Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - FansOnly: What the heck happened to the 2025 Vikings?????

Episode Date: October 26, 2025

Matthew Coller is back with a FansOnly episode where he exclusively answers your Vikings questions. Coller responds to questions about what happened to this season, playing McCarthy, front office accountability, draft strategies, and more. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here. And as you can probably tell, I did not leave Los Angeles, California, right after the game, so I'm still here. But I have a lot of your fan questions to answer. We'll also have a recap of the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers game after that is over with on Sunday as well. And then I'll be back to Minnesota to start the preface. for Vikings and Detroit Lions. So a quick update. We did talk to Kevin O'Connell again on Friday, and he said that Christian Derisaw and Brian O'Neill should be expected to get back against Detroit. And of course, J.J. McCarthy is ready to start. So let's dive right into your questions.

There are many following that loss to the Chargers. So the first one comes from Bailey, says maybe it's too early to be looking this far ahead. But what is the best, worst, and most realistic scenarios for the team for the rest of the season. I think the best case scenario is really clear. It's that J.J. McCarthy plays well. I think best case scenario within reason is probably off the table now, which would be that McCarthy steps back in. They win eight out of ten games.

They're into the playoffs. They're taking down the Packers and the Lions on the final weeks of the season. And then off you go into the post season, the way that everybody dreamed it up at the beginning of the year. That does not seem very realistic or within reason now. So if we're talking about the best case scenario that actually has a chance to happen, I think we just start with the idea that J.J. McCarthy could get into the game and play well down the stretch. Now, that might not be in the first game that he's going to play against Detroit,

that he looks like the next franchise quarterback. But with 10 games left to go, the idea would be develop, get better, and that by the end of the season, you have a pretty good sense that you're comfortable going into 2006 with J.J. McCarthy. All the rest doesn't really matter that much. If the defense doesn't play that well and J.J. McCarthy does, that's okay. At this point, you have to accept that as a potential result. If they do play well and they can win games, that's even better. But if McCarthy could turn a corner and even play well in five or six out of the 10 games to give them a chance, chance down the stretch to compete in these games where you're not feeling like it was against the

chargers, where you're not getting blown out, where he's not getting sacked a bunch of times, where he looks like the type of quarterback that you would draft 10th overall and build the entire ship around. That is easily the best case scenario. It's also a realistic scenario. One of the things that's been so frustrating about the beginning of this year is just the fact that you only got to see J.J. McCarthy for two games. And yeah, right now it's very easy to feel down on what you saw through those two games, or at least some of it through the two games. The end of the Chicago game was excellent. But is that any kind of sample size to work with? Really? No, it's not. We can't judge anything that we saw out of two games. That isn't even close. But 12 games, if he can play

the rest of the year, and of course, stay healthy is a major, major part of that. But if you could play the rest of the year and we can walk away saying six of those games were somewhere between very good and excellent, then that's the best case scenario. And it is within reason. The most realistic scenario, unfortunately, probably is also the worst one, which is you're getting to the end of the season and you've seen a little bit of this and a little bit of that. And you're really not sure what you have in J.J. McCarthy. And the plan in 2026 would be to have a quarterback competition, go into the offseason splitting reps, not really sure who's going to be the week one starter.

At this point, having seen so little of McCarthy, but knowing they've got a tough schedule down the stretch, how little he has played a football since he left college, how far he has to go in order to be at a place where we know what he is, it's not that likely that we're going to be locked in. in 100% for sure McCarthy is the guy by the end of the season. And I think that that's the worst case scenario, that maybe they go 7 in 10, 6 in 11. The record's not bad enough to have the best draft pick, but it's also not good enough

to be able to say, hey, wow, J.J. McCarthy, great work toward the end of the year. And it's even, it's funny because the worst case scenario is not that McCarthy plays horribly because if he does, if it's atrocious and they completely collapse and they win five total games, that's not even the worst case scenario because in that case, you know that McCarthy is too far behind to trust him going forward. Doesn't mean his career is over, but it means that you can't go into 2026 with him locked in as your starter or not even close, but it would also mean a top draft pick. And some research that I was doing because it comes up all the time when it comes to the drafting and came up with this stat is that the Vikings since Quasi Adolph-Menza got here have drafted

all of eight players in the top 100 picks. You know how many Detroit's taken? 15. You know how many Green Bay's taken? 16. They need more young talent in the top 100. They need another top 10 draft pick. Drafting 17th, drafting 23rd. That's not a place where you generally get superstars unless you kind of luck into them the way they did with guys like Darrison Jefferson. But usually those superstars, they come within the top 10 draft picks. So that's not even the worst of the worst scenarios. It's really the middling 7 and 10. We still don't really know. That would feel very bleak for this franchise. Next question says from David says, do you play JJ next week if both tackles are hurt? I say no. Well, it appears at least from what Kevin O'Connell said that the outlook is good for

