Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - EMERGENCY POD: Vikings trade Sam Howell, sign Carson Wentz

Episode Date: August 24, 2025

Matthew Coller breaks down the Vikings trading Sam Howell to the Eagles for a 5th round pick and signing Carson Wentz Show presented by FanDuel

Regulator, mount up! Good morning, everybody, everybody, and welcome to an emergency podcast. Minnesota Vikings have a new back-up quarterback. This morning, the Vikings have traded Sam Howell to the Philadelphia Eagles, along with a 20276th to receive back a fifth round pick in 2026 and a seventh round pick in 27. So we will break it all down and what it means for the wide receiver position all throughout training camp and even going back to mini camp there was a lot of skepticism around how sam howl looked

as a fit for kevin o'connell's offense and as the summer went along we thought maybe it'll click in maybe he'll have a moment maybe it'll be okay maybe he will have the momentum from that first preseason game that he'll pick up on and he'll go forward and it'll be just fine like case keanum was once upon a time in 2017 when he had a rough start to camp, and it just did not go that way. I think that the first preseason game where Sam Howell performed all right, that one maybe took the heat off for a little bit, but even some of the comments from Kevin O'Connell had kind of indicated that still he was not happy with what he looked like in practice, which does mean more to the evaluation than the preseason games.

but then the second preseason game, one for five, a terrible interception. And when you add it all together, you just can't go out and play that way in a preseason game and look like you can't handle the offense at all. So the Vikings, I think from that moment on, and I didn't think that Howell had a great joint practices either, but really that second preseason game, if there was a play that broke the Sam Howells back in Minnesota, it was that interception where I think he was trying to throw the ball away, but it just looked like he panicked and heaved it up in the air. And I don't think Kevin O'Connell wants a backup quarterback who can't pick up the offense.

Looks like he holds onto the ball for way too long, makes way too many mistakes. There were just far too many sacks, interceptions, and times where they couldn't even evaluate some of the backup wide receivers because the ball was having so much trouble coming out at training camp. So it was a very, very difficult summer for Sam Howell in Minnesota, and Quasi Adolph-Menta deals him to the Philadelphia Eagles, ends up getting essentially just the fifth round draft pick back in 2026. I think Sam Howell as a concept made sense. It was somebody who had played in the league before. He had started an entire season.

He had some experience. He had played as a backup last year for the Seattle Seahawks. And when you look throughout backups in the league, I mentioned this the other day that if you Google backup quarterback rankings, usually Sam Howell would show up as one of the top 10, 15 backups by people who do stuff like ranking backup quarterbacks. And that's just based on the fact that there aren't that many guys out there who can do the job. So my initial thought when they traded for Sam Howell was, okay, this is fine. This is a guy who's played in the league before. It'll be all right. but for whatever reason, this offense just did not work for Sam Howell.

They must think in Philadelphia that it will work for him and maybe it will. Maybe it is a little bit simpler on the quarterback. Maybe it's a little bit different. He is a good athlete. He can run a little bit. Maybe that's what they want there for somebody to back up Jalen Hertz. And it seems like Tanner McKee, who is their backup quarterback, might be out for a little while. So I get it for them.

I absolutely get it for the Vikings. and it just sort of tells you that when you go out to practice every single day and you watch something not working, they're seeing the same things. And when you guys watch a preseason game and it looks like the guy doesn't know where to go with the football, they're seeing the same things and they decide to move on. Now, Carson Wentz is now the backup quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. It's sort of funny how life comes around like that, right? There was reports of people saw Carson Wentz earlier this summer at MSP.

is Carson Wentz visiting the Vikings? Is he here? And that always made sense to me as a backup option based on Carson Wentz's career. If you go through his recent career, especially, Carson Wentz has been a backup for the Los Angeles Rams. So there is the connection to the Minnesota Vikings offense, very, very similar to what the Los Angeles Rams run. I'm sure there's a lot of similar terminology. There's a lot of similar ideas and concepts. So he spent the entire 2023 season there with the Rams. And then last year, Carson Wentz was one play away from playing in the Super Bowl. He was with the Kansas City Chiefs.

And I think that that tells you the last two franchises that he's been with. It's sort of like Sam Darnold with San Francisco. These are very credible franchises. These are teams that compete for Super Bowls every year who have the best coaches. And they wanted Carson Wentz as their backup in Los Angeles and then in Kansas City. Now, the last time he started, it did not go well, played for the Washington commanders. And in 2021, the last time he really had a full season, they came short of making the playoffs because Carson Wentz did not have a good final game of the season and they missed the postseason

after they had traded a first round pick for Carson Wentz. But when you look at these numbers for his career, and even if we toss aside that crazy 2020 or 2017 season where he was borderline MVP before he got hurt and you all know the rest of the story there. Carson Wentz has had a very good NFL career for a quarterback who's like this. For someone who you're bringing in is a backup. He has not had an amazing NFL career for someone that you want to be your 17 game starter. And if they were acquiring Carson Wentz to be the starting quarterback of this team, I would probably project them as a five type of team. But as a backup, it's very hard to find a better option around the NFL as a

backup quarterback than Carson Wentz. When you consider the number of starts, this guy has thrown over 3,000 NFL passes. He has 151 touchdowns to 67 interceptions in his career. He is 6'5. He's 240 pounds. He's got an 89.3 quarterback rating, which is about what you would expect. for someone who is a really, really good backup quarterback. And when I was talking about those backup quarterback rankings and how Sam Howell would show up somewhere in the upper middle, I mean, Carson Wentz has to show up probably in the top five as far as backup quarterbacks go.

Because when you look at his previous experience, the last time he was a full-time starter in 2021 for a full season, he had a 70.9 pff grade, had really good games, had really bad games. It's what you expect. but my litmus test always for backup quarterbacks is let's say for the month of November J.J. McCarthy gets a hand injury because he smacks his hand on somebody's helmet. Uh-oh, you got to go to your backup quarterback. Do you think that you have to go 0 and 4 during that run if you have Carson Wentz?

I wouldn't think so. I think you could win two of those games. And Wentz's career has kind of been like that since Philadelphia in 2018. would really, I mean, the 2017 season is just totally wild for the Philadelphia Eagles. But after that, with Carson Wentz's career, he is basically a 500 type of quarterback. And that's, that's as good as you're going to do at this time of year. So his, let's see, I'm just going to run this real quick. What is his record since that great season, 2935 and 1?

I mean, that's for his career almost, look at this, almost exactly for his career of a 500, quarterback. 47, 46, and one. So he is a half a game above 500 for his entire career. And that is always my test. Can the guy win two out of four games? And I think there would be a ton of confidence that Carson Wentz could at least have a couple of good games, get you through a tough time, get you to stay in the playoff race to allow J.J. McCarthy to come back. And even if McCarthy were to get seriously hurt, I think you'd still have a chance at making the postseason or being in the hunt toward the end of the year. This is not a Josh Dobbs situation. It's not a Nick Mullen situation. In fact, you wonder if they had somebody like this in 2023. They probably do

make the playoff. So I think Carson Wentz is an enormous, enormous upgrade from Sam Howell. And then to get a fifth round draft pick back for Sam Howell, a guy that I thought was just going to be cut based on the way that he played and another team's emergency sort of becomes the Vikings benefit as Tanner McKee gets banged up and then, you know, they're able to swing Sam Howell over to the Philadelphia Eagles. So those are the basic takeaways from Sam Howell just never fit here, really from day one. I mean, I remember going back to, I think it was the first OTA practice or something where we kind of went, something doesn't really look all that great here with Sam Howell. And I wanted to be patient.

