Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Defector's Drew Magary ranks his quarterbacks for the Vikings (but he's actually in love with just one)

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

Matthew Coller talks with Defector's Drew Magary about the magnitude of this week's draft for the Vikings as a franchise and then talks about how he's really, really into one particular idea for the Vikings and ranks the rest Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here, and look who's back from, oh, now look who's back from defecting, Drew McGarry, a well-timed snooze to start the show, I'm just going to leave that in there, Drew, what is going on man, it is draft week, how are you feeling? We made it i mean we kind of i have to wait another whatever like like three days another three horrible painful days but at least that's better than waiting the six weeks the the months the years i've waited for this like i was saying uh by the way i i didn't realize this was a family-friendly podcast last time.

And I was very much myself. So I'm going to be like 5% less myself and not drop as many F-bombs. Anyway, I popped a gummy on 420 and I told the people on Blue Sky that this was the biggest Vikings draft of my lifetime. And it's true. It's not an exaggeration. It's correct. They've never picked a quarterback in the top 10.

And I think you and I are both assuming that they're going to do it even though they're sitting at 11 right now. And it's weird because there are so many other fan bases where if you're a Cleveland Browns fan or you're a New York Jets fan or you're a new york jets fan or you're you're a bears fan picking in the top five is is old hat to you that's every year like it's just whatever it never happens with us like it ever so it's like it's this odd place to be in where

you know because the vikings are historically good franchise and you know I don't need to go through the whole thing where it's the best record historically without a Super Bowl blah blah blah blah blah but for them to be in this position now it's it feels very very definitive and I'm I feel confident which I never ever feel but I finally feel confident, which is cool. From my perspective, it's a little different because I moved here in 2016 to cover the team. Right, you're not a fan. You're a reporter. Not the lifetime sort of fan.

Now, of course, I love NFL history and I understand the whole thing, but it's more of this, since I got here, when Teddy Bridgewater got hurt, there's just been a lot of different attempts to solve this problem in different ways. There was Sam Bradford, and then there's bringing in Case Keenum as the backup, ends up taking the NFC Championship. But it's not just Kirk. It's trying to draft Kellen Mond. And there's always been a discussion of kind of who's going to be the quarterback?

Who's going to be the quarterback? Is it going to be Kirk? Is it going to be Kirk? There must have been four off of kind of who's going to be the quarterback. Who's going to be the quarterback? Is it going to be Kirk? Is it going to be Kirk? There must have been four off seasons where we talked about, are they going to sign him to an extension or what's going to happen here out of the six years that they were, that he was here. And so now it feels like you're getting a definitive answer. That's part of it is one is somebody that could potentially be here for a long time. And the other part of it is that along the way of Kweisi Adafo Mensah in charge, we had

to ask kind of a lot of questions. Is he prepared for this job? Does he actually have a plan early on? Where's the rebuild part of the competitive rebuild? And then we started to see it and it's all coming together. And so I guess the way i look at it as this might be their answer where we are not asking every offseason who's your quarterback and we can focus on the guard position which is what you and i really want to do right

right because even when they drafted quarterbacks in the first round and like i i guess dante would be kind of the most definitive stud that they do but then when they drafted ponder and even when they drafted teddy like you like you've said on other podcasts and I've heard your voice a lot the past two weeks, it's, it's, uh, you know, it felt like settling. It was like, okay, you know, maybe this is the guy, but like, it wasn't like when you're top, when you're drafting a dude in the top five and it's like, this guy's going to be a stud. We need this guy to be a stud. This guy needs to be a hall of famer. We never really had those ambitions in my lifetime. Dante was kind of the closest, and we've litigated Dante's issues.

But this is the first time. I said I'm confident because it's the first time in a long time. As you said with Kwesi, I feel like there's a definitive vision, and this is the offseason where they've done all of the things that I've wanted them to do, which their interests and mine don't ever really dovetail all that closely. So for them to actually do this, I mean, you had guys like Pat Royce, who hates the Vikings,

lives to sneer, like, I told you so, whenever they blow it, like those kinds of guys, like even he wrote like, yeah, they're, they're doing it right. And so that's why I'm so confident going into Thursday night.

Like, and I'm going to, I'm going to tell you why we're getting may. And I'm not even going to like, this isn't speculation. This is like definitive. Like I know it. I've like I've

read as much garbage smoke screens as as you've read and I know that teams put those out more as like PR than to like leverage another team or leverage another uh you know leverage a player's agent or anything like that like all that stuff is out there to get fans primed one way for another, for anything that could happen. Right. But in this case, you're the one who posted the viral video of Kevin O'Connell at church. Right. And what did Kevin O'Connell say in that? Well, he was talking about a quarterback who, you know,

if he's got lower body issues and I don't mean like he needs to see a urologist. I mean like he, you know, his footwork's off, that's correctable, but you can't fix a good arm. You can't fix instincts, stuff like that. And he's talking about Drake May, right? And he says, oh, well, I may or may not have sent Robert Kraft flowers. Okay. Sent him, right? If he was like, oh, I may or may not send bobcraft flowers like in other words like oh i might in the future try to court him to get up to number three by giving him this gift when really he probably just wanted like another orchids of asia like gift card or something like that but anyway so but he said he already did it which means that

they've already had some some sort of mild agreement in place and maybe like maybe the broncos could queer it by like by throwing in patrick sirtan and any other like con like decent like player that they have on the roster in order to get up but i really don't think that's what's going to happen i think what's going to happen is that the second daniels goes to washington at two it'll be on twitter before it goes on tv but the trade will happen it's going to be a matter of how much they have to give up and honestly so long as it's not addison daris or justin i don't care give them all the draft picks they want i don't give a crap let's go let's get it done you know putting together the tea leaves is part of the entertainment value leading up to the draft in general.

