Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Gary Kubiak retires -- who's the next Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator?

Episode Date: January 22, 2021

Matthew Coller and ESPN's Myron Medcalf talk about how the Minnesota Vikings need to find the right offensive coordinator situation that works with Mike Zimmer. Plus Dan Campbell had an insane press conference as new Detroit Lions coach. Is that going to end up being a disaster? We talk about the QB histories of the championship teams and what it would mean for the Chiefs, Bills, Packers and Bucs to reach the Super Bowl. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and joining me from ESPN is Myron Metcalf. What is up, Myron? Hey, Matt. We're going into championship weekend, man. It's always good this time of year. We have so much to discuss, and I want to start out with Gary Kubiak deciding to step away from the NFL. And I just want to say for myself, it was an incredible pleasure to cover Gary Kubiak because he was always willing to share a little

story. And you know that I'm a big 90s NFL fan and stuff. And he'd be like, well, you know, I coached a guy like Terrell Davis back then. I'm like, uh-huh, yeah, come on. But also, I mean, after two years of covering him, but especially this year, I really got it for why players gravitate to Gary Kubiak, why he's had such a great career. Just a straightforward, very respectful guy when it comes to the media, always willing to share a little coaching point or a little story or something like that.

And my understanding was that everybody in the building, from the players to the PR staff, everybody else is going to miss Gary Kubiak. So much, much respect to Kubiak. However, Myronron there's room here there's room to grow so give me your kind of reaction to Gary Kubiak walking away and what they can do to take this forward from where Gary had it which was good 11th is good uh in points scored but what's the next step in your mind well Well, first off, Gary Kubiak, you know, deserves a lot of credit. Obviously, you saw the reaction around the league

and how much people admired him. But that's a career where he started in a completely different game. Like you can't even compare that level of football and what they were doing when he started to where we are now. And here he is still contributing at a high level in a completely different game. I just think you have to respect that. When you think about great coaches, like coaching across eras, legitimately being a coach who has had to adapt as the entire game has

changed, you know, you can't underestimate that. And obviously Kubiak made that transition successfully in ways that other coaches did not. He was old school, but he understood the new school guys. And what you also have to appreciate is anybody who could be a Gary Kubiak and walk into a room and not say, Hey, look at me and is willing to delegate and is willing to share responsibility and is willing to be that voice and contribute. I think that's a great example for this next generation of coaches. And I think a lot

of them have followed that. Your Kyle Shanahan, your guys who, yes, they're the head coach, but they're not trying to dominate everything and everybody. And I think Kubiak was that kind of guy. But anytime you have another offensive coordinator switch i mean this is just like a netflix show getting canceled after one season six years in a row like that's what seems to happen with the minnesota vikings if there's one thing you can say in kirk cousins favor it's the lack of stability at that crucial position right that group of crucial coaching position. So you hope that you bring in, I would think, a young mind, an innovative mind, someone who can not only be there, I think, for the years to come, but you also have to think about a guy who potentially,

depending on what happens, maybe steps into that main role, depending on what happens with Zimmer. So I think you have to get someone who is proven at this level doesn't mean that to be a head coach a former head coach but but someone who fits that mold um and someone who to call it that Zimmer will allow to to kind of do what he does and innovate and implement schemes and have that power to do that. And I think that'll be a matter of sort of the vibe with him and Zimmer.

And I wonder how Zimmer would balance that with another young kind of offensive guru. We see what Stefanski did in Cleveland and how he's excelled there um is there another guy like that but maybe one that Zimmer's more open to sort of allowing to be his best that'll be the question for me like will will Zimmer give that new OC the platform and the opportunity to just kind of do his thing. I mean, that to me will be the number one question. When you start laying it out, it feels like a difficult needle to thread with someone who can run Kubiak's

system, which Mike Zimmer says that he wants to keep with. And I actually totally agree with. I think that the Shanahan system, Kubiak, Matt LaFleur in Green Bay has taken Aaron Rodgers back to his high level running this system. Like this thing works. In 2016 with the Atlanta Falcons, they kind of remind you of what the Vikings could be. A team with a flawed defense, but just a lot of playmakers and a quarterback who can execute that offense. And that's Kyle Shanahan running their offense. So I have no issue at all or no concerns about whether this offense fits their players

and fits their quarterback especially, but it's find someone who has run this system and knows it and is going to call it in a similar way from Kubiak so you don't have to have Justin Jefferson, for example, rewire his entire brain this offseason. You want him to just concentrate on what they're doing offensively, but also the experience bit. The last two guys he's gotten along with really, really well were Pat Shermer and Gary Kubiak. These are former head coaches, and he also got along really well with Tony Sperano, a former head coach.

