Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Can Max Brosmer shock the Seahawks?

Episode Date: November 29, 2025

Andrew Krammer of the Minnesota Star Tribune joins for our weekly hardcore preview to breakdown the matchups to keep an eye on in this weekend's showdown between the Vikings and Seahawks. Can undrafted rookie QB Max Brosmer shock the Seahawks and lead the Vikings to a surprise win? 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.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, presented by Fanduel. Matthew Collar here, along with Andrew Kramer of the Star Tribune, and yes, we will continue to do hardcore previews of these football games, even though they don't have any playoff implications. But that does not mean no implications, Mr. Kramer, because Max Brosmer, undrafted free agent from Minnesota, will be starting. against the Seattle Seahawks in this game. So what we get here is a layer of intrigue. So I want you to give me, let's start right out with this, give me like a one to ten,

how much intrigue you have for young Mr. Brosmer to get under center? Oh, definitely an eight. It's up there. It's an eight. That's a solid, solid intrigue rating because of what he's shown in the very tiny sample size so far.

In terms of the training camp practice, in terms of the preseason. I'm not going to get into the mop-up duty stuff because that doesn't matter. But when he was out there in command of an offense for drive after drive, and again, the little that we've seen, he has shown the poise. He has shown the quick release.

As West Phillips mentioned, the quick mind to go along with it. I thought it was interesting. Phillips talked about how his mistakes were different than a typical rookie, how he was speeding through progressions and practices where not hanging on certain things when it needed a beat or two more in terms of the route progression against a coverage. And so he said typically rookies are late to things. They are hanging on things. They're not moving quick enough. And so for Max, he's got the headiness to it. It's just he's going to see things he's never seen before. Mike McDonald, that Seahawks secondary is incredibly good. They're going to disguise things. They're going to rotate. He's going to have to think as quickly as he's shown in these practices. But I'm really intrigued because this is a talented offense still. I think we forget because of how bad McCarthy's been at times. And when they are thrown catchable passes, they generally catch them. Yeah, it's hard not to go down the Purple Purdy Road and start talking about.

Purple Purdy. Yeah, like what this could look like if he plays well, because we'll go through it. The Seattle Seahawks defense is an absolute nightmare. I mean, they are stacked from top to bottom and seemingly even getting better with some younger players emerging for them. But the thing that we saw really early on from Max Brosmer was a command of what he was being asked to do. And that's just something that. of all the quarterbacks they've brought in here who are not first round draft picks or expensive free agents or veterans who have been around a while. So I'm thinking of like the Kellyn Mons or

the Kyle Slaughter's, that even probably Taylor Heineke, like those guys along the way. And Heineke ended up having a career. But usually you don't see them take a snap, drop back, find where they're supposed to go with the ball, and deliver it quickly and on time. Accurately. And accurately. Like those, if you can check off those boxes, you've gotten pretty far down the road in the NFL. And even when we're just watching him and we don't watch practice during the season, but when we're watching him during training camp or even during warmups, you see how well he throws the football. And you see some of that anticipation.

I think that that was the thing that really stood out to me in that preseason game against Tennessee. They did play some good players in that game. And I remember watching JTO Sullivan. and when he likes an anticipation throw, he'll draw a big A a bunch of times and a bunch of different colors. There were numerous A's on the screen. And that's the thing.

Like, it really stood out to me that when we talk about the rhythm and timing of the offense, it's supposed to come out before the guys are out of their breaks. And I think that Brosmer has an ability to see that where, and it's hard not to compare him to J.J. McCarthy, who's much younger than him, just as a human being, that, you know, Max had played more. college football and is a couple years older. But you can see those throws come out of his hand

when you go back and look at the tape before receivers are out of their breaks, throwing to spaces, throwing to vacancies that we hear talked about a lot. So all the things that we've gotten in our own quarterback school from Kevin O'Connell over the last year or so about what makes good quarterback play, Brosmer, in the small amount that we've seen him, has checked a lot of those boxes. Yeah, and he'll still have to learn like McCarthy does, how to layer passes in, what is open in the NFL versus open in college. That's stuff he's been learning since he joined the Vikings. But while he doesn't have the strongest arm of McCarthy, he can touch passes in there. And his accuracy over the middle from, again, the little bit that we've seen has been very good. So