But especially what else are we going to do? There's nothing else to do. Yeah. And all the people who want to move the draft up two weeks. Normally, I haven't cared because I've gone to South Beach or something. But this year I cared. This this is dragged out quite a bit, but Kyle Shanahan also Kyle Shanahan has complained openly that he would

much prefer the draft happened right after the season and then free agency, which is like, it's a, I don't disagree with it. The NFL will never do it for all sorts of annoying NFL reasons, but I, I absolutely see the reasoning behind that one. Well, and they've dragged us to here, but then they'll roll out the schedule and then

they'll have some mini camps. And then each week, everybody will be, you know, there's only about six weeks where there's nothing going on. But I will say that putting together the tea leaves has been really fun this year to try to figure out all the different scenarios to make this happen. And yes, the video of Kevin O'Connell in the church made it feel like he was talking so confidently about this situation that you felt like he must already know, right? He doesn't seem very nervous going into the draft, which everybody should be very nervous. But Washington is a wild card here though,

because I agree with you. I think if they get to three, then the big red button gets pushed, trade all the draft picks to new England for Drake may, but Washington is still weird. We kind of thought that once Daniel Snyder was gone, that Washington would maybe be less weird, but they're still weird.

Yeah. They're doing there. They have a lot of Snyder ethics left like when Ben Johnson turned them down and they leaked out whoa that was so rude how could he not want to come to such a hallowed proud heritage franchise like us they got all mad and they kind of did the same thing a little bit with with Daniels like when they leaked to sheffer shefter or whatever that like daniel's agent wasn't pleased that like other people showed up to their dinner like like if i dated a girl and she brought like her friend with her like like that i knew i didn't have a chance like you get irritated but like and then like next day um shefter was like oh no no

they're cool now they're all right right. So he's going there. But they could do something stupid or weird. If they drafted McCarthy or if the Patriots drafted McCarthy III, I would die with laughter. And then, of course, he'd go on to be a Hall of Famer. But in that immediate moment, I would have quite a bit of a laugh. That would be a good time. Because we go back to the beginning of draft season,

and Drake May is the presumptive number two. I mean, even through the college season, but Jaden Daniels has this incredible year, wins the Heisman and so forth and elevates himself. including that they got a running quarterback as their backup. They got a guy who has worked with a running quarterback as their offensive coordinator. And they sent Sam Howell packing, who's supposed to be very good friends with Drake May. I don't know if there's any reason that they wouldn't want them together, but they could get a quarterback who fits as a backup better for Jaden Daniels. And then Adam Schefter himself has said that everybody around the league thinks that Washington's taking Daniels. Everybody around the league thought that Will Levis was going to be a first pick and the uncertainty creeps in a little bit. But I do think that they've created a bunch of scenarios where if this happens, then this is how we're getting the quarterback. And the first

one is Daniels and getting Drake May. My question for you, how much more have you fallen in love with Drake May than any other option for this draft? Because it is realistic that it doesn't happen. Yeah, I've completely become a Mayer bust person, which is funny because like at the beginning of this, because I had not watched any of May. And so all I had heard sort of throughout the college football season was, oh, the two top quarterbacks are Caleb Williams and Drake May. And I was like, who's this lacrosse-ass name guy from North Carolina? And, you know, Trubisky and Howell and all, you know, you think of every quarterback who's washed out from there.

And then I was like, okay, well, I'll watch the games and I'll see. And, you know, what's funny is, like, we, you know, both of us are analytically inclined now. And so, you know, we you know that your eyes can lie when you watch the tape. Right. So you have to make sure you have to look at the stats. You have to look at, you know, the offenses they're playing in, how they fit with the team that you're in, the offense that you're running. And guys like Kurt Warner and JTO Sullivan, who I love, I love watching their YouTube breakdowns, but they're breaking down. And JTO Sullivan said this, he's breaking down those players as they are.

He is evaluating them essentially as finished products. He's not saying they're finished products, he knows. But he doesn't take into account fit, coaching staffs, all that stuff, because it's too many variables. essentially his finished products. He's not saying they're good. They're finished products. He knows. But, you know, he doesn't take into account fit coaching staffs, all that stuff. Cause it's just, it's too many variables. His only job is just evaluate the tape that he sees.

