Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Can KOC's adjustments save JJ McCarthy? (Part 2)

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

Matthew Coller talks with Vikings fans about Kevin O'Connell adapting the offense -- or as Aaron Jones called it "dumbing it down." Is that going to get McCarthy on track? Plus, what do we think of KOC's message to McCarthy? The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Purple Insider is presented by Fandul. Yeah, Matt, Matt, with that, the quote from Aaron Jones, it makes sense to me because I've been playing football all my life. Yeah, I mean, a lot of them have been playing football all their lives, but Aaron Jones is older than them. So he's been playing National Football League football since 2017. Also, Aaron, I mean, this guy's really bright. but yeah like look at this point in the season i think this is really indicative of what this is

about at this point in the season absolutely nobody should need the offense paired down absolutely nobody should need a dumb down or the meat taken off of it we are in week freaking 14 how would you not know how would you not understand the deeper concepts i mean that right there is and Aaron is a very, you know, he's a very honest guy. He's a very straightforward guy, but there was a little, a bit of him that was like, hey now, Aaron Jones didn't ask for this, you know? Like, let's be clear. Aaron Jones didn't need this, you know, paired down. And I appreciate his approach to that answer because he's like, I'm not the one that needed this. And the fact that they, that there is the need for this is telling in itself.

So the, you know, the main question for tonight is can these adjustments help J.J. McCarthy. I think that they can. I think they can help them have a chance to win against these next three teams. But I mean, that it's quite a red flag when the veteran players are kind of saying, this is what we need to do in week 14 to pare down the offense and also indicating that they don't think that, like they're the problem. He said some, some people, it's a different language. It's like, okay. So I thought that was quite, quite telling.

Skull 357 says it would be like asking your intern to know the next, what the next three questions are, the next three answers, alternatives to the answers with a lion chasing them in the studio. You know, you could say that, yeah, playing quarterback is harder than being a podcaster. I will admit to that. But also this here that we do, it's a talent-based thing of can you talk on the air? Can you write effectively with good grammar and make a point, you know, right with your writing and gather information and present it to an audience in a way that is entertaining? Like there are boxes you have to check to be able to do this that I try to help my interns come along and improve in.

But at some point, if I was working with an intern for six months trying to get them to understand, because there's a lot of nuances to this, as silly as it seems, there are a lot of nuances. One of the nuances is that I have to know, like, so much stuff. And I like knowing all that stuff. So it's not a problem. But if you are not a person who really wants to put in the amount of obsessive time to football like watching games from 2007 just for the heck of it or knowing salary cap hits

or PFF grades off the top of your head. If you're not that person, I can't teach you to be that person. You are either that person or you're not. Like you are either you can't, you can't do this if you're not nuts for football, right? If you start in a place where you don't want to work on a weekend or something, you can't do this. And that's kind of the same thing I think of it is like you're not, you're not like everybody knows yeah you got to be chased by lions in the NFL like that's part of playing football and that

part yes like is a little bit different but in terms of like there are baselines for things being able to run an NFL offense is a baseline thing and being able to throw a football is a baseline thing and not turn it over all the time like these are fundamentally you good example i can't play in the NBA i have a great looking basketball shot but i can't because i don't mean one of the fundamental principles of playing in the NBA, and that is being at all athletic or tall. I'm tall by normal person standards, but not by NBA standards.

So I can't play. And the same thing goes for, and man, I want to play. I would love to be in the NBA. That would be awesome, but I can't. And the thing is, if you're an NFL quarterback who throws the ball to the other team this many times in this few games

and get sacked this many times, you can't play so it's now or never for j j mccarthy figure out how to stop making these horrendous mistakes that are costing your team games or that's it and the same thing goes for this paired down offense if you can't get into a huddle and call two different plays one of them's got to kill the and it requires you to get everybody lined up the right motion see the defense then drop back understand the rotations understand the blitzes have the protections right you can't play there's just no way you can be here so you've got to meet those baselines and i think over these next five games we're going to have a really good sense because right now j j mccarthy

has not met those baselines and we will have a better sense for that when he gets to the end of the year and if it feels like we get to the end of the year in 11 games if he gets there and he has done a much better job of meeting those baselines then you may advance to the next step which would be a camp competition with a lot of pressure next year. It's like, that's what this is. Do you get to the next door for J.J. McCarthy? Because the first one, you tripped and fell in the lava or whatever, thinking about like Super Mario here.

Mario levels. So you, I don't know if Mario trips. Maybe you just jump in the lava. So you jumped in the lava in your first level. Can you get your second life here and get through this board and get to the next level. That's what, that's where we're at with McCarthy. Like, the number of lives is running out. And is it fair? It's not. But unfortunately, that's how it works. Let's see. Um, let's see. Andre says, can we get KOC out of here? KOC is soft bro.

Well, I appreciate that. I do think that, um, this, this is where it can. gets down to that, what I was talking about earlier about when you find a good coach. And I think what a lot of you would say is he's not a good coach. And I think that that's a hard thing to pick apart in the NFL is separating what you've had, what circumstances have played out, and what you've done schematically and what we can use for evidence. It's probably the hardest thing that there is, is trying to figure out, is someone a good coach. So what we know about Kevin O'Connell is that veteran players buy into the way that he

handles a locker room, the way he handles his leadership and empowers his leaders, which is a good place to begin, because as we were talking about the previous head coach, can't say that was always the case. It was often dramatic, contentious, tension, frustration. That hasn't been the case. Through ups and downs, that hasn't been the case. And then you, you, ask, well, what does that coach do from a schematic perspective? Because now the game is so much. It's so much. You can't just line up and play.

It's not like, oh, we just set our scheme and then you set your scheme and we see who wins. It's like the game planning element. It's a data game too. It's a of game planning. And that's a big part of my book of how the NFL became a data game in game planning. And it's also being able to look at what you. you have for skill players and maximize them with the way that you call for your schemes.

The problem is with trying to use this year is there's two separate issues. If J.J. McCarthy just can't play, then there's not much you could do. Kevin Stifansky has terrible quarterback play. Here we saw Kevin Stifansky, same guy as the offensive coordinator, have Kirk Cousins have his best season. Kevin Stifansky's not a fool. I think we all know that, but he's got terrible quarterback play right now, that happens because he's got bad quarterbacks. So when you have bad quarterbacks, there's not much you could do. But I think we need to, like, also separate that with just the hey, as bad quarterbacks to,

this was also the guy he picked. So the pressure is ramped up on him because so much of him being here was you're the quarterback guy. You're supposed to maximize the quarterbacks. And if this is maximizing the quarterback, well, man, whoa. then what would it be like without him, I guess. But I don't think that argument could be made. But you look to the past and you go, well,

quarterbacks have played well with Kevin O'Connell. And teams have overachieved. Multiple teams have overachieved. So what are we supposed to make of it? And the answer is that there's some bottom line stuff like a record and wins and losses and playoffs that there has been not enough accomplished in some of those areas. but does that mean that it can't is really the question that you're asking?

