Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Comparing Kirk Cousins to the Vikings upcoming QB schedule (Fans Only pod)

Episode Date: April 2, 2022

Matthew Coller takes questions from Minnesota Vikings fans -- everything from why the Vikings haven't leaned more into the offensive side of things this year to comparing Kirk Cousins to every quarterback the Vikings are going to face on their schedule this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and this is our second edition of fans only where I read fan questions sent to me on Twitter. And if you want to email them as well, you can most certainly do that. If you go to purpleinsider.com, you can email me there and we go through fan questions, break them down. Sometimes I will be looking up stuff while we're talking. I try not to read the questions too much first so I could just give instant reactions. And somebody on Twitter brought up maybe the idea of creating a fan line where you can call and leave messages and then we can put them in the podcast and react to them.

And so I'll look into that. Maybe that's a good idea. So I have my Diet Dr. Pepper. Here we go. And got to open it before we can get started. And now we can begin. So we'll dive right into some of these and we'll continue to have all the great guests that we usually have, Chris Trapasso and everybody else, Courtney Cronin, you know, going forward, Sam Ekstrom, but this is just consider it like fun bonus content to answer a lot of the questions that I get because I open my mentions every morning and I'll have a lot of great questions from Vikings fans.

And I figured it would be good to share them with all of you. And honestly, I should have been doing this earlier to tell you the truth, probably. So it took me this long to think of it. So fans only let's go. All right. And I need to get Manny Hill working on a,

an intro for you guys. All right. This comes from Nick uh, Nick from Blaine. This question as of right now, PFF has the Vikings win total at nine, which you go over under or just right. So my understanding is that, uh, the Vegas line is nine. And I think PFF actually has them in their simulations at 8.3, uh, or somewhere in that ballpark of wins for 2022. But I mean, doesn't that sound right to everybody else? I mean, it sounds right to me is somewhere right in that ballpark of eight or nine wins. And I think that's one of the hardest parts about this entire off season is that as we're

trying to figure out, like, how do they get better or how do they get better long-term? Could they take a bet, a step back short-term, all those things that the meter for where we expect them to be at the end of next season, hasn't really moved an inch from where you would have put it at this time last year. I think I picked them for 10 wins when the schedule came out last year. And, you know, as the season went along, as there were some injuries, the COVID stuff came up and all that, we kind of adapted. And I remember early in last season doing a podcast with Dave Campbell from the Associated Press and said, all right, Dave, well, how's the season going to go?

And he said, it's either eight or nine wins. I don't know which one. And he was exactly right. That's how it feels right now. If you were a gambler and you were saying to yourself, should we go, you know, the over under on nine wins? Well, you've got the push there and this is not gambling advice. I don't know a whole lot about the strategies of gambling, but you would probably say that's about right. So you want to stay away

from that number because it's going to be pretty hard to get to 10 plus. And, you know, when you look at a lot of the factors here, one of them is that last year, they actually weren't that injured. PFF put out a chart of all the injuries in the NFL and you had the Rams were really, really healthy. And maybe that, you know, bringing their trainer here and some of those sports science strategies, maybe those help of the Vikings being a little more healthy, but they actually didn't lose a lot of wins above replacement according to PFF because of their injuries. And, you know, I don't know if Everson Griffin's absence counted as an injury by their metrics or not. Daniil Hunter's was obviously big.

But also think about the players that were healthy. Almost everybody on the offensive side, outside of a few games from Adam Thielen, but he still was healthy the majority of the season. Your best player, Justin Jefferson, healthy the whole year. Delvin Cook was banged up, so you may have lost value there, but he's almost always banged up. I don't know if it counts Irv Smith Jr. for the year, but if we're being honest, Tyler Conklin put up the type of numbers that we might have expected from Irv Smith Jr. If Irv Smith Jr. made a lot of the same plays that Tyler Conklin did,

a go route down the sideline against Dallas, there was a big play late in the game against Carolina, we'd be talking about how he took the next step. Tyler Conklin really rose to the challenge last year. So what that gap would have been in terms of how much value you lost, I don't really know. The whole point is just that when you look at the roster, if they have the bad side of

injury luck this year, there isn't a whole lot of parachute to catch them if that were to happen. As of right now, things can change, but Daniil Hunter, Z'Darrius Smith, we're still talking about the same issue of your next man up is Kenny Willekes or Patrick Jones or Janarius Robinson or DJ Wanham. Like those types of players, those middle round or late round picks, they usually can work into situational roles. But when they're asked to do a lot more, that's pretty tough. That usually takes a really good NFL player to be making an impact there. And then, I mean, Harrison Smith was healthy last year for the entire season.

