Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - An alternate universe if Kirk Cousins stayed in Minnesota

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

Matthew Coller talks with Manny Hill about what would have happened if Kirk Cousins stayed with the Vikings Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with Manny Hill as always on a Thursday night in which the NFC North is having quite the contest right now between the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers. So we will keep our eyeballs fixated a little bit on that or one eye on that one eye on our conversation here tonight. Manny, I see that a lot of people are struggling with the concept of cheering for the Packers here as the Lions have a seven, nothing lead early, but I don't think it should be that hard. I

understand that there's like a deep rooted thing and you, you know, your neighbor's a Packers fan and you want your neighbor to suffer and all that sort of stuff, but always eyes on the prize, always what's better for your football team should be what folks are focused on. And I think too, though, if there is one reason for the pack, okay. So I came up with one reason to not root for the Packers would be, they've been playing pretty good football lately. And if they beat the lions, you know what the whole world's going to talk about on the outside, the Packers here, they come. We, the media love the Packers jordan love is the next rogers and barb you know it you know that's what's coming if they beat the lions tonight but uh otherwise don't worry too much about that it's

just better if the packers win yeah i and as i said it on on monday night when you asked me about this to me it just makes more sense for if you're the vikings you want the packers to beat the lions because the lions are in first place in the nfc north right now you already have a win over the packers so you already kind of have an inside track on them um and you have an opportunity to play them again and and beat them and complete the sweep which would give you the tiebreaker over them so if you both if you beat the Packers in the second game and both the Vikings and Packers finished at 13 and four, the Vikings would finish ahead of them in the standings. It's as simple as that. With the Lions, the Lions beat

the Vikings earlier. So the Lions have whatever sort of tiebreak that there is. So I think the Lions are the team that both teams are chasing. That's the team that you want to go down. So to me, as much as it might make you want to barf to have to cheer for the Green Bay Packers, I think it makes the most sense in this case to want them to pull off a win tonight. Another point would be if the Lions do lose tonight and people re-listening to this will already know the answer to what happened but doing it live is weird so if the lions don't win this game it will be because of their defense and that their defense is banged up and the packers

get hot they move the football and they score and so forth and that would give a little bit of confidence to the Vikings with their chances to beat the lions, not only week 18, but also in a potential playoff matchup. Right now, the playoff picture has the Vikings on kind of a collision course to play against the Detroit lions in the second round of the playoffs. If they were to go to Atlanta or go to Tampa Bay or go to Arizona, those are winnable games for the Vikings. If they were to go to Atlanta or go to Tampa Bay or go to Arizona, those are winnable games for the Vikings. And then you would go to Ford field and you would play against the lions with a chance. And if you see the lions giving up a bunch of yards to Jordan

love and the Packers, you're just going to feel better about your chances than previously, which the lions have had a really good to solid defense all season long. But with all the injuries that they've had happen, this is the first time where you could say, you know what? They seem a little bit flawed, but if this game ends up 28 to 14 Lions, then it's still going to feel like they are the team of destiny this year. They are the chosen one. They are the strongest team in the league. So it's not just a mathematical what hinges on this for the Vikings chances to win the

conference, to win the NFC North. It's also vibes. It's also a vibes thing for me. Yeah, I think you want to be able to feel like, well, if the Packers can go into Ford Field and win a game, so can the Vikings in that particular case. We saw the Tampa Bay Buccaneers go in there and beat them. Was that week two? I think they went into Ford of give you more confidence and more belief in your own team that you can go and do that too. And I think if the Packers can find a way to win this game, I think that'll give a lot of people hope that the Vikings can go and do the same thing in Week 18.

And that game might be for the division, as we've talked about. So I think it's all about confidence. Like you said, it's about vibes as well. I think that's really what it comes down to. And again, the Lions are on top of the mountain right now, kind of. You know what I mean? I mean, they haven't won the Super Bowl yet or anything, but they've played, for the most part,

like the best team in football for most of this season. And I think that's the team in football for most of this season. Um, and I think that's the team that you're kind of aiming at to try and take down to kind of catapult yourself ahead of them if you can, um, and get yourself in a position where, where you have that number one seat and you have home field advanced throughout the playoffs.

And the lions are the team that everybody's kind of targeting right now. Okay. So Steve asks, can the Vikings win any tiebreaker if they win week 18 and hopefully have the same record as the lions and this is another reason to root for the packers tonight because the tiebreaking procedure from nfl.com of course it is wins and losses first but if they are tied it it is head to head. So if it was also tied one-to-one head to head, then it is the win loss within the division. That is the next tiebreaker. If the lions lose a game in the division, the Vikings could beat the Packers in late December.

There's a path for the Vikings to still have a chance if the Packers win tonight, but that has to happen first. Detroit has the football already up seven, nothing joined love not to, uh, off to a very good start here. So we will keep an eye on that and discuss it as the night goes along. But, uh, I wanted to talk about two different things tonight with you, Manny, and any questions, comments, thoughts, uh, that you have thrown in the comment section. We are happy to answer them and any discussions you want us to have. But I was asked for the written Friday mailbag, which you can see over at purpleinsider.football tomorrow, that'll come out. I was asked about the alternate universe of what if the Vikings had signed Kirk Cousins to a contract last year. And there's another addendum on this, which I think is

interesting as well, which is what if they had moved on from Kirk in 2022? And so let's talk about both of those scenarios. Talk about the more recent one. Last year, they went into the off season with a decision to be made. Do they move on from Kirk Cousins or do they keep him? How much would they pay what would it look like how would they structure it what would they do after to build the roster and knowing what we know now what do you think it would look like for the Vikings here this year had they signed cousins to let's just say a three-year 130 million dollar contract that was a little bit more like a two-year deal so what would it look like right now had cousins stayed here so are we still thinking that they drafted JJ McCarthy with the 10th pick because that's a that's a big part of

it right I I think the answer is yes though I think that that was actually Kevin O'Connell's dream world which was they got Cousins back on the cheap and then because he knew what he had in Kirk Cousins and then still drafted a quarterback. They talked about targeting this draft since they got here. Like they knew several years in advance how good the draft was going to be. So I still think that they would have been aiming to draft a quarterback, even if they brought cousins back, that would be very competitive rebuildy, right? If they had done that.

So I'm going to say, yes, they still would have drafted JJ McCarthy. So you drafted JJ McCarthy. had done that so i'm going to say yes they still would have drafted jj mccarthy so you draft jj mccarthy you got kirk back on a three-year three-year deal for you know worth a buck 30 or something like that you probably don't have one of if not both of jonathan grenard and andrew andrew van genkel because you just wouldn't have had the cap space to to get those two guys you certainly wouldn't have been able to get both and maybe you would have been able to get van genkel still because he got what did he get two and was it two and 21 or something like that it was a remarkably cheap deal for how good he is because i think it was because he was coming off of a foot injury and people were worried about giving him a big deal or maybe just the league didn't realize how fricking good this guy is.

