Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - ESPN's Courtney Cronin explains how the Minnesota Vikings ended up with a losing 2020 season

Episode Date: December 26, 2020

In an epic breakdown of everything that caused the Minnesota Vikings to miss the playoffs in 2020 Matthew Coller and Courtney Cronin go from start to finish on who's to blame and how we got here. Why weren't the Vikings able to figure out this would be a rebuilding year? Did they believe they could just coach up the defense? That doesn't appear to be the case after allowing 52 points to the New Orleans Saints. Plus what impact does Kirk Cousins contract play in all their decisions? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Purple Insider newsroom on the Vikings giving up 52 points and setting all sorts of incredible records. They're being sent to me on Twitter to the point where I'm like, wait a minute, are you messing with me? When it's like, you know, the teams haven't done this, that, or the other thing since the 1929 New York spiders or whatever, like, wait a minute, are these real? Like, cause I'm believing every single one of these weird records, ESPN's Courtney Cronin with me. Here's, here's what I want you to do,

Courtney. I just want you to, I just want you to go. I just want you to tell me what want you to go. I just want you to tell me what you are thinking after the Vikings give up 52 points on Christmas day and get run out of the Superdome. And we can go wherever you want to take this bus because I am just excited to hear your reaction. I've been stewing for about 20 minutes thinking, do I want a pod? Do I want to just enjoy the rest of my Christmas and watch the Lakers and Mavericks and have a glass of wine I'm like you know I'll get to that eventually because there are thoughts that need to be laid out for people to hear right now

um because I'm hot because like you and I were talking about before we started uh we before you hit record you know in 2018 when the season came crashing and burning into the finish line when they finished eight seven and one i remember sitting in that press conference at u.s bank stadium where kirk cousins is talking about year zero and code words and all this other stuff and i kind of was dumbfounded by just some of the things that were coming out of his mouth and certainly that was the game where you realize everything was going to have to change just the way that this team was run, the way that the direction that they were going, that it was going to be vastly different than how 2018 started.

But the end of that season, the blame was on Kirk. And I didn't feel any type of way really about it, just covering a team, figuring, okay, this is, you know know a new year whatever um that's what I kind of expected from Kirk just given the way that he handled 2018 what he said repeatedly all that at the end of the 2020 season which is effectively today like I mean the Detroit game I remember last year Judd Zolgad and I think it was you two were scoreboard watching the Lions and the Packers in the back of the press box you didn't even watch the game um that might be me just seeing whatever else is going on next Sunday considering the Detroit game is going to be effectively meaningless

but I as I sit here on Christmas night thinking back to the pre-season thinking back to all the times where we asked logical and reasonable questions about the amount of turnover this defense was going to face about the challenges it would take any coaching staff, whether you've been on this staff since 2014 with Mike Zimmer, whether you were brand new, like Durante Jones, whether you had been coaching for 50 years or whether you had been coaching for five or six it was going to be a challenge and I just remember almost kind of like a slap in the face in terms of the way that our questions were answered and making us kind of feel like well what do you idiots think of course it's going to be

fine and of course Mike Zimmer's freezing cold take exposed or old takes exposed whatever it is of what he said to NFL network, that he's never had a bad defense ever. So he doesn't anticipate that happening. Well, you could tell right then and there that, uh, it was, you know, going to turn out this way, but fact of the matter is Mike Zimmer is an incredibly intelligent guy. He may not like offense. He may not want to learn offense. He may not want to be somebody who can do both. He is a defensive guru. Sure. But he's not that dumb. He knew from the beginning, they all knew that you can't take a Cameron Dantzler, a Jeff Gladney,

a DJ Wanham, you know, any of these young players and expect them to play the role that a pro bowler played for years and years and years in this defense and expect them to play the role that a pro bowler played for years and years and years in this defense and expect this defense to look the way it did for years before this point. Like to me, the Vikings got bit in the ass by their own arrogance and the hubris that they bought into that they felt that this defense was never going to miss a step going back to free agency and seeing how many pieces they let walk out the door. If you didn't think that you were going to miss a step. Going back to free agency and seeing how many pieces they let walk out the door, if you didn't think that you were going to have issues this season,

that it was going to be tough, that they were going to have to take a step back, then you are blind and you should not be in this job. Whether you're in the front office making decisions with rosters, with salary cap, with putting together a team that you could actually respectively have take the field this year. You can't tell me that you didn't anticipate this coming, because if you say you didn't,

you are a bold-faced liar. And there are a lot of people right now who are looking at themselves in the mirror trying to play revisionist history, saying, yep, we knew it was going to be tough. Injuries, youth, opt-outs, all this stuff. Well, when we get these guys back next year, blah, blah, blah. It's not that simple. This defensive rebuild, the Vikings are currently in, which we said they were one foot in one foot out this year, which was the wrong approach.

