Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - ESPN's Courtney Cronin talks about Mike Zimmer's approach to handling rookies

Episode Date: August 18, 2021

Matthew Coller and ESPN's Courtney Cronin analyze how Mike Zimmer is handling Kellen Mond and look at whether Mond will ultimately end up being the backup QB and talk about if Anthony Barr's recent absences are something to be concerned about. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TD Direct Investing offers live support, so whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. welcome to another episode of purple insider matthew collar here along with espn's courtney cronin as we get ready to go cover another practice and we're starting to get to the point Courtney I feel like most of the position battles are resolved and we're looking at our watches going are we playing real football games yet yeah I think there's a couple like the opposite spot the spot opposite Daniil Hunter a defensive end I know that Andre Patterson talked about wanting to get Steven Weatherly and DJ Wanham equal reps equal game situations

in the first preseason game so that's the only one I would say that's probably not resolved but and I know you've talked about this ad nauseum from the first preseason game because what else do we do except beat stuff into a pulp that effectively will not matter down the line. But nonetheless, we do know a lot of things about the position battles that were unresolved going into last Saturday. Ole Udo's your right guard. Greg Joseph is your kicker unless they bring a veteran in. And beyond that, they have really bad depth in the secondary.

So, I mean, all those things have seemingly resolved themselves or at least given us answers to things we didn't fully know but now we do and uh here we are week whatever of training camp and i'm really lost track of all the days do you think that this is the most boring from that perspective from the battles it has not been boring from a storylines perspective from the coaches consistently calling out players at the podium vaccination status debates and all that sort of stuff I mean it's felt like the early part of camp was a complete whirlwind where every day we were being hit with something crazy that feels like that was two months ago right Christian Derrissaw Jeff Gladney all that sort of stuff

it all just came at once and now there's a little bit of and I won't say dust settled because Zimmer calling people out after the preseason game was is very recent still but in terms of the battles usually that's the big discussion oh this guy he had a couple catches today BC Johnson is emerging over Dylan Mitchell or whatever like normally that's kind of the place we're getting to right now. And yet it just feels like, yeah, that Weatherly and Wanham thing is the only real battle that is even worth talking about the rest of the way. Yeah. And I think what Mike Zimmer said on Tuesday, when we talked about Kellen Mond and that he had his best practice of, you know, his time as a Viking.

On Monday, he operated the huddle in and out of it much quicker. He was accurate. He had like a sense of urgency with playing up tempo a little bit more in terms of like the progressions of his reads and not having a predetermined read. Like Mike Zimmer was asked about, well, you made those comments on Saturday about him needing to pick things up. Effectively, do you think he heard it? And do you think that that is part of the reason, you know, of lighting a fire under him? And, you know, for all intents and purposes, that's exactly what Zimmer said he's doing, that he's trying to light a fire under these guys.

I'm paraphrasing here, but that, you know, some guys take to it, others don't. But he is effectively using the media to get his message out there. He did it with the vaccinations. We all know where he stands. He probably said the same thing in the locker room, but to go out and say it publicly is a pretty big statement. Him saying what he said about Christian Derusaw, one step forward, two steps back, then following it up a week later, we didn't expect this with the injury and the subsequent second

surgery that he had because of it. And then with Kellen Mond, not once but twice, he's talking about how slow he is at processing and everything's moving way too slow compared to where it needs to be. He's getting his point across. I think that the whole read between the lines stuff, it's not hard to do with this head coach and this team because those have been the focal points of the storylines within training camp because there are not so many position battles. We came into camp with a few,

and I think that if you really want to get in the weeds and talking about like who's your you know backup outside you know backup right cornerback who's going to be aligned in the nickel and in you know this sub package whatever if it's not your starters that goes further down the weeds into the weeds but everything else kind of feels very uniform right now which I think for a team that has had so much uncertainty and just kind of feeling that they're on shaky ground that's probably a good spot for them to be in I think that Zimmer is fair in calling out people who haven't done anything yet in front of the media like you won't hear him comment on a mistake by Harrison Smith or something like that

I think he kind of learned his lesson a little bit with Anthony Barr in the tendency to coast issue that you can't make certain comments about veteran players and things like that. But rookies, he's always been willing to say they need to do this or they need to do that and just be straightforward with it, which I think is fine. I don't know if you think that there could be a potential issue there. To me, I sort of, and maybe it's old school of me to think this, but like, well, do something first. Like earn the respect to the point where you don't get called out in front of everybody for acting like you're in slow motion.

