Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Former Viking Solomon Wilcots talks Brain Flores and we pick 2023 QB destinations

Episode Date: February 10, 2023

Matthew Coller is joined by ex-Viking Solomon Wilcots, who talks about whether coaching or roster is more important when it comes to defense. He breaks down how the Vikings can be aggressive with Brian Flores at defensive coordinator and analyzes the Super Bowl matchup. Then Paul Hodowanic and Matthew discuss QB landing spots for next season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. We're going to start out the show with former Viking and Cincinnati Bengals Solomon Wilcots from Radio Row at the Super Bowl in Arizona. And then the other day, Paul Hodowanek and I were having a regular old conversation about quarterback landing spots for next season when there was some Vikings breaking news. I know, shocking. We were in the middle of a podcast when it happened and hadn't actually finished the podcast yet. So the other day when I did the reaction to Jiro Evero going to the Carolina Panthers, I cut out the part where we talked about quarterbacks.

So now that things have settled down a little bit, that conversation will come after Solomon Wilcox. So hope you all are enjoying your lead up to the Super Bowl and we'll have more to come, of course, including a special Super Bowl hot routes as well that will be on your way. So enjoy. Joining me on the show, a return to the show during Super Bowl week, a former Minnesota Vikings, Cincinnati Bengal, and tremendous broadcaster as well, Solomon Wilcots. What is going on, Solomon? How are you? Matt, hey, we're here on Radio Row.

I brought my broadcast partner with me, Mike, and we're making the rounds. We're having a good time here, Super Bowl 57. This is a good place to host the Super Bowl because the weather is beautiful. I'm sure it's similar to what you're getting there in Minneapolis, right? You had to go there, right, Solomon? Yes, you and my viewers are there working with Composure,

which we'll talk about in just a second. But you and I have some football to discuss, by the way, including I really want to get your take, Solomon, before we get to the Super Bowl, on the Vikings making a defensive coordinator hire. So here's my question for you, based on your previous experience. How much is it players and how much is it a defensive coordinator when it comes to improving a defense? Because that was really the issue that kept the Vikings from going deeper in the playoffs this year. Yeah, it really was. And here's what happens when you are a defensive coordinator and you come to a new team.

To answer your question, is it the coordinator or the players? Because it can be both. It just depends on what happens. If you have a defensive coordinator, and say you run a 3-4 defense, and you come in, but you inherit a roster that's designed to run a 4-3 defense, and then you start trying to, you know, plug these square pegs into round holes and wonder, why is this not working? Well, you're trying to force feed something onto a group of players and they're not designed to play in that style or that form or fashion.

And so you may have to run a defense that's more tailored to the players you have or to their talents. And then you're going to have to evolve into something different once you can draft the players that fit that scheme. So I think you have to be very careful when it comes to asking a group of players that you inherit, you're number one, and what you're asking them to do, you better be sure they can do it or you're going to struggle. Yeah, and I think that that's a lot of what happened this year is that they were under Mike Zimmer's scheme for a long time, and then they switched to Ed Donatel, and there were just

a lot of bumps along the way, so much to the point that they wanted to make a change. What's your feeling on playing aggressively versus defenses that play kind of like that two-deep system, let everything happen underneath, because the Vikings are going from one to the other. Donatel wanted to play more of the, you know, quote, shell type of defense. And Brian Flores, who I'm sure you know, is one of the most aggressive defensive minds in the NFL. And I feel like that's the way defenses have to play, Solomon, because there's just so many good offenses in the league. It's kind of, can you cause turnovers? Can you wreak havoc? Because if you sit back and wait, they'll dink and dunk all day because a lot of teams can do that. I think if you do one or the other, you're going to get beat.

So I can paint a scenario where you sit back and die, you know, death by a thousand cuts. You're still going to die. I can paint a scenario where you're all aggressive, zero blitz, and you're going to die quickly. But what really smart coaches understand that you really have to play both. You've got to do both. And it's not about what you do. It's about when you do it, right? So you've got to be able to time up defensively um to play

aggressively when defense is uh least expected you got to be able to play cover um cover defense and not give up the big uh ball when everyone expecting that you're going to be blitzing and now they're going to take a shot and now you're playing for the deep shot ball so it really is a chess match between defensive coordinators and the opposing quarterback and the opposing offense is you got to be able to throw the curveball when they expect a fastball you ought to be able to throw a fastball when they're expecting the curveball at the end of the day you've got to be able to do both and you got to be able to do both at a high level when they least expect it. It also seems like creativity in the blitz game is sort of where the defense and no one knows better than Steve Spagnuolo, right? Who's going to be playing on Sunday.

I think that that's where the Vikings were really lacking last year that Mike Zimmer was very good at this. I don't know that that was Ed Donatell's special, getting a little bit more creative, but I wanted to ask you as a former defensive back, how much tougher is your job? Because this is going to be a focus of how the Vikings build. How much tougher is your job or different when you have an aggressive defensive coordinator and you get left out on islands much more often?

Extremely tough and extremely hard. Defense by its nature is a help me game so when i play leverage um and i know i've got a defender inside of me i'm gonna give that running back or that receiver uh tyreek hill who's so quick to tackle in space when i I was in Minnesota, we had to play against a guy named Barry Sanders. And I remember Tony Donahue used to always say, play to your health. Well, what if the defense is designed where you don't have any help?

So that's how hard it becomes. You have an outside defender as a cornerback. You know, your outside help is the sideline. Because last I checked, the sideline makes every tackle you step out of bounds it plays over right and so but if you don't have inside help uh and your receiver and you're covering justin jefferson justin jefferson will kill you against zero coverage every single day of the week. These receivers grew up running track, right? They're as fast as Carl Lewis. They're as shifty as Barry Sanders.

And you're going to put me at zero coverage? That means the pass rush better get home. I see John Randall hanging on your back wall. I played with John Randall. Look, ain't no John Randall's on that defense anymore. So my point is I'm not saying you can never play zero coverage. If you play it, you better have a pass rush. Okay?

