Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr. struggling at the Senior Bowl???

Episode Date: February 1, 2024

Matthew Coller talks about reports that Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr. did not impress at the Senior Bowl and discusses ESPN Kevin Seifert's plan for the Vikings to bring back Kirk Cousins and draft JJ McCarthy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by PrizePix. Go to prizepix.com and use the code PURPLE for a first deposit match up to $100. prizepix.com, code PURPLE. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here with you. And we've got a lot to discuss here tonight. Namely, that there are Senior Bowl reports coming out that we must discuss. And also, ESPN's Kevin Seifert laid out his plan for the quarterback position in an article that ESPN put together. And you're never going to guess this, but I'm not really a fan of his ideas. So let us start right out.

And I'm very happy to have everybody watching and live on youtube so throw the comments in the comment section obviously solo tonight so very happy to answer anything that is on your mind with the minnesota vikings or whatever but i gotta start by talking about reports that came from mobile alabama today that Bo Nix and Michael Penix had a pretty tough practice. And I was reading some people, like there's a lot of people down there. And I was reading some analysts rankings so far of how the quarterbacks have performed.

And it sounds like Michael Penix has been the best so far, but it's still had an issue with overthrowing wide receivers. And I saw some video clips out there today of some Bo Nix passes that were deep down the field and were not very accurate. One of them, Roman Wilson is a receiver from Michigan who is apparently tearing it up and having a really good senior bowl week. And there was one throw where he roasts to the corner. And then you see on the video, the ball just falls way behind him. And you know, then the note was, yeah, Bo Nix through this football so that both of them, it sounds like have not had a great time. And with Spencer Rattler, who came into the senior bowl as one of the more intriguing

quarterbacks. And i was listening to pff's podcast the other day and they were talking about how jim nagy who runs the senior bowl had mentioned spencer rattler as a guy that the nfl might be way higher than on than anybody expects but is not having the start to his week that apparently was expected from somebody with a lot of physical gifts. So it sounds like everybody has had a pretty tough time in Mobile, Alabama, so far among the quarterbacks. And of course, what I was thinking about is, well, what does this mean?

First of all, I mean, they just kind of got started. It was day two of the practices. So the week is not over. There's still a game to be played and so forth. But I started typing in to the interwebs. practices so the week is not over there's still a game to be played and so forth but i started typing in to the interwebs uh let me see what previous quarterbacks did in the senior bowl like not just in the game but in the senior bowl week leading up uh to practices so i discovered that justin herbert and jordan love obviously success stories in the NFL,

had very good weeks at the Senior Bowl. Now, that did not really correlate to their draft status because Justin Herbert went high, but not quite as high as some people thought. And Jordan Love dropped almost out of the first round, which is where, of course, the Packers swept in and grabbed Jordan Love. But those guys had good practices.

I was like, Oh, okay. Well, you know, maybe that is something we should be talking about. And then I typed in Jalen hurts and it says right here, see, let's see NBC, Chicago Jordan hurts underwhelms in senior bowl practices. And then another article that said Jalen Hurts continues to impress at senior bowl practices. So I don't know whether he actually had good senior bowl practices or not. And then as I was looking for Justin Herbert, I found a good one. 2020 senior bowl, Justin Herbert wins MVP, but Anthony Gordon steals the show.

Do you guys remember Anthony Gordon? I remember Anthony Gordon steals the show. Do you guys remember Anthony Gordon? I remember Anthony Gordon. I think he was out of Washington State and had a really good senior bowl and, of course, never made anything of the NFL. I think he went completely undrafted in the NFL. I also remember being very impressed by Kellen Mond at the senior bowl, and clearly Kellen Mond had no chance in the NFL. I guess my point is that it's great to have a little bit of information to

react to from the senior bowl. And we've got our senior bowl correspondent down there, Terry, who's going to talk with me again after the senior bowl game and is going to do some writing for me as well over a purple insider.com. So we're on top of it, and it's worth watching. And if these guys are struggling in front of the entire NFL, including the Minnesota Vikings, that's not particularly great.

It's not how you would like to see it. Does it correlate to what's going to happen in the draft? Does it correlate to what's going to happen in the player's career from their first two days of practices? I don't really think that that's the case. And it's not easy to be these quarterbacks when you're throwing deep balls to wide receivers that you've never played with before. So there has to be some leeway when it comes to that. And Bo Nix like dropped a snap. I don't know. Like I saw a video clip of him dropping a snap and they're like, oh, tough day for Bo Nix.

I don't know. I mean, I don't think he was dropping snaps all the time. I don't think that's like a huge issue or something. So I'm looking at it in the way that it means something, but how much is pretty hard to say. And Clifford, I think you're exactly where I'm at with this. And I'm very curious to watch the game. We're going to do a postgame're exactly where I'm at with this. And I'm very curious to watch the game. We're going to do a post-game podcast. Like we're all over this,

so I'm not dismissing it. But Clifford says lots of time between now and the draft, not a good start, but not the end. And we're only talking about the second practice of the week. They've got another practice tomorrow as well, and then the game to go. So it's going to be the whole week. And I think one of the bigger parts is for teams to get to work with these guys a little bit up close and personal and it might not necessarily be everything as far as their deep throws and whether they connect with the wide receiver or not but looking at how they throw the football technically getting a chance to see how they operate in a practice environment do they understand where to go with the football, technically getting a chance to see how they operate in a practice environment. Do they understand where to go with the football in a practice environment? And they're looking

at different things than just what were the results of the exact throws. But again, you would much rather see these quarterbacks end up having a good week. And I was texting with someone that said, is it possible that only three quarterbacks go in the first round? And that's kind of the mystery here, though. And that's why this is interesting information that Pennix has kind of been overthrowing receivers and Bonix has been struggling to be accurate with the football at the senior bowl practices is in previous years. We've watched this game and thought, oh, well, Kenny Pickett is going to go high, and I think he was mocked as high as like number six overall,

and Malik Willis is going to be a first-round pick, and Sam Howell's got a chance to be a first-rounder. Those guys were playing in the Senior Bowl one year, and then Kenny Pickett drops to the back end of the first, and Malik Willis goes in the third and Sam Howell goes in the fifth. So we all were analyzing every single throw at the senior bowl. Well, the NFL people were going, you guys don't know what you're talking about. These are not all first round or top draft pick quarterbacks. And it makes me wonder about that. Like it's very

mysterious when it comes to Knicks and Pennix. I like what I see from them on paper and I watch them play college football and they look like guys who could play in the NFL, but the NFL scouting community, the real scouting community, not the draft analyst community, is very, very good at their jobs when it comes to picking out actual first round talents and slotting these guys where they're supposed to be. Historically, there's very few quarterbacks that are mid-rounders who succeed and lots of the first rounders are usually placed correctly by their skill sets. So they may not believe that these guys are first rounders. And the Vikings, I think part of being

at the senior bowl and what they do at theine is the intel to try to understand where everybody else stands on these guys and whether they think that they're worth a first round draft pick. And if they're not, and if there are truly only three guys who belong in the first round of this year's draft, then that changes a lot. And the thing is that there's a lot of Intel that's going to come out, especially around the combine. And we're going to have fun with that. And we're going to talk about that and the rumors and the buzz and stuff and all that. But I haven't ever really found it to connect to what actually happens in the draft.

What's being reported out there because teams don't tell people what they're gonna do uh it's just a fact i mean unless you want to get fired like that's if you want to get fired then yeah you tell uh whatever reporter or whatever draft analyst who you like and what you're going to do but most of the time they don't think about this the whole draft analyst community believed not only just that Will Levis was going high or that Malik Willis could go as high as number two overall, but also that San Francisco was going to pick Mac Jones. Nobody knew that they were going to pick Trey Lance and it shocked everybody on draft night. Everybody thought that Justin Fields was going higher and he ends up dropping. So there's a lot of things that the NFL knows and sees that we do not when it comes to scouting. And they just have a lot

more resources, a lot more trained people who've spent their whole lives doing nothing but scouting quarterbacks. And yet they still get things wrong as well. But I think that the outside world is not good at fully understanding where these guys are going to go historically. So it's possible that we're getting excited about quarterbacks who the NFL is sort of like brushing off. Now, I tend to think that Dane Brugler saying Bo Nix had a chance to have a big week here and elevate himself has merit because Dane Brugler is one of the most dialed in draft analysts that there is. So I tend to think that there is some merit there, but that's really, really hard to say. I mean, there was so much thought that Malik Willis was going to be a number one pick or a first round pick that when he did his workout at the combine and he got interviewed right

after had a, had a, I thought it was a good workout at the Combine and he got interviewed right after, had a, I thought it was a good workout at the Combine, the interviewer asked him about solidifying himself as a first round pick with his workout. And he wasn't even close to a first round pick. So I don't know whether Bo Nix or Michael Penix is being thought of in the league as somebody that the Vikings could draft and try to make their franchise quarterback. I do keep coming back to the idea that they could be looking at either big game hunting or bridge quarterback or cousins. And that decision may not be done, done yet.

They may like Ben Gessling was talking about on his radio interview that we discussed a few nights ago, they may only want to buy into somebody that they think can be their 10-year quarterback. buddy, you are putting your entire reputation and your entire career on that quarterback, even if that's not fair. And I don't think it is. I think shots at quarterback should be considered always a good idea, but the reality with owners and with pressure and as much money is involved is if you say, yeah, you know, we kind of like Bo Nix, pretty meh on him, but let's just take him anyway. And then he blows up. Well, the owner is not going to be very pleased about that. And you probably won't have your job anymore. So, again, not like out on Bo Nix suddenly or out on Michael Penix.

