Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Colts weapons have life with AR benching; Cody Alexander fixes the Vikings defense

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

Matthew Coller and Mike Schopp talk about Anthony Richardson's benching and Cody Alexander joins to break down the X's and O's of the defensive struggles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider here. It's the Fantasy Football Shope with myself, Matthew Collar, and Mike Shope, WGR 550, and the Deep End Fantasy Football Podcast. And the show presented by our friends at Underdog Fantasy, the easiest place to play fantasy sports. Also the fastest growing fantasy app in the industry. We'll have our pick-ems at the end of the show cannot wait for that make sure you go over and use the uh all right i forgot what the thursday night game is but we will get to that uh sign up with the code purple to claim your special pick and first time deposit offer of one thousand dollars in bonus

cash uh up to one thousand dollars of cash. Must be 18 or older. Terms apply. Concern with your play. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit ncpgambling.org. Yeah, Aaron Rodgers, I'd rather be on a darkness retreat than watch him play football again. And yet they could not shift the Thursday night game. But nonetheless, we-

Those are the rules, Matt. Those are the rules. Yeah. Those are the rules. Yeah. All right. I need your thoughts on Anthony Richardson. Unless you want to tap out. Yeah. I mean, it's a shame

because there's really no reason that makes sense apart from culture-y protocol kind of stuff from what he did on that in that moment that justifies this move i mean they weren't even losing this year like he he has not been this is the understatement of the history of Purple Insider. He's not been efficient as a passer. And until two games ago, he also didn't really want to scramble.

Or maybe that was from the sideline. I don't know. You just can't spend a top four draft pick on a quarterback and give up so fast. I saw yesterday online. It isn't original. But Richardson has had 10 starts, and Daniel Jones has had 71. and give up so fast. I saw yesterday online, it is an original, but Richardson has had 10 starts and Daniel Jones has had 71. Like, you just can't do this. You want him to watch?

He spent the last 12 games last year watching. You just can't. He has to play. And I know I can appreciate how challenging that would be, what a conundrum that would be for a coach who's got not a bad record. Like, who's going to be the seventh seed in the AFC? Somebody we think is terrible is going to be that team, or the Bengals, if they're not terrible.

And so you've got to keep going, and that's probably what breaks ties here. I'm on your show every week because of fantasy football, and this is such a loss for fantasy football. The whole year has been because of the points I made. And, you know, even last year too, the whole Richardson idea. Look how it started. I mean, he's running for – game. He got hurt in, in Houston that ended his season. He was Derek Henry times five. Like it was a joke. And on the set, he ran for two touchdowns

in five minutes. And on the second one, he's out for the year now. Like that was just the end of it. He had, you know, a quarterback sneak in the opener that he got hurt and left the game so I don't know what's in his head and of course I have to acknowledge the Colts people would know that better than I do um but fantasy wise it's a disaster like it really what what a what a moment this is for that with Indianapolis Minnesota Sunday, Sunday night, flex game, Flacco, Darnold, he'll be compared against Darnold and like another reclamation project, went to the playoffs last year with the Browns. He's going to drop back 55 times because that's the brand.

And the question becomes, again, in sort of a fantasy context, whether Richardson ever gets back to a regular starting role. And it's, it's no given to say the least. Yeah. I mean, I think that this whole idea of quarterback development has really come under the light this year. I mean, Sam Darnold, as much as there have been some warts throughout the year, the man has 107.2 quarterback rating through seven games, which you could almost predict a

little bit, not that it would be quite this good, but that it would be much better than it had ever been before because of the circumstances that he was given and the development year that he had with the San Francisco 49ers. And what kept coming up for people yesterday when he was benched was Kevin O'Connell saying that quarterbacks don't fail organizations, organizations fail quarterbacks. And I don't always believe in that because I mean, Jaden Daniels went to about the worst organization in the history of our planet and yet he's turned them around. So the chicken and egg thing is always difficult here, but case by case basis, when Jaden Daniels

was the same age as Anthony Richardson with a pretty similar skillset, the guy was barely throwing the ball at Arizona state. He wasn't a good thrower really at all. And by the time he's drafted, he's 24 years old. And I think, you know, for Bo Nix, I mean, that guy was brutal at Auburn and he's had a good rookie season at 24 years old. And here were the Vikings saying, we're not really going to play J.J. McCarthy. And I'm sure that after two losses, people would have been starting to push for or whatever, maybe even after the Jets game when it wasn't very good. So it's almost a favor to J. to JJ McCarthy that they can't do it. But to throw in Anthony Richardson at the start of his career, when he was so clearly a development project, and then even this year when you have another starter, but if you didn't do it, if he

didn't play, the world would have lost its mind. The owner is nuts in Indianapolis. So that's another problem that they face there as well. I have said, Mike, that the Packers thing with Jordan Love, there's a raw prospect who threw a ton of interceptions at Utah State and is now a really good quarterback. The reason the Packers get away with it is because they don't have owners. They don't have a crazy person who comes in and says, you have to play this guy and i think that everyone around the league sort of knows that sam darnall that 20 years old should not have been playing it should have been a veteran quarterback that's why he was seeing ghosts and then these guys have

these embarrassing moments and these bad things happen to them their confidence gets shot it falls apart because i when i was watching richardson other day, I thought this is not confident at all. This guy looks like he's half of what he was last year in terms of his self-belief. And I think it's better for him. It actually does remind me a little bit. If you're looking for a situation where the guy was benched and came back and turned out to be good, maybe of like Tua in Miami, where he had the thing with Flores and it wasn't working out and it looked really bad. And then he gets the right circumstance.

Yeah. And I saw Ryan Fitzpatrick tweeting about that this morning saying, like, look, you have to just give these people time. But I don't know, does Anthony Richardson show up with the, you know, I don't know, the Seattle Seahawks or something in three years and then have a good season. It just, it's been very frustrating with the lack of patience that these quarterbacks are given,

especially one that you knew needed development time. Well, you know, that's all right. The flip side of it is that in terms of the ticking clock on the rookie deal and you know you can win a Super Bowl with a 50 million dollar quarterback Kansas City has just done it but you'd rather do it with a 10 million dollar quarterback and spend all that money on weapons and whatever you think is right so it's also it's it's right to want to sit and develop quarterbacks. We have countless examples of that seemingly being beneficial. We don't know for sure because they didn't play.

That was the point in the first place. But it's also organizationally, contractually, yeah, you've got to get Drake May on the field because you have to find out. It's very much plus EV if he's good, and then you have kind of four to five free years to go try to win championships. And if he's not, you can bail. You can go Bryce Young, but you have to play him. And so I don't know who should be in charge of that. The owner runs the team, and the owner is the last person in most organizations to care about any of this stuff at all.

In Buffalo, we talk about, well, I mean, not all the time, but when the Bills lose a game or two, they lose in the playoffs. It's like, come on, they have to move on from Sean McDermott. Do you think Terry Pagula, who owns the Bills, knows the first point you're making about why they have to do that? He was a wrestler. He gave the Bills credibility for the first time in like 30 years. And what, he's going to fire him because they lost in the playoffs? No, he's not going to. He's not even thinking about that. So how do these decisions get made? Who makes them ownership, which can be, I mean, or say what hasn't been said. It's not going to be rational. It's not going to be logical.

It's not going to make sense all the time. If you, if it were Matthew, if it were, if you owned a team, you or I owned a team, the conversation we have before that draft last year is whether we are prepared to handle the turbulence when it comes to Richardson in that case, because there will almost definitely have to be some. And what do we tell our other players? Do players want to come to our team? Is my coach fired in two years if they go two and 30 or something like all that stuff has to sort of be plotted and you can't know. And so that is the kind of thing where there's a lot of different possible outcomes and probably most of them are bad, but you still do it.

You still do it because the upside is the point. That's what you're in it for. You're trying to win a championship and you do that by drafting Josh Allen, Otto Wyoming, and just crossing your fingers. And then if you are right, quote, right, then you all have, you all go to the hall of fame. Right. The upside is just too immense.

Right. I think with these quarterbacks, you can't have one foot in one foot out. You have to decide which way you're going to go with it. We've seen it work for Josh Allen to fight through it, where the start of his career, I would say through the first two seasons was pretty gnarly. You saw some of his winning ability and you also saw some of his wild throwing, and he needed a couple of off seasons of really hard work to get to be able to throw. Of course, Richardson hurt his shoulder, which is going to set you back from a guy who needed a million reps of trying to throw the football um and we've seen it work with guys

who sit on the bench who are raw type of players and then come in later uh it's pretty convincing to me that the greatest quarterback didn't play right away uh and then the greatest quarterback of the previous decade didn't play right away i I think that does kind of sell me a little bit, but no one ever does it. Peyton Manning, it's your show. Peyton Manning did play right away, and he is the greatest ever. He did. He did. But, you know, Rodgers and the fact that it worked with Jordan Love.