You know what I mean? Sure, and I think the one thing that you could maybe argue with Darasabi is when you talk to teammates, you talk to his offensive line coach, they're all saying the right things publicly that he's trying his best. It's not his fault that his groin got re-injured. And even Zimmer said that last week that, you know, it's a nagging thing because of the movements, because of, you know, his position as an offensive lineman. You're crouched down for the majority of what you do.

You got a groin injury. Last I checked, your groin's what helps move your leg around to backpedal in your pass set. So even he understands that it's like it's not his fault entirely, but he's airing the frustrations out because it's like, come on, we expected you to be ready week one. I don't know if there's anything Christian Derrissaw can do about that. I mean, unless he completely botched his rehab or wasn't doing it or gained a bunch of weight and came back overweight, things like that. But I think Zimmer gets his point across with rookies

because they're hedging so much of the success this year, especially that offensive line, on rookie development of Wyatt Davis, of Christian Derrissaw and we haven't seen it yet and that's him airing his frustrations when he makes those comments and I don't think you can fault him for that because the intel they got at the time was everything will be fine by the time this guy gets to camp in his full go right and that has not obviously been the case and I just sort of funny at even the suggestion that he could be ready for week one yeah that seems rich i don't believe that i don't understand

where that comes from and we've even seen blake brandel get on the field a few times he's the third string tackle and take a few reps and i think that he's the backup going into week one it's just impossible to see someone not getting any 11 on 11 reps to this point as we record this on august 16th 17th and and i mean we're not far away at all from the season he would have to take huge steps forward um but that one i do wonder if there's a little bit i'm always sort of thinking about 2016 and how zimmer's bluntness frustrated some people inside that locker room and like which jabs you could take.

If you've ever watched the departed, that's a guy you can't hit, or that's not a guy you can't hit, but that's almost the guy you can't hit. Like these rookies are guys you can hit, but usually where it gets a little dicey is with injuries where it's not somebody's fault. Like you said that their groin has become a problem or whatever.

And so to make comments about it, you could see other people going, Hey, come on, man. I mean, it's an injury. These things happen. But Zimmer, I think has always wanted guys to maybe come back before they were ready. And even with Riley Patterson, the kicker, he seemed very annoyed that the kicker had not gotten back out there. And I think it's become, as we talk about how those battles are not the biggest story, it's become the biggest story of just the demeanor of the head coach on a daily basis.

And before we get into a game of talk me into, um, which I've been looking forward to playing, I just, I threw it out there kind of that. I feel like Zimmer is sort of making it clear to the world that, Hey, this is what happens when you rely on rookies to fill key spots. And Hey, this is what happens when a lot of your draft picks miss is that we get killed by the Broncos and there's this subtle, or maybe not at that subtle anymore. Look what I'm working with here outside of the top guys on this team that points more toward the draft. But give me your interpretation of how, I guess, straightforward Zimmer has been about the things that are bugging him this year. I tend to believe this year, because this is my fifth season covering the team, I can't remember any other year outside of some of the bluntness,

like with Case Keenum has a horseshoe around his neck, or it was before my time, but Xavier gets nervous when they had their mutiny in the secondary back in Green Bay. What was that, 2016? There have been those comments that are so like, whoa, that like they stand out. These, I don't know if it's more subtle with Zimmer. It actually doesn't feel subtle.

That's probably the wrong way to put it. It just feels more routine because every single day there's something, and he's not afraid to voice what he thinks about certain things. I mean, there's certain instances where he'll catch himself. Like when I asked him about the throwing volume for Kellen Mond last week, and he threw six of 16, something like that, it felt like there was a concerted effort to not have him throw the ball, whether he knows the playbook,

whether it's just the fact that he wasn't in any practices, barely because of COVID. And Zim caught himself he's like well no yeah I'm gonna keep that like I'm not gonna talk about that right now so he has those moments where he's still very cautious to not like show his entire hand but I think with um with the rookies he's looking at this being like we have an 11 person draft class and one of them right now who's got a knee injury in Kanae Wongwu is probably the only one that they can hang their hat on is somebody who's going to have a legitimate impact and they can rely on this year Christian Derrissaw injured

hasn't done anything Wyatt Davis has a lot of catching up to do but looks like he's getting better Kellen Mond still QB three in my mind maybe I might have you try to talk me into something else when we play our game um the young pass rushers are you know way down the depth chart like they're not making any you know big splashes yet uh your six round tackle was shot four times and isn't here um Chaz Surratt hasn't done much I mean I can keep going but it's just like I think he's looking at this, like with the comment about Gladney last two weeks ago whenever about losing a first-round draft pick

