Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - ESPN's Courtney Cronin doesn't think it's time for the Bears to trade Justin Fields -- but it is time for the Vikings to move on from veterans

Episode Date: March 2, 2023

ESPN's Courtney Cronin makes her long-awaited return to the Purple Insider podcast to talk about where the Chicago Bears stand with the No. 1 overall pick, whether Jalen Carter's arrest warrant will impact their situation and what's next for Justin Fields. Plus she gives her take on whether the Vikings should be rebuilding and talks about why she thinks Adam Thielen's time might be up in Minnesota. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to a very special episode of Purple Insider. You asked, and now you shall receive, Courtney Cronin from ESPN. I got no less than 10,000 tweets asking if Courtney, our draft scout, Courtney Cronin, would be here at Indianapolis in the Indiana Convention Center. And here you are. No, it's not me. I saw her the other day. Oh, yes. I saw her because prospect interviews were going on.

I thought I caught her. I was like, oh, I could tell it was her from the back. And she was in the middle of the scrum, so I couldn't really get to her. But I know she's here because testing starts today with the defensive linemen. So she's going to be in there trying to see who has the quickest getoff, who has the oiliest hips, all of those things that we measure to tell you how good of a football player somebody is. As it always does is the getoff. Yeah, for sure. But someone the other day we were sitting in the media room and someone said, hey, you know, do you think that they should go with the defensive tackle or edge rusher? And I was like, oh, so you don't know each other.

You don't know that this is a three-tech girl. Yeah, this was the time before the Jalen Carter stuff became news here in Indianapolis. And I was asked, if you're the Bears, who do you take, Will Anderson or Jalen Carter? And this person doesn't know the history of the three technique obsession that we both have. I mean, if you have it as much as I do, don't act like I'm like in this boat by myself. I've been pushing the receiver a little harder, but the interior pressure has certainly been a thing at the top of my list. But, you know, obsession is more you. OK, it's more you. You were the one that demanded Rick Spielman answer

for Sheriff F. Lloyd. I did. And I wanted to know why they didn't end up re-signing okay it's more you you were the one that demanded rick spielman answer for sheriff effleud i did and i wanted to know why they didn't end up re-signing sheldon richardson after they let him walk the first time only to bring him back a couple years later when you get a shell of himself but anyways i digress here this is why we're at the combine to be able to find the next sheriff effleud and the next big three technique that's going to change the way that the Bears rushed a passer, I guess, because they didn't do any of that in 2022. No, they didn't. And they had a bunch of players that used to play for the Vikings that were bus draft picks

that I realized only in week 18 were there. I was like, Jalen Holmes, you're on this team? I saw him in the locker room one time and I was like, oh, he's here. He's here. Harrison Hand? Harrison Hand, yes. Speaking of Shreveeree Floyd though he is actually here in uh Indianapolis he's working with a team as an assistant defensive line coach

which I think is really good because his career you know it was really unfortunate he had a a knee injury that was kind of a surgery that didn't go right and he never played again and I you know a player like that you wonder what's going to kind of become of him after this and he's guy he got with the florida program and then has actually turned out to uh make a coaching career for himself so i think that's really good for shreve floyd and if you're not on the inside joke what she tried so hard to get rick spielman to answer for what was going on with shreve floyd that we started calling him sheriff Floyd, hoping that would throw off Rick Spielman and he would answer the question. Yeah. Thinking he would hear a different name and be like, Oh, I'm going to tell you the truth now.

Right. That's what we actually have to explain. But when it comes to the Jalen Carter thing, it just, it wouldn't be you covering something if it wasn't blown up with some crazy drama. I feel like that really carries around with you. Look, you left Minnesota, and even though we had lots of games that were nuts, there wasn't really much drama, and I think the drama was you, so to speak, as T-Swift fans would appreciate. But what do you think of what is happening with Jalen Carter and his potential draft stock? So the curious timing of the arrest warrant coming out yesterday, the news of that breaking about 30 minutes before he was supposed to talk. And then,

of course, he's got to go turn himself in and he releases a statement that was all caps and poorly like structured. Like I just like I'm still looking at it in my head. And it was just like, please crop your statements or like get rid of the white space at the bottom. And please don't write in all caps because I feel like you're yelling at me and backspace so everything's on one line anyways he's apparently back in Indianapolis and he's going to be doing you know finishing up interviews with teams I don't believe that's going to be interviews with us because if you're his lawyer if you're his agent you're not exposing him to those sorts of questions right now while this thing is an ongoing legal process. And these are two misdemeanor charges. So we're going to find out

how NFL teams consider that and consider more than just like the charges, but like what, you know, what was behind that too. Apparently he changed his statement multiple times to the police. And if you think that that might tell you something further about his character, does that affect where he's going to go in the draft? But he's such a talented prospect. And oftentimes we see stuff like this happen where things come out about somebody's past and they are such elite players that they don't fall that far. I mean, you can think back to, you know, the Lyle Collins situation, and we know what happened there, and he was telling teams,

