Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - ESPN's Courtney Cronin pumps the brakes on Justin Fields' turnaround and talks Vikings competitive rebuild

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

ESPN's Courtney Cronin joins Matthew Coller to preview Vikings-Bears. Naturally the main topic at hand is both teams' directions under their general managers, including a Vikings team that looks like it could be selling soon and a Bears club that still can't figure out what it has in Justin Fields. Does Courtney think Fields' last two games are a case for them to stick with him? Could they turn their season around? How does she feel the Vikings have done in their competitive rebuild and what's next for Kirk? Plus how she may or may not have played a role in Chase Claypool getting traded. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to a very, very special episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here as always and returning to the show from ESPN. Covers the Chicago Bears. Also is on Around the Horn. Get up. All over your television, Courtney Cronin. What is going on, Courtney? How are you? I'm good. I'm good. It's been a weird couple weeks. I don't know if I've gone through this much turmoil covering a team and trying to like find some sort of balance within the rest of my life. To start the season, usually train wrecks happen. You know, you and I know a thing or two about train wrecks. Usually like week 10, week 11. There's always maybe a firing a little bit later on, weird things that happen off the field, other strange things. No, I mean, it's been chaotic.

It's a nice fall day here in Chicago. I want to take advantage of that because the last couple of weeks, it's just been nonstop, one fire to put out after the other with this Bears team. But I'm excited that you guys are coming to town this week. I had a chance to watch that Vikings game in full. That was a rollercoaster ride. I'm bummed about Justin Jefferson.

I think it sucks about the hamstring injury. But weird times that both of our teams that we cover are 1-4. I did not see that coming. You know, I didn't either. I thought that the Vikings could be two and three, but I did not expect them to be one and four, nor did I expect them to have the same record as the Chicago Bears, who, by the way,

like 14 days ago were burning to the ground. And Stephen A. Smith is on TV saying that they're worse than the 0-16 Detroit Lions. And then they get one victory versus a pretty bleh Washington football team. And it's like, oh wait, no, they're back. Here's Justin. Justin Fields is back. Here's where I want to begin with this. You have two teams that took different paths when they hired their general managers, Kweisi Adafo-Mensa, Ryan Pulse. Kweisi comes in and they agree with the ownership, with the coaching staff.

They're going to keep Kirk Cousins. They're going to competitively rebuild. And Ryan Pulse comes in and says, oh, do you work here? You're fired. Everyone leave. Like all the players on the football team, you all leave. Justin, you can stay, but everybody else, you got to go. And this off season they trade

for dj moore who looks pretty fantastic at football but it's still so very much a process with the rest of the uh roster which means it's not very good and yet the vikings roster has better players but does not have better results so far what do we make of where these two teams have gone since they hired their general managers okay so the competitive rebuild element in minnesota was like a super cute buzzword last year and it's like okay 13 win team all right like a lot of luck as we can finally admit five week sample size a one and four vikings team a lot of luck played into winning 13 games by one score. Like, okay, you didn't guys didn't actually think that that was going to be a trend that continued, right? Like smart people watching football didn't think, Oh, like this is going to regress to the mean by

any stretch. Anyways, I, I think that the route the Vikings decided to go is now of course, like they couldn't put off the inevitable any longer and right now you have a team that has good pieces but pieces that are not going to be here long term and that this season may finally be the straw that breaks the camels back to where they have to start over at some very key positions and that's not just you know like what they did last year offloading adam theelin offloading eric kendrick saying goodbye to Patrick Peterson. Like this is the Kirk Cousins year that, you know, it hate seeing that because you want to see great players play. And it bums me out that this is a season for him. Now he's going to have to miss the next four games that he isn't going to be

able to continue on this great trend that he was on five, yeah, 5,000 receiving yards in his first 50 games or whatever it was that he surpassed against Philly. Like I hope he gets back quickly, but for Kirk cousins, that might factor into his decision. Do you want to be here? Do you want to waive that no trade clause? If the team continues to stink the rest of the way

and you have a chance to get traded to go somewhere else and then get one more contract to prolong your career, why wouldn't you do that? And why wouldn't the Vikings even consider that? It's a two-way street. Of course, Cousins and no trade clause, having to waive it, that's one thing. But then you know, with Kirk, that's the X factor. And on the other side of that with the Bears, how they got here at this one and four mark is that there was not the jump that they expected from Justin Fields in year three. Year two in the

system, they really had a rough go the first four games. And I still don't think they're out of the woods yet. A win does tend to cure a lot of things, but they're in a very precarious spot where this coaching staff is coaching for their coaching lives right now, hoping that, you know, they can cobble together some wins here and be kept beyond the season. And that Ryan polls in the front office and the decisions that they made. I mean, right now, the DJ more trade is looking like a really good one

because Carolina is not a good football team. They're 0-5 right now. The Bears have their pick next year. Like all of that looks good, but it doesn't make up for a lot of the like gigantic wounds that this team has had to wear, whether it's losing your defensive coordinator ahead of week two, to a sudden resignation, losing out on the Chase Claypool trade in a massive way, giving away a pick to

get him off your roster. Justin Fields in the comments about playing like a robot, like all of these things they've had to like sort through in the early part of the season where their rebuild, which they thought okay deliberate calculated we're taking time to make this happen didn't exactly yield the dividends in year two where year two of this of this um of this uh decision making staff from the coaching staff to the front office whereas like right away they could like hit the ground running and three and fourteen was behind them no it felt like three and fourteen and the ghosts of last season have been haunting them every step of the way until they finally broke through against washington what's interesting to me is that both general managers

have made some miscues yeah and yet i would still say that the bigger picture for both franchises looks pretty good like the chase Claypool trade and the Vikings decision to trade down in the 2022 draft are pretty equal in how abominable they've gone. I mean, Louis scene is not playing and chase Claypool was a total disaster, but the decision to move on from certain players like, you know, Khalil Mack and Roquan Smith and so forth. And then with the Vikings, you mentioned Adam Thielen, Eric Hendricks, Delvin Cook, what's Delvin Cook averaging about three yards per carry right now with the New York jets. Like they made a lot of

