Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - ESPN's Courtney Cronin grades every position at the midway point

Episode Date: November 12, 2020

Matthew Coller and Courtney Cronin get together to evaluate every position group through eight weeks. What do we make of Kirk Cousins's play? Is Dalvin Cook legitimately an MVP candidate? Should we consider the Vikings as having the best receiving group in the NFL? How do we view the defensive line and Eric Kendricks's ability to boost the defense? Plus why do the Vikings always lose at Chicago? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizway or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. I'm Shanae Obumutere. Golden, Colorado, and as always, like Emmanuel Acho. People that show love to me, I forever got their back. Vivica A. Fox. If the foundation isn't right, then the rest of it's going to go wrong from there. And more. Subscribe to Front and Center today. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with ESPN's Courtney Cronin.

What is up, Courtney? I was honestly surprised that we haven't already talked this week. I mean, it's Wednesday. They're on a Monday night schedule, so we had time. But there were some huge developments with this team on Tuesday. And all the alarms went off in my house when I found out that Austin Cutting went on the COVID-19 reserve list. I mean, you and I as the resident long snapping experts on this beat, that was, I mean, I don't know about you, but I was working until like 2 or 3 in the morning trying to figure out who the replacement long snapper would be.

I was on YouTube watching instructional long snapping videos just in case I had to step in because there is a shortage of long snappers. Both of us got a tweet from a former Iowa long snapper who is now a podcaster. That actually did happen, saying that he was ready to go. I've had my binoculars out just driving by random football fields to see if anyone is out there long snapping. And then we came to learn from our friend Chris Thomason. This was not our scoop, and I'm disappointed in both of us that Jeff Overbaugh, who, as anyone who listens to the show knows, is a legend, is retiring. He's no longer trying to play in the NFL after a stint in the AAF and bouncing around a bunch of different teams.

For those who don't remember, Jeff Overbaugh took over for Kevin McDermott in 2017 when McDermott got hurt and then went the wrong way on a long snap that turned into a block punt in the Minneapolis Miracle game. He caught us in Minneapolis Miracle game. He caught us in the Minneapolis Miracle. This is one of my favorite. I don't know if we've actually talked about this on Purple Insider yet, but it is my favorite story because without Jeff Overbaugh, there is no Minneapolis Miracle because then Breeze has a short field,

goes down and scores, and then four-bath in the field goal, and the whole thing. I mean, Jeff Overbaugh caused the most historic moment of the last two or three decades for this team. And now he's not playing football anymore. So it's not like the Vikings have this emergency list of long snappers that's like six or seven guys long. I guess they could bring back Kevin McDermott if they wanted to.

But apparently cutting will be okay. He might have just been a close contact with somebody. I guess he's still practicing and working out. I don't really know, like, are we snapping to yourself? The one job you could do by yourself, really. I mean, it's hard to play quarterback by yourself. You need someone to run routes. But long snapping, I mean, just set up a trash can and long snap to it.

And, by the way, maybe do it a little better than you have the last two weeks, Austin Cutting. There's been some snafus there. Yeah. But on the overbought story where we found out what happened on the block punt was in the subsequent days where Mike Prefer revealed that overbought had gone the wrong way blocking. And so, yeah. I think the blocking call was blue and he's like, I thought it was red. So, yeah, he went the wrong way.

Poor Emmanuel Lemur, God bless him, got blamed for that by the Saints guy who did the film breakdown that you found. I mean, that's the entire reason we find this thing so funny is because this poor, like, linebacker who played for the Vikings and he was a great special teamer for them got just annihilated by this guy who did a Saints video breakdown and was just blaming him for everything when it's like, well, the long snapper went the wrong way.

Now, the funniest part of this came recently for me, or at least the most recent funny part of it was that I was on Jeff Overbaugh's Wikipedia and discovered that he was mentioned in the new iteration of the Roseanne show, whatever it's called now, the Conners, I think it's called. And there is an episode in which John Goodman, one of the other characters, buys him a game-worn Bears jersey, and the game-worn Bears jersey is Jeff Overbaugh. And he says something like, Overbaugh, who is that? Because Overbaugh played one game for the Bears as a fill-in.

So he is famous in our world and I guess the rest of the world too. Does he get royalties for that or like an IMDB notice? I mean, it's in his w wiki that's good enough that you were mentioned on a national television show so the whole world should know who jeff overbaugh is i um if they can't have austin cutting as a long snapper i'm sure they'll find someone else david david morgan was the tight yeah so i would assume maybe what tyler conklin like the tight – yeah, so I would assume maybe, what, Tyler Conklin? Like the tight end or a linebacker is typically the backup, backup, emergency long snapper. But, yeah, I mean, I think they'll be fine.

I, you know, I can't wait to ask them about this, though, tomorrow. Right. I can't wait for the answer on that. There's another big news item, by the way, which is that the Jaguars stole the Vikings COVID kicker. Chase McLaughlin has been the guy that they've protected a couple of times as their backup in case Dan Bailey were to come in close contact with COVID, and then they would have to bring in someone else. So they had Chase McLaughlin, who, by the way, I think in the fourth preseason game last year, may have hit two field goals or something for Buffalo against the Vikings.

And then he was briefly on the practice squad, and then someone else signed him, and then they brought him back this year on the practice squad, and now he is a Jaguar. So inevitably, Chase McLaughlin, because he came in close contact with the Vikings, will shank a key field goal for the Jaguars when he comes to U.S. Bank Stadium. I don't think there's any way around that. No, I think you're exactly right about that. And it's kind of interesting how the special team snafus that Mike Zimmer talked about

and the blocked punts, it's the first time all season we've talked about special teams because Dan Bailey really hasn't had to kick a lot of field goals lately. And then he missed the one – he missed the extra point in week nine against Detroit, and it was just, like, really weird because all of a sudden special teams became the topic of conversation again, and we know that when that's the case in Minnesota, it's not a good thing. It's never a great thing. So that was kind of like a blast from the past there where Zim's savaging

special teams in the press conference afterwards. Who did he miss? Wait, when did he miss the extra point? I don't remember this. It was on Sunday. Houston. No, he missed it. Did he miss one on Sunday? Mm-hmm. Yep. Oh, he did.

