Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Are the Vikings one of the most interesting team this offseason?

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

Matthew Coller is joined by Mike Schopp of the Deep End podcast to discuss the NFL offseason and where the Vikings rank among the most interesting teams to watch this offseason. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TD Direct Investing offers live support. So whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with Mike Shope, WGR 550, ADP Chasing,

the Deep End Fantasy Football Podcast as well, and our final Underdog Fantasy show for now. And hopefully our friends at Underdog Fantasy will remain with us for next season and we'll keep on doing this. Are they pleased? Can you tell me anything about, uh, what kind of,

I haven't checked in. They are certainly pleased with how poorly I played this year, which is, uh, maybe me too, a good place to start, but I will say we had a lot of fun through this entire show and we're already in a league together drafting,

which we're going to talk about uh yes you can still be drafting into a league on underdog fantasy so you want to check that out still use that code purple though that works over there at underdog fantasy and we're going to break down our most interesting storylines of the off season from a fantasy and just regular football perspective and go from there so i do do want to start out, though, by telling you about my last second attempt of a pick them for the Super Bowl. I wanted to be unique. I wanted to be different.

And so an hour before kickoff, I said, let me throw in one more. We've struggled so much or especially me to hit any of these weird picks. And so here's what I went with in, I guess we could still call it the big game. Leo Chanel tackles. I went higher. Zach Bond tackles. I went higher.

Patrick Mahomes interceptions lower. And Travis Kelsey yards. I went higher. So you could tell I missed on a lot of those, but here was the shining pick that I got, right? Braden man, the punter, they had him a punt of higher than 54 and a half yards. And I thought there's no way they're going to be moving the ball. They're going to be on the other side of the chief's field. There's no way this guy even has room to punt the ball

55 yards. And you know what? His first punt, he boomed it and I'm watching it and I'm going, Oh no, there it goes. It's up in the air. How far is it going to go? 53 yards. So I nailed that one. And, uh, the chiefs guy got a lot of tackles naturally and no one else hit theirs. Patrick Mahomes, who never makes mistakes in games, never turns it over, doesn't take sacks, made all of them. That one was gone by the fourth drive of the entire game. And I know you were not shocked by the result. I think we said last week that if one team was going to blow out, the other was definitely Philly blowing out Kansas city. But I think it was the manner in which it happened. That was, that was shocking where it was so instant. It was like, Oh no,

Philly can move the ball with just no regard for human life. And Mahomes is, is instantly shook and Kansas city looks flat and they look slow and they look old and they can't run and just everything is over so very deflating very that game for the chiefs was sitting there all year they just needed to play somebody good like actually good and for me in buffalo and on the air here every day it really did bring into a sharper focus what the bills are and i know you don't want to do that after one game, but really we're watching the likes of the Raiders and the Panthers. And I even Denver just almost beat Kansas city all year, Houston,

a little bit of a push in the divisional round. I mean, they're bad. What, what is going on? And then they get to Buffalo and breeze offensively anyway, and then back to the, onto the super Bowl, Philadelphia, and it's no contest. And so, yeah, like I told you last week, my bet was Philadelphia big.

It's more annoying to be right and lose or not really win than to be wrong. When you're wrong, yeah, that happens. You know that's going to happen. We accept that. To be right, I put a lot of my Philadelphia stuff with unders in the game, and it became one of those Super Bowls where it was just like, you know, it was so over, and then you got points late, and that got me beat.

But I was not shocked by the game because Kansas City was kind of bad all year, for a good team anyway. And Philadelphia was everybody's – everybody decided consensus, like this is the best roster in the league. How many Chiefs would start for the Eagles? You know, all of that. And after the game, it became a fair question. You know, it was like one team was much better

we talked last week about Barkley at 16x to have the first 20 yard catch he didn't he did have one and he ended up going six for 40 with a long of 22 in receiving which is that was unusual for him ironic in a game where Philadelphia was so far ahead that a running back would get six catches. It's not like how they got the lead. That was the most, I guess, surprising thing about the game for me, Matthew, was how Philadelphia did it on offense. It wasn't just Barkley five, six yards before being touched.

It was Hurts. I mean, he was brilliant in this game. The first drive goes down on that pass interference penalty on A.J. Brown. That's a fourth and two where you might expect the Eagles to throw three tight ends behind Hertz and just push for the two yards. No, he throws up fade. I mean, it's not even a high percentage and it's perfect and Brown catches it. There's the penalty penalty but ended up being like an afterthought because they scored almost every other time they had the ball well uh Jalen Hurts I think in that game is going to get overlooked in the same way that maybe Brad Johnson was once

upon a time when he won the Super Bowl for Bay, because the defense's performance was so good. But if he isn't magical in that game, then it is a much closer game. I mean, if he struggles, they were shutting down Saquon Barkley, but he's great on the ground. He's got touchdown the field. We talk about ice in the veins of Jaden Daniels. How about ice in the veins of Jalen Hurts, who has now been in two Superbowls and been absolutely fantastic in both of them? And there was, as so often with quarterbacks like him, a bit of a, well, if you shut down Barkley and you turn Hurts into one dimensional and Jalen Hurts was like, OK, well, that sounds fine. And I'll just hit receiver after receiver after receiver. And it's always been frustrating to me that a guy that threw like, I don't know, 40 touchdowns and completed 70% of his passes in college and has had good passing numbers his whole career has always been treated like, hey, you just got to make him pass.

And he's done nothing but win, done nothing but had great passing numbers. And like, I don't know, that seems just fine with him if you have a good enough team around him and I think he's just one of the great quarterbacks in the league and he still probably won't get treated that way because their defense crushed Mahomes but I think if Mahomes had been good they still play toe-to-toe and he would have done it again and played at that same high level and I think that's probably the thing that was overlooked it's like yeah Jalen Hurts is capable of playing on a given day with any quarterback in the league, and he's got the weapons to do it. He has the system to do it.