Eric Hendricks was healthy for the entire season last year, most of the year. And if you lose either one of those players for any amount of time, if you lose a corner to injury, Cam Dantzler had injury issues his first season. If he is out, then who's the next corner that's going to be up on the offensive line. This is still kind of an issue as well, though. I think it's possible. Only Udo could become a decent swing tackle the same way Rashad Hill was, but I mean, you're still talking about a very, very thin type of situation at a lot of positions. And that's hard to say that like, I can't project right now who they're going to lose

the injury, but it's hard to say that if they lost any slightly above average amount of value or players to injury, that they wouldn't be like a six win team, but you could also see a world where they could get to 10 or 11. I think when the height of where you could see them is 10 or 11, it's pretty hard to take the over on that. If it was nine and I thought there was a world where they could win 13, then I would say, yeah, I mean, go with the over, but it pretty, pretty tough one there to say that it's any more than nine, but I would put them right now at nine. If they had to play out the schedule at this moment and I had to put all the money somewhere, I would just say push. All right, let's get to our next question here. This comes from Tan the man, T-A-N-N

the man on Twitter. As soon as, I almost said Alex Rodriguez, Aaron Rodgers announced his decision, I would have put the wheels in motion for a soft reset, include a Mariota signing, maybe a guard and all the other moves they made this off season. I think you can be below average, but still compete for the division next year. And he includes a draft sim where he has traded Kirk Cousins away and Delvin cook away and landed sauce Gardner, Chris Alave and Malik Willis in the draft. That's not really a question, but I just respect it. I just want to

say that I respect what you have done here with this draft sim to have acquired by trading players away three first round draft picks. What we don't know and can't figure out, and I wish I had, oh, he also traded Adam Thielen in this scenario too. I just opened it up and expanded it to see that trade too. So they would have traded Thielen, Cousins, and Cook. What we don't know is the return that the Vikings could have gotten for anything. We just don't know. No one has come out and said, yes, we were offered a first round pick for Kirk Cousins and said no, or we were offered a third round pick for Kirk Cousins and said no, or we were offered a third

round pick for Adam Thielen and said no. If I knew those answers, it would be a lot easier to analyze some of the things that they've done in the off season. But at the moment, we can only kind of look around and give our best guess that the Indianapolis Colts paid a third round pick for Matt Ryan. Carson Wentz, it was a second and a third that Washington sent to Indianapolis. With Kirk Cousins' contract situation at the time that he would have been shopped, it's very hard to say that they would have gotten more than that

because the team that was acquiring him would have taken on a $35 million cap hit with Cousins. And then, of course, the Vikings would have kept 10 of that. That's not easy to do, especially with someone who doesn't have an extension at the time in terms of being traded. But the overall idea of seeing Rogers come back to the Packers and saying, all right, look, we've got to reset this thing. Let's get a quarterback who can be reasonable, who can get just to Justin Jefferson the ball, who could win some football games.

Let's stack draft picks, load it up, move on from older players, and then do a soft rebuild where you're resetting a lot of the players are getting opportunities who maybe wouldn't have in previous years. Like we didn't see Kenny Wong will play much. We didn't see Amir Smith, Mar set play much. That was the plan that I thought they were going to implement when Casey Adafo Mensah, uh, was hired. I mean, even the draft pick of a quarterback here, it just seemed to be the savvy way to go about it or the kind of modern way of going about it, which is to look at it as either, you know, going all in to try to win or trying to kick the can down the

road in, in a different way, not in the way of the cap space, but in the expectations of we're not going to have high expectations this year, work our way through it to stack talent, young talent, be the youngest team in the league for 2022, be scrappy, have some fun games, probably either miss the playoffs or barely get in kind of like Philly did last year. And then the next year after that, you go crazy in free agency. They decided to go a different direction. And as we do the what if game and the second guess and hindsight game, as we always do in sports, that's the thing

