Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Breaking down Vikings free agency press conferences

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

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Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press inside TCO Performance Center following our conversation with, let's see, Kweisi Nafomensa, Kevin O'Connell, Jonathan Grenard, Blake Cashman, Andrew Van Ginkle, Sam Darnold, and Aaron Jones. So that's a lot of human beings who spoke with us today. Why don't you spin the wheel of who you want to talk about and their comments, Dane? Where would you like to begin with what we heard today for introductions of the Vikings' newest free agents and the conversation we had with their brass? I think you have to start with the brass, right? Because this day, as much as it was about turning the page to all the guys that you mentioned, all the guys that they signed on day one of free agency or whatever, day one of the legal tampering period, it was also the closing of a chapter of Kirk Cousins. lot of insight or intel into how these negotiations went down i didn't really think that's what we

were going to get today but i think we did kind of if you read between the lines and kind of squint see how i think the vikings weren't surprised at how this whole thing happened but i don't get the sense that they're happy with how everything kind of transpired. I think there was probably a world that the Vikings lived in after Kirk cousins popped his Achilles that thought, well, he's going to be our quarterback next year. And as this whole thing kind of played out, that started to become less and less clear. And I think when you listen to what Kweisi Adolfo Mensah says today,

which is basically you, you try to find that uncomfortable middle ground, but there wasn't a level that we were willing to go to. That was basically him admitting, we drew a line in the sand, we gave our offer, we felt it was competitive, and Kirk signed a four-year $180 million deal with $100 million guaranteed. You even heard, and I think that's why we have to start here, isvin o'connell who is a steadfast kirk cousins supporter has made it very clear that he wanted him back largely because i think kevin o'connell believes he has the most chance of being successful with kirk cousins as his quarterback at least in the short term admit that we're here where we are today and it's probably where the franchise needs to be i think the price tag was just too high.

And while I don't think we got a ton of insight into what the conversations were like with, with agent Mike McCartney, the goat, by the way, um, I think what you kind of can take away today is that there was a line in the sand that they weren't going to cross it. We kind of knew that, but to hear it kind of in real time, um, at least stood out to me. Uh, I'm going to get a jersey that just says McCartney on it and just hope that he represents me because I'm a fan, sir. I'm a fan.

The best. But this is exactly what we thought would be their approach all the way up to this. We left the NFL combine thinking, okay, it doesn't sound like the Vikings are going to match any and all offers. It sounds like they are only going to go so far for Kirk cousins. Now, my question is, did Kevin O'Connell think that this entire time that Kirk cousins would love him back and would come back based on him? And I I'm going to throw something out there, an observation from today,

and I don't want to make too much of it, but people can go back and watch the press conference. I know a lot of you do. Kevin O'Connell, when talking about this seemed legitimately sad that Kirk cousins didn't come back. And I've never thought that any of it was fake or any of it was made up with Kevin O'Connell for how much he appreciated cousins, his family got to know him. He knew him from Washington. He was, I think one of the reasons O'Connell was excited to come here and be the head coach. And I believe all of that is totally real. And I think that there was this thing in the back of Kevin O'Connell's mind that thought, you know what, there's going to be things that are bigger than money. There's going to be our culture that I created, the wins that we had together, the offense that I made for him, that I molded him into. And once again, he brought up

for maybe about the 12th time that in Green Bay and against San Francisco, Cousins was playing. And I think he described it as like the way that he had dreamed that he would play or the way that he envisioned when he got here building this offense for Kirk. And, and this is only just speculating about how he feels, but judging by the way he spoke today, the, the body language a little bit, I wonder if in his heart of hearts, he thought Kirk will love my offense, love Jefferson, love Minnesota more than he will want that money. And I would like you to be welcome to the Kirk Cousins experience, Mr. O'Connell, because that is what it's like to deal with Kirk Cousins, where he is always going to go who has the biggest offer

because that's who he has always been. And I think the dollars represented way, way, way more commitment from another organization. So even if you were willing to say it, you were not willing to say it with your wallet or your owners were not willing to say it with your wallet. And we can make this out to be a, because clearly I think Kweisi Adafomensa, he actually stopped himself at one point when he was starting to go on his whole thing about quarterbacks making it right when the coach is wrong or whatever. And he sort of was like, stop, don't do that again, because it sounds like shots at Kirk Cousins. But he's right about that. That is the truth about football.

And I think Kweisi Daffomenta has been the more realistic person in the room the entire time, which is fine that they may have been on a little bit of a different standpoint here. But I also think that we have to acknowledge too, that the ownership of this team is what ultimately pushed the button to allow him to leave that the Wilfs would have the final decision on that. You can make it well, Casey seemed to want this. O'Connell seemed not to want this, but the people who own the franchise, if they wanted to put down those dollars, they could have. So I think what's hard now on Kevin O'Connell is uncertainty. And what we saw a little bit with him is now I have to get this right. And when he talked about Sam Darnold, I'm going to be honest with you. The level of praise and enthusiasm was not on the same level as Kirk cousins.

