Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Addressing fan theories on what's going on with the Vikings' offseason

Episode Date: March 18, 2022

Matthew Coller and Andrew Krammer of the Star Tribune talk about Jordan Hicks and Harrison Phillips' press conference and then discuss some of the fans' explanations for why the Vikings haven't done anything significant outside of signing Kirk Cousins to an extension. How much of their current position is due to how Rick Spielman left the salary cap? Were they forced by ownership to keep Cousins? Is there still a possibility of changing QBs? And much more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

on the spot journalism happening here on the Purple Insider podcast. Matthew Collar, along with Andrew Kramer of the Star Tribune. Andrew, the last time we talked was for your podcast, and we were in Indianapolis. And now we are here in the sometimes friendly confines, just having spoken with Harrison Phillips and Jordan Hicks, of which we will give short reactions to those conversations with the two newest Vikings. And then I need you to talk me out of a bunch of different conspiracy theories that people have about why the Vikings have put themselves in this position. So how are you? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. I do believe our comments are going

to be shorter on the press conferences than the actual press conferences. Those guys, I have no idea if they can play, but they are great talkers, and I can see why you would like them if you get into a room with them. Yeah, so my reaction would be like, great, great for us. If I need to write about the defensive line, I know that I can go to Harrison Phillips because he seemed to really enjoy breaking down football. There was like two I mentioned, shading, moving up and down the line of scrimmage with matchups. I was like, all right, okay, football.

We heard about the first record he broke, which was being the biggest or longest baby born at the Omaha. It was at Omaha Hospital. Yes. And his birth weight. He said he was born to be a nose tackle. So, yes, football was being consumed. We heard about Jordan Hicks. Kids are not old enough to go to football games because games are too loud for them. He did a little breaking of the down of 3-4 versus 4-3 base systems

and how that changes what he has to do. And all of that was super for us. And that is really my whole take. I mean, look, I don't mean to be flippant about free agents. It's fun to talk about where free agents fit in. It's just, okay, both of them. Okay. If they hadn't extended Kirk cousins, I think we would be saying, all right, well, both of these things fit with not spending too much money long-term that could potentially hurt you. So these are short-term that could potentially hurt you.

So these are short-term deals for players who have shown they can play in the NFL and might fit fine, and that's the whole opinion. Yeah, this is bargain shopping. You like to make the analogies, right? This is going down the kind of department store and figuring out what's on sale. What is on sale out there that we can find? Because right now, as Quacey, Quacey didn't take questions, but he opened up the press conference by saying, free agency is not about winning the bidding war. He told a story about losing out on a house just before free agency started as real estate agents saying, you know, sometimes you're not going to

win all the bidding wars and Kwesi thinking, I bet I'm not. And he comes into free agency with the Vikings and lands Jordan Hicks and Harrison Phillips, two players who have proven to be, if anything, durable and playing through injuries. They've both dealt with injuries, but I think the biggest thing that you can take away from this is they were bargain shopping and they were bringing guys who in Harrison Phillips case shown he can play through a PCL tear last year like he did and be pretty productive. Whereas they get rid of and replace Michael Pierce who played in just eight games for them yeah they uh do have an availability is the best ability type of vibe to both of these players jordan hicks played over a thousand snaps each of the last three years and if you look at his numbers uh pretty pretty man pretty nick vigily um kevin o'connell said that

they were the two players uh he and and Eric Hendricks with a hundred tackles and four sacks he said interceptions but he meant sacks and you're like okay I mean I get that's one of those like in June Miguel Sano hit 320 you're like okay what about the rest of the time you know like what about the other stats so I I don't know i i don't mean to make fun of it because i think that they can both be effective players but these are guys who on a really good team fill spots as average players they are not difference makers they're not guys who are going to change your fate uh and they do seem like very friendly gentlemen that will be good to deal with for us and you know i like being here and interviewing players and stuff like that.

It's just the whole feeling overall from Vikings fan base after the last few days is emotional. Put it that way. No, really? I've been doing the Friday mailbag questions today. I'm just like, oh, man. I think the last one I just answered in the other room while I was waiting for you to finish transcribing was, do, do we wish that the Wilfs had just moved to LA and then not, and not built the stadium? I'm like, okay. Um, a little aggressive here, but there are just so many things flying around from Vikings fans trying to figure out why things have played out this way over the first couple of days and as we sit nothing has happened with Daniil Hunter or almost anybody else what is happening here Andrew?

