Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - ESPN's Courtney Cronin talks Rick Spielman's bye week press conference, front office grades and Kirk Cousins's future

Episode Date: October 19, 2021

Fresh off Minnesota Vikings' GM Rick Spielman talking with the media, Matthew Coller and ESPN's Courtney Cronin discuss a particular answer regarding Kirk Cousins's future and they break down the odds of Cousins continuing to play well and how that might factor with the playoffs and the long-term outlook. Plus they discuss the cornerback depth with Patrick Peterson out and what Spielman had to say about the rookie class. They grade the front office's job overall so far as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Want to remind you before we get started, the TickPick is the exclusive ticketing partner of Purple Insider and the Blue Wire Network. TickPick should be your first choice to buy football tickets because they save fans money by never charging service fees ever. hello welcome to another episode of purple insider matthew collar here and joining me espn's courtney cronin courtney there's a couple of things that we have to discuss first we just got off the zoom call with Vikings general manager Rick Spielman. And well, I guess there were some takeaways from his conversation with the media. We've also got at least one pie chart to get to. So are you prepared for this as you are kicking off bi-week bonanza? I'll do my best. I mean, I think that the last time showed that on,

you know, quick turn pie chart with very minimal math ended up being okay. And I think I mean, I think that the last time showed that on, you know, quick turn pie chart with very minimal math ended up being OK. And I think I actually whatever the scenario was, let's say that I go ahead. I went ahead and nailed it. So I'm good with that. OK, I think that you've gotten better at the pie charts over the years, which I think maybe reduces entertainment value, but has improved your ability to really nail it in terms of like your actual opinion. So let's start off, though, with this bi-week bonanza by talking about what we could take away from. I'm going to do that a bunch of times.

What we could take away from Rick Spielman. I asked him about contract extensions, namely for Kirk Cousins and how they assess that. And Rick sort of gave the typical, we're looking a couple of years out at everything. We assessed it last year. We're looking at the cap and that kind of thing. But I wonder what you think of where the Kirk Cousins contract extension possibilities stand as we are here right now? And he has had overall a very good start to the season. Yeah, it's a good question to ask for right now, because you look at it six games in and the level he's playing at. If you are a Kirk Cousins critic, you're probably not thrilled because you were probably thinking, well, look at the way they started out the season and anticipating,

hey, they could be on to a new quarterback. However, that would have to happen because it is very tricky. Remember, 2022 is his final year of his current contract. He has a $45 million cap hit. His base salary for that year is already guaranteed. Kirk is not somebody who has done team's favors before as far as, hey, let's come to the negotiating table. We need your help to make this work. He's not ever taken a pay cut. I do not anticipate he will take a pay cut. The way he's playing right now shows you that he doesn't need to really take a pay cut or do this team any favors no matter what happens in next year. But, you know, he's playing his way into an extension, whether you like Kirk or whether you don't like Kirk,

which makes things very tricky from a front office perspective and from a coaching perspective. So I'll start kind of just like, I was thinking about this earlier today and then kind of get to the nuts and bolts of what Rick said to your question. Like Kirk's playing really well right now. The stats all back it up. The, the situations that he's gotten the team out of back it up. Can he continue that after the bye? We'll see.

But that doesn't exactly bode well if you are thinking, if you're Mark and Ziggy Wolf saying, hey, we want to move on from Mike Zimmer next year, but Kirk's playing really well. Let's extend him or let's think about it. Because any head coach you bring in is going to want his guy at quarterback. You're rolling the dice with probably slimming down your pool of candidates. If you want somebody who thinks that Kirk Cousins is going to be your quarterback, there might be some people who say,

no, I'm not coming unless we're bringing in my guy or we're drafting a quarterback, which, you know, right now the draft situation is not, you know, they're playing their way away from a high round draft pick. Maybe maybe that changes. And granted, next year's class is not very good right now, or at least shaping up to be very good of quarterbacks. But that puts you in a pickle. Then with what, you know, what Rick Spielman was saying, how they do it, the cap planning, you know, you asked him, is it something that you look at in season? So you'd be evaluating him on where he stands right now, what he's done in 2021,

or is it something that you look at like the collective body work afterwards be like, all right, how does this fit in? And so of course, they're looking at it, you know, two years out, the whole thing that he always says, but you know, I thought this part was interesting. You like to see what evolves over these next, you know, through the regular season, through the playoffs, and we'll make some final determinations then it's not just waiting until the

end of the season is scrambling to put something together. So that leads me to believe that our talks happening as we speak, not formally, but they're certainly thinking about it because from a cap standpoint, you cannot have him on this roster at $45 million next year. You're killing yourself. So they have to be thinking, hey, let's try to play nice here and see if he'll be willing to play ball. But I can assure you he's not going to. He has never done this at any point of his career. The guy guys had deals that are,

you know, like historic just in terms of the magnitude of what they are. And I don't think that you're going to be getting any sort of team friendly discount from Kirk cousins, considering everything that has gone on the early part of his career in Minnesota and now where he is. So, you know,

