Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - EMERGENCY PODCAST: Vikings hire Nolan Teasley as GM (Part 2)

Episode Date: May 30, 2026

Matthew Coller talks about reports that the Minnesota Vikings have hired Seattle Seahawks executive Nolan Teasley as their new general manager. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Purple Insider is presented by Fandul. Jordan says I believe that KOC's a top coach and now paired with a guy who knows talent and you have Flores. That's dangerous. I assume you mean in a good way. Yeah, I mean, that's, that's right. Like, I think that this connection of Kevin O'Connell as being very good at the culture building. And we're going to give him benefit of the doubt on the passing game, which we'll see more of with Kyle. Murray this year, I think that we did last year with the collection of quarterbacks who

were playing. But we've seen it before with Kirk and with Sam Darnold. We've seen what he can do with Justin Jefferson, offensive player of the year under Kevin O'Connell. There are things that need to be improved, the running game, certainly. And I think that's why you bring in an assistant coach. That's why you change an offensive line coach and so forth. There's still things to be proven. A playoff game has to be won by Kevin O'Connell. But in terms of player evaluation, the fact that the fact that they haven't hit on a lot of draft picks and are still going into this season with a lot of analysts saying, yeah, I can absolutely see them winning the division. I think says a lot about what the coaches have done with what they've had and especially on the defensive side.

When you look around and go, man, I mean, what was Blake Cashman thought about before he got here? What was Eric Wilson thought about or Isaiah Rogers or Josh Mattelis or even going back Cambinim? Like, where were those players on the pecking order? And then they play huge role in success. Even Andrew Van Ginkle. What was it? 11 million bucks they got for him the first time around. I mean, very, very, very impressive in terms of evaluation.

So you want Flores and the GM to really be on the same page because Flores is very good at picking out especially I think pros and for identifying players on his own roster. Can you give him more though? Because one criticism I've had and it's a little bit couched because it's never been top draft picks is that they haven't really been quite patient with some of the players that we're in here that were younger. So if you're Nolan Teasley, I think that that's something is really important is to get on the same page with Brian Flores in terms of what do you want and get Brian Flores buy-in.

So this was, I think, you know, with the last draft and we look at it and people said, well, it's a coach-driven draft. Of course, it's an acting interim general manager. Of course, the coaches are going to be very integral to that process. But when you have players that the coaches are really buying into, then I think they're more apt to want to push as hard as they can to develop those players and be more patient. And in the NFL, I think that you have to be patient. DS Vic says, watch the 2026 draft class be great and the Vikings figured out and blew it by hiring this guy. That's funny.

That's funny. The magic scientist says Addison, trade incoming? I don't think so. No, I don't think so. And this is the great part of where Nolan Teasley stands is that he doesn't have to do anything right now. He doesn't have, I mean, yeah, okay, it'd be great if he signed one more edge rusher to bring in, uh, but he does not have to make any major move. And that includes even doing contract extensions. Now, uh, Blake Cashman was not at OTAs the other day. And I'm curious if there's a little bit of a wait and see for Cashman. of is he going to hold out and try to get the extension or he's really not holding out

toward anyone at the moment. I don't know if that was the case or not, but he's one to keep an eye on. Brian O'Neill's another one to keep an eye on. I don't think if you're the general manager who just got hired, what you want to do is walk through those doors and start saying, this guy's traded, this guy's out of here. I'm not doing, no, I think what you want is a much more methodical approach. You want to assess everybody. You want to figure out your coach's strengths and weaknesses for evaluation.

You want to figure out what you think. I mean, this guy is an evaluator. So here's what you want to do. And this is not like a shot at anybody. But I mean, when Kueh Zdafi Adolph-Menza is at training camp, it's not the same eyeballs that Nolan Teasley has when they're watching training camp. You want your general manager with the scouting background to be able to be out on that field, watching and Rick Spielman, Rick Spielman, you know, he was, oh, okay, I am told, I am told that Blake Cashman

had his first child last week. Okay, so that's why he was not there. Okay, great information. Thank you. Thank you. Anyway, but, you know, that's a decision that they're going to have to make when it comes to whether, you know, Cashman's going to get an extension or not. Like that those are things you're going to have to do. But the point about Tisley is that he can go out in the training camp field and can watch every day. Spielman used to stand like 30 yards behind every play and he would watch every play and you could tell, you know, he's evaluating all the time and then going back and watching the tape and he knows what he's looking at. And I think we're going to see that from Nolan Teasley as well. He's got time. He has time to where he's going to be able to assess everything

that you have and then make these decisions later. I don't think that you want to come in and start trading Jordan Addison. I also think that Kevin O'Connor. would explode if you did that. And so would Kyler Murray's. AJR says new face means no one should be safe. No more collaboration. The GM should make decisions. And unless your name is Justin Jefferson, you should not feel you have a guaranteed job on the roster. So I, the second part, of course, you know, I agree with certain people do have contracts and that matters. So it's not like you could just start blowing out whoever you like. the first part I don't agree with because I think it's going to be enormous that Nolan

Teasley collaborates with the coaching staff and that the front office as a whole is buying into him because it's really this is what I mean about like it's not a one man band. It's the director of college scouting, the pro personnel, the player personnel people who are overseeing scouting. So you have just for example, a director of college scouting is overseeing. seeing all the scouting. And then they are bringing back the information to the director of college scouting. He's making his assessments.

