Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Defector's Drew Magary is just riding the Vikings wave

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

Matthew Coller talks with Defector's Drew Magary about the Vikings remarkable 11-2 start to the season and the Sam Darnold's progress Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collard here and the most requested guest out there. Returns to the show from Defector, Drew McGarry. We talked over the summer so many times. What was J.J. McCarthy going to look like? What was Sam Darnold going to look like? What should we expect from the Vikings? Maybe it'll be great. Maybe it'll be terrible. What will happen?

And now, Drew, we are deep enough into this National Football League season to know it's 11-2, my friend, and Sam Darnold is top five in the NFL in many of the important categories. How are you feeling, sir? I feel great. I do. I do want to know, know you said you said a lot of requests like like how many is that like three people like i can't i don't i don't think you're like a thousand people being like you gotta have drew come on all he does is talk over you it's the best it's gonna be awesome okay so what if it's at least at least nine people have said when is true going to come on i think that that's significant enough for that to be your leader.

I feel great. This has been so much fun. I'm actually writing about it this week because this is as unique a circumstance as you're going to get for the Vikings where they weren't supposed to be good this season. It's kind of like almost like it's almost a drawback of them being good. I don't actually think that's true, but it was like they weren't supposed to be good this season. It's kind of like almost like it's almost a drawback of them being good. I don't actually think that's true, but it was like they weren't supposed to be any good. They are quite good and it's all house money.

So if they, you know, if they, if they don't make it to the Superbowl and statistically they are probably not going to, it's totally okay. And it's, and whatever decision I don't have to worry about the, you know, JJ or Sam fight even now after what, uh, Donald did to the Falcons. Cause everyone involved in that sort of conversation has already agreed to postpone it until the season's over. So I don't have to worry if they're not going to worry about it. I don't have to worry about it. And somehow I've been very disciplined in doing that. I haven't been like rushing to fight with people over at Sam or JJ or anything like that. I'm I've been cool. I think that you're

looking at these things along the same lines that I am. I may be not necessarily the house money part because when you get to this point, you think well how many chances do you ever get there's no guarantee that in the future you just have 11 and 2 starts to your seasons and you have to take full advantage of that every opportunity that you get so yeah but then you start freaking yourself out right it's like oh okay we're never gonna get a chance like this again so it comes along once a decade if we blow it then we're dead that sucks. And like, I've had that happen in 2009. I think I had it happen in 1998. I don't feel like the 98 team was,

I did not think it was replicable when it was happening. And I remember after they lost the NFC title game, one of the local columnists, I think it might have been Jim Suhan. I can't remember who, but they were like, they were like, that was kind of it. And I, I knew it in my heart and won't believe it, but I, I totally believed it. And this is different because with the kid in the bullpen, it does not feel like this is the only chance he comes in. He's a rock star. Then all of a sudden we have an open decade and so i i have that possibility sitting on the back shelf and that's not a bad thing to fall back

on yeah and even if sam darnold stays it's not like this has to be the end of the road i mean i i get sort of exhausted with the idea that if you were to give a quarterback any sort of money that your franchise just completely collapses and you can't play football anymore that doesn't seem to be true since most of the nfc teams in the playoff race right now have quarterbacks on second contracts but i think there's a bigger thing about the second contracts have been doled out recently you know to to kirk to tre Prescott, to Aaron Rodgers. There have been a lot of bad QB contracts that have been handed out lately. So you sit there with, you don't want to have the GM brain too much,

but when you know that Sam Darnold's playing as well as he is, as cheap as he is, it's a nice little bonus. It's like, oh, don't you just love a bargain? But also Philadelphia paid their quarterback, and Jared Goff has made big money. Matthew Stafford was on a bigger contract when he won the Super Bowl. If your franchise knows what it's doing, this doesn't have to be a total catastrophe.

And I think the bigger picture on this year, the most important takeaway from this year is that your franchise knows what it's doing. And it's taken a really long time for people to buy into that because, you know, at five and oh, they could always still fall off after Jacksonville. They could always still collapse. But now when you look at the path, the roster construction, the way that Kevin O'Connell has handled Sam Darnold, the impact of the receivers. They've even built a line that can block sometimes. I mean, it's the handling of free agency, Brian Flores' ability to find and evaluate players.