if you draft me on day three, I'm not playing for you because he was going to sign us an undrafted free agent and make more money. Of course, Laramie Tunzel falls. He cost himself $14 million, but he still went in the first round and made up for that and then some. I would not be surprised if, like, these are truly, if nothing else comes out and these are just misdemeanor charges that either get, you know,

you just handle it. He's not going to be serving jail time. Like, he just turned himself in and was out in, like, 15 minutes. But if nothing worse comes of this, I can't see him falling beyond, like, the top 10 because this may hurt you if like you were expecting to go number one overall, which he was perspective, you know, as a perspective, like top draft pick. Now he might not be that guy, but I don't think he's going to fall that far. Just knowing kind of the response that I've gotten here in Indianapolis, but everybody I've talked to was pretty surprised about the timing of the warrant and the fact that there was going to be one to begin with. Yeah, I mean, that seems like the intent is to drop it. I mean, maybe it wasn't intentional.

Maybe it was just a coincidence. But when something happens like that, you're like, was that on purpose that this just came out? 30 minutes before he's supposed to talk. Like, I mean, I guess it's great timing to to a degree because what if it drops in the middle of his interview session and people realize they're like hey just so you know there's a warrant out for your arrest right now like don't know how that's gonna like affect things but you know I mean I guess it's a good thing for him that didn't happen that way I'm on the same page with you though not really thinking that it's going to impact his draft status. Because if you're a team, you're probably looking at it like,

well, what he did or is alleged to have done. And we still don't know anything. That's why you have to leave it open. Could this change things for the Bears? It could change everything. Or it could change nothing because it's still so premature in the process. They met with him on Monday. I don't know if they had any idea about this,

but the vibe that I'm getting around here is that most teams had no clue that this was coming. And that the people who represent him did not know this was coming either. Okay, well, it depends on if he knew it was coming, then how people would look at it. Because if he didn't know, then all right. But if he knew and then was hiding it and just hoping it would go away. And that's the stuff that I think would affect where you're drafted. Cause teams are going to look at that and be like, okay, massive red flag, but we don't know any of that. I guess what I was thinking of is since he's not going to prison with these charges, then they're not going to worry about that element of it. And if it's something that was

a one time event that happened, teams would probably look at it like well we can direct him away from doing that again or maybe learn his lesson or that's what they'll hope it wouldn't be maybe considered a chronic issue that is going to be a problem over and over again unless he uh again allegedly really loves street racing and must street race. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like it sounds like, and this is not to downplay it at all because someone died. Yeah. Two people died in this terrible situation. So this is not to downplay it.

I just mean teams are kind of sick like this, but they're going to look at, is this going to be a long-term problem or not? And they might come to the conclusion. No, but he is going to really rush the passer. and once they need it the other thing is to once someone gave to sean watson the most guaranteed money ever and people kept coming to games i don't think that anybody really worries about how it's going to look in public if you do just about anything in the nfl i just that just seems like the reality the nfl doesn't have a moral compass so like to pretend like in cherry picks certain situations where one needs to apply that's that's unrealistic and it's just it's frankly kind of stupid so let me ask you

a question are bears trading the draft pick what are they trading it for i what are they doing i think they are going to trade the draft pick we heard from ryan poles at the combine like confirming shepter's report that they're, quote, leaning towards that. And he said, we've always kind of been leaning in that direction because of the development that they saw. Granted, there's a lot left to be proven with Justin Fields, but they saw a very good player last year. And somebody who, when his offensive line was obliterated, when his receiving core was nothing. Injury, sure, affected not having Darnell Mooney there for the last five, six games, but they were awful to begin with.

And he's still standing at the end of the day after being told to play football with one hand tied behind his back. I don't think you can ask for anything more. He did everything they asked him to do, and he was still standing by the end of it. So there's a lot to build on there. And I just don't know if this is the time, even though people say, Oh, well, what about the starting over on the rookie clock? What about giving yourself the opportunity? If you're Ryan poles, you never want to be in the situation again. Like it's not good to be the number one team taking the number one overall, because typically it's not that you get that pick from trading with a team the previous year and like that's your future first round draft pick like

that doesn't typically happen where it's not like your own original pick and that is what it is for the bears you can do a lot to fix holes in this roster by trading back and keeping justin fields in place and let's say they're able to trade the first round their first overall pick for like future first like one next year if Fields doesn't work out then you're back in maybe not number one draftee number one overall but you're in top five maybe and then you can go get a quarterback next year I just don't think it's the time right now because if you trade him if if you move on from him and he ends up starring somewhere else, finally having it all come together when pieces around

him come together, that's going to be a big miss for this franchise. And they've had a lot of misses at the quarterback spot. What they have here is, and I think philosophically, it's okay if they trade him. But of course, that's not my reputation as a GM like it is for Ryan Poles. But they also do have some parachutes here that, like you said, if it doesn't work out and they add receivers and linemen and everything else in free agency and they give him a good team

and you win five games because he can't throw the football well enough even when he's given all these things, then you draft someone next year and you move forward. And the odds of someone next year being good are probably equal to what they are for any of these guys. We always fall in love with every group of quarterbacks going into the draft, but there's going to be dudes for next year too. There's already two that we're kind of sure of, uh, the North Carolina guy and Drake Williams, right? But there will be more, there will, there's always more quarterbacks that are coming in the draft. So they could do that and get one of those two guys or

somebody else that they love. If Justin Fields blows up the thing though, is we're almost painting it as if Justin Fields will either be like, yes or no. And I don't know if you know about this, but if you cover a quarterback in the middle, I don't know if you know about this, but if you cover a quarterback in the middle, I don't know if you have any experience. Never done that before. Reporting on a quarterback in the middle, say when you were in Minnesota. But you know what that does? If you have a quarterback who is just good enough for people to buy into him and then he becomes expensive. To me, the nightmare scenario isn't that Fields is bad.