And I think under the right circumstances that it can, but is it going to be of the level that you feel like you go into playoff games with a distinct advantage? So far we have not seen that. So I don't know. I think when you have a functional organization and a good coach who, can under the right circumstances with the right quarterback, have a season like they did last year, it would be very difficult for me to say, boy, you know, go hire someone else. And the fear with hiring someone else would be, look at all the other coaches that were hired with KOC. It's

mostly just disasters. It's like Nate Hackett, Josh McDaniels, head coach, great offensive coordinator, but head coach, right? This isn't one of those situations. And that's what makes this year so hard to deal with because I thought just by proxy of having him as the head coach that they would have eight wins. And now they need a Herculean effort to get there. So let's see. Friends of Taz says it's unbelievable how this franchise is wasted. The play of the defense this season, the play of the roster with no serious playing a quarterback, whoever decided to let Sam walk for this needs not to be deciding. I guess you mean on the next quarterback. well that's the i mean that's more of the discussion you know we had from from last week of

there was real belief that they could coach him up and they were wrong and there's no question about it now at this point when you're talking about pairing down on offense they never had to talk about that too much with sam darnold um if anything he was trying to do a little too much and it was like sam remember just run the offense and then he didn't like won all those games so yeah i mean look these are the the decisions. These are the decisions that define regimes is when you do something like that. And as of right now, that's what this will be defined by. This regime, as of right now, the way that it's gone this season, it's being defined by you're the team that got rid of the

quarterback who played really well in one you 14 games for the quarterback you took in the first round that has not worked out. And usually if you're defined that way, things don't turn out great for you. But I would also point to other organizations who have made a mistake in the draft and then turned it around. But the turnaround has to come quickly. And that's like San Francisco. The turnaround from drafting Trey Lance came quickly. And the same thing would have to happen here to reinstate, I think, trust. But I will say, no matter how smart the mind, I could show you 100 examples, no matter how smart the mind of the person making the decision, everybody's made mistakes with quarterbacks or missed, including Kyle Shanahan, who is brilliant, is brilliant

as an offensive mind and is a quarterback enhancer, rather than whisperer enhancer. Matt Ryan's an MVP with Kyle Shanahan. Jimmy Garoppel is in the Super Bowl with Kyle Shanahan. He couldn't make Tray Lance work. Nobody's made of magic. Going back to that fan duel question of the day, which was the over under four points, is 42 and a half for this game. How many points would the Vikings have to score

to get you kind of excited about where this thing could go, considering it's so down now. Deonti, with a good answer, is 35 to 42. Celine says 41. Zumer K.O. needs 30 plus. I think 30 plus is probably the right answer without having it be Isaiah Rogers returning two touchdowns, like that the offense did it.

And they might this week. skull 357 why does McCarthy look like his body doesn't know how to throw a ball all hitches jerks and eventually a fastball every time yeah i mean is it it's a question it's good question of like is it a confidence thing is it a overthinking which you know some people brought up with that kOC quote of like maybe he just thought it's time to stop telling him too much stuff and just let him play because he's overthinking uh that could be part of it and that could be why it might look that way. Let's see.

Javier says, this is so sad. I love mocks. I love the draft and everything. But man, if Quasi Daffa Menta comes back, I don't know how you can bring someone back that has 0% vote of confidence from the fans. I mean, to me, that's,

to me that, yeah, he has been the whipping boy of a lot of fans. I certainly understand that. And I know for sure every time that I lay out a bunch of different things about this roster, how it was built, how it's set up right. now how the drafts, even right now with Dallas Turner improving looks like three out of the four

first round picks are at least going to be starters, if not well above average starters, which compared to where the percentages are is actually better than what you would expect from where they drafted. And I'm not saying that for all picks. And I'm not saying they're good at drafting. I'm just saying that Addison, Turner, Jackson, and let's put McCarthy in a different a different pool there of the quarterback. And then, you know, the roster build and how they spent the money and the fact that, like, look at what, look at what the defense did last week. The defense wreaked havoc on Sam Darnold.

I mean, they were great. Hargraves improved a lot. You know, I think, you know, Murphy's had a tough year and they, but that you find us, Eric Wilson, who's been a star for them. Turner's playing so much better. Grinard is a great player still, needs to finish some sacks, but he's a great player and Van Ginkle and all this stuff. What more can you do there from your roster build?

I know that this sounds silly, but they have a really good kicker that they drafted that now matters a lot because teams kick all the time. The amount of field goals is skyrocketing, and you've got a beast that you landed. You've got, I mean, they improve the backfield with Jordan Mason. They don't give them the ball and then they're losing all the time. You know, like, man.

The injuries to the offensive line have really hurt them. But, you know, you extended Darrasaw to what looked like one of the best contracts in football. You draft Jackson, who's played really well. I mean, it's a one position type of thing. So when we're talking about the full roster build and everybody, you know, wants to fire the GM too. And you're like, well, and, you know, O'Connell did mention depth today. I caught that. And you could argue about that.

I'd also look around the league and go, oh, yeah. which team has a great backup left tackle, which, which, which team? In fact, you probably have the best backup center in the NFL, Blake Brando. He played well. Who's the second best backup center? Some of the positions they've been hit with injuries, like there are no backups. You know, Jalen Redmond, emerging has been really good for them. I don't know.

It's a good team. They needed better quarterback play. You can't be last in quarterback play and expect to win anything. So that's where the whole, you know, roster thing. Now, look, if there is a scenario there where when you talk about who's responsible for the approach this year, now, okay. Now, now that I say it's everybody. I say it's everybody. But if it wasn't everybody, then that might be a different story. I was not in the meeting. Let's see. Blade Runner says the commanders look pretty good against Denver. That's right.

they did and uh i am curious to see about them their injury report was not great for them but they have gotten some guys back i guess and they're they're going to compete they have dan quinn as their coach they're going to compete they're not going to roll over they're just a team that's not very good on defense uh zoomer chaos as mac jones looks like the best option anthony richardson intrigues me i don't think you could bring in another guy who can't throw for a, eventually Anthony Richardson for a Sam Darnold Ark might work, but he needs a lot, a lot of work. And him getting hurt, not even playing this year,

I don't know what happened exactly, some unfortunate incident. It just puts him back even farther. Let's see. I'll call it be able, because I don't know how to pronounce that whole thing. Jets is not happy and may request a trade of 2026. is like this. Yeah, I think he will. I think if 2026 is like this, then, then he probably will. And his contract sets up for that. But that's not a this year discussion. I've seen that everywhere this week. That's not a this year discussion for me. Friends of Taz, the team returning from last

season was pretty good. And the person who decided to let Sam walk has just wasted everything they've achieved and had potential to accomplish. I mean, I do think with, with Sam Darnold, this is a winning team right now and he would have come back with full knowledge of the offense and the defense I think was improved in some areas. There were some injuries there, but there's a lot of games. I mean, you can't, you can't say which ones for sure because Darnold was, he is prone to those, you know, meltdown type of games. But my thing is that it's not just, hey, they should have just gone with Darnold. The big thing to me was much more of you needed to give McCarthy another year. That's what we really know now, not only just to develop him, but also to see where he was at

because you really had no idea. He hadn't practiced at all since 2024 training camp. You had no idea where he was really going to be at in terms of his development. If you saw him behind the scenes all year, then you would know whether he was a guy you could go forward with. And if you couldn't, the worst option was signing Darnold to an extension. When you look at his contract, it's not that bad with Seattle. If, you know, you came off the, of a year. And then you would also know with Darnold, too. You'd have much more information. So yeah, that, that worked on a lot of levels for me. And they decided they were just going to go with the plan, push the chips to the middle of the table. And when you do that, there's always a chance that it goes sideways. And so

far, uh, that is the way that it is gone. Uh, email Quasi Tanner McKee. I think I'm going to guess he knows who that is. O'Connor. seems to know every single quarterback very well. So friends of Taz, are we looking at a Caleb Williams-Bow-Nick Super Bowl this year? Now, that would be something. I think the worst, the worst possible outcome is a Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones, Super Bowl, which is totally possible. It's totally possible.

