Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Brian Murphy thinks it's time to give Sam Darnold more credit

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

Matthew Coller and Brian Murphy break down the Vikings' win over the Colts and Matthew talks about the trade deadline and kicker / long snapper injuries Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and once again, it is Monday morning Murph with Brian Murphy to break down the Vikings 21-13 victory over the Indianapolis Colts. One that we will remember forever as the game that they really destroyed the other team and yet only won by a couple points. Murph, was that your reaction? Because I thought that the Vikings in all facets outplayed the Indianapolis Colts. And I never felt for a single moment in that game that they were going to lose. And yet they made it a little bit tighter than it needed to be. Yeah, I'm not going to remember this game forever. I'm not going to remember it beyond today. It was what it was, an ugly pockmarked victory against a inferior opponent at home and flush it,

move on. Cause you got two more of these dogs coming up on the road. I wouldn't, I wouldn't put too much stock into cosmetics at this point. In particular, I wouldn't put too much stock into cosmetics at this point, in particular the way Sam Darnold played last night, because it's one of those convenient games, you know, but for the cancerous tumor in the body, he's in great shape. You know, there were three awful moments, two awful throws, a strip sack where, you know, he did get, you know, kind of beat up on the head a little bit, but I put that more on Garrett Bradbury. We can get onto that in a little bit too, but he made big throws. He found all of his receivers, TJ Hawkinson being back in the lineup, Jordan Addison. Hey, I guess everybody

was paying attention. You got your targets. They were moving the ball, gaining first downs on a 2-1 margin. They made Joe Flacco look 39 going on 79. I think it was a great bounce-back game for the defense. Look, no one's going to remember this game for anything other than the fact that they won a home game they should have won, and that's all you need. I mean, there's plenty of red flags out there, but they're not any real different red flags than we talk about Darnold from day one, which is you really don't know what you're going to get with this guy. He's still remaking his, I think he's still redefining himself as a quarterback in this league, and we're not going to know at the end of this season or even a couple more years

exactly who he's going to be. So just accept what you got because, hey, lest anyone forget, a year ago this week it was the Josh Dobbs experiment, and then the carousel began. And it was a week-to-week white-knuckle ride where you had no idea what you were going to get from the quarterback position. We have a pretty good idea of what we're going to get from Sam Darnold going forward, and I think we have a pretty good idea of what this team is

and how they can be successful. So, you know, just take your ugly victories as they come. Well, a lot of it was forgettable outside of maybe a couple of catches, one of them by Jordan Addison that was fantastic, and some really good throws by Sam Darnold who has the ability to on a weekly basis make you go no Sam Darnold and then also whoa Sam Darnold so uh entertainment value is never lacking uh when it comes to him but I think that there were a lot of really important developments though Murph not just that they won to go to six

and two and continue to make this argument that they are one of the better teams in the NFC. I think if they had lost three games in a row, it would have been way harder to keep making that statement. Oh yeah, we're right up there with the other best teams in the NFC taking care of business here keeps that alive, but it also means that they can go into the trade deadline and potentially make a move because they are in the driver's seat. I think that that's the biggest big picture thing is that if they had lost, I would have said, all right, don't even make any phone calls, put the phone down. Let's just play this thing out and see how it ends up working.

But now we've talked about for several weeks in a row should they shouldn't they it was very much for me gas pedal down at five and oh and then maybe tapping the brakes after Christian Derrissaw where do you stand now on that well they already did make their move I mean uh you know the front office said look we're gonna we're gonna go out and get a left tackle I mean he's you know Cam Robinson did not have the smoothest career in Jacksonville, but, you know, they isolated on him in the broadcast last night. And he, for a guy that just showed up on Tuesday, I mean, he looked like he knew exactly what he was doing. The interior line got punished pretty good by the Colts that led to that darn old fumble and strip sack and rumble and score. I think that they've recognized that this is an opportunity season.

And, you know, the deadline's tomorrow. There's always needs to fill. Again, we're eight games in, so it's not as easy as the other sports where you just plug and play with somebody or like in baseball where you acquire a closer or a pitcher. There's more complications to it, so there'll be some deliber deliberation I don't think they're going to overpay I guess the big question mark maybe today is what's going to be the status of Will Reichard your kicker who by the way was perfect until he suddenly wasn't missing a 53 yard field goal and a 30 yarder and now has a quad problem that if quad problem that if it's not going to be problematic right now, it could be down the road again. He said it had been bothering him. That's something that you

need to pay attention to. I don't think they need to go on the trade market necessarily to find a kicker, but that was a disturbing development coming out of last night that'll probably get more play in the next day or two. Yeah, I think the Vikings know who they are. I think it's pretty obvious that they are a defensive, suffocating, threatening team with a quarterback that you can rely on to make some great passes because he's got an outstanding receiving core and a diverse receiving core. They've got a running game that can balance out maybe mistakes that Darnold makes to control the clock. I mean, the Vikings had the ball and were pretty much in command. As you said, I never felt, even trailing 7-0, I never felt like that this game was slipping out of their fingers.

They were putting up too many yards, getting too many first downs, and the Colts weren't beyond a couple players on the interior line that were wreaking havoc, weren't really putting up much resistance. So this is the formula for them. And, you know, it was nice to see that they didn't commit as many penalties, particularly pre-snap penalties. So hat tip to Kevin O'Connell and the rest of the unit for really bearing down

and kind of getting that together. I'm not sure they even had to burn a timeout to save a delay a game. They might have had one, something happened in the first half where they used a timeout, but it never felt like there was chaos on the sidelines. It was a much more controlled victory. And again, an average mediocre opponent that made huge news by

benching their second-year quarterback. They were a wounded team coming in here. Now you've got Jacksonville, which is arguably one of the worst teams, certainly one of the worst defenses in the NFL, and Tennessee. Just two really awful teams on the road, worse than Indianapolis. You know, again, you're in a position to just keep stacking up victories. You don't have to play perfect games against these teams. And it looks like clearly the Lions are the class of the NFC and the NFC North. Green Bay is going to have problems with managing Jordan Love's health going forward. And I don't know.