we're going to second guess as we go forward, because the over under is nine. And if they hit that exactly, was this a success? Maybe that's a question I'll be asking my guests all offseason is if they get nine wins, did it work? Because there's no world where I say yes. I just don't think a nine win season is any sort of success when you have all these players that are in their 30s. All right. This one is from at Orange Suds. Aaron, he's been supporting the podcast for a very long time. Appreciate you, Aaron. Is this what leaning into the Kirk is supposed to look

like? And what would your draft strategy be in order to go full tilt lean mode? Well, they haven't leaned into Kirk cousins at all. Uh, Jesse Davis, the right guard is not a particularly exceptional player. So it's not like they went out and got the right guard of the future, Brandon, or even Brandon Scherf, who would have given them an immediate pro bowl type of talent, even if there were some risks involved. Aside from that, I mean, Smith Jr. is coming back they keep adam feeling that's not really leaning into the kirk that's the same player that you've always had hiring an offensive coach is more leaning into kirk cousins and the way they're talking sounds more leany into kirk cousins that they think there's areas where they can get more out of him. That might be true.

But they haven't gone out and gotten a receiver. They haven't gone out and even, not that you want necessarily to load up on tight ends, but even a second tight end, like they used effectively with Kyle Rudolph and Irv Smith Jr. in 2019. Well, they haven't done that either. They got Johnny Munt, who is a blocking tight end. And now we go into draft season where if they fill needs, cornerback is the clearest need that they have. And they go maybe a future edge rusher,

possibly a guard, and they ignore the wide receiver position, it will be a similar half lean into cousins that they've done before. And really the only way then to lean into Kirk cousins would be to create a very much pass first offense. But as much as the Vikings were known over the last couple of years for being like run first, and that's what Mike Zimmer wanted them to do. And I know that a stat like this needs a lot more context than just saying this number, but they were 11th in pass attempts last year.

The Los Angeles Rams were 10th. I mean, they threw 604 passes last season. They did not run the ball as much as they did maybe in 2019. I think they were winning more in 2019. And there is again, context for any stat like that, but the idea that they're going to throw a ton more, I guess I'm a little skeptical of that. Um, in 2020, you could have said that going into 2021, where they were 27th in pass attempts, but they actually did what we were asking them to do by throwing more often.

And I don't think that the stat was as skewed by the ahead and behind statistics as it might have been for other Kirk Cousins years. I'll check that. But they actually threw the 11th most passes. So if they're going to lean into Kirk Cousins more, then you kind of have to try to get into the top five of passing with Cousins. And if they do that, I mean, I'm for it just to see, like we talked on our last episode about the control to just see, like, was it that they weren't passing enough?

Let's see from, uh, the numbers are not anywhere near as skewed last year when they were leading 182 passes from cousins trailing 245. So much closer than what we were talking about with, um, the 2016 numbers when he was in Washington, where it was the vast majority of throws were coming from behind. So anyway, I mean, I would like to see more of the lean into the Kirk because you've kept him and you've made this choice to compete. So how are you going to do it? I guess we're going to have to find that out schematically or at the draft because if they go Chris Alave in the first round,

then I'm not sure I can completely change everything I've said for the off season because they drafted a receiver in terms of trying to win now and all that sort of stuff. But I would say, okay, I get, all right, I get it. I get what you're doing here. Folks, Minnesota sports teams are competing for the playoffs and it's time to load up on your Minnesota sports-inspired gear from SodaStick. Use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER for 15% off your wildflower Marc-Andre Fleury design, or if you're excited for baseball, get your Fast as Buck Byron Buxton shirt or hoodie. Go to SodaStick.com.

Use the promo code PURPLE Purple Insider for 15% off. All right. Next question comes from another longtime supporter at Head Coach 21, Ben, who is a whatever we call it, super subscriber, founding member to the newsletter as well. He says the Vikings have had some pretty underwhelming or have some pretty underwhelming quarterbacks on their schedule this year. Which ones can you say that cousins is definitively better than all right, let's pull up then the Vikings schedule of opponents and we'll take a look. Uh, I have not memorized them yet. Let's figure that out. Now they play the NFC East.

