Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Are the Vikings' playoff odds now good? And a game of What's That Stat Mean

Episode Date: November 16, 2021

Matthew Coller and former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Sirles discuss the Vikings "most complete win" against the Los Angeles Chargers and what it says about the state of the team. Kirk Cousins has some fascinating statistics with Pro Football Focus giving him high grades but his throws still not traveling downfield very often compared to his peers. Jeremiah analyzes the Vikings' chances to make the playoffs and discusses the idea that Mason Cole could stay in the lineup over Oli Udoh. Plus they talk about Jeremiah playing in the Vikings' first ever game at US Bank Stadium against Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

want to remind you before we start what's that sound you hear coming from the trenches it's former minnesota viking offensive lineman jeremiah searles it's time for the tuesday morning left guard show on purple insider they're too strong my dog you're too strong oh welcome to another episode of t Morning Left Guard here on Purple Insider with former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Searles. Jeremiah, I'm just waking up for my third nap of the day because West Coast time entirely screws up your entire life. So my body is messed up. My brain is like, what even time is it? We had the time change and then go to the West Coast. No one knows what's going on, but we are here, and I am excited to talk to you.

So how are you? I'm doing well. It's deer season here in Nebraska, so I spent about 30 hours in the tree last week and planning on another probably about 12 to 15 if I can't find my buck in the morning. So can't complain too much. Husker football's got a couple weeks left before we can wrap that dumpster fire of a season up and just keep pining along.

Now, did you, when you were playing, grind tape in the deer thing in the tree? Because Mike Zimmer said that he watches tape while he's up in the deer stand. I can believe it. I mean, when I was playing, no, because my off days were just for sleep. Like Zimmer doesn't need the physical recovery time that the players did.

But I've definitely, I mean, I'm watching tape right now when I'm in the stand. I'm working for the Husker game as I sit there and go through the Wisconsin tape and watch how their inside linebackers are just going to feast on us. But, you know, yeah try i try and get some work done send some emails send some texts while you're just kind of send a text look around send a text hope nothing walks by no dear dear not another email outside zone dear exactly i mean you're not really football until you're watching tape in the deer stand though i think that's like that puts you all the way up there.

I was going to ask you, there's a bunch of stuff I want to get to. I want to play a game called What's That Stat Mean? Trying to decide whether I should use a song for what that stat mean or something like that. But what is Mike Zimmer like when he's losing versus when he's winning? Because he was talking about just how miserable he is when he's losing versus when he's winning because he was talking about uh just how miserable he is when he's losing and then someone asked kirk cousins oh what's the difference or whatever and he says oh i don't know or not maybe it wasn't cousin maybe it was eric hendricks like oh i don't know

it's all the same like is it though is it all the same it's not all the same with us uh but i wondered just like he was in such a better mood today he answered the phone with deon sanders uh during the media call and put deon on you know speakerphone and all that stuff and it was just like mike you win yesterday i couldn't tell i mean mike was the guy when when you lost like you came in the next day and you'd like look around the corner before you went to the lunchroom like in the old facility you had to walk past all the coaches offices to get to the lunchroom and you'd literally like okay we're clear like you turn the corner look down like all right go go go go and like if you saw him come into like early morning breakfast and you

were like the only one there and you're like uh uh i'm gonna go down to my locker just scarf your food at the locker like a rat because you just he was going to talk to you about it. The dude just loves talking ball. Mike Zimmer loves talking ball, good, bad, or ugly. I'll never forget, we were at the Christmas party in 2016. We're enjoying it. I'm there with my wife, and we're just hanging out. He comes up and sits down next to me.

He's like, what were you doing on that one rep in 9-on-7? I was like, what? He's like, that one rep in in nine on seven i was like uh what he's like that one rep in nine on seven today that was just bad i was like yeah i i don't know like it's just he just eat it so like you can imagine like a guy like that that lives ball like when it's not going well his whole life is just in a spiral and then when it does go well like everything's like oh hunky dory which is again why i never want to coach like i've never met a coach that's just continuously happy all the time like they just live in these ups and downs and it's just it's not healthy it's not good

for you i was just saying this uh to my wife after the game it's's like when you lose, you are Owen 17. And when you win, you are 17 and oh, and they are fitting the rings. It's just like every, every you did, you won by seven points, but you did everything right.

Everyone was super smart. And we try not to be that way on this show, but it's so like when you watch TV or you read Twitter or anything else, just like all, all these young players, they drafted all going to be stars after yesterday, just locks for superstardom these young players they drafted, all going to be stars after yesterday. Just locks for superstardom.

