Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Brian Murphy debates whether the Vikings' season was a success

Episode Date: January 17, 2023

Matthew Coller and Brian Murphy discuss the Vikings' untimely end of their season, the defensive meltdown and whether it was player or scheme related and how we define a successful season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by Liquid Death, delicious water that's bringing death to plastic. Learn more at liquiddeath.com slash insider. Hello, welcome to another episode of purple insider matthew collar here along with brian murphy for a monday morning murph and uh i gotta say murph that all the way until the final moment you had had me believe all season long that something magical would just happen for this team that is what you were saying and so I eventually came to just think that you were right and that Kirk Cousins would lead that final drive they would end up in the end zone they would end up I don't know winning the coin flip kicking a

long field goal and it didn't happen Murph and I have to say there was a bit of a state of shock and then even in the locker room today it was was the same thing for players. I think that they believed it that all season long. And so then when it didn't happen, none of them expected to be talking to us on Monday morning about the end of the year. And I found it kind of, I don't know, remarkable that normally it's like, well, we played great. And next year we're going to do even better. There wasn't any of that. It was just like, we kind of can't believe we didn't win that football game. And Delvin Cook even said he thought the better team lost the game, which I'm not sure is entirely true, but I think that's their, that's their feeling coming out of this. So what is your feeling coming out of the Vikings

loss to the Giants? I think it was a disappointing end to a magical season that was probably going to end next week. But as I've said a lot of times here, either this season or even last year, I probably said it many times, it's not the fact how you lose and how they lost yesterday was they just they had no more duct tape they had no more bailing wire they had no more bubble gum used bubble gum for the defense it everything came home to roost nothing um from a yardage standpoint from a production standpoint should really be all that surprising i think what's most surprising is that they weren't able to come up with the big defensive moment, particularly in the turnovers. I mean, it was a turnover-free game, and the Vikings, you know, any team that can take the football away from another

is generally going to have an advantage, but the Vikings especially defensively have thrived on big picks, forcing a fumble at the worst possible time for an opposing team, giving up big chunks of yardage between the 20s and then making something happen if they're pushed back to their goal line or in the red zone. And it just wasn't there. The well was dry. I give a lot of credit to the Giants. They really saw what the Vikings, the Vikings flaws were exposed for everyone to see. They really put together a great game plan to exploit that and just essentially put the Vikings in a bad position. And then their players just looked old and slow. And they tend, in reality, they are old and slow. But when they make big plays at big moments like Patrick Peterson

or Harrison Smith with a key stopper, then they're just experienced. But they really just looked old and slow. And, you know, it's a missed opportunity to really kind of reward the fan base with a playoff win. It's a missed opportunity to play one more game together. I mean, reading all week long, a lot of these guys realize this is a kind of a lightning in a bottle type season, and we're not going to be teammates much longer, or we want to be teammates as long as we can. And then now the harsh reality is going to come in that they aren't going to be teammates much

longer. And I think, you know, if you take care of business, you're supposed to take care of, then maybe something magical happens in San Francisco. But they couldn't get the magic yesterday at home against the Giants. I wasn't going to be optimistic about San Francisco anyway. So, in a nutshell, season was not a failure. Their defense failed them at the biggest moment. The season was, I think, a pretty good success on a lot of levels, and we can break all that down going forward.

Just disappointing yesterday. And without this club's history, I don't know if the playoff defeat is as painful to some. Maybe some were already bracing for the worst, and it didn't bother them at all. But, you know, 13 wins, boy, those seasons don't come around very often. So to not be able to advance at a game you were favored at home, yeah, severely disappointing. Yeah, I think that's what's really going to stick, is that this team since the 80s has had

one season like this per decade. Now, that doesn't guarantee that they can't have another season like this for 10 years, but it certainly does not come around all the time. And when you get it, you have to take advantage of it. And they just didn't. And I think that anything short of going to an NFC championship game, when you win 13 games is a pretty big disappointment. And I, and I totally agree with you that if they were going out to San Francisco, we would spend the whole week talking about how they were going to get bludgeoned. And you know what? They would have based on what we saw yesterday.

But at the same time, it's like when you get to that pinnacle of that many wins, you just have to set that as the standard. And they didn't just come a little short of it. They came way short of it. And it was a game where they just ended up playing from behind the entire game. And so when you talk about how it happened, that matters too, that there's no coming out of this and saying, and this is what Vikings fans so often end up having to lean on, but at least you can lean on, well, Gary Anderson missed the field goal, but everything else, we should have won the Super Bowl. That was the best team and everything else i mean even in 2017 i guess you could argue that they got there to the nfc championship and maybe just weren't

prepared as well or something you could lean on a little better that you went to the nfc championship you were right on the doorstep but in this way you got outplayed badly by a team that went nine seven and one i mean it's just i mean it's just hard to rationalize in any way. There's hard to create any sort of, well, we almost had the, I mean, if Greg Joseph misses a field goal at the end to lose, that's probably better than being down by 10 points for basically the entire game, getting it tied late, and then having them cruise down the field, score a touchdown,

