Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - ESPN's Courtney Cronin picks the Minnesota Vikings' schedule

Episode Date: July 19, 2021

Earlier this offseason ESPN's Courtney Cronin picked the Vikings to go 7-10. Now she's changed her tune. Which games does she think the Vikings will win? Why does she believe their record will be better now than a few months ago? Which games does she see as the season-shifting games for the Vikings? How is she viewing the Packers and factoring the Aaron Rodgers situation? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome into another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here. And you probably remember last week, ESPN's Courtney Cronin and I and Sam Ackstrom went through the defensive line and the underrated stories. Well, here's the second part of that episode in which we make Courtney pick the schedule. Off we go. because this is what Courtney has been waiting for for some time. Because it's really important to mention that the first time you picked the schedule, you had them going 7 and 10, and a lot has happened since then. So let's just dive right into it. At Cincinnati to kick it off on September 12th.

That will be a win to open up the season. I booked my travel for it a couple uh last week it felt good so starting off the season with a win and um there'll be one and oh going staying on the road for week two i too will be flying into kentucky airport uh week two at we're gonna have you to the ranch is that oh yeah we're gonna hang that in stone yet don't think so don't think so that has not been uh that was not had been brought up. Yeah. I think ranch.

There's COVID. Yeah. Yeah. Also after Adam Zimmer described them hanging out in the hot tub and stuff, I was just like, I don't know if I want to be there. They've got a golf course.

They created their own golf course. Really? That's awesome. They're like a driving range. Pretty much. Zimmer does watch Chicago PD, which is if anyone's watched it it's quite a show anyway so um arizona at uh on the road for week two sam's gonna go to this one i will be there as well and uh i do think this will be a win i'm not confident in the Kyler Murray development,

Cliff Kingsbury, Kyler Murray. Like what do they have another year left in them? Like what's it going to take? I think that, I mean, there's a lot of weapons in that offense. By the way, if you didn't know, A.J. Green's now on that offense. Like, I mean, underrated, not talked about, who cares type move at the offseason but a lot of weapons but the Vikings also have guys that can actually cover receivers this time so we think I mean Patrick

Peterson is at a crossroads in his career and it's his former team he's going home the storylines write themselves um but you know him Bashad Breeland if you have Mackenzie Alexander starting in the slot like I think you have a much better secondary to go against all that speed of that air raid style NFL offense that it should be. They should at least be able to fare better defensively. I think it's actually gonna be a pretty close game on the road, but I do say the Vikings will come away with a win. Okay, Courtney on to week three, Seattle actually by an act of God is coming to Minnesota. They don't lose a lot of games when there's fans at us bank stadium. Right.

But does anybody think that they're going to start out three and oh, I don't know. Seattle's had a lot of issues this off season. Like it's Russ happy. Is he not? Well, apparently he's staying. So there's that big question mark that's been answered.

They played them so close last year. And I think that, I mean, obviously there was a lot of different issues as to why they lost that game. And they lost Alvin Cook for, you know, the second half of that game too. I think this will end up being a very close loss for Minnesota. I still think that Seattle is one of the better teams in the NFC. The Vikings are like a very, they're a good NFC team that nobody's talking about.

And I don't think that that prove it date of like, Oh, they could actually be like legit and go to the playoffs this year. We'll come until later. So I say that that will be a loss in week three against Seattle. Okay. I agree with you. You're going to have to show me you can beat Seattle before I'm going to say you're going to beat Seattle.

I don't think I've ever actually, since I started on the beat, I don't think I've paid them to beat Seattle. So you've been right. Because they've played at CL every time, but yeah. All right. Cleveland is here October 3rd,

which makes for an incredibly fascinating matchup. Kevin Stefanski v. Mike Zimmer. And all of the former staff members, both front office and coaching staff and strength and conditioning staff, I believe, that are all on Cleveland's team now. So crazy. Storylines write themselves. This is going to be a really tough one. I think that they will eke out a victory over Cleveland, like last second coming down to a field goal type victory. And if it's Greg Joseph, then it's probably not Greg Joseph.

