Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Emergency podcast: Vikings release Eric Kendricks

Episode Date: March 6, 2023

Matthew Coller talks with Vikings fans about the team releasing Eric Kendricks. Is it a sign of more things to come? How will they replace him? And, he isn't just part of the machine, Kendricks was a special player to this organization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to our first emergency podcast of the Minnesota Vikings offseason. It's been a while since we've had to do an emergency podcast, but here we are. And we've got two big news items to talk about. The first of which is the Minnesota Vikings have released Eric Kendricks, which just one podcast ago, I said if I was the general manager, it would be one of the toughest decisions, but it was the first one that the Vikings decided to make because from a salary cap standpoint and possibly a football standpoint with Brian Flores coming in, it made a lot of sense to the Vikings. We'll deep dive into that in just a second, but also Derek Carr is a New

Orleans Saint, which I also thought would not happen until Aaron Rodgers made his decision. But I guess it was the New Orleans Saints all along that Derek Carr wanted to join. So this does change the landscape a little bit of the NFC. So we'll get into both of those things. And since I'm doing this live on YouTube, I'm relying on you guys in the comments section to let me know if there is more breaking news while we're talking, because I can't talk and look at Twitter at the same time. So let's get right into Eric Hendricks. I want to say first, before we talk about the implications of this on the salary cap, how they're going to replace Eric Hendricks and so forth, which is, of course, the big question that they're going to face. Just to say that of all the players that I've covered since arriving

here in 2016 to cover the Minnesota Vikings, Eric Hendricks is one of the most impressive people that I have ever come across in my entire career covering sports. As far as what he has given to the community, how much he cares for other people. I mean, this is a guy that made paintings during COVID and then sold them and auctioned them off to raise money. I mean, he is a Walter Payton Man of the Year finalist. Just somebody that gave his entire heart to Minnesota, which he's not from.

He's from California, went to UCLA, and yet made himself such a big part of the Twin Cities community. And, you know, I know a lot of players do a lot of things for the community, but I think he was one that went an entirely different level of that, of giving to the community. And he was a part of a major part of the Vikings. They had a group of players that got together and would talk about the different things that they were going to do for the Twin Cities community and so forth and find different ways to give back.

He was always at the center of that. Somebody who has to work really hard at his job 100% of the time to be good at it, and yet always carved out space for other people. And I think that that is one of the true signs of somebody that's a leader, is how much they can give of their time to other people and yet still play at the high level that Eric Kendricks did. So that has to be mentioned, that he will be greatly missed by the twin cities and by Vikings fans. This is not an easy day. I think for Vikings fans with him being gone.

The other part is the way that Eric Kendricks played as a member of the Minnesota Vikings. Like he gave the same amount of heart to the community as he did on the field for the Vikings. And I mean, this was somebody that went 110 miles per hour all the time, every single game, and also one of the most intelligent football players that you will ever come across. So this is somebody that I have had over my career, the utmost respect for Eric Hendricks in covering him. And this is just the reality of how the NFL works, that at some point you always come to the end. And in football, it happens faster than other sports. In baseball, you know, they might play

until they're 40 years old. Or hockey, they might, you know, play that long as well. But it's very rare in the NFL that eventually guys get too old and too expensive and might play that long as well, but it's very rare in the NFL that eventually guys get too old and too expensive and their play isn't at the same level as their price. And that is the harsh reality of this move of Eric Kendricks, but that should not wash away what he did as a Minnesota Viking, an all pro, a pro bowler, the center of a number one defense in 2017. You know, last year he was the guy calling out the plays. But for a long time, he was heart and soul of the Minnesota Vikings defense. And if you pulled the locker room, 100% out of 100% would be saying that Eric Hendricks

is one of the most respectable players that they've ever came across and one of the people that gave the most of himself to the organization during his time there. So just can't say enough how difficult it probably is for all the people who have Eric Hendricks jerseys and who have put him up there among their favorites. I don't know how to decide whether someone will make the ring of honor someday or not, but if you're looking at his resume, for all the things that he gave to this team, he deserves to be up there. And as far as Eric Hendricks' play, and I know this is not like an RIP. I mean, he's going to go somewhere else.

He's going to play for someone else. He's going to be fine. But his performance year after year, the consistency of which he played, how tremendous he was in coverage that Kendricks as the league was shifting to a completely past dominant. I mean, it always was past first going into the, you know, the two thousands after, you know, back in the day with the run first offenses, but you know, there was even more of a shift of more motions, more things to make life difficult on the linebackers, more playmakers on the field at the same time. And Eric Hendricks was in the perfect place to be that modern linebacker.