I mean, he's talked about wanting to have that type of voice in the room of somebody who has sort of been through what he's going through. And, you know, Clint Kubiak is not somebody who has that kind of experience. You know, Clint Kubiak, Gary's son, the quarterback's coach, has been with this system, of course, for several years. And he was with Gary in Denver, and then he's here. And so it makes a lot of sense to just stick with him and go forward, but at the same time, does Zimmer get along with somebody on the younger side if they want to start to change

some things that Gary did, because Zimmer seemed very, very happy with this offense. I don't think, in my estimation, that you should be super happy with your offense if it's not top five in the NFL. Because you don't get a ticket to play on championship weekend unless you have that. So you should be looking for all the little edges that you can change to get there to the top five as a passing offense and as an overall scoring offense. But Zimmer, the way he talked about it, seemed very pleased with how it went. So it's like are they going to give it somebody younger would it be co-offensive coordinators with Rick Denison is it bringing an advisor from outside will we see Hugh Jackson's name pop up again to me this is

like a tough one to get right Gary was kind of the perfect guy for mike zimmer he was and there's clearly mike zimmer's from that school where to sit at his table you have to have some experience in order for him to respect you i think that's a big thing with zimmer um and who is that guy you know will he will he respect a young? But I think we're watching the blueprint this weekend. Byron Lefferts is a young guy who's been groomed and is coming up. And, you know, he's working with Tom Brady. And they've had a good relationship. And that offense has improved down the stretch.

And here they are in the NFC Championship game. And can you bring in someone like that who you're going to trust to try to make things better, and then not even just that, to have that relationship with your quarterback. That's going to be important too, and I just think NFL head coaches today who can't delegate, who aren't willing to give up some of their power, are struggling. Like that old school model is not working across the league. And I hope Zimmer recognizes that, understands that.

You know, we talk a lot about Airbnb and what's happening in the coaching, you know, in the coaching world. But give credit to Andy Reid for having Airbnb at the table and making him such a critical component of his of his staff um sean mcdurden he could be sort of that tough guy but he's also everyone loves him in that locker room because he's not just always putting the hammer down he's trying to put guys in the best possible position to win. And you don't always have to be in control to do that. So I think that'll be the thing. And then the question becomes,

if you are one of these younger innovative minds who can perhaps tweak what Kubiak did and elevate this offense, do you want to come to a place with that sort of old school mind, that old school voice kind of hovering over everything so that's the other thing I was like what would the candidate pool look like uh compared to what it would look like if it seemed as if Zimmer might be more open to sort of changing how he views maybe a coach who doesn't have that former head coach stamp, but still is worth listening to. Like, I mean, you look around this league, I don't know,

you can't watch Kyle Shanahan and Matt LaFleur and, you know, all of these guys and think that, like, you've got to fit a certain mold as a head coach in today's NFL. More than anything, we're seeing that, yeah, there are a bunch of old school guys who are still around, but you can't dismiss these new voices, you know, these younger guys. Like they're finding a way to win. And at the end of the day, that's what matters most.

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Their apparel is screen-printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies. You will love it. That's SodaStick.com, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com, original Minnesota sports inspired goods, code purple insider for free shipping. Yeah, what's interesting is we're kind of always talking about how to work around what Mike Zimmer is and what he needs. And I think that maybe says something right there because, you know, going into even 2018, I think we all believed Mike Zimmer just handles his defense, has nothing to do with the offense, Pat Shermer's offense. But as we went into 2018 and he ends up really getting on John D Filippo for not running enough and then the offense by the way like we love to tell the story that like

hey John D Filippo ruined everything right but their offense was pretty explosive early in that year and then it was a game against the Jets where Zimmer didn't like some of the play calls because they were running effectively and not passing effectively. And then everything changed after that. That's when the offense started to go down in production. And then it seemed like nobody was on the same page. And ultimately they end up missing the playoffs. And so now we can't say, oh, Zimmer, he doesn't have anything to do with the offense. He needs to just hand it to somebody else.