He's presenting them to the general manager. He's making his assessments based on the information that's gathered. That's how this works. If you can't collaborate and you're just, hey, I'm going to run this like a king. I don't think it works all that well. I mean, because then you're just going entirely on one person. Like there's an idea here of the strength in numbers of, making decisions and I think all the best franchises probably do it that way.

And then one person has to be the one where the buck stops with them. And that is important. I think if you're referring to that, then absolutely. Where let's say that you have a pretty big disagreement between, you know, Kevin O'Connell and the scouting staff about who you want to draft, this is where you need a general manager with the credibility to be able to say, I'm making this call and I will live or die with. it, but it's mine and sorry, that's what, that's what I'm going to do. Uh, you do need to have that person who's going to take responsibility for that and not just have it be like, well, I guess we all made

the decision, okay, but you're the general manager. So it has to be on you. And it's definitely that way with Seattle, with their structure. There's no one whoever questions right or wrong, hit or miss, winner loss, who the general manager was, who made the final calls. It was John Schneider. So I would imagine that it's going to be that way as well. So, oh, gosh, says, uh, okay, well, now I'm not really sure what you're talking about. Um, let's see. Sorry, I'm scrolling for reasonable commentary. Uh, scamping around says, uh, I'll be a pretty unhappy camper if the KOC flow combo is gone within the next three to five years. I'm with you on that. I just think that when you have talent of this level of coaching,

And you look around the league and you look at coaching where it goes badly, where they hire somebody else who's supposed to, this guy is going to be the one who knows everything and has no weaknesses and is just a perfect genius. It doesn't always work out. And there are instances throughout NFL history where sometimes you get to a spot where you've run to the end of the line. And I think that Mike Zimmer is underappreciated for how good of a coach he was. but when you have manipulated enough people and you have a great deal of frustration and you're, you know, losing coaches and just things are kind of collapsing around you and you're going to the podium and taking shots at everybody every single two seconds because you're completely miserable and you hate your quarterback. Well, yeah, then it's time to go.

But, you know, with Kevin O'Connell, I think what we've seen is that, you know, I think that what we've seen is him be able to navigate. difficult situations repeatedly through the time he's here. And with Brian Flores, it's just a, it's just a flat out cheat code to have Brian Flores. It really is. I mean, this is the best defensive mind, I think, in the entire NFL. And he's being paid like that. And the performance has been like that. Because when you look at the actual talent versus the production, it doesn't match up.

I mean, they have not had a bunch of freakish top draft picks, superstars, megastars they've traded for, they've had to squeeze every ounce of talent out of these guys. And, you know, Van Ginkle is an all pro, but he wasn't before. And he, I mean, he played sort of that level at times in Miami with Brian Flores, but finding the perfect role for him, the top production of his career for Jonathan Grenard when he gets here, right? And, I mean, Josh, Josh Mattelis is probably the best example. But even Harrison Smith, as amazing and Hall of Fame level as Harrison Smith was during

Mike Zimmer, we saw a floor. has found a way to mitigate the process of aging with Harrison Smith by designing a role that was really perfect for him to be in total command of the defense. So I think having Brian Flores and Kevin O'Connell is the best possible combination that you could have for Nolan Teasley. But I also want him to have a role in evaluating that. Like the Wilfs are going to call that shot and they should. They own the team.

But when you're the new GM coming in, there should be an assessment. of how do you feel about the head coach and everybody else in the organization? Smudgy, never understand why the Wilf's waited so long to fire Quasi da Fulmenza and then waited so long to hire Teasley. What? The second part, I didn't think you wouldn't want to, because of the way that they did the timeline, the senior bowl was already over. So then you're hiring, if you're doing a whole coaching search during the draft process,

that would be a massive distraction. And then are you going to bring in a GM right before you draft and be like, Hey, Nolan, do you want to like draft some guys? Like, that just wouldn't make a lot of sense. So the Tisley part of this makes complete sense to me that they would just wait until after the draft. And now give Tisley a chance to slowly work his way in as opposed to, hey, like, we're going to make you make a bunch of decisions right away. It would be like really overwhelming. I mean, this gives him all the time in the world to assess everything in every situation.

And, you know, Addison was a good example earlier of we know how O'Connell feels about him. I think we know how Cuezio da Flemza felt about him. Nolan Teasley has no feeling whatsoever on Jordan Addison. He is showing up here to see him play and to get to know him and his history and everything else for the first time. And if nothing else, having fresh eyes completely on this entire thing is the best thing that they could have gotten out of this GM hire, I think, is to have fresh eyes on everything. It's fresh eyes on how the front office is structured. It's fresh eyes on how they go about. Like, I know you guys want to fire every scout, but instead of that, maybe assess how the scouts are doing their jobs.

because the thing is that scouts are also, they're given, here's, here's what we want you to look for. Here's how we want you to do your job. They are given directives. And guess where those come from all the way up the top? So the directives that are given to the scouts, I know that, you know, there are times where scouts have felt like in certain organizations under certain GMs, like we don't really know what our GM wants. We're at a loss a little bit or frustrated by.

you know, not knowing what we're supposed to be looking for. And that happens sometimes when your GM gets fired and a new GM comes in and then it's like, hey, all that work that you did all year, you were actually supposed to be doing it differently. So it does give them time to set the stage for the next group of evaluators to have a couple of months to prepare for what they want to go look at in the next college season, right? So I think that the timing for hiring Tisley and getting fresh eyes on this entire thing for months and then into training camp and into the season is favorable to just show up and then, oh, all of a sudden we're changing the rules for what you want to go look for when you've already done all the work.