both of the tackles to play. And one thing that you have to acknowledge with the injuries here and just how things have gone overall is that the schedule has played a role in injury recovery, whether it's J.J. McCarthy or Christian Derisaw. And I think if he had had a full week to get ready, then maybe there would have been a better chance he would have played. But having the overseas stuff and then the Thursday night game, it took a real toll on everybody. And it made all those recoveries much more difficult than they would have been. But it appears that Darisaw and O'Neill should be back. And in that case, we would see J.J. McCarthy, and this is why I say, don't even begin to judge what you saw in the first two games. Not only that, but I mean,

people still debate Justin Herbert and whether he's any good and he's been in the league a very long time. We debated Kirk Cousins for years. So two games certainly doesn't do it. But also, now you'll start to see him with Derisaw, with Donovan Jackson in there, with some games under his belt, with presumably Jordan Addison will be there as well. And somebody that he didn't have to start the season, but had a really, really good training camp with. So most of the offensive line and the weapons will be there for J.J. McCarthy. And then you can start to really evaluate what you see. And if he gives you a chance to win against Detroit, it would feel like a massive.

step forward for the franchise, even if they lost the game and dropped to three and five. This is something that I think that all Vikings fans and that everyone inside that organization needs, but at very least, you'd be saying that's most of the offense. You're really only talking about Ryan Kelly as the only guy that would be expected to be out when J.J. McCarthy returns, and that is a good sign. Now, to your point, if Derisaw can't play, that would be really crushing, but you can't protect J.J. McCarthy forever. You can't. can't sit and wait and wait and wait until you'll get to the end of the season and go, oh, sorry, there was no perfect time to play J.J. McCarthy. Ideally, would it be a little bit

better to be able to do it at home? Sure, would it be maybe a little bit better to do it against the Ravens defense than the Lions, which has really stepped up and they're coming off of a by week and will be fresh and presumably a little more healthy than they were in the past? But you just can't wait forever. So almost regardless of the circumstances, it's J.J. McCarty. time if he's healthy to go. And look, he was this team's QB1 from day one and the quarterback won through the years. If he's going to be the guy and that's still on the table, well, then he's going to have to play sometimes without an offensive tackle or without a receiver and things like that. So I would say almost regardless of the situation he has to play

against the Detroit Lions. And I'm not sure with Carson Wentz's health that he's going to even be able to play if they needed him to. as banged up as he was. Folks, are you overwhelmed by the number of different options for hair loss? Are you exhausted by looking around the internet for answers and watching late night television commercials, seeing if any of the options will work for you? Well, getting your hair back doesn't have to be that complicated. If you want to be happy with your hair when you look in the mirror,

then Hymns can help you get that confidence back. Hymns can help you with prescription treatments that have clinically proven ingredients like monoxidil and finestri that can help stop further hair loss and regrow hair within three to six months. They make it so simple for you with 100% online access to personalize treatment plans that put your goals first. No hidden fees, no surprise costs, just real personalized care on your schedule. For simple online access to personalize affordable care for hair loss, ED weight loss, and more, visit hymns.com slash purple insider. That's Hymns.com slash Purple Insider for your free online visit Hymns.com slash Purple Insider.

Individual results may vary based on studies of topical and oral monocodil and finestriide. Featured products include compound drug products, which FDA does not approve or verify for safety effectiveness or quality. Prescription required, see website for full details, restrictions, and safety information. Folks, maybe you haven't started your holiday shopping yet, but those holidays sneak up on you. fast. So let me give you some advice. Check out uncommon goods. Uncommon goods makes holiday shopping stress-free and fun with thousands of one-of-a-kind gifts that you can't find anywhere else. Uncommon goods looks for products that are high quality, unique, often handmade or made in the USA, many of which are crafted by independent artists and small businesses. And because they're made in

small batches, the best finds can often sell out fast. I'll give you an example of something that I found for a gift. You guys know I have a gray hair. hound dog. Well, I search greyhounds and I found artists made towels and jewelry that I know my wife will love. You can literally do that with anything that the people in your life are into. And if that's not enough, with every purchase you make at Uncommon Goods, they'll give back $1 to a nonprofit partner of your choice. They've donated more than $3 million to date. So shop early, have fun, and cross off some names from your list today. To get 15% off your next gift, go to Uncommon Goods.com slash purple insider. That's uncommon goods.com

