Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Could the Ravens hire Brian Flores? (Part 1)

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

Matthew Coller talks about the Ravens firing John Harbaugh and how they could consider hiring Brian Flores. Tweets from Skip Bayless, Mina Kimes, Aaron Schatz and others are endorsing the idea. Mike Florio was on Pittsburgh radio and said that Lamar Jackson could still go. Really? Plus, Kirk Cousins talks with Kay Adams and insinuates that he wants to be a starter. "I want to play." And Ryan Fitzpatrick continues to talk about how Flores was a "dictator" in Miami. Plus starting a new offseason series spotlighting one position group each show. We begin with the defensive backfield. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar, here. The show, of course, presented by our friends at Fanduil. And we got a lot of space on the show tonight to have conversation with you guys. I mean, actually, really got a lot of space in the off season to have conversations. So questions, comments, thoughts, feelings on coach searches. are going on, quarterback ideas, other things that should be in the spotlight this off season. We're going to start with Brian Flores' situation and then get to a lot of the rest. It might have to talk a little bit about Kirk Cousins redoing his contract with the Atlanta

Falcons and maybe just to have some fun times. You've got a draft sim ready to go. So let's begin, though, and throw your questions, comments and reactions into the comment section here and we'll run down what's going on in the league and then we'll get to that. But good place to start is the Baltimore Ravens firing John Harbaugh. Now, it wasn't that shocking. I saw a lot of reactions like, wow, I can't believe they actually did it. But, you know, I mean, Flores, I'm sorry, Harbaugh, it really felt like it came down to that last game with the Pittsburgh Steelers. And somebody posted a photo of the goalposts. And on the last, and right, it was, you know, Mike Tomlin fired, you know, John Harbaugh fired if it, you know,

goes through the middle. Or I guess it's the other way around. It would be Harbaugh fired if it goes wide, right or left. And, you know, Mike Tomlin fired if it goes down the middle. But that, it really felt that way in the Pittsburgh and Baltimore game, like whichever one of these guys loses this one is probably going to lose their job. And there's even still discussion about Mike Tomlin if they get smoked in that playoff game. somebody who's been the head coach of a team for almost two decades and has won a Super Bowl rarely gets fired, but it is the hardest place to be in the NFL when you have one of the top five quarterbacks and you have not gotten there yet, especially in today's world.

Like this is not exactly Don Shula being the Miami Dolphins coach for the entire time with Dan Marino. I think if that had been the case, then he probably would have gotten fired and, you know, maybe it would have been the same thing for somebody like Marv Levy with the Buffalo Bills that after they lost the fourth Super Bowl, maybe they would have fired it because the outrage would have been so high. But, you know, actually a historical example of this is probably, I mean, if we go back to like a John Elway having, let's see, was it Marty Schottenheimer, then Wade Phillips,

and then they finally get to Mike Shanahan and they build the roster and they get over the top with him, that not all top five. quarterbacks always have the same coach for absolutely ever. And the interpretations of Lamar Jackson and his relationship with John Harbaugh seemed to be all over the place, but one way or the other, John Harbaugh is out with the Baltimore Ravens, which opens up the door for another potential opportunity for Brian Flores. And just perusing the internet today, I grabbed a couple of the tweets that were out there from a football Illuminati, one of them and Skip Bayless just because, but, you know, Aaron shots, skip A list, Meena Kimes, Jonathan Jones is a reporter

from CBS, all mentioning the name Brian Flores with the Baltimore Ravens. Now, you would think, well, don't they want to go out and get a quarterback whisper type of coach? And that may be the case, but it also could be that, you know, their defense has correct. wrote it over the last couple of years. And it's possible that they feel like they need somebody who can grab the reins there and turn that back around to where it used to be a few years ago with the Ravens. They might also feel like if it's Brian Flores that, yes, he can pick up that defense and

get them back to a championship caliber level, but also maybe bring in Brian Dable with him as well because the reporting that was out there today was that John Harbaugh would not fire Todd Monkin, who was their offensive coordinator. And I mean, that's interesting that he would be the one that they wanted fired because just look at last year. Todd Monkin was being celebrated last year for how Lamar Jackson was playing more complete quarterback. And then one year later, Boy, how much can change in a single year. But one year later, you're talking about firing Harbaugh because he would not get rid of the offensive coordinator,

which makes you think that Todd Monkin and Lamar Jackson were maybe not on the best terms. So if they're going to bring in someone like Flores, can he connect with Lamar Jackson, can he turn around the defense, and then bring in somebody from that Belichick tree as an offensive mind, that would be, I think, the thought process for them, But I would be a little bit surprised because I do think that what you're looking for is more along the lines, if you're Baltimore, of an Andy Reed, Patrick Mahomes type of thing where those two guys can just stay connected, you know, for the foreseeable future. John Harbaugh was never an offensive head coach.

He was a special teams coordinator and then becomes a head coach and he's much more of a, I'm managing this entire thing rather than I'm the guy that's calling the plays for. offense or defense. And, you know, maybe there is a disconnect there with your quarterback when you're more of the manager of the entire franchise as opposed to, you know, sitting down with Lamar Jackson every single day and designing the offense in whatever, you know, with his vision. But as far as Flores's chances to go to the Baltimore Ravens, it seems like he fits with a couple of different franchises, but the odds are not appearing to be particular. high that he lands a head coaching position because as of right now, there have been no head coaching interviews or reports of upcoming interviews for Brian Flores. Ian Rappaport had the list

today of the teams that the Las Vegas Raiders were looking to speak to. And Brian Flores, his name was not on that list. And the Raiders for me were the top one when we did our offseason predictions the other day, I had Brian Flores going to the Raiders, and it's pretty easy to make that connection. They, you know, have Tom Brady there, who knows Flores. They might want to, you know, kind of buck the trend of the NFL of keeping Flores out of head coaching positions because they're the Raiders, and that's kind of their history, is that not always playing by the rules, right, with Al Davis. And Flores is the type that we've seen totally overhaul a defense. as he did in Minnesota.

When he arrives with Ed Donatel, it was a joke on the defensive side. And then a couple of years later, we're talking back-to-back seasons of elite defenses. So I thought maybe that would be something that they're looking for. But if you are the Raiders, you're probably thinking we're going to draft Fernando Mendoza with the number one overall pick. And we need one of those guys, one of those quarterback whisperer type of quarterbacks to connect and get your QB1 and get your head coach on the same page. It can be hard for defensive coaches to get opportunities when you're talking about younger

quarterbacks and Ryan Fitzpatrick, who has often spoken about his experience with Brian Flores on his podcast with Andrew Whitworth, talked about it and called him a dictator in Miami. We also know that Tua, well, I think it has been justified a little bit. how Tua has played out in Miami, still Tua had what he had to say about, you know, Flores dealing with him as a young quarterback. And I think you are concerned about that. Personally, I think that Brian Flores has learned a lot during his journey and that I'm not the same person as I was three years ago and you're not the same person that you were three years ago.

