Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Emergency podcast: Russell Wilson traded and Aaron Rodgers is coming back

Episode Date: March 8, 2022

Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom react to Russell Wilson being traded to the Broncos and Aaron Rodgers coming back to Green Bay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to our first Someone Got Traded emergency podcast. Matthew Collar along with Sam Ekstrom. And if you thought that I was probably recording a podcast when other news came out later, you were right. So at the end of this episode, you're going to hear my conversation with Jeremiah Searles as we reacted during the Aaron Rodgers news. But we were done podcasting when the Russell Wilson news came out. Sam, Russell Wilson is now a Denver Bronco. The Seattle Seahawks have all of the Broncos draft picks, and they also have Noah Fant and Shelby Harris. Impressive, impressive return on Russell Wilson. It's two firsts, two seconds, and the players as well. Noah Fant, tight end, and Shelby Harris,

a pass rushing interior defensive lineman. Before we get to the Aaron Rodgers news, which has now become secondary since I think a lot of us expected it, your reaction to Russell Wilson being traded? I got to pat myself on the back because I'm on the board. Remember, we predicted every quarterback landing spot in our QB market story. And luck of the draw, I got this one right. I thought that, hey, if you're the Broncos, you have no choice but to aim big at quarterback because you're in a division with Justin Herbert, Patrick Mahomes, and even Derek Carr is pretty good. And that's a new GM who wants to make a splash. That's a team that has a lot of offensive talent that's

still pretty cheap. I mean, they are not over-invested on offense at all. They've got a lot of young talent. Their defense is number three in the league. And I know the Vikings just got Donatel, but that's a good defense. That is the foundation that can win if you have the right quarterback. So even though they're denying it, that they weren't waiting for the Aaron Rodgers news to become official, I think that was probably their first choice because why wouldn't it be? Nathaniel Hackett, Aaron Rodgers, the connection is clear. This is a pretty good backup plan. And this is a situation that I think is going to be, it's going to be good for Russell Wilson. There's a forward thinking coaching staff

in place, which he did not have at the end in Seattle. I think it's a team that is theoretically on the rise. I think this is great for Denver. And I think that this is good for Seattle too. I think that the, obviously for Seattle too I think that obviously the bounty that they get back and even Shelby Harris can be a he's a really good player he can be a contributor for a couple years probably not part of like a big rebuilding movement but you don't want to cling too hard to the past and Seattle had been doing that I think Seattle needed to have that clean break tough for Seattle Seattle fans, end of an era. But let's be honest, the door was closed already

on the Legion of Boom era, the Super Bowl winning era. That was over. And I think Seattle did the correct thing to get all that they got. Seven assets, that's a pretty good haul. I haven't seen what years the first round picks are. I don't know if it's this year or 2023 when that kicks in. Might be this year.

I think it's this year, but I haven't seen yet either, for sure. We're probably going to get information, honestly, as this podcast gets recorded. It's one of those news days. But I think this is honestly a bit of a win-win. Well, right now, Peter Schrager from NFL Network tweeted out eyeball emojis, which may mean that there is another move that's coming down, which will happen the absolute moment we get done recording. I mean, the big takeaway here is, of course,

what does it mean for the Kirk Cousins situation? Russell Wilson going to Denver. Oh my gosh, sorry, Raiders. You'll never win again because Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, and Russell Wilson are in the same division. And Seattle did the right thing 100%. And it makes me wonder when we talked about this the other day, if somebody in Vegas knew something because they were putting Russell Wilson odds on teams to be their quarterback that weren't Seattle. And this also speaks to a lot of the reporting going into the combine and from the combine was, Hey, not a lot of quarterback movement. All you guys have overhyped this.

Wilson's not going anywhere. And here we are a day later and here's Russell Wilson being traded. Now I left Indianapolis after talking to people feeling like Kirk Cousins would play out the remainder of his deal. And as of this moment, it's hard to say, wow, I've just swung way crazier on the other side of that. But this makes it so much more realistic

that Kirk Cousins could get traded, A, because this shows you that the insider reporters are usually not dialed into something this big. Usually when there's a blockbuster trade, they tell you when it actually happens. They don't have intel leading up to it because oftentimes these things come together pretty quick. And the other thing is, if you're the person who leaks that out and ruins a deal, you're fired. So it's not like, oh, we're signing this, you know, third string linebacker, Adam Schefter, you put it out there. These are huge franchise changing

things that you go into the combine telling anyone, if I see this out there, someone's in trouble and we're going to trace it back and we're going to figure out who was leaking it. So if the Vikings were telling everyone around the combine, Hey, you know, we're, we like Kirk and we're going to try to play it out with him and everything else. And then, you know, they were actually working out potential deals. I wouldn't be shocked if that was the case. I also think with this type of return that Seattle just got, how, if you're the Vikings, are you not picking up the phone to Pittsburgh,

