Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Chris Trapasso wants trust in KOC with McCarthy decision

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

Chris Trapasso joins the show to discuss the Vikings' impending QB decision. With J.J. McCarthy nearing a return, Trapasso talks about trusting Kevin O'Connell with the big decision. 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 Fanduil, Matthew Collar here, along with Chris Trapasso, who has now become terminally online and focused your coverage over on TikTok. Chris, you can find him there on TikTok at Chris Trapasso. I feel very old and out of touch to be saying that and being like, I guess I'm going to have to get the TikTok app now to. get your content. But welcome back to the show, man. We were talking in the off season about how we got to make sure that we're doing this regularly and not just during draft season that we're talking ball all the time. So welcome back to the show. Can you play left guard for the Vikings? Everyone's hurt. It's very sad, but they found a way to grind out a win against the Cleveland

Browns. They come back. I have never really seen anything quite like this to the number of injuries. and I guess they deserve credit for being able to fight through it and at least still be in the conversation here. Yeah, it is awesome to be back on this show after talking about the Vikings for the last five years during the draft. We talk about all these young players now to see them play. And with your statement about the offensive line, I'm thinking like looking at the Vikings depth chart

and it's like thinking back to math class in high school where you're like how many different combinations, like, you know, five factorial. That's what it feels like where every game that I've, watch from the Vikings, and I've always said this since I've come on your show, that the Vikings are probably the NFC team that I keep the closest tabs on because I want to, you know, have a better grasp going into every draft season of the Vikings, because I know I'm coming on your show. It's been insane that I'm like, wait a minute, he was just playing left tackle.

Now he's playing right guard and he's, this backup's up. It's incredible, honestly, that with that, with a backup quarterback, a journeyman that's, you know, six team starting in six seasons in Carson West. that this team is three and two right now in what seems like a very muddy NFC and entire NFL. Like we are going to be entering week six without an undefeated team. So I think Vikings fans for as much as the Steelers loss probably stung a little bit to get a gritty win in an international series game back to back,

to get above 500 is, I think, a pretty impressive feat for this team, given the offensive line and the quarterback situation. So what you alluded to there is, exactly kind of where I want to go with the conversation here today, which is what do we think we know? Because every week, it seems like the NFL pours a whole bunch of new information on us. And we're like, wait a minute. I thought that I knew that X, Y, and Z. And then I feel like I don't. So I want to get into that in just a minute. But I want your opinion on where the Vikings stand with the quarterback position. You're right. I mean, if you can bring in a backup quarterback and he can win

two out of three games and lose the other game by three points. It did not look good. It was maybe not quite indicative of how the game really went, but bottom line being two wins, one loss, the one loss is a close game where you had the ball with a chance to win at the end.

Survival mode with a backup quarterback is just fine, but we're not really sure exactly where the Vikings are going to go with J.J. McCarthy and how they're going to handle this situation going forward. Kevin O'Connell did not give any hints yesterday about that.

We're recording this before his Monday press conference. I doubt he's going to come out and say, guys, here's exactly what we're doing. And I'd like to let the Philadelphia Eagles know in two weeks how we're going to handle this situation. So knowing what you know and you of, of course, follow J.J. McCarthy all the way through the draft process, all the way through with this show. How do you think that they should approach this? should they play it as slow as they possibly can based on how he looked over those first two weeks or go right back to J.J. McCarthy and ride it until the wheels come off. I think leaning on the more precautionary side makes the most sense.

I know he's in year two and in today's NFL, you know, by year three with these young quarterbacks, you're already thinking if they show signs, are they getting that extension? How much money are you going to have to pay them? But with J.J. McCarthy and I think more so than anything else, it's actually like, I don't want to say outside of my comfort zone, but it's not what I normally want to come or what I'm normally good at coming on and talking about the players. It has hammered home the value of Kevin O'Connell. Like, not only, I mean, we have a whole body of work of an entire season last year with Sam Darnel, the job that he did with him. We had the Nick Mullins game over 400 yards.

And then Carson Wentz, I know, like, I think it's right what you said that he hasn't looked like 2017, Carson Wentz. But in that fourth quarter, in that game-winning drive, like he made some quality throws in that game. And the offense hasn't just seen the wheels completely fall off. Like we saw the Ravens score 10 points and get blown out at home by the Houston Texans. And in like 95% of the cases, when a team, whether they have an elite quarterback, a mid-tier quarterback or a bad quarterback, if the backup is in, you can just forget about it. Like the offensive game plan is out the window. The run game usually gets shut down because defense is. can just flow downhill.

The run game's actually been pretty good, even without Aaron Jones. And Carson Wentz has done enough with these skill position players that we raved about for years now to win that game. So I think not that you're necessarily feeling great, like let's ride Carson Wentz for eight games, but I think they should make sure that every, you know, possible consideration is being taken into account by the medical team before putting J.J. McCarthy back on the field because, and we can certainly talk about the defense. But I think the offense can stay afloat with Carson Wentz and Jordan Mason as the two players in the backfield.

So there's a few conflicting things here that I'm struggling to figure out exactly what to do with because, number one, you do need to understand more information about J.J. McCarthy for this season. Yeah. You need to come out, or at least I think you do, need to come out knowing whether he's going to be the guy that you feel like you're going forward with your franchise for a really long time. So if he doesn't play, that's really hard to figure out. At the same time, being three and two, it's not like the season's down the drain. And Carson Wentz right now in terms of EPA per play is 13th in the NFL, which is fine. And I think we said before the season, if they had the 13th best quarterback play, they would probably be in the mix for the NFC North.

