Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Does Baker Mayfield make sense for the Vikings?

Episode Date: January 26, 2024

Matthew Coller and Manny Hill talk about the Bucs offensive coordinator leaving, which could leave Baker Mayfield's future up in the air. Is Baker a good option for the Vikings? The Falcons hired a head coach with a Cousins connection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by PrizePix. Go to prizepix.com and use the code PURPLE for a first deposit match up to $100. prizepix.com, code PURPLE. everybody welcome to another episode of purple insider matthew collar here along with manny hill and i love manny when i show up to the room here to start our live chat with fans. And already there's a big debate going on in the comment section about whatever we're about to discuss. And I'll give you the headline. Does Baker Mayfield make sense for the Minnesota Vikings? And here's why I say it. Because his offensive coordinator just was hired by the Carolina Panthers to be their head

coach. And it appears that Mike Evans is not going to sign a contract extension with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And honestly, the Buccaneers are probably in one of the most difficult positions of any team in the NFL. When you look at their salary cap situation, you look at now they're coaching, having to replace an offensive coordinator. Antoine Winfield is a free agent, so they either have to pay him massive dollars or he's going to leave as well. They don't have really a lot to work with there and they don't really have a running game. And if you're Baker Mayfield, you're probably looking at last year having proven hey guys i am a quality nfl starting quarterback somebody come get me and the question for you

manny is should the vikings come get baker mayfield which in my mind would not mean they wouldn't draft a quarterback still but they would kind of split the difference between now in the future which is kind of what they've been trying to do this whole time along and you wouldn't likely have to commit for a long time baker's achilleses are fine he's a lot younger than kirk and he's a little more fun than kirk maybe so uh what's what's your take Manny for against I would be I would be for it from a football standpoint because I think Baker could step into this Kevin O'Connell system and I think do very well he's got a really good arm he can push the ball down the field uh he can stand there in the pocket He's got a little bit of mobility to him where he can

kind of escape if he needs to. He's not a super great athlete or anything like that, but he can move around and he's got a little bit of improvisation to him. So if things break down, he's got a little bit more playmaker to him, I think, than Kirk Cous um you know he tends to struggle a little bit when he's under pressure and he'll get a little bit reckless with the football um but he had a great season um and you know i think it would make it would make some sense i think it would probably depend on the price for me honestly um if he's looking for 30 to 40 million dollars a year, I don't know if I want to do that considering where the Vikings are at financially. But if you can make it work for the right deal and I agree with you, I think you still if you're the Vikings, you still want to I, you know, drafting a young quarterback as well to kind of learn behind him. And then, you know, in that particular case, if you sign Baker Mayfield to like a two, two or three year deal, you know, let's say a three year contract where you can get out

of it after like two years or something like that. Then I think it makes a lot of sense to even draft a young quarterback and let him really grow and develop. I'm a big proponent of letting quarterbacks sit for a year, if need be, to develop, you know, unless they're like really ready to go, then you just let them play. But I think it could make some sense. The only question I have is, well, it's two things. One is, you know, what the money would look like. I also kind of wonder, like Baker at this point of his career, how would he handle being signed to a multi-year contract,

but then you also still go and draft a guy who is ultimately going to replace him at some point? How does he kind of handle it? I've had my doubts that he would want to be okay with something like that in the past. But when I think about the way he carried himself this year and the way he really kind of turned his career around, because I was ready to write him off after the Browns jettisoned him,

after the Panthers told him to go away. I was like, yeah, Baker's a certified bust, number one overall pick. Now he's going to be a journeyman guy that is a backup for most of his career. But now I think he's done a really nice job this year of kind of redeeming himself and turning his career around now to where he can be a legitimate option to start for a couple of years for somebody that is looking to kind of keep themselves competitive. So I think from a football standpoint, it makes a lot of sense. There are just like a little bit of a couple of questions that I have of like, you know, how will that, how will it play out? You know, if they draft a young quarterback,

how will he really kind of handle that? And then also, you know, ultimately the, the, the price to sign them to will come into play for me. Importantly, I'm being told that it's Achilles, like as opposed to Achilles is. So I apologize grammatically for talking about multiple Achilles that way. But the point that you make about a Baker is, you know, would you want him potentially to be your guy over multiple seasons uh and i don't know that the answer is necessarily yes to that and it your commitment to him i don't think you'd want it to be any sort of long term but there is a split the difference example that has been used i think think, maybe for him as a comparison, which is Geno Smith. So when you look at Geno Smith's contract, he had only a $10 million cap

hit this year, and then it goes up to 31. And then after that, they could get out of it. So this year was 10 million. Next year, it's 31. But they could get out of it and this year it was 10 million next year it's 31 but they could get out of it and sort of pay half in dead money and then after two years it's pretty much completely over um and they would either have to rework it or move on from geno smith with seattle if you did it similarly to that where it's like a three-year contract but it's much more of a two-year contract. And if you feel really good about where your drafted quarterback ends up, you could also trade Baker Mayfield as well if he ends up having a good season. If he doesn't, it could end up taking some dead cap hit. That is a possibility with a risk that you might take.

But I think that with Baker, he was good enough to garner interest from a team like the vikings that doesn't have a locked-in quarterback but i don't think he was so good that you're like oh someone's making in the franchise guy it wasn't like kirk in washington where he had had two statistical seasons that were so good whoever was bringing him in was saying you're a guy you're a a franchise quarterback, like the Vikings did sign him to a three-year deal. Didn't draft Lamar Jackson that year and made no other attempt to get any sort of other developmental quarterback outside of Kellen mom, the entire time he's there. And if it's a third rounder, it's not really a legitimate attempt. Anyway,

that's not what you have to do with Baker Mayfield. If Baker Mayfield goes to the Raiders, is he there full-time, deadlocked in for the next five years quarterback? Of course not. If he goes to Pittsburgh, of course not. There's no other team where you'd say, oh, well, he's going to sign there and have no competition ever again for the rest of his life. He had a very good season. I was pulling up his stats.

He threw for 4,000 yards, 94 quarterback rating, and had a good number of big time throws. Also had more turnover worthy plays than you want. He was in the top 10 in turnover worthy play percentage, which is exactly what you said with Baker. He could be a little reckless with the football. He can maybe not always read the field perfectly because he's not the tallest guy, but he does have a cannon. And you really see that when he could set his feet and let loose, he can make some plays. And the question would be with the Vikings and their offense, could he put together a similar season to what Kirk Cousins was having or what Kirk Cousins had last year in 2022. Like if we look at Cousins in 2022, not too different as far as PFF grade quarterback rating yards per pass

attempts, all of these things were kind of similar to what Baker Mayfield did this year. Only you'd be signing a deal that would likely include a lot less guaranteed money and a commitment that's shorter and most notably a guy who's way healthier and way younger than someone coming off an achilles injury and someone who you could still draft a first rounder because i feel like you can still say we're in the competitive rebuild process with baker mayfield whereas if you bring back her cousins, I would not accept that. I would not