we just haven't seen him in this setting. You're right. Like Jeffrey Simmons played in the Titans game. Like they did play some good people in that preseason finale. And so you saw him against real NFL pressure, but you didn't see him against real NFL coverages. Like no one's going to be game planning a preseason finale in any way, shape, or form. So that's what what I want to see is how does he look like when Devon Weatherspoon looks like he's playing a certain coverage and he wants to go that route and then suddenly he looks up and it's not. Like we see Sam Darnold's struggle with that still. So my intrigue's an eight but and I have relatively decent expectations for it. Like I expect him to be coached in a manner with Kevin O'Connell that

gets the ball out quickly. I expect Brosmer to follow the plan and get it out where it's supposed to and that's why I think that they're going to at least look decent with him under center. I just don't know how prolific it's going to be. I feel like we've been talking to people about him for a really long time. I wrote before training camp, a story with his offensive coordinator at the gophers and his QB coach. And what everybody kept saying is that the cheat code that he has is really his mind for the game. And I think that you have to believe that based on the results of how far he's gotten as an undrafted free agent. Because when John Wolford got here, someone who's been in the league before, someone who was with the Rams, they could have easily said, all right,

We're keeping the veteran as QB2. This guy mostly knows the system. He's the one we would trust. No, it's been Max Brosmer. My understanding is that nobody works harder, smarter than Max Brosmer, that he is, even when he's not getting reps, he's taking reps himself, calling out the plays. We saw him after practice. I mean, we've seen it all year long, but even Aaron Jones said that he would stay after practice with Max Brosmer, which speaks to Aaron Jones as well. I mean, a star running back who's in year or whatever, staying after practice to work with the undrafted free agent on some throws is pretty cool.

But I think that all those things that you hear about the dudes who make it that aren't supposed to make it, we have heard about Brosmer. Yeah, and a story I heard this summer from when Brett Rippin and Sam Howe were here, Max was talking about how, because I was asking about Josh McCown, I was doing a story on him, being one of the many guys who's helping raise J.J. McCarthy, and this was obviously back in August. and Max talked about how, yeah, I bother Josh too much sometimes and to the point where his teammates, Sam Hal and Brett Rippen, told him, dude, like, you don't get this kind of coaching everywhere, like maybe lay off a little bit. Like, don't bother the coaches so much at, you know, midnight, like away from the facility, those kinds of things.

But that's how Max was wired. And Max said, like, you're the guy. Everybody here was the guy when you show up to the NFL. We were the guy in college. We were the guy in high school. He said it took him a minute to get rewired in the NFL. Like, I'm not the priority here, which he said was fine. Like, I totally get it.

But that's how he's wired. Like he just was incessantly asking questions and wanted to know. And you've heard O'Connell talk about the good questions he asks in meetings as well. Like he's not afraid to speak up. He doesn't act like he wasn't acting like QB3 when he was. And now that he's QB1, guys say, hey, he's been acting this way the entire time. And Greg Harbaugh, who is the offensive coordinator with the gofers, when they were recruiting Max, he would go to New Hampshire and meet with him.

And they installed the offense in a coffee shop. And then by the time they came back, he was already running all the plays in like their spring practices. So he's got that element to him. Does he have the physical tools to be a playmaker when things break down? I think that's what is the biggest question for me about what Brosmer can be. And even in a game like this, because there are question marks at left guard and left tackle, we don't know what's going to happen there. And if he's playing with two backups against this defense, which let's get into. for the breakdown here, this defense for the Seattle Seahawks, to me is elite, elite.

Their edge rushers, DeMarcus Lawrence, but also Derek Hall has been a guy who's really emerged for them. He had eight quarterback pressures last week against the Tennessee Titans, which is, I mean, that's like superstar level stuff. So he has started to emerge for them. And I think their interior, their two defensive tackles are as good as it gets in the entire NFL. Byron Murphy, a top draft pick. Leonard Williams, a former top draft pick. Thank you to the New York Jets for just feeding great defensive players to all the Vikings opponents, I guess. How do you think that with a young quarterback in there, they will try to manage against such a prolific front? Yeah, I expect this to be a big Josh Oliver, C.J. Ham, heavy personnel type game, which they were already trying to do to an extent with J.J. McCarthy as well.

