Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Are there any good free agents left for the Vikings?!?!?!?!

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

Matthew Coller talks about the Minnesota Vikings approach to NFL free agency and whether there are any good free agents left that the Vikings can sign. Would they want receivers like DeAndre Hopkins or Christian Kirk for Kyler Murray? Are there any good running backs to add after Aaron Jones was retained? Also some fan questions. Is Kyler Murray going to be a Viking long term? Do the Vikings risk getting stuck in the middle with Kyler Murray? How about Jonathan Greenard's situation? What's the lowest amount the Vikings would trade for him? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fanduil, Matthew Collar here. And in this episode, we dive into remaining free agents. Are there a surprising amount or are they all gone? Let's get into it. All right. Over the beginning of free agency, what way would we describe the Minnesota Vikings? Inactive would be probably the best way. The Vikings have not exactly gone to the free agent market to rebuild the franchise.

they have kept a lot of their own players, the long snapper, Andrew DePaula, all pro, Eric Wilson, of course, one of the best stories of last year. They kept Aaron Jones, they reworked the contract of T.J. Hawkinson, and they added Kyler Murray. So it's not like they have done absolutely nothing. In fact, they have set themselves up in the future for a better salary cap situation

with the way they handled some of their deals and also with the fact that they only restructured a couple of contracts just to get to the point of being cap compliant, but they did not restructure every cap hit that they possibly could under the sun and kick all that money down into the future. So it matters what the Vikings have done, but if you were hoping that this free agency period would be like last year and that they were going to go and add a bunch of players,

well, you've been pretty sorely disappointed. However, as I started to go through the remaining free agent list, I found some guys that could be helpful. Now, that doesn't mean I found some guys that are going to change the Minnesota Vikings next year and beyond, but maybe some players that could still be useful as either depth or role players and fit into a spot where right now we currently consider a weakness. So I want to start out with the backfield. And here's what I've done.

I've taken the areas that the Vikings could still add in free agency. And I've got three players that are remaining on the free agency. market for each of those positions that are still available and we're going to go through them as we get into, I don't know, is this the third wave? I think it's the third wave. The first wave was day one. And it was one of the most active day ones that I can ever remember. And then the second wave, I think, has already happened.

And now we are on to, let's call it the third wave. So in the back field, the Vikings decide to bring back Aaron Jones. They have Jordan Mason. But as we've seen in previous seasons, oftentimes you do get down to. RB3. And the Vikings have, at least from what we've seen, not really ever shown a commitment to using Ty Chandler a whole lot. He is a free agent. I suppose that they could bring him back if he doesn't like other offers and he knows the system. But it seems like they're looking elsewhere in the draft. I think adding another veteran would not preclude them from making a third

round draft pick or, I mean, I guess even a second round pick probably would. But if it's third or day three draft pick at the running back position. That does not keep you from adding one more free agent to your backfield. And we've talked a lot about how the quarterback spot, well, you know, when they've gotten hurt, it's gone kind of bad. You've ended up with Jared Hall or Josh Dobbs, et cetera. But you could say the same thing for the backfield where they've had to acquire Cam Acres several times.

And I don't know if Cam is available or not if he'll end up as a Viking again somehow. but I think they might like to avoid that with someone that they could trust as R.B. 1 in a pinch or could potentially fill in a role. So here are the three remaining guys that caught my eye, starting with Brian Robinson Jr. of the San Francisco 49ers. He was a breakout type of player with Washington and then signed in San Francisco as a just-in-case with Christian McCaffrey. But it turned out that Christian McCaffrey was healthy and played the entire season. so Brian Robinson Jr. did not get a whole lot of work, but when he did, he performed pretty well. He ran 92 times for 400 yards, 4.3 yards per carry.

And I think that the Vikings want to add to their backfield and to their run scheme overall, more Shanahan-type stuff. And bringing in Frank Smith, the assistant coach now with the Vikings, but was the offensive coordinator for Miami, if we trace back the lines, Mike McDaniel was doing run game stuff for the 49ers and then got the job in Miami and they ran extremely well. And so here you have someone like Brian Robinson. And remember, too, they also got Jordan Mason from that backfield last year as a 49ers backup. And that move paid off very well.

So he is still available. Najee Harris is an interesting one because for four years with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Najee Harris was their bell cow back. This guy was getting the ball all the time. He had four seasons over a thousand yards. And then he expected probably to get a lot of big contract offers. He didn't end up getting them and then had an off field incident and ended up barely playing for the Chargers. They also drafted O'Marion Hampton.

But if we look through 2021 to 2024, Najee Harris was a thousand yard running back. Now, that doesn't mean you want to bring him in and start playing him over someone. like Jordan Mason or someone like Aaron Jones, but he is very experienced. And if they're looking for a little bit more in terms of the past protection and not just putting it all on Aaron Jones's play, Harris has done a lot of that in his past. So where he's at physically is a question for sure. But after what happened last year and barely getting on the field for the Chargers, it's unlikely that he's going to pull in a big contract.

