Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - How did NFL Week 6's results impact the Vikings????

Episode Date: October 13, 2025

Matthew Coller recaps Lions-Chiefs and Packers-Bengals and discusses other observations from Sunday's games along with previewing a pivotal week ahead for the Vikings. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fandul. Matthew Collar here following a very eventful day in the National Football League. So let's break it down from a Vikings angle. And the reason I'm going live so late tonight is obviously we had to wait for the Detroit Lions and the Kansas City Chiefs, which is where I will start. I got a Fanduil question of the day for you. I also want your thoughts reacting to what happened during the by week here and previewing this week, which should be very interesting,

leading up to the Vikings and the Philadelphia Eagles, as we know, the Eagles losing to the New York Giants the other night, and they've lost two games in a row, which why don't we start with that? The Fandul question of the day, the Vikings opening up on Fandul is 2.5 point underdogs to the Eagles. Where do the Eagles rank for you among NFC teams now that you saw the Lions lose as well? So give me, give me your top three NFC teams. Are the Eagles in it?

The Lions probably still should be. But wow, a 30 to 17 win for the Kansas City Chiefs over the Detroit Lions tonight on a night. How many times have you ever seen this stat line by a quarterback, not win? 23 for 29, 203 yards, two touchdowns for Jared Goff. At one point, I think that was maybe even better than that. He was completing close to 90% of his passes. And the Lions did not find a way to win that football game because their defense is completely, oh, there's a fight, huh?

Oh, okay. I thought I started at the right time as they were kneeling down. but I didn't know that there was going to be a kerfuffle at the end. Oh, man, you know, this happened one time last year where Chicago gave up the crazy Hail Mary, and I thought that the game was over and started the live stream. So I guess I should always wait for the final gun before I do it. But the lions are missing almost all of their secondary, and it really, really showed tonight.

As Patrick Mahomes and that offense got going in ways that we have not seen them role in a really long time. They had Hollywood Brown cooking. Xavier Worthy made a few plays in this game. They used Worthy in the running game. They actually ran fairly successfully with Isaiah Pacheco. They involved a lot of different receivers. Travis Kelsey looked a little more spry, even though he got rolled up on at one point,

but they were getting the ball to him and putting together some explosive plays, some long drive, some creativity. This was the Kansas City Chiefs that were. we know, not the chiefs that struggled and sputtered and had Mahomes running around all over the place like a crazy person, which is kind of what it looked like earlier in the year. And with maybe their offensive line improving a little bit, but I think the main thing is just getting some of these wide receivers back and not having Juju Smith Schuster be your number one receiver. And instead, you've got some actual weapons that they could put the ball in their hands. And Detroit just

had no real answer. And I think it speaks to in the NFL when you have even a very good pass rush, a very good defensive line, one of the best pass rushers in the NFL in Aden Hutchinson, who had a really dumb penalty, by the way, hitting Patrick Mahomes way late. I mean, you can complain all you want about the refs. And if I think that the chiefs walked away from this game with no penalties, which is absolutely insane and not possible. Yeah, they had zero penalties.

they don't help themselves sometimes when we talk about the league wanting the Chiefs to win games when you call zero flags on the Chiefs for an entire national television game. That's a little bizarre. No person on the Chiefs roster today had a fistful of Jersey or swiped a face mask or got in the way of anybody passing. Nobody just so, you know, no, that never happened at any point in this game. Okay, so that's a little weird. But with no secondary of starters for the Lions, their defense looked very vulnerable despite the fact that they have Aidan Hutchinson.

And it also looked like a one-man show with Hutchinson. And they did get to Mahomes a couple times. And their rusher, Muhammad, had a good game at times. We know that Alex Anzolone is a good player. Jack Campbell had a sack in this game. Their front seven at times was getting after Mahomes, little bit, but not enough to throw him off because the receivers open all over the place. Kirby Joseph got banged up in the game.

They're already missing DJ Reed. Terry and Arnold is on the shelf. And this is where you start to wonder about the Detroit Lions and their defensive strength because go back week one, they get run out of the building at Lambo and we all go, oh, man, wow, Detroit, here comes the regression. And then they get a couple wins in a row. and so of course we swing back the other way and we said no no no Detroit they're actually fine they're actually really good same old Detroit they're going to be right back at the top but when

you look at the schedule for Detroit now looks way different than what it would have looked like before the season strength of schedule is a lie everyone strength of schedule in the off season is a lie it is something that you can use late in an NFL season but not in the off season, and there's no better proof than that than the AFC North. Listen to, I mean, for Detroit schedule, listen to this. So they played Chicago, they killed Chicago, obviously. But then, if I told you before the season, Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincinnati, you would have said, wow, two of those three games are going to be so tough for Detroit.

And instead, Baltimore is horrendous and got beat today again. They're one in five. And Cincinnati is horrendous and was starting Joe, Blacko today, but they were starting Jake Browning against the Lions. So Cleveland, of course, we could have expected to be bad before the season. But those three games leading up to this Kansas City game were very easy for Detroit now with even a little bit of hindsight. And I think what tonight showed is that their defense is very flawed and very banged up.

And they don't have a complete pass rush. And they certainly don't have a secondary that is. is as good as we would have expected it if they're healthy. Now, by the time they play the Vikings, that may be a little bit of a different story. Brian Branch, Kirby Joseph, those injuries don't seem super serious. But I think that

the lions fall under the same category as the Philadelphia Eagles as, yes, these are good teams, and to kind of answer that Fandul question of the day, these are good teams. Are they running away from everybody else? No, they're not. Are they flawed?

Yes, they are. And the offense for Detroit was good tonight, but it wasn't perfect. They didn't run for 200 yards. They failed a couple of times in some key moments, and then they end up losing the game because they couldn't make stops. So when we look at the standings following today and we'll get to the Packers game, I think there's a few teams that fall under the same category as being very, very good, but are not convincing as running away from the rest of the conference.

And that's Philadelphia still. even after the two losses, they still have four wins on the year and deserve some benefit of the doubt as a very good team. Then Detroit at 4 and 2, Green Bay 3-1 and 1. I think Washington at 3 and 2 with Jaden Daniels back is in that category. Tampa Bay with a very impressive win, but it came against the 49ers team that lost everybody, including Fred Warner, got hurt in that game, which helps. So Tampa Bay has kind of been on one of those magical. runs where they are five and one with a plus 14 point differential. And that just kind of screams everything has fallen into place with them.

They'll give Baker Mayfield all the credit in the world. At one point, he's playing with wide receiver four, five, and six and beating the San Francisco 49ers. So not trying to take away from Tampa Bay in their five and one record. It's just that, you know, they've had to win at the last second. This was the first time out of their five wins that they were able to get in victory formation. So they've had last second wins. And then today, San Francisco was unbelievably banged up in this game, playing a backup quarterback, backup receivers, backup linebackers.

That's been a really tough run for them. And then I think with Seattle and Los Angeles, both of those teams also deserve the credit there as well. Sam Darnold, another great game for him to go to four and two. And the Rams did enough. But all those teams are kind of chunked right there. And the Minnesota Vikings can put their name in that cat. or even a little bit toward the top of that category this week if they can beat the Philadelphia Eagles. Again, they're 2.5 point underdogs on fan duel, but I think that actually says a lot about the Eagles because not knowing who was going to be the quarterback for the Vikings this week, you would think that the betting market would be saying, okay, Philadelphia, Super Bowl champs,

four and two, they should be favored by a lot, but they're not even getting three points there from the Vikings, and they've lost the last two games to Bo Nix, who looked pretty rough today in a London game where the wire seemed to still be there that hit Will Rikert's kick. That was odd. That was the worst football game I've ever seen in my life, though, so let's never talk about that ever again. But that team with Bo Nix beats Philadelphia. They move the ball, and then Jackson Dart comes in and moves the ball and beats Philadelphia.

