Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - EMERGENCY POD: Vikings trade for Cam Akers!!!

Episode Date: October 16, 2024

Matthew Coller talks about the Vikings trading for Cam Akers and then discusses trade possibilities for the Vikings coming up Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider and this is an emergency podcast because we have a trade. The Minnesota Vikings have acquired running back Cam Akers. Welcome back Cam Akers to Minnesota. They are giving up just a 2026 conditional sixth and seventh in the deal. There is no word yet exactly what the conditions are of the trade for the Vikings to the Houston Texans. Cam Akers returns home after playing for the Vikings last year, then getting injured, tearing his Achilles, and he was able to come back from the injury and has looked good as a member of the Houston Texans. But it looks like they have Damon Pierce back. So they found a home for Cam Akers.

And everyone, find somebody in your life that you love as much as Kevin O'Connell loves Cam Akers. Every time Kevin O'Connell has ever talked about Cam Akers from the time that they brought him in, he has always heaped praise on Mr. Akers. And I'll tell you what, I understood why after last year. I mean, the Vikings did not have a great running game last year, but their most effective running back was indeed Cam Akers. And he also brought to them last year, year I thought a level of grit and toughness to the way that he played and obviously he's got a ton of that to be able to come back from the

injuries that he has come back from with the Achilles tears but he just brought a physicality to his running game that they did not have in the backfield before he was there and then after he left. And I think it probably does, and I'm sure this is the biggest question on your guys' mind, say a little something about Aaron Jones' health because I wouldn't be surprised if Cam Akers could jump into the mix and play for the Vikings right away. He has been in the McVay system. He's been in Kevin O'Connell's offense and would not be shocked if he arrives on a Tuesday, practices Wednesday, Thursday, and is right in the mix on Sunday as a member of the Minnesota Vikings. And yeah, it is not the greatest sign, I would say, for Aaron Jones's chances to play this

weekend, although he was out there practicing a little bit on Monday. So I don't know if we should necessarily conflate the two things, Aaron Jones' health and Cam Akers arriving here. I think that we understood after last week the way that Ty Chandler played, some of the miscues that he had, and what we've seen over the last couple years from Chandler is the coaching staff not really fully trusting him to be an RB1 but the other thing is too that if Aaron Jones can't play or is banged up at all through the rest of the season and you're asking

Ty Chandler to take on all the carries you can't really put Miles Gaskin in there anyway. So I'm not sure how much it has to do with Aaron Jones's health other than Cam Akers can provide them with quality running back play as he did last year. In fact, he might actually do better this year because I think that they have been a better run blocking team so far this year than they were last year. And I think Akers has looked very good as a member of the Texans. He looks like he's got his burst back, which is shocking and says everything about how hard he must have worked to come back from his injury. But the fact that he brings a physical element, he also can handle anything in terms of mentally. We saw him do a great job of picking up blitzes and pass protection and all sorts of the different details

that come with the game from him lining up in the right places, running behind the right blockers, all those things Cam Akers is a proven professional at, I don't think that he's a complete game changer. If he was, then the Texans probably would have held onto him, but he's more of the super solid veteran. A couple of people had asked if Latavius Murray would come back. And I think Latavius Murray's probably done playing, but this is the closest thing. This is kind of like a Latavius Murray type of pickup where you get a high IQ, very experienced football player who brings some toughness, who brings the ability to block if he's asked to do it, he can grind for extra yards and they're not acquiring Cam Akers for him to be RB1. It's

not like, Hey, get here, Cam Akers, and just be the guy that's going to get every carry. I think this is much more someone that they can trust in the absence of Aaron Jones. That doesn't mean Jones is out this week. We're going to find out on Wednesday really more about his status. But I think it's just that if Aaron Jones were to miss games in the future, that they would have a running back duo that they could use rather than saying, hey, Ty Chandler, do everything. And I think that Ty Chandler is really, really good at just getting in the mix for a handful of plays and being that lightning type of player. So when Jones isn't on the field, they have kind of a thunder and lightning combination when it comes to Cam Akers now playing again for the Minnesota Vikings after this trade.

And if you just joined, it's conditional sixth and seventh swap, is it? I just quickly looked at the return, and it's not much as far as what the Vikings are giving up. I mean, this is essentially nothing. They essentially just got Cam Akers for nothing when it comes to conditional sixth, seventh from 2026. And the Vikings have done a good job over the last couple of years of using those late round picks to turn them into real players or, or moving up in the draft and

things like that. So this is another addition for what they needed. And I don't think this tells us quite that they're going all in on this season as if we've had that conversation about whether they would trade the first or not. We could certainly dive into that in this emergency podcast. Happy to take questions, comments, reactions, and your thoughts on the Vikings trading for Cam Akers. But for me, this was a major, major issue that the Vikings had to address. And I think that after we saw what it looked like when Aaron Jones went out, how they could really only use one running back, how that one running back, Ty Chandler has his limitations that Chandler is not able, I think, to handle, you know,

the 60 plays that he's got to go out there and play. And Miles Gaskin is just so much more of a special teams type guy, kind of a roster filler type player who's been around and he's a veteran, but you can't really expect Miles Gaskin to run the football for you consistently like you could with Cam Akers. And last year when Akers was here, he offered a boost to a running game that had been pretty pathetic before he got hurt. And the, the play in my mind that stands out to describe Cam Akers though, and the reason

I'm sure that so many people like Cam Akers is when Josh Dobbs was scrambling. Maybe you guys remember this in the Atlanta game, Josh Dobbs was scrambling and there was a defensive tackle that was chasing him down and Cam Akers stopped and put his shoulder into that defensive tackle and knocked him down flat. And you just don't see that type of reckless abandon physical play from a running back all that often, but that's kind of what cam makers brings to this. The short yardage also might be improved here with being able to use acres. I don't know how much they've wanted to run Aaron Jones into a pile of dudes on a third and one or a fourth and one. We've seen them throw twice as much as they've run in short yardage, but acres brings that extra

drive and that extra strength to his game that they might be able to put him in and be able to do that. So now they kind of have a little bit of a three-headed monster here. And I was concerned about Aaron Jones's workload after Green Bay. In Green Bay, Jones played, I believe it was 56 snaps, and he was on pace to carry the ball almost 300 times. That is just not tenable, and it proved itself the very next week when he got banged up. And when they asked Ty Chandler to come in the game and be the full-time running back, he certainly had some bad breaks on a couple

of plays against the New York Jets where there was a procedural type of penalty that had nothing to do with the play. And Chandler should have gotten a lot more yards there. There was another run to the outside where it was a block in the back and Chandler, you know, again, did not really even benefit from the penalty. So he got a lot of yards taken away where he would have averaged like seven yards to carry, but on a play to play down to down basis, they only asked Ty Chandler to pass block four times in that game. And he allowed a pressure. Uh, they also I thought, had to limit some of the different things that they could do alignment-wise with Chandler. So now with Akers, it gives them somebody who will quickly be able to handle the playbook.

It was so impressive last year when Akers showed up, played pretty much right away, got the playbook. I mean, I think this is a high IQ type of player with a lot of drive and a lot of toughness. And I think some of you had asked about whether he was an option. I thought that the Texans would have not wanted to give him away, but the way that Damon Pierce played last week and Joe Mixon, of course, is back that they felt like it would make a lot of sense to move on from Akers and send him to Minnesota. So a lot of you are asking what happened with Akers earlier this year that they could have had him before the season. And maybe I don't know on this. So Kevin O'Connell was asked a couple of weeks ago what happened with Akers because he was

at the facility working out. I saw him there working out one day and then there was a report and on the transaction wire, he was listed as signing with the Vikings. In fact, if you guys remember, it's actually kind of funny. If you go back to preseason, I was doing, before training camp, position-by-position podcasts, and we talked about Akers as if he was on the team, and I guess it was prescient that we did. And funny, we didn't talk about Kenny Wongwu,

and now Akers is on the team and Wongwu isn't. But I thought he was going to sign with the Vikings earlier this year. O'Connell didn't give a clear answer for why the Vikings did not sign him earlier this year. So I guess if there is something to criticize, it's guys, you could have had him already and now you had to give away something, but conditional sixth and sevens are not really too much of a concern that they have to give away that type of draft pick to the Houston Texans for acres. So he is a guy that's clearly loved by the coaching staff. Maybe there was some concern over his health and the fact that he has proven it with the Texans. He's had a fair number of runs with the Texans. He's averaging three and a half to four yards to carry.

I think that there may have been other options out there that the Vikings could have looked at that might've had a bigger potential impact, but also would have cost more. They might've cost, they have two fifths to trade. And guys, this doesn't mean they're done. The trade deadline isn't until November 5th. So this is just maybe the start of them giving us a hint that they want to stack up this roster as much as they can. So there are other running backs that we could look at and say, well, would Carolina have traded Chuba Hubbard because he's a free agent and Jonathan Brooks is coming back? Would Carolina have traded Miles Sanders, who has a little bit more of a track record? Would the New York Giants have traded Devin Singletary? That name has came up a few times. I had suggested even going for Tony Pollard potentially with the Tennessee Titans

because they gave him a big contract, but how are they going to use them over the next few years when they're so bad? They might be wasting their time there. I haven't read that Pollard is an option, but I thought of it. And there's probably five or six other running backs that the Vikings could have acquired. But in this case, they acquired Cam Akers for almost absolutely nothing. And some of you are bringing up the potential for maybe Nick Chubb, but he's had a serious injury that he's coming off of. I understand why you would want him because he's such a good player, but you are getting a quality veteran running back. Who's proven who knows the Viking system is very familiar with the organization for literally nothing. And I think that it doesn't make them a wildly better team. And this is, this is the thing about

trades. Not every single trade is going to suddenly just, wow, push the Superbowl button. This is the guy that's going to get you over the top to the Superbowl. However, as we go through this season, it's probably not the last and only time that Aaron Jones will be banged up. And when Aaron Jones gets banged up and has to leave a game, suddenly it's just kind of panic mode. Like what do they do here? They're not going to have a consistent running game. They can't protect the same. They couldn't run the screen game the same. I mean, now what do you do? And instead of feeling like panicked that you have to put everything on Ty Chandler, If Aaron Jones is out for any

amount of time, I mean, it was only out for three quarters and yet it felt like they were walking a tightrope with Ty Chandler and asking him to play for the entire game because they could not use miles Gaskin out there in actual runs. So the fact that now if Aaron Jones is out, they can have a duo of running backs who can fill in and play at least reasonable football that they can count on Cam Akers to be in for a pass protection situation. They can leak them out for a screen. They can run them in short yardage, but also when Aaron Jones is healthy, they can, they can still use cam acres. And I'd like to see them mix and match with the different situations with all three running backs, because I think what we know is Kevin O'Connell, and this is fair.

