Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Fantasy Life's Ian Hartitz projects McCarthy, Vikings opposing QBs

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

Matthew Coller is joined by Fantasy Life's Ian Hartitz to project how well Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy will do this season, as well as the opposing QBs the team will face this season.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Coller here and returning to the show from fantasy life.com. Ian Harditz, Ian, I am very excited to have you on as we are starting to enter fantasy draft season. How are you, my friend? Great day to be great. Always enjoy catching up with you, you know, at least once every off season. But haven't been a let me think with my Vikings and, you know, mostly in best ball mode over here, that's a form of fantasy where you just draft your team.

You don't have to set your lineup. So, you know, really is a nice to be able to draft as much as possible. So drafting a lot less than by that. I mean, zero tie Chandler shares this year, Matthew. So I think we're already on the right up pace with that, but not man. It's great to be here. Yeah. That's funny how these discussions change from year to year.

We were certainly talking about that. And that's, that was one of the odd or developments from last year because Ty Chandler had gone for over 400 yards the previous season. He was a draft pick of theirs runs a four, three 40 and Aaron Jones is older. I mean, it all sort of added up to this is going to be a duo, but by the end of training camp, it felt like I don't think this is going to be a duo, but by the end of training camp, it felt like I don't think this is going to be a duo. I want to get into the Vikings quarterback schedule, but since we're already here and we've arrived on this topic, what do you think of the backfield?

Uh, the Sherian, I mean, I think it's a lot more intriguing than it's been in our previous conversations. I mean, Aaron Jones, I thought it was fine last year, but you even hear kind of KOC talking about it, like to get the best out of him. I think Matt LaFleur news in Green Bay as well. You kind of want that Robin to be his, you know, to have a Robin versus Batman, probably not the sort of running back, you know, it'd be handing 300 plus touches to and accordingly,

man, you did see some of his usual sky high efficiency numbers be a bit more average last year. So, you know, I will say he's going to be 31 next December, but I do wonder if the age thing is just going to kind of slowly become a little bit less of an issue in future years with the way these athletes can keep care of themselves. Now we're not seeing as many guys racking up those 300, 400 plus touch seasons time and time again. So between Henry James Connor, Aaron Jones, or are a lot of these, you know, aging running backs, but at the same time, if the injury gods do chill out,

I don't know why he won't, you know, again post that kind of low end RB2 production that we did see last year. So the Jordan Mason insertion is interesting. I mean, last year, first eight weeks, only Saquon and Derrick Henry have more rushing guards than Jordan Mason. So I think at a minimum, you know,

you would like to think Mason gets some of that goal line work. I feel so bad for Vikings fans. I've been forced to watch Aaron Jones and then Alexander Madison just run into brick wall to brick wall inside the five yard line. But man, I would guess, uh, Aaron again is going to be that pretty clear lead back. But do you think Mason could turn things into a bit more of a committed than

what we saw last year? I definitely do think that, um, especially from watching him play against the Vikings, like the guy is a broken tackle machine and they struggled so much as you alluded to at the goal line, but also third and one fourth and one, they were just let's pass the ball. Let's run a reverse or something at times because they struggled so much. a lot of intrigue about the running game, not just because Jordan Mason is here and he's kind of Marshawn Lynch-ish in his violent running style, but also the revamping of the interior of the offensive line. If you go back to last year,

you had Dalton Reisner starting at right guard, probably the worst run blocking guard in the entire NFL, which is why he always struggles to get a job. And then undersized Garrett Bradbury, six foot seven, former sixth round tackle, Blake Brandle playing left guard. Like that's not all that intimidating from a run perspective.

And now you have a first round left guard, Ryan Kelly at center, and then Will Fries, who is a very strong run blocker at right guard. I think that is going to be a big determining factor of how this run game works out, because I think we we know this that it's not just running back talent. It's also what you have in front of you. Oh, 100%. So again, this is now I was actually surprised when I was finishing up my Vikings team preview over at finishlife.com, but this is actually not the league's fourth most expensive group

or, you know, a big Hugglies up there on the offensive line. So, and actually, you know, when you look at some of these teams like Houston and Seattle, like really bad offensive lines last year, and they shuffled the pieces, but you kind of look at the pieces they brought in. It's like, I'm not so sure these guys are much better. They're different. I appreciate the effort. But in Minnesota's case, it does seem like they actually did something. So I'll tell you what, man, I've made it through about 13, 14 of these team

previews, and I swear I'm not just saying this because I'm on a Vikings pod right now But only an eight and a half win total for the Vikings to me And I'm you know, maybe a bit more of an optimist than I should be with this stuff But that's been the best over I've seen so far Yeah, I think so too and you're not alone in that I've had some other people who are very skilled in the ways of Picking those types things on the show who have said that the Vikings over is something that they're going for. But I think that when we consider how those lines are made, they're made to try to get bets on both sides, right? And if you're going the under, the reason you're doing it is because the Vikings have an inexperienced quarterback.

