Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Alexander Mattison released -- is Ty Chandler RB1?

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

Matthew Coller reacts to Alexander Mattison getting let go by the Vikings and then discusses Ty Chandler's outlook and answers questions about the Vikings brass' message at the NFL Combine and more Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here, and I am back inside my Minneapolis studio. Just got home from Indianapolis and guess what? The Minnesota Vikings decided to break news while I was flying back from the NFL Combine in Indy by releasing Alexander Madison. So we're going to break that down and then I've got a bunch of questions from Vikings fans that I want to get to that I received while I was in Indy. So let's start off with the Madison Newts. Alexander Madison being released comes as really no surprise and creates, I know you guys are wondering about this, $3.3 million of cap space, which for a team that is still going to

be squeezed to some extent, especially if there's dead cap hits from Kirk Cousins and Daniil Hunter. They need every dollar that they can get their hands on. So Madison creates a little bit of wiggle room. According to overthecap.com right now, they're sitting at about $35 million in cap space for all of those who are playing front office at home, just like me. Let's go back, though, to how this happened, how we got to Alexander Madison being released. Last year when the Vikings decided to move on from Delvin Cook, they wanted to give Alexander Madison a chance at RB1. And now that we know the results, we can look back and go, well, that was a mistake to put him into that position, somebody who had never been the bell cow running back in their

career. But when you look at Madison's history leading up to last year, there was a lot of reason to believe that he could be a starting running back. Now, I don't think anybody was thinking this is the next Derrick Henry, this is the next Adrian Peterson, but paired with another running back, kind of he's RB1, and then there's other guys that rotate in, which I think was the original idea. It sounded pretty good. And when you go back to the way that he ran under Kevin Stefanski, the way that he ran under Gary Kubiak, there was a thought that he would be able to continue that type of performance, be that hard-hitting running back out of the backfield, catch a lot of passes, maybe even be more effective in the passing game than Delvin Cook was. And then they hoped that Ty Chandler or Kenny Wongu would emerge during training camp. What became clear through training camp was Madison seemed to be the only guy that really understood the offense. And so the first

few weeks of the season were all Alexander Madison. And right from that moment, it seemed like a lot to put on the plate of a guy who only averaged just around 100 carries per season before being put into this role where after the first few weeks, he's on pace to have the same workload as someone like Delvin Cook.

That was a lot to ask from the start. So the Vikings brought in Cam Akers and at times he created some explosive runs, but ultimately did not finish with good numbers, which at that time made us think maybe it's just the run scheme. Maybe it's just the offensive line. And then along came Ty Chandler, who had a breakout game against the Denver Broncos, then a big breakout game against the Cincinnati Bengals. If it's possible to have two breakout games, it kind of is, I think, for Ty Chandler. That's the way it went. And after that, he was RB1.

And there was no question that Ty Chandler was the more explosive running back, the more effective within their running scheme, and that he added a special burst and finished strong as well. And even though some of the issues with knowing the offense, pass protection, and even sometimes where he appeared to just go the wrong way from where the quarterback was trying to hand him the ball, he finished with over four and a half yards per carry and looked like someone who could take on a significant workload, which allowed the Vikings to release Alexander Madison, who was under four yards of carry for the season. Now, Madison was not without some moments and some good games at times,

but even in his good games, it didn't seem like they really stuck with him that much. Or if you go to Las Vegas, he was having one of his better games and then he gets hurt in that game or Chicago where they kept throwing and throwing, even though he was averaging a good amount per carry, maybe around five yards of carry in that game. And yet kept pushing the Josh jobs, throw the ball button. And I just don't know if he ever fit schematically with what they wanted to

do because he had been such an outside zone running back early in his career and maybe even going back to college and then flipping a bit of a switch for him to have to read double teams, doing a little more power stuff. I don't know that that was the best fit for him where he was the most disappointing. I think it was in the passing game, where he dropped a lot of passes. And that had not been Alexander Madison's history before. And I wondered throughout if there was just a lot of pressure on him.