and that Rick Spielman thinks of them as quote-unquote gold. Those are little subtle jabs at other people who are making the decisions around here. And I think that Zimmer's gotten very good over the years of letting you know exactly where he stands without being like, this draft class sucks and it's not going to pan out. He'll never say it like that. He will definitely have some tone and he'll be very curt about it if you catch him in the right moment. But he's definitely let you know where he stands on a multitude of issues so far last like

four weeks we've been out here I think that your interpretation is similar to mine that he's sort of throwing up shooting up the flares a little bit of hey look if our depth is a problem again I didn't draft these guys that kind of thing and it's always interesting to look around the league and look at the other reporters that I follow and some of the tweets that quote head coaches on different sort of hot button issues and wonder about how people are sort of digging into certain positions to sort of say like, this is why I should continue to have my job and I think there's a little bit of if this goes sideways it's because the you know the quarterback didn't get vaccinated

it's because the draft classes didn't work out and when we had injuries he's insulating himself or trying to distance himself from certain things that I think, you know, that's job preservation. That's self-preservation. That's showing, hey, don't lump me in with this ownership if and when you decide you need to make changes. Like, I'm not the one who was – I'm not the catalyst for X, Y, Z or whatever the problem is. He's been pretty good at that over the last couple years too.

I mean, you've seen the comments from, I mean, what? I go back to the 2018 season and, you know, everything publicly coming undone in week seven when they had a decent game against the Jets. They went on the road, and then Mike Zimmer says, we didn't run the ball enough. You can tell where he stands on issues. And then what?

Five, six, seven weeks later, John DeFilippo gets fired. Like you knew that was coming because Mike Zimmer put it out there that he was not happy. Right. So that type of stuff, I think, probably rubbed some people the wrong way. I mean, you've read some of the reporting. I remember Ty Doon had the article, what was it, like December of last year? It was right around the time your book came out. And it was about, you know, what's going on here.

And I know some of the voices that were in that story who were anonymously quoted. I won't say them on this show, but I can very easily point to who those people were just by what they said about how Zimmer handles things, where it's not always looking inward it's pointing outward but letting you know exactly where he stands on certain issues because he's not going to be taken the fall if he doesn't feel like he's responsible for it which I think that if you're a Vikings fan

and you're following the team on a daily basis and you're following our reporting this show that Mike Zimmer's bluntness has always been I think good for you to understand where your head coach of your team that you like stands like I think that it is fundamentally better to be honest about a lot of things or as honest as you can be than it is to be like I don't know if Sean McDermott still does this but when he first got to Buffalo is just cliche cliche cliche cliche walk away from the podium and that doesn't do anything for anyone like Rocco Baldelli is a good example of this Rocco Baldelli's post games are just useless um after they lost in the post season he said that he wasn't upset they still had a

great year which is that sounds like a year zero comment which is just nonsense right which is just nonsense and disrespectful to anyone who like likes sports it's just disrespectful if you're the head coach and you say no we lost the playoffs we're fine like he is basically saying i don't respect your intelligence as a fan base to be like unhappy with what just went down here that is not mike zimmer like you lose 33 to 6 and mike zimmer will tell you as the fans as he is speaking into the tv or whatever whatever podium he's going to say that was bad that was super bad i think that's great to not sugarcoat it like that that's what i'm saying but it also it has this sort of yin and yang to it it's like but it also has this can rub people the wrong way type of thing which we've seen play out over the years and i think he's gotten better at doing the

dance but then the vaccination thing happens and then there's some rookies who are getting dunked on and and i guess i just wonder like we go into the season here with already the disposition of being like, yeah, I'm calling people out again. Cause this could be it. So I'm leaving it all out there. Like, well, how, how is that going to impact them or not as we go forward? And I think that it matters very much how the first two games go. Like if the first two games go great, it's like, ah, yeah, hard-ass Zimmer.

His tactics work. It worked. Yeah. And if it doesn't, it can turn fast, I think. Well, and that's one thing I wanted to bring up because you mentioned the vaccination stuff. Remember there was the one day, I believe it was a Wednesday. It was a Wednesday before Cousins got back where he's like prefacing his media availability with, I'm not going to talk about anything vaccination related anymore.

Because the day before, whatever the day was, when he went in on the quarterbacks, from my understanding and people I've spoken to, there were some players who were not okay with that. Some veteran players who approached whomever and kind of said, you know, to Mike Zimmer, for all intents and purposes, like, chill out with that because it's not sitting well in the locker room. It wasn't that the league called and said, yo, this is not how you're supposed to do this. It wasn't that he got reprimanded from anybody from ownership, the GM, whatever, because they're all on his side.