The hay is already in the barn. In terms of firing Quasi dafflemenza, yeah, I think that that's fair. I think it's fair. It was a big surprise when they did it. their explanation made sense that they had done their meetings after the season and it did feel like they were kind of the last ones to find out that it wasn't going well but I understood that it was very unusual though I agree with that. Folks, you guys know that I'm a hat guy.

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Is that sane Grimes? We hired Teasley. We don't know exactly his role, though. He could have agreed to some bizarre structure. Yeah, I don't, I doubt it. I doubt it. It's just like corporations where best buy and Target and McDonald's and whatever. They all have very similar structures, right, by design.

And I think the NFL is the same way, where there isn't, there isn't some wacky, bizarre way of doing this. And the wolves have never done this in some sort of wacky, uh, off the wall kind of can't believe they're collaborating. Like it's never really been been done that way. The only thing that is the question with Rob Bersinski and I think keeping him in a position of power and having a strong voice in the organization is, is a very good thing.

Not just after what we've seen, but also the fact that he has the credibility with the ownership built up over many years. years. So I think that that's a good thing. But when it comes to like the role, it really is, well, who's making the final call that we were talking about earlier? Is it the general? Because you can have a couple different ways. Is the general manager saying, I'm going to get the groceries and you better make the meals to his coaches? Or is it the coaches saying, here's what we want. Here's our grocery list. Now go find it. Rick told me this one time that when it came to Mike Zimmer, Zimmer laid out the things that he wanted.

I want a three tech who looks like this. I want a nose tackle who looks like this. I want corners who meet this kind of spec. And Rick said, you know, that's my job is to go find those players that he's looking for. So I think it'll be a lot of the same thing here is Flores wants a certain thing from his players. And Kevin O'Connell is going to want certain types of receivers and certain types of

running backs and certain types of guards and certain whatever, right? And the general manager and the scouting. staff and everything else is to go find the players that meet what they're looking for. That's usually how it works. Scamping Around says throughout the process, I thought it'd be best if they hired Brasinski as the general manager. Adding Teasley brings valuable outside perspective and insight in keeping Rob's seems like a win-win.

Scamping around, you win the Rational Person Award for this podcast because I agree with you that I did not want them to just throw Rob Brzezinski off. to the side of the road and say, thanks for drafting a fullback in the fifth. See you, Rob. Drive away. Didn't want to see that. But also, not going with Rob Brzezinski as the general manager position and still having

him as a main part of the decision making process. I think overall is better for them because, well, I believe that Rob has seen so many things over the years, that he's seen his franchise succeed and he has seen his franchise error, that experience is unmistakable. That is something that Tisley, who's been working up and up and up in one organization and has had a lot of success in that organization building teams, having someone with you who has seen much more, who has seen many more overhauls of front offices and coaching changes and disasters and all those things, I think is really, really helpful.

but the way I will just keep going back to putting it is just new eyes. Like getting new eyes on everything. It feels like something that the Vikings organization needed. CTS says I think that Tisley is a team builder. And if Rob stays on, which I think he will. And such is being reported. It will be a nice match. KOC will only make Tisley better and vice versa.

KOC is not getting fired. No, I do not think KOC is getting fired. nor do I think it would make a lot of sense to even be talking about that at this point. And that's with recognition that they made a catastrophic mega bombshell mistake in moving on from Sam Darnold and that everyone is responsible for that, not just the guy who got fired. At the same time, though, even if there was a big catastrophic mega bombshell mistake, when you look at how they performed last year despite a lot of problems, throughout the year, how they kind of pulled it out of the fire.

You know, the way that the players still responded in the NFLPA survey, the offensive structure, the relationship with Justin Jefferson, there's a lot that I think is very strong for Kevin O'Connell in his favor. Now, that doesn't mean that any coach is ever just walking around feeling like, I'm perfect and I'll never be touched, right? So it's not, you know, it's not ever the case in the National Football League. you're always being assessed time and time again. But I don't think you hire Tisley and he comes in here and says, well,

can't wait to find my next coach. I don't think it's going to be that way. I think that more likely than not, they will be able to click on the evaluation type of thing. But it's going to be something that gets assessed. I mean, when we look at even the Buffalo Bills, for example, they hired Brandon Bean after Sean McDermott. And I know Sean McDermott was involved in that because they both had similar connections. But still, like, that was the GM being hired after the head coach.

And eventually when it got to a certain point, it was the general manager who was at the center of making the call on the head coach. So that is how it tends to work, although, you know, the wills are going to be the ones at the top making the call. Class G says, I had money on this hire. Did you? Were you betting on? Was there a bet that was out there on the Vikings hire? Or is that just like something you're saying? COC was absolutely driving this train through the interim.

Well, yeah, no, there's no question that he was. And he should. I mean, when Rob Brzezinski was given that position, the idea was that you're going to try to get everybody on the same page. And the Wilf said that. And it's still going to be Nolan Teasley's job to get everybody on the same page. But I think what you want to understand from him is, what's the secret sauce?

