Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Aaron Rodgers is officially NOT a Viking (Part 1)

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about Aaron Rodgers signing with the Steelers and what the backup plan for JJ McCarthy is now... plus answering Vikings fan questions.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Inside or Matthew Coller here and it is mostly officially official that Aaron Rodgers is joining the Pittsburgh Steelers. It is reported today that he is told the Steelers that he will join them for mini camp and congratulations to Aaron Rogers for actually doing this at mini camp. I gotta say, Aaron, I doubted you. I doubt that, uh, that he was going to sign with any team before training camp, but he put all of his trips aside, all of his plans to live in a hut in the jungle aside to actually show up in Pittsburgh.

So congratulations to him for doing that. But that means now it is nearly officially official until he puts that, you know, pen to paper and signs it. I guess it isn't, but the reports are that it's going to happen. And that means he is not going to be a Minnesota Viking and I know That we have known this for some time that Rogers was not going to be the guy here in Minnesota unless something Shockingly went wrong. But now hey JJ McCarthy we can truly say it is your show again We already knew this it was out there that they had told Rogers it wasn't going to happen. And then Quasiadat-Flamenza told us, and then Mark Wolf told us, and then Kevin O'Connell told us. So it has been some time since we have actually had to have really

that Aaron Rodgers discussion, but it still existed in the air until he signed somewhere else. There was always that little smidgen of a chance that if JJ McCarthy got banged up or whatever they saw in OTAs, which I don't think that would be enough for them to ever panic and judge and go get Aaron Rodgers, but it always existed ever so slightly a chance. And so now that is off the table

that rather than follow potentially, even again, with the smallest chance of the Brett Favre tour, he will not be doing that. And he will be going to a different franchise in the Pittsburgh Steelers, but that is still relevant to the Minnesota Vikings, which is that Aaron Rogers will quarterback a team that is playing the Vikings. So here's a question for you guys to start off the show and I am happy to answer any questions tonight. This is total Q&A your time. Get your questions in the comment section. Let's have a fun conversation for the next hour and a half or so, because I will not be spending that much time, thankfully on Aaron Rodgers because he's not playing here. But Aaron Rodgers will play against the Minnesota Vikings

when they face off in Dublin with the Pittsburgh Steelers. So there is a question to be asked, would you have rather had Aaron Rodgers retire or play for the Pittsburgh Steelers because their backup quarterback is Mason Rudolph. They also drafted Will Howard in the late rounds, but Mason Rudolph hasn't actually been that bad as a Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback. He's actually won a lot of games off to pull this up.

And the last time we saw Aaron Rogers, it was not all that impressive. He did not play well overseas last time against saw Aaron Rodgers, it was not all that impressive. He did not play well overseas last time against Minnesota Vikings. So just looking at Mason Rudolph, a couple of years ago, 2023, he actually had a 118 quarterback rating in four games, three starts for the Pittsburgh Steelers and got them into the playoffs. His career record is nine, eight and one with an 84.7 quarterback rating. And I'm not suggesting at all that Mason Rudolph, uh,

that anyone would want Mason Rudolph more than they would want Aaron Rogers. But when we look at the way that Rogers has played recently and the way he performed for the New York jets last year, you certainly have to wonder how much of an upgrade it's going to be. Now it was believable that Aaron Rogers would have been good for the Minnesota Vikings had he ended up signing here or they had panicked or McCarthy had tripped down the stairs or whatever because of the environment that he would have been taking over. I mean,

once we see Sam Darnold do what he did last year and even Nick Mullins, give them a chance to win games against good teams, then you do start to believe that Jefferson, Addison, Hockinson, O'Connell in this line could make anybody look at the best version of themselves. And that's what they're projecting for JJ McCarthy. But when I look at what Aaron Rogers is inheriting for the Pittsburgh Steelers, I think it's much tougher to make that argument that the Steelers are going to be able to elevate Aaron Rogers or that Aaron Rogers is going to

be able to elevate the Steelers. So I've got their depth chart right here. I was taking a look at this. So in the backfield, I think they're pretty good in the backfield with Jalen Warren. I liked Caleb Johnson coming out as a prospect, but wide receivers, their wide receiver too right now is listed as Robert Woods along with Kelvin Austin. DK Metcalf is there. Roman Wilson is an interesting player. Scottie Miller is kind of bounced around the league and then Pat Friermuth, another one of those fairly highly drafted non-impact tight ends and their