So that's – look, Brian Flores is an exceptional coach. I'd like to hire. But I know this. If you're a defensive coach and you hand me a game plan, that's got a 30, 40% zero coverage, dude, you ain't making me happy. I don't get excited about that because I already know you're hanging me out to try coach. What are we going to have? 70 sacks? Like the Philadelphia Eagles. We better. If I'm going to be playing that much, zero,

zero coverage means zero men in the middle of the field zero help in the middle of the field that's what zero coverage means while you're in man-to-man coverage right and this is why i think that the vikings really need to find that ace corner i mean you look at some of the more aggressive defenses of the recent past when zimmer Xavier Rhodes shutting down people or going back to like Rex Ryan and and having Darrell Rivas everything falls into place after that but the Vikings at this moment don't really have an answer they also don't have interior pass rush like they had once upon a time with John Randall so it's kind of a little chicken and egg too that I think that to go along with Flores if they don't make a lot of improvements as far as the roster goes,

that they'll probably end up with a lot of the same results. That's going to be square peg, the round hole thing I'm talking about. That's really what I was alluding to, Matt. You have a defense coach comes in, he wants to play zero coverage. Do you have zero coverage corners? Because I can tell you this, in Miami, they had Byron Jones, and they had Zavian Howard. Zavian Howard is one of the best corners in this league, but even he would give up a play every now and then in zero coverage. I'll tell you how badly players run away from that kind of coverage scheme. I remember when they drafted a talented player out of the University of Alabama.

His name is Minka Fitzpatrick. And they put Minka in that zero coverage. Man, he got torched so bad. Week one, he walked in that front office, told his agent, get me the heck out of here. And Miami ended up trading him to the Pittsburgh Steelers. And now you see that? He's one of the best safeties in the NFL.

And I got to believe when Tomlin brought Brian Flores over and put him on the staff last year the one thing they had a conversation about don't go messing with Minka Fitzpatrick because he's here to stay you may or may not be but he's here to stay and you didn't see Minka line up in zero press man-to-man coverage that's asking him to do something he wasn't designed to do so I hope Brian Flores is sensitive and understanding to that yeah and I think that they drafted two corners last year we don't really know if either one of them can play but I think that part of their scouting process was that they were more of man-to-man corners maybe that works out but they're probably looking at something like that in the first round but uh you're not there to talk vikings because surprisingly solomon the

vikings aren't in the super bowl it's uh you know it's weird um but uh no i want to know about your take on just how these defenses are going to work since we're focusing on that conversation I mean the Eagles have this incredible offensive line incredible defensive line but of course it's Patrick Mahomes on the other side when you look at these two defenses and how they're constructed who has the edge here I would say you're probably going to say the Eagles have a little bit of an edge but you know they lose that edge when you say you're probably going to say the Eagles have a little bit of an edge. But, you know, they lose that edge when you say you've got to stop an Andy Reid design offense. You've got to stop an offense led by Patrick Mahomes. So you come in thinking you have an edge, but look what you have to stop. One of the more prolific offenses this league has ever seen.

One that's, you know, gone to five straight conference title games in their third Super Bowl in the last four years. But the Eagles defense, we haven't seen these kind of numbers when it comes to quarterback pressures, quarterback sacks since the 85 Chicago Bears. So I think that's formidable. But the Chiefs, look, they're playing with a lot of young players in that secondary, but they're good. They're really good. When they're playing against a quarterback in Jalen Hurts, who's, you know, hasn't thrown a touchdown pass in three of the last four games he's played in.

So, I think that's really what it's about. It's about the matchups. How well you do something, but how difficult and how high is the bar of difficulty in terms of the offense you have to stop? So I think that's really what we're looking at here. Yeah. And I definitely think that Chris Jones's role in this game is going to be huge. Can he pressure Jalen Hurts in some of those third and long situations?

Because he absolutely dominated against your Bengals in that game but also Steve Spagnuolo causing confusion seems to me like it's going to be can you get them into pass only type of situations where they can't just run or pass or play action or RPO seems like that that's what a lot of it's going to come down to I was curious though since Mahomes is playing in this Super Bowl who was the toughest quarterback that you ever went against? Like who kept you up at night? Because I'm sure that's Mahomes for everybody across the league now. Who was it for you? Oh, that was easy. It was Joe Montana. You know, Joe was smart. Joe was talented.

He could move out of the pocket. He wasn't a real runner but he'd like a Patrick Mahomes he knew how to extend the play buy more time and think about the guys he was throwing to the great Jerry Rice and John Taylor and you know really talented player and then you had a guy like Bill Walsh drawing up the plays and obviously Mike Reed comesed comes from that coaching tree via mike homegren right who who coached under um bill wash in the super bowl that i played in super bowl 23 so no it was it was joe montana because look if you're trying to disguise your defense you know joe come up to the like snap that, that ball snapped so quick. That means he already knew what you were doing. Most, most offense might try to shift motion.

Okay. Are they a man coverage? Are they ends up? No, he go quick, snap. You catch you out of position. And now bam, he's going right to the open guy every single time. He was that good. I would tell our defense, don't try to disguise it, man. Just line up and play. This guy's reading our mail, right? We haven't even opened the envelope, and he already knows what's in the package.

What was it like to play in the Super Bowl, Solomon? Oh, it meant everything, because these are the games you dream of playing in as a little boy, right? You know that the entire world is watching. You know the kids you grew up with in grade school or high school or college, they're watching.

You know your family is watching. Everyone around the league, they're sitting at home. You're still playing, and they're watching. So you know what all that means? Don't screw it up. You'll never hear the end of it like just don't you can't be the guy yeah you know we always use the word goat which means greatest of all time you screw it up in a super bowl goat takes on a whole new connotation right

you don't want to be that goat yeah that's for sure uh but uh that must have been just an incredible experience for you, even though it didn't exactly work out the way that you wanted to. But this is a professional transition here. You had to keep your composure, which is who you're working with here with Mike Ewers. And I'm interested to hear you guys talk about composure because people are stressed, obviously. And it almost feels like, I mean, every day there's the amount of stress of a Super Bowl for a lot of people these days, especially post-COVID. And Mike, you've worked on a solution that does not involve drinking or

doing drugs or something like that to help people deal with stress. So I'd love to hear more about it. Absolutely. And we're here in Phoenix to do what you just said. We want to foster dialogue around mental health and stress and anxiety, what's going on in our society. And there's no shame in it. I think we've come a long way, but we can even do a better job of having more dialogue about it. So our company, Medela Springs Healthcare, we're a health and wellness company. We're based out of Cincinnati. We have a wide range of products throughout our portfolio. But with what's been going on the last couple of years and the elevated stress rates that have been certainly well documented by just about every association out there, it was important for us to formulate a product that could meet the needs of

