Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Grading the Vikings' moves so far and the Falcons' tampering

Episode Date: March 16, 2024

Matthew Coller and Manny Hill talk about the Vikings' moves so far and how they would grade each one and talk about the investigation into the Falcons' alleged tampering and discuss the bigger context to moving on from Cousins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here along with Manny Hill returning to the show. And Manny, here's what I want to say to you. First of all, welcome back. Obviously, we were together often throughout the regular season, but not going to do shows every single week during the offseason with you. But I need to inform you of how many times that the chat has said, where is Manny? When is Manny coming back?

When are we going to hear Manny comment on Kirk cousins joining the Atlanta Falcons? So I'm just going to leave you the floor. You've had some time to think about it. You've had a few days to stew over what has happened so far. And I want you to tell me how you're feeling right now about the Minnesota Vikings, your thoughts on Kirk choosing the Atlanta Falcons. People have not heard from you yet. They have heard way too much from me recently. So fire away, Manny.

How are you feeling? I feel great about it because I think everybody wins in this situation in terms of, you know, Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings. Kirk, I think, gets everything he possibly could have wanted with a ginormous contract with a lot of guaranteed money, and he gets the no trade clause. Shout out to Mike McCartney, who got that to get part of the deal again. I mean, it's just a master class work of of uh sports agency on the on the part of mike mccartney and congrats to kirk getting getting that type of deal and and the falcons get you

know a veteran quarterback who's been very productive and very good for a long time and now they're in a position to really contend and possibly make some noise in the playoffs uh next year and for the vik, this is great for them as well because I think this allows them to really officially turn the page and sort of pivot and go into a new direction and really kind of focus on building something for the future to put themselves in a position to contend for a long time, depending on a lot of the moves that they make going forward.

So I'm ecstatic for everybody, really, because it really feels like a win-win situation for everybody involved. And this week has been really exciting because this is the first time in quite a while that the Vikings have been able to just be really active in free agency. And they have been. And I really like a lot of the moves that they've made so far. So this is, this has been great. It's been a lot of fun this week. So I want you to contextualize something for me here with Kirk cousins leaving the last six years and where it fits into your life,

watching Minnesota Vikings football, because when it's me talking, I moved here in 2016 to cover the team for what was 1500 ESPN. So I know Vikings history as you know, but I didn't live it here in the same way that you have. And when I bring on someone like Brian Murphy, he's a reporter. Murph is a hardcore reporter, just like me. Eric Eager, for example, is a football analyst as good as it gets. And Dane Mizutani, whose episode is going to run soon on the YouTube channel, is a reporter for the Pioneer Press.

So there's a lot of sort of objective opinionists and not necessarily someone in your shoes who grew up a Minnesota Vikings fan here with the roots as deep as it gets in this team. So I want you to sort of look at the history of this team, where the Kirk Cousins era sort of rests in your mind, what it sort of says, where it fits in, and what it means to be moving on from it. Like, give me your Vikings fan, put that hat on, and contextualize this for me in your mind.

Yeah, in a lot of ways, I think, you know, the organization was run differently from, you know, from what we've seen from the last six years, but it kind of falls into, I think that same category of, you know, sort of that towards the end of the Danny Green into the Mike Tice era, that sort of that six year period there where you saw some success, went to the playoffs a few times, but never really, you know, with the exception of, of 2000, 2000 you know with the 41 donut experience weren't really a lot of you know trips where it was like clips of the playoffs where it was like oh yeah this team this team is contending and this team is going to go on a on a on a deep run to the super bowl towards the end of the denny years you know they had a couple really nice seasons obviously and i'm talking

about like post 98 i mean 98 was obviously very real but 99 2000 they were they were contending but you know when you really look back on it they didn't really have you know certainly didn't have the defense that was good enough to really get them into contention for a super bowl and so when they transition into that tice, it was fun because it was Randy Moss, it was Dante Culpepper, but they were just kind of this middling 500 team, you know, and they were run very differently back then. This was pre, you know, Ziggy and Mark Wolf taking over as owners, you know, so this was the Red McCombs era. So it was run differently, but it was kind of the same sort of results

where it was frustrating at times because it was like, man, if they just do this differently, if they just add this player on defense, everything can kind of come together with what they have. And the Kirk Cousins era is kind of very similar to that,

where every year it was kind of like, well, if they just add this guy, if they just sign this guy, if they go sign go sign this guard they make a trade for this corner or they sign this guy then they're gonna have everything then it's gonna be fine then everybody be ready to go it just never never really happened they just never really got into the position that i think so many people were wanting them to go into so So I think to kind of compare, if I could reflect back on my life, you know, I'm going to be 40 years old in a month. And when I think about my lifetime,

that's kind of the comparison of those two eras that are, I think, pretty similar. Obviously different times, different players, different, you know, management style between the two times, but it's in terms of just frustration and exciting times on occasion, they're kind of on par with each other. This is something that I've thought about quite a bit over the Kirk Cousins era is exactly what you just said about the fleeting, exciting times that they had during this last six years, where we can pinpoint the moments where radio together, or now when we're seeing the chat, getting the emails, the DMs and so forth, where we interact so much with the fans that I feel like we have a good finger on the pulse of what the feeling is generally overall. times where you can say that something swept over the fan base, like this feeling of tremendous excitement, uh, even really since I've been here, but especially over the last six years.

