversations are ongoing. And I guess I also thought today when it comes to Jonathan Grenard, if you're going to bring back Aaron Jones, if you're going to bring back T.J. Hawkinson, if you're going to bring back Eric Wilson. What's the point in trading T.J. Hawkinson, again, unless you really need the money in the cap space or Jonathan Granard, I mean, what's the point in trading Jonathan Granard? You've already brought back all of these veteran players because I think we thought when the first wave of moves came, oh, they're getting rid of Aaron Jones. That's what we thought. That's what was reported. Oh, they're getting rid of Hargrave and Allen and they're going to reset for the future. And they've done some nice moves to lower cap hits to keep these guys.

but it's definitely a run it back off season is really what this is. I thought it was going to be the get right off season, but now I'm changing it. It's the run it back off season. So why are you moving on from Jonathan Grenard if that's the case, unless someone gets nuts? That's where I would stand on that. You've already brought back everybody else. Why not keep Jonathan Grenard be the best version of you? You're going out very likely and getting a veteran two-time Pro Bowl quarterback.

that's not a reset. Even if he's not costing much, it's not a reset. It's not a rebuild. It's not even a competitive rebuild. It's just running it back with a couple of cap casualties. Speaking of which, we have some breaking news, my friends. And this is a motif throughout history that I'm going to tell you the truth. I absolutely love.

When Vikings become Packers or when Packers become Vikings, I just love it. I love when it's the familial. The other team in the division switching from purple to green and yellow, switching from green and yellow to purple. That guy has to do a press conference the week they play. What's it going to be like to play your forward team, your biggest rival? Oh, it's great. I love it. J. Von Hargrave is the latest to go and sign with the Green Bay Packers.

And they must have thought quite a bit of Hargrave and his performance with the Vikings because he, He gets a two-year, $23 million deal with $13 million guaranteed for Javon Hargrave. Oh, folks, there will be revenge. There will be revenge games of Javon Hargrave, who kind of made it clear on social media a couple of days ago that he wasn't exactly super thrilled with the way that he was used by Brian Flores. I think we know that he wasn't very happy based on. his production and based on his usage that he wasn't through the roof.

And then later on in the season, they started to use those bare fronts, which is five guys across the line of scrimmage. And he got more one-on-ones. And his overall production turned out to be okay for the price that they paid him. In fact, if they had only signed him and not Jonathan Allen and kept Cambinim, we'd probably sing a little bit different tune about last offseason. But Hargraves production overall was okay. It was just that, and he retweeted something I said because I saw that he was kind of retweeting some people that said Brian Flores defense is not made for productive defensive tackles.

That's probably true because Harrison Phillips, what I wrote on Twitter was that Harrison Phillips had explained to me one time about how the DTs are kind of body movers. You're Jonathan Bullard and your Harrison Phillips. You're taking guards and centers and moving them to open. up lanes for blitzers. And that's why the blitzers have so much success all the time. Ivan Pace blitzed really well. Eric Wilson is blitzed really well. Josh Mattelis, the safeties, Blake Cashman.

It's not a coincidence that these guys all have success because that's the plan. He's moving around offensive linemen and blockers, causing chaos up front and opening up big gaps, which for a pass rushing defensive tackle is not exactly the most fun thing to do. And it certainly isn't getting you the type of production or P. FF grade or whatever that you might be looking for, even if it is effective. So I wrote that on Twitter and he retweeted it. I'm assuming that's an endorsement of what I was saying. So now he will be over with the Green Bay Packers.

And they needed that. The Packers have lost a lot of talent so far in this offseason. And they get a little bit of it back with Javon Hargrave. I believe he could still play. I think that if you're over there in Green Bay, it's a good move for that team. He is a veteran. He is on the older side, but he wasn't really banged up too much, played a lot of snaps, can get after the passer. So him versus Will Fries and Donovan, oh man, he ate up Donovan Jackson last year in training camp. And I remember talking to Donovan about it.

