Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Daniel Jeremiah has the Vikings drafting.... (Part 2)

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

Matthew Coller looks at Daniel Jeremiah's second mock draft of 2026 and his choice for the Vikings. Plus a new list of QB competition options for the Vikings. A Kyler Murray update. A draft sim... oh my! The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Purple Insider is presented by Fanduel. Okay, I want to bring you the Fandul question of the day, which is Ty Simpson. I'm kind of, I'm intrigued with Ty Simpson, not in the way that I think he's good, but in the way that people are going to try to shoehorn Ty Simpson into this draft in the first round. And I wonder if anyone's actually going to do it or not. It felt that way in 2022 with. the Kenny Picketts and the Desmond Ritters and Malik Willis that, you know, there was a lot of attempts to talk about those guys' first round prospects and that turned out to be wrong.

Shadur Sanders last year, are the Thai Simpson people going to be really wrong is something I, I'm very curious about. So the Fandau question of the day is this. Ty Simpson right now is 10,000, a plus 10,000 to go number one overall. So obviously that's just not, there's no chance of that happening. But would you be interested in him if you're the Vikings? Were he to be the guy that drops into the third round? Does that intrigue you or does the idea of a development quarterback intrigue at all for the Vikings in this draft?

For me, the answer is not really no because we've gone down the Kell and Mond road. And for every Brock Purdy, there's 50 other Jaron Halls that are just a waste of a draft pick that could have at least. been maybe a special team or something. So I'm, I've never really been into that. I always think, hey, get your guy and make him your guy. And every once in a while, somebody's going to develop. But in the playoffs, I think everyone was a first round pick except for Brock Purdy or something like that, right?

Usually it takes that, that huge investment. But I'm curious what you're, what you guys think. Like if Tya Simpson got to the third, are you intrigued with that idea or, you know, not really. So that's the fan duel. question of the day. Also, I made a list of quarterback competition QBs for this offseason for the Minnesota Vikings. So if you recall the other day, my list was these are the guys if they need a starter. And that was Kyler Murray. And that was, I left Gino Smith accidentally off the list,

but then I thought, may, maybe not that much of an accident. But that was the Kyler Murray, the Derek Carr, the Daniel Jones, who it seems like in Indianapolis, they believe that they're going to be able to keep, but you never know. So I put him on the list. And we went from there. This is the list of if they are not done with J.J. McCarthy, if they want J.J. McCarthy to have a good chance to prove what he can do, and they don't want to go out and get someone that has to be the starter.

I mean, if you get Kyler Murray, Kyler is starting. It's not a competition. It's not a QB battle. It's Kyler Murray is your starting quarterback. Well, that would not be the case for anyone on this list that I made for tonight. This list is entirely based on guys who would come in, compete with McCarthy. And if they won the job, maybe you wouldn't feel so bad about it. And you could win games with.

But if they lose the job, then, all right, that means that McCarthy has played pretty well. So here is the list. Number one is Mack Jones. Mac is a backup quarterback for San Francisco. If you trade a third round pick for him, you don't have to start him. You're not locked into him forever. He can be your backup. He's been a backup with Jacksonville.

He's been a backup with San Francisco. Fine. That's not a huge deal to me. If you get a third round pick for a backup quarterback, heck, they didn't have a very good backup quarterback last year in Carson Wentz. And that turned out to be a mistake. So that would be at least correcting that mistake. And it sets a nice bar for JJ McCarthy. If you can't beat out Mac Jones,

then you're probably at least not ready for this or not going to work out. Number two on my list, but I also think they could make the playoffs with Mac Jones. Like if it went right, they could make the playoffs. Number two is Gino Smith. I think Gino Smith is fine for this, for bringing in at maybe no cost to, really whatsoever to compete with J.J. McCarthy. And if McCarthy can't beat out Gino Smith,

it might be one of the most ridiculous years we've ever seen from a Vikings quarterback. I mean, 30 touchdowns, 30 picks that James Winston did, like sounds like a challenge for a Gino Smith, but he's been an erred out type of guy and you'd have to shift your offense to the shotgun a little bit more for Gino, but he still has a big arm. He could still throw the ball. And I promise you Justin Jefferson's getting a lot of catches, but also he's been a backup for the most of his career. And if he ended up being a backup again, okay, that's totally fine. You're not going to have to give up so much that you're going to feel like it's a problem. But if Gino starts, he won 10 games his last year. He won 10 games. So, number three is Marcus Mariotta, who actually

overall, when you look at his numbers last year, we didn't see the, very good version of Marcus Mariotta. But you look at his downfield passing from last season. It was pretty good. And he's had a relationship with Kevin O'Connell for a long time going out back to when he came out in the draft. So Mario, I think is a guy that under these circumstances and earlier in his career,

he took a team to the playoffs. He won a playoff game in really kind of strange and comical fashion that's open up the door for Kansas City to move on from Alex. Smith, but, uh, you know, when it, when it comes to, uh, Marcus Marioata, he can certainly throw the ball. I think you are concerned about inconsistency and maybe thinking that if you give him just to Jefferson, it'll be better off. But considering how bad Washington was, Terry McLaurin was in and out of the lineup,

Debo Samuel didn't have a lot left. Their defense was horrendous. That overall, he played pretty decently last year. So I put Kirk as fourth on my list here, because, I don't know if Kirk would actually come here to be a part of a competition. That was my question. If he would and if he was okay with being the backup if J.J. McCarthy beats him out, then all right.