slash purple insider for 15% off. Don't miss off on this limit. Don't miss out on this limited time offer. Uncommon goods. We're all out of the ordinary. Next question comes from Brian says when I think about KOC's passing scheme, it reminds me of the complex deep passing schemes by coaches such as Joe Gibbs and Norv Turner. The primary difference is that those two coaches paired that desire to get open deep with a power running game and a commitment to running the ball. I'm not even sure we have a real question here other than WTF KOC. So this comes up a lot. Here's what I think about the Kevin O'Connell scheme. Now that we have two and a half years, three, three and a half years to get a

real look at what Kevin O'Connell wants to do offensively. I would say the biggest criticism from fans and us at times is exactly what you're talking about, which is this commitment to the downfield passing game, even when they're not in a situation where they can really do that. And I do think that O'Connell made some adjustments against Cleveland, maybe went back on those against Philadelphia, took a lot of hits, but still converted a lot of throws downfield. I think that the Kevin O'Connell offense, when it has everything that it needs, when it checks every box to operate at full strength, is fantastic. And nothing short of fantastic. The route combinations baffle defenses. He knows how to beat any kind of coverage.

I think that throughout a game, he is great at picking up on identifiers of how the teams are playing them defensively. What types of coverages are they using? What types of deception? What types of rushes? And through that point, finding the weaknesses in those defenses. I also think that it has to have good quarterback play to operate. I think that goes for almost every single scheme. But probably experienced quarterback play is a real help when it comes to running the entirety of this scheme. Knowing how long it took her cousins to master it, knowing that Sam Darnold had been in the NFL for a long time and had been with the San Francisco 49ers for an entire year, which is, you know, there's a lot of roots in the offense from San Francisco with this Vikings offense as well. so Darnold had kind of a precursor to joining this team to understanding what he needed to do. So I think it does take time and it does take experience.

I think it takes blocking, which all schemes do, but this one takes really good blocking. And when I see, you know, there are some better performances by Garrett Bradbury. Ed Ingram, I don't think so much, but Garrett Bradbury in New England. And it did make me wonder, is it just really hard on offensive linemen? Is it hard on the interior when the opposing team knows that you're going to be hanging onto the ball for a long time. And even when we look at the good performances by Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold, Kirk Cousins left the 2022 season with broken ribs. He left 2023 with an Achilles tear. And Sam Darnold was playing all of last season with an ankle problem and something going

on with his wrist, thumb, hand, whatever it might have been throughout that year. That is playing in the NFL, but the quarterback hits seem to rack up and rack up. So I look this up. The Vikings are seventh in times sacked since 2020. I mean, that is very high, considering that they've had some quality quarterbacks and quality quarterback play. The teams ahead of them are all terrible. It's like New England, who was terrible, and Cleveland and Chicago that had Justin Fields and Caleb Williams, the Vikings even being in that conversation for that high in sacks, I think does tell you a lot about how the quarterback has to hold on to the ball in this system. And if you can block it up, like the Los Angeles Rams did in 2021, where Matthew Stafford had the number

one pass blocking by PFF in the NFL, well, you could certainly do a lot with that. So I think what's absolutely vital to run the system would be that J.J. McCarthy has to know it inside and out, has to have a lot of work with it through the rest of this season, and they have to be able to block it. As of right now, I don't think that you can really just snap your fingers and make a huge schematic change. I mean, you've been teaching these guys how to do this offense for how long? I mean, months and months and months and months. You can't just say, actually, guys, new scheme, here we go. That would be basically impossible. Now, I would say, well, you're going to have to maybe change things in the future, but that really depends on how it fits with J.J. McCarthy.

And I also am not sure that Kevin O'Connell is a guy that's going to change his stripes too much. He believes this offense works. It won 14 games last year. I don't think he's going to let a three and four start with a backup quarterback mostly playing. Say, actually, you know what? I'm changing my entire scheme. And that is something to keep in mind, too, that we do have to remember that we are prisoners of the moment here.

A backup quarterback, tons of injuries, bad defense, and you're talking about a season last year where they were competing on the final day of the season to try to win. the entire conference. So we can't entirely lose the thread and start just pointing at everything and saying it's wrong. But I do think that this offense needs certain things to really thrive and you have to start questioning yourself when you are that high up in sacks after three and a half years. To GM with the question here, with the trade deadline coming and after last night's performance, I would be on board with being sellers. That could change if we upset the Lions, but I still see no reason to believe that that would happen other than that it's

