Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - BREAKING: KYLER MURRAY IS A MINNESOTA VIKING (Part 3)

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 did want to say that, you know, I don't think that you are being irrational. Whoops, how did that happen? What just happened? I don't think that any of you are being irrational. Did I just close that out by accident? By saying, yeah, now I just have a black box there. By saying that, there we go.

Got it back. Oh, no, I lost some of the chat. Sorry, guys. I lost some of the chat. I'll pull it up on my phone. But I don't think anyone's being irrational by saying, oh, oh my goodness. You're right. Wow.

My friend Lauren coming in with a huge super chat. Donated to your favorite charity. Thank you, Lauren. You're the man. Lauren has been an incredibly supportive person throughout the entire, I mean, literally the entirety of Purple Insider, unbelievably supportive. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you, man.

Thank you. Thank you. but I think if you're the person who's said this is just another middle of the road quarterback and it doesn't feel like the upside is winning the Super Bowl, I understand where you're coming from with that. And I have a difficult time of disagreeing with the premise that, you know, if we go look right now on FanDuel, where's the Super Bowl odds? I mean, oh, they do have, do they have the wins?

They have the win totals? I didn't know they had those up yet. Oh, look at that. Okay, I was right. I was right. Earlier I said they got some win totals up there. Good. We can work with this.

Fandul right now has the Vikings over under at eight and a half, exactly where I expected it to be. I would go over on that. What are they for Super Bowl? It's not going to be great. The Vikings are, let's see, after this plus 5,000 to win the Super Bowl, about the same as the Bucks and commanders and Falcons.

Well, a little ahead of the Falcons. So there is not a ton of belief in the markets that the Vikings are going to this year win 13 games, win the Super Bowl, and so forth. I will say last year that there wasn't a lot of belief that the Seattle Seahawks were either in the markets, but usually the markets are good. And they're right. And that frustration is very, very fair. Screen share calamity. I know. That was my bad.

Sorry about that. it's it's very very fair because the history of this team is always hoping that you can grab someone else's quarterback pump up everything around them hope and dream and make it work that's that that's just always been who they are and if you've gotten tired of that motif then i totally understand it of hey can k oc get the most out of this guy can this wide receiver avoid being really mad and wanting to leave it just does feel like history repeating itself i totally get get it. I do think from this situation that it is maybe a little bit different in the fact that Kyler Murray is in his prime and it's not that far separated from when he's been really good.

And if you can find there is a scenario, and this is why it is different, I guess it should have been Sam Darnold, but you can't go back in time. Where it might be different is that if you end up with a Jared Gough type situation or Baker Mayfield type of situation, then you can keep your guy and you can build around him and you can have multiple years with one quarterback and take many swings at it with Murray. And this is the year where when you talk about how good he is, this is the year where we find out how good Kyler Murray really is. Because there's lots of reasons and explanations and excuses for him for why it wasn't maximized in the past. But there aren't now. So you're going to know is Kyler Murray

a top 10 quarterback, does he have that potential? Or does he not? Because would you be shocked if he played like a top 10 quarterback? You can't say that you would because Sam Darnold did off of much less in terms of his resume. Luke said, why would we turn down a top 15 quarterback? He fits into our timeline and has unbelievable athleticism and was on an organization that held him back. Well, I agree with all that. And as far as the timeline goes, the timeline has run to.

the end, mostly. Hockinson's going to be a free agent next year. Aaron Jones is going to be gone. Brian O'Neill hasn't signed an extension yet. Clearly, things are happening when it comes to Jonathan Grenard, Andrew Van Ginkles going into the last year of his contract. There's a reset that's on the way. That doesn't mean they have to go back,

but it means that there's going to be new guys here. You want to maximize your last chance with those guys. That's what you're looking for. You're looking for maximizing. everything you can with these guys and then reassess where you're at. J.Mull says this is the year we find out coming in healthy to a team that's competent, has weapons and a good defense on a one-year contract. Yeah, I totally agree. I think you are going to find out how good Kyler Murray really is because there's a lot of

ways you can debate it. There's a lot of ways you can chop it up and look at, well, only when he was great, only when he had Hopkins, only when he did this or only when he did that. But it's true that he is not put together true elite franchise quarterback level numbers. There's also other guys before who didn't and then found their right spot. And that's why I keep going back to Baker. And I think Baker's a good example. I don't think he's quite as good in terms of a pocket quarterback and a fit for KOC as Sam Darnold was.

And that's what in hindsight is so hard to look at and go, man, you had your guy. Like, that should have been your guy. Why was it not? He was the one who could throw down field for you. He was the one that could hang in the pocket. You let two games have Sam Darnold get away, but you can't go back in time and fix that mistake. You can only try to fix it the best you can with someone like Kyler Mur.

But the fact that they have a relationship going back a long time is interesting. Purple Rain says this is a referendum on Kyler and Arizona's a franchise and KOC's ability to adapt. Well, I mean, I don't think we need referendums on Arizona's franchise. They're trash. They're just awful. The players say they're awful. The results say they're awful. Many, many, many years of that ownership and that situation.

It's just, this is a bad place to work. It's a bad team. It's a bad franchise. That's the reason why there's this stat out there that's something like, oh, this number of number one picks don't make it to 30 years old, number one overall picks with their franchises, which I guess that means you should never draft number one. No, that's not what it means.

Usually number one picks go to horrible franchise. and some of them continue to be horrible. The Cleveland Browns, I was, I, I have friends in Cleveland radio, but I was dying today as they, as I saw a clip of them talking about how they wouldn't want Kyler. And I was like, what? Kyler, Kyler might be the best quarterback in your franchise's history by week one.

What? A recent history, not Bernie Kozar, but like what? You wouldn't want, oh, I'm sorry. he would be slightly better than what Joe Flacco, who's the second best quarterback, Kelly Holcomb. Are you kidding me? It's just like there are some teams that are atrocious franchises. And Arizona is one of them that cannot win because of the comes down from the top, how awful they are. And that's where he's been.

So I do agree it's a referendum on Kyler. Like how good can you be and KOC's ability to adapt? But I think we know, I think it's been answered what Arizona is. Vikings TW, I do believe we have an elite dual threat quarterback, gives you a better chance of winning a Super Bowl. Now, that is a good point. That's something that we haven't actually seen other than JJ McCarthy in a very long time. We have not seen a dual threat quarterback.

We haven't seen a guy. That's what I was talking about on tape about how there's free runners that are a guaranteed sack for any of the quarterbacks the Vikings have had, including McCarthy, over the last, gosh, I don't know how long, that with kind of, They will not be a sack. They might be 10, 15 yards. Thank you, Shadow Dark for the compliment. Appreciate that.

Now the quarterback is out of the way, can we talk about punter? Opinion on the, is there a no, is there a no tag clause for Kyler? That would make a lot of sense. That would make a lot of sense. If there is, have you seen that reported? If there is a no tag clause, I mean, I would want that. If I was Kyler, I would want that. I wouldn't want what happened to Daniel Jones.

I would want to have all the options possible. 62 to Freedom says a Viking fan since the late 60's best chance was Derek Carr, who fits into the scheme. You know, I think that Derek Carr, it is absolute best. I might agree with you. Derek Carr has been retired due to a shoulder injury for an entire year, and Kyler is 28. So I'm not sure.