So they're failable, and they've got some. injuries. Jalen Carter's not 100%. Quinyan Mitchell's not 100% and they've got some drama on the offensive side where A.J. Brown was sort of denying some meeting in the parking lot and then admitted to a meeting in the parking lot and, you know, that's a powder keg waiting to explode. You remember even a couple years ago, 2003 when the Vikings played the Eagles and they were mostly running that A.J. Brown was angry on the sideline even though they were winning against the Viking. So that one's been brewing for a really long time. And it feels like you're catching the Eagles at a good time here coming to U.S. Bank Stadium.

So their loss is coming against two quarterbacks that are not the most experienced. It's not like they lost to Mahomes and Josh Allen. It's Bo Nix. It's Jackson Dart. Two guys that are really game managing type quarterbacks. Dart is a lot of fun. He makes plays out of structure. But you're trying to also contain him if you're Brian Daible. well, this opens the door for the possibility of J.J. McCarthy playing Philadelphia,

but not feeling like you're playing the Philadelphia that won the Super Bowl last year. It's a week to week and a year to year league because their defense looks nothing like as good as it looked last year. Nothing like it. I mean, they lose Milton Williams, who is a phenomenal player, and they've had guys that are banged up. They just haven't gotten after the quarterback the same way. if it is going to be J.J. McCarthy starting, he's not facing the same caliber team. And Philadelphia bringing in this drama that they have with Jalen Hertz and his struggles

and the fact that he's getting sacked as much as anybody. And where they've struggled in the last two weeks, there's something in common that the Vikings have with Denver and with the Giants, which is a good defensive line and the ability to pressure the quarterback. And that's what's thrown off Jalen Hertz. so them losing the other night and then having this huge lead-up of, I'm sure Philadelphia Sports Radio was out of its mind. I don't know if that inspires them and clicks them back into shape,

which I guess would be maybe the concern is when you come off of a bad loss. Oftentimes there's a bounce back, so maybe you're worried about that. Or Philadelphia could just be not that good. Saquan Barkley's averaging under three and a half yards of carry. That regression is hitting him hard after the, the 2000-yard season, which has happened to pretty much every running back that's ever had a 2,000-yard season. So the Vikings coming into this week against an opponent that feels like, yes, they still are

toward the top, which was kind of the main point, and yet not so far away from the Vikings like it seemed at one point a couple of weeks ago. I mean, through the first half of their game against Denver, you would have said coming off of the Vikings losing to Pittsburgh while Philadelphia looks worlds better. And then the last six quarters or so for Philadelphia and the Vikings win against Cleveland and the injury report finally being on their side and getting back to 100% health, back to American soil, a little bit swinging in the momentum favor of the Minnesota Vikings.

So I want to also talk about the Packers game today. Joe Flacko, shout out Joe Flacko. We're about the same age, myself. and Mr. Flacco, and I want to get hit by anything as much as he does at this point. It was a gritty performance from Joe Flacko, I guess. He just took the snap and threw the ball immediately on every single play. He was like, I am not letting anybody hit me. He averaged about five yards per attempt.

And yet still made that game interesting. If Cincinnati could have gotten one more stop, there was a chance that the Packers could have actually lost to the Cincinnati Bengals if they could have gotten one more stop. But credit to Jordan Love, he had a really good game against the very bad defense. And when they needed it most, he rolled to his left and let one rip to Matthew Golden to get a huge first down, put the final dagger in Cincinnati. But as I was watching the Packers in this game, I never felt like they were running away from Cincinnati in the same way that a lot of other teams have. Denver crushed them. The Vikings crushed them.

And yeah, they didn't have Jake Browning. I mean, the lions crushed them. They didn't have Jake Browning. They had Joe Flacco. But it wasn't like Joe Flacko was doing anything special and couldn't move the ball really at all. He threw up a couple of jump balls to Jamar Chase, where he made some great plays because he's a great wide receiver.

But at the end of the day, Flacco ends up with 219 yards on 45 passes. I mean, it was a lot of checkdowns, a lot of understowns, a lot of underneath stuff, and yet when he did throw it up, the receivers for Cincinnati were still able to make some plays against the secondary of the Green Bay Packers, which kind of speaks to that point about defensive lines. It's great to have the greatest defensive line, but you have to cover on the back end. And if you have Jamar Chase lossing Keishon Nixon, then you're still going to win, even if Joe Flacco is the guy who's heaving the ball up in Jamar Chase's general direction.

So they showed a little bit of vulnerability in the secondary, despite the fact that they were playing a 40-year-old quarterback who really should have retired after winning comeback player of the year and going to the playoffs with Cleveland a couple years ago. And yet there's old Joe slinging it up, making a few bucks on a Sunday playing for Cincinnati. And the offense for the Green Bay Packers, they had a good plan today, which was to kind of spread the ball out to a lot of different guys. Jacobs caught a lot of passes out of the backfield. He ran well for really the first time this year.

Jacobs came into the game averaging 3.3 yards per carry. Another regression from last year from a guy that carried the ball a ton. And they got it to Golden on a couple of plays. They used Savion Williams. They used Romeo Dobbs. Tucker Kraft had a really nice touchdown where he pounded into the end zone. He's become a top weapon for them. And yet still throughout that game,

I was feeling like the Packers are just not a consistent offense. And they put up 27 and that's a good job there. And there was some mismanagement maybe by Matt LaFleur at the end of a game. Tell me if you've heard that one before. But, you know, 259, 19 for 26 passing is good. Jordan Love had an interception mixed in. All of it was good. They ran the ball pretty well.

Love took off a few times. They had a few gimmicks in there. But it never felt like the Green Bay offense. was just in total command of that game. And it feels like Green Bay has to live or die on whether Jordan Love hits those downfield passes, the one that he made to Golden was excellent at the end of the game. But the consistency of Green Bay's offense is still a little bit on the suspect side, I think. And it sort of goes back to the point of the NFC.

And if you're Green Bay, I saw one of the Green Bay writers say something like, well, if you compare a really underwhelming win to a loss, it's better than that, but that's all I could say about this game. I forget which writer said that, but I thought it was really well said about that football game that nobody walked out of there

going, wow, what a great performance by the Packers offensively, really, or defensively against the team that is as down bad as anybody in the NFL, and it just shows the flaws of the Packers, the Lions,

the Eagles, they've all been on display. And even the best team in the NFC, the Tampa Bay Bucks, I think have been a little bit of a charmed life for them. And the Rams still great. They had a little bit of trouble with the Ravens. I mean, I didn't really expect the Rams to just steamroll. Like the Ravens were going to try. They still think that they can save their season.

