Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - How good can Justin Jefferson be? ft. Andrew Krammer of the Star Tribune

Episode Date: November 18, 2020

Matthew Coller and Star Tribune Vikings beat reporter Andrew Krammer talk about their respective All-22 film articles and what stood out to both is Justin Jefferson's incredible play. What's his ceiling? Is there even more they can do with him? How does his presence change the outlook of the Vikings' offense going forward? Plus, what does Kirk Cousins's recent play mean for his future with the Vikings? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm Grant Wall, and this is American Prodigy, ready to do, from Blue Wire Podcast. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and from the Star Tribune. Joining me is Andrew Kramer. We both did our film pieces yesterday. Jeremiah Searles didn't get a chance to grind the tape. So let's grind the tape, Andrew. What's up? Hey, not much.

Doing pretty well. Thanks for having me on. Okay, here's where I want to start. I went back and looked at every third down on both sides of the ball, and the thing that really stuck out to me was they did something that they haven't usually done, which is put Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen right on top of each other in a split that spread things out, which is not usually what we know the Minnesota Vikings for, and they had a lot of success with it.

And it looked like just to me, Andrew, that it was something that they saw in the way that Chicago was going to play against Thielen and Jefferson or just the way that they played third downs and long that really worked. And I think the connection here to sort of just tie it into a bigger picture thing is that Gary's getting it, Andrew. Like I think at the beginning of the season that maybe he needed to add some things, some motions, a little creativity to it.

But this one I think was really impressive the way they handled the third downs. Well, at the beginning of the year, they didn't have Justin Jefferson, right? They didn't, they weren't kind of putting him out there in these ways. And I think when you've got these two guys, they can use them now the way that they kind of use Stephon Diggs and Adam Thielen, where, hey, you've got to be wary of both these guys.

It's not D.C. Johnson and Adam Thielen, where you can just say, okay, we can worry about Adam and take him out of the game. I thought it was interesting, too, the way they deployed those guys on third downs. Not only that, it's just the proficiency that Kirk Cousins played with in those settings. We have not seen him play that quickly, that decisively, that accurately,

so consistently out of shotgun, non-play action plays, standing back there, a lot of times empty sets by himself. They'll motion people out. The pre-snap motion they were using was getting guys out of the backfield and spreading them out and getting these five wide looks. We are not used to seeing Kirk Cousins thrive in or really do all that much and to do it against this Bears defense that is going to pressure you if you leave nobody up there to help the offensive line.

And it was Kirk standing in there trusting the offensive line and getting the ball out on time and delivering it. And to me, Matt, it was about, too, how he pinpointed some of these matchups. When you talk about attacking the Bears defense, it looked to me like they knew, if we throw at anybody but Kyle Fuller, we've got a pretty good shot at completing it with Adam Thiel and or Justin Jefferson. Now, a great point that you make that I would have suspected that they would have said, okay, let's make sure we're going the Max Protect stuff, which they have used a lot this year and only send two receivers out, and that's how we're going to get Protect stuff, which they have used a lot this year and only sent two receivers out,

and that's how we're going to get two or three people on Khalil Mack. And instead, they allowed Brian O'Neal to be on an island with Khalil Mack. And so here's the thing about contextualizing pro football focus grades. Brian O'Neal's pro football focus grade is horrendous for Monday night. But hanging on for dear life and not giving up any sacks to Khalil Mack, even if sometimes he was just a road cone that got run over, but at least slowed down Khalil Mack. When you're put on an Island like that with one of the best players in the NFL

and you even hang on for dear life and don't give up a sack. I thought that that was interesting. It also spoke to how much they trust Brian O'Neill. And he was one of the like low key MVPs of the game because of that, even though his PFF grade was not good. And how interesting is that, that it would be totally different if the Vikings and Gary Kubiak said, okay,

we need Kyle Rudolph attached at the hip to Brian O'Neill just to basically work on Cleo Mack the entire game. Brian O'Neill might have been like the perfect PFF grade because, oh, look what he did against Khalil Mack when this is actually the more impressive thing. I think you're right. Yeah, and I think that that's always important when we look at those PFF grades. Everybody pulls them up after the game and says, oh, well,

why is this one this way and this guy played better than I thought and so forth. And I think there's a lot of work that you have to do beyond just what a grade says. Well, then how about, too, I thought the interior offensive line, because you're talking about how much they needed to trust their tackles to handle things by themselves, that's also because they had to have three guys on the interior consistently focusing on Akeem Hicks and whichever body was right next to him. I thought Garrett Bradbury played very well.