This is how it works for all coaches. O'Connell has to trust all the players on the field that he's going to use. He has to, he has to trust cam makers to be able to call those plays where he is going to have to chip a defensive end or chip a defensive tackle or read a blitz and pick up that guy to make sure that Sam Darnold gets an extra chance to throw the ball. I'm reminded of just several instances where Aaron Jones was so valuable in the chipping or in the pass protection game. The 97 yard touchdown, if you go back and watch that, Jones did an incredible job of stepping up and hitting a defensive tackle to give Sam Darnold just enough time.

And then against green Bay, there was a blitz that Jones picked up on the last drive where the Vikings put away the Packers. They just can't trust Ty Chandler to do those same things. Now they have a player in cam acres that they do trust. So there's lots of different other players that they could have potentially gone after, that they could have tried to trade for a Chuba Hubbard, tried to trade for a Tony Pollard, but those would have cost a lot more. So now the fact that they still, and look, I say empty the cupboard

when it comes to the draft capital. We've already gone this far. You're down to a first and two fifths. And now even a conditional next year late round pick has been moved. So the fact that they've already done so much with moving players and moving capital to build the team that they have, they move draft picks to get TJ Hawkinson in here and give him an extension. I mean, why not continue to go all in and shore up this roster as much as you can? So I look at this as Cam Akers is not a massive game changer. He is not a total needle mover. Wow. All-star team. They just built the next great

NFL football team because they traded a late round conditional pick for Cam Akers. How I do look at it as a lot of the things in the NFL, as far as success goes, are rooted in your weaknesses, right? It's a lot of teams have strengths. A lot of teams have superstar players, but where are your weaknesses? And if you get to think about who the Vikings play, by the way, just in terms of your weaknesses, go the Vikings play in the last couple of weeks of the season, the Packers and the Lions and those games, if we're projecting out for this season and how it's going to go in a good case scenario, those games could be determining factors for whether you win the division or not, whether you win the conference

or not. Those could be huge games. You want a version of Aaron Jones in those games that can give 25 touches in games, which of course is what you want because he's fantastic. It might mean 15. It might mean one week. If you get ahead, you take Aaron Jones out of the game because the Vikings have been way ahead in a couple games. And one of them, Aaron Jones got hurt, but the other one in green Bay, he's playing 56 snaps. And even against the New York giants, they're putting him back there to try to get them a hundred yards and plowing them into guys. Now with cam acres, this weakness is largely short up that instead of being terrified, if Aaron Jones is off the field, now O'Connell has a running back that he believes in

and that he could trust. And I know a few of you on the comments have dropped Cam Akers numbers. They do not blow your mind. I agree. I agree that they don't blow your mind, but in a lot of ways, it's about the weakness of this. It's not about trading a first round pick for Tony Pollard and then getting a totally game changing running back because now they still have the option of trading that first round pick for something in the future that might be even better for the defense. I mean, I, I'd be very surprised if it's another playmaker on offense, but a cornerback, a defensive tackle, like not using

their other draft capital and only using conditional 2026 draft pick, uh, I mean, late round draft pick. So you're essentially giving up nothing for cam acres. Uh, I think that this is a good strategy to shore up that position. And what we know about this position is if you can pass protect, you can grind out four or five yards of carry, and you can catch screens and make plays, then you can play running back for Kevin O'Connell because he's going to throw a lot. I mean, we know that he's going to throw a lot,

which is really also why they need a running back who they believe in when it comes to calling anything that they need the running back to do. So no, it is not the biggest trade of the century. It is not something that is going to lead ESPN and SportsCenter on a day where Devante Adams and Amari Cooper were both traded. This will be much more of a side note, but I think in terms of making sure that you have an answer to a potential problem for very, very little in terms of draft capital, I think it is important for the Vikings to have done this. He wasn't at the top of my running back list, but at the same time, the guys who were at the top of my running back list would actually cost

them a lot more. So if they are looking at how are we going to distribute, if they decide, if they decide to really go all in and trade as much draft capital as it takes to make this the strongest possible roster, then here's what you have, this group of assets. How are you going to distribute them to the different positions? If you go and spend a high draft pick or it's a swap or something for Chuba Hubbard from Carolina, who is very, very good, then you have less assets to potentially use it on a more important position. I have got my eyes very much on defensive tackle. I've got my eyes on corner, even another pass rusher. I know they're good there, but the more the merrier when it comes to pass rushers, we know that from San Francisco,

somebody brought up chase Young the other day as a potential idea. I thought of today, and I'd love your guys' ideas as well as reacting to this Cam Akers trade, but other ideas for trades because now we know they're doing it. Now we know that they're not just going to chill

and sit on their hands and wait around that several weeks before the trade deadline, they're jumping into the pool here and saying, all right, let's make ourselves better. Uh, which I think adds another shade of kind of excitement to this season, because this isn't quite the move that says,

Hey, this team is all in. Here we go. It's not quite the move, but it's almost like a little bit of a peek around the corner of okay they're they're doing they're moving draft capital to try to to try to make this roster better that means that they've got other positions that they are going to look at as well i would assume that's what that means is they've got other positions that they are going to be willing

to trade a draft capital for. And the fact that I'll throw one name out there that interests me from a team that's giving a fire sale. And then let me circle back to just the full breakdown of the Cam Akers trade in terms of where i see him fitting and everything else for all those who are just joining and welcome everybody emergency pod it's been a while it feels like the off season doesn't it uh but instead vikings are buyers how

about that by the way how refreshing is this we're entering the trade deadline and we're not saying uh should the vikings just give away daniel hunter or riley reef or something instead now we're talking about who are they going to buy so you got to turn on the adam schefter notifications who are they going to use this draft capital to buy but the one name that came up in my mind because it is it's kind of a joke it's kind of a meme of like, should they bring back Thielen? And here they are bringing back Cam Akers because they're familiar with him. But I thought of Delvin Tomlinson potentially for the Vikings. Now

he is not a pass rushing defensive tackle exactly, but what we do know about him and the Browns are clearly selling right now. What I was thinking about him as someone that you wouldn't have to give up a first round pick for, and maybe it is the two fifths or something like that. Tomlinson was a very good Viking. He was especially good at creating space for pass rushers. So moving bodies and he's not that expensive. The Vikings did very much want to keep Delvin Tomlinson. And I think Jonathan Bullard's done a very good job for what they've asked him to do. But if you replace Jonathan Bullard's role with Delvin Tomlinson, who is a top-notch type of player at that position, I think that defensive line would be as nasty as it gets. Tillery's done a good job.

Phillips is having a great year. And I also don't think that it takes the highest amount of draft capital. And then they could still look into maybe potentially a J.C. Horn type of deal, trade a first, extend the guy. The ball gets rolling, and this could be pretty exciting over the next couple of weeks because there are tons of ideas. And I wrote them today over at the newsletter, purpleinsider.com. Go check that out. So let me circle back. The Cam Akers deal is not costing the Vikings essentially anything. Late round, 2026, just a conditional pick that you're not going to worry about too much.

So what I'm thinking about with Akers is where he fits in the mix here with the Vikings as they bring him back after last year. Akers brings, I think, a intelligence, a toughness, a work ethic, a reliability to the backfield that they really didn't have. And it is about trust for Ty Chandler, but it's also about the play style. So what Aaron Jones brings to the Vikings is everything. Aaron Jones is a tough runner, but he can also be a finesse runner. He is a pass protector. He's great on the screens.

Aaron Jones can do just about everything. There are very few running backs over the last 10 years who can do everything, who can line up at wide receiver and run across the middle of the field, catch a touchdown like he did a couple of weeks ago. So when Aaron Jones is out, you can't just say to Ty Chandler, Hey, Ty Chandler, just go be Aaron Jones. What's your problem? It's not the same. Aaron Jones is truly a special running back. And I think you've seen that over these last couple of weeks. So instead of just saying Ty Chandler do everything. And then every so often Miles Gaskin, who hasn't really been good in the NFL since 2020,

Hey, Miles Gaskin, just spell him. I mean, that would be a lot to ask under any circumstances. Now they can mix and match. So it's third down and 10, and they want a pass protector who can leak out into the flat if they don't get pressure. Well, Cam Akers can do that. That wasn't really a Ty Chandler thing, but Ty Chandler can catch a pitch. And if he catches it actually, which man, that was a shocking fumble. But if he catches the pitch,

I mean, he can run for 30 yards, but he's much more of a lightning type player where you bring him in for a couple of plays, looking for an explosive out of the backfield with Chandler. But I don't think he is that grinded out, steady churn, smash forward type of player that Cam Akers is and has shown to be during his career. There is a power and a toughness to Akers game, which Aaron Jones has, but Aaron Jones also has

the finesse. You kind of combine the two. So when you look at, uh, you know, now the running back backfield, uh, overall, if Aaron Jones is healthy, which he could be for this week. I mean, he looked like he was moving around. Okay. On Monday, when I was out at practice, uh, we only see about 15 minutes of practice during the regular season. So we see the main warmup phase and he was warming up and that's the best I can do. Um, but the fact that he was out there and warming up and not in the trainer's room is potentially a good sign for him to play against Detroit. But do you want him to play against Detroit 60 snaps?

No, you do not. And now what they can do is mix and match situationally. Okay. Aaron Jones is going to play 40 snaps, 35 snaps, and then you're going to have cam acres in a short yardage cam acres in a pass protection situation. But then maybe on one series first down in 10, you bring in Ty Chandler looking for an explosive play, looking for a quick pass out of the backfield or a pitch or something like that. And it's just a much more dynamic backfield with Cam Akers than it would have been before had they not had him. There were definitely other options for sure that they could have looked into, but now they can look at other positions that they need to fill because they didn't spend almost

anything on Cam Akers. Grant, nice to see you, Grant, in the comments here. Does this indicate anything about Jones's injury or just the right time to strike on something you've been talking about all year. They don't trust Chandler. Yeah, no, I think that it probably says only a little about Jones's injury. I mean, we know that it's not a long-term injury for Jones, but it may be more of just a splash of cold water, a wake-up call of him being out for a half and what that looks like. Like, okay, this is very different when we asked Chandler to be the guy. He's much more of a put him in for 15 plays a game and maybe one or two of those is an explosive than he is somebody who can handle the entire duties the way that Aaron Jones did. But I also think that it says something about the rest of the season and them understanding you cannot keep playing Aaron Jones at the workload that he was playing.