Cooper Rush. Oh, my goodness. I was thinking about some of the backup quarterback options we discussed earlier this. year in the off season and Cooper Rush was one of them. I guess outside of Dallas, Cooper Rush is not as comfortable as he once was. I thought, how did this guy once beat the Minnesota Vikings? This is miserable. And Joe Flacco as well would have been another guy we talked about. And, you know, it doesn't look like Joe would be in the best shape to lead the Vikings. So they landed in the right spot with Carson Wentz as their backup. But fascinating action.

around the NFL today. Let me see if I missed anybody. Oh, yeah, the Chargers. The Chargers today, they're going to play, obviously, the Vikings in a week and a half at Los Angeles. And they barely escaped against Miami. You talk about a franchise that is burning to the ground.

The Miami Dolphins are absolutely horrible. I mean, just as lost and as bad and is clueless right now looking, and Tua's coming out. after giving a press conference talking about guys not showing up to meetings and it almost was a little bit from Tua as bad like airing the dirty laundry is almost as bad as what's happening and it sounded a little bit like making an excuse for why he threw three interceptions in this game but the Chargers still barely escaped and what I've really noticed about the Chargers is they can't stop the run. Devin A. Chan went crazy today and had a few big runs. They had a couple

of big plays. Jalen Waddle had a big play as well, but they were one of the worst teams in terms of yards per carry against going into this weekend. And then they give up big yards, 128 on 16 carries. So that is a part of the Los Angeles Chargers that's pretty suspect right now. They're missing a couple tackles. They had to really battle to win that game. Herbert was good. They were missing Quentin Johnston, which he's dealing with the hamstring. That's going to be something to keep an eye on because their second leading receiver was a Ronde Gadsden the second, who I think was an undrafted free agent, and he ends up getting seven catches in that game. So already they're dealing with a lot of injuries, and they look a little bit on the

failable side, a little bit on the vulnerable side as well. We knew that, but it was an unimpressive victory versus a team that is lost, completely lost in the woods, the Miami Dolphins. let's see anything else oh well the Ravens yeah there was some news with the Ravens which was that Lamar Jackson is going to come back after their by week which I think is in

week seven so he will be back by the time they face the Vikings we don't know if he's going to stay healthy because we're not fortune tellers but assuming that he stays healthy then he will be playing against the Vikings but it sounds like they're going to give him the bye week to rest up

and what type of Baltimore team are you facing Derek Henry looked a lot better today averaged over five yards of carry but is not quite as scary i mean that's the thing right we we try to project this stuff out and i would have told you murderers freaking row that the vikings are about to face of running backs as and i'm not saying we shouldn't look at the schedule and pick the schedule and have fun we know we're going to have fun in the off season the point is just we should always keep that in the back of our minds that these games are not played in a simulation in imagination land, and they're not, and Vegas doesn't know a whole heck of a lot

in the off season. So when people try to make these metrics and sell these metrics of, oh, this team has the worst strength of schedule, this team has the easiest strength of schedule, it is bogus because they are facing a Philadelphia team with Saquan Barkley averaging three and a half yards of carry, and they're not blocking the same way they were blocking last year, not even close. They are facing a Chargers team without O'Marion Hampton, who actually ran very well today, but still without a Marion Hampton. And then they're going to face eventually a, let's see, who are we just talking about, a Ravens team that is down super bad. I mean, like, you just never really know, right? We would have never guessed in a million years. Oh, Derek Henry. Yeah, that's

what I mean. It hasn't played anywhere near as well as we would have expected, did bounce back today. But I would have said, how are you going to stop any of these guys? And yet they all look a little more vulnerable and a little less strong than they did before. So the NFC feels very much wide open, which leads me to this week and looking forward. And then we'll get to your comments, your thoughts, your questions, and we'll chat for a little while. I don't want to go too deep into the evening. I've got things to do tomorrow. I've got a press conference, open locker room as we get back there after the bye week. So there will there will be plenty for tomorrow night's show to break down from Kevin O'Connell and players and so forth as they get back

and they kind of get an extra practice like an extra full practice on a Monday. So, but if questions, comments, thoughts on today's action, very interested. And then the Bears and the Falcons will play tomorrow night, not against each other. Doubleheader Monday night football. I don't know. Take it or leave it. I kind of like the single game, but, you know, it is what it is. So anyway, the point being of this day is you look around as a three and two team and you go, who's, who's around, who's around that same range as a three and two team in the NFC? And you go, almost everybody? Because through these first five games with the Vikings, I don't have a great.

great feel for who they are. I don't think you have a great feel for who they are because we have not seen them. We've seen parts of them. We've seen flashes of them. The defense at times has been closer to 100%, but it's never been 100%. Harrison Smith hasn't played an entire game yet. And they've been without their kind of heart and soul linebacker, Blake Cashman, who's going to start practicing this week. The offensive line has been ravaged by injuries. Well, Donovan Jackson has a chance to come back. We'll see about Brian O'Neill.

The last time we talked to O'Connell, there wasn't an update there. We'll get that tomorrow on O'Neill and Van Ginkle. But we just haven't seen them. I mean, Jordan Addison has played two games since coming back, but not five. And we haven't seen a big sample of him. We haven't seen him play yet with J.J. McCarthy when those two were locked in during the offseason. and I think that that could be a factor for some of the struggles of J.J. McCarthy through the first two games at times when they went cold is the guy that he was most on point with was not there.

So now he's got a chance to get him back if McCarthy indeed starts this week. So I say where the Vikings stand is right in the mix with anybody else. And if you told me that the Vikings, I don't know, got McCarthy back in and they, had a really good run through this next section, which we thought was the murderer's row. We thought was going to be almost impossible for them to get through. If you told me that they won three out of the next four games, maybe you lose in Detroit or, heck, I don't know if their defense looks like this,

maybe it's a barn burner in Detroit. You shouldn't write that one off. And you've got a Baltimore team that's at half strength from what they were last year. Maybe you win three out of four of these games. If you told me that that happened, I'd be like, okay, no surprise. If you told me some of these teams figured it out and the Vikings won one out of the next four, I'd say that's not a big surprise either. There's so many of these teams that are at Forks in the Road right now that we don't really know yet how good they actually are.

I think in terms of a confidence rating, I would be very confident in what Green Bay is, which is a pretty darn good team that's not that different from last year. but if they're as good as they were last year, they're in the mix. Micah Parsons is better than anything they had last year. But as an actual franchise, I don't see them being worlds better than they were last year. Detroit is very similar to last year as well, probably a little bit less, but maybe similar as a team that needs to lean on their offense, has a very flawed defense now that it's banged up.

If the Vikings play them when they're 100% healthy, it might be different than what we saw tonight, but they haven't really beaten anybody that you'd be impressed by. Their wins against Chicago against Cleveland against Cincinnati. These aren't good teams that Detroit's beaten. They've had two shots at showing that they're a serious contender, one against Green Bay and one against the Kansas City Chiefs tonight, and they lost both, and they lost both by two scores.

Thank goodness it was a two-score game because now it counts for Kansas City. Good for them. So congrats to the chiefs for winning. Now, if Detroit had put on a final score that was garbage time, then it wouldn't have counted. Then it would have been a one score win. Then it would not have counted. Anyway, just being snarky there. So again, Fanduel question of the day, if you're just joining, is the Vikings are opening up as two and a half point underdogs to the Philadelphia Eagles on Fandul.

