Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Geno Smith off the board; Should the Vikings draft Jeremiyah Love? (Part 2)

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

Matthew Coller and Chris Trapasso talk about how the things in free agency impact the Vikings. Geno Smith goes to the Jets and Daniel Jeremiah has a crazy idea for the Vikings to get a running back. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Purple Insider is presented by Fandul. All right. Let's get into, uh, let's get into your guys' thoughts, which I've been following during the show. And it hasn't been going well in the chat. So let's get it turned around. The Vikings haven't done a lot, friends. Uh, in fact, they've done almost nothing. Shout out to James Pierre, who is getting an entire day of conversation about James

Pierre, a longtime development. special teams fill in type of corner for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who I actually think is a really good signing for the Vikings when they're so short on depth. And he played great for the Steelers last year. So they're one and only move I would give a thumbs up to so far. But what's on your mind? Gino Smith finds a home today. The options that remain, we should run through them first.

Then we'll get your thoughts in the chat. get yourselves together. The options that remain are, let's go through them. If Kyler were to pick Indianapolis, then Daniel Jones, I think, goes up to the top of the list because Daniel Jones would have a chance to be a potential multi-year option. And clearly, Kevin O'Connell and Daniel Jones hit it off when he was in Minnesota. He's spoken very highly of KOC. KOC seems like he still ticked that he got out the door and went to the Indianapolis Colts.

but I don't think it's a great option because he would be expensive and looking for a big multi-year contract if the Colts decide to rescind that transition tag. You have Derek Carr coming out of retirement. The complication there is that you would have to work out a trade with the New Orleans Saints, which means you have to have enough cap space to make that trade, and they have to have enough cap space to take him on and then trade him, which is another kind of complication there. outside of that,

Kirk Cousins returning. The plus to Kirk Cousins returning is I think that J.J. McCarthy could learn a lot from watching Kirk Cousins run this offense. He's fluent in this offense. And, I mean, there's very few people who know it better than Cousins. And he's going to play within himself. He's going to demonstrate exactly how a veteran quarterback operates an offense, not in the kind of wild and out of control way up.

and down way that we saw last year from a young quarterback and that happens. But Sam Darnold talked about how much he learned from watching Brock Purdy play within himself. I think there could be a similar experience there. The issue with that is the ceiling. It's just hard to see Kirk Cousins in his current state, 37 years old, doesn't move very well anymore. And at one time, he was very good at running a bootleg and throwing on the run.

there's that play in 2019 against the Detroit Lions where Adam Thielen ends up getting hurt, but he rolls to his left and Thelan's running a deep over and he lets it go. And he, I mean, it's a rocket and it's perfectly accurate to the back of the end zone for a touchdown. I don't think you could get Kirk Cousins on the move like that anymore. And the same goes for Aaron Rogers, who still can sling it, can still throw the ball extremely well. but Rogers is going to run Rogers' offense his way. As you saw it last year from Pittsburgh, he's telling his guys,

hey, go run this route against this thing. And if you see that, go do that. Like, he's going to run it Aaron Rogers way. And you talk about fit within a system. It's like, well, you're fitting yourself to Aaron Rogers system. And I don't know that that's the best situation for a young quarterback to watch and develop under Aaron Rogers when he has the Aaron Rogers school of how to play quarterback, and he's going to bring that here.

And we didn't see anything to the contrary in Pittsburgh for last year. But that's another option. And then after that, what? I mean, Anthony Richardson is not a real option other than as a, a roll of the dice. As a, hey, maybe you never know. Who am I missing? Russell Wilson, that doesn't seem like it's a serious potential option, unless you're trying to get him as a pure backup quarterback for Jay.

J. McCarthy. I don't love that. I don't love him in the role of a backup quarterback. I guess he's in case of very serious emergency. But when you start to roll down those options right there with cousins, Rogers, Carr, Daniel Jones under a certain set of circumstances where they rescind his tag and he just becomes a free agent and then he's going to the highest bidder. But where are the Vikings drawing from the money to bid for Daniel Jones? I mean, am I, am I, am I? Am I, am I? I'm missing someone on this list. It feels like if you're aiming for a starting quarterback, that those are the only guys left with Malik Willis signing with the Miami Dolphins.

And I mean, even someone like Jacoby Brissette, I guess you could consider to me very much a backup type of quarterback. And I saw today, hey, just going to give myself a tiny little pat on the back here that I came out of the combine. And if you folks watched the combine breakdown of like, emptying the notebook of everything I heard at the combine. The word I used for Mac Jones for what the 49ers were looking for was astronomical. And I saw that Diana Rossini also tweeted today that teams have been calling the 49ers asking about Mac Jones.

And they've been saying astronomical. The words first round pick were said to me, I don't know that that's what they're still asking. But it sounds like the asking price is through the roof. So Mac Jones, who I think would have been a fair enough option, and I liked the idea of potentially competing with J.J. McCarthy, but San Francisco is saying, no way, you are not getting Mac Jones. He is a very good backup for us. And that's why we signed him to a multi-year contract.

So if Brock Purdy gets hurt, he could save our bacon. So then the options are all basically starting quarterbacks. Gino Smith was also the last frontier of they could get. Get Gino Smith, have him compete with J.J. McCarthy sets a fairly high bar. But if McCarthy takes this huge step, then he could become the guy. I think with any one of these quarterbacks, though, for all the folks who have been extreme about, I feel like the extremes don't have to be the case here. It's not if you get Kyler Murray, then you just get rid of J.J. McCarthy.

You completely give up on him. You never speak to him again. you put him in a locker and you close it and lock it and say, see you later, JJ after the season, you know, don't ever talk to us again or something like that. That's not, I don't think any of the scenarios is they're just complete, I haven't gotten this impression that they're completely done with JJ. It's over.