It's clear that he's going to be hovering over that offense. And I've mentioned before that Gary Kubiak's offenses in the past actually passed more than they did this year some of his Houston offenses I don't think Gary Kubiak was allergic to passing I think that it was the overall philosophy that they wanted and if you're going to convince him to change anything it's not going to be Clint Kubiak who is the one to do that with a couple years of being a quarterback coach I had the thought of maybe like a Jim Caldwell if you know he obviously you know didn't get another head coaching job I don't know what he opted out last year he was going to coach with Miami he decided not to so I don't know what his health status is or if he was just concerned

about COVID but I think if we get back to normal, that would make a lot of sense to have someone who's run a number of different offenses, who's won before, who's been a successful head coach and a successful offensive mind to go along with someone like Clint Kubiak, who can keep the train on the tracks. So maybe there's like this combination, but I just think it's interesting that when you have to talk about, well, you know know you can't do this because that won't work with Zimmer and you can't do this because that won't work with Zimmer and how much is he going to let them pass to Justin Jefferson had this stat in article breaking down the wide receivers 66 percent of Justin Jefferson's yards came in the second half this year I think you want to flip that I mean even so Aaron Rodgers

is running the same system and you look at his past attempts in the first half and second half. First half, he's throwing a lot and then running in the second half to finish off the game. Kirk Cousins, the exact opposite. But will anyone be able to convince Mike Zimmer that passing in the first quarter in the second quarter is a good idea to get ahead in the game when you have one of the league's greatest wide receivers? I mean, that's that's the thing. Like, would it take someone like Jim Caldwell, someone with the cachet of being a former head coach, to say, hey, maybe we should kind of tweak the sliders a little bit? I mean, I don't know otherwise,

because I think he has really kind of dug his heels in on what he wants as an offense. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how you get to him if you don't have that experience, if he doesn't respect you to that degree i mean you're dealing with a guy who can either be a really good player or a great player in justin jefferson and the difference will be the culture around him and the play calling and the balance on the offense he's very very good right now but this guy has a chance to be a really really excellent player um but you can't waste him and look at the league we're in

right now who is in who are the final four teams the packers they've done it on passing brady and the bucks down the stretch have done it on passing. Run games have been important too. Mahomes, we all know what he's done. The Bills might be the only team that can keep up with Mahomes in Kansas City because of what they've been able to do in the passing game. It's not that hard to look around the league and understand who's excelling and who's struggling, you know, who hasn't been able to sort of get over the hump.

Baltimore Ravens were a great team that could run the ball against anybody. They weren't effective enough in their passing game. Forget a Lamar Jackson conversation. They just weren't collectively. They've got to get better there in order to compete and get to the NFC Championship game. So every team in this league should be thinking that way. How do I elevate the

passing game? Because that's the ticket in the NFL. That's like being in the NBA and being like, guys, let's start taking long twos because that is the ticket to winning games in the NBA. No, you need shooters, three-point shooters. That's where the league is so i i just think you're going to need someone to think same thing we keep saying if you respect the coach that's great but has he also has he adapted to sort of the modern game and how does he view the game of football like you don't want an old school guy who's like let's just run it run it run it and then we'll pass to Justin Jefferson so I think that'll be the thing coming in and again if you're that that coach are you willing to come into a system with Minnesota knowing that you've got the coach who might overrule you

in these situations and that's the uh Anthony Lynn lynn connection in part is anthony lynn is more of a run first type of guy and you know it's i saw some people say hey anthony lynn's record is this and why would they move on from him in los angeles well part of it is the quarterback that they just drafted and if you're going to keep running on first down i mean you need somebody now of course they hired a defensive coach so we'll see how that goes. But I think that you want, as that organization, to lean into the quarterback that you invested so much in. Does that sound familiar? Not a first-round pick, but you invested a lot in him. And so if you're bringing in somebody else as an advisor, you want them also in the draft room saying, can you guys get me like another lineman maybe?

Or can you guys get me, you know, in free agency, can you guys get me like a number three wide receiver who has more than 200 yards receiving? Like just maybe, maybe, maybe. So anyway, let me ask you about a few different things that are kind of off the wall. But Dan Campbell is the new head coach of the Detroit Lions. And in his opening press conference,

he started talking about biting kneecaps. And he gave this totally bat bleep crazy rundown of all the things his team was going to do. If you push them down, they're going to bite you. And if you shove them down twice, they're going to fight you in some different manner with a samurai sword. And, I mean, he just, like like went totally off the deep end and uh I mean it's laughable to me this stuff doesn't matter this might work for like Rutgers University but NFL players are going uh all right pal we'll see draw me up a play as as my friend Alex Boone used to say uh but um you know I do think, that if we're talking about almost anyone being the new head coach of the Lions, it has to be better than Matt Patricia because someone else will be calling their defense.