So when I consider what he has to say, and when I consider the metrics and all that stuff, what's funny is you come back around to the eye test is sort of the final arbiter, right? It's like, it's like, okay, I know everything there is to know.

So let's actually watch these games and see what's going on. And when I watch May, like all I see is talent. And that's all I want, right? Talent's the only thing that matters. So, and the other thing is that I see a player who, if he gets drafted by the Patriots, will fail because they have nothing. They have nobody.

Like a guy like Jaden Daniels. Okay, Jaden Daniels is a one-man offense. Like you can prosper because if you don't have an offensive line, he can run away. And if you don't have a running game, he can run the ball. And if you don't have a wide receiver as well, he can still throw the ball to his running back or something stupid. I don't know, whatever, who cares. But the point is that Jaden Daniels is made for a team that is in disarray,

essentially. And that's the commanders and that's the Patriots right now. May works with us perfectly. And one more tea leaf to read is that the Josh McCown hiring, that was for May. Like they already knew May was coming when they hired that guy. Cause I heard it on your podcast that like that hiring was sudden, right? Like May was coming when they hired that guy. I heard on your podcast that hiring was sudden.

They weren't like, boy, we really got into the whole we have to court an offensive coordinator or a QB coach and here's who we interviewed and we're going to tweet a graphic of we interviewed Bill O'Brien to be our

offensive QB coach and interview completed and like they'll have that they'll have a graphic that says like interview completed like during hiring season right they didn't do any of that they were just like oh yeah uh we were at the combine and Josh McCown was there and we thought hey bring him on he seems all right and that's for May because he knows May it's all it's all there I I don't know if they do those graphics for quarterback coaches. Normally a quarterback coach is not the hugest hire. We go, oh, okay. That guy's the QB coach.

This one, but this one is different because of the connection, but also because of what it says. Also, he's not like the son of somebody. Like usually it's like some guy's grandkid, and you're like, okay, whatever. Nate Walsh, great. Yeah, that does happen a lot. But with Josh McCown, what Kevin O'Connell is looking for is a right-hand man. That his other people on the staff are not former quarterbacks.

And he wants somebody who is going to see the same things that he sees understands the techniques that he understands the footwork the mechanics the reading defenses whatever to where mccown can get inside the head of the quarterback but yes of all the former quarterbacks of all the people who want to be quarterback coaches who could have been that guy the fact that it's someone who coached drake may does not seem entirely coincidental and the other the other thing too as we're playing sherlock holmes here is that quesia da fomenta has said on numerous occasions that they've had their eye on the draft class for several years and who would we have known about for several years did we know that that Michael Penix was going to get this discussion?

Not really. Maybe Bo Nix? Not really, right? Like, who's been in the limelight? There's only two guys who have been in the limelight for this long in this draft class, and that is Caleb Williams and Drake May. And so there's even been some references to, yeah, we went back to 2022 tape to see how the situation was different. Like, oh yeah. Whose situation was different?

Drake May. I don't think it's a huge secret that they want him. But if they don't get him, I know that that will be somewhat disappointing to you. But I also think that all the options are better than the previous options that they've had to draft a quarterback with Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi Daffo-Mensa outside of some miracle trade to get CJ Stroud or something, which they were never going to be able to pull off. But I think every one of these guys is a better option than Will Levis would have been for this team or than Kenny Pickett would have been for this team. And if it does end up being JJ McCarthy, I have skepticism about that, but I also think you can't set up somebody better to succeed who understands football extremely well is

a grinder has a good arm, good athleticism. I mean, I've, I've come around more on the idea that if they do end up with McCarthy, that it's okay. I still wonder about the smoke and mirror nature of the McCarthy thing, even because I got an email today from someone about consensus boards and how there's nobody who's been drafted super, super high, who on outside big boards was looked at as more of a late round pick. I think the only guy might be Daniel Jones who was looked at as like a late first and was actually taken all the way up at the top. So it's, it's interesting with McCarthy, not just to figure out, would he be a guy that the Vikings would trade up for,

but is he going to be even where everyone thinks he's going to be on draft night? Yeah. I mean, I think, first of all, I think it's all a lie like i think that i think that he will go later in the first round um and i think that's fine he could be perfectly good but i know that you've been saying on the podcast look so long as they draft one of the big six in the first round i'll give them an a plus i don't feel similarly because you know frankly i've been set up to expect one outcome and frankly i i know that's the outcome like i know it's going to happen and you know i think normally this sort of thing where you know the response would be like lol vikings fan setting himself up to get owned again whatever but like

at this time like these guys know what they're doing they're confident and i think that they don't want mccarthy like i think maybe maybe pennix they like his his um you know his ability to throw downfield or nicks i, I guess. Although Knicks, again, I told you this. He's got Colt McCoy's career all over the tape to me. Okay, he can do what he's told. Great. We just had that guy. I need the guy who can...

What you want is a guy who... He comes in. Yes, he can do what he's told. And he can grasp the offense. And he can make all the reads and all that stuff. But eventually the offense at some point belongs to him.