the right decisions at the right times. And I think the same thing goes for the bears. Khalil Mack is still a good player and had like six sacks in a game or something the other day, but he's still a good player, but he wouldn't have made the difference on this, on this bears team in terms of, are they a good or bad defense? Like they were never going to be good. What's interesting to me is the Vikings getting to one in four. They are one more loss away from this clarifying itself completely to you are one in five. lost to the bears it's over over over over for everybody and it's done with kirk and whether you trade him now or he leaves later it's over and you're drafting a quarterback and let's start watching football on saturday but for the

bears i i feel like if they win this game that probably means fields played pretty good and we're the roller coaster sort of continues with justin fields because i remember when we talked going into the vikings bears game last year at us bank stadium i was saying i think it's over i think fields is just probably not good and then he actually kind of plays really good in that game especially in the second half it's like every time we declare the justin fields era is done he's a bust. It's not going to work out. Then he's sort of like, but watch this, you know, the usher, like, watch this. Like he comes up with 200 something yards passing. Right. And somebody had a stat and I was very surprised. Somebody put out a stat about his last 17 games

in the totals and it was actually pretty good so where do we stand like if he wins this game is are we back with justin field oh my gosh this conversation of like one week it's trade into atlanta because ryan pace is down there and you know at that point it's like all right is desmond ritter good is he not good and i think the week the win that they had uh this past week was a big one for him but you know, at that point, it's like, all right, is Desmond Ritter good? Is he not good? And I think the win that they had this past week was a big one for him. But, you know, as it pertains to Justin Fields and the conversation, it's get him out of here. And then, okay, great.

Can he be the quarterback of the future? Like, we live in such a, like, day-tight compartments in the NFL world where we judge things on how they are within a 24-hour span. Is it a win or is it a loss? Because the win then gives you, buys you about seven days of optimism and a loss then. And if the losses compound themselves, just, you know, spell doom and gloom for everybody and fire everyone. Jobs are going to be lost. Like this whole thing, like what?

Today feels so different because this team's one and four versus oh and five because if they're oh and five we're talking about is maddie reflux still a coach of this team um is justin fields like at some point are they going to have to bench him like all of these things were real conversations that were going to be had had this losing streak continued and stretched out even further to almost getting to that year point. Now I was going to pull up this thing I had on fields, uh, you know, for the last two games. So he had the three good quarters against Denver and then, you know, fourth quarter, he has the strip saps, a strip sack fumble that gets returned for the touchdown.

He reads zone when it should have been man on, the touch and the and the interception with cole comet game's over but like those three good quarters and the complete game that he had against washington 43 of 64 for 617 yards eight touchdowns one interception a 131.2 passer rate and that's a two-game stretch where it's like okay like wow like is this a different quarterback but at the end of the day the most important thing and I know people are going to tell me wins are not a quarterback stat I am not stupid 6 and 24 is a starter over three years though do you not have your answer on the guy like you can't tell me okay I need to see more I need to continue to see more like yes in a in theory you do because you want to see him build on this but how many guys get a 30 game sample size like that to truly truly figure it out and prove it he's been in this

offense now for two years like the offense did not help him early on this season like trying to force him into being a straight drop back passer is not the quarterback that he is. And he even said it before he decided to walk back his comments on coaching. He was very much pointing to, I'm not being utilized in a way that play to my strengths as a quarterback. I still believe that as much as we want to believe the jury is out on Justin Fields, barring some massive turnaround here where they go on and rattle off a couple straight wins and Justin Fields is

throwing for three, four touchdowns a game, that this ends up being what it is right now. You have a good quarterback, but is he the answer at the position when you might have the number one overall pick to go get Caleb Williams? There's a lot of factors there at play. And it doesn't necessarily mean that Justin Fields will have failed, but you, you right now you have a 30 game sample size with this quarterback and yeah, the circumstances were not great with it, with what was around him last year. Like, I just think that some of those excuses of like, Oh, he needs more time. He needs this. He needs that. Like some point those become, you are what you are and you have what you have. And you've got to make a decision based on all of those things.

So there's two thoughts that I have about fields. One is I went on a hunt last year, an investigation about how the heck Gino Smith became a good quarterback because we've just accepted now like, Oh yeah, Gino, he's pretty good for Seattle. But Gino Smith with the New York jets was Justin Fields. It was a couple of good games here and there, right when they were about to think that he's really bad, he would have a good game. And then the wheels came off and they got rid of him after, was it only two seasons? And I looked back at all quarterbacks after two seasons who became good and who became busts, like top drafted quarterbacks in the first three rounds or whatever.

And what I found was the first two seasons really didn't tell the story. I mean, Eli Manning was horrendous through his first two years. Matthew Stafford stats were terrible. There's a lot of quarterbacks who turned it around after two bad years, but there wasn't any who turned it around after three, which is kind of like a funny line of demarcation. But you mentioned that sample size, it begins to grow. So there's a good number of quarterbacks who inherit horrendous teams, bad situations, bad coaching. They're drafted very high and it comes apart. The weird thing about Justin Fields is that he played a year and then his team tanked.

I don't know that I can remember a situation quite like that. So I want to give it more time. I think it's right to give it more time. I saw it was like, what a classic talking point on television. They should trade him after his one good game. And like, no, I don't think that's a good idea. It's so frustrating to see that stuff because like i get that from a national perspective and look this team has been

like catching strays for months now especially from like the national um like the national media and i'm not trying to go like you know parroting what these players are saying because i find it annoying when the media gets blamed for things that they do when they say but like the national perspective on this team was burn everything down they stink they are horribly run franchise this that and the other thing and now oh look can they win the NFC North that was a legitimate headline on the bottom of a show that shall not be named like are you kidding me they're one in four they just beat a dog bleep Washington defense that is not as bad as Denver, but still not very good and having a lot of defensive backs whiffing the other night. Like it was just terrible. Jack Del Rio should be on the hottest of hot seats for defensive coordinators considering what that game plan looked like. But I just, I can't subscribe to that line of thinking when it comes to this team, because this roller coaster of one minute, the plan is working. The next minute, oh man, the staff is gone.