Okay, Jonathan, producer Jonathan Harrison said there's no tag loss. Well done. Well done by his agent. Makes total sense. Force the Vikings into a spot that if you love him, you have to sign him to a real contract extension. Good job. Perfectly fine with that.

That makes total sense from his perspective. Why would you agree to a situation where the team could just tag you and keep you if you didn't want to, gives them plenty of freedom? Okay. And already, like Kyler's thinking about what his future is going to look like, which I think is smart.

Exposé says, 1.3 million is too good to pass up. Best team Kyler has ever had. If the run game will work, no reason 10 plus wins isn't possible. I mean, it's hard. It's just hard to disagree with. Okay.

Yeah, you guys are confirming. Yeah, we're not even sure if Derek Carr's going to play. Alex, Alick Lewis, Alec with a C, reported that. Okay. I just think that's smart business on his part and his agent's part. And if you're the Vikings, you're not in a position where you can fight over that because your next best option is a retired guy who quit because of a

shoulder injury and then your next best option after that is a 43 year old and then your next best option after that is a 37 year old who you already had and never accomplished anything with. So you kind of have to. Have we discussed the fullbacks yet? I'd like them to get one. User PS7 and a bunch of numbers. Kyler has a higher ceiling than McCarthy and a higher floor and is making less. Why do people not like it?

I think people, people don't like it for a couple reasons. Number one is that there isn't anything in Kyler Murray's past where you can circle and say, like, he's won the Super Bowl. So it's not, you have to, you have to use your projection mindset as opposed to, it's sort of like with Darnold. When Darnold got here, it was, well, look, there's a 15 or 20% chance that this just works awesome. and Darnold and his skill set. This would be the best team he's ever had and so forth. But when they signed Arnold, a lot of people said, but he hasn't won in the past,

which is true. And Kyler has won a bit in the past, but he's not won a ton. He doesn't have a winning record for his career. Neither did Matthew Stafford when he went to the Rams, by the way. I'm just saying that a lot of the stuff that you could say about Kyler is also stuff you could say about Matthew Stafford when he went to the Rams. Flawed former number one overall pick whose franchise had come apart. why would they give away that guy?

Well, because their franchise had gone into disrepair and was awful. It was terrible coaching and they had not put a good roster around him and then he was better than he had ever been. There's a lot of examples of this. There's a lot of examples. But I think the main reason why people don't like it is if J.J. McCarthy did not exist and the concept of J.J. McCarthy did not exist. if this was flipped to

24 and let's say there was no quarterbacks in the draft and Kirk had left and Kyler was the next man up I think there'd be a ton of excitement about it but because of the dream of the franchise quarterback draft pick who's here for 15 years is kind of being taken away by Kyler Murray coming in that's where it's hard for people to accept I think because you hung on to the maybe it'll work out, maybe to work out, maybe to work out with

or with McCarthy and they promised and they promised and the team. And I said this last year, well, there's signal in the decision. I mean, they must really believe in him. And I think they did. And it didn't work because it's hard to predict ball. Thank you so much, P. Gullick for the super chat and Diet Dr. Pepper. I do have a, I've been so intently talking about this. I haven't even opened my diet Dr. Pepper.

Maybe give me a second here as we're almost into hour three. I'll probably wrap it up in 15 minutes. I think we've said most of the things that could be said. And then we'll have a lot of good conversations going forward. But overall, I think it should be, it would be a very exciting day if that dream of McCarthy didn't feel like it was dying today. It does my, my argument is that it doesn't have to die today. and that none of us can predict what's going to happen next. But it feels like it.

And a lot of people really, really wanted that to work out and really wanted to be going into this year, building more around J.J. McCarthy, not going into this year getting someone else's quarterback. That's, that's why it feels bad for some Vikings fans. I think for the ones who maybe have looked into Kyla Murray and watched him play and know his talent, then it's an exciting day.

It's like, okay, like offense back. Offense is back in Minnesota with Kyler Murray. This guy can lead, I believe in 2021, they were the 11th best offense. He can lead a top 12 offense in the league with the right circumstances. He is capable of that. Is he capable of leading the number one offense? Probably not. But top 15?

I think so. Shadow dark, do you think that Murray will recruit DeAndre Hopkins for a year? Possibly, I could see it if Hopkins wants to play. clearly he, yeah, sorry, you guys are funny. Cleveland is a Pro Bowl quarterback. Yes, they do. They do have a Pro Bowl quarterback. Yep.

If Hopkins wants to play, I don't know what his situation is. If DeAndre Hopkins wants to play or not. If he does, they are lacking a wide receiver three. They could use him. Alex, you know, being intense, intentionally, like, disingenuous with your points. is always something that's, I don't understand why people do it. Like, J.J. McCarthy had a better record than Kyler Murray last year. Well, Kyler Murray played five games last year and we all have eyeballs.

Come on, man. We got to, we got to be better than that. This chat has a very high bar. This is a good chat. Folks, you may have noticed by all of my old football references that I have reached the age where my friends and I are complaining about hairlines as much as we talk about football these days. But here's the thing. Why be down on yourself or frustrated when there are answers. Maybe back in my favorite era of football, the 90s, the hair loss products were not so legit.

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We need a third quarterback. Yeah, I agree with that. I don't agree with Kyler Murray being made of glass. He had a, he had one injury. It was an ACL that took out half of one year and half of the other year. And this year, he was fine. It was a foot injury would have kept him out for a little bit, but he was fine. They did it on purpose.

They, and it was right. It was right for them to do. Arizona did it right. Like, Arizona did it right. Why would you play a quarterback who could win games for you? But made of glass is probably too much. I will at some point, BM. I will at some point in Kyler Murray's time here, see if I can ask him if he wants to play chess.

He is a great chess player, Kyler Murray. I am good. I am a 90th percentile at rapid chess on chess.com, but he's higher than me. He's really good. Dumer K.O. said, haven't you said players who go to the bench, like McCarthy, have a very low percentage chance of coming back, but it's also his best chance. Can you talk more about that? Yeah, I know that those two things feel like they contradict each other, but I don't think they

actually do because, yes, if you go to the bench as a starting quarterback who is drafted to be the franchise guy, your odds of succeeding are just not high. I mean, that's, that's reality, right? But with this particular situation, it's a little different because of the injuries that McCarthy has had throughout his career. And it does feel like it's happening more often than ever where players have gone to the bench and then improved and come back. And, you know, they've often done it with different franchises. But you don't have, sorry, the diet, Dr. Pepper. You don't have to, you don't have to do it with a different franchise. You don't have to.

It could be that it still works out here. I mean, think about, so there's no tag clause, think about if Kyler Murray plays well and he wins 10 games, but he's not that great and they win a lot with defense. And then they love what they've seen from McCarthy. And let's say Murray gets hurt a couple times and McCarthy comes in and plays five games. It looks great. They go back to McCarthy then.

Like it doesn't have to be over. It's just that the odds do not point in your favor. when you play your first 10 games like this. And I've mentioned this before. I mean, I've looked this up. If you're not a number one through five draft pick and you play like this in your first 10 games, you don't last very long. That's just the numbers.

BGZ wants Miles Price on the field a little more. Yeah, I could see that. He's good with, I don't Graham. He's good with the ball in his hands. John, how much better does Kyler make our defense if he maintains low turnover rate and picks up first downs with his feet? That's a great point. That is a great point that last year, they were one of the worst teams in the league in terms of being on the field.