accept because if you're going to have her cousins for $60 million guaranteed or something, whatever it is, I don't know what he's going to get, but if it's that much and you're bringing this whole thing back and you're doing it with a player who has no upside, who is completely, they are what they are and might not even be as good as they were if you're taking that risk and then foregoing a first round quarterback which i think you have to if you bring back kirk you have to get an edge rusher you got to get somebody to help you now within the next year to two years and then there's also a world with baker where it's really good like there's that other part of it where he could be still ascending from where he's at now and improve from where it's really good. Like there's that other part of it where he could be still ascending from

where he's at now and improve from where he's at now and have a, like you said, the maturity that he's sort of demonstrated in Tampa Bay. Like there is an upside where this actually works and it's like a reclamation project in a little bit of the same way, maybe with Jared Goff going to Detroit, that might be a tad bit of a stretch, but both number one overall picks whose teams kind of left them behind after they had some good moments. So I like it from a lot of perspectives,

unless you told me that they would just draft Bo Nixon, he would start day one. Like I might, I might still like that better. I don't know, but I'm not against the, I'm not against the rookie waiting. I mean, you see it with jordan love we've seen it with mahomes we've seen it with rogers like i i just don't think it's a tragedy if a player comes in as a rookie and has to develop for a year that seems to actually be really good for quarterbacks who do that i mean it happened for the goat tom brady right i mean he it the way tom brady became tom brady was kind of for lack of a better term of describing it by accident with drew blood so getting hurt but like tom brady sat didn't play at all really for his entire rookie year in 2000 and then year two blood so gets hurt brady steps

in and you know the rest is the rest is. So there's for some of the greatest quarterbacks that we have seen in the history of this league. They have a lot of them have sat for a year and then, you know, we're ready to kind of take off in year two or year three. So, yeah, I mean, I I'm with you. I think it makes some sense to bring him in and and like you said i mean you know with the lions getting jared goff i mean jared goff people made fun of jared goff a lot when the rams kind of just casting him off and said you know we need better when they traded for matthew stafford and it worked out for the rams but you know i think a lot of people forgot jared goff was there was a reason why he was taken number one overall because there are physical tools there now he's not a great athlete he's not going to run away from anybody uh in terms of being a scrambler but the arm is really good the arm talent is

has always really been there it's always been kind of decision making and things like that so it's kind of the same thing with Baker Mayfield, where there was a reason why he was taken number one overall, because the physical tools are there. The arm talent is there. Again, same type of thing, decision-making. Sometimes, in his case in Cleveland, it was maturity issues and things like that. But it sounds like he's grown up. He's, what, 20?

I think he's, what, 28 years old. So he's still at a really good age. He's still young, and potentially there's room for even more growth there and improvement. So I like the idea of it, and who knows? Maybe the Vikings bring him in, and he plays so good, and the Vikings play well enough with him that Kevin O'Connell and Kwesi Adolfo-Mentz will say, hey, this guy, maybe he is our guy.

You know what I mean? And then they make that commitment. I do agree with you, though, of like you don't want to play that hand right away out of the gate. You don't want to say, all right, Baker, you're our guy. Here's a five-year, you know, 100 or five years, $200 million. Like they don't need to do that. Sign him to a Geno Smith type of contract,

kind of a prove it type of thing. And if he plays well, great. If he doesn't, you can get out of it pretty easily. And then you've got the young quarterback that you drafted that can step in and take things over. So I don't think it's a bad idea. I don't think it's super far-fetched. You know, if you can get them on a, on a pretty good team friendly contract,

I would say go for it. Another part of this too, that we can't forget because Alexander asked, do we need a true bridge quarterback? And the answer is probably not really. However, what about this scenario that they get to the draft and they try to trade up for jayden daniels and nobody's taken and the quarterbacks go one two three no one's taking your offer just like last year no one's taking your offer for anthony richardson so they're off the board and then you think okay wow look bo nicks is going to

be our guy what i looked up his middle name I think it's Chapman or something Bo Chapman Nix he's gonna be our guy right we used to play that game try to guess guys middle names uh and then you're like all right here he comes we're getting to the what the heck Tennessee drafted him now what do we do now our guy's off the board we have a second round grade on Pennix we have a second round grade on pennix we have a fourth round grade on mccarthy because we asked jeremiah searles if you didn't know jeremiah searles really does not like jj mccarthy as a prospect so we don't want any of those guys we had our eyes on bo chapman nicks and instead uh now you're left

out in the cold but you have your quarterback anyway and then another year to draft one or you could draft in the second round if there's another guy that you like and see if there's a Jalen Hurts type of situation there or even like people forget how good Andy Dalton was with Cincinnati early in his career maybe because he was on a rookie contract and they had a great team around him does that work in the nfl is that i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know but uh you know so anyway the point just being that it gives you this parachute so you're not relying on draft night alone to get a quarterback that you could know that you could win with this year and i think that one of the things that kevin o'connell

probably doesn't necessarily want to deal with coming off of a season where they didn't make the playoffs is the possibility of a rookie quarterback just being horrendous. And I am not going to name that previous Vikings quarterback who was a bust about 10 years ago, but should the quarterback look similar to that, not good or not ready to play despite whatever they liked about him in the draft you would have somebody who you could put in your whole offense and i think that's what kevin o'connell is going to want to do and it's a difficulty when it comes to a rookie is now you got to rework your offense quite a bit as opposed to and this is why i like the idea of sitting. We've discussed how complicated this can be. We all said, Hey, why didn't he just work the

offense around Josh Dobbs? And he basically said, I don't want to, I don't, I don't think that's going to be effective with my offense that I have to work it around, uh, you know, a different quarterback or somebody who doesn't know the offense. So that would give an opportunity for a veteran like Baker Mayfield, who's learned many offenses. Now at this point, he actually pulled the dobs once when he was in Los Angeles, where he arrived there, played a game, remember? And so he can, and he's, and he's learned a little bit of that offense before having worked with McVay. There's a connection there. So I think it really kind of melds together in a lot of ways and if you're baker and you go

all right here's my options you know you go to a los angeles raiders team that is going to have a lot to compete with out in that division and you will here too but not not the best franchise overall uh pittsburgh okay i mean you could go there i think they've got a pretty good setup but you could play with the best receiver in the world and i don't think that it is a coincidence that baker mayfield's career resurgence happened with a guy who is a future hall of fame wide receiver in mike evans so i'm i'm drawing this together in a lot of different ways and i'm struggling to see why it would be a bad idea because baker's not so important or good that you say well we're not gonna get bo chapman nicks i gotta check if that's actually the name

because if it's not i'm gonna feel embarrassed it is okay all right it's good okay okay yeah so so bcn uh we're we can still you can still draft him you can still develop it for a year and then be ready for him to take over if you want to. And also, you know, I just don't think that Baker Mayfield is getting 40 or 45 million dollars. I think it's going to be a lot cheaper than what Kirk Cousins goes to the market expecting. Yeah, I mean, and if that's the case, I think it makes, it makes a lot of sense. And, you know, I think it, like you said, it's, it's a safety net. It's, you know, it's kind of a fail safe type of situation where, you know, you can still draft that young guy. And if he's not ready, which is probably likely that the guy won't be ready to