It was, I met him once when he was in high school, we're trying to tie his eyes and his feet together, which, you know, it makes sense for the system that they're going to play in. Everything is rhythm and timing, which Darnold has not been good at.

And that was about it. So I really, he did not come in guns a blazing with the praise for Sam Darnold. And I think that even as hard as these guys try not to show their cards, if you talk enough in front of a bunch of people, you do sometimes. And Kweisi Adafo-Mensa tried to say, oh, you know, we don't have to draft the quarterback. Oh no, sir. You do have to draft a quarterback. And I think that we saw it all over Kevin O'connell's face the anxiety that goes along with knowing that a you don't have the number one overall pick and b what comes next with your decision is what's going to determine your fate

as a head coach yeah and i think the body language certainly at least evoked some sense of, Oh, or this is reality now. Um, because that is what Kirk always kind of represented was in, in a way it was stability. Like it was, your ceiling probably wasn't a super bowl and in any capacity, but your floor was always going to be a pretty good team that, that contended and at least flirted with the playoffs. And I think what we saw in real time, and he also might just be tired because free agency is a long week. But I think when you

get up there and you look at all the reporters in the room and the cameras in the room, and then you start talking about Kirk Cousins and how he's no longer there, it kind of just snaps into your reality that like, wow, now I have to move forward with a ton of unknowns. And I think what happened when Kevin O'Connell got here, he was always going to be the guy who either could or couldn't fix Kirk Cousins. And there was always going to be kind of a built in scapegoat with that, right? Like Kirk Cousins existed before Kevin O'Connell in Minnesota. Kirk Cousins was brought in to win a Super Bowl. And now we know six years later, never got anywhere close.

But when Kevin O'Connell got here, it was either you're going to be able to take Kirk Cousins to the next level or Kirk Cousins is going to show his true colors. Now it's kind of all squarely on Kevin O'Connell. And I think he's kind of realizing that in real time too. Are you going to be able to get anything out of, of Sam Darnold at this point? There are some tools there.

If you cut up a bunch of videos like Sam Darnold can look good. But is Kevin O'Connell going to be able to, to get that guy to the next level? If they draft a quarterback, it sure sounds like they're going to, it sounds like they're going to trade up to do it too. Is Kevin O'Connell going to be able to get that guy to fit his offense? And I think what we saw today was now he's starting to realize like the pressure's on him and the pressure's

always kind of been on him. But I think the fact that Kirk was here, it was always kind of a scapegoat. If it doesn't work out, it's not Kevin's fault. It's Kirk's fault. Now, if it doesn't work out, it's Kevin's fault. And that's kind of a hard position to be in when Kevin O'Connell was the guy who wanted Kirk Cousins to stay. So I think what we're seeing today is kind of the realization of this is kind of reality now. This is us kind of ushering in a new era. And that new era really does coincide with, is he going to be able to make it work? It's kind of all on him now. So I don't want to pick any scabs here with you personally, Dane, because I've only ever had one girlfriend.

I married my first girlfriend. So we're not going to get into any of your historical problems with women or anything. But I think that your first quarterback that you win with as a head coach, there is a deeper emotional connection in the same way that it's like the first relationship that you have with someone. And when it's over, it probably hurts a lot more than when the next one is over, or there's a lot more that goes into that, especially with the way that O'Connell and Kirk came together. He sets an NFL record or ties one with fourth quarter comebacks, shows much more grit and heart leadership than we had ever seen from him before,

which a lot of that was connected to Kevin O'Connell. They leaned into Kirk as a passer and the center of the offense, which Mike Zimmer was always trying to find ways to take the ball out of his hands. But even old Mike Zimmer loved Teddy Bridgewater in the same way. It was like as a head coach, it's your first quarterback. You win with him. It's that special season, your first time having that happen. And I think that that's hitting Kevin O'Connell pretty hard, at least the way that he was talking about it, because it seemed, and it's not usually this way, a little bit hard for him to find the words today with what he wanted to say exactly about Kirk. And I don't want to go too far down

this road. This is not a reality show where we're going to do the recap and go way into drama land. But I just think that there might be a little bit of sourness of the way that this went down, especially since the Atlanta Falcons absolutely tampered and are now being looked into. And, oh, I can't wait for Roger Goodell to find all the tampering. He's going to have to interview the bartender at the, at every single bar in Indianapolis to see if anybody saw Terry Fontenot talking to, uh, Mike McCartney or something. I mean, get out of here with that, but I'm sure that there is a little bit of like, wow, he really actually left us. I mean, he really actually thought somebody else was a better fit.

And he did. And he also was very happy to take an insane amount of money for his services as well. But that was almost the biggest headline to me today is just that O'Connell was forced to say out loud, this is probably better for us long term. And I don't think the words came out of his mouth very easily. But also I watched three gentlemen who play defense, who are good at it, wander in and introduce themselves. And instead of being Marcus Davenport, no disrespect, but some sort of broken guy that another team wanted to get rid of. Now, this is three guys who lots of teams wanted,

and you had to give lots of money, not just, oh, well, we'll just take a flyer on this guy because maybe. No, no, no. These were successful players who graded high and got 12.5 sacks or whatever else. These are guys who are actual difference makers, and there is a significant connection between the two things. And I don't think that's lost on O'Connell.