And he said it was miserable. And it made him question whether he was good at football. So Hargrave is a special talent when it comes to getting after the passer. We'll not be fun for the Vikings to play against twice next season as he signs with the Green Bay Packers. Also, just now we have another center that is off the board, which raises the question about that position. Corey Levin signing with the Falcons on a one-year deal. He stays with his former offensive line coach Bill Callahan. So the center market has also disappeared as well. So let's hard reset on where the roster is right now as things start to percolate. And I know

these first couple days, the patience has been quite low from Vikings fans. It's been, you know, last year, you're looking at last year's free agency signings going, man, they really screwed all that up by spending so much money on the biggest free agents. And then when they don't, it's, why aren't they spending the biggest money on the biggest free agents? Usually somewhere in the middle is the right approach and they have not reached that middle, but also free agency is not over. and they need the quarterback situation resolved. I think this is really our answer is they need the quarterback situation resolved before they can

go spend because if let's say that Kyler Murray falls through last minute, who knows, then you're looking around going, well, we better contact Kirk or we better get Aaron Rogers here. We better get Derek Carr here. You need cap space to do that. You can't sign a bunch of guys assuming that you're only going to pay your. quarterback $1 million and then have it fall through and be like, oh, I guess we're not signing you. You don't want to be the Baltimore Ravens.

So Mike Silver is currently speaking very, very confidently, as many insiders are, about Kyler Murray. So we're going to go through just what they still need and what the options are real quick here. And then we can talk more about the possibilities of Kyler Murray. I kind of want to save some of the good conversation about Murray for when that announcement comes down if it ultimately does. Let me get you also a Fandul question of the day. So the Vikings right now on Fanduil are plus 600 to win the NFC North. How much would you raise those odds if they get Kyler Murray?

Or not at all. The Detroit Lions are plus 160. The Green Bay Packers have actually dropped since yesterday to plus 200, which is interesting. and the Chicago Bears are plus 340 to win the division. How much do you move it up the minute that Kyla Murray presumably signs with the Minnesota Vikings? On the roster right now, so we talked a lot about the backfield. I'm curious if they sign a fullback. I'm also interested to see if they sign another quarterback if Carson Wentz does come back to the Vikings

or if he agrees to go to the Jets who reportedly want him. I'm interested to see if they try to have a quarterback. a QB3. If there's an Anthony Richardson, that move, that whole thing died out very quickly. It was like one day, it sounded like they're getting him. And then we never heard about it again. So today, Daniel Jones officially goes to the Indianapolis Colts. We should discuss that because the Vikings clearly were big fans of Daniel Jones when he was here. No doubt about it. Kevin O'Connell really, really liked Daniel Jones and wanted him back. And they had a assumed that he was going to come back.

And then, you know, he's a crafty guy that Daniel Jones, he realized he was going to have a better chance in Indianapolis. And man, was he right. You didn't go to Duke for no reason, my friends. He was very right. He gets a two-year, $88 million contract with, I believe, $50 million guaranteed. And out the window goes any chance that the Vikings were going to have at Daniel Jones, even if they wanted him more than Kyler Murray.

The idea that the next. National Football League has a quarterback of Daniel Jones's resume who had, what, one and a half good years in his career? 2022 is a pretty good season for him. Pretty good, not great. And half of this year. And he just got 44 million. This is what I'm going to probably have my head explode over when people are anti-Kyler

Murray in the comments. A team just paid Daniel Jones $44 million and you could get Kyler Murray, for one million, which seems like a pretty good deal in comparison. Even Malik Willis, Kyla Murray's a two-time pro bowler and has had at least three very good seasons in his career. And Malik Willis has thrown 100 passes as a Green Bay Packard. He's getting 20-something million dollars compared to one, one. So the Colts, congratulations on your mediocrity.

I just, it's very hard to see. Daniel Jones, even as good as he was last year at times. If you look at the entirety of his performance, it's just okay. I can check here what PFF ended up grading him. But it was just an okay season for Daniel Jones. And he got a lot of pub for it because it was a great story. And his box score statistics are pretty good. But when you go and look at the breakdown of his actual throws,

the big time throws versus turnover. Let me see where he ended up. He ended up as the 23rd rated quarterback last year by PFF. 13 big time throws to 18 turnover worthy plays. I mean, just that's what they're going to pay 40 something million dollars for over the next couple of seasons. No thank you for the Minnesota Vikings doing that. Also, there is another update that I should bring you at the quarterback position,

which is that the Vegas Raiders are reportedly. interested in Kirk Cousins, which I think is perfect. Kirk Cousins to Vegas, play with Clint Kubiak for a year. I know the jokes are going to be out of control with how Fernando Mendoza is similar to Kirk Cousins. But I think that as much as that's sort of thrown around is kind of a ha-ha, like, they've got the same personality or whatever. I think that it's actually a great fit because Kirk is a football maniac.

and he is very, very, very experienced and has been through every single thing you could possibly go through in the NFL. He knows that offense better than anybody. I mean, Kirk came up with Mike Shanahan who drafted him and then was with Kyle Shanahan. And then in, you know, this offense, which is inspired by McVeigh, also had, sorry, Gary Kubiak in between and Kevin Stefansky and also had Clint Kubiak. So he knows that offense as well as anyone ever has. that's perfect for Fernando Mendoza. And at this point in Kirk's career, he should know that he's going to have to also be a mentor and play with a, you know, potentially team that could compete for a playoff spot if things go right for them.