If you recall, there was issues with fans calling him names, going after his family and stuff after the Philadelphia game. And it is very hard to go from being behind someone like Delvin Cook who took on that stardom and took on that RB1 to now you are pushed into that limelight and at times it felt like to me Alexander Madison was just trying too hard that he wasn't really letting it come to him it was unusual to see him just going straight forward into the back of his linemen, almost like he was getting over anxious on some of these plays. And they also did not have, in my opinion, a great scheme or a great run blocking offensive line. And that got worse with Dalton Reisner, even though

he was terrific when it came to pass protection. Clearly that matters more. But if we're evaluating a running back, there were a lot of contextual reasons, I think, why Alexander Madison was not what he was early in his career. And this is the reality for most running backs in the NFL is fit, scheme, situation, offensive line. All of these things play into your success. And it turned out that Ty Chandler just seemed to fit better and one thing that Ty Chandler was capable of doing that we didn't see as much from Madison was if someone missed the block Ty Chandler often just made that person

miss and if you got Ty Chandler on the edge he could outrun defenders and create big gains around the edges because he really does have special burst, special speed that Madison just did not have. And based on their scheme, based on their blocking, I think you probably needed that in order to have success with this running game. So Madison had his moments throughout the year, but it just was never really consistent week to week. And then unfortunately for him against Denver, he had one of those moments. He was not fumble prone really throughout the season, had one early in the year, and then was mostly good at holding onto the football. But in Denver, fumbling the ball when the Vikings look like they're about to close out that game. And it really changed

the entire complexion of the season, because if they win that game with Josh Dobbs, then maybe there isn't like a quicker trigger from Kevin O'Connell to bench Josh Dobbs. Maybe there's a little more patience to let him work through some of the issues that he had against some very good defenses like Las Vegas, like Chicago. If they had gotten that win, it would have felt better to win 3-0 as opposed to, oh man, are you serious? And that play, again, unfortunately for Alexander Madison, ends up being one of the most memorable of the 2023 season. So all said and done, the decision to make him RB1 did not work out at all for anyone.

And the Vikings ultimately end the season with a different running back one, which was Ty Chandler, who there's plenty of reason to be excited about for the future based on what we saw. Again, special with the football in his hands. And he had a kick return that was called back. He had a trick play that he caught for a big game that was called back. He had even more yards than what he is given credit for, but a couple of plays just had some bad luck with some flags that were taken away. He is a part of this for sure, but the Vikings cannot just rest on Ty Chandler as being the guy because he did have issues understanding the offense. Pass protection was a major problem at times for Ty Chandler and players can improve these things knowing that he's going to have a

big opportunity. It is a huge off season for him mentally to be ready to go into training camp and take on those duties. But sometimes a guy isn't a 300 carry a year type of player or a one, two, three, every single time out there, first down, second you, the league kind of categorizes these types of guys and he is a speed back and the Vikings could do offensively a better job of getting this speed back the football in his hands, whether it's moving him around a little bit, having him come in motion or doing a little better on the screen game. but we even saw that was much better with Chandler than it was with Alexander Madison. So a disappointing result overall for last year, but along the process, because Madison struggled, they found someone with explosion in his game

who can be a difference maker on a week-to-week basis, but I don't think he is to be left alone. And when we look at the depth chart now, Kenny Wong Wu, Dwayne McBride, these are non-factors until proven otherwise. A lot of people like Dwayne McBride's college tape, but it came in last year, didn't do a whole heck of a lot in the preseason. Somebody who may develop and does have some tackle breaking ability, but you can't count on that. If you're the Vikings, they did that last year where they took the swings at Chandler Wong Wu

and McBride at being ready to be Alexander Madison's backup. And it didn't work out right away. So more likely than not, the Vikings will go into free agency to fill that spot at running back, but it does create a little bit more space. Then you have to spend some space. And that just adds another position to the list to talk about. And we mostly focus on the defense. But now when you look at the offensive side of the ball, their wide receiver three is a free agent, wide receiver four, left guard.

