Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - ESPN's Kevin Seifert thinks the Vikings will be patient with JJ McCarthy

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

ESPN's Kevin Seifert joins Matthew Coller to break down his view on the Vikings picking JJ McCarthy and how the Vikings are vowing to be patient with their new rookie QB Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and joining me on the show, ESPN's Kevin Seifert, who tried like crazy to convince anybody who would listen that the Vikings were going to miss out on all the quarterbacks. They were going to pick Spencer Rattler in the fifth and they were going to cry the entire night long. That's not what happened, Kevin. Take accountability for your bad draft hot take to cry the entire night long. That's not what happened, Kevin. Take accountability for your bad draft hot take to start the show. No. What I was doing, and I thought that I did a public service,

which was to give people the broad range of possibilities that could happen. And they actually got closer to the Rattler scenario than they did to the ideal scenario, whether that was, I don't know if that'd be technically Caleb Williams, but certainly they were closer to Spencer Rattler than they were to Drake May. Okay. Sort of. I mean, they still would have had, even if they had missed out on McCarthy, they still would have had at least one other first round caliber quarterback. Right. They didn't come that close to missing out. on McCarthy they still would have had at least one other first round caliber quarterback right they didn't come that close to missing out although when I will say when Penix was taken

I did go oh I mean it wasn't totally unrealistic that the Raiders and Denver could just suddenly jump them to nine and ten take the quarterbacks and then we're talking about Spencer Rattler and Michael Pratt it had all the makings of a panic run, you know, and, and we talked about that, you know, somebody was going to do something stupid or something that was at least irrational or at the very least unexpected. And I think depending on your point of view on the Falcons, that was one of those three words could be used for what the Falcons did. And so, yeah, I mean, I think they were going to end up with somebody, even if it was the sixth quarterback, which would have, I assume, been Knicks.

And they probably felt pretty good that they weren't going to lose out on anybody. But I still think that it was somebody had to blaze the trail of the catastrophe scenario, even if it was unlikely to happen, and I was happy to do it. And did it, you, uh, you did, you, you made it interesting through draft season to, uh, to talk about that. But I do want to know your take on this because I have not seen anyone use the word that I was afraid of battling throughout the summer, which was settle.

I didn't want to have a thousand fans in every live chat saying they settled, they settled. That would have been Bo Nix. If they had taken him, they would have said they settled for Bo Nix because the mock draft universe thought that JJ McCarthy was the fourth overall draft pick or fifth pick in the Vikings would have to trade up. It feels much more steel-ish than it does reach-ish or settle-ish. Do you think that this was one of their ideal scenarios or the one that they did have to settle for? I think it ranked below their ideal scenario for sure. I think we all probably know to different degrees of certainty that if they had their preference it would have been Caleb Williams obviously um and then if they had their second preference it might have

been Drake May and so like whether that was realistic um or not you know I don't know but they had to go into this whole process dating back to before Kirk departed and be comfortable with really any of the top five or six guys, because as we saw it play out, and especially in the beginning of March, no one knew how that was going to play out. And if they had only liked a few of those guys, or if there was one guy, they were willing to hold their nose and draft or something like that, then that was poor process. And they probably need to be more aggressive to keep Kirk, frankly, at least for a little bit before they were ready to replace him. So my sense all along was that they had, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I said, they have to like, you know, five or six of these guys.

So I did not think they settled. I think what they had set up, at least in Kwesi Adolfo-Mentz's mind, was tiers of quarterbacks and values like if they they were willing to give up a lot more draft picks to get drake may because they felt that ultimately they would not need to build as strong of a team around him for them to be a super bowl type team than they did for um a jj mccarthy or a bo nicks or maybe even a Michael Penix, obviously a Michael Penix because they didn't trade up to get him either at the four and the five. And so you can, I guess, parse through all that, but my sense was that they went into it knowing that they would be okay

and not settling, but what they weren't going to do is give up too much to get a Penix, a McCarthy, or a Nix, and then be unable to use any other draft picks to build around them or to be really bereft of picks for the rest of this draft and next year as well with a quarterback that they liked but didn't necessarily think would be likely to become the next Patrick Mahomes which is what really makes me wonder about the not trading up was it a product of the fact that Arizona and the Chargers that these teams knew they were getting tremendously good prospects if they stayed where they were and I think that there must be a league email that goes out that says say say, you're open for business. Say you might trade. This is television, people. But at the end of the day, it never seemed like Arizona was serious about trading out of that pick or that the Vikings were not willing to give up that extra draft capital for McCarthy. Or maybe it would have been Penix at that point.

