Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - BREAKING: KYLER MURRAY IS A MINNESOTA VIKING (Part 2)

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

Matthew Coller talks about the breaking news that Kyler Murray has joined the Minnesota Vikings. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Purple Insider is presented by Fandul. I do think that Murray is talented enough and has a good enough history that he gives them every opportunity to compete in the NFC North. And that's something that I don't think there's any other quarterback I would have said that strongly about. And I can say that about Kyler Murray. And here's the last thing before I get to the chat is that it has the potential to be very fun. And when we look at the last, let's even go back to 2020.

Because 2020 is the most miserable season that I've covered. And 2021 is second. Those two years were awful. They were filled with coming short of expectations. You knew the team wasn't good enough. Kirk Cousins playing just well enough to never get you a high draft pick and always come back. Super frustrating. the 2022 season, well, it was ultimately not as good of a football team.

And eventually everybody sort of came around to that by the end of the season. Like, this isn't really a Super Bowl contending 13 win team. It was fun. And it was memorable. And we can go back to games from that year and say, hey, remember this one and this one was great. And you walk away from that Sunday. Like, man, wow, what a football game. I will never forget the game in Buffalo.

sure. You know, back in my hometown and Jefferson's catch and the postgame podcast that we did after that where we declared them legitimate Super Bowl contenders and we were wrong, but it was there made sense to do so. Patrick Peterson's interceptions in the end zone, just unbelievable games, right? We've had many of those over the years for the Vikings. But over the last few years, there's been, I mean, other than the Sam Darnold and the 14 wins, and I think it really didn't start to kick up till the

second half of that season where you had Seattle and you had Atlanta and you had Green Bay. You had that kind of flurry of these super memorable, very exciting, incredible football games, great quarterback play. But aside from that, there just hasn't been, I mean, Chicago week one for J.J. McCarthy, when after that, you would have said, man, and I did, they're going to win 11 games. McCarthy's going to be the guy. They made the right decision. You know, we turned out to be wrong, but that's how it felt.

That was very exciting. By the following week, you have an injury. It's five weeks of misery with Carson Wentz in there. And you're eking out a win against the Cleveland Browns in ugly weather. And the Chargers game was the lowest point in a really long time. And then you have another one of those against the Packers where it somehow got even lower. And even the end of the season, the Dallas game's pretty fun. Didn't meet anything.

And what? You know, Max Brosmer, a comeback against the Giants. it's, I just, there's been a real lack of fun. And even we go back to 2023, their win over the 49ers, there went over the Packers, those back to back wins until Kirk got his Achilles torn. Those two games were high entertainment, but even 2023, they had some miserable losses. They lost in Philadelphia. They got their tails kicked in that game in 2023.

I mean, over the last five, six years, you've had only these little spurts and they've been leading, at least you can say that if it works with Kyler Murray, this will be some of the most entertaining football that you've seen for the Vikings in a long time. And I've had a few people who are OG fans who have reached out and said, you know, maybe he'll look like Fran Tarkinton. And for those fans, he probably will. An undersized guy scrambling around, make a plays. And he's not Fran Tarkitin, who's one of the great quarterbacks in NFL history. Certainly not that. but Fran was a heck of a fun time to watch play football. And I think Kyler Murray is as well.

And everything I've seen from Arizona fans, you know, I haven't seen don't let the door hit you. I've seen a lot from Arizona writers and fans. The organization let this guy down by not building a good enough franchise around him that, again, graded an F for their owner and got poor grades across the entire organization that they didn't do enough. So now he's got a chance to make a click. And one thing we could say for sure is that it will be filled with intrigue.

It will be very fascinating to watch how this plays out, how the offense comes together, how his connection with Justin Jefferson comes together. It will be super, super interesting. So I want to know your guy's reaction and feeling on, yes, Fran Head's four Super Bowl appearances. I know. I'm not saying that he is going to. to go to the Super Bowl four times. They also had the purple people eaters.

That helped. If the Vikings did have the number one defense in the NFL, then maybe he would go to the Super Bowl. But he's not Fran Targiton. I'm just saying from a style perspective, from a style perspective. Arizona fans, they don't have them. You guys already are being funny right away.

Fran was six feet tall. Kyler is 510. So let's see. AP Carlin says you think Hitman said he wasn't coming. back for another year after developing JJ. So has there been, has there been some, I got to look at, I got to look at Twitter here. I have not looked at fact, let me do that real quick. I have not looked at all at Twitter since we started talking because there's just been so much here.

Let's, let's get some, because I know that Kyler and KOC have been doing a press conference as we've been talking. So Ben Gessling tweets, interesting to hear how. Kevin O'Connell talk about how he views a mobile quarterback in light of how teams plan for Justin Jefferson said a lot of Jefferson's touches have come on first and second down because teams commit to taking him away in obvious passing situations. A player like Murray, he said, is somebody you definitely have to account for. Okay, that's interesting.

Gessling also quoting O'Connell says there was a lot of interest in playing quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, said they cast a wide lens. I think he means net and had quite a few conversations with different free agent quarterbacks. That's interesting. Hopefully Ben doesn't mind me reading all of his tweets. This also from Gessling says O'Connell on signing Kyler Murray. I think we accomplished a goal, which was to add a really talented player with some experience to that room. It's something that I'm really excited about as we set out to elevate the situation and the

quarterback room being very competitive, said he had a quote, great conversation with McCarthy this week about this offseason as for the starting QB. He said, I don't believe we have to name one of those currently, which is exactly what I predicted that O'Connell would say was just, okay, so we've got also Jaquan Brisker signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers. There are no free agents left, by the way. There are absolutely, this is, we've been talking about Kyler Murray for over an hour, but let's be clear, there are no free agents at all for the Minnesota Vikings to sign.

they are all off off the table. Emily Likers, Star Tribune, said Kyler Murray shared during his first comments to the local media that he and Kevin O'Connell go back to Murray's Elite 11 days, which is high school, said that O'Connell then in Washington pulled him aside after a combine meeting and the two have kept in touch ever since. That is one thing about, it is one thing about Kyler Murray. There's a Kyler Murray playing for the Vikings as a little kid in youth football. How about that?

one thing about Kevin O'Connell is he knows every single quarterback, period. This from Ari Mairov, obviously watching the press conference, says Murray grew up as a diehard Vikings fan and cried, quote, real tears when Brett Favav threw an interception in 2009. Thanks for bringing that up, Kyler. This is from Alec Lewis. Oh, Alec Lewis also pointing that out. Murray on Justin Jefferson. This is from Alec Lewis on Twitter.

says everybody knows what type of talent he is, what type of player he is. I'm just super excited to get to work with him, to get to call him a teammate to go to war with him. So that's the thought on Justin Jefferson. Well, there you go. So you can definitely say this. Oh, that's right. He was brought in the same draft with Byron Murphy Jr.

One thing that you could say is that Kyler Murray is he did grow up a Vikings fan. does care about this and clearly wanted to be here because he could have been in other places. Jeremy Fowler, ESPN, says, Vikings quarterback situation could mirror the cults from last year, the veteran and the draft pick, bringing the best out of each other in camp. But like with Indy and Daniel Jones, once you start seeing other people, it's tough to turn back. I agree with that. That's right. I totally agree with that from Jeremy Fowler and he should stick with that.

