Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Final Vikings trade deadline thoughts and picking the rest of the Vikings schedule

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

Manny Hill picks the rest of the Vikings schedule as per Monday tradition. Are the Vikings a 12-win team now that they took care of business vs. Indy? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

all right let's bring in the man of the hour. Wow, all decked out in Tennessee garb tonight, Manny Hill. You are primed and ready to pick the schedule as you do every Monday night. You know how important this show is to me, Manny, on Monday night with you picking the schedule? I was booking my travel for Jacksonville yesterday, and I was looking at flights back, and I was like, nah, I can't fly back at that time. That's when we do this show live on YouTube. So I am actually flying out Sunday night, which will mean running out of the stadium right after the podcast and getting to the airport as fast as possible. But I did that just for you give me before we dive into it give me

your biggest takeaway from the vikings victory last night over the colts the score does i don't think the score really indicates how well the vikings played overall or how much better they played than the colts um the the defense was. I mean, Joe Flacco looked every bit of 39 years old last night. Um, and, and the offense moved the ball with, with effectiveness. It was just those turnovers that really kind of changed things. And then, you know, we'll, we'll Ryker, uh, missing the two field goals and hopefully, uh, hopefully whatever's going on with him and his kicking leg can get healed and healthy fairly soon. We'll find out.

But yeah, I mean, the final score was 21-13. But it felt, when you look at the stats, I mean, it felt like the Vikings won that game by three or four touchdowns. I mean, they were just in complete control. And even when it was 7-0 Indyy at the half i didn't really feel that i wasn't that concerned because the vikings had clearly outplayed the colts the entire first half it just the score wasn't really reflecting it so i kind of figured it would get things going in the second half and they did it was good okay so the other day we talked about spooky things that happened to the vikings the best kicker maybe they've ever had gets hurt who gets hurt as a kicker come on uh that that was weird

because the first one he missed i thought okay well i was bound to happen he just barely missed it but when he missed the 31 yarder something is going wrong here because this dude doesn't miss 51 yarders much less 31 and then it made sense that there was something wrong but it sounds like it could be an injury that keeps him out for some significant amount of time which means going out and getting a random kicker and i could just see it they also have a long snapper injury everybody thought this i'm just saying what everybody thought that they are playing the bears and they're at soldier field and they just need a little chip shot field goal to win the

game. And the long snapper screws it up and the kicker shanks it. And then that's the Joe long snapper game that we talk about for the rest of time. I can already see it happening. You know, I brought up Cooper rush the other day when we were talking about funny Zimmer Kirk scenarios and a Cooper rush ended up getting into that game. Uh, I just wish that Zimmer could have had a post game press conference. I just wish I could have heard for him and see who he blamed after that game. But, uh, let's waste no more time, Manny, the Vikings are six and two, right where you've had them all long, probably from the beginning of the season. And then they will go next week to Jacksonville to face the Jaguars. Do the Vikings win this football game? Yeah, they win. And I don't think it's

going to be particularly close. The Jaguars are just in a really bad way. I think this is, the Jaguars have the Vikings is coming Sunday and then, uh, then they go to Detroit after that. And then it's their buy. So that's probably gonna be a time maybe where if they lose these next two games and they're two and nine, that might be the time where they pull the plug on Doug Peterson. Cause it's going into the, into the it's going into the, going into the buy. So my microphone is a little quiet. Maybe I need to lean into it a little bit more.

But yes, I will say the Vikings win that game pretty, pretty handily on Sunday. Yeah. Yeah. I think so too. It sounded okay to me, maybe a little bit closer to the face and you'll be good there.

But as far as this game, this is, this is one where you almost don't even want to say it. The gap between the two teams is so enormous that you're, should I even point this out? The Jaguars are one of the truly worst, most pathetic teams in the league. But the thing is that even against Philadelphia, they kind of hung around a little, they have a quarterback with a lot of talent. And the game you got to keep in mind was Carson Wentz. All he had to do was beat the Jaguars, the Urban Meyer year. That's all he had to do was beat the Jaguars.

And they were plucky enough. It is the any given Sunday type of situation. But I don't think this is a trap game let down game it's your team's way better than their team go beat them there's no excuse for not beating this team they're banged up their left tackle plays here now their coach has completely lost the team their quarterback is a bust they just that everything has gone wrong for them uh so beat them and go to seven and two now then they go to the Tennessee Titans as well. Why don't we just rewind and play everything I just said?

Again, a disaster team. But I would say, I think that the Titans have a better defense than the Jaguars. And that would be the one thing that they have a few game changers and they can run the football. They're a little bit more dangerous than jacksonville do they beat the jags and the titans to get to um eight and two i do think they beat the titans too uh just because kind of the same for the same reasons we talked about with jacksonville the vikings are just as a superior team overall but i do think to your point about their defense,

it could make things a little interesting and make that game maybe a little bit closer, a little bit more competitive. Because, I mean, Jeffrey Simmons, I mean, the Vikings fans are begging for the Vikings to make the move and trade for Jeffrey Simmons. Well, there's a reason for that. He's an excellent player, and he's an interior rusher.

We have seen this Vikings offensive line, some of those interior offensive linemen have trouble with guys who can disrupt and put pressure on the quarterback, and he's a guy that can certainly do that. So I think that might cause some problems for the Vikings, but I think just the overall talent will be superior and the Vikings will come away with another win. I agree.

