Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Do the Vikings have good style? (A Fans Only pod)

Episode Date: October 20, 2022

Matthew Coller and Paul Hodowanic answer Vikings fan questions, from whether they should have hired Jim Harbaugh to "win now" to whether the Vikings have a particular skill that helps them win these close games to grading their style as a team versus execution.  -- For more of Matthew's Vikings coverage, head to purpleinsider.substack.com For bonus discussions, interview clips, and more videos, check out our YouTube channel! Interact with us on Twitter! @Purple_Insider Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider presented by Liquid Death. Go to liquiddeath.com slash insider and learn about the Tallboy can, which actually has water. Find out where you can get it near you at liquiddeath.com slash insider. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with WCCO Radio's Paul Hodowanek. And we are going to co-host a fans-only question, Paul.

So I've got an episode with fans only questions. Correct. That's what the episode is. So I have all sorts of questions and there'll be more fans only episodes as we go along in this bi-week bonanza. But first, why don't you just give a singular take on the topic du jour of the Minnesota Vikings? Will they keep being good? Why don't you start there and then we'll get into the questions. And some of them are, will they keep being good? But we'll work our way through those. I guess it really depends how you define good, right? If you define good by winning games, I think they will continue to be good because, oh boy, the teams that they have coming up after the bye are quite the train wreck, at least the first two.

Then it gets tougher, Bills and Cowboys and Patriots, and that's when you'll really start to see their true colors. But I guess I'll give this team the benefit of the doubt in one respect, which is coaching. I think the coaching has been pretty solid from Kevin O'Connell. So if you're giving them a bye week to try to figure out some issues, um, and then you give them another couple easy opponents, like I think they can improve in certain areas and maybe become a good team. It feels weird to say when they're five and one, uh, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt because in some

of those aspects of coaching, they have been strong. And so some of those fundamentals are there, uh, to where you think they can build on some of that. So I will say eventually they will be a team where we're calling them good. I don't know if that'll ever elevate to the upper echelon of teams like the Eagles and the NFC and some of the teams in the AFC, but it's wide open for them there. So if you're contextualizing it and not just in a vacuum and contextualizing it with the rest of the teams in the NFC, I think they can be good. Yeah, I think they can make improvements in a lot of areas that are possible in part because they're healthy. And if they remain healthy, then they can get better.

If they start having guys drop like flies, then I think it's going to be way harder to make the adjustments that are necessary. I also think that Kevin O'Connell on the offensive side, after watching the tape in Miami does have to look himself in the mirror a little bit and ask, can I do that with some of their, with some of their route combinations and schemes and everything else. One of the things I've been seeing in the tape is that there are open

opportunities and that is true, but can Kirk cousins make those throws? Is he comfortable with making those throws? And then in Miami, I saw a lot less open opportunities. I saw a defense that decided, you know what? We think we can bash your faces in, in the front. And then they did. And as soon as they were able to create some pressure, there were a lot of route combinations and play calls that did not give Kirk Cousins an answer in the case of pressure. And I think that's why you saw him just getting sacked or throwing the ball away, things like that, that there wasn't much of an answer.

And we have to keep in mind that the Rams offense does not work the same when you don't have a great offensive line. I think what we saw in Miami is even though their offensive line is improved and they have great tackles, there's still going to be weaknesses when they face better competition. So in my mind, this is a great Kevin O'Connell test case, a great challenge for him. You've gotten through these weeks with a pretty mediocre offense so far and a chance to improve it with, we could see Thielen getting better. We could see Irv Smith getting better. We could see KJ Osborne. And that's on him, I think, to start maybe whittling it down to the things that are going to work and also

not ask that offensive line to sit there and block for three or four seconds because the Rams were able to do that last year. But you've even seen what happened to the Rams offense when they are no longer able to do that for Matthew Stafford. So that's the broad to me is Ed Donatel, Kevin O'Connell. You've gotten this far and you got a great start, but if you don't get better and you don't shore up some of these things and don't make changes and adjustments and everything else, then you're going to end up being cliff Kingsbury. Cause I think that's a big cliff Kingsbury problem over his years. It's like he comes up with stuff in the off season and it starts to work at the beginning of the year and then he doesn't make adjustments and it falls apart. So don't be that guy. Uh, but let's, uh, let's dive into some questions here. Cause I've

got a lot of them. All right, this comes from Alex via email. He says, given that the front office doubled down on Kirk, kept guys like Daniil, Harrison Smith, Delvin Cook, et cetera, and added Z'Darrius Smith and Harrison Phillips to shore up the defense and what we believe is a fairly weak NFC that may be there for the taking, what do you think about the hypothetical on earth too that Jim Harbaugh is the Vikings coach? I have to say, Paul, I didn't see this coming.

I didn't see that this is where this was going to go. Because the Vikings decided to be competitive now, I would ideally prefer what I consider an elite coach in Harbaugh to a first-time coach in Kevin O'Connell. If they choose to rebuild, I don't mind going for KOC. And I don't know that Jim Harbaugh to a first-time coach in Kevin O'Connell. If they choose to rebuild, I don't mind going for KOC. And I don't know that Jim Harbaugh would have said yes. However, now that we see that they basically went all in outside of the Rams-style trades, I have a feeling Harbaugh would have brought additional experience to some tough playoff

matchups, as well as short-term Harbaugh effect where players buy in, in a way that we rarely see. Alex wants Jim Harbaugh. Thinks they made a mistake not doingterm Harbaugh effect where players buy in, in a way that we rarely see. Well, Alex wants Jim Harbaugh, thinks they made a mistake not doing the Harbaugh. Your reaction, Paul? You know, I think that there's certainly merit in that, but I think it's more merit in a short-term lens. I don't, I think Kweisi, I guess, doubled down on certain things. But looking back, I mean, he had options to move away from Kirk this year and to get rid of some of the veterans this year.