offensive line is nothing to write home about either. They've spent some high draft capital there, but it has not been an above average offensive line anytime recently. It seems to me that Aaron Rogers going to the Pittsburgh Steelers is some desperation out of Pittsburgh because they have been that team that barely makes the playoffs gets knocked out. They've actually kind of become the Minnesota wild of the NFL where they can make the playoffs, but they never have enough real star power to go deep into the playoffs. And their quarterback position has been

floundering since Ben Roethlisberger and even really late in Ben Roethlisberger's career, it was floundering. So they press the panic button, they go get Aaron Rodgers. And now are you more concerned about that Vikings game in Pittsburgh? For me, the Vikings game in Pittsburgh is still going to be defined very much by how good Pittsburgh's defense is that under Mike Tomlin they have consistently been such a good defense they still have a ton of star power they drafted Derek Harmon who we all liked coming out in the draft and he could have

an early impact for them knowing their history of drafting defensive linemen that's a good football team overall and then maybe there's some weather elements too. But Roger signing with the Steelers. Sorry if I'm not shaking in my boots. If I'm any of the teams that are going to play against Rogers when you look at what he did last year, he was as mid of a quarterback

as exists in the league. And yes, some people have said he can still spin it. And I totally agree with that, that he can still throw a football. But what made Aaron Rodgers really Aaron Rodgers was his ability to scramble, create extra time. He was doing all the Mahomes stuff before Mahomes,

finding ways to throw off platform, make ridiculous throws as he was getting pressured. And we saw, I don't know how many things over the years that were unbelievable to the eye that Rodgers did against the Vikings. That version of Aaron Rodgers is just not there anymore. And the other factor here too is their offense and their offensive coordinator. Arthur Smith was very good once upon a time with Ryan Tannehill when they were running kind of a handoff to Derek Henry, run some play action

and use Ryan Tannehill's ability to throw down the field. They were able to do that to pump up Ryan Tannehill once upon a time, but he does not have Derek Henry in the backfield. He does not have the offensive line that Tennessee had when they had Derek Henry. And, you know, I do agree, uh, dusty that Caleb Johnson is a nice player. I like Caleb Johnson a lot was thinking about him for the Vikings. Had they not gone out and get, uh, Jordan Mason.

And I think he can catch out of the backfield and do a lot of different things. He's a versatile player, but is he going to be that game changer that if they had picked, you know, Ashton Gentry or O'Marian Hampton or something right away, is it way above what we expect from other running backs? Probably not. Like they have a good duo is my expectation. We don't really know if he can play in the league yet. All right. So you've got a little bit to work with in the backfield, but does Pittsburgh have an offensive line that's going to be

able to block for Aaron Rodgers as he holds the football and holds the football last year? We'll have to look up last year if he was protecting himself last year or taking hits because I honestly don't know over the entire season if he had started to just throw the ball away again like he was doing late in his time at Green Bay. So last year Pittsburgh ranked 24th in their offensive line pass blocking which is a little bit ominous and I know year to year these things can change but on looking at their offensive line they didn't go out and make any big signings they have drafted some guys. Fulatano did not play I don't know if that's how you pronounce it. Fulitano, uh, he didn't play a whole lot last year, but aside from that,

I mean, they don't have some offensive line that looks super daunting. So I think Aaron Rogers is destined for at best a middling type of offense that maybe looks like what Russell Wilson did for them last year. Russell Wilson had his moments because he threw down the field and they ran four verticals all the time. And occasionally that you're going to have last year was George Pickens and this year it's DK Metcalf. Occasionally you're going to have that guy break open and make a play and

get deep down the field. But is that really a consistent offense? I don't think that it's going to be. So I don't feel like the Vikings should be majorly more concerned now. Take a look at throwaways here. Where was he in throwaways? Now he wasn't really that high last year in throwaways. Like I would have expected.

He had only 18 of them. So I guess he was just getting rid of the football on shorter passes last year. But Rogers only averaged 6.7 yards per attempt last year, had a fairly high touchdown total, but a low completion percentage and not a great quarterback rating was sacked 40 times. So he actually was taking a lot of hits last year. In some seasons with the Green Bay Packers. It seemed like he was actually good at throwing the ball away and did it maybe too often where he was saying, you know what? I'm not going to take a sack. I'm not going to take a hit. Just going to

throw that ball away. But he was taking sacks for the Jets last year. And with this offensive line that Pittsburgh has, if they get sacked 40 times with Aaron Rogers, I mean, it's hard to see him lasting an entire season that way at his age, but it's also hard to see them succeeding as an offense. If he continues to take sacks, doesn't throw the ball away and averages less than seven yards per attempt, despite some of the deep shots that he hit and my biggest question about the Aaron Rogers decision here is How much does Aaron Rogers really?