Pittsburgh? Hey, look, we will give you a better deal than Denver. Just got, Hey, how are you going to compete by the way, with Mason Rudolph at quarterback when the entire AFC West has a bunch of

superstars. And Oh, by the way, the AFC East, they got Josh Allen, Zach Wilson. Also, there's a chance that he might be good. Miami has a good roster. Oh, Joe Burrow is in your division. It seems like you're going to need a little more firepower. How about a veteran quarterback to drop into your team? I mean, that's just one team, Carolina. Hey, Carolina, Tom Brady's not there anymore in your division. Don't you think you could just use a Kirk cousins? How about that number six overall pick and look like one wide receiver. We'll just call it even you'll get a

way better deal. You'll look way better in the media that you got this quarterback for way less than Russell Wilson was traded for. There are so many teams right now that are desperate for quarterbacks that have no answer. Tampa Bay is another one. What are they playing? Blaine Gabbert or something? Like, what are they going to do? Kyle Trask? You're telling me they're putting that roster with Kyle Trask. And now let me add another team to the potential options here. The Seattle Seahawks pete carroll is 114 years old and he came back to coach and they traded russell wilson did they do that with no idea is is seattle after trading russell wilson going to take on a five-year rebuild with 70 something year old pete

carroll that doesn't really match the smell test. And if you're San Francisco, are you trading Jimmy Garoppolo within the division? Knowing that Jimmy G does win a lot of football games. I like if they don't trade Kirk cousins, what happened here? If they went to cousins and he said, I'm not signing a long-term deal and they don't trade him to one of these teams that really, really needs a quarterback. I just, I need a 30 for 30 to understand why that didn't happen. Now knowing what Russell Wilson was traded for and now knowing the landscape in the post Wilson, this is what we were waiting for.

We were waiting for the first domino to drop. Yeah. I mean, were we right or were we right when we said that Aaron Rodgers was stalling the market? We needed that one domino to drop. And I always got the sense post-Combine that the Vikings plan had an asterisk, which was unless there is a radical trade possibility out there, we will keep Kirk Cousins unless this thing happens. And if you're in the trade cousins camp, today was a glorious day for you because you talk about setting the market. I mean, the market has been set not only by this trade from Seattle to Denver, but the

market that Aaron Rodgers set with his deal, because now that's the new market for quarterbacks. If you're going to extend Kirk Cousins or if Kirk Cousins is demanding that the likelihood of, of making that work, I think just went down. I mean, I think it changes the game. I think that his agent is certainly aware of what Kirk Cousins would be worth now. And, and they're not going to take any discounts. Um that furthers the notion that, well, you can either play this out and get like a compensatory pick for him, or you can trade him for multiple high draft picks. To me, it's a no-brainer. And there's more teams too that you didn't mention. Indianapolis is like really wanting to separate from Carson Wentz, it feels like.

Cleveland is a player. Heck, maybe even Las Vegas is a player. There are so many options on the table right now. The phones have to be ringing off the hooks league-wide. There are rumors that Tom Brady might want to come back, adding a whole new wr another wrinkle to this, to this equation. So I think that the, the Kirk steam is only going to heat up and Hey, what did Seattle say a few days ago? They're not going to trade Russell Wilson. Was that, was that a thing just saying that that quote does not mean anything. It never did. And Kweisi Adafo-Mensah never said they

weren't going to trade Kirk. He said, everything is on the table and that is even less committal. So apparently Washington offered three draft picks for Wilson, but being able to include Noah Fant was certainly, I mean, a thing for Seattle and he's a really good player. I think this is a great deal for Seattle because they are not in a position to win. Does this sound familiar? A team that had a once great defense that has seen that defense fall apart. That also has some interesting weapons, DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett that said, you know what? We just can't pay Russell Wilson this and rebuild our roster. And there will probably be other options. By the way, here's another thing that factors into all of this. The NFL combine, those quarterbacks showed what they could do. In the NFL combine,

the quarterbacks had a great week. Malik Willis rose to the challenge, Kenny Pickett and Desmond Ritter showed that they have athleticism that people did not expect them to have. Sam Howell threw the ball pretty well deep down the field. There's a lot of really good performances that may have influenced the Seattle Seahawks to think, well, if we don't get Malik Willis at nine, maybe we'll get Kenny Pickett and we're comfortable with either one of those things to rebuild after trading away Wilson. And this is when people talk about, well, how can you trade cousins? Russell Wilson might go to the hall of fame. In fact, I think he will. And they just traded him because why it's really, really hard to build a team around an expensive quarterback contract. and Wilson clearly did not

fit their timeline so why would this not all apply to Kirk Cousins a far inferior quarterback to what Russell Wilson has done throughout his career and that's where it all starts to line up for the possibility of trading Kirk Cousins and the the thing is, it's like, we're recording this right now. Peter Schrager's tweeting things out that are hinting at something else happening. And this could be blown up into a million pieces in like two seconds. So, you know, we're kind of like pins and needles here as we do this. But I want to get to the Rogers part of this too. Rogers is coming back. And like you said, if he's really getting 50 million a year,

