Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Are all roads leading back to Kirk Cousins as Vikings quarterback in 2024?

Episode Date: November 30, 2023

Matthew Coller and former Viking Jeremiah Sirles discuss the Vikings' QB conundrum as Kevin O'Connell doubled down on "evaluating" the position during the break. Jeremiah wants to see Jaren Hall but also feels like this situation could end up going back to Kirk Cousins when the dust settles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with Jeremiah Searles for Tuesday Morning Left Guard, which is actually now on a Wednesday. We got pushed back by Monday Night Football, and maybe we have regrets about watching what happened on Monday Night Football, but we're going to talk about it anyway. Jeremiah, have you recovered emotionally after watching the Vikings lost to the Chicago Bears?

You know, between having to watch the Nebraska-Iowa game on Friday, have you recovered emotionally after watching the Vikings lost to the Chicago bears? You know, between having to watch the Nebraska Iowa game on Friday and then watching basically Nebraska versus Iowa NFL style Monday night. No, I haven't. I still just, I look at these two helmets sitting here right next to me, you know,

two former alma maters, proud to be a Viking, proud to be a viking proud to be a husker and then you watch those games and you go yuck like that sucked like that just was awful right and my buddy alex boone was at the game and he was like dude it was worse in person like i was like i don't know how it was just such a bad performance all the way around and now there's so many more questions than answers but it just i don't know it was just such a weird game to watch and go is this really happening or like is this

who this team is and everything like the chickens are coming home to roost and flying high is over or like was this a bad game i don't know man it just that was so not what i expected i knew it wasn't going to be a blowout because the bears been playing better but never in my wildest dreams and i think i was going to watch what i watched Monday night. I had a feeling that at some point we were going to run into the bad Dobbs version because that's just his history. And that's just the history of backup quarterbacks is usually they can have spurts and runs of good showings. And then at some point it's going to hit the skids and that's how it goes.

I did not expect it to be that bad. And the thing is, though, when you go back and watch it, it was not all Josh Dobbs. I think it was not the greatest game plan in the world for Josh Dobbs. It might have been the greatest game plan in the world for Kirk Cousins, but I don't think it was fit very well to Josh Dobbs. I also believe that running the football all the time is fine if it's working. And instead it was just like, no, pass, just mash the pass button.

Alexander Madison's looking the quickest that he's looked all year. And it was like, eh, okay, back to the past though. Jordan Addison had a really tough time in that game. We've praised Jordan Addison a lot. He deserves it. He's had a really tough time in that game. We've praised Jordan Addison a lot. He deserves it. He's had a very good year, but there were a few plays in that game where it just didn't look like he was sharp.

And then he said, so after the game to our buddy, Andrew Kramer of the star Tribune, he basically said like, he felt like he's been playing well, but that was not a good game for him. And also something that I'd like you to speak to the offensive line. The last two weeks has really been beaten up.

I tend to believe this is a matter of being worn down. I've never seen a bi-week this, this late. I don't think you actually can have a bi-week any later than this. So a lot played into this. And now Kevin O'Connell is talking about potentially changing quarterbacks. That might be an overreaction. I don't know. I don't think so. You know, this and now Kevin O'Connell's talking about potentially changing quarterbacks that might be an overreaction I don't know I don't think so you know I think the main reason I say that is

because we haven't truly seen Hall yet right we got to see a quick glimpse of him before he got rocked out of this world and welcome to the NFL in the worst way imaginable right but there's still a piece out there of where are we as a team? Are we rebuilding? Are we competing? Are we going forward? You know, after this loss and really the last two losses, you're kind of the, the playoffs seem to be farther and farther and farther away, right? They're still there because the NFC on the bottom half is a mess, you know, but like the playoffs are still there, but you almost have to kind of switch into a mode now to the evaluation of your roster piece,

right? What are we truly doing at the quarterback position? You now had multiple weeks where Josh Dobbs been the starter. You've seen the good, you've seen the bad, and you've seen the ugly, right? Let's see what we drafted in the fifth round and see what he can be and see what he's, what his good, bad, and ugly is, right? There's still time. And if that's really ugly, we can always go back to Josh Dobbs, right? Like I do think that there's some, there's some, I mean, Nick Mullins, I think is still in the mix somewhere in there too. You know, there's some options at quarterback to give ourselves a chance, but it is not fair to pin the whole thing on Dobbs. You know, we've sung the praises of these two tackles all year long, rightfully so. They're both incredible. They probably had the worst game of the year. I mean, Montez Sweat had,

woo, he had a day on Monday night. He knew the world was watching. He knew the cameras were on, and he was in his bag. And that's tough to do when you're playing against a guy like that. But, you know, Brian O'Neill and Darryl Saul will probably be the first to admit not their best performance. And when you have a backup quarterback, and we talked about this, I think, two, three weeks ago, when Josh stops making his first start, everyone has to elevate their game. Everyone has to be their game everyone has to be on their their a game all the time because the margin for error has shrunk even more when you don't have your starting franchise quarterback and he didn't have a ton of help around him at times you know and like you said the game plan was iffy but I don't think it's an overreaction to say we

got to see what else we have on this roster we got to see what else we have moving into next year and maybe it's the spark we need maybe it's not but if we don't try it then we have on this roster. We got to see what else we have moving into next year. And maybe it's the spark we need. Maybe it's not. But if we don't try it, then we'll never know. Okay. Let me just try to work through how this would be an overreaction. In the last three weeks with Josh Dobbs, a quarterback, they were a top six offense in scoring and yards with Dobbs. And I know that a lot of that took running and scrambling magic. And that's something

that comes along with high variance. Like some weeks that's going to work some weeks. It's not going to work. That's been talked about forever in the NFL. Can you really win with a guy who relies on his legs and not, you know, not a complete quarterback like Hertz or Lamar Jackson, who adds a scrambling element, but Dobbs has to be a runner for them to succeed. And what we saw was, uh, the, the Chicago bears do a really good job of keeping him from doing that. Okay. That that's, that's, that's fine. One terrible, terrible game, but the three games before that, all two of them were wins. The other one should have been one against the Denver Broncos and Josh Dobbs played well enough to win that game. And if you look at the schedule going forward,