Yeah. So maybe, maybe you're still able to get him. Um, but you're certainly not getting Grenard and he's been a freaking beast this year. So that, you know,

you take Jonathan Grenard out of the equation. Daniel Hunter is still gone. You still have lost him to free agency. You, you, you, you take Grenard out of this mix. That really, really weakens your defense. And if you've got Kirk Cousins back on this deal, you didn't, you know, maybe they still, you know, they draft J.J. and they still move up to take Dallas Turner, you're probably seeing Dallas Turner get a little bit more reps on the defensive side because there's no Grenard there. I mean, Van Ginkle maybe is there,

but you're relying on Dallas Turner to be a huge contributor on your defense. Maybe, you know, probably not a role that Dallas Turner is ready for yet. I'm not giving up on him yet. I don't think you're giving up on him yet. But right now, he hasn't really been able to contribute much for this defense. And now you take Renard out, you're inserting Dallas Turner

and expecting him to have a big role on your defense. And if he's not coming through with that yet, this defense is probably struggling. Collar, I don't think this team is 10-2. I don't think this team is, is I don't think this team is 10 and two. I don't think they're 10 and two. I know they're not. There's just, there's just,

there's just no way. I mean, you know, and, and then you have to figure, okay, well, that would,

they have had money to get Aaron Jones, you know, that would have impacted their offense. You know, what kind of running game would they have had without Aaron Jones in the mix now? So I, offense you know what kind of running game would they have had without aaron jones in the mix now so i i kind of see a scenario where they're probably about where the atlanta falcons are right now probably like a 500 team you got kirk kirk is you know he knows the scheme he knows that

he knows the system so he's gonna play well i would think um but i i don't know if you're winning, you know, against like the New York Jets, for example, you know, that game was won with your defense. Um, do they win at green Bay? I don't, I don't know if they're able to put up that many points that quickly in the first half without, you know, of the running game of Aaron Jones and all of that. Um, and certainly the defense probably would have given up more points in that game as well. So I think they're probably hovering around 500,

kind of like what the Atlanta Falcons are. Maybe they're, maybe they're seven and five or something like that, but they certainly are not 10 and two. They're certainly not in a conversation for, you know, maybe making a deep run. They're certainly not in a conversation for winning the NFC North.

Nano Joe tells us that Elaine McNeil is going to the locker room to be evaluated for a concussion. He's their only defensive lineman left for the Detroit Lions. This team is getting destroyed by injuries on the defensive side. Wow. They made a good move in getting Zedaria Smith because he's kind of now saving their defense. A lot of the other guys on this defense, have you heard of the defensive linemen?

Because they're throwing in guys that I didn't know existed. So to your point, I think it's possible that they could have added a couple of the guys, Blake Cashman, maybe Van Ginkle, maybe even Jonathan Grenard. But you brought up one guy that I think would have been impossible, which is Aaron Jones. couple of the guys, Blake Cashman, maybe Van Ginkle, maybe even Jonathan Grenard, but you brought up one guy that I think would have been impossible, which is Aaron Jones, because that's a short-term deal. See the other deals, they were able to push the money down the road a little bit. Even Van Ginkle is a shorter term deal. Grenard is not getting that much this year for this year's

salary cap hit and neither is Cashman. They're pushing it down the road to have the space where JJ McCarthy is supposed to be. And that's an important part of the future discussion and team build and so forth. But Aaron Jones, that's a short-term deal. There's really no messing with it outside of using void years. And the same thing with Stefan Gilmore, where maybe they could have brought in Stefan Gilmore, probably not though at the last minute, and then probably not been able to sign him to a deal that wouldn't hurt them down the road. Maybe they could have added these players, but it probably would have had to significantly hurt where they were going in the future of the salary cap to where they're losing them, to where they're taking taking void years to where they're not able to add other players down the road because i think we

agree even though this team is 10 and 2 that if the offseason started today we'd have some suggestions for what they needed to sign we'd add another corner we would add probably another guard right we would talk about you know some things that they need on this team to add, but they just wouldn't be able to do it into the future. Maybe this year they could try to do some squeeze it all in, all in type of season. But the key to me is that if you took the old version of cousins from five years ago, 2019, where I felt he was playing his best football and you plugged him into a team with a defense that had Grenard, Ben Ginkle, all those guys and Brian Flores, it could be 10 and two. He's not playing that way. And he had two great games against Tampa. Philadelphia just forgot to

keep playing and didn't close them out. They had another game where he threw a pick at the end. I forget who that was against. Was that against maybe the saints or Tampa where he threw a pick at the end and it should have been over, but then they left the door open and he found a cockamamie way to win, which he always seems to do. And I think we would have the same sort of story. And there would be one of those games over these last five that would have just been the meltdown game. And they would have lost in these last five that they found a way to win because that's just how it always went.

And if he had played recently, the way that he has played with the Falcons, they would have just lost several of these games and it would feel like everything was melting. There would have been enough good moments to say, oh, well, I guess they could kind of survive. But here's the thing, what we've been doing, and this dovetails into another thing that I created for tonight,

is talk a lot with these fans about, hey, when you look at the NFC and just how it's playing out, why not you? Why wouldn't you have a chance with this team? Top 10 offense, top 10 defense, good passing game. You go into the playoffs, you got as good a shot as anybody this year under these circumstances there is no universe we'd be talking about that with cousins there's no way we'd be saying a guy throwing the football with this lack of velocity the fact that he can't push it down the field that they just are not going anywhere once you get to the postseason, where now we're saying, look, if Sam Darnold plays this way, I just had this stat. PFF had Sam Darnold as the best quarterback in the NFL over the last three weeks, and I've seen it with my eyes,

and I agree with that. I agree with that. He's been incredible these last couple weeks. If he gets hot, it's always the Joe Flacco theory, right? Like Joe Flacco, the Eli Manning theory. He's played like a quarterback in that ballpark. He's not Manny. He's not Brady.

He's not Mahomes. He's not Allen. But he's played like an Eli Manning type of quarterback right now who you think, okay, if he gets hot, I don't know. We would not be having that discussion. And I think that's the biggest thing that is different in the alternate universe is that as we talk about the future too, there are people who are so excited about the future Vikings fans that they want to get this one over with to see what happens next year already.

You would not be talking that way. You'd be saying how, where, how does you have to move on? Now you've got to cut him. Now you've got to take a $60 million pay hit. What do you, what do you even do to get out of this hole? And that's how I feel about Atlanta. Michael Penix is going to start his career behind the eight ball on the salary cap right away. They're not going to be a legitimate contender. They're not going to fix that defense. They dug themselves a grave when they signed Kirk cousins.