All of this stuff coming together is repeatable into the future. I don't think Brian Flores randomly lucked into seeing Blake Cashman on tape and wanting him, things like that. I think the competency has been confirmed for this leadership. Yeah, they know what they're doing. I totally believe in Kevin. I completely believe in Kwasi, and that's not how I have normally felt. We have said this before when we talked. They're doing all the things that I want them to do, which never happens. And it's not like I'm some football genius or anything like that. It's just sort of like common sense fandom and how an NFL front office don't, they don't

always go hand in hand. Cause there's so many egos and so much stupidity involved in, in NFL front offices. And, you know, there's still residue of that. Like we're, you know, we're still paying the price for crazy, letting Ryan Grigson take Ed Ingram in the second round. Right. Like we're still, that's still a massive hole in the,

in the offense. And Blake Brandel played badly against the Falcons too. So that, you know, those things are still sort of red, red flags in my mind, but you know, it's,

it's all sort of all of my nitpicks are taking a backseat to the fact that I just like sitting back every week and watching Donald huck the ball, 16 yards downfield to someone who's going to catch it. That's pretty cool. Uh, there was a lot of the hucking, but you know, as much as i i have enjoyed everyone has enjoyed uh the arm talent but what i did not realize about sam darnold and why he deserves as much credit as anybody else here as the receivers as the coach is that he's playing within the structure of the offense like a regular routine quarterback that's a starter is supposed to do. Like the things that Nick Mullins would do if you put him in,

which is to have the timing and know where to throw and complete the shorter. Well, Mullins throws it down the field too, but you know what I mean? Like the things that you would talk about for a game manager. There are so many instances in that Falcons game where he drops back, correctly reads the defense, and throws the football where he's supposed to go on time, in rhythm, with accuracy. And as we do think about how good this can be down the stretch, if you rely only on 42-yard bombs, 52-yard bombs, okay, well, that's going to go way up and down on a weekly basis, but a post route that's 18 yards to

the end zone or a play where Addison and Jefferson are working together and the defense kind of screws it up and Addison's open and he hits it on time. Like all that stuff coming together over the last four weeks has been extremely impressive to me because I think all of that is repeatable down after down possession after possession. Yeah. It has that feel, um, particularly the Falcons game. It was like, you know, we, we've, we've talked all through the off season and, you know, and even before, even before Sam or, uh, or JJ McCarthy got here about sort of the weaponry on this offense, right. And JJ, uh, um, Jordan Addison, TJ Hawkinson, all that stuff.

And the Falcons game was even more so than the Bears game, felt like the first time that all of those pieces were operating in maximum capacity with one another. And I think it was part of O'Connell's plan because I remember reading about this, I think it was yesterday, Alec Lewis wrote about it in The Athletic, where when J.J. McCarthy went down, O'Connell had to go back and he had to sort of study Sam Darnold's game.

What was Sam Darnold good at? It turned out that what he really liked throwing were deep in cuts and stuff like that. So he designed as much offense to, he designed the offense to have as many of those plays as possible. So, you know, all through those first few months of the season, when Donald's hucking it downfield over and over again. And I remember you saying like, okay, okay, pull it back a little bit.

You can be a little bit Zimmerified by like 5% and run the ball. But I think O'Connell was like, no, we got to get this long game going. And once it clicks, then we can dial it back because everyone will be so terrified of our effective long game that we can do anything we want. And I think that's kind of, I don't want to use the Falcons game as a one game sample size, right? It's too small, but it had that sort of, it had that greatest show on turf energy to it. That is something you don't feel a lot when you watch any football team

play, let alone this one. So that was a big deal to me. I felt like that O'Connell was, I don't want to say he was playing 3d chess or anything like that, but there was a clear vision to what he was doing when he was ordering up all of those long bombs. And now that Jordan Addison is tracking the ball downfield like a sniper, it's like, okay, how do you stop this now? It feels like a dangerous offense more than just me hoping the quarterback makes a good play. It's now, okay, I know he can make a good play. And that's, that's a nice little transition to have.

I've also thought that there is real value in doing something that the rest of the league is not doing. And we've seen the average depth of target in the NFL go down and down and down because everybody with the shell right teams are playing these deep safeties and the atlanta falcons played the deepest safeties that i've ever seen in my entire life so deep to the point where there was a lot of one-on-one in open space and it didn't matter either and they have good safeties like jesse bates up in that game that doesn't happen yeah no they do and you could see a jto sullivan of qb school

did a great breakdown showing just how there's a magnetism to justin jefferson and how kevin o'connell takes advantage of that when it comes to the deep shots but the whole league is running underneath stuff and trying to have long drives and stay on the field which we see them doing against the vikings but here's here's the Vikings with deep shots saying, we're not going to let your safeties dictate how we're going to run our offense, but this can't succeed unless Sam Darnold can also throw the six yard pass and the last,

and it can't succeed if he throws it to the other team three times a game. And the last four games where it feels like he is locked in to when do I huck it deep when do I take the underneath he's not a huge check down guy but when do I take even just the option that's right there how about at the end of the game the rollout where he finds Josh Oliver just underneath but it goes for 26 yards. These are just general execution things of regular offensive stuff that will, will travel from a week to week to week basis. That makes me think as we go down the stretch that he's a dangerous quarterback to be facing for other teams, because if you pressure him,

he could do something crazy and amazing, but he can also just run an offense, which is not necessarily how it was looking earlier in the season yeah no I agree and the other thing is that you know we and you guys have talked you've talked about on the podcast about how Sam takes a long time to throw the ball right like his average time in the pocket is you know way above 2.5 seconds right that's sort of standard And that was true of Kirk too. And yet, you know, I would always yell at Kirk, like, you know, get rid of it, get rid of it, get rid of it, because it just looked like he, he didn't want to throw the ball. Like he, like he, like he wasn't quite right. You know, he's the, he was the fussiest quarterback in the world still is everything had

