Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Aaron Jones practices. Will Vikings-Lions be high scoring?

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

Matthew Coller talks about Aaron Jones getting back on the practice field and whether Vikings fans believe they will get a W over Detroit on Sunday. Plus Manny Hill drops by to make an all-time Vikings/Lions team and preview the NFC North's matchups for the week Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here with you. And we are now counting down the hours until the Minnesota Vikings face off with the Detroit Lions. And I gotta tell you, we've waited two weeks for this. Can't wait for this football game. And normally, we haven't had this year too many times where we're looking at that injury report leading up to the game and really pouring through it and trying to figure out who's going to play, how it could impact the game. But for this one, there are a couple of very important

injuries on the injury report that we need to go over on both sides. So we'll talk about that in a moment. Would love to hear from you guys about your confidence in this one. You've had a lot of time to think about it. You've had a lot of time to watch the Detroit Lions beat up on the Cowboys and the Seahawks last couple weeks. A lot of time to listen to me and look over the data and read all the articles and everything else that you can get your hands on about the Vikings. Are you buying?

Are you buying a Minnesota Vikings win at U.S. Bank Stadium? We can go over some of the advantages, disadvantages that the Vikings are facing at 730. Manny Hill is going to stop by and chat, and we're going to make out an offensive lineup for the all-time Vikings slash Lions team, which I can't wait to do because there's a lot of talent on these two teams throughout the year.

So we're going to have some fun with that. And then we're also going to look at the other relevant matchups to the Minnesota Vikings that will be going on this weekend. So questions, comments, thoughts, confidence, belief, and anything else on your mind that you would like to ask me, go ahead, throw it into the comment section. So let me begin though with this old injury report. Blake Cashman did not practice for the second straight day. It seems pretty clear that Blake Cashman is not going to be in the lineup for this game. Also, we talked to TJ Hawkinson today. He is listed as being limited

in practice as he comes back from his ACL injury, but I would not expect him to play. Even Justin Jefferson today at the podium made reference a little bit to the fact that Hawkinson's not going to quite be ready to be back on the field just yet, but they have taken this slow. You want him to be back at 100%. They are looking to use TJ Hawkinson deep into the playoffs, not trying to force him into a game too early. So the right approach is the slower approach with TJ Hawkinson, in my opinion. So more likely than not, he will play against the Rams on Thursday or the following week against Indianapolis. If they have to wait till Indianapolis, that's okay.

That means you get him for essentially an entire half a season. And that's pretty good for Sam Darnold and the offense. And again, you want it to be a hundred percent. You don't want stops and starts. You don't want him to come in, not a hundred percent ready to go, even if he feels like he's really strong. So we'll take a look at that, you know, maybe Thursday or the week after that. But I don't think Hockinson has a very good chance to play, if not 0% chance to play at this point.

Aaron Jones is the one that everybody is keeping their eye on. So he did not practice at all on Wednesday. And then today though, we go out to practice, a very beautiful day for football, a little windy out there and there's Aaron Jones. And he was doing his stretching, which I would assume he's doing a lot of these days. Does that mean he's actually playing though?

So he's listed as limited in practice and the Vikings could roll him out for his stretching. Just make the Lions think that he might be playing even if he's not going to be playing. But with somebody like Aaron Jones, I think you always know that he's going to try to make a push to get into this game as big as it is. The Vikings get Cam Akers. I would assume that he's going to be ready knowing that he was in this offense last year to be able to step in if he has to. And then Ty Chandler could also carry a lot of the load, but that's something we'll be watching

very closely. And I've been saying it all week that my pick for this game kind of has to depend on Aaron Jones. I think he is so important to this offense that if he's not playing, it's much more of an uphill battle. If he is playing, I think that they are the overall just as good a team as the Lions. But then with the advantage of being at U.S. Bank Stadium, I think they can win this game, but likely need Aaron Jones. The interesting thing is I thought that it was a hip injury coming out of the game in London, but he's been listed with a hamstring. So that's worth keeping an eye on as we even go forward, because hamstrings are something that can get re-aggravated. That might be a reason for Aaron Jones to not try to push it,

because we had seen this in the past with Delvin Cook, where sometimes there was one year, I think 2018, where he came back a little early with a hamstring and he ended up re-injuring that hamstring and it set him back even more. So I don't think they want the same thing with Aaron Jones, but positive progress there for him in the fact that he was limited in today's practice. Dalton Reisner also limited in practice. We haven't gotten any sort of indication that he could be brought off the 21 day window and onto the active roster. We'll have to see about that. That might be something if it happens will happen on Saturday. Usually they make their last minute

roster moves. Harrison Phillips, good news there, was limited in practice today. And Patrick Jones also limited, which increases both of their chances to play significantly in this game. I would assume that Phillips is going to have a good chance and we'll see about Jones. And on the other side, not too much to report,

except interestingly on Wednesday, Kevin Zeitler, the guard for the Lions was listed as DNP rest. And then today he's listed as groin. So I guess he was resting his groin yesterday. And now that's an injury to watch as well. If Kevin Zeitler is not at a hundred percent, that's an advantage for the Vikings because he is a really, really good guard. And the big one on the injury report for the Lions, Carlton Davis, who was a huge signing for them. And I had seen that there was indication from Dan Campbell that he thought

Carlton Davis would be okay. And so I was going on the assumption that he would be okay. But then in today's injury report, Carlton Davis, second straight day with a quad injury did not practice. And this one is enormous. I mean, they signed this guy in part because he's a physical corner and they want somebody to be able to play against Justin Jefferson and Terry and Arnold has eight penalties so far already this year. That is a season's worth of penalties for even, I mean, it's a bad season's worth of penalties for a cornerback to have eight. So the fact that Arnold has already been very grabby so far this season is another potential edge for the Vikings because they have receivers who get off the line of scrimmage very well, and they cause a lot of penalties and a lot of sort of

hidden yardage for the Vikings on those flags. If Carlton Davis, the veteran player and who is very, very physical, cannot go here, then who's going to match up with Justin Jefferson? If it's the rookie, that is a big, big edge for the Vikings. So Carlton Davis's status over the next couple of days will be worth keeping a very close eye on. So there's kind of the injury report. It's very relevant. I mean, Cashman looks like he's not going to play. Aaron Jones, we'll see. We'll keep an eye on the Carlton Davis thing going forward, but a lot to wonder about for those game day inactives that could eventually have an impact on this game.

All right, let's get to your questions, comments. Jump right in. What's on your mind? How confident are you that the Vikings can beat the Detroit Lions at US Bank Stadium on Sunday? But of course, I'll take any other questions as well. From Mike, injuries I think will be an even closer matchup and amazing fights. Yeah, I mean, this is a game where when you go position by position,

when you try to look for all sorts of different edges, advantages, who's got the better of the other team, who's got, I mean, they both have great vibes coming into the game. The one thing about the Lions is, is this their third straight road game? And they've had to go to a couple of difficult places. They've won, but now again on the road, whereas the Vikings came back from London, rested up, mostly healthy, but definitely mentally rested over the last two weeks. They've had longer to prepare. I don't know what the numbers say these days.

The numbers used to be very favorable for NFL teams coming off of the bye week, but I don't know if that's changed with just how good teams are at preparing, and it doesn't take away from how great the Detroit Lions roster is, but it certainly is a thing for the Vikings to have not had to play last week versus a team that had to go play the Dallas Cowboys. Although the Lions only had to play for about two quarters to win that game over Dallas. But as we go through and look to the most minuscule details of this game, I also expect an extremely, extremely close contest. They've got the great offensive line.

The Vikings have the great defense and the deception. Both quarterbacks have been thriving because of the weapons around them, the play callers that they have and play action quarterbacks building off of the run game. Receivers have been stepping up and making big plays, including Jamison Williams over there and the Vikings with Jefferson, but also Jalen Naylor coming into the picture and so forth. So this is two of the best teams in the NFL getting to play each other. And I think if it was later in the season, we would see this one on national TV. But how about, I mean, the Minnesota Vikings now kind of week in and week out

are must-see television, and that's exciting. But it's hard to go through each team and roster and stats and all that and find one clear area where you could say, okay, well, this is where the Vikings are going to get them, or this is where the Detroit lions are going to destroy them. It's not like previous years where the answer was just coverage, coverage, coverage. The lions have improved their coverage significantly with as good as branch has been for them. And the Vikings have been much better in coverage this year way better than the situation

where they faced the Lions in the two games last year when they didn't have Byron Murphy Jr. and they're just getting a Caleb Evans benched at that point and it's it's just going to be a lot different when you have Stefan Gilmore when you have Shaq Griffin who's done an excellent job for them it's just just very different than it was season. So we can't really even draw on the recent past between these two teams, but man, they both have good coaches, good coordinators. They have motivational type of coaches that have the locker room on point. The U.S. Bank Stadium advantage is real. I don't think either kicker is missed yet this year, which, you know, that sort of screams for somebody to have a big miss. But I mean, when you say that you expect it to be a really close