and then you can't respond again to get pretty soundly beaten. They didn't get destroyed. That's not what I'm saying. But when you look at the yardage, you look at how the game was played, the win probability was in the Giants' favor pretty much from the outset as they got the 10 point lead. I mean, it's kind of a meek way to go down. It wasn't like the down to the very last moment. It sort of felt that way with Kirk's play, but even Kirk's play, if you look at the win probability, it still would have required getting into the end zone pretty quickly, you know, after that. So I think that's a hard way for everybody to lose. It was in a game where they couldn't find a way but

also just didn't play well enough to win and you kind of have to just accept it like they were better than you and when you look at all the details too of how the Giants changed a lot of the things that they did offensively and defensively the second time around and yet it felt like the Vikings really didn't I think there's that too There's like a lot of fingers that you can point, like not only just at Donatello, but also at Kevin O'Connell, you know, like not making a change mid-season. I think there's just a lot of things that there's no way to just kind of push an easy button to say successful season, good times,

but what a darn shame we lost. I think this one kind of is going to rest heavy on people. Well, and it should. And it should be a learning and growing experience for O'Connell as well. Look, nobody put a gun to his head and said you had to hire Ed Donatel and install a 3-4 that was never, ever that intimidating or that impressive. As you said, there were tweaks, I guess, along the way. There were some adjustments made. There were some challenges laid out there, certainly after that awful Dallas loss where Donatel was on the griddle, and rightfully so.

And you could tell O'Connell was starting to pull levers and press buttons without necessarily vilifying Donatel directly. But I think the message was clear. We can't play this soft anymore. In coverage, we can't not have a pass rush. We can't not come up with plays. And that was what was endemic all season long was the opponents could pick up yardage and first downs and big chunk explosive plays somewhat at will. Certainly yesterday. I mean, I was in Miami Beach with friends, a bunch of friends watching all the games and they were, you know, they even said early on, I think we think this is going to be the best game of the weekend. Also the best chance for an upset, but also the best chance for some weird stuff to happen. And I generally concurred.

But they had just like – they can't stop anybody. They can't stop a cold. I mean, it was painful to watch because these were – especially with Barkley. I mean, there were times where there was no one around him and he had the football. It just – it was too easy. It felt too easy. And it was – you know, that has to add up on your offense. You know, I know there's a lot of kumbaya in that room where, you know, we know the has to add up on your offense. You know, I know there's

a lot of kumbaya in that room where, you know, we know the defense is going to come up with a big play when needed. I don't get the sense there was that vibe or that feeling as the, the deficit sort of stayed steady, as you mentioned, 10 plus points, ball control, possession control. There wasn't really a big moment in the first half where you could go into the locker room and say see that's where we can make some hay coming out again you just felt like it was going to have to be a bad turnover by the Giants or a really timely forced turnover by the Vikings and then turn that turnover into immediate points, immediate momentum. But it just felt like every, you know, I haven't looked at the drive chart,

but it just felt like every Giants drive was 10, 12 plays, 65 plus yards every time. And those, those add up. I mean, they wear mentally and physically on a defense. They keep your offense stapled to the bench. There's not a lot of change. Again, the Vikings really, really are an emotional team and respond well to adversity and positive momentum changes. It wasn't even really adversity. It was just sort of a slow inevitability, the way that game played out. And, you know, you mentioned O'Connell, I mean, yeah, I mean, he brought in and at Donatello, he entrusted him through his relationship with Brandon Staley, that this was a guy that could maybe work on the margins for you and take

advantage of an aging but experienced roster. Well, that blew up in his face. So I think it's pretty safe to say Donatello will be either retiring nicely with some fine parting gifts or be shown the door. But where, you know, and I know he was asked about it, but the trick play on third and one, it just, you know, if it was first and ten, it still looked bad. And it just seemed ill-timed. I don't know what that was about on third and one. The obvious, you know, Cousins thrown short of the sticks on the final pass of the game for the Vikings. Yes, he reverted to that as well. He did not seem to want to take a shot to Justin Jefferson, who's proven he can come down with almost any ball. They can lament that all season

long too, but Jefferson has been neutralized and marginalized in games before. He was after the first drive yesterday. So where were those adjustments made? Where were the counter adjustments made to what New York was obviously doing differently? You know, O'Connell's going to have to answer for that as well. So on the matter of Donatello and the changes, Kevin Seifert had this tweet. I'll read it to you. After week 14, the loss in Detroit, Kevin O'Connell said he would consider any defensive changes

other than swapping out the scheme. Here's where the defense ranked relative to the rest of the NFL after that, including Sunday. 29th in points against, 25th in yards against, and 26th in pressure rate. And I guess there is this whole, you know, do we debate whether it was the players or the scheme? My thing is that way too many veteran players look confused. Like they are slow. And I agree that there are times where in my brain, I expect the tackle from Eric Hendricks or from Harrison Smith.