step to just step in right away and play well we've seen rookie quarterbacks do that but most of the time they're not ready to play uh you have that guy that can just you can plop right into that offense and he's and he's ready to go and you'll stay competitive and i think you know i I know we've always and we agree on like tanking the process of tanking and all of that. There is something to be said of maintaining a winning culture for, you know, some of the younger guys that you are bringing in. Like if they're around winning and they're winning a fair amount and they're in a lot of competitive games, that can really help with the development of some of the younger players, too. So that could be really helpful if you do draft a young quarterback and you have Baker in front of him playing and he's playing well and the team is playing, you know, decent football and they're like nine team you've got a pretty good team that can maybe go on a run and now you know that that young quarterback can be set up for success in the future and he's around a winning you know at least a competitive locker room and not something

that is um very dire so to speak folks i just got another box from HelloFresh this week, and let me tell you, their meals are fantastic. You get farm-fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and seasonal recipes delivered right to your doorstep. Skip trips to the grocery store and count on HelloFresh to make home cooking easy, fun, and affordable. That's why it is America's number one meal kit. The coolest part is how many options you have. There's something for everyone. Dig into their biggest menu yet with over 45 dinner options to choose from weekly and even more market add-on items that suit any type of lifestyle. Personally, I got some of their awesome rice bowls and these egg and cheese breakfast snacks that heat up in just two minutes.

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for a free breakfast for life. One breakfast item per box while the subscription is active. That's free breakfast for life at HelloFresh.com slash Purple Insider Free with the code Purple Insider Free. HelloFresh, America's number one meal kit. I'll get to the reactions in the chat in just a second but justin jefferson should also be brought up in your point when you're talking about like maintaining this certain caliber of competitiveness that they want to from the ownership and i'm sure kevin o'connell does not want to go for you know four and uh four 13 because it yeah i've i have four and 12 stuck in my head forever. But he doesn't want to go four and 13 because that means hot seat the next season.

And if you go nine and eight, then you're like in that Lions, we're on our way back up type of thing. Like they were last year under Dan Campbell. But if you go four and 13, then you're maybe even fired just in general. And even if you're not fired, you go into the next season very much on the hot seat. So he doesn't want that. And I also think from Justin Jefferson's perspective, it's not a super hard sell.

A former number one overall pick who has a big arm and was just in the playoffs and beat the Eagles in a home playoff game and was really this close to beating the Lions and played really well in that game overall obviously an interception at the end that he didn't want but overall he made a lot of great throws i mean i have not looked up i'm going to pull up uh what did mike evans do last year statistically with uh baker mayfield's quarterback because this does matter i mean you're trying to

sell just the jefferson on returning and mike evans had yards, 16 yards per catch, 13 touchdowns last season. That sounds pretty good. That was a ninth best yardage season in the NFL and tied for the most touchdowns. I think if Justin Jefferson had a similar season, he would be pretty comfortable with that. So I like it on a lot of levels and I, there'll be competition for him. We still don't know if kirk coming back so there's a lot to discuss uh alexander says free agency happens before the draft so baker mayfield doesn't need to be okay with it the thing is that baker mayfield doesn't stand on ground to be okay with it or not anyway like he just doesn't have a good enough career like kirk can say, I'm not coming back. If you guys are planning on drafting a first round quarterback and wasting

my time, because I'm here to win right now. And, uh, you know, with Baker, he's gotta be okay with that. Like,

well, you know, this team, just like he was competing against Kyle Trask. He was okay with that. And he's, he's going to have to be anywhere he goes. The team is going to be like,

yeah, we're also drafting a quarterback too and and trying to uh set ourselves up for the future uh hamza says baker mayfield and a koc offense with jefferson addison hockinson would be amazing at least at least exciting at least fun at least different and you know the guy's gonna push the ball down the field fourth and eight that ball's going down field. It's not checking down to the tight end. We can tell you that. It might get picked, but it's going down the field.

And this is a guy, by the way, he's now won two playoff games. He's won two playoff games. He has. In the last six years, by the way. Yep, yep. Those things do get brought up, don't they? One of them was in Pittsburgh, by the way. Yeah. Those things do get brought up, don't they? One of them was in Pittsburgh, by the way. One of those playoff wins was in Pittsburgh.

And the other one was at home, which is more home playoff wins than the Vikings have since the Minneapolis Maricopa. Anyway, Ryan says, I fear the money would be tough given Kirk's dead cap hit due to the void years. Plus 20, 30 mil a year deal with Baker might be tough. However, if we can make the money work, he would be a dream bridge. That's where I was bringing up the Geno Smith contract is that they structured it so he only had a $10 million cap hit this year.

That's important to this because you're absolutely right that they would still have to take on that 28 but then you go into 2025 and if you've looked at their cap situation they've got lots of money to work with and if you had the 12th 14th biggest cap hit for a quarterback going into 2025 you'd probably feel really good about that so know, I don't want to keep entirely going down this, you know, banging the drum for Baker Mayfield, but I just, I'm struggling to see like what the downside would be because worst case scenario, you're still drafting a quarterback and you're playing that guy halfway through the season because Baker's bad. And then we're still fine. Cause that's like, you're still going in the right direction. Scott says we could win 10 with

Baker. It would be fun. I don't think it gets us closer to the super bowl than kirk would have and i think that's right if it gets you equally close but is fun and bridges you to the next quarterback then it kind of answers everybody right it's like for the coach, for the owners, for the wide receivers, like everybody has a good season, a competitive season. Nobody has to completely tank. Nobody has to be miserable in a disaster. Oh, we lost Manny. Poor Manny. Oh, wow. Now I'm, I got a thing through my face. What are we doing here? Okay, Manny will be back. Once an episode, Manny's face freezes and it's hard to tell whether he's just stunned at what I'm saying or he's frozen.

In this case, he was actually frozen. So anyway, you know, I think that, I really think that it makes a lot of sense for them to do that. And I, you know know I think that no matter what you do it's hard to see this team being ready to win a Super Bowl and so can we make it work for a lot of people and make progress with the roster and have an entertaining season and get you know Jefferson a lot of catches be in a lot of games, but also get to that next quarterback and that situation where you can

really compete. Alex says a rookie quarterback being horrendous is not the worst case outcome. The worst case outcome is Kirk Cousins. I have trouble disagreeing with that because even if the rookie quarterback was terrible, you would win two or three games and then draft another rookie quarterback and then it would be a you know, a lot better. So Stuart says people saying Baker is better than Kirk are gaslighting. Just stop. He's nowhere near as good as Kirk. Well,

I don't think, I don't think nowhere near as good is quite right. You know, I think that ish, like, is he as good as Kirk? No, I don't think so.

I think he has too many turnover worthy plays to be as good as kirk no i don't think so i think he has too many turnover worthy plays to be as good as kirk but there's a high end to baker because he's aggressive and because he pushes the ball down the field that i think exists there that maybe doesn't always with cousins the aggressiveness and it's not really about can baker be, I mean, when we're talking about guys that are fairly close to each other, and I'm not saying that Baker is better, but one of them is much more flexible to move on from and gives you the bridge you're looking for. And the other one is way older, which so we don know what kirk's really going to be and also requires more money more commitment not drafting a quarterback like we have to factor in everything not just

is this quarterback better by this percentage than not but i mean the season that baker had this year was fairly close in a lot of categories to what Kirk Cousins did in 2022. And Manny's back. There he is. Well, we made fun of you again. Yeah, I pay way too much per month for my internet for this stuff to keep happening. So I'm going to have a little conversation with my internet service provider very soon. You know what's funny?