So I can even just off the top of my head, kind of come up with a number of them. I mean, first of all, uh, you know, Sam Bradford going five and oh, and then there's all that excitement or, you know, case Keenum getting hot, uh, in the middle of the 2017 season. And then there's all that excitement or, you know, Case Keenum getting hot in the middle of the 2017 season. And then the Minneapolis Miracle, the day Kirk Cousins signed, there was very much that feeling. And even though we argued with fans up and down about whether it was a good idea to sign Kirk Cousins, the excitement level was there because the expectation was raised to be Super Bowl or bust. If you were naming a season like they did on the old NFL films, how they used to do that, it would have been Super Bowl or bust

would have been the name of that season. And even when they had their up moments, 2019, they won a lot of games, but there always seemed to be around the corner, something really disappointing. So in 2019, they've got a chance to beat the Green Bay Packers at home and compete to win that division. And the Packers just stomp their faces in and roll over them. And then you're playing in the wild card game, but you win the wild card game in dramatic and greatly entertaining fashion. You spend the week talking about how you're one step away, and then you just

get your face smashed in again by the 49ers. And then it's sort of rinse and repeat on different levels. You know, they get back in the playoff race in 2020 and 2021 only to have disappointing games where they were let down in 2022 was the last frontier of that, where it was like, all right, well, they're eight and one, they just beat the Buffalo bills. And that was an excitement level. Like I think we had never seen with Kirk Cousins. Then the next week they get smacked in the face again by the Dallas Cowboys. Everybody kind of realizes it's not really good enough.

And the end result ends up being the end result. And then the ironic last moment of a great game against the Green Bay Packers. You're about to get back to 500 with Kirk playing his best ball of the season. And then he pops the Achilles and the sort of stops and starts of maybe it will not. Well, but it could, no, it won't. And that's, that's how I'm going to remember it is every time we would play the sort of talk me into game where it works, then it eventually just kind of doesn't. And by the time we got to season six, it was like you had watched the saw movie over and over again.

And it's the same torture for Vikings fans. And it's better, I think, to have a movie end up with a bad ending than it is to have a movie ruined for you. And you already know what the ending is going to be. And that's what it really was with the Kirk Cousins era. But I will tell you something, Manny, one thing that I have never really truly been able to figure out that I have chased for so long with Kirk Cousins is how his numbers were so good. And when whoever pulls up those pro football reference pages 20 years from now, and what kind of quarterback was this guy? They're going to go, man, wow, this guy put

up some great numbers. And then like, why did they get rid of that guy and let him go to Atlanta? And, uh, I'll never really be able to quite figure it out how the seasons always went kind of the same way. The results were always kind of the same way the results were always kind of the same but the numbers were reflective of of like a top-notch quarterback but it wasn't ever really truly what we were seeing in front of our face it's a it's one of the strangest phenomenons I think I've ever run across in sports and you have to wonder like how is this going to go in Atlanta for him now, too? It's going to be really fascinating.

I think it'll be a little bit more fun to kind of watch because, you know, as somebody who doesn't have, like, a rooting interest in the Atlanta Falcons, it'll be easy for me to, like, watch it without having to have any sort of, like, frustration of, like, how can Kirk throw for 375 yards and four touchdowns with no picks and the Falcons lose by three? Like, how did that happen? You know what I mean? Where we saw that so many times during the past six years where it was literally frustrating. And to your point about just sort of the, the ebbs and flows and the ups and downs where we just had so many

moments where we were teased into thinking like this is gonna be it this is you know the the playoff win in new orleans that was i remember thinking wow bravo kirk cousins like played really well made a big time throw to adam theelin to set up the kyle rudolph touchdown in that game you're thinking okay well maybe this is year two with Kirk here and maybe maybe this is they're going to turn the corner here and if they go into San Francisco and lose it but if they're really competitive then you've got something that you've got something brewing but then it just like you say you just get you get your face kicked in you know what I mean and so it's going to be fascinating to watch how this whole thing with atlanta plays out because they're going to have

a great opportunity they're they're in a very similar position that the vikings were in when they signed kirk cousins six years ago um where they had you know really good talent on offense they just were looking for that quarterback to just plug in and play and go. So it's going to be fascinating to kind of watch how this sort of thing plays out in Atlanta. They've got a really good opportunity to have a nice season. I don't know if I'm ready to call them like a Super Bowl contender yet, but they're certainly going to be the favorites in that division, I think. And, you know, they're going to have an opportunity to get a home playoff game and maybe make some noise. And if some things go their way, maybe they end up in the NFC title game, who knows, but it's, it's going to be fascinating

to watch. And, um, I think a lot easier to watch because I won't have a rooting interest in it. Okay. I want to get into your evaluation and kind of grade of a lot of these moves that the Vikings have made, uh, including your grade on them, letting Kirk go knowing, uh, though, I think I have a pretty good idea what your grade is going to be for them, not, uh, extending Kirk cousins. But I do want to ask you a little bit more about the Falcons thing. If the Falcons win with Kirk and go farther than they've ever gone with the Vikings, what should people think about that? Because I know what I think people should think about that, but I want to hear that from you.

I think that ultimately if, if, if the Falcons, like, let's say, you know, maybe not this coming season, but in the 2025 season, they, let's say everything comes together for them. They go to the NFC Championship game, and maybe they play a really tight game with San Francisco or somebody, and they come up just short. I think what you do is you just tip your hat and you say, okay, good on you, Kirk Cousins. Congratulations. Ultimately, it was never going to happen here you know i i kind of look at it the same way you know different players different sport but i kind of look at it the way you know when andrew wiggins got traded to the golden state warriors

and they eventually won the title two years ago beating the boston celtics in the finals and andrew wiggins played really well in the finals like the Warriors do not win that title without his the wild without the way he played especially in that game five for them to go up three games to two but you know the reality is it was never going to happen with the Timberwolves you were never going to get you know Andrew Wiggins was never going to put the Wolves in a position to even like contend for a championship. It just was never going to work out. So ultimately, yeah. Does it kind of suck as a Minnesota sports fan?