And I don't know his PFF grade or that, but just watching the game, looking back at it, he was the kind of guy that's going to get bull rush back. He's going to not necessarily give the best first blow, but he was able to recover, kind of hold his own. The 54 yarder to Justin Jefferson on third and 11, they moved Khalil Mack inside. They have him target Garrett Bradbury the entire way on a twist. And then the

twist is aiming at the right guard, Ezra Cleveland. Bradbury's totally caught off guard because he's looking one way. Mack comes the other. His feet are totally off the ground, but he's able to recover and kind of anchor Mack and kind of use his momentum against him and kind of leverage him away from Kirk Cousins. That was one of the most impressive snaps I've seen Garrett Bradbury take in the NFL, and it doesn't look pretty, and it probably doesn't register that well on PFF. No, you're right. He did not get a great pass-blocking grade. His overall grade for the game was good, and he's up to, in terms of overall grade,

the fifth-best center in the NFL right now, which is exactly what we talked about in the offseason, that he needed to take a huge step forward for this offensive line to be average. And I think what we've seen from them over the last few weeks is that I would put them under the category of above average these last couple weeks. I would also say that Kirk Cousins got rid of the ball as quick as I've seen him get rid of the ball and be effective. A lot of times if you're asking him to do that, he's struggling a little bit when he's trying to get rid of the ball and be effective. A lot of times if you're asking him to do that, he's

struggling a little bit when he's trying to get rid of the ball quickly, and that's where some of the mistakes come in and so forth. But that is not what happened the other night, and I think that that is in large part because Justin Jefferson is wide open all the time. And I think we need to talk about what Justin Jefferson can become, because he's doing this right now he's putting up numbers that are literally Randy Moss 1998 type of numbers and the league has changed and it's easier to put up these numbers than it was for Moss but still anytime your name is thrown in there and anytime you're a top five PFF wide receiver and averaging 18 yards a catch as a rookie I mean we're talking about a ceiling that is basically unlimited for Justin Jefferson

that he could, by next year, be considered one of the five or six best receivers in the NFL. He's such a well-rounded receiver, too, for how young he is. And it's kind of funny to look back at some of the pre-draft stuff because it was so focused on, well, is he just a a slot receiver is he just going to be that kind of guy and I think not only that the Vikings have just blown the doors off that by making him sometimes their split end they're putting him out there and being that main guy who can be that main deep threat and with him and Thielen being so interchangeable I think of I think it was a third down on Monday night's game. And it was a situation where the Bears, they rolled their safety coverage over the top of Thielen.

It's a short side of the field for Jefferson, but he's running a slant. And all he has to do is beat Jalen Johnson. And Kirk Cousins, you can tell before the snap, knows he's going to go that way because of how quickly he turns to target that pass. And it was like a double move release by Jefferson. Basically, Johnson trips over his own feet trying to keep up with jefferson on the inside that kind of a release that kind of a play to snatch the ball out of the air too because kurt cousins fired it in there um those are things

that you do not see from a rookie very often and certainly we have not seen from vikings rookie wide receivers over the years this guy is special and it's it's as you said it's the multiple ways he can beat you. And that lets the Vikings basically say, we can be unpredictable with this kid because he can do everything. If we were putting it in terms of Madden, I think that Jefferson's strength is something that I didn't know would be a 90. And that play that you're talking about, Johnson basically tries to just grab him and take him to the ground and jefferson runs right through him it's like it doesn't matter that you're that i'm dragging a body with me on a

slant route that should have been a flag and honestly tough night for the refs but we don't need to get into that but honestly tough night there were like four calls that i went back in the film and went what um but anyway the the fact that he ran right through that the throw is assuming that he is not dragging a body so it's out in front of him and he snatches it out of the air i don't know if you could come up with a justin jefferson comp here here's what i think is like take deandre hopkins and all the things that he does with his hands how his hands are just unreal the like anything that's in in hispark he's going to grab, and make him faster. And I think that that's what Justin Jefferson is.

