Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - How long will Kirk Cousins play? Should the Vikings be glad they didn't chase DeShaun Watson?

Episode Date: June 6, 2022

Matthew Coller and Paul Hodowanic run through headlines, starting with Paxton Lynch being in the USFL and which recently-drafted quarterback is likely to land in a minor league soon. Plus how long will Kirk Cousins keep playing and will he end his career with the Vikings, are the Vikings glad they didn't end up the winners of the DeShaun Watson sweepstakes and which young QB will take the next step. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with Paul Hodowanek of WCCO Radio. And if you're listening to this on Monday, I'm going to be in on WCCO Radio. And Paul, you're going to come along for the ride a little bit there. So that'll be fun. What's going on, man? How are you? Not much. Just enjoying the Sunday, enjoying the beautiful weather and excited to talk some football.

Yeah, it's such an, I don't know, know for me it's kind of a fun time to talk football because there isn't anything that's super intense so we can have longer conversations or fun conversations but in this case of course we've got some headlines to go through in hot routes and we can you know have a little fun with it so let's first fire up as we do the hot routes intro there's news in the nfl today and it's time to break it down in the only way we know how hot rock style with our spin on football headlines with a mix of frozen tundra neck roll and grass game jersey headlines with a mix of frozen tundra neck roll and grass stained jersey so earlier today i was waiting for the links game to come on i was perusing the old tv

and i see a usfl contest and now i've been paying a little bit of attention to the usfl watching a handful of games here or there, but not like every single game, every single weekend. You're not Eric Eager? No. And so the last time I saw the, I think it's Michigan team, they all play in Birmingham, so they have team names, but, you know, whatever. They were starting, I forget the guy's name,

like he was a sort of late round prospect from a few years ago whatever but this time when i see the same team it's paxton lynch starting in the usfl and he plays for jeff fisher and the team is one in six like wow that's like you know how we did mad libs football mad libs that's a football mad lib Jeff Fisher Paxton Lynch USFL yeah right the Michigan blank like uh pick an animal that might maul you um so it's so Paxton Lynch former first round draft pick of the Denver Broncos is here playing in the USFL and I have to uh report Paul it wasn't going super good for Paxton Lynch it was going so bad that Lynch threw a ball behind his receiver on a third down and Jeff Fisher opted to kick a 25 yard field goal for a one in 16 that was down two touchdowns

that shows his trust in one Paxton Lynch. So that got me thinking, uh, which first round draft pick from the last three years is most likely to end up like our friend Paxton Lynch in either the USFL, if it's still around, or the XFL, which just launched with a bunch of other teams in the rock. And I don't know where the football players are coming from. That's going to make that watchable if Paxton Lynch is starting. But last three seasons were pretty undecided on a lot of quarterbacks, which one is the most likely to end up keeping the dream alive in one of these minor leagues? Well, I have to ask is, are we counting this draft is one of the years like the Kenny Pickett draft? It's only, let's only go Kenny Pickett because let's just say first rounders.

I mean, because I just like, I just meant, I just meant are we counting this year as one of the three? I want to make sure. Kenny Pickett and the other quarterbacks from previous years. From the previous two years. Okay. I mean, Kenny Pickett's a good one to begin with. It's hard because he's a first year quarterback.

So they're going to give him some time. But when you're the only quarterback that goes and then no quarterback goes till the third round and it looks like all the quarterbacks were kind of grouped in that bunch. And maybe the Steelers just were a little desperate and decided to go after one. He feels like one that could really work that that's a team that wants to win right away. They kind of got him so they could put him in right away. If he's bad right away and he gets benched early. I could see that as one.

He's got the smallest. I mean, if we're going back to draft Paul, smallest hands outlier, that sounds like XFL right there. Otherwise, I would say Jordan Love is a really, really possible one. If we're just talking about investment in first round quarterbacks, like, yes, all those take investment, but a back end of the first round guy is just like your Paxton Lynch's. You don't need as much, like you don't need to give them as much runway. If you spent the 26th pick on them as opposed to the second or the sixth or something like that. So Jordan love if after his rookie contract,

which is the main reason you draft one of the main reasons you draft a rookie quarterback, if he spends that all on the bench, maybe he gets one year as a potential starter somewhere else and if he doesn't if he flames out right there hello xfl so i think jordan love is one where if we're talking about which one could we most likely see in the next like three year two three years it has to be him because he's on the latter end of this group he has not proven himself in terms of what team has spent resources on him. I mean, it's the Packers and they spent a late round first round pick.