Does it suck to see one of your former players go and win a championship with somebody else? We've seen it multiple times, you know, with with past, you know, some of our past favorite athletes here. It's tough to see, but I think you kind of recognize that it wasn't really going to happen here. And I think it's the same way with Kirk Cousins, is that you can not like it, and you can look back on it and wish, man, I wish it could have worked out better here. Wish he could have gotten us to an nfc championship game that type of thing but i think ultimately you have to look at the way the last six years played out and it's just it just wasn't going to work it just wasn't going to you know get the results that you wanted

and so i think you just you just tip your hat to kirk cousins and the atlanta falcons if everything works out for him and you just you move on and you kind of focus on, okay, what do the Vikings need to do going forward to get themselves in a better position to contend for a championship? Folks, if you don't know what a VPN is, you might actually need one and not even realize it. If you already know the positives,

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because my thought was very similar that if Kirk Cousins goes to Atlanta and succeeds, I don't think that it proves anything that we didn't already know about his time in Minnesota, which we always said, what would have to happen for cousins to win is you to build a behemoth roster that was reflective of what we've seen from Philadelphia or San Francisco. And then you would have to get the right matchups. And then you would have to have a lot of things go right for you. You kicker, they have a great kicker. Uh, your kicker makes every kick and

your defense plays extremely well. You win the turnover battle. You have the ball bounce your way. You don't get very many injuries. And when we look at where the Vikings are or would have been had they signed Cousins, building that roster around his cap hit was always really the trouble. I don't think anyone ever said it was impossible and we had seen him win a lot of games. It was always just the number of boxes you have to check. If you have Josh Allen to be in the NFC or AFC championship versus the number of boxes you have to check with Kirk cousins is different. If the Falcons are able to pull that off, congratulations to them, by the way,

how did they get there? Oh yeah. they haven't made the playoffs since 2017. They have consistently drafted in the top 10. Two, wait, no, three of their offensive weapons are top 10 draft picks. So not tanking, but tanking is essentially how they were able to build this team, which the Vikings were never willing to do. Just instead of tanking for a quarterback, it's almost like the Lions did with Jared Goff, where they tanked around a quarterback for Jared Goff, where they end up getting all those top picks and those top players.

And the Falcons have kind of done that. So if they are able to do it and they're able to pull it off and Kirk wins, then I agree agree tip your hat to him i wouldn't look back and go wow the vikings failed there because the falcons succeeded because the situations were just so much different and also we evaluate things on the thinking at the time so when we say the 2022 draft was bad at the time it didn't make sense at the time that we were asked to evaluate drafting a safety and a linebacker and a guard with top picks. Then we went, okay, this, I don't get it. Like the trade back and not get a first round pick. That's first guessing with this. It would be second guessing. If you said, oh, well, the Vikings blew it because the Falcons

won. Your first guess is what, that, that it was the best move for the Vikings and that Kirk is probably going to go there, win a good number of games, put up a lot of points, lose in the first round. And then everyone will say, well, you know, he got him back to the playoffs. Maybe next year we'll get a new guard and then we'll do it all again. Or I mean, I also it's possible. And this is part of the reason for the Vikings to move on that Kirk could get hurt again. We just saw him tear an Achilles. So you never know when that's going to happen again. And there's one other thing I wanted to bring up with you, uh, about the Falcons, which is, and William asks, this, uh, says, uh, uh, has, have I addressed the tampering stuff? Um, and I have not addressed the tampering stuff?

And I have not mentioned the tampering issue with the Atlanta Falcons, that the NFL is investigating the Falcons tampering with Kirk Cousins, because I guess, and I didn't listen to his press conference because I don't have to anymore, which is nice. So I didn't do that. I listened to Sam Darnold today instead, but I guess that sort of the quiet part has been said out loud by the Falcons that they were always talking to him or whatever. And so the NFL is looking into that. I could not care about anything less, Manny. I mean, that's just, look, I go to the combine every single year and there are about four places

around Indianapolis that are absolutely packed with NFL head coaches, executives, agents, et cetera. Former players are showing up there sometimes, uh, you know, looking for jobs or joining agencies or free agents. I saw NFL free agents showing up there, looking to try to meet with teams and stuff like that. There is such a cluster of humanity in the NFL that goes there. And plus teams sit down with these agents as well. How would you ever police someone saying in a meeting with Mike McCartney about whatever other player you have of his,

hey, by the way, let's talk about Kirk for a few minutes. I mean, what are we going to record every meeting between agents and teams and all this stuff? Are we going to have Roger send NFL police into high velocity inside of the JW Marriott over there? I mean, what are we talking about here? So I would imagine roger goodell uh like most investigations is sort of performatively investigating we'll find that there was no

tampering and we'll all move on and if he does find hard evidence good luck with that that there was tampering what do they just take a draft pick away from the Falcons? Nobody cares about this. Do you care about this? I don't think anyone cares about this. I don't give a damn at all. I mean, and do we even know, like, are the Vikings like filing a complaint with the league saying like, are the Vikings making some sort of outcry about this? Like, what is, what is, what is the deal? I mean, I don't, I don't really like the only way I would care about this is if, you know,