That could absolutely be true with Philadelphia being flawed, the Chargers being flawed. They're going to play at Detroit in a couple weeks, but the Ravens were on the schedule. We all went, oh, no, the Ravens, but now they look much different than we thought they were going to look. So those two things are conflicting. There's also another part two that I watched a game on Sunday afternoon that was one of the most fun football games I've watched all year long, Sam Darnold versus Baker Mayfield. What do Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield have in common? Their teams rushed them, their teams gave up on them. and then with the proper development and age, they became borderline elite quarterbacks.

Like, at least they were in that game. Baker has pushed his name into the top 10 quarterbacks for sure. I think Sam Darnold this year has been easily a top 10 quarterback. And Sam Darnold now, you go back to 2022 and how he's performed since then. He's been a top-notch QB. And those guys were both written off. And so it makes you think about how slow development can be. in the NFL and even someone like Jordan Love who struggled for the first half of his first

season, even though he had sat for several years to develop like this might just take in today's environment a long time. And if that's what Kevin O'Connell thinks, how am I going to tell him, sorry, Kev, I really wanted to see JJ McCarthy this year. So I'd like you to play him. All those things I think are battling against each other. 100%. And that's what I think it's going to be frustrating when what you alluded to earlier when Kevin O'Connell doesn't really give much as to what the timeline or just the idea behind closed doors in that whether it's in the front office, whether it's with the GM or just the coaching staff regarding J.J. McCarthy because those are really good conflicting points. It feels like though, and you could, I mean, you mentioned Jordan Love and the

Packers. I think they obviously have a long history with from Farb to Rogers to Love of understanding the lengthy development that can take place a quarterback. I think, Now in Minnesota, even though they've obviously moved, you know, they had Sam Darno, they let him go. They draft J.J. McCarthy. I feel like Quasi Adafo Mensa and this front office truly is one of the smartest in the league. And they also understand that, that they get like, we're not going to say, oh, man, J.J. McCarthy, you didn't play your rookie season. You only played X amount of games in the year two. We're going to draft another quarterback and we're going to create a quarterback controversy. seat. We're not going to give you first team reps. And it's going to be, I don't think that this progressive young front office with a head coach that was a former quarterback and Josh

McCown on staff is going to just rush through this. And we're going to have another Ryan Tannehill. And then your examples, Baker Mayfield, Gino Smith, Sam Darnold situation on their hand. So I think they will take the slower track with J.J. McCarthy because they have kind of that ultimate luxury that's, you know, I think you could say the same for Kyle Shanahan, for Sean McVeigh, that you can still get EPA per play to be in the top half of the league. You get good defensive play and suddenly you're a game or two above 500 and it's November and December and you're either in the thick of your own divisional race and certainly in the wild card race.

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don't miss out on this limited time offer uncommon goods we're all out of the ordinary so there's the point to be made that everybody loves when kevin o'connell is quoted for saying that organizations fail quarterbacks more than quarterbacks fail organizations it's like put it on uh just you know his legacy is having said that i hear it mentioned in broadcast that the vikings aren't even playing and yet i think in part he's referring to rushing people along. And the trouble is that throughout the entire offseason, J.J. McCarthy looked like a starting quarterback in the league, from OTAs to mini camp, to training camp, to his very brief performance in preseason to joint practices and came out. And in the fourth quarter of the game against

Chicago looked like more than just a starting quarterback in the league, but a dynamic player and a weapon with his legs. And to have one game that goes really sideways and then go on to Carson Wentz. I think that that breaks people's brains. And I sympathize with that. I'm not saying that it shouldn't. It kind of breaks my brain. Like it's one game and a lot of quarterbacks. How about Bo Knicks yesterday where half the internet is declaring Bo Nix to be a bust by the end of the first half. And then he comes back and wins the game. And it's like, oh, delete, delete, delete, like we're like this with quarterbacks. And I think with the offense in general that you designed around J.J. McCarthy and you had him as QB won this entire time, it feels like a lot of

whiplash or it feels like a bit of a strange thing to suddenly declare that he wasn't ready to play after you didn't have any competition for him. You know, you didn't find a way to bring back Daniel Jones, like all these different things. And then you pick up a backup quarterback with two weeks to go before the start of the season. Now you're like, yeah, actually, uh, the veteran guy, he's our quarterback, even though he kind of just got here. It, it doesn't, really match up, you know what I mean? Yeah, and with today's NFL, I'm glad that you brought up the Bow Knicks thing, that it's, he has the bad half against the Eagles in the first half, plays a lot better.

In the second half, they go on to win that game in Philly. It was like kind of a shocking, like, statement for the Broncos and the Eagles. That game, I think, can be used as kind of a microcosm for what we've seen from J.J. McCarthy and what we all need to accept for every quarterback in the NFL, the elite ones, Patrick Mahomes can look, Josh Allen had an interception on Sunday night football in the Red Zone, maybe didn't play his best game, hasn't played to that ridiculous level outside of the Ravens game. It happens. I think a big reason, this is more more broad than I was kind of intending, but I think a big reason why the NFL is so popular is that there is legitimately so much

parity in the league. It is not like Major League Baseball where you get the Chicago White Sox or the Pittsburgh Pirates losing, you know, 130 games. And it's like, Like they're playing a team with the top payroll of the Dodgers and there's just no way that they're going to compete. So I think taking their lumps early in a career for J.J. McCarthy, his second game, expected. It's not like every quarterback comes in. I can't really think of any. I think you could go back to some of these, you know, Jaden Daniels had a couple weird stinker games early on last season. Justin Herbert and his, you know, record setting rookie season, Baker Mayfield before that with the Browns.