And yeah, I mean, this is exactly right here from ND. His injury showed the need for depth. Yeah, that's what it was it was it was a wake-up call of guys if you keep putting this all on aaron jones and you don't have any other one back there that you can really believe in to play a full game as cam acres did uh against the vikings actually he was there running back because they had the two other guys injured. But Akers has played a ton of football in his career. He's been in this system for a very long time. He is not, I think at this point, so explosive that you could expect huge runs.

I think his longest run is maybe 14 yards this year. It's not like he's ripping off 30 or 40 yard runs, but it's much more about just kind of painting over something that is an issue for them and filling that spot rather than trying to go out and get someone who's a star back there. And part of that too, is that the Vikings are always in forever going to be a passing offense. They are not going to be, hey, we're going to run 45 times a game,

handoff, handoff, handoff. So they need to go get Chuba Hubbard necessarily. I thought it would have been fun if they went and got another offensive weapon. Maybe they still will. I included Amari Cooper as an option. I don't know. I know he went to Buffalo and a big trade today, but I thought, well, maybe, you know, KOC can never have enough wide receivers and players who can catch them and make plays. But the price is just right here when it comes to cam acres.

So additional thoughts, feelings, reactions, as some of you are underwhelmed by it. But remember, we are weeks away from the trade deadline. And I just think that when you have a player like Akers, who is as respected by the head coach as he is, it really matters. I mean, I just, when Kevin O'Connell says stuff, I believe him. I mean, when he's talked about even just JJ McCarthy, for example, in the off season, and he talked about all the things he liked and all the things that he did well. And then we just saw them play out in front of us. It's kind of gone that way with KOC. So when players at Jalen Naylor, good example. He told us for two years, guys, this Jalen Naylor can play. And we were like, okay, I guess we'll see. And then we saw Jalen Naylor can play. So I think

the same thing goes for, uh, KM Akers where Kevin O'Connell believes in him. Kevin O'Connell thinks highly of him and trusts him in any situation that he could put back there. Also, I think the locker room dynamic does matter to this team. And I should bring that up as well, because this is a great locker room. And I know when you're five and oh, you're probably a pretty good locker room. I don't, I don't know how many five and oh, you're probably a pretty good locker room. I don't, I don't know how many five and oh locker rooms are completely toxic. Usually everyone's happy, but Kevin O'Connell has created a pretty remarkable locker room and culture. So as they decide who they're going to bring in, one of the reasons to bring in somebody like Cam Akers is that, you know, he is going to just take on his role and take a workmanlike attitude and that he is going to be someone

that the other players like. And he's been here, and he knows what it's like here, and he's not going to be someone who you bring in the locker room and they're like, why is Aaron Jones getting all the carries? Why am I not getting the carries? And rock the apple cart in any way. Instead, they get someone who knows exactly what their role is going to be. But as far as what it says about Jones's health, I don't think it says a ton other than we

know the history of Aaron Jones is that the guy's banged up at times and they're going to have to go on numerous road trips here. After this, they're going to have to go to Jacksonville. They're going to have to go on numerous road trips here. After this, they're going to have to go to Jacksonville. They're going to have to go to Tennessee. It's a long way to the end of the season. And if Jones has already banged up a little bit now, you want to do everything you can. Because last year, he ignited the playoffs.

Aaron Jones was the best player in the playoffs last year. That's what you're looking for. But you got to have them at a hundred percent when you get there. And cam makers allows you to do that without spending a whole heck of a lot. Uh, Vince here says, what is your dream trade for the Vikings right now? Well, the dream trade is not the most realistic. I have to, I've brought them up on the show probably enough times where you guys could maybe recite them back to me. But I'll tell you, this is one of them right here. XPOZE says, thoughts on Horn from Carolina.

What would that cost and would it require a new deal for him that's one of the dream trades for me is the first round pick for jc horn and then they extend jc horn because number one that gives them phenomenal cornerback play at that point because shack griffin's been good but now you're talking about jc horn taking that spot uh i. I would assume that Griffin and Byron Murphy Jr. would still mix in. Stephon Gilmore has been tremendous. But Gilmore, he's up there in age. Maybe you also don't want him to play every single snap either. Gives them a rotation, gives them depth, and it gives them a star for the future.

I really like J.C. Horn. I think he's super talented. And with Brian Flores, if you have him going forward, you can continue to build on what they have defensively. So that's number one. The other one, and I don't know what Tennessee's doing. Some teams are going to trade. Some teams are not. I also don't know what the New York Giants are doing, but the other two potential dream trades would be for Dexter Lawrence, which I don't think the Giants are going to do. The guy is a top five defensive player in the league. He just annihilates people.

Unlikely that they're going to trade him, but if they were, then that would be the dream. And Jeffrey Simmons from the Tennessee Titans would be the other dream trade that the Vikings could potentially make in my mind. Because in one scenario, if it's JC Horn, you're talking about a young player who could be part of the future for a long time. And those defensive tackles are under contract and they're very expensive. So none of those trades are super

likely to happen. But the fact that to get a running back, the Vikings did not have to give up any of their draft capital from this year, but just switching the conditional picks with the, you know, the Houston Texans here. So essentially getting cam acres for nothing, uh, is big because now they can go spend on something else. And I brought up Delvin Tomlinson, but there's a number of other players that, uh, in fact, I can actually look up, uh, my list here because I made a list yesterday and put it on the newsletter. So I can give you maybe some other, um, some other players that the Vikings could potentially go after. Let me see if I can call that up.

Um, because, you know, I think that they could look at trading those fifth round picks for something. Um, you know, maybe even it's, it's like a role player, a role playing type of defensive tackle rather than somebody who's necessarily very costly. So when it came to, well, you know, the other one that would be interesting is Wyatt Teller. He's banged up right now. The great, great guard from the Cleveland Browns. If they're having the sale, Denzel Ward is also interesting.

Do they want to keep Denzel Ward long-term? Everybody's numbers in Cleveland are bad because they're just completely washed at this point. But I mean, that whole team has just had to kind of give up, but Denzel Ward is still a great player. So that would be something to consider potentially trading for if they wanted to. Another name that came to mind, I don't know how much this player has left, would be Jalen Ramsey.

That's someone that the Vikings, their staff has some familiarity with from LA. That was another name that came to mind for me. When it comes to Jadavian Clowney for a late pick, Brandon Sheriff, I've brought up a bunch of times. Chase Young, I think is an interesting idea. Jonathan Jones is a veteran corner from New England. DJ Jones is a defensive tackle from the Broncos. Kendall Fuller, Calais Campbell is still out there doing it.

Sebastian Joseph Day is a guy that's been brought up and used to play for the Rams. So there's a lot of options for the Vikings still with the fact that they didn't have to spend big time on this running back. I think that's really the main thing is the fact that they just did not have to spend a high draft pick of any kind to fill this running back position, even if there were some better players potentially. Miles says late to the party, unacceptable miles. When there's an emergency podcast, you got to be here. Was this a good or bad move? Acres makes me nervous with the previous injuries. Now I think that's, I think that's fair. That is fair. DJ Reed is another name to bring up. Absolutely. DJ Reed would do that in

a heartbreak, but I obviously today it's pretty clear with the jets trading for Devante Adams that there's no chance that DJ Reed is going to be traded this season. They're going to play that out as tough as they can. I, when it comes to the injuries for Cam Akers, I don't really know how to address that because his last couple of injuries have been pretty nasty. He had the Achilles with the Rams and then came back, played pretty well, then had another Achilles injury with the Vikings. The one thing is that they're not going to ask him to carry a heavy, heavy load. I also imagine that part of the trade is dependent on his physical when he comes here.

Now, I guess the question would be, because it's still kind of mysterious about why he didn't sign here before, the question would be if they gave him a physical before, then what would be different about giving him the physical now other than just the fact that they've seen him out there, seen him overcome the injury? And that might be part of it is just having to see him and the type of burst that he has still, which I think has been really good. And honestly, I think that when it comes to a guy like this, everybody roots for somebody who's been through what he's been through and he brings like a, a toughness to them that they didn't have at that position other than Aaron Jones that people like that people rally around in football, having gone through those injuries. He's a guy that everyone wants to see succeed. And I remember O'Connell even talking about seeing him in preseason, seeing how happy he was for him.

So it kind of, when it comes down to it for me, as far as, is it good? Is it bad? Well, it's definitely not bad. I mean, the other guy was Miles Gaskin in the backfield. So it's a hundred percent better than that. It's definitely better than having a guy who's kind of barely hanging on the league and they really couldn't use it all. It's not unbelievable. It's not the trade of the century. We have a huge crowd here to react to the trade and I welcome you all. Thank you so much for joining joining but this crowd would be way bigger if they traded for davante adams or something so it's not that uh it's not that level of a trade but i also think that it could turn out to be one that we go back and look and say you know what that little

conditional pick thing that they gave up to get this guy. I, that, that ended up being a great move. And I sort of look at it like, and this might be an all time heater for them bringing in acquiring players and having it work. But I look at a couple of the moves they made in the off season that we didn't even do emergency podcasts for, uh, when we're talking about Jerry Tillery or Jihad Ward, and we kind of went, eh, you know, okay, just the guy, you know, whatever. We'll see. I wasn't even sure Jihad Ward was going to make the team. And then these guys have played big roles for them.

Because if you're going to be a great team, you really have to have everybody. You have to have every one of those roles and every one of those positions contributing so you can't have Aaron Jones be out or Aaron Jones having to take on 7,000 snaps and then by the end of the season say oh yeah we're going to play you know the Lions in the playoffs and we're going to do it with a banged up Aaron Jones they want to to be able to do it. You got to look down the road here. You want to be able to do it to play in the playoffs with a 100% or as close as you can to healthy Aaron Jones. Let's see, St. Perp 651, underrated trait of Akers is that he can pass protect.