to be right. So he was going to wait until everything was just right whereas with darnold when he takes a long time in the pocket first of all he's buying time and to me that's different when you're able to like what he did on the on the long bomb to jefferson when you're when you are creating extra seconds for yourself in the pocket because you know how to move around in the pocket and kirk cousins couldins could never do that. He sucked at that. Then that's different than standing back there and just waiting to be annihilated by Micah Parsons or whoever's coming at you. So when I'm watching Darnold throw the ball and when he buys time and when he gets the pass off

and I see it go, I see that ball fly off the left side of my TV screen. I expect good things to happen. And that's pretty cool. The pocket movement is another thing that I just didn't know if we were going to expect to see that from Darnold that I think has developed within the season. There's a play on third down that he converts and they end up going down and scoring a touchdown on the drive. I think it's seven to seven at the time and it's, they screw up. Somebody jumps off side. It's the third and 12 or something like that gets a little pressure off the

right side and just does kind of a pivot to create a wide open lane for himself to see Jefferson coming out of a cut. And the other thing that he's doing as the season is progressing is I thought earlier in the year, he would need to kind of see guys break open and then throw it. He's throwing with incredible anticipation. Now, like this is real growth during the season. I can understand why maybe earlier in the year you'd go out. Well, are they kind of just getting away with some, some big plays and the defense is playing great. So even if he makes a mistake, it's fine. But now he's doing the highest level of the high level quarterback stuff. Like you said, creating space for himself, converting third and longs,

throwing while guys are coming out of their breaks into windows. There's a throw to TJ Hawkinson where it looks like he's staring right at the linebacker and he throws it right by him as Hawkinson is running full speed into the football. It's just incredible anticipation, which I think has to lead me to the question that everyone wants me to ask you. I don't necessarily want to ask you, but I think I have to about your opinion for what they will do with Sam Darnold. You know, your boy, Andrew Kramer, he just reported yesterday,

you know, he had that quote from Wes Phillips where he was, you know, I'm going to paraphrase it, but he was basically saying, hey, you know, wherever, you know, Sam ends up after the season, that'll be great. And, you know, and Kramer took that as an inference that, you know, the plan to go to JJ after the season is still pretty much a plan, right? And I'm sort of following the team's lead. I'm following everyone's lead on this because going into the season, the team said to Sam, hey, this is a one-year deal.

This is a marriage convenience, and hopefully we'll get you paid, if not by us, by somebody at the end of it. And Sam was like, yeah, okay, that's great. And everyone has stayed remarkably disciplined in that regard. Like nobody, you know, you don't hear anybody. Sam's not campaigning to keep his job beyond this season. The team's not doing the thing they did with Kurt. We're like, well, we hope he's here for a, for a long time and all that stuff. Everyone is just sort of like, okay, let's see where this goes.

And I've taken their cue as a fan and I'm just seeing where it goes. It doesn't mean that I'm not complaining. Like, you know, the trick plays aren't very good. I'd like to see more designed runs for Sam because there was one play in the Falcons game where I think it was one of those plays where he screams can and anytime he screams can it means that he's gonna audible to a run play that goes like a yard and a half right so he hands the ball off and it's one of the backs

I think it was Aaron Jones and and the back it's an outside zone to the right. And he boots out and Donald boots out to the left. It's a great play fake. I think almost the cameraman was tricked too. And nobody goes with Donald and there's nothing but open field in front of him. And he is not a slow runner by any means. He's a world-class athlete. So I would not mind a little bit of that, particularly, and this is sort of the big thing I wanted to talk to you about because I feel like there's still so much to be decided, particularly in this last month,

because it's such a hard schedule and because of the Packers game in the penultimate week. And I have the stat for you. In the past three years, we've had to play Green Bay late in the penultimate week, and I have the stat for you. In the past three years, we've had to play Green Bay late in the season with playoff implications on the line. We have lost those games by a combined score of 111-37. And every time it's happened, I've gotten geeked up for that game. And then the Packers come on and we start slow and then like someone you know some key player of ours tears his Achilles in like nine different places and then the Packers go on to romp and then Melissa Stark offers her hand in marriage to the Packers quarterback afterward

it's disgusting and horrible and if they can like if Sam Darnold can go into that week 17 matchup at home and just bury the out of that team, then I will let think that the Packers are are like invincible by any means uh but they have been you know they've been average and still beaten the crap out of us in the past so I would like that uh little I'd like that little loose end tied up I felt the exact same way about having that one circled as the, how's everybody going to feel about this team? And this season truly will be based on December 29th. Even if you finish 14 and three, if that's the one loss, then you'll go into the playoffs.