And that's Aaron Glenn, who works for New Orleans, who had a really good defense. And it's never been the problem with the Lions whether they could move the football and score against the Vikings. Whether they scored 35 in the last game of the year they scored 30 something before I mean like they are a really good offense usually um from year to year and so Dan Campbell can yell all sorts of crazy violent stuff at the podium if he wants to but whether that team improves will probably unless they do a complete overhaul and trade Matt Stafford it probably comes down to whether a defensive coordinator can improve for Matt Patricia, and I think he probably can. Yeah.

No, defensively you expect him to get better. But that press conference, I don't know. Like, I don't know. To me, in this league, and we saw a Saints defense that couldn't get it done down the stretch offensively you're gonna have to make plays you know like so do you have a guy who's gonna drop those plays you talked about in a close game in the fourth quarter like all these nfc north games that don't involve the packers are like three points six points are you gonna win those games i mean detroit lost a bunch of those early on.

That would have maybe changed how people viewed them. But when you hear a motivational speaker kind of coach thing, like an 80s wrestling promo kind of thing, you just laugh at it. Because motivation, especially at the professional sports level, really in life in general, is very overrated, right? Like a lot of times, yes, I do believe that people can activate what's inside of you, but this is about talent.

I mean, this is about people who have abilities that no one else has on the planet. So can you get that group to play its most efficient form of football? It's not about running through the wall. Like in high school once, man, we were losing at halftime to this rival team. And one of our coaches comes into the locker room, picks up a garbage can, one of those plastic big barrels, and he throws it against the wall as hard as he could and all of us are just trying not to laugh like we're just trying not to laugh because we're like what is that right do we do

we do we have to pick up the trash or are you like it did nothing the idea that you still have coaches in the nfl using those motivational tactics just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me and I also wonder how he's going to handle adversity because those rah-rah guys are fine if you're winning when things go south they're not very good in those situations so what what an interesting move in the NFC North did you ever see see the study on smelling salts? Like what smelling salts do like physically? Well, it's only a kind of a burst of energy that wakes up your whatever nervous system for like five seconds. And then you go right back to being normal. It's sort of like being splashed with cold water. Like that's what being yelled at and given this crazy moment.

Like, okay, great. All right, football. Wait, we got to go play the game. I mean, I don't see how this changes anything. You know, I mean, look. Now, here's the thing that might work for him. Okay, so he's going to be a complete nut in front of the media. All right.

Well, we'll see how long that lasts. The second a Detroit Free Press columnist writes one critical word during training camp, that will end. I bet he'll be Mr. Two-Word Sentences. I covered Doug Marone in Buffalo. Same stuff. Oh, yeah, I came from college, and here's all my motivational speeches. The minute he got criticized, that was over, and he was given two-word answers.

So I expect the same because usually these guys are real sensitive. But the question is, can you treat people better than Matt Patricia? And the answer is probably yes for someone like this who was a former player. It sounded like from things that players said like Golden Tate and Darius Slay, like these are the star players of the team, and he just treated them like garbage. And he was just critical of them all the time and pointing out things and making insulting comments to them about their personality or their life outside of football or whatever. That stuff is unnecessary. And so if there's a lesson from Gary Kubiak for every coach, it's if you treat players like grownups and you don't insult them and you don't try to tear them down and you just tell them the best way that they could play the game it's probably going to get the most out of them it's really not as complicated as

you think you don't need to read a Tony Robbins book to figure out how to just treat somebody the right way so that's what's going to determine it for Dan Campbell not if he yells at people's faces like a psychopath it's just whether you treat people with respect and that's one thing that always gets said about gary is he played the game so he respects how tough the job is and that really allows players to be comfortable around him um but there's also like a 50 50 chance that dan campbell like punches a ref or something i mean right yeah it's been shot that he does something totally crazy no there's it'll happen i mean you like he he doesn't strike me as a guy who's going to be able to turn that off and i love how he's like it's going to take on the the culture of the city first off dude you're probably gonna live in ann arbor right i

mean like you know you're not gonna be living in the heart of Detroit. But just those are like Disney movie things for me. Right, yeah. And it comes down to like execution. And honestly, I would rather hear a coach in a press conference in 2021 say, here are the ways we can get better. Here's where we need to improve. Here's my plan to do that. Tell us about Matt Stafford.