Yeah. Okay. Which one was that? I don't remember. I think it was the second touchdown. They were like up 13-3 or 13-0 at that point. It was right after Prater had missed a field goal. Okay. Jordan's missing things left and right indoors. It's kind of weird. That was weird. Houston is when

Bailey missed a field goal. That's what I was thinking. Yes, yes, yes. Okay. So now that we've gotten the important special teams updates out of the way, what I wanted to get to on the show was that we are eight games in. That is a midpoint of the season, if anyone can't do their math. And we should talk about just how this has all worked out eight games through

and then discuss the mystery of Soldier Field and see if we can figure out any particular reason that the Vikings have won four of their last 20 games at Soldier Field. So let's start with the quarterback of the football team. That seems like a fair area. I don't know if we've discussed Kirk Cousins really at all, but in grading Kirk Cousins, it's tricky because he's been super Kirk Cousins-y. And games that they weren't supposed to win, they didn't win. There are a few where he played

really poorly. There's a few where he gave him a chance and there's a few where he's played really well. So if we're going to do the A to F thing, where would you put Kirk Cousins' performance through the first eight games? I'd probably give him, because these last two weeks certainly helped his case, I'd give him a B-, a C+, B-. And I think that's a fair grade because, you know, there are a lot of people out there who think, who align with the, why are we paying this guy so much money to be a game manager in a lot of

respects and to be somebody that you don't trust to win a game on his own and somebody that you're so afraid of getting in a drop back game with, you're trying to scheme around that. That's really no fault of Kirk Cousins because that's who he is. The Vikings just opted to make him their quarterback three years ago and then extend him, so he is what he is. But I do think that the ups and downs early on weren't entirely on Kirk Cousins. Some of the play-action dropbacks when you're backed up in your own end zone, like week one, that's on Gary. The safeties weren't all on Kirk Cousins, both in Indy and against Green Bay. I think he played decently well in kind of forming that comeback against Tennessee.

But then again, it's the offensive line and the pass block. He was under the third highest pressure rate of his career, I believe, that game alone. And then he was pressured on like six of nine dropbacks on that final drive or the final in the fourth quarter, which is crazy. And he had a chance to win the game there. He didn't. So can you blame the offensive line?

Yes. Can you blame Kirk? You probably should be able to. So I look at things like that, I'm like all right where where could this have gone better uh in Seattle when Seattle goes up 21 to 0 in like two minutes you know Kirk gets strip sacked that on him yes is it also on Drew Samia yeah it was so I try not to go completely full-in blame on Cousins and I know people accuse you and I specifically of being Cousins haters and blah blah blah but it's like you know they found the happy medium it took them the first half of the season to figure out okay even in year two under Kubiak Cousins isn't going to be terrific like you can't just you know a zebra doesn't change

his stripes nine years into the NFL or whatever it is for Kirk. I mean, he's been a starter since 2015. He's been in the league since 2012. Like, you know who this guy is. They're using him the right way. So at least in these two games, I do question how that's going to work, though, because the Bears do have a very good run defense. They're not going to want Kirk to be in shotgun trying to drop back 30, 40 times to win this game because it's probably not going to work, even against the Bears, who are not very good right now.

So I think a B-minus, C-plus is a fair grade for him, especially bolstered by the last two games and how he didn't turn the ball over, how he played within the boundaries of his role and didn't try to do too much against Green Bay and Detroit. I do think that the losses against Tennessee and Seattle, as much as they love to lean on them because they're close. Yeah, one point.

Yeah. Snarked quite a bit about, I mean, what, Washington lost by two to the Giants the other day. Like, do you get a win for that? You know, I don't know. There's lots of teams lose lots of close games. They don't go along with bonus points for being close. But, you know, those losses, you have to look at the offense and say, why did Gary Kubiak, Rick Dennison, Mike Zimmer, whomever,

start Drew Samia and not play Brett Jones or not play Ezra Cleveland? Like, maybe Ezra Cleveland wasn't ready, but Brett Jones knows how to play NFL football. And even just Brett Jones hanging on for dear life would have been better than a guy who ran the wrong way on a screen. It was like an overbought tribute, Drew Samia running the wrong way on a screen. He just got beat every play. It's the worst performance by an offensive lineman over several games that we've seen, I don't know,

that I've ever seen, I think, by Drew Samia. And to continue to play him after the way that it started being so poor, I think it cost them. And I don't blame Kirk entirely for those games. At the same time, there's a chance to put away the Titans. It doesn't happen. There's a chance to put away the Seahawks and it doesn't happen. And now when you look at the Seahawks, I mean, people are impressed with that game by the Vikings. But didn't Buffalo just put up like 7,000 yards against them in a single game? That is the worst defense in the NFL, and the Vikings were choosing to run the ball all night long rather than create explosive plays in the passing game like every other team seems to do against Seattle. I saw that they're on pace to give up like 5,800 yards,

which would just shatter the record for most yards allowed by a defense. So that one's not super impressive either to give them the ball for free a couple of times. And it's sort of any eight-game distribution of Kirk Cousins, you will find a couple of great games. I thought the Detroit game, I thought he was great. Just fantastic. Every throw was right on, and he played really well. Green Bay is one of those where he didn't have to do much, and you win.

A lot of short passes and things like that, but he made the throws. And then you have a game against Atlanta that you lose because of Kirk. We've seen that every year, that there's the game you're not supposed to lose, but you lose because he just no-shows and turns the ball over. And then you have the, well, it might've been his fault. It might not have been his fault games. Like it's just the most Kirk Cousins-y start to a season. And if you've got a little better defense, a little better to this or that, you probably win a couple more of those games. And it speaks to how much he's dictated and his success by what's going on around him. So, yeah, I agree with your grade that whatever is dead in the middle,

like whatever is the most Kirk Cousins-y grade, which is probably C+, is what I would go with. Pro Football Focus has him as the 11th best quarterback, which, you know, they grade the throws. So it's not like – And he's accurate, so of course. Like he's going to have a higher grade. Right.

