Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Baker Mayfield gets a huge contract, Vikings 'still in it' for Kirk Cousins

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

Matthew Coller talks with Vikings fans the night before we could get a decision from Kirk Cousins about the possibility he comes back to Minnesota and what their options are going to be if he leaves for Atlanta. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. And we're going to call it We All Wait Together podcast here to find out. Because throughout the day, myself along with you guys, I'm sure, have been scrolling through Twitter, following the Insiderers that talk to agents and teams and all those things and following all the latest reports about Kirk Cousins. And you know what they all say? The same stuff that we already knew that has been said to us on the record by Kirk Cousins or Kevin O'Connell at one time or another. So we have the latest is that Kirk Cousins probably wants to test free agency, which of course, Kevin O'Connell said on television at the NFL combine, we have that

Kirk Cousins is interested in coming back to the Vikings, but it's all about the structure of the contract, which of course he told us on the last day of the year before they had the locker clean out and so forth. And, you know, so basically what we have taken out of today is that still nobody knows what's going to happen with Kirk Cousins. We may know by Monday in the middle of the day, of which, of course, we'll jump on and go live again. Or we may not know until Tuesday or we may not know until Wednesday. It seems that we have all surmised that Kirk Cousins is either coming back to the Vikings or he's going to the Atlanta Falcons or the mystery team could be the Denver Broncos that got brought up by Tom Pelissero,

was mentioned on the show by Brad Spielberger at the NFL Combine. Feels like it's a three-team race for Kirk Cousins services. Who's going to make the biggest offer? Will anybody cross the line in the sand that has been laid out by the Minnesota Vikings? And now there's another element to this is how much does Baker Mayfield's contract impact Kirk Cousins? Because I look at Baker Mayfield's deal as somewhere around the same range that I would have expected the Vikings to offer Kirk Cousins. That Mayfield's deal says three years. It's really two years based on the guaranteed money, $50 million fully guaranteed, about $100 million overall for Baker, which is essentially two years worth of guarantees

for Baker Mayfield. So if the Vikings were looking at Kirk Cousins as wanting him to not go farther than a year or two, that would be around the same ballpark. But as far as average dollars per year for Baker Mayfield, it's right in that same Derek Carr range. And I think that Kirk Cousins wants more than that, that he would want to clear Baker Mayfield. I mean, when you look at Baker Mayfield's career, now he does have one more playoff win than Kirk Cousins, but it's been very much up and down. He signed a really tiny contract last year, nine wins, got them in the playoffs, but there hasn't been a ton of success from Baker Mayfield overall, certainly not statistically in the same way that it's been

for Kirk cousins. So if he is coming to the negotiating table with the number that Baker Mayfield just got and is saying, all right, I deserve a lot more than this. I would expect him to have to find that somewhere else because I really do think that if the Vikings are making an offer to him, which they have said all along that they are, but they can't break the bank or they're not going to go all in, all in to come over to his side, give him full guaranteed money,

then this would be around the range of something that they would offer to him. And if he wants more than that, then he's going to ultimately end up somewhere else. And I have my notifications on for Adam Schefter, like all of you do. And one just pops up and I'm like, Oh, what is it? It's Kendrick Bourne staying with the new England Patriots. So throughout the show, maybe we'll end up with a few of those. And all I want to know from you guys is just how you're feeling. And I'm going to go through some the New England Patriots. So throughout the show, maybe we'll end up with a few of those. And all I want to know from you guys is just how you're feeling. And I'm going to go through some of your comments that you started leaving even before the show started about how you're feeling. Where does this go? A lot of you guys want to know what I think, what's my percentage,

what's my feeling. And I think what I have come away with from this day is that we're all in coin flip land right now. That's where I was at the end of the season, and that's how I feel right now. I've leaned toward that there's a likelihood that the Atlanta Falcons, considering the age of their owner, considering the roster that they have, the desperation to get back to the playoffs, that they have always been the favorite for this thing. But would anybody be that shocked if Kirk cousins were to, at the very last minute, pump up the price a little bit for the Vikings using the Atlanta Falcons, using the Denver Broncos and their offers and say, come over to my side just a little bit more and I'll stay. And then the Vikings bend and do it.

Would anyone be surprised if that happened? I would not because this is the negotiation hall of famer. And, you know, he's out there tweeting out videos of him on the tennis court and everything else. Just as you know, the NFL combine is going on, everybody's getting together and stuff. I imagine that his agent had an entire book of all the different medical reports and everything else to just slide under hotel doors in Indianapolis of those people with the Falcons, with the Broncos and any other team that might be interested. So would you be totally surprised and mind blown if Cousins used these other teams and offers to get more out of the Vikings and stick around, I would not be that shocked if it happened. Would I be shocked if the Vikings just said, look, we're going to hold the line here as a couple of people on Twitter have been saying, hold the line and we're not going to move

it and this is our offer and that's it. Well, that's kind of what they did last year during during their negotiations is they had their price for cousins and then you know cousins decided that that wasn't enough for him and i still think about the daniel jones line that last year when daniel jones signed it seemed to change things from cousins perspective and is he going to change his mind and take less than Daniel Jones what the dollars represent to him has to be I'm better than Daniel Jones it has to be I'm better than Derek Carr I'm better than Baker Mayfield you need to give me more money than that to show me that you also think that I'm better than those quarterbacks because those are the the mid-pack of the mid-pack and I

think he believes that he's better than that. And statistically, he is better than that. So where I stand right now is it feels like the momentum is gaining for tomorrow or Tuesday a team to put up an offer that's going to be better than anything that the Vikings want to give Kirk Cousins. That's how it feels, but I'm not ready to call it. In fact, usually with all Vikings things, I'm not ready to call it until it's over because I was there for the Minneapolis miracle. I was there in Buffalo when

Justin Jefferson on fourth and 18 jumped over a guy and they came back and won. I've seen way too much crazy stuff. Anthony Barr going to the jets, then coming back. I never thought they would trade Stefan Diggs. And then they did. And then I said, there's no way they draft another receiver. Who's as good as Stefan Diggs than they did. So this team has a way of doing things that you never see coming or whatever you think is about to happen. Something completely different happens that I am not at all willing to try to call my shot with where this thing stands with Kirk Cousins. I just look at Baker Mayfield's number as a good time for Kirk Cousins side to then say, all right, we're doing better than this, right? And it's reminiscent of Derek Carr's

contract and Geno Smith's contract that we're really in the middle of the market. But I don't see how an average annual value for Kirk Cousins could start with a three. It's got to start with a four if Baker Mayfield is getting this type of money. And I also have trouble seeing the Vikings saying, yeah, $40 million a year. Sure. We have to build a whole roster here and a bunch of different spots, but yeah, come on back for $40 million. And we'll also somehow sign Justin Jefferson to the biggest non-quarterback contract. Also Chris Jones signing his contract. I know those are very different situations, but the amount of fully guaranteed money that another player got that is a non-quarterback, it's all relevant. And that number just keeps going up and up and up.

So you know you're going to have to pay Justin Jefferson massive money. Are they going to be willing as an ownership to put that money down for the amount of guaranteed cash that they're going to have to hand out between kirk cousins and justin jefferson in one year all of it seems like it doesn't fit but then again there have been other times where kirk cousins has stayed when it seemed like it didn't fit it seemed like it didn't fit. It seemed like it didn't fit in 2020 when they lost half of the roster after 2019 because of the salary cap. And then it seemed like it didn't fit when Kweisi D'Affomensa and Kevin O'Connell

arrived here in 2022. It appeared to be the perfect tear down, get another quarterback, have a bridge, draft a guy type of scenario, and yet they extended him. So the other times that it has looked like Kirk cousins could be out the door and somebody on Twitter shared with me an old clip from my show where I was talking about Kenny Pickett and Malik Willis and that draft and talking about, Hey, you know, could the Vikings pick this guy

or that guy? Could they wait to the back end of the first? Could they look at the second round and try to get Desmond Ritter at that point or something? And of course, it sounds all really silly now because we know those quarterbacks are bad, but it just shows you that we were talking about it then. We were talking about drafting a quarterback last year. Apparently they were talking about drafting a quarterback last year. We have felt like we're on the one yard line of this thing so many times that i won't be convinced that kurt cousins is leaving until we get that adam schefter tweet and it pops up and it says cousins is signing with the atlanta falcons and that could be 20 whatever hours.

I don't know how many hours. Whatever tomorrow at 11 o'clock in the morning is. That could be five minutes into the tampering period. It could be right before the start of the league year. I don't really know what the timing is going to be. And it seems like none of the NFL insiders really have any idea either as we just kind of sit and wait. So share your feelings. Where do we stand? And before I get to your comments, I just also want to add that there was a report today. I believe it was Aaron Wilson,

who's an NFL insider. There might be somebody else who reported this as well, that the Vikings have interest in Christian Wilkins, which would also be another thing where you go, wait a minute, Christian Wilkins is going to go for like $25 million a year. How would they sign Kirk if that's going to happen? But of course, everything is contingent on whether Kirk is coming back or not. They couldn't chase Christian Wilkins if Cous Kirk is coming back or not. They couldn't chase Christian Wilkins if Cousins is coming back. But I was excited to see it because we've talked about it for so long about the possibility of the Vikings going after an elite defensive tackle. And I have just been a huge fan of Christian Wilkins really since Clemson. He was a top draft pick and he's

developed over a couple of years to be an impact player on the inside and all phases. The guy plays like 900 snaps too. He is on the field all the time. And when the Vikings played the Miami Dolphins last year, I watched Christian Wilkins rep after rep after rep just win and win and impact the game so much. If the Vikings went after him, what a great way to start your rebuild along the defensive line. Then you draft some people, you fill in from there. But when you have a centerpiece like that, everything becomes easier because there's so much focus on that guy. I don't have to tell Vikings fans about this. They saw it with Linville Joseph, saw it with Kevin Williams, Pat Williams. If you have the interior dominated, everybody else, their life is easier.

The linebackers, the edge rushers, and Christian Wilkins is that type of player. And I would be very much willing to give him top dollar in order to come here. So they were listed along with the Texans as possible locations. I figured that was worth bringing up as well. So let's get into, I'm just going to scroll all the way back to the comments and go through how you guys are feeling at this very moment in time. And then we'll all remember how we felt the night before the two nights before we knew. Blowfishes, we'll start off, says the Vikings want Kirk for two more years so they can draft a quarterback and have him sit and develop.

Kirk will tell the team what the Falcons are offering once legal tampering begins. Well, yeah, that's true. I guarantee you that Kirk Cousins and his agent have a good sense for what the Falcons are actually willing to offer. But until they can put that down on the table, that's why when there was a report this morning that Kirk was going to inform the Vikings tonight what was going on, I was like, wait, but he doesn't have official offers yet. So he can tell the Vikings, yeah, I'm going to listen to offers tomorrow.