And now they have a spot at running back that they're going to need to fill as well that's a lot of money to spend and a lot of spots to fill when you have a lot of openings on defense as well so I don't think that the Vikings will be players for the big names as far as running backs go the Tony Pollard's the Saquon Barkley's but the next level down from that this year, they need to make sure that they get someone who's proven as a back that can rotate in with somebody who has been around for a few years, but maybe not completely washed. I'm thinking of a similar type of player to Latavius Murray and what he was for them in 2017.

Although Latavius might end up back here. He's still in the NFL. You still see him around. I think he was with Buffalo last year. And he's been with a lot of teams and had success. But that type of player who could gain you 600, 700, 800 yards, who can pass block, who can take on some situational stuff, if Ty Chandler can't handle it,

that is a very likely outcome in free agency now that they have released Alexander Madison and just want to say on his way out that you're not going to find a more high class individual than Alexander Madison I imagine this was difficult for Kevin O'Connell who cares so much about the culture the the locker room, and is graded so high by the players to move on from someone in that locker room, like Alexander Madison, who has just meant a lot with his personality, one of the most intelligent guys you're going to run across. And I wouldn't be shocked if he found the right system and the right situation. And it ended up working out. You look at somebody like the Houston Texans who might need a rotational back,

who run more outside zone type of stuff. You could see him working out somewhere like that, but it did not work out here. And I still respect what they did, which was here's a guy with a sample size showing he could be successful in a small sample. Let's find out. Last year was a let's find out year

and in some ways like with players like even brandon powell but on the defensive side more significant josh metellus ivan pace the let's find out actually worked quite well but it didn't work out well for everybody and unfortunately alexander madison was a guy that it did not so as of this moment for all those fantasy people who may have clicked to see hey what's he think ty chandler is going to do i think ty chandler goes in as the guy who they're going to look to a lot for explosive plays but if you're thinking about 275 carries 250 carries for ty chandler I would pump the brakes on that. I don't see him becoming their Saquon Barkley right away. More likely than not, there's going to be somebody else here

and you might be looking at 150 carries as opposed to something over 200. That's a projection right now where we are nowhere close to the start of the season, but I saw fantasy football people everywhere say, oh, Ty Chandler, Ty Chandler. We'll see. He can earn that job, but he has to earn that job. It's not as simple as just looking at his yards per carry last year and saying, oh, well, he's good. They're just going to move him to RB1. There will be more competition for him. I'm just not sure yet who it is. And we're going to find out, I think at some point in free agency, that is my expectation. All right, let's get to some Vikings fans questions that were sent to me during my time in Indianapolis from Keith. He says, I can't help think, but Kweisi and Kevin O'Connell are doing the good cop, bad cop thing. This keeps Kevin O'Connell looking like the coach who cares,

but is being forced to listen to the general manager. That might be true, or they might actually feel differently. I can't tell. Because when you listen to Kweisi Adafomensa from the start, and if you put together a dossier of quotes from Kweisi Adafomensa regarding the quarterback position, including the famed USA Today article when he first got here, there isn't a whole lot of evidence that suggests, oh yeah, give him 80 million guaranteed, bring him back, Super Bowl baby.

Even the other day at the podium, it was muted. Although I think that Kwesi has a lot of respect for Kirk Cousins cousins i don't know anybody who doesn't uh the way that he played in 2022 when they first got there getting them to the playoffs winning over the locker room his relationship with the coach his work ethic i i think that if you're the general manager what you're trying to be is very black and white about every situation and that you always have to factor in personalities and things like that. So what you're saying may have validity is, all right, well, the general manager is going to be the one who has to put it on a spreadsheet and figure out

what's the cap going to be like? What are we looking at going forward? What's the risk? And risk is such a huge thing in making these decisions what's the risk what's the reward what's the high end of this what's the worst case scenario what's the probability of working these things out that's why you hire quesadilla fomenta but as a former quarterback kevin o'connell who completely has command of the locker room as we saw from the nflpa, you are completely right that it wouldn't make any sense at all for Kevin O'Connell to come out and say, eh, you know, if Kirk comes back, he comes back. I don't know. And it would be disrespectful to

Kirk Cousins based on what they've accomplished together. I mean, together they are 17 and eight over the last couple of years. And I think it really haunts Kevin O'Connell that he felt like the season was going in a really good way. If Kirk cousins stayed healthy and we don't know, we'll never know when you look at their schedule of games after green Bay, maybe he's right. You look at the way they were playing. Maybe he's right.