That's what you're really looking for with Nolan Teasley. What's the secret sauce and how can you build a longer term contender than just, oh, wow, we're good now? Let's make a bunch of trades and spend all the money. And as fun as that was and I still believe very much if things had worked out with J.J. McCarthy that this team is in the playoffs and they're dangerous last year and everything else. But then, you know, you wake up the next year and look around and go, oh, man, there's a lot of cleaning up to do. So even if it had worked with J.J. McCarthy, then there would have still been a lot of cleaning up to do. do with the roster. I think what you're looking for is how did Seattle do this?

What were the boxes that they needed to check for guys that they were looking to draft? How did they accumulate draft capital? How did they structure their front office? How did they work with their scouting staff? How did they work with their coaching staff to come to this type of end, which was them winning the Super Bowl? That's what you're really looking for when it comes to hiring Nolan Teasley. And then, you know, they, they will have said it, a leader, a leader of an entire organization.

So, uh, Purple Faithful says Seattle getting comps doesn't affect the Vikings compics. Uh, I don't know what we're talking about there. Um, but compics are a big part of this. It feels like the, the Vikings never really were in that game. Like they were signing a lot of people, spending a lot of money in free agency. And that's where it really feels like using a credit card all the time. That's what the, I don't know, the last five, six, seven years have felt like is just ring the credit card. Another player needs a contract extension.

We've got no other answer because we haven't drafted well. Ring the credit card. And ringing the credit card isn't just the salary cap, but it's also the comp pick formula. And I sort of laugh about it a little bit sometimes on the show. And maybe because the Vikings haven't gotten many, they got one from Sam Darnel, but that's it. So developing players isn't just filling every starting spot. it might be allowing to let somebody go. And the Jonathan Grenard thing is kind of that case right there,

where it's like they were in position because of Dallas Turner to let somebody go. But how often could you actually say that for a lot of players on this team? That's funny. Oh, you're talking, yeah. So you're talking about do they get compics for hiring him? I don't know about that. Goofster said, could Rob get more GM looks from another team next year? if this year's draft class looks good, feels like he could be moving up sooner or later.

I don't think that that's, and I can't speak for him. Rob has never told me this. He's never said I'm staying in Minnesota forever. But if you look at Rob's history, doesn't really seem like a guy who is looking to jump ship. I mean, he has been here for a very, very long time. The roots are down. And, you know, I do know this. I mean, in terms of, like, who wants to see this franchise win a Super Bowl more than

anybody. Rob Brzezinski put him at the top of the list. So I don't think that Rob, and look, I could always be surprised. If it doesn't work and it's not clicking or something, again, which would be pretty darn surprising because he was here all the way through Quasi Adafel Menta. He's been well known around the NFL for a long time. So I think that they're going to incentivize, you know, Rob, just in terms of the overall, you know, you did a great job and here's your reward kind of thing. I think they'll find a way to do that as reasonable folks that the Wilfs are. But I don't think he's somebody who's going to be saying like, all right, I didn't get the GM job. Get me out of town.

Axton says, thank God, they didn't hire another ex-Vikings employee so tired of maintaining status quo. If we have another winning season regular record, then losing the playoffs, I'm going to scream. I also tend to agree with you. And I had this conversation a few weeks ago with Andrew Kramer. Star Tribune was on the show. We were talking about this. And I said, you know, there's kind of two ways of viewing it. Like, you could look at it as there is no reason based on this team's history in the last decade to just think they did everything wrong.

They clearly did not. They've been in the playoffs. They've been even in their worst years, very competitive. This is not a disaster situation. This is not a, it's not Cleveland. It's not Arizona. It's not the New York Jets. This is not a team that you would look at.

at from the outside and go, get rid of everybody, a bomb this thing, nuke it, just blow it up. It's a, no, that's, that's not them. But at the same time, you've been doing things a certain way for a long time. And Quasi Adaflmenza, whether it was because he couldn't build the credibility or the belief within the front office or just, I'm not sure exactly 100% why the people inside the building know. But he really didn't shift the way that the first. franchise has done things.

And it felt like a redux of exactly the same sort of thing that happened after, you know, 2017 and even that what happened when they were kind of sliding down the slippery mountain with Kirkstil, a quarterback. There's a lot of the same types of decisions that were being made. And you're like, well, you know, this doesn't feel much different. And that's not to say that Rick was a bad GM either. Like Rick did a good job overall. But it felt very similar.

to what they did. And what you'd like to see is someone come in from the outside and say, this is how we've done it in this extremely successful franchise with the Seattle Seahawks. And we're going to do this now, which is probably unlikely to be this enormous shift in things. But even in the NFL, the margins are so small that even a tiny shift in the way you do things. And I mentioned that the boxes that Seattle, Seahawks folks always seem to check. Like the draft picks that they always seem to check and even the free agents that they go get. I mean, it's usually a certain level of violence.

That's where it starts. Athleticism, production, and they click pretty often with those types of things. So are you honing in more rather than a little more haphazard of we like this guy, we're going to draft him? But more of, well, there are certain specs that are more honed in. that we've succeeded with in Seattle. It's little things like that. And I can only really just kind of speculate when we haven't heard this stuff yet.

But that's kind of like what's in my mind about where they might decide that they could have some changes. And then it's structural and how you deal with the coaching staff and all that stuff. That could be all things that are a little bit different because they might be done differently in Seattle. And you can bring that here. I mean, he's not a Seattle bot where. it's just like he's got his own ideas of what they did that worked and didn't either. But him coming up entirely with that franchise, bring their ideas here, work on them together and see where you end up. Jokers says we've been severely lacking in the draft since 2015.