I wanted to give a time, but after about five, six, seven training camp practices, it was, it just, it just never clicked. It just never worked for Sam Howell. And it's very possible that that's who he is as an NFL quarterback is somebody who can just bounce around to a bunch of teams, but you never really want to get in the game. And he'll have, always have that one year where he started, kind of like Jimmy Cawson started a year once for the Carolina Panthers. There's a lot of quarterbacks who started one year.

year and then just really couldn't even swing it as a backup quarterback. And in a scenario like this, I think the other part of it with Wentz that helps a lot more than Sam Howell is that Carson Wentz has been there. Carson has been to, you know, the top of the mountain for at least one season in 2017 and on that team and had that experience. But also, you know, he was in playoff races before and he had injuries and bad breaks. I mean, that 2017 season is a bad break for Wentz, but he also got hurt, I think was it the following year where Nick Foles had to come in the playoff game and almost beat the Saints, if not for I think an Elshon Jeffrey drop. So, but he's been through everything that there is to offer with

the NFL. He's been a backup for Patrick Mahomes. He's been a backup for Matthew Stafford. He's been a starter on a team that he got home field advantage throughout the playoffs. He's been on a starter on teams that fell apart and then had problems. He's seen everything that there is to see in the NFL. I didn't feel that way about Sam Howell. I think what you always want as a backup quarterback is somebody who has a lot of experience and has been through the wars of the National Football League and all that sort of stuff, who's seen many different types of defenses, who understands many different types of defenses and can help you. And the other part is, too, they can help you prepare for upcoming opponents because they know a lot about how

different teams play. So I think that that is much more of a Carson Wentz thing than a Sam Howell thing. And Howell is, I think he's not even 25 years old. So this is somebody who has not been through all that, who does not have any sort of mentorship type of experience or role or credibility to help J.J. McCarthy come along. And it seemed like throughout camp, McCarthy was leaning more on Max Brosmer than he was on Sam Howell. And I think that that kind of tells you a lot.

Wentz, that's your classic veteran quarterback who checks every single classic veteran quarterback box. And I just wonder, it's only a theory. I don't know that this is true. Maybe Carson will tell us at some point or maybe he won't. I wondered if Carson really wanted to go through an entire training camp because I'm sure that someone wanted him other than the Vikings or maybe the Vikings or maybe the Vikings were the only team he wanted to come to and they said, let us try our Sam Howell thing.

and then we'll call you back. But I think when you get to the point of Wentz's career where he's been through so much, he's earned his stripes as a backup even, maybe you don't really want to go through the grind every single day of training camp. You'd rather show up at the last minute and be a backup quarterback here.

I remember talking with Gus Ferrat when the Vikings brought him back at age, I think he was 38 when they brought him back in 2008. And he said that the original agreement was for him to just help out Tavares Jackson and that he would fly home after games, spend the first couple of days of the week at home and then come back on Wednesdays. Like that was his agreement because he didn't really want to be a full, you know, backup quarterback or starting quarterback again at that point. And then he's end up falling into that midway through that season. But like this is the type of thing that

happens when you're in your 30s, when you've had this type of experience, maybe you don't want to go through that training camp day and day out, the preseason, all that sort of stuff, and you'd rather just latch on after the dust has settled. It's exactly the same thing that Stefan Gilmore did last year. There is a point in these guys' lives and careers where they've seen so many offenses, so many defenses, played so many football games that they don't need an entire training camp to pick up the offense, especially if he's just played in Los Angeles's offense two years ago. So this is about as good as you could do at this position.

And it's a little bit of, well, all's well that ends well. I mean, it was a long journey to get to the point that made sense from the very beginning. When we were going through free agents, trades, who's going to be their backup quarterback? I remember once Daniel Jones signed with Indianapolis, we were, well, this guy signed over here, and Gardner Minshu signed over there,

and who's it going to be? And whence is the only one left? and then where's wet? And then now he's here. So there you go. Carson Wentz about as good of an option as you can have as a backup quarterback. And ultimately, now, I'm not going to say they were playing 3D chess and this was the plan all along. But you get a fifth round pick and a better backup quarterback. That kind of works on a few levels. And now to the other part of this, which may be another emergency podcast.

I don't know. I'm planning on going to the links game tonight. but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to. We'll see because a fifth round draft pick is exactly in the ballpark of the type of pick that you would trade for Adam Thielen. And the Vikings and the Panthers have been talking, and I'll tell you what Adam Schaefter said.

Adam Schaefter tweeted, right after the Vikings got this fifth round pick, he said, by adding an extra pick via trade this morning, the Vikings have now added, ammunition to go trade for a wide receiver. They have inquired on Vikings wide receiver, Adam Thielen, as this show has been telling you over the last few days, that the Vikings have been very, very interested in

Adam Thelan, but Carolina has been reluctant to deal the respected and productive veteran. And when I hear reluctant, what I mean, or what I hear in my brain, what I think is that sounds like reluctant to do it at the price tag the Vikings have wanted to do it at but could they be convinced that they now should move Adam Thielen to the Minnesota Vikings if they're going to do it then they're going to do it now with you know an extra fifth round pick they get another one from the Harrison Phillips trade they get another one from the Sam Howell trade and it is kind of crazy that they got this just tells you about desperation with quarters They got, so Harrison Phillips is a good, proven captain who played 700 something snaps every

year for the Vikings, if not more, and he gets a sixth round pick back. And Sam Howell, who was a Viking over the summer and was horrendous, gets a fifth round pickback. Make it make sense. I know. Make it make sense. Because I'm sure Harrison Phillips is waking up this morning being like, that guy who couldn't complete any passes in our training camp practices.

That guy got more in return than I did. If I was him, I would be a little tilted by that this morning. But the point being, though, that they now, I do think have enough of that ammunition. They can offer fifth, sixth, maybe a pick swap between the third and the fourth round pick, but they kind of have their full bevy of picks. And it's been pretty remarkable over the last couple years to see how this front office uses their late round draft pick. to wheel and deal and ultimately end up with veteran and proven players off of draft picks. And this is, you can sort of see how the mind of Quasi Adolfo Mensa works that, you know,

all of you guys love the draft, I love the draft. We love that day three. We love falling in love with the Jalen Twyman's and, you know, different guys that have great backstories in our fifth round picks. I saw Zach Davidson, a former Vikings tight end punting for the Buffalo Bills yesterday. That's that, that's day three picks. The history, there's a few, there's digs. there's Tom Brady, there's a few, but the history's not great.

And so what they seem to want to do is use these to get real players. And when you're in a position where you're trying to win right now, every detail matters. And it does matter that the Vikings can use this draft capital now to make a trade for a wide receiver. I still think that Thielen is more likely than not to end up as a Minnesota Viking. It just makes too much sense for the Vikings. it makes sense to me for Carolina as well as a team that is on the rise but not ready to win now.