It happens. And all I've always said on this show during the draft process, especially when we were scouting all those quarterbacks two years ago, you want to see flashes in year one. And you saw a fourth quarter on the road to essentially start his career in J.J. McCarthy. That was a flash. And I think Kevin O'Connell preaching that organizations fail quarterbacks more than than quarterbacks fail organizations.

What's baked into that is what we saw from Carson Wentz against the Browns. He can go. the course of a game and look okay not great oh man he missed that throw on third down he was you know Justin Jefferson was wide open piece together one or two good drives make a couple good throws to jalen Naylor down the field you win the game so I think Kevin O'Connell understands I can build in a lot of easy button high percentage throws for this quarterback that can build his confidence and then we can start to put more on his plate as the season progresses and there will be three or four drives in a row where he airmailed one he took

a bad sack. But as long as toward the end of the game or in those critical situations, he does make the quality throws that we saw on film at Michigan, that's all we're going to ultimately need with this Brian Flores defense that's first in the NFL and success rate entering week six, that they can be a perennial playoff team. So I think he understands it and has more of an intimate knowledge of the quarterback development because he was one. But I think it's good that you brought up all those other quarterbacks because you can see it in a span of a quarter in a span of a half in a two game stretch where it can go from this guy's a bust to should they give him a contract extension it's kind of we have to keep everything relative and not

just look at one specific team i mean even tampa bay when they extended uh baker mayfield that contract says we're not really sure and seattle when they signed sam darnold that contract says we're not really sure and so even it's not just the minnesota vikings and j j mccarthy going into the season, having no real idea how it would look like in the real games. It's guys who have seven years of playing where teams are still like, all of a sudden Mac Jones looks great for the 49ers. And now it's should they stay with Mac Jones? But I thought Brock Purdy was great and you paid him.

And I mean, San Francisco is the ultimate quarterback team. They drafted Trey Lance total bust. They pay Brock Purdy and then Mac Jones looks better. You're like, who can ever figure this thing out? I feel like both of us within this conversation have even been arguing with ourselves. Like, well, yeah, it makes sense to get them back out there. And where a point that you touched on that I do think is really important here is that with Carson Wentz at quarterback against the Browns, Kevin O'Connell was forced by number 95 on Cleveland's football team to get the ball out of Carson Wentz's hands very, very quickly. They ran a slant with Justin Jefferson, the first I've seen him running.

really long time. They had him line up in the backfield and ran a swing pass to him. They had Jordan Addison, two plays in a row into the flat for five or six yards. There were a lot of easy completions on the board for Carson Wentz. And then he had to make, I think five really good throws in the game. Yeah. Well, that's the theory that you would try to deploy with a quarterback like J.J. McCarthy. And the Vikings defense was able to do enough allowing only 17 points and just give him a chance. But I guess my question is if he feels like McCarthy is not seeing the field well enough to get the ball out as quick as Carson Wentz, a veteran quarterback has been able to do, then you're talking about potentially not even being able to execute the quick stuff,

which is kind of what it sounded like when they talked about his game against Atlanta. I think that's something that can only really be learned, though, by reps. But at the same, time you're trying you're trying to win you're not trying to just get a guy reps and this is how we go round and round and round it's a circular it's a circular conversation for sure but to your last point that's why i pointed at the at the screen i think the only way that that you can get those uh you know missed throws missed targets out of the game of j j j mccarthy or have him react quicker and process quicker is just by playing and that you have to go through the lumps and what's good is I think they're kind of in a sweet spot where if Carson Wentz was playing lights out football

and was averaging, you know, nine yards per attempt, never getting sacked, you'd be like, hey, like this is kind of Sam Darnold all over again. Let's just ride this. Let's not rush him back on the field. He's still so young. And he didn't look, you know, like he was totally comfortable in that game against the Falcon, J.J. McCarthy. Carson Wentz isn't doing that.

He's doing, I think it wouldn't have shocked anyone if J.J. McCarthy played against the Browns and had a very similar game that J.J. McCarthy would have had like, oh, yeah, you know, took a couple sacks. Didn't look great, miss some throws, but then made a couple of great throws down the stretch and made a, you know, game winning touchdown throw into the front corner of the end zone to Jordan Addison to win the game. Like that's what I think they have to hope for for J.J. McCarthy. And then as he progresses in this, I'll call it rookie season, you want to see less and less of those stalled possessions or the drives that don't go anywhere. And really, from a super broad view, that's the NFL today.