So the Chiefs offense belongs to Patrick Mahomes. The Bills offense belongs to Josh Allen. And it's funny, we're talking about Josh Allen because he hasn't even won an AFC title,

but like he is sort of like the test case here, right? You need that guy who grows into not just the face of the franchise, but essentially its circulatory system, like the guy who makes everything go. And I think May has that ability. I think actually McCarthy maybe could be that sort of guy. I don't know if he has the talent to do it. But Bo Nix is going to be the guy where it's like,

oh, so long as we have a really good line and two really good receivers and a good running game. And I just had six years of that. I can't do that again. I need a guy who is going to make the team a 12-win team, even when the rest of the roster is crap. And that's what Drake May, I think, will will be and that's who i think we're gonna draft and the tie-in i guess to vikings history which is kind of where we started this is how often has that really been the case never right yeah i mean dante would be the one where you can make something special happen when it's not there i mean because you could throw the ball 70 yards of the air and

run over linebackers at the same time and for his shortcomings i think dante call pepper was one of the most entertaining quarterbacks to watch ever and he had the cheat code of his size his speed his athleticism but aside aside from that though who which quarterbacks i mean uh jeff george for a half a season has an incredible arm. Yeah, I don't know. It's other people's quarterbacks, though, isn't it? Right? And Dante was really interesting because I remember it was after the 98 season.

Right? It was after the title game loss to Atlanta. And they still had Randall on the roster. They would bench him the following year. But it was like a quarterback. It wasn't as cut and dry as it is now, is I think what I'm saying. Like now it's like they need a quarterback. Then they don't just need a quarterback. They need the quarterback.

Whereas Dante was like, look, we just went 15-1. We can afford to use a high pick on a guy who everyone says is a project because he went to Central Florida, right? Like he didn't play in the big time. So we can sort of see if we can develop this guy and see what happens. And he turned out to be this really entertaining player,

but like was not perfect because he would hold onto the ball too long, so long. And he fumbled the ball a lot. And Drake May, I've seen Drake May fumble a few times and that concerns me. But again, it was not a, we need a savior. Let's go get the savior. And this is, and now who I want for savior.

Because the other thing is that, you know, if I have all this time, Matthew, to stew on it, and it's all I've thought about. Like, it's all I've thought. This week has been the only thing I've given a crap about. Like, my wife, my kids, whatever. They're fine. Like, the draft is what I care about.

And I've tried explaining it to my family, and they don't watch the NFL. They don't understand the NFL. So when you tell them, oh, like, oh, I've been thinking about the NFL draft and then getting a quarterback. When I try to explain it to them, it sounds like I'm like, I sound like a Star Wars fan who like is really pissed at like Bib Fortuna isn't in episode seven of the book of Boba Fett or some BS like that. Like, I sound like an idiot. Like, I'm like, I'm obsessing over the dumbest thing in the world. But it's not. It's very very important well uh yeah i can totally understand that um although why talk to anyone who doesn't like sports i don't know why you would create a family

yourself that did not have that for you i know i had to be i had to go and be a complete person it's it's terrible it's awful i don't like it any more than you but like anyway the point is we've had nothing to talk about right all this time so what what more should i do than actually rank these quarterbacks in my head in terms of preference right like i can't help like i said at the beginning when they got rid of kirk i was like we we're free. We're free. Draft whoever. Draft Babe Laufenberg III.

I don't care. We're getting a new quarterback, and that's cool. But I've had time to process and process and process and process and process and process and process and process. And, of course, I'm no writer than anybody else when it comes to this stuff. We're both morons, right? But I know who i want and i i fully intend on getting them well and that's where i can't get to the same place as you where i do watch drake may and i just think kevin o'connell would love this yep because the going back to the point about the tape and JTO Sullivan, I got a lot of messages from people because everyone knows I'm a big fan of QB school and JTO Sullivan.

Like, hey, you know, he's not as high on Drake May. into your crystal ball and saying, what can this guy be in several years of me working with him versus JTO Sullivan grading the tape from last season. The tape from last season is very messy, but he has no help from the backfield for screen passes, short throws. He has half a season of one pretty good receiver who I think is going to get taken in the fourth or fifth round. And that is really it doesn't have a particularly great offense. And those are things that I think were the cause and definitely doesn't have a good offensive line, the cause of a lot of the messy tape. But at the same time, when this guy throws a ball more than 10 yards over the middle of the field, he's completing something like 60% of his passes with a 95 PFF grade.

And you can see the anticipation. You can see when receivers come out of their breaks, he's starting to let the ball go and then putting so much touch and juice behind the ball. I mean, it's just, it looks like it should look when the guy is really fricking good. I mean,

that's NFL throw. So I get it. I am wowed by his talent and think he would be the perfect fit. But I also know that since I've gone through this a hundred times back through history, how hard it is to figure this out. And even when you look at, so I'll use Dak Prescott as an example. I know he's a fourth round pick, but somebody who you look at him on paper and go, I don't really see the particular skill that makes this guy a great quarterback. And yet,

you know, he, he gets dogged on a lot for the playoffs, but the guy's leading number one, number two offenses. If that's the worst thing that's happening to you, then okay. With this next quarterback. So I look at someone like Bo Nix or JJ McCarthy and go, all right. So there isn't anything here that actually wows me, but is that what makes you a success for an NFL quarterback? Not always, certainly sometimes having the cheat code, but not always. And I, my bar is a little different than yours because you want the guy who becomes the Josh Allen, the Patrick Mahomes, and everybody wants that.