I don't think the Chicago Bears are really affording themselves. They seem to be fading pretty quickly. So you can kind of see where the division race is shaping up, where the conference race is shaping up. And I really truly believe it's not a team searching for an identity at all. I think we know exactly who the Vikings are, and they should feel pretty good about themselves after eight games. Well, this was really important to me because we needed to see how they fixed the

problems that ailed them against detroit and against the los angeles rams and as you saw yesterday again the rams are a better team than their record when the vikings played them and better than some of the stats than when they were heading into the game against the vikings but still we had seen a blueprint laid out on both sides of the ball for being able to slow down the Vikings. Some of it was slowing themselves down, as you mentioned, with all those penalties that they had committed and they got that largely cleaned up against Indianapolis. But I also thought that they took more of a tempo type of approach. We're going to get to the line of scrimmage a lot faster. That was what I

noticed is that I wasn't looking at the play clock going, okay, three, two, you're going to have to snap the ball. That didn't happen a whole lot last night. I thought that they simplified it to where maybe only one guy was going in motion, that they weren't moving around a bunch of parts and struggling to get everyone in the right spots before the snap. And Justin Jefferson had said leading into the week that they had talked about in their meetings with O'Connell, let's just let our guys beat their guys and simplify it a little bit. And I thought that they really did that. And you look at some of the plays.

They had a 19-yard throw to TJ Hawkinson. Look, that guy's pretty important to get involved. That was something that's a positive development for them. The plays to Justin Jefferson, it was like 20, 20, 40. I mean, he was getting explosive plays left and right, but they were staying on the field for a lot longer. They were having these long extended drives. It wasn't either a huge touchdown drive or a punt.

They were on the field for so long in that game. And that's not a joke of a defense in Indianapolis. And I thought that O'Connell being able to assess some of his own shortcomings with the offense and then apply them right away coming out of that bad game against the Rams. I think that that said something good about where they can take this offense, that they are able to make some adjustments to be able to stay on the field more often and not put so much pressure on their defense. Well, and it was talked about, too, the impact that TJ Hawkinson would have.

I mean, there was a buildup. It wasn't as if he came out of nowhere. There was this sense of when you get Hawkinson back in the lineup, that's going to diversify, spread out the ball a little more, give defenses more to think about if they're going to double-team Justin Jefferson. And I guess it's no coincidence that Addison had a – I wouldn't say a breakout game, but he had one of his – I mean, that catch in the end zone is going to be on the highlight reel

for a long time. I mean, that was a spectacular grab. I mean, Justin Jefferson-like, if we should say, and the timing of it was huge because I think it was on third down as well. So it was just an opportunity to showcase, again, where he's at and what kind of weapons the Vikings have. They can hit Aaron Jones out of the backfield.

There's so much more that they can do, and this was Justin Jefferson's first kind of spot on the national stage. The NBC broadcast spent plenty of time pumping his tires for obvious reasons. And he came through and showed why he is arguably the best receiver in the NFL, because he can make any catch. He can bail out his quarterback. He can beat any cornerback. And that's what he thrives on.

That's what he wants to do. He wants to be the guy with the gold jacket in 10 or 15 years. I'm sure he wants a couple of rings to go with it as well. So it just looks like this is a team that knows exactly what it is, knows its limitations, but knows what it can be fully formed now here offensively. And that's quite impressive because as we talk about all of those weapons and what that, you know, they still only got 21 points out of it, but they move the ball with ease at times. And I think, as you said, there was so much of attacks on the defense

through these first seven games that you wondered how long that was going to be able to hold up over the course of 17. And the time of possession and just sort of the way the game went, the tempo you mentioned on offense, really kept drives alive, extended drives, and the defense was really able to, I think O'Connell said afterwards, get its pop back. And that's what it felt like. It didn't feel like they were on their heels or as reactionary. It felt like a lot of the chaos that Brian Flores has been dialing up really came back. It confused Joe Flacco, who's not the most mobile anyway. They were in his face. They forced him to make some difficult throws that he couldn't complete. And you had some big veteran plays again. I think Gilmore and Harrison Smith had some big plays.

You know, these are the guys that you need to protect load management, as it were, to use an NBA term, down the road, because you want them there week 16, week 17, and into the playoffs to be as fresh as they can. So this is an opportunity here. They're going to be down in the heat in Jacksonville next week. It's a terrible defense. That would be the game to do a, you know,

35 to 40 minute ball control kind of game and, and really preserve your defense. Same at Tennessee. And then now you're feeling like, you know, you're, you're, you're a little bit more balanced. It's not all about the defense. You're not forcing them to come up with the key play in high pressure, high leverage situations, which expends so much energy. So I thought it was a good bounce back in the sense that it was complimentary ball last night. Yeah, no, it certainly was. I want to talk about the defense, but let's stick with Sam Darnold for a minute. I don't think that there's going to ever be a way Murph to just wave a magic

wand over Sam Darnold and say, and boop, you no longer have turnover worthy place. And when the Vikings were five and oh, and occasionally it would come up that he had had too many turnover worthy plays. There was a lot of pushback. Well,

come on, they're five and oh, and they can overcome those. And they did overcome them against the Indianapolis Colts. But that's going to be, I think, the roller coaster that we end up riding with Sam Darnold is that every one of those turnovers, he comes out after the game and naturally says, well, that's a mistake on my part. I can't make that throw. I can't do that. And then he does kind of the same thing the next week

where he takes the sack or, and yes, it was Garrett Bradbury's fault, 100%. But yeah, there's still the sack where he takes and loses 13 yards, where he tries to run backwards and escape out of the pocket, which he's taken almost every single week. There's the rolling throw to the left where it was the same play that

happened against the Packers and they dropped it this time they caught it. And there had been a few of those dropped interceptions and things like that, that have just been caught. But as long as the high end follows, and as long as the ball control follows, because those not only kill drives, they also will make for short drives

if you turn it over quickly. And then once again, we're talking about not running that many plays. But when you're looking at what they did last night and were able to control the ball for as long as they were, and he was as accurate as he was. I mean, I thought he was incredibly accurate for all of the rest of the game outside of those two throws. I would give him an A plus for the way he performed outside of those turnovers. This is just the Sam Darnold experience and strap yourself in.