I mean, that's a heck of a good backup. Atlanta put in Kirk after losing pennics and won some games and made things interesting there. I think Kirk is good for that, but it really depends on would he come back to Minnesota, where he was the guy for so long to be someone out with any chance of being someone else's backup. I tend to think the answer's no, but I'm not really sure where Kirk is at in his career. Would he be willing to do it for KOC to come back? And if McCarthy can't improve, then you know that he knows the offense.

I'm very hit or miss on that idea. But I put him as number four on the list because I'd probably prefer to have Mack Jones younger, Gino Smith, crazy arm, Noah Kelly's tear, tear. and Mariotta, who threw the ball downfield well last year, rather than cousins, where it feels like the upside is just pretty, pretty low. Mr. Mayor says the Gino is not interested in mentoring young quarterbacks. Well, I mean, I don't know. I think that that's a little bit overrated.

I just think that that idea is a little bit overrated of mentoring quarterbacks. I mean, Joe Flacco said that at one point. I mean, Joe Flackos actually said that multiple times. Like, I'm here to work. it doesn't really as long as you're not actively making it much worse for someone if you're just going about and doing your job i don't necessarily need you to put your arm around j j mccarthy and say i love you man um he was the backup for russell wilson for a long time like he could be a backup quarterback but if he wins the job then it's probably kind of over for mccarthy anyway so it doesn't

really matter if he's mentoring him or not like you're trying to win with gno smith at that point Number five on my list is Anthony Richardson. I do not have much faith at all in Anthony Richardson's ability to take the big step that he needs to take for all the arguments that are brought up about how Josh Allen improved his accuracy. I present you with Anthony Richardson, who has never really had a chance to do so between injuries, didn't really show the maturity level ready to be a starter in the NFL, had some excited. moments, but Kevin O'Connell liked Anthony Richardson in the draft, supposedly. And there is that clip that was going around again, not too long ago of O'Connell, you know, and what he said about, you know, to Anthony Richardson after the Vikings beat them, the Colts in

2004, where he said, like, hey, you know, your team still believes in you and I believe in you or something like that and gave him some encouraging words. So he might think, well, trade a sixth round pick for Richardson. get him into the QB competition. I'm down for that. I'm down for take a swing and you never know with Anthony Richardson. Number six on my list is Jimmy Garoppolo. I think that Jimmy Garoppolo is probably serviceable for a half a season.

I don't know if he could take a season's worth of punishment as a starting quarterback. I would say he can throw the ball at one time. He threw it pretty well. But the last time we saw him as a starter, he was not throwing it that well. It's an idea for someone who could probably get you eight or nine wins or bounce in and out of the lineup. He's had success before and he's a veteran quarterback and he would be the

healthiest he's ever been because he hasn't played in a while. But that feels very Carson Wentz-e and I don't know. I mean, at least he's played at a fairly high level. I would not have, by the way, I would not have Carson Wentz in this list because I I don't think there's any sort of competition there. I think that it's entirely, he would be just entirely a backup. Wentz, I don't believe can start. He doesn't really have the history to suggest that he does.

You have to go back a long way. At least Jimmy Garoppolo somewhat recently has had good performances. So I threw him in at number six. Number seven is Davis Mills. There's like a section of people that like Davis Mills. When I look at the way that he played for the Texans, it was very much, do not screw up and that's how I'm playing. And then when he played more aggressively complete quarterback, he screwed up a lot earlier in his career. That is a very low ceiling option of if you were going

to play where you run 55% of the time and then hit some play actions and just try to be the lowest turnover rate in the NFL, Davis Mills is probably your guy. And my bottom three here, eight, nine and 10, Joe Flacco, James Winston and Zach Wilson. And I thought about putting Brett Favre at the bottom just because once you start to get to the Joe Flacco, James Winston, Zach Wilson, it's like you could insert almost anybody into those positions. Flacco would be fine if it was a pure backup. Wentz was fine as a pure backup option. I mean, he won two out of four at one point and then got bludgeoned in that last one.

I don't think there's any upside of Zach Wilson. He has an arm. He's shown nothing anywhere as a backup to make me think, oh yeah, he's that record. proclamation project that is going to be the next Baker Mayfield or something. I don't look at it that way. It's just a guy I threw on the list for the heck of it because my other choice was Mitch Trubisky. And Mitch Trubisky is no kind of competition.