I'm not signing an extension with you tonight. But that doesn't mean that it's over. That means I'm hitting free agency, so to speak, and I'm going to listen to offers officially. So right now, Cousins can only have an idea. It can only be whispers at the combine. It can only be untraceable text messages using whatever app that drug dealers use. I'm sure that's not true. I'm just kidding, but he can only have a sense. He can't have official offers. So he can't tell the Vikings I'm absolutely not coming back. He can't announce that he's going somewhere else and he can't even really negotiate with the

Vikings until he has an official offer from someone else. Then he can go, he can't even really negotiate with the Vikings until he has an official offer from someone else. Then he can go back to them and say, all right, the Falcons are putting down three for one 30 or whatever it's going to be. I don't really know, but then he can say the Broncos are offering this. The Falcons are offering this. Will you guys come over to my side more? Will you guys come over to my side more will you guys match and what we really don't

know because we just aren't inside his head and that might be a scary place and what we don't know is is kirk cousins using the falcons and the broncos to try to bring the vikings over to his side so he can stay that's really the question because it's been so much out there with the Falcons, so much connection to the Falcons that you do have to wonder, you have to think like, is this what he's doing? Because if you go back to that last negotiation that he had, where he ended up with the Vikings. If you recall, another team offered slightly more money. That was the New York jets. And for some reason, Kirk cousins did a documentary about his free agency that they ran on NFL network. And they showed him talking with his agent about the jets

and saying, this is great. Now I can pump the price up for the Vikings, which why I don't know you're joining a team and yet you're trying to pump up the price. So it makes it harder for your team to do stuff. But that's, uh, that's old news. The point just being that this has happened before. So is it a bluff? Is it him saying like, Hey, you know, I I'll get other teams. I'll do it. I'll leave. I'll go to Atlanta. My wife's from there. Has anybody brought that up?

Or does he really want to go somewhere else if they are going to buy into him more? Because if I was Kirk Cousins, I would feel pretty underappreciated by the Vikings, considering that I won 13 games and then they blame me for a playoff loss where Ed Donatel's defense goes sideways. I know fourth and eight, I'm just putting myself in his shoes. Like I did the winning that you guys asked me to do. I had the playoff game that you asked me to have. Your defense didn't hold up the end of the bargain. And then you won't give me Daniel Jones money. And now I'm supposed to come back to you. So there has to be even an extra, you didn't hold up the end of the bargain, and then you won't give me Daniel Jones money. And now I'm supposed to come back to you. So there has to be even an extra, you didn't believe in Kirk tax because now you're asking me to come back when before you wouldn't pay my price. So, you know, I, I do think that trying to pick this apart is difficult from his perspective or,

you know, would he look at the Atlantalanta falcons roster and say you know i really want to be in the playoffs next year i don't want to go eight and nine because we have no defense they're not signing christian wilkins if they have kirk cousins i don't think unless they do some really crazy stuff but then how are they getting defensive ends how are they getting another linebacker how are they getting another cornerbacker? How are they getting another corner? Yeah. You know, how are they getting a wide receiver three, all those things become so difficult if they were to bring back Kirk. And then, then we were back in the same circle of, Hey, they got Delvin Tomlinson like, well, you know, it doesn't make that big of a difference for one player. So is Kirk trying to play these other teams against the Vikings to up the offer by the Vikings?

Or is he really just looking for the team that is going to love him the most and give him the best chance to win in the playoffs? And we don't have an answer to that as of yet. And feel free to tell me if you're seeing any other insider reports. But I don't think we're getting it tonight. I think it's going to be tomorrow in the afternoon. But when, I'm not really sure because this whole process is going to have to play out, it could be two seconds into the legal tampering period. It could be Tuesday.

We just have to wait and see. And it's very clear that no one really truly knows what is going to happen. Jay Jizza says Kirk matched case Keen and viking playoff wins in six years however the vikings had to pay out to kirk 185 million dollars to do so too bad this team never gave keenum a second year oh the uh i was thinking about this the other day because i'll give you a little journalism hack just since uh all of you were nice enough to come by and thank you to the crowd everybody stopping in tonight i guess you're not into the oscars um but i've already written my kirk leaves story because that's what we do sometimes if we know something is very probable to happen or is

a possibility sometimes we'll write a story to have it ready so we can fire it out when it's done, when it happens. So I've already got one ready for if he comes back and I've already got one ready for if he goes and my thoughts on both of those things. And the one that I wrote that is about him potentially leaving is really about the if onlys of the Kirk Cousins era. If only he had Kevin O'Connell from the start and not Mike Zimmer, if only they'd put together better guards, if only they fired Ed Donatel midway through the season. And then there's another one that if only they didn't do it at all and signed Case Keenum and brought him back on a franchise tag say, and then, you know, maybe drafted a quarterback that year or whatever like there's

so many different tentacles to it but i think of the cousins era as it really is defined by that one playoff win and how we talked ourselves into or like not you and i but the team talked themselves into so many times if only he had just had this if only he had just had this, if only he had just had that, then they would have been able to get there. But one of the major reasons they never had those things was because his contract was restrictive. They couldn't keep the 2019 team together in 2020 because it was restrictive and they had to bring in Bashad Breeland to play corner. Hey, look, if it's 2017 Xavier Rhodes playing corner for the 2021 Vikings, they make the playoffs, right? But instead it was Bashad Breeland because Cousins made up 17% of the salary cap that year. Like it all kind of, even though there's all these if onlys about the Cousins era, including if only they never did it,

it always came back to kind of the same thing, which was you were always a day late and a dollar short, which is also my angle if he returns, which is how do you change that? And I don't know that the Vikings have an answer there. Like I'm sure internally they have the Kirk goes plan and the Kirk stays plan, but how do you change history? How do you look back at these last six years and go, all right, we've pinpointed the one thing that was missing from those teams. And now we're going to do something else. That's just very hard to see. And the thing that was missing was supposedly the culture, which did, I think, play a role in them having a really good season in 2022

and also a lot of crazy stuff at the end of games. But the result was the same. And you went through Justin Jefferson's whole rookie contract with zero playoff wins. It's just it's not like you can identify one thing. If only the guy had this, then it'd be fine because it's always a moving target with him. So if he comes back, we're going to have some work to do to try to figure out how they're going to make this work. And if he doesn't, then the floodgates open for any and all possible ideas and opportunities for the Vikings to change their fate and kind of have

another version of what we had in 2018, where there's a lot of choices on the table and Baker Mayfield now, not one of those choices. And I'm good with that. Like I think my initial feeling about Baker Mayfield, when it was first brought up as an idea was okay. Yeah. All right. Baker Mayfield, then draft JJ McCarthy. And then it's a one-year deal for Baker and then McCarthy develops and you play him and that sounds great. But then the reality sets in that because you're a quarterback, then you're worth a lot and you get paid a lot. And so now Baker Mayfield on that contract, that's a no for me. That is a no for me. And is anybody concerned that the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers are going to be in the Super Bowl in the next two years? No, they're not, because that's not the type of quarterback who's going to take you over the top. I think he would have been good and we would have had a lot of fun, but on a deal that's multi-years, I would not have been good with that. There was a lot of money. No, that's, that's not going to make it happen. Uh, Jimbo Stimbo. That's a great name says, uh, I'm fine with Kirk walking or staying, but if he walks, don't we lose a ton of leverage in a trade up in the draft? No, I don't think so.

I mean, look, if you're trading up in the draft to get a quarterback, everybody knows that that's going to happen. It's not like if you had Kirk, then the team would be like, I don't know, man, maybe we'll do it now. Like the team that you're trading with, if you're trading up from number 11 to number three, they're going to know you're doing it for a quarterback. You're not going to be like, maybe it's for Malik neighbors. Like, no, they're not going to be like, maybe it's for Malik neighbors. Like, no, they're not going to be fooled by that. And the price is going to be the price, whether it's cousins or anybody else. If you're trading up to number five, to try to get ahead of the giants, to get JJ McCarthy, which who knows how that's all going to play out. They're going to know that you're only trading up

to try to get your quarterback, whether you have Kirk Cousins or not. So I don't think it makes a whole lot of a difference. And I also don't think that that would be a good reason to bring him back. The reason you bring him back is that you think you can win a Super Bowl in the next two years. That's it. Those are all the reasons. And if you don't, then it's a colossal failure, which it has been for the last six years. That's it. Those are all the reasons. And if you don't, then it's a colossal failure, which it has been for the last six years. And that's the trouble, right? That's why we're here.

That's why so many of you are talking about wanting to move on because it has not been a success for the organization. But that's where the mentality becomes totally different. If they draft Michael Penix, Bo Nix, J.J. McCarthy, then I think all of us are totally fine with strapping in to that ride. Just, all right, we're going to strap into that ride, and the first year might be a little rocky and a little bumpy, but let's see how they build out the rest of the roster. Let's all find out together, right? If they are to draft a quarterback, if they do not, then it's super bowl or bus still. I I've never moved off

in 2018. It was the super bowl or bus season. Obviously it went bust, but I never moved my expectations. That's why you signed him. That's where the expectation should be every single year. And I never changed that. They, they did because then all of a sudden they started talking about, well, you know, if we just get in the playoffs, like, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's not, that's not what the expectation is. Or, you know, we have it a successful year in 2022. No, you didn't, you didn't go deep in the playoffs. We won one wildcard game. It was a success. No, it wasn't. I remember Rick Spielman saying, Kirk proved he can win in the playoffs. Like what? Because of a wildcard game? Didn't TJ Yates win a wildcard game? What are we talking about here? They moved the goalpost, but I've never moved the goalpost and we shouldn't. If he comes back,

that should be the expectation is simply super bowl or bust or deep playoff run or bust i wouldn't call it a failure if they made the nfc championship game or something but if it's anything short of multiple playoff wins then you failed and i just don't know how that's going to happen if they bring him back uh maybe they'll maybe they've got some plan but you know what i've noticed about free agency and i'm sure you guys have noticed it as well, that a lot of the great free agents that we were all talking about, like Matt Abouke from the Ravens,

Chris Jones from Kansas City, all these great players, a lot of them have been franchise tagged. A lot of them have been re-signed. And if you look at the free agency list now, you can actually find a lot of nice players, but not a lot of game changers. That's why I love a lot of nice players, but not a lot of game changers. That's why I love the Christian Wilkins idea, but not a lot of game changers.

So you're just going to fill out the roster with a bunch of good players and hope. That doesn't really sound like a strategy if you're bringing back cousins. Purple Pain says the most disappointing thing is the Vikings haven't just said, see ya, Kirk, from the beginning. They're still letting this gravitational pull toward 500 hold them hostage. Yeah, and this is a very interesting point to bring up because the question is, are they presenting to the world their appreciation for Kirk? And we know that Kevin O'Connell feels this

way about him. And I don't blame O'Connell for that. They won a lot of games together. They had, I mean, it's your first quarterback, your first time being a head coach and you win 13 games with the guy. I mean, if that's your first impression of being a head coach and working with cousins and your last impression is his best game against green Bay, you're going to like the guy, right? It's not O'Connell's job to value a player necessarily. That is the general manager and the front office's job. But I can understand that. The question is whether the presentation to the public

about the love for Cousins and how much they want him back is more of, we just want to show him the respect, but also want him to go somewhere else. Sort of like if someone asks you to come pick them up somewhere at midnight and you're like, yeah, I mean, I'd love to do it. I really would. I'm low on gas, though. So, you know, I really care about you. I really want to make sure you get home safe. But, you know, I just don't have any gas money. You know, that kind of thing.

Is that what they're doing? Or is this truly that they got together, they decided, here's a number that we'll all settle on on that the front office believes they can build around him. And then they're going to do it like that also could be the case. I really don't know. I really don't know which which it is. It has felt like the front office, you know, Casey Adafo Menta has been much more timid when it comes to the oh, yeah, we want him back. We want him back. He said something like, we think we can win the ultimate prize with him. You're like, yeah, even though your first comment to the USA Today as GM was, we can't win with a good quarterback, not a great quarterback.