And it's a, it's a shallow enough grave to get them in this playoff race because their division is garbage. But no doubt they're going to have to get out of that over a several-year period to be competitive again when they ultimately move on from him. And I don't see how they could stick with him for multiple years after what they've seen this year. And, you know, we've seen this

kind of happen with older quarterbacks that get signed to kind of big contracts where, you know, it's almost like what we saw the last few years with Tom Brady winning a Super Bowl at 43 years old with Tampa Bay and Drew Brees still playing at a very high level his last few years with the Saints as he kind of turned 40. There was just kind of this assumption that well quarterbacks are aging better and you know we can still we can sign these guys to big contracts you know we're the atlanta falcons we can give matt ryan who's been an mvp and taking us to a super bowl we can sign him to a big contract even though he's like 34 35 years old and it kind of backfired you know the bronco is making the trade for russell wilson and giving him a big contract and that

kind of backfired and now we're kind of seeing that with atlanta again with the falcons doing it again this time with gert cousins um you know and maybe in the case of matt ryan it was a little more justified because of what he had been to your franchise. He had gotten you to a super bowl already. He had won an MVP and all of that, but even that kind of contract that they gave him came back to kind of bite them because he really wasn't that good after that. And we're seeing that now with Kirk,

with this massive contract and he's just not, he's not the same guy he was even just two years ago. And so now you got, it kind of makes you wonder, like, are we going to see a shift now again, where teams are going to be, you know, a little bit more hesitant to give the 35 year old quarterback, a big contract, a guy who's been really good, you know, let's still give him $170 million deal deal even though he's 35 and his best years are behind him i mean aaron rogers speaking of aaron rogers like he's a mess the jets are a mess right now and he's one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time and he's just a couple

of years removed from winning uh back-to-back mvps and he is an absolute shell of what he was just two, three years ago. So it does kind of make me wonder, like, are teams going to shy away from giving the older quarterbacks the big contracts now? Because now we have sort of, we saw a little bit of a trend with like Brady and Breeze playing well at an older age, but now we're seeing some of these older guys start to kind of fall off a little bit, those cliffs coming at a little bit of an earlier age than that. And if I'm a GM, I'm not giving a 35-, 36-year-old quarterback a big contract, not anymore,

not based off of what I've seen the last half decade. You're right on with the older quarterback thing. It is always strange to me when the NFL sees outlier things happen and then thinks that that's a model. So just for example, these running backs who have been great this year, it's not a model because next year, Saquon Barkley and Aaron Jones are not going to be available. It just so happened that this year, a bunch of guys from top draft picks and great classes who still had something in the tank

ended up all in free agency at once. But I don't think if you're a team, you could just say, well, let's just give all of those guys massive contracts. Yes, the Giants look stupid, but they actually did the right thing. They should, if they had Barkley, what would you have done for them this year they're not winning five more games they go on Barkley yeah they look they don't look to me they don't look stupid for that they look stupid for Daniel Jones and everything and not drafting honestly not drafting Penix or McCarthy

or even Bo Nix when they had the opportunity congrats on your wide receiver but what's he doing for you in comparison and now they go into a draft sorry to get off on a giant's tangent but now they go into a draft with no quarterbacks good luck good luck giants good luck for you but it's not a model to be like oh we could just get this old quarterback from another team and it'll be perfectly fine and i think atlanta thought that it was they looked at it and said, well, Stafford went to the Rams or Brady won a Super Bowl. But I remember doing the research on this and it's one of my favorite things to do, Manny,

is a subject comes up, let me look up every bit of information that I can and try to make a guess at how this goes. And with Cousins in that discussion last year, I was looking for every bit of information. What I went to look for was how quarterbacks had really performed after age 35, because there was a few who had been really good. And our buddy, Rich Gannon, who you and I had on radio shows and things like that over the years, great guy. I did an article with him earlier this

off season about Darnold, but Rich Gannon's the all-time outlier. What a thing to be known for. You're the guy who is always known as coming back and winning the MVP after some tough times in your career. There are very few quarterbacks who are non-legends, very, very few, to play well after age 35. I mean, Joe Flacco at Kirk's age was a jet backup. I mean, it's just remarkable how the mid thirties is still that time where you see guys falling

off the edge of a cliff and Russell Wilson's playing some good football right now, but it's not Russell Wilson of the past. That is the age is that 34, 35 Stafford is playing good at times, but is not the same guy as he was even a couple of years ago. And Atlanta made this bet. No, but is not the same guy as he was even a couple of years ago. And Atlanta made this bet. No, no, no. This guy's different. Oh no. For as long as I have lived Manny, if a guy had an Achilles injury, that was it for him. And then it was, oh no, this will be fine. This will be fine. The Achilles will heal. Kirk said, well, it did. And he's going to be okay as a dad going forward, but he's not okay as a

quarterback in the NFL. So I think that the Vikings made a bet by low balling or not going in in the same way Atlanta had that a 35 year old quarterback with an Achilles injury was not going to give them as good of a chance to succeed as a young guy with a huge arm that might be able to come in and chuck it around. And I just watching Sam Darnold last week, I can't get over the throws. And so I decided to do an article on some of the big time throws because he's third in the league and big time throws. Every player in this locker room is marveling at the arm of Sam Darnold. And you kind of see what the actual downfield potential was with someone that's physically gifted like this with Darnold and how they were being held back. How much would Justin Jefferson be held back if Cousins was throwing the football the way that he

is right now? How frustrated would he be if that ball is coming out at Nick Mullins and Jake Browning speed, as opposed to the throws that Sam Darnold's able to make. I keep going back to that. I mentioned this a few times after the game on Monday. I keep going back to that fourth down to Justin Jefferson against the Cardinals. They had to have it. And again, that's not like a massive,

huge throw down the field, but that's a throw in sort of an intermediate spot that had to be delivered exactly where Sam Darnold put it. And you look at the amount of zip and amount of power that was on that throw, and it had to be that way to get that play to be, you know, to execute that play the way it needed to be done. And you kind of look back at that and you're thinking, okay, maybe Kirk converts that, but there's also a chance there's not as much zip on the ball. Maybe it gets, you know, somebody reaches out

and gets their hand on it and deflects it. And then at that point, the game's over, you lose. It's over. You know what I mean?s it. And then at that point, the game's over. You lose. It's over. You know what I mean? So it's the little things like that. That's why we keep talking about the physical tools as well because that has to be accounted for. And that's why guys like Sam Darnold

get drafted number three overall. It's, yes, to be a successful quarterback in the NFL, you've got to have it up here. And Kirk Cousins, for the most part in his career, has always had it up here. But the physical tools are what separates the guys who get drafted very high and the guys who are like Kirk, who get drafted in the fourth round and are able to sort of overcome some physical limitations by using their brain and are able to put together a very nice career. But then you see in the case of guys like Kirk, when they get to be 35, 36 years old, the physical tools that you have never really had, they really start to, you know, when those start to diminish, you can really start to see it. And in the case of Kirk, that's kind of what we're seeing this year. And, you know, and I don't know how good Sam Darnold's going to be when he's

