Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Fixing The Minnesota Vikings

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Matthew Coller and Manny Hill each get 3 moves to fix the Minnesota Vikings for 2026. They talk about coach firings around the NFL and pick this weekend's games. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fandul, Matthew Collar, here, along with Manny Hill. And we have a lot to discuss tonight. Actually, just saw some news, Mr. Hill, that the New York Jets are going to interview Durante Jones, who is the Vikings defensive backs coach slash passing game coordinator. And Durante has been a guy that Harrison Smith has repeatedly praised. is one of the reasons he came back, not just Brian Flores, and also has been the guy that I have cited many times that would take over for Brian Flores, should Flores get a different job?

So I just saw that come out from ESPN's Adam Schaefter. And you know what I think it speaks to, Manny? Is just how much is up in the air with these situations. The Vikings could feel like they are just back and the 2026 version is very, very close to the 2025 version. It could be J.J. McCarthy starting. It could be Brian Flores at the defensive coordinator position and the entire front office and everything set up. The O line coach, the offensive coordinator, everybody's back and they're just going after it again.

Or it could be like very different. And we are going to find out in the next couple of weeks. Yeah. Yeah, this is the thing that you kind of deal with every off season. You know, the Vikings obviously had a very disappointing year, but they finished the year really strong. And we saw the defense perform really well. And when that happens, you know, that means you potentially going to lose some coaches.

If things go really well for a specific side of the ball, we kind of saw that in 2017 when Pat Schumer stepped in for Norv Turner and did a really nice job as offensive coordinator, first and 20, 2016 or North left and then 2017, the big year where they went to the NFC championship game. And then Pat became the head coach of the New York Giants. Didn't go so well for him. But still, that put the Vikings in a position where, oh, gosh, this assistant coach that did such a great job on the offensive side, we got to replace him now. And we're signing this brand new quarterback as well. So, yeah, this could be a very dicey offseason for the.

the Vikings. And I think the question is going to be, if they lose Brian Flores, if they lose Durante Jones, what are they going to do? Who is going to take over on defense? We can maybe talk about that a little bit tonight. But yeah, this is going to be a really, really interesting and possibly pivotal, let's see if I can say that word right, offseason for the Vikings going forward. It certainly will. So here's what we're going to do tonight. We're going to have a fun time. I got a bunch of things lined up. I have for the old people, there used to be these magazine surveys where you would put your numbers in and then go to the back of the magazine and see what it meant. Like, are you a great boyfriend here?

You know, what, right? We've all been to the dentist office and seen these things, right? Like, well, two, three, right? But this is for quarterbacks. I have four quarterbacks and I have five questions that will tell you which kind of. quarterback you want for the Minnesota Vikings or which specific quarterback you want them to bring in this off season got that a little bit later. But here's what I want from the chat and from you, Manning, to start us off is I'm giving you three wishes for the Minnesota Vikings off season

that you can, within reason. So if your wish is that they get Joe Burrow, to me, that's not yet within reason. If it happens, then some night we are going to have one heck of a podcast, no matter where you are or what you are doing, Manny, you could be in the middle of work. I will get you on this show to talk about Joe Burrow if they make that move, but probably not. So what we're going to do is give our three fixes for the 2006 Minnesota Vikings, and the goal is to get them back to the playoffs. I think as of right now, it's hard to say the goal is, hey, they better be a Super Bowl favorite going into 2026. That's just not very likely to happen. So this goes under the within reason is to get them into a position where they are expected to make the playoffs.

What are our three fixes and we can include the quarterback position. Anything with the front office or coaching staff that you want to throw out there. Any position. The only other thing that's off limits would be kicker. No one is changing that kicker. Nobody. So what are the three other fixes? Well, why don't why don't you start with your first one?

and then we can bounce back and forth. And I would love the chat to get involved too. I'd love to read some of other people's potential fixes. I'm giving you three wishes, but the genie comes out of the bottle and says, I have limits to my powers. I am not, I am not one of them genies that could do anything for you.

So where would you like to begin that conversation, man? I think we got to start with, and we kind of hinted at it already a little bit. I think you've got to find a way to get Brian Flores back in the building. for 2026. I think with everything that he did with this defense, particularly when they got healthy in the second half of the season, they played really, really well. And I think he deserves a ton of credit for that. And, you know, if you're not able to bring him back because he gets a head coaching position, we know he's talking with the Baltimore Ravens. And there's other jobs

potentially. We've talked about the Raiders before. If you're not able to get Brian Flores back, you're going to need to find a viable replacement for him, somebody that can step in and really kind of pick up where he left off. And that's where the Durante Jones situation with the Jets becomes really interesting because if you lose Brian Flores and you lose Durante Jones, then what do you do? There's options out there.

Obviously, Raheim Morris is looking for a job right now and him and KOC have a previous relationship working with the Rams when they won the Super Bowl a few years ago. So, I mean, that's one way or another, though, that is you've got to find a way to get Brian Floyd's back in the building. And if you can't, you better have a viable replacement form because if you don't, that defense for as many good players as there is on that unit, could potentially see a dip in production next year if you don't have everything that you need.

Yeah, I think that has to be other than when we get into our quarterback ideas for this. I think that that has to be at the top of the list. The question is for our genie that's granting these wishes to fix the Vikings is like, how do you get that done? When you say, like, you have to keep him around. How does that happen if it's not to do with money? We're going to just assume that money is part of it because money is part of absolutely everything. And maybe what Brian Flores did was just bet on himself from a financial perspective. Like if I have another great season, then the price goes up every single year. Like think about if KOC had negotiated his extension after 2023 versus negotiate after

2024. That is quite a different number. And maybe he thought that like, hey, all right, that's the number you're offering right now. But imagine if I was a free agent the number you would have to put down. That's possible. But it feels like there's more to that than just that. Like that there has to be other questions Brian Flores needs answered. that he wants to look elsewhere.

And I've always thought this for everything. I've thought it for kids changing colleges, people changing relationships. If somebody wants to go, they're just going to go. If someone wants to change, they're just going to change. And you can't stop them from doing it. When I left Buffalo for Minnesota, my program director was not very happy

because I was doing a lot of work for not very much money. And it was like, this is what I want to do. This is what I need to do with my life. So I think with Brian Flores, it could be the same thing. But in projecting the defense for 2026, that formula changes completely if they don't have Brian Flores, even if you were able to bring in Rahim Morris, who I think would be a good hire. And Kevin O'Connell is familiar with him. He may get another head coaching job.

I don't know. But probably not after the way that it went in Atlanta feels like he'll be available. But it's not the same. Like, no one is the same. as this scheme. And that's why Durante Jones makes the most sense for me. But if someone comes and takes Durante, then I don't know what you're supposed to do.

Because I don't know that there's anyone else in-house that's ready to be a defensive coordinator the way I think of Durante Jones. My first might surprise you a little, manny, because all of you think I'm going to go with Kyler Murray here. But the Kyler Murray idea has its ups and downs. The reason I bring it up a lot is because, because I think it's realistic.

And I would really enjoy it from an entertainment perspective. And I think he's the best quarterback available. But what I would like to do in this fix, Manny, is also find out what J.J. McCarthy can be. Because, well, we talk a lot about the numbers and the projections and what has happened and what history says and everything else. History also tells us that you never really know for sure with young quarterbacks. and the list of quarterbacks who have failed is there's also ones who have succeeded that started off slowly or had struggles at first or needed to mature or needed to improve their mechanics or whatever else it might be.

So my fix is making a trade to acquire Mac Jones. And there's another part of this too that I think I like Mac Jones more than the general person likes Mac Jones. like I had Kevin Sefer. It's a must see interview. Kevin Sefer's on the show. Go watch that after this. And Sefer kind of, you know, kind of poo-poo that idea. Like, ah, you know, Mac Jones, he's probably just going to set a whatever type of ceiling for you. And I understand that from a playmaking perspective that that's not really him. But as a rookie, go back and look at his rookie year. He took the Patriots to the playoffs as a rookie. Then their head coach completely lost his marbles, started dating people. Mac Jones's age, hiring defensive coordinators for the offense, which is insane. He signed like eight tight ends.