It's that Fields is okay. It's that his throwing improves a little, but not a lot. And the bears win eight games. And then what do you do? Because then you're going into extension time after that and having that discussion with him. I don't know how you, that to me is the most risky situation and why I would still consider trading it. Not that it sounds like that's at all what they're thinking about. No. And you know, being in the middle, I get that. That's purgatory.

You don't want to be there as a franchise. But the fortunate thing for them with Justin Fields is, let's say year three doesn't pan out great. He's still in his rookie deal. You don't have to bring about talks of an extension in the near future. You can still operate within the confines of your salary cap, upgrading around him. And if he's not the guy you move on from him in a year and you still have

pieces in place for the next guy that might have a chance to, you know, come here and do something with the quarterback position. But it's, I just, the support that that guy gets from everyone in this locker room, defensive side of the ball, offensive side of the ball, offensive side of the ball, and how the Bears have talked about him and just the competitive, you know, keep it. I think there's something to be said about keeping a team together in like the midst of a three and 14

season where everything's falling apart around you. And, you know, to be able to go out there week in and week out and do this and make sure that, you know, you can field a team for 60 minutes every game. That's not an easy task. And so I look at that. I look at Justin Fields, the role that he played in that. And I know that that's, that is not, that is no small thing. And that's no small, small thing to this team. So all of that said, there's more, there's more like pros when you're listing out your pro con list about like keep him or trade him. There's more pros and there's, there's less of the sure fire. Bryce Young's better at this. CJ Stroud, like throw out other names. I mean, like we're,

we'd only be looking at Bryce Young, but none of those, like none of those guys right now are better than where Justin Fields is. And frankly, if you put Bryce Young in the situation that Fields was in last year, I don't think that you have any different outcome. Right. We don't know if he could play at all, any of the guys. I guess where I look at it, again, more philosophically than being able to actually apply it, would be that even if you drafted another guy, you could put so put so much around him and you've got years to do it where with Justin Fields, it feels like there's much more of a tight window to be really good.

Cause you're going into year three. Like it's not the beginning of, if again, resetting the rookie clock is, is a big thing. And you know, being able to have a quarterback like a Patrick Mahomes winning early on, on that rookie deal that saves franchises a lot of money

in the long run because you're able to get them on their second contract early enough if you can do it within that five-year window there's but that's that's such a crap shoot that's not like a guaranteed thing that every quarterback who's been drafted in the first round I mean we can go back and look at all of them from the last couple of seasons and realize that it just doesn't pan out that way. And even with this 2021 draft class, it's Trevor Lawrence, it's Justin Fields, and then it's everybody else. Yeah. Mac Jones, we were up and down on Mac. Yeah. We're up and down on Mac Jones. Zach Wilson's done. And we don't know about Trey Lance. And I'm starting to think just given you know what this situation is the san francisco 49ers and their quarterbacks is he going to be healthy enough to

play he just had an ankle surgery again a second one in december does like are they gonna have any quarterbacks or camp like and i mean that's a completely different topic of conversation but garoppolo's gonna be the quarterback there until 2094 yeah pay him i don't know if he's gonna want i don't know if he's gonna want to stay there but i would try to find a convincing argument for him to stay but let me throw something out though to you about this when it comes to certainty nothing is certain when it comes to drafting a quarterback but what's the certainty level that fields will be good i mean i i do think if you trade him you blow up the locker room you frustrate some people

who really bought into him and especially front office who drafted him. There's probably a lot of scouts and everybody else who are still there or people involved in that and coaches who might like him and everything else. But when we talk about certainty, it's more, you're almost closer to certain that Justin Fields is never going to be great than you are certain about a rookie, if that makes sense. There's uncertainty with both, is what I'm saying. I still give him an incomplete grade in certain areas because when you're not playing with an NFL team in the NFL, how do you judge him on last year? His top receiver finished the week,

finished his season on IR after week 12 and still led the team in receiving yards of like 493. That's, that's an incomplete grade. I mean, they were the league's most dominant rushing team because Justin Fields was playing quarterback. It's the exact same thing with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Like when your quarterback is your best rusher, that's why you're averaging the highest yards per carry and the most rushing yards of any team in the NFL. And you're able to be so run heavy and dominant to make up for all of the flaws that you have in your passing game. I, this, this year three, like the chapter that's going to be written this year is the most important one in Justin Fields book, because you're not going to year four. Like if, year four, if you don't get it done this year, if you don't take significant strides in showing that you can be the guy, that you can win from the pocket, that you're not this running quarterback, which is a label he did not have at Ohio State.