fight, I completely agree. Uh, Danny says calling it now. Naylor is going to carry us to victory. Okay. Well, you know, uh, Naylor, I thought it was a miss by the Vikings offense last week to not get him the football or two weeks ago against the Jets to not get Jalen Naylor the football it really needs to be a priority he has great hands he's got explosiveness he's got an ability deep down the field but I also think that they could get him the ball underneath and he can make plays he doesn't just have to be speedy running deep he could also be speedy on a quick slant or something like that. And Darnold, that was kind of on him on a few plays where he did not find Jalen Naylor underneath and he needed to and didn't look at him. And I think

there was a few too many times where he was focused too much on Justin Jefferson. That I think is something that they should be able to correct a little bit going into this game is when do you take the risks to throw it up to Jefferson? When do you try to distribute the football? And Jalen Naylor should be toward the top of the list, though I'd really like to see them get Addison going because Addison has the injury early on, assimilates himself back in with

a big touchdown catch against the Packers. But when he was really good against, let's see, I'm trying to think what his big games were for last year. When he was really good last year as a rookie, I thought it was a underneath intermediate type of area route running, I guess against the 49ers when you had that big touchdown catch. But there were other times where he was just so good at running intermediate type routes, 7 to 10 yards, and you could get first downs. He can make those toe drag catches along the sideline. Getting him the bye week and maybe closer to 100% may help Sam

Darnold look to Jordan Addison a little bit more. So if we had to call it, I mean, you're calling Naylor. I would kind of call Jordan Addison in this game that I think that he would be a lot bigger of a factor than he's been so far. Jeff Viking says, if I were to choose I would rather see Hawkinson than Jones well you know I think if I'm to choose I would say both uh who I want in the lineup but I don't think that Hawkinson is quite as important as Jones I don't know it's hard to say they're both such great players these are two pro bowl caliber players that when healthy will make up an even better supporting cast for Sam Darnold than he's had. And he's had a really good sporting cast. Um, but Jones has been the engine of the offense. It's undeniable. The screen passes, the pass protection, the ability to keep churning

for extra yards when it looks like it's going to be two, but it ends up being six. He's a special player. And the fact that Sam Darnold can lean on him where he could set them up in favorable situations. So Darnold doesn't have straight dropbacks all the time. I think Jones has been the most valuable player on the offense so far. And you would rather, I mean, I'm not going to pick between the two, but I mean, you'd much rather have him playing than not playing. And to me, it's the difference in one more score potentially is just having a guy who could keep you on the field to can get you first downs. And I'd actually like to see them trust Jones a little

more in some short yardage situations. But when you can have a screen pass average eight yards per throw to Aaron Jones, that's a big advantage. When you can pitch to the outside and get an easy first down because he gets 10 yards weaving through traffic, it's a big advantage. Chandler feels so much more boom or bust. It's 20-yard run or it's not much happening there. And Cam Akers could add some tough yards for them. How much can he do this week if he's got to fill in is another question to ask. But yeah, I wouldn't downplay Aaron Jones and his value in the offense. It's huge.

Manju says, McCarthy's injury aver injury average four to six month recovery time. Is it possible for him to come back? If the Vikings make a deep playoff run, it is not, he is on season ending injured reserve. He is not allowed to come back. So he will be taking the whole rest of the season to, uh,

develop his mental part of the game. And by late in the season, he'll be able to practice on his own, but he will not be able to take part in any practices with the team. So he could be off to the side. He could be doing stuff after practice with Josh McCown, but he, I believe he can, or at least with the trainers, but he cannot do a full practice and he will not be coming back in any capacity for the game, for any game, for any playoffs, for anything. That's the, that's season ending IR. They didn't

want to put that on him to have to make his debut after going through a long meniscus surgery. If this was a 10 year NFL quarterback, they, they would probably have not put him on season ending IR, but because it's a guy that they're trying to develop in the best way for the future, they want him to have that whole off season lead up to next year as the starting quarterback. Deontay says, who steps in for Cashman? The answer is everyone, everybody. That's what it is. It's everybody. It is potentially Andrew Van Ginkle sliding into that spot at times. It is Josh Metellus. It is Ivan Pace doing the green dot stuff. It's Kamu Grugier-Hill. So you might see Kamu Grugier-Hill take 25 snaps. Josh Metellus takes 25 snaps there. Andrew Van Ginkle takes a handful plays with the linebacker position. And then you see Dallas Turner or Patrick Jones off the edge.

I could see very much mixing and matching when it comes to the way that they're going to fill that spot. He does so much for them that it can't just be one person. Hey, Kamu Grugier-Hill, go do everything that Blake Cashman does. I think it's a really going to have to be a complete group effort to fill in for him. He's another guy like Aaron Jones. He's kind of the Aaron Jones of the defense where he just does so much for them. And there's also a leadership element. That's really important. The play calling element that's really important. It's a tough loss for Blake Cashman when you go into a game like this, but Grugier Hill has made plays. I mean, as far as backup linebackers go, go around the league, find backup linebackers that have Kamu Grugier Hill's resume. There's

not that many of them, really. I mean, he's been a starter for a lot of his career, so he's a good player. Topaz says Lions average around 30 points per game this season, and Murphy thinks that we'll be in a shootout Sunday and they'll score more than that against our defense. Who's Murphy? Byron Murphy? What Murphy? Who's Murphy? Oh, Brian Murphy, maybe? What say you, Matthew? Okay, I was like, wait, whichphy uh if you mean brian murphy probably earlier this week on the show may have said that anyway the question is uh what now they'll score more against our defense you have the under oh for 30 points yeah i mean i don't know like the lions have a phenomenal offense i truly. And this is not a new experience for this offense.

This is cause I know some of you will leave the comments that they haven't played anybody. Okay. I understand. But, uh, this is now going on three years of elite offense. This isn't something new. It's not some trendy thing that they're doing that's tricking other defenses for the first couple of weeks and then people will catch up. This is a stacked offense with a great play caller and a great quarterback. So I do expect them to be in a bit of a shootout here. Now, 30 points, I don't know if it's going to reach 30 points against Brian Flores' defense. That might be hard for Detroit to do. I would look

at much more of a 24-21 type of situation with the, I mean, why not? The last second field goal from the logo from Will Reichert, I don't know. But that's how I look at it, is both teams should be able to put up some points because there's enough elite offensive talent on the field. But I don't think that there's a team in the league, and this is judging based on the offenses that they've gone against so far, I don't think there's a team in the league that's going to be able to run up the score against the Vikings defense, even as talented as they are. But I also think in a game like this, this is the toughest offense

that the Vikings defense has faced because of the five fat men up front for the Detroit Lions. They're just really good. And if anybody's going to communicate in this building, it's probably golf who's been there. It's probably a lot of these linemen who've been there. It just isn't going to shock them the same way that it did the Houston Texans. So there will be points. Yes. I, I would, I would say that, that there is going to be points on both sides. And I don't think Detroit's defense is as good as the Vikings. It's been

good this year. It has not been on the same level as the Vikings. I don't think it's even as good of a defense as the New York jets that they think it's even as good of a defense as the New York Jets that they faced last week, maybe closer to a team like San Francisco. So there will be opportunities to score, but yeah, I'd keep the game probably in the twenties. I don't know. Uh, I think that there have been some games in the past that have been much more of shootouts because neither team had a whole lot of defense. Uh, let's see. B a S says, uh, if TJ can play, he must, this is a division game with a tiebreaker implications. If we lose, we drop into second place due to the tiebreakers. He said he is a better, stronger, and faster than

before play him. Um, I would entirely lean on the team's staff for that decision. I am not going to pound the table for a player recovering from an injury to play before the Minnesota Vikings think that he's ready to play. If they say we need to wait another week, wait another week. As simple as that. It's just not something I'm going to challenge. And yeah, he is talking about being faster and stronger from before. It's probably the same thing with Tommy John surgery,

where the guy will say, yeah, I'm throwing faster than I was before. When really it's just because your body has actually had some rest for the first time. And that might be the thing with Hawkinson, but I think you want them to be fully a hundred percent ready to go. And, you know, I guess on Thursday night, it's like, well, what's the, what's the problem. It's only a couple of days, but if you play him on Sunday and then play him on Thursday, you are then asking a guy who just came off of nine months of recovery to then play two games in four days. That seems not great. I know it's a big game, but also it's one of 17. You got a long season, the rest of the way to go.