I just think he understands what's ahead of him is about to be very difficult. Even if you trade up and even if you get your dream quarterback, Drake may, if you watch Kirk cousins and his feet and his accuracy and his decision-making and his anticipation throws and stuff compared to Drake may, of course it's laughable at this point. And the Kirk cousins is 50 times better than any draft quarterback at this moment. And that's on Kevin O'Connell to now develop that player, whoever it is that they take. That's a lot of weights, but you know what? I also think Dane, that's what you're here for my friend. I don't think that Kevin O'Connell was ever brought here truly just for Kirk cousins. I think he was brought here to pick the next quarterback and

he's got his buddy, his square jawed man, Josh McCown here to pick that quarterback as well. And, and look, anybody can mess it up. Anybody can mess up a quarterback draft pick. Bill Belichick is messed up quarterback draft picks. He certainly did with mac jones but if you're giving odds this guy this person who has worked with quarterbacks at such an incredibly deep level and he did mention at some point like i think i understand what it takes to develop quarterbacks and i'm passionate about that that this is what you're here for man so here's the ball go run run with it. That's the way I kind of look at it. Yeah. And I think it's probably important to note as we like read into his body language, probably a little bit too much into his body language. Like this doesn't

seem like a guy who is not confident that he can make the right decision. It just seems like a guy who I think you're right. was like i didn't really think kirk was gonna leave and now i have to make the right decision but to your point that's that's why he was brought here 100 i don't think he was brought here to fix kirk cousins i think if he fixed kirk cousins along the way great and if he fixed kirk cousins to a point where the vikings are contending for super bowls and the kousins era lasts another two or three years, great. But I think at the end of whenever the Kirk Cousins story in Minnesota was going to end, and we know it happened this week,

Kevin O'Connell was brought here to pick the next guy. And you're right, he's done this throughout his career as far as working with with young quarterbacks you know at the elite level in high school he's worked in college with college quarterbacks coming up preparing for the draft he's obviously worked with quarterbacks in the NFL like this guy if he has a superpower it's that he does know what it takes to succeed and play quarterback in the NFL so I think you can feel good about that and I think he does feel confident that he's going to be able to kind of sift through all of the whatever in in the draft process and find the

guy that he wants the hard part is he can find that guy and they're sitting at number 11 because instead of tanking they they tried to win last year um so i think the unknowns from that standpoint also play a role in this. If he searches the five, six quarterbacks that are here in the draft this year and hones in on one guy, and that guy happens to be a guy that you need to go trade up to get, and you need to give a lot of draft capital up to get, and you need to find someone who's willing to trade back to go up to get, I think that's where some of the mystery and some of the unknowns probably become a little weighty on, on, on Kevin O'Connell. And I get it like, but at the end of the day,

this is why you were brought here and you're either going to succeed or you're going to fail. And if you succeed, he'll be here a really long time. If he fails, there'll probably be another coach here at some point in the next, however many years. So, but I think Kevin O'Connell understands that 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 US Cellular is letting you test drive their network for free for 30 days. You could try out US Cellular wherever you have that spotty service, like on your commute to work, that one spot in your house where your service dips.

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Awards based on OpenSignal independent data. Visit uscellular.com for details. I'm going to be so interested to just watch how and listen to how Kevin O'Connell talks throughout this whole process, because right now it seems like he got kicked in the gut a little bit, but then pre-draft press conference, there might be a bit of a different vibe, especially if they trade up before then, which could happen any day, which is a reason to subscribe and turn on notifications and all that good stuff. Cause you never know when an emergency podcast is going to happen. Uh, but when they trade up and it becomes very clear that they're drafting a quarterback, how does he talk about the quarterback class and

how he's feeling about it and what their chances are to get that quarterback they're really looking for? Or, uh, I also went through my mind and again total just speculation whatever like are the contra or the trade calls with the Cardinals not going that good you know like I don't know because neither of you guys seem like you're ready to jump up for celebration and that might be something that doesn't happen just as it didn't happen with Anthony Richardson and then they have to be ready to pivot but how does he talk on draft night about who they got? Then how does he talk through minicamp OTAs? All those things just became super interesting for us to go out and watch the guy,

but also to see how they talk because we are artists of analyzing press conferences and reading between lines. And look, let's be honest. When it comes to that, we had this right the whole time. We read this right the whole time because we listened to what these guys say. And so it does matter when they talk, because Kweisi and Kevin kind of laid this whole thing out where O'Connell goes on TV and says he's going to go through the free agency process. He's earned the right and all that. And that was where I think everybody started to turn toward, all right, it kind of feels like Kirk is going to go somewhere else. So what can we pick up on then going in the future? But plenty of other people were introduced

today. Was there anything else from Kweisi Daffel-Mensah that you wanted to bring up? I thought some of it was just explaining how football works, which I think is totally fair when you have a huge audience, it's a fan base that there's probably a lot of people who want to know why would you replace Kirk Cousins with Sam Darnold? And part of his answer was just, look, it's not, do you like a guy? He's on your team. That's how it works in baseball, but it's not baseball. This is a much more complex game. This is why we all love this part of the year. This, this is like seasons happen in the off season because we can all analyze those difficult decisions you get put in with contracts