consumers in the marketplace. So we actually put together a small team of healthcare professionals and medical doctors, pharmacists, and other folks to actually formulate a product that would help consumers with situational stress. And that's where CalmPosure was really born. And the secret sauce of this product, Matt, is really the ingredient profile. It's 14 different ingredients that actually work together to balance out the stress hormones in the body and to promote overall calmness. So when we get stressed, those stress hormones go on overdrive. And that's where you start to see the symptoms arise where, you know, maybe you get the dry mouth and you start to stutter a little bit,

or you're given a presentation and you wrote the darn thing, but you can't remember a word of it. When we get stressed to a point where it becomes debilitating, we're not the best version of ourselves. It impacts our productivity. It impacts our performance. And that's where calm closure comes in. So if you have a stressful event that you know is coming up, you take it about 20 to 30 minutes prior, and it just kind of takes the edge off a little bit. And the nice thing is it does it in a way that it's drug free. It's non-habit forming. Calm closure is available over the counter. So it's

very convenient to get. And, you know, it's a nice resource for people that may be struggling in day-to-day life. You don't need to be playing in the Super Bowl to have a reason to be stressed. Sometimes it's just daily life. You've got a job, you're a parent, you've got homework, kids to practice. It can become overwhelming. And anybody that's experiencing that, just know you're not alone, and there's some help out there. You know, we want to foster that dialogue, Matt, but we also want not alone and there's some help out there. We want to foster that dialogue, Matt, but we also want to get Composure in as many hands as possible. We've got a really unique offer going on

for this month of February. If you go to composure.com and you enter in the code STRESSFREE, you're going to get one free bottle on us. Absolutely free. We're even going to cover the shipping. Just put a bottle in the cart and are stress-free at checkout and enjoy a bottle on us. That's Composure, C-A-L-M-P-O-S-U-R-E is where to find it. You could have used that before some big broadcasts, eh, Solomon? No doubt.

And, you know, I would use it. I've, you know, found out about medela springs health care because i was looking for a product to help with what we call a composure moment where you have situational stress like i would get when boarding a plane i'm the kind of guy that has to be at the most forward part of the airplane sitting in an aisle if you put me in that middle seat or up against the window and that wall's curving over my head, wall starts closing in on me. I start sweating and start to panic. I've had to get off of flights.

But when you can find a natural supplement like this where you don't have to get a prescription medication to treat it, this is what you want. It worked for me, and I hope it works for you as well yeah i think you guys make a great point that uh when you have feelings like that it's always good to look for solutions so um and not be afraid to admit that that's what's happening to you so uh composure.com great to have you guys in the show solomon let's make sure we don't make it a whole super bowl you know before we have to connect again let's get together another time in between, talk some more defense. I really appreciate your time. I know both of you guys are really busy out there,

so enjoy the rest of Super Bowl week, and thanks so much for coming on. Hey, Matt, I love it, and I love the Minnesota Vikings. They are the king of the North. I think we should take time to really commend them on the season they had in 2022. It was phenomenal. This is how it should be in the NFC North division. Go Vikes.

Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. All right. Take care, Matt. Bye-bye. So let's get into our first annual Purple Insider Quarterback Landing Spot Special. Should have made like a song for it. A jingle, yeah.

I want to begin with a team whose quarterback situation will deeply influence the entire rest of the National Football League, Paul, and that is the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers. So let us begin there, and I'll let you give your choice for who you think's going to be playing a quarterback for each team. And then I'll give mine and we can talk about it. But the big question is, will Aaron Rodgers return your thoughts? I don't think he returns. I think there's some certain kind of um markers in his contract right now that make him much easier and much more palatable for the packers to trade this year than any other year i think

you've seen kind of just a natural separation with him in that organization over the past two years when he you know first required or request a trade way back and then you know they win and you know that kind of cures all ailments and now they're struggling again and he's kind of crabby and popping back up again. I just think this is a natural time, especially if you want to get anything out of that Jordan Love pick, see anything with him. You just can't keep extending Rodgers or you just kind of forfeit that pick and say, you know, we're just, you know, we're moving on or you get what you can for him, but you're probably not getting a ton at this point with his contract situation, someone's going to have to pay him.

So I think this is the time that you move on from Rogers. You can still probably get a haul from a couple of desperate teams. As we're going to talk about, there's plenty of teams that need a quarterback and plenty of teams that are desperate enough for it. So I think Rogers leaves. I think there's certainly a few teams that make sense. The jets make sense.

The 49ers make sense, but i just went outside i mean it's not that super outside the box but i went with the raiders as a team that could uh trade for aaron rogers obviously they traded some picks for devonta adams but you rean reunite adams i think mcdaniel's in that team after moving on from car they're certainly feeling the pressure in terms of needing to get a quarterback and kind of needing to, you know, just kind of establish something. Otherwise, McDaniels could be kind of certainly in and out of there.

And same with the GM. And they obviously have the whole John Gruden situation that they dealt with. Like, I think this is just a team that wants to get right and could be desperate to get right. And they have the talent around

that offense to get it done. So I have Jordan Love starting for the Packers and I have Aaron Rodgers with the Raiders. So I think that last year, Green Bay sort of stayed together for the kids a little bit like, okay, well, we got to give it one more year and see if he can elevate some of these receivers receivers but they were still fighting the whole time and it was clear that Rodgers was not happy at any point because he skipped off season workouts again and that's always funny where he said he's only going to do this if he's like all in like what about the last two years of skipping the OTAs skipping the minicamp where you're installing your offense you're trying to get on the same page as receivers.

