Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Brian Murphy talks about how much Kevin O'Connell's culture will improve the Vikings

Episode Date: June 4, 2022

Matthew Coller and Purple Insider contributor slash former Pioneer Press columnist Brain Murphy talk about how Kevin O'Connell's philosophy differs from Mike Zimmer and what that means for Kirk Cousins and the Vikings and the types of pitfalls that can happen to a new head coach and how O'Connell will have to navigate those this season... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and making a return appearance to the show. It has been some time. Decided out of absolute nowhere to drop a column on the Purple Insider website. Brian Murphy, what is up, Brian? Hey, happy spring. Good to see you. Yeah.

Actually, I'm looking at you, but the audience can only hear us. Yeah, it's true. They can. So I'm making faces at you and trying to swat a giant fly that's been buzzing around my head because I'm out of my sun porch because it's a beautiful day. How about that? And both of us play golf this morning. It's a wonderful time to be alive. So I got a few things I want to talk with you about in part from your column, you ran through some pro football talk

headlines and just maybe lost your mind about OTA headlines, which is just, it's, it's classic, classic May football takes, but I wanted to ask your opinion on something first, because this is a question that comes up on the fans only podcasts and the mailbag. The main storyline, I think for this year is how much the coaching is different and how much that matters. And give me your broad opinion reaction to that sentiment. Like you and I criticize Mike Zimmer a lot. Mike Zimmer got mad at you a few times for it. But at the same time, I don't want to sit here and say that mike zimmer was a garbage coach or had no idea what he's doing because we've seen that and that's really a sight to behold

and i guess i wonder what you think that kevin o'connell should keep from mike zimmer and should not keep from mike zimmer and then, you know, how much that matters? Well, I think what he, it's all fun in games until you lose or until there's a crisis or until there's some rancor in the locker room. I mean, this is the NFL. There's no shortage of drama. Some of it's self-inflicted, some of it heaped upon you. Some of it, just the nature of this now 17 game grind. So that's, that's, we're going to watch that develop week by week with him. I can't, I think it was Mike Tyson that said, you know, it's, it's, it's one thing to have a plan going into a boxing match until you get punched in the face. And that's, that's what we don't know. I mean, how is he going to manage a team? Because as much as it is coaching, you're also managing an entity and you're managing,

you're the public face of that franchise day in and day out. That's what I want to see is, you know, there's going to be adversity. You know, people are predicting eight to nine wins. So that's going to be kind of a grind of a season again. So how is he going to react to the last second loss? How's he going to react to the inability to get a play call in on time? Clock management. If there's one thing I would say that I'd like to see him improve on, Mike Zimmer was clock management because clock management was Zimmer's Achilles heel for a long time.

And it's a tough thing for any head coach to master because there's so many conflicting elements in clock management in real time with people screaming in your ears and 70,000 people and all of that. But that's what you're getting paid to do. That is like almost one of your bedrock things is to manage the clock and manage your timeout. So I would be curious to see how aggressive he is on fourth down, is how much more aggressive he will be on fourth down. Will he be more willing to put the ball in his offense's hands as opposed to relying on his defense? His pedigree says he will. And I really want to see him, you know, he's been, it seems like, open. He seems like he's been, you know, a little bit more of a breath of fresh air. But, I mean, what NFL head coach isn't in their first couple of months

and their introductory press conference? He's younger. There's going to be a little bit of a different perspective because of that. You know, he may be more aligned with Kirk Cousins because of his age, because of his pedigree, because of his quarterbacking background. So that's, that, those are the things that I want to see him develop a little bit more than maybe Zimmer or Zimmer was just sort of a delegator and let me have my defense and deal with it. But adversity, you know, how, how is this guy going to handle when things go wrong? Because they invariably do.

And that's what we're going to learn most. I think, you know, we'll learn it early on. Yeah. So to your point about the game management, if they're not better at that, it would be totally shocking because now this is not a guarantee, but they hired a guy by the name of Ryan Cordell, who is like a math major with an MBA and super, you know, whatever smart math wise. And I would assume that he is cutting edge, at least on all of these game decisions. And he's going to be involved with Kevin O'Connell, like on the headphones with

Kevin O'Connell, if they do it similarly to other teams that are very much into analytics to help make those decisions. Like the Ravens, they have a guy, and I know the Colts do maybe two people that are in the head coach's ear for everything. Is this a punt? Is this a go for it? Is this a two-point conversion? And the math guys are literally telling them, yeah, you're going to want to go for it here. And then Harbaugh can make his own decisions at times. But the thing about going for it all the time when the math people tell you to is that everybody knows the deal. Like Mike Zimmer on a week to week basis and the numbers back this up could go either way. He could have swung as far to the conservative or as far to the aggressive as people think that he was just always very much.