Yeah, I don't think that the Vikings, from what I can tell, I don't think that the Vikings were willing to give up even 23 to get up to four or five to get. They didn't view McCarthy as significantly better prospects than whoever might fall to them at 10 or 11 or whatever to give up that much value, frankly. And so even if you look at what the Mike Reese from ESPN reported that they offered for number three to get may with at the Patriots,

I think was 1123 next year's first, but then also to get two picks back. And I had been told that 1123 and next year's first was way too short anyway. And so I don't want to say it wasn't a serious effort if that, in fact, was their final offer. But the value that they were willing to give up to move up was not nearly enough for what it was going to need to be. And so I don't, you know, would Arizona or the Chargers have left if the, you know, had moved down at the Vikings offered them 11, 23 and something else, maybe, but we'll never know for sure. And we don't know if anyone else offered that, but the Vikings just weren't willing to go there. It's a difficult thing for me to interpret what

I'm supposed to make out of the Drake May offer. In fact, they're asking for some middle round picks back. Like, what does that even mean? Why would that happen? Is that a draft chart that somebody has? But also I don't think the Patriots were ever serious about moving out of it. And it says to me still that the Vikings being willing to move the extra two picks beyond what they already had at number 11 versus only moving up one spot to McCarthy would say that they had a significant gap between their first option, assuming Caleb Williams was off the table completely, but their first option of Drake May and whether it was Pennix or McCarthy. And it sounds not just sounds,

but their approach looks like they would have been happy with Pennix or McCarthy with the fact that they didn't trade up. So if we're trying to sort of chunk these things of how they felt about it by the results, it seemed like Drake may was significant, but they were not willing to give up the entire franchise to do it. They're not willing to send Justin Jefferson as Boston sports Radio thought that they should be doing the entire time. But they did view it as May was quite a bit more above the other guys and that they would have been OK with at least two of the quarterbacks that were on the board at number 11. Right. And so and yeah. And so whether they viewed there being much difference between McCarthy and Pennix and even Nix, I guess we can debate.

But there was a gap, I think we can all agree, between those guys and May in their minds. And on the issue of Jefferson, it was fun to talk about. But my understanding is that what the Patriots were kind of putting out there was that if they were going to move all the way down to 11, like they had to come out of that draft with a premium player, whether that was by only moving down a couple spots and then drafting a premium player and then having the extra draft picks or acquiring one as part of the trade. And if you get to 11, you know, defensively, you probably had a chance to get a premium type player, but you never know for sure. And the 11 is not necessarily considered a premium spot to get a true blue chip player. And so the Vikings were probably going to have to include, whether it was Jefferson or not, like a Christian Derusaw would really be the only other player that would probably fit that profile.

I mean, the Vikings have some good players, but in terms of what a Patriots type team would be looking for, it'd probably be Derrissaw. And I don't think that that was really an option either. So really in the end, like number three, you know, was, was not an option. Not a realistic option based on where the Patriots were thinking and where the Vikings were thinking. They gave it a shot. They never would have known if they didn't try. But they were not in the same solar system. It doesn't sound like. If you could guarantee to me that Drake May would become Josh Allen, then I would say

trade pretty much anything. I'm okay with trading a receiver who's at the top of his game. A left tackle doesn't matter. But I think Kweisi Adafomensa put it well when he said, what are the odds of that? If the odds of that are one in 10 or less of a prospect with his profile, because I think that the truth kind of ended up in the middle with Drake May, where he is a tremendous prospect who could have great upside. But if we're starting to, it's sort of like this thing with the wolves with Anthony Edwards,