I was just talking about a few minutes ago, the Chicago Bears, who this is why we pick the schedule every week and why it's so interesting is because so much changes every week. Two weeks ago, we're going, ooh, Caleb Williams is turning the corner and it looks like he's going to be more dangerous

than you might've expected. And then regression, ankle injury, tougher opponents, and they look a lot worse. They seem to be turning on their coach. The players do not appear to be very happy. They've got injuries. DJ Moore tweaked his ankle yesterday and just walked off the field. I mean, they've got injuries dj moore tweaked his ankle yesterday and just walked off the field i mean they've they got a lot of things going wrong how many

franchises right now nine weeks into this season are going what is going on with our team i think chicago they're teetering and i was texting our friend court Cronin, who covers the Bears. I was saying, are we going to see Matt Eberflus twice this year? Are we sure that two times this guy is going to be the coach? Because I'm thinking maybe the first time, but maybe not the second time. So how about that first time? It will be at Chicago. I can't call it a house of horrors because it hasn't been recently, and it hasn't been in the Kevin O'Connell era.

November 24th at Soldier Field. Yeah, it's weird. The last few weeks I've been calling this a loss for the Vikings because Soldier Field is just kind of a tough place to play. It's going to be later in the year. The weather might be nasty and sloppy, but I'm with you on what's happening with the Bears right now. They just seem to be falling apart. And it might it might just be a thing where you look at this this marriage of Matt Eberflus and the Chicago Bears with where they're trying to go with Caleb Williams and trying to build around him. It might just be time for a change there anyway. And they might need to just get somebody in for next year to kind of really

start that process of building something with him. Cause they still, they're still, I think overall, they're still in a pretty good spot where they can kind of build around a young quarterback and they've got cap space and they've got young players and talent around him. With all that said though, I think this is, this is going to be the first time I'm going to pick the Vikings to actually go into soldier field and win in all the times that I've been picking the schedule this year.

So I will call that a win just because I think the bears are just kind of falling apart right now. Suddenly nine and two. Yeah. So the Vikings is where you have them. I also think that maybe the bears are instructive a little bit about pairing coaches who are deep into their tenure with young quarterbacks. It's a tricky thing if you don't have any winning in the past. See, at least Kevin O'Connell, when McCarthy takes over, assuming that's going to happen, he's going to have multiple good seasons in his past to be able to lean on.

Matt Iberfllus has none. There's no credibility there at all. When you draft a quarterback to save the marriage, it almost always fails time and time and time again. And they should have just blown out Eberflus, got a quarterback coach, like offensive mind, quarterback minded coach to pair with Caleb Williams, because now the leash is short for your coach. When you have a rookie quarterback, that's never a good combination, but that's their problem. Our problem is a December 1st, Arizona fight and Cardinals who might've been sellers. If they lost yesterday, now they're buyers. They went out and got a pass

rusher. Amazing how one week can change everything. I don't know what we were at last week, but I don't know if it was nine and two, Manny. That's where we're at. Vikings and Cardinals. And I'll give you this. You could pick any letdown game. Any game is a letdown. That's not a win against these other teams other than the division, because we are kind of out of letdown games and i think it's fair to pick wins at jacksville and tennessee so i'm not trying to make you lean toward using that here but uh you have to pick one of them so the cardinals traded for uh was it baron browning they paid they traded from the got him from the broncos uh which is kind

of interesting to see the broncos trading off guys because they're five and five. I know they got blown out by Baltimore yesterday, but to see them kind of in the play it's kind of hard to figure out who they are, which is sort of the prototypical mediocre middling kind of team. But I think they're going in the right direction. I think they've got a good head coach. I still believe in Kyler Murray. I will put this down as a Cardinals win at U.S. Bank Stadium to drop the Vikings to 9-3. The Cardinals are playing better now.

They're 5-4. They're trying to win that division. They got a shot at winning that division. They're right there. So, yeah, I'll put this down as a Cardinals win. Yeah, the thing I'm curious about is the Vikings haven't really, let's see, because Anthony Richardson didn't play. Have they played any scrambling quarterback this year?

I don't think. I mean played any scrambling quarterback this year? I don't think, I mean, when they face Caleb Williams, they will, but he's not a running quarterback in the same way that Kyler Murray is. They have weapons. They've got a ton of them. They run the football. They can throw it to their tight end. They have one of the best young receivers in the league. If you're making a case for losing to Arizona,

and probably if you win the next three games in a row anyway, and you win four in a row, it's always tough to have winning streaks that go on for that long. So it would make sense that they would lose a game. I don't know if Arizona has a tough enough defense to slow down the Vikings weapons though, in their secondary, that actually should be an entertaining game.

I, I like watching Arizona. They're pretty fun. Their game against Miami was just a, a really one of the more entertaining games that I've seen this year. All right. Kirk revenge. The Vikings coming in there nine and three Kirk.

It's actually really funny, Manny. So one stat that I'm always interested in is big time throws and turnover worthy plays. I talk about it on the show a lot. Turnover worthy plays is a really good stat because it tells you, are you getting unlucky with some of the interceptions and things like that? Or are you putting the ball in harm's way too much? Kirk cousins has six big time throws this year and 14 turnover worthy plays. And yet still is one of the best quarterbacks in yards quarterback rating. And he has the same exact touchdown to interception ratio

as $10 million Sam Darnold. How interesting is that? It is fascinating that someone else could throw the ball to number 18. Who would have seen it coming other than me from 2020 to present? But anyway, not the point. They'll play the Falcons. Kirk 1-0 in revenge games. And look, give Kirk credit. Played his butt off in that game. Played great. He played great. He had

