Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Brian Murphy is ready to find out about the 2024 Vikings

Episode Date: September 2, 2024

Matthew Coller and Brian Murphy talk about Week 1 finally arriving and the things Murph is most intrigued about for the 2024 Vikings Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and guess what? It is Monday morning, Murph. We are officially back. Week one of the NFL season. Brian Murphy, you will be here every Monday to break it down, whatever happened on Sunday with the Minnesota Vikings. I'm excited, man man i'm ready to go

it's been a long off season it feels longer than others not just because they weren't in the post season but because so much has happened since uh early january and it's been you know almost eight months worth of just ringing that rag out ringing that rag. Now it's time to actually finally see what it all means. It is, uh, before we jump into, because the main subject of this really weak is going to be like, let's get it. Let's get ready for football. Here we go. But, uh, I did want, I did have to get your take about, uh, Mike Zimmer and his article in the star Tribune, because you, uh, you and I became friends out there covering Mike Zimmer and you had a few tussles with him. You went to the ranch once for a sit down. What was your reaction? Twice. What was your reaction to his comments to Mark Craig? Well, first of all, hat tip to Mark Craig for

getting that interview. I think it was, I think a lot of people were wondering when that other shoe was going to drop at some point. I'm surprised it actually took this long before Zimmer would sort of, I didn't think he'd let his entire coaching career go by without addressing how messy it was when it ended here. I was, I don't think I learned a ton. I mean, if anything, it just reaffirmed that Mike Zimmer is a very obstinate, not really much into navel gazing or introspection or even possibly sharing blame, it seems like. There was a lot of lashing out. There was a lot of scapegoating. There seemed to be, it seemed kind of small and petty, which is exactly what it was at the end. What really struck me is, I know this was discussed and covered when Zimmer and Spielman were fired. But the idea that these guys went so long without even speaking to each other after, you know, Zimmer finds out Spielman's looking at quarterbacks in the 2021 draft and he kind of storms out of the room like, I'm going to take my defensive ball and go home.

I wonder how how does that happen in an NFL organization? I know not every general manager and head coach gets along, you know, like, you know, war buddies or anything or brothers, but I do wonder how the Wilfs allowed that situation to become as toxic as it was. And if you allow it to become as toxic as it was, the pressures of a losing season and failed decisions are only going to come back. And there was no united front. Each man was clearly coaching and managing for their own self-interest. And it really blew up spectacularly. If anything, it really underscored how important it is to have a general manager and a head coach,

if not on the same page, at least have mutual respect for each other. And it seemed like that went by the wayside and really clouded that whole 2021 season. Well, and it surprised me as well that Mike Zimmer wouldn't have a bigger say in which players they ended up drafting. I mean, we've kind of talked about this a little bit with the last couple of drafts from the Vikings. It seemed like Kevin O'Connell really wanted Jordan Addison. I felt like Brian Flores had a few, you know, where his hands were on some picks like Makai Blackman, who I still think is a very promising player. And I don't know the exact interactions between the general manager and the coaches,

but I don't know how you can go get the groceries if you didn't have the grocery list approved by the coach. Though I think drafting Kellen Mond was mostly fine. It was a third round draft pick. They had a bunch of third round picks. It felt like Zimmer was upset about the entire accumulation that he got defensive players that Zimmer didn't think were good. But if you go back and look at that draft, none of it was very good. I mean, a lot of the players were staying for extra seasons due to the COVID year. And it was maybe one of the lightest drafts past the first round that you were ever going to see. And, you know, you can go back and say, well, Spielman missed on all those draft picks and then go, but who was he supposed to pick? I mean, where are all the great players that were in that third

round? Maybe the only argument is that they should have traded up for somebody, but in the first round they got Christian Derrissaw. So I don't know. It's the draft is, is a funny beast, but I think you're right that more so it just spoke to where those two were and what happens when people start to feel the pressure when they feel like if I don't win next year, I'm getting fired. And this is why they should extend O'Connell because you don't want people making decisions out of desperation. So that's the tie in. We could go on for that all day. I did a live stream about it if, uh, and I pulled the best five or six quotes. Poor Chris Boyd, poor Kellen Mond, just those classic players that Zimmer took a swipe at for really no reason whatsoever.

