Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - ESPN: 'All bets are off' at quarterback for Vikings (Hour 1)

Episode Date: February 7, 2026

Matthew Coller talks about a report from ESPN's Kevin Seifert on what's next for the Vikings after the firing of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. Plus, some comments from Aaron Jones at radio row that raised an eyebrow and what to expect in the Super Bowl. 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.

everybody welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here, and we are just a couple of days away from the Super Bowl. The show, of course, as always presented by Fandul. We'll have a Fandual question of the day. One more before the big game, but this is a pretty wide open show here on a Friday night for you guys to jump in with questions, comments, thoughts, feelings, and reactions to whatever it is that you want to.

talk about, but the last seven days have certainly provide us with a lot to discuss. So I want to begin that conversation with an article from Kevin Seifert of ESPN, breaking down the biggest questions following the firing of Quasi Adafo Mensa and the notable quotes that came from Kevin Sefert's article. And that starts with a shocker, right? The quarterback situation And I was curious when I saw Kevin's article pop up. Like, how is he going to frame the quarterback situation now that Quasi Adopl Menta has been fired? Like, I mean, is it even really different than we thought it was going to be if Quasi was still here? I mean, I think we all agreed that at very least they were going to be looking for competition for J.J. McCarthy.

But what Kevin wrote was. slightly more far on the meter. Remember, we talked about the meter the other night, where if you're in the red, it's you have to find a starting quarterback. If you're solidly in the yellow or the orange on J.J. McCarthy, then you're probably thinking competition, but maybe there's still a chance for him to win a competition. And then if you are in, you know, the, what, wait, yeah, I guess it would be the red.

Wait, how does this work again? No, it's the blue. I'm sorry. goes first. That's your finding another starting quarterback. Then it is the yellow where you're looking for competition. Maybe you're not totally sold. You need a real starter. If you're in the orange, then you're talking about for J.J. McCarthy to get more of a shot than not. And if you're in the red, then you're all in on J.J. McCarthy. Well, here's what Seifert wrote in his piece. He said, quote, the best way to put this based on what sources have said is that all bets are off.

The general manager who drafted McCarthy number 10 in 2024 has been fired, and the coach who is in full agreement with that decision is now under considerably more scrutiny. So all bets are off. Like how do we how do we take that when someone says to you, uh, when it comes to JJ McCarthy and the quarterback situation, folks, all bets are off. Do you take that as in like that means it,

he's toast, uh, that he's not going. going to be a part of this. I don't take it quite like that. I think what it means is there's no real guarantees here at all, uh, just on this entire situation. There's no guarantees that he's going to even get a shot to continue to compete for the starting quarterback position. But I mean, I think it also means that it's not impossible that he would be able to still be a part of this. But I wasn't sure exactly and I'm not asking it rhetorically. I mean, I really mean, I'm not sure exactly how to evaluate that sentence. Like, all bets are off. What is that, what does that really mean? I think

it means that anything could happen that if the Vikings went out and made a big trade for a quarterback that you never saw coming, you know, somebody I thought of today. And, and I don't think this is possible or anything like that. So it's certainly not even, doesn't even fall into the rumor category, but with Jeff Stoutland retiring from or leaving the Philadelphia Eagles, and there was some reports that Landed Dickerson might consider retiring, which would be crazy and bizarre. And, you know, A.J. Brown wanting out was like, J.L. hurts.

Like, I was trying to come up with any, what is outside the box? Is there anyone that I haven't thought of yet that would totally shock me? And I would be like, what? that person was in the discussion all along. And no, I don't think that that's realistic. But, I mean, some of you brought up C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans after, you know, the way that the season ended for Houston and his armed talent and what he might be able to do in this system.

I mean, all bets are off. I think just means exactly what Kevin Garnett said following his NBA championship, which was anything is possible now at the quarterback position. and something that we've talked about a lot on the show was just about what is the power structure now? What is the situation with having Kevin O'Connell basically running the off season, along with Brian Flores, and Rob Brzeinsky in charge as the acting general manager? Like, does this mean that essentially Kevin O'Connell can run amok and do whatever he wants? Well, Seaford says, no, not exactly. What Seafurt wrote on Rob Brzezinski's role was,

Brzezinski has too much stature in the organization to be a simple conduit for the impulses of O'Connell or defensive coordinator, Brian Flores, or any other member of the organization. I think this makes a lot of sense. I do feel like O'Connell, Brzeinsky, and Flores are going to be a lot on the same page, because when you talk about building a consensus, as Mark Wilf did, well, I mean, the, the main voices here for getting what they want and what they need are O'Connell and Brian Flores.

But I would take this as if, say, just for example, Kevin O'Connell wants to send two first round draft picks for the top center he can get or something. Rob Brzezinski's not going to say, come on, man. you know, he's going to say, come on, man, we can't do stuff like that. Or he wants to give out a huge contract to some player that's not that great just because, hey, we need him and we need to win that, you know, contract debate or whatever it might be like that, that Brzynski is going to say, hang on. And this is true because I was thinking, look, if there's, you know, 2026 is your kind of big

final showdown type of year for Kevin O'Connell. then you have to do everything and anything short-sightedly. And I still think that that is the case. And I think it would have been the case with Quasi Adafel-Menza. But I don't think that it's just because, hey, everyone is on a hot seat in the NFL basically these days, right? Or that, you know, 2026 is this final year, you know, for O'Connell to prove X, Y, and Z. It's also because when you look around the roster, this was always built.

to kind of be like the big year for this team. It was supposed to be 2025, 2025, 26. And I remember Jeremy Fowler saying last year that they kind of viewed it as a three-year window. And I looked at it and went, isn't it more of a two-year type of window, unless, of course, J.J. McCarthy had been phenomenal, which he still could be eventually, but were he to be excellent, then they might be able to stretch that out to a third year. but when you look at the ages of the players and you look at the contracts, it really kind of

all leads down to this. So it's not just that, you know, Brazinski would be like, I'm helpless to say no to Kevin O'Connell. Of course not. He's been in the organization for a long time. He has the cashé. He has the trust of the ownership to be able to say, no, I don't think we can do this. This isn't a good idea.

