Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Dalvin Cook and the Vikings break off talks -- what happens next?

Episode Date: August 22, 2020

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Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with ESPN's Myron Metcalf. Myron, you getting excited, buddy? We haven't had any massive COVID outbreaks. Training camps haven't shut down. People are staying in their own little bubbles. And I'm starting to feel like I can wade into the waters of being confident about football happening. Yeah, it's amazing what the incentive of millions of dollars in salary

will do for a person when it comes to a bubble and maintaining that. You know, having some pretty nice homes probably helps as well, but I do think the NFL could be the first league to really pull this off, considering that, like you said, we haven't had a lot of big outbreaks. I'm 100 percent confident we're going to play NFL football at this point. And that's a good that's a good sign. You know, they they took it seriously early. You know, it's clear that they even had individuals on these COVID lists who maybe hadn't tested positive but potentially had been exposed, which was very important.

And I think they have developed a method that should work. And my hope is over the course of the season, the testing improves so that now you can get results back even faster. And that, to me, is sort of the next wave here is if you can test a guy Sunday before kickoff, before he interacts with his teammates and find out that he tested positive and immediately quarantine him, that's how we can really play games throughout the course of the season. And it's exciting what the project at the NBA worked on with Yale, I believe,

to come up with a faster testing method that they should be able to start implementing here fairly shortly, I think. In the NFL, that could be a game changer where you can test so much faster. And the other part of it too is when you look at baseball and you look at players who were on the road for a couple days and these guys decided they needed to go to a casino, go to a hotel bar, things like that. These NFL players, from what I saw reported, are pretty much going to be locked down in their hotels. You're going to arrive, you're going to go into your hotel, you're going to stay in your hotel, they're going to bring you the food, hotels. You're going to arrive. You're going to go into your hotel. You're going to stay in your hotel.

They're going to bring you the food. And then you're going to play. Then you're going to get your butt on the plane. And you're going to fly right back to your own personal little bubble. And the fact that they don't have to stay for multiple days like a baseball team would, I think it gives them a better shot. I mean, you can always have a family member who has to put themselves at risk at work and then come back and give it to you.

And this thing is clearly not gone away in society because of how easily it spreads. So it's always possible that, you know, you could see somebody getting it from a family member or something. But if almost every day you're able to test test you can catch it quick before you end up spreading it to the entire team and the fact that they have distancing measures at all times around the facilities there there aren't too many times where you are maskless or whether you're or you're close to other individuals they're like those preparations were made on time and the league listened to the players on these safety measures and and it feels like they have saved themselves because of it

because i mean six weeks ago i might have told you gosh i don't see how there's any way this is possible but uh with enough money myron anything Yes, yes, and also having six months to kind of study this thing and you being the league that is not the NBA or college basketball where this all happened and you had to shut everything down. So I think that's helped as well. I mean, we don't have a vaccine, but if you read reports, there are medical professionals who are finding new ways to treat COVID, to deal with it. So I think the NFL has had the luxury of time as well.

And I feel like we'll play. Now, I don't know what fans in the stands does to all of this. That, to me, is a factor that you know really has to be scrutinized by the nfl in terms of you know how do you ensure that you don't have an interaction or don't have someone coming into the building potentially who could spread this um because i think that could jeopardize the nfl as well we've talked about it mostly in the context of players and if a player tests positive. But if some arena, some stadium lets 15,000 people in the building,

let's say, and then in the next two weeks, all of a sudden, there are 200 cases of COVID and everybody went to this game, the NFL is not going to be able to just proceed as usual in that kind of circumstance. So a lot of things to consider, but yeah, a lot of positive steps. And I know the Vikings want fans in the stands. I understand why. There's a lot of money at stake.

Even if you pull in 15,000, 20,000 people, if you're paying $100-something a ticket or more if the ticket prices go way up because they're so scarce then that's still a lot of cash. I mean think about NBA games get $15,000 in an arena and those guys don't seem to be struggling for money. So it's like

a lot of money that you'd be able to bring in just by having it a quarter full but I also think that if there's any risk whatsoever especially in dome stadiums that you really just shouldn't do it like take the first month off see where we're at after that see how other things have gone like with somewhere where Kansas City and this is just my attempt at being an epidemiologist but like it seems that the outdoors matters and how the air moves matters and if you're

outside in Kansas City and you're all spread out you might have a much better chance than if you're close in a dome that's just my guess I think it's better to be safe than sorry because if you do open your stadium and you do have an outbreak and people get very sick I mean even if you the thing about waivers everyone's like oh just the waivers just sign waivers it's all fine even if you, the thing about waivers, everyone's bottom, that would have even slightly put people at risk, you are going to be liable even if you had people sign a waiver. And that's the risk that these teams are taking to put a quarter of a stadium in for a few games. I think that they should just hang tight.