But I think generally that's still kind of on the table. I don't necessarily know if they've fully gone into the philosophy of we're going to contend this year, next year, like into the future. I think if that was the all in mindset that they had, then maybe Harbaugh makes a little bit more sense, but I view this year more as, you know, I think they maybe weren't even necessarily planning to be that great this

year. And they've just had these bounces go their way so far. And now they're going to take it, take it and roll with it and kind of see where it can go. But I think O'Connell again, has shown himself to be a pretty decent coach so far. They are five and one. I'm not sure Harbaugh being here gets them a better start than five and one. Maybe he helps them later down the line with more experience heading into the playoffs. But Jim Harbaugh, when we talked about it always was through kind of this lens of pushing

the chips into the table now and go, go, go now, not necessarily thinking about three years from now. And while I think pushing a little bit of money for Harrison Smith and others into the future certainly kind of shifts your mode to, okay, maybe we are going for a little bit more this year. They can still get off Kirk this year or at the end of this year if they want to trade him. There's still really ways that they can pivot. And so I think I would hear the argument

for Jim Harbaugh, but I don't necessarily think it gets them in a better position than they have been so far. And I'm not quite sure it helps them that much going later down the road. And so if they still have thoughts in mind of what does year four, year five look like, it probably looks a little bit better with a coach like Kevin O'Connell in place than it does a coach like Jim Harbaugh I also think if we uh well there's a few things to talk about with that I mean is player buy-in a problem with Kevin O'Connell like I don't see that as a problem at all I think in fact it's probably his biggest strength I think he's managed the clock much better than uh you know Mike Zimmer did last year that that's been an improvement

he hasn't thrown too many ridiculous challenge flags or anything not getting penalized really much at all which is yeah i mean and in the vibe we talked about this a lot was like what are the vibes going to be like because every coach says oh we're going to fix the culture we're going to do this that and the other thing but kevin o'con, I think, tangible buy-in from the players where you can really see them gelling together as a team. And it might be one of the reasons that they're five and one so far. And they have had high praise for the way he's handled players really from day one in mini camp, training camp, the way that he did not play players in the preseason, gave veteran days, was smart about their bodies, which seems to be paying dividends.

Now, at this point, when they've gone through a lot, going to London, back to Miami, he's taken a very, I'll use a quasi word, but a very intentional approach to everything, from player health to how he's trying to work with the wide receivers to get their feedback to, to on and on and on, which Justin Jefferson talked about just last week about having conversations and having a dialogue with Kevin O'Connell about even just where he's lining up and what he's doing and things like that. So that to me has been one of the biggest strengths of their five and one start is the overall culture and the feeling around this team. And I know winning helps this, but I think they even survived their big bump in the road

in Philadelphia and came back strong from that. I think that's what you want to see. Is Jim Harbaugh going to be better at scheming than Kevin O'Connell? Now, I mean, I have some questions about the play calling and about how they've sort of been mixing and matching Kubiak with the things that Kevin O'Connell seems to really want to do, which is send all these deep route combinations and things like that. And they're not resulting and throws down the field. So I do have questions, but when we look at their scoring output, when we look at the fact that Justin Jefferson is what third in the NFL and yards, that has not been a problem at all he's driven the offense as we expected him to do like what is it that jim harbaugh would have been doing better at this point like jim harbaugh hasn't

coached in the nfl since like 2015 i mean it has been a while so i guess if you think that he's a much more dialed into the 2022 nfl than someone who won the Super Bowl as an offensive coordinator last year. You're just missing me with that point. That was actually one of the reasons I didn't like the idea aside from the fact that I think the guy's a lunatic. Like, I mean, I really do. Like, I think he's a college coach and at this point in his career and has been for a long time now in the college ranks. And there's a reason why no one in the NFL wants to bring him back yet. That's not what I look at and say regrets. I mean,

in fact, I look around the league and say, all right, day ball is a home run. And even if they weren't five and one, you'd still be saying like that team is, is organized and playing like a real football team, as opposed to totally lost with Joe judge,

Nate Hackett's a complete disaster. His quarterbacks, you know, probably the root cause of that, but still even the way he handled game management stuff. I mean, I think that O'Connell looks like one of the best hires in the NFL. So this is not one where I'm going back and saying, well, you blew that one. And, uh, yeah, I don't, I don't see how by the time they get to the playoffs, if they've had a whole year of winning, why Jim Harbaugh would suddenly be better than Kevin O'Connell. I think people got really, really hung up on what happened 10 years ago. Kind of like John Gruden with Las Vegas.

It's like, yeah, but he won the Super Bowl with the Bucs like a million years ago. And the NFL changes fast. So yeah, no regrets with that one, Alex. Next question comes from at stock market skull one. Let's see. The bi-week is about rest and self-scouting. Talk me into the Vikings improving enough during the regular season to be a true contender in the NFC playoffs. They can't keep getting away with this. Can they, uh, they? Your thoughts,

Paul? Yeah, I think we've talked about this before, but I think where we can see where I think the improvement lies is in that offense. I think you touched on a little bit. There's probably some schematic adjustments and tweaks that they can make. I think some of the players on their offense can just play better than they have played. I think Kirk is having one of his, you know, worst years since he's been a Viking, despite the five and one start. If he just kind of regresses back towards where he can play, that's a little bit incremental improvement. Same thing with Adam Thielen.