then Kirk Cousins will be worth 40 million a year. Rogers says it's inaccurate. Rogers tweeted. He tweeted that the terms are inaccurate, but that he did sign something. Okay. So, you know, because Pat McAfee said that he was going to sign something a little more team friendly, those terms wouldn't have been team friendly at all. But either way, Aaron Rodgers is coming back. This is a better argument to move on from Cousins right now, because as I wrote for the website, this takes

any pressure off the Vikings trying to hang an NFC North banner. The Packers are going to fiddle with their cap. They're going to keep all these players. They're going to franchise tag Devante Adams. He's coming back. Rodgers is back-to-back MVP. They've won 13 games, three straight years. This is a juggernaut that you can't compete with right now with your roster. So if you're Kweisi Adafo-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell, you have just tremendous plausible deniability for trading cousins to be like, well, look, you know, things changed. We weren't going to because we like Kirk, but you know, once Rogers came back and we saw the compensation for Russell Wilson, we just had no other choice because Kirk wouldn't take a team friendly deal like Rogers did.

I mean, everything is sort of coming into place for something with kirk cousins to happen and now again if it doesn't i just like how did it not considering where they are as a franchise yeah i i wrote for the website too for this morning about the last 11 new coaching staffs and how they handle their situations and i came away even more convinced that like, you don't want to be the Falcons. And maybe Matt Ryan's another quarterback that no one's talking about who could be on the move too. Maybe that'll happen before the podcast is over. But I think that's the worst case scenario is if you strive to be Atlanta, who just hangs on to this quarterback. They keep kicking

the money down the road. The largest cap hit in NFL history facing them this year. They were a seven-win team with Arthur Smith in his first year and a minus 146 point differential. That's not who you want to be. You know the teams you want to be? You want to be the Los Angeles Chargers. They moved on from an expensive veteran quarterback. They got a young guy in there. They changed coaches and they're on the doorstep. You want to be the Eagles. Nick Ceriani, he improved their win total by five games in one year without a great roster because they moved on from an expensive, probably overrated quarterback who again is going to leave Indianapolis now probably.

They made the right move consistently. You see the teams that are succeeding right now, at some point they face this decision of what do we do with this quarterback who's not a Hall of Famer, he's costing us a lot of money. Typically it works out for the teams that move on. That's why I think this is a good move for Seattle in the Denver-Seattle trade. And for Green Bay now, they've got that Hall of Fame quarterback, and they're hanging on to him.

So we're going to see how magical Aaron Rodgers really is, because that roster cannot possibly sustain what it has the last three years. I've said this for a couple years in a row. It's going to be hard to win 13 games year after year. They keep doing it. And that's a testament to Rogers for sure. Are they keeping Devante Adams around? Seems like the franchise tag might be in play. They're restructuring deals. They are really going to risk the financial penalty down the road and keep with this all-in window and trust that Aaron Rodgers' skills can get them to the top of the mountain.

And I think that Green Bay, as long as Rodgers is their quarterback, I think they're the heavy favorites in the NFC North. And I think that if you're Minnesota now, you probably look at this as maybe a two-, three-year window until you can really usurp Green Bay in this division. And you're right. I think it changes what their mentality should be. And, you know, it keeps a very dominant quarterback in the NFC, which is pretty low on good quarterbacks right now. If you use your crystal ball to look forward with the Green bay packers what you could see is this year they can tape and glue the roster back together uh you know it's coming out more now that packers

are going to franchise tag davante adams so that seems like that's happening uh aaron wilson just tweeted that out he's a reporter with some sources and uh so that's going to happen and you can mess around with the cap you can restructure deals and kick money down the road. You can do all that stuff, but eventually the bill comes due and a couple of years from now, you're going to be looking at a roster that is eventually ready to fall apart with older players. We've seen this over and over and over again.

It even happened in new England, the most savvy team when it comes to getting rid of players and bringing in new ones that eventually the roster around Tom Brady wasn't good enough and they fell apart and Brady ended up leaving where you could see in the next two, three years with Aaron Rodgers and the Packers where it's just the roster isn't good enough anymore and Rodgers will lose interest and decide to call it quits or if rogers wins a super bowl this year which i know would be not fun for vikings fans then you could see him just walk off and retire i think that's very possible as well that that's what he really wants is to be a packer for life and to get that second super bowl so he's ahead of brett farve and everybody's hearts and minds and that's what he's going for if he achie that, then he's going to probably just call it a day. And again, for the Vikings, as much as that would be horrific for

all Vikings fans to watch, eventually this thing will come to an end. And what you'll end up having is a Packers team that is a barren wasteland with all sorts of cap problems. It's going to look like the saints and no real answer at quarterback, unless they think Jordan love is the next guy, which odds of him being Aaron Rogers pretty low. This is why it's a good situation for the Vikings to be able to look at this from a long-term lens. And I don't even just mean with Kirk Cousins specifically and mostly Kirk