you have two backup quarterbacks coming up here, and then you only have to win one out of three division games to get into the playoffs. I mean, it felt as horrible as it could possibly feel, but this is also how the NFL works sometimes where you just, and especially if you don't have Patrick Mahomes or you don't have a star quarterback, it has felt this time this way with Kirk cousins. I mean, how about the last time they went to Chicago? Here's a stat for you. Here's a stat for you. What does this stat mean? Kirk cousins in Chicago produced fewer offensive yards total than Josh Dobbs did the other night. They had 220 versus 242. And then what happened after that? They came back and had strong

performances. So, I mean, I understand where Kevin O'Connell's coming from. And I think if they're making a switch, it's probably to Mullins and not Jared Hall because they want to make the playoffs. I don't believe they went to evaluation mode, but bad weeks, bad games when you don't have a top quarterback happen in the NFL. And I think they could come out of this healthier and refreshed and still win with Dobbs. But I also think that O'Connell is probably going to make a change here. I get so torn on this because Dobbs, you you have to we have to remember dobbs is not koc's guy right i don't think there's a ton of loyalty where dobbs has this long leash with koc

where it's like oh that's okay man we'll just pull you back in a little bit things will be well like i do think that they traded basically nothing for him he came in and his leash is very short does that mean he gets yanked? I don't know, but that can't happen again. And there's been too many instances of the roller coaster. The roller coaster that is Josh Dobbs. And if you're talking about your quarterback, starting quarterback being a roller coaster, it's a gamble every single week.

It's a coin flip. You look around the league, how many guys have careers that have been just up and down and 28 fantasy points minus eight fantasy points like like that's just all based off stats but the fear of a coach is if i keep putting this out there without a consistency of what am i going to get i'm gonna get murdered like i going to get murdered in the next coming weeks because it's like, you didn't think that was coming? It's like, I didn't know what was coming. I don't know week-to-week-to-basis of what I'm throwing out there.

Am I going to get the dude that looks like Lamar Jackson at times, or am I going to get the dude that looks like Zach Wilson? I don't know, and I think KOC doesn't want to live in that world anymore, and it's going to be up to Dobbs to prove to him during the week. And we talked about the week, right? The preparation. He's got to have a great bi-week practices before they break. And then when he comes back, he has to look super sharp.

Or I do think, yeah, we're going to go for a change here. And as much as the playoffs are right there in front of us, I worry about can this defense keep sustaining, right? With the amount of plays that they're being asked to play, because when you have poor offensive performances, you're three and outs a lot. You have quick interceptions. I mean, I looked at the final play count. It was a lot to a little, um, with Chicago's offense to our offense, you know? And so that starts bringing in the, the, wearing the defense out down the stretch here. And, and all that stuff comes into play when you just don't have an offense that's clicking.

Let me make a metaphor here for the quarterback. Yeah, and this one is genius. So prepare yourself for how brilliant this is going to be. So the two quarterbacks that they have, and I'm putting Hall to the side here because I just don't think they're going to go into that evaluation mode yet. Now, if they were to lose the next two games and they're out of the playoff race, then, okay, play Jaron Hall. Of course, I totally agree with that. But it sounds like they're looking for improvement, not for, hey, let's just find out what this rookie can do. And I also like the one drive he had but i don't really know but the sample size that

i saw in training camp the sample size i saw in pre-season was a guy that needs more development in my mind and is probably more along the backup lines so i think we're talking about dobbs versus nick mullins mullins let's say let's say you're driving on a road that is 60 miles an hour is the speed limit. Okay. Josh Dobbs is 90 miles an hour. Very dangerous all over the place. Could get you there faster and be great. Could also crash into a telephone pole.

Nick Mullins is 40 miles an hour and someone else just crashes into him anyway. It's just as dangerous. You think it's not as dangerous. So I go, he's playing. It's safe. He's going 40 miles an hour. Now, let me give you a stat to show you that it might be even more dangerous to play the safe quarterback and drive 40 miles an hour. The last time Nick Mullins started regularly in the NFL was the year 2020. He started eight games. Now in that season, there were 29 quarterbacks who threw over 300 passes in the National Football League. Out of 29, PFF graded Nick Mullins 29th

with the 49ers. So it's not like he was playing with Urban Meyer, his coach or something. This is Kyle Shanahanahan 29th out of 29 and the man has thrown 23 interceptions in 17 career starts i fail to see how this is less dangerous but i just don't see any real upside to it because when things go wrong he can't run away and potentially score a touchdown that looks awesome like josh dobbs can so let me ask you this are you on the Josh Dobbs train are you on the let's ride this dude to the end are you on the like let's see what we can do

or are you in the KOC camp of let's reevaluate and see what we can do I am very much on the side of start Josh Dobbs the rest of the way and just try to hold your nose when it doesn't go well because the higher end of that is you can score 30 points in a football game. I don't know that the higher end of that is Nick Mullins, but I'll give you this, that the thing that KOC kept going back to in his press conference was Justin Jefferson. Who can get Jefferson the ball the best? And I think what he's looking at is Mullins understands the timing and the rhythm of the offense and i think what he's looking at is mullins understands the timing and the rhythm

of the offense and the footwork and how everything is supposed to go but when you have a two out of ten arm strength i'm not sure that that's gonna matter like i don't mean to insult nick mullins he is he is great this guy is i mean really great like to have a career in the nfl to be a reliable backup that that takes a lot for a guy who has never considered, really great to have a career in the NFL, to be a reliable backup. That takes a lot for a guy who is never considered a prospect. Yeah, I completely agree. Everyone knows. Utmost respect for guys like him.

A-plus dude. But look, if we're doing Matt Brandy. The NFL is the NFL. The NFL is what the NFL is, man. It is what it is. There's no – it is what it is. I was a backup guard and got cut because I sucked. Yeah, it happens.

