Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Counting down the 10 biggest Vikings offseason storylines

Episode Date: February 14, 2023

Matthew Coller ranks the 10 biggest offseason storylines and gets feedback from YouTube watchers. What will the NFC's QB situations look like? Are the Bears going to be dangerous? How will the Vikings handle Kirk Cousins' contract? And much more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to our beginning of the Minnesota Vikings offseason special. Yes, I know you could argue that the offseason began as soon as they lost to the New York Giants, but nothing could happen in the following weeks after that, except for all of us just watching the playoffs, watching the Super Bowl, and now finally that the Super Bowl is over. The offseason has officially begun for the NFL. Moves can start being made, though I don't expect there to be major moves for the Minnesota Vikings just yet, but they have a lot of decisions to be made, and there are other decisions being made by

other teams around the NFL that will have a serious impact on the Minnesota Vikings. So for this episode, if you're listening on the podcast version, I'm streaming this live on YouTube, which I plan to do quite a bit through the off season. So make sure that you subscribe to the YouTube channel here for Purple Insider. And we're going to have a lot of fun content there and have a lot of really good discussions with the comment section. So if you're watching this live, feel free to participate. I've made a list of the 10 biggest storylines of the Vikings off season, but I want your comments, what you think will happen.

And I will display comments on the screen as we go along as well. So you can see what's going on in the comment section. So I just want to say that I appreciate everyone joining in these lives. That's what makes them really fun is having the interaction and being able to get instant feedback from you guys on opinions and things like that. So I really enjoy doing these and I'm going to keep doing them throughout the off season because of it. And if you notice, I've set up a new little background here as well to try to make it look a little more like I'm an actual streamer now, as opposed to just posting myself in the office on YouTube. So anyway, why don't we jump right into it? I've got 10 and they're not in order. I have not ranked them from most important to least important.

I've just made up the 10 biggest storylines. We're going to talk through them and love to hear your guys' thoughts on each one. So let's begin in a not exactly Vikings area, but a Vikings area nonetheless. Number 10 is where will Aaron Rodgers, Derek Carr, and Jimmy Garoppolo land? And this also extends out to how will every quarterback situation in the NFL impact the Minnesota Vikings? I mean, the first one and the biggest one is Aaron Rodgers. And of course, Rodgers is going on a darkness retreat at some point here. Pat McAfee said that he was going to still come on the show and then go on his darkness

retreat and then decide if he wants to get traded or if he wants to stay a Green Bay Packer. There is a report that the Packers want to keep Aaron Rodgers, but are willing to trade him if he wants to be traded, which I guess says that they're not super serious about it, that they're ready maybe to move on to Jordan Love. And that's going to be a big difference. I mean, Aaron Rodgers may not have been the same Aaron Rodgers as we've seen in years past. But I mean, we're still talking about a guy that lit up the Vikings in the final matchup this year and somebody that they would rather see out of the division

and be completely done with Aaron Rodgers. But there's other quarterbacks who could land on teams that might make an instant impact and make them more difficult to go against next year if they're on the Vikings schedule or just make it harder for the playoff race. And at the top of that list is the Carolina Panthers could draft a quarterback, but they could also chase someone like Jimmy Garoppolo. How about the New Orleans Saints and Derek Carr? It seems like that is the top potential landing spot for Derek Carr, but that's not a guarantee that he ends up there. He could also go to Tennessee and end up being out of the division. So, you know, I think that

where these quarterbacks land, which teams choose to draft quarterbacks, that also begins with the Chicago Bears. Will they draft a quarterback or will they stick with Justin Fields? I tend to think that they're going to stay with Fields, but at the same time, you could see them maybe going all in on Ryan Poles and rebuilding that team from scratch with somebody who's on the rookie contract if they don't believe in Fields. Again, I don't think that's going to happen, but it's not totally crazy since it just happened a few years ago with Josh Rosen and Kyler Murray. So the entire NFC, the landscape of the quarterback situations could change kind of in an eye blink. You could have an influx of talent. You could have Aaron Rodgers going out. You could

have a ton of rookies in the NFC next year, or we could get not that many major changes. Certainly the Saints, certainly the Saints certainly the Panthers and probably the Atlanta Falcons are all looking for upgrades and those teams you know will be battling for probably wild card spots for next year so that's number 10 on my list let's get a few of yours in here from Deontay here storyline, will the front office move on from fan favorites and bring in new talent? This one is definitely on my list. Uh, Deontay for sure. I mean, I've, I've got that one is really being one of the biggest storylines for the Vikings for this entire off season. And really the next six weeks, we're going to begin to find out is,

are they willing to just rip that bandaid off off or not i definitely agree with you there uh from ron um let's see time to get the offseason started with a bang and trade kirk cousins and draft a quarterback to build around him you know i i think that there are a lot of people ron that are ready for something like that that are ready for some explosive storyline to talk about with the quarterback position and for them to completely reset where things are, the question that I would have is just how realistic it is for the Vikings to do something that big this offseason. I mean, it is the Vikings and we can never underestimate this team's ability to do something big. I mean, it is the Vikings and we can never underestimate this team's ability to do something big. I mean, they paid Kirk Cousins more money than anyone else ever. They brought in

Brett Favre. They brought Randy Moss back in 2010. Like this team knows how to get their name on the scroll at ESPN, but can they actually trade him? Could they find a partner for him? How much could they get back? And if they think they're going to draft someone, how do you convince one of those teams in the top 10 that so desperately needs a quarterback to actually make that trade? So I feel like it's unlikely that the Vikings would move on from Cousins now, but will they set up the future to move on from him? And of course, we'll get to that storyline a little bit later on our list. This one coming from gets 99 GG, another storyline here. What will the bears do with the first overall pick? I mean, if you're the bears, how do you

not trade down with that draft pick, right? Because if you think about just their situation in general, let's say that they put a good amount of stuff into this offseason with their cap space and they draft somebody at the top after moving down a few spots, pass rusher, whatever. And so they've got additional draft capital to work with after trading down presumably a lot of draft capital. And then let's say Justin Fields is bad. That's not the worst thing ever for them. That's kind of a lion's type of situation where

they would end up with just more draft capital for the next year. And I'm sure that Chicago Bears fans want them to bounce back quickly. But if Fields is great, then they just roll with them and then they just put more into it and then they're probably good like the jaguars were this year but being bad actually isn't the worst thing for the chicago bears for one more year because caleb williams is at the top of the draft and they could always pick another quarterback next year so in order for them to pick a quarterback and move on from fields i think they would have to be either A, really against Justin Fields and feel like he's a disaster. He'll never get better.

