Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Harrison Smith update! Vikings almost at full strength vs. Bears (Part 2)

Episode Date: September 7, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about the Vikings injury report with Christian Darrisaw and Harrison Smith updates from Kevin O'Connell and then Andrew Krammer of the Star Tribune joins the show to give a hard core breakdown of matchups. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

Josh says Joshua. Is Justin's school going to be good? Dudes in for Dairsaw, potentially in for Derasaw. As of right now, it seems like it all comes down to just the medical evaluation when he wakes up tomorrow. Does he wake up tomorrow with swelling? Does he wake up tomorrow with pain or is he good to go? And if he's good to go, then it's football time. Just in school, I think if you're asking for a man,

matchup, he can survive. It's this one. If there was an amazing speed rusher on the other side, that I would be a lot more concerned about. But school can, I mean, David Questenberry held up against this team last year just good enough to get by. The difference is enormous, though. Sean says, I think we see the Vikings march the field very well on Monday and win by 16 to 20 points. In a league where every game seems to be one score, which I kind of, lost it last night a little bit, kind of lost it. I sent out a much more polite tweet than was in my brain. So exhausted of the one-score game stuff.

We've talked about this on the show for three years and how really win probability in the fourth quarter, sometimes it's 80% and you close out a team by a score like the 49ers game last year. Sometimes it's a 50-50 and you get a lucky thing happens. sometimes it's luck sometimes it's not it's not a predictive number in the way that people act like it is just last night with the chiefs they won all their one score games they're in look they got beat by uh by uh by uh the chargers they got beat it was the chargers i'll play them the chargers this is a yeah that was a great example of a one score game that

the chargers were the better football team from start to finish kansas city made it close at the end, as most football games have happened. But that was the Chargers game. They outplayed them the whole time. It's a great example because that luck, oh, well, one score games are luck. That wasn't luck. The Chargers were great. So, I don't know.

Anyway, sorry to go on that rant. But if I hear, it's going to be hard because every Chiefs game is on national TV. And every time it's going to be like, they're only two and one score games. And they've won all of them last year forever. so i mean that's that statistical analysis was done like 15 years ago and it was good stuff at the time it's like how on base percentage was a real good development at one point for people to focus on and then we got little trackers that tell you exactly how much a sinker ball breaks like things change and still doing the same analysis on one score games as if it's 2005 is crazy to me

it's just, it's just not good. And we have win probability models. Anyway, okay, I'm going to move on. I'm going to move on. Mr. Mayor says, can we stop and acknowledge how awesome it is? The season has started and meaningful games been played. Buddy, I needed it bad. I needed it bad.

I'm already losing my mind over, you know, broadcast stuff. We're back. Patrick says, do we know who's punt and kick returning? Yep, that's Miles Price. and if you're making a best bet, it seems like a lot of you are saying the best bet is that maybe Miles Price makes a mistake. So let's go the other direction then.

Miles Price, is it a best bet that maybe he makes a difference on a big return? The guy's got talent. I'm really interested to see. The guy's got a lot of talent. And, you know, a ball bounces around a little bit in his fingertips. And of course, we're like, oh my gosh, is he going to ruin the season?

because that's, we've seen every possible way a Vikings game can be lost at this point, including Adam Thiel in 2016. It was kind of funny when they were talking about him as the backup punt returner, which I don't believe at all, that he'll ever return a punt this year. But the last time the guy caught a punt, he fumbled it in 2016. Like, I don't think that's any more reliable than anyone else. Maybe I should have kept Silas Bolden on the practice squad or something. but Mr. Mayor says, I don't care of Price muffs a kick or a punt.

I can't take another year with KOC even trying, not, I assume, yeah, not even trying to make special teams meaningful. That's true. This is a little bit of a more aggressive play because they definitely could have had somebody who is a veteran who's caught a lot of punts before and he just ends up like catching some punts and fair catching. I mean, does anyone, what was your favorite Brandon Powell? punt return last year. The answer is

none of them because he never returned any of the punts, which made sense because they were winning all the time and they weren't in a position where they needed someone to make a special play. But I tend to agree, like, they've seen a lot of this guy and they really like him, so he

gets a chance. And he is a playmaker with a ball in his hands. But betting that the special teams will be a part of this, yep, I think that's a fair bet. Kitt's already guessing a safety or a strip six. Okay, that's possible.

Is the faithful? Caleb Williams doesn't throw picks because he's always sacked to the ground is absolutely true. Brian juxtaposition word of the day. Feel free to use it. I like it. Very, very useful word. Let's see. Marauder Shudur will be the topic, Cleveland Week.

Yeah, you're probably right about that. depends, kind of depends on where that team ends up. But you can count on, you know, the other team being the main focus until the Vikings prove it. And, I mean, I do think there will be a lot more J.J. McCarthy debate than there was in the past. Vegas Patriot says Gernard will be a man on fire in this game. Three plus sacks against the Bears and eight by week five defensive player of the year. anybody who is putting high expectations on Jonathan Granard, I say, do it.

The way that he's looked so far, the way that he performed last year continues to ascend, do it. Deplorable Neanderthal. I think the Bears' corners trying to match our wide receivers is a big story. Jalen Johnson, not healthy. Totally agree. Totally agree. Jalen Johnson's health is not 100%.

It's going into this game questionable. and if he does play, then that really puts into question how much he can do. Can he track Justin Jefferson? And if he's out there, are the Vikings just going to motion Jefferson constantly? Are they going to run him all over the place and try to test that injured groin slash something else that was also injured? Not 100% sure how to pronounce your name. I'm sorry about that. Dinesh, I assume, says you may have covered this already, but why the stretch.

out of secrecy over Harrison Smith's illness slash injury. Well, if Harrison comes back, then we'll talk to him and we will get answers from him or however much he wants to reveal. How I would put it would just be that there are things that I think all of us as football reporters, you guys as football fans, the gambling community, et cetera, say hi to buddy. He's here. This means I need to play the Andrew Kramer interview. shortly, but he always lets me know.

Okay, so there are things that I think everybody has a right to know about player injuries, an ankle, a shoulder, whatever it might be, right? And then there's other stuff that every person might have health things that they don't want to share with the entire world. And I respect that when it comes to the Harrison Smith thing. I haven't asked a bunch of people, what's going on, what's going on with Harrison Smith, whatever, because I just understand that. I think everybody knows somebody in their life. And I'm not saying this from a position of like, I know, I know he's hiding this or that or whatever.