He hasn't played very well to begin the season. Dalvin Cook has been kind of very boom or bust. And maybe those are just how those players are going to be right now or how they're going to be like the rest of their careers. And I can be talked into that for sure, but I can also be talked into them improving a little bit with more time in the scheme and more time to figure it all out. And so I think the offensive side of the ball, there's clearly places and spots where they can improve because I don't think you'd say they've over achieved in any way, despite or with how much talent that they have on that side of the ball on the defense it feels like

when they're one of the last in yards allowed but right in the middle of the pack in points allowed that is that bend don't break working but you're assuming those regress a little bit back to the mean so I'm going to have a tougher time especially given the cornerback group has held up, uh, despite having some major question marks. And we saw against Miami, the defensive line finally come into its own. I think those units are generally playing pretty solid and up to their talent level, or even the cornerback group might be playing a little bit above what we would normally expect from them. So on that side of the ball, I don't know how much I see them getting better just because of the talent, but on the offensive side of the ball, I think there is a little bit of room for improvement there.

And we saw this with the Rams last year. The Rams through like 10 weeks, their offense was like broken. There were national pieces getting written about what is going on with this offense. Obviously they're able to turn it around. And so they probably had a little bit more talent on that side of the ball than the Vikings do. So talent at some point is going to win out in all of these situations. So I don't think that is an apples to apples comparison,

but it is just a reminder that we're six weeks into the season. The way this team looks right now is much different than it's going to look 10 weeks from now. And if they make it into the playoffs or a little bit further, you know, 10 weeks further out, like there are many adjustments to be made. Injuries are going to happen. Things are going to happen. But if we're talking about which side of the ball I think can see more improvement, it's

that offense as O'Connell just becomes more comfortable, as everyone becomes more comfortable in that offense and things continue to gel a little bit more. Yeah, I think when you look at the stat page, you see Adam Thielen averaging 9.8 yards per reception. KJ Osborne has only 177 yards so far through six games. And Irv Smith Jr. is almost like handing off. He's averaging so few yards per target, 18 receptions for 140 yards on 29 targets. I mean, I'm not even kidding. That's five yards per target or something like that. I mean, that's, that's not good at all. Uh, yeah. 4.8 yards per target. Delvin Cook is averaging more yards per target than they're starting tight end who I think has room to

improve because we have seen in the past in flashes, a different version of Irv Smith jr. That has just not shown up so far this year. Now you can't throw them screen passes behind the line of scrimmage. I don't think he's ever going to be that guy that catches the ball and just lightnings down the field as a tight end, but he does have some downfield capability that has not really been utilized at all. So far, same for KJ Osborne. Adam Thielen

might just be a possession receiver at this point, but those other guys are young. I think you can find ways to work the ball down the field to them. I also think that they have to look pretty closely in the mirror at why their running game is not spectacular. I mean, I think part of it is Delvin Cook is not the same. And I know he had one big run, but the whole rest of the games, like not successful in running the ball. And it kind of reminded me of like 2015 Adrian Peterson, who led the league in rushing, but also led the league in carries. And I believe also led the league in negative carries.

And that's, that's been Delvin Cook this year is that it's just just been a lot of two yards, two yards, two yards. And oh, you break out a big one and then two yards, two yards, break out a 15-yard or that kind of thing. But it hasn't been as consistent as it was in the past. And right now, they are sitting at 23rd in rushing yards and 21st in rushing yards per attempt. And the reality of the Minnesota Vikings with Kirk Cousins is it does start there. And maybe Kevin O'Connell is also learning as it goes along is that there's a reason why it's had to start there in the past. But I think that if you're looking for places that they can get better on the offensive side within the numbers, that's where it says it to me that they can be better in

rushing the football and they could definitely hit on shots down the field much more often to KJ Osborne and potentially even Irv Smith Jr. If they don't, then it just won't happen. And with this, with the current version of their team, 14th in points, 11th in points against like that just doesn't get it done to make you a real contender. I was looking at this. I looked at every team since the merger who went to the Superbowl and 75% of the teams had a plus 100 or more point differential. And right now the Vikings, I think are like plus 19. It's just not going to get it done. Like you have to, uh, you gotta be better than that over a season. And they're going to lose some games along the way. So they haven't even lost games and they're only plus 19. Right. So, so if you want to be a really strong team, that plus 100 is probably even more for a

17 game season is your threshold and they are not producing offensively at that level. So, and I think that I do think that the right guard situation can get better because right now it's been pretty atrocious and pass blocking although I think we saw that the center is the center overall so I don't know if we completely talked you into it but the other part of it is that if you go to the playoffs and Jalen Hurts gets hurt you know as you just never like Tom Brady might just get to the playoffs and his wife tells him to come home and then that's it. Like you just, you just beat Blaine Gabbert or something. Yeah. And there are some underlying statistics that can, that show this offense probably has some room to just get a little bit better. I mean, in terms of generating first downs on first down, they're the top team in the NFL. So they're the best team in on first down, getting a first down on that play. And so what that tells you is when Kevin O'Connell has the full playbook

to use, he's able to generate and Kirk is able to generate good plays that are moving them down the field. It's just, they're struggling on third down and they're struggling a little bit more on second down when the defense can dictate those terms a little bit. So that's why you go back a little bit to the running game is if they can get the running game and get themselves into like a second and mid, like football outsiders kind of can measure DVOA at different points on the field. And the Vikings are the number one team in DVOA from the second and middle section of the field, or like when they have second and mid yards, six to four yards. So it's all about, can they stay ahead of the sticks?

And so if they can do that with the running game or just leaning a little bit more into the passing game on first down, then they can get into spots where they're controlling things. And that's when this offense really works. Like again, measuring by DVOA, when they're in third and long, they're the worst team in the NFL. So that just puts you into what they need to do on early downs to get third downs more advantageous for them because they had that 12 for 15 game against the bears.