Yeah I think they're trying to figure out how can we keep as much talent on this ship that yeah if you're a Vikings fan feels like it's sinking a little bit because you come in thinking oh they're going to shake things up you know new general manager new head coach want to do things differently especially from the general general manager standpoint and it's been more of the same. It's been your first signing for the first three years of free agency as a nose tackle. I did not see that one coming. But when you need to replace Michael Pierce in a 3-4, you need another inside linebacker in a 3-4. You think this is a strong edge and cornerback draft class. These things start to make a little bit more sense,

but it all comes back to the elephant in the room of, well, what are you trying to work around? You're trying to work around number eight. You're trying to work around is 35 million is 30 million, whatever it is now. And the cap space that that one year extension bought, you didn't even get you under the cap from what you were over. And I've thought Kwesi's comment about with the resources we have,

that could be directly looked at at Rick Spielman and kind of what they were left with. The question that I would have him, and he didn't take any questions today, was, well, why didn't you address or look into moving Kirk Cousins more? Or maybe they did. And from what I've heard, they did, certainly. But why weren't you able to make that kind of a move when that could help you kind of restart this franchise? Because this is why they're bargain shopping. There's no beating around the bush. You can talk about Daniil.

So much is made of Daniil's contract. I'm sorry, he's worth it, and you need to figure out how to keep him, in my opinion. There's another guy who's not so much worth that, and I think we've all talked about it, and it's Kirk Cousins. And how do you continue to pay him that money and think that you're going to be able to field a super competitive team, as Mark Wilf says?

Those are the questions. So you ask me what's happening. It's they're trying to build around a giant, giant cap hit, and this is what you get. And not only his, they're trying to build around many giant cap hits. I mean, they have a giant cap hit for a linebacker in Eric Hendricks. That's not super efficient. They have a giant cap hit for a linebacker in Eric Hendricks. That's not super efficient. They have a giant cap hit for a running back.

Who could have ever seen it coming that eventually the giant cap hit for the running back would come back to bite you? Like, it is Cousins, but it's not all Cousins. It's a lot of contracts that were just not good. And think about Anthony Barr is going to be 10 million of dead cap this year I mean that is brutal for what last year for a handful of games when they could have easily moved on from him like we always say this that the win now mentality and messing around with these contracts and restructures and void years they will get you and and i see all the time still on twitter every day oh the cap we'll just have rob brzezinski mess around with it and like i get that but eventually it's a problem

and guess what today it's a problem and so you know if they were to sign kirk and then extend hunter keep everybody and say we're gonna try to win i guess you go uh okay i mean i've seen this movie before but all right i guess i'll watch a sequel but if you move hunter like how exactly do you plan to win football games without daniel hunter and with what he'll only give them like 14 million to work with what is that a guard i mean is that is that a defensive end is that two corners on the bargain bin i mean what does that even get you well then what are you using that money for because you've waited now three days into free agency when all these players are flying off the board that's the frustration of vikings fans and people seeing these names go left and right and

there are a lot of awful deals being thrown around in free agency i think there are a lot of teams and you're gonna look back at this like you do every year with free agency and think, what were they thinking? How did that guy earn that? And I, and I think the Vikings are wise and staying out of some of that, but there are certainly a lot of great players that could help them in that 14 million could help you land somebody. If you really felt you could be super competitive in 2022 could help you land some of these impact players. What are you going to do with that 14 million if you're getting it on Sunday when the deadline comes due for Daniil Hunter's roster bonus? To me, this makes me think that they are still trying to keep Daniil because otherwise

you would have dealt him earlier in realizing that you needed to move on. And I just don't see where that money is going to go now because Dalvin Cook, as you said, is counting $12 million or $13 million against the cap. You got Kendricks. They did the little magic with Harrison Smith's deal. And the reason why teams like the Saints can do this or have done this, and I'm not saying this is the model to follow, but they've continued to draft, develop, and pay. And that means you have all these contracts to manipulate.

The Vikings have run out of contracts to manipulate. With Adam Thielen, you can't manipulate that one. You need to have him agree to this kind of restructure. And so far, from what I've heard, he's been like, eh, you know what? Why should I do that? I'm going to get paid $16, $17, $18 million. It effectively acts like guaranteed money because you've already messed with my contract before and pushed these dead cat pits down the road. They've run out of the talent to kind of manipulate these deals. So i don't know where you go from here without paying daniel hunter which i feel like is the wise move to do and then kind of backload

the contract the way you've done others so you should still be mad at rick spielman and the previous front office oh yeah as there's a lot of uh angst directed at Kweisi Adafomensa and Kevin O'Connell and the fact that nothing has happened yet. But I would say that not having a decision made on what is today, March 17th, about Daniil Hunter is mind-blowing. I mean, you have had so long to figure this out. We've all known fifth day of the league year, trade him or don't trade him. You got the job weeks ago, and this should have been at the very top of your list of how you were dealing with Hunter.

