Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - ESPN's Courtney Cronin breaks down Anthony Barr's health, Vikings-Bengals and picks the final record

Episode Date: September 10, 2021

Matthew Coller and ESPN's Courtney Cronin talk about Anthony Barr missing from practice on Thursday and what that means for the short and long term. How will they replace Barr? How will it make his contract look if Barr doesn't get healthy this year? Plus what do we think of the Vikings and Bengals matchup to open the season? Is Joe Burrow and his group of weapons a threat? Do we expect the offense to start fast? And Courtney picks the entire schedule and settles on a final record. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collard here along with ESPN's Courtney Cronin who yes, has to pick the schedule and give the final pick before we go into the year. But first, we have to talk about this game between the Vikings and Cincinnati Bengals. And a place to begin, Courtney, is we just came off the practice field and Anthony Barr was not out there, which is a very bad indication for his chances to play. He was limited on Wednesday, no practice at all today. This combined with training camp preseason where he barely practiced, did not play at all in the preseason, not a good sign for this defense for Anthony Barr not being

here. And now it puts into question, when will we see him? Because every time he's practiced, the next day he can't practice again. Yeah, and I think that it's the concern of it being a chronic issue with his knee. Because he's had some knee issues in the past. And I think him being out there on Wednesday and then not seeing him on Thursday, unless they're doing some sort of crazy gamesmanship where they didn't want us to see him so then they bring him out at the period after media is able to be at practice I don't I why would you start that you know what I mean like they've never done that before no if you were gonna have him out there have him out there at the beginning of practice so he can go through

stretching so it's an issue but Mike Zimmer prefaced this as one day he feels really good, the next day might not be the same. So to me, that's an arthritic, tendinitis, whatever type of condition. It's chronic, and that's an issue. And I think that that's something they should really be heavily concerned about because this is somebody who's had some issues the last couple years staying healthy, whether it was the hamstring back and I believe that was 2018 to the the pec injury that kept him out most of last season and then this so I think it's concerning I think you can kind of tell where the Vikings are at frustration level wise where it's something that they just don't have full control over and when we talked with

Adam Zimmer about it today, his assessment was that I know when Anthony is good to go versus when I know he's not ready to go. And they've been working together for a while. He trusts that Barr knows his body. But he's going to be on a snap count. If he plays on Sunday, you might not get him for a full game. I would imagine if he is playing Sunday, and I checked in on this for the last couple of weeks, every time I was met with it's 50-50

chance he'll play, you know, that worries, that would worry me to think, okay, what version of him are you going to get? Are you going to get him to a point where you get him out there and then he has a setback and he misses the next three games? That's what they're worried about right now because this issue keeps popping up. So, you know know they're putting a lot of trust apparently in him what Adam Zimmer said that you know he's going to talk to him say if he can go like hey I can go or I can't they're listening to the player in his body and you know for someone like Barr who's coming off that pec injury and had a pretty good camp for a couple weeks and then August 6th bam that's the last day we see you practice he's missed a lot of time he's not in football shape so I'm I don't really know what

he's going to look like when he gets out there and granted like this was just during individuals when I saw him on Wednesday he was moving around okay but he looked a little stiff and yeah it was individual like drills with with the linebacker group and you know some running around not a whole lot that you can take from that but he did look a little stiff that was just my observation from it so there's a small picture and there's a big picture to this and the big picture is that it went through my mind today that Eric Wilson got a very small contract to play with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Vikings moved heaven and earth to put void years in Anthony Barr's deal and worked it around and fiddled with it and did all the things that they do

that are good in the short term but bad in the long term to keep this player who missed the entire season last year and then comes back and has an injury issue again. And there was already a question of how valuable Anthony Barr was compared to his contract to begin with and it just made me think about the number of times that they have shown anti-patriots level loyalty to players like that that was always a Bill Belichick thing it wasn't just Tom Brady it was always that when a player was no longer worth it, they would move on and cut bait. And that even goes back to when like Curtis Martin was a huge superstar for them, but they had

a price and they said, Nope, we're not paying it. Uh, Jamie Collins, they up and got rid of at one point, they let someone else pay the bill and then brought him back when he was cheap. Like the Vikings are the opposite of this. Like, did you play on the 2017 team? Yes. Okay, then you get a huge contract. Look at Harrison Smith at 32 years old getting a deal he just got. Exactly. And they just made Brian O'Neill, which I think is, you know, he's deserving, but second highest paid right tackle in the NFL when you have 80% of the rest of your line is kind of this giant unknown.