Desperately badly want to play football for the Pittsburgh Steelers and how much does Aaron Rogers? badly desperately need attention and need to be on First take all the time need to be the guy that they're discussing. I mean, even if you look at this sort of held out and waited long enough, long enough, and maybe it was just to see. Maybe maybe some of those reports were true that he was just waiting to see what the Vikings first impression of JJ McCarthy was at OTAs. But I don't know if I really buy that. It seemed like he was waiting just long enough for them to beg and for the entire world to get exhausted of reports that Aaron Rodgers was probably going to sign with the Steelers.

And so he waited and he waited and he said, all right, well, the Vikings aren't going to sign me and I need to be in the limelight again. And now I'm coming back. But when I watched him play last year and even early in the season before their season had gone to hell, my biggest observation about watching him play was one, yeah, he still has the arm, but is he enjoying playing football anymore? When Aaron Rogers was at his best, he was doing the,

what was it called the discount double check best, he was doing the, what was it called? The discount double check or something. What was the, I don't know. I don't care what the celebration was. He was doing something that was sponsored and then he was doing a belt and then there was something else like he would play with a lot of joy out there with a lot of energy when he was at his best. But we have not seen joy and energy from Aaron Rogers in a really long time.

In 2021 that season, it looked like he was having a good time. Maybe that's cause he was having so much success, but since then it's been a pretty ugly look every time I see him play, even if he's playing well in a game, it still looks like he's put out to just have to be on the field. He still looks frustrated, annoyed. And again, maybe that was the jets, but even at the end of his time in green Bay in 2022, just did not look like he really wanted to be on a football field. And with Rogers, the biggest thing is,

is either he or Arthur Smith, their offensive coordinator, are those guys going to welcome themselves to the year 2025 or are they going to keep doing the same things that worked for them years ago? Because the run everything off Derek Henry and play action stuff is still like play action is still good and run everything vertical for your quarterback. Again, it still works like Like running vertical and running play action is always going to work. But are you going to dress it up in the same way

that a lot of the best teams do with a lot of motion, which we know Aaron Rodgers can't stand. And yet what Aaron Rodgers doesn't seem to understand is that those motions, well, they give you more coverage indicators, but they also force defenses to have to scramble and it makes it more difficult on them to press wide receivers. And I think what was happening with the jets.

So when he had Devante Adams at his best, go ahead and press Devante Adams, put them one-on-one with somebody, double team and go ahead. Cause you'll just beat them off the line of scrimmage, throw back shoulder over and over again and they could do it. But that's certainly not DK Metcalf. And I don't think it was Garrett Wilson either. Garrett Wilson can beat somebody off the line of scrimmage, but not like Devante Adams in his prime.

And these defenses have really developed answers to indicators at the line of scrimmage. So it's actually funny if you go back and watch a game from 2010 Call up a Peyton Manning game from 2010 He goes under center while sort of you know shotgun and he looks around and he reads the defense Presnap and he changes that route and he calls out that route and the defense just stands there like this just not moving Waiting. Okay, he's figured us out, but we have no answer for it. So here we go.

Well, now what do you see from Brian Flores defense? You see when the quarterback makes a check, what happens? Well, now the defense makes a check and this has always existed, but now it's really advanced because these are the answers for a lot of motions and changes and audibles and all those things. This is why we love football is that it always keeps moving forward and I'm not sure that Aaron Rogers has really moved forward with it or Arthur Smith to tell you the truth from seeing their offense last year with Russell Wilson.

And for that reason, it should not really scare you because Brian Flores mind bleeped Aaron Rogers on several different occasions. He threw a pick six to Andrew Van Ginkle. There were many plays in that game where he looked like he was perplexed at what he was seeing post snap because now these defenses are showing you, Oh yeah, you know, we're going to be in man.

I promise. And then it's not, you know, they'll move a guy with a motioning player like, Oh, that must be man coverage. And then, Oh, it's actually not. They just made a change or we're going to show you this. We're going to show you, look, it's going to be a blitz off this side. Here comes this guy creeping up. Oh, actually it's not. And Harrison Smith has done this to Aaron Rogers for years where he's played mind games with him, where it's up at the line of scrimmage dropping back. But the answers now I think are harder for quarterbacks than they've ever been at the line of scrimmage. And Rogers to me does not look like he has taken

that step forward. So there's that element. And then I'm curious in Pittsburgh, are we at drama level midnight by week four when the Vikings play them? Week four? Yeah, week four. When the Vikings play the Steelers in Dublin, have we already reached that point? Because last year, it was only a couple games into the season, and yet they had already reached the point where it was drama level red and honking horns and smoke coming out of the New York Jets organization, and then they fire the coach after the game. I mean, like that's,

