Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Brian Flores interviews for Commanders DC job, Thielen retires (Part 1)

Episode Date: January 15, 2026

Matthew Coller reacts to the Vikings DC Brian Flores interviewing for a "lateral" position for the first time. What are the chances he leaves? Also the Steelers will interview him for their HC job. And Adam Thielen called it a career. Plus some strange new details on Jordan Addison's arrest. 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.

everybody welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar, here. And man, it feels like the offseason has been more eventful than the regular season so far as every single day. There's new layers and new things going on surrounding the Minnesota Vikings. So it is a pretty open show here tonight. And feel free to jump in the comments. I'll answer your questions, thoughts, feelings on everything going. on around the Vikings. Reminder, the show, of course, is always presented by Fandul, and we will have a Fandul question of the day as well. So why don't we begin with the biggest news of the day,

which is regarding Brian Flores and the Washington commanders. So we start out with a report from Ian Rappaport that the Vikings defensive coordinator, Brian Flores, is indeed interviewing with the Commanders for the lateral move that we have discussed many times. Would he actually have any interviews for defensive coordinator positions? Would he actually get to the point where he is a true free agent defensive coordinator? And here is your answer. Yes. So that brings up the question of are the commanders just part of Brian Flores using every bit of leverage that he possibly can?

Or is this a serious possibility that Brian Flores could become the defensive coordinator for the commanders? Now, we haven't heard of other teams yet so far asking about Flores for defense coordinator positions. The Dallas Cowboys have come up many times, but again, they have not officially, as far as we've seen. I guess it's official when Ian Rappaport or Adam Schaefter says it, but we haven't seen any reports about that. their interest in Durante Jones has actually been mentioned. So thus far, as of Wednesday night at 6.38 p.m., we have only the Washington commanders that have brought in Brian Flores for a defensive coordinator interview. And there's so many layers to the Brian Flores situation that I guess we'll try to pick them apart and why he might be interested in potentially becoming the DC of the Washington

commanders. I think it starts out with money, of course, right? I mean, Washington is owned by a guy, Josh Harris, that is worth, at least reportedly, $11 billion. That's a lot of billions of dollars. And the commanders were purchased for $6 billion. He also owns a couple of the teams, I think, the 76ers. And this is one of the wealthier ownerships in the NFL.

This is also a team that was very happy to make the NFC championship game under their new ownership and celebrate that they were without Dan Snyder anymore. We're back to relevancy. Here comes D.C. everybody. Well, you know, take a look at us. And, well, that didn't last very long in part because they were one of the worst defenses in the NFL. Now, a big reason for why they did not get back to the playoffs is, of course, that Jaden Daniels, got hurt, but you saw their defense when they played against the Vikings, the final numbers,

they're at the bottom in pretty much every single category. So this is a team that would be willing potentially to take some kind of big swing, aggressive move. They're in a position where they know that Jane Daniels has these couple of years on the rookie quarterback contract, where they could spend money on the defensive side. Now, they've already spent some money and it hasn't been perfect. But as you know, those teams that have the golden ticket, they can spend, maybe give an opportunity for Brian Flores to build the defense back in his vision. And it represents a team because of Jaden Daniels, because he went to the NFC championship right away in his first season, that has that opportunity to build around him and compete in the NFC East, where you have the Philadelphia Eagles as a team that might be declined.

might be sliding back a little bit. You have the Dallas Cowboys who are perpetually mediocre, even with a very good quarterback and some good weapons. And then the New York Giants will see they reportedly interviewed John Harbaugh, and that could get them back to relevancy pretty quick. But are they going to get back to being a serious contender in one year under John Harbaugh? So you have a division right there that is kind of for the taking. you have a young franchise quarterback who could take you somewhere.

You have an ownership with tons of money that might be willing to make you the highest paid defensive coordinator in history. It's likely that Flores is going to ask for some type of roster control if he gets a defensive coordinator job because if he's moving lateral, he can ask for the moon, right? He can ask for every single thing that he wants. And when we were discussing the possibility of Flores, as going to the Dallas Cowboys, what was one thing that came up over and over again?

It was, well, that is one of the biggest, if not the biggest market in the NFL with the biggest fan base. Washington, D.C. is also pretty darn big. And this franchise has a huge fan base, gets a lot of attention when it's relevant, which isn't very often. But it's another spot where if you don't get a head coaching job, you go to a team that is struggling,

you turn them around, you win, you become undeniable with Brian Flores. I mean, he's had a lot of success with the Vikings. That's for sure these last couple of years. This year's defense was impressive with the way that they finished the season. You look by every metric. They're in the top five yards per play, points per drive, you know, everything. EPA, whatever you want to use. They were one of the best in the NFL.

and even even the runn defense, which struggled early on, finished in terms of EPA in the top five. That's how dominant they were down the stretch. But when you don't make the playoffs and when you have a quarterback that plays at such a poor level, quarterback play as a whole, it's not like Carson Wentz was great. It's not like Max Brosmer was even playable. So quarterback play as a whole that puts you at the bottom when you're out of the playoff race when you are, you know, at the bottom of the division, most of the season,

there's not going to be a whole lot of attention for somebody like Brian Flores. And he, I think, would have a better chance of forcing the league's hand. This is assuming he doesn't get a head coaching position if he were in a place like Washington, DC, that's going to get a ton of attention for its quarterback and for its market size. So all of those factors would at very least make things interesting. to Brian Flores. And I think, I mean, I don't want to put words in Flores' mouth, but when you consider where he came from,

the New England Patriots, ton of success when he was coming up, I would think that the chances to win would be very high on Brian Flores list. And then you have things like, you know, money, of course, is going to be pretty important in any negotiation. And then, you know, roster control,

do you have a chance to, rebuild it completely in your vision, more or less like he was able to do in Minnesota. So I think that there are a lot of advantages to the Washington commander's situation for Brian Flores. But you also circle back to, but why would he leave a situation like Minnesota? And I can't help but think that the quarterback situation and how unresolved it feels, especially after yesterday, with the comments from Quasi Adolfo Mensa, Kevin O'Connell, where they did not at all endorse J.J. McCarthy as the 2026 starting quarterback,

I would have to think that uncertainty in general about that position. And I think it was Quasi mentioned like head coach GM, a quarterback. You want those three things to be very much aligned. And right now, you know, they're not because we don't even know for sure who is playing quarterback next year. If J.J. McCarthy wins the job, it takes a huge step. but who's he facing off with in a competition? Are they bringing Kirk back?

Are they getting Kyler Murray to anger most of the comment sections? Do they, you know, what do they do? Do they bring Aaron Rogers in? Do they, I mean, because there was, you know, the owner of the Steelers talk today. And he said Aaron Rogers only came to Pittsburgh for Mike Tomlin. So they don't expect that he would return. If he wants to keep playing, maybe, you know,

they want Aaron Rogers to come in like they, did last year. And I don't think that's a very good idea, but I'm not counting anything out at this point. So the stability of that position, it matters so much. And when you look at the Vikings faced the fifth fewest pass attempts in the NFL this year, it's very hard to get turnovers and sacks when you're not facing very many pass attempts at all. And if he just doesn't have confidence in where this train is headed, then it would make sense. And what I go back, to over and over with this situation is why does this situation exist to begin with, right? They were coming off 14 wins that he was talking with the team in training camp,

as Kevin O'Connell mentioned about a contract extension and they could not come to an agreement. So what has changed? Has anything changed? Mike Patton walked away, retired. I shouldn't say walked away. He retired. And they have an assistant head coach position. that I suppose they could offer Brian Flores.