I mean, this is not a team that ever does extensions in season. Like they really don't, but like, I feel the smart thing to do would be like, maybe throw precedent out the window and try to get some, if you really think that this could be your guy, but then again, ownership has to sign off on that. And if ownership is going to fire Mike Zimmer at the end of the year, if they don't make the playoffs, they have to be smart enough to know that any head coach coming in here,

whether you're shooting for eric b enemy whoever else is going to want their own guy and you better be damn sure that they're okay with kirk cousins before you may give this person a massive extension yeah and now looking at the quarterback prices if you put up numbers that put you in the top five to seven quarterbacks in the league and i've got a statistic for you that would put maybe some, some break pumping on this conversation, but you know, you're still talking probably 40 plus million in terms of a cap hit. Cause we were going into this saying, oh, well, you know,

that $45 million cap hit probably won't happen. And it's still, I don't think it will. I think it's either a trade or a contract extension, but if your cousin's going to the table and saying, hey, Mahomes got this. These other quarterbacks got that. And like there have been other quarterbacks who have signed these huge contracts. Josh Allen, for example, since Kirk Cousins signed his last extension. So now you're working off of those prices.

And like you said, it's not going to be a discount. But I also think that the reason you have to sort of slow play the conversation if you're rick and not even say i thought it was notable he didn't even say oh wow we are so thrilled with kirk um doesn't want to give any leverage there i guess but uh you know when you look at um missing the playoffs potentially if that happens then how could you argue that this is working? Even if he plays well, that this strategy of paying him a ton of money, if you end up missing the playoffs,

it would be three times out of four years that you miss the playoffs. And you're probably talking about a new general manager, new coach and new quarterback anyway, even if cousins plays well at that point, because he's played well every year. There has not been a season where we could say, oh my gosh, Kirk was just so bad that it looked like Christian Ponder out there. No, I mean, he's always played well. It's just that how far can it really get you is yet to be determined. And if anything is different. Now, here's the statistic that I want to pass your way.

In 2019, from week five to week 13, Kirk cousins had 21 touchdowns, two interceptions, a 120 quarterback rating and average nearly eight yards per pass over a nine game stretch. So the idea that something is different here with cousins, I am very skeptical about because you can go through the game logs on pro football reference of every section of his career and find times where he has played this well, the true test.

And this is why I think Spielman has to say, we'll see how things play out. The true test is yet to come. Of course. I mean, he did it against a good defense at Carolina. And in critical situations, when this team has faced overtime, whether they've been on the road, I mean, you can say a lot about the way that the Vikings have played and the way that the offense has played with Kirk cousins in six games, but you cannot judge whether you're going to give this guy a contract

extension off of what he's done six weeks into the season. When you have the majority of the season left coming out of the bye and arguably the hardest stretch in all of football, you know, Spielman was talking about, there's a critical four games that they have to play coming right out of the break with Dallas, Baltimore chargers on the road, green Bay. That's not easy. And you'd rather judge. I mean, the smart thing, the smart play is to judge cousins off of those weeks versus playing Cincinnati

and a very bad Seattle defense. Like can he do it against those teams and go toe to toe with like Lamar Jackson? Can he do it against, you know, where they stand in the division right now? They're, you know, a lot better off than they were two, three weeks ago. How does that fare against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers? Can you win a division game right off the bat when week 12 or whatever that is comes around and they have to play Green Bay? How does that fare?

Because those are the ones that carry much heavier weight in determining the future of Kirk Cousins in Minnesota than some of the early season games are. When this team still feels like an enigma and we don't know what they are. Are you ready for a pie chart already? I've got my paper next to me. So why not? This is a bi-week bonanza pie chart. All right. So here we go. I want you to tell me how you think the Kirk Cousins rest of the season at

slash contract thing plays out. Your first option is Kirk Cousins continues to play this well, continues to lead late game winning drives. And he is a pro bowler, leads them to the playoffs and earns, earns the contract extension. I'm just saying he plays really well that by the end of the year, he has gotten them into the playoffs.