And the other one that caught my eye was Antonio Gibson of the Patriots, who was passed over, remandre. Stevenson is their starter. They drafted Trayvion Henderson. So Gibson got pushed down the depth chart. But if you look at his last two seasons as a contributor to the New England Patriots, he has been effective when he's touched the ball, 644 yards rushing over four yards per carry and 25 receptions. He has done also some pass protection as well in the past with a bigger role. And considering that he did get bumped down the depth chart, and he's 27, so he's not 100, years old. It's plausible that he could be an RB3 somewhere like Minnesota. I wouldn't expect that

any of these contracts would be more than basically about the minimum. And I think it would be good for the Vikings knowing that Aaron Jones does have an injury history and you can't really put it all on Jordan Mason. So even if you drafted someone, you'd like to have one more veteran there. Now, I should stop in terms of the salary cap right now, over the cap.com, list the Vikings only having $5.9 million, but there are some other things that they can do as they go forward, including extending Brian O'Neill. We'll talk about maybe later in the show the possibility of Jonathan Grenard being trade. I've got a few fan questions I want to answer.

That would open up quite a bit of cap space depending on the trade. And maybe even giving an extension to Blake Cashman is also another potential option. There's other players that they could restructure as well. Clearly, we have found that they don't want to sell out the future, but guys like Cashman and O'Neill are pretty safe to extend if they want to do that. Let's move on to wide receivers. Now, this is an interesting group. There's a lot of wide receivers who are out there who have names.

I did not put Debo Samuel on this list, but, I mean, he could be. I mean, I think that Samuel will be looking for a job where he has to be more of a role player than a key guy after catching 72 passes for Washington last. year if he wants to keep playing, it's unlikely that he's going to do it as a star receiver and more of a role player. But I went with three other guys and familiarity is the theme with two of them. Start with Joanne Jennings, who I think is a terrific receiver, former seventh round pick of the 49ers, 55 catches 643 yards, nine touchdowns for San Francisco. And the reason I like Jennings, my guess is that he's holding out trying to wait to see if he could get a better contract

offer from possibly a desperate team that ran out of options or doesn't get A.J. Brown if they decide to trade him or whatever it might be. But if he doesn't get great offers, this is someone as a wide receiver three who's actually a lot like Jalen Naylor. He could do a lot of different things, not exactly the same deep threat. But I mean, he can step up to a number two or number one wide receiver spot if he's called upon, which he was in San Francisco because of the number of injuries. that they had.

And I think the Viking should be looking for that type of player is somebody that in a pinch, uh-oh, you know, Jordan Addison goes down. Well, right now, even if Ty Felton does take a step forward or you think that Miles Price can be a role player,

there is nobody who can pretend for a game or three that they are Jordan Addison, where Joanne Jennings would be very good at that. Now, does he want a spot where he is wide receiver three, clearly? Maybe not. Maybe he is looking for. a position where he can get instead of 55 catches, 90 catches, but if the Vikings have any shot at him, he would be the top target for me and is the top target, I think, remaining in free agency

at the wide receiver position. Now, the other two are because of Kyler Murray, and I don't know that I would have put either one of these guys as the top remaining free agents at the wide receiver position, if not for Murray, but he has a ton of familiarity with Christian Kirk, who played with the Houston Texans last year, got 28 catches for 239 yards, an overwhelming season with the Texans, but he could still play in the NFL. And he's not even 30 years old yet, which makes you wonder about, was it injuries or what has slowed down Christian Kirk, but he got his big contract after playing with

Kyler Murray. So there is familiarity there. And then DeAndre Hopkins still in the NFL. Last year had 22 catches for 330 yards. two touchdowns. The Ravens passing game was really up and down last year with Lamar Jackson in and out of the lineup and DeAndre Hopkins. Where do you really fit in there? If he had any interest in coming to Minnesota and being a wide receiver three as someone who could maybe catch 40 or 50 passes for the Vikings from Kyler Murray and then play second, third fiddle to Justin Jefferson

and Jordan Addison, then that's one heck of a receiver room, even if DeAndre Hoppe. is just playing a possession slot receiver type of role. His hands are still enormous. He could still catch the football. And he did average 15 yards to catch for the Ravens last year. Now, some of these, yes, they would be like the signings of Kendall Wright or Michael Floyd from Vikings past of guys who had had previous success. But that doesn't exactly say that they're going to have success in the future.

But if these are guys that Murray is familiar with, and feels like he has good chemistry with, it might be favorable to sign either one of them if they want to come to Minnesota or if DeAndre Hopkins wants to keep playing to come to Minnesota to add just a little bit extra to the Vikings wide receiver room and maybe even help with the development

of whoever is coming in the draft because it feels like the Vikings have to draft a wide receiver at some point if they're looking to the future as well and aren't sure what is going to happen with Jordan Addison. So there's three remaining free agents that all have pretty big names, even if there would be some risk that comes along with the age or injury history of Christian Kirk and DeAndre Hopkins. On to the center position, I've become quite convinced that the Minnesota Vikings are going to roll with Blake Brandel.

And you'll see from the PFF grades of the available centers kind of why that when you compare Brandel, who was below average as an overall center and was closer to average as a pass protector by PFF grade. You know, it's not like there was anybody available other than Tyler Linderbaum that was blowing out of the water, Blake Brandel. And when you consider that he knows the offense inside and out, up and down, I mean, he's been with KOC since day one. It's probably better to have a center working with your quarterback who knows everything about the system. the Vikings didn't go outside the building for their new offensive line coach, so they're going to be using presumably the same terminology and just maybe a slightly different approach. But overall, there's not a lot of changes that have happened here.