That's the thing that has to be competition. It has to be real competition. I honestly probably should just let Zach Wilson off because there's no reason to think he could compete in the NFL. But, you know, James Winston would be real competition in training camp. It would be absurd if he was the quarterback here with the downfield passing and he's just so out of control when he's out there that I don't think you're getting into the playoffs. I think that guys like Garoppelow and Flacco likely can't make it an entire season as your starter.

And Davis Mills ceiling is super low. So really the only choices that I kind of like are Mack Jones and Gino Smith and maybe Marcus Mariotta if they are having a real quarterback competition. And you'd have to tell me if it's real with Kirk. And you can just go get Anthony Richardson if you want to for the heck of it. Like you could get Kyler Murray, Anthony Richardson and J.J. McCarthy and then do hard knocks or something. A truck and Kenny Pickett. Sure.

Put Kenny Picket instead of Zach Wilson. That's totally fine. I don't think that's real competition, though. I think that's just a backup quarterback. The only reason I put Wilson in there is because theoretically there is some upside to Zach Wilson. that is in deep, deep theory. Vikings T.W. Jimmy G is probably the best option if they want JJ to take over and have a fallback guy.

Yeah, so there's also kind of in this list degrees of, of competition. Like, if you bring in Mac Jones, you might feel like there's a really good chance Mac Jones is winning the job. If you bring in Gino Smith, you're probably going to think that too. With Marioata, it's, all right, doors open, kid. but it's your in case of emergency. With Kirk, I think it's much more of a, it'd be much more of a real competition if Kirk would agree to that.

And then, but I don't know. I think it feels like Kirk is only going to come here if he's told, yeah, dude, you're the starter. Everybody below that, I mean, Anthony Richardson is not, I mean, that's only competition if Anthony Richardson has it really click. Like, in that case, you want J.J. McCarthy to win the job. And you're setting it up for him to win the job. It's not quite Sam Howell because Richardson has a much higher upside than that.

But it's also not that different either. And Jimmy Garoppola would be that kind of, okay, in case of emergency, I think that for most of those guys. Some of these you got to stretch on to make them really, really work. Speaking of Kyler Murray, there was an update on Kyler Murray from Adam Schaefter over the weekend. So let me read you two quotes from Adam Schaefter. and you could tell me who you like for my list or if you disagree with it, continue to have that discussion there in the chat. So Adam Schaefter on Kyler-Murie said the dolphins would like to explore trading to a tug of Iloa

and ditto. Good for you, Adam, using the word ditto, for the Cardinals and Kyler Murray. So they both want to explore trades. But it remains unclear whether a deal for either quarterback is feasible given the financial hurdles for an acquiring team. Trading Murray would create $34.7 million in cap savings for the Cardinals while leaving $17.9 million in dead money, which would seem to be a more attractive alternative if Arizona could find a trade partner. So what this comes down to is whether there's a team out there with a ton of cap space that wants to take on Kyler Murray or not. Because for the Minnesota

to Vikings, well, they can create a decent amount of cap space. They can't create that much cap space without, if they, unless they wanted to do nothing else and then be filling out their roster again with UDFAs and late round draft picks and stuff like that. I don't think that's how they want to go about it. So if the Vikings are going to get Kyler Murray, it likely has to be him getting cut or for a trade that would have the Cardinals taking back a high percentage of that. Now, maybe, you know, it says they're creating 34.7 million.

I mean, maybe you're talking about like a third of that coming to Minnesota and Arizona eating two thirds. It's hard to work out unless Arizona for the Vikings, unless Arizona is taking on a lot of that cap hit. But historically, when you have players like this that come along with a gigantic contract and you, know that the team has to move on, most of the time they just cut the guy. And I know that there's been some discussion of like, you know, Lafleur gave his press conference. I think today. And he was saying, well, you know, nothing's really decided yet with Kyler Murray.

But if you're saying nothing's decided with a quarterback who's been around that long, it probably means that you guys are moving on. And Schefter has talked about how it seems like almost a guarantee every report that's out there is that they're moving on from Kyler. If everyone knows that, well, then why trade anything unless you have a ton of cap space and you really, really want to do this? But even teams that are horrible, like the Jets and the Browns, these teams don't have great cap situations. The Miami Dolphins are cutting everybody. I mean, maybe to make some space to sign Malik Willis if they could get their hands on them,

but they wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for a Kyler trade because they're going to be in trouble with Tua and his situation. So I, I'm struggling. Maybe you guys have a team that would take on that much money, but I don't know who that is. I think they're going to have to just cut him and eat it kind of like with Denver and Russell Wilson. That's how it looks to me when you lay it out like that. There was another dolphin, Minka Fitzpatrick, apparently, according to Jordan Schultz. The dolphins have just been cutting everybody. Tyree Kill, James Daniels, Bradley Chubb.

