Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Accusations against Dalvin Cook and a deep discussion about the Vikings and the playoffs

Episode Date: November 10, 2021

Matthew Coller opens the show with an update on accusations about Dalvin Cook by a former girlfriend. Then Sam Ekstrom joins to discuss the Vikings' oddly high playoff odds and what it would mean for the Vikings if they made the postseason. Matthew has an unpopular opinion about who he'd keep out of the coach, QB and GM. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TD Direct Investing offers live support, so whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and later on in the episode, I'm going to have a long discussion with myself and Sam Ekstrom about where the Vikings are now later on in the episode going to have a long discussion with myself and sam extrem about where the vikings are now and the funny playoff odds that i ran across we'll get to that in just a minute but first tonight some news coming out regarding delvin cook from the star tribune first it started with uh adam schefter tweet that was cryptic and maybe suggested that there was more to come

from Delvin Cook that he, the tweet read from his agent that Delvin Cook had been the victim of domestic violence and extortion. And that was really all the tweet said. And then more information started to come out. And then the Star Tribune later on in the evening reported on a lawsuit that has been filed against Delvin Cook by a former girlfriend. And I won't go through all the details with you, but essentially the former girlfriend claims that she went to Delvin Cook's house

in Invergrove Heights to try and retrieve some of her things. And they were going to split and part ways. And that Delvin Cook in that process, uh, physically assaulted her causing multiple injuries, including a concussion and leaving a scar on her face. Now from Delvin Cook's side, his agent, his lawyer claims that she more or less broke into his house and threatened him and assaulted him rather than it being the other way around. So we have Delvin Cook side and his former girlfriend side, both making accusations of an altercation. And that's where we stand as of right now. It's a lawsuit. This is not where you have police reports, that there were no police reports filed.

This is not an arrest, but this is a lawsuit that is being filed by a former girlfriend. So now we are in the awkward position of talking about what this means to Delvin Cook and his future with the Minnesota Vikings. Now that this has come to light, this lawsuit filed by his former girlfriend and how the Vikings will handle this, of which we have no indication yet. And we will find out, I guess, in the coming days, what they have to say about the accusations against Delvin Cook here, that they are in the position of having all of this information public and all of the details public after the Star Tribune's reporting. And now they have to

decide whether they will put him on the commissioner's list. Adrian Peterson-like situation there. Earlier this year, if you recall, Jeff Gladney was released by the team, but they waited until Gladney was indicted to officially release him. Now, there is not going to be a situation like that here unless criminal charges come up, that there won't be an indictment, there won't be a jury and a trial in the same way. There isn't jail time to be served if it just remains a lawsuit and there are no criminal charges. However, if you're talking about

the court of public opinion and the look of this and the details of this, which are, if you're going to read it, you should know that they're pretty disturbing of what Delvin Cook's former girlfriend is accusing him of. So how the Vikings will handle

this and what this means to his future, I don't know. There are other situations like this, including Deshaun Watson, where it's lawsuits and it's not necessarily jail time. Antonio Brown also comes to mind, though some of his issues did have a little more of a um you know that element to it but it was largely based on what people had accused Antonio Brown of and he was suspended by the NFL and then still went on to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as far as Deshaun Watson goes the Houston Texans have just waited and they've taken phone calls about trading him, but they have not made a move for Deshaun Watson. So the Vikings could have the option of saying this is a personal issue for Delvin Cook and this lawsuit, and he's going to keep playing. Or they could say,

this is the second player on our team that has had some accusations against them in terms of domestic violence that we're not going to tolerate it. And they could suspend him or put him on the, we'll see if the NFL puts him on the NFL's commissioner list, that would be a different decision, but they could suspend him for the rest of the year while this gets sorted out. But for now, that's what the Vikings are dealing with. And this is another hit to this team that they've already had to deal with serious injuries to star players, close losses in a lot of games, Harrison Smith being on the COVID list last week. And now talk about distractions. This is going to be one of the a1 stories in the nfl aaron rogers talking again yesterday is going to get pushed to the back burner with the

accusations now made against delvin cook so we will continue to track this and see what happens it is worth noting that delvin cook also went to trial for an issue of violence against a woman when he was in college. And that was one of the main reasons cited for why Delvin Cook was not a first round draft pick. It was a main concern. And on draft night, this is just background worth noting. I'm not taking sides or making an accusation here against Delvin Cook, but just worth noting that Rick Spielman said he was not concerned about more issues with Cook relating to violence and women because he talked to Delvin Cook on the phone before the draft and Cook assured him that it would not be an issue

again. And now here we are with some very, very concerning and disturbing details in this lawsuit. So again, we'll continue to track it. We'll talk about any updates that come. We will hear from the Vikings. If you're listening to this on Wednesday, we'll hear from the Vikings on Wednesday in the middle of the day, and we'll see if they have anything to say further about this issue with Delvin Cook, and we'll keep you up to date. All right. Now on to our conversation about the Vikings and we'll keep you up to date. All right. Now onto our conversation about the

Vikings and the word playoffs coming up. It got interesting. So here you go. I had a thought today. I was fiddling around with the internet, boop, boop, boop, boop. And I clicked on 538, the analytics website, and they have playoff odds there. And I was curious, well, okay, well, what does it say about the Vikings? Must be like zero, right? It must be nothing, no chance to make the playoffs. And I clicked on it and I saw that it was 27% chance, almost a one in three shot, maybe a little closer to one in four for the Vikings to make the playoffs and I thought that is really something that you could be three and five in the NFC and still not have this thing be essentially over the funny part about it is there's AFC teams that

are five and four that have about the same odds because the AFC is just better. So I thought, well, we've been spending a lot of the early week here discussing what went wrong, who's to blame, pointing a lot of fingers, but I think that it's still worth discussing the route that it would take, the path, and the implications of this team getting back into the playoff race. So let me start here. If I were to fast forward five weeks from now and told you that into the playoff race. So let me start here. If I were to fast forward five weeks from now and told you that the Vikings playoff odds were much closer to 50-50, what would have had to have happened in order for the Vikings to, in the coming weeks, get themselves into much more of a coin flips chance at making the playoffs. Well, let me pose this to you. Do you trust the Trevor Simeon led saints? Do you trust, do you trust the Cordero Patterson led Atlanta Falcons?