They get, I don't know, man, I don't know if they can really do it. They couldn't beat the Packers at home. And I go back to the 2019 game that they had in late December, where Z'Darrius Smith ate every player on the Vikings offensive line and it was they didn't take advantage of an early fumble and it just was kind of ugly from there and even though that team was good the 2019 was the team was good going into the playoffs nobody thought they could win anything because of that game against Green Bay so there will be the same sort effect. I think your approach to the Darnold situation is the right one, which is to

say, let's see how it plays out because quarterback history just tells us we don't really know on this position. Teams don't really know on this position. There are so many examples of teams thinking they had their one guy and then it turns out to be the other guy and Kurt Warner's playing indoor football league in Iowa and then just becomes a hall of famer. Brock Purdy's Mr. Irrelevant. Like this stuff happens all the time that we really don't expect. We may get to the end of the season and say, it is so obvious that Sam Darnold needs to be back that everyone will know it and that's what they'll do. Or we could get to the end of the season and say it is so obvious that sam darnold needs to be back that everyone will know it and that's what they'll do or we could get to the end of the year because there's almost a quarter of this thing left with four games still to go and they're and it's a

gauntlet it's right it's not easy even playing the bears on monday night like they should rinse the bears in that game but they should have rinsed the bears in the last game. And, you know, they had, you know, they had all the, the onside kick the end. So it was, you know, I, I've been very good again about keeping this, keeping this week to week, but I do know that this does not get an easier, right. And so I'm happy, you know, I'm happy for what we've gotten so far, cause it's way beyond whatever we expect. And I have, I still have that sort of reflex where, and this, this ages me a lot, but I'm always wondering if the quarterback of the Vikings will have that

sort of weird magical season that Mark Rippon had in 1991 with the commanders or, you know, they were not the commanders at the time. And I, you know, I was kind of expecting that I was, or I shouldn't say expecting it. was imagining kirk making that leap which was never going to be possible because

he just doesn't have the talent for that but sam is playing like that has been playing like that for a month now does that mean it's going to last no not necessarily because those teams have been the teams that we have beaten have been average, you know? Like, I don't think the Falcons were good. Like, the Falcons were 6-6, and they had started 6-3, but I think they're a bad football team. So, you know, if he can replicate that in a game he should win against Chicago, where they're going to wear cool white helmets and stuff, and then he can do it in Seattle, which will be hard. And then at home against Green Bay and then in Detroit, a game that may not matter, that Week 18 one. Then it will have a monumental feeling to it

in ways that it hasn't quite had yet. But that Falcons game felt like the potential start of something. But that's as far as i'm gonna take it because i'm 48 i'm old i you know i only have so many seasons left so i have to it's better i temper my expectations and enjoy what i have now uh rather than fast forward constantly to the next you know the, the, the playoffs or the draft or 2025, whenever we have a new, like, I can't do any of that anymore. And I've been subjected to so much, um, you know, whining from other Vikings fans or trolling

from like, you know, just replacement level Packers fans, like, oh, it's going to break your heart. But when you guys sign Aaron Rodgers like we're not gonna sign Aaron Rodgers of course we're not he's not that's stupid so like I almost feel inured to all of that and I'm just enjoying these games on my own terms and what I'm seeing is really really fun football it's just been an absolute blast let me tie into that then you've been through all the random fun seasons that we didn't expect and in a way i'm almost i'm as surprised as anyone they're 11 and 2 but in a way i'm almost not because just this is how it always works it always happens when you

sort of least expect it where do you put this one or how do you compare this one to the others, to case Keenum, to Brett Favre showing up at two going back to 98 Randall Cunningham. I mean, 99 is even kind of crazy because it's the Jeff George thing and he comes off the bench and he's got them in the playoffs and so forth. Yeah. But then they got,

they got rinsed by the Rams and the divisionals of that. I don't, I never, that team never had quite had the, the feel to it. And that was actually true of the 2001 team. Cause you know, before they got to the NFC title game,

you know, they were on a losing street going into the playoffs, that team, that they had a hot start. They cooled off at the end. They beat the piss out of, I think someone in the division, like Dallas,

I can't even remember. But they, they went and they went into that game, and it was like, okay, well, maybe they can get to the Super Bowl because it's Kerry Collins and the Giants. But it turned out that that team really didn't ever belong in the NFC title game. They got destroyed. So it's weird. To me, this is a unique animal because Case Keenum, I believe, was undrafted, right? So an undrafted

level of talent not anywhere near the arm or the legs of the processing ability of sam carnell 2009 was far and far had long since lost any brain in his arm so he was like he was still doing the magical far bull that he does and you know and i was sort of cheering through him through gritted teeth right but then he you know he throws a pick right when you expect him to throw a pick and then 99 or 98 like i that was i think as certain as i could be about a team except for the defense like everyone pins that um title game loss on gary anderson and on Denny taking a knee. But that was never, that was never the thing that stung me the most. The thing that stung me the most was the defense because the defense was like secondary was good. It was not fantastic.