and today Jordan Shultz reported that there have been trade talks going on with Mika Fitzpatrick and the dolphins to try to move on from him. Now I looked at his contract, $18 million for this year, very, very rich for Minka Fitzpatrick, who at one time was really highly regarded. I think has slipped off that pedestal, but could be a guy of interest for the Vikings if they were to not be able to find a partner and release Mika, Fitzpatrick. Also, you can, at least according to over thecap.com, restructure his deal to bring it down a bit. Uh, you know, I don't, I mean, for somebody who's been great, but not in a while at that position,

I would not really have a lot of interest in paying excess money for it. So I think this time of year, what happens is someone gets cut and then everyone's like, should we get them? And most of the time, the answer is probably no. But that's a thing that's happening. so I thought I would bring that to the table as well. Let's get back to your thoughts here. A truck in the dolphins could go three and 14.

That's what they want to do. I mean, that's what they should be trying to do. That team, I mean, hey, you know their owner is good with tanking because that's where a lot of the conflict with Brian Flores stems from. So their owner is good with it. He's good with tanking. And I wouldn't be surprised if that's exactly what he's doing now. Jimmy G is only 34.

I don't think you get to say only when you get to 30s. Only is like if he was 29. Mr. Mayor, if I was the Niners GM, I would hardline a not moving Jones unless it's for a second. Might as well keep a backup quarterback. Well, the thing about that played well, yeah, the thing about Kyle Shanahan is he might believe that he can always find the next Sam Darnold or Mac Jones to be a backup for him.

And why not just take whatever to the high. is bitter. But considering that Mac Jones saved their season last year, they don't have to do that. They do not have to do that. They, they could absolutely just do what you're saying. Like, hey, unless you make us really, really make a move there, then we're not going to do it. I see that we have some folks that are maybe higher than I am with Davis Mills. Mark says Davis Mills over C.J. Stroud. I don't agree with that. that. Corey says Davis Mills sealing his case Keenham.

Okay, now I don't think they're a different style of player. Mark says he put Davis Mills number two for that. Well, that's not a great, definitely not a great list. So if you wanted to put Davis Mills at two, you can. When I look at those games that he won, I didn't see really good quarterback play. I saw did not implode and they had the best defense in the league. I don't know if that's what you're really looking for. If you want J.J. McCarthy to succeed, then yes, but you're giving up draft capital for someone's backup with it doesn't have much of a high ceiling.

At very least with a Mac Jones, it's a, I think his ceiling as a starter is higher. I don't think it's the Super Bowl, but it's higher. It's a guy who's gotten a team to the playoffs before. I don't know that that can really happen with Davis Mills. I mean, it just, there's not a lot. to work with there in terms of his skill set or in terms of his past performance that you would say yeah this guy's more than a backup a truckin what did you think of the alec lewis report from on jj yesterday about eliminating his middle of the field passing uh i will be going on the alec lewis show

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That's Hymns.com slash Purple Insider for your free online. visit hymns.com slash purple insider individual results may vary based on studies of topical and oral monocodil and finestriide feature products include compound drug products which the fdaia does not approve or verify for safety effectiveness or quality prescription required see website for details restrictions and important safety information i think that that went along with uh the dumbing down i mean when you look at the actual numbers they did didn't totally stop in the last few games throwing to the middle of the field, but it was very clear that one of the biggest frustrations from Kevin O'Connell and everybody

else was the timing on throws over the middle that so much of this offense is based on, all right, Jalen Naylor's running a clear out route deep, and Justin Jefferson is going to break across the middle underneath that route. So that route takes the safety with them deep. and if the safety doesn't go, then you throw it up over the top to Jalen Naylor. Like this is how so much of this works, like that dagger concept that we talk about so much, because it works all the time with Justin Jefferson. And they just couldn't hit it.

McCarthy just could not hit it on time. And I think that they kind of got rid of it toward the end of the year where they just weren't even using it. Now, there were some throws that I remember that were over the middle. And I mean, I don't know how the NFL, like is that just between the hashes or I think with PFF, maybe it's just between the hashes. They did still complete some passes in those final games into the center of the field. But the main concepts that they used that they were struggling with the timing, that it felt like they changed it.

But just to me, it just spoke to the idea of like, we didn't know the details exactly of how they, you know, dumbed it down. We could kind of figure it out. They ran more. They played bigger personnel. They ran a lot of play action. and they tried to roll them out a little bit more. They tried to throw a lot of stuff that was just breaking out to the edges

and a lot of stuff to the intermediate area where he could just sort of wind up and throw as hard as he possibly can. That's always the concerning part about McCarthy is that by the end of the year, you would think and you would hope if that a quarterback is developing in the right way, that you're adding to his plate, not taking away. And there are, you know, still some, and I understand why that are kind of hanging on to the idea like that,

hey, maybe it'll it'll click and maybe they don't want another starter and maybe it'll be that list, maybe it'll be Mariotta. And it could be. But if we're just talking about odds, when that's what you had to do with your offense, when you had to take your offense and truncate it for a guy who's playing, you know, throughout his starting his career here more and more, usually you want to add more, not subtract by the end of the season. That is a big red flag.

