Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Ask Purple Insider Anything (Part 2)

Episode Date: February 24, 2024

Matthew Coller answers Vikings fans questions about, well, all sorts of things from which jersey to buy to all sorts of quarterback speculation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I don't think that Bill Belichick gets another head coaching job. I think that he's done. Maybe I'm wrong, but he's in his 70s. And the issue with Bill Belichick is that you have to hand him over your whole franchise. Who's going to be willing to do that when he's 73 years old? You have to give him roster control. You have to give him all the power. He's got to run every single detail.

Are you really willing to do that for somebody who's in their seventies? I think that he could be a great defensive coordinator, but he'll never take a defensive coordinator job. Not with all the rings. I think that you might end up seeing Bill Belichick doing a little broadcasting and you'll probably be surprised how funny he is and that he's not just the grumbly guy that he's known as but i i have a tough time thinking anybody gives him the job uh ron says it's matthew's night to cook what's on the menu taco bell ron that's what's on the menu matt's night to cook is taco bell because matt doesn't cook and uh you know when

when my wife does it's spectacular but she's out of town a lot and stuff. So it's just Taco Bell pizza. Yeah. Look, I'm not good at that. I don't live a healthy life. If there's anything that's come across in this show, in this ask purple insider, anything, it's that healthy eating is not one of the things that I do very well, along with most other stuff that isn't talking about football. So, but it's a good question. Did we freeze Jonathan? What's what's the issue? Did we freeze? I lost my spot. Hold on. Producing tonight. What's going on?

I just, I lost my spot where I was at. All right. this has been great Because I don't have to read and talk at the same time Jonathan Harrison everybody Well A lot of questions Jonathan get back on it We just passed the

Wing part I mean the fact that The last question was about um what i cook makes it hard to fill time until you can get your time back so i'm just gonna pull one up and then you can figure it out from there jonathan um jonathan makes the whole operation go by the way everybody should know that uh angel dust with another question at this point is booth and scene both busts um you know one out of two i would be ready to declare i think with lewis scene i mean look they just brought back theo jackson today lewis scene does not have a role on this team if they are more into bringing back theo jack than they are giving Louis seen a chance and Theo Jackson, like good story, a guy who was drafted by the

Titans and then found his way onto the field, made a couple of plays. So I'm impressed. But I mean, if that's the type of player, a sixth round draft pick special teamer, who's getting on the field before the first rounder, is clear he does not fit at all with what brian flores wants to do my expectation is that lewis scene will be cut out of training camp next year i just don't think he's a fit here maybe he figures it out somewhere else not going to be here uh if harrison smith retires that job should go to josh metellus maybe byron murphy moves inside they get another outside corner to go with Makai Blackman and that's how they manage that but there's there's just nothing there we just haven't seen

anything there's no evidence there's no one play there's no preseason game there's no practice there there has been literally nothing that you could point to and say, well, look, I see the, I see the talent. The only thing I see is the guy is tall and I would say fast, but he doesn't play fast. When you see him in the preseason games, do you think he runs a four or three? That's not what it looks like. Track speed is not NFL speed. So with him, I think that's over. And if he figures it out, well, then that would be a huge, huge win for them. Andrew Booth Jr. I'm less willing to say that because he did get on the field a little bit last year and I thought that he was okay. He just has to learn to play the way Brian Flores wants him to play. It looks to me

like he was drafted in a certain type of system to fit, which is a big deal in the draft that defensive coordinators like Ed Donatel want a certain type of corner, but that's not the type of corner that Brian Flores wants. And if Andrew Booth Jr. can figure out how to play, which is physical, being able to press, being at the line of scrimmage, being able to really hustle up and make a key tackle. Those are things that the other corners are able to do that, that they have and that he likes. And we haven't seen that for Booth Jr., but we could, I mean, he's still young. He was drafted pretty young. And the one big thing is that he stayed healthy last year

and that that was important that he was able to stay healthy. So if that's the case, I think he's got a chance. He's got a chance to hang around. I'm not ready to declare that. I want one more. And that was Trey Waynes too. A lot of people thought, you know, Trey Waynes is a bust and he ended up not being, and it took a couple of years to get there. That might just be the cornerback position. So we'll see. He'll be an intriguing player for next year's training camp. Daniel says, have a Moss.