And you're like, oh, they did not tackle him. But when receivers are running wide open, when there's no one trailing him, if they were just getting beat and a guy's right next to him and running behind him and like, oh no, he's lost the step and he's getting roasted. But it wasn't, there was no one around. I mean, there was just players looking at each other like, weren't you supposed to be there? Why did you run over me? Why, what happened? And that was all season long and that never changes, never changed. I think that a lot of them were bad fits for the scheme or didn't understand the scheme. They maybe couldn't communicate it in the loud environment or something. I don't know.

But I think that there is a lot to pin on that, but there's also a lot to pin on the fact that you knew about it and you didn't fix it. You knew about it all season long and you didn't find a way to fix it. And it took most of the game for them to even think about sending extra pressure, which we all told them you're going to have to do to get those turnovers or to make those plays. And yet they didn't. And, you know, I I've seen people hammering Zedaria Smith for the second half of the season and so forth. And, and I get that, but like, that's the bet they made to ask Z'Darrius Smith and Daniil Hunter to do everything. And one of those guys was playing against an all pro tackle. Andrew Thomas is as good as it gets. And so you can't just ask that to happen. I mean, there's gotta be other answers. And so I do look at the scheme also halfway through the season. I think we all knew that this was not working with Donatello.

And maybe that's the point where you need to forget the collaboration stuff, throw that out and fire someone and make something happen. And this was like with Zimmer when he fired DeFilippo. I mean, ultimately it looked bad for him in the long run of like Zimmer treating assistants badly and so forth. But I remember when it happened, we were like, yeah, you got to do it. You got to do it because sometimes you just got to throw somebody overboard because it's not working. The Ravens in 2012 did that with their offensive coordinator and put Jim Caldwell in charge and they ultimately won the Super Bowl. So,

you know, I don't know, like that's one example. And, you know, saying now in hindsight should have fired that guy. But it's hard not to look back and wonder, like, was the Kumbaya stuff a little too like we're going to give everybody their chance when you knew that there were problems? Or is it possible that there was no answer with this group because their weaknesses were their weaknesses? And also remember, they got beaten down this year. They played many games where they had to be out there for 80 or 90 snaps, and that stuff accumulates on players' bodies

all the way to the end of the season. The Giants rested their starters last week. They were very healthy and fresh coming in. But I think that the taste in the mouth has to be for so many fans. Wasn't there anything that could have been done to prevent this type of defensive performance? I think it's a fair question, too, to wonder if a first-year head coach really has the – I mean, he's got the power, but does he have the killer instinct to do that, to fire – to acknowledge you're wrong, this was a bad choice, and to get rid of a man, you know?

I mean, those are decisions head coaches make all the time. I'm not saying O'Connell is too soft for the job. That's the calculation that you make in whatever that was week 11, week 12, that the alternative is better. You better believe it because you're going to have a couple of days of awful headlines to get through. And there's a panic button that is obviously being pushed. So yeah, I think that would be worth exploring with him once he decides if he, you know, I think it seems pretty obvious they're going to part ways with Donatel, how he decides to address that, how Quasey addresses that, and how close they were to firing Donatel in November and whether or not it would have been worth it.

I think some of it leans more toward the latter of what you were saying, was that this was just a team that there just wasn't really a lot of fixes you were going to be able to make in terms of that personnel. They were getting banged up toward the end of the year physically. They had avoided major injuries on both sides of the ball for at least the first half. But you mentioned too the fact that they were down to the wire in so many games and they had to have their best players on the field for in baseball, they call them high leverage situations. But the toll that that takes mentally on a team as well to have to be playing at your highest level mentally and physically 58 minutes into every game,

it's going to wear a team down. I always wonder how, it's not always the decisions that head coaches make, it's the reaction to those decisions or reactions to things that happen out of their control. This is obviously something O'Connell can control. Okay, you're a first-year head coach. You brought an experienced guy in. You thought it would fit. It didn't work.