Cousins, but even these other decisions that are facing them, Daniil Hunter, Adam Thielen. The thing that I want to be very understanding of for the Vikings new leadership is building the roster in their vision, their way, and having no connection to anything that's here nothing is nailed to the floor and if they want to move on from adam thielen to create cap space they should if they want to move on from daniel hunter they should i want to see how these moves play out if they decide to do them i would respect them saying all right rogers is back the division's not going to belong to us let's go and make as much cap space as we can and draft a quarterback and be ready to compete with the Packers in 2023. Learn a lot

about our players, develop our players through 2022, which is something the Vikings have done none of in recent years is develop players and then be ready to strike at the right time in 2023 with potentially a rookie quarterback or I mean the way that the quarterback market works you could sit around and wait and be ready for whoever sort of comes along available because it seems like every year now there's some star quarterback who's being traded if they wanted to take that approach i think that would be fine but it has to factor in that rogers is officially back now especially if you're presenting it to ownership if ownership said we want to be super competitive and you're saying look no one's saying tank all right saying being smart and you go to them and say look look at this roster that the packers have look at the roster that the Packers have.

Look at the coach they have, who's been very, very successful. One of the most successful ever through three years. Look at the hall of fame quarterback with the MVP. If we try to do the same thing, the last group did, if we try to sign our Sheldon, our Bashad, our McKenzie, what are we going to end up with? We're going to end up with eight and nine and we're going to miss the playoffs. And then we're going to have no corners and no pass rushers again. And we're just going to repeat history. So it, in this situation, why would they look at it and say, let's repeat history. And I know this is a small thing, but even moving on from the trainer to me said, we're doing things differently and we're doing it our way. And that makes you lean much more in a trade, you know, endorsed these sweeping changes with the coach and the GM and probably the trainer as well.

Like, I mean, obviously they know that change is on the horizon. You can't expect to change the people in charge and then not have anything else change. Other stuff's going to change. It already is changing. So I totally agree with you on that. And I'd be curious how you would feel if the Vikings went the Detroit route, which would be shed all of the fat and execute a trade for a somewhat pricey bridge quarterback. So like if Garoppolo was Goff and Cousins was Stafford and that trade was executed and then they had Garoppolo. This is whence maybe whence. Yeah. Whence might be an even more apt apt.

I think he's got a one year deal left. I think not sure about that. Maybe I'm wrong. What do you think that would be a legitimate path to take where you really, you got the roster down to the studs and you've got a quarterback that's not going to win you a super bowl, but can be a professional for a couple of years. Is that, do you think that's a route to take or do you still want that rookie right away? I think that the difference is that with Detroit, all their receivers were leaving. So Marvin Jones was going to Jacksonville

and Kenny Galladay going to New York, and they had nothing to work with whatsoever outside of Frank Ragnow on their offense. The Vikings are not like that. I mean, they've got Irv Smith Jr. coming back. They've got a top five wide receiver in the entire league and Justin Jefferson, maybe top three. I mean, they could move on from Adam Thielen, but if they don't and they restructure his deal, then you're talking about a top 20 wide receiver and Adam Thielen top 2025. That's pretty hard to say, okay, we're fine with just like simulating a year. Like I used to do with Madden. I would put it in the punter at quarterback, simulate the season, get the number the number one pick trade away everyone i would tear it down to the studs every time that's a

little bit of a harder sell than it is to say well look we traded theelin for a second round pick and uh but we also have a bridge quarterback that can win would be my thing like if you're trading for whence you could still win and compete for the playoffs. And then you would want to sit on a rookie quarterback. So I think ideally, that's what you would want. Would you do it though, if it's someone like Wentz, because you can still compete, you can get the ball to Justin Jefferson, you can have Kevin O'Connell execute his offense. I mean, I've always thought it was important to have somebody who allows you to

still perform at a fairly high level. If you're doing this to be able to evaluate your players, to get your star players, the ball. And if you win eight games and then you go into the next year with a quarterback, you drafted this year, feeling good about that. Okay. Now we're going to go from this guy from Wentz to Kenny Pickett or Malik Willis or Desmond Ritter. I just think that that all lines up really well timeline wise. So then in the, in the players first year starting in their second year, um, then you're talking about like being able to compete right there and load up your roster with lots of other free agents that you've used from all the money you saved in trading Kirk

Cousins. And here's the question I wanted to ask you though, is with this Russell Wilson return, the two first two seconds and a player at several players who are good, what is a reasonable price for Kirk Cousins? well i think a one and a two probably comes to mind um because you're not you're not getting equivalent you're definitely getting less and uh you would love to get a piece on their rookie deal maybe a one a two and a player i think i think that would think you would have taken that this morning. Oh my gosh, yes. Yeah, right? Even if it's a future one and two, even if it's not this year,