That's the worst one. If I will say this, if Sam Darnold goes to the Super Bowl, it's worse than the Herschel Walker trade. It just is. the Herschel Walker trade gave them a bunch of draft picks, and they got really lucky hitting on all of them. And of course, it's horrific, and it's one of the worst trades ever made.

But if you had a guy that you could just franchise tag and keep and you said, nah, and then he goes and wins a Super Bowl with somebody else immediately is something that you've never done, whole man, that's worse. That's worse. It's worse that's quarterback position. That makes it worse. That's maybe a debate.

we'll see if we end up having to have that defense for Seattle's good enough you know where they're not good enough's that line their old lines not good enough i don't think it's good enough to get them through the playoffs what flores did to them uh was really really impressive but their line was just they weren't picking stuff up and they were losing one-on-ones they look confused i they've got some backups in there but i don't think you can go through the playoffs with that line i think what's going to happen to sam darnell's probably the same thing that happened to him uh last year in the playoffs with the Vikings and it's going to depend on whether they like he's he's just going to face too much pressure and it's probably going to cause some problems so we'll see

they've got some tough games down the stretch too uh let's see anybody mentioning burrow or herbert trade needs to be launched at the sun god dang says yeah i mean if i'm them i'm not giving away those quarterbacks for anything so i agree with that uh robs has only 5% of quarterbacks drafted in the first round become any sort of starter where exactly are you getting that number that's completely false bro that's just completely false what what are you talking about it's like it's more like 50% did you mean oh did you mean to type 50 i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm so if you meant to type 50 i'm i apologize but it's it is that is the thing though right is that only about half of these guys, you know, a lot of them get drafted and only about half of them

become great. And it happens to good organizations. It happens sometimes bad organizations. There was no worse organization than Buffalo when Josh Allen got picked. And then now all of a sudden they're a premier organization for years. And, uh, you know, that's, that's just how random this could be. And like, you know, you bring up Carolina that, that thing was a joke. And then Bryce Young looked like a joke. And then all of a sudden he doesn't. It's like, I don't know, but he might next week. It's so hard. It's so hard to figure out.

The, you know, the commanders, I still think that Jaden Daniels will be very good if he could stay healthy. They, how many draft picks did they mess up at the quarterback position? And then it worked. But, you know, they took some good prospects through the years and they failed. And I, I don't know, the Jets got to be apoplectic. They keep taking quarterbacks high. And that hasn't worked out.

The Browns, it hasn't worked out. but for other teams, you know, like the Packers, they had at work with a guy who wasn't even a top draft pick. It's, it's so hard. The Chargers, they drafted Philip Rivers, Drew Breeze, and then Justin Herbert. Are you serious? Like, I don't know. It's so, it's so difficult. Retitle your video.

Can KOC's adjustment save his own job? Fair enough. Let's see. KFT, KOC has failed the Vikings if he doesn't know how to coach up a rookie. And that's the, that's the problem, right? Is I think if there's a failure, it's that they went with someone and they put their belief in someone who wasn't ready. That's a clear failure.

There's only so much you could coach up players who can't play. And when I've, when I've watched the tape this year, there's been times where I thought, really, with that, those deeper route combinations for this kid, but there's, There's been a lot of times where I've gone. All right, I don't know what your spells are supposed to do. There was a, there's a lot of that in the Green Bay tape where you just, I don't know what in the world else you're supposed to do other than freeze time and pick the ball up in frozen time and run it over to the wide receiver and set it in his hands.

Like you can't get just to Jefferson any more wide open than some of the plays that they've had that, that JJ's missed. And I don't know what else you're supposed to do as a coach. You truly can't throw it for them. there have been times where it's a simple, in-breaking route one-on-one versus a cover three, and it's just like candy from a baby if a reasonable thrower of the football is in the quarterback position. It's as easy as it gets, and it's flying over his head.

I mean, that's where I balk at the idea of like, well, you know, O'Connell hasn't coached it right. And I go, man, go watch some of these throws. I don't know how much you could, you know, I don't know how much better you could do there. In a lot of ways. I'm not saying that's always the case because I've been critical sometimes of the complexity too. And now, like we've all talked about it being too complex.

And now here in week 14, they're like, you know what? We should pair it back. Like, whoa. Okay. So, yeah, I mean, I think some of that's fair. Score one more says, Gino and Winston would be a better fit because KOC likes to push the ball down the field. I think

Gino would. I think Winston would throw a hundred thousand interceptions, but at least that, like somebody said, maybe that would be entertaining. I think it'd probably be infuriating. Yeah, and friends of Taz, he's, you know, he was the coach of the year last year. That's, that's the thing about it. And, you know, O'Connell's, he has layered

it in. I, you know, I caught it when he said, you know, it's not to the standard that we've set previously with our passing game. in the past just last year. He didn't forget how to do it.

And I think that's kind of the point. Because he didn't forget how to set up a passing game or beat an opposing defense. Two Coke cans. You guys are in with the factoids today. Did you know that Norm Van Brockland, Les Steckle, Les Frazier,

and now KOC are the only Vikings head coaches to not win a playoff game through four seasons. I did not know that. But when we talk about pressure, I mean, how can you not? How can you not? Like, the factoids, they tell the story. I will say again that I'm not in that camp. And I just want to make sure I reiterate it is I'm not in that camp.

I don't think changing coaches all the time is a really good idea. I think that when you have a coach that can win double-digit games, that there have been lots of coaches throughout history who have needed time to learn how to win the playoff. Sean McVeigh lost his first playoff game in 2017 when that team was so good, lost in the Super Bowl in 2018, right? Like it takes Andy Reid lost to the playoffs a bunch of times. So sometimes it takes a while to learn how to win the playoffs as a head coach.

And they've proven that they can get there with the requisite quarterback play. But we all know the realities of the NFL. And that's where, you know, we could talk all day long about, is it fair, is it not fair? Is it the media's fault? Should we blame Stephen A. for yelling and screaming on TV or whatever and like I don't know like the the fans and the owners and whatever it might be personally I think that owners have been reactionary for a really long

time and the wolves haven't been really I mean I don't think so I think that they've been pretty patient with a lot of stuff they certainly were with Zimmer not firing him a couple different times after 16 missing the playoffs after 2020 and then it took until 2021 so But there's no separating the pressure of the position with the evaluation of, like, how they've done and how long it's been. Like, you're supposed to win playoff games when you got here. The last playoff win is in 2019. My goodness. Well, I didn't even have this.

Purple Insider didn't exist the last time they won the playoffs. That's crazy. I've been doing this for five years. It's crazy. So, yeah, like that pressure is, is on now after this. absolutely. KFT says KOC wants to run his system a certain way and rookies have to play a lot before they can process information fast. Yeah, well, one thing I want to push back though is calling JJ McCarthy a rookie. He is not. He is not a rookie. What I didn't think he was going to do was play

like one. But playing like one doesn't mean you are one. He was here for an entire year last year And to have to have the offense pared down like he just came out of college yesterday is, I mean, what else can you say there? Aaron Jones didn't want to say it. Hawkinson didn't want to say it. I think we can say it. You should know by now. By week 14 and all of last year to study, put the little virtual reality goggles on. I still have my Oakley's, by the way.