That's the way I'm looking at it after last night. I don't think that there's anything you can coach out of that. It's just going to happen. But if the other side is good enough, they can still win games, even if they make some mistakes. Oh, I don't think it would. I don't think it's out of line to say they would not have won that game last night if it was in Detroit or Los Angeles. I think that's obvious because they would have made them pay and they would not have been able to get off the field the way they were against Indianapolis because Flacco just, you know, wasn't there dealing like he

might have been last year in Cleveland. Yeah, I agree. This is Sam Darnold. So accept it. And it's not a bad thing to accept, I think, because he does, you know, he doesn't go into a shell and fall apart. I mean, he's got enough, you know, mental battle scars here throughout his career where he's still capable of making that. You know, as you mentioned, the big chunk throws to Jefferson, 20 plus, 30 plus yards each time. Tight windows down the sidelines, converting third downs, big, big throws. And yes, he does tend, if the pocket collapses, to turn around and run the wrong way and give up another five yards on the sack. But he also has, you know, some sneakiness to him where he's able to escape

some pressure and go for 10 or 11 yards, slide, get down and live to fight another day, whether it's picking up a first down or just getting out of disaster. That almost kind of counteracts a little bit of him, you know, running backwards into a sure sack. So you have to take this, you know, you have to take what you're going to get from Darnall, which is going to be a poorly thrown or a bad decision, you know, poorly thrown ball into tight coverage when another receiver, at least on the broadcast replay, you can see is wide open. You know, why isn't he recognizing that? Why is he trying to force it here? Against good teams, that's not going to fly. In the playoffs, that's going to be devastating.

Right now, against Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tennessee, even Chicago coming into town, I'm not going to fret too much about that because he's been able to show that on the next series, the next set of plays, the next stretch of the game, he's making big throws and big plays. So I'm content to take the good and the bad of Sam Darnold as the complete package of Sam Darnold. And again, where are we? November 4th here. You know, if we were having this conversation on September 4th before week one saying, you know, there's going to be some good and some bad, but he's going to make some huge throws and his touchdown to interception ratio is going to be not as bad as you think it would be. I mean, everybody would take that. Everybody would take six and two. So it's, it's fine to be skeptical and scrutinized, but don't get carried away in the waiting for the other shoe to drop mentality all the time.

I know fans are conditioned for that, but there's just enough here to say, look, there's enough weaponry on the offense and there's enough passion and performance on the defense that each side can pick each other up at any given time and this is a this is a team that's built to have success I don't know how much success but they are built to have success and I don't I don't look at that six and two record as flawed or uh jinxed or uh you know not emblematic of who they are. I think they're in a good position right now because of that. Yeah, I don't think that it's a bogus 6-2 record at all. I mean, if you look at the point differential, that's what I always kind of focus on is what the metrics say. The metrics still after 5-2 said that they were a very good and competitive team.

And that was why last week I kind of wanted to beg the fan base, don't do the thing where you all jump ship because you lost two games in a row to two great quarterbacks and play callers. There's a lot ahead of you left in the season. And I remember saying, guys, there's like 10 games left. You can't give up on a team that's winning like this and has this much talent. And they at least proved that correct on Sunday night football to go to

six and two. And now I have a chance to, you look forward to the next, even three games. Things are starting to come apart a little bit in Chicago. Can you win all of these games or is there going to be one letdown, but you still, because you get this one against Indianapolis are very much in the driver's

seat. Just on Sam Darnold. I've talked about on the show before how I really like going back and watching old games from Jeff George. And it's kind of reminding me of that at times where the wild throws are unbelievable and the turnovers are, Oh my gosh, how did you just make that throw into that spot

the arm talent is unbelievable at times with the way that he could throw it down the field I mean he said something like yeah I guess I could have put a little more on that one throw to Jefferson that traveled 40 yards down the field effortlessly out of that arm of Sam Darnold I think that he's been an incredibly entertaining quarterback to watch on a weekly basis, and his scramble was also great. And I don't want to take that part of his game away. So if you can't take away some of the risk-taking, you're also not going to make him Drew Brees.

When it comes to reading every single play correctly and spotting every single guy that's open, as we all can brilliantly do from the press box or on the broadcast thank you to all the people who pointed out including jordan addison's dad that he was open on that play that's gonna happen folks that's just gonna happen sometimes when you have uh sam darnold as your quarterback but the high end of it has been so good that they've been able to overcome some of those miscues. I do think on that particular play.

So O'Connell said last night that it's his winning edge to trust Sam Darnold. And I mostly agree. Just like to have a home run hitter who strikes out, that mostly gets you ahead. I do think when you take a seven point lead over a team that cannot move the ball against you, cannot score, and it's just bumbling as a franchise over there saying to Sam Darnold, Hey, let's from our own zone, throw a bomb is not my preference for Kevin O'Connell. I guess he's just going to do that. And he's just going to always try to dagger the other team. I also think the other team knows at this point that Kevin O'Connell. I guess he's just going to do that. And he's just going to always try to dagger the other team. I also think the other team knows at this point that Kevin O'Connell

is always going to do that. That was my only real criticism in an A-plus game plan from O'Connell that got the ball to all the different weapons, moved it brilliantly down the field, controlled the ball. Great, great, great game plan from O'Connell. But there are just a couple times in through this entire thing where I've said, okay, I agree that trusting Sam Darnold is your winning edge. Can you trust them 3% less on that play and duck it down to TJ Hawkinson instead of trying to throw a bomb that could be intercepted? It still feels like O'Connell's a bit in a, still a bit in salesman mode uh trying to sell uh himself trying to sell the locker room maybe even Darnold uh certainly the fan base that

you know he's all in on Sam and he trusts Sam I think Sam gets that I think the locker room gets that too you know you mentioned the Jeff George comparison I wasn't here when he was here for his one season but I've been talking to people that covered that team. There was just, he was the ultimate mercenary. Have arm, have gun, will travel. I mean, he could throw a ball across time zones, but he never was really, I don't think he was embraced as a leader

like a quarterback should. And I think there was always a lot of kind of side eyes in the locker room about what his true motivations were. I don't get that sense with Darnold. I think the locker room, if anything, closed ranks around him very soon. But even, I don't get the sense that even if Darnold had a three interception, 110 yard, 38% game that cost the Vikings that he would be in any risk of losing his receiving core, losing Justin Jefferson, losing the locker room. I think they see him as a big-arm gamer who knows the game, studies the game, says all the right things.