And you learn and you get better. And there are lots of coaches who have had things go by the wayside in one location and then turned out to be. a better fit in another one. But if I'm hiring in Las Vegas, I might be concerned about putting a young quarterback with Brian Flores. And we've even see this with the cornerbacks and defensive players that not many young players have connected particularly well with Brian Flores. I mean, he might need a more veteran type of group. I mean, if you're going through his strengths and weaknesses, being a brilliant football mind is his strength for sure. But a weakness might be be player development. It's not like we've seen a lot of young players come in and then all

the sudden, you know, they're emerging to the front of the room. Even someone like Jalen Redmond, I mean, you look at his actual age. I think he's like 26 or 27. He had been a pro in the UFL. He had been around the NFL a little bit with like the Carolina Panthers. So he was an older player when he got here and still had, you know, a year to show what he could do and then another training camp and so forth, Josh Mattelis had been in the league for several years before he took his step forward. And even a young player like Ivan Pace, who I think his weaknesses kind of got revealed. But Ivan Pace, you know, kind of just ended up on the bench by the end of the year. There was no real development of players like Mackay Blackman or Nashon Wright, who ends up as

a starter for the Chicago Bears. Their draft picks for 2022, not that I think those guys were going anywhere, but they didn't give it any time at all. They just, you know, pretty much cut bait. So that would be a concern, I think, if you're another team as well. How is he going to work with a total rebuild situation that might require a lot of development for young players? That's why Baltimore suddenly makes more sense because that is a situation where you're looking for a coach who can get you over the top.

And while the Ravens lost that game and Lamar played pretty well. they lost it on defense, right? They could not stop the big plays from Aaron Rogers down the field passing at the end of the game. Calvin Austin roasts his guy, scores a touchdown. I mean, right? So, you know, I think that that makes more sense for a team that is in absolute holy bleep win now mode

every single year that Lamar Jackson is their quarterback. Now, that is another thing, though, because, well, a lot of the thinkers of, of the National Football League media are talking about how Flores would be a good fit and I could see it because it is a veteran quarterback. It is someone he's gone to battle with and is familiar with even this year.

I mean, there's also a possibility that Baltimore has decided to just completely blow it up. That is still in the air. And I wouldn't have thought so. I would have thought, oh, it's just the power struggle that Lamar Jackson won. But today, Mike Floreo was on the air. in Pittsburgh, and he said he doesn't think that that is 100% lock that Lamar Jackson is

still going to be there. Personally, I think that is crazy talk. It's a two-time MVP, probably deserving of three MVPs. And when you have somebody of that level, you don't ever let that person leave your franchise, especially when they're in their 20s. I mean, if he was 35, then okay. and if his skills were fading, I think the injuries are a serious concern, but somebody of that caliber, I just can't see it. This team, though, Baltimore was hesitant to give him huge amounts of money just a couple of years ago, and it cracks the door open for the possibility. And an agent did tell Mike Sando of the athletic that if Lamar is going anywhere,

a place to consider is certainly the Minnesota Vikings. So that's one where we would really need some concrete evidence that Lamar Jackson could go rather than just speculation to really have that conversation. But I think you all know how I feel, which is if you have a chance to go after a quarterback of that caliber, of course, there's going to be reasons why you have that opportunity. There were reasons why the Denver Broncos were able to get Peyton Manning. It's because his neck was fused back together. There are reasons why the Bucks were able to get Tom Brady. It's because Tom Brady had declined in New England. It turned out that maybe his supporting cast and his coach had also declined at that point.

But anytime you're getting somebody like that, you are getting them for a reason. Aaron Rogers goes to the Jets and the Steelers as an all-time great quarterback, but he goes there because he had declined in his talent as well. or Brett Farv goes to the Jets of the Vikings because they were ready to move on to Aaron Rogers. So there's always going to be a reason. But oftentimes the teams that have rolled those dice have had success in doing so. So of course, I would be on the side of, yeah, I mean, if you could get Lamar Jackson, find a way to make it happen. And the same goes for Joe Burrow as well. But there's another quarterback who's going to be out there, my friends. And you can't deny the possibility that Kirk Cousins could return to the Minnesota Vikings.

They redid his contract in Atlanta, so now they have a decision to make. It's either give him $67 million of guaranteed money or let him loose. I'm just going to go ahead and guess that the Atlanta Falcons will not be giving Kirk Cousins $67 million of guaranteed money in the early part of March. So they will be releasing Kirk Cousins and making him a free. agent and the relationship there there are pluses and minuses to this and i i don't think anybody would look at bringing back her cousins and say wow what a great idea because you're talking about two years removed from where he was in 2013 and the i'm sorry 203 and the irony is

that cousins at the beginning of 23 is playing some of the best football that we had seen him play. But that team was not ready yet to win as a complete team. If you could copy and paste early 2023 Kirk with his healthy Achilles to the 2025 Minnesota Vikings, this team is winning 13 games again because he was playing really, really well, especially against San Francisco, especially against Green Bay before he got injured. And with cousins, he knows the offense extremely well. Kevin O'Connell knows the ins and outs of working with Kirk Cousins, the pluses and minuses. He performed pretty darn well down the stretch, did not throw the deep ball that great, but executing the offense, playing and play out. Cousins did a good job and won some games

for the Atlanta Falcons, and he could get the ball to Justin Jefferson. We do know that. Jefferson put up all those record-breaking numbers with Kirk Cousins as his quarterback, so he if there is a thought that, look, maybe J.J. McCarthy needs another year behind the scenes is what he really needed, but they had no other options this year. And I'm still convinced that if Carson Wentz had played well, we wouldn't have seen and stayed healthy, we wouldn't have seen J.J. McCarthy again, and it would have turned into a developmental year. You could put it that way. I think if they do it, that means they're done with J.J. McCarthy, but you could always frame it that way that cousins would be coming in for one year to take

a shot at it again with a much better roster than he had in even i would say in even 2022 this is a better roster and a much more complete defense if they get brian flores back but even just player for player the amount of pressure they could create on the quarterback Dallas turner emerging Andrew van ginkle jonathan granard it's more complete and well the cornerback and secondary room has some questions i think it's better than it was in 2002 where they were really relying a lot on Duke Shelley, if you recall, and Andrew Booth Jr. and to Caleb Evans, this is a different story now. So that would be your argument for bringing back her cousins is that it's clear that J.J. McCarthy needs development behind the scenes. And cousins can get you through

another year, get you back to the playoffs, give you a chance. He's looked a lot more healthy than he did in 2024. And okay, there you go. You've got your starting quarterback. Now, of course, the reason not to do it would be if you have to sit down your young quarterback for an entire season to play a guy who's been historically a mid-pack level of starter and now is a back end of the league type of starter and was benched for Michael Pennix, it's not really very promising to swing for the Super Bowl. It feels exactly like 2021, where they made a lot of moves to swing to try to get to the playoffs and keep their jobs. That was really more of the goal. And that's what it would feel like

with bringing Kirk Cousins back. But you talk about irony. The irony of Kirk Cousins signing for potentially a reasonable amount of money is just you can't make that stuff up, right? That the entire time, we all agreed. And look, there are other things that held them back with Cousins. But I think we all agreed that if Kirk cousins had been paid $10 million by the Minnesota Vikings in 2019, 2021, years where they had pretty good teams, that they could have added those other pieces and they would have been in the playoffs or they, in 19, maybe they're more of a Super Bowl contender, but it was always the big cap hit that was holding him back in the short term contracts that gave them no flexibility and all that.

if he came back for $12 million, it's just like, come on, man. Oh, man, it's possible, though. And Kirk was on Kay Adams show, and he was asked about, hey, are you going to go anywhere where you have to compete for a starting job? And he said, well, obviously, I want to play. And that's the thing about J.J. McCarthy in a Kirk Cousin scenario is if you sign Kirk Cousins, that means he's been told he's QB1 from day one. and that means that what they've seen from J.J. McCarthy is just simply not good enough

and his odds of ever getting back on the field become pretty low at that point. And in doing my research about J.J. McCarthy for an article I'm writing about all the quarterback options, which there will be a podcast. But one of the things that stands out to me is that the quarterbacks that played at this level, there's not a lot of them that their team was super patient with. And the example that I'll use in terms of statistically close is E.J. manual for the bills, because I was there for that, but also they each started 10 games. So you have the exact amount of performance there. And he went four and six. McCarthy went six and four, but one of the games, he, well, actually, two of the wins he didn't even finish.