I should put those on. My little virtual realities where I learn how to put people in motion. We should know by now. It's not a rookie. He was here all of last year. He heard the calls in his headset as he was standing down on the sideline. He was supposed to be like there's really no more excuses. It's just very telling when they're talking about removing inventories and

pairing down formations. and we were talking about having to get the cadence right. I mean, my God, like, when we're talking about that stuff, this is regular, can you play pro football at all? This is where I take it away from the KOC's not coaching it right or whatever. And I'm just like, what the this is, this is normal stuff. This is really basic stuff. Let me put it in a musical fashion, for example.

I mean, if you were trying to play in an orchestra and you got up there, and you didn't know how to read the music, you can't be in the orchestra. It's like a starting point. If you're going to be in the Phil freaking harmonic, you better be able to read the music. I mean, I don't know, man. Like Joe Fleco showed up in Cincinnati

and learned an offense and was winning games for them. Like, it's not rocket science. So I don't know. Adrian, are the Vikings in purgatory? almost almost just wait until they signed marius mariotta next year then they will be in purgatory yes after that they will i this is why i've brought up on the show i've got a big show tomorrow with sam brookhouse from sumer sports great analytics mind where i really dive deep into that idea of just sticking with j j mccarthy and forcing them to sleep in their own bed

because what you're talking about is how you get stuck in purgatory is if you're going out and getting Gino Smith, although that actually does have kind of a high end outcome. But if you're going out and getting Marcus Marietta or James Winston or even bringing back Daniel Jones and you're hoping that those guys can just get you into the playoffs, maybe win a playoff game and save everybody, who does that sound like again? And that's why, you know, you would rather, you would rather they just ride it out or even like what, you know, Dane Mizatani brought up earlier, which is to draft a quarterback, but you would rather you still continue to chase and aim for the outcome you were looking

for with J.J. McCarthy. That's why the Josh Rosen thing's not crazy to recreate the Josh Rosen thing where you just move on if it's, if, if you're getting to this point and you're having to take away the motions from the offense because somebody can't get them into the offense, Well, then it might be a point where you're talking about drafting a Moore or a Mendoza or a Simpson and just go from there. I'd prefer that. What I would prefer is if they get to the end of this, and I'm, again, not saying it's over. If they get to the end of this and they have a big old meeting with everybody at the table, all the decision makers, all the people who sign the final check, and they go, look, we screwed up.

it's not good enough and that happens that's life however there is a quarterback in the draft that we can pick at eighth overall whatever because we lost a bunch of games and i know you might be saying well we already drafted a quarterback and screwed it up but that happens let us take this other quarterback and take another swing at this rookie quarterback contract thing because we this is the way this is the only way to the top i would say okay let's do it let's commit to it and then if you screw that up then you're all fired i would prefer that to here's our big plan we're going to get daniel jones to sign back with us because we're going to pay a more guaranteed money than the colts will that sounds like kirk to me that just sounds like

kirk all over again and it sounds like if you have daniel jones who i think is a proven to be a much better quarterback than he looked like in new york which uh might be true for everyone, then you can maybe complete or compete in the NFC North, but even then the quarterbacks are all better than your quarterback or at least have higher upside and Caleb Williams. Who wants that? Who wants to sign up for that? Not I. Not I. I don't think that's the way to do it. Um, KFT says, I haven't been critical of Flores or Turner. I would have drafted for, oh, of course, I'm sure you would have drafted verse. I'm sure you would have have. I'm sorry. I don't mean to be rude, but like, and, and I would have drafted all the good

players instead of the bad players, too. Dallas Turner has been really good lately and is coming along, and we'll see where that goes in the two years between him and Jared first. I've been impressed with him lately, very much. I could see why they picked him and not verse. Vers is a superstar, and that's absolutely true. He's a monster. No one wants to go up against him. He is super powerful. But now I think you're starting to see a little bit of like you get it with Turner. The explosiveness is there. He's starting to get some of the pass rush moves down. He's starting to get better at the at the little things as he talked about, the setting edges. And he's improving. So I don't even, I don't look at that. It's, it's bad process, of course.

But the player is on a path really from last year where you don't play a lot early. Then you play a lot later. flashes. You come into this year and your consistency improves and improves. And now you're getting sacks. And if he ends the season with, I don't know, eight and a half, nine and a half sacks, it's possible right over these last few games. What are we going to say? Like, that would look pretty darn good, even if he's not this other guy that they could have picked. Paul says, Fanduil question of the day. I should give that again. First number needs to be with a two and it can't be all field goals. Good point. The Fanduil question of the day was, uh, the over under for this game is 42.5. How many points do the Vikings have to score for you to feel better about, uh, J.J. McCarthy getting on

track or even just a little bit of optimism. How many points? So it has to start it to, um, yeah, I'd agree with that and not all field goals. But even all field goals would be, uh, certainly progress from six points last two weeks. So, uh, okay, um, you know, I was going to, to the Vikings trade for Janus. Yes, he could play quarterback. I was going to look at some of my bold predictions from the beginning of the year, because I thought that we should have some fun before I get to Ben Standing. Yes, at KFT, I saw the Kurt Warner thing about the peer progressions and having it,

you know, too hard and stuff. Like, I get it. I get it. And Kurt's phenomenal. But also, the throws are there. The looks are there. The plays are there. And they're just bad throws.

And so I do get to the point where I'm like, all right, how many excuses? We're talking about the worst quarterback play for six starts the last decade. I mean, I'm going to, it can't be that bad. The peer, the peer progressions can't be that bad. They can't be that hard. But, but I get it. I mean, I get what you're saying. And then I get what Kurt's saying.

And that's fair. Kurt is, is very, very detailed when it comes to coaching and how the game is played and so forth. But, you know, I also think that, you know, Kurt maybe sometimes from his viewpoint, it's tough because he's Kurt Warner. It's a Hall of Famer. And so, you know, I don't know. Like, sometimes he, it's a harder perspective when you're as great as he was. And I said that to him, by the way, when we talked for my story. I was like, you know, Kurt, everyone's not Kurt Warren. T.J. says prediction. JJ goes for 225, two touchdowns, 20 rushing yards at zero I&Ts. Now, zero I&Ts ends up being bold at this point.

Let's, uh, why don't we have some fun here for about 10 minutes and look back at some of my predictions before the season because every year, I think we've gotten to the point far enough and then I'll have Ben Standing who covers Washington to talk about this game. Great chat tonight, by the way, guys. Um, let me screen share. Let's see, there we go. So this was my article. I write it every year in June.

50 bold predictions for the 20-25 season. And of course, some of these end up being right and some of these end up being hysterically wrong. Now, I haven't looked at them, but I thought it would be fun. I haven't looked at them yet. I thought it would be fun to take a look and just see how stupid I am or how genius I am. And I have, there's two parts to it.

So let's look at the first part. And then maybe another time we'll look at the rest. So before we get to Ben Standig, who covers the commanders. So let's take a look at these. How about this? Okay, prediction number 50 was that the New England Patriots will finish over 500. Not only have they done that, but they've finished way over 500 so far, or they will finish way over 500.