He was just going completely loony. At the end, he goes to the Jaguars. That's a disaster situation that no one was going to win. And then lanes with a good team with a good offense with weapons. And oh, yeah, Mac Jones is winning games again. I think his anticipation ability is very good. And this is a pocket quarterback type of offense. and the criticism used to be of Mac Jones,

like, well, he's just kind of a Kirk. Kind of a Kirk next year with the rest of the things on the roster probably gets you back to the playoffs. But he's also a quarterback that's beatable for J.J. McCarthy if he takes the steps. I think he's the perfect thread, the needle type of quarterback. So I'm asking my genie to go get Mac Jones because I've been told by the genie that he can't get Joe Burrow. Well, I mean, Mac Jones, I think, and this is probably,

the dynamic between him and somebody like Kyla Murray. Kyle Murray, I think obviously the upside and sort of the ceiling is much higher just because of the physical tools and the guy won a freaking Heisman trophy for goodness sakes. But the thing about Mack Jones, and we heard about this when he was coming out of Alabama and why there was these rumors that Kyle Shanahan was really interested in him, not necessarily Tray Lance, of course, they end up going with Tray Lance. But the thing with Mack Jones was like, this guy is just going to go out and he's going to run and execute your offense exactly the way you want him to do it.

He's going to make the right read. He's going to make the right throw. He's going to make the right decision. He might not, you know, he's not going to like put a team on his back and carry them to the playoffs like a Josh Allen or something like that. But if you need him to just go in, run your offense, do it. Do what you tell him to do. He's going to do that.

And Matthew, it kind of feels like, based on what we saw from J.J. McCarthy in 2025, it does kind of feel like they just need somebody. And maybe this becomes JJ next year. Who knows? But they just need somebody who's going to go in and run this offense the way Kevin O'Connell wants it to be run. Make the right read. Deliver the ball with anticipation, good timing.

you know, do the fundamental things you're supposed to do at that position. And then if the time comes and you need to make a play, obviously J.J. McCarthy would be better suited to do something like that, as opposed to a Mac Jones. But I think for them to get to the playoffs and have a legitimate chance to compete, they need somebody who's just going to be able to do the bare minimum at that position. And Mac Jones, at the very least, can give you that.

All right. What is your, what is your second? wish. My second wish is because of the cap situation that this team is going to be in, they're going to have to do some serious restructuring of some contracts. They're going to have to work their magic again like we've seen them do many times in the past. They've gotten themselves into a little bit of cap held when they've done that during the Kirk Cousins era. But you're not really in a situation where you're paying a quarterback $35, $40 million dollars a year right now to where you had to restructure his deal and kick money down the

road. I mean, you've got some options here. Obviously, you know, somebody like T.J. Hawkinson could potentially come into that conversation of a restructure. I know Brian O'Neill maybe has been mentioned that, you know, maybe giving him an extension and sort of move some of that money around to give yourself some space. Because for as much talent that is on this team, they could certainly use a little bit more. And, you know, maybe you restructure some contracts. It gives you a little bit of free agency room to where you don't have to be a big spender like you've been the last two off seasons, but you can go and get maybe somebody that can just move the needle for you a little bit, you know, maybe another corner for depth purposes. You know, if you end up moving on

from Aaron Jones, which could be a part of this restructure, a late cut, something like that, you know, maybe you want to go into free agency and sign another running back for cheap to kind of pair with Jordan Mason and take some pressure off of him. Or, you know, if you want to sign a quarterback to compete, you know, if it's not going to be trading for Mack Jones, maybe you want to go into the free agency pool to bring somebody in to compete with J.J. McCarthy. But I think a restructure of contracts, maybe a cap casualty is going to be what it takes to. So that's on my wish list as well. Right. So essentially find money to use because you're going to need it. And I think that that's definitely true.

And I was just looking at their salary cap situation. And there can be a little bit of misunderstanding sometimes when you're using overthecap.com and you go there and you see like, oh my gosh, they're way over the cap. But not really if you look at all the things that are going to likely happen. and that is probably going to include something with T.J. Hawkinson. Maybe he's not here anymore, likely something with Aaron Jones, whether a restructure or he's just let go. And maybe Javon Hargrave, they could create a lot of space there, Ryan Kelly. And if you look at New Orleans over the last couple of years, and the Vikings are now in New Orleans mode, this is the best way to describe it is every single year, the New Orleans gets to the offseason.

You go, oh, my gosh, what are they going to do? And then they will like sign Chase Young. That was a great signing, by the way. They'll sign like Chase Young for $50 million. You'd be like, what? How did they? Oh, but that's the way that they structure their contracts, always kicking money down the road. Eventually the bill does come due.

But the front office is not in a position to worry about the bill in several years from now. They're in a position to try to win right now. So you're saying be a player in free agency and find a way to get there. hell or high water with the salary cap. And I totally agree with that. You've gone this far down the Spielman Zimmer Road. You might as well just go full Zimmer Spielman and hope that it works out different for you than it did for them.

For me, it's a little more specific. It is two positions on the offensive side, and that is to find the world's best center available. Now, Tyler Linderbaum is a great player, and he's available in free agency. The struggle there, though, that we're talking about is how would you afford him? Because there will be, I don't know, 20 teams that are at least making a phone call, 15 teams that are making a phone call. There are not many other good centers.

But you can't run back just Michael Juergens and Blake Brandel and say, this is fine. Both of those guys did an admirable job. But, Manny, since I got here and we started working together, many years ago now, almost 10 years ago, who was it, who was it center? It would have been, I want to say, Joe Berger and then after that, it was Pat Elfline,

and then it was Garrett Bradbury. Was there someone in between? I don't think so. I think that that kind of makes it up. It was Garrett Bradbury all the way up until Ryan Kelly. And I'll tell you what, as an all 22 watcher of every single Vikings game after I go through all the film, I have not lived until I saw a.

Ryan Kelly on tape. I was just sitting there like, this is what it's supposed to look like. This would be like if you sang in the shower all the time. And then you went to a concert with a great singer and you're like, wow, that's what singing is like. That's what it was like seeing Ryan Kelly. But Ryan Kelly, if his career is not over,

the NFL needs to make sure that he doesn't sign anywhere else. And I'd like to see it again. I'd like to see another. person at that center position who is orchestrating the entire offensive line, managing the different rushes, blitzes, things like that, dominating in the run game the way that Kelly did oftentimes this year. And let me tack on this kind of a duel, but it's like sort of a fix the offense type of thing. I'd also like to see a running back for the first time since Delvin Cook, who can be the guy. Aaron Jones last year did a really good job in 2025.

and in 2024 was banged up in 2025, tried his darned us in 2024, despite pretty poor run blocking, and was very good in the first half of that season before Dar esau got hurt. But what I'd like to see is a dude who is 21 years old or 22 and is coming out with fresh legs and explosiveness and no injury history and is the dude back there. I'd like him to catch 50 passes. I'd like him to carry the ball 225 times. And I want him to be the man. I like Jordan Mason a lot.

But he's not the man. He's kind of a secondary type of player who helps you out a lot, a bruiser. But he is not one of those all around every single play, playing and play out. And I just don't know how you, I've seen people tweet this out, Manny, about the expected points added from O'Connell's offenses since he got here. and they're not above average. And the reason is constantly because of the run game. And they made progress of the run game this year. But what does it really come back to?

Delvin Cook was on the other side, did nothing after he left here. Alexander Madison had a very short burst of success, did nothing after he left here. And Aaron Jones has been okay. And Jordan Mason was okay. But they haven't had greatness at that running back position since I want to say like 2020.

First half of 2020, they haven't had even excellence. at that spot. And if they do and have an average or above average passing game, then you can have a dangerous offense. But I don't know how you have a dangerous offense if that person back there is not an explosive threat

that can take over games in some way. So that's on my wish list, a really good center and an explosive young running back. I like it. And, you know, it kind of reminds me of, you know, Vikings fans will appreciate this. reminds me of the 98 team that was really explosive on offense. We talk about three deep with Moss,

Carter, and Reed and Randall Cunningham, throwing it deep and things like that. But you know what else they had? They had a really good center in Jeff Christie, and they had an ass kicker at running back in Robert Smith. And they had Leroy Hort as well as a complimentary back as well. So, yeah, I'm with you on that. So are you saying,

Use a first round pick on Jeremiah Love? I don't, I don't think so. I don't think so. But you know what? I mean, if they did it, it would of course be just another. I would have also said don't use a first round pick on a guard. And I think that Donovan Jackson is very good. Right.

This team has constantly just done inefficient stuff. So why not? Why not do all the things after getting the label of having an analytics GM that are just not analytics at all? But, you know, when it comes to the running back position, teams that are in the win now, we have a complete roster, we just need one more guy. It's a bit of a fallacy, but every once in a while like Jemir Gibbs, it works. And when it works, it works really well. And, you know, when San Francisco traded for Christian McCaffrey, go back and look at those grades for that trade.