Forget about him. Under all of these scenarios, except maybe Aaron Rogers, I mean, if you get Rogers, you're not going to bench him at any point. You just have to kind of play it out. with Rogers, maybe you could trade him. I don't know if it was going bad. But if you think about it with Kyler Murray,

you have a pretty clear if then situation. If Kyler Murray plays amazing for you, then you can sign him to an extension. If Kyler Murray is just okay, you can make the playoffs. If he's bad, you can bench him for J.J. McCarthy. If Kyler Murray is as awful as some of you people make him sound, which he's not, but let's say he is. Let's say he plays really, really bad.

Well, I mean, then you can go back to JJ McCarthy after six weeks or eight weeks of development and bring him back in when he's actually had time to focus purely on his game without the pressure of being QB1 without the injuries that he's had throughout the years. And you get a full healthy offseason and in the season to develop. And then, hey, you're four and six.

and it's just not really working. And Murray is the 25th rated passer in the league. Bench him. You paid him $1 million. Who the heck cares? On to J.J. McCarthy. The same goes for Kirk. If you bring Kirk back and you are two and four and he's struggling to move around and

throw the ball, you can bring back in J.J. McCarthy. And I look at somebody like Drake May, who I thought that the Patriots handled very well in their first year, Jacoby Brissette played until. the wheels came off. Then they said, all right, you've had a lot of time to adapt to the NFL, to see how a starting quarterback does it, to practice every day, which I just think is very, very valuable. And then now you're the quarterback. And if it works out great, then you're in the playoffs and you can win the division. And when I look at Kyla Murray and his career and his numbers in the seasons where he's had a chance, you know, two of the years he's coming, he got the ACL injury and the

the middle of one season that was going terribly wrong for the franchise and then comes back in the middle of another season with the ACL. It's hard to look at those and say that's reflective of what he's going to be now. But his most recent performance, his most, let's say since the ACL, 24 and 5 games in 2025. And I've, this is what I've been doing is watching them back game after game and watching his game. And I'm making a whole bank of all the different subjects, regarding Kyler Murray. The throws to the middle, the throws he turns down, the scrambles, the accuracy when it's good, the accuracy when it's bad, under pressure. I'm putting them all in little folders. So someday, if they sign them, we can have a huge film session here. And I'm not a

film analyst breakdown guy. So that's why we don't usually do it on the show. But I've looked at enough to be able to find these plays and talk about them and present what I've found about Kyler Murray and maybe we'll end up doing that. But if it works out for you, the division, I look at the division and go, Chicago's not perfect and no move that they've made this week to me says, wow, Chicago suddenly incredible. They've gotten so much better. Well, I don't know.

Losing Drew Dalman was huge. They haven't made a single defensive signing where I went, oh, man, oh man, Chicago. Like, they're the team. I actually thought that they would do better in free agency than they have. Detroit gets a center, but he's not Frank Ragnow. He's kind of just a guy, Cade Mays. They, and I think he could play, but I mean, he's not Frank Reg now. Very many, very, very few people are.

They're going to have more likely than not a rookie tackle, which I think the Vikings can take advantage of. The Packers, they need to revamp their line. They need to revamp big parts of their defense. They haven't made mind-blowing moves, and they just lost Romeo Dobbs to a big contract with the New England Patriots. It's hard to convince me that with, Murray, even in his, not even in his absolute peak, but even in just his most recent style of play,

could not get this team into the conversation if things go well for them and their schedule plays out and the injuries play out into that discussion. But if they're not, it's fine because you go back to J.J. McCarthy. And then you get to find out how much he's developed and see where he's come, although I think that they can assess that behind the scenes fairly well now that they know exactly what he needs to do to succeed. Fandul question of the day, I think, I mean, I used it yesterday. I feel like I want it to go back to it since there's been a lot more moves since we last

talked, is what team has moved the needle the most for you? As I was mentioning, the Detroit Lions are plus 170, Packers plus 175 to win the north. The Bears are plus 360 to win the north, and the Vikings are plus 600. So, I mean, the Vikings honestly could be moving the needle. some of the most in the NFC North just because of they're getting a quarterback that has a history of being pretty good. And that's another thing that's, that's kind of a tell is when people say that he is a bust or he's never played what like, okay, come on. We all know that he has. We all know that he has played well. I don't know that if he's going to be the quarterback or not.

The arrows, as of this moment, as of 6.30 p.m. Central on the day March 10th, 2026, the arrows are pointing toward Kyler Murray. By this time, tomorrow when we do the live show, it could be very different. That's what makes football so interesting. So what is on your mind now that we have some movement, Malik Willis has found a home, Gino Smith is found a home, and a decision is looming next week, although, I mean, I'm thinking it could be tomorrow. but I don't know that because Kyla Murray apparently has not been meeting with teams yet and is playing it by the book and is going to have his meetings tomorrow. So we can talk about that. We could go through and look at remaining free agents and some moves that happened today.

But let's get to your thoughts. So let me just get the window up here on the screen. There we go. Let's see. Where did Malik Willis go? He went to Miami. Miami Dolphins. Dan's, the Fandul answer of the day is the Vikings of Kyler signs.

I'm curious to see if it moves or how much it moves or if this is as far as it's going to move because it has been plus 700 and now it's plus 600. Jason said, my thing is J.J. McCarthy has weapons all over. And if you rank dead last in quarterback play, this is a lot. He wasn't dead last. That was Brady Cook and Shadur Sanders. But he was 42nd out of 45 in quarterback rating. so that not great.

With J.J. McCarthy, I will continue to say that do you want just to see more J.J. McCarthy or do you want the best thing for J.J. McCarthy? Because I have a tough time arguing that the best thing is for McCarthy to go into the season, uncontested with just a regular backup quarterback and have all the pressure on him again like it was last year. And I look at around the league, just quarterback play in general, and how much time, it can take for quarterbacks to get to a spot where they are ready to be a starter, even Jordan Love.