I just mean that, like, that's a human thing. And when it comes down to that, if it's something that he doesn't want to share, then I think you just have to respect that. But I mean, we do know from the fact that he was listed as doubtful that. that that means that there's a chance that he plays and very, very likely is coming back really soon. So, you know, if he comes back from whatever illness it was and doesn't want to share it, I think that's okay. If it was an ankle injury and they were hiding it,

that would be BS. But I don't think that that's it. So let's see, because Zincad Moss is one of the five people that actually deserve the generational town. I know, yeah, you guys know about how I, you know, feel about that terminology calling guys generational talents just frustrates the heck out of me it's just unfair every player needs to come in and learn how to play in the NFL the same way nobody's above it no 10 that's jamaurcus russell is a better talent than caleb williams i don't even think

it's that close and he didn't work out ryan leaf was every bit the talent calip williams is everybody has to do the work and if he didn't want to to do the work and wanted to blame everybody else, then this is how you end up where he's at right now. And we'll see if that changed. I shot you 99 compared to the defensive performances from the two games. Do you think the Vikings defense is way above what we saw from the four teams that played sure looked like it to me. I thought the Chargers defense was really good. That Patrick Mahomes had to make insane plays. And we could see this with the Vikings and the Bears, right? He had to make insane plays.

to make anything happen for that offense. I thought the Chargers was really good, and they were really good last year. That's the one I would say is the closest, probably. Just the closest to what I expect from the Vikings against the Chicago Bears is that Caleb Williams is going to make some breathtaking plays, and it's going to be at times frustrating even. And they have to also create the negative plays for him.

so 17 McMullen did you see CHGO sports had to apologize to their subscribers for having Tyler on it's like I said man it's just lashing it's just lashing out that's that's what that's what it really is just lashing out uh they know that that stuff is real they know that that stuff happened and look I it's really funny because I actually thought that it made the coaches look kind of bad themselves as much as it made the, you know, Caleb Williams camp look pretty bad and unprepared and all that. It also made the coaches look like they didn't know what to do. So anyway, let's see. MJ says no football genius, but isn't a big weakness to the forest defense a fake hike to show a little bit of what the defense is going to do. in this case with Caleb Williams, who I guess had to have his cadence be ready set go.

I don't know, but I'm sure Ben Johnson is built in a lot more. I think that they have answers to that as well. Like they have fake, right, like that's always been a thing. Get to the line of scrimmage, start the cadence, see who starts to come forward. I think that that is mixed into this defense. I don't think that's like a hack necessarily. nailer touchdown like that for a best bet like that let's see let me get a couple of uh brian says uh the dogs on defense off the leech i hope that that was right when my dog showed

up on the screen that you were bringing me that pun uh big bear says mccarthy conversation will be him wearing a gold jacket tuesday morning and you know look that's that's how it always happens with overreaction and it's a very long season and so we're going to work on that ourselves. We're going to work through that. I haven't really prepared myself actually for the different scenarios. We had last night the pie chart where it was like, well, what percentage of chance could it be that they're blown out? What percentage could it be that it's a close Vikings win? what percentage that it could be, you know, a whatever, close, close loss, right? We went through those scenarios, but I have not myself thought about what the reaction is going

to be and how to deal with that because I always want to try to fly even with this show, as you guys know, because there's a lot of things over the last two years that could have had meltdowns, freakouts and whatever else. And what I've done is continue to kind of fly even with, hey, guys, they're not trading Jefferson and, you know, all that sort of stuff. Probably not signing Aaron Rogers. So that means if they lose and go 0 and one against the Bears, the season's probably not over.

But I also want to, if they lose to the Bears, you know, kind of point out that that's, that's not helpful for the schedule going forward and what that means. So I try to balance it. And the same thing goes for McCarthy. if he performs really well, that doesn't put him in the Hall of Fame. It doesn't make him the best quarterback in the NFL. It is just the Bears. And they don't have the greatest defense I don't think in the NFL.

But if he plays well, it will match up with every single thing we've seen along the way. Every single thing that we have seen from J.J. McCarthy from the day he got here, looked like a guy who can handle the moment, looked like a guy who can run the offense, looked like a guy who can be a quarterback that a team builds around and tries to win with. everything we've seen, except for the injury, everything we've seen. So it'll match up and that matters too, that context. If he looked terrible through training camp and then had a good first game, I don't think I'd be like, oh, well, you know, all that doesn't matter.

He's just great now. None of that. No, it would matter still. It would make me more skeptical to buy into the idea that he's going to be really good if he has a good game. So we'll work our way through that as it happens. But overreaction, I think of it is, it's like the best and worst thing of football. The best thing is a post game, you know, whatever happens.

It's a crazy game. It's a great game and a post game show and we break down every single moment and how it matter and everything like it's the last game on earth. That's what's so cool. The overreaction can also be so freaking crazy that, I don't know, it breaks people sometimes. Ray away's got Adam Thieling over 50 yards, I like that. So, George, you are wrong.

George says, is accusing Harrison Smith of being on a vacation. And I promise you that nobody loves football and wants to be out there more than Harrison Smith. I promise you. I promise you. If you know him at all, he is a football lunatic. and I was not surprised at all to hear that KOC said he was pushing himself more than you would expect because that's Harrison Smith. He is as, he could have walked away three years ago.

I wrote a story about Harrison Smith and maybe being his last game two years ago. That's, he doesn't need this. He's had how many contracts? I mean, he could, he could be playing golf for sure. Jeffrey says Jordan Mason over 42 and a half is a very good bet. And that's where we started was my best. best bet of this game on Fanduil, but, you know, we've taken that in a lot of different directions. Best bet, Jordan Mason, over 42 and a half.