He's got the line to do it, and he did, and he's a Super Bowl champion. But the thing I want to ask you about, though, is, okay, Philadelphia is this behemoth roster, right? And they barely survive against the rams but that was in the snow and it was weird and hertz got injured in the game and all that stuff the other two games that are under normal circumstances they just took a sledgehammer to their opponents some of the biggest whoopings we've ever seen combining an NFC championship and a Superbowl. 95 points.

Insane, right? There were so many teams in the league, the Vikings, the Bills, the Chiefs who had 13, 14, 15 wins. Like these seasons are great. A couple of years ago, Tennessee wins the AFC with 12 wins. Like they said, it's not even crazy for in a given year for a team to win a conference with 12 wins you win 13 whoa you had a Peyton Manning type of season what happened this year to have such flawed teams having these records and and I'll admit even myself in terms of the vikings strength was kind of fooled

by it i mean like a team gets to 14 how can i say that they're anything less than a behemoth and yet a lot of these teams just fell off and sort of showed themselves in the playoffs look guys i am just about at the age where i'm starting notice that hairline fading a little bit so if you're struggling with the same problem allow me to make a suggestion. Give HIMS a try. Try HIMS Hair Loss Solutions and you'll be joining the hundreds of thousands of subscribers who found their hair again. HIMS provides you with a convenient quality access to a range of hair loss treatments that work all from the comfort of your couch. Just answer a few questions and a medical provider will determine if treatment is right for you. And if prescribed, your treatment is sent directly to you with no shipping costs.

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Results vary based on studies of topical and oral, minoxidil and finasteride. Prescription products require an online consultation with healthcare provider and will determine if a prescription is appropriate. Restrictions apply. See website for details and important safety information. Great question.

I mean, Buffalo and Philadelphia, the two seeds combined for 27 wins uh i don't know there were not naturally just as many or more bad teams this year we talked about that a lot this season i don't think it was tanking like the giants scrambling if that's the right word, at quarterback, I don't think was tanking. Like, they paid their guy. They started in that direction. They were terrible. They cut him.

And then what's the difference after that? I don't think the Browns were tanking, per se. They paid Deshaun Watson. He was terrible. And then he got hurt. And it's kind of the same thing. Tennessee tried on Levis. They're sitting on the first overall pick. New England was bad, drafted May, waited on him. Teams do that. He looked good, but they won four games maybe. The Jets with Rodgers, I don't think they were planning to be bad, but they were. So it's probably random how

many in the Bills case, I had a tough time this year. You know, from our conversations, I had a tough time accepting that they were really good because they were getting all the turnover breaks and they fumbled eight times in their two their last two playoff games and recovered them all I had a tough time and they still lost one of the games like really accepting them as a great team and I don't think they were I don't think that was wrong Philadelphia was maybe Detroit was but they got hurt and couldn't hold up on defense. So I hate to, I feel like it's a cop-out answer, but I don't know that there was one particular reason for it. I think probably the league reverts to any given Sunday type thinking

and parody and all that stuff. I mean, the advantage that the great quarterbacks give teams is no secret, and that's still the case. I've always said, you know, for years, since we started living in this Josh Allen world and Mahomes and Burrow and Jackson and Hertz, these teams' worst seasons should be like nine wins, unless there's a quarterback injury. It should be Cincinnati this year, where they win eight or nine games because the defense is so bad and Burrow gets like MVP consideration just I think that's the worst a team with one of those guys should ever expect to be

but so many of the other ones Casey Buffalo Baltimore Philadelphia Detroit with a great roster of its own but you, you know, injuries. Minnesota with O'Connell and what they did, of course, huge seasons. So is there a reason for it? What do you think? Because I'm not sure I know if there was. I feel like most of it – if you think about the teams at the bottom, what were they trying to do? What were they supposed to do?

They lost their bets, you know, and there were injuries in there too. And then you get to, like, Thanksgiving and you're two and nine whatever yeah there was definitely uh part of it in my thinking that there was so many teams where it just went catastrophically wrong and a lot of them were on the vikings schedule in the AFC South. But there's two other thoughts I had. One is the middle of the league was also not impressive. The Houston Texans, I know the Bills lost to them, but the Vikings killed the Texans. The Texans were bad. That was not a good football team. They fired their offensive coordinator at the end of the year.

In the playoffs, they get a win. The Chargers were not a good team. And their quarterback played well enough to kind of keep them around. But chargers were not a good team and that their quarterback played well enough to kind of keep them around. But did anyone look at the chargers and go, Hey, everybody watch out. Like not really the middle teams. I thought were pretty mediocre Miami. They're playing two on half the games and Tyree kills, not getting the ball like he did anymore. And they're not all that particularly Pittsburgh perennially, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Tampa Bay is okay, but they're not that good. Like there's just a lot of those teams that

were in the middle that I think had the league not had so many bad teams probably would have looked even worse. And there would have been even more seven win types of seasons. The other thing I thought about was in the playoffs, like all these teams who made it and they had good enough superstars, the Josh Allen's, the Justin Jefferson's and so forth to beat up on the bad teams, the good coaching, uh, the, you know, the, the Kevin O'Connell's, but they had fatal flaws and Matt Lafleur at fatal flaws. Like the Vikings fatal flaw was they were missing their left tackle. Their interior offensive line was taped together with glue and they face the

best D line other than Philly in the NFL and their fatal flaw got them. Now I think people could be a little more forgiving of for Sam Darnold after watching it happen to my homes. But that's the same thing with my homes where it's like, everyone's talking about, Hey, Joe Tooney, what a hero moves out to left tackle and all respect to that man. That's impossible,