the Vikings. What are your thoughts on being sellers and who are the tradable assets? So this is a little bit of the trouble with trying to be sellers if they lose to the Detroit Lions is there's just not a lot to sell. I mean, the main guy that I could see as somebody that you would move on from would be Jalen Naylor because I think Naylor would have some value to another team as an experienced receiver. And I've also gotten the sense this year, as unfortunate as it is that we always have to go basically on just the numbers of catches and targets and yardage. But when you look at the tape, I mean, Jaylon Naylor has been open this year. He's been an effective blocker for them this year. And I think other teams who study the tape and don't just pull up the box score stuff

are going to see that, you know, this guy has been fairly effective, especially when we were, you know, questioning him a lot during training camp. I think he's done a very good job overall this season. So I think there could be something there. You're not going to get much. I mean, you're probably talking about a sixth round draft pick or something like that. But maybe that could help a little bit when it comes to recovering some of the assets lost for Adam Thielen. And then it would also allow them to get a chance to play Ty Felton and get him some experience down the stretch. But aside from that, I mean, is someone trading for Javon Hargrave at this point? I can't see it. I think that that would be a tough sell, considering that he's played poorly

and he's expensive. And the same goes for Jonathan Allen. And when you look around it, a lot of the older players, they're usually under contract in the future for a good amount of money. I mean, maybe you're talking about Eric Wilson. Is that even worth it to trade Eric Wilson? Could you get anything for Ivan Pace, who you mostly benched? I mean, probably not. right so I would not expect that I think that they'll play it out to the very end and I don't think that you want to start lopping off huge pieces off of a team that you want to evaluate you want to see who is going forward with this team because there are a lot of guys that are under contract going forward so who is coming back in 2006 becomes a main question here so I would not expect that

it is going to be a very active trade deadline for the Minnesota Vikings. Bill do you think that Flores has no faith in his guise too overconfident in his scheme to get home or does he doesn't seem like the overly stubborn type. He has shown that he is malleable. No, I totally agree that he has shown that he is malleable

and willing to change up a lot of things with his defense on a week to week basis. That's really the entire idea is to have a different scheme going into each week. But I do think that there's a few boxes that a Flores defense needs to check. And

One of them is stopping the run because a lot of it is built on, hey, it's third and seven, it's second and nine, it's second and ten. And if teams are consistently playing on second and three or just getting first downs, first down and ten could be run pass, or they're playing from as far ahead as they have, I think it's really difficult to do all of those things. I also think that when you have a defensive scheme that is built on swinging big, so swing for the fences, think about the Minnesota twins, for example, they hit all those home runs one year, then the next year they didn't hit the home runs and they didn't make the playoffs. And then they started talking maybe we need to put the ball in contact a little bit more, put it in play, right? I mean, when you swing big, if you hit the home runs and you catch the right side of variance and you get a bunch of sacks and pressures and turnovers, you could be a top five defense. And that's what happened last year. When we look at they were number one in interceptions, they were top five in sacks. I think they were even midpack and fumbles forced. So they did a lot in terms of those big splash plays. They haven't taken the ball away this year. They haven't gotten the sacks. They've gotten some pressures, but they haven't gotten the sacks. Also, when you do a review of last year, now that we have kind of some hindsight with that, and you go through the quarterbacks that they played and that they got a lot of those sacks and interceptions from, there wasn't a lot of great quarterbacks on that list. They picked off Kirk Cousins.

They picked off Joe Flacco, right? There was, Will Levis had his problems against the Vikings, playing the AFC South. They played Mack Jones when they went up against the Jaguars in a situation where Jones was playing for a very bad team. So, you know, there were a lot of things that fell their way as far as a defense, but who thrived? Jared Gough, Matthew Stafford, in both of the games that they played against them. So it's not that I'm saying that that defense last year was fake or it wasn't actually good. No, I mean, it was good.

But it also benefited from some things. And then, I mean, there's just a lot of very different players. You know, they went from having one philosophy last year. And I think this is where you could argue. that they overreacted to the playoff loss because then they went to a different philosophy with how they handled the defensive tackles. Now, for the record, I agreed with it at the time that they did it. I thought they need to have more interior pressure. They've lacked that for such a long time. And they have not been able to find these guys. It just turns out they haven't been

able to be anywhere near as effective as we expected them to be. And there's a reason why every time it's studied analytically, people find that coverage is the thing that's going to dictate your defensive success even more than pressure. And they have just not been able to cover the way that we thought that they would. And they've given up huge explosive plays to the Eagles, huge explosive plays to the Chargers. Well, there's good quarterbacks, good wide receivers, and they have not been able to cover. And I do think that the good teams, the good quarterbacks, they have figured out where the open space is. And this even goes back to 2023. And I know it was Jake Browning at the helm, but it was Jamar Chase. It was T. Higgins. And they started running stuff over the middle against