I mean, that's not saying he doesn't deserve it, but that's a lot of resources to wrap up in one player. It's hard to be efficient when you give everybody everything they want. And with Anthony Barr, there were a lot of questions on the day he signed. It was not a second guess. It's kind of a first guess. Is he worth this contract? Then you add injuries to it and you look at Eric Wilson and say, that was a good player who made plays for you. And what's the drop-off from bar to Wilson, especially if Wilson is healthy, it's probably not that much. So I think in the big picture, you're saying this was one that was probably foreseeable and maybe they should have even cut bait after this year. Cause they could have done that and

earned a good amount of cap space and they chose not to. Yeah, they restructured, and he got $9.4 million guaranteed in that structure. They guaranteed north of $46 million to defensive players in free agency, including nearly $10 million in this restructured deal to one player in Anthony Barr. That's a lot. That's a lot. And I feel like there's always just kind of been this frustration with certain people in this team, not necessarily those who are the pound the fist on the table for Anthony Barley. Mike Zimmer has always had bars back. That's his first draft pick.

Of course, he's going to do that. And I feel like there's always this frustration. Like the other day, I kept seeing, well, Christian Derrissaw is not in football shape, X, Y, Z. And then, you know Anthony Barr we're gonna see well Anthony Barr hasn't practiced either but he's almost treated like with kid gloves in a way in the way that he's talked about by Zimmer and I can understand that that's the loyalty aspect but I think that there is an internal sense of frustration from some within this building that he hasn't been used for to the strength of his abilities like the time you drafted him like

you still haven't done all the things that he was really good at in college and you know this is always the running joke is when are we going to see Anthony Barr as a pass rusher like that fits into the overall equation of why are you paying him so much why and I know there are so many things that the average eye cannot see with Anthony Barr as to why he is so vital to this defense the way you know he's worn he's worn the green dot since you know early on in his career here he calls the defense he knows what everyone else is supposed to be doing you could tell the lack of communication in the breakdown last year and also just like the level of play the fall off when they didn't have him.

But is that worth tying up a ton of finances in for this year when it just kind of feels like his health is such an unknown that it puts the team in a bind? Right. I believe everything Mike Zimmer says about Anthony Barr, that he is tremendously smart, super unique, a unicorn player at the position to be as big as he is and as fast as he is, that he's highly intelligent. I think we've seen all those things play out.

But when you watch a player who got, I think, three and a half million dollars to play somewhere else, get three sacks, three picks, make some plays, force some fumbles in Eric Wilson. And then you say, no, goodbye to you, but we're going to keep our guy because we're loyal to our guy. Well, it's football. And at some point you have to be like, you're injured and you're on the older side and you're late 20. So why are we doing this here when this is a very risky move and they've done it a lot. So that's kind of the big picture is, was this foreseeable that it may have been a better idea to just move on? I would say that it is now in the short term,

Nick vigil, you're up buddy. I mean, whether it's running straight at him too, right. Whether it's limited for Anthony bar or no Anthony bar at all, which is how I would project it. As we record this,

Nick vigil is up next and they let Eric Wilson go, did not pay Eric Wilson a very small amount of money that he got elsewhere bring in a different guy who has not played for zimmer before and also like has a history as just a guy and now that person is supposed to be next to eric kendrick's taking huge responsibilities against the team that throws over the middle a lot throws quick a lot, and has a very, very talented running back. Yeah. And I think the Joe Mixon thing, I mean, I was just, that's where my brain went. Teams don't have to run up the middle on you. They can go, they can force things to the edge. And, you know, does he have the speed to get there? Does

he have the ability to stop the run that way? Because they're going to, I think that's kind of the weakness within his game that they're going gonna try to pick that apart and run right at Nick Vigil and I mean yes like and it's also like he came from Cincinnati don't you think that they probably know like the best way to exploit him I mean Paul Gunther brought him here because Paul had him in Cincinnati so I I just think that that's he's been calling the defense in Barr's absence, which is better than having Eric Kendricks do it because Kendricks, that's just like – he's so – I guess more of what's not cerebral player. He is a cerebral player.