It's kind of funny how that works. Everything that they have done, their actions, speaking louder than words has been, it's time to move on from him right now so do they did they change their minds with the way he was playing mid-season last year maybe or maybe it's all just kind of a we want to make sure that we show him respect and eric eager brought up the possibility of him ending up in the ring of honor, which really made some of you upset. But, you know, he's what third in Vikings wins as a quarterback. I think he's second or first in touchdowns, maybe second behind Fran Tarkenton. You know, he's right there with Tommy Kramer for yardage.

Like he is, he's been here for a long time. And I think that O'Connell, one of his very key things is making sure that players feel appreciated. And this is how he gets an a plus. I mean, even the fact with Alexander Madison, you know, they let him know before cutting him. It sounds like rather than just, it rolls across the ticker, like little things like that. So is it that,

or do they actually really want them back because they think they can win? I actually don't really know. Joe says, come on, Matt little things like that. So is it that, or do they actually really want them back? Cause they think they can win. I, I actually don't really know. Uh, Joe says, come on, Matt, we need your latest Kirk percentage meter, man. Okay. So right now, and I want to be clear that when you say something is at a percentage and it's not like sometimes people like anything less than 50 means zero but i really mean it when i think it's about 25 that means one in four that doesn't mean zero that means one in four i think it's about 25 because this number with baker mayfield seems like it's going to be an easily beatable number by the Atlanta Falcons. And there was something that somebody put out there that, well, the Falcons were monitoring this because they have numerous options.

And you're like, who? Who's your numerous options? Let's be honest here, Falcons. You and me. Let's talk, you birds. Tell me who your other options are. Wilson? I don't know about that.

How about Justin Fields? Sounds more to me like most of the NFL teams think Justin Fields is not that good. So who are your realistic other options if you're the Falcons? I think that they're more likely to go all in, and that's why I put it there. And I also think that Denver could be sneaky. Their general manager used to work for the Vikings. Sean Payton had a quarterback that was accurate and intelligent. And you know what I know about coaches like Sean Payton? They always think it was them. They always think it was me. I'm the one who made Drew Brees great.

It was my system, my play calling. They always think think that so if you just give me a similar quarterback i'll do the same thing and they just cleared a bunch of cap space tons of cap space they could also give them a deal that's five years kind of dummy years matched onto it uh the way that matthew stafford got from the los angeles rams like there's options out there. There are definitely options out there for Kirk Cousins. So that's why I'd put it in one and four. But I always could see the scenario where Cousins really wants to come back to the Vikings. He loves Minnesota. He felt loved by the fans and that he is playing these other teams to try to get the Vikings to up their offer. And it's possible he's just bluffing. It's possibly

just totally bluffing and then says, all right, fine. I'll take your number. That's that is within the realm of possibility. So one in four for me right now, but you guys will have to give me your percentages. High times KG says, are the Vikings really scared to move on from Kirk? Give me a legit reason beyond 2024 opportunities. Why you wouldn't move on at this point. Well, I feel like that has been the show for so long. My friend is talking through this and what, what is the reasoning to bring him back? Well, it would be because they think that Brian Flores can up the floor of their defense and that they will have an elite offense with cousins coming back. Kevin O'Connell really believes in his passing game. Okay. So you get

a running back, you approve the running game. Flores gives you a top 15 defense. You don't fumble every game. And, you know, so many times we heard him go back to this thing about the close games, the close games that we lost all these close games. And so, you know, that's why we lost by this fumble or the time where Jefferson flung the ball out of bounds by accident. And of course, my thing is the best teams don't have to rely on one score games constantly. The best teams normally outscore their opponents by 150 points. So usually they blow out teams rather than playing every single game close. But you could see from the coach's mind, our offense was rolling. We had a top 10 scoring offense when Kirk and Kevin O'Connell was together.

Jefferson is here. Addison, you know, you've got the offensive lineman. Maybe you add a guard who can run block a little bit and just roll it back. Flores will do his thing and then we're good. Then we're, then we're off and cook, right? But the problem with that logic is, well, one Kirk is older and he's coming off major surgery. That's one problem. The other problem is the division's not what it used to be. When they got here in 2022, the division was terrible.

The Packers were on their way down. Aaron Rodgers was an anchor for them at that point because he was so miserable and was honestly falling off a little bit with his talent. And the Lions were tanking and the Bears were tanking, or at least the Lions were like still in that very much rebuild mode in 2022. Well, that's not the case now. I mean, you could see Chicago being good right away with Caleb Williams because they're loading up that roster. They're spending crazy money. And then you got an NFC championship team and a divisional round team in your division. That's way different than where you were two years ago. So you can say, well, we were this close. We were that close. But I don't I just don't see that as justifiable. But that if you're asking what their justification would be, that's what it is they think that florist can raise the level of the defense although we did

hear this once about mike zimmer in 2020 they think they can raise the level of the defense and we also saw at the end of the year a couple people got hurt and they fell completely off from being a very good defense to a total disaster also every time they played a good team offensively the defense was not that great because of personnel. Like you can only do so much. And it's always very thin when you're trying to just add starters from free agency, then hope everyone stays healthy, which they usually don't. So that's their, that would be their logic in bringing him back. But does that get you anywhere different than you've been for the last six years? No, no, it doesn't.

It's very unlikely to, I should say. You never know with the NFL. But why are they scared? Because if you draft the wrong guy, you get fired. It's really that simple. I mean, you look at the 2021 draft. Now, the 2020 draft was great, by the way. You look at the 2021 draft and you go, that draft was supposed to have an incredible bunch of

quarterbacks and now none of them are with their teams. Mack Jones gets traded to the Jaguars for what was it? A fifth round draft pick. Oh my gosh. Justin Fields. He's not going to get traded for as much as they want. He was only showed signs, but 10 and 28 is a starter. Trey Lance is on his second team already and has basically never played. Like there are no guarantees when it comes to drafting a quarterback. And now that Baker Mayfield is off the list, then you could see as Kevin O'Connell from the coaching staff perspective, them thinking, well, if we draft JJ McCarthy and he's not good, then we're just going to lose our jobs. But I promise you, if you bring back Kirk and don't make the playoffs or win any playoff games next two years,

you will also lose your job. And that could even happen in one year that that could happen if they were to go eight, nine or something. And also, what if Kirk gets hurt again? I mean, we're talking about a guy that's taken a lot of beating over the years and then just had a major injury. So there's all sorts of risk involved either way. That's why you take your shot. You see what happens. You get Sam Darnold as kind of the, I don't, I mean, bridge or just a veteran backup who could play if you need them to draft a quarterback. And then I think you get a lot more leeway than you would. And there's also other quarterback options that could come up. So let's say that you draft McCarthy and you know, right away, Oh, this probably isn't going to be that good. Then the door is open to drafting other players or, or signing someone or having something come up. Look, I mean, Kirk's available.

Russell Wilson's available. Quarterbacks are always coming available unlike they used to in the past so it's not just kirk versus draft guy this year it's really kirk versus every other person that could potentially be your quarterback uh angel does senior or is that supposed to be dust i I'm not sure. Says your honest opinion on what happens to Hunter. I think Daniil Hunter is a Jaguar or a bear or something by tomorrow. I would be very, very surprised that Daniil Hunter came back. The price tag on him seems immense.

Their reported interest in Christian Wilkins to me would say that they think Daniil Hunter is not coming back and such as life. When you fiddle around with somebody's contract for four straight off seasons, would say that they think Daniil Hunter's not coming back and such is life when you fiddle around with somebody's contract for four straight off seasons asking them hey can you just come back on like a normal contract like no probably not and there's got to be 25 teams who are calling Daniil Hunter he's such a good player that there's just every team with cap space has to be interested in Daniil Hunter playing for them. So that's how I see it going down. Once again, you talk about gravitational pull. This place has that with players that they often come back. Heck, Anthony Barr was a Viking last

year. Who saw that coming? So I've never underestimated this place's ability to bring people back in the doors. Tom Johnson came back. Shamar Stephan came back. Like all sorts of guys over the years pop back in. You know, so I wouldn't be stunned, but it just seems to be the winds are blowing toward. He's going to get such big offers that the Vikings just can't do much about that. Folks, have you ever heard of test driving a phone network? I did not make this up. It is an actual thing. And U.S. Cellular is letting you test drive their network for free for 30 days. You can try out U.S. Cellular wherever

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Visit uscellular.com for details. Dustin says, what if the Broncos come in from left field and offer the most? And this was their plan all along. So that's why they've been dropping all these players. I could see it. Yeah, I could see it. The Broncos are another team like the Falcons.

And by the way, I ran out this, I don't know if this is ominous or not. I ran out of diet, Dr. Pepper today. So we got, we got some Gatorade here.

Hopefully that's not a bad sign. I could just go to the store and get some more later uh but as far as the broncos go they needed to make cap space anyway with the russell wilson disaster but one thing that i've been thinking about a lot is desperation and you know the vikings have had solid respectable quarterback play for the last six seasons. And what they're looking for is someone to help them maybe have a higher ceiling as a roster, as a team, and also maybe as a playmaker, looking for a little something different,

as somebody who can play out of structure and so forth. If you're the Falcons or the Broncos, think about where the Broncos have been since Peyton Manning. Total disaster at the position tim tebow paxton lynch teddy teddy teddy might be the best quarterback they've had i think he is he's we went like seven and seven for them he's like the best quarterback that they've had i mean that like that's crazy bad quarterback play they signed case keenum like they have just been a mess and they get that and sean payton gets there and clearly can't work with russell wilson they

don't jive from a personality perspective wilson is not his type of quarterback from a scheme perspective of more of a pocket guy wilson wants to be a playmaker and they get something out of it fairly competitive but it has been a mess since 2015 that's a long time to have disaster at quarterback that's where you start to get the desperation and they very much could um decide that that they're gonna do everything they possibly can to get k Cousins and get some competent quarterback play there because to a team that's been in a desert of quarterback play, then yeah, I mean, you're going to feel a lot more pressed to try to do something crazy. And that's, I mean, gosh, that's what the Vikings did in 2018 is that they had struggled to find their guy.

They had Teddy. He got hurt. They had Bradford. He got hurt. Keenum was probably not going to continue to be super great. I mean, that like they were desperate and they said, we haven't had our franchise quarterback in forever, essentially since those first years of Dante call pepper. And then, you know, Kirk cousins, you know, just a year here year there of somebody like Brett Favre or Case Keenum so okay Cousins can be our guy for many years to come and he was it just didn't work out the way that they hoped but you could see how that pressed them that their past and the situation they were in pressed them to decide to go all in on cousins you could see the same thing

happening for the broncos joe says the vikings are bending at this stage would not be great process they laid the groundwork for his departure and they didn't extend him last offseason totally agree joe totally agree one thousand percent if that's a real percentage then that's how high i'm willing to go uh because the minute they got here and they signed him to the shortest extension possible that's where it seemed clearly laid out that they were going to move on from kirk cousins at this point that's that is where the whole plan seemed crystal clear which was they're going to try to win in 2022 prove it was mike zimmer's fault then in 2023 they're going to rebuild major parts of the roster they did and we respected it

okay you're moving on from delvin cook that's all right you're moving on from eric kendricks that's all right adam thielen that's all right that's part of the plan as long as the plan sends all roads to drafting a quarterback in a draft this year that has at least four maybe five first round draft picks and and they've talked about it and that was the thing like where quesadilla flamenco said we've had our eye on this quarterback class for years that was his exact quote quote. Like, okay, so why is that? Because this all led you here. So if you pivot off of all the evidence pointing us toward this place,

then what is your process? Just reactionary? Just, we thought we would miss him. He played great against the Packers. Well, what? As if we had never seen him play before. And by the way, one thing, just a little aside that irritates me is when they say he was playing the best football of his career.