Only the one time. Only the one time. The other time you were too expensive. So let's focus on the positive. That's fair. That's fair. I guess what I'm saying is I totally, totally understand where Kevin O'Connell is coming from. We need the guy to run my offense, my scheme. My scheme works for Justin Jefferson, but you might not get the results you

think when the guy doesn't have the arm to make some of those throws anyway. The bi-week is the, this probably is the turning point for moving on from Dobbs or not though, because if you give Nick Mullins two weeks to be the guy, you're going to give him a chance, right? But I don't think it'd be fair to Nick Mullins to not make a a change during the bye week this week and then come in on monday next week and be like you're up let's see what you got right versus it's the same thing for dobbs right like hey dobbs you got two weeks to figure this out right i think they have to make a decision and we won't know right us on the outside looking in we'll have no idea but i do think that decision is going to be made today i mean it's Wednesday I think today

the decision they've talked about it yesterday they know they have a couple practices here probably today and then they get off tomorrow today will probably be the decision point of KOC in this offense of we're moving to see what we got in Nick Mullins or Dobbs this is your show you wreck it again your leash is even shorter and you make a great argument I think that metaphor is a great example and it's one that even I fall into of like the safer choice sometime the better choice right because turnovers are the death of any team in the NFL it doesn't matter if you're the best offense or the worst offense if you turn the ball over it you're gonna lose and that's what scares me a little bit with Dobbs with the flying fast and loose at times

and you think about the Mullins of yeah but he's not just gonna like try and squeeze it in there because he can but if you're gonna get strip sacked because you're sitting in the pocket for six and a half seconds then is that any better right and i it is a conundrum and it is one of those things but i think you have talked me into like i was more on the side of let's let's let's give it someone else let's see what we can do but you make very compelling arguments matthew i i think i'm i think i'm sitting in your camp now of let's ride the horse we got and see what happens uh there's another question of how much does it matter does it does it matter who you pick because driving too fast or driving too slow is not driving the right speed either way.

And I don't know. I truly don't know with either player if you make the playoffs at this point, even with Jefferson coming back. If you're going to play like that. And I totally agree with you when it comes to the defense, where if you're just asking to do this every week, that eventually they're going to have a bad game just by the law of averages. They've had so many good games in a row. They're going to have a bad game. We're going to go, wait, they let Aiden O'Connell go for 400 yards or Jake Browning or something. But again, that's what happens in the NFL is that you can't just, unless you're the Ravens or something, the number one defense in the NFL, you can't just week after week after week do this.

So does it matter who they pick a quarterback yes it does because the NFL you can't win with a bad quarterback you just can't and if one of those is better or worse then you have to give yourselves the better opportunity each and every week because we're seeing it look at Jake Browning I mean buddy I get it you're a backup quarterback but the Bengals probably should have won that football game. They should have won that football game. And you start talking about a backup quarterback. Tim Boyle's starting in the NFL. Tim Boyle, he's, no disrespect, but he's terrible.

It's just you look around the mediocre quarterback play that's in this league, and if you're just going to straight up put Nick Mullins and Josh Dobbs right next to each other and go, who gives this team the best chance to win? You have to go with whatever you truly believe. And I don't know who they truly believe that is, but it does matter because that's the message to your team. That's how you can lose a locker room.

It's how you can not lose a locker room. Those type of decisions that sometimes are strictly based off of business, sometimes're politics, but the players feed into those decisions a lot inside that locker room too, of if they all have belief in Josh Dobbs right now and they want Josh Dobbs and all of a sudden KOC and Kweisi say, we're going Nick Mullins, you start a rift and you start a baby tear

and it just looks tiny, but that thing can really rip really fast if things go south and versus if you can kind of swallow your pride as a coach and as a front office and listen to your team if you have jefferson and addison and hawk and they're all like hey i kind of want to ride with dobbs man i think he gives us the best chance then that matters because koc's done a great job keeping this locker room together through the turmoil that has come through it'd be really hard for me to think that he's going to rip it apart now based off of who he starts at quarterback

and not listen to the leaders on his team. Folks, I hope you've enjoyed listening to us talk about prize picks this year. But if you've missed it, here's how it works. You go to prizepicks.com, and it is simple. You pick either more or less between two and six player stat projections and that's it now you're playing so if it's x number of yards for a quarterback you just decide are they going to throw for more or less than that number of yards but it works with lots of different options receiving yards touchdowns even field goals all sorts of sports as well

prizepicks.com slash purple. Go there. Use the code purple for the first deposit match up to $100. One of the reasons I like PrizePix, it is very simple to use. You'd see how we do it on the show real quick and easy. And then we talk about our picks and also not expensive either. You can turn $10 into $250 by nailing just a couple of picks so go to prizepicks.com slash purple the code purple daily fantasy sports made easy from a perspective of koc it would be very hard not to be really angry after what happened against

the yes you should have won against the broncos and then you Bears. You should have won against the Broncos, and then you come back. You should have won against the Bears. They gave you every opportunity to do it, and you just kept giving the football away. And Dobbs couldn't time out the offense. So even when they weren't throwing interceptions, if they were doing well otherwise, it would have been okay, actually, because the defense was able to hold Chicago to all those field goals

you still had every opportunity to win and didn't do it that's one where you walk in after the game and you know flip a table or something and say that was so frustrating I wanted to flip a table actually it was so frustrating to watch but there is a dynamic here with Kevin O'Connell and this locker room, and I think his perception as well with Vikings fans, which is starting to slip a little bit in the last two weeks. Now, this is where I do not ride this roller coaster. I feel the same way that I've always felt about Kevin O'Connell. I do not think we should start putting him next to Bill Belichick in the Hall of Fame

because you got to win. You got to win some playoff games and so forth. I feel very steady with where the organization is with Kevin O'Connell. And I think if Kirk Cousins was the quarterback right now, they would probably be seven and five or better. And look, I'm not going to judge every single minute detail of what a coach does when a backup quarterback is in there because everyone gets exposed when they don't have great quarterback play. However, I'd like you to speak more to the handling of this entire situation, whether it's the game plan or whether it's some of the in-game decision-making, the lack of aggressiveness, deciding to be super aggressive at one point and then not super aggressive at another point,