So he's had one foot out the door each of the last two years. And I think that now is probably the right time for Green Bay to bump him completely out the door because you could also say, look, bro, you're too expensive. You weren't that great last year. Pretty good. I mean, certainly half the teams in the league would have taken that level of quarterback play. And some of them would have been pretty good if they did, including where I think Rogers is going. But I think that Green Bay has the right time for this and to find out what they have in Jordan Love

because the extremely small sample size, and I do mean extremely, has flashed a little bit of intrigue with Jordan Love. And one thing that I've been thinking about a lot more is Mahomes plays in the Super Bowl. Jalen Hurts plays in the Super Bowl. It's not just the rookie quarterback contract, which is always on our mind here, but also quarterback development and how quarterbacks, they don't all do this, but they can grow through the years. And Jalen Hurts is certainly helped out by the fact

that they were able to afford more receivers and the Packers weren't. You also have to wonder if a lot of receivers turned down the Packers phone calls, considering how hard Aaron Rodgers is to work with. But you remove a lot of that cap space and go down the future. And maybe, you know, you've got some opportunities to to even if Jordan Love is good schedule out an extension for him where it's not very expensive right away and you can replace some of the talent like it doesn't have to just immediately go back to being the most expensive quarterback in the league if Jordan Love is good but I think they have to find out and they know exactly what type of season they're going to get from Aaron Rodgers. It's probably next year, a little bit better than this from his performance, just because he'll know some

of those receivers, but it's not like they have the resources to go out and get him that, you know, Devante Adams or something like someone who's very expensive. And I think for him too, his bitterness is probably just finally caught up with him and even he made one comment because i guess we all have to watch his interviews on the pat mcafee show he made one comment about like oh i guess well conversations have started with them unbeknownst to me or something and you're like yeah that's how football works in fact that's how all pro sports work is the front office does their job man and uh i think that if you're them it's the perfect time to move on it wasn't a good season

and it's like all right let's find out but I have him going to the New York Jets which is I think a good transition to talk about the Jets because I think that you know the Jets look at their roster and their receivers and they realize like it is time to put a good quarterback on this roster they've got a great division to compete with but a young team looks like a pretty good coach weapons Brees Hall is going to come back Mekhi Becton might be coming back and a defense that is filled with a lot of talent and they have the cap situation as well to do something like this. I know that the far thing is probably lingering over Roger's head. Like, would I really want to go and follow the far path exactly to New York,

but it's a very different situation. It was a long time ago. That's a team that with Aaron Rogers would make a case. If they had Aaron Rogers play for them last year, they win what? Like 12 games, maybe more. So I think that they'd

be making that argument. And it makes more sense for a team that looks to me like it's on the cusp than it does Vegas. Although I have seen Devante Adams tweeting about Aaron Rogers wanting to move into his neighborhood. So you don't think that the Jets will get Rogers. What do you think the Jets should do? Yeah. Just one just one point on that, though. The Packers, in terms of when they want to trade him, they right now, if they trade him before June 1st, it's like a $40 million dead cap hit. And if they wait till after June 1st, then I think it's 15 million. So there's a big difference.

And so it's really like who wants to wait? Who can like wait and stomach that and get through some of the offseason work and kind of still wait for him and so part of the reason I took the Raiders is uh you told me you were taking the Jets so I needed to go uh against it uh because I think that one does make a lot of sense in terms of where that team is at and kind of the desperation that they have um but I think generally it might just come down to which team is more desperate and which team will kind of wait and hold on for that. And so I think that could be the Jets. But I also think the Raiders in a division that is just brutal. If Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler, their GM are saying, telling ownership like we can still contend like they got to do something serious to be able to contend. They got to make some sort of move. And so to me, that means they got to go all out for someone. They thought maybe that could have been Tom Brady. Tom Brady's now off the table. And so now they turn their focus to Aaron Rodgers. And so for me, it's more just about which

team is going to be more desperate and kind of lay all their chips on the table. I think the New York Jets general manager has done a really good job, Joe Douglas, of kind of getting this team ready. And so he might be that guy to kind of make that all in swing. But I also think that defense is ready made to be a playoff team. They have some pieces along the offense to the point where they don't need a savior necessarily at quarterback. They may just need a little bit more competency. And so that's where I went with Derek Carr to the Jets. I think that's kind of the natural fit if they don't get Rodgers. Carr seems like kind of the next best option there. He's a guy that you can have for a couple years,

and you just kind of get out of that Raiders system where it seemed like both parties had just kind of grown stale of each other and kind of needed to move forward and get a fresh start for both of them. And I think Derek Carr, I think it's been something about, like, the Raiders' defense and special teams has been among the worst since Derek Carr got in the league. Like he got no support from that defense, got no support for that special teams. Obviously he had some good weapons to work with, but I think in New York, if they can kind of figure that out a little bit, they obviously have the requisite pieces along the defense to help him. I think that one makes a lot of sense

in terms of if Rogers isn't there, Derek Carr feels like a very, very logical one. And that's one they don't necessarily need to wait for. They wouldn't need to wait to June to try to get Carr. They can get him, step in right now and go and get him. And they may be one of the teams that the Raiders are kind of allowing Carter permission to talk to and kind of figuring it out. Because I believe that was a report by Schefter that the Raiders are in talks with teams and Carr's now allowed to talk to some teams. And I also think that one's just a much, much cheaper price that you're going to have to pay if you're going to trade him with the Raiders.

And I think that one, maybe bang for your buck when you don't quite know how long Rodgers is going to be there, how well he's playing. Carr may end up being kind of the more safer option for the Jets for a long-term stability. I think my question is, if the Raiders, and this is where all the moving parts come in, if the Raiders do get a Rodgers and they think that they're going to compete next year, would they send Derek Carr to an AFC team? Because a lot of times, unless you're completely tanking, you're not sending your guy who you know is pretty good to a team where he could beat you in the

playoffs. And we've seen this from, you know, a lot of sort of bust quarterbacks who got traded, but they make sure that even if that guy clicks in, he's clicking in in Carolina, everybody sends their bust quarterbacks to Carolina from the AFC because they don't want Sam Darnold coming back to haunt them or something in the AFC playoffs. So that might be a potential holdup for them, or they might be looking at that situation and saying, we're going to try to draft a guy and we'll talk about their options a little bit later, but they might be saying, we're going to try to draft someone and do it that way and really rebuild.

