Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Danielle Hunter's contract situation and implications of a Jeff Gladney suspension with PFF's Brad Spielberger

Episode Date: May 19, 2021

The Minnesota Vikings managed the cap incredibly well this offseason but there are still plenty of questions to be answered. Will Danielle Hunter show up for OTAs or mandatory minicamp without a new contract? What could the Vikings do to keep him happy? Should they trade him if he plans on pulling a Le'Veon Bell? Plus how does Dalvin Cook's contract look one year later? What would happen if Jeff Gladney was suspended for the year for his domestic violence arrest? And what would happen to the Packers' cap situation if they trade Aaron Rodgers? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate! Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collard here and joining me on the show for another appearance to talk about Kirk Cousins' contract, Neil Hunter, and other things that we... It's almost like...

Tell us that again. Tell us again about Kirk's contract, Brad Spielberger, cap guru for Pro Football Focus. What is up, Brad? Not much. I'm actually recording this first episode for my new apartment in Brooklyn.

So we're christening the apartment with a podcast right now. But yeah, everyone's favorite subjects, you know, when I come on, they probably skip that episode. All right, next episode. Okay, I actually have other questions for you. Perfect. Aside from that. So we will have other discussions that are not just what happens if they trade Kirk or, you know, what happens with Daniil Hunter, but we're going to have to touch on those. And once you get some furniture in there, it'll kind of kill the echoey a little bit.

You can tell a new apartment. It is? Okay. I can open a door real quick if it's super echoey. No, you're good. You're good. I'm just saying it's very clear that you are in the new empty apartment, so that's good. Well, let's go over this real quick so daniel hunter we're going to find out shortly next week if he is going to come to otas or not i suspect that he will not come to otas then mandatory minicamp is where it becomes very interesting because that first word mandatory and then we'll know if there is actually some, you know, head-butting between Daniel Hunter and the team or not.

If they were to fix this before mandatory minicamp, Brad, how would, let's say they send out an announcement, Daniel Hunter, happy man. He'll be back. Why would that be? If he shows up at, you know, OTAs, like why is he happy? Because they did blank. It's going to be tough, honestly. I think this situation kind of parallels Allen Robinson in Chicago, where for all we know, the Vikings and Daniel Hunter were close. But once free agency happens and the top deals of the entire offseason

at edge rusher are $17 million, $18 million for Shaq Barrett. No one even sniffing $20. And we know he wants – I know it's been debunked that he asked for Joey Bosa money. But, I mean, look, Joey Bosa is making $27.5 million. So Hunter probably wants $23, $24. And so if we had a normal offseason, then I think Shaq Barrett would have gotten $22 and next guy up would have gotten 20, whatever. And it would have been more palatable for Minnesota to say, all right, we'll go to 24,

25 per year. Yes, there's multiple years left on the deal. We don't love that we're, you know, renegotiating early, but we'll go there. Now I think it might create an impasse. So, yeah, I mean, the headline would have to be Daniel Hunter gets, you know, surprisingly large contracts. So the thing that I run into all the time in this discussion, every time I have it, every time I write about it, is someone pops in and says, hey, why doesn't the team just put their foot down here? Daniel Hunter, you signed a contract.

Go play, you know, play through it. But if I'm reading this correctly, he's only got $3 million left in guaranteed money. And if you're coming off of a neck injury you want more security than that you don't want a situation where if something else goes wrong that you have so little guaranteed money i know that you know we're talking about huge numbers he's a wealthy man already um and then the other part of it is people will say well he's got no leverage because he has several years left on the contract. But if I'm adding this up right, the man has made $40 million in cash the last couple of years. So if the team is fining him $10,000 a day, I mean, that's you or me going to McDonald's at this point, right?

So give me kind of the rundown of how you view those things. You know, I would say first off the top, I think people need to view when these contract negotiations come up and they kind of want to be team side and say, oh, he has all this money, you know, yada, yada. Realistically, a player starting an NFL career says, I expect or I hope to have a rookie contract and one more contract. If not, it's okay. I want to have, you know, a second contract and a third contract.

And that's pretty much all you're guaranteed. We hear about players playing late into their 30s, whatever, even outside of quarterback, obviously it's a different animal. But realistically, and you mentioned he has the injuries as well, in his mind he's probably negotiating his final substantial contract of his playing career. So it's not just like this vacuum thing, oh, he wants new money, he has money, his years left. No, if he doesn't get this done now, what is he worth in the market next offseason?