and now you have a quarterback decision on your hands. This seems like a five-game stretch that's really important for Kevin O'Connell. Yes, you nailed it. And it's really important not just for this season. It's really important for the coming seasons. We've got to see the best out of Kevin O'Connell this year right we've got to see the best out of kevin o'connell this year right we've got to see the best of how he managed with dobbs how he rallied this team together from when they were started the year off so poorly and now you get

to see how does he handle multiple internal decisions that can be really difficult to have how does he handle that as well as handling his on the field duties as well as handling the play calling like all of it is starting to compile on koc's plate and that's a really hard place to be as a head coach it's a really hard place to be because your time there's only 24 hours in a day right there's only so much time you can allocate to all of those decisions and this is where he needs to rely a little bit on his staff i think this is a big time where he needs to start learning the greatest head coaches are great delegators they're great at it right you see the guys that try and do too much i think back to bill o'brien down in houston right i'm the gm i'm the head coach i'm the this i'm that and it just eventually exploded up in his

face koc at times can go i'm the head ball coach everything comes into my plate and i have final say but you need to trust your coordinators you need to trust your positional guys, and really start to delegate some of that stuff, and focus on some of the bigger picture issues, which is right now the locker room. That is, if I'm listing out priorities of what the next five weeks look like from if I'm in KOC shoes, the number one thing I'm working out is the quarterback decision is going to affect the locker room. It just is, it always does. It's the focal point of your team. How do I manage that? Right. And then once I manage that, then the next point that I'm going to need to manage is how do I build a better game plan for whatever quarterback I put in there? Right. I know they

need to operate my offense and my scheme, but I have to be able to not do square pay ground hole. And I need to be able to morph and pivot and be able to work like that to give him in the best situation possible. And then all those things, if you start with those two issues, I think the rest of the issues of the, the figuring out the game day stuff, the clock management, the, the aggressiveness, the non-aggressiveness start to take care of itself a little bit, because when you see a coach that's aggressive, not aggressive, and all over the map, it's just a lack of trust in his play caller.

And play caller meaning the quarterback, right, the gunslinger. When you kind of bounce back and forth, it's because you don't have the trust, the full 100% trust in that quarterback to operate what you need done in that moment. And so as a play caller, you can kind of panic a little bit. And I think back to right after the fumble of the Justin Fields fumble right at the end of the fourth quarter, I was like, oh, well, Fields is worse than us, so therefore we're going to win this game.

Fantastic, right? And then you see a run and kind of a pass and then a run. It's like, what was your plan going into that moment? And I don't think KOC had one because Dobbs had thrown the football to the other team a lot you know there's just all these internal conflicts going on in koc's mind of like i don't know what to do here because i don't have full trust in my quarterback and in an in-game moment and when things are happening on a 42nd clock it causes a little bit of internal panic

which i did see from him for maybe the first time this year of like a true, like, whoa, you don't really know what's going on right now. Or like, you don't really have a beat or a pulse on what you want to do. And it ended up backfiring on him, you know?

And so I'll be curious to see how he grows from a coach and a play caller here, but he's got a lot of soul searching to do over these next bi-week to figure out how he wants to come back and be the leader of this team for the next five weeks. Here's another question. Is it a mistake to have revealed that they're considering moving Dobbs to the bench and someone else in? Or do you think that that's fine, that that's out there? I think it's fine.

You know, I think I don't think Dobbs came in here knowing that he was the guy. Right. I don't think Dobbs came in here knowing that he was the guy, right? And as we've seen with Ed Ingram, when you bring Dalton Reisner in, elevates his play a little bit. As you see when you bring other people into different positions, all of a sudden some guys start realizing, oh, I may be on the chopping block. I better get my – together, right? And I do think that he didn't say it in a manner of like,

F Josh Dobbs, he's gone. He basically was like, we'll reevaluate that position because we know we have to play better at that position. Any competitor that's ever played at any NFL, NBA, MLB, the highest level of any performance knows that if you don't perform, it's a what have you done for me lately league. No one cares what Josh Dobbs did against Atlanta. No one cares. That was great. It was fun to write about. It's fun to talk about the talking heads, all of that. Nobody in that building gives a crap about that right now. All they care about is what you did against the bears because you'd

said, what have you done for me lately league? How do you help my team win? And as a player, you understand that. And so I'm fine with that. I don't think Dobbs took offense to it. You know, it does leave something for us to talk about during bye week, which I'm totally cool with. But as far as internally, I think he probably expected it. I think he probably expected it. And I do think KOC went about it the right way. He didn't do the Mike Zimmer approach of like, well, I've seen him.

I've seen him for two weeks. He sucks, right? Like he did it from a respectful and from a point of view of, Hey, this is just me saying we have to get better at this position. And I had no issue with it. I agree with you. And I have seen the opposite side of that approach with case Keenum, of course, over multiple weeks talking about how case Keenum is just getting lucky.

And I mean, I don't know how we're doing it, man. I don't he's awful. I don't know how we're winning every week. And Mike Zimmer learned. Well, he never actually learned from that. But I learned a valuable lesson in my life that sometimes being right is not always the most important thing, I guess, there, because, of course, Mike Zimmer was right. Case Keenum did throw the bad interception in the Minneapolis Miracle game that, of course, Mike Zimmer was right. Case Keenum did throw the bad

interception in the Minneapolis miracle game that of course, everything else is forgotten. And then in Philadelphia, that one is not forgotten. Uh, that was brought back for a touchdown there. So, you know, uh, sorry to, to rip open that wound, but Mike Zimmer was right about that. And Kevin O'Connell is right about this, that Josh Dobbs is not a guy who's going to play in time perfectly with your offense. And I guess that's the other part of the Kevin O'Connell question is, should you not be trying to run your entire offense? I know it's hard to have this downfield complicated route concepts, deep digs and everything else going on and and all that and then just be like no actually we're going to run quick slants like that that's not how it works

it's not madden where you just like oh let me just get a new playbook that i could just call it like this is the offense that you implemented for all other 10 players on the football field at the same time when he's throwing it quickly, when he's not under pressure, he's doing okay. And, you know, at least by the grading, when he's not getting pressured, a lot of these dropbacks are deep and you have to sit in the pocket. And if there is pressure or if he does have to rush or if he does have to throw with anticipation, it's not always his best thing. It's like this was built for Kirk cousins. So there's a part of me that says, can we adjust this over the break? Not really is probably the answer though. And that, and that's the thing it's, it ends up being, and this is why