And one thing that you, you know, they'll talk about, you'll see critics of Kyler's talk about while his downfield passing and so forth. But his short passing is phenomenal. And that's first downs. And if you watch the interview with Alex Clancy the other day, the analyst who covers Arizona, he talked about this. Like, you're going to get third and six where he throws it past the sticks. and gets a first down and keeps the drive moving. It's just, I think last year especially, they had trouble creating, in 2024 to some extent,

they had trouble creating explosive plays. I mean, the Vikings have receivers who can help with that, but it is more of a Murray thing to check it down, get the first down and keep moving. Staying on the field, not turning it over, not taking sacks, scrambling for first downs. It's a big deal. I think that can definitely help when it comes to,

when it comes to the defense. that Brian Flores will be happy. B-4-9-13 are the Vikings mostly inactive due to them not having a GM or do the Wulfs not want to spend money? Well, I think partly inactive because they didn't know what their quarterback situation was. Like, imagine Kyler said no and went to the Steelers. Then you've probably got to spend $15 million on Aaron Rogers or something or 15 million on Kirk Cousins or get their car and you need cap space.

That's probably one of the reasons. I think the other reason is the Wills have spent. so much money that they might also be saying, look, we've given you everything that you need here, make it work. And that's, that's fair. You know, when it comes to spending in free agency, it's always a buyer beware. It's always kind of risky. Begizi, how should they look to improve the team now? I think you need to look at what's left in free agency and start talking about who can fill roles that you're not getting the way that things have gone, how quick guys have come off the board, you're not getting a bunch of megastars in free agency, which usually you're not

anyway, but you're definitely not now. So who can fill a role? Who can be Eric Wilson? Who can be Isaiah Rogers? Who can be that guy in free agency? And I'll have to look. I've been a little wrapped up today right now talking to you guys. But I will take a look where the dust has settled and who might be last.

of someone who maybe only played 30 or 40% of snaps. But, you know, I mentioned Jonathan Bullard. Someone like that. Deshawn Hand is out there. That's a guy who can stuff gaps. Like, okay, that helps. Stuff gaps. That helps.

How about a wide receiver who can give you X number of snaps? And then you're going to have to find some guys through the draft. That's really it because they don't have a lot of money, but they do have the ability to find guys who could be role players. who can be useful. Taylor says KOC has shown interest in all types of quarterbacks, cousins, JJ, Darnold Richardson, May. He doesn't paint himself into a corner.

He just wants a guy with talent. And Kyler has that. I agree with that. Yep. I totally agree with that. The idea that, and that's like the Derek Carth thing, the idea that he doesn't like running quarterbacks,

then why were they interested in drafting Anthony Richardson or J.J. McCarthy? McCarthy is a running quarterback. He's a scrambler. Dan, why did J.J. seem to have a lot of block passes at the line. Is Kyler a yard farther back in the shotgun? No, I think the issue. So I look this up with Kyler and his batted passes rate.

It's not that, it's not that high. It's average for batted passes rate. The reason that that McCarthy kept getting passes batted down, I think one is that he telegraphs and takes, like, his wind up, the way that it goes down and then comes back up. I think that that telegraphs to defensive players. I mean, you're dealing with guys who have unbelievable. like identification ability and quick twitch and everything.

They see the ball go down. They know it's coming one way or the other. The hands go up. The other thing was it was only for a section of the season that he had that problem. And he was sort of hop skipping and jumping up toward the line. You'd see him. He'd drop back and he would settle. And then he would like jump forward.

And that's how he hit his hand a couple of times. He would run forward to throw the ball when he could have just thrown it. And, you know, Kyler just doesn't have. have these problems. Kyler is a really good thrower. Thrower of the football, really good thrower. Now, a deep ball, he's been not letting it rip a lot. There are times when he gets some pushback and he throws off his back foot and the ball rises on him. I've seen that happen a couple times. But when he steps into a throw, he's like dead eye accurate between zero and probably 15 yards. Out routes, guys coming over the middle, guys like stop routes, where someone will

run 10 yards, turn around and stop. Trey McBride, bang, it'll hit him right in between the numbers. Like, he can execute all that stuff. But that's the main reason with McCarthy, I think. Moral, the Viking schedule isn't all that easy with the in-division games. Of course, yeah, it's true. Easy five wins out of the division, probably more. Yeah, I haven't looked in depth at who they're playing yet,

but if it's the NFC self, I mean, that's a beatable division kind of across. the board there. Johnny, do you like Kenyon Sadiq or third wide receiver more in the draft? Ooh, great question. Great question. Great question. So I love Kenyon Sadiq. I think that he's awesome. I watched a bunch of Oregon. I've looked at a bunch of his games. And I've just really liked what I've seen. I mean, he's such a crazy athlete with the ball in his hands. He can run routes. he can make contested catches. But a lot of this, a lot of the NFL now is, like, can you as a tight end go a little farther

down the field, which he can, and then can you run after catch? That's Colston Loveland, that's Sam Leporta. He's phenomenal running after the catch. He's a nightmare to tackle. People have pointed this out. He's the same size as Derek Henry. So I might like Kenyon Sadiq. I like the idea of multiple tight ends on the field, improving the run game, being under center

more, protecting your quarterback better with. all the blitzes and rushes that are coming. So I like Sadiq a little bit more, but you're never going to talk me out of a wide receiver. That's for sure. Vikings, TW says, teams like good players go all the time. We did it last year.

Oh, yeah, that's true. But usually, that's the problem is that usually they don't. So you only get a handful of good players that are in, that are in a free agency. Alex says Murray was terrible last season. If you don't know that, you clearly didn't watch the games. My friend, my friend. Do you think I didn't watch the games?

I have spent probably, I don't even know, at least 10 hours over the last week, not only watching back his five games from last year, but also cutting them up using technology and then putting little arrows in them. So when I do my film stuff, I can point out stuff to the audience about how Kyler Murray played. If you don't know that he played well last year, then you didn't watch the games. He had a terrible game against the Seattle Seahawks. He's not the first one. And the rest of his performances were either solid or very good.

He was very good against Carolina, a playoff team. He was solid against New Orleans. He was solid to very good against San Francisco, left some meat on the bone in that game because they were getting killed by Nick Bosa. And what was the other one? Oh, Seattle was a tough game. And the Tennessee game is ridiculous. That's the one where the guy, instead of scoring a touchdown,

just drops the ball. So Kyler Murray doesn't get touched out. And there's some drops and there's some bad blocking. And there's some stuff that you're going to somehow blame on Kyler Murray. They're definitely, well, how about EPA? Everybody loves that EPA staff.

What's the EPA for a guy who's supposed to walk into the end zone and then fumbles it on the back of the end zone and then Murray gets blamed out by EPA? EPA is so bad for individual player analysis. It's just so bad for analyzing one. player because it's a team stat. EPA will tell you a lot from a team. Aaron says thoughts on how Rob has been doing with the cap and signings. I mean, look, I expected them to do more. I'm sure that you guys did too. Working out Hawkinson to stay, working out Jones to stay based on other options. Maybe I would have liked Rashad White better, but I mean,

they want someone who could pass protect. They want someone who can catch. They love Aaron Jones. so they decided to do that. They've kept it all together for the most part. I don't know that we can do a huge analysis other than to say that he hasn't given away the future. They haven't made any dumb signings, but they certainly have not moved the needle in the right direction outside of quarterback. What I think is they're showing is they believed that this group could win if they have

the right quarterback play. That's what they're showing us. Neil, I'm still a JJ believer. I think that they had to make this move, though. I think that they should keep. McCarthy and see what happens next year, it's likely they're going to get, he's going to get a chance, even at some point as a backup quarterback. Neil, how dare you be rational?