Acknowledge your mistake. Move on. But there's only so many mulligans you get in this regard. I mean, Zimmer blew through three offensive coordinators, and it got to be to the point where you can't keep scapegoating your assistants. So already O'Connell's got one demerit on his defensive coordinator. What are you going to do next year? And it's not, it's way beyond, and you can get into this more too,

in terms of the salary cap implications and the age. It's way more than who's going to be running the defense. The question is, what kind of defense are you running next year? What personnel are you going to have? Because you cannot even think of running back a slight majority of what you played this year. Big decisions coming up on some big names and big contracts with big money as well. But if there's any sense that, well, we'll toss Donatello overboard, but we like our scheme. We just need to find the right people for it. I don't know how, uh, I don't know how that's

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water and their sparkling lime are both delicious and maybe i'll have to start pounding them in front of my friends who know i'm not a drinker just to see their reactions so go get liquid death at your local target whole foods market or hy-v or find a liquid death retailer near you with their store locator tool at liquiddeath.com slash insider that's liquiddeath.com slash insider yeah and i mean we'll see like there's no official decision on Donatello, but if they start to argue that they just need to find players that fit Ed's scheme and he's going to stick around, I mean, I feel like that's just not going to go very well at all with anyone. I wouldn't completely count it

out. I mean, I agree with you that I think that's what they will do is move on from Donatello, but that doesn't like solve all the problems. In fact, it might only solve a small percentage of them when you consider how hard it's going to be to replace multiple positions on this defense. And yeah, that is something we're going to dive into throughout the week. But I feel like we're still kind of cleaning up what happened in New York. And so where we started was kind of, is it a success? Is it not a success? And I tend to think that when you've walked off that field with the disappointment that they did and played the way that they did, it's very hard to argue that it was a success because I think the most skeptical

people, me, others about the way that they handled the offseason sort of projected this, right? It was like when they did all the stuff they did, when they brought back all the players that were veterans, when they signed Kirk to an extension, all those things, the most skeptical person said, you're going to end up in the first round of the playoffs and you get beat, and then you all go home, and what was this worth? And it was like a miserable thing to say at the time and i understood that i understood like how nobody wanted to hear that when you hire a new coach and a new gm and everyone wants to be excited and you're just the biggest jerk in the room if you're like pretty sure they're just going

to lose in the first round now i would have not expected 13 wins and boy do we have a lot of fun along the way breaking down those games and all the crazy stuff that happened. But it's just hard for me to get around to be like, well, I don't know, folks, I think it was okay. In some ways it's like, I'm not sure if, if everybody could have seen it coming to like, they needed to get past that. They needed to beat expectations. They needed to kind of prove that all of this was more than a mirage in the playoffs in order for it to be a success in my mind I think you can separate a fun season an entertaining season with a successful season overall there are successes within it but that doesn't mean the

whole thing was a success no I think you can classify it as an unbelievably entertaining, magical, disappointing season. And it would probably feel a little less disappointing if they were 9-8 or if they were 8-6, 6-8-1 or whatever the math would be. I don't even know. I can't – Collar, I've tried. I can't do the 17-game math anymore. I'm so burned into the – you know, when you throw a tie in there. But you know what I'm saying.

Eight wins, nine wins. You know, the Seattle-type exit would have been, I think, what this team was maybe at best projected to do. So, no, it was an unforgettable, unforgettably unsuccessful season. I guess that's the best way I can sum it up because it, there are going to be things that you're going to talk about with your friends and family about this season to the day you die, even after they win a Superbowl,

they may win a Superbowl in the next five years and win 12 or 13 games, and it'll be great, but you're not going to see what you saw this year. You're going to see a lot of pedestrian good football, which is fine, and I know everyone would trade that in for a ring, but I don't think, you know, I think I hate to, you know, I've been somebody in this town, especially with the Twins and the Wild, I find some corners of the fan base too accepting of mediocrity, and I've been pounding the demand more accountability drum. Demand more.

They're not going to be the Yankees, but demand more. Don't just settle. And, you know, so knowing I'm coming from there, you could easily make the argument, well, the Vikings won 13 games. They created this unbelievable momentum and level of expectation. They were favored. Demand more. I demand more from the defense.

I demand more from their performance yesterday. I'm not willing to say that this was just another one to throw in the ash heap of first-round playoff exits. I just think it was so unique in its experience, and the way people really did rally around it was unique, and it felt different. The good thing is I think most of us were, certainly the smart football minds were, yeah, this just does, you know, this feels great, but it feels phony. So just be aware of that. And I think everybody was, I really don't think, I think Vikings fans to their credit, the vast majority of them had their eyes wide open. A lot of them were really cynical and I understand why, but they, they also knew that this was, this was not a solid football team that you should hit your emotional wagon to

and expect to take you to the Super Bowl and win it. This was an emotionally enjoyable season and a team that was confounding, but generally full of good guys, too, and feel-good stories up and down the roster. That matters matters too. So I just don't – I'm not willing to toss the season. But you're right. I don't believe there should be a sense that, well, boy, I'm looking forward to the next three to five years because look what we have.