I have a Moss, Carter, Randall, Harrison Smith, Diggs, Peterson, Jefferson, Jersey. Which Vikings Jersey should I go for next? Bo Nix. I don't know. Whoever they draft, whoever they draft. No, really. I mean, that's the guy, whoever they pick a quarterback. That's your guy. As far as like future guys, you know, who's a really, who I just think is a great story and a really good player. We'll be good for a while. We'll be here for a while. It's Josh Metellus.

Josh Metellus would be your 20 years from now. Somebody's like Josh Metellus Jersey sick. Like that's what you're looking for, right? You, you went all chalk. See, I don't like Daniel. You can do better than that. You went all chalk. You just went like, let you can do better than that you went all chalk you just went like let me get all the hall of famers whatever one of my favorite things is when i go to a game

and i'm walking around and i see crazy random jerseys from the other team so they're playing the raiders and you see namdi asamoah or something you're like like, whoa, that is a pull. If you go to Philly, and Philly people are crazy. You all know that. Their fans are nuts. But one thing that they are the best at is jerseys. They are number one any stadium I've ever been to for random jerseys. They'll have like Jerome Brown jerseys there. Whoa, that is some kind of throwback.

I mean, yeah, they've got everything from deep into the death you'll see like jeremiah trotter like they've got everything so my suggestion to you would be let's let's dig a little deeper daniel you've been following purple insider for years and you're acting like you're just like a noob fan with these jersey pics we can do better than that okay i'll stop roasting daniel for that oh john randall like come on man like where's carl lee how about that how about where's your byron chamberlain jersey then talk talk to me when you get my weldy more um kevin says any surprise cuts coming from the vik, if they had any players under contract, maybe, um, I, let me think.

I don't, I don't think so. Um, I, I, I honestly don't know, um, right off of hand if, because most of the players that I would assume are going are already free agents. Maybe somebody can correct me on this if i'm if i'm missing someone or maybe i've already decided like marcus davenport technically is uh they can work out an extension for him i don't that's not i guess he would be a free agent not cut um i mean alexander madison would probably be the surprise but would you guys be surprised i would not be surprised bradbury no i mean they like bradbury there's just not a lot of players under contract

i'm running through like who's who's in the starting lineup here who could go and i can't come up with too many so i don't think there will be um a surprise cut maybe i'll be surprised and then it'll be a surprise that's another thing about questions about if it's a surprise, it's like, if I guess it, is it a surprise now? I just ruined it. 44 Rhino man, who are going to be the next great set of journeyman quarterbacks. It'd be talking for years to come.

I think we saw some of them this year. I mean, at the top of the list, Jake Browning, how about that? Jake Browning shows up in Cincinnati after getting cut by the Vikings and beats the Vikings, has a couple of really good games, keeps that team in the mix. If you do that for a team, even if you're not that talented, you will be around for a very long time.

That's the first guy that comes to mind. I'm not sure that someone like Aiden O'Connell is quite good enough. Gardner Minshew came up earlier. Absolutely. Gardner Minshew, but he's already there. So there, God, there was a handful of guys who kind of showed up on the scene this year here there. I could see someone like, you remember Clayton tune. He was playing a little bit here. The Cardinals kind of liked him. These random guys who are drafted, and they get a shot to play a little bit here or there. Sam Darnold could be, he's already on his third team. If you go to a fourth team, because there's layers. One of the things is there's layers of journeyman. There's the journeyman starter. Who's like your Jacoby Brissett, your Gardner Minshew. These guys are good enough to start, but they're not going to win you anything.

That's the Ryan Fitzpatrick sort of guy. And then there's the level down that's clearly a journeyman backup. That's your Josh Dobbs. That's your Nick Mullins. And then there's your fringy guy who is on 47 training camp rosters. You're Josh Johnson that bounces around all over the place year to year. He plays in the UFL, the XFL, the CFL, the FFFFL. Like that guy, uh, there were, there was a lot of those, like that's Aiden O'Connell.

That's Clayton tune. Those guys played this year. Here's I'll give you a low key potential journeyman quarterback, Davis mills. There's nothing more for Davis Mills to do in Houston because Stroud, but Davis Mills is not terrible. He's not terrible. He's not good, but he's not terrible. I could see Davis Mills showing up somewhere and some random year, he wins like three games in a row and everyone goes, what the heck Davis Mills.