Same offensive coordinator, same head coach the entire time Brandl has been here. Well, I guess he was drafted Zimmer era, but then to spend most of his career with KOC. So he's probably a better choice because of that. It's such an IQ position than going outside the building. But if they wanted to do that, there are three guys who could be potential starters. One is Austin Corbett of the Panthers, who has played guard in the past but has been a center recently. He had a 67.2 pff grade, which puts you about 20th in the league last year. Ethan Pockage from the Cleveland Brown's longtime starting center.

He's had ups and downs throughout his career. Last year didn't grade. Great. Didn't grade terribly either. but is clear cut a starter. Corbett has kind of been inside and out, you know, in and out of the starting lineups, has had some injuries through his career. But Pockage has been a starter, really, from day one of his career. And the same goes for the Titans Lloyd Cushenberry, who graded poorly last year.

He also played for the Titans. So that may have heard him. In the past, he has had some good seasons when he was with Denver, very, very experienced. So if you were looking for someone who is much more used to starting 17, games, then Pockage or Cushingberry would be your guys. And last year, those guys were up over 800 snaps. There is not a massive upgrade projected, but if you need someone that you feel like, hey, this is experienced and we can cover up for some of the shortcomings, then maybe

they go out and do that for a low price. I mean, Luke Fortner came off the board at $4.5 million. So the price for these centers is unlikely to be. astronomical if the Vikings want to do that or they could have a battle between Brandl and Michael Jurgens who they've been developing for a couple of seasons now or just roll with Brandel. I think that they'll probably roll with Brandel, but I wanted to give you a picture of what's available.

It's not wonderful at the moment. Now, there is a little more hope for some other positions like the defensive tackle spot. These are actually three guys that I really like for the Minnesota Vikings. As you can see through the first couple of positions, maybe I should have started with DT. There was a little bit of like, I could see this kind of working, but in this case, I could see this really working. The Lions DJ Reader, who had a decent season for them last year, 538 snaps, 68.9 PFF grade, 20 quarterback pressures. He's always been an all-around,

very strong defensive tackle when he played in Cincinnati and now with the Detroit Lions. and even though he's a little more up there in age, 500 snaps on this D-line with Jalen Redmond and with some of the younger guys like, you know, Ty Ingram Dawkins developing behind Levi Drake Rodriguez, those guys, you put a veteran, kind of an old wily veteran in there. And I think you've got pretty close to a complete defensive tackle unit, maybe with the addition of a draft pick at some point as well.

But Reader could still be an impact player and still play a lot of snaps. The same can be said for our, Our second guy, which is Shelby Harris of the Cleveland Browns, his PFF grade did dip to 61.9, which is just okay. It's kind of closer to replacement level, 19 quarterback pressures last year. But over his career, he has been a solid all-around type defensive tackle, can get after the passer a little bit more. He is not your type that is going to get 50 quarterback pressures or completely dominate. but he is an experienced player that can rotate in under the right circumstance and be useful and probably handle pretty much any type of scheme as he's been around the NFL.

And the third guy might be my favorite fit. That is Dequan Jones, who is absolutely gigantic. This is a large man. And last year, he only played 424 snaps for the Buffalo Bills, but had a 75.5 pff grade. Now, his listed weight is 320 might be even heavier than that, but he can actually create a little bit of quarterback pressure, and he is the type of body mover. And this is what Reader can do as well. And I think Harris can also do this.

These guys, if you want somebody to move bodies on the defensive line, help you in the run game. Reader is good at that. Jones is very good at that. And I think he'd be a good fit for the Vikings. He doesn't have to necessarily, based on his history, be a traditional nose tackle. he could play like a three technique or a hybrid type of defensive line situation because he has played in a lot of different defenses. He is over 30.

These guys are all older veterans, but I also think that's what the Vikings should be looking at if we're talking about a one-year contract kind of guy to fill a spot for 2026 without a longer-term commitment. The same goes for our outside linebackers on the list. Two of them are very much outside linebackers. and one of them is more of a defensive end. But Kyle Van Ney, another veteran here, 493 snaps last year, 61.7 PFF grade, 27 pressures and two sacks for the Baltimore Ravens.

Van Nuoy would be under the category of kind of like what Jihad Ward did for them. Ward was more of an interior rusher. He's a little bit of a bigger guy. But the role was, hey, you're kind of a backup outside linebacker type who comes in in past rush situation. to give us a little extra juice. And when you're talking about potentially trading Jonathan Grenard,

and even if you don't, you have three guys that start, and two of them have pretty serious injury histories, especially Van Ginkle, dealing with the neck thing last year. And then you've got nothing after that in the outside linebacker room other than projects and special teams players. So it feels like they could use one more of these veteran guys to just be a rotational play.

coming in in pass rushing situations to add a little bit of help. Now, would they want to come there for that role to Minnesota? That's a little questionable. Does Brian Flores want to rotate in and out certain guys? I mean, if they keep Jonathan Grinard, is he okay with moving him around or having some of these guys do something a little bit different? I think the thing that makes it possible is that Andrew Van Ginkle can play linebacker at any given time.