Think about Jordan Love. Jordan Love had three years of development behind Aaron Rogers, and his first eight games were pretty, me. And then he turned a corner, and people still like to debate Jordan Love. I think we know what he is. I think he's a very good quarterback. He could be very, very efficient. But you could tell that his coach does not fully trust him to let it rip.

and people always blame the coach for that, but oftentimes they're right. Like Russell Wilson in Seattle, they were right. Was it Darrell Beville? They were right not to let Russ Cook. Just because he was efficient doesn't mean you should have him throwing 35 passes from the shotgun every single week. And that might be the same thing with Jordan Love. My point, though, is he didn't turn a corner until Thanksgiving in his first year.

It takes time for a lot of quarterbacks. and it did not so much with Drake May. Like he hit the ground running. That happens. Caleb Williams showed improvement. He needs to improve a lot more. Everyone works on a different timeline. And Drake May in particular might just be a freaky specimen.

His physical skill is ridiculous. Got to see him up close in those joint practices. And he made a lot of plays that were, wow. Even if the Vikings were the better team, there was throws that just blew your mind. like he is a physical freak. He is more along the lines of a Josh Allen or a Patrick Mahomes in terms of his physical skill. And Jaden Daniels, with his speed and his running ability, him hitting the ground running,

that also was a factor too. But a Bo Nix took some time. We still don't even know what's happening with Michael Pennix. Like a lot of quarterbacks have needed time. And it's okay to give them that. It doesn't ruin your franchise. I know that all of us, and especially me, are always looking. I love, love to talk about.

timelines and roster bill. It's, it's so freaking interesting. But sometimes with the rookie quarterback contract, that obsession is, well, you need to find a quarterback that can win. And your quarterback needs to be ready to win when he comes out there. Just because you have the rookie contract, as we saw last year, it doesn't mean you just win automatically because if the quarterback you're running out there, is it ready, you lose.

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See website for details, restrictions, and important safety information. Let's see. Yeah, well, I can see you guys are fighting with each other when it comes to Kyle. There really is no, to me, there's no Kyler versus McCarthy. This is interesting, though, how. would KOC if they signed Kyler manage that discussion. My guess is that he would not say,

hey, someone's our QB1, but then Murray just takes all the first team reps and we all just know that he's QB1. These are two quarterbacks who are in way different spots. There really isn't a this guy versus that guy. Kyler Murray is an established NFL starting quarterback who has won a lot of football games and has been to the Pro Bowl more legitimately, not like the Shadur Sanders Pro Bowl has had legitimate

pro bowl seasons. By PFF, he has been a top 12 quarterback three different times. We know what Kyler Murray is. It's just around the edges. Can you make it fit? Can you make it work? Can you get the best version of Kyler Murray? Can you manage some of the ups and downs that, and I included this in my breakdown when I did all the numbers of if you map out his ESPN's QBR is 1 to 100 through the last couple years. I mean, it's up here and it's down there and it's up there. Can you even that out? There are big questions there.

But we know what Kyle Murray is, a quarterback. He's got thousands of dropbacks. With J.J. McCarthy, he's still learning how to play the position. We don't know whether he's going to be able to fix those things. We don't know what eventually he's going to become. And I fully understand when people say that you at home on your, your couch would rather just figure it out on the field and say, hey, JJ, just go get them. See what happens.

There was a bit of that argument last year of, hey, let's find out about J.J. McCarthy. And then when you find out, I was like, oh, no, where's Daniel Jones? Because there's, there's the find out that might not be what you want to find out. And if you're the organization, how, and if you're Jefferson, how do you ask these players, how do you ask these coaching staff to just roll out with someone, you have no idea what they're going to give you on a play to play basis we didn't know what McCarthy was going to give which to me means more time for him is the best option so I you know I know that uh and and we and look we we did find out you're right we found out a lot last year

that he wasn't ready and we found out that when it comes to accuracy yes it can be fixed but accuracy is not something that can be fixed on the fly from a week to week basis while you're playing and getting hit by Michael Parsons and getting, and it certainly cannot get better if you are on the shelf, which, I mean, he played 10 games, which means he missed seven, but even then he actually missed eight because he didn't even play two halves. You missed a half a season. And before that, you missed a full season. When is he supposed to get better? This is my point. you'd rather have him stay healthy for an entire year and actually focus on getting better because it was clear that he was not ready for this.

Rach says problem with tanking is this roster has too much talent to truly get into the top five. We're not going to suck like the Jets or Cardinals. That's completely true. Yep, that's completely true that even last year when you had one of the worst offenses in the entire NFL, you still end up with nine wins and you still end up drafting 18. Now, after this year, we can talk a little timelines because they're going to get a veteran quarterback one way or the other. After this year, if you feel great about where McCarthy is, let's let's say, just scenarios, let's say they end up, somehow they end up with Kirk. All right. So they

end up with Kirk and he plays 12 games and then McCarthy comes in to play the final five because they're struggling. All right. You get to the end up. end of the year, you're going to know a lot better, hey, wow, he made huge progress. And now we can start planning for the next season with McCarthy as our starting quarterback because he really blew everyone away behind the scenes. Well, that's still a good scenario. And he's still not expensive. And even the fifth year option, if you look at like what those fifth year options are for

quarterbacks, it's not like you have to pay the guy $60 million. So you can work around that. And you can start reworking your just overall. franchise roster plan, but you feel good about that and you're going to go get a veteran backup and see where it takes you. If you feel like he didn't make any progress at all, which is possible, then you end up going to the draft and starting to look at how are you going to get a top draft pick quarterback?

Or if you have Kyler and he's amazing, then you're going to just keep Kyler. Like you have, suddenly you have options. If you play J.J. McCarthy the entire season and you only have a regular backup, and it goes sideways. Well, one, you might be looking at a lot of overhaul, whether that's coaching or whatever else it might be. But then you're completely lost at sea, right? Like, what do we do now?