But we got it. We got a game to talk about Murph. And why don't we start here? You read my massive piece on Sam Darnold, purpleinsider.com. People should go and check it out. I spent the entire weekend gathering everything that I could come up with from data, talked to a few analysts, went into all the quotes that I had been pulling aside that I wanted to use from Justin Jefferson, Kevin O'Connell, Sam Darnold, and then I put it all out there and you read it.

You feel better about Sam Darnold's chances now? I feel more informed about his chances. I feel like, you know, there was, I knew from a broad level that he was thrust into a lot of awful situations, both in New York and in Carolina. Head coaches that were in over their heads, systems that weren't exactly proven, offensive lines that were suspect at best.

So as we've been talking about all offseason, you know, the laundry list of excuses or ways to mitigate the disaster that Sam Darnold's career has been so far are numerous. And anybody that's looking for hope can grab onto those and find reasons that that doesn't exist here. He now has a quarterback whisperer as coach, apparently, in Kevin O'Connell. He finally has an offensive line we think is more reliable than it has been in past Viking seasons. I mean, we can get into the nuts and bolts of whether they are inside or not, but at the tackle position, they seem pretty strong and at center as well. You can get into the fact that he's got Justin Jefferson to throw to. You can get into the fact that now he's got a solid running game. The pieces are in place for him to, if not lead the Vikings to 12 wins, to certainly maybe resurrect his career. And I thought one of the things that you had pointed out is it just it's very rare that a quarterback who

is drafted that high who comes across as sort of as NFL ready as a lot of the scouts thought he was if that initial opportunity is lost there are very few examples I think you went all the way back to Jim Plunkett I think as a guy that was an afterthought for so long before finding the right situation. So is this the right situation? Is it possible he can pull a Geno Smith or a Baker Mayfield? Yes, of course it's possible. Does nine wins guarantee him a long-term contract with the Vikings? Unlikely. J.J. McCarthy is their guy. But he doesn't seem like he's, Darnold doesn't seem like he's going to get another chance to ever be a starter in the league again. The opportunity's there for him. He's got a lot of scar tissue. He's got a lot of bad experience. He's got a lot of experience about

how things can fall apart with an organization quickly as the entire organization's falling apart around him. He doesn't have that situation here. If he's not going to succeed in Minnesota, it's likely he's not going to succeed anywhere, certainly as a starter. So I think that's what's intriguing, is he may not be the Vikings' savior or a playoff hero, but he might end up being his own hero,

and he might end up being able to resurrect a career that was on death's doorstep about six months ago. How often has a quarterback ever gone into a season being absolutely certain he will not be with that team the following year, which I think is another part of this. He knows that JJ McCarthy is the franchise quarterback going forward after this season, but he can also in a way play like, all right, this is, this is it. I mean, we've seen guys go either way with this. Sometimes they feel the pressure so much of their career beating down on you, which Darnold said that earlier in his career, he had that problem where he was focused

on what was next or what the implications of his play were going to mean. And he said the position is too hard for him to have that swimming around in his mind all the time. But he has to know that this year he can either play tight and struggle because he's worried too much about it, or he can play in a way like, I'm just going to go out there and see what happens. And we saw this. The example that I like

is Alex Smith. When they drafted my homes, Smith knew that it was over and they were going to go to my homes and he led the league in quarterback rating and threw down the field more than he ever had before. It was more aggressive than he ever was. Now with Darnold, of course, you don't want to be more aggressive than he's been before because that's been a little bit of his problem, but it just sometimes speaks to what that can do mentally for someone to know that this isn't your organization. You're just here trying to ball out for a year and see what happens. And I wonder how he's going to respond to that. Another thing that I ran across to Murph was we talk about the offensive line last year, Kirk cousinsousins was one of the least quarter pressured quarterbacks in the league and the Vikings by PFF graded as the second best

pass blocking unit, which I know doesn't compute because you remember a few sacks and things like that, but they were much, much better than they have ever been before pass blocking. And Sam Darnold has never had anywhere close to a competent offensive line. That really blew my mind when I looked back at where his team's finished by PFF. And I even checked to see if it was his fault because there is data that tells you how often the quarterback is responsible for his own pressure. And I was amazed at how bad of offensive lines he had in New York and Carolina. Yeah. and he had no supporting cast either. I mean, it just seems like he was put in a position to fail.