Like I think we've, they've shown that they're ready to cut bait and the rest of the NFL. I think he gets one chance and if it doesn't prove he's out. So I think Jordan love is the very easy answer. And then just shout outs. Like if we're, if we're betting, you sprinkle a little bit on Tua, I would say uh if tua has a horrible year another or another bad injury he could be

right out the door as a quarterback but i think jordan loves sticks out as the main guy i thought about zach wilson but he's the second pick i think he just gets a lot more time uh with either the jets or another team that says wait he's the former second overall pick. Let's not let this guy go yet. I think it's those back end of the first round guys that really make give you a better shot of flaming out early. So Jordan Love, I think, is the exact right pick here. If we extended another year, maybe Drew Loc lock could be this guy yeah um but you know jordan love the thing about someone like tua is that he's won football games in the nfl so what that means is you are a

backup quarterback at worst case because even though he hasn't played well if you can even go into nfl games and play halfway decent and win like think about jacoby brissett the jacoby brissett was a third round draft pick of the patriots and he ends up going to indianapolis and going like seven and nine or something and now everyone's like top three backup in the league if you could go seven and nine or eight and eight as a backup quarterback then you're a great backup quarterback because that means if you have a an injury to your starter and you lose them for six games, you can go three and three and you can stay in the playoff race. Someone's always going to want that guy as their quarterback. So I'd say Tua has probably already cleared the threshold that he will have a long NFL career,

save for injury. Jordan Love is the exact right pick because when he did get on the field, he was horrendous and then think about also they did spend a late first round but they traded up for that so their plans were very much to move on from Aaron Rodgers and also think about what they could have gotten in a trade for Aaron Rodgers if they believed in Jordan Love even at all and we talk about all the time on the show the benefits of having a quarterback on his rookie contract. If they believed in Jordan Love and they saw behind the scenes, oh, this guy is the guy we can move on from Rogers. They would have probably gotten three first round draft picks, $40 million in cap space and a quarterback on a rookie contract to be able

to spend around him. Somebody who would be emerging, who's an athlete with a big arm. There's a lot of reasons that they should have been rooting for the Jordan Love thing to succeed. And the fact that they have just given Rodgers whatever he wants, even he can sign players for the team at his age too, I think kind of tells you, even though like I know, we know now he's the MVP. We didn't know before last season when they were getting the trade offers. But I think that probably says a lot. So he's the correct pick here where I will go a little bit. I'll veer away is with Zach Wilson. I think that with Zach Wilson, if he is, cause he was like Sam Darnold,

I think went seven and nine in a year and sort of convince people to keep coming back to that. If Zach Wilson has the same year as last year, wow, that's going to be hard. I mean, Josh Rosen, I guess still bounces around and he's the worst bust in, I don't know how many years. So I guess that does happen sometimes. Uh, but if you have Zach Wilson play the way he did last year and just be dragging this franchise, I don't know how much patience there's going to be for anybody else to give him a shot. And maybe he has to try to go to the XFL to keep the dream alive. It really takes a lot to be that bad to be a first round draft pick and end up in one of these leagues. So I think that you've got the right

pick. Somebody like Trey Lance, they invested so much that they're going to give that a lot of time. Also a great athlete. Justin Fields probably already, even though he was not great at all, already cleared the threshold of a guy that someone's always going to want because of that arm talent. And of course, like Trevor Lawrence is going to get all the chances in the world. Kenny Pickett, at least from what we know about him in college, I think sort of has written all over him decent backup. But since we haven't seen him play at all, he might be a complete disaster.

So I think you've got that exactly right but man you just like when when paxton lynch was coming out oh look at his size look at his arm and everything else and the needle is so tough to thread because he couldn't even throw with anticipation in the xfl and a wide open touchdown sometimes sometimes the guys get into the speed of the league and it's just over instantly. And there's no way to know, which is usually why we kind of tout drafting a quarterback, by the way. Yeah. I look forward to watching Jordan Love plan the Sioux Falls Knights in 2025 or whatever team they come up with in the next iteration of this football league. So insert random C tier city and generic name. And there

you go. It does seem like people kind of root against these leagues in some ways, like people sort of revel in their failure, but I am amazed at how many people line up to just throw cash at minor league football. And then the problem is the problem is they can never find quarterbacks. Like if Kyle Slaughter is the second best quarterback in your league next to case Cookus, like these are two Viking connected players. Cookus was with the Vikings in preseason a little bit last year. Like this is not going to be entertaining football. So where is that? Like now the XFL is coming out. Like, are they taking some of the same players that they're going to bring in or like what is even going to happen there but the it always comes down to you can find receivers who can catch the ball you can

find even enough like defensive players to make it halfway decent you can never find quarterbacks who are at all good or entertaining that make people want to watch. And so the scores are usually not that exciting. It's usually miserable from the very beginning. And looking at the game today, I am not kidding. They showed around the stadium. If there was a hundred people in the stands in Birmingham for this first game, I would be surprised. I was sort of like eyeballing it for how many people were on one whole side of the stadium. And it might've been like 25 people. Like it just, it's just so hard to gain any interest, especially with the NBA playoffs going on the NHL playoffs, you have baseball starting and it's sort of like the USFL went

the same direction as all these other leagues kind of have. Yeah. And I, I mean, I think the major thing is like you need good quarterback play. And the only way that would have worked is if you could have created some sort of like NBA like structure where you're picking off the best high school players to come and play for three years in your league and make money. But now that teams can get NIL deals, they might be making more money. The top quarterbacks are making more money just going to Alabama and Texas and getting all that booster money. Like the time for them to capitalize on that was earlier before when the NCAA was dragging

their feet on that. Cause then like the G league has, you can take some, you can take a Jalen Green, you can take a Jonathan Kaminga from high school and put them on your team. And maybe you garner a little bit more interest, but really the minor league of football is really just college football. And so these middle tier leagues kind of become like what the St. Paul saints were for a long time before they were an affiliate of the twins. They're just kind of like a kind of a sideshow that's has to kind of fill out their own brand. And the brand isn't high quality baseball. The brand is something else. And so that's kind of what the football league has to do. They have to make it interesting in some sort of different way.