I remember talking with people with the Vikings a few years ago when he was just starting to make noise, maybe 2016, 2017, as a top player in his position. And they were saying that when they drafted him, even in 2015, that people around the league were saying he's too small. And now he's like the average linebacker because that position has changed. And he was in the perfect place as that position was becoming more coverage. And I will not ever forget the time he ran down the seam and covered Devante Adams and had a pass breakup on a bomb down the seam because that was his game. I mean, he could do anything. The one-handed interception that he had. I mean, there's all sorts of plays

that you could go back to with Eric Kendrick. So he is a guy that is going to be, I think, missed on the outside by all the people who cheered for him and missed on the inside from not just the players in the locker room who get to be his teammate and get to see him go to work on a daily basis, but also the people within the organization. I noticed that when I tweeted out that he was a guy that played with so much heart and gave so much of himself to other people that a few people from within the Vikings organization who are not front office members or coaches or things like that favorited it because they've seen that. They've seen behind the scenes. So that's not easy to replace. Players that give you that much of themselves

are not that easy to replace. So I wanted to start out by saying that because there's a lot of people who come and go in football and there are only so many that leave a long lasting impact to where they were. And Eric Kendricks is one of those people. Let's get to the football element, of course, of Eric Kendricks being released. It does create a lot of cap space and it's a hard, weird transition to be talking about everything that he meant to them and then say, cap space, folks, here we go. But the Vikings were going to have to do something because you have to be cap compliant by next week. And this was one of the most obvious moves that could happen was it's going to create about $11 million in cap space. And the Vikings are, according to over the cap.com, $24 million over the salary cap. So that obviously you could do the quick math.

It gets them much closer to cap compliance. And that's something that just had to happen when we were talking with Kwesi Adafo Mensah in Indianapolis, it was very clear, and we talked about it on the show, that he was trying to prepare us for the very real possibility that fan favorite players and favorites of theirs in the front office and coaching staff just might not be there. And Kevin O'Connell said that he was trying to educate himself to prepare himself for the reality of what was going to happen that now they are without a linebacker who made all pro just a couple years

ago from a performance standpoint though last year he was clearly not a fit in what Ed Donatell was doing and so much of Eric Hendricks game was speed and was quickness and there were times at the end of the season last year against the Giants where I did not feel like it was the same level of speed and quickness which is just football that's that's aging when you get to 30 years old as a linebacker there's some pretty good evidence that shows that you're not likely to perform at the same level as when you were 25 years old. And it did look like to me that he wasn't as quick as he was before. And when he wasn't playing in kind of a hair on fire type of system that, you know, where he could play man to man and we could come downhill at times where he had to drop back into zones more often.

That just was not really his jam. He's not the tallest or the lankiest. The guys who play in those zones usually kind of have that, like that, that length more like an Anthony Barr type of body type, but, you know, being shorter, short arms. I don't know that that was his best position to be in, which made me wonder if they would try to work something out with him, maybe a short-term extension, but there's just too much cap space to make up. And I think that they had to move on. But also if you're making a projection based on how he played last year, if you go to the PFF

grades and you look where he ranked in coverage, you would be pretty shocked to see based on how he played last year. If you go to the PFF grades and you look where he ranked in coverage, you would be pretty shocked to see, based on his career, that Eric Hendricks was graded as one of the lower linebackers in the NFL. That just doesn't happen to him very often throughout his career because of his skillset, but he wasn't a fit there.

I did wonder if Brian Flores would come in and say, all right, let's get him blitzing more often, which he's a surprisingly effective blitzer throughout his career by the numbers, even though he's not known for that. And maybe we'll work something out to make sure that he's playing in man coverage more often. But it was just so much cap space. And when Kweisi Adafomensa know, you can only really predict two years out. I think when you're talking about a linebacker of this age, it's really hard to predict any years

out. If you could say the fall off already happened, but if the fall off happens even more, then you were going to be in a lot of trouble. So those are kind of my thoughts that it makes a lot of sense from a football situation. They create the cap space they need. They move on from a guy that would be difficult to project and so forth. And, you know, but it's also a gut punch to a lot of people to see this happening and kind of reminds me a little bit of going into the 2020 season where it was Everson Griffin, Linval Joseph, Xavier Rhodes, people that fans really get invested in their careers and you see them grow as players and become stars.

And then it just happens in football that that fades quickly, whether you become too expensive or you don't perform at the same level. So let me answer a couple of questions here as we go forward. Let's start with Sean. Does this move insinuate there'll be more of a full rebuild season? I don't know. You know, I think that what comes next will tell us this because that was sort of along the lines, even though I thought it would be a difficult decision to make based on who Kendricks is. It's like from the outside perspective, from just salary cap and how he played last year,

it was the most obvious, right? To, to say, well, those things don't match up how much you cost versus how you played, how hard it is to know whether you're going to play at a high level again in a new system. And then the salary cap situation of the team okay well this one kind of falls into obvious but it can't be the last move is what i would say because they're still over the cap by quite a bit so then they have to decide with other players okay are you going to restructure to get under the cap and and it's not just about creating 24 million dollars to get under the cap to be compliant's not just about creating $24 million to get under the cap to be

compliant. By the start of free agency, you have to have enough money to be able to sign free agents. And they have Delvin Tomlinson, who they clearly want. You have other positions. They have a lot of actual, their own free agents that are leaving. And those are roster spots you have to fill. So it's not really creating 24 million. It's more like creating 50 million to be able to do things like that. So yeah, I mean, I do think that, I don't know if it's a full rebuild season, but that there's going to be more of these moves that are coming down the pipe just based on where they stand with the salary cap situation. And this one, they didn't have any restructure options. So this one does make