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a risk bringing anybody else into the building. To me, it's not even just the game itself, man. It's tailgaters. It's what's going to happen outside the stadium, you know, and are NFL teams liable if there are 5,000 people in a parking lot hanging out, tailgating, and there's an outbreak? I mean, these are the things that roger goodell has to answer the league has to answer but i think those are the questions that

could directly affect whether or not the league continues because again we are talking about it strictly as have players tested positive but this is the first league that is going to try to do this on the field and in the stands. The NBA hasn't done that. Nobody in the bubble. Major League Baseball isn't doing that. Nobody in the stands. MLS in the dome.

Even MLS back home now that they're starting the season again without, you know, in their home markets. There's no fans in the stands. So the NFL is actually doing something that has not been achieved yet in the COVID-19 era. And you don't want to be the group that kind of messes it up for everybody. Like, you don't want to be the group that figures it out on the field, figures out the protocols of players, and then all of a sudden there's

an outbreak as a result of what transpired at your game and now the nfl has to stop not even collar because they want to potentially because public officials say whoa you know what we gave you a chance to have fans in the sands there's been an outbreak tied to your game you what? You can't play for the next three weeks until we figure out, you know, what is the next best step. And I think those are the things that every NFL team is considering, and that's also why I think not having fans is the easiest way to avoid that other barrier.

Yeah, totally agree. Just play it safe for a little while. The Seahawks said, hey, the first month we're not going to do it and go month by month and just see what happens. Trust me, these players, they'll still get some money. These owners, they'll still get some money, billions and billions of dollars of TV money. And you're going to put it at more risk to put 10,000 fans in the stands and try to socially distance them and everything. I mean, even with society, we're like, oh, you know, we can open up bars if we put tables apart from each other. It's like that, this thing doesn't seem to work that way. So I think

that they're, by doing it, by putting some fans in the stands, I think they're taking an unneeded risk here. Trust me. Again, you'll make up the money when you go to 17 games. Jerry Jones is not going to struggle to put food on the table. Sell his yachts. All these guys who signed big contracts, Patrick Mahomes, $500 million

deal. Trust me, they'll be okay. But when I read that, that the Vikings are trying to do it i thought please don't please don't for right now and then as we go forward maybe it'll work um but i want to talk some actual football here sort of delvin cook myron opinions share them uh talks talks breaking off between delvin cook and the vikings i feel like you and i have talked about this now a bunch of times and every time we sort of circle back to boy he is in a tough spot here yeah yeah i mean i understand why dalvin cook is making that push now here's a guy

who has dealt with injuries but also knows how vital he is to a team that has lost some critical pieces. And all you got to do is point to the film last year and say, look how much better that guy was behind center. The guy that you paid a bunch of money, Kirk Cousins, look how much better he was when I was next to him, when I was around him. So he has that going for him. He has, you know, a GM and a coach who feel like it's time to win. You got to do something, you know, this year. This is a critical year for everybody involved. So I understand the push, but it's also clear that he doesn't

have the leverage that I think he probably wanted going into this thing. And it's so much bigger than him. Listen, Le'Veon Bell was franchise tagged multiple times. We made a big deal of it. This is, what, three, four years ago. Because we were going, man, this guy deserves a big deal, guaranteed money. You look back, and whether he knew it or not,