That seems like a very rational take. I've never said that anybody who believes in McCarthy should stop, that you should just burn your jersey. I've never said that. I've always said, see what happens. See where this goes with McCarthy. But you need to be able to win with all these good players now. Roderick, if we can get love in the draft, greatest show on turf part two.

Roderick is very excited about Kyler Murray, apparently. How about if they got Jeremiah Love in the draft? I could see them being a top 10 offense. I just am having trouble figuring out how you do that without selling out for the future. That's the concern there. Gizincad, how much would it suck if the main part of your offseason plan backs out

right before free agency starts? I mean, failed their physical. Yeah, yeah, yeah. the Ravens who let all their players go in free agency and then couldn't get the guy that they traded for. Or, I mean, the Raiders get Max Crosby back. So I mean, they would have rather had the first round picks. But I do think that they had to protect themselves against that.

I mean, if they were sitting there thinking, we'll probably get Kyler Murray. But if we don't, then what happens? Then you're up a creek. And, you know, you've got some, you've got some serious problems there. Johnny is Kyler better in 12 personnel. I don't know that he has played a ton of 12 personnel. I haven't looked up their personnel groupings. They did more of that with Drew Petzing,

but it was a lot of three wide receivers. It was a lot of spreading the field and treating McBride like a wide receiver, Trey McBride. So I think that there will be an adjustment there, but he did play under center. And there are plays where he runs a very traditional undercenter. play action bootleg and completes a seven-yard pass to the underneath route. And you're like, yeah, that's it.

Like, he's going to do that with the Vikings and he's done it here. And I think they will use two tight ends a lot in this offense with Oliver. If they got Kenyon Sadiq, that would be crazy with the three tight ends running in and out. But why not? It'll be a little bit different, I think, but that's where the league is headed. And he's had to play in, you know, a number of different types of offenses already in his career. so there should be some adjustments to what he likes. There should be some adjustments to play off the run game more than he's been able to.

Who is who's Arizona's? I mean, okay, James Connor's pretty good. He's had some good seasons. But it's not like the guy has had Peak Delvin Cook or Adrian Peterson or something back there. It's not like they've had great run games either. Doom or K.O. We still have to extend O'Neill.

I agree with that. Definitely agree with that. See, TJ, this is not true. He said too bad KOC doesn't like checkdowns. He was urging. last year. I mean, he was urging J.J. McCarthy to check down. He likes T.J. Hawkinson catching the ball. Dumer K.O., I wonder what they're thinking for 2027, 33% on each Kyler Murray, J.J. McCarthy, and draft quarterback. Oh, that's a good pie chart. Let's think about that.

Let's think about that. That is a good pie chart. What they're thinking of, uh, 2027, I would go, I'd go a little higher on Kyler, a little lower on McCarthy, and a little higher. on draft. I would go 50, no, 40% Kyler, 20% McCarthy and 40% draft a quarterback is how I would do that. Oh, I should leave something open for the mystery. How about, how about 35 and 35 and 10% for mystery? Mystery quarterback X. Chris says Vikings fan.

not a particular quarterback fan. Let's give ourselves the most chances of a franchise quarterback. Murray is one, JJ is another. Let's trade for a 2027 first and get even another chance. You make a good point there, Chris, that it is the Minnesota Vikings. I know I've said it before. It's not the Minnesota McCarthy's. It's not the Minnesota Murray's.

But quarterback is very much a big part of the identity of the franchise. no matter who you have. So I understand where people get very locked in and believe when it comes to, you know, certain quarterbacks that you get very attached to the, not only the quarterback, but the idea of the quarterback. Look, go look at Chicago and how their fans reacted to Justin Fields being moved on from. I mean, they knew they were getting Caleb Williams, but before that they were convincing themselves that Justin Fields was their franchise

quarterback, even though he had done nothing. uh, B.m. Oh, you're barely over a thousand. A thousand Elo is good in chess. A thousand Elo is good. I'm 1,200. So, you know, I mean, none of us are, none of us are the grandmasters. Uh, J.D. Q, K, B. Mike, you've been doing a good job of addressing the situation. Keep up the good work. Thank you. I appreciate that. Very nice. I don't know what this means. Dumer K. I don't know what name mugged is. I feel like I see this now all over the place. Like, what is that?

I don't even know what that is. Chris, personally, I don't care who the quarterback is as long as they're good. Yeah. Well, that's the thing, right? Is that you're going to 100%, 10% burrow. Thank you. You know what? That does become more realistic after this year.

I'm just saying. Just saying. SWAT has wanted Max Betterson, the fullback. He did talk at the Combine, I think. friends of Taz, maybe they should have kept Quasi till free agency was over. He was decent at finding free agents. Oh, I've found that to be really a funny thing that's happened is that when a couple of these guys have gotten cut, it's been see how bad Quasi was.

It's like, now, wait a minute, wait a minute, they have gotten way more success out of free agency. You want to talk about the draft. Okay, that was a whole hour long podcast about why they failed in the draft. They failed in the draft. There's no question about that. but free agency? They've had a lot of success in free agency.

They overspent on some guys last year who produced well for them, but not to their dollar figure, but still produced well and helped them get to a top five caliber defense. But yeah, I mean, they've hit way more than they've missed in free agency. No question about that. Trade Shadow Wolf trade Grenard to the Jags for Brian Thomas Jr. If they're going to trade Grenard, I'd want it to be for a high draft pick. Rick, what's next, what free agency move is next?

It's been pretty quiet. That's an understatement, Rick. It's been unbelievably quiet. The next thing, I think, is to start finding guys who have a chance to be role players at a couple of these positions. Well, the next thing is to get Harrison Smith's answer. Are you bringing back Harrison Smith? Because if the secondary is now, let's say Harry comes back. If the secondary is, and I guess, you know, keep your eyes out tomorrow and then we'll know that it had to do the quarterback situation.

But if it's Byron Murphy Jr., Isaiah Rogers, James Pierre draft guy, and Josh Mattelis, Harrison Smith, J. Ward, Theo Jackson, I mean, that's good. That's solid. And it's a bunch of guys who have done it before with this defense. and Harrison Smith will, they'll say, well, you know, we're going to take them off the field sometimes and they ever will. I also think Theo Jackson, it was his first chance ever really playing and can still be a good rotation player. Jay Ward, we saw some steps from. You're going to have to believe in those guys if you're the team, but maybe you draft Dylan Thineman. And safety is the position that steps in faster right away than any other spot when that's been studied.

So I think it's kind of find a veteran defensive tackle. Maybe there's a veteran pass rusher that can be a rotational. guy keep Jonathan Granard for now. I don't see a point in trading him after you've gotten a starting quarterback who you could win with. That's kind of it though. I mean, really the free agency was keeping their own guys. T.J. says, disappointed with the free agency, we didn't bring in anyone.

I don't see any big improvements on positions we needed other than depth. I hope we aren't just relying on the draft. The issue is that any needle movers were expensive and they didn't want to do that. and I'm not trying to say it's great that they didn't have a big free agency. It would have been better if they could have found. I mean, we all made these lists of like, here's, and I, you know, some of my friends and listeners have been reaching out. Like, there goes another guy that you liked.