75 to 80 percent, easy button, high percentage throws, yards after the catch. And then what I have said forever, and it goes back to the draft, what separates the bad quarterbacks from the good and the good from the great, can you make five of five ridiculous big time throws? Do you hit on three of five or do you hit on zero of them? I think the rest of the league is, you know, 200 yards of your 300 yards through the air are going to be all easy button throws. And to your point, maybe that's where they want to feel comfortable with J.J. McCarthy that he's understanding where to throw the football in that first, you know, second and a half to two seconds before the pass rush gets there. And I think that it has to be

with the quality of past rushes and the mixing up of coverages in the NFL and the blitzes and everything else that you have to design it that way. And we've even seen that change in a single off season where last year it was percolating. And this year, it's every single game where you're seeing so much pressure. And that's how a Mack Jones beats a Rams defensive line. That's how Miles Garrett gets two pressures against the Minnesota Vikings. The ball just came out. What's he supposed to do?

When you're running a little swing pass to Justin Jefferson for 11 yards, there's there's nothing Miles Garrett can do to stop you from doing that. And then you need, as you mentioned, a couple throws. I think that that argument is pretty sound where if you look at the three opponents that they played, Cincinnati, who is a train wreck, And then a Pittsburgh defense that is very difficult and mixes up coverages and definitely has an amazing D-line. And then what they saw from Cleveland, a team that couldn't score and you didn't need

to put up a lot of points to win the game. Could J.J. McCarthy have gone two and one and had a couple of good games at a couple of bad moments? The answer is probably yes. Yes. I think based on what we saw in Chicago. So from to that end, I would like to see Kevin O'Connell take his mentality from Cleveland and carry that over and put J.J. McCarthy back in the game.

Now, watch me talk out of both sides of my mouth, Chris. I also think if Kevin O'Connell walks to the podium and says, we're going to stay with Carson, I want to work with McCarthy on the side more. I want him to run practice for the foreseeable future and then we'll make a decision down the road on him. I just need him to practice more. How, what am I going to say? Sorry, QB Whisperer.

shut your mouth like I mean right I mean that I think that Vikings fans also have to accept that if that's the decision that he decides to make he's not doing it because he's a big old dope and forgot how quarterbacks work he's doing it for a reason that's going to be legitimate so I'm like definitely straddling both sides of this thing I'd like to see him just get back out there and see if this version of the offense with Derisaw back with Addison back they're going to get Donovan Jackson back. who looked awesome in the first couple of games. They're going to get Brian O'Neill back at some point, Aaron Jones back. I mean, they've been missing all these pieces. I think when you have everything that was supposed to be there, you need to see what McCarthy looks like. As usual, your last point is just sparked something in my head. Correct me if I'm wrong.

J.J. McCarthy has not had Christian Derisaw blocking for him yet, right? Correct. Yep. So I think that could also be baked in where the first, you know, to play the Bears, to play the Falcons, two teams that have, like, sneaky, better pass rushes than they've had to not have your, you know, all pro left tackle and to say, hey, like, you actually, in your first game, you have to process super quick and you're going to see this and that, I think I'm leaning toward Kevin O'Connell saying, like, look, we, like, yes, he could go up there and say, guys, I'm not trying to be condescending, but just trust me with this. I'm seeing him in practice, I'm talking with him. I have a good grasp on how much he knows about the offense. and where to go at the ball. But I'm leaning toward him saying, let's get J.J. McCarthy back on the field

because I think Kevin O'Connell is not just a quarterback whisper. He understands his whole roster and that he probably feels a lot more confident in J.J. McCarthy having that even extra quarter or half of a second to process to make the right read with not an entire, you know, fully sharpied in offensive line that we would have had week one, but with Darisaw and Brian O'Neill back. That's huge for a young quarterback to just mentally go into a game and not be like, oh, crap, we got our eighth different offensive line combination. There's no Darisaw.

There's no Brian O'Neill. I think mentally it allows those quarterbacks to kind of get into a rhythm and spend more time mentally thinking about the coverage and where they're supposed to go as opposed to, all right, when I catch this shotgun snap, like where's the pressure going to be coming from. I always call it quarterback or young quarterback shell shock. You see it a lot where it's like, what the hell? why didn't he not throw that slant? It was wide open. And you see his eyes are down. I think J.J. McCarthy and Kevin O'Connell probably will feel better about just being better

protected when he goes back on the football field. Yeah, I mean, there's no question that that's a, that that's a factor, the fact that he wasn't in there. And you can't deny that it was a very bad game. And Carson Wentz, just for example, was able to overcome four backup offensive linemen as a veteran quarterback. So it's not something that, you know, is uncommon in the NFL. Baker Mayfield's got half his team out there and he's doing it. But McCarthy is not one of those veteran quarterbacks who's been there and seen it all. So let's talk about what we think we know around the NFL and start with the NFC North. Okay. I'm going to say that I think I know that the Detroit Lions are still the kings of the North until proven otherwise. I know they have not had the time.

of schedule. Their win against the Ravens doesn't look as impressive now. They've got, you know, win against the Browns and so forth, but they aren't just winning. I mean, they're trucking these teams. Their offense looks great. Jared Gough, shocker, phenomenal quarterback, again, just I just keep betting on Jared Gough being great and he keeps paying off. They are setting the standard between the Vikings and the Packers. I'm still not really sure with Jordan loves ups and downs and their secondary. And I'm not buying the bears with the wins that they had. Good for you. You had to block a field goal against the pathetic Raiders to get a W. Like, I just don't think that that's all that oppressive. That's kind of what I think I know is that one team is going to be in that

12, 13 win range. The other two are probably 910, whoever wins against maybe each other. And I don't think the bears are going to get into that conversation. Yeah, I think that's a pretty good analysis of the division and that what I would go a step further with the lions is it feels as though after that week one loss in Lambo to the Packers where all the narrative was, oh man, they're really missing Ben Johnson. The offense looks pretty much the exact same. Like the offense and that, again, I'm not going to say coaches don't matter. We've just, you know, talked for 25 minutes about Kevin O'Connell's impact and how big it is.

