Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - BONUS Episode: Matthew Coller and Marcus Whitman talk everything trade deadline

Episode Date: November 1, 2023

Matthew Coller joins Marcus Whitman of the That Franchise Guy YouTube channel to break down all things NFL trade deadline, from the Vikings' moves to Montez Sweat trade to why the Packers should have taken it all down Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. This is a bonus episode in which I spent an hour with Marcus Whitman from That Franchise Guy on YouTube talking about everything trade deadline related, including of course what the Minnesota Vikings did, as well as the Chicago Bears trade for Montez Sweat, San Francisco acquiring Chase Young, what Washington is doing, and much, much more going around the NFL. I do this show with Marcus every week, and we kind of do it Hot Route style. You guys are familiar with sort of the multiple questions type of thing. For this episode, we just ran down all of the trades, but I do it every week at 5 o'clock central on his page, that franchise guy.

So you can check it out live there. And if you guys enjoy having this on the feed as a bonus episode, let me know, send me a note, shoot me a DM, send me an email. Let me know if you enjoyed this because I'll just post it every week. I can do that. Marcus has it on his page, but he doesn't mind if I put it on this feed as well. So if you like it, then we'll continue to do this. Feel free to let me know. But otherwise, make sure you're checking out his YouTube channel, That Franchise Guy. It's really awesome. He's a tremendous analyst, also a Minnesotan as well. So make sure you go check that out and here is our show together what is going on everybody welcome to a very special edition episode live stream of the hot routes show

joined always by matthew caller here about uh two hours after the trade deadline and normally we would pick five topics five heavy hitting topics on the nfl and react to all that but uh this week we're going to do a little bit differently we're just going to kind of go down the board of all of the trade action react to every move and then we're also going to talk a little bit about the moves that didn't happen at the end of the show as well so it's going to be a fun one thank you you, everybody, for joining us. Matthew, how's it going, buddy? Well, it was a little hectic today because the Minnesota Vikings,

the team that I cover on the beat, traded for a quarterback. And that quarterback was not somebody that is going to likely change their fate, but still when your team has the starter tears Achilles, and then they're acquiring somebody else to help get them at least remaining in competition for the playoffs. Now there's a lot going on there. There's a lot to assess and analyze what it all means to trade for a quarterback.

I'm sure that will be one of the ones we discuss along the way. I know there were bigger moves and there were some moves that didn't get made either by the Vikings. So I'm still head swimming a little bit from the other day. I've walked out of Lambeau Field a number of times being like, what just happened here? The time that they tied, for example, in 2018. But that was maybe the most

where I spent that miserable four and a half hour drive back trying to dodge deer and tractor trailers and construction with my mind like what what the hell happens now because I think it would have been much easier if they had lost that game and kind of blown it late than getting to four and four and kind of being what tied with the Falcons right now or tied with the Saints for the seventh spot in the NFC where it's like this team is playing really well lately and as we know you get into the dance sometimes anything can happen so yeah we'll we'll circle back definitely to the Vikings later on but I think people want us to start probably with the big pass rusher trades and you know I was really looking forward to this show but the Washington Commanders actually just texted me they are holding tryouts for pass rushers so I think I might head out to the DMV instead of doing the show and see if I could start at the edge this week.

Wow. The Commanders end up trading both Josh Sweat and Chase Young, one for a little bit more than the other guy. Let's actually start with Montez Sweat, the first piece of news that came in today. Second round pick from Chicago, which is likely to be a top 36, top 40 pick, most likely. So close to a first round pick, which I think is fair value. I don't know about you. I was surprised that there was so much pushback on this trade for the Bears. I mean, my first tweet on it was like i don't know if a people just have never watched montez sweat play football or b people haven't watched this bears pass rush in the last two years but this was kind of a trade that needed to happen for the bears um i think

it's a fair price to pay for a guy they're going to end up giving a big contract i get that he's 28 years old and a lot of people think they're in a big rebuild you know they're they're heading to year three of this regime here so they do need to eventually get some blue chip players drafting a guy in the second round is probably not going to step in and be a star player for them so um i i thought this was a really good move for the bears what did you think well this move had some people in a cold sweat no okay uh yeah i that was like a two out of ten matthew that was really bad i wish that we had a different take on this uh i i was surprised as well uh to see any sort of pushback about this and we're all assuming that they're going to extend Montez Sweat.

And that's part of the trade because we've seen this deal by rebuilding teams or teams with a lot of cap space repeatedly, sometimes with wide receivers, where it's getting Tyreek Hill in, signing him to a massive extension, where when a team is down bad, it's hard to argue that the following season they can go to free agency and just be like, all right, free agents, please. Come on, stop by because you're bad. And so like Chicago has not been good in quite some time.

Are they going to be able to make a case that people can show up? And even when the Jaguars, for example, got Trevor Lawrence and they went shopping, they had to overpay like crazy for anyone to actually come play for the Jaguars. They had to give Zay Jones a lot of money and Christian Kirk a lot of money and so forth. And trading for that player, having him in your building and being able to

work out that extension from that standpoint. Yeah, you're going to have to still give him a lot of money, but it gives you an opportunity to get him there and extend him. And you mentioned this, this roster and where they're at in a rebuild. Well, they have a ton of cap space for one. Also, this is a player in his prime. Who's really good. And if you're working out your timeline, you're thinking fields gone, Caleb Williams in or whoever, but you know, Drake may, it's going to be a top quarterback. That guy's on a rookie contract. We can overpay other dudes, get this roster stacked up as much as we possibly can. So when that guy's really ready to go, whether it's right away or year two, then we're going to be right there and be able to make that argument to Kevin Warren,

who is taking over as their president there and their ownership and the leadership there for Ryan Poles, their general manager, to make to make that case hey our team is right there we've built them up by making these moves drafting players and developing them and signing a guy to a big contract and if that quarterback hits and as soon as he's ready then we're going to be a legitimate challenger i think this is what every team who's rebuilt has done in some four or another. And Montez sweat is a great player to do it with because he's very good. And he's also not old. Yeah.