We got a punt, but if you look at last year in week two against Arizona, he's punting when he absolutely shouldn't be. And then a few weeks later, I think against San Francisco, they're going for it all the time. And you're like, well,

who are you, man? Like, what are you doing in LA? I think because he coached with his emotions. Yes. Yes. And he changed based on the season. So they start off, he wants to play it safe and everything else. And then they're screwed because they go, what, one in three. Oh, now we've got to be aggressive. Well, if you're John Harbaugh and your player comes up to you and goes, man, what are we

doing here? Whatever. Hey, this is what the math says. We're doing this. Okay. Like that's the answer that you can always lean on. We're going to follow this template. We're going to be aggressive all the time. Cause that's what the numbers say. I think that's a huge deal for people just feeling a little better, uh, about their coach, knowing what he's doing in those spots. I also think that Harrison Smith said something really interesting about the culture. Harrison said, like, one of the big issues with Mike Zimmer, he didn't say this directly, but he said it sort of indirectly. The exact quote was, you know, when you're setting a culture, you can't set it and then change it at the first sign of trouble. Like, well, who could you be talking about?

I think that was a huge Zimmer thing that it was like, I'm listening to the players more in OTAs and early training camp. And then no, I'm not like, I think Kevin O'Connell can vastly improve on that. Well, and also it became very obvious. Well, it was very obvious going into last season. We all knew this, that Rick Spielman was managing for his job and Mike Zimmer was coaching for his job. and as the season went along and the screws tightened uh Zimmer was literally flailing around and lashing out and and and when he knew it was over when he knew the season was toast uh heading into Green Bay with Sean Mannion um he literally just mailed it in I mean he just he just, you just knew mentally he was done. He knew he was going to get canned. He wasn't going to give an inch. And, you know, it was, it was a,

an unsightly demise. It shouldn't have gone down the way it did. It was a, it was really petulant and it, you know, it's probably going to cost him if he doesn't want to reenter the league as a head coach, he's going to have to atone for that in some ways. So yes, it was, I think he was, he did panic and he was a guy that didn't, he was always kind of presented himself and was perceived as the old school guy who didn't panic. You know, I've got Bill Parcells DNA in my blood. Bill Parcells never panicked. Zimmer started panicking and he started, you know, again, flailing around making emotional decisions that, you know, he he was coaching for his job. And that's not a position that is going to present tried and true results if you're making every emotional decision. Now, you know, the flip side to that is with analytics, you don't want to take the gut factor out.

I mean, there's a reason somebody is a baseball manager. There's a reason somebody is a football head coach. They do need to make critical decisions at critical times, and they know how their team is doing. They know how they feel. They get a sense they're on the sideline. They know what the moment is like, and you can sense momentum a little bit more on the field. That doesn't bear out in analytics. But when you start making, as you said, contradictory decisions along the way, you're also sending a message to your players that, yeah, do as I say, not as I do. That all comes back to credibility. It all comes back to why are we going to battle for this guy if he's kind of knee-jerking away and making decisions based on his self-interest? It all kind of played out at the end.

It was very Shakespearean in a way. It was high entertainment, but it wasn't quality football. And I think that's where having the clear deck, fresh mind, fresh approach, younger, more innovative, as it were, more attuned to the contemporary game, that may give the Vikings more of an edge right away. And again, there's always a honeymoon period. Mike Zimmer had a honeymoon period. It's there. But you have to establish your credentials and your credibility right away. And if you deviate from that because something suddenly went wrong and you're mad at an official and you're like, to hell with it, we're going to go for it.