Fire everybody. Start over. Start thinking about Caleb Williams or Drake May, if Caleb Williams apparently may want to go some places and not go other places. Like, there's just too much of that around this group right now where I know that we're seeing marginal improvement from a week to week basis. The numbers will support it even defensively. Like they're,

this is a defense that gets pressure with its front four and, you know, felt allergic to blitzing for a long time. And they just had their highest rate of that. Again, Sam Howell and the Washington commanders. Now, can you actually see them build on that from a week-to-week basis? We don't know because we haven't seen it

because they're a one-in-four football team who, if there's any time for them to get this thing on track, it's now. You have two sub-500 teams coming to Soldier Field with the Vikings and the Raiders. I don't know what the Chargers are right now. They're two and two. They kind of feel like the Vikings in a lot of respects. And then, you know, after that, Carolina is in the mix. So you got Detroit in there. That'll probably be a loss. But like, you've got Carolina, the worst team in football right now in the mix. If they somehow come out of that at what, like four and three and four or, you know, four and five by the time week 10 rolls around? Like, is that a different football team that you have, you know, expectations on that might

have been different at the start of the season? Maybe. But those of us who have been around and have watched this team, I thought they were a seven to eight win team. They can still get there, but they just happen to have like all of their calamity and losing happening in a big stretch here at the beginning of the season. Could this end up evening out? It absolutely could. But the whiplash of what this has felt like, where it was the end of the world for four weeks to now, okay, there's hope. There's light at the end of the tunnel. It's

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and out of Justin Fields let's say he starts 17 games let's say that nine of them are good and the other ones are bad there is a Jameis Winston tier of quarterbacks that doesn't get talked about very often that can be awesome or terrible. And I'm not sure you can actually win anything with them, especially if they become expensive, which he might fit into. It's like we almost only categorize is a guy a success or is he a bust? But I think what Daniel Jones is kind of showing us and Winston was this before because Tampa Bay kept him after his rookie deal. And now the same thing happened with Daniel Jones is there's a scary tier where you buy into the guy because his contract year was pretty good, but he's still who he is. And there's still going to be the ups and downs and you can't get over the hump. But with fields, the thing with Jones

and Winston is there was always these like gigantic problems. Like Daniel Jones was just never going to have like big plays and big arm and magic. And Jameis Winston was always going to throw like a zillion interceptions. With Justin Fields, when you see him be good, it's pretty dang spectacular. It's like, whoa, that's the fastest guy on the field. Like he looks like Mike Vick when he's running. And when he throws a dime down the field to DJ more, I mean, it's beautiful. So it's like, you see enough to where, yeah, they shouldn't obviously trade him to Atlanta, but like you see enough to where they could get convinced. And then they have to, like you

mentioned, they have to make this decision. Do we take other players? Do we get Marvin Harrison Jr., which DJ Moore, Marvin Harrison Jr. would be pretty good. Or do you do the Caleb Williams thing and just bail and say, you know what, even if you do have good moments, it's going to be better to move on to this other quarterback. I think that's a very, very hard decision potentially facing them yeah and can you imagine like set let's say it goes along the path that we projected out early this season that they are a seven and ten team eight and nine at best eight and nine means that you caught heat at some point lightning in a bottle whatever you want to call it that it could be a a Vikings win. It could be a Raiders win. It could be a Carolina win. There's that's four right there. Find four others. Arizona comes to town around Christmas time. They're not a very good football team. You have, you know,

the saints, are they going to end up coming back down? Like, I don't know. You can like find, you can find other wins. They got the Packers again. And you know, Jordan love through three interceptions last night. They're not a very good football team either like if that ends up being the case then you're sitting here saying okay the reason you probably got there is I mean because if Justin Fields doesn't play well and you still get there like then the decision is very easy and you just move on because if you're a general manager you really only get like one real crack at a quarterback. The hard thing for me would be like, all right, let's say they go in with fields. Like he helps them get to seven, eight wins. And at the end of the year, they're sitting there with two top picks. Um, who knows where they'll be. If they're like an

eight win team, they're not drafting in, you know, the top 10, maybe, maybe they're like just inside of it. I just outside of it, but've got carolina's pick and i like could they keep fields for now continue to build around him and then eventually polls be able to draft his own quarterback at a later date if it doesn't work out again like there's a lot here at stake where you just don't know how much time you're going to have as a front office where you might not want to wait because this year's quarterback group is supposed to be one of the best that we've seen in a long time now we also heard that about the 2021 group like there's all these projections that come out generational talent this you know this group is

loaded like etc etc and they don't always pan out but if you know that Caleb Williams a wants to come here b um which i think it's funny that we even talk about that with a drafted guy but there's enough smoke there to wonder okay is this going to be an eli manning sort of situation where he's going to guys don't have to come out anymore they can stay in college nal money is going to keep them fat and happy for a long time until they're ready to come out maybe to a place that might put them in a situation where they don't have to be wondering if their career is going to be over by year four of their of their rookie deal but it's it's so hard to tell right now that's why I hate the conversation of is

Justin Fields the answer or not right now he's had two good games can we not just say it's two good games right really really like three 1.75 good games because he had a horrible fourth quarter this is the first time all season where he hasn't had a fourth quarter blunder that cost them the game that strip sack against Denver that they end up returning to score and tie tie the game up and then they end up kicking the field goal at the end of the game to win like can those moments not happen? Because that's where you're judging Justin Fields on his growth. You brought up DJ Moore, though.

Like, am I wrong for thinking that when I look at Fields' stat line, four touchdowns, 282 yards, 141 of those 282 yards are DJ Moore's yak? Like, call that what it is. Those are hitch routes. Those are really quick throws that he's able to use his speed, which is why you brought him here. You brought him here because he has insane body control. He can burn defenders. He can be a playmaker on the outside.