And talking about, yeah, not really being able to put in those main concepts that go over the middle of the field that KOC has had so much success with, again, just doesn't scream. Oh, yeah, they feel really great about this situation. Denny, keep trying to tell myself, I'm only 39, makes 40 not seem like a big deal. Well, I'm, I'm right there with you, my friend, right there with you. but, you know, I guess when I was, when I was 20, I would have thought that by 40, my skin would just be peeling off of the bones from old age right now.

It's not. I guess still run around the block. Still feel pretty good. Still play pickup ball. Still play golf. We're good. That's all you need, right? None of us were making the pros anyway.

Jets could be the worst team in the league. Wouldn't be surprised by that. the writing is on the wall with JJ. There's Sean Salisbury. That's good. Sean Salisbury is a free agent. Well, that's my point about McCarthy is that it's not a bad idea for them to continue down the path of setting up with a situation where he has a chance to win the job with any

of those quarterbacks on my list. Theoretically, it's not a bad idea. Then you're not completely punting yet and you're not giving up after 10 games. but where is any evidence that that's what they're going to do when they had to change the offense that much when they've talked about them the way they've talked about them there's nothing that you can look at and say you could say oh well you know the final four games but nobody even you know Kevin O'Connell or the other players like nobody even really brought that up I mean O'Connell sometimes said yeah he made some progress but it wasn't like this is the real McCartley

there was just nothing there for and we'll see maybe that That will be different at the combine. Maybe he'll go to the combine and say, you know, maybe he was just frustrated at the end of the season. And that's why he didn't have that tune. We're going to find out. I doubt they're going to spill the beans exactly what they're going to do. Although last year, they did give us a very strong indication of which direction they were going.

So I'm interested in that. The combine coverage, by the way, Purple Insider will be there for three days and have all sorts of guests coming on. And Dane Mizatani and I will break down when Kevin O'Connell talks, if Rob Brzezinski talks as well. We're going to have a full podcast on that. Chris Trapasso also coming along, the official draft analyst of Purple Insider,

formerly of CBS Sports. So he's going to be there doing at least two, maybe three shows, breaking down everything, all the rumors. It's going to be fun. So make sure you tune in then. Mr. Mayor,

if, Malik Willis goes to the Dolphins, I'll be really disappointed to watch his career die. It's a tough sell that that can work out. That's why Malik is, I think, in play for the Minnesota Vikings. I would not count that out just because there are some other teams that have a starting position to guarantee him. The Vikings have a situation that they can mostly guarantee that he's going to have his best chance to succeed. Arizona makes a lot of sense for Malik, too. but Cleveland, the Jets, Miami, oh, no, you are just asking to flame out of the NFL and take the short-term amount of money.

I mean, even if you think about, gosh, I mean, even if you think about like Justin Fields going to the Jets, Justin Fields was okay with Pittsburgh and just horrific with the Jets. Nasage, Warren Sharps analysis matches Collar and Alec on the dumbing down. uh jj was awful it's okay to say doesn't mean he's done oh there's no question about any of that i mean when when er so aaron jones said it in response to a question about simplifying it uh but even if you're talking about simplifying it people were happy about that like oh yeah yeah it was too complicated my thought was what what what this offense just last year produced the sixth highest amount of total EPA passing and a all pro caliber season for

Justin Jefferson and 14 wins, this offense that we're talking about, and you want to lop off a part of it, I don't think so. I need the quarterback to run it, was my view. You have to have the quarterback able to run your system for your coach. And it was actually very interesting. I was watching a little bit of Eli Manning sitting down with John Gruden. And Eli Manning talked about when Ben McAdoo came to the Giants that he had him use different. footwork than he had ever used before.

Now, think about how kind of crazy that is. But Eli Manning said, look, man, I mean, you play to what your coach's system is. All these details have a reason and it's your job to learn them and get them right. Like, there's no excuses. If that's the coach in his system and that's how you're supposed to do it, then you do it. I think from the outside, we always want it to be the coach's fault. We want it to be the system's fault when someone doesn't play well because that, leaves the door open to like maybe there's a different answer that, you know, is right there.