I was under the assumption anyway that Flores had a huge say in what they did with the roster, considering how many times they brought in players that he wanted. And then he talked about why he wanted them so much, like referring to Andrew Van Ginkle, Blake Cashman, Isaiah Rogers was another one. It's never felt like Brian Flores didn't have a big say in roster stuff, though he may want that in writing exactly what the amount of power that he has is. And they also might have a limit of how high they want to go with a coordinator in terms of the whiffs and the number of millions that they want to spend to keep Brian Flores.

So there's a lot of complicating factors and a lot of layers to this. And I know I saw John Cresensky of the Athletic mentioned something about, you know, is there internal conflict regarding Flores? And I mean, if you put your common sense hat on and you look at this situation, how many other times have you ever seen a situation like this? And the answer is, I can't remember any. I can't remember a coordinator who would rank in the top five as an OC or a DC ending up on the free agent market where he could just go.

anywhere he wants. And Kevin O'Connell said something interesting yesterday. He said when players are free agents, they don't often sign without at least checking out the market. So, hey, all right, well, he's going to go check out the market. But I thought to myself, well, how often does that really happen that even Minnesota Vikings free agents in the past have made it to free agency, made it to the day starting, and then just return to the Minnesota Vikings.

Anthony Barr last year, Byron Murphy, but it was kind of an 11th hour thing last year that Aaron Jones signed to stay with the Vikings. Now, why did Aaron Jones sign at the 11th hour rather than testing free agency? Well, because he wanted to be there. That was the reason, right? So, you know, I think that there is some common sense element to this that, you know, I think, you know, you have to at least. least factor in how how much he might be happy with whatever regarding, you know, the, the, the interactions with the rest of the coaching staff, the roster, the free agent, like all those things, you have to at least wonder in your head, is there something that he doesn't love

about the setup and the situation that may have caused him to do this? I don't have an answer to that. But when John said it, I thought, well, I mean, when you win, 14 games and your defense is elite and you have all these players that you love and you have an organization that is the highest class, I think, of the Vikings and you're still interested in leaving. There has to be some reason behind that. So Flores and the Washington commanders are the first. Now, here's the big question. How many more will there be?

Because it feels like half the league. It's not half the league, but a quarter of the league is without. defensive coordinators, right? So there's all these teams that need to hire head coaches first that then are going to look for coordinators and Flores has got to be at the top of some of their list. I mean, let's just say, for example, John Harbaugh, well, the New York Giants are probably out because I think they're one of the teams that are named in his lawsuit. But let's just say, let's say Kevin Stefansky, for example, let's say he ends up going to

the Atlanta Falcons. And his first call is Brian Flores. And Arthur Blank says, blank check, build the defense your way. It's taking over a defense that does have a pretty good amount of talent and just drafted James Pierce last year. I mean, like there's,

there could be other coaching jobs that are filled that then turn to Brian Flores. So it feels like this is either going to happen fairly quickly, uh, that he comes back to the Vikings and just decides, you know what? didn't like, you know, some of the other offers or the Vikings said, okay, fine, fine, fine.

Here's exactly what you wanted. Whatever it is that he did he has in mind. So he might do that. He might go out, talk to the commanders and then come back and say, you know what? All right. I'm not going to get every single thing I want from anybody. So why don't we just make this happen and stay here? But it feels like more that this is going to play out over an amount of time.

He's got also head coaching interviews and the Steelers are included in that. That was another news item today from ESPN's Adam Schaefter that Brian Flores is interviewing with the Pittsburgh Steelers. And the Steelers and Flores have always made sense because that was the person, the people, the ownership that kept Brian Flores in the NFL. After he decided to file his lawsuit, and talked about it publicly. I'm not sure that the,

I'm not sure that after he did that, anyone was going to keep him in the NFL. If, I mean, who knows, right? Yeah, okay, the Falcons kept their D.C. They could also just make a change when they hire a head coach. But it was just an example. That could go for any team. It could go for Arizona.

I don't know. Just pick a team. There's a lot of them that don't have coordinators. Could be Baltimore. Could be anybody, right? Anyway, the point is that the Pittsburgh Steelers decided with Mike Tomlin to bring in Brian Flores as an assistant when I don't think any other franchise in the NFL had the cachet to do it or the leader to do it. And he kept his career alive in the NFL then opening up for an opportunity to come to the Minnesota Vikings and prove what he could do as a defensive coordinator. So they have a great deal of familiarity with Brian Flores there in the Pittsburgh Steelers organization.

And now there's not a whole heck of a lot of sample size to go with the Pittsburgh Steelers and their head coaching hiring process, right? They've had two coaches since whatever the 80s, you know, Bill Cower and Mike Tomlin. But both of those guys did fit a certain type, right? They were both leaders of men, hard-nosed, no messing around with Bill Cower, Mike Tomlin, and they were both defensive masterminds when they arrived. And Brian Flores would make a lot of sense for checking those boxes. I mean, he has certainly an edge to him that, you know, we see and it connects with the players here.

Maybe it didn't with every quarterback in Miami. And that's something that they would have to consider is, are we drafting and developing and developing a quarterback under Brian Flores, like what's his plan at quarterback if we hire him as the head coach. But in terms of how they want to play, even right down to the three, four defense, which they have played for, I don't know how long since Bill Cowher and go back to LeVon Kirkland or Jason Gilden or, you know, James Harrison, any of those guys, they've always kind of had a certain type of head coach. And Brian Flores does fit the bill. They could also decide to go a completely different way, but they did announce that they're not going to hire someone

internally. So it does open the door at least. And he also interviewed, I believe, yesterday with the Baltimore Ravens. So this could take some time to play out with Brian Flores. I don't think there's any surprise whatsoever that he's getting interviewed by the Ravens, that he's getting interviewed by the Steelers. These are both franchises that would make a lot of sense for a guy who is such a mastermind defensively. And you think about the Ravens, well, they have their offense built in at their quarterback, but their defense really did slip this last year. And I also felt that the Pittsburgh Steelers defense slipped in its innovation.

Like once upon a time, like Tomlin was kind of ahead of the game. But I think Tom one became very good at getting good players, but not necessarily being some sort of master of, you know, schematics. and they slipped because of it. So they may be looking for someone who's considered to be ahead of the game there. So thoughts and feelings from you guys on the Brian Flores situation. It's also, you know, pretty rare overall. I can't remember too many times where it's happened that an entire fan base would be so nervous

about losing a coordinator. But I think it speaks to Brian Flores and just how important he is to the, the Minnesota Vikings, their operation, and especially if Durante Jones were to be lost to another team as well, then, I mean, you're really talking about maybe Rahim Morris, but maybe someone else hires Rahim Morris. Like, you might just be in a situation where you're having to change your defense quite a bit, which is something that they certainly do not want to do. The one other news item of the day is Adam Thielen announced his retirement today. And I know, that some of you have been a little bit on the salty side about the way things ended with Adam