Because as you mentioned, there are a lot of pieces that are missing to that thing. And I think that there's just always now going to be every offseason, this debate of, is this going to be a Stafford to the Rams thing? Or is this going to be a Wilson to the Broncos? Or is this going to be a Cous cousins to the Vikings in 2018, where you could make all the arguments in the world that you just made and say, Hey, well, they had the number one defense and all those things. And then the Vikings missed the playoffs. Or you could say Stafford hasn't had the supporting cast forever. He just needs Cooper cup and he just needs Sean

McVay. I don't know if the New York jets have Cooper cup and Sean McVay. I like Garrett Wilson a lot. So they do have Garrett Wilson. Um, I don't know if they're going to be able to get different results out of car, but I could talk myself into it. I mean, I think that they have a very strong team to put around him. I guess if a lot of this does come down to, in a way, how you feel about Derek Carr. If you think that he just is what he is, and no matter what you put around him, he's probably going to be that 500-type quarterback, then this would, for the Jets, maybe not be a great move. If you think that there's a little more there, then you could

make the case that, yeah, there is that Staff stafford-esque thing and i think that every afc team what they're dealing with is what are we supposed to do like what like what are we supposed to do with the homes alan the dolphins have built a very good team the herbert like trevor lawrence is coming are we supposed to sit on our hands for 10 years or should we just take these swings and give it a shot anyway knowing that that more likelier than not, it's not going to work. And I think if you, if you're trading for Derek Carr, that's probably where you end up. It's like, well, more likely than not, this probably just gets us into the first round of the playoffs and then out because of the other quarterbacks, but maybe for the jets though, I mean, for, they haven't had a maybe season in a in a long long time so just

getting that uh and kind of seeing where it can take you i think for a value for a team like the vikings who's kind of been on that maybe stretch for years and years that holds a little bit less value and kind of intrigue than for a jets team that just is constantly in the basement and so i think the derrick carr if they trade for him it i I hear you on kind of, could it be a Wilson thing? But you're just not going to give up what you gave for Wilson. And so in that respect, it's a much less riskier trade than a Rogers or say a Wilson was last year. I think it's more of a, you know, you're hopeful,

but you're not selling the franchise for a Derek Carr and his contract makes it so you're not locked into that forever either. So I don't know. I think obviously Rogers seems like it's the Jets number one kind of target. And so it'll really just happen. Whoever gets that and how it shakes out after that. But if the Jets don't get Rogers, Carr feels like the next kind of best step for them. Yeah, I think that if I'm them, I would go Rogers and just go for it.

And now I don't think that Rogers is the same as he used to be. Like, don't get me wrong. Like, he was not the same quarterback last year. But Brady to Tampa, Peyton Manning to Denver, like all-time great quarterback versus a guy. So I think that it would come down to that for me. Like, let's take a swing. And if it blows up, then oh, well. i want to talk about lamar jackson for a second do we just agree that he's gonna end up back with baltimore or do you have any other level of hot takiness with this because it was not the

rules that we have to disagree i just gave you my pick so you would know like kind of where i stand and maybe if you wanted to go a different direction. But I'm having trouble seeing any scenario where Lamar Jackson does not end up back with the Baltimore Ravens. But if he does not, then things get super crazy in the NFL this offseason. Yeah, I think teams that we didn't even put on this list suddenly pop up on this list in terms of who you want. Could you see them making a move because Lamar Jackson's out there I think I don't know how many 20 teams start looking around at that at least and say is our scenario better than what we could have with Lamar but no I think he's coming back to Baltimore there's a lot of built-in just kind of barriers in terms of

franchise tags and things that the Baltimore Ravens can do to get him back after kind of being so so John Harbaugh like during his kind of injury during the injury, during the regular season, he's now come out in the off season and said like, we want Lamar to be a big part of this. He's going to help pick the offensive coordinator. Like they're saying all the right things to get this done. And I think it does get done at some point, or that means he's on a franchise tag for a little bit until they extend him. I don't know how long that kind of saga will go for. I think it has the potential to go for a while, but I think in the end, Lamar's a Baltimore Raven.

You just don't see quarterbacks like this really get moved from teams, especially at this age with the dominance that he's had. Like this is not a Kirk Cousins situation or even a Russell Wilson situation. This is much, much different. So I think the Ravens get it done at some point. I do think that, I mean, just to try here to make any case otherwise, that one, it sounds like he's going to stick with this pay me like Deshaun Watson or don't talk to me, which, you know, does complicate things because what Cleveland did with Deshaun Watson was so far

above anybody else in terms of a quarterback contract. It's just absolutely bananas. And I guess they had to do it that way. So he wouldn't have a huge cap hit this year while he was suspended. Like, I don't know, but what they did in terms of guaranteed money was just out of this universe in comparison to anything that had ever happened before. Because normally the way that these things work is that you get the highest paid quarterback, then the next guy comes on, he beats it by a little, and the next guy, and the next guy. And instead, Deshaun Watson just blew the guaranteed money out of this world. And so now every quarterback who's good is going to be like, I'm just as good as Deshaun Watson. Also,

I didn't do any of that stuff that he supposedly did. And I mean, Lamar Jackson certainly has that case, but if I'm the, if I'm the Ravens, I'm worried about that. And I'm also worried about the injuries that, I mean, Lamar Jackson is one of the most dynamic players to ever play in the NFL. But when you run that much, like I think in general, running quarterbacks don't get hurt any more than pocket quarterbacks who just stand there and have people hit them. Like quarterbacks get hurt. Like that's the league, but Jackson runs a ton and he's now got two years where he's got injuries. There might be some discussion. If you're Baltimore, we can't give this much guaranteed money because if he does get hurt at some point down the line, you're Baltimore we can't give this much guaranteed money because if

he does get hurt at some point down the line you're talking about your franchise completely falling apart because you won't have cap space to do anything and I again I don't think that there's much more discussion other than that like ah we've got to sign him he's the franchise quarterback and hey by the way look at the record we've had since cut Lamar Jackson, even with these last two years that haven't been as great. You're still in the playoffs. They were in the playoff race the year before that, when he missed time, they just win football games when he's their quarterback, but they're also able to do a lot of things on the defensive side. And now they get into that position where it's that gray area of you pay your quarterback,

it's harder to keep the roster together. And now they might have to bank on franchise tagging him, but is he the type of guy to just be like, no, I'm not playing on the franchise tag. I'll just sit out a year. I don't even know because the money is so significant difference. You're talking like 150 to $200 million different of guaranteed money between signing this off season to a mega extension and the franchise tag. I mean, he could just say, I'm going to sit out the entire year. So that one could get complicated, but I think ultimately it just ends with Baltimore paying out. So let's talk about Carolina. The Carolina Panthers are in a very interesting position.