Could it fall off a cliff, you know, if he doesn't perform, stuff like that. So I think that's a big piece of it. But, yeah, I mean, from a leverage standpoint, yeah, the fines don't really do much. You know, they're not going to go after, like, signing bonus money and stuff like that. Like, maybe they try to, but I don't really do much. You know, they're not going to go after, like, signing bonus money and stuff like that. Like, maybe they try to, but I don't really see it. You know, and so, yeah, like, you guys see the money to fall back on as well.

He's not, you know, a guy with, like, no career earnings that would kind of be really hurt. So, yeah, I think, in my opinion, honestly, if you have enough accrued seasons to where you are eligible to be an unrestricted free agent, you kind of have a little bit of leverage. If they, you know, go the grievance route and go all these, like, really nastiness and ugliness, it's a whole different story. But I just don't see Minnesota doing that. I think they would rather, you know, if he doesn't show up in his report, they'll say, okay, we'll just, you know, kind of fine you the daily amount.

We'll let you keep your signing bonus, whatever. Kind of like a Le'Veon Bell situation where Pittsburgh could have tagged him again. They had every right to, and they basically just said, whatever, let's just get over it, and he doesn't want to be here, so we'll just move on. I think it would make so much more sense that if they get to this impasse and it's not solved by training camp to just trade him, because now the teams are past the draft. I feel like there's so much more willing past the draft to trade away their first round picks than they are before the draft.

Before the draft, you have an entire front office and scouting staff and everyone who's worked so hard in ownership who wants this first round draft pick that you put all your efforts into it. And then if you trade it, I mean, that's still exciting, but it almost feels like, oh, well, it's kind of deflating for draft night. And I feel like the value when you know who the players are that you could potentially get, you always look at these guys and say, oh, this guy's the next star. Our scouts have circled this guy.

But once you get past that, then teams start to start to think oh if we don't win this year we might all get fired so we really need to trade for Daniil Hunter here to come to our place it's sort of like a DeAndre Hopkins type of thing only I'm sure that the Vikings could do better than you know Bill O'Brien did in that in that particular trade but I just think that if you get to that point you mentioned all these other ways that they could go about it that's just not not something the Vikings generally do. I don't think they want to be viewed as that type of team that does that. And I even think that maybe Allswell's ends well here with the left tackle situation in Christian Derrissaw, but I think it hurt them last year to kind of play some games with somebody like Riley Reif. And I don't know that they want to do that again.

Yeah, I completely agree. You know, I do. First and foremost, they're just not an organization that wants to be viewed in that light. They'd rather just honestly pay a guy and just avoid the negative situation. And I think it's smart. I think for them they realize maybe it's a detriment in the short term, but it probably benefits us in the long run. They have a good reputation, and I think even being in a city that maybe not every player wants to be in, they have a good reputation, and I think even being in a city that maybe not every player wants to be in, they're still getting phone calls because every player respects

the organization in the front office. That stuff matters. It does. So the trade thing is interesting because I agree that, you know, future assets in their mind are, like, you know, way less pricey than a first-round pick that is so tangible. Like, it has a player's name attached to it for maybe some teams. I completely agree. But it's still tough where, yes, an acquiring team would immediately redo his contract because we could probably assume he would say they have to.

Otherwise, he's not interested. There's only 13 teams in the NFL as of right now that have enough cap space for his salary. So it doesn't mean it's dead, but it more means that that team may ask Minnesota to convert some into bonus and keep that on or, you know, just rework it. I think it just complicates matters to where then it's a three-way negotiation between Minnesota, Team X, and his agent and Daniil. So, again, not impossible, but I think it just, you know, it complicates things even further.

So it's going to be fascinating. I agree with you. I don't think he's showing up anytime soon. It will come to an impasse, and then we'll learn kind of really where everyone stands in this situation. If he shows up for OTAs, I think all of us are going to be very surprised. But then again, he has actually said nothing about this, and the team has said nothing about this. So we're only sort of going off some vague reporting from a year ago. But the fact that he hasn't come out to clarify the situation also is telling in itself.