And when you hit Justin Jefferson at the end of a game, you're down by 20 on a huge throw. Like, to us, we just go like, who cares. But, you know, PFF's going to grade it high because they're grading the throws. So I don't even think we need to discuss Delvin Cook's grade. It's like an A+. I don't know how it could possibly be better than it is right now, right? Yeah. No, I think that he's – he can't – like, I kind of wonder because, like,

he's done so much this year. You know how at the NFL, like, we know that the MVP award is the quarterback award, right? Mm-hmm. Yep. Like, can you think of the last time – because I'm just trying to think. Like, he deserves it. I really do think that because these last two-game stretch has been impressive. 478-whatever yards from scrimmage, five total touchdowns.

There's one player who put this team back on the verge of being in contention. And you can say, oh, well, they had Justin Jefferson all season long. He was terrific he's the reason one games okay great like you could say okay well Eric Kendricks blah blah like you there's not one player who I think on this team has as much impact as Dalvin Cook does but can you remember a time a you know the last running back who won this was who? Adrian Peterson in 2012. But, like, can the MVP ever really go to somebody on, like, a losing team or a team that doesn't make the playoffs?

Yeah, I'm not sure that it can ever really, again, go to a player who's not a quarterback. In fact, I think they should just change it. Like, they should have the quarterback of the year and then, you know, the MVP that does not play quarterback. Because it's great what Delvin Cook has done through the first half of the season. In terms of value, comparing him to Patrick Mahomes, it's not even any sort of competition. Not even close.

It's, you know, Patrick Mahomes has 116 quarterback rating, 25 touchdowns, one pick. Like that's the easiest choice in the world for him to be the MVP over any running back, no matter how good they are. And yet I agree with exactly what you said. Like the MVP of this team is Delvin Cook at this moment. And he's put himself in that conversation for most valuable player to his team. But it's just not going to be what Patrick Mahomes is doing when he's got 116 quarterback rating. No, and I mean, it's just so skewed one way.

Like, I don't think he'll, I mean, he deserves it. And when we grade what he's done and how much fewer games he's played than the rest of, you know, the running backs that are in contention for, you know, leading the league in rushing and everything else. I mean, Dalvin is a star. You see why they paid him. I think more than just what he's doing, it's when he's not there, what they're not doing.

I think bolsters his grade, bolsters his importance, at least in my mind. So A++, 100%. And honestly, I know this is lame i know you can't measure there's no stack to measure heart right oh yeah there you go um but i have not seen a leader like that in a really long time in covering football like there's it's never i don't know you don't really typically think of the running back necessarily as being like the guy who like you know all this time when they were losing I like go back and I think of like what Dalvin you know when we're asking about hey Kirk is this Kirk is that um the message he had like sorry Adam Thielen you can read between the lines when he says yeah we need to you know get

open and give Kirk easy throws that's a shot I'm sorry that is the passive that's kind of got a passive aggressive tone to it and you can tell when Adam's pissed you can because and it's not like he's throwing Kirk under the bus but there are subtle little things you can take to gauge his frustration Dalvin Cook has been steadfast for Kirk Cousins of like you know T.O. that's my quarterback I don't think I've seen that from a player in covering this league for for five six years now that I really believed and even I was able to buy in of realizing okay this guy does support him because in that stuff that you can't measure but that stuff that I think should be factored in to the overall body of work of a player who's an MVP caliber player. Because, you know, this team had a chance to fracture completely and kind of mail it in, and they didn't.

And I think a lot of that, honestly, is like, Dalvin Cook's leadership is, you know, I know that Mike Zimmer loves to talk about the captain thing and whatever, but like it really, he embodies that in ways where I just don't think other guys do. So there's two ways to look at this. I agree with everything you said. Delvin Cook's personality has been something that I think was questioned when he came out of college. And then he quickly proved that that wasn't going to be any sort of problem at all. And it tells you a lot about one thing that can happen with a player. And we decide he's got character issues.

And then red flags is what they call it. Right. And then that turns out not to be true. And people were saying, you know, the different tropes of like, oh, it's the people around him. It's not exactly him. It's like, man, you know, who knows how any of those things are going to play out when he gets to the NFL because he's been exactly what they dreamed he would be. The cynical view on Delvin Cook's great first half of the season,

I'll give it to you. Number one is last year he had about this many yards, too, through eight games and then had 312 yards the second half of the season because he was banged up. So that is a thing to keep an eye on, having already one injury this year. And in terms of the MVP, that's part of it too. It's like quarterbacks who win the MVP are going to play 16 games. I can't guarantee you that Delvin Cook is going to play 16 games at any point in his career.

And you've got a running back who is playing at much higher level than anybody else in the NFL, and you're 3-5. It's like the Kansas City Chiefs have problems. They have a bad defense. They have a bad offensive line. They don't have a great running game, and they're 7-1 because their quarterback is killing it because you can overcome anything when you have the MVP quarterback.

That is not the case when you have the running back, and we'll see how this plays out against Chicago because Chicago has always had the answer for Delvin Cook. So, yes, A++, and he's the MVP of the team. He makes life easier on Kirk Cousins, whether it's the play action, just the attention that he gets, or, I mean, even more so to me when you can throw a ball three yards in the air, have Delvin Cook catch it, and then just dodge a linebacker and run for 20 yards. Like, that's pretty darn helpful to a quarterback.

Now, when it comes to the receiving weapons, I think I would also have to give them an A with the small asterisk of this team just does not use third and fourth wide receivers. They've gotten nothing from them and they don't care about that. And the emergence of Irv Smith is a great blocker has made a difference. Justin Jefferson, an instant star. Adam Thielen has played very well. I can't find a criticism for the skill group as long as we all agree that Chad Beebe and B.C. Johnson are just not part of this.