Ty Chandler has struggled on occasions. Yeah, I mean, Ty Chandler really has not been able to do it during any point in his career. And you saw, he was asked to pass protect just a couple times against the jets and made a mistake on one of them. You just can't really do it. You can't really trust the guy if he's going to make mistakes and not know where he's supposed to be. The other thing is it's kind of a technical thing as well. Like you have to be able to get low. You have to have fearlessness. And if there's anything that Cam Akers has, it's fearlessness. And maybe even from my own standpoint, maybe there is a little bit of me liking this trade because I like the guy. I mean, not as far as an interview

goes, that doesn't make a difference, but I mean, I like what he brings to the table. I like the guy. I mean, not as far as an interview goes. That doesn't make a difference. But I mean, I like what he brings to the table. I like how he plays. I like how he carries himself. I like that you could put him on the field and feel like he is going to be trusted out there. He's going to do what he's supposed to do. And he's also going to pop somebody if he has to.

I mean, there is a toughness to this game that you just added more to your team with bringing in cam acres. So again, not the move of the century, but if there was a crack in the foundation of the offense, it was really this running back situation outside of Jones. And they poured some cement in that by getting cam acres uh just a dude says looking at the potential 2025 free agent class does it make sense for an all-in trade for a corner or d-line help yeah if there's a d-line man you like from next year's free agency let me know i couldn't really find one uh that is an upcoming free agent to make the trade that That's why I was bringing up JC Horn, because I think the Vikings know that they can trade. Oh, DJ Jones was the guy from Denver, not a game changer, but a good player. And maybe even if they were looking for

somebody like Jadavion Clowney to be a little more motivated than he probably is in Carolina. When Clowney's been motivated over the years, he's pretty good. I don't know about the culture element of that. He's been very much a rent-a-player throughout his career, but maybe you figure if he's in your building. But as far as the all-in rent-a-player type of trade, there's not that many guys that I could find who are going to hit free agency

that are that type of player, unless they want T T Higgins, of course, but there is some older guys that like Calais Campbell, like Jadavion Clowney, who you always see end up on these championship teams. They kind of latch on at some point. And,

and maybe that's him. Let's see. Bill says perfect running back for the Shanahan McVay version of the West Coast would be a big rock pounder that could catch out of the backfield. And, you know, that is also something that Akers does pretty well. He really is an all-around back. He's not an explosive 20, 30-yard back. He's more of somebody that's going to be a consistent, uh, consistent type

of churn where he's going to get you four or five yards. He's going to run over somebody. He's going to block somebody. Uh, and he's going to bring, maybe I think even the best element possibly would be if, uh, he could bring them a little bit of short yardage success. Tang asks if Denzel Ward is tradable. I would think so. And as we talk about not giving up huge draft capital for the first rounder, yeah, I know that McNeil is going to be a free agent, but they're not trading him to the Vikings.

So we have to also look when it comes to who would a team actually trade. You can only look at a couple of different teams here that are going to be big sellers. And certainly, you know, the Lions aren't trading you their best player on the defensive line. But as far as that's so many, the Vikings could sign next year, but I'm not worried at all about next year. It's really about what they're going to be able to do, you know, when it comes to the rest of this year. Let's see. BAS says out on, I assume you mean Delvin Tomlinson talked me into the horn idea.

I just don't want to give up a first rounder for not really sure what you meant to say there. But well, the Tomlinson idea would be almost no money. Like that's the thing. Or, or I'm sorry, no Tomlinson idea would be almost no money. Like that's the thing, or, or I'm sorry, no free agent or a draft capital, no draft capital. I mean, Tomlinson, if they're selling everything, would you give up a fifth round pick for somebody who would be an improvement on the interior just because they're looking to shed money? I would, uh, Tomlinson's a good player. You're not giving up a ton for him. I would. Tomlinson's a good player.

You're not giving up a ton for him. I would definitely do it in that case. I just think that when it comes to a defensive tackle, they need somebody who can be an impact player for a defensive tackle more so than they have right now. Harrison Phillips is solid and Jonathan Bullard has done the best he can. Jerry Tillery has been an improvement. But how can you get someone who will be a difference maker?

That's really the question for me that they still have to look at in the trades. But I think at the end of the day, what this really says is that they're going to do it. They're going to look at this roster under a microscope, not just kind of globally, not for the future, not for next year's free agency or draft or anything else, but look at under a microscope right now, today, how can we make this the strongest possible roster and trading for acres is the first step of that but i i now after this move feel like all right they're going to go and try to do everything they possibly can and what this week might do is inspire them to use the first. They definitely could be inspired to use the first round pick if they have to.

Puna Ford is an interesting name. Maybe they would be willing to move them. But I really do think now that after this, they are looking like a team that is willing to be a spender potentially in the trade market beyond this, because they are taking that approach to filling every spot that they possibly can. So more questions, comments, thoughts on this Cam Akers acquisition or whatever else is on your mind. I mean, we, you know, we've got a Dalton Reiser back practicing. I think that he may have a chance to play for them pretty soon, potentially at right guard. Maybe this week, maybe next week. TJ Hawkinson is very unlikely to play this week,

but may come back. And this game is looking like it is going to be maybe a swing game for the entire NFC for the future. So this is about as good of a situation right now that the Vikings could be in with a chance to win a game against the Lions, separate themselves by two games over Detroit and run farther away from the division and then have a chance to face the easier part of their schedule after this and be in a good spot so if they win this game I do wonder and it shouldn't be a huge influence on them but I do wonder about if they win this game if it will be a turning point for, all right, I mean, now we got to do it because when you look at the, some of the other teams and the teams that they've played so far schedule wise, you know, everybody in the NFC North has essentially the same schedule

or very similar plays the same divisions, but the Vikings are the team that has played the toughest opponents so far. If you compare everybody's schedule out of their first five to six games, I mean, the Vikings have played the toughest schedule. So they have one of the easier schedules in the division going forward. They get to 6-0, and then the upcoming opponents are what? The Rams, the Colts, the Jaguars, the Titans. I mean, you can just run on from there. And if you have a chance to win 13 or 14 games,

then you should be trading your first round pick to try to win because you're not drafting any higher than like 25th or something like that. So, and I like the idea, the way that the Vikings have built the team. Uh, and you know, this, this comment here, uh, Williams says I'm fine with Casey making trades much better, better at it than drafting. Well, he hasn't had a lot of capital. You could say that, but I mean, look how few draft picks they've even had since he got here.

Yes. The 2022 draft was completely botched, but Addison is a really, really talented player. And then, and by the way, there was an Addison update. I don't think we really talked about it, but his court date has been moved back, which means that it seems unlikely that a suspension is going to come this year. So that's, that's kind of your update there, but Jordan Addison is a great talent that they've drafted. Jalen Naylor is a good player that they've drafted. I like Ty Chandler's contributions, Ivan Pace, the undrafted free agent, but there's no rule that you have to do it a certain way. Everybody loves when a team drafts 15 players in a draft.

Oh, they get an A plus. But the Vikings have basically said, why don't we just get guys who have been developed by somebody else and are ready to play? And we know what they're going to bring to the table. Like Cam Akers, but also like Ben Ginkle, who they had familiarity with. Cashman, a local guy. Gilinkle, who they had familiarity with Cashman, a local guy, Gilmore, who they had familiarity with trading your draft capital for real players. If you could do it with the salary cap is a good strategy and they can because they got the salary cap right

over the last couple of years. So the way they've managed this thing has been excellent. Uh, let's see expose. I finally got that after I read it a couple of times. Uh, how do you think Cam feels about being traded back here? Well, he seemed to enjoy it. I mean, I don't know. I think that he's a professional and it doesn't really, um, you know, matter to him that he's going to go play anywhere, But I mean, you're getting traded from a four and one team, or is it five? What is Houston four and one to a team that's five and oh, I mean, you're going, it's not like he's being traded to a team in the tank. Uh, it's familiarity. People like Minnesota and this franchise, I think that cam acres did. So, you know, I, I look at it as he should be happy to come back he's going to have a role

he probably would have been buried with joe mixon and uh damian pierce who was really good uh let's see uh skull city blues do you think the vikings will be more proactive in signing a defensive player after a win or a loss i i assume you mean trading for one. There's not really anybody to sign as far as free agents go. But as far as trading for one, I don't know. See, the thing is that I would tend to believe that,

you know, teams would not want to be reactive. Teams would not want to say, if we win this one, we make a first round trade for jc horn and if we lose we don't well you'd still be five and one facing an easier part of the schedule so yeah i mean i don't think it should be a huge difference but that doesn't effectively simulate what it would feel like to win you go go to 6-0 and your wins come against San Francisco, Houston, Green Bay, Detroit. You're feeling like the 98 Vikings here.

You're feeling like this is for real and this could be a championship team. So I think we have to kind of put ourselves in those shoes of this is what it's going to feel like if they win. And I think they will take that first round pick and shop it hard. If not, they might wait another week or wait that other Thursday night game and kind of see where they're at. Tim Bobber, are the lions trying to trade for Max Crosby. Oh, they should be. They should be. They should be trying to trade for everybody. Hassan Reddick, if he wants to play, they should be trying to get everybody. So, um, guys, we don't have to bring up the 2022 draft. Your team is five and oh, and just traded for another player. We don't

have to do that. Let it go. Let it go. What would their record have to be for nobody in a, in a live show to bring up the 2022 draft? Move on. You're the best team in football. It's okay. Get over it. If, if Louis scene was good, Josh metellus wouldn't be a thing it's fine you found another guy to do it move on uh i shot you 99 just got here again let's let's 10 minutes earlier 10 minutes late guys i'm just kidding uh why was acres let go in the first place, a mystery, a Viking mystery to tell you the truth. I honestly don't know. Uh, if Kevin O'Connell had told us that I would know, but he didn't. So I've never gotten a clear answer from anyone about why, uh, my suspicion is that they put him through a workout and that they wanted to sign him. And then he got maybe a better offer from the Texans.

That could have been it. Maybe more guaranteed money. I mean, there was the thought that he may have failed the physical. They could have had concerns about his recovery from the Achilles and how explosive he was going to be, which obviously that would be something you'd be worried about.