And you know what I think is happening is that there's a certain expectation for a Kirk Cousins trade. There is a certain expectation for a Daniil Hunter trade. Two ways. One, the new general manager can't look ridiculous he can't trade away a cousins or a hunter for nothing because then everyone's gonna go oh what this this new gm doesn't know what he's doing and there's also the ownership that you have to take these offers to ownership and you have to have those things approved you can't just go like oh hey hey zig uh yo we just traded cousins. You cool? All right.

Okay, see you. Bye. Right? You have to. And so George Shahuri from PFF is one of the smartest people that I listen to. He was talking about this deal, and he said something very bright. He said players two through 53 are the GM and the scouts and everybody else. Player one, quarterback, is the owner. The owner gets to decide who the quarterback is.

And I think that's right in this situation. And I also think that maybe they had expectations of what they were going to get in trades for these players. And then everyone went, ha, ha, ha, no, we know you're screwed. We know you have no leverage. Why don't you just cut Daniil Hunter and then we can sign him instead?

And if you believe the Charlotte Observer, I think the reporter put out there dude, we know you have no leverage. Why don't you just cut Daniil Hunter and then we can sign him instead? And if you believe the Charlotte Observer, I think the reporter put out there that they literally laughed when there was something out there about the Panthers reaching out to the Vikings about Kirk Cousins, that the Panthers brass was laughing in the room and thinking we're not going to do that. Now, that might be kind of an embellishment of how they've reacted to that,

but there was no report from anybody and nothing have I heard that connected Carolina, one of those quarterback needy teams to a quarterback who just torched you for 571 total offensive yards last year in your building in Carolina. They didn't even want them. And the Colts from what I'd heard were very interested in him. And I don't know why that deal fell apart or why they weren't able to put that together. But to me, logic would stand that it might've been ownership. If you kind of can get everything together and then you bring it to him, why would that fall apart at the 11th hour? It would seem it would be because maybe the final approval wasn't there. And so that to me puts Kwesi at the podium today saying, you know, I got to do what I can with the

resources I have. All right. So I've been gathering fan conspiracy theories about what's going on here. And I want to ask you about some of them. And the first one pertains to what we were just talking about with Indianapolis. So now Baker Mayfield is demanding a trade. Great guy. I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to keep him around in Cleveland. Deshaun Watson has not made his decision yet. Jimmy G, I don't know. I don't know what's going on there. Like is San Francisco being like, oh, actually, Trey Lance stinks. Sorry, can't trade.

We don't know if Jimmy's going to be alive on Sunday. Right. Well, that's right. That's what Kyle Shanahan said. They're so weirdly meta with these football men. But, okay, so a few people have asked me this. Is there any chance that the way the Vikings structured this contract was to make it easier to trade Kirk after the music stopped

and there were QB needy teams, and then all they would have to do is convince Kirk, I'm seeing your face, stop it, and convince Kirk, convince him that he should agree to be traded because Kirk, look at this roster. It's no good. You should agree to be traded to Indy or Cleveland because they have better offensive lines. How do you feel about that? You are Charlie Day and always sunny with that kind of board behind you with the strings and the thumbtacks. And you're just waving your arms maniacally and talking to somebody who isn't there because I don't believe somebody actually sent that in. I think that was just you desperately

wanting something different to happen. Dude, I've gotten this 30 times, 30 times. I'm not kidding. That makes absolutely no sense because if you're going to deal him, you're going to deal him. And you were going to do it to Indy. You're going to do it. I mean, Seattle was reportedly interested as well. You were going to find that dance partner when you could use the cap space and trading him right now, the way they structured that contract, I think we should look into this. The way they structured that contract has such a massive bonus with him that it would leave a lot of dead money now on your cap to move him this year. I think it's somewhat tradable next year if you were to waive that no trade clause, but this year it's not even financially feasible to move him.

So I think if you look at the fine print of this, that's not even an option this year. Not only does it not make sense financially, common sense wise, it also doesn't really make much sense financially. So no, I don't think so. I don't think that's the case. Okay. A lot of sadness out there now you can hear it you can feel it uh and we'll just wait to let it pass us uh how about this that quesi da fomenta is actually being told what to do by rick spielman who is the ghost president of operations but they felt they needed to remove his title. But behind the scenes, Kwesi is just a puppet dancing on Spielman's strings.