it doesn't take long when Aaron Rogers is in your organization for the drama to come for you. And what a political world to walk into for Aaron Rogers as well, as he joins the Pittsburgh Steelers. So again, I think that he's probably going to be a better version than what they've had in recent years. It's an extremely low bar to match the Russell Wilson from last year, the Justin Fields, the Duck Hodges, Mason Rudolph again,

who did play really well in a small sample size for them, but I don't think is a great quarterback. How much above average is Aaron Rodgers really going to be and how much goes along with what he does to every single organization, which is makes it all about himself, takes it over. Aaron Rodgers is in charge now and we'll see how many former Packers also end up in Pittsburgh as well. So your thoughts, are you now more concerned about the Vikings playing against the Pittsburgh Steelers now that Aaron Rodgers is there? And then there's one more thing to mention before I get to your comments and questions.

And again, any anything is on the table. Doesn't have to be about Aaron Rodgers. That's for sure. Any Vikings question you have three days of mini camp next week that we get to see three days in a row, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The media will be out at TCO Performance Center, including myself, to watch the Vikings practice. So what should I be looking for? Toss that in the comments. But the one other thing is that until today, Aaron Rogers existed as a, well, if JJ McCarthy wakes up one day and his meniscus doesn't work anymore, they could always sign Aaron Rogers.

And I think all of us believe if he was here that they would be a playoff team. Would they be a real contender? I'm not so sure about that, but they would at least be a playoff team if he was here. So there was that backup option that existed. Well now what is the other option? What is the emergency, the break glass in case of emergency option? Is it Sam Howell? That doesn't give you a ton of confidence.

And I know that Sam Howell has some people who really are into Sam Howell and okay, that's fine. some people who really are into Sam Howell and okay, that's fine, but 4-13 record as a starter didn't look good last year when he was put into a game with a good team and then not to mention Led the league in interceptions and sacks. That's not somebody that you want starting over 17 games So what's the Sam Bradford trade option? I think the obvious answer is probably Kirk Cousins. If things were to go bad with JJ McCarthy from a health perspective, it's just something random happened and he got hurt. And it feels like what Kirk Cousins is doing in Atlanta is that he's waiting

around for somebody's quarterback to get injured and some team to have to trade for him, because that is what happened with Sam Bradford in 2016 which was they drafted Carson Wentz I believe Bradford had like a two-day holdout or something after that then came back to practice it looked like he was going to start but then Wentz was pretty good and then all of a sudden you know they ended up going with Carson Wentz and trading Sam Bradford to the Minnesota Vikings so But then whence was pretty good and then all of a sudden, you know, they ended up going with Carson Wentz and trading Sam Bradford to the Minnesota Vikings So, you know, I think that Kirk Cousins is doing the same exact thing like waiting on a team to get desperate Hey is Cleveland gonna be mad at all their quarterbacks at some point?

Are the New York Jets gonna see Justin Fields practice and be like, okay We can't do this is somebody somebody else going to tweak a knee? And that's what he's likely waiting for. So that would be the in case of emergency option, probably for the Vikings, the likelihood of this is almost nothing, but I don't see a better option out there for someone to trade for. If it's the, the, the worst thing in the entire world happens, JJ McCarthy gets hurt. And now what do you do?

It probably would be bringing back Kirk because at least he would know the offense when he returned trying to go out and get anybody else or even turning it to Sam Howell. This is a year like 2016 where you're going into it with expectations of really winning something. And so you would have to try to bring in a quarterback that could do that. In 2023, when they went out and got Dobbs and then ultimately played Nick Mullins,

they were in more of a position of 500 kind of hedge, get a guy that's interesting, well maybe run the offense and can make some plays and has been around and is a journeyman. But they didn't go get Flacco that year who probably could have gotten them into the playoffs, like squeaked into the playoffs. And he did with Cleveland. Instead they ended up, you know, getting a quarterback who had been cut by a bunch of teams and it allowed them to

draft JJ McCarthy. So better off that they ended up getting Josh Dobbs and having him not win a lot of football games. But the point is they're in a different spot. Then they were 500 and it wasn't really all that clear, but now they are in the mode of you've got to win. So of course, JJ McCarthy needs to stay healthy at a hundred percent and they can go forward. But the Rogers option, the in case of emergency,