I saw Lewis Riddick the other day saying something very similar. Here is from Jordan Schultz on the move. He says, Kyler Murray now joins Kevin O'Connell's, had success with quarterbacks in Minnesota over the years, including Kirk Cousin, Sam Darnold, and Josh Dobbs-ish. Call it ish. Murray understands the value of being in Minnesota as Chapter 2 as NFL career begins.

So there you go. There's some of the reaction on Twitter. I had to just check to make sure. Now, after the other night, with the Max Crosby deal going awry and I was sitting here talking, had to make sure that I checked this first before I was buried in the comment section for a few hours. From Kevin Sefer just now, Kevin O'Connell has said that he's wanted to add competition to quarterback. O'Connell tonight on if he views Murray as a starting quarterback, he said, unless I'm confused in any way, shape, or form, I don't believe we have to name one of those currently.

So that's, that is where he is going with the quarterback situation. And I think that's totally fine. I don't have any problem with that. I'm sure, you know, he'll get made fun of, oh, yeah, sure, KOC. Sure, you're going to give, but you don't know how it's going to play out. So why would you name a starting quarterback on March 12th if you have two quarterbacks that you feel like could possibly play? But going back to, because I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss something,

going back to AP Carlin's question, do I think, Hitman said he wasn't coming back for another year of developing J.J. McCarthy. I don't want to speak for Harrison Smith because he is his own thinker. That's for sure, knowing Harrison for a long time, I would never say that I know what he's thinking. But I would say that chances to win are a factor. And him coming back last year, he believed that they had a real chance to win. and they didn't, and it was miserable for a very high percentage of the season.

I don't think Harrison Smith would want to sign up for, hey, let's just roll the dice with J.J. McCarthy and see, because if it goes badly, again, that's a lot that you put into it, a lot with your body, a lot of emotional strain, a lot of physical strain, a lot of investment, a lot of time away from your family to not have a real chance to win. So I do think that that would probably be a factor for Harrison Smith. And I've wondered myself, exactly what you're saying, I wondered myself about the timing and with Harrison Smith telling the organization that he hasn't made his decision yet. I did wonder the same thing that I think you're thinking, which is, is he waiting to see

who the quarterback is before he decides? When you start to look at the defensive roster, it could really use Harrison Smith because Briskers off the board now. I think every big time safety has found a home. They could still draft Dylan Thineman, but or a man. McNeil-Nell Warren, but those guys are going to need some development too. Like, that position is pretty much up in the air. And the fact that Harry is considering it, uh, to the point where they're not announcing

a retirement for him does make me think there's a better chance than not that he comes back. Uh, Tway says I still go back and watch highlights from 2022. The Thanksgiving game against the bills, uh, are my favorite. Yeah, the, uh, you're talking about the, the Vikings 2020 season, right? I mean, that's in part the reason you have to do that is because they haven't been very fun. They just haven't had a lot of fun. BM says this year was a slog, skip multiple games near the end of the year to do better things with my time. Don't regret it once. I mean, yes, right. Exactly. That's what I'm

saying is that even we need to remember, and this was very tough in 2024. We went through this in 2024 with Darnold. And I remember sitting here in actually a slightly different part of the room with my old setup. But I remember sitting in front of you. guys and saying just try to have fun with this season with Sam Darnold. And there was a lot of, no, no, no, just wait till JJ gets here. Just don't do too much, Darno. Wait till McCarthy gets here. And I was pleading.

Just enjoy the ride. Just enjoy this team because you never know when it can be taken away from you. And I think a lot of fans probably now would go back and say, all right, I wish I did enjoy some of those 2024 games more because after that, how many good football games, How many exciting football games happened between the week 18 of 2024 season and present? Three? I mean, not many. Detroit was one of them.

The opener was one of them. But aside from that, how many moments did you really feel great about your team and your franchise? So I think what Kyler gives you is a chance to have fun watching football. You're not going to win every single game, but have fun watching football. Joe with the prediction for Kyler Murray, 3,900 passing yards, 500 rushing yards, 35 touchdowns, 30 pass and 5 on the ground. I think that that is a, that's a high end outcome. And if that happens, I mean, let's think about it this way. With Brian Flores back, and I know that right now the defensive roster could need some help still.

But with Brian Flores back, you're going to project the top 10 defense. If it's a top 10 defense and Kyler Murray plays like that, how many wins are you talking? Like, I've mentioned that on Fandul, they're plus 600 to win the division. With that stat line, they can win the division. 100%. Hogarth said they had what was described as actively detrimental quarterback play last year. Yes, they did. Yes, they did.

And look, I will always go back to, it's not J.J. McCarthy's fault that he wasn't ready. they were the ones that were supposed to assess that. That's their jobs. That's Kevin O'Connell's job. That's Josh McCown. That's the Wilf's. At the time, Kwayce Adaf Omenza,

it was on all of them to assess how ready J.J. McCarthy was. And they missed on that. And they put too much on him right off the bat, said, you're our franchise guy. Go get him, Tiger. Even though he had had no experience at all playing the year before and spent the whole season rehabbing, which is much different than,

spending a whole season developing. I think it was on them. And certainly if they could do it again, they would have had somebody else playing quarterback last year to develop him. And they would have told the public, if it was darn old on a franchise tag or whoever, Aaron Rogers, they would have told the public,

we're going to play this the right way with J.J. McCarthy, even if it's not what anybody wants outside of the building, then it would have been better for him had he had Aaron Rogers. I mean, I think the upside to Rogers last year would have probably been nine or ten wins. well, I mean, I get nine, they already got nine. So probably 10, maybe 11, and losing in the first round of the playoffs, that's probably what the outcome would have been. And then they would have turned it over to McCarthy.

But the biggest benefit would have been that they would have been able to develop J.J. McCarthy for an entire season. It's not his fault that he didn't get that. But there's no objective way to look at what happened last year and say that was acceptable from a quarterback play performance. In fact, I didn't think it was possible for this team with these receivers and this coach to be as bad at passing the football as they were. Folks, have you noticed that social media has now been around long enough to the point where

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What's 26 wins? I think the Vikings finish 11 and 6 in the regular season with at least one playoff win. Let's go, Kyler. I mean, in my range of outcomes, 11 wins is kind of where you'd put the bar. It's sort of funny when I did my pie chart. I think maybe right in between there. There's like it works out.

Is 11 works out amazing? I think it is. I think 11 is works out amazing because a couple of years ago, what I did, uh, is I looked at all the teams that reached the Super Bowl. It was kind of like one of those summer projects to do. I looked at all the teams that made the Super Bowl. And I went through and I've tried to figure out what is the average Super Bowl team look like.

Where do they rank on offense? Where do they rank on defense? Where does their passing game rank? Where does their defensive off, you know, passing rank and so forth and tried to figure out. and how many wins? And what I came up with is the baseline for reaching the Super Bowl, to be a Super Bowl team, to go into the playoffs and say, we've got a good enough resume.

You need to outscore your opponents by 100 points. That was very clear. There's very few teams that made the Super Bowl without outscoring their points, their opponents by 100 points. You need to have at least 11 wins. You need to have at least a top 10 passing game. Running games were a little more up and down, but a top 10 passing game in EPA was very clear.

and defense the bar was a little bit different. Your defense needs to get hot. It wasn't, it was at least in the top 10 against the pass, but there were teams that maybe didn't have that great, but got hot in the playoffs. BM says, I really need Jets to remind the league that he is the best wide receiver on earth this year. And well, there will be times with Kyler Murray.