I like that one. And Rick Spielman's got a history of whispering into people's ears. If we remember the Josh Freeman thing, Josh Freeman was signed here many moons ago. And in the press conference, you could hear from the media's end, you could hear Rick whispering, just tell him you're happy to be here. So I wonder if he's whispering to Kweisi, just sign a nose tackle, just extend Kirk. That's what I would have done. Yes, I could see that absolutely happening. That is more likely than the previous scenario of them setting all this up to Trey Kirk. Folks, support for Purple Insider is brought to you by Manscaped. They are the best in men's below the waist grooming. Manscaped offers precision engineered tools and they recently launched the ultimate men's hygiene bundle performance package. Four million men have trusted Manscaped and you can check out their exclusive offer for 20% off and free shipping with

the code 20insider at manscaped.com. Manscaped sent me the performance package, and I can say that it's a game changer, especially when it comes to their nose and eyebrow hair trimmer called the Weed Whacker. I'm a unibrow guy, so I need to keep that in check for all the YouTube videos and streams that we do. You've probably also heard of the Lawn Mower as well, and they've come out with a 4.0 version, which is waterproof. It has an LED light and advanced skin-safe technology, so you don't have to worry about any nicks or cuts.

Again, get 20% off and free shipping with the code 20INSIDER, that's 20INSIDER, at manscaped.com. 20% off with free shipping at manscaped.com, the code 20INSID your confidence and always use the right tools for the job with manscaped all right an offshoot of this conspiracy theory actually does sound fairly reasonable though what if the bad contracts that we laid out before that are absolutely crushing them right now we're

a product of the wilfs saying no no we want to keep delvin cook because he's a big star and we like him we want to keep whoever else we want everson griffin back because we like him like some of the not that the everson thing made no sense but like some of the, not that the Everson thing made no sense, but like some of the deals, here's, what's been odd to me since 2017. Okay. They had this off season where they saw extended digs and Hunter and everything else. After those, the Vikings have lost every single negotiation with every player. And it has not been close. They have, they have like their faces dunked on by Kyle Rudolph, by Delvin cooks, wacky agent who was tweeting things all over the place and texting us nonstop. I blocked his number. Like it just, I'm serious. I just was like,

dude, you got to stop last year after the whole thing with the girlfriend. I was like, I'm not getting into this. So anyway, the, but the point is just like, they have had everybody get everything they wanted from them especially kirk cousins and i just wonder like if you're put in a position where all the agents know the deal oh how about patrick peterson oh my gosh like yeah they called us uh-huh because they knew you would pay the most like that conspiracy theory that ownership is telling them to get star players or keep star players whose names they recognize is not the craziest thing i've ever heard i'm not making the accusation i'm saying it's not the craziest thing

i've ever heard no matter what it reeks of desperation all of it did not just 2021 but the previous deals 2020 dalvin cook all that stuff the harrison smith contract um a lot of it did not just 2021, but the previous deals, 2020 Dalvin cook, all that stuff, the Harrison Smith contract. Um, a lot of it just reeked of desperation and needing to make the finances work, needing to build this top heavy roster that you just needed to stay healthy. And then of course it didn't. Now the question is, was the desperation on the part of Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer, which I believe it was, I think it, the common sense. And obviously what we come to hear from reporting is that Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer weren't getting along very well, but those guys both

needed to save their binds. And at the end, Mike Zimmer was part of the frustration with Rick is that a lot of his decisions fell apart. And I would be farfetched to think that the Wilfs were the ones saying sign Dalvin Cook, because what we knew about Rick Spielman is that he very much loved Adrian Peterson, paid Adrian Peterson a lot of money, paid him much longer than he probably should have. And he kind of saw that coming with a, you know, evolved version of the running back and Dalvin Cook. And I think that was in lockstep with how Rick thinks about building a roster. And especially thinking that Kirk Cousins needs that kind of player and that kind of run game to succeed. I think the only time we can legitimately say the Wilfs are meddling and at least question

whether or not they're meddling is, as you had said, when it comes to the quarterback. They're the ones who agreed to pay him his first $150 million outside of Washington or whatever it was, and I think it makes a ton of sense that they were the ones that stepped in and said, you know what, let's just keep paying him. And that they believed the guy that they hired in Kevin O'Connell, who probably sat in all of those meetings and said, I can win with this guy. And he wasn't going to come in there and say, you know what, you guys were dumb for paying this guy. We need to move on from him. You got to say when you're at a job interview, you need to say the things that are going to get you hired. And I believe Kevin believes it. It's just, does he also probably believe that he could win with an even better quarterback? That's also probably true. I just

don't know how much he was saying that to Mark and Ziggy Wolf. I also wonder if the owners of this team have heard that it's not a good quarterback class sure even from Kevin O'Connell and maybe even Kweisi Adafo-Mensah although Kweisi's answer to me at the combine sort of indicated that he doesn't really believe that you can be great at picking out first round quarterbacks because the NFL isn't and uh Mr. Adafo-Mensah is a very informed man about studies when it comes to the draft but I do have a sense that a former quarterback like Kevin O'Connell might look at these guys and say, well, there's no Trevor Lawrence. There's no Andrew Luck. And sometimes even the way that O'Connell has talked