and cap hits and so forth. So I thought he did a good job of laying that out. Like, look, we loved Kirk, but at the end of the day, there's only a finite number of resources we can spend on our team. They're better spent not doing that. So that's absolutely true. He talked about the supporting cast and how important that is to a quarterback. I think we all know that as well. So I didn't take anything big out of Kweisi Adafo-Mensa. How did you feel about it? No, I do agree with you. I think he did a good job. And sometimes Kweisi can like talk in this jargon where it sounds like he's still very much on Wall Street. He still kind

of did that today at some points but i i think what you were referencing he said it's not a binary way of thinking where it's yes or no do we want this guy and i think that's a good thing to kind of articulate to the fans and of this team who you know kirk's polarizing a lot of people wanted him back a lot of people wanted him gone the people that wanted him back are like how could you not resign him well quacey said we were competitive we tried um and i think it's important to kind of get that messaging out there like they didn't just let him walk out the door he walked out the door so if you're mad at someone you can be mad at kirk um because he picked atlanta and the dollar signs and the dollars that represent generational wealth for him his family and his great great great grandkids um the only other thing that stood out to me between quesia doffamens and

kevin o'connell was the way that kevin o'connell talked about and maybe this is a good segue the defensive players that they were able to sign largely because they let one guy who was getting paid $45 million annually and Kirk Cousins, let him walk out the door. It opened up a lot of avenues for you to sign impact defensive players. And the way Kevin O'Connell kind of tied that into Kweisi Adolfo Mensah's team is Brian Flores had a big part in finding and canvassing the market and picking who he wants to kind of help build around. And that should excite people because Brian Flores is a tremendous evaluator of talent. And he's a damn good defensive coordinator, which we saw last year when he was able to get a lot out of a little. Well, now he has more guys and an infusion of talent that he helped pick.

And I think that's important to kind of think about as we kind of progress into the offseason and eventually OTAs, eventually training camp. Is that like this defense is a lot of players that now are going to be a part of the vision that Brian Flores has for that side of the ball. I don't think it could be understated how important Brian Flores is to this entire process and getting players. And I noticed something that Jonathan Grenard said about Blake Cashman. He said that the defense was better in Houston when he was the communicator, which I think was really important. And we saw these guys are already going to be a fit in the locker room, but for Kevin O'Connell, for Brian Flores, just the way that they carry themselves. I think we already saw that today. Very much professional players who have been around, who have learned defenses and talked about working in different spots and moving around. And Andrew Van Ginkle said basically that's his thing, right? You can put put me anywhere. I'll do anything and I'll be able to handle any role. But you know, that right there is seems handpicked. It seems intentional as a word they use as a buzzword. But I also think that's right. It's not like

trading for Chris Herndon, which I know you have to do if you're the Vikings when you're cap strapped. But that's the thing is that when you're cap strapped, you have to talk yourself into Chris Herndon or Marcus Davenport or whatever other kind of signing you could just get your hands on. And then you have to try to spin it positive. In this case, you handpicked players who fit for what your defensive coordinator wants and what Kevin O'Connell. So if Kevin O'Connell was a video game player, what he would do is the mode where you're

inside the quarterback's helmet and you don't play any of the rest of the game. You're just like that. You're that guy. But what he has to understand is that it's a whole game. And I think that he did learn this from Ed Donatel, but last year saw the value of it as well, is that Brian Flores understanding that Kevin O'Connell is so hyper-focused on the quarterback and on the offense, which I don't think is a bad thing. That's what wins for you. But to have someone who can take that part off his plate where he never has to be looking at the defensive tape and going like, or should we be running this blitz? Or why is this player playing and not that player or whatever else it might be? That is, I think, a really good dynamic that they have in Brian Flores, not getting hired somewhere else. Those three gentlemen on the defensive side today

were like, sort of look at them. This is the value you get from Brian Flores. It's not just he dials up blitzes. It's also that he evaluates players and that he finds players that fit for him. And we saw it last year. We have the evidence. One thing that anybody who listens to the show knows I don't like is imagine, like, imagine if it's this imagination land, let's pretend, well, if he only, whatever, we got to see it with Brian Flores. We got to see how he impacted Bynum, Metellus, Byron Murphy, Jr. DJ Wanamu just got a big contract. thanks to Brian Flores as he goes to the Carolina Panthers. So that gives me a lot of confidence that with these players, like the versions that you got last year from them, if they stay healthy, you're going to get those versions

under Brian Flores. Yeah. And I think a perfect case study, you mentioned him, is Josh Metellus. And if you want to talk about Brian Flores coming in, evaluating a roster, evaluating the players that played defense, and then Josh Metellus played mostly special teams, and finding a guy, a diamond in the rough, if you will, and then putting him in a position to succeed, that's exactly what he did with Josh Metellus. He found the guy he wanted to fill a very specific role, and then he put him in that role, and then he continuously put him in positions to succeed in that role. So if you just take him, and I know anecdotally doesn't always translate, but if you just anecdotally look at Josh Metellus