But once they saw him on the field and once they saw him on tape, it's back to the old cam makers. I mean, what a freakish werewolf of a human being to heal from two Achilles injuries and go back out there and play. You see Kirk Cousins can't roll out of roll out of the pocket. And this guy's like running over people. But that's, that might be it. I'm just guessing because there's never been a real clear answer reported to why they didn't sign him the first time. So if there's any, if there is any criticism though, one thing I would say is you could have seen this coming and known that you needed another

running back. That is, that is just a fact that through training camp, they weren't going to keep Kenny Wong. Well, I thought maybe he had earned a job, but then there was a issue there and he failed the physical and they, they kept hanging on to miles Gaskin who they clearly like, and as a proven veteran player, but this was a problem that we were waiting for them to solve and waiting and waiting and finally after the jets game it was like okay you can't wait anymore aaron jones is not just going to play a thousand snaps this year uh silva great can they trade out chandler i wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't trade any player who's good at stuff just because someone isn't a complete player doesn't mean they can't be

a contributing player Ty Chandler is a contributing player but he's not a three down back it truly takes two people to be able to do one Aaron Jones job. He's that special. And now they have their two people in cam makers and Chandler. Is that, is that not like if, if acres is himself and he's as good as he was with the Texans, which was solid, I mean, this is a great running back room. This is as good of a running back room as you're going to find now, or is solid for three running backs to be able to trust them. And at some point, I don't know whether it's this week or not, at some point Aaron Jones misses a game and you need to have two dudes who can fill his role. Now they have it.

Let's see. Just the Super Bowl, Vike. I believe the Lions game plan on offense will be to get the ball out quick. How do you think the Vikings defense will defend this? If they do, I believe the Vikings have to do the same on offense. Yeah, I mean, the Lions do a great job of getting the ball out quick. They also do a great job of play action and protection for Jared Goff. It's not going to be easy to just blitz him.

This might be a game where instead of sending a lot of blitzers, they try to win a little more with four. But one thing that Brian Flores is really good at is confusion within the box. So a lot of defenses will show too high. They'll switch to single high after the snap, and that will confuse quarterbacks or they'll send a blitz from somewhere you don't expect. But what I see from the Vikings defense is you don't even know where the linebackers are going to be because Josh Metellus, even though all of you go crazy over somebody else's box safety is one of the best in the league and he can play linebacker. He can drop back deep in coverage.

He makes plays. He's a great tackler. So they use him for all sorts of deception. I also think that Blake Cashman has offered so much more and, and Jordan Hicks is a great, great longtime NFL player and a lot of, you know, credit to him for being tough veteran and everything else. But it's an upgrade to have Blake Cashman and how dynamic he is from a pass rusher, from dropping back in coverage.

That's really the key. They like to have guys run over the middle of the field. I think it's confusing golf. And you know who could be big for this? Andrew Van Ginkle confusing golf a little bit in who's dropping and who's staying on those short and underneath routes has really paid big dividends for the Vikings. They got to do that. I think, uh, Chieftain, uh, Sammy Darnold, uh, better show us he could play like a veteran or we're screwed. The pressure is on him, so he might be paranoid. Sammy, I want to see you throw for 300 plus and slice through

Detroit to believe. Well, with Darnold, I think that so far he has played very much like a veteran quarterback. I mean, for the most part, he's managed the game. He has hit on big throws. He's shown his arm talent. He's shown his leadership. He's come up big in some big situations. But as far as, you know, the pressure on him, I don't know if it's so much the pressure I think that you're referring to, which is the outside pressure. Hey, you're the MVP.

You're a big star now. I don't know about that. I think it's probably more of the actual pressure in the last couple of games. Green Bay did a great job of it. Strip sacked him in a blitz that confused him. And then the New York Jets just got after him pretty well with their front four. So I think it's been actual pressure that has thrown off his timing he's taken a couple of hits and there have been a few times where I've thought that Darnold tried a little bit too hard and push the ball down the field a little bit more than he needed to and wasn't quite as sharp it was also you know raining and the Jets have a good defense wasn't like the Bills lit up the Jets last night either. And they have the second best quarterback in the league.

Yeah, I mean, I'm not saying that it's not a concern with Sammy. Sammy, I'm not calling him Sammy. With Sam Darnold, that it's not a concern about his consistency going forward. It is. It is. But I don't think it's because he suddenly has pressure on him because the team is good. Although I can say he's never really been in this position before where he's got a team this good. I think he's overall just looked very confident as their quarterback,

save for a little bit against the Packers, a little bit against the Jets. And the bye came at the right time after his worst performance. So now you can go back and assess and kind of have a reset of, all right, what went wrong there? And now how can you improve it? But, you know, he's going to be the biggest question until he's not, you know, he will be the biggest question about the Vikings because everything else is so solid that it's when he has a bad game, we're always going to go out.

Is it going to be three bad games? Is he falling off? Because of his history, that's going to be the question over and over. Travis, do you think that the Titans would be willing to move Simmons? I don't think that they will be, but I would be very happy to take him on the football team. I think if you're the Titans, you have to be looking at yourself in the mirror and going, what are we doing here?

What exactly is it that we're doing here? Because they tried to spend around Will Levis and people got kind of excited about it. And then they've just stunk because Will Levis is not good and their defense is okay, but it isn't elite. It isn't like winning them games and they've got some playmakers, but they're not dragging Willis with them. They don't have a good line still. It's just, they're just existing in the league. So are they going to take the thing apart and try to rebuild it if they were to get, and they might want two first round picks for Simmons. That's too rich for my blood probably. So they might be saying for Simmons, Hey, make us an offer. We can't refuse. And then, you know, okay. But if they want a first

for Simmons, because they want to dump that contract and they want to sign other guys next year, then the Vikings should be interested. His name comes up just because they're a disaster, but there's no logical reason really for them to trade Simmons. He should probably be a guy that they try to build around for years to come. Jake says, nervous about Gibbs and Montgomery are going to run all over our faces on Sunday. Let's hope B flow can figure out how to stop their offense. They, they are, uh, not an easy team to stop their run game because their offensive line is so good. And this is by far the biggest test. Uh, San Francisco ran for a hundred yards with Jordan Mason. And that was the previous biggest running test. The jets got down 17. The Packers got down. Josh Jacobs ran for

like five yards carry, but just never really could run the football. That has been something that I've wondered about with this team. How well are you really going to stop the run when you play a team that is playing close with you and that runs the ball so darn effectively as the Detroit Lions do. So that's, this is, there are some things still about a five and O team that we're looking to find out because of just the weird way that it's all played out with them, never trailing. And that's one of them. I I'm with you there. That is definitely one of them is how well they stopped the run. That's where Tillery's been big for them. That's where Harrison Phillips has had a great year so far.

It's going to be a lot on those defensive tackles and then guys coming downhill for the run game. But Gibbs has been really good against them. Montgomery has, over the years, beaten them a couple of times. It's a major concern. This is what happens when you play great teams is they're going to have things on their team that, uh, are going to be hard to stop. Uh, miles says, I think we bolster the D line and get Josh Allen. That is Josh Heinz Allen. Now, uh, actually the brother of Minnesota links forward, my Isha Heinz Allenz allen um so bring them both to minnesota myisha is a good player

but um allen is too young too good i just can't it's the same thing with simmons where do they really want to make that move for a player of that caliber and the same thing goes uh here which is uh you know omega Omega flash says trade for Dexter Lawrence. I mean, yes. Like all the great players that you're bringing up. Yes. The answer is yes. I'm all in first round pick for any one of those guys, Alan Lawrence, Simmons, all of the stars bring them here, but is the other team going to want to do it is the thing i'm in if they are there's i think the best case is for jc horn because carolina has to completely rebuild that thing do they want to give a hundred million dollars to a corner when they have so many other

things that they need to address on that team and they are in true rebuilding mode uh saint perp possibility hassan reddick lands here considering his agent has a relationship with the vikings i would be very worried about hassan reddick and just where he stands right now oh look at that elaine mcneil i guess he won't be a free agent just now as we were talking about him for a second there he uh signs an extension so how how about that? The Adam Schefter notifications come through. That's funny. That, that is quite the coincidence. Um, so yeah, anyway, but, uh, just to the point about, um, you know, somebody like Hassan Reddick, I just don't know. Where is that guy? Where is Hassan Reddick in terms of mentally, does he want to play? Because the way that he's acted has been like

a guy that doesn't really want to play and is really pressured to do so. But he went to Japan and then he was nowhere to be found. Is it just that he doesn't want to play for the jets? And what are you going to give up for him? My answer would be almost nothing because he wants a new contract as well. Do you really want to give him a new contract when this is the way that he's acted? And I am concerned about the delicacy of the Vikings locker room. I mean, it is so good. So good. Uh, my mom was a teacher for her entire career. And I think about when, think about when you were in classes and if you had a really good class and everybody got along with the teacher and then a new kid comes from another school and it disrupts the whole dynamic. I mean, I think about that with a locker room as well.

I'm not saying one player is going to destroy the Vikings locker room, but it is something unique that they have built here with the type of players, the buy-in they have to Brian Flores, the way that they operate on a weekly basis with Flores, building the defense together. You just don't, I'm not sure that you want a guy who you're you're having some questions about it uh is the face faithful does anyone uh also realize Kwesi's the one who signed all the free agents you're sharing for on the team now

yeah I know I think uh I think that no matter what when they when they win the Super Bowl there will still be people who say, do you remember that Kweisi made the Marcus Davenport signing? I mean, there's always going to be people, no matter what they do, that never wanted Kweisi Adafomensa as the GM and never wanted him to succeed and nitpick every single thing that they've done. But when we look at the bigger picture here and not that, not that a cam acres trade is really part of this whole conversation. But, uh, when we look at the bigger picture of the Vikings as a five and O team with a chance going forward to compete for something really special this year and think about how they got there there is yes a

draft that didn't work out though you know at least they have a receiver who's playing from that draft but that's pretty much it and a guard who's likely to get benched i there was a minute there where i thought well you know if ingram turns the corner and a caleb evans is okay then it's not a bad draft but you know you know, those things haven't happened. But when we look at the bigger picture, like zoom out, also, as some of you have pointed out, you have to include the undrafted free agents, which matter here as well.

The fact they have some guys for the future that aren't playing because there's great players in front of them, but McClothern is interesting, and Gabe Murphy, when he gets healthy, is interesting for this team. And Ivan Murphy, when he gets healthy is interesting for this team. And Ivan Pace is a borderline star player for this team that they got. He counts as part of the draft class in my opinion. But when you look at it, it's really about much more than that because you can't sign Shaq Griffin, Stefan Gilmore, Van Ginkle. Darnold was an expensive signing compared to some other quarterbacks. You can't, and Grenard, my gosh, you can't sign all these players if you don't manage

your salary cap in the right way. So the way that they did it, and it's not just getting rid of Kirk. It was also moving on from Dillon at the right time, from Cook at the right time, not signing Delvin Tomlinson to a big deal when he first signed it with Cleveland, and also not giving Daniil Hunter all the money and instead getting two guys instead of Daniil Hunter, Van Ginkle and Grenard, two better than one here in this case. The management of the salary cap, and this is not just Kwesi, it's Rob Brzezinski, their salary cap guy as well, who deserves a ton of credit. The vision on that to be able to kind of realize the moment. And then you have a culture that people want to play for. You have a coach in Brian Flores who had familiarity with some of these guys.