Whatever might be those short-sighted type of moves. but at the same time, short-sighted type of moves kind of make a lot of sense when it comes to a situation such as this one. So, you know, I tend to look at it like it makes all the sense in the world to have the setup be like that where they're trying to do as much this offseason as they can with the current roster to win right now, regardless of who the quarterback is, which is usually not how it works. It usually doesn't work that you're trying to stack up a roster as much as possible

and then not be sure who your quarterback is. You're normally trying to get those things to cross. But if McCarthy doesn't win the job and doesn't, you know, look phenomenal in training camp and take huge steps forward or if he even gets a chance to do those things, well, then that's going to have to be what it is for the Vikings. and in Vike's history, there are plenty examples, and Rob Brissinsky knows this as well as anybody of stacked rosters and surprisingly good quarterbacks.

And all of the sudden, you've got yourself a trip to the NFC championship, whether that's going back to Randall Cunningham or Jeff George. I know Jeff George didn't make the NFC championship, but he did win a playoff game and had a crazy shootout game against the greatest show on turf Rams. and, you know, they came out on top. But Case Keenham going to the NFC championship in 2017, Sam Darnold doing what he did in 2024. I mean, if you look at a lot of the quarterbacks that we talk about as available

and possible for the Vikings and then compare some of their histories to what Sam Darnold did before he got here. And I know it's a very different story because Sam Darnold had been on the rise, starting really in 2002, where things started to turn for him. And then when he played in San Francisco, he won a competition there. He was good there.

And then he gets to Minnesota and it's kind of a perfect storm. So you can't always look at a Gino Smith, a Kyler Murray, a Mack Jones, whoever it might be and say, well, they'll just do the same thing. Because, you know, there's different factors with every one of those guys. But it is sort of a proof of concept of, well, if that's what their idea is to try to Sam Darnold some,

something, a situation where they have the strongest roster possible and a cheap quarterback who's good enough, which Sam Darnold was and needs to be remembered that Darnold only got paid $10 million the year he was so good for the Vikings. Are they going to try to do that again? And I tend to think that they probably are, but, uh, Brazinski's not going to allow O'Connell, Flores, et cetera, to do things that could very seriously damage the last. long term of the Minnesota Vikings. But I think in terms of trying to make the absolute best out of this roster, like, where

does that start and where does that end? Where does damaging long term start versus just taking advantage of the potential last year of something that you built for as roster builders since 2023? I mean, that's when this team's roster build really begins is in 2023 when they allow Cook and Thielen and Tomlinson and you know, Kendricks and so forth, when those guys go, that begins your roster rebuild. And in the 2024 off season, you go out and get those key players, those stars in free agency. And even though they haven't all worked out in 2025, free agency, there was still resigning Byron Murphy. There was still Jonathan Allen's probably going to be

on this roster more likely than not for next year. There's still signing. signing Isaiah Rogers, who's going to be here. So a lot of your roster build and the draft picks, Jordan Addison, Dallas Turner, and Donovan Jackson, those guys are a big part of this as well. So your roster build that you put together for this long, trading for Jordan Mason, trading for T.J. Hawkinson. It goes back years and extending Hawkinson.

So why would you change the approach now, where you've gotten to this point that you feel like you have a good roster? I mean, the only thing that would probably be where that starts and stops is the draft that if you're Brazinski, you certainly want this team to not be doing something like they did with Dallas Turner, where they moved up and gave up an incredible amount of draft capital for one player. I think you would not want to do that because what you're looking for on this roster as a whole is to find longer term pieces in the draft. but in free agency, I mean, could they go out and look for older players again? Yeah, absolutely. You bet they could. And one other thing I wanted to bring up just in regards to the Vikings,

I know that this sort of made the rounds of Aaron Jones on Radio Row. He was on the nightcap show. And he said about Sam Darnold and letting him go. When you got a group of guys behind a quarterback and he wants to stay, I think you should try. to make it work. He said that about not keeping Sam Darnold last year. So I don't know if Aaron Jones is going to be a Minnesota Viking next season.

I suspect that that's probably not the case based on his contract. So I think that maybe he feels a little more like I can kind of just say what everybody already knows and already thinks, right, which is that, you know, hey, obviously you shouldn't of let Sam Darnold walk. I mean, we, we all know that. That's no kind of surprise to anyone since he's in the Super Bowl and you're watching from home. But the one line that he said there that did, you know, spark a little bit of an eyebrow raise was wants to be there. So with Sam Darnold, because of the nature of Sam Darnold, because Darnold never says anything about any of his business doings about anything from the past and has never shown any sort of negativity

toward the Vikings, the Jets, the Panthers, anybody else. You don't really know what went on for his own personal opinions and feelings because he's never said it out loud. And we have not ever heard him say, yeah, I wish I could have remained a Minnesota Viking, but he just said nothing to do with that. It was like, hey, that was my agent's thing. And I'm here now in Seattle and I'm having a great time, right? But for Aaron Jones to say, maybe that's letting the cat out of the bag a little bit that

Sam Darnold wanted to continue to be a Minnesota Viking, that does make it a little bit interesting. But I also think that and there was reports that they had offered Darnold a contract, which I do not doubt that they did. but why would you sign a multi-year contract when you're not sure what the team is doing with J.J. McCarthy. And I was just watching last night, this incredible documentary. I was up to like 2 a.m. watching the AMC San Francisco 49ers Dynasty documentary. Of course, they play episode after episode after episode. And it started at like 11 at night.