It is going to be a two to three year process at minimum. There is no saying in a logical world that you get all the pieces back. You miss next year and everything's going to be fine. Why do we know? Daniil Hunter is going to be the same player coming off a neck injury that he had to go have season ending surgery for. You're going to tell me he's going to be the same guy. You haven't even seen him take the field. Absolutely not. So I'm not going to even go there. And the fact of the matter is,

there's contract issues, Anthony bar, same type of thing coming off a season-ending injury and you're still going to have to rebuild through free agency in the draft do you have the money to do so right now it's looking a little murky so you might want to start working on which guys you're going to cut to try to create some salary cap space in my opinion we've seen the last of Kyle Rudolph in a purple uniform but nonetheless um because I know that we want to delve into many topics but I just kind of I I feel like this is a I told you so type moment for this franchise and that there are a lot of people behind closed doors saying that either in their little circles or saying it to each other um and even this coaching staff they knew you cannot tell me that they didn't know

that it was going to potentially turn out to be this bad because mike zimmer is smart enough to know his defensive scheme is complicated as heck and you cannot expect somebody who is inexperienced or these replacement level defenders like a jaleel johnson he is not an nfl player you cannot tell me that those guys plugging them into the scheme you expected them to be the defense of 2017 or 2018 because if you did then you're blind so let's play a classic game let's play who do you blame um so because they're officially out of the playoffs going into today they were not officially out of the playoffs so there was still that well you never do know, but now that that is off the table, they are officially out of the playoffs. And by the way,

when you look at this from a different lens of even just beyond the record, which is not good, but also the point differential. And now the company that they are in with both the record and the point differential. I mean, they went from flirting with that playoff race to minus 47 points, which is actually worse than Carolina. It's worse than San Francisco. I mean, it is in some pretty bad company at minus 47 points in the, um, in the point differential. So there's not even that, well, you know, they only lost by one point to Tennessee. Look, I mean, you're, you've given up way more points

than you've scored. You're not a good team. Your record is exactly what you say you are. So let's, let's pie chart this thing. I mean, we've got the front office, we've got Mike Zimmer, we've got the quarterback. Who else do you want to include i mean should we include the injuries as part of this so who who do you blame let's let's have bad luck be part of it and there's like wait hold on this is gonna be an incredibly complicated pie chart if you're giving me like six different things it's only gonna be four it's just gonna be how can it possibly be four when there's like 10 different ways you can blame this season turning out the way it did uh we're gonna we're gonna bring it down we're gonna bring it down just the four it's gonna be to make it easy so it's not insane with the pie chart even though i'd love to do that to you but

it's christmas we have the coach and the staff coaching staff coach and staff uh the front office the quarterback and bad luck those four things how would you pie chart them in terms of who do you blame well a Christmas day who do you blame what a time I mean I honestly I'm a big fan of this game and I know that you know it's there's so many ways you can go like bad luck could include injuries opt-outs um that's a direction I'm going mostly and and let's just say even bad luck in terms of you know you miss some field goals in tampa bay or you don't get calls or you know things like that i mean i think that those things even out but i don't know how you see them um so include injuries and say you don't get a fourth and one and maybe you think that's bad

luck or you know whatever you want to describe it as. Well, my percentage is currently added up to 120. So I'm trying to like figure this out. That is very appropriate. I mean, would you expect anything less from me on Christmas day? No less like that is, you know, might be the first time we should allow it to be 120 in the pie chart. Okay. I've got it figured out now. All right. Let's do it. So I'll start out. I'll go from least or most to least. Is that fair? Yep. Yep. Let's do it that way.

Okay. You got to finish the song. I have to have my intro. do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, pay, how the off season was going to pan out, how anything like they were literally like, no full steam ahead pandemic does not. The NFL does not bend to the virus. Like we're going to go through this. We just forced the CBA through, um, they were going full steam ahead. So I put the front office at a 35% chance or 35% of the blame. Why? Because I go back to what Kirk Cousins contract is and what it did to them. I've in, in, I know that if, if you were to be a cap person and you were to tell me that I'm short sighted, I'd listen to you because in my opinion, I think you have to earn things. I think extensions for coaches and Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman should never have happened

this year. They should not have happened going into this season. I don't think her cousin should have been extended back in May, back in March. That gave you a $10 million cap relief. What did you do? You went and within like an hour, you went and used that money to franchise tag Anthony Harris with no intention of keeping him. But you got so arrogant

in that process saying well we're not taking this draft pick from you we want to hire one New York Giants hell no Kevin Stefanski eat chalk we're not you know taking what you guys are putting on on the table to offer and then you know what they were never able to unload him so they were stuck with him an 11.4 whatever million dollar guaranteed salary that he had this year for a player that's probably not on your roster um i put him at like a four percent chance of being on the roster next year um there were a lot of decisions made in free agency of letting guys walk out the door did they try to keep mckenzie alexander yes did he sign somewhere else yes trey waynes priced himself out they didn't want xavier rhodes and, when you take a look at the season that Xavier's had

in Indianapolis in the bounce-back type year, who's at fault for that? Probably a little bit more on Mike Zimmer. I'm just going to say it because why is he all of a sudden looking like a great, you know, a great fit in that defense that they're running in Indianapolis? Sometimes a change of scenery is needed. I don't blame Rhodes fully for that. Like last year, it looked like, you know, you have injury issues that you're not handling correctly.

Your conditioning is whatever it was. You're not, you know, effort was a thing. I don't, you know, I can, I can look at back at that through the prism of knowing how he played this year saying maybe it wasn't all his fault. So there's a lot of reasons of guys that they, you know, had to let walk out the door because of the front office because of the contract that they gave kirk cousins because of some of the financial moves that they made um and also i mean here's the thing i don't get with 15 draft picks if you're so savvy with all of your draft capital and getting all these picks and acquiring them why can't you just like why can't you package them and move up? Like just it's quite, you know,

quantity quantity over quality, quality over quantity is something that I don't think, you know, happened this year with however many, you know, how many guys they had, how many guys they cut, how many guys were on the practice squad at the end of this. Like if you have 15 draft picks by the end of it, you should have about five or six because you should be packaging those to move up and get guys that can actually play right now