But I love that spot for Kirk. I like it a lot more than I like this spot for Kirk to go there with a pretty clear objective. Now, here's another conversation that has come up at the quarterback position, which is Tom Bellsera reported that if the Vikings signed Kyler Murray, that he would be part of a competition with J.J. McCarthy. I don't think that's true. But I also think that it doesn't make any sense to publicly declare anything. And I think it makes total sense for Kevin O'Connell,

should the Vikings sign Kyler Murray, total sense for Kevin O'Connell to say to J.J. McCarthy, all right, well, we got a veteran quarterback. You should have expected that. Now, go out play him. go outperform him show us that you can be the guy go prove it i think kiler murray is too high of a bar for j j mccarthy to reach he's very experienced he's had high-end performances i feel like people when they talk about kiler just sort of forget about the extra 500 to a thousand yards rushing that he adds and i was looking this up uh today on pro football reference approximate value

is their wins above replacement stat that uh factors everything not just throw but factors everything. And Kyla Murray has had three seasons in terms of approximate value that have been in the top 40 quarterback seasons since 2020. So if you think of all quarterback seasons, single seasons, he's had three of them that have been in the top 40. So that's like hundreds and hundreds of quarterback seasons during those five years. And he's had three of them because the value of the running is very high. That's a lot of first downs. I think it was 27 extra first downs in 2024, 500 yards, five rushing touchdowns.

I mean, there's a lot just there. But even just as a thrower, and I've been spending a lot of time. And it's when they sign, if when they sign Kyler Murray, I'm going to do a two-hour show, nothing but Kyler Murray film. And we're just going to go through it all because that's what I've been doing the last couple of days. He is a very accurate passer. He can absolutely throw on time. he can absolutely run a real and complete offense.

You do not have to have Kyler Murray running some cartoon high school offense that is totally bogus. Anybody who says that has not watched the film. Anybody who says he can't throw over the middle is wrong. He can't throw on time is wrong. The deep stuff is interesting to look at, especially when there's some bad stats that have been used for that too, in my opinion, to analyze his deep throwing.

Are we looking at the actual throws and their quality? are we looking at just the results because there's quite a few throws that hit guys on the money that are not caught. And weirdly, when he had DeAndre Hopkins, they were caught. So if we're trying to project that forward. But we'll do that at some point and look into that. But Kyla Murray has so much experience, so much talent. And he's also probably not coming here if he has to compete because there are other places

that he could go if he did not want to compete. but those those those places have run their course a little bit i mean other teams have found i think answers may be believing that murray was going to minnesota but if he wants to be the starter he could go back to pittsburgh did see a report that aaron rogers is likely to return to pittsburgh but he could go there and be the starter and not have to compete with anyone so if he comes here i'm certain it's on part of the discussion of like yeah you're the guy but if you're delivering a message to J.J. McCarthy, it's, he doesn't have to be. Like, if you outperform him, then you're going to get the job. If you're better for our offense, then you're going to get the job. They're not,

they're going to have the best man win, and they've always done it this way. That's how undrafted free agents end up starting over first round picks sometimes or, you know, Cam Bynum starting over Lewis C. I don't think they care, and it's not a big investment. So he'll have to outperform Kyler Murray, but I don't think that he's coming here if he does officially at some point soon to compete with J.J. McCarthy, I think it's much more of a, McCarthy will take all the second team reps, and he's going to build on those and develop and learn. And there's a decent chance that you'll need them at some point.

How many teams, and this is the thing for the McCarthy people who don't want to see Kyler Murray here is how many teams go 17 games with the same quarterback these days, or ever in NFL history? Not many. A lot of times you have to use your backup quarterback. so you might just end up seeing J.J. McCarthy anyway. But that's kind of the quarterback roundup as now almost everybody, if the Vikings wrap up a deal with Kyler Murray today, tomorrow. I don't know.

I don't know what the timing's going to be because there's one report that he's coming to Minnesota. Is he already here? What flight is he on? There are people who track flights. Does anybody know? When Murray is here? Should we?