But if the guy's not good, it's not going to work. I mean, it didn't work for Paxton Lynch. Like, it's not going to work for every single person all the time. Nothing will. But you have to decide. I think that's your point is, okay, if you're going to play him, you have to understand that you're going to lose some games where you come out of it going, what just happened to us? How did we lose that game?

The quarterback played so bad and fight through those in order to try to get to the end of the tunnel. I think to the rookie contract point, I think that's actually gone over the top because no rookies ever win. And usually it's year three, year four, where these guys, and you've seen it with Allen, fully develop into who they're going to be. And so there's too much of, well, we've got to take advantage of him being cheap now. But if he's not good enough, you're not taking advantage of it anyway. If he's not ready to play, all you're doing is kind of wasting time. And I do think that spending a lot of time around these folks

in a football locker room, one thing that's hard to understand is how many people are involved in an NFL organization and everybody's got an opinion and everybody's got to say and when somebody takes themselves out of a football game in a key spot because they're tired the amount of anger inside of the building from the locker room all the way up to the owner's box to the executives to the front office to everybody else every single person is going to be talking about that. And every family of every player is going to be talking to their guy about the quarterback doing that.

I don't think a young quarterback can even conceptualize how much attention is on them and how much is riding on their shoulders. And so when you do something like that, it manipulates kind of every single person in the organization and you can't keep going with it. Like they had to take a break here. They had to, they can't keep going after that. It's just too embarrassing and angering to everybody, especially in the locker room. So I think, I think they did the right thing because then they can say, look, he's young, we're going to give him a break here and then reset because otherwise it would be tough to kind of buy into him going into this next stretch where they can make the playoffs.

I suppose. I talk to Ross Tucker every week on my show on WGR, and he said, I've never seen anything like it. So I'm sure you're right when it comes to the players and the precedent or the lack thereof of what happened on Sunday. But, you know, when you and I work together, I don't know, I probably inflate my ego a little bit by this. the fourth down strategy mistakes, like the broad brush mistakes that teams were making in the NFL and the Bills were always losing and they were an underdog all the time. Like, why wouldn't you just think differently? What is stopping them from thinking differently?

And so I think, like, it sort of reminds me of that because there's an evolution that happens. And for the Colts now, I don't know if I want them to win. Like, in those Bills years, it was sometimes logical to me to think it's better off if they lose because then they'll make the change. Then they'll draft the quarterback. Then they'll make the coach, whatever. And now I've got Joe Flacco, and what's my ceiling? I'm just trying to not be embarrassed. So, um,

I don't know like what optimal decision-making here is. There's a, there's a certain ingrained way of being of thinking in the NFL that this runs counter to with, uh, Richardson, but you're not playing for the ceiling anymore and that's why you drafted him is to, is to shoot for the moon. And that's over. I do follow some folks who are Colts fans and they were sharing the memes of the banner that says, you know, went eight, nine with Joe Flacco. And that's true.

That is true. It is a little bit of like, congratulations on your 9-8 season that you have no chance to win with Joe Flacco. But at least you, I guess, didn't embarrass yourself with Anthony Richardson. Did you actually get ahead at all? But for this particular Sunday night football game, Mike, they did get ahead. Flacco has played pretty well this year at times.

And if you're the Vikings, you were really hoping that the guy would come in and go 10 for 34 passing. And then you could get a fairly easy win against Indianapolis. They do have receivers. And from a fantasy perspective, this does matter to them against the team that has been struggling a little bit against veteran quarterbacks who got the football out. I can't think of a more drastic difference between the starter and the backup, the two quarterbacks, than this. You could not play, and in retrospect, this proved correct, you could not play Michael Pittman in fantasy. You couldn't play Downs. Downs was the closest to being the exception. Couldn't play him. You've got Alec Pierce, who had these sort of long-shot plays with Richardson.

Downs had one on Sunday as well. I mean, Richardson was two for 15, I believe, but he had like 80 yards, including 70 yards to Downs. I don't want to play Downs. He's legit good, I think. So, yeah, and now you want to play all of them because Flacco is 50 dropbacks. What that does for Jonathan Taylor in fantasy is interesting. If we knew Flacco were to stay in the rest of the season,

I guess Taylor, you have to play Jonathan Taylor. You want to because of when you drafted him and how good he is. But maybe he's sort of immune. He's the one guy on that offense who might be immune to this change. You don't want Anthony Richardson stealing all his touchdowns either. But, yeah, like you couldn't play the Colts guys, and now you can't wait to. Yeah, their running game is a little different.

There was something from PFF a couple years ago about the quarterback, if it's a running quarterback, impacting the running back in a positive way. And I think we're seeing this from Saquon Barkley in Philadelphia. We're certainly seeing it from Derrick Henry. And I think of it for Jonathan Taylor, that his job just got more difficult because opposing teams do not have to factor the quarterback into the mix. That might be the only change. He also might be too good for that to matter a whole lot. And they have an offensive line. That's really good at run blocking. That might be part of it.

I can't decide if the Vikings have a decent run defense. The metrics are good, but they have also been up in games so much that opposing teams just haven't really run, and Kyron Williams had some success. I like him. I mean, in person, I always have kind of different opinions when I see, in person, I always have kind of different opinions when I see someone in person. He was very good against the Vikings. The 49ers got some yards against

them. The Lions certainly got some yards against them on the ground. I think you can run on this Vikings defense. Well, I defer to you on that. I mean, Flacco, however, in terms of this matchup, is not one of these, if you will, sort of bum backups. And Taylor can work out fine, even if he doesn't have as much like lighter boxes, the kinds of things that maybe Henry or Barkley are benefiting from. If he gets into the end zone, then you win. And a quarterback that's going to take chances, even if it works out negatively. That's why everybody in fantasy football was dying for Jameis Winston to play. Because even if you get picks, that's still good. You just want the 300 yards.

You want the points. So, again, just in terms of that context, Taylor could be fine here if they get into the red zone. Because what else are they going to do with Joe Flacco, quarterback, than give the ball to Jonathan Taylor? I mean, who even tight ends are not even really a thing with the Colts. They've had like four at a time the last five years, but I don't know. Nobody ever does anything, it seems. So I'm okay with Taylor. You know, my thought on the Vikings is this was coming. That was a tough spot on Thursday night when we didn't we talked last week like we talked about Cooper Cup coming back and whether he actually would because there

was trade rumor stuff about him but then not only do you get Cup you get Nakua and they both look super healthy and it came pretty easy still a winnable game for Minnesota right down to the safety, which was egregious. But that's the league. They weren't going to run away with it. We'll see now as we get to the second half what happens in that NFC North. I mean, everybody's at least pretty good. If you want to eliminate the Bears, feel free. But Detroit Green Bay this week, so good.

It's a great division, and the Vikings are very much a part of it in the race. I would love your opinion on something that we have been discussing, which is a crossover with fantasy and the X's and O's. Is the Vikings against the Rams only ran 50 plays, and Jordan Addison only had a couple catches. And Jordan Addison was part of our off-season discussion leading into the season of, hey, is he going to get suspended?

Is he going to still be a target for Sam Darnold? And my original thought was, oh, yeah, he's going to be a target for Sam Darnold. They're going to throw him the ball. They drafted him in the first round. They love him, and they love him enough to never punish him when he gets in trouble. And this is not going to be an issue. And his court date, unsurprisingly got moved back. So it will be next year when that suspension comes down. If any suspension comes down at all, pretty predictable though, they're five and oh, and that court date disappears, but he has not gotten very many targets.

And the reason I think is because they're just not throwing all that many passes. This kind of reminds me of Denver Broncos, Brian Greasy and Jake Plummer, where they took guys that were not the greatest quarterbacks, but had some things they could do well. And they pared it down. They ran the football a lot. They ran a ton of play action. They took shots down the field. And they got really efficient quarterback play.