I asked you, what does it matter? Because it feels like you're in between a rock and a hard place here with whatever quarterback you play. Nick Mullins is going to throw interceptions because he can't put any heat on the football. Josh Dobbs is going to throw interceptions because he doesn't know your offense that good. And he's Josh Dobbs. And, you know, Jaron Hall's probably just not ready to play over a long stretch of football. And here you are trying to fight for a playoff spot. This is what happens when you lose your starting quarterback. And I think that Vikings history probably tinted the glasses a little purple with Josh Dobbs over the first couple of weeks. You're like,

Oh, Keenum, I just saw this. Or if you're, or if you're really old, you're like, Oh, Wade Wilson.

And if you're really, really old, you're like Joe cap. Like at any time there's this happening, but that also opens the door to the question. Is it good for them to make the playoffs or not? Because I read a mock draft this morning, and I'll tell you what I saw.

But go ahead. I saw one as well. I think it was Michael Penix at 20, I believe, was the one that I saw was old Michael Penix, the 25-year-old stallion out of Washington. He is pretty old. He's 25, dude. He's six years younger than me, and I've been out of Washington. He is pretty old. He's 25 dude. He's six years younger than me.

And I've been out of the leagues since 2019. We're going to have to dig up those old Hendon hooker jokes that we were making last year. You know, I saw one that's like, he's the same age as Trevor Lawrence, Lamar Jackson. And there was one other guy that like,

or almost all on second deals. I think he might, he might be older than Justin Jefferson. Yeah. But hey, if he can sling it, he can sling it, man. I guess. I don't know. He's not that high on my board. I'll say that.

I think he's a second round pick. I got to watch more and more of him. There is no mobility there. And there's also a lot of throws. Here's who I would draft is for any other team that needs a receiver is the wide receiver from washington uh romeo dunzey yeah uh he's good but anyway the point is just it it has to be asked is it better if this just kind of goes sideways the rest of the way because they absolutely can still make the playoffs but then you're not drafting very high and i think what we got was a cold splash of water of are you dangerous in the playoffs

probably not not not not if it's going to be like this not unless whoever your quarterback is goes crazy and you have to look at who will be playing against like i know we beat the niners i know we did and everyone's been like well we could like they have figured their life out right and there's a stat out there that i believe they're 20 and 2 when trent williams starts for them which is an insane stat right and it shows how much a difference maker like that guy can be but you know you start looking at the top end of the nfc it's like okay so the vikings squeak into the playoffs right they're right there they just they bump themselves into that last spot you're gonna go play the Eagles Dallas Niners like the elites of the NFC that are right now like is it worth that or and yeah the answer is yes as a player it's like oh duh we want to go to the playoffs right the answer is yes but from a

long-term perspective I don't know if the answer is yes like is from a long-term perspective, I don't know if the answer is yes. Is getting a better draft spot, even three or four spots better, better than going and getting smacked against a wild-card team? I don't know. It's hard for me to just be like, oh, they're going to go get smacked, but when you watch a performance like last Monday night, and then you watch the Eagles versus the Bills, and then you watch the Niners, and you watch the Cowboys, it's just a different speed of

football that is being played from those top level guys and i i i'm kind of in the camp of like let's just ride this thing out and if we win we win great but like let's not start making huge rash decisions of like this huge playoff push because we think we can make a run to the super bowl if we get in right i think that the making the playoffs would be about the vibes it would kind of be like seattle last year so seattle started out pretty well well geno smith you know and they feel like they're going in the right direction they were supposed to be really bad i mean i remember thinking that seattle after trading russell wilson was tanking and that they were going to have a top draft pick and they ended up making the playoffs. Now, if they had tanked and drafted CJ Stroud, Oh, nevermind. Nevermind. Nevermind.

Nevermind. Nevermind. Uh, instead they're a 500 team basically with Gino Smith as one usually is with the 16th best quarterback in the league. But anyhow, the point just being that people came out of last year feeling like Seattle is a really sound franchise they're in good shape going forward they got a really good roster and they're going to compete for years to come and they'll figure out the quarterback position as they go that would be how people feel about this Vikings team like hey you survived losing Kirk Cousins losing Justin Jefferson for half the season by the way they went five and two without Justin Jefferson yeah if the order was By the way, they went five and two without Justin Jefferson.

If the order was different, if they had won the last game before the bye week, but they lost a different one, you'd be like, wow, five and two. That's amazing. But instead it's like, this is horse bleep because they should have been, they would have won seven in a row. So that's always a funny thing too, is that if Josh Dobbs, his second start was bad, but his third start was good, then we would have said, well, he's getting it. And then instead it's like, no, he's regressing. Like, I don't know. We, we do this all the time with the order of what we just saw and how much

we overreact to it. Uh, so the playoffs would come along with Kevin O'Connell is, you know, survived all this stuff that happened to him. It's good for the future and everything else. Uh, if you lose five games in a row, you draft better, and everyone's going to hate each other. So there's like how much of a tradeoff do you care about that? But I'll tell you why I was thinking about this for not being better to make the playoffs is when I looked at this mock draft,

it wasn't the one that you saw. It was Dane Brugler has the Vikings drafting 20th and taking a defensive tackle. Well, I do think they need a defensive tackle who who was it do you remember i don't know it doesn't matter i saw a defensive tackle and i closed it out i just yeah no but but here's the problem he had of course kayle williams drake may and now jaylen daniels, who is no longer my diamond in the rough. He's but, and then nobody else in the first round, not bone Knicks,

not panics. Oh, he had McCarthy, which neither you are. Yeah, that's just stop. Nope. Nope.