Oh, no. shouldn't be podcasting. I should be parked at the airport. We used to do stuff like that. Reporters used to do stuff like that where you'd go to the airport and try to spot players that were coming to visit the Vikings. I don't know why we did that. Now they just kind of announce it or somebody posted on Instagram and you don't have to go to the airport.

But we used to. The wide receiver position, I don't think that the Raiders are going to cut Jalen Naylor because they signed a three-year deal. they seem happy with them. They might have to do something, or like rescind the deal, I mean. They might have to do something to deal with the fact that they now have Max Crosby, but my understanding is that they can afford him at least for another year. So unless they find a trade suitor, they're not going to just start, you know,

going back on these deals like for Jalen Naylor. So looking at the wide receiver market, but Joanne Jennings is still out there. That's an interesting name. Kelvin Austin. And that's kind of it for guys. I mean, Christian Kirk has had his injuries. I'm not really sure there's much there left.

And Marquise Brown, same kind of deal. I mean, I guess you'd do Marquis Brown for one year, $5 million if you had to. But the free agent market is pretty well dried up for any of the top players at the wide receiver position, which makes that very interesting. Are they going to draft a receiver? Are they going to get a couple guys that are veterans that have bounced around a little bit?

I'm not sure how they're going to fill the shoes right now, or do they really believe in Ty Felton? Because that's something we don't really know. I mean, we've asked about Ty Felton a couple times, but there were a lot of subjects that were going on throughout the season that were a little more pressing than how Ty Felton was developing. but they drafted him and they've developed guys that have stepped into that role without previous experience before and they could be looking at him if they feel confident in what he was able to do

in practice. And that's always the difference. As Mike Zimmer once said to us, I see him in practice every day. When we go out to practice during the season, it's different from training camp. We go out to take attendance and watch warmups and then we go back inside. So we are out there watching them game plan and run all their plays that they're going to run for the next week. Naturally, I mean, that kind of makes sense, right? It's only in training camp when they're putting in their base stuff that we can watch every single practice. So I don't know what Ty Felton has looked like in practice.

The last time I saw him, I saw a lot of raw speed and I saw a guy that I thought needed some development in his route running and maybe concentration on some downfield passes, but there's potential there for sure. Doesn't look a lot different than Jalen Naylor did, honestly, as a young player. So we'll see on that, but the market is definitely run out of wide receivers. That might be a second round consideration, might be a third round. As far as the offensive line goes, swing tackle needs to be addressed still. And we're starting to see some of the swing tackles come off of the board.

I don't think that they'll go back to Justin's school. But at the end of the year, the funny thing about tackle is that so much of it can be just based on who you played, what your matchup was. and by the end of the year, Justin's school had very normal numbers for a swing tackle. So I don't know. If they bring him back, it wouldn't be a shock. But they'll probably look to somebody else for a swing tackle. Blake Brandel, maybe he'll just play starting center and swing tackle and backup guard for this team. But it's with Luke Fortner signing with the Carolina Panthers for just under five million.

And another very reasonable deal that the Vikings did not top, looks like they're going to be fine with Blake Brandel. And I think that's okay now that he's had a year to really learn how to play center in the NFL. He had never done that before. He had played guard and tackle. But he knows the offense. He's a veteran player. He can help whoever is starting a quarterback along in the offense.

He's a good communicator with the other offensive linemen. They know him. They have a relationship with. him. And if your offensive line on the whole is a much healthier Darisaw, a second year Donovan Jackson who's taking a next step, Blake Brandel at center and possibly Michael Juergens, maybe that's a battle in training camp, whoever wins that battle. And then Will Fries and Brian O'Neill, I think that's a pretty good offensive line. I mean, I think it's got the potential to be a really good offensive line because Fries, I thought early in the season looked pretty good and then ran out of gas as

the season went along, but Fries, remember, was recovering from a terrible leg injury last year. Now he's got a full off season. And I am curious to see if we get a contract extension or news of a contract extension for Brian O'Neill because O'Neill, it looks like, needs an extension, and it makes sense to me to give him an extension. He is not old by any means. Let me look up Brian O'Neill's age. He had some. some injuries last year, and I know that that has been a thing for him a couple of times in his career. But overall, I mean, yeah, like even if you look at his last three years, he's had some injuries, but he's played 880 snaps, 1,100 snaps, and 730. And he has been a top-notch

pass protector, top-notch run blocker. Last year, he's one of the best run blockers in the entire NFL last season. He's still playing. He is 30 years old. I mean, sometimes it's, there's a meme that was like, yeah, when a player gets to age like 29, we can't believe how decrepit and old the guy is. And, you know, 30 years old for an offensive tackle is not bad. And the fact that even two out of the last three years when he was banged up, he was still well over 750 snaps, that's a guy that you give an extension to. It is so hard to find tackles.