No, and even Kyle Rudolph. I mean, he's been a non-factor because his usage ever since Kirk got here has gone down. I don't think there was any bigger indicator of that than Sunday when he dropped. He had one catch, I think, in the first quarter, and then he dropped that one. It was either on second or third down. It went right through his fingers. And then Kirk goes to Irv twice in the red zone. And to me, it's kind of like,

that was the one moment that signified, okay, if you didn't think the writing was on the wall, if you didn't think Kyle Rudolph's time is coming to an end here in Minnesota, you didn't think that, if you didn't think that Irv Smith had replaced him yet, there's your chance. Because Irv had 10 receiving yards total on Sunday.

He wasn't all over the field, just breaking plays over the middle of the field, the security blanket that we thought he was going to be for Kirk, running routes out of the slot, things like that, whatever. He's the red zone threat. He's the one that makes Kirk comfortable down there, and that was what Kyle Rudolph was for so long in this franchise for many quarterbacks. And I think that that's kind of what we're seeing,

the emergence of Irv now, and this is why they drafted him. They drafted him to replace Kyle Rudolph eventually, and I think that that just kind of further solidifies it. But really, you're right. Like, this team, this offense when when you run a lot of two receiver sets you don't need a number three receiver so you have you have adam thielen you have justin jefferson and you have herb smith that's pretty much it and that's pretty much all you need from your skill guys i want to remind you to go to sodastick.com to get your original

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That is SOTASTICK, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. Original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. Code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. And Irv Smith, I think, since his little bit of a rough start to the season. That game in Indianapolis was not good. A drop, a key penalty, and so forth. I mean, he was not playing very smart early on. I think that, you know, in the Tennessee game when he played like 55% of snaps

because they kept taking him off the field because he kept running the wrong route. I think he kind of got a wake-up call uh within himself and figure she figured it out um you know that's just I think kind of what it was and his usage was down too they weren't really you know his usage was down early on they were trying to figure it out and I thought that there were moments in some of the games I did a film piece about this in Tennessee where he was open, and I think that at least my guess was, looking at the play design and where Cousins was looking, that he was a target, but the rush was getting to Cousins so quickly that he was going to his checkdowns

and not necessarily trying to get the ball to Smith down the field. But it's not just that he's been really successful when he's been targeted this year 13 catches on 19 targets 129.1 rating 12 yards a catch which is very good for a tight end but what I like about him the most is just how much he cares about run blocking so this last week they used a lot of power run scheme which is not what you expect from Gary Kubiak and Rick Dennison and that required a lot of pin and pull which had Irv Smith turning a defensive end or turning a linebacker and allowing the puller to come through and I just thought he did a great job with it not like oh the most dominant run blocking tight end I've ever seen but when it's an undersized tight end who is more

of a downfield threat you don't expect them to be this good when it comes to the run blocking. And I think he's had a very big impact. And Mike Zimmer mentions every time the tight ends, the fullback, that those guys have played a big role in Delvin Cook's success. And I think that's where you look at Smith and say, in terms of a future player you feel really good about, he's doing it all, not just catching the ball. No, absolutely. I think the run blocking is a huge part of it. I go back to last year.

Like, I remember, like, there were some read-between-the-line type comments of, I'm tired of run blocking from Kyle Rudolph because he felt like he was better in the passing game and he thought he could contribute. But you just, like, think about that first drive against the against the lions last week the one that like ended in dalvin's touchdown they used so many multiple tight end sets all along the way it was all like 22 personnel for you know the first i'm trying to remember i mean it's mostly they ran the ball a lot but they were using 22 personnel they were using using some 23, I think, in there. Or certainly even some 12. Like, it was a lot of multiple tight end sets,

sometimes some, like, one receiver sets, which would have been 22. And that, to me, just signifies that this is what this offense is predicated on. And we knew that. Now, is the whole notion that we thought two years ago when Gary Kubiak got here that the number three receiver would be a tight end, has that really panned out? Not in the way that you would think immediately. Like, oh yeah, Irv Smith is basically, statistically wise, maybe it's there. I'd have to look at the numbers. I'm sure it is.

But it's not like he stands out as that. But you're not anticipating this guy is going to be a six, 700 yard receiver this year, but he's going to contribute in key moments with like he did on Sunday. I guess when projecting before the season, I wouldn't have said that Justin Jefferson is an immediate superstar. So I probably would have thought they'd lead more on Irv Smith, but they don't have to buy pro football focus. By the way, the Vikings have the number one receiving grade in the NFL,

and that speaks to the performances of Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson, who are both top five PFF wide receivers, and I think that that's very much deserved. And it's almost funny to me how quickly we sort of move on. Like when a player is up and down, they're very interesting to talk about. Well, his last game was good. His game before that was bad with Jefferson is like,

Oh, okay. He's a superstar. Write that down and we can just all move on. And because he's shown nothing in terms of any reason to hesitate and just calling him an immediate superstar. He doesn't have any decided weakness or it doesn't seem like teams can take him away.

The only thing that takes the ball out of his hands is how much the Vikings like to run. Yeah, and I mean, the one thing I think was kind of interesting, looking back to last week, was how little, how much less he was utilized than in previous weeks. Because, you know, is that the tide shifting that they're going to lean on the run game? Yes, but they can't do that every single week. So I'd anticipate Jefferson's usage to jump back up this week in Chicago. But, you know, when is that going to flip, do you think? Like with Thielen, Thielen was on the play, like how many plays did they run last week?

Like 52, 58, something like that. Like Thielen was on the field a ton. And Jefferson was on the field, I think, you know, 30-something snaps of that entire, you know, count. But, you know, I wonder, is that going to flip at some point? Because Jefferson gives you more. He gives you the downfield threat. He gives you, you know, the whole thing, the whole package. And Thielen is an excellent wide receiver

don't get me wrong but I just think that Jefferson complete body of work wise um it's gonna surpass him at some point yeah I've got I've got it right here so he um there were 58 plays on offense Thielen was on the field for 50 of them Jefferson was on the field for 35 so he only played 60% of snaps last week which kind of jumped out at me when i looked at it but then i'm like well they're running the ball a ton right um you know a lot of times they've got one receipt when you're running 22 personnel you have one receiver on the field um and they've done a lot of that so i guess it makes sense it just kind of i don't know just it was just something i thought about kind of jumped out to me and they used to do the same thing with dig sometimes where it would feel to be out there. Maybe they felt, and I thought both of them were good blockers,

and I think that Jefferson's a good blocker, but maybe they felt like Thielen was a little better blocker to be out there in run-specific situations. That might be part of the reason, or just that he's still considered the number one guy. But if we were just to say this, and it's no disrespect to Thielen because he's a terrific receiver and one of the best in the NFL, it's never not been the case. But if we were just to right now say rank all the players on the Minnesota Vikings, just like who the best players are, just best football players, rank them one through 53. To me, it's hard to decide whether to pick Delvin Cook or Justin Jefferson with the number one pick.