But I know the Vikings are there and I know they're watching this. And I'm wondering, not this, but the are there and i know they're watching this and i'm wondering not this but the senior bowl practices they might be watching this and uh i wonder how it's impacting what they think about picking one of these quarterbacks to be their guy for the future and then you have the other part of it which of course is jj mccarthy has been mocked as a first rounder he's been mocked as a first rounder. He's been mocked lower than that by some people. Where would they stand on him? Would they want to draft him and pair him with a bridge quarterback or with Kirk cousins, which brings me to Kevin Seifert, my friend from ESPN colleague. He tweeted this today for this espn project which is uh letting the nfl offseason play

out kevin tweets i was asked to map out the vikings quarterback future i signed kirk cousins to a two year 85 million dollar deal and then drafted jj mccarthy in the second round. So I'd love your feedback on that idea. I think that anybody who has listened to the show for even a moment could guess where I stand on that, which is that's going to be a no for me, dog. I don't think that using Kirk Cousins as a wildly expensive bridge quarterback to somebody that you're trying to develop over two years and using up a pretty big chunk of their rookie quarterback contract is a good idea. As far as JJ McCarthy being a player to pick and develop for a year to be the next quarterback, I can get on board with that. It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me

to pair that with Kirk Cousins because you're desperate to stay in a race that you're not actually in, right? You're desperate to stay in a race that has already gone off and has passed you by and that you really don't have a chance at jumping in save for a miracle of all the quarterbacks in the NFC North get hurt next year.

That's not something you should ever bet on. That would be just a stroke of ridiculous luck, but it's not something that you should organize your future for. You should assume that your competition in the NFC North is going to be very, very good. And that, I mean, at this point, even if we assumed some signings and assumed that they draft an edge rusher or corner or whatever, how many games out of the six against the NFC North do they win? Could they win three? Is it two? I mean, they lost to Chicago last year with Dobbs, but almost lost with Kirk Cousins as well. And that team is now way stronger. So it's never a guarantee against Chicago. Detroit is obviously stronger. They're going to load up at Green Bay. Maybe you split. I mean, you're talking about maybe a 500 record in the division

with those teams overall being stronger. And that's the first year of the contract. So the idea better be to have 2024, if you're bringing back Cousins, be a good year and a bridge to 2025 when you could be truly competitive with Cousins. But then you spent a second round pick on J.J. McCarthy, so you're missing out on a potential starter there. And are we sure Kirk Cousins is going to be good in 2025? I mean, that's the crazy part to me is if you go through any comparable quarterbacks to Kirk Cousins in history and look at where they are at age 37, I mean, I could pull this up right now. And I'm sure that this guy took worse care of his body than Kirk cousins did, but like somebody like Jay Cutler, for example, Jay Cutler was retired by age 35. I mean, let's,

let's take a look. I mean, where's where, where was Matt Ryan? Matt Ryan probably took better care of his body than Jay Cutler. How about Matt Ryan? By age 37, Matt Ryan was in Indianapolis and he was horrendous by age 36

in 2021. He was awful. And in age 35, 36 and 37, he won four games, seven games and four games. And Matt Ryan was a more physically gifted quarterback naturally than Kirk Cousins. I just have a really difficult time betting on a two-year window of next year is progress and competitiveness. And then 2025, we're supposed to expect that a 37-year-old quarterback who has torn his Achilles is going to lead you to a Super Bowl. I mean, that is a very, very tough task. Now, if you just told me that the offseason plan was to pick J.J. McCarthy in the first round because you can and you believe in his upside and you're going to pair him with Baker as a potential option, go for it. But if you're talking about pairing him with an $85 million Kirk Cousins over two years, and you know that he's going to want a no trade clause, of course, because he's Kirk

Cousins and he's got an amazing agent. I mean, is that something you really want to do? With the structure, meaning a lot of it it's guaranteed which means that if you have to if he's bad and you have to cut him or something you won't be able to and you end up in a russell wilson type of situation where you're destroying your cap for the future that's the downside the the upside the upside let's think of the upside i always talk about the downside. The upside to signing Cousins to a two-year deal is maybe, maybe he plays as well as he did the last two years. Maybe. Which was the Vikings being what? Like a little bit above average as a team? Average as a team? When he started, if we combine

2022 and 2023, what were they? I mean, they could be better if they develop some players and so forth on defense and have Brian Flores. They certainly could. But do we, I mean, even if he plays to the same level as he did the last two seasons, is that going to get you deep into the playoffs? That's pretty hard to buy in itself when that didn't happen when he was in his prime. So I don't love that idea. In fact, I really don't love that idea. I really don't love that idea. I think that would feel desperate for them to just make sure that they weren't terrible and we can check back in in 2025. I mean, that's how it would feel in the moment.

If they do it, I'll work on a plan for how they could approach building around Cousins because right now I don't have one. So if a guy looks bad at the Senior Bowl, then try to trade up. And if you don't believe in Pennix or Knicks, but you think McCarthy has upside, get him and pair him with Baker Mayfield or whoever that you think could keep you competitive, but allows you flexibility to get out of that

whenever you want. That is the key. Not being locked into more dead money, not being locked into not spending or making the trades. Think about the team. How jealous have you been of the other teams who can trade for the disgruntled superstar? How about Chicago 2018 with Mitch Trubisky as their quarterback, where they can trade for Khalil Mack?

Wouldn't you love to be that team? Or if you're Miami and you could trade for Tyreek Hill, wouldn't you love to be that team? Well, you won't be that team. I mean, even like going wild with the salary cap or trading away many picks and so forth for one player, one superstar, is that what's going to get you over the hump? Maybe they believe that, but Kweisi Adafo-Mento was the one who said you don't go full Rams. And if the Rams hadn't won the Super Bowl, they did, and that's great for them and they don't have to ever apologize for it. But if they didn't, imagine where they would be.

What are they like 15 and 19 or something since 2021? They would be a disaster. They would be an all-time example for why you don't do this. If they had lost that game to Tom Brady in the divisional round where Todd Bowles sent a blitz and Stafford beat it, but they were this close to having it be a massive failure, so you better make it work or the franchise is going to be in trouble for a long time. But somebody said something to me that did stick in my mind about this decision and why I could see Kevin Seifer being right.

And this being exactly what they do is that sometimes if you try to save money on the cap for the future, you're saving it for the next coach. But that's where the ownership comes in to not fire everybody if it goes poorly next season, to give them a window to develop their quarterback and be ready to be a good team. Think about the San Francisco 49ers. In three out of four seasons, they won six or fewer games. And then these last three years, they have been an absolutely dominant team. So in 2017, 18 and 2020, six or fewer wins for San Francisco. And a lot of that went into building the current team that they have now. If you can be patient, it can pay off in the longterm. But would I be

shocked if Kevin is right with his proposal? Absolutely would not be shocked at all. Let me get to your comments. Richard says, Matt, do you think if the Vikings don't draft a quarterback this year, they are in a dangerous spot as far as who knows what next year's crop will shape up to be? Oh, 100%. I mean, if you do not draft a quarterback this year and keep pushing this ball down the road and keep watching other quarterbacks succeed, but if and keep pushing this ball down the road and keep watching other quarterbacks succeed. But if you keep pushing this ball down the road, you are risking not being able

to get one at all. And look, I don't even like the idea of trying to draft a quarterback for, well, even paired with Kirk Cousins this year, 2025, I would like it more. But if Cousins comes back and plays well enough to win nine or 10 games, then you're not drafting very high. And we just go around in this circle of hell forever. And the Vikings never take a top traffic quarterback. I mean, you have to break this cycle at some point, but this franchise has not seemed very interested in doing that for a very long time. I mean, it is that the stack keeps coming up about them not taking a top 10 quarterback.

And it's really remarkable. It's like, do you think that that correlates with why they've never had a true franchise quarterback? I'm going to say that it probably does. And if they bring back Cousins, they're not doing it again in 2025. And then you're just hoping for whatever quarterback is available, or then you're using all your draft capital to trade up. And then are you continuing to build that juggernaut for the future? Like this game of whack-a-mole doesn't work with cousins in the mix.

Richard says, don't know if I could put up with another decade of picking up expensive veteran quarterbacks would prefer to have that feeling we had when Dante was drafted. I mean, yeah, that's, that's the dream. The dream is not of course that his knee blows up and it ruins your future, but gosh, think of where they might've been. Had it not 2005 was tough and they went through a transition there, but they came out of it in 2009 with an incredibly strong roster. And you could argue that even in 2008, they had an incredibly strong roster and who knows how it all plays out if Dante doesn't get hurt and if they draft Peterson and all that sort of stuff. But that would have been your franchise quarterback to

have multiple shots at a Super Bowl with Dante Culpepper. And the only way to get a guy with that type of talent was to take a shot on him. And not everybody was happy that they took a shot on him, but he was a good athlete that was raw and needed to learn how to play in the NFL. That's where, you know, people were talking about reading defenses and so forth. And it's like, I don't know. You know, Dante came from UCF and a lot, a lot of quarterbacks come out where it's just raw tools and you have to put it together. So I think there's a lot of evidence to say that even if they've had a bad senior bowl

practice or there's flaws in their game, that it is worth putting some of that aside to take that shot because if it doesn't work out then you try again but if it doesn't work out it does become very difficult for everybody in the organization if you fail on a quarterback and i totally understand that uh what about bob says i just want to feel good about the direction of the off season. Kirk needs to move on. It's not you, Kirk. It's us. We aren't good enough for you. That, I mean, that's true. Yeah, that's true. I mean, the thing about cousins always when he was here is that the one year that they truly had a team strong enough to compete for a Superbowl, they didn't have the right offensive system for Bowl. They didn't have the right offensive system for Cousins.