But I also look at if you were to make this draft pick and Bo Nix becomes Dak Prescott and has one or two chances in his rookie contract to be a legitimate Super Bowl contender, then they've succeeded on the pick and that the whole plan worked if they got that chance. So that's a little bit different. And I think that because of you being a lifelong Vikings fan, that you're so you're desperate for this, where I'm setting, I'm setting the bar in a little different of a place. Right.

Cause you're, you're a journalist. Like you have to be, you have to be a bit more, you have to be sane about it. I'm under no such obligation. I can be a complete idiot, but I think you're right.

But, you know, again, going back to the eye test, because I played the sport and, you know, I watched the sport for 30, 40 years or whatever. And, you know, it's weird to say, you know, oh, because I played high school football or, you know or Division III college football that I know the ins and outs of NFL football. I obviously don't because I wasn't that good of a football player. But I do feel like if you've watched the game as long as you and I have, that when you watch it, you know sort of on instinct, you sense what looks like proper NFL football and what doesn't. So when a guy can, you know, when a guy is essentially in the grasp and can still flip out the ball for an

eight yard gain on third down, or when a guy can fit it into an obscenely tight window where it looks like the ball goes through the defender as opposed to like, you know, laying out, you know, you know, giving him an interception. Like those are the things that I, that I, that stand out to me on tape when I watch it. And so that's the thing I'm looking for. I'm not looking for it. It's just like, if I see it, my brain instantly registers it like, Oh, Oh yeah. I, I see that. Like, you know, it's just like if i see it my brain instantly registers it like oh oh yeah i i see

like you know it's it's like what jt says it's a sunday throw that's that's a sunday play and you you you see a guy who makes sunday plays and you know caleb williams is that you know to his to his core i fully believe he had a rotten season last season because he was sick of being in college football he's like i'm sick of this crap team with a crap line. And Jordan Aston's not here anymore for me to throw to this sucks. And so he's like, well, I'll just wait to go to the, to a proper NFL team so I can do it. And he'll be great next year. I, I, I really believe that, but, um, but you know, uh, you know, with guys who like McCarthy and Nix, where if you don't necessarily, if your brain doesn't register that when you're watching it, you know, and you can always be wrong. Mind plays tricks on you. It's not – it doesn't get your anticipation up as a fan the way it does

with guys like Penix who – you watch the Texas game. You saw what he did. You saw the throws he made, and it's like – and he's also – he's wearing purple. So it's like, yeah, I can see him. I can see him throwing the ball to Justin. You know what it sounds like you want to do? It sounds like you want to tell me your rankings of these quarterbacks oh wow situation that's what it

sounds like i get to rank this is so why don't you rank them why don't you rank uh and if you want to throw in hey you know this guy at 11 is my favorite idea or this guy trading up or if you want to go ideas or just quarterbacks rank whatever you want oh i i ranked them okay so i ranked them but i'm not confident in it i think a lot of the so okay so i'll just give you the rings real quick and then i'll explain okay one is caleb right two is may three is daniels four is pennix five is mccarthy six is nicks and like the pennix one i'm not as confident in because people who know better than i are the ones who have him down in the second round right and i was like i was someone who like if they had drafted hendon hooker

in the first round last year like i probably would have been happy because i saw him play tennessee i was like oh oh, yeah, I like him. Or like Joe Milton. Like I saw a Tennessee game like this regular season. I was like, oh, that guy looks the part, you know. But he's going to go like in the fifth round or something like that. So, you know, I don't trust the rankings.

I only trust myself when it comes to Caleb and May. And like with Daniels, like if they somehow got Daniels, I don't think they can. But I would be excited because he'd be so much fun to watch, right? But I have the same worries you have about if he has a sack addiction the way that Justin Fields has. Of course I worry about that. But I think that if it were May or Williams,

I think those are the two guys where I would feel the best, even though my feelings could be wrong. And then also, I would not be against taking an undrafted flyer on. Like if Jordan Travis fell out of the draft, I'd be fine with that. I wouldn't want to take a guy in the fourth round a la Kirk or anything like that. And I think PFF had them trading up and getting both May and Pennix, which is insane. That's like, that's a fun thought exercise.

That's never going to happen. So I, I, I have my rankings. I'm only confident about the top two of them. And my con, and I know my confidence means very, very little,

but like you said, like this is as good a situation as any rookie quarterback is going to find themselves in this year or really any other year how many rookies get to throw to that pair of wide outs and have derisal protecting them provided we don't have to trade any of those guys to to get what we want the only team that i could find that created an equal situation for what the Vikings are going to give. And maybe it even wasn't equal because of the offensive line was year two of

Joe Burrow that Cincinnati so quickly got Jamar chase and then gave T Higgins as well. And Tyler Boyd, but they still didn't have a dare saw and O'Neill and you saw, you know, Burrow take off. So just on your rankings, I think I see it pretty similarly to the way that you're looking at it.