How they lost those early games. Maybe, but also I think the cynical Viking fan playing. Maybe he's right. How they lost those early games, maybe. But also, I think the cynical Viking fan would say, if he got hurt against Carolina, maybe Kevin O'Connell wouldn't feel this way. But as far as the way that he's talking, he has always been very respectful of his players through the media. Even players that are struggling, he has often said, here's my

goals for that player. And it's, it's the total opposite of Mike Zimmer. And I've had to get used to it, trying to interpret these things because I was so used to Mike Zimmer's very blunt style. So I think it's a little bit of a hard one to read with this. If you had to guess, you would say the good cop, bad cop might be how they actually look at it. That's if you had to guess, you would say the good cop, bad cop might be how they actually look at it. That's if you had to guess, but I think they also both understand and have said enough that this might not happen. He might not come back. Kweisi Adafomensa in the front office has set a price on what you would do it for. And the coach wants him back. And if Kirk Cousins comes back to them and says, you know what, guys, I'll take that price.

That price is respectful to my talent. And I want to be here. I want to be a Viking. Then I think you'll be back. But if he says, I'm sorry, guys, the Atlanta Falcons are offering 15 more million fully guaranteed. And that represents more respect than what you guys have given me. And somebody did say to me at the combine that when you keep saying, Kirk, we love you. You're so important to us. If you come back and put the offer on the table and it doesn't reflect all the compliments, then it's not maybe going to work out with him coming back because all the compliments also have to match the dollars, as Kirk rightfully said. So this is a complex situation with a lot of moving parts. And if I were to guess right now, coming out of Indy, I got two feelings. One is most people think that he's not coming back.

The other is that the Vikings don't know. I really believe that they don't know, that they will not know for sure until Kirk gets those offers during the legal time tampering. They might have a sense now after the combine, but they won't know for sure until he can actually get those offers. And once he does, then they will know. But as of right now, I think that probably Kevin O'Connell's texting him saying, hey, man, it's worth a lot to have your family here. It's worth a lot to have me here and have our relationship. And you're just guessing if it's going to work somewhere else. But if your cousins and somewhere else means more guarantees, better structure, more cash early in the deal, then that's going to represent to him.

Hey, this team really wants me and this team really doesn't and so what it's going to go one of those ways i still don't know i'm still coin flip ish if you want an update i'm leaning slightly in the direction after the combine that kirk cousins is an atlanta falcon when it's all said and done but i don't know quesadilla fomenta is not sure kevin o'connell's not sure that is my feeling as of right now folks have you ever heard of test driving a phone network i did not make this up it is an actual thing and us cellular is letting you test drive their network for free for 30 days you could try out us cellular wherever you have that spotty service, like on your commute to work, that one spot in your house where your service dips. Test drive US Cellular at your kid's

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Visit uscellular.com for details. Their good cop, bad cop act of Quacey being a little more pragmatic and a little more well it's a negotiation and stuff i think if you're a player on the other side you are probably okay with this like well that's the businessman and that's the coach and you know so forth it seems to matter to them a lot how they come across in this entire thing and i think they've done a good job of it they've done a good job of it they've done a good job of managing the message and nobody said anything that would make kirk turn around and

leave or would make anybody else go what are these guys doing they're like not on the same page at all they're completely at odds uh they haven't given off that either i don't think um that's kind of my takeaway of how they handled it in the big stage of the NFL combine in front of five beat reporters in a conference room. Chris says in a scenario where three to four quarterbacks go in the top 10, but neighbors and a dunes are available at 11. Do you take one of the wide receivers or just best defensive player available. I don't know about you, but I watched Dallas Turner run and I went, okay, I don't know if everybody saw this and they were watching the combine results like I was as everyone should be all the time. So if you weren't, I'm disappointed in you.