That's a good one, too, yeah, because he's not necessarily, I guess he's not the biggest guy in the world either, but he's just so elusive, so fast, and has all the traits and skills that you need. And it's such a well-rounded game. I guess what they call in baseball a five-tool player, where it's just he's got everything that you want in a wide receiver. And then I go back and look at it and think, how did the Philadelphia Eagles say, nah. I know.

We're good. I know. And the thing about that, too, is I understand the projection when it comes to someone like Jalen Rager. And, hey, look at his athleticism and all these things. And he didn't have a good quarterback at TCU. But let's just, like, pull back to common sense land sometimes with this. And look at, like, Jefferson is the most dominant receiver in college football on a national championship team and makes Joe Burrow the number one overall pick. Burrow has looked okay in the NFL.

But, I mean, Jefferson was elite when it came to the contested catches, elite when it came to the yards after catch. And when you watch him with the football, he's just special. The 54-yard play, like he's moving at a different speed than everyone else in kind of the same way that Delvin Cook does. Yeah, that's absolutely it. What he can do after the catch when you set him up in those ways is also special. It's not just getting to that point with the routes and the hands and actually making the catch. This guy's also one of the most special athletes. And those are the things that usually don't slip by teams very often. When you've got a combine star, when Jefferson ran the 4-4, I thought everybody in draft Twitter was like,

OK, there's no way. And the Vikings obviously watched the tape, understood what this guy can do as a real player, and clearly thought there's no way this guy's falling to us. And so when he was there at 22, I think they had their pick in almost immediately. There was no, like, hesitation or like, we'll use our full 15 minutes or whatever. It was, no, we need to get this guy in because this guy was that good. And it just shocks me now that we can even go down to them waiting until week three to get him on the field. I mean, it took them even maybe a bit too long to put him out there.

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offense uh where they're just giving him the ball in certain ways like throwing him bubble screens where they know how to block them unlike the Chicago Bears or when they do reverses and things like that like they've run more reverses with Adam Thielen than they have Justin Jefferson. And I'd like to see a couple because, you know, Diggs and Thielen were never great on those reverses. But I think that Jefferson, with as fast and as strong as he is, could break big runs that way. And that should be in the mix. I also think, too, that as we look at receivers in the future, someone being in the slot should actually be considered a good thing.

Because when you have college receivers that only play along the outside, kind of like Laquan Treadwell did, only on the outside, it only requires so much that you have to do. Inside is reading defenses and reacting and having a lot of different types of routes that you have to be able to master. And isn't it such an old school way of thinking, too, of like, well, you need to really be a big body and tough to win on the outside of the NFL? Well, you've got a lot of these corners who are getting called for DPI a lot more. I think we're seeing more off coverage in today's NFL because of the speed of the receivers.

It just doesn't mean that much anymore to be able to beat press coverage the way that it used to. And then when you've got the speed and releases like Jefferson, it just doesn't matter because he can beat it. If you try to press Justin Jefferson, I think guys are smart enough to know you are going to be hard pressed to do that because of the way he can just get off with multiple releases in a way that you see guys like Adam Thielen and Stephon Diggs do. This is a kid that has been crafting a very refined game for years. And, yeah, the fact that NFL teams, I know it's a loaded wide receiver class. I don't know how you let this guy fall to 22, but, hey, the Vikings will take it. I know.

I mean, it really fell into their hands. Just one other thing on Jefferson. I'm sure you've noticed this. He is unstoppable on short out routes, which is really amazing to me because that might have been one of the criticism when he's lined up on the outside of, hey, can he get off the line quickly? And he doesn't really chop his feet the same way a lot of receivers do. He just kind of almost makes it a semi-circle type of turn. And yet he creates separation, I think probably in part because he maintains his speed, but also corners are just now afraid because he can beat them straight down the sideline.