Is he your quarterback? Right. Is there going to be a move made there? Are you not sure at this point? Like where do you guys have to improve and how do you plan to do that that's how you win the press conference in 2021 not whatever he's talking about fighting kneecaps kneecaps and like going back across eight mile or something what are we doing here don't yeah don't do that detroit by the way don't follow that right that's right i don't care how big you are uh but the uh the the somebody brought it up on on twitter zach pierce who's a editor with the athletic he brought it up that like why doesn't any coach who

gets hired in la say like we're gonna take on the this city you know the heart of this city so when it rains we're gonna freak out and we're gonna complain when it's under 50 degrees and and we're gonna be about glitz and we're gonna be about glamour and we're gonna be about ego and we're gonna party at halftime we're gonna party at halftime we're gonna have brunch on the beach you know all those things i will say one of the coolest things i have ever seen in a football game is when i was in los angeles at the coliseum and oh my gosh their playlist was incredible for that game the vikings and the rams just like what have we been doing in minnesota folks and so robert woods scores a touchdown and a rapper who did like a halftime show there jumps out of the stands and daps him up after a touchdown it was like

it's la everyone this is what you do here that's great so you know we're going to take on you know minnesota's uh toughness in the winter by playing inside exactly exactly we play we play in a cushy ass stadium like. Like, what are you talking about? Say something. Like, come on. What are you even talking about, man? Right. Yeah. Guys aren't taping their fingers together with popsicles.

No. In this era. And even glass. Okay. So, anyway. So, let me ask this question before I get to a real question about the championship weekend. Give me quarterbacks from the team's past that you could match up with each other. And I know Green Bay's might be pretty obvious here.

But say you could match up quarterbacks from these four teams past with each other. Like, what is the best matchups from Bill's history, Chiefs history, Packers history, Tampa Bay Bucks history that would make for great matchups from Bill's history, Chiefs history, Packers history, Tampa Bay Bucks history that would make for great matchups? I do wonder why we don't talk more about Jim Kelly. You know, I mean, we don't really know what to do with him. I think in the conversations about great quarterbacks, really good quarterbacks, you know, because of the four in a row,

but still to get there um he was definitely in that conversation in that era i mean completely different system and situation but that feels like the only guy you know you could you could maybe compare not jp lossman or Trent Edwards or Kelly Holcomb or what? They've had some terrible quarterbacks, right? Matt Castle had a cup of coffee. Oh, Flutie, right? I mean, Flutie had. Yeah, that was my cousin.

Yep, I had the Flutie flakes. Yep. But Josh Allen, you know, Jim Kelly, different guys. But, I mean, listen, if Josh Allen wins Sunday and they get to a Super Bowl and win, he's already the icon of that franchise, especially for the new generation. Yeah, I mean, Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers. I do think we talk a lot about Aaron Rodgers, the greatest of all time.

For him to get number two, it puts him past Brett Favre, and that might not mean anything to the NFL. It means everything to Green Bay Packers fans. And I do think that's a real thing he thinks about, and I do think that's a real thing that thinks about and i do think that's a real thing that he considers when he thinks about his legacy is getting one more with the packers than brett farve clearly i mean tampa bay brad johnson brad johnson john king brad johnson sean king james freeman oh my goodness. Brady.

Dilfer. Hey, Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl. I don't know if you ever heard. Yeah, Dilfer. People love that one. Just not a great lineup there. Casey Weldon. Dude, what a – it's amazing.

Sometimes. It's amazing when you think about how hard it is to find a franchise quarterback and i always hate it when people say franchise quarterback and they think they're talking about a top five guy you're not looking for russell wilson you're looking for a guy who could hopefully help you get into the playoffs develop over time and could stick around for five to seven years like if you have that oh my goodness you are better than so than most of the league um when you look at the Tampa Bay you're like man it's clearly hard to find it Buffalo it's been hard to find Tampa Bay once signed Josh McCown to be the guy like they remember Josh McCown had that

little hot run with Chicago, and Tampa Bay was like, this guy's the answer. This is our dude. He went 1-10. Didn't work out that way. And then Kansas City, is it Alex Smith? I love Kansas City's quarterback history. It's amazing.