And also, Eric Wilson could play outside linebacker, too, which may make it so they don't really need this type of depth, but you have moving pieces and moving parts all over the place, which could mean a rotation. And if you look at the snap counts from our three players, 493 for Kyle Van Nuoy. Second on the list is Leonard Floyd. He's been around forever and is still out there getting pressures,

had three and a half sacks and 36 pressures in 460 snaps. And then Derek Barnett, who was in much, more of a 4-3 type of system with D'Amico Ryans, but did well, had a 67 PFF grade, 14 pressures, and five sacks for the Texans. So if you were looking for someone to be a down-on-the-edge defensive lineman pass-rusher who can rotate in, he is the best possible option for that, even if the scheme fit isn't exactly 100% of what you would like it, like Van Nuoy and Leonard Floyd, who have been three, four outside linebackers for their entic. careers. Let's get to the last position that I have. Now, there are some punters. Sam Martin,

formerly of Carolina, it's probably the best punter out there. Johnny Hecker also, now that the Vikings have to replace punter Ryan Wright. But remaining safety list is not inspiring, I will say. And this is why Dylan Thineman, Emmanuel McNeill Warren, these guys' names are coming up a lot in mock drafts and draft simulations, and we still don't know if Harrison Smith is coming back for the Minnesota Vikings, but the best options at safety are Kyle Dugger, who, and these PFF grades are a little horrifying, 53.2 grade and 109.1 QB rating allowed into his coverage, but he did grade highly as a pass rusher, and he can play up in the box, so he has some versatility that maybe the Vikings would like, and because of the Pittsburgh connection,

If they liked what they saw from Kyle Dugger for the secondary, we've already seen James Pierre come over from Pittsburgh. Maybe Kyle Dugger could be that guy as well. Although the Vikings probably could have had him for almost nothing last year after joint practices, they decided not to do that. But they're in a bit of a different situation now if Harrison Smith decides to call it a career. So Dugger is someone that you could see Brian Flores flipping the switch on because he has the skill set to do it and showed it early in his career, but maybe hasn't been as good of a fit

in recent years. Also, Cowboys Donovan Wilson, same can be said for him. Very, very durable player, really tough season last year. But the thing about safeties is, oftentimes, if they're not Harrison Smith, their grades and their performance is a product of what's around them. So Donovan Wilson has been a good player throughout his career for Dallas, but look at their corners, look at their pass rush. I mean, there's only so much you could do as a safety from that far away from the football. If there's no pass rush and the corners aren't doing their jobs, I mean, you're not going to look very good.

But if they wanted someone who was very experienced in a couple of different defenses, that could be a guy. And then a role playing corner slash safety for the Lions, Avanti Maddox, who played 342 snaps last year, performed very well with the 79.1 PFF grade. He is a guy that has been also with the Philadelphia Eagles in his career. So there are your top, in my mind, remaining free agents that the Vikings could get some use out of. As I mentioned, it's not a list that's going to blow your socks off.

It's not super inspiring. But every once in a while, what you have is a third wave, a couple of third wave signings. And Eric Wilson was this last year for the Vikings where you look at the guys pass and you go, I don't know. but you realize after this year that fit and opportunity can often dictate where some of these guys who are stuck in the middle of the NFL, where maybe you're playing a little bit out of position, or maybe you've never really gotten a chance to do X, Y, or Z. And this is where Brian Flores earns his money. It's not just that Flores is good at, you know, dialing up schemes. Of course he is. But player evaluation is also one of the areas.

where he really shines as well. So knowing what fits in his scheme, he's run this way for a very long time, and he's good at finding guys that can pop back in to maybe what they have the potential to be, rather than what they've been recently, or if they were and showed early in their career, like an Eric Wilson, who showed early in his career could be a starter,

and then never got a chance to do it again. And I also think he happened on the year 2020, that the rest of the defense kind of felt. apart around him. So maybe there's something like that to these other potential players. Again, not inspiring, not thrilling. You're not going to see these names and call up all of your friends and say, if they get this guy, it is Super Bowl, 2026.

But you never know when somebody who is added late could end up being kind of useful. Let me throw this out to you. On Fan Duel, the Vikings over under is eight and a half after signing Kyler Murray. Is there anything that you could do that would, it wouldn't move the needle. It's not going to move the line if they signed DeAndre Hopkins, for example. But is there anything that they could do that would convince you that they were strong enough to hit the over if you already weren't there for the Minnesota Vikings? That's the Fanduil question of the day. Speaking of questions, I got four questions from fans that I thought were pretty interesting and wanted to give some answers to those.

There are a lot of people who listen when the show is not live, who want to get their questions answered as well. And I do a lot of that in the Friday mailbag on the newsletter over at purpleinsider. Football. So go check out that answered a ton of, ton of questions for that as well. So let's dive into a sampling of questions that have been emailed or sent to me for the newsletter. Let's start out with John in San Antonio who said, who is going to be the number three quarterback? is it going to be Carson Wentz, Max Brosmer, or someone else. If it's going to be Carson Wentz or anyone else, sign him now.