Most people said, okay, come on, what are you doing trading this much for a running back? but you found a guy who was special and exceptional, and he's driven that offense for several years. And, you know, Todd Gurley was a top draft pick who did it with the Los Angeles Rams. There are just levels to this. The most talented running backs move the needle. We see that with Derek Henry when he's at his best last year and how he moves the needle. Adrian Peterson.

Absolutely. Adrian Peterson getting them into the playoffs in 2012. They need a needle mover. and if they don't feel like that's available in the second or third type of round, they need the first round talent. I don't love it, but I also don't think it's the most insane thing I've ever heard under the current circumstances because if it doesn't work and you don't make the playoffs,

then it might be somebody else is running back the next year. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, I agree with you. And, you know, I'm with you. I don't love using a first round pick on a running back, but we did all laugh at the lions when they took Jemir Gibbs and we were kind of like, what are they doing? And now he's one of the most dangerous dynamic running backs in the entire league.

And he's a big part of what makes that offense go. Okay. So the third thing that I was thinking about, it kind of goes into what we were talking about, the quarterback position. I am going to go the route of Kyler Murray. I just, this is just, I hate to feel like I'm giving up on J.J. McCart, so quickly. But it's time for this regime, this head coach, this GM,

and this team, this organization to get into the playoffs and make something happen in the playoffs. And I just don't know if, I think McCarthy's going to get better, but I don't know how much better he's going to get. And if that's going to be enough to get them over the hump, to even get them into the playoffs. It wasn't enough in 2025. And, you know, you don't really know you're going to have a lot of guys back,

but you don't know exactly who you're going to have back outside of the sort of the franchise cornerstone players. And so you don't know how things are going to play out for you. You know, you've got some really good fortune with your defense and the second half of the year staying relatively healthy. You can't bank on that again in 2026, especially if you're potentially going to lose your defensive coordinator maybe. And the guy that would be next in line, you might lose him too. So it's possible that the defense might not be as strong in 2026 as it was in 2025.

And that means that your quarterback needs to be better than certainly a lot better than what we saw from J.J. McCarthy. And that's going to require a big leap from him. I'm not sure that big leap is coming. So I think you've got to go the route with somebody who might be in a at times in Kyler Murray, but the upside there and the sort of the dynamic nature of his game can possibly win you a lot of games and give you a chance to compete on nights when your defense might not be as strong. So I'm at this point, I'm ready to go with Kyler Murray. I know what it means. I know what getting Kyler Murray means for JJ McCarthy, but that's kind of where I'm at. If this team's going to go to the playoffs and make some noise, I think Kyler Murray is going to

give them the best shot. Well, here's how it's justifiable. is if you go to 2024 PFF, their grades for their quarterbacks, just to clarify their top graded quarterbacks of 2024, where Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Jaden Daniels, and Patrick Mahomes right there behind him. Kyler Murray was about evenly graded with Brock Purdy and Jared Gough and C.J. Stroud

and was 12th overall, obviously boosted a little bit by the fact that he can run, but he was their 12th overall quarterback. And I think we would agree that if the Vikings received the 12th overall best quarterback play, they would have been easily in the playoffs and scary in the playoffs right now. Teams would be saying we don't want to face that defense. Their quarterback is okay and up and down. But man, if he gets hot, he's going to be a problem.

So I think that's easily justifiable to say, look, I'd love to give J.J. McCarthy three more years. and under the right circumstance, you would have been able to. If Kevin O'Connell, this is, it's always hard timing out the head coach with the draft pick quarterback because ideally what you'd like to do is hire the guy and draft the quarterback at the same time, like what the Las Vegas Raiders are about to do. Even Chicago, they fire their coach, they get right to a real coach to go with Caleb Williams, help him take that next step. But what you're trying to normally accomplish is have those.

two guys in lockstep together. When they're on different timelines, you've already built up the scar tissue of the past. And you've already put the pressure on and, oh, yeah, he doesn't have any playoff wins and that kind of thing. So you've gotten to a point where you need that guy with a mature team and a coaching staff and a front office that's under pressure. You need that guy to be able to take you to the playoffs and succeed or everyone's in trouble.

And I don't personally think the NFL should work the way it does. I look at Mike McDaniel being fired and go, really? Is that a good idea? Like to a stunk this year. This guy got more out of a pretty mid-quarterback than anybody would have been able to do since he arrived there. And you're firing him for going, what did they go? Six in 11 or seven and I didn't even look at their final record. You're seven and ten. Seven and ten for for that guy? Like you're going to find a better offensive mind. How about you rebuild his old line? How about you rebuild their defense? How about you? You know, they fired the GM. And I thought, okay, well, that's right. Give him a chance, but that's the nature of the beast in the NFL. There's just not time to do this the right way with J.J. McCarthy. McCarthy. So it does make sense. And then look, if McCarthy takes huge steps forward, you don't have to lock yourself

into Kyler Murray for any more than one year. And, you know, who knows how it could play out there for the future that they might end up going back to him. So I totally understand that. I think that for entertainment purposes, that's probably the top way to do it. I want to give McCarthy a little bit more time and a little bit more opportunity to take that next step. But if you're in the, hey, I mean, you got to get to the playoffs and win. And also, man, the football was miserable this year. How about we have some fun? I do not blame anybody for that.

So I've gone back and forth a little bit on this last one because I was thinking, well, you know, the secondary. you got to find a safety, I think, is the biggest thing, is try to find a safety who can not replace Harrison Smith. It's not really possible. But I would not like the idea of Josh Mattelis trying to play Harrison Smith. I just don't think that that's quite the best fit. I think he's better as a box safety. I'd prefer that they just sign a veteran there, have maybe Jay Ward be his partner.

I really liked what I saw from Jay Ward or him and Theo Jackson battle it out. But that's okay, you can find a safety. Here's what I'd like. I would like the Vikings to find an offensive analyst who Kevin O'Connell trusts to each week sit down with and go over what they've done, who can tell him this is not a good idea. And have Kevin O'Connell believe that? Because the one problem with being the person in charge that runs the whole thing

and calls all the plays and signs off on the final, you know, game plan for every single week is that I don't know that you have the greatest, like, how do I put this? Like someone in the building that could give you the greatest feedback because you're the one who's in charge and you're calling the plays. So it's not like there's a head coach and a play caller who would meet and say, you know what, I like that you did this. I didn't like that you did that.

Tom Moore retired today. one of the all-time greatest coaches in NFL history. He wrote a book. I have it. I'm ready to read it. I can't wait. It's what an amazing human being. Tom Moore has been this guy for many people through the years.

He coached Terry Bradshaw. He coached Tom Brady. He coached Peyton Manning. He coach Carson Palmer, the crazy history for this guy. But he's a guy who had been around a really long time that is a blunt person with a lot of credibility that you'd like that feedback.

Because right now, feels like he's getting the feedback from us. And we don't carry that maybe level of cliche. I'd like them to bring in somebody who could maybe say, you know, no, no, just sometimes, just sometimes. I think, I think the vast majority of Kevin O'Connell and his play calling an offense is actually is good. But there's just that few couple of things that you'd like someone to be there.

So that would be my suggestion, my, my third fix. I like it. I like it. And the other thing I'm wondering about too is just offensive philosophy overall and where this league is kind of heading. Yeah. You know, and this could be, you know, the offensive analyst that you're talking about, this could be somebody that comes in and says, hey, Kevin, we know, we love to push the ball down the field. but look at some of these other teams in the playoffs and look at what they're doing with their passing games right now. And they're doing a little more quick stuff. They're keeping their quarterbacks upright. The guys aren't getting hit as much.

I mean, for everybody that makes fun of Bo Nix and all Bo Nicks only throws all these short passes, Bo Nix takes the fewest amount of sacks in the league. Why? Because that ball comes out right away. Sean Payton designed that offense to keep his young, quarterback healthy and, and, you know, playing at the top of his game throughout the course of the season. And listen, we, we've seen during Kevin O'Connell's time with the Vikings, we've seen quarterbacks get kind of banged up a little bit. Kirk, you go back and watch the quarterback,

Doc, the first one that Kirk was on, Kirk took a beating in that 22 season. He played really well in the team won 13 games, but Kirk got hit a lot that year. And, you know, so that's kind of a thing. I mean, Sam Darnold took his share of hits too. Yes. Last year and played really well, obviously, in the team won 14 games. And it was great and it's fun. But I think what kind of got a loss is that Sam kind of took a pounding a little bit.