And I'm just watching one after the next. I'm like, oh, it's really late now. but it's so compelling, so interesting. And they went through the, the 1988 quarterback controversy season with Steve Young and Joe Montana. And even though Young in Montana never had a beef against each other, and they have always publicly said, I never hated him.

He never hated me. We always were just kind of like both wanting to play and so forth. And I think it would have been that way with Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy. but I also think that public pressure would have been very, very high if Sam Darnold had any bad games. And if you look at what happened with Seattle this year, there's some games in there where he didn't play his best. And if they went through the 2025 season with Darnold and J.J. McCarthy is the backup.

There would have been times, I am absolutely certain, where there would have been fans calling for, hey, it's time to put in JJ. You know, they just went two quarters in a row without scoring three times. touchdowns. It's time to put in JJ or if they had had those injuries and they're kind of fighting for a playoff spot. What are we even doing here? We're stuck in the middle. Why aren't you just playing the younger guy? So sometimes it's not as simple as just, hey, if he had been here, it would have been the same. Seattle seemed very happy to have him really from day one. They, I think, liked Gino Smith, but maybe saw Gino Smith as having a ceiling and he wanted more money. So he

left and you know, he ends up with the Raiders. But had he come back, Darnold would have known that that would have been the response. And had the Vikings, just think about like what they would have had to do to really fully commit to Darnold last year. They would have had to trade J.J. McCarthy. And if they traded J.J. McCarthy after the entire fan base had fallen in love with

him, I don't think it would have gone over very well. Now, I mean, we would have probably come around to, well, look, they must really not believe in him as their guy, and they must have some serious concerns, or they really believe in Darnold. But then there's the other part of that, which is if you send away J.J. McCarthy, and he becomes good,

and Darnold is limited with a ceiling, right? So all these things are kind of thrown into that pot. The only thing that sort of threads the needle is that franchise tag to where if you ended up benching Sam Darnold, because it wasn't going that great, I mean, you're out some money for sure, but you're also only on the hook for one year. He's still going to go. You'll still get your comp pick. Someone will sign him, even though it might not be the same level of

deal if he had struggled. But I think that was a complicating factor right there is that Seattle embraced him right away. Hey, this is our new quarterback. Gino never really got us anywhere anyway. Whereas in Minnesota, the golden boy, the franchise quarterback, all those things that, had been built up around J.J. McCarthy, I think it would have impacted Sam's want to come back on any sort of contract other than the franchise tag. So I don't doubt that he wanted to return to his locker room, return to his teammates, return to this offense, return to U.S. Bank Stadium, all those things. But where and how you make that work exactly other than the franchise tag, I have a lot of trouble seeing. But this is more telling because

of the fact that someone's kind of out there saying it and not really defending their quarterback. And there's other quotes from Justin Jefferson where he talks about not having good quarterback play being the cause for his down season. And well, all of these things are true and you understand them. I went through everything I could find from Radio Roe Viking quotes, anything. Couldn't find any that said, hey guys, J.J. McCarthy is our freaking quarterback. And you guys, you know, in the media, you don't know what you're talking about where I saw none of that. It was basically Jefferson saying, yeah, I had bad quarterback play, but I'm still awesome. And Aaron Jones saying, yeah, I wanted Sam Darnold back. I mean, that's, that is pretty

tough. And this is where I always get to the point in the discussion where I kind of just feel, I end up feeling kind of bad for J.J. McCarthy because he had this thrust upon him. He didn't put it on himself and the expectations and all that stuff. Like that was something that the team ended up, you know, going with and doing. And it, I'm not saying it wasn't his fault. Like he needs to be, he needs to be better. He needs to be better prepared. He needs to run the offense better.

He needs to everything, right? But that was a lot. And every time we talked about how much that was. It was sort of dismissed as like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but he'll be fine. And I was like, are you sure? You know, that, that kept coming up for me was, okay, all right. I mean, I guess we'll see. And any time that I know on, you know, this show, most of the time where I would bring up

these concerns, it would kind of be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but he won the national championship. He's going to be fine. I was like, okay. And I thought after they decided to go with him, that, okay, they must be right. Like, they must be right about him because they would know better than me. They've seen what they've seen behind the scenes. But the reality of quarterbacking is you don't really know.

You never really know. Whether it's Sam Darnold showing up at being great or JJ looking way less ready than we thought, you just never really, really know. Also, I wanted to mention that Sefer in his article said it would, quote, be wrong to put O'Connell on the so-called hot seat. Now, about that, I think everyone is. I just look around the NFL and go, who's not on the hot seat? Like, who is not one year away from being out of a job in the National Football League? Let's see.

McVeigh, anybody else? Any other nominations? I mean, you could say Kyle Shanahan, probably. It had another good year this year. But, I mean, if they went five and 12 next year and Purdy got hurt, and it looked like there was nowhere else to go. I suppose that it's possible. I would say him.

