Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Asante Samuel Jr. to visit Vikings and Aaron Jones misses practice (Part 1)

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about the Vikings looking at Asante Samuel Jr. who has interest from multiple teams. Aaron Jones did not practice. Plus we heard from KOC and JJ McCarthy. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, presented by Fanduel, Matthew Collar here, as always. And we got a lot to get to tonight, but also a lot of open space for questions, comments, thoughts, feelings on the Minnesota Vikings as they get ready to play against the Baltimore Ravens. And just being out at TCO Performance Center today, Kevin O'C. Connell Talk, J.J. McCarthy, several players about an interesting subject, actually, to do with Andrew Van Ginkle. But a general feeling around the team is, I think that a weight was really lifted by this win against the Detroit Lions. I mean, just, you know, talking with Blake Cashman today, listening to him. And, you know, I don't think any players are ever going to come out and say, we made it. We're the best. But what Blake Cashman said today,

really stood out to me. He said, when we have all of our players out there, there's just a calm about us knowing that we can communicate with each other. And I thought, yeah, that's really an Andrew Van Ginkle comment because he's such a great high IQ guy, such a great communicator. But I think that that goes across the roster when you have the offensive line that you practiced together with. You have the defensive line, the linebackers, the Harrison Smith, everybody on the field that you practice day after day after day with through OTA's mini camp and so forth. And then you get everybody almost back out on the field. It's like, oh, yeah, we were good at this.

And we thought we were going to be good at this. It was a very confident team in training camp. And you got a sense for that talking with Cashman today. So doing that little, if we're doing a little vibe check, as we often have that come up sometimes on the show. But that's kind of what it feels like with this team. if they're looking around saying we're finally the version of ourselves that they're supposed to be.

And now the question is, will they add one more to the mix? Because they did not do anything at the trade deadline. Kevin O'Connell said today that they felt like getting guys back from injury was basically like making trades or making new player acquisitions. But they are scheduled on Friday, I believe this is according to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, to have Asante Samuel, Jr. stopped by TCO Performance Center. Today, Samuel Jr. visited with the Carolina Panthers. He has the Packers on the list, a couple of other teams,

and he will visit with the Vikings as well. So this potentially could be somewhat of a game changer if they can get Asante Samuel here. Now, I know he's coming off of a major surgery, doesn't have a training camp, doesn't have practice with a team, so asking him to show up and be a starter or something right away would be a lot. But the idea would be if the Vikings could get Asante Samuel Jr. to sign here that eventually he works into the lineup. I don't know what a timeline would be.

They'd have to sign him first and then we would have to ask some people what's the timeline for him actually getting back on the field. But it seems like he let the entire recovery process happen from his injury and surgery. and now is ready to go. And that's why he's going on this Asante Samuel Jr. tour. And clearly a bunch of teams around the NFL want to get him on their rosters. And I'm sure want to have him in their building and do their medical checks and so forth. And so the Vikings are on that list. And with Samuel Jr., for him in 2003, it looked like he had really taken a big jump while playing for the Los Angeles Chargers.

His first couple of seasons were just okay. He had played in 2002, 9701 snaps, had a 63.6 PFF grade, not bad in coverage overall that season, allowed a 97.6 QB rating against, certainly not terrible. And then in 2023, that's when he had the breakout season was one of the higher graded players in coverage for the Chargers, 73.9 overall PFF, grade, which puts you in not the first tier, but the next tier down from that. It's hard to be a good corner.

Had 11 pass breakups that year. Allowed still a 98 pass rating into his coverage, but 11 pass breakups is a lot for a corner. So a lot of playmaking there. And then last year, didn't play that much, got hurt. He's out. And now he is back and ready to sign with the team. And if you're the Vikings, this is one of the things that you feel like is a strength overall.

which is your ability to get players to sign with your team. You bring them to TCO Performance Center. You have them talk with the coaches. You have, I don't know how much communication you can have if you're doing a workout with other players and things like that. But word gets around, around the NFL about the culture of the Minnesota Vikings. And so often, players end up signing here. But I'm not saying that I know which way it's going to go.

I'm sure that he doesn't know which way at this point it's going to go. and it may come down to how much guaranteed money can you get, what is the future outlook. But with the Vikings, I think we know that the cornerback position is one where they could really use an extra body. Jeff Okuda is out. Fabian Moreau did a really good job for them last week. But the depth, if either Byron Murphy Jr. or Isaiah Rogers were to get hurt,

the depth is pretty concerning. Dwight McLeathern has essentially never really played in the NFL. NFL, just a handful of snaps. Morrow has been average to below average. Most of the time he's had to play in a main starting type of role. So you don't have a lot of depth there. And you would love to have some sort of rotation or matchups. And again, probably not right away, but maybe as you get into the final stretch of the season. And then in an ideal world, I think you'd be looking to sign Samuel Jr. to a multi-year contract. And I don't know if that's his goal. or not. Maybe his goal is to get a one-year deal, show everybody he could play, then be a

free agent again, help someone down the stretch. I don't know. But if you could sign him to a multi-year contract, assuming that you feel really good about where he's at medically, then you could be talking about having a player who is 26 years old going into the future. And it would be like adding a free agent prematurely in free agency for next year. So there's a lot of work to be done here. I don't know what Asante Samuel Jr.'s timeline is going to be like. But the fact is the Vikings are on the list. They're going to at least meet with him and then we'll see from there. But it feels like even though he did have this big injury, if you can get a 26 year old player who's a former second rounder that proved that they can play in the NFL as a starting corner,

that would be a pretty big boost for you. And let's see, where did he usually play? almost exclusively on the outside as a corner, which is good for the Vikings as well, because, I mean, you could have, if he were to come here, if he were to be good to play fairly quickly, you could play him on the outside, bump in Byron Murphy, Jr., and not always have to have the three safety looks on the field, as they have had to do a lot this year when Jeff Okuda's out there. And now if Theo Jackson doesn't play this week, you might be talking about playing Fabian Morrow a lot. and Byron Murphy in the nickel a lot, or maybe Jay Ward is out there quite often, which