last year and the enormous leap he made in one year under Brian Flores. And you take that and you look at now John Grenard, Blake Cashman, and Andrew Van Ginkle, three guys that Brian Flores canvassed the market and handpicked in a way. How can you not feel confident that these three guys are going to work? And you're right. It's not like we're making this up. It's not like we're saying, well, you know, like he's smart and he can put people in positions

like, no, we we've seen him do it. So there's no reason to not be confident in those three guys that got introduced today. Um, John Gernard's awesome by the way. Like I think Vikings fans are going to love him. Um, super affable affable um very much himself he was kind of a star of today even if no headlines came out of it or no like interesting storylines but i i think he's a guy who's going to fit in both on the field with the way brian flores wants to use him and off the field and in a way that can kind of galvanize a locker room

and andrew van ginkle uh probably the least talkative of the group, but one thing he said was just how well he got along with Brian Flores when he was in Miami, and he kind of said, like, that guy made me who I am. And he wasn't a high draft pick. Was he a fifth-round pick out of Wisconsin? And kind of looks like he should be a Wisconsin linebacker very much. But that is an important dynamic. Like I believe him cause he's here and he didn't wait around. I mean, he accepted the Vikings offer

and just went for it on the first day, which he's a guy that could have dragged that out, looked for more options and decided he wanted to be here. And these are all a reflection in some way or another of not paying a quarterback 40 to 50 million dollars a year it doesn't exactly add up like okay the these all their dollars versus all his dollars but they all have flexibility to some extent in the way that they built their contracts multiple years for all these players in their prime coming off of very good seasons these are not like hope and dream type of bets these are you already know how andrew van g dream type of bets. These are, you already know how Andrew Van Ginkle has played under Brian Flores. You already know that Brian Cashman,

Brian Cashman, Blake Cashman, not the general manager of the Yankees, Blake Cashman has succeeded before, like he did last year under a really good defensive mind in D'Amico Ryan's and Grenard. It's a little more of a small sample with him, but when he's had opportunities, he has put up a lot of sacks. So it's not going to be that Grenard will turn into Daniel Hunter. I think he's a different player than Daniel Hunter. You see that in some of the metrics that he's a little more of a quicker rusher to the quarterback where Hunter was battling through double teams and maybe a Grenard will get more attention when Will Anderson isn't there. So there's questions to be answered. But this to me was just if Kevin O'Connell asked me, like, what's the biggest benefit of not having Kirk Cousins? I'd say, look, just just look up

there. Like that's the benefit is that you don't have to sign Michael Pierce and hope or Marcus Davenport's probably the best example. Now, on the other side, reaction to Sam Darnold and Aaron Jones, you couldn't have two more different people. You have a fifth-round pick who's turned into a borderline Hall of Fame caliber player who is a total baller, and he knows it, who has demolished the Vikings in disgusting and horrifying ways. And he was way too cool about that, by the way. I think he was trying to avoid, like, oh, you know, it's fine that I change teams. I way too cool about that, by the way, I think he was trying to avoid it.

Like, oh, you know, it's fine that I changed teams. I don't know about that, buddy. Uh, and then Sam Darnold, who is, uh, very much a trained media quarterback who probably when he was in high school was given lessons on how to answer questions about never getting too high. And also you never believe this, never getting too low. That would be the two things he's trying to avoid. So let's, let's talk about Darnold first though, because I do think

there's some intrigue to me in this whole idea of Darnold systematically and what he could potentially do because of the small sample size of what we saw at the end of 2022 in Carolina and then with San Francisco and being with the right coach. I just think that all of us are realistic about where this train is headed, but if he has to play, he should be able to play. I think we have a big enough sample to say that, but when you're still talking about trying to develop things and he's going to be 27, you go like, all right, this can't be something that you bank on. Yeah. And I would be pretty surprised if Sam Darnold was the quarterback of the Vikings, especially if they draft a quarterback this year, the entire year, I would be shocked, floored if he was the quarterback of the Vikings in a way that meant

he was so good this year that he signs another contract. I don't think this is Baker Mayfield. And I think that was a name that people threw around is like, well, Baker Mayfield is kind of a washed up guy. And then you got one year in Cleveland or in Tampa Bay, and now he's great. And then he's their franchise guy. I don't think that's going to be Sam Darnold. Baker Mayfield also was a guy who had shown he can succeed. He won 11 games. He made the playoffs with Cleveland before kind of falling off a cliff. Sam Darnold has pretty much just been bad his whole career.