I don't know. If the window isn't closed, it's really on everyone's knuckles right now. And that's exactly what makes it harder to call it a success. When it ends like this is a success with a group that went all in on this season needed to go farther. I, that's, I mean, I think that memorable is exactly right. I mean, very memorable. It's a memorable group of players. And if Patrick Peterson is not in the Vikings locker room, men, like just what, what a player

to be around every day. Just one of the smartest players, open, honest, available, a guy that like you could just walk up and talk to a hall of famer about pretty much anything, anytime. You don't get that all the time. So I think that it's been very special. And for these other players to be around, Patrick Peterson and Zedarius Smith and all these guys, and to see some of the incredible plays that were made. And that Buffalo game will always be seared in my mind forever. But there's a lot of them that we'll talk about, I'm sure, in the media room. Like, oh, remember this play and that play and all these things that happen throughout the year it's just that you know

they made a trade for TJ Hawkinson with a second round pick and they you know made a trade for Jalen Rager and they were signing these veteran players and doing all of the things that say we think we're a legitimate Super Bowl contender and and I don't care if Kweisi Adafo-Mensah said competitive rebuild because there was nothing rebuildy about it except for trading down in the draft. So they were all in on this and they just needed to come out with more. I don't know any other way to put it.

You just can't get past how it ended. And I know that the playoffs can be random or weird, but it wasn't random or weird. It was one team out playing the other one and winning a football game. So what you built, what you put out there with all those moves and all that money spent and all of it kicked down the road, by the way, it all ended up being you outplayed by a team that's nine, seven, and one. And if they had had a spunky season, if it had been like, look at these young guys doing everything they can. I mean, that's kind of the Giants, right? Like, oh, well, this is a new coach and these younger players.

But it's not that this is a lot of guys who and that's what the locker room vibe was. A lot of them were like, this is the last time probably in my career I get a 13 win season. And I think that it leaves you in kind of a desert for the future, as opposed to a lot of teams that lose in the first round. Seattle's a good example, or even Detroit that didn't even get to the playoffs. Seattle and Detroit went home being like, all right, we're on our way. I think the Vikings look around and go, we gave it everything. We gave it everything. And this is kind of what we came out with. Yeah, and I think it'll be the dynamics in the division, too, are going to be really redefined here in the next couple months, obviously.

I mean, you got to imagine that Cousins is going to be in line for his extension. And unless they're really thinking in the front office to tear it down and blow it up, I mean, he's obviously coming back as your quarterback. And I wouldn't necessarily feel awful about that. But you've got Chicago with the number one overall pick, which they may use, they may not use, they may package together and bring in a couple of dynamite impact players to build around Justin Fields. You've got the Packers that have their annual decision to make with Aaron Rodgers. You know, if Jordan loves their quarterback, what does that club look like? Everybody's really talking up the Lions because of, you know, their late season surge and the draft capital that they had and that all or nothing trade the Rams made to win their Super Bowl last year.

So, yeah, the Vikings maybe didn't go as all-in as the Rams, but, well, you know, they made some pretty all-in-type moves. And, you know, you got one first-round loss out of it. So I'll be interested not only in the moves they're making, but how they're going to market them and message them next year. Because even if they are rebuilding, you can't even say that word publicly without basically saying, don't bother watching us for a couple of years.

So I think they're, you know, O'Connell with his likely defensive coordinator rehire, and Quasey with his first real true offseason to make his mark. I think they may be doing some harder work between now and April than they even did last year in inheriting the club. Because they essentially took a lot of Zimmer and Spielman's old players and said, well, we can repurpose this, I think, and we'll save our bigger – let's see exactly what we have, and we'll make our bigger moves later. They know what they have in Cousins.

They seem to have unlocked something with him, but they certainly know what they have with their defense, which is a do-over now. Yep. I think next year might end up having to be more of the competitive rebuild season, but I guess we'll see. We don't know how Kweisi is going to operate, and I wouldn't be surprised if ownership said, well, you just won 13 games. Do everything you can to win 13 games again.

And it doesn't always work that way. So you've got to go to a kid's hockey game, Murph. It's your kid playing. Not just a random kid. Yeah, right. But before you go, final statement on the 2022 Vikings. The floor is yours. Thank you, Your Honor, for this opportunity.

I think you're going to remember this season forever, but you're going to want to invest in a better season. So I think it leaves you wanting. It shouldn't leave you angry. I don't think there should be angry Vikings fans after this playoff loss. I think there should be unsatisfied Vikings fans after this loss. And that's rare because normally it's, you know, it's primal scream therapy and pitchforks after a playoff loss. This didn't feel that way. So disappointing for sure. I think it's just going to be one of these seasons, no matter if you're even following sports anymore, you're going to remember where you were on particular days during a regular season. And other than the Minneapolis Miracle or all these other meltdowns that they've had over the last 25 or so years,

they've rarely been positive ones that you remember where you were when something happened with this team. So I, I guess that would be the one, uh, the biggest takeaway is, uh, I hope you enjoyed the ride, but, uh, there's a better ticket to be had. Yeah, we've, uh, that's good. Yeah, that's good. Right off the dome. Uh, you know, we've, uh, that's good. Yeah, that's good. The right off the dome. Uh, you know, we've, um, talked about this, like sometimes joked around about like dance, like no one's watching, like ride the wave, enjoy, enjoy the whole thing. You know what it is? It's just like this. This was

a teenage relationship. It burned hot. It had unbelievable moments, things you had never experienced before, crazy euphoria. And then it just broke your heart at the end. So her parents came home. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah. More like more like she sort of just dumped you for, you know, the your friend or something. You know what I mean?