I like where Jay Ward is at, but just as you go down the stretch, it would just give another option and then potentially into the future where Murphy is locked in, Rogers is on a short-term contract, and then it's kind of shrugs after that, solidifying it would be a big boost to this team in its weakest position. But there are other teams that are on the list. Carolina's got a winning record. The Packers got a winning record. There's, I think maybe San Francisco was on this as well.

They've got a winning record. So there will be quite a competition for him. But at very least, you're on the list. I feel like we've talked about this guy for, I don't know how long, going all the way back to the beginning of free agency when we were not aware of his health situation. And then as it went along throughout the summer, it was like, is he going to sign what's going on there? And then we didn't really find out until a.

later in the process that it was going to be the middle of the season before he found a job. But that is absolutely something to watch for Asante Samuel Jr. Let's take a look at the injury report here and then we'll get into some other things. And of course, your questions, comments, start throwing them in. What's on your mind right now with the Vikings. We'll get the Fandual question of the day in just a second. But on the injury report, the biggest name, Aaron Jones, not practicing today dealing with not only the shoulder, but also a toe injury.

And this is one to watch going forward because Kevin O'Connell said that what came across as as optimistic about Aaron Jones and made it sound like they had avoided major serious shoulder injury with Jones. But that doesn't necessarily mean, hey, he's going to play this week. It might mean, hey, he's not going to go on IR. So we'll have to see Thursday and Friday if he gets out there. there. And I think what we saw last week against Detroit was a bit of a reminder from Aaron Jones. This is why they need him pretty badly. A bit of a reminder of, oh yeah, that's right. That was

the Aaron Jones that we saw at the beginning of the season last year. The explosiveness, the hands, the ability to read blocks in front of him, and the Vikings run blocking really looks like a team that could move some bodies now that it's almost at 100%. It's at 80%. But with Christian Derisaw and Donovan Jackson playing next to each other on the left side and Fries and O'Neill on the right side, that's a lot of dudes that are known as quality run blockers. And I think on the left side specifically, if you want to run outside zone type

stuff with those two athletes, Aaron Jones has been a specialist at that for his entire career. He just had that jolt that maybe very early in the season. We didn't see so much from him. He didn't have that active of a training camp, which I think is a long-term play and probably the right one. But it just, oh, does he really have that same burst like he had last year? Did he lose it? Is he old now? And then against Detroit, yeah, that's it. And I think we've also seen from Jordan Mason, as good as he's been at times. We've also seen some of the maybe shortcomings. I think he needs to be in a certain type of system where if you're running outside zone, you have to have a center that can get a reach block. And I don't know that

that's Blake Brandel. So you have to make some adjustments there. And we just haven't seen quite as much from Jordan Mason. The other concern would be that Mason is not a good pass protector. And look, it's really, really hard to block Jack Campbell. It's extremely hard. He's a great player and just saying, hey, he's not any good at it is probably not fair. But compared to Aaron Jones, who has been an above average pass blocker a lot of times throughout his career, I think he's very good at it in terms of identifying the right person and then just kind of throw in his body as much as he can. But I think they really need CJ Hamm back for some of those third down pass pro

type of reps where it's like having an extra offensive lineman in there. That's where they've missed CJ Ham on some of these plays. But asking Jordan Mason to do it all, not always the easiest thing. So they're going to hope, I suppose, that Aaron Jones comes back. But it could be a big miss in the backfield for him. And I wonder about Xavier Scott, Cam Acres. We haven't seen really any of Cam Acres outside of that touchdown pass that he threw. But will we see if Aaron Jones isn't in there?

Will we see more of Xavier Scott, who got some opportunities, made a couple of plays, and then, you know, didn't see much more of him, or could it be the time where they actually do pull out, hey, it's Cam Acres time, buddy. It always, at some point, it always becomes Cam Acres time. And I wonder if Aaron Jones can't play if that's what happens. But last week was proof that they need him in there for a lot of those key pass protection downs. And they need him in there for the hands. I mean, he's just exceptional. And there, you know, there's some plays where they line up Jordan Mason is a wide receiver. It's just not the same as it is with Aaron Jones, who can catch passes and run routes like he's a wide receiver. So they need him in, but also you don't want to

risk Aaron Jones if he needs another week. You'd much rather have him down the stretch if he needs another week to recover. So we'll see on that one, but that could be something that sets them back a little bit offensively from where they were early in that Lions game, where Jones is just, You know, he goes out, catches a checkdown and has a few successful runs and catches the swing pass. And you're going, whoa, yeah, he can be a quarterback's best friend. And really, when you go back and I know we've made some of the comparisons to Jordan Love's first year with J.J. McCarthy, who was his best friend in the backfield in the second half of that season? I don't think it was any mistake that Love started to play his best football in 2003 when Aaron Jones started to get healthy.