And you talk about playing sort of as a lame duck playing for himself. I mean, there's the term playing loose, playing free. And so much of the NFL is a mental grind and a mental battle that you're playing you're battling yourself you're battling the guy that's trying to take your job you're battling the coaches who are maybe putting you in positions you're not uncomfortable with you're battling the media you're battling the fans expectations that's why we watch i mean i i'm not uh i'm not sitting here playing a violin for n starting quarterbacks, but what you have is when all of that, when all of the supporting pieces and the infrastructure around you are

crumbling, it's really difficult for a young quarterback to emerge out of that, not only unscathed mentally, but to be able to have the confidence that the tools that got you here, the tools that got you noticed and drafted in the first round, can you even rely on those anymore? Do you even trust those? Where are those?

Have you been, if you've lost, it's not even just a confidence battle, but have you lost the ability to connect with the skill set that got you here? If he's allowed to, I mean, clearly expectations are low for him here, both locally and nationally. I'd be curious what his expectations are. I mean, if he wants to really be honest with it, I think he would say he's probably lowered them for himself as well. I think he recognizes the opportunity, but I think he's not in a position where he can put all the pressure in the world on himself to be like,

if I don't deliver this year, I'm done as an NFL quarterback. That's the writing on the wall. But if he doesn't have to play with that hanging around his neck, and he's got Aaron Jones behind him now, he's got Justin Jefferson, he's obviously got a more competent offensive line. Eight or nine wins in Minnesota may or may not get the Vikings into the playoffs, but it certainly could resurrect Darnold's career and set himself up for a better contract. Another situation where, you know, maybe he can, he's going to be a free agent. You know, he has a little bit more power to choose. He isn't being saved or rescued. He now can have some, maybe some proactive impact on where he goes next. I think that if Sam Darnold, at least to some extent, adopts the idea that it's okay to manage the game, it's okay to check down. It's okay on third and eight, not, not, not on

fourth and eight in the playoffs. It's not okay to check down, but it's okay to check down and punt the ball in the middle of the game to make sure that you're not making a big mistake. And that has plagued him throughout his career, especially when his team is down trying to be the hero. And I wonder if now free of, well, this team drafted you with the top draft pick. And even in Carolina, this team traded a second round draft pick for you to be their franchise quarterback. And it's also strikes me that teams keep believing in him. And so the people who do the evaluations and are very good on the pro side, the draft is a messy, but on the pro side, it's rare that they miss on these guys.

And the fact that they are still going back to Sam Darnold, it really stood out to me that the executives, even in the Mike Sandoe piece for quarterback tiers, we're still saying, you know, maybe he could actually be up there in that range of, of decent quarterbacks. So everybody's kind of seeing the same thing with Sam Darnold. Now he needs to make it happen. And that is the biggest story of this season is whether Sam Darnold can take a very good team somewhere in an incredibly difficult division. What are, what are the other stories of this season for the Vikings that come to your

mind immediately as we go into finally week one? Well, I think, and we talked about this in Vegas last week too, or a couple of weeks ago. I think that it's imperative. They come out of their first six weeks into the buy at 500 or near 500. They can't be in a one in four,

one in five situation. They can't be stomaching a losing streak where the doubts are going to come rushing in very quickly. And it's a very challenging schedule. It's a challenging schedule throughout, but early on it's challenging. I mean, you've got the 49ers as your home opener, you've got Houston and the hype seems real with CJ Stroud and Houston coming in. Then you have to go all the way to London to play Aaron Rodgers, who, you know, the buzz still seems to be he's still Aaron Rodgers, even though he was lost for a year and seemed to be on the decline in Green Bay. You've got a game in Detroit coming out of that, against Detroit coming out of that.

This could slip away very quickly. I think it's important that Darnold at least tread water early on. I think it's important that the Vikings tread water to keep everybody engaged, keep hope alive, as it were. That's what I'm going to be watching for early on. You're going to be looking for all the personnel and how it works, and certainly the microscope's going to be on Darnold. But as a team, a couple of those teams with Zimmer fell into really deep holes early on and scrambled, managed to make it interesting, but the amount of emotional and mental capital it takes to come out of a one-in-four hole in this division is how stout it is now. I don't see the Vikings