But the knock on him there was that he waited too long in the pocket because he could. Because he was playing with an offensive line that just mauled everybody else because like what three prospects were taken in like the top two rounds from that group. And you're playing with an incredible crop of wide receiver talent that you can just throw the ball to a spot and expect somebody to get there. All of that goes away in the NFL, but he didn't even have like the bare minimum qualifications to be able to

say, Hey, do exactly what you did on this play if we're running the exact same play from ohio state just putting different players in in the nfl he wasn't even given that opportunity because a lot of these guys are replacement level players just to be completely honest like darnell mooney for example i was asked i was asked about this on a podcast the other day what do the bears need and we were listing off a bunch of things number one i said number one receiver number two receiver and somebody's like, you don't think Mooney's a number two receiver. It's not that I don't think he's a number he's capable of that because he had over a thousand yards his second year. That was his, you know, it was the Allen Robinson year of

like, why is he not playing? And like, it was field rookie season. So he got a lot of opportunity to, you know, be a very important part of the passing game. But I don't think if you I don't think you should pigeonhole yourself into being like, oh, got to get a number one so we can play alongside Mooney. I think that you can bring two more pieces in if you have the ability to find them somewhere, whether it's the draft, free agency, a trade and be able to move Mooney to a solid number three. Because I think, you know, bringing back my Viking stuff, I think about him, where would he fit with Minnesota? It's not Justin Jefferson level by any stretch. Maybe Thielen.

To me, he's KJ Osborne. And I just think that you need more of those pieces than not to be able to judge Justin as a passer. And I definitely buy that the receivers are a major problem. And Josh Allen tracked this way, where he had Stefan Diggs, he was not as good of a passer. And then suddenly, magically, he gets a receiver who's open all the time and throws it to him every play. And it works out a lot better. So just get somebody to throw to multiple people to throw to will help. The thing that would concern me more than anything is that he gets sacked all the time. And I don't know how much some of those are on him. Change that. I don't know how easy you change it. Now, Joe Burrow did, but that's Joe Burrow, who is a great pocket quarterback always. And maybe just realize that he can't make a play on every single drop back, but it's really disturbing how much he holds onto the ball.

And it's oftentimes not even trying to run. Like Russell Wilson used to get sacked a lot trying to run, and he would get like a two-yard loss, and it's a sack. It's like doesn't see where to throw the football and then just get sacked. That, in my mind, is a really disturbing trend. Even if you have good wide receivers, yes, if they're open more often, you can get rid of the ball. But guys who get sacked a lot, they tend to continue to get sacked a lot.

And that's been, you know, when we talk last year, when the new staff came in and they worked on things with Justin, like the immediate thing was his timing and his footwork. Because this offense, this scheme, is a rhythm and timing-based offense where everything has to like they change his drop back like he used to drop back I think with his right foot in front now he drops back with his left foot in front and it's all based to timing like it's based on timing up with the receiver's routes it's you know you can go watch like how Aaron Rodgers did it how Matt Ryan did it like a lot of that stuff similar because it's all effectively the same offense so all of that then like the next step is all right how do you get rid of the ball faster it's do they need to block better for him

do his receivers need to get open more does just need to get rid of the ball faster and it's yes all of that and he i'd track the numbers on this like so week seven was after their mini buy when they lost to washington and it was just you know a terrible game they had a chance to win at the end and Mooney bobbled the ball at the goal line he cut down on his time to throw in season there was a stretch from like week seven to like week 10 by like 0.25 seconds which I was just flabbergasted about and some of that has to do with if you know how they move the pocket around and like you know sliding you sliding the protections all that but i was like all right well he can do it like there's there's ways to when you don't have the talent to be able to adjust from a schematic standpoint to help him

in those situations but then the numbers started to go back up again and then they kind of leveled off a little bit so i mean that's their biggest thing is getting him to get rid of the ball faster because he holds him and russell Russell Wilson right now lead the league in like the longest average time to throw between the time the ball snapped and the time that you like make a play. And like he leads the league in time in the pocket. And a lot of that's just looking, standing around waiting, you know, not trying to like simplify what he's doing,

but you're waiting for things to develop downfield because you don't have the trust there yet to make the play before the, like anticipate making the play before like you see something open to do that. And one of the things that great quarterbacks do is they know when something's not going to work. And it seems to me from watching him, like he's not sure when it's a route and it's running into a coverage. It's like, if you can say, oh, that route's not sure when it's a route and it's running into a coverage it's like if you can say oh that route's not going to work onto the next route so you go one to two to three it's like one two come on one is it gonna be one oh no two and oh no i'm sacked and with him the difference with him and

russell wilson too because i think wilson does have some elements of that where we saw mike zimmer actually succeed against russell wilson sometimes, but where Wilson would scramble and then make a play through the air while scrambling. I also don't see a ton of that with Justin Fields. It's like, if he's running, he's one of the best runners in the league, maybe one of the best runners ever as a quarterback,

but he will run if he chooses, he's going to run or pass if he chooses, he's going to pass, but not, Oh, I'm going to run, but Oh, I'm going to escape or move around. There's, and to pass but not oh i'm gonna run but oh i'm gonna

escape or move around there's and there's very few quarterbacks who can do it but i don't really see that with him it's either kind of i'm running or i'm passing and that's the choice and that's how it's going to go down and i think that these are kind of concerning things but i'm not sure like anybody else if they are going to trade down what is is the trade? So I ran through a bunch of scenarios with three. Draft sims? Draft sims, more or less. They weren't like our usual draft sims where we're just like five-round mock on a Tuesday. Why not?