And you do not want something to happen with TJ Hawkinson over these next couple of games. And then what are you going to do for the rest of the season? You don't want any sort of re-injury, any sort of problem. You want him to be 100%. You also don't want the version that's not fully ramped up and ready to go, and you don't want that type of strain on his body to go Sunday and then Thursday. So how about Thursday, a whole week and a half, then next Sunday, and then he's back in the rhythm. It just makes a lot of sense to me to not have him play back-to-back games like this. I mean,

I guess you could play him this week and then sit him on Thursday, but I don't know that you could really do that. Let's see. Rob says, don't think the Vikings will lose per se, but with the quick turnaround into Thursday night football and some health issues, it'd be okay with dropping a game and be healthy six and one rather than banged up five and two. Well, yeah, I mean, uh, I mean, I think that when it comes to that, that's the question about Aaron Jones and whether they should try to play Aaron Jones. You don't want a re-aggravated injury, Aaron Jones, then to go try to play on Thursday night or be out for a longer time. I mean,

the same thing with TJ Hawkinson. You just don't want it over one game to put so much hype and so much pressure into this one game that then all of a sudden you're going to be saying, well, you know, you know, we've got to play him because it's so important. And then he ends up getting re-injured and you're missing him for like the, you know, the rest of the season or for another, you know, X number of weeks. Like you just don't want that. So yes, I agree with you that you'd rather be a more healthy six and one. As far as being okay with dropping a game, it is an important game math wise. When we think about just the sheer, here's how the standings work to this one. Not only do you get the head to head edge for now until you play them at the end of the season, but there's a pretty big difference between being neck and neck with the Detroit Lions

and being two games up. That feels like you have a huge cushion over the Detroit Lions as you go forward throughout the rest of the season. And the head to head is also feels like a pretty big edge. You go to six and oh, and then you're looking forward at Rams are beatable. The next three teams after that are in the AFC South, very beatable. And your road games are Jacksonville, Tennessee, not anything shocking there. And you've got a chance to start racking up a huge number of wins before you get your first L if those teams play anything like they've

usually been playing. Plus that extra break before coming home against Indianapolis allows them to get even a little more healthy. And you could be talking about nine wins in a row or something. What did, uh, I think what a 98 was 98, like nine wins in a row to start the season. You can talk about a really significant run there to start the year if you beat the Detroit Lions. And that's not to assume that they're going to be LA in LA. That's, I think maybe a little bit better team than their record would suggest, but still, I mean, when it comes to, you know, when it, when it comes to the, just the pure standings element, being even with the Lions,

then you're neck and neck with them the whole rest of the time. But if you could get that two-game edge, it would be pretty, pretty big. Let's see. Never played Madden says it's just one game long season. They'll probably be cautious with skill players. Probably a coin flip who wins. Yeah, I would say the same thing. Definitely, definitely a coin flip on this game. I think the

Vikings are slightly favored and that makes sense because they have the home field advantage and I give them the slight edge because of that, because they have the home field advantage and because they have the extra rest, even if they are a little banged up at certain positions, the extra rest for everybody else. And the fact that Sam Darnold and Kevin O'Connell, they could go back and look and kind of pick apart, Hey, what was working? What was not working and have that little, you know, bi-week kind of readjustment phase before going into this game. I think that that's a pretty decent advantage for the Vikings as opposed to Alliance team. They had that two weeks ago, but they had to still play last week. Uh, let's see. Sue says, uh, when, and we forced

the Alliance to go out and trade for a defensive end, like Max Crosby takes two to tango for a trade, but I think it'll make the Lions desperate to catch up. I think that they'll do that either way. I don't know if either team is really looking at this game as in a major influence for the trade deadline. I think if it's anybody, it's probably the Vikings because the Lions, they want to win the Super Bowl no matter what. They know how good their roster is. They know they've put all the chips kind of in the middle of the table here. They've got all the recent draft picks. They just paid Jared Goff.

They know that the window is not going to be forever. So you do make moves like a trade for Max Crosby. If you're the Lions, I could 100% see them doing that. But I don't think that a loss or a win really changes that a lot. It's probably for the Vikings. If anything, if the Vikings are six and oh, and they're asking themselves,

do we use this first round pick for something? How can you not consider it? If the right person is available, how can you not at six and oh, knowing that you're about to play the rams the colts the jags the titans like that that is four losing teams in a row what's the colts record are they a winning team but they're not that good so like how could you not at least consider that if you get a win so i think that the that the Vikings would be more potentially influenced,

but either team probably already has, or is at least close to already having their strategy for the trade deadline. All right, let us welcome in Mr. Manny Hill this evening. What is going on, Manny? What do you think of that? You probably heard me talking about that. If either one of these teams trade deadline approaches will be impacted by the result of this game what do you think um i'm not sure i mean i i because i i think both teams probably should be looking to make a move certainly i think detroit should be looking at trying you know. Certainly, I think Detroit should be looking at trying, you know, with the loss of Aiden Hutchinson, they should be looking at trying to add an edge rusher of some sort. And I think that's, you know, regardless of whether they win or lose this game Sunday.

And for the Vikings, I think, you know, making I think getting Cam Akers back, I think, was was a was a nice move to kind of maybe shore up the running back position. We talked about that the other night, about just with the unsure health of Aaron Jones going forward for the rest of the season. We just don't know how healthy he'll continue to be. It's nice to have Cam Akers back in the room, a guy that knows the system. Kevin O'Connell obviously likes him, bringing him back to this team for a second stint now. So, yeah, it'll be interesting. I think Detroit definitely needs to think about Ed Rusher,

regardless, I think, of what happens in this game on Sunday because with the loss of Aiden Hutchinson, that's just such a glaring need for them. Yeah, Blowfish just says the Lions won't panic and trade a lot of assets for Max Crosby if anything will be a solid depth pass rusher I mean I don't really know what their front office is thinking but I have to believe that they are in Super Bowl or bust mode they don't need anything on this roster so what are you waiting around for the next draft pick for send that draft pick out and get one of the best players in the league i don't know why you wouldn't

do that in this position if you are the detroit lions i think the vikings it's only slightly more questionable about that because you're really looking forward with jj mccarthy in the future to try to build around jj m. McCarthy and open up a five-year window with McCarthy, as opposed to the Lions that are much more working in a couple-year jam-packed. Every single year, you could trade the next year's first-round draft pick and try to get the best player you can to go win a Super Bowl. So I think that they should be scrambling, especially, gosh, look around the NFC. They're probably saying the same thing we're saying about the Vikings. Look around. Who

scares you? Detroit and not too many other teams. And they're probably saying Minnesota, maybe Green Bay, and not too many other teams that are all that terrifying. So they actually should probably do that. I don't think you talked them out of of it. Mike says, I have to stop the Lions running game. That's a formidable task. Hopefully the offense can extend drives and put up points. I guess I could find more cliches. No, you're right. This is one, Manny, where the cliches are all true. It's like both teams need to run the ball, play action, stop the run, pressure the quarterbacks. I was just looking this up. How crazy is this?

Statistically, Manny, since 2020, Jared Goff has never ranked even in the top 20 under pressure as a quarterback by PFF grade. However, he has a top 25 all time sack rate in a good way. And his sack rate career wise is only a shred behind Tom Brady. That's how good he is at avoiding sacks. So even though he is bad when he's pressured, he's not pressured that much and he doesn't give up the sacks. And that is to me almost as big of a factor as the run game

is just can they find a way to actually get him under duress because he has very rarely looked all that scared back there against the Vikings in recent years. Yeah, and with the way the Vikings defense is constructed now with Van Ginkle and Grenard, those guys have been obviously so good for the vikings defense and a big part of why they've been so successful you know you got to find a way and it's just going to be so tough because the lions offensive line is so good um you know in the passing game and

in the running game they're just so good at you know protecting jared goff opening up running lanes uh for their backs so it's going to be really important for Van Ginkle, Grenard, you know, Patrick Jones, when he's in there as well. It's going to be really important for the Vikings to be able to find, find ways to generate pressure on Jared Goff. And like you said, he's very good at like preventing that. I mean, and I hate to keep bringing up Kirk Cousins, but like one of the things that was always so frustrating about Kirk Cousins

is people would complain about the offensive line, but a lot of that pressure that we saw Kirk Cousins under was pressure that he created from holding onto the ball too long, not having the right kind of pocket presence. Jared Goff seems to be able to have some of that pocket presence and knowing exactly where to move move around in the pocket to avoid that pressure now to your point when you do get that pressure on him you can cause him to make some mistakes and and and things like that so for the vikings defense it's

going to be really really fascinating to see how brian flores sort of finds ways to generate pressure against a really good offensive line. You know, how many blitzes does he dial up? You know, how much pressure can sort of that front four of guys get on their own without any blitz extra guys coming in? That's going to be fascinating to watch. And there were always some comparisons with Goff and Cousins, which I would consistently bristle at in part because of that. And that's a lot of huge expected points added lost when you get strips act kind of all the time for Kirk cousins. And I think that it helps you avoid three and outs as well for Jared golf.