No. Um, there, there are not a lot of challengers that I think are going to surge away with this thing. The Panthers are a mess. They are technically in front of the Vikings and the Vikings have the tiebreaker there. Um, the Falcons are led by an adequate quarterback. So that helps their cause. I would actually prefer their, you know, their status to the saints right now, even though we're talking about Sean Payton, maybe Taysom Hill gets a look if Simeon struggles. Either way, they are not, you know, unbeatable. But we're not even talking about beating the Saints here. We just need, you know, in your scenario, the Vikings would need to be the seventh seed to be on the fringe of the playoffs and they are I mean they can go into

the second half of the season saying they're a game back which gives them a spin to say that every game still has a lot on the line can't really talk yourself into in this season in the NFL to say that oh yeah you know like the Atlanta Braves made a run. We can make a run. It's not baseball. The lower seeds almost always lose, especially in the last couple of decades, except for Eli Manning. It's hard to do, but I think organizationally, that's the last carrot dangling in front of this team. And five weeks from now, you know, I think you're probably walking away saying that you beat the Chargers. You went to LA and won. You may have beaten the Packers, but more than likely, you know, you took care of the Lions the following week. You'll have to help me out. Who's after

that? Is it the 49ers? Yeah, San Francisco. Yep. And I don't trust them either. I mean, San Francisco is getting subpar. I mean, the the Garoppolo era is soon to come to an end in San Francisco. They're kind of in between quarterbacks right now trying to figure out like who to play on a given week. Right. So San Francisco is very attainable. I don't think any of these are right in games for the Vikings where they can just show up and expect the victory. But if in the five game stretch, if you go three and two and you're six and seven, well, I would expect you to probably still be a game back if not tied. And that puts you on the doorstep with a game against Chicago winnable and the Steelers winnable. Like, neither of those teams really struck me last night as out of this world.

So you do have winnable games, and they're all winnable for this team because this team can play with anybody and beat nobody. But, yeah, it's not out of the realm of possibility that this team, like, stays in it just long enough. Now, if you lose the next two, caller, I'm guessing that will sink your odds, right? If you keep dipping below 500, wouldn't you say? Because I think three and seven is almost impossible to climb out of. Yeah, so I didn't give you the kicker on this with the statistics that the Vikings may have a 27% chance of making the playoffs, but they have a

0.4% chance of winning the Superbowl according to five 38. And they're most likely record because this is a nice little chart that shows every team's most likely record based on the remaining schedule and the strength of their team and everything else. The most likely record is 7-10. And so, I mean, this is just the weirdest place to be in where when you look at the NFC race and you look at how the Vikings have played in terms of being in these close games all the time, and you say, well, I could very reasonably see some of that variance flipping back the other direction

and them beating the Chargers, who are not a perfect football team, beating the Packers who are going to be, I mean, mostly against Seattle, a very distracted football team, but you know, it's not like the distraction with Aaron Rogers only asked the last one week

like that. And it's also the Packers. Like they, they beat the Packers sometimes when they're not as good as green Bay, which has historically been the case a lot, but there'll be still beat them sometimes. And so you maybe put like a 45% chance. They beat them.

Maybe like a 40% chance. They beat the chargers. Both of those things. Clicking is not insane. And then you're right back playing the 500 game. But even then you can't trust them to beat the 49ers. I mean, maybe the lions, but it took a 54 yard

field goal the last time. So I'm not going to guarantee it. And the same thing with the Pittsburgh Steelers, where they have a great defensive line, which is usually the kryptonite for the Vikings. The schedule does open itself up after these next couple of weeks to get back in that playoff race. But let's say the exact scenario that 538 laid out is what happens. I don't know about the order, and that could change things in terms of the order, because if you lose the next two, like you said, like your playoff chances are pretty much nil at that point, and you're talking about potentially making a coaching change. But let's just say even if they split the next two,

you remain in that playoff race and you finish seven and ten make the playoffs and get destroyed in the first round or lose on the last day i don't even know if there's a difference between those two things like does that guarantee that this thing is totally over and that everybody is being changed out next year? Oh, it has to, right? Seven and 10 and an accidental playoff berth, that has to mean change. I think we were kind of on the fence about like would 10 and 7 mean continuity, and I think we agreed it probably would. But if you get, I mean, 9 and 8 was a maybe eight and nine, probably not seven and 10. There's there's no way. Right.