I still think that's a great deal for the Vikings. If you're getting above what you would get for the compensatory plus some talent, yeah. I think half of the Wilson deal would suffice. There were a lot of people. I think half of the Wilson deal would suffice. You know, there were a lot of people that I think two days ago would have taken a second round pick for Cousins, but this is something we've brought up numerous times. If a second round pick gets traded for Sam Darnold,

the price has got to be higher than that, even with salary cap considerations. I just think if you're, there's so many teams where it actually makes sense for them. Like, you know, there are some people who talk about cousins as if he just like takes the snap and falls over every time. If you wanted to see that watch Ben Roethlisberger play. If you are the Pittsburgh Steelers and you look at your roster, you have a good defense together and you have good wide receivers. You're building your offensive line. You have a team that

was in the playoffs last year. Doesn't it make sense to trade away the 20th pick for a proven quarterback rather than drafting whatever quarterback gets left over after the top ones are taken? I mean, if it's me, maybe I don't do that if I'm in charge of Pittsburgh, but it makes so much sense if their ownership is saying, we've got to get a quarterback. We've got to compete with this roster to trade away that 20th overall pick. And I think that anything else that would come along with a first round pick for cousins would just be extra on top of the cake. You start there and anything else that you can squeeze out of anybody based on the Wilson thing where you could

say, look, isn't, isn't cousins like 80% of Russell Wilson whose cap hit is 37 million. It's not like 12. I mean, it's huge for Denver to be able to work around. Okay. So there's a giant cap hit as well. And they were able to get all this. Well, don't you want to give us a first and next year's second for Kirk cousins. And then they can decide to sign him to a long-term contract extension or not. I think that that is extremely reasonable as far as an ask to these quarterback needy teams. And then the Vikings can start looking at their potential draft pick quarterbacks. They can get on the market day one for bridge quarterbacks, whether it's Winston Mariota, if they want Mitch Trubisky, that's probably the bottom rung of those types of quarterbacks, but you're still

Allen Robinson put up huge numbers. I mean, it's always a consideration. What just the Jefferson things. Can you spend money in free agency and get some players on longer term deals and win with a Mitch Trubisky? He went 29 and 21 as a starter. It's not impossible. And I think the same thing about Jameis Winston, who I believe was like six and two. I don't love Winston for the personality stuff, but six and two with the Saints. I mean, you don't have to just totally punt on this season and say this season doesn't exist just because you're trading Kirk Cousins. And I think that that is how, in a way, it's almost like if you're at a restaurant and someone else orders something that you were afraid to order and then they like it and you're like,

well, let me try that. Like, oh, okay. I saw somebody else do it and like it. Is it that, does it turn out to be this way with the Vikings and this Wilson trade where it's like, man, I saw them try the crab. Seems like they really liked it. Seems like their franchise now is going to be the same. Is that a Jameis reference with the crab? Not on purpose. I think when you trade a quarterback like Kirk,

I just think that it changes everyone's perspective. When you're paying a quarterback that much, you expect wins. You expect leadership. You expect playoff runs. The fans do. The teammates do. When you can perform with lower expectations, like with a Case Keenum, it just changes everybody's morale. I mentioned the Lions comparison earlier. That's an extreme comparison this team isn't going to tear it down to that extent like the lions did with with their new gm and coach because you do want to keep some semblance of like cultural morale so the young players that you do have want to stay with you um justin jefferson's contract extension demands are going to come faster than we think,

you know, sometimes it's after the third year when elite superstars want to want to negotiate that, you know, maybe after the fourth year in Jefferson's case with that fifth year option. Um, so you want to make sure that those guys are happy. Those guys are, are satisfied, want to be part of this future. And I mean, how many times have we said, too, that if you unload the Cousins cap, you sign some maybe some some decently long term pieces that you can build around on defense and add rookies and elevate some young players and approach this offseason with more of a hybrid approach instead of just one year stop gaps. You can be a competitive team next year. I think you could be competitive with

Fitzpatrick slash Trubisky on up. And competitive doesn't mean Super Bowl, but competitive means that you are entertaining your fans. You are giving yourself a chance to win every week without probably the, you know, the, the financial burden of having an albatross on your salary cap sheet. And there's seven playoff spots. The Philadelphia Eagles who are not a good team made the playoffs last year. So it's, you can make it. You can with a little better coaching and a little better roster built by

free agency that you had money to spend on hit on a first round draft pick that you got from somebody else and all of a sudden you're not feeling so bad about where you're at uh so i'm going to cut this shorter than usual because i want to bring people the jeremiah searles conversation of us reacting to the aaron rogers news and then jeremiah talked about the vikings moving on from eric sugarman their trainer and brought some extra insight there so that's what we're going to go to and And let's just cross our fingers that Peter Schrager's eyeball emoji was not referring to a Kirk Cousins trade, because if it was, then we're going to throw this right in the trash. He deleted the eyeball emoji. Did you see that? Because the

Vikings texted him and told him, hey, don't do that. Maybe the deal's not done yet. Wait till tomorrow. We'll see. We'll see. All right. Well, thanks for your time on this emergency pod, Sam,

check out purple insider.com for our written reactions to such matters. And we will catch you next time. Folks. We've got an even better offer to tell you about from soda stick if you use the promo code purple insider one word you can get 15 off your purchase that's right at soda stick.com your place for minnesota sports inspired apparel you can get 15 off just by using the code purple insider i've told you about all the great football designs, but they've added a few more, including the Axe is Back for Minnesota football fans.