He's banal. He isn't taking credit. He's not leaning into this rejuvenation as if it was owed to him. He's been very humble along the way. He's been able to recover and show some resilience from his mistakes. He's gotten hit a few times and limped around. He's got the toughness card going for him too. So he is, in a sense, going to make mistakes because of that big arm.

The fact that O'Connell doesn't worry about unleashing it and Darnold isn't going to back down from gunning it downfield, then you are going to see these moments where you're just like, you know, a check down might have worked here. But then how many times were we yelling at Kirk Cousins for checking down all the time, including, you know, check down third and five, throw a three-yard pass in a playoff game. So it just feels like Darnold has kind of established himself as a guy that's still on the move, still trying to make, I don't want to say a name for himself, but really, really define his career. And he's enjoying it along the way. And I think the Vikings are a really good situation for him right now.

So I don't think O'Connell needs to really sell us anymore on the fact that he believes in Sam Darnold. I think we all get that. I think the locker room gets that. And I don't know, do you want to, do you even want to talk about the trickeries again last night that just seemed to boy, that's an awful lot of guardrail to take out for nine yards, you know, but Hey, it hey, it looks exciting, right? I did congratulate Kevin O'Connell on the postgame show for his first and hopefully only trick play that worked.

Now I fear that he'll get cocky and confident that his trick plays actually are great and he's going to run them each week. If you're going to do it, do it against the Colts. Maybe these next three weeks, it's trick play right empty the trick bag so you're not trying to throw a halfback pass against the good team in a big game or something like that although Justin Jefferson I've seen him in practice has an absolute cannon he has an incredible arm so if there is one guy to do that with, I guess it's him.

But just to circle back to the Darnold comparison, I think it just can't be said enough how impressive the mentality of Sam Darnold is. And this is a thing that I did not know about him, but the game against the Jets was pretty rough and he got beat up in that game, and he wasn't seeing anything, and they kind of got away with it. And it was over in London, but they come back, and he goes toe-to-toe with Goff and Stafford in those games, played well enough to win. They're one stop away on both of those games on defense

from giving him a chance to win. And then national stage again, where your team is sliding down the wall a little bit. And he did more than enough in this game. He made tons of great throws. I mean, the throw to Addison can't be understated either because on TV, I don't think it captures how much he's running backward away from the pressure, which was immediate.

And he's going back. All his momentum is going the other way, and he has to use his entire arm to get it to Addison in the back of the end zone. It's a throw that most quarterbacks, I think, just try to throw it out of bounds when they're getting chased on that, and Darnold makes the play. But he has stayed on track even during games when there has been mistakes, and he's shaking it off, and he's gotten right back there and he's letting a scoring drive right after those interceptions. He kind of goes,

my bad, here I go again. And I really respect that about him. And also I think the other guys, as you mentioned, have rallied around Sam Darnold really since JJ McCarthy got hurt and said, this is our guy. We are not concerned about what's going to happen in the future. And O'Connell has said the same thing. I don't need him to lean into him in every single moment all the time. I do. And last now, again, I'll give O'Connell credit for this, that they started running the ball after that completion got him going at the end and they hand it off and they hand it off.

And I was up in the press box saying, yes, the Colts have been on the field all night long, pound their faces in. And they did. And then they get the ball to Josh Oliver, who's kind of one of the more underrated players in the game. And it should be mentioned that Cam Akers makes his appearance and there's your change of pace back. And there's your option to really lean on a defense too. And you can run the ball with Jones and Akers. That's correct. And now we don't have to argue over whether Ty

Chandler should be out there more anymore. It's clear that that's not going to happen, but now that they're healthy and Akers is here and Hawkinson is here, this is the best group of weapons in the league. You agree with that? Yeah, you're testing my depth knowledge. They certainly passed the eye test. Hard to argue against the Lions and it looks like the Chiefs are still on the prowl at the trade deadline too. But yes, as far as one through five on your playmaking options, they're in pretty good shape because they have the weaponry and the talent, but they also have the experience.

I mean, Akers has been around a while. Jones has been around a while. Jefferson now is a veteran. Hawkinson, he's been hurt a lot, but he was a pro bowler in Detroit too. He's got a lot of experience. Addison is still emerging. It just feels like there's a wide variety of options that are battle-tested, experienced. And I don't know, when you throw in, this is the first game that everybody's been available

with Sam Darnold. So if this is the blueprint going forward, you've got to feel pretty good about that offensively. You know they're going to probably make some hay next week. Again, down in Jacksonville, which has a terrible defense, Tennessee's flailing around. These are, you know, if you're able to really refine and sort of open up and spread out the playbook and see what your options are, these are almost laboratory-type games. I mean, that sounds very cocky to say because you could easily walk down there and get blasted. But these are the kind of – you know, we joke about it with the trick plays. But it's really an opportunity to just open it wide and see what you really can do because you know, mistakes might not be as magnified in these games.

You know, your defense is going to play pretty well. Experiment here, see what you can do with the full menu and see what that can do going into late November, December games. We're going to be dealing maybe with some weather. You're going to be dealing with some more wear down injuries. You'll know what all your options are going to be. with some more wear down injuries um you'll know what all your options are going to be okay big picture after this game which is weird to talk about

with the score because it looks like you barely squeaked by the colts and yet make those two field goals don't throw an interception the red zone this is a complete blowout uh and maybe get a call from the referees from the clubbing that happened to Sam Darnold to fumble that ball. That's two missed calls on him to the head the last two weeks. Yeah. Including the face mask in LA. And there was the one earlier this year against, I believe, Houston where he was sliding and he got hit in the noggin. No call there either. I just wonder if a defensive tackle brings out a flamethrower and shoot Sam Darnold with it. If there will be a flag, I guess we're going to find out in the future.

But a big picture on this one, Murph, look across the NFC. There is no debate who's number one, but are the Vikings number two behind the Detroit Lions? I'm not quite there yet. I think the record says that they are. But, you know, yeah, I'll say yes, they are, because I'm still a little skeptical on Philadelphia, but I still believe Philadelphia and San Francisco are going to be there at the end just because of their track records. I'm a little unsure of the Atlanta Falcons right now,

who seem to be humming pretty well behind our old friend number eight, who will be here in about a month. The West seems to be catching fire. You know, the Rams may be on one of those runs now where you could see, with Stafford playing as well as he is and them getting healthy, you could see them ripping off a bunch of victories in a row. So big picture today, yeah, I'll go Vikings at 6-2, and they're going to keep stacking wins.