I think, you know, the two coaches in the Super Bowl are not on the hot seat in any way and could have a bad year next year and survive it. How many more, though? Out of 32 coaches in the NFL, if Andy Reed misses the playoffs next year, Andy Reid's probably out, right? You could say Sean Payton has really complete control of that franchise. he's probably locked in for next year because of what he's done the last two years with Bo Nix. But even then, Sean Payton, if he becomes too powerful, too much of a bully, two, whatever,

and they win six games, it's not impossible. Out of 32, how many are just completely knighted? They are all set. They are untouchable. And it's less, I mean, it's less than 10 that you would guarantee because John Harbaugh is out and Mike Tomlin is out. And now that the guys who we would have guaranteed, even if we just go division by division,

you could see Joe Brady being fired. Aaron Glenn is a dead man walking. I mean, Joe, who is the, why did I just blank? Jeff Halfley. Okay, Jeff Halfley. So maybe recently are hired coaches, but even then we see that all the time,

where someone gets hired and then fired immediately. But I'll say Jeff Halfley, they'd probably give him more than one year. Todd Monkin could go in a year. That happens all the time. Mike McCarthy could go in a year if they were really, really bad. Yeah, there's very few that you can get to that are locked in. So no, I wouldn't say O'Connell's on the hot seat as if they're talking right now

about potentially firing him. But if the Vikings have a start to the season like they did last year and have a lot of the same results and struggle on offense and so forth, and things get, toxic or whatever it might happen. You know, leadership loses faith in him after two years. I mean, this stuff happens. And one thing that made me think of that is it is a relatively new thing for coaches to be hired and fired this quickly.

I think one of the reasons is because they, uh, the owners have more money than they used to owners have always been rich, but some of the owners used to make all of their money off the football team. And so they had less bazillions of dollars than when Walmart, owns a team. So they would be a little bit more like, I don't want to pay a guy not to work. Like, let's let it, let's let it ride. But going back to that documentary, Eddie DeBardo, who is the mastermind behind Bill Walsh coaching the 49ers, those championship teams, he admitted to like firing and then kind of getting over it a bunch of times Bill Walsh along the way,

like a loss that made him upset, you know, throwing a television in the locker room, smashing a gatorade machine or whatever. Like football has an effect on everybody, including owners. So yeah, not on the hot seat, as in the hot seat, hot seat where you assume that the person is on their way out, like Aaron Glenn. But under a lot, a lot of pressure, that's what I would definitely say.

Wanted to mention that as well. A couple other things to get to. And then we could talk about your questions and comments and our Fandul question of the day. former Minnesota Viking Roger Craig legend is in the Hall of Fame now. Of course, had a little bit to do with that San Francisco dynasty. That was maybe some of the stuff that was left meat on the bone in that thing, was that it was so focused on Walsh and Montana and Steve Young that I felt like they left

out kind of some of the role players and how important they were. And Roger Craig being more than a role player, but a star. The thing about Roger Craig going in is that statistics, don't always capture everything that Roger Craig did for that team because, I mean, he did have 1,000 to 1,000, but because they had Jerry Rice and they had John Taylor and they had, you know, Brent Jones and all these weapons, they didn't rely on one guy. And he didn't just, and they had Tom Rathman also, another running back slash fullback. They didn't just rely on one guy in the backfield all the time. But he was a hugely successful player when they gave him the

ball. He could catch it. He was certainly a dynamic runner and showed it in that thousand thousand season. So I've always thought that his role in that dynasty, he was there for such a long time, was underappreciated he belonged to the Hall of Fame. Adam Venetary, South Dakota legend into the Hall of Fame as well. Larry Fitzgerald. I hope you saw the video of Randy Moss welcoming Larry Fitzgerald to the Hall of Fame. That was super cool. that's i mean those guys have known each other since 98 since fitzgerald was a ballboy minnesota guy and really what you hope that justin jefferson is to the minnesota vikings which is someone that stays with one franchise through thick and thin and they'll get their

shots at it if the team is competent which arizona isn't really but they got a couple shots at it with kurt warner that unbelievable run with cars and palmer so they had their tries with Larry Fitzgerald, but he stuck it out. He was an Arizona Cardinal for life as much as everybody wanted him to come back to Minnesota. And now he ends up in the Hall of Fame, very well deserved the cream of the crop for class individuals, the way they represent their franchise, the way they represent the community, all those things. Justin Jefferson reminds me in the way that he's handled things recently of Larry Fitzgerald, an easy selection, Drew Brue. also an easy selection.

No Kevin Williams, man, it's tough to get in the Hall of Fame. It's just so tough. And as I was reading Mark Craig from the Star Tribune, his breakdown of his votes and what he, you know, went through with the process and players that he eliminated and so forth, the thing I kept coming back to was that I just won't understand when it's Kevin Williams, when it's Jim Marshall, whoever it might be, is why there's a convoluted system of, well, we're going to eliminate it from 15 to 10 and 10 to 5 and 5 to 2 and 2 and 2 to 1 and then no one gets in the Hall fame ever.

Like, I don't understand this. The same thing with Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft, where it's, well, if I want Elsie Greenwood, who was a great player for the Pittsburgh Steelers in their dynasty, if I want him in, then I can't have Belichick, but I know Belichick is deserving, but he'll probably get in next year. and these people who are doing the voting are forced to do a bunch of calculations and it's some sort of survivor game that why shouldn't the question be yes or no is that how baseball does it like doesn't baseball give you a ballot and then you fill it out and you pick like so many or just whoever you think should be in i have never looked at this for baseball i don't cover that sport but isn't it just a ballot and you say check or no check why isn't it that way for the Hall of Fame for the NFL and in football? Why isn't it that way where it's a ballot and you decide yes or no?

Here's the finalists. Okay, you got to get to finalists. Here's the finalists in, no in. And if that meant putting in 10 guys in a year, uh, okay. And I'll continue to say this. It's a museum, folks. It's a museum. It's not a key to the kingdom of heaven.