They are drafting high, but there's a lot of quarterbacks that are going to be taken high and them grinding out a handful of wins. With Steve Wilks, they might regret that if they don't get the quarterback that they want or they have to trade up. Or should they go for a veteran because Steve Wilks showed that they can be a competitive team in a really putrid division that just lost Tom Brady and there are veterans out there Derek Carr or I'm going to give you my pick Jimmy Garoppolo to me makes a lot of sense for a team with a decent amount of weapons on it a head coach who I think would really like a veteran quarterback to work with and could

design a lot around Jimmy Garoppolo. And look, I think Jimmy can win without a Kyle Shanahan, not maybe not as much, but if he is healthy, then he certainly is a quarterback that can take you to the playoffs, win a division. And Carolina has been so miserable for so long that I think that they could try to maybe have their cake and eat it too. But I wouldn't be surprised if they go the veteran quarterback route to give Frank Reich something to work with right away. Do you want me to give my Garoppolo destination or my Carolina destination? Because they're not the same. Okay.

How about Carolina destination? Carolina is my big swing in terms of trading up. I think Carolina is in a good spot to just kind of push all their chips in the table and say, Chicago, what do you want? And that's my prediction. I think if I'm going to pick a team to go trade up, I'm going to make it be the Panthers that have a brand new owner that wants to make a splash at some point.

It hasn't happened quite yet. They've been rather patient, but at some point, I'm sure Dave Tepper wants to go get their franchise guy that's clearly not Sam Darnold or probably who they're getting if they wait I mean they could get someone if they wait for their pick I believe what are they picking at at uh nine so you're maybe looking at the third or fourth quarterback at that point so I think they call the Bears They have a couple extra picks with the McCaffrey deal that they made. I think they saw with the Rams that they could easily trade Brian Burns. If they want to recoup a couple of first round picks, I think they're in a really great spot.

And with Frank Reich as a coach who has just dealt with a quarterback purgatory in Indianapolis, does that coach really want to get another kind of middling quarterback in a Garoppolo or a Tannehill or whoever is kind of out there kind of in your middle class of quarterback? Like, is that what Frank Reich wants to sign up for again after he just dealt with Matt Ryan and Carson and Wentz and Phillip Rivers? Like to me, if I'm him, I'm telling the owners like, hey, man, we got to make a swing for a young guy because that's how we're going to do this thing. So I say the Panthers trade up to one and their quarterback is Bryce Young. So that was,

that was my Bryce Young suitor. I think that's a very compelling argument that if you're Frank Reich, when, when were things nice in Indianapolis when you had that, I don't know, number one, overall pick quarterback, what's going to be really complicated and interesting is if you look at the top 10,

you can make a case for like seven teams, if not more, to draft a quarterback. And so they're all calling the Chicago Bears, assuming the Bears don't want to draft a quarterback themselves, which they may, and trade Justin Fields. We certainly all remember the Josh Rosen is our quarterback meme. And I also saw just a statistic today about accuracy quarterbacks throwing short of 10 yards, over 10 yards. And Justin Fields was one of the least accurate in both of those. That's not what they wanted after two years. And that's a big improvement that they're going to need from him, even if he is a special runner and they're not tied into him

at all. So there's choices to be made there. Carolina may have pushed themselves out of that discussion to even have enough to trade up because all these teams ahead of them, they're all starting in a better spot and could, you know, put some of that draft capital on the table. So again, it's kind of ironic that, you know, oh, look, it was Matt rules fall. It sure was, but you just won yourself out of having that pretty clear cut decision. And now you're in a difficult spot. I actually think that it is plausible that we could both end up being right on this one where the Panthers could get a veteran, a Derek Carr, a Jimmy Garoppolo, and also make the move to trade up. Because if they were signing Jimmy Garoppolo, I'm sure they'd be like, oh, you're our guy. But hey,

his last team just did this to him too, where they had Jimmy Garoppolo as their quarterback, but then they traded up and then he becomes sort of like a Ryan Fitzpatrick where a team that wants to keep the train on the tracks and be competitive gets that guy, but they also draft the next potential successor. And with Jimmy Garoppolo's injury history, I just don't see anyone signing him to a long-term contract. I feel like he is a one-year type of $25 million a year quarterback. And then after you see Brock Purdy do what he did, I think that also reduces jimmy garoppolo's value because everyone's gonna say well to his agent as they're negotiating a deal uh weren't you just a product of kyle shanahan's greatness i think it should go both

ways and maybe it's jacoby brissett instead of um jimmy garoppolo but i i like that plan for both if they can get their hands on a higher pick, that's where I really do question if that's possible. Yeah. And then do you want my Garoppolo destination then? Sure. Yeah, go ahead. I, it was tough when I didn't kind of pencil him in for Carolina and I, I thought Indy for a second, but I also decided not to there. They're, they have the fourth pick. They feel kind of earmarked for a quarterback. If as long as like three, you don't go right in front of him, which I guess could could happen but they feel like that's a spot where a rookie is going to come in so I was trying to figure out where Garoppolo is going to go and where I ended up was Tennessee which feels kind of like a lateral move for them with Tannehill

but I think if they just want to move off Tannehill the GM that they just brought in with Mike Vrabel is from the 49ers he He's obviously going to know Garoppolo well, and that's a spot where Vrabel seems committed to continue to win. And so if that's not with Tannehill, if they want a quarterback kind of past this year, they have Tannehill for one more year, and then there's a couple of void years tacked on to the end of his contract, but he's really on a one-year deal at this point.

If they just want to change the scenery, change in the type of guy that they go out and get I thought Garoppolo could make some sense for them um and so that's where I had Garoppolo pencil in obviously you have a few weapons there you have some familiarity with the GM and Vrabel kind of continues to push forward and kind of say no no no it's not the same team as last year like we swapped out Tannehill for Garoppolo. Like this year is going to be different guys. Like it's going to be different. Like he seems to clearly want to push forward. And so I just don't see them fully blowing it up with the quarterback that they have.

So that was my Garoppolo destination. And they could set up something where, I mean, Tannehill is one of the most expensive quarterbacks in the league for next year, where they sign Garoppolo to a two-year deal. And the first year is really cheap. And the second year is more expensive. So they can get in some talent because they lost a lot of their talent, and the last GM lost his job when the middling quarterback became very expensive, and they decided they didn't need A.J. Brown, which may be some serious regrets there for their former general manager. But yeah, I mean, I can see that. I can see that they don't look like they're a team that's going to try to draft someone. And we're going to just keep coming back to this though, that there's four quarterbacks who are probably getting taken in the top 10.