Theon. He came back to the Vikings. There was a lot of excitement. 19 is back. You know, he's going to fill into that number two wide receiver job and so forth. And it did not work out the way that any of us expected. I mean, looking at what he did in Carolina in 2024, I thought, oh, this is going to be a great fit, you know, a veteran wide receiver and a young quarterback. quarterback and they're just going to be in lockstep real quick and he's going to fill that spot. But no matter who was playing wide receiver this year for the Minnesota Vikings, they all underperformed. Justin Jefferson, of course, did not perform at the same level. Jordan Addison way below the level that you normally expect from him and T.J. Hawkinson and even J. Linler was down a little

bit. So nobody came in and performed the way they expected. But, you know, Thielen struggled to get on the field. It was pretty clear that, you know, they didn't really think that he had it still. And they liked what they were seeing from Naylor. So he ends up going to the Pittsburgh Steelers, getting a shot at it, getting a playoff game, and then announcing that his career is over. Personally, I think, my goodness, I mean, this is just totally a thing that you should. shouldn't be upset about because when you look at the way that some other, you know, players have gone out at the end of their careers. It's so much worse than this. So much worse than the guy coming back for a year, doesn't really work out,

goes somewhere else, catches a few balls, goes to a playoff game, and that's it. I agree with all of you that it would have been nice if Adam Thielen could have been involved in the CJ Ham, Harrison Smith final moment thing. I think that would have been great. But I don't think it's a reason to put a lot of of, you know, angst and anger towards someone who is one of the great stories in the history of the entire franchise. You know, as the tweet here I've got on the screen

from Fan Dual mentions, I mean, a multi-time pro bowler, multi-time, you know, 1,000-yard wide receiving seasons, fifth all-time in Minnesota Vikings history. And if you could be fifth all-time in Vikings history, considering the wide receivers that have come through here. And I've had this conversation before with Dave Campbell, the Associated Press, maybe a few more people on the show over the years

of the Mount Rushmore of Minnesota Vikings wide receivers. And I think it's very clearly Randy Moss, Chris Carter, and Justin Jefferson. Now, who has that fourth spot is a very interesting discussion because Anthony Carter belongs in that conversation. Adam Thielen, Thielen stayed here longer than Stefan Diggs. This is the anniversary of the Minneapolis Miracle, by the way. but he at least gets into that discussion. And Ahmad Rashad, you go back to the, you know, the 70s.

And Ahmad Rashad is absolutely fantastic, because it's 70s, 80s. You know, Rashad is one of the best wide receivers of the decade. And, you know, I think that that matters as well, you know, that they didn't put up the numbers that guys do now in receiving. But Rashad was one of the best wide receivers in the NFL for his time. Sammy White. Also, you know, if you go well, way back. So there's a lot of different players that belong in the discussion. But Thielen is absolutely

one of them. Matt Verick S, he definitely makes the Hall of Very, Very Good, maybe Ring of Honor. So this is a thing for sure that I wonder about is like how they're going to work their way through in a few years, the Ring of Honor players from that era. Like when you look at Everson Griffin, DeNeil Hunter, Xavier Rhodes, Anthony Barr, Eric Kendricks, every single one of these guys had really great careers. You know, DeNeil, I think, has made a case for himself to go to the Hall of Fame.

And, you know, if he's on the cusp there of going to the Hall of Fame, then maybe he gets in as a way to, you know, put his name on the map a little bit. I felt like the timing with Kevin Williams had something to do with that totally deserving ring of honor guy. But the timing of Jared Allen and Kevin Williams

was kind of clearly, like they've got their chance to go to the Hall of Fame. Let's try to push them over the edge and get them there. No, of course that Adam Thielen's not going to make the Hall of Fame, but the Ring of Honors what we're talking about. Oh, Jake Reed, of course, is in that discussion for the, you know, for the Mount Rushmore. Yeah, absolutely Jake Reed. That's why I mean it's so hard. Rashad, Thelan, Diggs, Reed, Sammy White, like all those guys are in that conversation.

but how are they going to decide which ones of those 2017 team guys? You look at how many Pro Bowls Anthony Barr made, and I know some of you could be a little bit snarky about one or two of them, but he was an excellent player. Kendricks was an all pro, and those guys, you know, accomplished a lot with that overall team. I think DeNeil Hunter is a pick who has a good chance to make the Hall of Fame, but on those teams, like DeNeil was equally as important as somebody like,

you know, Everson Griffin or even Linval Joseph, who was a pro bowler as well. So there's like a lot of good talent on that team, Delvin Cook, you know, there's a ton of it. And even if you look at overall the numbers for Kirk Cousins, I mean, he makes his case as one of the best quarterbacks in Minnesota Vikings history as well. So there's a lot of different guys that belong. You know, Xavier Rhodes, you mentioned, you know, multi-time pro bowler, one of the, for, for, you know, a short section of time, an elite cornerback, but, you know, I think Thielen has a little better of a chance.

The local connection, sure, but also, you know, when you're fifth in receiving in franchise history, you've definitely got at least a chance. And I think it would be very popular with fans if he did. Harrison Smith will absolutely be that guy. So I think my picks from that era would be Danielle Hunter and Harrison Smith.

But even then, they don't feel like entirely, you know, there's just, it was such a conducive unit. and I don't think either Diggs or Adam Thielen would ultimately get in there. So let's get to a Fanduil question of the day. I think I asked the other day which upset you're most interested in for this weekend. How about just which game do you think ends up being the closest? So I'll give you the updated lines here.

They've shifted a little bit on Fandual. The Denver Broncos are now, interestingly, one and a half point favorite. against the Buffalo Bills. Until today, they had been underdogs. But now the line is shifted and the Denver Broncos are favored by one and a half points at Denver on Saturday. And it's moved a little bit for the Seattle Seahawks in the favor of the 49ers. The Seahawks are seven point favorites on Fandul against the 49ers. The New England Patriots three point favorites versus Houston and the Chicago Bears 3.5 point underdogs,

which game do you think will be the closest? Like if I went ahead in the future and told you, guys, there's going to be one game that comes down to the last second throw into the end zone. And it will be this game. Which one would you say? So let's get to, let's get to your comments, your questions. Oh, Kyle Rudolph.

Yeah. I mean, gosh, that's how talented are those teams, right? Kyle Rudolph is for sure, at least in the discussion for, you know, Ring of Honor multi-time Pro Bowler. I, it's, it's almost like can you put in the 2017 team, but then, you know, they didn't go to the Super Bowl. There's just so many guys there. So I don't know.

But let's get to your, your comments here. Let's get them, can I get them up on the screen? There we go. Got them up on the screen. Got the new setup. Got the, got the comments on the screen. That's always good. All right.

Well, let's run through that. Let's see. Sorry, I'm talking to myself out loud. Let's begin with Drew here. Brian Flores is going to be hired by the Steelers for their head coaching positions. I mean, I could see it. I could definitely see it with the history they have with him, with the history they have with this type of coach and the success they've had in the past.

The question for me is, how do you have the conversation with Flores about what happened in Miami with Tua? because I think history has kind of looked kindly on Brian Flores as Tua flamed out. You know, when he was playing really well for Mike McDaniel and they had Tyree Kill and they drafted Jalen Waddle and Taran Armstead was there. Then it all looked like, wow, I guess, you know, Flores was, he was just wrong in the way that he managed Tua and his lack of trust in him and so forth. and then, you know, the way it's played out, some of the things that Tua has said at, you know, podiums and things like that hasn't come across as maybe the most coachable or the best leader or, you know,

whatever else it might be that has probably made Flores look a little bit more right about him in recent history. So that could also be a factor. But if I'm Pittsburgh, I'm asking, how are you managing the quarterback position? Because this is a team that made the Super Bowl once upon a time with Neil O'Donnell and got their tails kicked by Dallas. but I mean recently they had Ben Rothesberger for a long time.

They drafted him. They developed him. And that's how they got there. That's what they need to do again in order to get back. But how do they do it? Mr. Mayor says it sounds like the Vikings would seriously consider Kyler. If he gets cut, I don't actually think that we'd have that much competition to sign him. Seems like only the Vikings Steelers, dolphins.