It's always like totally fine and then you just freeze it's not like it goes like joggy or all crazy or gurgly it's just no one's sure whether you're just shocked or confused and just staring into the or or if it just froze so it's not like we can see it coming that's what's so interesting about it um the you you blew away yeah and then you just froze so it's not like we can see it coming that's what's so interesting about it um the you you blew him away yeah and then you just disappear so it's like wait was manny mad did i uh did i go too far so here's another thing um this is a point from dan is like you could bench mayfield you can't bench kirk that's absolutely right so there's a lot of different flexibility that comes along with it that there's the reason you call it a bridge. Right. So, you know, that's what it is.

Anyway, there's another thing about this day that was interesting as far as the news goes, Manny, which is Raheem Morris is now the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. The Vikings considered him. And I didn't see anybody say today that if Raheem Morris wins in Atlanta, that the Vikings look silly for not hiring him. That seems to only apply to Jim Harbaugh. So that's weird. But here's the connection with Kirk Cousins. It has been reported that Raheem Morris is likely to hire Zach Robinson, who is in my book, by the way. There is an entire chapter about Zach Robinson working for PFF, football as a numbers game. Go get the book. You can find out how he got there. But Zach Robinson is a former NFL quarterback who comes from McVay, who would be running almost the same offense with the same terminology as Kevin O'Connell brought over from Los Angeles. That connection to me makes me think that the odds just went up,

maybe even more than Belichick because it might've just been lip service about Belichick, but now it's like, you don't even have to go through the strain of learning a completely new offense if your cousins and it's a team that's ready you're cousins and it's a team that's ready to win and it's a division that's actually quite bad i i think that that whatever percentage you had on kirk to atlanta just up just went up yeah i agree i mean we talked about it last week about you know when when we were talking about belichick making sense for atlanta and how that would make sense if he you know for kirk to go there because it's a veteran quarterback and Belichick doesn't have to develop a young guy and you can just drop Kirk right into that offense

and it should be successful. I think it's the same situation with Raheem Morris and, you know, it, it doesn't change the, the, the weapons that are down there. The overall structure of that team is, is pretty solid. They just weren't gonna win with Desmond Ritter I think it's pretty obvious um and and Kirk Cousins would be a would be a clear clear and obvious upgrade so I think it still makes a ton of sense for Kirk to go there and it's it's a it's a franchise and and and this is why I kind of like it to make more sense for

Kirk to go to Atlanta versus like Pittsburgh or something like that because yeah it's a team that's that's ready to win now if you drop a veteran quarterback in there but it's Atlanta like let's be real and this is no disrespect to Atlanta but it's it's the pressure I think the overall pressure to win is different down there there are a lot of expectations in Pittsburgh. If you go to Pittsburgh, it is Super Bowl or bust. Like it is, that is the overall mentality. That fan base, it's just a different standard in that organization.

Whereas Atlanta, I think if you just put together a competitive team, that's really good. And hey, maybe make a run to the super bowl it's happened a couple times for them then i think that fan base would be pretty happy you know arthur blank i think is has been a a pretty good owner there that has really been i think for the most part kind of patient with with his teams and you know just wasn't going anywhere with arthur smith which is why he made that move but yeah i think it just makes a lot of sense for Kirk to go there. I like Raheem Morris.

I think he's got a chance to be a pretty good head coach. I know he, you know, the first time around he was the coach in Tampa earlier that it was just not a great situation. The team was in a bad spot, not very competitive, and it just didn't really have a lot of opportunities for him to be successful. Now in Atlanta, it seems to make a lot of sense. And he's a guy that he's a defensive guy, but he's done some work on the offensive side. Well, I think he was I think it was in Atlanta, right, where he was like did some like a quality offensive quality control. Like he was coaching receivers or he was doing something on the offensive side down there before i think it was maybe past game coordinator slash receivers

coach for kyle shanahan 2016 because i remember going through his resume and being like wow this guy's kind of like done everything when he was up potentially for the vikings job and i thought he would have made a very good candidate and that familiarity, at least with that tree and those connections to Sean McVay, that is where Kirk made his bones with the Shanahan, Sean McVay in Washington. And my thought was if Bobby Sloic or Raheem Morris got that job, then we might see those percentages you know, percentages of Kirk potentially going there, go up. And especially if Zach Robinson becomes their offensive coordinator. I mean, that just means they're keeping it in the family.

And that family is things that he is pretty comfortable with. So, I mean, it sounds like we're kind of rooting him on like Kirk do it. And we kind of are because, but I also think that of all the teams it's so blatantly the best fit it's a team that's ready to win they've built their roster they have the weapons they have the offensive line they've improved on their defensive side and now they are ready to take that division and if baker leaves tampa bay very hard to see tampa bay being good new orleans is as mediocre as it comes i mean mean, there is total deadlock that they're eight, nine or nine and eight next year, if not worse. And Dennis Allen's

not a difference making coach. And with Carolina, I like what they're doing. I really do. I think they made a good hire for their head coach. I think they made a good hire, at least for their general manager. And I think they're going to keep building their front office a little bit there. Their owner is crazy, but not the only one in the NFL. But they are years away. And this Atlanta team, I mean, you could win five out of six of your games in your division to start with, which kind of reminds me of Kirk 2022. And one thing I know about Kirk is, this might sound weird,

Kirk really likes sports again this sounds weird but what i mean is there are some football players where it's their job and they play their their position and they go home and they watch netflix with their wife and they study the playbook and they come back and whatever kirk pays attention to all sports he watched he knows what's going on in baseball basketball and, he knows what's going on in baseball, basketball, and he really knows what's going on in the NFL. He watches all the games. He knows whose division is rising and falling.

I mean, he's very cerebral about like where everyone is at. And of course you can figure that out through your agent and doing research and stuff. But I just mean that he will be aware of that fact versus what the reality is of the nfc north and and i if i were to give percentages right now you know how we've been sort of flipping coins and what's your percentage i'm leaning like maybe only 30 percent that kirk comes back to minnesota it feels like these last few weeks have swung the tide potentially much more toward if atlanta wants him

then that is where he'll end up and then there was also a jeremy fowler piece that executives in the nfl believe that and now vegas is coming out with odds of where he lands and the vikings are not even the top team and the odds of where kirk cousins is going it just seems like there's momentum toward that yeah and i and i, like we've talked about before, the way these playoffs have shaped out, you just look at this field, you look at the last four teams, hell, look at the last eight teams that were left, and you have to ask yourself, like,

how close are the Vikings to being that? Now, maybe you look at, like, what Tampa Bay was and say, like, yeah, the Vikings are probably Vikings to being that now maybe you know maybe you look at like what Tampa Bay was and say like yeah the Vikings are probably pretty close to that you know maybe you know nine and eight type of team that can maybe win a game in the playoffs if you bring Kirk back but that shouldn't be the standard if you bring Kirk Cousins back it shouldn't just be oh go nine and eight and make the playoffs and maybe win a game. Like the standard has to be higher than that. If you choose to bring Kirk Cousins back and then you look at the last, these, these four teams that are left, it's like the Vikings are just not close.