You can get that on a shirt, on a hat. And also, Randy Moss is the Goat, the Purple People Eaters, Bud Grant designs for the old school fan, plus the hockey and basketball teams are both actually exciting this year. And SodaStick has you covered there as well go to soda stick that dot com that is s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k dot com and use the code purple insider for 15 off uh aaron rogers officially returning back to the packers no deal in place currently said to be a cap friendly deal on the way retirement was a real consideration in the end he's back with the pack okay reaction aaron rogers appears to be coming back to the green bay packers i didn't think there was really any other option like i i think it was either he retired or came

back now there was no like trade but the team the cap friendly deal is what surprises me that's that's what i picked up on from that is for so long, you could just feel like there was this war of front office Aaron Rodgers, and Aaron Rodgers was like, no, I'm going to milk you guys dry. But now I think he maybe is seeing the end of his era of quarterbacks. He saw Tom's write-off, Drew Brees' runoff. He kind of is the last man standing, and my guess is he wants to make one more run at this thing,

and cap-friendly deal means he gets his boy Devontae Adams back, build some pieces around him, and they're going to try and maybe even do the McVay thing of try and trade some guys to get some talent that's already proven and really make a run at this thing. I think Super Bowl odds are going to have Green Bay Packers at a very high chance here in Vegas here in the next hour or so. I'm sure that there are Vikings fans who are screaming in pain of why? Why us? Why can't you just leave and go to Denver or retire? I would say this.

It's not the worst thing in the world for you if he doesn't win a Super Bowl. If he wins a Super Bowl, I can't tell you that that's just pain and i'm sorry about that and that's possible looking at the nfc because it's wide open with this as long as he doesn't have a peyton manning fall off they are going to win the division hands right there's no team that's going to be able to compete with them but if there was anything in the minds of quesia Adafo Mensah and Kevin O'Connell that were saying you know if Rodgers goes to Denver here's what we could do we could restructure this we can void year that we could try to sign this inside linebacker and he'll

be the difference if there was any of that that's gone. And what this says is there's three teams behind the Green Bay Packers, and it's a race to rebuild. How can you get ahead in the race to rebuild? Because if Detroit drafts a quarterback and Chicago has a young quarterback, how do you put yourself in position to be ahead of them so when Rodgers does retire, whether it's next year or the year after, because he will retire eventually, I promise you that you're in position to be the team that takes the reins there and no longer makes it your goal to just make the playoffs or be in the hunt,

but makes it your goal every year to win that division because there won't be another Aaron Rogers who just drops into Green Bay. And so you can now say to your ownership, hell look, I mean, the two-time MVP is back. There's really nothing we could do to dominate the North this year, but we can start thinking long-term. We can make long-term changes. So in 2023, we get a bleep ton of cap space and then we go after the Green Bay Packers in that in that way. I think it's actually helpful because it takes out of the conversation. Oh, just go win the North this year. I agree. I think you're absolutely right.

This is almost I mean, as much as this is going to pain Vikings fans, if I'm if I'm sitting in Egan Egan right now, I'm kind of taking a sigh of relief. But I'm kind of taking a big, deep breath of like the pressure's a little bit off now. Like it is. And maybe that's one of the reasons Aaron Rodgers came back too, right? He sees a clear path to the playoffs. Hey, you got Ryan Poles and you're trying to figure out the coaching situation in Chicago. You got the dude in a full rebuild in Detroit who, honestly,

I think they might be number two in the NFC right now. I'm just going to say that right now. You NFC North you guys might all shame me later and I might have to do another retraction but I do think that that team has the talent if they do well in the draft to be number two and then you got the Vikes there and so you start thinking like Aaron's looking at all the big picture and he sees okay this is exactly the situation you just laid out is probably what his camp and what Green Bay has probably sold to him. They're like, listen, Aaron, here's what the rest of the division looks like. Here's what we can do.

Why not make one more run at this and try and go win this thing? And I think that's exactly what happened. And now it gives a chance to rebuild. But you're right, it's a race to rebuild. It's what Buffalo did in the AFC East when they saw Tom was starting to close his tenure there at New England was, OK, who can be the next one up? And they tried it in Miami with Tua. And they tried it with Josh Allen.