I guarantee you where Justin Jefferson is open and he does not throw the football. And you go, what the heck, Kyler? throw the ball. That's going to happen. From watching his tape, that's going to happen. But also when he played with Hopkins and even with Trey McBride, there was so much trust there. They ran wide receiver stuff with Trey McBride. That guy is a wide receiver. I mean, I was just watching a play today where it's third down and say, let's just say five.

And they've got him in the shotgun and Trey McBride is one on one. And they put three guys to the other side and then he's on one side. and he throws this quick out to Tray McBride that is on the freaking money. Perfect timing. First down, move the sticks, off you go. And you could see that all over the field with Justin Jefferson. Because Jefferson could get open wherever. I think that he does sometimes have trouble separating on shorter stuff from press coverage.

But when it comes to those 10-yard out routes, eight-yard out-routs, I mean, Jefferson is basically unstoppable. And Murray throws those incredibly well. This guy, in terms of his accuracy as a thrower, a pure thrower. Like, remember when they used to have the quarterback competitions, you know, the, they would have like the targets that were, they do it in Hawaii. They'd have targets that were flying across the field and guys would throw and hit him and stuff in a Damarino. And maybe you're old enough to remember that at the Pro Bowl. If Kyler Murray was doing that, he would dominate that drill. I mean, he can just throw pinpoint accuracy time and time again, especially under 15 yards.

And there's no reason that Justin Jefferson can't thrive in that environment. Let's see. Hogarth says Vikings last year had an almost Seattle defense would have had a better offense if they had even mediocre, a quarterback play. They have legit shot at meaningful football. Yeah, I don't think they were quite as good as Seattle, but you said almost. I agree with almost. it was the way they were playing heading into the playoffs,

the way they were playing at the end of the season against Dallas, against Detroit, it looked like a team that no one would want to play in the playoffs if they had an offense. No one wanted to play that defense last year. And one of the important things is even though they've lost Hargrave and Allen, they haven't lost anybody else off the defense. All the guys that were there for last year, they're all coming back to this defense.

So you don't have to teach a bunch of new, players how to play within Brian Flores system. I'm sure there's going to be some rookies on that side. And maybe the Vikings got a break with Caleb Banks getting hurt that he might drop in the draft a little bit. But there's not going to be many new players. So these guys are all going to come back with all the knowledge that they had last year. And he's going to come back with the knowledge of who fits.

They had to find out halfway through the season about Eric Wilson. They will not have to find out this time. Jeff says, what's the Vegas over under for 2026? if it's more than eight games, bet the under. So you are not high on this move, apparently. They do not have over unders out yet, as far as I've seen. I mean, maybe there's some places that have over unders at this moment. Usually they come out later when the dust is settled on the off season and the draft and so forth.

Where would you put it, though, with Kyler Murray? I'd put it at nine and a half. I would put the over under at nine and a half. I think Vegas will put it at eight and a half. That's my guess. and I do not think that I would not be projecting that they win less than eight games with a quarterback of this caliber. It just doesn't add up.

It just doesn't add up. When you start looking at how other quarterbacks who are veterans have performed with this team, even Nick Mullins had them in a bunch of games, but guys that are on the same level where in terms of quarterback tiers, Kyler Murray has consistently been in the same tier as Kirk Cousins by NFL executives. So I think I would put it at nine and a half games myself, and I'm guessing that Vegas will put it at eight and a half. Dumer K.O. Exciting football back in my eyeballs will never be champ, so entertainment is the best outcome. Yeah, you never know. You never know. I've always said that the year the Vikings win the Super Bowl will be when you never see it coming.

When you go into a season saying, ah, you know, whatever, it won't be any expectations and then it'll just happen. I've always said that. SWAT says 3,400 yards, 32 touchdowns, 350 yards rushing. I am curious about the rushing. He was effective running last year. 2024, he ran for 500 yards and ended up with 7.3 yards per rush. I think you might be right that they might do less of it. He might be scrambling a little less that they want him to play within structure more.

But also, I mean, this is a guy where I was watching a play today of him against New Orleans, where he drops back and they forget to block the left defensive end. Just don't block him at all. Whoops. And Kyler Murray, I think it was Cam Jordan. Maybe it's the right defensive end. Whichever side it was. Total free runner.

Kyle Murray drops back. The guy, it's like in the grasp. And he just goes, whoop. And right out of there and 20 yards. Just like that. Just what? I mean, so you have somebody who can make an offense. of line right. And I know that we've spent a lot of time saying they don't have enough

pass blocking. They don't have enough line. The line isn't good enough. Let me tell you, Arizona's lines have not been spectacular. And he's made them right a lot. My two cents, Justin Jefferson's 1630 yards. That might be a little bit. Might be a little bit on the, on the high side. But I think adjusted Jefferson over under is probably like 1,350. And it just gets him back on track of being the top or one of the top receivers in the NFL. Maybe since there will be more short stuff, I would go with 108 catches or something like that. Because remember, we think of Jefferson.

The last thing that we've seen of Jefferson's greatness is downfield, bombs from Sam Darnold. That was not always him from Kirk Cousins. I mean, sometimes it was, but it wasn't always. And one of the things that Kyler does that I've noticed on tape is, he loves to loft it up there for his receivers. And he was not rewarded a lot from Marvin Harrison, Jr. or Zay Jones or other guys that they have.

But Justin Jefferson is the type who can reward you for giving a receiver a chance down the field. So if he's running like a slot fade or something and he's just throwing it up over his head, best ball tracker in the entire NFL, I think that's going to work for them. But even if you're throwing these quick outs and 10 yards to the sticks type of outbreaking routes. The in breakers, I've seen him do it. I think that there's a little bit of at times that he does not want to throw it into

the tighter windows and would rather just check it down. I've definitely seen that from him. But the idea that he can't throw over the middle is not correct. He was 30 for 41 throwing over the middle right between the hashes in 2000 and 24, which is not a ton of those throws, but I'm sorry, was that last year? those five games. I'll have to check. But he hit a hot, no, it's 2024, yeah, right between the hashes and the intermediate, oh, the intermediate area is the stat I'm thinking of. So he will do it when he's got it there, but he's not going to force it. And sometimes in this offense, you kind of

do need to force it because of Justin Jefferson. They have to know that. I don't believe from watching Murray that you just have to have your guys playing basically on the sidelines all the time. He throws a lot of passes that are sort of coming through the middle of the field and maybe clearing in between the hashes. There's a lot of throws like that that technically land on the other side of the hash, but are a route that goes through the middle of the field. So I think that's a little bit of a misconception. A.P. Carlin completion percentage 69.5%.

Could certainly see that based on his career. 4,000 yards, yeah, 4,000 yards, 25 touchdowns, nine picks. I don't think he's going to turn the ball over a ton. He's been from 2020 to 2024. he's been in the top 15 when it comes to interception percentage and sack percentage. There will be mistakes, but I don't think he makes them at a crazy high rate. Oak Dog, he says, this is the Vikings and bad stuff happens. So maybe flip your odds and start with 10% chance of it being good.

No, this is the Vikings and good stuff happens to guys like this. I bumped up the odds based on the fact that I'm assuming that the reclamation project reclaims with the Vikings. It's exactly what happens. Breece, 10 wins, 4,000 yards, 28 touchdowns, and less than 14 interceptions. I could see that. Definitely could see that. BM, all I really want is fun.