Well, that's not the way that's probably, you know, you may get away with it a few times, but when you're coaching from an insecure place, players can feel that and they can, they know that they can smell that. But I think that the thing about Zimmer when he took over is the whole thing was in shambles. It had burned to the ground and somebody even just like building a little fire and going seven and nine was like, wow, OK, on the right direction. And it turned out that they were largely on the right path after 2014 kevin o'connell takes over a very different situation

where it's the same leadership from before it's all the same people outside of anthony bar but it's the same quarterback who has not uh helped overcome whatever leadership troubles were caused by Mike Zimmer. It's the same veteran players on defense. Everybody's a year older. The roster is similarly built to what it was last year. And this is what I kind of come back to. And I don't have a good answer for this. There's no like Google search or Excel sheet that has this answer, but all those things we just talked about that Kevin O'Connell could maybe do better is how much is it all worth? Like, I think the game management stuff is legitimately worth points. Like they were one of the poorer teams in the league last year and had been for a few years under Mike Zimmer when it came to the data and game management. So improve that. Those are points. The rest of the stuff that I have trouble trying to figure out, like how much did Zimmer's chaos cause them to actually lose football games? you thought that, you know, especially going into halves. Remember going into the end of the first half,

I think there was some serious clock management issues that ultimately would bite them later on, where you thought, why didn't you at least take a shot down the field? Why didn't you go for a field goal there? Why did you go for a field goal there and not earlier? And why, you know, how are you? And it was on both sides of the ball. It wasn't just cousins running around, not calling a timeout on time. It was the defense playing on its heels at the wrong periods of time, too.

So that that was that was endemic throughout. I don't you know, I've looked I even look deeply. But I mean, how many position battles are we going to have? I mean, we're talking 20 jobs are secure at this point at starting? I mean, there's not going to be much intrigue in training camp about anybody unless somebody regresses horribly and somebody unknown steps up to seize a moment or, of course, an injury comes in. But there's not really a mystery with the roster right now, at least not on the starters. So you're right. It's going to be, okay, they're all a year older. They're a year more grizzled.

They got the tyrant out of town, so to speak. The new guys coming in. So I think it's all going to be on what O'Connell and his staff are doing, at least early on, because we kind of know what these players are capable of. I mean, you can scheme in different ways and free up some people and and, you know, maybe put some more responsibilities on different spots because it's a different regime. But at the end of the day, these are the same players they've had for a long time doing the same jobs, and they're more banged up. So how is the game going to be managed? How is the preparation?

How is the aggressiveness going to be measured? It's all going to be on. Everybody should be watching what Kevin O'Connell and his staff are doing early on because we kind of know what the players can do already. Yeah. And the defensive side, everything seems set for who's playing where there is no real position battle, but there are a lot of new faces and it's a new defense for Harrison Smith, for Eric Hendricks, for Daniil Hunter. So they're asking these guys to learn a new defense that have never learned a new defense for some of them. And they've literally had Mike Zimmer as their coach, the, if not the entire time, then someone like Harrison Smith,

nearly the entire time. And now going to something that's actually quite different in what Vic Fangio has developed in the NFL through people like Ed Donatel and Brandon Staley and so forth. But when you hear like, yeah, we're going to use three safeties, like that's just something Mike Zimmer almost never did. And he would talk about it and he knew about it, but he wouldn't use it very often. And now they're saying, all right, we're going to do this a lot. Kendricks, you're going to be on the field all the time, but Jordan Hicks, who they signed, unlike Anthony Barr, might be off the field quite a bit on second and third downs. That's going to be very different. How do those players gel right away will be a big story, but it's a lot of the same

roles and a lot. It's like, well, okay, Michael Pierce is gone, but Harrison Phillips is here and Everson Griffin is gone, but Zedaria Smith is here. And you sort of have some of the same concerns. Like, can the guy play a full season and things like that? But you're right to say that it's not like we're saying, who's going to win this quarterback competition or who's wide receiver one or anything like that. It really is the entire focus on, can this coaching staff bring this group together with a new offense and a new defense and a new way of doing things around the building and get

it all to work quickly. And what we always know, their depth is always an issue. And it certainly was with the Vikings last year because they've committed so much money. That's just the salary cap nature. You've committed so much money to your stars and your starters. What does that leave underneath? Well, that leaves, you know, hidden gems, and that's on your scouting department, and it leaves development, which is on your coaching staff, and as we've seen, particularly on the defensive side, they have not been able to backstop when key starters go down, when players are lost, especially in the secondary. It was a mess, so you're right. I guess the unknowns are, is that depth improved?