But other than that, they've been pretty atrocious on third downs this year. And you expect that because it's a smaller sample size of just how many third down plays you're going to get. And just generally because the offense seems to be working on first down generating first downs on first down, you'd think some of those third down numbers will get a little bit better for them but i do agree it probably stems a little bit from can they just eke out a little bit more from that running game to get them into more of those advantageous situations because this team with that with a little bit of a couple shaky pieces in the offensive line and what we know about kirk if they do fall into those third

and longs that's really like me telling you they're the worst by dboa isn't surprising when we talk about third and long like that is just kind of what you would expect so can they get a little bit more ahead of the sticks with the run game i think that's when you can see this offense improve holistically folks those who know me well are aware that i'm not a big drinker but when my neighbors recently dropped by they were surprised to see a bunch of tall boy cans laying around. No, I didn't change my life choices. Those cans were liquid death water. In particular, I've become a big fan of the sparkling lime flavor. As you know, I'm a big soda guy, but I'm starting to think that water might be a little better choice for the health side.

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That's liquiddeath.com slash insider and use their store locator yeah i mean it does feel funny to talk about it like this because that seems like like what would a mike zimmer say he would say you have to get kirk cousins in second and favorable so you can run those play actions and And that is, it's right. It's been right. It's always been right. And they have not been able to do that. The question is, can they really do it? I mean, do they have the run scheme? Because think about this, Gary Kubiak in the past and his son and Kevin Stefanski, they were all really, really serious about the run ski. And I don't know if that's

the case with the Rams style offense. I mean, the Rams running game kind of just exists to exist since Todd Gurley was there. And then everything is about all the passing concepts. And that's kind of how it's felt a little bit with the Vikings running game. And I think that they need a little more attention to detail on that matter, because if they can consistently run the football, then they can be a much more dangerous in those play action situations. So I don't know if we talked to him into it, but we talked kind of around it.

All right. This from at Sam roots on Twitter. Let's see here. Report card for the bi-week. Please give the Vikings grades to this point in the following categories execution situational style and results what will they need to do to improve their grades over the last 11 games so that was execution situational stuff style and results all right well i with for results i think you just have to give them an A. They're

five and one, so you can't really give them anything other than that. I think generally people talk about process over results, but if we're just looking at the results, five and one's looking pretty good. So that's an A. Execution. I mean, it's been shaky a little bit on the offense they've talked about that of we're just justin jefferson doesn't run the right route or they don't situationally block a guy that's coming around the edge or things like that so i think there's certainly spots to improve there and i think similarly on the defense there's some spots in execution to build on but again you don't get to five and one without executing enough uh so i would probably give them a b for execution what were the other two style and uh style and situational situational um well they've led come kirk cousins has led a couple comebacks they're four and oh

in one score games so that situationally is However, they've probably played to the point where they shouldn't be in one-score games, so it's a little bit of a cat-and-mouse thing. They probably shouldn't be 4-0 in one-score games. They should probably only be 2-0 in one-score games because they probably shouldn't have let the Bears game and the Saints game and maybe even the Lions game get to that point. They haven't had, like you said, Kevin O'Connell hasn't had too many puzzling fourth down decisions. They've only really faced them like the Dan Campbell situation. O'Connell's had a couple where you'd say, well, maybe you go for that,

but nothing egregious that has cost them any games at this point. So I would say B for that too. And style, I don't know how to give out style points. Week one, they had tons of style. Since then, it feels like they had tons of style. Since then, it feels like they're just getting by. They don't quite care how it looks as long as it's another win, and I can't blame them for that.

So I think they've got a way just to go in style. Maybe if Kirk Cousins continues to wear more chains and stuff, they can just keep adding up his style, and maybe that helps the grade. But I'll go C on style. Interesting interpretations. Yeah, I mean, results, there's really, well, okay. Let me, let me make a, an argument for only giving it a B for results. Your record is fantastic, but when you rank in the middle of the league in offense and defense, your results are just, just meh, right? Like if you're ranking among the top of the NFL in offense

and defense, like the Buffalo bills, for example, now the bills and the top in the NFL in offense and defense, like the Buffalo Bills, for example. Now, the Bills and the Vikings have the same record, but nobody thinks that the results are the same. I mean, they just beat Kansas City at Arrowhead, and they have, what, the number one DVOA offense and defense? I mean, that's a little different results than ranking 14th in scoring, I think. So I'll give them a b overall for their results for their style i will actually give them an a i think that they are a very stylish team uh not because kirk cousins has been wearing the chains but because of uh the way that they sort of have bonded here uh you know, winning does definitely bond people together.

But even just, you know, the celebration the other day after they got the what was it, the interception where they did like seven players were doing like eight different dances. And, you know, I mean, stuff like that. It really seems like they're enjoying football under Kevin O'Connell. And I think Kevin O'Connell has sort of allowed them to do that or encourage them to do that, to be that way. And I take, I take style as kind of vibes and I think vibes should be an A for this team. You know, when even like something as simple as having Kirk cousins wearing the chains or whatever, it's like players personalities coming out a little bit more and some things that

I still will roll eyes a little bit at from, Oh, the ogre Mike Zimmer wouldn't let us, but like they, they look more comfortable. They definitely look a lot more comfortable. So I have to give them good style points, situational. I got to give them an a, I mean, a plus maybe special teams has been fantastic. That I look at as a lot of situational. They have come through with game-winning drives. They've come through with humongous stops. In fact, the reason they're 5-1 to me is all the situational stuff.

They are one of the top teams in turnovers. Like you said, penalty differential. I think they have the biggest in the league between how many they've taken and how many the other team has taken. Thank you, Dolphins, for 5-1 drive, of course, but situational has been an a execution to me has just been a C. I think it's just been pretty bleh on a, because the execution to me is on a play to play basis. Does it look like everybody's locked in everyone's on the same page and you are knocking it out of the park. Play after play after play. That has not really been the case.