And, you know, they've won some loss some against the great quarterbacks as everyone does, but he's played great all the way for his first complete full season. So that's your first option. Your second option is that there are rollercoaster moments through the rest of the year and the Vikings end up, let's just say 50, 50 to make the playoffs at the end of the year. Like going into the, like they're on the bubble at the end of the season. Option number three is that he still plays okay, but slides and has a cold streak in there and they decidedly missed the playoffs. So week 17, Kellen Mond is playing. And then the fourth option is it just implodes after the bye week. Cousins starts throwing picks turns turns it over looks

like a completely different quarterback and uh the decision is very clear at the end of the year that they are moving on and assume that those two middle decisions are are muddy like there's a lot of conversation of should they do it shouldn't they do it so your four options again are kirk is mvp and he's great they easily go into the playoffs number two is some ups and downs but they're right there at the end number three uh more downs than ups the rest of the way for cousins miss the playoffs number four complete implosion okay i've got I think I'm almost there. It's a pie chart. The bi-week bonanza pie charts.

Okay. I'm ready. Okay. So number one, I mean, how do you want me to read this? Do you want like the highest percentages first or do you want me to go in order? Yeah. Why don't you just go in order? All right. So number one is he continues to play well.

He's a pro bowler, contract extension, playoffs, the whole gamut. I put that at 35%. So the stretch that they have, if you think about them going maybe – let's use Rick Spielman because, I mean, the 49ers are 2-3 right now. They're trying to figure it out. They've got George Kittle and injuries and other things. So they're not as good as we thought that they were to start out the season. Maybe that changes.

But these four games, if they go two and two, then they're at a spot where, so they're three and three right now, so two and two, they're five and five. And then you have most of your division games, you know, beyond that, you're going to face Chicago twice. You're going to face Detroit one more time. Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay one more time after this stretch. So it'll actually end up playing into your favor.

Like, I don't know what the Pittsburgh Steelers are. I still think that, you know, they're not a great team. I don't know if Ben Roethlisberger will be playing by the time they come here on Thursday night football, plus you're at home. So maybe things end up going really well. And, you know know this isn't just a mirage of early season success for cousins like because i don't think there's anything right now that shows me a foreshadowing effect of like this tapering off right the only things that have remained like a consistent bad for this team interior offensive line, pass protection, still not good, still not figured out. But we did

see, you know, an upgrade certainly in one game. I'm not willing to go ahead and say that, you know, this is McKinney and Lodeholt, you know, with, with O'Neill and, and Derrissaw, but promising that Derrissaw looked competent and good in a lot of moments in his first real start at Carolina. So I don't, like, if you give Kirk a clean pocket, like we've always said, he's going to play really well, but you know, Dallas's defense, like, I think I, I think I'm like buying into what Dan Quinn's doing there. He's a great defensive coordinator. I don't know if it's like, you know,

they're going to have to score 40 to win next Sunday night football, whenever it is like, they're going to have to, can Kirk do that? I think so. You know, and defensively, I don't know like what they can bring that like he hasn't seen against Carolina other places, but I don't know how much of a tapering off effect there will be from like what he's doing, because it's not like every game he's having the stat that was put around

like last week, 300 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions. Like he'll have his moments, but I don't, that's why I put that at 35%. But I do think more realistically it's number two. It's the highest percentage for me is 45 for roller coaster moments um we're going down to the wire here with this team to make the playoffs like they're three and three right now and yeah it isn't another early week seven early season bye they're not in a spot where you're like wow this is a lock because of that stretch like we really won't be able to tell you how anything is until thanksgiving until they go and play 49ers because of the four games that they have coming up really to start

the month of Halloween through November. So I think that that's probably the most realistic, just based on what we've known from Kirk before. He's played good stretches against, you know, every October, it feels like when you throw a Detroit in there and other things, like he'll have a really good month. Can that continue? We shall see. I put the like plays OK, but as a cold streak, Kellen Mond playing like I don't think we're going to see Kellen Mond at all this year. I truly don't. And just kind of gathering from what Rick Spielman said when I asked him about him, like, I think this went very poorly. And I don't think it was just the COVID situation with Kellen Mond. The guy was overwhelmed and like just drinking from a fire hose, using that football analogy from the day he got here for rookie mini camp.