You have to draft one, but you're backed into a corner of having to draft one. You don't even have the potential option of a Kyler Murray being your long-term quarterback. So, you know, there is a potential situation where McCarthy takes such a big step forward in the offseason that they feel great. about him and that's up to him, right? But you have to factor the performance from last year as your highest decision-making tool of look at the ups and downs of this, way more downs than ups, nowhere near NFL starting

caliber quarterback play. You just, you have to protect yourself there. And you have to try to maximize what you have as a roster. Then you could start thinking about what you're going to do in 2007. And, you know, when it comes to giving him a chance, I think giving him the best, is it give him a chance or give him the best chance? Give him a chance is, all right, just throw him out there and see what happens because I want to see him. Or is it given the best chance, which means develop behind the scenes like a litany of different quarterbacks have done over the last even 10 years and ended up having success. So that's how I look at this season.

Johnny says what's KOC's pitch to Kyler because there hasn't any competition in Pittsburgh unless you count Mason Rudolph, which is, yeah, probably not. Well, I didn't even really mention this, but I know Trapasso did of, I might pitch that the Vikings got the best grade for their turf. I'm not joking. The Vikings got the best grade for their turf in the NFLPA survey of any team that plays on an artificial surface. They got a B.

And I believe it was Pittsburgh that got an F minus for their surface. If I'm a scrambling quarterback trying to maximize my speed and athleticism, how do I feel about playing on sod that's going to be slipping underneath me? Probably not great, right? That'd be part of it. I would also, I mean, if I'm on that Zoom call and I'm Kevin O'Connell, I'm saying, hey, Kyler, I got somebody on the line here that wants to be. to talk to you. Oh, here's Justin Jefferson. Hey, Justin, why don't you just tell them what it's

like playing here for the Minnesota Vikings, right? I think that's a pretty compelling argument. I also think this when it compares to other franchises, Kevin O'Connell, you guys can say whatever you like, we can say whatever we like, we can look into every bit of data, we could pick apart, they should have run in this situation, shouldn't have called this play, doesn't have a good enough system, whatever you want to say. And there's a lot of reasonable stuff to pick a part there. One thing you cannot question is Kevin O'Connell's connection with his players. It has been incredibly clear from the NFLPA survey and just from being there all the time.

And you saw it last year, a team that goes four and eight and is that down on its luck. If it hates its coach, man, it's going to stay down on its luck. But they were able to turn it around. they were able to have a winning record at the end of the year, which, look, congratulations, right? Hang a banner. But it means something that even in the most tumultuous year that he's had, I think this was tougher than 2023. Still, the players come out and give him an A in the NFL PA survey.

He connects incredibly well. He's a great communicator. He understands people very, very well. He understands football players very, very well. And if there is somebody who can connect on a level from a communication perspective with Kyler Murray, I think Drew Petting, who's cut from the same cloth as KOC, did a great job with him. And that's everything that I've heard or read about Petting and Murray in Arizona over these last two years. I don't think that he is a mel content that no one can possibly succeed with from a personality perspective.

I've not gotten that, I've not gotten that impression from spending the last month looking into Kyla Murray. But I do think that having someone who really has his back and is really on his side because I mean, KOC, you know, he's going to do that like he did communicating with Sam Donald. I'm not sure that anybody has, you know, I'm not sure that anybody has communicated with Kyla Murray the way that Kevin O'Connell is capable of. So I think that that would be his main pitch.

It's like, you're going to come in and have a situation with Josh McCown. and himself former NFL quarterbacks who can work with you in a way that no one else has. And I would say, hey, that kind of sounds, well, that's, I'm doing the pitch. So like, hey, that sounds like, you know, some sort of fairy tale land. But Daniel Jones said it in an interview. Daniel Jones said when he arrived in Minnesota that Kevin O'Connell worked with him in ways that no other quarterback had before. And he had no reason to say it.

I shot you 99. says if Kyler Murray signs with the Vikings, this basically isn't this basically 2024 all over again, but it isn't Darnold, it's Kyler Murray. And thank you so much for the super chat there. Really appreciate that. It could be. It has the potential to be.

And that's why I've liked it all along. Because no other option that you can bring up has the potential to be like 2024, except for this. it's a highly, highly talented player with unique physical gifts. Go watch his game against Carolina. Go watch the way that he moves against San Francisco when Nick Bosa is on the other side. The playmaking is remarkable. The accuracy is very, very strong.

And, you know, he gets dinged for being really good at throwing from zero to 10 yards. But guess what the highest percentage of passes in the NFL is these days? from zero to 10 yards, accuracy, timing, rhythm, all that stuff that KOC talks about nonstop. He has been able to do a lot of it with success. So is it possible? It's 2024 again, certainly. And look, they're not playing as hard of a schedule, I think, as last year. Maybe they could have used that fourth play schedule, but are they playing?

Is it the NFC South? I mean, that's a door open for sure to win some games against that division. So, you know, I think that it does check a lot of the same boxes of a quarterback, and we've just seen it enough times. I think he's a lot like Baker Mayfield, a flawed, but very talented player who is not at all perfect, but under the right circumstances, can succeed a lot. Can you win 14? Okay, probably not. The explosive potential of the offense would be less than it was with Sam Darnold. But it's a lot of the same people.

I mean, Jefferson, Addison, Hawkinson, who's going to catch 110 balls from Kyler Murray after watching the tape. He's going to catch a lot of footballs for sure. Can they run the ball well enough? They couldn't run the ball at all in 2024, but could they run it well enough to even out some of Kyler Murray's ups and downs?

I think that's possible. At least it's on the table. With the other options, I'm not sure that it's on the table. Rich says, just want this team to stop wasting draft picks on people. they don't ever play or plan on using. Yeah. And we need to get more rookie involvement through the year to see if they're any good. Well, they've used a lot of draft picks on players that are veteran players.