I really think that his skill set is that impressive, and to come in, catch 34 passes through the first half of the season and average 18 yards a catch in a season where you didn't get an offseason at all and you had to sit basically the first two games, that to me is really impressive and really telling about his talent. Grade the offensive line through the first eight games. This one I think is hard, actually, to put an exact grade on it. And when I think about how things regress to the mean and how if you were to give them

a grade for the last two weeks, it's going to look vastly different from where they were weeks one through three, things like that. Where does that kind of like level out i think a c grade maybe a c of c plus has been aided by the run block in the last two weeks you know there's a reason they didn't trade riley reef um when they had the chance to i think you know nfl network reported that you know the most obvious freaking thing in the world that Tennessee had inquired about him, who's only been saying that since, I don't know, September, good Lord. Anyways, not trading Riley Reif allowed them to keep some stasis on the offensive line because you just throw yourself into another tailspin.

Like, if you actually think you can be competitive here in the second half which they do and i will only buy into that if they win in chicago to me that's the that's the crux of it um you don't get to be that if you're moving on from riley reef moving cleveland over to the place he's going to play next year and then having drew samia or pat offline if he comes back ever uh playing it right guard like you know they made a smart decision for now i'm not saying it's a smart decision long term but to keep the offensive line the way it is because their tackle play has been really really good brian o'neill is like 12th right now of all tackles which is excellent um

and i think i saw pff had reef you know somewhere in like the 30s or 40s like he's an above average left tackle and he's played really good he's actually like in a career year right now um one of the best one of the best years he's had since he was drafted by detroit um so here bradbury's been playing a lot better ezra cleveland the fact that he is able to not be a complete train wreck playing a position on the other side of the line he's never played before, that shows me that they made a smart call with moving him to right guard. I don't know why they didn't keep him at left guard.

Once again, they don't want to throw things into a tailspin. So there are a lot of positives that I look at here, but I still think a C grade for this unit is fair just because of all of the ups and downs that they went through weeks one through six. It reminds me a lot of when I was in college. And for the first half of the semester, I didn't do any of the homework or study for any of the tests. And then midway through, the professor says um you right now are going to

fail the course and then you say oh well uh let me just study for the next couple of tests do the homework get a couple of a's balance that thing out and then we end up on a c i'm good with your grade it was a d minus for the first six weeks of the season though and then the last two weeks have brought up that grade because i studied for the final and then Ezra Cleveland has just been such a huge difference maker and it tells you how one weak link can really destroy the whole thing because even all of a sudden Dakota Dozier looks a little better with a right guard who's competent I agree with you that it says a lot about Ezra Cleveland to be able to step into a position that's totally foreign to him. And when the Vikings had both Brian O'Neill and Ezra Cleveland pull on the

same play against the Lions, I was like, oh, that might be a thing that actually turns into a weapon for you. I know, right? Him on the right side next to Brian O'Neill. And I might not even hate it for the future. I mean, if he's a left tackle, that's way more valuable. But if they see him as a guard, well, you can do a lot of things. Just leave him there if he's fine with right guard playing next to Brian O'Neal.

But they can be a lot better than a C going forward, I think. But as you said, Chicago has the real deal. They have the Khalil Mack. They have the Akeem Hicks this is not Detroit with washed up Everson Griffin Danny Shelton like guys who just you know couldn't create pressure if nobody was blocking so um yeah I mean it's just like this is not an impressive team at all and Green Bay that was weird they just no-showed entirely and the Vikings ran all day so okay well now if you're put in some of those drop back situations that got you in so much trouble

earlier does Garrett Bradbury hold up does Dakota Dozier hold up does Riley Reif look as good because I can't think of the best edge rusher that Riley Reif has faced this year like has there been a guy that we've said uh-oh this is going to wreck your game plan it's been a couple of interior rushers but not necessarily i mean zadaria smith i guess would be sure that's probably honestly that's probably it i can't i'm like scrolling through my brain right now indy didn't have anybody that was that impressive no there's buckner on the inside right yeah and i mean that's that's where he they have a good they have a good interior there and so do the bears too i mean that's you, when you're trying to draw comparisons of, like, how can this, you know, what might this game look like?

I think it could actually look a lot more like that Indianapolis game when you think about it. It's kind of crazy. I agree because now they're going to face guys who are all pros, and that's where the true test will be. So it's kind of like incomplete for the offensive line for this grade because the final got pushed back. It was snowed out or whatever, you know? So, let's just,

let's do front seven and then the whole defensive backfield to make it a little more tricky. Because I think if we did defensive line, it would be pretty obviously a very low grade, but if we include defensive line and linebackers, how would you evaluate that? I mean, the linebackers have carried so much of the weight and I mean Eric Wilson is playing out of his freaking mind right now Eric Kendrick's coming off a 2019 all pro season I think he may be playing better than he did last year yes he doesn't have

the past defended passes defended numbers like um what did he have like 12 pass 12 pbus last year it led the league um that's because the play like against uh devante adams the one that you know he didn't get counted for a because that bounced off uh adams adams outside shoulder and he got a hand in there but he's the reason that happened because he was running in stride with him. He gave him no space to make that catch, but that doesn't count as a PBU, you know? So it's like, statistically, if you're just looking at the stat sheet, you're not going to see the same numbers. But I honestly think he is playing better than he did last year,

because we didn't really kind of see that come on, or at least nationally, he didn't take on that same role until really the chargers game i think like people actually started giving him his credit right around then yeah um so those two specifically because anthony bar's been out um and some of the weaknesses that they've had on the defensive line some of the blitzing situations that has been relied on for the linebackers because of the inability to pressure and you know unique and gawkway stuff and you know just the the the mess that the defensive line has been this year if the linebackers can like bolster that grade i b minus maybe

is that fair i just feel like i i feel like i'm really hard on the linebacker on the um defensive line this year, but I don't really know any other way to be because it's a product of circumstance, right? Daniel Hunter's not there. Michael Pierce is not there. They lost two guys from last year. We knew this was going to be a very rough year for the defensive line, but it kind of didn't feel like they started to adjust to that until after the bye.