I don't think that, you know, that's kind of where I was basing most of my, most of my percentages on, but I don't think that, I mean, Kirk may have a cold streak, but I don't think that, I mean, Kirk may have a cold streak, but I don't think it's going to be so like they will, they won't not make the playoffs because of Kirk cousins. I really don't believe that. So I put that at 10 implosion. It can happen because of injuries, regression, things like that. I also put that at 10%. I don't anticipate that. Like, I feel like this will be the exact same scenario or very similar

to what it was last year coming out of the buy, where they're going to go all in. They're not going to be unloading anything. I mean, outside of Unique and Gawkway last year, they had many chances to concede the rebuild and offload pieces. They didn't. I think at the trade deadline, they will not be very active. Maybe it's a Stephen Weatherly. Maybe it's a Sheldon Richardson, things that you can very easily part with um but i don't think that a true implosion of them going you know foreign what would the math be on that how do i do that like like yeah so well that's not gonna happen they're not gonna win like one more get one or two more games i bet they'll probably be in a spot where they will, you know,

back their way into the playoffs eight and nine, nine and eight right now. It's kind of what I feel, but like, I don't see a four win implode four or five win implosion, unless there's some like really, really terrible injury or something happens. It would be four and seven because there's 11 games left but yeah they'd be like four and 13 overall right oh you mean like four yeah at the end of the year okay okay yeah okay i thought you meant like right on that yeah i thought you meant if you won four games the rest

of the way like what would the stretch be it would be four and seven and you would oh yeah no i got yeah um okay so you're yours is a little different than mine uh i think that an mvp season is about 10 that it just stays this way because his entire career suggests that it won't um that there will be dips in in the way he plays and i think a complete implosion just is impossible with kirk cousins i just it's never happened to him. It doesn't happen to him. That even when they start 1-5, they finish 7-9. And the same thing, even when he struggled in the second half of 2017 in Washington, they still finished 7-9.

So there's never this horrible, you're drafting number one overall type of season. I think an even split 10% between the edges of that, and I think the middle is 80 percent of it kind of split it up however you want i think there's a decent chance they go on a cold streak against these good teams and if you look at their turnover percentage so think about this on sunday night football ben rothlisberger did the same thing that kirk cousins did throwing the ball forward having come out of his hands rothlisberger's was a fumble k Kirk's was not a fumble. He's fumbled several times, been strip sacked. They've all bounced back into his hands. There have been tip balls

and things that rarely have been intercepted. I think that some of that changes as we go forward in terms of the turnover luck and the injuries. They've been 100% healthy outside of Delvin Cook and Alexander Madison's great. So I think at some point somebody gets banged up, offensive line, wide receiver, and that eventually will dip some of his performance because Cousins is the sum of the parts around him, and the parts so far have been really, really good. So that's kind of where I have it. But very good pie charting and excellent math.

You nailed it. You didn't even have to, like, take extra time or get confused. But you're you're really on your game there you're you're proving that you can improve over time i'm hurt so uh let me ask you about another thing that rick spielman said he more or less said trading for people at the deadline pretty tough um If you're trading people away for draft picks just to get whatever you can get, that's easier, especially when it's a pass rusher like Yannick Ngakwe, where you could just line up and rush the passer. It's not super complicated.

But it sounded to me like he was saying, guys, don't write those articles. Who could the Vikings trade for at the deadline? Yeah, that's here's the thing with teams like the NFL teams versus baseball, seeing it in basketball a bunch. Like if you're going to be trading assets away, that's why the trade deadline is never fun in the NFL because there's never any like blockbuster deal or like anything like huge. That stuff happens in free agency for a reason because of the number of games

and number of shots you have to make the postseason. It's not like a long season like baseball or hockey or anything. So if you would be committing, they should have done it last year. They should have gotten ownership's blessing to be like, look, sorry, three months in that Daniil Hunter is not playing. Like didn't realize he was going to have like a broken neck. Sorry that these young corners aren't panning out. Let's just commit to the rebuild now. And we promise you it'll be better. We can get some good draft picks. We weren't into a situation with Harrison Smith. We got to extend him and pay him all this money in 2021. We could get some really good value right now for Riley Reif. Like they should have done it last year. If this team

doesn't do it last year when they're two and four and like, no, we're committing to the rebuild. We're not committing to rebuild. We're committing to going all in, whether it gets us to mediocrity or whether we get into the playoffs. Like that was their mindset last year. If you try to like offload pieces now, like good pieces that would actually get you like decent draft picks, you're saying like, you're saying that this team is not good enough. And that's basically handing your pink slip in. If you're anybody in the front office, especially Rick Spielman. So I don't see that happening. I could really only,