I mean, look at the difference in Matt Eberfluss defenses after they traded for DeForest Buckner. It just, not only is he himself going to be an actual pass rush presence. I mean, the bears get off the bus and opposing passes passing games are like all right let's go we can do whatever the hell we want it doesn't matter how fun these

young secondary players are we will block these guys and eventually our guys are going to get open um so that alone is big um but they're in year two of maddie berflus's defense i think they have shown some minor signs of life the last couple of weeks getting some of these guys back healthy in the secondary it sounds like they're they've kind of worked things out with Jalen Johnson or at least have forced him to stay to at least see this thing out and I think that's smart I mean I think this Bears defense now with an actual chess piece there some still a lot of draft capital free agent money I mean I know it's all doom and gloom with the Bears but like I said earlier you got to get blue chip players at some point you can't just keep bringing a lot of draft capital free agent money I mean I know it's all doom and gloom with the Bears but like I said earlier you got to get blue chip players at some point you can't just keep bringing

in young players and I I just I don't understand the negativity I mean the the one point of it might be like why didn't you give a third round pick for Chase Young instead which we'll talk about that one too I guess I could see that But Montez Sweat has been a much more consistent player. I know Chase Young is hot right now, and he's the younger player and maybe will have a better career in the future. But he's been injured, and his price tag was less a third-round pick. And just over the last three years when these guys have played, Montez Sweat has actually been the better pass rusher.

So I just, me I saw I was like good job Ryan Poles like hell yeah and then I just was stunned to see the pushback now let's kind of transition to that Chase Young trade here but I want to start with this from the Washington Commanders perspective this is brutal this is absolutely brutal the Montez Sweat thing was fine my first that came out first and i was like all right you had to lose one of these guys chase young is the guy with the future and you know the guy you drafted more recently and all that and then chase young gets traded like 20 minutes later and i'm like whoa did they run out of money with the new ownership i mean to lose him for a

third round pick that one's a really tough pill to swallow. Yeah, I don't think Josh Harris runs out of money. We might, but I don't know that he does. Yeah. So with the Chase Young thing, and this goes past this new ownership, they might just be doing what they feel like they have to do. If you lock yourself into a player who's been hot for a handful of weeks, who has an injury history, who has a roller coaster of a career, then you are risking putting a lot of your assets into someone who's volatile.

And Chase Young might end up having an amazing career after this, but it's hard to project that when you are going to have to rebuild major elements of this team and you don't feel like you're on the cusp of actually competing i understand what they're doing it's more of the chase young pick people are going to talk about trey lance and that's understandable the chase young pick might be 50 times worse because okay we didn't know if trey lance was going to be great you could certainly see when he threw the pigskin over the mountains that he had the tools, but you never know when someone's going to end up coming in and being good or not from a draft pick. They passed up on two

quarterbacks who are pretty damn good right now in the NFL when they had nobody at quarterback because this guy's generation, he's going to come in, he's going to change our franchise. These are Lawrence Taylor or Micah Parsons, and he wasn't. And now you trade him for almost nothing after passing on. And again, it's new leadership. It's a different approach. They can't deal with those priors and what happened. But Tua is leading one of the best offenses in the league.

Justin Herbert gets debated a lot, but it's only whether he's really good or amazingly good. It's not, is he an NFL quarterback or something like that? And during that time they've played Sam Howell, who I, you know, you know,

I like more than most, but come on. And Taylor Heineke and Josh Johnson and Mark Sanchez and all these other quarterbacks have come in there because they felt, and I don't know when Mark Sanchez was, but because they felt that, um, that chase young was generational. It's one of the worst draft picks that anybody's made considering that there were two quarterbacks sitting right there and they passed on them. Um, so that, that kind of solidifies that. And now they're in a position where, what are they doing? Like is Sam Howell your starter in the future?

Uh, how are you rebuilding this roster? Because now it's just being torn apart. Now they're in a position where what are they doing? Like is Sam Howell your starter in the future? How are you rebuilding this roster? Because now it's just being torn apart. How do you argue to anybody else? They should stay and want to be here after trading these guys out. It's for this new ownership. It is a pretty rough situation. I'm sure it won't be Ron Rivera leading them forward either. Yeah.

And what I, the biggest thing I don't understand about it is if they just let him walk if he just continues to play well and they let him walk they're probably getting a third round compensatory pick anyway so i just don't understand the urgency to do this um so just a really bad day to be a washington commanders fan and on a week where sam howell played a pretty damn good game on Sunday. So that definitely stinks, but man, the Niners getting chase young. I did not see that one come in. Uh, I would not be surprised if this is more of a rental, um, because you've got the kind of track record of,

you know, another NFC West team goes, they trade for Von Miller and a Superbowl run. Didn't quite have the money to extend him, even though tried you know if Chase Young goes to that team and stays healthy and is and is as productive as I think he very well might be on that team he could be looking at you know a huge huge contract and cashing out and I don't know if the Niners can pull that off they've already brought in Javon Hargrave on a huge deal last year they have to pay brandon iuk very soon brock purdy himself will be heading into year three they don't want to you know if they really like him and they want to give him money i i would just be surprised if they worked it out for chase young unless he's not as good as they expect him to be and you know he's back