I don't get the sense that that's what they think. So it would have to be then that they really believe in one of these quarterbacks to take them number one, that they think that say Bryce Young is the best quarterback prospect they've ever seen, and they just want him and only him. And those things happen, but I don't think they're going to do it. It is the NFL offseason, and lots of stuff happens that is unpredictable, but that would really surprise me. I think the most likely scenario is that the Bears trade down a couple of spots to a team that wants to jump up to number one and take Bryce Young or CJ Stroud or Will Levis or whoever they think is number one. And then they'll draft a pass rusher, a defensive player. Maybe, I don't

know if there's a wide receiver that's going to go that high, but it seems like defensive players are at the top of the draft for them. So drop back and let Justin Fields find out in that third year, because when you look at some other quarterbacks like Josh Allen, for example, it's usually that third year where we start to find out if the guy can really play. And they've got to get him some receivers also, if that's going to happen and not just chase Claypool, which was probably one of the worst moves of last year at this moment, that could change. But they just have not gotten him a whole lot of weapons from Adam.

Wonder if you think that KOC and Kweisi using the phrase, building a championship caliber standard is a sign of them actually making the changes needed or if it's just coach speak. Yeah, that's a great question. And the answer is I'm not really sure. Like I think their actions are going to tell us that. If I had to guess, I think that they want to play the middle, that they want to build through the draft of which they're going to have to get some more draft picks and slowly phase out the older part of this team

into a newer part of this team. That's how it feels to me without ever having to really drop back. How realistic is that? It's hard to do. It's hard to do without ever having to have a reset year and with things that are facing them next year that are going to be more challenging. That will be hard to do, but I don't think that this is a team that wants to go from 13 wins and be the one that everyone's talking about in January. It's like, wow, what a huge disappointment. They went from 13 wins to six and what a disaster the Vikings are. I don't think they want to be that team. I think that they want to remain competitive and try to build through the draft year after year around what they have. And then Cousins, where he fits into this, is complicated. Like, is that a long-term part of it? Is it a short-term part of it? Is quarterback was kind of leaving the door open a little bit. I think that they understand everything about last year that we understand from looking

at the numbers. Like they know that the defense was nowhere close to good enough. They know that the offense was potentially very good on a week-to-week basis, but had its flaws that kept them from being an unbelievable offense. And if I just had to lay down my guess, if I had to put the $100 on a wager of what they do, I think they'll try to keep the offense entirely together. And they'll just try to add pieces to the defense. They'll draft on defense. They'll sign a couple of players on defense and they'll

give it another shot while not locking themselves into necessarily a lot of players, super long-term and potentially moving on from someone like Eric Hendricks. And that would be my guess. But we're going to have more to discuss on that as we go along. Josh here absolutely must get rid of Adam Thielen. Love him him but he's done you know that seems to be the feeling of a lot of people about adam thielen that he's reached the end of the road and there isn't much more to give there and history does sort of speak to that as far as receivers of his age group i'm sure that adamielen himself, who's always been a big believer in Adam Thielen, or otherwise he wouldn't have gotten here from Mankato, probably thinks that there's

more years in the tank of being a really good wide receiver. But this year showed us that if he's going to continue with the Vikings, it has to be more of a role shift. And is he going to accept that role shift? I don't really know if he's going to accept the role shift, but from the way that he talked at the Superbowl, it sounded sort of like, okay, you know, can, can we work something out to make sure that I stick around and his family is here. He spent his whole career here. I'm sure that the Vikings would love to have him retire as a Viking, but it also depends on how he envisions this future. If he's willing to take a backseat to another wide receiver as wide receiver two, then he can be an effective third

wide receiver, lines up in the slot, catches underneath passes and things like that. But if he still has the expectation that it's him and Jefferson 1A, 1B, then it's pretty, pretty hard to see that working out. But I would still lean toward they work something out with his contract and keep Adam Thielen. I don't think that they want to just send him packing, but if they reach an impasse with that contract situation, then that might be what they have to do. This one comes from Adam. How do you follow the advanced metrics when the results are so different versus expected? That's an interesting question. Yeah, I mean, I think the reason that you hire Kweisi Adafl-Momensa is to understand how strong you really are, right?

And if he can't do that, then why did you hire him? I mean, right? I mean, and that doesn't mean that he has to agree with me on everything. He might not. He might see things in the numbers that I don't see. But, you know, I think that you hire Kweisi Adafo-Mensa to see through the noise, that he is supposed to be the guy who understands how to hunt for the real truth about what you are as a team and where you're going. they were good and they were exciting and they were fun. And that guys who were in their prime still or late primes made a lot of plays to keep that season alive and to make things happen. But at the end of the day, they weren't strong enough to be a real contender. And all the

numbers pointed to that, whether you like the DVOAs or whether you like the expected win loss or whatever. And, you know, I mean, having an offense that can put you in the top 10 will get you into the playoffs and having an extremely weak division and an easy schedule, like these things will get you into the playoffs. But I think what we saw in the Super Bowl was it only takes you so far. So compare the metrics of the Chiefs and the Eagles to the Vikings, and it's not really going to look anywhere close. And I think if you set those teams as the standard for what you have to be to reach the Super Bowl, and sometimes there's random stuff,

but most of the time it's teams like that. If you set that standard and use the advanced metrics as your guidepost, you can see how far they have to go with their roster to be on the same level as that uh this one comes from cash is that hepper uh top storyline are those n64 games behind you if so where is goldeneye yes they they are i've got two maddens here with me uh madden 64 mad Madden 2000. I think I have Madden 99 also. And I have not one, but two copies of GoldenEye just in case one were to ever break in the other room where I have some more video games. So yes, I made sure that I kept those.

And the funny thing is if you try to look online for like how much they're worth, I mean, people will pay good money for copies of GoldenEye, but I don't ever want to get rid of those. I've got Zelda. I've got all the classics. I've been playing the Sega Dreamcast now that the season is over. 2K2 for Sega Dreamcast. And I put together like an all-star team of 90s washups. So I have like Andre Risen, Andre Reid, Troy Aikman is the quarterback of the Browns. So yeah, that's what happens when we get to the offseason. During the regular season, I can't play any video games whatsoever.

And then as soon as the season ends, you know, there you go. This one comes from Len. Who would the Vikings never trade? Oh, that's an interesting question. Who should they try to trade? Jefferson, Hunter, Derrissaw. Yeah, who would they never trade, Hunter, Derrissaw. Yeah. Who would they never trade as Jefferson and Derrissaw? I think those are the two guys that if anyone calls and says,

hey, we'll give you two first round picks. You just go like, nah, I'm good. I'm just good. Nah, I'm good. I'm good. Three first round picks for Jefferson. They better be pretty darn high first round picks. I mean, this is a player that eventually what your plan is, and there's no question about this. This isn't like a Kirk Cousins criticism. Your plan has to be to have a new quarterback eventually. And when that quarterback arrives, just based on Kirk Cousins age, like at some point, they're not that far away from him being like almost 40 years old. He's on the back half of his career. There's only so many more years. This is going to happen.