Deplorable Neanderthal, the best bet is Jefferson Yardage over. I believe it's 77.5 on Fandul. I don't see how their beleaguered cornerback group can stop him. They don't have a great defense of freaky talented players. Jalen Johnson is the closest that it gets. let's see Jeffrey thinks Grenard feasts yep I think so too so uh I haven't gotten to the point of the chat where you guys saw a buddy in the background Josh less than 48 hours off we go man not completely insane Herbert played great without making big mistakes

what I was most impressed with Justin Herbert was that last run that last run because if Justin Herbert starts taking off and runs for 450 yards he's going to be unstoppable he has been so much of a pocket quarterback I would like to see him make plays like that you know the thing about a guy like Justin Herbert in the in the quarterback discourse and I've brought it up about him not being enough of a playmaker and I call them Justin Kirkbird at some point because he just seemed like he didn't want to do that but the thing about quarterback is everybody likes to plant their flag they want to be the first one that says a guy's not good enough or whatever and then you know sometimes people change or sometimes circumstances change

did you see quentin johnson last night if he's that good if he if he developed over the last two years to be like that and i know he dropped one but the conkey and alan's still playing like all the sudden this dude's got weapons and joe alt what a draft pick holy cow now now i'm getting to the point of the comments where you saw buddy Holy cow, though, what a draft pick by that. Like, oh, it looks like he's going to be a superstar for years and years to come. Circumstances change. There's only three quarterbacks who every single year their team is just good because of them.

And everybody else just depends. Can they really do it? There was a little conversation because the Vikings called about Justin Herbert. Maybe just to see if Jim Harbaugh wanted J.J. McCarthy, like, well, maybe we'll talk about training for Justin Herbert. if they had done that, you would have gotten a million people saying, oh, he can't win because of this and that. Circumstances play into it so much. And that's why when we talk about the expectations for this team in McCarthy,

he's got to learn stuff and he's got to grow, but certainly has the circumstances. Brian says five different Vikings skill players will have over 20 plus rushing or receiving yards like that, like that a lot. It's going to be spread out. I like that a lot, definitely. great stuff guys great is this was this was definitely the best fandal question of the day responses from you guys absolutely phenomenal conversation about your best bets for monday night football

and before i run and bring you my hardcore discussion with andrew kramer we go through every position all the matchups everything and we didn't know the injury report when we recorded this but I don't think that that really changes anything about the conversation. Just want to say, awesome, awesome discussion from you guys all week long, preparing for this game. Great, great, great, great stuff. Let me get Kit in here. What do you predict for the bear's base personnel will be curious how often the Vikings will deploy base versus nickel and dime? Well, yeah, they do have multiple tight ends.

And that's something that I think Ben Johnson won't be afraid to use. but I mean, they've also got three wide receiver sets that are going to be out there. You know, the Vikings actually, and I've wondered about this. Eric Wilson, I think, could be someone that you're like, oh, Eric Wilson played 15 snaps. That's somebody to kind of keep an eye on. They didn't go get Eric Wilson for no reason. That's been like one of those down in the depth chart.

We just sort of take him for granted players. But that could actually be, that could actually be something that makes a bit of a difference from last year where they didn't have a base personnel. They couldn't put Kamu Groujee Hill on the field to play defense. He could only play special teams. Now they have a guy who played 600 snaps last year. So they could use or, hey, look, that's also Dallas Turner as well. Dallas Turner in there, that making up base personnel.

That's pretty interesting in itself because they believe in him being able to drop back in coverage. Guys, the matchups, it's just all so good. Oh, got to remind you of our sponsors, though, before I get too, too waxing poetic about, the start of the season, but I know you guys are feeling it as well, like it's right around the corner here. If you are in a position to hire people, maybe a dog walker. If you're in a position to hire folks, you know how hard it is to hire people. You get a lot of applications. It's hard to sort through them. You don't know who's who. You could miss out on really good candidates because you're just buried. That is why ZipRecruiter exists just for you. You want to try out

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more sense, doesn't it? Like, we're going to all have a bunch of games to react. to. I should be doing a show after Sunday. All right. I'll see you tomorrow then. Here's myself and Star Tribunes, Andrew Kramer. Folks, I know a lot of you out there either own your own business or you are in a management position where you have to hire people and it can be such a headache. You have to sort through all sorts of resumes of people who aren't qualified and you end up overlooking some of the best candidates. It's tough. But what is not tough is using ZipRecruiter for your hiring needs. ZipRecruiter finds amazing candidates for you and fast. And right now you can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com slash audio. It's just so easy that

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All right, a tradition here on the show is back. Andrew Kramer of the Star Tribune will have the last word before every single Minnesota Vikings game with our hardcore supreme footbally football breakdown where we will go through the individual matchups that will matter the most. And Mr. Kramer, we have the Minnesota Vikings traveling on the road to face the Chicago Bears. So I'm going to go dealer's choice here. Would you rather start with the Vikings offense or defense when we look at the most important matchups or, you know, part returning?

Could be a thing. Yeah, let's start with special teams. Let's just throw everybody for a lose. Now, I think we've got to start with the defense. I know everybody wants to talk about McCarthy in this offense, and everybody's so excited to see what he looks like in his first start. But I think this Vikings defense is going to be the reason they win games, at least right out of the gate, for Mr. McCarthy.

And I want to see how Caleb Williams looks with Ben Johnson now at the helm. It's such a talented Chicago offense, and we know how talented this Vikings defense is, Matt. So to me, that's where I'm most intrigued to see, because I think this Vikings' offense is going to be. be, I don't want to say predictable, but I think they're going to be relatively conservative for what we're used to seeing out of them. This defense, though, I have no idea what to expect. They have 11 defensive linemen on this roster. They have four corners. They're going to be blitzing like

crazy. They might not even have to, though. So I just think the ebbs and flows of how they're going to approach it, the possibilities, and then certainly how Caleb Williams looks against it will tell us a lot about how Chicago is going to be and certainly how the Vikings will be in 2025. All right, why don't we frame it this way with the defense versus the Chicago Bears offense is things you think you're sure about and things you want to find out about when it comes into going in this game because we're all snapping out of preseason and training camp mode where it's like what about DT5 and CB4? No, no, these are the real players who are going to play in the real game and not the fifth corner that we're concerned about, right? So for me, wanting to find out about category goes to Isaiah Rogers and Jeff Okuda. And if Harrison Smith is not playing, then I'll also throw Theo Jackson. And however they're going to handle that, Brian Flores wasn't giving away any details exactly.