And we're seeing now with JJ McCarthy, certainly not all of it is, is about, you know, the offense. Some of it has been stuff that's kind of fallen on him. But still, you have a young quarterback that if you still have faith in, he's a guy that has some durability questions. right now and you're running an offense that kind of leans toward your quarterbacks getting hit a little bit. So can you implement a little bit more short stuff just to keep your quarterback healthy and give your offense a chance to be more consistent and have more success? Crazy stat alert here. Bo Nix took 22 sacks during the regular season. 22. He had 680 dropbacks and took 22 sacks.

J.J. McCarthy had 291 dropbacks, so well less than half, and took 27 sacks. So McCarthy took five more sacks than Bo Nix, despite dropping back to pass. Is that four, almost 400 times less? Is that 300? I mean, that's, that's, no, it is 400. That's insane. That's insane. But I looked this up not too long ago that the Vikings.

since KOC got here, a top five most sacked team, which is what happens when you drop back deep to pass. And it's one of the things that caused Andrew Luck not to last was that under was it Chuck Pagano. He was running an offense that it was a lot of deep drop and it would sit back there and take a lot of hits and get rid of the ball at the very last second. I agree with you that you don't have to go to, hey, it's a quick game offense when you have Jefferson Addison. Like, you need to hit explosives. But I do think that toward the end of the year, when they were working a lot of play actions

and building things off the run, if you look at Seattle, Seattle hit play actions with Clint Kubiak. We know Gary has always done this, but ran a lot of play actions off of the run game that allow the quarterback to kind of move away from the rush, have very straightforward reads. And if something's not there,

then you just get rid of the football. Sam Darnold went from getting sacked. I think I'm going to check this. I know it was only 27 times. times this year. It was over 40 last year. Let me see how much it was. It was 48. So he went from being sacked 48 times to 27, which speaks to your point. That Seattle O line is not good. I mean, if you watch them, they're not good. And yet he's being sacked 20 less times. Well, a lot of that does draw back to the offensive philosophy. So I would totally agree with you that you have to adapt here

because the explosive plays matter, but the sacks also matter a lot. And your quarterback may not be able to hit 28-yard passes all the time down the field. So that's very interesting. Let me get a quick ad read here and then get into your three wishes for the Minnesota Vikings, but the genie is reasonable. The genie doesn't have superpowers. He can only do what's within reason. But speaking about being reasonable, if you're a reasonable hiring manager,

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Prescription is required. See website for full details, restrictions, and important safety information. So let's look at the chat and their fixes. Randy mentions Rahim Morris's an idea if Brian Flores leaves. I think that's fair. Mr. Mayor says Grant Udinski last year, Durante Jones maybe B-Flow this year. We need to do a lot of work because I wonder how many actually. good coaches would be left.

That's the thing, Mani, if you have success on one side of the ball, then somebody probably comes in and grabs your coaches, saw that Alec Lewis wrote about this with Grant Udinski, that he was a vital part of their operation last year and being lost to the Jaguars.

It is on you to find the next guy, but that is something that kind of the brain drain that happens when you have a lot of success. Let's see. move on from McCarthy, ASAP. Ron says is his choice. I really wonder about this, Manny. I really wonder and how could we get a good number on this?

Because social media is hard to do. Everyone's angry on social media. Here in the chat, if we're trying to take like a straw man type of pole or whatever it's called, I wonder what percentage out of, I don't know, 10,000 Vikings fans. If you took a random sampling of people who said that they're pretty, pretty dialed into the Minnesota Vikings. They can name the starting safety that's not Harrison Smith.

That like 10,000 fans who could name Theo Jackson or Jay Ward, how they feel about J.J. McCarthy. Like would they really truly want to go with him or not? I wonder where that would land. Maybe it would just be 50, 50, 50, what percentage? Because it seems like the chat throughout the year was very defensive of McCarthy. and the way that it ended just left a sour taste in everybody's mouth. And for me, it wasn't so much, like, as Ben Lieber called at the theatrics on the sideline.

That's more of a, I'll let the former player have his take about that. But for me, it was just injuries, just injuries again. And I don't know how I'm supposed to say, oh, yeah, just go forward and see what happens and let it loose. When I am the person that wrote a book called Football as a Numbers, game. So I'm going to lean on the numbers. And then the injuries happen and you don't even get a sample size on them. How can I say, oh, yeah, you're good. Just go forward. I would guess that most people would lean a little bit in that direction. Yeah. I mean, I think, and this is why like when I was

talking about Kyler Murray earlier, why it's so difficult because you don't just want to pull the plug on quarterback after 10 games. You know, I mean, I mean, Kevin O'Connell doesn't want to do that. I would tell you, I'm willing to bet Shane Steichen didn't want to pull the plug on Anthony Richardson when he did, but he probably also looked at the situation like, if I stick with this kid, the way things are trending right now, I'm going to be out of a job in a year or two. So I got to, I got to pivot here and do something that's going to keep me employed.

And if you're Kevin O'Connell, how can you not be at least thinking about that same sort of thing? because if we get this, if we get 2025 J.J. McCarthy in 2026, everybody's getting fired. It's not going to work. It's not going to go very well. And then, you know, you're going to be looking, very likely going to be looking for a new head coach for the Vikings

and probably looking for another quarterback anyway. So that's why this thing is just so, so hard. I mean, in a perfect world, McCarthy just makes all these strides. and he turns himself into a, you know, he gets himself in sort of that upper half of the NFL in terms of quarterbacks. But it's just how long is that going to take?

It's so hard to figure that out. And the Vikings may not have enough time to really see that through. The J.J. McCarthy did not get to a thousand passes since high school. So remember I told you that Bo Nix has 680 this year? and I don't know, no matter, we all inherently have the idea of odds in our heads. Like what I like to do is try to figure out what those odds really are and put a pinpoint on it. But we all understand the odds if I drove my vehicle over, you know, I don't know, over a bridge or something that my chances aren't great, right? So like anything, we just, everything is odds in our heads one way or another when we're making decisions.

I don't know why I went with that dark metaphor, but you understand what I'm saying. How about one that's a little simpler? If you drive 85 miles an hour in a 60 in Minnesota, not other states, but in Minnesota, you're likely to get a ticket. You know that. It's not impossible that you could get away with it forever, but you're likely to get a ticket if you go 85. If you look at the quarterbacks through 10 starts, I'm going to say something to you, Mani, and you might just log off because this might just blow your mind. I did this the other day for my article today, which looked at all in-depth the quarterback options for the Vikings. And one of the things that I did was I ran non-top three quarterbacks and how they performed in their first 10 starts, first and second rounders, but not in the top three.

Because those are tanking teams. It's just a different world. If you drafted the number one overall quarterback, he's probably not going to be a megastar in his first couple starts, right? They didn't get Jefferson and Addison and all that stuff, right? And the guy who's quarterback rating, or no, no, adjusted net yards per attempt, which adjusts for sex interceptions, the guy who's right next to McCarthy on the list is Christian Ponder through 10 starts. And while it's possible to go 85 miles an hour. You just gave a lot of Vikings nightmares.

Or a lot of Vikings fans nightmares. Go to the newsletter and subscribe. Doesn't that make you really want to log in there? But it's, you know, I don't. I don't control the numbers. And when that is the case, all of us have that sense. And you can certainly believe that it might work out for them. And I think he's shown a lot of things that would make you think that more than

Ponder showed in his first 10 starts. But the numbers are what they are, the efficiency of this player. And Ponder had a worse supporting cast in terms of receivers than McCarthy. It's probably not close. So that's the whole point, I think, is why the majority, probably not. not the vast crazy majority, but the majority would be, all right, the odds aren't good here. And I think that's the fairest way to put it. Randy says, back up the Brinks truck for Flores, pay him more than KOC.

Okay, well, that's not going to happen. You're not going to pay him more than KOC. KOC is making a lot of money. If, and all head coaches are these days. But let's see, do what it takes to sign Tyler Linderbom and try to draft an elite playmaking running back. So you're on, you're on board with me, Randy, with trying to get the center and the running back positions.

I'm a little surprised no one has said, like trade Addison and keep Naylor. I've kind of seen that out there as an idea. I wouldn't hate that. It's intriguing. It's a little bit hard to figure out, like you're probably going to have to pay Naylor $12 to $15 million. Yeah.

And then Jordan Addison is only making like four for next year. But if you're not sold on his personality and let me tell you, Jalen Naylor is a rock solid dude. I mean, he blocks his butt off. You never hear a thing from that guy with drama or anything else. He's a very quiet guy. His locker is literally in the back corner. Like, he just is a really good teammate, just does his job.