for a little bit cheaper but uh yeah I mean what a what a freaking steal for the Niners this I think puts them right back up into that you know top echelon of of teams I think so too and you know you look at their last three weeks and they have three losses and then all of a sudden the heat starts to turn up on now wait a minute Are you not as good as we thought you were after losing? I mean, Cincinnati is a great team, but the Vikings are considered pretty mid. And, you know, so they've had a tough run of teams to play going to Minnesota, get the Brock Purdy concussion. Maybe they win that game if he's healthy the entire way. Still, anytime you are a Super Bowl contender that starts out as hot and as good as they were,

and then you start to lose some games, there's pressure to do something. I think they have a little bit of a Steve Wilks problem, personally, after watching the way they game-planned against the Vikings. The one thing that I have the benefit of is seeing everybody's game-plan against the Vikings. I know what the Vikings are going to do on offense. And so I'm always intrigued. And Matt Eberflus was brilliant in the way that he went after the Vikings offense and basically dared them to throw into zones and things like that, sit back there and make plays where Wilks was bizarrely overaggressive in that

game and left people wide open all over the place. I don't know if Chase Young changes the math on that, but I think as a, as a just philosophy type of idea, look at the NFC, the Eagles, Seattle is in the mix. My NFC Superbowl pick they're in the mix and they made a huge trade as well that we could talk about, but is anybody wildly better than the 49ers? Of course not. So if you can go all in and make this trade without giving up huge future assets, it's a great move for the San Francisco 49ers. And I think what the Eagles have shown us, and I totally agree with it philosophically, is let's see. I feel like we have enough pass rushers.

How about we just have one more? It's like how I feel about tacos. Like, you know what? I think I've had enough. How about we just have one more? It's like how I feel about tacos. Like, you know what? I think I've had enough. How about one more? And when you are rotating in these guys and they're fresh and they're playing 40 snaps instead of 70, they're even more dangerous. So I think this is a tremendous move for them. And the fact they didn't have to give up a lot. Really well done by San Francisco. Yeah, 100%. They're going to be scary, man. Yeah, let's talk about Leonard Williams. What do you think about this one? I really like where Seattle is at. A little bit rocky to start the season. And one thing that we do on the show that I really enjoy is we have our takes and then we watch them fly all over the place. And sometimes they look great, like me

with Sam Howell after last week. And two weeks ago, it looked terrible. So, um, but Seattle has built up their defense to be really good at pressuring the quarterback and adding someone with his type of talent on a team that their quarterback is playing well enough to win their weapons. Jackson Smith, the jig boat, welcome to the national football league. Good to see you. But their weapons are excellent. Their coaching has always been very good. I mean, this is the right kind of move to say it's, it's our time to get back and win here. And I don't know if any of us would have thought that the Seattle Seahawks would be in this spot when they moved on from Russell Wilson. And especially since their front office had done some strange things and you were kind of like, I don't know, their drafting drafting's been really bad and then all of a sudden they hit on geno smith they

hit on a few of these boy a mafe who comes from uh minnesota has been a great player for them they hit on so there you go they hit on some of those guys and all of a sudden everything's different and leonard williams he is a great player this this takes them in my mind up a notch to a team that could be legitimately dangerous because I think in the playoffs defensive lines win a lot of those games and they have enough pressure on the opposing quarterback with Leonard Williams to be a difference maker in the postseason yeah I I do like I said on the power rankings I like this trade I don't love it maybe not quite as much as you. I think, you know, logistically speaking, it makes a ton of sense

because they were counting on Jerron Reed to kind of be their number two defensive tackle. Okay player, much better as a three or a four. So you get to put in Leonard Williams, who's a very good player. I think you said he's a great player. I think he's a very good player. I think he's got like 22 pressure is decent run defender a little undersized which they already have an undersized three tech next

to him so they're still a little you know undersized in terms of run defense uh which i think when they run into teams like the niners which they have had their number it's still going to be something to keep an eye on but i I do think from a pass rush perspective, he fills a much needed hole. And like you, the point you made earlier, the more bodies, the fresher you can keep these guys, the more you can rotate them.

There is definitely a formula for that having success around the league. So I think their defense has played much better lately, granted against not the best offenses in the world, but I definitely feel much better about their defense that, you know, Seattle can look at this and say, that's a missing piece. We got, we got edge guys. We now have interior guys. We've got linebackers. We love our secondary, which they should. Their secondary is fricking awesome. Um, they say we play good defense in the playoffs. And if Gino can just, you know, get hot, like they're looking at this formula, like the Matthew Stafford formula,

you know, he might be a little streaky, but if he can just get hot for four weeks, we can win the Superbowl. And I agree if Gino can play like he did in the first half of that Browns game for eight straight quarters, um, or eight straight halves in, in the playoffs, then they very well might win the Superbowl. But, um, I will say it's a second round pick for a good, maybe not great player. And if they don't win the Super Bowl, I don't know. You might look back on this trade and say it was a little too aggressive. But I do still like the trade. I like the aggressiveness.

I don't want to be too hard on it. But I'm not necessarily picking the Seahawks to win the Super Bowl either, I don't think. So that's just a minor pushback on it. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Folks, if you're struggling with the holiday blues and you're having some trouble getting excited in the same way that other people in your life do about holiday get togethers, and all of that just sounds stressful to you, then maybe it might be helpful to add something new in your life to help deal with those feelings. That's where therapy could be a bright spot for you. It can help give you the tools to manage stress and help you feel more grounded.