But it was not volume quarterback play. I'm curious about your take on that as it pertains to someone like Addison when we know that TJ Hawkinson is coming back as well. Yeah, right. Well, I feel like Addison, you still can start him. I want to because I think the overall, with everything you said, is still it's Kevin O'Connell. And I don't know if it's Sunday night,

but it could be where you're playing teams that can score and that are like kind of that way. When you play the Bears or somebody, like I'm thinking of the Colts now, but some of these games, you talk about the volume, the number of plays, they just get really bogged down, and you just don't get there in fantasy that way unless it's kind of a fluke. So I guess maybe fresh in my mind, Matthew, is what happened between these two teams two years ago,

and that probably should not matter at all. The quarterbacks are different. The team's very different. But that was the wildest. And Taylor got hurt immediately in that game in Minnesota, that great comeback by the Vikings. I don't know. When I picture these two teams playing in that stadium, I see it's too recent. I just have this great feeling about it. And as we've talked about, the Flacco move is probably good for that kind of an outcome. I like Addison. I never have thought he was really great or anything. Of course, he pales to Jefferson, and that's sort of tough for him

being on the same team, maybe, if he thinks about it like that. But I would think, you know, even with Hawkinson, you could get to a playable floor with Addison, but it's no sure thing. It never is. Yeah, I think with Sam Darnold, it's always a little bit tricky because you want to tell Sam Darnold to be aggressive because he has a huge arm. But then at times in his career where he's been very aggressive,

he throws it to the other team. And some of his aggressive throws have been to the other team this year. So then you want him to like, okay, why don't you pair it back and duck underneath to the tight end, swing it out to Aaron Jones. Don't be pushing it too much unless it's the Justin Jefferson. So then Jefferson has this huge game against the Rams. But I was looking at a stat today today and I forget who tweeted out. One of the guys who does cool charts about the PFF separation grade versus

how often the player is getting separation. And Jordan Addison is both getting separation all the time. I think it was maybe versus man coverage or something like that, getting separation all the time. And when the ball comes to him being very efficient in doing so, and Sam Darnold seems to be not finding him, but also I looked at this as well. The Vikings are just not completing anywhere near as many passes. And some of that is Kirk games. Kirk games was the, you know, you get behind by 14 points, then Kirk brings you back and then, you know, he's throwing and throwing and throwing and throwing and the receivers love it because their stats are through the roof and they're getting the football all the time. If you get a 17 point lead against the jets in London and it's raining, you're just maybe not forcing the ball and theets have, you know, good secondary. They faced a lot of that.

I think over the next couple of weeks, there's a ton of opportunity for that to open up for someone like Jordan Addison. And I think he just has to remain patient, but I just don't know that this is an offense. It's going to throw 700 passes. I mean, Kirk in 2022, I believe cleared 700 passes. That's not going to be how you do it with Sam Darnold. It depends on their defense, you know, largely. And if the defense is good, that's been the story.

One of the stories of the season so far for Minnesota is Brian Flores and how much trouble he's given opposing quarterbacks. And if you're up 17 points, like you said, you just won't do it. You don't, you don't need to do it. But that, that defense fluctuates and you have an injury, and then just different things sort of materialize, and you're playing in different game environments every week. So, you know, you have Aaron Jones, too. He's been really good for Minnesota.

Hawkinson gets the extra week off. We thought maybe he would play last week, but they took it a little bit slower. They know what he's capable of. I still want to lean into the Vikings here. Who do they play in two weeks? Do you know? That would be the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Let's go. Yeah. Oh, and then Tennessee's after that. Welcome to the AFC South. Welcome to the AFC South. Did you happen to feast your eyes on Caleb Williams versus Jaden Daniels? I am curious about your take on that game because the Hail Mary, and we could spend all day on how people just evaluate things,

but the Hail Mary going wrong then resulted in tons of breakdowns about how the Bears had done everything wrong on the Hail Mary. I've seen that play work five times in my life and it bounced to the guy, but it's like, well, they did this wrong and they should have been sending this many people and they shouldn't have dropped this guy back. And the guy shouldn't have been hyping up the crowd and everything else. Like, I don't know.

It just bounced to the guy. It usually bounces and hits the ground. I don't know. I mean, some of this stuff is so funny about it. Just when something goes wrong in football, someone, someone has to pay for this. Someone did something really wrong. But the game overall was interesting because Daniel's kind of just scrambling immediately and not seeing the field very well uh does that shape anything for you with either player not really I am disappointed that the Bears with the so-called best collection of weapons ever afforded a number one overall pick has just not really gotten there at all.

And the coordinator seems maybe to blame for that, Shane Waldron. Like just a lot of, you know, what you see on Twitter, a lot of what I see is just examples of how what they're running doesn't really make sense. I know that they got Gerald Everett back, which probably shouldn't matter to an offense with DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Roma Dunze, DeAndre Swift. Komet was working out fine, but they had to get

Everett's snap share up. These kind of things that coaches do, Nate Hackett with the Jets, they boggle the mind. So I certainly want to be optimistic, to say the least, for Williams going forward. I mean, he's still so young. But this year we drafted D.J. Moore in the third round,

and that is not happening. And, you know, Keenan Allen and Odunze at lesser prices, not happening. Daniels is the pick of the year in fantasy football, and Hail Mary saves him. Why you don't play the crowd when the game is not over? Because the one time it does bounce, like you just can never do that. And their team, how they compare to each other is kind of funny because Washington doesn't have those names.

They have McLaurin, who's not even on the DJ Moore level, I would say. He's good, but they don't really have anybody that you think of after that. They're throwing the ball to Zach Ertz all day, and Daniels is not running constantly, but his runs have value, and what are they, six and two? So that looks very exciting. Daniels is the play. Daniels and Richardson, back to him, were always the conversation in the off season. Like I know Denny Carter, for one, at Roto World would say, why draft Anthony Richardson when he can draft Jaden Daniels six rounds later and he's the same guy. And I mean, he's been more than that so far this year.

I mean, I think he's a legit MVP candidate and Hail Mary is the kind of narrative stuff that can help you uh help you get there if no one else is obvious so I'm excited for my Daniels teams who he has going around him really just hasn't amounted to much although Ertz is kind of back from the dead and he's playable Chicago wise it's um not not as exciting and they have Houston on Sunday night next week so continuing no offense meant uh with these NFC North AFC South matchups that I think the average fan sees them and asks themselves if these teams have ever played before yeah we were a little surprised at the flexing, but I think the flexing was,

oh, we've got to tell the Sam Darnold story, and then they lost two games in a row, because everyone at 5-0 was talking about him as an MVP. And we have to get Jacksonville off. Oh, yes, yes. We have to get Jacksonville off. Run as far away from Jacksonville as you can. By the way, Adam Schefter just popped up on my phone,

not texting me personally, but tweeting that Shane Steichen said it's Flacco going forward. So this is not a one week and then reassess type of thing. This may be many weeks for Joe Flacco and the end of Anthony Richardson for this year. But about Jaden Daniels, it really sticks in my brain because I spent so much time with the quarterback class leading up to the draft.

When Kweisi Adafo-Mensah said that these guys who are 24 years old, that they've had basically minor league type of seasons in college where they've been able to develop and almost treat it like they were in triple a and to have Daniels come in and look like a pro quarterback right away at 24 and Knicks for the most part, I mean, ups and downs, but, uh, has at times really looked like a pro quarterback as well, not with the upside of Daniels, but it just makes me think about it again, about how much, how Anthony Richardson is the same age as Shadur Sanders. And it's just, and he's been in the league now for two years.

He's just so much younger than someone like Jaded Daniels. And he is prepared. I think it says a lot about coaching though, as well. Obviously he's the one that's running the operation and throwing the ball and making spectacular plays. But this team has been poorly coached for I don't know how long, poorly operated for how long. And Dan Quinn getting everybody to pull in the same direction and looking like an organized NFL football team. I think that it's also the right time for someone like Jaden Daniels to drop into a team like this

when they do have no more Daniel Snyder and they do have Dan Quinn, who's been to a Super Bowl before. With Chicago, I just struggle with the whole coordinator thing because I'm not sure. I don't know if Shane Waldron's doing something wrong or if Caleb Williams can't see the field and just loves to scramble and if that's his default, I honestly don't know. I mean, a lot of the people, this is kind of a thing with people who analyze the game is they like to blame the coach for everything, but I'm not really like, what can I point to? What number do I have? What can I say? Because when I watch Caleb Williams, I go, that guy scrambled in like 1.4 seconds. There's no way that that was supposed to be what he was doing. And that was really my

biggest concern with Williams coming in is how often he just bailed on the play entirely. And USC receivers would be like, okay, all right. Well, I'm only getting it if I go 40 yards down the field and he's scrambling. There are just so many variables. I mean, one, good luck to Minnesota without Derrissaw. One, offensive line injury. The whole Darnold premise is like if he's in a clean pocket with time, he's amazing, and if he's under any pressure, he's a disaster. And that's just like such a fine line.