But the benefit of the doubt I want to give Sam Darnold is that he's been on horrendous teams his entire career. A dysfunctional Jets team for three years, carolina panthers team that was like just kind of mid um he actually replaced baker mayfield and that was the beginning of the end for baker mayfield um but what you can kind of latch on to with with sam darnold and it's such a small sample size i get it is that he did play last year in in week 18 and if you just go back and look at that tape and kind of juxtapose it to the Jets tape and the Panthers tape like there are tangible differences and that's something that Kevin O'Connell

like shed light on is that you can see that it's kind of clicking and and maybe with another year in a very kind of similar scheme as he comes here and learns Kevin O'Connell's offense it can click even that much more but I don't know you can't just bet that this is going to be your guy moving forward and I think that's why it's important to like have the distinction Sam Darnold's not the replacement for Kirk Cousins he's just a guy he's a guy who's going to compete for a roster spot or he'll probably make who's going to compete for a roster spot, or he'll probably make the roster, compete for a starting spot on the roster with probably a guy you're going to draft in the first round. And that's kind of an important distinction to make, because I think the day that you lose Kirk Cousins and then 12 hours later at midnight,

sign Sam Darnold, people kind of just want to equate. Here comes Sam Darnold to replace Kirk Cousins. That's not what's happening. So I think that there's probably a little bit of juice left to squeeze out of that orange that is Sam Darnold, but I don't think it's going to be something that's going to be super fruitful down the road. Folks, if you don't know what a VPN is, you might actually need one and not even realize it. If you already know the positives, you also might not be using the right product. In either case, you want to check out Surfshark. VPNs keep your information safe, and anyone who tries to track what you're doing online will not be able to do so if you are using Surfshark.

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I'm making fun of his cliches, but he's professional. He handles himself professionally. There has never been any suggestion that he didn't in any of the places that he's gone. And we even did see some moments from him, like in that Carolina game against the Vikings when he came back, tied the game late and so forth, that he does have his moments. But the way that he's gone through this roller coaster and you've never gotten the like Sam Darnold blames coaches sam

darnold's i don't know step cousin is coming out on social media and saying it's this person or that person's fault he has always been a professional he was professional last year he went with the super bowl team he worked with a great coach so he already has proven that he can be that guy if you need him to be that's important and just just seeing him like i know reporters want quotes we want something it's hot we want something to tweet out it's going to get a bunch of retweets and none of his quotes were but i look at it a little bit different in the same way that like when nick mullins talks or someone like that you just know this is a professional quarterback who's handling this press conference like it's important to him

to make sure that he says the right things and even sort of's important to him to make sure that he says the right things and even sort of pauses at times to make sure that he's kind of phrasing something the right way like just the way he's going to walk around the building go to practice prepare understand an offense handle a press conference all that stuff is just good to be around for someone if it's drake may if it's jj m McCarthy, who has never dealt with that at the NFL level before. The other thing is too, I don't know if you remember me making this point, but I liked it when I made it, uh, Lewis scene and combine them. Can buy them is a really nice player. No disrespect at all. He's become a really nice player better than I even thought he would be. But can buy them

set a bar when Lewis scene came in as a a rookie that was probably beatable and lewis scene could not beat it and then we knew okay there's something kind of you know going on here and then when he couldn't beat it in year two or even come close then it was like all right well this is this is not going well and i think that sam darnold does the same sort of thing where he sets a bar of performance where this guy with carolina was a 500 quarterback with ups and downs and has proven he can be in the league. So if you cannot beat him out at any point during the season, they're going to go, OK. Or if it looks like in practice, Darnold is miles and miles and miles better than the rookie. Like, OK, and I want to be patient, but that's going to be a bar that you should ultimately be able to beat

based on this guy's career, if you're going to be better. And it also like drives that guy, like whoever comes in cannot be entitled because the other guy, look at him, look at, look at his arms, look at his shoulder. I mean, like this is a top draft, big quarterback, my friends, a big guy, like the way he can throw a football, you're going to have to work hard to beat him out for that job. Yeah. And I think what you are alluding to is experience. And it was kind of funny listening to Kevin O'Connell talk of all the things that he likes about Sam Darnold. The thing he likes most is that he's played 56 games in the NFL.

It wasn't like I love his arm, love his mobility, love the way he processes. It was like, I love that he's played. But that's important. Like that is actually important. And I say that kind of tongue in cheek. But like you're right, because you I think the last thing the Vikings wanted to do. And I just keep talking about the first round quarterback because I'm under the assumption that they're going to go get one no matter what. The last thing they want to do is throw that guy in if he's not ready. Right. So if you go out and you sign, I don't know, Joe Schmo off the street to be your veteran quarterback who can, I mean, let's, let's not pile on, but like if, if Nick Mullins is the guy that, that is starting next year, if the rookie can't beat you out, that, that

puts that rookie in a really tough situation, right? Like if the rookie is just getting thrown in because your only other options, Nick Mullins, there is a chance that the whole thing goes sideways quickly Sam Darnold at least in theory provides like you said a benchmark a baseline of like competent quarterback play that could translate to wins if things break correctly I want to stress this is going to be by far the best situation that sam darnold's been in his career at least in his career as a starter he was with san francisco last year he actually beat out trey lance for the backup job and i've been a huge trey lance supporter for

forever um but if he beat i'm gonna let it go yep probably should let that go um but sam darnold is a guy who is at least going to go in and give you competent quarterback play in theory. And then that's going to help just because it means you don't have to rush the next guy along. That's, that's hugely important for the Vikings. And I think that's the way kind of NFL is trending in, in how to develop a quarterback is it's okay to let the guy sit.