But he did say that if Harrison Smith's not in the lineup, they can't do the same things. He called it totally unique to Harrison Smith with the way that he plays his role in this defense. So what does that mean to the secondary? I think that Isaiah Rogers as a full-time player is a question. How much does Jeff Fokuta get on the field? Can they still use three safeties? Did Jay Ward show them enough that if he has to be that guy or is Harrison Smith just going to be out there?

I think that area versus Romadunze, DJ Moore, a first round tight end, another highly drafted tight end. There's a lot of weapons on Chicago versus a group that I don't think that I want to project it yet as being good or bad, I just don't really know. Yeah, and if they don't have Harrison Smith, I would almost bet that they have to go with three corners as that primary nickel. And you asked Brian Flores today about that. How do you judge or weigh the difference between your three safety and three nickel or three corner nickel package? And if they don't have Harrison Smith, I have to imagine it's going to be a lot

of Jeff Okuda and a lot of Byron Murphy in the slot. And Matt, doesn't what we saw this summer kind of project that we're going to see quite a bit of Jeff Okuda this season. I just, in terms of practices, we didn't see a ton of three safety stuff. They were certainly involving and mixing it in and installing it. But to me, this seemed like they were going to enter this season wanting Byron Murphy, who they paid a lot of money

to play primarily in the slot. And what Flores said about how he weighs those two approaches versus safeties and corners is he talked a little bit about the man versus zone thing. I think Byron Murphy in the middle allows you to make up your coverage is more than having Josh Mattelis there. I definitely agree with that that if there was a weakness to having Josh Mattelis play Nickel Corner, it was that, and the first thing Flores said when I asked him about, hey, what's the difference between playing three safeties? He said, well, zone versus man. You basically can't play man if you have Josh Mattelis as your nickel corner.

As good as he is against tight ends, running backs, you're not putting up against a slot wide receiver. like a DJ Moore, that guy's way too quick with his feet. But if you have Byron Murphy there, then you can absolutely use more man coverage. How did you feel about Jeff Okuda throughout training camp? Because I thought, one, I thought, okay, Jeff, we get it. Like, he was very physical. He was very violent. Like, usually in these training camps, we don't see a whole lot of that.

And I thought he made some really good plays. But at the same time, some of that physical play might result in some penalty flex. legs. I don't know exactly, even despite the sample size, because when Brian Flores has conviction about a guy, it has tended to work out in the past. So how did you feel about him? Yeah, as you were talking about it, it made me think of the other newcomers who kind of came out of nowhere. And they all seemed to share something, whether it was Ivan Pace, whether it's Jeff Okuda, whether it was Elijah Williams, who made it off a tryout. They're all incredibly eager and in your face. Like Elijah Williams, the tryout defensive lineman, apparently always sits

in the front row of every meeting. So like literally, in your face. Okuda was, such in the face of receivers that he was getting flagged by practice refs nonstop to the point where when you ask, what do I expect of him, I expect some penalty flags. I expect some headaches from Vikings fans and saying, okay, this is what we expected. But I obviously expect the Vikings to try and curtail that and put him in situations where he doesn't get flagged too often. Flores clearly likes the physicality that Jeff brings and that play style that I don't think we get a ton out of or see a ton out of their other cornerbacks. And so I think they're going to lean on Okuda of that. He's going to play a specific role in this defense that puts him on the

boundary. They're not going to ask him to move around a ton in the formations. I think they're going to try and simplify things for him and get the most out of him. And that's what Flores is good at. He's good at taking a player, figuring out what they're good at, and just not putting them in situations that expose their weaknesses. And I think they're going to try and do that with Okuda. How it works is going to be anybody's guess. Well, let's talk about secondary versus wide receivers because Roma Dunesay, I think there's a lot of people that are very, very high on him. And he had his moments last year when Caleb Williams could get him the ball, but they've added some underneath targets as well, which is an interesting strategy and not surprising from

Ben Johnson that they would want another tight end. They have Sam Leporta in Detroit. You're kind of starting to see like, oh, okay, they got their Luther burden. That's your short, you know, passes and yards after catch. They've got their little more deep and route running guy. they've got their all-around guy and DJ Moore. There's a lot here to work with. I think it comes down to not can these receivers beat the Vikings corners.

I think they can. I think that there's enough talent for these receivers to win. It's really can you confuse Caleb Williams enough and can you pressure him enough to the point where he doesn't have time or doesn't see it well enough to work his way through to get these guys the ball because I think that they have the dudes. I do think, though, on paper, this is an easier group to face right out of the gate, at least in Luther Burton's first game than it was last year. Didn't Keenan Allen have like 200 yards against them? Was it that Chicago game in Chicago?

Well, Keenan Allen has always had good games against the Vikings. I think the one you're thinking of is the Chargers game where he had 18 catches. Well, that was literally 215 yards or something. But I think he had a ton of yards, 100 plus yards, I thought, in that game in Chicago where Caleb threw for 340 and forced overtime. I thought there was a lot there from Keenan in that game. But either way, he's just somebody. that's always beating them up before. And so without him, I do wonder how their underneath stuff is going to work, how some of the young guys are specifically going to fit in that grouping. And then

when you watched Chicago in the preseason, the one long drive that gave Chicago fans hope, it was a lot of the classic Detroit Ben Johnson stuff. It was run the ball, it was play action, little dump off to Coles to Loveland, play action, leverage it downfield to Loveland. You just saw the big wide voids and open spaces that Ben Johnson can scheme up. So that to me is going to be the biggest advantage. I think the players, the personnel, it's still a question mark. To me, I don't know if they are actually better than they were last year on the outsides. But when it comes to the passing game, no matchup is more important than what you said. It's Flores versus Caleb Williams. It's all the guys up front trying to disguise things. And our old pal Courtney Cronin

wrote about how Terran Armstead, the former Dolphins offensive lineman, was at a joint practice with the Bears and Dolphins and came away saying, Caleb Williams was not deciphering things well. He was not seeing the blitz. He was not seeing the field. It's one practice. It's one player's opinion. But it tracks with what we saw from Caleb Williams last year. It most certainly does. Keenan Allen had nine receptions for 86 yards. Okay. So I inflated it based on my, but still, it was a good game for a very old player and somebody, like we said, always cooks the Vikings. So my big question is, I understand that Ben Johnson's offense works, but it works for a quarterback who is super good at getting rid of the football quickly and

identifying defenses and seeing the middle of the field, is this going to be an offensive coordinator or play caller and a quarterback who do not really mix on what they need to be? Because what you were just talking about is a lot of diagnosing things quickly, which is not been something that's a trait of Caleb Williams. So can he pick apart the Vikings defense the same way? And then I think also is it going to be five men rushing all the time at Caleb Williams? Or, are they going to just go with a four-man rush? This is something we haven't seen from Flores, but that's out of desperation to create pressure where he's leaving vacated areas for the quarterback to find, but he might not have to do that with Jonathan Allen and Jvon Hardgrave.