You want Justin Jefferson to be there for whatever quarterback arrives next, whether it's a veteran, but especially if it's a rookie, imagine you were able to take, and this is like the Justin Fields example. If they had drafted Justin Fields, would he look like he has in Chicago or with Justin Jefferson? Would he look like a different man? Because we can look at some of the stats of even Kirk Cousins when he's throwing at Jefferson or anybody else. It's remarkable how much a receiver at that level, the best in the entire league can rise you to the top. Where is Mario Golf? You got to bet, Bob, that I have Mario Golf, 100%. In fact, during the pandemic, during the lockdown, that was one thing. I taught my wife how to play Mario Golf, and she is not a gamer at all. She did not grow up playing video games, and she was actually really good at Mario Golf

and she liked it a lot. So yeah, yeah. That's another classic though. Zelda, GoldenEye, Mario Golf to me are like, and the Maddens right at the top of the list. Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball, I also got that one going on. That was a year where I think the twins were like the worst team in baseball, but it's the 98 season. So it's Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire, Ken Griffey Jr. I mean, yeah, it's good. It's good. This one comes from Jason Hicks and Kendricks need to be let go as well. Kendricks is an interesting one because I want to know, and I don't know that he'll tell us when Brian Flores does his introduction press conference I would love to know if he's a huge Eric Hendricks fan or if he thinks that they need linebackers who are going to blitz more or if the team is looking at Hendricks salary cap hit and just saying we can't really it. I think Hicks is a pretty much a lock that they move on from him. I respect him as a longtime NFL player. He was great to cover

an interesting guy, very insightful, always available. So much respect to Jordan Hicks, but it was always kind of going to be a one-year thing, I think for him. So Brian Asamoah needs a spot to play. And then after that, um you know Eric Hendricks is up in the air but then this is what's hard because you can make an argument that they misused Eric Hendricks but you can also make an argument that linebackers after 30 years old like we were talking about it for receivers linebacker is even more pronounced I mean it's almost like running back that these guys get to 30 and you know, that's, that's probably it for them. And I think we saw some of that last year.

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Greens is giving you a free one year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. Go to athleticgreens.com slash insider. That is athleticgreens.com slash insider that is athletic greens.com slash insider check it out uh from e felt kirk's value has never been higher although he had a down year numbers wise he won 13 games that's got to grab attention of a quarterback needy team. Yeah. I think that if the Vikings put cousins out on the market and they, they sent a group chat text or something to every other GM in the league and said, who wants Kirk? I think you get like five text messages back of people who would say like,

oh, we're interested in Kirk. But after seeing that the offer for Derek Carr and the whole contract thing is going to work out. So Derek Carr is cut and can sign wherever he wants. But what New Orleans was willing to give up was a third round pick. And that makes me think that probably third round, second round is about the best you would do for Kirk Cousins. And this goes to the, like, are they just going to rip the bandaid off type of question? And I just have a really tough time thinking so. I just can't, I shouldn't say I can't see it because I don't know what I'm going to see when it comes to a general manager who's new and a head coach who just went through this for the first time and how they feel about it. But that 13 games, I think, will ultimately hold them back

from making that big rip off the Band-Aid type move. And also the fact that last year, and maybe there's always an excuse, I don't know, but last year, one of the reasons that they had to sign Cousins to a short-term deal was when you looked around, it was like, okay, Jacoby Brissett, Andy Dalton, draft Kenny Pickett. They didn't like any of those options. So they decided to go with the shortest term extension for Cousins. And then, as you mentioned, his numbers were not as good in certain areas, but he certainly came through in a lot of big situations. Also, you saw the players rally

around him, which I think matters if you were trying to move him, that that's been a concern before is like the leadership element of it. And I thought as far as when he's winning, everybody gravitated to him. We've seen in the past, I think when he's not winning, instead of gravitating to him, they point the finger at him, but that's maybe just the life of an NFL quarterback. But to your point, yeah, I think that his value is pretty high. One of the issues with his value, other than the contract, which is a major deal because you would have to extend him, is the fact that there's kind of like several Kirk Cousins around on the market. Jimmy Garoppolo is a Kirk cousins. Derek Carr is a Kirk cousins.

Like you can get these guys. And now there might be a team eventually who's just sitting there without a quarterback that like, Oh no, we were trying to win and we don't have a quarterback. We need to make a trade. But by that point, where are you at in the off season?

And, you know, last year, as I mentioned, they couldn't draft quarterback in the first round unless it was picket. He was the only first round caliber quarterback. But then this year, there's four, maybe five. Where are they being taken? Because as you go through the top 10 teams, how many can you come up with that need a quarterback? It's like all of them. I mean, there are more teams than there are quarterbacks that need them. I mean, you could make a good case for the Seahawks needing a quarterback. You can absolutely make the case for the Carolina Panthers. So we'll know better after we get through some of the next couple of weeks and then we get to free agency. we will know better where that's all going

to stand for which teams actually need quarterbacks but it's it's without trading your entire future on a roster that's in pretty bad shape where you can't really afford to trade your entire future uh that one's it's just hard to like make it work to be able to trade away cousins and then draft the next quarterback. I wouldn't be surprised if they sort of go half measure and draft the guy with the third round or fourth round pick. They have a fourth round pick. Yeah, I think they do. It's a next year's fourth was involved in the Jalen Rager trade, but they don't have a lot of picks later on. Maybe we'll hear about Brock Purdy and everyone wants to find the next Brock

Purdy. Let's see. This one comes from Old and Slow. I relate to that. I wonder how much the Vikings had to tell Flores that they would lean into the defense in order to get him. That is a really good question. And I don't think, again, that Brian Flores will tell us the answer to that question. But I also wonder about when it came to the Arizona head coaching job, if he knew, like, look, I'm probably not going to get that. And if they gave some indication that they were leaning towards someone else for that Arizona head coaching job. And Flores said, well, let me make sure that I get in with a good organization, with a coach that I'm familiar

with. He's familiar with Kevin O'Connell. They were both in the Patriots organization. So let me get in there and put myself in a position where if I turn around this defense that I'm going to have more buzz because nobody likes anything more than teams love hiring somebody who turned around in anything. If you turned around an offense, if you turned around a defense, they're going to like you. And Flores, of course, is already well qualified to be a head coach, and that's an entirely different story. But if he wants to get that buzz going, then turning around a defense could be part of it. Also, if he believes that no one's going to hire him as a head coach again

because of the lawsuit situation, then he could have multiple years here to build the defense in his vision. I'm not sure which one of those things would be attractive to him. Do you go into that room as the Vikings and say, hey, Brian, Ed Donatel used all these players wrong. Can you use them right for us? Then we'll be great. But that doesn't sound like realistic to me. I think that they wanted a change in philosophy to be more aggressive with Brian Flores, but I'm not sure that they, you can really sell somebody on that.