And that's exactly what they want to get. They want to get three and outs. You don't also get sacked a lot when you're ahead of the sticks and you're running the ball well, and they've got the two running backs so to mike's point i mean if you can run the ball then there's not too many times you can really send those all out blitzes it all is kind of interconnected and i think it begins with them uh with that running game uh hunter says fantasy question should i drop jerome ford for Ty Chandler? That's a tough one because I think the answer is probably no. I mean, I think that one, Aaron Jones will come back,

whether it's this week, Thursday, next week, whenever it is, and he's the dude. That's been made quite clear. But also, Manny, when somebody asks me about you, when someone's like, hey, do you know that Manny guy? I talk about you the same way Kevin O'Connell does about Cam Akers. I'm like, yeah, Manny's the best. That's my guy.

You know, do anything for Manny. That, ask O'Connell about Akers and he will just gush. And he gushes about a lot of people, but I mean endlessly about this guy. And his teammates kind of talk the same way about him. He is toughness. He's IQ. I look toughness. He's IQ. I look this up. He's a really good pass protector.

He could catch the ball out of the backfield. I think that Ty Chandler may have just been slid down the depth chart. Even, I mean, for this week and this week only, because I don't know what Jerome Ford's going to do, but for this week, because maybe aaron jones won't play but my interpretation of the cam acres trade was this gentleman is now your backup running back and ty chandler is the every once in a while sort of change of pace the david palmer if you will uh the was that was was moeldy more a change of pace guy, maybe a little bit? Kind of, yeah. I mean, they had, you're thinking probably 2004,

they had kind of a three-headed monster of Michael Bennett, Moweldy Moore, Ontario Smith. They all kind of carried, you know, Michael Bennett in 2002 was pretty much the feature back. And as they got Ontario and Weldy Moore into the mix, they kind of started to mix things up a little bit with those three guys. So it was kind of more of a three-headed monster. I wanted Ty Chandler to be Michael Bennett because he was, at least for those couple of years, blazing fast.

And he was more of an all-around running back for a really short period of time but chandler just has not shown them that he's that guy and the fact that they appreciate acres is complete game as much as they do makes me think that the distribution will be aaron jones aaron jones aaron jones then cam acres cam acres and a little bit of ty chandler i could be wrong it might just be insurance but when when you listen to how they uh talk about them and the fact that they made an effort to go out and get him back on the team that just makes me feel like they like acres quite a bit there uh dionte says if we win on sunday will the new focus shift to being the number one seat in the playoffs i mean i i don't know what it wasn't the number one seed in the playoffs? I mean, I don't know what it wasn't the number one, like that was the focus, but I think what had my interpretation

for that Manny is it becomes possible because when you look at the schedule after this, it becomes possible to start talking about what if these, this team can win the conference because you've created this two game gap on the Detroit Lions at that point then it is yeah I mean if you could beat Detroit Houston Green Bay Sam Fran if you could beat those teams then yes I I would say so that is where the bar gets set for sure yeah because then at that point all right let's say the Vikings win Sunday. They're 6-0. Detroit drops to 4-2. Who else are you really looking at as a threat to really challenge you for that number one spot? Because you're two games clear of best part about this too, is you're going to have some of these teams that are behind you. You're going to, the Vikings are going to have opportunities to play some of these teams and, you know,

beat these teams and gain tiebreakers. Like they already have a tiebreaker over San Francisco from beating them earlier. So, you know, Seattle's, I don't, you know,

Seattle's really struggling right now, but if they somehow recover and get themselves back in the mix, well, you're going to have a chance to play them late in the year to kind of separate yourselves from them as well. And so, you know, the only other team that I would think about right now is maybe Washington, you know, at four and two. But again, you're two games clear of them if you win Sunday. And I think the commanders have been a nice story so far, but you still kind of wonder like, all right, rookie quarterback, there's some talent. He's got some weapons. He's playing really well. But is that team really ready to be a super challenge to go on a run to a Super Bowl, a deep playoff run? Are they ready for that? Yeah, with the young quarterback, that kind of remains to be seen.

So you're the Vikings and you get a win and you move to 6-0. You are in. You've got the inside track, I think, at this point to get that number one seed. And as long as you don't stumble, don't mix in a bad loss the rest of the way, it should be there for the taking. Right. I just keep looking at the schedule going, who is it that's going to cause them the problems?

I mean, I think Chicago is a thorn in Kevin O'Connell's side. The win last year that Chicago had at the end with Justin Fields and even the Tyson-Bajan game, which was one of the nastiest games in a bad way that I can remember. I remember being in the press box in Chicago and all of us were looking at each other like, what are we supposed to do with this? They won, but ugh.

And that's kind of been all the games against Eberflus for Kevin O'Connell, except for the one where they blatantly tanked and played Nathan Peterman. And then he was playing too good, so they brought in Tim Boyle to make sure that they lost. So not that one, but they haven't had too many easy wins there. Aside from that, you know, the next game against green Bay or Detroit doesn't come until week

17. So that whole run in between Atlanta's offense is pretty good right now. We'll see how it looks. Then Arizona is very up and down. They could kind of be good or bad either way. I would definitely put my money on the Vikings defense now. So it really would just depend on health. But as far as where we are raising the bar to the expectation for the rest of the season,

yeah, it would suddenly go from some people going into the season, not us, thinking that they would win six games to win the conference as, as only it could ever be. And we said that in the off season, Manny, as only as it could ever be with a Vikings great season is one that no one thinks it's ever going to happen. And I did the historic research on that. I looked back Superbowl odds for all the Vikings teams that went to the NFC championship and they were never good. Not a single time. The only time, you know what year, the only time they were was oh nine. That was it. That's the only time they ever had good Superbowl odds. Uh, Jacob says my prediction is 30 to 27. Either way,

I think it's going to boil down to a field goal. And I think we have the better kicker. So the odds are in our favor. I don't know if you have the better kicker. I mean, their kicker's good. Like he was in the UFL and he's kind of a freak um but this is a funny prediction and i would love other predictions that are very specific like this mike says i think we see will reichardt's longest field goal of the season he already hit one for 58 how much longer do you want him to kick it from uh do you think the 30 27 i like that as a prediction i said more like 24 21 that it could be a little bit more of a attrition battle than we think from two great offenses because the defenses are pretty good for these two teams but what do you think of that's kind

of shootout territory what do you think of that yeah i i like the idea of a shootout between these two teams because i think there's so much talent on on both of these offenses and obviously you know jared goff is just just locked in right now as a as a starting quarterback for them and you know sam darnold's been kind of up and down the last couple of weeks, had a great have a great start, obviously. And we know that he's capable of putting together a really good performance. And I think, you know, Detroit not having Aiden Hutchinson, that's going to really because they don't really have a lot else in terms of pass rushers outside of him. I mean, he was just doing so much for them on the defensive side um and that's going to be an opportunity i think for sam darnold to maybe have a good day passing the ball because

you start to wonder like all right well how much pressure is detroit going to be able to generate especially i mean the vikings tackles you know um derrissaw and o'neill are always so good anyway so it's like how much pressure without Aiden Hutchinson are the Lions going to be able to generate on Sam Darnold? The question is just going to be like up the middle. Can the interior part of the Vikings line hold up a little bit and give Sam some time in the pocket? That's going to be fascinating to watch.

But yeah, I think this has a chance to be pretty high scoring. And the Vikings defense has been excellent obviously Brian Brian Flores has done a great job um but this is a this is this is a heavyweight fight going up against this offense that quarterback that offensive line those weapons that running game that play caller this is going to be the ultimate chess, and I would not be surprised to see a lot of points put on the board on Sunday. Clyde says, why not play TJ Hawkins in the first and third quarters to get to game speed and not overdo it? I'm just not going to question the Vikings staff when it comes to the handling of Hawkins, and I'm just not. Whatever they decide to do is probably the right thing to do. They've got all sorts of data, surgeons, physical therapists,

all sorts of people that know way better than us about when he should come back and play. So if he plays for the first time Thursday or after that, that's the right decision, not what we can come up with. Sometimes we do have to just say, and I love to second guess, coaches, teams, trades, trades front offices kind of what a lot of us in the media do a lot not this one nope not with tj hockinson's acl health that one is over my head uh let's see conrad says uh who will koc and b flow trade for i think it's quacey it makes the trade uh let's see dexter lawrence je Jeffrey Simmons, Adam Butler, Max Crosby. One of those things, not like the others, by the way, I believe they'll try to shore up the defensive

line. I mean, the most realistic of those is Adam Butler. I like the name Jeffrey Simmons. I mean, I've talked about him if they're going to trade him, but I don't think they are. Adam Butler for a fifth though. I would definitely do that. Rob says, do you think the Vikings will give up their first-round pick for the trade? I don't think so, but I want them to. Manny, is this just me wanting a trade? The other day, go look. They traded for Cam Akers for a conditional pick swap. And the video had the most views that I've had since mini camp with JJ