Like, I know. There goes Luke Fortner. There goes Rashad White. There goes, you know, everyone got to learn who Alohi Gilman was. And like, there he goes. Off the board, off the board, off the board. Come on. Come on, Vikings.

Wake up. go do something. And now the talent in free agency is pretty limited. But it's limited to role players that, well, not exciting, if you get a quality swing tackle that might matter, a run stuffing defensive tackle that might matter, another cornerback or something, a veteran wide receiver three, it might matter.

Maybe it is DeAndre Hopkins. Those tend to be a little bit more effective than, when you're talking about sorry, you guys are funny sometimes, a little bit more effective as signings than when you're talking about some of the bigger ones for the exact reason the teams let go players for a reason. I mean, even the Max Crosby thing.

It was like, whatever you think about what Baltimore did, there was something with the guy's knee. And they're not letting go Max Crosby for no reason. They're all, you know, right? So, a Danley. will COC actually adjust to what Murray does well? I think one of the things that we have to give COC credit for is his ability to communicate. And you can say that he didn't adjust, but from Kirk to Sam Darnold, he did.

And those are real quarterbacks who have played in the NFL before, who were grownups and who knew themselves and were veterans and understood how they played football. When you're talking about, I mean, I don't know who we're referring to even when we say he didn't adjust the offense because he adjusted it for J.J. McCarthy. he just adjusted it in a way that turned out to kind of be revealing about J.J. McCarthy. He should have adjusted it to Carson Wentz, but maybe had they had Carson Wentz in the building for more than five minutes, it would have been easier to adjust for him. 100%. If you want to say he should have adjusted to Josh Dobbs, I guess. He should have adjusted to Carson Wentz. I guess those are bad backup quarterbacks.

No offense to Carson Wentz's career, but was not a good quarterback for the Vikings last year. When it came to Kirk to Sam Darnold, those are very deep. different quarterbacks. Sam Darnold is a beast. He is a top three pick. He's got a huge arm. He will stay in the pocket and let it loose. He will be super risky down the field. Kirk was much more of a game manager, much more of a don't throw into traffic, anticipation thrower because he didn't have the biggest arm, had to kind of rely on play action a lot, that kind of thing. And both of them are very good and played really well under KOC. And yet we use the kid who wasn't ready to play and a guy who they randomly traded for in the middle of the season is the evidence that he can't build an offense.

I think the biggest thing with Kyler is communicating with Kyler. What do you see? What are you comfortable with? How can we take what we do and work it to what you do? The idea that Kyler just takes the snap and runs away is just totally false. It was true in his first year, maybe even his first two years, but it's not true now. He's been an NFL quarterback for a long time. He can run an offense.

But how complicated do you want to make it? He was doing a lot of pre-stap motions, a lot of play actions. He was doing a lot of shotgun play actions for the Arizona Cardinals. Do you want to do that or do you want him under center more? He was under center for 22% of his pass attempts in 2024. And that's not that different from Sam Darnold. I think it was 27%. But in the run game, though, he was not under center a lot for the run.

game, which KOC likes his run game under center. So there are adjustments that are going to have to be made for sure. Cause and effect. Debo, lock it, Dhop, Gabe Davis, do anything for you as a wide receiver three. Well, the concern, emergency drafts him, I guess we should. The concern, we'll do a, we'll do a big draft thing with Kyler Murray in place next week for sure, or whenever. with those guys is like are they washed that's the that's the issue are they washed would you rather

have a draft pick there coach michael says uh kosy wouldn't have picked kiler if he didn't think they could work together i agree i agree with that i mean you are you the one thing that i do think we have to do is give proper respect to you don't have to say that like kosey's a perfect coach. I spend a lot of my time picking apart the things that are not perfect. But we do have to give respect to that he knows a lot about quarterbacks. And, well, his mistake was believing too much in J.J. McCarthy and too much in the projection of what McCarthy had shown him in 2024 training camp and maybe not believing enough in Sam Darnold when it came to the longer term, although there's economics at play.

there that are different than this. This is one million dollars. We do have to recognize that he has watched every single play with better eyes than any of us will ever watch anything, right? He has watched every single play. He's looked at every single number. He knows way more people than we do. He knows way more about offense than we do about how to work to Kyler Murray's strengths. He knows people, including Cliff Kingsbury, who have coached Kyler Murray before. This is a decision that KOC didn't wake up yesterday and be like, you know what? What's that little guy doing? We do have to give the proper credit, right?

I am curious about, now that a fan duel has its over, under's up, what do you guys think of that eight and a half number? Since we're going to, since we're continuing the conversation, I'm really enjoying it. This is an exciting day. We're on to hour four here. I don't care. This is exciting.

I haven't eaten anything in a long time. But I got my diet, Dr. Pepper here. We're doing good. Poor Jonathan Harrison, producer of the show is going to have to cut up four hours of this. Anyway, de-hop to the Vikings, I guess we'll see. I think that's a fine idea as a wide receiver three. Friends of Taz, do you think not having actual GM that has connections and has a plan,

is hurting them in free agency? I do not. Because Rob Brzezinski has been around for 30 years. Everybody in the NFL knows him. Every agent knows him. He's been the one negotiating contracts for the Vikings. He knows every single agent. I really truly believe that it was just the fact that they needed to be sure what they were doing a quarterback.

Hunter says it baffles me to see people complain about KOC and pretend like McCarthy was just a goat being held back. It's a psychological thing is what it is. because if you, here, I'll give you an example. I remember when I was a teenager and you used to have to back in my day, you used to have to, and I'm sure that there are better examples than this, but I'll just throw this one out there anyway. You had to go to the record store and buy the CD of the band that you liked. So I remember being a huge fan of a band.

and then they come out with a new album and I drive to the record store. It's 20 minutes away. I grew up in the woods. So it's 20 minutes away. And I end up buying this record and it, I'm listening to it on the ride home. And it's just not good. And in my soul, I knew it wasn't good. I knew it.

I knew it wasn't going well. But I loved this band. And so then I'm talking with my friends, but I'm like, no, no, no, it's better than you think. It's a lot better than you think. This song is fine. This song is our. It's way better than you think. And after a couple listens, I was like, yeah, it's just not that good. I just, I can't, I can't apologize for it. It's a bad album. And I feel like it's the same way with anything that we like and anything we sort of decide that we like. Every Vikings fan love the idea of J.J. McCarthy. and Purple Insiders podcast loved the idea of building around the rookie quarterback contract.

I was the person that with the largest hammer available was banging the drum, the biggest drum with the biggest mallet slamming into it. Rookie quarterback contract. Rookie quarterback contract. Look how many times it's worked. That's why you have to move on from Kirk. It's about Kirk's contract. Boom, boom, boom.

I only talked about that for five years, and then they finally did it. And I remember when they drafted McCarthy, I was like, they did it. They finally did this thing that I had been banging the drum for for freaking ever. And now they can really build a good team and they can really have a chance to win. Wow. And it didn't work out. And they moved on from Darnold. And even when they moved on from Darnold, I know that I was in the camp of,

I think this is kind of unfair to Sam Darnold. And maybe you should keep him. But I also thought, well, if they really believe in this, then this is, again, great for the franchise. They've got their guy, rookie quarterback contract. But here's the thing. With Kyler Murray, the twist to this is that you still have that advantage. They didn't have to tear down their team. They still have the team that played for them last year that they had built around J.J.