I mean, how many more good seasons does Adam Thielen have in him? One or two, it's probably not any more than that. So if you're the Panthers, I mean, you've got these three young wide receivers that you're trying to find out about, including their number one draft pick, Teteroa McMillan, who's looked pretty good for my understanding in training camp from reading Mike Kay, who's the reporter from Carolina that I've been, you know, keeping up on all this stuff for it seems like they're young wide receivers they have a guy jalen cocker if you're a deep fantasy player on fan duel maybe then uh you probably know who uh jake cocker is a jalen cocker i mean is and then they have Xavier legate who they most recently

drafted so uh you know i think that it's pretty clear here that Carolina uh has not said said as has not said no uh this doesn't sound like no this sounds like no this sounds like, well, they're reluctant. So, you know, I mean, think about this. If my neighbor asked me to rake their lawn, I would be reluctant. If they asked me to rake their lawn for $200, I might do it. And I think that's where Carolina is. Is they're reluctant to move their veteran player for right now.

But they, I think, could be convinced. And if not, what the Vikings have been able to do here, if they, if they do decide, If Carolina has their meetings and they say, well, you know, the Vikings are offering this, that, and the other thing, what do you guys want to do? And they decide we can't move on from him. We got to keep Adam Thielen. He's too important to Bryce Young, which I would fully understand if they have anybody banged up or if they haven't been happy with some of their receivers or as happy in training

camp as they initially expected or any of that stuff. If that's the case, I would fully understand that they wouldn't want to move Adam Thielen because he is still a good wide receiver. Over the last two years, he has been a very solid wide receiver. I got a note from a long-time listener to the show, who was very against the idea until he went and looked up Adam Thielen's numbers from last year,

where he ranked on PFF, the catch percentage, all that stuff, and went, oh, you know what? Actually, he was good last year. I just didn't want to watch any Carolina. So he has been good recently, but that's also, for them, they want to win, they want to get into the playoffs. they want Bryce Young to be the best version of himself or of himself. And they also want to find a way to evaluate, you know,

Bryce Young, the best that they can to know whether he's going to be a guy that they stick with long term. So maybe if they didn't love some stuff that they saw from some of their wide receivers, they could dig their heels in. But what I don't hear from that Adam Schaefter report is that the Panthers have told the Vikings, no. What I hear is they've told them up the price. that's the way that it reads. So the Vikings have their backup quarterback and they have draft capital now to go forth and face, you know, kind of go to the league and say,

look, somebody send us a wide receiver. And the other part of from Carolina, we do have to consider this. The other part from Carolina in their situation, their position in this negotiation with the Vikings over Adam Thielen is the simple fact that they know the Vikings need Adam Thielen. We've gone around it a million times with all the different wide receivers names like, hey, I'm interested in Trey Palmer from the Bucks, but it's definitely not as good as Adam Thielen. He's more of an underneath kind of a gadget type of guy. We've talked about Amari Cooper, who we've heard nothing about wanting to get back in the NFL. We've heard about OBJ, who's talked with some teams. We've heard about Gabe Davis, who clearly hasn't blown anybody

away because he's had some visits with teams and nobody has signed him yet, which is not a great sign, I think, for Gabe Davis and where he's at. The Carolina Panthers, they also understand that the Vikings are in a position where they probably need to do something like this. They probably do need to give up multiple draft picks to get Adam Thielen. And if you're the Panthers, why would you be in any hurry to just give him up? So that is the position that the Vikings are in now. I think did a really good job navigating this backup quarterback situation

to get to this point, even though it was a pretty miserable summer if you were a Vikings backup wide receiver and you were running routes with Sam Howell that entire time. And, you know, you can go back and you could second guess the Howell acquisition, but they didn't give up anything for Sam Howell. They just moved in the draft. They essentially got Howell for free, which may be right there was an initial signal of, A, if the Seattle Seahawks are giving up their backup quarterback for literally nothing for just

sliding in the draft a little bit, then maybe they weren't really sold. And there was also some red flags as well with Sam Howell when he was in Seattle because there was the game against the Packers where Gino Smith went down and Howell had to come in and he looked lost, he looked unprepared, he just didn't look like he knew what he was doing. And the Vikings can't have that this year. can't have a backup that you can't trust to win two games out of four. You can't have a backup who can't come in the middle of game, a game if J.J. McCarthy got banged up.

I mean, think about even Nick Mullins was prepared to come into a game when last year, Sam Darnold got hurt for just the play. Like, sometimes things just happen. You get the wind knocked out of you. You have somebody step on your foot, whatever it might be, and you have to come out of a game. Well, you need your backup quarterback even to be. prepared to step in. That was not the case when Sam Howell was in Seattle.

So you can look at that. There were some signals there with his career, the interceptions, the turnovers that suggested that this might not work. I thought it was a reasonable play at the time considering their other options, but they end up with a much better situation to me. It's vastly improved. And a draft pick on top of it, which does seem like playing the game pretty darn well of acquiring an extra asset, because even if the Vikings don't end up trading for Adam Thielen, like I said, right now I'm leaning slightly with the needle toward the Vikings being able to pull that off. But it seems to me like the ball is in Carolina's court of whether they

actually want to pull that trigger or not, because clearly the Vikings have now enough late round draft capital to make that case for Adam Thielen. And you know, maybe maybe there's some, to some extent, another trade the Carolina made. They said, what is this, Jonathan Mingo to the Cowboys for a fourth. So what I have had in my brain is that they need to add up to a fourth, you know, how there's the draft charts and all that stuff, that they need to at least be able to add up to something similar that Carolina got because that's probably what they would evaluate this as,

is, hey, if we could trade Jonathan Mingo for a fourth, then we should get, you know, at least that for a proven wide receiver. But the Vikings don't have that. So, you know, can you maneuver it around with an extra fifth, an extra sixth, a pick swap of a third and a fourth, like figure that out to get Adam Thielen. We'll see if there's another emergency podcast on the way or, you know, I keep looking down for notifications from Mr. Shefter just to see, like, is this, you know, coming right away here? because the minute that they traded away, Sam Howell, right after that, just moments later, like, here comes Carson Wentz. So there you go.

That part of the Vikings roster is settled. Still other questions remain. What they'll do at the punt returner and probably even kick returner positions, what they will do at cornerback, which I think is still a very reasonable thing to be asking about right now is it can't just be backup quarterback. Like there has to be more to go than just the backup quarterback situation for the Minnesota Vikings. So I let's get, uh, let's get your reaction to Carson Wentz.

I think that this is just very, very solid way of playing this position and dealing with this situation where, you know, they gave Sam Howell every chance and it didn't end up working out and they end up with, I think, a vast improvement. And J.A.G says Quasi getting draft picks for absolutely nothing with Daniel Jones and Sam Howell is kind of hilarious. Oh, that's a great point. You know, I forgot about that with Sam Howell. I mean, maybe this is the, this is the analytics model you were all waiting for. You thought the Vikings will break football with their asset management. And that asset management turned out to be get quarterbacks and then trade them to other desperate teams. I mean, hey, that you're right about that though, because I think they're expected to get or at least. projected to get a fourth-round comp pick for Daniel Jones if he plays X number of snaps, which it certainly looks like he's going to. And then they are getting a fifth round draft pick here for Sam Howell, and neither one of them played a down.