Even if you think, oh, well, this guy's more of a development project or something like that. It's just not going to matter for Will Levis or Anthony Richardson. If you've got the talent, you're probably getting taken extremely, extremely high. And Tennessee is in no position to compete with the other teams that need to draft quarterbacks. However, Indianapolis most certainly is in that position.

And here's what I'm not sure of. And no one can ever be sure of is what Jim Ursae is thinking. Because going out and getting the Phillip Rivers, the Carson Wentz, the Matt Ryan, Rivers played well for them, but it hasn't been a winning solution. They reportedly were in on Kirk Cousins, potentially trading for him last year

if the Vikings had decided to do it. Maybe they're still thinking, oh, it was just that Matt Ryan was washed. Oh, it was just that Jeff Saturday couldn't coach. Oh, it was a million other things, and we've still got a good team. But I think they'd be deluding themselves really badly to think that. Also, hey, how's that draft and a running back in the second round work out for you? Good for you.

You have a great running back. What has it meant over the last couple of years? Not a whole lot, but that's aside from the point uh do you think that indianapolis is done chasing waterfalls no that's a 90s reference you might not get uh done chasing old quarterbacks no do you know do you get that one or not get that one sure yeah okay all right uh so done chasing old quarterbacks or will they just pick one at four you, it might end up depending on kind of what head coach they bring in and what kind of mold that seems to fit as of recording. We still don't know that yet. Is this Jeff Saturday? Is this Shane Steichen, Brian Callahan?

Like we don't know what type of person is coming in and that might kind of influence who you think is going to get this job. But to me, after you've just seen it blow up in your face so many times, it just feels like now finally having the fourth pick, like, Hey man, this is when you take your quarterback, like you're resetting your coach, attach him with the quarterback and just see what can happen. And so for me, they take a rookie quarterback. I had them penciled in for Will Levis here. Uh think that that makes a lot of sense in terms of also a guy that Ursae seems to like. Levis is this guy that seems like all coaches are going to like. He's very much rah-rah, inspirational. He's got the weird smoothie with the eggs and all the random stuff that all the draft Twitter is going crazy about in Will Levis.

And so I think he just makes a lot of sense for them there just to kind of reset the clock with this new head coach if i'm if i'm the gm ballard like i'm i'm also trying to get my hands on a rookie quarterback to to try to like help me like keep my job probably because there you're you may not be long for that job chris ballard if you fail on quarterback again so it feels like this is the time they've waited they haven't drafted one over and over and over again. And now it's like back up against the wall. Ballard, if you want to keep your job, you're probably going to have to do that. And with a new head coach coming in, I think it makes a lot of sense, especially where they're at. So, so I have them drafting. I agree. I also had Will Levis going to the Indianapolis Colts. Cause I think that Bryce Young and potentially CJ Stroud go ahead of him. And then it will be Levis.

And I don't know this, as no one never knows the draft order of quarterbacks, but that's just how I'm perceiving it right now. And then Anthony Richardson will be after Will Levis as a less established passer, I guess. Although Levis' statistics were not that great. Both of those guys are going on pure tools. But it makes sense where Indy is to draft someone based on tools, get a veteran quarterback in there, bring back Jacoby Brissett. He's going to be the guy. He's the new Ryan Fitzpatrick.

He's just going to play for a hundred teams and you know, he can keep the car on the, on the rails or whatever, or on the road for a year where you're not going to be a disaster when you have somebody like that. There's a lot of quarterbacks out there like that now. I mean, Andy Dalton is one of them, which is kind of going to lead into our next team, of course. But I think we're just on the same page that if Indianapolis does anything except for draft the quarterback there and give them to the new head coach to mold over the next several years, that they are being foolish. But no one would be shocked if Jim Irsay did something

foolish. Now, the New Orleans Saints, I had for the New Orleans Saints, this is where I had Derek Carr going because NFC team. And also, I think that this is a team based on the roster that they have. The fact that Tom Brady just left the division that has a really good argument to win the division next year if they have Derek Carr as the quarterback. I don't know if that means competing for a Super Bowl. Things will change in the NFC, but with the NFC being the way it is, if you win your division, you're always in the ballpark of having a chance there. They're always in cap trouble no matter what happens, and I think that they're $7 zillion over the cap or whatever, as always. So that's a big holdup for how much they could actually improve their team.

But they are nowhere in the ballpark, really, of being able to draft a quarterback at this moment. That's the right answer for a lot of teams. But if that answer's not there and the potential to win the division is on the table table considering where the other teams are at I think Derek Carr to New Orleans makes sense but obviously that's not where you had him going so who do you think ends up with the New Orleans Saints yeah I mean the Saints confound me as I'm going through this they're 60 million dollars currently over the cap I know it's a yearly tradition of well they'll find a way to get under it and keep adding, but I'm not that smart to figure out. I was trying to play around on over the cap on how I was

getting them below the salary cap in a way that made sense in the way that my mind could function and the over the cap software could allow me to, and it just wasn't happening. So I wasn't trading for Derek Carr and instead I was just finding a guy off the scrap heap really. And I think I kind of agree with you with the roster and the fact that they are kind of ready-made to put a quarterback in there. I'm just not sure how they get one. And so I'll leave that to smarter people who may be able to figure out the cap gymnastics to do that.