And when they lose, it's every single player had the worst game of all time. And like I said, we try to balance that out, and we'll look at some stats. I'll give you my favorite Zimmer one. So on this Zoom call, I joked with Zimmer and asked him, like, who's your best person in your cell phone? Who's the most famous person in your cell phone? which I want to know that from you as well. Because Sage Rosenfels has played that with me before. And I think it's Justin Timberlake is the most famous in his cell phone. That's pretty good poll.

That's pretty solid. Yeah. He said he played golf with Timberlake or something. I don't know. Who knows journeyman quarterbacks, but so I, I joked around with Zimmer a little bit and I got a few texts from people like, Oh, you can joke around with Zimmer. And it reminded me that we used to be able to and we would get them on the side sessions before COVID and all that sort of stuff.

And to demonstrate Mike Zimmer's footballiness, I said to him once, hey, you know, on Madden, I never punt and it works out great for me. And he said, look, I don't play any of those video games like Game of Thrones. I love that. That is phenomenal. Yeah. Dude, I'm telling you, he's the guy that he's going to be the Joe pot. Like the day he stops coaching, like one week later, he just his brain. His brain has like no reason to go on function. Like, it's like why am

i not breaking down offenses right now like why aren't we talking about coverages and blitz packages like he just needs it like it's just lifeblood for that guy okay who's the most famous person in your phone most famous guy on my phone probably post malone i think i think how did you get that alone so i ended up meeting him through Marshmello, who's another DJ who's also in my film, meeting them at the Super Bowl party. I have a picture on my phone of me doing beer bongs with Post Malone behind the stage at the Preakness.

And then he came and performed in Carolina when I was there, and I took the whole Carolina team, like me, Cam Newton, Trey Turner, Chris McCaffrey, and we all were ripping a bunch of bud lights with Post Malone so he's probably the most famous one of my phone that's good I mean that's pretty impressive because it's not just you got his number randomly but you actually like hung out with David to me like we hung out multiple occasions that I would not have guessed that strange human being i got that impression i'll tell you this we were at preakness 2018 i think it was and we're talking and all of a sudden i look over and it's post malone bill belichick brett bielma and and bill belichick's wife

standing in a circle and i was like what could you for possibly be talking about maybe post malone grinds the tape and i just feel like we don't know his dad like owns part of the cowboys oh really it's dude i'm telling you he's such a fascinating individual this has gone in places that i didn't expect already we We're seven minutes in, just coming in hot. Okay, so I want to play this game with you about what's this stat mean. But first, I want to just get your overall thoughts on where they are now. They're four and five.

They are, again, getting the Lombardi trophy ready to bring it down Nicolette because that's how it feels this week, as if they turned a corner here with something. They've discovered something with their approach in going to Jefferson more often as they should have been doing, and we talked about that several weeks in a row. But give me the reasoned take on what it means

to have beat the Los Angeles Chargers. You know, I've watched the Chargers from the beginning part of the year. I was like, holy cow, Chargers are going to make an afc championship run like they were just clicking on all cylinders but i think it goes to show you that when you get more tape on herbert the smart defensive coordinators are figuring out how to stop him and you eliminate his big threat ability with mike williams going down the field you make him go 80 on you he's gonna make a mistake like he's proven to either not throwing it like throwing interception or take a bad sack or like you make him go 80 on you he's gonna make a mistake like he's proven to either not throwing it like throwing interception or take a bad sack or like you make him especially young quarterbacks go

distance on you and so watching that game plan i thought that zimmer called a really good defensive game like i thought defensively probably the best defensive game he's called this year and just the mixing up of coverages the mixing up of blitz packages sending guys from all over the place where they never really got a beat on it they never really understood and then obviously they got the takeaways which really helps too then you flip it over onto offense and that's a pretty good front i mean they got our guy linville up there who and they had some success but what i loved is we really stuck to what was working for us in the running game like we we didn't try and

get cute we didn't try and do too much we just hey this this lining up in the eye formation this run in the split zone lead it's working for us let's keep going keep going and hey we run play auction off the exact same set it looks exactly the same and things are open i thought that they simplified some of the game plan but i also think that they executed the game plan really well and there's a reason to be happy i think it's the most complete game that the vikings have played this year i mean in all phases yeah i agree with that that if it had looked like a fluky type of thing a bounce here bounce there whatever blocked field goes something random you would have kind of gone like i I don't know. Uh, but they earned