Yeah, and it helps when you play some of these Bears corners. I mean, kudos to Gary Kubiak and that coaching staff for realizing there is a weak link on that Bears defense. It's not the seven guys in front of you. We need to get it to the out routes outside of the numbers and go after these guys not named Kyle Fuller because I think Screen, Buster Scrine, or whatever pronounced that name, Jalen Johnson, both of those guys struggled to break. And you talk about Johnson dragging Jefferson down and being physical with him. The other guy, the slot corner, Scrine, couldn't even keep up with him. I mean, this guy was

slipping around the entire time. And that was such a difference from the days when the Bears had Bryce Callahan and they had some really strong nickel corner play. If the Vikings can take advantage of that, because they're going to play them again, obviously, in December, if they can do that again, this is a Vikings team that, you know, they're going to be in that wildcard race, I think. So we're bouncing around a little and that's a slightly hot take. I still think that there's one of those classic Vikings letdowns on the way somewhere that's going to knock them out, and you've seen enough of those too. But let me highlight someone else who had a great game

that has not been talked about a whole lot this season, and that's Riley Reif. He's been, I mean, flat out great, I think, this year. This is the best version of Riley Reif maybe we've ever seen during his entire career. Now, I know that the Bears outside of Khalil Mack are lacking a little bit of that extra pass rush on the outside. But, I mean, do you think that they'll consider trying to bring this entire offensive line back next year the way it is? Because the way I'm looking at it right now, I like what I see from Ezra Cleveland at right guard. That can stay that way as opposed to this constant shuffle of, hey, now you're a left guard. Now you're a center. Now you're a right guard. You move over there.

You move over there. I mean, I think if they were able to work something out with Reif for an extension, even if it was only something like two years to lower his cap hit for next year and leave Ezra Cleveland at right guard. I like the combination of Cleveland and Brian O'Neal, especially in the run game. Yeah, the Vikings should not be in the business, right, of thinking that they have the luxury of options, of thinking that, well, if we move Ezra to left tackle and that's how we just thought it was going to be the entire time, so we'll stick with it, we'll figure out those guard spots will you like because we haven't seen it they don't have the options um we haven't seen necessarily rookies come in and make immediate impacts even though

ezra's doing well right now and i thought ezra played very well on monday night considering who he was going up against um but they you're right they do not have the ability to say okay we can fix two spots by moving one if you think you've've got that that long term solution and Ezra Cleveland at guard and we need to see it for longer than the three game stretch. But he's looked like he potentially could be that guy. And if that's the case, maybe Ezra and Brian O'Neill and Garrett Bradbury, maybe that's the right side of your line for many, many years to come. And then you can just kind of figure out the left side now and go on from there because Riley's played like a guy who's trying to get paid by somebody. Right.

Five million taken out of his pocket right before the season started. Yeah. Could not have been happy about it. And now moving forward is going to get paid. It's just, is it going to be by the Vikings who might be forced to if they realize, Hey, this is a good old line and we, now it's a good old line and we need to try to keep it together. Or is it going to be by somebody else if they realize, hey, this is a good O-line, and now it's a good O-line, and we need to try to keep it together?

Or is it going to be by somebody else if they realize, hey, we just need to try to move on and can't afford it? Because I think it's going to come down to money when it comes to Reif because he's shown that he's good enough right now to stay here. I just don't know if they're going to be able to afford him. I also think that that position left tackle, we see a lot of guys go into their mid-30s and continue to play well. And if you are a competent left tackle, we see a lot of guys go into their mid-30s and continue to play well. And if you are a competent left tackle, like Reif is and probably a little above that,

that is so much more valuable, and we've seen this play out, to a bad left tackle. And I don't like the idea either of moving Brian O'Neill. I'm sure that that's been bounced around. I think that's what they would have done this year had Riley Reif not decided to stay. I don't like that idea. I think that the right tackle is every bit as valuable or very, very close to left tackle these days. And the fact that you get on an island with Khalil Mack tells you that you can't mess around with right tackle either. And I think you have to be sound at both of those positions. Yeah, I agree with you there. And we did see it for a minute. They decided when they thought they might have to cut Riley Reif, there was the practice where we saw Brian O'Neill go to the left side. We saw their option, I guess, would

have been Ole Udo or Rashad Hill, if he had been healthy, playing at that right tackle spot. But I just don't know if you want to do that, because that would have been a one-season thing, right? That would have been the Vikings realizing, okay, this is just how we have to get through it. Long term, if you were starting this plan in April through the draft or even March through free agency, I just don't know if that's the plan you want to go about because then, yes, you were talking about a whole new option at tackle, and are you going to risk Brian O'Neal not being the same player on that left side?