So Jones, a DNP, Theo Jackson did not practice, Jeff Okuda, Josh Oliver still didn't practice, rest for Harrison Smith. C.J. Ham was limited, so maybe there's a chance there. Will Fry's also limited along with Josh Mattelis, Jalen Redmond, and a full participant, Christian Darisaw, which feels big. I think maybe he'll get his day of rest tomorrow. We'll see about that. but usually it's been one day of rest or one day not practicing, but for him to come back from playing the full game, practice in full, a very good sign for Christian Derisaw to be 100% going forward or as close as he's going to be this year coming off of that knee injury.

Now, here's a curious one. Can't say I've ever seen this one before. So each day from the Vikings, we get an email and it's got the injury report on it, right? And so, you know, we're standing there in the locker room and we pull it up and we're kind of taking look. Okay, you know, look going over the Vikings players and wait a minute, is there a mistake here? Is there something that is gone awry? What is happening? The Baltimore Ravens list no one on their injury report.

Nobody. Now, I know they played on Thursday night. And so they've got a little bit of an extra buy. but for a team that was just penalized for messing around with the injury report and Lamar Jackson, to have nobody on it, nobody missed a single, not a single player on the team had a toe, a foot, a hammy, a contact lens, nothing for the Baltimore Ravens. So I don't know how much we're going to get in terms of the Ravens telling everybody about their injuries going into this game.

But I don't know. maybe they're just going to pay the fines. It seems impossible, even though you've just played on Thursday, that you could have no one on your injury report when you return to practice the following Wednesday. But hey, congratulations to them. I guess what we'll be seeing is two teams that suffered a lot of injuries early in the season that now are getting back to full health. So one more thing.

We've got JJ McCarthy, Kevin O'Connell, both talked at podiums today. And then I'll get to the Andrew Van Ginkle thing, which was kind of interesting inside the locker room. But the main subject coming out of the game against Detroit is that if J.J. McCarthy had been accurate on two or three more passes in that game, we're talking about one heck of a performance. It was still a very good performance overall. And, you know, I gave him a pretty high score. It wasn't, I know some of the comments wanted A pluses or whatever, but, you know, like,

let's be fair about the performance. some throws and he said this as well that he would really like back and so Kevin O'Connell talked and is sort of given you a QB school of his own about how he views the armed talent, the accuracy and all that with the J.J. McCarthy and making that growth step building off of that game in Detroit. What from an accuracy state of some of those throws, like what is required to be accurate? Yeah, I think so much of it comes from, you know, the understanding of just the amount of RPMs you have to put on the throw.

And he's got the ability high level to, you know, throw the ball very hard. But, you know, you guys have heard me talk about a lot of things in regards to things I look for in quarterbacks. And arm strength is normally not on the podium as far as, you know, the top things you're talking about. The most important thing is, as he learned on a few throws the other day, both completions he had that were critical, the long throw to Addison, you know, really either one. of the longer completions to Addison, but then also are we giving guys a chance for run after catch as well when we've married the run in the past and set up a play pass with a chance for an explosive. It doesn't just have to be a, you know, catch and get back up and get 21 yards. It can be a 30, 40 yard catch and run. So how many times can we just, and a lot of those plays

are relatively low on the scale of difficulty, you know, and then it's becomes, you know, the consistency of not only being accurate on this throw and this throw, but then it's every single throw, every single play, where we get that consistency from him, which I think he's definitely capable of different variations. And that's what the most important thing is for accuracy. And then once you start getting comfortable using that, then you got to get comfortable, you know, something catches your eye.

You got to throw it to a place where a guy's going. And if you're not going to throw it hard, you got to then, you know, adjust for that in the type of throw you use. I think it's all part of his development. So there you go. Kevin O'Connell kind of breaking it down. He referenced a specific play where McCarthy threw out in front of Justin Jefferson. It was about 118 miles an hour on the radar gun. And it knocked Jefferson to the ground as he was trying to catch it.

And that was one where I don't know if they would have gotten 40 yards. But if you put some touch on it and you hit him right in the breadbasket, full speed running, he had a lot of room because they had caught the lion. on a play action and there was a lot of space there. So maybe he does dodge a tackle and so forth. And I think the right word there from Kevin O'Connell is consistency because that's where the reps come in. What you saw against Chicago and what you saw against Detroit was that McCarthy is

capable of making very accurate throws right on point. There's five, six that you could point to that you go, yeah, that's exactly it. That's right on. That's dead eye accurate. of course, the throw to nailer at the end is the most notable, but there's a handful of others that were really impressive. It's there. And the decision making was largely there as well.

It's just getting that throwing technique right. And there's an outrout to Jefferson that turns into the incompletion that should have been a completion. And that's one where as soon as Jefferson's coming out of his break, the ball should be into his hands at that point, running full speed toward the sideline. he shouldn't have to turn around, kind of wait for it, and then it's thrown a million miles an hour and then dive for it. Like, these are little timing things and technique things that should come along.