But Dallas Turner of Alabama is a guy who was dominant in college. Still looks like there's room to grow though. Quite a bit for him. If you watched him, you noticed him. I promise you did. You may not have known if you casually watch college football, who's that defensive end for Alabama.

That's, you know, getting after the passer and look special, but he's a guy that you don't need scouting ability to figure out which dude is the guy they're talking about first round. And then he went to the combine and mauled the events. If that's the first guy off the board for the defensive side of things, because quarterbacks went first, linemen, receivers. I mean, give them to me. Absolutely give them to me.

What you're talking about with neighbors in a dunes a three deep would be very exciting i am usually all in on more receivers more receivers more receivers it would be really hard to manage where the football is going with just the jefferson jordan addison and roma dunes a or malik neighbors i think that would be very hard to do when you're spending that much on someone who might get 50 to 60 passes because we have to remember that jake reed in the three deep he made a major sacrifice this is why he's an all-time great biking that he was a thousand yard receiver he was a pro bowl caliber type of player star in the league for a few years. And then he had to take a back seat. Well, I don't think you can ask a top 11 draft pick to be a back seat that you could say,

all right, okay. As exciting as that is. And as mad at me as that is. And I like where your mind's at because I am a huge believer in the more receivers you're going to have. Plus this team does throw the football every single play, but if they didn't have TJ Hawkinson, I might be like, Oh, you know what? I actually like this idea. I think there's enough defensive talent in this draft. And right away, first night out of the gate, the defensive lineman said, Hey, we're here. A lot of strong performances from defensive linemen. I'd rather they go that direction. I also don't think the neighbors has any chance of making it that far. But I mean, it's not the craziest thing I've ever heard when you throw every play, but probably they would go. I would even go Dallas Turner

if I could. And there's other good defensive players. Byron Murphy seems to be making a ton of noise. He had a great performance as well. Either one of those guys, I need a first round difference maker freak show if the Vikings are taking that player at number 11. But I like where your head's at. Seems like each year more and more don't want to throw run drills or even be tested. Yeah, I definitely agree with you that it feels a little antiquated and it feels more like the NFL wants to keep it going for television purposes because they roll out the red carpet. They make it a huge event. Now they've brought fans into the stadium. It used to be that reporters couldn't even go in. Now you have all sorts of people reporting on and watching these events and it becomes the underwear Olympics, the true underwear Olympics. When back in the day, they were doing this thing to literally find out if guys were fast. If you were watching tape

on standard def putting in the VHS and you're like, squint, and you're like, it looks pretty quick to me. I mean, that's not a great way to scout. And of course, you're sending your scouts to see them. But as far as comparative measures in the 90s, in the early 2000s, there weren't great comparative measures. Now, when you have GPS tracking and everything else like that, it is a little bit on the antiquated side. But the thing about the measures is you have a lot of history. So you can take all this history and compare it and say, all right, here's what Dallas Turner looks like compared to the edge rushers of the recent past or the last number of years where, I guess,

athletes would be of this caliber? And how does he look? What percentile is his athleticism in? And it is really, really important. And I know sometimes stories come out of silly nonsense, like playing rock, paper, scissors, or asking inappropriate questions. Would you like to be a cat or a dog? Silly stuff like that comes out, but I don't think that's the norm. I think that these interviews are very important to teams in determining whether they want to invest a draft pick in someone. So yeah, they could just have guys fly in, but you get opportunities to meet with so many players there in Indianapolis.

That is still important. And the rest of it, it's probably less than it ever has been. And we will probably come up with better data solutions as we go along, but I don't see this thing ever becoming totally not a thing anymore. Just shut it down. No more NFL combine. We're not running forties. And a lot of players, they have chances to up their draft stock. I mean, if you're a player like chop Robinson from Penn state, you went to Indy and said, let's go. I've got a chance to be a top pick. And if I don't do this stuff, I probably don't. It's only a handful of guys every year that don't do this stuff because they're pretty solidified in where they're going to be. The rest of them see it as an opportunity to get drafted a little bit higher if they can show that their numbers match up with some players historically.