Maybe more of like, look, we've got a project for you, but you're the right guy to do it. And oh, by the way, our ownership will give you a lot of money and security to make sure they get their guy because they had lost out on a Giro Evero. So they would have been left really like talk about last person without a chair. When it comes to the defensive coordinators out there, they would have been the team without a defensive coordinator candidate that they really wanted. So I think they probably had to pony up. And I will circle back to some of the lists I have of the off-season

countdown for the top 10, but you guys are bringing great comments here. So continue to do that. From Dave, the evolution of the game is simple. You want four to five running backs, three to four receiving running backs to play slot like Cordero Patterson and four to five throwing running backs, run the throwers out of the second contract and spend elsewhere. I'm not sure I totally follow that, David, exactly what you mean by that. But throwing running backs is maybe a good idea for the future. Maybe you meant like quarterbacks there. I'm not really sure, but let's get back to our list for the countdown.

Well, actually one more, one more comment here from Josh. Let's see. Is it completely out of the question to suppose the Vikings draft a one B to Jefferson's one a in the first round? I hope it's not. I hope it's not out of the question because I think

that when you break down all of their needs, you can certainly find lots on the defensive side, a corner, a defensive end, a defensive tackle, linebacker, maybe even. But at the same time, like that receiver position next to Jefferson, you can never undervalue that. And I just feel like I want to do every time, just like Eagles, look at them. Devante Smith, right after Jalen Rager, you could go, well, you just drafted a receiver next year. Don't, don't you want to find out? It's like, well, you can never have too many. And Mike Zimmer used to say it about corners. It's probably true about corners. It's super true about receivers.

That the San Francisco 49ers are another great example. One of the reasons Brock Purdy came in and was so good, and I think he is a pretty good quarterback, but one of the reasons he came in and was so good, Brandon Ayuk, Debo Samuel, George Kittle, they get Christian McCaffrey. Like five weapons is probably where you want to be, or four, not two, not just Hawkinson and Jefferson. You want to have multiple

people that are dangerous. And I think that if they drafted a wide receiver to put next to Jefferson to say, you've got your one B, and this is the person who's going to stretch the field or make plays after the catch, because that's just not Thielen or Osborne as down the field wide receivers who could criticize it after watching so often this team sort of settle at the receiver position like Albert Wilson or Tajay Sharp or Jordan Taylor or all these guys that they've brought in through the years, Kendall Wright, that have just added nothing to their depth. I mean, I think that it's time to have some depth. So yeah, I think that that's a, I think that's a very reasonable idea. So number nine on my list, I started number 10, like three

minutes into the show and you guys have just had a lot of interesting comments to bring up. But number nine on my list was whether to extend or trade Daniil Hunter. And I think this is a very difficult decision because if there's one person who is actually going to get the Vikings back legitimate trade value, it is Daniil Hunter. At the same time, if you trade Daniil Hunter, then you don't is Daniil Hunter. At the same time, if you trade Daniil Hunter, then you don't have Daniil Hunter. I know this is the analysis you guys came for, but not having Daniil Hunter means you have to find the next Daniil Hunter, which they've been searching for for quite some time. And one thing we know about defensive ends is they're kind of

becoming like quarterbacksbacks where if you draft one and he's on his rookie contract, you are in great shape, but they get very expensive if they're good. And it can be a good problem to have, but very expensive. We're talking about $25 million per year. If you're Daniil Hunter, you're at least over $20 million per year for your asking price. And it's going to linger that injury that he had to his neck. It has to, in everybody's mind, be sitting there as like, do we really want to sign him to a five-year extension worth $125 million or something if there's an idea that he might not make it through five years because he's been perfectly healthy over the last two with the neck and had the shoulder injury before the torn pec. And then the torn pec isn't something that's

a long-term issue. It's really the neck that you would be concerned about, just like with Zedaria Smith, back and knee issues. These are things that can impact people long-term and really make them regress in their career. And I think I agree with Adam here, where it has to be a first round pick to trade him. Or the only other thing about that would be if he says, I'm just not signing here. Now, I don't know why he would, because he's really been through it thick and thin with this organization. So it seems like if they're willing to do it, then they would probably do it. Or if he's willing to do it, I should say, then they would probably just make it happen. But also, they've really dragged their feet

with Daniil Hunter over the years. I think this is year three of us, or maybe can it be four years? I think it's probably three of us having this conversation. Will they trade Daniil Hunter? Will they finally give him the big contract extension? We have done that over and over with that dance. And it might just be time to say, you got to save the money on the salary cap and move on from Daniel Hunter. But I don't think

you can do it. If you get third rounder, a second rounder would be a really interesting discussion to have. It might depend on where that second round pick was, but two years down the road, three years down the road, is he going to look like he looked in the second half of this year? And we can't really guarantee that. Also, with a Justin Jefferson and a Christian Derrissaw extension, how are these all working in conjunction? Because those are major positions in terms of money. These are the highest paid positions in the NFL. Can you have a top five paid receiver, a top five paid tackle, and a top five paid defensive end? And of course, maybe you can fit them all if you don't have a top paid quarterback. But even then, it gets tricky because they're talking about 25, $30 million in the future. So,

you know, I think that, um, I think that that is absolutely on the table and is one of the biggest storylines of the off season is what happens. I would lean toward just with this team's history, recent history, I would lean toward them extending Daniel Hunter rather than trading him. I think it would be very gutsy. And also was that part of the conversation with Brian Flores? Like, well, you guys really have to keep the good players that you have. I guess we'll find out if that was or not. Or does Brian Flores think I can turn any outside linebacker into a pass rusher with my blitz packages and we don't have to pay that guy i don't know because he kind of put it all together in miami and they created their pressure through

blitzes and the interior rusher christian wilkins was really a driving force there and not as much super expensive edge rushers so i'm not sure uh does he want to cobble together a rotation or does he want to develop the next pass rusher? It might come down to that. But just knowing this team's loyalty to their good players, usually they always come through with an extension. That's generally the safe bet. And speaking of which, number eight on my countdown 10 list of the biggest storylines

is not a shocker to anybody. Will Justin Jefferson sign a contract extension? Because the Vikings have to go to the table and say, here is the most money any receiver has ever gotten in NFL history. Would you like to remain a Minnesota Viking? And then he has to decide how he feels about the organization, I think, because the money's going to come and he's going to have targets and whoever he plays with, he's going to be the number one receiver. It probably does. You know, I mean, he wants, I'm sure, to play with a great quarterback.