So I think your linebacker grade is probably dragging them up a little bit too high i might go with something more like a c uh as great as kendrick's has been and as much of a turnover machine as eric wilson has been they are 30th in pass rush grade by pro football focus uh their pass rush has been non-existent these developmental players well they've been playing better recently. Welcome to the football season, Armond Watts, over the last two weeks. Nice to see you, because this was the Armond Watts we thought was going to show up for the whole year, and he just arrived in the last two weeks. But aside from that, I mean, if we go

player by player, there's been improvement, but Jalen Holmes hasn't done anything for you to say, oh, man, he's just going to keep growing and growing. Jaleel Johnson's been one of the poorest players at his position in the entire league. Yeah, he actually had a good week in Detroit. That's the only time I can say, wow, because that third and one inside the five-yard line, like he helped that. He really showed up there. And that's the only play I can think of the entire season where I'm like,

wow, Jaleel Johnson. Yeah, right. And, again, sort of welcome to the season. But, like you said, I mean, some of these guys are backups. But if we're just evaluating them on, you know, what they're supposed to be, how they're supposed to perform, and what their job is, it hasn't been good. I mean, right now, so out of 67 guys who play regularly at defensive tackle, pro football focus grades Jaleel Johnson 61st.

So that's not going particularly well overall. And just their inability to get anybody who can really pressure. Like they've liked some things DJ Wanham has done, but he hasn't really pressured the quarterback that often. He gets the great play in Green Bay as Rodgers is rolling out for a Hail Mary. But aside from that, it's not like a regular thing that he's getting a lot of pressures and their best sack guy now plays for the Baltimore Ravens. So, I mean, I think Shamar Stephan has done okay. Like he's been the fill-in nose tackle that you would have expected. But overall, if you're ranking all the defensive lines in the league,

this one is bottom three, bottom four. Yeah, it's not very good. But we knew, like, nobody expected them to be that great this year. After all the stuff that happened, and once you realize you weren't going to have Daniil Hunter, like, this is what you expect. I don't understand how anybody could have thought it could have gone differently. And I guess we have to use the same way of grading if we're doing the secondary as a whole.

Yeah. Because Harrison Smith has been all pro, and Anthony Harris I think has been fine, and maybe hasn't gotten the opportunities to pick off passes. But the corners, there's no grade you can give them that isn't F. I'm sorry. There's just not. I don't care what they did against the players. Would you give it an incomplete?

Because I thought about that. When you said incomplete for the offensive line, that was going to be my grade that I was going to give the entire secondary because they've had eight players put line up at cornerbacks. They're signing dudes off the street. I don't even know who the guy they signed on Monday, the one who was like, was he with the Dolphins practice squad? I honestly couldn't tell you.

I go out to practice and I have my binoculars. And sometimes, you know, usually when I keep attendance, if there's numbers I don't recognize, I'm like, oh, you know, probably practice squad. You know, I don't keep practice squad attendance as heavily as I would everybody on the 53. But then, like, I'm looking down at my roster the other day. I'm like, man, I'm missing some numbers.

Like, who the hell is this? Like, you know, that's honestly probably the Vikings. Like, when they see guys walk in, like, to the, you know, position, like, meeting room for defensive backs, they're probably like, who are you? Right. Like, eight guys playing cornerbacks, four players have lined up to play safety. That's a lot. No wonder they have the 30th pass defense in the nfl like let me say this though the injuries to

me are a factor not necessarily hunter or pierce but are a factor in grading you when some of the guys needed to stay healthy i mean sure mike hill needed to stay healthy mike hughes needed to stay healthy and dancilor too i mean one of the concerns that we had about cam dancilor was that he's just not very big in his frame and injuries could be a problem now one is bad luck but the other was a rib injury and he plays one game and he and he has to miss more games and when you go through these numbers it's super bad uh Mike Hughes when targeted when he was playing 120 quarterback rating against Jeff Gladney 131 Cameron Dantzantzler, 133, Chris Boyd, 136. I mean, it's terrible, right? They are turning quarterbacks into hall of famers when they're facing this group.

So yeah, I would say it's an F so far. It doesn't have to remain an F would be the way I'd put it, but I can't give it anything except for that because even the guys who are supposed to be decent fill-ins like Chris Boyd I mean they've really struggled outside of the one nice play against Detroit it's like this is what we're saying a lot is well you know outside of Detroit game where everyone was great that has been you know that's been a major issue so last last one here and then we can talk about the Bears mystery. Coaching. What would you give the coaching as a whole in terms of grade? Probably in the C-plus range.

Because I think about some of the things that Mike Zimmer has talked about where he could just be kind of bolstering his case of, look, I'm telling them what to do. They're not doing it. They're singing in production meetings right now, being like, look, guys, the corner, look, broadcast team, the cornerbacks. We're telling them what to do when you go ahead and analyze, when your analyst is like, yeah, why is Jeff Gladney's eyes way up the field

when he should be on Devontae Adams, things like that. That's not necessarily on coaching. I think it's probably safer to blame the player in that way. But then again, you have to modify what you're doing. And I think Mike Zimmer summed it up perfectly on Monday that he told his defensive coaches, you know, we're doing some of the best coaching, hardest coaching job we've ever done, and we're still giving up 400 yards a game. So, you know, they're making the adjustments.