Le'Veon Bell's best chance of making that kind of money was with the franchise tag. Like, that was his best situation. This is a league that is not going to give long-term, lump-sum signing bonus money to running backs. Yes, if you're Christian McCaffrey, you might be able to get it. Yes, if you're Derrick Henry and you got 500 attempts a game, you might get that money in a place like Tennessee. But if you're Dalvin Cook, you're kind of in that weird place where if you're the Vikings,

you're thinking about the injuries, you're thinking about long-term prospects, and your best position is to franchise him in 2021. Pay him a bunch of guaranteed money, and then guess what? You may even do it again because I think that is the way that NFL teams are wisely looking at running backs in today's era. If we have a really good one, we kind of don't want to sign him to some five-year deal and give him $30 million, $25 million up front. We'd rather kind of take it year by year after

his rookie deal. If he's worth the franchise tag, we give him all that money. We do it again if we have to. And by that time, if he feels like he's got to get a lot more money, we'll just move on. We'll go right back into the draft, get two or three guys who can give us similar production so i i i like dalvin cook you know and i like his story and i like what he means to this team and i love to see guys get paid man you know i love to see guys put themselves in a position where they don't have to think about money if they're smart for the rest of their lives their families don't have to think about money if they're smart for the rest of their lives. Their families don't have to think about money if they're smart for the rest of their lives. From a business perspective, this is not about who you like. This is about how you're going to run an NFL franchise.

And in 2020, I am not giving long-term money to a running back. And that, to me, is where Dalvin Cook is in a tough spot, you know, because he doesn't have the leverage. And I completely understand why the Vikings don't want to overpay someone in his position, especially with his injury. Get back to the conversation in just a minute. But first, I have to tell you about something very cool from our friends at SodaStick.

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You want to get Soda Sticks' very cool prints. Go to SodaStick.com. That's S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com, and use the promo code P Insider for free shipping. How much do you think it matters that people like you think that it's not a good idea to pay star running backs? I mean, not you in general, but like media people, people on NFL Live, people on NFL Network, you know, whatever. But people on the local, NFL Network, you know, whatever, but people on, you know, the local media, the fans, like they've all seen these other contracts go bust, and they've all seen it play

out with the Todd Gurley's and the Devante Freeman's where we think, oh, my guy's different. See, there's this thing about him that makes him way more valuable than all these other running backs. And as good as Delvin Cook is, I think that so many people recognize that, that there is no pressure on the team to sign him to a long-term contract extension. And Le'Veon Bell is a great example where a guy looks like he's the whole offense. Oh, man, Ben Roethlisberger's career is extended because he could throw to Le'Veon Bell, and he is a true wide receiver slash running back like McCaffrey was in his day that Delvin Cook is not.

Delvin Cook is a screen option and then run, but they have never used him down the field or even in slants and quick passes and things like that. Maybe they could, but they haven't. And he leaves, and James Conner steps in and is good, and then everyone in Pittsburgh goes, oh, yeah, we used to have that running back. And I think that the public opinion swing has been so significant over the last few years that it makes it harder for Delvin Cook to really dig his heels in because you don't have the NFL networks and NFL lives and local media and fans constantly tweeting you or talking about on TV about, oh, you have to sign him.

Why are you being cheap? Things like that. You just don't have that. Everyone's going, oh, yeah, well, we kind of get it. Yeah. And for Delvin Cook what Hurst said too man is the durability question because everyone can see that it's it's much easier to get behind a running back where you're like man that guy plays 16 games he gets 20 plus touches always

working hard always making an impact I mean the Derrick Henry element, forget what the analytics say. As a fan, you're looking at that and going, that dude is a workhorse. That guy is always ready to give us his best, you know, and he's just important because the image of it matters a lot. The image of Dalvin Cook is how many games will we have him this year? You know, how available will he be? So image of Dalvin Cook is how many games will we have him this year? You know, how available will he be? So that hurts Dalvin Cook. Public perception about running backs, two things happen.

One, the era changed, right? I mean, the idea of you having to have a running back who goes for 1,500 yards a game to have a chance to win, we quickly found out that, hey, you know what? Spreading those touches around to your star receivers, some athletic tight ends, probably a better idea. Number two is as the analytics have become more mainstream and guys like me and other folks who maybe didn't care about the analytics five years ago, but are now able to go, I know how valuable that guy is.

Forget his position. I know what he actually brings to the table, you know, and I understand how replaceable he is. And that to me is what running backs have working against them right now is they're easy to replace. You're not necessarily going to get someone who has sort of that breakout moment like a Dalvin Cook. You know, he's special in that way, that open field finesse.