So I gave them, let me look at my list here. I gave them Sam Darnold, just kind of another quarterback who showed a few flashes it felt like in carolina for a couple weeks where you thought hey man like you can see why he was a first round pick in there a little bit and so i'm looking around and looking at the options for them marcus mariotta just bringing back annie dalton or jamis winston like none of those feel great to me and so i I went with Sam Darnold as well as them drafting someone

either at that back end of the first round, that pick they just got, or kind of later. And so I also just penciled them in for Hendon Hooker, a quarterback from Tennessee. So maybe drafting a guy, another guy off the scrap heap in Darnold and just trying to piecemeal that thing together. Yeah, I think that makes sense. And they've always defied the rules of logic with the salary cap and then paid for it

every time for all the Saints fans who tweet everyone about the cap being fake. Take a look at your cap now and your roster now, but they do have enough veteran players that they could be legitimately competitive with a good quarterback. So that's why I went with Carr. But I think your argument makes sense. I mean, if you just don't have any money, what other option do you really have? I mean, they can't bring back Dalton. They can't bring back Winston. It's time to draft somebody, but who are you really going to take? They're in one of the most difficult spots. If they can't create enough space for someone like Derek Carr, then they really need to plan on ripping that thing all the way down because they've ripped it halfway down the last couple of years. And you know,

a Teron Armstead goes and there's trouble with Michael Thomas and Elvin Kamara being healthy, especially Michael Thomas and so forth. But I mean, all the way, all the way down. And then at that point, then you do bring in Sam Darnold or Jacoby Bursette or someone like that, just to make sure you're not a laughingstock. Um, and then draft a quarterback, like kind of like Carolina did last year, taking Matt Corral. Like you do the same sort of thing that might be more plausible, but it feels like the saints are one of those organizations that will not admit.

And not that we could connect to this at all uh but will not admit where they are in the world and just want to go all in and try to win every year uh let's buzz through a couple of these and then talk about the vikings that are maybe a little easier we both agree daniel jones coming back to the giants yep boy the vikings earned that man a lot of money they if the vikings had a top five defense and they had shut him down that we're talking about him playing for the saints. Uh, but I think that's probably going to be the case that he earned himself a lot of love by winning a playoff game. And we've also seen organizations make decisions based on one playoff win. Not a great idea. Um, let's see Washington. Now they've

already sort of said they want Sam Howell to be their quarterback. Do you see them competing for anybody else? Or are they just going to ride that thing out and see where it goes with Sam Howell? That's a weird one to me, but I guess they could also be a filler quarterback team if they believe in Howell. And then if it doesn't work, then it's just horrible. And then they draft at the top, which is a good thing for them. Yeah. I, they were kind of my last team as I was trying to figure out all these things. And I kind of had Sam Howell penciled in, but then I realized I had Ryan Tannehill at with nowhere. And so I said, well, Ryan Tannehill is going to play somewhere. And so he kind of fit the mold

in terms of, again, just kind of one year on his contract left, maybe they get him cheap. And you're just, again again another talk about another kind of coaching staff and team that's kind of on the hot seat in terms of what you're doing and so Tannehill I think is your kind of best option that you've had in the last couple years to at least maybe get you into the playoffs with a good defense and maybe Sam Howell takes over maybe not so they just felt as if they're kind of a desperate team that if they don't truly believe in Howell and they're just kind of saying that right now, because they have no other better option, a guy like Tannehill could come in and at least have them competing for a wildcard spot, which is desperately needed if that group wants to try

to keep their jobs. Yeah, that's always another point to be made is people have to try to keep their jobs. And for me, it's like your path should already be there if you're Washington which is play Sam Howell and if he's good and you win like 10 games with a pretty decent roster not a great one but a good one uh then you're like oh I guess we got our guy and then he's got two more years on his rookie contract to build around but if he stinks then you win five games or four games and then you draft at the top next year and try to get Caleb Williams. Like to me, it's a, it's not a bad situation to be in for us sitting here.

It is for Ron Rivera, but also like I like and respect Ron Rivera. I think that he's kind of a dinosaur at this point and they should be looking for whoever their next coach is going to be already to pair with a quarterback for next year. So in my mind, that path is laid out for them. They're not going to compete with Philly next year. They're not going to compete with Dallas next year with Sam Hollett quarterback. Even the Giants are probably going to be decent or better. Just let that one roll. The one team I had before the Vikings was Las Vegas. So you already said you think Aaron Rodgers goes there.

I had for the Raiders trading up. They're my team to trade up with Arizona to try to take, what would that be? Probably the third best quarterback, which is fine because you're taking them all in the top 10. And I just went with CJ Stroud here that I think it's very possible that he could be, well, maybe the second quarterback. I don't know. However, it's going to work out. I went with the Raiders trading up and I don't think the Raiders are a team that really lives in reality either. They signed Chandler Jones. They made the trade for

Devante Adams. They thought they were going to be good and they did not look around the rest of their division and say, we've got some houses here. Even with Denver not working out, you should have known. Mahomes, Herbert, you probably weren't winning that division. So maybe they're forced to live in a little more reality, trade up, start to build around that guy. And hey, look, if you can give that guy, Devontaeante Adams right away, you've got a chance for him. Their offensive lines got some players, not maybe perfect, but it's got some players. They need to build up their defense. So that's where it's a difficult thing to trade up to spend what it's going to cost. But I liked the idea of the Raiders trading up instead of trying to go all in for Rogers and then just winning nine games and still having Kansas city be Kansas city.

But there were a few teams that we didn't talk about. And I just wanted to know like your quick kind of reactions to them. Atlanta, I had Ryan Tannehill going there with the argument that he worked with Arthur Smith, had a ton of success there with him and that they could also draft Anthony Richardson to develop so they can kind of have their cake and eat it to be a competitive team, get their guy. Seattle sticking with Geno Smith. And I don't know if they would take a quarterback, but they could trade down and get a lot. And the only other team I had on the list was Houston, which I just wrote, shut down the franchise if they don't pick a quarterback. Just eliminate them from the National Football League.

So give me your quick ones on Atlanta, Seattle, and we don't even a quarterback, just eliminate them from the national football league. So give, give me your quick ones on Atlanta, Seattle, and we don't even need to talk about Houston. You better draft a quarterback. Yeah. Atlanta. I just had keeping Desmond Ritter and then drafting Anthony Richardson and just seeing which one of those, I think we saw Arthur Smith's run game could be really cool with a mobile quarterback. And so Richardson fits that. So I thought that made sense. Uh, Seattle, I also had sticking with Geno Smith. And then because I had the Panthers coming up and trading for Bryce Young, he wasn't available for Houston in this scenario.

So I just had them drafting CJ Straub. So I did have them drafting a quarterback and that's how I rounded it up. Okay. That's it for now. And appreciate Paul taking the time to go through all those quarterbacks and you guys for taking the time to listen to the show as always. So look forward to that hot routes episode. If you haven't already listened to it on the hot routes podcast feed, which we do every

week, just look at things around the NFL and hot routes style. But if you haven't heard it yet, going to bring it to the purple insider feed for a Superbowl preview. So thanks again for listening and we'll catch y'all later.