about football is actually running on a different parallel from Kweisi of just like, oh yeah, football coach, man. A lot of the stuff you say sort of sounds like football coach man, where you sound like when you talk, not so far the moves, but the way you talk, you sound like very modern football analytics man. And they're like not always meeting up. But another one of the things that's been sent my way that I wanted you to react to is the idea that they needed to plug these holes cheaply and they did but moving hunter would be with the goal of signing a big name wide receiver and even potentially drafting a wide receiver to load up around cousins even bring in another guard bring in another center try to get whatever is left on the secondary market and put it around Cousins so they can find out, hold on, this is two-tiered,

so they can find out whether it was Zimmer's fault and it was Spielman's fault for not doing enough for Kirk. Now, I'm not against the notion that they're going to load up at wide receiver. I don't think that's, you know, wrong. However, you also asked Kwesi at the combine about positional value. And he mentioned two positions. He mentioned quarterback and pass rusher. And if you were moving to Neil Hunter, you better be turning around and paying Jadavia and Clowney. You better be turning around and paying Zedaria Smith, who just reneged on his agreement in Baltimore. You better be replacing that guy and then hoping

that you can find the opposite guy in the draft and find the, you know, the Bradley Chubb to your Von Miller. Like you need to be able to pair two great pass rushers together. Cause right now they have one. And I firmly believe in Daniel Hunter as a, as a person, as a player who can be that guy, if they don't and think that they can't pay him or can't repair whatever relationship that was messed up under Spielman and Zimmer, then that's where the resources need to go. So I would agree with that only by switching wide receiver to edge rusher and thinking that Quasey knows the value of that.

He knows the value of affecting the past, both on offense and defense. And they just don't have pass rushers right now. There's this notion that oh the Vikings were second in the NFL in sacks they're fine no that was Mike Zimmer that was we've talked about it that was scheming up a pass rush and now guess what he's gone and Ed Donatel does not have the same kind of success rate at taking down quarterbacks he might be good at defending the pass in other ways but that's not necessarily blitz schemes you don't hear that out of the Ed Donatel camp a whole lot not certainly as much as Mike Zimmer so they need pass rushers and if you are

moving the only one you have you better find out how to get them well and if they are going after some sort of big name guard uh Tom Compton got signed the other day so we're running out of guards folks also pump the brakes on that we've heard people I was Daniel Jeremiah did a thing just before the combine where he's talking about this Rams offense and saying that this is not offensive line dependent. He didn't believe that Kevin O'Connell was going to come in here and think that they need to prioritize those inside positions. And I think from just talking to those guys, Kevin and Quacey,

that they don't think they need to prioritize those positions. I wrote from the combine that I think the run of drafting these guys early is over because they have the two offensive tackles they need. Bradbury's not it, but he's got to be here one more year because his 2 million is guaranteed. So I think he's starting at center this year. Now who's the right guard? Now I think that's something that they can mix a Schlottman in and Udo or whatever. And I think they think they can make it work because this offense is supposed to be pass heavy, get the ball out quick all that kind of stuff and it's an offense that can turn a brian allen or an austin corbett into a decent free

agent option now did they want to pay 10 million for austin corbett clearly not yeah uh but also we've seen a lot of other people think that they could scheme around the shortcomings of their quarterback the rams just did but the thing is the rams quarterback sorry right the rams the rams ranked number one by pff and pass blocking so like they clearly did something extremely right there right but how much of that is staffer getting the ball these things all go hand in hand right we talk all the time about quarterback pressures being also a quarterback stat no for sure uh i don't think in terms of the grades that it necessarily works that way for them um i'm sure that quarterbacks getting it out quick helps. I don't know that Stafford was above average when he got it, like getting the ball out. But I also think that Stafford is so much better built for interior

pressure than Kirk cousins is. Stafford is a gigantic human being who stands in there, no matter what, who can move his feet, who can make throws off platform like these are all things that Kirk Cousins can't do and if you don't see that I mean think about this the Saints a few years ago built their entire offensive line with these giant meaty boys in the garden center but why because Drew Brees is short and he really can't like move around a lot so you need to have this very sound pocket right in front of him and they and that was what the Vikings took advantage of in that playoff game is because they had an injury there and so they started rushing Everson Griffin over the the center and the guard and it messed up everything