So wherever he would want to go, there's going to be a good quarterback there. He can have kind of whatever he wants. The world is yours. If you're Justin Jefferson, it's can you kind of convince him? It almost feels a little bit like in a way, almost like a college recruiting thing. Like, can you convince Justin Jefferson that this is going in the right direction? I think the way this one plays out and these are all just, you know, kind of tossing it out there to start the offseason and it could change in an instant he could sign a contract tomorrow and i could be

totally wrong i think he'll wait and see and assess later in the offseason and oftentimes we've seen these extensions for like delvin cook so for lots of players signed right before training camp or in the first day of training camp so i think that he's going to go through the off season and start to find out like how i feel about this team am i willing to you know lock myself into this uh for a long time um let's see question from david uh would i trade justin jefferson for number one overall uh completing uh let's see in the division trade all involving wide receivers yeah yeah i mean as far as the yeah trading in the division and giving justin jefferson to the bears yeah you're really asking for it there uh but hypothetically would you trade him for the number one overall pick?

I tend to lean toward no. And the reason I would lean toward no is because I don't think the number one pick always guarantees you the best quarterback. What we've seen recently is we don't know which one. In drafts that there are four or five. Sometimes it's Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson who are what the third and fifth taken in a draft like that, like this year. And I, and that doesn't mean I think the number one pick always bust Trevor Lawrence is the best out of that draft class. And the jury is still out on Mac Jones and Justin Fields. Probably it's decided on Zach Wilson being a bust, but you just don't

really know. I don't think that you have to do that. And it's also a little bit of chicken and egg because when you draft a quarterback, what you want to present them with is Justin Jefferson. It's going to make them better. Do you think you can get another Justin Jefferson in the draft? I think you can get other receivers in the draft and other receivers in free agency. I don't know if you get another Justin Jefferson. I mean, we are talking about one of the best players already in Vikings history

through just a couple of years. I mean, I, that would be a hard one. You know, if, if they were to do that and it won't, won't ever happen in a million years,

if they were to do it and drafted Bryce won't ever happen in a million years, if they were to do it and drafted Bryce Young number one overall, it would be, A, you want to talk about playing Madden. That would be the most Madden thing. It would be the most gutsy thing that they have done since when? Is it since bringing in Favre? Since trading for Hershel Walker? I mean, it would be one of the most gutsy things we've ever seen in the NFL for trades to move on from a megastar wide receiver

who's the best in the league to draft a quarterback and put everything into it. But I don't think that that would be something that would be necessarily very smart. I think it's a much better idea to go through this year, set yourself up to have a high enough draft pick to draft the quarterback next season and then give them justin jefferson but as far as a hypothetical i you know i do think that there are a lot of people uh that would say yes to that and

you're like you know what you're never winning without the quarterback and look at the quarterbacks who just played in the super bowl but neither one of them were the first quarterback off the board in their year. So I don't know that that has to be something that you do. Number seven on my list is will the Eagles success influence the Vikings? That is something I really want to know because it has been well chronicled here on Purple Insider, just how the Eagles got to where they got, but it wasn't just one bad year in drafting Jalen Hurts. They did a lot of stuff to reset their salary cap, to stock up on draft picks, and they had to hit on those draft picks.

But they made a lot of very, very smart moves in the draft with their trades, the type of positions that they targeted. And I wonder if that matters to them or if they were already looking at the Eagles as a team that they wanted to be like in the first place. Or if now, after really seeing how much stronger the Eagles were than them to say, OK, you know what? We've got to do some of these things that the Eagles did. Moving on from Carson Wentz, moving on from Elshon Jeffrey, who played a huge role in their first Super Bowl, doing things like that, moving on from the veteran players, bringing in the draft capital after seeing what the Eagles did. I'm not 100% sure if that's going to influence them or not. But I think that if Kweisi Adafomensa is looking for mentors around the league,

who should I follow around this vast league of general managers and philosophies? It's a pretty good guy to go with if you're talking about Howie Roseman and the way that he's handled that. And draft luck is always a part of it. But I mean, a lot of smart moves and even being able to survive the bus draft picks when the Vikings have run on the razor's edge all the time with their salary cap situation and just bringing back everybody, paying everybody. We always put it on Kirk. It's not all on Kirk because they paid a lot of people that they shouldn't have.

They were paying Anthony Barr and Kyle Rudolph to be on the team last year. They weren't even on the team. Delvin Tomlinson is a nice player, and he was good last year, and I respect him a lot. But Delvin Tomlinson is going to cost you $7.5 million to not be here. That's not good. That's not the way you need to manage these things. So, you know, I think it is a very good point, Deontay, that you make that the Eagles ownership allowed them to make those moves. And I'm not sure either whether the Wilfs will, but I think

that that part of the story is worth keeping in mind that they moved on from some expensive players and from a quarterback they drafted that was really thought of as a success of a draft pick and moving on from a quarterback that you think is a success is a very hard thing to do. Adam makes a good point that, you know, they missed on so many draft picks the last couple of years. I mean, just like, yeah, that's right. I mean, you'd prefer to add two firsts every year. Well, I mean, of course, of course, the flyer thing, I think Rick Spielman really took that to the extreme. And I also think that maybe Kweisi Adafo-Mensa went to the extreme last year by really dedicating himself to trading down. And this is why,

and we're kind of like back to draft chart season, but like, this is why I've always felt like if you have a pick in the top 15, you make your pick and don't have any other conversation about it because those guys are the ones who turn into the best players. Outside of that, you can make the argument to me, like moving down out of the back of the first into the early second. OK, odds might be pretty close at that point. Late third into the fourth to pick up an extra draft pick. Why not? But if you keep trading back and back and back, you trade yourself out of positions where you might be able to get decent players. And David, you are right that they have missed on just a lot of corners. Yep,

they've drafted a lot of corners and they have not worked out. I think it's a premium position, but I also look at the way Philadelphia and San Francisco and, well, I guess Kansas City drafted corners this year, but Philadelphia and San Francisco have seemed to often want to fill up the defensive lines. And then, well, you know, Darius Slay, though, on the back end of Philadelphia. But, you know, I think there are some teams that kind of look for deals with players who are not as expensive at the cornerback position and not putting everything into those first round picks because they can be volatile and they do get hurt a lot. And that's been really the major issue. We never got to find out whether Jeff Gladney would turn out to be a good player. He's very talented, but just unfortunately had a lot of personal issues. And then when you're talking about last year, both of those guys are good prospects,

but we never got to find out because they just get injured all the time. So maybe there's something to trying to get veterans, uh, there, but, you know, I think, um, uh, Jonathan makes the point about drafting in the trenches, probably not a guard again. I mean, maybe they're just going to have to let it develop. Uh, but, uh, I would say as far as, you know, when it comes to the defensive side, they have not had interior pass rush for some time. And I could definitely see them going into the trenches there. So let's go back to the list here. Number six is something that you guys have brought up, and i want your feedback on this which veterans will return uh if i was going to put down a guess right now for this offseason