So he's available throughout the entire offseason and let Brosmer be your number four camp arm. If you want to draft a rookie in the sixth or seventh round to compete with Brosmer, then that is fine. Well, John, here's my thing on Carson Wentz is now that Carson Wentz already knows the offense and he was in the building as the season went along, I'd be perfectly fine with Carson Wentz showing up in September again. If he's going to be your number three quarterback, assuming that J.J. McCarthy is the backup for Kyler Murray and Max Brosmer is in camp, and maybe you're right. Maybe they do draft someone in the sixth or seventh, but very likely would bring in at least another undrafted free agent and take another swing at somebody like they did with Brosmer.

The fact that Wentz already knows all that, I really don't need him to be there. in the middle of training camp if he doesn't want to. If that gives you an advantage because there has been rumors that the New York Jets would like Carson Wentz to be their backup because of his relationship with Frank Reich. And, well, I never in the past would have thought the quarterback three was important. In fact, probably a lot of you have heard me say. And it actually has turned out to be quite true that if you get to the backup, you are in trouble and we don't talk about being in trouble when we're trying to that's a you know the old tom more

phrase kind of cleaned up a little bit but in this instance somebody like carson wens i mean they've had two seasons that have been imploded by getting to the number three in part last year number three quarterback and if you did have carson wence maybe if you have some injuries from the other two who both have a history of injuries you can still survive for a game or two plus his I think would be really useful for someone like Kyler Murray because Kyler Murray can't learn anything in this offense from JJ McCarthy. So maybe you're right, like get him in a little bit earlier. I don't think he has to show up week one, but I also don't necessarily need him there for OTAs and everything else. And if they know they're going to sign him, then he could probably

talk to Kyler Murray throughout. But even just during the season, another veteran quarterback to watch the games, to bounce things off of, to have as a resource in that room as he's dealing with, the first time learning the offense. I think that Nick Mullins was really important to Sam Bradford, Sam Darnold for that exact reason that, you know, Sam Darnold was learning the offense for the first time. And here was Nick Mullins to work through that early in the season and then throughout the year.

So I don't need whence to show up in the first day of OTAs. If they want to bring him in later and he wants to have the summer with his family rather than going to New York, then that is perfectly fine with me. but I do think in this instance with a lot feeling like it's on the line and having gotten to the number three quarterback before, it's a good idea to have him. And swings in the sixth and seventh round usually against them, but I guess if they decide to do that, then that's okay. But, I mean, usually you don't find the next Brock party.

I guess I guess you never know. But I think Wentz would be a really good option. And if they cannot acquire Carson Wentz to come back, then some of the first. somebody else with at least some experience for a QB3 would be very helpful for the Vikings. Our next question comes from Jake. It says, let's say with Kyler, the season is very similar to 2024. We are competitive, make the playoffs with a legitimate chance of competing for a Super Bowl, but the season ends in disappointment with Kyler playing unwell in the playoffs,

despite looking good in the regular season. Do you think they automatically extend Kyler because of how bad it looked with letting Sam Darnold walk. I think that they would extend Kyler Murray because he would have proven that you could win with him. And even if it's a bad playoff game, as maybe we have found out,

judging a player, a quarterback, especially on one playoff game when there are many, many, many instances from Matthew Stafford to Eli Manning to Joe Flacco to, there's a lot of quarterbacks who haven't, Peyton Manning. hasn't have gone right early in their career in the postseason, but have eventually had it go

right when they had the right roster and the right matchups and the right circumstances around them. So I do think that they made the mistake with Sam Darnold of putting way too much on those last two games and saying, well, if he's great in these two games, we're extending him. And if he's not, then we're letting him walk and going to J.J. McCarthy. And well, they can say that They had a different process than that, or it was the economics or whatever else. I think that we all know that if the season had ended for Sam Darnold, if he had broken his ankle after beating the Green Bay Packers, that they would have been giving him a contract extension or a franchise tag. So those last two games probably gave them a little bit of the wrong conclusion that Darnold was not good enough.

So are they going to make the same mistake twice? Probably not. but I don't think that it would have to do so much with what happened with Sam Darnold. I don't think it would be chasing the ghost of the past, if you will. I think it would be because you don't have any other option. I mean, what would be a better option than a guy who could, I mean, let's even say it's, let's even say it's 11 wins. And you are the eighth best offense in the NFL.