They're really not close to any of these four teams. And so, you know, you just have to kind of understand it. It's not, it's not so much an indictment on Kirk Cousins because I think if he comes back and he's healthy, he can still be pretty good. And he can help a team like Atlanta, which is in a better position in a weaker division. They've got talent on both sides of the ball. They're in a position to really kind of cement themselves,

take over that division for a year or two, and give themselves a chance to compete in the playoffs. The Vikings are just they just feel like they're a hair short of that and they need more work on defense. You know, you can never have enough weapons on offense, even though the Vikings have a good core of offensive weapons. You know, the Vikings just need to do a little bit more building before before they can really consider themselves a con a contender and i think you can do that better and have a better chance of success building that by going with a bridge quarterback drafting a young guy and just kind of building things as you go over the next couple of years and you know when kirk had his actual best season was 2019, which I don't think it was a mistake that it correlated with Delvin Cook having his best season.

And if I, if I'm Kirk, I gotta be pretty tired of handing it off to a running back, watching him run right into the rear end of the center or the guard and fall down and get minus two yards. And then you're stuck with second and 12. Tell me how the Vikings and it was brought up earlier by Alexander of signing Derek Henry, which, you know, I guess they could do, but tell me how the Vikings have a running game to work with next year. Well, also needing to be really shrewd with how they spend their money. It just doesn't,

it doesn't really fit and also signing running backs like Saquon Barkley or something. It'd be exciting, but I don't know if it's a good idea or Josh Jacobs considering the history of running backs and aging. If you're Kirk, they just drafted Bijan Robinson in the top 10 and he was really good in his first year. I wouldn't say he was quite like a megastar yet, but this is somebody who's absurdly talented. Wouldn't it be nice if you're Kirk to throw a screen behind the line of scrimmage and have the guy run for 20,

just for once, just for old kicks and giggles from 2019 when it was Stefanski, Hey, just do nothing and get 20 yards. And you know, it looks good on your stats. I mean, as a quarterback,

those are the easiest things in the world. And I think Atlanta can give them to him. So hopefully a Kirk checks out the last about 10 minutes of the podcast and it is compelling for him but i truly think it doesn't work for anybody uh dan says i mean for him to come back it works for everyone for him to go to atlanta with how complicated koc's offense is i would actually prefer to have a rookie sit back for at least six games and let the anticipation build. I think that's absolutely right. That's why you want the bridge quarterback is it's okay to let someone learn how to play football in the NFL and don't make me use the Packers as an example. It's just not

a coincidence. Probably that Jordan love is where he is after, you know, learning how to play for a couple of years. It was probably one too many years for him. But if it's a full season, you're likely increasing your odds of that guy succeeding rather than coming in, being in over his head and then starting from a place where everyone thinks that you suck and then having to fight through all of the psychological elements of that rather than getting yourself comfortable with the NFL first. It's not everybody needs that, but I think it does help your odds. Hamza says, did you see Ben Gessling's comments on Kweisi and KOC wanting to trade up if they identified their guy? Well, not only did I see them, I have them transcribed right here. So I was actually prepared

for this to be the topic tonight and then you know baker mayfield's offensive coordinator gets hired in uh carolina and so we're going to go there here's what ben gesling said i believe this was with uh paul allen he said uh they certainly have looked at this as a we need to go get the guy that we can plant our flag with for the next 10 years and if it costs a lot to do that, so be it. I don't think that they're going to limp in on this, so to speak, and be like, well, if it's QB5, we're kind of okay with him, and let's take him anyway.

So Manny, Ben thinks that if they're going to draft quarterback, they want to try to trade up. I believe trading up in this draft will be extremely difficult. At least that's the way it looks so far. I guess I'm on the train of I know that's really risky to do, but I also don't care. Like, make it work because you have the offensive pieces and it's a lot easier to build a defense with a rookie contract

even if you don't have the draft capital that you had to sacrifice then it would be to find a justin jefferson or find a christian derisaw can't just go find wide receiver one or left tackle one you've got those already set so sure but here's my question for you though manny how much is too much how much would you be like no i can't go that far i would i would do three first round picks you know including you know number 11 and then two additional firsts um and then you know it'd be like another third rounder or something like that maybe two that you would sprinkle in um i would do that i probably wouldn't do much more than that because I do want to, well, I want to trade up and get that guy.

And, you know, if you find him any special, then you're in good shape regardless of how much you gave up for him. You know, I don't want to completely handcuff my team to the point where there's just no way, way shape or form that we can really improve this roster outside of free agency um for this young quarterback to build around him so i'm willing to give up a couple of first round picks to do it because i mean if you if you move up and get jayden daniels and he's, then you're good. Like the Buffalo bills drafted Josh Allen and there were question marks about him, but he's special. And because he's special, the bills,

you know, in some years are going to be a little bit, you know, not quite as good as others, but they're always going to be in the mix because they have him. The chiefs are always going to be in the mix because they have him the chiefs are always going to be in the mix because they have the the current like active goat right now so like if you've trade up for that guy and he's special you're going to be in you're going to be competing every single year provided that guy is healthy you make some other really good moves in free agency you draft you know you're not going to have a couple of first-round picks, but if you hit on some second-rounders and some third-rounders,

then you're going to be in pretty good shape. So I'm for it. You don't want to – I wouldn't give up an entire draft like the Saints did for Ricky Williams to do it, but I would give up a couple of first-round picks if that's what it takes to get in that position. did for Ricky Williams to do it, but I would give up a couple of first round picks, you know, if that's what it takes to get in that position. I am kind of thinking the way you are though, and that it's going to be really hard because the teams at the top are also going to be like wanting, I think wanting one of those quarterbacks as well. Um, but if you see a window where,

you know, maybe move up to like four or something like that, and you think one of those guys might drop, I say, you know, if you can get it done, do it. And there's another hack when you have a rookie quarterback contract, which is trading for disgruntled players from other teams or players that their teams can't afford. So Bradley Chubb gets acquired by the Miami Dolphins. No coincidence, the two is on his rookie contract. The Chicago Bears 2018 defense didn't happen by accident. It happened because Khalil Mack got acquired, right? I mean, there's a lot of examples of this.

Montez Sweat going to Chicago as well. So you can get players, you can get other players. The quarterback is not a position that you could just sort of get. Like you have to, as we've seen even in these playoffs, when at one point the only non-first round pick is Brock Purdy, it's like usually you have to draft these guys if you're going to make it work. So I agree with that. Let me throw another one at you. I'm going to read a couple of comments. I'm going to let you think about this. I'm going to say this. Read a couple couple comments and then i want your answer what if it was number

11 and jordan addison to move up with the chargers let me read the comments and you think about that and then give an answer and blink twice to make sure your face isn't frozen um there you go he's alive uh jonathan says i think a big factor of kirk not coming back will be the no trade clause i can't imagine quacey would want k Kirk back again on another no trade deal. And I doubt Kirk would sign without a no trade clause. And Mr. Cousins himself said structure will be more important than cash, which I think is something to think about.