And it worked out really well for Josh Allen. Not as much for the New York Jets with Zach Wilson in that crew and Sam Darnold. But they tried to do the same thing. And now you have a new powerhouse in the AFC East. So that is exactly the blueprint that this team and this ownership and leadership needs to follow in minneapolis is the race to rebuild like you did so you can be sitting on top once the guy does right off into the sunset jared allen style so we're gonna have more reaction on the show to aaron rogers as some more stuff comes out like what his contract is going to be and things like that breaking it it down. But I think that also with him signing this,

it means Packer for life for him. And it means that there is a finite kind of end of in the next couple of years, it will be over for Aaron Rogers and the Packers. But it also means having to watch your defense get caught up by him a couple of times on the way. So that's why it's a hard thing to say. It's like, actually, this is okay for you. But then when it comes, whenever they play September 23rd

and he throws for 400 yards and you lose by 20 points, well, sorry. But I don't know. The Vikings are usually competitive with Rodgers. It's mostly him crushing all the other teams that's the problem. But I wanted to tie this into another story that lit up crushing all the other teams that's the problem but i wanted to tie this into another story uh that lit up the internet the other day which was uh the vikings moving on

from their longtime trainer eric sugarman now i tweeted someone tweeted me and said oh what is this madness and i said trust me this is not madness and what i meant by that is it's not madness for Kweisi Adafo Mensah and Kevin O'Connell to come in and say, we want our guy who's going to do things our way. In the sports science realm, it's really important to have people who understand exactly what you need done. And sorry, I just dropped my phone. And if you feel like you have a trainer who will really get it in the Rams were phenomenal with this, who will really get it from the sports science perspective and be on the same page with you, bring that person in. It's going to be better for you long-term. It's not madness. And the other part of it is that for a long time, reporters who

have conversations with people have heard from players that they didn't always like some of the things that went on with the trainer and the relationship with the coach and general manager and things like that. And a Fadi Adenabo tweeted about it. And so my take is just, look, you wanted it to be different. Let's let it be different in a lot of different ways, even if you liked the guy because he tweeted out Donut Club and stuff like that. Just because you know who the guy is doesn't mean that it's a good idea to keep him as a part of this. The same thing with Andre Patterson.

Andre Patterson is a wonderful human being, but you're switching defensive schemes. It's time to move on. You want someone to teach it the way you want to teach it. I look at it the same way with Eric Sugarman, and it represents another opportunity for Kweisi Adafo-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell to just push this entire thing forward instead of doing it how we always do it.

So that's all I meant by it's not madness. No, and I completely agree with you. I don't know why people would assume like, well, I know that this guy's been there forever, so wouldn't we keep him he's just the sports trainer like he's not pivotal to everything but I would say that it goes head coach strength coach trainer in how well you can keep a team put together because if you can't have the strength coach and the trainer keeping guys available then the head coach can't do anything right your best chance to make a team is being available and then a lot of that has to do with the training room and i had my spats with sugarman like anyone has but for me i didn't

really understand what an nfl training room was because as a rookie i avoided that place like the plague in san diego right when you're trying to make a team i don't care if your arm's not hanging off like you don't go into the training room like you just don't but as you get older and as i got to minnesota it was more of a i kind of carried that over rookie mentality of you don't go in there and a lot was from some of the older guys like hey don't go in there sometimes like things get brought up to management about you just even going to get anything ice and then it's questions you have to answer and it was just it wasn't a great it wasn't a great environment for me to feel like i'd go in there and get my body back to where it needed to be. And versus on the flip side, I go to Buffalo, right? And they were almost like, no, you need to

be in here because we have invested all of these resources in here of laser treatments and red light therapy and all these things, because we want our our team to if a guy is better on a Sunday because he's at 90% in week 12 versus 83% because he came in the training room spent time in here with us of dry needling or whatever it might be that's why we're here and you know I think that is the difference of now the shift of not just the Vikings but the entire NFL with the class of kid that is coming in that is more hyper aware of what their body is and what it needs to perform that ownership and leadership has had to shift from the the trainer is we'll throw some ice on it and we'll figure it out versus like okay let's work through some things to get you recovered faster and you see it there's

a reason people are running four twos it's because their body work is incredible and so I think Kevin O'Connell, like you said, they did a great job at the Rams. He wants to bring in a guy in that mirrors what he wants to do with his players on the field, off the field as well. And if you have a guy that's been doing it for 16 years, like Eric Sugarman, you tell me anyone that you've met in the profession for 16 years, that's willing to just do a ground up rebuild of their entire philosophy of how they do their job. So no, it's not an indictment on who Eric Sugarman is as a person or who even is a professional. What it is, is it's time for a change. And it's a guy that wants to do it his way and bring someone in that mirrors his way,

instead of trying to teach an old dog, new tricks. It's very similar to the way we talk. You missed the pun old dog, new trick. Oh, good job. Okay. Great job. Great job. Sorry about that. I was already preparing my next thought and i let it go but i had to do it well done well done you waited until like the last minute i was just going to say that mike zimmer was not a bad football coach rick spielman was not a bad general manager uh but they needed this this thing to be refreshed and here's where i want to kind of connect the dots is there are other people who play for the team who have been here a long time, who they might move on from. And I mean, Adam Thielen.