All right, it's a museum. And it's there to celebrate the greatness of football. And the players that are left out of this thing, the greatness that's left out of this thing is just insane, including Belichick, but also guys who didn't make the last cut. Kevin Williams is one of them. Reggie Wayne is another. Like, Reggie Wayne?

I mean, to not have so many of the best. And then you say to those guys, all right, yeah, Willie Anderson's another one. My goodness. One of the best tackles in the NFL for so long. Nope, sorry, man. You're not going to get in there. Oh, we can't have all these guys in the Hall of Fame.

Uh, why not? What's, is there, I think we all know Reggie White was better than, you know, Jared Allen or something. Like, we don't need a Hall of Fame of Hall of Fames. And then another, no, no, put in, put in the best players from eras and have people be excited for them and celebrate them and go to Canton and watch them give their speeches. And that's it. That's what should be happening.

but instead it's this bizarre type of thing that looks like something that was invented from a national TV network to build drama, but instead it's just it's not. It's just the NFL. So let me get you the Fanduil question of the day and then we will get to your questions, comments, thoughts and feelings. The Fandual question of the day is this. The over under for this game, the big game, the Super Bowl, is 45.5 points. So what's your score?

Mine is 2417 Seattle. Give me your score. That's all I want. That's the Fanduil question today. It's that simple. And it's your one shot. And if you get it right, I don't know. If you get, I should,

I should come up with something. Like, you can't mail a Diet Dr. Pepper, right? How about assigned Diet Dr. Pepper can by me to the winner. Who wouldn't want this? To the winner in the comments. You can send me, if you get it right, send me an email, Matthew Collar at Gmail. If you get, get it right, you get a signed diet Dr. Pepper can or something.

Maybe I should give a copy of my book. How about that? Okay, let's get your comments here. And some of you were saying, some of you were saying like, hey, you're late. And I was trying, I've been messing around, you know that I always screw around with different things and stuff, trying to get the, the comments on the screen, trying to figure out where to put them. and that was why I was two minutes late starting the live stream.

So now I've got them right down in front of me here. So you guys can read them and not like half of a giant black, you know, nothingness or whatever, which is what I've had for the last few days. So all right, let's get into your comments here. Yes, and here's you guys talking about me being late. But go to the Pure Wildcat next season. That's funny. Joe Burrow is nonsense.

I think it means Burrow is on the table. that's really funny that one one person says it means burrow is nonsense and the other says it means he's absolutely on the table i think with with joe burrow and that potential and i'll tell you something really funny like i try not to go into the hot take universe and all that you know that and i try not to reach and stretch to just make something into a thing that is in a thing but there was a little bit of me today that went whole when I was watching naturally an NFL films recap of the best sounds of the game so it was eight minutes of people you know big hits and stuff like that you know the NFL film stuff and some of it's funny

some of it includes Vikings or random things that happen or trash talk so I'm like okay I'll click that and Joe Burrow is on the sideline with Joe Flacco and they're sitting on the bench. And Joe Burrow says to Joe Flacco, he says, you know, I used to not mind getting hit, but now I can't stand it. And Flacco, you know, who's a psycho, as you saw from the clip on Kevin Clark show, if you didn't see it, I don't know. He was talking to whatever, NFL, you know, football is soft now or whatever, you know, that whole thing. But Flacco just kind of goes, ha, you know, like, yeah, I know what you mean. Oh,

you're getting old or whatever. But I thought, oh, Joe Burrow, he's tired of getting hit. Cincinnati, huh? They've been getting Joe Burrow hit a lot, Cincinnati over the years. Wonder if there was a place that had a little better offensive line that maybe he might not get hit as much, although this offense is not built for that. This offense gets people hit a lot. So maybe that's not it, uh, but it just crossed my mind. Like, you know, Joe Burrow just didn't seem like he was having a whole heck of a lot of fun last year. That's what it looked like. And he said that straight out. And so I can't talk too much about that as in let me bang the drum every day for get Joe Burrow, get Joe Burrow because I don't think Cincinnati can do it.

I know they can do it from a financial perspective. And I know the Vikings could figure that out somehow. But from a you're going to let go your franchise quarterback perspective, one of the five to seven best quarterbacks in the league perspective, it just seems unlikely unless Burrow demands it. And if he does, then the level of back that the Minnesota Vikings are from the depths would be insane. I would not totally entirely count out something like that because of what happened with

Carson Palmer. That franchise lives by a different set of rules. They do not spend money. They don't have a practice facility. They, they're just kind of a team that is from 25 years ago, 35 years ago. And Burrow has, it looks pretty exhausted of it. And Justin Jefferson plays here. So I don't know.

you never know i don't want to completely count that out uh can you call it nonsense yes you can right now can you say it's also not the correct even if he was traded for and came here would not be the craziest thing it's ever happened to the bikings um let's see is the purple insider neon light new uh well yeah yeah i uh my old setup i it is sort of new and sort of not i always struggled to get it in the screen so now that i got the new setup here i i wanted to highlight my my little football man behind me. So yeah, it's new-ish, new adjacent. Let's see.

Stewart says how much derp if Sam folds in the Super Bowl. There will be a lot of derp if Sam folds in the Super Bowl. And what I will say is that Sam Darnold is in the Super Bowl. So that's something that has not happened to the Minnesota Vikings since 1977. but at the same time the when it's one game and everyone's watching it and everyone has to have a take, I'm absolutely certain that if Sam Darnold struggles, there will be the, ah, all along he was never good enough. And this is why no one ever really believed in him.

I'm sure, I mean, Brock Purdy kind of had that happen where one throw gets knocked away at the end of the Super Bowl and they end up having to go to overtime instead of winning it. And it was like, Jimmy Garoppolo is another example. And I never thought Jimmy G was great, but when he was healthy, see, that goes forgotten about Garoppos. He was never healthy. When he was healthy, I thought he was a very good quarterback. He overthrows one ball.