it different than some of the others, because Sean also says, I predict Adam Thielen is next. And I would agree with you. That one doesn't create as much cap space. But if we were ranking the most likely players to go, Kendricks was probably number one. And then Adam Thielen is right there too, particularly since he has expressed some frustration with his role or at least strongly insinuated. And then I saw Jeremy Fowler of ESPN also included that in his article about Adam Thielen wanting more of a target share. I don't know if he's going to get it anywhere else, but you combine the salary cap situation. You can create about six and a half million by moving on from feeling. So he very well could be next. We could be doing later today. Another one of these emergency podcasts, uh, breaking this down because, um, there is a lot

more to go here. And that's why I said yesterday, like everybody keep an eye on the YouTube channel, keep refreshing your podcast, because I just have a feeling that there's going to be a lot to do. So I don't know if it's going to be a full rebuild season, but it really reminds me of 2019 to 2020 where these things have to happen. They just have to. So I want to include Matthew's comment here. Sad to see Kendrick's go completely understand based on the cap and limited impact the previous two years, but I remember seeing him as rookie season and being immediately impressed. Yeah, that's the thing that he had a great Vikings career.

A great Vikings career. When you talk about the all-time linebackers for the Vikings, you know, the Studwells, the Blairs, he goes up there as one of the best linebackers to ever play for the Minnesota Vikings. This one comes from LC. Do you think it's more of a salary cap issue or performance? And I would say, yes, it's probably both. When those two things don't match up, the guy's going to leave. And it was just not the same. We could look at the system, and I would agree with that if Eric Hendricks was right here

and told me a hundred ways that Ed Donatell's system didn't fit. And I would say, yeah, I mean, I see the same thing that if you're dropping back Eric Hendricks playing, and I looked this up, PFF has this stat that Hendricks played some of the fewest or smallest percentage of man coverage of anybody in the NFL, which does not make any sense. It was very much a square peg and round hole with Kendricks and Ed Donatel. But at the same time, it wasn't, it wasn't the same as it was during his all pro season. And this goes for some other players too, Adam Thielen, Delvin Cook, my eyes watching them live, having seen their best of their best, it just really didn't look the same last year as it had looked

in the past or as in their prime, where somebody is running and you just expect Eric Hendricks is going to get there and make the tackle and it didn't necessarily happen. Or somebody throws into his lane and you think he's going to take a couple steps and make a play and it didn't happen and so I think that it's about when you sign someone or you keep someone on an expensive deal it's about what you think they're going to do in the future it's not about even what they did in the past but you use the past to decide how you think they're going to perform in the future. And it's just too risky for the Vikings. When you look at two straight years of not being at that all pro level, and then how are you going to say, all right, let's sign

him to a long-term extension. So, you know, then we're going to bet that he's going to continue to be good. You just really can't make that bet. And since there was no option to restructure left in his contract, and he was a guy that restructured almost every year, but eventually that runs out and you have no other options. From Derek, is this a sign of the Wilfs being more hands-off regarding the roster this offseason, given Kendrick's ambassadorship of the organization? I don't know.

I don't know that this would be a sign because it was just something that they really had to do. Yes, the Wilfs, I'm sure, love Eric Hendricks as they really love all players that contribute to the community and things like that. I think that's really important to the ownership of this organization. But also, they've let people go out the door before when it was time. They've given big contracts to guys that were still in their prime or playing well. But Kyle Rudolph is an example of this, where Kyle Rudolph, talk about a Walter Payton Man of the Year candidate,

someone who gave so much to the community and everything else. But eventually with Kyle Rudolph, just like with Eric Hendricks, the two things didn't match up. And plus, just like that situation, there was another guy coming through the pipeline. And I imagine they'll release Jordan Hicks as well. I'm not sure that that's going to happen, but it makes a lot of sense. But, you know, they drafted Brian Asamoah for a reason. They drafted Brian Asamoah to be the next Eric Hendricks is why they picked him. And it was kind of the writing on the wall there that they understood that, you know, at some point, Eric Hendricks time was going to come to an end and they needed to have

a replacement. So I don't know that this is something we can say for sure means the Wilfs are hands off. I would suggest to them that it's a good idea if they are, that if they are just, you know, trusting Kweisi Adafo Mensah and letting him do what he needs to do, then that's the right way to go. I mean, that's why you hired him as the general manager, is to make smart moves and to make projections and go with those as opposed to just kind of going with your heart. So I don't know that this is a clear-cut sign, but it feels like more of a step that they had to take.

They do have to understand, though, how difficult this is going to be going forward, because I know Eric Hendricks didn't play great last year, but there's no guarantees that the replacements play better than Eric Hendricks, that he still is a very smart veteran and did make a lot of plays. He graded very well in the run game last year. So we've gone through this before where it's like, well, you know, Xavier Rhodes isn't as good as he used to be. We'll just get somebody else. But if the somebody else isn't that great, and they're going to have to do that with multiple positions here this off season, it would seem. From Todd, I think the majority of Vikings fans would be okay with a full rebuild. I agree with you. That is the vibe that I have gotten from a lot of Vikings fans. This off season is that

last year was super fun, but now it's time to move on. And Eric Hendricks is the first step of moving on and of Kweisi Adafo Mensah and Kevin O'Connell making this roster theirs, which really should have been and seems to be the goal for them this offseason, which is to make this roster theirs. For so long, it was the Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman players. Think about, go back to 2014 when Mike Zimmer got here and they draft Anthony Barr and they draft Bridgewater. And then the next year they draft really the core of their team for many years. Daniil Hunter, Stefan Diggs, Eric Hendricks, Trey Waynes. And slowly we've seen these players kind of dissipate where it's, you know, Limbaugh