But me being a draft guy, I'm a huge believer that players matter more than the coaches. If you don't have the guys or you have the guys, they have a great offensive line. Jamir Gibbs is still there. David Montgomery is still there. You mentioned Jared Gough. I think he has such a firm grasp of just, I mean, talk about where to go with the football and not being uber talented, but understanding accuracy and leverage of corners and where the correct read is. He's very, very good at that. I think the step further is we're seeing a defense in the Lions that's not completely ravaged

by injuries that it was down the stretch where like Ali McNeil was hurt, Malcolm Rodriguez was out. like there had so many injuries, not that I think the Lions defense is like ferocious and it's, it's an elite group, but to see them reasonably healthy, obviously, with Hayden Hutchinson on the field, I think that makes them such a well-balanced team that they have that formula to like run the football, a lot of play action, and then play reasonable enough defense to win games, you know, 31, 21, in that range. So I think the rest of what you said, it's the Packers to me are the team that is really hard to figure out at this point. because a few weeks into the season, it was like, man, they can really score.

This defense is probably the best defense. And then they allow 40 points to Dallas. They have the stinker loss in Cleveland to the Browns. So I totally agree. Lions, Packers and Vikings are right there. And the Bears are a team that I think still has to prove themselves. They haven't really done that yet. Yeah.

And when you watch that game back against Dallas, it was so interesting because they were able to get a ton of pressure on Dak Prescott, but they, just could not cover anything. And that's a discussion that comes up from time to time in the analytics world. It's like what's more important? The coverage or the pass rush, and usually the data ends up playing out that coverage is more important. Now, they impact each other and everyone recognizes that, but your performance as a coverage

unit is the most important thing for a defense because if your receivers are open, even a quarterback who's getting pressured is going to find them. And we saw that. And that was the biggest, I think, question when Jair Alexander, under left and they didn't really replace him with anybody that you'd heard of. Xavier McKinney obviously is a good player, but the corners, and they were just getting Moss, they were getting beat. And even if Miles or Micah Parsons was about to murder Dak Prescott, it didn't matter.

Like as long as he got the ball out, it was okay. And I think as the Vikings go to play the Packers and as they go through this season, when they play bad quarterbacks, they're probably going to kill them. because they're going to hold on to the ball too long and they're going to get nervous about Michael Parsons and the pressure. But when they play veteran quarterbacks, we might see them just stand in there and work their way through it. I expect the next time that Detroit plays them. It's going to be a very different story with Jared Goff and that group of weapons having figured a lot of things out. So I think that they're going to be a Jekyll and Hyde football team.

And also I think that that's who Jordan Love is. He starts out great. And then that game against Cleveland. They're winning the game. All he needs to do is not completely give it away. And what did he do? Completely gave it away. And I'm still not sold on their group of wide receivers. Matthew Golden hasn't changed my life. Tucker Kraft is great. But aside from that, it's like what, what do you have for a receiver where I go? Boy, this week, he's going to take over the way that Justin Jefferson did against Cleveland. Yeah, that's a really good, you know, analysis of the Packers overall. I think, too, not to be distra. respectful to any players, but I'm always just going back to the draft.

I think their cornerback group, and I think what you said about the analytics, that it does kind of lean in the favor of coverage being a little bit more important. And they are tied together, and it's kind of a chicken and an egg. But the Packers, like top three corners in Snaps played, Kishon Nixon, Carrington Valentine, and Nate Hobbs. Like, even if you're the biggest Packers fan or a believer in those players, you have to admit, they're all pretty unproven young. players. There's not that in his prime or maybe like near the end of his prime Jaya Alexander that can

match up on a routine basis with not only just to Justin Jefferson, but all the tremendous number one receivers in the NFL. And I think the first two or three games, Kishon Nixon had that great game on what Thursday night where he had like five pass breakups. Nate Hobbs has been a decent player, but never a star with the Raiders, now with the Packers. And then Carrington Valentine was a mid-round pick out of Kentucky just a few years ago. So for as much as I think they're clearly leaning on the pass rush with Rishon Gary and Micah Parsons, the guys on the back end, I think, I mean, yes, good safety group, but at corner, I think that's a weak spot. And I guess for the Vikings, a team that has, you know, arguably the best one two

punch at receiver in the NFL. It's kind of like, hey, when we're facing the Packers, we should kind of be licking our chops because that cornerback room is probably one of the bottom tier groups in the league. All right. What do you think you know so far? That's what I think I know about the NFC North where where do you want to go anywhere you want to go are you know so anywhere around the league anywhere around the national football league hmm I think this is going to be controversial but and you mentioned TikTok earlier I posted a TikTok about this last week I think the egos are kind of in trouble and it seems it's like okay they're four in one you know jalen hurts is there is the reigning Super Bowl MVP all this and that in my video and I like made sure any

my TikToks. I show film and I do research and I talk over it. And I was pretty sure of this. I double checked it. You know last season, we talked about it with J.J. McCarthy, making a few of those big time throws a game, then that's usually the difference. Last season during the regular season, Jalen Hertz had more turnover worthy plays than big time throws. And the big time throw number was 12. He had 12 during the regular season last year. Josh Allen like led the league like in the 30s or 40s. So like Jalen Hertz for as much as I know this will come across as like, you just hate him.