If Tisley can change this, then we'll be able to consistently put high quality teams out in the field when you combine it with our ability to get free agents. And this is another reason why we're talking about how important it is with Nolan Tisley and then, you know, being hired here. along to work along with Kevin O'Connell because O'Connell's culture, his relationship with players, the way he has a very, very strong coaching staff. And you combine that with what the Wulfs have built with TCO Performance Center, U.S. Bank Stadium. And it's a very nice market to be in also. And the Wills open their wallets when the Vikings want to spend and they spend, right?

All those things. You know you can get free agents on your list. In fact, they got too many of them. last year. They needed some people to say no, but everybody, right? And when you have players, how often have we seen players just leave Minnesota in their prime for the Vikings? It's not very often.

So when you have all those boxes checked already, it really comes down to exactly what you're saying is you need to draft better. You need to nail the draft more often. Dan, I don't know what Rob's title is going to be here. I'm sure we'll find out at some point soon, but I don't know. Ben Gessling reported that he's going to continue to be a part of the decision-making process or the leadership of the organization. Fuzzy says seems like a neutered job, not selecting a coach or being in charge of this year's

draft, kind of gets off on the wrong foot. See, I look at it a little bit differently. I don't look at it that way while choosing the coach. Look, can we look at the coaching people who are out? Okay, maybe John Harbaugh, who's had a great history. but if the Vikings had fired Quasi and KOC together, how many, John Harbaugh, you might say,

with his history, he's got, you know, Super Bowl and so forth. But other than that, like you look at the coaching people that were out there, the teams that hired coaches, is there someone that you would say

that you would prefer over Kevin O'Connell? And maybe there's the bias of like devil you know, devil you don't type of thing or what's behind mystery door number two. But I think you'd, rather just have Kevin O'Connell and then go forward and see how the relationship builds and grows and works out than having to hire an entire new coach. So I think that, yes, it does start from an interesting position, from a different position than what you would normally expect, because a lot of times they get fired together,

they get hired together, that kind of thing. I don't know how many teams have had this situation where it's a GM coming in after a coach. That's why I brought up Buffalo worked that way. But I don't know how often that that happens where the coach is completely in place and stays there and is established and liked by ownership and then you bring in a GM. So it is different. But where I don't agree is like not being in charge of this year's draft, I think it's easier for the GM to come in and be in charge of next year's draft

where he can lay everything out, understand the whole roster in much better detail, because there's always things that they only know inside the building about their players and their circumstances and stuff. So to be able to figure all that out over a longer period of time and to be able to assess over a longer period of time, I think is beneficial for Nolan Teasley. So Mark says you can listen to your scouts, KOC and Rob, but the final choice needs to be with the GM.

So, I mean, I think that's a good, I mean, I think that's a good way to look at it is you would like to see the general manager have the final say on things. and I don't know if we ever found out exactly with Kwezi Adafel Menta, like how that was supposed to work. They always mentioned, you know, collaboration and whatever else. But I look at some of the best GMs in the league, Howie Roseman, Les Sneed, John Schneider, and how they do things.

Those guys are unquestionably at the top of the mountain. And the coaches work together with them. You think McVeigh doesn't have a say? Of course he does. But I don't think anyone questions at the end of the day. The less need is the guy. And Howie Roseman and his coach has won a Super Bowl, but Howie Roseman's the guy. So you do want to have that same feeling with Nolan Teasley as well.

But you also want him to be able to work closely to get the coaches what they want. So anyway, Axton says time to do things a different way, get people with a fresh perspective. And that might be, that might be other people that they bring into it. And I would expect that there will be. High Boy Times says, I think it's the perfect hire has no ties to anyone in the organization. KOC will have to produce a winning season and that has to get past the first round. I mean, there's a difference between what the expectations are and what you're firing someone for. I think you're only thinking about making a coaching change if these two just do not work at all together.

It seems unlikely. But if they just did not work at all together and things fall apart and there's drama or whatever, which it just doesn't seem like that's going to happen. But let's just say that it does. then you might look at it and say, you win eight and nine, we're going to move on. It seems the more likely scenario is probably that this team is competitive

and has a chance. They go into the playoffs. I think they're a playoff caliber team. They go into the playoffs. And then you're looking into, all right, what worked next off season, what worked with Nolan Teasley and Brian Flores

and how they work together throughout the season. And then they get their first off season together and you go from there. Like I think in football, we're always very panicked. We want decisions. We want changes. We want moves and we want them right the heck now. Nolan Tisley has just gotten hired.

If people are like, who you getting for outside linebacker? New GM, go, right? And they do have to get someone, I think. But, you know, we want all these moves to happen right away. I think with this, it's much more of a, let's see how this plays out over a period of time and then assess that relationship and where everyone is at. I'd like to see him do it more that way.

Axton says, do you think the bills will trade for Miles Garrett? It's a random question. I don't think that Cleveland's going to trade Miles Garrett. But if they do, watch the heck out. Joker says is Jay Ward in line for an extension? Possibly, yeah, I mean, possibly. You're right that they did that with Josh Mattelis. I don't think so.