That's that. There you go. Take that insight to work the tomorrow to the water cooler and tell your friends. The next great journeyman backup quarterback is Davis Mills. Actually, if the Vikings added him with a rookie, I wouldn't hate it. One Before I Die says, do you think internally the Vikings know right at this moment whether they are going to be moving on from Kirk or re-signing him? If they don't know, does that mean they truly don't have a plan? Well, the way that the league usually works

is this. You get eliminated for the playoffs, and then they do their evaluations. They meet with their players, they evaluate all their own players, and then they go to Cabo. And the Super Bowl happens, and everybody comes back to the facility. This is just how it normally works. I don't know if it's all the same under Quasey and Kevin O'Connell or not, but this is how it normally works. After the Super Bowl, everybody comes back to work, and they sit down, and they hash out the plan.

And you get everybody together, your personnel people, your scouts, your whatever, whatever, and you assess, here's what we got in the draft coming up. Here's what we got in free agency. Here are our options. And here are the paths. And then you present the paths to your owners. And you tell them, we can bring back Kirk at this dollars. We can go for a rookie.

What would you like us to do? And there's multiple paths here is my guess is the, if Kirk really wants to come back, here's the number we'll do it at. And if he's not going to go for that number, then here's the players we're interested in drafting. Here is our possibility for trading up. Here's if we can't trade up the, you've got to have five plans. You can't just have one. And they would have spent the last couple of weeks working those out post-Super Bowl. And then you go to the combine and you sit down with all the agents. And then you decide. You sit down with Cousin's agent and you talk through what the price is. And then he's going to go and wait for the legal tampering period. And he's going to, of course, I'm sure he won't have any conversations with anyone else at Indianapolis because that would be tampering and that's against the law. But he'll go to the legal tampering period and then he'll take offers. And if it's better or worse than the Vikings, he'll go, you know, go somewhere else or come back and they have to decide how to pivot away

from that. But they're going to meet with the agents for players who want to come back. They're going to meet with Daniel Hunter's agent who might tell them Daniel wants nothing more than to return to Minnesota because he loves the wings in Minnesota. Cause he's an uncultured wing eater who loves the wings in Minnesota. He can't live anywhere else. And, or he's going to tell them, no,

he wants money. So he's going to go somewhere else. Then that also shapes the plan. So you've got all these different kind of options that happen and get tweaked and changed based on what the vibes are coming out of the combine and what you hear from the agents and what your feeling is on potential free agents and everything else and the people you talk to. And also they try to get draft intel and figure out who's picking who where.

The league last year would have known, walking out of Indy, all those draft analysts who love Will Levis, we don't. They would have known that. And we don't. We don't because they don't tell us and they don't tell any insiders either. If they did, then those people would be right more often but that's a different rant so uh yeah i mean yeah like this team has no plan is a thing that sports talk radio ranters say right they have a plan whether it's good or bad we don't know whether they can execute it or not we don't know but they have one i just don't know like

where it's going to go from here and they have seemed to have one from day one that quesita fomenta and kevin o'connell got hired but can they execute that's really the thing can they get to the finish line of that plan that's what we're really looking for javier says timeline wise would i be wrong in thinking that we'd know what they're doing in the draft by the time free agency comes around yep 100 because March 13th we're gonna know this is a crazy thing about this situation that was not last year last year we're in June going like are they gonna extend Kirk or what's going on here? We will know because once you clear that date and that 28 million kicks in, I don't see any way you can do it. And if you do it after that,

you're insane. And you just don't, I just can't trust you at all because that would be insane to bring him back with a dead cap hit of 28 million on next year's books. How are you going to do anything if you have to also pay for him and then pay for him twice? Think about this. Here's something nuts. Let me pull this up real quick. This is going to blow your mind. They have done this thing with Kirk Cousins so many times

with the dead cap and moving stuff around that next year, I'm going to get this number because this is pretty good next year. Him not playing here. We'll have a cap hit. That is the same as Joe burrow to not play here. That's what happens to you for all those that, you know, the cap is fake and so forth.