Also, my friend Glenn here says, I think we need to have faith in koc and quacey picking and developing a rookie quarterback when we picked the quarterback who shall not be named from 10 years ago leslie frazier was the head coach and bill musgrave was oc not exactly mavens of quarterback development i mean that's always been my thing i i agree glenn that i mean this is the reason you you hire kevin o'connell is to identify and develop this quarterback like that's the point it's one of the main reasons you do this for him to be the

former quarterback who can identify and who can develop that player and build an offense around him that's what that's why you do it uh your answer manny to would you trade number 11 and jordan addison to the chargers to draft Jaden Daniels. Is that all I'm giving up? I don't know. Maybe a couple of like a, like a third, another third. Yeah. Other stuff here, but yeah, I do that.

Yeah, I would do it. And I, and I love Jordan Addison, but even if you trade away Jordan Addison, you still have Justin Jefferson. So, and you can find, I think it's more likely that you can find another Jordan Addison, you still have Justin Jefferson. So, and you can find, I think it's more likely that you can find another Jordan Addison, you know, all due respect to Jordan Addison. He's very good. I think he's going to have a really nice career. I think it's a lot easier to find another Jordan Addison than it is another Justin Jefferson. Cause JJ is on a whole nother level.

If you trade him away, you're really doing some damage, I think, to what your offense can potentially be. So, yeah, if it's number 11, Jordan Addison, and like a third-round pick or something like that, maybe even a second, I'd probably do it. Our friend Scott Korzenowski asked me on Twitter if I would trade Jefferson at 11 for Daniels, and the answer is no, I would not do that.

I went through a list because someone asked me unsurprisingly for the Friday mailbag that I'm writing about whether, you know, should they trade Jefferson? Every single week is a question, should they trade Jefferson? And so I went through the players who had to suffer through kind of a down season that are even on San Francisco, they had to suffer through a six win season or a four win season that they went through in, in bookend years in between when they went to the Superbowl. I mean, Nick Bosa was on the team that won six games, Debo Samuel, George Kittle. Like you want to look around this weekend, look around, what do they have? It's not good players. It's not

got, okay, we drafted a couple of good players. It's superstars. If you have one, you keep them and you find other people because you can replace other stuff. You can't replace the number one player. It's like Aaron Donald is a great example. That guy went through some bad seasons with the Rams. And when they came out of it, he had the game winning sack in the NF nfc championship and the super bowl like you wanna and they paid him and it was okay because the salary cap is big there are room to pay your greats that's what you want to do sometimes i think we get too much into like never pay anyone like does not never pay anyone it's never pay a middling quarterback way too much money that's

really the thing not never pay anyone uh john says i wanted baker last year and people laughed at me he could have been a damn good bridge quarterback yeah i mean i think baker really proved something this year and especially his maturity i think was a really really huge deal let me get to our prize picks let's go through the games real quick uh i don't know i know you were busy today did you have a, do you have a list? You had time to think about, you do have a list. Okay. I have my top five conference championship games in my lifetime.

Beautiful. Beautiful. Okay. My prize picks are simple. And if you want to play along at home, prizepicks.com, great sponsor of our show. And if you use the code purple, then you could get a hundred dollar match or up to a hundred dollars matched with your uh first like when you sign up if you go to prize picks and it's very simple it's just more or less on yardage touchdown field goal totals they give you the line and then

you pick more or less so here's my three for this weekend jared Goff, more yardage than 261 and a half passing yards. Brock Purdy with less than 276.5. And Lamar Jackson with more than 208.5. I think Lamar is going to have to throw it around quite a bit against Patrick Mahomes. So those are the prize picks for the week. Again, prizepicks.com promo code purple and you get a match up to a hundred dollars so there you have it uh all right let's talk about the one big thing from these games it's only two of them that's where we're at we're down to the final two games

what is the one big factor for you manny between the baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs? I think it's going to be how Lamar Jackson handles the pressure of going up against, going toe-to-toe, so to speak, with the active GOAT. I call him the active GOAT because I still think Tom Brady is the overall GOAT, but Patrick Mahomes is the current active GOAT. And I think it's just going to be how Lamar performs against a really good Chiefs defense. You know, the Bills had some opportunities to cash in and get points. And, you know, they just came up short.

They had the digs drop and, you know, the missed field goals and all that stuff. Just different opportunities for Buffalo. Baltimore is going to have to cash in on some of those opportunities that they get. And it's, they're not going to be easy opportunities to get because that chief defense is, I mean, Spags has just done a magnificent job with that unit, considering like all the kind of the struggles that they had on offense, even though, you know, Mahomes is obviously still great. So that, that for me is just how lamar approach you know handles the the overall pressure of this opportunity to go to the super bowl to conquer the chiefs and just how he performs against that really good defense is going to be the biggest key for me for me it's uh and for audio

listeners i'm holding up my hands it is the hands of the Kansas City receivers, because if the hands of the Kansas City receivers can get the football and hold on to the football, not fumble it out of the back of the end zone, not drop it when they're wide open, but pull it in and fall down with it on the ground and make completions, then I think that they're going to be pretty dangerous because whatever adjustments that they made coming out of that Raiders game have really worked for them. And Travis Kelsey being back to closer to 100% has worked for them. It is going to be a challenging matchup, though, with the middle of the field, two great linebackers for the Baltimore Ravens. You're going to if you're going to match up with Baltimore, you probably got to hit a couple of deep shots.

I mean, there's going to have to be a play where Valdez Scantling catches the football and goes 40 yards or something like that. I don't think on this team with the Ravens, you could just run, throw short, throw short, throw short, occasional great play, throw short. I think you're going to have to hit some shots on them. And, I mean, it is a good defense. It's an extremely good defense. So you can't give them any breaks with, oh, we dropped one.

Mahomes, just go do it again. It doesn't work that way against Baltimore. That team is just much too good. On the other side, what is your big key, mega key factor to this game between the Detroit Lions and 49ers? Did the 49ers, was last week a real wake-up call for them that's to me that's going to be the key you know they the Packers took it to them a little bit I mean the Packers were right there and almost knocked them off and the 49ers who are supposed

to be you know a much superior team although the Packers do have a lot of young talent that's going to be good for a while, I think. You know, the Packers almost took them out, and now you're facing Detroit, which is a better team than Green Bay. They're playing really well. They're very confident right now. They have some issues on defense, but they are a team that is very talented,

and they believe, and credit to Dan Campbell for instilling this in them, they believe that they are a good enough team to go to the Super Bowl and win it. That is how confident the Lions are playing right now, playing with a lot of confidence and momentum. So the 49ers are going to have to learn from last week and really take care of business. They are the better team. They've got the better defense. They're at home. They should win this game.