36, but with the physical tools, I think the physical tools are more likely to be there for someone like Sam Darnold at 36 than they have been for Kirk Cousins this year. Yeah. Sam Darnold is almost doing a call at the accelerated Carson Palmer right now with the Vikings where Carson Palmer was a really good quarterback early, but then had some terrible years. The Raiders year was awful. And even I think his first year with Arizona was pretty tough. And then when he got the weapons, when he got the coaching in Arizona,

you saw the cannon and what that can do for a quarterback. And that's really what I'm writing about. And I've been asking players about is just what, what does it do when your guy has a, just a rocket launcher and Aaron Jones, I think put it really well. He said that the defense has to defend every blade of grass. And then Jefferson said that you,

the defense has to play farther back. They have no other choice. They have, because Darnold could just put it over them at any time that he wants to. you see the defense has to play farther back they have no other choice they have because Darnold could just put it over them at any time that he wants to and you even see that on the throw to Jordan Addison where their safeties are so deep Addison cuts out underneath and he times it perfectly and throws it over the underneath defender but if the safety and corner aren't farther back knowing that they could just throw deep and go over them then that window is going to be tighter if they don't respect the arm strength so i always always in forever in the nfl like arm is king right i mean dan marino and uh a number a hundred other

quarterbacks john oway josh allen patrick mahomes i mean all all the great quarterbacks most of the time and tom brady had a pretty darn good arm too. He was drafted in Major League Baseball. I think it was just that he was slow because the reason he was passed up and his offense didn't throw the ball at Michigan, but the dude had a rocket as well. So, I mean, I really think that it changes

the calculus of throws. When you're thinking about what throws can be made, what plays can be run. I asked O'Connell. Yes, I've asked everyone about this. If you go back and watch the press conferences, you're probably annoyed what throws can be made, what plays can be run. I asked O'Connell. Yes, I've asked everyone about this. If you go back and watch the press conferences, you're probably annoyed at hearing me this week, but I'm as excited about this story.

And what O'Connell said is that sometimes he has to hold himself back. Like he's designing routes and throws. He has to be like, okay, well, we can't protect that for five seconds, but if we could, Darnold could make this throw. And they've been wowed by it. And that's really the difference that the other thing is too, Darnold's been a little frustrating with the turnovers in terms of interceptions, but he hasn't fumbled the ball

very many times. And cousins not only leads the league in picks, he also leads the league in fumbles. He has 25 combined interceptions and fumbles and leads the NFL in turnover worthy plays. More just to complete the scenario. And then we'll get to the, do you think the Vikings are great survey, which I have created for if people like the old magazine surveys, like figure out what kind of lover you are. Well, I did the same thing only for the Vikings for this. But there's also some people who don't fully buy into this team. But what everyone has to acknowledge is where this train is headed for this Vikings organization.

Yes. It's headed in a good way. It's headed in a way of either having Sam Darnold as your franchise quarterback, throwing to Jefferson and Addison and Hawkinson and having this offense that they've had this year, which is good enough to be 10 and two, or it's headed with a young quarterback who impressed the heck out of the organization and that they could put another $40 million into the roster in free agency because he's on a cheap contract. Had they signed Cousins, even if they drafted someone else,

you'd be waiting around to be like, all right, when are they going to do that? But the restrictions on the salary cap and the roster, you know if Cousins was throwing all those picks and stuff, the coaching would look a lot worse than it does. And there would still be a hopelessness and a malaise over this thing this year we've been a little flustered by fans who haven't bought into the team because it's like you're 10 and 2 you keep winning but it nothing like it would be after those losses i mean i'm at if you're in atlanta

four picks to lose a game like that those those things are like Tim Wakefield knuckleballs that are coming up. What would we be saying? Like, what's the point? Start looking at the draft. There would be a hopelessness around this thing. And the decision-making of the front office, you'd be saying, do they know what they're doing? Bringing him back? In Atlanta, you think they're saying, oh, our front office has got it locked down.

I don't think so. They're saying saying what the heck are you guys doing so it goes back to what you're saying about vibes about vibes right i mean that just it goes back to vibes even if they were you know you you you bring kirk back and let's say you know they're probably not 10 and 2 but let's say they're like 8 and 4 and Kirk is kind of playing the way he's been playing this year in Atlanta it's like okay cool they're 8 and 4 but how good are you really feeling about that 8 and 4 because you're you're sort of watching these 12 games play out and you're seeing how things just kind of look, you know what I mean? Even again, you go back to like 2022. Yeah.

They were winning all these close games, but it just didn't look great. You know what I mean? They were getting by barely beating bad teams. And I know, you know, people are going to say, you know,

Jacksonville and, you know, Tennessee kind of hung around a little bit, but that year was just, it was totally different, man. You just never, the Buffalo game happened and then we started to believe a little bit, but then like Dallas came in and beat you 40 to three. And then it was like, yeah, no,

this is just kind of a cool, fun story with some fun games, but this team is really not good enough. I think the vibe is a little bit different with this team. I think people are going to have some doubts, but I think with the way this team is constructed, when you look at how the quarterback is playing, the physical talent of the quarterback, I think that this, at least for me,

gives me the belief that they get some things to go their way, they can go on a run and and make things interesting in january this is against the falcons here this is a believe in you game it's not the believe in you game which is against the packers on december 28th it is a believe in you game and arizona was somewhat that i think they could have lost the arizona game and it would have been the same belief of well you, they're flawed and maybe they're not as good as we think, which is where it seems a lot of fans stand right now, who really are obsessed with the 2022 season. The whole roster is different. I just don't get it.

Like the whole roster is different. I got a message today about, well, the point differential since the first half of the Packers game, I'm like, you're working really hard there. You're working really hard. If I take every team in the middle of the season at some point and just capture a certain number of games and be like, see, didn't the 49ers lose three in a row last year? The 2021 Rams did. I don't know. It's just whatever.