It's small. It's marginal stuff that's not going to jump out to the average football fan right away because you're still going to see, again, box score. Like Zimmer said, you're still going to see a team giving up 400-plus yards a game. But can we see marked improvement? Jeff Gladney had a really good game. It was Detroit, though. It was Detroit, and he still allowed five passes,

and he still is having issues in coverage, and the passer rating against it, and all that stuff, but is there anything that will give you hope that this guy's going to be a good player? I think when you look at it like that and just realize what's also like context is everything here he's playing multiple positions yeah he's made healthy when nobody else has in the secondary so i think that's important to to consider and the way that zimmer's been able this is the toughest test i don't care what anybody says this is the toughest test of mike zimmer's career these young corners because

they could cost him his job either now or later. I don't think – I think he will be fine this year, but that's how I look at it. And, you know, big picture-wise with the offense, you know, there were so many of us were like, okay, does Gary still have it? Like what's going on the first four games of the year? And, you know, stuff takes time, but i don't think people want to buy into the well we needed time for this this thing because you you boasted offensive continuity all off season long and then you don't see that take shape that's a disappointment so i think a c c plus is

it's fair i'm not trying to like be like everything's average here but they are an average football team they're three and five like i don't really know how to get around that. Yeah. Well, I think that Zimmer's adjustments on the defense have been good, as we would have expected. I think that even Gary Kubiak's adjustments on offense have been good over these last few weeks. At the same time, they got behind the eight ball because in part in week one,

Mike Zimmer tried to play his defense that Xavier Rhodes and Trey Waynes would have been fine in, but Jeff Gladney and Cam Dantzler and Holton Hill were not fine in that type of situation. So I think that you do deserve to be dinged in some instances. You got murdered by the Atlanta Falcons. That has to be on you for going up against a team with no wins that just fired their coach and you get destroyed. And the idea of trying to throw down the field all the time where even Kirk Cousins said, yeah, we've got to hit some more singles. We've got to have more short passes that succeed.

And then making that adjustment is good. But I think that they got behind the eight ball for this season in part because of coaching. And now they're having to coach really hard, like you mentioned, to be able to get back into this race. And we will truly see how that coaching matches up against Chicago. So speaking of which, let's wrap up on this. Why do they lose all the time in Chicago? Figure it out.

I have many theories. Okay, all right. Like you said, since 2000, in Chicago. Figure it out. I have many theories. Okay, alright. Tell them out there. Like you said, since 2000, they have won four games at Soldier Stadium. That's what I used to call it as a kid, growing up in Chicago. I thought it was Soldier Stadium. It's going to be Soldier Stadium for me

forever. First off, the field conditions there are horrendous. Why? Because the Chicago Park District is what takes care of the grass there at Soldier Field. That's a problem, in my opinion. That should never be that way. I don't understand why that is. I don't probably have time to go into it, but Harrison Smith has always talked about that. He's like, I don't want to be critical of field conditions, but usually it's pretty bad

there. That's one of the places where they wear the longer cleats. The field's always frozen. It's a mess. So yeah, that's one thing. The second thing is, think about when a lot of those games have been in recent times. 2017, Monday Night Football. Different team then. That's the one that they won, but was a monday night game 2018 sunday night football that's when kirk had the deer and headlights look and overthrew kyle rudolph through a pass right to bryce callahan last year 2019 america's game of the week all the pressures on this team after um you know the first three weeks of the season and that's where you get kirk checking down to the fullback when he's got Diggs and Thielen open 30 yards downfield.

So is it the primetime jitters? Maybe. I also think some of those games, when they've played them, have come at a really weird time in the schedule where it's kind of make or break for them. That's how it was in 2018. That's what sparked the losing streak, and honestly, that's what sparked the end of John DiFilippo's career here in Minnesota, because it was Bears, it was Patriots, it was Seahawks.

That stretch there was brutal for them. Green Bay was in there, but they won. That was at home. But even still, like, kind of when these games have been, the implications on these games, the way that the Bears upgraded that roster in 2018 to where Vikings realized, immediately, you can't just leave a tight end on Khalil Mack. You know, I think a lot of that factors into it. And it's just this stadium. Like, you know, I tried to be coherent and give you, like, logical reasons to think, okay, this is why this place is terrible.

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That's BLUEWIRE, all one word, BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. Even when you go there, even when you go there to cover the game, it's a little creepy outside. It just has this, like, i mean uh war memorial type of thing right i mean what what was it uh i mean it's called soldier field and for the for the soldiers who died in world war one right it's it's like that the columns that are there there's a lot of history behind it because at the university of illinois their memorial stadium is built the same way um and you remember the bears when they were updating soldier field soldier stadium uh in like the mid i want to say it was at the uh when was that they

were yeah it was like mid 2000s early 2000s they played at memorial stadium at the university of illinois when soldier field was going under renovations i mean the place looks like a spaceship like you know it's just a weird place. It is a weird place. Yeah. It's just got this kind of haunting, eerie type of feeling. You make a good point that the pressure is often on the Vikings when they go to face the Chicago Bears and just by the sort of chance, randomness that that ends up being the case. So the things I would point to number one is that they have the Vikings kryptonite like what's hurt a team that consistently cannot figure it out on

the offensive line is a team that consistently has a great defensive line and in recent years that's been the case quite a bit in terms of other things that I think just division opponents tend to know you better. Like you beat Green Bay and Lambeau, and I don't think any of us were shocked by that. Like none of us thought, oh, yeah, they'll definitely win. But it's like when you know a team so well, there's always the chance that you just play better than them. And now going back to like Chad Hutchinson beating the Vikings, I have no idea. I mean, that has to be a ghost. There's no other way.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. And that, I mean, that was a super weird game too, where Stefan digs decides he's skipping practice after that because he's so frustrated. But at least in that instance, you could look at it and say the ability to stop the run with three or four people on the front defensive line is the reason that the Chicago Bears always make it so tough and a lot of times they've taken it away some of the deep shots and downfield passes that the Vikings kind of rely on and they have just

eliminated Delvin Cook Delvin Cook has not existed in games against the Bears and we know what it does to this offense when Delvin Cook is taken out of the game. So I think all those things play in. I know the game isn't until next Monday, but are you going to pick the Vikings to win it? I don't know yet, and I think I'm going to give myself the time to think about that. They could, I mean, whoever they name is long snapper could be the difference here. I mean, really, like, they got to figure out the long snapping thing and then everything else is all into place, in my opinion. I think that that's kind of what's going to, you know, that'll spark everything else. But in all seriousness, what is their plan when the Bears inevitably – look at how hard the Bears made it on Derrick Henry last week.