Max Brosmer had to win the one against the Giants. And then, you know, against the Packers, they're not even playing their starters. So, you know, how much do you make of that? But in terms of the actual performance, like the yardage, the touchdown interception ratio, the turnovers, the sacks, all those types of things. And by E.J. Manuel's second year, he didn't last until week five. In fact, I think it was week four where he threw an interception to J.J. Watton got benched. So historically speaking, there is not a lot of precedent for teams in this situation when they want to win and have spent money and so forth just sticking it out year after year after.

year. And if they were to go get her cousins, that would pretty much tell us everything we need to know about where this team stands with J.J. McCarthy. In terms of an actual likelihood, I'd give it like a 25% chance. I don't think it's crazy, especially since Cousins said on the Netflix documentary about his first year there in Atlanta, he said that he regretted leaving. I imagine his first phone call is going to be to Kevin O'Connell. do you want me back? And we'll see if that's something that happens. Of course, you know, it would not be my preference.

I would rather roll the dice for a quarterback like Kyler Murray or Gino Smith that might have a crazy Jeff George season in them than the same thing that we've kind of seen before and we know what that's like. But I will say this team is better. If we compare Kirk teams, I would say 19 was the best team that he played on. team was a good roster, but, you know, the offensive coordinator, that matters. So Kevin Stafansky, who's going to get another head coaching job and is one coach of the year twice as his offensive coordinator, Gary Kubiak's here, Diggs and Thielen, uh, well,

Thielen had a tough year that year, but, you know, Diggs was great that season. The offensive line was probably the best they had while he was here that year. So, you know, I mean, they were in the playoffs. They want a playoff game that season, but I still think if you compared what they have here right now and what we expect them to have to the 2019 Vikings, this is probably a better team. But also, it's probably a worse version of Kirk Cousins because I thought he was very good that year. So that wouldn't be my preference.

But if Kirk is back, well, then time is indeed a flat circle, my friends. So there's kind of your rundown of the things that are going on. Let me give you the Fandual question the day. And then we can get into your questions and comments, thoughts, and feelings. And let's look at Saturday's game for the Fanduil question of the day. The Bears and the Packers, they have two quarterbacks that people love to argue about in Jordan Love and Caleb Williams. The over under yardage total for Love is 220.5. And for Williams, it's 208.5.

Which one of these quarterbacks do you think has a better chance of stepping up in that game? Who would you trust more, Caleb Williams or Jordan Love, as you're going to be hate watching that game as Vikings fans? So, all right, let's get to your questions, comments, thoughts, and feelings, and we'll go from there. Anything on the table. That's kind of the update of what's going on, that there's a little bit of buzz for Brian Flores and the Ravens, but as of right now, he has not gotten any or at least reported inquiries for him for head coaching positions, which if you are, you know, looking for Flores to return, which I think everybody who follows the Vikings is looking for him to return, considering what he's done here, then that's a plus.

If you believe in any sort of, you know, justice in this world, then it's a minus because that means that they've just straight up blackballed him from ever being a head coach, which is unfair. Well, he did have some struggles from a personality perspective. He also turned around a franchise that had ripped everything apart in order to tank on purpose and got them to winning records. So, I mean, that should be factored as well, not just what Tua said about. about him or Ryan Fitzpatrick on podcast.

And that's all respect to one of my favorites journeyman quarterbacks ever. But, and I'm not doubting his experience or insight there, but they won a lot of games with Brian Flores on not a lot of talent in Miami. And then what he does, has done in Minnesota, you would think that that would automatically get you into the mix because we're seeing a lot less qualified people. And again, no disrespect to Clint Kubiak, who I think has done a great. job with the Seattle Seahawks. But that's kind of his first year of success.

And as a coordinator, he went to New Orleans, had some good games with Derek Carr. Things fell apart there. And he was with San Francisco, always good. 2021 Vikings offense was up and down. I think it was above average, but it wasn't great. So his first real great season offensively, and he's a head coaching candidate.

And you see this all over the league with certain people. And so for Flores to not get potential opportunities, it's clear if the Ravens don't interview him or if the Raiders don't have him in a second wave of a conversation then he has just been put to the side and then it comes down to will he go to Dallas

they have not been hiding their desires to hire Brian Flores or will he stay with the Minnesota Vikings that might be what it comes down to I would also leave the door potentially open for one of these teams who hire someone else to try to

woo him away from the Vikings to be their D.C. And that could also be the Baltimore Ravens. I mean, I guess any team would be on the table, but the Ravens would make the most sense because that's where he could potentially win. And if he doesn't want to stay with Minnesota, it's either a money issue

with the ownership and they don't want to pay him what he wants to be paid. Could be an issue of wanting a certain title or just could be wanting a chance to seriously compete for a Super Bowl, which in Dallas with him there, I mean, yeah, you've got a case.

I think Washington's in a little bit of trouble here and doesn't feel close to getting back to where they were. Philadelphia is probably on the other side and may lose A.J. Brown next year. Yeah, it's a division. And the Giants are nowhere close. So it's a division that could be won. And then I feel the same way about the AFC North.

If they hired Kevin Stefansky and he brought in Brian Flores as his D.C., I mean, so I think for Flores, you're not out of the woods yet just because he hasn't had these head coaching positions. We'll just have to wait and see. All right, let's get to your questions, comments, thoughts.

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which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety, effectiveness, or quality, prescription required, see website for details, restrictions, and important safety information. Okay, now, after some stops and starts there, false start, we'll get to your questions and comments. Benjamin says Dallas Turner, not a bust. That is true.

And I think that because of, the 2022 draft. You could see why. I mean, it went so badly, so fast that a lot of fans would see Dallas Turner not succeeding and say, oh, my gosh, did they do it again? Did they get another terrible bus that doesn't even really get on the field or whatever? But one, every player is different. And two, I think we saw the flashes of Dallas Turner in his first year, but they were

winning 14 games and they're trying to compete for the number one spot in the conference and remember granard and van ginkle stayed fully healthy in 2004 so he didn't get that many opportunities and then even at the beginning of 2025 van ginkle goes down after he spent the entire off season with them designing a role for him that was not hey just go be andrew van ginkle and i think that was a struggle as well and then with the offense it's actually really crazy because when you look at the number of pass rush snaps that Jared Verst had versus Dallas Turner this year, I mean, it's almost double the number of pass rush snaps.