but you can get away with it with a Bill's defense. That was pretty darn flawed and was banged up and was missing their players. And then their top corner goes out right at the beginning of the game and everything. And so you have the flaw is they weren't that healthy. Philadelphia had no flaw and they were healthy. And a lot of times that's what it comes down to. Were they missing anyone? Like their whole roster from the beginning of the year is playing. And then these corners of theirs that they draft, they turn out to be great. And I think they had no fatal flaw. And it was kind of like that was the survivor at the end of this. But I think that those fatally flawed teams that maybe in the bills case, don't have a true number one receiver to lean on in big moments that you have Josh Allen,

like you're getting through playing most of the teams in the league just by doing that, but not when you get to that high of a level that that's my theory, but I don't know if that's right or not. You know, you will obviously acknowledge how thin the margins are. I mean, Kansas city Buffalo was a three point game. Like Kansas city was healthy too. They're just old and bad. And finally someone made them pay for it, which a lot of us really enjoyed that, um, that needed to happen last year was bad enough for it being a season where a team that was not the best team in the league won a championship. And then, you know, you start to, you give up on the regression stuff because it's just like,

all right, I surrender. Kansas City is immune to it. Then they go to this year and they played 12 one-score games and they went 12-0. Like, just stop. Okay, he's great. Coach is great. Still, nobody's impervious to the math. So Kansas City, Buffalo, I mean, the Bills have beaten the Chiefs

in the regular season four years in a row. That's pretty good. It's not the playoffs and no one cares. So they were healthy too. That's big. The bye week is so big. I mean, the Chiefs just got the best run out, one game away from just the best luck run out ever, maybe,

with all the – they beat bad teams by three points week after week because of some big mistake those teams made at the end. They just like a marathon runner gasping for breath, getting to the line, and they still win the race barely. Okay, we can take week 18 off. Then we get a bye. Then we get the Texans at home. Come on. And then Andy Reid goes to the lab and comes up with a couple of things

the Bills had never seen before. Offense, Mahomes running, defense, that last play, and they win. And, you know, we spent two weeks talking about their place in history. And then, I don't know, ADP chasing on Monday morning, Davis Maddock, my colleague, you know, a Chiefs fan, goes, will they be serious next year now and not have their first one of the you know a Chiefs fan goes will they be serious next year now and not have their first play of the Super Bowl be a pass to Juju Smith-Schuster and handing off to Kareem Hunt and Samaje Pirine and you know DeAndre Hopkins and Kelsey is at the root of that

because they're not to be blamed for sort of thinking let's try it again with Travis Kelsey, who's been this great playoff player and great player period, but he ran out of gas. That wasn't very much in the AFC Championship or the Super Bowl. And then Mahomes had no, other than worthy, like nowhere to go with the ball and no time to throw. So it is so fickle, and we love that. You know, it's fun to talk, to draw these conclusions about teams and here,

but then you look and go like, well, they had seven games end by three points and they won six or seven of them. Like, are they actually good? You've been through this with the Vikings and you know what usually tends to happen in the end, which is the math wins. Yeah, it does. Most of the time with the

one score games, that's something that has struck me that it's going to like, it's not going away. The one score game thing, because the league has gotten closer in terms of a week to week thing, which is funny because it's gotten farther away. It seems from those more bad teams than ever more teams winning 13, 14 games. And yet they're setting records for one score games, which seems to conflict with each other. But, uh, that's something that is going to be kind of, uh, I feel like chasing your tail, trying to figure out what it means every year, because the sample sizes are so small that of course, of course you could flip heads 12 times in a row. But also if you look at Tom Brady's one score game record, um, it's really, really,

really good. So I do think that, uh, the gentleman at quarterback does shift that in a lot of ways, but not when you're talking about playing a roster that's twice as good as you. And, uh, but you know, to your point, they lose Rasheed Rice on a play where Patrick Mahomes accidentally tackles him. And just like the Vikings, they lose Christian Derrissaw. And through the season, we're going, well, it's okay. Cam Robinson's doing okay. And he's like filling that spot.

Christian Derrissaw is one of the five best players in the league at that position. It's a top three, most valuable position. Eventually that's going to show up. It's like the same problem with rishi rice eventually it's going to show up that they don't have this really really good wide receiver who was huge for them in the playoffs last year it's always probably though like minnesota if minnesota draws tampa or atlanta somehow in the first game you made the point already about what the rams were for that particular issue. Yes,

it's always probably. No, the very best quarterbacks, the best in history, shouldn't have to win only half of their close games, but they should also never win them all. And because there are other great players who are right there next to them. Brady and Manning, to me, Manning was better than Brady to me. Like, I can't be convinced otherwise. But, you know, yeah, close games, right. You're not – it's not a coin. It's not an actual quarter that you're flipping because there are – you know, one team is the better team in a lot of those games. But you shouldn't be able to win them all.

And the Chiefs did. And they finally ran up against somebody that was just better, and they got pounded. It didn't have to be a close game and it wasn't. And full credit to Philadelphia. I hope Hertz gets the credit he deserves for, for that performance because it was not a Barkley game and we shouldn't ignore that.