It's just like you're being a cynic. He was an ultimate game manager of that ridiculously loaded Philadelphia Eagles team. Both of the trenches, Sequan Barkley, A.J. Brown, Devante Smith, you know, suddenly improved linebacker group with Zach Bonn, great secondary with the two rookies last season. Now, I still think it is a very good team. But if you're the Vikings and you're looking maybe up at some teams on paper in the NFC, you would first look at the Eagles.

What the Eagles, they win in week four against the Buccaneers with zero passing yards in the second half, which I don't know how that's even possible. They kind of lay an egg in the second half this past week against, again, like you mentioned, Bo Nix, where everyone was like, oh, man, this is the game where Bo Nix proves that he's a bus. They ultimately lose at home. I think the Eagles, and I'll kind of go more overarching to kind of tie in. to the Vikings. I just think the NFC is completely wide open when the last couple years is like, man, the Eagles are really tough. And when the 49ers have been healthy, it's like, man, the 49ers are

legitimately unreal. I don't think that's the case anymore. And I could see a team, I mean, maybe it's within their own division in the Lions. I could see like the number one seed in the NFC being like a 12 or 13 win team. I don't think there's going to be what we had last year with the Vikings and Lions with 14 wins going into that final week of the season. So to me, the Eagles and just the NFC are a lot, they're just a little bit a step down from where they were a season ago. Yeah, I think this is a great observation that something is not right with the Eagles. And when you go back and look at Jalen Hertz passing through 2021 was pretty good, but 22 and 23 are both very good. He's pushing 4,000 yards. You mentioned the big time throws way more

than the turnover worthy plays in those seasons. Quarterback rating is pretty good. And even though the quarterback rating is still a solid the last two years, 6.4 yards per attempt this year is not what you would expect from a passing game that is supposed to lead a top elite team in the NFC. And I also think that we could just judge by some of the things that you see where A.J. Brown quits on a route that went around the internet yesterday and people were talking. about how this kind of is happening a lot with A.J. Brown and he seems to be getting very

frustrated with whatever it's the offensive design or the way that Jalen is playing. He seems like he's been a little late. I saw some analysis about him dealing with zone coverages, which it seems teams are kind of loading up against him because Sakewan is regressing. And that's another thing, too, is that all offseason, my big hill to die on was that just based on history, there was no way Sakewan Barkland is doing it again. He was a lot of, going to make video game covers and he was going to be number one draft and fantasy and all that sort of stuff. History tells you when a guy runs for 2,000 yards, the next year, it ain't even coming close because there's so much wear and tear on that body. And then he takes them all the way

through the playoffs. And that's, he just hasn't had the same juice. And their offensive line has not been the same as it was before. So I think that I would call the Eagles very failable. Whereas last year, Yeah, last year, it felt like they were just untouchable when they got into the playoffs and when Hertz was playing. But now they feel like there's a lot more weakness there. And the Vikings will play them after the buy week. Oh, yeah, true. It's good to talk about that. Yeah.

Yeah. And like one like that. One last thing too. And it's not just about Jalen Hertz. I think it's the whole operation in Philly. And obviously super accomplished two Super Bowl wins. Howie Roseman's an awesome GM. Maybe the best in the NFL.

It's hard for a team to lose a guy like Josh's sweat in free agency. and Milton Williams, and then you have Nolan Smith on IR, the defense cannot just tee off up front without blitzing, which is kind of Vic Fangio's MO, like, oh, if I don't have, which is kind of silly because like, yeah, any defensive coordinator, if I don't have to blitz, then sure, then you're going to be better. And he had that luxury last season. I think Howie Roseman is a great drafting GM, but when you lose those pieces and he usually tries to stay a year ahead in terms of like, all right, we're going to lose this guy,

so we're going to draft an ad rush or whatever. But I think you're not seeing quite as good of a defense in Philadelphia. And then you can't have Jalen Hertz just go swing pass to Saquan, run to Saquan, play action deep ball, swing pass, screen. Like the offense has to be a little bit more open. And that's really not what that team was a season ago, but they could still win games because they could just mull you in the trenches. So I think for as much as like you're mentioning at the beginning of the season, you think of that Ravens game, you go, oh, my God, that game's going to be so hard. After the bye week, I'm sure even at three and two, you know, given the offense

line situation, Carson Wentz, a lot of Vikings fans are probably like, oh, man, the Eagles, like I'm not saying it will be a piece of cake game and the Vikings are going to run away with it, but it is drastically easier on, like now than it was on paper even a few weeks ago. And even now with the Eagles, like four and one, I think they are, like you said, they're a lot more failable than it felt like they would be coming off the Super Bowl. Let me get into your wheelhouse here in the draft. I think I already know, and we're only five weeks into these guys' careers, that Travis

Hunter probably should be a corner instead of a wide receiver. From what I've seen, he just does not look like an NFL, like, superstar wide receiver. And if you're going to trade your entire farm for somebody and have them average nine yards of catch and play in the slot and just be me, that's going to be a disaster for you. I think they need to lean into this dude is a special corner but might not be a special wide receiver. I think I can almost guarantee that he will be a next level corner with his athletic traits. But I just don't see it as him as a wide receiver. And I know part of that is that their quarterback is talking about failable, but just maybe not that great.