I mean, there's no reason they shouldn't be 8-2 coming at home against Chicago. And, you know, I'm going to be more willing to lean into them as the number two team, but I still feel like Philly and San Francisco and maybe a hard-charging Rams squad are going to be there in December as bona fide contenders that have overcome early hiccups. So it's incumbent upon the Vikings to take advantage of their soft schedule to keep pace

if these veteran-proven teams do catch fire. So how's that for a qualified answer? We're also not used to saying the Washington commanders are illegitimate. Again, see, that's the thing. You forget about that. You forget about Atlanta. You forget about Washington. And you're right.

The commanders, who are they really? Well, they look pretty damn good. They do. And Jane Daniels does not look like a rookie. So I might put the Vikings and the Commanders even behind the Lions for a tie and then one notch down teams like the Falcons. I would still put the Rams one notch down from the Vikings, and I would have to put the Packers that way too.

They didn't play Detroit as strong as the Vikings did, and of course the head-to-head, the Vikings got the win there, and they're dealing with whatever is happening with Jordan love and being banged up and that, and that kind of thing. So I would have to say that they're right there and we will find out if they make some big moves on Tuesday. Of course,

we'll have all the coverage there Monday morning Murph as always. And your column isn't up yet right now, but by the time I post this podcast, it will be so purple insider.com. Go check that out. Thanks so much, Murph as always. And your column isn't up yet right now, but by the time I post this podcast, it will be so purple insider.com. Go check that out. Thanks so much. Murph. We'll do it again next week.

When, let's see, when am I flying back? Oh, I'm flying back Sunday night from Jacksonville. So we'll be good. Same. And this is my annual road trip stories for those that love those kinds of

things. The St. Paul dads without wives. We are going to Jacksonville this weekend. We have a beach house. We have a bus. It's going to Jacksonville this weekend. We have a beach house. We have a bus. It's going to be stealing one more weekend of summer, I guess. Very good.

Very good. I'm excited about the weather for sure for this trip. So thanks, Murph. And thanks, everybody, for watching slash listening. Hold on. Let me silence my phone real quick so I can tell you that Us Days are back at U.S. Cellular again. Exclusive offers just for customers just to say thanks. Right now, you'll get $1,200 off any phone plus $400 off any tablet.

Amazing, right? Yeah, but my family is so excited about their new devices that they keep texting me during the show. They're all about us days deals like $1,200 off any phone and four plus $400 off any tablet terms apply. Visit uscellular.com for details. The trade deadline is upon us. The Vikings are six and two and the kicker and the long snapper both got hurt in the same game. We have a lot to talk about folks and coming up shortly, Manny Hill will pick the schedule as he always does every Monday at seven 30, but we got to start with the Vikings. Of course, win over the Indianapolis Colts, a more impressive win

when you dive into the numbers beyond the score than it was watching it, which felt like, can they just finish a drive? And eventually they started to do that and end up with a win that by eight points does not look that impressive over a pretty rough team. But when they run 71 plays to Indianapolis is 49, when they nearly double up their yardage, when they controlled the ball for 36 minutes, the Vikings did most of the things that we had been looking for for a week and a half that we had been talking about over and over again.

Can they fix some of the blueprint on defense can they run stop the run of the Indianapolis Colts can they stop those passes over the middle for easy completions can they show some confusion with the blitz can they cover better can they get to the line of scrimmage and get the snap off and can they get the ball to Jordan Addison a little bit more? Can Sam Darnold pass on first down to move the football? They did everything that we were asking them to do in this game, except for a couple of mistakes cost them from scoring more points. A throw that was ill-advised from Sam Darnold turns into an interception and a couple of missed kicks.

And that's how close the Vikings were to a complete and utter blowout of the Indianapolis Colts in that game. So as I reviewed it and look closer at the film and look closer at the data and listen to Kevin O'Connell today out at TCO Performance Center, I come away thinking that was actually really well played by the Vikings overall and the fumble that shouldn't have been because of a personal foul and the interceptions that they really made things look a little bit closer and a little bit worse than they were. And the two missed kicks because Will Reichard was dealing with a quad injury. All those things were different on the final score than the actual play that was going on on a play-to-play, down-to-down basis, which the Vikings overall dominated. So we'll get to

everything that happened last night and also trade deadline, trade deadline ideas, and whether you are back to all in now that the Vikings have gotten to six and two. It seemed like most people jumped off that wagon last week after the Vikings lost to the Rams or a week and a half ago, whenever it was. And now it's six and two with Jacksonville and Tennessee on the way. Maybe there's a better argument for the Vikings making a lot of trade calls right now. So let's begin with the kicker and the long snapper though. Will Reichard, when he misses his first kick, you go, okay, it's bound to happen. But then when he missed his second one from 30 yards away, all right, there's something wrong here. And as the night went along, the broadcast started to show Will Reichard dealing with

something that looked like a leg injury and putting a wrap on it. And he went out and continued to kick, but he just had to battle through the injury there. And now it looks like that could be more serious. Now, Kevin O'Connell could not give us a detailed, here's how many weeks he's going to be out, or if he's out at all, they're still continuing to evaluate it. Is he going to be on IR? Do they have to get another kicker?