So let's talk about some other things here. Now, the Vikings did some serious gymnastics to get to the point where they are right now with the salary cap. Here's my question for you. So I'm not going to run through all the different things that they did, but they set up Anthony Barr's contract. So it is done after this year, he could become a free agent. They moved some money around with Adam Thielen, yada, yada, yada, cut some people. Long-term impacts of this stuff that they did, because one of the themes that I hope people have learned from you, Brad,

is nothing comes free. There are no free lunches when it comes to the salary cap. It's only how much you feel like paying for later instead of right now. So explain how this impacts the long term to have created this cap space. Yeah. So, you know, I liken it to it's a credit card. It's not, you know, you're not using your debit card, you're using your credit card. So, you know, I liken it to, it's a credit card. It's not, you know, you're not using your debit card, you're using your credit card. So yes, maybe you don't have to pay it cash wise right now, but it's waiting for you eventually. You know, I think the borrow one is a net positive. You know, I think a couple of teams, we saw that do a couple of teams where, you know, Whitney Merciless was the same in Houston where they both said, okay, we'll help each other where you lower our money, but you let us hit the market again sooner, you know,

chop some years off the deal. Mersens actually kept his money. A bar took a true pay cut. So that one was just, you know, a net benefit for Minnesota. I think it kind of shows, you know, they probably should have let him go to the Jets, and I think they realized that. But, you know, Zimmer has a spot for him,

and they love him as a person. And, you know, so, you know, I don't think they regret the move, but I think it's why they were kind of willing to rework it and just get past it as soon as possible. The one that's a little scary is Delvin Tomlinson. I mean, that's just – that's a deal structure that, like, a New Orleans Saints front office would do where, I mean, I want to say it was two years, about $20 million, and was it $15 million was a signing bonus?

And it's, you know, three void years tacked on, so you're putting, you know, $3 million in each year in signing bonus. But essentially, after that second year that he's actually under contract, if they don't renew him, you know, he'll have $9 million in dead money just sitting waiting in that third year. So that is, yeah, I mean, again, you can deal with it. And if the cap is up in 2023 is that true target year i've seen a lot of people talk about next year it's not going to spike next year uh most likely you know unless things go extraordinarily

well but 2023 based on how teams operate this offseason you can tell that's what they think so it could be okay um but just you know it's it's $9 million. You don't really have to spend. So – and I just also think it's an interesting move on the field too because you have Pierce and Thomas and both very good players. But, I mean, in my opinion, both just true, you know, one technique or zero technique, you know, nose tackles. So, you know, they'll find a way to make it work. They're not going to get run on like they did, you know, last year.

But it was just kind of a deal where, yeah, it's a, I'm not going to call it a panic move. I'm not going to call it a desperation move, but it wasn't like fully sound of mind where, you know, they probably didn't even love it themselves, like as they made the deal. You were a wordsmith there in walking around that one, but I'll go there. I think it was kind of panicked. I mean, when you look at, and I'll go that way for Patrick Peterson too. I like Tomlinson as a player. I really like Tomlinson as a player, actually. Peterson, I'm more skeptical of, but I think that Mike Zimmer can help him improve from where he was last year. But when you look at other guys who are similar in their skill sets and what they got paid, I don't see this kind of money for other nose tackles

and for other veteran corners. I mean, Casey Hayward signed for like four and a half million. That's half of what Patrick Peterson got. And to put void years in a contract for the Vikings is just unusual. I mean, this is not something that they have done before. And I think it's waving a bit of a flag to us, Brad. Like, they know that the pressure is on. They know that if they give up 52 points and six touchdowns to a running back again, that it might be over.

I mean, that Mike Zimmer's defense has to get back to being Mike Zimmer's defense. Or they're going to say, well, if your defense isn't good, then we need to have an offensive coach. You just get the most out of our offense. So I think that the way that they structure these things and some of the stuff that they did totally agree on the bar being a positive for the Vikings bar contract. But some of these things I think were very much, even if it's an overpay,

even if we have to hurt ourselves down, down the road, we know the pressure is on for this year. I won't dance around it for Patrick Peterson. I mean, that was, that was a panic move. They were,