And a part of that is that they're playing from behind for the entire first half of the season and teams are just handing off and handing off and handing off. I believe the Vikings finished the year with the fewest pass attempts against in the entire NFL. And this is kind of a Miles Garrett thing, too, like his accomplice. If people are trying to shortchange him, go look at the actual number of reps that he got. It's, I think it's less than Michael Strayhan, the number of actual snaps because everyone's running against Cleveland because they're winning. So the same thing happened here, but the pass rush productivity per snap was actually about even between Jared Verse and Dallas Turner this year.

I thought he took a huge step. And the biggest thing for me was, you know, when I get an opportunity to talk to young players versus old players, different feel sometimes because veteran players, they've been around. They know the deal. If they've survived for this long, they're probably pretty sharp and they really get it. But young players, they don't know anything about how the NFL operates and what you need to do in order to have success. And what I saw from Dallas Turner was him figuring it out. And this goes back to training camp when we were talking about it a lot and just chatting with him, his maturity from last year to this year, you could see he really started to understand it, but he never wavered

in his desire to listen to Grenard, listen to Van Ginkle, listen to Brian Flores, listen to his, the rest of his coaching staff. To me, that was a good sign. He wasn't defensive about his production last year. I think he was realistic. Like, I need to take a step forward. And then he did that. And to me, they've got a, I wouldn't call him a foundational or cornerstone type player just yet but somebody who is on the rise who you know can do it you know he can start you know he could sack the quarterback strip sacks make plays i think that having him drop back in coverage is just really really tough andrew van ginkle is a different type of monster from almost anybody that i can remember in this era there used to be guys like him under maybe rex

Ryan 2008, something like that, where the 3-4 was kind of big. Maybe the Pittsburgh Steelers would make you think of a Jason Gilden or something back in the day who would rush and drop back. But there's not many guys who can do it like Andrew Van Ginkle. So taking over his role was pretty tough. When you see him get an actual chance to rush and rush and rush, you see the high-end potential of Dallas Turner. And he's someone that they should feel very good about building with.

And that's why when we talk about the draft stuff, It's like, well, you know, they have done pretty well based on where they pick outside of Lewesine. That trade down, of course, was a mess. And, I mean, I don't know. If you draft Jameson Williams, there's probably a lot of struggles there through those first couple years. If you draft Jordan Davis, maybe you feel pretty good about that, but he took some time

to get to where he is, you know, that, but that draft, that goes completely bust. So now when you look at since then, their top picks have worked out, but they haven't developed other players. And some of the decisions there have made me scratch my head. Like you draft Kobe King and feel pretty good about him. And then you just cut him. You know, you have a Caleb Evans who, you know, hasn't like emerged or anything, but you just cut it.

Like, they just got rid of a lot of these guys because they were in, you know, win now mode. But Dallas Turner emerging is a difference maker big time for how the drafting looks for the Minnesota Vikings over the last couple years. Let's see. Ryan says even if they made that field goal Harbaugh would probably end up being fired if they fell short of the Super Bowl again. Yeah, that's a fair point, Ryan, because it seemed like the relationship had just gotten tense and uncomfortable between Lamar Jackson and John Harbaugh. And it's hard to say exactly why.

And we try sometimes these little things like there was a local news video that at the end of the game, Lamar Jackson walks right by John Harbaugh and just like, see you. I'm out of here. And then Lamar, as anyone, I think he's a little bit. I don't know if he's Gen Z. Is he millennial or is he Gen Z? But either way, whatever generation he is went to Instagram and posted something that maybe didn't seem the saddest about John Harbaugh being let go. And it's funny because I had a conversation with a friend of mine who covers the Ravens

during the owner's meetings. We were sharing an Uber. I was like, oh, let's Harbaugh. Like, that's got to be great. And she said, you know, you'd be a little surprised that the players are not as on board with him as you'd expect for a team that won that much. And it was reflected in the NFLPA survey that he did not grade out as high as you would have expected for someone at that level. And here we are, you know,

but that's the real thing. If you don't win for that long, I mean, Sean McDermott is a good example of this. If Sean McDermott loses to the Jacksonville Jaguars, they might throw in the towel and just say, all right, look, we got to. try something different here than running back the same head coach time and time again to get over the top. I think that it's the hardest. And I know Vikings fans would say I would kill to be the Baltimore freaking Ravens with Lamar Jackson over all these years. But it's a different kind of position to be in a frustration. You know what it reminds me of. And I think the wolves will win a championship with Anthony Edwards someday. But it reminds me a little bit of that.

where the regular seasons just become boring and every little thing that indicates you might not win the championship makes you enraged and frustrated and it's not just you as the fans it's everybody inside of a building the temperature gets turned up on a team when they have lived in a certain air but have always come short of the teams with the other players like Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady for so many years and Jackson lives in that air I'm not saying he's Tom Brady. exactly but he lives in the all-time great multiple MVP you know type of air and if you don't win you have to try something else eventually especially if that relationship has soured so you might be right that if they went into the first round and you know they got booted out they might have fired him anyway because it wouldn't be up to where their standard is set i also think that you know their roster building over the last few years it was so highly praised for so long and They made so many good decisions. But, oh, hey, we talk about this drafting all the time.

What happened to Kansas City? What's happened a little bit on Buffalo's roster? What's happened in Baltimore? What are these teams having common? Oh, yeah, they're never drafting at the top. And if you're never drafting at the top, it's really, really hard to get elite talent unless the Vikings don't draft Kyle Hamilton. Well, then you can.

But they were drafting 14th that year. Why? Because Lamar got hurt, right? Wasn't that why they were drafting 14th? Is that right? I can't remember now. But still, the point just being that they very rarely drafted high, and they're always in win now mode.

So then you end up with scrambling on the roster because you're not bringing in new talent. And of course, those three that I mentioned, they have expensive quarterback contracts as well. And it's just the league is designed to help the teams that are bad and hurt the teams that are good. And eventually it ran out for John Harbaugh. Mr. Mayor, do you think Flores would take Durante Jones to be his D.C. if he gets a head coaching position, if not, do you think he's the best guy for the position going internal? Well, that's a good question. I think their relationship must be good because they have worked really hard together on this coverage.

And that's the guy that he will praise the most when he's talking about, you know, Harrison Smith's role. And Harrison Smith has spoken extremely high of Durante Jones. he has been everywhere and a guy who interestingly was hired initially by Mike Zimmer and then came back during Kevin O'Connell. And was he on the, did he come back with Donatelle and then stay? I think that might be the case, which probably says a lot about how Harrison Smith has felt about him, but he's played in a lot or played coached in a lot of different types of defenses and has been instrumental in coming up with this morphious type of scheme that

nobody can really put a finger on. So it's a great question. I've always had Durante circled as the guy who would take over as the D.C. If Flores left, but I didn't really think of that part of it of, well, wait a minute, would Flores take him with him to be his DC? I would say that's very, very possible. If Flores leaves for a lateral move, you could slide him into that spot. I also think someone like Rahim Morris would have to be considered by Kevin O'Connell.