Joseph is no longer with them and Everson Griffin and so forth. But there's still these handful that are still here that are kind of the holdovers from before. And at some point with Casey and Kevin O'Connell, it's going to be time to make the roster yours. And that time is probably right now. And this is the first step to that, where you're moving on from all the guys from the previous regime,

especially the ones that are expensive and you don't believe can project to being good in the future. And then, you know, you sign your guys and you draft your guys and you fill those positions. But there has to be a transition there. They're just not going to have enough money to sign a bunch of people and then replace everyone. And so there's going to have to be a transition. They also don't have enough draft capital to just, you know, draft somebody at the top and fill some position. So this is like realities should set in that they're still after cutting an $11 million player who's been a superstar at some points in his career, they're still nowhere

close to where they need to be with the salary cap, which means that more things could be coming down the pipe here. From Paul, do you think that this week the Vikings will be able to trade any of the top cut candidates we've been discussing? And yeah, this was the first question that my wife asked me this morning when the Kendricks news came down was, wait, they couldn't trade him because he has been a great player in the past. It's very hard to find anyone that you can actually get value for in the trade market in the NFL. It has to really match up to a tight window of that player being a star to get real value back.

A star whose contract is either reasonable or that team really wants to extend them long term oh and you don't have to trade him like that's that's the thing with eric kendricks is everybody in the nfl would have known you have to get rid of him and with adam thielen or with delvin cook it's possible that they might be able to get something for them, but we're talking like a sixth round pick. You might as well just cut them at that point. Although the Vikings could use some sixth round picks, that's for sure at this point. They don't have much late in the draft, but it's hard to convince another team to take a bad contract for a player that's coming off of not a great season.

From future retrospect, 107 targets seems like a lot. Not sure what else he needs. We're speaking the same language there, man. I agree with you. I don't know. Adam Thielen is a real competitor, and maybe he thinks that he can still drive a team's success, but I have no issues with the Vikings forming their entire offense around Justin Jefferson. So I don't know. I don't really get that one either.

Aaron says, I predict Delvin cook will be cut next. Yeah. You know, so I felt the same way about Delvin cook that it felt like the most obvious possible thing that they could do would be to cut Delvin Cook. And yet our buddy Tom Pelissero at NFL Network, he said in a radio interview the other day, I saw the clip, I'm not sure who it was with, but he said that Delvin Cook was likely to be back with the Vikings where I kind of, really? I guess I'm surprised by that because it seems like one of the clearer moves with a 28 year old running back to move on from them and start a new with Ty Chandler, Kenny Wong Wu draft the guy in the fourth round or something, and then start moving

forward at that position. You just, you talk about the projections. You can't project anything good for a running back over the age of 28, especially when it did not work out with how Delvin Cook fit into this offense. And also he just didn't have the same burst as he did before. From Dennis, doesn't it have to be a full rebuild on defense? Yeah, more or less. Yeah. I mean, when you talk about what they have, this is where the difference between a retool reset, which would be moving on from Eric Hendricks because he's older and a full rebuild

really swings on two players, swings on Daniel Hunter, and it swings on Harrison Smith. Because if they release Harrison Smith or trade Harrison Smith or trade Daniil Hunter, of which they could probably get something significant back, at least a second round pick, but maybe a late first if it's from a real contender. Now that would mean you have, and Zedaria Smith as well,

that would mean you have to really put together all new pieces because you've got nothing to work with. If Zedaria Smith, Daniil Hunter and Harrison Smith are still there, those are pieces at least for one year for next year that can be the foundation of who you have. Because you know that those players are going to be still good and you can build around them and you know you've got a pass rush to start with and then if they bring back delvin tomlinson and then you know then you're talking about more of a retooling of finding a corner in free agency drafting a corner getting maybe an interior rusher like kind of sprucing up think of it this way Like if you were redoing your backyard, like what they might do is just kind of trim the shrubs and mow the lawn or whatever. But there's also the possibility if

they move on from someone like Daniil Hunter, then you're talking about exploding the whole backyard and rebuilding it all from the very beginning. So I don't know if that metaphor actually works, but you get what I'm saying that I don't know if it metaphor actually works, but you get what I'm saying that I don't know if it's going to be a full rebuild where they get rid of everybody. But you know, I do know that this is the first step toward at least a resetting and retooling, but that's really still remains the question after releasing Eric Hendricks is, are they going to kind of go all in on this and just have a bloodletting and then let everybody go and then completely start a new, which would be really interesting with, you know, timelines that we talk about and time horizons that we talk about all the time with Kweisi