I have to add the Jets. But I agree with you. You're right. And I just want to say, like at some point, I should do an entire video about like, I'm sorry that Kyla Murray is an option. I'm sorry that he is because the comment section every time his name gets brought up turns into just flames. And I don't know what to do about that because it's very realistic. And he's the best quarterback out there.

You can't tell me otherwise. You can't look at any other quarterback's resume other than Herbert, Burrow, and Jackson and say, oh yeah, like Mac Jones or Kirk or Aaron Rogers or whoever stands up to Kyler Murray. So he has to be in consideration. And when they're talking about a deep and competitive quarterback room, that to me says they're going to try to look for the best possible option of quarterback. And something did happen today, which is Dante Moore deciding he's going to stay in college, which does add another team to the mix.

So if the Jets want to trade for Mac Jones, well, they might have a leg up there. They've got draft capital from losing all the time. And they are in the AFC and no threat whatsoever to the 49ers. I mean, the last thing the 49ers would want to do is give up Mac Jones to the Vikings and have it work out. So they've got a leg up there. I mean, you talk about Miami. Yeah, I mean, Kyler could certainly go there. But if, I mean, we've heard this, we know how quarterbacks feel about the Minnesota Vikings.

after seeing how things worked out with Sam Darnold, Aaron Rogers wanted to be here. Peyton Manning last year going in the playoffs was saying, if I had anybody calling plays for me, it'd be Kevin O'Connell. Like how much changes in a year, right? Oh, man, it's crazy how the NFL works that way. John Harbaugh, this time last year,

didn't they have 13 wins and Lamar Jackson through 41 touchdowns and, you know, a lot of changes in a year. But their reputation, I think, and the reputation of Justin Jefferson and so, forth, their weapons. We'll see if one of them is still here. Overall, two of them, actually. We'll see if T.J. Hawkinson's still here.

But Jefferson is the main attraction. Has to be under consideration. And that's my only point. And it's like, stop bringing him up. I can't. It has to be under consideration. That's what we do here. We live in reality on the show.

You can live in fantasy land if you want on your own, but I have to look at all the options. And I don't love it. But I also look at it and go, well, one thing is this guy's had some good seasons in the past. When he's had a good wide receiver, he had a really good season. And the other thing is,

there's a high end to it that doesn't exist for any of these other options. And that's how I felt, if you go back and look, when the Vikings signed Sam Darnold in 2024, what you will hear me talk about then, I promise you, is that, hey, all the other options, because of course, I'm sure the comment section didn't like the fact that they signed Darnold, but, oh, he sees, goes, whatever. But my thing was, hey, there's a high end of this.

That if it clicks, Darnold's got the talent. And that would be the argument for Kyler Murray. Now, is he a leader? I don't know, but they have a lot of leaders. Is he going to play video games and not study the playbook? I don't know because that, to me, was a thing that was leaked by their general manager on purpose to try to hedge against signing Kyler's contract because he probably didn't want to sign it. he's had some injuries. It's risky. Every one of these options is risky.

But I do think that they will seriously consider him as an option. And there are, there are some teams that are in this competition. But as you're saying, like when you look around to go, okay, who would be in the mix for Kyler Murray that would have a better case than the Vikings for him to come there? And the answer is, I can't come up with that many. Zumer K.O. says, I bet the farm Flores is out. He'll have multiple offers. is better than returning to the sinking ship Vikings. Wow. I don't know that I would call them a sinking ship if they can get to 9 and 8

with the 26th best quarterback play in the league. But you know what I would say is, I don't want to say rudderless because that sounds like they don't have any idea what they're doing. But a ship, a ship that is in choppy waters. How about we call that for the ship? Because they've got a lot of talent on the roster. and that is a good place to start for not being a rudderless or sinking ship. But the ship is certainly not cruising along either.

Not when your defensive coordinators take another offers, not when your general manager isn't locking into the quarterback you just drafted. I mean, think about this. And this is just for anybody who, you know, thinks that they're totally locked into JJ still after yesterday. I mean, look at Drake May. Drake May did not play that well statistically for the Patriots. But who is their backup quarterback? When they talk about wanting a competition for McCarthy and would not lock into him,

their backup quarterback's Josh Dobbs. Isn't he like 3 and 12 in his career as a starter? They had no competition for Drake May after seeing him for about the same amount of time as the Viking saw JJ. And now they're talking about we got to go out and get another quarterback. So just sort of like reading the room here, the thing that you're talking about that all you guys won't like is a possibility. But as far as like betting the farm that Flores is out, it has to be sub 50% now. Now that a team has come in asked to interview him for a defensive coordinator position, he says yes, he goes and does it. It has to be sub 50%.

Like the odds of him leaving go up with every interview that he gets. whether it's head coach or defensive coordinator, but especially defensive coordinator, because even if those other franchises go a different way, someone could give him an offer that he likes better. Mr. Mayor, the Raiders and Jets will draft quarterbacks. I don't know about the Jets now. Ty Simpson, do you really want to do that?

Feels like another KM Ward class. Although, you know, Jackson Dart and Tyler Shuck have turned out okay. But, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I think that the Jets are looking. The Jets are not a one-year rebuild team anyway. So they should look for a regular quarterback who gets them to five or six wins and then draft another one next year. Steelers love our DCs.

That's right. You know, Mike Tomlin with his roots there. Julian says, do you think the Vikings will trade Jordan Addison now after everything that's happened? And what do you think they can get for him? So there was an update on that. I retweeted it if you want to read it. It was a very not specific, a bunch of details about, or a small bunch of details about how he was asked to leave the casino and then wasn't leaving

and that's how he ended up arrested. There's got to be more to this story. And I'm assuming that at some point we'll get the TMZ video that drops or whatever. Usually more details end up coming out with whatever court papers get filed or whatever because what was there in the story was just not a ton of more light shined on what happened with him. But regardless, three arrests in, I mean, it's not even four off-seasons. It's the off-season.

It's very young. We haven't gotten to the Super Bowl. So you've had technically like 3.1 off-season and three arrests. And then another in-season short suspension. So it's like 3.1 off seasons, 3.1 seasons and I don't know why I'm doing math on this. Like three and a quarter suspensions or arrests are, no, wait, whatever. One suspension of three games and then a quarter. So three and a half quarters suspension missed.

Three or whatever. There's a lot there, right? For Jordan Addison. And you have to think as you're getting ready. And I was looking this up today that Addison's fifth year option is, is going to be 17 million ballpark. That's what over the cap has for his fifth year option. 17 million is a lot of million.

And if you exercise the fifth year option and then that player plays on the fifth year option, there's nothing you can do cap-wise. Like you are paying $17 million. Again, it's a lot. And I think what went out the window for sure is any chance of them signing him to a long-term extension this off-season. if they were to do that, you would have a lot of questions.

You better be super, super sure that whatever happened in this casino, plus the DUI charge, plus the 140 miles an hour driving, plus whatever happened overseas, all of that was just a bunch of bad luck. And if you're not super sure about that, then there's no way you can sign them to an extension. And if you feel like we're not exercising his fifth-year option, and we're not signing him to an extension, that to me does equal shop.

And I would be in favor after this because I think it's just too risky. I was willing to say about Jordan Addison before, look, immaturity is real and getting millions of dollars as a young guy and making mistakes is real. It happens. It's not an excuse. and especially tone deaf with the DUI. And I think Vikings fans, the organization, everyone should have been especially angry about that.