um of course they had a lot of rookies that were forced into positions that they weren't ready to play for play in but you know i i just i think it's fair to put a lot more blame on the front office for what they didn't do and some of the missteps that they've had because that rides on them they're the ones who can construct this roster whether it's through the draft or free agency so they're 35 for me i think that's a fair assessment um bad luck is 30 it sucks that michael pierce was the domino that in my in my mind that kicked a lot of things off um that you know we're in the middle of a pandemic like i can't fault the guy for opting out but shamar stefan was atrocious this year and he was forced into that position think about it what would have been worse shamar playing three techniques the position he was

supposed to play or him playing nose tackle i don't know take your pick take your pick they're both equally as bad um but then you know danil Hunter and whatever the hell happened to him in practice on August 14th or whatever, and not playing, and then all the other injuries. And you can't predict those things, but you also can't, if you are, if your team is built well enough, you're able to overcome those in ways that, you know, they certainly weren't able to. And that to me is, you know, another thing I could blame the front office for the botched

unique and gawkway trade when clearly the vikings knew that hunter's injury was more than a tweak it was more than what they were publicly saying about it so try to be up front don't try to like pull the wool over on people because then that's going to lead to your seat getting hotter um beyond that um i put the coaching staff at 20%. Um, like I said, in my rant at the beginning, I think that to think you can pound a square peg into a round hole, thinking that Cam Dantzler is going to look like, you know, Xavier Rhodes and his pro bowl year in 2017 and expecting guys to play in the scheme that you can plug and play that's arrogance I don't think that that's possible but then again this was one of the hardest coaching jobs challenges that Mike Zimmer and his guys have ever had like I commend them for how hard they worked because

that is about the toughest challenge that anybody could ever face and then you know beyond that I put the quarterback at 15 percent and I guess to also say I know I'm blaming everything on the defense right now I mean coaching staff is not just related to the defensive staff I think Gary Kubiak had I wasn't really impressed with it this year I think he lost his fastball at multiple points this season um and that also obviously affects the quarterback so you know the Kirk Cousins narrative for me didn't change though. Like this has been the way he's been his entire career. And I never anticipated that this is going to be the quarterback that gets you over the hump.

So that's why I honestly put him at 15% because when everything else is wrong around him, there's only a certain peak that he can hit. And that's what he did this year. Not beating good teams, you know, finishing with, you know, they're going to finish with a losing peak that he can hit. And that's what he did this year, not beating good teams, you know, finishing with, you know, they're going to finish with a losing record and miss the playoffs. And that's kind of what you expect. So that all adds to a hundred percent. I know I've been talking for like six minutes straight. So I appreciate it.

So you had to go through it. Now I can react to your pie chart. but by the way, to your point about cousins and his career records for those people who just are so against, you know, even talking about a quarterback's record, which I always think like the record matters, like they're the most valuable player on the field and they control winning and losing more than anybody else. And usually they tell the story at the end, um, 51 and two for his career seasons of nine and seven, eight, seven and one, seven and nine, eight, seven and one, 10 and five and six and nine. I mean, it's kind of like this is who your

quarterback is. Even though on my pie chart, I would probably put Cousins a little lower, but there's a reason for that because I would add part of Cousins to the front office. I would probably say, look, Cousins didn't sign himself. I'll get messages sometimes from people that ask like, hey, could Cousins take a pay cut or something to help them with the cap situation? Like, well, no, but he also did sign an extension for them when they wanted to, to lower the cap. He kind of already did that to make it easier so they could win this year. And then they didn't. And he's played exactly like Kirk cousins. I mean, there's been little edges here or there where he's been better. He's had great receivers. He's put up numbers. He's done a lot of his damage from behind when it comes to his statistics.

Before today, 60% of his yards came from playing from behind. And then today it's going to be 100% of today. So that'll bump it up probably like 62, 63% of his yards are when they're losing. And why are you losing? Well, your defense isn't good, but you also punt a lot in the first half. And then you start turning it on in the second half. And that's, Hey, I mean, that's cousins for you a lot of times, right? But he's also been handcuffed a bit by his offensive coordinator and his head coach's philosophy that dictates to the offensive coordinator. But the thing that I think

is, and the big picture here is not just that you're six and nine and you're going to either go six and ten or seven and nine. The worst records you could ever have. You usually want to be one in 15 or you want to be 15 to one. And if you can't or at least be, you know, in that race for the division and so forth, if you can't, then you don't want to be in the middle. Right. Like if you can't be great, then you want to be bad. And they actually had a chance to be worse by moving some players and didn't. But again, that's a front office thing. But signing Cousins when everything else was in flux and it was super clear that the end of the road was 2019 in San Francisco.

That was, I'll never forget watching Stefan Diggs walk off that field and thinking I'm probably not going to see him play again for this team. And so many other players in that locker room that had that feeling of like, this is it. That's the end of the road. It's over. Like the run is over and now you have to rebuild.

And they decided to half rebuild. And what often happens then, and that includes the quarterback. What happens then is you get stuck, you get in Bengals land, you get in, you know, to Atlanta Falcons land where they were after the Superbowl, where they just, you know, kept thinking, well, you know, we just need to do this and we just need to do that. And maybe now we'll change coaches and that's going to work. It's like, you know, the reality is you need to rebuild. And usually you don't want to do

that around one of the most expensive quarterbacks in the NFL. So not being realistic about where you were at after the end of 2019 is the biggest thing and signing cousins to the extension. He has been who he has been. And if he plays for the Chicago bears, they've probably got 10 or 11 wins. If he plays for other teams with, you know, good, uh, mature rosters, then they're probably, you know, he's probably winning more games and he's probably in the

playoffs, but this was not a good and mature roster from the very beginning. And the coaching staff, um, I know I haven't really given like exact percentages, but the coaching staff is culpable for not getting the most out of this team passing on early downs, passing in the first quarter. I mean, even today they defer and it's like, you guys are playing Blake Lynch at linebacker. Do you really want Drew Brees and Alvin Kamara to have the ball first? And yeah, how much they run on second down to, I mean, like that's an alarming rate. Like you have become so predictable and that's I just don't understand it's like maybe it's hard to change in the NFL maybe it's harder than we realize from a week-to-week basis where

you you you have to buy in or at least they think they have to buy into no it's going to eventually get better it's going to eventually get better no it's not because there were no adjustments like we're seeing the same stuff happen in these two minute drives that have happened the last few weeks that have really become a trend all season. I think about, you know, that two minute drive that we saw, obviously Kirk and Mike Zimmer told us after the game that it was a headset issue. That's why they like waited 20 seconds to get a playoff. Like, here's my thing.