And that was a bad loss for Chicago. How – when they inevitably – because some team's going to figure it out, when they stop Delvin Cook at some point, what's your, what's your, what do you rely on? Because you don't want to get into a drop back game with Kirk Cousins. That doesn't work. We found that out. And they found that out multiple times in Chicago.

Can't, can't do that. Well, what does it look like? Does it look, what, can you help me here? Because I can't figure out what it looks like yet. Who's involved? What does the passing game become? Are you just, like, running screens the whole time? Because inevitably they're going to take away Dalvin Cook.

Yep. You have to anticipate that. They're a very good run defense. But then what? Then what is we find out how good Justin Jefferson is I guess yeah I guess or they have to have short answers though I mean that was the reason they won in 2017 um with Case Keenum coming off of the bench was that Pat Shermer flipped the switch and started going to short passes and they had to methodically move the ball down the field and then they broke one big play but that might be what they make you do and it's a different

guy running their scheme now but it's the same sort of deal is they just don't want to give up big plays and that's what the Vikings offense relies on is just explosive plays explosive runs from Delvin Cook explosive throws on play action deep down the field. I think what takes away the play action, too, is just penetration. And when you have Khalil Mack, I mean, that guy, he's good at stopping the run, but he's worried about getting your quarterback. So I think when you have guys who are not worried about Delvin Cook and are more worried about just annihilating your quarterback, those play actions, you drop way back, Khalil Mack wins in one second,

and then you get into trouble. And we saw that to start the second half last year. They're still in the game, and then Khalil Mack wins in one second, and then you get into trouble. And we saw that to start the second half last year. They're still in the game, and then Khalil Mack comes right out and gets a strip sack. So it's always been a long theory that one guy can completely wreck a game. And a lot of times, in 2016, it was Pernell McPhee who was injured a lot, but when he was out there, he was really good. He wrecks the game. And it's been Khalil Mack.

It's been Akeem Hicks, and Akeem Hicks and Khalil Mack are both in the top six at their position in pressures. That's where the game's going to be decided, I think. And Hicks didn't even play last year in that game at Soldier Field. Remember, he was hurt, and I think Roquan Smith didn't even play in that game either because there was some weird thing going on with him. But they're in a weird – they're're in like a that's why i think when we look at okay is this team back because i think rightfully so vikings fans to my temperature

checking have been gauging this it's like we're not ready to say we're back yet um agree the defense has shown an improvement but are they back i don't know yet i don't think we're going to be able to do that yeah steal a line from the late Denny Green. We're not going to be able to crown them until they win this game. I agree. Because this game will tell me everything I need to know about, did they make the right gamble on themselves by not trading away anybody at the deadline, by keeping this unit together,

by thinking they can still be competitive in 2020. You have to win this type of game. Because if not, you're three and six. And, you know, your chances, they're less than, they're like a 24% chance team to make the playoffs as it is right now. You can't afford to, like, lose a game like this. Right, you go to three and six, it's pretty much over. Yeah, and so as hard as that is, like, it's necessary.

Okay. Well, I am very excited about this. This is the first time since a while where we can break down a game and just talk about the game that's happening. Because it means something as opposed to spending all of our time on who the quarterback will be in 2023. So Courtney, I'm looking forward to this one and I feel, I feel bad for you though. I assume you're not traveling back to your hometown or are you?

I am not. We are not traveling to any road games this year, but you know, I'm not going to miss the RC Cola. Oh, the press box food is the worst in the league in Chicago. And the soupy barbecue looking thing and the crappy

gyros. I mean, Chicago is an excellent foodie city. How Soldier Field gets it wrong every time in the Pressbox remains a... That's another great mystery to me. And also some people say, oh, it's great. You're in the corner of the end zone. You can see everything. That is one of the worst vantage points to watch a game in the NFL and the press box is

closed which I mean good for winter time but also um the general manager of the Vikings sits right behind the media and that can be uncomfortable as you're tweeting things that aren't going well about the team like look at over your shoulder. Are you looking at my tweets? And then, like, Rick is back there trying to mute his reactions. Just like, why didn't you run the ball? You know, things like that. But he doesn't want to yell because he's obviously in the press box with everyone else. So it's a very uncomfortable press box.

It's very quiet. If one person talks at regular room level of talking, everyone can hear you. So you kind of have to whisper like, why didn't they run me all the time? Mute yourself a little bit. It's very, very awkward. And the last time I met up with a friend in Chicago and had a split a deep dish pizza before the game. And by about the first quarter, I was ready to pass out and take a big a deep dish pizza before the game. And by about the first quarter, I was ready to pass out and take a big long nap.

So it's, I've never, I've never really made that trip. A good one got caught in traffic once in an Uber and just, you know, got car sick. I don't know. It's,

it's never been a lot. It's a great thing. It's not exactly an easy, it's not exactly an easy place to get to. Um, if you don't already have a car, that's the one thing because people like anybody who's never been to chicago or been there it's not like downtown like on michigan avenue

it's you know right off roosevelt right off you know lakeshore drive and so it's kind of a difficult spot to get to these cars can't really get in there like you're trying to get remember what was it two years ago or was it last year after the game when you were either flying out or I was flying out or one of it, you couldn't get the Uber. Yes. Yep. Yes. That was me with the Uber. And I ended up having to walk like way away from the stadium to this random intersection at two o'clock in the morning because it was a night game. And then the lady who picked me up was like 70 years old i remember that she couldn't get the dome light to go off she missed our exit uh yeah traveling um for covering games is not exactly the same as planning your vacation i wouldn't say so there's a lot of things that go into it anyway

well uh we will talk again following that game and we'll know whether we're talking about the route to the playoffs or once again, back to skull searching for quarterbacks. So thank you for your time as always, Courtney.