That's what happens to you when you give out guaranteed money and void years and push money down the road and renegotiate is you end up with a quarterback leaving and having the same cap hit as Joe Burrow. 28 million Burrows is 29. He's going to be one of the 15 highest paid quarterbacks in the league next year by cap hit to not play here. So it would not be a very good idea to bring him back after that, which means we have a clear date. And that is really something. So I think what we will know in the legal tampering period, the legal tampering period is the three days before the 13th. I think it's the 10th, 11th, 12th, maybe, or maybe it's just the 11th and 12th. I think it's three days. It's either two or three. It's going to be red alert here on the channel in those days. I mean, that's, that's just going to be, I mean, we might just have to do make Jonathan sit behind the scenes for like five hours and just wait for stuff to happen because that's going to play out at any time. It could be the first five minutes of the legal tampering period that we have an answer on Kirk,

or it might be midnight on the 13th or well, midnight in the NFL is I think 3 PM or whatever is when it officially kicks off. But you know what I mean? So within that small period of time, those three, four days, we will know whether Kirk is coming back and we will know whether they're drafting a quarterback or not, because if he's not know whether they're drafting a quarterback or not because if he's not here they're drafting a quarterback unless they are really really sold on baker mayfield or something but otherwise they are drafting a quarterback and then from if they're if kirk signs with atlanta on that first day then uh from march 13th to the day of the draft it is all quarterbacks all the time in your life here on this channel.

So every person who's ever scouted a quarterback on the internet will appear on the show. Will asks, are Bill's fans as miserable as Vikings fans with the four Superbowl losses? Those were talented bills teams. Yeah. You're telling me there's players on the, those bills teams that should be in the hall of Fame and have Hall of Fame resumes.

But they put in so many players from the team. It's like they can't do it anymore. Miserable. Miserable is tough because, you know, I think that everybody carries it around is what I would say is sometimes we're a little bit too connected to each other and we see the loud people on the internet the people who are always being negative and and everything my experience in general with vikings fans is that they're not miserable but i think they carry it they carry all of it they carry every missed field goal every quarterback's knee ligaments, all with them into every single season. And it affects everything. Every way you look at what's happening on the field is often a woe is us.

The ship is going down. The worst thing's going to happen next because they haven't seen anything but that. And even when there are good things going on, there's usually a lot of skepticism because so many times they've come apart. And that is definitely the same way it is in Buffalo, where like even this year, I saw a lot of like fire Sean McDermott. I'm like fire Sean McDermott. The guy's won four division titles. You got to be out of your mind. And then they miss a your mind. And then

they miss a field goal. And here we go again. Like, here we go again. There is a, there is a, here we go again there as there is here. I think the biggest difference is that they were really bad for a very long time. After that, they had a brief Doug Flutie. And then after that, it was really bad for almost 20 years. They missed the playoffs. That's never been the case for the Vikings. During that time, it was hopeless. You talk about miserable. It was just, there wasn't anything. It was just dead inside. And there were people who tried to get excited for a minute about Trent Edwards or whatever, but there was just no reason to believe in them ever with the Vikings. What they do to you is they always make you kind of believe in it.

They always give you your case Keenum, your Randall Cunningham. They give you your 13 win season and Hey, this is finally it for you. This is your year. And then they take it away like Charlie Brown in the football with the brilliant Charles Scholes. But he was from here and you could tell because that's exactly how it is for this franchise. It's not, I don't think it's that way quite for Buffalo where they're there all the time. It's been that recently and that's, they are, God, who's a good comparison for this? I mean, it's just been one guy And that's, they are, who's a good comparison for this?

I mean, it's just been one guy stealing their soul year after year. Just Patrick Mahomes. I compare Buffalo to Michael Jordan and the Bills are the Knicks, where they're there every year and Michael Jordan just takes it away from them and never gives them a chance. I don't know if it's quite been like that for the Vikings. The Vikings have really been great teams, great players, hall of famers, uh, all the time. It's just that they can never quite get over it. It's a little bit of a different mentality, I think. Plus they have their quarterback now, so they have a reason to believe. How did they get him?

Does anybody know how they got their quarterback? He must've been the number one pick right no he wasn't uh anthony says top five movies of all time all right so i'm not a movie buff um but i i've seen enough to give it a shot and i think you'll probably laugh at these movies because maybe a lot of them are similar. Uh, I look good fellas has to be up there. The movie heat. Has anybody seen heat? Great.