Is that depth going to be able to hold down particular positions of need for two or three game stretches? If players are inevitably injured throughout the year and banged up and missing, that is probably a little bit more intrigue, but you're not really going to be able to develop that kind of base of knowledge. You're not going to get it much in the preseason. You're not going to know until week seven, week 10, week 12, whether the players you picked up on the fringe, whether those kind of off-the-radar signings are going to pay off, because a lot of times those are the ones that really do matter the most because they're not paid and scrutinized as much for obvious reasons. Nobody's really interested in the intrigue at the third position at middle linebacker.

But those kinds of plays on third and 12 on week 13, somebody you never heard of steps up to make a play or gets burned downfield. So that is also going to be on the shoulders of the coaching staff. What is this new coaching staff going to be able to do with depth players and how are they going to be able to survive those runs where players are tired, players are hurt, or they're just unavailable? Yeah. And that goes to the previous regime and how poorly they drafted for players to develop over the years. Because when you look at what's behind Neil Hunter and Z'Darrius Smith, it's sort of similar to what it's always been, which is not much.

Like DJ Wanham had a high sack total last year, but none of the other numbers suggest that he was consistently beating tackles in the pass rush. They drafted Janarius Robinson. He's going to get on the field for the first time. Patrick Jones didn't show a whole lot. Like that's just one position, but you can really apply it across the board. If Irv Smith Jr. gets hurt or struggles, there's no fallback. If Adam Thielen gets hurt, you know, KJ Osborne can step in, but I think his high was like 80 yards last year when he had to step in for Adam I think his high was like 80 yards last year when he had to step in for Adam Thielen. It's like not somebody that you really trust. And they decided that they weren't going to go out and improve some of these things because they were putting

their money onto having a better defense. And that's what it always comes back to for me with this, where it's like on the fringes of things, you can make these improvements in terms of your game management, in terms of how you treat players, how you communicate with players and everything else. You do risk the tail wagging the dog issue with the players, especially ones who are veterans with a brand new head coach. Some of the guys are the same age as Kevin O'Connell, almost like only a couple of years off. So you do think about that, but what it always comes down to is the players and what you have and how healthy you are and,

and whether it all comes together with those guys. And if they play up to their potential or not, and that sort of brings us to the Kirk cousins narrative, which is going to be Kevin O'Connell by being Kirk cousins, best friend in this whole universe. We'll get more out of Kirk Cousins. Your thoughts? Well, you should hope so.

Statistically, there's not a ton more that they need to get out of him, at least as far as my superficial observations of that. But is Kevin O'Connell going to trust Kirk Cousins more than Mike Zimmer did? Is Kirk Cousins going to feel valued by Kevin O'Connell more than he was by Mike Zimmer? And is he going to make the right, the big plays at the big moments? Again, fourth quarter, overtime, in January, not so much October. You know, the Vikings were great at piling up points early in games, and he was able to do that as well.

And then the defense would tire and not get off the field, and Cousins would show up in the fourth quarter needing to put together a game-winning drive. And oftentimes he could, or at least a game-tying drive. But you all, you know, we've debated Kirk Cousins ad nauseum. I mean, you just, he is who he is, right? He's a 500 quarterback with a paltry playoff record. So, you know, this is his fourth head coach, fifth head coach. I don't know how many he had in Washington.

I just, he is who he is. I mean, we know who he is. So is he going to be able to deliver you to that 10th or 11th victory to a division title, to a buy, to a home playoff game, to the NFC championship game, which Case Keenum did, and he hasn't yet. That is where the validation is for Kirk Cousins. So this is really it, right? This is it. It's like, this is your last hope. This is your last shot. You've milked the piggy bank dry. And if you can't make it work with the quarterback whisperer that is Kevin O'Connell, supposedly, you're not going to make it work anywhere. So I think that's where the narrative is now. I think, you know, he had a

really strong statistical season last year, and it was fun to watch in a lot of ways, but at the end of the day, it didn't matter. And he was unvaccinated and was unavailable for the biggest game of the year, which goes back to the leadership, the dearth of leadership that I think he's had and is rightfully tarred and feathered with because, you know, I would make the argument, look, you make a personal choice about your health. But in the position you're in, earning $30 million a year as the leader of a franchise that you're expected to elevate and bring to the first Super Bowl in 45 years, you made yourself unavailable for the biggest game of the year because of that. And that resonates in the public.