And sometimes in this world, we overestimate what a young quarterback is going to do. Maybe some folks in Chicago have done that like every single year. But with JJ McCarthy, I actually used one of your charts for an article. I should have told you that I did this. But where you looked at all the PFF grades of the position groups over the years. And so I was inspired by that. And I looked at over the last four seasons, the rookie quarterbacks for, and first year quarterbacks in terms of their supporting casts and how they graded out

by PFF, I mean, JJ McCarthy is truly taking over the best supporting cast. And then you add coach of the year. I think that if we believe in general that quarterbacks are a product of what's around them, not to the degree of running backs, but still that that's a significant portion of their success, you can't set up JJ McCarthy any better than this. A hundred percent, man. And yeah, that supporting cast rating is what you're referencing. I appreciate you giving the shout out, But basically what I've done is just take the average PFF team,

rushing, receiving, pass blocking and run blocking grades. So everything except passing to try to get this idea. It's not perfect. We are waiting 50% of it with the blocking and of course mobile quarterbacks can influence, you know, the rushing or sometimes even pass blocking grades involved. But yeah, man, last three years Vikings 8th, 10th and 11th. I mean last five years the top five teams overall 49ers three years, Vikings eighth, 10th and 11th. I mean, last five years, the top five teams overall,

49ers, Ravens, Eagles, Chiefs and Packers. So I think sometimes with some of these, again, more advanced metrics that aren't perfect. Like it is really hard to try to sum up a supporting cast. You have the coaches and play as well. Maybe guys are playing injured and stuff, but can we be directionally correct with it? And looking at the bottom three teams, Jets, Jaguars and Giants,

I do think we're onto something, you know, here at least to an extent. So with McCarthy, honestly, man, he's someone who, again, after kind of diving into the numbers just a little bit more am trying to be a bit higher on in fantasy land. I don't think we're going to see this, you know, five or 600 yard rushing floor ceiling or anything, even though he can maybe run a sub four or 540, but you do look at it and just even coming out, man, some of the criticisms never made all that much sense to me.

As much as I would love to hate this guy because of how much he has made me suffer and that Saturday after Thanksgiving here in Columbus, Ohio over the past few years, man, you know, it's still like, hey, this is a five star recruit who originally wanted to go to Ohio State. He won a freaking natty at IMG Academy and then comes to Michigan. And yeah,

didn't throw the ball around a lot because they didn't need to with that defense and run game. So now he put them in again, a great supporting cast in an offense that has not only gotten the most out of Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold, but we saw Joshua Dobbs and Nick Mullins provide, you know, relatively high in fantasy football value there. I do think McCarthy again again, relative to the two Otago-Vai Loas, the Matthew Staffords, kind of those more stationary lower-end QB2s. I'm taking McCarthy over them every time. Yeah, the running element is interesting because there was this

stat that was going around at the combine that he had one of the quicker three cones. And then we saw even in the preseason game and in his training camp practices, he was willing to take off and run. And I've just felt like as the years have gone on here and the defensive lines are crazy violent and the blitzes are all over the place. We see that for Brian Flores that it's really hard to win if you don't have a quarterback that can take advantage with his legs. And I think it goes even beyond just, oh, well, he has to be able to scramble and get a first down from time to time. I think you actually

have to be a difference maker with your legs, which I wonder if JJ McCarthy will do. And that's the whole thing that's so hard to project. And this is your job to try to project what these quarterbacks are going to do. But since we don't have a sample of him in college, like Michael Pennex to say, well, he led college football and passing and back to back seasons, and we don't have a sample from last year outside of a single preseason game and the training camp that we saw, how do we project what JJ McCarthy is supposed to be? Again, I think it's kind of going back into the offense, which yeah, we don't have a ton of stability with McCarthy and what we're trying to do here.

But everything else, man. I mean, we're talking about probably even an improved pass catching court, TJ Hawkinson extra year removed from the knee injury, obviously Jedis and Addison doing their things. Fingers crossed, no less suspension for Addison. I know that thing is still out in the air a little bit. People don't love talking about it, but even if so, doesn't seem like it'd be more than a couple of games, but maybe even get an improvement wide receiver three, obviously use a little bit of draft capital there.

I already talked about the offensive lineup grades and again, for me, it's just like, I try to trust, uh, you know, more so just pure NFL draft evaluators, Dame Brugler with the athletic, obviously, you know, my opinion won the best out there. And when I hear people like Dame Brugler say that if McCarthy had declared in this draft, he would have gone first over Cam Ward. I mean, how do you think that would change our mindset here? Like if, okay, just pretend last year didn't even happen if McCarthy for some reason, you know,

just sat out the season, whatever won the lottery and said, I'm taking a year off. Like if the Vikings were getting the number one overall pick in 2025 being their quarterback, I feel like, you know, the confidence level in McCarthy, and then the team will be a heck of a lot higher, even though we, we, again, would be dealing with the same exact player that I got 10th overall, whatever the year before. So again, it's more so just trust in KOC, trust in the scheme and trust in past production from players that can't even hold a candle to what actually we've seen from McCarthy pedigree wise. So again, all that to say, I have the guy ranked, I think, QB 17 or QB 18. So it's not like we're completely going out of our way to get the guy

But I do think you know, he firmly deserves to be in that tier alongside guys like Dak Prescott And yes, I would even take him ahead of the Michael Penex of the world It's a an interesting exercise because we have to draw from things that are not the usual Areas that we draw from we have to go back to well two years ago in college but you can't really look at the whole college picture because the, as you mentioned, the way that they played offensively and you're almost looking, don't stare directly at the McCarthy for this because they have so much around him. And the Nick Mullins comparison is another one that I used in terms of the Kirk Cousins decision for a reason to move on.