Football is an entertainment product, for sure. Far Rider says I was the first person that suggested Kyler to the Vikings. Well, I will say I have an unfair. advantage that I podcast every day. So I got a head start on other weekly podcasters when it came to Kyler. As far as, you know, my viewpoint on it and why I've continued to bang the drum that I thought it was the best idea, it really came down to me that it just checked all the right boxes. It was low commitment, low dollars, and a player that I could see having his turnaround. With all the other options, I just had such a tough time envisioning that there could be a turnaround.

The other thing, too, is that, remember, KOC competed against Kyler Murray in the best season of his career in 2021. KOC was in that division. So they were preparing for Kyler Murray with the Los Angeles Rams. There's a lot of familiarity there. This isn't someone that he doesn't know. And that kind of went into my head as well. But really, the formula was not complex.

it was that a floor doesn't really matter. If you get Mac Jones and he has a higher floor, who cares? Oh, great, a high floor of eight wins. Well, who cares about eight wins? It's all about ceiling to me. And Kyler's got the ceiling. Lenny says, I get that sitting McCarthy is probably the best for him, but what's best for the team?

If we start McCarthy and he's bad next year, there are no more quarterback questions. You just draft one. well, I think that what's best for the franchise, you said what's best for the team, what's best for the team. So there's a theoretical argument that I think is what you're making, that finding out if you have something in McCarthy,

which by the way, they've had him for almost 700 days now. This is not like they just met him. That's one of the struggles I have with that, hey, what about finding out? Like, finding out. I mean, they found out that he gets, got hurt, four times, five times, really, in two years. They found out that he's way behind in terms of his accuracy, that he was way behind in terms

of running an offense, that he wasn't emotionally mature or not. Like, they found out a lot. That's why Kyler Murray's here. But I see where you're going with that argument of, well, if they were forced to stick with McCarthy, if ownership said you may not go out and get another quarterback except for Joe Flacco as a backup, then there is a scenario where it clicks and you take advantage of the rookie contract still and you go into next year, know who you either know that you need to draft one for sure.

There's no more sort of, oh, what is JJ really? And what are we really going to do in the future? You have more defined paths. It's either going to work or not. Or at least that's what you think. Theoretically, what about the path where J.J. McCarthy wins nine games and is like, okay, what about that path? See, I think that's like, theoretically, we think it's a two outcome thing.

We think that he's either going to be amazing and they're all set or he's, going to be horrible and they're going to draft number one. That's also, I don't even think that's the most likely scenario. I think if McCarthy started for this team, the most likely scenario is probably nine wins or eight wins. And he throws, you know, 22 touchdowns, 12 picks, 3,300 yards, gets hurt a couple times. Like, what if that happens? And then you're still asking, well, what did we really do this for?

But from a team perspective, see, there is a difference between franchise, big picture, where I can see your argument. But the team, let's look around the locker room. Justin Jefferson, is that guy important? I think so. What's best for Justin Jefferson? What's best for Aaron Jones? What's best for T.J. Hawkinson.

What's best for Brian O'Neill? What's best for Christian Darrasaw? What's best for Will Fries? What's best for Jordan Addison? How is any of that answer? What's best for Brian Flores? What's best for, well, we'll see if Jonathan Granard is here, the defense. how is any of that answer to go back to J.J. McCarthy and not get a quarterback who's been

a Pro Bowl caliber player and top 15 quarterback in his career. I mean, around the locker room, what's best for KOC, what's best for Flores, what's best for any of the front office people who have their jobs on the line? It's definitely not going back to J.J. McCarthy and rolling a dice and hoping and dreaming that he could be a totally different person. BM says Arizona doing what Minnesota will never do, get a line to draft first in the draft. This is supposed to have promising quarterback options. Well, I do agree with that, which is the Vikings have never really been in that position. And they probably will not be anytime soon that they're going to be in a spot where they're just going to completely tank all the way to the bottom.

but I will say this is there is a timeline here that becomes very interesting after 2006, depending on what happens with Kyler Murray, because if it fails and they don't feel great about going back to J.J. McCarthy and they're looking at drafting a quarterback, you are looking at maybe something beyond a competitive rebuild. Maybe you are looking at a full rebuild. If they win seven games and the wheels just come off, if Murray is not, not good. And McCarthy comes in and he's not good either. And the defense completely falls off from where they were and there's injuries and it's

just a complete mess. And they win six or seven games. You are looking at tearing this thing limb for limp that this roster is going all the way, all the way down to the screws. And you might be talking about even having a discussion about trading Justin Jefferson because his cap hits start to go through the roof. and if he's not willing to sign an extension, then you get into that spot. That's one of the reasons this is so vital to get a real starting quarterback who's been

good before in the NFL and is a veteran and can handle it is because Justice Jefferson's future might end up being on the line here, how this plays out. Zach says, I think we have a real shot of having the best defense and offense in the division. I think, you know, you look at Detroit last year offensively, and despite their issues with the offensive line, they still scored a ton of points. I would still put Detroit at the top. And I think Green Bay is pretty equal and maybe Chicago a step down after losing Drew Dahlman, who I think was a huge part of their success.

I think all, I mean, I think Detroit because of their track record, Jamir Gibbs, Amonra, St. Brown, Sam Leporta. Like, they just have so much talent. Leporta was out actually a lot last year. They have so much talent. I would still put them as an offense that's probably in the top five to seven. and I think the rest of them are more fringe top tenish. Kind of depends on whether Green Bay can get their stuff together

offensive line-wise. At least there's a case. At least there's a case. David, you're going to have to watch Kyler play a little more when it comes to his ability to see downfield. It's, I think, pretty clear when you watch him play that there is a ton of the offense that's in rhythm, where he's throwing...

I mean, there's been plenty of quarterbacks who are sub-six-foot-neutral. two before in the NFL. But they have to throw with anticipation and they have to create windows for them. And he's not Drew Breeze, but they did that for Drew Breeze. They did it for Steve Young back in the day. Kirk's not the tallest guy I've ever seen. I know he's taller than Kyler Murray, but there's been plenty of quarterbacks. Russell Wilson who have had success, including Kyler Murray, who's also had success.

So if you've actually watched him, I can always tell when someone's actually watched Kyle or not, because the idea that he just drops back, can't see anything, scrambles around, and then throws is totally false. It's just not what happens. Matthews says, how does Murray do in the screen game? We've had deficiencies there. I don't ever look at the screen game. They didn't have a great screen game in Arizona, by the way.

His numbers were not much in the screen game in Arizona. They could help him there a lot. I look at the screen game as being entirely on the team, on the play designer, which it has not been great from KOC in the past. It was pretty good in 2024, but it's not been great in the past. I think that they could really improve that here this season, that that, well, you know who's big for this? I think the most underrated thing the Vikings have done is hired Frank Smith from the Miami Dolphins.

If he had a, if he had a more snazzy name, people would be talking about them a lot because that's a team that knew how to run a good screen pass and had a good wide zone run game. You go watch their run game, very impressive. So I think that's going to be big. But, you know, I do think that when it comes to the screen game, it does, as a act as a reminder that you do need to have stuff around Kyler Merck. It's not like he's just going to win all the games for you.