Adafo-Mensa. I don't think that this move really tells us yet how that's going to go. But if you've been doing your salary cap homework and doing the math, there's a lot to be done. And when they talk about wanting Delvin Tomlinson to come back, where is that money coming from? They must have a plan to do that. And that's when they were talking about it at the combine. I was kind of like, you know, the gif with all the numbers that comes in front of the person's face. Like how does, how does a $15 million defensive tackle fit in unless you're moving on from a lot of people, uh, from Andrew, is it possible? Adam Thielen will simply take less money to stay very unlikely. Any team pays him what he's making now. So why uproot his family and leave Minnesota? I mean, I agree with your logic. I agree with your logic, but if he thinks that he's not happy with where his role is,

and it does kind of seem that way, then I think he might go championship chasing and try to find it somewhere else. I don't think that anybody is giving him the money, the role. I don't think anyone's giving him a hundred targets in the NFL next year, but that doesn't mean he doesn't think that. I mean, this is, this is a guy in Adam Thielen. You have to understand that him being delusional is actually why he's here because you would have told them Mankato, like, you're never going to make it, bro. You're never going to be in the NFL. In fact, I remember the story that even when the Vikings had him for a tryout, the coaching staff in Mankato was like, I don't think he's an NFL player.

I mean, that's just how his mentality has always had to work. So it wouldn't shock me if Thielen believed that he was still wide receiver one and could have 100 catches and everything else. But yeah, I mean, I see your point that you're talking about uprooting your family and everything else and maybe, you know, taking a pay cut or what, right. Like there's a lot of negatives to it, but if that belief is strong from him, then, you know, he might do that.

Let's see from Todd. I trust this regime to finally find out long-term who our quarterback will be. And that's the thing about this Eric Kendrick's move. And we haven't talked about Derek Carr at all yet, but we will is I don't know that this yet ties into something regarding Kirk Cousins, right? Like I don't, I don't know if this says, okay, well now they're definitely not signing Kirk Cousins to an extension because it's a rebuild and they're not right. Like, I don't think that those two things are connected, but the reality, and it really sounded this way from talking with Kweisi Adafo-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell at the combine. Like the reality is these guys need to look for other quarterbacks. They just have to, they just have to consider other quarterbacks and other options at quarterback

because of Kirk Cousins age. And this is where it's like the Kendrick's conversation does tie in. It's always with age and projection. How do you project how, what a 35 year old quarterback is going to do over the next few years. That's so difficult for an analytics person like Kweisi Adafo-Mensa. He knows that quarterbacks that are not of the Peyton Manning or Tom Brady ilk, it gets very shaky past the age of about 34. And that makes it hard for them. And he even admitted, Quasey did, that they want on Cousins' side guarantees and the Vikings want flexibility in the future at that position. And I don't know if those two sides are going to come together here

and make some sort of short-term deal like he took last year. It just feels like that's not going to happen. From Michael, do you think they'll sign Hunter to a four-year extension? I think it's very possible, yeah, because when we are talking about the future, he's 28. Somehow, Daniil Hunter is still young. We've been talking about how young he is literally for the entire time I've been covering the Vikings, but yeah, he's still young, and he's a player that produces. And if you're Brian Flores, you're probably saying, can we keep somebody? Maybe this guy, the problem is, is the price tag is going to be significant for what he just did last year

in terms of production, top 10 by PFF, top 10 pressure rate, double digit sacks, like those things cost $25 million or more in today's environments. And you could draft someone. It's a draft that has a lot of defensive linemen. And no, it's not going to be easy to just replace him. But with the salary prices going up for a lot of positions, that gap between rookie contract guy and a lot of different positions. We've always talked about it for the quarterback, but pass rusher,

corner receiver, like it's growing with every day, how much more that gap is. And that makes decisions for who to pay more difficult. Also I remember being told that last year, some teams came in with very big trade offers for Daniil Hunter, even when there was uncertainty. If that happens again, how would they not take it? How would they not take it if they're offered a first round pick or a second round draft pick? So that Daniel Hunter one is, is very difficult, but I would not be surprised if they offer him a long-term extension. It's just that even with

his current salary cap hit that his hit cap, it's going to go up. If they extend them a lot of times when you extend someone, their cap hit can go down, but that's not the case with him because it's already pretty low and they're not really going to be able to lower it anymore. So that is a tricky one. And when you talk about full rebuild, you move on from Daniel Hunter, that's full rebuild. From Phil, do you think that the Giants playoff game said more about where this team actually was than the 13 wins? Yeah, in a way, in a way, sure. But I think that, I mean, yeah, like they had a negative point differential and we know that they had a lot of those last minute wins and everything else.