Morris and O'Connell were the coordinators in Los Angeles when they won the Super Bowl. but Durante has more than earned it and he would understand better than anyone how to fundamentally run the defense that Brian Flores has taught these guys. And when we look at how much overhaul there's going to be in terms of the roster, the answer is really not that much on the defensive side. I mean, safety, you're bringing in somebody new, but I mean, who else really? The starting corners are going to be here. the outside linebackers. Maybe Javon Hargrave is gone. I think Jonathan Allen is probably still here along with Levi Drake and along with

Jalen Redmond and Eric Wilson maybe gets re-signed. I kind of would expect that. Blake Cashman's going to be here. So it's not like they're bringing in 12 new defensive players for a new defensive coordinator. That would be a reason to stick with Durante Jones if, like you said. But it feels to me like not even getting an interview with the Raiders. that the chances just went down significantly, probably cut in half,

that he gets a head coaching position. Now it's really, because nobody else has put in for him, now it's the Ravens or likely nobody. And then does any of those teams offer him the lateral move that would be enticing to him? So who is even good enough? Well, the Ravens are good enough. We know the Cowboys are good enough.

Is there another team that fired their coach? I mean, you're not going to Arizona, you're not going to Cleveland. You're not going to, I mean, the Giants hiring Brian Dable over him and the sham interview or whatever, that's what one of the things that sparked the whole lawsuit. So I doubt you're going to the New York Giants. There's really only maybe two teams that that could happen. But you're not entirely out of the woods yet because it is possible that someone else gets hired as an HC and then makes him an offer he can't refuse.

but, you know, right now, after the first couple of days and the lack of buzz outside of the, you know, the media people who are making the suggestion, it feels like the odds of him leaving have changed just over the last couple days. Mike says, I like your idea of Gino Smith or maybe Jimmy Garoppolo as competition for McCarthy. I like my idea as well. Thank you. But with Gino Smith, the reason that I do like it is for three straight years, Gino Smith is an elite downfield passer, 2022, 2022, 2023, and 2024. He is a top seven and sometimes even the best. In 2022, I believe he was the best downfield passer graded by PFF in the entire NFL.

So when you think about that, who does that fit really well, Kevin O'Connell, right? His anticipation, his arm strength, he is a little bit on the older side and he's had some injuries. that arm has not slumped. And if you look at the Raiders, just read Kalyn Kailer and Ryan, I think it's Ryan McFadden for ESPN. They wrote a piece sort of behind the scenes of the dysfunction of the Raiders.

I'm not going to go ahead and blame Gino too much for what happened there because holy wow. One was Pete Carroll just hiring his son as an offensive line coach? And he had no idea what he was doing at this level. And that's a big part of the piece. I mean, if you're asking Gino Smith, a guy who has struggled with offensive lines that aren't that great, to have an offensive line that has no idea what it's doing, that's a pretty rough gig. So I think that if he came to Minnesota, number one, because of his recent performance, you don't have to pay him a lot.

If they cut him, you could also trade for him and maybe make them take some of the money. But he's not a guaranteed starter. That doesn't, trading for Gino Smith, the reason I like it is it doesn't mean that McCarthy is cooked. there are five or six guys, maybe four or five, like Kirk, Kyler Murray, maybe, well, Burrow or Lamar, maybe there's only a couple. Maybe there's only two or three guys that if they got, then McCarthy's cooked.

I think Kirk is one of them, and I think Kyler Murray is the other one. So if they got those guys, it's over. Those guys are starting. But if they get a Mack Jones or a Gino Smith, that's competition, that you should be able to win if you're on your way up. but if you lose, you could still make the playoffs.

And I think you'd be buying the, what do they call it? Buying the bounce or something in gambling when somebody has struggled a lot. Is that what they call it? I don't know. I don't know the gambling lingo that well. But we are presented by Fandul, but I think there's something like that. Fantasy is like that as well. It's buying the bounce, I think, off the, like off the bottom, right?

You'd be doing that with Gino Smith. And if you're looking for a guy who could get it to his top receiver downfield, I mean, he did that with, you know, D.K. Metcalf in Seattle. So I like that idea. Jimmy Garapolo, the thing about Jimmy is he kind of feels to me like a Carson Wentz. Like once upon a time, Jimmy Garoppolo was a pretty darn good quarterback. And I think it's a little unfair that he overthrows one deep shot in the Super Bowl. And it's like, ah, Jimmy, he stinks.

Like, well, okay. I mean, he got his team there, right? or that they, you know, run over the Green Bay Packers in the NFC championship game. And it's like, Jimmy did nothing. I think he was a good quarterback. It was a very unique situation to have a defense and running game and offensive line that were that good. But, you know, you've got those things, the wide receivers, the offensive system.

It's just that the last time he played, it was so bad. And it's been a few years. And he's on the older side. Could you get, I mean, could he play 17 games if you had him for, 17. I don't think so. He's always had a lot of injuries. So then you're talking about maybe like if he beats out McCarthy, oh man, like that's pretty bad. That falls under the wince. Like I think if you had to start wence for 17 games and he could stay healthy, you could probably win eight or nine games. Like if Wents had just take it over after week two and played the rest of the season, I think they would have

ended up mostly in the same spot. That's where I'd be with Gino or with Gropolo. With Gino, you could see it being Jeff George. You could see it being this guy who everyone thought was toast shows up here whips the ball around. There's a high end to that that might be kind of crazy or at least entertaining and tight games and big 350 yard performances or whatever that I don't see as much with Jimmy Garoppolo. But thank you. Friends of Taz says Jacoby Brissette would be interesting. he finished seven overall in yardage never was a starter for more than one season he falls under the category to me of a great backup quarterback but only a backup quarterback and well he did throw for a lot of yards it's kind of funny because the NFL was celebrating him setting the record

for completions they were down like 20 points the entire game and he just completion completion like Jacoby Brissette gets sacked he has no mobility whatsoever he's a guy that can just sort of complete short passes and that's about it like you're not going through a stretch of games thinking all right he's going to go seven and three for you it would take a miracle for Jacobi Brissette to do something like that what did he finish like one and 11 and I know it's a bad team but one and 11 for Jacoby Brissette that's not going to save your season. I think they need to strike that balance of somebody who can if J.J. McCarthy travels the E.J. manual route. Let's say he wins the job out of camp. They go two and two, but he's

really not any different than he was this year. You need to be able to pull that trigger and still make the playoffs and go, all right, Mac Jones, get in there. All right, Gino Smith, get in there. It's time. Let's go. Or if he's just not any good in training camp, you need to be able to do that. Mr. Mayor, I'm concerned our defensive personnel are so tailored to Flores' scheme that hiring a different guy makes them almost obsolete, like the Donatel guys that were obsolete after Flores took over. That's a fair concern, but I think if you look at the histories, now, Andrew Van Ginkle is clearly the best version of Andrew Van Ginkle when he's been here. But even if you look at him after Brian Flores left in Miami, he was still a great player. When they signed him, I think I, I'm not saying I'm the only person in America who knew who Andrew Van Ginkle was, but this is why I use the data so much because I remember reacting to the signing and being like, there's no reason for anyone to know Miami Dolphins, but this guy has crazy PFF grades. You got to see this.