So that's, let's see. Okay. Now I've got it. All right. Well, why don't we just go one by one here real quick? We'll run right through them. Chicago Bears. I don't know. I mean, instantly I want to say, oh, of course, Kirk Cousins is better than Justin Fields, But with a young quarterback, and we've seen quarterbacks take a big step in year two, that I don't know. If I had to bet, I would lean that Kirk Cousins still has a better year than Justin Fields because I don't like his supporting cast at this moment. I don't think that Ryan Poles has done a whole lot to improve that supporting cast in Chicago. So I guess for both Chicago games, we could say that Kirk Cousins will be better. Detroit Lions, that's two more that he's better.

So that's four. Green Bay Packers, of course not. Dallas Cowboys, no. Dak Prescott is still better than Cousins. New York Giants, yes. Better than him. Better than Daniel Jones. So what are we at now?

We got two Lions, two Bears, and a Giants. That's five. Arizona Cardinals, not better than Ky Jones. So what are we at now? We got two lions, two bears and a giants. It's five Arizona Cardinals, not better than Kyler Murray, especially if it's early season. Maybe if it's week 17, Kyler Murray, I don't know, but not better than Kyler Murray, New York jets, same deal. I don't know. I don't know if he's better than Zach Wilson. I assume that he will be so we can put it on our list and say six, uh, Mack Jones, not ready to say that that's the case. That's another quarterback who's going into year two and had a very good season last year. Um, cousins is, is certainly more seasoned than Mack Jones, but I'm very good

first season. If he has year two growth, I'm not, I'm not going to go there. Indianapolis Colts, Matt Ryan, uh, that Colts supporting cast is very good. I think I'll go Kirk is better there. So that's seven games so far. We've also got, and this is not like their schedule or anything. That's that hasn't come out yet. This is just the list of opponents. Philadelphia Eagles.

He is better than Jalen Hurts. Probably better than Carson Wentz. Better than Jameis Winston, not better than Josh Allen, better than Tua. So that's what, 11 games where Cousins will be the better quarterback. And if you're making an argument for this team to make the playoffs, that's probably your argument is that you have to win the games where Cousins is the better quarterback. And sometimes they have, and sometimes they haven't in recent years, right? I mean, they lost to Jared Goff last year. They lost to Cooper rush

last year. Uh, in previous years, they've lost to Mitch Trubisky multiple times in a single season. Um, so you'd love to just write it in and say, Oh yeah. Okay. Well, he's better than all these quarterbacks individually. So they'll win. But you know, it's got, it's a team game and the Vikings in some games just, uh, we're not able to get anything going. And it's like, is cousins better than then on a given day? Because we've seen that roller coaster where on a given day, he can throw for 83 yards against Chicago that that's just always there.

Or on a given day, he could go toe to yards against Chicago, that that's just always there. Or on a given day, he could go toe-to-toe for Aaron Rodgers, which is what we saw him do last year and win that game going toe-to-toe with Rodgers. So that's a, it's a hard way to do it. Just trying to figure out, you know, okay, what's their schedule going to be? Is he the better quarterback? But I would say a lot of them, if Tua doesn't take a step, if Wilson doesn't take a step, if Mac Jones doesn't repeat or better his first year performance, that it's a very interesting schedule from that perspective is do these young quarterbacks get a lot better? We'll determine maybe where the Vikings land. If a lot of them take big steps forward, that could be trouble. If they don't, then maybe we're talking about a 10-win season and making the playoffs,

and then it will look like competitive rebuilding may have worked, if there's any rebuilding to happen at some point. All right, next question comes from Amir. Considering all the holes. Should the Vikings draft best player available or try to address a need like corner. Now I'm always into, well, first I mean, quarterback is always at the top of my list just because there's nothing more important than figuring out your future quarterback situation. But I think in a, in a position like this, it's almost hard to find a spot that they don't need.