they were early to market, too, where, like you mentioned, we've seen not only guys signing smaller deals, you know, like a Casey Hayward for, you know, was up to $4.5 million in Las Vegas, but, you know, Kyle Fuller gets cut, Steven Nelson gets cut. I mean, those guys are both better than Patrick Peterson, I would say, today. And they're both going to take, well, Fuller got $9 million, but, you know, Steven Nelson will probably sign for $5 or $6 million. And I think they just kind of panicked and were like, we need to get someone. It sounds like Zimmer and him have a relationship and they like each other. So I think that's kind of where Minnesota comes into play where they say, look,

like we get a former like all pro, like a household name that wants to come to Minnesota. You know, so they kind of just jumped on it. But the deal probably will not age particularly well. The Tomlinson one, I think actually I heard that Bill Belichick was pissed when he saw the Tomlinson value come in because they gave Devon Godshaw a pretty similar contract. It was like two years 14 for him and two years 19 for Tomlinson. So if I was Minnesota, I chalked it up as a W from a value standpoint.

The Peterson one, no, yeah, it's just too much money. Well, I was really just focusing on kind of the void years there of being something very unique that they did. I want to ask you about like some of these other contracts and just how they are aging, starting with Delvin Cook, because you and I, I think it was actually one of the first Purple Insider podcasts ever we discussed Delvin Cook's situation. And as dramatic as it got with his agent from last year, and probably unnecessarily so, I thought that Delvin did very well in this contract. He had a great season last year, but they also ran him into the ground.

How is this contract going to age? Because it doesn't look like to me this year it's problematic, but it might be after this year. Yeah, this year is still a cheap year. And this is how they try to structure it, wherein you essentially just try to backload it and have the guarantees run out so that when you do move on, they haven't gotten a ton of money.

And honestly, you mentioned their negotiation. I think they did better than we saw at a couple other negotiations. I think Alvin Kamara's deal is not a strong contract. Aaron Jones' contract is a two-year, like $19 million deal. There is a 0% chance he's playing in the third year of his contract is a two-year, like $19 million deal. There is a 0% chance he's playing in the third year of his contract. So I think Dalvin did pretty well, but it doesn't really hit Minnesota's books until next year. And I know that salary, the $8.3 million salary,

becomes guaranteed at some point. I don't believe it is right now. But that could be this offseason or it could be maybe early on, kind of in March after the season ends. That'll be interesting. And they did run him into the ground. He didn't get hurt, you know, and he obviously has dealt with some injuries. But you have to think that, you know, how durable can the guy truly be?

You know, I guess they added, you know, another back in the draft in Nwongwu. So they're trying to, you know, spell him if they can. Maybe Madison gets more touches. But it still seems like the offense is going to run through him because when you don't add a third receiver, I mean, unless Irv takes a massive step, which he could. I'm high on Irv Smith. But that to me is when you don't address that third receiver spot,

you're kind of just relenting and saying, all right, Dalvin Cook is our number one back and essentially our third receiving option, and we're just going to run this guy into the ground. Folks, if you are pumped up about how the Vikings did in the draft and now the schedule's out, it is a great time to get yourself a Skull Flag or Bud Grant shirt. And, of course, there's much, much more. If you go to Sotastick.com, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com,

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even your fantasy football drafts check out birdie golf at 494 in valley creek in woodbury just a short drive from anywhere in the twin cities metro and at birdiegolf.com or you can call 651-998-2200 today. I'll see you there. Right, and I looked up past guys who had the type of workload of Dalvin Cook, and the history's just not super great. And if Kenny Wongwu ends up playing more than, I don't know, a handful of snaps, I would be stunned.

I mean, the same thing for Alexander Madison. The guy is just not playing unless Delvin Cook gets hurt because we talked about that desperation to win. We even saw that last year, that Mike Zimmer just would not take Delvin Cook out of a game if they were close, basically. And I think they're going to play a lot of close games this year. So we're kind of just like bouncing from guy to guy. But we have a lot to discuss here, Brad. Jeff Gladney's situation. Jeff Gladney arrested for domestic violence.

We do not know how this is going to go. Mike Zimmer said the other day that he has an idea of how it's going to go, but he's not telling. Okay. So I don't know what to do with that. Yeah, that's a, I don't know. Why bother? Why bother saying that? It was very much like Mike. Mike has some of these moments, these press conference moments where it seems like he really wants to tell everyone what he knows.