Or whatever. So another school, a friend would have been an awful loss. If it would have been an overtime loss, that's where you leave. You get dumped for the best friend. Right. It was just a, she found another guy at a different school. Right. It just like fizzled out. Like you were just so in love. You would never believe it. And then it just kind of faded and nobody even really knows what happened.

So I'm glad we sorted that out uh murph it has been an honor all season long to spend these monday morning murphs with you and we'll check in from time to time but they won't be every single monday because you have a life to get back to but uh it just it could not have asked for a more fun season of you and i every monday getting, sometimes at ungodly hours because of your schedule, but we always had a really good time. 8.30 being so unruly. To me, it is. To me, it is.

I do a lot of my work at night. But, no, you are truly the best, sir, and I loved your perspective. And even though it ended this way, I thought that you picking early on, like, I'm going to ride this to the end. You picked it right. And it was a lot of fun. So great job. Great job on all the columns for purpleinsider.com. And we will talk soon for sure.

Yeah, we'll check in during the offseason. All right, before we wrap up the show, as usual, let's get to some of your fans-only questions. Question comes from Mitzi. Let's see, you answered a fans-only question the other day and mentioned that if the defense had done a rebuild, perhaps the defensive ranking would have been the same this year. So was it worth paying expensive contracts to aging veterans, but do you think the win-loss record would have been different it seems some of this year's wins would have been sealed by key turnovers from the veterans who also provided a lot of mentorship to younger players in other words two different approaches while possibly

producing the same ranking could have yielded different records now that's a that's a fair point that the players who they signed are often the ones who have made the big plays at the end of games, Patrick Peterson, Zedaria Smith, and so forth. And I don't think that those were bad signings. I don't think that we thought they were bad signings when they happened, because when you look at the price tag, it was always reasonable for those guys, but they spent money on a defensive tackle who I think is okay. Harrison Phillips, they spent money on a linebacker, Jordan Hicks, who I think is okay, but you've seen Brian Asamoah start to mix in. They kept Harrison Smith and underutilized him and have not allowed him to

make as many key plays as he normally does. Eric Hendricks has not seemed as comfortable in this system as he has before when he was an all pro under Mike Zimmer. I mean, so he's been really abused when it comes to the coverage statistics, which is just not what we expect from Eric Hendricks. So you might've had a situation where whoever they had playing, it could have been maybe even worse. I don't know if they had younger players playing as opposed to some of these older veterans. But when you look at the production versus the price they paid for this defense, it does not match up. It really doesn't. And yes, some of those guys who are expensive made big plays at the end to save games.

But why were they in that position against the New York Jets, for example, because Mike White did whatever he wanted against them. Why were they in the position against, well, the Giants, they didn't get the key stop, but they've been in that position so many times, I think in part, um, because they couldn't stop anyone during the rest of the game. And that hasn't been the truth for every single game. And some of the points that have come against them pick six or, you know, return for touchdown or something. So maybe it's not quite as bad as being 28th expected points added on defense has them as more of like the 23rd best defense, which is still of course, not good. Could you have achieved the 23rd best defense without spending the type of money they did to rebuild it?

Well, maybe putting some of that onto the offensive side. Look, they won 13 games. So it's a little nitpicky to say you did something extremely wrong. But when you look at the final results of what they've gotten on defense versus what they paid out and where they put their assets. I think we can look back and say, what was it worth? Like, was that the right place to invest? So of course you're right to say that some of the players that they brought in have made key plays, but also like Duke Shelley's also made some key plays. And that

was another part of it is if you're rebuilding the defense through a little more value plays, maybe you find some players for the future, or maybe it could have been so horrendous that they would have won 10 games instead of 13. It's, it's really hard to know, right? We can't like pull up Madden and simulate the season. Um, and again, like I'm not questioning everything they did because they ended up with 13 wins and a division title and a home playoff game. It's just that they have not utilized a lot of those players or they're not the same as they used to be that they paid so much money for. But signing Zedaria Smith, bringing back to Neil Hunter when they could have traded him away for a fairly high draft pick. Things like that

have paid off in those big moments. So it's hard to say, I mean, if they had ended up as the 15th best defense, you know, maybe they don't end up with so many like last second type of plays that they would have had to come up with, but you know, we can't really know that. And I do think that what you're talking about in terms of having the experience that they've had that it has to have helped in in the clutch moments it has to have because these are players who have done it so many times that they don't melt down maybe in the same way that the defense did last year although you know I think that part of not melting down is also just last year's defense didn't have any pass rush. That was probably a big part of it too. Yeah, it's a really good question.