Like best player available also doesn't mean it's best player at the most valuable position. So if the best player available is a linebacker, I'm just going to pass on that best player available, a running back, no use to drafting a running back in the first round. So it really comes down to best player available at edge rusher, at corner, at wide receiver, at guard, which is also a position that you would be a little hesitant to spend a first round pick on. Maybe that's a second or third round pick. I think that that's really the approach. If you go in saying we are drafting a

corner and there's nothing else that matters in this world to us, that's not really the best way to do it. I think, and even trading down is a nice concept, but if you're not drafting a player who could be significant for you in the future, then, you know, if it's just somebody who's ceiling is a regular starter and not a potential star, then you're wasting an opportunity with a really high draft pick. So I think you have to go best player at the most valuable position. One of those that I named really most specifically, unless the Kyle Hamilton thing comes to fruition and he drops down the board, that's a fun discussion to have of like, Hey, safety, isn't all that valuable, but you're going to lose Harrison Smith eventually.

And Kyle Hamilton is for some reason talking about, you know, dropping in the draft when he was discussed as a top five prospect and maybe things get interesting there, but really what it comes down to is either wide receiver corner or pass rusher. Those are the positions you should be looking at. Maybe you're taking a look at Jordan Davis' interior rush, but I'm not even sure that... I think there's been some studies that show that's really valuable, but if a guy can't play more than 500 or 600 snaps in a year,

I question whether you should spend a first-round draft pick on him. So that's a long way of saying, BPA at the positions that matter in the NFL, the ones that get paid. Okay. This is from a Carl T floor Walker. Good to see you, Carl.

Is there a viable option at center other than Bradbury? I don't see an option with free agency with the cap issue and doubt draft is the answer. I'm going to need a deep gulp of diet. Dr. Pepper to talk about this one, Carl. No, there is no other viable option. I'm sorry. Uh, there really isn't. When you look at the roster, they had Mason Cole last year, but did not get somebody who could even be of that level at center. And it appears that they're going to roll the ball out for Garrett Bradbury in his final year of his rookie deal. Uh, and I don't know the date for having to pick up his fifth year option, but there's no world where that happens to pick up his fifth year option because

that would be very expensive. So you're talking about really, if you're in a, in case of emergency here, Wyatt Davis, one day in training camp took some center snaps last year. Everybody kind of freaked out a little. I get it. Uh, I don't think he's actually an option at center, but I also at this point am wondering if he's even a real person. Okay. Because we just, you know, haven't seen Wyatt Davis actually play in any games and trying to figure out from training camp practices and third string preseason reps, what he is, or if he could play a different position or anything else. I'm just not really

confident in that until we see more of Wyatt Davis. Austin Schlottman is probably your other center option at this point. And this is where it's just been a little confusing with the guys that they've signed. It seemed like they've just signed everybody that the coaching staff wanted to sign. And none of these guys have good numbers. I expected them to be getting guys that were sort of low key interesting or, Oh wow, this guy had this really good pass blocking grade or really good coverage grade or something like that for PFF. And he's sort of sneaky good.

That hasn't been the case. And Austin Schlottman is evidence of that. His PFF grades in three years playing limited snaps for the Denver Broncos, 58.2, 39.8 and 44.3. That's out of a hundred. His pass blocking these last two years has been, I mean, remarkably bad. In 2020, he played 176 pass blocking snaps and allowed 16 pressures, which is, I mean, that's a lot. That's like one every 10 dropbacks for a center or an inside offensive lineman is a ton.

He was playing right and left guard. He's only played 42 NFL snaps at center. This doesn't sound like an option to me for Austin Schlottman to battle against Garrett Bradbury. You'd like to at least say, hey, well, his numbers are a little better, but they're not. against Garrett Bradbury, you'd like to at least say, hey, well, his numbers are a little better, but they're not. So Garrett Bradbury is your guy. And I guess last year going into the season, I think it was one of my predictions that went wrong was that Garrett Bradbury would end the year with a pretty good pro football focus grade, and he would take a step forward and it just didn't happen. And at some point with all

first round picks or top prospects, first, second round picks, we just have to sort of throw up our hands and go, there's not another level to this. Maybe there's more hiding it. Uh, and that might be what they go for is how can we hide it a little more than we did before. But when you look at Garrett Bradbury and his age, they drafted him at 24 years old. The Garrett Bradbury is not a young person anymore. Um, let me see here. Bradbury I'm looking for his age. Uh, should I search by oldest players? He's, um, gosh, what is his age here? It's not listed. It's only listed experience. Sorry.