Well, as Bill Parcells said, no one can ever tell you, you couldn't do it. So that's what Jalen Hertz has going forward. It doesn't matter if people give him his credit or not. He's got the ring. Hopefully that's good enough for him personally right I mean some people need the rest of it yeah I mean it was so interesting watching him though I mean even

after the game when he's doing his interviews and he's just sort of doing the regular like there there has to be something to that with uh guys who just don't have that heartbeat. But to your point about the Chiefs too, it reminded me of when Dallas, who did they lose to? I think it was in the nineties, Dallas team, maybe lost to Jake Plummer or something in a playoff game, Arizona. It was like 97. They still had all those same guys, but it just wasn't the same because Emmett was getting older and Irvin was getting older and the just wasn't the same because Emmett was getting older and Irvin was getting

older and the line wasn't the same. And they're trying to have Dion Sanders play wide receiver all the time. And I know this is a super old reference, but it was this dynastic type of team that once the pieces corroded, they couldn't replace all those linemen and the stars just weren't as good. And Aikman had taken a lot of hits through the years and it just, that's, this is how it works. And there's always somebody on the rise after that. So I'm curious to see now, like, do they tape it back together or, cause I feel like their roster has a lot to go. They, how do you even do it? I mean, it's not even about the quarterback contract. It's about what do you even have when they have McDuffie

and they've got Rice coming back and Worthy, which will be good for them, a couple of linemen, and a lot of shrugs. Like Chris Jones is getting older. It's going to be a lot of work for them to get back to the top. Warning. I've got this condition where I don't feel pain you're a superhero this is how intense nova kane sounds

oh wow imagine how it looks yeah big time nova kane only in theaters march 14th you know if if we're going to get into what are the most interesting a couple of the most interesting things to look forward to from this offseason. They're up there. Exactly. And Rice will be suspended, and he's coming off a bad knee injury that you would never want to assume he's right when he comes back on the field. So in terms of our fantasy drafts, if I may, Rice is interesting because by the big weeks, if you're well-supported otherwise and you get the breaks, he's somebody who could be great for you

in December of next year. But it's not like they're going to have him for the whole season you know at 100 far from it it is a it's not an easy fix and there is a I agree with you there's a lot there will they get serious and not be you know okay well Kareem Hunt knows the system I mean Mahomes was the only player on the Chiefs to run for as many as 10 yards on Sunday. Pacheco, Hunt, Pirine, nobody got to 10. And they couldn't do anything there. So that's not great. And if you or I, I think, you know, we're probably mostly like-minded on this, ran the Chiefs.

We're not digging into the salary cap or anything like this. We're drafting 31st. Okay. That's typical. We think we need changes i mean i i think that's what's called for here how do they do it they still have to be a team that can appeal to the very best you know available stars in the league who want to move you know whether that's that's not me miles garrett in in the k City case, but Devontae Adams or somebody like that,

like they still probably can do that and be fine, you know, not necessarily win a championship, but be great. Remember about New England. So they won their third Super Bowl in 2004, 0-1, 0-3, 0-4. Then they did not win again for nine years with Belichick and Brady on the field. Brady missed one season to an injury in the middle,

but still, like, they went nine years there with the coach and quarterback that everybody wants, that everybody wants to think is like, you're all set, like the Chiefs have been and are because they have these two guys. Nine years. So it's hard to win. I would like, as a fan and not a Bills fan,

but as a fan and a fantasy player, to see the Chiefs, you know, sort of like splash some water on their face and be like, okay, well, we did the best we could. Hollywood Brown off an injury, Juju, come on. Kelsey got old, Hunt, all the things we've said already. Now it's time to rejuvenate this, and Worthy is a great place to start. You know, they have him anyway. He, I was on the clock in one of these big board drafts on Sunday

during the game with a couple of my friends who've won a lot of money playing fantasy football, and I'm up. It's late in the Super Bowl. I'm like, hmm, what are my options here? Kind of want a receiver. The bomb to Worthy happens right toward the end of the game, and my buddy Nick goes, why don't you just take him?

Forget the ADP and forget the – what's that? Why don't you just take this super fast wide receiver one on Kansas city who in his rookie season proved he can do a lot. So I did. I'm that smart. And I don't know what Rice's status is going to be, but him and worthy is a good place to start. But I think they need Travis Kelsey to retire because so much of Patrick Mahomes is targeting

Travis Kelsey. And what I saw this year was a guy who just was not that player anymore. And even in the super bowl, and I know it would have been a very difficult catch, but there's a third down when they're down, I don't know, 10, nothing or something.

And you feel like, well, this is when they can start to get going and he throws it a little low, which he's done a hundred times. Yeah. And Kelsey just couldn't bend to go get it. And it was like, that's it. That's the moment you sort of go.

I don't think he really, I just don't think it's there anymore for Travis Kelsey. It happens fast. You get into your mid thirties in the NFL and any of those seasons, it could just be over for you. And I think that was the moment for me where I thought Kelsey just can't be that guy. And he will continue to treat Kelsey as that guy until he's not there anymore, which is kind of the problem for even this season and Smith Schuster. I mean, he's been done for a long time. Hollywood Brown never stays healthy. The running backs were horrendous. Uh, you know, I think that that would be my start for them.

Cause I think their defense is good enough. They weren't in the super bowl, but I think it's got a lot of pieces there to work with and a great DC, but you just can't have one weapon and he's a rookie and everybody else just can't really make a play. And if you're going to play yards after catch, you can't have one guy who could get yards after catch. But then here we are like ripping the team apart that was in the Superbowl. That's how it felt with the Vikings. Like they won 14 games, but like they did everything wrong. Didn't they?

Well, at least Minnesota had the season it had in a great division. And like I said, I think the Packers are the bills in a better division. You know, like the AFC East completely fell apart. The Bills were not tested and they had the thing wrapped up literally like by December 1st. So, you know, nice for them. But NFC North this year was was hard. And Green Bay, Green Bay, Minnesota is close. But Green Bay is my favorite Super Bowl bet for next year right now because they're 20-1.