I just from what I've seen of him at wide receiver, it has not looked at all special to me. Um, I also want to say that I think, uh, I know that Abdul Carter is amazing at football and is an instant superstar and I think that Cam Ward should sue the Tennessee Titans for drafting him. I know they had the craziest win I've ever seen in my entire life. That was pretty insane. But, uh, that team is so freaking bad is unbelievable. But in, in terms of like the top five picks in this year's draft, uh, Mason Graham, it was probably the right move for Cleveland to move down. Graham has been okay, but not taking Hunter and getting extra draft capital. And it was one gazillion percent, the right pick for the New England Patriots to say,

you know what? We don't care about his little dino arms. Take the left tackle and protect Drake freaking May. So there is what I think I know about the top five picks. I think, yeah, there's nothing that that I really disagree. I've watched a lot of Travis Hunter too. He just seems like he could be like a decent. gadget type wide receiver like out of this lot let him use his athleticism but i think i mean again

i'll i'll try to segue this back to the vikings that we've talked about j j mccarthy and the development and processing and the mental side and how long it takes in college it's certainly at jackson state and then definitely at colorado Travis hunter was like the best athlete on the field in every game and it was just like i mean i i did notice i wrote this in scouting reports i probably settled on the show. The nuance to his game as a receiver showed up in 2024. It really wasn't there the season before, his first at Colorado. But I think we are seeing in this first month and we'll see what he does against the Chiefs because we're recording this before Monday night football in week five against the Chiefs. But it's got to be so hard

to just take in all. All right. Here's go to the cornerback meeting room. Here's the leverage. Here's this cover. You know, cover three. We're going to have it. And then, oh, also you're going to go over to the wide receiver room after that, and you are going to learn all the checks and this audible and this option route. And if you see a corner inside, you have to break to the outside. Like, I think it is so much on his plate that you're right. They should just lean corner and have a really probably at some point pro bowl, the all pro caliber corner because of his movement ability and that he can just react and find the football as opposed to, again, and I'm sure you probably talk to Justin Jefferson about it, all of the little mental things that go

into it's not just run a 15 yard dig it's how do you sell it toward the out and then come back in or do you run it a little slower and then speed up like all of those little intricacies make wide receiver very very difficult to play and they're actually it is a position that calls for so much nuance i think it's just been too much on travis hunter's plate in the first month of his season and there's a reason why this hasn't happened since 1996 and well and part of it too Well, with Dion Sanders, having watched that season and watched Dion many times play wide receiver and corner, when he played corner, here was the defense. You follow that receiver anywhere he goes. That's your coverage assignment.

Not to say Dion is not an incredibly smart mind when it comes to playing that position, but it was a different world then. We just don't have corners in the NFL who just follow a guy everywhere on the field because you can't. know how to take advantage of that they used to just line up a wide receiver outside and he would stand stagnant and then he would run his route we never see that anymore in the NFL so there's a lot more details to the cornerback position I think he should just put his focus entirely there and you're right this means he'll probably go for 250 yards or something right after we record this that's the history of this podcast all right give me give me one more make it hot um let's see just general take on a team or can it be a player

or a trend or a feeling or whatever what do you think you know what do you make it tic talks about what do you feel like man i'm confident in this take uh well the jalen hurts one kind of blew up last week can go watch it on tic-tock if you want i mean i kind of explained it um okay here's one that i'll make it kind of hot that i think the colts are respectable but i think we are there a a daniel jones implosion is imminent like i i think we will i i'll I think we'll look back. Maybe the Colts, they could even win the AFC South, because you mentioned, the Titans are an abomination.

Cam Board made some great throws in that unbelievable comeback or meltdown from the Cardinals that I don't think either of us have ever seen. The Texans are a little bit down. They could maybe even win the division or get to nine, ten wins. But I just can't imagine this philosophy of like, we are just going to run the football. And Daniel Jones is just going to play mistake three, mistake free, football throughout the course of the season. So for as good as they've been, I think we'll look back and say great story.

Maybe Shane Steichen saves his job. GM, Chris Ballard saves his job. But I think at some point we'll get to like a two or three game stretch. Maybe it's in October. Maybe it's in November where we're all like, oh, that's Daniel Jones. Okay, we understand. Let me expand on this one a little bit because it's been really fun to watch. Yeah, I love reclamation projects.

It has been fun. And I love when a first round quarterback, who just got destroyed like Sam Darnold ends up playing great. And what a trend this year it's been is guys on their second, third, fourth team who are first round picks who are all of a sudden playing at extremely high level. What is that five of them this year, including Mack Jones, Daniel Jones, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold. I'm sure there's one more.

So here's what I think, though. And this may be overreactionary after watching the Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills in Buffalo's house. The AFC, which I think we all went into this. season saying it was resolved. It's uninteresting. Ravens, Bills, Chiefs. That's the answer. Everybody move on. Plug that in. We'll see what happens in the National Football Conference. That is totally wrong now. I'm going to toss out a team. I'm going to toss out a team that I think is going to make things very interesting. The Houston Texans, I believe I have a great defense. And if it clicks in for them offensively and C.J. Stroud plays the way he has the last

couple weeks. I think they are dangerous. I think that the Denver Broncos and you saw them, their defense makes them dangerous. The chargers look like they're sputtering a little bit. I wouldn't be surprised if defense ends up kind of ruling the day and a lot of the teams that we declared as obvious favorites for this, just not as good as we thought. And let me just toss this out there to the Buffalo Bills. I don't get it, guys. I don't get it. My entire life, I watch, When growing up in Buffalo, Andre Reid, number one wide receiver, get the football time and time again. And then he was taken over by Eric Molles, who got the football time and time and time again. And then you have to go through a little bit there.