And that's what we're going to look for on a week-to-week basis. I don't think anyone expects McCarthy to get 10% better against the Ravens and 20% better against the Bears and 30, like, that's not going to happen. But let's say that you have six or seven throws in that game that are not accurate, that are costly, that are costing you yards. And then the next week, it's instead of seven or eight, it's four or five, right? Just cutting it down because now you're getting a real chance to go out there and do it and do it and do it in real time at full speed. I think all things considered, the amount of time that he missed to come back and play the way that he did,

to play confidently, to throw the ball confidently, to run the ball confidently into the end zone, the way that he did to scramble and escape. Sometimes there was a little too much confidence from J.J. McCarthy and himself, and he took some hits because of it. But you'd rather have that and try to rein it in than you would have him look timid or scared or something like that. So, you know, overall, like the confidence was there. The belief in himself was there.

Now it's just like mastering and smoothing out the technical stuff. But I thought that was a great breakdown from KOC there. And McCarthy also talked about improving. his accuracy as he goes along as well. When you talk about accuracy outside the pocket and when you're on the move, how do you drill that down so that you can make those throws on the run and be precise with them? For me, it just goes back to how many times am I going to, in a comfortable setting, put myself in uncomfortable positions, you know, body positions to make those throws. And being on the run, it's not uncomfortable, but it's different. And, you know, obviously coming off of six weeks of not

being able to run. That's going to be an area of my game that I need to catch up on and improve on. And we did a lot today to do that. Kevin's talked a lot about just the lower half and the progression from that standpoint. Where do you feel like you're at just in that regard with your mechanics and in and out of the pocket? I feel like I'm growing. You know, that's the number one metric that I really focus on is just growth. Was I better today than I was yesterday? And, you know, there's a a lot of room to go a lot more growth to happen so there you go j j mccarthy always talking about growth and i think that it's one of the things about him that has stood out since day one that when he

got to the vikings uh he was not accurate and he didn't have down any of the technical stuff and i'm talking way back after he was first drafted and you know you're watching it out there going um is this going to be okay and then it got better and then it got better and then i got better so i expect the same thing to happen here as the more that he plays and the same thing happened in this training camp where at the beginning of training camp you thought that's not quite you know this day is good and that day is bad and and then by the end of camp he was having day after day after day where he looked like an NFL starting quarterback who you could win games with so to come back this is a good starting point where you get a huge win on the road at Ford Field you get

a performance good enough to win a game like that is your baseline starting point. Well, now he can grow from there. And he talked a little bit about, so it's very noticeable with McCarthy in these couple of games, especially the wins. His intensity, that is something that has become quite clear. He's out there making faces. And, you know, when he scores the touchdown, he's flexing. And after the game, he's got kind of a look in his eye that's a little bit crazy eyes.

and Kevin O'Connell joked about kind of getting out of the way, like he doesn't want to fly at arm or something, you know, with McCarthy because he's so pumped up. But he talked about last year having a lot of that angst sort of build up as he was waiting desperately to get back out on the field and play football. The game day intensity, how far back can you trace that in your career in sports or life? To be honest with you, it really kind of started to show up this year. And it came about last year during IR, you know, just never had a full season where, you know, you want to be out there so freaking bad, but you can.

It was just this built-up anger that was kind of ready to just explode. And I chose to harness it instead of letting it go into, you know, a self-destructive kind of way. And it's unique. And I kind of love feeding that wolf because my entire life, you know, at Michigan, it was a smiley face on my hand and smile and you have fun. better and all that, which is true, but I also think there's a lot of power that comes from, you know, that built up anger that you can transmute into your performance. So there's J.J. McCarthy, feeding the wolf. There you go. Well, look, like I said, there was a saying, and it's, I know it transfers over to football, but I think it's really big

in hockey. So all you hockey fans have heard it, that it's easier to say, whoa, than go, which means, look, you can tell a guy who is a little bit overly amped up to calm down a bit and they can calm themselves as they go along and get more experience. But if somebody doesn't have that dog in them and doesn't have that natural energy and intensity and all, it's very hard to say, come on, come on, be intense. And look, uh, you know, I think being a psycho football guy is kind of required for all of this. It's interesting for somebody because I got used to covering Kirk Cousins, who is almost the same

ages me. So he talked like he was kind of the dad or the uncle of the locker room where there was 24 year old players and 26 year old players and Kirk was in his 30s and you know the whole they put chains on them all and stuff. And he would reference Fred McGriff and, you know, talk about creed and things from really honestly when I was a teenager because we were teenagers around the same time. And I was like, oh yeah. Okay. So he kind of talked like that. And Sam Donald was, you know, a few years younger, but still like a grown-up who had been around the block in the NFL and was kind of more guarded, had been in the New York market, was a little more, it took about half the season, maybe a little longer for him to be a little more open when it came to those podium sessions and the conversations we had with him. And JJ McCarthy is just full Gen Z, 22 years old, like every bit of that, just kind of a ball of energy. as a younger guy.

And it's interesting because I think that a lot of younger athletes, they sort of process things differently. They sort of talk differently. They have had a lot more, I think, people who are directing them from a very early age. And so I think that he's taken a lot of these things that he's seen. And I don't mean directing as just in coaching. I mean as in even just watching YouTube or, you know, seeing quotes from athletes or whatever.