They didn't have the right offensive line for Cousins. They did not have the right offensive coordinator for Cousins. And it ended up falling apart. And he, I think, also just did not gel with that locker room at all in year one or with, of course, the head coach ever. And that all played into it. But you can't go back in time and get that version of him back. I mean, the 2019 version of Kirk Cousins is the most efficient

and the best version statistically that he's ever been. And he was playing very well when he got hurt, no doubt. We don't know how the rest of the season would have played out. But that is the best version, which is now five years ago and so we think about like that's a long time for his the best version of cousins to be behind us at least by the metrics right i mean that's not to say he wasn't playing well against san francisco and green bay but as far as the tools the the arm strength, the offensive system, the running game and him physically as still a fairly young, but in his prime quarterback, that's not who you have

now. So there's a lot of different things to it, but yeah, I mean, are you in a position now to say to Kirk cousins, come back here, we'll be in the super bowl this year. We've got a chance. No, but there are teams who are, or at least could say, Hey, we're going to be at the top of our division like Atlanta that just hired, you know, a similar offensive system in Zach Robinson to what they have with Kevin O'Connell. So I don't think for either side, it makes a whole heck of a lot of sense, but you could see cousins wanting to stay here, wanting to stay with Justin Jefferson, enjoying the familiarity with the coaching staff, TCO performance center, talking himself into an improved offensive line that actually pass

blocked this year. Hey, look, if we just get a running game kind of thing, but I have a, I have a difficult time seeing it. Clifford says, JJ McCarthy is the one that seems to be consistently in the second round on mocks with most teams saying he needs a red shirt. I could see the Vikings going back into the first to take him. And if they did that, if they took an edge rusher in the first round and traded back in, there would be a part of me that was like, Ooh, I don't know. I don't know. But that's, I mean, I can't remember if the Ravens made a trade to get back in to get Lamar just had the 32nd pick, but they might've made a trade back in to get Lamar. I know the Vikings did that with Teddy Bridgewater, right? I don't remember all draft day trades, but if they

were to do the Teddy Bridgewater thing with JJ McCarthy, even my own personal skepticism from watching him, I would still be about it, but I wouldn't be about it being paired with Kirk cousins, where it feels like if you sign him to a two-year deal, that means Kirk cousins plays here for two years and JJ McCarthy sits for two years, which I don't think is necessary. I think one year is fine, but I don't think it's necessary. Or you could end up with cousins not playing well. And then everybody wants the backup quarterback to be playing. And you've also spent a second round pick,

which could have been helping you win with Kirk cousins. That's my big issue is they have so many needs that if you're bringing back Kirk cousins and you spend a draft pick on a quarterback, maybe for a five to seven year plan, that makes sense. But we're just talking about how you save the cap space for the next coach. You very well might be saving that quarterback for the next coach. You think you're not, but if Cousins play declines, I mean, ask Dan Quinn, Matt Ryan's play declined in his mid thirties. What happened? He got fired. Every quarterback whose play declines at that point, the coach will be fired.

I mean, this happened with Eli Manning and was it Ben McAdoo who benched him for Geno Smith? McAdoo was probably right considering how Eli Manning was playing at the time. But guess what? He got fired. Always happens. So that's something to consider as well. 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

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Awards based on open signal independent data. Visit uscellular.com for details. Horsefeather says, I hope Seifert is wrong. Enjoyed the conversation earlier with searles thank you with the thought of bringing in baker mayfield and drafting a rookie for him to mentor kirk appears to be just out for kirk well if you're kirk that's not something you're interested

in i wouldn't be i don't blame any quarterback for being that way there's a lot of things that are involved with cousins where it's like well well, he's a businessman or he's out for himself, as you said, or he lives in his own world. But I would not be critical of that. Like it is not his job to be a mentor or develop a young quarterback. If I'm a 36 year old dude looking for my last shot to prove the narrative wrong that I can't get deep in the playoffs. Am I worried about training somebody else? I mean, even when he was asked about Kellen Mond or Jared Hall, it was always, well, you know, it's great to have a young guy in the, in the room, but I don't expect him to do that. I think it was Ben Roethlisberger, Ryan Tannehill. They had said similar things like, Hey, I'm, I'm here

to win my games, not train the younger guy. And that's totally right. And Kirk does live in his own world. I think that he could be helpful just as watching how he operates for a young quarterback, but there's lots of guys who would be more helpful. You know, Ryan Fitzpatrick was this for a long time. Whereas like pair Ryan Fitzpatrick with Tua have those two work together. Mayfield is probably that at this point in his career. Clearly he worked well there with a young quarterback and Kyle Trask that they drafted with a second round pick. Also that's the risk of second round picks. If a guy's a second round pick, I'm not super into that because the history on second rounders,

a little more spotty. Maybe McCarthy is a really good athlete. There's some teams that have succeeded with it on those rookie contracts. Andy Dalton, Derek Carr had some success, had a 12 win season, Jimmy Garoppolo, obviously. So it's not, it's not a horrible history of second rounders. I would just prefer somebody that has more of a first round talent to go along with it. But yeah, I mean, as far as like expecting him to be a mentor, that's what I would rather have is a quarterback that I think is going to bring the other guy along

and understands that that's part of his paycheck as opposed to Cousins where you're just, to me, you're just all in. Like if it's Cousins, you're full Rams. You're full Rams or you're nothing. You are if it's cousins you're full rams you're full rams or you're nothing you are trying to recreate what the rams did with stafford the difference is that they had aaron donald and they were able to acquire jalen ramsey which is not something that just always comes along like i was talking about being the team that can trade for uh that guy

and i guess you know maybe you could be that team if you're all in, but it's not an easy thing to do. So can you get the best corner and the all-time, one of the all-time best defensive tackles? Maybe. I mean, all of this is like, maybe, I mean, I don't know. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it seems unlikely as a model. They had also drafted another thing to keep in mind with the Rams. If you go through their roster in 2021, they had also drafted a lot of guys in the mid and late rounds that developed into decent players.

They had like John Johnson and Troy Hill. There was like 10 other guys who had become good players, and they were a dominant offensive line as well. So all that plays into it can you build that team can you add odell beckham in the middle of the season like are you you know is that available to you if it is well then i'd be into it but that seems hard to think that it is uh richard says 85 mil is just bananas money for what you're getting well and that's part of it is when you consider who the receivers are and who the coach is and what baker mayfield did uh last year going nine

and eight with a pretty mediocre team but really good receivers he was was, I think, 12th in quarterback rating, over 4,000 yards. Is that not something that someone else could do? Does it take 85 million over two years to get out of this team good quarterback play enough to have you in the mix? I don't think so. There's probably a significant drop-off between Mayfield and the next best quarterback. So there's that as far as available quarterbacks go. But I tend to think that if this is an economics type of decision, that there has to be a this price gap between this player and Cousins or this commitment gap between this player and cousins or this commitment gap between this player and cousins would be significant enough to say no and move on and expect that Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison

when TJ Hawkinson returns are going to pick up the slack. Clifford says no on Kirk Cousins, JJ McCarthy. Okay. But he'll need to sit for most of his rookie year. So that's another thing that I just don't know about when it comes to that is we always kind of try to identify the guy who needs to sit for a year. And everybody said that about Anthony Richardson. Anthony Richardson, man, that guy can't play right away. He is way too raw. And then he was actually better in the NFL, like because his team in Florida and his office in Florida were really bad. And so he came to the NFL and he looked better. And

I mean, of course, it's not going to be a better team for JJ McCarthy, but we don't really know how fast somebody is going to be ready. I mean, one of McCarthy's things is supposed to be his intelligence and Brock Purdy was a rookie as a seventh rounder, but he really fits super well intellectually. So we don't, we don't know. It's not a guarantee that just because Bo Nix is older, that he's the only guy who could start in the first year. That's why you have a quarterback competition and you see what happens. B Young says, I'm late. Well, you can't be late to the live stream, man.

You got to be there. It's like, if you're not 10 minutes early, then you're 10 minutes late. That's football. No, I'm just kidding. What happened with Pennix and Knicks? They just had bad days at the Senior Bowl. It's just practice. So we're not talking about a game, not a game practice,

just one practice yesterday seemed fine. And then today it, it appeared that Bo Nix had a tougher time and Penix overthrew some people. But as far as like, you're asking how bad were they, were they bad enough not to draft? No course not of course not you would never say someone cannot be drafted just because of a single senior bowl practice playing with wide receivers that they've never played with before um and i that's why i was looking up earlier in the show reports for certain quarterbacks and hey daniel jones had an amazing senior bowl week that got him drafted really high uh and that was what dave Gettleman said is that he loved him at the senior bowl. And that's why he drafted him high. I'm not sure that it's super predictive. And Jalen Hurts had a bad senior

bowl, which may have dropped his draft status. I don't know, but he turned out to be a good quarterback. So, you know, Wayne says, move on from cousins, draft a rookie. There's a lot of risk in doing it, but that is the process. And I love talking about that. I love talking about risk. I really do, because I think that our perception of risk just in general, in our day-to-day lives is probably not great in our investments, in gambling, in lots of different things. It's just not maybe that sharp. And that's why we try to use data. And I think about this one all the time. And I try to think of metaphors to display this. It is extremely risky to bring back Kirk Cousins, extremely. The odds are super against you. There's no evidence in the past to suggest you can

actually make this work and if you go all in and you try to bring him back and you go seven and ten or if he gets hurt again if he tears the other achilles or something which cam acres did and he's like 26 or something but But if he tears the other Achilles, if he gets hurt, then you've spent $85 million on nothing. And that's a problem. That's very risky. That's a lot riskier than drafting a young quarterback and having him not work out. Like, let's think about the odds. I mean, considering what you can give a rookie quarterback, which is two great receivers, great tight end, good offensive line, great tackles, and so forth. A coach rooted in the position. Is he perfect? No,

but I would take him to work with my young quarterback, Kevin O'Connell. So you can pair him with your young quarterback and have them tied at the hip. So what's the odds that that works out? Maybe like 45%, 40, 50%. What's the odds that you get far enough in the playoffs with Kirk Cousins for nobody to be on the hot seat? I mean, the last group was on the hot seat the whole time. I mean, truly the whole Kirk Cousins era, Mike Zimmer was on the hot seat. As soon as 2018 ended, they lost to Chicago and missed the playoffs from that moment to the time he was fired. He was on the hot seat. I mean, it was that risky to keep going back to the well, uh, that seemed pretty risky. It

ultimately got him fired. And you could say, well, O'Connell and cousins are different together. That may be true, but Zimmer also early in his era had much better defenses than the Vikings have had much better players to work with. And as soon as he didn't, nobody's a miracle worker. I couldn't praise Brian Flores enough. He did an incredible job, but he's not a miracle worker. You saw that against Detroit. You saw that when they had people get injured, it's really risky to have a super thin roster and have to hope that nobody ever gets hurt. What are the actual odds that you don't end up on the hot seat in two years spending 85 million? Is it 40%? It's probably, it's probably way higher than that. So that's, that's what I

like to think when we're talking about the risk is there's all sorts of risk over um you know everything that you do no matter what you do if you try a bridge quarterback if you try a veteran if you make a trade if you trade up there's lots of risk if you trade up all roads lead to getting fired if it goes wrong that's that's the thing about the risk. If you bring back Cousins and you go 8-9 and miss the playoffs, you're fired. If you trade up for Jaden Daniels and he's a bust, you're not fired probably today, but you're definitely fired down the road. If you draft Bo Nixon, it doesn't work out, you're fired. Which road leads to being safe in the NFL?