It was like, if you can get this much out of Nick Mullins, they were within a bad tush push and a crazy bad interception from Nick Mullins of beating Cincinnati and beating the Detroit Lions and going to the playoffs with Nick Mullins as their quarterback because of Justin Jefferson. And he just seems quarterback proof. He seems like a kingmaker. And then you add everything else together. I mean, but the kid still has to play.

So I think that this is just a never-endingly fascinating discussion as we lead up to seeing what actually McCarthy becomes. But I did want to ask you about other quarterbacks on the Viking schedule as well. The most interesting quarterbacks on the schedule. And that begins right with week one and Caleb Williams. I mean, what a matchup this is of discussions, right? In Chicago, they're just melting over Caleb Williams and saying he wanted to play for the Vikings

and all that sort of stuff over the last couple of weeks. I think that they're terrified there that he might not be great. How do you feel about Caleb Williams going into year two? I can a hundred percent tell you that they're terrified rocking my U Chicago shirt right now. So all my buddies in the group me, you know, are just long time bears fans, uh, who I knew in college and everything. And yeah, they, uh, you know, third straight off season

championships. So shout out to the Bears for, you know, getting that belt again. But man, it's just one of these things where I find it so hard to just blame 0% of what happened last year on Caleb Williams. I know as people want to do, I mean, you mentioned that article about him wanting to play for the Vikings, but the thing that killed me was the whole,

Oh, Caleb Williams, you know, he had to watch film on his own sometimes. And somehow that got twisted into bears. Coaches never watched a second of film with Caleb Williams throughout the year. I mean, how is that like, you tell me Peyton Manning never watched film on his own. All right. Like all of a sudden that's the takeaway we're getting there. So it's just one of these things, man, where when you look at Caleb Williams, last year, this bears team was foreign to going into their week seven by,

all right, They looked fantastic. And yes, the competition dropped off, but Rams Panthers, Jaguars games. Caleb was putting up some of the best numbers, honestly, at the position during that three week stretch. Afterwards, we get the Jaden Daniels, Washington Commanders, Hale Mary game, and then they literally lose 10 straight. So there are some highs. Honestly, those two games against the Vikings, particularly with everything

Brian Flores was throwing at him. That was some of the best, you know, I think all that Caleb put on film. But it's like, how are we supposed to look at Williams and say all those good things? That was Caleb Williams. That's showing the generational first pick. And then all the bad things he did say, oh, yeah, Shane Waldron coaching. Forget about it. It's not going to be there anymore. So, yes, the offensive line was bad. Yes, they've improved it a lot.

But hey, PFF shout out. They actually do a good job of even assigning blame on the sacks to the offensive line was bad. Yes, they've improved it a lot, but hey, PFF shout out. They actually do a good job of even assigning blame on the sacks to the offensive line or to the quarterback. And even removing all the sacks, the offensive line gave up. Caleb still did allow the most in the league. So I do think the Bears will be improved, but man, you look at this gauntlet of a division, they're also sitting there with an eight and a half

win total. And I just have a hard time believing that this team is more complete overall than the Vikings, Packers, or even the Lions, obviously. So Caleb, I would expect a bounce back. But man, we got a long ways to go based on what we saw last year, if we're going to be talking about a top 10 quarterback. So improved bears for me and Caleb.

The fact that he can do the hard stuff, I think, is half the battle. And that's great. But man, made the easy look so hard last year at times. And I'm sure Ben Johnson will do a better job with that. But again, I'm just not fully diving into the deep end. Like some of the bears faithful. I sometimes you just ignore the red flags because you're so excited about the high end of a player. And this is probably Anthony Richardson in the fantasy world.

Like, yes, he can't complete a screen pass, but look at how big and, and coming out, I was an Anthony Richardson enjoyer because I thought like this guy could be the Josh Allen type of talent. And I guess it's still possible that he could take that step. But with someone like Caleb Williams, I thought much more so concerning about the film stuff than what he said about the Vikings. Although if you go into a situation and you're like, man, I don't wanna be there. I don't know how that affects you psychologically because it would seem to me that if you don't wanna be somewhere

then already you're going to find every problem with it. But that whole film thing was wild. And also the defenses of it that I saw people write were also wild. Like, hey, well, Jared Goff didn't watch a lot of it that I saw people write were also wild. Like, Hey, well, Jared Goff didn't watch a lot of film in his first year. 10 years ago. I mean, like, what are we talking about? There's so many resources that are available at this point.