I mean, the odds of that in like ensuring continuity are probably about the same odds as the Vikings playoffs right now, about one in four. You know, they would have to, I think, have a bunch more injuries and then be really plucky down the stretch and win a must-win game and do it with, you know, shorthanded where the coach clearly won them a game. Kirk Cousins would have to snap out of this funk. But, I mean, do you think there's a scenario? Let me kind of just put a qualifier here because of the contract situation could you see kirk cousins playing next year as a lame duck quarterback with a different coach i could yes i could i i think that that's actually the more likely of the three um of spielman zimmer and kirk cousins that would actually be here for next year if they did go 7-10, that they might say, well, you know,

Kirk Cousins has been somewhat victimized by his head coach and his offensive coordinator and how they've built the offensive line. And that would not be false. It's just that I sometimes challenge the percentage of difference that makes, but that would not be false. I mean, that's very true. The offensive line has been constructed poorly. The coaching has not maximized Kirk Cousins,

though very few people's coaching ever has. I mean, there's some people that no matter what happens will always say, ah, well, they didn't do everything perfect, so you didn't get the best version of Cousins. But I think we even see, sorry to go a different route here with this, but we even see like in Buffalo where Josh Allen's not playing as well as he was. And Patrick Mahomes, that circumstance, even the great quarterback like Patrick Mahomes, we saw Brett Favre in his career, John Elway, all the greats, Matt Ryan have had down years from time to time,

but usually bounce back when their team is at least even competent. But there are other quarterbacks that need absolutely everything. Case Keenum would be this way, need absolutely everything going right for them in order to be better. But there's always that part of it that you say, like you said, the contract, what if we give it one more year? What if we give it one more shot with a different coach just to find out? And the draft might play into it that there's no sort of, quote, sure thing in the draft that's not as good as last year. So I think that that is altogether possible, that if they did go 7-10. And what often happens with Cousins is as soon as the season ends, it's like three weeks later, it's like everyone sort of forgets how it went.

Right? Well, you know, in those last five games, and we've heard this from Spielman, ends. It's like three weeks later. It's like everyone sort of forgets how it went, right? It's a, well, you know, in those last five games, and we've heard this from Spielman, the second half of the season, man, that's when he really turned it on or something. It's like, here we are again with another downturn where he's averaging 6.6 yards per attempt over the last five games. That is a long stretch to, to be totally ineffective. So anyway, put that point aside. I think that that is possible, but seven and 10 probably gets a trade in the off season. I think that we're looking at a Detroit Lions,

Matt Patricia, Matt Stafford, sort of, all right, we ran this thing all the way to the end, and now we're gonna go a different direction. Even if they did make the playoffs, unless they somehow went deep into the playoffs with two playoff wins as a 7 and 10 team but even that I mean that just seems so not plausible after the way that they've played close with Lions close with Carolina chances to win against Dallas with a backup and the Ravens who played very poorly in the beginning of that game. It just seems like they can't win these games against far inferior opponents.

They're going to do it against the best teams in the NFC playing playoff football. No, I don't think that's going to happen, but I also think just to add on that seven and 10 and barely missing the playoffs seems like the most likely scenario that they do hang around in that playoff race just long enough, not to make any serious changes with the coach for now man that is um a terrifying possibility i think for a lot of fans wouldn't you agree like who out of 10 fans how many are rooting for it to stay the same half a fan i don't know if there's like someone

someone's you know eight-year-old has a cousin's jersey they want it to stay the same um i think there are varying degrees though right like there's there are probably some people still that would say look i mean zimmer's a good coach and his defense is good but this is what you saddled him with offensively and then there are other people who say, well, cousins can be better, but this is what you saddled him with coaching wise. And so I think that there are like, there are tentacles of defenders, but Hey, this should stay exactly the same all the way to the end and beyond. Yeah. Probably not too many people. would you rather have zimmer with a new quarterback next year or cousins with a new coach zimmer with a new quarterback that's how i

look at it uh i that's not going to be a popular one though i i'll explain you give your answer and i'll explain mine um i'd rather have cousins with a new coach. If I'm a fan, that's what I want. Because that means that that coach, I assume, is someone that will have a better relationship with the quarterback just day in and day out, supporting them more, watching film with them for the first time before year five on the team. Or I'm sorry, year four, and beyond Cousins will still exist

and still support the next quarterback. Like I think that getting that person here sooner is better. I don't know if it means the team is better. As you pointed out, the greatest offensive minds in NFL coaching circles have not been able to extract deep playoff runs from Kirk Cousins. So I don't think that's going to happen, but I think I would still rather see that in place than have Zimmer, you know, and Zimmer's had his hands on plenty of quarterbacks

also, and it's kind of all the same. He is very good at instilling a risk averse quality about them where they put up sometimes career numbers even if it's a lot of window dressing and you know like Sam Bradford the team goes eight and eight but he has good stats um I would rather have maybe a different offensive philosophy just to to roll the diceousins and beyond that have something in place for Mond or quarterback du jour. Folks football season is in full swing but we've got basketball and hockey getting rolling as well and SodaStick has got you covered you have to see the Moose t-shirt designs for Marcus Foligno you could also get your hands on the very popular Dollar Bill Kirill shirts as well. On the basketball side, the design with three wolves howling at

the moon, perfect for the spooky fall season. And the design with the wolf carved into the state of Minnesota is just awesome. It's very cool stuff. And hey, for you college football fans, check out the Tanner Morgan t-shirts as wellshirts as well soda stick has tons of hats and hoodies with all their great designs on them you will love it go to sodastick.com that is s-o-t-a s-t-i-c-k check that out today use the promo code purple insider for free shipping and also follow myself and soda stick on Twitter for our giveaways. Well, I think that part of my answer would be, well, we've also got to talk about is it short term, is it long term? Because part of the, there's like a little trick built into saying Cousins, which is

he's only got one more year on the deal. And so if you were saying extend Cousins with a new coach, I think that's a different one than he's a lame duck quarterback one year. You try him with whoever the next McVay that you hire is. And then if that doesn't work, then you can draft someone or you could draft someone this year, develop them behind Cousins for a year, be ready to turn it over to them. It gives you flexibility, but also a competent quarterback and that one chance to sort of find out if the next head coach can do it. The thing for me, though, is if we're talking about could you win next year and be back into the playoffs and competitive, the sample size for both of these guys is huge. One of them has wins

in the past. One of them has several really good seasons in the past. The other does not. Mike Zimmer in 2015 won the division, went 11 and five with Teddy Ridgewater as his quarterback. In 2017, had the number one defense and went deep into the playoffs. And I know it took a Minneapolis miracle, but ends up in the NFC championship, right? And they're winning most of that game. It just got really crazy.