It sounded like they were still working through what this injury is going to look like for Will Reichard. But if he's not able to play for the coming weeks going forward, whatever it might be, then they will have to go out and find somebody else to come kick for them. There are a lot of teams this year who have had bounce around kickers. I think the Giants are on a couple kickers. Greg Joseph has been hurt. San Francisco might be on three or four. It's not like the world is full of Will Reicherts. There's a reason that they spent a draft pick on him is because he is really an exceptional kicker. And you can't understate the value that Will Reichert

has brought to this team so far this year that every single time he's trotted out, and this is why it was so shocking the other night, and then not surprising to find out that something was wrong, is every time he's trotted out, that ball has gone right through the middle of the post, no matter how far away Will Reichard has been. A major part of this team's success has been their kicking, and now that creates a pretty big question mark. The other thing is that Andrew DiPaola also got hurt, a long snapper injury. He hurt his hand and it is going to need a procedure which will require the Vikings to go out and find a different long snapper to come in and long snap. And of course, this sends me back to 2017 when the Vikings long snapper was injured, Kevin McDermott,

and they were forced to sign Jeff Overbaugh. And if you don't know the story, I will brief you on it quickly. The Vikings signed Jeff Overbaugh, who was from Alaska, just a random guy who was a long snapper. And he ultimately played a major role in causing the Minneapolis miracle because of a mistake blocking on his long snap that got Ryan Quigley's punt blocked and opened the door for the Saints to have just enough time to come back, which left Case Keenum in need of the Minneapolis miracle. So you got to think that when a long snapper gets injured, that, uh, that that's one of the signs of the apocalypse or that something crazy is going to happen when you're asking somebody to be the backup long snapper.

And just in my brain goes back to the time that the giants against the, was it against the 49ers, uh, in the Kerry Collins era? Who was it against maybe it was I think it was against the 49ers when they had to go to a backup backup long snapper and it ended up playing a huge role in a playoff game where they botched a snap that would have been a kick to either tie or go ahead someone can give me the exact year on that it is something to watch it absolutely is there aren't that many human beings in the world who are long snappers. And usually if they are, and they're good at it, they're on an NFL team. If they're that level, the Vikings were lucky to find Andrew DePaula when they did. I believe that was at the 2020

or 2021 season. And he has been so wildly consistent. This part of their game, the operation from snap to hold to kick has been almost perfect this entire year until Sunday night. And then now two players out, this could be a little bit of an X factor going forward with DePaula and Reichard now injured, but we'll see how long it's going to be for both of those players. Also, Christian Derrissaw had his surgery today, successful surgery. He'll get on the path to coming back. But one little note on that was that Kevin O'Connell said that Derrissaw spent last week helping out Cam Robinson to get ready for that game, which I think speaks to the type of person that Christian Derrissaw is. He didn't have to do that.

And Cam Robinson did a great job. He allowed four pressures, but no sacks, no QB hits. And Kevin O'Connell said today that they started originally trying to help Cam Robinson out with giving him a little bit of help, whether it was chips or just moving protections his way. And then they realized that they were getting beat up on the interior,

as is often the case with this team. And they had to leave Cam Robinson out on an Island by himself and left tackle and to play 42 snaps, allow four hurries. And that is it a really, really good job by Cam Robinson and justifies the trade already, whatever they gave up for the trade, you get a win in part because Cam Robinson

was able to hold down that position. I'm not sure if they do win the game if that is not the case, if they had their defensive ends, Laatu Laatu played in that game. And actually Dallas Turner ended up with more pressures for all of you who want to talk about that. I didn't see too many chat messages about Turner being a bust or anything last night after he had a really good game.

But the fact that they were able to slow down the pass rush of the Colts is a credit to Cam Robinson arriving in the middle of the week and then being able to go in there and play a fairly good game. And I think you saw how it solidifies enough that left tackle position to allow the offense to still operate. It doesn't have to have Christian Derrissaw and Christian Derrissaw only to play football. But if the drop-off was Derrissaw to Blake Brandl trying to switch positions, and he had a pretty tough night against the Colts, then you might've not been able to play the offense that you want to play.

But with Cam Robinson, clearly they could, and it helped them stay on the field a lot, get a win. He was pretty good as a run blocker, which I wasn't sure really what to expect there with his PFF run blocking grades, not being so great for his career but that position now feels like it is solid again it's not all world but it definitely is solid at the left tackle and now the question turns to what type of moves will the Vikings make if any at least my understanding what it sounds like from reading talking to people everything else is that the NFL is all in on trade deadline talks. It used to be once upon a time that there were occasionally trades, occasionally trade talks that happened, but it just fell flat at the NFL trade deadline.

It wasn't like the NHL. It wasn't like Major League Baseball or basketball where you have all sorts of crazy movement. It was more of a belief, I think, from a lot of people in the NFL. It's too hard to just add players and you got to fight to the very end. Plus, they have moved the trade deadline back and back, which now allows teams to see that they are two and seven. And I think it's been really significant that they move the trade deadline back this far. So all these teams

that are bad, they can all look at their situations and go, we got to be selling. We cannot be buying at this point. And, uh, or teams can say like the Vikings, if we win this game, we're in, we're buying, we're going to be a team that tries to improve. And I am curious to see what happens tomorrow. There will be a trade deadline special tomorrow night. And look, it's the biggest thing happening in America tomorrow. So you're going to want to be here talking about the NFL trade deadline rather than anywhere else or watching anything else. That's just my thought for tomorrow, specifically November 5th, 2024.

But I do think that there's a realistic possibility based on the fact that they went and got Cam Robinson and got Cam Akers. Again, a move that paid off right away. Even one or two drives, even the fact that they can now have an RB2 who they can mix and match with Aaron Jones and they can trust at a big point in the game, both trades being worth conditional late round picks. So now do they use the fifth rounders? Do they go crazy and look for somebody

that could be a first round pick and on the move that seems harder to believe that they would be able to find a partner to trade a first round pick, get somebody back. That's going to be on the team for multiple years. That will be a true enough game changer to justify giving up a first round pick. It feels unlikely. It also feels like I've always been of the mind if you got the right person then do the deal like don't worry about well you know we don't have this

much draft capital that much capital if it's a good deal for your team then make that deal if you could go all in then go all in but you can't go all in for a rental and move a first round pick for somebody who might have any chance of not being here. And that significantly limits the number of players that they could target as far as a big names. There's only a couple of big names that you could come up with that any team would really consider moving for a first round pick at the trade deadline. But it's just my sense that the phones are a ringing like crazy today. And they will be tomorrow around the NFL with so many teams that are in bad spots. I mean, gosh, look at the Titans, Jacksonville, the giants, the saints, so many teams that are down bad, and the Browns got killed.