It's been, oh, look, there's nine, three and outs and all they scored on the other drives. Like, you know, I mean, there's been a lot of that or there's been, oh, Tyreek Hill gets a 30 yard gain and then a 20 yard gain and then a 14 yard gain and then someone else fumbles. So I think that the execution part is kind of shows up in the yardage where they're 19th in yards four and 26th against. That's the play-to-play stuff. That's why they don't rank super high by the stats like DVOA and things like that.

But that's a good question because it kind of takes us out of the rank the offense, rank the defense. Next question comes from at the crowbar on Twitter. Love the show. Fans only question. Can you talk me into the Vikings creating their own luck with these wins? For example, what they are doing to cause other teams to take an egregious amount of penalties or force Dan Campbell to make poor decisions or cause the opposing kicker to miss a field goal.

Is there an argument to be made here that they are in some way causing their own luck? Your thoughts, Paul? I mean, I think there is a little bit of an element to that in every scenario. I mean, you have to get Dan Campbell to that fourth down to make them have to make that decision to end up kicking the field goal. You have to stop them at that point to get them there. Um, so I think there's an argument to be made. I mean, the saints have to kick that 60 yard field goal. Cause that's their only option at that point. So there's a little bit to that. I mean, those don't, those things don't just happen. Um, you have to get them to the point where those things are happening, but I also think they've created the point where they have to get lucky. And I mentioned

that in the other answer, like some of the things that they've done in the ways they've created the point where they have to get lucky. And I mentioned that in the other answer, like some of the things that they've done and the ways they've come back in games and survived in games is because they haven't executed in other areas. And so it gets to the point where it now has to be a coin flip. The Vikings didn't have to let it be a coin flip. And then it did. And they've come up on the right side of all of those so far. So it hasn't hurt them.

But I don't like, I think in a lot of ways they do, they didn't need to be, they didn't, it didn't need to come to this. Like they should have been able to close out opponents. They should have been able to blow opponents out. Now that's just not happening widely in the NFL. I think we've seen this last week, a lot of people talking about the margin for scoring. The scoring margin is the lowest it's ever been in the league.

So it's happening league wide that there's these close games. So the Vikings certainly aren't outliers there, but a lot of their luck comes down to they're not getting injured and they're benefiting from these calls. And so on the injury front, that's like everything we know is telling us that's really random. Now the Rams and their sports science division had several years where they were able to kind of avoid injuries at a really strong rate and kind of gets to the point or are

they bucking the trend more than other teams? It's still quite a little bit hard to tell. And now this year, maybe that's coming back to them a little bit. Stafford's hurt, offensive lines hurt. So I don't know if you can really say they are stopping injuries from happening at a much better rate and kind of creating luck that way. I just don't quite buy into that a ton. I think they're certainly helping themselves a little bit there, but I think in general, a lot of their luck is exactly luck. And so they have to put themselves in those positions, but I also think regression is going to tell you that's going to come back a little bit. And so they can create their luck by not needing to have these coin flip

opportunities. And that's by getting better. But I don't necessarily know how much ripping the ball out is sustainable from week to week to week. Can you make another team miss a field goal? Only if you block it. And in no other way can you make the other team miss field goal. I guess if you try to ice the kicker and it works, but I think that all the numbers say it doesn't really matter. Like it's not predictive. Icing the kicker doesn't really work. You could try it if you want, but it doesn't change the percentages,

you know, so you can't do that. You cannot make another team fumble really like you can make a play, but there isn't like a skill that you teach your players or a strategy where you're like, make them fumble uh there is a hit stick on madden the the old men's especially where you just be like pow and you know you you flap that uh what is it the little um it was ps2 you could really like smack it hard yes yeah yeah yeah um the whatever they call it you had the yeah it was the hit stick but

you had the two little wheelie-dos. Right. And if you hit the one super hard, you could definitely cause a fumble. That's not a real thing, though, in real life. Harrison Smith said after the game, he goes, that never – like, I wasn't planning for that to happen. Like, I just – like, fundamentally, I know to go up high to potentially get the ball, but he's like 90% of the time that's not coming out.

It just happened to come out. So even then, like they're not relying on those things. And not only that, the ball bounced right to Cam Bynum. It was Cam Bynum, right? Yeah, bounced right to him. Like if that ball bounces right to Tyreek Hill, then we might be talking about what an unbelievable loss for the Minnesota Vikings.

And like, this is the thing about teams that are in the middle is that you often live and die with these things that I was mentioning those point differentials for teams that had gone to the Superbowl, uh, the 16 and O new England Patriots outscore their opponents by 320 points. If you outscore your opponents by 320 points, you do not have to talk about bounces. You don't have to talk about luck. You just whooped everybody. Like that's it. That's it.

That's it. That's it. If you're outscoring people by 20 points a game, then that's, that's how you don't have to ever talk about this. But I mean, this happened. I think it was the Raiders maybe last year,

two years ago that the raiders won i think it was every win they had was a one score win and it was the same kind of deal where they were having that discussion like are we just a clutch team is derrick carr just big and big situations and the answer is like maybe yeah kind of like that a quarterback can be but overall we've even seen the raiders regress this year in that area. Cause I think it was last year they had something like eight wins that were by one score. And already this year, they've lost every game by one score or something like that. Like it happens all the time with teams that are just kind of floating around in the middle. That's why you need to be better than

that. So you don't have these situations because it, it will go the other way for you eventually. And it nearly did in all of these games. That doesn't mean that you didn't earn it and make some great plays. So players who make great plays in these games should be celebrated. Like they stuffed a run against the lions that made them, you know, try that field goal senselessly. They, uh, you know, cause the fumble from Jalen Waddle. He didn't put the hand on the ball and, you know, Amir Smith-Barsett who got cut by the way, for all those upset that the Vikings moved on from him in training camp, uh, he could have stepped out of bounds. Like, so when you're playing with fire like that, uh, it will burn