When O'Connell said it, I've heard other people, analysts, insiders, well, he was playing the best quarterback of his career. No, he wasn't. He played great in those two games before he got injured. But 2019, at 2019, he had his highest quarterback rating, won the playoff game. I mean, fit perfectly in Kevin Stefanski's offense, was dropping deep balls all over the place, actually blew teams out as opposed to playing every single game, a one score game. Also, I think he was really good in 2021, 2020. He got them back into the playoff race. They lost a couple of close games early, had the bad defense played really well. 2020 19 with, uh, you know,

Gary Kubiak, Kevin Stefanski. It's this nothing changed. I thought he was playing well last year for sure, but nothing changed. The weeks before that against Carolina and Chicago, it was a real struggle. So I don't understand that. But if they are reacting to two wins against the 49ers and Packers to make this massive decision

that they've led this whole thing up to, I'll be baffled. I'll be baffled. If I'm on here tomorrow doing this show saying to you guys, Kirk's back, I'll be pretty flummoxed. Do I think it's possible? Of course I do, but I'll be pretty flummoxed. Jeff says, this team will not compete for a championship this season. So why in the hell would we resign Kirk? You can't rebuild with a salary around your neck. This has to end. Please God, make this end. Well, I think that you're capturing how much of the fan base feels.

And one thing that I have noticed about, you know, I interact mostly with Vikings fans, but also just following on Twitter, fans around the league, fan content creators, things like that, is how knowledgeable you guys are about what's going on with this team like it seems that the fan base in general and i know there's always nuts there's always people who have kirk's name tattooed on their nipple or whatever there's always weird people out there but let's just talk in more like the people that we're talking with right now is i think you guys fully get it, that this has already been seen.

There's no evidence that this can really work and that the contract is restrictive. And so all signs point to that it's time to move on. And if they don't do it, as you said, please God make this end, I think everybody's just gonna be baffled. Just like, what? Like, why? And is the grass always greener on the other side? It's not,

not always, but what about the last six years has been any different from being bad? I mean, there hasn't been many playoffs, you six years and how many trips to the post season to, I mean, isn't that what bad teams do? Why does it seem better than what bad teams have done? You're bad. Like, you've been bad. You've been sort of entertaining along the way. And I guess if you're certain teams that tanked or just were totally incompetent, they were less entertaining.

But not good, though. Not good. Two trips to the playoffs in 2019 and 2022 over six years that's what bad teams do so yeah i i think that most people will feel the same way as you where they'll just be pretty uh confused so uh one of you is saying that Diana Rossini tweeted that Denver won't pursue Cousins. Well, that's interesting. I don't know about that. I mean, I just like when it comes to reporting on this particular subject, I'm not saying

that her sources are lying to her or something. It's just are we really are we really sure about that? Are we really sure about anything right now when it comes to reporting because it seems like the insiders have been very perplexed by what's going to happen that there has been no definitive uh things mentioned collar you want teddy to come back hey you know it's funny um people made me out to be that was once upon a time like the teddy guy i didn't even cover teddy i mean like i did but uh not in 2015 i got there in 2016 when he got hurt i just knew what was being said about his trajectory at the time and

when i reviewed the 2015 season I thought it was better than the traditional stats suggested that, you know, they were playing a certain type of style, a slower pace, they were run first, all that stuff. So he didn't throw many touchdowns and they didn't have good deep receivers. His deep ball was inconsistent. But I thought that like, I think about a lot of quarterbacks that on the rookie contract, they could have built a team good enough to go to the Super Bowl. And they did just after he got hurt. But they did. They were there.

I mean, they were at the NFC Championship game with a backup quarterback. I think we can all agree that Teddy Bridgewater was more talented than Case Keenum. So that's I I always, I liked that. And I also really liked what just other people said about Bridgewater that what I heard about him from the players on the record, off the record was that the leadership thing, the way he commanded the offense, the way he just put everybody on his back, the way he made players better. Just a real quick story about that. When Case Keenum was playing and Teddy Bridgewater was active and Bridgewater wanted to play, obviously wanted to be the starter. He was on the sideline looking at the, whatever it's called, the Microsoft surface

and spotted something in the Washington defense and brought Keenum over. They looked at it and it resulted in a deep pass touchdown. I mean, he was over there on the sideline playing coach and helping people out. Adam Thielen told me directly that he had worked with Bridgewater and how to adapt to a new quarterback in Case Keenum. So when you can impact people like that, I think that that's special and that's different. So in my mind, they would have had a legitimate chance to win with Bridgewater.

That was the only thing. I mean, I don't think that's a hot take. And yet, you know, you know how the internet though is like, if you say, Hey,

you know, they didn't win anything. Well, cousins was here. You're a hater or whatever. Okay. I don't know. Whatever.

I'm not, I don't care about that. Uh, man, juice 69. Great to see you here again. When are you going to change that name? Says, my question is about the culture of the pro personnel department. Any word on their autonomy or is it more top down?

Would this tip the hand of this year's approach? I guess I'm not fully understanding the question. Like, do we mean, is it like Kweisi Adafo-Mensa calls the shots and everybody else just kind of gives their opinion? I don't truly know how collaboration exactly works in this scenario. This seems to be entirely between ownership, the head coach and the general manager. I don't think anybody else has to be involved and cousins. I don't think anybody else really has to be involved in their opinion about this. The ownership is the one who's got to foot the bill. They're the ones who got to, you know, pay everybody's contract and fly to the stadium

each week. So they're going to ultimately decide how far they're willing to go. And then it's quesia daflamensa and he talked about this it's his a job to present options to them and then they're going to decide and i think that's how it works is that the coach and the gm are presenting options here's what we think is the right price to put on kirk cousins here's why we could bring him back here's why we don't. And then they approve or they don't approve.

And that's how most of it works. I don't think this is unique at all. That's how most NFL teams operate except the Packers that do not have owners. Or no, Packers fans, you're all cute owners, all of you. It's wonderful. But just when it comes to the general manager's job, that is an important part of it is being able to sell the ownership on, on what to do. So that, that would be how I think this is all kind of decided is that they normally, when it comes to like a Christian

Wilkins, then you would have a lot of people giving their input. All right, here's how he could fit. Here's Brian Flores opinion. Here's the personnel opinion. Here's the cap guy's opinion. But with Cousins, it's really only three people, I think. Master Jedi 19 Gaming says, I hope he's not back and we can rebuild the offensive and defensive line. It is something worth bringing up. And I don't think that we talked about on the show is that Ezra Cleveland signed for kind of a lot of money and Ezra Cleveland's not good. And I think that tells you that left guards are expensive these days.

And, and also Kevin Dotson, who I thought was going to be the best fit for the Vikings. He resigned to stay with the Rams. So the amount of left guards that are available is not all that impressive unless you've got some cash to pull out of your pocket. And so they could sign a left guard like Jonah Jackson or John Simpson, I think from the Ravens. They could do that, but it's probably going to cost eight to 10 to $12 million a year

in order to do so. That's kind of a forgotten thing when we talk about building the D-line, building the defense, is that they have needs, multiple needs on offense. They need a running back. That's going to cost a couple million bucks. They need wide receiver three, wide receiver four. So there's a lot to be done here. Monkster says, I just have a feeling that they're going to end up with pennix

good with me if they like them that is totally good with me if they decided to draft michael pennix and of course i would want them to also get uh another quarterback as well as sam darnold a veteran a jacoby brissett somebody like that. Although it seems Brissett might end up in New England on kind of that rebuilding team. Let's see. I don't know how to pronounce this. Ellucian, maybe? I don't agree with this strategy,

but if they do sign Kirk and let go of Harrison Smith, they are easily able to sign Christian Wilkins, right? They are able to sign a player, but are they able to rebuild the whole roster as we were just talking about? Or are we in Dakota Dozier territory? That's always been the issue. 2021 is a great example. Cousins is making up 17% of the cap and they go out and they get a handful of guys. Was that the year they brought in Delvin Tomlinson? They bring back Sheldon Richardson, Everson Griffin returns.

They give a handful of dollars here, there, but shot Breland and they're like fixed. And it, but it wasn't because that's not how it works. I mean, I've always liked this theory from Greg Rosenthal, NFL.com. It's got a podcast. He had this theory that you need like 40 good players from good to amazing to win a championship in the NFL. And that might be a little too many, but I think that where his mind is, is where mine is, which is you can't just have the starters because you can't turn injuries off.

You have to have, look what happened to the defensive line at the end of the season. You get DJ Wanham hurt. All of a sudden your defensive line is awful. It's like that you have to have other players. In 2021, the same thing happened where they're playing like Tashaun Bauer. It's like, what, what are we doing here? But that was because they had no backup. So once, uh, Everson left the team and Hunter got hurt, they were running out guys

that were just not NFL caliber players. So that happens all the time where a team at week one and how they look is pretty good. But when you get to week 17, then how are you really going to look? And what's happened most of the time is with this team is they've gotten back in the race. They've been in the hunt. And then they slide down the slippery mountain and missed the playoffs, usually because injuries add up. And then they go, gosh, if we didn't have so many injuries, but you, you always do. You always do. Chris says, we all know at this point, he's about the money, not a Superbowl

that is not compatible with a team that is not ready to pop. So this is, it is one thing that I have thought about. Cause I don't like to make that accusation about Kirk cousins. I don't, um, he's done really well for himself from a business perspective. He has been about money. I mean, I guess like that's part of the game though, is the Chris Jones just won a super bowl. And then, but last off season, didn't he miss a game because he was still negotiating with the team? And then he just signs a huge contract. It's going to make life more difficult for the chiefs. Is he not about winning? Like he, I don't know. It seems like a winner to me. He's like one of their best players. That's kind of how the game works is these guys have a limited amount of time to make as much money as they can. And if your Kirk Cousins and your peers, one of 15 people who can competently do this in the world, your peers are making X, then that's what you make. I mean, if you were, I'll try to make something up.

If you were a surgeon, say you're a surgeon. Now, this is obviously more important in the big scheme of things. But if you are a surgeon and you're one of the 15 best surgeons in the world and the top hospital for surgery calls and says, you know, we want to make you an offer and the top surgeons make $4 million a year. You're not going to be like, you know what? I like cutting people open. How about a mill? I want us to be the best hospital we can be and spend on nurses. Nothing really works this way. It's just that Brady did it, and the scale is so big of how this works with football, and the money is so big that we go, hey, you took the money. You don't want to win.