super emergency is now officially off the table Let's get to your questions comments thoughts and feelings about Aaron Rodgers and much more Dusty says imagine if Mike Tomlin ends up coaching his last year in Pittsburgh with a washed 41 to 42 year old Aaron Rodgers UFTA. Well, you know, that's the thing about Mike Tomlin is that I think Mike Tomlin has been one of the best coaches really in NFL history that he's got a Superbowl with them and they were consistently a great franchise and being able to still raise the level of your franchise to the post season in a tough division, in a tough AFC year after year after year, based on your defense, your running

game and just grinding it out. I mean, he's been a great coach for that organization. And sometimes we underrate how hard it is to be a coach in the NFL to get your team to that level of success year after year after year. I mean, when you look at all the coaches who get hired and within three years they don't have their jobs anymore and Tomlin has sustained that franchise that every year they go into the season, you kind of know that in the last weeks of the year they're going to be right there. But there's nobody in the NFL who can consistently over many, many, many years, not get deep into the playoffs and then keep their job. And I know he did sign a contract extension. So there is that, but I think that most extensions that I'm not talking about ones that are five years, for example, that KOC signed or four years, but taking him five

years into the future. But most extensions are not worth the paper that they're written on because NFL owners will just say, whatever, we need somebody else. Now that would be a more monumental decision for the Pittsburgh Steelers. But eventually the point is if you just keep running back the same results time and time and time again, eventually they're going to say we need to try something else. Then it gets into that territory of being the Tony Dungy to John Gruden, which is the example that comes to mind right now.

Or it just becomes like the NBA where Tibbs can get his team into the Eastern Conference final and then end up getting fired right after that. That's not something that happens as much in the NFL. conference final and then end up getting fired right after that. Uh, that's not something that happens as much in the NFL. Usually when you make the playoffs, you get to keep your job other than some rare instances, like, uh, was it Mike Malarkey who won a playoff game and then got fired? But for Mike Tomlin,

there's been too many of these years where they've stagnated as a franchise. And what I noticed last year was that the, you saw the NFL PA survey, which you guys know, I look closely at cause it's sort of like players spilling the tea a little bit about their franchises or, you know, players loving the Minnesota Vikings. I'm always interested in how players are viewing their franchise for the first time. Mike Tomlin was not ranked as high as he used to be.

And I think there's even frustration within that building with the players who are like, we gotta find a way to get a quarterback. This can't be a blind spot anymore. And Rogers is their potential solution. But as you said, we know that when it goes down with Rogers, it goes down hard and it goes down bad and it explodes into a million pieces.

Like one of those cartoon explosions in an action movie where a car flies off the side of a hill and then boom. Like that's what happens with Aaron Rogers when things go wrong with him. They're in a tough division too. It's really hard to pick them over anybody except for Cleveland in that, uh, division. Uh, Julian says, gotta know, do you own any Viking apparel like a hat or a shirt?

Cause I've never seen you wear one. No, uh, reporters do not wear team gear. Just the, that's a, that's a big no, no, uh, in my world. So I do not own any Minnesota Viking team gear. No, my mom does. And, uh, my stepmom does. So they watch every Viking game now and they follow the team closely because I cover it, but that's just not something that you're ever going to see for many reporters.

If you went into, uh, any of the reporters who cover the team, any of their houses, you're not going to see Vikings helmets and gear and stuff like that. Uh, we, it's always a tough thing to explain. And so I won't get too deep into the weeds like about journalists and being objective and stuff like that. But, uh, we do our jobs and our jobs are super fun and we have a lot of fun doing them. And I have a lot of fun talking with you guys, but no matter what happens with the team,

I have to go in there with the same mentality every day, whether it's 14 and three or whether it's seven and nine and the, you know, houses burning down and everything else during the Zimmer era. So that's what it is to be objective about the team. And so there's no, I don't go to a game ever rooting for a win or a loss. I just go to cover the game and then we react to whatever happens. So that's always been how I've done it. And you know, it's going to continue that way. So you won't see me showing off my skull tattoo on the inside of my lip or something like that. Um, let's

see Aaron says, uh, Vikings could beat Rogers in three different countries now. Yes, that's true. That is true. This is one where as much as I think that you shouldn't be terrified that the Vikings have to play Aaron Rodgers because it's just hard to make this work. And let's not forget either that DK Metcalf did not have a great year last year. And I think Gino Smith was probably a better quarterback than Aaron Rodgers last

season. He did not have his best year last season. In fact it was one of the worst of his career since he first came into the league and the Steelers out of sheer desperation they go out and they trade for him and they pay him 32 million dollars a year and I don't think DK Metcalf is a receiver that you go into a game and you're terrified of he can still hit a Home run he's still very good But big wide receivers really really big wide receivers do not have a great history of longevity Maybe Anquan Bolden did because he was a possession wide receiver, but guys who are that large, if they lose the quick twitch, and that's the thing that they have relied on for so

long is that quickness and speed. If he loses that, then he's not going to be the dominant wide receiver. And the other thing is he's never really had to be the number one guy. Tyler Lockett was always there, and then Jackson Smith and the Jig Bus. So it's more of been like a one in one a a duo and he gets a good matchup and makes a play while who's scaring you on this? I mean, I've talked about it earlier, but who's scaring you? Robert Woods has got to be 500 years old.