for the first half of that game for Drew Brees and nobody has really ever considered this like that your quarterback's weakness is not even around the edges as much as it is right in front of his face where things start to fall apart and so if they decide to run it back you're probably going to get a lot of the same results no matter how many times you shift justin jefferson into the result because kryptonite is kryptonite no matter what right i mean so so i just like don't know exactly what they're supposed to do that vastly changes this unless it's taking every dollar they can scrape up and putting it into good human beings who play football around Kirk. I should amend my comment because I'm not trying to say that they wouldn't

like to upgrade the interior offensive line. But Mason Cole just got $5 million. Speaking of questionable contracts, Mason Cole just got $5 million a year from Pittsburgh. How? Yeah. I like Mason Cole personally. I think he's a decent player, but how? And if you need to pay twice that to get Austin Corbett in your building, it's not worth it. You can't do that and then not have three other positions. They're going to be able to get Harrison Phillips, Hicks, and then probably another throwaway defensive starter

for what one right guard would have cost. Now you can question, is that worth it? Would you throw all those guys out and draft anybody's and then just to have your offensive line stored up? But then when you do that, guess who's still center? It's still Garrett Bradbury. So I just don't know if there was this kind of magic bullet solution in free agency and one that they could afford to do that.

And if they're going to prioritize positions, I think it's going to be the ones that they were already addressing right now. Folks, we've got an even better offer to tell you about from SodaStick. If you use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER, one word, you can get 15% off your purchase. That's right. At SodaStick.com, your place for Minnesota sports inspired apparel. You can get 15% off just by using the code purple insider yeah i mean that's always the fundamental problem it's always the if we could only find the person responsible for the fact that they can't right oh man they can't they

can't get a guard in here like oh if we could only figure out whose contract was responsible for this. But this also ties back into the fact that nobody wants to give them any help anymore. As you mentioned from Adam Thielen, when this team looked like a Super Bowl team, players were lining up to say, restructure my deal. I'll sign a team-friendly contract. Kendricks, Diggs, Hunter, they all did. It was like a pact that they decided were going to stay. I'll sign a team-friendly contract. Kendricks, Diggs, Hunter, they all did. It was like a pact that they decided we're going to stay.

And it was like a year or two later, like after it started to fall apart around Cousins' expensive contract, everybody started playing hardball. Rudolph played hardball and then Delvin Cook. I mean, Rudolph really did. Rudolph was telling people, I wouldn't mind being traded to the Patriots. He was coming here and saying, oh, there's plenty of offers for me. It was like, oh, okay, this is something we haven't seen before.

That's what happens when you don't win and when one player makes all the money and doesn't win. Nobody minds restructuring their contract around Aaron Rodgers, but when it's a guy who hasn't gotten you to the playoffs, everybody starts to go, ho look i'm getting mine or i'm gonna go somewhere else just cut me or whatever but i don't see why i should help you and that was riley reef they could have brought back riley reef and he was like oh no i'm good i'd rather sign for nothing in cincinnati than sign back with you guys after you screwed me over yeah and that's also what happens when you get sentimental with anthony bar anthony bar is one

of the the big cautionary tales of that entire regime and why they're here. You brought up the $10 million cap. That's a third of what you're accounting for Kirk Cousins right now. And it's a nobody. It's an empty locker that you're paying $10 million for. Why is that? Because when he went to the Jets and then said, you know what? I'm having some feels about it. I want to come back. And they're like, yes, opened up arms. My colleague, Ben Gessling at the start to be reported that they upped their offer from what they wanted to pay Anthony Barr just because he was willing to come back. And it wasn't what the Jets were going to pay him, but they were just like, you know what? Well, let's just, you know, forget our plans. We're just going to pay you more. And then they had to redo his deal

last year. Cause why? Cause of Kirk. Cause they were in cap hell and it's that sentimentality of it. And Kyle was the same way that he was here one or two years longer than he should have been because why because well he's part of our community and if you're wondering they are still paying kyle rudolph on the salary cap that's right i forgot about that is he gonna play in the league this year like i don't even know who's signing kyle rudolph at this point and you're like yeah you're still paying him on your salary cap so from that all that perspective like moral of the story is does it make sense what they're doing so far not particularly but they were also put in this position by a lot of different people that are not you know or shouldn't have been making decisions or didn't make good decisions or that

just aren't them like whether it's ownership, here's who your quarterback has to be, or whether it's Spielman signing these contracts, because who cares if they blow up later, that's somebody else's problem. Deal with that wall street boy. Like, I mean, you know what I mean? Like, geez, that's what they were left with in a lot of ways. So even though I don't get it from the extension and Hunter thing and free agency so far, I also think that we should not have expected a bunch of big contracts that were going to change the face of this team. That was why you have to take the step back with the quarterback situation, because there was no path to doing that. So you locked yourself in a box and now you really can't do anything. And so I guess the question I have that I keep getting that must have been like, usually the mailbag gets about, you know, like 50 questions from fans.