But the point is that this game here, if they lose, it will feel like the end of the world because you lost to a team that brought in a severely hobbled quarterback. And if they win, it's one of those of a prove it type of just dispense of this middling mediocre team whose quarterback can't throw it 19 yards down the field and now we're buying into you much more of what you could be in the stretch down the stretch plus you get to 11 and 2 you you almost you're almost guaranteed at 13 uh win season so there is there is some of that um to this game which i think is important uh must insert says uh you uh replied that the interior is good enough and that we shouldn't worry much about it but then say right

guard should be a target um so what i said was if someone was giving you 40 million dollars right now in free agency that would be a position you would definitely consider. I think I said also guard could be either one. Yeah. I mean, at some point they will upgrade from Dalton Reisner, who was a backup free agency signing to be a, Hey, in case of emergency break Dalton Reisner's glass and put him in the game. He was great last week, by the way. But if someone gave you $20 million, you'd go buy the

best guard that you could find. So of course, yeah, no one good enough is not flawless. I didn't say that. Some of you also can't let go at some, I should make a whole list of things that people can't let go. No matter what happens, the interior line, it has been fine. Look at the numbers. It's been fine. It's been fine. Has it been unbelievable? No, it's been fine. And the other thing is too, when you have a quarterback that if someone gets pushed into his lap can still throw the football, it's even more fine. It just is. You don't have to collapse every time someone's pushed back into you. You have a quarterback who can just torque his body and

still throw it down the field over people as opposed to needing a full outfielders wind up and step into the throw. So it hasn't been that, that big of an issue. The whole line, look, go to, go to pff.com right now. Look at, they ranked the offensive lines this week. The Vikings are in the top 10, but we'll never let it go. We'll just let it go 2022 we're never letting it go 2022 draft we're never letting it go interior offensive line we're never letting it go i just i don't know what to i just don't know what to say sometimes like we've been over this and they don't have nate effing newton but it's fine. They can win. Every team, every team has these flaws. I don't know what to do with this. But anyway, I'll stop because I just, like, we've kind of,

here's how, but here's how I know it's a great season. It's like three things that just keep coming up over and over and over and over again. When it's been a bad season, we got about 23 things. Yeah. I mean, I kind of look at the corner cornerback situation the same way where it's like okay stefan gilmore he's fine you know shaq griffin he's fine he's okay you know what i mean they're not a disaster they're they're fine the team has the team has

gone 10 and 2 with those two guys being your primary corners but when the offseason comes you're gonna look to upgrade a corner that's that's just the reality you know what i mean so i mean it's it's kind of the same thing it's like it it it feels like folks are either like in in one camp or the other of everything is terrible we have to say everything is terrible and bad or everything is terrible. We have to say everything is terrible and bad or everything is just like the best and greatest of all time. And if we're not sort of objectively somewhere in the middle on that, it's, I don't know. It's weird. It's crazy.

The other thing is too, I just think that we've been in such a mode of what are they going to do for the future for so long that they have this hugely exciting game on Sunday at their home stadium and they're playing great. And it's the, what are we going to do for the future guard? I just want like, I just don maybe that's part of just like the stratomatic type of culture we have of like the always looking for the simulate through the season to get to the offseason because the draft and free agency is more exciting than watching football. But I sometimes I just think that that's where everybody was since since when? When did this start? after 2019 right when they lose to the 49ers in

that playoff game yeah everybody knew they were gonna have to revamp the roster then they trade digs somehow they got the best receiver in the world from that but they trade digs and it's well how are they going to rebuild this thing and each year it's how are they going to rebuild this thing? And each year it's, how are they going to get out of this cap hell that they've created for themselves, work around this quarterback, make these improvements, draft the right players, and somehow someday get themselves around to a really competitive team. Because under no circumstances were they ever truly competitive outside of 19. I think they were in 19 and had they had a better leader as a coach, maybe they would have been even more competitive in 2019, but that was it the entire time that Kirk was here. They had an actually a

really good point differential that year and outplayed their opponents. Uh, that's he's, I think it was probably like somewhere around plus 100 so they were good that year but aside from that it's always just been future future future how are they going to get out of this and now that you're here you're like what do i do with my hands when i'm putting them on the keyboard to type the comment what am i doing with them i uh future right guard that was the apex of the kirk cousins era and then that six years was 2019 going into New Orleans, winning that playoff game. And that was the peak. That was the highest moment of the Kirk Cousins era of Minnesota Vikings football. And even that season ended with them getting their asses kicked in Santa Clara. So right then and there, like should have been, that should have been the moment and the message of all right

we tried we signed this guy we thought we could just plug him into a great a team that had a great defense and was just a quarterback away quote unquote i'm going to the super bowl we've tried this now for two seasons and this is probably the best we're gonna get like this is it and they really should have pulled the plug and moved on from a lot of different things after that season, the way it ended. But they didn't do it. And they just tried to keep it together. And they dug themselves into that hole of just not really being a factor in 2020 and

2021. Got Mike Zimmer fired. And even in 2022, you tip your hat to, to the job that Kevin O'Connell did in his first year. But that, you know, we realized very quickly that that team for as many games as they won, that team was not really going anywhere either.

So, and now here we are. And here we are 10 and two with the Vikings having a chance to go down the stretch and do something serious. And Packers aren't doing anything to help them right now. It is 10-0 Detroit Lions, despite their entire defense being injured. So anyway, let's get to a little game I invented here, where I used to, if I was in the dentist office or something like that,

you'd read magazines and you would see things like, are you an outdoors person? Fill out the survey or whatever, silly things like that. Usually it has to do with S E X, but like, you get what I'm saying? Not in the dentist's office. They had kid-friendly versions of this in the magazine. So I created one of these surveys where you have to give me one through five to figure out how all-in you are. Because, man, you've been very positive on this team. You've been picking the schedule all year. You've usually landed somewhere between 11 and 13 wins.

And if they win this week, you might just get to 14. I don't know when you've been picking the schedule, but I want to find out how much you truly believe in them. So I have six questions play along at home that will give you the answer six questions, and you're going to give me one through five, and then I'll tell you what it means. So the first question is how much do you believe in curses from one to five? One is you do not believe in curses at all. And five is yes, I am cursed. The Vikings are cursed. Minnesota sports is cursed. Earth is cursed. Like, you know know one through five it's a one for me i've never really believed in curses i've always kind of felt like curses are kind of fun to talk about you know if you're having fun you just want to have a conversation you want to sort of you know bask in your own misery so speak, as sometimes we tend to do here in Minnesota

with our sports teams. Um, but I've never really been a belief, a believer in, in curses. So I'm going to go with one. Okay. I will go with 1.5. Hi, I don't generally, but I also kind of believe in ghosts and stuff like that. So I like, I have to hedge in sports. I don't because the Boston red Sox one. And for folks of any age that would have been an adult while watching those red Sox, their entire history was so outrageously cursed that there, when they went to play the Yankees,

they get down three. Oh, I was in college at the time. And I had two friends that were Red Sox fans, and they're down 3-0, and these were the two most miserable people that you could ever be around. They were so sad and broken, and then they came back.

And ever since then, I thought, well, anybody can do it. Especially after Game 3. Remember, Game 3 was 19-8 at fenway it was over it was oh yes yes they killed them right right and then it wasn't and then it wasn't and that's how everything the cubs same thing it's like it it took a little bit of the lore out of sports for me at that point but also it just was reality that curses don't exist. So one and 1.5, how worried are you about Sam Darnold regressing?