Where do the Eagles rank for you among NFC teams? that you saw the, after you saw the Lions lose tonight. So where do the Eagles rank? Are they still at the top for you? Are they in a tier? Do you want to do your ranking in a tiers? Where would you rank the Eagles in the NFC? And I'll just, let me tie this all together with the topic de jure

around the Minnesota Vikings this week, which clearly is the quarterback situation. And I'm sure that Kevin O'Connell probably went back and looked at his press conference comments and said, you know, perhaps I said a little too much there about what he wants to see. Not that I didn't appreciate it. I really, I truly did. But I wonder if he was like very, I think, descriptive of what he was looking for of J.J. McCarthy this week. Now, when it comes to practice, none of us will see J.J. McCarthy practice. We will see the beginning of practice, the warmups. We're allowed to take the attendance, see who's there. But

we are not, it's not like training camp. So we're not watching the entire practice. I don't know if there's any team that does that anymore. Maybe, maybe one or two teams leave their practices open. But for the most part, you see a section of practice and that's it. So how does JJ look does not apply to this? I can't come back here every night and say, oh, I track JJ in practice at whatever. That's not how it works during the season.

That's only during training camp. So that will be something that just Josh McCown and, uh, West Phillips and Kevin O'Connell, et cetera, are looking at this week is how McCarthy looks as he returns to practice, and can he prove to them that he deserves to start against the Philadelphia Eagles? I think, though, connecting it to the results in the NFC, what I would say is a good argument for starting McCarthy is that the ceiling is higher for J.J. McCarthy. and when you're talking about a schedule that's not as hard as it once looked,

and you're talking about a bunch of NFTC teams that are just kind of there as contenders and not wowing anyone, that no one at this point is a behemoth in the NFC. It's all teams that are good and not perfect. And that's kind of what I would say the Vikings are. Good, not perfect. and McCarthy with his mobility, which if you watch games again today, there's so much pressure on these quarterbacks. Mobility is just absolutely necessary.

And watching Patrick Mahomes take the ball and run a few times for big first downs. That's just another reminder of what we already know of the value of mobility. Well, Carson Wentz has none of that. He's done a great job as a backup quarterback, but he's got no mobility. And if it clicks for McCart, he has a deeper breath of knowledge of the offense, having been learning it for the last two years, and you could see him rapidly improving. I was also thinking about J.J. McCarthy while watching Bryce Young upset Dallas today. That was a really fun game. That was a great game

between Dallas and Carolina, one of the strangest laterals I've ever seen, but it was just a fun contest. And last year, if you recall, Bryce Young was benched. for Andy Dalton for a couple of weeks and teams called the Panthers about trading for Bryce Young. There were multiple teams trying to get a trade to get Bryce Young and they were starting Andy Dalton. And funny how things work in football. Dalton got in a car accident where he hurt his hand

and they had to go back to Bryce Young. They had no other choice. And Bryce kind of got it and started playing much better. And it clicked. and they came close on a few games. They won a little. They came close on a few other games. They took some good teams to overtime or to the last minute.

And suddenly, Bryce Young looked like a real quarterback. Now, they didn't look like a megastar, but just sort of like, oh, all right, this looks much more like NFL football from Bryce Young, who had been so terrible through his first X number of starts. And I thought about that with J.J. McCarthy, where you could see something like that happening that, yes, it looked pretty rough in the first two weeks outside of the fourth quarter against Chicago. But taking a step back, seeing how Carson Wentz ran the offense, seeing the timing of it, also having O'Connell adjust the offense, also getting

players back, that we could see a different version of McCarthy. And if he turns a corner at some point, if they can grind out some wins with maybe average performance, make a handful of plays, play great on defense, run the ball extremely well. This is in the best case scenario of him this week in practice getting in. If he were to turn a corner, then you're looking around in the NFC going, your quarterback's playing like a real quarterback. Maybe he's playing like the 12th best or 14th best in the league at that point. And who is special?

Nobody. And you're going down the stretch with a chance to play these other flawed teams that have a lot of talent, but they're not perfect, and you can get similar quarterback play with some playmaking element to it. Like, that's the ideal best case scenario. And you've got to, it's not just that you've got to find out what you have. I've heard that a lot. You got to find out what you have.

You got to find out what you have. And I think you got to take the best shot to win, to really win something. Because it's there for you with the landscape. If there were three teams that were unbelievable in the NFC and they were killing everyone, I would say, I don't know, man, this is going to be a rough ride. And who knows what, you know, I don't know. That's, you can't beat this team. You can't beat that team if you get in the playoffs.

I don't feel that way about anybody in the NFC. But with Carson Wentz, there are limitations there. He's not the playmaker. He's not going to be able to escape and create first downs with his legs. There was a stat today about Baker Mayfield that he has, I think, nine first downs on third down. That is the type of scrambling that I'd like to see from J.J. McCarthy, and we already have, is get a first down on a third down when everything's covered up. Go make a play with your legs. There is a big difference between a guy who can't do that at all in Carson Wentz and someone who is exceptional at it like J.J. McCarthy.

So if they can even play similar, and Wence has been good, but he, I mean, he hasn't been unbelievable. He's been a mid-pack type of quarterback at executing the offense from play, to play. Can you be that with a playmaking element to it? Can you turn a corner? And if you can, then everything's kind of out in front of you as you go down the stretch with a bunch of other teams that are on even plain or depending on health, you might end up passing if your team is getting healthy after spending most of the year being not healthy. So that's how I came out of today feeling like a lot of flaws in the NFC. not a lot of greatness in the NFC,

which after two weeks ago, so much of the season did feel like it was on the brink of disaster, and you would have much preferred to be four and one coming out of Europe. Being three and two allows the Vikings to still be there, which I really wondered about after the Steelers lost. I mean, it really, and look, if they had lost to Cleveland, we couldn't even have this conversation because I would just be saying, I'd be like get a look at McCarthy I probably would be saying not hey you can chase these teams down because you saw how bad Cleveland was today they got pummeled by Aaron Rogers and the Steelers and yes it did cross my mind as Darnold was winning and his Rogers was winning yes you know exactly what crossed my mind Aaron Rogers former Vikings quarterback for two weeks in the off season is four and one right now

And Sam Darnold is four and two. So eight and three record between them, both quarterbacks playing very well. Darnold playing borderline. Great. But that doesn't mean the Vikings decision is going to be wrong at three and two and with a chance to potentially get McCarthy back. But it comes down to him this week. If he performs at practice and he starts and he beats Philadelphia, this thing feels so much different than it did just a couple of weeks ago. and we would have it no other way.

So if you're just joining the Eagles two and a half point favorites on Fandual, it's our Fandual question of the day. Where do they rank among NFC teams? So let's get to some of your comments here. Allow me to scroll back in the comments section a little bit to catch up because I've just been filibustering here. But it was fun to sit and watch today, the NFL. And, you know, have a little red zone action, bounce around the league.

I will say another thing that crossed my mind. And I just can't help myself. I'm like the meme that's like, don't say it, don't say it. Would you trade a couple of Josh Dobbs wins for Drake May? Gosh, that guy looks good. Him and KOC. Can you imagine? Hunter says they get Rashid, the chiefs get Rashid Rice back.