Betting the favorites is boring. We don't want to do that. But 20-1 for a team good at quarterback, good at coach, a lot right. Maybe the division isn't the same, and they get the right breaks. I mean, they just – having to go to Philadelphia in the first round, that was the game, wasn't it? Green Bay, Philadelphia. Like, tough racket to win as many games as the Packers did,

but they could not win those divisional games that mattered. And, you know, that's a tough run out for them. So I like how they look for the price going into next year, by the way. It's also not unrealistic that they could be at the top of the list for a player like Miles Garrett or even just some of the top free agents. This is something that we're dealing with with the Vikings where it's like, well, we just get this guy and we get that guy and we get that guy from free agency. And then we win all the games.

Like, oh, there's also a lot of other teams like washington detroit can spend money which is crazy but they can they're in their window and the green bay packers the same thing they could spend some money here they could make a move here and these teams also have more draft capital than the vikings which is what i was going to ask is where would you put them as far as if you were ranking the most interesting offseason teams? Because a quarterback decision, along with when you look at the defense, they have two safeties that could be gone. All their corners are free agents. We don't know what's happening in the backfield.

The interior offensive line, the interior defensive line need to be taken care of for a 14 win team there's a lot there in terms of things that they have to either get back or completely overhaul and that's after they make the decision at quarterback which by the way every insider for what it's worth they have not been good on this team overall. Their historical records since Kwesi Adafo-Menta took over. I mean, just add that. Every insider, including recently Jason LaConfora, has said it's very possible Sam Darnold's back.

So we really don't know what's going to happen there. Well, you know how this works. It's fine to point that out, but you know how this works. Minnesota holds the cards. So they want you to think what these guys are saying, and that's why they're saying it. You know, and it's always like a little bit couched, right? It's not an actual prediction.

This could happen over here. So I think he's gone, but we'll see. I think it makes the most sense. The good news, the relative good news about having holes or issues on defense is that it's defense. So it's only defense, right? Like we'll figure it out. I think it seems like this year for free agency,

there's more to offer on defense than offense. Running back is down bad. Receiver is close. Everybody's old on the receiver list. And I don't know that you have 10 Amari Coopers and Stefan Diggs were like Hopkins, like, is there anything left?

So maybe defensively you can spend some money and get there. And so whether that's Minnesota or through the draft, I'm not too worried about it. You know, I don't know what's going to happen. You say you don't either. We don't know what's going to happen. For me, Darnold is a Raider. That's what I think.

And as far as, like, how interesting the Vikings are or how excited you can get, I think you can get very excited because there's a chance McCarthy is like as good right away. There is with what O'Connell has proven and an extra year to learn. He can't, you know, wasn't able to play, which isn't – that's something. But there's a chance. We saw Knicks and even Pennix a little bit kind of show toward the end of the season. I think you can be optimistic.

I don't think you have to be afraid of the future with McCarthy. I mean, he's a high first-round pick. There were issues about him coming out because he really never had to throw the ball for Michigan. But what you got in the preseason was very promising. And I mean, I think Minnesota could be just as good with him 2025 as they just were. And so I'd get what I can for Darnold,

tag him and trade him, whatever that is, and go embrace your future. I'm still leaning that way. The only thing that we don't know is we don't have the athletic trainer giving us the reports on where JJ McCarthy's recovery actually is. Because even when a guy tears an ACL the year before and has to come back, there's often some issues that go along with that in recovery. And if there's any setbacks and then they don't fully participate in things and it sets it behind. And if he's been set behind at all, like they haven't been coming out and telling us every day, well, here's actually video of what he's been doing and how he's been looking.

So I've always been leaving the door open for that. And I just know from being around Kevin O'Connell for the last three years, it, there is nothing more important to him than doing right by his developing quarterbacks, just, just all quarterbacks, actually. I mean, he brought in Daniel Jones just to, cause he thought it was a good situation for him and maybe to have him as a backup for the following season and help him along in his career. Like it, it matters a lot and he'll go down one of his quotes. If he writes a book or whatever, someday it'll be teams fail quarterbacks more than quarterbacks fail teams. And I think for him, he really deeply does not want to fail JJ McCarthy. And if that means more patient, and that's why I've left the door open. I'm not saying I guarantee that they're bringing Darnold back. Why I leave the door open

for the potential is I think that he does not want to fail JJ McCarthy by putting him in if he's not physically ready. And you kind of alluded to it about the bi-week at the end of the season, this 17 games. Now that we have actually seen it in play, it feels like eight more games than 16. I don't know why that is, but the attrition that these guys go through an entire season, that bi-week the teams can have, or if they could sit starters at the end of the season, remember the Rams sat the starters, the Vikings went to Detroit and got whooped. That is just a totally different world. And so I think about that with a McCarthy, you're spending your entire February, March, April, putting the weight back on learning how to drop back again, all these things. And then,

Hey, it's OTAs and it's mini camp. And then right around the corner, you got to be ready to play 17 games and get your ass kicked by the best defensive lines in the league and i don't know you i'm sure you haven't looked at the vikings opponents next year but they play just start naming the best edge rushers in the league they play all of them they play tj watt they play miles garrett where i mean he's for now right now and for now they play micah parsons they play they play aiden hutchinson they've like everybody so that's why I've kept the door open and I think it's like philosophically right to go to McCarthy and spend the cap space and all that but I can see this other side of it that people don't really want to hear that could be an argument for patience yeah imagine if i mean i think a lot of these situations like

their poker hands and the rams bet in week 17 or week 18 i guess was pretty bold like we could have the three seed but we don't care it's more important to us to have our guys rested and they won that bet even without cooper cup making any difference. They lost the Week 18 game. They fell to the four seed. Yeah, they played Minnesota, a team they'd beaten. And they'd also played Detroit to overtime and played them in the playoffs last year. Like, we'll just get what we get, and we'll do that. Every setup is different.