So nailed that prediction. The Patriots are much better than I thought they were going to be after seeing them in camp. But the young quarterback taken the next step by spending a bunch of money around him. See, you're a genius if the quarterback is good with the spending. Oh, they overspent on a defensive. tackle Milton Williams. No, they didn't because their quarterback's good. All right. Justin Fields will make the Jets think about keeping him completely wrong. Let's see. The Pittsburgh, this one's on the table. This was prediction 48. The Steelers will have their first losing season under Tomlin.

That is very much on the table. 47 was Shadur standards will start by week eight. I was really close. Kevin Stefansky will be fired by week 15. That also could still happen. Maybe, maybe. Maybe. be nail it here prediction 46 i won't go through every single one of these just ones that pop out to me Trevor lawrence will set career highs in yards touchdowns the jags will win the south all that's on the table maybe not yards and touchdowns that might be tough but jags winning the afc south very possible uh Travis hunter unfortunately did not work out ooh cam ward i i said cam ward will lead the NFL and interceptions that could happen the colts will win just enough to miss on the top quarterbacks in 2026. I think I get credit for that one. The Chargers will win the

AFC West. That one is not going to be right, but the Chargers have been okay. This one I was not exactly right on. I said, Gino Smith will make the Raiders fun again, but not good. He has not made them fun or good. How about this? Number 40, I feel like I'm kind of on a roll here. Number 40, this is from June 26th that I wrote this predictions article. Bo Nix will not be. a top 15 quarterback by rating or PFF grade. Both of those things are true right now and they're 10 and 2. 39 was Sam Darnold and Michael Pennix will both throw for 4,500 yards for nine win teams.

Not getting a lot of that right because I think Donald's going to win more than nine. And Pennix is not going to get to 4500 yards and neither is Darnold. But at least there was some of, hey, he's going to throw the ball a lot and be pretty good. This one is on the table. New Orleans will draft number one in 2026. Oh, here's a good one. Here, oh, look at the, I'm on fire here. I did not read this back before looking at these.

Caleb Williams will cut down on his sacks by 20. He has cut down on his sacks significantly. That was a Ben Johnson take there. That's a good one. How about this? This could happen. Dave Canales will win coach of the year. Because the Panthers, they were down so much.

so far that oftentimes it's the team that takes the biggest step that people didn't expect. So that's the Panthers, Dave Canales. Okay, this one is, this one is a bad one. The Packers will miss the playoffs. Jordan Love will have the exact same season. Jordan Love might be having the exact same season as last year, but they're not missing the playoffs. I will say this was before they got Micah Parsons.

Okay, next one. Oh my gosh. Am I, there's some of these I might be, I might be a fortune teller. Sequin Barclay will run for 700 or fewer yards in 2024. How many yards does he have right now? Let's take a look. Because I thought he would just get hurt after playing so much last year. Where's Barclay?

Where's Barclay? Okay, 740. So he's over, he's over 700 yards. But it's not good. So regression. I get the regression. Brian Dable fired by week 14. Absolutely nailed it. Okay, here's a miss.

Vikings defensive tackle, Javon Hargrave, will make the Pro Bowl. He's played better, but that one obviously has not happened. Miami will finish last in the AFC East. That's also not going to happen, but they're bad. Baker Mayfield will regress to 25 touchdowns and 8-9 record. Eh, not so much. he's going to have well how many touchdowns does he have they they shouldn't have an eight and nine record

they should end up better than that how many's touchdowns he have where's baker too far away from the computer okay he's got 19 so yeah maybe yeah actually I mean his regression for touchdowns last year he had 41 they could still finish with a with a bad record maybe

Oh, here's one that's way off. My Vikings ones are all going to be terrible, probably. Jalen Naylor will catch 44 passes for 576 yards. I don't think that that's going to happen. Kyle Pitts will be traded at the deadline. That didn't happen. Oh, my, wait. Will Reichard will make 92% of his field goals.

Is he at 92% right now? If not very close. Okay, now here's one of my best ones. This is, and I'll look at the other 25, another day. kick returning will play way too big of a role in results and the league will change the rules back after 2025. I think that first part is absolutely true. That first part that it's played way too big of a role is 100% true. That the kickoff has just changed everything about football.

Nate Silver had a good article on it. And I don't know if they're going to change it back because they like the exciting plays, but there needs to be some sort of adjustment here. Anyway, a great, great conversation. Make sure that if you have an answer that Fanduil question of the day that you look into that. For the over-under of this game on Fandul, 42.5, how many points of the Vikings need to get you

at least a little bit excited about the offense and where this thing can go in the final five weeks. Oh, thank you very much for the super chat dubby step. And if I missed, I'm going to scroll, make sure I didn't miss any other ones. Thank you very much for that. Always appreciate that. Sometimes I get too far behind in the chat and people give them and I miss it.

And I feel bad about that. Okay. So thank you so much for a great chat here this evening. I really appreciate it. I want to end the show tonight with a conversation with Washington reporter Ben Standig. He used to work for the athletic. He went solo like me and now does Last Man Standing and covers the team. He's going to be here in Minnesota.

You know, he's with their beat every day. So I asked him a lot about potential. Viking starting quarterback for 2026, Marcus Mariotta here. Mariotta, here is that conversation. Folks, the holidays are almost here. And if you still have names on your list, don't panic. Uncommon Goods makes holiday shopping stress-free and joyful with thousands of one-of-a-kind gifts that you cannot find anywhere else. You'll discover presents that feel meaningful and personal, never rushed or last minute.

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slash Purple Insider for 15% off and don't miss out on this limited time offer. Uncommon Goods, we're all out of the ordinary. All right, we welcome into the show for the very first time, but a friend of mine, Ben Standig, who writes, The Last Man, Standig, formerly of the athletic covers the Washington commanders. Ben, it's great to have you on the show. Maybe we can just begin the conversation with a simple question. What happened to our football teams, Ben? I was picking the commanders to be back in the NFC championship. People thought the Vikings were going to win the division. And here we are covering two sad sack teams

that are three and nine and four and eight. What happened? Yeah, well, I mean, this is definitely not what anybody anticipated, you know, we can get the injury caveat out of the way. Washington's had an extraordinary amount of them. I mean, just on offense, Jane Daniels has missed half the season. Terry McLoran missed seven of 12 games while you came back last week. Noah Brown, their other projected starting wide receiver on the outside, has not played since week two. Austin Eckler, they lost in week two for the season. And that's just on offense. The defense has had its own share. of injuries and the thing about the injuries which of course are common for every team has some

injuries some more some less it's that Washington I think because of last year's success people overvalued the overall roster this was still a team that had been coming off not just a four win season before Adam Peters and Dan Quinn showed up it's that a team that had completely botched multiple draft classes prior to that group, and they just have no depth. That's why they had to go, why they chose to sign a bunch of guys, older vets to one-year deals to sort of get the quick fix, but the injuries exposed the lack of depth. Last year, they just honestly just didn't have that many injuries and everything kind of worked out.