So yeah, I mean, there are parts of it that definitely feel like, do we really need to be doing this? And then there's another part that I think the NFL still finds to be extremely valuable. Hunter says, if you are the Falcons, would you rather trade for Justin Fields or sign Kirk? I can see both lines of thinking. Yeah, this is something that I talked with Chris Trapasso quite at length about at the combine, which is a video that I think will come out later because I didn't expect to make a video when I got home and I didn't expect breaking news. But, uh, I would prefer if I'm the Falcons to go with someone like Kirk cousins, because the Zach Robinson offense, I'm assuming it's going to be similar to Sean McVay and similar to Kevin O'Connell.

That offense, I can't think of a team that has run it with a running quarterback. And Justin Fields, until proven otherwise, is a running quarterback. Until he throws for 4,000 yards, until they rest on his arm and not ask him to be scrambling all the time and not be trying to find ways to work around his shortcomings as a passer and rather lean into him as a passer. I'm going to call him a running quarterback because that's really what he is. And he can make spectacular plays, but he's very similar to Michael Vick at times in his career where he was absolutely spectacular as a runner. And Vick had an unbelievable arm. So he's better than Justin Fields relative to their era.

But there were times where he was unspectacular at throwing the football and it was inconsistent. And I found that from Justin Fields, where even from quarter to quarter, he can look like a different quarterback. If I'm them and my goal is to win right away, they have brought in a coach to win right away with previous head coaching experience. They have drafted super high for years. They've built this thing up. I think that it is a better fit for Kirk cousins to come in and already know all the fundamentals of this offense rather than Justin Fields trying to learn yet again,

a new system as he's had to do in Chicago. So I, if I'm them, I'm going Kirk cousins all the way salary cap be darned. And, you know, rather work through that, then try to hope and dream that Justin Fields can be something he hasn't before. That's another part of it. Kirk cousins has a humongous sample size of being who he is. And Justin Fields, there is no season you could point to, and it could be there someday, but there's no season you could point to and say, oh, that's the one. That's where Justin Fields showed what he could truly be if he only had X, Y, Z, but he never really has. Last year was as close as he got. And let's be honest, last year they had enough weapons

to have a really good season. And yet the first five, six weeks, there was nothing there from Justin Fields, total disaster. And that's now numerous seasons where he's come out of training camp and it's taken him half the season to get going. Well, that's not acceptable. Is that not learning enough in training camp and it's taken him half the season to get going. Well, that's not acceptable. Is that not learning enough in training camp, understanding enough,

working hard enough at it, or does he just have a fatal flaw that his eyes don't work fast enough? And there's only a handful of freaky people who could play quarterback in the NFL. It's very hard. Kirk Cousins turns out to be one of them. So if I'm them, I'm making Cousins a pretty big offer and trying to land him instead of trying to get Justin Fields, but we'll see. I don't know if they feel that way. Different things being said in Indianapolis, but I think a lot of people can see it as the top option for Kirk Cousins. Adam says, do KOC and KAM really want to tie the possibility their only shot at head coach and GM to Cousins as their quarterback? Two more seven or eight win years with no playoffs would surely put them in the hot seat. Oh, that would put them in the street. I think for me, the way I'm going to

view this is if Kirk cousins comes back, there is nothing short of reaching the NFC championship game. That is acceptable for a successful outcome because I've never changed this standard that before he got here, they were in the NFC championship game. And the goal by signing him was to go farther than that. The goal when they signed Kirk cousins was not to win seven or eight games. It wasn't to barely sneak in the playoffs to have to go to new Orleans to win your only playoff game rather than hosting it at us bank stadium. And when you get a chance at us bank stadium, it's to win and not lose to the New York Giants, which I know not his fault, played very well in that game, but they couldn't

build a complete team around him, as has been the case time and time and time again. The standard should not be for fans, media, the outside world. Oh, look, the Vikings are in the hunt again. Oh, they're going into the final week of the season. If they just beat Detroit, then they can get in the playoffs. That's not what the goal is. Those teams don't make the Superbowl. The seven seed may never make the Superbowl. Maybe one year it'll happen, but you have to go back quite a ways to find the lower seeds, the wildcard seeds making making Super Bowls. It just doesn't really happen very often. I mean, I think Tom Brady did it 2020.