Maybe he would be. Maybe Brian O'Neal is infallible and you can just move him and it would be no problem, But do you want to risk it? So let me ask you this big picture question after they performed well against a great defense. And like you said, there are weaknesses on Chicago that weren't there in past years. So that's worth mentioning. And they took advantage of them. But that's also what you're supposed to do.

We have not seen that very often from this Vikings offense since Kirk Cousins got here. If I tell you that you can bring back this supporting cast that he has now, and let's say add a number three receiver, I mean, my gosh. At some point, that position is allowed to be filled, so do that if you could. Let's assume that maybe Kyle Rudolph's got one year left in him and so forth. But the idea of moving on from Kirk Cousins has been very attractive to Vikings fans recently. Very attractive after 1-5. And I don't want to overreact to three games.

And I still think that having a quarterback on a rookie contract is the gold that you're looking for but if you're going forward with this setup Thielen Jefferson Cook an offensive line that is competent and then you can add whomever your Jarius Wright becomes at some point I mean this has the potential down the stretch and in 2021 to be one of the best offenses in the NFL this is the trap right this is the trap that Kirk Cousins puts you in. And so many quarterbacks put you in, whether it's a Ryan Tannehill, a Kirk Cousins, guys where you go, all right, if everything's around him, you know, we got this. It'll be good.

We can afford to win this way. And then he puts together games like this where he – that was an amazing game, Monday night in Chicago. That was one of the best games we've seen Kirk Cousins play. And he has played those games multiple times, whether it's new Orleans making the game winning drive and overtime, whether it's Thursday night against the Rams, or he's the only reason they're in it.

And his fourth game ever for the Vikings. We have seen him do this in games. And then we have also seen him play like he did against the Buffalo bills against, against the Falcons just before this. And the thing that is interesting to me about Kirk is that he has been more good than bad this year. And that sounds like a hot take. But when you go back and look at the Titans games and you go back and look at the Seahawks games, he put them up in the fourth quarter with touchdown passes. Those

statistically go down as game winning drives if they do not blow leads on defense like they did. And then also we're talking about Kirk Cousins being the reason that they are, what would it be, 6-4 or 7-3 maybe at that point if they win those two games. Then we're talking about, whoa, Kirk Cousins is the reason why they're back in it, even though they have a bad defense. It's crazy how those two blown leads change a narrative and and really what Kirk did Monday night kind of fits into more what he has been this year the question is is if you just don't have Dalvin Cook running like a madman can you count on Kirk to do what he did Monday night consistently and I haven't seen it I haven't seen it consistently I'm sure you haven't either it's been now two two-plus years. It's been seven, eight years as a starter in the NFL,

and we have not seen him be that consistent guy that says, all right, when it's not going one way, let's put the team on my back, let's do it. We haven't seen it. So going forward, I think the Vikings are going to stick with him. I don't see a situation now, especially with the way he's rebounded once again, because he started so poorly in 2019 as well before rebounding. Mike Zimmer just said it today when we talked to him. He said, look, Kirk had a bad start last year, came back, had a slow start this year, came back.