I've never thought that about Kirk Cousins. I've never thought that he was just about the money and doesn't want to win. I've thought because of the money, you can't win. And that's a front office problem. That's not a Kirk Cousins problem. That's a front office problem. You gave him the money. You didn't have to. You didn't have to sign him for all those dollars. So I don't think we should blame him when it comes to this. I think we should look much more at the decisions that have been made to keep him and to pay him. And if he goes to Atlanta, part of this will be like about winning. And that's the one thing that he just doesn't have on the resume. He's got Pro Bowls. He's got lots of money. He's got statistics

that are as good as any Vikings quarterback who's ever played, but he doesn't have playoff wins outside of one. And Atlanta probably does give you a better chance. I don't know about Denver, but Atlanta does. Now, look, if he goes to Denver, maybe you've got an argument there. Big grilling dad. Hopefully that's right about grilling. I too enjoy grilling. In fact, it's like summertime out there. I think I'm going to kick up the grill soon. Jacoby Brissett has won 3,000 yard passing season

his whole career. Never a 90 rating and you think he's a great option. You're joking, right? Well, yours spelled R-E, so that's for future comments. So with Jacoby Brissett, the point is that he would be a veteran backup. So he started games in the league, and he is known as having a great reputation as a person and as an understander of football.

And when he's been asked to start, he has been competent as a starter. It hasn't been a disaster. So it's very similar to, um, very similar to what Ryan Fitzpatrick was for teams like Miami with Tua. Ryan Fitzpatrick goes to Miami. Tua is not ready. They give him a certain caliber of quarterback play. They were competent. They were competitive. They won games. And then they turned the ball over to Tua. And then they used his rookie contract to acquire a bunch of players. That's what you're looking for in Jacoby Brissett. I don't think he's the next great NFL quarterback. Is he like 30? I mean, he's no one thinks that it's just that it's always good to pair a rookie with a veteran quarterback who really understands the game and from all reports out of washington he

was fantastic working with sam howell last year so that's what i want yeah i i don't think he's great of course not uh as says from racini while the denver broncos had some conversations about the possibility of going after cousins they are not going to be pursuing him if he hits free agency okay so there's the whole Diana Rossini report so then uh by that metric then it looks like um you you'd be talking about uh Atlanta and by uh or and uh Minnesota as the two teams that he could go to and Atlanta gonna come down to whether they want to pay and whether he actually wants to go. If that ends up being true, I'm not trying to say that her sources aren't good or whatever. Things do change though. And, you know, they could change their mind or decide,

or maybe they haven't decided that. And somebody saying that to play the leverage game, the leverage game is fun. You have to admit the leverage game is pretty fun where it's okay. Denver's involved and the Vikings and the price is going up. And then Denver's like, no, no, we're not involved. Not unless the price goes to where we want it. So all these games get played throughout this process. And a lot of times reports like this are very hard to consider rock solid in a fluid situation. So that's what I'd say. I'm not trying to criticize her reporting or sources or whatever.

It's just that sometimes these folks end up getting used by NFL people to send certain messages out to the world. And that's part of their job. Huge boy says this channel loves PFF, right? I suppose you could say that since I wrote an entire book about it. That's over there. He's been graded number five through 10, the last six years. Why would you want a top 10, 10, arguably top seven quarterback to leave? Well, one thing is that he is 36 and it's really not about what happened before, but it's about projecting forward. You don't give someone money based on past statistics. You give them money receivers, a good running back, and everybody's in their prime. Then I would say to you that that argument makes more sense.

That it does. I would not call him a top seven quarterback, by the way. And by the way, PFF grades are not all the just complete end-all be-all truth to anybody. So even if he grades as the seventh best quarterback, that doesn't just mean he's the seventh best quarterback. Some things about the PFF grading system for quarterbacks can be, I don't want to say hacked, but they can be misleading to some extent. So when you're losing by 20 points and you make a great throw, the system doesn't adjust for that. And that is sometimes one of the reasons Cousins numbers are pushed up, I think, as we all have surmised over the years.

But the point just being that if you're taking someone who's 36, there's not a great history for older quarterbacks, unless we're talking about all time. Greats being in your opinion, the seventh best quarterback in mind, maybe like 13th or 14th is not the prerequisite for being considered an all time. Great. And that's the only guys who have ever been excellent into their late

thirties and forties. So there's a chance that Cousins completely falls off and never recovers. He's coming off an Achilles injury. This is not a small thing. This is a big thing for a quarterback that needs all of his foundation to drive off of. And the other part is, you know, while PFF grades are very useful in this situation, they also don't take into the context of the roster and and what has been done here with this team and the and his contract i mean if you have let's just say that they would more tend to put him in like the top 10 range but if you have the

10th best quarterback and his contract is very similar to the highest paid quarterbacks in the league, that doesn't add up and it never has and it's never worked. So those grades are extremely useful and the data is extremely useful, but I don't think it points to, oh yeah, bring him back. Now, the other part of the formula is if I were to give you, even if you think he's the seventh best quarterback, you take the seventh best quarterback and it costs you $45 million. And I take the 14th best quarterback and it costs me $8 million. Who wins? Who's going to win when supporting casts have so much to do with the success of a player? Who's going to win? I I'd be able to build a better roster than you would. Brock Purdy might be the 14th best quarterback in the league, but he's in the super bowl. Jalen hurts might be not as good. Technically speaking for as Kirk cousins, he was in the super bowl. That's what you're looking to do. You're

not looking to win the PFF grade challenge. You're looking to go deep in the playoffs. Benjamin says Brissette or Darnold wouldn't be brought in to be the answer. They'd be brought in to somewhat be competent so we could bring a rookie along. Yep, that's right. They aren't supposed to be contenders with a bridge quarterback. The reason I like Darnold better than Brissette is what he did last year, I thought was great for him, which was go to San Francisco, work with a competent team, work with a real head coach, all those things. They're meaningful, right?

For his development. If there's anything else that's going to be there, we've seen quarterbacks develop into their twenties, Gino Smith, Ryan Tannehill. It would not be the first time. So there's also, he can be a backup to whoever Bo Nix, JJ McCarthy, whatever he can be a backup. Or there's also the potential that exists that he really fits with Kevin O'Connell fits with the offense, understands it better than he understood previously that has elite receivers as opposed to Robbie Anderson and Jamison Crowder. So there's with Jacoby Brissett, there's no potential of that with Sam Darnold. There is.

And I'd be very interested in seeing a quarterback competition in training camp between JJ McCarthy and Sam Darnold and see how it plays out and see, you know, and look, we'll follow next season with a lot of intrigue about the quarterback position, but that potential upside, the fact that it exists would make me more interested in him, but yeah, he wouldn't be the answer. Nobody that they bring in aside from their rookie quarterback is going to be the answer. Mike says, because he is incapable of letting his own self interests, uh, even in the slightest be set aside for the better of the team and the ultimate team sport. Yeah, I get it. I

understand the criticism I do. Uh, but for me, it's always been about the person on the other end, because it's just like, look, if you go to your mom and you say, I want 10 cookies before bed, she doesn't have to give them to you. And it's the same thing with this. If you go to the Vikings as Kirk cousins, and you say, I want to have the first fully guaranteed contract. You don't have to give them to you. And it's the same thing with this. If you go to the Vikings as Kirk Cousins and you say, I want to have the first fully guaranteed contract, you don't have to give it to them. If you go to the Vikings in 2020 and say, sign me to a massive extension that makes me or retains me as one of the

highest quarterback paid in the league, despite winning one playoff game in those Superbowl or bust years, they don't have to do it. They didn't have to keep them in 2022. They didn't have to keep them in 2022. They didn't have to keep them last year. They could have traded them to Atlanta last year. So I look at much more. We all know the price of quarterbacks.

We all know the price of this quarterback. Now it's on you. Don't, I don't look at it as Kirk should have taken less. Well, how much less would it had to have been to make maybe, maybe structure wise, it could have been different. Maybe there's a criticism there. I just think if he this is what happened in Washington is he asked for this contract and they said, no, that's not good for us. And he left and the Vikings could have done that at any time. Hey, by the way, so huge crowd here tonight. Thank you all for coming by. Really appreciate it. Just a real quick to tell you, subscribe to the YouTube page. Would love that

if you're new watching the show live on YouTube. And look, when anything happens with this team, I'll be right here. I've locked it down. I've got snacks. I gotta go to the store real quick and get Diet Dr. Pepper, but I'm in for this. For the next few days, anything that happens will be right here. So subscribe. Also, for all of my written stuff on the Vikings, purpleinsider.com. You can sign up for the newsletter there. So make sure you go do that. I send out stuff every day. There's a mailbag. It's really fun. So go sign up there. All right, we'll continue. Joe says, if the tea leaves turn to Kirk almost certainly being gone, doesn't it make sense for the Vikings to pivot and make an aggressive offer for number three? I go back and forth on this all the time because with a lot of different quarterback

options, if you told me one thing, Joe, and Mike told me another thing about trading up, I might be like, oh, good point. Oh, also a good point. So you could say that they should make a pivot to trying to trade up. And I like that. I like that the idea of Kevin O'Connell getting his guy. And look, if you have a great quarterback and a great receiver and a great left tackle, all the other stuff is findable. It's very, very hard to find the best receiver in the league, one of the best left tackles in the league, and a young quarterback that fits perfectly with the coach, was handpicked, and has the tools of Drake May. Could also be Jayden Daniels, tools of a Drake may could also be Jane Daniels,

but I think Drake may would really be their guy. So that sounds great to me. I will spend money to get the other players. I will develop guys. I'll use my second round picks, whatever. But then on the other side, you go, all right, this roster does have so much construction to do. Do you, what is the gap between number three quarterback and number 11 quarterback who you're going to take? Does that depend on where they think JJ McCarthy is going? Would they have to trade up for JJ McCarthy? So there's a lot of stuff at play there that I kind of would have to know to really make a determination. If they think, let's just say, for example, if they graded Bo Nix as, well, we'll just use a random scale. If they graded Bo Nix as a B plus and Drake May as an A, then I might be like,

why don't you just go with Bo Nix and not give up everything, put all the eggs in the Drake May basket. If they have Drake May as an A and Bo Nix as a C, well, then you got to do it. You got to take a shot. I still think quarterbacks are going one, two, three in this draft and they'll have to figure it out in another way. Folks, if you don't know what a VPN is, you might actually need one and not even realize it. If you already know the positives, you also might not be using the right product. In either case, you want to check out Surfshark. VPNs keep your information safe and anyone who tries to track what you're doing online will not be able to do so if you are using Surfshark. IP addresses, what you're searching, what games you're playing,

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Get Surfshark VPN at surfshark.deals slash purpleinsider. Enter the promo code purpleinsider for three extra months for free. You heard me right, three extra months for free. That is surf shark dot deals slash purple insider mike asks how would you feel about kirk on a three-year deal one fully guaranteed say for 40 easy out no guaranteed in year two three void year and still taking a quarterback in the first round.

Well, I would wonder what the point was of that. Like, I get where you're coming from is, hey, you make him into your bridge quarterback. But if your plan is to have Kirk for a year and not win because you can't build a roster good enough, So you're looking at eight or nine wins. And then drafting a quarterback so you don't get a defensive end right away in the first round. Why did we give him that much money? Why didn't you just have Marcus Mariota play for the season? And not get as much money or not spend as much money. And then build the roster in other places.

If the plan really is that you're going to move on after one year because you draft a first-round quarterback, then what are we doing here? We're just continuing to kind of spin the wheels for another year and run the same thing back. And if I'm Kirk, also, I'm probably not going for that because I'd be saying in the negotiations, and you guys aren't going to spend that first rounder on a quarterback right uh i mean that's i if i'm kirk i want that first rounder to be somebody who can help right away

okay this is funny kirk needs to sign a bobby bonilla contract uh maybe he would do that so was paid until 2097 or whatever. Steven asks, um, or States, uh, I'd like to see Kirk move on so that we can fix up our cap issues and start building a team instead of getting a bunch of journeymen because we can't afford better. Yep.