They've made a lot of trades for players. They use draft capital for day three on Jalen Rager and Cam Acres and Cam Robinson. And I don't blame them for making some of those moves because of where they were at in the circumstances, but that's not a way to build a young core of players who are developing. And you're right that when you see some guys that they drafted signing contracts yesterday, you go, should you have gotten rid of all of the draft picks instead of maybe tried to let it play out? I mean, even like, and I don't, you never know what happens behind the scene.

Sometimes a guy just doesn't fit in your culture and you got to move on. But, I mean, they cut Kobe King last year and you're spending again on a linebacker. and you go, I mean, couldn't you use them on special teams? Couldn't you have been what Ivan Pace was for you? And now Ivan Pace is more expensive. And I know it's only a couple million dollars, but you didn't even really give it a chance. You just sort of, all right, well, we need somebody else right now today. You're out of here.

Too many times over the last couple years. That's been the case. Rache, Kyla versus the Rams, 2024 is absolutely nuts. Crazy highlights. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. There's, uh, there are games, several games. I mean, the Carolina game last year, I was just watching it is terrific. There's several throws. And the idea that he can't throw from the pocket is totally wrong. Totally, totally wrong. He can absolutely throw from the pocket. He's not going to throw every time from the pocket and he's going to scramble because it's one of the things he does. And it will run him into trouble sometimes, which is one of my big criticisms of Murray is that he runs himself.

into trouble and tries too hard to make a play. But there are throws in the Carolina game, even this year from the pocket, drop back, one, two, three, bang, hits a 30-yard touchdown to Michael Wilson. Or maybe not 30-yard. I think it's like a 15-yard touchdown. But stuff like that happens a lot for Murray.

He's very accurate. So that can be done. Dumer K.O. just as a human story, Kyler, getting the chance to escape Arizona's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. they're not that different from Sam Darnold and Carolina or with the New York Jets.

I at least am interested if it happens to see it, to see what that looks like with him and all the talent that he has in a position where it's a stable franchise, not the F-rated franchise. Chris says, going to be lit when the Vikings trade Grinard for Mack Jones smokescreen. Oh, man, that's funny. I don't know, man. I don't know if, oh, wow, we got some more super chats coming in here. I don't know if the Grenard thing is happening or not. It feels like that went completely dead yesterday.

And I don't know if you guys have seen any updates on that. I have not seen any updates on that at all on Jonathan Grenard. Pizza Guy O.G, man, you come in with some huge super chats. Dude, I appreciate you. Very much appreciate you. not necessary, but always appreciated. Rach, it would be historically unprecedented to turn around if JJ ever has a season as good as Drake May in 2025. Well, yeah, I mean, that's an MVP season.

If you're, I think that, it's like I feel, I feel the need to want to be very, very fair to the people who haven't, like, moved on from J.J. McCarthy because I don't think it's right to just say, hey, he's not good, throw him in the trash. otherwise, you know, Sam Darnold wouldn't have won the Super Bowl or Ryan Tannihill wouldn't have won a conference or Alex Smith wouldn't have gotten to the NFC championship game and maybe needed his punt returner to hang on to the football or whatever. There are many quarterbacks over the years who struggled out of the gate and then were able to find themselves after a couple of seasons or after developing on the bench or whatever it might be. So there should be time given to that idea. But I think that if we're talking about what the ceiling is, I saw someone in the chat saying that McCarthy has a higher ceiling than Kyler Murray. I mean, that's just objectively not really possible. I mean, anything I guess is possible. But someone of Murray's talent who was drafted number one overall who has this lightning ability to scramble and make plays and is accurate as he is.

is and has the entire background that he has. Drake May is similar, only he's taller, the playmaking, the arm strength, the raw physical tools. I mean, McCarthy has, has above average speed on his fastball. He certainly has above average mobility. He has a playmaker's mindset.

And I think he was farther behind from a football IQ timing type of thing that we thought he was going to be. But I think he's a smart kid who can catch up to that and run an offense eventually. But your initial impression does oftentimes, unless you're the first, second, third overall pick, it does give an indication of what your ceiling's going to be,

unless I guess you're Josh Allen. But even then with Josh Allen, I think you knew with his raw skills that if it ever really clicked, you could see that in his second season. If it really clicks for J.J. McCarthy, I think he could be a winning quarterback. I don't think he could be an MVP-level quarterback.

That's probably off the, table for the most part. Pizza guy or pizza Gary. I've called you pizza guy, but it's pizza Gary, sorry. Aren't we to the point where we really need to budget two quarterbacks every single year? We plan on having nobody making it through. We like two legit starters. I think they actually need to have three players on the roster that could play.

Because you're already at a spot in four years where twice they've gone to quarterback three. They've started multiple games with Jaron Hall. Is he in the league? I don't think he is. And multiple games with Max Brosmer, who I'd like to see get more chance to develop, but it's always possible is not in the league after a couple of years. It happens to a lot of undrafted free agent quarterbacks. So they need a quarterback three who can at least come in.

This is why, you know, somebody last night was trolling me and said, oh, they're going to get Josh Johnson. I was like, what, really they did? Because that's a good guy. to get somebody like that for a quarterback three who's bounced around a little and his started games. It could actually come in and play if you needed them to. Viking Suns Tigers says, I live in Arizona.

I've been a Vikings fan for over 50 years. I've seen Murray play and he regressed because of coaching in the organization. I've seen Vikings drama every season for the last five to six years. That's the thing that's very hard to evaluate with football. And it's why our conversations have gone on for a month and are still interesting right now as it pertains to the Vikings quarterback situation. Because there's so many moving parts to success. I've seen people use expected points added as a stat for Kyla Murray in certain

kind of throws. Expected points added requires not one person to do their job the right way, but 11 people to do their job the right way. Expected points added to most people who know data is a team type of production stat. It's not a player evaluation tool. That's why we use PFF, because they are literally a player evaluation tool. They are grading every single throw.