I think they just view this as part of the Kirk Cousins experience, and this is what they've exactly signed up for. And I agree with the Kirk Cousins experience being a thing you're going to go through every year, whether it's at the start of the year, at the end of the year, in the middle, you're going to see at some point a four-game stretch or three-game stretch where you go, what? And then you lose two out of three or three out of three, and you put yourself around 500, which is right where they are again and probably where they'll finish. and the order of operations doesn't matter when the big picture always puts you somewhere between you know 10 and 6 and 7 and 9 and that's that seems to be how it's always going to be with Cousins and you make a great point about the trap

is that he is a very very very good quarterback but you just wait for the other part of the coaster right now it's up like it was last year in October, but is the down part coming next where you lose a game to Jacksonville or something because he throws two interceptions or gets strip sacked or something like that? And I think at this point that there's no saying, well, if he only does this, this, this, this, or this. I think it's really just about if this supporting cast remains this strong, how good can it be even if you recognize that the downs will come?

Yeah, and I guess that's a legitimate point about maybe the Vikings can do a better job of maximizing that by putting even more money on offense and resources on offense because it comes down to a shift in the front office and the salary cap where now you're naturally losing these high-priced defenders. They still wish they were on the field with Anthony Barr, Daniil, Michael Pierce. But for the most part, you've seen a lot of that salary leave, a lot of that defensive high-priced money leave. Does that lead this offseason to them maybe keeping Riley Reif by investing more money in him?

Does it lead to them maybe saying, okay, we need to hold on to Kyle Rudolph for even another year beyond what we might have wanted? Does it lead to them maybe saying, okay, we need to hold on to Kyle Rudolph for even another year beyond what we might have wanted? Does that lead to not paying Eric Wilson? Does it lead to not paying Anthony Harris? Does it lead to even more of this change? And then it sounds counterintuitive because when you pay a high-priced quarterback, you need him to lift your offense. Do they need to put even more money around him?

I think the answer is 100% yes. If you get a left guard who's good, you could have a top seven offensive line, if not one of the better offensive lines in the NFL. Like you don't have a Teron Armstead at left tackle, so you're probably not going to be that, that good. But you could be seventh to tenth for the first time since what? Brett Favre was playing here? I mean, my gosh, it's been so long and they always get to the edge of an Andrew Norwell or a Roger Saffold and they're like, oh, sorry, we got

to bow out. We don't have the money. Well, there's ways to create that type of money and spend it there if you can convince Mike Zimmer to. And the way that I would do that actually circles to the defensive side of the film, which is by saying, look at this, Mike. You can scheme your way to being decent. You can scheme your way to key stops in the red zone and third down. You do not need to pay Anthony Barr going forward. You do not need to pay Anthony Harris, though he played a very, very good game the other night. These are things that you can develop and scheme on the defensive side to get yourself to be an average defense or a little above if you can let go that

you always want to be the number one defense because I think the way to win is by being the number one offense yeah yeah absolutely that's where the consistency seems to be easier to carry over year after year as opposed to the defensive side um I think we are seeing too in this three game win streak, and the Green Bay game is kind of an anomaly because of the winds and the weather, but we are seeing some of the masterclasses of Zimmer kind of scheming up blitzes, designing them. We can't forget this is the same coaching staff that helped McKenzie Alexander

be like the first Vikings corner ever to have four sacks, and you can watch it that one year. he wasn't touched on any of them. It's because of the pre-snap designs and disguises. We are seeing that right now and why when Matt Nagy decides to give up play calling for Chicago, why Mike Zimmer could never do the same thing. Because one of his best traits, as he continually says, is being a game day play caller and knowing the feel for the defense, knowing when to put the foot feel for the defense knowing when

to put the foot on the gas knowing when to back off the safeties and he had an issue with that at the start of the season but we were seeing him settle into more of a groove of knowing what his guys can do and knowing okay when we are in a third and long I can't afford to step on the gas a little bit and send a lot of extra pressure and boy did that rattle Nick Foles and really make the Bears look anemic and he threw things at them that I haven't seen on tape all year the Harrison Smith blitz that starts on the outside and comes up the middle I haven't seen that and the also inverting Anthony Harris and Jeff Gladney's to where Anthony Harris goes from a safety position to essentially a corner position

and Gladney drops back into a zone a a deep zone, like he's going to be a safety and like, wait, wait, where are these guys going? What is this? Cause you don't see that all that often in the NFL. So just changing things up on a play to play basis is really impressive. The way that he creates pressures and has something different. There was another one that on the TV copy sort of looked like it was putting the linebackers over the A-gap like he loves to do. But then when I looked back at it, the Eric Wilson sack, it's like actually both middle linebackers are on the left side and there's all the defensive linemen on the right side. And then it's a zone blitz too. And I'm

like, oh my gosh, there's like so much happening here at once. And Nick Foles thinks he's going to go to his hot, but Afadi Adenabo is standing there like, wait a minute, what is he doing there? So it's just, it was fascinating and kind of a masterclass of how to create pressures in the NFL by Zimmer. And that tells you, I think, take whatever you can get for talent and develop it and draft it and whatever, but don't spend all the money there because your defensive mind can keep you in the game.