That's Tom Brady. Aaron Rodgers did it. Eli Manning. You're talking about great quarterbacks who were able to do it. If that's, and a lot of them are a long time ago, if that's your model, let's just be kind of good enough-ish. Well, that's not good enough for me. That's not good enough for you,

especially Vikings fans who have sat through this and had a handful of fun moments, but that's it over six years. I mean, like if you were, if you were just starting to watch the Vikings as a kid, if you're like 10 years old, you're driving a car now and you've seen one playoff win.

I mean, is that good enough? Is that what you want? So the standard needs to be more than that. It needs to be multiple playoff wins. It needs to be playing at the conference championship or elite. Look, if they went to the divisional round and lost on a last second field goal, I'd say it was a success, but that the bar is very high.

That's the point. If they can't reach that bar, they will be in the hot seat after one year. Think about this year. This was the ultimate, hey, guys, we're resetting, we're getting rid of a bunch of players, we're giving young guys opportunities type of year. And yet by the end of the season, you could tell everybody was feeling some heat. You can't anticipate once you're away from it for even a little bit, what that pressure feels like, or you can't always, I think, like emulate that in your mind when you're trying to make decisions like,

Hey, if we get into week 15 and we're struggling, what's that pressure going to be like? What is ESPN going to be saying? What is the owner going to be saying? What are the fans going to be doing in the stands? If you don't score by halftime, are they going to boo us off the field? And then everyone's looking at the head coach and GM going, what the heck happened here? They have an out.

They have an off ramp that would buy them more time. That doesn't mean necessarily that it's the best decision, but if they draft a quarterback, this next year is all about, do they look like they're pulling in the right direction? Does it look like the organization is run competently? Does it look like the quarterback is developing? Does it look like the recent draft picks are coming along and the roster's looking stronger? Is that what it looks like? And then if you win six or seven games and it's exciting

and it's something new and it feels like it's headed somewhere, I remember, I'll give you an example of this. I remember going to Cincinnati week one, 2021, and Joe Burrow had played a couple of games and then got hurt in Cincinnati. Maybe had a little more than half a season then got hurt in Cincinnati. Maybe I had more than a little more than half a season and got hurt. And I got in an Uber to go from the airport just to downtown Cincinnati. And the guy I was in the Uber with talked the whole time about Joe Burrow and how excited he

was and where that team was going. They knew in Buffalo in 2018, Josh Allen, when I think six and 10 in his first year as a rookie and my friends and family from Buffalo were saying, we got our guy and his numbers weren't even good, but they knew they watched him. They saw the upside. They saw what he could be. They saw his work ethic. They believe that it was going in the right direction. Is that always the case? No. I mean, sometimes it doesn't work out, but if you have that, then you're going to stick with those guys and then they've got time. And then you go from let's win six, seven games and develop this quarterback to all right now, make the playoffs. All right. Now have real expectations. There's a clear cut timeline. When that happens, if Kirk cousins cousins comes back then the standard remains

the same from the day that they signed him i will not change it and every loss becomes armageddon for them every loss becomes picked apart for play calling every loss becomes picked apart for kurt cousins performance remember that we haven't done that recently because we've just been like, oh, okay. It's Kirk Cousins being Kirk Cousins. But every loss in 2018 and 19 was an entire referendum on him. It's going to go back to that if they pay him again. So the pressure ramps up immensely. And if they believe that they're okay with that, and if they think, all right, we can build it, we can do it. We've got our plan. Then we might see them do it. But I think that's extremely, extremely risky. You're really playing with fire to say that you can do something that has not been done before. And from the ownership

of this team, if they shell out $70 million in guaranteed money or something, they're going to want to see results next year. It's not going to be, oh, let's see what happens in two years. And you mentioned two years of being on the hot seat. No, no, no. It's one year. If they miss the playoffs next year, you might be doing a coach search next year. That's just how the NFL works.