But if it's about someone playing the position and doing a good job, there are guys who can do that. And that is the challenge too. Running backs haven't separated themselves in this era good quarterbacks have hey great tight ends have that's travis kelsey that's george kittles great wide receivers tremendously michael thomas doesn't have drew breeze for five games teddy bridgewater goes five and oh and now he's the starting quarterback in carolina what a brand new deal deal. Michael Thomas deserves a cut of whatever Teddy Bridgewater got. So when you understand that these other skilled positions, that there's such a gap between

the really good players and everybody else, it's easy to see the value there. When you look at running backs and you go, wait, the Chiefs didn't have a guy who was drafted in the first or second third or fourth round and they won a super bowl and that dude was effective well how can i get invested in this idea of spending millions of dollars at that same position when i'm watching your james connor and damian williams and these other guys around the league who don't have the pedigree of a dalvin Cook, who don't have the combine or the 40 speed, but are still getting the job done. So I think Dalvin Cook, not even me to do it,

but just picked a really bad time to play this position in this era. Yeah, and not only that, but also a bad time for his contract to come up just in the curve of the Vikings in the Zimmer era, because you mentioned Zimmer and Spielman, who absolutely want Dalvin Cook to be signed, and they like him, they draft him, they look at him as a feather in their cap in the draft of saying we were smart enough to look past some of the, I mean, there were reasonable character concerns, but also there are character concern tropes as well, where you say, well, it's the character concern guy,

when really, I mean, Delvin Cook is a very smart player, which has been a huge part of his success. So they were able to look past that, and they get a star in the second round who's been a huge playmaker for them. Every time he's been on the field, he's a special player. He's a top three running back. Look at us. Look how smart we are for drafting him.

And Mike Zimmer is making him a captain, which you wonder, is this passive-aggressive? But maybe not because he is deserving of being a captain. But when you look at these contract extensions that these two guys just got, and you look at lots of other positions, there are free agent players who are on the market who would be an improvement from some of the guys currently on the roster. Snacks Harrison is better at football than Shamar Steffen, but you might just want to let it play out and see how Shamar Steffen does as the nose tackle. You might just want to play out and see how Shamar Stephan does as the nose tackle. You might just want to

play out and see how Jaleel Johnson and Armond Watts handle playing defensive tackle. You could have brought back Everson Griffin and matched the money that the Dallas Cowboys gave him, but you didn't, even though they showed some interest, but it was only mild interest because you can let Afadi Adenabo play it out and find out what you have there. You could have signed Logan Ryan, who's still a free agent cornerback. You could have signed Trey Kirkpatrick if you were really desperate to fill these positions with players who are proven. And instead, you're going to go Holton Hill. You're going to go Jeff Gladney, Cameron Dantzler, Mike Hughes.

You're going to find out. And I think that tells us a little bit about their mindset. Not that they're tanking, but just that 2020 gives them an opportunity to find out who I think that tells us a little bit about their mindset not that they're tanking but just that 2020 gives them an opportunity to find out who can play and that they don't have the pressure of if you don't win the Super Bowl this year it's not Super Bowl or bust it's more of a let's find out what we have while being competitive and still trying to win the division yeah it's almost setting up your next window, you know, seeing what that will look like and what pieces you might be missing.

I think also you have the cushion of, I don't think you can judge anybody in this NFL season, considering everything that these franchises were up against, you know. It's going to be hard for, even in a down year, that isn't an absolute disaster, to say oh man, that's definitely Mike Zimmer. Because this is literally something we have never

seen before. If you were ever going to experiment, if you were ever going to gamble with guys, this is the year to do it. And I think the bottom line with down on cook is he's stuck you cannot lose this accrued year and suddenly become a restricted free agent that's not what you want you cannot fail to excel and perform this year because at a minimum

you want to make sure that you're still the guy that this team wants to franchise tag a year from now which is a lot of guaranteed money so you have to perform there and if that doesn't work out you hope you put yourself in a position where maybe you can sign elsewhere somehow but there's just no scenario where he's holding out holding in he has to to play and the Vikings understand that and they understand that the teams that have gone hard at that position where are they you know the Jetson Le'Veon Bill what they really get you know what did what did the Cowboys get from from Zeke after the big money how much different was that from what you may have gotten from a young running back coming out of the draft?