The chiefs are chiefing. yeah, the rest of the NFL, hopefully they didn't declare the chiefs out of it when they got to two and three because that's just what I mean when it comes to the strength of schedule. It could just depend on when you play a team is so much different, much less even what their record is. But who's starting? Who's in the lineup? I mean, you play Philadelphia here coming off two straight losses where they're not healthy and they're not getting along and they're in a lot of trouble. that's much different than maybe playing them an opening night at the beginning of the year when they had absolutely everybody in their lineup. It's so much different when you get into the middle of the season

and the Lions playing the Chiefs tonight with no secondary whatsoever, no one healthy in their secondary and doing it with them getting weapons back. It was an advantage for the Chiefs, but it also showed the flaws of the Detroit Lions. It's just, you know, once the minute you start, it's just like with Brady. how many times in my life did this happen with Brady where the shoddy shows is my friend

Sam Monson likes to call them you know the the TV shows the talking heads they're screaming at the top of their lungs Brady's toast the Patriots are done it's over and then the middle of the season the light comes on there's the Aaron Rogers RELA X like we're at that point with Patrick Mahomes I think Allen's in the same range too where you just until they actually fall off the side of a cliff, they have not, they have not, should never be written off and Mahomes definitely showed that. Marauder says, branch is going to be suspended after he started a fight after the game. Man, I can't believe I missed that. I was setting up here downstairs, just getting ready to, to go and do the broadcast. I thought, well, the game is over. They're kneeling down.

Let me, let me scoot and get ready. And then I missed this fight. So I'll have to catch up on that. but shows a little bit maybe of the frustration from Detroit, I suppose after a night like tonight. I didn't feel like there were tensions in the game, but maybe they were. So let's see. Mo says, does KOC have the discipline to use the quick hitting offense

versus the Eagles with J.J. McCarthy instead of reverting back to seven-step drop. So here's the thing about this style of offense. and I had a great conversation if you missed it with Sam Brookhouse the other day. And I brought it up to him and I said, hey, this is great. The COC's using this quick hitting offense. And we saw a lot of it from the Holmes tonight, too. A lot of just, hey, get the ball in playmaker's hands.

And he said, yeah, it's great, but you still have to hit explosive plays. And that's where Carson Wentz did a really good job against Cleveland, was he still hit a 38-yarder to Jefferson, that 21-yarder down the sideline to Jefferson. usually just big plays to Jefferson were happening. So you can't just fully lean on that. But I do think that if O'Connell was going back through the beginning of the season at the by week and studying what he did with the scheme, the Cleveland game should be the most instructive of all of the games this year

because it was against a really good defense. And they didn't have an unbelievable performance. but it is with a backup quarterback, with a bunch of backup linemen, and you can overcome some things if you keep the train on the tracks. If you keep the sticks moving, if you keep making completions and just keep the ball in your hands, so the other team can't pound your face in with their running game, which Cleveland still did in a lot of ways, but not in the same way they would have if the Vikings had a bunch of three and outs.

You need to have Jefferson getting the football. You need to have the opposing team. kind of coming up, bringing people up into the box, or at very least, leaning up to try to stop the short passing game. Like, I think there are some advantages there. But I would also say that when I looked back at the Atlanta game, that there were plays there that were short passing plays, that the ball never came out, that J.J. McCarthy had, through the two games,

the slowest snap to release. You've heard this enough times by now, but it's true. the slowest snap to release in the NFL and the short passing was not successful at all when he did throw the ball so it's not that those plays weren't dialed up at all what I would like to see from J.J. McCarthy is him looking at some of the ways

Carson Wentz got rid of the football. Some of those ways over these last three games were just Wentz kind of being like doing a little Mahomes. Yeah, you get the football. There was a few completions in the Cincinnati games like this where he just dropped back, got some immediate pressure and just, hey, I'm dumping it underneath and we're going to move on.

Joe Flacco actually did this pretty well. Now he didn't really have anything else in his bag against the Packers today. But Joe Flacko a few times got pressure and just said, nope, I'm just going to get four yards on a completion, and I'm going to move on. I'm not going to take a big hit. I'm not going to have a turnover, a sack, a strip sack,

an interception. I'm just going to get rid of the ball and then we'll run. the next play and see what happens and even as horrible as Bo Nix played and the Broncos played Sean Payton's kind of been doing the same thing with Bo Nix where he knows that his defense is so good if you commit zero turnovers you are going to win this game because Justin Fields my gosh one of the worst worst games I've ever seen from a quarterback but Sean Payton I saw a lot of people commenting on it. Oh, he doesn't trust Knicks and he might not, but why would you do anything

to mess up when the other team has no chance whatsoever of scoring? You know, I don't know if the Vikings will be in that position with Philadelphia, but it's a balance that you have to strike. So this is an offense that is built around trying to create explosive plays for the best receiver in the world. If you make it all about checkdowns to T.J. Hawkinson, you're probably not going to have a heck of a lot of success. So there has to be a balance. There also has to be the element of the quarterback with timing. When you run, I'll give you an example.

They ran a high-low concept last game against Cleveland with Addison and Jefferson on the same side. And they're both doing outbreaking routes. One of them is at about 10 yards. The other one's at about maybe 15, 17 yards. And they're right on top of each other, like in a stack. And the defense really doesn't know as they accelerate, like, where is. they're going. Are they going to cut across each other? Are they both going to break out, break in,

go on a slant, go deep. Who's going deep? Who's going short? And Jefferson, because he is unbelievable, snaps off this awesome out route where the corner doesn't have a great chance at it. And Wence had thrown the ball before he's even out of his break and he catches it, goes out of bounds, it gets 12 yards. Great play. If that ball is late, then Jefferson is either going out of bounds because of his momentum, or the corner has a chance to recover. Those are the types of things that veteran quarterbacks do that we just didn't see from McCarthy, but that doesn't mean he can't do the same thing I talked about with Bryce Young, get a chance to see the veteran run it and go, oh, all right, like, I get it.

That has to come out faster. I can't wait until Jefferson is already out of his break because then the corner is going to see me winding up to throw. Like, I need the corner's eyes on Jefferson when I'm winding up to throw, not on me. There's these micro nuances that KOC's going to be looking for in practice, that he has to be able to execute as much as O'Connell has to stick with that game plan. So, I mean, I agree with you. Does he have the discipline?

I mean, I think that he's always going to be looking downfield. But knowing how well that worked, yeah, no, I think seeing him change is proof that he can adapt it. But McCarthy has to execute it as well. So it's, it's not just, hey, man, drop some short passes and everything will be fine. He has to have learned from the experience of watching Wentz on the sideline. And I know that I had a few people say, well, he watched Darnold last year. But he watched Darnold hang in there forever. He watched Darnold stay in there and try to hit the downfield pass every single time.

And Darnold is a freak. he's got an unbelievable arm he needs no room whatsoever to throw the ball 30 yards down the field and he's kind of crazy and takes a lot of hits you don't want to try to emulate that exactly you want McCarthy to play much more like Carson Wentz and much less like Sam Darnold except for those handful of times per game five times per game where you got to do something exceptional that's what you want at least in this situation for now and then you can grow and grow and grow into that. Zuma Kev answering the Fandul question of the day says Rams, lions,

Eagles, bucks, packers, and commanders, the commies. I don't think there's a huge difference with any of those teams. Totally agree. Totally agree. Soomerckev. Totally agree. The one team that could really hit the gas pedal is the commies, the commanders, because of Jaden Daniels.

and their defense has been pretty good on the defensive line, where last year that was a real struggle for them. McLaren being banged up makes it harder, but Daniels might just be so freakish that they could take the next step. I mean, they've got the best quarterback there of that group, but the Lions still having this issue of being weak on the defensive secondary or banged up on the defensive secondary reminds you of last year where as they were winning and winning and winning,

we still knew they were flawed. and they had that game against Buffalo that they gave up seven gazillion points to the bills and it was that pointing at the screen kind of like that's that's it that's what could get them eliminated at some point their offense was good tonight and I their offense is going to remain good that travels better than defense but you can't be covering nobody and they were kind of covering nobody tonight which drops them down hunter said oh zoomer kev adds that the Seattle and 49ers are close. I've got Seattle a little bit better than the 49ers just because of the injuries.