They can't get a stop on third and 20. And then it's like, yep, see, Garapolos stinks. Like, why do we do this? Why do we do this? You know, Elway and Mahomes and Brady have all. had bad Super Bowls and, you know, it just, it happens. But yeah, we'll, we'll see, we'll see about how he plays. I mean, you know, if he doesn't play well, I'm sure there will be like a, that's, that was the, he couldn't really do it. I want to win the Super Bowl, not just get there. Like, that,

that comment will show up, I'm sure in our reaction right after the Super Bowl, which Manning and I will be going live right after the Super Bowl ends. But I mean, we all know that's silly. And he played well enough. One thing about this Super Bowl and Sam Darnold, though, is that I don't think, you know, we all, like, I, I think about constantly about what Dan Campbell said about, like, hey, this could be your only shot. I think about that all the time. And I do think that if you're Sam Darnold, you're on a really good team that could continue to be good, but it might very well be the only shot he ever gets in his career. And I've always thought of it, this way for quarterbacks, or I think a couple years ago, I started thinking of it this way

of how many shots you get at a Super Bowl in your career, kind of tells us what tier you're in as a quarterback. And, you know, some guys have changed over the years, Matthew Stafford having multiple shots at it, not getting to the Super Bowl necessarily, but in the playoffs, great teams. That would have surprised me, I think years ago, but, so you can get better. someone like Sam Darnold, is he a multiple chance guy? Is he is this the best chance? Will this continue forever of winning 14 games every year? Like probably not.

This probably is the best chance. And you would say Drake May will get more opportunities. I think that's probably true. But no guarantees you saw what happened with Jaden Daniels. Let's see. Philmore wants to trade for Davis Mills to compete. I have bad news about Davis. Mills is that he's not very good. Davis Mills last year, his PFF grade and his success rate

last year were no better than J.J. McCarthy's. He just won three games because their defense was awesome. But McCarthy won some games because their defense was awesome. It doesn't mean that he's a starting quarterback. And they didn't have as good of a team as the Vikings, but he played so safe and so conservative. And when he didn't and was a starter a few years ago, they were awful. Davis Mills is a good backup quarterback, and that is it. Josh says KOC fell in love with the idea of the rookie quarterback. I think that that's true. There is a, maybe an interesting, if we only knew his therapist and could get the notes

from those sessions of what he said about wanting the young quarterback so he could live his dream through them. I don't know. Maybe that's true. Maybe it's not. I'm just being facetious there. but it did feel like the reason that they wanted McCarthy instead of Bo Nix was that McCarthy was younger, he was more raw, he was maybe easier to mold into the style that O'Connell

wanted, that, you know, he saw J.J. McCarthy as a guy who maybe jeld and connected with him and had a lot of the same sort of views of football and of offenses and, you know, when you're in the room with J.J. McCarthy. I think he's an impressive guy. You've seen that at the podium when, you know, the world's not making fun of him for giving himself a nickname at some point. Like a lot of his interviews are very impressive, especially when he was coming out in the draft. And I think they did see something that they could build on and grow with and so forth. And, uh, sorry, I cut that last part off there. I was trying to get the Vikings flag in the, in the screen. Um, but you know, I think that he saw J.J. McCarthy is as raw tools and a work ethic and a drive that had a higher ceiling than someone

like Bo Nix. We do need to remember about the draft pick. They only had a choice between two guys that Michael Pennix was off the board. I think Pennix would have been a good fit here. I don't know he's going to be a great quarterback. And if it came down to McCarthy and Knicks, a lot of people would have said that McCarthy was the better prospect. And, you know, Knicks, there was a lot of, Hey, nicks is a second round pick from people. I thought his college numbers were great. But, you know, when it comes to the darnold thing, there's more layers to it than just the one of, hey, they wanted McCarthy over Darnold.

There's money involved. There's dynamics involved and all that sort of stuff. The one thing that I will say that if it was, if this is true, then, uh, you talk about all bets are off for my opinion when Diana Rossini had said that they thought, that they might, you know, quote, lose J.J. McCarthy if he didn't start. If that's the reason that they went to him, then that, that would completely change my opinion of that decision because I've always thought, yes, it was very, very risky, but I understood why they did it. And it looks as bad as it's ever going to look, but I get it.

Like, I get what they were going for in trying to do it. But if the reason, the main reason was that they thought they were going to, like, lose him, if you had concerns like that about his mental and emotional ability to handle the NFL, which I think are very fair questions at this point, then you should not have been going with him. Let's see. Janice says trade Grenard to San Francisco for Mack Jones. You free up cap, preserve draft picks, and get a starting quality quarterback.

I think that's giving up way too much for Mac Jones. I mean, you're talking about somebody who's a backup quarterback. I mean, Jonathan Grinard is a star level player. I know that last year he didn't get as many sacks as the year before, but he still had great numbers when it came to pressures. His overall performance since he's been a Viking has been around the ballpark in terms of creating pressure as an elite player. Yes, it does open up for Dallas Turner to slide into that spot.

But to me, that's just giving up way too much. I'm thinking more of like third round draft pick type of thing, not, not give up a really, really good player. I think you could get him for less than that. But San Francisco's price for him is going to be very interesting. What, I mean, is San Francisco is going to get offers? And what is it that they want for Mac Jones? I mean, I think if you're Kyle Shanahan, you're probably like, okay, I like Mac Jones. And I know that there's concerns about Brock Purdy, but I've done this with multiple

quarterbacks like why why not get extra draft capital that I need for my future for a backup quarterback i could see them definitely doing that uh dan says uh if the wilfs have kOC on a short leash then just fire kosi and start fresh why the wilts never get to a super bowl the the wills becoming a huge conversation has been a little tricky for me to sort through because I don't think that we have often talked about them very much and where they fit in. And then when they fire a GM on January 30th, then it does open, especially right after their former quarterback makes the Super Bowl, it does open to more scrutiny and to more questions of, well, wait, are they too reactionary?