And so this was, I remember this conversation about CJ Stroud at Ohio State, because he never had any sort of duress, was never under duress in the pocket. But then when he was, it was bad. Like he would bail and just sort of, it would look, it was chaos. So what do you do with that? He's going to go into the NFL on a team that's probably terrible. He's going to be drafted early. And what are the chances that they sort of afford him a clean pocket? Not great. But he sort of proved better than that immediately and really did not have the evidence.

You talk about what's actually happening and what it looks like. There was not much of a sample size on what he was as a player under duress. So, you know, you just have to make your bet. Allen is interesting here. The Bills are thriving. And other teams, like New Orleans, quintessentially, oh, their entire offensive line is injured. Well, that should go well.

And they can't do anything anymore, no matter who the quarterback is. Whereas the Bills, like their guys for two years in a row haven't missed a snap up front. Like Allen is Allen. So it's not so tenuous like a rookie would be. But still, like that's just a huge advantage that whether we're talking about how teams are really doing or how fantasy stats are looking is underappreciated under discussed and can make all the difference so i i know that often we end up on quarterbacks and talking about them through a fantasy lens even though there are wide receivers and running backs who might be putting up more fantasy points

or more vital to people's teams but i but i can, I can't help it because it's always so interesting. And that's why is because you're always trying to parse through what elements of what they're doing are influencing the quarterback and his performance. And with Josh Allen, getting Amari Cooper, not only allows him to throw the ball to Amari Cooper, but it allows the attention to be drawn to him. And that is a very real thing. That's not like a football man. There'll be double team.

And they do. Like they cloud coverages that way. They keep a safety over there. Like they know what Amari Cooper can do. And it wouldn't be surprising if suddenly everybody else starts looking a little bit better. There's a trickle down to that player, which is part of the reason we made fun of it so much that the value of having that guy. But I was watching Allen this week thinking it has the Super Bowl has to happen for this guy at some point. Right. I mean, he's just so good, so unstoppable of a force.

And I questioned it in the offseason. Is this a regression year for Buffalo? Why did I do that? Because the best quarterbacks, the Brady, the Manning, the Elway, maybe Elway a couple of years were not great. But, I mean, almost every single year. Right. He's 70 games over 500 or something for his career.

Like all the, all the great quarterbacks are just a force and that's what they do. And here he is again at the top of this conference. I'm not sold on Kansas city being good enough in the playoffs in their current form. Maybe with Deandre Hopkins, it just seems like it's a collision course for Josh Allen and somebody again. And I I'm starting to feel like maybe it's a collision course for Josh Allen and somebody again. And I'm starting to feel like maybe it's his year. Well, he's certainly a candidate. He's the MVP favorite as we speak. I think it's very much the same conversation when it comes to Lamar Jackson. I think Jackson gets

more blame right or wrong for playoff losses than Allen does so far in their respective careers. Kansas City, except for the fact that they have three Super Bowls in the last five years, they're on a track like the Titans were that year, I guess it's three years ago now, when they ended up the one seed. Nobody thought they were great, but they get a week off and they're playing at home and they still lost like Cincinnati beat them. And then they beat the chiefs the following week as well. So you'd rather be the better team, but it's such an advantage, Matthew.

And they play the bucks at home on the night. They play Denver at home. They go to Buffalo, Kansas city, and then it's Carolina. After that, they've got the then it's Carolina after that. They've got the Raiders again, Denver twice. It's pretty playable. And I feel like maybe the likeliest record for the Chiefs is 13-4, but 13-4 is 6-4 the rest of the year.

Does that sound like what they'll do? Maybe better than that? So if they get to 14 wins, these teams, the Ravens have three losses. They can't lose another game to get to 14 wins. And they've lost to Kansas City. They have to be better than the Chiefs. The Bills get to play the Chiefs. And Houston is sitting at 6-2, and they have the Jets on Thursday night. So long way to go, but Allen and Jackson are both at points in their careers where that's what it's about, if it wasn't already. And very interesting stuff in the AFC. Bengals down, AFC East otherwise in shambles. Nobody else,

Colts included, in these other divisions, looks very competent. So it probably should come down to the same three guys. Uh, if not burrow as well, I don't know about Pittsburgh. Like I still, their schedule gets super hard and they're six and two. I'm not expecting they get to like 11 wins, but they seem to always figure out some way to get in. I think we've reached a point where it's very Manning, Brady, Roethlisberger like with Jackson Jackson, Allen, and Mahomes, and Mahomes is Brady,

but those other two guys, they're going to get theirs, I think, eventually. The thing about Jackson is he is throwing the ball spectacularly. They just got him another weapon, but their defense stinks. It's just not good, and I don't think their offensive line is good either. Henry's running his butt off and you know that may peter out as the season goes along and and he gets a little more worn down and it's Jackson in the pocket throwing the ball which can work in the regular season uh sometimes that hasn't always worked in the playoffs as well if he's if he's not really leaning into that

scrambling game when the defenses are better, that's so interesting to me. But if you're ranking the strength of the teams, I mean, McDermott's defenses, once again, very, very good. That was why he was hired and he's paid off and that side of the ball. And you just can never doubt what Kansas city is going to do. You just can't say, Oh, well, it's, it's, but it's not lucky that you just win seven games in a row, the way that they've done it. It's maybe awkward, but I don't think with that quarterback, it's not lucky that you just win seven games in a row the way that they've done it.

It's maybe awkward, but I don't think with that quarterback that it's luck. Well, if those are the three teams, I don't either. Of those three teams, the Bills or the Ravens, at least at this pace, are going to have to beat two of them just to get to the Super Bowl versus only one if you're the Chiefs. So that's a huge difference. And respectfully toward McDermott, I mean, the stats are incredible. The consistency is incredible with injuries on defense. In the playoffs, they've gotten just absolutely gashed, though. And so single game matchups where it really comes down to a coach's

ability to be different, unpredictable. What are the single moments here where we can basically get through? And the Chiefs, Spagnuolo for the Chiefs, it's not just Reed. Like he's been so good at that. And those key plays, they have what? Their last 10 road games, including playoffs, have all been one score wins. I mean, that's nuts. And they're not shootouts. The chiefs don't, they don't score anymore. So that'll be it.

There'll be a regular season meeting here. Like I said, coming up in Buffalo chiefs and bills, but in the last four years, the bills have lost to Kansas city in the playoffs three times, including at home last year. And that that's been the whole, what this season's all about. You know, we, I I'm in here every day talking about them to a Buffalo audience. And once in a while I'll say like, you realize none of this matters, right? The only things that were going to matter this year were, you know, getting to the playoffs and then it'll be that, or if they don't make it.

And you know, they're on a great the division is over pretty much already so um i've got to find new things to talk about yeah i remember we talked about this about how only january uh and uh maybe february matters uh to buffalo so you just sort of kick around things for a while waiting uh for the playoffs to happen when you're in one of those situations i imagine if you're're the Chiefs media, you're like, do I write an article about the kicker? Well, not the kicker there. Maybe the, I don't know, the third string tackle

who plays the flute or something. I mean, you just wait around until you get to the playoffs. That's probably how it was for the Buffalo Riders in the 90s. Let's just, you know's say to pace yourselves guys pace yourselves I mean you and I are both cut from the same kind of cloth where that's not always better you know we want to

we want to have the content oh I know for sure yeah I look at Buffalo and my life in radio here the last five years as win-win because if they win everybody's happy and if they don't all right now i can it's a more interesting show right now i have something to break down uh yeah i i guess i was thinking about um the afc as it's kind of been figured out already and i can't wait for the playoffs and the nfc i can't wait to see how this all sorts itself out because if the Vikings end up with 12 wins,

still I 13, I wouldn't even be shocked based on their schedule. But if they end up with eight, like it could happen. There's a wide range of things that could happen to this Vikings team, the Packers with the quarterback injury, the 49ers there's they're still hanging around. The Rams all of a sudden are interesting with after that I mean Dallas could turn around but they get players back I mean it's just it's so interesting in that race the regular season whereas the AFC were just like all right let's uh let's you know simulate to the end uh Thursday night why don't you just fly here and stab my face with a fork rather than watching Aaron Rodgers

play on national TV again you know what I love to watch national TV games the guy who hates playing that's what I really really enjoy the close-ups of why did why did someone run a wrong route on me again I gotta tell you I usually just watch and whatever happens we'll break it down when New England had the ball drive and I was like, come on, Jacoby Brissett. Come on, buddy. I will buy your jersey if you score a touchdown right here. That was enjoyable. That was enjoyable football.