I haven't gotten there yet, but Draft Scout and I talked about it recently, that that's going to be our priority the next month after we get done with the offseason stuff with Combine. But I looked at three teams, the obvious ones in the top 10, Houston, Indy, and the Carolina Panthers. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks this is a big deal because every trade is going to yield a first-round pick. One this year and then an additional one in 2024 because you go back to you know recent history with what the titans and the rams did in 2016 for jared goff like the rams had to give up at 2016 their 2016 first which was um in the teens i believe and then they gave up the then they gave up a 2017 first round pick there were multiple

seconds a third that that sort of haul you can get from whoever where can they get from like the sweet spot between one and where they're drafting in the second round in 54 there's a massive gap and a lot of offensive linemen that are going to fall in that high 20s early mid 30s range that you don't want to like be just sitting there with your pick that you got from baltimore inquan Smith trade saying well I hope that we're able to get somebody here because you have a wide receiver need and this is not a deep class for wide receivers to me the Indianapolis Colts can give you that pick because they can give you 35 they can give you their pick at four and you can move down get what you need to be able to like start you know stockpiling for future

rounds and other other areas that you want to attack but getting that sweet like giving you something between where you're drafting let's say they're drafting at four you're still not wanting to wait 50 picks until your next one and now we can all look back in hindsight and say how bad the chase claypool trade looks because that was their own pick that they ended up, which is more or less a first round pick because of where it fell in the draft order. And now at 33, like that's yeah, it's not a good it's not a good look that you don't have that sort of draft capital to do something with it. That is a trade right there that I don't really understand. If you were giving up a third for Chase Claypool, I get it. But if you're giving up something that's going to be the 33rd pick,

it better be good. I mean, the player better be really good. Not somebody that Pittsburgh is getting. And if Pittsburgh's getting rid of someone, I don't know. I'm not taking it. If Mike Tomlin's getting rid of someone, I'm not taking it. That part and kind of what we knew about Chase Claypool and just, you know, incredible athletic specimen, like stretch the field guy. He can do all of the athletic things that you love and want to see in a receiver. But when a team like that, after you had such an explosive rookie season, and then it's like, what happened? That to me was a little concerning, but I understand because I asked Ryan Poles about this at the time of the trade. Like, are you looking ahead to the free agent class and being like, yikes, Alan Lazard and, you know, Juju Smith-Schuster, like those are your big names. And because we knew that the wide receiver group, I mean, it'll probably be better next year because all of the, I mean, Marvin Harrison Jr. was the best receiver in college football last year.

And he, you know, still has a long way to go before he's even draft eligible. We knew that this group of receivers was not going to be last year or even like the 2021 or 2020 class like that's just the anomaly because the receivers and spread offenses in college have bred such great talent where on day three you can be comfortable getting somebody in the fourth round and saying hey you're gonna start that's not the case this year so i understand why at the time they felt they needed to do something to get a better evaluation on Justin Fields in the now and looking forward to 2023 saying, well, if we don't get somebody to like our slim, our pickings might be pretty slim in free agency and we're not able to actually do much at all. Yeah. That one was just the price too high and the guy too risky, I think. And they,

and they learned their lesson with that, where like he's eligible for an extension this off season. He's sure as hell not getting until he does something yeah oh it should be that way for sure and and not being able to fit in they're going to make a lot of excuses they're going to say well yeah playbooks and so forth and he didn't have training camp but t.j hockinson came into the vikings and dominated the first game after like four days uh there is something to be said about how complex this route tree is but that's an excuse for like three weeks in my opinion well and also tight end is more complicated than receiver yes you're blocking a lot and right i mean chase clue claypool did say that he really does like to do that and they did they they had to rely on him for some of that because

if you're not doing anything else you've got to find you know find some work somewhere yeah i just mean we've seen a lot of players, Christian McCaffrey, get traded in the middle of the season. Baker Mayfield going to the Rams and right away it seemed to work. There's no excuse. You're going to be the top target there. You should find a way. It's a bad trade that's probably going to blow up in their face. But I think that the Raiders should be on the radar for this. I wonder if you're the Colts,

if you just feel like you're going to get a quarterback there anyway, or if Jim Irsay is saying, oh, I want this guy. He likes the Alabama kid. Yeah, because what often happens in the NFL is that the owner falls in love with some prospect, and that's why the team picks them. And that might be the case for any of these I also think that Jim Irsay was trying to drive the price up for Houston he's dumb as a fox like I think he knows what he's doing