They knew they would be at home. You could make the other argument. That's what they chose. Imagine if Minnesota, I'm not saying they should have, did the same thing in week 18. I thought about it, yeah. Detroit's too good. Well, you're not going to say that, but great opponent.

We're better off. We could give our best game here and lose. We're better off, you know, sort of of settling in and you can't assume the Rams could have been Tampa but you know you already played the Rams knew what that was I mean would that would anybody say that's what they should have done it would have been highly criticized of course if the Rams had lost to Minnesota it would have been highly criticized but just like when you go forward on fourth and three and make it, nobody ever talks about it again.

So no one will ever talk about again what the Rams won by doing that. It's just like if they had lost, it would have been really seen as really stupid. So there's a slightly different version of this that I thought about because you're playing for the number one seed. They had played Detroit. They lost by four to Detroit the first time they faced them. You have to swing for the fences. But the version I thought of for this was Sam Darnold in Seattle

makes that incredible throw, Justin Jefferson. They win the game in Seattle. But had they lost that one, I don't think anyone would have really lost their mind. Like, well, you go into Seattle, they're a tough team, you lose that game. Actually, Seattle then makes the playoffs, I think, if that had happened

right then everything is different like this is how sort of delicate the spider webs are of the nfl because then you're they're making the playoffs and maybe not the rams instead the rams would have had to play week 18 they would have had or the right the rams would have had to play week 18 and the vikings would have had nothing to play for week 18 and then gone to Tampa fully healthy and played and played a very middling to me, Tampa Bay team, who they could be. And it's like, wait a minute. And then think about this whole thing. We're talking about Darnold and let's say instead they go to Tampa, they play fine. They win against Tampa. They go to Philly. They lose. We're all looking at Darnold like, wow, you know, you got them to 14 wins. You want to play off game. They

can't just move on. Right. Or 13 wins. They can't just move on. And now it's so fascinating to me how all those things are interconnected. It worked against Darnold so hard having such a great year. Like you go back, you, you, you rank the results you would change for Minnesota. Number one, beat Detroit in Week 18, get the bye, stay home, see what happens. Two, lose to Seattle would have been the second best different outcome for the Vikings this year than winning one of the Detroit games. It's so important to comprehend that kind of the randomness and the,

whatever that is in there when evaluating these things, it's so important to know that. I've even thought about if the Vikings had won nine games and missed the playoffs barely, then their quarterback decision would be very easy. Like, okay, Darnold was fine.

Thanks for the memories and we'll catch you later and I feel like they would have been widely praised as the team on the rise here they come as opposed to this team that completely disappointed everybody at the end of the season if they had won five fewer games it's a it's a goofy sport that way when we craft the narratives the way that we do uh Who else though for you is among your list of the most fascinating offseason teams? Well, a couple would be Washington, which is in a perfect position. They've got their quarterback, rookie deal, let's go spend, let's go win, new ownership. This year was a dream year. Wide receiver, Miles Garrett,

they're the betting favorite to be able to trade for him they could do it like they're well they're so well set up out of nowhere kind of that they're going to be interesting to watch in fantasy some of these receivers who are up or like a debo samuel or cooper cup who are looking for trades uh washington is going to be able to add somebody. And that should be really important to their offense. So them, I think on the downside, San Francisco is one. You know, speaking of Samuel, he's probably out of there. What they do with Purdy is one of the biggest questions of the offseason in the league is whether they're going to commit to him.

You know, it's like a Tua situation. He's all right. Is that what we want? And does that ever work out? Does that ever work out when you spend that money on a kind of mid? Well, maybe better than mid, but on a quarterback that's just not like on the elite level. So they're interesting for sure. And maybe the Bengals with Chase not even signed, but then probably losing Higgins, how they come out of it.

Like, if they pay Jamar Chase what he's worth, that's like unprecedented in their history. So could it not end up there somehow? And then what? Like, I don't know what's going to happen with Cincinnati. They're a mystery. And in fantasy, that's a really important one. Jamar Chase is going 101.

I mean, everybody's presuming he's back in Cincinnati. He led in all the big receiving categories. So what happens with the Bengals? Every team is interesting in its own way. And in fantasy, as we're drafting in this big board tournament, you're trying to take your best guess at what some of the results might be. And it's not easy, of course, to know this early. I would probably look at Detroit as maybe the most not talked about interesting team because we kind of just assume like they'll be back and

they'll be good and, you know, they'll be a contender again but they can spend they can buy they can go make some sort of big move and if you're them what they've carved out for themselves philly's the same way and i know philly's got a lot of young players but they you look at their salary cap situation they've also paid a lot of guys and pushed a lot of money down the road and if detroit they're going to get insanely expensive within the next maybe two to three years. And so if you're them, you're thinking, how can we get miles Garrett here? How can we sign every defensive tackle? They've been good at drafting. That's not something you can generally repeat, but I'm like, do they add another weapon? Do they

add another, like they have such a stacked roster, but this rare situation where you can actually add to that and they've got to be looking at Philly going, that's now the standard for us defensively and defensive line wise. And how much does that impact the Vikings? If they can go out and add two defensive linemen to go along with Aiden Hutchinson and a lay McNeil will come back. And then maybe they bring back Carlton Davis. They drafted a high corner, Terry and Arnold, who had flashes like they can be actually much better because now they've created this winning situation that people want to go to, and they're going to be willing to lay the cash down. And, uh, so how do they compete to try to reach that bar

of Philadelphia and Washington too? How funny is it that Washington went from like, you could not pay anybody to go to Washington to get me there. Where's magic Johnson. Right. And so as the Vikings go into this, this is sort of my warning to vikings fans when you make your free agent lists i want all these guys like there are teams that are more or just as compelling to me going to play with jayden daniels the whole league saw it you didn't sneak under the radar all the free agents all the agents said to their wide receivers you know it'd be great for you to go play with is jayden daniels you know it'd be great for you to go play defense for because they're going to be back in the nfc championship is washington so the competition to me that's the the number one thing there's a finite number of free agents who are difference makers i think that number is probably less than 15 and the there are five or six nfc teams who have money and who had a lot of wins last year who are going to be going after it.