Me too. And this is worth bringing up over and over and over that if they move on from cousins, the 2025 salary cap is like the gates of cap heaven opening i mean just you know use over the cap.com go take a look 2025 then cousins dead cap and hunters dead cap would be off of the books. And they have so much potential space to spend in free agency that you know how every free agent best fit is like Chicago, best fit Houston.

Well, next year you could be that team. If you draft a quarterback and then you have that much cap space and also have some foundational pieces, you hope to hit on a second round draft pick this year to go along with your quarterback. You hope to sign somebody like Christian Wilkins this year or whoever it might be to start building things up. And then you can just go all in after that.

That's why it's so favorable. Matt says a dream draft scenario likely scenario nightmare scenario i think the nightmare scenario for everybody at this moment i don't speak for every single person but is just that cousins comes back and they don't really have an answer they don't really have a plan after that and by the way i did want to mention i think that kevin o'connell's favorite plan would be the one where they bring back kirk and draft quarterback by the way i think that that would be o'connell's favorite plan would be the one where they bring back kirk and draft quarterback by the way i think that that would be o'connell's favorite plan not my favorite plan but i think it would be his uh the dream draft scenario is that they land drake may i think just in any by any means possible if it takes trading up whatever it and look i don't know for sure that drake may is their guy i am only going on the projections

of analysts and so forth over the last two years that he is a top two caliber prospect i like his size i like his arm i like his playmaking and the rest you can develop so that's the dream scenario is by any means possible. They get Kevin O'Connell's favorite quarterback. If his favorite quarterback is JJ McCarthy and not may, then fine. Take him instead. Most likely scenario seems like they will get QB four or QB five, which can be okay because the history of where they were drafted Jordan love versus T tua right now how would you feel about it well jordan love was what quarterback for jalen hertz versus tua would you take jalen hertz maybe he was quarterback five and where they go in that order if they're a top prospect and i know hertz was a little more

criticized and dropped down the board so maybe i should just use Jordan Love, but where they go in the order has not seemed to be that predictive recently. So likely scenario might be, okay, you end up with QB four nightmare scenarios. You end up with no one and you have Jacoby Brissett and Jared Hall as your quarterbacks. That's yeah. I mean, the real nightmare scenarios, you bring back cousins and you don't draft anybody, and you still have no answer, and you're all in on a season where you can't win. That's the nightmare scenario. Living in the same reality time and time again, that's a nightmare scenario. Actually, I've watched a lot of Twilight Zones. A lot of them are like that.

Or it's like Groundhog's Day, the movie with Bill Murray, where he's just living the same day over and over again. That's a nightmare. I don't think he enjoyed that in the movie. But if Cousins goes, then the nightmare is just that you get left out of the party, that you don't have a high grade on Knicks. You don't have a high grade on Pennix. You've signed a veteran quarterback like a Sam Darnold, and then you just miss out on everybody. And that would be bad. So that is the nightmare scenario.

Josh says, as long as we draft a quarterback, I'm happy. If it means we're going into a brighter young quarterback option. Yeah, I mean, that's where I think that if I were to put a percentage on it, what do you think? Maybe 85% of the fan base is into that. Call it the informed fan base. People like yourselves who would watch this show on a Sunday evening. Like, are we at 95% of people want to have some excitement, want to have something different, want to have something to follow along with that even it's hard to say this because it sounds weird, but even if the guy didn't work out, it's like at least finding out along the way is more interesting than already knowing the answers to the test or already knowing what the future is going to be. It's a worthwhile risk to have something with at least potential energy that it could become something rather than just running back the same thing.

So I think that a lot of you are thinking that way is like the potential we all know of building around a rookie quarterback is good. I think we all believe that the coach is capable of developing a quarterback and had a really good relationship with his one quarterback that we've seen i think we all know that jefferson is going to make a quarterback better and so is addison i mean all of these things just add up but we need to find out first and we got about 12 hours here. We got to fit. We got to find out man juice says, uh, every time, every time. And, and you leave such reasonable comments. It's like, did you make that when you were nine and then just stuck with it? Uh, anyway, uh, wait, maybe 13 is more of a grade to make a,

or more of an age to make that joke. Uh, whether they keep him or release him, it would be fun to read the other article one day. Oh yeah. The, the articles I was talking about. Yeah. Yeah, I know. I've, I've got them ready, baby. They're ready to go. And I mean, I'll definitely talk about the, the, what I wrote. I mean, it's not like going to be some secret that I just, you know, keep together. It's very simple that I'm going to, if he goes, I'm going to look back at the cousins era as it was all about, if only all about, if only he could have had whatever to take him to the next level. And then now, and that's part of it. And the other part of it is that now the uncertainty is exciting and interesting. And the future all of a sudden becomes wide open, as Tom Petty once said. It's wide open and it's fascinating.

And they become one of the most interesting teams in the league if they draft a quarterback and also in this elusive chase for the super bowl suddenly it feels like a glimmer in the distance if he moves on because you just felt he couldn't win it and if he stays it's very simple someone's gonna have to explain to me like i'm five why this is supposed to work now that's really it someone explain to me How this is going to work now Dean says With New England trading Mac Jones Do you still think the number three pick is going to be available I've never

Truly believed That the number three pick was going to be available You could make a case For New England if you're In that building You could say look We should trade down and take a bunch of draft picks from somebody else because we're just not in a position to build around a

quarterback. But when you get this opportunity, you can't pass it up. If there's somebody that you really like, if you really are into Jaden Daniels or really into Drake May and you think this is a franchise quarterback and you pass that up and then you're two years down the road and you've been playing whoever random quarterbacks Scott Zolak comes back and plays for them that's going that's going deep into the vault there if that's what you like you can't end up there it's like Washington Washington we could talk about them and their quarterbacks since kirk left they picked chase young and didn't pick justin herbert or tua and they thought well you know chase young's the better prospect and look how that ended up turning out so you don want that. You don't want that to be your situation.

You just want to take that shot. So if you are New England and you end up with this opportunity, I just think you have to take it. And then you'll figure out the rest after that. So I don't think ultimately that one of those top three guys becomes available. Now, could they shock us and pick McCarthy instead of Drake May? Sure. Anything can happen with these quarterbacks. We just know that from studying the past history of mock drafts, there have been so many analysts and insiders that have been wrong that anything can

happen. So, you know, they could surprise us, but if you're new England, man, I just, I don't know. Chad graphed the other day on the show, athletic reporter for the Patriots, said he would take three firsts to move up to that spot. Will they take that risk of missing on the quarterback? I'm not convinced. Chicago did it last year. Chicago traded back and they traded to number nine. Number 11's not that far from nine.

Steven says, dream you get your quarterback without having to move up likely we either mortgage the farm and or trade up or stand pat and take somebody like a jared verse nightmares kirk comes back and we suck yeah yeah um because you know you know if he comes back and you're great, you're not going to be bad either. And you're not getting sugar Sanders. So, uh, Gary says, why is it all about Kirk with or without him? They still have drafted garbage for years. Well, we are about maybe 14 hours away from the biggest decision. The Vikings have had to make since I don't even know, 2018? And a decision that will

entirely shape their future as a front office, a coaching staff, and ownership, and fans, and media. So seems like a pretty big deal to talk about. As far as drafting garbage for years, it's kind of funny how that works because they have drafted in recent years the best receiver in the national football league one of the top three to five left tackles in the league and also a number two wide receiver that might be a number one receiver and they also used a draft pick on a right tackle who's one of the highest paid right tackles in the league and traded another one for a top five tight end in the NFL. So I'm not so sure I would say that they have drafted like garbage for years. I think that what's happened is that they have missed on a lot of defensive players

and that's what's made it so difficult to build a complete team. And if you're going to win with Kirk Cousins because of his talent level, you have to build a complete team. You can't have weaknesses. You can't just be great on offense and bad on defense, or you lose to the Giants. That's kind of the point is that if you have Kirk Cousins, you really need to be San Francisco roster level in order to get over the top to be an actual threat. They had rosters like that for two years and they failed in those years. So it's very, very hard to, to build a complete perfect roster, but to say they've drafted like garbage for years, they had a garbage draft in, I would say, 2019, where Irv Smith is the second pick. Bradbury took years to be a competent player, and certainly in 2022. But I don't think we could

just throw out drafting the best receiver and a top five left tackle, and then trading a draft pick for TJ Hawkinson, who has turned out to be a great player for them. All that stuff kind of matters. And Jordan Addison last year. It's just that they haven't drafted perfectly. They haven't recreated 2015. In fact, they've probably just been more of a normal drafting team. And then they haven't been able to develop that many players. Although they developed Cam Bynum, developed Josh Metellus, and found an undrafted free agency, which in my mind counts as the draft.

It's still part of it. Ivan Pace Jr. So they've done a good amount, but they've never really been able to fill in the other spots with money, which is what they need. So, Kerplupi, that's a name. What ships do you feel the Vikings have in terms of trading up in the draft? Any players or only draft picks? So this is a question that is posed fairly often, and I really, really struggle with this one. Would you trade 11 Jordan Addison and a next year's first for Drake May?

That would hurt, but I think I would. I would not move Jefferson for pretty much anything, but would you do Addison and a couple of picks to get May? Addison is a really nice player, but I think that there are other Jordan Addison's in the league. So it's not impossible to find a number two wide receiver to go along with Justin Jefferson. It's much harder to find your perfect quarterback, but that doesn't sound great though. I don't love it because so much of the success of your quarterback is going to be because of supporting cast and addison is a big part of that as far as

draft picks go likely the price is three firsts and i don't see how that is anything different or for all you nut cases who like to be very specific the number 11 pick swapped and two other firsts people love to argue about that um i don't know why maybe people just love to argue about everything marty says i believe they are doing this out of respect for kirk they want it to look like kirk left them not them throwing him out it's a pr move in a way i could see it i could see it I don't know if that's the case, but if he ends up signing a reasonable deal with the Falcons, something that we would have thought he would have accepted here, then I think you're probably right. I also think that Kevin O'Connell is genuine. I don't think that he's playing some sort of like next level PR game or whatever with us by praising cousins and saying you want

some back. I think that that's true. And I think the coach who believes that his offense works, and we know this of McVay guys and Shanahan guys, they always tend to think that their system really works if the quarterback just does it correctly. And does it correctly. A lot of the time, it's just that when things go wrong, he can't make it right. As Casey Adafo Mensah mentioned at the podium, surprisingly. So, but that, you know, you could be right. You could be right that it's just respect. And it matters that, you know, if the team said, Hey, whatever, man, sign wherever you want, it would look pretty low considering what he's done over the last two years for this team

and the fact that his tenure ended on an injury. That makes it even more. It's like sort of kicking a guy while he's down to just be like, yeah, he's too expensive. We don't want him. Sign aura. And that would be pretty, pretty brutal. Jim says, funny story. About a month ago, I had a dream that only one quarterback was taken before the Vikings draft pick.