A league where owners give their coaches a couple of years, the shortest contracts that the Wilfs could possibly give out. I mean, is that really something that is safe? I don't think so. And also really not a good idea from an ownership perspective. But those people are just never going to be. They're usually in business years out and big picture, but when it comes to football, they're not kind of ironic.

Uh, Jordan says, do you think KOC wants cousins and Kwesi wants to draft a rookie besides cousins? Who do you think would be at KOC preferred choices to play quarterback. That's hard to put myself in his shoes or to say for sure that one guy wants one thing and the other wants the other. But I would say this, all the, all the comments from Kweisi Adafo Mensah since he's got here, including ones that maybe weren't supposed to be published about the full Rams thing.

And then saying that great quarterbacks win the super bowl, not good quarterbacks and got, well, the guy's right. The Patrick Mahomes is back. I mean, everything he said, even when cousins got hurt at the trade deadline and they were talking about, Hey, we love Kirk cousins, but there's a lot more to it. There's a price. And at his end of year press conference, it's my intention to bring back her cousins, which sounds like political language to me. That sounds like something that was written down and practiced. It's my intention to bring back her cousins.

The more political it sounds, the more I think it was a lie. So everything is kind of added up with his comments to, he wanted to take over this team, take a shot at it with cousins and then draft his quarterback and hope that it's my homes. That's, that's what it's all sounded like with Casey and Alfa Mensa with Kevin O'Connell. I think that he's afraid that the next quarterback won't be able to run his stuff that Kevin O'Connell deeply believes in his passing concepts and his ability to get receivers open. And when he got a taste of guys who couldn't throw the football to those

places, it was probably pretty tough for him to deal with behind the scenes at TCO performance center. I imagine it was pretty brutal when he's dealing with Nick Mullins and Jaron Hall and Josh Dobbs not being able to get the football there. Although credit to Nick Mullins, he certainly tried. He tried everything he had throwing it down the field. But what you're asking is, could we have a difference of opinion on what they should do here? The answer is, it's possible.

I'm not reporting that to make that clear but is it possible that they see it different ways and then who has to make the call well that's going to be the ownership and who are they going to side with and who is pull who is the one who has the more pull if they disagree that is a really interesting like want to be a fly on the wall thing if If those two fundamentally see something completely different, who is it that the Wilfs would ultimately sign with? Folks, Lucy is upping the nicotine pouch game with breakers, pouches packing a little something extra inside. What are Lucy breakers? If you know your pouches, then you know that the

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has a 30-day refund policy if you change your mind. That's lucy.co. Use the code purple insider and get 20% off and always free shipping. Now, here comes the fine print. Lucy products are only for adults of legal age and every order is age verified. Warning, this product contains nicotine and nicotine is an addictive chemical. Folks, if you've been listening to the show, then you know how much fun we have been having with prize picks this year just go to prizepicks.com slash purple use the code purple for a first deposit match up to 100 and let me tell you how it works if you haven't heard us talk about it enough yet or you haven't tried it yet very simple there are yardage totals on prize picks. You either pick more or less and boom.

Each week has been a roller coaster ride of fun. And the best part is that when I have a bad week, I didn't lose much. It doesn't cost much to play. You can turn $10 into $250 very easily. And if things go sideways for you, you're not out a whole heck of a lot of money. That is prizepicks.com slash purple, just more or less on yardage totals. And you are in prizepicks.com slash purple, the code purple for a first deposit match up to $100. 44 Rhino man says not a take. Not a take that I assume you mean I love but if Russell Wilson gets cut He gets 39 million guaranteed. Would he be a good bridge quarterback if he can move the ego aside? I don't really see

him as a bridge quarterback type If they did it, it would be fun fun like i mean but i would also be hypocritical i think it's supporting it because it's all the same arguments that are against kirk maybe he wouldn't be expensive yet he's going to want a big contract right it's like if we believe kirk it's what the dollars represent, then Russell Wilson's not taking a $6 million contract. He's going to want a real quarterback contract that makes him feel like a franchise guy because ego is important. I mean, you don't end up as one of the great quarterbacks in NFL history, you know, borderline hall of fame quarterback like Russell Wilson,

not recently, but in his career by having no ego. All of these guys do. They're the greatest in the world at what they do. And you're not going to have his resume and be like, yeah, sure, just pay me whatever. Like that's just not how it works. But it would be like a theme of their history to sign Wilson. Because I enjoy Vikings history, I'd be like, this is like Warren Moon or, you know, like this is, this is like some, you know, random quarterback showing up here

and having, you know, whatever, maybe having success Warren Moon ish didn't really, but you know, it would be same kind of thing. Like, Oh, an old quarterback at the end of his career, showing up here. That's what the Vikings do. Jeff George. But is it the best way to compete long term for a championship? I don't think so. Probably not. Off the quarterback topic, Angel asks, at this point, would you consider Brian Asamoah a bust?

Probably. Yeah, probably. I mean, you know, a third round pick is harder to say bust because what's your expectation? Do we expect third round picks to be stars? Probably not. We probably would have thought that he would be a starter last year and then he got beat out by a guy who was great it's just that he showed like not even enough to be the next man up and they had to go out and get somebody else like he was so far down on the depth chart that they had troy die and anthony bar playing over him clearly bust might be like not exactly right but he certainly wasn't a fit with what brian florist wanted to do and it's

hard to see him getting there so yeah i don't think it's going to work out with brian awesome law and i also as an aside feel like this hey let's get the tiniest linebackers we can the lightest linebackers we can is not really a model and you could could say, well, wait, wait, wait, Ivan Pace is small. Funny, Ivan Pace is small, but weight-wise, he matches up with a lot of the, like a normal linebacker. It's just height. It's entirely height with Ivan Pace. The dude is a fire hydrant. Like, that's probably one of the reasons he hits so hard.

If you're packing into, what is he, 5'10 or something? 200 and, I don't know, I don't have the number, but 230 pounds. I remember looking this up, thinking about how small he was, and realizing that his weight was not that low. But Brian Asamoah is like a running back. I mean, he has no pop and no power to his game in the NFL. And I think they were looking for a Jeremiah Owusu-Koromoa type of fit, like in Cleveland, but that's just not that guy. So it has not worked out.

Like most of the 2022 draft class, it has not worked out very well. Let's see. Anthony says, I really hope KOC has been paying attention to that kid from Oregon. Jackson powers Johnson at center. He's a monster. Would be an upgrade for Bradbury. Hopefully O-line coach Cooper cup is there too. Uh, it looks like he's going to be a very high draft pick. Yeah. Um, if they spent number 11 on a center, that would be pretty hard to justify.

Uh, I think considering where they are defensively, he does look like a beast and there's a lot of guys who do, but could you really draft with need at corner with need to edge rusher, these very valuable positions. Could you really draft a center? Uh, probably not. And you know, Garrett Bradbury still under contract, but I think it was a weird year for Garrett Bradbury because I remember looking at these numbers on PFF where through like week 14, he was having an above average season run blocking and pass blocking. He was something like 12th. And then that game against green Bay, he gives up seven pressures to the great Kenny Clark. And it just never seemed to really recover from there, and it was a bad end to the season.

So he ended up with numbers that weren't that good, maybe 18th overall, and he's not a difference maker for sure. And the guy you're talking about might be, but can you really spend, like as you're rebuilding this team, centers are one of the easier positions to find. Usually there's a lot of them in free agency. Usually it takes a veteran to make a difference right away. I've also seen him taking reps at guard. I mean, look, it would be wonderful

to have him as a prospect, but I just don't know how you could really do it. B Young says, Quacey has to prove he can successfully draft players behind the scenes. He showed he wanted to trade back last year. I mean, in some ways it feels like we're just trying really hard to, you know, make this take stick, make the like, Quasey doesn't know what he's doing with evaluation stick. When you're talking about Quasey discussing a possible trade and then

picking Addison and then holding that against them, dude, they talk about trades with every draft pick ever, ever all the time. I mean, I don't know. Like, I don't know what to tell you. Yes. He talked about potentially trading back and then didn't like idiot. I don't know. And then drafted a really good player. What do you want? You want him to apologize for that? So, so that that's, but that's the way that's where I know where it like reaching territory is when it's, well, he didn't even draft the good guy. Okay.

Look, the general manager is the one whose name goes on these guys, but the general manager gathers an entire organization worth of people to make the picks. So when he's selecting Louis scene, this is not just a GM pulling up some tape or some numbers and being like, ah, that guy. No, he's taking the opinions of his scouting staff, of his coaching staff, which would include Kevin O'Connell. But on the defensive side with Louis scene would have included Ed Donatello. So Ed Donatello and the system that he ran probably looked at Louis scene as a perfect fit. If you look at the data from Louis scene and how he was used in Georgia,

he was not a box safety. He was not Harrison Smith. He was actually a deep safety. And what they loved about him was that he could fill in the run gaps and blow up screens from a deep safety position. And that's what Ed Donatel wanted to do, play two high safeties and then needed guys who could come downhill quickly and slam into running backs in the gaps. Lo and behold, they pick a giant dude who runs a 4-3 with hopes that he could play over the top, be a playmaker, close quickly on deep passes and things like that. For the Ed Donatell system, he makes a lot of sense as a draft pick.