I have an issue with Michael Penix as well, where I think that I like him a lot more than I'm supposed to like him and might even be willing to put him at the, at QB three and just say, I don't know if I'm a dope then. Okay, whatever. But I just enjoyed watching him throughout the season because I felt like there was a, and this goes back to, we're both old, but drew breeze at Purdue where he just had to throw the ball every play. That was their offense.

It was 70 times a game. It was just, it was just shotgun football football football and that's how it looked for for Michael Penix and I think that it matters that a he's got a cannon like he has a cheat code now his cheat code isn't run around and scrambling but also you know there are quarterbacks in the league who ran for 100 yards last year who are great quarterbacks and Dak Prescott is one of them Joe Burrow is one of them that are not necessarily scramblers now playmaking is necessary and he didn't show that and that's concerning but he has an arm to throw the ball in places that other people can't throw it and that is sort of Jared Goffian or Drew

Bledsoe ish where yeah you're not talking about scrambling and making plays, but as long as you get rid of the football and don't get sacked and then the window flashes and you can let that thing rip. And I also do not understand it all throwing mechanics. And I do not even try to, because I've seen so many quarterbacks who have throwing mechanics that people don't like, and then turn out to be great quarterbacks, including the two best quarterbacks in the NFL, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. So I go, I don't know, like as long as the ball gets there, I don't care. And you could probably clean up some of the footwork to sharpen up accuracy on the shorter stuff. So if he was a Viking, it's so easy for me to see it. could just picture him standing back there here comes the double move

from justin jefferson and he just guides that that thing in there with touchdown the field the same way that he did for roma dunzey and and the rest of the world is saying like okay guy like relax on your michael pennix love or whatever but i could i could see that being a quarterback that they like maybe more than others. I think the other thing is about the rankings that I have. It's always, I think it's also based on what I'm willing to give up, right? So Williams and May, fine, give everything, right? Save for the third rail of Justin and Jordan and Christian.

But then, you know, it's like, okay, if they took McCarthy, but they got him at 11 and didn't have to do anything, I'd be fine with that, right? Or even if they had to trade up, but they just had to trade up 23, right? Like, okay, 11 to 20, okay, fine. Like, if you didn't give up four first-round picks for the dude, I can deal with that. Then I can talk myself into that. And I'll talk myself into whatever they do after Thursday, right? But, and that affects it.

So it's like, you know, how much they give up affects my enthusiasm for whatever they do. And also like, and this is the pathetic part, how much people are going to laugh at the Vikings for whoever they draft? It's like if they trade up the farm for May and they get four first-round picks, and I think they're going to get four first-round picks in New England,

and then they'll get May and then maybe like a day two pick this year or something like that. I think that's what the deal is going to be. If there are people on Twitter who are like, oh, well, it again i'm gonna know those people are stupid right but if they if they trade three firsts to get mccarthy and everyone's like ha ha ha you got you you just got rid of kirk to get the next kirk i'll be like no they might I think I'd be right. Oh, God, so shitty. Everything's affected by my self-esteem. Yeah, it really shows because I'm preparing myself for all scenarios of responding to the fans who are down on whatever move that they're going to make, which, I mean, if they end up with Bo Nix, then it's going to be harder to fight that battle because I still will think, all right, well, if Kevin O'Connell wanted them,

then here we go. But when your consensus boards have somebody at 38th or whatever, if you took them at number 11, then it is going to feel like, okay, did you do the same thing where you kind of reached on a mediocre prospect because you absolutely had to. And yet when you look at the guy's stat line, he throws 45 touchdowns and three picks and you know, like is one of the best passers in college football. And it's like, okay, well, you know, that's the word. If that's the worst possible outcome, then I still feel like they got a prospect who was worth going through all of this to be able to get there well i do like the i do like the time to throw for nicks right like i spent i just spent six years screaming at kirk get rid of it like that is literally the thing i screamed most of the television

right get rid of it like i i've said that so many times my voice box doesn't even work anymore so the idea that i wouldn't have a quarterback that i have to scream that at. That's very nice. I like that. I like that quite a bit. But also the other thing I fear and I'm sorry that I'm going back, but it's actually not the other fans that irritate me. It's other Vikings fans. So like the Royce's and like Florio and like people who are Vikings fans, but don't seem to like the Vikings at all. Like,

like I got like, you know, Don Van Nata at, at ESPN, the great investigative reporter, he's a Vikings fan. He's a big Vikings fan. And I wrote something about Nike last week.

And, uh, and he DM me on Twitter. He was like, Hey, I like your Nike thing. And'd me on twitter he was like hey i like your nike thing and i was like i was like hey we're six days away because the draft was six days away and he's like he's like from what more heartbreak and i was like i was like get out of here that loser this is why i mute you half the year van nada and and he never dm'd me back that. I think I made him mad. But I can't deal with the old guard people who are just sitting there waiting for them to screw up.