But when it starts rubbing players the wrong way because he can't lose the locker room like we've seen that happen before not necessarily you know a situation here but you've seen what what happens when when a coach loses the locker room it's over i think he did in 2016 i think that you can speak to that better because you were right yeah that was my first year yours was your first year was 17 uh by the end of 16 guys even in the locker room after games were sort of saying off off the record just like this is this has gotten pretty rough yeah and uh i think i don't know how much jeremiah searles wants to say about that on the show but i he could probably speak to being really curious because remember that was the year that the offensive line got called off as being called out as being soft. Yes. And I remember that there were guys who were really

upset about that. And I could see this being the same thing. This, this vaccination thing is very personal to some people and, uh, whether you agree with them or not, which I think we've seen from society that the majority of, I think football fans would prefer their players get vaccinated and not miss games, but that's really not relevant. If they're not going to, then they're taking that very sensitively. Like it's, it's a very sore subject to bring up multiple times in front of the entire media. And you knew that that was going to have people be upset about it because it's already an issue that is a clash within this locker room.

Now, some teams are a hundred percent vaccinated. They don't have this problem. And this is right. And this is something that they're going to have to deal with going forward. And Zimmer, I think, made the right move deciding to back off and sort of not keep harping on it. Because, I mean, there are people who come out and that's all they want to talk about. That's all they want to ask about. And the rest of us who are here every single day wanted to talk about football battles and position battles and actual football things.

And I think that Zimmer went down that rabbit hole and rightfully so. It's his team. He has every right to voice how he feels about it because there are legitimate football consequences to not getting vaccinated. There are. You lost your quarterback room. It could very easily happen again. But I think that even he realized kind of what was a general

sentiment of damn we keep talking about this every single day can we just talk about ball can we do something else and um but I appreciate the transparency I appreciate the the look into how he really feels like you're never going to be able to guess with him like you're going to know yeah and that's for better or for worse that's I think what you want in a coach because people who can shine a turd and make it look like steel, that doesn't do anybody any good. Hey, everybody. The season is on the way. Fans are going back to stadiums.

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been around a long time know how to sort of i think say what they generally feel without driving people crazy and this is where zimmer goes too far to the drive people crazy but like mike tomlin for example i think can be harsh but i think that tomlin does at least from what i've heard him do uh a very good job of acknowledging like we need to be better in this area or this didn't go well or whatever, and where he's not insulting your intelligence, but also has the players behind him because he's not like going after a sore subject like Mike Zimmer did. And I understand where Zimmer's coming from.

And I think a lot of people believe that he's right to say what he said. And there are probably a lot of people who appreciate that the leader of a franchise here that is the center of the sports world in Minnesota was willing to come out and be on that side of things, even just from a public health perspective. But you know that it's going to cause some rifting in the locker room, and I'm not surprised that it would. But I just – anyway, so I just needed your opinion on that because it was the most interesting thing to come out of the game. I should have used a better example like Troy Dye getting lost in coverage

or something wasn't that interesting. So let's play Talk Me Into. This has become like our weekly thing. Maybe it'll become our weekly thing going forward. think it should be i think it should be um i want you to start off by talking me into the idea that whatever is ailing anthony barr is not going to be a problem this year because zimmer said today that he's quote dealing with something and what as if we couldn't figure that out from the fact that he's gotten like seven veteran days right so um convince me that that won't be a thing well we know it's not a torn pectoral muscle right because we would

have seen that happen maybe I think back to that indie game. We didn't actually. We saw him exit the game. We didn't see like his chest falling off. Or something bizarre like that. I don't even know how. What that looks like. Anyways. No I don't think you can spot someone's pectoral muscles.

Tearing. Like at the moment. Like when Blake Proll went down. Yeah we heard it. We heard that. You could spot that. You could spot it and you could hear it. And you could see it and you could hear it and you could see it but no I think the vagueness of that it's a little terrifying if you're

thinking about this I'm trying to talk you into this I was gonna say remember you're talking me into it not being a problem it's not a problem because the fact that he did get some vet days led you to believe that okay maybe he's dealing with something and it's not that serious, but Zimmer just doesn't want him to practice and doesn't really want to call it like a full injury more. Just like, get your rest, keep your body healthy. He hasn't, I mean, he's, he knows this defense. He's the one who calls this defense. Nick Vigil has been taking those responsibilities on with Barr out.