Maybe you try to draft and develop somebody, but that's also very difficult to do. around the league at teams that don't have tackles, I think you want to extend Brian O'Neill. Let's see, defensive lines, so they lose Hardgrave. He goes over to the Green Bay Packers. If you're just joining the show, there will be revenge game narratives that happen there. We'll see on Jonathan Grenard. My expectation if they trade Jonathan Grenard would be that they would have to get somebody else. They did keep Bo Richter and they have Chas Chambliss and there's some undrafted free agents that they've been trying to. to develop, but these guys aren't first round pick type of talents or proven talents.

They would have to get somebody else. And that opens the door for even potentially drafting an edge rusher if they move on from Jonathan Grenard. So that's kind of a swing person to this entire deal. But, you know, I talk about swing. I have gone back and forth and back and forth on the idea of trading Jonathan Grenard. Because my first impression was, huh? Not that guy.

No way. He's way too good. He's 29. He can be good for five more years. Come on. Heart and soul of the defensive line. Vocal leader, really intelligent guy, perfect fit for Brian Flores. Don't be doing that.

That's nuts. And then when I started to think about the direction, thought, well, if they're having what I was calling the ethical offseason or if they're having the get right off season, then maybe you do have to try to split the difference. Maybe you do have to move on from a player who's going to be expensive. and get draft picks and then give opportunity because that would be part of the benefit to Dallas Turner and make Dallas Turner your starter and play him 850 snaps and see what you get, see what you have, because then the next year there will be contract decisions that have

to be made. So just go for it with Dallas Turner. I got convinced that it was actually not that bad of an idea. And then now, after they bring back Aaron Jones and Philadelphia seems to be the leading candidate for Jonathan Grenard, I've kind of changed my. mind again and gone back to, well, don't do it now. Another running back just signed, by the way. Chris Rodriguez going to the Jacksonville Jaguars. There are going to be new running backs left. And that's why Aaron Jones has returned, I suppose.

But if you're going to bring back Hawkinson and you're going to bring back Aaron Jones and you're going to re-sign Eric Wilson to a multi-year contract, well, you might as well keep Jonathan Grenard as well and just go for it. And whatever happens with his contract situation happens. Why lop off? I mean, I get with Hargrave and Allen. Their production was not worth what they were worth. They needed to move on from them to just be cap compliant.

So, okay, I get that. It was really that there was a possibility of Wilson testing the market and then, you know, Aaron Jones leaving and all that that's sort of aligned up to, oh, they're going to try to get younger and they're going to try to, you know, maybe stockpile some, draft capital if they move down and maybe they'll trade a player here and and, you know, sort of shoot for the middle of still being real, you know, good and competitive and you can win your division, but start to get an eye on the future. But when you bring back those other guys, then why move on from somebody who's so effective

like Jonathan Grenard, unless there's a team that comes in with a first round draft pick? And then you just can't deny that. I mean, then you have to take it. So we'll see what ends up happening there, but I think that the events of today in bringing back Aaron Jones definitely influenced the way that I'm viewing the possibility of Jonathan Grenard going elsewhere. Linebackers, Eric Wilson comes back. No real story there other than they need some depth and they might want to bring someone back. Oh, I forgot a signing in the secondary. Tavier Thomas is back, my friends.

so the Vikings have stacked up a little bit on the special team side with James Pierre and Tavier Thomas. I know he had a couple of brutal penalties and that was rough. Overall, though, when it comes to any player, what ends up happening just with the way we remember stuff in sports is that if someone makes a big mistake or has a really bad game, we will keep that in our minds much longer than the 20 good plays in a row that they made. and, you know, Tavier Thomas is a proven special teamer over many years, and they need that.

They need to have a good special teams with the kicking game now just worth more in the NFL. I think the punting game, losing Ryan Wright's a big deal, and we're going to see what they do there. Punt gunning is a big deal. The kick coverage is an enormous deal. For sure, the kick coverage, because you're adding 50 plays or something to your team needing to make a tackle on 50 plays. Like, that's a lot. So I get that.