All these things had to play together. So the coaching staff, the management, they're all working on the same page. That's why you have the success that they have. Uh, Chieftain says, uh, Matthew, will you believe in Sammy if he plays like the last game and a half, or do you think the Vikings start to crash then? Um, you know, I don't know. I mean, I, I always think that, uh, somebody like Sam Darnold is going to have his moments. I mean, Kirk cousins had his moments. Kurt, we used to call it the Kirk coaster. Uh, so we used to see at times, even as good of a player as Kirk cousins was that there was times where he went up and down throughout his career and he

would have Kirk Tober, but then November or December would be tough for him. It's hard to be great for an entire season. So I do expect that there will be times where he is disappointing and he has bad games and he has bad moments. But the fact that he could have a bad game against the Jets and they come away with a win, I think tells you about the team. It should also tell you, if you're him, Sam Darnold, about how he should be playing, because you can have a tough game, you can make some mistakes. And yet you could still come out with a win if you don't turn the ball over too much. And he had the bad interception. But if you don't turn the ball over too much, then you could still survive.

If you get some first downs and punt the ball away and eat some clock, that's the way that he should play. And I think that maybe there's a lesson to be learned there but I do expect that there will be a game that they lose that we didn't see coming and we go what the heck is Darnold toast and I go back to that 2021 Ram season where Stafford had a three or four game stretch where he was miserable and you know they come out of it and they win and so I think we need to not overreact when there's a bad stretch of time with Darnold, but he does need to get back to being a little more game

manager-y, uh, for sure. I totally agree with that. Uh, son of a beavers other than defensive tackle, where else we look at to improve punt returner. Uh, I don't think they need to return punt returner. They need to stop committing penalties on punts that would be a good place to start but uh as far as where they could improve the roster i think corner depth and i mean i wouldn't mind if they added another pass rusher just for giggles and pass rushers you can never have too many I did also think about if there was a available wide receiver for not too much. And that's only because I like Naylor in the way that he's played. But you're always kind of one injury away there.

And look how good they were with three deep. I mean, we go back to that all the time, but that's pretty unstoppable. If there's another option there, I know you got Hockinson coming back and that's a big factor as well. But I was just thinking about that depth and how beyond Naylor, Shurfield, Powell. I mean, if we're talking about trying to build a championship team, one more, right guard is definitely the other one. I just don't know. Brandon Sheriff is the guy I'm looking at as we've been looking at for years with this guy with Brandon Sheriff. But if it's, if it's Reisner, that's okay. Reisner was pretty good last year. I mean, he was in the top 20 pass blocking grade. Didn't allow a sack. I mean, he should be okay, but I also think that the run blocking is

not ideal. I'd rather have Brandon Sheriff, obviously. Omega Flash. All we need right now is D-line or corner. D-line with the blitz scheme is nice. D-line getting pressure without having to blitz is even better. All in for Dexter Lawrence. Yeah, I mean, we're all all in for Dexter Lawrence. That's like, do you want a top five player in the league? Yeah. Yeah, I do. That guy is a murderer up there. So I don't know that they're going to be able to get their hands on him. But I do think that if a trade should come about where they put his name out there, they send an email to the GMs. Hey, is anybody interested?

Yeah. Yes, very much so. But you're right. If they could get a defensive tackle who could offer just a little bit of juice in there, a little bit more pressure naturally on first downs, then you don't have to drop as many people or you don't have to do the whole like deception thing all the time. And you could just rush four. And if they could mix that in that they could just rush for at times, that's even more of a nightmare than what they've already created.

Bill says Sam's problem has been gunslinging, not getting into his own head. He's actually really good when going through progressions. He just gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar from time to time. Yeah. There there's sometimes with him where he'll just drop back and I'll be like, throw it. And then he kind of looks for something else. And I would like to see him. In fact, a strip sack and a big incompletion that he had both in the last two weeks have kind of been that where the strip sack against the Packers, it was a little out route to Josh Oliver. Just throw it, just hit Josh Oliver, move on to the next play. There seems to be a lot of, you know what? Maybe there's something else that's better. Maybe Jefferson's actually open in my other read, or maybe I can hit Addison

deep when it's it's okay, dude. Like just, just get that to the tight end and Hawkinson should help a lot of that. I think, uh, Ryan cam acres is good for the short pass game. Did well with that last year before the injury. I think he's good at everything. I mean, I, I honestly, other than being a, a huge explosive run guy, I think that he can do anything that he's asked to do on this team, which is the reason that you trade for him. It's he can come out of the backfield, the short passing game, catch a swing pass, break a tackle. He could pick up a blitz. That's why I think it was an important trade for them is to be able to find somebody that can be trusted in those types of situations.

That's the word I keep coming back to is kind of toughness and trust, toughness and trust. Like that's, that's what he brings you. It's not a, this is Derek Henry. This is the fastest running back in the league or something. It's just toughness and trust. And, uh, that's, that's what Kevin O'Connell was looking for here. Joel says a trade for a number two or three wide receiver makes more sense than a defensive tackle. Tell me I'm wrong. All depends on the player, Joel. If you're talking about trading for T. Higgins,

well, that's pretty exciting. Or if they had traded for Amari Cooper today, they didn't have the proper draft capital. But if they had traded for Amari Cooper, then you're talking, this offense is going to be an absolute freak show out there with wide receivers. And I always think another receiver is good to add to the mix. Just throw one more on the pile because they do get banged up. You're trying to draw as much attention away from Jefferson. And I think we have seen it this year affect Jefferson at times with just how much attention there is on him where Naylor and Addison have not at times they have, but not consistently

proven to defenses. No, you need to pay attention to us too. Hawkinson coming back is kind of like acquiring another number two type of wide receiver because he plays so much at the wide receiver position. Defensive tackle all depends on the guy. I mean, if you're talking about a, the type of, uh, defensive tackle that could be a rotational player or something. Okay. That's good. And I'll accept. But if you're talking about a star that they're trading for a Jeffrey Simmons, a Dexter Lawrence, well, that's different. Like that, that one is that, that impact's going to be bigger than a number three wide receiver. I think, uh, let's see.

Uh, kin tick kinetic kinetic, maybe, um, six 15. How do you think acres is going to perform for fantasy teams post trade oh i'm glad you guys mixed in a fantasy question uh keep an eye out oh the fantasy show with mike shelp tomorrow should be really good keep an eye out for that because we got a lot to talk about with these trades i i don't think that acres is a factor really in fantasy, except for if you have Aaron Jones, that you're going to want to consider that acres and Chandler might mix a little bit more, um, mix a little bit more in. So he, his workload might go down a little from what it was the last couple of games. That's really all probably not much other than that. Ryan says, watching back, uh, last game, that eight front makes it hard for quarterbacks to

check them hard, uh, to tell who's going to come and back you off. Oh yeah. That's, that's a Brian Flores. That's a Bella check. Like they love doing that. Zimmer used to do it on third downs. The Vikings do it on every down where you bring everybody up and then drop back uh amir uh says i actually like your idea of tomlinson for a fifth uh you're you're kind of the only one but i'm trying to bang the drum a little bit there like if you don't have to give up a whole heck of a lot he is a difference making player he's just not the pass rusher that everybody wants. Uh, let's see. Chris says, uh, KOC implied the acres chose to go to Houston because he had a better opportunity to see the field. Yeah. I mean, that was really the only explanation. And I buy that, that that was potentially. And I think a lot of people assume that maybe the Vikings didn't look like what they saw because there was a transaction wire like post by the NFL

that posted on the transaction wire that he was signing with the Vikings and then suddenly wasn't. So there was an assumption was coming off an injury. It's probably because of his, you know, the physical that he had to take or something, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was just opportunity related, knowing that he was going to get a chance there. Um, Carl says, uh, cam acres seems old, but he's only 25. I know he's just been through a lot and he's really bounced back. Okay. This is funny. Tang. That's funny. Uh, Chad, bring back Chad BB for wide receivers depth. Uh, Chad BB somewhere out there, man. I'd love to have on the show sometime. That was a guy who, uh, talk about beating the odds, talk about beating the odds for making the NFL, but they do. Every team does this.

They bring back the guys that they know. That's what they do. Uh i think with with him it's just important that you know what he can handle mentally that's why you bring back somebody that you're familiar with evans says we talked about who we want to trade for on defense who do you think b flow wants to trade for um anybody good i would guess i mean that guy the thing about Flores is that he gets, if players are talented and intelligent, he can put them in spots where they're just going to win. And we've seen that left and right on this defense. We've seen roles change from guys from where they were in the past and they're better here. We've seen players who were undrafted free agents or special teamers who they find a role for. So, I mean, I'm kind of, this is, I'm with you on this. Evan says, I want whoever B-Flo wants. Agree, agree. The fun

challenge is to try to figure out who that might be. And there are other defensive tackles and corners that are out there that they might want to look at. I'm just wondering about that big, that big swing, that big play. Jason says, keep hearing Greg Newsome from a couple of sources. Okay. First and third swap potential there. I mean, any of the top corners, the Denzel war, the JC horn, the Greg Newsome, and you know, the Vikings did practice with the browns quasey da fomenta also worked for the browns with andrew berry they are boys uh after quasey got hired they actually

did a press conference with us with andrew berry so that's how close they were and he talked about all the things quasey would bring to the table i mean I think that they should be farming that Browns roster a hundred percent, like anybody that you could take. Newsome is a younger player. Uh, I, you know, Denzel Ward is, is a little more proven, more expensive, obviously, you know, but I really, yeah, a move like that, a move like JC Horn, like the young player that they can sign and keep for a long time. That's my kind of move. Rory says, are players like Simmons wanting to be traded? You would think with a Super Bowl opportunity, some big man would jump at the opportunity to be hit.

Nose tackle like Pat Williams. Yeah, I think that Jeffrey Simmons is a little more like, well, yeah, I guess he's kind of a combo. He kind of does everything. He's sort of like a Pat and a Kevin Williams because he gets after the passer as well. I'm sure that Jeffrey Simmons would want that. And what we do know is in today's league, Devante Adams absolutely proved this. If you want to get traded, you can get traded.