Instinctual. Instinctual. Like he'll go – the whole see ball, get ball thing is what they love to say. That's too much to put on him when he is so good at just being an instinctual player. So how Barr calls the defense probably is different than what Vigil does in spite of what we're being told in press conferences. So I would imagine you'll notice very quickly by how they try to use play action,

by how they try to run on this team, if they're really going to attack the linebacker group because they see how weak it is behind Vigil and Kendricks. I mean, they're probably going to be in base for a lot of Sunday. I would imagine if Barr's not going to be there. And what you have to think of, too, is how many weapons they have between T. Higgins, Tyler Boyd, Jamar Chase, the big C.J. Uzoma, like all these weapons that they have, how does that affect the rest of the defense? That's going to put so much pressure, I would think, on the back end when you don't have somebody like Anthony Barr coming downhill at you.

And the covering aspect too, I just think there could be a drop-off with that. Joe Burrow's biggest strength, I think you're exactly right. Joe Burrow's biggest strength was throwing from're exactly right joe burrow's biggest strength was throwing from 10 to 19 yards well what does that usually mean that means the linebackers right over the middle of the field uh you also pointed out that nick vigil like has some weaknesses in his game in 2019 when he was a starter for cincinnati he was top 15 in missed tackle percentage and i think we've saw that even play out a little bit in the preseason that he's not an exceptional tackler like he is just a guy he's a guy with some experience

small contract here like you're like a million guaranteed and it's not like he got this massive deal he's not you know Bobby Wagner like right you know or KJ Wright like I just don't understand like why you know there there's a drop off like that's point point blank period like it's gonna look a lot different if he's out there he's your number three linebacker if you're in base he's a situational player and I just I would worry about what that looks like and what that speaks to long term because if Barr doesn't go this week how can we have any sort of confidence that this lingering issue with his knee is going to be something that doesn't just be like the stop start, create a stop start effect throughout the season? Like, I would be concerned about that.

And he's here for this year, and then his contract voids next year. So he's gone anyways. You don't want to waste that money. Nearly $10 million in guarantees? No way. So I do wonder, like, as we try to interpret the Mike Zimmer financial uh thing that oh you know what he was talking about I even asked you about it and I think more no I know anything else who he's talking about specifically that's the quarterback

but like what is it the linebacker position that's bothering him in a way um because they didn't keep Eric Wilson that they had to make financial, tough financial decisions. It's like, I wonder which part of the team specifically is bugging him. And if it's anything, I think it could be linebacker because he knows when Anthony Barr is not out there, they used to have an option of a guy who was quite good and now they just don't. And so, you know, maybe it was, well, we can't afford that couple of million, which is odd

though, because you get to this point and they do have cap space and they just haven't used it. So that's a little bit, I don't know, puzzling. Who else is out there, though? Well, now, right now, K.J. Wright just got signed. Like now there isn't anybody out there to sign. But I mean, in the offseason to add add depth, and they went the extreme cheap route with Nick Vigil. And that was the first day of a free agency.

Yeah. Right. That was their second splash of the day behind Alvin Tomlinson. And then Peterson came the next day. Yeah. So, right. Everything else came right after we recorded podcasts. So I expect bigger news to drop right after we do this.

Okay. So as you're trying to predict this game, which you're going to predict the whole schedule momentarily, what is the one matchup where you are most, not just interested, but unsure of how to predict X is going to play out against Y with the Cincinnatiincinnati bangles and minnesota vikings because i have this game as as a vikings win i do too and i think a decided win but what but what let me put it a different way like what matchup could give cincinnati such an edge that they could keep this close if the secondary is not what it's panned out to be with like all your additions, Xavier Woods, Patrick Peterson, Bashaud Breland, Mackenzie Alexander. Like we've heard all off season about how,

and I do think Patrick Peterson will be the best cornerback on this team, bar none. I have no issue saying that. What does he actually look like out there? Because we really have no clue no clue we would have maybe seen a little bit of in a preseason game and I'm not going to completely knock Bashaud Breeland for getting left on an island with Tariq Hill but like that did not look good so what does that look like for Patrick Peterson out there are they going to be in a