And there's all these teams that have terrible cap situations in the future, too, that might need moves. I mean, I've looked at Newsom or Ward from Cleveland as players that they could potentially look into. Now, all of a sudden, I was against the Marshawn Lattimore idea mostly when people would bring it up, but maybe I'm a little more intrigued for a late round draft pick to try to solidify the defense for a rental there when that team is going to have to take pennies on the dollar because you're doing them a favor by taking these players. They can't afford them. The salary cap, my friends, is a real

not that I have to tell Vikings fans who know that because you guys are educated about how football works and you saw the limitations of Kirk Cousins and the Vikings salary cap in the past. It's really New Orleans Saints folks who seem to have just found out that the salary cap could be a problem for them over the last couple of years

because Drew Brees doesn't make everyone better all the time. Shocker, right? But I do think that the Vikings will be making a lot of phone calls and we'll see if there is a potential fit. I would guess that there would be a move to try to solidify some spot of the roster, but I would be surprised if it's a wild and crazy acquisition that they make. So I'm curious about your thoughts. Throw in questions, comments, opinions. What happened yesterday? The way the Vikings coached, they played, the kicker situation, and your final

chance here tonight to get in your trade ideas. So throw them at me, and in about 15 minutes, Manny Hill will pick the Vikings schedule. So let's get to JW here. Do you think they could get Jeffrey Simmons for their 2025 first rounder, or would it take more? I think that Jeffrey Simmons is one of the best players in the entire NFL, and it would be really hard to get him for one first round pick. The Tennessee Titans have no motivation to give away their best player when they have no players on their roster.

He's under contract. He's not old. He's a guy that could be good for many years for them. I doubt that when they hired their new coach and GM, they were thinking, hey, let's be bad forever. Now, they're probably thinking two years type of deal where they have to rebuild, maybe around Will Levis. I don't think so. At this point, you can probably call that one, that Will Levis doesn't look like a starting quarterback in the NFL.

He looks much more like a starting quarterback in the NFL. He looks much more like a backup who can occasionally be good, but not on a consistent basis. So they need to find a quarterback. They need to rebuild so many parts of their roster, the weapons, the offensive line, the defense that giving away Jeffrey Simmons, unless you are getting more than one first round pick does not make a lot of sense for the Titans, but that would be a player that if he's on the Vikings is a total game changer. Grateful dad wants a Marshawn Lattimore that would work if it is the right price. If you're talking about one of those fifth round picks, maybe that feels like even too much considering how badly they need to dump salary.

That's one of the major reasons why these teams have had to take almost nothing for some of these trades is that they're just not in a position where they can argue that they should hold on to the player. It's either if you're a lost team and your guy is hitting free agency, well, get rid of them. I mean, what, there's no purpose on holding on to a player like that. But also if you're a team with players that have big salaries, similarly, like they're, they're, they're doing you a favor by taking them off your hands, because if they're a unrestricted free agent, the following season, will you lose them for nothing. Or in this case with someone like Lattimore, there might be a price to pay. I don't know what his contract situation is, but they're trying to dump as much salary as they possibly can. So you're doing them a solid by taking salary off their books. I mean, that's why the deadline has

been favorable. I think this year, these last couple of weeks have kind of been the deadline to the buying teams. And if you're the Vikings, you've got a couple of fifths to burn a hole in your pocket. Maybe you draft one player. It's a first round pick for next year. That would look really funny on a draft history.com. You're scrolling down year by year.

You're like, wait, well, where did, where did 2025 go? Why one guy, is this a glitch? You're emailing them. Is it, this has, wait, where did 2025 go? Why is one guy? Is this a glitch? You're emailing them.

This has to be a glitch. This can't be right. Could be if the Vikings decide to make those moves. We'll see. We'll see. I think rentals aren't worth anything more than that, anything more than fifth round picks. And so far they've gotten two good rental players for less than that.

And they've dipped into 2026. Would they dip into 2026 for a third rounder? If they had the right player that they could potentially reach for. I'm very curious to see, but the prices have not been very high, which makes me think that they could very much be buying. CJ says best argument for the Vikings to be all in is that injuries and game-to-game chaos will hit everyone. Best not to self-select out. Who's to say when you'll simply be the last man standing? Oh, that's a good point. I mean, you think about the, and this is why they kind of go back to the just get in thing.

Well, I don't think just get in really applies to a number seven seed. I do think just get in applies to the top three seats when it comes to the playoffs, maybe even the top four, because things happen. Brock Purdy tears his, what is it? UCL in a playoff game. I mean, San Francisco was the better team against Philadelphia. I think overall a couple of years ago, uh, 2022 and Philadelphia ends up in the Superbowl because the other guy tore his arm and then their, their other backup got hurt too. So they ended up playing with a guy who couldn't throw the football at all in a game, in a, in a playoff game that was for a trip to the Superbowl stuff does happen like that. If you put yourself in that position to be a top team. We also saw the Rams.

How about them with a guy drops a pass that should have been an interception in the playoffs. San Francisco doesn't go to the Super Bowl. The Rams do. You at least have to give yourself the best shot to be in the dance, to have an opportunity for maybe something to go wrong. But Detroit is still the only team that I look at and go,

okay, yeah, they're better than the Vikings. Are they 1988 San Francisco 49ers and the Vikings are nowhere close? No, I think that we saw that, that on the same field, the Vikings can play with the Detroit Lions. And even if you factor in the home field advantage for the Vikings, it's not like in any part of that game, they were run off the field by Detroit.

Detroit is a stronger team. Their offensive line's great. Their quarterback's great. Their receivers are great. The running backs are great. And their defense has really, really shored a lot of things up. I was skeptical about that. But who else?

The Commanders, Atlanta, these are all teams that have flaws, and in some cases, more flaws than the Vikings do. So I think that making decisions to add, to give yourself a shot at being a top two to three team entering the playoffs, considering Chicago's starting to fall apart. These next three games are against two teams that are sellers and are in the cellar. And then again,

a Chicago team that seems to be kind of turning on its coach after the whole hail Mary thing. And then leaving Caleb Williams in the game when they were way down and he had an ankle injury. I don't know what they're doing there. There's a lot of winnable games going forward. Arizona is going to be tough. Atlanta is going to be tough, definitely with the amount of weapons that they have.