So if Jeffrey Simmons wants out, then he may be able to make his way out if he wants to try to go to a super bowl team uh still the great effort miles garrett make it happen quasi even the people who can't get over the 2022 draft would have to forgive quasi if they got miles garrett what would it take what What would it take three firsts? I, it would probably take three firsts to get miles Garrett. I don't think it's the craziest thing I've ever heard. I probably couldn't do that, but maybe, maybe, I don't know. I don't think that they're going to move a miles Gary. I think what the Cleveland Browns want to do is they probably want to move off salary cap space for this year,

get a young quarterback next year and hope that he succeeds right away because they can still sign some players after moving on from guys that don't want to be there anymore, but they are in a brutal spot. Marley with the super chat, much respect, Marley. Thank you for the super chat. Punt on the 25 draft free Dexter Lawrence. How long is the list Marley of people that you would trade that 2025 first round pick for? I don't think it's super short. I don't think it has to be a super short list. I think it could be maybe 10 different players that they would be willing to do it.

The thing about a player like Lawrence is that it more likely takes multiple firsts to get someone of Dexter Lawrence, or you're talking about Miles Garrett. I think it probably takes multiple firsts, even Jeffrey Simmons, because they're under contract. They're in their prime. They're just straight superstars. That usually is not going to be for a one draft pick type of thing. But if you want to fully empty the tank, then you could maybe do it for someone like Lawrence because the Giants that, I mean, they are just in no man's land there. They need to find ways to rebuild. Skull City Blues, I would think that Cleveland would be ripe for the picking. All that money

they're giving to Sean that they can't get out of. Hello, Mr. Stefanski, can we speak to Miles Garrett? Yeah, it ain't going to be Kevin Stefanski for very long, I think. But they are ripe for the picking. So it doesn't even have to be Miles Garrett. It doesn't even have to be someone like that. It can just be somebody good who can add to this team because they have a really good team. They have a really good team. And yet their quarterback is just totally crushing them.

Michael says some media say we should be on pumpkin watch for Sam. I assume you mean Darnold and not Arnold. But, you know, the thing about it is they've got this guy. He wears number 18. It's pretty hard to turn into a total pumpkin with just a jefferson out there running around i mean what the jets were able to do against him is rare one time we saw another team do it and we still talk about it uh i believe it was west phillips was asked about the one time the detroit lions shut down justin Justin Jefferson. And since then he has absolutely

throttled them since that, I mean, it's so rare that he gets shut down like he did last week. Their chemistry between those two has been good this entire time. I think if we're talking about pumpkin to turning into, you know, turning into a pumpkin, Sam Darnold, it's really just, he was playing like an MVP. And I think we said, I don't know if you should expect him to be an MVP, okay, for the rest of the season, but some ups, some downs. What I've really liked from him though is there've been a few situations where it's been kind of pressure. Go hit Jalen Naylor for a big gain against San Francisco. Go lead a big drive against the Packers. Go lead a big drive against the Jets.

And he's been able to do that. And so I think that there's enough there talent-wise that even if there's a little bit of a roller coaster, that it's not going to collapse with everything that they can give around him and the coach that he has and the offense that he has and the supporting cast. There's just so much there. Uh, let's see, Travis, any interest in bringing feeling back? We are officially a live stream. Once someone has asked if the Vikings will bring feeling back. So welcome everybody. It's not, it wouldn't be a Q&A if we didn't get that question. I'm just kidding with you, Travis. He's got a pretty serious hamstring injury, I believe.

I don't know that he's going to be even healthy by the time that they're making moves to get him. He's pretty old. I just don't see like that's i i don't see that that that's something that they're going to be able to do um but i mean i i'm not laughing it off though because they just got cam acres back i just don't think that that's something that that they're really going to look at if they were trying to add another receiver, it might be more speed than it would be someone like Thielen. Digit says Lions may well expose a run defense weakness.

We'll see. Yeah, they could. The Vikings have been a great run defense so far. They just haven't been in situations like this, where they're going to play a team that's not going to get down by 17, not going to turn the ball over a bunch of times against them more likely than not. I mean, it's possible that they do, but they just can't expect to be up by 17 all the time. Uh, this team is going to control the ball. They're going to run. They're going to have a great run scheme. They have a great offensive line. I don't think that they have faced a team with a great offensive line yet all season. I'm not sure that

any team they face. That's the one thing that they've taken full advantage of is, I mean, San Francisco has got a great offensive line man in Trent Williams, but a whole line. Eh, that's a little questionable. And they ran the ball pretty well against the Vikings. The Jets line is bad. The Giants line is bad. The Texans line was tough that day. So this will be, that's the real test. Yeah. A hundred percent. Uh, Austin says solid trade, nothing crazy, but acres knows the team and the system. That's, that's, that's what it is for me is I, the initial reaction I think from some people was, oh man, really like, oh, I wanted somebody new, somebody somebody exciting somebody like super fresh

and uh somebody who averages five yards carry but those players cost more than conditional picks and in the sixth and seventh round as the vikings are giving up here for cam acres they actually cost stuff so now they've kept their they've solidified something and they've also kept their draft capital for further moves. And, and yeah, he knows the system. They know him, they know what they're getting. They know it's going to work. I mean, as long as he stays healthy, they know it's going to work and that's important. Uh, King in the North interior D line, probably the easiest plug and play to see fast results. Secondary depth would be good, but has to be a florist guy that understands his role. Yeah. I mean, right. It has to be a Stefan Gilmore that can jump right into the fray,

but with, with somebody on the, in the secondary, because they have the starters already in place, then they would be able to slowly implement somebody into the secondary, not just have to throw somebody in right away. Uh, Oh gosh, says, are we happy cams back? Well, just a Superbowl bike is the Vikings got cam acres back. This is awesome. He says, uh, yeah. And I'm curious about the conditions on the sixth and seventh for next year and we'll see if those come out um but are are you happy yeah i mean when you're talking about a guy like it matters what type of playing style and personality cam acres brings uh and i agree with this just a super bowl fight cam acres going

to look better behind this year's offensive line yeah i'd agree with that i i think that they are um you know i i think that they are a better blocking unit on the uh run game than they were last year that also could be uh aaron j, but they grade better by PFF. The left guard this time around is kind of a body mover. So that will help cam acres. I didn't think he was bad at all last year though. I thought he was pretty good. Uh, Jeffrey says acres better be good for us. It's embarrassing. We've needed to trade for him twice. I mean, depends on your definition of embarrassing. What's embarrassing. I don't, what's embarrassing? I don't understand what's embarrassing. I mean, yeah.

And this is a Freedom Thinker says the Transaction Wire post was only on ESPN. Yeah. I mean, I'm not really sure the embarrassing part about this. I mean, they traded for him the first time for nothing and he was good for them. They liked him. He signed somewhere else this off season. I'm not a hundred percent sure what happened there, but he signed somewhere else. And then they went and got him back because they like him. I don't know about, am I missing something here? I mean,

other than could they have signed him this off season? I think so. But if the reason he signed with Houston was because he felt like he could be rb2 there and wasn't going to be here with ty chandler then that makes sense and now he's back here but i i'm sort of struggling with why this is like lol vikings for getting a player they like uh bill with the super chat thank you so much bill Can't thank you enough for the support, my friend. Thanks for the stream after the bye. Needed some Vikings talk to get back in the group. Well, let's go, Bill.

Let's get amped up. And by the way, go Lynx. That is why there's a live stream tonight. Actually, it was planned for seven o'clock, but the Vikings went and made a trade. So they helped me out. Jumped right into the fray here with the big trade. But, you know, I'm always here for you bill

with vikings talk 365 basically 24 7 at times depending on how long the live stream goes but uh tomorrow night there won't be a live stream but there will be youtube videos premiering uh set to talk to trevor sycamore for pff Also, Tuesday morning, left guard got bumped to tomorrow. So that's going to happen. The fantasy show. Lots going on, man. This is an exciting week. We get a trade mixed in.

A lot going on here. It's overwhelming. I mean, it has not been this exciting in Viking land since when? That's the last thing I want from you guys. Answer that question. Because I got three podcasts to do tomorrow. gotta still save the voice here you know i lose my voice sometimes this is the most exciting vikings moment since and i'm not saying the cam makers trade guys

i'm saying five and oh they're making ads they got the lions coming up. Biggest game of the week in the NFL. Most exciting since when? And after I get to those in the questions, then we'll call it a day, but I'm very curious about your, your answers on that. Let's see. Tanks is a,

the Vikings should trade a first for Denzel Ward. I don't mind that move. I I'm curious about where Ward is right now in his career, but he's still in his prime. Let's see, just a Super Bowl, Mike Patterson is available. Do you mean Patrick Peterson or Cordell Patterson? This is, yeah, Tang says bring back Patrick Peterson, Adrian Peterson, and Cordell Patterson. That's funny. That's very funny. Yeah, I talked about that the other day a little bit with Cordero Patterson.

I just don't know what he's got left juice-wise. I kind of like that we've seen Akers play pretty well for the Texans. So Patterson's not even playing for Pittsburgh. If he was looking good, I imagine he would have been playing. Let's see. BAS, is Detroit looking for a replacement pass rusher oh absolutely i mean they are in all in mode no matter what gotta win by any means possible so they are a hundred percent in for sure on pass rushers i guarantee you they've spent the last two

days making all the phone calls uh mike says will cam acres give us a screen game he's yeah he's fine he's fine at that this is one reason to bring him back he's fine at that uh screen game blocking short yardage running i mean he really can do it all as long as he's healthy through the whole season he really can do it all uh freedom thinker Mullins through for 400 yards game last year. The offense is too good for just anyone to suck except maybe Watson. Yeah, I think that's true. I do think that the setup is too good for Darnold to fall off. It's like the way I've thought of it is when you're bowling it. Now I don't really bowl, but I understand how it works. If you're really bad at it, they put bumpers on the side, right?

So you start to go over into the gutter. Doink. Nope. That's everything around Sam Darnold. Hey, you play a bad game over here against Doink, and you still win because Andrew Van Ginkle gets a touchdown. Doink. Jefferson's wide open. They have set up a situation. it's not that it can't

fail it can but that should move him back into the middle when he has some ups and downs uh because they just have players who are going to be open who are going to make plays they have a defense it's going to get stops and i think keeping confidence high, like winning a game where he doesn't play that well, that should even increase his confidence. And he also was pretty banged up in that game after the hit early. Kyle says Delvin Tomlinson contract is super manageable. Two fifths or something like that will complete the trade. I'm in, I'm into it. Bring back the gang. He's a good player. He wasn't worth the contract that the Browns gave him at the time, but now what's left of the contract is not too bad.