I went through this exercise yesterday. I could only see, as Rick was saying, he's talking about depth. Like you don't, you want to be careful because teams, good teams have, have depth. You're not trading for starters at this point. Like you don't, you want to be careful because teams good teams have, have depth. You're not trading for starters at this point. You're just not, but if you're going to last 17 games and then the post season, you need backups. So maybe that's a Steven Weatherly. Maybe you could get a six or seventh for him or Sheldon Richardson, but be careful what you wish for, because what if all of a sudden,

like you do get through the streak and you win two, two games and you know, you're five and five, and then you feel like you're actually in the hunt. And then you trade all your, you trade depth away and somebody gets hurt or Everson Griffin levels off and you are starting DJ Wanham and you're in a situation like, you know what I mean? Like there's, there's a benefit to it where if you did trade some of your depth away that you could actually get your draft picks you know all the people that you you know drafted in in April in May and see if they would actually like be able to do anything like that's the benefit like if Weatherly for example because and the reason I bring him up is you guys took a pay cut to play to stay here he's played single digit snaps last

few weeks but there is some playing time for him why not use Patrick Jones who's been inactive fairly certain every game this year and trade Weatherly and see what you can get someone somewhere I mean they're absolutely going to be shopping him because of the situation of where defensive line depth is not really an issue right now for them but they've got they're heavy there so they could they could move on if they need to but um i don't i don't think they will be active players at the deadline i really don't like if the season had started completely differently and they're not three and three that would be a tough sell because i think that that basically is concession from spielman that i made mistakes and ownership's going to be like then, then why do we have you here? So I don't think it's going to happen. Folks, Minnesota football is back and there's no need

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hey for you college football fans check out the tanner morgan t-shirts as well soda stick has tons of hats and hoodies with all their great designs on them you will love it go to to SodaStick.com. That is S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K. Check that out today. Use the promo code Purple Insider for free shipping and also follow myself and SodaStick on Twitter for our giveaways. Yeah, I don't think there's any reason for them to shop parts that they're already thin enough. They have been remarkably healthy so far this year. And so if that even dips a little bit, I mean, I think we've seen the improvement the defense makes with Anthony Barr in there.

I don't think there was any doubt about that. But when Anthony Barr is out, then things are a lot tougher for you. Along the defensive line, Sheldon Richardson has come way below expectations. But we've also seen Sheldon sort of be hot and cold. So there's always that possibility of the Sheldon-Richardson game where he gets like eight pressures all on his own and just takes over.

So I wouldn't bail on him either. And when it comes to adding, you go, well, what could really help? It really depends to me on Patrick Peterson's situation and how they feel really about Cam Dantzler, because it does not seem to me that Mike Zimmer is at all. Okay. With Cam Dantzler. Decent.

He said that both he and Breeland are decent. You think decent is going to cut it against good quarterbacks against Lamar against Aaron Rogers. He's covering Devante Adams this year, by the way. Like Dallas has like three really good receivers. You think is decent going to cut it on CD lamb? No, I just like, but the thing is, aren't there, like, I mean, I know Richard Sherman just signed in what's it called Florida in St.

Pete in Tampa and, you know, he's hurt. And then Stefan Gilmore still got dealing with the injury. Like there's not as many cornerbacks on the street right now as there was a couple of weeks ago where you'd be able to just like pick up somebody and be like, Hey, until Peterson's back. And on a cheap veteran deal, like a one-year thing. So they may be stuck with what they have because I don't know. You know, they're probably happy they didn't unload Dancer when they could have earlier in the season because, you know,

right now you're like – Rick was naming off guys who don't play, like Harrison Hand. The guy's been on the COVID list twice. I thought he was going to get himself cut for that considering he's unvaccinated and he's screwed his availability. But apparently now he's an option. Chris Boyd is also an option. You were so thin at that position that, yeah,

talk about not screwing up your depth. That's like the prime one right there. And that's what I mean. If there's a team that has one win or something, now they didn't trade for C.J. Henderson, which was maybe another one that they could have considered. But if there's a team that's really struggling and is ready to move on from a corner, I think, even if it's only a couple of weeks, but that's a thing where it pops up again. Usually hamstring injuries and guys that are in their thirties don't just like heal right up. You bounce back out there. Good to go. You'll never hear about it again. I mean, that's a thing that you should be legitimately concerned about being

problematic for the whole rest of the season with Patrick Peterson. So I think that that's the place to look. Rashad Breland had a good game against Sam Darnold. Congratulations. You and I could have played corner in that game with all the receiver drops and just the general horrendous play of Sam Darnold. But I don't think Breland has earned a whole lot of trust. And I think that there's a contingent out there that believes Cam Dantzler is the next NFL All-Pro. And that's confusing to me because he fell behind Chris Boyd in training camp and preseason on the depth chart. He really struggled. And when a guy, I know the special teams thing makes people roll their eyes.