a bad strip sack, as Kirk wanted to do, but mostly got the ball to his playmakers, got it out of his hands quick, didn't take too many sacks, accurate as heck, and took advantage of how pathetic that dallas cowboys defense has become so do the vikings beat kirk in this revenge contest i feel like this is a game that i'm going to be wavering back and forth on over the next several weeks up until we get to that point i'm going to call it a loss for the Vikings for now because I think Atlanta's building some confidence a little bit. They obviously are in prime position to take control of that division and win it and maybe probably run away with it

because the Panthers and Saints are not a factor. Tampa Bay is really the only threat to them in the South, and Tampa Bay is just kind of a middling team right now. So this division can be had by the Falcons. They've got the inside track to it, and I think they're playing a little bit better. They're still just playing the same. Those fans are getting the same Kirk Cousins experience

that we got for six years. Close games, exciting games, good numbers from the quarterback, but also the other numbers beneath the numbers that kind of make you raise your eyebrow a little bit and kind of wonder, like, how good is this guy and can he really take you far? So I think I'll put this down as a loss for now, but that's only because I think I'm foreshadowing

possibly a future playoff matchup that I think the Vikings would then turn the tables on and get a win. So, well, we know Kirk's not going to have any trouble playing at the stadium. He's used to that. He hasn't heard the noise on the wrong side of it, but you know, it's familiar ground for him. Uh, and he gets the ball out pretty quick these days, Not something he did when his Achilles was okay. But now that he's, I think, pretty terrified of getting hit because of the injury, it's made him better in a lot of ways. That ball's coming out pretty quick out of his hands because he can't scramble. He can't roll. He can't hitch a bunch of times. Can't even really

step up in the pocket. He's just sitting back there, but that's what's hurt. The Vikings is when other teams have playmakers that you could get it to be John Robinson. That's the Puka Nakua, the St. Brown, the Gibbs. They have players like that, and that would be the terrifying part of that particular game. The Falcons defense also is very bad. That's another part of it. They weren't against Dak Prescott, but nobody has this year. So the Vikings then fall to nine and four. And you can guess what the next Monday's podcast would be like after that, Manny, that would be the sky has fallen again. And then they play a Monday night football game against the Chicago bears on December 16th, still nine and four, still in the thick of the playoff race.

What happens there? I think the Vikings win that game and complete the season sweep of the Chicago Bears and move to 10-4 because by then, to your point, to your texting question to Courtney, might not be Matt Eberflew still coaching the Bears at that point, depending on how things play out. But yeah, I will put that down as a win at home for the Vikings taking care of business. Well, we now know that Norv Turner won't be available to take the spot

because the Raiders are bringing in Norv and his son. And, well, you know, they once worked for the Vikings. But I texted Sage Rosenfels today because he sent me that news and he was just like, what? Like, Norv Turner, what? I was like, where's Terry Hrabisky or Kevin Gilbride or all the Paul Hackett, all the coaches from the 90s that are – I mean, you just bring back all those –

how is Norv still around, still doing this? He's 72. that's crazy to me good i mentioned for the vikings that they should get cam cameron because every player they have that they've traded for his name cam so that's next man up next cam up i mean uh december 22nd so the 10 and 4 vikings will face the the Seattle Seahawks on the road. Excuse me. Yeah, you can make the pick there while I'm sneezing. But the setup is whoever knows what Seattle's going to do in a football game. You talk about entertainment value.

That team is wild. That, I mean, yesterday's game, Stafford makes an unbelievable touchdown throw to end it just absurd arm talent on that one but gino to jackson smith and the jigba his throw for a touchdown was insane at the end of that to tie the game that was really really fun um and i think that's just who seattle is they just play wild crazed. Yeah, they're kind of like Arizona in that way, you know, where you just, week to week, you just don't really know what you're going to get out of them. You don't know if they're going to lay an egg or if they're just going to go and blow somebody out. I mean, Seattle got destroyed at home by Buffalo. They lost a heartbreaker to the Rams, but they

also went into Atlanta and just destroyed the Falcons a couple of weeks ago. So you don't really know what kind of team that you're going to get with them. I'll still put this down as a loss just because that can still be a difficult place to play up in Seattle. But again, that's another one of those games where, you know, two weeks from now, I might feel differently about it just because you don't really, it's going to be hard to really figure out what type of team in Seattle you're going to get up at that point. So the 10 and five Vikings with two weeks to go face the green Bay Packers at home and

the Detroit lions at Ford field package these games. What happens? Do they finish with 12, 11 or 10 man? I think they finished with 12. I think they win those two games out. I think they sweep the Packers and they, uh,

win a game against Detroit, maybe boosting their seating. I think Detroit has probably the number one seed wrapped up by then. I can still see Dan Campbell playing all of his guys still in that game. But I think I could see that kind of being a game where the Vikings just play really well.

And once we get kind of late in the fourth quarter, the Vikings kind of have the game in hand, and we get kind of late in the fourth quarter, the Vikings kind of have the game in hand and Dan Campbell kind of maybe sits his guys and make sure, make sure Jared Goff or somebody doesn't get injured. And so the Vikings will finish a 12 and five at that point. Okay. Last week you had them with 11 wins. You are being challenged a little bit on back-to-back losses at home,

which would be very surprising. But then again, it's not like home field advantage is what it used to be. I think if it were me, I would say they split those two and also split the final two. If I was picking it different from you, I would still end up with 12. I agree with 12 that maybe they'll surprise us with a loss in the next three weeks, which would really send us back into meltdown mode. But you just never know when your backup kicker is going to miss a kick from your backup long snapper. Somebody check on Ryan,