Is it significantly different? That's what every NFL franchise is saying. If I sign this guy, how much different is this from what I could get in the draft, free agency, younger guy on the roster? You're not going to replace Christian McCaffrey. He does too much for that offense and I think if you're even Titans you know consider what Derrick Henry did I can understand looking at that guy and how he's built and said I think he can give us another 13

1400 yards over the next two or three seasons uh per season beyond, there's just a whole bunch of question marks, whether it's durability, whether it's, you know, reliability. And it's just, I wouldn't want to be a running back in today's NFL. It is the most vulnerable position in the league, in my opinion, even if you're really good at playing it, you know, and that's just, I'm sure Dalvin Cook is trying to stomach that reality. You know, you grow up watching these great running backs and you see the way

the teams loved to make their favorite running backs happy. And now here you are in that same position and the league has kind of moved on, you know, and you're just in the middle of that transition. And it probably to Dalvin Cook feels unfair.

But in this league, you – I think running backs have to get to a point, man, where if you're franchise tagged and the guaranteed money attached to that, you got to start to understand that might be the best you'll ever get. Yep. Whether you like it or not. It's not terrible from a worldly standpoint. No. You're thinking about playing through this year and he makes whatever it is,

$2 million. And then next year, because of McCaffrey and Henry's deal, it'll go up a little bit for what the tag is. So let's say you end up with 12 million for next year on the tag. You can do worse in this world than making 14 million dollars or having somebody else sign you as a free agent. And I think the Vikings would franchise tag him way down the road. It will be really interesting to me, though, if they do not cave and if they do not sign him and they say, we're going to play hardball all the way through this.

We're going to let him be on the franchise tag and kind of bleep him. And because that has not been the case for the previous players who have taken them all the way to the wire, including Anthony Barr, which I think is the most comparable one. Mike Zimmer loves Anthony Barr. He'll tell you up and down, left and right, all day long about how much he loves Barr and all the things that he does that nobody else can do. And yet when you look at what linebackers get paid, unless you're sacking the quarterback a lot, this is usually not what they get paid. But the Vikings said, no, we've got to keep him because we think it's Super Bowl or bust. I think the mentality changing a little bit allows them, in a way, to be more prudent here and to play hardball and say, you know what? You don't have any leverage, so we're just going to wait this thing out and franchise tag you next year.

And I don't think it's a terrible outcome for either side if they do that, if they just go year to year with a great player and then by the time you've gotten to the end of the franchise tag he is just hitting that spot where you're about to go over the side in terms of the age curve and it becomes very very risky so that the league is basically set up to allow the team to do this and in a way if you're looking at just their side from the most savvy thing you can do it's hard to make a case oh you should definitely do this now I still think that they always get to the last minute and go all right let's pay like that's just the the Vikings way and that Delvin is deserving of it because of his talent and his role in the offense. It's still going to be the centerpiece of the offense.

But if they were to take this the rest of the way, I don't think that they're going to get a whole lot of pushback from people. No, I don't think at all. From a financial standpoint, in terms of guaranteed money, depending on the makeup of the deal, do we know for sure it would be that different from him being franchise tagged over the next couple of seasons? Potentially those numbers might not be that

different for Dalvin Cook. If he makes $12 million next year or something like that, let's say it's $13 million the year after that, about $27 million in three years. Guaranteed money versus what I assume will be a fairly incentivized deal.

And what I also assume, considering his injury history, will not put him in maybe this realm that he expected to be in, this stratosphere financially. So I just think they can franchise him, what, three times? Yeah, the third time you would be insane to do it because you wouldn't do it uh yeah i i forget exactly how that works but it's way more money the third time is way more money than you'll ever it's crazy yeah but but again running backs in this league in general i would say when people say franchise taggers i was a a negative perception of that. And I get it.

If you're a player that's really good in this league and you want long-term money, big signing bonus money, I get it. At the same time. I don't know that the general public understands like you are getting guaranteed money based on how much the best guys in the league at your position are making.

And that is yours in a league where guys get cut every day. And then it could happen the following year too. I mean, you're talking about a guy who could make $30 million here in the next three seasons. And if you're a running back in 2020 and you make $30 million over the next three years, were you ever for sure going to do much better than that? You know, I think that becomes the way to see this,

that if you're Dalvin Cook, you've got to play well, you've got to stay healthy. But if you do that over the next two to three years, you're going to be a wealthy man. Yeah. I think that to me is not as attractive as the big deal that gets signed now. But financially, the gap might not be that different considering what they may sign them for. We'll get back to the conversation in just a minute.