But Anthony Barr doesn't need any preseason reps. He doesn't need much in the way of going back into this defense from missing all but one and a half games last year. He'll be fine because the institutional knowledge, there's nobody who runs this defense better than him. So I'm not worried about him missing time. as far as whatever it is that's ailing him um there's still three and a half weeks left until the start of the regular season he was he's been here it's not like he isn't at the building or like is you know off getting surgery in Philadelphia

like Christian Derrissaw did, we saw him yesterday, and then he just went back inside. So I don't think it's anything major because if it was major, A, you'd be able to see something. B, I just don't think he would be here. He would be rehabbing somewhere else potentially, or you would notice his absence more than we've noticed it thus far. You'd notice his pectoral muscles dangling as he ran down the field, right? I mean, I'm not even saying it's a pectoral thing because didn't somebody point out that during one of the joint practices he was wearing pants?

So maybe that was like covering up like a lower body injury, an ankle, a leg. Who knows? Who knows? Like I'm just trying to draw some dots here that maybe it's not the pectoral muscle. He also had like eight, nine months to recover from that. So, and yeah, I'm not a doctor. I don't know what the timetable is. He said he was 100% ready to go back in the spring. So I'm not worried about like the re-injury of that.

Hate using this word, but it sounds like something was tweaked. Something. I don't know. Tweak of the week. So I'm not worried about like the re-injury of that. Hate using this word, but it sounds like something was tweaked. Something, I don't know, tweak of the week, Eric Eager. I love that. He tagged me in something. I think he tagged you in it too. Yeah. Tweak of the week is the thing that he's been trying to push us to do a bit on. And I guess we're going to have to. The injury report, tweak of the week. Feel free to sponsor it anyway. But it doesn't, it just doesn't carry the feeling that this is a major injury okay so i think you've done a decent job the the best you can do is there's still plenty of time for him three and a half weeks to get rested up and that

he has been here and that he knows the defense it's not like he needs to practice a whole heck of a lot in order to still lead the defense. The reason I'm not entirely convinced would be that there's no Eric Wilson. And Nick Vigil in his past has been an NFL player, and he's okay. He's a guy. He's a guy. But the drop-off from Anthony Barr to Eric Wilson was kind of negligible. Yeah, Barr's a little better in stuffing the run

and hitting guards that are coming through gaps and things like that. But Eric Wilson sort of big plays made up for that, sacks, interceptions, stuff like that. So when Barr was out and Wilson was playing, you could go, oh, okay, well, you don't automatically lose this game. In fact, you've got the same chances you did before. If Nick Vigil is playing, that's a big drop-off from Anthony Barr. And we've also seen an injured Anthony Barr in 2016 again

where he was playing with an injury, and I think that was what actually frustrated some people in the locker room was Zimmer calling him out with the fact that he was playing through an injury that year. I think it was a wrist maybe. And it's not, it's not the same version when he's been playing banged up. So I think it is when you hear that he's dealing with something, it again, sort of points to the boy, you are thin, you are just thin behind all these very good players. And that's what, that's what it says to me. And another Zimmer savaging comment of these linebackers need to prove themselves.

There is little depth at the linebacker position behind your top three. Vigil as the third, I guess. I mean, Cam Smith was kind of in that role, but they got hurt. I think he's dealing with a concussion is what Zimmer said. Troy Dye didn't practice yesterday. No, and I mean, he hasn't come along the way that they were anticipating at all chance her up basically he hasn't really done much either though so i mean yes to to to go back to kind of keep the theme going here you know how mike zimmer feels about his linebacker depth yep drew his ire last week and i still think he feels the same way but as far as it goes with Anthony Barr

this week's going to be important does he practice I don't give a crap about the game if I'm looking at this from Mike Zimmer's perspective I just want to make sure he can practice and if he doesn't then you know he's dealing with more than just a little something or he's got something going on whatever Zimmer said said. But there's time. Today is the 17th. The first game's not until September 12th. So you're banking on the fact that whatever it is is going to be resolved by then. Okay, I'll give you like 50% convinced on that.

What would you like me to talk you into? I want you to talk me into Kellen Mond by the end of this weekend surpassing Jake Browning as QB2. Okay. I don't think this is that hard. Jake Browning and his pick six just showed us, I'm sorry, but that's what you have here.

You don't think Amir Smith-Marset could have run a better route? I do. I do. I think he, I think Smith. Iarset could have run a better route. I do. I do. I think he, I think Smith, I feel like I'm like really critical on that. Just watching that. And then like rewatching the game on my DVR, not,

not a fan so far. I think that there's a lot left to be, there's a lot to be desired there. Yeah. Well, I agree with you on Smith-Marset. I don't think he's shown anything that would make me think, Oh wow.