this team. And they have not found the schematic resolution to that. And I think that that has been a major issue there as well. But, you know, is anybody playing up to their potential? And then you go back and forth like we do. Is it a bunch of players regressed all at once? You know, Harrison Smith with his health issue, losing Cambinam, clearly a big deal. Not being able to stop the run up front does have at least some to do with Harrison Phillips, Jonathan Bullard, not being on this team, probably a lot to do with that. And maybe if they were pairing with Jalen Redmond, it would be different, but that's not what they decided to do. And so is it the scheme when a lot of players all regress at once, you start to wonder, yes, maybe it could be. But then, you know, there's another

crazy stat that I was looking at just in terms of the number of yards per drive that the Vikings have allowed. And it's still in the top 10. So as frustrating as bad as it has looked and it has been, especially against good teams, you also have to factor in that the offense hasn't done anything. And offenses impact defenses. The Vikings on the offensive side, 27th in terms of plays per drive, 28th in terms of time of possession per drive. That is not how this thing was designed to work. It was designed to work with the offense getting this team ahead and then them taking full advantage of all those blitzes and deception. So if football were only easy, right, to figure out, I think it's everything all playing together at once, not a lack of being

malleable or a lack of willingness to adjust, but maybe trying to play the way that they were designed to play and it's just not working. But I do think certain things have been figured out. And we even saw this in Miami from 2020 to 2021 with Flores' defense, where they were top five in 2020, did a lot of crazy blitz stuff. And then by 2021, they were mid-pack. And no surprise that also went along with their offense being kind of average or below average at that time. So it's a lot of different stuff. It's not just one answer. But it is on Brian Flores to figure out how to fix it going up against next week, one of the best teams in the NFL, or at least get it to creep back toward average, to use a phrase of one of my good friends, Sam Monson.

So let's get to the next question here. Billy says, since the team is staring down a six to eight wins season, who are you excited to see develop aside from J.J. McCarthy? Well, I think that that is the problem, Billy is, I don't know the answer to that question. There's just not a lot of answers to that question. I mean, I think they're obvious who they are. So far, what we've seen from Dallas Turner, a good amount of pressures. but has not been impressive as an all-around player.

He has kind of been the same as last year where it's flashes. And I believe he had five pressures the other night. So flashes and some times where, wow, okay, Dallas Turner just made a big play. But then a boneheaded headbutt of the quarterback the other night, which was truly senseless. And then getting eliminated and just washed out completely against the run. And sometimes with Kevin O'Connell,

you have to read between the lines a little bit when he talked about stopping the run. and said, well, you know, Gernard's been doing some good things over there. And it's like, yeah, well, I think we can figure out the other side of that and who's over there. I don't believe that it was ever going to be in the cards for Dallas Turner with his size and skill set to be a dude that just sets the edge every play. I think that that would be asking a lot from somebody who's not the biggest. And really, when you think about what Dallas Turner's job was supposed to be this year, he was supposed to be paired with Andrew Van Ginkle, like we saw in the first week against Chicago. or even against Cincinnati at times.

And Van Ginkle hasn't been out there. So he's been asked to do a totally different job than he was supposed to as they got ready for this entire season throughout the off season. So I think that that's been a little bit tough. But Dallas Turner is at the top of that list. And also Donovan Jackson. I've been very impressed with Donovan overall. I can't say that it's been the best guard play ever.

But if you can even survive in the NFL today at the guard position as a rookie, you're doing pretty well. And I think that his top moments have been really good. I think his character has been exceptionally impressive playing through that wrist injury and, you know, battling the way that he did there. That was really something to see from him, a very intelligent kid that I think is a great chance to grow as the season goes along. Levi Drake Rodriguez, Jalen Redman. But aside from that, I mean, I think they need to see something from Theo Jackson also where we've seen very little in terms of playmaking from him. But otherwise, you kind of shrug. Like, these guys are who they are. This was not a team built to find out by week seven or eight to start saying, hey, who's going to develop for next

year? That's the New York Jets. That's not the Minnesota Vikings 2025. So I think that that's one of the harder parts about the rest of the season is trying to just figure out, you know, who do you even watch? Well, it's really one guy. It's really J.J. McCarthy to see what he can do because there's not too many other players. I mean, the flip side of that is that you're not talking about needing 10 different guys to click next year who are young or developing players in order for this thing to work. They still have all the foundation with their top players, and I don't want to get into next offseason because that's just, I mean, we're just not there yet. We don't have enough information to get into next off season, but we know Grenard, Jefferson,

Derisaw, presumably Addison, Jordan Mason. Donovan Jackson, like the Will Fries under contract, there's a lot there that they have of key players that are in their primes to work with going forward. It's just not a situation where they were supposed to be talking about the next wave of players who are on their way. Going into 2026, it's going to be a very similar story, regardless of what happens here, it's going to be free agents, it's going to be veterans, and it's going to be win now because that's the way that this team operates. Brad L. says part of the issue revealed by injuries is perhaps the lack of depth. How much is due to the lack of success in the draft seems to me that's where you find cheap talent or are my assumptions off. Well, here would be my thing about the depth versus the draft is there aren't too many players at the position anywhere in the NFL that they have been missing and that is offensive tackle. There are no good swing tackles.