But the point is just that had a 13 and three season an 11 and 5 season and an 8 and 8 season with Sam Bradford in which they lost their starting quarterback right before the season and and so like even you look at the past before Cousins got here it was Teddy is a second year quarterback and they're putting the handcuffs on them pretty bad offensive setup and they get to 11 wins the next year all hell breaks loose they're still in the playoffs basically going into the second to last week and then you get to the 2017 season in which his defense is phenomenal and case keenum comes out of nowhere but they had the right offensive setup for that and they end up winning.

Like his record before Kirk is better than with Kirk, whereas Cousins' record with the Vikings is exactly the same as it was with everybody else. And you can go, well, Washington didn't do this or they didn't do that, but they had Sean McVay. I don't think Jay Gruden's a bad coach. You know, they had people who were really in his corner that were good. And again, with Stefanski and Gary Kubiak, I mean, you've got

really good proven people here. So it's hard for me to believe, well, if you just hire Brian Dable or whoever the sexy offensive coordinator of the week is for the next year, well, I don't really know how that changes anything. i think that with the head coach though it there's just a little of we're tired of the same sort of thing from fans where it's like oh mismanaged a clock or oh his offensive coordinator ran on second down or oh it's a press conference and he's taking another jab at somebody. And I think that, and also maybe some people holding out hope that it actually is Mike's fault and not like the quarterback decision and the contract and all those things. I think that's why people would lean much more toward firing the coach than

changing the quarterback. Yeah. And I, I think that you're right about that, that sometimes the, I mean mean i think the fans are disenchanted with everybody right now yes but agree your point is sound that mike zimmer has found a way with new quarterbacks every year to keep those teams just as competitive as the cousins teams if not more um so who's to say he couldn't do that

with someone else next year? So I respect that point a lot. And it would be interesting to have one of them around for the following reason, sort of the Belichick-Brady question, right? Like who was responsible for the Patriots' success? We now know that answer, I think, because we've seen what they are with Brady, without Brady, and maybe it was an unfair question to begin with, but that's been answered clearly, that Brady was probably more of the catalyst. So if we get to see Zimmer or Cousins removed from the other, then that would put to rest, I think, in a more satisfying way, kind of where this team would be at if they unshackled for next year,

even if it's only a one-year experiment. Yeah. I think that, I mean, most people probably, like you said, would, I don't know if, I don't know if we took a poll of everyone that they would vastly agree on trading Kirk Cousins. But the thing that always comes up is, well, if you trade Cousins, then who's your quarterback? And I guess my thing would be, well, have you won anything with this? Since the playoff game in New Orleans, the team is 10 wins in 25 games. So I don't know. I mean, what difference would it make if it was Jared Goff or Josh McCown or whoever the heck else, right? I mean, you probably end up with these same sort of results.

But I think that there is a lot of hanging on to that idea that the coach has handcuffed the quarterback. I don't know that that's really the case. I mean, when you think about like, okay, 2018 goes sideways with John DeFilippo trying to offense everything, trying to just, I remember he was trying to like, I'm going to run this offense combined with this offense and then this offense. And then you got to make this change at the line of scrimmage. There was like too much going on there with, with the Filippo.

So they moved to the perfect offense for Kirk cousins, play actions, downfield throws, Gary and Stefanski cooking up a great running game in those two seasons. And then there's this idea that Zimmer didn't do enough for Cousins. And as a team, of course, they haven't done everything for him. They could have put more money into the offensive line. I think once again, they're one of the lowest, if not the lowest spending team on the offensive line. Of course, they could have done that. Wide receiver three finally showed up just in time for Irv Smith to get hurt. So you're sort of swapping one for the other and you're

still lacking those extra weapons. That's still the case. It's just that there's this concept, I think, or the idea that Mike Zimmer has done nothing for Kirk Cousins except for hold him back. And I think he put him after 2018 in the perfect offense for two years and they didn't win then. And then this year they try to stick with that offense by giving it over to Clint Kubiak and his, I guess maybe understanding or execution of it is not quite as good. And then you just fall off the face of the earth and you go from like an explosive offense that had talent to now you're a bottom half of the league offense because that one thing sort of drifted backwards and so I guess I mean

it's just a long way of saying like I'm not I'm not certain that the coaching has been as bad or as high of a percentage to blame as people say which is not to apologize for everything that Mike Zimmer has done. Yeah, we probably have in our head a little bit the 2017 Zimmer who was so uptight about Case Keenum. I mean, they would show him on the sideline getting frustrated at the YOLO throws, the stuff he said in press conferences, alluding to Keenum just kind of like having out-of-body experiences and doing crazy things, which he did in the playoffs too. I mean, it did kind of come to fruition. And I think we have extended that to Kirk because of the way that his first year went with all of the mistakes and the fault, I mean, ill-timed fumbles, interceptions, and Kirk did get better at those things. So if that was a Zimmer influence, it was probably a good influence.