if we'd find out that the Vikings are going to get some sort of like compensatory pick or something like that, like if they're going to get awarded like a second round pick because the Falcons tampered or like, you know, that whole thing, I don't know. Otherwise it's kind of a nothing burger to me like i just don't think it really even deserves a lot of a lot of time unless something really serious is going to go down which when has that ever really happened i remember i didn't when when barb signed with the vikings didn't the packers tried to file some sort of or didn't they make some sort

of complaint about tampering or something from like the year before when they traded them to the Jets and I don't know it's just it's all just kind of dumb and unless something major is going to happen in in the way of like draft pick compensation then it doesn't really mean anything to me because then if that happens then you're really thinking about well you know maybe this is an extra ammunition for the vikings to trade up and take a quarterback in the top four who knows but that's not going to happen in terms of some sort of reward or something like that because the falcons you know briefly spoke to kurt cousins during the combine maybe i don't know it just i don't know it

just seems like a waste of time what i think happened at the combine is uh mike mccartney put together all the medical things that he could come up with about this achilles and he slid them under the door of the falcons and they slid a note back with a number and then it was knocked twice. If you agree, I mean, it, yeah, it doesn't matter. And Jared brings this up. Are there any good reasons why tampering is still a thing? Why exactly, what exactly would be the difference if people were just allowed to talk whenever? Yeah, there is no difference because they can, because they have cell phones. The whole tampering thing seems to be invented like many, many years ago where you

weren't supposed to call up other players or try to recruit players to leave their teams and come to your team or whatever. But now that everybody can talk to everybody whenever they want, I see no reason to keep these things on the books. And I also think if there is a filed complaint by the Vikings, now they acted like they didn't care about this today in the press conference when they were asked, but if there was some sort of bad blood, I guess with the Vikings toward the Falcons, maybe sound a little snarky KOC at the combine. But even if that is the case, it would just be sour grapes.

He ain't coming back. It's not like they're going to void the contract because they, you know, whispered and sent, no, do you like me circle? Yes. If you do at the NFL combine, I don't think that was that was ever going to happen. So let's go through these, Manny. I got to get your opinion on all these things that have happened. We're playing catch up here. Like old friends who haven't talked in, well, you know, a couple of weeks. We've actually regularly talked, but at least these things hashed out. So I think we can just surmise, I wrote it down that you would give the Vikings letting Kirk go to Atlanta and a, is that correct? Yes, I would give it an a plus in fact, because I think it's something that we talked about really after Kirk Cousins got hurt.

I mean, we really kind of talked about like, yeah, it's probably time to just move on and focus on finding that next young quarterback and trying to rebuild and sort of replenish this roster. So give it an A-plus for me. Yeah, that one has been discussed maybe at length. Although, you know what? Another thing about the Cousins era that it'll be defined by is how long we talked about him potentially leaving because he was negotiating contracts every couple years. After 2019, I thought that Kirk Cousins was going to go after 2019 because that draft had so many good quarterbacks.

And turns out all of them turned out to be good in 2020 you know from Joe Burrow to Tua to Herbert to uh Jordan Loves like they've all turned out to be good so you know there's that but I thought because of that draft that there was a decent chance that he was going to leave after that and instead decided to stick around. And they actually signed him very early and then traded Stefan Diggs from out from under him. And that was also weird. It didn't seem to match up. Like, wait a minute, you're trading Stefan Diggs, his best wide receiver. You're letting all this talent go, but then you're signing him to an extension where the most, uh, the highest cap hit is in 2021, where you're

actually probably going to be better and have developed some replacements. It didn't, none of it, none of that ever added up, but every year it was like, is he staying? Could they trade him? The number of times we've done episodes or articles, should they trade him? Is he going to be extended? That was exhausting in itself. Every off season. Signing Sam Darnold.

I actually have not spoken with you about this. So I am curious about your opinion of the Vikings choosing Sam Darnold as, uh, their Murph called it the spackle quarterback rather than the bridge, because it's kind of covering up a hole in the wall right now, but it is not a permanent solution. I like the spackle quarterback much more than the bridge. So your feelings on Sam Darnold, give that a grade. I'll give it a B plus. I think I like the move because there's an opportunity there

for Sam Darnold to maybe revitalize his career a little bit, get him in a situation where he's got some weapons to throw to an offensive minded head coach. And, you know, just see what you can see what you can get at out of him. And I also like it because it's not a long term commitment. And I think it also represents that this team is going to attempt to draft a quarterback in the first round, you know, next month. And I think that's something that I've been pounding, pounding the table with my fist for, for, you know, dating all the way back to the last season. So I like the move, you know,

I $10 million is a little much, I think for my liking, but I think ultimately you got to spend that money somewhere. It's a one-year deal. I don't think it's a super high-risk sort of situation. Hey, let's see what Sam Darnold has. Let's see what he can do. I think it could be something

that can work out for him. I'll give it a solid B+. I think of all the options, and I made a list. I should go back and look at my list. So I'll give it a solid B plus. I think of all the options and I made a list, I should go back and look at my list. Maybe I can find my list of the quarterbacks because I do a series on the sub stack, go to purpleinsider.com newsletter comes out every day.

There's going to be a mailbag that's going to take me 14 hours to answer every question, but I always answer every question. So go check that out. But I did a future of the Vikings series and I wrote down a bunch of names and he was there. And I'm going to try to pull this up here. Cause I I'm curious, like who I included, because this was a while ago for potential quarterbacks. All right. I've got this. Who did I include? Okay. I included, uh, Kyler Murray, not happening. It's becoming very clear. That's not happening. Mac Jones. That's going to be a no for me, dog.