the win. They outplayed the chargers. They outcoached the chargers, their playmakers and superstars made plays Kendricks with the interception Jefferson with the big catches Adam Thielen with the big catch at the end, Delvin cook with the big run and Kirk cousins made a number of very, very, very good throws in this game. And the offensive line struggled a bit, which we'll get into. And the defense, it wasn't like anyone had this unbelievable performance, but it was more of an altogether type of thing where they executed what Zimmer was asking him to do. And then I think you just saw an example of one coach is better than the other. And it's amazing to me how often that we are willing to, as Denny Green once said,

crown them when it comes to anybody young and cute looking who comes out in front of the media and gives the slightest analytical sounding take. And that these people who cover the NFL, oh my gosh, Brandon Staley is just the best. Can you believe how forward thinking and everything else? I even had the reporter on the show last week. He's a great guest, really smart guy, great writer. And he was talking about like, oh yeah, they're very forward thinking everything else. They didn't look like it in this game and got just thoroughly outcoached. And this is what you often see happen with Mike Zimmer and Kirk Cousins the same way

that if a defense is not sharp he'll take advantage and Mike Zimmer if an offense or a quarterback has a weakness he's going to find it and I thought that and not only that but his clock management and decision making was just better than Brandon Staley and you can win football games that way I mean I think sometimes these I mean what was it two years ago was like anyone that shook hands with mcveigh was getting a head coaching job yes like it it almost seems like sometimes these young cats come in and feel like we have to reinvent the wheel and it happens in college too like it's happening in nebraska right now it's like dude just run what you've always run like you try and out cute yourself and you out scheme yourself when if you look at what the most

efficient run for the minnesota vikings was it was literally just inside zone cut the back side like and dalvin cook would press it front side the linebacker would start to overrun over the top he put his foot in the ground and he'd come back because the tight end kicked out the defensive end six yards eight yards six yards eight yards break the long one right and i think that when you talk about the old school coaches they understand that a little bit more and it's almost like these new era coaches feel like they have to be forward thinking they have to be trendy because that's what they got hired for yes and that's just really not the case i mean football is football like you can you can call you can call it a million different things but the end

of the day it's all still the same concepts it's the same route combinations the same run combinations how you window dress it doesn't always necessarily make it better and this is a point that i'll continue to make about mike zimmer that i think the people who want a coaching change have a very reasonable argument and there have been times throughout this year that he seemed a little bit behind and not as sharp when it comes to decision making he got out coached the week before by John Harbaugh, John Harbaugh's team didn't play as well as his team. And the Ravens came out with a win because I thought that Harbaugh made the

better decisions in part was one of the reasons that they won. And you know, does he hold back the offense with philosophy and stuff like that? All those things underachieving over the last four years as a whole, since 2017, all those things are fair, but then last four years as a whole since 2017, all those things are fair. But then there are games like this where you go, but the man can coach football. And there are a lot of people that they think, oh, this guy, he's going to take us to the next level.

You know, you're Joe Judge, you're Matt Patricia, you're whatever, whatever. That don't always change the franchise the way people think now that's not to say that they don't because sean mcdermott did in buffalo um but man they were crowning brandon staley earlier this year as if he was just the best thing that has ever happened to the nfl and i thought it was like all right there does need to be a little break pumping after a really well coach game there and the other piece too is these old head coaches know how to be a little break pumping after a really well coached game there. And the other piece, too, is these old head coaches know how to watch a young coach and see what he's doing wrong. And they're not going to publicly come out and say it, right? Like Mike Zimmer's not going to be like, oh, here's what Staley's doing, and I know how I'm going to beat it.

Like he knows that. He knows like, okay, this coach hasn't been through the ringer like I have. He hasn't seen all the things that I've seen. And I come through, and it's the argument the grass is always greener right like everyone it's the same with the quarterback and as much as we whine about cousins sometimes like we could be we could be stuck with Joe Flacco right I mean how terrible did he look yesterday and and you just you kind of look at it like as much as sometimes we want Kirk to be better and we talked about on the show last week in depth like he is who he is he's better than a lot of the other guys in the league at times.