But I think that the Giants loss also told us a lot about what was coming next because it wasn't just the defense bad. It was also a lot of players who had been there for a long time or a lot of veteran players not performing on defense in the way that you needed them to, to step up and make a play. And at that point it was like, yeah, I mean, if you can't slow down that offense, which was not prolific or spectacular as the Eagles showed the next week, then you weren't really going to beat anybody. I mean, it's just, you know, you, weren't really going to beat anybody. I mean, it's just, you know, you, you weren't going to beat anybody, um, in the deeper in the playoffs or, you know, in the future, if you continue to run back this group, then it's just going to continue to tumble

downhill. So we knew at that point when they couldn't slow down the giants Giants, that there was going to have to be a lot of changes. This one from Lauren cracks me up how people pick players over the team. No, I don't agree with you there, Lauren. One of the things that's best about sports is when you form connections to players. Eric Hendricks was much more than just a player. And I don't know if this is referencing Eric Hendricks, but he was more to the Twin Cities and to Vikings fans than just another guy who threw on a jersey. And that would go probably for Adam Thielen and for a lot of other players that were part of this group for a long time that they had a lot of moments, you know, Minneapolis miracle, obviously at the top of that list, but there was a lot of, a lot of games, a lot of blood spilled over the years, playing through injuries, making big plays in games and you know, Walter Payton,

man of the year nominations and things like that. It's yeah. I mean, it, this, this isn't a simulation. This isn't a computer game where you just type in the little numbers and then the sports come out. I mean, this is something that means a lot more to people with their team. I mean, the Minnesota Vikings in a lot of ways are a heartbeat of Minnesota. I mean, they are by far and away, it's not even close, the most popular team in Minnesota. And everybody is watching what's going on with the Vikings at all times. And you form connections with these players who are here for quite some time.

So I don't think it's just, oh, well, everything is about, you know, the salary cap, the statistics and so forth. Eric Hendricks really shows you that people matter when it comes to the Vikings. And, you know, I mean, it really goes for any team, twins or wild or whoever, but the people matter to this. So I think it's okay if people are upset that Eric Hendricks is going, even if they understand. From Asa here, did the combine shape your opinions on any of the top end receivers you'd like the Vikings to possibly select? Yeah, I mean, I think without getting too far off kind of our breaking news,

that it's a good receiver class where the Vikings need it to be a good receiver class. It isn't a bunch of receivers who are going in the top five. It's receivers that are probably a little bit flawed here or there and might end up going in that 20 range, but they're going to have a lot to replace here, especially if they do move on from somebody like, you know, Daniel Hunter and so forth. I appreciate you guys, by the way, keeping me up on different things that are happening. Bud Dupree being cut, Leonard Floyd, Nick Mullins. I mean, that was, you know, I didn't think that they were necessarily going to bring back Nick Mullins. They might, they might still. So I, thanks for doing that. And if there's any other news,

you know, drop it in the comment section from Zach Hicks is also a linebacker whose money doesn't align with production. I wonder if he will be cut. He was one of my, like, I don't even know. Like, I don't even know if we even need to talk about it, uh, with Jordan Hicks. It seems so clear that that would be someone that you would cut. Um, you know, I just, uh, I just feel like with Hicks, we saw at the end of last year, Brian Asamoah was taking his, his snaps away and they were saying, oh, well, you know, we want to kind of work in, you know, Asamoah, but really, uh, Jordan Hicks at his age was not the player that he once was as happens to all linebackers and all NFL players, but it was very clear that they wanted to start working in Brian Asamoah. And I wonder if you

were to go back and ask, Hey, do you could, do you think you should have just played Brian Asamoah in that playoff game instead of Jordan Hicks? They might say yes. You know, they might say yes. And that's the thing is like, they do have something to work with there as far as the linebacker position goes so even though they're cutting these guys this is what i think if you're asking what i'd like to see or what i think is smarter to play people like brian asamoah and draft other players to put into these positions or put in positions players who have been developing so like i'm not saying troy die is going to be the next eric kendricks but he's been developing for a number of years and he's been a good special teamer for them would you rather see

players like him work in and play next year and see where everybody fits and then you know rather than signing more Jordan Hicks type players. I remember last year when they signed Jordan Hicks, it was like, I like Jordan Hicks as a player for his career, but you'd almost rather just see Brian Asamoah because then you're going to know where Brian Asamoah stands. And, you know, with a hundred something snaps, we really don't. I mean, I liked some of the stuff I saw from him, but we really don't know. And he didn't get a lot of reps. So, you know, that's one of the things they need to consider is that, you know, when they try to

replace these players like Eric Hendricks, are you going to go with cheap veterans that just fill out the roster and might not perform any better than the players that are younger that could replace them. But also there's the element of you just won 13 games. Do you have to kind of bring in a new defensive coordinator and swing for a little more competitive than taking the risk, so to speak, of having all young players play? This is a difficult combination of things that they have to factor in when they move on from someone like Eric Hendricks. How do you want to replace him?

Do you want to replace him with someone who's on the roster and you want to find out if they can play or not? Or do you want to go out to the free agent market and do the same thing that you did with Jordan Hicks? I would advise playing the younger player in any case when you're in a roster in transition type of situation. And don't repeat the mistakes of the past. Don't trade for Yannick Ngakwe. Don't give up future assets or even flexibility or even the ability to learn about somebody when you can put a player into there.