All of those things are fine, but is that showing you the growth you need with Justin Fields? For him to be able to see him, to throw the ball to him, that's great. He also saw a lot of single coverage. So this week, if the Vikings decide they want to give more attention to the number one receiver and it feels doesn't throw his way. Is that more of like who Justin Fields is,

or can he find a workaround with anybody else in this, you know, whether it's the tight ends or receivers to continue on the offensive progression that we've seen the last two weeks. I don't recall a throw going to anyone else except for DJ Moore. No, because Darnell Mooney, Darnell Mooney was targeted four times and dropped, I think three of them. And Cole Komet had a touchdown too. Like this was the DJ Moore show. It kind of reminded me of those early years

of justin jefferson in minnesota with kirk cousins before you know before the offense the offense like reworked away where you would like lock in on one player after not locking in on that player and you kind of saw what that was yeah i'm not sure that's really changed uh with jefferson and that's why it will be very interesting to see this game which will kind of get to the x's and o's here but the uh the the franchise where both stand is so interesting and with fields there's just a really good case to not let him fool you with his high end when it happens because as you mentioned I mean so you've got one major piece that's a superstar in DJ Moore and I think he's always been really great and has never had a great quarterback.

You've got the potential. I mean, if you're drafting at the top of Carolina, you are absolutely taking Marvin Harrison Jr. If you can and pairing those two together, I think we see all over the league like Jalen Hurts is succeeding with great receiver pair. All of a sudden is a superstar quarterback, Brock Purdy. And we've seen it from Kirk cousins when he's had success with Jefferson and Addison this year, but it, you know, digs in Thielen in the past, these wide receiver combos can do a lot of things to improve your odds. And then you're talking about potentially adding a talent like Caleb Williams, Drake may, but if you win eight games, then, you know, you, you might still be able to

do that because of the two draft picks, but maybe not Harrison jr. So there's like a weird, like, should you, should you tank? Like, should you continue? Like, should you move on from players who are helping you? Um, but maybe they don't have anybody else to move on. So it's a weird, it's a weird scenario if they win like seven and then it's, what do we do now? And that I think would be the the fork in the road for Ryan Poles if you make the right decision you could go and be great for a long time if you make the wrong decision you could end up being a chump and getting fired uh what do you think from afar of the Vikings future I mean I've I get asked. Like, I feel like we talk about this on TV a bunch.

What about Kirk? Like, will they trade him at some point? And I can't see it until the season's completely lost, because we know that this ownership never wants to throw in the towel if there's a chance. Now, if they're one in five after this week, who do they have after that? Like, is there a day of an early buy?

Are they – like, there's no way div in early by are they like there's no way to dig out of a hole like that i'm just wondering like the pseudo digging out of the hole where they're in the hunt with that stupid graphic that we see going into sunday night okay san francisco the worst possible one in six one in six if that's the case like the deadlines in november you are it's three weeks away more or less which is crazy to think about do they consider like my biggest question on this Vikings team and like right now and even before that it's been at what point are they ready to get something for Kirk Cousins not just have him walk in free agency and get nothing is there going to be a team and of course we've thrown the Jets around as the example like they're i don't know if i see that as a realistic

possibility maybe what are they two and three right now like okay um zach wilson's still terrible like not a good quarterback that they know that they're just trying to like force this thing through i just keep wondering like are they going to like they've tried this soft rebuild like rebuild behind the scenes put the perception out in the public facing um in their public facing identity of we're a team that's contending like this doesn't feel this is not a year where they're going to contend if one or four it's very difficult to make the playoffs but if they're one in five after this do those conversations about kirk and his future like actually like solidify like to to really like, Hey, we're going

to entertain this. We're taking calls on whether he's going to be our quarterback much longer. Like that, that's, I think the most interesting thing about this Vikings team from an outsider's perspective now. And I mean, if they lose this game, it becomes very easy to trade Daniel Hunter trade KJ Osborne. And then it also becomes up to Kirk Cousins of whether he wants to try to go somewhere else in the middle of the season we know he's got that like you know right he can waive that like whenever he wants to if they were to say hey we're going to trade you to I mean do we even know where he'd want to go like any places he'd want to entertain the Jets makes sense for a couple of reasons not just because it's a team

that doesn't want to waste its window on defense even though there have been times this year where the defense does not look so good but like the jets were the team before the vikings in 18 that were pursuing him we're going to pay him more money to go there um than anything else so that's it makes it very interesting to see if they would actually come into the conversation because i don't, I can't think of any other place like right now, a team that would be trading for a quarterback at the deadline. I thought it could have been the Rams,

but like, you know, they're actually playing good right now. I think there's only one scenario and people brought up the Falcons. I don't know. Like, I think they're going to stick with what they've done. That seems like a weird one,

but one scenario would be if the Vikings are playing against the 49ers and Brock Purdy slips on this dangerous field turf and gets hurt and Kirk changes jerseys. And I think that San Francisco, I really think San Francisco is the only place that he would actually accept the trade because of Kyle Shanahan. I don't know if he would go to New York in the middle of a season where they're not even really there in the playoffs anyway. And that AFC is going to be a fight to the end. Do you want to uproot yourself? Do you want to be away from your family? Do you want to try to learn a whole new offense and go there? And I mean, that's just so hard to do. We've almost never seen it succeed where a quarterback changes.