And I think that it's okay to be critical of coaches and say, hey, yeah, we need to be better there. But you got to look around the league and go, where does he rank? Like, I think Zimmer's top 15, top 10, maybe. Maybe cracking the top 10 of coaches in the NFL when he's on his best. Like when he's at his best and maybe when he's at his worst he's at 16 17 but it's not like Freddy Kitchen's bad right like it's not like hey he's 32 and he's also 32 and he's good and he's bad like and I think that's something we have to keep in mind as we watch these Vikings football games and I made the argument if you recall I wanted to keep him if

I got to keep out of the three of Spielman, Kirk, and Zimmer. I argued Zimmer. Yes, I got emails. But I have agreed with you on this opinion. I mean, that's – but then, you know, okay, so let me get to some of these interesting stats because some of them pertain to Kirk Cousins. And really interesting that yesterday the theme was aggression. And the big – there were some big plays that were aggressive, but Sam actually pointed this out to me. I guess it sort of went, Oh yeah, I guess

that's right. There were only three passes over 20 yards in that game. It was that two of them hit and they were big plays. And there was another one that went 18. That was a really great throw by cousins as well. And so here's the first that I want you to work with is there is one quarterback in the NFL who has a lower average depth of target. So how far down the football field he's hocking it. And that is Jared golf is the only one who's throwing shorter passes on average than Kirk cousins. Uh, and he has one of the highest PFF grades, but those things are tied together. Like if you're not taking the risks, you're not going to have the negative plays.

And so my question is for you about this statistic is, do we think that anything will change going forward in terms of this aggressiveness that Zimmer is pushing? If the bigger sample on the season is he has been as conservative with the football as Jared Goff. My argument for that would be I think that the weapons that he has are better than Jared Goff. Oh, no question.

Meaning a 10-yard slant route to Justin Jefferson that goes for 18 is more of something I'd want more of than Jared Goff throwing it to who knows. Who knows? At least they're keeping it in the division. But I do think that the more the run game starts to come alive, the deeper those shots. Again, we've talked about that. The offensive line is not built to protect for the deep shot.

Yeah, the deep shots have to come off of the play action. They have to come out of the move the pockets. They have to come out of the max protect three-man routes type of things. And so I do think with the explosiveness that we showed this last week with jefferson with feeling getting those guys it's going to cause teams to have to back off a little bit on the back end safeties aren't going to be able to sit at nine or ten they're gonna have to stay at 12 to 14 because of jefferson and feeling if we continue this route which then allows to open up the run game and i think the more the run game gets opened up the deeper the shots will come but the problem is I don't know how we answer it when the run game gets stopped yeah and that is where you'll run

into the issues of I don't think we will keep throwing it down the field if we aren't running the football then you see the dink and dunks to CJ Hamm you see the dink and dunks to Conklin and that becomes the run game essentially. And that's where that completion thing really starts to come down because that essentially turns into the run game. Sam Ekstrom here wondering if you're stuck on your company's injury report. In an unfortunate situation like that, it's good to have someone in your corner. That's where Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer Law can help you understand your rights under Minnesota's workers' compensation laws. There's enough uncertainty in our lives nowadays that the last thing you want is to feel helpless if you wind up in a bad situation after a workplace injury.

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even if it wasn't breaking off big plays, that they were getting positive yards with their rushing against the Chargers. And it's just always been this way with Cousins, where everything connects to that. And when it's not working, it's really not working. And when the run game is, then there's that option there. Even in the game against Carolina in the second half, Delvin breaks off a few big plays.

Then all of a sudden, those linebackers get antsy and they start flying forward and then losing everybody. They're not Eric Hendricks who can robot around and go back. They're like, huh, what? Who's playing? And you see that all the time. But if they're not afraid of that run, they just play differently. And, and you see that all the time, but if they're not afraid of that run, they just play differently. And that's, that's what we end up seeing. But I guess I'm

skeptical of whether all of a sudden we start getting a bunch of deep shots to Justin Jefferson, which I think Zimmer wants those, but we saw it even yesterday where the pressure rate goes up, even just a little increase. and this is to your point, a little increase in trying to push it downfield, and all of a sudden he's pressured 42% of the time as opposed to 30% for the rest of the season when they haven't been doing that. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing is you see the flaws in the NFL,

especially up front, get exposed when that quarterback has to hold the ball for two and a half seconds. I mean, if you don't have solid offensive linemen up there, I mean, the average throw time is two seconds. That extra half a second, that extra all of that really is what shows guys that are really good and not good. And when you got some guys up front, Mason Cole, average. Ole Uda, below average probably.

Udo, but yes. Udo, I always do that. Udo. Mostly Do after yesterday. And then – Homer Simpson. Yeah, O'Neal, elite. I think you could put an elite to above average.

And then you go on the left side and you've got Ezra Cleveland, average to below average. And then Rookie and Derrissaw, who I think is going to be very good. But still, again, I don't anoint rookies kings until we need to. Like I did with Jefferson. He's on the blue meter for me right now. But you watch these guys and you go, okay, if we want more deep shots, you have to protect. And I just don't think I mean, Chargers front is good.