Or did they, you know, not have their fingers on the pulse and so forth? and where I somewhat agree with you and I understand where you're coming from is I've often said if you're thinking about firing the coach, then fire the coach. But I think with O'Connell, there's so much that's good that's happened here, which you won't find too much of in most comment sections, but it is true. And there's also a lot here that leaves questions and you do need more of a sample size. instead of like I've made the comparison of like dating where if you are going out with someone and you're thinking about breaking up with them well then you should just break up with them

if you're thinking about divorce well I mean then your relationship's probably not in good shape anyway and you should probably just move on right but this one is more like you've had a lot of good times and you've had some rocky times and you're just not really sure what this really is that's more along the line. of what it is. It's just not quite, uh, like you're not quite sure entirely. Um, Storm says, uh, keep J.J. McCarthy, Vikings fans need to chill. It's not Vikings fans are who are making these decisions, man. It's not Vikings fans who went to the podium and said, and this is why it's funny where media or fans or whoever will get lashed out upon for J.J.

McCarthy defenders. It's like, we, we weren't the ones up at that podium who had every chance as Kevin O'Connell did to say, yes, J.J. McCarthy is our quarterback. And he's going to go to the Combine and he's going to dance around it there too. He danced around it after week 18. He danced around it in the press conference. He'll dance around it at the Combine. And Mark Wilf didn't even bring it up. So to me, and now his teammates are at Radio Row being like, yeah, I wish we had Sam. I mean, I don't know what more you want. The numbers aren't great. There's so much pressure. there's so many good players on this team. It's not fans who need to chill.

It's the reality of the NFL is you can't just put all of your eggs into a basket with somebody who has proven nothing and has left way more questions than answers, especially about whether they can even stay healthy. So it isn't, it isn't some sort of like, oh, people being irrational, fans being irrational. No, it's not that. this is just if if your job was on the line on whether j j mccarthy played well in 2026 or not would you want him being the sole guy going into camp no way uh phenom says

we need to give him another year if he thinks we could draft another quarterback which sounds great but if you give him another year and you end up wasting another season of cashman grenard van ginkle hockinson if he's here jefferson you might lose jefferson i mean you might lose jefferson I mean, if that's, that's how much this 2026 season swings on things. If I'm Justin Jefferson and this team goes another year where I'm squeaking out to a thousand yards because the quarterbacks can't get me to football, I am going to my agent and saying, all right, what do we need to do? Whose podcast do I need to go on and demand a trade?

Or what do I need to? I mean, right? Because I know that Jefferson wants to be here through thick and thin, but he's also not a fool. I mean, he's not going to sit here and wait as this, as he watches other wide receivers have good quarterbacks put up huge numbers and just sit around and wait for them to find someone who could throw the ball accurately. He's not going to do that. So there's so much on the line. And I mean, theoretically, I get where you're coming from, but I just don't think you could do that. When will we get a Harrison Smith decision that? I do not know, but I would have to assume

that it is before free agency. It has to be before free agency. He can't leave the team twisting in the wind at the safety position. Last year, that's when he told them he was coming back. So I imagine he will be telling them this year what is going to happen. I suspect retirement, but, you know, I don't really know. Mr. Mayor, if JJ couldn't succeed with everything that he had around him, he can't succeed anywhere.

Well, I mean, he could potentially succeed with more. development with these things around him. But that is a true factor when we think about, well, you know, his numbers and his performance is it's not like a number one pick like Cam Ward who had nothing. Phenom says Ponder got 36 games, but JJ should only get 10. Okay, well, here's my question for you. Did you know after 10 games with Ponder? I'm going to guess that you did.

I'm going to guess that you did that you knew after 10 games with Ponder, this probably wasn't going to work out. How many quarterbacks that were not drafted in the top five after 10 games, could you say, yay or nay and be right? I mean, Sam Darnold, you'd be wrong,

but there's not that, I mean, even Baker Mayfield, who is, you know, painted as this guy that was a bust. He was not a bust in Cleveland. He got,

I don't know, had an 11 win season. He won a playoff game for them. And then things devolved after that. He had some ups and downs as he still continues to do. but he showed plenty of potential in his first 10 games. I know he's a number one overall pick, but most of most quarterbacks who end up staying with their team long term,

they either had the worst teams like Jared Gough with the Rams, or I guess you could say Bryce Young with the Panthers, or they were pretty good and went forward from there. You just don't see very often someone who's drafted as the fifth quarterback in a draft class, 10th overall, and the team just waits forever to find. find out. The magic man says JJ has a fastball, arm talent is much more than that. Yep, that's very true. And the fact that he did not get many reps of actually throwing,

that's why it's hard to buy into that he's suddenly going to finish, figure out touch. And when the Josh Allen example is used, he didn't really figure out throwing until 2020, which was his third season in which he had already thrown like 800 passes. in NFL games. And he still, he still lacks touch at times where he just whips it through anyone. Josh says, JJ was all sizzled. No stake. It was the potential they fell in love with when he literally only threw 700 in college. The, yes, what they thought was, and I don't think this process is really that bad, was that he was raw and there was a lot of physical talent there, which we see. velocity on the football,

athleticism, yes, we see all of that, right? And what they thought was very, very high intangibles. It turns out that intangibles in the NFL are a completely different monster than intangibles in high school or intangibles in college. It's just a whole different world and a whole different league and the amount of pressure on him was not anything like he had ever faced before. But yes, they did see. a player that they had planned to get Sam Darnold,

play him for probably half the season until the wheels came off. They thought that was what was going to happen and then go to J.J. McCarthy. That was the expectation. But it didn't work out that way because, you know, Darnold played as well as he did. And also because McCarthy didn't have that key time to develop. And missing all of that, it was catastrophic to his development and being ready this year.