And I'm sure there's one historical example, but I can't think of it succeed where a quarterback changes. And I'm sure there's one historical example, but I can't think of too many where a quarterback changes teams in the middle of a season. Carson Palmer joined the Raiders once upon a time and like really struggled. So it's, we saw Sam Bradford obviously here, but that wasn't in the middle of a season that was still before the year. That would be an extremely, extremely hard task. But I was thinking about just your perspective on the big picture here, having seen the whole thing, having seen, you

know, Kirk cousins come to town in 2018, uh, you know, 2019, the one playoff win. And then last year, what happened that I think that despite the fact they have taken a route that is harder to succeed, the competitive rebuild, the fact that they have taken a route that is harder to succeed the competitive rebuild the fact that they have so many pieces in place like we're talking about the bears trying to draft players like harrison jr like the vikings already have these players i know not so much on not so much on defense but that's where you get your money i think that both teams could potentially have this work out really well for them. Like it's in the cards for both of these teams rebuilds, even though they took different routes,

if the Vikings are able to draft a quarterback and that's where trading players comes into it. It's almost, it's almost better if they lose to the bears and then they know what they've got to do and they could try to get the highest possible draft. Okay. But like how, because this are you,

so we're projecting this out as the as the vikings are not the vikings of like seven and ten land eight and nine land this is like a top five how do they get to they're too talented to be a top five a team that's drafting top five unless they start siphoning off assets the guys that you mentioned whether it's's Hunter, KJ Osborne, is there anybody that's been on the offensive line that they would trade to, like Brian O'Neill? I don't know. It's so hard for me, having covered the team for five years,

to picture them in position to get one of these top five quarterbacks and or, if they're not in in position giving up legitimately deep draft capital to go move up to go get somebody like that i think i subscribe to the idea that's out there that if they're going to move on from kirk and even if it happens in season if it happens out of season that there's a veteran out there who might be a better fit here in Minnesota than them going to start all over with a rookie quarterback. Like you have so many factors at play here, Justin Jefferson, like he still didn't sign a deal before, didn't sign an extension before the start of the season. So what does he want? What does he want to stay around and play with quarterback to be

named later? Of course, the conversation about Dak comes into play play like if he continues to not be able to win the big one and you really do have like Kirk and Dak on the same playing field does Dallas try to move him out of there and would he be a fit in Minnesota Kyler Murray all of these things like there's so much at play here for a team I'm looking at it right now like whose roster is a good roster on paper a much better roster than the bears from like top to bottom and yeah i know like on defense um you know very young secondary once again but like that's where your draft picks that's where free agency can come into play next year like it just it feels like this is where the this is the moment we've been waiting for the bill came due with this team and they have to like strategically pull it off all at once in order to not have the lull next year to get right back to

being competitive if this ends up being the year where they win four or five games which it's just it's wild to imagine that because we haven't seen anything like that since leslie frazier got fired like we have not seen a season that bad in minnesota because they don't typically ever let it happen they'd rather be somewhere in the mix of like the verge of mediocrity to being an above average not great team but above average team then going all in and like you know having to really do this over and do it the right way. Think if they play their cards correctly and Justin Jefferson's injury resolves some things here, because if you were going to say one reason you could get to eight wins or nine wins is that man,

but with him out for four weeks and potentially more again, you lose this week. I'd say, Hey go to cabo just vibe you know just just just watch the games from there don't even come back to the facility just make sure you're a hundred percent to start 2024 with this hamstring we don't need this to be a big deal but but is he gonna is he gonna want to stay after that like he doesn't really have a choice. Like, I mean, when you look at the franchise, your options, right. You know,

all this, but like, doesn't really have to be there. Does he really want to be there? That, that is, there's certainly a question, but also has he enjoyed the Kirk era?

Like he's enjoyed his stats, but this man cares about winning a lot and they have not won. So there's the, this there i get this all the question all the time of like you know if you get rid of kirk like he's just gonna be upset i'm like why if he cares about winning the most which winning have they done that yeah he has his top five quarterback list from the summer he has zero playoff wins yeah do you what do you think he wants i mean i and look if arizona the thing about arizona is if they bring back kyler murray and he plays well and that team's kind of plucky and they decide we're going to stick with kyler murray there's a team

that could be in the top to trade up with like right there's always opportunities here carolina pulled it off not to get necessarily Caleb Williams, but there's like three, four quarterbacks who could be top 10 talents. So if you're in that ballpark, you do that. You get a Gardner Minshew, Andy Dalton to make sure that just in case that quarterback's not ready, you've got a guy and then you go forward and then you see what you can do. But I feel like not moving on from Kirk is more dangerous for Justin Jefferson, because how are you supposed to argue to him that this is going to work? You're one in four. Like, how are you going to say, oh yeah, no, Justin next year, Kirk will be much better at winning these games

or we'll have a much better roster when we're paying him $48 million or whatever he's going to want after he throws for 4,800 yards this year. I think it's a much more risky thing with Jefferson to stay with this. No, I know. I agree. And I, I just, I don't, I think they've been trying to get out from under this conundrum that they have with cousins for a long time. They've just been locked into it because of the way that they've structured his contract. I mean, they gave him the one-year extension last offseason, 2021, and that was going to a year where we weren't sure what this team was going to be. And then, of course, they go win 13 games, and it's like, oh, okay.

They made it to the playoffs. That was good enough to be able to run this thing through. They didn't give him the extension this offseason, so it legitimately brought in to question his future for the team because it was their one chance to do that. They didn't have to the extension this offseason. So it legitimately brought in to question his future for the team because it was their one chance to do that. They didn't have to extend Kirk this offseason and they didn't. So now it's all right. Prove it to us. Like and right now, not necessarily saying it's all his fault, but right now the team is not winning games.

And the cost of keeping Kirk Cousins to run it back when you know what his ceiling is. Like there's no more jury still out, like get him a new coordinator, get him a new coach. No, like he is a good quarterback in the NFL. No one's questioning that. He's shown moments of being a great quarterback, but those are not things that have, like the Vikings have a six year sample size since 2018. Like, come on, like what are we doing here? If we're thinking, oh, it's going to be all that much different next year. We'll surround him with more pieces,

the same narrative that we've been saying now for more than half a decade with Kirk Cousins in Minnesota. Like, your chance to move on is now. They can't squander that opportunity no matter what happens with Kirk and what numbers he puts up. Because as we know, even look at that Philly game. What do those numbers amount to they still lost and i i think that this is their chance to finally move on to

start over at a position that for them has been notoriously hard to do because they like stability even if the stability doesn't yield more than one playoff win in his entire tenure in which some might say was due to a push-off off after the team won a coin toss. But it's nothing against Kirk as a quarterback. I just think that this team needs something else, that they've already gone this route. They've given a lot of resources and chances to make this happen. It's happened to a degree, but it still hasn't gotten them over the hump. I mean, I would say the same thing about the Dallas Cowboys. If this thing continues on the

trend where you're paying a good quarterback, great quarterback money, you can't make that same mistake twice in a row with Dak. And I think the Vikings have are all but paid out on Kirk Cousins at this point of his career. Purple Insider is brought to you by BetterHelp. Friends, have you ever had times where you felt like your brain is getting in the way like maybe your brain is racing and you can't fall asleep or you can't slow down negative intrusive thoughts and you know you should look for help but you haven't brought yourself to do it yet well therapy can help you figure out what's holding you back so you can work for yourself rather than working against yourself.