Kelvin Austin, the third Roman Wilson. Like these are not good wide receivers. Pat Fryermuth, truly not good wide receivers that you go into a game Like if you're facing the Vikings and it's Jefferson and Addison where you're really terrified So it's hard to see Aaron Rodgers just lighting the Vikings on fire going off going crazy at the same time At the same time. I mean He is an upgrade for them talent wise, arm talent wise. And there's always that thing with old guys,

like every once in a while they'll find it. I mean, even look at the far of 2010 season, as bad as the far of 2010 season was, every once in a while, cause that was kind of Rogers last year, kind of his far of 2010 season was every once in a while, cause that, that was kind of Rogers last year, kind of his far of 2010 and every once in a while he would find it and he would have a great game and you'd go, wait, that's, that's the far. That's the far we remember. And Peyton Manning in routes to that Superbowl in 2015, every so often in that

playoffs, he made enough plays. That was the old version of Peyton Manning. That's something that Mason Rudolph does not have because he has a ceiling as a backup quarterback where Aaron Rogers could have a moment against you. And he had a few of them last year. That would be the one concern. I think is that one day it just clicks in and he's on point for that game. And you've got something. But the way that Flores is defense really confused him last year would not make me

think that you should be too concerned about Roger starting for Pittsburgh. Dusty says rather than face Rogers, would rather face Rogers than Rudolph simply because I feel like the franchise, any franchise with him is destined for turmoil. Yeah. I think that's completely right. Dusty is with Mason Rudolph. You're probably playing a certain way. This is another way to think about it too. So let me make a basketball comparison because I was listening to Zach Lowe the

other night. It was now with the ringer formerly of ESPN and he was talking about the New York Knicks in the way that they play in the regular season, which is they play their starters a million minutes. They get to the free throw line a million times. They don't turn the ball over. They play more ISO than anyone and they rebound like crazy. And in the regular season, that kind of shrinks the game and allows you to win some games that maybe you normally wouldn't by playing this sort of ultra conservative, don't make too many mistakes.

Well, the Pittsburgh Steelers, that's been who they are with all these quarterbacks with the Kenny Pickets. I mean, Kenny Picket, what? Didn't he get them to a winning record with something like seven touchdowns and six interceptions? It's been this, don't mess up, just keep the train on the tracks. Don't turn the ball over. And all of us know those stats that if you don't turn the ball over,

you have a much better chance to win the football game, Captain obvious, but it's true. And there are teams that have been able to slow the game down, grind it out. And we see this in basketball from time to time in the NCAA tournament where a team will get offensive rebounds and they'll just just shrink the game and then the other team misses a couple threes and all of a sudden, you know, the other team gets strip sacked by TJ Watt or whatever and all of a sudden Pittsburgh has won the game by a score of 17 to 13 and you go how the heck did you lose to Mason Rudolph or whoever else is playing

quarterback there? And that's kind of how with Aaron Rogers, I mean, you have to have him as the centerpiece of the offense. You can't play some ultra conservative. Don't get sacked. Don't throw picks. Don't you know, fumble the football, just keep the train on the tracks because he still thinks he's Aaron Rodgers How many times last year did we see him trying to whip it like back shoulder or something to somebody out of nowhere? And they're like, I don't know man That just didn't look like it used to look for Aaron Rodgers still I think the odds of the Vikings winning the game

Go down that Rodgers is the quarterback. I think they're very high that they win the game, but they probably do go down because he could have higher end moments. He could hit deep shots. And if there's one thing that's a little concerning about the Vikings defense, it probably is opposing team's ability to take deep shots. They don't have the fastest corners. I mean, Isaiah Rogers is fast, but he hasn't played a ton. Mackay Blackman is not the tallest.