Don't get me wrong, but I think we'll still face better fronts this year than that team. So I'm trying to figure out where derisaw is in the past blocking grades because i don't know if he has one yet does he well you have to play you have to play like four games to get like a true grade don't yeah yeah um i mean you've got a little bit of a sample here probably enough to at least get like a small snapshot of it i'll i'll get to this i guarantee it's better than rashad hills oh yes rashad Hill was one of the five worst the entire league. So we did get a couple of penalties by Connor Williams that put him ahead of Ole Udo in leading the league in penalties.

So congratulations to Connor Williams. Ole Udo is now second. Tell me what this means that Ole Udo – well, I'll add this on too. Ole Udo is second in the league in penalties and Mason Cole has not been that bad. It's center. And when Mike Zimmer was asked about the possibility of finding a way to keep Cole on the field,

hint, hint, move them over to right guard. He said, it's something we're talking about. So is that a good idea? And what does that stat mean? You know, I think that stat means

that your job's been put on notice. I think when you're costing your team yards and you're costing your team's drives, because when you get a penalty, whether it be a holding, a false start, any of those, those are drive killers, right? Those are what they call staying off schedule. You get off schedule.

And the Vikings have proven that when they get off schedule, they have a really hard time overcoming those and getting back on schedule of second and seven, third and three and live in that. And so if you're looking to say, hey, we're losing these close games, we're losing these one possession games, like what could be the difference? Well, it could be that one drive in the second quarter that no one's really thinking about because right guard got a holding penalty and we had to punt right and so those are the hidden yardage piece that when you talk about trying a new piece there like really don't think it would make that big of a difference or could make all the difference in the world but i don't think it's going to be any detriment so for me with how well mason cole is playing and i'm not saying he's out there i'm not saying that he's the next alex mack but i am saying that I do think he's serviceable, but it's the same thing that we said this last year too, like Brett Jones.

Like I thought Brett Jones was serviceable and I thought he was playing better at times than Dakota Dozier and 100% Drew Samia, but they like didn't want to put him out there. And I don't know if that was Denison thing or I don't know whose deal that was, but I do think that this year, I'm hoping they learn from that.

Like, okay, let's truly get the best five out there. Best five group. And I do think Mason Gold's the last few weeks that played himself into a possibility with that. But again, center to guard, it's different. It's a different animal out there when you're blocking a three technique in space and pass protection. So we'll have to get a sample size of that before we can say that he is better than Holy. So Darasaw has a 56 overall pass blocking grade, which is not particularly good. have to get a sample size of that before we can say that he is better than holy so uh derrissaw has a 56 overall pass blocking grade which is not particularly good however has only allowed

six total pressures which tells me that even when he's getting beat he's not getting beat for big negative plays which is similar to brian o'neill in his first season where brian o'neill had a pretty poor PFF grade but wasn't giving up sacks or QB hits. And people were saying, well, where's the difference? The difference is recovery. If you can figure out a way to get beat, get pushed back, and find a way to keep that guy away from the quarterback,

that's a good foundation to work with, I think, for Derrissaw in the future. But he did have a holding penalty that was pretty rough. And yeah, I thought kind of a tough day um but you're getting your usual sort of ups and downs from him right but i do think he shows like you said there's flashes of really really brilliance i mean flashes of dude hits him with his hands comes inside redirects really well and then he tries to spin out and he he comes back and so for me you see that and you're like okay he just needs more experience and i keep having to remind myself dude didn't play at all like zero preseason zero training camp like this is his true test at the nfl for the first time and it's in live bullets

action with backs against the wall type minnesota vikings football and to watch him in the run game and to watch him especially in the past game be out there on an island against some really good rushers joey bosa and to be able to like you said recover and i think one of the things that people think is it doesn't always look pretty with derisaw like he's hopping he might have his hands over the place but he's not getting beat quick it's not the quick misses and Rashad Hill and even like the guys myself I was a guy that a lot of times like well it's a quick miss guy which means like you throw your hands TJ Clemmings and you get knocked down he's around the edge in a second and a half right like I

haven't seen that out of Derrissaw and he's really strong up top so he when he hits people with his hands they gut off their track they get out of the way so I'm really excited about watching him grow through the rest of this year and really excited for his second year because, man, you get O'Neal and you get Derrissaw. You got two really good tackles to start kind of really rebuilding that offensive line from the inside out now. All right.