You actually had a Vikings draft dream. I respect it. This is a man who loves ball, folks. He's having Vikings draft dreams. Let's see. Not sure if they traded up or they all dropped. I'm sure this will happen, lol Anything can happen in the draft

They have to have plan A, B, C, D So plan A might be to trade up and try to get their guy Plan B might be to see who drops The outside world might be more high on some of these guys Than the league is Because we know that the league has not informed the draft analysts where these guys are actually going to be taken. So that's part of the game that the Vikings have to play. That's so interesting. And I also think

challenging is they have to figure out like who's going to be drafted where and who could we be happy with? Could we be happy with Bo N and who could we be happy with could we be happy with Bo Nix could we be happy with Michael Penix or do we have to get J.J. McCarthy to be happy so you know that's that that's something that they really have to understand if they go into this decision in Cousins leaves and I'm and I bet that they are having dreams about it as well from Marty not many Super Bowls are won with an average quarterback. The rest of the team must be perfect to do it. And there are too many holes with the rest of the team. Yeah, I agree. I mean, when we even think about average quarterbacks,

now, I don't like to use won the Super Bowl as a good metric because it's weird. Brady and Mahomes won them all. but that's kind of your point right even if we step it back a little and just talk about who is in the playoffs every year so i've had this theory and since you've all hung around then i'm just going to give you all my theories so here's one that quarterbacks over a 10-year period are put into different chunks or different tiers where you could say slide all these quarterbacks into our buckets, slide all these quarterbacks into these buckets. So Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes are the two quarterbacks in the NFL that I would put in the bucket that anytime they play in the league, they could win the Super Bowl. No matter how bad you think their team is, no matter how much they go through, Mahomes and Allen could win the Super Bowl any year.

They're that great. Mahomes just showed that to you. He's that great. Their team had its strengths and weaknesses. We've seen Vikings teams that strong before. Were the Kansas City Chiefss player number two to 53, where they better than the 2019 Vikings, probably equal, maybe not better because you consider the receivers yet. They won the super bowl. So that's Brady. That's my homes. I see Alan is the same way where you're going to be in that mix. And he probably have a super bowl if it wasn't for my homes. Okay. The next group is if you have a great team, you can be there.

I felt that way about rivers, Ryan, Eli Manning. Some guys won. Some guys didn't that that group is where you know that you can be there. Joe Burrow is going to be this guy like where every year, if his team is good, he's going to be there. I don't know that he's quite the level of my homes or Allen to where no matter what happens, there'll be in that discussion, but that five out of the 10 years, you're going to have a legit chance to win the super bowl with that level of quarterback, the other tier or bucket. I like it as a bucket more than a tier because tears almost seems like moving down is

the rookie quarterback contract where all you have to be is good. If you're good, you can do it. And that's Jared golf. And that's a Brock Purdy. That's Jalen hurts. If you're good, you can do it. Now those guys might get one chance at it or two chances at it on the rookie deals, but they're good enough.

That's where, if you draft Bo Nix, that's very likely what he becomes is you've got five years to do it so have at it you don't have 10 years you don't have you know likely chances every year it's probably but he's good enough for that and then you have where Kirk Cousins has existed that there is probably a scenario where if everything went right for you that year this would be like I'm not saying he's Trent Dilfer. He's much better than Trent Dilfer, but it's kind of a Trent Dilfer type of ish thing where everything would have to be immaculate for you to get there and win a Superbowl. And it just hasn't happened. Like a Jake DelLome, Jake DeLome situation, really good quarterback,

but needed everything to be right with those Carolina teams to get there. I don't know that there's that many examples of this type of quarterback, but it can happen. And that's what they've been betting on year in and year out. I think you want to be in those other three buckets. And then of course there's busts

and there's guys who are just never going to be good enough. You know, no matter what happens, the Ryan Fitzpatrick journeyman who we love so much, there's, there's different buckets on, on below that. But cousins lives in the Derek Carr sort of bucket of you're very, very good at this. There's no doubt about it, but you might have one shot ever. Derek Carr broke his leg and his one shot ever. They had 12 wins cousins lost to the giants and his one shot ever. They had 12 wins. Cousins lost to the Giants in his one shot ever, where they had 13 wins. And I don't know that that's going to happen again,

because how many years do we got after this with a guy who's 36? Blowfish is, I can see the Vikings pulling off a minor shock and bringing back Hunter and signing Wilkins. A very strong pass rush could make up for an average defensive backfield. It certainly helps. It certainly helps. They play off of each other for sure. And look, if you are willing to really push a lot of that money into 2025, where you're going to have more cap space that is possible that they could sign two monsters if they move on from cousins uh it becomes a kevin garnett anything is possible if um if they have the cap space um illusion says yes. Justin Fields or the eighth overall pick. Uh,

I think you're, are you referring to, um, Atlanta for their other options? If you're referring to, cause I'm a little bit farther back in the chat here. You guys have been talking a lot, which I appreciate,

but I'm trying to catch up. That might be Atlanta's other options. Yeah. Are those good options for them? I mean, drafting a quarterback at number eight might be pretty good but uh not justin fields is just not winning anything i that you can make arguments all over the place i see bears twitter all the time justin fields

he's so great they shouldn't move on from him like there's no evidence of that. And I just don't like to live in theoretical universes. You have to show me why something is going to work. And a guy who has never even thrown for 2,600 yards is not really going to be able to show me why that's going to work. Daniel says, is it possible the Vikings aren't really still in on the cousins running, but are allowing his agent to say they are as a curiosity or courtesy to Kirk Cousins to negotiate leverage with other teams? I mean, his agent's going to say what his agent's going to say. Like, clearly they are brilliant in the way that they use one team to play against the next and understand their leverage and all that.

So this is the story of money. Mike McCarthy, his agent McCartney, sorry, not McCarthy. He's not money, but sorry, we've got,

we've got an Adam Schefter, but it's not about the Vikings, but I have to look something something about arik armstead okay not worried about that uh but to your point that it could be that could be the case but i also don't i don't think that anybody has blown smoke up of our pants like i i really think that everyone's kind of laid it out for us kirk quesadilla flamenco kevin o'connell i think that they have laid it out that they would take him back at a certain price that price is probably not that big and kevin o'connell likes him and for kirk cousins it's about the structure

and the years and all that stuff i mean like that's um i think that's just what it is. Like everyone's trying for reports and thinking, is it playing a leverage game and everything else? And it's probably just the exact explanation. We think it is high times KG. Can we stop acting like fourth quarter comeback wins are a good thing. Why were you down in the beginning? Yeah.

I mean, that's, it's just been a staple of the cousinsousins era of playing all these one-score games. And the entire Cousins era has lived and died almost every single year on whether things go right for you, whether things bounce right for you. Last year it didn't at the beginning of the season. The year before it did at the beginning of the season and then didn't at the end of the season. That's not where you want to live as a team. I agree with you. So the one year, in my

opinion, where they were truly a competitive team was 2019 with cousins. That is now five years ago. So that's, and they don't have any of those players left. They had a great roster then, and they blew teams out. If they played a bad team, they smashed them. Over the last two years, if they play a bad team, Carolina's got the football down one score with a chance to win, and Harrison Smith has to sack Bryce Young. That's the worst team in the league. Digit says this year's quarterback class is better than all the previous

Cousins years. This is the year for Kirko to be jettisoned. Well, yeah, 2020 would have been the year. If they had foresight, then they would have done what the Packers did. Really? That's the year or 2018. But 2020 would have made so much more sense to draft Jordan Love. I mean, they drafted Justin Jefferson.

Who could be mad about that. But if they had been looking at that draft class as five good quality quarterbacks, and maybe 2021 was considered a great class, they attempted to trade up for Justin Fields sort of meekly. But in 2020, they did not have to extend Cousins and they did uh and that was i remember it happened very fast like very quickly early in free agency and just huh like why did they do this when they haven't really gone anywhere but i think winning that playoff game had incredible implications for them for long term including extending zimmer and including cousins. If they lose that playoff game to the saints, then I don't know that either gets an extension and they might draft a quarterback in that next draft.

And Jordan love might be your quarterback or Jalen hurts crazy world. So it makes football so much fun. Illusion says, I understand the argument of Atlanta going stable quarterback and acquiring Kirk, then using their draft picks to augment the offense. Also, I mean, their defense is pretty good too, but they could use a few more guys there. It's just, if I were them, I'd want a long-term quarterback in this draft. Well, that's where the desperation comes in. That's where they

haven't made the playoffs since 2017 comes in. That's where they haven't made the playoffs since 2017 comes in. That's where they've missed on drafting a quarterback, Desmond Ritter, and trying to make that work. And they missed on trying to do the journeyman Marcus Mariota thing that they want the guarantee on the box as was in Tommy boy. That that's Atlanta's best argument is wanting the guarantee on the box. And then they, they could spend the eighth overall pick on Dallas Turner. I mean, you would actually kind of love where Atlanta was considering,

you know, Baker's back in Tampa Bay. That doesn't terrify you. Carolina's not that good. Purple pain says, fun fact, 22 quarterbacks have more playoff wins than Kirko since he became the starter in 2015, including Baker May i know and uh is it all his fault we have to make sure that we say

it is not no it's not it's not all his fault but it just kind of shows you that the weaknesses can be problematic i think that's a that's a way to phrase it is cousins weaknesses that he doesn't have a playmaking element that he takes a lot of sacks that he takes a lot of checkdowns and they have, I mean, this is just a fact, lots of, uh, toward the top of the league, or at least middle to the bottom in three and outs every year. Like there's a reason for that stuff so sam says they tried to draft quarterback last year didn't get their guy they're 100 going forward again nothing 100 in this world sam but it does make a lot of sense that if they would be investigating every quarterback option under the sun last year and then this year we're already hearing this stuff that they would

make the move but i don't know uh lauren my friend lauren what's up lauren good to see you uh the the longer this goes on the more it looks like cousins is coming back lauren's getting nervous well so lauren let me help you a little bit. It really can't go anywhere until the free agency period starts. It can't drag out farther unless he were to announce that he was coming back. So the free agency legal tampering period starts Monday at 11 o'clock. And that's when we can find out. So we're really just kind of talking about our feelings at this point and waiting and all the insiders are texting everybody they know, but

they obviously aren't getting a answer because the answer is not going to be rock solid and locked in until tomorrow at the very earliest. It could be Wednesday. Wednesday is our dead set. Like it has to be decided by then or that dead money kicks in and then it's not happening. So the next couple of days are where this really is going to play out. I don't think us not having an answer tonight means that he's coming back. It probably doesn't mean much yet.

So I hope that makes you feel a little better. Jordan says, don't understand how yet another coach in front office can get bamboozled by Kirk. I mean, come on. Yeah. So Kirk lives in this strange space in the NFL where he is good enough to get you into a competitive situation, into the playoffs, into a playoff hunt. He puts up great stats. He understands football super well. He's extremely professional. He's a guy that when you implement an offense, he will run it. And do you know how hard that is? Well, look around, look at Zach Wilson,son like look how hard it is to find a quarterback

and i was having a conversation with a former scout not too long ago and we were talking about kirk and he said you know there's a lot of quarterbacks who are worse than kirk and like that's very true and that's what they often come back to is i want to design this very complicated offense that has checks, changes, reads, and I need it to be run on time. As we saw, that was a real struggle for Josh Dobbs. I needed the ball to go to the right places and I needed to be on time and then we can win. And we saw that with Jimmy Garoppolo in the 49ers, although he had a little more baller to him, I think, than Kirk, but still same sort of concept. It's a little bit of Jared Goff as well.