And every NFL player has to watch film on their own in order to succeed. There was a clip of Patrick Peterson talking about how much he would study opposing wide receivers, every way that they approach press coverage, every route combination that they ran throughout the year. If you want to be great, you have to be that person who is obsessed with it. And I think you can learn to be that guy and Caleb Williams can learn to be that guy. But it's also the excuse. I'm like, well, I've got 16 different excuses of why this didn't go right. And yeah, I'm sure that Matt Nagy somewhere was like, Oh yeah, I got

blamed for Mitch Trubisky or John or wait, well, yeah, no, I guess it would have been him, right? It would have been him. Or, uh, you know, just Matt Eberfluss, like I got blamed for Justin Fields. And so maybe they're blaming Matt Nagy for both. The point is just that. I think that there is reason to look at Caleb Williams and go, I just don't know. I see some of the high end stuff, but can that be consistent enough over

an entire season for him to be what he's supposed to be? Nice. I think it's curious that I don't blame these head coaches for not responding to, you know, the report and the book coming down and stuff like that. But you really telling me, Eber Fluss and I guess it'd be more so Shane Waldron, like this dude obviously very excited about taking this bearish job.

You tell me he didn't want to watch a little bit of film with Caleb Williams. Like I just, you know, hey, I've seen Caleb Williams' mansion in Chicago. It's pretty big. If Ben Johnson wants to move in there every single night, we'll be grinding that film together. That is great.

Sign me up. But again, just one of these things where we're giving a lot of benefit of the doubt and full certainty to one single quote from Caleb about that. And I'm just not buying it. So again, it's not the only, it's not like Caleb's the only guy that we do this with. Look at CJ shroud, had a fantastic 2023 rookie season. And part of that was because of Bobby slow like the new wonder kid OC.

He was getting head coach interviews and stuff. And what happened in 2024? You ask a lot of Texas fans and yeah, Bobby slow it messed it up. It's like, Oh, okay. So he was partly the reason why everything went so great in 2023, but just all his fault in 2024 doesn't always add up to me. Sometimes it's the players and not the place. Uh, but, uh, as far as projecting Kayla Williams, how are you dealing with that problem?

You know, it is one of these things where similar to the Vikings at this point, we can check a lot of boxes around the quarterback. And accordingly, I do think it's going to be a situation where we do see a nice improvement in fantasy land. I was hoping that last year we weren't going to have this, you know, Justin Fields sort of problem where we do have to just blame the supporting cast, but hey, end up seeing the offensive line fall apart. And again, like the Vikings,

didn't see them go out of their way and not only, you know, replace it, I guess, bad, bad form of players, specifically in the interior of the offensive line, but do so with the best center on the market from the Falcons. They traded for Joe Thoney from the Chiefs, you know, actually getting guys that we did see perform at a solid level.

I know Jonah Jackson, not quite as much, but he does actually go back to Ben Johnson's days in Detroit. Every sort of metric we can see, you know, play action, pre-snap motion, just, you know, some of the more advanced EPA, you know, numbers for specific play callers. Hey, or just watch the freaking games. All right. I get it. Ben Johnson, everyone believes in him. I think for good reason these are in that reputation. And again,

you already have DJ Moore, Roma, Duce, and you add Luther, Burnett and you add Colson, Loveland. I mean, again, I know a lot of times last year we were saying this, all this bears offense. They got Keenan, DJ Rome, like how he's got everything he needs, he really has everything he needs this time. All right, a hundred percent. So if Caleb is still not able to make this work, man, it's going to be difficult.

So I do think he deserves, cause we do have, I guess, more of a proven rushing upside than someone like JJ McCarthy. I mean, you look at it last year being like 450 rushing yards. I mean, that is a top 10 mark in the league that we saw from Caleb. He's due for some positive regression in the rushing touchdown department. So I do think Ben Johnson Company are going to really fix that again problem. I mentioned before with the easy was so hard. There's gonna be a lot more just you know, gets better design stuff,

you know the screens and all that's the run game hopefully as well should put a little bit less pressure on Kayla's back. So accordingly, I do think he deserves to be on that QB one borderline. But I'll tell you what, man, we're not getting a discount. And it's kind of funny comparing Caleb and Trevor Lawrence, you know, both alleged generational prospects. They both get these great new OCs coming in to get some upgrades in their wide receiver room. Caleb's actually going higher in fancy drafts right now.

Like he's a top 10 quarterback that you have to draft. Meanwhile, T Law is actually going cheaper than the year before. So I know you've seen Trevor Lawrence be bad a bit longer than Caleb Williams, but Caleb is one of those guys where I'm sure in August we're going to have, you know, some people I don't want to call them casuals, but people who aren't exactly in the fancy weed, you know, year-round they're going to be like, hey, it's Caleb Williams guys. I mean, he's due for a bounce, but he should really be buying them.