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10% off your first month. That's betterhelp.com slash insider. Right. And what Dak has right now is a phenomenal roster that Kirk has had probably twice at twice and a half like last year's roster was very good but it was not great 2018 and 2019 were the only times he had great rosters those were the only times he actually made sense as the Minnesota Vikings quarterbacks since then he really hasn't why why have a good quarterback on a team that does not have enough pieces to actually win anything and yet like you said the stability was important to them the competitiveness was important to them and they couldn't see the forest through the trees but now the thing that the front office did that was

the smartest is they drew a line in the sand and said, we're not signing you to a contract that locks us in long term. I think they would have done one that was right. Yeah, I think they would have done an extension that was Derek Carr ish that what like what the Raiders did. So, yeah, like an extension is not really an extension like here. We can cut you for five million dollars. Yes. Yeah, I would have done that exactly uh and kirk knows from his perspective that there will be teams that want to sign him for next year let's talk

about this game though uh because this one i think it's important for both teams it's the most important one in four versus one in four that i've seen recently uh because if the vikings win i think kevin o'connell will stand on the table for his team and say don't trade my players yet give me a chance give me a chance to upset san francisco not impossible give me a chance to uh beat you know green bay but right before the deadline and then if they're three and five yeah you could see know, this is the This is 2020 all over again. Is it not? It is. Oh, yes.

I'm just saying that, like, if they go to one and five, then there's no argument that O'Connell has to keep everybody around. So it's huge for the Vikings. I think it's huge for Justin Fields and for his progress to beat a team like this that does not have a good defense and is reeling without its star player and at home at Soldier Field. Make the case for me for Chicago winning this game. Okay, so I was just looking to see if there's any injury updates. No. The team right now, their secondary is super banged up, but it does sound, at least from what some players have been saying,

Jalen Johnson, their cornerback, he's got a hamstring injury. They've had a lot of soft tissue things, which is not great. But that one sounds like it's trending in the right direction. So you'd have a starter potentially back there. Kyler Gordon, back from injury reserve, potentially is clear to go to practice this week. You get your nickel back. That's important because they've just been rotating in and out of that position i think greg stroman jr played fine this past week um but like you you want to solidify that if you had your three starting cornerbacks

back for the first time since god week one um that's significant improvement eddie jackson could be back so like their secondary has been a disaster in terms of injury. We have not seen that unit at full health to know what their potential is. A secondary that goes against an offense that doesn't have Justin Jefferson this week, yeah, TJ Hawkinson's there. Jordan Addison, as we saw, is a threat that they haven't yet faced because he's a rookie. So we'll see how that pans out in KJ Osborne. But I feel like if things trend health-wise in the right direction from a defensive perspective,

with all of the new looks that they've been throwing, I know it's very marginal in terms of improvement, but they're coming off their highest blitz percentage of the Matt Eber-Fluss era. Like, Allen Williams was allergic to it. Fluss has tried to get a little bit more aggressive. They're thinking about bringing a Gary on staff. And the way I say like bring a Gary on staff,

remember when he was a senior, what was he senior offensive analyst assistant, something or another in 2019 before, you know, before it came on in full-time in 2020, like they're trying to bring one of those guys on because they need help on the defensive side of the ball because they're down, they're down a big staff member. So if you get health, if you get, you know, a defense that feels like it's slowly trending in the right direction, maybe that's enough to squeak out a close win.

Now, on the other side of that, of course, all of this is null and void if you don't see Justin Fields do what he did against Washington against a bad defense there. They're 29th in points. The Vikings are 23rd in points. Progressively getting better against bad defenses. They face a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad defense against Denver. Then it's like a step above bad with Washington, and then it's Minnesota this week. If there's any time for them to get it on track, you have some really not so great teams that are facing similar

predicaments to you. It's just a matter of, can the quarterback play, can that be the deciding factor for this offense once again, which, you know, is dealing with, it's going to be dealing with a reworked backfield because Khalil Herbert is out for a couple of weeks and they've got to start seeing some contributions from other guys not named DJ Moore because eventually DJ Moore is probably going to be leveled off because I'm not so sure that Justin Fields is going to be

comfortable throwing to him in situations that look like he's completely covered because he has not shown us that he's willing to do that so far. I think this is an ideal situation for Justin Fields because the Vikings do not sack the opposing quarterback. I mean, Daniil Hunter does, the Vikings don't. I mean, they are, I forget what it is now, but they're like second to last in pressure. PFF ranks them second to last only to the bears in their overall pass rush grade. And outside of Hunter, I think Davenport has two sacks and two games and the, like no one else has any. And I mean,

that's the whole thing. Like it's just Hunter or nothing. And that's a pretty hard way to live. And we've seen opposing quarterbacks, Justin Herbert. We saw it from homes last week, time to throw for, for these guys who can make plays and make plays out of structure

and when the vikings blitz as much as they do if they don't get home which they almost never do except for against bryce young but i mean there's just lots of space to run for a quarterback and i think that what they're going to try to do is keep things in front of them and try to keep justin fields from really airing it out but i'm not sure that they're going to try to do is keep things in front of them and try to keep Justin Fields from really airing it out. But I'm not sure that they're going to give him a whole lot of problems within the pocket unless he does it to himself. And on the Vikings side, yeah, it really does come down to how do you make up for a guy that was like two thirds of your passing game? And I don't know how much it matters. The thing, the crazy thing, let me tell you something crazy.