I mean, it's okay to play them to CJ Stroud would argue that you can just play right away. But most times I think it's going to benefit you to not throw that guy in, to not kill his confidence. And Sam Darnold being here while he might not excite people while he might not lead them to the promised land or even the playoffs, he at least offers, you can play him in NFL games and guys such as Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, TJ Hawkinson, when he's healthy, can get the ball. It's not going to be a dysfunctional offense in the way that it

was with Josh Dobbs and the way that it was with Nick Mullins. I think you can at least field a functional offense with Sam Darnold, which might sound like a slight, and I mean that as a compliment. One thing that's going to be important when they draft a quarterback is that nobody freak out. So owners freak out, but also Kevin O'Connell freaked out last year and put in Jaron Hall. And we assumed that he must have been seeing something in practice or like, okay, well, I guess not anywhere close to ready, but he was so frustrated with interceptions and bad play that he just said, I'm, I'm mashing the button. I'm going to the Jaron Hall. And that nearly got Jaron Hall murdered, uh, against the green Bay Packers. So, you know, I think that they're, they're going to have to require some patience because when you say competent quarterback play, the funny thing about Sam Darnold is it's either been marvelous quarterback play like 34% of the time and 66% of the time it's been a horror show so far in his career. So you might have to work your way through some horror

show times with Sam Darnold in order to have things better for the younger quarterback. But what he gives you is a baseline of like, this guy is very, very talented. So you're going to have to really push to beat him out. And I think that's good to have competition overall. You're providing this nice situation for someone to drop into without even any mention of the weapons, just with the professionals that you're going to work with. So I think that's important. That's one of my first takeaways from just listening to him talks like, okay, this guy is really carrying himself professionally here. The last one to talk about is Aaron Jones. I mean, I don't have a lot to say about other than that, like this guy is really carrying himself professionally here. The last one to talk about is Aaron Jones.

I mean, I don't have a lot to say about other than that. Like this guy can really play football. And if you look at his last five games to end his career as a Packer, oh, my God. I mean, how about this? What he did in his last five games, Delvin Cook never did as a Viking. He is much more on an Adrian Peterson level than people realize. Now, Peterson ran for 2,000 yards, but we are talking five yards a carry for his career and his last five games, all over 100 yards, all over five yards a carry in those games.

I mean, this is a player who, if he is 100% healthy, can be a true difference maker, and it all sets up to help the quarterback. It all sets up to be competitive, which again, Kweisi Adafo-Mensah still kind of stayed with that competitive rebuild thing. That's what we do here. And he's, I think the perfect player for that. And if nothing else, I think what everyone is going to want out of 2024 is for it to be fun and interesting. And if he's a hundred percent, he's going to be fun. I i mean he's a really really good football player and you just get the vibe that he knows that like this is a guy who's a pro bowl superstar

caliber player and is very aware of that yeah let's just set the scene for people listening he walks in today ice on his neck shades wrapped around his head and right next to sam donald who was wearing just like a like a black sweater so to your point about him being a baller like he has swag he knows that he carries himself with it um one of the quotes that stood out from him today was like energy i bring that like he brings energy to a room in a way that's going to infect be infectious to pretty much everyone around him you could feel that in the press conference today with reporters, like the energy that he brought around this room, and we've been waiting around for two and a half hours to talk to him,

so there wasn't a ton of energy. When Aaron Jones walked into the room, there was more of it. That's only going to be amplified in a locker room with a bunch of his peers. The only thing I will say is we gave him about 15 chances to go dump on Green Bay, and he kept it very, very close to the vest. You could tell there was a couple times where he wanted to go there, but I think his goal of today was not to create a headline out of, I hate the Packers.

The Packers made a mistake by letting me go, and that's fair. Would I have liked him to do that? Yeah, it probably would have done really good clicks on TwinCities.com. Go ahead and subscribe to that too. Pioneer Press, everybody. They need your subscription. But I also understand that he didn't want to go there. The bigger takeaway is that you're right. He's a damn good player. Everyone wants to talk about Jordan Love and the ascension that he was on and how the Packers were at a different level when he started to ascend. And that's 100% true. But if you look at when they started to really click at the end of the year,

it was when Aaron Jones got healthy. His last five games of the year, over 100 yards in every game, like you said. And it's not a coincidence that Jordan Love elevated his play the Packers elevated their play all with that guy being the best version of himself so that he's going to bring that to Minnesota if he can stay healthy keep your fingers crossed because he is 29 going to be 30 next year did battle some injuries if he can stay healthy he's so far and away better than the options they had in the backfield last year and you could hear kevin o'connell at different points last year just begging his running back to make a play to okay there's an unblocked look in the hole make that guy miss

and please go gain six or seven yards that's a guy who can do that regularly and then that cannot be understated here like he's a guy will will be a difference maker, assuming he's able to kind of stay on the field for those 16, 17 games of this year. Home run by the Vikings and a low risk to do it. One year, $7 million, like who cares? One thing about running backs in general, and then I just want to get your final thoughts on this whole thing and how this week has played out as we kind of reach the end of one of the most eventful weeks in my entire time covering i would say since the minneapolis miracles have like this big of an

event and everything else the amount of the podcasts and articles and all the things that we've been putting the work into it's been so exciting to be able to do uh but just when people say running backs don't matter i think that they they should really say running backs are dicey. Running backs are tricky. It's tricky to put your finger on. Some bad players can succeed if they have the right situation with a great offensive line. Or some great players, like Saquon Barkley, when you look at their stat sheet, you're like, he's a great player, but his team was terrible. And so the injuries and the workloads and the age curves, and it's very, it's complicated.