Trent Edwards is in that? Trent Green. Trent Green, I'm sorry. Trent Green, there's a Trent. He's in that mix. Elvis Gerbach, Steve Burke. Gerbach, Montana. Now, granted, people don't tell the real story about Montana either.

Yes, he leaves the 49ers for Steve Young. He earns a Pro Bowl nod in Kansas City, though, right? He was good. Yeah, he was really good. He wasn't a guy who just like disappeared right after leaving the 49ers he had some good years I think he was there two years maybe three he uh I think it was yeah it might have been odd if to check but he beat uh Warren Moon in a playoff game yeah in Houston it was like a huge upset so if it's Montana I mean goodness

but Mahomes is like I love Kansas City Montana by the way, I mean, goodness. But Mahomes is like. I love Kansas City, Montana, by the way. Like, I mean, that was right. I didn't see a ton of him with San Francisco growing up. So it was kind of the end of him in San Francisco. But in Montana and Casey had no arm left whatsoever. And they used to run that pro set with like two, like the split backs that nobody runs anymore with Marcus Allen and Kimball

Anders. And he would just check down and check down and check down. And he was great. I mean, he played really well. He would get hurt all the time and stuff. He'd just be beat up and his Jersey would be all dirty and everything, but he was still fantastic with Kansas city. I mean, that's the one of the few quarterbacks who moved on, but, but didn't like retire in disgrace. Like, he was – he still had a lot left, you know.

So, man, that history is interesting. It's all overshadowed, obviously, by Mahomes and what we think he might be able to do. If they win it this year, then you start having the conversations about three-peat, you know. Like, are we headed toward a 70s Steelers kind of thing? Are we headed toward this sort of dominant era in football that we haven't seen?

We've seen it with the Patriots over time. But with Mahomes, you look at this and go, did this guy win four or five in a row? So it's just great quarterbacks all around. But I do think in terms of who has something to prove, I mean, it's Allen. And he gets to a Super Bowl by beating the Holmes. You're already a legend. And I think Aaron Rodgers overcoming the 38-10 loss earlier this season,

beating Brady, that ups his status, too, in the greatest of all time convo. So how do you think it's playing out? I just keep going back. I watched that 38-10 game the other day, and it's just when a team is able to dominate you for that kind of a stretch, it's hard to unsee that. And Aaron Rodgers' game is that he doesn't make a lot of mistakes, but he made mistakes against the Bucs. So if that happens again, where does that leave the Packers? And then you've got championship Brady.

I mean, the one category that really stands out between the two is fourth quarter comebacks for Brady versus, I think he's doubled almost Aaron Rodgers. It is at home, and I don't trust Lambeau to let 8,000 people in that building. There's going to be a whole lot more. There's going to be a whole lot of plus-one situations. There's going to be a whole lot of, hey, hey, Tony, is that you? Yeah, come on in.

I still give Green Bay the edge by a field goal to win that game, but it's going to be close, and I won't be surprised if they lose, especially after what happened in the first game. All right, everybody, the Super Bowl is coming up, and sure, we'll all be watching the game, but the best way to celebrate the biggest day in football is to bet on the game. And we want to let you know about a great resource for sports bettors, the Action Network. The Action Network is where fans go to bet smarter and experience real financial gains. In fact, their Action Network app was recently named the best app in sports betting.

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when you use the code INSIDER. This offer won't last, so go to ActionNetwork.com, sign up for a pro subscription, and use the promo code INSIDER to receive 50% off and start betting smarter today. I don't love Tampa Bay, how they play on offense or defense to match up against the Packers. I mean, they really seem to like to run the ball on first down a lot. And I think that when you're playing the number one offense in the NFL, that's a risky proposition to get yourself behind the sticks. And they kind of dare teams to throw against them, and they take a lot of risks

to try to get turnovers and like you said i mean rogers did it once is he going to do it again is he gonna right i mean is he going to turn the ball over a lot again in a game against a single team i i don't know i don't know yeah i have a tough time seeing it i mean brady had to fight tooth and nail and was losing in the game against New Orleans until New Orleans gave it away, basically, by fumbling with Jared Cook and then the interception by Drew Brees. I think that's a tough proposition to go up to Lambeau and then play, to some extent, not the most efficient football you possibly could. I mean, maybe they'll change it up and say, hey, in this one,