Fred Warner is a top 10 defensive player in the league. Him going out today. That was horrible. Him going out today. Hunter said NFL feels extremely flawed this year, but it's also felt like the Vikings are more flawed than many teams. Yeah, that's true. It's just for me, how much can those flaws be fixed by guys coming back?

So on the offensive line, you're going to go. go from. And shout out to Joe Huber for just fighting the good fight last week. But you're going to go from Joe Huber, an undrafted free agent who you're trying to develop over the year. A rookie has never played in the NFL before, never taken a first team rep before in practice. And he had to start. And when you come back out of the buy, very likely, I guess we'll see. But it feels like Donovan Jackson's going to be back. So now it's from undrafted free agent who's never played before to promise. first round pick.

I mean, that's a pretty big jump. They may have found something here in Blake Brandel as well, who I did think played a very good game against Cleveland in some of the most important areas. I don't think that he's ever going to be a physical specimen enough, not in size and girth, but more athleticism to be able to get low enough on the defensive tackles, to be able to beat quicker defensive tackles. It's going to be a problem for him at times. but in terms of his intelligence, his leadership, it was impressive what he was able to do

and his knowledge of the offense, which could actually, and this would be the reason to potentially have him start with McCarthy, is that you have a veteran leader in there as opposed to young Michael Juergen. So again, was okay, but it's not the same in terms of that knowledge of the offense. So you get him back. We'll see on Aaron Jones, but you have Addison back in the lineup so it's your group of receivers and then the defense improve i mean you can get to that they are flawed but you can get to a point where they're much closer to a totally complete roster and maybe the most complete roster in the nfc when they are healthy which they have been nowhere close to so far this year uh rob says vikis might be a bit unlucky and hit the ravens with lamar and roquan

smith coming back but they also might have hit the eagles with some uh with dick and Quinion out and maybe the Chargers without Alt and Pipkins. Yeah, so the, right, the Chargers being without their offensive line, at least while they were without Rishon Slater. And that's the biggest one. I mean, that guy and Joe All, like those guys are amazing players. And so not having them is a big advantage for Jonathan Granard. We'll see if Van Gingles back, Dallas Turner, like that's some serious talent. They were able to overcome it today. But that was against Miami who couldn't pressure me and you. There's nothing left of that Miami defense.

It's just bad. So I don't know that that was really indicative of what the Chargers are without their offensive linemen. So yes, they are hitting. And look, Dory Jackson has been atrocious for Philadelphia. Like so bad. And if Quinnian Mitchell is out, he's dealing, I think, with a hamstring maybe. If he's out, that could be a big edge for whoever is playing quarterback for the Vikings.

So you're right. You're hitting a lot of those. teams at the right time. And even if Lamar and Roquan are back, how good is Baltimore really? I mean, is Baltimore actually a good, I mean, are they a good team that's going to turn it around and go on a run? Like, it doesn't feel like it. Definitely. It doesn't feel like it. Gazikad, worst game you've ever seen in your life so far. Yeah, I mean, I guess if I am subjected to watching Justin Fields again, Justin Fields, though, is a great example. of why and I feel like broken record

or just that I'm on repeat when I talk about getting rid of the football and Justin Fields is why I talk about it so much that when I see somebody getting rid of the ball and look McCarthy was doing this in the offseason and that's why I have said time and time again whether people have wanted to hear it or not usually they only hear the other parts

but when I say why I think McCarthy can get on track and it's not what we saw in Atlanta's who he should be is because in practice in all training camp in summer he was getting rid of the football in a timely manner and that's what I look for the most out of anything because when you watch fields just get sacked and sacked and sacked and sacked and sacked and that's just miserable and you can't win that way but that old man was that a bad game to wake up to I did not want to spend my morning that way. I did have a bagel sandwich, though. That was okay, but the football was horrible.

Let's see. Thursday night game was peak NFL viewing. Yeah, well, the Thursday game was a lot of fun. Cam Scataboo, Jackson Dart, and when we talk about the schedule, I should bring that up as well, that the New York Giants now are later in the schedule. And we all wrote that down as a clear win. They're a little bit more tricky now, and they have a really good, defense, really good defense that could be problematic later on in the season.

Also, I mean, Dallas lost today, but their offense is still really good. Dax playing great. Marauder, only player I wish we could go and take from this year's draft is Scataboo. Well, you kind of have him. He's just not as ridiculous. Like, Jordan Mason is not a big personality. Guys, very quiet, very understated. We don't talk to him much in the locker room.

That's not a criticism. I just mean that, like, he'll talk. if we ask, but he's not a big, like, you know, I'm out front of the media type of guy. He's probably not going to do the post game Thursday interview and take his shirt off like Cam Scadaboo. But I think that they're similar and their Mason, I think is maybe a little better, but their ability to run people over. It's still a talent.

It's still a talent. You can talk about its quarterback league. It's still a talent to run people over. Scadaboo is a lot of fun. Go get him. Do we know if JJ has been able to practice or will be fully practicing this week? Yeah. So what Kevin O'Connell said the other day was that McCarthy was going to practice this week,

kind of on his own. I can't imagine that everybody stuck around. I don't really actually know how that works with practicing on his own. But he said he was going to be in the facility working this week. He wasn't taking the week off. And then starting Monday, he'll be back. at 100%. So as long as he didn't hurt himself between last Monday and right now, then he will be practicing fully with no restrictions this week. And that's where O'Connell

said the different number of different things that he's going to have to show this week. And he didn't finish the sentence. He didn't say, hey, if he does these things, then he's starting. But we can kind of finish the sentence for him. He called it mandatory, stuff that's mandatory. I thought that was the strongest word because it just means if I don't see you doing this, then I don't know how you can start. And you might have to go with Wence. The other thing with Wence is that he's also banged up. And that might be another part of this as well that could potentially factor into the decision is that Wence has that shoulder injury that sounded like it was pretty tough. Zumer Kev Dart was throwing dimes. There were like six perfect throws. The wide receivers

draw. Yeah, I mean, I look, I like Jackson Dard a lot too. That's my point. about later in the season, you thought you'd be facing, although I think we all knew there was no way Russell Wilson got that deep into the year. But we thought, well, they're probably going to face a rookie who doesn't know what he's doing. Now Jackson Dart's got some moxie to him. He's got the ability to make some plays with his legs, which we saw. And all those things that go together with their offense improving, scatiboo emerging, their offensive line getting healthier, their defense being good. So the giants look like a tough. a much tougher team than they ever looked on the initial schedule.

That's part of this week's developments as well, not just some teams drifting back, which was kind of more of my focus. Andrew says, I felt like the Vikings have failed to punish teams where they are injured recently. Would you agree? Well, they punish the heck out of Cincinnati.