It resonates in the locker room. And at this point, I'd say no, but you know, I'm willing to look, I'm willing to watch and I'm willing to write about it next year because why not? It's, it's free content, right? Well, let me speak very hopefully here that we don't have to discuss that matter again on the show. By the time we get to October, December, that we as sports have moved past that particular trouble of discussion. But what you're saying is exactly how Mike Zimmer felt. And I think one of Mike Zimmer's big mistakes though of last year was letting everybody know that he felt just the way you described. And just to come out in front of the world and be like, yeah, not a leader, that Kirk. Look at him.

Look what he's doing. Not leading, folks. That's Kirk for you. Probably undermined his quarterback really from day one. But to your point, Kirk Cousins threw over 600 passes last year and put up really good statistics and really good PFF grades. And so the question is, how much more is supposed to be there? That if you want to blame Zimmer for everything,

oh, Kirk is all Zimmer's fault. Well, aren't you the same people arguing that Kirk is actually really great because of his statistics? So which one is it? And the way I look at it is the truth is always somewhere in the middle. But how much you can really change this equation, because something important is worth noting. The Vikings didn't turn the ball over last year, almost at all. Cousins didn't throw a lot of interceptions. So if it's like, Kirk, we believe in you, we're going to lean on you more. Well, there's going to be more sacks and there's going to be more interceptions. And Zimmer found this out too. When he started pushing Kirk, Hey, you throw the ball down the field more.

Hey, you need to be more aggressive. And then he started doing it. And then he actually didn't play better because it, there's always this like trouble to hit it on the nose with Kirk cousins, because it's always a little too hot or a little too cold with whatever he's tried to, you know, people try to coach him up. And I think that Kevin O'Connell is going to find out some of those same issues that Cousins was already one of the best quarterbacks in the league on his first read. And so it's like, well, how much more can you squeeze out of that orange?

If coaches can only really coach their guy up through that first read. And I think that's what they're going to run into. It really comes down to, and this is the unfortunate part because everything is great conversation, like how the cookie crumbles, who they play, how the quarterbacks that they play, play, how the defense plays, how the running back plays. This is existing with Kirk Cousins. How everybody else plays will probably determine your fate because Cousins how everybody else plays will probably determine your fate because Cousins will be who he is so my focus is a lot of these other things how they drafted what they put around him how they're playing defense because those things

will probably be just as much of or more of factors as how he's going to play because he's going to be him right and you you know you mentioned the uh you know if he's going to play because he's going to be him. Right. And you mentioned if he's going to be relied on to make more improvisational decisions and take more risks, you're right. There's going to be more turnovers. But there's also going to be more risk of injury. One thing Kirk Cousins has been throughout his career is durable. And in Minnesota, I mean, I don't remember ever seeing him limp. I never remember seeing him, well, he took a headshot

there and he looks a little woozy. He's going to go into the tent. He's going to have, you know, somebody buzzed down from the press box that this could be a head injury problem. I mean, Cousins has walked away from a ton of car wrecks without a scratch. If he's back there doing more improvisationally, he's also opened himself up. And as a year older, two more violent hits. Has anybody really ever, even in Washington, tagged Kirk Cousins? I mean, is he on any of those highlight films of guys getting blown up, you know, either blindside hit or the pocket collapses and, you know, the nose tackle and the defensive tackle pancake them high, low, or like Favre in New Orleans 10, 12 years ago,

or if he's racing down the sidelines and, you know, a safety decides, you know what, I may get a penalty here, but I'm going to put him into the third row. I've never seen that happen with Cousins, certainly in Minnesota. So I don't know if that's because he's not putting himself in positions where that could happen and he's very cautious or he's just damn lucky. But either way, and I'm not saying I'm wishing for that to happen, obviously, or, you know, somebody roll up his knee. No, of course, we're not talking like that. But there's only so long, much you can play in this game at that position where you're not going to really be hammered a couple of times. And, and that, you know, if, if he's going to be standing back there making two or three more reads,

or he's going to be expected to be more aggressive and go downfield, he's going to open himself up to a little bit more of that. So that'll be interesting to watch is not only whether his turnovers increase, but also whether his durability goes down. Right. And he was one of the lowest in the league halfway through the season last year in terms of average depth of target. And then suddenly it went way up when Zimmer started telling him to throw the ball down the field more often. And what usually goes along with that is holding the ball more often, getting more sacks, taking more hits.