And it's like, yeah, I don't necessarily disagree, man. That's going to cost you a pretty penny to do so. Yeah. The, uh, second year I think is extremely telling for a quarterback. And overall I would probably give any quarterback three years, but when you've put this much around him and you've hired someone with such an impressive record of succeeding offensively with the Detroit lions. And remember, I mean, when Ben Johnson takes over, they had just tanked and

people were talking about, Hey, the lion should just draft quarterback because Jared Goff is cooked. He's not a good quarterback anymore when he's not with McVeigh and Ben Johnson is at the center of turning that around. So if he can't succeed this year with this, then they've got some serious trouble. I think it's Chicago. Now who are we going to point the finger at in that case? Right? Cause you kind of see this from the, you know, the draft analysts who don't want

to admit they're wrong right away. And guess what? A lot of things do happen and they can mess up, you know, what you saw from these guys in college, but it usually comes down to like the O line, let them down to play, call and let them down. They had no one to throw to. And then like at that point, I guess you just got to say, oh, he was already so broke that, you know, nothing they could add to the offense could actually fix it. So again, at this point, very few, uh, you know, fingers to point out

except for, uh, that man, the mayor. And there is, it's like a wheel of denial when it comes to the quarterback. They, they love them coming out and then it doesn't go well. And it's maybe it'll turn around because it was this person, this person, this person's fault. And I think we've reached the level of the wheel where it better happen, or you're just going to have to admit that it didn't work. Uh, going to Michael Pennings only threw about a hundred passes last year.

And I think 80% of them were big time throws by PFF. I mean, his, I know it was against the Carolina, but that game was wild for the amount of throws and confidence that Michael Penneck showed. I I'm not terribly shocked because the guy had a cannon for an arm coming out. And I think that's one of the main reasons that Atlanta wanted him. But the fact that there's no quarterback competition, Kirk Cousins is a backup to Michael Pennex. He is the guy in Atlanta. I think there's something to be said there because Atlanta might not be even able to

move Kirk Cousins. So he's just going to sit and watch Pennex. That's a good signal there. They have a really good supporting cast. They're also the Atlanta Falcons though. So I'm not sure what to make and you have to weave in Kyle Pitts takes into this as well as the fantasy community consistently suffers with Kyle Pitts, but I feel like Michael Penex just from a passing perspective from fantasy is not going to give you a lot running

could be one of the higher producing quarterbacks in the NFL. Yeah. This defense has been fairly consistently bad. I mean, you know, God bless Jesse Bates, everything he tries to do out there. He's good for a couple, you know, amazing plays per game. I know they finally, you know, use some first round draft capital, probably a little bit too much based on that trade.

They pulled off with the Rams to try to beef up that defensive front, but assuming this defense is again, going to be below average. I mean, I do think we're going to see a lot of games similar to that end of the year against the commanders, against the Panthers, where constantly in comeback mode and guess what? We love that in fancy because you know, garbage points in the fourth quarter when the defensive play and prevent count the exact same as they do in the first quarter for us. So I've seen a lot of,

you know, negativity from, you know, some of the better ball knowers in our industry, if you will, surrounding Penex, his completion percentage over expected was not good at all last year. He did have the big time thorough rate, but obviously with that comes some taking chances. But I would just caution and say it was a very small sample size. It's pretty easy to say, Oh, look at those interceptions. I mean, one of those picks at cow pits directly in the chest and he basically gave it

through the defense. I think another one was a bad route. Another one was, you know, kind of the point in the game where you need to take chances anyway. So again, it was a three game sample and just the fact that he showed he can make every single throw on the field. I mean, if we are going to believe in a stationary pocket quarterback, that's what you need. All right. Not everyone can have this, you know, four, four 40 where you force the defense to really respect you as a rusher and then also have the arm strength to get it downfield. So if you are in the year 2025 going to be pretty strictly, you know, limited to the pocket, which penics, despite having that four, five,

nine 40 her around the world at his pro day last year, you know, he is more of a pocket quarterback. But again, that left arm man is an absolute howitzer. And you mentioned the Panthers game. I mean, some of those cover two hole shots. I know he hit my guy up because Kadera Hodge on one of them. And it was like, good God, like the audacity to even think you can make that throw, let alone to actually pull it off.

So for me, I have them right there with two at Tiger by Lowe, not cause they're both lefties, but just because again, I think we're looking at teams with bad defenses, with a pretty good supporting cast and with the quarterback is gonna be forced to basically throw as much as possible to keep them up. So not expecting too much from the Falcons in terms of you know real-life wins or losses But if we did have the you know have like a preseason all red zone team prediction, man

I think they're a good front runner Do you think Bijon Robinson was worth the draft pick for them as high as they took him? He's a great player so from that standpoint. Yeah. But we see this time and time again, man. Late running back is unique. They can pull these random running backs out anywhere. Look at the Cowboys. Like, yeah, would it be cooler if they had resigned Tony Pollard last year?

Sure. Rico Daddle gets over a thousand yards. I'm sure Devontae Williams or someone's gonna be fine enough this year. So I know everyone can point back at Saquon Barkley. And yeah, he's incredible too for the Eagles. So I guess my nuance point, my new found nuance point for running backs is if you can make them kind of the cherry

on top of your Sunday and you already have this complete offense, great offensive line, great infrastructure, that's fantastic, but you probably shouldn't be going out of your way to get them before. If Bijon Robinson didn't play the last two years and the Falcons just had Tyler Alger, do you really think they would have won any less games? I, I really know. Yeah, I think the same thing.