I got to click on his name to figure out his age on his vikings.com page. He's 26. And I think that he'll be 27 into next year. I mean, that's just, it's just not young. I mean, this is somebody who's in normally in the middle of a career and normally 26, 27, you're getting off of your first contract, but he just came into the league a little bit later. And I remember Rick Spielman saying that he didn't factor that into the draft, which I don't know why you wouldn't when someone is 24 years old, but it is what it is, uh, as Kirk cousins would say, but the long answer is no.

And it's very hard to believe that there's another step. The only thing that you're going to rely on is that the Los Angeles Rams have had very good luck with centers and maybe there's a schematic way to help, but here's the reality of the NFL third down in eight. The other team is sending dudes at you and you got to block them. And that's not something that Garrett Bradbury is capable of doing and has shown that in his career. So unless something really major changes, you're in for a liability and pass protection up the middle again, which is not circling back, leaning into the Kirk, which I think that was a key part of this off season was to get him better interior protection. And they haven't. So that's where, when we look at the whole picture,

it's not so much, are you trying to win now? And that was a mistake and you should have tanked. It's the ways in which you're trying to win now are not different from the past. And it's hard to expect different results. It's hard to look at this and say, Oh, this offense will be fifth instead of 14th, but they have all the same players. And so there's only so many X's and O's you can draw up, but you have to protect your quarterback better than they have in the past. And, uh, that does not seem to be the case. All right. This from Scott L on Twitter. The Vikings have kicked the can down the road for everyone except for Eric Kendricks.

Will we see a Kendricks restructure or they're expecting to cut bait in 2023? All right. Let's take a look at Eric Kendricks' contract. Eric Kendricks is a tough one because you want Eric Kendricks on your football team. I mean, he's still, in my eyes, a great player in past coverage. There was a stat that Eric Eager from PFF had that he is one of the best in the league at not biting at play action, like not getting fooled by play action. That's because he's got great intelligence, great instincts, and there's all the off-the-field

stuff, the leadership, and so forth. I mean, Kendricks is a guy you want. However, his contract is absolutely set up for him to be out next year. He is a free agent after 2023. They could save $9 million by cutting him. And if he doesn't play up to a peak level, then you're probably just saying, sorry, we're going to take the cap space and we'll catch you later. Or they could let that thing play out all the way through 2023 and just say like, all right, this is your last year and you're going to be a free agent after this. And that's the way it is. Or they could get to that point and feel like he's still playing exceptionally well. I think linebackers can play well into their 30s and you get a contract extension.

But they haven't done any of the converting of the bonus or base salary or any of that so far. And I guess that would depend on what they plan on still doing. So if there is a player out there that they're chasing or they need to move money at the very last second, it appears, at least by his page here on over the cap.com, that there is room to still change that contract a little bit. But I think this is one where you probably want to just let it play out into next

year. And that's what you have to do with players in their thirties is you really kind of got to run it to the end and see where that player is because when someone is 25, you can extend them and feel pretty good about the next three, four years. When someone is 30, it's a lot harder to do. Uh, but I think that you're probably right that they're going to just let it play out. And then maybe he gets cut before the 2023 season, or maybe he gets extended because he's playing great to lower the cap hit probably one way or the other all right this from baseball norm always has great questions on twitter why should i drink the purple kool-aid

of some fans who think running it back is going to result in more wins. I'm sick of the lost cause. I'm sorry. I'm sick of the we lost close games argument. In my opinion, they sacrificed future cap space and set the rebuild back a few years. Yeah, the close games thing, that's something that seems to come up a lot. And if you could just go back and kick the field goal again, that would be great. But if you're looking at how good of a team they actually were, like the totality of last year's team and then what it looks like in comparison. So they ended up last year with a negative point differential. They were 14th in offense and 24th

in defense and had a minus one point differential. Their expected win loss was 8.5 and 8.5. So the expected win loss is usually determined by your point differential. So if you were, I don't know, plus 57 points over a season, but you ended up somehow seven and 10, that means you got unlucky. It means that you were a better team and you know, you just, it just didn't work out for you in the way that you, that the cookie crumbled. Now I'll give you another example of that is the Atlanta Falcons from last year. So the Atlanta Falcons from last year. So the Atlanta Falcons from last year ended up with a seven and 10 record, but their expected points was a five win team.