Uh, Baker Mayfield got way more money than I would have expected. So no, that wasn't a good choice. Gardner Minshew. How would you compare it to a Gardner Minshew? I probably would have preferred Gardner Minshew just from the standpoint of, I think he's, I mean, I think he's better than Sam Darnold. I know he didn't really have a great year with the Colts last year, but I think the, the overall body of work has been obviously, I think better than Sam Darnold. And, you know, I think he can step into a situation and you know, you know, I think very similarly to Sam Darnold, you know, he's not going to come in and think that he's supposed to have a multi-year deal and be the team's long-term starter.

I mean, he's, you know, I think even going into the situation in Vegas thinking, yeah, they could probably, they might draft a quarterback. And if they don't draft one this year, they're probably going to draft one next year. So I'm just going to come in and be a professional, do my job and try to win as many games with this team as I possibly can. So that's ultimately like in terms of like a bridge quarterback, that's what I'm looking for.

Um, and I think, you know, Sam Darnold has a chance to, to be that as well. But I think if you're just talking in terms of which guy i would rather have between the two it's probably gardner minshu because i i tend to trust that he'll perform a little bit better um but you know i i think you know darnold was also cheaper because what did what did minshu get he got two and 20 was it two and 25 from the Raiders something like that yeah I think that's right um and maybe a little bit more guaranteed around the same amount but they under team control for two years Minshew is so much more of a Ryan Fitzpatrick type

than Darnold and I think the difference is that there is this like finger quote upside where you still have to say it. It has not been totally decided that Sam Darnold is who he is and he's not old enough to have totally decided Gardner Minshew is who he is, but that is a decent starting quarterback that fills a spot for you. And we know that there's a little bit more of guarantee on the box of what Gardner Minshew would give you as opposed to it's pretty erratic throughout Sam Darnold's career. And it could be erratic here. It could be, he looks great in training camp. It could be, he looks terrible, which like there's been a lot of different iterations of Sam Darnold. As he's gone along, there was the time in New York where they thought he was going to be the guy

because he had some huge December and then came out the next year. And I think they won like two games or something. So, you know, there's been a lot of those ups and downs, right? I feel like with Minshew, he's kind of been the same guy all the way through. Russell Wilson, that was a no for me. Were you out on that? Yep, totally out. I don't think it was a no for me were you out on that yep totally out i don't think it was a fit i don't

want to i would not want to deal with everything that i think would come with russell wilson come here he would be the probably the cheapest option because the broncos are still paying him and so you could probably sign him like the steelers did to you know a veteran minimum contract. So money-wise, it would make some sense. But just the overall sort of sideshow of him coming in, and it's like, is he going to do the let's ride Vikings country, kind of like what he did? I don't want to see any of that. And I just don't really know how much Russell Wilson really has left in the tank.

And when you're talking about a bridge quarterback, you don't, you're not really thinking about like, you know, what is this guy going to look like three or four years from now? Cause it doesn't matter. You're not thinking about that far down the line with somebody like that, but he's also a guy that's trying to like, I think sort of repair his reputation a little bit and try to rejuvenate his career as like somebody's franchise quarterback. And I don't know if that's the type of guy you want,

you know, when you're trying to draft a young guy to, you know, to develop and grow. I don't know if you want a guy like Russell Wilson who still thinks he's somebody's franchise quarterback going forward. I don't know if that's the best situation for a young guy behind him. You know, I think if the Vikings had a bunch of guys who were 32 years old and Kirk left them, even if they offered him whatever amount of money and you just needed somebody, and that's where he makes a lot of sense for Pittsburgh because they kind of do have that. They have a bunch of older players, Cameron Hayward, Minka Fitzpatrick. Their stars are not all that young, and Mike Tomlin really needs to win, needs to get into the playoffs, win a round. So go for the best quarterback you could get at almost no price.

The Vikings, I don't think, are in that same spot. Plus, you just can't put Russell Wilson with a young quarterback. That's just not him. He is the show. He is the centerpiece and look, I don't blame him. His career has earned that, but not who he's been recently, but try telling any pro athlete that, Hey, by the way, Michael Jordan, these aren't your wizards. Yeah, right. Like he's, you know, he's going to make them their team. So I don't think it would have been

a very good fit. I also think that O'Connell loves throwing the ball over the middle of the field, something Russell Wilson just does not do over his career. He's an outside the numbers thrower. So Ryan Tannehill, Marcus Mariota, Tyrod Taylor, Jacoby Brissett, Carson Wentz, and that's the list. Anybody on that list that would have been a better option than Sam darnold maybe jacoby brissett you know i think they're yeah there's there's a there's a track record there of him being you know pretty reliable and and playing well and you know he's not going to come in at you know demanding to be the team's long-term starter like he's a guy that i think would actually really want to help a young, you know, rookie quarterback that's, that you're trying to develop.

So I, I, you know, Jacoby, I think I would have been cool with the other guys. I mean, Tannehill. No,

I don't think he really has much of anything left. And he kind of indicated a couple of years ago when I think was, was it when they, the Titans drafted Malik Willis that he basically wasn't interested in really helping Malik Willis grow and develop? And not sure. I mean, obviously, knowing what we know now about Malik Willis, it probably wouldn't have mattered. But still, just I don't know if that's the kind of mindset you want from a guy, again, much like Russell Wilson. You want a guy that is going to be sort of a positive influence on the young guy.