I mean, if you, I don't know, like were my age that you had to get like basketball digest or something to read quotes from athletes. And now you can see every single J.J. McCarthy press conference, you know, just right at your fingertips. So there's a lot of kind of motivational type of stuff that I think younger athletes and, you know, things that they are kind of latching onto and connecting with. that don't sound the same way as Kirk Cousins did. And I'm having to get used to that as well.

But I thought that his explanation there was really good that, you know, last year not, I mean, to say put a chip on his shoulder seems like pretty cliche, but maybe change his viewpoint of there was a lot of angst from him last year about not playing. It was really, really hard. He had never played before. And I've said this. And, you know, I don't know that. it can ever really be overstated that when guys just disappear for an injury, they're still a human. They're going through something that's really hard,

not only from a physical perspective to get back to 100%, but also from a mental and emotional perspective. And if you are a, I don't know, 28-year-old NFL player who's been in the league for X number of years and you have a meniscus tear and you're out, that's still really hard. But if you are a kid who came in and was sort of the, hey, you're going to be the franchise quarterback and that's what you're being anointed at as your coach. And then you've got to be away from football for a long time. I think it clearly changed him in some ways, but also maybe you don't take it for granted every time he walks out there to play against the Detroit line. So I think, you know, look, that sort of intensity, that sort of vibe, if you will, from your quarterback, you would much rather have that than, you know, somebody out there who.

comatose. So that's why, you know, I was, I don't know who I made this crack to, but you got to be a certain age to really get this one, too. But the 1993 season where Jim McMahon played for the Vikings, Jim McMahon was kind of, kind of wild, you know, kind of crazy in a lot of good ways and maybe some not great ways. And, you know, he led the 85 bears to the Super Bowl. He ends up getting that team to the playoffs by, I mean, it wasn't masterful quarterback play, but he found away. He brought the intensity. He brought the leadership. He brought the toughness, brought some mobility, made some plays. And maybe there's a little bit more of a Case Keenham recent example where Keenham was a vibe, right? Keenham brought a playmaking element. It was kind of wild at times

and maybe frustrating to his head coach at times. But everybody bought in. Only Case Keenum didn't have physical gifts that are anywhere near what J.J. McCarthy's are. So if you take some of that, element of toughness or intensity or competitiveness or leadership or whatever you call it and you make it a lot younger, larger and faster and stronger than you have what we're seeing from J.J. McCarthy. But just, you know, good insight into kind of his thought process there. And it must just be, you know, pretty wild for somebody at his age to be taking on an organization with so many great players and the amount of self-belief that you have have to do that.

I think for someone like him, you're looking for every single thing that you can use to take with you out onto that field because, man, is it scary out there? It's scary out there. It's scary to watch training camp. I mean, when you see the size, the speed, the violence of the NFL, it takes a lot of guts. So you've got to use every single thing to get out there because I think you've seen in the past when a quarterback was scared looking.

and it's ugly. It gets very ugly. So you could see how he draws on all of those things to do what he does. And now, hey, you had a great game against Detroit on to the next one. So there's the main takeaways from that. One more thing before I get to your questions and comments. Andrew Van Ginkle, it was interesting. Kevin O'Connell said that he showed the team a play from Andrew Van Ginkle,

who I think shifted the defense's outlook, one player. I mean, I don't know, 180 degrees. Truly, one player shifted this defense's outlook by that much. And the play that they highlighted in the meeting was where Van Ginkle got shoved down from behind by Kaleaf Raymond, who was going in motion and then just hit Van Ginkle. Honestly, when you see the tape, it looks like right in the back. And he goes down and yet still sees that it's a screen pass, spins around and makes the tackle an amazing play. But when we asked him about it, you know, I saw that his wife had retweeted a breakdown of it. And so, you know, I kind of jokingly said, oh, hey, like, yeah, I saw your wife retweeted that and like what happened on that play.

And he was very unhappy about it, actually, because of the hit from Khalif Raymond and coming and, you know, putting his hands into, I guess you could argue maybe his shoulder or side, but it looked more like even his back and how that the pass rushers are just not protected at all from that where you could just. come in and blindside them. So I think that's something that the NFL does have to look at if teams are going to do that and just destroy a pass rusher while he can't protect himself at all. I mean, using receivers to send outside linebackers flying. Now, he asked the referee and they said that it wasn't a crack block, an illegal crack block, but to me, it's the same exact concept where somebody has no chance of seeing or knowing that someone's going to come completely.

blindside and hammer them, especially for a guy that had a neck injury, that really not something that they were happy about. Eric Wilson called it BS. He seemed to be pretty frustrated about it. So that might be something that the Vikings do submit to the NFL to take a look at, and they should not allow that. Like, that is, that is, I agree that it's either a dirty play,

very, very borderline dirty play, or just should be litigated if you're trying to protect players and player safety, you shouldn't be able to send a wide receiver in motion, sneak up behind the pass rusher and just drill them out of nowhere because that doesn't seem quite what we're going for here in terms of health and safety. But that was interesting. I mean, Van Ginkle, his communication ability is football smarts, his toughness, his instincts, his pass rush ability, coverage ability.