situation where they want to make him play more put him in more situations where they're playing zone because i'm looking at these receivers and i'm not saying like i don't know what to gauge is patrick peterson's athleticism right now because we've seen him go against his own teammates for the last six weeks we have no clue are they going to put him on jamar chase is jamar chaser number one is it t higgins is tyler boyd like who do you put i mean obviously one of them are going to go in the slot that's not where Peterson's going but how do you play Patrick Peterson in this game do you keep him on a side do you have him shadow somebody like I want to know are we seeing the early steps of this is going to work out for Patrick Peterson he's going to be able to prolong

his career whatever or are we starting to see the signs of, yeah, this guy is on the other side of 30, and it's very obvious. And I know we haven't seen the defense, the whole defense, take a live rep together. That's something Adam Zimmer pointed out right away in his press conference today, and it's something clearly that's on the minds of everybody in this defense. When you talk about unknowns, it's kind of the buzzword around here this week. That's a big one.

So I'd be curious to see, like all coming off of play action um you know what they do with with mixing um but particularly they have a lot of weapons and Burrow and Higgins are good yeah and Burrow can move around like his offensive line sucks but like he should be fine in terms of the mobility with the knee. I don't think they'd put him out there if he wasn't ready. So how are they going to exploit that secondary? Because I'm confident the pass rush is going to be better for this team. So that should, in theory, help what they're doing on the back end. But what do those cornerbacks actually look like in a real NFL game?

If they can't handle Cincinnati and Arizona is going to probably go four wide next week, good luck. Like, that's a big – that's a big, big, like, disadvantage for the Vikings, I think, if you see how they handle these receivers. And these guys, they've got some dogs. They're good. But, like, yeah, that's what I'm looking forward. As far as, like, what would give Cincinnati the overall edge. But like you, I made my pick earlier.

It'll be up on ESPN.com on Friday. But a little preview. I went 23-20 Vikings. Oh. Because I think the secondary will get exploited. And I actually had Greg Joseph kicking a 50-yard field goal to win. First game for him since the 2019 playoffs when he was with Tennessee. Hey, everybody.

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and I might be right and there's only one so like I mean there's no right there's nobody else that he competed with so they must have liked something about it. I think that the Vikings can, and I'm going to pick them to blow the doors off of Cincinnati. They should. Yeah. They should. I'm going like 27-13 because I just think Joe Burrow coming back from his injury is going to be really tough. But if there's one thing that changes that in my mind, I agree with your assessment that

the back end could certainly be one of them. I think it's Rashad Hill versus Trey Hendrickson. like I think you're not wrong well and also Ole Udo is starting his first game do you think Cincinnati's not running stunts twists blitzes right at the interior same with Cleveland moving to the other side left guard I mean I know that like left is the left side's more familiar to him but that's still new you have technically three new starters in all positions and I know Rashad's been here but he's never been like your starting starting left tackle so right and that was the thing with uh when Boone and Searles were on the other day that they were concerned about is

Kansas City sent a blitz up the middle and no one picked up the blitzer and they just sacked Kirk Cousins it was like wait what is and that was on hill like that was a Rashad sack that was that was against India I'm talking about the one against Casey where no one blocked the guy coming straight oh yeah and hit Kirk yeah I mean that was where it was like right in between Udo and Bradbury and nobody picked him up like so I'm sure Cincinnati noticed that that happened yeah the one on Rashad was just quitty pay beats him it's a preseason game who cares but the the that was a concerning sack when you have a miscommunication so that I think offensive line key situations so a lot of three and outs because of things like this a lot of sacks the Vikings were I think top 10 in sack percentage last year

that's where I would be a little nervous um especially since you're you know the guy who led the league in sacks is taking on Rashad Hill right off the bat so you better be ready right yeah yeah absolutely and I just I think this is a battle too of finding out who's overrated and who's underrated yeah this defense right now I think by and large little overrated I don't think that's unfair to say they need to prove that they're actually as good as we think that they could be. Because right now you have a cardboard house. I don't know where the – I don't know. It doesn't have a solid foundation.

Because it's like, wow, Patrick Peterson. Wow, Michael Pierce. Daniil Hunter, who I never – I don't have any issues with Hunter, but I'm trying to think of like some of the newer additions where I'm like, they look good on paper. Xavier Woods looks good. But is is it gonna pan out right where we're like okay that defense actually did bounce back to form like i think it's overrated right now okay it's time to make your official picks because we've got to run out there for the end of practice to talk with mike

zimmer cincinnati you already said is a win one and oh one-0 at Arizona again this is official official official picks locking in you have no other chances to change this this is the last time you could do it I remember a couple years ago you made me change it after every law or go and like re-evaluate after every law well we're certainly going to do that but I mean like this is the one you put put down before the season at Arizona since I am having them beat Cincinnati I think that they will beat Arizona okay 2-0 to start the season so we're gonna go a little more rapid fire here they come back home to Seattle or against Seattle oh my gosh they're actually playing Seattle at home yes I think Seattle going to be an epic mess this year.