And I don't think Ryan Tannehill would have been that. Folks, have you ever heard of test driving a phone network? I did not make this up. It is an actual thing. And U.S. Cellular is letting you test drive their network for free for 30 days. You can try out U.S. Cellular wherever you have that spotty service, like on your commute to work, that one spot in your house where your service dips. Test drive U.S. Cellular at your kid's school on parent-teacher night. Okay, maybe still pay attention, but by all means,

make sure you test it. It's as easy as doing a little boop, boop, boop on your phone. That was me getting the app to try it out. I know great sound effects there. Test drive us cellular award-winning network for 30 days. Us cellular built for us terms apply awards based on open signal, independent data, visit us cellular.com for details. Okay. That was a very deep breakdown of your B plus of sam darnold being the vikings quarterback but uh yeah i give it i get high marks because i think he can be

that guy who is there for a younger quarterback as well as providing quality competition so and it seems like he's totally fine with that i mean he talked today about that possibility and just kind of said look i'm gonna work my hardest no matter what. He proved that last year with Brock Purdy. And so we already have a sample size to say that that will be the case. Jonathan Grenard versus Daniil Hunter. It's not really a one versus one here. People will make it that as they let Hunter go to sign Grenard, but it's sort of Grenard plus the flexibility of Grenard's contract around the same amount of guaranteed money, two years versus four years. You could do a lot more with the salary cap over four years than two. And also the other players, which we'll get to that they were

able to bring in. But I think as you grade them, you have to simultaneously grade Jonathan Grenard joining and Daniil Hunter leaving so what is the grade of of that decision well that you know when in fact when you put it that way I had to think about it for a minute because you know I think if you're looking at the Grenard signing on and in itself I give it I give it a solid A because he's a guy that's at a pretty good age. He was obviously very productive for the Texans last year, very good pass rusher. The PFF numbers are pretty good. And you got him on a pretty nice contract. And like you said, it's a four-year deal. So it's a deal that you can kind of manipulate and and change around and restructure over the

next couple of years if you need to um but i think when you factor in the daniel hunter angle of this of daniel hunter leaving for nothing that's where it kind of becomes like well that might have been a mistake because they had an opportunity to to to move on from him, you know, during the season and they chose to hang on to him because they still wanted to try and make a run for the playoffs. And I know the players wanted to keep the kneel around the coaches did as well. But you knew that this was going to be a possibility that he was going to

walk for nothing if you didn't trade them. And that's exactly what happened and so i think you have to factor that in and so i think when you factor both of those things in i'll give it a i'll still give it a solid b because i do like the grenard signing but i think hanging on to hunter without really much of a chance to retain him beyond the 2023 season, I think was a big mistake in letting him walk for nothing. I agree that B is the right grade here because Grenard can continue this with his age. He does have some injury history.

I don't think it's a disturbing injury history. It's like football players get hurt. I don't think it's Marcus Davenport level. I saw some comparison to that. I don't, I just don't agree more of along the lines of banged up a bit, as opposed to this guy has had so many injuries that he's missed so much time that it's hard to ever see him playing like a full season. No, Grenard is coming off a full season, tweaked an ankle at the end of the year, played 15 games. If he gives you 15 games, you're pretty happy with that. But there is enough to downgrade it a little to say that if your answer to Daniil Hunter is someone with an injury history, we can bang that a little bit. You can't

get an A plus for that. And then the fact that they didn't get draft capital back for Hunter when we all could have seen it coming, that they weren't going to make the playoffs after letting Kirk Cousins go. That also goes into this grade as well. Grenard is not the player that Daniil Hunter is. That is just a fact of the matter. There are very few people who are, and I'll give him credit for this, though. He name dropped Chris Dolman today talking about the history of the Vikings and edge rushers.

So he does get a little upgraded for that. But you're losing a player who's great. And would anybody be surprised if Daniel Hunter is 35 and still gets 12, 13, 14 sacks? And part of it is because from the beginning, you didn't come in and sign him to a longer term extension, which now that we know the answer about his health, that he's been healthy the last two years, completely 17 games each of the last two years.

Then it's also a mistake to have not extended Hunter from the beginning when Kweisi Adafo-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell got here. So it's more like a C plus because you don't have Daniil Hunter. You don't have a second round pick and you do have a player who I think is good, but I do not put in the same category as a Daniil Hunter, who is truly upper echelon in the NFL pass rusher. So I would go like C plus on that one.

Maybe B minus, but I still think it's fine. And what the other players, they were able to get factored in. But some of that stuff is with hindsight, you could look back and go, okay, we know that there was some mistakes there. And I'm not totally sure that Jonathan Grenard will just get 13 sacks every year because he's really only done it once. So that's another part of the factor as well. I think he's a really good player. Uh, how about these paired together? A couple of linebackers,

Andrew Van Ginkle and Blake Cashman and Vikings fans got their first look at Andrew Van Ginkle today. And, uh, he went to Wisconsin. If you hadn't seen him there before long hair, you know, just, uh, his name is Van Ginkle. I don't don't know he's just like this is a linebacker folks this is a linebacker a do-it-all linebacker who I really like and Blake Cashman I've never seen someone so excited to do their press conference with us he was having a great day Minnesota guy went to the go first I mean just super super happy it was fun to see but how do you grade those two moves? I like them both. I'm going to give it an A minus.

And I'm going to pat myself on the back a little bit with the Andrew Van Ginkle thing because I think it was about a month ago where we did a show and we talked about, like, if the Vikings just have unlimited resources, you know, if they're going to bring Kirk Cousins back and they've got unlimited resources with cap space, they're just going to spend, spend, spend. Who are you going to get? And Andrew Van Ginkle was one of the guys that I looked at and said, you know what? You look at his PFF grades.