So if you, just for example, here's why EPA is just a non-starter for me as a player evaluation tool. I'm watching a play for Kyler Murray and San Francisco where Murray drops back. He gets a little bit of pressure. He kind of glides into some space. And he finds Marvin Harrison wide open, 25 yards down the field. And he throws the ball right to him. and it hits Marvin Harrison Jr. in the chest and he drops it.

Negative EPA. On the quarterback. What more would you like him to do there other than buy time for himself and throw a perfect dart into the chest of the top draft pick wide receiver and he drops it negative EPA? That's the issue. That's why PFF started grading people in part. And if you want to read more about it, my book, Football is a numbers game and the history of

PFF and how they can. got to be where they are. But that's why they are grading all of the throws. That's why we're looking deeper into it than just all completions versus, well, well, what about the offensive line has to perform and the receivers have to perform and all those things. We have to look a little deeper than just, you know, a stat like that, which is much more of a team production type of statistic.

S.E. Hughes, thank you so much for the super chat. Really thankful for that. said excited that there's a real chance at love, Jeremiah Love, with all the teams that are R.B. needy signed running backs. Vikings have a legit shot at him. Also put him in a backfield with Murray and JJ Jefferson, who you're going to stop. It's in terms of most exciting possible offseason, hey, would you guys, would you guys trade the first day of free agency being boring for Jeremiah Love and Kyler Murray? Probably, or at least some of you, but I mean, if we're playing smart GM with guardrails and we're responsible, then we're not trading for Jeremiah Love.

If we're all sitting here in our armchair GM jobs saying, you know, it would be the most fun stuff, Tennessee is the hard one to get over. Tennessee is the hard one to see them not taking him because they're Tennessee. And it feels like they've always had a dominant run game and that's what they want to build off of. but they might not. And if he drops there, then Washington is probably the next team up that you would think could do it. Always the price matters. The Vikings did get an extra comp pick.

So maybe that could factor in. But if I'm a team moving from eight back to 18, I'm going to get, I'm going to get some stuff for it. I'm not going to say, oh, sure, yeah, just have Jeremiah Love. And I'll just chill down at number 18. It's a long way to go. So is it a 2027, let's say, I mean, is it giving up the second round pick two? Or is it number 18 and a third and a second for next year? That's a lot.

That's a lot to give up. I mean, top 100 picks. This is what I've really focused on a lot in the draft breakdown of why they've failed is they just don't ever have top 100 picks. And if you're giving up two top 100 picks to move up 10 spots, in the draft, there's no value chart that's going to think that that's a good idea. But in the immediate, it'd be a lot of fun. And Jeremiah Love is very good.

And I don't know that Daniel Jeremiah said that, just completely pulling it out of thin air. I think he knows a lot of people. So, you know, maybe there is something to that. Justin says, I still think Murray McCarthy Wentz is far better than the 2025 room. Oh, insanely better than the 2025 room. And it does sound like the Jets want Wentz. but does he want to go to the east again? I mean, he's a Midwest guy.

Have you heard North Dakota is where he's from? Have you heard he grew up a Vikings fan? And I think his family lives in Indy. Now his family lives in Indy. Dumer K.O. fans will get what they want with Kyler losses in the playoffs with the Vikings. And then wins the Super Bowl with the Rams in 2027. Yeah, I like that you guys are already thinking of the most excruciating possible result. Johnny says with Addison's comment about J.J. McCarthy yesterday,

does that mean they're working out together right now? I couldn't really pick that apart. I don't know. I don't know if they are or not. I know that Jefferson wanted to work out with him. Addison should as well and take an Uber wherever he goes. And that would be a good idea. That would be a good idea.

Because if your franchise is not totally banned, on J.J. McCarthy. I mean, either way, you want to get routes and reps and he knows the types of plays they're going to run and so forth. So that's good. And I never got the sense. And if it was happening behind the scenes that I didn't know about it, so I'm only telling you my perspective from being in the locker room and listening to these guys talk, I don't think that there was a feeling amongst the players of, oh, we can't stand J.J. McCarthy. I never got that sense. I got the sense that they wanted him to succeed and they enjoyed his enthusiasm and they knew that he was out there trying, but it wasn't happening. And this is,

as many people have pointed out over the years, a results-based league. So there was clear, you know, frustration. But I think if any of the players around him couldn't stand him, that there would have been at least some indication, but instead, Justin Jefferson had his back for the entire season and talked about, you know, putting the responsibility on himself to help J.J. McCarthy get better. And that's why I keep going back to this doesn't have to be over just because you bring in a veteran quarterback. Who the heck knows what way it can go? The only thing that we know is that the best way to succeed when you don't have a quarterback is to try more quarterbacks a lot of times, right? Because if Kurt Warner can be better than Trent Green or if Brock Purdy

can be better than Trey Lance, then certainly J.J. McCarthy. even if you go out and get someone else could work out. We've seen players come in and there's offseason hype and then they either don't fit or they get injured and then what, right? So there's plenty of chance that McCarthy could still play and his teammates should certainly have his back and especially these veterans who know that he's been through so much with the criticism. They know how that is.

They've all taken it. They've all been hit with it. And it's very, very hard mentally to deal with. especially when you're a kid. I mean, you're not going to throw your phone in Lake Minnetonka just because you're a starting quarterback. I mean, 22 years old. You expect him to not look at Instagram,

not look at social media at all during a season, not be any aware what people are saying about him or on TV or anywhere else. I mean, that's impossible for a 30-year-old starting quarterback, but at least they've had years of building up a little bit of thick skin through it. But I think for him, when has anybody ever been down on J.J. McCarthy at any point in his life, and then all of a sudden, the entire world is coming down on you, like, firing hot lava on top of your head. That's not something he's ever had to deal with before.