Okay. They've got a guy because he's looked like Stacy Coley or Dylan Mitchell or whatever I mean he was super excited when he scored that touchdown on fourth down against the third string Denver defense he was he was telling everybody this is easy I don't think that I wonder if he felt the same way on Saturday yeah it's clear that Mike Zimmer doesn't exactly love that much trash talking from someone who hasn't done anything yet either. But I yeah, I think that route in particular really just flew a flag exactly what route he was running it when they talk about getting in and out of routes really fast. That was not that that was like a sort of rounded he made it so easy for Sertan to see where he was gonna like at what point he was gonna stop yeah and he jumped the route right right and that's what I mean and that

if you're already anticipating that route as Sertan then he didn't exactly run it to throw him off so put it that way and then he didn't really exactly fight for the ball when it got there. But that throw right there had no velo on it really whatsoever. And if Josh Allen throws that football, it's probably not picked off because it just gets there fast. That's the reality of Jake Browning is I think he's handled himself in the way that you would totally expect a journeyman backup quarterback to handle himself you have to respect the way he's handled himself in in front of the media even after the game coming out and taking responsibility I appreciated that there were some lessons there maybe even for the starting

quarterback that Jake Browning in the way that he handled something that went wrong but it the talent the arm talent it's just not there and with at least Kellen Mond he can run he could sort of find a way even if he's not perfect he's got better arm talent he made one play to Wap Fill failure that he dropped you know in the end zone but one play that was terrific where he came off of his read he scrambled a little and flicked the wrist and the ball got there fast and uh WAP should have caught it but he's a guy who's not gonna be here so like if that's just a squad maybe yeah if it's just a Jefferson's touchdown though yeah and I think that's that's the point is even if you feel more comfortable with Jake Browning, you can't throw an out route because

the guy just doesn't have enough velo on the ball. And at least Mond has the physical talent that even if he gets things wrong, he might be able to make up for it. And I think this is different than the Kyle Slaughter thing because Kyle Slaughter was so far away from that. I don't know that Kellen Mond is so far away from that. Like Kellen Mond is much more physically gifted than Kyle Slaughter. Um, so I, I think that's your best argument that if he can even get close to running the offense, that he ends up being QB too, because Browning is just going to probably lose if he has to play. Are you convinced? I could be convinced by that.

If it's the one thing I want to hear more is that this game will decide like this indie game is, is Browning going to start again? Is it going, I mean, do we see the starters at all, but like, then what's the succession? Like, is it browning and then mond how much run does browning get if they see one mistake are they pulling him because mond wasn't supposed to play last week i know mike zimmer said that he never said that he did say that like he's you know because he wasn't sure with like covid coming off covid where his body was going to be at physically if he was going to be up to it so So something told them, like, yeah, we need to see this now.

And he got two two-minute drives. They could have waited to throw him in in the third quarter. They wanted to see how he acted under pressure. So if we see that again on Saturday, no matter what the outcome of the game is, if they win or they lose, I think that you have a much better chance of seeing a different number two quarterback than Jake Browning. Yeah, I think so too. And the interception pretty much, it's sort of solidified that even if you try to be that play it safe quarterback, uh, you just can't in the NFL.

I mean, there, there just, there's no option for that. There's no, Oh, game manage this. Usually the game managers we talk about are really talented people like Josh McCown, who doesn't ever really win, but is sort of a game manager type has one of the great athletic profiles of any quarterback to ever play. And that guy's like a backup game manager. I mean, you know, someone like our friend Gus Farratt, who comes on the show sometimes he had, like, he threw it down the field all the time when he had Randy Moss and took shots and had a big arm and could throw it 60 yards, 70 yards down the field. Like even the backup quarterbacks who succeed, Matt Moore has

had games of 350 yards in his career. We saw him and his talent level. I think Browning is just a level below that to the point where you can't really win unless Delvin Cook runs for 200 yards. At least with Mond, he has the physical gifts to give him a chance. So are you convinced? I can be convinced. Yeah. Okay. I think that Mond has put himself pretty far behind with choices he made. Yeah. And he's got a lot of ground to make up, but that's why I think this week is so critical for him. Yep, I agree. And if he's not QB2 at the start of the season,

he'll have made that bet because he's getting a lot of opportunities here. He got to practice a ton. He got to play in the games. He's clearly going to get a lot of passes in the games, and I would expect that he looks better this time out than he did last time. But I think that sort of reality set in for Mike Zimmer, that no matter how well you know and operate the offense, no matter how many people like you,

there's just a price to play poker here when it comes to height, weight, strength, speed. And I'm not sure that he has that. So, um, in terms of Browning. Yeah. In terms of Browning. Yeah. No, Kellen Mond does as, as a guy who was drafted. Uh, okay. So now I want you to, we'll do two more, one for me, one for you. Um, I want you to talk me into into Kirk Cousins somehow getting this team fully behind him by week one. Because yesterday in practice, we saw Kirk throw in a you like that. And Sam. He's screaming about Brandon Dillon, too.