Great. That's probably my favorite movie to just watch. Uh, just like I'm going on a plane and I was texting Jonathan earlier asking how to download, um, movies onto my phone because I think the plane I'm taking doesn't have can't, you know, whatever TVs to watch movies. And guess what movie I was trying to download? The movie Heat, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino. It's just the best. Vale Kilmer. It's phenomenal. So

that's probably my favorite to watch. No Country for old men. Brilliant genius movie. And I like a lot of sports comedies. I don't actually like true story sports movies. Like I'd rather read about it if it really happened. Cause then I'll get the whole story, read a book or watch a documentary, but like fake ones that are comedies, a major league would be the top, the best of the best for, for that.

The replacements is pretty good. Some of the stuff's a little maybe out of date, uh, with some of the jokes in the replacements, but you know, that's, that's up my alley with, uh, the love for the XFL, UFL, that sort of stuff. So I don't know if I would say that, I mean, I think major league probably is one of my five favorite movies and said, good fellas. Like, am I a tool? If I say the godfather, like, I don't like the godfather. Um, yeah, there's a, there's a lot of them, uh, that, that I'll watch if they're just on, but I'm not, I'm not like good at that. What you guys find is that I'm not good at anything else, but this, so maybe sports video games, but you asked me about food. I got nothing. You asked me about movies. I'm like, I don't know, gangster ones. And I'm like, it's just,

but the football questions I am on top of, that's why we're doing Ask Purple Insider anything. OMG1 Gerald says, do you think Ty Chandler starts or a new running back gets most of the carries? They should be looking for an associate running back. Put it that way. That Ty Chandler has enough talent and has now been in the offense a few years where you would expect him to get it and more than he did last year or the year before the pass blocking the details of the running game but some guys just never really get it and they

have raw skill and that's it cordero patterson was one of those guys and that might be ty chandler so they need an associate who you can trust to be that guy if you need him to be so if ty chandler is still struggling and you can only use him for 100 carries where you can trust him on those plays you need a latavius murray a jerek mckinnon type i'm not saying those guys but you need that type will they go out and get somebody like Tony Pollard, Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs, Derek Henry? I'd be very surprised if they do, because that's just a lot of money to spend. And this is a team that's supposed to have analytics savvy, signing a running back for a huge amount that's going to be in his late twenties or early thirties, not usually the

greatest decision, but there are a lot of those veteran running backs who bounce around. I use Latavius as a good example where, Oh, you're like Latavius is on the Broncos this year or whatever. And he's averaging 4.3 and he's past blocking his butt off and he's catching the balls that they throw to him. And he's just solid. They need somebody who's just solid. Madison was below solid last year. He was one of the worst running backs by PFF grade, if not the worst by the number of carries that he had. You need, you need the 20th best running back the 15th best to pair with Ty Chandler. That's what they should aim for. Um, probably as opposed to trying to spend big dollars and grab a star.

Rob K says, will there be a notable free agent signing by the Vikings? Well, they better, or otherwise they have no players. Will there be like a big fish, like a Christian Wilkins, a Brian Burns? I think they'll try. I think they'll try. They have the cap space to be able to sign somebody to a big amount and kick a lot of it down the road. The question is whether someone's going to sign here. I mean, how much more would you have to pay? So this goes back to like Joe Tooney. Remember that Joe Tooney is a free agent. The Vikings are reportedly interested in Joe

Tooney. Where does he sign? Kansas City, because they could win the Super Bowl because they have Mahomes. And here's the problem. There's a lot of teams that can make that case better than the Vikings right now. And in my experience, it's two things with players and free agency. It's dollars and it's chances to win. And teams and agents or players and agents are pretty good at assessing who's ready to win. Do you want to come into a division where there's three teams that have better chances to win? Chicago has more money and Detroit, if I last check Detroit has more money than the Vikings. So now all of a sudden

you might want to go to Detroit. And if it's the same price, they're probably going to go to a team that might be competing for a Super Bowl. I would be a little bit surprised if there's some huge signing. If it's one of the top five to seven free agents that lands here, much more likely that you get Byron Murphy type signings. And that's good because historically the big, huge signings, they're not always the best way to go. And I'll give you an example is Vaughn Miller. Vaughn Miller goes to Buffalo, signs his massive contract. He's done nothing there. He was good for the first half of his first season and then got hurt and then did nothing this year at all.