right. To make sure he's okay. As far as I know, he was not wounded in the game against the Colts of all the people. It's a very physical game in the game against the colts of all the people it's a very physical game they ran a ton of plays of all the people to get hurt it's the kicker and the long snapper put it in the very large bucket of things i've never seen before that somehow the vikings ended up pulling off so that brings us back to your questions and comments do you agree with manny 12 wins maybe you don't like the way that he got him there but also it's hard to predict nfl schedule so sometimes picking chaos makes more sense than trying to do it normally and uh questions and comments on the

trade deadline and what the vikings will do your predictions your thoughts uh phil says i don't see them trading a first round pick with so little draft capital next year the podcast will be roasting quacey next year if it happens i don't know that i have ever roasted quacey on this podcast because uh he's done a lot of things that are good to put them at six and two so far And also a lot of things that this podcast would probably also do. Now moving all the draft capital is it's in a lot of ways, anti analytical. If you think about the big broad picture of things,

but one thing that frustrates me about the discussion about analytics, Manny is that we could take larger statements and try to apply them, but you can't apply them to all situations. You can't apply them to a team that took several years of getting their salary cap right for when Kirk Cousins finally leaves to then stack a team with veteran players for great coaches, Brian Flores, Kevin O'Connell, and a team that already has players that are superstars as foundational pieces like Jefferson, Derisaw going forward. Addison is still on the path to be a star player. I mean, when you have those players in place and then you can add with all the money that you have and you could trade for somebody for a first round pick it's sort of like what miami did with tyreek hill we've seen a lot of teams do this san francisco

with trent williams and with christian mcafree it's not an uncommon strategy even philadelphia with aj brown that when you get the foundational pieces in place then you start selling off your draft picks to stack up to give yourself a possible chance to win. So if they trade a first round pick for an absolute difference making star player right now that will help them into the future as well, they will not be roasted. I just will take draft night off next year. But tell me how you feel about the idea of moving the first. Sometimes I wonder if the discussion about trying to deter the Vikings away from trading away the first round pick has to do with how much excitement goes into the draft. You know what I mean? If it's just like selfishly as fans and, you know, people like yourself who cover the team and observe the team, you know, draft night is always just kind of that fun night.

So you're always, it's always fun to speculate. Okay, what are they going to do? Are they going to move up a couple of spots? Are they going to trade back and get more picks? Who are they going to take? Oh, they should take this guy, this corner from that place. This, you know, three technique guy from that school. To me, it's, you know, if they trade their first round pick and it's for a guy that is, you know, I don't think Jeffrey Simmons is

going to happen, but if it's a guy like Jeffrey Simmons, who's a difference maker, who is young enough, who's on a pretty good contract, it's going to be with your team into the future, who's going to help you right away, but also be a part of contract and is going to be with your team into the future, who's going to help you right away, but also be a part of what you're trying to build potentially around J.J. McCarthy over the next handful of years. I think you have to do that. If you can make that happen,

because essentially you're getting a much more known commodity and that player is, you know, it's like you've talked about with the TJ Hawkinson trade. Like people talk about Kwesi's drafting. Okay, well, trading that draft pick to get TJ Hawkinson, that's like, that's basically like you drafted TJ Hawkinson. And now he's a big part of what you're doing right now

and what you're going to be a part of over the next several years. So I think you can't be afraid to move that first, because what happens if you hold on to that first round pick and then you take a guy and he's not very good? Because we've seen that play out before. We've got the fan base is still walking on eggshells right now about Dallas Turner.

They're questioning whether or not Dallas Turner is going to be any good. Well, he's a first round pick, so you have to kind of, you can't really have it both ways, you know? So I think if they find a way to move that pick for somebody that's going to help them right now and into the future as well, I'd be all for it. Yeah. I mean, that's why every situation has to be put under a microscope uh if this was a spot where and you know i advocated for the total teardown of the 2022 team and not adding zadarius smith and keeping patrick peterson i thought that was the perfect time to rip it all to shreds and then start over again they decided not to do that and it's worked out for them uh but if it was then then i would be saying well

you got to hang on to every single pick. You cannot move on and make trades and try to bring people in. You got to get rookie contract players. You got to take a hundred swings. I mean, gosh, I mean, the Lions did this really well, but that's a complete tank and rebuild. So they stacked up draft capital and then they hit on a few guys and their draft geniuses. But in part, because they spent so much draft capital and then they hit on a few guys and they're draft geniuses, but in part because they spent so much draft capital. I mean, they just brought in so many dudes. They casted a

wide net, but where the Vikings are is with a megastar wide receiver. They have a young quarterback that's going to be on the rookie quarterback contract. They've also created an environment where players want to sign, which is another part of it as well, that they can go into free agency every year as being one of the top teams that can bring players in. I'm not generally for broadly teams just blowing out all of their draft capital, but I guess I've come to buy into much more the idea of getting proven players in part because if you look at the previous Superbowl winners, teams that go to the Superbowl, a lot of times they are veteran teams that have made those types of moves.

It's very hard for a team with a bunch of rookie contract players to be great right away. And they need to be great quickly. Once JJ McCarthy gets here. And right now, by the way, since they're six and two, and we're projecting them to win 12 games being great this year matters a lot. And I think that's a big part of it for me, Manny is why are we thinking about anything else, but right here, right now, when, after winning that game last night, your team is looking the number two seed, maybe in the face or the number three seed.