For the Brian Flores system, he makes no sense as a draft pick. It was never going to work. The guy doesn't process quickly enough to be a box safety, but that's what he needs. Even Cam Bynum, super highly intelligent dude, plays up in the box. So yes, did Kweisi Adafo-Mensa pick him? Certainly. Do we think he did that out of thin air and complete randomness just because he felt like it?

No, he picked Louis Seane because he thought that that was the guy who was going to be a great fit for the system that they had planned to use and then pivoted completely away from and then found other guys who were actually good at it, like Cam Bynum and Josh Metellus. I mean, we're just we're we're there's a lot of desperation to call Kweisi D'Affa-Mensa a bad evaluator or whatever else, as if he's the only person who's doing it and making these decisions that's not what the general manager does but uh if I guess if you're not like on a live stream hammering him for the 2022 draft what are we doing oh actually you were hammering him for the Addison pick that's just weird that's just a weird one to me that's going that's just i the best pick he made doesn't matter

oh okay uh let's see from derrick uh we need something to get excited about uh more uh because the fans and crowd will tune out quickly well what one thing that i noticed last year to your point derrick is that i don't think that, let me think, let me think about this before I say it definitively. I've covered now. How many teams from 2016 until last year? Is that seven versions of this team? Maybe last year was the most unlike disliked team.

I think that I covered the most, like fans are tuned out pretty quickly. Never bought in, had a very brief amount of fun with Josh Dobbs. And as soon as that was over, tuned right back out. And I can use my metrics for this, too. If you look at podcast downloads, live people on YouTube, how many people are subscribing to the newsletter, purpleinsider.com, it's all gone up since the season has ended. It's all going up. The interest is in what could be, not what was. Last year was a what was season.

And they did add a lot of new players like Jordan Addison, who we can't credit the general manager for drafting apparently, but they added some exciting new players. We saw some guys emerge, but because it was still cousins, because there was never really a chance that they were going to be legitimately on the same level as a San Francisco 49ers. It was a lot of boredom. I thought last year they start off 0-3 and it was all right. Well, you know, this team and then it was more annoyance when they won some games than excitement. I really felt that way. I mean, Green Bay, everybody loves. Then he got hurt, but there was there was like some annoyance when they were winning games from fans. Like you're losing it. You're losing your

opportunity to get Jaden Daniels. And of course those people were right. Cause here we are. But I think that the excitement level right now is the highest it's been probably since they beat Buffalo in 2022, because they went eight and one when they won that game. It's one of the craziest games I have ever covered. Second place to the Minneapolis miracle. So that's like great moment, great moment for everybody. Jefferson makes the catch all that stuff. But from there, I think if you include the playoff game, they went like five and four from there or yeah, that would be right. Five

and four. They had to come back against Indianapolis. Super fun comeback, terrible, terrible team never should have happened right and i felt even going into the giants playoff game that most fans believed they were going to lose because they weren't a good team so that since that moment since halfway through 2022 there had there's been a pretty big malaise and right now talking about bo nicks and michael pennix and jj mccarthy and trading up for jayden daniels or whatever right now is the most excited fans have been in quite some time. And I'm using just my own numbers and the interest in this show, because that's what we're talking about to judge it. I mean, the live streams during

the season previewing games probably had half of the number of people who are watching right now, which welcome everyone. Great to see you. Very, very happy at the turnout. I love it. I love talking about this stuff, but it's just been my observation that you're exactly right. That there is kind of a boredom that's set in and attention now that exists waiting for what is going to happen here. And if the same thing happens, if they're going the same direction, I suspect that my numbers will dip back to only the hardcore people who just want to talk football all the time, no matter what. So, you know, that's kind of how it goes. Ty D says, what is the most you're

willing to give up to move up? I saw a speculation that the Vikings would have to give up to move up. I saw speculation that the Vikings would have to give up three firsts with three seconds in order to move up. What it all depends on, in my opinion, would be how those three teams at the top feel about those three quarterbacks. I think we know that Caleb Williams or Drake May is going number one over overall. And number two is a pretty solid guarantee that the other guy goes there it would be really shocking if anything else happened but jayden daniels and i follow i don't know if you guys follow derrick classin on twitter uh he comes on the show sometimes qb class he's a really good quarterback analyst and he was talking about some of the shortcomings of jayden daniels game that could potentially scare people away. It doesn't scare me away for a guy who was incredible running and passing, but just that, you know, maybe it's not as refined as some of the other

quarterbacks. Maybe it's a little more raw with his skill. So would the new England Patriots decide we're going to sign Kirk cousins. We're going to sign Baker Mayfield, we're going to make a trade for a quarterback as opposed to picking someone. And then if you get to four, if you get to five, then I don't think you have to give up what you're talking about. You probably have to give up 11 and then the next two years first, but you can probably manage that. That I would be willing to do.

Don't love, but would be willing to do don't love but would be willing to do if you're talking three firsts and three seconds i don't know how you build a roster that way and that would be really really tough uh what about bob says if you're a starting quarterback uh oh if your starting quarterback wants to be a mentor then you don't have a starting quarterback peyton manning notoriously took every rep in practice. Oh, of course. Yeah. Well, right. I mean, Patrick Mahomes isn't mentoring whoever their backup is. Yeah, that's right. I wouldn't ask anybody to do that. I would say it's like this. If a guy does that, if he bonds with the recently drafted quarterback. Great. But he doesn't have to, it's not, it's not a criticism. I mean, Alex Smith was the first guy who Patrick Mahomes thanked after he won his Superbowl.

I think I remember this, right? I think he was like the first name that he said, like, Oh, I want to thank Alex Smith for helping me along the way. And then said like Andy Reed, because that's who Alex Smith isith is that that he was willing to do that so credit to alex smith for being a great guy and helping patrick mahomes along but you don't need to do that um it's just not your job uh matthew says if they get pennix or nix is a bridge quarterback really necessary or would you expect them to play day one? What I would want is a backup who I could play if they weren't ready, because I am not sure that their age and even experience necessarily means you step right in and you're good to go. Like, hey, this guy played a lot of college football, so he's going

to be great right away. You're still going to need development. There's still going to have to be development time. What I do like about both guys, if they are indeed first round prospects is that both of them do have a ton of experience. And I think that that says something that having all those starts underneath your belt can help you more quickly get into it. And Bo Nix said today when he was asked about her yesterday's press conference, that he played five years of college and every year he had a different

offensive coordinator. So he's had to learn a lot of different offenses along the way. That's nothing in comparison to the NFL, of course, but I mean, Penix has played for two different colleges. Like these guys have kind of been through something to, in that regard. So would you need a Baker Mayfield? Probably not. But what I want still like a Gardner Minshew or Jacoby Brissett, absolutely. Or Andy Dalton absolutely would want somebody else with experience with that guy. Clifford says, if they try to get to the top three to get a quarterback, if they can find a trade partner, he'll be starting game one. Oh, yeah, of course. Of course.

Yep. Yep. He would 100% be starting day one. Yep. And then by 2025, which I think was the other part of your comment, they would have a crazy amount of cap space. If they don't have Kirk Cousins going into 2025 with a rookie quarterback that they feel good about, they can do anything they want cap wise, anything they want. They can overpay any free agent.

They can make a trade for anybody because it's all kind of lined up for that year for them. And I think that's what the competitive rebuild was supposed to be. Whether we actually get there or not, I don't know. Mark says the kid out of Florida state could be a sleeper pick was fantastic before he got hurt. Jordan Travis. Yeah, I like Jordan Travis. I don't know. Uh, Mark says the kid out of Florida state could be a sleeper pick was fantastic before he got hurt. Jordan Travis. Yeah. I like Jordan Travis. Uh, I don't know what, where he would have gone if he didn't get hurt, but I like him. I like him as a fifth round pick or something or fourth round pick to take a shot on because he's probably better than where he'll be drafted because of the injury. That's the rare situation where I would actually agree with that. Normally, I think if somebody's drafted in the fourth or fifth round,

like it's probably not worth it. You know, there's going to be outliers. There's going to be Brock Purdy or Dak Prescott, but it's usually not worth it. Jason asked thoughts on bringing Cam Akers back. I like Cam Akers. I thought he ran violently and he was a heads up player and I thought he had a lot of heart.

Um, but we're talking to Achilles injuries. That's pretty tough to, to bring a guy back. Uh, one Achilles enough for a running back is pretty hard to come back from. Now he's going to have two. Uh,

yeah, that, that, that would, that would be pretty difficult. I mean, I guess you could bring him back to see where he's at in the mix because no one else is going to have two yeah that that that would that would be pretty difficult i mean i guess you could bring him back to see where he's at in the mix because no one else is going to sign him if you like him and see what happens if somebody was able to come back from that that would be really amazing but i that's going to be a hard one uh rhino man says another

gm and coach can't put their jobs on the line again with Kirk unless the owners can't let go of the idea of always wanting to be a wildcard team. a 36 to 37 year old quarterback for a two-year deal. I mean, your chances of having it work are extremely low and you're kind of asking to lose your job. I mean, unless you're completely bucking history, all of the history of this team of the last six years and cousins over his entire career. And if you're going to do that, what I would need to know is how, how, I mean, Kirk cousins has had the best receivers his whole career. Even if you go back to Washington,

he's got Deshaun Jackson, Pierre Garcon. He's got Jordan Reed, Vernon Davis, Trent Williams, Brandon Sheriff. Like he's got great players in Washington and, and look at the coaching staff. This is all the guys who are like head coaches and office of coordinators now. And then he comes to Minnesota and I'll give you this some bad guard play. Stefan Diggs, Adam Thielen, Kyle Rudolph, Kyle Rudolph, Pro Bowl tight end. We just forget about how great Kyle Rudolph was

as an outlet for all the other quarterbacks who actually threw him the ball. And Delvin Cook is his running back. I mean, that's a pretty good supporting cast. And then Diggs gets traded and you have the best receiver in the whole world show up. And that guy has zero playoff wins. And then you're going to put your career on that guy. I like on that. I mean, that's yeah. I don't know. I mean, it's hard. It's very hard to justify. And so what you need though, is you need the ownership to say it's okay. It's okay to move on and you're going to get time because the organization functions well under this group. You can talk about this draft pick didn't work out for them. Okay. That's true. Draft picks sometimes don't work out. And look, you can't have five of those. All right. So when I talk about 2022, if you have five of those, then you stink at drafting.