But I think when you look at the Seattle front, you're right, they've got a bunch of talent on there. but when you can force them to put their third defensive tackle on the field kind of bulk up a little bit more, Tennessee tried to do that. They tried to run some play actions off of it, and Cam Ward did find some success both running and throwing off of those bootlegs. So I expect some of that in Tennessee was able to at least move the ball and put up some yards on them with a rookie quarterback, no less. So I expect them to try and do that against Seattle.

What I don't want to see and what I'm sure the Vikings don't want to see is them to get put into third and long situations where Brosmer has to push the ball downfield because this Seattle team, like you mentioned, is so good. They're really good when they rush with three or four. They don't blitz very often, but when they do, they have the NFL's highest pressure rate.

It's, I think it was like 60% when they rush five or more. So they're very good. Mike McDonald is coming from that Ravens School of things of disguising things on the back end, sending rushers where you don't expect them. If the Vikings are stuck in a known passing situation, it might not be good news. So that's why I expect heavy personnel,

Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason, and try to control the game that way. Look, it was 10 to 6 in Green Bay. Like, it wasn't the end of the world with how they were trying to do that exact thing against a similar defense in Green Bay. I just think Seattle's defense is a little more well-rounded. Eman Warrior, the safety, can play a Kyle Hamilton role,

drop in there and be very disruptive down low in a way that I don't think Xavier McKinney is for Green Bay. So Seattle's got a little more ways to attack you, and that's why I'm interested to see how well this approach that I would take would end up panning out. I'll also should mention what a day for the go- to have Brosmer starting in Boye-Mafe on the other side, too, an excellent rusher. They have great athletes, I think, all over.

And that's where the Vikings do have to find ways to mitigate that. And for the folks that want Kevin O'Connell to run more, you've probably been right most of the time because when you look at their yards per carry, they are in the top 10, and they don't have a running quarterback. And so a lot of the teams that are in the top 10 have, you know, Lamar Jackson or a Josh Allen who's getting six, seven, eight yards per rush. but the Vikings have not had a ton of production from the quarterback position, and they've just been successful by running Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason.

And we've actually seen in recent weeks what they dreamed up for the backfield when this all started, which was Aaron Jones doing a lot, pass protecting, catching passes, and then he still got burst. And then Jordan Mason is a change up. And I think Jordan Mason at 100% full steam coming through has really shown that, that he's not somebody that you want to tackle. And, you know, I also think, too, that the blocking has been really impressive. And that's where, I guess, the question would be left side of the line.

But everyone has contributed. Even last week, once again, Justin Jefferson, the wide receivers. Jordan Addison for his size is trying. I think Naylor's become a very good blocker. T.J. Hawkinson has had, I think, his best blocking season. I know that's not going to justify the salary cap hit, but he has tried his butt off when it comes to that. So in a game like this, I think there is a. chance that you can run and run and run and then get some easy looks for max brosmer off of those

with play actions but when you think about the overall quality of this team trying to play it that way it is hard it is hard to do because they also have really good tackling linebackers they have excellent tackling safeties and corners there's just talent everywhere and if you do get into past first situations Witherspoon has been one of the best corners in the entire NFL Rick Wollin was kind of down early on, but I think is recovered for them. And Iman Warray, who was a guy we talked about, a ton in the draft, has turned out to be one of those dynamic freak boys. Yeah, I think they're like fourth in past deflections right now,

or fifth maybe they're top five in sacks as well. This is just a top 10 or even top five defense among many, many metrics. But what you don't see them do is you do not see them take the ball away a lot. I think they're middle of the pack, 20th or something. something like that in takeaways. If you can control the ball and run it the way that you should be able to, although Seattle's run defense, when they want it to be, can be very good as well. So if they load the box and just say, you know what, we're going to force Max Brosmer to beat us,

it's going to be quite a rock fight. And I'm not sure how well Max is going to be suited to do that. So it might look a little like what Kevin Stefanski did with Dylan Gabriel at times, where it's just handoff, hand off, little play action bloop over to the flat. I am really interested, though, because wouldn't it be something? something. If they came out in 11 personnel, it just threw it all over. It just threw the heck out of the ball. I mean, you're 4 and 7. You might as well. That's kind of what I think about the rest of the season. I mean, I think