where we jump right to Michael Jordan. Whoa, let's not jump right. Can we at least stop off at Vince Carter first before we go to Michael Jordan? Whoa, let's not jump right. Like, can we at least stop off at Vince Carter first before we go to Michael Jordan? Same thing with Drake May. Can we stop off at Matthew Stafford as a, as a top comp before we run right to Patrick Mahomes? If his ceiling was truly Patrick Mahomes, then he probably would go number one. There's maybe one guy with that in this draft. Now the McCarthy plan is very interesting to me because this team is going to tell us through rookie mini camp, mini camp, OTAs, training camp,

all the way through, they're going to tell us, we want to be patient. Do not, you dare put any expectations on this boy. And he is unbelievably young. And when we think about quarterback peaks, they're like 25 to 30, right? And so we're years away from him being the best version of himself. But do you think that there will be pressure in real application? It's easy to say, but as we go along into a training camp, into a season to play J.J. McCarthy quickly? I think that actually depends a lot on Sam Darnold, as crazy as it sounds. Sam Darnold

can keep that noise to a minimum if he opens training camp and he looks like he's in charge of the offense and he looks like he's understanding where to go and the practices are running smoothly. And I don't know what plans, if any, they would have for preseason. You know, in the old days, you could say a rookie would, could beat out a veteran in the preseason. I don't know. I assume they'll play McCarthy. I don't think they'll play Darnold. I don't know. Like, can, can McCarthy beat out Darnold through training camp without a preseason battle?

And we've already heard some veteran players talking about how much they like Sam and, and, and their hopes that, you know, can he can have a great season and so if he if he you know if he does enough uh in the summer and then they're competing you know early in the season you know that that maintains a a minimum of noise we're all people are always going to ask you know I told her I was joking with Kevin O'Connell that I'm going to have to figure out new ways to ask him if McCarthy is ready this week or to get updates on McCarthy without being completely monotonous over and over, but something we'll be asking about pretty frequently. But if Sam Darnold has the type of season that the Vikings have kind of

been advertising that they think he has a chance to have, then those questions will be at a minimum. Now, if they start losing despite how he's playing or he starts playing poorly, that's where, I don't want to say pressure, but that's where like the questions become more credible because if he's playing poorly and or you're losing, what's the benefit of continuing to run them out there versus the benefit of whatever development McCarthy can get by playing in regular season games. I will say though, that everything I've heard Kevin O'Connell say, you know, in formal interviews off to the side in every which way is that he's extremely wary of using any criteria other than his judgment and the coaching staff's judgment about McCarthy's readiness to be on the field as the determining factor for whether he plays. Obviously, if Sam Darnold gets hurt,

then I would assume that that makes McCarthy the likeliest guy to come next. But absent something like that, I don't think he wants to have his investment in McCarthy impacted. And I think he really does believe that you can damage and or ruin a quarterback by putting him on the field too early. I don't think he wants that investment damaged because of something that, you know, the way Sam Darnold's playing. And so I don't know what that means or what that could happen in the meantime, but I really truly do think that this is not just an attempt to remove the pressure from McCarthy to be the week one starter or to not give him anything more to worry about than he's already probably got on his plate. I really do think that the reason they paid Sam Darnold what he got versus any other you know random bridge quarterback is

they really did think that he gave them a chance to bring whoever they drafted along as slowly as that player needs to be now they could be three and oh with Sam Darnall playing pretty decently and if behind the scenes McCarthy is just killing it then I think it's possible that that could it could you know that could happen too. So I don't think that they're going to hold them back based on how Sam Darnold plays. But I also don't, I really, really don't think that unless barring an injury, that they're going to allow the way Sam Darnold is playing to get them off the schedule that they've established. Let me juxtapose how much sense it all sounds like it makes with also Mark Wilf telling us at the owners meetings, we expect to win. We expect to be competitive every year. And you mentioned three and O what about O and three? And we can always