Something crazy that you might not know because you're not, because you know everything about the Vikings, but one thing you might not know. Kirk Cousins has barely been pressured all year this year. It's kind of wild. Like their offensive line. I know this is astounding from when you were here, has been pretty good.

I was watching that game the other day. I was like, what is this unit? Because that's not a unit that game the other day, I was like, what is this unit? Because that's not a unit that – even though, yeah, I know he got sacked three times against Kansas City. Like, some of that's on him. But, like, the offensive line and the way that they – like, the investments, you got to give them credit for the front office.

Like, even dating back to the last regime, like, those investments have started to really, pay off up front that's something the bears that's something the bears really hope that they can you know hang their hat on someday with how how mindful they've been uh with at least adding to the offensive line year by year and i don't want to say that the right guard has completely turned a corner but he had a very good game against kansas city And the overall unit, though, you're right. I mean, you invest second rounder in O'Neal, first rounder in Derisaw, and then Bradbury had a great game against Kansas City,

has sort of become a good player, and all of a sudden it looks like a good line. So that's the crazy thing about the Vikings' offense is how mediocre they've been despite the fact that Cousins has not been pressured that much. That will be an interesting dynamic to watch of how Eberfoof decides to go after Kirk Cousins and whether they do pressures or different looks and so forth. One more thing before we wrap up. Now that you've covered the Bears for a couple of years, because last year I'm sure your head was swimming, you're just throwing it back.

It's your home city, but still into a new team and everything else. Now you're comfortable. Now you got the sample size. What's the funniest thing about covering the Bears? Okay. That's a great question. I think it's stuff that only you and I would find hilarious because of just the calamity that you and I would find hilarious, like, because of just like the, the calamity that

you and I have covered, you know, whether it, I just got like, I was thinking about it during the Alan Williams resignation, Justin Fields saying that he's being overcoached day. All of that happened in one day within a five hour stretch. And I just, I kept thinking, okay, like I covered a lot of really crazy days in, in Minnesota, like days where it's like, did that really happen? Did that really happen? Did the court, did the, did the coach say that a quarterback has a horseshoe around his neck? Did he say that the offense has too much volume in it?

Did off the field thing with Everson Griffin take up days and days and days and Dalvin cook all of his situations that can be left off of this podcast for obvious reasons. Like just did Bashad Breeland like threaten the general manager after getting kicked out of practice and then got kicked off the team? Like just crazy nonsense. And so like I thought about that. I'm like, OK, the Bears have packed about a year's worth of insanity into the first four weeks of this season. And every time I look up, it's like, what's next?

Which is crazy because this week it hasn't felt like that like after trading chase claypool which was a drama filled thing in its own right do you know i got like blamed from some stupid fans like blamed me for that so here's the exclusive story because i only i only go on like certain podcasts so I do a tell-all, this one included. So the Friday that he made the comment about coaching, so we go in the locker room. Haven't seen Chase Claypool in the locker room. He's always had to go lift when open locker room happens. Guys know that open locker room's happening, and they schedule yoga, lifting lifting a lot of different things to avoid us. And that's your prerogative, but like by PFWA rules, you have to be available to speak

regularly, not just after games. So Claypool, we're in there with him Friday, uh, before the Denver game and he's sitting at his locker. There isn't many of us Fridays are usually a quieter day. And so go up to his locker, talk to him a little bit. And it kind of felt like a pity party for himself early on. Like, how are things going? Yeah, rough up and down start, blah, blah, blah. Like, you know, I got crucified for the, we all know what happened, the Green Bay game. Which is still insane that that tape is out there and lives.

And this guy got a third shot at another team after loafing the entire game for a coach who has an acronym called the hits principle. And the H stands for hustle surprised. He lasted this long, but you know, he's like, yeah, like no, nobody talks about the good things I do week two, but like, you know, whatever, It was very off-putting. So I asked him a question because I was working on a story that I just wrote last week about, you know, how this team was constructed roster-wise. Like, this is the place that Moussa Mohamed in 2007, 2008 called the place where receivers

go to die. Can't get a lot of free agents in here for obvious reasons. Quarterback play affects that. So what did Ryan Poles do? He traded for two of his biggest pieces in the receiving core. So these guys didn't have a choice but to come here. So I asked Chase initially about how his perception of the receiver of this team, receiver room to the whole team, how did it change from the time you were traded here in which you didn't have a choice to come here, but like, how did it change from last November to now? Talked about evolving about evolving and you know adapting all those things and you know having to

kind of just like more or less grin and bear it at times where it's not fun um so I asked him verbatim do you feel like you were being used in a way in this offense that best showcases your skill set so he waits looks at us for about seven seconds i counted after i watched the video back and he goes no so that opens up this whole firestorm where you've got two players in about eight or nine days more or less blaming coaching and i know justin fields walked it back you can think whatever you want about that like i he said what he said initially and it's fine to be frustrated. I totally get it. They're trying to make you into a pocket passer, no play action,

no bootlegs, no nakeds, none of that early on. All of a sudden you start throwing in those concepts and he has a career high on play action, play action, pass attempts, play action, pass yardage touchdowns against Denver. And you carry some of those things over and hope that'll happen beyond that. Okay, whatever. So like, that day that that, that whole exchange went down, and then Claypool is inactive for the Denver game, they tell him to stay away, like it's only a matter of time before they trade him. You wouldn't believe the amount of dumb fans I've had come at me being like, you baited him into that question, like you're the reason he's gone. But like, I could not believe it.