Think about they've tried a lot of them through the years. They've tried developing them. They've tried signing them. Rashad Hill was as good as it gets for a backup tackle. And then go through the other teams in the NFL and tell me which media, which fan base is jumping for absolute joy because their backup tackle is playing so well. And the same goes for backup center, which I think is actually the hardest position probably in the NFL to replace because there are maybe seven to 10 exceptional. centers in the NFL, and then there's a handful of other ones that you can survive with, and maybe 10 that are barely playable. It is an incredibly difficult position, especially

with the amount of pass rush that is centered on rushing up the middle these days. I mean, that's just where everything is being attacked. And we've seen that since Blake Brandel came in, that opponents are just crashing the middle and causing all sorts of problems for the Vikings offense. I mean, I don't know, you know, they drafted Juergens. That, was somebody that they hoped could fill in. And I didn't think it was doing a terrible job, but then they believed that Brandel was a little more intellectually fit for that because of his experience. They may go back to Juergens at some point as the player that they've been trying to develop. But that's, I mean, that's a hard one. There's not a first round center sitting behind

your starting center most of the time. And when we go to some of the other positions, some of them were players that they developed and hoped would be stepping up into this type of of role, including someone like Theo Jackson, who they've developed for a couple of years. That hasn't really been that problematic of a position, I suppose, but they had to shuffle things around. Mattelis is another guy that they developed, Redmond, Rodriguez. I mean, really, it's that they don't have blue chip players who they recently drafted that are taking up the star positions.

I don't think that there's a lot of teams that have great depth anywhere. Do we see fourth string defensive tackles starring? Not too often. And if they do, the team wins the Super Bowl, like the Philadelphia Eagles last year with their rotation, edge rushers, corners, like every team after their first unit is in pretty tough shape, which is why we try not to take too seriously the preseason, right, with a bunch of second teamers playing. But I think that it's much more of if you haven't drafted a defensive tackle, that can be a star. If Dallas Turner isn't clicking, which so far I would not say that he has. If you go out and sign a $9 million two-year deal for a corner and say you're going to start, and then you sign another one to start that has never been good, well, this is kind of what you end up with.

And they needed to draft starting corners. I mean, they needed Lewis, well, not Louisina, Andrew Booth Jr. to click. Or they needed, you know, they're trying to maybe rely on undrafted guys like Zamaia Vaughn or Dwight McLeathern, but they're not putting those guys in the game over Jeff Okuda. You know, I think that that has been really the problem there is just even hitting on the starters. I mean, depth is just hard to work with trying to say, hey, Walter Rouse and Justin School, you go out there and take on, you know, Khalil Mack. It's probably not going to happen all that well. But it's really hitting on some of those starters so you don't have to make the bad bets.

And that's what we've really talked about a lot is the bad bets. and if you only draft eight times in the top 100 in three drafts, what are your chances? I mean, if you hit on an Addison, a Jackson, and Turner is at least startable, okay, well, let's even call that three out of eight. But, I mean, that's not even the worst rate for a 100 player, but you only took eight shots. If you hit on 40% of them, well, you're not going to have that many starting players. So I think that if they had the one thing that they were really going to talk about regretting, it would probably be just all the draft picks that they have either traded away or foregoed

or when you spend all this money in free agency, you end up with not getting compensatory picks either. And you guys know how it drives me crazy to talk comp picks, but it's a reality that if you're always spend, spend, spend, you don't get the comp picks that other teams do that let some players go and are not spending as big in free agency. So they have not, you know, I think that when Quasi did. Offlmensa got here, we had certain ideas of how they would handle their assets that in some ways turned out to be right, which was the tear down and allowing players to leave and being right

about that. But one thing that I've been surprised by over the years is that they did not go all in on trying to accumulate as many draft picks as possible. And instead basically just said we're going to use those draft picks for current players, you know, including the T.J. Hawkinson trade, which has not overall, I think, been a success. So when you include the contract that he had to be paid afterwards. So, you know, when you talk about the Lions, when you talk about the Packers, they accumulated a ton of draft capital and you're going to hit on a lot more players when you just have a lot more draft picks. So sorry, that went down quite a road there. But when the draft comes up, I think we need to remember that their overall strategy has been you're going to get

from point A to point B as fast as possible, competitive rebuild. I think when they first started talking about the competitive rebuild, I was very skeptical about that. I thought that they did a good job of it overall. But if those swings in free agency do not hit, then here's what you end up with, is not having a whole lot to look at and say, oh, well, you have at least these foundational young players.