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pick up, grab some friends and enjoy a few slices during the tastiest hour before kickoff i'm gonna roll uh roll with the seahawks still as far as a legitimate super bowl contender um i think it's fair to call leonard williams good he has been great in the past like there have been seasons there's an 11 and a half sack season mixed in there and i think with with this situation this group he can be really impactful it's a lot it is a lot to give up i guess what what i like is when a team says let's go for it let's give it a shot because you know look everybody loves draft capital sometimes i think like did you guys

read money ball too many times like on the internet because they get pissed off if anybody trades any draft capital or pays anyone if it's not patrick mahal anyone who gets a contract is like the the worst thing you could ever do as a team is give someone any money but like for a player like this that could be a final piece it's probably it is too aggressive to call him a great player i agree i uh that may be a little too much excitement from trade deadline day but could could be a difference making peace for them in a defensive line that's already pretty nasty yeah um by by the way completely unrelated did you see uh the the giants game did you watch that game against the jets or did you did you skip it uh well i had too much yeah going on that day with uh achilles and everything else but i saw the box score which was something to behold i've never

seen anything quite like that in profile yeah i mean for one yeah just a hysterically historical game um worth a watch if you if you're unlike if you're kind of free of work and you just are looking for some hilarious like comedy it's i was laughing my ass off watching it by myself um but as you're watching the giants defense dexter lawrence oh my god like you will just your jaw will drop i think he had 14 or 15 pressures in this game and you just every time the ball was snapped he was like trying to tackle zach wilson so he is he was insane, completely unrelated, but I did want to just give him a little bit of credit because he's, he's playing like a hall of fame level right now. All right,

let's talk a little bit about my green Bay Packers shipping off one of the best defensive players, Rasul Douglas for a third round pick, which, let me just read off the third round picks from general manager brian gutekunst since he took over for you um here we go orin burks jay sternberger josiah deguara amari rogers sean ryan and tucker craft who can barely see the field this year getting a third round pick for b Brian Gutekunst doesn't exactly have me feeling good for the one player on the entire defense that is actually a scheme fit for Joe Barry's zone heavy defense sounds like anybody who used to watch like 60 minutes and they would

go through the people in the 60 minutes uh roster like if you had told me that that's who that was like all the reporters and hosts for 60 minutes and not NFL players I'd be like oh okay uh Josiah Deguara reminds me of how once uh Kyle Juszczyk sort of became a thing that people talked about then every draft analyst was like maybe this guy could be a Kyle Juszczyk it was like no no he can't uh maybe this guy could be the next Taysom Hill I don't think so uh but anyway stop drafting tight end slash fullbacks in the third round. Maybe the lesson there. And instead, just get them off of the Vikings practice squad like they got with the Sims guy who's been OK, I guess. Yeah, the Packers didn't trade enough away.

They should have traded everything away because they are terrible. They are coached terribly. they have a terrible quarterback they it is it's a mess it's a it's a mess of a football team right now the roster is not good the offensive line is not good the there's really nothing about it that that is impressive and especially like some of the coaching but that roster needs a ton of work and it needs a ton of development from those younger players and i don't know who else that they were shopping potentially but to only trade rasul douglas to me is like are you guys not accepting what's happening here what's happening here is you lost an all-time great quarterback and you're horrible and you

need to start looking toward the future and taking this thing apart. And I know they signed Rashawn Gary. He's a great player. And he stands out every time I see him play. I also wonder, I don't know, are you in a position where you should be handing out massive contracts to certain players? Or just trying to get younger? Well, you know, continue to get younger. Lean into that.

Get draft capital. Like, is that a guy you should have traded away for a second round draft pick i don't know maybe packers fans would probably freak out about that because they're not used to this but there's got to be more than just rasul douglas for a third round pick i know that's the way i looked at it well there's no there's no veterans to trade they're the youngest roster in the nfl rasul douglas is one of the oldest players on the team so they traded him away i mean the only other option would be like preston smith but no one wants preston smith right now he's been a horrible pass rusher and he's way too expensive so no one's taken on that contract uh i beyond that i don't think trading away kenny clark would

have been a smart move for this team uh the d line is the one good thing they have going for them on that entire team. So I do think he's 27, 28. He came into the league super young. He was like 20 when they drafted him. He's 28. But, yeah, I just – I don't know. I think Rasul Douglas is a leader for the defense, and I just – I do disagree with you a little bit, like that they need to get younger because they have all of this young talent to me what they need is leadership and someone that can hold

anybody accountable in that building and Rasul Douglas is the one guy in that secondary that can actually like be a mentor for the young guys and um you know like Eric Stokes just went on IR so what you're gonna put out and put out Carrington Valentine for the rest of the year, who I liked as a seventh round prospect as a super raw, like toolsy corner out of Kentucky. But he was horrible when he had to start against last week against whoever the hell we played last week. So I just, if,

if I had any confidence that they could do something with this third round pick, it would change my opinion, but you're just giving Brian Gutekunst another, you know, pick to throw in the trash. So it's just like, I,

I hate it. Well, I I'll believe I'll try to believe in draft the randomness more for Mr. Gutekunst, but your, you know, comment section says, I don't understand the Packers situation.