Not even in my wildest of Minnesota days, did I have anything like that happen where someone literally blamed me for a player not being on this team, like taking nothing into account apparently for how he handled. He had 18 catches for 191 yards and one touchdown in 10 games like that apparently weighs nothing other than a reporter doing their job like here I haven't said this yet so again you're getting exclusive with me what would you like me to ask him when he's playing terribly I know he's not a bad player do you want me to be like is the reason you're not

playing well because you're not very good because that's not a fair question to ask when we know he was a second round pick for a reason he's a good player so you got to wonder are they using you in the right way i don't ask softballs i don't toss things up i don't lob things for players but this was a chance for him like you know you can say whatever you want to say i don't care what you say either way my check clears whether he says yes or no but for for him to say that, and then for fans to go just completely berserk and say the media is setting him up to get him out of here. What does that do me? What's good. So I was, that was like one of my moments where I'm like, okay, this is just craziness from the first four weeks that ends last week,

the day after the Washington game, when he gets traded. And now I'm just like constantly looking over my shoulder all right what's next because this team has had no shortage of like drama like the on-field product has been I mean last two games has been better but like that has out like been outweighed by everything else that has gone on around this team and that chase Claypool saga lasting all of a week felt like it was like three months in a week yeah i guess i would say that there's always going to be those people no matter what that no matter what happens it's it's your fault it's something you did and whatever he could have just said yeah i feel like i'm being used just fine i need to play better like he could have answered that yeah i feel like i'm being used just fine i need to play better like he could have answered that in many ways but you also did run a third string quarterback

out of town here once and got assaulted by fan content creators who i hope you're watching you on around the horn yes did i run him out of town you know he has like a he has like a youtube or whatever now he's like breaking down tape. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. Yep. A couple of years in the XFL and USFL.

And yeah, that's what he's doing now. So hopefully the people who went after you over that now enjoy watching you on around the horn and get up. Cause I do. I love when I'm out somewhere and I'm like at a restaurant, I'm like, like the Leonardo DiCaprio meme, just like, Oh just like oh like look who's on TV I wonder what those content creators are doing watching you so anyway um I don't even know how we got there I was gonna say RC Cola was the funniest thing about the bears and then all of a sudden all this other stuff happens make sure and you know this but like I still have to remind you just bring your own food to soldier fields press box it has gotten slightly better i think that's the kevin warren effect but it's still aramark

catering which it's not good it's not good so i look very much i very much look forward to going to minnesota the sunday or monday after thanksgiving because the food there is incredible um but like i mean the funny things that happen with this team are just like, it's just, it's stuff that only I think you and I would find funny, like just absolute, like, you know, nonsense that just keeps happening with this group and that the defensive coordinator goes MIA for a couple of days and all of a sudden suddenly resigns health and personal reasons. And then, you know, there's a report that comes out that it's a little bit more than health and personal reasons that there's some inappropriate conduct. And it's like, all right, like that bombshell feels like it happened two years ago and it only happened on September 20th. Like it's like, it's the point where like, I think that what I laugh about is like i laugh to keep from crying from the stress of this job from time to time because it's just these teams yeah

yeah like one in four who would have thought like two teams that you know effectively are in the same spot and the nfc north with where detroit is kind of running away with it early on, like the Packers are not a very good football team. Yes. They beat the bears 38, 20 and week one, but beyond that, like Jordan loves going through the roller coaster of the season as the starting quarterback for the first time. So what does that mean for the division race? Are we just going to have like three, three teams like clipping at each other's heels to try to figure out who's

going to finish like second, third and fourth. And if the bears finished third, would I be all that surprised given the state of this division? No, I wouldn't, but it's, I like, I'm so cautious to be like, how much worse can it get? Um, at least we don't cover the Patriots, I guess. So your good friend, Chad graph. Oh yeah. Yeah. Chad's got a pretty tough there. He's got to write bill Belichick hit pieces, which I'm sure go over really, really great, uh, within that building. But, uh, yeah, it should be interesting. And Hey, look, it is a Juwan Williams revenge game. So that is a storyline that we are going to be watching. Juwan Williams, Chicago bears legend, um, could make some plays. I saw, I got eight snaps last week, so he's going to be in there.

You know, he loves Juwan. He's a really nice guy. I haven't had a chance to talk to him. Remember you told me that he was like one of your favorites in the locker room. When I saw he got like poached off of there, they've poached a couple of people off of practice squads. They just did it with Darrington Evans from Miami because they need running back depth. Um, who else? The safety from baltimore um what's his name the veteran safety from baltimore hold please the guy they just got like last week um his name's

gonna kill me hold on i need to like get this right uh duron harman duron harman remember him he played for the lions for a long time. He's been in the league a minute. He was not active the past game because of, um, he just got here, but like, yeah.

Then Joe, Jawan Williams, like the Jawan Williams era. There's a, there's a pick six coming for Jawan Williams and he's going to point right at Kevin O'Connell, right? When he gets the interception, walking down the sideline, you let me go. Uh, that's the funniest way this game can end. That's usually a question, but I think we just answered it. So anyway, well,

just like we expected, we're all looking up at the Detroit lions and we'll see how this one plays out. I'm excited to hang with you in Chicago again. I always love when I get that chance. And we'll have fun. And then we'll do this again before it's Vikings in Chicago again. And only the Lord knows what will be happening at that point. Oh my God.

The fact that that game's now just over a month away and if this goes according to one plan for the Vikings where like if they don't if they don't lose in this game and they start realizing all right it's over this rock like how different this roster could look has the potential to look and I'm not saying that they're like guaranteed to make wide sweeping changes but if that happens we're gonna have an interesting pod uh going into that November 27th game. Very much. Well, thank you for your time. Great to chat with you again. And we will indeed do it again soon. And it might be by the next time we talk, I might need a draft scout in my life. We'll see. I don't need, I don't right now, but I might. I mean, she, I've, I've been in touch with her

recently, very briefly. I said, Hey, I called her on her emergency phone and she was just like what are you bothering me for this is college football season she's out busy like looking at you know looking at prospects i'm like drake may caleb williams and that was left on red i was not given that i was not given a response yet on that one but if the bears this win doesn't carry over then we both might be needing some draft scout in our life. It's not time yet. It might be soon. Thanks, Courtney.