say to ourselves, Hey, you gotta be patient. You gotta be patient. And it's a lot easier for us sitting in the press box to say that than it is over in the owner's box for them to say that. And we also saw Nick Mullins throw four picks and Kevin O'Connell go to a rookie quarterback last year who was not ready and got pummeled against the green Bay Packers on national TV, which we didn't, we all kind of were like, ah, it's fine. The season's over anyway. But I mean, knowing what we know about how ready he actually was, should have definitely played Nick Mullins and stuck with that. So I guess I'm always hesitant to say, oh yeah, well, they'll just do this because once the season clicks on, everything is different. Yeah. And, and I, and I tend to downplay at with this organization, and maybe I'm being naive about the impact of pressure from ownership. I mean, I know that those guys ask questions. I know they're intense competitors, especially Ziggy Wilf. And they show that, you know, just wear of their kids are getting involved. And I know that they have, you know, will be in the room sometimes when these things are being discussed and that's totally normal.

But like if there were reported examples of the Wilfs pressuring, effectively pressuring a personnel move, that's significant. Not a disciplinary thing, not a decision about whether to suspend Adrian Peterson or not or anything along those lines where you would expect an owner to be involved. But if they've exerted effectively exerted pressure to on the personnel side to make a decision that wasn't otherwise going to be made, I guess I don't know what that would be. And so if there were examples of that happening that had been reported out and that we knew about, I would be more worried about it. Of all the reasons that a bad decision could be made or a hasty decision could be made involving J.J. McCarthy, I don't think it's going to be a direct result of pressure from ownership.

Now, could Kevin McCarthy, I mean, Kevin O'Connell, I'm going to do that a lot with the Irish names, so just be ready. Could Kevin O'Connell infer that the owners are going to be wanting that and then make it consciously or subconsciously speed himself up? Maybe. Could that come up casually in conversation possibly but like that of all the things that are here you know i don't know but in the end and you talked about jaron hall like i felt that that decision was made in uh in both cases because he literally

felt he had no other options and so the question would be, in the first go-around, literally Cousins gets hurt, Nick Mullins is on IR, Josh Dobbs has been there four days, you have to start Jaron Hall, and no one disagreed with that. The way that Nick Mullins was throwing interceptions, it was so counter to everything they had been preaching that I think he felt he couldn't credibly trot Nick Mullens out there in a game that still had playoff possibilities or addition to Sam Darnold to protect J.J. McCarthy? That would be an awfully deep quarterback room.

Maybe they would throw Jaron Hall out to the Wolves and just not be as worried about his development if it was to protect J.J. McCarthy. I don't know. But I will say that, at least as we start on this process, I really do think that they're as girded against the typical pressure to rush a young quarterback as you can be. Folks, we all have smartphones and we know that they are pretty amazing, but they can also be amazingly distracting, especially when we're around other people. So US Cellular wants us to reset our relationship with our phones by putting down our phones for five.

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as under pressure and is amped or, you know, when people get into the season and everybody is, you know, as under pressure and is amped or, you know, when people get frustrated, they do things that might not be the most rational thing to do. And I guess what I am just suggesting is hold back, restrain. If you're the ownership restrain, if you're Kevin O'Connell from wanting to push him in, because it just can't be said enough that he just turned 21 years old. And in my opinion, it is important for someone who has thrown so few passes in college to have this time to at least even if it was six weeks to understand how the weekly cadence of an NFL room goes and work with O'Connell and work after practice and do all those things to feel truly ready when he gets out there and not be overwhelmed. I don't know about ruining players,

if that's really true. I mean, we've seen a lot of quarterbacks in their rookie year, get their tails whooped and then come back and become very good quarterbacks. It's probably a guy to guy type of thing, but you don't want to risk that unnecessarily. So here's something I've ignored really since the day that it happened, which is expectations for Sam Darnold. There are some folks who think, Hey, they found the diamond in the rough with Sam Darnold that ignore anything you saw with the jets. And he could be a really great quarterback for them this year, compete for the division. And there are others that would be closer to my camp that are sort of in, you know, it's fine. It's fine because he can start. And I think he'll mostly