I mean, to get two draft picks with neither one getting a down is really something. Douglas, if we miss on Thiel and make a big swing for Pittman or a Lave, I mean, I don't know if, is there some evidence that Michael Pittman? is that who you're talking about, would be on the block or even Alave. I don't know if either one of those guys are actually out there. I mean, that's, that's the reasoning with Adam Thielen. And if we're doing eventually an emergency podcast, we could get deeper into this. But the thing about Adam Thielen and getting him is he's as close as you get to a real wide receiver at this time of year when it comes to signing or trading them.

You're usually just not able to get someone who's young and on the. rise and has a great resume and like there there's all sorts of different uh you know ailments that every wide receiver has that we could go through well this guy's just a gadget guy this guy has an injury history this guy is a diva this guy you know whatever else for potential receivers and this guy Thielen is old but you're going to have to decide which one of those things you want you either take somebody's young receiver that they didn't like who's not experienced is not proven or you take somebody's old wide receiver who got beat out in camp and those are your options. And for me, Thielen is the best possible option. But I also think that it's possible.

You know, John says my prediction is the Panthers will keep Thielen and trade them at the trade deadline if they're out of contention. I mean, that's that you're not, you're not crazy for thinking that that's possible because the Panthers are in a spot where I think that they believe they're going to win this year, like not win a Super Bowl, but I think they think. that after last year the second half of the season where they started to turn things around despite having the worst defense in the entire league and they started to get good play from Bryce Young

and they started to get good performance from their ground game and they were in a lot of games. I mean, they were in a game with the Chiefs. They were in a game with the Eagles. I mean, those are the two teams in the Super Bowl and the Panthers played with them very close. And so, hey, you know, do you really have a chance? No, not to win the Super Bowl,

but you have a chance to be in the playoffs. and that franchise needs it. I mean, they've been down bad for now a long time, and they have an owner who has made some headlines for sure in David Teper, and they changed general managers, they changed coaches. Like, they are in a position where their coach, we know this. The heat gets turned up fast. So they hire Dave Canales, and he comes in and, okay,

the second half of the season looks better, looks like the arrow is up. But if they have the same season again, like you're talking about, maybe another, you know, the owner makes a change or maybe he's on the hot seat or something. So do you, when you're in that type of position, you've got to feel good about your depth. And the swing man for this, the ironic swing man for this Carolina, because the last few days, I've been reading a lot of Carolina stuff, is actually Hunter Renfro is the swing man for this. If they've, they have liked, for my understanding, what they've seen from Hunter Renfro, and if they feel confident that he's back because he had this illness that kept him out last year,

we were all talking about what happened to Hunter Renfro, he fell off the face of the earth, and now he's out of the league. And apparently he had an illness that kept him out that was pretty bad. And then now he's back and he's performed well in training camp. If they're confident in him, then that's four wide receivers for them. And they'll probably go that way. So I don't know. When I read the Schefter tweet, what I read,

read is, hey, Vikings, let's jack up the price, and then there's a good chance that this could still happen with Adam Thielen. Let's see. Douglas says, Wentz is the perfect backup for 2025, allows Brosmer to develop, and we can still win games if McCarthy goes down. I totally agree. I mean, if we were talking about ideal backups from day one, so who do you want to be right there next to J.J. McCarthy. I probably would have said, like the rest of you, that Daniel Jones was the best possible backup. You know, mature guys had a playoff win in the league against the Vikings. He's had some success. He's had, you know, some failures. He's been through it. And you could trust them to get in the game and play. Next on my list would have been Carson Wentz. If we were talking all backups,

I mean, right there somewhere is Gardner Minshu. You know, Tyrod Taylor's a very different type of quarterback, but he can win a handful of games if you need him to. Wentz would have been there, especially because of the recent backup experience. With a guy like Wentz, one of the big questions you'd have if he hadn't been a backup before is like, does he really want to be a backup? Is he really going to want to put in that work and develop the younger guy and help out and that sort of thing? And then the last two years, Wentz has been a backup for two great quarterbacks in Matthew Stafford and Patrick Mahomes. and the fact that the Rams and Chiefs trusted him as their backup, I think says quite a bit about where he's at as a backup.

And the experience in the offense, I mean, it really does hit every single one of those things that you would have wanted out of this situation. It just took a while to get there. Steve says KJ should be available shortly. Yep, I agree. KJ. Osborne is a fair choice. And when I chatted with my friend in Washington who covers the commanders, standing. He said that KJ. Osborne has kind of been just a guy in camp for them, hasn't really

stood out, hasn't really gotten, you know, first reps or anything like that. That's somebody with a ton of experience here. The one concern I have is that Osborne after that concussion in Atlanta, it's kind of not really been the same receiver. He's been on two teams now and it didn't really work for him. But sometimes just with whatever, for whatever reason, with Keena McCardo, with KOC, you know, it'll work better than it would. somewhere else where they maybe don't understand his skill set as well or try to fit the square peg into a round hole. I don't know. Osborne was a good receiver here. And so if he's coming back, then that's somebody that you'd feel pretty good about, but not quite as good as

an Adam Thielen, who's been at the highest level. And then most recently has been more of a wide receiver two type of performance. But still, like, that's a lot better than, you know, somebody who has been kind of kicked around a little bit in KJ Osborne. So I'd like Thielen idea better, but you're right that if Osborne gets cut, he just makes a lot of sense. And we've made it all about Thielen, but it could be two wide receivers. Could definitely be two wide receivers. And they need someone to catch punts, too.

J.A.G. Alex, Alec Lewis with a C. Floated Robert Woods, makes some sense, played for the Rams a while ago. I mean, it's in the same ball. Park. Robert Woods probably hasn't been that guy for quite a while and has not has just not been an above average player for a bit. And he's had a lot of injury issues. They were last together in 2021. Ton of respect for Robert Woods. Don't dislike that idea. And Alec is probably coming from somewhere with that idea of Robert Woods. I think I like where Thielen is at better than then Woods. Let me see what Woods has done recently. It feels.

like he went from everybody's kind of favorite most underrated wide receiver to yeah 20 catches last year with Houston 40 the year before with Houston pretty average play but he is a good blocker I mean look like I said about Thielen this is kind of what you're getting at this time of year so not against it Robert Woods would be an upgrade from what they have now which is nothing but he hasn't performed as well recently as Thielen Michael says Ty Felton was a third would you take him over Adam Thielen? Not at this point in his career, no. And he was a very, very late.

Remember that third round has all the comps and it goes to almost the hundredth pick? I mean, third rounder. How many third rounders just come in and start right away and play right away? It's just not that many. Ty Felton is probably going to contribute as a kick returner. And I like the raw skills that he has. And I like the idea of getting Felton in from time to time and having him catch a few passes and, you know, get an underneath pass to get them going or run, run an end around

or have him run a deep route or something, like mixing him in. I just, when you're talking about handling the entire load of this offense, we know how difficult this offense is when it comes to, you know, wide receivers. Like, wait a minute now. Philadelphia may, oh, no, oh, oh, look, a connection, a connection. Tom Pellisero tweets that the eagles made room for Sam Howell. This is the talk about the tangled webs we weave by waving Lewis Seen, who was still part of the Philadelphia Eagles.