Next stats for what's the stat mean? Didn't come up with a theme song. Maybe it should be like a metal theme song. What's this stat mean uh let's see the vikings according to the website 538 have what's this uh have a 42 chance okay sorry 42 42 that's their playoff odds right now um do you think that is accurate should be higher should be lower and by the way as we say this san francisco we're recording this on monday night is leading la to the point where i'm confident san francisco is going to win that game so it's a that might change a little That might lower the number a little with San Francisco getting this win.

But do you think that that's a good place for this? Too low, too high? I think it's basically right on right now. And the reason I say that is because we have to show consistently that we can play like we did on Sunday in order for that number to go up. I think right now, it's like we said at the beginning, what is this team's record? It's like, well, it's like we said at the beginning what is this team's record it's like well it's eight nine or nine and eight or it's somewhere in there right and sometimes

those teams can sneak into a wild card sometimes they can't depending on the year and so it's kind of a coin flip right and i think with us being below 500 now and having to dig ourselves out of a hole and still having to play green bay and still having to play some of these talented teams that i think that's a good solid number for us i think so too and it's really not about the strength of the teams for me it's about the number of teams so when you go through so san francisco now has four wins they have the same record as the vikings we have carolina's five and five then the vikings four and five, the Vikings four and five, the Falcons four and five, the Eagles four and five, now San Francisco four and five. And there's one, two, three, four, five teams with three wins. If any of those teams gets to play the Texans or something

or plays each other, then you lose no matter what, because they're playing each other. And this is the hard thing about trying to come from behind, even though I'm not confident that the Panthers are a good team or anything. I don't know what their eagles start get it together and jalen hurts plays better all of a sudden i know you're not a fan and that's terrible and that's fair but they do have a really good offensive line yes and they have a really good defensive line and when you have those things you can win some football games so um that number i think is right because of how tough it is if they beat the packers though i think that is a little bit of a different story uh okay let me give you one more what's that snap mean um cameron bynum is the highest graded vikings player by pff over the last two weeks he got a sack he held his own in his last game. And now 166 snaps in two games. Welcome to the NFL, kid.

You've played a lot of football. There have been five throws his way for 24 total yards. He's got an interception, a pass breakup, a sack. This kid, by the way, he's one where on the first introductory interview you do with him in the media, you're like, oh, and I compared him to Anthony Harris because it just felt like a very similar type of person, very cerebral, understands defense at the NFL level as a rookie, which you don't see very often, understands technique, understands tendencies. Like these are things that you just, that's just

don't happen. So what do you think it means if Cameron Bynum is good for the future of the Vikings safety situation you know I think it's really great when you have a young rising star like that but I do I'm curious how much has Harry had in a role in that right like sometimes when you see rookies that emerge like that you kind of have to look at the room and go where's he where's he getting mentored from like obviously when he came in he had a great knowledge but there's somewhere in that jump but i think if you can put him up there now and i mean how often have we talked about oh harry's on the trade block right like i mean is that a real thing now if you're talking about cap casualties and i don't want to trust you i'm the first one i don't want the hitman out of minnesota i don't think anyone does but again we talk about how they just keep kicking

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xavier woods it was just a one just one year okay and for whatever reason i thought that was a multi-year deal that one has worked out so uh tomlinson i believe was the only multi-year deal that they signed okay and that one with xavier woods has worked out extremely well they haven't always as uh you know rashad breland but some of them have and the exit yeah and the xavier woods uh certainly has so i want you to tell me one thing before we do love to see it hate to see it you played in the very first game or at least you were there i don't know if you're active or got on the field but for the very first game at u.s bank stadium with the packers 2016 when sam sam bradford came in slinging that thing yes his first game and there's a funny story behind that i'm not sure

if i'm allowed to tell it or not let's just say that zimmer was really upset with us for reporting that sam bradford was going to start and remember remember that. And then Mike McCarthy got on the call with us and we were like, so what do you think about this? They're not announcing their starting quarterback. He goes, yeah, it's going to be Sam Bradford. We're like, what are you mad at us for? Be mad at Mike McCarthy for already knowing. So, yeah, that was funny.