So let's see. Hold on here. Do I think that cutting Nick Mullins means it's more likely to draft a quarterback? I don't know. I think that it's likely for them to draft a quarterback somewhere. Just the way that Kevin O'Connell was talking about meeting with all the quarterbacks and so forth and how every year he's keeping an eye on it and those types of things. But there has been this sort of like, well, you know, you can develop one and things like that. So maybe there is somebody in the middle rounds that they have their eye on for that third round pick. That's another one I would not suggest doing. But there is that development option. I also think they have to have the discussion. I also think they have to have the discussion

about trying to trade up because probably one quarterback doesn't get taken that we think is going to get taken in the top 10. We don't know which one it is, but there's probably someone. And there is a point where if they drop so far, whichever one of the top four quarterbacks that you would start making phone calls as the Vikings every day that they don't have a contract extension long-term for cousins is a day closer to them doing something in the draft about the quarterback position, whether that is a mid rounder and they try to spot the next Kirk Cousins or Dak Prescott. Um, you know, so yeah, I, I don't, I don't know if there's any sort of connection there. Uh, so let's see, was Nick Mullins a free agent? I guess that

would make sense. Um, did they announce, see, I'm not looking at Twitter, so I've maybe been thrown off here, but that quarterback discussion is still very relevant of what they're going to do at quarterback. Speaking of which we have not talked yet about Derek Carr. We've gone 40 minutes into the rebuild conversation. Okay. So sorry. Someone in the comments said that they released Nick Mullins, but I guess he was an unrestricted free agent. That makes sense. Teddy Bridgewater being cut makes a lot of sense too. And I'm sure there will still be fans that want to bring back Teddy. That was always a thing a couple of years ago. Well, let's talk about Derek Carr for a minute here. Derek Carr is a New Orleans

saint. And that does make a difference to the Vikings because what that means is that the NFC South will be a lot less of a joke. I don't think that Derek Carr is a great quarterback, but is he way better than some combination of Jameis Winston, Taysom Hill, and Andy Dalton under the same category as someone like Kirk Cousins. I think they're probably equals that Carr didn't have as good of a season last year, but you go back two years and he had a very similar year to the Vikings where they, you know, made the playoffs with a negative point differential, but he's always been a very quality starting NFL quarterback that can put a team in the playoffs. And the NFC South is just not that robust. Now that could change with all sorts of situations with the quarterback. And I think the Panthers will be better almost no matter what happens. If they draft someone or whatever, and they were running out Sam Darnold

and Baker Mayfield last year. So the Panthers will be better. Atlanta has a chance maybe to add a quarterback and they could be better as well. So there's a lot to still change here, but it is a situation where the New Orleans Saints could be a very competitive team. They've still got a lot of talent.

And we saw this last year that Chris Olave is a legit star. I mean, he played that way with very poor quarterback play. And I thought that he deserved as much buzz for rookie of the year as anybody else. It's just that, you know, the Saints, I mean, they were just under the radar all season because they weren't a real contender. They didn't have a real quarterback. But Alave played great. So he's got something to start with there. They have a terrible contract situation, cap situation.

I don't see them as signing Derek Carr and being a Super Bowl contender. But it does instantly make the NFC a little stronger. And this is where when we talk about the 13 wins from the Vikings last year, and I know that the Saints aren't a team that they're playing next season, but they will be a team that's competing for a playoff spot now that you can lock them into.

With Derek Carr, you're winning seven to 10 to 11 games with him in a maybe weak division in the NFC South. But the landscape of the NFL just changes quickly. And this is where earlier when someone asked about whether fans would be behind a rebuild. And I think the answer is mostly yes, that the one argument against it has been or was for last year. Hey, look at the opposing quarterbacks. Look at the opposing quarterback schedule. We can win. And they did. And they did in part because of a bad quarterback schedule and a bad NFC with a lot of poor quarterback play. But that could be very different this year. And Derek Carr is kind of the first domino there. We could also see if a rookie comes in for somebody,

there's going to be teams that are drafting quarterbacks. Carolina might be a team that trades up. So that's just how fast things change. Lamar Jackson might end up in the NFC. We don't really know. It was out there from Jeremy Fowler of ESPN that he might, you know, have a non-exclusive tag put on him, which means that someone can drop

in and make an offer. Right. And so if that happens and, you know, let's say it's Atlanta going after Lamar Jackson. We don't know. There's so much to change here. This is Monday right after the combine. And already it feels like things have shifted quite a bit with the release of Eric Hendricks and now Derek Carr signing. I did think he was going to wait for Aaron Rodgers and that's another domino. That's another emergency podcast and a domino to fall. But immediately the NFC's quarterback situations just got stronger with Derek Carr signing with the New Orleans Saints.

In my mind, that does not make them a Super Bowl contender, but it makes them a playoff team right away based on where they were last year with Andy Dalton playing, and they were on the cusp of potentially reaching the playoffs. So if you're the Vikings and you're thinking, well, can you win the division with Detroit being as good as they are, Detroit getting name dropped also for potentially getting Jalen Ramsey. So can you win the division with all the players that you're going to have to overturn?

You know, so like it's, I don't know. It's getting harder is the point that every year is a new different landscape that you're going to face. So every year you have to make decisions based on that. Okay. Adam in the comments says, Thielen is gone. Can you comment? So I'm not looking at Twitter. Has something happened here? Let me refresh. Have we got a decision on something with Adam Thielen? I will wait a moment before commenting on what you're asking. So somebody in the comments tell me if like that is something that's happened.