If you're being paid $31 million, can you not call a play at the line yourself? Because Aaron Rodgers, the only one who's allowed to do that. That's my theory. I'm not trying to be an a-hole, but like, is that like- First headset issue, you're- Come on. Yeah.

There's not even a crowd. If you really need to hear it, like, you know, go college style and do the guys on the sideline who are like, you know, motioning and all that nonsense, have some sort of backup. Like that's, I just don't understand that. But, you know, to your point about cousins in the front office and like, you know, him being lumped in there, I totally agree with you because it wasn't like he you know he but I just I just know from my reporting that they wanted to get the extension done that was important that they get it done now obviously it helps him being able to um you know to help them get you know 10 million in cap space which they wasted in my opinion with what they did with it but you know the three-year deal that he the two-year extension obviously now it's like it turns into a three-year like he structured it the way he did like I'm not

gonna let Kirk off the hook on that like he and his agent are very savvy don't get me wrong but you can't tell me that he's blind to the fact that that handicaps and screws over the rest of his team like you know I know it's different and people tell me that like I'm naive to compare basketball and guys taking pay cuts to want to be somewhere else to build a championship team like you know are they going to become like are they essentially the Lakers or we see the Clippers and signing Paul George to a deal that they absolutely did not have to um just because they were trying to get somebody locked up.

He's trying to get another superstar locked up. Like, I don't think they needed to do that with Kirk. In my opinion, they didn't need to do it with any of them. Let Dalvin earn his money. Let Kirk earn his money. Let Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman earn their money. You've, you've, you financially handicapped yourself to four people that if you're going to

cut them loose, then you're going to be paying a lot of money, cut them loose before the time's up. Like you're going to be paying a lot of money. Stupid. And this is the reason that you could, if you wanted to in the pie chart, you could push the slider all the way up to like 90% Kirk, even though it's not about how he's played. Cause he played well and he's played like Kirk cousins. I mean, you have a huge sample of the guy playing football. It's not like all of a sudden he's going to magically snap his fingers and he's played because he's played well and he's played like Kirk Cousins is I mean you have a huge sample of the guy playing football it's not like all of a sudden he's going to magically snap his fingers and he's going to run like Kyler Murray or something you can run a little tiny bit more get a few for a couple first downs we're talking about the margins though like 98 percent of Kirk Cousins is exactly predictable that he'll be Kirk Cousins the next year. And so the reason that you could blame him is not for exactly how he's played,

but for just what he is in terms of a huge, huge burden on the cap. The fact that he just is not this quarterback who can save you when something goes wrong. And here's a good example of that. Just his limitations is in that Bears game, that fourth and one play that gets blown up at the end of the game, he runs backward because he's just not fast enough to run away from anyone.

If it's a quarterback, who's even a little bit more mobile, he runs away. Or if it's a quarterback with a stronger arm, he finds Justin Jefferson open, but the limitations are what they are. Those aren't his fault, but it's, it's his fault in a way that they paid him so much. And then he has this huge cap hit and he has limitations that don't allow you to go and match the new Orleans saints. Even though your office is playing well, it's like, it's not against the rules that if your defense is getting smoked, you have to lose. But for the Vikings, it has been at any to at any time really during the Mike Zimmer era if the defense isn't playing well you pretty much gotta lose and I thought you signed Kirk Cousins so when the

defense wasn't perfect you could still win but that's not what happens no and that's probably honestly going to be the the way that this thing pans that this thing pans out the rest of the time that any of them are here. And look, the more I think about this, I don't think anything's going to happen. I'm not saying that we should be expecting something in the next couple days, but 52 points is a fireable offense in my opinion. Um, when you've already been a little on the fence about this coach and this direction that you're going in, is this the straw that breaks the camel's back? I don't know. I would not be surprised if Gary Kubiak though, considers retirement, like at some point soon, I don't know if, you know, if he's, if I'm, I don't know, I don't know if he's going to want to do this much longer. I mean,

some of the rumblings I've been hearing are like that. Maybe I'm not that off base on that. Um, it's, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest, given what this offense is right now, what it became and what its limitations are that I don't know if it's ever going to get above a certain point. Like I've kind of, I felt that for a while. And I think really what happened this year is they got slapped in the face with a reality check that if you want to play the type of offense that Mike Zimmer wants to play and have a defense that can win you games. Well, it's just not this unit. It's not this year. It might not be next year either. Like a rebuild takes time.