And Justin Jefferson goes for 1,400 yards and 10 touchdowns. Are you getting rid of that quarterback for hopes and dreams? and wishes on mountain tops? Probably not, right? You're probably going to say, all right, well, clearly we can win with this former number one overall draft pick, who has fit well enough with our team to win 11 games and fits well enough with our superstar. And now the onus is on us, the front office and coaching staff, to build a good enough roster around him to win the next time around because his prime is probably going to be till he's, oh, I don't know, 33, 34, 35 years old.

unless there's any sort of injuries. So that's why they would do it. Because if you were to win 13 or 12 games, even 11, you're not drafting very high. So are you trying to draft a quarterback and then throw that person in? And I'm assuming that in that instance, you would not have seen a ton of J.J. McCarthy. So are you throwing out Kyler to go back to J.J. McCarthy

who has been just developing behind the scenes? Would you be certain enough in order? order to do that. No, I don't think so. And I just feel like it would be look around at the other options, go to into free agency again. Is that what you think I think they've learned that the player who's got the ball in his hands actually is important. It's not just, oh, we've got the wide receivers, we've got the scheme, we've got the quarterback whisper. So, you know, bibbidi-bobbidi-boo, anybody can be the quarterback of the Vikings and put up huge numbers. It's not that way. It had a lot to do with the talent of the quarterback. So it probably would be

influenced a little bit that way, but it'd be much more about, well, who are you going to get that can give you a better type of performance than that and give you a shot? And I've always said, if you could get to 11, you can get to 11 or higher, that means you could be a real contender. And things have to fall right for any team that gets to the Super Bowl and makes it. I mean, look, I mean, the Patriots didn't even get great performances out of their quarterback, but they played Jared Stidham because somebody got hurt. They had a home game with some weather advantage against the Houston Texans who were probably better than them.

But C.J. Stroud melted down in the snow and there you are. You're in the Super Bowl. So I'd rather have someone that gives you a chance or that you feel like gives a chance to keep swinging. I mean, if you are putting quarterbacks into buckets and you have just Jordan Love, for example, as a Kyler Murray similar level quarterback, I know the Packers fans, lose their minds over that. But let's just let's just say,

just let's just let ballpark it, just sort of eyeball it. As somebody in Jordan Love, who hasn't won a lot in the postseason and has had, you know, 10-ish win-type teams, are you going to take this quarterback who you know is very good

and get you to the playoffs and keep swinging with your roster and hope that it clicks one year and you win like Sam Darno with Seattle? Or are you just going to throw him back because you had to pay him? I think if you look around, it's probably better to pay him

and then be tested as a roster builder rather than risk getting caught in no man's land at the quarterback position because of what happened to the Vikings last year. So, yeah, I think that if they were that good and that competitive, that Kyler Murray probably is staying here. Although, since he doesn't have a franchise tag as a possibility, it was written into the contract, no franchise tag. He can choose what he wants to do, which is another interesting wrinkle to the long term of this conference. conversation. All right. Next question. This one comes from Colin says, ignoring the merit of the plan to trade Grenard, what's the minimum return you would advise the Vikings except in a trade? So what I've been saying is a second and a third. I think that a second and a third is fair enough because when you factor in some of the things that other teams are going to come back to the Vikings.

So the Vikings are going to say, give us a first round draft pick for Jonathan Grenard. He's really freaking good. We all know that the sacks were down because of running quarterbacks and some bad luck last year. But everybody in the NFL is smart enough to know these days that pressure rate is king. Pressure rate is the most important. And Jonathan Grenards was still in the top 20 in the NFL last year. His pressure, his win rate was up there. His pressure rate was up there. And his production just didn't quite follow with the sacks. But it's more likely than not that he'll bounce back 8 to 12 sacks again next year, which makes him somewhere in the ballpark of about, you know, the top 15 to 20 rushers in the league.

Is that worth a first round pick if one of the five better rushers in terms of at least reputation? Max Crosby got a team to send two first. Hey, why not one for Grenard? But if I'm on the other side of that, if I'm a team, I'm saying, well, okay, that's true. But it's not a matter of imaginary sacks. It's a matter of real sacks. so that knocks the price down a little bit.

And the other thing is that Grenard wants a new contract. So if I'm the acquiring team, not only do I have to give you draft capital, but I have to sacrifice my own salary cap space and considering the Vikings are in a very tough salary cap position by themselves, I'm doing you a favor if I'm the other team. So I'm not giving you a first round draft pick unless I feel super desperate and there's a big old bidding war. and then I say, fine, here's your first round draft pick. But even then I would, I just would not do that because a successful first round draft pick is worth its weight in gold. If you're another team, even if you're drafting 28th and you draft a wide receiver two, I mean, how much is that worth?

$25 million on the free agent market? If you draft an edge rusher who's pretty decent, $20 million is what that's worth in the free agent market and you get it for basically free over the first couple years of a contract because of the rookie wage scale. It does not just apply to the quarterback position. It applies everywhere. So I'm probably not giving you first round draft capital to bail you out and pay this player a lot of extra money, even though we all know. Jonathan Grinard, very, very, very good at football and really big when it comes to

his personality, his drive, his desire to win, his desire to be great. All those things are a big plus for any franchise. But it's not how it works. It's not just is the player. They used to do it that way, right? Is the player great? Let's just give up a draft pick. But teams, they've gotten a little more savvy these days.

So that's why I've got it as a second and a third. And maybe one of those is 2007. Would you do a third this year? And then a 2027. Because think about this. I mean, it was just thrown out there. Hey, what if Kyler Murray wins like 11 to 14 games? Well, what if he doesn't?

What if he wins nine? And they're really thinking, and he's the 23rd best quarterback in the league. I mean, then you're thinking, about drafting a quarterback, if you have an additional second round pick to use with your own to potentially trade up to get your guy. I mean, the most draft capital that they could get for 2027 would be important. So a third rounder is a top, probably top 100-ish type pick.