But if they come out playing the way they played against green Bay last week, Detroit will win and win. We'll beat them and go on to the super bowl. So that's going to be the key is just how San Francisco learned from last week is going to be really important. This factor for me is the health of Tyshawn Raekwon Samuel, a.k.a. Debo. Yeah, I looked that up on Wikipedia, too. I figured his first name wasn't Debo. That's kind of always a nickname. So I don't know where that comes from versus Tyshawn.

But, you know, whatever. Does it come from the movie Friday? Debo? I'm going to guess probably. Yeah. I don't know. I'm not sure I'd want to name anybody unless I was insulting them after that character. Not exactly a great guy for those fans of the movie Friday, but anyway although, although very muscular in the same way as the character, very muscular and very violent, if he is not healthy and he's got shoulder problems, he's going to end up like the dude in Friday, which is being a non-factor laying in the street. It's just that's such a huge part of their offense.

I mean, it's like and I could compare it to losing Jefferson, but the Vikings won some games without Jefferson. But it's the same kind of deal. Like if you lose your number one wide receiver, who is, I mean, just a cheat code, you could throw it behind the line of scrimmage. You could throw it two yards in the air and the guy turns it into 20 all the time.

I mean, he is just a fantastic all pro type of player. And if he's not a hundred percent, he's banged up. That will be a really tough matchup for them. And then to me, it's just, can you pressure Brock Purdy? Can you cause problems for him? He's not the biggest guy.

I think that sometimes he struggles a little bit within the trees to throw accurately. And they kind of collapsed around him a little bit with the Packers. And there were a couple times where he just almost threw it to the other team. That's another thing. If Baker, or not Baker, if I'm reading Baker in the comment section if Brock Birdie throws you the football you have to catch it the Packers didn't catch it they missed a bunch of opportunities because I think that he is like gutsy enough to put the ball up there sometimes and if you don't take advantage then you're not going to win. Your picks for these games.

I think both home teams win. I think the 49ers, you know, if Debo is healthy and he plays, I think the Niners will win. And I think they'll win fairly handily. I don't think it'll be a complete blowout, but I think they'll be in control for most of the game if Debo does play and is healthy. I think Baltimore-Kansas City is going to be a great game and i'm so looking forward to it and i'm going to pick the ravens because i think this is a big opportunity for them and for lamar

to uh to get it done so i'll take both home teams to win and then it's going to lead us to a great super bowl i think i will take balt Baltimore and Detroit, and I'm going to throw it out there. I did predict that the Bills would lose on a field goal, and they did. I'm going to predict San Francisco's rookie kicker plays a role in this game, because that guy had his moments this year, and just like Andrews Carlson, he can be a little spotty. And I think that the moment's not going to be too big for Jared Goff. I'm a little concerned about Steve Wilkes' defense. When they played the Vikings, and I went back and watched that game,

I was like, I don't like how he game-planned against the Vikings. I mean, all credit to the Vikings for taking advantage, but they were running a lot of stuff that I've seen fail against Kirk Cousins over the years. You know, Jared Goff is kind of a souped-up version of Kirk. So can they get the middle of the field open? Can they take advantage of some of that single high stuff on the edges? I mean, I don't know. I really like Detroit's offensive line and their ability to hold up.

So I'm going to try picking Detroit here, and we'll see what happens. All right, let's close the show on this, Manny. Run us through your five greatest championship weekend games of your lifetime. Let's hear. Number five, 1995 AFC championship game. Pittsburgh Steelers 20-16 over the Indianapolis Colts, led by the now current head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, Jim Harbaugh, known as Captain Comeback during that time,

taking a 9-7 Colts team all the way to the AFC title game, beating the Chargers in wildcard weekend and going into Kansas City and winning that game as well. And they were a Hail Mary catch away from going to the super bowl and playing the cowboys in arizona for super bowl 30 and they came up just short but it was a such a fun game and i just i always remember the close-up of jim harbaugh after the game was over and you could read his lip saying i thought he caught it that's always going to stick in my mind but just a really fun game and a really impressive ride for the

colts getting that close um and then we know what happened in that replay right there was there was no instant replay and from the angle from a lot of angles it looked like he did catch it and the ref actually ends up getting it right but would you have been surprised that they you know they might have ruled that a catch with the way that it looked with no replay. So yeah, that's one of the all time, all time endings for sure. Number four. And it wasn't a pretty game, but I think just the overall chess match was really Epic. The 1999 NFC championship game, the Rams winning 11 to six over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

I love the game because the greatest show on turf that had this coming-out party for the season, and they had a great performance against the Vikings in the divisional round, and then they really kind of met their match. They went up against a juggernaut defense in Tampa Bay, and the Buccaneers really controlled that game and forced some turnovers. I think Kurt Warner threw a tip pass that was like an interception.

It was like the first or second play of the game, and you kind of see like it was going to be a dogfight. Ricky Prohl makes the touchdown pass that puts the Rams in front, and they win by that unorthodox 11 to six score. And you, you listen to guys on that Buccaneers team, you know, Warren Sapp and Derek Brooks and those guys, they talk about that game a lot about just like how heartbreaking that game was because they just didn't have enough on offense. You know, Sean king was quarterbacking them they just didn't have enough to um to to do enough offensively and so uh but yeah just a really great competitive game and uh just that chess match between the best defense going up against the best offense was

really fun i believe there was a catch controversy in that one too where manual yeah yeah exactly so but the ricky the ricky pro i saw an nfl films thing not too long ago where they were talking about how like everyone on the offense was like where is this ball going like a ricky pro that's uh and former viking uh blake pro's dad so yeah that was that was a great one so what's number three number Number three is another great comeback win for one team, the 2021 AFC title game, the Bengals coming back in Arrowhead to win 27-24 over the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime. Just a great comeback by Joe Burrow and that group.

And, you know, the Chiefs had the lead. I think it was 21-3, I think, at one point in that group. And, you know, the Chiefs had the lead. I think it was 21 to three, I think at one point in that game. And the Chiefs had three points in the second half. So really just a great comeback by a really resilient Bengals team that it was crazy, man,

that when McPherson made that kick in overtime, it was like, oh my God, the Bengals are actually going to the Super Bowl? Like what? This is not supposed to happen. But then you just look and it's like Joe Burrow it's like of course he's the coolest dude ever so just a really fun game though for sure and that that one goes down as the you know Tyreek Hill screen pass that didn't get in the end zone could have put the game away and every comeback always has a moment where the game could have been put away,

but somebody kind of gets a little too cute or whatever. And, and you know, that was a game where the only, I mean, the true shocking thing was that Patrick Holmes played bad in the second half. Like this is actually possible for Patrick Mahomes not to play well. And I thought he was pressing a little bit too much in the second half of

that game. So it's a, it's a great pick. I, sometimes my mind always goes so far back when we're talking about these things that i don't even consider like yeah actually just like two years ago that was incredible and that was uh tyreek hill's final game as a kansas city chief by the way too because he went on to miami after that they traded him uh number two the 2014 n NFC Championship game. And this is kind of my way of sticking it to Packer fans as a Vikings fan.