They just need to find it. But if you can't even get people lined up, get the snap count off, run the motions you're supposed to run, throw to the places you're supposed to throw on time, it's just really hard to make an argument that it's going to work out, or at least work out anytime soon. And the official Purple insider stance has been that J.J. McCarthy can someday be a very good quarterback. But everything we saw is it doesn't feel that close right now to that. And what they do at quarterback is going to tell us how close they think it is. Because if they get Mario-Ota, it'll be like, oh, okay, well, I guess that means they do think that it would be okay if McCarthy was the starter. If they get Kyler Murray, then they do not

think it's okay if he's the starter. How, what they do there is going to tell us, everything. It's kind of like, it's kind of like, uh, Godfather. I've been watching all these clips of Godfather after Robert Duvall passed away. And in the Godfather late in the movie, so spoiler here, uh, Al Pacino, Marlon Brando are having this conversation in a garden. And Marlon Brando says, whoever comes to you with the meeting, they're the one that's turning on you. And then it ends up being Sally who's turning on him. And, uh, you know, he gets, he gets whacked because it's Godfather. But in this case, here's the connection.

It's sort of the same thing. It's whoever, well, no one's getting whacked, but maybe JJ. Anyway, it's whatever they do will tell us. That's really the point. It's like whatever, whatever happens next will give you the answer for who it is that would turn on you in the Godfather. In this case, it's whoever it is that comes here to play quarterback in that room alongside J.J. McCarthy will tell us everything that we need to know about how the Vikings feel

about J.J. McCarthy. If they get Jimmy Garapolo, then they're still in on McCarthy. If they get Derek Carr, they are not. They are at least out for now. And maybe there's a development possibility. And then there's a few guys that would not make it as clear. Gino Smith, Kirk. I mean, I guess if they got Aaron Rogers, you could sell, hey, he's going to sit behind Rogers for a year. So those guys would make it a little, a little less clear. Denny, you asked AI about what the best quarterback competition was and said

Kirk with Mack Jones is the dark horse. Well, all of that is just plagiarized from people like myself and Alec and whatever. So they're going to come up with similar answers to us. Nasage says, I don't know how anybody whose job depending on winning football games can say play JJ with no other real option. I think that's totally fair. Totally fair.

KFT, JJ threw over the middle in college. It does not matter, man. It does not matter. Whatever happened in college is gone. Nothing matters. He won a national championship. Congratulations. He threw over the middle.

Congratulations. Those things did not happen in the NFL. It does not matter what he did in college. It truly does not. That is gone. And do I think that he could learn to do that with a lot more reps? Yes. Do I think he can learn to do that?

learn to do it this spring. No, I do not think you can learn to do it that in a couple of months of practicing behind the scenes or throwing routes on air with Justin Jefferson. I really don't. I think it takes a lot longer than that. And I think if we were trying to put a number on how many passes until you really got consistency with footwork and accuracy and touch, I'd probably say like eight or 900, which you can't get to this year. I mean, best case scenario for J.J. McCarthy might be them getting somebody else and having him sit for a year and learn how to play quarterback because throwing him in on the fly, it just did not work. Not a twerk says, did you see the Lee Hunter comp of Pat Williams? Oh, come in. Come on. Is he really that big? Pat Williams was huge.

I don't know. I mean, Lee Hunter has been a prospect that I've got my eyes on, but Pat Williams was a mountain of a human being. I don't know if you're quite getting that kind of size. I guess I could look up what is his height and weight. Well, we'll see. I guess the combine. What is height and weight really is. Because last year, they were listing,

uh, listing Mason Graham at like 315 at the combine. He's like 290 or 285. So there's a lot of differences there. They tend to, to pump that stuff up. Vikings TW. Even if JJ takes a backseat, I would keep developing him. I agree with that.

unless unless you're done, done, unless you're really just not into the guy at all. And then you're like, okay, we got to just move on and then you trade him for something. If you're totally out. If you're Josh Rosen levels about. If you're not, then even if it's Kyler, even if it's Derrick Carr, okay, you know, keep developing behind the scenes and see what happens. Because Jordan Love, if we had seen Jordan Love play early on, I think it would have looked like J.J. McCarthy.

And we just didn't see it because Aaron Rogers stayed healthy, but I think it probably would have looked like that. And then eventually he becomes pretty good. I think there's a similarity there with those two guys. Denny says never seen a coach pivot on a quarterback so much so quickly, not looking good for my desire for JJ to start. There was a pivot from the way that O'Connell talked about him. Even from the beginning of the season to the end of the season, it changed.

as we went along. But I mean, early on, you know, O'Connell, I think was very hesitant to answer a lot of questions about JJ in 2024 camp other than to just say like every day is progress. And that's what we're trying to do with them and so forth. He seemed to kind of want to protect him a little bit from, hey, is he going to be your starter? Is there a quarterback competition? And that kind of thing. And then it seemed legitimately excited about a lot of the things that he did in training camp as all of us were from watching those camp practices. And then as it started to fall off the side of the earth in the middle of the season, that's where you kind of got that sense that O'Connell understands now maybe better

than ever that this is why organizations fail quarterback sometimes because it's not a situation where everybody can get equal and proper time to develop. If it was, you'd probably end up with better quarterback play, but it's just not. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. And KFT, I don't think anyone's saying it's a good idea to just give up entirely. It's just how does it actually get there? The one way that it actually could get there would be if you had Aaron Rogers for a year or Derek Carr for a year and then they got you back to the playoffs, kind of stabilize the franchise,

and then you feel great about what you've seen behind the scenes. and you go out and get competition for him the following year, and then he wins it and goes back to being your quarterback. That's still possible. I think it becomes a long shot. If he's not starting week one, then it's a long shot he ever starts again, save for injury, but it's also not totally unprecedented or impossible.