we're going to pass the ball all over the place and we're going to try and match up. I just don't think there's any stopping this Green Bay offense this year. Yeah. No, I think, you know, 38-10, that was all based on Aaron Rodgers' mistakes. You don't expect him to make them again. So I give them the edge. I just think, though, it'll be a closer game because they have so many weapons. Like Tyler Johnson comes into that game against the Saints

and makes one of the top five catches I've seen in the NFL this year. And it's like you look at his numbers and Bruce Aarons can't really find a way to get him in the game because they have so many other options. Now with Antonio Brown ruled out, maybe he gets more reps there. But I just think they have a lot of weapons and I think they have a chance to keep it close but and i think they went late on the field though i think in the fourth going into

the fourth quarter i don't think we know anything yet i think it's still a great game the other one's tough because mahomes's health is a serious issue is he back to 100 probably not the toe was already a problem for him in that game before the concussion or neck nerve tweak or whatever it was that caused him to go out of that game the only thing that would still make me lean toward Kansas City is that Buffalo in these last two games has kind of gotten away with it I mean in Ind, Phil Rivers has the ball with a chance to win the game and time to do it and just doesn't get it done. And Lamar Jackson is right there about to tie up that game and he throws, you know, the pick six that basically puts to an end and then he gets the concussion after that. But I mean, they have not played the offensive game in

the two playoff games against good defenses that they've played before. And Josh Allen does turn the ball over. This is something Mahomes does not do that Josh Allen does do. And Kansas City has Tyron Matthew. And so to me, that is the X factor here is if you turn the ball over once in this game, you might lose because both offenses are going to score a bunch of points. So I give the edge to Kansas City. But, I mean, what a matchup of offenses here.

I mean, this is like modern football laid out for you. If we were playing on Madden in 2004 with Michael Vick, we would have been doing it this way, right? Like Josh Allen run all over the place, make a throw. I mean, this is Madden football on the field in kansas city and i can't wait to see i'm going to pick kansas city by like a touchdown but i think this is going to be an instant classic but you bring up something very important the health of patrick mahomes yeah yeah and the fact that a lot of people don't understand nfl protocols related to that

he doesn't get to clear himself right right it's an independent group and you hope it doesn't happen but with concussions man weird things like when you talk to old school guys and hear them talk about concussions and how they felt and how there'd be days they were great and there'd be other days they couldn't get out of bed there's always that chance that patrick mahomes wakes up on sunday morning and just can't function yep yep and just can't go um and then to your point is he good to go you know can he take another big hit in that game like like where is he at i think the challenge with the bills though has been to your point. I don't feel like Josh Allen has gotten them here, at least in the playoffs specifically.

The Colts, Phillip Rivers, there were so many drop passes in that game too. His receivers didn't help him out. And then to your point, the pick six changes everything against Baltimore. You're not going to just walk into a mistake and get a gift from Kansas City. They're not going to just hand you this game. You're going to have to go out there and keep up for one of the best offensive units we've ever seen. Can you do that?

On paper you can, but can you do that on the road in another building where I don't care what they say about capacity and how many people they're letting into the building. There's going to be a whole lot of folks in that building. So I'm going to pick Kansas City by a touchdown in this game, only because I think they pull away early and then Bills make a few plays and get some garbage points late. But a touchdown for Kansas City.

They're passing legislation right now in Missouri to allow more fans in, I'm sure. Just to make sure. I mean, Buffalo basically did that themselves. All season long, no fans. And then they get in the playoffs, they're like, well, what is it? Let's see. The Packers started at 6,000, and then they announced like 9,000. And then the numbers kept going up.

Like in Wisconsin, they're not even taking tickets there's just a dude named curtis at the gate who lets through you know how many people you got in your truck oh six all right you come in that's how they're doing it you ever see that that uh that video of the security guard who's basically like not like the same sort of like oh yeah, sure, it looks like you got to take it to me. Go on in. Yes, yes, yes. Well, it should be really fun. And this was fun, Myron. I'm glad we could catch up and do this again.

And we will, I mean, hey, the next time we talk is probably full off-season Vikings free agency mode, and then we are just diving all in. So only two weekends left of football. Enjoy it, man. Here we go. All right, man. Here we go.