But they didn't get a safety. Most of the safeties are off the board. And now we'll see what happens with Harrison Smith. But the door certainly, they signed, you know, James Pierre the other day. Door is certainly still wide open for the Vikings to potentially go and get a cornerback in the draft. So that's kind of everywhere we are at right now with the Minnesota Vikings. So let's take a look at your comments. And we're going to have a chat here for a little bit and see if anything else percolates.

Maybe we could talk for a bit. And then if nothing else happens regarding Kyler Murray, then we'll hang it up for right now and then see if there's breaking news with Kyler Murray at some point. So let's get the, let's get the fan chat involved here and see what you guys have to say about everything that has happened. what's on your mind and that fan dual question of the day was if Kyla Murray signs, how much would you move up the Vikings odds to win the division right now? They are plus 600. So Rob says argued last year that Flores like Tavier Thomas for the role that he plays. He likes experienced players like Morrow and Tavier to fill in a spot.

Tavier just does just does not play much defense. I see James Pierre is now the guy who plays on the defensive side. I think this is more about Matt Daniels, that when you have this much in terms of kicking involvement in the game, that Matt Daniels needs guys to be able to tackle on kick return. He needs leadership. He's losing C.J. Ham, who's an enormous special team. I think it's much more about that than it is about the defensive side. Taviers played a little on defense in his past, so he can.

But I think that was more of James Pierre. uh, Henrum is cousins coming back? I can't see that. I, unless, well, I, it's, it's possible if Kyler doesn't come here. A lot of it is just, is Kyler coming to the Minnesota Vikings or not?

If he's not, then Kirk Cousins could very much be your quarterback. So I shouldn't be dismissive there because that could happen. Justin, Cowboys might want to throw a first rounder at us just to troll the Eagles. That would be perfect. The Cowboys have been rumored with every pass. rusher have not come up with a pass rusher. So that's how I look at it with now.

If Crosby's going to stay with the Raiders, unless they could get two firsts from some other team and Hendrickson's gone and Addafi O'A is gone, there should be 10 teams, not just the Eagles. There should be 10 teams that are looking at making a trade with the Vikings. The question is just, is somebody ready to give a first rounder? I think you do it then. Second and third I would also probably do. But it has to be a good offer now.

Joseph says Zimmer 2.0. Maybe it's a Wilf thing running back old rosters. So I, yeah, you know, today I kind of had some of the same thought that you're presenting there, which is I was thinking about, and by the way, I'm going to be flipping back and forth with the Twitter to make sure that I don't have what happened yesterday, which was I was live streaming for, I don't know how long until I saw what happened with. Max Crosby. I thought that we had reached a slow point. So I'm going to be flipping back and forth with the comments. But I had the same thought as you're talking about with the Vikings and

these older players. And I don't think that it's just a thing of the Minnesota Vikings. I think that it's all teams that you really love a player. You know, you have a guy like Aaron Jones and you know what he brings to the table, you know what he brings to the locker room, you know what his skill set is, you're going to have a hard time moving on from that player. Because you know exactly what you're getting every single day from him. You know what his skill set is. You know how to use him. You know what he can bring to the table.

And so if you're just asking like, hey, just get rid of him, get somebody else. Well, somebody else is a free agent for a reason too. Or, hey, just draft a guy. Yeah, well, sometimes just draft a guy turns into Lewis. seen and like, oh, actually we don't have a guy, even though we drafted one. Now you're out and you're just asking Jordan Mason and Cam Acres to be your running backs again or something. So I see why they do it. And I think that most teams also do it where they hold on to somebody one year too long.

Bill Walsh famously said that you want to get rid of a guy one year too early rather than one year too late. And I think that that's exactly right from an analytical perspective. But it's very hard to tell a team, yeah, this guy that you're, you love is willing to take a pay cut for you to just stay on your team. He could pass protect. He can catch. He's a go-to guy for everybody in the locker room. Hey, why don't you just get rid of him? That's a tough. It's a tough thing. But you're right. You're right that a lot of teams do it. And Zimmer, in Zimmer era, they did it too. They hung on to a few guys for a year too long. What's this says, is Kyler more like Darnold or is he Rosen?

Josh Rosen? The quarterback who flamed out of the NFL immediately. This is, this really speaks to what I've been talking about a lot on the show over the last month that people don't know anything about Kyler Murray. It's very clear. And I don't blame you. He played for the most irrelevant franchise in the league outside of who. Even Cleveland has been more relevant because of their ridiculous debacles.