But he's like, I have a secret and I'm not telling you guys. So I guess we leave it at that. But here's what I do know. If you get arrested for domestic violence of any kind, you are getting suspended no matter what happens with the law. Now, if this is really bad, though, Brad, of which if you've read the allegations, very bad. If it goes that way and he's suspended for the year and the Vikings decide this is not someone we want to be a part of our organization, what happens with his salary and his cap and all that sort of stuff? Yeah. So, you know, during the year, it would be tied up in a grievance process. You know, they would get, off the top of my head, I believe like 40% of it is kind of put in hold. That's what we saw with Earl Thomas. They take a chunk of it and kind of like leave it as a placeholder, you know, for the true base salary. And that kind of just stays on the cap during the

year as the grievance process plays out, and it would take a while. Yeah, you know, I actually haven't seen anything since the original allegations, which were awful. And I think in this situation, if it proves to be true, or even if maybe like we've seen instances before where the legal system can't prove it true, but the NFL does their own investigation and uncovers enough that they're comfortable penalizing the player. I think unlike our discussion with Daniel Hunter, I think Minnesota would have no issue going after guaranteed money on his deal in terms of salary, but also going after signing bonus money and recouping signage bonus money.

So from a salary perspective, you'd have a 40% placeholder that would be stuck on the cap. You would get, you know, that kind of 60% would come off, but it's not a ton of, you know, salary on a rookie contract. And they would go through the grievance process, which would probably take, you know, the entire season. The signing bonus money, as they recoup it, you get cap relief as well. That would also come at the end of the season in the annual adjustment. But, yeah, you could get substantial cap relief if they do decide to go after his money, if he's suspended

and placed on the commissioner's exempt list and all of that, which seems like a possibility. I mean, if the allegations are true, it seems like a foregone conclusion. If some things can be proven true, it's definitely on the table. So if he's suspended for the full year, do they get that cap space, or is it just the 40% that you mentioned? So you'd clear in the interim. The grievance essentially would be filed right away, or we can presume it would be. And so as soon as that happens, then, yeah, 40% would stay as a placeholder. I mean, I'll circle back.

I'll look it up. Maybe you can put it in a post something. I don't know if you get the cap space right away or if it's, again, an annual adjustment thing. Kind of so many things come out in the wash at the end of the season. You know, incentives, you hit them or don't, like all this stuff. Offsets, like, you know, if a player has offsets in his contract and sign, you know, gets cut and then signs elsewhere, that's all the end of the season. So I would guess it's the same scenario where it's an end-of-season thing. But Minnesota can operate as though they have that space, right,

because they'll know they're going to gain some space at the end of the year, and it can be a lot of money. So, you know, they can definitely – it exists kind of in theory, but it also does kind of exist in their process. So it's – let's call it complicated for that one. How much, Brad, would you ask for if you were Brian O'Neill's agent? If you were going to the Vikings and you said, well, okay, we're asking for right tackle money because Christian Derrissaw is the team's left tackle. Here's how much we want. Yeah. You know, I think that Minnesota, again, as we discussed, the tackle market also, I

think, was really slow. They're still going to pursue an extension, and they should. But I think they benefited from that, and I think they know it. You know, even the Colton Miller extension is the only, you know, first rounder in 2018 extension we've seen so far. It was solid value at $18 million per year. But, I mean, nothing crazy, nothing that changes Brian O'Neill's market. If I was O'Neill's representation, you know, right now the top of the right tackle market is $18 million per year.

You know, in second place is all the way down at $14 million. So there's a sizable gap. I would sell for $16, but I'd be asking for, you know, $17, $17.5. I'd want to come in right below Lane Johnson. But I'd tell my client, realistically, a five-year $80 million deal for $16 million per is probably a solid contract. Yeah, I think that's kind of the range. And I think Minnesota would do it as well. I think when you have now your left tackle of the future for at least four years, maybe five, on a rookie contract, then you can kind of spend at other spots,

especially at 23. The drop-off of taking him at 13 or 14, if they did, versus 23 is a good chunk of savings. Right, and with O'Neal too, they also want, and I think this always factors into teams paying guys. They want the home run there, right? Like it's a great look for them to have drafted Brian O'Neal in the second round. He comes in as a guy who weighs 285 pounds and everyone's questioning him. And then he, I don't know, eats a lot of McDonald's or whatever. And then he ends up, you know, putting on the weight, becoming a very good player for them. It's a big hit as a draft pick. And I think you want to reward that.