He's super excited. Sam Ekstrom is the most subtly funny person that I think I've ever met. It's a beautiful dry wet. It's one of my favorites. He called it corny today. And I just thought it was what a great description of how it felt. But there's the unvaccinated issue that is not going away necessarily. There's the fact that they haven't really won anything with Kirk.

Like, you know, all the things and just the general vibe around. And how slow it took for him to get this offense back up when he came back. Right. The general vibe has been of a lot of maybe eye rolling like around Cousins so far. And you like that draw drew nothing like total crickets from the rest of the team yesterday. Talk me into Kirk Cousins gets everyone behind him by, I won't even say week one, because you've got to play games to do this, by week four. Everyone is behind Kirk by week four. Talk me into that happening.

Well, they look at the rest of the quarterback room and say, this ain't it. This is not going to win us games when we're looking at Mond or Browning or anything like that. So they're not even like operating on the what-if plan and what if by what if I mean COVID and things like that. They're not even operating on that. They see Kirk doing what he needs to do in the building. He's wearing the mask.

He's in his quarterback meeting room with plexiglass around his seat. He's doing everything he needs to do in the building. He's wearing the mask. He's in his quarterback meeting room with plexiglass around his seat. He's doing everything he needs to do. They actually see him abiding by the protocols, which came into question when Mike Zimmer said what he said. But they see Kirk taking this thing seriously, that if what they're saying they truly believe in, that we respect his decision to not get vaccinated we're not gonna it's not affecting the leadership aspect if they truly

believe that and they see him actually making the effort to make sure he doesn't get COVID or end up on that list that's the first thing I think ever as two things because I gave you the rest of the quarterback room and what the contingency plan would be and then Kirk and you know what he's supposed doing what he's supposed to do there was a play Monday where I mean it's unbelievable blanket like just the way that Patrick Peterson covered the route that KJ Osborne ran you'll see this red line on the field and where Kirk had to throw the ball had to land exactly it's supposed to land on that line watching his mechanics on that and I was talking with Gabe Henderson of Vikings Entertainment Network about this because he's a former defensive back so I was kind of you know picking his brain on what he saw and I just think that that's something

the mechanics like in spite of all the stuff that comes with Kirk I don't know if you call it baggage I don't know what you call it just like all of the question marks all the uncertainty the mechanics are there and he's got a strong arm like I think they look at that and say okay we can win with this guy everything else I mean these are looking at the defense and saying, okay, we're the starters. We know we're capable of being so much better than what this unit was last year. We do our part. He can do enough to keep us in games. And whether it's like getting behind and like this is, you know, Kirk's our guy. That's my quarterback.

I don't think you're going to see that. But they're going to get behind him enough to be like, hey, we're doing our job. He's performing because he can do his job hey we're doing our job he's performing because he can do his job because we're doing our job so let's just keep this good thing going and not try to get any egos in the way of this i don't know if they'll actually truly believe but they can buy in enough to get behind him if they see a direct result on the field from like hey we did our stuff he can do his stuff special teams you do make sure you don't screw it up like that they do hell well last year they did but yeah i think that that's

that's how they get behind kirk it's not gonna ever be like a genuine like we love this guy leader of the locker room carrying him off the field like rudy that's not gonna happen but yeah they can get behind him enough to deal with it and if there's any sort of like slip up then you'll know but i do think that by week you know if things continue in the right direction like and by that i mean wins they can be they can be publicly outfaced the outward support will be for kirk okay i can actually believe this okay and I think all would take which you're alluding to there all it would take is beating the heck out of Cleveland I mean if you beat Cincinnati who cares if you beat Arizona that's a that's a nice win but whatever

um if you beat Cleveland it's your former offensive coordinator. It makes your head coach look good. If you lead that win. First home game. First home game, like show up in a game that's important. And I ran across this the other day. I mentioned it to Sam, but it really blows my mind that the New York Jets have more wins against winning teams than the Vikings in the last three years.

I mean, beat someone good who's coming into here with huge expectations, the Cleveland Browns, lots of talent, a very, very good coach, a good quarterback who's sort of another version of what your quarterback's supposed to be except gutsier, right? Like do that. Take a few shots, make a few throws that are into coverage, make some big plays on a third down lead a game-winning drive like all those things have to happen i think in the first four weeks of the season to get them behind him and and like the win against denver was sort of in 2019 because it was denver but still it sort of got people behind him a little bit i think it needs to be that

and it can happen i think that i think that teams love to do this where they're like you guys were the ones who were down on kirk and like well actually but okay sure we'll buy that you know what i mean like well it wasn't really us so much as it was you but sure like we just said what was going on but um anyway no i think i think that that's a good one okay give, give me a quick one. Make it weird, though. You got some weird? Sell me on this offensive line combination starting. That's not weird.