And that was after Flores left. So I think someone like that is still going to be good. Jonathan Grinard, his job is just to rush the passer. So whether it's Flores or not, he's going to win off the edge. I think someone taking over might have Dallas Turner and much more of just a rotational rush the passer roll. That would help. But you're right, though, like you're right.

Some of the linebackers, the safeties, the corners. I think that Flores enhances the secondary by all the crazy rushes that he does. And if you, now, Isaiah Rogers turned out to be a great signing overall. He finished 13th by PFF. We're going to go over that a little bit later in the show. But that's a guy where you would say, if he had to play a different type of football, where the other team's quarterback wasn't under duress, and the Vikings, they had the lowest average depth of target against the entire NFL, meaning that opposing quarterbacks through the shortest passes against the Vikings. If that was not the case, are the corners and safeties as manageable as they have been recently? That is a very fair question, and it would be a reason to try to stay with Durante Jones

and keep up with the same type of system. But, you know, if you don't, and we saw this earlier, if you don't have Harrison Smith out there, like, there's real questions here if they lose Flores. Because if you don't have Harrison Smith out there, I think Josh Mattelis can do a lot of the same things, but Harrison is like an all-time great player, so it's a little bit different. There's certainly questions about if they can be the same level if they were to lose Brian Flores. Raymond says the Ravens, I believe, are a perfect fit for Flores. I think so, too, because even this year, as many problems as the Ravens had,

like, look at the first game of the year against Buffalo. They get ahead. They should just win the game, and their defense falls apart. Like, no one ever seems to mention it's just Lamar, Lamar, Lamar, Lamar, their defense wasn't that good, if not just straight up bad this year. And you're asking Lamar to win every game when he's banged up and it's just like not always possible. So a revamp of that defense with the all-time great quarterback would be something that they could really use. And then if you're Flores, you get Brian Dable, who was there with Josh

Allen with the running quarterback and you profit. I think it's a good idea. It's just, is somebody going to actually pull the trigger on Brian Flores and make that higher as a head coach? It's feeling less and less likely as he doesn't get any interviews. Zumer K.O. says when you move on from Sam Darnold, you're saying J.J. McCarthy is an obvious baller. Not only could he not throw accurately, but he wasn't as high intangibles as a game manager couldn't even run the plays. So this is the hard part about that, Zoom or K.O. Is you just don't really know what someone's going to look like until they get out there.

And I would say that the extreme example is someone like Max Brosber, who the coaching staff was they were not making it up about how high they were on Max Brosmer. This wasn't just some sort of PR. I've seen that like, oh, they're a coaching PR campaign. It's not. It's not. They really liked what they saw from him, but you go out and play the Seattle Seahawks defense and it's different.

And the same goes for playing against Michael Parsons in the Green Bay Packers. It's different. I did see today from Ben Baldwin of, I think he's the athletic. I know him as an analytics person that McCarthy, in total played one of the easiest schedules in the NFL of opposing defenses in terms of past defenses. I think he played. I think Ben, the tweet, let me look up the tweet. Hang on. I'll find the tweet because I saved it. Okay. Yeah. So, uh, Ben Baldwin on Twitter tweeted out that McCarthy

played this year two defenses that finished above average this. This, season in terms of past defense and that was Detroit the one time and then Atlanta and those were the only two defenses that finished even above average and not that much every other defense in terms of past defense including you know the Packers defenses pretty much fallen apart since losing Micah so that's a little bit different but still you know it's it's not it's not like he played the best defenses ever just speaking to your point but you don't really know how someone is going to respond to the pressure, the atmosphere, the disruption of the pocket that they could create.

And I thought that he improved his habits as he went along. Like earlier in the season, he was sort of jumping up with his hop, skipping a jump throw and that kind of thing. And, you know, against the Cowboys, he really led them to a victory that night. But from just practicing and just OTAs or just preseason, how do you figure out what it's going to look like in the real NFL with real teams playing

against you, the only way to do it is by actually playing the guy. Now, if we're re-litigating last off season, all the concerns that I had about J.J. McCarthy, every single one of them came to fruition. And this goes for anything. I'm not like trying to pat my back or anything. I'm just saying, like, we always do that with every decision that the team makes. We talk about, here's how it comes. could work. Here's how it could not work. Right. And with McCarthy, the biggest concern was he just

has not stepped up under center many times in these real situations and never in the NFL, no matter how much you like a guy in training camp or behind the scenes or how much VR he uses. No one's going to murder you with VR. And I also think that they believed way too much in their ability to coach fundamentals and to coach the accuracy into him. And they believed way too much in their ability to set up a perfect environment around him. Like, if you think about even Sam Darnold's environment around him, they benched their right guard midway through the season.

The left tackle got hurt midway through the season. They had to trade for a guy who really, really struggled. They had a well below average left guard who's now a backup. They had no running game really whatsoever. But Sam Darnold was able to work through those things. is J.J. McCarthy prepared, but Sam Darnold, the 21 or 22 couldn't have worked through those things. Of course not. Sam Darnold, in 21, 22 years old, if he was playing with multiple backup offensive linemen, no running game whatsoever, and his tight end doesn't even

show up until halfway through the season because of an ACL injury and then is not the same person, probably not, right? You're probably not beating the Seattle Seahawks in Seattle. That's five years of development to prepare Sam Darnold for that type of moment. And I think they thought we've got so much here on offense that it'll just, he'll just be able to do a couple of things a game, make a couple nice throws, a couple nice plays, and we'll just set up everything else. We'll just lay it on a silver platter for him, but they forgot stuff goes wrong. They didn't factor that stuff goes wrong around a quarterback. Look at Brock Purdy this year. I mean, Pearsall's hurt.

Trent Williams is out at the end of the year against Seattle. And for, I mean, Trent Williams played the whole season, but, you know, out against Seattle. He lost Debo Samuel. He lost Brandon Ayuk. Like, they're running game. They use it a lot, but they average like four yards of carry. It's not anything special. He's learned over these years to, you know, to be able to deal with some of those things in San Francisco as all great quarterbacks do.

J.J. McCarthy was not ready for that. I think the chaos theory is the thing that they most forgot about that. So, yeah, that's fair. And in terms of, like, running the offense, it's, it's not easy, man. It's not easy in the NFL. Friends of Tazas weren't the Bucks and Falcons trying to emulate Flores this year. Those coaches would be interesting. I don't think the Bucks are making a coaching change.

I think they announced that Todd Bowles is staying. Bowles has always been one of the most aggressive. It's always Flores and Bowles at the top in terms of percentage of, percentage of blitzes. And yes, the Falcons were a much, much more aggressive blitzing team this year than they were last year. Ryan says if Flores gets a head coaching gig and decided he wanted to run KOC's offense,

who would he take to be the O.C.? That I don't know. I don't know what his connections are OC-wise. Brian Daibel makes the most sense to me. Because, I mean, I know what you're saying, like this offense, this would be Rams-related, sort of connected in a lot of ways to San Francisco, you know,

maybe Kevin Stefansky is that type of person. If he doesn't get a head coaching job, then maybe we're talking about, you know, potentially Flores and Stefansky of a former Viking reunion, that one's a little bit tough to figure out. But Brian Daibel with the connection to the Patriots would be the one that,

whose name comes up probably the fastest. And I think that Daibel with, as an OC with Lamar Jackson would actually be pretty good because it certainly was with um with josh allen all right let's see mr mayor i feel like getting fired from being one of the 32 football head coaches in the world and working your way up from a position coach again would push you to change your approach well i really think that with flores that you know that situation he was a i think he was a linebacker's coach with the patriots and then a head coach right away.