I think that changes the game for Caleb Williams, because if you're Brian Flores, one, if you blitz him, he can run away. And we definitely saw that. And then you're left short on the back end. But if you can rush with four, then that means he's really got to find those areas and really got to play in rhythm to find holes in those zones if there's an extra defender back there. And what I love about Flores in this Viking's defense is that even if they do decide to just rush for it's not going to look like a standard four-man rush. Like it's just Justin Tuck and O.C. U.M.N. Yora rushing off the edges. They're going to do so many different weird things to create four-man rushes and create these pressures that the four might be

paced cashman and the two edges are dropping or whatever they do. I do think they can put more guys in coverage that's going to help them this year and maybe make up for the fact that they They don't have the best on paper, the best cover corners from what we're expecting outside of Byron Murphy. So I do think their talent up front is going to enable Flores to be as versatile with his approach with attacking quarterbacks as he's ever been because they just frankly have not been this talented before up front. They added from what they did last year with this group. And from all accounts, from Brian O'Neill, from Ryan Kelly, this offensive line was really over the moon with how Jonathan Allen looked in this camp. Brian O'Neill specifically said this guy's got so much left in the tank at just 30 years old that we're going to see that he can still be that Pro Bowl or that they saw in

Washington. Let's talk about how they're going to deploy the front seven because I had a conversation with Dallas Turner and he just said he understands everything so much better than he did last year when he first got here. We've seen how good of a camp he had, how much he's developed his body and those things. But I still don't know how long. often he's going to be on the field and how he's going to be used. And I think that that goes for several guys. Jalen Redmond is another guy who had a tremendous camp to the point where they were comfortable moving on from Harrison Phillips. And Brian Flores just raved about the camp of Jalen Redmond. I think everybody was kind of talking about it, including Jonathan Grenard after

practice. Everybody saw it. But how often is he going to be on the field? Can you have Hargrave and Allen on the field all the time? I looked this up the other day. In 2023, when those guys both played full seasons. Out of 200 defensive tackles on PFF, they ranked 129th and 182nd in grade against the run. Like, these are not two dudes who are stuff

in multiple gaps. Like, they are, get into the backfield, get after the quarterback. Does that mean they have to mix and match with Jalen Redmond, with Levi, Drake, Rodriguez? So, give me your thoughts on all of that. Like, how to use Turner, how they deploy the defensive tackles. What do you think they're going to do?

I thought it was interesting in training camp. We saw Dallas Turner playing almost a three, four defensive end roll sometimes kicking inside of Van Ginkle or Grenard, and they would have all three of those guys on the field at the same time. And it wasn't just on passing downs or their third and long reps that they would try to practice. So I wonder if, I'm not saying Dallas Turner is going to be an interior defender, but I wonder if he bulked up enough where they feel more comfortable getting all three of those guys on the field at the same time beyond obvious passing downs, beyond those pass rush situations, which would enable you, to take Hargrave off the field. It would enable you to just put Jalen Redmond at nose and then have only Allen or Hargrave at one of the other spots. They also feel pretty good about the other depth behind those three interior defenders that we're talking about. You mentioned Levi Drake as one of them. I think Tyrion Ingram Dawkins is a guy who will eventually have a role. Maybe Jalen Redmond like where he pops up in November or December as a contributor. I think right out of the gate though, Redmond probably is going to have a pretty big role as the dirty work guy, as the new Harrison Phillips. is the guy who's going to get in there and eat up double teams.

Because last year, and this training camp, like you mentioned, he looks like that guy who continues to ascend and be one of the more physical players in that front in that middle. And I think with him, with Turner being more versatile, we're going to see these guys do a little bit of everything. And then it's going to change week to week to the point where us projecting it is going to be probably frustrating for us because of how many different things they're going to have these guys do.

And we do have a sample size on Jalen Redman that over 200 snaps last year graded extremely well, had a lot of tackles for loss, a lot of run stops, a couple of pressures. I mean, he was a guy that especially against the run was really impressive to me, even if he's not the hugest guy. I think we always, in our brains, say, well, if you're going to be a great run stuffer, you better be Gilbert Brown. You better be Pat Williams. And if you're not six foot four and 368 pounds, how could you possibly stop the run? But I even thought we saw that from someone like Jerry Tillery last year. They, I think, have a good understanding of gaps, and it's not all just about can you

hold those, but can you get into the backfield and create tackles for loss? I think that's going to be part of the philosophy. And as far as Dallas Turner, I just don't know, but I think there's going to be a lot of Dallas Turner and Andrew Van Ginkle and Jonathan Granard on the field the same time. Because in the NFL today, second down in 10 is a passing down. Second down and six, I think, is a passing down. don't see teams a lot of the times running outside of first and 10 or second in short, which means unless they're really, really committed to it, I don't know, maybe Ben Johnson is

with DeAndre Swift, but this feels like it's going to have to be a passing team. That gives a lot of opportunities to put someone like Dallas Turner on the field a lot. And I also didn't think he was horrendous against the run last year. I thought he handled himself at times when he had to against the run as well. And the extra strength will make a big difference there, which ties into the Bears revamped offensive line. I had a debate with Jeremiah Searle the other day on the show.