So what do we got for higher lowers of Houston and the Jets? Well, first of all, the Jets are favored at home tomorrow night by two. What? Yeah, when it's like that, I always want to sort of defer to it, you know? So I would be on the Jets in this game being favored. The Jets threw eight games, minus 20 point differential at two and six. Houston at six and2 is plus 9. These teams have kind of by that statistic at least been almost the same this year.

And now the Texans lose Diggs, and they're already without Collins. And they don't really want to throw the ball anyway. So for building a pick-em on underdog, I'm starting there. Like the Jets are my pick in this game. How do they do it? So since the coordinator change, although this went back the other way last week, I don't really know why, but they went from an interesting sort of split in the backfield between Brees Hall and Braylon Allen to just Brees Hall. Again, last week, Allen, I think he even scored. He got in the mix a little

bit more. So you can't, I don't. So I certainly don't know what their intentions are, but I'm going higher to start on Brees Hall, 66.5 rushing yards. If the Jets are the play in this game, then one of the best running backs in the league is going to clear 66.5 rushing yards on a Thursday night in a winning game script like that. I'm starting there. So it's time for Devontae Adams to score. rushing yards on a Thursday night in a winning game script like that. I'm starting there. Okay. So it's time for Devontae Adams to score.

They did this. If they have a good night, Adams, or rather, Rogers, if they're first and goal at the three, will throw the ball to Adams on four straight plays, if that's what it takes. So I'm not going into a Brees Hall touchdown. I want a Devontae Adams touchdown. So that's two.

You and I, the whole reason for the Pickham life that we live, Tyler Conklin. Yes. Yes. Let's go. Conk daddy. It's two and a half receptions. Okay. That's happening.

Okay. Lazard probably out again. Give me three catches for Tyler Conk happening. Okay. Lazard probably out again. Give me three catches for Tyler Conklin. Higher. And then you got to pick somebody on the other side. And I'm just going to go lower on Stroud's passing yards. Okay. This is where I think I'm most vulnerable because if the Jets do sort of pull away in this game,

then it's garbage time and then I could get stuck. I guess I'm calling it now, preparing to get stuck on Stroud, clearing 225.5 passing yards in the fourth quarter. It's not a high number, really, either, but that's a run-first team. So I've got a game where the Jets are the side. Houston wants to run the ball every week. They're without digs. They're trying to figure out what their passing game is.

And they went to the Jets last year and got demolished. And that's, of course, without Rodgers. And everybody was in love with Stroud and Houston last year. But they lost that game like by 20 or something, 31-12 maybe, some gross in the rain, some score like that. I don't know the weather for this game. I do know it's 74 in western New York today and tomorrow's Halloween.

But you can't go over on the temperature. So we're going, or higher I should say. We're going higher. I think I got away with that because that was not football related. I'm hoping. Higher on Brees Hall rushing, higher on Tyler Conklin receptions, higher on.5 conflin receptions higher on 0.5 rush or receiving touchdowns on adams an end around works and then lower on stroud passing yards

okay uh and just a reminder that you all can play along at underdog fantasy by using the promo code purple which many of you have and i greatly appreciate that uh so i don't know if robert woods actually plays a lot for this team i think he has five catches on the year but to score a touchdown you get odds here of uh five times your money if he scores a touchdown red zone they have no other receivers left as far as my random play, which has kind of been hit or miss with these guys. I almost want to go with, they're going to throw the ball to Robert Woods and he may have a chance to score a touchdown. It's a long shot, but that's what that pick always is. I also think that it's worth noting in terms of your Stroud, the Jets have great corners.

I mean, they really made life difficult on Justin Jefferson. Very, very few people actually do that. So they have a great defense. That defense for the last three years could have taken them anywhere they wanted to go, but instead they fiddled around with Zach Wilson, who will show up three years from now as a good starting quarterback somewhere, and then Aaron Rodgers. I remember the Jets' corners mocking Jefferson in that game, like doing this all the time because after the incomplete pass,

Jefferson would be like, where's the flag? I don't know what the odds are because I didn't look at that, but I like Mechie. Oh, Mechie. You think that's a better one than Woods? Probably, right? I think Mechie. Oh, Mechie. You think that's a better one than Woods? Probably, right? I think Mechie comes in over Woods. I mean, Woods is late stage here.

They also have, is it Hutchinson? Yes, Xavier Hutchinson, yeah. Named Hutchinson. He's played in Collins' absence, but nothing has happened there. So I would put Mechie on top. And there's Schultz, too. I looked at Schultz for this. i think it was four and a half catches and in my mind i've just got like sort of a jet game script so i didn't get there but that's the kind of the tight end could have one of these

tight end games if it's like that where he goes like eight for 39 one of these tight end games come on kyle pitts owners finally welcome to the party, everybody, after last week. Nope. I mean, that's right. They're big fluke plays. I don't know. I still – I'm one of those people. I have tons of Kyle Pitts from Dynasty League since he got drafted.

I was Pitts over Jamar Chase in those rookie drafts when that happened. But he just does not look very good athletically, I think. And they're just not the so-called easy button plays where, you know, you can really rely on that. Like, you know, maybe Andrews has been in his career or certainly George Kittle is different. Certainly these guys, the Pitts plays in Tampa were like a 45-yard touchdown and then another one where he looked like he fumbled, uh, but they gave it to him. So, you know, you can be optimistic he's alive, but

like I'm starting Ferguson over him this week for Dallas against Atlanta, same game. And, um, some of those Engram for sure, uh, with Jacksonville injuries and Joku, I think for sure this week, all would start for me over Pitts. All right. Well, a lot going on in the National Football League. So thank you, Roger Goodell, for providing that for us. And we will talk again next week after the Vikings have played the Colts and we have a bunch of new developments. Thank you, Mike Shope, the Deep End Fantasy Football Podcast.

And we'll catch you all very soon. off any phone plus 400 off any tablet. Amazing, right? Yeah, but my family is so excited about their new devices that they keep texting me during the show. They're all about us days deals like $1,200 off any phone and four plus $400 off any tablet. Terms apply. Visit uscellular.com for details. Returning to the show, this is almost an emergency fashion. Cody Alexander, match quarters, now head of football operation at Field Vision, occasionally works with Minnesota Vikings cornerbacks, helping them understand the X's and O's better, and has been our liaison to understanding football.

Cody, great to have you back on the show. We bring you on when things are good and we bring you on when things are bad. So the nation needs to understand what has happened to the Vikings defense. So I appreciate you coming back on the show, man. How are you? Doing great. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, absolutely. So let's get into it.

The word of the week or last two weeks has been blueprint. Do you believe that the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams have discovered the blueprint for the Minnesota Vikings defense, which was so great over the first five weeks? Well, I think that they've done a little bit different protections in kind of the run game, the setup. They've been targeting a lot more the Grenard with the running back side. It's counterintuitive to get five out or on early downs, meaning that the running back is also going to go out into a pass on early downs against such a pressure-heavy team like the Vikings.

But what they're doing is instead of going to Van Ginkle's side, they're actually targeting the blitz side or Grenard's side, which is typically where that's going to be on the weak side. Now, weak means passing strength, away from the passing strength. So teams have started to do that. They've started to slide their protections towards Grenard, which is typically where you're getting those B gap pressures that were basically hitting everybody early on. So I think what you

see is the, to me, what I was worried about with the Lions. And then again, with the Rams is that you put on tape, essentially your greatest hits against the Shanahan offense. Now Ben Johnson is not from the Shanahan tree, but it's like looking in a mirror. They do some different things, but it's pretty much the same in terms of motion, personnel packages. And then here you have Sean McVay, who we know when he has both of his top receivers, he has a running back who can actually run the ball. You now are looking at a, just an absolute monster and giving him then, Hey, I've got four weeks of a game plan on how to attack you. So that was what my big worry was on a short week that knowing that McVay doesn't have to work as hard as the Vikings did in that game.

Yeah, for sure. Now, a couple of things kept cropping up between both of the games, and one of them was just the middle of the field. Now, they're missing Blake Cashman over those last two games. Not sure if he's going to be back this week, but within the next couple weeks, he will definitely return. I thought that that was the biggest factor for what Detroit and Los Angeles were able to take advantage of because he covers a lot of ground. He often succeeds on his blitzes, but also he's doing a lot of the stuff at the line of scrimmage, making changes, reading the

offense. Can you explain what that role is and why it would be missed so much when Blake Cashman is out? Yeah. So we're actually, it's interesting. The other defense it's probably closely related in terms of structure and what they're trying to do to the Vikings is actually the Buccaneers and the Buccaneers have had some linebacker issues. And then we're seeing like the two games against Atlanta, Kyle Pitts goes off. Like Kyle Pitts actually is a football player where he's finally showing up. But again, you give Kirk Cousins an opportunity to throw right in front of his face. He's going to be one of the more accurate quarterbacks in the NFL. We know that.