Like anything in life, you can't be one foot in and one foot out and expect it to work. this year, it might not be next year either. Like a rebuild takes time. Like anything in life, you can't be one foot in and one foot out and expect it to work. Your business, your marriage, your children, anything that you want to be successful with, you have to be all in. And the way that they did this with this quote unquote soft rebuild, I remember you and I all throughout March, April, and May, we're talking about this alleged soft rebuild that they were trying to sell us on. It doesn't work. It doesn't work when once you can't expect one side of the ball to excel while the other one is, you know, still with its training wheels on trying to figure stuff out. It doesn't work like that in the NFL, not in professional sports. I don't really think in any sport, I can't think of,

you know, any team. I mean, look at, I keep bringing up basketball probably because I'm so jacked about the NBA returning, but like, think about the Warriors, for example, like they, you know, you would still have a superstar top 15 NBA player and Steph Curry, Draymond Green's coming back, whatever. You don't have your other superstar and Clay Thompson. You're not going to be a good team, no matter how many pieces you, other guys, new pieces, whatever you have around you, even if you have a superstar talent, you have to be at a, at a level because everybody else, your competition around you is so good. You have to be at that level or above to be competitive.

And I just don't think the Vikings are going to be that. Not when you look around the NFL at all their, you know, other teams in the NFC that are as good, you have to have a good defense and a good offense. Like you can't be at one side of the spectrum with your offense. And then at the bottom of the barrel with your defense, it just doesn't work that way. So I think that if you have a passable defense, you can get there. And that's what I kind of thought they had, but then that's top 15 though. They're right. That's what, that's what I thought they were trending at one point.

But then when Mitch Trubisky went absolutely berserk against them, it was like, no, I guess you don't. And the same thing with Mike Glennon. And look, I mean, Eric Hendricks being out, it's a big part of that, but if you're ever a couple of players away from going from average to 52 points against, then you, you know, you made a mistake along the way. Can they get there next year? Probably. But here's the holdup for me. And you mentioned Gary Kubiak and I have incredible respect for Kubiak. I know you do too. So our, our nitpicks about how he's doing his job are not to disrespect his

career or anything else, but no, not at all. If there's one route to getting there, to taking a passable defense, sorry, but fixing this whole thing in one off season to be number one is probably unlikely to get, to be a passable defense and still win. You have to probably be a top five offense. I mean, and not in yards because you're playing from behind all the time or yards from per play, but in points, the thing that matters where they came into today 14th, it's just not good enough.

It's like you have to be this explosive, dynamic Atlanta 2016 or the Rams or the 49ers, you know, when those teams go to the Super Bowl where, hey, look, I mean, the 49ers were a great defense, but the Rams weren't really. And Atlanta the year they went to the Super Bowl, weren't really. And those quarterbacks were not on a different stratosphere than what Kirk Cousins is. But they had all the pieces. They invested in tons of weapons.

And they had incredibly smart and good offensive coordinators who were modern and threw the ball all the time. And ran when they were ahead, not when they were behind and ran when they were in favorable situations and not second down in 16 and things like that's where if there's one route to being good, it's probably having a great offense. And maybe, I don't know, offensive guards who can play in the NFL and third receivers who can play in the NFL. I mean, it's, I think that that is the only route, but the problem is the Capitol in order to get there. And that's where you feel like you're kind of just spinning in circles. And I would just add that if there are people who make the big time decisions who feel the same way, maybe we do get changes. I don't think we will,

but no, I don't either. I mean, maybe being stuck in mediocrity eventually gets frustrating. Here's the thing. And I know that this is not a popular opinion and people aren't going to like me for saying this. I don't think this team and this franchise and this ownership group, I'm not so sure that they're, they're not okay being in this position where you're constantly sitting at the cool kids table,

but you're not putting in the work and the effort it takes to go win a Superbowl and have maybe five or six years where it sucks and you're rebuilding. I think they're okay being relevant. I don't think that it really, I don't really think it's the end all be all if they win a Superbowl with this group. I really don't believe that. And I have a lot of reasons why, I mean, and first off to, to, to circle back, you know, we speak with Rick Spielman pretty often during the off season, during, um, you know, combine, uh, draft, uh, few other times. I don't think you can, you can look at the body of work that we've seen over the last few years and truly tell me that this team values offensive linemen the way that other teams do. I don't think you can, you can look at the body of work that we've seen over the last few years and truly tell me that this team values offensive linemen,

the way that other teams do. If you were to give Rick a box and say, or if you were to give him four sheets of paper, right. Edge rusher running back box safety, or you should put like, you know, Swiss army knife hits Harrison Smith type and then put offensive garden guard. and you were to say like order these in importance one through four guards always going to be the last I'm sorry like you cannot tell me that they value offensive linemen with this franchise because they don't because they have not saved the capital to go after them they have not drafted them where they needed to um and develop them i mean you took

a left tackle and made him play right guard this year and you drafted him in the second round like you let pat alfline go because for whatever reason it didn't pan out and he's playing for the jets now and it just like that was after like three and a half years, not even a full four years after you drafted him. Like what, what am I missing here? They're not in a spot that, you know, I think the offense, the offensive line is one thing, but I think it speaks to a bigger philosophy of what actually matters to this front office and their priorities are out of whack. Um, that's why I don't think this team is ever going to this current group. And I'm speaking the whole group from coaching staff to front office,

to the roster. I just don't think they're ever going to get above a point that you can win a Superbowl because I'm not really sure that they have the aptitude to go all in, to know what it takes to go all in, to win a Superbowl all in to win a super bowl um and you can take that to the bank i will i will rest on that because i've seen enough to see that i just don't think it's going to get that much better um you know there's there's a reason too like even with the defensive line which that's always kind of you know been my calling card the last few years because i'm obsessed with you know interior defensive line play and the last few years because I'm obsessed with, you know, interior defensive line play and line stunts and everything else. Like you haven't had a good

interior defensive line since 2018. And you let your best player there, Sheldon Richardson, walk out the door. Cause you couldn't afford to keep him because you took Anthony bar back and, you know, overpaid the hell to keep him. Um know, it, and now we're wondering, huh? I wonder why this team barely generates pressure on the quarterback. I wonder why this is like this. I wonder why it looks like we have a JV squad out there on the defensive line. And don't give me this nonsense that, Oh, Daniel's not out there. Everson's not out there. Linville's not out there.