They were bad. They were a bad football team. They were 26th in points for 29th and points against had no business with seven wins, no business looking around and saying we were kind of close to the playoffs. Um, so the Vikings were kind of close to the playoffs, but there isn't any real indicators that, Oh, something just went really wrong last year. And this year, well, this will go right for us, or it was bad luck. Uh, they had their chances, but they also made their field goals. They made 87% of their field goals last year. So while you did miss a key field goal that lost the game,

you also made a lot of other field goals that kept you in games or helped you win games, including against Detroit. There were final plays that they didn't make and things like that, that last year's team, talent- talent wise did feel like it was better than an 8.5 expected wins. And maybe that's where you think about your coaching, but they've also lost a lot of players, just a lot of human beings who are not with them anymore. And let's go through this real quick.

So, uh, let's see, we'll call up. I want to look at their snap counts and see like the players who were taking up the most snaps on defense and how many of them are going to be here for this year. So, cause I think, I think of this as a completely different team on defense and offense is pretty much the same. And you can project that similarly. So Xavier Woods was their leader in snaps taken. He is not here anymore. Patrick Peterson, 884 snaps. He was fifth. He's gone. Anthony Barr was sixth in snaps. He's gone. Nick Vigil was seventh. He's gone. Mackenzie Alexander, eight, not here. Sheldon Richardson,

ninth in snaps, not here. So then you have Dantzler, Bashad Breeland, 11th in snaps, not here. Armond Watts, Delvin Tomlinson, Everson Griffin, not here. Michael Pierce even played 250 snaps, not here. That's a lot of different people. And it might be better. It might not be better. It might be the same, or it might be worse. Who knows with a defense right now.

And maybe playing that list of not great quarterbacks will help them. But I agree with you in the overall point that saying they lost close games last year means that they'll be good this year. They were six and eight in those one score games. So, I mean, it's not like they went, you know, two and 12 or something and got unlucky at all the one score games. It was basically a coin flip. So I don't think that's a good argument. I think what you're looking for, the one case you can make, if you're saying it will be a lot better than last year is just the coach. It's what you really have to lean on is Kevin O'Connell will do more with this group or whatever moves might come. I mean, with their cap space, probably not a lot of moves still

coming, but they're going to draft talent and Kevin O'Connell is going to make the most of these people. And that's why it'll be better. And, and the schedule, I mean, the schedule does look easier to tell you the truth. I mean, when you just look at a snapshot of it, but I mean, I don't know, like Indianapolis has Matt Ryan, but they have a lot of good players. Like Washington has Carson Wentz. They have a lot of good players. Same with Miami. This comes from Daniel, another longtime follower. Always appreciate you guys showing up. Anytime I ask for anything, Hey guys, give me some questions. It's like a lot of you are right there for me. And I appreciate that. All right. This will be the last one and we'll just keep doing these. What's that pick mean? What should we take? Uh, what, what should we take it to mean if they

draft a corner defensive end receiver quarterback? What's that pick me? Love it. Daniel. There might have to copy this with Chris Rapasso on our draft show. If they draft a defensive end, it would mean that they were not really buying whatever corners were available at the time. And they decided it was better for a rusher. And it also might mean that they don't view Zedaria Smith and Daniil Hunter as a long-term combination, that they look at them much more as a, it's for this year, but by next year, I mean, Zedaria Smith is probably still here with his, uh, the way his contract is laid out, but Daniil Hunter might not be. That might be the inflection point that we've sort of been leading up to for the last few

years of how much longer Daniil Hunter is here. But next year really is set up that way. And even Kweisi Adafomenta acknowledged that this year was set up that way. And they just sort of let that deadline go by. But next year, I think Daniil Hunter is on a setup to make like just a couple of million and that's never going to happen. So if they were to draft a defensive end or outside linebacker rusher, that would probably indicate that they think they need guys for the future. Wide receiver would be that they're leaning into the Kirk and that they're taking BPA like that because clearly corner is the biggest