It's probably a kicker brought in during camp. Who are we kidding? But nonetheless, this is going to be like the, I worry kind of about the overthinking chess match. That's going to go in here. Like not thinking like, you know, if I'm, if I'm speaking from my exonerancy, I have to be Kevin Stefanski. I gave this guy his opportunity. I have to run him into the ground. And Stefanski wanting to come back and prove you know i mean

he was coach of the year last year he doesn't have that much to prove but he proved like hey it wasn't a fluke prove that baker can actually be like a top 10 quarterback this is going to be an overtime game and it's i'll say it's an overtime win for the vikings via a field goal fwad revays for the win is what will happen. Nobody on Fuad Raves. I love Fuad. Former Viking kicker from like way back in the day. Fuad Raves. Yeah.

Anyway, I think it's spelled F-U-A-D. So anyway. You're correct on that. Okay. Well, we'll just move on from that then. I thought everyone would be very excited for that poll. Let's go to Detroit. So wait, you said it was a win for the Vikings.

They're 3-1. 3-1. Great start for the Vikings. First quarter of the season. Rosie optimism from Courtney. She goes, wow. Wait a second, though. There's a really tough stretch there from like week 9 through week 12

that might disappoint some people. But they start out hot. They start out hot. I was going to say the remainder of this stretch is not too hard because you have Detroit is our next game October 10th I they'll beat Detroit I think that they it's always a safe bet to like assume that they're gonna split with Detroit really all their division rivals but specifically Detroit because like there's always one gotcha game that they have in them but I think that that one will be a win.

I think they're going to start out pretty hot, honestly. I mean, they have an early bye. It's week seven. There's six games. How bad can it get? Well, last year it got pretty bad until the same time as when they had their bye, but I don't think it will be that bad this year. So I say that they will beat Detroit in, was that week four or week five?

That would be week five, yes. Week six, they go to Carolina. So they're four and one going to Carolina. Now you did say one of these games against bad teams is the upset. Is this the one you're picking? Yes, because it's not just like thinking back to like last year and it's not the Pat offline revenge game. So don't worry. It's not why I'm picking that this one's going to be a loss. I think that the, you know, they've, they've been, they will have had some good road tests early on the season.

This one kind of feels just like a sneaky, like a sneaky game that might get them because think about like all those times that they played the Rams and like, Oh, like, you genius sean mcveigh and you know what's it going to do for mike zimmer like the first year and you know 18 excuse me 17 yeah when he beat him like that was a you know great win for them at home and that propelled them throughout the rest of the season to be like yeah this is a legit nfc championship team then there was the week then there was the game after that the you know the shootout in 2018. Is this the year that Joe Brady, the whiz kid, offensive mastermind,

did they finally put it together? Yeah, I know he's only been there a year, but I haven't seen it. I do think that the quarterback change that they made with Teddy Bridgewater, I'll be really curious to see how that plays out with Sam Darnold, but I do think them going on the road week six will be a loss. Let me just draw a correlation. Last year, who was the week six opponent? Atlanta.

And did they just fire their coach? Yeah, they did. They did. I posed that question in an odd way, but yes, they did fire their coach. They did not hire Raheem Morris as their new coach. Is Matt Rule a competent coach caller? and no he is not could he be out could that be like joe brady taking over the reins in week six oh my gosh will the panthers be inspired i'm gonna say no he won't be fired because his contract is ridiculous it's like seven years it's literally

seven years like it's absurd it doesn't matter if deserves it out of style so uh yes but what is that thing it's a smock but one of the one of those games feels like the game like detroit or caroline right so you've got them four and two going into the bye coming out my circle it favorite game most interested game of the year sunday night football on halloween nbc versus the dallas cowboys well dallas's defense like yeah they've added a couple pieces they got a new defensive coordinator but their defense still isn't very good so like i'm not all that worried about that aspect of like dallas's team like issues that they might give the vikings but like they've got a lot of weapons offensively like this is going to be a fun game in prime time

a lot of offense in this one i i think they're gonna this game. And I am kind of setting myself up for that because of the stretch that they have week nine, like I said, week nine through basically 14. And I'll explain why, but I think that they end up beating Dallas on Sunday night football. Five and two, the start that you have. So this is quite the turnaround from seven and 10, unless you have them falling apart here, which may be. So they're going to add Baltimore on November 7th, the following week.