And you've got a ton of examples where you can look at this. If you make an all-in type of move on a quarterback and it doesn't work, usually you don't get a whole lot of time to try to make right on that. And they can't sell to me, well, the roster's in transition again this year. Then why did you bring back this quarterback would be the question, right? All right, last question here. A lot of good stuff from you guys purple insider.com it says contact us or maybe just contact in the corner click on that that's where you can send a fans only question or on twitter at matthew collar if you're enjoying these feel free to participate uh and also the live shows as well jonathan says regarding justin jefferson

it hasn't come up yet on the show how about about that? Regarding Justin Jefferson and other contract negotiations is the cap going up by so much mean that they're going to want significantly more than last season. If I am Justin Jefferson's representation, I am saying, looks like you guys got a little more money, don't you? Because that's what you should do as Justin Jefferson's representation. These things are complicated. Do I think it's going to be more money because it went up by a couple of million

more than people expected? It's possible. I don't think that's significant, though. I don't think that Justin Jefferson's agent just said, oh, it was 31 before. It's 39 now. I don't think that that's going to happen. They're going to want the same thing everybody else wants, which is the most new money in your pocket that you could possibly get. So Justin Jefferson is scheduled to make something like $19 million this year, and he's going to want

more money in his pocket. And the structure of the extension is going to be really the most important part where the Vikings might look at it like the cash you get for the first few years is what you would have got for the franchise tag. And that's your guaranteed money. And Jefferson's side might be like, nope nope we want actually more guaranteed money than that and the vikings are going to say hey how's five years so we can be flexible and jefferson's side might say how's two years or three years so we can be more flexible on our side these things take a while to work out but as far as the salary cap going up um we asked Kweisi D'Affomento about this, and his comment was, you know, it went up for everybody, right? And that is not your question, but you can't really handle things crazy different for a few extra million bucks because everybody else got that too. Some prices in free agency went up and are going to restrict the things that they can do anyway, because you just have to pay more for middling free agents. Yeah, it all kind of comes out in the wash, but I don't think with a negotiation this enormous, we're talking about

a handful of dollars extra on the salary cap, making a big difference. It might be that they look at the percentage of cap that he would take up and say, all right, well, this is the new number. But I just think that it's all about how this thing is structured is where it has to work out. And they battled through it through the summer, which means that they've already made progress, which means they should be able to pick up in that spot and try to get a deal done. Now, of course, every year the price goes up and it will be a little higher than last year. Not getting a deal done last year is not great. It wasn't. And did they want to do maybe, you know, look, maybe Jefferson's side was only willing to do their dream deal and nothing else because they were in a position to do that. They were in a position negotiating after three years of his career to say, I only want my magical, perfect,

best case scenario, dream contract, and I will take nothing else because I can wait till next year. And the Vikings said, well, what about this, this or this? And they just said, no, we'll wait. And that's how we got here. I still am very confident that that deal gets done and that it gets done for a price that will definitely make us go, wow.

But we'll also look at other players in the league who are as dominant as him and important as him and say, well, that is the going rate for players of this caliber. That's how I project it right now. I think that when it comes to the panic, and this was one thing that the Vikings did effectively throw cold water on rumors and stuff like that, throw cold water on the fake trades and the Jersey fake things on the internet and all that sort of stuff. They did that at the combine. It's one of the big takeaways, I think from the combine overall that they made clear that it is no consideration whatsoever to move on from Justin Jefferson, and they still plan to sign him. And I am inclined to think that that's going to be the case since I've felt that way the entire time. But when it comes to panic buttons with a player like this

and this situation, I think we'll all know. I think we'll all get to a point where we go, all right, now it's time. Now it's time to worry, and we'll see think we'll all get to a point where we go. All right, now it's time. Now it's time to worry. And we'll see if we ever actually get there. So anyway, thanks everybody for listening slash watching.

I hope you enjoyed this extra ish emergency ish podcast, which look, that's going to happen. There's going to be a lot of different stuff, a lot of moving parts, a lot of moves coming. There's a lot of free agents. There's guys who are going to come back, maybe even more guys that will go out the door. And guess who's going to make a video about all of it?

This guy. So thanks, everybody, for watching and listening. And so much more to come in the next couple weeks. We'll see you.