you eventually. So that's why they have to come out of the bi-week simply better is the way I look at it to, to have the same results, or you are going to live and die, uh, with that randomness and with that luck. So no, I don't think there is any way to cause it aside from whooping the other team that will cause you to have better luck because you won't have to rely on it. Uh, all right. This from, uh, at B S C H I W A L. no idea how to pronounce that uh let's see you have sent oh this is a a question regarding you paul okay it says uh you've sent people to cover the game for both miami and london this season so do you hate travel or are you just really good to your employees and colleagues answer the question paul what do you say? Just, just very good that, uh, you know, Matt is definitely not, um, making me say anything. No, uh, Matt asked me to send, asked me to pick any game that I wanted to go to. And so,

you know, I could have picked Detroit in November. I could have picked, you know, the bears later in the year and something about Miami just really was speaking to me. I'm not sure what was it. Yeah. I'm not sure what that was. Uh, so no, we both, me and Jonathan got to pick one game to go to. I don't think Matt hates travel. He'll be to some of the other games. Uh, but we, he wanted to give us the opportunity. It's been a few years since I've traveled to cover games actually, since back in college, when we had a budget to, to send me to cover some games. So it was fun to get back out there and do that but i don't think it stems from you hating travel but maybe i don't know it does not no and i'll be traveling later in the season i'm i just booked

my travel to buffalo and i'll be doing green bay i'll be doing chicago if it matters that's week 18 right if they're playing for nothing i'm not going all the way to chicago to watch uh nick mullins play but uh otherwise and and maybe we'll see like we'll see how big some of these other games are uh brian murphy's actually going to cover it for me in washington so that's going to be really cool and you know murph always brings it uh so he's going to go to washington really the the way that i look at it um there's almost no way not to like pat myself on the back a little bit here but like we've we've done well we've done well like purple insider is going well and that is because it has gotten such unbelievable support from everybody so the it's there in the

budget to reward you and jonathan for such a phenomenal job that you guys have done contributing to Purple Insider. I mean, you're on every single postgame podcast, bringing it every single time. Your articles, Paul, have been fantastic. And Jonathan is doing more behind the scenes stuff, but he's doing a great job with social media, great job with production, all that stuff uh and is also co-hosting the hot routes show with me like your guys contributions to making this work for me uh people don't always see them as much i mean yours a little bit more on the post game shows but jonathan's especially like people don't realize uh what a great

say thank you to jonathan yeah say thank you to Jonathan. Right. I mean, so you guys have been so huge from pretty much day one in building Purple Insider. The minute that I had an opportunity to say, do you want to go do something cool? Then I wanted to do that. So it really is just a reflection of the work that you guys have done and how happy and how appreciative I am for you guys doing that. So it's not me being travel averse, although I don't mind spending more time with the dog. There is a second part to this question, which is as much as I hate and think it's some sort of meaningless doublespeak when I hear from CEOs and politicians,

now that the Vikings are five and one headed into the buy. How do you rank the competitive rebuild idea on a scale of one to 10? How competitive rebuild the, are they? Well, there are certainly more competitive of the competitive rebuild than I expected through six weeks. We'll see if that sustains itself. It's hard to judge the rebuild part of it because that hasn't changed

since when we talked beginning of the season. It's still kind of up in the air how quickly or if at all they plan to move on from this quarterback and this larger kind of like old guard that still remains on this team and whether they're going to continue to pump money into the Cousins, the Thelans, the Harrison Smiths, the Eric Hendricks, like all the kind of the veterans that they rely on. So the rebuild part is still difficult to grasp and to really understand.

And we won't quite know that until the end of the year. But in terms of the competitive part, I think they had to straddle the line to have a good season. And they are currently doing that. They're five and one, and they're doing it in the way that probably this team with this talent has had to do it. And it's getting by situationally and doing just enough. And so I think the competitive rebuild is going according to plan.

I think this, this is what you hoped for when you're saying competitive or competitive, right in the mean term, but we didn't have to trade a second round pick for Yannick Ngakwe. We didn't have to do some of the other previous moves, kind of desperate moves that moved us from a coin flip into hopefully like a safe playoff piece. Like that hasn't had to happen. They've just been able to generate that based on things around the margins and figuring a few things out. So I think in that way, they've been competitive without having to pour in a ton of all in resources. And so I think that is kind of by

definition what they were hoping for. Now it's still only six weeks through the season. A lot can change, but I think it has to be going well based on what they've been able to do through six games. The rebuild part is really the big question. And the harder part, to be honest, is how do they pivot from this if this ultimately if they ultimately end up 10 and 7 11 and 6 and they lose in the first round what happens now how do you pivot off Kirk Cousins because that's been the question from the Spielman era to the previous teams that have had him like he's just good enough to keep he's maybe not good enough to want to really keep him. And so that's going to be the biggest and toughest test for this regime.

They passed off the ability to make that decision this year. They said, let's push that a year into the future. I don't blame them necessarily for coming in and wanting a little bit more time to take on that franchise altering decision. Now that comes this off season. And I think that's when you can really start to assess, are they sticking to this competitive rebuild? Are they fully going into the competitive area? Are they fully going into the rebuild?