I think that that will never really know, what he would have been had he continued to grow because in 2024 camp, it is an absolute fact, ask anybody who was there or Kevin O'Connell calling him the franchise quarterback, McCarthy had made remarkable progress in terms of throwing the ball, not just running the offense or whatever, but I mean like being in command of the offense and throwing the football, throwing with more touch, throwing with timing, throwing with accuracy. And I think that if he had gotten a full year behind the scenes that those things would have continued to manifest themselves. And, you know, somebody brought up Malik Willis.

And the thing about Malik Willis is he's thrown very few passes too. But he has thrown a million passes behind the scenes. And he has developed more and more accuracy and anticipation and those things that we talk about from throwing every day in practice, whereas McCarthy has missed so much practice. Not only did he miss the whole year, but. he also missed weeks three through whatever it was eight that's all practice and then you miss you know, the game against Seattle and you miss the, uh, the time leading up to, let's see. Yeah, it would have been some of the time leading up to the last game after getting hurt

against the Giants. I mean, you're just missing a lot of time and development. So it's not that it could ever, ever be possible. It's that he just hasn't had the time. to be able to do it. And these things, when you think about, how about this way? I am a decent golfer. And I would love to be a great golfer.

Oh, man. Like, you know how people would say if you could have three wishes or whatever? Would you wish for a million dollars? Would you wish for it? No, no, no. I'm good with everything. I would wish to be a scratch golfer. That's what I would want to be.

Because, but you know why I can't get there? is because I only get to play like once a week in the summer. And then freaking Minnesota is the place that I chose to live. And it is cold as hell. And I can't get out there and play golf. So I will never get there. If I am not practicing golf all the time and think about every other quarterback in the world is that's not hurt,

I would say the same thing for Trey Lance and Anthony Richardson. Those guys had potential. They just couldn't get there because in part, they never had time where they were truly healthy and working on it. So the concept, the idea of drafting the raw quarterback, developing him behind the veteran, working with him behind the scenes, and then turning the ball over to him the following season, it made all the sense of the world. And then a grenade got dropped on their plan.

And that's where they should have adjusted. And they didn't. And now, quote, all bets are off. uh, Dan Campbell, I think is under pressure. You guys are talking about, uh, coaches. Lafleur just got an extension, but I don't know. You never know. Uh, Mr. Mayor, I think Quasi probably low ball Darnold on purpose.

No, I see, I don't, I don't think it's that. I think if you're, if there's one guy that got maybe a little low ball that was Daniel Jones, I also don't think that he was saying, I don't think there's any world where Sam Darnold comes back and has to compete for his job or feel like the fans want. something else. I think he would have come back if they had tagged him because he had to or if they had said we're trading J.J. McCarthy or like even if they said you're not in competition with J.J. McCarthy, you know that you kind of are because if you went two and three to start the season, the cries would be insanely loud for J.J. McCarthy. So you would have added to trade him. And that

would have been one of the most unpopular moves ever if if they traded much. McCarthy, considering how much they had built him up. Derek says, I wish owners could be on the hot seat. Three playoff wins in 20 years is a complete disaster. It is really tough to have three playoff wins in 20 years. I think I'd have to check this. I checked it before the playoffs. They're like 21st in playoff wins since they took over.

It all goes back to the quarterback. I really believe that it all goes back to the quarterback. There are times where, yes, they should have said we need to take a step back. We need to really rebuild this and draft a quarterback high. I mean, if you think about it, when is the last time the Minnesota Vikings have drafted 9th or higher? So McCarthy is 10th.

But those draft picks that make the Hall of Fame and change franchises, how many times? Matt Khalil? Is that the only time? Anthony Barr, right? Was 9th? So what? 2014. I mean, when you go a decade without a top 10 draft pick, it's very hard to find elite players. They've been able to do it with Jefferson. They've been able to do it with, you know, Diggs before, Thielen before. Everson Griffin. I mean, only kind of by the will of good evaluation, good coaching, luck, but never by just drafting at the top. So if you never draft that top quarterback and you're always,

picking either the fifth quarterback or somebody else's quarterback up. It's really, really hard to land on a Drake May type thing. That doesn't mean they should tank, you know, next year. But after this, this runs out, you have, and, and I always say tank and it's, it's crass. I just mean, like, take a longer term approach. You don't have to lose on purpose. People get so offended by that, but it's like, it just take a longer term approach,

2020. Or how about like, 20, I remember saying this and then having to delete the tweak as people got so pissed. But I said in 2022, if the Vikings had had Mario, instead of Kirk cousins, they would, and lost a few more games, but not like, even given the chance to have Kirk as the quarterback in 20, 23. Like, it would have been fine. And I got a lot of pushback because they were eight and one or whatever. And it was like, no, Mario, Stinks. It's like, that's not the point. The point is you weren't going to win that year, even with all the victories that you had by

one score in Miami or, you know, a double doink field goal or whatever, that's how it always feels with this team is it always feels like people get tricked by a little bit of success and then go crazy and try to do stuff to make that success sustain, but it's not going to sustain if you don't have that guy a quarterback consistently.