And technically probably has a Super Bowl ring from last year when he was picked up by Philadelphia. So now he is no longer an eagle. But as far as Ty Felton goes, I'm okay with where Felton is for his first training camp. as a late third round pick, very last pick in the third round, expecting a guy like that to come in. And we don't know where Jalen Naylor is at. He might have to be wide receiver two. That would be just a lot to ask, I think. Majal, uh, Wentz can tush push the quarterback.

Yeah, well, he is big enough. He is definitely big enough. Uh, JP says could this fifth and seventh we acquired by trading how he'll be used in a possible Thielen deal? I think that that's, uh, the fringe benefit. fit, yes, is what it sounds like from what Carolina is putting out there to Adam Schaefter is, we don't have to. So you have to make us.

Skoll Viking says, who gets the ball out quicker, Brosmer or Wentz? Brozmer gets the ball out quicker. It's not even close. Wentz is much, I mean, Wence surprisingly doesn't have a great yards per attempt for his career. He has a surprisingly low yards per attempt for his career for a guy that I think of as being aggressive and having a big arm, six point seven yards per attempt. He never got to eight. A lot of seasons in the sixes in his most recent career.

He played a little bit for the Rams through 24 passes, I think, in just a throwaway game and had 6.8 yards per attempt. So he has not been a guy that has pushed the ball deep down the field a lot. But I think Brosmer is much more of a limited athlete who you're talking about has to, get the ball out quickly. It is not as much of a playmaker. But that's not really how you would do this. That's only evaluating Max Brosmer versus third teamers, fourth teamers, fourth string quarterback throughout all of training camp. And he did a great job. And he showed everything that's there, I think, for the future for a QB2 for next year. But Carson Wentz has started, what, 90-something

games in the NFL. And he's won a ton of games in the NFL. And he's been in the playoffs before and he's, you know, been thought of as a franchise quarterback and then had the setbacks and he's been a backup and he's had all those things. I mean, you'd much, much, much rather have Carson Wentz right now and then put Max Brosmer in that position next year when he is really ready. Let's see, dystopian utopia illness for a year sounds like Thielen isn't going anywhere. Yeah, but it was, it was something that's with Renfro, it was something that was resolving. I think it was some sort of stomach issue or whatever. It wasn't, he didn't get the sniffles for a year.

It was something that was like plaguing him and he was losing weight and he was having all these problems, but then they got it sorted out. I think that's what happened with, with Hunter Renfro from what I read. So, Evan says that at the beginning of all this, he said, Daniel Jones, Minchew and Wentz. Yep, that was, that was probably, I mean, I don't remember my list. That's probably about what my list. was as well. It was probably exactly like that. I thought those were clearly the three. Sloth says that Schefter tweet was either written by Carolina or at least they told them to use the word reluctant. Yeah, it sounds like it was written by Carolina. And reluctant doesn't

sound like a no. Reluctant sounds like we need more draft capital. We need more convincing. Bitter Bruce. Vikings just fleece the Eagles. If KOC can't turn Howl into a serviceable QB2, what makes the Eagles believe he's worth a fifth and a seventh. And the Vikings did, it was a swap in 2027. Yeah, it's a swap. So they swapped a 2027, 6th for a 7th, and they get a 6th round pick.

So the part you need to care about is they get a 6th round pick out of it. Or I'm sorry, a 5th round pick in 2026. That's what they really get out of it. they are including a 2027 6th and getting a 2027 6th and a 2026 5th back, just to clarify that. But, you know, your point, it might just be a fit issue for the Vikings. What Kevin O'Connell wants in his quarterback is execution. I mean, he wants a guy to read those plays correctly, see the field extremely well. I mean, this is why J.J. McCarthy works.

as the quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings because, and I think even better as an actual fit than Sam Darnold did, where Darnold wanted to be more of a playmaker, he wanted to hang in the pocket for too long, he wanted to get rid of the football at the last second and throw it downfield every time, where I think that, and I think O'Connell wants explosive plays and he wants downfield passing, but it's maybe somewhere in between where Kirk was that was too conservative. It's like it's a little bit too hot, it's a little bit too cold, it's like a hotel room trying to set the temperature and McCarthy is probably the right temperature of someone who can push the ball down the field, but is also going to take what's there. Sam Howell looked to me like a guy

who grew up just sort of making it up back there, scrambling around, make plays, throwing it up for grabs, that that was kind of his mentality. He's going to scramble. He's going to, you know, throw off balance or whatever and make some plays. That's just not how you need to play in a system like this where it's, you know, you got to get through the reeds and you have to understand the defense and you have to understand vacated spaces and all the details of this thing to make it work. Well, that's something Wentz has already done in Los Angeles, but it didn't seem like Sam Howell could really see the field well enough. And I know that I use that terminology all the time, like, see the field, but it's so key. It's like the first thing that I noticed about

J.J. McCarthy is that he could see the field. And when he dropped back, he understood where his receivers were, he understood where his options were, and he found ways to get the football out. And I just didn't see that from how there was so much patting the football, waiting, waiting, waiting, and you're just going to get sacked all the time. And, you know, look, Wence has his issues. You know, he has turnover issues at times. He's thrown interceptions before quite a few of them at times in his career. And he takes sacks like anybody else in his career. That's been somewhat of a problem for him at times. This is not a starting caliber quarterback.

He got sacked 50 times back in 2020. It's not a starting caliber quarterback at this point, his career. But it is somebody who can step in if you need him. It is somebody that can be with J.J. McCarthy for this ride. And I think that that is something that is very underappreciated as well about this is just the value of having someone who can actually help J.J. McCarthy with his experience and help the defense prepare because I felt like Sam Howell was struggling so much that even in practice, is he going to be able to help the first

team defense? Kit, do you see the loss of preseason and camp reps as a negative for wence if he needs to get in a game? If he needs to get in the first game, then yeah. Yeah, I think so. But remember, I mean, they went traded for Nick Mullins right around this same time. I think the date was like August 22nd or whatever when they traded for Nick Mullins. It was right around the same time because they were not happy with Sean Mannion and Kell and Mond and it was fine. If J.J. McCarthy can get through the first couple weeks of the season, I think it'll be okay. You don't want Carson Wentz to have to play in week one for any reason.

Now, if he has to, he has to. And one time Kevin O'Connell was able to guide Josh Dobbs through a game that he won, And eventually the wheels came off on the Josh Dobbs thing. But even Dobbs like that second game against the New Orleans Saints, they were able to scheme up the first 15 plays. He got out there. He ran the offense. It's not impossible.

Baker Mayfield went out to L.A. and won a game after joining the Rams very shortly. I think, you know, he got acquired and then the next week he had to play or whatever. It gets possible. But after a couple of weeks, Carson Wentz will be fine. Having been in the Los Angeles Rams system before, I think that they are extremely similar what the Rams run and what the Vikings run, the terminology, you know, I think all of those things would play into it.

But right away, I would be very, very nervous for him, for not getting those reps. For somebody who's been in the league this long and has proven this much, though, it's less important than it is for someone like Sam Howell who really, really needed those reps. Roger says Osborne would be better for less. I mean, better than Adam Thielen. K.J. Osborne last year had seven catches and he's not going to make the Washington commanders who don't exactly have a great receiver room right now with Terry McClorin sitting out. I don't agree with that at all. I don't agree with that all.