McCarthy at his first practice. I was like, you guys make some more trades, please. I said that to someone with the team, like, can you guys just make a couple more just for me, just for the views,

just for the excitement is, is me wanting them to trade their first round pick for a difference maker, for a JC horn Horn for a Jeffrey Simmons is that me just wanting a trade and just wanting a go for it season or or is this rational I think it's both honestly I mean I think for for us as certainly for you as somebody that covers the team and me that comes on these podcasts and talks about the team with you for us, it'd be great, you know, obviously, but I think, you know, given the situation that the Vikings are in this opportunity,

that it's kind of unexpected maybe by a lot of people, certainly nobody in Vegas thought that they'd be, you know, five and Oh, possibly six and Oh at this point of the year this especially when you look around we just got to talk about the rest of the nfc just being kind of meh right now like this is really a golden opportunity for them and you have to wonder like do we deviate away from the the big plan the five-year plan with jj mccarthy going forward to take a shot um and when you look around and when detroit when the when the only teams that seem to be like a real threat to you are in your division and you've been able to to play with these teams i think it makes a ton of

sense to just go in make a trade for a simmons or a Dexter Lawrence or something like that, a difference maker on your defensive line. Because that could be the difference in you getting to the Super Bowl and possibly winning it. I mean, you look at what the Rams did by bringing Von Miller into the mix that year. They went all the way in, and it worked out for them. And nobody's going to take away that Lombardi trophy from from that group from sean mcveigh and obviously we see the rams are struggling now they're paying for that for those moves now but who cares they that that lombardi trophy and that championship banner is there forever nobody's going to be able to take that away and the vikings make a move like this and it gets them to the Super Bowl

and it's the difference between them winning it. Nobody's going to miss that first round pick that you traded for Jeffrey Simmons. Well, and the Vikings don't have an expensive Matthew Stafford to work around either for the future. They're going to have the quarterback and the rookie contract, which I think is convincing. And I have seen my JC Horn idea starting to pick up some steam on the internet. So I'm glad people like it. But you

know, there, it's not like you have to trade always for a rental. You can trade for a player who can be here, which is like signing a free agent. It's not exactly like having a first round pick because that guy's cheap, but it's like signing a massive free agent um so we'll see but i'm still into the idea maybe i'll change my mind depending on how they play on sunday uh jacob says the lions cannot win a super bowl before the vikings are all quit watching football you were close last year you were close um that would be a little bit annoying. Yeah. You know, like the, the, the,

the lines have been like the butt of everybody's jokes in this division for decades. And like, they just suddenly get really good, turn into a juggernaut and win the super bowl. And here, the Vikings just been scrambling around for 64 years, getting to super bowls and coming up short NFfc title games coming up short it would be

a little bit a little bit annoying okay i i can help you with this though the tampa bay bucks have two super bowls yeah they were so bad there was a story i saw there's a youtube that's very funny uh a friend of mine jaguar gator nine who i think never thought his youtube would blow up because he does great nfl history he'd probably change it to nfl history guy or something he does great nfl history he did a video about how why everyone wanted to kick the tampa bay buccaneers out of the old uh nfc uh central And part of it was because the old revenue sharing included when you go to the opposing teams stadium or when they come there and how it works out and nobody, they were all mad that every time Tampa Bay came to their stadium or they went to Tampa Bay, I forget how it worked,

that they just didn't get any money because no one was going to the Tampa Bay games. And which makes a lot of sense. They were as much of a laughingstock as exists in all sports history. And then they win a Super Bowl with John Gruden and a former Viking quarterback. And then they do it again because Tom Brady picked them. And apparently, I think it was the Chicago Bears didn't want Brady and instead decided to stick with Mitch Trubisky. So it could be worse for you. Uh, Tampa Bay, I think if you didn't quit watching football after they won their second Superbowl and your team has none, then, you know,

maybe, and how about Cleveland fans? Not only have they not gotten the Superbowl and they got close many times with those really good teams in the eighties and so forth. But then Baltimore leaves. And a couple of years later, they're raising the Lombardi trophy with the players that your guy drafted in Cleveland. So it's going to be worse. You'll keep watching football. I do not believe you. I don't believe you. I don't believe you're going to suddenly become a, the fan of some other team or just stop football altogether. Rob says, if the Vikings can get a first quarter two-score lead again and force the Lions out of the run game early, that's probably the best chance.

Yeah, so this one, Manny, and we never know how things are really going to play out until they actually happen, but if we're projecting it in our brains and trying to imagine how does Vikings and lions go, I have a tough time thinking they just jumped to a two score lead against this caliber of team. And actually that's what I'm most interested in. I am most interested in how this team responds to a back and forth. You score, we score, you punt, we punt. What does a 17-17 fourth quarter football game look like for the Minnesota Vikings or whatever it might be, 24-24? Because I think that's actually what we're going to get. What does it look like when the other team can use their whole offense

for the entire game as opposed to, well, we're down 17, so Aaron Rodgers has to target Garrett Wilson 400 times in a row. And I think that's a great test as we build a sample size for Darnold, the defense, like every question that we have to be able to see them in a closer back-and-forth game. Yeah, and also, well, first of all, this is going to be a dogfight. I think just with the with the way these, the way both of these teams are built, the way both of these teams are playing right now, I think this is going to be a, a back and forth battle.

It's going to be pretty close, but also I'm curious to see like what happens. Cause the Vikings have seemingly gotten off to really good starts and jumped ahead of all of these teams that they've played so far. What's going to happen if Detroit comes in and just marches down the field in the first drive and jumps up 7-0? How does Kevin O'Connell handle that? How does Sam Darnold handle that?

You know, how does that change? If Detroit, that happens and then the Vikings punt the ball, go back to Detroit, the Lions march down, kick a field goal, and it's 10-0 with three minutes left in the first quarter. How do the Vikings sort of handle that? Because that hasn't really happened yet. And I'm not saying that they can't handle it or that everything will just completely fall apart, but I'm curious to see how this group responds to that,

to falling down early and how the quarterback responds to that and how they sort of handle that, how Kevin O'Connell handles that. That's going to be fascinating to watch because it's very possible. We've seen Detroit do this. We've seen Detroit jump all over Dallas, not saying it's going to be 47-9 on Sunday, but we've seen Detroit sort of jump out to leads on people because the offense is so high-powered, and that just makes them much more comfortable. And I'll be really interested to see how that plays out if that happens on Sunday, how the Vikings sort of handle that scenario too.

Don says the emotions for this game for Detroit, for Detroit will be unmatched for, Oh, Hutchinson. Well, that's true. Yeah. Sometimes teams get a little bit of a boost, like emotionally for that Detroit 26, Minnesota 23. I could see that happening. Uh, BM says the lions frontline defense is predicated on getting Hutchinson into favorable matchups.

That's for sure. And using his incredible edge speed with him out, I wouldn't be surprised if their defense really struggles. I would be surprised that the the when you say really struggles i think i would be surprised i would their defense can't be the same it's just not possible when you lose somebody who's playing like reggie white out there it is not possible that you will be the same defense but they're two scary players for the Vikings are on the interior in DJ Reader Lane McNeil McNeil has been great against the Vikings before great this year he just got a hundred million dollar contract boost that's I don't think that they really struggle because of

that although if they're without Hutchinson and Carlton Davis who was on the injury report that could be a little bit different I'm only reading this comment because I have a lot of funny answers for this. Mike says, where's our in-depth look at Manny Hill? Give us the resume occasionally. Love the guy. Well, Manny played Darth Vader's voice. No, Manny was actually the guy who followed john facenda on nfl films that that's where he came from no uh manny i wish the reason the reason manny is on the show is because we met randomly and i like him no it's uh because we work together 1500 espn back in the day uh we work together a ton so now i wanted you on purple insider it's not complicated that's the whole resume and we both like the wnba friday manny we going we are going okay we're going definitely going

a game last night 17 no i think it was like 19 000 people silenced at the end of the game sabrina decided to hit a shot for for once in the series unbelievable yeah i know and the scene believe it the thing is that the sequence before she took a bad shot from a similar kind of thing and missed it and i thought oh well good job and then so when she lined up the 30 footer i was like oh well that's the best you could have hoped for oh it's good uh anyway we'll move back to football uh ty says uh there are a lot of games left i'm not going to sweat playoff position just yet. Hoping we can peak at playoff time, not September. Well, yeah, I mean, of course.

Yeah, if you start 5-0 and you don't follow that up with anything, as we saw in 2016, then that is a problem. And, you know, I agree to some extent that, yeah, you can't start really talking about playoff position. But I think as far as our expectations for the team, if they go 6-0 and finish anything less than second place in the conference, although first place comes along with an incredible benefit of not playing in the playoffs in that first round, but anything less than a top two seed and home field advantage would be

actually very disappointing considering who they've got coming so i actually do think we want to look forward at six and oh and go okay how how good can this really be and if you guys come short of that then it will be a disappointment yeah because i mean especially at six and oh it's like you look ahead to the schedule sort of that that stretch of the afc south that they'll be playing um that will be kind of that lighter part of the schedule and you just again you look at the rest of the conference at six and oh and i know you know vikings fans that are closer to my age are going to bring up 2003 when they started out 6-0 and Nate Poole and Week 17 and all that. The rest is history.