So I think that players really felt for him in that way. And they were maybe even frustrated at how, you know, kind of mean it got about the number nine and all that sort of stuff, which I thought was totally unnecessary. you can critique his performance and criticize it, absolutely. But, I mean, if we're talking about harmless stuff that a guy's trying to have fun playing football, that's just ridiculous to make fun of. But they know any little thing. I mean, look at Kyler Murray.

Look at right now. The guy hasn't done anything. And already, if you just search his name, you're going to see a million people that are declaring that they will burn all their Vikings gear if Kyler Murray becomes their quarterback. And he's too short. and he plays video games and all that stuff. That's what you're going to see if you log on.

So for McCarthy, I think all of that was really, really hard to deal with. And now he's been through it and he's growing and moving on past that and understanding that that's what happens when you're the starting quarterback of a team. But I think that has to be factored in as well to the evaluation. And I think that the players in the locker really felt that and wanted to have his back because of it. John says, less worried about Kyler than I am KOC playing to Kyler's strengths. Limiting the play package for JJ the last couple weeks isn't enough proof. Yeah.

I mean, so this is where I would say, like, wanting people to go back and watch some games from Kyler from last year. This is a pro quarterback who has played NFL offense for years now. I don't think that he's a guy that can't handle a pro offense because last year they were running a lot of stuff when you watch that the offense they're running a lot of vertical routes and this is how tray mcbride ends up catching so many passes they're running a lot of vertical routes and then tray mcbride is open underneath and sometimes i'm watching the film going kiler it's there like Marvin harrison's there or michael wilson is there you can take that shot

over the middle and he's taking the seven yard gain to the tight end which kind of does that's why i've made the comparison to Kirk a little bit because there are times with Kirk where you're like, just, no, okay. Although, you know, his receivers were not exactly Justin Jefferson, so it might change a little bit there. There are adjustments that have to be made, I think, just to his playing style and so forth. I also think it's a tad overstated. I don't think that you have to go out and implement an entire new system, an entire new

offense. I think you just have to craft it to him like it was different between. Kirk Cousins and Sam Donald. I think that there's been so much focus on the wrong situations with KOC and his offense. It's been Josh Dobbs, which I think I get it. And I agree they should have run more with Josh Dobbs, just handed off, played safe. They would have won a couple more games, but it was Josh Dobbs also. So yeah, okay, fine.

Like Josh Dobbs, three and 12 as a career starter. But all right, fair enough. And then last year with McCarthy, where I also think he played two games, and then was out for five, then they won the one he came back, and then they apparently had everything wrong. I'm not sure about that. And then there was adjustments, but it was a, we are just pairing this down to give us any chance to win offense, which to me was not a pro level 17 game type of offense.

You can play that with Kyler Murray. I just think you have to craft it to him. And you also have to be probably a bit on the patient side if you're going to be Kyler Murray's play caller because there is going to be times where he, for us frustrates you. And there's going to be times where he doesn't let it rip into a window that you want him to or that he bails a scrambles. And, you know, I know Alex Clancy the other night from, uh, locked on Cardinals.

He said, like, yeah, sometimes it looks like he just doesn't really want to stand in there and take a hit, which he probably doesn't. And you don't want him to get hurt, but it's required sometimes in this offense. So you're right. Like, it will take some adaptation. But I don't think it's that they're going to have to completely. overhaul the entire thing and just implement this full new offense. Remmer says probably going to have to wait for Hendrickson to sign before a JG trade.

Yes. Yes. I agree with you 100% that Trey Hendrickson seems to be holding things up. And there was a report today. When I heard the word prideful about Trey Hendrickson, I was like, oh, no, is this going to take all summer for Trey Hendrickson to find a job? because clearly Hendrickson thinks that he's on the same level as a Micah Parsons or a Max Crosby and the NFL does not think that he's a very good player he was great a couple seasons

ago but he's probably not worth $45 million to anybody I agree with you though because if your teams in that market you're looking around saying well we desperately need a pass rusher always off the board Max Crosby's off the board there's not that you know Khalil Mack went back to the Chargers. What do we do? You're really kind of down to just a couple options, which is either cobble together, two or three veteran players who could be okay,

or overpay Trey Hendrickson, or try to trade for Jonathan Grenard. And if you're the Vikings, you're not going to get top dollar until the teams are desperate. If they think, uh, we can wait out Trey Hendrickson, this might be in a holding pattern for a little while,

but also if you're on the Viking side, you don't you have to make a decision on trading Grenard fairly soon because you're looking to make cap space to spend on your roster. But hey, look, we've got 20 million in cap space because we traded Grenard. Hey, where is everybody? Where all the free agents go? So you don't want it to be like that either. Dennis, they're going to give him a small raise and keep him for Grenard.

I don't think that's a bad idea to get him up to the same level as someone like Jalen Phillips, who I think he's an equal or maybe a little bit better than Jalen Phillips, who got 30. million. But if you're the Vikings, here's the question. How much do you want to see Dallas Turner play his spot? If you, if that answer is real bad, you really, really want to see Dallas Turner play his spot, then it might be worth just moving it to get extra draft capital. And look, he started to connect the dots. You move Grenard and get a second round pick.

then you trade up from 18 to 8 for Jeremiah Love. Okay, I don't know. That seems like a fake off season. That seems like a Madden off season. But I don't know. This franchise does stuff. They do stuff and you never know what exactly is coming next. But I've come around to the idea of a Jonathan Grenard trade is not at all crazy.