Running backs are complicated, but do they matter? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. They matter. The impact that one player can have when he is that versatile, when he can create something out of nothing, when he draws so much attention from the defense, it matters a lot. And I think that it's all about making life better for the next man up at quarterback. And this is what, how easy is it to turn around, hand it off to a guy and get seven yards? I mean, it's like,

that puts you in an advantageous spot that honestly, Kirk cousins was not in for the last three years, really with Delvin cook. And then with Alexander Madison. So final thought from you, Dane, about just the whole thing, just everything that transpired here, the Vikings overall direction front office. People have heard me talk about it a lot. So am I taking crazy pills to have spent the week talking about how this is exactly how they seem to have drawn it up from the beginning? And it is the only route that they could have possibly taken for me to have said that they're going the right direction, which is always toward competing year in and year out for a Super Bowl.

That's been my takeaway. I think it's been a momentous week for them, for the players they signed to the player that they didn't sign and so forth. But also, I know not everybody sees it that way. So how did you view this week? My final thought would be a question to the listeners. Do you want to win a Super Bowl? Do you want the Minnesota Vikings to win a Super Bowl? If the answer to that question is yes, then this week absolutely had to happen. 100%. Kirk Cousins represented, like I said early in the podcast, stability, consistency, competitiveness,

all in ways that got you close to the playoffs. Maybe you get in, maybe you don't. Maybe once you get in, you beat the Saints on the road. Maybe once you get in, you lose to the Giants at home. Nothing that he showed in six years with the Vikings and in 12 to 14 years of his career has showed that he is going to be a guy that helps you win a Super Bowl, even get remotely close to a Super Bowl. So do you want to win a Super Bowl? If the answer to that is yes, then you might have to struggle through some hard times this year. This year might be worse than it would be if Kirk Cousins was the quarterback of the Vikings. You might win less than 10 games. You probably will win less than 10 games, but that's okay. Because if the end goal is trying to hoist the trophy at the end, the Lombardi trophy handed

in the air, confetti raining down, you were never going to do that with Kirk Cousins. And everything that's happened this week is a step towards actually doing that. It's something that had to happen. It's not necessarily going to be rainbows and butterflies the rest of the way. But there was a total stagnation with Kirk Cousins leading the charge. And I think Atlanta is probably going to feel that at some point here in the next two to three years. This had to happen. It's an exciting time for the franchise. Now there are so many different avenues that they can go down so much stuff to talk about.

And I think at the end of the day, they got closer to winning a super bowl this week because they let that guy walk out the door. And if they would have just gotten a bidding war and begged him to stay, I think, uh, at least people who sort of think this way think in the bigger picture rather than just year to year which i understand if you do like i really do like if you're just a sunday vikings watcher you just want to turn on tv you're like oh man i'm gonna have to watch a rookie like there could be some bad games but most people i i don't think what was it then kyle shanahan say like none of us even knows if there's going to be a tomorrow or something he said one time you're like i'm gonna i'm gonna assume there will be so even knows if there's going to be a tomorrow or something. He said one time, you're like, I'm going to I'm going to assume there will be.

So I'm going to assume there will be a 2025 and a 2026 and a 2027. And these years are opening their window to have a chance. And I think just in general that most people would take between the two options of can I guarantee you it's going to be okay and have its ups and downs, but mostly just be okay? Or can you take behind was behind door number two, which might be bad, but it also might be really good. And I think 99 out of a hundred Vikings fans considering what they've been through for all these years. Now, look, if you're the jets, then maybe you would wish for a 10 win season with Kirk cousins. But this team has been through every decade. They've been through your 10 win seasons where you're not really a contender.

So, uh, this is time for something new. It's time to draft that quarterback in the top 10, which they've never done. Um, so that's, that's the way we're seeing it now, but we'll see what else changes. There's more moves to go. There is trade possibilities that could pop at any time. And, uh, the, you know, there's a rest of a roster that they have to fill out. The structures of the contracts will be interesting. So it should be really fascinating. We're going to owners meetings. I've never been before.

You've never been before. That's where we're at right now is that most of the time with owners meetings, I was like, I don't know. I know what's going on. I don't. But now it's exciting. So thanks, Dane, for all your time on a long day out here with a bunch of different press conferences. And you and I will definitely, we'll podcast in Orlando at the donors meetings. That'll be fun.

Can't wait. All right. And it'll be probably better weather in Minnesota somehow when we're gone. All right. Anyway, football, everyone. Football.