That was like my second week on the job. So the first week teddy got hurt and then the second week zimmer was really upset at us for reporting that so well i mean everyone watched sean hill get wheelchaired out there against tennessee and was like oh yeah bradford's for sure play i mean dude he came off the sideline he pulled his calf like running five yards for a first down we're like run he was like he's like pulled my calf i was like oh my gosh you're like my dad like you're like my 40 year old dad running around out here like there was no obviously bradford was going to start like it wasn't a secret it was the worst kept secret in the nfl yeah so this is this is also just you know some flooding back

memories but i remember reading an article by someone i've had on the show who is really smart and really good. But this take was not great when they made the trade for Bradford. The reason that this person did not like it was they said that Sean Hill had a higher quarterback rating for his career than Bradford. And I was like, Sean Hill will die on the field. If he play, if he attempted to play 16 nfl games he will not survive it no chance no chance no chance dude like he's a three he's a three game max guy like three games get me out of here my check still clears i can't do this anymore gonna go watch paw patrol with my children uh one of my favorite sean hill things was the throw that he made to Diggs in that game was unbelievable.

Like, it was just this incredible dime. And it was like, football is so weird. And, you know, you have all these quarterbacks who are like 6'5 and run 4-4s, and they're just like Adonises. And here's Sean Hill, like you said. He's your dad. He smokes cigarettes or whatever. And he's Sean Hill, like you said. He's your dad. He smokes cigarettes or whatever. And he's just like, he throws the ball stupid. And he just is like, let's see.

I'm playing this game where I'm throwing all to the running back checkdowns. And then here's an unbelievable dime. I'm an NFL quarterback, everyone. Well, I mean, if you recall, the Titans are Vikings defense scored more points than the Vikings offense that day. Like, that was so bad that was such a shit show oh you're fine that was that was that was that one was so bad so so bad the tough watch yeah thanks marcus mariotta for the screen pass to eric kendrick's otherwise they

win that game but that one pass go look it up go find the tape when you're in the deer stand that one pass to dig down the sidelines i remember amazing it was unbelievable like okay you're man old man quarterback steve debergs of the world so i don't even know if there was a point to that oh i actually wanted you to tell me what it was like that game the the opener because that was really incredible to beat aaron rogers zimmer's defense was amazing that night sam bradford came through the i think first touchdown to kyle rudolph the throw to digs off a play action i mean it was really something to be in that building that night yeah i mean i just remember how the juice i mean everyone was so excited we were coming out playing that college stadium for in tcf and our last game there was the

heartbreaker to seattle and like to get into like what felt like our own place, like to get in and the idea of like defend your home turf, defend home field advantage. And that place is seriously one of the loudest NFL stadiums I've been in. Like some of the new ones might rival that, but when I was in the NFL, like when we played in Minneapolis and we heard the purple army go and like, there's nowhere that gets that loud inside

maybe I never played in the dome but that was it felt like a college atmosphere to me and not a lot of NFL places feel like that a lot of NFL kind of feel like sit on your hands and drink your coffee and like but like that place gets rowdy the fans get rowdy and going out there and getting that first win just kind of really set the tone for what that place was going to be. And I think that getting that first win helped that culture of what it can actually be because the fans played a huge role in that. I mean, there's a couple of delayed games in there. There was any time Rodgers would try and check,

like he's trying to run around and the place is just erupting and the fire, there's no fire anymore, right? The fire's still out or did we bring the fire oh that's a whole thing no they're trying everything to make it look cool but no tennessee tennessee blew it something caught on fire in tennessee i think it was a speaker yeah and they banned all pyrotechnics which is ridiculous dude when that thing that dragon no one's allowed to cross the road because one guy got hit yeah that dragon that would breathe fire one's allowed to cross the road because one guy got hit. Yeah. That dragon that would breathe fire was sick out of the, the, the, yeah.

So anyways, that place is awesome. I love TC. I love that place. Isn't the U S bank stadium was amazing. Um, it's still one of my favorite NFL places ever. Yeah. That night, uh, I had never heard anything that loud in the entire time covering sports. Just that simple. Like where you're like ear bleeding.

So let's just do a quick love to see it. Hate to see it. We might be on the same team with love to see it because PJ Walker got a win as the starting quarterback for Carolina. I followed his career in the XFL. I'm telling you, PJ Walker can play. I know that they're going to play Newton

when he's fully ready to get in there. But PJ Walker is a decent NFL quarterback who have a long career. And I love when that happens. I love when there's an XFL guy and you're watching and you're like, this guy's actually good. He went five and oh, in the XFL was the best player in the league. And now he gets a chance. And it's not like he played an amazing game, but he came in, got a win against the Cardinals. So good for you, PJ Walker. Why they traded for Sam Darnold when they had PJ Walker. I don't know. Hey, PJ Walker out there killing it.