And you get to Diggs. And he takes Josh Allen's game to another level. And I know it didn't end well there, but Diggs and Josh Allen for several years are locked in. And it's the best version of Allen passing the football. and then they just decided it wasn't important. And they have several gadget wide receivers and a contested catch guy that's pretty mediocre. And then nothing else. I mean, look, like, D.K. Metcalf was kind of out there.

I mean, there's dudes. You can do something. Yeah. They just decided they didn't need any of them. And then their general manager freaked out on my friend, Jeremy. And like, sorry, pal, you don't look so hot right now. So the bills, I think, if they can't have a consistent weapon to. lean on and you have to have Josh Allen run around, run around, run around to create anybody

open. I think that you are vulnerable. They're still the best team, but they are vulnerable. Yeah, I think quarterbacks ultimately are what move the needle more than anything else. But I agree with you that the AFC is significantly more wide open. And really the NFC, the entire league, we're going into week six with no undefeated teams. There's usually the chiefs, the Cardinals had that one fluky season where they were like 11 and 0. There's usually it like to the midway point of the season, a team that's like, even if they're not undefeated, it's like, oh, that Eagles team or that Packers team or that Patriots or whatever it is, we don't have that in the NFL this year.

And it was funny. So going to the game last, or I guess Sunday night, Bill's Patriots, obviously I did the whole marathon day watching the Vikings in the morning. And as a Bill's guy, I'm like, man, it's really nice for the Vikings to have a Justin Jefferson out there. And for as much as I think Jordan Addison is very good, I think both on the field and the way that Justin Jefferson leads probably in practice helps Jordan Addison be better. Like I think if Jordan Addison was drafted in that draft to another team and were like, hey, you're not going to be the one, but you're going to be the two, but didn't have to look up to,

so to speak, someone in Justin Jefferson that is not only Uber talented, but you've always told me is like the hardest working wide receiver like he's trying to make the team. and knows every little specific, all the minutee he has down, I think that has a ripple effect on your entire receiver group. Jalen Naylor, we talked about like, oh, okay, he's okay, he's okay. He's not really, he's actually a pretty important piece to this team. So I think Justin Jefferson, not only the ridiculous catches, his separation, I think he has a ripple effect on the rest of the team.

And I think the bills and a lot of these teams, I just mentioned the Eagles that are four and one and, you know, seem to be on paper at the beginning of the season, And the, oh, these are the clear Super Bowl favorites. No one else can touch them. They're all asking questions about themselves at, you know, like the one third mark of the season. The National Football League, Chris, it never, never leaves us with all the answers from a week to week basis.

And the bill's losing that game. Now I think sparks a lot of intrigue there in Buffalo of, are you really good enough? Part how many ever since they've had Josh Allen as an elite quarterback? well, make sure you go over to TikTok. Check out, Chris Chappas. So we need to get younger on this show anyway and a little more hip with the TikTok. Hey, and they're not shutting down TikTok because of China or whatever I saw.

So great. No, the things that you do with your video breakdowns and analysis always, always terrific and always welcome on this show. One more thing I want to say, because we didn't really talk about the Vikings defense at all. But I know if the hardcore Purple Insider listeners and fans, which I feel, like every listener and fan is a hard for a Purple Insider. They remember me talking about Javon Hargrave a few years ago. And I was like, how did this guy go undrafted? Everything checked out.

The film, the analytics goes undrafted. They pick him up. And I feel like you said like, hey, are there any undrafted guys like Javon Hargrave? Like Javon Hargrave, he already has more pressures this season 10 than he had all of last season in kind of a limited, you know, super rotation. Redmond. Or Redmond. Jalen Redmond.

Yes, Jalen Redmond. Yes. I'm thinking of this. Yeah, sorry. Jalen Redmond. Sorry for that confusion. Yes. Jalen Redmond, undrafted second year.

Absolutely loved him out of Oklahoma. Very athletic, very productive at Oklahoma. I don't know how he went undrafted. Another great find by Quasi has 10 quarterback pressures through five games, had five all of last season. It was really just like a run plugger last year, but was an important piece that you mentioned to me. I was like focusing in on him when I was watching the Vikings defense against the

Browns. I'm like he even uh, Levi Drake Rodriguez, good players on the inside to be behind Jonathan Allen and Javon Hartgrave. No, great point with, uh, Redmond. You were on that and I think it was the blood clot issue that. Oh, Tim, the teams were concerned about that because he was with Carolina and they let him go because I think that they were concerned health wise.

And then he's been not only fine health wise, but he's been a terrific football player for them. And if you're going to struggle on some draft picks or not have very many, draft picks you need to hit on late round guys you need to hit on undrafted guys xFL they've been able to do that across a lot of this roster so now we go forth from a three and two record but thanks so much chris for popping in and we will definitely do it again very soon this was fun football football