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Visit NFLSundayTicket.tv and use promo code BLUEWIRE. It's a great point that if you play it out and you're Delvin Cook and you are successful and they franchise tag you twice, you are likely to make more guaranteed money than Christian McCaffrey or Derrick Henry. I think McCaffrey's making $30,000, so you would make in that ballpark or possibly even more if the salaries continue to go up, which they almost always do, that you're going to be in that range of where everybody else, and that's kind of usually the bar that agents try to clear with the guaranteed money is, if they franchised my guy twice, what would it be worth? Let's try to get him more than that, and then, you know, we don't have to go year to year. We get that money now, and most contracts, though, anyway, are basically year to year. The Vikings always do this where by the third year of a guy's contract, you could get out of it with some penalty. By the fourth year, they're usually

home free. So if they signed him right now anyway to a, it's a five-year contract extension, it's probably only goes through about the next two or three years. And so they're always, again, in a position to say like, yeah, well, let's just see how it plays out year to year, and you're going to have to keep proving it. But if you keep proving it, there's a lot of money for you potentially in this franchise tag. But there is also considerations down the road, too. Salary cap is going to drop and so forth, and do you want to franchise tag someone? Because the benefit for the Vikings is if they sign him to an extension, and this is why it probably happens,

they can have next year's cap hit for him be very low when the cap goes down. And then when the cap goes back up and we go to 17 games, his cap hit can go back up and you can play the game there as they so brilliantly have. I got another thing for you, Myron, that I want to ask, and then we'll play a little game with the quarterback schedule. I want to ask you about Teddy Bridgewater because I just seen some highlights of him, you know, NFL Network show, and just here's a guy throwing in pads,

and everyone's like, yeah, football. But I have to stop for a second every time I see him, a guy speaking of someone getting paid this offseason, the fact that he is playing as a starting quarterback, I don't care how bad Carolina is, I don't care if he goes 0-16 as their starting quarterback this season, is still hitting me as one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. And I know Alex Smith is doing it too, that he's coming back

and he'll probably be their backup quarterback in Washington. But the fact that Bridgewater is a team's starting quarterback again just continues to blow my mind. I'll tell you what, he's going to make a ton of money in the NFL. But post-NFL, Teddy Bridgewater, my guess is going to be some sort of motivational speaker with books and all that stuff. I mean, it is, I don't know how you can not smile when you see it, you know? Like, I just don't know.

You know, I don't know. Who cares about is he better than Cam? You know, all that drama that's playing out in Charlotte about, you know, what has transpired over the last six months, whatever. This is a guy whose life was jeopardized with this injury. And then, you know, thanks to having the culture of the Minnesota Vikings and giving him a chance to rehab and just putting him in a position where

when it was time for him to have another chance, they said, yeah, not going to work out here. But helping him get in a position where he ends up in the perfect spot in New Orleans as a backup, gets this great opportunity. Everybody loved the dude. I mean, like literally one of the most likable dudes in the league, from the Vikings to the Saints, the way they talk about him. I got a buddy who tailgates in New Orleans.

He's a big Saints fan. And he says, like, Teddy Bridgewater, after playing that 5-0 streak, would hop on his bike and he would ride through the parking lot to his place like he was just such a normal dude. And now to see him in Carolina, man, I don't know, you know, you hate sort of maybe the cliche sports stories, but that is what sports is all about. I will root for that dude forever.

He is the epitome of perseverance. And to have the opportunity he has right now is so remarkable. And he's also a dude where you look at him and go, we were all so heartbroken when it happened to him because that was legitimately a bad thing happening to a great guy. So to see a great thing happening to a great guy, it's, I love it, man. I love to see it. And I like to ask anybody that I bump into,

although bumping into players a lot harder now when everything is in the room. It's just, you know, one of the best things about training camp is you can walk up to somebody, interview them, and then just kind of stand there and shoot the breeze for a few minutes. You know, you can ask Sean Mannion, hey, man, what is that route anyway or something?