You're not just going to roll the football out and Kyler Murray just wins the game for you. He's going to need you to play good defense. He's going to need good in-game decisions, which I thought Jonathan Gannon struggled with a lot. He's going to need them to run the football consistently and effectively, which they have not done in KOC's first four years in the NFL. It was better last year, but it was not consistently effective or relied upon. So there will have to be things. You do have to protect him because one thing I've noticed about protection in Kyler

Murray is that, and this is about the C downfield thing, it's not that he can't. But when the pressure gets into his face, he is not Josh Allen where he's big enough to just still have his normal throwing motion. What ends up happening to Kyler Murray when pressure, starts to get pushed back into his face is he will throw like back foot fade away kind of stuff which you see jordan love doing but he's also like six foot four uh and it'll be inaccurate that happens a lot to kailer murray for some of his inaccurate throws is when the pressure gets pushed back into his face then he cannot step into the throw the same way and he does miss a lot

when that happens so it is important that they're able to protect him uh james says not saying Murray won't play well, but just disappointing overall year five, fourth different starting quarterback and just hoping, oh, you mean the whole thing? The whole thing is disappointing overall. Right. I mean, I don't think that's unfair. Just hoping to win 10 games feel like the big picture they're headed for more changes. The big picture, well, let's just let's keep one thing in mind that it is very, very hard to project what is going to happen in the NFL ever. And I wrote this article the other day, I wrote about trying to look into the crystal ball and try to figure out the next two years. And what I ended up with was a choose your own adventure game. Well, if this

happens, then that happens. And if this happens, then that happens, if that, we have no idea where it's going to go into the future. We never really do. Because, I mean, I would have said to you that Sam Darnold will start six games and they'll go to McCarthy and then McCarthy will succeed. And I mean, that's what I would have expected. And now here we are with Kyler Murray is the Vikings quarterback. I don't know who the hell saw that coming. So talk about the unpredictable nature of the Minnesota Vikings. Farv was the quarterback here once, which is the most unpredictable thing, I think, in NFL history or one of them in Vikings history. And then, you know, Randall Cunningham going 15 and one is probably the most, but, you know, Fav showing up here and going to the NFC

championship game, who knows, right? You never have any idea how it's going to go. When it comes to overall. Where the disappointment still exists and where I think that people do kind of push back a bit on the Kyla Murray idea is that they're still holding on to the dream that was promised, which is something you'd never had before. And the reason why, well, this I think is exciting because of the caliber of player that you got and the excitement level of the player that you got. Um, there's also this, like this wasn't supposed to be how it went. It wasn't supposed to be going back to another quarterback that somebody else let go and you have to talk yourself into.

It wasn't supposed to go that way. What was supposed to happen was the Vikings compete with Kirk. They move on from him. They draft the franchise quarterback. They get the next Drake May or the next Mahomes, Allen, Burrow, Herbert even, Hertz even, love even. somebody that you can run out year after year. So the offseason conversation is about guard and not about quarterback.

And the Vikings offseason conversation has been about quarterback. How many years in a row? Even when Kirk was here after 2019, we're talking, well, they do an extension with them. After 2021, are they going to bring him back with the new regime? After 2023, are they going to bring him back or draft a quarterback in 2024? you've been having this discussion since Dante Culpepper got hurt and then, you know, Teddy Bridgewater as well. Who's going to play quarterback is a, is a kind of a tough discussion to be having almost every

single offseason. So from that perspective, I get the disappointment. There was a certain path that was promised that should have been the right one. I thought all along it was the right one. I thought Cuezio daffo Mensa, maybe the execution was not perfect, but I thought the idea was right. The idea that Quasi Adolfo Menza and Kevin O'Connell and the Wilfs came up with was to move on from Kirk and draft a quarterback and spend a bunch of money around him and go for it. And had McCarthy been good, we might have been talking about the Vikings playing in the

NFC championship last year if he had been Drake May, but he's not. So you have to do what you can. But I feel you on that disappointment. Absolutely. Grateful dad, was it smart not to spend in free agency when they had the expectation of getting Kyler for $1 million. The free agency thing is very interesting because you really, you really can't go spending and promising contracts until you know for sure that Kyler is signing on the dotted line. But what I'm not sure if they anticipated, or at least I know I didn't, was that in the span of three days, everyone would just be gone.

I don't know if they thought that was going to happen because this is, I think, I think, think the fastest I've ever seen. I remember when they first launched the legal tampering thing. And the first day of legal tampering was like nothing happened. And it was like, oh, okay, the second day, then it started to roll in. And then when free agency opened, then a lot of the deals happened, that's not that way now. These teams already have most of these deals worked out with agents and players by the time

that the legal tampering begins, unless they're the fastest contract negotiators in history, you'll be five minutes in. Well, wow, you work that out pretty darn quick, huh? At the combine. That's where they meet with every agent who, you know, they work out these contracts with. So I think it was hard to slow play it because things went so quickly. Isn't it funny that the Falcons got banged for tampering when everybody's clearly doing

this at the combine? But that's a little bit of the issue, I think, is that since everybody is doing this, that the legal tampering period begins and everyone's gone by day three. And even today, Brisker finds a home and Nick Cross finds a home yesterday. And like all these players at the safety position that they may have wanted to look at or just there's off the table. All the running backs just off the table in three days. So was it smart? One thing I will point out is that a lot of the teams that have spent a lot of money,

including the Minnesota Vikings last year, have ended up regretting it. And when they signed Allen and Hargrave last year, it's very exciting. Like, wow, they've got these defensive tackles. And I would still argue people have said, oh, it was a huge failure. I don't think it was a huge failure. I think that they had a top five defense in a lot of key metrics, which is what would have worked out great if they had any offense. And we would have said, good job, even if they had to cut Allen and Hargrave.

So we look at it through the lens of the money spent versus the winning, as opposed to, hey, that side of the football, they got the results they were looking for. But even then, you're eating a lot of money. It wasn't a huge success. You overspent on Jones. You overspent on Ryan Kelly. It didn't work out. Will Fries didn't give you the type of production that you were looking for.

Neither did Byron Murphy Jr. at huge dollar figures. It's not always the team that spends the most that ends up having the most success in free agency. But I do think now they're going to look around and go, okay, does anybody? you want to be a Minnesota Viking. And you know who this is on now. This is on Brian Flores and the front office to get creative and find some guys that are still out there that are going to help because there have been plenty of signings through the years that happened in the second week of free agency that ended up being better than

some of the biggest, most expensive ones. Mr. Mayor says, I can't understand the Colts signing Jones to a bazillion dollars. Kyler Murray would have been a better and more talented quarterback than Jones. even if Jones hadn't had the Achilles injury late last season or late last season. Totally agree with that. Totally agree with that. I think that they like the person, Daniel Jones. I think they like the fit with their offense.

They're going to have Shane Steichen still. And I'll say again that not all Achilles injuries are the same. There are versions of the Achilles that are going to set you way back. And there are versions of the Achilles if it's not completely torn. I don't know if they ever announced that. But, you know, remember Brian. on Neil at the end of the 2020 season tour his Achilles. And he was back the next year because it wasn't the full tear.