I'm not sure. Like, who did they not? I mean, the Steelers were pretty healthy for that game. The Browns were playing a backup quarterback. I wouldn't say that they've completely punished Dylan Gabriel, but they didn't let him go up and down the field. Maybe you mean historically, like in the last maybe a couple years, because this year, I think they've played mostly healthy teams,

and then the one team that they play with the backup quarterback, they just completely demolished. Maybe it's a more nuanced point about this guy or that guy being out and they didn't attack somebody enough. But Cleveland was pretty healthy, I thought, across the board, weren't they? And, you know, the Bengals, they were, they were totally banged up across the offensive line and a quarterback. So, yeah, yeah, I'm not really sure that that has been a problem so far this year. I think that Atlanta was pretty healthy.

No, I think they've been fine when it comes to that. What they really haven't faced is a team with as much talent across the board as the Philadelphia Eagles. But they also haven't gone into a game with a complete roster or anywhere close to it. And that's where I think coming out of the buy, it's just sort of a new world. It feels to me like week one coming out of the buy if they get those guys back. If they get Jackson back, if they get Blake Cashman, and then McCarthy is starting. It feels like someone shut down the computer and restarted it. Like, out three and two, that wasn't what we're looking for.

Restart. And now, okay, here's the real season, guys. That's how it kind of feels. with them getting guys back. Zuma Kev, the Chargers can't score 30 points, even if they have both tackles. That may be true, but I think their offense when they're healthy is really good.

Oh, Gadsden was a sixth rounder. Okay, I thought he was undrafted. Well, either way, late round guy out of Syracuse, when I hear Arronday Gadsden the second, I think, how old am I? Very old, because I remember Arrondi Gatston was a good receiver for Miami. let's see

zoomer kev apparently some dudes saw McCarthy at an apple orchard and he said his ankle is still clearly bothering him was that an internet rumor i do a good job of not seeing reddit rumors and stuff like that but that's funny that's funny the apple orchard reporter all right well uh i didn't i didn't want to go all night uh with this Let me just scroll here for a couple of more questions to get some more answers to the Fandul question of the day and probably call it a night because there's going to be a lot tomorrow. I'm recording a podcast with Drew McGarry in the morning.

So that'll be fun from Defector. You know, Drew's always a good time. And then tomorrow night, there will be big live show starting probably 6.30. And we've got the round table with Manny and Murph. we've got KOC talking, players talking in the locker room. So a lot going on tomorrow. So I don't want to go on forever here.

I also haven't finished writing yet because the game just came to an end. So I got to do that. Rache, Eagles are worse than the Bucks, Lions, Seahawks, Rams, and Packers, but still a good deal better than the Vikings. Yeah, I mean, I think that the priors matter. The fact that we saw last year, A.J. Brown, and Jalen Hurts struggled to get on the same page. And then they did.

And they won the Super Bowl. So we can't totally overreact to them having a couple of bad weeks together because they have resolved it. But I do think when you look at their offensive line and Landon Dickerson, who is a huge player for them, struggling with injury, they're not run blocking like they used to, everything plays off the run with that team. And if they're an average or below average running team, I don't think. that they're that great. But you're right, it would be overrating the Vikings to say, hey, they're on the same level as Philly. But fair enough on those other teams, Bucks, lions, Seahawks, Rams, and Packers. Marauder has the Eagles second tier and dropping

fast. Let's see, they fixed the toxicity last year, but I doubt they'd do it again. That, I mean, that is certainly possible that it's just too much. It just builds and build and builds and you end up with egos and you end up within fighting and Jalen Hertz also speaks in like these weird cliches like stuff that he read out of Sun Tzu or whatever. I don't know, like some of the stuff that he says, like do you, can we have a normal conversation here about this? You wonder about his communication ability

when it comes to the wide receivers. So let's see, man 0311. Again, answering that Fandul question of the day. which is the Vikings, two and a half point underdogs on Fanduil, where do the Eagles rank for you in the NFC? So, man says, Eagles are probably still the top half of the league, but very mortal.

I like that word. I might use that later in the week. Like every team seems to be this year, my hope is they don't rally during, uh, oh, from the game from the loss last week. Yeah,

I agree with that. Uh, Zumer Kev has the first tier of being the Rams, lions, and you know, so you've got the Eagles as a first tier team, even, after the two losses.

That's interesting. I don't, I honestly, I'm going to tell you the truth. I don't know. Like the two and a half point favorite coming here screams to me that the folks at Fandul who do this for a living think that the Eagles are pretty flawed and just kind of another team. And are they as good? Yeah, but man, that first tier of teams with the Rams and the Lions, those teams are flawed

too. Packers might deserve a little bit more credit there as a first. tier team, an unimpressive win against the Bengals, but, you know, still double-digit point win against the Bengals. The Bucks, to me, are the 22 Vikings. It's a lot of Fools Gold, but they are super banged up. So for them to get to five and one, as injured as they are, if they get guys back, Mike Evans comes back, Chris Godwin, Ibuka got hurt today. If they get guys back, then they can be in the first tier. They can be maybe the best team. team in the NFC.

Washington is the team that I think is going to take a big step forward in these coming weeks. I mean, they went one in one without their quarterback. They had a bad loss to Green Bay. But Daniels is really good. Rache says the difference between Bryce's benching and JJ potentially playing better when he comes back is that JJ has been injured and hasn't been able to practice. Bryce was able to do that when he was bench.

That is a very fair point. And I agree with you. And it's been the issue with. with J.J. trying to develop. That's why it does remind you at times of, gosh, Anthony Richardson having an injury before the game even started and having to go to the hospital. I mean, Richardson's the same sort of thing where he was a bit on the raw side, different prospect than McCarthy, but still on the raw side, and then just kept getting hurt, can't get better in practice. The similarity is that Young got to step back and see how Andy Dalton ran the

offense. And I think what most quarterbacks realize, and this is something that even Sam Darnold said, and Darnold was a guy that did try to do too much a lot of times. Darnold said this about watching Brock Purdy, where he said that he felt like watching Brock Purdy helped him understand, I don't have to try to do everything. I sometimes you just need to take what's right there for you. In fact, a lot of times. And you got to do it quick. and I think that Bryce Young learned the same thing

where you've just got to do what's right there in front of you and not try to be a hero on every single play. Guitar person says should have signed Rogers. Well, you know, I think Rogers has looked good throughout the season.

Not great. Just okay. And playing the Browns today, it was not a special game for him. 21 for 30, 2.35, two touchdowns. Didn't take a sack. That's good for him. Just okay.

A fine NFL performance by a starting quarterback. With this team, Aaron Rogers probably is 4 and 1. The way that he's played so far, what I'm shocked by is the lack of drama, but they've been winning and you have Mike Tomlin. That's why, you know, the other day I was talking about how when you get a really good coach, you don't fire them, you just keep running it back and eventually it'll click.

Well, the reason you have Mike Tomlin is because you could bring in Aaron Rogers. Then you don't hear a peep from Rogers the entire year, which is very impressive work so far. But they haven't had any drama or any reason. Rogers has played fine. He has not looked unbelievable, but he has not looked terrible. If he was the quarterback of this team, I think that they would be in the discussion as a double-digit win team, probably. None of us could have known when they had that conversation with Rogers, like how cooked is he going to look? and he still looks immobile, but he doesn't look as unhappy as he did with the Jets.