I'm not really buying this offensive line for the Bears as being special. He thinks it could be one of the five best lines in the league. They had a left tackle competition. Anytime a team has a left tackle competition, I'm like, okay, you're not in good shape there. If you, that's

the, if you have two quarterbacks, you have none. If you have two left tackles, I promise you have none. And Braxton Jones, quote, unquote, won it, right? Yes. Yeah, I think he's going to be left tackle. And Grinard's got to be looking at his jobs. Exactly. So I think there's a huge advantage there. Also, I mean, Dalman, Jackson, these guys have been in the league. I don't know if they're as special as their paychecks. Joe Tuny is fantastic. There's no question. But out of this entire group, I really see one guy that I would say, okay, wow, that guy is excellent. I think

there's a ton of opportunity for the Vikings D-Line to take over this game. You have to admit, though, that they're better Chicago's offensive line is than what they want, than what Caleb Williams was running around with last year. 100%. Oh, they're better. And they've, and they're, look, they're good at run blocking. So to me, it's can they get themselves in situations where they want to run? Because I, I don't believe in the Vikings run defense until they show me because it's just been such an overhaul there and it's so different. But if you're saying Chicago, go ahead and have DeAndre Swift beat us in this game. I think you're very happy as the Vikings. Yeah, you probably are, especially because they were

third. I mean, it was revamped, but they were third last year in Yards per carry allowed. They were so good with Tillerie with Jonathan Bullard that now you put so much more talent in there. I do see this game as one where Caleb Williams, Ben Johnson, they want to probably play a similar style that the Vikings are going to try and play on their offensive side in terms of running the ball, ball control, trying to not do too much from the quarterback position. That's not to say Caleb's not capable of it. He obviously is, but you might want to put the reins on him a little bit here early on if you're Chicago, and that's what I expect them to do against Brian Flores.

So I do think they're going to try and run it with DeAndre Swift. do think they're going to try and test the middle of this Vikings defense and that new line with their new offensive line because Ben Johnson knows it's what he did with Gough. That's how you make things easier for the quarterback. But Gough was such a well-travel guy or at least experienced guy by the time he got to Detroit. I don't think Caleb's ready to hit the ground running the same way Gough was. Before we switch over to J.J. McCarthy and how we think Kevin O'Connell is going to handle that situation with him starting his first game. If I told you, Caleb Williams, man, you had a really good game, what would have had to have happened against the Vikings defense? Because in my brain, it's just hard to see. I know that he did it last year against a really good defense, but this defense is better. This defense is deeper. It's different. But if I told you, no, man, yeah, Caleb was really, really good in that opener.

What would he have to do? I think he would have to get the ball out quickly, not buy time and take sacks the way that he's done before, not be like another bear's quarterback before him and Justin Fields. Because you remember the game in Chicago, it was the one play that stands out, the Andrew Van Ginkle one where he unchecked, rushes him, he spins away and flicks it to D'Andre Swift down the sideline. There will be those moments, but to me that will not define how this game goes for him. If it's good for Caleb Williams, it has to be on schedule,

it has to be within the pace of the offense that they're installing. It has to look a little like Jared Goff did in Detroit. It has to be that kind of game where you're looking at it and going, boy, Romo Dunzee really popped or Loveland or Swift. And then you're going to be like, well, they probably won it because Caleb Williams played within himself, didn't make mistakes and was on time with everything, almost be somewhat boring of a quarterback because that's at times what you need to do in the NFL when you've got teams that are set up to win with these playmakers, be the point guard, the things that

the San Francisco's, the Minnesota's are telling their quarterbacks. I think Ben Johnson is trying to tell his quarterback to do the same thing. And that's what I want to see from Caleb Williams. I think if Caleb Williams has fewer than three sacks, they have a really good chance to win the game. Yeah, I would agree because that also probably means he's not throwing it that much. And if they can run that much, that's not what the Vikings want. All right, J.J. McCarthy, first start, if you guys haven't heard yet, against the Chicago Bears. It's a heck of a place to start at Soldier Field.

We made it 20 minutes before talking about him. I know, right? Yeah. But it is, I think it's one of the biggest storylines in the entire NFL for this week that McCarthy on this stacked off. offense is taking the field here. And something I've been talking about all week and just not that we, none of us know until they actually get out there, but just what we expect in the different potential paths, there is the gas pedal down path and there's the play it safe path. And then there's some sort of like play it as the game goes path.

How do we feel like O'Connell is going to manage J.J. McCarthy or does he just have to say, let's get a look at it first in the first couple of plays, those scripted plays off the start, and then we'll feel it out as it goes along. Or should it be O'Connell saying, look, man, we drafted you, and you've had two years of off-season practices, and like, let's throw that dang pigskin? Or is it much more you got Jordan Mason and Will Fries and Donovan Jackson for a reason, ground and pound, baby? I think it's going to be that one.

And I think it was interesting to hear West Phillips the offensive coordinator talk today on Thursday of this week about how we're still trying to find our identity. We're going into this. And he said, I'm not going into this with any expectations. I've learned through all my seasons not to put too much on preseason expectations. But you also said, we're also going into this trying to feel out what this 2025 Vikings offense is going to be. And they have all of their principles.

They've obviously got their playbook. They know what they want to do. But how do they pair that down into their core principles, core run plays, core pass plays, all the things that they feel this collection of talent is going to be good at? And I think they want it to be a certain thing. There's a reason why O'Connell would get frustrated, I would say, at times when we would ask about McCarthy's practices and training camp, and he would say, look, you guys aren't calling balls and strikes in the run game because they were caring about the run game. They were absolutely wanting to install that physical, as O'Connell says, play style. Mike Zimmer would just say physical, just bully guys, just push them around.

They wanted to instill that with Donovan Jackson, Ryan Kelly, Will Fries, Jordan Mason. They want it to look a certain way that it did not look last year, and I think they're going to go into Chicago against a pretty good defense and try to push around Dennis Allen's group with the bears. And if that doesn't work, you know O'Connell's going to be ready to pivot. No matter what, he's going to be ready to pivot into things that he's going to try and have ready, because he's had to do that before with Vikings' offenses that could not run the football. But I think they're going to want to approach this a certain way. I would not be shocked if we get into that first drive. of Monday night for J.J. McCarthy. And it's a lot of run plays. And people might even be thinking, well, quote, are they hiding this kid? Like, what's happening? Let him, you know, let J.J. Cook or whatever. But they're going to want him to approach this, get his nerves down. It's a prime time game. It's back home. This is, this means a lot to J.J., not just in terms of his career, but in terms of his life. Like, there's going to be so many childhood memories flooding back to him, family and friends there. They're going to want to settle him down. And I think O'Connell

knows better than anybody how to do that. I think the way to do that is to create easy completions at the beginning of the game. I don't think it's just to lean, and I know you're not saying that. The play action, leverage. Right, exactly. Play action. I think two guys will be enormous for this. I think T.J. Hawkinson and Aaron Jones.