This year, it didn't, and that really cratered the season. You know, again, the defense is an absolute train wreck in particular, but that was already the weakest side of the field last year. They lost three defensive ends in the first seven weeks. They've now lost their two starting outside cornerbacks probably for the year I would guess at this point, certainly for this week. And all that's been a huge issue. And, you know, whether there's other aspects of it, you know, Jane Daniels hasn't played enough to even say, hey, is he regressed? I don't think he has. But I mean, is there something there? What's going on? So, you know, you hate the blame injuries, but if you don't, you're not

realistic with where this team is. But then, like I said, it exposed the real issue, which is they don't have enough depth because it's still only here to essentially of a quasi rebuild. But also, I mean, what team has enough depth to survive that many injuries? I mean, I can't think of too many in the league. In fact, you know, the Vikings early in the year went through the same rash of injuries and it had an enormous impact on them because there are 32 teams. There's not enough football players out there.

I don't know of any team in the league that can lose half your roster and be like, no, it's fine unless you have greatness at the quarterback position. But even then we're seeing some of the great quarterbacks in the league hover around 500 this year. So everybody's human in the NFL. I want to skip and then circle back to the Jane Daniels point because I have to ask you something. I'm going to put it in the headline. So this is why I got to get it early. Is Marcus Marriota going to be the Vikings quarterback?

in 2026. Like, is that a thing the Vikings should do? I saw you wrote about this today that they should resign him. I'm like, he might have a starting opportunity in Minnesota next year. Well, and that's kind of why I wrote. I mean, we all know if the starting quarterback is the most valuable guy in the team. The backup is going to be pretty high on the list. If you're, especially if you're a contender and look, they've lost seven in a row. So I'm not suggesting that Marcus Mariotta is like some savior. But he's one of the few backups in the league where the overall process does not need to slow down because of the backup. He's still a pretty aggressive quarterback.

In fact, like I just looked up on true media, he's number one in air yards per attempt, which is kind of a weird stat. I mean, they've been losing so much, they're throwing both down the field. The point is, though, often with backup quarterbacks, we get some guy who's like a timid soul who's afraid to really kind of dig in. he's not he's highly respected all these things and he's been a great mentor for jaden daniels i don't think he's a starting quarterback for anybody the the best you could say would be you know if a team was drafting a quarterback hey could you be the guy who who starts the first six games of the season to then give way to that guy now obviously j j mccarthy in your case not a a rookie and you would like to think

You, well, I'll talk to you about that, but, you know, you'd like to think that by, at least by next year, you don't need the stop gap. You need him to step up or maybe direct competition. And I just don't honestly think Marriota is that. But that said, considering the Carson Wentz, the Max Brosmer, if at all, I would understand if somebody looks at Mariotas and says, hey, hey, hey, no, no, don't, don't discount him. We're drowning over here with the options that we've had. So that guy looks pretty good. Well, this is something that we're going to find out in the. these last five games is just how much belief they can have about JJ McCarthy going into

next year. But I think we've probably reached a point of if you play this poorly for six games, even if you do well against a Washington defense that is completely hammered with injuries and has been very bad. They play Dallas the week after. They play the giants the week after. These are easy opponents defensively. And if you have some moments against them, that could be fools gold, right? Where you're, probably more the guy through the first six games. And also the temperature is getting turned up here in Minnesota on the leadership for the decision to let Sam Darnold go to fall off from grace like they did. And that's where you might be in looking for a quarterback to start for you

if you have a competition with McCarthy and he doesn't win it. And I think if you're the Vikings, the one thing they've always believed in is that they could get more out of quarterbacks than is actually there. Now, that theory has been really tested this year because we haven't seen it with inexperienced quarterbacks, but we did see it with Sam Darnold and even Carson Wentz played pretty well here. They might just think that any veteran quarterback who can throw halfway decent on time to Justin Jefferson would be an enormous improvement. And I think that Marcus Marriota has to be in that conversation, even though overall I agree with you that there's no sample size to suggest that he's really a starting quarterback, they might have to consider

guys like that because you look at the other options, Mac Jones, well, you'd have to trade for him. Are you giving up assets for Mac Jones or is San Francisco letting him go after Brock Purdy was hurt half of the year? Or I've brought up Gino Smith. Like it's, it's not great over here, Ben. It's not a great situation. And Marriota watching him the other night against Denver, I was like, that's way better than what we've seen this year. Yeah, no. I mean, he was aggressive against the Broncos. I mean, right, Denver, the number one defense in the league. And Mario da led them down the field at the end of regulation, 85 yards for the game time field goal.

Or not 85 yards, they started the 15 game time field goal. And then needing a touchdown to keep the game going, drives them down to field. They didn't just score one touchdown. They scored multiple touchdowns. And one was called back because of a penalty. There was another one where Zachert. The ball was in his hands and zone. He couldn't reel it in.

Marita was dealing, you know, again, we're all, all things relative. But, yeah, no, he was good. He gave them a chance. And that's the thing. If this defense has just been halfway decent, I'm not even saying top 10, just top 22, you know, and not giving up just gobs of yards and points every game, they would at least been in a lot of these games more so than they were. So, yeah, all that is, all that's fair.

Now, I will say this for Mariotta. You know, last year, he didn't play a ton, but he came in twice in relief of Jaden Daniels and looked pretty good. So the question was, hey, are you, you know, and that was a big turnaround for him, right? He had come off the miserable Atlanta experience. He had been able to get the Eagles back up and didn't, you know, didn't play. So I think he kind of had faded out. So the question was, hey, are you going to consider other option? And he probably did, or certainly his agent probably did for him.

But Marriota is a different guy than a lot of other quarterbacks. He's a quiet, he's more of a quieter soul. You can tell there's a guy's a lot of introspection there. It's not a lot of alpha necessarily. And he really seemed to find comfort being here with the staff. Dan Quinn is the kind of a coach that really connects with his players. And Marriott seems to thrive off of that. He appreciated the relationship with Jaden Daniels.

He knew what he knew the score in terms of the depth chart. But he seemed to be cool that. So the only way I kind of see him leaving is, If Cliff Kingsbury were to somehow get a job as a head coach somewhere else in the league, and last year maybe that felt more reasonable. I don't know about this year, but obviously he's, you know, been a head coach in the league, so people out there view him as at least a potential guy, that Marriott maybe goes with Kingsbury to be, even if it's that stopgap guy because of the, you know, to stay in the system

and all that stuff. But hey, look, money talks, opportunity talks. And if Mariotta looks and says, hey, look, obviously I'm not the guy here, could I, you know, play more somewhere else? Maybe. And look, I think Kevin O'Connell, because you mentioned Donald, you know, and others, like that's the kind of quarterback coach, you know, offensive thinker that quarterback would like to be around. So I get all of those. It's not to mention Justin Jefferson and so on.

But, yeah, you know, if you, I would think he probably stays, but, hey, you only can play football for so long if you want, if he, if he's gotten back to a taste of, you know, you know, hey, I'm the starting quarterback to the team for half the season. He'll play more than Jade Daniels once we get past this week in terms of starts. So if, in fact, he does start. So sure, it's possible. But, I mean, that also says something to the state of where you guys are at that we're even having this conversation. But also, the free agent pool does not seem to be pretty interesting, which is why. And it never really is for quarterbacks typically.