And some of those, if they go bust, then you've put all your eggs in that basket and it can be pretty bad. So, you know, I don't think that they should try to make some huge signing right now. Usually what you want in free agency, you want the final pieces. You don't want all the pieces. That's how you should handle free agency.

And you want one guy who might be the difference maker that you're going to go all in on. You're not trying to say, all right, let's build our team off of that. You could do it in Madden. You can't do it in real life. And I have done it in Madden many times. Loaded guitars asks, do you think the top four quarterback prospects are better prospects than Teddy was? Um, I thought, you know, Teddy ends up going 32. He was projected higher by most draft analysts and based on where he was headed in his career, likely deserved to be drafted higher than number 32. I remember when Teddy was coming out, really liked him as a prospect. I wasn't in Minnesota yet, but I thought he was very accurate and he navigated the pocket extremely well. And one of the things that I always look for

is a toughness element to a quarterback, a leadership element to a quarterback. And he had all those things in spades. And one thing I always keep my eye out for is when someone elevates a program. So if there's a program that no one has cared about before, this is a Michael Penix argument probably. It's like Washington was what? They were just another team. And then they're in the national championship?

Like, my gosh. So, you know, I, I think that Teddy was probably a better prospect. See, this is hard for me because if you, when you say top forward, like if you're meaning JJ McCarthy, I think he's a better prospect than JJ McCarthy. The ceiling is probably higher on McCarthy, but as far as the floor or what Teddy became, there's no guarantee that McCarthy becomes anything in the league. And Teddy was farther along as a quarterback, as a complete quarterback than JJ McCarthy. So I'd say, yeah. Anyway, one more question here.

One more question. I think Jonathan has kids he's got to put to bed and i've been talking for an hour and a half um screw those kids jonathan writes in the chat wow uh mark says uh regarding atlanta do you think that they would prefer kirk over the chicago qb justin fields um the owner of the Falcons is no spring chicken. No, he's not. He's 85. Yes, I do think that. That Atlanta has always just made so much sense that it's almost like it makes too much sense. The owner is older. The roster is really good. The coach is not new to this. He's coached before the offensive coordinator comes from the same tree as Kevin O'Connell. I mean,

yeah, like it just makes so much sense. It makes more sense than Justin Fields. Who's much more of a risk. Um, Jonathan, if you want to run, I run, I can just rapid fire through some of these that I haven't gotten to, if you want, because I know that your time does matter. We've been doing this for a while, but it's been really fun. And I see some questions that I didn't get to. So how about I just rapid fire through some, and I appreciate your help. You've asked so many questions, guys, that I needed Jonathan producing behind the scenes to help me out. But this has just been great. It's been really fun.

Matthew asked, any changes to Purple Insider this offseason? Potentially another intern. Yeah, maybe. We'll see how that works out. Nothing as far as changes go. I mean, I've been trying to think of new ideas, but there's only so many things to do like there's writing there's broadcasting that this is the change like we started that last year with the

live broadcasts and um you know it's been really fun this is probably the biggest change is just doing the the live broadcasts um let's see bradley says how does Kwesi compare to early Rick Spielman back when he wasn't playing desperate early Rick Spielman did a lot of, a lot of smart things. Easy to forget, easy to forget that they built that whole team, but how did they do it? They did it through a lucky draft. They got digs, they got Kendrick's, they got Hunter, but they also made some very savvy moves. And we're talking about free agency. I mean, very savvy moves as far as like getting Tom Johnson from the CFL, finding him getting Linvald Joseph, captain Munderland was a good signing. Terrence Newman was a good signing. How much of this is Mike Zimmer? I don't know.

Drafting Teddy Bridgewater was a great idea. If you win the division in your second year and should have won a playoff game, if not for a kicker, that means you've succeeded in drafting that quarterback and you would have had years to build around him with more money and so forth. The reason they were cap strapped was because they had to put all that money into Sam Bradford. Go get him says, what worries you most about the draft and off season? Well, it's probably the same as everybody else, which is if cousins comes back. So football doesn't worry me in general, like society worries me, but not football. What I would say is that it's going to be difficult to figure out how to talk about it. If cousins comes back, how do I formulate a plan that could work?