throw the football to the right place and then otherwise throw it to the other team. And you know, it could be really entertaining because there could be a lot of touchdowns and a lot of picks and a lot of deep passes and so forth. But I don't have, if he has to start the whole season, very high expectations for Sam Darnold based on his past history. Yeah. And I'll keep saying what I've said about him, because I think it continues to apply is his ceiling is that he plays well enough that what we just talked about earlier, rushing JJ McCarthy, that he doesn't add to that, that he doesn't make them go any faster than they otherwise already will have. Now that's, does McCarthy, that he doesn't add to that, that he doesn't make them go any faster than they

otherwise already will have. Now, does that mean that he's winning games? Does that mean he's throwing for 300 yards? Does that mean he's not throwing interceptions, which has always been an issue there? I don't know, but he's here for one reason, and now that they've drafted their next quarterback, we can put the lid on that. He's here to hold it down until the next guy's ready and to not make them have to speed up what would otherwise be the ideal or as close to the ideal development plan for J.J. McCarthy as they can do. And so I know Harrison Phillips was talking about, you know, the times when he was in college at Stanford and he's playing against him and he's got and he has sort of the college Sam Darnold in his head of somebody who, you know said, I'm feeling like I'm just getting into the prime of my career in terms of the combination of still having the physical skills, but also the experience to apply to that before I basically lose the physical skills.

And it doesn't matter how much I know. And that could very well mean that Sam would be in that same spot. And that's part of it as well. And so that's where my ceiling is for him. Like the floor is that he comes out in week one or two and just throws, loses games. And he's done that before in his career too. And this is a pass-first offense as far as we know,

while they might change the schemes and the route trees and all that in terms of exactly what's best for Sam and eventually what's best for JJ McCarthy compared to what was best for Kirk, I still think that this is, you know, going to be an offense where he's going to have to drop back and make big throws. And so if he, if they set him out there to do that and he's throwing interceptions and you can't even watch it anymore, then that really becomes the floor of his expectations. making crazy throws like nick mullins if he throws the ball faster uh if he plays 17 games is it a 40 touchdowns 25 interceptions type of season for sam darnold because we know that they're not going to just stick to the run there is a world though and i thought of this how funny it would be and how vikings it would be if sam darnold's just terrific And he throws for 35 touchdowns, 10 picks. They win 12 games.

And then they go, now what do we do? We did not plan on this at all. And now what do we do with J.J. McCarthy? There has to be a bar. And it's very high, but there has to be a bar where they would be like, remember that first-round quarterback? Let's just forget about that. Sam Darnold is our guy.

But it would have to be, it would have to be way up there. Yeah. And then, and then also like, what would kind of contract with Sam Darnold be looking for at that point too, just if we're just playing out the fantasy, you know, cause you would ideally what you say, okay, like, you know, we'd love to have, you know, we'll do that again next year. We'll be happy to have our young guy who's now 22 spend one more year um in the jordan love aaron rogers

uh track uh which seems to work pretty decently in around the league um and but he'd be if he you know he'd be silly to take a one-year type contract even if it paid him you know maybe they could franchise tag him i guess but um that's that wouldn Wouldn't that be a hoot to see that happen? But again, like that, that would. My guess is that almost all of the time spent, you know, hashing through that scenario will just be pure fantasy and ultimately fun to talk about, but not productive. Yeah, it's sort of like when they make the announcements when you get on a plane, it's like a water landing is highly unlikely. And like, as you fly from Kansas City to Minnesota,

a water landing is highly unlikely. Right, right. And not only that, but statistically, what you're describing is not just highly unlikely, it's like preposterously unlikely. And the same thing is probably goes for this, where it's like, I need that announcement. Like Sam Darnold throwing for 50 touchdowns

is highly unlikely. But so, yeah, I mean, I just, I wonder what he would have to do to make the decision hard on them of whether to franchise tag or how JJ McCarthy would have to look to make the decision hard on them going into 2025. So when we talk about McCarthy, there's a discussion that I'm not sure I'm fully comfortable with, but I totally

understand, which is about JJ McCarthy ceiling. It's talked about as being, I've said Matt Hasselbeck or people have brought up Alex Smith, sort of these game manager types who have a little next level to them and have won a lot of football games. And that's kind of how we look at it. But I also think that trying to judge someone's ceiling off of their college performance when it's in such a small sample is really hard to do and that he has physical tools that could make that higher.