All right. If you have one of those, then it's no different than Rick Spielman 2016 versus 2015. But the way that the organization functions, the inside of the building, the whole operation, the relationship with the GM and the head coach, the coaching staff is very good. The whole thing whole thing. Right. The culture, the players are the players happy. Our leaders developing the NFL, PA, the players voted Flores and Matt Daniels, two of the highest approval rated coaches in the league. They did like how much you approve of your coach. And those guys were up in the top five, all that, all that can sustain through a year. But you know, it does come along

with, you might have to drop back a little bit that it does come along with that. Uh, Tyler says quick answer. What's your gut say is Kirk here or somewhere else? I will just keep coming back to, and I know you guys have probably heard this enough times by now, but I just keep coming back to, from Kirk's perspective, why does this work? Why is this a good idea from Kirk's perspective? Not even just the Vikings. I can see it from theirs if they're desperate. Why does it work for him to come back to a team that he hasn't gone in the playoffs and his reputation is the guy who's made all this money and hasn't gone deep in the playoffs? I'd want to try something else for a team that's right there. So that's if I was him, that's what I would want. And I think what he wants will ultimately make this decision,

which is probably to go. But I'm like, we've been doing the kind of the meter. I'm like 35% that he stays may. I mean, I suppose it could change the Vikings view on it if they really don't like Bo Nix and Michael Pennix. But from his perspective, if Atlanta is interested, if Pittsburgh's interested, even the Raiders, but probably Atlanta and Pittsburgh being the best arguments, aren't those teams a lot better than the Vikings are right now? They have good receivers, good weapons. I just have a tough time seeing him looking at this situation. And if all the money is equal, saying, oh yeah, I'll come back there and play Ibraflux's defense that now has Montez Sweat. And I'll play against the Packers with Jordan love.

I'm going to watch him throw rockets all over the place. And I'm going to go play against the lions. We're going to score 30 points and are going to improve their defense. And Oh, Aiden Hutchinson's over there. Like, I don't know that. So I'm leaning toward, uh, him not coming back still, but would I be surprised if he did no i would uh george says kirk's achilles recovery is my main deal breaker i'm a kirk fan but 85 90 million with this injury is a no-go yeah i mean that's and there's a lot of people who have just brought this up over the last couple of weeks is like that they like kirk and they are fans of his or have his jersey or whatever but look at the current situation say it's just not right.

It's just not right for him. Wayne says, Justin Fields, anyone? The Bears have never been an offensive machine. We have a quarterback-minded coach. Might be worth it. Yeah, so the thing about Justin Fields is, I mean, one, the Bears aren't going to give you their quarterback. Historically, they usually get traded to the other conference because the last thing in the entire world that

you want if you're the Bears is to give the Vikings a good quarterback. So that's the issue there. I don't know that Fields works with Kevin O'Connell well because his quickness at getting rid of the football would be my main issue. I think what Kevin O'Connell wants is somebody to pull the trigger when they see the flash that they're supposed to make a read and let go of the ball, throw with anticipation. That's not really who Justin Fields is. I think with Justin Fields, he needs somebody who's ready to lean in to a really stupendous running quarterback with limitations as a passer.

Who's ready to do that? There will be a team for sure. Like, is it Atlanta? But I don't know that like a pocket quarterback who needs to be on time with everything in order to make it work is quite Justin Fields. And I also, historically, it just hasn't been great to trade for somebody else's topic that didn't work out. I mean, like Sam Darnold is a good example of that. Recently, second round pick Josh Rosen, second round pick. They give up a big pick and nothing happened after that.

Let's see what we got here. Jared says the things KOC could do with McCarthy's mobility and accuracy would be pretty fun. Kid appears to be very accurate, reported to be intelligent, sees the field well, all the things that KOC loves in a quarterback. Very well could be true. He has physical traits for sure. He has a very strong arm and he has mobility that at least could make you a play. And when I was watching Brock Purdy make a play and escape and thinking about how valuable that is well we saw mccarthy do that even in the national championship game he does have legitimate mobility and i i'm when i watch mccarthy i'm a little concerned because you mentioned the accuracy the accuracy is spotty it's like sometimes it's great and

sometimes a little all over the place. But can you improve that over the next year, the next two years? He might be the right quarterback for them. I mean, when I was watching him this year, I couldn't help but wonder, why aren't they throwing the football with this guy? Why is it that he's throwing 300 passes in a season where they're winning a national championship? And yeah, that's Harbaugh's tendency. But I mean, if you have a star quarterback, you're usually leaning into the star quarterback at the same time. I'm, I'm, I'm taking that roll of the dice. I'm definitely

taking that roll of the dice versus what you have right now. So, uh, see, uh, uh, Wrigley says McCarthy doesn't have a strong enough arm. I don't think it's strength exactly as far as how hard he throws the football. I think it's consistency and precision where sometimes it looks really nice. Sometimes he really lets it loose and throws a great big time throw, super accurate pass. And sometimes it's just all over the place he's kind of spraying all over the place inaccuracy timing's not quite right and you'd have to work with them in order to uh you know make that work like i like i i don't i don't know um if you can or not because it's every one of these guys is going to need development. So, um, Jared asks, have you

heard about any restructuring in the front office for the Vikings in terms of, uh, head of college scouting and such last year they did. I've never really paid a whole lot of attention to it when it comes to who's in the front office. Uh, because how do I know if they're good at their job or not? I mean, unless someone tells me, our head of scouting stinks. But normally it's like, I don't know. But yes, they did make changes last year, and Kwesi brought in some of his own people. I don't know about head of college scouting.

It's just, it's really something I haven't paid super close attention to. I really have not, like like when they make these changes, cause how do I work with that? Like, can I tell you that it's good or bad? How would I know? Um, so, but yeah, they did, they did do some of that and maybe look, that was a theory about 2022 and maybe you have, you know, people, uh, who work better with Kwesi Adafo Mensah, but I think it really came down to, they drafted players for Ed Donatel's system. And Andrew Booth Jr. showed some promise and then got hurt. Caleb Evans showed some promise and got hurt.

Brian Asamoah actually showed some promise. And then none of these guys fit with Brian Flores. Sometimes that happens. Like in a different world, if Ed Donatel was great, maybe some of these guys are playing. But that happens like in a different world. If Ed Donatell was great, maybe some of these guys are playing, but that's not what happened. Instead, other guys who were better fits emerge, you know, Mackay Blackman turned out to be a great fit. Josh Metellus, Cam Bynum. So, you know, that, that, that's sometimes how it goes when you change a coordinator like that. This is overly ruthless.

How do people say the name Nick Mullins and not spit after it leaves their lips? That guy is horrendous. Nick Mullins is a great example of why they should believe in themselves because Nick Mullins had them right there in a couple games, and he's not all that talented, and he's the lower end of backup quarterbacks in the entire

league with no sample size of success and was still able to move the football create explosive plays throw downfield to open wide receivers i mean if he can do it, like, I don't know, then probably other people can do it too. Son of a Beavers says, what are the odds that we stay with our first round pick and use our second round pick to trade back in to get more picks or trade back? Yeah, I mean, trading back seems like something Kweisi Adafomenta believes in, as he should. Now, that's not to justify the trade back in 2022. They traded back too far. Never liked that. But I think trading back is something they're into. And look,

if Michael Pennix and Bo Nix struggle when it comes to, you know, the senior bowl and it drops their value a little, I don't think the NFL actually works that way, by the way. I don't think that scouts go there to the senior bowl and are like, hmm, a tough practice. I'm out on this guy. Like that would be crazy if they did that. They're looking at so much more than that. Heaps of data and tape and film and Bo Nix has got five

years of starting. So does Pennix. So they they make these decisions based on a lot however if the evaluation overall is that players like this are more of late first round draft picks and that's where they're going to be valued then the vikings could get some intel the teams are good at doing this getting intel of understanding where guys are expected to be slotted and they could end up trading down and still getting their quarterback. And this was an idea that Eric Eager brought up. I would be very much for that. Very, very much for that. If we were talking about Bo Nix being available at say 18 or something, and somebody wants to trade up to take an edge rusher, you drop back, take your guy. It's risky for sure.

It's very risky because if somebody else takes them, then you're out of luck. But it's a good strategy for a team that doesn't have a whole heck of a lot of draft capital. And, you know, the last time they traded down other than with Casey, but they traded down when they got Christian Derrissaw and that ended up working out. Enigma one says other channels all stated most of the quarterbacks look pretty much as you would expect, but Bo Nix was clearly the one struggling. Yeah, that's what I read. Yeah, that's what I read. Now, what I was reading was that Penix was the best, but did not like, wow. So he had some good throws, but his deep shots were overthrown, stuff like that. But Bo Nix had a tough day. Now the analysis that I read of it through the first

two days of practice and gosh, I forget who's recap. There's a lot of people recapping the day, but had the guy from Tulane as I think his name is Michael Pratt, he was the second best and had Nix as the third best quarterback. So even if it was a struggle, it wasn't so horrific that he should just go home and never try to play football again. But no question that Bo Nix did not have a good day, according to all the reports at the Senior Bowl. The only thing was, how much does that really matter that it was just one practice. He's going to have another one. He's going to have the game to play, and then it'll be a complete look at the entire week. And as I've gone through the past senior bowl quarterback performances for the reports in practice and in the game, it's been

very hit or miss very much hit or miss for whether that was predictive of where they were taken or what they became because Daniel Jones crushed the week and Jalen Hurts didn't have a great week. Kellen Mond was terrific in the game, maybe didn't have the greatest practices and ended up being a guy who had no chance to play in the league. So it's something that I think is interesting to see maybe how he bounces back from a bad practice and gets on the same page with the receivers. And that's why we're going to have our correspondent, Terry, do the show if you guys are around. I think Saturday is the Senior Bowl, so we're going to talk later on Saturday.