And it's maybe now gotten to the point where it's detrimental because of how risk-averse he is. But yeah, you have to take the good with the bad. I mean, if the perfect calibration of Kirk taking chances while also taking care of the ball, if the perfect calibration was in 2019, that's a good change, you know? And oddly enough, people also want to get down on the offense about being, you know, too much big personnel, not enough three wide. I've been, I've certainly said that. I still think that, you know, you don't want to be archaic,

but the two seasons where they've spread the offense out the most being this year and the DeFilippo year have been seemingly the worst offensive years. And I know we're still in the small sample size range this season, but the, the consistency was probably a tad better in 19 and 20. Oh yeah. I mean, I think that's the case. And then there's also, let's just, let's not ignore a very important factor, which is the schedule. The schedule has been much more difficult this year than it was in 2019. So sometimes we miss a little forest through the trees and we go like, well, they're not doing this or they're not doing this or that. But then you look at who they've played this year and it's been hard. And their history through 2018, 19 and 20 was when they play teams that are good, they don't find a way.

And they often get slowed down and those teams have answers for them. And there have just been more teams that have answers this year than there have been in the past. So there's like a million different things working here. Let me throw a different scenario at you, though. So let's say that they split these next two games. They go out, they surprise L.A., and then they come back and lose the fully healthy and apologetic Aaron Rodgers. And then they go forward.

And you laid it out there that, you know, you got a Lions mixed in, 49ers, Bears a couple times, Packers again, Steelers. Nobody's spectacular down the stretch. Let's say they go 9-8 and they go into the playoffs and they win a playoff game after going 9-8. I think that everybody stays at that point. If they were to get hot down the stretch, go 9-8, then what we would hear is, hey, we fixed all the problems in the middle of the season and we got everybody back on the

same page what leadership and adjustment by mike zimmer uh kirk cousins showed we can really be in the second half of the season and all we need is a right guard. I mean, does that not sound plausible to you? It does, because we're prisoners of the moment. For better or for worse, everyone is. I mean, right now, this snapshot in time, that's unfathomable. But this is part of the reason that we hear the cliche all the time. Well, let's just add them up at the end of the season because all the games do count. And, you know, your previous scenario of seven and ten, well, that's limping to the finish from here.

That means you go four and five like you don't really improve at all in the second half. In the nine and eight scenario, you do go six and three. So in that snapshot in time, you will feel like you're on a roll. Wow. Six out of nine games. Not too bad. And then presumably you've beaten either Green Bay, L.A., Tampa or Arizona. One of those four teams.

That's what that was your first round win. And that might be an even bigger, I mean, anyone they beat in that game is probably a bigger upset than New Orleans win, honestly, because that Vikings team was better. I mean, if you look at, out of the 10 wins that team had, eight of them were by two possessions. Like, they were blowing teams out that year. They were scoring a lot of points in some games. That was just a much better team.

This team is not that, and I'd be surprised if we ever perceived them as that. So that would be a gigantic upset. So, you know, if you come one game short of double digit wins and win a playoff game, yes, it feels probably a little like 2019. And that's when people felt pretty good. So shrug of the shoulders. But like I said, 10 and 7, 100% chance. 100% chance you retain. 7 and 10, 25% chance you retain. And then incrementally, like 8 and 9. OK, 50%. 9 and 8, 75%. I think in that range is where we're dealing right now. Isn't it funny how long we've been doing this? Like just, just with the Mike Zimmer, Kirk Cousins, everybody. I mean, 2019 felt exactly this way though on paper at the end of the year, it's a better season. At the end of the year, there were very serious conversations about moving on from Mike Zimmer and Kirk Cousins. And we were playing the same game. If they lose to New Orleans, then you

fire everybody. And if they beat New Orleans, then you stick with everybody. And they beat New Orleans because you want a coin toss and made some spectacular plays, but you know, want a coin toss, went down and won that game after blowing a lead, by the way, a late lead in that game. And then they said, okay, we're going to stick with everybody and bring this all back. And we're going to try to completely revamp the defense while trying to also win at the same time and so forth. And I guess I feel like they should, and I felt this way last year as well, like make your decision now and stick with it no matter what happens,

unless you win the Super Bowl or go to the NFC Championship, which is possible. But we've seen plenty of teams do this where they even win a playoff game and still make a coaching change. The Tennessee Titans did this with Mike Malarkey, and they changed to Mike Vrabel, and it's been good for them because they knew they were underachieving. They changed quarterbacks too. They did not stick with Marcus Mariota. They benched him early in that next season. This has happened all the time where you can get a small sample size and you can get convinced by a hot run or something. And then you can change the

decision-making that was sound when you knew it was kind of over, which is where it feels like it is right now. So that's why, and people have asked this before of, well, why would you move on from the coach right now? There's not a coach in waiting who you're trying to get a look at because that's saying no matter what happens after this, we're changing directions. End of story. That's why you do it. So there isn't a, well, they won their last three though. Los Angeles went through this with Anthony Lynn.

Anthony Lynn had run his course in Los Angeles and he gets a bunch of wins at the end of the season. And then everyone says, well, what are you doing? He won whatever out of his last whatever and so forth. And it was ultimately a much better decision to go to Brandon Staley. So if you've made the decision now, no matter what happens, you're just going to make these changes. And I think that's a more, that's a more sound way of looking at it. Or if they've decided, which to me would be pretty stunning if they decided that they're not judging everyone, that, you know, Hey, this has been a tough year and we're going to stick with this no matter

what, but I just don't see that. Like, I don't see that at all. I think you make the decision now. Here's what we're going to do for the longterm. And then even if they surprise us down the road, sorry,

we already know what they are, but I don't feel like they operate this way. I feel like they operate very much kind of on a week to week type of, well, we just won a game against Carolina, so everybody keeps their job, as opposed to who cares if you won the last game, right, going into the bye week. This would be where you'd just make a change.