He's an edge rusher. He can, you know, he can get off the, you know, he can, you know, pressure the quarterback and things like that. And you probably would not have to break the bank to sign him, which the Vikings did not have to do. So I, I love it. I thought it was a great signing Blake Cashman, same thing. You know, he was really good for the Texans last year. Obviously the local connection, I think makes it even more exciting, you know he's a good player i mean blade cashman has really turned himself into um a really really solid nfl linebacker and you know he's at kind of a nice age to both of these guys you know ben ginkle's a little bit on the older

side i think he's going to turn 29 this summer but uh cashman 27 28 years old um with still you know maybe some room to to get even better you know maybe we haven't seen the best out of him yet and last year was really good with the texans so i like it i i'll give it a a um a solid a because i i like both moves with uh with both guys i do too i think uh both positions are pretty significantly upgraded. Van Ginkle is a much better player than DJ Wanham, all respect to what he tookman could give you, he's under contract for three, but even more, three to five more years of really good play. Whereas Jordan Hicks, that would be betting on a guy who's really been through it body-wise, was not as quick as he used to be. So these guys, I think are real impact players. And if we're grading the fit, I think it's an A plus fit for both of these guys. Cashman was a green dot at times in Houston. It was a key part of D'Amico Ryan's defense. I

think there's intelligence there that, you know, Brian Flores is going to work with. Well, he moved around a little bit, but now he'll do more of that. He was a good pass rusher with the Gophers. I think they'll use that more than he did at the Texans. And then Van Ginkle, he was already used really well with Brian Flores. He was part of those Brian Flores defenses that went from worst in the league in 2019 to being an elite defense by 2021. And this guy was a big part of it. So he already knows Flores.

He already knows how he operates. And we can look back at his exact performance and say, yeah, this is what he was in this defense. And at a very reasonable price. I mean, I think it was 14 million fully guaranteed. That's hardly anything for a guy who can impact the game. To me, these were the best signings. These are the ones that I want to grade the absolute highest. Now, was there anything else that, anything else that stuck out to you? I mean, I wrote this down. Brandel, Powell, Bullard, those guys coming back. Someone named Trent Shurfield is now a Vikings to bounce around receiver. And Jerry Tillery, who's not the answer at defensive tackle, I can tell you that. So I don't have any others to grade, but how about this, Manny? Let me give you a hypothetical. Tell me how you would grade it.

If the Vikings traded two first round picks, number 11 and next season, along with two second round picks to get the fourth overall selection, ensuring that they were going to get a quarterback in this draft, how would you grade that hypothetically? I'd give it an A. This is what I want them to do. You know, if you're telling me that J.J. McCarthy is going to be there at 11, maybe I wouldn't, you know, if you're going to guarantee me that J.J. McCarthy was going to be available with the 11th pick,

I might not give it as high a grade because it's like, well, why don't you just keep the future assets and take the guy at 11 but mccarthy's gonna go on the top 10 and you're gonna have to contend for you know with some of these other teams maybe to get him or a drake may you know maybe mccarthy goes number three and may would fall to you at four um if you do that and you get into that position to take a guy like this is this is what i've been wanting them to do this is this is this is it you know this is your chance this is your opportunity to get that young quarterback and try and uh and and really build a roster around him over the next you know three four years and think about this collar you you

trade you you trade up. You get that young quarterback, whether it's May, McCarthy, whoever. Think about the resources that they're going to... You're giving up draft picks, but think about the resources they're going to have in 2025 with all the cap space they're going to have

because the Kirk Cousins dead cap hit is off the books. The Daniil Hunter dead cap hit is off the books. The Daniil Hunter dead cap hit is off the books. You're in prime position to really do what you want to do to put this team together and get yourself in position to contend. So I, if, if they pull this off, if they can move up and get a guy really, really solid a for me. Yeah, I would feel the same way.

I would feel like it was the connecting of the circle of where you started and or the painting of the picture do you ever watch the bob ross uh the pbs guy those of us who grew up without cable the painter dude and he would start painting and you'd see it and you'd be like i don't see a forest man what like i just see a bunch of you know random colors and then he would bring it around and by the end he's got this beautiful painting and you're like now i'm seeing it and that's what it's kind of been like with this competitive rebuild where at times you go and i don't really see what the competitive rebuilding is here or if this move or that move and even not trading someone like Hunter last year like I'm not really seeing it but if they

were to trade all those draft picks to make sure that they got a quarterback then I would see it then it would be like all right you know what in the micro view some mistakes along the way but in the macro view now I see the entire picture. And that's, that's what we're looking for is to really, by the end of this, understand what they were setting out to achieve and to see it come to fruition. If they were to not trade up, wait till 11, not pick a quarterback, take a defensive tackle, and then not trade back in for a quarterback or something. I'd be like, is Sam Darnold our quarterback here? Like, is that what we're doing? But you know, I got no indication at the press conferences today

that they think Sam Darnold is their quarterback. I mean, I think Kweisi D'Affomensa described it as he's a quarterback under contract. I was like, wow. I mean, that's got to make you feel great. He's going to call his mom. Mom, the GM called me a quarterback under contract. I think it's going to work out here. Like there was no enthusiasm really whatsoever. So, you know, anyway, going back to the Kirk and Atlanta tampering thing,

apparently Kirk in his press conference said that he had contacted the Falcons before he was a free agent officially. So he essentially incriminated himself for tampering. But again, I don't really care. And I am reminded by the chat that there was an actual tampering penalty handed down of a pick swap of the Arizona Cardinals and Philadelphia Eagles. So, um, yeah, we can look forward to some sort of majorly punitive thing. I'm sure coming down, uh, for the Minnesota Vikings, but maybe, maybe like, uh, uh, who was it? There was a good, funny comment about your one 800, uh, tampering or something.