But okay, tone deaf mistakes, bad mistakes, thoughtless mistakes of a young person with a lot of money. But now, now we're getting into adult land here. And still this happens. For me, that's just you can't trust this person. and I think that that wide receiver two position, well, Addison is more talented than Jalen Naylor. If you have somebody with a lot of speed

who has made a ton of improvements over the years, who's got some toughness element to him, I think that it's fine if they bring back Jalen Naylor and trade Jordan Addison. And what I think they could get from him, it's probably not a lot. I mean, no one is saying, oh, his third arrest, like here's a first.

Like, no one's saying that. what a bad team might be saying is, oh, man, like, is this worth taking a shot with, like, a fourth? I would probably say, like, a third or a fourth is what you're looking at. Mama says why Kyler, we're going to be mid in 2026 with Kyler. Well, you know, you say that, and I don't disagree, but what did you say before Sam Darnold? What did you say before Case Keenum?

And look, I, like, I get it. Those are kind of outlier situations, but all of Vikings history is outlier situations. of getting someone else's quarterback and having them turn out to be great. Kyler Murray, I will keep going back to this, is PFF's 12th best quarterback in 2024, 12th. If the Vikings had the 12th best quarterback play in the NFL this year, let me look up who that is. Who was who was the 12th best quarterback according to PFF? Let me go to the other screen because that looks wonky. Let me take a look here. Let's, I got to sign in and then we'll find out. Who in 2025 is the 12th?

best quarterback. And I know it's not apples to apples because of playing style and so forth, but I'm just curious. That would be Jared Gough. If the Vikings had Jared Gough this year, what's their record? And I know you couldn't find two different, more different quarterbacks than that. But he was 12th and got rid of the ball in 2.7 seconds last year, a lot more catch and throw than he had in the past, still ran for 500 yards, still had good accuracy in intermediate areas of the field. I mean, he's a real quarterback. Is he a superstar and is it more kind of mid?

Like, yeah, it is. It is a mid quarterback. I agree. But mid quarterback with Justin Jefferson, I was looking this up today. I was busy. Kirk, when he threw to Justin Jefferson, had a 109 quarterback. rating. And Sam Darnold had a 107 quarterback

rating. And Nick Mullins had a 91 quarterback rating. This is when targeting Justin Jefferson and J.J. McCarthy had a 42. Now, I think that would improve next year for sure from 42. But the point is that when you talk about middling quarterbacks, I mean, Kirk had 109

rating throwing to him. Like he can make guys better and that would be part of the equation. I think you're in the playoffs with Kyla Murray. And if I mean, that's your goal, as they said. That was what Quasi Adafelmenta said when he was asked, is J.J. McCarthy your quarterback for next year.

He said, my goal is to get the 2026 Vikings to the playoffs. Kyler Murray probably gets you to the playoffs if he stays healthy. The magic man, bring back Kirk. While Kirk probably this year would have got you to the playoffs too. Adrian says, do you anticipate any staff moves as far as firings? now I do remember that when they fired Ed Donatel, they had done the already the end of year conversation with us and then announced it later.

So it's possible that that doesn't mean like everybody's coming back. And they have to do a very close analysis of what happened this year because well, J.J. McCarthy does get the majority of the blame. It's not all his fault. it's, you know, the execution of some things. I mean, eight false starts is insane. And yes, that is certainly on the quarterback, but what? I mean, that's something that you never see.

I thought this is just me that they're offensive. Well, it's not just me. It's me and PFF that the offensive line, all things considered. Now, you could say, well, you know, just in school. He was so, find me a great backup left tackle. There's just not a lot of them. and I don't know that schematically they did the best job of dealing with the fact that they didn't have a good left tackle against Cleveland they did, but maybe not like Atlanta,

where it hurt them the most to have a backup in there. But there's just, there's just no good backup left tackles. It's like, it's like starting quarterbacks. There's probably 12 that are reasonable. There's probably five that are great. And that's it for left tackles. But you had to move Blake Brandel to three different positions. You had to train a rookie left guard.

you had to bring in a guy and Will Fries who could not do all of the stuff in in the off season because of a broken leg. Like that's a that is a lot. Michael Juergens has never played before. That's a lot for Chris Cooper to deal with. And I think that O'Connell's system does stress quarterbacks and offensive linemen when it comes to pass protection. I've always heard good things from the players about how they felt about Chris Cooper. So that's like on or off the record. but, you know, they could be looking at a potential change there.

I know that Atlanta, I believe, let go their offensive line coach who's really, really good. So you could make a change there. Run game coordinator, they improved a lot in the run this year. This is the trouble with when you have bad quarterback play is it just makes everything look like it's the worst. Like their offensive line was by PFF a mid-pack, like 14th, 15th in both run and pass blocking. their running game was, I believe, 13th or 12th and expected points added.

I feel like way better than it was the last couple years, a big jump. And that's despite the fact that Aaron Jones was hurt for half the year. And yet, you know, when you finish 26th in offense, it just feels like get rid of everybody. So I don't know because running all of it back after this kind of season would feel a little bit like, huh, you're not going to change anything after this year. but it would also, you know, it would also make sense considering how those units performed.

Zumer says B-flow accomplished his mission here ahead of schedule. Under budget, it's time for him to move on. I mean, you're very convinced that he's out, you know, maybe the Steelers, please hire B-flow. I'm surprised we don't deserve him. Okay, that's why. I was like, I'm surprised somebody would say, please hire B-flow, but that's why. okay. I'm getting the sense, Zoom or KO, that you might be a little down on how things are going at the moment. Mr. Mayer says, we're going to wait so long for Flores to make a decision that Durante Jones will be gone,

and we're going to be stuck with someone who can't run the scheme that's effective with our roster. The one thing is, I think the roster is very good still. Isaiah Rogers proved that he was a starter. He was top 15 by PFF. It certainly helped by Brian Flores system. Byron Murphy had, I think, his worst year in a long time, and I would expect that that does not happen again. The safety position up in the air, but the front seven is pretty much locked in, right? What questions do we have on the front seven?

Grenard will be back. Turner took a big step, and somebody else might use him as more of just a pure pass rusher from the start. And Van Ginkle is under contract. Cashman, they need to bring back Eric Wilson. That's for sure. But, I mean, I guess maybe you don't bring back. Eric Wilson if Flores isn't going to be here, but you're right about Durante Jones.

The timing of this is uncomfortable because I think of another team comes and offers Durante Jones. So let's say the Cowboys say, you know what? We want Flores without the Flores. So let's get Durante Jones in here and bring that Flores system. And Durante's earned it for sure. This is not coat tails. He was actually originally hired here by Mike Zimmer. And he's been in the college ranks, like a really, really well-respective.

coach. So let's say Dallas comes and says we want Durante is our defensive coordinator. And then Flores gets hired by the Ravens as their head coach. I mean, you're right. You're looking at maybe Rahe Morris, maybe Jonathan Gannon. These guys are good defensive minds,

but it's not the same. It's not the same system. That's why this offseason just feels, as I mentioned, it doesn't feel like a sinking ship to me. It feels like a ship on very choppy waters. and overall, Mama, I don't disagree with you. When you say, like, signing Kyler will get KC.

C.O.C. fired when we don't win a playoff game. Like, I don't disagree with you at all that the most likely outcome of Kyler Murray would be that the Vikings win like 11 games, 10 games. They go to the first round of the playoffs. It's not enough. They lose. I don't know if everyone's fired at that point. That seems like it would be very tricky.

how it felt would matter a lot. That is the most likely outcome, though. I'm not going to argue with you there. But when we go through the other options, what are the other most likely outcomes? Go bring back Kirk. Well, he won one playoff game in six years. What about Aaron Rogers?