The Cardinals haven't even had that. They haven't even had anything that's mattered at all that's gone on out there. This is a guy who twice put up pro bowl caliber numbers of what you, not the ridiculous pro bowl voting, but an actual pro bowl caliber top 12 type of quarterback performances three times in his career by PFF and has been voted every year, except for one, by the NFL executives and coaches in Mike Sandos athletic piece as a top 15 quarterback. this is not, is it Josh Rose? What?

I mean, yeah, it's much more like Sam Darnold, but it's actually not even like Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold was horrendous when he got here by the numbers. Now, he took a big step in San Francisco that nobody knew about, and I think maybe the Vikings and their connections to San Francisco may have had a hint that that could be the case, and they didn't tell anybody else and signed him for 10 million bucks. So they may have had an idea, an inkling that Sam Darnold had taken a, a big step forward from what they knew from San Francisco.

But when you look at Donald's numbers when he got here, he was like the third lowest rated passer in the NFL for a guy, any guys had 50 starts in the four years before he got here. And then won 14 games. So he's, Kylo Murray's much better in his career history than Sam Darnold. And it's not even really close from when the two got here. This is much more like Sam Bradford. I would compare this very much to Sam Bradford. Somebody who had shown throughout his career at times that he could do it,

but had had injuries and inconsistent supporting casts, and had just not really gotten the support that he needed to succeed in the NFL. And then when he got to the Vikings and he had wide receivers, he was much better. and Bradford had a really good 2016 season. Of course, the offensive line fell apart. And there's the whole Zimmer and the offensive coordinator and the eyeball and all that crazy stuff. But Bradford played really good football.

And then that opening game to 2017 was unbelievable. And that was the Sam Bradford that we all knew was possible. I look at it like this is you're going to find out the how good Kyler Murray can be if he signs with the Vikings. And you've seen it so many times with the Vikings where somebody comes here and there's questions about them or they've had some downturns in their career and then receivers, coaching. I think the offensive line can be good if it's healthy. Much better opportunity.

If you can't do it here, he can't do it anywhere. Joseph, can we name good plays he's made? What I would suggest is, well, I mean, I don't know. Like, do you watch football or not? Because, I mean, if you do, if you watch every team, then it's not hard to find. even last year in a five-game sample, about 20 plays from Kyla Murray that would make you go, whoa, the playmaking is still very much there. I've been watching back his five games for this year, just on tape.

The wow factor is 100% there from Kyla Murray. He's had highlight moments in his career. How about against the Vikings when he threw for 400 yards? How about the play against Buffalo where he rolled to his left and then through the Hail Mary for a touchdown? there's been plenty of wow plays for Kyla Murray. No one's been watching, nor should they for quite some time because it's an irrelevant franchise that was coached poorly, that drafted poorly. And honestly, Marvin Harrison Jr., when I was watching back to tape, holy cow, was awful

at the beginning of this season. I mean awful. I mean running wrong routes, dropping balls left and right. He was not creating any sort of separation. I think Justin Jefferson's probably a little different than that description. RJK99 still need a center to protect number one. Nobody's trading a competent center either. Yeah.

No, I mean, I agree. And with Luke Fortner, he was kind of the last guy that I thought maybe they could sign and he could be somebody that they bring in. But the fact that he went to. to the Carolina Panthers, there's not much left. I'm going to take a look over here, bouncing around a little bit on the screen. Sorry if that's throwing you off,

but looking at the, yeah, I mean, all of the top free agent centers on the athletic are all gone. They've all found homes. So they either have somebody that they, and even Corey Levin, who was not listed as one of the top free agents, even he found a home.

So they either have somebody in mind, or it's Blake Brandl and potentially a draft pick. I'm 100% on, board with Brandel and a draft pick. Third round, second round, maybe. If they spent a second round pick on Jake Slaughter, I'd be perfectly happy with that because I totally agree that it is important that the Vikings find an option at center. Scott says a guy that was the first overall pick and has been buried in a poverty franchise,

but still considered a top 15 quarterback by executives isn't good. All right. I assume you're being sarcastic to other commenters who are saying a lot of things about Kyla Murray that they've been saying in the same comment section for a month that have been, you know, addressed, I think by me numerous times. When it comes to him and his franchise, I think if we've learned anything over NFL history, but also for the Vikings alone, we don't even have to go outside the building to have this conversation.