It's like, why even here? Get out of here. They think it's some weakness if you believe and then you have your hopes shot down. But that's not true at all. The belief is the fun part, even when you your hopes shot down. But that's not true at all. The belief is the fun part, even when you do get shot down. And particularly now, when everything is in line, everything's in order, they have the pieces, they have the coolest player in the world, like legitimately, like

nobody, nobody even, if I said that to anybody that, hey, Justin Jefferson's the coolest player in football, he might be the coolest athlete on the whole planet. Right. I'm not going to get a lot of pushback on that. He rocks. So like, uh, I'm, I'm very, very excited, uh, for this coming season to see, you know, essentially a new team. Cause it, this is something that, you know, it's sort, it only started when Kevin got hired. It didn't start entirely. Right. It's not like, like it was crazy and Kevin having to work with yesterday's leftovers. That's gone. They're going to get their new stuff. So it's like, this is the, this is, you know,

essentially marks the beginning of a new epoch in Vikings football. And anything can happen because I've seen it happen with the Patriots. I've seen it happen with the Lions to an extent. I've seen it happen with the Chiefs who were like, who had never drafted a quarterback in the first round until they drafted Patrick Mahomes. And look where they are now. So the idea that nothing good can happen to this team, it's, it's total bull.

And you know, I, it sucks that I've had to wait, but I'm more than happy to, and I'm ready for Thursday. I'm ready to kick ass. Yeah. And when we talk about the, the big picture here and what it all means, uh, this truly is the beginning of it's their franchise now yeah thank you now how long that lasts i guess we'll see but uh the other thing the other thing is that you know this was the off season where i was a little worried it was going back to when they

when quasi had to extend kirk the first time i was like, well, did quasi want that? Like, does quasi have juice, any juice in the building? You know, do the owners want this? Like, do I have an owner problem where the owners, they were absentee during Spielman Zimmer and they're over-correcting by going the Snyder route and, and micromanaging everything. And this offseason has proven that that's actually not true. And in fact, one of the rumors, which I chose to believe, because why not, was that Mark Wilf, who seems to be taking more of a lead than Ziggy these days, is quite taken with the idea of a rookie QB contract.

So the idea that they would sell out to get someone like May, appeals to him. So that, again, it's everyone falling in line with what I'm thinking. And even when Quasey said, it seemed like Quasey said at his press conference, oh, we love multiple QBs at certain price levels. When he added that qualifier, that meant we love one quarterback. And as far as I'm concerned, the church video sort of cemented that. So it sounds like I sound like I'm the Charlie Day, like beautiful mind meme and all that with all the it on my wall in the

background, but I'm not like, this is all reasonable stuff to, to assume. We're going to remember forever. The church video, if they draft Drake drake may yeah the day that we do something like that shout out to the guy who asked the question at church that was like he was like i'm sure he was like he was a little nervous to do it but he got it out and then he got just such a kick-ass answer out of ke. It was delightful. I loved it. And he powered through that. It seemed like the other parishioners were kind of like,

are we seriously asking this question? And he was a little sniggering. I don't care. Yep. It was kind of almost like Larry David-ish, where he would just say, I'm going to do it anyway. I don't care if all these people are feeling uncomfortable. I respected it, yeah.

No, I respected that. And also, that's, in my experience now, being around Kevin O'Connell, that's who he is, man. I mean, the respectfulness, of course, and not being snarky or not condescending. But also, if any person asks him about quarterback play, he will talk to you to the ends of the earth about quarterback play so that's it's it is his entire passion and i do want him to mix in a handoff from time to time this year but i don't think he cares about anything

except for quarterback uh the other thing is that the uh you know i i think the reason i respected that parishioner so much is because i was in a room with Kevin O'Connell when he was doing the postgame presser after the Giants lost, the playoff loss. And I sat there and I was legitimately starstruck, which sounds weird because I've interviewed some very famous people. Your job as a journalist is not to get starstruck, right? You know this as well as me. But like when I was in the Vikings locker room, I could barely muster any questions to Thielen and Harrison Smith and all those guys. And then, and then I'm in the press room and people are asking questions and I, I haven't done this before. And Kevin's there.

And all I want to ask is, are you going to fire Donatello? Like, that's all I really wanted to ask. And that's all I should have asked. And I never had the stones to ask it. And I was a journalist. I was a credentialed journalist. Meanwhile, a church guy gets up there and not only asks the question, but like the question took him like five minutes to ask. So I was like, he was doing the journalism that I couldn't. So I was

very, very, very impressed by that. Yeah. There is a, an intimidating factor, especially when you know that they live stream the press conferences. So you have to get it out. My, my broadcast history, I think helps me a little bit with asking questions. But sometimes, you know, somebody fumbles or whatever, and then awful announcing just posts it immediately. And, you know, you don't want to be that guy. So anyway, let's, let's get a final thought from you that this is an amazing time where it feels like they're standing on the precipice of something that we have not seen from this organization a long time. And I did want to mention one thing, because you talked about the people who, no matter what they do, they say, oh, they're going to fail because they're the

Vikings and such. And I came here from covering Buffalo sports, very comfortable with that. Very, yes, very. Like I get it. I feel you. And also just the Vikings being a historic franchise. I knew all about all the things when I even got here. So I was ready for that. But the Buffalo is instructive in the way that everything went wrong for them from Jim Kelly all the way until Josh Allen, but then Josh Allen and everything went wrong before them, before Jim Kelly.