And that showed up when OJ Santiago called a long pass in overtime that essentially made the game academic, you know, like a real sort of chief style ending to it. So to me, this is, this exists in its own universe. I never had a, a team where I feel like everyone at the top knows what they're doing. I feel like the roster is pretty good, although it has obvious weaknesses. Right. And I, you know, I'm, they're just, they're fun. They're fun to watch, but in a way that is not, that does not have me on edge. Like I have not thought the only time in the past five weeks that I've thought they were going to lose is when Marvin Harrison jr.

Caught that touchdown against us, uh, at home to, to extend that lead to what was it? 19 to six or something like that. Um, I was like, okay, it's just not their day, whatever. And they came back and they still won that game. But any of the other games, even the Falcons game, there was never a moment where I was like, oh, they're going to blow it. Like I didn't have that sort of just fatalist reflex where it's like, well, let's see how they fit up this time.

Like just all that tired crap. Like I don't, I somehow have been magically absolved of all that. I can't believe I owe that to Sam Darnold, but I suppose I do. So where do you put Sam Darnold then in comparison to your joy of watching these other quarterbacks? Because Darnold, he, they didn't show it on TV. I feel sad for everyone for that, of him pumping up the crowd. People who are watching the game said they heard something,

and then Greg Olson said something, but they didn't show him pumping up the crowd on the sideline. That was the first time that we had seen Sam Darnold show any emotion. He certainly doesn't at his press conferences, which I completely respect and would never criticize the way he has handled those very calm. Yeah. It's strategic. Right. But I also think that's who he is. I mean, you see him even when he walks out, uh, there'll be, there's a game winning drive to be had in

Arizona and he walks out and you see him and he looks the same. There's nothing that really changes about the guy, which I think is kind of maybe his superpower of not letting any of this ever get to him. Kirk's on the other side, the return and all that doesn't matter. Everyone's talking about the, everyone's talking about the, the, his contract and everything doesn't matter. Comes out of Jacksville, the bad game. Everyone says he's same old Sam doesn't matter. He just keeps flying. Even all that, uh, all that's pretty good. But I think that it has taken longer for people to appreciate him and what he's done this year because of that, because he's not a sharer because he isn't really showing his bearing his

soul all the time and things like that. Letting the world know who he is. I think that it's taken a little bit longer and the skepticism and the fact that McCarthy's there and the that people wanted him it's just taken longer to adopt Sam as the quarterback and I thought against the Falcons that was the moment where everyone said all right this is our guy yeah I really I I thought I thought that way during the Falcons game and then also at the end of the Arizona game, like I saw him do the double fist pump and be like,

and he wasn't like, he wasn't stone-faced. And I actually, that was something I was sort of waiting to see from him. I see like, you know, a display of emotion that was something that, you know, it was an emotional release for him, but also for his teammates because his teammates really like him and really respect him and really enjoy playing with him. And to have moments like that, sort of, you know, those genuine earned emotional moments, I think those do matter a lot.

And, you know, just from an entertainment standpoint, it kicks ass. Like, it's cool to see guys celebrate on your team when they're doing cool stuff on the field that's great so how does he compare to the other quarterbacks in your in your joy for watching him he he's been an absolute joy i mean he he had a head start merely by being not kirk cousins right because the especially after especially after that falcons game like the high of not having kirk like the highlight of my year was when Schefter posted his dumb tweet

saying that Kirk had signed, right? It was like, okay, all right. We're finally, we're finally past that. And everything has felt very fresh since then. And Darnold doesn't have the physical limitations of Kirk or of Case Keenum. He doesn't have the hated baggage of Favre. Like I hated Favre my whole life, right?

Like, and having to root for him kind of sucked. I mean, I did it because it was like, you know, you use what is available to get what you want. And then Randall was like brilliant and unexpected and playing in ways that he had not played previously. Like Randall in Philadelphia was famous for being, you know, sort of the defining mobile quarterback of his age and perhaps of, of, of league history. It looks until Michael Vick and Lamar Jackson came along.

So, you know, with Randall, it was like, he was someone who was out of football prior to that year. So it felt, um, it did feel like lightning in a bottle in a way that Sam doesn't because he's so young. And this year has, like you said, it has, there's been development or there's been progression in, in ways that you and I have not seen in six years because over six years of Kirk, it was always like, oh, he's getting better. Well, no, he's the same ordinary quarterback he's been his entire career. And trying to talk yourself out of it, you always sort of knew that was a losing game. Whereas with Sam, I'm, it's not that I have to talk myself into believing he's improving. I see it.