being able to recover from that. So to me, a quick and at least salvageable start coming into week seven, a home game against the Lions. I think that's where the real season begins. Folks, U.S. Cellular noticed that the way we use our phones has gotten ironic. We try to put our phones down for dinner, but the menu is on a QR code. That's ironic. We hit like on social media posts that we don't actually like. Ironic. Which is why U.S. Cellular created Us us mode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less ironically a phone company wanting people to use their phones less ironic let's find us again with us mode from us cellular visit us cellular.com slash built for us to get started well they call it owen tombstone for a reason murph that even teams in a 17 game season if you start out oh and two one and three your odds of making the playoffs just

plummet and we saw it from the vikings last year and i know kirk got hurt and he was playing very well but there was still a decent chance that even after they had gotten back to 500, as you said, playing from behind for an entire season, just wears on a team and wears on a team. And oftentimes we end up seeing them come short of the playoffs after a miserable start. It's very rare that a team makes the post season after they start slow. So I agree with you. And that will dictate a lot of how we end up viewing this team is just what happens in these first four weeks, because we're either going to say, okay, this is a surprise team that is two and two or even three and one. And wow.

All right, here we go. It's a real season or onto 2025 will be the sentiment. And I don't think anybody wants that, but that's in the cards potentially when you have the opponents that they're going to face. What do you think this season means to Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi Adafomensa as a regime? Where does it fit in? Because I think we could easily slot the other seasons. All right. It's their first year. It's a win now. It's the last dance. And then it was the competitive rebuild season they tore it down that was last year you're setting yourself up to get a franchise quarterback

they draft J.J. McCarthy we know that next year is expectations you have to be in the playoffs next year with your young quarterback and all your cap space and all the money they're going to spend what is this where does this fit in for these guys? Well, it almost feels like a legitimizing season where, you know, you've lost your mulligan. Certainly, Kwesi's lost his mulligan with the 2022 draft that has been autopsy ad nauseum the last couple of weeks during roster cutdowns and the swings and misses and the moves that were made there initially. And with Kevin O'Connell, I think you have, now you have, okay, you were brought here to be the quarterback whisperer. You inherited Cousins. You made it work. You made the puzzle piece fit until it didn't anymore. Now you've got somebody that you can really mold and not

somebody that's handed to you in an emergency carousel that they had last year. You don't have to get, you know, you don't have to get somebody who hasn't been, you don't have to get Josh Dobbs ready in three days. You have Sam Darnold now you had an absolute off season with. What are you, you know, if you are able to turn around Sam Darnold's career and still not make the post season, I think that might be enough to legitimize you as an NFL head coach. And I think if O'Connell's going to be challenged this year more than others with holding it together, with keeping it together through a very difficult start. I forgot that they're going to Lambeau in that first six weeks as well.

So I think that's where I want to see them, you know, they're not quite coaching or managing for their jobs, but with a little bit of intrigue about an extension or not extension, as Mark Walsh said, we're not really exploring that right now. And then in light of the Zimmer-Spielman experience, which just kind of got the embers of those were kind of smoldering again this week with Zimmer's interview. You can see where ownership is thinking. You can see where these guys are in a position right now, and I'm saying KOC and Kwesi, where they can lose their tenure very quickly if the season goes sideways fast and they lose the locker room. If they're, you know, I don't think it's, I don't think postseason is what is necessary to preserve their jobs. I think this is almost like a maintenance season. And what are you going to be able to do with Darnold?

Because if you're able to at least keep everybody engaged and keep this team competitive, keep the locker room together for what's going to be a really grinding type season. The difference between eight and nine wins isn't much. Nine wins maybe gets you into the postseason. Eight does not. But I don't think it looks any different in terms of what they were able to accomplish this year. But the mulligans are gone. Yeah, I think from the ownership perspective and the fact that Mike McDaniel got an extension, he was hired at the same time as KOC.