I mean, everything they never won. They were a struggling franchise and their best player was a murderer. Like, you know, didn't want to say it, everything. They never won. They were a struggling franchise. Their best player was a murderer. Didn't want to say it, but that's very true. That's why I'm here. Yep. And then they get the guy and everything is different. And my dad loves to tell the story about watching Jim Kelly play for the first time, the first game he played. And I think he was great in his first game and And just everybody knowing.

And then my dad arguing for two years about Josh Allen. Well, the whole world questioned him. I see it. It's going to work. It's going to work. And this could take a little while. It probably won't be instant that whoever they get becomes the guy. But the fact of the franchise history means nothing.

The New Orleans Saints were the biggest joke when it came to quarterbacks for a very long time. The Billy Joe Hobarts and Billy Joe Tollivers and Jim Everett and all that, and then suddenly Drew Brees arrives and everything is different. And you're also weighting the odds for everything to be different by having Jefferson and everything that you have here. And an indoor stadium as well, which probably helps the quarterback a little bit.

So everything is aligned. It is a incredible moment for this team to have set up to have this situation. So what is the last thing you'd like to say? Final thoughts before we head into this thing? I mean, I think you hit on where if the quarterback has it, it changes the tenor of everything, right? Like suddenly all that weight feels a lot less heavy

because you have someone you have faith in, right? And that's why we're fans to begin with is because against all logic and against all evidence, we believe, right? And it's almost like it feels like a duty and a tiresome duty at times, particularly when they suck. But I still think that there is joy in that belief

and joy in the hope. And the thing that I am most optimistic about is Kevin O'Connell, because you just talked about Josh Allen being the guy. And that's true but they don't have the head coach to go with it right so you need the head coach and you need the quarterback and it needs to be like airtight between them that's Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes that's Belichick and Brady even when they didn't like each other. They still worked as one. That's Kevin O'Connell and whoever he drafts.

Like, I believe that 100%. So with that in mind, I think I should say to my other fans, just don't be a downer. Like, don't. Stop. We have enough of that. Like, put a smile on your face. Get hyped. Get cocky. Like, be get cocky,

like be a cocky Vikings fan. Like see what, see what it does for you. Cause I feel very, very frisky right now and I like it. And I'm excited to be even friskier after Thursday night when Drake maybe comes to starting quarterback. By the way, I think it'll be good fast. I think it'll be good fast. Okay. I think probably year two is where we're looking at it. No, no, no. Next year. Next year. It'll be good fast i think it'll be good fast okay i i think probably year two is where we're looking at it no no next year um next year it'll be good next year i would ask for some

patience uh because it it has taken time for a lot of very good quarterbacks to become who they become so yes you and i are looking at that a little bit differently but uh there will be time for cynicism when they lose two or three games in a row or something with their young quarterback who's finding his way. So but I just think that evidence is so clear historically that we don't know what's going to happen on draft night. So I am willing to say the process made sense from start to finish here. And now we now we wait to see how it goes. You say you trust the process? No, no, no. and now we now we wait to see how it goes are you saying you trust the process no no i'm saying that

i believe that they handled the process of this correctly by uh look at the shams he is out of you that was right i i don't i don't i don't trust anybody in sports uh but you know yes i think they they've handled this really well and as long as they come away with a quarterback then quesia da fomensa and the front office and kevin Kevin O'Connell together will have collaborated their way all the way to something that gives them a real chance to compete. And that's my thing, Drew, is that I have felt, and you and I have talked about this off air, I've felt frustrated by a team that didn't feel like it really wanted to win, that it wanted to just be okay. And sometimes it felt like I'm wasting my time here, covering a team that isn't really trying to get over the top and now they are.

And that's, that's a good feeling. So, well, the other thing is like, you know, I can fret about the bears getting Caleb and maybe like a doomsday, like, Oh my God, that's, that's lethal and like love being good now and, and the lions having their act together, but that's going to make for some incredible football, like for like a decade, like we're going to have some Titanic matches,

matchups against the bears. Like we're going to have entertaining games against the bears. That never happens. So I'm excited for all that. I could not be more jazzed. I, I am feeling as, as good as I, as I've ever felt as a Vikings fan,

or at least as good as I've felt since the miracle. Well, Defector, Drew McGarry, you are a good friend and always entertaining to have on the show. And I just want it for the record. I did not request fewer F-bombs. No, no, no no no no it was not a request it just uh it did stand out to the audience last time it was all it was for all little vikamaniacs out there i didn't want to swear too much but we're doing it