I think that what, Nolan Teasley will probably do is assess everything on the roster and get opinions right away when it comes to these contract extensions. There's a great case for Blake Cashman. There's a great case for Brian O'Neill for extensions and Andrew Van Ginkle's contract is void after this year. T.J. Hawkinson, I don't know how they feel there. I think with Hawkinson, because of the way they structured it out, you're probably not making

another change to that contract. but there's a few guys here that I, for me, the early extension would be Isaiah Rogers. That's who I would go with the early extension for would be Isaiah Rogers. Because I think he can be a multi-year part of this thing. His athleticism is through the roof. Played very well last year. It wasn't just one game overall played very well last year. But that's what he's going to have to do is he's going to have to look at everything

and assess it where that's nice to have Rob Brzezinski. It's nice to have a coaching staff. And you're probably going to lean on their opinions. for now and then assess where you're going to go forward. But, I mean, I wouldn't blame Nolan Teasley if he didn't extend anybody. If he just said, I'm going to wait and see. And where everyone stands at the end of next year is what we're going to work with. So, anyway, well, I, let's see.

Oh, the truth, do you have a top 10 coaching duo with KOC and B flow? I mean, I think, of course. I mean, head coach is very complicated to try to rank. I tend to put them in tiers more than ranking them. I know ranking is more fun, but you have KOC falls under the same category is probably like five to seven other coaches who I think are good, certainly not perfect and have come close to getting across the line but haven't quite got there yet. That's like Matt LaFleur is a good example of a coach who's right in that same range. I think we all agree. It's a really good coach.

Dan Campbell, really good coach. Could you win a Super Bowl with them probably? but they haven't proven it yet. So they're not Andy Reid. They're not Sean McVeigh. I would throw Kyle Shanahan in that, even though they haven't won the Super Bowl. But getting to the Super Bowl with Brock Purdy and Jimmy Garapolo puts him a little bit farther ahead.

So, but Flores, I mean, Flores is top five. Easily top five, maybe top three. So I think that I definitely think that they, if you add them together, offensive and defensive mind, top 10 makes sense. to me. Joker says Seafurt needs to show us the Kyler Murray tattoo. I saw that Seafurt was getting smashed yesterday for saying the truth about the quarterback situation, but, you know, we've all been through that.

Sean says, I like the hire. Seattle seemed to do a good job with their mid-round picks and need to hit on more of those. It's great to have a lot of them. They were good at finding those role players. And I think the best thing Seattle did is that they were. able to find needle movers. Even if they weren't flawless, Gray's able was not flawless,

but that's a guy who has some freakish element to it and is, I mean, just a great, like a great up-and-coming player, but has a ceiling because he has such freakish athleticism. Nick Iman Wari is the same way. And sometimes you swing and miss on those guys. But when they drafted him in Wari,

early second round draft pick, it's like, that guy has the potential because of his freakish athleticism and college production to be a superstar who nobody wants to play against. And, and Byron Murphy that they drafted as well, there's a lot of those players that they fall under that category is who you guys on the other side are afraid of every single week because they are more physically gifted than you. And Seattle's done a great job at finding those players. Dindboy says, are we more excited now with this hire than when we hired Quasi Daufermenza?

no hindsight 2020. That's an interesting question because it's a very different spot now. When Rick Spielman was let go and Mike Zimmer, I think we all looked at the organization. I remember this. So here's just an example. I looked up a while back. I looked up a ranking that NFL.com had done about the best and worst situations for coaches that were hired in that cycle. So there were 10 hires, I think.

when KOC got hired in 2022. So who was the best and worst? And KOC, in terms of where this article ranked them, was like seventh or eighth in what he was inheriting because it was you don't get to pick your quarterback. Your salary cap space is in a really tough situation. The team is older. It's not an easy spot. And the expectations are high to get to the playoffs and win, right?

So it was evaluated as not that favorable of a position. When Kwayze came in, the narrative on Kwayze, Adafel Mensa was the analytics GM and it was this is going to be a very big right or wrong like the wilfs never said this they said we want quacey to lead the organization we want him to collaborate whatever else but because of where quacy came from and his background and he tried to push back a little himself and say don't call me the analytics GM exactly and whatever else but there was this feeling of finally they have moved from the dinosaur era to the modern era and now here we go. This is no longer rotary phone. This is iPhone 17 and that's what the Vikings

are going to be. I never felt that with their decision making. I didn't think they made stupid, insane decisions all the time. During Quasi, I definitely didn't think that. I thought they, they brought in a lot of great veterans. They really nailed free agency. Quasi, I think, was very good at understanding free agents and what their production in the past had said and things like that. and understanding when they should move on from certain guys, like all that sort of stuff. But it did not become space age Vikings. And that's what we thought it was going to be.

So when you say more excited, less excited, this is not, I also don't think this is moving back in time either. When you hire a somewhat younger guy who's come up in a really successful organization that is led by John Schneider, who's been around the NFL for a super long time, you're not trying to reinvent the wheel. You're trying to hit on more draft picks than the next guy, and that's how you win in the NFL. I mean, that's really it.

It's not a total reinvention, I don't think of football by hiring Nolan Teasley. And that's probably what this group needed at this point. You don't need, you know, new, new coach, new DC, new facility, new, all this other stuff, right? This is not a rundown franchise. You need someone to come. in with some fresh eyes and you need someone to come in with a mind to focus on the draft.