Uh, then you have, you know, Harrison Smith is not as fast as he used to be. The O Jackson is a new safety. Is there going to be communication issues? Like all that sort of stuff, uh, it could happen on deep shots when you're playing. And that's what happened against Seattle last year. They gave up a couple of deep balls and then all of a sudden like they're having to come back in that game. Dusty adds granted there's a lot of stuff coming out of Pittsburgh about players not

liking it there and they ranked 28th in the player survey. Yeah, that's what I was talking about is if you are a Pittsburgh Steelers player, you're probably looking at this and going we might as well. We might as well because we're just stuck. And you guys know all about that feeling. I think the Vikings were in the same spot as Pittsburgh when they had Kirk on the expensive contract, which is just stuck. And how do you make your way out of that?

And for a while I started to feel like there's no way out of this for the Vikings. The way out turned out to be a torn Achilles. If Kurt Cousins doesn't tear his Achilles and they end up going 10 and seven and winning a playoff game or something, how do you draft a quarterback in that draft? They would have had to try to trade all the way up. It would have been a lot more difficult. They would have had to use more assets and it's possible they would have gotten frozen out and maybe Sam Darnold this year, long-term quarterback.

I don't know that you can get stuck in this league in one spot for a very long time. So if you're in Pittsburgh, you're probably saying, look, is it a great idea? No, but whatever, because if it blows up and this is, this would be my argument for them doing it, if it blows up, good? I mean, they've needed that. They've needed it to implode and go all the way to the bottom.

Not necessarily if it's firing Mike Tomlin or not, but they have needed it to go all the way to the bottom and then try to rebuild with a different quarterback. Let's see, Henry Jones, uh, former bills safety. Henry Jones, uh, says how amazing would this be the Falcons cut Kirk Steelers signed Kirk Steelers trade Rogers for a third and a fourth round draft pick. Yeah. I'm very interested to see what happens with Kirk.

I think that's going to present itself to us. What's going to happen is one day you'll wake up and you're going to see news from training camp that somebody got hurt, or you'll be at work looking at your phone and all of a sudden here comes Ian Rapaport, some quarterback around the league got hurt, he's out for the season and then the next day, Kirk Cousins is a whatever, a Jaguar, a Jed, whatever, whoever gets hurt. That's probably the way it's going to go because if you're Kirk, you can be a backup in Atlanta. You could be a backup somewhere else.

Why would you wave your no trade clause to go be a backup elsewhere? And I mean, that goes for the Vikings because it's kind of been floated out there a little bit about the Vikings and could they get Kirk as a backup? I think that's not a very good idea to bring Kirk back in as a backup because if McCarthy struggles, then you have, what you want is that there is no competition behind JJ McCarthy because you want them to be able to work through the struggles. I think about Bo Nix last year where he ran into that dip in the middle of the

season and nobody was calling for Jared Stidham. They were saying that just ride out Bo Nix and keep going and see where it goes. And then he turned it around and had a very good end of the season. That's what you want with McCarthy that if there are bumps along the way, if there's two or three straight games where he struggles that no one is saying, well, we got to go to the veteran.

We got to go to the veteran. You don't want that you want them to continue the way it is. But if there were an injury in training camp, then you probably have to push that button just because of where everything is right now with the rest of this roster. So SkullSC says, I'm late, but thank God this has finally happened so we can stop

with the Rodgers to the Vikings. Something to think about the Vikings will play Rodgers in Europe two seasons in a row. Yeah, that is ironic. I guess who says Rodgers will start for Pittsburgh? Yeah, I guess he has to win the job first, but I'm sure that that is going to happen. I, yeah, I didn't really think about the fact that they'll play him overseas two years in a row, but I do agree with you that there was the day that Tom Pelicero came out and reported that the Vikings had told Aaron Rodgers, hey, we're going to stick with JJ McCarthy. Then Kevin O'Connell

confirmed that to us at the owner's meetings. And then Mark Wilf really confirmed it at the owner's meetings, talking about how much he loves JJ McCarthy. And I think you can really see a couple of times Mark Wilf has talked about McCarthy, that it seems like he is genuinely all in on JJ McCarthy as his quarterback. So at that point, I was 99% sure we're going forward here. JJ McCarthy is going to be the quarterback, then they're not going to double back to Aaron Rodgers. But you never knew otherwise. I mean, you never know when someone could get hurt. When JJ McCarthy got hurt the first time, we showed up at TCO Performance Center thinking, wow, that was one heck of a preseason game and can't wait to see this

night practice. And then all of a sudden, McCarthy's out for the season. So you just never know when something is going to happen. Anthony Richardson, my goodness, that's the other big news today. Richardson has another shoulder injury and this is why Daniel Jones didn't stick around with the Minnesota Vikings because I'm sure he had a pretty good sense that he would be able to win that job in Indianapolis. And now it's almost a foregone conclusion that he's going to win that job. But you just, you just never know with anybody in the NFL, what's going to happen. And now this takes away the small, tiny percentage chance that Aaron Rodgers could have ever shown up here.