No one draft McCarthy in the first round, please, please God. No, no, no, no, no,

no. Michigan. Jake Browning can go in the fourth round, but it's, uh, I can, I have their running back. Their running back is great. He's good for them.

Uh, yeah, that would be fine, but, uh, that maybe in the third round. So anyway, uh, the point being is they might look at this and I think Bo Nix has played really great this year. They might look at this and not have an option here. So that's the question though, is what happens now at quarterback? Like, does this, if they go to Mullins and he wins two out of these five games and they miss the playoffs, are we going back to Kirk? Because the way the draft is working out, like, all of a sudden, things started pointing back.

It was like, whoop, and back to Kirk Cousins we go. It's the devil we know is better than the devil. We don't right. And the more you look around the league and you look at man, so they hit on Bryce young and Anthony Richardson, but like we'll love us. He kind of sucks. It's got him in the second, right? Bryce young was the first overall pick. He's really struggling. And you look on the lead, like, is it, is it worth taking a first-round quarterback if we're not picking in the top 10? Like, is that worth the risk that comes with that?

Or is it better just to be like, hey, Kirk, we missed you. We love you, but we want you for cheap. And see if he bites, right? Like, I think that has to be along the lines of you can draft a quarterback in the second or the third and not feel like I have to start this dude right now if Kirk Cousins is still on your football team. If you don't sign Kirk Cousins back and you draft one of you in the second, he's going to start.

It's going to do the old, it's going to do the whoever we sign as some veteran backup is going to be like, it's his job. And then one game in, he's going to be bad and be like, no, we knew he was going to be the guy the whole time. It's the age old. We don't give it to rookies, but's his job, and then one game in, he's going to be mad and be like, no, we knew he was going to be the guy the whole time, right? I mean, it's the age old. Like, we don't give it to rookies, but we do give it to rookies. I think the longer, the more games we win, the higher likelihood of us signing Kirk Cousins back gets, right?

We win three out of the last five, four out of the last five, we're going to sign Kirk Cousins back because we're going to be in no position possible unless everyone's all on board the Josh Dobbs train again because he turns it around. But I just can't see a world in which we can forget the performances that we just saw from Josh Dobbs. And regardless of – I mean, he'd have to really light the world on fire

for me to be able to be like, okay, that was a fluke. That was a total fluke. But we saw it in Arizona this year. I think the more games we win higher likelihood, we sign Kirk cousins back and probably let Josh Dobbs walk, or we keep them here as a third and let them become battle with a rookie and kind of see how that goes. This show is being brought to you by better help folks.

The holidays are an exciting time for buying gifts and spending time with family, but you have to remember that sometimes the best gift is the one you can give yourself. If you're finding the holiday season tough on you, maybe the best gift is paying a little more attention to yourself, whether that's therapy or just finding time away from the holiday stress. If you are interested in getting someone on your side this December, you may want to check out BetterHelp. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapist anytime for no additional charge. In the season of giving, give yourself what you need with BetterHelp.

Visit betterhelp.com slash insider today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp.com slash insider. Folks, it's the holiday season again, and it is quite hectic. So let's admit it. It's not always very easy to eat nutritious meals. Well, I've got a solution for you. It's called Factor. It's America's number one ready-to-eat meal delivery service, which can help you feel up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with chef-prepared, dietician-approved, ready-to-eat meals delivered right to your door. You'll save time, eat well, and stay on track with your healthy lifestyle while tracking all of your holiday to-dos. Skip the stress of meal prepping over the holidays with Factor.

Choose from 35-plus weekly flavor-packed, fresh, never-frozen meals that support a healthy lifestyle and meet your meal preferences, all delivered right to you. And you can cook within two minutes. If you're looking for calorie conscious options over the holidays that also taste great, try the dietitian approved calorie smart meals with less or around 550 calories per serving. And if you need an extra boost to support your wellness goals and feel your best during the holidays, try Protein Plus Meals with 30 grams of protein or more per serving. Head to factormeals.com slash purple50.

Use the code purple50 to get 50% off. That's code purple50 at factormeals.com slash purple50. Go there today to get 50% off that's code purple 50 at factor meals.com slash purple 50. Go there today to get 50% off. I don't want to brand overly brand myself as the Dobbs defender, because like I, this has been from the moment they got them clear eyes on this. I am the one who started my career watching Ryan Fitzpatrick with Buffalo bills.

And he went five and two to start a season. And everybody thought he was going to be the franchise quarterback. They gave him, they actually gave him an extension after he started five and two, the middle of the season, which doesn't happen. They gave him an extension. And then we won one game the rest of the year.

And, and they went six and 10. Like I saw that happen. I saw the guy get that hot and that cold through a season. So that's, that's my comp for Josh Dobbs. It's like, he reminds me of Fitzpatrick where it could be wonderful and magical and everybody loves the guy and he's a genius, but there's limitations there. And there's a roller coaster there when it comes to Dobbs.

But to me, he played well for three games. I mean, that's, that's, that's the weird thing is you went two and two and he played well enough to win in three out of the four games. And if he played well enough to win even three out of the last five games, it's about the best you can ask for, but that wasn't really the discussion. It was really more about Kirk cousins. And I do feel like, uh, if they make the change and they go to Mullins, the momentum goes majorly in the favor, regardless of what happens for Kirk Cousins, because it doesn't seem like there's going to be quarterbacks outside of that, that top group. I also do think that there have been quarterbacks that are drafted outside of that top three, five, seven,

who have become very good. And, I mean, look, Mahomes and Josh Allen were not the number one picks. Can you trade up from 18 to the top 10? We've seen people do that if you were trying to get Jalen Daniels. And we've also seen Jalen Hurts turn into at least, whatever. People could debate how good he is. Lamar was, I mean, Dak Prescott was in the fourth. Like it happens.