My, my love to see it is for sure. Watching that kick from Detroit and just how terrible and just watching the faces like at this point I kind of want them just to keep losing because you just watch it and you're like man it can't get any worse like it's not a hate to see it like you don't you don't really hate to see it because it's one of those things like the train wreck you can't look away from like oh my gosh that train's gonna hit that person like you just stare it down until it hits the person like watching that Steelers Lions game you were just like this is amazing like just Mason Rudolph versus Jared Goff it's just how terrible that game was like I loved watching that game because I was just laughing the entire time I just wanted

to know what we did to deserve that i mean that was just shameful like how how is this i mean every year isn't it funny how every year at the start of the season we're like man like 28 teams got good quarterbacks halfway through you're like who's playing anymore 16 to 16 in the fifth quarter dude you're running're running a two-yard out route to get a two-yard closer field goal, and you fumble. You just fumble the football at eight seconds left. How about Najee Harris? I didn't know we could tie.

Who doesn't know you can still tie in the NFL? I don't care if you're a rookie or not. There's been enough of them over the last few years. Do you live under a rock? Did Dick Saban not allow you to watch what college like pro football like nothing but alabama football when you're here like come on you gotta be better than that yeah you do hate to see that um bad that's just bad bad bad optics okay i'll offer one more just real quick is uh you love to see when you just don't know in the afc who's going to win anything.

I like that. I mean, there are 12 teams that are 500 or better in the AFC. I think it's fun. I think that for so long, it was like Peyton Manning, Roethlisberger, Tom Brady for our entire lives in the AFC. And then it was Mahomes. And so you just knew who was going to be there, and all the other teams didn't matter.

Sorry, Chad Pennington, your jets and your dolphins don't matter here. And now it's everyone has a chance. It's fun. I'll do one more quick love to see it. Mac Jones just killing it. Just absolutely killing it up there with old Billy b and just having his way and being playing damn near perfect football i mean not not he's not out there lighting up for 400 yards but he's just delivering touchdown strikes not turning the ball over and playing just really good football

he is the most comfortable nfl quarterback coming from college that I can remember in recent years. Yeah. And that one, I am, I'm not doing the thing because the, during the draft, I said, I, you know, maybe the Vikings should have just taken him because he's there and he's a

first round quarterback. And a lot of people overestimate their ability to analyze quarterbacks going from college to the NFL. I think it's impossible. If you can only know if the guy has NFL talent, but you can. I think it's impossible. If you can only know if the guy has NFL talent, but you can't know if it's going to work. And sometimes it's the fifth, fifth drafted quarterback. Who's the best one like Lamar Jackson. So I don't know. Dak Prescott. Yeah. Fourth round smack my mic, but you, if you want one, you take one and it's

unusual that it's past the first round that they work out. So you just take the guy and you don't overestimate your own ability to figure out if he's going to be good or not. So it wasn't that I watched him in Alabama and I said, Oh, you know, that three-step drop.

He's really mastered it. It was no, it was just like, I don't know. And times where I've tried to know and done like a ton of research. I came up with Josh Rosen. Good job. I'm more right by going, I don't know.

My hate to see, I'm going to dip into college football here. Oklahoma, Texas, man. You make this big announcement that you're going to the SEC and you're going to go shock the world down there. You hide Sarkeesian and, and you just get pooped on by Kansas and Baylor. I mean, Kansas and Baylor boys.

I mean, they're that's like Kansas's first road whim since like nom, right? Like they haven't, they haven't won on the roads. It's nom and they go into beat Texas. And then you got Baylorlor who's just rubbing it in oklahoma's face and now you have all the oklahomans that are like well this might be okay because now

we'll get to avenge ourselves in the big 12 and we'll still make the playoff no you're out you're done yeah see you norman goodbye well i'm i'll just go all love to see it's here to wrap this up just to counter that point lance leipold i covered him in buffalo the guy knows what he's doing i mean buffalo was an atrocity of a program i mean so bad and then like they they had khalil mac on their football team actual khalil mac the real person and they couldn't win anything and he's on their team he's like throwing Mack players all two at a time away and sacking the quarterback and getting fumbles interception everything else and they still couldn't win football games before Lance

Leipold totally turned them around made them one of the best teams in the Mack consistently and so I'm not surprised that Kansas got a little fight in them dude he almost beat Ohio State single-handedly like that first half of Buffalo Ohio State was like you watched the do you like yep first round probably first overall pick like this legendary single-handedly beating an entire football team right now I I was working in that game and I was like who is this like what yeah the hulk has showed up at this game like did one of ohio state's players secede incredible incredible all right great stuff as always tuesday morning left guard we do it every week and i'm looking forward to it after green bay jeremiah you enjoy your deer stand and uh grind some tape in there and we will talk again soon sir that's the plan skull