How do I not just go back to the same points about Kirk cousins thatins that have been there for so long and we've talked about so many times? How will we have fun talking about it is really the biggest question. Do we have to talk about wings more? How will we have a good time? Because training camp becomes uninteresting. Hypotheticals, OTAs become uninteresting if Cousins come back comes back I mean camp is always interesting in some ways but is it really if we every week then becomes kind of Armageddon it becomes every week a referendum on that decision to bring back Cousins

and that could get pretty intense during the season. But during the off season, how is it going to be fun? Like, oh, they signed a defensive tackle. Like, here we go again. It's the same old sort of thing, right? That, that is prop. That's my worry that if he comes back, is there a chance that they win? Yeah, there's a chance it could happen, but it's really about how are we going to have a good time? Because this is the best part doing stuff like this tonight. This is the best part of the, of the job. It's the best part of covering the team. It's the best part of liking a team. If you're you, which is the intrigue, the things you talk about with your friends and with me, the podcast that you listen to, like, are you going to want to hang out and talk about the stuff we've kind of seen before many times?

I don't know. I mean, things always happen. We'll find a way. It's not the end of the world. But that if you're talking about like what worries me is I'm going to have to think long and hard about how we're going to make discussions fun and not always come back to the same sort of stuff. Juan says, what do you think about the bears trading their nine pick and fields to new England to pair Harrison with Williams Harrison? I feel like this both makes, Oh, Marvin Harrison with Caleb. Oh man. Oh man. That's how I feel about that. Oh, man. That would be that would be something. Yeah, it's not not out of the realm of possibility. It is not it more likely

than not, though. I think they want. Well, you know, they could resolve this earlier than later. Could they? I don't know if new England would do Justin Fields. That would be the hold up there. Would new England actually do Justin Fields now, Washington though, Washington has new management, new ownership could be a mark, could be a mark number nine and a quarterback. And then they take the quarterback and the receiver. Oh man. Hey, don't tank though don't tank though don't tank or you end up with two of the top 10 picks and options coming out of your ears for what you want to do yeah that's that really that you want to talk about a nightmare scenario we can't

end the show on that because the vikings fans would be terrified of that uh let's see let's see zen clover says culture is a real thing especially in speech northeast speech can sound harsher than it is intended yeah when i was talking about how um it's different here than it was in buffalo it definitely is yeah it definitely is and i've had to really adjust to understand how the Midwest is. It really is a different, it's a different region. That's not good or bad. It's just, it is different. And I was used to a certain type of way that is not like it is here. So I've gotten used to it. I mean, we're good. Like I said, I love living here. It's just, you have to adjust a little bit when you come from somewhere else. JP, have you been following the reports from Florio that JJ wants a fully guaranteed contract

and the Wilfs won't do that? I've heard $175 million for five years. Well, first of all, the most guaranteed money for wide receivers is $56 million fully guaranteed. So is Justin Jefferson going to get 175 fully guaranteed? Absolutely not. The Vikings also hold the cards. Here's how this formula usually works. If you take what the franchise tag would be and add the other franchise tag that they could use, so there are two franchise tags, that's usually over that is the fully guaranteed money the team is willing to give. And what would it be? I don't know the formula right off my hand.

But let's just say that the franchise tag for Jefferson, if you were doing it twice, is $25 million or $50 million total. So you got to top that. Now you have the greatest receiver in the league. So you got to go higher than that. You got to set the bar. I've put it at like 75 million guaranteed fully. Now that's you'll hear guarantees. So there's two different numbers and this is why it's obnoxious though. The salary cap stuff. I only worry about the fully guaranteed, not guaranteed for injury, which is a different thing. But that's the number you'll see from Adam Schefter because that's the number that makes the agent look better. But it's the fully guaranteed number

is only 56 for AJ Brown. If Jefferson gets to 70, that's great. But why shouldn't his side ask for the moon? Of course they should. But the Vikings aren't going to give a fully guaranteed contract to a wide receiver. Of course not because no one's is like that. Ty is not like that. Cooper cup is not like that. Nobody else in the NFL is they'll, they'll get to a spot. They're going to start insanely high. The Vikings are going to probably didn't go far enough last year and then they'll they'll work to a spot that fits and i've got 125 over four years for 75 guaranteed that's been my guess um we'll see how it ends up playing out all right who other who else did i uh who else did i miss um do the chief? Oh, Dennis says to the chiefs tag, luxurious need and the D tackle. You mean Chris Jones? I would suspect that they work out a extension for Jones and Snead.