Like there's results, just tangible results. There are numbers that say he's improving and his teammates really seem to enjoy it. And so that has made this year as fun a year as I can remember. And I'm someone who like loved the 2022 Vikings. So I'm, I'm an the 2022 Vikings. So I'm, I'm an easy lay in that regard,

but, but these guys have been, you know, I think that there's some personal circumstances too, cause I lost my father this year and, you know, I had some other, you know,

you know, I had to deal with. So to have this team come along and be such an unexpected surprise has, you know, it's something that I am not going to take for granted. I'm very sorry to hear that. I did not know that, that you were, you were going through that. With this season, I think that a major part of why it has been so fun for everybody is the personalities on the team and the way that they've come together. There's a lot of new people that you didn't know before, and then each one has kind of had their different moments. Blake Cashman, Andrew Van Ginkle almost had another pick six last week. So close. So close.

Jonathan Grenard, Aaron Jones. another pick six last week so close so close uh jonathan grenard aaron jones you know the sombrero and the personality that he brings to this team and then i also think too that we're sort of seeing the coming of age of a coach in kevin o'connell he just got here in 2022 it's everything is kind of new he's trying to figure it all out as his team keeps winning one score games. But now he has matured into this. He has his process. He has his way of going about things that works and is continuing to prove that on a weekly basis. So all of those things coming together at once has made it enjoyable and then also immensely interesting.

Who would you like your Minnesota Vikings team to play in the playoffs? Who would you like to see just considering the way things could play out? Well, that's always sort of, I'm going to answer the question, but it's also sort of the loser fan mentality where you're like, okay, well, who's going to be the easiest playoff team for us to beat? Oh, I don't want to go to that stadium. That's going to be too dangerous. Like in my mind, it's like, I don't want to play the Rams in the first round. Like, I don't want that game, right? I'd much rather go to Atlanta. I'd much rather go to Tampa or something like that. But you know, in the end it's like, okay, well you can win your first

playoff game maybe by getting an easy draw, But eventually, you're going to have to beat a good team. That's just how it is. So I would like to see them – first of all, I'd like to see them get the one seed that's still in play, even if I think it's more distant a possibility in my mind than it is on paper, you know, because Detroit's been so good. But assuming they get locked into the five seed and they got to go to the south of the West division winner.

Well, I think the south champion will be the weakest of that bunch by far, particularly now that Seattle and L.A. are sort of differentiating themselves in the West, right? I think going to Seattle would be hard, and Arizona was already hard at home, even though I don't think they're particularly good right now. So I would want to go beat the piss out of the South champion, and then we'll have to deal with Philadelphia when we deal with Philadelphia.

Or Detroit, depending on how it goes. Yeah, you know what? If we play Green Bay again I don't want to lose to Green Bay in the playoffs but that would be annoying like I just don't want to deal with that at least the way the bracket looks right now it would be going and playing I believe it's Tampa Bay right now and then on to Detroit after that which I think you actually have to feel better about than going to Philadelphia just because Philadelphia and Ford field. And they've been there so many times that Detroit team, they know so well, it just, even if you think Detroit's a lot better,

it evens things out with the fact that you know each other this well, this is why you have to take the bears seriously, even though they've been a train wreck but they're probably going to know you uh better than anybody else when they come to us bank stadium and i think the same would be true for going to detroit and detroit's injuries make them more touchable than they might have been earlier in the year and when you look at the also when you look at to be you know there's always the we played one score games. Well, Philadelphia has only the same number of multi-score victories as the Vikings do. So I'm just saying. But Detroit has played a lot of post games.

So, you know, I am in a spot where I feel like they can beat any team. If they go to Detroit, I'm not going to be gonna be like oh that's a done deal or you know they're they're not they're not they're not gonna have a chance in that game i'm fully gonna be it's not like it's gonna be like 2019 when they went to new orleans and no one thought they would win that game i definitely didn't think they would win that game and then they they did this year it's different they can go anywhere they can play anybody and i'll i'll believe that they can win whether or not they do you know that's obviously up to the fates but um it's fun to have confidence in that team rather than you know hope like hope is just confidence in a flimsy disguise um this is a team that engenders confidence, particularly because of the way the quarterback's

playing because of the way the front seven is playing. And then because of the way the tackles are playing, and that includes Cam Robinson, who like, uh, you know, I don't know what more crazy has to do to earn his contract extension when he's making, you know, seemingly innocuous mid-season trades that end up saving, you know, your ass all the way through the rest of the season. That's pretty darn cool. Yeah. If they had had to move Blake Brandel to left tackle for the rest of the year, it might have sucked. Yeah. It would have been a catastrophe. Uh, he has been a huge part of it. Cam Akers is also averaging 4.6 yards per carry

as a guy spelling, uh, Aaron Jones. So another good move there with a doubled up achilles injury like that's no i know there was it wasn't really i can't really cut or anything but he could go he could go straight and bounce off people i you know i remember i texted you at one point because when it was right when i think it was the arizona game when when aaron jones's fumble itis was like at its peak and i was like is is acres the better back right now like i it's almost something i i wanted and to uh ko's credit he was like he's like listen i believe fully in aaron rogers because he kind of had to because he's the more talented back so it's like you have to just you gotta talk up the guys that you have to play uh because if you're just like oh well you know i'm gonna sit you down and i'm gonna

treat you like uh who's the back that that got 200 yard game and then belichick benched him you know the notre dame guy whatever was that uh jonas gray jonah what jonas gray was that jonas gray that's right so after the big jonas gray game and then you never saw jonas gray game like again like that's not something this team big jonas gray game and then you never saw jonas gray game like again like that's not something this team can afford to do particularly with someone as talented as jones so uh you know you know kevin has handled all of this stuff correctly and so you know it's just again instead of me you know doing all this weird sort of imagining, like I'm trying to imagine workarounds around whatever problems we have,