No, I completely do that. They are a super young roster and there's a lot of players there that are going to be part of their future build and they didn't go out in this last offseason and spend crazy money in free agency or anything to do that it would be thematic to move anything that wasn't nailed down which i understand like there's not that you can't trade everybody away at the deadline i get it uh the point i'm making is that it's like, you have to live in reality here. Like this, it's not working. It's not going to turn around. It's bad. Like

trading Russell Douglas is a good idea because I, your point about leadership, totally fair, but moving on from anybody, who's not going to be a part of this in the future is what they have to do. And my point is that packers fans are like what what is this what are we what tearing down our draft capital i don't understand it's a new world it's a new world but after seeing the team in person at lambeau field against the minnesota vikings who are supposed to be a competitive rebuild type of team uh they weren't really close i mean they kind of had the floor wiped with them and they haven't had like good games since very early in the season

against bad teams it that's just who you are at the moment and it's going to take a while for them to rebuild and probably around a new quarterback as well so moving anything that's not nailed down i think is the way to go i i think that's super well said and i i if i have more confidence in the in the general manager i think um you know i'd probably have a different opinion on this but uh yeah let's let's move on and talk about uh the vikings a little bit uh which i'm sure you've had plenty of time to think about this uh josh dobbs to the vikings take i'll let you start with your your take on this well i think uh when you live in a universe where you are trying to sort of split the

difference between refreshing the roster and also trying to make the playoffs that if you went out and spent like a third or a second round draft pick on Jameis Winston, you look silly. If now, if Tom Brady had said he wanted to play, that would have been cool as hell. And I would have supported every minute of that, especially for my personal clicks and YouTube views and everything else. It would have been incredible. I would have been honored for Tom Brady to come and play a 10 or nine games

for the Vikings or how many as well. And I haven't covered a Superbowl, so I would love that as well. But instead, rather than going after a Andy Dalton, who's won about a third of his games since he was good with the Bengals early in his career, I think getting someone who can reasonably operate the offense, allow you to have a chance still to make the playoffs. It's a long shot, but your schedule is not that difficult with only a pick swap and not just saying, Hey, Jaron Hall, take this on. That's way too much for Jaron Hall to try to take on. So you get a reasonable career NFL type of quarterback. Who's done this before. It's not going to throw him way off.

He can get the ball to Jordan Addison. You can continue to develop him. And you say to your team, Hey, we believe in you without saying we, we believe in you so much that we're trading like a second round draft pick for Mac Jones or whatever. I think it split the difference really well and that they were rational with themselves in making a move like this um though i do wonder i have seen so many random ass quarterbacks over vikings history show up and win a bunch of games like is this going to be the the next jeff george the next case keenum the next gus ferrat like whatever so that is in the back of my mind that they might play themselves out of having a fairly high draft pick to take a quarterback but i i don't know if dobbs is good enough to do that

i love what you said about splitting the difference i think that might have been the conclusion they came to because i think they know if they went and like like number one like you said they needed to send some kind of message to the locker room that we're not just going to give up on the season um you don't want to lose the locker room when they're playing like this and building something in a lot of different ways. But if they would have gone and trade, I think, for a Jacoby Brissett or I do think Dalton would have been a good option. I think they would have probably been an eight or a nine win team.

But this is a guy that right now has kind of got some hype. A lot of people like this player. Look, I've been forcing myself to get through these Cardinals games the last three weeks on game pass. It this week was, I couldn't finish the last five minutes. Josh Dobbs was putrid in that football game. Miss throws horrible reads and the coaches on Monday were like,

yeah, it's, it's over for him. It's been a fun ride. We, we ran some fun, you know, design runs. He made a couple throws. You know, I can't – I have a hard time believing that these guys watched

Josh Dobbs play the last few weeks and were like, this is the guy that we're going to go on a run with. But maybe if they were trying to thread the needle a little bit, like you said, it is kind of a genius decision without looking like the bad guys so we'll see how it plays out I would love to be wrong and for Josh Dobbs it seems like a great guy to kind of come out and continue completing his his Ryan Fitzpatrick speed run career mode because he's been on four teams in like eight weeks at this point but uh yeah i just i don't think they're going to be very good at all um yeah i wasn't a huge wasn't terribly excited about the about the trade

personally yeah and and i think that it's important for them to really understand that their quarterback future is wide open and you know i'm sure that there's going to be a discussion about whether to bring kirk back after the achilles i think that's very risky but you are going to be in line to draft quarterback that is a big deal that you are in position to make a trade up if you need to be within earshot like like what carolina did is what the vikings should be trying to do no one's trading you Caleb Williams probably uh or Drake May whoever's number one maybe there's a discussion there but if you're a fan of any of the other potential quarterbacks you want to be in a spot

where you can make that move to trade up it's like Carolina put in PJ Walker they played a lot of competitive games and they lost most of them. They got to seven wins and they were right there to be able to trade up. I think the Vikings want to be able to do the same thing. If you just give up, then your coach looks like he gave up. And the same thing goes for trading Daniil Hunter. Like these things matter. What did it on Madden? Oh, trade Daniil Hunter.

Like, of course, if there's, if there's no feelings at all involved, if there's no ownership, if there's no fans, if there's no locker room, if all that stuff doesn't matter, get that second round pick bro. But all those things matter. So I can understand the way they handled it. Still, they should have got Matt Ryan. Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Ryan. Yeah. I wouldn't be stunned if they're in striking range and maybe Daniil Hunter is a trade piece to go, you know, from six to two, if you know maybe care maybe arizona's sitting there and they want kyler over drake may and they're like we'll we'll give you a you know two for daniel hunter a couple firsts you know get six it maybe maybe they'll be in in range um the vikings made another trade that i actually thought was one of the more underrated trades personally Personally, the Jaguars getting Ezra Cleveland for a day three pick. I'm curious, though, what have you seen in Ezra Cleveland and what are the Jags getting in him?