He just got stomped out because he couldn't move. What about Mac Jones? He went to the playoffs one time against Buffalo and got killed. I mean, I don't know. Are there like a lot of playoff winning quarterbacks who are available that you know of, because if there are and I've missed them, like, please let me know.

To me, Murray is the only one that we've actually seen a high end that was good enough to lead an 11-win team and it could be more like a Baker-Mayfield situation where a number one overall pick just kind of has a bad organization. Arizona, by the way, they get away with being total garbage

as an organization. They're rated horribly by the NFLPA, they fired Steve Kime as a GM. They bring in new blood there. They are tearing it apart seemingly. They gave Jonathan Gannon a chance with Murray. They won eight games, looked like it was going okay. They spent a little money in free agency.

And then the whole thing collapses this year. Then they just fire Gannon. Like, what are they doing? What have the Arizona Cardinals done to earn any credibility? It's kind of like with, you know, it's Carolina and the Jets and Sam Darnold. you can at least, or Cleveland and Baker Mayfield, you can at least draw some lines of correlation. The only other guy, and I haven't brought him up in a while, but you guys seem a little bit more favorable toward Gino Smith.

He's the other one with a higher end. There is a high end to Gino Smith. Let's see. Lego cams says I feel like he's gone this time and we need to come up with backup D.C. Yeah, that's where I think that, you know, Gannon was here. As far as I understand, Jonathan Gannon was very well respected here. and what he did to the Vikings in 2024 probably gave him the best run for their money

of all the defensive coordinators, assuming that we're not giving the Jets any credit for that game. No, I mean the Jaguars, the Jaguars, or the Jets. Yeah, no, the Jets with Robert Sala. They played well against the 2024 Vikings. I meant the Jaguars, though. Let's see. John says this ain't about money. You might be right.

The hard part from my seat, John, is, I don't want to guess and be wrong and say, well, it's obviously internal drama that's causing this. But I don't know that. Like, no one has told me, oh, yeah, there's headbutting between this and that person. When you look from where I've been at O'Connell and Flores from day one, it seems like they've been pretty darn happy with the relationship. at least that's how they've projected it. The culture in Minnesota, how well he's fit, how well he's fit with the players,

the amount of roster influence at least. I mean, I don't think that they get Jonathan Allen. I don't know that they get Isaiah Rogers. If that would have been someone on their, you know, on their radar and so forth, you know, I don't know that those players would have been without Brian Flores and his influence. So maybe there is like a put it in writing. I get to pick my defense. Maybe part of this.

but it feels like he's been picking his defense anyway, which I endorse. He's very good at it. The front office should go get the groceries that Brian Flores asked them to get. So what else it's about? But look, there's things that go on behind closed doors. There are relationships at every job that even if we're in the building all the time, we may not understand. And I still think that he's a guy that comes from the Patriot way and wants to shoot for a championship.

and if you don't feel like the team that you're on can put you there, then you're going to take a peek around. Jude says, I feel like he'll come back in the end. That wouldn't be shocking, but the fact that we've got to this point, and now he's doing other interviews, it reduces those odds. Doesn't make them zero, but it certainly brings them down. Kurt Puppy says, you mean Ed Ingram, Evan Ingram is a tight end. Ed Ingram with Houston, Ezra Cleveland, with Jacksonville, Bradbury with New England,

all mediocre here and now starting in the playoffs, at what point do we look ourselves to the common denominator? You could say that, but also, you know, look at how they played with their replacements. Donovan Jackson was very good. Will Fries, I thought, struggled in past protection. I, especially at the end of the year, I think what happened is that he wore down at the end of the year.

This happens when guys have not a full off season. So I think he wore down because his numbers were good, midway through the season and then faded toward the end. But I still think Fries is a pretty good player. And Ryan Kelly was great, but got injured. And you could say, well, you could see that coming. That's true. But he also played what?

Did he play like 14 games last year or something? I mean, playing this few games was maybe not totally expected. But as far as like, you might want to do a little bit of checking your work there. Ezra Cleveland, I think has been good overall. But Ed Ingram, when we look, I'll pull it up here. we look at his overall grades on PFF, yes, he does have a good overall grade. And I think we would all agree that Ed Ingram was a pretty solid, if not good run blocker. And that's where he's been good this year. So he's been a top 10 run blocker. We all knew that. But when I look at his PFF grade

for pass protection, Ingram is 66th out of 87. So he, performed much worse in past protection than the Vikings guys. I think if you have a criticism, it's probably, well, Ezra Cleveland is for sure one. One of the things that everybody has a tendency to do is overreact to one play, one incident. Ezra Cleveland was the guy trying to block Dexter Lawrence when he broke through and Kirk Cousins checked the ball down. I think that that was the end right there. They're like, nope, And it's Dexter Lawrence, but it's just like Darnold at the end of last year. It's like, now, can't do it in the clutch.

Nope, that guy's not tough enough, not strong enough. Cleveland, though, was a top 20 pass protector. I think if you're going to have a criticism, it would be this for me. It would be that Dalton Reisner was in the top 20 as an offensive lineman this year. And his run blocking grade was fine. I mean, he's kind of been presented as someone who's just like falls over when they try to run block. But his run blocking grade was fine. his past blocking grade was elite again, and he cost almost nothing.

And they had gotten really good bang for Buck for him the last couple years. And then they went out and spent on fries who just didn't perform as well as Reisner. That is where I think there's a reasonable criticism there. $17 million a year for a guy who didn't perform as well as the previous guy you had there. And Cleveland is part of that. Sure. The common denominator, though, I think what you're saying is Chris Cooper. the common denominator also might be Kevin O'Connell's downfield system.

I mean, this team is one of the most sacked teams in the NFL. I have to look it up where they rank now. I looked it up in the middle of the season. They were top five most sacked teams since 2022. And they had good quarterbacks. Like, look how much more Kirk was sacked in 22 versus 21. Look how much less Sam Darnold's been sacked this year. Like, that's where when O'Connell says, you know, he's got to look himself in the mirror.

I think that, you know, you could talk about the end of the year and how they switched up and kind of played run first or whatever. I think the Sacks is something you got to look at and figure out, all right, you're making linemen worse. And by the way, like Bradbury's grades aren't good either. I look this up the other day. It's like 25th. But system matters. Norse Force says B-Flow ain't leaving just drama nonsense. Norse Force.

You know what I always say about this. Show your work. Show me another coordinator who became a free agent that was of this caliber and had this much interest. Coming off of a winning season with a team that has a great environment. I mean, I don't think you can. So when you say it's, you know, drama nonsense, it's like, I don't know, man. Like, that's a pretty hard sell. I think it's pretty legitimate to talk about.

Who's writing the article for his leaves about how he was the decision. center who wanted to keep Sam Darnold. That'll be a must read. Diana Rossini's probably already got it written. Look, there was certainly dissent, and I wouldn't be surprised, considering Flores and Darnold, and I think they became pretty close. I don't think that. I know that because Brian Flores told us that maybe that was a little bit of a hint.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was. Adrian says what makes you think that Quasi can draft three or more starting caliber players in this draft when he hasn't been able to have. in the last four. Well, when Addison plays football, that's a starting caliber player. Dallas Turner was the team leader in Sacks. Donovan Jackson started the entire season. Jalen Naylor started the entire season.

Will Reichert is the best kicker I've ever seen in my entire existence. I mean, they have players that they drafted who are playing for them right now. But if you trade away all your draft picks, then you can't draft that many starters. So I will agree with that. And if you trade down from 12 where there's good prospects to 32 where there's not, then you're not that likely to get superstar caliber players. But also if you win nine games instead of four, let's do the math together, folks.