So what in your mind is a JJ McCarthy seal? So, yeah, cause I hate the comp thing too, but the one thing that I've been thinking about, you know, Jeremy Fowler did a story where he basically asked people to come up with comps for all the top quarterbacks. And I think the one that he came up with for McCarthy was Kirk cousins. But, and I assume that it's from a physical standpoint, but like one of the things that a lot of the people

around who watch, if you're a Michigan fan, you don't have to be somebody who's inside the program or around J.J. McCarthy's inner circle to know that there's a lot of kind of swagger there. And there's a lot of competitiveness that I think is probably deep within Kirk somewhere, but we didn't always see it throughout his career. That like, you know, we saw it a lot in 2022, but like just taking charge of a game or using the skills that you have to just, you know,

believe that you can take over the game. And so, and that's kind of what, you know, what you need, I think, to win a ton and to win in the playoffs, too. And so like that, to me, is the intriguing part of him. And that's assuming that the physical part all lines up, because, I mean, Kirk, from a physical standpoint, at least as a passer, you know, was that's a pretty high ceiling. If you if you told me right now that J.J. McCarthy could be the passer that Kirk Cousins is like, I'd say that's a pretty high ceiling. If you told me right now that J.J. McCarthy could be the passer that Kirk Cousins is, like, I'd say that's a pretty high ceiling. And then you say, well, he seems like he's got a little bit more movement to him and a willingness to move around.

And they ran some read option with him, I think, not a whole lot. But, like, that's there. But, like, really, like, the part that intrigues me about him is just the confidence and the swagger that he plays with and if that can lead to a level of competitiveness that sort of eluded Kirk for most of his career then then I think that's a pretty attractive ceiling there's a few things that are off about that comp, mostly everything, because, I mean, first of all, we're talking about- I'm shocked to hear you say that about people.

But it doesn't make a lick of sense. I mean, J.J. McCarthy is a wildly better athlete than Kirk Cousins. The reason Kirk Cousins was not believed in out of high school and is a fourth round draft pick is because he's a terrible athlete by NFL standards. And you can use relative athletic score to see this, that he is legitimately the worst athlete from his NFL combine scores in the entire NFL. I mean, that's just an objective measure of what he did. That is not JJ McCarthy. McCarthy is much, much faster and has a much stronger arm than Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins has made his bones with anticipation, throwing with accuracy,

when playing on time with executing and leading an offense. But JJ McCarthy is a IMG kid who went undefeated, made Mr. Florida and was recruited by everybody in the country goes to the top program, wins the national championship. This is, these are two very, very very different humans and one is a head case because of the other stuff that is kirk cousins because he was drafted in the fourth round because it was washington because of the rg3 stuff the guy has always had this thing this i call it a chip on a shoulder or not enough belief in himself or he thinks that everybody doesn't like him, which is why he takes the most money to go to Atlanta. And then it's proven that nobody fully likes him by them drafting Michael Penix.

And it's just, there was a lot of baggage with Kirk Cousins that came along with that whole deal that does not come with McCarthy. This guy has been, I'm the man since fifth grade. He's believed in himself as this. And when you talk about that swagger and that confidence he comes in fully believing i have won everywhere i'm i've i've been and i'm a top 10 draft pick and i'm a top elite athlete in the world like to me those are just so crazy different that are we just looking at white quarterbacks who aren't that tall and saying yeah and i don't know if that comp comes from like what like the a, a comparison of what JJ McCarthy is projected to achieve versus what Kirk

cousins achieved, meaning, you know, a long time, a long term starter, somebody who be, you know, be on teams that compete for the playoffs, but isn't going to take them on his own to the super bowl or whether it means that he'll play a lot like Kirk. And that, I don't know. I think, as you point out, that's probably not likely. But if the comp is that somebody thinks J.J. McCarthy is going to be a long-term starter who is on teams that are in aggregate 500 and occasionally gets the playoffs, doesn't