The Seahawks beating the Packers 28-22 in overtime. And you just watch that game, and it is really remarkable how Seattle was able to come back and win. It made no sense at all. Russell Wilson has a terrible first half. He throws four interceptions. The Seahawks are getting shut out. They get back into the game on a fake field goal where Ryan the punter throws to, I think, Gary Gilliam, who was like a backup defensive lineman

or something like that, for a touchdown to make it 16-7. And then, obviously, the run by Marshawn Lynch to put them up. Then Aaron Rodgers marches them down. Mason Crosby hits a field goal to tie it and force overtime. And then Russell Wilson hits the touchdown pass to, I think was it Jermaine Kearse, I think, that caught the touchdown in overtime to win it. But just a remarkable comeback by Seattle.

And you really kind of look at the way, you know, what we were saying about the Bengals and Chiefs game. This was kind of the same thing with the Packers, too, where Packers had opportunities. They get down inside the 10-yard line, had a chance to score touchdowns, they end up kicking field goals instead, which kind of allowed Seattle to stay in it and come back and win. But really an epic comeback by Seattle, considering how poorly they played in the first

half of that game. If we made a list of the 10 best moments for Vikings fans over the last 10 years, I mean, that that's like top three right there, just top three, like Minneapolis Miracles number one. Is that number two, them falling apart in that game? And then that's like top three right there. Just top three, like Minneapolis miracles. Number one, is that number two, them falling apart in that game. And then that's the onside kick game. Right. And I mean, that's just,

that's just the number of playoff games that the Packers completely blew under Mike McCarthy and with Aaron Rogers, their quarterback, if they didn't have a Superbowl, if they had no Superbowls, it'd be thought of as one of the most like shocking careers that someone never got there. Had they not found a way to win it because of the number of ways that they botched it and the number of leads that they had leads, they blew even recently, you know, again, San Francisco, a couple of years ago with the blocked field or a

punt and all that. So it's that's, that's some of the biggest joy that Vikings fans have actually gotten to have in the playoffs. Sorry, guys, but it's true. Very true. All right, number one, and you probably won't be surprised by this. My favorite conference championship game of all time, 1994 NFC Championship game, 49ers and the Cowboys. The 49ers finally conquered the Cowboys after losing in the title game the previous two years. Steve Young gets kind of the monkey off of his back, goes to the Super Bowl. The 49ers become his team.

He's no longer under Joe Montana's shadow. And the 49ers kind of took it to the Cowboys early on. The Cowboys got off to a bad start. I think it was like the third play of the game where Eric Davis gets to pick six to put the Niners up 7-0, and I remember the talk going into that game was, oh, the Cowboys, they're going to pick on Eric Davis in this game because they're not going to mess with Deion on the other side.

He's going to be matched up with Michael Irvin most of the time, so they're going to pick on Eric Davis in this game because they're not going to mess with Dion on the other side. He's going to be matched up with Michael Irvin most of the time. So they're going to pick on Eric Davis. And then third play of the game, Eric Davis pick six. And so 49ers jumped up 21, nothing. Cowboys had a couple turnovers early. But then Dallas kind of creeped back into the game, made it interesting. And then the 49ers were able to kind of hold it off for a 38, 28 win. But it's it's the favorite.

It's my favorite because I love that. You know I love that 94-49ers team, and it was just fun just watching the two greatest teams of that era go toe-to-toe yet again with so many Hall of Famers on both sides. And it was a lot of fun, and it's my favorite conference championship game ever. Jared says he turned one in 1994 so he hasn't seen that game here's the great thing though jared if you want to enhance your life there's this thing called youtube you're literally on it right now so you know what it is go go through some of these games if you haven't seen them go through

some of these games and you know what i love doing, go through some of these games. And you know what I love doing, Manny, is finding a game from the playoffs that I don't remember and it doesn't have the score written anywhere or something and just being like, let's relive this one because I don't remember what happened.

And then going through and being like, oh my gosh, like I texted you about a game that I was watching between the Steelers and the Titans in the divisional round from 0-2. I did not remember what happened in that game. And the ending is insane.

And the whole game is back and forth. Like it's, it's really fun. I really love doing that. Going back and watching those old games. And I'll say this before we wrap that as the chiefs and the Ravens play. And to me, these are the two scariest teams in the NFL because of who their

quarterbacks are. And look at the talent on the floor or on the floor, on the, on the ice, actually, no, on the field, look at the talent on the field and how absurd it is for this game. Go back to that 94. Every player is a pro ball on both teams because the the free agency had not really gone crazy yet so these teams just built and built and built and built these juggernauts and i would argue that that game that individual game had the highest concentration of talent that's ever been on a football field or since since then it's never been repeated because players started going everywhere. Everyone wants rookie contracts. Now teams don't stay together, but those teams had been built over a number of years through championships and they had added.

So here comes like Chris Dolman or something or Charles Haley's, you know, why they gave Charles Haley to Dallas. I'll never understand, you know, crazy stuff like that with those two teams. So it is, it is insanely good football. Yeah. 94. There is a reason why 94 is my favorite year in the NFL. There were just, I mean, forget about the playoffs. Just go through some of the regular season games that we saw.

Go watch the Vikings and dolphins from 1994 at the Metrodome. It's a shootout. Marino is just throwing the ball all over the place. Warren moon's throwing the ball all overrodome. It's a shootout. Marino is just throwing the ball all over the place. Warren Moon is throwing the ball all over the place. It's a great game. There's a game where the 49ers, Steve Young and Joe Montana, get matched up against each other. I think it was like week four or something like that.

The Niners go into Arrowhead to play the Chiefs, and it's a great game. That was the Marino, the fake spike game against the jets was that year in 94 and you look at some of the coaches bill belichick is coaching the browns to a great season at 11 and 5 pete carroll is coaching the new york jets you know for one year i mean it's just a crazy year go back if you can on youtube and just look up any game from 1994. There are some gems there. It's fantastic. Yeah, Jared said, I'm sure you guys look back at the 90s like I do, the 2000s, 2004 through 10, specifically.

Nostalgia I have for that period is ridiculous. Well, that's the great thing, Jared, is that no matter when you grow up, we've all got that in some way, right? And luckily for me, that era that you're talking about still feels like that. I mean, that's when I was in college. I was playing Madden 05 the other day. I've got the old video games and stuff set up down here. But everybody has that.

I mean, the other person who said that they were one years old in 1966, well, I'm sure you have the same feeling for watching like Terry Bradshaw and, you know, Roger Staubach and the classic games. So we can all kind of have that same experience and watch all the old games on YouTube. So anyway, uh, thanks Manny. Enjoy these games. It's a great,

it's a great day. The only thing is that this Saturday always sucks. That's just like, what am I supposed to do? Work around the house. Am I supposed to like chores? I don't want to do chores uh but actually i i do have plans this saturday i am going to be in iowa to see caitlin clark play in person because my wife is broadcasting the game so we're going together and i'm gonna be able to see her in person for the second time so that will be awesome

so that's and then i'm driving back and then watch championship games. So I'll make the most out of it. And I also won't have to do any chores. So anyway, thanks. Thanks, Manny. It's just been so much fun leading up to this.

And then after this, we will have a Superbowl matchup to discuss. So thanks everybody for popping in. Hope you enjoyed the show and we will see you again when there is a Superbowl matchup to discuss. Thanks everybody.