That would be my guess, but they'll probably tag them with a chance to extend. Let's see who else, who else did I miss? Who else did I not get to? I'm only at the part of the chat where I was roasting Daniel for his obvious Jersey selection. So let me scroll down a little bit. We, we tried to get as many as we possibly could in, but you guys were really, you really, you were really on point here. Respected Warlock says, speaking of offensive line,

is there a reason we don't see more tight ends in the backfield? Why don't we see Oliver lined up back there on previous passing downs? Most teams don't have those formations as a part of what they do. Some might. If you're San Francisco and you have Kyle use check,

you are doing things like that. But, um, as far as like Josh Oliver, he's, I don't know how versatile he really is. You know, I,

I just, I just don't know how versatile he really is. Um, to be able to line up in different spots, you could do it occasionally, but you can't do it a lot with him. He's not Kyle Juszczyk. They could get a little more multiple.

But most of the time if they're running an I formation. That's because they have CJ Hamm. So they've already got that player. If they're going to do it. And he's used to lining up there. Alright. So let me get one or two more. That I missed in here.

And we will call it a night. It's been really fun being able to do this. Sorry. Some of you guys are funny. So I have to parse through where there's questions and where there's like people making fun of me and arguing with each other. All right. Let's let's scroll down a little bit farther here. We'll wrap on something good. Let's see. Matt says,

how do we not have a running game in year two? O'Connell had to sign off on Madison and the old lineman. I don't think you can just blame Casey because O'Connell had to okay. The moves for running back and old O-linemen, I don't think you can just blame Quasey because O'Connell had to okay the moves for running back and O-line. You know, sometimes the best laid plans, and I'm not saying it was the best plan, but plans just don't work out. And with Alexander Madison, look at his history, look at what he had done as a backup for Delvin Cook. It was a pretty good case that he could be a quality running back when paired with somebody else. And they asked him to be everything to start the season. I think the Vikings through like five weeks had the fewest carries from their backup running backs of anybody

in the league. They asked them to do everything. It didn't work. I don't think they had a great scheme to start with that this has never been their strength it's just it's just comes down to though when you see ty chandler average four and a half yards per carry it comes down to they tried to give a guy a chance who had a history that said he might be good and it did not work out and uh that's unfortunate but that's how it goes sometimes uh not sure how to pronounce your name fainey maybe sorry uh if kevin dotson doesn't want to play left guard who are some good free agent options other than dalton reisner um i like john simpson we're very deep in in it now john simpson is the guy from uh the baltimore ravens kind of a road grader type left guard there's also uh jonah jackson from detroit

good left guard he was mentioned by brandon thorne the other day on the show so oh yeah we just talked about this with the the avoiding the guaranteed money after year one with Jefferson. I, some of the stuff you just don't know where it comes from. You know, you just like where, where, when, when you, when it's rumors, where does it come from? It's if it's not Schefter or Rappaport reporting something very specific. Is it real? Is it just a guess? Is it something one person in the organization thinks? I have, here's one thing to be clear.

I have never known of someone to have a direct line to the Wilfs as far as reporting goes. That is something I'm sure of. I've been doing this long enough that I know that they have not been an ownership to put stuff out there like that. And it's just going to be a negotiation. That's the way I'm viewing it is one side is going to go too high. The other side is going to go lower and they're

going to work their way to a contract because it makes sense for everybody. And that's what will ultimately happen. So, all right. Well, this has been great. Tomorrow night, I'm going to have a conversation with Grant Bills, who does radio in Madison, Wisconsin. We're going to talk Packers Vikings and try to get the Packers offseason plan. There's going to be another fans only episode coming. But to tell you the truth, I'm going to go visit a friend of mine. So if there is breaking news, I may be broadcasting from somewhere very random.

But otherwise, I'm hoping to play a little golf, actually. So I'm going to be away for the weekend. But I'm really glad that we did this was super fun. I know it went for a long stream. And Jonathan's wife has left him. She's taking the kids, and she's gone. She's moving to Buffalo after she heard about how great the Wings are. But it's just, this was really fun. And it happens because you guys ask great questions. And we're going to do this a lot through the offseason. I hope to do a lot of these episodes where it's talking a little football

and whatever else is on your guys' mind and so forth, and maybe a little less intense. So great stuff, everybody. Thanks so much for dropping by and we will see you again very, very soon. Take care, everybody. Football.