I really do. They tried to let Russ cook, then they tried to run the ball. It's just not working. I do think Seattle will win that game. Okay. 2-1 to start the year. A big game against Cleveland. A revenge game of sorts.

That's a loss. Two straight games, loss at U.S. Bank Stadium. I know people are not going to want to hear that. That would help Sam's prediction that Kirk Cousins gets booed by week five. Then they face Dan Campbell and the, what is it, the kneecap biters? The kneecap biters. They'll beat Detroit. Okay.

And they'll beat Carolina because Carolina, by that point, Matt Rule should probably be fired because they'll probably be like one in five after beating the Jets on opening weekend. I think so, so too I think that team is just going to be straight up bad but we'll see we'll see if Matt Rule makes any adjustments after a really really tough debut season for him um or second season from him okay let's run through these home against Dallas on Sunday night football I actually think they will win this game. I think Dallas, more than anything else, their offensive line's a mess right now because they don't have Zach Martin.

I think that they will be able to exploit that because I'm not sure of the strength of the rest of that unit. So you have a 5-2 start for the Vikings. All right, they go at Baltimore. I think they will lose this game. They'll be 5-3 going on the road to the Chargers where they will win and then they'll lose against Green Bay when they come home okay so six and three is the win against the Chargers six and four is or did you say win against Green Bay or

lose against Green Bay okay six and four after that they will lose to San Francisco on the road that's a hard stretch you go LA Green Bay LA or San Francisco that's road. That's a hard stretch. You go LA, Green Bay, LA or San Francisco. That's tough. So you've got losses against Seattle, Cleveland, Baltimore, Green Bay, San Francisco. So there are five, five losses so far. They'll beat Detroit. Okay. So that is, oh my gosh, we've just lost ourselves. Seven and five. Seven and five right now. Going into the Pittsburgh game, they will lose to Pittsburgh. Seven and six. Now they go at Chicago, which always has to be a loss. Yep.

Always every year. Even if they win, which they did last year, that will be a loss. Once you lose a game to Chad Hutchinson, it's always a loss. So eight and seven. No, seven and seven now. So they've started five and two, fallen to seven and seven. They play and seven now. So they've started five and two fall into seven and seven. They play L.A. at home. I think L.A. is a Super Bowl contender.

I think that they lose this game at home. They're not having a very good home stretch this year. So that's eight and seven. I think the exact opposite of L.A. I think they blow up. OK, I think it's 2018 Vikings all over again. So you've got eight and seven at green bay this one will be a loss eight and eight going into week seven no 18 against the chicago bears at

home where have we seen this movie before yeah if i mean there's no way at like eight and nine and eight you'd be backing into the playoffs nine and eight you could but maybe not eight nine eight nine you're probably out I wanted to pick them at eight and nine that's what I have them in my head and I think I honestly ended up screwing up one of the picks just in terms of the numbers here they're eight and nine I think that they'll I think they'll split with Chicago I know I mess this up somewhere along the way I think they'll get swept by Green Bay split split with Chicago, sweep Detroit. And honestly, for me, where I'm getting stuck right now and why I probably should have done this differently,

I don't know about Arizona. If they come out and look terrible this weekend, if they win a close game, that would scare me into thinking that Arizona could really, really do some damage to them. But to me, this is a non-negotiable. You have to beat Cincinnati in week one. I agree. I agree.

So eight and nine is what I'm picking the schedule as. I know I mess this up, but this is somebody who messes up pie charts regularly. You can't do simple math and need to pull up my calculator to figure out how much tip I leave. This is a serious character flaw. I was just going to say this is traditional that you have done this, but now I'm sticking with my 10 and seven pick, but I think eight, nine, nine and eight, 10 and seven, all of them are sort of in the same ballpark and we will see how it ends up playing out. So we've got to go up to practice and talk to Mike Zimmer, but I appreciate you jumping on here as always. And now football, Courtney,

football, football.