So he hadn't even been, if I'm remembering this correctly, he hadn't even been a D.C. yet. And he was just thrown right into being a head coach. And when you come from the environment of the New England Patriots, is this not incredibly clear that when you come from the environment of the New England Patriots, there was a certain way of doing things. And when Ryan Fitzpatrick says, dictator, who does that make you think of? Oh, I don't know, Bill Belichick, right?

I think that there's a certain approach and a certain personality type that they really liked there in New England that does not always translate to every situation. And he had a very young team in Miami that they were trying to build up. And also, I don't believe that he did a great job of putting together a coaching staff. They were, they had co-offensive coordinators. That's preposterous. It's ludicrous. It is never going to work.

Like you need a guy who is in command of your offense if you're a, defensive coach. You can't have two guys both trying to run the offense. It's just silly. So something like that and the relationship with the quarterback and watching Kevin O'Connell and Mike Tomlin, I mean, these are two, if you were to name the best culture coaches in the NFL, Mike Tomlin is probably an all-time culture coach. The fact that his team every year, halfway through the season, oh, are they cooked, are they done? Duck Hodges is their quarterback or Mason Rudolph or whatever or, hey, Aaron Rogers isn't going to be good enough. And at the end of the year, and I know it took a missed field goal,

it takes some BS for everybody who just barely slips into the playoffs. But there they are in the playoffs again. So that's that's one guy and his connection with players. And the other one is Kevin O'Connell and his connection with the quarterbacks over these years. And also the way that he has built his relationship with these defensive players, not all of the defensive players in Miami loved Brian Flores. It wasn't like, oh, the defensive guys love him. and the quarterback hates him.

No, that wasn't the case. I remember hearing from, I'll just call it a colleague, another reporter in the NFL, who when they hired Flores was calling around, trying to find other players to talk about him. And there were some players who said, hey, I just don't want to be on the record talking about Flores. It wasn't a great experience.

That's not everybody, but that's some. And I haven't heard that at all here in Minnesota. He is connected extremely well with these players. and you saw Stefan Gilmore and Anthony Barr, two guys that have nothing to lose by sharing their takes and both of them go to Twitter because of course in the locker room you walk up to somebody, although I've always judged this in terms of specifics.

I've probably mentioned this before, but if you walk up to somebody and say, hey, let me ask you about Brian Flores. And you say, like, so how do you feel about him as a defensive coordinator? And they're like, oh, you know, well, he does a good job and whatever. It's just vague and kind of I don't want to answer this. this question, I mean, you might get the sense like, okay, I don't know that this is really what I'm, what I'm looking for or what I'm thinking is, is the truth.

But every time I've ever asked someone about Flores, I mean, Harrison Smith comes back and cites Flores as a reason to come back to the NFL. Like, I love working with this guy. And Josh Mattelis, you know, somebody who Flores worked together with Andrew Van Van Ginkle can't speak any higher of him. a guy that has made Van Ginkle's career from a fifth rounder to a superstar and Flores is there.

So everybody has different experiences, but I also think that there's humans in general were always changing and growing and improving. And he's done that here. But can you explain that to somebody else? Maybe. I mean, maybe if they asked Vikings players who don't want to lose him, maybe.

But can you, when it goes down, so publicly. If he never sued and Tua never said nothing, then this would be probably a different story. But so much has been out there that I think that that changes the dynamic. But I do think that Flores and his approach to culture and player relationships and stuff has been very, very good in Minnesota. How it's, how it was in Miami is now kind of years ago. It'll live with you, though. When something like that happens, it will live with you. Let's see. Let's see. class g says what if the vikings were the seventh team that called about john harbaugh i mean maybe i don't know so that has been a little bit of the the rumors out there of like somebody

called about john harbaugh that you'd be surprised but we can't it's the what is it the scott boris mystery team in baseball is always the scott boris mystery team that hey you know somebody called and who knows who it is uh there's a mystery team it was always the twins because then they would come out and say that they were in on whoever, right? They were always the mystery team. But yeah, look, I don't think the Vikings would do something like that. I don't think that it makes a lot of sense to change head coaches right now. The Vikings finished nine and eight.

If they had finished four and 13, I think we'd be talking about a coaching search because that would have meant that the walls collapsed on TCO Performance Center and the locker room fell apart and guys weren't playing for. for each other anymore and there was total calamity. But in a similar fashion of Mike Tomlin, if you can keep everybody pulling in the same direction and you seek out certain types of players who are going to every, like a Brian O'Neill who every single week,

that dude's just going to go play as best as he possibly can, regardless, and the whole locker room and Aaron Jones and Gernard doing, you know, playing until he literally couldn't, if you have a locker room full of those guys and your message hits with those guys, then you're probably going to be at least in the mix year in and year out. I think we really saw that from Kevin O'Connell. I've always felt like 2025 and 2026 was their window and that unless things went insanely wrong, there would be no reason to change coaches.

Now, they went very, very wrong at the quarterback position this year. But as far as the overall, you end with the same number of wins as the, what, the Packers, you I mean, it's like, all right, well, it was bad. It was a bad season. It was a disappointment. But the way that it ended matters. And in different worlds, nine wins gets you to the playoffs. It just didn't in this case.

So that's not to silver line anything. It was a huge disappointment of a season. You get to four and eight. The pressure comes completely off. You played really bad teams at the end. One team, you get your ninth win that's sitting their starters. I'm not patting anybody on the back. just saying that, oh, wow, you know, a guy who's a legend coach comes available,

I wouldn't be running to fire your coach to hire him just because he's available. They fired him for a reason, right? Because they don't feel like they're getting the most out of him. So with O'Connell, at very least 2026 is good with me. And that's where the pressure is very, very much on to fix what ails them going into next year. If he didn't have a 13 and 14 win season in the past, I might feel different. I might feel like, well, they'll never escape this thing. They'll never have a, you know, a double-digit win season.

But you can't feel that way when just last year they took Sam Darnold to 14 wins. Zumer K.O., the Stefansky Flores head coach DC combo in Baltimore would be their dream. Yeah, I mean, I think it'd be great. I still think Stifansky is a really, really great football mind who can run a team. But I don't know any one of them. us that could have gotten the Cleveland Browns, the position that they were in with their quarterback, where Deshaun Watson forgot how to play football and then got heard and Shadur Sanders and all that nonsense.

I don't know anybody who comes out of that looking good. Definitely don't. Ryan, how long do we have to wait before we can trade for a quarterback? Do you have to wait till March or could something happen after the Super Bowl? It's kind of funny how that works sometimes because teams will have those conversations. and then the trade will sometimes come out a lot later. I think it was, was it, was it the Brian Burns trade where behind the scenes in that documentary

about the Giants offseason, which they extremely regret, that they were cooking up the Brian Burns trade way in advance and then finally got that to go through. The Matthew Stafford for Jared Gough trade happened right in the playoffs, if I'm not mistaken. And then it wasn't, like actually finished until the new league year, but it had happened. The teams had agreed to it.