And if you're a top three seed, you have just as good of a chance as anybody to go deep in the playoffs. So when you have a quarterback who is top five in quarterback rating, you have the league leader in yardage for wide receivers. You have a defense that just gave up 49 plays and what nine first downs or something to the Colts. They're still good. Is it, is it a far and away chance that they went like,

are they way ahead of anybody else for the super bowl? No, but it's not like they've been here anytime recently. So that, I think that all plays into my thinking. The Pollock 34 says we have a rookie quarterback. We have our franchise wide receiver and left tackle on lock for multiple years. We also have a ton of cap space for the next few years. If Casey wants to sell off picks more power to him. Sean says, I don't want to give

up our first for next year. Would prefer to pick up an older run stuffing defensive tackle like Campbell. Campbell's actually a pass rusher, he could still get after he could do everything, but he's, he's actually more of a pass rusher, which is why I like him ahead of all of the options. Um, yeah, I mean, I, I I'm sold on that, but to your point, Manny, it does not help me very much. Uh, when it comes to the, uh, the draft, because that's, if they sell off their first round pick that's one of my biggest podcasts every year is my live draft show so so that would that actually does hurt um if that ends up happening oh uh so how about this this this comment here uh bradbury would make a great garbage man someone randomly says for no reason, this is why you watch the film.

Okay. Garrett Bradbury got run over last night, caused the strip sack. He stepped on Ed Ingram's foot. And the reason he stepped on Ed Ingram's foot, I believe, is because the protection was shifting to the right and Ingram didn't get out quick enough to block to the right. And that's why he stepped on his foot. And that's why he fell down that way.

That's why you watch back the, uh, the tape. So anyway, is, uh, what is Dalton Reisner's status? I don't know. The numbers on Ed Ingram's last couple of games have been okay, but... I can't do, I can't watch this anymore with him. I'm sorry. I just, I'm sorry. I don't know what kind of, I'm not, you know, I don't know what kind of guy Ed Ingram is, but I just, from a football standpoint, this is, there's just too many times where this is, something has gone wrong and we're looking at number 67. This is, I just, I don't know how much longer I can really stand watching this.

I thought last night would have been a good time, but I understand that they didn't want to replace two guys on the line. I guess we just keep going week to week on that, but it's not like they have a great opponent this week. That's going to cause that change. I think that the, uh, the leash is short and Reisner is standing there ready. I guess we'll find out if they do something with that, but they might surprise us and just say, okay, it's time for him to come in. Um, they ran the ball pretty well last night, which may have been a part of it i think that that run blocking element does matter

and riser struggles at it and robinson's not that great at it that may be a major part but i really think that the the biggest thing is just that they didn't want to have two guys being replaced uh at once i get it zoomer kev says i think a lot of these bad teams aren't going to be as willing to trade as they should be i bet gms are still going to want to go down with the ship. Uh, what do you think of that, Manny? Because what is there like 10 teams, nine teams that have two wins or three, there's a lot of teams that there's just no reason to hang on to anything that you have. Yeah, I don't really know what a lot of these teams are doing right now. I'm surprised we're not seeing more guys get traded. And if you're some of these players that are on these bad teams,

if you're a veteran player who's been in the league for five, six years, and you're kind of entering your prime and you're on a team that's two and seven, I would imagine you'd want to get out of there because that team is probably going to start over. Maybe they want to keep you around as a part of sort of their rebuild, but I just can't imagine any of those guys would want to stay on those teams. And I would imagine they would want to go somewhere and they'd go to a front office and say, Hey, can you,

can you move me? Cause I'm ready to get out of here. You know, I'm ready to go to a contending team and you guys can start this rebuild all over. So yeah, I don't, I don't know. It's, it's, um, just a lot of bad teams in the league. Oh, so a lot of bad teams in the league. Hold on. Let me silence my phone real quick so i can tell you that us days are back at us cellular again exclusive offers just for customers just to say thanks right now you'll get 1200 off any phone plus 400 off any tablet amazing right yeah but my family is so excited about their new devices that they keep texting me during the show. They're all about us days deals like $1,200 off any phone and four plus $400 off any tablet terms apply. Visit us cellular.com for details. so many and i think if you're the gms of those teams you're already pretty screwed

so you've got two options you can either sell to your owner that hey i made moves for the future we had bad breaks this year but next year if i get these draft picks that'll help me and we could build for the future long-term vision is what I'm about as your general manager. If you hang on to players and look like you're only doing it just to try to save your bacon, that means you better go from two and seven to nine and seven, or you are getting fired. And there's some teams that make sense for not being sellers that won yesterday. The Cincinnati Bengals have one of the top five quarterbacks in the league, and they've just been playing close games that they lost or bad defensively. Arizona's another team you should buy. You got a quarterback in his prime and you

can make the playoffs and your division's not that great. Go win it. Don't be selling off parts. But if you're the New York Giants, what's your justification? If you're there, if you're their general manager, what are you supposed to argue in Carolina about hanging on to pieces? Although they have a new leadership there. So they're in a better spot to be able to do it. Um, the New York jets, I could see you want a game, see if Aaron Rogers could turn it around. It's not like you're playing for the future as the New York jets.

Joe Douglas has to know if you don't win, you are fired. So what's the point in trading, you know, your top corner, DJ Reed or something like that? I couldn't make much sense of that name being thrown around. But I think probably out of the, let's say there's 10 teams that are totally dead seasons over, maybe eight of them. It makes sense for them to be traders i think there will be a lot of opportunities that are out there for the vikings to potentially buy yeah i mean i think

you just have to continue to just search and and see what even if you know we're talking about them maybe moving their first round pick for something you know i think i still like the idea for the vikings if you're not going to make a big splash, a major move, I still think making another move, kind of like what you did to get Cam Akers back. You saw that situation as, hey, look, we need some depth in the running back room. Ty Chandler's just not cutting it right now, and we've got to make sure that Aaron Jones is as fresh and as healthy as possible.