in some cases well dumb as a fox too might be Jeff Saturday because they're drafting fourth and they're going to get a quarterback what What, uh, what are you feeling about the Vikings? I know that you keep one eyeball in the division. Uh, it is, it's a, we've reached a place that we were at in 2019 going into 2020, where you feel like everything is in flux. And at that point they decided, no, it's not. We're just going to keep doing a lot of the same stuff. I give gotten the feeling from Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi Adafo Mensah that they understand some people aren't going to be here who have been here for a long time. And all the people that you covered, I don't know who it's going to be though, but it's an interesting place. And it was interesting to listen to them talk of like, yeah, you know, I'd love to keep everybody from last season and it

was a special season, but you know, that's the reality is that we might not be able to, we've done this song and dance before and coming to the combine where they talk about we, they want to keep everybody, but they can't. And I look at this situation with Minnesota and think that we, we play this game all the time. This is what they should have done this year. This is what they should have done this year because, you know, Kirk's not signing another one-year deal. I don't, I mean, I don't see, I think he thinks he's got one more big contract in him, whether it's, you know, three to four years, who knows how much fully guaranteed, not whatever, but he's going to look at it and and say I got you guys to the playoffs last year I won you

all these one score games and I'm not taking a discount for that but this is this is when the bill comes due for all of the salary cap issues that always seem to pop up with this team like Dalvin Cook's not taking a pay cut I can can promise you that. He's going to end up going somewhere. They'll probably have to cut him and then go somewhere else. Adam Thielen has paid a lot. And at his age and with the injury history and everything else and him kind of losing a step. That just is what it is at 32 years old. I would not be surprised to see.

I mean, that's a foregone conclusion in my mind that he's no longer there. Oh, Thielen? Yeah. Really? What do you do with Daniil Hunter can you pay him 29 million Eric Kendricks you're playing a three four you're too small well can we talk about feeling because I feel like it's a hot day yeah you think he's not gonna be here I don't think he's gonna do you think he's gonna take a pay cut to stay well you can restructure and they save how much nobody loves restructuring like this team

uh i think it kicks it down to maybe like 11 or 12 million which still might be a little much considering his role but this was the interesting thing about kevin o'connell yesterday when we asked about theelin he sort of layered into his commentary the idea of role and target share and things like that and i it just seems that Adam Thielen might not want to take that back seat as much as he did. I don't think he liked that role this year. Did you ever get the vibe that he was okay with it? No, I mean, I never, he never said anything about not being okay with it because they kept winning games. But at some point, if you disappoint in the first round, everyone's going to look at

like, wait, I didn't get mine. Uh, I think that with their offense, I wouldn't have done anything different. I would have thrown the ball to Justin Jefferson. Also, that would be my, of course it's a, you know, I, I consider myself a brilliant football mind, throw it to the best player. Uh, but with Adam Thielen, it's just, he spent so long in his career of being one B or one A to Stefan Diggs or Justin Jefferson. And now that's just not going to be the case. And asking pro athletes to live in reality is always hard because a lot of them don't like they think, no, I've still got it. I'm still open. They watch the tape and say, no, you should have thrown it to me there and all those things. But that to me is the bigger conflict than the money is if he just wants to go somewhere else to be wide receiver one,

I have some bad news. I don't think he's going to be that anywhere, but I don't think he's going to finish his career with the Vikings. I think he will end up somewhere else on a different team because I think they're going to have to start tearing this thing apart. This is going to be the time where it has to be done because what everything, if you still have to start tearing this thing apart this is going to be the time where it has to be done because what everything if you still have to pay the quarterback if you keep putting yourself in purgatory with his contract situation the one-year extension last year then then this is what you're going to be dealing with and what about Harrison Smith like think about all these ancillary not ancillary but like think about all these other pieces we're talking about that haven't even

been factored into the overall equation and I just they're in a really tough spot because what happens like let's say they do do a teardown and like all the veteran players from like the last like five six years end up gone or somewhere else does Justin Jefferson want to sign an extension here does he want to sign an extension on team that's going to be dealing with you know know, a lot of, um, you know, turnover the next couple of years in a situation where they might not be good. It certainly stood out to me that they made no bones about a couple of things with Justin Jefferson.

A, they were saying, Justin, please, please, please sign your extension. I want you here. We love you. And also talking about how they're going to keep him in the loop, that he's going to be part of the discussions and all those things. They're doing everything they can to convince Justin Jefferson that he needs to sign an extension, which they should. And I would guess that he wants to see it first, see how it plays out, see what the landscape looks like. Now you brought up the Neil Hunter. What would you do there?