So they come off this big win. Everybody's on a high. And then what happens? And then they go to Baltimore and they lose. Okay. So they dropped to five and three because they can't stop Lamar Jackson. Now this is where it gets hard. They have trouble with that, like running quarterbacks and things like that.

Well, you go from at home in Minnesota to the East to play Baltimore, to the West to play Los Angeles. Where you'll be two weeks later. Like, yeah, it's a lot. And I know that people don't want to like, say like factoring in time and schedule. And like, they get annoyed when those questions get asked in press conferences. Like, you doing anything different this week because of the West Coast swing? Well, that stuff actually does matter. That's why they try to mimic when a team has a Monday night game as the opener.

That's why they start practicing at night. At least a lot of teams do the week leading into that. Nonetheless, what are the Chargers going to be this year? Justin Herbert, what aregers going to be this year justin herbert like what are they going to be brand new coach defensive minded coach and brandon staley what are they going to be i think that there's still like a couple pieces there could be very good but i think there are still a couple pieces away like there'll be a fun team the afc west race will be fun to watch like it always is like everybody behind the chiefs but i think that this will end up being

a win for the vikings so what do i have them at now uh you have them at now six and three and the the chargers game not just because it's los angeles and i can't wait to go in november but also i mean just one of the most intriguing games of the year for sure. Sam interject here. How, how good do you think the chargers are by the time we get to week 10? Here's my take on the AFC West. I think the chiefs are the chiefs and the chiefs will demoralize everybody. I think the Broncos still have maybe that splashy Rogers move in them. And I think the AFC West is just pretty tough. I don't know what to think of the Raiders.

You know, Derek Carr still puts them in a little bit of purgatory, but that's a tough division in my mind, especially if the Broncos find a way to upgrade a quarterback. So I think the Chargers wind up where the Chargers usually are, which is buried early in the season. And then they'll they'll charge late so that they can, you know, lose out on the fourth pick and get the 14th pick instead. Charge late. Indeed. I did enjoy that pun. OK, six and three. They come home to face Green green bay let's go on this assumption let's assume

let's assume aaron rogers is playing because until he says he's not playing he's playing yeah so i think that they will win this game they're going to split with green bay so you can already see what i'm going to do in january but um they they will win this game because i played a close it's a it was an offensive shootout they haven't been home in two weeks since they or three weeks since they played dallas on the 31st i don't know if green bay's cornerbacks are going to be able to cover uh any better than they did last year like i don't know if kevin king has recovered from what was it the nfc championship game i don't know what happened and like this team drafted like

overdrafted a cornerback um with first, their first pick in the draft. I think it was 29th. Yeah. I was like, what? Like he's like a top 50 player. And anyways, I don't think that this one will be, even if Aaron Rodgers is playing, I still don't think that this one will be very close. I think that it's a statement type game for them to be like, okay, we're going to March. Now we've got a couple of division games coming up. And they also have a really tough road before they go back on the road to play San Francisco. So that one will be a win for them against green Bay, Sunday, November 21st.

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or call 855-217-2688 extension 232 to connect with them directly to find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company. So now you've got it at seven and three going out to San Francisco. And I mean, again, what a travel slate here. Baltimore, LA, back home, back to the West Coast, to Santa Clara, the very easy-to-reach Santa Clara from transit. Are you guys flying into Sacramento again? No, I'm going to watch that game from home. We're going to fly into Portland this year, I think.

Yeah, I mean, just right. A little further north. Nice drive. We drove in a truck from, where was it, Sacramento, all the way down to Santa Clara. That was a fun time so out to san francisco let's just assume it's jimmy g for now it could be trey lance i actually in my prediction or like my schedule release that we did back in may i circled week 12 is the week

it's past the trade deadline um i i put this as the week that we could very easily see trey lance starting for the first time um i don't know what that i mean they are so loaded and if they're healthy they're top five nfc teams i think this will be a loss for them okay so they fall to seven and four out in san francisco and that one is a really hard one to project no matter who's playing quarterback though we know kyle sh Shanahan is calling the plays and they have a great team. I mean, if their defense is healthy and they have weapons all over the place. So that that is a very strong roster.