But it's just like how much do you care? How much are you putting into it as special teams is effort. And if you're a coach and your guy isn't doing, you know how they say everything he asked, if he's not doing everything that he's asked to do, then what, why are you rewarding him? And again, we saw they went after Cam Dantzler in a biggest situation with Sam Darnold in Carolina. And guess what happened? I mean, they were rewarded for doing it. He gave up a big play. So I don't think there should be a ton of in Carolina. And guess what happened? I mean, they were rewarded for doing it. He gave up a big play. So I don't think there should be a ton of confidence there.

And if there's a corner on the market, you make that trade, and then you deal with whatever ramifications later to that in terms of like when Peterson comes back, who starts, who plays. Deal with that later. I actually agree with Mike Zimmer when he says you can never have enough corners. Yeah, and I mean, the Peterson thing, you mentioned the hamstring, like any position, soft tissue injuries. Like I just never feel like guys are a hundred percent after they come back. Like that's something that's going to linger. And it was such an obvious hamstring and not

cramps when it happened that I remember thinking to myself, that's my first thought was, wow, Dallas is going to feast on the secondary. And that's a problem. Like, you know, and that they have one game before the deadline. So it's like if they go three and four, I think that they're still all in on not trading anybody and really trying to protect their depth at that point. By the way, you trade away Mike Hughes. He plays a lot for Kansas City. Their defense isn't great, but he's still like a football player. You trade for Chris Herndon. Congratulations to him on his touchdown catch, but has produced nothing for them. Mark Craig asked about this in the press conference with Spielman. I think it was a great question. Just like, what did you see that made you trade away Mike Hughes for nothing?

We got an answer on that, but there was no answer of course uh it was basically we know more than you do about mike hughes's health and i guess the my response would be apparently not because he's played most of the snaps in kansas city and uh maybe it was to keep a younger player like harrison hand and there would have been you know bubble conversations there is he in is he out and you can't rely on him because of his health. But in terms of the hindsight look at that, gave him away for absolutely nothing to the Kansas City Chiefs. And at this moment, again, Mike Hughes is not Rod Woodson or Deion Sanders. But at this moment, that does not look like a good choice. No, and I thought about this last night, watching the Titans and the bills play.

And just like thinking about like other depth charts and which former Vikings that were either on your practice squad or elsewhere, you know, where are they playing now? I mean, I know that they love CJ Hammond. Trust me. He's he's awesome.

Like he's a huge part of this, but Kari Blazing game is a starting fullback somewhere else right now. Like storm Norton, who was a practice squad player here, is now starting for the Los Angeles Chargers on the offensive line. Like some of those things like are just like luck of like new, you know, fresh what's it called? Clean slate. Like when you clean slate guys, maybe they do better somewhere else. And you can't really predict like all that stuff would happen that way,

but sometimes it does. And maybe that is the case with Mike Hughes, but it always kind of felt like reading between the lines of Mike Zimmer's comments, he can't ever stay healthy. And you know, whether it was an ACL injury, it took him longer than they had anticipated for him to come back from. And then it's a neck injury and it's like, well, you know, all these things. And then it's like, it just doesn't line up where it's like, he's too unhealthy for you, too much of a risk for you.

But then another team can take a big risk on him. Like that doesn't make a lot of sense to people. And they see it because it's like, why is he playing a considerable amount of snaps for the Chiefs where you traded him to? And, you know, the guy that you just got from the Chiefs, you know, signed as a free agent, and we played in Kansas City is not great.

Like, you know, there's so much hindsight that goes into this. And I think that's the tough part about being an evaluator and being in the front office where it's a crapshoot a lot of times. But it's a fair question because the guy didn't even make it through to his 18, 19, 20, it's the fourth year. Like, you know,

and then they pull the trigger already on him, like, or, you know, back up like pause. I didn't mean it like that. They, they pulled the, they pulled the strings to trade him. Like, you know, they what? Well, if you're like, well what would you say if you're like flying a uh plane and bail you what would you say the ejector they hit the ejector button sure like that's the that's the problem because it feels like it was a little knee-jerk reaction to oh we have a lot of good cornerback depth here we can go ahead and move on from Mike Hughes in May. Like it was, you know, right after the draft, it was before you signed Breland. It just didn't really feel like it was

kind of like surprising, like you're moving on this quickly. Like we knew you weren't going to pick up a fifth year option. Like that's no secret, but you know, everything else, it was just kind of like, okay, this is a little too soon maybe. And nobody ever wants to admit fault because if you do, ownership's listening and they're like, wait a second, why did you trade my cues? But they don't need us to ask that question. They could have watched that pick that he made week one against the Browns

to help Kansas City win that game. Okay? But that's what it boils down to. It's not like, oh, I'm revealing anything by saying anything. It's go watch the other games. Watch the players that are not on your roster that were on your roster and see if they're actually performing. Gave you three examples right there of guys who are starting on other teams.