We know that last year did not work out with him and Zedarius Smith. So it was a foregone conclusion that someone was going to have to go first. And with, you know, Smith and all, all that we know, at least right now about what's at hand there, that's not surprising. I don't think they can pay Daniil though. If he's going to be set to make in that $29 million range, which he's earned, I don't think it's going to be in Minnesota not with how much you have to pay the receiver not with how much you potentially have to pay

cousins if you keep him and as we know like this team and wanting to remain relevant and wanting to just stay in the mix you have to have competent quarterback play to do it they've never been willing to like bite the bullet for like one year, take a big step back to be able to take a major step forward. And I don't see them getting, I don't see them getting out from under cousins right now. I feel like that's, it's not how I would do it, but I do think that they end up like keeping him around. And, you know, unfortunately I feel like that's kind of the. This will be the same issue going forward. I mean, Cousins being gone for 2023 seems almost impossible, but it also feels to me like there's going to be an impasse.

And we also thought that going into 2020 and we were wrong. In fact, I remember us doing a podcast and talking about how like Kirk should maybe hold their feet to the fire for a longer term deal and then sign an extension shortly after that. But I think this is the time, knowing that his NFL mortality exists, that there's only so many more years of doing this, that he probably wants a final contract that's lock dead guarantees. And not having to come back to the table every year. Right. And if they know that that is going to come off the books, then they can do things like extend Daniil Hunter. But you also have long term injury risk to play into this, that last year he was healthy, but that's no guarantee for the future. You also can't say pay no one, because if you just say, well, this guy's too expensive, you end up like the Bears and you end up losing all your games, which might be what they need at some point.

I mean, it's a complete no. The way that the Vikings are structured, the way that they've been, they've never been a tear down to the studs and start over. These are two very different rebuilds that we're looking at, the way that the Bears went about it and the way that the Vikings went about it. And you can think one is better than the other. The circumstances in Chicago, because they had a young quarterback they needed to figure out, and they still need to figure out

whether he's the guy, they weren't going to keep pieces around that aren't part of their long-term vision it's a very it's a if you are risk averse it's not it's not the move for you but it either it it's it's boom or bust and if that thing pays off then all the suffering that you had of the 3 and 14 season and everything else that comes with that, that ends up becoming worth it. Whereas the Vikings, I mean, you're 13 and three and you go to the wildcard round and you lose like at home and you have a quarterback who, you know, there were moments where you can look and say, man, I wish Kirk would have done this stuff differently, but like he has a ceiling on him that we have known about. Like he's,

he's been very good throughout his career, but can he elevate a ceiling on him that we have known about like he's he's been very good throughout his career but can he elevate the team like nothing's gonna change because of the play caller because of anything else that's that is what it is but i just don't see it's it's short-sighted to think that this is gonna get any better for for him because the team around him is gonna get probably pretty worse yeah that's exactly what I was going to say is when it comes to the roster for next year, you would be hard pressed to convince me that it will magically be better in overall strength around him than it was last year, that it, that it will be in total better. Now you could play better defense. You certainly can, but also there was a lot of good health for them last year and a lot of things went

right as well and you're never going to avoid having these weaknesses but if you lose Harrison Smith you lose Adam Dillon these were effective players where they they weren't all pros or pro bowlers like they were in the past but they were still you know very good players and if you lose them then you have to replace them and you don't always do it better as we saw in 2020. So I don't know. I think these next couple of weeks are really going to chart the course there.

I did want to ask you and mention before we wrap up that you now have a weekly show. I do ESPN radio from six to nine AM central time. Aren't you so glad to live in the central time zone not a coincidence folks no it's not a coincidence from six to nine central time uh but a.m a.m yeah so the early six to nine right so if you're waking up and it's six or nine or somewhere in between i hope you wake up before nine because then you'd miss the whole show yeah you don't want to do that so that's uh gonna be on ESPN radio every week.

Congratulations. Thank you. Also around the horn. What else are you doing with yourself? Because every time I see like something that you're doing on Twitter, it's a TV radio and you're covering a beat, which is already enough work. Like,

do you have time to do stuff? You live in Chicago. I know. It's been a whirlwind year and i think about that every time i'm like walking through the halls of the convention center in indianapolis because i started on the bears beat remember last year i like wrote this like x's and o's heavy here's what kevin o'connell's gonna adapt from the ram scheme like into the vikings offense and like mike dropped on my way out and then like by Monday I was starting

like on the Bears beat at the combine last year and just like my own little like one year memory lane thing of thinking about the storylines like I went back like over an old email last year like did I really know what I was talking about like the storylines of this team but like it just how much it's changed whether they were going to keep Tariq Cohen, whether they were going to, you know, try to find some common ground or like, you know, the new regime was going to try to fix things with Alan Robinson. Like it feels like those 20 years ago, but it was like just over 365 days. So it is wild to me to see how much I packed into this past year, but I wouldn't change it. There's been a lot of good that's come with this move for me. And I'm excited because I'm going to have a bigger space in the

local market too with ESPN 1000, who I do work with in Chicago. We're now the home of the Bears. We can now talk about it openly because March 1st, yesterday was our launch date on that. So it's really cool to me to have the presence locally with ESPN 1000 to be able to continue to build my bears coverage, like all encompassing beat coverage. I really like it. You know who you just reminded me of? Who? Mike Zimmer. Let me tell you why. Because when... No one's ever called me that before. Well, there are some similarities that both of you can be quite aggressive and blunt. But so one time our friend Brian Murphy did a feature story on Mike Zimmer and he asked him, Mike, if you weren't coaching football, what would you be doing? And Mike said,

coaching football. That was the long answer. He's like, well, I don't know, like maybe high school or college. But the answer was if you weren't coaching football. So I just asked, like, so what else are you doing? Like, what else are you doing in chicago and you're like football and like covering football and radio and more football and there's another radio station and we're also doing football that was literally your answer like do you walk by the lake it is a it is an i love it no it is i know there's jealousy with minnesota and chicago don't be jealous there shouldn't be they're two places, and both are equally awesome. But Chicago, you know, Chicago.