And like you said, you have Garrett Bradbury, who I'm interested to see how this plays out, but might not end up getting his fifth year option picked up if he continues to play like this. You have Ezra Cleveland, who is going to be on the cheap for several more years, especially as a guard, that even when he asks for another contract, it might not be massive unless he's great. You have Wyatt Davis, who's projected to start as a rookie. Like, your offensive line can be still pretty cheap, even if you pay Brian O'Neill a lot of money, and you could structure it so it, I think you could structure it so it bleeds

over a little bit into this year, right, with some of the cap space that they have right now. You could do that, right? Yeah, no, so all those are great points. Yeah, you're right. The whole offensive line is potentially rookie deals outside of him. I also 100% agree. And I think sometimes folks underestimate how much teams want to be like, especially for a Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman. If they read Twitter for five seconds, they would be like, all right, let's give this offensive line draft pick the biggest contract in NFL history

so that Twitter can shut up that I don't know how to draft offensive linemen. But, yes, so I think 100%. You put a little bit of money in the front, you know, as much as you can. Obviously, this is a tough cap situation. But put some in the front probably this year and next year and structure it so, you know, work it around to Derisos. All right, like when Derisos' money hits, you know, then O'Neal's will be kind of lower.

You know, maybe he's talking third contract by then. But, yeah, all of that will be taken into consideration. Okay, let me throw you a little bit of a curveball here and ask you if the Packers trade Aaron Rodgers, how does that work? I mean, everyone's talking about it as if it could be a foregone conclusion. But I think Vikings fans would love to know, how screwed are the Packers, even from a financial standpoint? Like, how would it impact them? Or can they just trade him,

and it's not going to have that big of an impact right now? So I would say, and I apologize to the Vikings fans, I don't know where you land. I'm curious to hear. I think there's, like, no chance he gets traded. Maybe I'm living in la-la land, and I'm not, like, taking it seriously enough. But I just don't see it personally. And I'm a Bears fan, so trust me, I want it to happen too, folks.

It's not a killer, but their situation cap-wise overall is terrible. I think it's almost funny, like, you know, the complaint of him being, you know, at least how it's staged is that he's upset they're not helping him in spending. I mean, they have the least effective cap space in the NFL for next year. You know, they have very little right now. And already projecting for next year, they have the least in the NFL, and that's without Devontae Adams under contract, and he's going to ask for the moon and deserves it.

So, you know, if they traded him, you know, before June, I know there's a whole June 1 after June 1 thing, but it would be about $25 million in dead cap space. Not great. Obviously, again, not even as much as a Kirk Cousins because he's into the third year of his deal now. There's less of that prorated kind of pushed out bonus money. But yeah, $25 million in dead money. They have the quarterback to turn to, so maybe not as dire as another situation where I would

say, hey, look, and they have to go spend and go replace him with somebody, but not the situation for them. But, yeah, I mean, $25 million in dead money and no more Aaron Rodgers for the Packers. I think we all would take that in a heartbeat. Hey, everyone, I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics, and I really do mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics, and since they reached out wanting to support this show, I want to tell you about what they do.

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And then if Jeopardy says, well, we didn't really want Aaron Rodgers. We just wanted some attention to have Aaron Rodgers host. Then what? Like, I don't know. Then he just goes fishing for a while.

I mean, I feel like a guy who has had two trips to the NFC championship game desperately wants one more bite at the apple. The other point is too, that Tom Brady is one year older drew breeze is now gone and every other team in the nfc kind of has these questions about them like the nfc i mean the nfc east are they even going to be fairly competitive uh the west is difficult but they still have their own questions matt stafford can he win anything out there he's not like aarongers not gonna be terrified of Matt Stafford playing for another team right so there's just all this opportunity

there for him that might be too enticing but I just I'm like a pendulum on this one man like every day I go like how could they not trade him if he's not gonna play but then you go back to it's not like he's returning to a garbage team. And sometimes I think, Brian Gutekunst, you're an idiot, like, for not working with Rodgers. But then also Rodgers, come on, man. Like, they got you the NFC Championship game. Your teams with McCarthy were much worse than this. So I don't know.