And the Vikings have played against him twice and I, he's had a handful of really good runs, but I have not felt like, Oh my gosh, this guy is just unstoppable. I kind of felt that way when a Saquon had one good Giants team and then beat the Vikings in the playoffs and certainly watching him last year. And then Jameer Gibbs has been pretty unstoppable for the Vikings, but I just haven't had that same sort of awe when watching Bijon Robinson that you expect when he's drafted as high as he is.

But as we talk about McCarthy and supporting cast though, I think Penix is set up about as well as it gets from a receiving, from a rushing game and their offensive line to succeed. Offensive front really made a nice improvement. They lost their center to the Bears, mentioned that before in free agency, but still, I believe four or five stars returning from a group that PFF had among the league's best last year. So obviously Drake London, I think he's someone who could really, you know,

be actually putting forward that sort of top five, top six season that we think is talented worthy of. And shout out Darnold Mooney, man, because I know as a rookie he did some good things with the Bears, but really didn't see him enough of him, you know, in his future years. And I wasn't expecting all that much with Atlanta, but the amount of times that this dude was able to just burn corners on those deep outs man like he really kept him honest all year and I think before actually Pennex took over his numbers were as

good if not better than Drake London a lot more the timing base routes you know with Kurt Cousins his lack of arm strength so Mooney underrated number two now it would be better if they had you you know, an actually, I guess, superior number three in an ideal world. Obviously that would be Kyle Pitts, but man, it's just, some of the stuff we even go back to with Kyle Pitts. Like how many times are we gonna see that one-handed catch he made for like four yards as a rookie? Like that was cool. Don't get me wrong.

But I just, the reasons why we continue to go back to this guy, I'm out. He's my tight end 16, tight end 17 at this point, because I just have not seen a great professional football player out there. All right. You can show me the wingspan stats. We can go over the thousand yards 17 game season as a rookie and Hey, maybe he does finally get together to an extent because yeah,

we're in the cloud is the only guy you know, that's going to be stealing those targets away from the number three, but just bad vibes. Seemingly from some of the coach speak. I don't want to put too much stock in that. The coaches are just answering questions in May for May for crying out loud, but just with pits, man, how many times we need to be taught this lesson again? All right. Even the Pettis games like, yeah, that was cool. He had the game time touched down against Washington at the end, but man, just fool me once a shame on you. Fool me twice. Can't get fooled again type of thing. It's amazing how the fantasy world, if you just ask any analyst about Kyle

Pitts, it's like, that's your podcast right there. Just say the name Kyle Pitts. And then there's like charts with yarn that are strung together on a chalkboard or something, uh, it's very funny. And I think that the reality of the tight end position and, uh, that's how I felt on draft night with Chicago taking Colston Loveland was, you know, they always seem great in theory, but that is such a hard position that I think takes many years to develop that oftentimes it's the second contract that the guy ends up showing up and playing better. And we've even seen that from TJ Hockinson.

I think if you ask people in Detroit, what was Hockinson in Detroit, it'd be like, eh, you know, at his moments. And then what was he like in Minnesota? He's been fantastic for them. Pro bowler and he's been a huge part of their offense. I feel like it's happened so many times. Uh, but pits is also another guy that always seems to be ailing in some way. Like always has some little banged up and maybe not 100% that you also wonder if he's ever going to just reach that ceiling. It kind of feels like he's not.

It's only 24th though and you're right. I mean, just I have run the numbers with age and experience. Tight ends do in fact take longer. We've gotten spoiled in recent years with Sam Laporta, Brock Bauer is doing their thing in year one. But historically, especially relative to other positions like tight ends and quarterbacks, actually the two ones that take a bit longer,

but he just doesn't seem to play fast out there. We know he's fast. We've seen the 40. We've seen the numbers and everything, but man, there's been flashes. Like last year, he had a nice four game stretch, 65 plus yards every game, two touchdowns against the Buccaneers. One of them, it looked like he dropped short of the goal line

and it was like, man, I thought he was finally about to you know be taking that next step and then dude disappears you know next a handful of weeks so again you know coaches even said that made that point about just him kind of knowing where he needs to be what he needs to do and hey we shouldn't you know just underestimate hey finally gets to play and you know the same system for a second year in a row he doesn't have Arthur Smith putting John John Smith out there every other snap, which as we turned out, maybe already knew something that we didn't end up going on there. John Smith had a great year for the Dolphins

last year as well. So again, not completely writing off Kyle Pitts, but OJ Howard was someone I drafted a lot over the years. And I do think sometimes, you know, we look at these athletes and I remember you just back in high school football, you know, some guys look like great football players from, you know, March to August. And then there's the ones when you actually put the pads on and things change

a little bit, I could see that for cow pits. So I want to get into two more really interesting quarterbacks on the Viking schedule, but I also have to ask before we get there, who do you think is the starting quarterback for the Browns and for the Steelers? The Vikings play them overseas. Those two teams. And, um, this is not even a fantasy question because you just wouldn't come anywhere close to drafting quarterbacks from either of these teams, but just, just, I need your take.

Who are the Vikings going to face when they go play in Dublin against the Steelers and then, uh, in London against the Browns Steelers, I do think it's Aaron Rodgers. We've seen enough, you know, smoke and he comes out for his interviews and kind of drops a few hints. I don't know why he's waiting at this point. I heard someone float the rumor that he didn't want to sign before they released the schedule. So they wouldn't have so many prime time games. But just again, both all the rumors surrounding Rodgers going there and then just the Steelers.