I mean, you just saw all of it against Detroit. So they need him healthy and he did come out of the game healthy despite the hit from Khalif Raymond. So there is most of the things. Yeah, I know, Nick, the Lions playing dirty water is wet. Yeah, I know. I mean, look, it has become a thing for sure where it absolutely seems like they play a certain style of football that is really on the edge and apparently did not break the rules there

but came really, really close to it. And a lot of the Vikings players were really unhappy with what happened there. Let me get you the Fandual question of the day. And then I will answer some questions here. J.J. McCarthy's over under on Fandul is 205.5 yards against the Ravens. Give me your projected McCarthy stat line against Baltimore. That's what I'm looking for. is over under 205.5. Is he going to go over or under? Give me your projected. What do you expect from him for a stat line after now? Hey, we got all three starts for J.J. McCarthy.

So can we have enough to build on there against Baltimore? How good is their defense clearly improving with some of the health? But are you sold on their defense yet? I'm interested in your answers there. so all right let's start out with uh from c becoming a pie chart request here uh how much of sunday's success do you think was number one the healthy team on offensive defense two j g mccarthy three coaching and four explosive plays um so well you know the explosive plays are kind of a result of the other three but uh i think number one is the health i really do think the number one

is the health, because as a coach, you can only work with the players that are out there. You cannot do a whole lot when you have two backup tackles, a backup center. If you have, like they did early in the season, your number two wide receiver who's a star suspended, I mean, you can, you can have success there. You don't have to automatically lose the game, but it ain't the same when you're talking about taking away pro bowl caliber talent and a backup quarterback. as well. So, you know, I think that being healthy also applies to having J.J. McCarthy in there, but especially on the defensive side. So if we just said, hey, it's defense being

healthy. Brian Flores can do a lot, but he can't turn Dallas Turner into Andrew Van Ginkle at the snap of a finger. That's eight years in the NFL or whatever Van Ginkle, however long he's been in the NFL, worth of experience, worth of communication, worth of seeing offenses, defenses, every different type of look. That was a massive deal to have him. And Blake Cashman back to 100%, Harrison Smith back to 100%. These players, I mean, that's the whole foundation of what Brian Flores built this thing on is those guys roaming around along with Byron Murphy communicating with each other,

changing the defense at every offensive look. So not having those guys made it so much harder to do. So I'm going to go number one on that list. I would go probably 40% is just having health there. Now, J.J. McCarthy would get another 30% because we saw with Carson Wentz, the injured version of Carson Wentz, was not going to be able to win really at all. I mean, just that that banged up, oh, well, it's only his left shoulder right. But, you know, if it's making you scream in pain every time you get touched,

I don't think that's going to give you an opportunity to play at your absolute best. So having a dynamic quarterback out there, having a quarterback that can run for a touchdown that can zip passes into tight coverage and things like that, this is a very skilled player, very raw at this point, but very talented player. And he showed a lot of it against Detroit and gave them some nightmares on certain plays. That was a big part. I would go 30% having him back out there with the way the offense was able to operate to score in the red zone like that's a lot of j j mccarthy because they really couldn't when they had cars and wents out there and in terms of coaching so i'm already at 70% um coaching uh goes into uh you know every part of this

but i don't think the coaches can do as much without those players out there so i'm always going to lean players first so i'll go with 20% uh the coaching and then you know 10% explosive plays because i mean they they those do change a game a field goal block you know a strip Fumble Recovery by Harrison Smith, the fumble caused by Blake Cashman. Like those are huge plays and some big throws by J.J. McCarthy. Like those are big. But I think that in terms of them being kind of back, like it's just having the right guys on the field is number one. And then they're going to make the plays.

Coaching was excellent in this game. It was overall a very well-called game by Kevin O'Connell and Brian Flores did an A-plus job against the lines there, coaching up the defense. And I did notice that Kevin O'Connell snuck in there today that, you know, that goal line play where J.J. McCarthy goes out of bounds and stops the clock that he maybe needed to say into the headset, hey, it's okay to take a sack. It's not okay to run out of bounds. So maybe some of that could be that, you know, McCarthy, in experience and game situation, and stuff like that.

A little situational football there, but maybe saw your tweets. I don't know about the game management. I mean, look, you're calling a pass play there. So you have to know that you got to stay in bounds. J.J. McCarthy does. Let's see. I shot you 99.

If Samuel Jr. leaves without a contract being signed, it's a done deal. He won't be signing here or will he be just doing due diligence. I've seen it both ways. I've seen it both ways. because, I mean, Stefan Gilmore came to visit in the middle of the summer, and then we didn't hear from Stefan Gilmore for a little while. And then all of a sudden, well, Stefan Gilmore is signing with the Vikings.

So I don't know. I think if you're him, you probably go on your full tour, don't you? At this point, there's no real hurry for Asante Samuel Jr. It's not like free agency where you're like, I better find a seat today. And some guys just sign without even visiting. And, you know, you're like, I just better get in there, right? it's not like that for him. He's got teams that are going to put their offers on the table and he's going to do the medicals and everybody's going to discuss it.

And then he can say, all right, let me sit down like house hunters, one of my favorite shows. And he can look at each one and he could say, which house do I want? Do I want the open concept? Do I want the one with the backyard? Do I want the one that's got a lot of natural light and beams? Like anybody who watches the show knows that that's like 90%. of the commentary. Location is usually important.