I mean, Daniel Hunter. I mean, guys you love, but it might just be smart to move on from them. And my approach is I'll respect it. I respect moving on from the trainer and saying, no, no, I get that. You're a longtime professional. I get you're respected in this business, but we need to do things this way because that's how we're going to do it. And I feel the same way about the roster. If they come in and say, you know what, Adam Thielen, a $17 million cap, it's not going to work.

We need to change that. And Thielen's side says, no, we're worth it. Okay, sorry. Then you're going to be worth it for the Falcons who need a receiver. Now. 1500 bucks, man. 1500 bucks versus 11 million. Bet more.

If you're going to lose a whole year, bet more. So anyway, that's my, that's my approach to the entire thing is if they move on from a very popular player or a person with inside the organization, I'll respect it. And I'll say, let's see. Let's see how it plays out. Let's see how they do this. Because I think you can justify it. So, all right, before we wrap up, love to see it, hate to see it. And I'll just say, hate to see a Kelvin Ridley. I mean, tweeting through it also, that's another thing. Yeah. Just general life lesson if you make a mistake don't tweet about it because as a former juror i can tell you they'll use it as evidence against you also don't use your own phone this was a case in in my case as a juror the person

was sex trafficking with his own regular ass phone dude i'm not saying uh i'm not giving advice to sex traffickers but if you're gonna be laying the ground ground groundwork you're out of their call here i could say that the guy was earning more money than we do at purple insider but you know the thing is uh if you're gonna gamble on games let you know maybe be a little wiser about it there is tons of nfl hypocrisy that we could spend a whole other podcast about when it comes to this gambling issue but um calvin ridley man you just got to be smarter than that like you like there is there's no world where we could say like oh dude he shouldn't be suspended like oh no he should yeah you can't there's no universe where you can have players

gambling on games that they're involved with in any way even if they're on ir you just cannot absolutely cannot have that so a well-earned suspension for him but man you just hate to see it well it's also it goes back to the remember greg robinson they got caught crossing the border with like 40 pounds of weed in his own car while he was driving like i put it right up there with that like you dude you get what you you get what you deserve you play stupid games you win stupid prizes like that's just how it goes um my love to see it is 12 offensive linemen running sub 540s i mean that was just fun to watch and fun to see those guys. I mean,

325 pounds moving at a, at a very fast pace was pretty cool to see. And I know that there was extremely fast combine, but that, that is more impressive to me than the receivers running for twos. I think in terms of, you love to see it for me is just the next couple of weeks and how much could change in the entire landscape of the league. And that's super fun. It's just going to be a total circus for everybody. And I was reading an ESPN rumors thing and there it's just everywhere. There's all sorts of things. And when the quarterbacks shuffle, even if it's not Aaron Rogers being traded, there's just a ton of energy that comes along

with that and really good discussions that come along with that and fans get excited and everything else and I just you love to see it the amount of buzz that came out of Indy that again we were missing last year it was just kind of like okay I guess we just see what happens uh but all of the rumor buzz I'm ready I'm ready for things to start happening yeah and uh my last love or hate to see it is with the cap being set at 208 like there is going to be more than a few middle class middle of the road players that lose their job over the next few weeks guys that are making two and a half four million a year that they're going to be the ones you're not going to see oh hey um aaron donald can we go ahead

and just shave a quick 12 million off your salary? Like that's not going to happen. It's going to be the year six through eight guys that are bottom third of the roster at whatever position, key backups, key play, key roles on special teams. Like those are the guys you're going to see start hitting the street here in the next few weeks, just as teams try and scramble to get out there under the salary cap or whatever it's going to be. And that's just a tough place for a lot of those players. So I feel for those guys. Okay. So let me say this, that on the show throughout the off season periodic is the way I would describe your role that, you know, through the season, it's every single week and you grind, but you know, in the off season, when stuff happens,

we'll talk and, you know, you'll come on from time to time. Uh, but as a consistent guest, uh, you have done incredible work and provided just a incalculable amount of insight into the NFL. Now you've got all the viewpoints. You've got the agent, you got the player and everything else. So, uh, and a broadcaster as well for Nebraska. So you really got everything. So I just wanted to say that I greatly, greatly appreciate everything that you've done for the show throughout the season and we'll talk soon when the vikings draft an offensive lineman we'll grind the tape and we'll break them down or when they trade a quarterback could be all right so as you know i appreciate you and thank you very much for your time hey Hey, absolutely. And also, I appreciate breaking news happening during a pod and not immediately after the

pod. So let's go. A sign of the apocalypse. All right. We'll talk soon.