need and defensive end is probably still the second biggest need other than guard. Uh, so wide receiver would mean we want someone to help Kirk cousins, right? Absolutely. Now. And as I mentioned before, I think that's a good now and later play. Do it now to help cousins do it later to help jefferson and be his uh 1b if you get a star there quarterback means competitive rebuild is real that's what it means it means there was a rebuild part that's what it means that a they don't think this draft class is full of guys who can't throw a football six yards without falling down and crying. And they clearly like one of the prospects enough to draft them with the first pick. I'm assuming you mean the first pick with this question.

And it also means that they are looking at the future of the quarterback position beyond Kirk Cousins and have a timeline for when they want to have a different quarterback. That's what drafting a quarterback would mean. And my criticisms of the off season, I will on that night in that moment, take most of them back. Not the ones about the cap though. I mean, the cap is tough when you're adding void years and stuff like that, it's tough to say, give my rubber stamp. But if you draft a quarterback, then it's clear what you're thinking down the road with that situation. And that matters a lot more than anything else. If you have a $2 million void year on Adam Thielen in 2025, but you've got the rookie cap contract, rookie quarterback contract,

it just doesn't matter as much. It's not going to hurt you as much. So that's what all of that would mean. Uh, one more just from, uh, let's see here. Well, I'll fit in two more real quick. One from bulldogs, 13 TV. Where's your podcast intro from? I made it. Um, I've played guitar since I was, uh, maybe 13 years old and I fiddle around and record stuff sometimes just for fun. And so when we went this direction in the world, was forced in this direction to start Purple Insider, I was like, where am I going to get an intro? I should make one. So I did. And I hope you guys like it. Let's see. From Bulldogs13TV, usually a new regime gets a free year and a grace period. It feels like that's gone for many fans since they doubled down on previous regimes moves.

Could you see Vikings fans booing their first home game if they lose and it looks the same? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I could. I could because one thing that's been very accurate is honestly my social media and my responses to different things and how fans have reacted in that stadium. So last year is a good example where the fan base, at least the ones that I interact with on Twitter, was getting more and more agitated and frustrated by how things had gone. And as we got into the later stages of the season, it wasn't just booing. It was like not cheering in the green Bay game. Aaron Rogers said after the game, it was not as loud in here as it usually is. And you could feel that in the press box that it truly was not as loud as it once was. And I think it'll be the same feeling.

The first game, usually everyone's pretty jacked up, but if they, if they get down 14 and go three and out the first couple of trips, I mean, I think you're hearing it. I think you're hearing it because even though fans are known, like their reputation is just crazy and they'll paint themselves purple no matter what and everything else. I also think that fans have never been more informed about everything that their team is doing and more sort of knowledgeable about what they should be doing. And if they decided to bring everyone back, especially cousins, and it's not going well and you're struggling right off the bat, which usually cousins kind of, well, I guess he doesn't always start off season strong. It's usually October,

isn't it? But if there's a struggle right off the bat, I mean, I don't know if it's week one, but it could be week two. If you're, if they're at home or week three, if it's all in two, if it's one in three, yeah, I think they're feeling it right away. I do not think that would have been the case if they hit the reset button completely, traded Cousins, draft a quarterback, then there would have been a lot more patience. But when you make moves to win, you have to win or the fans are going to be unhappy. Not exactly my hottest take that I've ever had, but yeah, I think that there's still a lot of pent up frustration.

I don't think that, um, people are going to look at this and say, oh, well, it's totally fresh. Let's give them a lot of patience. They decided they didn't want that. Um, or they weren't going to make moves to do that, whether it was, you know, quasi or if it was ownership or whoever, that's the choice that they made. So anyway, well, this was a really fun edition of fans only here on purple insider. Great questions. And the crazy thing is I still have a ton more of questions to work with that you guys have sent in. I thought I was going to get enough for one episode. I've already got enough for two episodes that have come in and there's still more. So I'll be doing this throughout. I think throughout the entire

off season, I it's one of the most fun things that uh that we've done here on the show it's just taking what people want to know and doing my best to answer it so thanks you all for listening and we'll do it again soon