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You pick either more or less between two and six player stat projections, and that's it. Now you're playing. So if it's X number of yards for a quarterback, you just decide, are they going to throw for more or less than that number of yards? But it works with lots of different options, receiving yards, touchdowns, even field goals, all sorts of sports as well. prizepicks.com slash purple. Go there, use the code purple for the first deposit match up to $100. One of the reasons I like PrizePix,

it is very simple to use. You'd see how we do it on the show real quick and easy. And then we talk about our picks and also not expensive either. You can turn $10 into $250 by nailing just a couple of picks. So go to prizepix.com slash purple, the code purple, Daily Fantasy Sports made easy. Yeah, this is an interesting one. I mean, the Vikings knew they weren't going to extend him. They signed Dalton Reisner. He played really well against San Francisco. I would say not as well against green Bay, but he's an NFL player.

He's a good pass blocker run blocking. I think is a little dubious with him, but you know, still a reasonable NFL starting offensive guard that they may extend after this. So they are clearly set at that position. They want to continue to develop Ed Ingram, their right guard, which makes sense because he was a draft pick last year. He hasn't proved even if he's still having his rough patches, there's no spot, there's no room at the end for Ezra Cleveland. They've got another backup that they like as well as a swing guy. So, okay, this is the type of move you make is get any sort of thing for him.

The thing about Ezra Cleveland is he was a tackle at Boise State, and he is really athletic for his size. Like he can get out and he can move and do things that most guards can't with athleticism wise. But the one thing that's always been lacking for him is the piss and vinegar to his game this guy is not going to

smack people in the face pick people up and body slam him or whatever a very finesse player which usually tackles are and it sounds like you know an insult but I also think that his athletic ability allows him to make up for the difference there. When teams blitz and they run games and stuff on him, there's still confusion sometimes because he was a tackle before.

And I think he's never really mastered that. But the athletic ability that he has has allowed him to be, in my mind, a good enough run blocker. And he's improved in the pass protection this year significantly from where he was last season at left guard this is this is probably an average player which for a team like the jaguars average is great like it versus bad and how much bad destroys your quarterback average is great i think i think it was a great move for the jaguars so i i just pulled up uh my scouting report on ezra cleveland for my 2020 draft board while he has excellent finesse technique and awareness his game lacks an element of physicality too often on tape he didn't finish blocks and

seemed to do the bare minimum at times and let guys go if he felt the defender couldn't make the play and it sounds like you've seen a lot of the same thing so it sounds like that has not uh disappeared from his game um but yeah i love this for the jaguars they actually cut um another minnesotan ben barge to make this move he was a third round pick that hasn't worked out for them they've been starting tyler shatley at guard in jacksonville that's been like the turnstile position for them is, is the left guard. Cause they're pretty solid at all their other positions.

So I love this for the Jags. Their offensive line has been missing a little bit. I'm excited to see his athleticism in that system. They love to run a lot of those like sweeps from shotgun where they'll, they'll run like a counter with like two or three linemen, just like sweeping. It's almost like a toss, but from shotgun,

they love to get these guys on the move. And I think Cleveland kind of pulling and getting on the move could be, could be fun to watch there. So I, I just, I did love this move for the Jags curious to see if they extend him as well. But even if they don't,

they barely gave up anything to get them. So for them trying to make a, make a push should be a good move for them um a couple if if you i'm sorry if you have jaguars fans watching i know you have all fan bases if you want to see the maximum of that athleticism there was a screen pass in the vikings comeback against the colts last year where they ran a screen and he kind of got out there. He ran the whole way with Delvin cook and he reached like 20 miles an hour or something like the guy does have some real special athletic ability. So just to add on to your, uh, your praise for that, I think

that movement skill could be huge for them. Yeah, absolutely. Um, okay. There's one other trade I had written down unless I'm forgetting any, which is certainly possible. But Donovan Peoples-Jones is heading to Detroit. We don't need to spend a ton of time on this one. Personally, I think it's a good backup for Detroit. I don't see him taking any of those starting jobs away from, I mean, you got St. Brown, you got Reynolds, who's been very good, who's kind of the like-bodied receiver there to Donovan Peoples-Jones, that big-bodied possession receiver. Kalief Raymond's been awesome, kind of moving all over the place. And then they've been getting Jamison Williams. They've been trying to get him involved as well. So I think he's just a good wide receiver five. He gets to go home to Detroit and does have a kind of high recruiting background. He's a freaky athlete. They made a similar risk on Denzel Mims in the preseason

that resulted in nothing too. So we'll see what he can do in Detroit. He's made some plays for the Browns. But one thing that I do want to talk about is this opens the door for one of my favorite draft prospects, Cedric Tillman. He's a big-bodied wide receiver out of Tennessee. If Deshaun Watson ever decides he wants to play football again, I think you could see a better version of Donovan

Peoples Jones stepping up there and could actually give them someone else to throw the football to other than Amari Cooper, who feels like their only option right now in the passing game in Cleveland. I feel this move gave the Peoples what they wanted uh detroit which is um donovan peoples jones truly truly though six out of ten i like that one better okay all right good good good uh i was i was surprised and hey jameer gibbs welcome to the nfl also nice to see you good good that you're here uh we've been critical of that draft pick. He certainly looked great against the Raiders. And if that continues, then that draft pick is going to look better. The one thing that confused me in the draft was why they didn't pick a wide receiver to go along with Amon Ross St. Brown.

St. Brown is a tremendous player, but it's often the second, third receivers who make life truly difficult on a defense. I like Josh Reynolds more than most didn't have a good game the other night, but you know, not as like a guy, not as a difference maker and people's Jones is not a superstar either, but at least it's another option. And he is good down the field. I mean, you can really make contested catches and go up and get it. He's a great athlete and And Ben Johnson knows how to use his athletes. So I'm very intrigued by this, and I think this is the right move. The Lions are another team, like Seattle, that should be looking around and going, why not us?