McCarthy minus Hargrave and Allen. But, I mean, that's, I mean, I'm not saying it's not a decent size loss, but it's not like they had to tear the team down. to afford the quarterback. They have Kyler Murray basically on the rookie quarterback contract for this year. Then it gets more complicated. So, uh, coach Michael, all this talk about KOC adjusting, can't the quarterback adjust to the offense, the offense works. Kyler is talented enough to make it work.

Well, you can't play it the same way you play with Sam Darnold. So you do have to, it's a give and take. Yep, it's a good, it's a given take. Is that Meister? Get Debo cheap and play him out of the backfield as well. if Debo can stay healthy, that would be the concern. That would be the concern. I'm glad that you get the, the album example.

You've all been there, right? You've all been there. You've all had that, you've all, an actor you love. Hey, it's my favorite series of movies because now, like, every movie has to have like three or four different versions of it. Like, oh, I love the first two. I'll, I'll tell you something. here we are very deep into this conversation. I really liked pitch perfect one and two.

Pitch Perfect three was terrible. And there's a part of you that wants to like it just because you like the first two. You liked the idea of it. You liked the Godfather one and two was probably better than pitch perfect. But if you don't think pitch perfect one was good, then I don't know what you're talking about. But, you know, God, I wanted to love Godfather three. It's just not good.

And about halfway through the movie, you're like, this is going okay. this is all right and that was last year it's still all right he he came back and had a good game against detroit it's all right well it wasn't really all right the good thing about a movie versus or an album versus uh j j mccarthy is that the band doesn't have to be done playing music forever uh because they make an album that didn't work out right away a lot of debut albums in fact have not been great and then bands have turned out to be really good so uh i did uh i did uh i have have aged myself many times on the show. But you're right.

Yeah. Driving, driving 20 minutes to a CD store is certainly an experience that people should still have. Buy albums, my friends. Own something. Feel the music. Care about it. See it as art.

Anyway, Coach Michael says third place schedule. We won nine games with the first place schedule and the worst QB play in Viking's recent history. Yeah, I know. I mean, and I don't think that's an illogical take because they haven't really changed much about the team. Now, some things that went right last year have to go right again, but a lot also went wrong last year, a lot early in the season, a lot of injuries. Chris, on the Fandul question about over under eight and a half, smash the over on eight and a half. This team is really any worse than the one week 17 last year.

No, I mean, they're definitely not that much worse. Somebody dooredash the man of pizza. Oh, yeah, that's a great idea. I will, uh, I'll probably, I'll probably smash a pizza after this. But I'm enjoying the conversation. Buy vinyl. Totally agree. Um, spend some master puppets tonight.

Yep. Someday I'll, I'll, someday I'll get the guitar down here and play you guys master puppets. Pitch perfect was good, not perfect. That's funny. Uh, E. Brack. Why do some people think that they, would trade J.J. McCarthy makes no sense at all. The only, man, Chris, you just nailed, you nailed my humor with the exactly what I was going for. I can't believe someone got the

reference. The Simpsons with the ham, with the pig. It's still good. It's still good. That was kind of the J.J. McCarthy experience last year. The only scenario that you trade J.J. McCarthy is, let's say that Kevin O'Con, like, let's say J.J. McCarthy comes to you and says, I'm not going to be Kyler Murray's backup. Just trade me. So you call up the, let's just say the Jets. I don't know. The Jets have Gino now. So maybe they like, let's say call the Browns.

Let's say you call the Browns and the Browns are like, you know what? We will do a trade with you. Number your second round pick or even how about number 18 and J.J. McCarthy for our, I don't know where they pick. It's always high. Fifth, fourth, whatever. It's always in the top. We'll trade you our top draft pick to move back to 18. give us JJ McCarthy.

And that's if McCarthy goes to them and says, I will never play quarterback for you guys ever again for benching me. I'm done with you. I'm out. I'm not committed to this franchise at all. I'm not going to develop under you. You've disrespect. If that was,

I don't think that's the case, but let's just say it was, okay, fine, train to Cleveland. Then I would do that. Height says Hargrave, Alan Naylor, Ryan Wright, C.J. Ham, Harrison Smith, maybe Ryan Kelly.

Not the legit upside this far from the same team. It's not, I mean, that you're I mean look I've said the punter's important but you're you're talking about and and I've said C.J. Ham is important but you're talking about the number three receiver two underachieving defensive tackles a center that never played anyway Harrison Smith's very important and that's kind of it's kind of a reach. C.M. Boer earns another Simpsons reference do we get Richardson. I'm all for it. Fifth round draft pick for Richardson. Sixth round draft pick for Richardson. I don't I don't, I'm not against that.

Welcome to your, to your first live stream. Thank you. Go for who? Sorry about the gophers yesterday. I tune in for one gopher men's basketball game and they collapse immediately. Garrett, where would McCarthy get traded to?

Yeah, I think Cleveland's the option. I mean, who's left that needs, Arizona. Arizona needs a quarterback. Luke, I guess we still have Carson Wentz is the third option.

I'm good with doing that. Absolutely good with going with Carson. wins. Get Debo cheap. Yeah, I mean, I don't mind the idea. It's just the injuries. Oh, wow. Scolgers rise. Thank you so much for the super chat. Wow, really appreciate that. Really appreciate that. I will enjoy a pizza. Maybe I'll even get some wings now on you. Thank you so much. The Browns pick sixth. Okay. I knew it. I knew they were picking high. He does have touch. Oh, he certainly has touch. Yeah.

It's just a little airborne. That's honestly one of my favorite lines of all time. Still buy a lot of CDs. That's good. Mike says, do you think Kyler's legs can be used in the design run game or is he just a scrambler? I think he's just, I think he's more of a scrambling. I think most of his run game is scrambling.

They might do some stuff where maybe it's like an RPO type of thing. But the most of the run game that I've seen of him on tape is he drops back and somebody wins up front quickly and then he just dodges them and runs for 20 yards. That happens a lot. But also some of his run game is on the negative side. See, this is the thing about Kyler is anybody who presents Kyler is like a perfect quarterback and like greatest show on turf as somebody said earlier. He's like, oh, okay, let's reel it in a little because there are a lot of plays where

Kyler scrambles too early, where he drops back and he doesn't really stick with the play and just sort of, all right, I'm just going to bail. There's too many of those plays. That's still, that definitely still happens. Shadow Darks has started watching Kyler's highlights and has some great wide receivers. Hopkins, Christian Kirk, AJ Green, Larry Fitzgerald, but seems that his deep ball is not good, only short and mid. So his deep ball, if you're watching 2021 highlights, then his, his deep ball is fantastic in

2021. He was very, very successful. And I think he had a 99 grade. on PFF in 2021. But recently, no. And the guys you're naming, Christian Kirk is not good. He was good with Kyler,

but he's not proven to be that good. AJ Green was 100. Larry Fitzgerald was 100. No disrespect. But recently, though, I mean, Marvin Harrison, Jr., I was kind of mortified watching Marvin Harrison,

Jr. doesn't separate, doesn't catch the ball, just not the guy that they said he was going to be. Which, you know, everybody's been through. You know, everybody's picked somebody that was supposed to be great and didn't turn out to be. Dumer K.O. Trade McCarthy for a day two pick. You don't have to do that yet. I don't think you have to do that right now.