Because of the draft capital that you need for the future, because of the cap space that you can create to fix parts of the roster, still with what's out there in the second wave of free agency. And because you do want to see Dallas Turner. And I don't think it's as much of a find out if he can play or not. I think last year we found out that he could play. It's how good are we talking with Dallas Turner? Are we talking about someone who's a solid, good starter,

but is not going to meet the level? And I was looking at Adafi O way, by the way, as an undersized kind of outside linebacker type, really wasn't until year three that he took his big step. in Baltimore. So could that be the case for Dallas Turner? But if he's rotating, he's over here, he's over there, he's, you know, you're asking him to try to be Van Ginkle. I don't know if you can really find that out what kind of pass rusher he can be. So there is a good case for it, but you're right, they might just say, you know, we didn't get what we were trying to, didn't get what we were

trying to go for. And if that's the case, then you might as well keep him. I mean, if only thing that teams are offering is a third round draft pick, then I just don't know that that's really worth it. John says what percentage of castoffs become Baker Mayfield or Ryan Tannanhill? The odds are not in JJ's favor. No, they're not. They're definitely not. Quarterbacks who have performed like this in their first 10 starts rarely end up having success.

And Baker Mayfield probably isn't the best example because he was the number one overall pick and won 11 games and a playoff game for the Cleveland Browns before becoming the cast-off. My point on using Baker Mayfield or using some of these other quarterbacks is that we've seen it before with development time. But he's not as talented as Darnold. He's not as talented as Baker. He's not as talented as, I mean, that's why I like Ryan Tannahill or Alex Smith as examples. Smith also was the top overall draft pick, but at least with Ryan Tannahill, he hadn't played a lot of football college and then he had shown moments in Miami and eventually had it work out.

But he did play a lot of football between the time he got drafted and went to Tennessee to be a backup. The answer is probably like a 10% that if it's over at some point, 15 or 20% that it ends up working out somewhere else or somewhere down the line. But this is a unique case with J.J. McCarthy. and I'm willing to look at the injuries and look at how far he was set back and say, you know what, this actually might still work because this is different than, hey, he played 25 games.

It was just bad. The injuries are, you know, a big part of the issue that's set him back. Viking Suns, Tiger says, Murray has rushed for over 3,000 yards. He can move the chains. Oh, his rushing is still phenomenal. I don't think he wants to run every play. but it's a it's a big game changer. His success rate was very high.

His success rate, if I'm remembering for my article at Purple Insider. Football looking at his data, his success rate was in the top 10 from 2020 to 2024. And that is one of the reasons because you can have a play go bad and still turn into a six-yard gain and that's a successful play, even if it's not perfect. David said this process by Brzezinski is what the wills want, develop more young talent through the draft. make sure that we are not deficient and well-stocked at the QB position, which is the reason, maybe you finish that. Oh, reason Carson Wentz will be quarterback three.

I like the idea of Carson Wentz being quarterback three because you know that even in the worst-case scenario, he could win you a couple games. The Chargers game was just a disaster. He wasn't healthy enough to play and it all went sideways. But before that, we were praising Carson Wentz. Say, hey, man, you win two out of four. Good for you. That's exactly what you're supposed to be.

as a backup. If he's QB3 and he's willing to take that job, but the Jets might want him as QB2, I just don't know if he wants to go there. He seemed very comfortable in Minnesota, very comfortable as part of the organization. He grew up a fan. He grew up in the region.

I mean, seemed to get along very well with J.J. McCarthy. Those two looked like they were connecting pretty well when he was here. So I like the idea of bringing Carson back. And you never know with the amount of injuries. If you might need him to save him, to save your season at some point. But it does look like Prisinski is guiding them the way that they've been asked to guide

him. I don't even know what those pre-draft grades you're talking about even are, but they certainly, I don't even know what that is. Is that like NFL.com or something? Look, we're not going to debate which player is more talented or better at football. We're really only talking about, because it's not remotely close. but what we're talking about is whether J.J. McCarthy can eventually get to a point if he has development time to be a starting quarterback for this team still, which I think the door remains

open for that. It's not completely closed. Any comparison of the two is just, I don't know what to, I don't know what to tell you. Like, you're, you're fooling yourself. You have a player who's been a top 12 quarterback pretty consistently when he's healthy and when he has good supporting cast, he's downright awesome. And that's, we're talking about someone who when they came out of college were the fifth quarterback in their draft taken and had barely even really played in college, much less did something. I mean, he won the national championship, but we all saw it, right?

Not Kyler Murray winning the Heisman. So it's, it's just a different story. It's just a very different story. The reason to draft J.J. McCarthy was that if he became good on the rookie contract, it could be Bo Nix and you've got a chance to build a sick team around it and potentially fight for a Super Bowl. Well, Kyler keeps you at least on that track. I mean, they're cutting some people, but they're not cutting everybody. Uh, okay, that's funny. Skull Shadow. Once he comes to Minnesota, he'll be the best baseball player in the state. Can I say real quick, since we're deep into this,

I'm in on the twins. I don't know about you guys. I'm in on the twins this year. I actually like what they did. forced Derek Felvey to sell off all the pieces. Then they got rid of him. And now they're resetting. And I think they're going in the right direction. They were scraping down a slippery wall for a long time and it wasn't working. So I like that they made a change. Dan, can you see the Vikings bringing back Aaron Jones than drafting a running back? I mean, it's possible if you're Aaron Jones. Is that something you want to do? I mean, maybe, maybe because Aaron is so well liked here and so well respected and is it the worst backfield if they brought back Aaron Jones and then drafted

Jonah Coleman or something or Emmett Johnson in the second round like no I think that's okay it's just I think with the age I would be so concerned about more injuries he's had so many injuries in his career I would be looking at that going I just don't know how you do it even if it's a small contract can he make it through five games without having an injury and that's with all respect to how hard he worked to avoid, try to avoid injuries, but the first night of the season, he's heard last year. And then dealing with different things when he came back, the burst was not the same when he's dealing with injuries. So I'd prefer that they get in free agency someone younger and then also make a draft pick as well.