Is Philly special? Philly special? Is San Francisco? They're vulnerable, right? And why not us to make a difference here? They're running away with the NFC North. So I like this a lot for them. And I don't know. I mean, Cleveland is in such a weird spot because who knows what their quarterback is even doing. And if they're not a legitimate team to talk about, if we don't even know who it's going to be on a weekly basis, a quarterback. Yeah, for sure. Did I forget any any trades did you have any in your notes

that uh i think i got them all chat let us know as well um cantavia street no yeah i didn't really want to talk about cantavia street okay well i'm just saying that was a trade that happened and that's uh kevin byard uh you know that happened earlier this week. Oh, yeah. Classic Philly. Just add one more player. You can't keep getting away with it, Meme. Yep. Right, yeah, right. Exactly.

But a quieter, maybe a quieter deadline than people expected, but that always happens every year. Every year we throw out 157 candidates. Yeah, I think so. Right, there's usually one or two big trades. I'm going to disagree with you there. I think it lived up to the hype, I think so. Right. There's usually one, one or two big trades. I, I, I'm going to disagree with you there. I think it lived up to the hype. I feel like last year was the first year where it kind of went off and, uh, you know, this year followed up.

I was not expecting this many big moves, honestly. Um, so I was looking at, I was looking at my list of players who didn't get traded and, you know, there's a lot, there's a lot of big names who didn't get traded and you know, there's a lot, there's a lot of big names that didn't move. So, but you're right. No, I mean, very active. I think this is what the NFL trade deadline is going to be going forward where teams pay much more attention to their timelines and they start to ship things off because before the deadline was so early that teams would be like, no,

we're like two and four, but we can still do this um so now teams have a much better sense of where they are yeah for sure um so yeah let's let's wrap up and talk about some of those guys that were not traded i know you got a big radio hit coming up so we got to end the show a little bit early this week uh but um yeah i'm curious if you had the same list as me but jalen john, we talked a little bit about him earlier for the Bears. I like that for the Bears to kind of, you know, get sweat in the building, be like, hang on, Jalen, like, just give us a couple more weeks. Like, we're trying to build something. You're a huge piece here. Give us a little bit of time to work this thing out. Again, it has not all been rainbows and butterflies in Chicago, to say the least, but I do think keeping him at least through the season who's playing great if they can maintain him I do now like the potential of this defense a lot more yeah I agree I think Jalen Johnson is a really really good player that they should try to

like take him out to dinner give him a big steak and see if they can work it out with because just like Montez Sweat like you you got to pay people if you want to have a good defense. And that's just pretty well proven. And when you draft someone who's been a success for you, letting them walk out the door in their prime is bad there. There you go. Hot take. Right.

So giving yourself a few more months to try to see if you can like repair whatever is going on there and give him the money that he's worth is a good idea for the Chicago Bears. Plus, you know, once it gets out there right before the deadline, hey, he's requested a trade. Everyone's like, oh, how about a fourth? Right. I mean, it just it just shifts like it because then you can't any longer be like, no, we don't want to trade him except maybe a burst. Like, but you know what I mean? That was an interesting dynamic that came into play with that move yeah um all right davante adams stuck in las vegas i guess this morning he did i don't know if it was it's so hard to know on twitter these days like you see something come up on your feed you don't know if it's legitimate or not there's all these verified accounts but whatever i did see said he uh you know had a conversation with the raiders this morning uh to see if he could explore new

horizons and they said nope you're staying put so he made i will say this he made the decision that that was the team he wanted to go to and i don't necessarily feel bad for him uh but i do also you know i can't imagine he's too happy down there right now after that brutal night on Sunday could add 150 yards and two touchdowns. And he had one catch for 10. It was terrible. Like it was just, he was so wide open. I mean, there's not too many times in the NFL that you see someone who's an established quarterback like that missed by that much.

I've got to think that Jimmy Garoppolo is playing with like half his body at this point, because there are times where you're less than impressed by him, but never to the point where you just think, wow, this guy doesn't even look like a starter. Like this is borderline sad to watch Jimmy Garoppolo play last night. And Devante Adams should be very frustrated by what's going on there. If you're them though, your franchise doesn't end tomorrow. You know, so he's going to be a good player going forward for at least, I don't know, five more years based on how he plays. He doesn't play with like raw speed, it's technique, it's hands, it's separation. That can continue to happen. I think it also means not trading him that the leadership there is probably out like it has been many times before with the Raiders. But it's sort of them saying it's not really you, Devante.

It's kind of them like we want you. And that's how I interpret it a little bit, because if they really believe that McDaniels, you might trade them away and say, all right, well, we're going to get assets for you or whatever else. It's also not an easy contract to trade away. I think that would have been really difficult to work out this quickly. But yeah, him not moving. He's the biggest name that did not move, despite whatever conversation he may have had with the Raiders management. What do you think the probability that he's playing for Aaron Rodgers next year? Yeah. Can the Jets? Will it be the be the jets where Rogers playing? I assume it will.