And that arms race on March 13th, 15th is going to be something to behold. For sure. Max Crosby, another one. Oh, the trades. Yeah, the trades. Trades, right. Detroit also, speaking of looking at Philadelphia, Philadelphia went to the Super Bowl three seasons ago and both their coordinators walked for head coaching jobs. And they were all right last year, but they fell apart. And that happened to the Lions. The Lions had one of their coordinators leave for a head coaching job

for the first time since Don Shula left Detroit to become the head coach of the Baltimore Colts. This year they both did. That is exactly what happened to Philadelphia. And as good as their roster is, as everybody knows now, it was like the coach was seen as not safe and not even good. And like a matter of time maybe where they make that change, but they survived it and then thrived.

So that's the challenge for Detroit. They've got a lot of great players and they should be really good, but that won't count for nothing, their losses on the staff. So why don't we take a look before we wrap up on our final underdog fantasy show of the year? It's been so much fun. We started doing it all the way back. I think, uh,

one of our first recordings, I was at the joint practices in Cleveland. Boy, it, it goes by so quickly. Uh, there was JJ McCarthy told us about a quote from Jim Harbaugh. I'll try to remember it correctly.

He said something like the days are long, but the years are short. I was like, man, that doesn't make any sense. Wait a minute. Actually it does. It's sort of like a tree falls in the forest. You're like, I don't know. What do you mean? It doesn't make, wait, that is, that's something to think about. So anyway, it sounds like something Mike Tomlin might've said. Yeah. It's just, it's, it's

puzzling, but it also, I have that feeling all the time. Like, uh, wow. We're through the 2024 NFL season. I probably felt this way in 2014. Uh, so we're already drafted again, because why wouldn't we be you and I are in a league together and let's, uh, let's get up on the board here and take a look at it. So we're currently doing this and you are up on the clock. Yes. And I jumped out to a bold pick with number two overall here because I think that B. John Robinson is going to be a machine for Atlanta. I think they're going to commit to him even more than they did last year. But I also think that Michael Penix, he doesn't like to get sacked. He gets rid of that football, and he's going to give it to B. John Robinson.

And I also think with Saquon barkley who went right after because i had the number two pick chase went one i went robinson the reason i didn't pick barkley is because when a guy has more yards than anyone ever has in history that means his legs peddled him for more yards than anyone had in history and i worry about those legs for going back. Plus four playoff games. That's what I mean. I mean, he played way more games than anybody else. He's got the shortest recovery time. I thought B. John Robinson's been on a boat

for the last four weeks, just chilling, making sure he's good to go. So I went with him. Was I bold in picking B. John number two? Well, you know, it's not what everybody's doing, but it's not crazy. It's fine. I mean, I think it's a good argument.

And I also, I'm always, as we've talked about all year, I'm always shying away from older running backs, which is challenging this year because, or maybe perfect because Barkley is priced up so high and Derrick Henry, he goes in early round two here. If the offseason goes the way it's gone, I'm not going to have very much of either guy, because I'll always prefer younger.

I liked at five landing on Gibbs here, because I think Gibbs is the other running back with Barkley and Robinson that you could sell as the RB1 in the league. I mean, Gibbs had an incredible season with Montgomery there. And as we just talked about the Lions, I mean, I think probably that's mostly the same next year. He's still young. So I like drafting in these first few slots so far.

I think what you see, in my opinion, in the rest of the first round, Jefferson, Lamb, Nico Collins, St. Brown, Brian Thomas, neighbors, and I guess McConkie. McConkie seems early, but very flat. I mean, how would you rank – would 100 people rank those guys, those six players, you know, ever the same? It would be, you know, if you told me I got neighbors at like seven or something, I would think I could live with that.

And I wouldn't want any of the later running backs in that 7-8 range. So I'd love getting the five in this and getting Gibbs, even Puka. I mean, Puka doesn't go before Jefferson usually either. I think it's okay. So running back in those early slots, if you get Chase, you can do that. I'll draft enough that at 101, I'll be drafting different guys, you know, for as many times as I get it. Then getting the running back in the bag there early feels good because,

I mean, it falls off. And at receiver two, you can get buried. I like that you got JSN at 302, having started Bijan and then Hertz, because as always with underdog, the so-called wide receiver avalanche, as Pete Overzet would say, can bury you. And we'll see this year as it goes just how true that is. The whole point that we've talked about, about how if C.D. Lamb gets hurt, whoever is replacing C.D. Lamb is not giving you C.D. Lamb's production.

If Barkley gets hurt, pretty good chance whoever is replacing cd lamb is not giving you cd lambs production if barkley gets hurt pretty good chance whoever's replacing barkley is giving you something you know you can work with that's the difference between those two positions you just can't afford to get uh you know get caught at receiver so with that and i can make this pick with you if you want, at 4-0-8, I'm just looking at Gibbs, London, McBride. I would want a receiver here probably. And I will tell you as soon as it comes up here what my options look like. Rashi Rice is one. Pickens is another. and the best rookie receiver tet

mcmillan out of arizona then also roma dunzey would be options and also jameson williams who may be on a gibbs team is what i should do here and worthy did go worthy already is spiked by the way since the super bowl so he's gone early fourth. Jamison's a 1,000-yard receiver last year. I mean, it sort of happened quickly from a guy who was nothing in the first couple years, and then all of a sudden he was there. But I was thinking about how many receivers that I view as having probably just about the same production for next year.