I think it's a stronger roster than the Vikings. So I think it's fair to give them the Vikings a loss there. And now on to Ford Field and Detroit in week 13 with a 7-4 record where I would imagine people are still talking about, hey, look, those Vikings are pretty good. I bet, you know, I'll go ahead and say that they sweep Detroit this year. So that's a win for me. That would be what?

Four straight sweeps of Detroit? Would it be 2018, 19, 20, and 21? 18, 19, 20, yeah. Cousins has never lost to him here no he hasn't and if you look at and if you look at their record against other teams not Detroit it's uh under 500 so there is that uh are you this is what this is like my question of the week because I've been doing a couple of shows with NFC North people. Should I bother to connect with anyone from Detroit to talk about the lions? Like, should we care, but should we care at all about the lions?

I think we should care. Cause I think we want to know, like, it's kind of like the storyline that helps you figure out another storyline. Like was Jared Goff the problem in LA? Cause his head coach made him seem like he was and sure. Certainly shipped him off to another place to try to, you know, get him, you know, let him get fixed somewhere else and also get out of the Rams way. So I'd be curious to figure out, you know, they didn't really address like, wide receivers,

their big position that they still kind of have to figure out, right. Like maybe that could slow up like the recovery period, I'll call it, for Jared Goff to be like, are you still like a good quarterback? You know, I'd like to know about Jeff Okuda. Didn't do anything last year. I mean, he was hurt and he had surgery. I mean, like wasn't very good, but like, yeah, I think it's worth it.

I like football. I like listening to podcasts. I go on walks. Will they bite any ankles or kneecaps? Sorry. Sorry. They're, they're like on their way to standing back up. They're not down on the ground, biting ankles. They're like on their way back up and taking a chunk out of a kneecap. That's how that works. I thought it's painful. So you have an eight and four. Now you need to make an official statement here at eight and four.

You have already passed your previous win loss record. Explain yourself. So do you feel like they have gotten that much better since the last time we did this, which I think was maybe May. It was May. It was right after the draft. I mean, do you want me to tell you what i have them as my record or do you want no no no no no we're gonna say that to the end just shelvin changed everything for this thing this is

what i'm saying this is a big change though from where you were at because the type of changes that they made in the free agent additions like it's like they got through the draft they got through free agency then the draft and they didn't stop defensively but they could have stopped and been like all right cool got two massive individuals no one's ever gonna run on us um that's great they solve the run game problems Anthony Barr's healthy Eric Kendrick's healthy cool like and it's like all right well Patrick Peterson great they'll figure out the rest well in that time since then, they shipped off Mike Hughes. They got a draft pick back for that. They upgraded again at cornerback. They brought in Bashaud Breland. They have more depth at that position than they know what to do with,

honestly, at this point. They didn't stop with a defensive line. You can kind of argue, which was the bigger problem last year, pass rush or the coverage. And it's obviously both, but you, you know, like your biggest question, that was the hardest part about projecting a schedule.

Not that, you know, Daniel Hunter did make this, his injury did make them nosedive last year. And it's kind of weird to say that about a defensive end, but he is such a big part of what they do when you are predicated on defense. That was a problem. So now that we know that he's back albeit we don't know

in what condition we assume he'll be healthy um but that to me was worthy of at least one and a half wins difference for them and the fact that they've upgraded their pass rush and they've put so much focus on trying to actually get a push from the interior it just it's such a different look than it was before that that gives me the thought that it'll do like from where I picked them before that it will at least be one to three win margin of difference and I know our friends at PFF and you know others who you know project schedules and like you know the how much you can actually, project schedules and like, you know, the how much you can actually weigh on certain players will probably disagree

with me on that, but I'm projecting this out based on who's back, what we saw in mini camp, how this thing's going to look. And it gave me the belief that this team could be not backing their way into a wild card spot, but like, they are one of the, they're one of the NFC teams that no one's talking about they're one of the nfc teams that no one's talking about like one of the top nfc teams that i think no one's talking about right now like i'm not saying top five top six i'm saying like seven eight or nine and that could you know if you're seven then if you're top seven top eight potentially you're you're you're in the playoff so

yeah sam you've got to run here in a second but i want you to say why you didn't change anything from the first time that you and i picked the schedule the minute it came out you said the other day that you're not changing that at all from your record which i think was 11 and 6 so were you were you like sooth saying were you like projecting that they would wait you had wait sam you had them at 11 and you had them at 11 and 6 you have to realize let's let's clarify this for people i had them at like 7 and 10 7 and 10 so of course this is quite a big change that's why i'm grilling you on it but i mean like you're like if sam had them at 11 and 6 like i i don't think that's a bad record at all yeah i i believe my first projection was in the the real heat of the Rodgers speculation.