I think cousins has always been good at knowing where his outlet is to make sure that he doesn't get hurt. And that is, it's a plus. He also doesn't go outside of structure very often. So he knows how to find that tight end, know how to find that fullback, which drives everybody crazy. But at least he's getting rid of the ball and not taking big hits. When you improv, you do take more big hits. I remember he took one in Philly on a

completed pass, like a big play in 2018. There were some he took that year, but he's been really good at avoiding them throughout his career. I think about the regression just overall of age taking his toll on this whole team and how it's impossible to factor that, but it's also very possible that it exists for a number of players. So it becomes a really moving target when we talk about like, well, if Cousins doesn't have a great year, was it O'Connell's fault? Was it not Zimmer's fault?

Was it natural age catching up with cousins? Was it, you know, all these different things that it could be if he has a great year, was it the defenses they played? Was it something schematically? Was it because people like them more this year? Like, you know, trying to, trying to chase your tail around, I guess is what makes the NFL interesting. But I also think is, is one of the biggest challenges.

And then trying to project that based off OTAs training camp is, is really, is really difficult. I do think that by the end of training camp, we will have some sense for whether all of the things that they're telling us are making sense, or if they are immediately sort of contradicting what they wanted to be when they got here. Yeah. of the things that they're telling us are making sense or if they are immediately sort of contradicting what they wanted to be when they got here. And as I wrote, you know, it's May. So everything we're talking about right now, I don't, I mean, some of it may be relevant in September. It'll probably be less relevant November. I don't know

if we'll even remember it in January. That's not to say it's not fun to talk about, but it all means nothing because, again, they haven't put pads on, they haven't run real plays, and they haven't faced adversity, and they haven't gotten banged up, and they haven't played back-to-back road games, and they haven't played Sunday and a Thursdayback road games and they haven't played uh you know sunday and a thursday night yet and then and all those things that kind of pile on as the season just grinds on and on and on i mean that is what it's what makes the nfl must see tv and viewing and entertainment it's also what you can't factor in you can speculate all you want about the schedule you can speculate all you want about this signing and this draft choice in April. It's great conversation, but really all it is, is,

is hot air and we're contributing to it. So folks keep, keep sucking it in. We'll provide it. But it just, what, what happens is it becomes very overheated and it becomes very baked in and it becomes very much like, well, very baked in and it becomes very much like, well, this is what it's got to be or what it's going to be. That changes very quickly throughout a season because a key injury comes, emotional losses, emotional victories, emerging stars, emerging players you didn't think would ever have a role, step up, players you thought would be continue their career arc, suddenly don't.

Age is a factor with that as well. It's just very difficult to sit here in May and really, well, the one thing that's different about the Vikings, which we have talked about, is that we do know who these players are, and we do know that 20 or 21 of the 22 starting positions are pretty much etched in stone. So there's not a lot of intrigue. There's not a lot of how are these pieces going to fit together. In the new scheme, yes, it is intriguing.

But as far as how they're going to gel as teammates or how they're going to work together as individuals, I mean, they know each other by now. And the fans know it too here. So it's going to be, you know, who's going to keep rising? I mean, I think Justin Jefferson, you know, it's a cliche, but the sky seems to be the limit with him. So how much more free is he going to be?

How much more damage is he going to be able to do? Can, you know, Daniil Hunter is the Byron Buxton of the Vikings. If you could just get 17 games out of him, or I guess in Buxton's ratio, it would be if he could play 10, but be available for the playoffs. What could that mean in the overall sense of what that defense can and will be able to do? That's what's interesting to think about and look forward to. And again, a whole new schedule again, of course.

They open against Green Bay. They close against Chicago in the snow. And maybe the Lions are going to rise up a little bit and make some hay in the north. I can't believe I'm saying that out loud. But Green Bay is always going to be there, but there may be other rivals stepping up. You got to play Buffalo. You're playing on Thanksgiving night, which will

be fun to see again, how they respond to that kind of stage. So it's just so hard in May to really know what that's going to look like, because before we even get to those moments, 20 other things are going to happen. Oh, right. Yeah, for sure. Now, let me close with this, Murph. Do you think, not a leading question, but I think this, NFL head coach toughest job in pro sports? I think it is. There's just the sheer number of human beings that you are responsible for is so much greater in football. Like think about basketball. You got 12 guys on your team and you got to worry about them. And that's hard enough as 53 here. And then how many coaches, what do you got in basketball? Like three or four assistants, you know,