Injuries happen. Guys get old and they get expensive. Those things happen. But the guys that you bring in to replace them are just not the caliber of players that you need to be able to be good. And I think the icing on the cake from a crappy season. And yes, they fought hard. There was, there was a, there was a fight in this team for a while. I'm not saying that I saw that same fight from the defense these last two weeks. Even Mike Zimmer didn't. Like, he was pulling no punches at the end of that game, being like, this is the worst defense he's ever had. You know, youth does not inexcused, like, inability to tackle,

all that stuff, you know, run fits, the whole thing. They keep ignoring the same things, and then they wonder why they get the same results. That is the problem. Want to remind you to go to SodaStick.com to get your original Minnesota sports inspired goods. There are many great designs. Someone on Twitter recently sent their John Randall shirt. And there's the Can't Stop the Thielen hats, the Tecmo Bowl throwback shirt, and much more. All of their apparel is screen printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts

and hoodies. You will love it. We're going to hook you up with free shipping on your next order. Use the code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. That's S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K dot com. Soda Stick, original Minnesota sports inspired goods. Code PURPLE code purple insider for free shipping i mean i completely agree um from the perspective of like when you signed kirk cousins

you still wanted to play the same way and even when you didn't play the same way you still sort of did like zimmer manages games as if he has the number one defense in the NFL whether he does or not that's the thing that's like it's just like adjust like you can't play defense the way you used to with this offense and you can't play offense the way that you used to with this defense you know what I mean like they go hand in hand and it's not like the 2017 Vikings are that you can't play that same way. And especially when your defense, like the defense is the, the, you know, for talking about like, you know, the chicken and the egg this year, the defense is the one that comes first.

You can't play the ways that you used to. So play on offense, the way that's going to keep you alive in games. You're not going to be able to rely on your defense to get stops and win you and win you games and save you the way that you used to but they kept trying to force that down our throats this year in the fans throats and try to make you believe that that's possible and it just wasn't and the point about the guards what is really uh confounding to me because this is where a the coaching staff has to coach with who they've got uh the the brett jones thing will always be baffling to me. I mean,

but like we're talking about a career backup here. What's more sort of puzzling is that year after year, there's this struggle to find someone who can just do the job. Like we're talking about people who can't even do the job. People are just getting steamrolled and run over. And, and as you mentioned, stunted and twisted and every third down, it's like, all right, which guy's going to sack cousins is going to be one of them. And when your quarterback has the limitations he has, then there's only one route to overcome them, which is to stack up in the positions that where he's most weak and you drafted a run blocking center. And that's another thing where it's like,

there's just so many conflicting things that they've done where it's like, okay, you know what, if you want to do this run thing and play action, whatever Marcus Mariota would have been fine. I mean, there's a lot of quarterbacks who can operate this thing. Ryan Tannehill's unbelievable at it. And he was somebody else's garbage that Tennessee picked up and played. And he was probably always better than what he was doing with Adam Gase. But I mean, there are other quarterbacks in the world who can run a play action, run first, play defense type of system, but you decided to pay a guy a lot of money. And so, okay, well, you better be real savvy and you better hit on these picks and you better find, you know, five good offensive linemen, because if it's only two good offensive linemen, then you're in trouble and you should really try

to pass block for him as opposed to run blocking. I think Garrett Bradbury's turned into a decent player, but if you're going to put cousins under center on third and six, and he drops straight back with a center, that's not big enough to block for him. It's not going to work. I mean, there's just so many things you look at it that are that are conflicting in their nature i guess is is my point you know yeah no that's one thing i wanted to bring up with you at some point i might as well get into it now like for years they've been trying to they really believed and bought into the zone blocking scheme right yeah um and that's gary's bread and butter like that you know

but it's it's not that they did it just with gary i mean that was what they're doing so stefanski like to to a degree obviously with tony sperano that was a thing you know when pat schirmer was the offensive coordinator like it's not something that's new they want athletic linemen to be able to get out and pull and get to the second level. Do you think that maybe like, that's not the right thing to do? Like I'm starting to wonder, am I, am I not buying into the zone blocking scheme as much as I used to? Cause they sold it to us because of the type of run game that they have with somebody like they have in Delvin cook. That's certainly he can, he can, that were work he can work behind whatever but that obviously is great for him to be able to get out you know move to the perimeter get to the edges the whole

thing but maybe the blocking scheme is part of it too i mean but if you're gonna commit to like changing that then you're gonna be overhauling more than just what you know we've talked about so far like that to me is a complete rebuild um and a complete in philosophy, but their philosophy and their identity politics handicap them because they're so committed to the run, even when they shouldn't be. And I think that plays in, I think that plays into the offensive line and maybe why they haven't done it, you know, try to change their philosophy there in ways that actually would have benefited them. You know, I think that part of it is that Gary Kubiak and this scheme has had success with the undersized offensive lineman going back to, I mean, who knows when, but I mean, especially the, the Denver Broncos were famous for their undersized offensive line that could zone

block the heck out of the world. And honestly, this team is great at run blocking. I mean, I don't know what they came in to today by like pro football focus, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're like top five. Let's see. They are not quite as high. They're like more of mid pack and run blocking, but I would give them even higher than that. a lot of plays where he's got room and it's built on guys who can run block. And Dakota Dozier is a good example of someone who can get out to the linebacker because he's athletic enough and Brett Jones can't. But I think that it's maybe antiquated. Like, look, the guys who are playing defensive line are monsters and these twists and stunts, like they just send guys who are huge and fast and violent and everything else. Like, I think that the system is used by a lot of teams and is successful. But there are, there are something missing. There's like just having the undersized athletic offensive lineman.