And that is what you get with Nolan Teasley. If you didn't answer the Fandual question of the day, by the way, I mentioned that the Vikings are plus 500 to win the division. That's fourth out of four. A year with Nolan Teasley, where do we expect him to be going into next year after next offseason? Like at this time, look into the crystal ball. Where would you expect?

Like, do you expect take a step back overhauling? expect that they will make huge moves and be favored. I mean, it's a long look forward. And I have no idea. That's why it's the question. So a so, a so he says, Seattle fans sound a bit bummed, which is good for the Vikings.

Well, I mean, he was a key part of their organization. That's what happens when you win. Joker says, did we accidentally fall backwards into getting a great GM? No other teams hiring at this unusual time. We got our pick of the litter. Yeah, Sefer brought that up too, uh, when we were talking to, the Wilf's in

owners meetings, I guess. I think Sefer brought that up of like, yeah, I mean, you don't have to compete with anyone. And you talk about like taking your time. They were able to take their time. They had a wide net that was cast. They whittled it down to the certain candidates. And then they made a decision with Nolan Teasley.

So it probably did. I think where it's the most favorable, favorable is for Nolan himself. For Nolan himself, where he comes in and he gets space and time, which is something that you rarely get in the NFL. So, as I said, I don't think it's going to become some new model. All teams are going to fire their GMs after the senior bowl. But I think in this certain situation, it does work for him.

Joker says the analytics guy who didn't implement the analytics. Yeah, that's what, I mean, it was, I'm not saying they didn't implement any analytic stuff, but it was hard to find where you got the edge from it. That's really the point. I want to make sure that I frame that correctly. It's not like Quasi didn't know analytics or whatever. It was just hard to look at the moves and say, this is clearly like data driven.

The one thing that I would say was, was moving on from certain players after 2022. That was pretty rare. Axton, I don't know how much, I don't know that much about Tisley, but we have to go on something and that something is the Seattle's record of success. And that's right, is that we never really know.

And that's the point to make about Quasi and the question in general is we don't, we really don't know. We really don't know how it's going to work out, what moves are going to be made. So much of this league is based on just do you nail the quarterback situation? Do things go your way? We should never forget that part of the Seattle Seahawks run to the Super Bowl is Zach Charbonnet randomly picking up a football in the end zone and getting two points for it after a ball was deflected backwards. we should also remember that they got to play a banged-up San Francisco team that they barely even had to go against, really. It was like over by the first quarter, a Los Angeles team that had played an overtime game

the week before in Chicago, that it had a lot more mileage on them. And then they show up to the Super Bowl against maybe one of the weaker teams to be in the Super Bowl in a long time. And then what happens? Well, they have everyone get healthy, everyone on their entire. higher roster except Zach Charbonnet was healthy. And that's a massive break for them. So you need things to go your way in order to be there.

And the same thing goes for a GM hire. You need things to go your way. If Quasi Adolfo Mensa says, we got to move on from Darnel, then go to J.J. McCarthy. And everyone says, yeah, let's do it. And then J.J. McCarthy is a top seven quarterback in the league. The Vikings right now are run by Quasi Adafel Menta, guaranteed. So you need things to go your way.

as much as you also need to be good. But with the information that we have, this was the, someone asked me in the newsletter the other day. Like, do you have a favorite? I don't know, man. I mean, you know, I know Reed Burkhardt a little bit from being around the organization,

but I don't know these guys. I'm not in the room or whatever. But the resumes made sense with Nolan Teasley for me. Just because it wasn't someone connected to the organization. It was someone who could come in and bring new ideas. Joker really hope Tisley doesn't have to waste his time Sponsorship sign. No, look, I mean, that's a GM job, man.

The GM is responsible for everything. It's the whole thing. It's the manager of the whole thing. It's not just, hey, make some moves. Dinboy with KOC, we didn't know a lot, but his culture, we hit on a top eight coach in the NFL. I think top 10-ish is where I'd probably put it. His reputation would probably be,

as pristine if they had brought back Sam Darnold and they continued to, you know, throw for 4,300 yards or whatever. So we have to separate, I think, that move specifically from what we think of him as his actual ability to coach. And also, just in general, this goes for anything. If anyone who's had a roommate knows this, having a head coach for a fan base over multiple years is like living with a roommate for many years, where it's like the, if it's not going well, the things that they do that bug you start to really bug you.

start to really bug you and you forget about the good things, right? Rach says, wonder what this means for JJ? At this moment, you know, probably nothing. Like McCarthy, Murray, Max Brosmer, Addison, everybody. They all have to, under this new general manager, make a new first impression. There are some guys that you'd say like Justin Jefferson, whose reputation probably precede them. But aside from that, I mean, Jordan Mason is not under contract.

next year. What does he think of Jordan Mason? What does he think of, you know, Blake Brandl, at center, everybody. J.J. McCarthy's the same way. He's going to go out in that practice field and he's going to watch practice and then he's going to go look at the tape of practice and he's going to start making assessments and making connections in his brain right off the bat because he has not watched these guys practice. He's assessed this team, I'm sure, in great, great depth, but he's not watched them in practice. He has not spoken to the coaches about him. So he is making his assessments of every single player starting tomorrow or whenever he gets introduced. Okay, that's funny.