Oh, and two in the playoffs, though. Yeah, the fact that they didn't do it, though, I think maybe showed you that they are still in wait-and-see mode with these guys, and they want to see how it plays out this year. I've never liked the approach of let's put it all on one season. Let's put it all on one game as they did in 2019. And in that article, Mike Zimmer referenced that had they lost against New Orleans, they were going to be fired, which I've talked about quite a few times,

hearing that right before the game. If they lose, then Zimmer is out. And that's not a good position for anybody to be and we can Zimmer deserves all the arrows that he gets for the things that he said and the way that that ended up playing out but also we should look at everyone responsible and the owners were responsible as well for how that ended up being because they didn't sign into them long term and they didn't fire them when they should have all been fired and they had to let to play out and they were forced to put out a statement hours before a playoff game saying, you know, which would have been an empty vote of confidence if they had lost that game at

the Superdome, but still they have to do that on a game day. You, you manage yourself into a corner. Right. Do not play mental warfare with this head coach and this general manager. I think they've already proven themselves to be above average at their jobs, competent at their jobs, and they've gotten themselves, like don't lose the bigger picture that they've gotten themselves out of an incredibly difficult cap situation with an older roster to the point where they are now ready to take off next season. So don't put everything on this year, One result when it comes to evaluating these guys, that is a less dramatic approach, but that's what I think now, as far as the NFL season Murph, well, they're playing the giants. I should ask you about that first. Who's the head coach of

the giants. You can't Google it. I heard that Brian Day. No. No, no, no, no, no. I'm not Googling it. No, an email came in. I was checking. I have another. Okay, all right. I have other responsibilities here as well. No, Brian Dable. I do know that. I put the keyboard and I was like.

You're going to play Yachty every week with me now, aren't you? All right. Brian Dable, New York Giants. What do you think of this matchup? Not much. I think it's ideal probably for the Vikings at least to have, you don't want the Niners in week one, you're going to have them in week two, but to go on the road to the Meadowlands, this might be the softest opener that they could have wished for. I don't know. I don't see much.

I mean, I think Brian Flores is kind of in a position right now to kind of make life miserable for Daniel Jones and the Giants. Maybe enough to take the edge off of Darnold's return to MetLife Stadium, because he obviously had some horrible memories there playing for the Jets. It'll be ugly, but I see the Vikings prevailing in this one. I don't necessarily see much coming out of this game where you're going to be able to take, well, this is going to be an identity type shaping victory for either team. I think they're both in this, who are we kind of mode. It might be a day where Aaron Jones kind of, you know,

you don't get a lot of talk. There was enough talk in the, in the off season and even during training camp, but there's so much focus on, on Darnold and McCarthy and what the future quarterback means. I think Aaron Jones is out there for, you know, he's, he's ready for a season and,

you know, he comes from green Bay kind of an afterthought. Now I think he's looking at a kind of a redemption season as well. You could make the case that he's got as much at stake as Darnold does in some ways. And I feel like this might be a game where he could, you could make the case that he's got as much at stake as Darnold does in some ways. And I feel like this might be a game where he could carry the offense as they're trying to adjust to Darnold a little bit. It could be one of those, he's the two touchdown, 130-yard, 28 carry, gets the first down at the end to milk the clock kind of game for him.

I just don't see it being one of these leading the highlight shows of week one Sunday evening, but I do see the Vikings prevailing in this one. This feels like Brian Flores' defense. Show yourselves. I mean, they put a lot of work into it. They put a lot of money into it with Jonathan Grenard then signing Stefan Gilmore at the last minute here and adding Andrew Van Ginkle and Blake Cashman and keeping some other you know key pieces around developing some other guys this is a defense that at least as a starting unit is very very good and you're facing one of the worst quarterbacks in the entire NFL go do your thing. And I think there's going to have to be some games where Flores does have to go do his thing and beat a quarterback that's not that great. But there's going to have to be a lot of games where he just keeps them in it and gives them an edge just by surviving against C.J. Stroud, surviving against the 49ers offense and the Packers.

This is an opportunity to beat somebody down with the defense that you have. And if they do that, then there's going to be a lot more confidence for Sam Darnold to be able to play. Because I think that we always just separate them offense over here, defense over here. And one impacts the other, they impact each other. Statistically, if you're playing from behind, you have to throw a heck of a lot more. If you're in a shootout, you feel like you have to score every single possession. So you're being more aggressive. Allow them to play a little bit of early 2000s football with Aaron Jones and being able to run the ball and play from ahead would be, I think, a very good sign for them if they could do that in New York. Now, bigger picture though, Murph, the National Football League.

Do you want to put a Super Bowl prediction down? Do you got something else that you can't wait for from Roger Goodell's NFL? I can't wait till they start opening the season again on Labor Day. I think there's some buzz about that. I'd love for the fact that the NFL dominates all conversation, but it should be dominating the last summer weekend of the year. I don't understand why they don't play on Labor Day weekend, but I think that's coming soon anyway, from a broad perspective. I'm interested in what's going, well, Super Bowl wise, I think I said this in Vegas. I think, and I'm not saying this as a bleeding heart, suddenly revived Lions fan.