He just, he still looks immobile. He's still relying on like a lot of short passes and stuff like that. It does seem to be buying into their offense in ways that I didn't expect him to. But it's a real one year type of thing with Rogers. Now, maybe you could argue knowing what you've seen from McCarthy so far that they needed a one year thing. They needed McCarthy to sit for a year in hindsight. and you could have competed this year with Aaron Rogers. I still don't think that you're really talking about competing for a Super Bowl.

I still don't think the Steelers are really competing for a Super Bowl with Aaron Rogers. I think what they were competing for is just keeping Mike Tomlin's job. Maybe you can win a playoff game. But I don't think that they should regret that decision not going for Rogers yet. Now, if the Steelers are nine and one, and McCarthy has played poorly and is back on the bench or so that then it's a different story. I think it is yet to be determined. And I would say the same thing about the Sam Darnold and his performance, that situation.

He's played great. I loved Seattle for him when he went there. I thought this is good. It's a good organization. He's got a top wide receiver. He'll fit in there and he'll play well. So I'm not shocked by Sam Darnold playing really well and hitting 50-yard bond. Tom's over the top. You've seen that before.

The question is, what's the ceiling there, too, right, with Sam Darnold? Like, is it, is, is there some limitations there to what Seattle can really be with Sam Donald? And, and maybe not. It's all kind of yet to be determined. I think where we're at now, yes, it looks like the Vikings could have or should have kept Darnold or Rogers based on the results that we have right now. These are extremely small sample sizes. And we just need to see a lot more of J.J. McCarthy because if he gets back in, wins the next two games, that's going to feel way, way different. And that's why it is such a week to week, you know, reactionary type of league because like that, that could feel totally, totally different when we just get two weeks down

the road if he plays and looks like the quarterback that he looked like during this offseason. But, oh, Daniel Jones, yeah, Daniel Jones. Man, what a year for, former Viking quarterbacks, including Aaron Rogers, Daniel Jones, yeah. No, I know. And that's another one where Jones has a great team. They have not had a tough schedule. In fact, they've probably had the easiest schedule. I think maybe in the entire NFL, they did have a good win against the Broncos,

kind of lucked into that one where there was a penalty at the end of a game. Jones has played great, Darnold's played great, Rogers has played great. It's really on J.J. McCarthy to make the Vikings right. because if you get late into the season and those three guys are going into the playoffs and the Vikings are sitting at home with J.J. McCarthy, uh, yeah, looks, that looks really bad. That does. There's just no doubt about it. There's no debate about it. That would look really bad if those three guys are in the playoffs and they're not with McCarthy. You could still argue, hey, you had to find out, but you also knew that McCarthy was raw. So it's really on him

to prove them right. there's really nobody else that can do it for him, you know, he's got to make the, the reeds and the throws. We know they work and you can go back and go, well, KOC had a bad game plan against this or that. I mean, Dobbs was the best version of himself. Mullins was the best version of himself. Wentz, Darnold Kirk.

It's pretty hard to say that this doesn't work for quarterbacks when operated correctly. Two games is not enough for sample to say, but as we go forward and get the sample, then we're going to know. know a lot better because we know that it works from the last couple of years. T.J says JJ has footwork problems under pressure, so, so deep accuracy, all of his interceptions come on outroutes. Yeah, the footwork on one of the interceptions, it was really a little late and telegraphed and allowed the corner to kind of jump the route.

And that's where that anticipation has to come from. Stephen says the most common criticism of the Vikings is head coach manager, Justin to the quarterback, the most common praise of the Vikings is the head coach. Oh, yeah, I see. I see what you're talking about. Yeah, no, there's that that's true that when you listen to anybody talk about O'Connell on the national level, it's always quarterback whisperer and he's coached the gear and everything else. And then a lot of times when it's local comment sections, it's chaos he has no idea what he's

doing. But I think that kind of always goes for overreactionary, well, whatever happened the previous week. And every market over-criticizes their own coach. I just mentioned Mike Tomlin. I have great respect for Tomlin. It's amazing what he's made out of a lot of bad quarterback situations. Yet my friend in Pittsburgh, who does a daily show there, has no trust or belief in Mike Tomlin whatsoever and thinks that the game has passed him. And now is maybe regretting some of those takes that Aaron Rogers is winning games with them. And you follow Packers people. They've got a ton of critiques for Matt LaFleur.

We know way too much sometimes. And too much information can be bad because you see every single flaw in that person. But you got to be able to look at the bigger picture in Kevin O'Connell is that every quarterback that he's worked with has been good. It doesn't mean that it's perfect. It doesn't mean that his play calling's perfect. or that we all haven't thought, Kevin, you don't have to throw deep down the field on third and 10 when you're winning by 14 points last year and stuff like that.

We know they got out coached in two different playoff games. Like there's there's criticisms that are very reasonable sticking with the run. You know, we've been over all of those types of criticisms. But I think we can agree on this. If J.J. McCarthy can't do this. It's because of J.J. McCarthy. He's got the. best receivers, they're going to get an offensive line at least taped together that will be

better. Darisaw is back. Jackson will return. You got fries. O'Neill will return. But if you're playing with one backup, welcome to the NFL. I mean, everybody's playing with a backup something. Backup guard, backup corner. Like, there's just no excuse at this point. He's got a running game. He's got a very, very good running back. Even Xavier Scott can catch the ball out of the backfield. They've got three receivers who are good. I still think, Adam Thielen's going to make some plays. They've got two good tight ends. If he can't do it, it's because of him. That's what we know. And that's when you talk about that finding out. Like, yeah, well, I wouldn't do this just

to find out if he could play. I would only do it if I thought that there is a corner to turn where if you get around that corner, there is some serious good stuff there. And that's why I think you need to play it is because you can get to that spot. So say that you're 500 after, I don't know, eight games, nine, well, you can't be 500 if nine games without a tie, 10 games. You're 500, 10 games. And then it starts to really click. And he's getting that experience. And he's getting in the rhythm of playing every single week, game planning, learning the offense, the timing with Jefferson and Addison. The upside is enormous. If that were to happen. So we know that if he doesn't succeed.

seed. It's not because of the coach. And that's a big box to be able to check off and say, hey, every quarterback's been able to do this, including Carson Wentz, most recently, to win two out of three and didn't play terribly, I thought, against Pittsburgh had bad moments that certainly cost them. So, uh, anyway, well, uh, great stuff, uh, guys. I, I would definitely love to go deep into the night, but I've got an early recording with, uh, Drew McGarry tomorrow. And then the day out of TCO Performance Center is they're going to have practice out there. O'Connell's going to talk. I'll bring you highlights from his press conference tomorrow night and the roundtable as well as make sure you sign up for that newsletter. Purpleinsider

dot football got some reactions there coming out tomorrow morning. As always, to what happened this week and much, much more. And if you're watching, rewatching in the comments, leave an answer to that question. Where do you put the Eagles among the NFC teams after seeing the lions lose tonight? Vikings are two and a half point dogs. That's our fan dual question of the day. Make sure you answer that. So great stuff, guys. Really enjoyed the conversation. Hopefully you had a stress-free Sunday. There's not going to be too many of those. I guess after the Chargers game, but the rest of the year, you're going to be watching your team and riding on every moment. So hopefully you had time to take a little deep breath. Maybe you guys played some golf this week.

weekend like I did. And now it's back to the grind. Off we go. So thanks everybody again for watching slash listening. And we'll catch you all later. Football.