It was at 72 an hour after I put it out there. And probably 30 of them were talk me into caring about this. Talk me into being optimistic about this because I'll give you a good example. I watched a YouTube breakdown of why the show The Office faded as it went on. And one of the reasons the person cited was that there was no chance Michael Scott could ever get fired and no chance the company could ever be shut down. Like once he started spanking kids, he couldn't get fired.

And so this feels like you can't win. Like you, you cannot, this is what it feels like for a lot of people. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it feels like if the Superbowl is not the goal, then what are we all doing here? And if a complete rebuild is not the goal that can ultimately slingshot us toward a Super Bowl, then what are we doing here? And so I guess,

tell me what I'm missing or what I'm supposed to say when people ask me to give them reasons to think this is going to work. I don't have any. I don't have any because I have the same questions. And especially if you trade daniel hunter or get rid of him it is a it is a rebuild but then you're doing it with kirk which it that doesn't make a whole lot of sense those are those are uh antithetical things so i don't know i really don't know they have to firmly believe and this is a loaded offense okay it is outside of the interior offensive line this is a loaded offense if ericv Smith's going to be who we think he is, if they keep Adam Thielen, if they draft another wide receiver as wide receiver three, and then you got KJ as your

four, this can be a good, great offense with Kirk if he can stay, if that interior offensive line can be average. This can be a really good offense. But we've seen that every single year, you need a pass rush. What's going to happen when you run into a good pass rush in the playoffs? What happens when you get that wild card spot that everybody thinks you might get behind Green Bay and you get into the dance and then, oh, it's Tampa Bay's pass rush again. It's one of these teams, San Francisco's pass rush, whatever, that just crushes you routinely. I don't have an answer for that because the Rams had that defense. The Rams

had that offense, the Bucks, same thing. You still need that well-rounded team. Kevin O'Connell and Kirk can endowment and whoever Justin cannot carry you to a championship. The biggest question to me is how do you afford a defense at all with what you are currently paying your offense? And especially if Daniel Hunter is not a part of it so no i i don't know what you tell people because i myself have no answers the other concern would be about that what you just said is i think i would cite the atlanta falcons and say they had kelvin ridley julio jones and they actually had some decent offensive linemen and matt ryan was not a complete garbage fire yet and they just couldn't win anything.

Like the year after they went to the Super Bowl, they were okay. And then after that, they just went into pure darkness with Julio Jones and with Matt Ryan and with other receivers and other players and a decent offensive scheme, not just because Ryan fell off, but because their defense was so bad that even if Matt Ryan played, okay, they weren't winning football games. And not only that, but other guys, like they're not always just going to be what they were before. Like Adam Thielen is a long way removed from 2018 now a long way and several injuries removed from that. Delvin cook is a lot of injuries

removed even from 2020, where he had his best season and i mean and he ran in 2020 320 times last year after the ankle thing he was slowed down the shoulder harness like these things add up and so if those guys are only 90 of what they were they're just really good and they're not elite and irv smith i think irv smith is going to be a very good player is he way better than what we saw from Tyler Conklin last year I don't know like way better as in like changes your universe better I don't know and so if I was projecting it right now as this stands I'd pick them right where they were last year I'd say you're probably the 13th best offense and you're probably winning seven or eight games yeah and I need to need to know who's playing corner for them. I mean, I know Kyle Fuller's still

out there, Bryce Callahan. There's some decent options out there if you can afford them, but what are you going to do? You're going to draft a guy and then you're still starting Cam Dantzler. I just, I don't understand how that's that part of it is going to work. Cause if you don't have corners, you certainly need that pass rush. And so where's that going to come from? It's not going to come from the guys currently on your roster, not named Daniel Hunter. So I just don't see it. Okay. Give me this to wrap up. I want you to take me through the next two weeks.

Just project me the next two weeks. What will happen in the next two weeks? And really the fundamental question is at the end of the next two weeks and and really the fundamental question is in the end of the next two weeks will we look at each other and say oh okay now i kind of get where they were going with all that i see sorry about the freak out everyone uh you know um so that's the fundamental question and then just like how do you think that this plays out through the rest of free agency and everything before the draft i don't think any think any observers are going to be smacking their forehead and thinking, oh boy, I was wrong about all this because the one magic bullet in resetting this

team was Kirk and they've got them. So, you know, you didn't fire that one and you're stuck with them. And I think what's going to happen the next two weeks is they're going to address corner. I think they're, I think they're slow playing that market. Cause it isn't expensive. One, Darius Williams getting 10 million a year, which reportedly wasn't even his highest offer to go to Jacksonville. Um, if, if a five foot nine outside corner was decent as their number two, but also opposite Jalen Ramsey and never had to cover a top guy. Um, if he's getting 10 million a year, I think they are very much slow playing this market. I think they'll come away with a guy or two that has ties to Ed Donatel, ties to this coaching staff. There are some good options still available,

some veterans that can help you. They need them desperately. So I wouldn't be surprised to see one or two options out of there. They also need to find out who's going to be playing safety for them. Is Cam Bynum, is he ready all of a sudden after two starts last year to start opposite Harrison Smith? Because if you're not going to have those answers at corner, you better have it on the back end at safety. And if they want to play