So I gave them both Green Bay games. And I think a couple of those fringe games against teams that have been good, like Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, I feel pretty good that those teams are going to decline. And I just feel like they get a lot of their easier games on the road, which I think is a formula to have success. Because if you have easy games at home and hard games on the road, you're probably going to win a lot of home games, but you're going to lose a lot of your road games.

I think they can bank road wins against Carolina. They can bank road wins against Arizona and Cincinnati. There's three right there. Add one more like LA. You could go 500 on the road. That's a great road record. And we know this team can easily go seven and one at home because they've proven it before. They can beat good teams at home. So that's my methodology behind the 11. And, um, I'm sure I'll be wrong. Okay. Sam, go take care of your children and we'll finish the rest of the, uh, the schedule and thank you for your time. I love you guys. Okay. I love you too. Uh, all right. So we are at eight and four as we head down the stretch here, Pittsburgh, December 9th at home. It a thursday night okay so they're just coming off let's let's let's factor in the travel here and just the fatigue and potentially injuries at

this point of the season they're coming off games in detroit on the road or excuse me detroit on the road the week before the week before that san francisco on the road and then it's a thursday night game against pittsburgh um i don't know where people get the idea that like Pittsburgh, like Mike Tomlin, like, you know, this whole thing, like I hear these hot seat conversations. I'm like, huh? The guy's not had a losing season since he's been in Pittsburgh. Where are you getting this from? Yes. I don't know what Ben Roethlisberger is going to be this year. Do I think it's his last season absolutely do I think they're going to be awful no I don't so like I put this down as a loss I don't think I've changed my prediction on this game specifically since I started making schedules a while ago so I think that this one

will be a loss I think that's fair to think this is a loss because like you said two games that go on the road and Detroit uh even if we're making fun of them, not being very good, they usually put up a fight at least against the Vikings divisional opponents tend to do that. They might be a little bit more, a little bit better this year, just by not having that Patricia,

but even, even if it's an easy win, you've still got to come home and play a great defense that I don't think Pittsburgh's defense is disappearing off the face of the map. I don't either. Cam Hayward and TJ wattatt. And those guys could cause a lot of problems for the Vikings offense. So I, I tend to agree with you that that one is a losable game that would drop them to then eight and four. And then they go to soldier field, always a party. Yes, it is. It is their favorite place in the whole wide world.

Or did I say 8-4? I meant 8-5. I have them at 8-5 right now. Yep, yep, yep. I think I might have said 8-4. And they've got four games left. They're going to lose at Soldier Field because I just, I mean, not saying last year was a fluke by any stretch,

but that game was way too close for comfort for them anyways. Is Justin Fields starting at this point? I think so. Yes, I'm going to say yes. So I think that they will lose on Monday night football in Chicago in week, what is that, week 14, week 15, rather. I think that you are justified no matter how bad chicago chicago is and i think they're just okay this year always saying they're going to lose at

soldier field like history just proves you right we studied this we looked at it it's a real thing and like you said they were inches away from frozen like nobody's gonna be it's been like an exciting rink out there like it's december in chicago like on a field that's run by Chicago park district fields can be frozen turf conditions. They're going to need like nine inch cleats. Eight and six. And now the season is feeling like it's teetering a little, all of a sudden they were hot. I think, you know, down the stretch and they, yeah,

now they've got the Rams at home day after Christmas. Coming home against the great defense. Matt Stafford is familiar with U.S. Bank Stadium and has presumably a more stable franchise. How do you think this one plays out? This is tough. This is a short week. It is. I think that they end up winning this game because, like, you think about the receivers,