Okay, Cam Akers is available. Let's go get him. I mean, I think if you can make something like that happen for an interior defensive lineman or another corner or something, just to add some depth to what you have already, I think that that should certainly be on the table too. And then that type of move is not even going to cost you a lot of draft capital okay take a brief pause for our ad read and also a quick announcement we hit 10 000 subscribers 10 000 subscribers on youtube let's go thank you everyone who has subscribed if you haven't and you're watching please do also i gave jonathan Harrison, producer of this show, a $500 bonus for hitting 10,000. So he is pumped today. And thank you all for contributing to that. Really, really greatly appreciate it. It has been a journey building up this channel. I still forget

to turn my microphone on sometimes, but we've tried to make it look good for you, Manny, an invaluable piece of this to be able to get to 10,000 subscribers. So cannot wait to continue to build on that as we go forward. Thank you so much to everybody for that. And also, thank you for the support of U.S. Cellular. Let me silence my phone so I can tell you about us days at U.S. Cellular. It's back again. Exclusive offers just for customers just to say thanks.

Right now you get $1,200 off any phone plus $400 off any tablet. Amazing, right? But my family is so excited about their new devices. They keep texting me during the show. They're all about us days deals like $1,200 off any phone plus $400 off any tablet. Terms apply. Visit uscellular.com for details uh jason says the 2025 draft only has 15 players with first round grades so i see a few teams trading their 2025 first

round pick so they say that every year uh about this draft only has 15 players 25 i mean there's 32 teams there's probably not 32 guys that are of the same caliber of those top 15 picks but does it weigh into it all manny if i told you you could get denzel ward somebody like that from the cleveland browns if you're factoring in that winning 12 games puts you at what the 26 27 28th pick depending on how you do in the playoffs does that matter to you that the odds of getting a difference making player at the back end of the first round are so much different than the top 15 yeah i mean you have to kind of ask yourself okay if it's denzel ward if you're crazy you have to ask yourself can I get a Denzel Ward caliber player with the 27th pick in the draft?

Chances are probably not. Maybe. Sometimes we see guys get taken in the later first round who end up being really, really good players. But I think, again, I think it just plays into that you you have to decide like all right what are we you know what are we trying to do here with with this first round pick what are we trying to get out of this first round pick do we want a guy that's you know that's going to be really young and cheap but he might take three or four years to develop. And it might take three

or four years for us to figure out like, is this guy really good? And is he going to be a big part of our future? Or do you want to get a guy that you know exactly what you're getting out of him? And he's a good player and he's going to be around for, for a few years. And he's going to be a big part of what you're trying to do in the future and what you're trying to do right now. I think that's what it has to come down to. Somebody like Denzel Ward, I would probably say, yeah, trade the first-round pick. He's a guy, he helps you out of position that you could use some depth at,

and he's, like, really good, so he's not just, like, a depth guy. He's a guy that is going to play a lot of snaps for you and take some pressure off of Stephonmore and, and Shaq Griffin. So I would do it. I would absolutely do it. Okay. I have a really fun question for you. I think maybe everyone else won't think this is fun,

but I hope you do. Let's say that you hear through the rumor mill. If you're a quase, you hear through the rumor mill. Oh, it sounds like Detroit is trading for Zedarius Smith. So you call up Cleveland and you say, what's the offer you're getting for Zedarius Smith? And they say, well, you know, it's a fifth and a sixth is what they want to give us for Zedarius Smith, Detroit. Would you trade for Zedarius Smith just to keep him from going to

the Detroit Lions? If it took giving up more than you wanted to, but you get a pass rusher and you get him not playing for the Detroit Lions, would you, like gamesmanship, would you give up draft capital to make sure that your opponent doesn't get a good player? Kind of reminds me of back in the day when the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, like back in the early 2000s when that rivalry was really heated and you get to July 31st and the Red Sox would trade for a guy that they didn't really need, but they just traded for him to keep the Yankees from trading for him and vice versa.

We kind of see that too. Yeah, it kind of reminds me of that. I mean, if that's all it kind of reminds me of that i mean if that's all it took it feels like a fifth or sixth round pick i'd think about it because what's the worst thing that zadaria smith would would bring you he would bring you depth at edge rusher you know what i mean and you have depth there but you can i mean the more guys you have there the more guys you can kind of rotate in the fresher guys are going to be the fresher jonathan grenard's going to be the fresher

andrew van genkel is going to be you know he's another veteran guy that can kind of show dallas turn of the ropes a little bit another guy that can kind of teach him things so i i think about it so i kind of love this i kind of love this idea because it keeps the lions from getting a pass rusher and that's their biggest weakness also the other thing is too that it doesn't seem like the vikings need a pass rusher and that's true because granard is crushing it he's one of the leaders in pressures for this year and van ginkle's been so good dallas turner had four pressures last night and we want to see more of him but patrick jones still played something like 40 snaps if you were replacing

patrick jones with zadarius smith that is a enormous upgrade of a guy who i mean when he's motivated and he's healthy he is an absolute madman rushing the passer and we've seen it he can do it from anywhere he can rush from linebacker he's he did that uh under ed donatel where that was the most creative he ever got was moving around zadarius smith but he can absolutely do it two-fifths feels like a lot to just top your opponent but also there's extra added value for making sure that when you get to the playoffs, you're, and I like Cam Robinson, I love what he did last night, but him versus Zedarius Smith or him versus some guy we don't even know. There's a big difference there if the Lions, or if they have to go to their next best option, or if they have to panic and overpay.