But at least there's maybe a couple of names out there you could hope that, hope for not. this time. Yeah, I mean, there was this great quarterback who threw for 4,300 yards and 35 touchdowns who was available. But, uh, you know, he's in Seattle. Uh, I think that the pitch would be very easy for Kevin O'Connell to say, did you see Sam Darnold and what he did here? Remember what people said about Sam Darnold? Remember that B word they used all the time to call Sam Darnold the bust. Remember how they've called you that your whole career. Why don't you come here and give it a shot. And also you could point to Daniel Jones, who it was just absolutely miserable in New York. And I know that he's regressed a bit in Indianapolis, but that's still a team that's

competing for a division. And, you know, he gets in the right situation, gives him a shot. This, I feel a little bit silly trying to talk you into Marcus Marriota coming here to Minnesota. But I think you're exactly right. It does speak to how limited the options might be for the Vikings. next year. And I think at very least they need to have someone as competition who can be a real starter and who has won real games. I mean, Marriota, as weird as it was, beat the Kansas City Chiefs in a playoff game where he threw a touchdown to himself. I mean, this guy has had some high moments in his career. But you mentioned if he starts, is this going to be a job interview for him against the Vikings and Brian Flores defense? Or is there a chance that Jane

Daniels returns? There's a chance. You know, he began practicing last week a limited basis. He's not yet cleared for contact. He dislocated his elbow, of course, in week nine against Seattle. And, you know, he avoided significant damage. It's, you know, it's easy for me to say it's not a bit still, but relatively speaking, for a dislocated elbow. And if you saw it on TV, it looked pretty bad. Relatively speaking, he came out of it, okay, now the question is just, you know, when do the doctor say he's good to go? The fact that he has. not been yet cleared for contact as of the moment we are talking makes me think maybe this is not going to be the week. I asked Dan Gwynn last week. I'm like, does he just have to get

cleared for contact to play? Because it seems weird to me, one day you're not cleared and the next day you're cold to tackle by 330 pound lineman. I don't know. Seems odd. But okay. So that's the question. So Quinn said, told us on Monday that Daniels was going to have to go through the whole week. He's going to have to go through some what he called functional contact drills, i.e. put him in the place of where quarterbacks get to. So it's not a matter of like hitting the tackling dummy per se, but giving a stiff arm, hitting the ground, and seeing what happens. Obviously, Daniels wants to go. He's a competitor, all that stuff. And it truly is. It's not just lip service. Needless to say, they would be better off with him out there. And while the

season is effectively over, in his case, they've just had no momentum. him this year. Like, if he were to come back and play, like he, Daniels and McCorn and Noah Brown have not played together since week two. Terry McLaren, Curtis, Debo Samuel, and Noah Brown have not played together since week two. This was like the crux of their whole passing game. So if, if Daniels could go this week and let's say Noah Brown is back, he did practice last week so maybe i don't know how much he would play even if he is active but okay that would be mean they would have essentially their projective starting a line of back except for austin ecler who's out for the year so they want to i think use this as an opportunity to say hey what do we

really have here do we have to make bigger changes or no no no this core is good it's just the injuries crush it and obviously last year is a good template but you know rosters change things change to delete catch up to them in any kind of way what have you so i they want to get him at there but the question is is that this week they certainly don't want to rush it with him but if the doctors give the clearance i don't think it's conceivable that he does play so last year uh everyone i think very fairly anointed jaden daniels is the next great quarterback in the NFL and it was just a failure to launch this year because of injuries but i do think that part of his history going back to college was playing like I, who was it somebody? Maybe it was

Nate Tice called him like Wiley Coyote with the way that he played where he was just always running into something and not really protecting himself. I was thinking the same thing with Jackson Dart where every single week, everybody is begging him, dude, just get down. Stop taking these cartoonish hits. And even with a play that he gets injured, the game is basically over and he's still out there and tries to make some sort of special play and then ends up getting hurt. It feels like this is going to be a really difficult thing to coach out of him. Joe Burrow has been the same way in his career. There's greatness there, but he gets hurt all the time. Are you guys there concerned that it's going to be a lot of stops and starts going

forward with Jaden Daniels or can he figure out how to stay healthy? You have to be concerned. You know, last year he had a rib injury that did not ultimately cost him games, but slowed him down and their three-game losing streak last year coincided with with that this year it's been a knee a hamstring an elbow so it's not like it's just one thing maybe if it was just one issue that we maybe especially like a knee might be more concerning but at the same point it's like well wait is he just kind of hit anywhere and and and he gets hurt that's not good either you know when he got hurt in week two against the the packers hurt his knee and it was like oh, man, it looked like a pretty bad injury.

And he was fortunate. He's got a little bit of that gumby to him where it always looks worse than apparently ultimately it is. So maybe that's a positive in terms of being injury prone concerns. But when he came back in week five against the Chargers, which was their last win, he did seem to play with more understanding of, I got to get down more. He seemed to play smarter. But as you mentioned, a few weeks later against Seattle, there's a dengue.

debate whether he should have been in the game at that point. But, you know, he's near the goal line. They're getting destroyed. They're not going to come back at all. And here he is, you know, putting his body at risk and unfortunately it gets hurt. The injuries are relatively fluke, but still. So I think that is tough. How do you tell a guy who's highly competitive? That's part of the reason why he's successful to not be, not be that way. How do you, how do you kind of teach that for him? to me, as much as we're talking about the elbow here with the non-contact aspect right now and where we're at, and of course, that's huge. But what about the mental part?

If he just goes back out there and puts himself in harm's way, then this is not good. You know, the most valuable skill guy can have is availability, especially at that position. So that is something they have to worry about. Now, again, he's largely been pretty good about, well, I say this, And then when he's missed half the season, he's largely been pretty good about, like, being able to play through injuries, but because he is who he is and some of these injuries that, you know, they've been extra cautious. But yeah, it's definitely a concern. And this also goes back to the Marriota point. It isn't just, I mean, there is real evidence here as to why for this quarterback, you need a high, a viable backup. I remember there were years like the Colts with Peyton Manning. They had a backup who might as well have been you and me at times. that we're like, it's fine.

It's somebody to hold the clipboard or coming to Neil when we're up 30 because Peyton didn't miss games. That's not the case here. So yes, that's why you need the viable backup. And also, yeah, it is somewhat of a concern, even though obviously he still held in extremely high regard. Well, and for that reason, if I were Washington, I would not play him against the Minnesota Vikings at US Bank Stadium because the Vikings have been doing awesome on defense at creating

pressure. They slammed Sam Darnold a couple of times last week. That has not been the reason that they are a four and eight football team. You add in the noise, you add in the fact that he's never played at US Bank Stadium before. I think you'd rather just have Marcus Marriota go out there and try to line up Jane Daniels return for a less physical psychotic defense than Brian Flores. Because if your focus is on, can I even play physically? I mean, the mental aspect of playing against Brian Flores is extremely difficult and he's given all sorts of quarterbacks a lot of problems this year. Jared Gough had his worst game against the Vikings. You saw what happened to Darnold. Lamar Jackson didn't play all that well. Caleb Williams was scrambling for his life all day.

So I would not advise on the defensive side. It is a very relevant though to the Vikings what they're going to see in the Washington commanders and what Dan Quinn has in store because J.J. McCarthy is returning as the starter. And with that happening, the spotlight is on again for McCarthy. His last game was against the Packers. He threw for 87 yards. Now you can say, well, the Packers defense is nasty. They've got a ton of great players and some offensive linemen went out in that game. But, you know, he also struggled against the Ravens defense. He also struggled against the Bears defense. This defense, though, seems worse than those than almost everyone in the NFL. So does J.J. McCarthy have a chance to play some AAA baseball here before a call up

late in the season to play real teams on defense? Or do you think that they have patchworked it together enough to still make it difficult on him? Syracuse Sky Chiefs defense is who it is. Right. I mean, look, the Broncos had over 400 yards of offense this last game. And Bo Nix has hardly been better than KJ. McCarthy, but he's not exactly a pro bowl or at this stage of his career. And it was overtime. And yet it was a second game in a row where Washington's defense was notably better than it had been.