And so what how does that translate back to what the Vikings are doing? Well, you are running a lot of five man pressures, meaning that you don't have that seventh man in the protect in coverage. That guy tends to be that middle hole player. And so there is a void. So if you don't hit on that pressure, that void is there. And what have the Lions and the Rams been able to take advantage of? Digs and over routes right there in that middle. They're being able to hold, let that receiver get in between the linebacker and the safety, and then they're hitting that guy right in the middle. And really just the sweet spot of the safety, and then they're hitting that guy right in the middle. And really just the sweet spot of the defense, especially when you're playing split field coverage behind five man pressures. Right. And with Ivan Pace Jr., it seemed like they almost

turned him into just a fifth defensive lineman with the amount that he was pressuring and asked Josh Metellus to cover the middle of the field. And I just don't think that scared either team. It seemed like the Lions were perfectly fine with running, you know, in routes right behind Josh Metellus and just kind of throwing it over him. I think he's a really good player, but it's not the same as the type of ground that Blake Cashman covers.

And we see the recklessness that Blake Cashman plays with in a really good way, like diving and deflecting passes. I think he's also from that spot, really good at reading route combinations behind him. And there were plays where I thought Metellus maybe didn't get enough depth, didn't understand kind of where that guy was going to be. And that's something that Cashman would have done. The other thing too is on the outsides, both teams took advantage of swing passes, bubble screens, things like that.

Is there a solution to that from what we saw? Because Cooper Cup was getting the ball that way, Puka Nakua, Jameer Gibbs, and they ripped off some pretty big gains by just throwing it to the flat and letting those guys run. Yeah, and so what ends up happening is what these offenses, especially the Lions and the Rams did, is they got in base sets, just a set that you would draw up on the whiteboard if you were talking ball, right? Like there's nothing fancy about it. They just get in a regular set.

It's soft coverage and they have taken advantage of the two starting corners, unwillingness to be physical and tackle and that's essentially once the perimeter screens last year was kind of the answer early for the all-out blitzes that we saw but you had corners that were willing to get into get down and get in there you know the safeties were also triggering fast and with these five-man pressures instead of like the all-out stuff they're not anchored anymore. So they're playing a little bit more passive in coverage, so they're going to be a little less likely to just trigger hard down on it

because there's not an extra man that's going to be hitting that blitz. So the quarterback has to get it out. So what's happening is these perimeter screens, as teams have kind of figured out, hey, we can block these corners, and then we just have to win the one-on-one versus the safety. And so I think that that's really where we are. You know, you go and you look. The perimeter screens have really hurt them.

The access throws, I thought the Rams did a really good job of just having Puka Nakua, who, by the way, is a large – I mean, he's not small. He's 6'2", 217. Cooper Cup is around 6'1", 205, 210. These are not tiny receivers. And so they're just catching the ball. There's a tackle coming out that the corner has to deal with. And they're doing some sort of motion away from it to get the coverage rotation the other way. And so then they're just throwing it back to an access throw,

because let's be honest, the Vikings don't press and they don't play man coverage. And so then they're just throwing it back to an access throw, because let's be honest, the Vikings don't press and they don't play man coverage. And so teams have kind of figured that out. And how do you talk? How do you attack soft zone? You throw those free access throws to your bigger receivers. Let them be a running back. Right, right. And it was very clear that Puka Nakula was at least close enough to 100% health to run

over a bunch of Vikings defensive backs. As we go through the different things that have kind of worked here, I also thought that playing with some tempo worked for both teams. Getting up to the line of scrimmage quick, not allowing the Vikings to make any real changes there, and then just running their plays pretty quickly. Do the Vikings have to deceive the opposing team in order to succeed? Because that's what I started to think over these last two games. I also thought, as you mentioned, Puka Nakua, that personnel matters here. Both these teams have great receivers and great weapons. I

mean, Jameer Gibbs is almost the wide receiver. Amin Ross St. Brown is as good as it gets for yards after catch playing out of the slot, and then Nakua and Cooper Cup, if they're healthy the rest of the year, I wouldn't be surprised if the Rams make the playoffs. Most teams can't do that to them, but I still think that the tempo thing is something that they can do because the Vikings can't get kind of the last check or the last change and switch things up

after they've read how the protection is getting changed. If the opposing team is coming right to the line of scrimmage and then just running their play within the first 10 seconds of the clock. Well, it's just become too predictable, kind of like what we saw last year of, OK, we know we're going to get the all up on first down. If we win that and we get you in late down, we're going to drop eight and play Tampa two. And we're just, the only difference is we're going to disguise the coverage is going to be some weird rotation every week. And then we're going to throw in maybe a cover three in there just to,

to keep you on your toes. I think that that's where we've gotten. And that's the problem with success is that a lot of times you get survival bias within a staff. And I'm not saying that, and I think they do a good job of trying to be different, trying to do some different things. But I think in these past two weeks, especially on a short week, you didn't have time to really adjust. The Lions are very physical. There's a real, there is a real thing called the Detroit hangover. But I do think that there are things that they can do in self-scouting and

just changing the way that they're doing some certain things. They have started to run a little bit more man coverage on some third and mediums where they want to play some tight coverage. It just hasn't necessarily panned out successfully, but they are trying to do some different things. You know, one of the problems that they've had before is that they always hit that weak side B gap with pressure and being able to then not necessarily always do that, have a strong side rotation to it or a blitz off of that, trying to maybe change up some of the coverage looks off of it.

Those are going to be things that are going to be critical going forward. So I would be, I would be shocked if after the bye week that we don't have a little bit of change, even if it's just a shuffling of who's playing or just some sort of an add on to the plays that we're already seeing. But great point about tempo. You can't, when you can't get the last check, you've got to have a menu. You can't just go back to the things that you've always been doing. Well, and the, that was the, really the problem that you mentioned with the adjustments that they're going to be able to make with a Thursday night game.

You can't do that. And I think that was a very clear advantage where Sean McVay on his side could say, oh, I have a lot of that stuff. Let's just do this stuff. We already have that because the Lions and the Rams do some similar things. But the Vikings could not say, oh, actually, we're going to have to make some big adjustment. I think they had maybe one practice in between Thursdays.

And if the game had been on a Sunday, maybe it would have been a little different. I still think some of these weaknesses, and that's what I want to parse through with you, is solutions and also which one of them are unsolvable with the current personnel? Because it's a big discussion here. How much should they try to go out in the trade market and make some sort of addition? So do you think that without the addition of different players, that the issues that they had the last two weeks, how many of them are fixable or adjustable for a defensive coordinator?

Well, the one that's fixable is you probably could go out and get a corner. And now I know if you're sitting there and you're like, wait a second, we went out and we got Gilmore, we went out and we got Shaquille Griffin. The problem that we're finding right now is that they can't play man coverage, which these zone pressures are great when they're hitting because you have vision, you're getting the ball thrown low in the zone, meaning that it's getting thrown towards the line of scrimmage, and then you're attacking it.

The problem that we're finding right now is that teams have kind of figured out the protection scheme part of it. They kind of have an idea that it's probably going to be Ivan Pace or Van Ginkle. It's kind of the old what Quinn was doing with Micah Parsons last year, like, hey, you want to play off-ball linebacker? Sure, we'll put you in off-ball, but then we're going to put you through the B-gap. And then that's what we get with kind of Van Ginkle. That was the adjustment in the Rams game was, well, we'll just play Van Ginkle off-ball as kind of an off-ball linebacker because we only have pace.

And then we're just going to blitz him. So that was kind of the adjustment. I think that comes with health with the linebacker. But in terms of what can I do right now, probably go and get a corner so that you can start playing a little bit more man coverage. That is something that Griffin kind of was good at, at least when he was with the Panthers.

He's been okay, I think, in man coverage. Struggles a little bit in these zone coverages. Sometimes his eye, he likes that eye candy low in the zone, doesn't necessarily sink. But that would be one I can fix. Now, one you can't fix is interior pass rush. You're going to have to wait till free agency for that, or you're going to have to draft somebody. Those guys are not being traded. Those guys are, those are legacy guys. You get an alien inside, you don't let them, if you get two of them, you just pay them and you figure it out. You know, those are guys that you don't get them. If you get two of them, you just pay them and you figure it out.