I like K.J. Osborne a lot. I don't think at all that he is anywhere close to Adam Thelan, not in his career, not at any point in his career, and not right now. Now, if they bring them back, that would make a lot of sense. But, you know, seven catches last year and not going to make the commander's team is not really inspiring versus a Carolina team that seems to be holding out a little bit, knowing what they have in Adam Dielands. I think there's a pretty big difference there, pretty big gap there. Wally wants Alec Pierce or Alan Lazzard. I mean, look, Alan Lazzard is bad. And Alec Pierce, I don't think is going to be available.

But, you know, maybe if it's Pierce, okay. I mean, they're going to keep, this is the thing. If Theeland doesn't work out, they're not just going to be like, ah, we're out of receivers. If he doesn't work out, then they're going to go look at other people. What about Van Jefferson? Matt asks, he certainly did look good against the Vikings when Zemaya Vaughn fell down. That's, I mean, it's another guy to talk about is, it's another guy to talk about.

There will be another option here if they don't figure it out, whether it's Robert Woods, whether it's Van Jefferson, and probably somebody that has previous experience. Steve says Brozmer has a lot more potential. Isn't it great to be a player in the NFL who's never played before? And everyone thinks that the sky is the limit. That's a great place to be in the NFL. Brosmer does not have more potential than Carson Wentz of what his career was.

I mean, if Max Brozmer had Carson Wentz's career, it would be insane. I mean, and this comes from from minicamp. I wrote the story on Brosber about how great he looked in minicamp and how we're already seeing signs and he was great the other night. And like this is, this is a Brosmer Bros podcast from pretty much day one. But a potential, I mean, yeah, into the future, sure, because Carson Wentz will just retire at some point, but you're not having a backup for this year for potential. You're having a backup this year to win games and to help your team in every single way,

whether it's coming in for a single game or a single play or if you're coming in for four weeks or you're never coming in at all, but you're just helping J.J. McCarthy behind the scenes. Like potential is not something that is part of the discussion for QB2 right now other than keeping Brosmer on the roster. You absolutely keep Rosemary on the roster. And I think he'll be QB2 next year. I think he will be because of what he's shown.

But as of right now, I mean, you want, you want Wentz way over somebody who's never played before. Absolutely. Dusty says, bringing in a 32-year-old who's thrown 153 touchdowns instead of a 24-year-old with 23, yeah, 22 touchdowns, 23 picks is a better backup situation. he can read better and be a better mentor to JJ. Yeah, no, I mean, look, I don't think it's even close. And I guess, you know, maybe that would have been shaped if we saw Carson Wentz all summer. But Wentz won the QB2 job with the team that went to the Super Bowl last year. He had the QB2 job for the Los Angeles Rams in 2023.

This is a guy. And that team made the playoffs as well. I mean, this is a guy who has proven a lot in the NFL, even if he never became. the true, I mean, after that 2017 season, it was this guy is the next great franchise quarterback and all those things. He never became that. But he did become an NFL quarterback who could win about half the games that he's in. And there's not that many guys who can actually do that. I agree with maybe it's Ryan, R.YN. He can win you four to five games. Well, I mean, if you played him the full season, I think he would win maybe seven, eight games.

but he can win you a couple games if he has to play four or five. G.I.S. Wizard, what do you think about Tyree Kill? No, that's not going to happen. He's too expensive and there's way too many problems there with Tyree Kill. That's just, I mean, that's my point about the wide receiver discussion is that when we're talking about who to go out and get, none of the names are going to make you all that happy. None of the names are going to get you super excited. They need someone to be solid for a few weeks before Jordan Addison comes back. And then they might need someone to just play a role because they wanted Rondale Moore to play a role on this team. They wanted him to get catches underneath and make some plays for them and rotate him in a little bit with Jalen Naylor because I don't know where Jalen Naylor's injury is at.

And I think if you're the Vikings, they were making sure to not say too much about Naylor's injury because that might affect how this trade goes down. But based on what we've seen from Naylor, you know, having a cast. on his hand. It doesn't look great. And when you hear evaluate options, that almost always means surgery. That's not great either. So they need somebody now who can really play potentially a lot. Newt says Thielen is slow and injury prone. Yeah, I mean, just, you know, over and over kind of the same bad points get made. You know, he, Adam Thielen has never won with his raw speed. It's always been great hands, great ball tracking, strength. You know, that is a big part of it.

in this offense, if you can play within the system, which he can, you're going to be fine if you can catch the football. For someone like Naylor, it's been a problem for him catching the football, I think. You know, I mean, Thielen, Thielen, that's the whole point is like, you're not getting Deshawn Jackson in his prime here. I don't know who thinks that you're going to get that. So to me, you're just sort of like, I don't know, like lashing out or something.

when you say stuff like that, injury prone. He played the entire 20, 23 season healthy. He was banged up a little last year, still played 10 games. They need him for three. They need him to be the guy for three and then contribute the rest of the way. So, you know, I mean, Thielen works really well in this system and has been a really good wide receiver throughout his career and was still very good last year. It's the right way to go.

And it seems to me like that's something that has a very good chance still. happening. But if it doesn't, then the options are wide open. So there you go. I mean, I don't have a whole lot more on the backup quarterback situation because now we've reached the point where we're just sort of throwing out names and ideas and, you know, saying Adam Thielen's old and everything. And so that's kind of redundant. But I think the bottom line on this move is that the Vikings get in Carson Wentz, one of the most experienced backup quarterbacks who has been QB2 on two of the best teams, best franchises in the NFL over the last couple years, and they make the right decision not to be stubborn about the Sam

Howell situation. Yep, they traded for him. Yep, they took a shot at it. They tried to convince themselves that all those interceptions and sacks may have just been Washington's fault. Usually it's not. Usually it's not. As bad as Washington was as a franchise, as poorly as they were coached, Usually it's not just something that is random that a guy leads the league in picks and sacks. And that's what we saw from Sam Howell. It was a very, very poor performance during training camp and in the second preseason game, that put the nail in the coffin. But they end up getting draft capital and they end up getting a significant, significant upgrade

in the actual player for the backup quarterback. And I think it's a major benefit that Carson Wentz, has all the experience that he has. And I guess what I'm wondering about is just whether this was always kind of the plan, unless Sam Howell really blew them away. And the Max Brosmer element is great, great for Max Brosmer to play as well as he did. He belongs on the 53. I think someone would claim him if he got cut.

I was asking around the other day, like, hey, do you think anybody would actually claim? I was just asking some people in the league. Do you think he would be claim? And the answer I got back was, Probably because there are, I mean, look at even the, the Raiders. The Raiders lost Aiden O'Connell to an injury. The Philadelphia Eagles, this is why, you know, you have to keep Max Brosmer on the 53. The Philadelphia Eagles just traded a fifth for someone who has never been good and never.

Yeah, that's how desperate teams are for quarterback. So you got to keep Rosemary on the roster and I really like his future outlook. I just don't like asking him to be the backup quarterback alone for this year. so getting Carson Wentz makes all the sense in the world for the Vikings to pair him with J.J. McCarthy and there you have it. There is your emergency podcast for now. And then we wait.