it's great that Kevin O'Connell has found the running game, almost like the clouds opening up, and he just sees an image of Mewaldi Moore. And he's just like, oh, yeah, run the ball. That's exactly how it went down. But, I mean, he has found, I think, a successful run scheme at times throughout this season. They were very good in an entire drive against Green Bay. They scored against Chicago, just handing the ball off a couple times. So they found something there. But at the same time, what you'd like them to find out is what they have at quarterback. And that doesn't mean saying to Max Rosmer, go throw 45 passes. But if he threw 30, I wouldn't be heartbroken. I mean, this was a guy that in college was leaned upon quite a bit. The

gophers couldn't really run last year and they had some injuries and they threw like crazy. When he was at New Hampshire, he threw tons of passes. Like, I don't think he's terrified of having to drop back and throw. And you would like to find out, like, if the Vikings were in the playoff race and they needed to win this game, then I might say exactly what you were saying, which is C.J. Ham, Josh Oliver, get a 10-play drive where you're getting 3.4 yards per drive and 4-4th-down conversions and just eight minutes on the ground, right? But are you trying to, I mean, yes, you are trying to win this game. but is that the only goal that you have here for the rest of the season? You are out. It is over.

There is no playoffs for the Minnesota Vikings this year. I want to see what every quarterback who plays, no matter who it is, can handle. Sure. I get your point. Like Kevin O'Connell, West Phillips, they're all going to have so much information about Max and his practices that they might say, you know what, when we ran 11 and we did this concept downfield, he's really good at reading this. They might go into this and try to catch Seattle by surprise,

which I think that would catch me and probably Mike McDonald by surprise. surprise if they came out just throwing it and trying to spread it out. But we know O'Connell's got that in the bag. They've got that in their systems. Brosmer has run it. But the problem is, Matt, the Seattle's lost three games. And two of those games were defensive struggles. I think that was San Francisco and the Rams. If Matthew Stafford, who is playing lights out this season, is not able to do that against Seattle because he couldn't. They won 21 to 19 in that game, despite having four interceptions off Sam Darnold. If he can't do that, how is young Max going to stand out there and say, you know what, Devon, Weatherspoon?

I'm going to show you what I got. There's a lot of theoretical world versus real world stuff, and that will dovetail into our next conversation, also about Sam Darnold. But in the theoretical world, it makes the most sense to just have Max Brosmer throw a bunch of passes and see what you've got. In the real world, Kevin O'Connell on his pro football reference page is going to have a win and a loss. And at the end of the day, and this was a Mike Zimmer thing that I understood from him, because more than once, they went into a game at the end of the year where you went, isn't it better to lose this game in 2020? They were so proud of winning the last game of the season to go seven and nine. It was like, for what? And for what is, at the end of the day, they put the Ws and L's next to your name and nobody asks, hey, was that a meaningful game or not? They just look at what you did. And somebody might need as many Ws next to his name. is possible going into 2026. So I don't expect them to play the way that theoretically you would.

Speaking of theoretical, it made a lot of theoretical sense to bring back Sam Darnold. They chose not to do that. And a major part of that decision, I think we can all agree on, was how it ended last year because we probably did one of these podcasts in week 17 or something after the Packers game and said, I don't know any way he's not coming back. and then we saw exactly the only way he was not coming back. What have you made of how he has played this year for the Seahawks? Yeah, I am surprised to see him go into a new, not totally new system,

because he knows a lot of West Coast systems and their iterations, and Clint Kubiak is running another one in Seattle. But I'm surprised to see him go with new teammates, new location, all of that, and just pick up where he left off last year as a 35, or was a 4,000-yard passer, 35 touchdowns? 4,300 yards. 4,300-yard pass or 35 touchdowns. Pretty good. But, yeah, 18-of-41 against Detroit at the end, nine sacks against the Rams, and that's why we are where we are.

They could have tagged him. They could have done all those things. But Darnel did what I didn't expect, and maybe what the Vikings didn't expect, was him to go off and do the exact same thing that he's doing in Seattle. And they've got talent around him, and they've got a run game that they stick to and they don't move off of too often. But they can turn around and lean on him with Smith and Jigba. They add Shaheed, which adds an element to their offense, that is going to be difficult for the Vikings to account for.

And what's interesting is you see the Rams do what they did to him. And your buddy, Cody Alexander, broke down exactly what it was. It wasn't so much the front as much as it was the disguising on the back end to make him hesitate, hold the ball. I think in that game he had something like a three and a half second average time to throw. Like they were making him question his decisions before the snap. And that is what leads to some of the. mistakes that Sam Darnall can make.