Well, at this point now, they really don't. Okay, a couple more here before we wrap up. let's see, Pete says, I remember you mentioning during a chat over the summer that the wilfs expect to be in the playoffs and compete for championships on a yearly basis. That does not seem to be in the cards for this year's team. I know organizations can't predict injuries, but when you're expecting older players with significant injury histories to play key roles and filling out the roster with unproven undrafted players, it really shouldn't surprise when it blows up in your face.

It seems to me that the front office might have outsmarted themselves trying to to identify players to provide surplus value compared to their compensation and a few of those bets and few of those bets have paid off. That being said, the wheels have finally fully come off this thing. What does accountability look like from an owner's perspective? Well, okay, so there's a lot there. Yes, that is a major part of it, the fact that the ownership is not willing to go to the bottom. And this is not, and I told you so at all, because look, I mean, I've thought that they did a good job on the whole with the competitive rebuild going into this season. I thought that we all probably looked at this roster on paper and said, I mean, look,

this thing is as good as anybody. And that's why I've brought up Mike Clay and his positional rankings and, you know, different analysts who looked at this roster and said, okay, you know, you're not, you're not just being like too close to the situation and giving them too much credit. it, but no, this roster really is very, very good. But, you know, I go back to a show that I did after Seth Walder of ESPN gave them some really bad grades on their free agent signings. And a lot of it was, hey, you know, I think if it clicks, this is going to be a lot better than he's grading these signings, like as the as the whole.

And you can overpay when you have the rookie quarterback contract and all that stuff, right? But I also said at some point, there's a risk factor here that if a. few of these don't hit, you are in a lot of trouble. And that all ties back into 2022. And when they took over, that you had a couple of different ways you could go. You could go in a direction, you could go in a direction where you are going to the bottom and you're moving on from Kirk Cousins and you're maybe playing Marcus Marriota or something and trying to sort of get through the season, get high draft picks, tradeaway players, accumulate as many picks as possible and then go from there. And they decided that that wasn't the way they were going

to do it. They had a really fun 2002 season that ultimately was not worth it based on the smoke and mirrors of that year of surviving at the last second time and time again and then losing in the playoffs to a mediocre Giants team. Like that ultimately didn't end up being worth it. And I thought they did take a better approach. But even when you trade in the middle of that season for T.J. Hawkinson, like there's a draft asset. In 2023, they don't trade away Daniel Hunter because they thought, we're 500. We can still get into the playoffs. I think some short-sightedness in both of those areas has sort of come to roost, if you will, with the entire roster. And yes, I mean, missing on the 2022 draft class has a huge impact on that. But I think it also had a

ripple effect of them saying, well, we don't hit on these draft picks anyway. So let's trade them for players and let's instead of trying to accumulate lots of them like let's try to turn them into veteran players which again makes a lot of sense in the situation you're at with the young quarterback but the one problem they ran into here is well the young quarterback hasn't played so that's one but the other thing is that if you knew that the young quarterback was good then that would be maybe a different story and we were pretty much presented with the idea since they let Sam Darnold go that they knew the young quarterback was good. We just hadn't seen as much of them as J.J. McCarthy as they had.

So they can still prove that, I guess. And these decisions are probably not going to turn around with every one of these free agents that's gone wrong, suddenly becoming right. But I think it would look a little bit different if they had done it with a quarterback that they were really sure of. And we're not still talking about his fundamentals halfway into his first season, because there's that much lack of clarity overall. So, I mean, it's a really good,

it's a really good thought about the entire picture here and how taking the sort of expedited route of trying to competitive rebuild. Well, if it works, it would have been terrific. If Hargrave and Allen were absolute freaks like they were three years ago, it would have been terrific. If Kelly was their center, it would have been terrific,

but they had to take those risks that have no payoff. now essentially. And as far as like accountability that you talk about, I mean, look, they built this, a lot of flies out here, sorry, they built this to have a two to three year window. They did not build it just for this year. Now, a win now is certainly a thing, but win now doesn't mean now and now only like right now this moment. So they built it to have the idea that they would be able to compete for several years with a lot of their key players. under contract. And I think that that's still true. So we can't declare it, hey, fire everybody, get rid of everybody. But if you do ultimately finish with one of the worst defenses in the NFL,

if you ultimately do finish with more draft picks that have gone sideways, more signings that have gone sideways, those conversations definitely begin with Flores not under contract. I mean, who knows where that situation could go. And then the heat gets turned up. And we could, you know, suddenly a lot of pressure in 2006, but I think it wouldn't make sense to hit the eject button after this year, especially knowing with how many things that were unpredictable. Now you could say, hey,

these guys had injury histories. All right, well, Christian Derisaw struggling to come back this much, right? Brian O'Neill getting hurt. I mean, it goes beyond, even Donovan Jackson needing wrist surgery. It goes beyond what they could have fully predicted with this season. and mostly at the quarterback position. One thing we need to not lose sight of is teams that play backup quarterbacks lose.