Are they going to keep trying to straddle the middle? But again, through six weeks, I don't think you can argue at the results that they've gotten. Folks, I know you've heard me talk about Soda Stick for a long time now, but I'm telling you, you have to start following them on social media for new fresh gear they are releasing all the time of course they have the classics like the moss moon design and the metrodome shirts and hoodies but as the local teams go along in their seasons soda stick

is constantly putting out new stuff whether it's the new horn state gear or the vikadantis rex shirts lots and lots more from all the minnesota clubs go to sodastick.com and follow them at sodastick on twitter that is s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k.com on twitter and use the code purple insider to get 15 off your purchase so uh i guess i'll do both sides of that on a one to 10 scale. That's the only way I can really do it. Um, I would give the competitive part of seven. Maybe you could talk me into an eight, just considering the landscape of the league. My, my brain won't let me go there when you rank 14th and scoring. It just won't because the teams that make the super bowl are usually the best offensive teams. So I'm not, I'm not going to give you an eight

or a nine or a 10, just based on your record. When the numbers are not saying quite yet that you belong in that category of the best teams in the league, but competitive wise, very competitive team. No question about it could very well end up with a home playoff game like looking good so seven seven and a half the rebuild part i give you no points you get zero stars zero out of ten zero out of ten and and the thing is paul they they didn't make a yannick and gawkway trade and they didn't make a von miller trade okay but they did spend all of their resources on immediate win now stuff in the form of Harrison Phillips, in the form of Zedarius Smith, Patrick Peterson, Jordan Hicks. That's where all their money went in free agency was a bunch of win now defensive players. I mean, Phillips is a little younger, so he could be here for multiple years, but that's

not really a rebuild the type move. That's a guy that you're bringing in to shore up the middle of the defensive line and help your defense be better. So they spent all their cap space there. They traded down in the NFL draft. That is true. I don't, I see that as a very common thing that lots of teams do and not a rebuild type of move. And the other thing is the draft class has given you nothing. And I, and as bad as I feel for Lewis scene, that is a brutal injury. And that's really tough for him. Was not playing before Andrew Booth is not playing. Brian Asamoah is a really nice looking special teams player. And I think he's been a big contributor on special

teams, but you know, is he really contributing? It doesn't look like he's a future starter and not yet. I mean, I don't know. Maybe he will be. I like some of the things I see. And beyond that, you know, no other draft picks contributing except for Ed Ingram, who has not been really good at all at pass blocking. And again, he might, might have some potential, but a draft pick who's playing and might have some potential, but not playing that well is, is really not like a rebuild the type of thing. So they did in my mind, nothing to rebuild. They restructured a bunch of contracts to hurt themselves in the future. Their drafts class is not showing that it's going to transform this franchise. They didn't spend their draft picks on ideal positions. They spent

them on a lot of replaceable positions or lower paid positions in the NFL and the older players that they have. It's, it's all tentative. It's like Jordan Hicks won't be here for that long. You know, Zedary Smith looks great. So maybe he will be here for another year or two. But again, that's not like rebuilding. That's not long-term pushing things out into the future. In fact, the best thing that they've had happen for the future is someone else's draft pick, Christian Derrissaw,

emerging as I think one of the better left tackles in the entire league. But that's, again, not rebuild-y. That's a first-round draft pick from last year coming along. There is no evidence that they tried to rebuild anything. They tried to win, and that's fine because they're 5-1. And so, like, it's working for you, and that's how I'm evaluating it. But the rebuild part of it, to me, is just like a myth. I just – is myth. I just,

is there, I mean, am I missing something? Like there's no, I mean, when you spend all the way to the cap too, it's not like they help their cap future. They spend all the way to the cap. So you say, well, oh, they didn't, you know, go all in, but they, they have $400,000 in cap space. So they kind of did. Right. Yeah. I, I definitely hear you on the draft drafting part. That definitely has not been the results that they've wanted to get out of that group. Um, albeit with some injuries, some you could probably see coming and others that you couldn't see coming. Um, I think with the free agents, I'm not quite sure what I would have like envisioned them doing in this kind of sense of a rebuild, like in the kind of dollar figures that they were playing in, they weren't a big player for a free agent that was 25, like a Randy

Gregory type where they're, that's a win now, but that's also kind of a rebuilding move where you're setting him up for, he's still on the team in four years. He's still young. Like the spots that they're waiting in are entirely two to three year deals on mid tier free agents. So maybe you're trying to pick out a couple of those deals where in the third year, you have a cornerback that you could think would be really good, or you're trying to find some of those windows in the, in the free agent part. So I don't, I don't know what I would have wanted them to do from a free agent perspective that really would have shifted their thoughts to the future.

Other than not signing players, not sign them would be the thing if there's a letting them go yeah if there's a rebuild element you don't sign those guys now i'm i'm not saying they're wrong like they they decided that we're gonna go win and so far they've gone and won and that's the standard that they're set to but when you say competitive rebuild and don't do anything to competitive rebuild it's like well you didn't really you know what i mean it's like, well, you didn't really, you know what I mean? It's like, I I'm going to clean the kitchen in the bathroom and passive contending at

that point. Right. Right. I mean, like if I say I'm going to clean two rooms in the house and I clean one of them, I can't be like, I clean the whole house.

No, you didn't. You clean one part of the house. So anyway, last question, Paul, real quick. Cause I know you got to go.

Cause you have a real job at WCCO Radio. But you're doing great, by the way. I hear you driving around sometimes. Well, thank you. This is from Simon for fans only. He says, do you think the Vikings could draft, maybe even trade up for a quarterback in the next draft like the Chiefs did with Mahomes and let him sit for a year?