You could agree to it and then make it official when the new league year happens. That's usually how it would end up going. So it could, I mean, any day, yeah, you could, if you're trading for Lamar Jackson or Joe Burrow, you could be on the phone with them today. You could come to an agreement on a deal, you know, kind of handshake it. And then it's not something you can actually do until later. I mean, that could, that could be the case. Yeah, I mean, I don't know, right?

Because the, I'm pretty sure this is a rules thing that, you know, deep into the CBA, but I'm pretty sure you can't make officially a trade until the new league year starts because the trade deadline is passed and the year doesn't begin. But you can agree on it. You could certainly call and have that conversation. So, you know, you could be shoveling the ice out of your driveway, which has been super fun over the last couple days. and then get a notification from Adam Schaefter

that the Vikings have traded for Joe Burrow or agreed in principle to a trade would be how it would be put. But we'll have to see. I think that it's probably going to be resolved in March, like that, you know, Kyler Murray will, well, and that's a little different because I think if Kyler Murray,

if he gets released, they would do it after the beginning of the season, would that be with a June 1st designation? It gets complicated. It gets complicated. It'd be probably, I'm thinking that we will have this answer in March. That would be my guess. But at the combine, that's going to be pretty interesting with all the rumors and everything

else going around and people talking to each other and so forth. Okay, let's see. Jim's has no chance that Jackson goes anywhere with a new coach coming in. I generally agree with that. Friends of Taz, the new Ravens coach is probably going to want to keep Lamar Jackson. Yeah, I would think so. well and that's the number one thing before they can really get into their coaching searches they need to be able to tell their candidates we are sticking with lamar jackson so if you don't see the ravens interviewing people right away then actually get get pretty curious if the baltam if it comes out three days from now and the baltimore ravens have talked to no one then okay like what's going on is there something happening behind the scenes with lamar's future because no one's taking that job. You call up somebody's agent for Brian Flores. Hey, Brian, we'd love to have you talk with us

about the job in Baltimore for head coaching position. You want to fly down? Is Lamar staying? And if the answer is, well, we're not sure. Okay, call me back when you know. That's how that should be handled. So that'll be something to keep an eye on. Like, do they start interviewing candidates right away because if they do then you know Lamar's thing and look I still do you know Burrow seems more realistic than Lamar and I kind of bounce back and forth on this but you know Burrow next year the contract gets interesting and the Cincinnati Bengals are crazy and they're cheap and I don't think that they want to pay him I don't know that Baltimore is cheap necessarily but even then they've left the door open the past so both of these guys it's not insane crazyer things have happened in

the NFL than Lamar. Jackson and Joe Burrow, uh, getting traded. Let's see. Uh, Mr. Mayor, how do you say that, uh, uh, like it's fate, like it's fate that Kirk is coming back. Yeah, I mean, uh, the question is, uh, is he willing to compete? I don't think so.

I do not think that Kirk Cousins would sign here unless the job is his. That, I, the experience of the last two years of not being the guy and then coming in and winning games with the Falcons, I don't think that Kirk is going to say, you know what? Sure, I'll drop into the Vikings and then I could risk my maybe last season in the NFL just sitting behind and watching J.J. McCarthy start. No, no, no, no. He's got to be guaranteed that he is coming. And remember who his agent is, by the way. He's not going to let Kirk make any mistakes. I guess, yeah, I guess you could say the Falcons was a mistake, but it certainly wasn't financially. The point just,

being, I don't see it. There are other teams that are in desperate quarterback situations. Now, that would be the only spot, though, if every other team told Kirk, nah, now, we're just, you got to compete with whoever. We're going to draft somebody. You're going to be our backup. If every other team that's interested or needy of a quarterback told Kirk, this could be like an Andy Dalton situation where Dalton was a locked in starter for a long time and

then it just got to a point where it's like, nah, you're just a veteran backup. And he kept playing in the NFL because I don't know, he likes football. But if I'm Kirk, I'm going to, I don't know, there's probably eight to 10 teams that are quarterback needy. And maybe some of them would like to, like a Fernando Mendoza, like draft a quarterback number one,

but also because Kirk is in a position where he knows he's not a long-term guy. So maybe in that type of spot, he would accept a brand new drafted, quarterback, go to the Jets or something and say, all right, you're the starter, but if you play poorly, we're going to turn it over to our guy or if we're losing or whatever, and he might have to agree with that. In this situation, I think he would have to be told here. Because if you're Kirk also, I don't think you can go back to, there's, there's some sort of high school reunion metaphor working in my brain. Like, you can't just go back to your old

high school and not be like the man right you can't just go back and not be cool anymore so i don't know it didn't work but i tried to get there i think you know what i'm saying let's see uh zoomer uh how different would things feel if they had signed someone like jacobi brissette instead of darnold oh yeah that's a good question well it would feel if jacobi brissette was the quarterback at 24. I think they would have made the playoffs. And honestly, you wouldn't, the only difference, because you would have lost in the first round of the playoffs if you made it. They had a pretty healthy schedule in 2024. It wasn't the easiest in the league, but it wasn't the hardest. In 2024, they made the wild card round

anyway. They didn't win the conference. So that would have been similar. Even if they got to nine or 10 wins with Berset, it just would have been no question about moving on. They would have said, thanks Jacoby appreciate your time bro fun season we're going to go to j j mccarthy and it would have been like okay there's no conflict there's no regret if Jacoby brissette goes to Arizona and throws for a lot of yards and doesn't win games like you're not saying even if Jacoby brissette win in one 14 games you'd be like you never saw that come that's crazy but you wouldn't have said but with darnold he was so talented he was a number three overall draft pick he won a lot of those games with his arm

the Seattle game, the Atlanta game, five touchdowns. Like, there were games where they won because of Sam Darnold's ability to throw the football. That probably wouldn't have happened with Jacoby Bressett very often. So you're right. If they had picked like the Joe Flacco, the Berset, and they just rode that out, that we probably would have been like, okay, well, McCarthy struggled, but there's no regrets about the decision. What makes the decision look so bad is that Sam Darnold, I mean, yes, played this well in Seattle, but also that you could have seen it coming. When you look at, and I've gone

through this, I know, but when you go through the history of guys who perform like that, you just can't find anybody who didn't work out that 4,300 yards at 35 touchdown. I mean, anyone who's got stat head for pro football reference can run that inquiry, but the history of guys who perform like that, there's not many that didn't turn out to at least be a top 12 quarterback. And the history of guys who didn't play very much in college were thrown right into the mix, the Alex Smiths, the Mitch Trubiske's, the Mark Sanchez's. I mean, a lot of them won games, but the ones, the Ryan Tannale, some who worked out just needed more time.

And then the other ones were kind of game managery and then fizzled out. Like the history's not great on either side of that. And they just said, you know what? We're different. We're different than what all the research says about this. And also, the research also says, like, you can't judge a guy by one or two games. I still, it's going to be difficult for Darnold to win the Super Bowl. And I'm sure that some people will be like, see, you know, they'll do that game.

But if you, if you win at this level this much, you are a just a great quarterback. And I think that they overrated how much they did to make Darnold a great quarterback. and underrated how much he did to make Sam Darnold a great quarterback.