Yeah. You know, the more I think about it, I should stand firmly by this because I've teed up the scenario of them dropping to 3-7 and then, you know, firing Zimmer in the same way they did Childress. But the more I think about it, the more unlikely I think that is. I think there's too much history and mutual respect between ownership and coach that I think, I think it comes to the off season. I think it'll be like week after week 18 where a decision gets made either way. And that gives Zimmer the chance to fix this in the eyes of ownership. got off to that horrible, horrible 2013 start, and no move was made, waited until the season, and he did have that team playing much better

at the end of the season, but the decision still got made. Could be the same with Zimmer, and maybe that's a comparison that if you people, if you want Zimmer out today, look at 2013 where they did not get influenced by the end of that year. They didn't say, oh, well, yeah, Christian Ponder's just coming around. We can't separate him from his coach now. Yeah. Well, they did make the move. And, you know, again, in this scenario, it was a good move, a better move for the organization.

So I was thinking about not only we focus so much, deservedly so, on the tri point soon when it feels like things may have gone off the ledge. I want to look at the whole roster and start talking about who's going to be here because I was thinking about even just, you know, Cam Bynum plays well the other day. So he shows some flashes, just one game. So, you know, let's not put them in Canton or anything, but, you know, a nice flash that you could play in the NFL from Cam Bynum. But you look around, you go, DJ Wanham can't play in this league really as a starting level.

I think we've seen enough to say that. Sheldon Richardson is a one-year signing who's not going to be here after this. Pearson Tomlinson are, I don't know about Patrick Peterson, definitely not at the same price. Breland is gone. Alexander might not be coming back. The offensive line, it's Derrissaw, Brian O'Neill, and I don't know who comes next after that. And just how right they are for a change is what I mean. That even when you look at the roster, it's hard to circle all that many guys where you'd be like, oh yeah, I'm taking them with me. Somebody asked me last week in the Friday mailbag, like how many players are there that

you would say absolutely have to be here in 2022? And it's not a super long list. And I guess I just feel like they've sort of like before 2020, it was very clear. Oh, okay. This is where they're hitting that rebuild button because you have to. And yet in a way they never really left that mode. They signed people, but they never really left that mode because you didn't feel like, all right, now this is a rock solid team. That's been built over a number of years through draft picks and savvy signings

and things like that. It was like, throw it all together. But when you throw it all together, it comes apart quick too. Yeah, and that's probably, you know, why 2015 through 19 was just set up with so much continuity because of that amazing draft. You had cheap homegrown talent at several positions. You haven't had a draft like it since. You may never have a draft like it. But I'd be intrigued to to hear your list of untouchables because on offense you've got your two tackles you've got

one wide receiver for sure i don't know how you feel about the second one i tend to think you keep both um because i do i i do find value in institutional knowledge, knowledge like guys that people can rally around, guys that fans love. I think there is some value in that, and that's why Mike Zimmer loves his veterans. He loves having Harrison Smith come in, Everson Griffin come in, Anthony Barr. That being said, those three defensive names, I'm not sure how many are part of the long-term. Griffin, of the three, I probably take... Harrison Smith does have a good PFF grade this year.

He might be a little more valuable longer than Griffin. Griffin, even though he's playing great, still is not going to have as much tread on those tires. But defensively, there's not nearly the number of untouchables. I mean, you got to figure out what to do with Hunter, but I think the list is probably by the end of the list, single digits. And I couldn't come up with double digits.

I mean, of course you're not giving away like guys you just drafted. I mean, that wouldn't make any sense. Can buy them. You're not throwing them to the wolves. It just, whether he actually makes a difference. Like you're not saying,

oh my gosh, I have to keep him no matter what. Same with like, can I Wong Wu? Very exciting player, but you know, like you're not saying I could never, every team has the players like that, that are sort of, you know, recently drafted and you don't know yet, but have shown some potential. So players that you're absolutely taking with you, Brian O'Neill, of course, recently drafted and you don't know yet, but have shown some potential. So players that you're absolutely taking with you, Brian O'Neill, of course, Christian Derisaw, of course, your two tackles, you would be in very good position there. All the other offensive line, probably not a big part of this going forward. Thielen is an interesting one because the question for me isn't whether I would keep Thielen. Of course I would. I still think he's very, very good. The question to me is whether Thielen wants to still be here. I mean, his agent was tweeting out a couple of weeks ago, some serious frustration. I mean, he came in yesterday

and said, we can't keep coming in here and telling you guys that we're good enough when we haven't been. And you can see his frustration mounting as well. And now I know that Stefan Diggs targets are down a bit this year from where they were last year, but he saw that everybody saw that. Like the guy left, went to the AFC championship with a great team, got a bunch of targets. Like you gotta be jealous, right? If you're Adam Thielen, like why isn't this happening for me? I know I'm getting open and it's year after year for me too. And eventually it wears off that you're from Minnesota. I would,'m getting open and it's year after year for me too. And eventually it wears off that you're from Minnesota. I would, I would assume. And if you're talking about a reset button

with new coach, new GM, I'm not a hundred percent certain he wants to be here. So I guess we'll find out. I mean, he's con he's under contract on defense. It's Kendrick's and I don't even know about Hunter. I mean, I just, the injury thing is super serious and the price tag is probably not changing. I mean, I, I think on his part, he's going to come back and say, well, you know, it was a bad luck injury, but I showed I can be the greatest in the world and you've got to pay me 20 plus million a year. And that becomes very, very tricky then at that point, because they were still losing games. it's not like a defensive end just wins all the games by themselves it yeah it ends up being a pretty light list of people who you're going