I do think this is the opportunity for the Lions. I think between them and the 49ers, who obviously met in the NFC title game, they got the best rosters in the NFC. I feel like it's going to be, this is their moment. I don't know how much of a shelf life Jared Goff has got left. So I do see the Lions and the Earth splitting open, actually making making a Super Bowl kind of boldly said, and I'm going to stick with it. I think Cincinnati and Joe Burrow, I think they're due. I think this, they don't have, they've got some tension. They've got some tension with their wide receivers. I don't think their

defense is that great, but I feel like this is, this is a moment that Burrow stays healthy. And again, a championship window rapidly closing. From a broader standpoint, that's what I'm watching is the AFC. I still think the NFL is really dominated right now by storylines, talent, quarterback play, and maybe sort of a shifting at some point in the power structure of the AFC. Will the Chiefs three-peat? The odds say no way. If there's a combination, though, that'll make it happen,

it would probably be Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. Buffalo. You want to talk about a team with that championship window slamming their fingernails off right now, it's the Buffalo Bills. Josh Allen, probably one of the best arms out there. Can he get the Bills to a Super Bowl? Baltimore. They're going to be extremely difficult to deal with. Jim Harbaugh, maybe now with the Chargers, as much as I loathe the guy, I think he's an amazing football coach and all he does is succeed.

So it feels to me like a lot of the intrigue is over on the AFC. I think it's going to be fascinating to watch the Chiefs be a two-time defending champion. Everybody's going after him. Everybody knows what it takes to beat them, how difficult it is, and the magic of Mahomes. Can he do this three times? That would be fascinating to see in the modern salary cap era. But I just see one of those underlings coming up. And in my mind, I think it's going to be Cincinnati. But I think all of the fun and all of the intrigues in the modern salary cap era. But I just see one of those underlings coming up. And in my mind, I think it's going to be Cincinnati.

But I think all of the fun and all of the intrigues in the AFC. Isn't it amazing how many dreams Patrick Mahomes has shattered in Michael Jordan-like fashion? When Jordan was around, all those great players, the Charles Barkleys and the Reggie Millers and Patrick Ewings, they couldn't do it because this guy just kept winning every championship. And it's the same way. You mentioned Allen, Lamar Jackson.

These guys are in Super Bowls, if not for Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. So can someone unseat them there? It's really the number one story going in. And I'm just really interested in maybe living through other teams, reporters covering a rookie quarterback. I would have really enjoyed seeing how JJ McCarthy jumped into the NFL, but I maybe thought a little higher of Bo Nix than some people coming out in Denver. I'm curious to see how that goes with Sean Payton and a very inexperienced quarterback.

Caleb Williams, of course, we're going to get to see him two times. Jaden Daniels was an interesting prospect. I mean, this rookie class is so unique and a lot of them are going to play. We'll see when Drake May gets in, but those three are going to jump right into the fray. So how does that go? Where do we set up? How do we view where this draft is at by the end of this year? That's way up there as far as my favorite storylines from this season go.

Murph, we're going to do this. Oh, did you have a thought on this? I forgot about mentioning the NFC North too. I think it's going to be the best and most competitive division. We're going to see a lot of it. I think it may prove itself to be the best division in the league this year, and it'll be fascinating to see how everybody's ascending or descending and where the Vikings fit into that, because they're not in the top three,

but they could make life miserable for those top three teams. And I think it's going to prove to be the most competitive division out there. Everything changes every single week in the national football league Murph. So we will see how we feel about the division and whether it is the toughest or if we're going, oh, maybe we shouldn't have crowned Jordan Love or oh, maybe Caleb Williams is even better than we thought. And now they're the Kings of the North.

So we'll see how it all plays out. Finally, this week, every single Monday, you and I are getting together to recap the night's game from before afternoons game from before. And that will be true. I'll be in a hotel in Newark. The next time you and I do a podcast following Vikings and giants, living the dream.

I mean, that is just the vacation destination is a Newark airport, but they're on business Murph. So we'll talk to you then. Thanks for this. Can't wait to dive back into actual football games with you. Yeah. Looking forward to it, everyone. you