And then next year, a second rounder, I think that that would be worth it. Just don't do it with the Philadelphia Eagles. But if you were to move Granard out, get two drafters. picks, spend one of them on an edge rusher, and bring in Leonard Floyd. I mean, that's, that's a pretty good outcome for the Vikings, considering you're giving away the best player in the potential deal. All right. Last question comes from Rob P.

Rob says, talk me off the ledge. I foresee another four to six Kirkian type years on the horizon. Four to six. Kyler is good, but not great. 12 to 15 type quarterback play. the Vikings go 10 and 7 or max 11 and 6, losing the first round of the playoffs, or squeak one out, then get out classed in the divisional round. So repeat of 2019 or 2022.

The Wilfs are too afraid to take a step back and have darn old PTSD. So we signed Kyler to three years, 140 million, which is likely what it would take. Let's start with this, Rob. Maybe we can have him get an OTA practice or two first before we get to four years from now. So I think when it comes to talking off the ledge, if you're on the ledge saying the franchise is completely stuck in neutral for the next four to six years, I think I would be the person yelling out the window, Rob, Kyler hasn't thrown a pass yet as a Viking in practice. So I don't think we can necessarily predict what's going to happen in 2030.

That seems like it's a pretty long way from now. here's the other point though that's different and what people need to understand is Kirk Cousins contract in Minnesota is no longer relevant to any conversation and here is why number one when Kirk signed the salary cap was a heck of a lot lower number two is that Kirk signed his contracts in a very specific type of way to be very guaranteed in fact the first one was what fully guaranteed if I'm not mistaken and it was supposed to be if you remember the discussion that, oh, wow, now all these quarterback contracts are going to be fully guaranteed. It's going to be crazy. It's going to be an anchor on all these franchises.

And guess what happened? They're not. It didn't work out that way. And there was an overcorrection after that. And of course, Deshawn Watson's insane contract that these teams started to fight back a little bit on the quarterback contracts. And what we saw was a mid-tier actually emerge from this. the Baker Mayfield, the Sam Darnold, these guys do not have $60 million anchors on their salary caps for their teams. They have much more flexible contracts. I mean, this year, I think Sam Darnold's cap hit was, I'm going to take a guess. It wasn't very high. I think it was like $14 million or something.

It was not very high. Sam Darnold. Now it'll go up, of course, after this year, but they won the Super Bowl. So who cares? So that's part of it is that these contracts are now. there is a mid-tier, which is where Kyler Murray would fall into if they won 10 games. If Murray won 10 games and the team was pretty good around him, and even if they played well in a playoff game and didn't win as you're sort of proposing,

he's not going to get $60 million a year on the open market. And Daniel Jones kind of shows this. He got 44, and I haven't seen the structure of that yet. It would probably be closer to that ballpark or lower, but flexible, but restructurable since we've seen from a lot of different contracts. Jalen Hertz has one of the wildest contracts. If you pull it up on over the cap.com, when Kirk signed void years were not a thing.

Void years started to become a thing in the subsequent seasons. In fact, really 2020 because the cap went down, remember due to COVID. So teams started using void years to push things out into the future when the cap would go up. And then they went, wait, if the salary cap goes up every single year, year, then we can borrow our money now on less paying later. So instead of paying a dollar in the future, we can pay 50 cents in the future for the same amount of dollars now. And that's why void years got to be so ridiculous and also popular because if you put a void year for 2026 in a

contract that was ending in 2024, you are paying so much less for it right now with a 300 plus million dollar cap than you were three or four years ago when you signed that contract. So the cap is unlikely to just stabilize and sit at one spot. So any contract is going to be better in the future. The minute you sign it, it becomes better the next day, basically. Someone else will get more. That's one. A lot more flexible for a Kyler-Marie potential deal than in the past.

Here's the other point, too. Sam Darnold just won the Super Bowl on an expensive contract. And Matthew Stafford for the Rams right now has a really good. team around him and would have won the Super Bowl had they beaten Seattle and the NFC championship game on an expensive contract. Jared Goff has had a ton of success with the Detroit Lions on an expensive contract. Say what you will about Jordan Love, but he was 9-3-1 when Micah Parsons got hurt and follow with me.

He also got his contract as well. The NFC has had, and not to mention, I mean, Jalen Hertz was in the Super Bowl with an extension. the divisional round team, San Francisco, what's the theme here? They paid Brock Purdy, still had enough to get to the divisional round and have a chance. Like if they had been healthier, maybe, I don't know if they would have beaten Seattle, but they had a chance to beat Seattle on the last day of the season to get the one seed. And they paid Brock Purdy. So no longer is it the case that if you pay a quarterback, you might as well just sign your own death wish.

Now, eventually, as we see from a team like Kansas City and even Buffett, Rostler was not as good or Cincinnati. Yes, there are consequences to the biggest contracts. But the mid-tier, I mean, even Tampa Bay, they screwed up last year, but they were in the playoffs the year after that they paid Baker Mayfield as well. So it's no longer thought to be impossible. And here's another point about the NFC. If we go through the NFC and we start to, and I don't like ranking quarterbacks

because my issue is that supporting castes have so much to do, with the success, how many quarterbacks in the NFC are blowing in the wind? So this is not your Allen, your borough, your Mahomes. And, you know, mostly, mostly Mahomes has been untouchable in years past. And Alan, they didn't even have a great team last year and they're one play away, right? So we agree that the AFC still has the best of the best in the NFL. In the NFC, there's a lot of really good quarterbacks. I think Jaden Daniels will bounce back.