I think all of you are on the right page of, like, there's no reason to just give up. It's just, how do you make this happen? Logistically, how do you make this happen? With the scenario with the locker room, because if you just went back to McCarthy with no backup plan and said, oh, we're going to ride or die with him. I mean, you're losing the locker room.

You could tell from the radio row comments, I mean, not because of JJ as a person. I want to be clear about that. I think everything I heard from players in the locker room was that JJ is a guy. It was not a problem. It was you moved on from the quarterback who won the Super Bowl. Sam Darnold is succeeding. Why did we move on from him? And if you don't go out and get a real backup quarterback or, or I should say a real competition for him or a real starter who's been a starter in the league before, I think then there's going to be a lot of questions of wait, are these guys just wasting my prime?

Truck and thank you so much for the super chat. Really appreciate that. Justin Fields is one of the quarterbacks. I mean, are you mean that you are at least intrigued in or are least intrigued with first? the Vikings. I'm having trouble reading the tone there. I don't have any intrigue with Justin Fields because he can't throw it on time and you already have a quarterback who can't do that. Trucking Malik Willis would beat out JJ. Oh yeah. I mean, if you get Malik Willis, he's your quarterback. Yep. That's not a competition. Consigniare a corner with Matthew Collar. That

that is one thing that I can definitely go in depth on is Goodfellas, Godfather movies. I've watched every episode of The Sopranos, I think three times. I had one of my good friends in college and right after college. We just would get together and watch gangster movies. I mean, you know. So these days don't have as much time for it. But with, you know, all the Godfather clips now popping up, it's been great to relive some of that stuff and how great those movies really were.

Do you like Tyler Huntley? No, no, I don't. I don't. He's fine. I, I don't, you know, Gardner mentioned, these guys are backups. Like, that's the difference between competition versus just backup. Pure unadultered backing uping. Like, those aren't competition at all.

If you, if you're bringing those guys. Andrew, odds, we will know the quarterback situation day one of free agency. Last year was unknown until Sam Howell acquisition. Surely we should know earlier this year. this is much more like 2024 where they moved on from Kirk

or he moved on on the first day of free agency I think it'll go kind of that way if it drags out past the first couple days of free agency it's going to be really confusing I mean you can work out a trade with Arizona whenever you can't make it official until the start of the league year but you can work it out the trade that went down with Goff and Stafford, I think it was reported in January and was not finalized until the league year started.

So, I mean, that could happen any time. I'm always around for an emergency bot if it's necessary. So that could get worked out behind the scenes and leak out whenever, if you're doing one of those trades. But if you're talking about signing someone or when they could cut Kyler, that would be free agent. agency. That would be when free agency actually starts. And I mean, who knows because you actually have to get to free agency, not the tampering period. The tampering period is where we get all the news, the legal tampering. But then I think with actually cutting him, it's the third day. I think details wise, I have to check on this. But I think it's the third day of the league year where a

bunch of guarantees kick in for Kyler Murray. So they have to do it for that. So once you get to the first day of the league year, if he's not traded, then he is going to be released, I would suspect. I very much doubt that they're going to just keep him around after all this. So if they release him, then you can pick him up from there and he's just a free agent. But you could do something else before then. Like Kirk could sign here on the first day because I think he has to be released too. Oh, no, I guess that's right.

It wouldn't be the legal tampering. It would be the first. Yeah, I think he's, those guys would probably get released on the first day of the new league year. So, yeah, March. is where we'll probably get our answer unless there is a trade. Nassage. I wonder if the best option is to have JJ sit behind someone for a year, long term,

maybe the best and most patient thing to do. That really depends on how close they think it is. Because if they think, hey, all he needs is just this and this. And if we can just spend all this time behind the scenes working on it, well, Aaron Rogers plays quarterback for us, okay. But if they think that, he's just not going to make it like he doesn't really fit in the NFL and they missed something

in the evaluation and I just, it doesn't look anything like we believe an NFL starting quarterback that wins a lot of games going to look, then it might not make any difference. But if you're going to take like a Hail Mary at this thing turning around and actually working, that probably is the best way for him to be a backup and just totally commit to that job because so many quarterbacks over the years have made that actually work. I believe Minchu did not tear his ACL. I think he got a knee injury, but I don't know if he tore his ACL.