High time. He said, I'm excited to see Murray throw for 2,000 yards to Jefferson escaping the pocket like Michael Vic. So offense is hungry and Murray is going to feed them. Yeah, I mean, I think that he does play a little more on time than is the perception. And I don't think he runs at the level of Michael Vic. But there's going to be, I think, a high entertainment factor to that. And Jefferson, Jefferson is really the, the biggest part of the whole thing with Murray.

If he and Jefferson are in lockstep and Jefferson, yeah, like, I don't know, 2000 seems like a lot. But if it's 15 or 1,600 yards, that means your offense is succeeding. Jefferson is always the canary in the coal mine. Like, if it's working, then Jefferson's rolling. And if it's not, then he isn't. Axton says our offensive line injuries really hurt us last year. Yep, yep, definitely. And then they got depth this year.

So Cruz says a lifelong Seahawks fan. You guys got a great GM under the tutelage of John Schneider. He'll be great and a new look for things and new ideas for your organization. Thanks for that feedback jumping in as a Seahawks fan. You can't ask for much more than John Schneider, right? I mean, that's a rare leader of an organization, an all-timer. I mean, they don't put enough executives. and coaches in the Hall of Fame, but that's a Hall of Fame caliber leader to build two

Super Bowl champions. And that's what this team, I mean, that's what it's really about now, right? I mean, they've been successful. They've had a lot of years where they're in the competition. Seattle has gotten over the hump twice. How do you get there? Dinn, boy, do you think that there are questions in the interview cycle around how would you handle Addison's contract or is that too tactical?

No, I think it's all on the table for sure. Yeah. I think it's all on the table. When you come into that GM interview, and I did ask, you know, former GM about this for an article at purple insider dot football, when you come into that GM interview, it's all about your plan for everything and how granular it ends up getting. I don't know. I have not been interviewed to be a GM. But what he said is you're bringing in an entire assessment of every single player and their cap situation and the player's contracts and everything. When you show up to that interview, I mean, it's preparing for your dissertation or, you're, you're, your dissertation.

whatever like you're showing up ready to talk about any situation on the roster that they want to discuss so i imagine that's at least part of it uh rye guy you can never judge a book by its cover so give him the benefit of the doubt of course but with uh kOC and floors in the building um on draft time i want to see how he stands up to them uh well one is you won't you won't know honestly like you're not going to know how that really goes i know the team releases a cool video every year and it's fun to watch, but you don't really know how those conversations are going to go. There really shouldn't be a standing up to. It should be at the end of the day. And this is what Rob did a great job with and why it's important to keep Rob here. What Rob did a great job with is at the

end of the day, everybody seemed like they were on the same page with the draft. And yes, what else are they going to say? But there are definitely times in the past where you've gone, all right, what's that pick or did the 2021 with Zimmer, I mean, famously Zimmer walking out of the draft room, but like Zimmer and Spielman laughing hysterically when the Eagles take Jalen Rager, for example, I don't think there was any question that they were all on the same page with the Jefferson pick. So, does it look like, does it all match up? Does it look like they're all on the same page with each other? That's where you want to see the vision.

And I think actually for this year's draft, it wasn't hard to see the vision. the way that Rob ran it. So you do want more of that, but you also need someone who's coming from a perspective of a team that's been built through the draft and won the Super Bowl. So combining those two things. But at the end of the day, you shouldn't have KOC screaming,

I want the blocking tight end and Tisley yelling back at him. No, never. We're taking the long snapper. Like that's, I don't, you don't really get that a lot. I think most of the time they get on the same page with each other. And yes, I think it, when you're coming from, but this is probably more of your point, that when you're coming from this background and your job is to run the draft, it's your show. And that's what you'd like to see for

sure. It's your show. It's not a coach-driven draft in the future. It is the Nolan Teasley show. It's his evaluators. It's his college scouting director. It's his call at the end of the day who you're drafting because that's why you're here. Yeah. Okay. I agree with them. Um, son of beavers, what happens to Ryan Grigsen. I mean, it would be unlikely that a new GM would be hired and keep an AGM that was there for the previous regime. I don't know what's going to happen exactly. That just would be very rare.

Usually that person wants to pick their own AGM. We'll have to see on that. So anyway, well, I think we've covered a lot. We've definitely covered a lot of ground. And the next thing, podcast-wise, will be when we hear from Nolan Teasley, when he gets introduced and he'll have a press conference. It will break down everything that he said and so forth. But the Vikings making a big step toward the future here.

And now, if it comes down to the question of does Purple Insider endorse the higher? Teasley was at the top of my list. I had people asking me who I thought was going to be the next GM. He was the guy that I usually brought up because I like the combination of outside voice with a great background and a long time of proving it with a stable and successful. successful franchise. I just generally really like that concept. And now I'm fascinated to see what the first decisions are and the longer term plan. And we'll listen to Tisley talk about that at some point very soon.

So thanks everybody for jumping in, huge audience on a Saturday for an emergency podcast breaking down the Vikings new GM hire. I'm always thrilled to have so many of you on board for that. and I'll have an article over at purple insider dot football soon enough as well and uh yeah the vikings have their general manager and now we go from here so we'll see what comes next oh and by the way we got more o'tia's coming up as well in mini camps and everything football never stops my friend so uh make sure you subscribe and like the channel if you're jumping in for the first time welcome to the Purple Insider Universe, and hopefully you choose to hit that subscribe button because that always helps. So thanks again, everybody, for joining into this emergency podcast, and we will

talk to you all again very soon. Football.