Because if you're asking about like you think Thielen is gone, then I would agree with you that I don't think that he'll be on the team next year based on where we stand right now. Okay, so nothing on Adam Thielen yet. So you're just asking. Okay. All right. Just making sure, just making sure, because it would not be the first podcast that we were in the middle of and then had more breaking news. But you're asking if I think that's going to happen. Yeah, I do. I do think that that's going to happen. I think that based on the way that his contract is set up, trying to restructure that might be something he doesn't want to do.

And they're not going to sign him to another extension to lower the cap hit. And honestly, look, they won 13 games. So you can't go back and criticize a ton for what they did last off season when, you know, this happened, you know, when you ended up having a really great season, but when they reworked that deal, like that was not a Rick Spielman holdover deal for Adam Thielen. They decided to hang on to him for this year and to sign this contract extension. And now it's going to hurt them either way, that if they release him, it's a $13 million dead cap hit, and they only make about $6 million on the cap. And that was something that I'm sure was part of the push to remain competitive. At the same time, maybe one of those that you go back

and Harrison Smith might also fall into this category where you go, maybe if you had to redo that, you wouldn't have done it this way. I guess it was a fake Twitter account that was reporting on Thielen. So, hey, be aware out there. When you're looking at social media, there's some nutcases that think that it's funny

to make fake reports. So I don't know why you would ever waste your time doing something like that. But yeah, so be aware and be careful when you're looking for those reports. But also plausible. Usually if you're going to start a fake account, you should report something

ridiculous, right? You shouldn't just, yeah. Jonathan Harrison texting me that it was a fake ESPN report. Report something absurd. Come on. Oh, we're just going to report like a normal thing that could happen. For what reason? You don't even get paid for those retweets. So anyway, that's weird. People are weird. Internet's weird, but is it realistic? Yep. Yep. It's definitely realistic. So let me give some final kind of thoughts here on what's happened with this breaking news. And what I would suggest is that all of you watching on YouTube, or if you are listening on the podcast feed, I would say that it's probably a good idea to keep refreshing and keep an eye on the channel because every breaking news item. So if Thielen does get released and the

fake ESPN account ends up being right an hour from now, I'll be back. I'm going to just go and start writing a reaction to Eric Hendricks being released, but I'll be back to go live. So my final thought is just that this was something that as soon as the final gun sounded, Vikings and Giants, that was on my mind from that moment was, I don't see how this all comes back. And I don't see how they are told, you know, the Wilfs telling the leadership here, oh yeah, you guys need to be right back here next year because it's really not realistic to keep all of these things together, all of these players together. But this is, well, it is the reality of the NFL. And while a lot of people do feel like, whatever, man, we didn't win the Super Bowl last year, so forget everyone.

Eric Hendricks should always be, someone like him, an exception to those rules or to those people who only ever want to talk about the Super Bowl. And I know we're like that on the show, but with Eric Hendricks, he was a very, very special player to this organization and releasing him or being forced to release him really signifies where this changes is going, that this roster is going to be very different as we go forward. And we might look up at the start of the 2023 season and say, wow, there's only five players who were on this team just two years ago or something like

that. I don't want to say exact number, but a very small number of players that this is the first step to reworking this roster in the vision of Kweisi Adafo-Mensah and Eric Hendricks and Kevin O'Connell by releasing Eric Hendricks. And that could mean a lot of these emergency podcasts, and it could mean opening up the door to really creating the actual start of their era. Because last year we were sort of calling him Quacey Spielman. Like all these moves look exactly like things Rick Spielman would do. Is he pulling the strings from behind the scenes? This is something that maybe they wouldn't have done before unless they were absolutely forced to.

And now they've got this opportunity to start clearing the deck and to start the process of really rebuilding this team. But that's only if a lot of these come. If this is it and then they rework some contracts and signs some low level free agents. I think it will be disappointing to people. If you're going to be axing everybody who isn't nailed down, people can get on board with that. Can they get on board with just reworking some deals and running it mostly back?

I don't know. I think that would be much, much more difficult for people to support than it is for if you're going to move on from Kendricks, then just move on from everyone. But still a tough day for a lot of Eric Kendricks fans who, you know, just a guy that put so much into the organization. And I just want to say again how much I respected Eric Kendricks, one of those players that you don't come across very often, a rare person. And the Twin Cities community is certainly not better off for having Eric Hendricks next year playing somewhere else. So, and Adam, you are forgiven for the false alarm. Not your fault. It happens to everybody. Fake ESPN accounts. It's happened to me before where I've seen something popped up and I've gone, boop, retweet. Then, oh no, that's some psychopath making a fake account. So it does

happen. Anyway, I don't know how long it will be. It might be 20 minutes. It might be 10 hours, but everything that happens in Vikings land, we will come on and do emergency shows here. And I really appreciated all of you who are in the comments, commenting and things like that. You know, I really appreciate the interaction that we have here on YouTube. It's made it so much better and so much more fun for me to do these than just talking to myself in a room with a microphone, like, you know, whatever. It feels like we're really having a Vikings community conversation here. So we'll keep doing this with everything that breaks.

So I appreciate all of you jumping on here. Keep those alerts set to the YouTube channel or to the podcast feed. And I guarantee you we'll be talking again soon. But the first thing has dropped. The first shoe has dropped in the Vikings offseason, and there's a lot more to go. So thanks everybody for watching and we will see you guaranteed very soon.