Overlord Rex says, oh, happy day. Vikings eating great this week. Lions O-line imploding. Rod Rogers career, one foot in the coffin. Can't get any better. Well, you, you probably would have preferred. I think you probably would have preferred that Rogers just retire and you face Mason Rudolph. I think, I think, I mean, like we were talking about, Rudolph was pretty good

at times and he knows how to be a game manager, which helps, but Rogers even brought the jets back against the Vikings within one drive, one throw. Really? I mean, Stefan Gilmore made an incredible play to get an interception, but Rogers almost brought them back in that game. There is likely enough juice in that arm still to do something crazy and mess around and win a game. With Mason Rudolph, can he really make enough plays under the pressure? Can he really?

Has there any? That's an interesting question. Since Brian Flores got here, has any bad quarterback beaten the Vikings? I actually don't think that they have. I mean, Jake Browning, okay. But that was a weird situation where Nick Mullins. And that tush push cost them that game that I think that's the only one, though, and Jake Browning had to make some crazy cartoon throw to T.

Higgins, where he made a Randy Moss catch and somehow scored a touchdown. I think that's the only game that they've lost to a bad quarterback. Since Brian Flores has been here, I think so. So if you were playing Mason Rudolph, you'd feel pretty good about your odds there with Brian Flores. Dusty says, DK isn't the kind of receiver Rogers likes either, not a great route runner. Robert Woods is old and Kelvin Austin is okay, but nothing special There's going to be a lot of Aaron eye rolls

That's what I think too is that at least with at least if they had Mason Rudolph It's a lot harder to get him to just sort of give up where with Rogers once you get that stank face once you get him looking frustrated and Rolling his eyes and slouching his shoulders, you know, it's pretty much over at that point and DK is I think just not the same guy that he was before and How much physical dominance does he still have in terms of his speed? Because at one time DK was a premier wide receiver because you're talking about he had the quickness of a smaller player and even if his turns were a little slow or something he could still

go such high speed off the line of scrimmage. I didn't see that from him last year some of the underneath data the next gen the tracking is suggested that he doesn't have that extra gear and he definitely didn't when we saw him against Seattle. And I think he still made some plays in that game, but it's just not the same as it used to be. So who's going to be that guy who's just getting open, running routes, and it's not Alan Lazard, and it's not Randall Cobb.

Wade says, Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, and Aaron Rogers, this is this generation's Donovan Mcnab, Matt Castle and Josh Freeman. Tomlin is having flashbacks. Yeah, what a time that was. What a time that was for the Minnesota Vikings to have Donovan Mcnab here for a couple of games. And look, I mean, that's possible.

That's possible with Aaron Rodgers as well. This is the thing about Aaron Rodgers in Pittsburgh is I'll do, let me do a quick pie chart of Aaron Rodgers in Pittsburgh, because you have somehow they make the Superbowl is one of them or they're in the AFC championship or beyond. Another option is they're barely a playoff team, the same as if Duck Hodges was starting.

The other option would be that they're just mediocre and they kind of bumble around. They win a couple of games. People get excited, but it never really turns into anything. And then the fourth is total implosion. And I think Superbowl or close to it is a very, very small percentage. I would go, I mean, I don? I don't want to go 0%

because anything can happen, but even 5% seems like a high percentage to me, and then it makes my math harder. So let's just go 5% anyway that there's a chance where he just finds it and they're great and they win in the playoffs, but I would probably go even less than that. It just if I pick 2% it's going to make the math really tricky on the fly.

So then there's the other one where he makes the playoffs barely and they get booted in the first round. That one seems like I would give that like a 25%. So we're up to 30%, 25% chance they're in the playoffs. And then maybe 25, no, let's go 30 more percent that he ends up just sort of bumbling around, staying in the playoff race in the hunt graphic and they don't make it into the playoffs. So we've got 40, 70, and then 30% total implosion.

Maybe I need to give more to total implosion and a little bit less to they make the playoffs, but they've made the playoffs with so much worse. I think it's about equal, equal chance that they are a decent enough team and make the playoffs to they just miss to it's a disaster and they win five games. All those things. And look with Aaron Rodgers and somebody his age, it is not a guarantee that we're actually talking about the Vikings playing against Aaron Rodgers. I mean, one of the years he came back, he jogged out on the field and tore his Achilles. So not a guarantee by any means that he is actually out there.