You know, I don't know. That's a good example. But you can something? You know, I don't know. That's a good example. But you can just, you know, I don't know, like stand out there on a nice day and just have a little conversation after. And so you get to know guys a little better. And now they're like, wait, who's talking? What's going on? Three of you were talking at once.

From a reporter's perspective, it's unfortunate. But the people that I have asked off the record, just not like being interviewed at all about Teddy, say, no, man, it's legit. Like everything that you guys say about him, everything we say in press conferences. And one of my favorite stories that I had a chance to do was going around the Vikings locker room and just asking players, Adam Thielen, Kyle Rudolph, Anthony Harris, just, hey, how did Teddy Bridgewater impact you when he was here? And all of them had such great stories, not just, oh yeah, he's a good guy, he's a good teammate, but like specific things like watching film with Adam

Thielen in 2017 and pointing out things that Case Keenum would see and how Thielen could run his route better or help out his quarterback better and things like that very specific elements of players games that it shows you how if you are that guy if you can impact other people you're going to raise the level of all boats even if your fantasy numbers were in 2015 weren't that great that people have to throw around let me ask you this and then we'll play a little fun game. If Bridgewater never gets hurt, where are the Vikings right now as an organization? Or in hockey, as they say, organization. Oh, man.

I think they're San Francisco. I think they're that team that is built around him to this point, kept a nucleus together, and I think they're competing for a championship. I think they're a team you go into the last couple years saying they might not get to the Super Bowl,

but you're going to have to beat them to get there. I legitimately think that that's where they would have ended up, because, I mean, you saw him in that preseason. What he was doing was everyone agreed the concerns he had the year before. Now he's developed. So I think they would have grown. What do you think? I think so, too. I can't guarantee they would have gone to the Super Bowl in 2017, but I can say the version of Teddy Bridgewater that was coming

was better than Case Keenum. And we've certainly seen it play out with Keenum in the other places that he's gone, that he's not really a starting quarterback. And they were in the NFC Championship game. And one thing that we saw from 2015 with Bridgewater is even when the circumstances around him were bad, he found ways to win games. I mean, think about how much they've grown as an offense. You had TJ Clemmings and Matt Khalil as your tackles. You had, I think, Charles Johnson as maybe your third leading receiver. Mike Wallace

didn't want to be here and was totally washed. It was not good. And then you go from that to Stephon Diggs and Adam Thielen, elite receivers, Kyle Rudolph, Delvin Cook in the backfield. I do think that they would have had a shot that season and then been in the playoffs 2018 with a quarterback who is a little more mobile and a little more able to handle having a bad offensive line that Kirk Cousins has struggled with. Not Kirk Cousins' fault that this team can't build an offensive line, but one quarterback specifically better equipped to handle it, and that's been the kryptonite for Kirk Cousins. And the big thing, too, is the timing of when Teddy Bridgewater was going

to get paid. Talk about, oh, well, as soon as you pay a quarterback, you're in trouble. But you make the San Francisco point. He would have been getting paid with the Ryan Tannehill, Andy Dalton, like those guys when they were considered decent starting quarterbacks and getting like $20 million on the salary cap hit, or a Jimmy Garoppolo somewhere in the range of $20 million. And now it's $30 million, $35 million or more for cap hits.

He wouldn't have had that. I think he would have had a very reasonable deal, and that's worth thinking about. Could they have done more? I don't blame Kirk Cousins for taking the guaranteed money. I certainly would have done the same myself. But Teddy's cap hit would not have been that high. So can you add other players to the mix?

Can you keep – I know it's a small thing, and he comes up all the time, but can you keep a Jarius Wright or Jeremiah Searles or like these role players that they had to let go because they had to trim all the fat going into 2018 and 2019 could you get another wide receiver in here um to instead of having Laquan Treadwell and Aldrick Robinson as your number three and number four yeah I think the possibilities there were pretty endless. And for a guy to go through everything he went through and have his career so derailed and go 5-0 with a good team, playing really conservatively and a little bit like a deer standing up for the first time when he was back in there, I think that kind of tells you where this would have gone had he been here.

I agree, man. I definitely agree I know we got a quarterback thing to talk about real quick is the nail hunter okay I don't know I don't I why are we talking about that why is that a bigger conversation here because it doesn't really matter until the Wednesday before the first week he He can have a, quote, tweak. He can, I don't know, I don't know if it's sort of come to my mind, wait, is he the one that's actually holding out? And we're talking about Delvin Cook and we don't realize that Daniel Hunter wants a new contract.