make any playoff runs, then that is, I don't know if it's right or wrong, but it's a defensible one to make in terms of that level of like, of what a quarterback can do. And that gets back to what we talked about in terms of how the Vikings were, the extent to which the Vikings were willing to mortgage their future to get them. And they really probably weren't. They wanted to save it so they could use all their picks on Dallas Turner as it turned out. But that's another story. And so they have given themselves, they gave themselves a chance to get a premium pass rusher

and the next year they'll at least still have their first rounder although not much else to continue to build around them and and they and and if you go back and like listen to everything the coach you know O'Connell said and and that the general manager said and all the scouts you know the different personnel people who talked over the weekend said like nobody said like you know for the Fran Tarkin and juniors walking in that door there's they were being pretty like straightforward that one of the guys that we liked was available we took them and we're ready to go to work yeah you're right about that and someone asked me last night on the live stream like does o'connell seem as excited as he did before the process and i think that he might have thought they had a legitimate chance at drake may and but I don't know if he did or not. Yeah. Like, like, like he might've like,

I don't know. Like, but like knowing what we know now, like I don't know why they thought they had were in the universe to get him. Right. So then they would have been comfortable and happy with these quarterbacks. I think that what it comes down to is once you've got the guy, then it's terrifying. Then it's like, okay, oh man, my whole career is resting on the shoulders of that young kid in there who looks like he's barely out of high school. And, uh, you know, that's, that's a scary proposition. Funny you say that my, my daughter's in high school and like, he literally looks,

he's a little bit bigger, you know, a little bit more built than the guys that I see, you know, when I go to the high school or go to high school sports or see her you know with her friends like it's not I mean and he's really not that far off from from being one of those kids and so the same bushy haircut that they all have and everything else and so it is funny and like and that to me like there's a little bit of that I was thinking about not so much just how he looks young but like he but like his body probably still has some development to do in terms of like getting heavier and stronger and thicker to maintain himself throughout, you know, the pounding he's going to get in the NFL. And so like that could be another reason to think that like it wouldn't be smart to to rush him. Like you could physically forget the mental and psychological parts about what, you know, repeated failure as a rookie can do to you, like physically get broken, you know, like, like let's give him a chance to, to, you know, to be physically fortified to play

a full NFL season before you start entertaining, putting them out there. It's going to be such a change for me because i'm the same age as kirk cousins and so he would be like guys remember juan gonzalez or something like some 90s baseball player like oh yeah yeah sure they're playing creed songs like oh yeah i was in high school when they're in the creed thing and that's what kirk likes and uh i can promise you jj mccarthy is not bringing that music to the locker room uh and his references of sports he's going to talk about growing up watching kevin durant or something well at least he uh like like he's one for one as far as i'm concerned because like the first sports reference he made after joining the vikings

was wayne gretzky and so like that's that's my era if not i think he's actually probably older than he definitely is older than me and so um and so like i i felt pretty decent that like but this is like his his mentor that he you know read about in a history book it's not somebody he grew up even probably watching i would try to think of the exact timetables but my guess is he didn't see a whole lot of wayne gretzky live playing games and so as he was growing up but at least the the first name he mentioned was somebody I recognized. He is a big hockey guy. If he drops like an Archer's Herbe or something or, you know, some deep goaltender reference, then I'll be impressed.

But the rest of the team, so we can get off of how young J.J. McCarthy is, and we aren't, but the rest of the team, when I look at this roster now, is we are near completion there may be one more guy who gets added here there but this is an entire roster i look at it as if you just took the starters and you turned injuries off this team could potentially be competitive for a playoff spot my issue is that i don't even know who the backup guard is. Is it the seventh rounder they just drafted? Like there's so many positions where you go, uh, what's after what's even after the top two wide receivers. If somebody gets banged up, we're talking about Trent Shurfield season or

something at this point. I mean, but the roster where they have it, I believe as the bones to build on, and I think has enough players to be competitive week in and week out that close games are still going to happen like crazy at us bank stadium. And that throughout the season, players will get chipped off the roster because of injuries and things like that are out of the lineup. And it will likely look like it did last year where there's a lot of close games, but it's probably not going to be enough to be a truly competitive team how do you feel like where they stand as an entire squad i think that they'll you know it has to be i always like to say start that by saying that context is key and like the