When you have one of the smaller right tackles in the league, who's good. But you know, this year, I think that O'Neill has taken a step back and pass protection. You have a right guard who is not the strongest and he's playing out of position. You have a center who's one of the smallest in the league. You have a left guard who's more of a backup and, you know, play actions off the system. It's kind of the same stuff that's been used for a really long time. And then every once in a while, there's a wrinkle that we like, but it's not like 20 wrinkles that we like it's, Oh, look at this red zone play that they drew up. That was pretty awesome. But then it's kind of the same stuff and opponents know what's coming and

they kind of have a good sense of the route combinations and they have a good sense for what they're going to do on third down and all those things. And I think that that's just a part of it. It was a criticism of Kubiak when he left Denver that teams kind of knew what was coming and there weren't enough of the Stefanski twists, the Shanahan twists and things like that. And, you know, you combine that with building specifically to be able to run successfully. I think that that's the biggest thing. Like you think about a first round pick on a run blocking center, a lot of money thrown into Delvin cook. Like these are, these are things that I don't know that a lot of teams are really doing specifically to enhance their run game first,

as opposed to, Hey, everything needs to be about enhancing our passing game. And maybe they say, well, we put all the money into Kirk. Why doesn't he just do it? Well, okay. I mean, why doesn't he just grow a horn and be a unicorn out there? Like that's not, it's just not going to happen. You know? So I, I, I think that they built it because they said, we have to be successful running the football and that's great, but I'll give you a number real quick before you react. The Vikings. Okay. So the best, this is using expected points added the best running team in the NFL has been 72 points better than your average team. Okay. And that's the Ravens who have a running quarterback. So it's, so their running game is worth 72 points so far this season Kansas City's passing game has been worth 212

and a team uh let's see Carolina's passing game has been worth more than the best running game in the NFL I think it's just sort of a sign of the times of course and it's just like there you wonder why there's so few teams that are run first offenses in the NFL and looking at who their head coaches are looking what trees they're from looking at what their defenses look like looking at all the factors like there's a reason that only a few teams are doing it because it's incredibly difficult to do that and win a Super Bowl and to be as good as you are because like this is a stat that I know you brought up like every january when you and i are podcasting um and you look at the top four offenses that are in championship weekend you know and where they are and how they run the ball and

how they pass the ball like it's always leaning towards one thing you can't do this in this type of NFL when the defenses are as good as they are. And when the, your opposing offense is going to be what you're trying to catch up to. I mean, there's a reason this is the fifth straight game. The Vikings fell behind by 10 points. You can come back against, you know, teams like Carolina and Jacksonville because they're not very good, but you can't do that against Tampa Bay. You certainly can't do it against the Saints because you're, you're such a run heavy offense and it doesn't make sense because you're a lot of times you're killing the clock on yourself. I don't feel like they did that as much today. I don't feel like they were ever in like super desperation mode. You know, once the game was actually within reach I feel like they handled that, but

like, it's just not something that's sustainable. And I understand to me that reads stubbornness from Mike Zimmer of I'm not going to adapt, but he's smart enough to adapt. He's smart enough to really buy into the trust of somebody else. You know, I mean, I know that he got, he thinks he got burned by John D Filippo a few years ago, and that was a, you know, a pass first offense and it didn't go the way he wanted to so be it um he could try it again and I honestly don't think it would pan out the way that it did but you know the money is what points to the direction that this team is going they spent a boatload on Dalvin Cook and to be like they also spent a lot on Kirk Cousins but to me that's them being like well it's just the market for the quarterback. Well, that's not exactly accurate.

I think you just were trying to hedge that. Hey, he's going to be really good. He might price himself out of our market next year. Plus we need cap savings might as well not take the chance on him being really good this year. And we're not able to afford him. Then we have to start over at that position and get him locked up in March. Like that's how I honestly think that this whole thing panned out. They were looking at all the scenarios and what's the path of least resistance but the reason that I mean they're trying to get their money's worth out of Dalvin Cook like that is what this is and that's what

it boils down to it's not the smartest play like look how many other teams are not doing that exact same things look how many teams learn their lesson from paying running backs and doing all this stuff. And then they burn out the next season. Like after they, if you run them into the ground, like it's just, it's common sense. And I just feel like a lot of it's stubbornness and an unwillingness to change that is going to bite them. And it already has. I mean, this is, you can blame the defense and certainly I think you should, I think they're, they've been the Achilles heel.

They certainly mucked it up today and were terrible, and it's been several weeks of that. But this offense can only get you so far. You have two really good receivers. Why don't you use them more? That's the thing I think I forgot with my point with the play calling and wondering about some of the decisions that have been made in this two-minute drive. Why is Tylerler you cannot give me that oh they were my

first reads they were the best reads that's where my reads took me for like tyler conklin and irv smith where's justin jefferson where's the adam thielen and i was right it's like come on so you know i've i've got a lot of reason to believe that i just don't think the offense is going to be able to get above the point that it's at now. Like I know some people do think that you can win a Superbowl with this unit. I just don't. 2020 has already reshaped how we work and it's almost over.