Let's see. Gold seed, go get a right guard or DT. Those are at the top of my list. Absolutely. Absolutely at the top of my list. Let's see. Tristan says Cam Akers wasn't that good when we had him before. Did we trade a conditional seventh round pick? yeah and sixth and seventh conditional when you say wasn't that

good before i i just i just don't agree i mean they had a very bad run blocking offensive line and i think if you just look at yards per carry you're kind of missing the point there a little bit. It's like yards per carry can really change when it comes to how well plays are blocked for you. And when Akers was here before, I thought he left a really good impression. I mean, I thought that he got extra yards when they weren't there. He has a little bit of jolt in his game. As you still he could catch the football he can block he's really well liked by the team uh yeah i just i i mean he wasn't barry sanders he wasn't aaron jones but aaron jones is a guy who is one of the best players in the league i mean he's not that he's, he is a Latavius Murray type solid veteran player who you can pair with Ty Chandler for games, whole games, and not feel like, ah, no running game.

Just got to pass every play. Uh, Sean says, uh, just this weekend finished reading football as a numbers game. Thanks, Matt. That was a very entertaining and educational read. thank you so much sean over my left shoulder here is the book football as a numbers game my book it has been out for uh i think about a year now which is really cool so thank you so much for buying that and for dropping in to let me know really appreciate it man uh let's see just the bike says to be really honest i don't think the vikings need anyone they got a running back now just to stay healthy throughout the rest of the season they have some

great backup players yeah i mean there's a little bit of a difference between want and need yeah i mean if you're talking about like do they need anybody else to be good? Well, no, of course not. They're five and oh, like they don't need anybody else to be good, but do they want someone else to be great? That would be the question. How much are they willing to spend? Is it possible that they can spend this first round pick to get a difference maker? So acres is there. There's a couple different ways you can do this with trades.

You can get somebody who is a nice add-on, somebody who shores up a weakness, which is a Cam Akers move, and I think it's good because of that. And then there's a difference maker, game changer. That's the Simmons, the Denzel Ward, that, you know, the, that's the game changer. And if you add a game changer to a five and old roster, that's already played the toughest part of its schedule. I mean, you're, you're trying, you're going for the Superbowl. That's what you're trying to go for here. And everybody wants the draft. Everybody loves the draft.

That's great. That's wonderful. Uh, you know, I enjoy draft season as well, but when you get a chance for a year like this, you got, I mean, you, if you wait on it, you never know when you're going to get another shot because you could wait on it and you can say, well, we'll have McCarthy next year and et cetera. And that that's great. And I think the future should be bright, but by next year is Washington ready to win is Chicago ready to win? Is Chicago ready to win? Other teams that are rebuilding, are they going to be that much better? Whereas right now, you look around the FC, the North is a beast. But the rest?

Lots of men. It's worth a swing. Okay, so I've gotten to the point where you guys answered the question. The last time it was this exciting in Vikings land, 1998. 2000 from Oh Gosh, which I think is probably an underrated answer. Dante Culpepper's first year coming off the Jeff George season. Culpepper exploded out of the gate. It was really good.

George says Favre 2009 game in Green bay grave not says uh randy moss's rookie year was the was the last great see it was not the last great season but as far as excitement probably this um okay this is funny evan you're funny most exciting time since the last time we traded for cam 8 that's pretty good that's pretty good that wasn't that since the last time we traded for cam eight. And that's pretty good. That's pretty good. That wasn't that exciting the first time, but he was good since oh nine, since, uh,

before the miracle before her, since the miracle before the crushing versus the Eagles. So that little week, that little week between the miracle and then leading up to the Eagles, I I'm going to be honest with you guys. I thought, I thought I was going to be covering the Superbow to the Eagles. I'm going to be honest with you guys. I thought, I thought I was going to be covering the Superbowl in Minnesota. I, I never saw it coming with Nick Foles doing that. What a week that was, uh, 2009 versus green Bay. Uh, Daniel says Teddy

Bridgewater season was fun. 2015, uh, 2015 is an under rate, underrated fun season. You never saw it coming kind of like this. I mean, I think that people knew that there was going to be a step forward for the Vikings, but I don't know that they knew they were going to win the division. And then with a young quarterback, that was pretty good. I mean, that was like Zimmer is here. He's changed the team, all those types of things. You know, that was an exciting time. I mean, I remember I wasn't here yet. 2016 is when I got here, but when I got the job was in the middle of training camp 2016. So Bridgewater hadn't got a hurt yet. And I remember talking to everybody about, Oh yeah, I'm going to go,

you know, work in Minnesota and so forth, cover the Vikings. And everybody said kind of the same thing. Like, man, that's, that, that's a team that's on the way. Like that's a team that's about to explode and be great and chase the super bowl. And I felt that way too. And then I got here and Teddy got hurt, but that came true in 2017. Uh, Trent says, hear anything about Hockinson today? Need to drop someone in fantasy, but can't yet. Hockinson will not be back this week. I am almost guaranteeing you that, that he is not playing against the Lions. I think that the best chances against the Rams, but if they want to play it, especially safe against the Colts. I mean, this is a team looking to play a very long time this year. If you have to wait one extra week, then go ahead.

But everything that I have heard points to TJ Hawkinson, and that includes from O'Connell himself. Also, Adam Schefter. I just don't think he's going to play at all this week. Somebody's saying 98, 87 over San Francisco. Okay, I don't know if this is quite the most exciting since San Francisco, but I mean, yes,

I know that game. I've watched that game, the Anthony Carter game in 1987. That was, that was, I mean, that's one of the great moments in team history for sure. I don't think I'd say this is the most,

you know, exciting since that. Okay. All right. Here's, here's what we got to end on. here's what we got to end on. Here's what we got to end on. But first of all, let's not get into the Teddy thing.

Let's not even go there. 2015 was a great season for Teddy Bridgewater. Got them to the playoffs, got them to the what yard line to kick a 27 yard field goal. Is that the third? What yard line is that? Whatever it is. The 10 yard line to kick a 27 yard field goal to win a playoff game and maybe go even deeper in the playoffs. We all know where Teddy Bridgewater's career was headed in a very positive direction. Once he got Diggs and Thielen, the versions that Sam Bradford had, the versions that Kirk Cousins had. That team was headed to the moon when it came to playing with Teddy Bridgewater. He was a great leader. I think he was a good

playmaker. He's accurate. His arm was getting stronger. Come on. I mean, I'll never understand why every time he comes up, someone needs to fly in and be like, he wasn't that good. Like, dude, what? We all saw the preseason in 2016. We all saw where that was headed and we all know what happened. That train was derailed a train that case Keenum was able to win with, by the way, like the, the setup offensively was only going to get better. That, that was going in a really, really good direction that could have competed for the Super Bowl with him as their quarterback. Everybody knows that. There's no real debate there. So I think that that was in 2015, one of the most exciting times for the Vikings because it came out of nowhere a little bit. I thought that maybe steady progress was going to happen. Instead, by the end of that season,

they're beating Green Bay on their turf to win the division. So you're talking about a team that at that point when they reached the playoffs were great. Had they been able to play Seattle, maybe not in negative degree temperatures. Maybe they easily beat Seattle and go on to the playoffs. Also having to play it at not your own stadium and everything, kind of difficult circumstances there. But I think it's a good nomination. That's my point with the young quarterback, young defense Zimmer at the time was like, wow, this guy completely revamped the entire team, which we forget about now that he's giving up 47 points with Dallas and has been run out of town and all that. But, uh, I think that's a good

nomination because this team is very fresh to everyone. There's a lot of new players. There's a different quarterback situation. So I like that as a nomination. But the best answer though, of course, is from Heinz Buck here. 2005 was a hell of a boat ride. Yeah, that's the most exciting moment since the boat is

a very funny answer. Thank you. Should the, okay. Now you guys have lost. It's too early for you guys to lose it here with saying, should they bring back Brock Lester? Daniel says Hawk will play against the Rams. That's his deadline. It's not. No, it's not his deadline. It's not. He can come back against Indianapolis. The Friday after is the deadline. So they would have to activate him by the day after, I believe. I'm pretty sure that they did that on purpose to set up so it could potentially be Indianapolis.

SoCal native, a healthy Teddy in 2017. What could have been? I think about it all the time. Yep. I definitely think about it all the time. First name, last name, 2015 defense was insane. Teddy didn't make a ton of splashy plays, but did enough to win. Yeah. I think with him that that team kind of required that. It definitely, it required him to play that way because they still had Adrian and they didn't have the receivers. They didn't have much of a line. I don't know the answer right off hand for this. True.

Lee says, can you name a player where a team traded for you twice? That's how much they love it, man. That's how much they love them. They traded for you twice that's how much they love him man that's how much they love him they traded for him twice uh okay and now we've completely lost it when joe webb's name is coming up but uh yeah so i i don't i don't have a player that the vikings or any other team has traded for twice but there's a lot of love with kevin o'connell and cam acres that's for sure o'connell had him with the rams had him here last year. And regardless of what the reasoning was, conditional picks at the end

of next year's draft for a player who could be valuable for them, I think is a very good trade for the Vikings. It's not life-changing, but we'll see if the life-changing trade is on the way. This might be a precursor to showing us that they have other things that they want to do. Anyway, great emergency podcast, guys. Great stuff. Thank you so much for all the phenomenal comments and ideas. And you guys are very funny as well. And to the big audience, make sure you go check out the newsletter, by the way, there will be a reaction article over there, along with some other stuff on Dallas Turner that I gathered today, Dalton Reisner as well. So I'm going to have a lot of stuff on the written side, purpleinsider.com. Check that out. And, you know, actually Akers, I do, I wouldn't be surprised if he plays this week, by the way. Yeah, I wouldn't, he's, he knows the system already, so I wouldn't be surprised. But anyway, got to run.

Thanks so much, everybody. Tomorrow. Keep your eyes peeled on the channel for Jeremiah Searles. We're going to get his reaction to cam makers coming back, previewing Detroit and lots of other stuff. Trevor Sycamore from PFF is going to come up as well. It's going to be great.

So thank you all so much for your time and your participation. And we'll catch you all very soon. Thursday night, next live broadcast with me and Manny. We'll take your questions

then as well. So, all right. Take care, everybody. Football. ball