I like a little thought of gamesmanship here of trying to pay attention. Cause I thought it was curious that suddenly it's out there that they're trading for Sedari Smith and then it doesn't happen. And it has not been completed yet. This deal that everybody thinks is going on. I just wonder if somebody put that out there from Cleveland to try to get better offers. Well, Detroit's going to do it. And if you're the Vikings, you got to find out, right? You got to say, what can I do to keep Detroit away from this really good player? And now you've got me picturing in my head, Andrew Van Ginkle, Jonathan Grenard, and Zedaria Smith on the field at the same time.

On third down, right? On third down, where they're just pinning their ears back and rushing the passer. That could be lethal. I would like a defensive tackle. The problem is there aren't that many of them. So if it does come to get it. And the other thing is too, Van Ginkle has definitely slowed down a bit over the last few weeks. And I wonder if he's banged up.

I mean, I think he's playing through it, but it doesn't seem like he's got the same burst rushing the passer and he missed a tackle last night that I don't think he usually misses. I wonder about the workload that they put on his back to get to those first five wins that maybe they do need another person. And look, if you're playing Patrick Jones that much, that role is there. You just have to get somebody better. So that might be a surprise thing that they do. And then we'll all go, but what about Dallas Turner? They played Dallas Turner linebacker last night. They were moving him all over the place. That seems to be the role they think he's going to have. David says, if it is a key and needed defensive position with years built into the contract, then you need to do it now, it's like free agency comes early as opposed to being outbid next year. That's also the way that I look at it. I know that

it's different than just signing a player because you're giving up draft capital. I know that it's different from drafting a player because there's that big advantage when it comes to the rookie contract. It's just that the Vikings have some of those players. And if Turner does become a great player, then that's a 25 million or $20 million surplus value between that player and what you'd actually be paying. It's not exactly the same as a quarterback, but it's the similar advantage. The same with Addison. If Addison was a free agent right now, someone's giving him $20 million a year and you're getting him for his rookie deal. So they do have some of those guys on the roster right now that are helping them manage this salary cap situation. They've set up deals too

that, see the Vikings haven't been pushing these buttons lately. Like the saints did for so long, the kick the money down the road. They have not been using that because they haven't really been in their winning window. They're trying to fix the cap, but in the next couple of years with Jefferson's contract, O'Neill's contract players like that, that Grenard, they will be able to use some of those things to create even more space so i think that that's a major factor uh in the conversation mike says maybe i'm crazy but wouldn't using our draft capital and cap space to finally solidify the o-line be great for a rookie quarterback it would the trouble is whom whom becomes available i'm all about this after seeing what the lions have done

with their line oh yeah absolutely i mean i've never been against a great line but i mean this is just you see the impact the tangible impact of how they run how they protect their quarterback who's trading you an above average guard like who's going to be better than reisner that you can acquire? I mean, maybe you just take all the Jaguars offensive lineman, Brandon Sheriff, maybe two,

but I think he may have been banged up. I, I, of course I like it. I just don't know who it is that you're getting it. There's a lot more names out there defensively. Yeah. I mean,

it just feels like, and you know, the offensive line is is is hard to figure out because it's it's it's one of the hardest positions to like trade for to get like a real. I mean, they they got Cam Robinson, which is good, you know, and they got him to find like a guard that can really like be to your point, like something better than Dalton Reisner, that's going to be hard. You're better. You're probably better served finding that guy in free agency if he's even available in free agency. And then you're going to have to, you know, you have to, you know, cough up some dough to bring him in because you would need a guy like that. And then, you know, but the flip side to that is, okay, if you use a draft pick to fill that position,

if you use that first round pick, you might be waiting two or three years for that guy to develop and then to find out if he's really going to be part of your future. So it's all of this stuff. There, there's not a sort of, there's not really a, like a one size-all in terms of like how you do this you just have to avoid the really like dumb decisions you know where if you're paying your quarterback top five quarterback money and he's like the 12th best quarterback in the league and then you're digging in the bargain bin to try and find guards and they're not really that good and in order for your quarterback to be good and win in a high level you

need those guards to be good i don't know just for example just for example i'm just throwing out an example maybe you know um but but yeah so it's it's a tough it's a tough way to do things but you there you just have to find a way to do it. And I don't think that there's like one perfect way to do it. Some of it just might have to get lucky too. Oh, yeah. I mean, how about like a Wyatt Teller? Didn't Buffalo let him go and then he became elite at another place? That's another way the Vikings have found offensive linemen in the past.

Joe Berger, just a guy for somebody else and then works out for you, or looking for someone who's on the upswing of their development curve that a team has kind of given up on. The one thing the Vikings have never done is taken that kind of mass approach of let's bring in four guys in free agency and let them fight it out and see who ends up winning those jobs. And I think they've also struggled sometimes with chemistry and consistency from year to year that they've got a little bit more this year and they have the same offensive line. I think it started to pay dividends.

But the Vikings have an offensive line you can win with. I mean, that's the key. Once they got Cam Robinson, I know it's frustrating. The interior still needing help. And O'Connell referenced that today, that he felt like the interior needed help. Brandl has slipped over the last few weeks. This is his first full season yet, so I think he's had a little bit of trouble there. We know Bradbury's strengths and weaknesses.

He was great run blocking last night, and we don't give him credit for that very often, but that's his strength. And then on the right guard, he's still, even after a good night last night, still at the bottom of the league in terms of the metrics for evaluating offensive linemen. But if this is the weakest you're going to be, Sam Darnold was maybe pressured on 30% of his dropbacks last night. It's not catastrophic. It's winnable.