That'll be up on YouTube and so forth. So I would go live, but Terry is in an Airbnb and the internet's a little spotty there. So you'll have to look for it just to be posted on YouTube in the podcast feed. Cameron says, are you a Bills fan at heart? So it's always fun, by the way, when I realize that there's new people watching who are just discovering purple insider welcome welcome i should do a video maybe that explains where purple insider came from and the whole background story and everything but i uh yeah i grew up in buffalo as you probably must have figured out by asking the question and then moved here but when i was in Buffalo, they were really bad. Like my whole life, they were really

bad. So I was extremely young when they went to the Superbowls and we're talking like five, six years old when they went to the Superbowls. And so I remember Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, and so forth. And I got to know Thurman Thomas when I was in Buffalo. Great, great guy. But it's not really like the time where I was really becoming an NFL enjoyer. That was more age 13 through, you know, present. And at age 13, that would have put me born in 86, 1997, 98. Doug Flutie had some Flutie flakes. That was great. That was a fun time. Uh, the couple of Doug Flutie years, they ended in heartbreak as you might expect. But after that, they were really bad. They missed the playoffs every single year. And I'll tell you a funny story

because I played Madden all the time, watched every NFL game from start to finish on Sunday, not just the bills, literally every single game. Uh, but where I was really out on the bills is when they lost Antoine Winfield senior, of course, uh, when they lost him to Minnesota in free agency, I was like, this team, this team isn't serious. They don't want to win. And I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to them after that. I mean, I really didn't, I didn't watch a lot of their games for a long time. I would watch the other games, the Sunday night football and so forth. And then when I, I mean, I knew what they were doing, but I wasn't like, you know, jumping into a flaming table. In fact, all that stuff that you guys see about them jumping into flaming tables, all of that was born out of anger and frustration about how awful they were.

And it was just years of complete ineptitude. At one point they made Marv Levy, the general manager was like, what? Marv Levy doesn't know anything about being a general manager. And he was like 80 years old. Shout out to Marv Levy, one of the greatest human beings you'll ever meet. But, uh, and I, I got to talk with him on the phone a couple times when I was in radio. Super guy, all-time great, all-time great, like an NFL legend, but it was not a general manager. They were just doing weird stuff, and they were a joke for a long time. And, of course, shockingly, it turned around when they drafted a quarterback, maybe a thought there, but if you think you're frustrated,

imagine missing the playoffs for 20 straight years or 19 straight years. So I, when, when I worked in Buffalo, I was doing the show the same way I do this show. It's not any different the way I was analyzing the team, covering them, criticizing sometimes praising sometimes depending on, uh, looking at the data, all that stuff. So it's the same same deal um and just in general like that's kind of what reporters always do you know like reporters um you know we were we're gonna look try to look at things objectively regardless of like i the personal

feelings don't matter like you know none of none of that really matters. I covered them the same way I covered this team. So there's the whole story. Let's see here. What about Bob says, KOC pleaded with Kweisi to take Addison. It's in VEN. Stick with the plan, KOC. Yeah, I watched it. I watched it. I watched it. It's just, it's just funny how far it seems. Some people want to go

to even the good pick say like, no, no, the good pick you didn't do. Like, I mean, at that point, you're just being a hater, I guess. Like, I don't know. I mean, at that, at that point, we're just going way too far in being critical. So he's talking about trading the pick. They don't trade the pick. They pick somebody awesome. I don't know. Screw him.

Like, what am I supposed to say? I mean, they're always going to consider trading down. Every single draft pick that they have when VEN puts out the thing, you're going to see Kwesi on the phone talking to somebody about potentially trading down every time. And so they didn't and uh it worked out well so i don't i don't know what i'm supposed to say they've drafted like what 14 players or something this is a tiny sample size of two drafts one of them was trying to rebuild the defense for a completely different defensive

coordinator and the dude like let's not forget the dude like broke his leg in the first year uh not probably not the reason why he's bad but just worth throwing out there uh i'm not i i couldn't stand what they did in the 2022 draft i just think that it's not anywhere near a big enough sample size to start throwing around things like the general manager doesn't know what he's doing can't evaluate players whatever else just take a look at any other team's draft that's all it takes take a look take a look at the packers 2021 draft and then their 2022 draft take a look one of them is horrible and the other one's fantastic they've had the same guy i don't know these things happen they drafted like eric stokes as their top pick terrible

terrible decision he's horrendous their whole draft in 2021 is garbage their whole draft in 2022 they got like five starters i don't know now you need one of those though. If you're going to turn this thing around for the Vikings, you definitely need one of those. Uh, Wrigley says, do we have good comps for these guys? Oh, that's a good question. I feel like Pennix is a Bridgewater-esque Trent Green. That's a good poll, Wrigley. I like the Trent Green poll. Nick seems a lot like Sam Howell. Hmm. Uh, well, the difference between Nick's and Sam Howell is that Howell always took a ton of sacks. He took a ton of sacks in college. He takes a ton of sacks in the NFL. If you had a Sam Howell without all the sacks, he would actually be a good quarterback or at least like playable

or exciting. But the problem was the dude got sacked every other drop back and just that you can't deal with that there might be some similarities there in that neither one of them is super tall uh they are kind of kind of like strong looking guys with some running ability uh but i mean if we're if we're looking for historical comps i don't know if i would go with sam howell because i don't really know what sam howell's going to be i. I think probably just a backup. Bo Nix, that's a good one. I'm going to have to think about who Bo Nix might be. I end up always thinking of Matt Hasselbeck for quarterbacks like this,

like fairly good athlete, a little gutsy when it comes to running. Hasselbeck wasn't a running quarterback, but he would run sometimes. And I think the same thing goes for Nix. He's not a running quarterback, but runs sometimes. And the accuracy isn't perfect, but he can get the ball where it needs to go. Doesn't take terrible sacks, maybe something like that. I don't look at Penix like Bridgewater because of the arm strength difference. Penix is big thing is arm. He, he kind of reminds me more of Jared Goff because golfff does not move well in the pocket. And when he steps into it, sometimes he throws a wobbler, and yet it gets there because he just throws it so hard.

Penix, though, has probably better touch down the field than Goff has. I feel like Goff's touch 30 yards down the field is not particularly special. Penix really does have a special arm. It's really just the mobility element and the fact that he's had those injuries. Those things are really the shortcomings on Michael Penix. All right, I'm going to try to speed up here. We've been talking for a long time, but I'll run through questions because you guys are asking so many good questions and so many good comments. And it's been really fun. Nick says, Dobbs cost us two losses and potentially quarterback of the future. So we could get a couple of memes and locker room speeches. So annoying. I can't argue that one, man. I can't argue that one. And that was why I just, I remember going back to Jeremiah Searles,

uh, before the San Francisco game, Jeremiah said on the show, you should probably trade the Neil Hunter today. So you don't like win this game and then fool yourself into thinking you're good. That's exactly what happened. They fooled themselves. They didn't trade Hunter. They fooled themselves with the San Francisco win and the Green Bay win into thinking that they were good and they weren't. And you're right. I mean, I think anybody in the world would give back those two Josh Dobbs wins as fun as they were they would give them back in a second to have the top five or top six draft pick a hundred percent and even like even trading for josh dobbs they had to get somebody because it was like sean manion was the backup for jaron hall i think they needed to get somebody and and look if're the coach, this is where it's difficult because I, at the

time, sat here and said, like, I don't know, I guess Josh Dobbs won't play them out of the great draft pick. And I was wrong. He kind of did. But, you know, my thought was, well, look, the coach is going to want a quarterback who can at least give them a shot to win. And if you're the coach and you're four and four, and you're coming off of a huge win in green Bay, it's very difficult to just be like, all right, boys, pack it in. I mean, you're the coach. This goes on your record. You don't want to lose. That's where, that's where it goes up to the very top to say, sorry, we're not going to give you any help, but Josh Dobbs wasn't really

giving them any help. And overall in the big picture, it didn't. So it would have been better if they had played Mullins and lost every single game though. I do. I do agree with that. I do agree with that, that if they had lost every single game, we would be in a different position at this moment. Uh, skull city blue says Bleacher Report projected price for Vikings to trade up for the first overall pick. Well, I mean, no one's giving up the first overall pick, so it'd have to be the third. 2024, first and second. Yeah, so you're talking about like three firsts and seconds, basically. Yeah, that'd be very, very hard to do if that's what you were going to do and

no one's giving you that chicago's not giving you that who's drafting second washington they're not they're not giving up the chance to get the other guy whoever goes one the other guy's going two this is a ryan leaf pate manning they're guaranteed to go one and two it's really about the third pick and if you can convince the patriots or if you can uh even get number four or number five if those teams are not drafting quarterbacks then you've got a shot at anthony says if they were able to give flores the key pieces he needs through free agency in the draft there's no doubt in my mind he could give us a top five defense next season. So the thing about that, there is no doubt in my mind that Brian Flores will take whatever pieces he has and make the most of them.

That's what I saw this year. The issue is you talk about free agency. Well, let's take a look at free agency from last year. What did they do? They went out and they got Byron Murphy Jr. and they got Marcus Davenport. And they spent a decent amount of money on those guys. It wasn't crazy money. They didn't land a top free agent, but they spent a decent amount of money. Byron Murphy Jr., for my analysis, was a pretty good player for them. I think you saw when he was gone how much he was

doing, but he wasn't, you know, Darrell Revis. He was just like an average corner for them. And Marcus Davenport was a disaster and they ended up having to play DJ one on the whole time. And when he got hurt, talk about disaster, epic disaster. So the issue with free agency is that we remember we talked about risk earlier for those who have hung around for the whole show.