preview or kickoff or whatever you want to call it i guess it's a kickoff of the offseason i would guess that delvin cook is not back and eric kendricks is not. And Jordan Hicks is not. And Delvin Tomlinson also hits free agency. And Thielen and Harrison Smith are back. That's where I would put it right now. I don't know for sure. With Delvin Cook, that one is the no-brainer of all no-brainers. If they bring back Delvin Cook, I'm really going to have a lot of questions. Because last year, I felt myself going to have a lot of questions because last year I felt myself

saying, where's the analytics? Like you hired the analytics GM. But then I think we all kind of came to the same conclusion. Well, you know, they're dealing with an ownership that wanted to stay the course and give it another try. Oh, okay. All right. And then Kweisi Adafl-Menson made some good moves, some bad when it came to trying to put all the chips into the middle of the table. The best of which was signing Zedarius Smith, signing Patrick Peterson and trading for TJ Hawkinson. So those were good moves. And then there were others trading for Ross Blacklock, trading for Jalen Rager that were not effective moves, but now it should be the ball in his court but if delvin cook returns

that makes it a lot harder to believe the ball is really in his court then you're going to wonder who's really calling shots here because there's no argument to bring back a running back that expensive at that age who was that ineffective and whether it's a lack of burst or whether it's the system that you run or whatever, I mean, it's just not worth it because it wasn't a fit. And they talked about Delvin Cook as being a guy who they could potentially throw the ball to, and they just never did it. And you'd like them to find a guy who they can actually do that and throw the ball to. Kyle, I agree with you

that Delvin Cook hasn't really been the same since that second shoulder injury. It's also like the reality of just running backs, right? It's, you know, running backs are going to get those injuries. They're going to get banged up. And, you know, I agree with Josh that said that at times it looked like he was trying to make sure he got out of bounds. And they probably should not have played him as much as they did. They should have limited maybe more of his touches. But there's just no justification for bringing him back. Let's see. David, you're talking about Kendricks and Zedarius Smith as guys who should stay.

And I could see that. I could see that. Eric Kendricks is one that I am kind of willing to wonder what he would look like with Brian Flores and playing that aggressive system. And he's a free agent after this either way. But there really isn't anything else they could do with this contract. That's kind of the problem is that it's not like there's money that they can change or bonuses that they can adjust or something like you got to play him

at 11 million bucks if you're keeping them. And that's a lot for an inside linebacker. Zedaria Smith, I would agree that it makes sense for Zedaria Smith to stay, but I also do really wonder about the knee issue and how much he slowed down in the second half. But that would be a hard one to just say, all right, you're trading Hunter, you're getting rid of Zedaria Smith and, uh, Hey, Brian Flores, good luck in turning everything around. Like that's, that's, that's not probably something that Brian Flores wants to hear.

Um, as far as Kendricks goes, Jason, I did feel like he didn't have the same jolt that he had before. You're saying he's too slow and that they should cut him. And I think there's an argument for that. And what's interesting too, is that teams actually have, and this is crazy, teams have access to data that could actually prove that or disprove that, by the way, that they should be able to tell from the NFL next gen statistics where the tracking devices in the linebackers pads, was he as fast as he was in previous years? I think that our eyes would all tell us that he was not, but how much of it was the system and things like that? You know, I think that Kendricks is as good as you can possibly be of a leader and somebody that you want in your locker room. And so there is an argument for that with him and Brian Asamoah to keep them together.

But there's also a case to say, why not just get somebody else at half the price who might be a little bit younger? Josh, you don't think that the Wilfs will allow influence regardless. They want to stay competitive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They do. But I think that you can stay competitive without being stupid, like without making moves that are just illogical. And in the past, and maybe they don't think this way. Not everyone's reflective. We're like reflective by trade, right? It's like what I do is to look at the past and look at the future.

And you guys who think about the Vikings 24-7 to the fact that you're here watching this after the Super Bowl, you think about these things. Do they think in terms of, well, you know, we tried to hang on to this player and that player too long and it really hurt us. I don't know if they do. I don't know that they reflect on it the same way, but they should be looking at it from that perspective that they've made that mistake too many times. This is a good point by Deontay. Zedarius Smith failed a physical before landing in Minnesota. We think so. We think so. Suddenly he had a deal fall apart. Just as far as factually speaking, I can't say that for 100% certain because Kweisi Adafo-Mento

wouldn't say that. Zedarius wouldn't. The Ravens wouldn't, but I mean, we got a pretty good idea here, right? Jonathan brings up that, you know, thinking about getting the defense to be younger and faster is absolutely, absolutely something that they need to consider. Adam bringing up, you know, Eric Hendricks playing in zone coverage, and yeah, that's why I could see him back. I agree that last year he was in a role that didn coverage. And yeah, that's why I could see him back. I agree that last year he was in a role that didn't fit him. And that's why I bring up that there might be some data that we don't have access to that could give us a better answer. So if they bring him back, I think that means that they really value the leadership, but also they think he was

used wrong. And there might be an argument for that. Number five on my list is, of course, will they extend Kirk Cousins? And this is the $39 million question. If they'll extend him, how long they'll extend him, or will they let it play out? Or will they do what some of you were calling for earlier and try to trade him? I would be very, very, very stunned if I woke up to an Adam Schefter update that says the Vikings have traded Kirk Cousins to the Colts or something, who I did hear were interested last year. So I don't know. But that one seems far-fetched. Seems like the Colts are going to just draft a quarterback. But with Cousins, I think that it makes the most sense to me to try to just play it out with Kirk Cousins. It made the most sense to me last year to play it out. Now, maybe they would have said to me now that they'd be in a really weird situation had

they let it played out, but I would say the opposite. If they had not extended him last year and not used the handful of dollars to sign Jordan Hicks and instead just played Brian Asamoah, is that better? Yes, that is better because they'd be sitting here now with complete freedom at the quarterback position. They could go out and chase one of the veterans. They could have a quarterback that's kind of a filler and draft a quarterback. They could use draft capital to trade one of the veterans. They could have a quarterback that's kind of a filler and draft a quarterback.