One is not worried at all. And five is big time worried. I'll go with a three. Okay. Fair enough. I can, I could see it Okay. Fair enough. I can, I could see it happening. I don't necessarily,

I might not necessarily think it's going to happen, but if it did happen and he regressed, I wouldn't be surprised. I am going to go with a two here. I think that there will be another bad game this year. He's not going to play at this level for the next five straight games and go five and win 10 straight to end the season. Like even when case was case Keenum was just having everything go, right. He had a bad game in Carolina and they lost just, it happens the

Jacksonville game. It happens. Like there's, there's going to be one that doesn't go their way. Honestly, it could be Sunday. I didn't tell you, but a sneak peek for tomorrow for the podcast listeners is that I had something happen to me when I was driving that made me think the Falcons will win. Maybe that's just a good tease for tomorrow's show. So I've had a little bit of a premonition concern that the Falcons win this game and that everyone then thinks the season is over. So anyway, I'll go to your going three next question. Do you think that defense can lead a team to a championship? Number one, closer to one is yes. You think thatoser to five is no, you don't think that.

So if you think, hey man, Ravens 2000, that's a one. And if you think, no, defense doesn't matter at all, that's a five. I'm going to say two and a half. Okay. Right in the middle. I will go under the current circumstances and what we saw last year hot take the chiefs actually did this last year the chiefs actually defense won them a championship i mean good if not really good at times but i think their defense won them that

championship so i'm gonna go to i think the is still can win a championship in the NFL. How many NFC teams do you think would be favored by more than three and a half points against the Vikings in the playoffs? Just give me a number of teams in the NFC that you think would be favored against the Vikings by three and a half or more. If the Vikings were going on the road, they're going to have to go on the road in the playoffs. So how many NFC teams would be favored? Just give me the number that you think. By more than three and a half.

And we're talking about if those teams are at home against the Vikings. Yep. So you automatically get some points for being at home. I don't think it's as many as it used to be, but you get some points for being at home. But three and a half is a key number because that's more than a field goal. So more than a field goal. How many teams?

Two. Just Detroit and Philadelphia? Detroit and Philadelphia. Yeah. Let me think this. Would the Packers? Would the Packers? Depends on how they play the rest of the way.

Yeah. I'm not sure. At Lambeau, maybe it gets a little bit extra not washington not la no okay two uh i think two's the right answer uh two more questions do you hate randomness in sports one is if you're fine with randomness and five is if you can't stand randoms. One. I love it. You love it.

I love it. You can't get enough randomness. I think I am in the middle of this because randomness makes stuff fun. At the same time, it can be frustrating. In baseball, there's so many playoff rounds in baseball. You get to the end and you go, who won? Like, how did they win?

Was it just bounces? Was it like whose pitchers got hot? Hockey can be frustrating for this. Football can be pretty random. So I will go with, uh, I will go with 2.5 for randomness. I'm right in the middle. Sometimes it's great., makes for hilarious results and insane results. And sometimes it's frustrating when you feel like the best teams don't win.

All right. Last question. How important to you is good coaching toward winning? One is very important and five is not important at all? With the NFL, I think one, I think it's very, very important. I don't, I can't remember. I know we've seen some coaches, you know, get teams to Super Bowls and then find themselves like unemployed like a year or two later. We've kind of seen that happen a couple times. But I think good coaching, even if it's just good coaching for one season i think makes a huge huge huge difference and i i think look no further than what we have right now

with kevin o'connell i mean there's huge difference between what what he's done um with this team and you know the last couple years with mike zimmer were just not good and the environment wasn't good, the culture wasn't good. And KLC stepped in and just by kind of changing the culture a little bit has done wonders for this franchise right now. And now they're in a really, really good place. So I think all of that stuff plays into coaching as well. It's more than just scheming and drawing up different plays and calling plays and all that stuff.

It's also how you lead an organization and lead men and build a culture and instill winning values and winning culture and all that stuff. And KLC has done that. So I think that's a huge part of it. So I'm definitely one. I think that definitely matters. I'm going to go with two because roster is usually the most important. Sure.

I, I, where you're coming from your explanation, totally sound, but the Jimmy's and Joe's that's it's all the roster is always going to, how smart was Nate Hackett as a coach? Not very, I mean, just let's be honest it was aaron rogers in his prime and that's why he played so great and as soon as he wasn't nate hackett wasn't

a good coach anymore and that happens all the time in sports roster is always going to be number one but in football and game planning schematics mentality of your team culture everything else extremely important but you can have every bit of that and then play tom brady and have him come back from 28 to 3 and lose and you go ah they had the better quarterback or you could be belichick and just be the masterful all-time great legendary coach and brady leaves and you have no idea what you're doing all of a sudden so i'm always going to lean a little bit toward it's super important, but that roster is number one.

Okay. Now here's how this works. So those are the six questions. Here's what I'll tell you what they tell you for different scores, and then we'll add ours up. So the lower you were for these scores, the more you believe in the Vikings being a Super Bowl contender. Okay.

So if you're between six and 10, you literally think the Vikings are winning the Superbowl. If you are between 11 and 15, you think they're good and have as good of a shot as anybody, but you're nervous. They'll blow it. So if you're between 11 and 16, you think the Vikings are a pretty long shot,

but whatever, it's's fine 21 to 25 you're pretty pessimistic about their chances and waiting for the meltdown and 25 plus you hate this team and you wish you could fast forward 2025 so that's where the score the higher your score just remember that the higher your score the less you believe believe in the Vikings. So how much do you believe in curses, Manny? You said one. So you don't think the Vikings are cursed. They could definitely win it. How worried are you about the regression?

You went with three. So you're pretty worried. That puts you at four. As far as do you think defenses can win a team to a championship? The higher score is less to the defensive side. You went dead in the middle, which puts you at 6.5. You went with two teams would be favored by three and a half points. That makes you 8.5.

How much do you hate randomness? You love it. So that's 9.5. And I thought the randomness element of it was playing in the Vikings favor. You go into the playoffs. You're not a favorite, but anybody can win 9.5. And then how important is coaching one? And you ended up with 10.5, which puts you very much on the ledge between you think the Vikings are winning the Superbowl

and you think they have as good a shot of anybody, but you're also nervous they'll blow. So that's where you stand. Do you feel that that is an accurate depiction? Did I make a good survey here? Yes. Yeah. No, I think that's pretty accurate. I'd probably stop short of thinking that they're going to win the Super Bowl. But I do think with the way the NFC kind of looks right now with Detroit, Philadelphia,

and then you probably have the Vikings there as like the number three team right now. And Detroit being a little bit banged up on defense, you know, now it just kind of leaves, you know, maybe just Philadelphia as like the team that you're still really, really scared of. And the thing with Detroit, this is not to say that Detroit shouldn't be taken seriously, even with all the injuries that they have. But I look at what the way the Vikings played against the Lions back at U.S. Bank Stadium. That was a terrific game. It was close. It was competitive. A play here, a play there. The Vikings maybe come out on top in that game. And so that kind of makes me feel like, oh, they can play with the Lions. The Lions might still be a better team, but the Vikings can definitely play with them.