We might have another one very soon. We'll see or we might not. But, I mean, the Vikings are definitely not done. That's the other point. They're definitely not done. And I still have cornerback on the radar. I've still got returner, kick or punt return. We didn't see anything from the kick.

returners and you know and tie felton to convince you that this he wasn't in good shape there i mean felton fumbled and then got hurt and then couldn't even play in the third preseason game i mean that's not really boating particularly well for tie felton either as a kick returner so they need returner they should be looking at the cornerback position i think um there might even be i don't know like there might even be a mackay blackman trade option to somebody uh knowing how much this team likes to wheel and deal to try to get another cornerback in here or they could wait till cut down day on that. So who knows? More to come for the Minnesota Vikings. But bottom line is that this is an enormous upgrade and getting draft capital out of it is just a big win

for the Minnesota Vikings overall. So I appreciate you all popping in for this emergency podcast to break down the Vikings backup QB situation, which, you know, I got it to I felt bad throughout this camp because day after day we did a live show after every single camp practice and every single day I came in here and said guys I don't think it's good I don't think it's good day after day how did sam howl do not great not great and you tried to find silver linings well he looked pretty good in the preseason game you tried to find well he wasn't that bad in the in the joint practices but ultimately just not good enough uh for uh you know for sam howl Sam says, sounds like Wentz was abrasive and had locker room issues when he was younger,

would feel less good about him for not his last two years. Yeah, I mean, that's, no, that's right. Yeah, that's right. There was, there was reports of being not that coachable. There was reports of, like you said, like not getting along with the coaching staff or whatever, but to me, any of that goes by the wayside. And things change. Things change for guys. If you went from being, a top quarterback in the league and somebody who was in an MVP race and was thought of as a franchise quarterback and then your Philadelphia Eagles

go out and get Jalen Hertz and push you out and send you somewhere else and then you're still having this idea that you're a franchise quarterback but when you grow up sometimes like Carson Wentz now in his 30s and you realize like this is where you are as a quarterback in the NFL, you've had your career

and I'm sure we'll talk to him very soon. you've had your career, but now you're in a good place to be ready to help a team, to help a player, to help a good team, try to go chase a championship and all that sort of stuff. I mean, that is a good place to be for Carson Went still. And I think over the last two years, he realized that. It's way better to have a job in the NFL with good franchises as a backup quarterback and have a chance to win games and be ready than it is, you know, to be, you know, a starting quarterback on a team that's struggling. I mean, he's in Washington. That team was so bad.

I like where he's at right now. And I agree with you that there's, there's proof in the Rams and the Chiefs. If he was a backup for the Jaguars and the Colts, I might have been like, I don't know. But Chiefs and the Rams, those teams do not mess around. They wouldn't have kept him as their backup quarterback if they didn't feel good about it. Thanks, T.L. for the Super Chat. Oh, Evan, good question about Ty Chandler. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think Ty Chandler is very tradable, but, you know, they might try. Late round pick swaps, you never know.

Late round pick swaps can always happen. That's right. Douglas, you're right. That's a good point that Josh McCown was with Carson Wentz in 2019. So there is familiarity there. That's right, because McCown got into the playoff game. Good point. Good point.

So he would know. And that's what we're talking about, like reports or leaks or this or that or the other thing. Well, he would know when McCown would know. And if McCown thought that he was not someone who would be coachable for COC or wouldn't fit in in this culture, they wouldn't get him because that would mean a lot. That's a great point. I didn't think of that connection. Josh McCown. To me, even though Josh McCown's been here for several years, he's still a backup somewhere in the league. That's how I think of him. But I don't know what's going to happen with Ty Chandler. I think they probably just end up cutting him. But then again, Xavier Scott did get

banged up the other night and we don't know what the situation is there. They might, might just end up keeping Chandler because I think if you cut Xavier Scott, he can get to the practice squad. I don't think he's a guy that's going to get poached. So that's another, that's another point right there. Ripin was on that team as well. Wow, how about that? I didn't know that. Shadow Wolf with some great history there that Tyler Thickpen got claimed and he didn't even have as good of a preseason as Max Brosmer. No, that's exactly right. Yeah, I think I think Brozmer would get picked up the way that he's played. Why is Brett Rippin on the team?

I think Brett Rippin does a really good job at all the things that are not playing behind the scenes, knowing the offense, being a good teammate, working, you know. I mean, look, in case of emergency, he knows the offense and he could go in. I think he's probably a practice squad guy for this team, though. I think they'll cut him and put him on the practice squad. He's just somebody that if he had to play, he has won before a couple of times. I think he might have two wins in the NFL, so he can play, but you just really don't want that scenario other than, you know,

just once upon a time. Tim says, I miss Nick Mullins. Well, Wence is better than Nick Mullins. I think by a country mile. So Danny says Wence is poison, which is probably a good time to just wrap it out. Well, we just went through that, though. Like, there's connections here. And if he was, then if he was problematic, then I don't think the chiefs and the Rams

would have kept him and I don't think Josh McCown would have been comfortable bringing him here if there were problems. I think that sometimes things get out there when situations go bad like with Wentz and Philadelphia and things get put out there and then they just become the truth, right? If one person says to a reporter who wants to put it out there, oh yeah, Wence was a bad guy, then, you know, that just becomes something that's going to follow him around because it was one report that said one thing. Probably not everybody else's experience. Yeah, and yay, hey, he was fine on the chief.

Well, that's the point. That's the point. So the chiefs and the Rams and Josh McCown would know, I think, better than a couple of reports from a few years ago. And things changed, too. So either way, bottom line, this is a great, a great move for the Vikings in handling this situation. They get a huge upgrade in my mind, way more experience, much better.

player, somebody who's proven it in the NFL, has been a backup for good teams, knows the offense, and they get a fifth round pick out of it. So I'm going to put a wrap on it for right now, and then we will see Frederick with the super chat, would you be interested in a Micah Parsons trade? Well, of course, I would be interested in a Micah Parsons trade, but I don't think that that is really realistic. Now, maybe a team that has a lot of cap space in the future, maybe Carolina. They're like, who knows? Maybe that team is looking for. I think that they might actually have to do that. Shiloh Sanders and Lewis Seen got released. Who would you rather have as a practice squad guy? I'm going to go with neither. I'm going to go with neither. I don't think I need

anybody from the Sanders family tree, which I noticed the, the whole entire internet was crashing after Shadur Sanders looked like a fifth round draft pick in a game. There were theories that he was given the bad place. So I don't think you need that circus at all from anyone with Dion Sanders lineage. Dr. Smug, do you think KOC Quasey told how they were working on a trade on Friday night? I don't think they tell players anything. They don't go to players and say, we're thinking about trading you. I think they said, you're not playing.

You're on the list of guys who are not playing. That's cut to Melchipe. Well, look, I mean, when, when, It's always, almost always the case that the draft analysis world will fall in love with someone that doesn't end up getting drafted high. Guess who was that guy? Sam Howell, Sam Howell was that guy. And every NFL team met with him and every NFL team evaluated him. And then they landed on this answer that Sam Howell's not good for a reason. They don't always get it right, but they're usually pretty good at not getting it wrong with guys who dropped to the fourth or fifth round.

If you look at the history of the draft, the first rounders have the most success. the second rounders have the second most success and on down through the undrafted free agents. I mean, there's a reason why Shadur Sanders was a fifth round pick because he has limitations. He took a ton of sacks in college. Oh, my gosh, he took five sacks in a preseason game. Not shocking. Dylan Gabriel was a great college quarterback. I'm not shocked that he was better in training camp than Shadur Sanders.