Yeah, and that's the balance they have to strike. If they're not going to have a quarterback on a rookie contract, they're not going to be able to afford that. You can't because otherwise you're stripping the talent that Kirk Cousins needs around him. And we know offensive linemen take years to develop. Those guys are always going to earn money. And I think the Vikings for years have had some of the lowest salary caps on the O-line as they try to draft and develop these guys.

If it all goes well, you're going to have to start paying them at some point. That means you have to stop paying your Anthony Bars, your Anthony Harris's, as you mentioned. And it'll be fascinating to see how they kind of shift that moving forward. 2020 has already reshaped how we work, and it's almost over. Businesses across the globe are challenged to be their most efficient, which means every hire is critical. Indeed is here to help. Indeed is the number one job site in the world with more total visits than any other job site, according to Comscore.

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I don't miss the Chicago Press Box because it is awkward, and their food for being Chicago is not good, which is confounding. But one thing that I think on the TV copy was hard to see was just how close Anthony Miller was to catching that ball and going into the end zone and taking the lead. And it crossed my mind as I was watching the tape because you see some of the Bears players throw their arms up like, oh, my God, we're going to win this game. Can you believe it?

We played horrible. And it comes within the fingertips. How much different are our conversations if Anthony Miller catches the ball and goes into the end zone because I think like everything's they're back in the race like everything and objectively speaking a lot of things that are good to talk about I mean you go 10 for 11 passing on third downs with Kirk Cousins you can't say oh that was garbage but also they made a lot of mistakes in that game and kept the door open, and they are four inches away from having one of the most miserable

Soldier Field losses that I think they've ever had. I think we're talking about Marwin Maloof a lot more. We are talking about Vikings special teams being just awful. The missed extra point, the kickoff return for a touchdown, that's eight points right there. That's flipped. If they lose that game, we are talking so much about special teams, nauseating amounts about special teams.

Yes. Because that's what it would come down to. But you're right. Whether it's the two fumbles, the Kyle Rudolph one was a little like, eh, I don't know if that was actually a fumble or not. Yeah, that was close. When you make that call on the field, I understand why they don't overturn it.

Because too, it was tough to see. But you're right, they had so many mistakes in the refs work. I thought they got jobbed a little bit by the refs here or there because there'd be a holding call that would negate the biggest Dalvin Cook run of the day. There's just some things that were just kind of, I don't know, head scratchers in terms of, yeah, no DPIs getting called in certain spots. It does change it, though, so much in the narrative and the way we talk about it. It goes back to the Titans and the Seahawks games. If they don't blow those leads, we're talking Kirk Cousins brought him back from the brink, brought him back from behind, and Kirk Cousins and his fourth quarter touchdowns.

Somehow, only Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson have more fourth quarter touchdowns than Kirk Cousins. his fourth quarter touchdowns. Somehow only Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson have more fourth quarter touchdowns than Kirk Cousins. How about that? Well, part of that is being way down against Green Bay and Atlanta and racking up a couple of TDs there. Chunks of that come through with eating and garbage time, but three of those touchdowns are Chicago, Seattle, Tennessee, and those are all games that they really should have won. This is why I don't ever accept the, well, we only lost by one to whomever and whomever, because you also had Aaron Rodgers with the ball in his hands with an ability to beat you at the end, and he fumbles, and they kind of botched that situation. You got a flag picked up in that game that might have made all the difference.