context of them being in the 2024 nfc north is a lot different than the 2022 NFC North, probably. And so they could actually be a team that, absent of what's around them, is a playoff contender, but they're playing in arguably the best division in football right now. And we can go through it, but I think everybody just accepts the other three teams. Certainly the Lions and Packers are primed for a deep playoff run, you would think, and the Bears seem much improved. And so I think that they – it's weird. Overall, the expectation for the team would be like they would be competing

for the playoffs in December, which last year we thought was a terrible thing, at least from a long-term building standpoint. like they would be competing for the playoffs in December, which last year we thought was a terrible thing, you know, at least from a long-term building standpoint. But I think universally people, just because of the quarterback swap, would look at that and say, hey, that's a good first year of the rebuilding, the second phase of the rebuilding process. And so, you know, my guess is that we're going to get to the end of this season and people are going to be pretty enthused going into the offseason. Does that mean that they were in it until week 18 or does that mean that they there was just enough good things that happened that people are going to be like, OK, you know, now we get J.J.

McCarthy gets a full offseason. Justin Jefferson presumably is locked in. Don't have to worry about that you know the defense there's all kinds of fun parts on the defense that uh brian for is um assuming he doesn't move on after you know to a head coaching job which they probably feel pretty decent about given how little interest he got unfortunately for him uh this previous year and and so that so that's that's kind of how i see the team like like and i and it might end up being that they don't make the playoffs because they have to play the Packers twice, the Lions twice,

and the Bears twice. But I think that whatever the final record ends up being, I guess I'd be really surprised if they get to January 2025 and people are not really excited for the season that would start eight months after that. It reminds me of maybe 2014 where our expectations should be of you've got the exciting young quarterback and you're going into it with, Hey, someday this could be something. And I think people enjoy that 2014 season, a lot of finding out a lot of close games, a lot of fun games, even if you're not quite there yet, because you could see what was on the way uh last thing i want you to

predict and you love predictions so i try to force you to do this and every time you come on the show the exact date where we get the adam schefter alert that says justin jefferson has agreed to a 34 million dollar per year contract extension with the Minnesota Vikings. What will that date be? Hmm. Um, May 15th. I, I thought you were going to go later into the summer. Cause I was going to say may, and I thought it was, that was going to be a hot take, but I think it's on the way soon. Yeah, I think it's on the way, and I don't have any great scoop insight on it, but just the general things you hear and the amount of time they've been working on it and the way Kwesi Adolfo-Mensah talked about it over the weekend,

ultimately it feels like a matter of time, but it could be pretty quickly. I think it's going to happen way before training camp because I do not believe they want JJ McCarthy out there doing anything when he doesn't have that number one receiver to start building chemistry with. And the same thing for Sam Darnold. I mean, they want to win this year that you can't go through the whole summer. And I don't think that alone would drive any decisions, but it just feels like, you know, if you're saying like, we got to, you know, we either have, we have to, you know, get to that middle point.

By then, like, that's a pretty good goal to have and pretty reasonable goal. I don't think that they would like say, well, we're going to give them an extra million dollars a year just because we want them there on the first day of training camp. But it would certainly be good if that's the way it works out i think it would accelerate what the like deadlines make deals with the deadline in their mind should be before that and if you if you were telling me that it cost one extra million dollars to get him on the field for ota's mini camp all that stuff i'd be like this is whatever just that's a that's an accounting round error for uh franchise worth $7 billion. All right.

Fair enough. I think it will happen sooner than later. Kevin Seifert, well, great to have you on the show. Appreciate it. And I have to say I'm glad that we were not talking about them missing all the quarterbacks, Spencer Rattler. Then it would have been a calamity. So I'm glad that you were wrong. Catastrophe, calamity, whatever word you want to use.

I'm happy to have provided the angst and absorbed the angst as opposed to people just being randomly nervous about it. They're always nervous. So anyway, well, thanks for your time and we'll see you soon. Okay, thank you.