Philadelphia, I'm just not sure yet because we haven't seen them play each other. And Philly's playing great. Saquon's playing great. Jalen Hurts is playing really well. But haven't seen them play together, you know, play against each other yet. So it's hard to really tell. So, but everybody else in the NFCc i'm just not that concerned about it doesn't mean that you know one of those teams can't beat the vikings come playoff time but if i'm really worried about any teams in the nfc it's basically detroit and philadelphia and that's it everybody else it's like

if you tell me i gotta play the atlanta falcons or or Tampa Bay or somebody like that. It's like, all right, let's go. Like my, I like my chances. And the Packers are running the ball on the lions, by the way, that defensive line starting to get worn down. It's 10 to seven. So we'll see how this one plays out from here. Here's my score. So 1.5 on how much I believe in curses, uh, two on Darnold's regression. So it puts me at 3.5,

two on defense, winning a championship, 5.5, uh, NFC teams that would be favor. I agree with you. It's only two, uh, favored by 3.5 points.

There are other teams that would be favored. Uh, so that puts me at, let me reedit up 1.5, 3.5, 5.5, 7.5. How much do I hate randomness? I was right in the middle, which

gets me to nine. And then two more, uh, puts me at 11 for how important coaching is, which I am in the, you think the Vikings have as good a shot as anybody, but are nervous. They'll blow it. That's where I am. I can, but I could see people feeling like defense doesn't win championships because it's such a quarterback driven league. Uh, I'm not, I mean, if you really from, from the outset, if you're a big curses believer, this puts you almost immediately in the range of not believing in them. If you just fill it out regularly, but, uh, I'm curious Preston said he got a six. So he's in his purple tinted glasses. I I'd be curious what other people uh scored while playing along at home but i think this accurately uh depicts both of our feelings

now i'm gonna save this and maybe re-investigate it maybe with a couple of tweaks as we go forward depending on whether they win they lose if they miss a game-winning field goal against the falcons that curse number is going through the roof you know it uh okay last thing on the docket for this evening is your favorite falcons and then uh but let's first look at our underdog pickups here the show presented by underdog fantasy the promo code purple there is so much going on on underdog fantasy right now it's insane there's best ball drafts for the rest of the season in through the playoffs and the super bowl, which is really

fascinating. Pick them for every single game, all the sports, tons of basketball, everything going on there. Uh, and every week Manny and myself, we look at the Vikings pick them higher or lower on a bunch of numbers. So let's do that. And again, promo code purple gets you up to a thousand dollars in bonus cash and a special pick must be 18 or older terms apply concerned with your play call 1-800 gambler or visit ncpgambling.org Manny. Let's do a three of these. We'll do the two quarterbacks higher or lower for Kirk cousins, 246.5 yards higher or lower

I'll say higher just because I think you know the teams have been able to kind of rack up some passing yards on the Vikings defense um partially just because you can't really run against them now Arizona did a pretty good job running against them on Sunday. But, you know, I kind of feel like this is a game where Kirk Cousins is going to be asked to kind of throw a lot. And we've seen him kind of put together, you know, some games of 250 or higher type of performances. I think the Vikings are going to jump up,

jump up ahead of Atlanta in this game. And we know that Kirk, when he's playing from behind, he likes that the numbers get racked up quite a bit. So I will say higher. It was 246.5. Yeah, I'll say I'll say higher. So my if this comes true, then I'll just walk away because it'll be my funniest moment ever on the show uh my lol prediction for this game is that the vikings win 42 to 28 but kirk goes for four touchdowns 380 yards just just puts up all the stats 130 quarterback rating and it's all kirk's. They just didn't play defense or whatever,

but kind of like the Jeff George playoff game against the Rams where he put up 400 yards, but they were playing from behind the whole game. That's my game against the Rams in 2018. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. A big number of that game, but the Rams,

the Rams lit up the Vikings defense that night. So I think the answer is higher too, but the way he was throwing the football, I don't know. Sam Darnold, 252.5 passing yards against the Atlanta Falcons. Would you go higher or lower on that? See,

this one's a little more interesting because I just said, I think the Vikings are going to jump out ahead. And typically when teams jump out ahead, they don't pass as much. They start to run the ball, start to bleed the clock a little bit more. So I will say lower. Probably not much lower. I'm going to go slightly higher, and I'm going to pair this with justin jefferson's number justin jefferson

is 86.5 which i am going higher and i'm going twice as high i i i just i just think this is a game with a defense that has to play way back because they can't rush the passer, keep things in front of them, and Jefferson is going to get the ball a ton in this game and go for 120 or something like that. They can't pressure the quarterback. I was going to say, aren't they like the third lowest pressure rate in the league? They are way down there in pressure rate. And if the vikings give sam darnold time to throw he is my cook sam my cook so i'm going higher and higher

one more combined yards for bijan robinson 94.5 higher lower lower okay yeah because if they get combined yards right yeah combined yards yeah see i at first at first thought i was thinking just Okay. Yeah, because if they get behind. Oh, wait, just combine yards, right? Yeah, combine yards. Yeah, see, at first thought I was thinking just rush yards. They're going to throw to them, though. They have to. I'll say higher, slightly higher. I mean, let's just take one more shot. It's going to get a lot of checkdowns down 30, right?

Come on. Just a joke. It had to be said. If they lose, you can clip it and send it to your friends. Anyway. Uh, remember when Adam Thielen had like 14 catches in that Buffalo game and they were all like checkdowns. Adam had like 14 catches for like 115 yards because they were all like eight yard check downs because they were down 27 rip maybe maybe in july or something before training camp next year we should just go through the funniest box scores in vikings history and that's gotta be okay let's get some epic music behind us here and let's wrap

the week on all time All-time favorite. It's a little hard to fight against because a certain great Falcons team may have hurt them in the past. But a team with a proud history. So, who you got? Just a little bit of a spoiler. I don't have any members from that 1998 Atlanta Falcons team just out of pure snark and bitterness and all the pettiness, all of that.

So screw that team. Anyway, number five, a guy who was a pretty damn good pass rusher for them in the sort of the 2000s era is uh patrick kearney who ended up with 82 and a half stacks in his career yeah 82 and a half sacks in his career by the way like he that guy got after the quarterback uh had some double digit sack years for them i think he had like 16 and a half one year um i think he had signed a uh pretty big contract with the seahawks maybe and then he got he had some injuries and it didn't work out

but with Atlanta he was pretty good sort of kind of came in at that same time that Michael Vick got there on those pretty good teams in the early to mid 2000s so Patrick Kearney number five I mean that's your Drew Bennett that's the one that you pull out of nowhere that I never would have expected. I did think maybe John Abraham would come up, but maybe he still will. So who is number four on your list?