We're still seeing some of those things, but then when I went back and watched part of the Titans game, you're seeing him then make decisions that I could tell, Kevin O'Connell, Kyle Shanahan, hammered into his head. It was third and nine against the Titans. He checks it down so quickly to the tight end of the flat that he had a 10-yard cushion to go pick up 13 yards. Like the proficiency and effectiveness that he gets through his progressions to the right decision is so hard to do in the NFL.

And for him to still continue to do that, to accept a checkdown. where he talked about early in his career, he would be hunting plays downfield, much like McCarthy does in his young career. It doesn't make the quick, fluid decision to the right one. You're seeing Darnold do that now, to where even if you can cause him to play under pressure, you look at the numbers.

I think he's ranked 10th under pressure from 5 plus rushers. He's ranked 7th under pressure against 3 or 4 rushers. Regardless, if he's under pressure, he's still playing well. It's just a matter of then when you get him trapped in the pocket, making him make the wrong decision, which has been hard for teams to do. Well, I also think that when you are playing against Los Angeles, they are a different animal because you are thinking about the defensive line the entire time. And as you're trying to process the coverage, there's no way to not feel what is coming at you from Jared Verst, from Young, from those guys.

It's such an excellent D-line. I don't think the Vikings have that. I don't think they have that intimidation factor like the Rams do, which we've seen good quarterbacks. this year and in previous seasons, if they were not under quick pressure from the front four or from blitzes, if they were able to pick them up, which I think Seattle is going to use bigger personnel to try to deal with some of the Vikings blitzes. We've seen a lot of teams do that. Chicago did it. Pittsburgh did it incredibly efficiently. Los Angeles did it at times. So we've seen if you can get enough time for the quarterback, a lot of times you can find where

the holes are, where the one-on-ones are. And the most interesting matchup by far is Jackson Smith, the Jigpa, because he has leaned on him like crazy. I mean, he's having one of the best seasons ever, really, at the wide receiver position, in part because, well, one thing I notice is they're great at finding ways to get him away from different coverages, get him isolated on one side of the field, put everybody on one side, he's alone on the other side, motions, they're using everything you possibly can to get Smith Najigba matched up one-on-one.

But also, Sam Darnold throws him open. He throws two spaces. And this is the biggest criticism I would have of J.J. McCarthy all year is that great quarterbacks throw wide receivers into being open. You don't have to see them open before you throw it. You throw it where they're going to be open because you have to trust that the cornerback does not see the football as well as the wide receiver or nowhere he's going. And I don't think anybody in the NFL is doing this other than Stafford with Devante Adams and Pooka Nakua.

I don't think anybody in the NFL is doing that specific thing better than Sam Darnold. And when you play against a defense like the Vikings that runs as much zone, which the whole NFL is doing that, but the Vikings run a lot of it. They don't run as much man. That skill comes quite in handy in finding the holes. Jordan Love did it, I thought, fairly well in moments. And Jordan Love actually did it differently, too, where he didn't have to make so many anticipation throws as he was like towing with Eric Wilson. Byron Murphy with his eyes. He would stare one way and no look a pass to the flat and it would

open up the kind of lane with Eric Wilson following the vision to nowhere. Yeah, great quarterbacks. That's what they do. And you just see the drop off to what we've been watching this season, whether it was Carson Wentz or JJ McCarthy. It just has not been to that level at all. And you're seeing Darnold, I think he ranks number one in the NFL on yards gained on throws 20 plus downfield. Like he's still lighting it up. Just like last year. Just like last year. and then you mentioned the underneath stuff with Smith and Jigba. He's a three-level threat. And Clint Kubiak, the offensive coordinator,

wasn't quite doing this to this level in 2021 with the Minnesota Vikings, but I would love to ask him, and I'm curious if he has been asked this. I don't know how much of what he's doing with Smith and Jigua was learned with what he did with Justin Jefferson in 2021 in terms of freeing him up. Now, Jefferson hit a whole other level when Kevin O'Connell showed up. But Clint Kubiak was still doing enough of those things with a superstar because he had to in Jefferson. So I think we're seeing some of those elements come to life with Smith and Jake, but maybe Darnold has brought to Kirk, or excuse me, to Clint,