I mean, Chicago's great. And, I mean, I'm from there. Like, I'm excited for the summertime this year because. To watch more football. Is that what you were just going to say? No, I was not. Don't put those words in my mouth. I'm excited to, like, get out and, like, explore a little bit.

Because last summer was, like, you know, I get done with minicamp. And then I'm between there and New York all summer doing first take. And that was an incredible opportunity. And I really enjoyed being able to fit that into my schedule and learn all that. But it also came at the expense of not really getting to explore Chicago as much. So hopefully I'll have some time to do that after the busiest off season known to man because my team has like 25 needs so i know and when you're talking about number one that trade down could come at any time

and you just really don't know what's gonna happen if it doesn't happen over your life a little bit pole said something the other day i just don't know if i see a scenario for them to trade to trade it before unrestricted free agency i don't i don't see that being possible but he's talking about the benefit to them if they could do that because sometimes you get players in those trades and of course my mind was like oh is carolina gonna like package number nine and brian burns and a few other things for number one i would be all for for that if you're chicago trying to like get young pieces in that can be part of what you're building that's a great place to start but it's going to be busy like whenever they trade this thing like i don't i basically have my phone

on me none like it doesn't leave my side from now until the end of march because when we saw this happen on that friday in 2021 when the san francisco 49ers miami dolphins and philadelphia eagles just blew up the draft order. That was on a Friday afternoon. And I anticipate that this sort of thing will happen kind of around the same time. You just did it again. Like you were talking about like, well, I want to see more of Chicago. But then like, what if they trade somebody?

You knew who I was when you recruited me. Yeah, to be our draft scout. Courtney R., our draft scout, Courtney, our, our draft scout. Well, I'm going to make some trips to Chicago in the spring and summertime. I promise we don't have to watch football,

but you know, the last time I was there, we watched football. There was a effective playoff game going on between the Titans and the Jaguars. The Titans and Jaguars are playing. We're going to watch. So that,

that game decided the AFC South like that that you act like that's not an important thing no it is i'm not saying it's not but you know um old ryan sandberg is uh there in chicago you got uh your you know your sammy sosa my people playing yeah so maybe catch a ball game i've never i'm gonna i'm gonna go to you know we should do a Cubs game this summer. I went last summer for the first time in forever. The renovations to the stadium are really nice. It's just pricey. The thing with...

Very expensive. It's not a you problem, but it is a tall people problem. The old stadiums, they just have really cramped seating. I've heard that that's an issue. Then the bleachers, they cost more because everyone wants to sit in the bleachers. Get a've heard that that's an issue, but then the bleachers, they cost more because everyone wants to sit in the bleachers and get a touristy type of thing. But,

uh, they can have the bleachers. I'm not a big bleacher person. We'll do that. We'll do that though. We'll, we'll actually get you away from football for just a minute. I got to get you away from football.

You have like 69 podcasts. It's true. Wow. It says the person starting a new podcast with the bears. It's true. And has a show six to nine a.m yeah i feel like i know you're more football no you're more football uh anyway well we're both very football and uh very pleased to have you back i'm sure everybody

enjoyed uh every time you're able to come on and i can't wait to be on your podcast i know i'm excited for that it should be good i should have more details on that in the coming weeks, but it'll be fun. Will you sing? I sing sometimes. Are you going to implement that? I mean, I'm going to need you to make a drop, your What's Going On With The Bears drop, the metal version

of it. I make up so many songs, I forget how they go. I need you to remember, like, What's Up With The Bears? No, it was, What's Going On With The Bears? It was metal? Okay. Yeah, you yelled it songs i forget how they go like i need you to remember like what's up with the bears what's going on with the bears metal okay yeah you yelled it into the microphone i can't do it i've already lost my voice this week so you had a good one but that's um what's up with the bears that yes that was that was what it was okay but um draft scout i mean she's excited for the next couple months and i know that you know we're gonna have a good draft sim you and I here in the near future, which will be fun to, uh, you know, get her out of her, uh,

element for a couple minutes. If she can spare some time, God forbid for us, for the show, because we gave her this platform. Yeah. I feel like when we draft sim, our hearts beat as one is the way I want to put it. Yeah. I agree with that. I would say that that's fair. All right. Well, thanks for coming by. Of course. And making time here at a very hectic combine. And I wish for you that none of the other Bears perspective players have warrants out for their arrest. So you get some time and we will get together again very soon.

And I guarantee the next time it'll be a draft sim. So thank you, Courtney. Excited.