Those are guys that you don't get rid of. So that's one you can fix and one you can't fix right now. Right. No, you're exactly right. And every Viking fan in the world wants Dexter Lawrence or Jeffrey Simmons. And that's like, hey, if they're available, then absolutely you spend that first round pick. But you're right I mean when you go through the league's guys at that spot the Kenny Clark the Grady Jarrett they just they're just with their teams for their whole life because they're so hard to find and also the Vikings have

been struggling to find that guy for the last five years since Sheldon Richardson left that they have not had someone who can create that interior pressure. I also think that there is a form of defensive tackle who kind of only does that. Like that's his job. He comes in and he just rushes up the middle. The Vikings don't really have it. They kind of looked for Jerry Tillery to maybe add some of that as a cheap free agent addition. And I actually think he's been okay yeah but there's no they used to have tom johnson he was the guy who came in and i would talk about him all the time and fans would kind of make fun of me for how much i talked about him it's like this guy's hard to find this rotational like undersized gets after the quarterback type of player and it's the freak

aliens are impossible to get which may be an argument for trying to keep their first round pick rather than trading it at the deadline because you want to try to draft those defensive tackles. And I think it was our friend, Brad Spielberger, formerly of PFF, who pointed out that all of the top guys who are paid at defensive tackle are all first or second round draft picks. So normally, yes, you have to get those guys. As far as trading for a corner though I mean corner is not a position that people are just giving away either do you have an idea do you have a thought an option that they could potentially go out and bring somebody in because I agree with you and I think still losing Makai Blackman in the offseason to the injury is

something that didn't really crop up right away, but is now starting to show its face. Yeah, I think there's two names that you could probably look at and two teams that might be willing to just start going on a fire sale. And that's the Browns and the Jets. I think you got to ask maybe for Denzel Ward, maybe even Newsom, somebody like that to come over. Ward plays outside, so that's probably who you want to try and see if you can't get. I do think in another team, the Jets, both of these teams also have a plethora of corners that they could move on. So even though they move away from Ward, you have a guy behind him that can probably play

that they don't feel like we're going to sink even lower. Now, they're in huge trouble, just cap situations. So they may just try and get rid of everybody that has money and just kind of eat it for next year. Now the jets have really Eccles is the guy. Now the, the pipe dream would be to get DJ Reed, uh, because they do have Eccles behind him, but Eccles has really come on this year. It's a system that's very similar to what I think the Vikings want to run, which is quarters with cover one as a change up. Now, if you're sitting here and you're like, yeah, the Vikings don't run cover one. I think they want to, they just can't right now. And I think

that that's kind of one of those things that if you can get at least one guy that can be that travel guy, lockdown guy, and then you have these savvy safeties that can kind of either play a double or they can play in the middle of the field especially like Harrison Smith just kind of sit there as a robber let Bynum kind of work as a post safety and then you can kind of mitigate a lot of the issues off of that so those are two guys who I would be right now banging on the door to say hey what can we do because you know you need a premium corner for the Vikings. You know, you can't get a premium interior defensive lineman. So that would be the avenue that I would go for a quick fix to try and like, hold on to this, this playoff ride. I enjoy watching DJ Reed so much. I will drive to New York to pick him up or New Jersey and drive him back to

Minnesota when he played against the Vikings, going back and watching that on tape, one of the most physical and instinctual corners that you're ever going to find. I don't, I don't even know what the jets are doing because their general manager has to be fired after this year. So is he going to say, Oh yeah, let me sell off parts and plan for the future. Well, that man might not have a future. I think Cleveland actually might think that after beating Baltimore and we saw the Vikings in that same position a couple of years ago, not sell things off because they were like, Oh, we got a big win and now we're going to try to chase the playoffs. But Denzel Ward would be a good option there too. It's even the, even if you went a notch down from

those guys and looked for someone who was just a player that they could rotate in for a fifth round draft pick because their trust for a Caleb Evans is clearly zero. They brought in Fabian Morrow, who's been around for a long time, but don't seem to want to play him either. And he didn't look very good in training camp. There's just nobody behind these guys. And I think when you're asking older corners, cause Shaq Griffin is an older corner, he's a bigger corner. And the same thing with Stephon Gilmore. When you're asking the play every single snap of every single game, eventually they're going to get worn down.

I think that's what happened last year with a lot of the players on defense. I think that's what's happening this year. But I also, Cody, don't want to act like the sky has fallen on this defense. They played, if you were to do an all offensive coordinator draft, you're probably picking Ben Johnson and Sean McVay in the top three. So what should our concern level be here as they go forward to play Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tennessee, teams that do not have the best of the best for quarterbacks and coordinators. Yeah, I think if we look back in a month, let's say we're at the end of November, we look back in the month and we've gone two and two or one of that three.

I mean, I think that we need to say, OK, something's obviously not working. This is two years in a row. There is going to be a regression. I think people forget they don't want to look, are the best coaches always in the NFL? No. But I do think that there's a reason why when you are a professional at what you do in a game where everybody, the millions and millions, billions of dollars are on the line, the stress level, not only that, but like the, you know, genius of desperation to steal from my friend, Doug Farrar, uh, you figure it out quick. Um, and I think Andy Schatz who does, um, DVOA, he's the one that kind of invented DVOA. He had a tweet the other day I thought

was real interesting. He said teams that start as hot as the Vikings do typically regress. Uh, so at some point teams were going to get it figured out. And when you play that many quality offensive coordinators in a row, those guys all they may not talk during the year, but they all are paying attention to each other. That's a whole family that you just went down the gauntlet with and you ended with the probably the best two in that at the end of that gauntlet. So I think if you go three and one in the next four games, we're fine. The four and O is even a possibility there as well. I think that you start going two and two, one and three, I think that you might need to start reevaluating kind of what are we doing on defense? It's getting figured

out early in the season, like or midpoint of the season. And here we are fighting for the playoffs instead of holding that playoff spot throughout the whole entire year. Yeah, I think that's a very good litmus test these next couple of weeks because you should just get back to being yourself, especially with a game on Sunday Night Football at US Bank Stadium. I am curious about the other parts, some of the other parts of personnel that I want to ask you about. And one of them is the edge rushers and what they've done there with Andrew Van Ginkle, but also not using Dallas Turner. I'm surprised that Patrick Jones is on the field a lot more than Dallas Turner. And part of the explanation

for why Dallas Turner hasn't played more has been that he's a rookie and he's still trying to learn what they're doing. Do you think that that's it? I mean, is it complicated for edge rushers as well? Because I mean, I know it is for linebackers. I know it is for corners and safeties, but what about that position? I really think that it's more or less. Flores has shown pretty much the past several years his affinity for one not subbing. He's kind of an all 11 defensive coach. There are a little bit maybe you bring in. I know Griffin has earned some playing time and when they want to move Murphy inside with a nickel. Metellus obviously is not playing a lot of deep safety, but he is playing a lot of that big nickel

or kind of that money backer position when they go, kind of he lines up with pace. That's part of Cashman being hurt. But you can kind of tell there's about 12 to 13 guys that he really wants to play, and that's typically who he plays. I think that that's the fine line. In coaching, you have to have kind of that fine line of when do you play a young player and then when is that player just lost? I guarantee you there are certain things that Turner can do.

We saw that early in the season. I mean, he can rush the passer. I would also argue, too, that he came from one of the most complex systems, probably more complex than most NFL systems, from too, that he came from one of the most complex systems, probably more complex than most NFL systems from Alabama. And he moved around. They didn't just keep him as like rush end and just kind of say he wasn't like a doll, right? Like go get the quarterback guy. Like that wasn't what he did. Like he moved around. I will say this with him, against Georgia, the one concern I had with him is that, you know,

they found ways to kind of get him off the ball or off the field when they went 12 personnel, you know, fitting the run from an edge. So maybe that's the deal. He's not playing on early downs. And, again, Flores isn't a big package guy. They're doing different personnel groupings, but it's not like each week you kind of have a flavor of the week. We're going to have like a,

a cheetah package where we get all our fast guys on the field and we're going to go blitz the, we're going to go just blitz the quarterback on third down. In fact, they have some of the lowest blitz rates on third down. So I think that you have to find as a coach, especially after the bi-week when you've kind of put hit pause let's get let's get going you've got to sit back and you've got to look and say okay