Johnny says would like nothing more than the OG JJ. Oh, you mean Justin Jefferson? Getting rewarded for his loyalty and professionalism last year. Totally agree. He fought through that last year. Coach Michael, if Felton or Free Agent's competent, TD's incoming. Felton has a chance to develop. I think that they can't rely entirely on him, though, that they also need to add someone else. Jay Lang with the addition of Kyler is the spiritual continuation of what could have been

with Dante Culpepper. I think they're very different. Dante Culpepper was a crazy talent, but he turned the ball over too much, for sure, fumbled way too much and was, majorly up and down, but also had one of the sickest deep balls that's ever existed in the NFL. That's not really, Kyler, but it is similar to that's the first real scrambler that they've had in a long time. Adams says Harrison made a decision by this time last year.

Looks like he's waiting on the draft to decide. Yeah, I mean, that could be, I don't know if he'd be waiting on the draft because they're not going to replace him. Like, he's going to, if they draft someone, he'll just play with that person. He might have been waiting for the quarterback situation. I don't want to try to speak for Harrison, though. But if it happens tomorrow, I kind of will think that. Mama, wait, we're trading for McCarthy. No, no, no.

They're not trading McCarthy. It's just being thrown out there. Is that an idea? Corey, does it seem like they're giving up on this season? After all, you said they're paying McCarthy like he's a, or Murray, like he's on a rookie contract, but they didn't spend money to keep free agents. Well, they, I mean, they kept Eric Wilson. They kept T.J. Hawkinson.

Aaron Jones. I think most of the spending was really last year, were on multi-year contracts. But I also think that the major reason, I mean, one is they didn't have any cap space. It's very hard to go into free agency and get a bunch of people when you don't have cap space. If you're trying to be ethical about it at all.

I mean, if you're just throwing away the future, then, yeah. But I mean, this season for sure, I mean, you're only talking about the person who just named the people you lost. It's only the two DTs. Jalen Naylor does matter, but didn't catch 30 passes last year. I mean, he's good and I'll stand on that. But, you know, that can be replaced. And the punter and your fullback. And those guys deserve all the credit in the world.

But again, those are people that you can find other players to do those jobs. Everything else is pretty much in place from last year. And I think there will be some additions now that they have this settled, that there will be some guys that they add. Coach Michael thoughts on how much the receivers will have to adjust with Kyler leaving the pocket early. How do you practice? Yeah, I mean, that's something like the scramble drill is a thing that everybody does. It does take some adjustment. I think what's going to take some adjustment from Jefferson probably and Addison is when Kyler Murray drops back,

he might just run on you. Like you might be running your route and be like, oh, I won my route. And he might be gaining seven yards at a run. And you're like, wait, what happened? there is a little bit of that from some of his receivers on tape where they're looking back like I was open. There's definitely some of that with Kyler Murray. There's a play right off the bat against the New Orleans Saints where he has two different open options down the field and he just scrambles for like five yards.

And on the tape, you're watching and going, dude, that's there. So there's going to be some of that. I don't think it's going to mean, I think Jefferson's going to get the ball. I think he's going to get the ball a lot. but there will be times where I think the wide receivers will have to deal with that, that he's just going to run sometimes. Okay, Jamie Gillen and Thomas Morrsted, top hunters. Morsted, a Viking game legend from the Minneapolis miracle.

Height says the Vikings have effectively nuked their young quarterback plans. We're back on the QB carousel. It's comfy here. Well, they wouldn't have done it if they felt like their young quarterback had played well to give them any sort of confidence that they could go forward. That's the part I don't understand. What would you like them to do? I mean, I know, yes, you'd like them to just stick with McCarthy until the whole franchise

burns to the ground. But like, how can you do that in their position? When a quarterback plays like that, how can you say, hey, just go with that. Just go with that still. I mean, what usually happens when a team sticks with a young quarterback and it doesn't work out is that everyone gets fired, right? You can't do that. In addition, having Murray on a one-year deal kind of feels like setting us up to clean house next year.

Yeah. I mean, this is, this is, we've gotten to the fork in the road and they're going to win or they're, they're probably in for a reset with the roster one way or another. So they're going to win with this group or they're not going to win with this group. That's it. This year is at the end of that, end of that road in a lot of ways. and Justin Jefferson's either going to be here long-term or who knows. And, you know, like, that's, there's a lot at stake.

KOC's going to be the long-term coach or who knows with the results from this year. You can't put that all on a guy who played as badly as McCarthy did last year. I mean, anybody who's saying anything else is gaslighting you. I mean, the numbers are what they are. I can't change them for you, even if you want them to. I can't, I can't in any sort of objective way, screw around with the numbers and try to shift them over here and paint them this way or that way, they are what they are. The team is making this decision for a very clear reason because McCarthy

played as one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL last year. They ranked 28th in passing EPA. I mean, what, what do you want? Do you want him to take this roster and risk just completely falling apart with it all that they invested $300 million in? Or do you want to give it a chance? That's really the options here. Chris says if I was Harrison Smith, I keep myself in shape and come back when there's seven and four. And maybe he wants to do that. That's not a bad idea. Minnesota, Mike, what does PFF say about Kyler Murray's ability to throw intermediate and deep over the middle of the field?

Deep over the middle of the field did not happen recently a lot. Most of their deep stuff were to the outsides, but intermediate over the middle of the field, he graded fine, if not good. And, I mean, I can show you this. I can just show it to you. rather than why don't I show instead of tell? We have it right here. Well, let's look at 2024 as a full season.

And we'll look back at 2025, but it's a shorter season. Passing depth right here. So the deep stuff is overstated because his passing grade. See, this is a thing. This is a receiver stat sometimes. Then this is why EPA kind of stinks because Kyler Murray, by the way, only 10% of the passes travel over 20 yards, which is a very similar mark to Kirk Cousins. So 90% people are obsessing over how does he throw over 20 yards when 10% of the throws are that.

But his grade was 78.7, which is okay. And yet he only completed 34% of his passes, which to me says you're not getting a lot of contested catch opportunities because at least some of the throws were there. But if you look at the intermediate here, 86.9 grade in 2024, it's 20% of his throws. and the short stuff we've talked about 79.1 grade, where is making up 66% of his throws are highly graded areas for him. And numbers wise, 104 and 96 quarterback rating, those are good numbers. And when we go to the intermediate to the middle of the field, 30 for 41 in the between 10 and 20,

or between, yeah, 10 and 20 yards, 11 yards per attempt, 87.8 rating. and when you look over here, a 123.3 quarterback rating when throwing in the intermediate middle of the field. So this idea that he just cannot do it is just false. Now, it only made up 7.6% of his passes. Now, if you look at the short and the middle, and I looked at these numbers, and I'll show it to you,

Kyler Murray threw in the middle of the field 25.5% short. and so this is beyond the sticks, 25.5% plus 7.6% that is 32, 33.1% of the time. So keep that number in your mind that beyond the sticks. Oh, and then he threw 0.6 deep. So that's what I mean, never deep over the middle. That just didn't happen.

Apparently he had three big time throws when he did it, but it just didn't happen. So, okay, add that point six. So that's like 34% of the time. All right, keep that in your mind. 34% of the time Kyler Murray threw past the sticks and in the middle of the field. Let's look at Sam Darnold, 2004 and see how often he did it.