They could just repair it. They didn't have to do the whole thing. And I'm not a, we have a foot doctor who listens to the show. He can clarify that. But there are different timelines when it comes to the surgeries for the Achilles. So I don't know what that is. But in terms of like Daniel Jones's actual talent and actual production over his career versus Kyler Murray, it's not really close.

and the price tag is crazy. The Colts are another one of those teams that sort of commits to being in the middle all the time. And I imagine that's going to be the case for them. I think that they liked being right about Daniel Jones, maybe more than the decision. But you look around and go, well, the other options were, if Kyler was always coming to Minnesota.

And supposedly, like, this is true that he grew up a Vike's fan. I mean, gosh, a guy saying is a kid, he cried tears with Farr. If you're like, a kid, oh, a kid, he was a kid then, huh? Man. like how how old are all of us now because farve feels like just the other day and it was like 17 years ago it feels like just the other day that farv was thrown across his body or throwing to uh gregg lewis in the back of the end zone but um you know like he may have always wanted to come here and i don't know what other teams were interested i don't know if they talked about that but i generally agree

with you that when we compare and this is why i can't when when people come in they say well Kyler can't do this and he can't do that. Well, no one says that he's, that he's, that he's, that he's far. No one says that. But Daniel Jones, at $44 million, is that good? Garnet. We won nine games or Garnett. Oh, Garnett Moss.

Yeah. I know someone whose daughter is named Garnet. So, Garnett Moss says, we won nine games with no quarterback. How does anyone think we won't win 11 running it back? Yes, we lost some players, but not that much. They really didn't lose much. If I'm going through it correctly, am I missing something?

Because I feel like they haven't lost anyone except for Grenard and Hargrave. They've brought back and they added, you know, one depth cornerback, but they brought Ryan Wright. It matters. But they've brought back pretty much the entire roster, which to me is also, when you talk about playing in free agency,

it's also kind of a signal of they think, that this roster was good enough to win with last year, and they're keeping it all together. When you bring Aaron Jones back and you bring T.J. Hawkinson back and they haven't traded Jonathan Grenard yet, and I don't think, I think now that you have Kyler Murray, can we talk about that for a second? Now that you have Kyler Murray,

don't trade Jonathan Grenard. It doesn't make any sense. Try to win. Yes, in the long run, it does make sense because you get some cap space and you can draft an extra player or two, so forth. But knowing that after this year, things get very, very tricky with keeping it all together.

Why not just do everything you can to win? You've got a starting quarterback who's won before. I know he hasn't won the Super Bowl before, but he's won a lot of games before, a guy with potential to win a lot of games for you. I just don't see it making a ton of sense to trade Grudard, unless you get something really crazy. Antoine says we have a chance to be really good.

Todd said if they can move up and get Jeremiah Love, they will win they'll be in the super bowl okay todd some of you buying kailer murray more than others i keep checking back to see if fan duel let's let's uh refresh and see if fan duels change its mind uh let's see they have not still over on fan duel plus 600 what do you think they should be do you think they should be closer to the favorites or that's our fan dual question of the day I suppose. Oh, with the Jeremiah love thing, can't do an over under without a punter.

You guys are funny. With the Jeremiah love thing, I think it's interesting and I think it would be crazy and it would be fun. I don't think it's a smart move. But, I mean, I just said don't trade Grenard because you're trying to win. I mean, if you're trying to win, if this is much more all in than I think it is,

then I don't know, maybe go for it. But if you have to give up a next year's first when you could be drafting a quarterback, you can't do that. at least by the traditional charts moving up from 18 to number nine, if Jeremiah Love got there, would take a second and a fourth. That you might be willing to do. I still wouldn't, but you might be willing to do that. If you're talking about dipping into next year's first, you cannot do that.

Truckeett says, I think we extend Cashman and Van Ginkle this offseason to give us some cap relief. Cashman, I would say, yes, Van Ginkle, I would be skeptical on. He is 31. I'm not sure that how much far do you want to go with that. Blowfish says 49ers apparently interested in Addison again. But what are they giving up? Because I'm not, after you sign Kyler Murray, I'm just not feeling inspired to start sending players out for draft capital.

I think it's a great idea long term to get more draft capital, especially if you're not going to keep Jordan Addison. But he's good at football, unless you're really, really concerned. Now, I mean, like, if you see the comments, what was it, T.J. Hushmanzada was on a podcast talking about Brandon Ayuk. And he was basically saying, like, I wouldn't sign the guy. I think he's crazy.

If that's how they feel about Jordan Addison, if they feel like this is a major problem and cannot be helped, then, you know, Joanne Jennings is out there. Trey Jordan Addison, signed Joanne Jennings, get somebody else in here. Okay, I can buy that. And I think that'll tell us if they move him, that means they're really, really, really concerned about what's going on off the field. Otherwise, if they're only mildly concerned, which you are every day with Jordan Addison, then one year, $4 million and then just move on.

Kind of makes sense for me. I'm a twerk says Grenard wants to get paid. Yeah, I know, but I mean, he has a contract. So as much as it's true that he wants his contract market corrected, he has. a contract that he signed and they could do something maybe after the season or even trade he's under contract i think through 2027 they could even trade him after next season as well uh it may have been i don't know i've been curious about what kind of games are getting played behind the scenes a little bit with this situation because it just now does not make any sense to me to start

trading off players uh derrick says we need to get some good young pieces in the secondary some linebacker depth and will be pretty good on defense again yes i i there are are now not as many players on the market still. That could be difference makers. It's on the Vikings to find guys like Isaiah Rogers last year. I mean, think about what they did last year. The two best signings that they made were Isaiah Rogers and Eric Wilson, two guys that people didn't think a whole lot of.

Those signings didn't move the needle at all. Nobody cared about those. I mean, nobody was making breaking news updates or anything out of Eric Wilson and Isaiah Rogers. But they ended up making the biggest impact. So it's on them now to find what's still out there and fill out the rest of this roster. And then they have to succeed in the draft. And I know that, I know that, you know, when it comes to the draft, it's random.

I've said it a million times. They have to get more draft capital somehow. Maybe that'll be trading down in the draft. Even if it's trading up, I mean, they need to succeed in the, this draft to get some immediate impact players because clearly that's not happening in free agency. Is that Lukan? Do you think that there will actually be a quarterback competition or does Murray basically have the job?

McCarthy is 23. Let's do some Jordan love treatment unless Murray has a 2024 Darnold and then let's sign him forever. I do not believe that it's a real quarterback competition, but I see zero benefit, zero, from Kevin O'Connell to come out and say it's not a quarterback competition. I believe that when we get out there for OTAs and minicamp, we're going to see nothing but Kyler Murray's QB1. That's perfectly fine.

I totally agree with you. The Jordan Love thing is good. I think that Murray would not have signed here. If KOC said, I'm not giving you the starting job, you have to beat out J.J. McCarthy. And we love J.J. McCarthy more than anything under the earth or under the sun. But good luck kid. I don't think he's signing here.

I think he would have gone to Pittsburgh. And I saw Andrew Philipponi, a friend of mine in the Pittsburgh media, saying that the Steelers were one of the teams that reached out to Kyler Murray for a Zoom call. And the Vikings clearly did not let him get out of the building in Minnesota, but he would have gone to Pittsburgh if he wasn't going to be the starting quarterback because he could have been the starter there. Garnett is a nice name. I agree with that.

But I should. I mean, I'm in Minnesota. I should have read it Garnett. Definitely should have read it as Garnett. Derek says our biggest loss is on defense were Alan Hargrave, a position that we got good play from Redmond and LDR and even tie around Ingram Dawkins by the end of the year. I don't expect a large drop off.