And I'm working on an article about the screen game and just how important that is to J.J. McCarthy. And, you know, I asked West Phillips how important it was to him. Well, all the aspects of the offense report, I know. but if you can get a 15-yard screen play, the quarterback does nothing. He just throws it zero yards, and then everyone else makes that play happen. Remember, the last time they had a great screen game,

and it was good last year, I think it was much better. The last time they had a great screen game, it was Kurt Cousin's best year of his career in 2019 where they had everything cooking with that cooking, Delvin Cooke. He was great. And Mason can catch the football, but Jones, I think, has this matrix element of him

where he sees and feels defenders and blockers. And even there was a great screenplay against the Patriots and the joint practices, which people are still talking about with Donovan Jackson. But Jackson bowled over two Patriots players, like knock them to the ground. And that was impressive. But also Aaron Jones felt him there

and sort of slowed up and allowed him to get to those blocks. Jones is really good at that. And I think that's the way that you can start it out, is a little out route to T.J. Hawkinson, get yourself seven yards, get a quick pass into the hands of Justin Jefferson to get this thing moving a little bit, get a couple of handoffs to Jones, a screen pass to Jones, just start it out like that. And then maybe when you get in the high red zone, take a shot and just see where he's at. And if he overthrows it and it hits that silly Bears mascot in the stands or something,

that thing is extremely funny to watch sort of plot around. But anyway, if that happens, then you know, he's not there yet. I think that there is much more of a feel thing that's going to have to happen. And O'Connell did show us with Sam Darnold that he could do that. But I also thought he became a little too confident in Sam Darnold as it went along early in the season last year. So I think that that's going to be a very, very interesting balance for O'Connell of how much do you lean in, how much do you rein back?

And you know, it can really determine this and make the choice easy is if you whoop them. I mean, if you, if you whip them up front, which I think there's the capability there for this line, then it makes the choice easy. Just keep whooping. Yeah, if they keep running the ball, grinding it out, and they get two rushing touchdowns from each of these guys, it's going to be pretty easy to decide. But I think they're going to lean on that, like you said, in terms of the easy completions, the play action stuff. I also expect them to lean on JJ's mobility in a way that might surprise some of us, whether it's designed runs for the quarterback, maybe, perhaps. We didn't see that a whole lot with Sam Darnel, but I do think we might see a little bit of that with McCorm.

or just getting him out on a lot of the bootlegs, a lot of the spaces where he can just make a guy miss and use his feet to pick up space. We saw this in camp even just on design dropbacks where there seemed to be practices, including the night session here, where there seemed to be coaching points where they were telling their quarterbacks, look for lanes to run, practice that. Because you don't get used to just sitting back there in a red jersey that you can't get hit. And we saw McCarthy do quite a bit of that throughout camp. And I do wonder that if that's part of the point, too, is that, hey, let that. that clock go quickly in your head. And if you can't find it, get out of there. It's going to be a good offensive line for the Vikings, but they do want McCarthy to use his legs to make place too.

Bo Nix did that extremely well last year as an inexperienced quarterback. I think that that's been actually a turning point in Baker Mayfield's career, for example, just trying to think about similar physical statured type quarterbacks of guys who are not Josh Allen, not Lamar Jackson, but have wheels and can use their legs and get 400 yards in a season. I think McCarthy is is quick, really quick with his feet and quick with those decisions, as we saw in the preseason game. But how good do we think that the Bears defense is? Because the Vikings' offensive line, I had trouble judging them this year because the defensive line was so good in training camp where it was like, well, yeah, Javan Hargrave is one of the best in the league over the last number of years.

Of course he's going to beat Donovan Jackson sometimes. I think the Bears defense is a lot of B or C minus or C plus type of players, a lot of just the guys, not too many guys that you would go, hey, there's your game wrecker. But they also don't have horrendous players, unless Jalen Johnson is out, where we'll find out about that. Then you're talking, do you know who his backup is? Yeah, I did. I saw it was Neishone Wright.

Old friend. The guy who I think they traded Andrew Booth for, correct, with the Dallas Cowboys. And Wright did not see the field, didn't earn his way onto the field for the Vikings. And so I saw, yeah, I saw Bears reporters say that he's got unique experience covering Justin Jefferson. And I thought, that's a word to choose covering. I don't know if he did much covering of Justin. It is unique. Uniquely roasted, I'm sure, in practice, if that was the case.

Well, we'll find out about that on game day if he's going to play or Jalen Johnson. Johnson is the only one to me that's special. But there's a lot of good here. I mean, the linebacker position is going to be huge in this game because I expect Thielen to be underneath. I expect Hawkinson to be underneath. I expect them to lean on the run game. And they do have a good linebacker position that's gotten a bunch of investment there. So it's a lot of good and not a lot of great,

but it's also a really good defensive coordinator in Dennis Allen, who's not a massive blitz guy, but is a crafty. I think coverage, mixing up coverages, things like that for him. Usually his teams are well coached. They understand assignments and so. far. He's been around a long time, and he's usually done a good job as long as no one makes him a head coach. Yeah, Wes Phillips talked about how Dennis Allen's groups in New Orleans were always difficult to deal with because they had an aggressive, especially on the perimeter in terms of

bump coverage with their receivers, their corners, trying to cover guys aggressively. And then he did say that their third downblitz package can be a little unpredictable and throw some things at you that you have to be prepared for. But if they play them straight up, I imagine they're just going to try and win those matchups up front, stop the run and force JJ into some difficult those hard downs the weighty downs that you hear O'Connell talk all the time about where a quarterback's got to be a Peyton Manning, you know, style guy who dices everybody up. And that's, they don't want McCarthy to do that very often. They want to try and get him in much easier situations as we're talking about. And so against Chicago, if they don't have Jalen Johnson, I think it's pretty

easy then to figure out where you're scheming things up right away. Where that first read's going to be was always Justin Jefferson. But if he's being covered by somebody that you know well from being on your practice squad last year and Nashon Wright, I imagine Jefferson will get plenty of work and then they will leverage the fact that Chicago will tell the other 10 guys to also cover Jefferson, so then

Hawkinson can just be wide open on the other side. That's true. The one thing they do have other than Johnson, though, they do have some playmakers. Kevin Byard makes plays Tyreek Stevenson when he's not making fun of the fans and giving up you know, he's still on this team, huh? But, you know, I mean, Brisker

as well as another guy like they they have guys uh tremade admins t j edwards like if if you're not on point with your accuracy or you're not making your reads correctly they have guys who will make you pay so this is not a defense that i think you should walk over and i just think it's a defense and especially you know alan's been dennis allen's defenses have been really good at stopping the run historically as well so it is a defense you have to take seriously but i also think from that perspective it's a nice test for J.J. McCarthy. This isn't Pittsburgh. Eventually, you will play against Pittsburgh and that good luck. I mean, that's going to be really tough. It's not that, but it's good enough to be a legitimate test for where this offense is coming out of preseason. It is. It's a good point.