I feel like they already know their problems and they know how to address them better than I do. And that makes me confident in them. Again, it doesn't lock anything down or anything like that, but it really is enjoyable. And I think I'm now repeating myself where I'm just saying I'm having fun, but I am having fun. I watch them on Sunday and then they win. And then I pop a gummy and then I wait for the KO victory speech to post and they post it. And then I listened to it. And then my wife asked

me for something and I'm like, don't ask me for something right now i'm listening to ko talk and then and then i listened to it i'm very very happy before you go any questions uh for me okay yeah i okay okay first of all do you believe gilmore will be okay for the important games down the stretch. That's one. Yes, I do. Yes, I do.

Uh, one, because Stefan does not tweet very often, but when he does, he tweets very earnestly and he tweeted, dodged a bullet after his injury. And, uh,

well, also the fact that they didn't put him on IR, they would need that roster spot. If they had put him on IR, they would need that roster spot if they had put him on IR to replace him with, but instead they didn't. So that very likely means he's going to be okay. I also want to say though, and I know he got lost by Marvin Harrison Jr. Fabian Morrow has actually done a really good job. And I've thought about maybe like the fresh legs effect where I was watching Dallas Turner and there's this jolt to him or Jalen Redmond who hasn't played really all year.

And then he's getting in the backfield and he might just be good. But also some of these guys are not playing 80 snaps over and over and over again. And even Morrow, as I was watching him on tape, I'm like, he's running with his wide receivers. He's actually added some man-to-man coverage element to this defense that they might be able to, they may have found out something that they can rotate a little bit with the corners as opposed to just having to live with those three all the time.

But I do believe that Stephon Gilmore's injury is not serious. Okay. Do you believe Turner can make impact plays anywhere down the stretch or do I have to wait for him to gain weight in the off season? He does need to do that for sure. But I give him all the best PEDs this off season. They got to get 30 pounds of cream and clear addled muscle onto his body. He'll be a monster after that. But right now he looks like he kind of looks lost out there at times. Like he doesn't quite know, like, I don't think that they quite

know what to do with them. And I don't think he quite knows what he's supposed to do. Yeah. I think there's a confidence element that has to grow with him because I think he probably thought he was going to come in and line up on the edge and rush the passer 500 times this year. That's what he was doing last year at alabama and they've really used them as more of a van ginkle type of linebacker where he's dropping back half of his snaps in that last game and i included it in the film study which is in your inbox right now drew uh where there's a play that they blitz and he's got to rotate over in coverage and they complete a pass but he tracks the dude down so he's in theitz and he's got to rotate over in coverage and they complete a pass, but he tracks

the dude down. So he's in the right spot. He's making an impact with his speed. There was a play where he's setting the edge and shoving Kyle Pitts into the backfield to get a stop there. I thought on tape, he had a pretty good game. It's just that the splash plays, the huge impact plays, we have not seen them in the same way we've seen from someone like Van Ginkle, him just roasting a tackle and getting a sack or something. I haven't really seen so much of that. But I think that last game was a confidence builder for him because they did rely on him a lot and he got a fair number of snaps.

It's just an adjustment to a different position. And Brian Flores saying that he spent one-on-one time with him going over everything in the week leading up to this i think that's a positive thing to basically sitting down and saying we're going to need you so let's lock in if your coach pays attention to you that means you matter right right right take it from a bench warmer i know but i mean i can't i can't guarantee it what i see though is I see a unique quickness for a guy his size. And I think if he starts to figure it out, he can be a weapon for them as they go forward. They could actually be getting a little bit better at that position because he could make an impact. So I think we'll see a lot of them.

Yeah. Okay. And then I want to ask you about the specialists. One is, has Rueckert looked good in practice to you? Has he looked like old Will has record looked good in practice to you as he looked like old will record and practice you. I know he doinked that field goal against Atlanta, but I, you know, it was a doink. And as funny as doinks are, they are basically, you know, they're, they're one degree off target. Right. Uh, so I was, I'm not worried about him. I'm all, I would only be worried about him from an injury standpoint. So I want to make sure that you feel like he is looking at full health.