If you win nine games instead of four, then you don't draft in the top 10, which means it's harder to get superstar starters. I think also that the draft has been very much on everyone. But it's mostly a product of, I'll just keep going back to it because I've studied it a million different ways up and down. I looked at the PFF chart of percentage chance of hitting on draft picks at every slot. So you can find this if you Google it. And then I compared where the Vikings picked and how many picks they had to their percentage chances of hitting.

It was pretty much what you'd expect when you're drafting, well, they moved to 32. And that's a big mistake. that's a big mistake. Moving out of where you could get a Jordan Davis or a Kyle Hamilton or a Jameson Williams is a big mistake. But beyond that, I mean, you're drafting, so you're drafting 32, you're drafting 18, you're drafting 23. If that's where you're picking, your odds are about 40%, 50% at best of even getting a good starter. Where to most of the great quarterbacks come from? Well, or not quarterbacks, most of the great players, well, they come at the top. So if you're always winning and you're always trading away your draft picks, then you're not going to have a build through the draft. And you see this from other good teams as well.

I mean, San Francisco, they had to trade for Christian McCaffrey. You know, they had to trade for Trent Williams. They had to sign Eric Hendricks out of nowhere. So, I mean, it's other, Pittsburgh, you know, Pittsburgh had to go get Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay and try to keep their. a couple of players that they drafted that are good, but some of them were Cam Hayward and T.J. Watt were drafted many years ago. So a lot of teams, and that's a big criticism in Pittsburgh. Well, they didn't draft well over this and this and this. I mean, that kind of happens. If you're in the middle all the time, that's how it goes with the draft.

Learn to swimify. A lateral move would feel like he's giving up on the head coaching dream and wants to spend years to rebuild a roster rather than tinker here. And I don't, or I don't, I don't, um, I don't evaluate it that way with, in terms of a lateral move. The way I look at it for a lateral move would be there are some factors that he must have identified last year that made him not sign that contract that somebody else could do for him, whether that's dollars, whether it's quarterback, whether it's, location, but I don't think that that's giving up on the dream.

In fact, I think some of this has to be, in part, to chase the dream. Like, if he doesn't get a head coaching job now, then it would be chasing the dream by going to a big market with a big time quarterback and winning there by turning around a defense and then you become undeniable to the teams looking for head coaches. Because it feels like in Minnesota, he's been denied. even last year when they won 14 games, they couldn't buy a headline, if you remember, because most people thought they were kind of frauds. Adrian, why does it seem like there's such a large skill gap with most of the Vikings

positions from the starter to second or third string? Because there's 32 teams. I mean, I think that that goes for just about every team in the NFL. Like which team, which team have I ever looked at that had injuries? and I said, oh, man, they're good at backup left tackle. Oh, wow, they can easily replace an Andrew Van Ginkle. They can definitely have another, I don't know, fourth string wide receiver or something, right? And you could say, you could say San Francisco and you would be totally within your rights.

I would also point to where did San Francisco rank defensively this year? They certainly were not elite. And Philadelphia helped them a lot in that playoff game. And they also, even with the injuries before, they had George Kittle and Christian McCaffrey and Trette Williams, three of the best players in the entire NFL to help them. But in terms of the gap, like, this is how, this is how it goes. I think the gap at some positions wasn't that bad,

like Blake Brandel coming in was able to kind of save your bacon or, hey, you know, Jonathan Grenard goes out and they've got Dallas Turner. But it's just, that's how it, that's how it works. I bet if you ask every, if you went to comment on every live team, podcast from a reporter right now and said our team doesn't have depth. They probably agree with you. But I also don't think that other than left tackle. Now, I mean, should, I don't know, like after knowing the results, you say, sure, you should have someone else. But Justin School's numbers in Tampa Bay were fine. And then by the end of the year, his numbers were fine here. It was that I think

what happened with Justin School was there were a few games that he did not expect to play and was just tossed in there to play. And for a starter, that would be hard. But for a backup, it was even harder. Overall, his numbers were that of a backup, an average backup left tackle. But there's just not many of those guys. I mean, that's not, I don't think,

I think that maybe, I mean, some of the question would be, here's the question I would have about the depth. Because I don't want to just completely toss that out, because your observation's not wrong. I think the question about the depth would be this. If you are going to trade away all of your late round picks, They had five draft picks in the last draft. If you're going to move on from all of your draft picks,

like I saw Aaron Schatz ranked them 30th out of 32 in their draft. And I was like, I'm surprised not 32. If you have no draft picks, you will not get a high grade. Then you better have a bunch of great UDFAs. But is that really the way to do this when it comes to the depth? So there is that, that, you know, Matt Daniels, who some of you were enraged about this year, is coaching like five or six undrafted free agents

out of 11 players on the field at the time of a kickoff. And like, yeah, somebody holds. Yeah, I mean, the guy's an undrafted free agent. Like, what do we expect here? So I think there is, there is that, that part of it, that if you don't keep your draft picks, which they will have a lot more this year, but if you don't keep your draft picks

and you sell them out to try to win now, then you will end up having to really hit on UDF. Fas. Lego cams, as we could have kept Darnold. Why did we shell out 20 plus million for Hargrave? You're thinking of Allen. It was about 15 for Hargrave. Oh, it's not hard. You know, and Drew says, why didn't they tag Sam Darnold for insurance? It's not hard to find the 41 million that it would have taken. It's not hard. Aaron Jones came nowhere near. This is all appreciation and respect for his career. did not come anywhere near being worth a $10 million running back. And Will Fries did not compete at a $17 million guard.

Again, I think he's a good player, but I don't think it was a $17 million guard. And Hargrave and Allen at the end of the year, when you add it up and they get like almost 70 pressures on the season, I think together, that's like triple what they got from that position last year. And had J.J. McCarthy been good, we would have probably celebrated that and said, well, man, they turned around the run defense in the second half of the year, finished in the top five in EPA against the run.

And those guys put up 60-something pressures like good moves. But when you know that the quarterback did not play well, then those moves looked like they weren't worth it. And Byron Murphy's contract this year, again, did not play to the level of what you'd expect for that contract. So it's not hard to find the money. And I think when I asked Quasi about evaluating. that decision yesterday where one sentence he said really stuck out to me when he said, you know, when you think about taking away one variable and how much that can change stuff, and that variable, I mean, there's different ways to read that.

So maybe I, maybe I read into it wrong. But that variable was Sam Darnold's fit in the offense and his ability to throw down the field and create those explosive plays and the trickle down effect that that had on a lot of other guys, because I think that Allen and Hargrave would have been even more productive by a lot if they had ever played with the lead. I mean, you saw it at the end of the year when they got a couple of leads, just what that defense looked like when they were ahead against Dallas late in the game, when they're ahead against Washington, when they're ahead against the Detroit Lions. It's a totally different defense. So, you know, I, I mean, I do think that, you know, when it comes

to the Sam Darnold decision, that was maybe part of it that they didn't fully. appreciate how much him just being able to throw the football mattered. Let's see. Modern moose, what about B-Flow to the Bills as a defensive coordinator to replace Babbage? That is also possible for sure. And this is why I said, you know, when it comes to this situation, it might play out over a while or it might be over tomorrow.

I don't know. Now, I mean, you would guess. that he, if we're talking about him exhausting all of his options, that it's not going to be over tomorrow, but it might be. I mean, he, you know, he might sign, I don't know, like, is he going to wait for all the head coach? Because he could sign a defensive coordinator contract

and then still take a head coaching job. So that shouldn't really get in the way of it. It's really the lateral moves. And you might also be waiting on something like that, waiting on all the other teams to sign their head coaches. There's numerous teams. that are right now looking for head coaches and doing interviews and even something like Pittsburgh, let's say they hire Kevin Stefansky.