It's the percentage of likelihood is way down. Yes. Way, way down. Yes. Yes. I agree with that. And they might be in a position to start trading all this draft capital because they have a lot of young pieces in place.

So this decision is not made. But I think the decision should be made right now already what you're going to do with that position rather than say, well, if Dobbs plays well, we make the playoffs, then we don't bring back Kirk or we will if he takes this price or whatever. To me, I've already seen that movie many times before and we're reacting to this Dobbs game. What about Kirk against Carolina just a few weeks ago? Like we've done this with Kirk many times. Just to point out how difficult it is to go week to week on quarterback evaluation. I think it should already be decided that it's going to be somebody else.

But I also feel like that's going to be a tough sell, particularly in that owner's box as well. If they're watching bad quarterback play and they're saying, we miss Kirk, Quasey, bring back Kirk. Yeah, that's the pressure of we miss Kirk. We miss winning games at home that we should win. It's one thing to go to Chicago and lose. That is, for whatever reason, I've played there multiple times. It's hard to win in Chicago. It just is.

But you don't expect that Chicago Bears team to come into your house in front of your friends on a Monday night football game and beat you the way they did. And those are the type of decisions. We talk about this in our agency a lot of when we're explaining to players like the hierarchy of fear in a front office. Right. The players are kind of wary and fearful of their position coaches of like getting them cut. Right. Position coaches scared of coordinators. Coordinators scared of head coaches. position coaches of like getting them cut right position coaches scared of coordinators coordinators scared of head coaches head coaches of the gms the gms are the

owners but what people fail to understand the owner's fear comes from the fans that's where their fear comes from that's where their realm of decision making comes from underneath them everyone's underlings but when it starts coming and they hear ticket sales are down jersey sales are down what's happening what's going on what is it josh dobbs what bring back kirk right like all those things kind of start to swell in their minds of how do we keep the fan base happy and everything going around here what am i reading on the internet and this that and the other thing that's where their decision come down and at the end of the day they're the ones signing the checks and so if they put the pressure on the GM, he's going to have to do it.

And I do see a scenario in here where that is the exact case, where things really go awry here and they go back and they go crazy. I don't care what you got to do. Number eight needs to be back in purple next year. Which also is another order of operations thing, because if he had gotten hurt in Carolina playing the way he was or in Chicago uh I think the fine the final impression would just be different but he got hurt after two really great games of which he's played many times during his career and the results have been the

same but they could talk themselves into as we so often do on the show they could talk themselves into well our defense is fixed now and our defense is good now. And, and our, we've got this young roster and Addison's a star and all we need is Kirk to just, and then you end up in that same position that you've been in for a really long time where you talked yourself into all those things happening. And what we know is defense from year to year can be volatile. And part of it is like the quarterback schedule that they've played has been extremely easy since the very beginning of the season. And this, I'm not saying that Flores hasn't earned it. It's been great, but you've played Justin Fields twice and Tyson Bajent was mixed in. You got Jordan Love before he was figuring it out. You know, Russell

Wilson had a good game against you and he's not any good. So next year could be better. The opposing quarterback schedule could be harder. All those things that you're going to say, well, if everything's the same and then Kirk comes back, we'll be great. As you know, everything's not always the same. Let's finish up on love to see it, hate to see it. But first, why don't you just tell me how you think this plays out? How many wins do they end up with? to see it hates you but first why don't you just tell me how you think this plays out like how many

wins do they end up with i still think it's nine let's do i still think nine's my number i've stood i've stood fast on that number since pre-season i can't vary now i can't vary now i'm still gonna put my stamp on it's a nine win season steadily fast if you will is uh steadily yes fast yes isn't that funny like we pick nine at the beginning of the season thinking we know all the things that are going to happen and then all this crazy stuff happens it still ends up with nine it's like the whole history of the vikings right there in one season uh love to see it hate to see it let me just start with uh hate to see it feel free to close out a game, Buffalo Bills. Any old time now, at any point this season,

when Jim Nance and Tony Romo are doing a game or when it's on Sunday night or Monday night football, the Buffalo Bills botch every single one of those games, no matter what. Sometimes it's the refs. Sometimes it's Josh Allen throwing picks. Sometimes it's melting down on defense and allowing you know

game-winning drives sometimes the opposing kicker in the rain kicks it from 60 yards whatever it is a punt return for a touchdown earlier this year the buffalo bills are the strength of a super bowl team that cannot close out of the final moments of a game it's uh it is very sad and you hate to see it. Yeah, I mean, great game. What a game. I mean, from a fan's perspective, to watch that game was incredible. And to have Josh Allen outplay Jalen Hurts, straight up outplayed him. I mean, the bad interception there was tough. And then to watch them lose that football game, that hurt.

That one stung the soul. My hate to see it was I was at the Giants-Patriots game this weekend and just hated the whole thing. It was awful. It was raining. It was horrible. And to throw another on it, hate to see kickers missing 20-yard field goals for Bill

Belichick. That's never going to be a good morning meeting when you're a special teams guy in New England and you miss a game-winning field goal after and I don't know I kind of hate this kickers that before they get iced kick it anyways right like so like New York Giants go out there for the final game-winning field goal they blow a table boom timeout the guy snaps it kicks it goes to the uprights cool they go line back up snap it kick it wide left like i think that messes with kickers minds almost a little bit it's kind of

like the practice swing with when you're when you're golfing right like oh that was buttery right like that was buttery and then you step up and just like right to the ground like i don't know but i mean houston's kicker had the issue the new the patriots kicker had the issue. The Patriots kicker had the issue. But overall, that game was just not fun to watch. Yeah, at least the Vikings did not have the worst game of the week because that was the worst game of the week. So I actually looked this up because the Bills coach, Sean McDermott, tried icing Jake Elliott, who's just an absolute nails kicker. And of course it didn't work. And he wasted a timeout that he could have used with 20 seconds

left when they got the ball back, but then they didn't. And McDermott was getting criticized for that. But there's nothing to icing the kicker, just in general. Everyone who's tried to study it in a million different ways has never found anything it's probably just that that guy's a rookie kicker and stinks uh or just freaked out a little bit in in such a huge moment of his season uh that's sarcastic but i have to go with another hate to see it here i just just poor just poor, just poor Bryce, just, just poor Bryce Young. I, I think that Bryce Young can probably play national football league football, but having seen it against the Vikings and then watched his wide receiver catch the ball and hop out of bounds like a crazy person. Did you see this? He was going, Jonathan Mingo was going to the sideline. The ball's coming.