OK, like I mean, Mike Hughes, whatever you don't call him a starter, that's fine. He's playing considerable amount of snaps that you probably could benefit from if he was here right now. And he does have good grades, by the way. Good coverage grades for PFF, 70 grades, 72 overall. His in terms of his target numbers not too bad for mike hughes had a couple of good games recently so yeah i mean he's mostly but he played 70 snaps against philly a couple weeks ago 47 against washington on sunday um so that's yeah i mean that's a guy who's been a significant player for them i guess when they made the move my assumption was uh okay he's not going to make

it through camp. That's what they believe. And so obviously that assessment was incorrect. So here's what I'd like. Well, tell me if you have anything else that you wanted to add, and then I have a question for you to wrap up on. Just from Spielman in terms of your takeaways. These things never really reveal anything of actual substance. So, you know, I think the only other thing that I would say was when I asked him about Kellen Mond, you know, I think the big thing right now is that a lot of rookies are not playing for this team. And, you know, he said he's not disappointed. mean he drafted 11 players the best one you're probably going to have this year in terms of snaps and actual contributions will be christian

darasaw um and that's that's great but like there's 10 other guys right there that have not contributed really anything and the fact that you have three third rounders this past week alone sitting out um and i mean wyatt davis has been in that mix too is he he's out he's in he's an active he's out whatever like that's four third round picks that's not seventh rounders not that's not late like throw the that's not like quality maybe he's a udfa or maybe he's a seventh round pick those are quality quality, quality draft picks. It's a day two draft pick. And you've got four of them who haven't done anything this year.

That's a problem in my opinion. So like we need to start thinking post-bye, is there going to be a situation where Kellen Mond gets himself activated or can at least like play his way into trying to be a backup? And like I know in my pie chart, like I said, I don't think he will play this year

because I truly don't. But like, I know in my pie chart, like I said, I don't think he will play this year. Cause I truly don't. But like, what were you thinking back in the draft when all signs pointed to this guy was a four-year project at Texas A&M. You're choosing him here. I'm sorry. You draft a third round pick to be your backup quarterback. I really believe that. So it just, it just kind of feels like, well, what happened? Like, you know, is he already – can you already write him off? Maybe he needs another year.

I don't know. I just think that that's kind of an interesting situation where they were very – don't listen to what anybody tells you now. They were 1,000 million percent expecting he would be the backup quarterback to Kirk Cousins this year and that he could maybe be something for the future. They do not have – beyond Kirk Cousins this year, and that he could maybe be something for the future. They do not have, beyond Kirk Cousins, there is no other future quarterback on this roster currently. That is what it is.

Well, they said that at draft night. They said we drafted a backup quarterback because we had a need at that position, and Sean Mannion still ends up on the team. And so, yeah, you'd like an answer there of kind of give any sort of indication of what has gone wrong with Kellen Mond and blaming a couple of days on the COVID list when he's been practicing for all these weeks and weeks, I think is,

yeah, rings a little hollow. So what did you mean? Go look back to when he first got here. I promise you, it wasn't just him being on COVID for 10 days. That's the reason he fell behind. Right. All right. Here's what I he fell behind. Right. All right. Here's what I want for our bi-week bonanza. I just, I want you to give a grade since we're reacting to Spielman's comments on

the front office through six weeks and how their off season has played out so far in this first six weeks. B minus C plus. I think that's fair. It's not a harsh grade by any stretch because your defense has taken a while to gel, to get to this point where they're playing well, but your run defense is still a problem. Don't try to convince me. It's not. And the guy that you brought in, Dalvin Tomlinson, you know, you know, he's not, has he done anything like spectacular against the run to fix it? Not

necessarily. Michael Pierce has been hurt. Like I'll give him credit in like the areas where I guess it's probably better to evaluate the good areas first and the bad areas. Good, Everson Griffin. The fact that you, but that kind of like played into your lap. No one else was going after him. Like it wasn't like you had all these suitors that you had to fight off. Like he wasn't either, he was either going to play with the Vikings or he wasn't playing football this year. So like, great that you were able to get him.