I think of it in terms of the schedule like that. But with them starting off with Chicago, Atlanta, Cincinnati, the defenses are a little easy before you get to Pittsburgh and Cleveland coming up. You get to go to Europe to see those guys. And then, oh, by the way, you get the old Dallas Cowboy Michael Parsons in week 12 later on. So JJ will get to kind of ease into it. I am not too impressed by the Chicago defense. It's not the same one that they had Akeem Hicks, Khalil Mack, Eddie Goldman. The years of terrorizing the Vikings up front seemed to be over. And I do think this Vikings offensive line, the good news being that Christian Darrasaw seems like he's on track to start on Monday night right away with Will Fries, Ryan Kelly, this whole group.

Donovan, as you mentioned, has looked pretty good in camp. I expect them to come out and look that good against this bear's front. And if they don't, I think that's going to be a reason to overreact. We always talk about overreactions off of week one. If this offensive line for the Vikings does not push that defensive line for the bears around, that would be a little concerning to me. All right. Do you want to talk about the punt returner, or do you want to give you a prediction? I think we should talk about the punt returner because my big prediction is that it might cost them a game at some point this season. I like Miles Price. We just heard Matt Daniels, the special teams coordinators say the guy's confident. That's what you need back there. You need a guy who's

just steely, icy in the eyes and he's going to catch everything that comes his way. But he's also an undrafted rookie who, as Matt also said, came here for free. They didn't guarantee him anything. He was an undrafted rookie that's going to have to really continue this long shot story to make us forget about how this is a huge question mark for them. I think the catching of the football makes me a little nervous after watching him. Matt Daniels did say, thank goodness, it's windy out at TCO Performance Center. It's really helped us. Maybe it has helped Miles Price enough to be ready for this big stage.

And, you know, we just assume that college players who don't have the experience will melt when they get out there on the field. I don't know if that's going to be the case for Miles Price. I don't know if Kevin O'Connell actually even wants him to return it. Historically, it seemed like he would just prefer fair catch that thing, live to play another day, because exactly what you said is they don't want to see that goal. awry and have an issue there. But I was struck by Miles Price explosiveness and his vision and ability to find some holes in the preseason. I think if there's any play that is simulated closest to what it's really going to be preseason versus regular season, it is a punt and

kick return because those are backups who are chasing you down and they're not often star players at the highest level. So I thought Price really did show something. And he's, I mean, wow, like what a stage for a guy who didn't necessarily expect to be here, but it does make you nervous. Yeah, and when that ball goes up in the air for the first punt, we're all going to be, you know, those dreadful windows there in the press box, Soldier Field, we're going to be leaving face imprints like looking, is he going to catch it? Is he going to bobble it? What's it going to be? It is a total unknown. And I do think it's interesting that they made him the not just the starting punt returner, but the starting kick returner as well.

And Matt Daniel said he was more of a punt returner in college. not much of a kick returner, I wonder if that has to do with just getting him reps, catching the ball in live game situations to get him the most comfortable most quickly because this might be a guy that they want to rely on for the long haul here, not just the season, but beyond. Because I thought that why not just roll with Ty Felton or Ty Chandler or Xavier Scott. They've got options that they were working more at kick returner in the preseason. And then all of a sudden they get Miles who blew up in the last couple preseason games. All of a sudden, he's boom, both your returners. To me,

that screams like, get the unknown the most work as quickly as possible, let's get him comfortable. I just think that the most intensity you brought at any point in this podcast was talking about your fear of Miles Price. I don't have a fear of him. I just think that it's still a massive question mark. And as we all, on this beat, try to throw out ridiculous thing because we all get delirious at the end of camp. And so what's your take? You know, my hottest take of this team, it's not too hot, but it's going to be that I think that spot could end up costing them a game here. We saw it in Green Bay. Jalen Naylor gets out there the first time, loses it in the sun, and it goes way behind him. Leads to a touchdown for Green Bay eventually. I think this team is so talented and so proven. We're bored.

Yeah, that's right. We're just bored. We're just bored. So many spots. Like, remember when Holton Hill was a starting outside? Like, they were starting undrafted free agent guys. Right. At these positions.

Now it's like, oh, man, their fourth corner is Fabian Morrow or something. And what are they doing? It's a very, very good football team. Well, your prediction, sir. I think the Vikings are going to win. I think it'll be lower scoring, despite all this offensive talent. I think both the Vikings' defense and J.J. McCarthy's inexperience will keep the score down for both sides. But I still think the Vikings win 20 to 13.

I'm going to go 21 to 17. And here's the fun detail I'll throw in there just for the heck of it. I think that Ben Johnson completely messes up a clock situation at some point. There's some sort of game management challenge clock where he is not locked in because he's too focused on Caleb Williams, too focused on the play calling, and that gives the Vikings an edge. I'm surprised you weren't going to go with some trick play, some like wacky trick play that he's known for because that's his whole thing, right? Just pulling these out at just random time. Why not the first game? Right. Throw it to this the backup tackle who lost.

the job, but it bounces off his hands because he's not Penae Sewell, picked off by Andrew Van Ginkle, touchdown, that's how the Vikings win. Well, in Soldier Field, there is no scenario we could come up with that we haven't seen at some point before. So we will be there for that contest. Can't wait to see some Vikings and Chicago Bears. Thanks for your time, Andrew. Yeah, good being on. Can't wait for another season of real football. Football.