He stayed healthy all year. You know, he got jacked up in the offseason and we talked about it. Like, he looks like he's ready to break out. And he was if the ball could have made its way to him. It does intrigue me because of the character of the guy. Addison is more talented. Let's see. Mr. Mayor says, Genie wishes are make flow the head coach.

I don't think that's going to happen. Make Mike McDaniels the OC. I will say if you did that, not the craziest thing I've ever heard in theory. Firing your coach and paying him off $60 more million or whatever. Usually coaches like COC with the culture he's created, keep their jobs for longer. But I mean, like the genie can grant wishes, but I don't think that far. bring in Malik Willis.

Malik Willis is another one, Manny, that I think falls under the category of Kyler Murray, but you want to talk about passes numbers? Kyler, I mean, Malik Willis has only thrown like 94 passes as a Green Bay Packer. And everyone is convinced that he is a great quarterback. The NFL might say, we'd like you to be a part of a competition, but maybe not pay him the 20 to 30 million that I'm expecting them to. And if that's the case, I mean, I'd say maybe. I still think he would go to a place that has a quarterback job wide open,

like the New York Jets or the Miami Dolphins. But it's not the craziest thing I've ever heard if those teams are not ready to lock into someone who threw less than 100 passes for the Packers. Yeah, I mean, and I'm thinking of Matt Flynn immediately comes to mind because he has a great game at the end of the year for the Packers. And then the Seahawks went and paid him a lot of money. And then he end up losing the job to Russell Wilson in that, in that camp. So, yeah, I mean, Belig Willis has got a lot of talent.

He did, I remember when he was coming out of Liberty, he was, I thought he was kind of interesting for the Vikings to take a look at. But, you know, you just kind of wondered, oh, it's liberty and level of competition and all of that. And he is a guy that he's gotten, I mean, obviously Tennessee was a terrible. spot for him to start his career. Now he's gotten to Green Bay with a pretty good offensive mind as a head coach. And he seems to have it kind of figured

out as a high functioning quarterback. But again, it's like, how do you really know, once you give them a decent amount of money and just say, here you are, Malik, you're our starter. Are you really going to get what you thought you were going to get when

you watched them throw 90 passes with the Packers backing up Jordan Love for the last couple of years. So I don't know. He's intriguing and he's talented. He's athletic. He's got a big arm. Seems to be a good dude, a good teammate. I'd follow them that much.

But I don't know. He's intriguing. And if you can get him for the right deal, could be interesting. I love the idea of a guy that the Packers developed. Once upon a time, the Mark Brunells, the Matt Hasselbecks, the Kurt Warner's all came from the Green Bay system of backup quarterbacks. and it's, I mean, what he did in that short amount of time was completed like 80% of his passes

and then ran for several hundred yards when they weren't running the ball very well. I don't think it was total smoke and mirrors. I mean, he's not going to perform like that for a whole season. But if the league is not really buying in as much as we think they will, then I'm, I'm intrigued for him for competition for a starting job with J.J. McCarthy. I just don't know if a free agent is going to go where they just drafted a first rounder. that's that's the thing is are you really going to go to a place versus i mean a i mean arizona might be wide open and you could just build over a couple years there and

maybe they'll give you a longer contract uh mr mayor brings up uh why would the niners trade mac jones i mean that's fair we also thought the same thing for jordan mason like and they traded him um they might be looking to get some draft capital for their defense but it's a fair enough point i've wondered that myself just seems like if you make him a good enough offer that they would certainly consider it, but you're, you're right to bring that up. Friends of Taz says wishes to be a running back, bring in Brissette or Wence, find a new special teams coach. You guys in the special teams coach, you need to stop it.

You need, I had a really good conversation with Andrew DePaula in the locker room on the way out about Matt Daniels. I think it would be foolish to fire Matt Daniels. And if you say that he has nothing to do with the kicking, then I, you just don't know ball. for one, he stuck with Ryan Wright through all this. He identified Ryan Wright and he stuck with him through the ups and downs to get to the point where he was elite.

And also, if you think that anybody can manage a kicker, did you watch Vikings football over the previous decade? I mean, that's not true. And well, they had some big mistakes. And I know that a guy backs into a ball that bounces funny. It happens. If you always have to have kick returns, always. because you're always losing, then you will have more penalties.

You're, it's just that's, if you have 60 kick returns in a year, because your offense stinks and you're trying to get any sort of spark, you will commit more penalties. But they identified a top returner. They had, I believe, five undrafted free agents who are blocking and who are covering kicks. And Matt Daniels is coaching him up. And you look at the EPA at the end of the year, you look at, I'll get their PFF special teams grade.

And yes, it does include the. kickers eighth in special teams grade for this year. I really think it's a couple plays. It's a couple plays. But man, watch a bad special teams team play before you start saying fire a guy who's very good at his job.

And I think he's done a really good job in player development as well. Just could not be farther apart on that one. But I don't know, heads roll when teams lose. That would not mean a lot for me. Or that would be a mistake for me if they did that. Zumer K.O. says good center, dump McCarthy for any quarterback in a trade and keep Flores. I don't think you want to dump him just for any old thing. For me, you want to see if there's something there,

while also giving yourself a chance to make the playoffs if you need to. Let me see. Jordan Mason is Leroy Horde to Robert Smith. Yeah, I like that. I like that. Mr. Mayor says Delvin Cook would frustrate me with his runs of 0-060. Well, that was the Adrian Peterson thing, right? The negatives and then the explosives. I get you on that. I think that was a little more of a Delvin thing like later in his career. 2019, 2020, beginning of the season, he was fantastic. But running back has just not been something that anyone has to game plan for the Vikings. as much as I respect Aaron Jones, and he was fine. Aaron Jones was the 17th best running back in the league for the last two years, and that's fine.

And they were above average in rushing EPA this year. But did you ever think that the opponent was like, oh, no, don't run? Never, never since Kevin O'Connell has gotten here. And I think that a lot of it just has to do with the talent that they have in the backfield, Manning. Exhibit A, the Detroit freaking Lions, man. with Jemir Gibbs and David Montgomery for that matter. I mean, they've got two guys who can, you know,

if you take Jemir Gibbs off the field, you can put Montgomery in and he's a very serviceable, you know, Jordan Mason-esque type of running back. That can be a very serviceable number two for you. But if you have a guy back there that can be explosive and dynamic and to where, you know, and then you can find creative ways to get the football in his hands, that's only going to help your offense.

It's just tough because you don't really want to have to pay those guys a lot of money and you don't want to have to use a high traffic on them. But if you have one, if you're able to get one, your offense is going to be in really, really good shape. I'm trying to find right now on Kyler Murray where he ranked when he threw from in less than two and a half seconds last year. hold on i'm trying to find oh okay found it all right so there's a little bit of i what people have to understand about the arizona cardinals and kailer murray is they tanked and fired their coach

and i don't know any other way to interpret it like they weren't talked about as a tanking team but not bringing back kailer to play and then pretending like no we actually love jacobi percette more no you don't is you go they went one in eleven no no chance you were like no love Jacoby Brissette as the perfect tank quarterback who will never win for us, but it won't look like the worst thing of all time. See the Miami Dolphins with Ryan Fitzpatrick. That's, that's a classic tank move. Uh, so here is how he performed in less than two and a half seconds. So this would be a proxy for inside the pocket. Uh, he in 2014 was the 14th graded quarterback on two and a half seconds and completed 72% of his passes, six,

point three yards per attempt, 11 touchdowns, three picks with 12 big time throws to four turnover worthy plays. Let me get the quarterback rating. Quarterback rating was 96.8, which was on par with Jordan Love and Dak Prescott was not great, but was on par with some other key quarterbacks. The point being that Kyla Murray, is he the best fit for Kevin O'Connell? No, I don't think so. But I also think it's overstated that Kyler Murray just takes the snap and run. runs around in circles and throws the ball. I would challenge any Viking fan. And again, like, I, I didn't pick that move.

You picked that move. Like, how many Kyler Murray games have you watched? Like, truly, truly how many games have you watched? And everyone would be like, I watch every football game. Really, though. Last, I mean last year, because he was playing in a system last year with Drew Petzing that was different from Cliff Kingsbury. I thought he played better football.

I was in the camp of, like, maybe the Cardinals could be interesting this year. He gets hurt. They decide it's better to tank. His contract is terrible. But from his actual performance, objectively, every number from last year, including when he's throwing the ball quickly, is pretty good.

So I get that people don't want Kyler Murray. They don't want Gino Smith. They don't want Kirk cousins. They don't want Mack Jones. They don't want any of these people. What they want is their first round quarterback to succeed. But if they're out on him, then he is objectively the best answer.

no matter what. Joe says Kyler does have more potential than any other option, other than Burrow and Jackson. That's your point is when you talk about potential. That's another thing. Would you bet that he wins the Super Bowl for the Vikings? No, but there's more potential to be good since he's actually done it before.