You know, he's playing 85% of snaps. Is that an indictment that you don't think DJ Wanham is panning out at all? Maybe, you know, getting Anthony Barr back and how long can he stay back? Like, yeah, the defense looks better when he's in there, but like Vigil has also been playing pretty well. Maybe shoot, maybe Nick Vigil is a trade candidate. Somebody like would potentially want to pick him up if you,

if you're confident that Barr can stay healthy. I don't know. That's kind of a stretch, but I think some, I think I start on the defensive side of the ball when I look at the front office and thinking about, you know, well, what's different with this team this year versus other years? And it feels like the defense did take a longer time, five weeks at least, to get into a rhythm. And maybe that's not all. I mean, you're teaching new technique it's all the stuff but like some of your fits have just been like flat out bad like Brashad Whelan has not had a good good stretch at all yeah like I know the stat for like uh Carolina like good but also they drop six to eight passes depending upon which analytic site you're looking at like I just I can't really go all in and say like oh they all the money they poured into the defense

paid off because clearly it hasn't so we'll see but I also you know 10 draft picks who aren't doing anything I mean Christian Barris at least started a whole ass game like you know the other guys haven't so I don't know I think I think B minus C plus is fair because there are a lot of misses so far. Like just saying, I mean, yeah, KJ Osborne. Great. You got him in the fifth round. It's awesome. Like, you know, that's something you can hang your hat on. You found a true number three receiver.

You also traded for Chris Herndon thinking he could like revive his career here. And the guy has not been very good outside of one touchdown. He's playing like 20 snaps a game. If that, not even like, it was just up this last week and yeah, so that's where I'm at. Yeah, I'd go see. I think that some of the moves Xavier Woods has worked out and Everson Griffin has worked out extremely well. In fact, I would argue that Everson has bailed them out

from bad decision-making at the defensive end position where they were just going to leave it. And we got to, what, five days left to camp or something. And then they said, Oh, okay. Thank goodness that if anybody else had come by and said, you know what? Everson can still play. Let's give them a decent amount of money. Then think where you would be at that position.

I think they really played with fire there. How about the kicking decision? I mean, Greg Joseph has had his pluses and minuses but overall they've not been a great on the shade from spielman um on that and the question about greg joseph where he said he missed the preseason 50 yarders but he makes them and is that the yeah he was talking about i'm trying to find like the quote really quick um he was asking about He was asking about how do you feel about the kicker and punting situation? Do you feel like you're in a good spot with keeping these people around? Could they potentially play into longer-term roles?

And he's talking about you want to be consistent as possible, whatever. So with Joseph, quote, the biggest thing I think he missed most of, if not all of his 50-yard field goals going into the preseason, except for this last week, when he missed a 50 yard or into the wind, he's hit some of those in critical situations in games for us. So there's a little shade there. But yeah, I mean, like you, you took a flyer on somebody who had not played in a game since 2019 and it's panned out in moments um i don't know if i mean that's an incomplete grade for me though like i can't tell you if greg joseph is the full answer i don't i don't think with kickers you can really do that

ever in minnesota with um just the way that things have worked out but this has not been um justin tucker exactly and to have no competition you, it's still he might turn out to be the second best kicker in the league behind Justin Tucker. But it's not like you sign Matt Prater, who was out there and you knew that he was great, I think. Right. Because he was in Detroit and then went to Arizona. So I don't know. They decided to go this route. And I think that still remains somewhat questionable. The offensive line has been better, but at the same time, the guard positions in terms of, if you look their PFF grades, their overall scores has not, only Udo has seven penalties so far this year, playing a brand new position. There was nobody brought in.

You were hoping that Wyatt Davis would start there. And that was a Spielman pick. That was the guy that he was hot on. And I wonder, like, is there going to be a situation like a derisaw where we see udo play his way into being a backup and davis actually getting into like you know the lineup come second half of the season maybe he needs some he needed some time to to grow and get in that role maybe but like you better hope he plays this season because it's a third round pick that are you going to be drew is this going to be Drew Samia all over again?

Another high round pick on an offensive lineman who's not here in a couple of years. Cause that's not good. If that's. Yeah. Yeah. I was wondering about that myself. If Udo continues to struggle with, especially the penalties. I mean, every penalty is as bad as a sack and in terms of yards lost. And he has seven penalties so far this year, which is a ridiculous amount for a guard. And we're only through six games. So, you know, the draft class has not played much.

There saw some bad luck. I think that one in the second half will look a lot better. But right now you've gotten one game and one start out of your entire draft class. That's not great. So I would I would say C. And I would also say there's like a big picture thing here of Anthony Barr had to miss games this season. That's a guy who gave a big contract. Delvin cook had to miss games this season.

That's a guy you gave a big contract when the numbers, the efficiency, it all sort of points to those weren't really great moves and they hurt you here. And again, we'll see if those two guys play the rest of the season, this grade can change, but I think it's factored in to the first six games.

So, all right. Bi-week bonanza. This is fun. Got a lot to go. I'm excited about it. Good times. Good times indeed. All right.

Well, thank you for your time, Courtney, as always. We will talk again soon.