Harrison farther up on the line, like they've been talking about, well, who's back there? Who is back there covering when, uh, Devante Adams is getting sent deep and Aaron Rogers is unloading it. So I think they need to address the secondary. And that is very important under Ed Donatel. And it just hasn't been addressed at all. And they play nickel more than most teams on early downs, certainly on third downs. They're going to be in nickel a lot, which is why Jordan Hicks was an important signing, which is why Jordan Hicks means Anthony Barr is not coming back, even though we already knew that. And so I think they need to address that part with veterans. You're not going to do the 2020 Vikings plan where it's, I'll just draft everybody, plug them in and see what happens i i don't think this defensive coaching staff is that miss uh short-sighted so i think that in two weeks we'll

be looking at a much different secondary and if you're the vikings you better be hoping you are i don't even think it's a bad idea to do that like slow play the corner market because usually somebody gets left behind and nobody really understands why and it works out did not so much for the vikings last year but usually uh if you spot the right guy it can work out i just have this feeling of something happens where we go oh what like the yannick and gawkway trade was this same sort of thing where they made this big trade for gawkway and we assumed that that was connected to Hunter's injury. They'll claim it wasn't. I would just choose to disagree. But it feels like as unfinished as this is, and as much as you have to try to do things to win with Cousins on this contract,

and as much as it seems like there's an edict to win from the ownership, there has to be some splash that tries to get everybody back on board. And also, I was around in Buffalo for too many years of mediocrity not to see this coming. It's just like they would always do this, where it would just be like, oh, what's going on with this offseason? And Ryan Fitzpatrick's the quarterback, or EJ Manuel. And then it's like but they got charles

clay oh my god you know what i mean or did you just reference the h back from miami i did yeah yeah had a couple good years there but it would always be like this oh they're gonna put a tender an rfa deal for him or they're gonna sign this guy and it's like oh okay uh so i don't you know i don't know it just feels like there's something that's going to happen that's really going to sign this guy. And it was like, oh, okay. So I don't know. It just feels like there's something that's going to happen that's really going to surprise us. And I don't know if that changes anything, but that's kind of how I'm feeling. They had a restrictive free agent. I can't remember the guy's name in the building today. Former Buffalo's center guard.

I think he was starting at left guard for them last year. So, I mean, they're going to do things like that. But the big swing, if there is one, it's got to be a pass rusher. It's just got to be. If you move on from – whether or not you move on from Daniil, you could use another one. You could use another Clowney, a Smith, the two that I talked about. So if I would guess on anything that we're not seeing coming

on some big trade or move, it's got to be to affect the pass rush. All right. Andrew, thank you for your time. And I think people take solace in the fact that you are as even handed as anyone who covers the team. And if you sound like them, right, I see what you're saying because I don't have answers. I would say that I have a mild reputation for getting worked up at times. No. Here's what I want to know. When was it wrong?

That's all I want to know. When was it wrong? I'll wait. But you're not as ready to sort of, you know, jump off the bridge or whatever. So, you know, it's a tough spot, I think, for fans to be in. Yeah, I did not see coming the um yeah i try i try to be that way and that's why i'm not too active on twitter because you know you don't

want to be knee-jerk about a lot of things but i did not see coming the no trade clause i did not and from what i'd heard mike mccartney gave the vikings three contract offers and the vikings took the one year with the no trade and i i think that's just the price of wanting to do the shortest deal possible with Kirk. And that's what they're stuck with. And that's the one that made me go, wow, and react as if I was Matthew Collar. And there you have it. Which, you know, more people are adopting it, really.

The rant and so forth. I've heard a lot of them recently. It's been quite the off season so far. Yeah, Judd was epic the other night as you have been. Oh, God. Judd's always epic. I love seeing his face pop up on the Twitters because he does those hostage videos.

He puts the phone super close to his face. He hasn't shaved in 19 days. It's great. Classic Judd. Thanks, Andrew, for your time. Always read the Star Tribune's Vikings coverage and Access Vikings isrew's podcast as well and we will catch you all later and take deep breaths summer's coming i think maybe we'll see

it'll probably snow bye