Sam Darnold, 2000, I got 24, yeah, 24, 2024. So we've got short over the middle. He didn't do short that much, 18%. And 12.1, that is 30.1. And then 5.7 is 36.8. So we're talking about the difference of throwing over the middle past the sticks of being basically 34 to 37%. That's the difference between Sam Darnold, 2024, throwing past the sticks over the middle

and Kyler Murray throwing past the sticks over the middle, like 3% of passes. So some of the stuff that's out there is just like not really true. So can we do a mock draft? Yes, we can. Let's end on this. Let's do a draft sim. That's a great idea. Where's my draft sim?

Where do my draft sim go? Oh, come on. So too many tabs. I'm surprised the live stream even works with this many tabs. All right. Oh, thank you. Uh, thank you, pizza, Gary. Thank you so much for the,

for the super chat. You're the best, man. Unnecessary, but let me share the bigger screen. Unnecessary. I always say that. I will answer anybody's questions as much as I possibly can. Uh, user PS, listen to you every day since 2020. Wow.

Thank you. How many. wins for the Vikings next year, I will go 10. That's my, right now, that is my prediction. I will go 10 is my prediction for next year. But a lot to, a lot to go. Thank you so much, though, for everybody for the super chats. You guys are amazing.

All right, let's drafts him. Kyler Murray drafts him. Let's go three rounds. The Vikings also have a comp pick so all of you can sleep at night. Let's add a little bit of randomness, draft for needs, a little more, positional value, a little more. Okay, let's fire it. up. So I'm not going to trade up for Jeremiah Love. I'm just going to let

whatever happens happens. Top of the draft, Mendoza, Ruben Bain. Jeremiah Love goes forth to the Titans. It just feels like it's written, doesn't it? Caleb Downs, Sonny Stiles, kind of the expected players, anybody dropping. Oh, Kenyon Sadeek off the board and Dylan Thineman off the board and Caleb Banks. Dang. All right. So where are we at now? Freeling has dropped. That's interesting as a tackle because they do have some tackle questions. I don't think I can do that right now, though, with the tackle situation. I'm kind of going to let that play out with Brian O'Neill, but if he doesn't sign an extension, you might consider going with Monroe Freeling. Mackay Lemon at, oh, that is enticing to go with Mackay Lemon as a wide receiver

three and then up to wide receiver two if they move on from Addison. Jermad McCoy, corner. Emmanuel McNeil Warren's safety, Avion Terrell Corner, Cassius Howl, Edge Rusher, if they move on from Jonathan Grenard, Omar Cooper, who I really like, T.J. Parker, Edge Rusher, Caden MacDonald, and Peter Woods, defensive tackles, Colton Hood, Caden Proctor. Man, if they needed that. Okay, we've got a lot of players on the board here. And what I think is, I don't know if I want to take Mackay Lemon.

It does have great numbers. I don't know if I want to take Mackay Lemon right here. It's kind of hard not to. Oh, man, I kind of feel like I want to because the uncertainty with Addison and Naylor is gone. I think I'm just going to do this. I think I mean, if I'm the bang the drum all the time for the receiver person and Mackay Lemon drops, but let's take a look at the wide receiver board and who's got a chance to potentially be there in the second? Because you have Omar Cooper, Denzel Boston, Casey Concepcion, Jeremy Bernard, Chris Bell,

there's a lot of talent. Elijah Surat, I like, Ackerya Branch I like. Maybe I just love all the wide receivers. Do you want to go with Jermad McCoy, who didn't play last year, but played really well in 2024, had the injury?

Do you want to go with Avion Terrell? Let's see what's on the trade market. How far can we trade down? 31 feels like too far. That's the only trade offer on the board. So let's make the decision and go with McKay Lemon. A now and later pick helps Kyler Murray right now, and definitely later into the future would help them if they're going to move on from Jordan Addison.

All right. Second round, a couple of receivers on the board. Jacob Rodriguez, the linebacker. I'm intrigued. A.J. Halsey, I think might be my pick here to go with a safety, regardless of what happens. Let's see. I don't really know much. I got to look more into the edge rushers now.

I don't know how to pronounce. Is it Yacchus? Gabe Yacus? That might be worth it. The edge rushing situation. Janarian Price is hard to pass up on. But I think I'm going to go AJ Halsey, the safety from LSU in the second round.

Because regardless of whether Harrison comes back or not, they're going to need that. Okay. Now we're on to the third round. Is this where, well, we can get Connor Liu? I'm definitely interested in Connor Lou. Jake Slaughter is here. Jonah Coleman, Malachi Fields.

LT Overton, the edge rusher might need that. Antonio William, well, we already drafted a wide receiver. Got some interesting prospects here, but I feel like the center is the right way to go. I know Connor Lou's coming off the injury, but he's going to want to develop anyway. Let's go with, well, let's see. Gosh, there are a lot of good edge rushers here. Karon Crawford. Ooh, 18% pass rush win rate?

That's going to be hard to pass up, my friend. friends. That's going to be hard to pass up. Do you go with the center or do you go with the edge rusher? Third round edge rusher or center? Well, I'm going to go edge rusher. I'm going to go Karon Crawford now that we're thinking about the long term of that position. Oh, I can still get the center now. I can get Slaughter or Lou. I like Jake Slaughter for this. Oh, Bryce Lance, but we've already got our receiver. There's so many receivers. Let's take Jake Slaughter and look at our draft. All right.

Grade the draft. I went Mel, Mackie Lemon with the first round pick, just couldn't pass them up. Too good. Too much of a need long term. AJ Halsey, the safety from LSU,

Kron Crawford, and Edge Rusher from Auburn and Jake Slaughter, who I've drafted in every single one of these. Oh, did I, uh, did I close out? Let's see. Sorry, I close, I think I close out the chat.

Big black box. Okay. closed out the chat sorry about that that's the second time i've done that today okay so uh what do you think oh yeah mike washington only a c do i like stowers kind of i wonder if he's more athlete and he's not quite ready yet so should have traded down in round three fair enough fair enough fair enough okay so uh i'm gonna wrap it up for now and here's what we're going to do i've got plans to get that'd be a great draft. Okay.

I always love the variance of opinions. So if you're rewatching this and you made it to the end, oh my gosh, you're insane. But also answer the Fanduil question of the day, which is eight and a half is now the Vikings over or under with Kyler Murray. So over or under, eight and a half. Now that Kyler Murray is the quarterback. Not a bad draft.

Lemon could make the Vikings consider dangling Addison. Yeah. Decent draft. Great draft. Okay. You're not, all down on it. That's good. So, okay, we're going to call it a night, but Josh Weinfuss is going to come on the show at

some point, hopefully tomorrow, Arizona reporter for ESPN. I've had a conversation with him already. And Mani Hill is going to react to Kyler tomorrow. And maybe I can even get Murph on for a little roundtable action. So we're going to cover the absolute heck out of this. And now what it means for the draft, what it means for the rest of free agency, will they start making moves? Will Harrison Smith come back. Lots to discuss, everyone. I can't thank you all enough for all of your support and all of your time for the number of folks who have watched the entire time through.

How many podcasts will this be? I think probably three. I think Jonathan's going to break it into three on the audio side. So, but take the over two and a half for sure. You might have to do it to four. I don't know. Those files are going to be really big. But that's all right.

You guys have been phenomenal. Thank you so much. And, hey, fascinating times, my friends. We will talk again very, very soon. It's the Vikings. It's football.