Yeah. Let me get to. Oh, sorry. Well, Bryson dropped the super chat in there. Thank you so much, Bryson. Those are harder to come by when the team is struggling. So I really do appreciate it. Let's see.

What have you learned from training camp in the season that will help evaluate McCarthy and his progression this off season? What have I learned this year that will help me evaluate it? Number one is that I think he has much farther to go than I would have ever thought coming out of training camp. And that certain things that we thought were given because of Sam Darnold's success are just not. Like it's not a given that you can just throw the ball to Justin Jefferson.

It's not a given that you can just get to the line of scrimmage and run the offense. It's not a given that someone's enthusiasm and energy and competitiveness will always be a major plus. It can also be a minus. It can also get you hurt. It can also get you penalized. It can also get you under the skin of your coach, you know, and things like that. I learned overall not a lot, though, that's different from when you, the first day he got here. That's, I think the biggest struggle, man, he is.

And when he first got here, we identified a few things that we said, hey, he can succeed with this talent. And I remember saying it in the first OTA or mini camp post podcast with Dane Mizatani. We were like, this dude can throw a football fast. Look at him. And I still feel and look at, he's athletic and he's bigger than I thought he was. And like, those were my original takes. And they're sort of still the same takes. Like, if his accuracy doesn't improve, this thing is cooked. And if he can't play within any system that's not dumbed down, this thing is cooked. And I still feel that way from day one.

This is the most frustrating quarterback because the ones who stink, at least you're like, oh, well, that guy's terrible. Just move on. Getting to this point, two years after he's drafted and still saying, hey, you know, a lot of the stuff I said in the first mini camp, I would still say today of questions I have. That's not where we expect it to be after this year. Well, and I want to go back to something that you've brought up a few times this week on various episodes is we have to talk about Justin Jefferson and all this situation too.

Because to your point earlier, Justin Jefferson has been a really good soldier in the midst of this really down, disappointing season. It was a disappointing season for the for the entire team. It was a disappointing season for him because you're begging and pleading for them to throw him the ball in week 18 just so that he can get to a thousand. Like that's the the in terms of numbers, 80 some catches and a just over a thousand yards is the bare minimum of what Justin Jefferson should be getting every year. And it's largely because the quarterback position was unstable, not performing up to the stand. that it needs to be. And so what has to be considered here is what is this going to do? If you just roll into 2026 and it's J.J. McCarthy or bust and it's a bust.

What does that mean for your superstar wide receiver? Because how is he going to feel about consecutive seasons of subpar quarterback play and then they're not in the playoffs and then you're moving on from O'Connell. Maybe if you don't make the playoffs in 2026, what is that going to do for the morale of your superstar wide receiver who has done everything right for your organization since the day he walked in?

Right. What is that going to mean? And that's going to potentially put you in another situation where you've got to manage that and deal with that and figure out, oh, my gosh, our superstar is not happy. How are we going to deal with that? We need to find a quarterback to make this guy happy. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a risk going into next season with it just being McCarthy and having a lot of faith in McCarthy.

It could work out, but the potential of it failing could be drastic, drastically bad for this team going forward. Right, right. We've made it a lot about the front office and the head coach, just in terms of this is how the NFL works. Like you don't get forever. and it's crazy to see some of the firings this year with like John Harbaugh and what he's done. And to me, Mike McDaniels is a bad, it's just a bad firing. It's just a bad idea. But still, like those guys, there are consequences to these results. And another one is that Jefferson is set up contract wise to make noise next year if it's

not going the way he wants it to go. You need it to go the way that Jefferson wants it to go. I can tell you for absolute certain from knowing Justin from the day he was driving, drafted till present that he is not okay with Jackson Smith, the Jigba being talked about as the best receiver or Bukua being talked about as the best wide receiver. I promise you he's not. And the next year, if he's not back in that conversation with those guys at the top being talked about as the best receiver in the NFL, he's going to be really mad. He was, he handled everything with such class this year. We gave him the media good guy award, which is, you know, I think,

it means something this year. It always means something because it's dedicated to Corey Stringer and the history of this means a lot. But I mean, it meant something to see a leader of a team really truly manage adversity the way that he did. But that doesn't mean he's a punk. It doesn't mean that he's going to let this team hold him back from what he's capable of doing into the future.

So, Mani, I'm going to ask you if you could work some overtime here for me, especially since halftime. in this college game might last until the end of the night. We'll see. So I got, because I have a couple other things. I want to pick the games and we can run through those fairly quickly. But I want to have a little fun.

It's been a pretty heavy week. The season ends. McCarthy, his hand gets hurt again. And it's just, you know, the Packers and Bears are in the playoffs. So you're like the meme where,

what is it, Squidward's looking out the window and they're playing outside. Like, that's us with all the playoff games and all that. So I tried to go with something fun. to decide what kind of quarterback you think, you truly think that the Minnesota Vikings should get for next year. So I came up with five questions and you have to answer them one through five. And then your total score will tell you which quarterback. Okay.

Do it. I've tried this before. I've messed it up before. So I'm going to, I'm going to do my best. Everybody play along. Okay. So the first question is how much did you enjoy running around in the backyard as a kid from one to five. Like were you growing up like a backyard football playing around having a lot of fun or were you more of an indoors type of person one through five five five is you're an outdoor person. I'll say three. Okay.

All right. So we'll go with three. Let me write that down. All right. How much did you dislike? So five is the most dislike. One is like. Okay. How much did you dislike studying as a kid for school?

Like, I hated studying. My wife loves studying. So five is you hate studying and one is you like studying. Five. I hated studying. Okay. Absolutely hated it. All right.

The next question is, and what these are is these will tell you which quarterback you actually want for the Vikings, all right? I can already tell where this is trending. I love it. I love it. And to anyone who didn't read these in magazines, this might make absolutely no sense to you. Sometimes they show up on websites like at the bottom of the site.

Like find out if, uh, you have brain disease by filling this chart. This is like this. Um, only we have football brain disease. How, okay, here's the next question.

How put off are you by certain gen Z trends like six, seven and I wrote down K-pop because I don't know any other gen Z trends. How off are you, how the most put off is five. and the leave. Wait, hold on. Did I get that right? Yes.

No. The other way around. So if you are not put off by them, it's a five. If you're totally cool with Gen Z stuff and 6,7 and whatever they're doing on TikTok, that's a five. You're cool with it. If you can't stand it, it's a one. One.

Okay. So you can't stand. All right. How offended are you by things that are managed poorly? And what I mean is not like at your job, but I mean if you go to a hot dog stand and it seems like in disarray, are you like pretty chill about that?

Or does that drive you crazy? So that would be a one through five where five is driving you pretty crazy and one is like you're pretty chill about it. I would say two. Okay. So you're pretty chill about it. You're a relaxed guy.

And the last question is, if you tried to become a great singer, how much better do you think you could get this summer at singing? And five is you think that you could be a great singer. You could be, I'm sorry to do this to you, Manny, Barry White by the- All right. I've gotten there a million times before.

It's all good. It's right there. So Barry White by the end of the summer or just like not that good at singing. I would say- And you're practicing all summer long. Practicing all summer long. what I'd be five would be very white. Five's very white. Like me,

a bad person on American Idol or something. If I practiced hard, I'd maybe a three. Okay. All right. So here's how this, here's the four options. Kirk Cousins, Mack Jones, Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy. And I'll explain kind of the questions. Obviously,

enjoy running around in the backyard. Connects a little more to Kyler Murray. How much did you dislike studying is more toward the Kirk Cousins that is you're going to know the offense inside and out, but you didn't care that much about studying. How put off you are by Gen Z trends is clearly, you know, a J.J. McCarthy thing. Offended by bad management is more lean toward Gino Smith or, well, no, wait. I'm sorry, not Gino Smith.

More toward Kirk, I mean, because like, Kirk just had bad management in Atlanta and, you know, so forth. And then tried to become a great singer in a summer, obviously a little bit more toward J.J. McCarthy. So the higher you go, the closer to McCarthy you go. Kirk is between 5 and 10. If you just went everything was one, you'd be Kirk. Mack Jones is 10 to 15.

Kyler Murray is 15 to 20. And J.J. McCarthy is 20 to 25. Let's add yours up. So you went with three with the first question, five with the second. So that's 8. One is 9. The fourth question was 2. That's 11.