They could use draft capital to trade up in the future. I mean, they would have all sorts of flexibility at this point, or they could still extend Cousins at the final hour if they really wanted to. But projecting out into the future, it's very hard to say what this is going to look like with Kirk Cousins. So I think had they not extended him last year and not had the no trade clause and so forth, that they would have been in a very good position. This would be extremely advantageous if you were, say, Jimmy Garoppolo that would sign a one-year deal or something and then draft a quarterback. Todd

brings up Anthony Richardson richardson in the comments like someone like that trading up to try and get him i don't know if that's going to happen or not but i mean they need to think about that for what's this going to look like a year from now the options that they could have the available quarterbacks that might be out there what the draft is going to look like. But I think Cody is probably right that if I had to put odds on it, I would say Cousins gets extended through 2024 so they can try to trade him after next year if they want to, or they can hang on to him next year if they want to. Jonathan says that Kirk is the Wilf's ticket to competitiveness. However, we all know that not, he's not the correct route unless he is grooming a Richardson

or Hendon hooker. Uh, yeah. And I don't think that Kirk's really that guy. I don't think that he is one to take somebody under his wing. I mean, we talked about that with Kellen Mond. He was pretty hesitant to ever say that he was going to train Kellen Mond or something, and that never happened. So I don't see that going on. But I also don't see this one either, the Trey Lance idea. Until the 49ers officially announce we are not trading Trey

Lance, then every single live stream and fans only episode is going to have Trey Lance conversation for sure. I'll always say that I don't hate the idea, but I don't see any real path to that happening. Number four on my list is the Bears and Lions and will they make big improvements? Now I could see as far as the Lions just running most of it back with some defensive improvement and being a really good team. We saw that in the second half of the season. We saw how well Jared Goff operates that offense. And the biggest thing for the Detroit Lions is that they're bringing back their offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson, who was tremendous for them, just tremendous in the second half of the year that their offense was terrific,

but they just need to figure it out defensively. And they might look at Aaron Glenn and say, I don't know if he's really the guy to be their defensive coordinator. And then that might be the problem, but I think it's probably just talent that they need more players. And they're in a position to go get more players. I think Detroit is right now. Is this weird to say the favorite for the NFC North? It feels weird to say because it's Detroit. But based on the second half of the season and their future projections,

it makes a lot of sense, especially since Jamison Williams is going to have a full season with them. He really didn't play because of the ACL, but now he's going to have a full offseason to get ready to go. And Amon Ross St. Brown proved himself to be a consistent superstar wide receiver. They can run the ball. They've got a great offensive line. It's just really their defense that needs to improve, and they can be a good team. I think the Lions are very dangerous. The Bears, assuming that they

don't trade Justin Fields, are probably a year away. Now I'm interested to check in with some of my media friends. You guys know Courtney Cronin from ESPN who's covering the Bears now in Chicago to find out what they think that that team's going to look like. So I'll try to do that within the coming week and get a better sense for this one. But I do think that the Bears have so much cap space, they can improve their offensive line. That might be the ticket right there because their offensive lines have just been so bad being cobbled together with tape and glue, you know, trying to bring in like Riley reef last year.

It's just, it just has not worked for them. And what Jay was Jason Peters the year before, although he played okay in his stint with Dallas, but like that was their answer. And I think now it's time for them to start building up their defense, to get more weapons for Justin Fields through the draft, to sign some wide receivers. They have the most cap space in the NFL, and it's actually by a mile. So they can do a lot of the same things that Jacksonville did. And I think that maybe it's realistic to think that the Bears could be like a seven-win team next year, maybe a little bit better than that.

It really depends. I don't know what to think of Matt Eberflus as a coach. How could anyone know after last year? But at least they figured out that running Justin Fields was a good idea. Next question on my list, number three, is how much will Brian Flores impact the defense? And we've discussed this a little bit here, but I think that Brian Flores could be great at his job next year and develop players and have a super fun defense that chased everybody around and blitzed like crazy. I'm working on a little bit of a project right now, looking at Miami in his two years, 2020 and 2021,

and how effective, which was very much the blitzes were, but they could still have their bad days. And maybe a lot of them just based on who they play and the talent development. But I think that Brian Flores impact is going to be felt pretty much right away by how much different they play and the players that they bring in will be guys that are sort of, of his, of his vision. That, you know, I, I think, I think that Flores' background, he really has a, or really should have a sharp idea of what makes a linebacker, what makes a safety, what makes a corner. I mean, these are positions that he's coached. These are positions that he's scouted. So I think that Flores alone will make

them a better defense, but I don't know how much better they actually get. Like David thinks that they're going to move up 12 spots in the defensive rankings. That's hard for me to say when you face the quarterbacks they're going to face next season. That Patrick Mahomes guy, you know, I saw him in the Super Bowl and I think that he's pretty good and they're going to face him and they're going to face Joe Burrow. And I saw him in the championship game and they're going to face Jalen Hurts. And I saw him in the Super Bowl. These are all guys on their schedule. But I agree with you, Adam, when you say that they're going to go down throwing haymakers. That I totally agree with. I totally agree with. And I think that long-term,

if they play their cards right, and they don't go crazy to keep everybody and they give play young players chance to play that Brian Flores is impact will be significant. But that is one of the major questions really about the off season is how much does he influence where the defense goes, I think is really the offseason tie-in to this. Because we won't find out for many months what his impact on the look of the defense is going to be exactly, but we will find out what free agents they're going to bring in, do they draft in the first round, all those things in Brian Flores' vision now that he has taken over

essentially half the team with Kevin O'Connell focused on offense. All right, two more, two more. Defense in the draft and how will the Vikings acquire more draft capital is my number two on the list. And I think that it makes a lot of sense to draft defense, as every mock drafter has pointed out. Every single mock draft basically has the Vikings taking a corner. And I can't really argue with that, considering where they're at. But I also think that pass rush is another thing that you can never draft enough of. Edge rushers, even if you went that direction they usually take some development especially if you're drafting at 24 will they be drafting at 24 or will they trade out of that

which i think is very realistic if we're talking about like draft night and they're set to go 24 and here comes the ian rapaport report oh they've traded out of the first round and all of us are sitting there going oh no like uh i, uh, I think I'm going to do one of these live streams, uh, that night I'm trying to decide, obviously I've got a little time, but if I do a draft live stream, just like this, and they end up trading out of the first round, it's going to be just like, Oh, what do you guys want to talk about now? Uh, so I don't know if that will happen, but it's a big story that they just have almost no draft capital. Do they get it through trading veterans?

Do they get it through trading down? And will they go with a defensive player in the draft? Uh, now if, you know, there's a couple of names being thrown out already and my draft prep is just beginning. The draft is a little ways away. Combine two weeks away. Uh, Joey Porter jr what is that, Penn State? And is it Zay Flowers, the wide receiver from Boston College is thrown out there? I mean, I'm in for wide receiver always, but are they going to draft

a receiver? I would be surprised. Are they going to draft the corner, the pass rusher, those sorts of things. That seems more likely now that they've hired Brian Flores, but it's a, it's a wide open position for them in the draft. And that is one of the biggest storylines is, do they move up for a quarterback with what little draft capital they have? Do they move down and try to get multiple players like they did last year and sort of stick to the process? Does the process change now that things went the way that it did last year? It's a big, big, big question of will they continue to try to put all of their assets toward defense in the draft and develop these players year after year to ultimately come together and be a good defense eventually? Or will they just say, you know what? We're not going to be a good defense.