I mean, he's got a stronger arm, but same sort of deal. I'll plug in the offense. He'll just do what I ask him to do. And what McVay ultimately figured out was actually I need someone who's that and then plus in order to actually win. I need plug in the offense plus

the playmaking, the arm strength in order to win. But Kirk can get you into the playoffs. He can win you games. He can run your offense. He can get you to a top 10 offense. The problem is he never gets you to a top five offense, which is how you usually win. So, all right, let me get a few more in here. And if you left a comment and I scrolled over it or didn't get to it, I apologize, but this has been super fun. Really, really to have all of you watching and can't thank you enough for tuning in. And I guess you didn't have Oscar picks. I watched basketball all day. That was fun. Are the Timberwolves playing? Maybe they're playing at the moment. But without Kat, it's a little less entertaining.

Illusion points out that we haven't had a true blowout since the Chargers game December 2019. That's right. And if you're not really blowing out people on a regular basis, how good are you? Because there's a lot of teams that do. There's a lot of teams that outscore their opponents by 100-plus points. Sam says the fact that they have had interest in fields and Trey Lance,

both running style quarterback makes me think Vikings want to move to two or three for Jaden Daniels. Very possible. I've been thinking more along the lines of Drake may, but I mean, that'll work. The running quarterback would be totally fine with me and i think that you can correct some of the stuff about playing on time with the right coaches as your quarterback or that's what you'd

be hoping for but his speed his playmaking his deep passing can't replace that if that's what they wanted to do then i'm good with it skull vikull Vikings. Do you think the Vikings should bring in Saquon Barkley? So I would really enjoy that. I mean, is it the right move? Is it the analytical move? Is it the move that the PFF guys would do? You have an analytical general manager. Is it something he's going to do? I don't know, but man, it would be fun. And Saquon does not have the best numbers from last year, but I think that's just because of how bad their offense was and their offensive line. He is a super gifted player.

I think he's 26. So we haven't quite reached the, you're going to fall off the face of the earth. And if he's going to sign for a reasonable dollar, let's do it. But it would have to be a reasonable dollar. Like you can't be talking about 20 million, but running backs just don't make 20 million. Bradley says, can we get, uh, can we sign a good or great corner or linebacker? There's a lot of linebackers out there. Patrick queen is at the

top of the list. Corners are a little more hard to find, but I also think so Jalen Johnson's off the market. You're not going to get a corner in free agency that changes your life. The next Carl Lee or Antoine Winfield or Xavier Rhodes, you're not going to find that guy in free agency. Could you find an upgrade? Yes. From a Caleb Evans. Yes.

And that's something that they should be looking at. I also liked the way Makai Blackman played last year, but as Mike Zimmer once said, you can never have too many cornerbacks. And I agree with that. So a lot of you pointing out that, uh, it's been reported that, uh, Denver is out of Kirk cousins is race. And I guess we'll find out if that's true. Uh, we've got some opinions on McCarthy blowfishes that he's going to be overdrafted. It's all about. So I think so too, but it's just the theory for both of us. It's just the theory. I think McCarthy sort of has all the signs of somebody that the draft Illuminati hypes up and then they don't end up getting drafted as high because the tape is not there. And if they say that the tape matters more than anything, well, then he would not be picked

in the top 10. That being said, if the Vikings walked up to that podium and said, the Vikings select JJ McCarthy, be like, great, let's go. Let's see it. Let's see it. So you know him paired with kevin o'connell that would work i think that would work digits s is it possible that the wilfs are higher on kirk than senior management if so quacey and koc have to thread this needle to get kirk out the door and survive uh kirko purgatory one thing that has always been extremely challenging since I've been here is figuring out what the Wilfs think because they don't have leaks. They don't have lawyers or people inside the building or whatever, who are telling the media what's going on with them. And we've been very much tricked in the past to think, well, the owners have to think this

or they want to do that. And then it just turns out to be totally something different. And even the amount of, I would say, control that they had over what they were doing, we didn't really understand that under Spielman. And then we came to find out that it was more, that they were more involved than we thought. We thought Spielman and Zimmer run the whole things. They just write the checks.

And then it turned out, no, they're much more into the decision-making process, which can be okay. And if I owned a team, I would do it too. But they're much more into what's happening than we thought. Now, trying to get inside their heads, have they spent so much money on Kirk Cousins already to not have home playoff games that they're frustrated and don't want to do it again, but they also don't want to look like that. They don't want to look cheap.

They don't want to look like they don't like him or something. So you can conspiracy or try to put yourself in their shoes and make a case for almost anything. But the answer is we don't really know. Anton says, can you talk about how compensatory picks work? Will they get anything back if we lose Kirk and Daniil? My understanding is that they would get picks back if they lost Cousins and Daniil. The highest you can get is a third round pick and you do not get them this year. You get them next year.

So the answer is yes. Yes. And that would be good. I mean, if they lose them, that would be good. But it's not, you don't get them right away and you don't get like a first rounder. You only get third round picks with compensatory. And every year, a lot of people ask me when free agents leave, are they getting a compensatory pick for this guy, that guy? And you get, you end up with a sixth or in this case this year, I don't even think they got a single one for all the guys leaving last year. They didn't get a single one. So it's, it's hard

to kind of live on those picks. But in this case, that's at least my understanding, is that they would get compensatory picks. And it's complicated with void years, dead money. But the last time I looked that up, it said, yeah. High Times KG says, Ben Gessling tweeted, the Vikes still in on Kirk. When have they not been I mean they've always they have always been

Kirk presenting like they've always been we're in on Kirk presenting and it's it doesn't change anything that they have been in on cousins and so all the reports today is you know just like yeah we pretty much know all that again not obviously again not a criticism it's just we we need the we need the thing to happen

we we need the thing to happen ryan says pennix is the best thrower in the draft in the pocket in structure kirk kirk operated well as a pocket quarterback at KOC's offense. Penix could do the same. Change my mind. I'm not going to try to change your mind because I agree. I love the idea of Penix in this offense. I know he's not a playmaker as much as some other quarterbacks, but he's got more arm strength to push the ball down the field. I think he likes to take more risks down the field. And if you're telling me that you could get a similar type of quarterback for $40 million less or $30 million less, that actually sounds good. Apparently, Ben reported the Vikings don't mind Kirk gauging other offers, which will put their own offer into

proper context. Okay. So negotiation is still ongoing and we're here talking about our feelings. You know, that's, that's what we're doing here. But I mean, I believe him that that's where they've stood all along. They were going to put an offer in other people are going to put an offer in this is going to happen tomorrow and we'll see where it all kind of comes out. I I'm still leaning towards somebody beating their offer and, and putting down more money than the Vikings are willing to put down and showing him more love than, uh, you know, then the Vikings are willing to show him. That's how it worked out last year. I don't know why it would be different this year, why they would love him more this year than last year but it could happen somehow the chat devolved into something about uh cousin's wife i'm just gonna scroll by that

you guys can argue with yourself on that um skull viking says i'm thinking sam darnold they draft the guy if it works out i'm very much into the sam darn idea. I didn't even really think of that, but I do like it. He said Skull Vikings ads that Kevin O'Connell saw Darnold in the joint practices. I'm sure chatted with Shanahan. I don't think he was on the 49ers when that happened. Was he? No, I'm trying to think. I don't think he was.

I don't think he was on the 49ers yet when they had the joint practices. So that wouldn't have happened. But, I mean, he would be very familiar with it. He has a relationship. Oh, or do you mean, no, yeah, he wouldn't have been on the team because it was Garoppolo, Trey Lance. And I don't think that Darnold was there yet. I think he was still in Carolina when they had those things with the those things with the joint practices, but they would

have a relationship. They must've had a relationship to be able to talk and do the joint practices. So now like, is there a conversation there of Kevin O'Connell? Hey, what do you think of Sam Darnold? And if they, you know, Shanahan feels like he has potential still. It's a good idea. Mark, I don't think there's a huge drop-off from McCarthy to Bo Nix. From watching them both, I don't either, but it's all about the projection. I'm okay with trading up, but I think they can stick and pick. Yeah. Anyone but Daniels good with you? I don't know. I mean, if they've got a plan for Daniels, you really have to have a plan for Daniels. Purple pain says Pennix makes more sense than McCarthy. Well, with McCarthy, it would be much more of O'Connell seeing things he could develop. And you have to remember

personality and mind for the game matters a ton. So McCarthy might have this going for them that he goes into the room with the Kevinvin o'connell and they start talking offense and they start just going all in super deep mccarthy knows everything and all he needs to do is develop a deep ball a little better okay that's different but we don't know that information i only know what it looked like to watch these guys play i don't know how it went with Kevin O'Connell sitting down with J.J. McCarthy. JP, if Kirk stays and Kevin and especially Kweisi are signing their, oh, then they are signing their resignations, either for the end of the next year or the next year after that,

they'd be making the same mistakes as Mike and Rick. Very hard to argue with you on that, my friend. Very hard to argue with that. Ryan. My friend, very hard to argue with that. Uh, Ryan says still need a left guard wide receiver, three, four edge rushers, linebackers, and at least one solid corner. Can't do all that while paying Kirk and JJ and a guy like Wilkins. Yep. That is true. That is true. If they want to build a complete roster, then tomorrow they let cousinousins sign with Atlanta. I think that's just pretty clear. So as we clear the two-hour mark of this conversation,

and it has been absolutely fantastic, and all of you guys have been very thoughtful in your comments, your questions. Has Hawkinson had surgery yet? Yes, he did. They announced that he had successful surgery. It's still going to take a long comeback and probably won't be back until into the season because of just how it worked out. But yeah, he did have that surgery. Renee says, what about getting a quarterback like Spencer Rattler? Not really into the idea personally, because we always talk ourselves into mid-round quarterbacks. If that's where they pick them, the odds of them working out are just so low. I like the way he throws the football, but the odds are just... Draft a first round. Draft a guy you totally believe in the first round. Make him your

guy and let that be it. So anyway, well, I don't want to run out of voice because I have a feeling that I'm going to need it tomorrow. So I might see you guys in 12 hours. I might see you guys in 14 hours. I might see you guys tomorrow evening, but we'll definitely be going live for sure with a recap of everything that happened tomorrow at the start of the free agency period. So make sure you come back, subscribe, set your notifications, do whatever the heck it is that people do on YouTube because that's where we'll be going live

to talk about everything that happens and is next with the Minnesota Vikings in free agency and decision 2024. All of it right here. Best place to watch. So if anything happens, we go live emergency podcast. If nothing happens, eight o'clock tomorrow night. And then the minute that I sign off, they'll do something because that's how this works. But even if that happens,

even if I talk for two hours tomorrow night, and then the minute I sign off, something happens, guess what? I'll sign back on and we'll keep going. So make sure that you're here. It's very interesting folks. Very, very compelling stuff. The most, I think, anxious and tense that all of us have been, whether it's covering the team, following the team, cheering for the team, whatever it might be, wherever you stand on this. And then even the outside world, look at these NFL insiders just spinning themselves in circles over this decision. It's a big deal. It's going to shape the future of the Vikings. And we're going to be here to talk about it together. So again, thank you so much. This comment section is mature, smart,

great thoughts. I just love it. I love it. Like the way that you guys ask good questions, have good commentary, share your opinions. I cannot thank you enough. It makes it so much fun. So thank you for tonight. And again, if in two hours we get the real news at midnight, guess who's coming back.

I'm going to be staying up late, paying attention on this all evening and then all day tomorrow and into free agency. So I will be here for you. Thanks so much, everybody. And we'll catch you next time. Very soon. Football.