I think it would really take a massive collapse for something like that to happen, for them to not finish in the top two just because of what's going on with the rest of the conference. Because you would need the Vikings two just because of what's going on with the rest of the conference because you would need the Vikings to really kind of falter and fall back. And then you would need somebody else in the conference, you know, maybe Detroit, but like somebody else besides Detroit

to just get really, really hot and win and run off, you know, a six or seven game winning streak. I mean, that's probably what it's going to take. And I don't know if there's another team in the conference that would be able to pull that out. Maybe San Francisco, if they can get healthy, can do that. You know what I mean?

There's still kind of the team that I think everybody's chasing in the conference because of the recent success of the last five years. But it would take some, it would take a lot of things to happen, I think. If the Vikings start out 6-0, it would take them really falling back to the pack and somebody else in the conference just getting blazing hot and being unstoppable the rest of the way. I can't help but think Vikings history says, hold my beer when you say it would really take something.

And that did happen, right? Wasn't it 0-3? Was it that did happen, right? Wasn't it? Oh, three. They were, was it six and oh, right? Six and oh, yeah. Finished nine and seven. Well, and Josh McCown had something to do with that. Now he's here.

Clifford says if we trade and take a shot this year, it needs to be with a player who will be on the team for more than three months and then we'll still fit in with the McCarthy plan. And no, I agree with that. And I think that importantly, when it comes to that is that player, do you need to extend them? Do they already have a contract? Are you bringing a player that you think you can extend or someone that already has a deal or has a fifth year option like Jay-Z Horn. I mean, the contract part of it, this is why it's hard to figure out how it's going to be pulled off

because you probably can't make a list of 10 players that this actually fits. And some of them are so good on bad teams that it's pretty hard to see them actually moving on. So I agree that that's the most important approach. If you could do it, that's the way I would do it. But realistically wise, I just don't know that it's really that possible to pull off. And I don't want them to just trade away the first for whatever.

But man, you bring up like sometimes teams had to go all in on it. Jay Ajayi for the Philadelphia philadelphia eagles they picked him up in the middle of that season he was huge for their race i think it tends to happen kind of a lot that the teams that win the super bowl they go out and get somebody the 49ers got chase young who i'm kind of interested in i have not and will not watch tonight i refuse i am just boycott i am not watching the saints and the broncos play i forget that but um if the saints lose they got to be looking around for okay like sell people off because their car has been out spencer rattler is probably not going to take them to the playoffs

chase young is on that team add an extra rusher to the mix probably the more realistic thing manny is them trading their fifth round picks for a contributor rather than some sort of huge all-in type of deal yeah and and i don't honestly with that too i don't think there's anything wrong with that you bring in a guy that can just help and add some depth you know a guy that can bring some depth to the defensive line some depth in the secondary um you know so i mean cam makers in a lot of ways was kind of like that you know where he he you know he's not a superstar running back but he's a guy that knows the system he's a good solid player it gives you some depth in a in a position that you might be a little bit thin at because your number one guy is a little bit banged up.

You know, if they can make another move for another, like another cam acres type move, you know, maybe like for somebody on the defensive front, somebody in the secondary, that can be very helpful because again, depth is very important too.

You want to have high end talent. You want to have a guy like, like Jeffrey Simmons in, you know um but if you can get another guy that's just a really solid player that can step in and and you know play more snaps in case one of your number one guys gets hurt and you can still be okay there's nothing wrong with that either yeah and uh wrigley says here what's's wrong with a veteran rental like Brandon Sheriff, Joel Batonio, Adam Butler, the other guy, I think it's pronounced Siler. Is he a defensive tackle? There's nothing wrong with that, but just for the first round pick, just to clarify, if you're giving up a first that you don't want to give that up

for just a rental, but if you're going the fifth rounders or something into 2026 which they already dipped into okay well that's that's fine if you're going to give up a conditional third rounder from 2026 and a fifth from this year to get somebody like adam butler as a defensive tackle or brandon sheriff is right guard i mean that would be terrific i think and probably is more along the lines of being realistic uh bm says i've never seen will reichard kick in person in a dome in perfect conditions how far can he reasonably make a field goal i think 65 is how far he could make it the problem with a 65 yard

field goal though is you have to kick it low like you can't it'll lose momentum if you kick it way up in the air and they can block it so that's always uh you know pretty scary but as far as how like we've seen him in training camp manny in the vikings facility when it would rain you have to be inside i i've seen him kick it from 55 and it's definitely 10 yards up over the goalpost. There is no question about it. His leg is ludicrous. In the joint practices, it was really cool. I was standing underneath the goalposts and they had this light pole that went up in the dead center.

I imagine it was put there on purpose for the kicker to focus on the dead center of the field goalposts. And Will Reichard was doing this thing where he didn't do any run up to the ball. So he just stood there and swung his leg. He was kicking them from like 50 yards and hitting that center pole. And I was like,

what is this? And so we're going on the podcast every day going, yeah, guys, I don't even know what to tell you. This kicker is insane. And so of course, what do you think the comments are saying?

You guys, he's going to miss the NFC championship field goal. goal he probably stinks you don't know what you're talking and uh hey i'm just saying he's been really good so far so i think the vikings made the right draft pick on draft night i was like i don't know guys kicker but this kicker yes this kicker uh we have a nice lead in here manny derrick asked asks, Manny, barring Barry Sanders, who is your favorite Lion of all time? I'm going with Mel Gray. Love Mel Gray.

He returned so many kicks against the Purple. Sanders number one, though. Who is your favorite Lion of all time? If you take Barry Sanders out of the conversation, I would probably say Calvin Johnson. Yeah. I mean, as far as like favorite to watch the thing is with calvin johnson i think about this sometimes we didn't get to see a ton of him because we didn't have red zone and we didn't have constant highlights i mean think

about andre johnson calvin johnson both guys the we knew, but it wasn't like we had social media and we were just constantly getting to see these guys, or you could click on any game with NFL. Plus I click on any game. I just watch the whole thing back and I can see a guy play whenever I want to, man. I wish we had that when Kelvin Johnson was playing. So we could actually see him, uh, play a lot more games. And I wasn't covering the Vikings then. So, you know, I didn't even see him in the division. I didn't see him against the Bills a whole lot, maybe once or twice.

So I don't even have like a ton of Kelvin Johnson memories. And they would play those Thanksgiving games and lose by like 46 points. That was the toughest part. I think they made the playoffs maybe they made it once with Jim Schwartz was the coach there. And then I think once when Jim Caldwell was the coach there with Megatron. But he was just so much fun because he was such a – I mean, he was a beast in terms of just putting up the numbers, but also just like from a physical standpoint, the guy was a freak. I mean, he's 6'3", he's 240 pounds, runs like a deer, catches everything,

runs great routes, was very technically sound too just just um it's a shame that the lions were so rotten for for so many years um while he was there you know they could just never even when they made the playoffs you know they just weren't they were always kind of overmatched and and not really they were never a team that you looked at and was like oh yeah that team's gonna they can make a run at the super bowl they were just like getting in on a down year in the nfc north and it was just not really a whole lot after that okay so here's what i want to do man i want to have a little fun then we're going to look at the nfc north the other games for this week and preview them and also look at those higher and lower pickums for underdog fantasy before we wrap up for tonight but i wanted to do a little drafting instead of your

favorite players and going through your whole list because they play these teams so often, the Packers, the Lions, it's just kind of the same guys that we've seen so many times. That's more fun when they play the Jaguars to hear about your five favorite Jags ever. So what I wanted to do is a Vikings slash Lions all time draft. So the way I want to do it is why don't we go by the positions? So you'll draft the quarter, but your quarterback first, I'll draft mine and then I'll draft a running back. So I'll get two in a row, the back to you and we'll go back and forth kind of like that. So why don't we just start out with, if you are drafting among all this is all lions

and all vikings and we're going to make up our teams and you guys could say who you think the best teams are who would you draft at quarterback and in all lions all vikings draft you could pick from any lion any viking ever to put a qb i think this is probably an easy one for me and I'll probably go Fran Tarkenton. It is an easy one. Yeah. There's really no question. When Fran Tarkenton retired, he owned like all the records in the NFL history. One of the top, I think it should be considered a top 10 to 15 quarterback ever. It's just didn't quite get that ring, but now it becomes very hard question for me so who is the next quarterback do i take stafford do i have to take warren moon in his viking version which wasn't bad but it also wasn't great can i just have one season of randall cunningham like i think well

randall cunningham most of his career i think i have to go with him because he, at any point he was actually playing, it was those injuries that kind of caused him to step away from the league. But when he's playing in the eighties, he's phenomenal. His version of the Vikings is unbelievable in 1998. And I think his body of work and what, I mean, warm moon is in the hall of fame,

but I think Cunningham was a better quarterback for the Vikings. So I will go with him but if you don't go with cunningham then you got stafford is in the mix and you could probably put gosh i mean are you going like it's probably now you're probably Tommy Kramer, Dante, Dante. Yep. Dante it's short lived, but Dante is phenomenal. Uh, one season of Scott Mitchell. I was trying to think on the lion's side outside of staff for like one year of Eric Kramer. Well, 95 Scott Mitchell was pretty good.