That's just the reality. I mean, that's just the truth. I mean, if this team had a questionable defense and J.J. McCarthy was putting up 30 points a game as the starting quarterback, we wouldn't be having this conversation too much about the big picture and who's being held accountable. This team needs to see its starting quarterback. And sometimes, unfortunately, the easiest answer is the right one. We can look around and question every single person.

But there's a reason why you say you hold the fate of the franchise in your hands when you hold that football because it is absolutely true. And if that football is in the hands of a backup quarterback who was 2935 and won since 2017, below 500, benched for Taylor Heineckee the last time he was in, hadn't started in several years. And you say, hey, go save the season and beat Justin Herbert. It's just, and Jalen Hertz, the Super Bowl winner and a true franchise elite quarterback, go beat. those guys, it's a pretty tough task. So as bad as a lot of it feels and as bad as a lot of it's going. And I am as surprised as you guys are that a lot of these defensive moves have gone as awry as they actually did. I still think if they had good quarterback play, probably four and three, maybe even five and two, and looking at, hey, how are they going to fix some of these

things at the trade deadline? And instead, it's total system failure. So it's amazing how thin the razor's edge is in the NFL. Last question. This comes from Ben says I feel very conflicted here. On one hand, the season feels over, even though mathematically still alive. On the other hand, I feel like McCarthy can spark a dead offense in which it can turn and give this team a boost in the final 10 games, which is the right way to look at it. I mean, if he really is a franchise quarterback, then he could turn the season around by playing

well, don't have helicopters too much in Minnesota. Anyway, so here's the thing. Yes, if J.J. McCarthy is a true franchise quarterback, if he's Herbert, if he's Mahomes, Alan, Jackson, May, possibly, then, yeah, you can take this team, and there's enough talent here on offense. They still have the best receiver alive, and they still have the second best receiver or the best number two receiver probably in the entire NFL. They still have, if they get them healthy,

great tackles, a good running back, and a play caller who won 14 games last year with a guy who had never been good at quarterback before. So is it completely dead? No, it's not. And is there a chance that McCarthy steps in and looks like that dude? Of course there is.

We have no sample size to say really either way about J.J. McCarthy. I don't think we can watch the Atlanta game and say, sorry and he's not him. It's never going to happen. I do think being realistic, what's the ceiling on this season for someone who has played so little football? It's probably not that he just steps in and wins seven out of the next 10 games. I think that where you should stand on this is, yes, the season in terms of the competitive part of winning the division, beating the Packers and the Lions, that part is over. The part where we see what they're really made of from the head coach position from the quarterback position, maybe from the defensive coordinator

position, then that is very much on. And to be honest, that might be just as intriguing as if they were pretty good this year going down the stretch, if not more intriguing, because the bigger picture of the Minnesota Vikings franchise rests on what happens next over these next 10 games. And the only thing that can't happen is JJ McCarthy getting hurt again, because then it's going to feel like there is nothing to watch for, nothing to think about. But suddenly, to me, this is a breath of fresh air. This is like going to the ocean breeze or jumping in this here pool behind me to have J.J. McCarthy return and start having the season that we expected them to have, good or bad,

for better or worse. It's just that the chance that they can suddenly turn this around to make the playoffs is now more or less gone down the drain because they couldn't even just survive, three and two, win any kind of fight. couldn't do that with the defense that they have or the health that they have. But the season feels back on from the perspective of let's all see what they have in their future quarterback, J.J. McCarthy. That's as good as intrigue as you can ask for. It is moving the goalpost. I will say that. It is moving the goalpost. This was supposed to be a win now season.

There was not supposed to be these excuses. So all that stuff deserves to be criticized. But if you're taking the next best thing, it's seeing 10 more games. of the young quarterback who has a chance to still be the franchise quarterback, believe it or not, after only playing two games. So thanks, everybody, for all those awesome questions. We'll be doing a recap of Sunday's game, especially the Steelers and the Packers, and answering more questions on Sunday night.

So thanks again, and I'm going to enjoy the weather. Football.