Jalen Hertz was good enough under the right circumstances to win a Super Bowl. Jack Prescott has won 12 games numerous times, had number one offenses. Jared Gough, a top five offense machine. Stafford is, you know, the MVP. Like, he's fantastic. Stafford next year is going to be hard to beat if he plays this way, if he stays healthy. The Seattle Seahawks lost some talent. They didn't lose a ton of talent.

They're going to be hard to beat as well. But if we start to look into the future and go, all right, well, who's the Allen, the Jackson? I mean, maybe it's Caleb Williams, but last year he was a good quarterback with flaws. He was not a flawless, incredible Josh Allen level type of quarterback. He was good, but he was not perfect. And the same goes for love. And we'll see what the future of golf is in Detroit as their roster becomes expensive. Here's my point is that when you start to lay out all these quarterbacks,

we can all agree that when Jared Gough played for the Rams, they didn't have the right circumstances, he wasn't that great. And then when they did, he was that great. And Kyler Murray, when he's had good circumstances, was able to win 11 games and throw to DeAndre Hopkins like crazy. If it proves out that he is that level of a quarterback or a, you know, a Baker-Mayfield level of a quarterback, if you build your team the right way, you are in the dance.

You are in the conversation. And then it's up to the front office, the coaching staff and the football gods to give you the right breaks to give you a chance. So that is a different theory from where we were years ago because the landscape is always shifting. And that's why football is so interesting because a couple of years ago is like if you're running the football still, what are you doing? This is a downfield passing league. Explosives left and right.

And then all of a sudden defense has figured some stuff out. I was like, actually, you better start running the football because these defenses are They're playing two safeties in the parking lot and they're not letting you get deep. The ebbs and flows and the changes in the league change the theory of what you need to do all the time. It's not a static game. That's not me saying, yes, under any circumstance whatsoever, they should just sign Kyler Murray to a four-year contract after this year. It's going to depend on how he fits. Personality-wise, performance-wise, but there is a world where he is the 12th best quarterback in the league.

but if you're the 12th best quarterback in the league, and Justin Jefferson is your wide receiver and Brian Flores as your defensive coordinator, because remember, something also worthwhile pointing out with Kirk Cousins is that a couple of his best seasons with Justin Jefferson, not an angry Stefan Diggs, but Justin Jefferson, 2020, 2020, they won 13 games with Kirk, and he went 17 and 8 as a starter with this team.

But what do those seasons have in common? Didn't have very good defenses. And Zimmer and the drafting went downhill in 2020 and 2021. And the circumstances in the league changed. The teams were passing like crazy. It was the best passing environment that the NFL's ever seen in 2020 and 2021. Just so happening to match up with the Vikings struggling at the cornerback position. It was a nightmare.

2022, what was the issue? The defensive side with Ed Donatelle. They had one of the worst defenses in the league. I think you can have some confidence at least, even though there will be a rebuilding process, that Brian Flores, who came in to Minnesota, snapped the fingers in two years later, it's an elite defense,

that they can build around a quarterback, even if it is expensive. And if you got the 12th best play or higher, that you have a chance, if you superimposed Kirk's 2021 season onto last year with Flores' top five-ish defense, where are you at? But it was always going back to Kirk because they couldn't pay for stuff.

But now it's changed with the way the salary cap is changing and how flexible those contracts are. So you might be able to actually pay for stuff unlike before. As we've seen from many of these teams, the Lions are paying Jared Gough. And the Eagles have done some crazy stuff with the salary cap, but they're there. And you have an ownership that's willing to pay. So it's different. But also, I'm very interested to meet kind of.

and see him practice. Let's do that first. Let's just see how it goes. Because Rob, one of the things I love the most about the NFL is the roster building process, the timeline, trying to figure out how can you match this up with the Super Bowl window? One thing is that nobody thought Seattle was in their Super Bowl window last year and they won it all.

But another thing to point out is we don't know where things are going to go. We really don't. We never would have guessed in a million years. I mean, think about all the things we wouldn't have guessed in a million years. We wouldn't have guessed after 2015 that the Vikings would have Sam Bradford as their quarterback by the very next season. We would certainly have never guessed when they signed Sam Darnold. I thought it had potential.

I didn't think it had 14 win potential. I don't think anybody in the world did. The NFL is always changing and it is impossible to predict, which is what makes it so freaking great, Rob. So we'll see. Let it play out. Let, let Kyler become a Viking and play out before we, decide that they're in trouble in their long-term timeline.

Thanks, everybody, for listening to another episode of Purple Insider and lots of live stuff, lots of guests, lots of Kyler Murray analysis is on the way into the future. And we'll see if they actually sign some free agents and we'll get some answers on Harrison Smith and other things that we've been waiting for in the coming weeks. Thanks again, everybody. We'll catch you later. Football.