I don't think he's out, but it doesn't matter. Like, that's not a guy who's in my discussion at all. Corey, unless they secretly love McCarthy and just need a regular backup for him, in which case, then he is. Cori says, I don't think that they're waiting until the end of training camp to get figured out. Yeah, that's for sure. It should be early, it very much should be early in free agency.

we'll just call you some dude KOC tried to call plays like Don Corrielle it's fools gold unless you have Dan Fouts and not JJ or the other two quarterbacks that they want a ton of games with I just think that people like to really latch on to stuff and don't think too much about it I mean throwing downfield and creating explosive plays to pass the game is a way to win

and they did it successfully with Sam Darnold who's not Dan Fouts in terms of Well, I guess he does have a Dan Fouts caliber arm and he does have a Super Bowl ring, so I shouldn't say that. But Dan Fouts is one of the best quarterbacks in history. And those offenses were crazy back in the early 80s with Dan Fouts and West Chandler and John Jefferson and so forth and super fun with San Diego superchargers. But even with Kirk Cousins, he went 17 and 8 as a starting quarterback of this team. And they succeeded in 2023 with Kirk not pushing the ball. far down the field. I mean, a lot of it in this offense has to do with the quarterback's own

decision making. This idea that, I mean, when you wanted him to throw short passes, you go look at J.J. McCarthy's short pass data. It's horrific. Actually, where is he better down the field? He was better throwing down the field by a country mild than he was throwing short. That seemed to be everybody's solution to me, which was kind of odd. Like, why aren't you just doing quick game all the time? He's terrible, quick game. He's the worst at quick game. I, the worst at quick game, I I think I've ever seen in the numbers from somebody that started for that long. The thing that he was doing pretty well was pushing the intermediate passes and then to some extent down the field at times.

He'd made a lot of mistakes down the field too. But thinking that he just had this completely, you know, completely cockamamie offense that is so crazy to be running. It's just a weird, it's a weird take when we just saw it work super well with Sam Darnold the year before. You have to, and regardless, look, he's the coach this year. So whoever's playing quarterback for him has to be able to run his offense. And if McCarthy gets somebody else, then they can try something else.

A truck and Tanner McKee in the last stream was kind of intriguing, but another unknown. Yeah, Tanner McKee actually, you know what? I always forget one, right? I always forget one. Tanner McKee is probably should have been on the list. And it's funny because I just talked to Mike Reck. the other day. I don't know what to make of Tanner McKee.

Mike has always loved him and thinks that he's got a chance, loved him as a prospect and thinks that he's got a chance to be a starter. I haven't even really considered Tanner McKee as part of the conversation. I think that he's going to be somebody's backup quarterback. So I wasn't even thinking of him as part of a QB competition. I know Mike really likes him and I'm kind of intrigued because of that. I just haven't gotten there of, yeah, like that's a guy who you could really see being the Viking starter because we have no sample on him whatsoever.

So he would be the guy. Last time I kind of left Gino Smith off, I guess I could put him instead. I threw Zach Wilson on there because he started before. I mean, Tanner McKee is basically just not even played. That one's much harder. Lee Hunter at 18 is a reach. 64, 350. How big was Pat Williams?

Or 325, you said. How big was Pat Williams? Pat Williams had to have been 370? There was a lot, a lot of man there. A lot of man. lot of man. Truck and I think Anthony Richardson will be a disaster, probably. Usually when quarterbacks go that way, that's how it is.

Yes, there was a report about Arizona wanting Tyson Baygent. I don't know. For what? I mean, he could start some games, but for what? That does not seem like a real option. Let me remind you all of the Fandul question of the day. which was Ty Simpson on Fandul is 10,0001 to go number one overall. Now, wouldn't that be a twist from the Raiders?

I guess we would never be surprised by anything the Raiders would do. But I don't think they're going to do that. However, I am interested to know if you all are interested in Ty Simpson, were he to drop into the third round, for example, would you spend a pick there? Or do you feel like that would be kind of a waste of a draft pick? So anyway, well, good discussion, everybody. I feel like we had a good conversation moving a little bit away for the quarterbacks at first and then swooping back into the quarterbacks as we have the combine coming up next week. So starting to really get into this draft.

And I'm going to make lists. Now, of course, you know, the combine coverage is going to be, you know, a lot of stuff that's just going down there in indie, a lot of different guests that I'm going to have on the show talking about intriguing players for the draft. all the buzz that goes on in the evenings after everybody's done on Radio Row and so forth and what Kevin O'Connell has to say. But it's something I want to continue to do throughout the offseason, make lists of different stuff. Free agency will be coming out, best fits, things like that. So I appreciate all of the interactions and reactions and such.

So I hope you guys had a good time. And we'll see, you know, if anything pops up through the next couple days, Of course, I'm very happy to go live. Might even do it again tomorrow if I've got something interesting. I haven't really decided. I'm kind of playing it by ear a little bit at this time of year. So I guess we shall see. But thanks again, everybody for popping in.

And we'll talk to you all later. Thanks for joining. Football.