Number four, I went a little chalk here. Julio Jones, man. I mean, just one of the great wide receivers of all time. Easily the greatest Falcons receiver of all time. Just a great player, Hall of Famer, all of that good stuff. That's going to be a fun day when he gets his gold jacket because he's going to absolutely deserve it. So, Julio Jones, number four.

Just an absolute physical specimen as well, much like Calvin Johnson was for so long. Just a physical freak. Huge, 6'3", 230 pounds, but also could run like a deer. And that run of the Super Bowl in 2016 just made some of the most ridiculous catches in that postseason run that I've ever seen a receiver make. So Julio gets the number four nod.

So I've seen so many games at U.S. Bank Stadium, and I see players come out and warm up, and you get to really, really get a feel when you're there and fans who go to games, they understand this, how the guy really looks like on TV. It could kind of fool you. Julio Jones walked out. I thought he was an edge rusher. This dude, he is the biggest guy ever. I know that other people have heights and weights that are technically larger. He is the biggest man I've ever seen. He is so huge, so fast. His numbers are all-time great.

I don't even know how anyone ever stopped him. He got the Justin Jefferson constant double teams, lined up two people in front of him. He was just so enormous and unstoppable. He was a lot of fun to watch. Number three, not quite so chalk with this one. This guy was the thunder to the little thunder and lightning combination that the Falcons had during the Vic era.

TJ Duckett, big physical running back. Went total opposite of chalk, and the next guy number two is kind of fits into this mold as well but uh tj duckett number three just a you know he he was kind of that leroy horde you built as well like if you needed three yards he'll get you three if you needed five yards he'll get you three but short yardage, TJ Duckett could get you. He was money, man. He was a big physical runner. This is why we do this bit, because I just never saw it coming. TJ Duckett, I will say that. That's my blazing hot Madden era for me. When I was in college, I'm going to acknowledge now, I'll admit, the accusations are true. I didn't do my homework.

I played Madden with my friend, Ruby, and me and Brian, we played the absolute bleep out of Madden season after season. And TJ Duckett was on a lot of teams because his break tackle was crazy. And of course, you know, the Falcons came up a lot on those games with Mike Vick. But if you add him, you are blasting through people. So I could see how you would end up with TJ Duck. Who's number two? Number two was another guy that was in that same sort of mold, just big physical runner. Craig Ironhead Hayward, man.

Just an absolute truck. And that guy was not going to run around you. He was going to run through your ass, man. Like he big, just physical. I think it was 95. He ran for 1,000 yards for that Falcons team in 95 with June Jones and Jeff George and all of them. But yeah, Ironhead Hayward, number two on my favorite Falcons team in 95 with June Jones and Jeff George and all of them. But yeah, Ironhead Hayward, number two on my favorite Falcons of all time.

Sorry, I'm texting one of my friends that is a mutual friend of ours just to say, Manny name dropping TJ Duckett on the show tonight. That is what I just sent text message to one of my friends. So one of our friends. Sorry, who was that? Oh, Ironhead Hayward, of course. Yeah, and Cam Hayward's dad. One of the all-time greats. How about a run-and-shoot running back who weighs 275 pounds?

Yes. So good. So good. They sent everybody down the field and then run a delay handoff to a guy who's 275. Football used to be really silly. And that was it. So good. They sent everybody down the field and then run a delay handoff to a guy who's 275. Football used to be really silly. And that was it. Number one, who you got?

Who's your all-time favorite Falcon? This is pretty easy. I went chalk here. This is pretty, I mean, it's prime time. It's Deion Sanders. Favorite Falcon of all time. I mean, who else would it be? You know, I mean, it's just the greatest corner ever. The greatest, like like character ever the greatest

showman ever in nfl history um perhaps to him he kind of turned things around in colorado this year a little bit it was looking a little dicey at the start of the year but they ended up having a nice season and uh so he's doing a pretty decent job coaching as well. But as a football player, just absolutely electric and was just great for the Falcons. And then obviously we know the rest is history with the year in San Francisco and went on to Dallas as well to do great things there as well. All right, I'll throw out some other guys that I thought of. Terrence Mathis, underrated wide receiver, tremendous, tremendous player.

Matt Ryan deserves to be on the list. Very cool, Matt Ryan. I would think that Vic would have been on both of our lists, if not for the thing. But in terms of all-time entertainment players, he was up there. One of my favorites ever, Eric Metcalf, who played both running back and wide receiver. 104 catches one year 104 catches

and kick returner and he was awesome at all of it one of the most dynamic players of all time how about oj santiago how about lg crumpler a couple of really big great tight ends some great some great players mixed in their history. So anyway, let's see. We've got, oh, Jesse Tuggle. Yeah, Jesse Tuggle, one of the great linebackers. Keith Brooking was another linebacker, pretty good. And I would be remiss if I did not mention my favorite quarterback to watch in old football games.

It is Jeff George. Would be number one on my list. My favorite Falcon of all time. He ended up leaving the Falcons because he screamed at June Jones on the sideline and had a meltdown and then didn't play for them anymore. I just love watching that man play football. So a lot of, a lot of really good Falcons before we wrap up it's 17 to seven Detroit.

That's not what Vikings fans wanted. And that's life i guess maybe detroit is that much better than green bay we'll see or maybe we'll be wrong in the second half it'll change anyway oh yeah steve barkowski that's if you go back yeah the old the old school when they wore the red that's that's the way back machine for them. And they also had this big tackle, Bob Whitfield. Remember that guy? Oh, yeah. Humongous human being.

Yeah. They had some dudes. Chuck Smith coming off the edge. It was a good team. And, you know, Dirty Bert, Jamal Anderson. I'm sorry. It was a fun team. You should have made it.

I don't know what to tell you. And you know what? Chris Chandler, man. I'll always look back at Chris Chandler was a beast in that ball. You guys think Darnold can't do it. Chandler went to the Superbowl. I don't know. Yeah.

Credit where it's due, man. That guy, he played his Chris Chandler played his ass off. And Viking slash Falcon Morton Anderson was on the show. Yeah, that was night. And Vikings slash Falcon. Morton Anderson was on the show. Yeah, that was fun. All right, everybody. Really, really fun week as always. And we'll see what happens here.

Maybe we'll be singing a different tune about this competitive, excellent Vikings team. Maybe we'll criticize them a little more if they lose, or maybe we'll celebrate them a little more if we win. That is what we do here. So enjoy the rest of the packers and lions football game and i'll see you from the press box on sunday after the game when we know the result and i am i'm a little i'm a little nervous for that post game if they don't win my computer might just turn into flames if they don't so we'll see thanks everybody thank you manny and uh we'll catch y'all next time football