forward with and that's why i just think sam we've reached such an interesting point in vikings history i guess like if you're if you're a fan of the team each week and the game is coming down to it and the ravens have the football i don't know like the percentage is probably split between the number of people saying oh my gosh get a stop we need to win and the people who are going yeah you know whatever make it Justin Tucker change this yeah well there's certainly I think the most common fraction of that fan base they're expecting the ravens to win because they have no faith in the team you know that that's the depressing part is when you can know the outcome before it happens you don't have a lot of hope you don't

have a lot of optimism that's sort of what being a fan is all about and because there's such a big sample size with this group with this team you can start predicting outcomes and that that gets a little boring you want to be surprised once in a while come on Vikings win a game that you're supposed to not win well that doesn't happen with this team against better teams. And Sunday's game was a great example. Isn't this the kind of the Kirk thing where like the common sentiment of cousins is, well, if you do this, this, this, this, this, and this, you've got yourself a chance. I mean, it's never really been shown, but it's really, it's hard to do though. I mean, so,

but if you did that conceptually, theoretically, you could, how close are you to those things though how close are you to a great offensive line not close in my opinion i mean three players away out of five is not close and we're not even sure derisaw is good like he looks good but i don't know right i i mean are are you like okay irv Irv Smith comes back. KJ Osborne's pretty good. But you're either talking about Thielen starting to age or get frustrated. Okay. If you hire the wrong offensive genius, who knows where that goes?

And then on defense, so many things are going to be changing. If you don't have Mike Zimmer as your coach and you you hire an offensive genius is your defense not that good and it's just the constant game of like we can't really make all of these things work and that's why i feel like this formula has become very clear to so many vikings fans that whether you're talking about the path to the playoffs at seven and ten eight nine or we're talking about ten and seven and winning a playoff game. I think that either way, there's a lot of men. Yeah. Your point reminds me of kind of the story I wrote for this morning that the Vikings principles that Mike Zimmer has built around this team just aren't working anymore because so many of them are predicated on having a very good defense. The run game has not worked very well this year.

I'm sorry. Like if you look at run success rate, third worst in the league. Shut down like four or five games almost completely. They have three, maybe four good runs against Baltimore. And, you know, an explosive run can be a game changer but they had long stretches where they were the power was out in the run game play actions not working this year teams are taking away the bootlegs they've been doing that now for a couple of years even though the attempts are are fine they're trying it just not working it's been super inefficient um and you know playing clock control football doesn't always work. Like you

just need to be adaptable when your defense is going to give up 27 instead of 17, like it used to. Yeah. It's, it's, it's not going to always be that way. And that's sort of the cousins model. That's how to win with cousins, good defensive Good defensive play, score in the mid 20s, don't turn the ball over. And that's the one thing they are doing. And strangely, that's not working either because they're just so conservative with the football. Sam Ekstrom here wondering if you're stuck on your company's injury report. In an unfortunate situation like that, it's good to have someone in your corner. That's where Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer Law can help you understand your rights under Minnesota's workers' compensation laws. There's enough uncertainty in our lives nowadays that the last thing you want is to feel helpless if you wind up in a bad situation after a workplace injury. Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer will fight for you if there's been a wrongfully denied work comp claim so you can get the benefits

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Let's just say the ship has reached some pretty choppy waters after the loss there. So here's a question. When it feels like there's inevitability there and it feels like the most clear range of outcomes includes all the same things like there's different variations there's the variation where spielman stays the other two goes there's the like you said cousins for another year but probably not the long-term solution those types of things but when it feels like the train is directed somewhere and there's really no flipping the track outside of a complete miracle turnaround, which without Daniil Hunter is extremely hard

to see. So, OK, we've got that. Tell me what you are interested in focusing on then, because this is something that I know I have trouble with. The big story here for the Vikings is so compelling about the people in charge and the future and where this is going to go that I have trouble like moving the conversation away from it because I just have trouble talking about whether Ezra Cleveland is coming along. You know what I mean?

It's like, I don't know who cares. So tell me like before we wrap up, just things you are interested in, in the coming weeks. Okay. I misunderstood your question for a minute. So now I need to re reframe what I'm going to say here. I mean, obvious, like, yeah, I mean, even for me it's hard because the number one thing that comes to mind is, well, is cousins going to snap out of it, but but that's that's a big picture thing right um i would like to see if justin jefferson gets frustrated because you know he's he's part of this this team long term

i mean if you don't find a way to you know keep him through his fourth year, then extend him for another four years. If he's not on this team for eight years, maybe nine years, you've messed up. So how are you going to make Justin Jefferson happy? Will the discontentedness start to surface this year? I don't think it really has yet. I don't think it really has at all, except for kind of the outburst last year in the Chicago

game. So we're still early in his career. What's going to happen there? Like you brought up earlier, are any of these pieces going to surprise us? Because occasionally you need to get lucky on like a flyer. You need to find starters from nowhere, which this team did with Anthony Harris, with Eric Wilson. I guess Shabar Stephan could be in that group. But, you know, you need to occasionally get lucky. Is Armin Watts kind of sneaky good? I think he might be sneaky good.