That might be important to Asante, Samuel. I don't know. It might just be guaranteed dollars at the end of the day, or there might be more to it, his fit in the defense, how he jived with the coaches that he met with or the front office that he met with. I don't know. But if you're him, I don't think if he leaves the building, it's over. I think you've got to sit down and take a really diligent look at where you think you're going to be

and who you're going to trust in terms of, like the handling of your medical needs for him because I'm sure that, you know, there's something that goes along with spinal fusion, right? Is that what it was? I mean, there's got to be, yeah, I don't think you just like, okay, he's good to go. Like, I'm sure that there's more things that go along with that. So, you know, his, I'm sure that his health is going to be an issue as well that he wants to talk over with the team and what their plan is for keeping him healthy, then dollars,

then location, then team success. like those would be the things I'd be looking at, but I want every team's thoughts first. So BM says he's working out with like six teams, not sure the Vikings are the most appealing. It really depends. I mean, because it's not going to be just on, hey, I don't think anyway. I don't know Asante Samuel Jr., but normally it would not be just, oh, like is this team in position to win the Super Bowl right now? Because that can change so fast. I mean, if you go to San Francisco, they're six and two, but they're really banged up.

Like, they could fall off the face of the earth in the second half of the season. You know, Green Bay, maybe you don't want to live in Green Bay. As if anybody's been there, you could maybe see why. No offense to the people of Wisconsin. But, you know, like pro athletes might not always want to go live in the woods. And you could say that from Minnesota as well. If you're, you know, if you're an L.A. guy or you're an Atlanta guy or we're at Texas or North Carolina or Florida. I don't know where he's from, but south or southwest, maybe you're thinking,

I don't know about that weather up there. And if it's a 50, 50 shot, you might go to North Carolina. I don't know. So, you know, I don't know him at all. But I would be thinking if I were in his shoes, where do I feel the most comfortable? What building, what coaches, what teammates, like, do I know people there? And then it comes down to what are the offers? And if the offers are very big indifference, well, then you might sacrifice going to live in the woods of Lambo.

If you're going to get a lot more dollars than maybe living in North Carolina or San Francisco or something, maybe cost of living, I don't know. Like there's a lot of different things that could go into it from his standpoint. But I don't think that the Vikings are unattractive in this way. They're a 500 team that just got their quarterback back that has a really good reputation with guys from the outside. coming in here, we saw all the signings that they had in the off season. So their reputation within agents, within other players is very, very good. And that's why they usually get players like this. But what are their realistic chances?

That I don't know. I'd have to be in the room with him. But, I mean, I guess if he's meeting with six teams, then it's one and six. Maybe a little bit weighed higher than one and six because, you know, obviously this team is good at making their sales pitch. Zumer K.O. points out no Brian O'Neill on the injury report. Absolutely huge. Yep, absolutely huge. Saw him out there today. Matt Verrick says, good to see you there in the live.

Do you think that Miles Price has earned a larger role on the team moving forward? Also, does he have a record for most yards called back to penalty? I don't know if he has a record, but man, it feels like it. He's got to be, whatever the record is, he's got to be close to most called back by penalty. You know, he's interesting. I don't know that you want to take off the field too many times other wide receivers. So, you know, just for example, they've run a couple of reverses and they've really worked. You know, Jalen Ehler is very fast and Jordan Addison is very shifty and really great with the ball in his hands.

People may forget that Jordan Addison was a special punt returner himself at Pitt. He was just fantastic. So he's great with the ball in his hands as well. So who are you taking off the field to put Miles Price on the field? But also at some point it becomes a little bit of, and I know this is a big difference because one guy was a first round pick and the other guy is an undrafted guy. But it does become a little bit Cordero Pattersony

where you're going, this guy is so good at breaking tackles and seeing the field and making plays that maybe you do have to put him out there at some point. And, you know, when we look at into the future a little bit, if Jalen Naylor is going to hit free agency, Miles Price, Ty Felton, these are two guys that are good with the football in their hands that may shift what that number three wide receiver position is for the Vikings. Right now, it's kind of a downfield route runner, but maybe it shifts more into a playmaker. And maybe they can, you know, create two or three plays per game for him at some point because he really is exceptional. But as of right now, really good to have as a returner if they could just stop holding.

Let's see. Kibbeast says Thielen has been totally MIA. Yeah, look, I mean, I think that this was kind of bound to happen when Jalen Naylor came back, that Adam Thielen's snap count was going to go down. But then also the other part of it, too, is that even with Nick Vanette out there, he is a journeyman blocking tight end, listed at like 260. Big dude. They're using a lot of the bigger personnel

because other teams are going to blitz J.J. McCarthy and they want to be able to run the football. It is a bit in vogue right now to be using bigger personnel, but that's because everyone's realizing it's very successful. So they're using a lot of two tight ends. They're going to do it when Josh Oliver comes back. And then when you're going three wide receivers, you're putting Jalen Naylor out there.

So, you know, the opportunity there is just limited. And, you know, Adam Thielen, I think, was brought in in a large part to play a big role in the first couple games. And sometimes the plan that you have doesn't end up playing out the way that you would have thought. Because I thought over the first three games, this would have, I remember we had this discussion when they traded for him. Like, what's a reasonable projection for Adam Thielen? And I think I was in the range of like 20, 25 catches somewhere. I don't think anybody was saying, hey, he's going to catch 60 balls for the Vikis. There's just not enough football to go around to all these playmakers.

And the expectation was, okay, McCarthy will come in, these first three games without Jordan Addison, he'll have an extra weapon to throw to Adam Thielen, get a handful of catches, maybe rack up 10 receptions or something, and then the rest of the year, he's going to pop in and out, he's going to rotate and make a few plays, right? That was the expectation. And those first three games just did not go the way we thought. Against Chicago, there's a drop-ish in there to him. He catches the two-point conversion.