where are opportunities for us to get him on the field to have a little bit of success because success is going to breed that involvement that growth that's what's going to happen so I think to me it's that's if there's one knock on Flores, it's probably that he leans probably too much into the veterans and not getting these young guys a little bit more playing time. Even in situations where, you know, maybe we don't want to because the game's close. But there have been plenty of times opportunities at the beginning of the year to get some of these guys some reps. And like I think you mentioned it, like his reps have slowly kind of dwindled to where he's not really playing that much now but that would be what I would look for kind of going forward you got to find ways to get these guys on the field yeah I think that most of the time I've been

willing to be patient there and he was getting something like 15 to 20 snaps early in the season but in this last game Patrick Jones is playing 40 snaps and gets zero pressures and Dallas Turner plays three snaps and that just doesn't compute for me and it's hard to critique Brian Flores because he's had so much success the defense is still extremely good I think an expected points added their third in the NFL. So it's like, well, you know, what's going on in practice. You know, better what Dallas Turner knows than I do, but the gap of 46 snaps for a player who's largely been ineffective during his career outside of a hot run of a couple of sacks early in the season versus somebody with Dallas Turner's quickness

and ability to get after the passer. And the few snaps you have seen the acceleration from him, the athleticism from him. But I think that part of it is he gets washed out easily. So I'm thinking about like a Yannick Ngakwe, how he would get 10 sacks, but his pressure rate wouldn't be that high. Where if it doesn't work, he's kind of a non-factor. It's not like a push thethe-pocket type of guy. And there were a couple plays in the Lions game

where they tried to put him at linebacker, and the guard got out to him, and it was just kind of over. That's a thing where he needs to get bigger. He needs way more experience. He's one of the youngest players in the entire league, which matters. But I also think third down, he should be in every single time. I just don't know any reason why he wouldn't be on the field there. Yeah.

And I agree. I think that that's kind of the thing that again, if there, if there's one knock on Forbes is probably that the young guys don't play enough. You've got to, and I think when you think about it, you only have a 53 man roster.

There's only like not even 50 of them even get to like get to suit out. So it's just, you have very limited guys. If you you're going to travel them you should try and you should try and find a way especially if they're going to be a part of the organization going forward where you have a plan for them I mean they moved off Andrew Booth so I mean it's not like you know it's not like they're not they haven't shown a willingness to if a guy's done and he's not going to play let's not waste let's not waste any more time. They've shown that. So it just, to me, would be, you know, that would be something I think that,

like you said, find ways to get some of these guys, especially a first-round draft pick that you know you've already sunk some money into. Let's find a way to get them on the field. Right. I think patience also from fans, knowing that Flores is not someone to throw a guy right out there. And at that edge rusher spot in the NFL, there's so many guys who had three or four sacks their first year and every one of their fan bases went, did we spend too much of a draft pick on

Khalil Mack who had four sacks in his first season? Trey Hendrickson, I think had two and was a very high draft pick. And then those guys eventually emerged and became very good. One other position I want to ask you about is the safety spot. They've got a decision to make about extending Cam Bynum and also Harrison Smith coming back this year and Flores playing him every single snap, which is kind of, I'm to the age where the hairline is moving back, but it's making it move back even more with my worry about playing players too much because we've seen them just get tired out over the season. I wonder if you think that's sort of two-part question, if they should

try to extend Cam Bynum or if that's a position in this defense that you can easily replace and just where Harrison Smith stands in this defense that you can easily replace and just where Harrison Smith stands in this defense right now. Yeah, I think, I think with the Bynum thing, I think you probably do extend them. It's in, unless you have a plan or unless you feel like somebody's going to come open and free agency, we did have a weird free agency where some of these older guys got released. But it's very rare unless you know, for the, like the Packers, for instance, it's very rare to get an Xavier McKinney at 25 release, but the Giants have shown that if they don't pay safeties, their second contract, Julian loves another one who's having a really good year for

another team that's was originally drafted by the Giants. So, you know, guys like that, or a guy, a guy like Jesse Bates, who the Bengals, I guarantee you, are wishing that they would have kept him. Those guys are rare. And when they do come available, you probably need to go and spend the capital on them for that. But I think buying him is more than serviceable. He's done a good job with him. I know that there's been some busts over the past couple of years.

But finding a quality guy at that position, you're not going to overpay for him. I know that there's been some busts over the past couple of years, but finding a quality guy at that position, you're not going to overpay for him. And so too, are you going to draft another guy? I know they like the Theo Jackson guy, but again, he's not playing as much as that you probably would like because Smith, I mean, like you said, they're just kind of letting these older guys really just ride it out. Like, hey, we're just going to let you play. And if you get a bum knee, bum ankle, like bum hip, we'll figure it out. Like, we'll just go to the next man up. But, you know, that's the thing probably next year. If I'm looking at this team, we got to find a corner.

We got to find an interior defensive lineman, at least a quick three, somebody that can rush the passer. I think you have two guys that are – Harrison Phillips is just – he's the prototypical nose. I mean, that's who you want at nose. I mean, he's going to plug it. He's a workhorse. He's great against the run.

He's just kind of a menace that offensive linemen don't want. They have to double team him. But you have to find a quick three. You've got to find a corner. And then you need to have some sort of a stopgap with Harrison Smith probably not coming back next year. That is three technique defensive tackle. Yes.

Football. Yes. Yeah, I agree with you on Bynum. I think he's been very good the last two years. I just, you mentioned Theo Jackson. He had a great training camp. He played well in fill in duty for them last year,

a high IQ player. Everybody thinks can play. And he has, I think 20 snaps this year. I just, that's where I need to see floors, make some adjustments. I think maybe just as big as any of the schematic stuff is get Theo Jackson on the field, get another cornerback that they can trust

on the field to give a break to Stefan Gilmore. And maybe that helps a lot. What should I know about the Indianapolis Colts defense as the Vikings get prepared to play them? Probably the most simplest defense you're going to see. I mean, Gus Bradley's notorious for being a 4-3, cover-3 guy. He has run a little bit more cover-2 this year, which is basically a Tampa, which on a whiteboard, it looks just like cover-3. It's just a little different. You have hard corners instead of soft corners.

But they really like their front line. They get in pressure. But to me, it's going to be a lot of the same things their corners have played relatively well when they do play man they don't play man very much so you're going to see a lot of cover three um you're going to see a lot of four-man rush not a lot of pressures if it is third and long or a third day he wants to get after you might see some six-man pressures but not pressure heavy nothing fancy they just go out and they play football. Yeah, and I saw DeForest Buckner is back, which is very disturbing,

I think, for the Minnesota Vikings because the last time he played against the Vikings, he picked up a man who weighed 320 pounds and threw him at Kirk Cousins back in 2020. That was one of those the whole internet sees you get run over by a defensive tackle. That was the last time. Not necessarily ideal for the Vikings, who are now missing their left tackle as well and scrambling a little bit on the defensive line. So you and the Field Vision Project are new this year.

So people probably who have listened to the show for a long time know about Match Quarters, your sub stack, matchquarters.com. Extremely in-depth defensive analysis that I love. But tell everybody about Field Vision. Yeah, so Field Vision is a company that we started this off season. It's predictive analytics company. So we're trying to do some machine learning

and predictive kind of looking at the NFL. Obviously, you can use it for betting or fantasy kind of working through that model through this year. And then it's completely free. So if you look up Field Vision on your phone, you can download the app and take a look at it. But what we also are is a data company and being able to create some really cool visuals for data. So if you're a data head or a stats nerd, and not just like how many passing yards do they have, we also have advanced analytics like EPA, we came up with a proprietary rating system that we think is even better than PFS, because it actually is about what the player is doing when they're targeted, or when they're actually in the game. And then you going against, obviously, historical data and giving them an actual grade for what that game was.

And then obviously that season and building off of that, because we've used, again, machine learning to find out what actually like an interception is actually worth and where it's worth on the field. And we can actually do that through AI and machine learning. So it's really cool. Obviously, like people think of the betting and the fantasy on the front end, but we are also a data company doing some really, really cool things. So make sure to check that out. And again, it's completely free.

Just go to Field Vision on your phone and download the app. Yeah, I have toyed around with it quite a bit. A lot of interesting data there. Not that there would be any nerds who listen to this show or do the show. Not here. But, no, very, very cool project,

and I've enjoyed following the development of that throughout this offseason and now seeing it in place this season. So, Cody Alexander, match quarters. I appreciate this. This took us inside the game of what is going on with the Vikings defense, and maybe bottom line is it's not going to be perfect. And you'll probably have to score some points to win some football games someday. But it's also not as bad as it just looked.

Right. Yeah. A hundred percent. It's never as bad. It's never as good as you think. Exactly. Thanks again, Cody.

Great to catch up with you, man. I appreciate it. Thank you.