And then also the return game. Do you think that there are any adjustments? And I don't believe they are. There would be personnel or anything like that, but any adjustments they can do to get more yardage out of their punt and kickoff return units. So with Will Reichardt at this time of year, we only see warmups. So it looks fine

in uh warm-ups okay yeah so i'm not seeing him do like a bunch of drills and things like that it's hard for me to say uh i think if he was ready to come back and go it should be fine but i don't know i mean he seems like a kid that's pretty intense and may push himself back a little faster he's a really good kicker that's all I can really say so far. No, no, I think he was a great draft pick. I got no issue with that. As far as the return game, would it make you feel better if I told you

that it might actually be a better strategy to just not return anything? Yeah, I mean, like kickoffs, I don't give a crap if we never return a kickoff. I don't. It was almost like when Byron Murphy caught the, you know, made that great pick but then stayed in the end zone. I was like, oh, they may not be happy about that.

And they weren't. Like, they ended up putting us on the two-yard line. But I'm always like, if you have the option of, you know, if you have a bird in the hand with a touchback, you don't mess with it. But the punt return, you know, there's never any danger of punt of a, a long punt return out Powell, even though I really like Brandon Powell, he's dependable in a lot of ways. Um, but you know, it would, you know, if we could bust out a punt return, you know, into the red zone, that would be a little bonus. I could, I could go.

Yeah, I agree. And I think also kevin o'connell wants nothing to do with trying to return punts i mean i think that after the jets game where they committed multiple infractions while they were getting punt returns that when you look at how the net yards plus the risk of a fumble or something like that, the benefit rarely outweighs the risk. And we just don't see punt returners anymore, bringing back huge returns. Teams have gotten so scientific and good about this, that is there a single impact punt returner in the league that consistently

is making a difference with that position? It probably is better to just throw up the hand fair catch. That's so that's your question do you want to match what about trick return though wouldn't you like that wouldn't you like to see kevin o'connell draw up a double reverse return on the well matt daniels might be able to do it but if kevin o'connell's in charge of it i may end up leaping out of the press box as uh they flip it to the backup tackle or something i got i got one more question for you okay there's something i've been thinking about in terms of florist because i i do not believe florist will get a

head coaching offer uh or an interview in the off season because i think he's still blackballed but one of the and you know this as well as anybody one of the remarkably valuable contributions he has made to the team has been on the scouting side, right? So do you think there is a shrewd NFL team out there that would hire that guy not as a coach, but to run their front office? I don't think he would ever do it. I think this is what he wants. This is what he lives for. It would be a good idea

to have him be the director of pro scouting or something like this he is incredible at this i mean yeah he is man they've got gabe murphy out there playing 27 snaps or something i noticed him too right i was like oh my god is that like i like a dude got up after tackling i was like is that gabe murphy out there oh my god holy it was yep, I like a dude got up after tackling. I was like, is that Gabe Murphy out there? Oh my God. Holy. It was. Yep. It was.

And Dwight McClothern is a guy they're developing. I mean, he's just very good at this, but what you really see from him this year is how much in his element he is with these guys, like this particular group, how he gels with that room, how he works together with the veteran players and the joy that he has for that. I don't think Brian Flores will ever do anything with coaching. Yeah. He seems to have become mini Tomlin since, since his little stint.

Yeah. That's right. So yeah, I got, I got no problem with that. Like Flores is like Tomlin, that guy where like, if he told me to like,

you know, grab his luggage or something like that, I would do it like as fast as i possibly could like i would like absolutely follow orders like to the letter to make sure that everything was done correctly the way he wanted it done there there's two things that people buy into i mean one he's intense and competitive and you see that but the other thing is everybody knows how smart he is. And when you have a bunch of guys who have been in the league and they've been around a lot of coaches and they

know how good the man is at his job and how much he puts into it, how much scheme he puts into it, how smart he is. I think there's, there's just a full buy in there to their coordinator. There's a full trust with Brian Flores. And I agree with you that I think he'll be a full buy-in there to their coordinator. There's a full trust with Brian Flores. And I agree with you that I think he'll be doing this for a long time for the Vikings. He'll probably be there like Steve Spagnuolo. Do you know what it is? This is what it really is. This is the bow on it.

The reason I've been able to enjoy this season sort of on its terms and just week to week is because of floris o'connell quasi all of those guys where i know that if we fail in one of the big games something like that that is not symptomatic of a greater problem that will take years and years to fix right the bears like the bears had a serious head coaching problem and there's no guarantee that they're going to fix it. I don't have to worry about any of that. Going forward, I know that my team will be well-organized and well-coached, and that takes the burden off of me having to worry about just this team having its shit together

because it does have its shit together. And that's a nice little bonus. It's a hard thing to find in the national football league oh my god yeah there's like four teams like that that's it have to appreciate it when you have it uh drew mcgary defector you're writing about the vikings soon so uh folks should go check that out when you get that posted up there always great to check in with. Those nine people that wanted you back on the show are pumped right now. They got their money's worth. Thanks a lot, Drew. And you and I will talk soon, my friend.

All right. Thanks, brother. You want to say football? Football! Score the game. First win the game. Score the game. Don't know your name.

Okay. Okay, bye. Bye.