Nothing about that situation was surprising. Shadur in the pre-draft refused to do the combine stuff. he's not a very good athlete he's got limited arm strength and he's a big big big celebrity and so people tend to lean much more hey like the links are playing the indiana fever tonight uh there were certain expectations for kately clark that were unreachable and i feel the same way about shader sanders like there were expectations for this guy that were just unreachable it wasn't going to happen that shader sanders was not going to just come in as a fifth round draft pick where that's where his talent put him in the in the draft in the NFL

Evaluation, and he wasn't just going to come in and be a superstar. I don't know why people expected that. He averaged six yards an attempt in his first preseason game, and LeBron tweeted about it. I'm like, what is the deal here? People love celebrity more than they love the truth, I think. And we definitely saw that when it came to, definitely saw that when it came to Shadur Sanders. And we've seen that from a number of other athletes who get hyped up and they're, their celebrities and they're everywhere in college.

Tim Tebow was another. one. I mean, he got drafted in the first round, but I think that Denver kind of fell in love with the guy Tim Tebow and not so much the actual skill. But it was the same deal where there were people who would die for Tim Tebow's like, what? No, I mean, look, Jack of all trades. Caitlin Clark has been a okay WNBA player through her first two years. She's been injured this year. There was expectation she was just going to take over the league and that all the other players in the WNBA were just going to fall down when she stepped on the floor and she was going to to drop 50 a game and she was going to be the greatest player ever and it's just not just not the

case it was unrealistic it was unrealistic for for the expectations i didn't say she wasn't good i'm saying that it was unrealistic for the expectations it's very similar when there's a lot of hype about a player on the internet when there's this this this this swell around a player like shader sanders and then you know that's how you get mel kuyper like lose his mind because he bought into that. So, yeah, no, Dusty, that's, that's the exactly point. That's my, that's my point is people were calling Caitlin Clark, the goat. Like, she's going to be, my Amor was here, guys.

Like, this is a hard league to play. It's kind of like with Sanders, where the, the evidence would tell you the past with Shadur Sanders is, if you're drafted in the fifth round, you're drafted in the fifth round for a reason. If you're a quarterback, a team just traded a fifth round pick for Sam Howell, who was freaking terrible for the Vikings in training camp and preseason and they just trade a fifth round pick. That was the evaluation the league had on Sanders. He's just not worth much. He's not worth much than a Sam Howl. And because people bought into the celebrity and they

bought into the shine of Dion Sanders and Colorado and being so, you know, getting so much attention, that's why he got so much of this coverage and not because of actual performance. Because there wasn't a lot there when it came to Shadur Sanders college performance that would have said, oh, yeah, this is a first round draft pick. There are not very many first round draft picks that look like Shadur Sanders, who are bad athletes who have mediocre arm strength, take a ton of sacks in college, throw a ton of checkdowns in college, a fine college quarterback who improved that team for sure. But the league was right. And so Shadur going in and playing poorly was not a a shock for him the other night, and it wasn't a conspiracy either.

So anyway, well, you're right, you're right, Shadur getting five minutes on Purple Inside. Well, you know, it came up. It came up with Shiloh Sanders. So anyway, just kind of something to keep an eye on for the future when it comes to prospect evaluators. So anyway, all right, well, we'll see what happens next. We'll see what happens next when it comes to the Vikings and the off season. They're very, very well may be. I'm going to be near the computer all day.

I am playing on going to the game later tonight, but we might have to change that. The Eagles are getting all the secrets. Look, I will, I'll tell you a quick story before I wrap up. I know I've been, you guys are keeping me going in the chat here. But Mike Vrable, you know how blunt Mike Vrable can be? The Vikings signed a player. They had Tennessee on the schedule for week two, I think, in 2020.

And the Vikings signed some guy that the Titans had cut right before that game. So we're on the conference call with Mike Vrable. And, you know, we're asking him about, you know, Ryan Tannahill and the offense and the defense. And somebody asks, hey, the Vikings just signed this random guy that you guys cut, your fifth linebacker that you guys cut. Do you think he's going to give the Vikings intent? on your defense.

And Vrable said, eh, that guy doesn't know the defense well enough to teach the Vikings. That's how I feel about Sam Howell. I don't think Sam Howell knows enough about the Vikings offense to teach the Philadelphia Eagles.

Is J. Sean making the roster? Maybe. Maybe. I mean, somebody is, I mean, Lucky Jackson would make the most sense. Just judging by the order the other night, Lucky Jackson got the least amount of work, which usually is good for that player. But it's going to be, Addison will be on the suspended list. So Jefferson, and then after that, it gets open.

They have liked Jashon Jones, so it's open there. It's up to them. Like, do they like Thayer Thomas a little bit more than J. Sean Jones? I think they probably like J. Sean Jones a shade more than Thayer Thomas. But it's going to be Lucky J. in, I'm sure on the roster, they just don't have other people, and then whoever else they go and get. I still think it's very possible that you're talking about a trade for someone, if it's Thielen or somebody else, and then after that, someone else to be a punt returner slash depth wide receiver.

D.L says Thielen is old. Wow. I am really thankful for you guys informing me of Adam Thielan's age. It's really, that's really helpful. He's not worth anything more than a six. Well, that's not how negotiations work. You see, there's this thing called leverage. And when you have a receiver who's caught 151 passes over the last two years, despite being old, which is so interesting that you guys have noticed that. And you have a team over here that really wants a wide receiver

because there's a suspended for three games and their other one is hurt, then you can't just as the team who needs the wide receiver say we're going to give you nothing. And the team who doesn't have to give up the wide receiver, you don't just give them up for nothing. That's not how negotiation works. Bloody soup, I must be a grandpa 50 of Thiel and his old. Well, in NFL years, he is very old. But, you know, when you look at a lot of teams who have won and who have gone to the Super Bowl and you look at their rosters, you know what you might find?

you might find an old player you might i don't know go look you might find an old player or two you might find a guy who was 30 something years old who went to a super bowl like most teams have that type of guy most teams have veteran players who fill out roles and look if they were asking adam theelin to be wide receiver one then i would say yeah i mean that's probably not a good situation but they won't be if they make that trade so And you're right, Nano Joe, that he's putting up better numbers than younger players. But if you're young, the world is potentially yours and everyone loves you. And if you get past 30, everyone hates you.

So that is the history of football. All right. Well, it's been a fun emergency podcast. The Vikings get Carson Wentz. They move on from Sam Howell. They have a fifth round draft pick. And if Thielen is acquired today, then we will have more of these debates later. on today and maybe tomorrow or maybe never.

I guess we're going to see. As of this moment, I think that it's plausible. I think that even I would go more likely than not at this moment, but it seems like Carolina is saying you better pony up. And if the Vikings do, then they will. So we'll see what happens with that situation. But as far as the backup quarterback situation with this emergency podcast, well done by the Minnesota Vikings.

So we will catch you very soon. I'm not sure when. It might be in an hour. It might be tomorrow. I don't really know. That will be dictated by the team that I cover. But we'll have more reaction over at purple insider dot football. So sign up for that newsletter.

And we will catch you all very soon. Football.