Things had to go your way to beat Green Bay it had to be 50 mile an hour wins you know the ball goes through Anthony Miller's hands by just a couple of inches and you win the game I mean every game this is like every season in the NFL every team it works that way so I don't ever and plus you were ahead in the fourth quarter go win the game like it's well all we needed to do was right that's how all sports work so you know you can't just go back and say well you should have won them like okay but that's not how it works so the thing is though they play so and i know the nfl is like this every game is a one score game it feels like but the vikings the way they're built it's going to be like this especially for them throughout the remainder of the season matt at what point is

it going to cost them that their special season is just so bad? Yes, it's going to. It's going to. And I'll add on to that. And actually, I'm a little surprised that the special teams coordinator is still the special teams coordinator, to be honest. I mean, he has nothing to do with the long snapper not knowing what he's doing anymore. But I mean, some of the stuff, kicking it's Cordero Patterson. I was yelling at Marwin from my couch. Like, why? What are you doing? But, you know, the other part of it where I thought you were going to go at first was at what point does it cost them to keep teams in games?

I thought they kept Chicago in the game with the special teams, but also with, like, not flooring it and throwing it to Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen even more. And the same thing could be said for, you know, I mean the Green Bay game is a little bit different, but the same thing could be said for other games. How about Seattle? Like other teams now who play Seattle, like we're going to throw every play.

When they played the Bills, the Bills I think ran like seven times. You can't cover anyone. We're going to throw every play, and they put up 40-plus. Like, yeah, they should have beat Seattle, but they also were running and running and running and keeping Seattle in the game. Turnovers kept Seattle in the game. I think at some point they do this to a team that we deem bad and that team beats them because of it. I think that team might be Carolina. But anyway, I also think, though, on that point, I think the epitome of that, of them kind of playing, I don't want to say scared, but just, as you said,

not really flooring it, 49 seconds left, two timeouts before halftime. And this has been a point where up to that point they had sustained drives. It's not like they were getting pounded, that they need to run with their tail between their legs into the locker room. They were doing a good job, And they basically sat on the ball. They went shotgun spread, handoff to Dalvin, same thing, handoff to Dalvin, and then we'll just walk in. They took a knee, basically.

And that was weird to me. And that goes to show that I think they were – I think Gary Kupiak realizes maybe some of the limitations of his quarterback and his offensive line and is just not willing to test it in certain spots. Or maybe that could be coming from Mike Zimmer, who is thinking that in his head. And maybe Gary has all the trust in the world in his guys, and that's more Zimmer saying, let's play this one safe. I don't know.

I think whomever it is at the top, there's somebody who's saying there in those critical moments, we don't need to push it. And even against Detroit, when they had the drive before the half, the first play was a handoff. And it was still like well let's just sort of play this easy and then they get you know i don't know 10 yards like okay well now we've got to go for it it's kind of a odd approach in 2020 where you can fly up and down the field by passing the ball uh last thing for you is what is the final record of this football team what's your

guess at this moment wow well i guess i teased this hot take earlier. I think we're going to see this team compete for a wildcard spot, if only because teams like the Niners, maybe the Cardinals stumble and can't figure it out, although they had their big win. I think there are enough teams in front of them, Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit, that are not going to maintain kind of what they at least set the trajectory for the beginning of the year. I think we'll see this Vikings team be eight and8, and I think we're going to see them – I think that might be good enough for the seventh spot, which is crazy, but I think it could be if San Francisco kind of falls apart because they have such a tough division.

They might be looking at a lot of losses here coming up. I think it goes one of two ways. Either they have a chance week 17 to get into the playoffs and lose, or they are one game behind the Cardinals, and that Hail Mary against Buffalo is what ends up costing them because only an Arizona Hail Mary could cost the Minnesota Vikings. As soon as that happened, I went, that's what's going to keep the Vikings out of the playoffs right there because that is the Vikings for you.

If only it could have been a McCown who made that play. I know. I know. the Vikings out of the playoffs right there because that is the Vikings for you so oh if only it could have been a McCown who made that I know I know Luke Cade McNown even I would have accepted um everyone should go read your film piece because it's excellent at the Star Tribune you do great work Andrew and uh great to catch up with you again man thanks for coming on yeah you too thanks for having me on