hey, this is what we did in Minnesota to free up Jefferson. Like, I wonder how many of those lessons have followed them to Seattle. They are doing a lot of the same stuff. There's only X number of ways that you can get those guys away from coverage. But I also think Sam Darnold will understand better than anybody how Brian Flores' defense actually works. And Flores told us this week that those two were good friends. when they were around the building. He's called him one of his favorite people,

would talk ball with them all the time. But as we know, Brian Flores isn't going to say, you know what, Sam, I love you, man. Why don't you just have some easy coverages to look at? He said, I'm going to blitz him. And I believe you, Brian Flores. I think that there are going to be some things that we've never seen before or things that we haven't seen them do a lot of. And the number one for me would be corner blitzes that they used against Chicago with a lot of effectiveness. except for that wizard Caleb Williams kept running away. But I don't think that Darnold is as good

at escaping pressure as Caleb Williams. And the one thing that he loves to do is go backwards and out. And if you can pressure up the middle combined with a corner blitz and he tries to go backwards and out, he's going to run himself right into it, which is pretty much what the Rams did

for some of their bigger plays in that playoff game. And the Vikings did not have an answer for that. But will Darnold and the Seahawks anticipate that that's how they're going to go after it and look for those corner blitzes. But I think that if there is one shortcoming of Sam Darnold, it certainly isn't arm talent or athleticism or anything to do with ability. It probably is protection because his offensive line once again is struggling. They struggled last year when he was calling the protections. And if you remember after that Arizona game,

it seemed like they kind of found something with second level blitzes against him that he just didn't see it quite as well as some other quarterbacks. And I think there's a lot there to work with with Flores. Yeah, and it was interesting, too, to see that the Rams ranked like the Vikings really highly insimulated pressures. The stuff you're talking about were in, well, this could be a level of what you're talking about, where if they do bring somebody from second level, they're also going to be, you know, zone dropping somebody else. And how, who comes, who goes, all that kind of stuff confuses all quarterbacks. But you do see Sam kind of get a hitch in his thinking sometimes when he gets caught off guard.

And maybe it's that intuition, the instinct that truly separates the grates from the good enoughs in terms of, you know, Mahomes or whomever might be able to see things and react where Darnel just too often seems to melt when he doesn't know what he's looking at or doesn't kind of adjust on the fly like he needs to. And I do think Brian Flores probably has as deep a bag as anybody in terms of simulated pressures where he's going to bring guys from. You don't see him bring guys from too deep very often. You'll see them load the line of scrimmage. but maybe he starts doing stuff like that if he thinks Darnold struggles with it. I think the term cross dog could also be used again as it was against the lines

because you look at their offensive line. Gray's Abel is a rookie and he's been very good for them, but I don't think he's been an immediate superstar. Then they're playing a backup center who was horrendous last week. They were playing against Jeffrey Simmons, but still, it was not very good. Jalen Sundell, their starting center,

had been improving and improving. And their right guard is one of those, those guys that tape watchers like to highlight as problematic when it comes to the pass blocking. He's very powerful in the run game, but in terms of pass blocking, kind of reminds me of Ed Ingram where you're like, where are you headed there? What went on in your mind to cause you to block that person? That's how it looks when I watch their right guard, Anthony Bradford. So it feels like when I say cross dog, I mean, that usually means rushing, blitzing up the middle and I could see that right they do a like one guy goes this way it's like a stunt and then

the other guy goes that way and they did it so many times to fruition against Jared golf right Dan Campbell on the radio the next week was like every team runs cross dog man we couldn't figure it out no they could not and that was what cost them that football game and maybe the playoffs they're running back Kenneth Walker is I think fantastic at his job averages 4.6 yards to carry they seem to like to use sharpening in the red zone, but he's very talented. I think he was a second-round draft pick. And then where it's really interesting, too,

is that they've added Rashid Shahid. He has not done anything yet for them, but you know they want him to. They want to get some shots to him, I think. Yeah, this is an incredible challenge for the Viking secondary because you need to find a way to contain Jackson Smith and Jigba,

which is probably going to take multiple defenders, a bracket, two-man, however you want to do it. It's going to take two helmets staring at him the entire time. while also keeping a shell over this Seattle offense that can send one of the NFL's best deep threats in Rashid Shaheed now downfield. And they'll do a bunch of things with him. I was watching the Titans game. It was like second and nine. And they did a wowcat snap with Shaheed in the backfield.