some other people who have other roles in football. It's like another hundred people who work for you with assistant coaches and everybody else. And then front office and then scheming and two sides of the ball. When you're the head coach, you have to be responsible for everybody's wants and needs and everything else. I mean, I think there's a reason why when you go back and look at those pictures of Mike Zimmer, he looks young and fresh like me. And then when he leaves, he looks like you, old and broken. Wow. You went from a leading question to a dead insult. Yes. I mean, he's gained weight. He looked like he lived a thousand years. I mean, yes. Well, and he also internalized it too. And he's a lifer who, you know, internalizes all the struggle and all the strife. And obviously you can

make a case that's not a healthy way to go about your management. Yeah. As far as if you're talking about head coaches, baseball managers in that realm. Yeah, no question. Not only because of the sheer volume of people you're managing, but the scrutiny that you are under in real time. And you've got how many people in your head you know i mean the other coaches are coaching what they see in front of them or managing what they see in front of them and maybe they got to make some replay decisions but i mean you don't got nine coaches in your ear all game long you don't got to deal with the officials you don't got to deal with a uh a receiver that's complaining on the sideline and throwing his helmet around um you've got a camera on you the entire game

there's not one broadcast that doesn't practically read your lips if you're not holding up your play card or read your facial expressions. And you're the public face, probably more so than in other sports. And maybe that'll change with Kwesi a little bit if he is more available during the season, because obviously Rick, you know, went into his cave, you know, and came out like two or three times a year to talk and make fun of media asking him questions because he was the smartest guy in the room. But, you know, Zimmer is out there every day taking the bullets and feeding the beast because you're the face of the franchise.

And you're also a crisis manager. Somebody gets arrested, who's the first person that's talking about it? Most likely the head coach. The team may put out some kind of a statement, you may hear something from a lawyer or a general manager, but most likely it's going to be the head coach on a Wednesday, standing up at that podium and explaining that, yes, my defensive tackle is in a mental health crisis on the West side right now. We're following it and we hope all ends well. I'm, you know, I'm disappointed that my first round draft pick got arrested for domestic violence. You know, I'm sorry that fans are upset about my replay decision, but I'm going to stick to it. I mean, there's no shortage of scrutiny or

explanations that these guys have to address on a daily basis that maybe isn't there with other teams. Now, baseball managers talk every day to writers and their in-game management is scrutinized, but the GMs are available more, team presidents are available more, hell, even owners are even available more, I think, in other sports to take some of that heat off. So yeah, I would say no question, the toughest job in terms of managing players in pro sports. Yep. Every single thing is your problem as the head coach, when you're the QB coach, when you're the OC, the offense is your problem. And whatever's going on anywhere else is not your issue. But when you're the head coach, everything.

I mean, think of Zimmer managing through COVID, even the players and how they felt after George Floyd and everything else. He had to reroute how he had talked about those particular issues from what he had things he had said in the past and all that. Like there's so many roadblocks. How about even this? Like something is place kickers probably age Zimmer by. Yes. Yes.

We were going in the same direction. I was gonna say, like, how about kickers driving this guy crazy? How about even like one year, 2018? We expect Nick Easton to play right guard and in mini camp, the guy gets hurt for the year and then they have nothing. They have no money. They have no one to replace him. And then it's like cousins friend, Tom Compton is thrown in there and you're playing Aaron Donald that year. And like all of a sudden it's just like, whoa, that was mini camp and all, you know, these sorts of things on a day-to-day basis, there and you're playing aaron donald that year and like all of a sudden it's just like whoa that

was mini camp and all you know these sort of things on a day-to-day basis just those injuries or whatever else finding solutions so it's a very difficult job that kevin o'connell is taking on and i think it's the top storyline of the entire year is how he managed my mark my words as we sign off here there will be a crisis if not before training camp, during it, but certainly before week one. And whether it's off field, whether it's injury, whether it's some drama with some contract headlines that come out, something he will be with a fire hose putting a fire out between now and September 10th, no doubt in my mind.

It's the Vikings, Murph. That's maybe the least hot take you've ever had. There will be something. It's the Vikings, Murph. That's maybe the least hot take you've ever had. There will be something that's a crisis. Like, yeah, always is. Murph, you're the best. Go to purpleinsider.com. Check out NFL headlines. Run amok in May was your column.

It was terrific. So go check that out. Super fun read. Don't take it too seriously and send me emails. And we'll talk soon, Murph.