Are you entitled to compensation? So I guess the Vikings probably are, but I doubt it's anything that's going to change your opportunity to draft a quarterback. All right, let's, uh, let's finish on this and then I'll spend a little time. I have to, I really have to write, uh, but I will spend a little time answering some questions from fans after you pop out. But who do you like, man? Do you have a guy in the draft? I mean, we talked about it a little bit toward the end of the season, but the combine hadn't happened yet, things like that. So I'm curious as this whole thing is played out, if you have somebody that as you've learned

more, you've read your tape analysis, you've watched YouTube highlights, combine interviews and so forth, who you think would be the best fit for the Vikings? I think Drake May would be the best fit. I know there's been some talk, especially in the last week, week and a half, about some people being down on Drake May. I still like him a lot. I still think he has a chance to be really good. I think if you put him in a good situation with weapons,

with an offensive-minded head coach, I think you're really going to give him an opportunity to have a lot of success. And, oh, look at the Vikings. They have weapons and an offensive-minded head coach who played the position himself. I mean, I think it would make a lot of sense if it's Drake May. If it's J.J. McCarthy, you know, I've really –

I've warmed up to the idea of J.J. McCarthy in the last couple of weeks, not just because he's shot up a lot of people's draft boards, but I think there's an opportunity, I think, for him to have some success too. I think just my concern with him was just he was asked to do so little with Michigan from the standpoint of he was not asked to be very productive for them. But I think there's something to be said for a guy to step in with a roster that's that good with a lot of pressure riding on him,

not just pressure on the head coach to win at a high level, but pressure on him as well to sort of lead the team and to run the offense and playing in a lot of big games, beating Ohio State twice, and finding a way to beat Alabama in the Rose Bowl and then doing enough in the national championship game. I think he seems like a high-character guy. There is some talent there.

So if it's J.J. McCarthy, I'd be fine with that, but I think my first preference would probably be Drake May. With J.J. McCarthy, and we've got time to talk about it a lot more heading up to the draft. But my 32nd thing on McCarthy is it's okay to have questions about a quarterback and also like the idea of drafting him. We can do that. You don't, everyone doesn't have to act like they're Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless all the time with every opinion.

It's one thing I like about our little group of fans that watch our show, Vikings fans, is that a lot of times they think in nuanced manners. And so I appreciate that about, you see it in the questions and the comments and things like that. But so often it becomes, do you love that

quarterback more than anything in your entire life? And you would throw yourself in front of a bus to save his life. Or would you rather push him in front of the bus? Cause you hate him. And it's like, that's just not how anything works though. Because you can say, I'm a little concerned about the fact that against Penn state, they had third and 10, they handed off. That happened. And also, it wasn't very precise in some of the biggest games against Iowa or in the national championship game. There is accuracy issues.

There is deep ball issues. But you can also say if they drafted him, you'd think it'd be a really good decision. And that goes for pretty much anyone. I mean, Drake May has some low lights that would make Shaqton a fool, but yet at the same time, like, yeah, the tools and everything else seemed to fit really perfectly with Kevin O'Connell. So that's, that's just like, if you go for nuance, you often, um, miss the bus on, on the hot takes and retweets and shares of your short video where you're screaming about one quarterback

guaranteeing there'll be a bust or a success or whatever, but you end up looking silly. You end up saying that Desmond Ritter would be QB one, which I took the time today as I was waiting for a press conference to just search on Twitter, Desmond Ritter QB one to see which draft analysts were super high on a quarterback that had no discernible top end skill to me, but I've been wrong before too. So just to show you how wrong your favorite analysts can be when it comes to quarterbacks, which is why I'd be totally good with it if they drafted the guy they liked the most. So where this all goes will be fascinating. I think the next move is though trying to secure a trade up if that's what they want to do,

unless they are sold on the second level of quarterbacks beyond those top four. All right, final thoughts, Manny. A new wave, a new breath of fresh air. What is it called in Star Wars? It's like a new generation, something. Are you not a Star Wars guy? Lukewarm on Star Wars. A a new beginning maybe a new beginning a new hope a new hope yeah i think that's that's that's it that's

it vikings post kirk generation colon a new hope final thoughts yeah of course jonathan just shoots me a text immediately like he's been waiting Like he's been waiting for any reference he could jump in on. Thank you, Jonathan. when the offseason started. And I couldn't be more thrilled. I like a lot of what they've done in free agency. And now it seems like, it feels like, there's going to be a legitimate attempt to move up and secure that young quarterback and try to build on him and build on a future. So I'm excited and I'm looking forward to seeing how everything sort of plays out. I,

I wish the draft was like next week so that we could really find out what's going to happen, but we still have about a month and a half. So, um, let the speculation begin and, uh, I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be a lot of fun. Well, you're the best Manny. Thanks so much for taking the time here. We'll definitely get together again as the off season goes along and big moves happen. And absolutely after the NFL draft, probably before and after if you're not too busy. So we'll make sure to grab you then, but thanks again for jumping on man. And we will talk football again, very soon.

Football everybody. I know a lot of you were asking for Manny's takes over the last few days. So there you go. Did not disappoint, as always.