It's not like it was in 2018 or something where you had three guys that were your weaknesses Robinson made it so now you really don't have a major weakness there uh Matt B says any chance Quasey tries to throw a Caleb Evans in on a pick seems like he's always a healthy scratch lately they have given up on a Caleb Evans. That is quite clear. I think if you're another team, you should be looking at a Caleb Evans for some conditional pick or something. But when a team gives up on a guy, pretty hard to make a case for, uh, you know, getting anything for him, but could you sweeten the pot on a deal? We'll give you this draft pick. And how about this player? Who's still pretty young

yes and i think they should i think he could play in the nfl i just don't think he could play for this system in brian flores yeah we've seen that happen before that you know you talked about it with guys like on the offensive line that maybe just didn't things just didn't work out at his first stop and just needs a change of scenery. And it ends up working out for that player. I mean, that might be the case for Caleb Evans, where this guy who has talent, guy that I was really intrigued by, you know, a couple of years ago. It just hasn't really it just hasn't really worked out for him here. And it might just be a thing where he just needs to go somewhere else, maybe get in a different system, get in a different locker room,

a different environment, and maybe that team can figure out what to do with him. But, I mean, if he's healthy and he's not seeing the field, other than maybe occasionally on special teams, yeah, I mean, it seems to make some sense to, if you're trying to make a move and you can kind of toss him in as sort of a secondary piece to sweeten the deal a little bit, I think you're trying to make a move and you can kind of toss him in as sort of a secondary piece to sweeten the deal a little bit i think you got to do it uh malkill says uh can we put the kibosh on quasey cannot draft did you see number three last night now what you have

to remember you're breaking the rules so the rules are when jordan addison is frustrating then quasey drafted him when he does something good, then O'Connell drafted him. That's been the rules of this chat when talking about this for the last couple of years. Also, Dallas Turner's four pressures had some people in shambles a little bit last night as well. The trouble with the Quasey draft thing is that he hasn't gotten a hundred draft picks to see if he's good at it or not. He's gotten like 13. The 2022 draft was a bunch of players that were picked for Ed Donatel that didn't work out and a starting guard who hasn't been good, but it started a heck of a lot of games for you. What do you make of that one? We used to evaluate offensive linemen. This is how bad it used to be

by starts and just say, well, the guy, he's a starter. So you did well enough with that draft pick. So if that was years ago, that's how it would have been. But they haven't had a ton of success in the draft. But if your picks are Turner and Addison that work out, well, that's much more important than whether Ty Chandler ends up working out or not. So didn't the Lions build their line through the draft?

They did. But one of the players that they picked was with a top five draft pick, Penny Sewell. You're not expecting to have a top five draft pick anytime soon. They also got Kevin Zeitler was a big pickup for them. Frank Ragnow was another first round draft pick. And this is the draft randomness. The Vikings pick Garrett Bradbury is their center. He's been okay.

No, I don't have a beef with Garrett Bradbury as much as other people do. The sound cut is cutting out. I'm sorry, guys. We're just about to wrap up anyway. I'm sorry that it's gone glitchy. I don't know why that might be, but, uh, just, uh, just, just to wrap up the point is the Vikings. I know for a fact, loved Frank right now, they didn't get a chance to pick them. They ended up picking

Garrett Bradbury. It doesn't work out quite as well. Like that's how, that's how the draft goes. Sometimes. Uh, what do I grade Turner for yesterday? I thought he did great. PFF had him as a 71. That's fine with me. All right. So let's, let's end on this then Manny, the, the, your final thought for the Vikings for the trade deadline. How about this?

Your prediction. What do you think the Vikings do at the trade deadline? And remember, you can be wrong because nobody will remember this after tomorrow, and there will be, tomorrow night, a trade deadline live show Tuesday night. So make sure you're tuning in for that. But your final prediction. Well, my hope is that if they are going to move the first-round pick it is for somebody like I've been saying, like you've been saying, somebody that's going to be around for a while. That's, you know, fairly young and a good contract is going to be part of your future as well. And it can also help you right now.

I don't think that they're actually going to do that though i think it's going to i think they're going to do something but i i think it's going to be more of you know the type of move like for cam acres it's going to be kind of a depth guy you know i'll say it's going to be a corner i think they're going to find a corner a depth guy for you know at corner for like a fifth round pick maybe um i think just interior defensive line, like you were saying, it's just harder to find those guys. It's harder to make, make a move for those type of guys. But I think if they go, if they address either one of those positions, just from a depth standpoint, I'd be good with that. And it kind of seems to me like if they do make a move, it's going to be something more like that than sort of a big splash. Sorry.

Penny Sewell, seventh overall pick. You get my point. Uh, I agree. I think that there will be more conditional. Some things to draft picks that are sent out for tomorrow. I know that crazy.

It awful. Mensa likes to cook. I know that he likes to explore every and any possible trade under the sun. That's for sure. But I don't know that the opportunity is going to be there for the huge trade. And I think there's a ton of opportunity for the small trade. So maybe two that I'll predict that two smaller trades that solidify this roster one for a kicker and one for a long snapper no I'm just kidding you can find those guys we'll have to keep an eye on what happens there as well so Manny you and I will be back on Thursday night we will know at that point

and we will preview the Jaguars and this is going to be a really fun one your top five favorite Jaguars on Thursday night. I've definitely got some thoughts on that. One of my favorite teams back in the nineties and early 2000s. So thanks everybody for watching slash listening. And we will talk to you again on Thursday night. We'll catch y'all later. Football.