That was good. But, you know, there wasn't a lot of throws in that game for J.J. McCarthy. Some of the biggest plays were with his legs in that game, like the touchdown run. And they ran the ball well with Jordan Mason late in the game. They didn't have a ton of completions early. Then the Atlanta game is just a disaster all across the board. So there's not a lot of opportunity there. Third game, you have Carson Wentz take over.

You're so far ahead because of defensive touchdowns. You're just basically running the football and throwing a handful of underneath passes from Carson Went. And then Jordan Addison comes back and it's, hey, reminder, Jordan Addison's amazing. A great, great football player. And there just hasn't been a ton of opportunity. They must rank, I can look this up. They must rank toward the bottom of the league in a total. total pass attempts.

They have to be really low. Let me see if I can find this. Pro football reference is not being my friend right now. Where's team stats? See if I can find the teams that just for pure pass attempts. I'm curious about because they can't have that many so far this year. So actually the Ravens have the fewest. Yeah, they're in the bottom.

They have 244 pass attempts. The Ravens have the fewest with 208. one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. So only seven teams have fewer pass attempts. And when that happens, you're not going to have guys with Jamar Chase numbers. But, you know, the trade, look, the trade doesn't look good for them at the moment because it didn't play out when it was supposed to, which was the beginning of the season. Is that completely over yet? No, I mean, you're always one, look, if Jalen Naylor gets banged up and you've got to play Thielen more, you're always one.

you're always one play away from that mattering a lot more or him, you know, rotating in a little bit more as we go on if McCarthy starts to get hot throwing the football and you're needing to rotate in receivers. Like, you know, we can't declare the whole thing eight games through the season when there's nine games to go. But it just the main part where he was supposed to be used kind of came and went. So BM says for his violent of runner as Mason, is he's tentative and timid in pass blocking.

I think that it's a real technical thing. You know who used to be really good at it was Amir Abdullah, small guy, but he would get low and he would get his hands on guys and he wouldn't lunge. I think lunging is a big issue. Like you have to really sturdy yourself to accept that contact and then get low into that linebackers pads. And it is not a good time. and it's happening lightning fast, identifying stuff.

Like being a good pass protecting running back, this is why I always really, really respected Latavius Murray. It's hard to do, man. It is so hard to do. So he either has to improve on that or just they're probably going to need CJ Ham out there who is just a phenomenal, phenomenal pass protector. Mama says, when do you think that McCarthy will throw for his first 300-yard game? You know, there just isn't as many 300-yard.

yard games as there were a couple years ago where it felt like everybody was doing it, 2020, 2021, where you got guys throwing for 5,000 plus yards. If I had to pick one in particular, I think the obvious choice is against the Dallas Cowboys because, I don't know, me throwing to you feels like we could get, you know, 250 against the Cowboys. They just can't cover anybody. Quinn and Williams is a great player for them, but it doesn't help their coverage a bit. So I think that would be my pick because that that has shootout written all over it.

They've got the offense and the receivers to be able to give the Vikings a pretty darn difficult time. But they can't cover anyone. So I would go with that one. That feels like the most likely shootout. But it'll probably be, I mean, well, hey, like the bears could be one of those too. The bears can't stop anybody. And the bears have an offense that's running the football extremely well. Caleb Williams is putting up some points.

So maybe it'll be next week. at home. Let's see. Chase Daniel posted his game review, still learn more from JT, but worth to watch. Yeah, the QB school one was excellent. It is very detailed. JT. gets really into the woods with that. But, you know, these former quarterbacks putting out reviews is great. It helps me a ton because, you know, I, when it comes to watching film, I've watched a lot of it, I've done a film review for every single game since I got here. 2016. And yet still, when I watch the film back, I don't see everything. And I don't know every assignment, which is always, you know, comes up. I don't know always what was supposed to

happen. And I don't try to guess. What I'll usually do is pick out plays where I have a pretty good sense of they tell the story that I heard from the locker room. They tell the story of the data. So just, you know, for example, with, um, the throw that, uh, was referenced today by Kevin O'Connell where McCarthy rips it over the middle and he catches, Jefferson catches it, kind of goes down. Well, that one is a pretty clear cut. Hey, what happened on that play? And the touch and accuracy was not really there. That was one where it's like they've talked about this a lot. He's talked about it a lot. And here's an example of it. So I'm taking the reporting from out there, the things that I've heard from them and then applying it to, okay, here's where I see it on tape. And that's how I try to do it.

J.T. and Chase Daniel, they could break it down at a much different level of, yeah, here's what the quarterback is seeing. Here's what the defense is doing. I mean, I can see different coverages. All right. It's man. It looks like zone. It's cover two, you know, that kind of thing.

But teams throw so many wrinkles in there. Sometimes you're like, I don't really know. I'm not really sure what the defense was seeing here. And those guys are so much better. They also break down technical stuff. Like, I'm not a quarterback coach. So I like to watch those and then bring them into my own thought process. So it's a great suggestion for anybody who wants to learn more about quarterback play.

Like a dog in the street. There you go. It's already catching on, I guess. Do you think the touch passes are there? Seems KOC thinks they're the long way to go.