Cousins has one year left, and I think that Kweisi knows that a quarterback on a rookie deal is a huge advantage and uh of course i don't think we'll get a talented quarterback like mahomes just referring to the process of used by the chiefs so through this point in the season which i will allow it i will allow future questions for the buy if they keep winning after the buy we're not talking about next year's draft but but for the buy, I'll allow it, Simon. That's not great for my skull searching column, but yeah, I guess it's a possibility just based on if Kweisi really values that first round quarterback, which I'm sure he does on the rookie deal. He's smart enough to know all the things that we've talked about and pretty much understands that to a T. If they keep winning, their pick's going to be really high. They're going to have to give

up a lot of assets to climb right into that top tier echelon to get a Bryce Young, to get a CJ Stroud, to get even some of the kind of secondary quarterbacks that are currently shaping up still to go in the first round. So I think it's certainly a possibility. I think, I don't know how that would work with Kirk sitting or like sitting behind Kirk necessarily. Uh, that might just be a situation where you trade Kirk to get the assets to help you trade up for a quarterback. That might be a little bit more likely, uh, in that scenario, just cause you are going to be giving up an arm and a leg to get up as far as you want to. You're going to give up several years of first round picks.

So if Kirk can help get you one of those picks, I think it's better to just move off of him and just fully commit to that rebuild and fully get all five years of that rookie deal. If you keep Kirk, that just takes away one of the years. And you're watching this happen with the 49ers where they drafted Trey Lance to get the benefits of a first year quarterback or a rookie quarterback. And now it's going to be year three before you even see him once. And so that's not taking advantage of it. So I think they certainly could put one to play behind Kirk. But at this point, it doesn't feel like that's the likely outcome where they give up everything in Kweisi's second year

to go up and get one guy. Now, if they find someone they fall in love with, like the Chiefs did Mahomes, then by all means, give it a go. But if I was, I don't see that as a likely scenario at this point. So I have the draft order up for next year, which will change.

Yeah. It's really about the people at the top Carolina, Vegas, Detroit, Houston, Philly via new Orleans. Wow. Houston again, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Arizona, Jacksonville, Chicago, Washington, Atlanta, Seattle. What do you hear in there? A lot of teams that either need quarterbacks at the very top or are very close to trading up. So Houston has two picks. Let's say they take CJ Stroud and then trade back with the other one to Washington or something who's right there on the doorstep

and will probably be in a similar spot. The one question I have is there's supposed to be five and possibly six quarterbacks. There will usually be one who drops. And a lot of times that guy does turn out to be good. But I also wonder, like, are there so many teams that are going to be wanting to draft quarterbacks, knowing that it's a good class that you just get left out of that party or the price to play poker is far too high. I think that's very, very realistic to think about last year. So now they're not going to be as patient. I think they're like, we waited for this class and we're going to get one. Here's the other thing too. If cousins ends up with 106 quarterback rating, the Vikings are 12 and 5 and they win a playoff game i mean is it the right

move yeah probably still i mean he'll be 35 at that point uh and and you just have to start thinking toward the future and he needs another contract and everything else and you don't want to end up with the russell wilson situation uh and and already we're kind of going like, is he okay out there? Yeah, I mean, I think on many, many levels, it makes sense. But this is kind of the danger of the competitive rebuild is that when you win this much and they should go for it now at this point

with Green Bay floundering. But like when you win this much, it takes you out of that, not only just the very top, but also easily trading up to the very top if you need to. I think that what you laid out is the play to draft someone, either let them sit or play them next year and make them your future. But the more you win, the harder that gets to tell Kirk, no, actually we're going to draft first round pick as opposed to getting you another receiver

at the top. So yeah, no, that, I mean, that element of it is very interesting. Their future at quarterback here. And again, the whole thing about Kirk is having Kirk is not going to make you as desperate as say the giants with Daniel Jones who are, may end up in a similar record spot. But I think the giants more than the Vikings are going to say, we need a new quarterback. Like we can't do this with Daniel Jones cousins again, has enough in him to where you aren't going to be so desperate to move on. You're not going to be the team that says F it fine. We'll give you five picks. Cause we can't do this anymore. That might be the case for a Houston or a giants or any number of these teams that are going to be maybe in the middle of the pack because they're winning more games than they would expect right

now. Like there's going to be more desperate teams than the Vikings, especially if the Vikings make the playoffs and win a playoff game to the point where when the bidding starts going, they don't feel like a team that's going to just throw everything in and say, yeah, we, we can't do this anymore. We're going all in. Like that is just not where Kirk puts you. He puts you in a spot where you wish you had someone, but maybe I'm not going to give up three first round picks to do it. Cause actually Kirk could probably maybe do it. Like this is the whole talking yourself into it thing that happens every year. And why I don't think the Vikings rise to that level of urgency that some of these other teams probably would, if they're going to give up a ton to move up. Yeah. And you look around the roster and when

you try to look into the future, there's positions that they're going to need to fill with older players or expensive players who they might not be able to keep long-term and so forth. Like Daniil Hunter's situation is kind of tenuous and so forth. You're going to need to take someone with your first round pick for your roster and your roster strength, possibly a wide receiver at this point with the fact that Thielen is just not on the same level as he used to be.

So there's a lot to consider there. There certainly is a lot to consider. If Cousins ends up with an 84 quarterback rating and they still win sort of despite him at a lot of ways, it would open the door for them to much easier, have that conversation and say, let's just draft whoever the fifth guy off the board is. It doesn't matter in recent years. So yeah, I mean, that's, that is something to think about as we go forward. Great questions. I mean, you see, you see why I do these episodes, Paul, these questions are fantastic from everybody. And I appreciate your time today jumping on, doing a little fans only.

I just thought we have way too many good questions. We need to use these as topics. So good stuff from you. And we won't see each other in a post game until after the Arizona game. So I will be in Penn State rooting on the Gophers. Oh, yeah. Yeah. OK, great.

Good for you. My wife is actually calling that game for radio as well. So a national radio so she's gonna be there um as well so say hi to each other anyway uh that's an awkward way to end the podcast and we'll see you all we just lean into it yeah goodbye have a good day see you football