Zach Wilson has done nothing to steal that job away. That's for sure. But yeah, it seems, it seems pretty high. And look, if you trade him, this goes to the Jalen Johnson thing. If you trade him right after he's throwing his helmet, after, you know, being as frustrated as you could be during a game, everyone's again, going to be like, Oh, you know, we would give up a little,

but not a lot in the off season. Teams get real high on themselves. That's where you get your first round pick for somebody. You're not going to get that at the deadline. Yeah. Another guy I had here with Derek Henry. I think if we'll let this didn't look so good, they probably would have traded him away, but they like hey let's uh let's see where this

goes here uh you got the same take on that silly not to trade him away i mean good for will levis by the way that made your hey the viking what a day for your hey the viking should have drafted will levis take except for that jordan addison is amazing but like right you know uh i thought that his four touchdown day was kind of hilarious because it was either check down or touchdown and um some of those were were balloons that came down in the right hands but I think it was nuts not to trade Derrick Henry I mean he's an older running back he's an expensive running back you're not going forward too much longer with him almost no matter what and And sometimes though, I do know this. Sometimes an organization

will come to a player who's been a legend for them and they'll say, do you want to go? We have offers for you up to you. And if he says, no, I want to stay then. Okay. We're going to, we're going to, or we'll, we'll look bad for not trading you to make sure that you're happy because you've done so much for us. I know that happens all the time. The one that's probably worse is Saquon Barkley for me because you didn't extend him. So you didn't go all in. He's playing great football.

What are we doing here? What are we waiting for? I mean, if you're not going to extend him, then just move him. At least with Henry, they gave him a huge contract extension. So they bought into that. But the Giants didn't do that. And you can't tell me there's not seven teams with henry they gave him a huge contract extension so like they've bought into that but the giants didn't do that and you can't tell me there's not seven teams who wouldn't want saquon barkley to play football yeah i felt horrible for saquon the other day because he touched the ball 39 times in

that game easily could have gotten hurt he's the only chance that they had of even moving the football in that game and like that might have been the game for Saquon to be like trade deadlines tomorrow like I'm not doing this like my ankle hurts good go go have fun with Matt Burrito out there like I love Saquon to death and I think it's respectable that he's that type of teammate but from a business perspective that would have been the move right there like this ain't happening like you're not you're not driving me literally into a brick wall all week. Like you're either going to like, tell me right now, you're going to extend me, put it on paper right here on the sideline in the rain, or I'm not playing, um, from a business perspective, that would have been the play,

but yeah, I I'm with you on that. Um, all right. You, you gotta, you gotta head out, right? We should wrap this up. Momentarily North Dakota radio is the big radio hit here. It's just that I agreed to do it. So, you know, but no, this has been, it's been really fun. Was there anybody else that you wanted to talk about? I mean, we mentioned to Neil Hunter as a guy, they didn't trade. I understand why they didn't do that. Jerry Judy, maybe the league heard what Steve Smith said about him on television. It was like, you know what? I don't think so. Mike Evans, I don't get either.

Again, you don't extend the player. So do the Buccaneers think that they're going to be good? Like some of these guys who are on this list of players who weren't traded. Okay. If you're Cincinnati, do not trade T Higgins. Go try to win the super bowl man like they they might them and the bangles like look like the the favorites there aside from the chiefs but mike evans after what you just saw from baker mayfield why why is he

not traded i i don't understand yeah i think that's fair i think they maybe they view like he's gonna be a big piece for whatever quarterback they draft this year but um you know maybe maybe his contract was too bad for teams to take on i don't know um i like the vikings not trading denille personally uh what where were you on that whole side of things i just feel like he's playing really well he's what is he 29 um i just i think they can be good next year and he can be a part of that that's the math that you have to do is like at the beginning of the season you thought this defense is going to be terrible and there's no reason to keep around someone expensive if it's going to take two years to rebuild it or something then all of a sudden the guys start to get what flores is preaching and players start

to emerge and you go like, okay, well now things are different, like more information. So if they can sign them, I think they want to hold out to sign them. But the other part of it is too, that if you get to this mark of the year where your defense is playing great and you're in the playoff race, you're right in the middle of the hunt. And then you go, yeah, Daniel, though, see a pal. That's just such a bad look for you within the locker room for somebody who's done so much for the team. That's another one where it's like, do you want to be traded or not kind of deal? I get it. There's a cold, hard analytics element of me that would say,

probably should have just moved them. But it's not the same as it's not the same as the the giants or something where it's like you guys are horrible there's there's no reason for that they they'd love to give themselves a chance to have their defense drive them into the playoffs you can't do that without daniel hunter well and i think they believe that they'll have flores again next year too and whether or not they're winning games i think what they can build on the defensive side of the ball as a as a collective unit this year is going to be really important for them next year because they definitely don't think they're going to be bad next year. I don't believe that.

And I think even if they think they might lose Daniil this offseason, they might be like, that might be so valuable to just feel confident about this defense. And I do believe in star players kind of elevating the chemistry and talent of people around him. And he's that type of dude. So I would not move him at this point in time, personally. Yep, I agree. He's a guy you give like a three year hundred and whatever. Well, not one hundred ninety eighty four, maybe.

Yeah, something like that. You got but you can't go much beyond that because pass rushers 32-33, then you can't really make a bet on that. But yeah, I think it was the right move not to move him. Yeah, me too. All right, let's wrap this thing up. Thank you, everybody, for watching. Just in case you didn't know, you can catch this every Tuesday at this time, 6 Eastern. Matthew, you got anything else before you go talk to the North Dakotans?

Yeah, well, people should check out my book. Every time you give me an opportunity, football is a numbers game inside PFF where they came from. That's right. There it is. There she is. An incredible, incredible story that I really enjoyed reporting on. Purple Insider is my show and my YouTube channel. And we have a lot of fun over there. So people should check that out.

And I am looking forward now that we've gotten past this for you and I coming on here, playoff races and the league is shaping. Like we're fine. The first couple of weeks are like, what do you think? I don't know. What do you think?

Like, it's weird. But now we get sample sizes and now things get really interesting. So it's it's one of the reasons that I love doing this with you every week is like every week we feel like we got a whole new fresh eye on this league and I'm excited about it. So off we go. All right. Thanks, Matthew. Thanks everybody for watching and we'll see you later. Peace out.