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indeed.com slash blue wire offer valid through december 31st terms and conditions apply football is in full swing and you might not be at a game this year but you can still be in on the action at bet online bet online is going the extra mile to make sure you can get in on every possible chance to win this season from game spreads and totals to team and player and coaching props. BetOnline gives you more options to wager than anywhere else. Head to BetOnline today and take advantage of all the great signup bonuses. Don't forget to use promo code BlueWire at BetOnline.ag. That's BlueWire, all one word, BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. I, yeah, I have a tough time under the current circumstances and the current setup.

The current quarterback, his contract, it's not getting better. It's getting quite a bit worse. And I've probably mentioned this before, but, you know, when people are like, it's unfair to compare him to Mahomes, but compare the price to him in Mahomes. Kirk Cousins has higher cap hits the next two years than the greatest football player alive. That's kind of an issue when you're talking about going and playing in the Super Bowl. I still think that they have a lot to feel good about on the offensive side but it's always a question of whether they're going to use it in the proper ways and i mean look you're sitting here today saying oh it's

danielle hunter's fault because he got hurt and it's michael pierce's fault then it's so and so um but you've gotten a you know marvelous season out of dalvin cook a good season out of kirk cousins an unbelievable season out of justin jefferson a great season out of Delvin Cook, a good season out of Kirk Cousins, an unbelievable season out of Justin Jefferson, a great season out of Adam Thielen, a good season out of your tight ends as a whole, a good season of both of your tackles, all those things happening next year. I don't know. You know, it might be, might not, right. They might not. You might not play all of the bottom 10 defenses and pass defense next year, which they have this year. You know, they played the Texans. They play Detroit with Matt Patricia.

They played Jacksonville. They played Carolina. All these teams are the worst defensive teams league. Even Seattle is terrible against the pass. And Tennessee, terrible against the pass. Will you have that as your schedule next year and put up these kinds of numbers if you play it the same way?

I don't know. And that's kind of where I wanted to, because I feel like we could just go on deep into the night until Santa Claus is coming over us and, you know, flying back to the North pole or whatever after Christmas is over. But, uh, where I wanted to end it was just, if you keep repeating the same things, you're probably going to get the same results. And this year, if they don't learn from it and they don't advance from it, from what went wrong this year, and they just do things like Zimmer, you know, he's blunt after the game and says it's a bad defense, but then he's like, well, you know, Kendrick's isn't playing bars play. It's like, well, look, if you,

if you continue to look at it that way, you might make the playoffs. You might make the seven seed, but you probably won't go any farther than that, even though you have the offensive talent to go farther than that. And I guess that's the way I think of it, is if this offseason isn't in some fashion aggressive to make significant changes, which we have seen this front office do before, I think you probably end up, I don't know,

about six and nine next year at this exact date, but probably close. Where I would start with this. And I think it honestly boils down to ownership and what they want. Like, if you really want to take a step above being at the cool kids table and being relevant and always being in the news for good things and being a team that makes an appearance like i i sometimes believe that this franchise values quality quantity over quality like let's get let's try to get in the playoffs as many times we can even if we like bow out in the first round hey we still made it we were still one of you know at that point the best six teams in the nfc that's relevancy sure but like to to win a super bowl you have to have

so much go right and all of it line up at the same time and i don't think that they're willing to make some of those moves because and i think that that starts with a head coach who wants what he wants defensively and wants the offense to reflect what he wants defensively. And then you have that general manager who neglects certain positions. I mean, that just is what it is with the offensive line. Their philosophies don't line up. Their philosophies are not on the same page. And I just don't know if you can ever get past a certain point when things are like that. So to me, it's like as an ownership group, you know, what do you want with

this group? Like, where do you envision this group? Because I don't think you can tell me as football fans and that's what you would think owners are. I mean, of course they want to make money. Like that's, that's for sure. And if you're always relevant, if you're having playoff appearances, you're making money, but do you really think that you want to win it all because the moves that you make don't tell me that you want to win it all the moves that you make tell me that you want to be relevant if you want to win it all you're going to have to have a change in philosophy and that starts at the top with your coaching staff and with your general manager and making sure that you have a philosophy that can compete with the

best in the like with the top with the tier ones as i like to call them the pittsburghs the i mean i know that i know the chiefs were absolutely freaking atrocious for like 15 years but now they're not now they have stability with the packers the chiefs with pittsburgh um you know those are those are to me the consistent upper echelon type teams that patriots throw them in there are consistently good because they have a philosophy that can withstand the test of time obviously things are going to change like from year to year and as we go through different eras of the nfl but to me this this team doesn't have a philosophy that can withstand that it's an it's a dated one that i think costs them um especially this year because they couldn't be what they wanted to be

yet they tried to force themselves into being what they were and what they wanted to be if that makes sense do you uh do you have a nice Christmas yeah no I mean it was weird to like cover a game on Christmas day I liked it um I definitely think that uh it'll be great to be able to watch you know some other teams lock up postseason bids on Saturday and Sunday and, you know, kind of see what this playoff picture is going to look like because the NFC is, you know, a total crap shoot for the final, the last three in, which I'm actually really excited to see how that pans out. But yeah,

I know. I mean, it's, it's been, it's been good. It's been good. It has. Yeah. First time I've covered a football game on Christmas, I think, but, um, well actually, you know, yeah, I did. I covered a Raiders game on Christmas Eve a few years ago, but I've never covered a game on Christmas. I think it was Christmas Eve that the Vikings corners went rogue in green Bay, which sort of says something about the Zimmer era a little bit, I guess that it's always kind of been this way except for one year anyway. So, uh, well, Merry Christmas to you, Courtney. And I

can't thank you enough for all the things that you have done for me this year to help this podcast get off the ground, to help the website get off the ground, everything else. Um, people do not know all of that, but, uh, I appreciate it and they, um, they should. So thank you so much for that. Merry Christmas to you.