I think that Alan Hargrave gave them a lot down the stretch in terms of beating one-on-ones. They did create a good amount of pressure overall. I think they added up to like 65 pressures over the season, which was twice as many or more than with Harrison Phillips and Jerry Tillerie. But it is a position that you can find guys, as Jonathan Bullard showed. I mean, Bullard's still out there. I would bring back Jonathan Bullard. And go back to stuff in the run, moving bodies up there. And, well, it can be frustrating.

I mean, I don't know. I mean, did Jehahad Ward sign? Bring the band back. Did Jehad Ward sign anywhere? Just bring those guys back and do the same thing. did in 24. They were a better defense overall, by the way, in 25 than they were in 24. And Alan Hargrave were part of that. Um, but it's not irreplaceable to be able to find guys who can fill that role and stop the run and create lanes for blitzers and still do some of the things

they did last year. They will miss them, but I don't think that they drop off massively because of it. Mr. Mayor says, uh, I assume you mean, do you mean KOC here? Maybe, no, maybe you don't mean KOC. Maybe you can talk about somebody else about staking the reputation on J.J. McCarthy. I'm not sure who you're talking about. But when it comes to KOC and J.J. McCarthy, oh, okay, you're talking about somebody else. Uh, well, that's, you know, everybody's got, the way I look at it is everybody's got their opinions and everybody does this a different way. And there's somebody for everybody. There's a lot of different media people out there that do things different ways. So, uh, you guys get to choose who you want to listen to. Uh, Blowfish says, uh, Quasi should have pushed harder.

for the Patriots to trade Drake May. Yeah. I mean, in a magical world, that would be great, had that been the case. But I don't think that that was, I don't think that was real. I don't think that that was something that could have actually happened. Because in the Giants documentary where they go through their offseason, the Giants tried to trade up from four to three with the Patriots to get Drake May. And they said no. So if you can't trade up from four to three, you're probably not trading up from 11 to 3, no matter what you offer. Mr. Merr says, what were J.J. McCarthy's really high highs, literally one quarter in week one. I think he had, what I would call them is exactly what KOC. I like the way KOC described

it to us at the combine. KOC said that he showed the traits that they drafted him for. And I would agree with that. I think he showed the traits. He showed playmaking. We can't we can't say that he never did anything. Like he had some very good throws. Touchdown against Baltimore to Jalen Naylor. Also the throw to Naylor at the end of the Lions game.

There's the run against the Lions where he juks out Alex Anzolone. The throw to Nailer against the Cowboys rolling to his left in the end zone. It's a great throw. It's a great play. his arm strength, his mobility, his moxie. It was all on display at different times. But it just wasn't all together yet. And I agree with, you know, the commenter who says, look, you know, this is a similar

to a Jordan Love situation. I could say Malik Willis too. I could say a bunch of different quarterbacks. Some guys just aren't fully ready to come in and handle everything. It's so hard to play quarterback in the NFL. At no time is there 32 guys who can. play quarterback in the NFL. There are how many quarterbacks can you really win with in the NFL?

Is it like 15? It's probably like 15, right? That you can really win with and then maybe another five that are serviceable at any given time. If you go back through the last 20 years, since there's been 32 teams in the NFL, when did the Texans coming to the league? 2003, since the Texans came into the league, how many per year quarterbacks would you say were capable of performing well enough to get into the playoffs and really

win something. It's probably between 18 and 22 quarterbacks in the entire world. It's hard. And there's also the fact that 50% of the quarterbacks that are taken in the first round just don't work out at all. So I don't know what is going to happen with J.J. McCarthy next. There's scenarios where Murray doesn't make it through the entire season. And we see McCarthy anyway, which is another reason for KOC to continue to support him and develop him and everything. There have been quarterbacks who have been benched. There's been quarterbacks who have had terrible starts of their season and then quickly gotten better or their career had quickly gotten better. Jared Goff is one of them. So, and I know that was under bad circumstances, but

we know so little. We should always treat the quarterback situation like we don't know a lot about it. We all want to think we know a lot about it, but it proves over and over again that we don't. We can look back at, I mean, how about this? This was something crazy. And I don't want to call anybody out because we're all wrong about quarterbacks sometimes. But I was looking last year for those offseason grades. And I found a grade by one very respectable and very smart writer who named Sam Darnold one of the losers of free agency last year. Because a lot of people just thought Darnold wasn't going to do anything in Seattle. It's not going to be good enough. So with McCarthy, there were, there were highs, there were traits and there were flashes and there's enough to say, you're not just

going to get rid of him. And I also think his work ethic is there. And I think that his personality and his drive are a detriment and something that is really good. I think he can try way too hard, which we saw at times. And I also think that it means he's going to push and continue to compete. BM says Kyler's highs are higher and his lows are much higher than McCarthy's. I'd agree with that. Yeah, I would agree with that. I would agree that his, his highs are definitely high. I mean, his highs for sure have been very high in the NFL. Even his 2024 season when he didn't have a great team, his highs were higher. So, I mean, it was only an 8 and 9 season, but 3,800 yards, and there's a lot of good games in there.

And I'll mention again, he had a perfect quarterback rating and a 41 to 10 victory against the Rams. We've never seen anything like that. I'm a twerk. You are wrong that I don't know anything about Todd Bounce. That is not true. Isn't Todd Bauman, Buffalo, Minnesota? Don't tell me I don't know Todd, Todd Bowman.

Todd Bowman, man, that guy did not care at all. He was throwing bombs. I've watched the Todd Bauman games. Come on, man. D.C. Smithers, thank you for the super chat. Does Kyler work in a McVeigh-style offense? I think that Kyler works when you play to the things, things that he does very well.

And what's supposed to be fundamental to McVeigh is that it's not a McVeigh, there's never a McVeigh offense. It's whatever you need to do. So just for example, when McVeigh gets the job, this is why with KOC, this is why with KOC, at least you could say from his roots, from where he comes from, from who he coached for, from how he got this job in Minnesota, one of the fundamental elements of Sean McVe is that he's been brilliant in adapting his offense. Because when McVeigh first got the job in Los Angeles with Jared Gough,

he put him under center almost every play. They ran motions and play actions and rollouts all the time, tons of screens, stuff like that, to try to protect Jared Gough. And it became such a silly thing because every coach is talking in the headset, giving advice and thoughts. It's always happened since the headset existed. But for some reason with Jared Gough, it became like a big story that McVey was doing this.

But McVey was running under center, wide zone, play action, classic Shanahan stuff that he'd taken from Washington. But then when they trade golf and they get Matthew Stafford, they put him in the shotgun, like every play. He's a little under center, but mostly shotgun, air it out, downfield. I think he led the league at picks and then threw for like 4,700 yards or something. It was wild. It was this all-out aerosol, downfield stuff. It was throwing, it was send guys deep and then throw underneath the Cooper Cup time and time again, which I mean, you could do with this offense as well.