It's getting free agents is risky too, because if you get a couple of guys and you think, all right, well, we filled some key pieces here. Then someone gets hurt. And then Dean Lowry goes down. Not that he was playing well, but now Jonathan Bullard's playing 700 snaps. See, there was, I go back to this a lot. Cause I think it was really smart. Greg Rosenthal from NFL.com. He was talking about this and he's, he estimated that if you want to be a Super Bowl team, you probably need like 40 guys who could play. And I was like, man, 40, that's like two whole rosters. And then I started to think, well, let's go through it. The last time the Minnesota Vikings were in the NFC championship, how many good players? I'm not going to name them all, but go through, go through their roster and add up. Doesn't have to be great. Just has to be at least good. And you probably come up with like 35. There's a lot of really good players on that team, whether it's really good at their role or truly excellent, a couple of free agents and hopes and dreams of scheming up blitzes. We also have to consider this, that the NFL will be paying attention to everything Brian Flores did

and they will be looking for solutions. And when they played good offenses, every good offense succeeded against them last year because they didn't have the horses. Every good quarterback had a good day. Can I think, is there like a team that had a good offense last year and played the Vikings and did not do well? I mean, the Lions, both games were great offensively, the Packers, Cincinnati, Philly, Chargers, Chiefs. I think every good offense had success. You need a lot of players. You really need a lot more players. You really need a lot more players than they have. And just signing a few in free agency could make you the 14th

best defense, but is that going to be enough? Um, Logan says with the reported price for Kirk leak, doesn't seem likely on purpose. Kirk leaks that info. So landing spots will know what they're asking for Vikingsikings leak it to try to bring the price down i actually don't think anyone leaked the price um at least there's a problem that we have with social media which is aggregators who i don't know why they do this i don't know what they get out of it do they they get paid for it? I really don't know. But people who look for any type of information that could get them retweeted, shared, whatever on the internet will sometimes spin that information to be more controversial or shareable than it actually is. And to me, a lot of it is dishonest and misleading.

And I feel bad for anybody who follows these people. And my understanding of the Kirk leak is that it wasn't. It wasn't. It was a speculation in an article and it was not a report. So it's just an estimate. The same way with Kevin Seifert estimating two years, 85 million. I mean, we can just use our brains and come up with the ballpark, right? I don't believe this, this team since Kweisi Adafl-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell got here has not been leaking stuff. Usually the thing about the TJ Hawkinson deal, we found out about it when we showed up at a press conference and they announced it to us because they did not leak out a lot of information. So I don't think that that's what they're doing. Look at the Justin Jefferson stuff where people were way off on the Justin Jefferson contract situation because they weren't leaking stuff out there. And so I don't think that the actual price

is really truly out there. I think this was aggregators looking for attention, which again, I just don't understand what the purpose of that is, what that does for you. Maybe it makes you feel really good when people retweet you. I'm not really sure, but it's something you have to be careful of when you're just following people on social media and reading. Still, if we were just guessing what kirk cousins is going to want with 13 quarterbacks next year scheduled to make over 40 million assuming that jared goff signs an extension is kirk cousins taking less than that of course he's not so we've already known that

um and i think that they probably already have a good idea right now of how much it's going to be by talking with his agent because they can talk with his agent about an extension anytime. And then when they go to the combine, they're really going to start to know what other teams interest is. I think. Bron freaking solo says fix the lines first. A rookie quarterback with no time and no run game will suck and will be at the mercy of vitriol of the desperate Vikings fans like Ponder was. So last year, they ranked second in pass blocking by PFF, which, you know, you can take or leave that.

But I thought that their pass blocking was actually really good. There will be pressures because as you play in the NFL, even the best offensive lines are giving up, you know, two and a half out of 10 dropbacks, 25 to 30% pressure because defensive linemen were built in labs and are incredibly good at their jobs. So you're going to get pressure.

But last year was by far and away, the best pass blocking that I've seen since I was covering the team, probably since they had going back to, I don't even know when like, I don't even know. And I think, I mean, I don't, I don't remember exactly what their offensive line was with ponder. I think in 2012, it must've been pretty good because Adrian Peterson ran for 2000 yards. But, um, to your point, uh, I don't think they need like a huge fix on the offensive line. I think they need a left guard and they need competition at right guard is what they really need. But to me, the tackles are so good that you should feel great about putting a rookie quarterback behind this line. There's no offensive line. That's great. By the way, in the NFL,

there's no I mean, maybe you could say the Eagles, but there's no team that's like the 90s Dallas Cowboys or something where your quarterback's not going to be pressured. That's why a lot of times we look at the pressure and how a quarterback performs under pressure in college to get an idea of what they'll do when they get to the NFL. Carl says, I keep seeing in mocks that Tavondre Sweat falling into the second. My God, if we can get that man,

he's a human wrecking ball. I mean, look, whatever they do, defensive line, and yes, Sweat, I saw play in the final four, whatever they call it, semi-final. He's a beast. he's a beast. He's a beast. They need, they need a beast. They can't. And KFT, you're absolutely right. They don't have one good defensive lineman.

You are a hundred percent, right? That's why we're, if they did, we might be talking about a little bit differently about this, about cousins and bringing them back and all that. We might be, I'm not a hundred percent sure we would. Cause they had good defensive lines in the past, but if they had Everson Griffin, Linvald Joseph, Tom Johnson, Daniil Hunter, and Brian Robison on their D-line, and Xavier Rhodes, Harrison Smith in his prime, Eric Hendricks, and Anthony Barr, and Kevin O'Connell supporting Kirk Cousins, Justin Jefferson, and Jordan

Addison, maybe it'd be a good idea. They don't have that. They are all of that away. They don't have an Xavier Rhodes. And you're right, Bron Frickin' Solo. You're right. The run blocking was terrible. You're absolutely right. Yeah. You're right. It was not good. And Dalton Reisner was what we thought he was. He was not a good run blocker. And there was always somebody making a mistake. It seemed then again, at the same time, Ty Chandler averaged four and a half yards to carry. So it's a chicken and egg issue, but I agree that they were not good at run blocking their pass blocking. Yeah. I see. I agree that the backup quarterbacks were pressured somewhat in

those last couple of games, but jaron hall just held on to the ball forever i i'm i think they were a good pass blocking offensive line they're certainly passable if not very good uh in comparison to other teams you watch every other game like there's there's pressure there's always pressure but do they need to improve it of course they don't have a left guard right now and i don't trust ed ingram at right guard so we're on the same page i just think with the tackles you can offer a rookie quarterback a very nice start there um dan says arguably the weakest defensive line the vikings have had in 30 years i mean they don't mean, they don't have anybody. They don't have anybody. It's wild. I mean, Harrison Phillips is a nice player in context of what Harrison Phillips is supposed

to do. Harrison Phillips is not a guy that you should be asking to play 800, 900 snaps. That's insane. So they have to replace pretty much the whole defensive line. You can't do that in a year. You can't, I mean, to Vondre sweat, that would be great, but then you need like three more, even bringing back to Neil Hunter. Let's say you draft sweat, bring back to Neil Hunter and sweats pretty good right away. You still need more guys. And by the way, this is the, what I was talking about earlier is you really need you don't need four defensive

linemen the vikings were total freaks in 2017 with having five guys that were good and nobody really got hurt so they could just play their their starters and even shamar stefan was solid so they had like six guys that they could play but you you usually need six, seven guys on the D line. They've got one. I mean, that's nowhere close. So, you know, I think, um, and, and this is, this is very true, Carl, the overall body of work for pass blocking was good, but the humongous blow up plays killed them a lot this year, early in the season, especially yeah. Early in the season or when Kevin O'Connell had them pitch the ball to Josh Dobbs, that wasn't good either. That was a, that was a big blow up play as well. But yeah, I mean this and you're right, this is a good draft for defensive linemen. I mean, I think they need to take multiple of them. They need to acquire them in free agency. They need to

trade for that and everything. Can you do all of that? I don't and everything can you do all of that i don't know that you can do all that in a single off season and try to patchwork it together so there's a there's a lot to be done here and i i they need like eight more picks than they have that's kind of the problem is when you lay it all out and you go man you need two defensive tackles uh that can get after the passer you need two edge rushers you need a corner you need all this stuff how many top 50 picks do they or how many top 100 picks do they have two well all right then it looks like this is going to be a little longer of a rebuild and when you're talking about fourth and fifth rounders who could be solid well that's i mean those are all just

those are guesses when you get to the fourth and fifth round, those are guys that you have to develop over a number of years, which they can. Like this is, it's not, they're not in a position where it's so dire that I would say this team is just so screwed for the entire future because of how much they have to work with on offense. When you have stars at tackle and stars at receiver, you're in good shape.

But if you have no talent to and stars at receiver, you're in good shape. But if you have no talent to give to Brian Flores, you're going to end up with the same defense as last year, which is, hey, the guy can make Tyson Bajan and Aiden O'Connell look pretty bad, but you're not going to be able to slow down the best quarterbacks. And they're going to play a lot of them next year when you look at their opponents. So there's a lot of work to be done here. And it starts in Mobile, if you you've heard that's their tagline for the senior bowl anyway i think we have set our record by far for the longest stream and that is because i was

spending the whole time catching up on great questions and comments from you guys love love the discussion super Super fun conversation. And we're going to continue the coverage of the Senior Bowl tomorrow night. Manny and I will be back here live eight o'clock as always. I've got the series. If you guys didn't see it on the channel, the series of what happened to that guy, we covered the 2022 draft for all, for those of you who are obsessed with the 2022 draft, we covered every pick and went through what happened and why it didn't work out so far with those guys.

So make sure you check that out. Purpleinsider.com is where you can find the written work that I've talked about my entire series of Future of the Vikings. That's worth checking out. I wrote about every player on the entire roster and the timeline as well. So lots of stuff, lots of stuff. We're having a good time in the off season here with lots to discuss. So thank you everybody for joining.

And I had a really good time chatting tonight. So we'll be back doing it again tomorrow and we'll see what comes up. Then there's always something every day. And then keep an eye out for Saturday late afternoon. There will be another video that goes up or podcast that will go up. That. Oh, no, no, I wasn't man juice. I was I know I know who Charlie Walters is.

I know Charlie Walters. He sits in front of me in the press box. I didn't know who it was that reported it when it came to who the aggregators were stealing. I didn't know who reported it. I know who he is. I just didn't know who it was. I was asking Manny who reported it. That's what happened there.

But anyway, so yeah, we'll have a good time tomorrow night and then going forward. So thanks, everybody, for checking it out and participating, and we'll catch y'all later.