And he runs for five yards on some perimeter sweep. And then they'll put him out wide and just run goes all day with them. And you have to account for that and run with him while also keeping track of the NFL's number one ride receiver on the other side. And then, oh, by the way, Cooper Cup might be washed as a number one. target, but not as a number three, a possession guy underneath who can still do all the things that they need him to do moving the chains. So this is a great group of receivers for Darnold. They have very specific skill sets that they can make come to life. And I think it's a lot tougher than what Jordan Love and the Packers were giving you. I don't think the Packers have that

compliment around Love. I think he's hampered by the fact that they don't. I think Christian Watson's one of the worst six four receivers I've ever seen, but that's just me. So I think Jordan love didn't threaten them that way. Sam Darnal is going to, and they need to account for all that somehow in the structures of their coverages. And if they want to be aggressive and blitz the way that they do, they've shown you they will just not cover certain areas of the field if they think they can pressure the quarterback fast enough. So it's been almost 30 minutes without talking about the future of the quarterback position, which has been refreshing. So I'd like to go over the fullback. How do you pronounce his name, Robbie Out?

I actually talk to C.J. Hamm about this guy. Yeah. I don't know. It's O-U-Z-T-S, and I don't have a pronunciation here. Oates. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe it's Oates. Well, we'll be watching for you, Robbie. Mr. Oakes. And, I mean, this team does use big personnel. Elijah Oroyo is another one who comes in. He was a fairly high draft pick. Their kicker is not as good as the Vikings kicker. So is there any other players? They have a 12th man. We've been out there. It's very loud.

The crowd can get pretty loud. But the silent count has worked better for the Vikings' offense, although this is a new quarterback, so we will see. I think the fullback thing is interesting because you're right. Teams want to bulk up against the Vikings' defense, and if Seattle has the personnel to do it, which they do. And C.J. Hamm, a few weeks ago, was very happy to see that Seattle not only has a fullback, but I think they drafted the kid, like in the fifth round. It was quite the commitment that notable fullback fan, C.J. Ham said, I saw that, and I loved it. But I don't know if the Vikings are going to love it because, yeah, they don't do well. when teams can account for the extra, the overload

that Brian Flores wants to do to you up front. If you can put the extra blockers up there and account for it, it usually doesn't work well with its Vikings front. Let's talk about the Puget Sound versus Lake Minnetonka. All right, let's have a discussion here. Where do you think this goes from here? Because I think what's opened up after the Packers game

is many, many paths. This is not a fork in the road. This is, it's like a fork in the road that leads to another fork in the road that leads to another fork in the road. Because you could see, you got all envisioning that at once, how many forks those are, you could see Max Brosmer playing really well and continuing to play. You could see Max Brosmer struggling a lot and McCarthy coming back against Washington, one of the worst defenses in the league and a team that kind of looks like it's given up. Dallas certainly does not look like they've given up, but the Giants, you know, they're not playing well defensively at any point really this year either. So you could see them wanting to try through a stretch to get McCarthy some confidence going into next year. You could see McCarthy

coming back playing against those guys and still struggling the way he did against Chicago, who doesn't have a very good defense. And then going into next year, you're talking about all sorts of different quarterback options of who are you going to bring in. I think that we have arrived on the shores of that discussion, Andrew? We have. We have on a little dingy. I think the Vikings are not in a position to overlook good quarterback play. And if Max Brosemar gives it to you in a very difficult spot on Sunday, you can't overlook that. And I think you're right in terms of they would have to at least have a hard discussion

about what they do moving forward, even if J.J. McCarthy is cleared to play and is healthy because he has not given you that. He has not been fair to the other 10 guys on this team or this offense, or the 11 guys on defense, certainly, in terms of what he's given them. But you also have so much invested in him and believe in him. And the reason why they went into this with a very young quarterback room and not a lot of money allocated to that position outside of him is because they believed in JJ, the person. So I don't know they're going to give up on that after six starts. So I think if Max gives you what is probably reasonable expectation of an OK performance,

we're probably still going to see JJ out there for the next five games, healthy. Then you are still, and this isn't that hard, you were in Anthony Richardson Colts territory. This is exactly where they found themselves with an often injured first-round pick who didn't show them a whole lot when he was on the field. And then they went and aggressively pursued Daniel Jones, had Anthony compete for the job, he couldn't do it. And here, Daniel Jones is leading a very good team like the Vikings still are, a very talented roster that does not need a complete overhaul. I think it's that simple. I think they are that, and it's not, I mean, Vikings fans want their savior. They wanted JJ to be.