I think 30, 30, 30 plus touchdowns. Um, he was pretty bad in that playoff game against Philadelphia that year. Uh, that I remember they got blown out. But yeah, that year he was actually really, really good. Wasn't very good after that season, but that year he was excellent. I know Stafford's got a Super Bowl, but I think Randall Cunningham had a better career than Matthew Stafford. I'm going to say that I think he did. So I will go with Randallall cunningham uh now running back it's a pretty easy pick i will select you're gonna take well be more no yeah barry sanders barry sanders i will

select scott graham uh scotty he went by scotty right scotty graham yeah scotty graham yeah so no i've said barry sanders is the running back, but an interesting choice for you after that. So who is the second best running back aside from, let me get a, let me write this down. Go ahead. Yeah, this is,

I'm thinking I'm down to three guys and they're all Vikings. I'm thinking Adrian, Robert Smith or Chuck Foreman. I will go, I'll go, I'll thinking Adrian, Robert Smith, or Chuck Foreman. I will go. I'll go. I'll go, Adrian. Just so explosive. So explosive.

Yeah. Yeah, I guess it. Yeah, I guess it's not. I mean, I was thinking there might be a tough choice between Adrian Peterson and maybe like Robert Smith, Chuck Foreman. Chuck Foreman was so versatile, man. Chuck Foreman was so versatile. chuck foreman was so versatile you could just you could throw it so he could give you 60 70 catches a year or two aside from you know running it out of the backfield but yeah that's what i was saying yeah you're right it's

it's not that hard uh let's see so i have cunningham and sanders you have uh tark and tin and uh peter's team okay now it is brought up that maybe i should have picked farv i don't know if i didn't really want i just didn't really want to pick farv right now let's just tell you the truth uh not a good time to pick brett farve right now i just don't think but objectively objectively randall cunningham's 98 season is better than Brett Favre's 2009. Just is like there's a better team. He had a better season statistically. And career wise, Favre had the better career, though. There's no question about that.

But I'll lean toward give me Cunningham's 98 season over almost anybody in the NFL history as far as quarterback seasons. So and I love Randall Cunningham and the way he played. But now wide receivers is an interesting one. So you get to pick another wide receiver here and you get to select between Randy Moss and Calvin Johnson, but we'll pick, why don't we pick like three receivers each to make it fun? So why don't you pick your three receivers and I'll pick mine? Okay. Okay. But we split we were splitting randy moss calvin johnson who are you how about that though

who are you taking between randy moss and calvin johnson i'm gonna take randy okay i'm gonna take randy yeah okay and i'll take okay i'llatron. Okay. Now who's your other ones? Okay. This is where it really gets fun. Um, wow. Uh, Chris Carter. Okay.

I'll go Chris Carter. All right. I am going to take Herman Moore. See, that's, and that's what i was thinking and i love me some chris carter but herman moore like mid-90s herman moore was a beast he was that guy that guy caught everything i should take jefferson here but i wanted herman moore yeah so you take a jefferson here yeah i'll take jj here okay your receiving core is complete madness uh let's see i could go with i could go with jake reed i could go with amad

rashad i could go adam phelan stefan diggs i could also go maybe brett perriman great wide receiver anthony carter anthony carter amin ross saint brown has made his case as a recent wide receiver i don't know i'm trying to get in the same level uh as you guys uh with with randy moss chris carter just jefferson i don't know if i can get to that level with brett perriman here maybe maybe with this i will go i'll go jake reed jake reed okay or uh should i go stefan digs maybe i should go stefan digs i'll go yep i'll go stefan digs okay so how about you get a tight end and then just one defensive player all right. Tight end. Ooh.

Trying to think off the top of my head. There's a couple here. Yeah, yeah. Actually, I should get first tight end pick. I gave you the wide receivers. Percy Harvin's a good one. But Diggs had such a better career than Percy Harvin. Percy Harvin is more exciting. I will go with Steve Jordan.

Steve Jordan, okay. Nice. Youid sloan remember him i do remember david's big large you can have you can have mike tice tight end i was watching a game from 93 the other day vikings and saints and mike tice is out there just blocking people. How about Moritz Bohringer as a suggestion? That's pretty good. Tight end. I will go. I mean, you might have to go Hawkinson. I was just going to say, I might just go TJ Hawkinson. Yeah.

Okay. Now, for the old school people, Stu Voight was pretty good back in the day, but yeah, I'll go with Hawk. Yeah. They had the other guy who was the guy that they picked really high and it just did not work out the tight end for it. Was it gosh for Detroit? They put somebody remind me anyway one defensive

player how about one for each team one lion one viking defensive player okay uh the one viking defensive player i will definitely take is alan page okay and. And I am going to take John Randall. Okay. Love that. And who's your lion? I got my lion. Lion defensive player. Lions Hawkinson or Vikings Hawkinson.

I actually think it's Vikings Hawkinson. It's actually quite a bit better. Yeah. My lion's defensive player lions hawkinson or vikings hawkinson i actually think it's vikings hawkinson is actually quite a bit better yeah um my lions defensive player you know what give me a domkin suit man oh yeah okay and i will take chris spielman okay yeah all right so here's the teams and you guys can tell us in the chat who you think's team is better between lions and Vikings back and forth teams. And, uh, then we will talk about actual back to game stuff for this weekend. Uh, all right, here is my team. I have Randall Cunningham as your quarterback, Barry Sanders, Megatron, Herman Moore, Stefan digs, Steve Jordan, John Randall, and Chris Spielman. And Manny has tarkington manny picking an 80 year old quarterback he's not going to be able to play just kidding okay fran tarkington adrian

peterson randy moss chris carter justin jefferson tj hockinson alan page and indomitian soup so who has the better overall team between the vik Vikings and the Lions you know these teams have never won Super Bowls but if they combined their franchise they would have won a lot there's a lot of talent on these two teams uh okay so we can stop messing around now uh and we'll see who the commenters think is going to be better oh the Broncos are up 13 nothing already could you imagine being the Saints can I just scream that out loud really fast? Can you imagine being the Saints? How absolutely

miserable that must be? Everyone's voting for you. It's my show, people. Give Collin some votes. Four straight votes for Manny. Dang. Yeah, so Bo Nix is playing pretty well right now, but are you

kidding me? Who would want to be the New Orleans Saints right now? Is any team in a worse position than the New Orleans Saints? Isn't their cap situation kind of bad too because they were during the Breeze era, they were kicking money down the road a lot, signing guys and

all that stuff. So they're kind of in like kind of a cap hell right now um yeah and that's crazy too because they got they got good players still you know cam jordan alvin kamara like but man yeah it's it's bad we're in pretty cool uniforms tonight though should have picked o-line well if we're picking one O-lineman, I think... Now, who would I take from the Lions? I would definitely take Steve Hutchinson or Ron Yerry. Probably both of them.

Randall McDaniel, I would probably take. Yeah. Damian Woody. From the Lions, yeah. From the Lions, yeah. From the Lions, yeah. Dominic Rayola. Yeah, they've, I mean. Rayola was pretty good.

There's some good ones. All right, let's talk about the other NFC North games this week. So actually the Bears are off. So we'll just talk about relevant teams to the Minnesota Vikings since the Bears are off. Who do the Packers play? They play the Houston Texans. Ooh, okay.

What's your feeling on this game? Man, I am actually now irritated that I will not be able to see this game because I'll be covering the Vikings game. But that one belongs on the marquee right next to Vikings and Lions, Texans, Packers. That's good stuff. Yeah. I mean, well, what is the 325 game what's

the national game chiefs niners chiefs niners okay okay yeah that's pretty good too yeah we'll talk about that one as well yeah otherwise i was gonna say texans packers would be a good 325 game everybody could watch um yeah that's gonna be really, really fascinating because both teams are, you know, you've got two teams that got young quarterbacks that are playing well. And both teams made the playoffs last year and won a game in the playoffs. Both teams won a game rather decisively in the playoffs last year and competed pretty hard in the second round. Yeah, it feels like two teams that are young, that are really trying to maybe take a next step beyond what they did a year ago. I think they're both really well coached.