But again, I mean, we can't really relitigate that exactly. I just think that you might be talking about a little bit better offensive line situation, maybe not having to trade for a TJ Hawkinson and so forth had they used their money a little bit differently. But, you know, that's sort of relitigating last offseason. And, you know, I don't know. Here we are. All right, this one comes from Richard.

A fans-only question. Should the Vikings pursue Brock Purdy to sit behind Kirk Cousins? This I did not expect, I have to tell you. He's kept their season alive, and I'm sure that they simplified the offense for him, but instead of giving up a ton to move up in the draft or having a bad season to pick a quarterback, why not Brock Purdy? Yeah, so Brock Purdy is in his first year, which means he's under contract with the 49ers for three more seasons after this.

So I don't see any reason why they would move on from somebody who is so good even if they want trey lance to come back like why with a guy who's been hurt in trey lance would you say like we're going to give up on somebody else or move on from somebody else who has shown that they could win game after game after game and execute the offense excellently. I don't think they have any reason to give up Brock Purdy after this. You know, it is something that doesn't happen much anymore is back in the day, in the late nineties and early two thousands, we used to see a lot of quarterbacks be developed

by teams and then eventually end up somewhere else. And the famous examples kind of come from green Bay a lot as Favre's backups, like Kurt Warner. I think Aaron Brooks was a backup there at one point, Mark Brunel, um, Matt Hasselbeck, like all those guys became starters elsewhere and they would draft and develop or sign and develop these quarterbacks just doesn't happen a whole heck of a lot anymore but if you're san francisco i don't see any reason with the way that trey lance played and got hurt to say oh great you played well now we're going to get rid of you um for the vikings future at quarterback i think that the most likely thing that's going to

happen is that they'll extend Kirk and they'll try to lower his cap hit for this year to make some space and do kind of the same sort of thing. That's the most likely scenario to happen in my mind, or they're going to let it play out and draft someone next year. It's very hard to see them having an opportunity to draft one of the top quarterbacks this year. So maybe they would do a half measure like Pittsburgh did with Mason Rudolph. And then eventually you usually need to end up taking someone in the first round. But I think we've gone past go as far as talking about, well, did Kirk earn an extension or not? They got 13 wins and his connection with Kevin

O'Connell is very close. I think he's your quarterback going forward. I just have a very tough time seeing them moving on from him after this. So I don't think you need to spend too much time watching college quarterbacks or looking around for other teams' backups that the Vikings might need to pick up. But he's gotten to the divisional route, and he hasn't got past then. And with a 13 win team like that's where the bar is the bar when you win 13 is go to that nfc championship and see what happens you know i guess we're going to have that conversation about the future quarterback i mean

i wouldn't make the decision based on the playoffs but the people making the decision you know they would all want to tell you oh no we we don't do it that way we don't do it the decision, you know, they would all want to tell you, oh no, we, we don't do it that way. We don't do it that way. But you know, you're going to remember the final impression of somebody when you're making that decision. All right. Next question comes from Matt fans. Only question here. How do you think Eric Kendricks has played this year? I'm not sure what metrics point to a good linebacker performance. He's been one of my favorite Vikings in recent years, but last was rough for him and I don't see that same player I used to I'm sure if it's scheme relate I'm not sure if it's scheme related or if he's getting older but

I wouldn't be surprised if his days are numbered around here unfortunately I think that you're right and there are a few players that I've covered that i have more respect for than eric kendricks i mean this guy is one of the most intelligent hardest working toughest great in the community just that you know as far as i know from my perception and and we never we never truly know players even if we cover them them and know them in the context of their careers and everything else. But you would make your bet on Eric Hendricks as a person, as a high character, A-plus character person and a great player. But the numbers on 30-plus-year-old linebackers are not good. They're really like running backs because that twitch, that burst, if that goes away, even a little bit, you kind of got problems and it has not been a very good fit.

As far as the scheme goes, he's allowed 106 quarterback rating into his coverage, 77% as far as completion percentage, when he's the closest defender and a 46 PFF coverage grade, which is very unlike him for his career. Usually he is a quality coverage defender. He's been good against the run. He's gotten to the passer when they've used him as a blitzer. But when you look at how much it costs and I could pull up his cap hit for next year, it's just, that's going to be one that they have to look very closely at. It's just, that's going to be one that they have to look very closely at. It's another guy that you'd like to be a Viking for life based on everything that he's given to the organization. But I mean, if they cut him, they can create $9.5 million in

cap space. That's, it's just going to be hard not to do. It's going to be hard not to do, um, for the future. So I think that he hasn't been a great fit, uh, as far as this scheme goes. I also think maybe that him being given more responsibilities and not having Anthony bar next to him, they had such incredible chemistry that the years where he has not had bar, maybe there's been some impact there. I don't know, but he has been just a terrific player for them for his entire career. This might be his last run as a Minnesota Viking. Yeah, I think that's very possible. And he just, you know, just has not been the same level of effectiveness. Like there were so many times where he was tracking wide receivers and maybe it's because