And Seattle is not an easy place to play. It's not an easy team to beat. But all these teams are either even or below where the Vikings stand. And those are the toughest non-division games for the rest of the season for this Vikings team. So it would make sense if they are thinking after getting that win, getting to six and two, that you could snap your fingers

and be eight and two pretty fast, maybe even nine and two, and at worst eight and three, and still in the driver's seat, Green Bay losing yesterday. Well, it does hurt the Vikings' chances of winning the nfc north did put green bay behind and also green bay dealing with a quarterback who's banged up and that may end up being the case for jordan love the rest of the season uh topaz says quacey uh reportedly spent time with Tim Connolly. Oh, not reportedly. On the Purple Insider podcast over the summer, Quacey told me that he spent time with Tim Connolly.

So if it was reported elsewhere, well, that's great. Hopefully they cited the Purple Insider podcast that he appeared on. Anyway, during the off season to exchange notes, do you think that he's concocting a surprise before the deadline a rudy cat uh splash versus a depth play oh i think that quesia da fomenta spends a lot of time in his office at tco performance center concocting a lot of things there's a difference between trying to come up with the ideas and actually executing them uh and i and i think that i, even if we go back to that whole

Jefferson Malik neighbors rumor and all that, I just get the impression that with Kwesi Adafo Mensah, he's always thinking of different ideas and pitching them and talking them over, even if they have nothing realistic to them. So I'm guessing that he's got a whiteboard or whatever. Maybe he's got one of those cool iPads you can write on with the pen of 20, 30 traits that they could potentially do and that they might be interested in if the situation is right. If the other team is interested, there's a lot of moving parts. You guys bring up Jeffrey Simmons a lot, Dexter Lawrence a lot. I'm sure that he's thought of it. I'm sure that

they've thought of here's how we could land the big fish, but there is a point where you are going too far and that you're going to hurt JJ McCarthy. If you give up two first round picks for Jeffrey Simmons, yeah, that might actually hurt JJ McCarthy in the long run and the next four years, which is really the window that they've opened up for themselves. I, and probably you and probably everybody else in the NFL thought before the season that the Vikings window was not going to open until next year to potentially go chase a Superbowl. But here we are surprised it's open.

That's definitely a case for making a move, but is it a case for giving up everything when you're expecting your window to be five years of building with J.J. McCarthy after this season? And I mean, we're not 100% sure on that. If it is going to be McCarthy, I guess if Sam Darnold's in the NFC Championship, that might be a harder decision to move on to J.J. McCarthy after that. We'll have that discussion when we have to. Not right now. That'll be about maybe 20 shows in a row after the end of the season.

But for right now, it makes sense to me that if you can get someone at the right price who's going to be here for a first-round pick, then you should do it. And another point is, but I don't think you can go two first rounders and change or anything like that because then you are missing out on future opportunities to have edge rushers, linemen, whatever it might be that are on rookie contracts that also matters as well. There was an interesting tweet though today by Brad Spielberger, formerly of PFF, now works for an agency where he was talking about the weak draft and especially weak free agency class. Drafts are harder to predict, but free agency classes may be less.

So he was saying that because the free agency class doesn't have a lot of major needle movers that we might see more trades as teams try to acquire talent that could be with them for the future. And that might result in pushing the needle a little bit in that direction that we're talking about here. And maybe that is fifth rounders. Maybe that is the first round pick. There are so many options on the table that it's making my head spin as we go into the trade deadline here. The Pollock says, I don't really mind if they spend more draft capital to bring guys in. I just hope they're not all one season rentals. They might be if it's fifth round picks or conditional picks from next year.

And in that case, I don't think that it's that big of a deal to be giving up those kinds of picks. And I mean, there's one guy that I could think of that became a really good fifth round picks, the fond digs, not too many others outside of that. So if you do have to use those for a rental, I don't think it's the end of the world for this year. When you do have an opportunity to be in the mix. You'd prefer, though, that you could get guys for multiple years. That's for sure. Zoomer Kev says how much of Vikings fans jumping ship was due to no left tackle as opposed to losing two tough games.

Any serious team needs a left tackle. Certainly, certainly a big part of it. Certainly a big part of it. I think it was the double gut punch. It was not just not just you lose a game where it seems like your weaknesses are on display, but also Derrissaw. Everybody knows Christian Derrissaw is one of the best players in the NFL. Everybody knows that you see what he does on a weekly basis. You see how important it is to have him over there and to think that they would have David Questenberry or

Blake Brandel switching positions. That was a scary proposition with a quarterback who holds onto the ball as opposed to getting Cam Robinson. And just, I can't say enough how amazing that is that Cam Robinson went in there and did what he was able to do against the Colts. Now he's in playing shape. He's been playing all year. He does know the Colts, but still he just arrived in the building. It's not quite as impressive as what Josh Dobbs did, but it's up there.

It's very similar to TJ Hawkinson. Played every snap, 42 pass blocking snaps, only four QB hurries. That's it. Well done. And well done on a trade for getting someone so experienced that they would be able to do that. And it adds additional value to the trade that he was able to play in that game.

Because otherwise, I think you lose value. Every game he doesn't play, you lose value on the trade. So it was a value add that he could play right away. Rich says, if you had two players to grab with our three picks, who would you get with the two fifths? Who would you get with our first and work out a current contract? The first rounder is harder to figure out because I have this problem. I've been overrating players in terms of their value because I remember when Cam Robinson's name initially came up, I thought, I don't know. I don't know if you could get them. It's probably going to be more expensive for a left tackle than, Oh, they got them. Oh, all right. Um, so first rounders, cause I think of Denzel Ward, but then is he actually worth a first rounder or is that team

so desperate to drop a salary cap for the future that they might just do it for not a first, but then can you be the team that gets them? Because the next pick that you have is a fifth. I might look at as far as fifth round picks go, someone like Jadavian Clowney, who's been playing fairly well for the Carolina Panthers as an interior rusher. That's where my focus is quite a bit here would be who could they find as an interior rusher. I also liked the idea of someone like Delvin Tomlinson, really good player who could allow for more of a rotation. I thought that was helpful for them last night. Harrison Phillips played something like 31 snaps and lo and behold had the highest PFF grade. When he plays 50 snaps, he doesn't, but when he plays 30 snaps,

he's a great player. That's where I would look. And then maybe a fill-in corner with a fifth, whichever one they think is going to be the best fit. That's hard to figure out. Jonathan Jones, maybe. I mean, there's a lot of different corners that have kind of bounced around.