There were only two guys that went over the same production for next year. There were only two guys that went over 1300 yards this year. I think it was 1300. And that is so unusual. I think that there were seven the year before that. And there was only Jefferson and Jamar chase. And I've been thinking about how these teams are throwing short passes and stuff all the time to these receivers. We're just not seeing quite as many go for those 1500 yard seasons. And so I think of like when I picked Jack Jackson Smith, the jig by thought, well, what's the difference between picking him and lad McConkie? Like, I don't know. I feel, and I picked them way later, but I feel just as good about him then. Oh, you're going with the rookie, uh, McMillan okay i was listening i was

listening yeah yeah yeah but i mean receiver is something i think about a lot where it's like i would rather get myself and this is why i went running back quarterback i think hertz is going to continue to score all the points in the tush push stuff but i would rather go running back and quarterback and try to get the top guys there because I just think so many receivers are bunched into this same second tier. So if you're not giving me Jefferson, you're not giving me chase. I think Nakua can be in that conversation. The only guy I would have maybe gone with was neighbors because I think they're going to just throw neighbors the ball every single play next year. Like Brian Dable is going to be trying to save his ass and that's what he's going to be doing. So I don't, I don't know. I think the receiver landscape is very interesting

and it's one of the reasons why maybe teams are willing to trade a Debo Samuel or it seems San Francisco was willing to trade IU last year because they're there. You can't replace Jefferson. You can't replace chase, but there, I think there are a lot of guys that you probably can with that second tier type of wide receiver. Yeah. Um, maybe I think you just got to make sure that you end up with four or five receivers. You can sort of believe in, you can tell yourself the proverbial story that these guys produce by like the ninth round by the eighth or ninth round that's what i think most people would say um i went with mcmillan i am very into rookies we've had those conversations too i think he's probably a top 15 pick but even if he goes later than that in in theory, he's going to a better team.

So I think there are teams there where he seems to be the clear best guy. I think Odunze is interesting there. Like you want to buy into the Ben Johnson thing in Chicago, just a brutal rookie year for efficiency, which I wouldn't blame him for. One thing for you with that Hurts pick, one thing that's tough about him is stacking him because A.J. Brown and Devontae Smith will be gone, and then what? So I have a team in the same tournament. Remember, you're playing in a tournament here, so you're really leaning into late season as best we can without knowing the schedule and giving yourself the most upside. It's going to be tough to have Hurts without Eagles weapons reach you that upside. And I don't know who that is, right?

Like without, if it's not one of those two guys, they've been such a narrow, whatever, tree, I guess, these last couple of years with Brown and Smith. There's Goddard, who I don't know, like all the contract status of everybody either, like whether he's still there or what that is. But try to find your way somehow on value to get some Eagles piece. And drafting the rookies, it's sort of a luck box, but then you can sort of luck into that. So the elite quarterback on ADP chasing on Monday, if anybody's interested,

we got deep into how so far this year they're going earlier. Allen, Hertz, Mahomes, or not Mahomes, Jackson and Daniels. Those are the top four. And whether or not you want to pay that high price for that. There's a good argument either way. Well, uh, you know, I was thinking about week 16 for the 2025 season when I was making that pick. So, um, who are they playing? Let's figure out the odds of each possible outcome there. I'm sure it's a, an NFC East team. So anyway, well, let me just say this, Mike. This is the most unique content that has been created in the Purple Insider Sphere.

Every week it was a very different space to get into and also, I think, to provide our audience with very different conversations than what we're having about injury reports and matchups with the Jaguars and so forth. And I found it to be incredibly refreshing at times when my brain was so into every next matchup. And we had, I think a lot of fun following this journey of an NFL season and you and I worked together for such a long time and WGR. And, uh, I, you don't realize how much I missed being on the air with you until here we are again, having a lot of interesting philosophical football, uh, conversation. So I appreciate you making time in your schedule every week to do this show with me. And I cannot thank underdog enough for sponsoring the show because they truly made it, uh, made it happen.

And so I, uh, I'm just very thankful for you and hopefully the audience enjoyed our shows together as much as I did. So thanks, Mike. I'm very touched by that. It was,

uh, I feel much the same as you did getting back together with you. Uh, cause we really never hosted together in Buffalo. So this was really fun and I'd love to do it again. Uh, if anybody came through this season, watching purple insider immersed in Vikings,

you know, content day after day and found themselves more interested in fantasy. You've been offering the underdog of the promo code purple every week. As you can see, there are drafts going now. It's all different sports too. And I mean, I don't work for them i guess indirectly i do and on the show with you but underdog has just become it when it comes to

fantasy and the idea that there'd be i mean the big board is probably 25 full already the idea that there'd be this much action for fantasy players before the Super Bowl was even played is insane. It tells you something about how popular it all is. Sorry, my camera. I must have left it on for too long, and it passed out there at the last moment. Okay, well, and now it's nowhere near on me, the backup camera. It's the opposite of hitting the fairway on 18 in the golf tournament. That'll bring you back. Here's the backup camera. This will bring you back. Yeah, here I am over there. Well, anyway,

how about that? You're, you're giving your thing and then the last moment and then the camera dies. So it would have been a good bit to just cut it, right? As I started the talk. Yep, goodbye. Well, anyway, yes. Still use that code purple, though, because it still counts for me. And I hope that we're doing it again next year. Obviously, we've got to talk with Underdog about that. But we will definitely connect again throughout the season.

And yeah, can't wait for that. So enjoy your off season, Mike. It's a, it's a little deflating when it's over, but the very, very soon the combine is right around the corner and all the news shows up and off we go again.

That's right. About a month away from that. So thank you, Matt. It's been great. Thanks Mike football.