And then Stefansky says, Flores come over to Pittsburgh. It's possible, right? So I don't know. Norse forces the Steelers ain't hiring B-flow. Well, you know, I guess if you know more than I do, well, feel free to share. I think that the odds of either the Ravens or the Steelers hiring him are not great. when you look at just how many people they're bringing in, but also he makes a lot of sense for both teams.

Like the Ravens are a win now type of team that they don't need a revamp of culture and all that stuff and starting over from square one like he had to in Miami, where allegedly the owner's asking him to lose games for money. And that's not that's not it. Like they need a guy who's going to come in and kick some ass on defense and win games for them as, you know, just with Lamar Jackson doing his thing. So they might be in that situation. The Steelers, they said today, we don't rebuild. Like, we're not a, we're not a rebuilding type of team. They have a similar approach to the Vikings. They get similar results from their

ownership, but they are a team that's looking to get a quarterback and then win games right now and go after a Super Bowl next year with whoever their coaches. Marauder, if Brian leaves, then J.J. McCarthy can be given time because the Vikings will be bad, as you said, they need to keep J.J. McCarthy. I don't see any way that they're bad. I mean, they were four and eight at one point this year, but still finished with above 500. When we look at the roster, I think losing Flores would be terrible, and losing Harrison Smith is terrible. But if you end up with Rahim Morris or Jonathan Gannon, I don't think that you're,

or even Durante Jones, that your defensive talent just disappears. Like you've got a lot to work with on your front seven, a lot of star talent. So I don't think you'd be bad. I mean, a lot of it depends on the offense, too. If the defense regresses a bit because Flores isn't here, but you get better quarterback play from whoever. And as far as going with J.J. McCarthy, unless they get Kyler Murray, or I guess Malik Willis or Kirk, maybe, there's a couple guys, three, four guys.

but outside of that group, if it's Mac Jones, if it's Gino Smith, if it's, I don't know, whoever, Jimmy Garoppolo, whoever is the competition for JJ, then whether they go with him or not will just be entirely up to him. And that's the thing that we just don't know

when it comes to JJ McCarthy is, can he, if, well, two things, will they give him another shot to even really truly compete? or are they going to just bring in a starting quarterback? And if they do give him a shot to compete, is he going to win the job? That's what we don't know. If he wins the job and plays extremely well in training camp and preseason and all that and then goes into next year and they've got all the talent that they have,

you know, then that's the best case scenario still. That is all the, it's not the best case scenario to have Kyler Murray. It's the best case scenario that the guy you draft the 10th overall turns out to be great. That would be the best case scenario. score one more says if anything beef flow saw this season coming in the off season even Tom i assume you mean tvs tom brady commented it was unrealistic to think you can make a super bowl run with two guys with no experience um i mean that's something that i think about a lot and i wonder about with this bflow situation is just how much went back to i'm not going to sign an extension when i don't

know where this thing is really going and then you you get to the end of the year and you still don't know where the thing is going. Let's see. Zoom or K.O. When will it be time to start examining head coaching candidates? You know, like I get it. And I had a lot of criticisms for Kevin O'Connell this year. But I also think that when you look around at teams who just hire a coach and fire a coach,

hire a coach and fire a coach, especially coaches that get you to a certain level. I don't think that's reflective of a very good organization. If you look at Arizona who I was talking about, you know, they hire Cliff Kingsbury, they fire Cliff Kingsbury, they hire Jonathan Gannon. They fire Jonathan Gannon. When do you ever get numerous shots at it, have somebody to build something there that you can count on from year to year. Instead, it's just complete overhaul, complete overhaul, complete overall.

I think that when you have reached a certain baseline of a head coach, then you need to think really long and hard about it before you're making a move like that. And the reality of the NFL is, and this is why I will definitely talk about it, because the reality of the NFL is that coaches get fired if they don't succeed. And sometimes they are wildly successful and they still get. have fired. Multiple Super Bowl champions, multiple coaches of the year, fired. So can we talk about that with Kevin O'Connell if they don't make the playoffs next year? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Because that's the league. I don't think that it's the smartest thing to just fire

coaches left and right. I think it's kind of stupid, actually. I think it's better to have a good coach that you take many chances with who will get you there because when you look at hiring cycles, go back year by year, go back year by year. And you're going to go through and go, oh, yeah, that guy only lasted a year. Oh, yeah, that guy got fired after two. Oh, yeah, that was a bad hire. Right. The devil you do not know might not always be the best choice.

So I think that giving O'Connell, Quasi Dauvel Mensa, a chance to fix their mistake is the right move and not just firing people after a nine and eight season. and then you have to look at what's the health of my organization. Where are you at after that? So let's say they do sign Kyler. Let's say they have a really fun season, but they come up short in the playoffs. Are you going to look at that and go, all right, just get rid of the guy.

Or is it, okay, well, every time you've had a good quarterback, you've won a lot of games. So you need to find your guy now. And Kyler got you a fun season in between, but now you've got to find your guy. or it's also on the table that they could develop J.J. McCarthy and he could come through. I mean, there are situations all the time where teams are not sure what they have. You know, the Philadelphia Eagles, it still feels like they're not sure what they have in Jalen Hertz,

and he's a Super Bowl champion. I mean, Bryce Young is, you know, one example, but even Jalen Hertz, the Eagles reportedly tried to trade for Russell Wilson, and they had Jalen Hertz. so they weren't sure after that one year. Things like that happen. So I would prefer to just see the opportunity to fix this with the roster they built for their couple of year Super Bowl window. And Casey referred to it the other day. I mean, that's what they've done here.

They've created a two to three year window for themselves. So give them that because they got to the point where they could win 14 games where they have a strong roster and then see what happens. then see what it looks like after that. Zoom or K.O. Sam Darnold last year. Flores this year will Justin Jefferson or Matthew Collar leave next year. Oh, man. Well, you know, I am a free agent, sort of,

when you own your own thing. But nobody's ever come and given me the Brian Flores offer. So until that happens, I guess we're stuck with this. I'm just kidding. This is great. This is great. I meant you guys are stuck with me. But as far as Jefferson, I think that situation is fine right now.

And he understands what happened. And they understand what happened. And everybody has said, okay, patience. But that patience runs out after this year. You have to fix that. You have to fix that. If Justin Jefferson is struggling to get to 1,000 yards next year, that is going to be a major problem.

And that's why I talk about, you know, choppy waters, choppy waters. Your ship is not sunk. It's choppy waters. And those waters have to find not choppy, smoothed out waters. And a lot has to be resolved to get there. We need to know who the quarterback is. We need to know who the defensive coordinator is. We need to know how they're going to deal with some of these contracts.

We need to know how they're going to deal with the Jordan Addison thing because their most recent attempt to deal with it was not enough, clearly. They're all of their attempts to deal with it, not enough clearly. So there's a lot to be resolved to. That's why we do the show every day. That's why I don't stop doing the show as soon as the season ends. A reminder about that fan duel question of the day, which was, which one of these games do you think has the best chance to come down to the

final play this weekend. The bills and Broncos, the line is shifted on Fanduil. The Broncos are now one and a half point favorites. The 49ers are seven and a half point under, or no, seven point underdogs to the Seattle Seahawks, New England, three point favorites in New England against the use of the Texans. And the Rams are three and a half point favorites against the Chicago Bears, which one of those games comes down to the final moment. That's your Fandual question of the day.