Randall Cunningham was done in the NFL and then came back and played extremely well. That was a long time ago and Jeff George did it too. But it wasn't that long ago that Sam Darnold did it. And I would even argue, you know, when Kirk Cousins got here, he was a seven and nine quarterback coming off of his worst season. 2018, he was not very good. But in 2019 and 2020 and 2021, he played like a fringe top 10 quarterback for the Vikings. He played better here than he ever played in Washington. If we go through the number of quarterbacks who have played better here than anywhere else that have this has been their second stop,

the list is kind of amazing. It's, it's Cunningham, it's George, it's Keenham, it's Bradford, it's, you know, Darnold, it's Kirk, all these guys have played better. And there's a pretty easy reason why, right? It's, you have offensive coaches a lot of the time. Now, Kirk, you know, he had Gary Kubiak here and the Kubiak influence to Stefansky and Clint Kubiak. So he had a very favorable offense when he played well here.

but he had great receivers, right? And Denny Green, Randy Moss, Chris Carter, Jake Reed, great receivers. What do you have now? Great receivers. They kept T.J. Hawkinson. This group, can I tell you? I mean, Marvin Harrison has a great reputation. Did not play well at all last year.

And, I mean, just really has not emerged as the kind of superstar that he was supposed to be. It doesn't mean he's pathetic, but he hasn't been great. I mean, you're talking about the other receivers, that Kyler Murray played with, even last year, we can look at this. Let's take a look at this. The receivers that he played with last year. Let's go check out. They must have been one of the worst teams in league.

Yes, they were. Who were their top receivers last year other than Harrison? And yes, I know Harrison played better with Jacoby Brissette as he went along. Michael Wilson, who I think is a good player, Trey McBride, who Kyler Murray got along with a lot. after that though Marvin Harris had finished last year people said he played better

with Jacoby Percette he finished with 41 catches Michael Carter was a running back Elijah Higgins a backup tight end Greg Dorch who's an underneath guy checkdown guy three running backs Zay Jones who apparently was still in the national football league

does this look like the Vikings to you does this look like the Vikings Marvin Harrison 41 catches last season is not Justin Jefferson. Michael Wilson's pretty good. I'll say that. He's probably on the same level as a Jordan Addison. Trey McBride is better than T.J. Hawkinson, but a lot of underneath throwing that's similar. And Aaron Jones can catch out of the backfield. This is not an impressive group of wide receivers, my friends. So the reason that the Vikings continue to have this happen

is because they can create a supporting cast that's going to be effective to elevate that quarterback. And I think that's what they're aiming for here. So there's going to to be, and what's this, says Murray will be good if he could get the ball to Jefferson. That's right. And I don't think that, so you said also that JJ was too afraid to throw to him. I don't think JJ was too afraid. I think he was trying too hard. And I think it was in his head because when a player like Jefferson struggles and he's

never struggled before with any quarterback, the finger is going to get pointed at McCarthy. And even if it wasn't internally or if it wasn't by Jefferson, you know, it was by the entire outside world, the entire fantasy universe, the entire gambling universe that was losing on overs from Jefferson every single week. And all those people who send you DMs and send you nasty messages and everything else, I mean, he's, and you turn on TV and you're hearing it of JJ McCarthy struggling, can't get the ball to Jefferson. There was one game, I think was it the Seattle game where they put up a graphic on TV and they had the little animation and Jefferson's like, no or whatever. I mean, it's like they, it was a nonstop talking point. And I think it got in his head a

little bit of, I have to force it to Jefferson. And then every time he was open throwing to him, there was almost a man, I really got to hit this one. It was like he was trying too hard. Well, that's not going to be an issue for Kyler Murray. When he had DeAndre Hopkins, he was one of the top receivers in the league. There are times where DeAndre Hopkins and Kyler Murray, there were times where Murray turned down throws. And that's an issue that I've had. And when we eventually look at the tape, if they sign him, it's an issue that I've had with Kyler Murray.

When you watch him, it's turning down throws. He makes a lot of throws from the pocket. It's just not true that he doesn't. He makes a lot of throws in rhythm. Again, not true that he doesn't. These are the things that are said about him. It's totally not true that he doesn't play in rhythm. He does all the time.

But there are times where it's there. and he just turns it down and you don't really understand why. Like, what did you see there? Maybe he felt pressure. There were times where he was getting pressured a lot in the game. So he started to feel pressure even when it wasn't there and scramble early. That can cause some issues with the top wide receiver. But, I mean, Hopkins numbers, McBride's numbers, he's going to get his guys the ball.