Kambinem, you know, does he take Xavier Woods' place next year? Yeah, I think that's possible. So I'm looking for future starters or key reserves that we might not even be aware are actually good yet. And, you know, Wyatt Davis, where's he? Ole Udo is continually bringing this team down like how is that offensive line going to look by year's end and what pieces do you have there that you want to continue with so um I do think there are good personnel talkers that unfortunately we haven't discussed enough of because it's just not as relevant but if you like the minutiae of the vikings there's

still plenty i think to to keep your eye on it's just hard to keep take your eye off the ball when you've got this regime that's been around forever and this quarterback that it seems like he's been around forever because vikings fans aren't used to long-term quarterbacks not since dante right so um yeah it's a weird spot to be in. I think if they're four and four, even, even if they just pulled out one of the last two games, both that they could have won easily. We're much more talking about how are they going to adjust this and tweak that and change so forth and whatever it just, when you go to three and five and your playoff chances drop below a one in three chance. And the only chance for the playoffs it looks like is if you have still a very miserable season

and yet just sort of backdoor your way because the NFC is a disaster and that they add this lucky seventh playoff seat, which I will disdain today. And then when we watch football for like 11 straight hours on that day, I will be happy about. So I will admit to that for me, it's, there's really one thing, uh, like you, you named all the ones of kind of, let's see if this guy comes along or whatever, uh, how this guy plays, what it might mean for future contracts. We're always interested in all that stuff. For me, it's entirely like, does this coaching staff try something very different or are they saying, well, we're just close and we need to keep doing what we're doing, but adjust this or that or self-scout or whatever. That's what Zimmer basically said yesterday, right? Yeah.

Yeah. But at some point though, if you lose the next two and they don't make a change at that point, do you just say we're three and seven play Kellen Mond? I don't know. I'm not saying that's going to happen. I just, or we're three and seven. Let's go shotgun five wide the whole game, or let's blitz every play or let's fake punts all

the time. It was a little bit of that last week. Like what would it, what would it take to start just onside kicking or like, I don't know. I mean, once the trade deadline passed and they didn't do anything crazy there, it's kind of like the, the opportunity for a major change is probably gone. But that's the one thing I think is like in Mike, let's put it this way. I am also very interested in this. If they don't fight themselves back into a playoff spot, let's say Atlanta gets hot. They just run, they just take that spot and you're done. Like, how does Mike Zimmer take it? Like, is it, is it this defiant to the end of, you know, I don't know, like we're misunderstood or is it sort of accepting the fate and I can't do anything anymore. I've seen every different type of this.

When I was covering Buffalo, it was Chan Gailey sort of eventually said, there's nothing more I could do. It just didn't work. Um, whereas, you know, Doug Marone was like ready to swing fists at everybody. So, you know, I just wonder how that plays out if we go down the stretch here and it continues to be a struggle. Well, I was, I was going to ask you to help me recap because let let's exclude 2014 because that was never supposed to be a winning team um what tone did we hear from Zimmer in his non-playoff years 2016 and usually he's pretty forthright after the season that's when we get sort of super honesty from him um sometimes it's you know excuse train a little bit but 2016 I think pointed toward toward injuries a lot.

You know, the train came off the tracks after the bye. The change in offensive coordinator, there was a lot to point to, much of it valid. 2018, pointing to, you know, Tony Sperano, he used as a big reason why that team couldn't succeed, couldn't run the ball. Because they lost him tragically at such a late date 2020 pointed almost directly to injuries and sort of like patted himself on the back for saying like hey we managed to win seven with a pretty pretty team a team super low on talent so if the season ended today or they limp to an eight to nine finish, what are, and let's say he hasn't been fired yet. He's trying to make his case. What does he say? The close games,

I think is probably where, where it goes. He would say, look, I mean, we were right there in every game and it were a couple of players away or a couple of play calls away, wink, wink, or a couple of throws away, wink, wink, from getting to where we needed to go. We missed the kick. We fumbled. We, you know, had the ball in overtime with a chance to beat the Ravens and we just didn't get it done. But if we replay the season over again, we're an 11 and six team. If we just get better luck and better execution at the very end games that it's not, this is not a team that was horrible. It was a team that just couldn't finish those kind of random high variance type of things. And then the Daniel Hunter injury, it is significant, but it, it will be brought up.

I'm sure. Well, we started the season without bar and then Hunter and then Peterson was out. And then, you know, I mean, it's like every team goes through these things. And at the end of the day, someone makes the playoffs and overcomes it and somebody doesn't. And the teams that don't, they, you know, make changes. Right. So what injury will he point to that didn't actually matter, but he'll point to it? Uh, that's a good one i don't know like uh would it

be breland being banged up every game or something oh irv smith i think we i feel like eventually we'll get and that might have that might have actually mattered but maybe like garrett brad garrett bradbury oh sure i i see what you're saying cam smith yeah the cams yeah yeah when cam smith got brought up um in up in a Rick Spielman press conference, we were like, Cam Smith. George Iloca. George Iloca. Oh, yeah, that's right.

That's right. Cam Smith could be brought up again, by the way. He retired. He was like there in preseason. So, yeah, I don't know. Maybe that's the case. But I think that the week to week as we go along this track and how everyone manages it and how everyone handles the pressure of

just having to dig yourself out of a hole and whether there are major changes. I mean, this to me is everything now. And so we'll try. I promise I'm making a vow to everybody who listens that I will try to talk about Cam Bynum and how he's playing or about, I don't know, like Cam Dantzler. But I can't, I can't deny that that just doesn't really matter at this point. So anyway, we'll work on it. If you're watching us for the first time, Purple Insider podcast, we do this all the time. It's a daily podcast and also purpleinsider.substack.com.

We're out at Vikings facility every day. And then at US Bank Stadium on game day, I am going to Los Angeles where it is expected to be 90 degrees this weekend in Los Angeles. Oh, in and out, in and out action. Get my son. That is the first place we always go in and out so all right well thanks everybody for listening thanks to bring me the news for hosting us here and we will see you next week