Wouldn't blame him if he does, by the way. No reason to be concerned until on an injury report it says not practicing. Until then, it'll be fine if he comes back from whatever. But the more days that go by that Daniil Hunter is wearing sandals, yeah. I mean, your panic level starts to tick up and tick up because if they don't have him, this is one of the worst defensive lines in the NFL. Yeah. It's – reading that, I'm like, should we be more learned?

Should that be a bigger topic here around this franchise? I mean, like you said, there's time to figure it out. But I don't know. My goodness, man. If there is something wrong, it's bad. There's also no two opinions about this. There's no debate. Like, if he's out, you are bleeped.

Done. There's the – Done he's out you are bleeped there's the yes all right rapid fire mike sando did this thing where he asked all these nfl executives what tier they put you know tier one tier two tier three uh all the different quarterbacks in the nfl and then he matched that up with schedules. And it turns out, Vikings fans, you are extremely lucky to have the most difficult quarterback schedule in the NFL. So congratulations on that. Here's what I want you to tell me. I'm going to go quarterback by quarterback through the Vikings schedule, and I just want you to tell me, scares you, does not scare you.

We're going to do it that way. Okay? Okay. All right. So Aaron Rodgers do it that way. Okay? Okay. All right. So Aaron Rodgers. Scares me. Still? Still?

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, I probably give Aaron Rodgers the benefit of the doubt more than most. Against this team, he scares me. Wisconsin bias, I think, probably. Yeah, probably. No, he could still have crazy good games. Phil Rivers.

Doesn't. Doesn't scare me. Ryan Tannehill, after leading the league in quarterback rating last year. Scares me, kind of. I mean, a little bit. It's supposed to be yes or no, but a little bit wasn't one of the options. Deshaun Watson, scares you or no? Terrifies me.

Yeah, he should. Russell Wilson at Seattle. Even though the Vikings have played well against Russell Wilson, they keep losing to him. Scares me. Matt Ryan. Doesn't scare me. Really keep losing to him. Scares me. Matt Ryan. Doesn't scare me. Really? Okay. Yeah.

I guess he's not as good as he used to be. Matthew Stafford. Scares me. Healthy Matthew Stafford scares me a little bit. Last year he really lit up the Vikings and then turns out David Blau couldn't do the same thing later in the season. I'm not even going to ask about the

Bears. Well, okay, I will ask. Nick Foles? I mean, once upon a time. Does not scare me. Tried to sell it a little there, but you know. Dak Prescott. Scares me. He lit them up last year. Same sort of thing. Yeah, yeah. He scares me.

He lit them up last year, same sort of thing. Yeah, yeah, he scares me. How about that Jerry McCoy injury for them, man? My goodness. Yeah, I know, and his contract. If you get this specific injury, you get no money, and he got that specific injury. The karma football gods and Teddy Bridgewater, you have to add those in that Vikings history says they lose this game.

Scary. Scares me, for sure. Yeah. For sure. Any emotions around that too? I mean, definitely not. That's scary. Gardner Minshew with the stache.

No. No. He does not scare me. I'm going to guess that you're going to say Tom Brady and Drew Brees both scare you. Let me tell you something, man. The talk out of camp, I know it's camp, and I know we get excited about camp and things don't pan out. But from the people I've read and talked to, Tom Brady sounds happy for the first time

in a long time. And I don't know what that means for the rest of us but it just seems like that dude just isn't a comfortable space with those weapons that Jameis Winston got 5,000 yards out of

oh my goodness man that is terrifying and then yeah of course Drew Brees to Michael Thomas scares me. I mean, I'm not going to mention Drew Brees without mentioning Michael Thomas. You've got to always say Michael Thomas. Gardner Minshew could be out there throwing to Michael Thomas, and I'd be afraid of Gardner Minshew.

So that's the way it works with Michael Thomas. That's only three quarterbacks that you're not scared of on the entire schedule. Just pointing that out. It's going to be a tough go for the young corners. I'm a scaredy cat. This was super fun, and we will do it again soon, man. I mean, football, let's go. I'm ready, man.

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