be the guy, and he still might be. This might go a different, the forks. This might go a different path. That's a path. That's a path. If they bring in Mack Jones, if they bring in somebody, JJ could beat him out in the off season. Like, these things can happen. We don't need to give up and say that and bury the kid right now. He's 22 years old for crying out loud. I just think, though, that teams have found themselves in this spot not that long ago, and it was the Colts. And here they are leading a very good season with a different quarterback. So, and still have Anthony Richardson on the team. So I think the Vikings are going to find themselves in that scenario next off season where they will bring in somebody, even if Max plays well,

it's still then just two young guys that you've got on your roster, a quarterback, you still need somebody with experience to come in and help the young guys, even if it's in a backup role to say, hey, when I was here, I saw this, to help from a player perspective on going through the ups and downs of the position. Like, they still want that at that spot, and they thought Sam Hal might offer that for them, and he didn't, in the summer, which is why they moved on. So I expect them to add somebody this offseason, regardless of how these next games go. Because I, let's say one fork that I would not see coming, but is certainly possible in the realm of things.

If JJ McCarthy comes back and plays really well over five games, like resets the trajectory, don't you still think they bring somebody in? 100%. Yep. Needs to be competition. We've just gone too far. And also, some of these teams are, I mean, firing coaches or, you know, coming so. far short of expectations, referring to Washington, that I don't want to say their players aren't trying, but it's hard to give 110 the same way that you would. And their defense when they were trying was horrible. So I have that concern a little bit of, oh, look how good he looked in this game and that game, sort of like a September call-up looks good versus pitchers who are coming up from AAA and stuff like that. And then you go, well, hey, he did good in these four-game samples. So obviously he's set to go. I don't like that line of thinking. It doesn't

often bear out. So I think you do have to have competition. And then Brosmer can really put his name in the hat. I think that's what he can do. I don't know that he can win the job and prove that he is the guy in these next couple games or in this game alone. But he can certainly throw his name into the mix because if they play well and you're coming out of that game going, that was the best offense. That was the best Jefferson performance. That was the best Addison performance. I don't think you could go back to JJ against Washington. I think, like you said, you owe that to Justin Jefferson to give him a chance to have success. And if he can't, then, you know, you go back to J.J. McCarthy and throw as much as you can and figure out as much as you can about him.

Let me give you a couple of fan duel lines for this game, Mr. Kramer. The Vikings are 11.5 point underdogs against the Seahawks on Fandul. Do you think that they cover? I do, actually. I do because that's a huge spread. It is. In the NFL, yeah, I don't feel confident taking many teams with that big of a spread. So I would take the Vikings to cover that.

I do think it's going to be more of a defensive struggle than we think. I think Brian Flores will have some things up the sleeve that bothers Sam that don't lead to him putting up 30 to 40 points like that offense is capable of. What we get out of Max Brosmer and the Vikings, I do not know. I think that's kind of a little bit of a mystery box in terms of what we're going to see from them. But I do expect ball control. expect a ton of turnovers because Seattle doesn't force a ton.

They just play kind of boring sound defensive football that forces a lot of punts and we'll see how many times that's going to be for the Vikings.

So yeah, but I do expect them to cover, absolutely. Okay, Max, Brosber, 169.5 yards on Fanduel, over, under.

I would say under, just because Seattle's given up one 300-yard passer all season. Yeah, it was Baker-Mayfield. Baker-Ragan-Mayfield. This is a middle name.

I learned that the other day. No idea. No idea either. But yeah, he's pretty good. So, yeah, so does Seattle's defense. Like that secondary is incredibly well, incredibly good. They're sound, Kobe Bryant, Eman Warrior at safety. There are three corners that they can put on the field, as Justin Jefferson referenced this week, are also very good.

I think that is going to keep the lid on Brasmer a little bit, and that's why I think it'll be under. All right. Thank you for the hardcore breakdown. We will see what happens, as always. And regardless of outcome, we will do it again. in this very room next week. So thank you for your time. As always, thanks, Andrew, and we'll talk to you later. Football. Football.