I'm kind of all over the place on Aaron Rodgers. All I know is that Vikings fans love to hear about it. Yes, yes. That is a consensus among the three other NFC North teams for sure. I'm with you i mean i definitely teeter-totter like i agree he's probably stubborn as a mule but i think the packers are as well and i mean it's a situation where there's no owner so the front office is actually in control um and i think they're proud as well yeah they've won a back-to-back nfc

championship games um yeah could the roster be better yeah sure there's spots it could be better but i just talked about their cap space they've've definitely spent. Gutekunst also, compared to the old regime, has been, you know, Ted Thompson wouldn't trade for anybody. He's traded up in the first round twice, you know, signed big name, you know, the Smith brothers, big name free agents. That was never a thing in Green Bay for 20 years. So, yeah, I think they'll both play chicken, and I think, like, neither one's going to blink. And I think, honestly, Green Bay and their position is we've already done this before.

We know this rodeo. If you want to retire, you know, we'd rather let you retire than trade you, which I get you and I can say, like, why not just take a King's Ransom? You know, Denver offers, I don't know, Bradley Chubb and three firsts. Like, why not just take it Kings ransom? You know, Denver offers, I don't know, Bradley Chubb and three firsts. Like, why not just take it? I don't know. From Green Bay's perspective, I just see them as kind of this proud organization that just says we're never going to let a player hold us hostage,

and we value that more than, you know, maximizing, you know, the value of an Aaron Rodgers trade. Yeah, there's that. Or you could go the other way and say Cincinnati tried this one time to play chicken but then ultimately is like oh draft picks for nothing because we've already sort of moved on from Carson Palmer we might as well take that so I don't know yeah this is how I end up all over the place okay last thing though you mentioned that you are a Chicago Bears fan. Justin Fields, a real, actual, exciting quarterback for the first time since Cade McNown, probably. Probably, yeah. I was surprised it came out that the Vikings were interested.

You know, I think if they were really, really interested, they probably would have got it done. You know, Rick's not afraid to, you know, make a bold move there. So I think they were probably cursorily interested. And if he fell to 14, it would have taken him. I say this to say that I've been watching Kellen Mond film for weeks because I thought we were taking Kellen Mond. So, no, yeah, I'm ecstatic. I'm very excited for the future in Chicago, obviously, with Justin Fields. Yeah, I mean, Cade McDowd, I don't even remember Cade McDowd.

Man, kids these days, or maybe I'm just very old. That's probably what's going on. I referenced playing Tecmo Bowl the other day, and somebody sent me a message and was like, what percentage of your audience really remembers playing Tecmo Bowl? I'm like, oh, well, hopefully enough, but not enough. Right, hopefully it landed. I don't know. Yeah, hopefully it landed. I don't know. Yeah. Hopefully it landed. Well, I used Cade McNown, who was just number eight with the

Chicago Bears on Madden 99. So there you go. There's my age being shown there. So, but you've had the McCowns, you've had the McNowns. Maybe it will be an exciting time with Justin Fields there. And I think there are a lot of Vikings fans. There are a lot of Vikings fans who I heard from because I said the Vikings probably, if they were ready to move on from Kirk, just should have taken Mac Jones, knowing that we never know who's going to be good in the first round. But I've heard from many more people who said they wish they had just done the trade for Justin Fields. He ends up there.

And Vikings and Bears play week 15 and 18. So we will get like a full version at the end of the season of Justin Fields. So that will there and Vikings and Bears play week 15 and 18. So we will get like a full version at the end of the season of Justin Fields. So that will be very fascinating to watch. Brad, congratulations on the move. And I appreciate all of your time. And it's fun to just sort of run down every player, like so many cap storylines all the time. You're always needed. And I must say, because we haven't gotten together, I think since free agency, that your efforts during free agency were necessary for not just me, but everyone. Everyone needed to know your analysis on what was going on with the salary cap. So you are much appreciated, sir. Thank you, man. I appreciate that a lot. And everybody,

just so you know, Matthew shot a 38 today on nine holes. 42. 42. Don't give me too much credit. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. And that means the rest of the summer I'll be chasing that and be awful. So appreciate that. Rub it in my face that I played well and won't ever play better.