And it's the two games since Dan Queen took over as the play car. They've been going with a lot more zone. Now, part of that is they've lost both of their starting outside cornerbacks with injuries. And again, the real rub for them is going back to the depth issue, they were pretty limited with their pass rush options in the first place that Dorrance Armstrong came out this year was playing. really, really well. He's even still ranked very high in a lot of the pass rushing numbers,

but he got knocked out in week seven with the season ending knee injury. Dietrich Wise, hardly a major force, but he was brought in to be a presence against the run. He gets knocked out for the year in week two, and they've really just kind of lost their pass rush options since. And of course, when you don't have a pass rush, everything in the back end is much easier to dissect. But with Dan Quinn, it's hard to know exactly why. One theory that somebody presented to me this week was that not that the defensive coordinator is a middle manager, but when the head coach is now in your room as the defensive coordinator, maybe everybody's a little more on their peas and cues. So that might have something to do with it. But yeah, look, this is not a great defense.

You know, they have been susceptible to giving up big runs on the outside, on the edges. you can get, if you can get tight ends matched up against the linebacker Bobby Wagner in the middle, he's going to the Hall of Fame. He's still really good against the run, but he's just not adept at covering guys in coverage. Denver's touchdown and overtime was set up by Evan Ingram, jukeing Wagner out over the middle of the field

and turning that into a 41-yard game. So, you know, I don't know if this is the week that, you know, T.J. Hawkinson can take advantage of that. We'll see. But it's definitely a beatable defense. But the biggest thing for them is they've been at least more functional play to play with Quinn calling the plays, going to more zone. You know, every team gives up some has some mistakes, but they've been less broken coverages than they were before. There were weeks where, I think you could, like, every week, one or two defensive backs,

there were one or two plays where defensive backs are running to each other. And that, that's the bar they've been clearing the last couple weeks. So that's positive. But yes, if J.J. McCarthy has some game in him. And with Jefferson and, you know, the pieces they have it on the outside, this should be a place where they can look more functional, make some plays down the field. And if not, then like you said, maybe there may be a little bit more worry there. I will just say, though, in the last two weeks, they went up against Jalen Waddle and Coral and Sutton. Jaylon Waddle didn't do much for the Dolphins.

And Sutton did have a touchdown along with a 31-yard catch, but it wasn't like he was like eight catches for 150. So they've been better against some of the top receivers if Jefferson obviously is a step above those guys. There will be some serious desperation to get Justin Jefferson the ball this week. Every week we get a little bit closer to Jefferson just flipping a table after a game. Last week he didn't talk to the media after the game, which is I've never seen that happen before with Jefferson for his entire career. And, you know, the week before, he's kind of slamming a helmet down. He's got, you know, on the sideline with a towel on his head. It has been as rough of a ride as he's had in his career.

And if you can't put up some numbers against this team, when are you going to put up numbers? Because Dallas's defense has gotten a heck of a lot better since they got Quinn and Williams. Right. They look at least serviceable as a defense. So there's no guarantee there. And at least the New York. Giants have a couple of past rushers, this is your big opportunity and also like take a baby step. I didn't, I didn't feel like I really got the love for shouting out the Syracuse Sky Chiefs

as once a Washington Nationals AAA team. But, you know, those, those AAA fans out there will appreciate it. But I really, I do think that, I do think that this is a big opportunity for J.J. McCarthy to at least have a stepping stone confidence building game against the team. team that's been struggling, but there really are no guarantees. And the big thing to me is if there's any sort of deception, we see this happen all the time now where teams, oh, they're going to play you know, too high and oh, actually, it's a single high look. And I think McCarthy has not really figured that out yet. You could see it in his sort of processing. You can see it in, uh, you know, being behind on a lot of releases and things like that. And as we saw against Denver, these guys are

NFL players. They can make plays. I'm looking at who played against Denver. And it's like, you know, Louvoo's a guy and Vaughn Miller's been in the league. It's not like these guys are complete nobodies, even though we're joking about a AAA defense. Do you think? So right now, the commanders are favored in this game on Fandul. I mean, that's what I've been saying. Like, this is the low point when you're not favored at home

against the three and nine football team. That's a lot of them in a row. Oh, my gosh. Your expectation for this game. from the commanders, do you think that they will win at U.S. Bank Stadium? Well, that's the thing, right? Both of these teams are going to look at this as like, hey, we got to get this one. I think if you're Washington, it probably really feels that way. I mean, I'm not saying Minnesota, but they haven't lost seven in a row.

If Washington is able to be as functional as they have been in the last couple of weeks, and getting Terry McCorn back last week was huge. I mean, obviously, he's one of the better receivers in the league. But the way that the roster was constructed this year was, he was really their old. only speed threat. Once he went out, defenses started to say, hey, we're just going to press our guys up to the line of scrimmage, a little man on the outside, dare you to throw it to your unimpressive receivers on the outside, and we'll take away Zach Gertz over the middle, we'll take away the run game, and go from there. With McCornback, now you have to defend the

whole field. So it looked different, and obviously they played pretty well on offense against the number one defense in the league. Factoring in the McCarthy aspect that he just has not looked good, I mean, Washington, boy, it's hardest they should win when they haven't since week five. But boy, it does feel like this is such a great opportunity for them to do it. I guess I'll jump ahead to my Friday prediction and say that they do. But I mean, look, to your point, I mean, I know that Minnesota is obviously in a top spot, but obviously they have a ton of excellent players on both sides of the ball, really good against the run. And, you know, or, you know, on the line on both sides, and you mentioned Jefferson.

Obviously, that's a pretty scary situation when you're dealing with, you know, backup cornerbacks on the outside. So I'll see, I'll see Washington gets done, but I can't say it with tons of conviction unless we really are just saying that the Vikings are just completely, that they, you know, I don't say throwing in the towel because they're all professionals, but, you know, unless it's really just all over, I can't just say they're going to come in and win, but I would, I guess I would say that right now. Well, when the Vikings are 32 out of 32 in team quarterback rating on the season, I think that that puts you in a position where you never get picked or favored by anybody. And I have declared after the Green Bay game, I thought they had a chance to win it because Green Bay was down some players and Jordan Love was playing banged up. And I thought, well, the Vikings had the better kicker. So maybe they'll win like 17, 14 or something. And then they got blown out. And then they scored zero points last week. So I said, I am not picking them for another game all season,

which means they'll go on a on a magical run, I guess. But this is one that I don't think Scott Hanson on Red Zone will be highlighting too often for America. So I don't know, best of luck to both of us and covering it. That's, that's all I got. I mean, there's just no, both of us are like, I don't know why you would pick this team to win. I don't know why you pick this team to win, but no, that's what's happened to two teams that were supposed to be good this year. Ben Standig, great to have you on for the first time, man. It won't be the last whenever these two teams cross paths. And people can check out your work over at last man, Stan Dig, S-T-A-N-D-I-G. So thanks again, man. Thanks for coming on.

Thanks for having me. You've been a huge help of helping me launch the site, and I appreciate you having me on. Anytime. Here we go. Football.