And the fifth question was 3, which is 4. 14 which puts you right on the edge of Mack Jones and Kyler Murray. So that's where that's where you are. Because if you had answered one for all of these are close to one, you would be with Kirk. Like if you didn't enjoy running around in the backyard, then you have Kirk. And if you're and if you are majorly put off by Gen Z trends and you would prefer the older guy, that's Kirk. So the extremes are Kirk and then the middles are Kyler Murray and Mac Jones.

So I hope some of you enjoy that. Tell me, tell me your scores. I see you guys were responding to each individual question, but like add up your scores and tell me where you guys landed with which quarterback with those. So I hope that, I hope that was fun. It's been a long week. So play along at home and rewind it if you have to to keep track of that.

Let's, let's pick some of these games, Mani, before we call it a night and go watch the rest of this college football game. I'm going to give you the lines on. Bandool and you tell me who you think is going to win. Okay. And also just wanted to add for all of you who watch regularly,

I tried something new with this like little purple background. Some of you like it. Some of you don't. It's experimentation season for me. I'm going to play around with some things. I've got a couple of different cameras here that I might mess around with like a multi-cam type look. I'm always kind of fiddling.

I don't do it too much in the season, but I think I can improve on this. But I kind of like the vibe. I kind of like seeing more of manny than just his head. in a little square. So I'm working on different stuff. Give me, give me some grace there. Okay.

So we kick things off Saturday with the Los Angeles Rams at, at the Carolina Panthers. The Rams are 10.5 point favorites on Fandul. Mani, who do you think will win this game? Well, first off, before I pick, I think the NFL should implement a new rule where every team that wins the division. They can make the playoffs, but it's, it goes by record, you rather not you get a home game. And we can call it the NF, the NFC South rule for all I care.

They tried. Basically, it's basically been the NFC South that has been the culprit in this rule for the last handful of years. And the Vikings got screwed last year. They, they try. The lions were actually the team that put in that rule a request. And the owners didn't vote for it. And Mark Wilf said, no, we want division to mean something. And I'm like, okay, well, you can raise a freaking banner, but shouldn't the playoffs be fair? This is not fair to the Los Angeles Rams. This is ludicrous.

But anyway, uh, you know, given takeaway Rams, it helped you last year, sort of. They played in Glendale. The way that game went, they probably could have played on the moon and, uh, Jared verse and Kobe, uh, whatever, you know, it doesn't matter. Anyway, go ahead. Uh, I do. I think it's, I will say this. I just got through ripping the NFC South.

I think what the Panthers have done this year has been really cool because I did not expect this to happen. And, you know, I mean, they went eight and nine. They wanted their division on, you know, they needed somebody else to win their division. But I think it's just cool. It's nice. I think Canales has done a pretty nice job there.

Bryce Young, it's been nice to see Bryce Young kind of turn things around a little bit and get to the playoffs. I think that crowd's going to be rocking. It's been a long time for them. but the Rams are the better team. And I know, you know, I know the Rams lost there earlier this year. I'm going to pick L.A. here, though, because I think the Rams are, they're obviously the better team, the better head coach.

And I think they're going to learn, I think they learned a few things from that loss in Carolina earlier. I think they're going to go in there and take care of business. I don't think it's going to be particularly close either. I don't think so either. I think that they will cover. They'll win by two scores. Like things just are different in the playoffs.

Reconnected asks if Kyler Murray is so great, then why didn't they re-sign him? Well, they did give him a huge contract extension, but the problem is that they did not build the roster around him, and then they run into the quarterback contract issue, and then they tanked and maybe looking for a new quarterback, but here's the reality is every great quarterback season in Vikings history that wasn't Fran Targerton or Tommy Kramer,

you could say this same thing. But why didn't the Eagles just keep Randall Cunningham? Why didn't the Jets or the Panthers just keep Sam Darnold? Like this is what you're looking for here. You're not, I'm not, no one is advocating signed Kyler Murray to an eight year seven bazillion dollar contract. It's can you hook on with someone who can play reasonable football? And if you're saying so great, I'm saying he's 12th. He's the 12th best quarterback in the league.

That's not so great. That's not put him in the Hall of Fame. But it sure would have put you in the freaking playoffs, right? If you had the 12th best quarterback in the league. I mean, let's be clear. There's nobody here that's, you know, saying crowning anyone. It's just what are your realistic options? Because, and I warned everyone.

I warned everyone. I said you're going to hate every option. I hate them all. And you know what? It's good for engagement that I have more comments, but I know what you're going to say. So anyway, okay, so Rams, we're both in on the Rams there. Packers and Bears at Soldier Field on Fandul.

The Packers are one and a half point favorites. in this game. Boy, this is some good drama. It's a great matchup. And who do you think is going to win? It feels like kind of a coin flip for me. Jordan Love is going to be back, I assume, for this game. And I think that can increase the Packers' chances.

The weather will be interesting to see if it's, I mean, whether this game was in Lambo or Chicago, it doesn't really matter. The weather was going to be potentially a factor. I'm going to go with the bears in a really, really, really tight one. I think this is going to be a dogfight collar. I think this is going to be much like the last game at Soldier Field was a few weeks ago. But I'll give the bears pulling it out again just because they're going to be at home. I'm going to go with Green Bay.

And the reason is because I think Green Bay was amidst out playing the Chicago Bears in that game. And then they had a fumble at the end and a crazy one. one of the best passes you will ever see in your life from Caleb Williams. Caleb Williams halfway through that game was not playing well at all. And Jeff Halfley, I think, can bring out some stuff to give him some problems. But I agree. This one feels like a 27, 24. The one thing is that Jordan Love has been in the playoffs before a couple times.

And that is not the case for Caleb Williams. And I do think a young quarterback has a tendency to be a little bit too amped up. And Chicago's defense is bad. is very bad. So if Christian Watson's 100%, Jordan Love, I think is the slightly better quarterback at this point, I will go Packers to just barely

cover that one. Buffalo Bills at Jacksonville Jaguars, a redux of, what year was that? Was it 2017 that it was, was Tyraud Taylor the quarterback and he got hurt at the end? Nathan Peterman came in.

Through a pick, right? Of course he did. And then I think the, The Tyrod came back into the game. Did he come back into the game? I think it was at the very end. I think it was like the last drive and they threw because I remember maybe tweeting put LaShawn McCoy in a quarterback because it would be a better option than putting in Nathan Peterman. That was when the bills made the playoffs on some crazy throw from Andy Dalton.

Remember that Cincinnati? Oh, to beat the Ravens. Yes. Yep. Yep. To get them into the playoffs. So they played the Jaguars and they lost that game. but things have changed just a bit since then.

So do the bills go into the vaunted whatever bank stadium or whatever the hell it is in Jacksonville and steal the Jaguars dreams away? I don't know. I'm trying to pull some Dick Enberg here, but I'm not doing a good job. Do they win? Yeah, quite the difference in quarterback play, I think, between this matchup and that matchup in 2017, Tyrod Taylor versus Blake Bortles. A little bit better now, I think, Josh Allen versus Trevor Lawrence. This is going to be, this is the game that I'm looking forward to the most this weekend. I'm just excited for Josh Allen against this Jaguars defense.

I've been kind of on the fence with this one because part of me feels like Buffalo is just going to go on this run with Josh Allen, just this Herculean effort, just kind of putting the team on his back and just getting really hot and leading them all the way to the sun. Super Bowl. But man, the Jaguars are really good. They are. Defense is that defense is really good. And Trevor Lawrence is playing well, finally starting to look a little bit more like the quarterback we thought he was going to be. And Liam Cohen's done a great job with that team. So I'm going to go with the Jacksonville Jaguars here to win this game because I think they're the better overall team, but the bills have the better overall player in this matchup who can kind of win a game. he's capable of winning a game by himself.

So it's going to be close, I think. I think the Jaguars will pull it out. I will go with Buffalo because they have been my pick to win the Super Bowl from day one. And I think Josh Allen is going to get one someday. And I'm going to keep saying it until he gets there. And we'll see. But you're right, 13 and 4 Jaguars. And there's also a small factor.

And I don't know how real this is. But Buffalo is pretty cold. And they've been playing up there. And then they go to Jacksonville. It's a very different. in terms of the heat and how that impacts players. I remember a playoff game where they went down to Miami. Doug Flutie was the quarterback.

And they came out and just like started fumbling. And they just didn't play very sharp football, even though they were the better team. That may be a stupid factor. But it might be one with a very different climate there in Jacksonville. San Francisco going to Philadelphia, the Eagles on Fandul, four and a half point favorites in this contest.