I mean, they can talk up Mason Rudolph who in Mason's defense actually did put together his best, you know, many four game stretch the last time he was in Pittsburgh, but you know, Will Howard appreciate the national championship went in the sixth round for a reason like again, Mike Tomlin those guys aren't dumb. I do not think they'd be ignoring the position like they have this offseason. They didn't have some level of certainty that Rogers was going to be there and then for the Browns. I think Joe Flacco is the best one on the roster right now. He's almost like got that

James Winston in him at this point in his career where he's so willing to take chances downfield that yeah, you're going to have plenty of mistakes, but good things happen. And I'll take that over the Kenny Pickets of the world who basically are just scared to try anything. And accordingly, you have no upside. And guess what? You're not just going to get a mistake free football either. So perhaps Shador can you know, just prove that the fifth round slide was all wrong. And you know, we were talking briefly before the show about some of the red flags and the interview process and all that. But man, if a team really thought that Shador Sanders could be a difference maker, they would have gone, at least they too. All right. Round one, I get it. That's tough. You have a quarterback that's not this, you know, height, weight freak doesn't

have a big arm, doesn't have, you know, a ton of speed. And just again, he's one fifth round. It's the NFL. I do think the draft, I don't think it was a league wide conspiracy. Let's teach this kid a lesson. No one drafted him until around five. They took Dylan freaking Gabriel two rounds before the guys. So I'm pretty pessimistic on everything going with Cleveland and yeah, man, just pull out that Browns QB shirt. They continued to update. We're at like 40 now. Shout out, Tim couch, for getting it started way back in the day. So I think we'll have a couple extra names added to it this year.

I'd be very surprised if any of them are overly good. They're going to need an extra, extra, extra large shirt. Very, very soon. I'm, I'm going, I've decided I'm going to be a Dylan Gabriel guy that's that's gonna be my thing. He does have a cannon for a little guy so I don't know maybe like it could it be but it'd be a to a type of thing where if he could just see the field enough through some windows and trust his accuracy I don't know because I don't like any of them so why don't I pick the guy that was the most fun to watch in college. All right quarterbacks we actually care about Sam

Darnold with the Seattle Seahawks. Now this one, if we had talked last year, we would have both been probably saying like, maybe Sam Darnold could be a thing. Everybody had the same take of like, I don't want to count it out after Nick Mullins had just thrown for 400 yards in a game against the lions. And then he has a top 10 overall type of season. And I actually did win a little tiny bit with Sam Darnold as my fantasy quarterback, because I did a draft right after JJ McCarthy got hurt.

And I just took them at the last pick or something. And he ended up being my guy. So, uh, what do we think of him with the Seattle Seahawks, though? It's a little bit of a drop off, but they still have a lot of talent. Is a really good example with what we were talking about where, OK, how many things can we continue to point blame at for Donald? I mean, Jets, Panthers, he was kind of backup for the 49ers. You never really got to see him.

I mean, there's plenty to blame. All right. Like the offensive lines were cracked. We didn't have anyone to throw to. They fixed those problems. They give them KOC gets a little bit of confidence behind them. And yeah, we saw what happened. They top 10 literally literal season for at least the first 17 weeks of the year. And even those other games, man, I saw Nate Tice do a good cut up of the,

you know, the back hole against the Rams in the playoffs, took all those sacks. But man, ton of interior pressure coming up. And it's just one of those things where I know we did have a bigger sample before this year, Donald not being a good quarterback. I'm not saying he's going to be top 10 next year, but you know, last year, we did have 17 weeks of them being much better than the last two. I'd like to think that we're going to get more of the former than the latter moving forward.

But I do have some concern and just a Seattle fit in this offense. I mean, look, Clint Kubiak did some good things, obviously got the last name that gets us all excited and everything. But just so much of last year is being kind of based around how good the Saints looked against the Cowboys and the Panthers in weeks one through two. And I don't love when you're an offensive coordinator and yeah, injuries happen. They happen to every single team around the league and like how unwatchable that offense became during certain parts of the year.

Spencer, out or getting absolutely no help. I mean just really was a rough watch, but maybe they did just have enough injuries pretty much across the board that that was the issue, but just kind of looking at the skill position guys again, see Hawks offense the offense line in particular has been brutal for so long. They've oddly not even tried to invest all that much in it from both a salary cap and even draft capital perspective. So I'm not assuming the O-line is going to be great, which is going to hurt

the run game and then a wide receiver. Jack Smith and the Jigba Cooper Cup. I really do think of overlapping skill sets. Honestly, neither guy is a great separator at this point in their careers. And who's your clear-out guy to try and make everything easier? Yeah, Marquez, Voloski. We're really doing this in the year 2025. So with Darnal, it's one of those things where, again,

if he was running it back in Minnesota, I feel pretty optimistic that he could actually come close to replicating what he did in 2024. But you know, if we had to go through and guess what, every team has a good solid wide receiver, maybe even two. All right. So I don't want to completely make this the, you know, crap on JSN and Cooper Cup thing. But if we had to go around the league and again, just try to rate the supporting cast,