Those throws are there if you want them. Carson Wentz showed us that. But then this last year with Devante Adams and Puka Nakua, they start running two tight ends all the time, sometimes even three tight ends. So there's, at least. least in in KOC's roots, an adaptation. And I still will go back to with Kirk Cousins, they're running him out of shotgun all the time. He was actually under center, not as much in 2022. And he's throwing a lot of quick stuff, especially in 2023. He's not pushing the ball deep

down the field. Darnold comes in. They run much more of a kind of Shanahan type stuff because he had come from San Francisco. He's under center. He's running boots and play actions. And then he grew into what you really see you want to talk about adapting the offense what you really see is early with sam darnold they are protecting him they are not asking him to do almost anything it's like make a couple plays a game and you're fine by the end of darnold he's playing like matthew stafford he's in the shotgun every play they can't run the ball at all he's just throwing it all over the place it it was interesting to see and so that's what's probably going to happen here is it's going to have to grow with Kyler Murray throughout a season.

And that's been one of the biggest criticisms of Murray throughout his career. And they have to prove that one wrong. That early in the season, he's great. And then later on he fades. He's going to have to prove that one wrong. Our canon says if the Vikings had a better run game, it could have been better. It's a team game.

Obviously, the quarterback play wasn't perfect. But there's no way we were beating Seattle. Well, no, there was no. I mean, last year, no. But the run game for the Vikings, the thing that you'll, never believe, but is actually true is that the Vikings had a higher EPA per rush than Seattle did. Because Seattle really committed to the run and they would run even when it wasn't successful

and they'd keep doing it because they knew what they had on their defense. This is a Kubiak thing. It's something a KOC has to learn and that he claims to have learned and he's got to show it. And he kind of did in the Max Brosmer game where he was just like, we're just going to win this game on defense. Max isn't doing anything in the Christmas Day game. It was like, just we're not doing nothing. the quarterback. We're going to punt and we're going to play defense. And that's how we're going to

win that game. It actually worked. But what Clint Kubiak and Mike McDonald were really good at was they played to the score. They played to their defense. They made, Sam Darnold only got sacked 27 times last year. They made sure that the negative play for Sam Darnold, well, he did have other turnovers. He didn't have a lot of sacks. He had interceptions, but he didn't have a lot of sacks. And they protected him and ran the ball even when it wasn't advantageous. But the Vikings actually ended up having, by the end of the year, a better EPA per rush. So they were more successful running the ball than Seattle was, which is actually kind of funny and unexpected because Seattle ran a lot more.

So the Vikings were running it toward the end of the season quite a bit. And Jordan Mason ended up as a top 12 running back by PFF. It's not that they can't. It's can you commit to it and be consistent. with it and sometimes just say, let's not put it all on our quarterback. I think O'Connell likes to put it all on the quarterback with Kyler Murray. That's the biggest adjustment. I think he can play in rhythm.

I think he could play under center. I've seen these things happen. I think he could throw it over the middle. I think that if he puts the ball up in the air for Justin Jefferson, his deep numbers are going to be a lot better. If he puts the ball up for Justin Jefferson, then putting it up for Greg Dorch. I think his deep numbers are going to be a lot better throwing to, great receivers that are ball trackers and contested catch artists.

I think it's going to change. But you can't just say throw the ball 35 times a game. I think you've got to be much more in the range of 25 passes, make them count, be highly efficient, and run the ball successfully, control the ball, play good defense. Derek says, regardless of how you feel about either JJ or Kyler in the QB room, looks significantly better last year than, or than this time last year. this will at least give them a better baseline measure against JJ in camp. That's for sure true that last year missing out on Daniel Jones, they wanted that.

And maybe they would have ended up starting Daniel Jones, probably. BM, someday we'll get the N64 hooked up and play Mad someday. Aaron says very disappointed. Signing a mid-quarterback gets us no closer to a Super Bowl. We're just wasting a year of on-field. development for JJ, the metrics from the last five games don't lie. Actually, the last five games do lie. Yeah, I think that they actually do. I believe I even dubbed it as being Fools Gold when it was happening. I think that was actually what I called it was fools gold as it was going on, because

you played every single one of the defensive coordinators, except for the last game where they didn't play starters, all the defensive coordinators he played well against got fired. Washington and Dallas and New York. New York didn't even have a defensive coordinator, and he only played the first half, and he was injured two more times in those last five games. They do lie, and if they didn't lie, then the team would be getting Joe Flacco as their backup quarterback

and not Kyler Murray as their starter. If they thought that those last five games told the real story of J.J. McCarthy, I think that we can't do it that way. You can't just pick the, this is like with baseball. You can't just pick the months while your favorite. hit her pit well and then say the other ones don't count. It doesn't work that way.

That's not how you do analysis and decision making. I think that your first point is the one that makes the most sense, which is there are probably folks out there saying, here we go again. This is a Kirk Cousins level quarterback, and you're probably right. From his career, he's been a Kirk Cousins level quarterback. But the thing about Kirk Cousins in Minnesota is that he wasn't paid $1 million. That's the difference. how many games would the Minnesota Vikings have won?

And I know it's not the same exact equivalent, but how many games would the Vikings have won if Kirk Cousins had made $1.3 million? I mean, right? A lot more in 2020, a lot more in 2021, a lot more. Well, 2022, they did win a lot of games. But if he was paid this little money and they could afford the roster, they didn't have to gut this roster. because Kyler Murray's being paid $1 million.

They didn't have to gut this roster. So I'm not totally in favor of saying, hey, superimpose, you know, just throw in last year's results with Kyler Murray. But it's mostly the same team. And if you get even somewhat of the results, and if you've looked at, aren't they playing the NFC South?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Aren't they playing the NFC South? Like they've got a schedule that's going to be a third place schedule and could be more favorable. The opportunity could be there. David says in 24, Kyler Murray had a better PFF rating than Sam Darnold. Well, that's the thing is that people don't like to accept if they're down on Kyler, is that three different times he's been a top 12 quarterback by PFF and four times he's been

a top 15 quarterback by NFL executives. There's a pretty clear consensus on what Kyler Murray is in the NFL and in his grades and so forth. There, there, there, there, there is a very clear consensus of what that is. Oh, man. Have I missed other super chats? I'm really sorry for, oh my goodness. You're right. I have. I am so sorry about that. Uh, coup dot video 318. Wow. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for the, the huge super chat. I really appreciate that. Uh, and, uh, your message says, thanks for the hard work and providing Viking content. It's not hard. I'll say that. It's not hard. It's fun. This is fun. This is exciting. This is exciting. Because you know why? I know you can be down on it or you could say,

and look, the person who's saying, and I don't want to get away from, thank you so much for the huge super chat. I know what you're saying. I get behind in the chat and then I miss those sometimes. I really appreciate it. I really, really do. Thank you so much. And all of your, I mean, those of you who chose to be here on this day, that is a pretty seismic move and change, I really appreciate all of you. I really do. And so, some of you have been watching for two and a half hours. I can't, I can't believe your commitment to listen to me talk about this. So thank you so much. And those of you who participate in the chat, I take so much from you guys,

great conversations, great ideas. I'm just so, so, so thankful for all of you this entire time. I mean, this has been a fascinating bunch of discussions that have led up to this moment. And now the door is swung open for a lot more. And I promise you, I will have a film session where I usually don't do that because you could get demonetized on YouTube, and I usually don't do it because I'm not a former NFL quarterback, but I've really been looking at a lot with Kyla Murray that I want to show you guys.

So we'll do that at some point in the future very soon. We'll also get Josh Weinfuss from Arizona to talk about this. Mani Hill tomorrow night. We're going to continue live tomorrow and tomorrow night. So I'm excited about all of that.