what, Cooper Cup, Robert Woods. Do they have an X like so it won't be like hard in turn not hard I mean it's a bad word to use but like it won't be like oh man how are they going to cover these guys like some other teams maybe look at Dallas if they play that this is this is why you got Dalvin Tomlinson this is why you got Michael Pierce because they have an elite group of running backs with cam makers and the whole crew behind him um and as we know this team this Rams team really likes to utilize um running backs as receivers too and as they learned a couple years ago sometimes you can trick people in not covering

them um you know on seam routes so uh but no I do think that this will end up being a win for the Vikings because this is, this is where you get to flex your muscle defensively of like the biggest acquisition you made, which was, you know, you're shoring up your run defense so you don't get embarrassed again, like they did last year on Christmas day. So you've got nine and six and now we go to green Bay and you sort of teased this one earlier. Yeah. They'll lose this one earlier yeah they'll lose this one i mean it's just like it's just it's just murphy's law like you have to lose um it's gotta lose one at green

bay and who knows i mean depending upon how the season goes for rogers like this if he plays and right now we're assuming that he's going to play because he hasn't said otherwise and you know camp's two weeks away and we've there's a whole lot of news a whole lot of non-news about nothing um but i think that they'll they'll split with green bay and just and to wrap it up they'll split with chicago so i believe i have them at 10 and 7 which i think it's a conservative fair bet for me to put them at that that's the record i have them call me a hater because that is i'm not being overly negative i'm not being overly. They've made a lot of adjustments. They overhauled that defense.

Mike Zimmer was right. It is going to look completely different this year. Schematically, I'm curious to see what they actually do. They always talk about like, oh, we like went back and study all these trends and stuff and things that offenses are doing and how to keep up with that. Like you have the personnel to mix some fronts. You have the personnel to change what you're doing on the back end and how you cover if you're playing know playing more man versus zone things like that

you don't have to do kind of all of the um uh fail safes that you had to do last year to just to get by and give up 400 yards a game in a loss um or a close win whatever but like that's what kind of gives me the belief that this team will be more than just marginally better, but the NFC is still really, really good. They're still not one of the top five teams in the NFC by the end of the season. Could they be maybe, but I still think they're going to be kind of on that outside edge looking in and could probably could make some noise in the playoffs. That was going to be my question.

Do you think 10 and seven, because I still haven't figured out if 10 and seven is a good record or not. I think that it's kind of okay. So somebody that emailed me did the research and I mean, it doesn't guarantee you playoffs basically that you go 10 and seven. Is that going to be good enough in the NFC? Because I think it's, I think if you go 10 and seven, you are right there on the cusp and you basically end up with tiebreakers

deciding your fate. Yeah, no, I i mean it very similar it could be like the last year's situation like right like the bears and the cardinals and all of those games and they beat in the bears that they would have it was a tiebreaker scenario that could have put them in the playoffs that they handled business in week 15 um i bet 10 and 7 is like 10 7 is like the new 9 and 7 i think so i think it's the new 9-7? I think so. I think it's the new 9-7. It's really not anything different, but it's just like such a weird number that that will definitely be in like tiebreaker scenario

where they're going to have to like rely on like the fate of other teams to figure out like what their fate is in the postseason. A remarkable turnaround from 7-10 in May. Hey, they put in the work this offseason with like bringing in new personnel. Like now all they have to do is like prove that they can actually like win the games that like I've, you know, went back and like change my picks on several games to get them from like seven and ten, ten and seven. So part of it for me and picking them to go ten and seven and probably Sam's to some extent, too, was just anticipating that these moves would happen. We always felt they would add an extra defensive lineman.

We always felt that they would add another cornerback, that they weren't going to go into this whole thing with the rookies. And so I was kind of figuring that's how it's going to play out, and it ultimately did. I think when you picked it with this is their exact roster, that was fair. They did not look like a team that was going to make the playoffs at that point. And it's pretty significantly changed when you add Bashad Breeland, when you add Sheldon Richardson and you look like a much more solidified team.

Still many a question to be answered, though. So we will be each week, as we always do, coming back here. And very soon we will be podcasting post-training camp practice, Courtney. I'm excited. It's going to be fun. I'm very much looking forward to it. And gosh, I just can't believe how soon it's coming up.

Whatever happened to you. What happened to summer? What happened to summer? But there will be cakes. Hopefully this year. There'll be lots of, there will be cakes. So,

okay, well, we'll do it again soon. And thank you for your time.