they don't play as much man anymore. I mean, if you're playing man coverage with Eric Kendricks, he's so good at that, but if they're playing just all zones, then he can't exactly use his skills in the same way where he's so instinctual, so good at tracking running backs, tight ends, even receivers out of the backfield. I don't know that either linebacker is here next year. I think they drafted the guy in Asamoah that they want here and they will probably get a veteran that fits their type of scheme going forward. So, you know, that's, that is one of the hard things when you change schemes is that it's all players from the previous regime and now they're doing it differently. This one comes from Rich with Duke Shelley's

recent success. Do you see him being re-signed at the end of the year? Yes, I do. I would be very surprised if Duke Shelley does not re-sign as a Minnesota Viking. This is the team that believed in him, gave him a shot, and made him a starter. And, you know, this is where he's emerged as a really good player. What they're going to have to pay him, I'm not really sure. I mean, we're only talking about a sample size of a couple hundred snaps. So I would fancy a guess of like two years for $6 million or something like that,

or maybe a one-year deal for five or something. I think it's going to be very reasonable because as well as he's played, it's not like he's done it season after season where you're talking about signing him to some huge contract. Um, that's, that's a guy that you want to keep in your organization though. Duke Shelly, you want players who could come off the bench and play like this, or maybe even just keep starting. Look, I mean, this organization had Antoine Winfield and under, I know he was a top pick, but like undersized corners, if they've got instincts and a big heart and some toughness, you know,

they can overcome the lack of physical size. And I think that's what we've seen from Duke Shelley. I just couldn't be more impressed with him. So they'll, they'll very likely resign him or try. This one comes from Connor. Seems like the Vikings defensive players have graded out well individually. Guys like Zedarius, Daniil Hunter, Patrick Peterson,

and even Duke Shelley are having great years. Why do you think it hasn't translated to actual defensive performance? Does it make it more of a scheme issue? It's scheme and personnel, but like you talk about the grades. If I click to the top of the grades for the vikings deniel hunter one of the best at his position sidarius smith duke shelly patrick peterson all

great grades delvin tomlinson but how many players did i just name a handful and harrison smith has not had the same sort of impact as usual i only named handful. If I sort it by the worst graded players, there is a lot of snaps here. Cam Bynum, look, I mean, I think it's amazing that he played every snap and he's capable. But when we look at opponents throwing into Cam Bynum's coverage, 108 quarterback rating, Eric Kendricks, I mentioned 106. Cam Dantzler, just after a decent start to the season, fell apart, 123. So that goes into the whole picture. Jordan Hicks, when targeting him, opponents have a 121.3 quarterback rating. I mean, the weak points, and I have not even gotten to Chandon Sullivan,

the weak points are so weak in this defense and it's the guys who are expected to cover the middle of the field and so that's just allowed for so many easy completions for opponents and open receivers that the weak points just can't be made up for by the strengths and i'm gonna look right now where chan and sullivan ranks among all um guys when it comes to coverage in the slot but i wouldn't be surprised if it's like right down at the at the absolute worst i mean yeah chan and sullivan when covering in the slot has allowed 65 catches which is nine more than the next worst guy in the slot. There's nothing you can do about that.

Like you can't rush the passer different. You can't like you just you can't blitz. You can't use like nobody's going to make up for that. If you have one guy that's having so many problems in coverage, and there's also no one else that they have. They don't have a backup nickel. There's no one else that you can just put in. There's not a whole heck of a lot that they can do. So I think that's what it's really been about is weak link system and the weak links,

Jordan Hicks, Chan and Sullivan are just very weak. And that could be due to scheme as well. Trust me, I have not been impressed and we've gone over it the different reasons why, but I think that schematics have been a pretty decent size part of that. And guys not fitting in the scheme because Sullivan was not this bad before. And Kendrick's was not this bad before. And Hicks was not this bad before. Um, so I think that when you have players underperforming at certain spots, you do look at how they're being asked to play. All right. That's it for our questions.

There will be plenty more as we go along and analyze everything that is the Minnesota Vikings off season. Thank you again for all your questions that you've sent this season. Continue to send them my way. Purpleinsider.com. Use the contact us us or you can send me a dm at matthew collar on twitter either way um get those in there and sorry to anybody whose question i missed leading up to the giants i recorded an episode and then it uh never got

published and that's totally my bad uh but uh you know we got some plans too to maybe do some of these fans only live on YouTube. So if you're a YouTube watcher, go find Purple Insider, subscribe there. And hopefully throughout the off season, we'll set up a time to just go on and answer questions from the comments and have some fun this off season. So looking forward to all of the things to come, all the questions to be answered. It should be a very fascinating upcoming couple of months. So thanks, everybody.