So let's sign a couple of veteran corners, bring in another receiver and go to town. All right, let's get to the last one here on my list or number one is how will we feel about the team's timeline by the start of training camp? I mean, this is the question of the off season. When we get to training camp next year, will we be setting the expectation at if they don't win, then they blew it, which was really how it felt going into last year. And they kind of did both. They won and then they blew it so i don't know whether it was a success or not that's still a debate to be had from last year whether it was even they didn't seem to know when it came to the press conference at the end of the year it's like do we brag about 13 wins or do we apologize for losing to the giants? And the answer is yes. Both of those things. So, you know, how we feel

about it, meaning do we walk away from this off season, believing that this team has turned this ship in the direction of the Superbowl or not? And think about it that way. Like right now, are you pointing toward winning a Super Bowl someday? And what do you need to do to point the arrows toward that or point the ship toward that? It takes a while to get a team to a position where they're as strong as Philadelphia or as strong as Kansas City

and you need to land the best quarterback in the league and all those things. But so no one thinks that they're going to just snap their fingers and be way better than last year. I don't think anyone believes that, but are they going to turn the ship that way with a bunch of all in moves and totally shock us? Or are they going to turn that in that direction by moving on from older

players, by getting their cap, right. By getting more draft capital. Like, I, I don't know how we're going to feel about that. Or are we going to be doing one of these on a Monday night at 10 o'clock in August? And we're going to say, you know what? It kind of looks like an eight win team and they're stuck in the middle forever. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know where, what we're going to be saying by then, because there's a big part of me that thinks having seen all the way through from 2016 to now, since I started covering the team that they've, they've been bold only in, you know, trading Stefan Diggs, trading for Sam Bradford.

Things like that have been bold. But they've never really wanted to say, all right, that was the end. Now we're going to try again. Because they always had enough talent to make the case that they just needed X, Y, and Z. They've always had enough talent. But I don't know that that's really what they have now. Maybe they, maybe they would make that argument at quarterback at wide receiver, but after seeing them not be able to advance with this defense, how can you make the case that you

have enough talent on that side of the ball to go any farther than you really did? So, you know, I, I think I agree with you, Jonathan, saying that you have to trust analytic quasi to do the right thing, but we just don't know if analytic quasi is the one calling the shots. And that's what we're going to talk about a million times. And I can't talk about it enough because I'm just so interested in all the moving parts and all the dynamics of how this ends up working out. Cody thinks that we're starting, we're going to look at a new window starting in 2025 or 2026. The next years will be dark. Well, I can't end the show on that, Cody. I can't. I don't know. I don't know because

like I keep coming back to this idea that when Kweisi Adafomenta got hired, they had to have a discussion about where this team stands, right? They just had to, like, that's the discussion that you have with the GM. You're not asking him like, are you going to find Kyrus Tonga? No, that's not, it's good that they did, but like, that's not going to be the discussion. The discussion is what's the timeline. That's, that's number one when you talk with the ownership and it's, you know, they, they did. We think that Ryan Poles may have wanted to tear it down. They wanted Ryan Poles by the way.

So I don't know that they were completely against in no way in any world they were going to tear it down. I think that they got convinced that in any world they were going to tear it down. I think that they got convinced that it wasn't the right time to tear it down once the trade offers came in and they weren't that special. That's the way that it sounded last year to me, based on my own reporting and reporting from national media people, that they had shopped everybody from Hunter to Harrison Smith to Kirk Cousins and put the feelers out there and didn't get the offers that they thought would justify tearing it all down. So it was in consideration. So it's not like

there's no thought at all to moving on from some pieces. I guess ideally what you would have wanted Kweisi Adafo-Menta to say after, and I don't know that he said this, but after they decided to do things like bring in Patrick Peterson, Zedaria Smith is, okay, we're going to do this, but then that's it. If it doesn't work, then we got to move along. And I think Rob is right that this is what's really going to determine the timeline is really just kirk's contract that if they extend him short term it's going to be the same exact issue they're facing right now and extending him short term only helps you so much money wise so if they extend him short term it really means the timeline is now again. And if they don't, then the timeline is much more toward drafting a quarterback next year and giving that player Justin Jefferson and losing some of these big contracts.

And then it gets really spicy after that. So I think that they have an opportunity to really reinvigorate people about where this organization stands, but they also have a chance if they don't do things in that way, in that reset kind of way, or in a so aggressive kind of way that we think they've totally lost their minds, but it's kind of cool. Like, I don't know, signing Odell Beckham or something. Like we would say like, you guys are nuts, but hell, it'll be fun. If I don't know, signing Odell Beckham or something like we would say like, you guys are nuts, but Hey, well, it'll be fun. Um, if they don't do either one of those things, then there will be a lot of questions about, you know, whether they have any direction at all. And I remember

last year that, uh, Jason Fitzgerald from over the cap when they, I think it was after extending cousins, or I can't remember which move it was, maybe the Daniel Hunter thing, letting it play out. And he basically said it's a rudderless ship. And I think that what he was doing is looking at down the road a year at where we sit right now. And are they going to change that? Are they going to make it? So it looks like it's a ship that's headed in a real direction? Or is it going to feel still rudderless, like a team that's going to be interesting and entertaining during the season and you're not going to hate Sundays or whatever because they're going to be close games and you win some, you lose some? Or is it going to be every week this year thinking about what this team can build into

in the future? And that is the number one question of the off season. So we got through our 10 list. We had a really fun conversation. All of you guys who show up for these, I think this is what I want to do. Maybe like you inspire me to do more. And I think I want to do this. Maybe, maybe I don't need 10 because it took a really long time to get through 10, but maybe a list of five that I'll do this on a regular basis, maybe every Monday night if I can. Sunday nights, we're still going to do podcasts to kind of preview the week ahead and things like that with Paul Hodowanek.

But going solo here, you guys make this work. If I was just talking at myself, it would not be very fun at all. So really appreciate all you guys who jumped into the comment section, made this fun. I'll make some more lists. I'll brainstorm some more ideas and we'll do it. So make sure if you're not subscribed that you subscribe and that you catch every episode of the Purple Insider Podcast. Lots of great guests coming up in the off season. We'll get into the draft stuff soon. We'll get into all the things that are moving parts in the off season. We'll get into the draft stuff soon. We'll get into all the things that are moving parts in the NFL. So I appreciate all of you guys taking the time, being interactive here,

making this great for me, and hopefully it was enjoyable for you as well. And we'll do it again soon. Thanks so much, guys.