I think you can make a pretty good argument. The Seahawks should be closer to, you know, 32 than actual one. So they finished 16th and 15th over these last two years. Maybe Cubs reinvigorated, maybe Kubiak has some more tricks up his sleeve and everything. But Donald man right now,

he's honestly going so cheap and fantasy that I don't think it's, you know, the worst late round dart. I mean, he's going to be 27 ish and just relative to being next to guys like staffer, like Aaron Rogers, you know, Donald can't actually skewed a little bit better than those guys. So if you are in these, you know, multiple quarterback leagues, yeah, I think he's a fine enough late round dart to bet on, but man, to see how to sit in there two and seven, two and eight,

things aren't going great. Donald's starting to see those ghosts again, man. I chatted for Jalen Melrose is going to be pretty loud. No, you're right about that. And I don't know what to make of what he's going to be because you, you actually have to go back to 2021 for the last time he was bad at playing quarterback in the NFL, 2022 small sample, but he was good at the end of that season or at least good enough.

And then in the times that he got in for San Francisco, he was good and then he's got a full season of being good. Which makes me think that he's closer to just being a good quarterback than he is the horrible quarterback that he was early in his year, early in his career. I mean, but the Vikings just offered so much to him, the perfect situation, two of the best downfield wide receivers. And this is where my fit concern would be is he likes to hold onto the ball. That's bad for one of the worst offensive lines in the league. And also he has two receivers that thrive

underneath an intermediate where he is a deep ball thrower. That's his cheat code. So how do you make that work? And as you mentioned, Baldez scantling is not that exciting. So the last one I want to ask you about though is Jaden Daniels. Is there any amount of hype that is too much for Jaden Daniels in the year 2025? I don't think so, man. I mean, honestly, like you can make an argument in Dynasty land.

This dude should be the one-on-one like super flex leagues where you need multiple quarterbacks. And how can you say no? I mean, he, like you can make an argument in Dynasty land. This dude should be the one on one like super flex leagues where you need multiple quarterbacks and how can you say no? I mean, he's just fresh off only four quarterbacks average 20 plus fancy points for game as a rookie cam Newton Justin Herbert RG 3 and yes Daniels. So honestly the passing I thought just progression we saw from Daniels was worlds ahead of what we saw from RG 3 and that you know 2012 Washington offense anyway and just again 891 rushing yards. Daniels was the most productive scrambler in the NFL.

And we knew that at LSU. But for me, like when I watched them play that final year, far more good than bad. But the one issue was almost like such a high percentage of his pressure dropbacks didn't even result in a pass. Like he'd go kind of, all right, Malik neighbors, Brian Thomas Jr. pressure, I'm running. There wasn't that much, you know, creative, you know, play despite what everything he can do. And honestly, similar CJ Stroud,

we just didn't see a kind of off script playmaking. We did finally in the Georgia game, but it was like a one size sample thing. We knew they had the tools, but they just hadn't really done it. Well, guess what? Jaden Daniels just did it pretty much over the course of an entire season.

And he did it with an offense and a supporting cast that again, I think all of us kind of figured was going to be bottom five, bottom 10. Scary Terry McLaurin, awesome. We get that. But Noah freaking Brown, shout out Buckeyes. But he was the number two wide receiver on his team last year. Zach Ertz was a thing in the year, you know, 2024. Offensive line has now added Laramie Tunzel.

Cliff Kingsbury kind of proven that maybe Kyler was a little bit more of the problem. So he's got all the continuity. They've made meaningful, you know, upgrades, getting Devo Samuel on the fold and stuff. So I really do think that Jayden Daniels again, Salmar Jackson, Josh Allen, they've earned the benefit of the doubt, but we're already seeing Daniels going ahead of guys like Jalen Hertz, you know, and just the 20, 25 quarterback ranks because it does seem like he actually has that 4k passing, passing yard upside that 30 plus passing touchdown upside that I do

think Jill and hurts has the potential to get to, but they're just so good on the ground. They don't really even need to go all the way in there. So yeah, man, how high is the ceiling for Jayden Daniels might as well be the roof. I wonder if you watched any film by himself. That's a really, really good question. If he was sitting at home watching any film, because I know you are right. Yeah, right. Exactly. Exactly. Okay. Before I let you go, it's been great. As always, give me JJ McCarthy stat line for 2025. I'm going to say a tick under 4k. We'll go 3900 passing yards. 31 touchdowns will have Addison and Jetta's.

Maybe both get 10 plus 300 rush yards. Now there's three scores on the ground and he replicates Sam Donald, you know, QB 10 QB 11 finish. How about that? Wow. I have 31 touchdowns is bold. I think I think maybe maybe Jordan Mason is's gonna steal some of those away from him That might be a little on the high side

But that would be an incredible season that would put the Vikings right there at the top of the NFC North and I would Not be shocked if that happens Ian Hart. It's fantasy life comm make sure you go check out all of his work They're great to get together with you. We will absolutely do it again soon, sir. Thank you.