It's an easy catch and, and E you know, easy by NFL standards. For some reason, the man throws his feet out of bounds. It's incredible. That was a very solid throw on the move. And what were you doing? And so Frank Reich was a terrible fit for that operation. Their offensive line is painful to watch. They don't have any wide receivers. And an offense that has no motions, their screen game is brutal. They don't have a lot of play. I think they're 30th in play action, which of course is great for a rookie quarterback to have to sit and drop back all the time.

And I think it will ultimately work out better for them. At the same time, the owner just firing every coach who doesn't win right away is not a great sign. Actually though, I kind of have to agree that it was probably time to just fire Frank Reich. That roster's a mess. The whole situation's a mess. I don't see who would want to work there. And this is where you go. Is it the player? Is it the cert, the circumstance? And if Bryce young survives this,

I'll be very happy for him because this was just horrific. And don't, don't forget. No, the bears have your first round pick, right? Like, don't forget like that.

Number one, overall pick you may have is going to go right to Chicago. Right. And so that's another terrible thing. And I do feel bad for Bryce young because we're never going to know what he could be. And that's a sad thing to say about a quarterback in the NFL of, I don't know if we're ever going to see the potential of which he could be in

that situation. And it might take four years, but as we all know, the NFL doesn't give a lot of guys four years, right? If they have another really terrible year next year, maybe next year and they're picking early again, it might be like, well, maybe we need a new quarterback.

Maybe it's time to try a different trigger man. And that's not fair to Bryce Young, but that's what happens. Should have been worse in college, I guess. I don't know. But my love to see it is the potential chaos situation of the college football playoff. Like I am so here for it, right? I want to see a six, one loss teams and like who gets in, who doesn't, right? Like Michigan's going to dog stomp Iowa.

That's not going to be an issue. I don't know. Florida state gets past Louisville with no Jalen Travis, right? That's, that's a toughie for them. That quarterback looked rough against the Gators, right? And then you go down the list, Ohio State can Alabama knock off Georgia which they should have lost to Auburn but a great game right and there's so many of these situations where it's like all these one loss teams Oregon Washington like it's going to be complete chaos and I'm so here for it because there's going to be a very very upset fan base somewhere that they didn't get in, right? Like it's going to be like, well, how like, and then easily could play out where there's four undefeated teams, but I'm not rooting for that.

I want the chaos. I want it all. I want to burn it all down. I want to see just the picket fences on fire in the college game day world. I'm here for it. The other hate to see it might've been Auburn at the end of their game against Alabama, which could have booted Alabama out. But feel free to rush more than two at the quarterback.

That was a wild game. That was a very wild game. And also the announcers didn't know any rules at the end of the game. It was very weird. That was a strange one. But I will end with a love to see it is this is this weekend, my favorite Saturday of the year. The matchups that are coming up this week are just unbelievable.

Unbelievable in college football. I mean, including Georgia, Alabama, Oregon, Washington. I cannot wait for. And how many punts will be in Michigan? Iowa is. I mean, you know, I was going to make it. Don't say it. Don't say it.

Make it interesting. No, I'm throwing it out there. I think I think Michigan beats them by at least 17. I'm going to throw it out there that they can't score, dude. McCarthy can't score. You saw the game against Penn State, right? The game against Penn State with Michigan. They barely survived.

No. Harbaugh's back. Free Harbaugh. Harbaugh's back. Right. They're coming off a big emotional win. He's up there quoting Ted Lasso. Like, Harbaugh's back, baby.

They really need to dress a guy up on the sideline like he's in the FBI or whatever just just for the just for the joke just just to look at you know just to make fun of it but hey I I thought that uh love to see it was the Michigan coach after winning not like losing his mind and swearing on television a bunch of times again because I was like pray for Jenny Taft like he's gonna go insane on the sideline. How is your game, coach? Just a mute button in her other hand, just ready to like. Is it too much to tell Ohio State fans to just stop? Like, those people are lunatics.

There's nothing crazier than the college football fans, other than the Eagles. That's it. Yeah. It's the only NFL fan base. It's like a college. I'll end this with the hate to see it. The,

the Eagles fans, what they did to Jordan Phillips and Shaq Lawson on those guys from the bills is to be expected. And I have my rookie, my rookie from the giants. I was with his parents this weekend. I was like, listen,

don't go to Philly. They're like, what, what do you mean? I was like, watch it from home. It's trust me. It'll be a better experience for everyone involved. And as a foreign player, I now knowing what that place is,

only playing there twice, now knowing what that place is, I would play better and play freer knowing that my parents and my loved ones were not in the stands because that place is not nice. They're just mean they're mean they're violent they say things that are extremely hurtful and to have the back of my mind like my dad and mom and wife are somewhere up there like no it's just not a good place to go if you're an poison fan yeah there are still the uh horror stories from the nfc championship games from from players and their families and everything they went through in the stands so uh my dad got jumped on in the bathroom what's like yeah he was taking a piss and he had a he had a purple jersey on like i told him not to and some fan like body checked him into the urinal

yeah that's a no-no uh yeah that's pretty that's pretty rough well that there's a way to end the show uh boo eagles go by yeah there you have it anyway well we'll see what happens but the uh the content train will roll on uh during the bye week and then we'll have to find out we now have a quarterback controversy it's the first time really since 2017 we actually had a quarterback controversy so here we are jeremiah always great stuff and we will talk again very soon my friend see you next week