D'Amico Ryans is, I think, doing a great job down there in Houston, and Matt LaFleur, I think, is really good for the Packers. And so, yeah, that's going to be, that's going to be really, really fun. Um, yeah, that's, it's kind of too bad that they're going to be playing at the same time as the Vikings and lions. I know that one is just for quarterback play. Uh, Jordan loves CJ Stroud to total gunslingers. It's at Lambeau and maybe the Texans learned some lessons about playing on the

road after going against the Vikings of being in a difficult environment that they can maybe carry over against the Green Bay Packers but these are two teams that expect to be good for a really long time where I am interested is the Texans pass rush is really good. Uh, the Vikings have the best, uh, group of tackles in the NFL. So they were able to slow down mostly will Anderson and Daniel Hunter, although they got their hits in sometimes are the Packers going to be able to stop those edge rushers with Jordan love who kind of likes to hang out of the ball a bit, likes to roll around a bit. And he still is kind of coming off that injury uh who would you pick in this game i might go texans yeah i was thinking texans too because if that pass rush can get after jordan love you know if if the texans

get off to a maybe a similar start that the vikings got off to in lambeau a couple weeks ago you know that could be that could be interesting to see how that plays out. And I think Houston is very capable of doing it. They've got the offensive weapons to do it. The young quarterback, C.J. Stroud, is playing well. I like the Texans in this one for sure. All right, Chiefs and 49ers is relevant to the Vikings because there are some folks who still think the 49ers are as good

or better than the Vikings, which is weird because they are some folks who still think the 49ers are as good or better than the Vikings, which is weird because they are three and three. The Vikings are five and oh, and the Vikings beat them. But you still see when people power rank, the 49ers are up there. There's just a lot of belief in what they've been in the past. Also with the Chiefs, I think that we should just keep putting the chiefs at the top of all power rankings because chiefs they've won the last two superbowls i understand that mahomes is not playing at the same level but no quarterback just plays at their absolute best for 18 or 17

straight games i mean chiefs 49ers who do you got in this one? I like the Chiefs. Yeah. They just. 49ers are favored. Does that surprise you? One and a half point favorite. So maybe that's an adjustment for home, but still. Yeah, it's in Santa Clara.

So I guess that's not too surprising to me. But dude, the Chiefs right now, just the way I'm so impressed with the way they just win games. It's just like it's it's everything is just it's all business with them. And they're not that they're not the explosive offense that they've been in the past with Mahomes. But they still remain very efficient on offense and their defense. Spag what Spags has done with that defense over the last few years to to get them to where they were last year obviously a great unit and they've been excellent this year as well like they just they just find ways to win games man and it doesn't you're you're not really surprised

by it anymore because it's like this is this is what they do this they are they are truly the class of the nfl right now of this league of this game. The quarterback obviously is the number one guy on the planet and, you know, they probably have the best head coach in the league. One of the great head coaches of all time and just what they're doing on defense too. You know, they get guys that get injured, guys that don't play that well and they just put somebody else in and it just works. You know, I mean, Travis Kelsey, maybe not don't play that well, and they just put somebody else in and it just works.

You know, I mean, Travis Kelsey, maybe not quite the guy he was, you know, last year or the year before. Still doesn't matter. If Mahomes needs him to make a play, he's going to make a play. If they need to stop on defense, they're going to make it happen. It's just, I liked him in this game. I think the Niners are just a little bit too banged up right now. I still think the Niners are going to recover and end up winning that division

because that division doesn't seem like it's very good right now, especially with Seattle kind of falling back to earth a little bit. But in this game, I like Kansas City to go in and just kind of do what they've been doing, just take care of business. And you look up and it's like, oh, the Chiefs beat the 49ers 24 to 16 in Kansas City 6 and 0 right on to the next right yeah it definitely seems that they just know how to

grind out wins and maybe at some point their offense will kind of come alive and we saw that a little bit with Juju Smith-Schuster all of sudden um you know sorry it just comes back to kansas it's kind of like with brady in new england where you're like jabbar gaffney huh this is a good receiver okay uh it was always kind of that way i was watching um i was watching pardon the interruption a couple of weeks ago which is like the the main show on espn that i still really enjoy watching with uh kornheiser and wilbon kornheiser brought up a stat they were talking about the chiefs and the chiefs i think it's so they're five and oh then you've got the the four games in the

playoffs and then the two i think they've won 11 games in a row or something like that and they have not scored more than 27 or 28 points in any of those games that is crazy and they're winning that is crazy you know like and you look up and it's and it's not like they're winning games the defense is playing great it's not like the offense has just been awful but it's like they just it's like the offense just does enough and the defense makes enough stops and then they just win the game and there's nothing you can do about it like the patriots i mean like the patriots did with brady for so long where it wasn't always huge stats for him and they would find a way to win every close game and their

defense was good their coaching was great uh and according to the chat the games were rigged for the chiefs so that's that's just always going to be thrown out there. But tell me you could watch back what happened in that Bengals game and that it wasn't a pass interference. I mean, the guy just wrecked the wide receiver from behind. I don't know. What do you want to do there? I think they deserve all of their credit. So I will also pick them.

And then if San Francisco is three and four, then they are in a lot of trouble there, but their division is also so blit. I mean, just, you know, all right, let's get to the,

the underdog fantasy higher or lowers. And just wanted to say, again, I mentioned this on the show the other day, but you guys have been awesome when it comes to using the promo code purple over an underdog fantasy we got the numbers back and a lot of you have signed up and i really appreciate that because it does help the show every time somebody signs up using the promo code purple so it's super awesome that you guys

have done that underdog fantasy is the easiest place to play fantasy sports and the fastest growing fantasy app in the industry. Last week, guys, I did what they call an early slate fantasy team. So it wasn't the Sunday night. It wasn't the Monday night. It was just the one o'clock and four o'clock games. If you're in the Eastern time, I don't know why I said it that way. Uh, but the, uh, the noon and the three o'clock games, and it was five bucks that I put in, did a draft, took me about five minutes and I would have really done well, except for some reason, Baker Mayfield did not throw to Mike Evans. I don't know why they scored 51 points, but he did not throw to Mike Evans. So why Baker, but I was a few catches away from having a really good pay out there in a $5,

five minute draft, a lot of fun. So try that out. That's pretty fun to do. If you don't want to commit to a fantasy team. The other thing that we love on the show is the pickums very easy to play. Just pick between two and eight stats for your favorite players, go higher or lower, and you can win up to 20 times your money. Again, the promo code is purple. You get a special pick and first-time deposit. Offer up to $1,000 in bonus cash. Must be 18 or older. Terms apply. Concerned with your play?

Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit ncpgambling.org. Okay, Manny, here's the hires and the lowers to close out the week of live podcasting. Jameson Williams has become a deep threat for the detroit lions higher or lower 46.5 receiving yards i'll say higher i think so too i think they're going to try to work on the ball the vikings have been destroyed by amin ross saint brown over the years and i think they're going to put a ton of effort into that and they're going to try to slow them down but jameson williams it's all they also kind of the lions love to troll so they were trolling

the cowboys by giving a tackle the football they also trolled trolled the Vikings in 2022 by throwing a touchdown to Jamison Williams. And I believe it was his only catch of the year. I think that they realized that they traded up for Jamison Williams and they're going to try to troll a little bit, but yeah. So I think that you are right. They will try to work the ball as much as they can to Jamison Williams.

How about this one? Jared golf higher or lower 245.5 yards i'll say higher i think i might go lower on this and only because i believe that detroit this year with their two running backs has been all about the running game and that they might try to grind this out and then hit a few big plays rather than having golf throw all over the yard. But it really depends on how the Vikings stop the run. If they stop the run and put it all on golf, then he will go higher than this. But I think I'm going to end up picking lower. How about Justin Jefferson? Here's a stat for you. Justin Jefferson averages 134 yards per game

for his career against the Detroit Lions. 134 yards per game. The higher lower number here is 92.5. Yeah, I'm not sure that the Lions have anyone that can really hang with Justin Jefferson, and he's already the best receiver on the planet. So I will say higher. I will also say higher because if Carlton Davis is banged up and Terry and Arnold can't do anything except for grab wide receivers.

Now, here's the fun one. Will Reichert. things except for grab wide receivers now here's the fun one will reichard would you say that will reichard goes higher or lower 7.5 points in this game love to use the kicker involved in this yeah it's awesome uh i'll say higher probably a couple field goals and you're gonna have to kick it but yeah is that a couple field goals a couple extra points yeah i i i agree two two field goals a couple extra points that'll get you eight points right there right he did a great job against the jets under difficult circumstances but this is will reichardt's moment to introduce himself to the nf Well, did he make a field goal against the Packers? Well, he did, actually. It was the difference in the game.

So anyway, there you go. We'll go higher on that. So great week of conversation, guys. Really, really appreciate all the great comments and conversation that we've had leading up to this one. Tomorrow night, keep an eye out on the YouTube for my discussion with Andrew Kramer, kind of a hardcore breakdown of position by position.

We'll be looking at that one. So that one will be up on the YouTube page tomorrow. Manny, thanks for your time. And I can't wait on Monday night for us to know the result of this. Come back, break it all down, look forward, and you will be picking the schedule again. Wins and losses on Monday night, 7.30. So you guys will want to be there then. Thanks everybody so much for watching slash listening

and we will catch you all very soon. Football.