Yes, it is. I can't do that. Yes, it is. There's Udo at left tackle. Oh, okay. Oh, you're making it weird. Okay. Yes.

Okay, gotcha. Sell me on this offensive line combination. Udo at left tackle. This is week one. Cleveland at left guard. This is week one. Cleveland at left guard. Bradbury at center. Wyatt Davis at right guard. Oh, okay.

And Brian O'Neill at right tackle. Okay. So that would be meaning that Rashad is hurt or something or Udo is more talented. If Wyatt Davis in the next several weeks comes on strong, which boy, the stock report on Wyatt Davis has been like, oh my, like, oh, he's, oh, he's fine. He's with the second team.

And then, oh my gosh, he's with the third team. What is going on? And then after the game the other day, it was like, it wasn't really very good, but you know, maybe he's got a chance to push forward here. So I've been all over the map on him. If over the next two preseason games, Wyatt Davis is very confident and he is just pushing people around. He is again, like the Browning thing. He's more physically

talented than Dakota Dozier. And it would have to mean that Rashad was sort of banged up, but Udo has shown he can at least convince the coaching staff to play that he deserves to be on the field and before he was a tackle so I would rather see Udo move over to left tackle than Blake Brendel play yeah I think that's that's just a recipe for disaster especially when you have like Trey Hendrickson in the first game who led the league in sacks last year not exactly who you'd want Blake Brendel playing if Rash Rashad is hurt, that's the only way I could sell it is that would be the combination of the most talented players. And that would be very good for them. If the, if, if Wyatt Davis emerged, like, this is what you're looking for is Wyatt Davis to say,

wow, I'm not the starter. I really have to take these big steps forward. He seems like a self-aware guy, but that sometimes means something and sometimes doesn't. We've seen self-aware guys get their tail whipped and just never work out here, and we've seen self-aware guys learn and succeed. So I don't know. I did a great job of that. But maybe the argument would just be most talent on the field. Yeah, I think that they drafted him for a

reason he was talked about as somebody who could have potentially gone in the second round you know he had that injury that he was dealing with and he had some cert i think he had like a january surgery post um post ohio state clemson um or was it the national championship? He was banged up, I think, last year. I don't know when he had. He had something. But they knew that he was going to be really good. And even Mike Zimmers talked about the development, the learning curve for offensive linemen is different.

I think the fact that they look at the rest of the interior of the offensive line, you're seeing Garrett Bradbury get worked by Michael Pierce in practice. And here's the thing. God, this kind of annoys me. He's never going head up one-on-one. Grady Jarrett's a different style player than Akeem Hicks. Garrett Bradbury will never be in that. There's going to be combo blocks.

He's never going to be left alone with Akeem Hicks go one-on-one with him. So why are they doing that in practice? I don't know. Maybe it's just a way to get your mojo up or whatever. I don't know. I think maybe, well, it depends because it depends on how other teams play. Like, maybe if there's teams early in the season who play nose guards. Lined up right over.

Yeah. Right. I mean, yeah. But nonetheless. But that's how they're going to play with Pierce, so I guess they're probably doing it like that. Fair. Fair. nonetheless like that's how they're going to play with Pierce so I guess they're probably doing it like that fair fair um I just think that the size thing cannot overlook that with Wyatt Davis and

what he presents to you as a pass protector on the interior that's different than Dakota Dozier and probably different than what Ole Udo brings right um you know maybe the same but they also if in this scenario they'd need Udo at left tackle. Right. At least Wyatt Davis is a guard. Yeah. Like that would be part of the argument if I was making it to talk you into it. So I could, I could be convinced. I'm curious to see what's going on with Rashad Hill though, because we have seen him.

A little limpy. Yeah. Yeah. A little limpy. The, the, the core stars, aside from Jefferson, who seems like he's coming back the core stars are healthy but around the edges there's a lot of the like you know with jefferson there's a little bit of the you know banged up lingering thing he used that word and then there's the bar there's a little

something going on there and there's the westbrook he hasn't been back but he's on mike zimmer's timeline that's what he said so there's there's just all these sort of um cloud circling when it comes to the injuries so this was fun we'll we'll continue this as a bit to talk me into I like it so thank you for your time we've got a run to practice so we will talk soon