I don't think that we should let the game against Seattle sully the 49ers, but I also have some questions there about their defense, Manny, are you going with the upset here, or do you think that the 49ers or you think the Eagles will get it together? This one's hard because I don't really love the way either team kind of looks right now. I mean, the Eagles have just kind of been so much drama with their offense and AJ Brown and J. Brown and Jalen Hertz not playing well at times.

and Nick Seriani and all that stuff. And then the 49ers, you know, there's, they've just been dealing with so many injuries. But I think the fact that they've gotten to this point really shows how good of a coach, Kyle Shanahan. Oh, yeah. To keep that team together with the struggles they've had on defense, the injuries that they've had,

George Kittle missed some time, Brock Purdy missed some time. Mack Jones did a nice job filling in for him. I'm going to go with San Francisco in this game, just because I think they have the better head coach, even though Nick Siriani's actually won a Super Bowl and Kyle Shanahan, unfortunately, has not. But I think Shanahan is the better coach.

And I think the 49ers, there's just a certain toughness about them that I think will propel them to a win. I think a lot of these games this weekend are going to be really close. And this is another one. I think the 49ers with some grit and toughness are going to find a way to get out a win. I'm going to pick Philadelphia for this, and I'm just going to make a suggestion to all the 49ers fans out there.

Do not wear your red and gold. Do not do it. Do not do it. Just go in a jacket and cheer quietly. Yay, team. Don't be yelling. Don't be standing up when they score a touchdown because it's a dangerous environment there in Philly. Oh, there, wear green and pretend you're an eagle stand.

Right. Just, you know, just keep your trap shut. It's not San Francisco. I could tell you that. But I think to me, it's the defense of the 49ers is just, it's been so ripped apart. Eric Hendricks is going to like start for them.

That's crazy. I think that Philadelphia is going to find their running game. All right, two more and then we'll go back to this college football game. Chargers at the New England Patriots, the Patriots are three and a half point favorites. I love what the Patriots have done this year. I'm the biggest Drake May fan of the plan.

I think he's awesome. I think he's going to continue to rise and be great. And Mike Vrabo's done a great job. There's some questions about the strength of schedule and are they really this good? And I think all of that is fair. I think if this game we're in L.A. I might give the edge to the Chargers. But I think with it being in Foxborough,

the Patriots, you know, being at home. And, you know, this is the first, if I'm not mistaken, this is the first home playoff game for the Patriots since, Tom Brady's last game. That's a patron in 2019. That makes sense. They were on the road with Mack Jones. They lost to Buffalo.

That's right. So, yeah, I think that crowd is, that's a crowd that it was so used to having so many home games at Gillette Stadium. And now it's the first time in, you know,

over a half decade. They're going to be rocking and ready to go. And Justin Herbert, man, this might be his best chance to win a playoff game finally. But I'm going to give the Patriots the edge here. and I'll take New England. So let me see here.

Let me see. I had a number on this. Where is it? Hold on. Hold on. I get it. The Patriots pass rush. Yeah.

So PFF has it as 18th. And if you're only 18th against the Chargers, then Herbert might have a chance with those tackles that he's got the offensive line situation. If he's facing a good team like with the Houston Texans, I mean, they're just going to smoke those tackles all day long. but the Patriots don't really have

DeNeil Hunter and Will Anderson. They, I think, have a better chance than maybe the line is giving them here. I mean, three and a half is not, not too bad. I will still go with the New England Patriots, but I think this one is one where I could see an upset. I don't think it would be that big of an upset.

And I always want the quarterback who gets the label of, oh, this guy can't do it in the playoffs. I always want that guy to do it in the playoffs, right? I just because it drives me crazy. If you're there all the time, eventually it will come to fruition, as we've seen with many, many quarterbacks in the past. So we'll see that of Justin Herbert, but that can be a little annoying.

Pittsburgh and Aaron Rogers along with CJ Stroud and the Houston Texans who have won actually two playoff games the last two years. The Steelers are three and a half, or no, three point underdogs. And the over under is 38.5 points. So not a high expectation here. Where would you like to go on this game? I think the Houston Texans are the better football team.

They're the better defense. They've got the better quarterback. I think they're going to go in there and take it to Pittsburgh and really control the game. I can buy the 38 and a half, you know, over under. Yeah. I do think it's going to be a lower scoring game. But I think the Texans are really going to dominate. it. This is going to be a game where it's like 17 to 7, 20 to 7, something like that.

And the Steelers are going to have some chances, but they're just, they're just not going to have enough. They do get D.K. Metcalf back and that's going to be huge for their offense. And that's going to help Aaron Rogers a little bit. But I think you mentioned the edge rushers that the Texans have. De Neal Hunter, Will Anderson. Denial Hunter, by the way, I was just looking him up earlier. He's got a 114 and a half career sacks. He does. He's on a Hall of Fame track. I was just going to say, that guy's going to be wearing a gold jacket. It's amazing. And Daniel Hunter, by the way, is the quietest and most humble person I've ever covered.

If this guy, like, did commercials and had a podcast and all those types of things, people would talk about him nonstop. You'd be like Vaughn Miller or something. And it was always, well, you know, is he quite as good as Everson Griffin? And, you know, they bring in Zadarius Smith. He was part of these duos that got split up together. and still part of a duo where the other guy gets talked about more. And yet, DeNeal Hunter just keeps doing it, man.

But one of my favorite players to cover, though it was always very difficult to get him to talk about himself. So, but, you know, I would feel really good for Daniel Hunter if they could go deep into the playoffs. He's one of those guys that you enjoy seeing have success. I will also take the Houston Texans here. I think that it's going to be really, really hard to get the ball out, super, super, super, quick with as physical as the corners play for the Houston Texans. And that defense is built for a potential deep run into the playoffs. And Mr.

Mayor says everything I hear about Philly tells me it's a trash fan base. So this is, it's complicated. If you're a Vikings fan and you're from the Midwest, I don't know how to explain to you what sports is like in the East. It's just different. It's a completely different culture for the sports. And I'll tell you a quick story. then we can get out of here is when I showed up in Minnesota, you probably remember this manny

and they turned on my microphone for the first time. And I started talking about the local squads. My program director, who I still work with sometimes at WCCO Radio, Brad Lane, when we sat down for our first little meeting, he was kind of like, okay, this is the Midwest. It's a little bit different than the aggressive approach that you have, which still rubs people the wrong way on this very podcast. and you have been there in the studio when I kind of snap a little. And there have been times where I've explained to people who work inside the building at TCO Performance Center. Like you got to remember, I come from a little different background. And it's a, you know, it's a little different there.

So sometimes I go over the top, you know, and I know that I do that. But Philly is the epitome of that. Like, it is a very, very aggressive. But those fans, they show up to the game wearing like Jerome Brown jerseys and Brian Westbrook and like they it's just awesome. Fred Barnett you'll see it you know Cunningham is everywhere. Wilbert Montgomery. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Um, who is, um, Harold Carmichael, like one of their, the six foot seven wide receiver from like the 60s. You'll see his jersey. Like they're very knowledgeable and they hold their own team to such a high standard. I like that part and they're super aggressive, but also they take it to a level. that you should never take it in public.

So there's two sides of that because I kind of like it. Oh, yeah, this is crazy. This is how football is supposed to be. And I'm like, okay, like you're throwing full beers of people. That's nuts. I challenge anybody on YouTube. If you want to know how crazy the Philadelphia Eagles fans are, just go on YouTube and look up Wilbert Montgomery's touchdown run

in the 1980 NFC championship game. Just go look it up and just look at how loud that crowd at Veterans Stadium got. And that was like early in the game, if I'm not mistaken, like one of the early plays in the game. And he just took off for like a 50-yard touchdown. And that crowd that the vet was going absolutely berserk. They love their eagles out there, man.

It's crazy. And also just when it comes to the history, they were so bad for a long time that they would just go, like the whole Santa Claus thing happened during their era where they were a joke. So the position of many fans for many generations, which is like how what a joke and laughing stock that team was. And then they turned the corner and became more relevant.

Like you said in the early 80s and then, you know, with Randall Cunningham. Anyway, okay, well, thank you for the extra time. Mani, we'll both go and watch the rest of this college football game. Thank you so much, everybody for joining. I hope you had a fun time here. That's what we're going to try to do through the playoffs, pick the games, break them down, talk about every storyline. And we'll have, I don't know, news at some point on Brian.

I am Flores. We'll have a press conference at some point next week with the Vikings brass and so forth. And then, you know, we'll go on to the off season for there. So thanks, Manny. And we'll talk to you all later. Football. Football.