And that's why they try different rules. That's why they try getting the fans more involved. It's because they can't, they have to kind of go that St. Paul Saints route of, we need fans in the stands for fun. We need to just garner people in by weirdness and just curiosity, because it's not going to be good field on the play that idea that potential went away a long time ago and or went away especially when the NCAA is now really starting to let money into sports because that's that's not going to help you bring in any marquee

guys from high school they're just going to go straight to college where they get more visibility and probably honestly more money and and that was an idea of the second version of the XFL was like, oh, well, maybe we could take some of the top college players away and get them playing in the pros and develop these quarterbacks, but that's not happening. And you can't put, even if it was able to happen, you can't put like 18 year old quarterbacks playing with these players in the USFL are good. Like a lot of like if you go through their college resumes, they were like top players at their colleges or have some NFL experience. And these guys anyway. So even if that was the idea, and they're always trying to sell, like it's different, it's unique. And then Jeff Fisher's a coach and kicks a 25-yard field goal. That's not unique, folks.

That's actually the opposite. That's what football used to look like in 1994. If you were wondering what it looked like then, Paul, they always kicked the 25-yard field goal. So, I mean, it's just- Is Mike Zimmer a future USFL XFL coach? I saw Wade Phillips is going to coach in the XFL. Maybe that does end up being the case, but it's just like there is no way to convince these coaches.

Like you have to throw every single play. Maybe that would be a thing that would get people excited. If that was the rule, like you literally can't run the football it's not allowed you have to pass or scramble and that's it but i don't know i mean even that gimmick i'm not sure would draw people in if you don't have great play and these are there there aren't 32 quarterbacks in the league who could play it's probably not even 25 much less are there all the backups, all the number threes. And then think about it this way too. And I don't mean to spend too much time on why the USFL is failing.

So sorry about that. But like, like think about this. If you're a great college quarterback for say the Toledo Rockets, but you know that you're not going to play in the big leagues, like you just don't have the arm or the skill. I mean, are you taking 30 to 50 K to play in the USFL? Or are you just like, nah, I think I've played enough football and now I'm going to go work in finance or something. Like usually if you're the quarterback of a top division program, or even like an average division one program, you get to know a lot of people and everything else you're getting a degree.

Like you're focusing on probably more than that so if someone calls you up hey you want to keep playing for the michigan panthers in front of six people like probably not i'm just gonna move on with my life so it's very hard to even find that level of talent you have to basically get like eight dreamers to play quarterback still so uh it's it's it's a tough situation but paxton lynch not even dominating that league well you know but our friend case cook is and arefa son is having a moment in the sun case cook has had an 80 yard touchdown run in this game i am not joking case cook has looked pretty good there's always one or two guys who come from these leagues but that's never been

compelling to people they always try to sell like hey these guys are trying to live their dream and come see their their shot at glory it's like i don't know man i got yard work so even i think that's how most people view it all right anyway next next question next question um ryan fitzpatrick announced his retirement at age 39 one of the goat journeymen but we're not going to talk about the goat journeyman. I had some, another idea for this, but I will say Ryan Fitzpatrick, everything that you think about him is absolutely right. Like from when I was in Buffalo, he is the most beloved teammate and he's a, just a great guy to be around all that stuff. There's a lot of great stories with Ryan Fitzpatrick, great competitor.

I think, I don't know if I mentioned this on the show or just in the Friday mailbag, but I remember when he, I think it was Dante Hightower of New England, kind of hit him after a play and Ryan Fitzpatrick was ready to throw down and actually fight Dante Hightower in a game. I mean, it was Brandon Spikes, like one of those nasty linebackers from New England. So he's like that fiery, that loved by everybody. So a great and super fun career for Ryan Fitzpatrick. But it made me think about this.

So he's 39 and he kept the dream alive for a long time. How long do you think Kirk Cousins ends up playing in the NFL? Yeah, I was because he's entering his 11th season now, I believe. He's gone through 10, started his career in 2012. I was trying to find similar quarterbacks that made sense to kind of compare this with. Matt Ryan has played 14 seasons. That seems like a guy that follows a very similar path to Kirk Cousins in terms of the way

they play the fact that they don't really get injured and their kind of type of style so Matt Ryan's still going strong in year 14 obviously he has an MVP that kind of he can ride with in these later years to make people believe he's got some of that left, but, and then I look back like Matt Hasselbeck played 17 years. I guess this depends if you'd ever think Kirk would take any sort of backup job. And if he would sit in that for a couple of years, but I, I would say somewhere in between that between like 14 and 17 years. So I went with, he's got six more years, including this one is what I said. So he'd be done after 16 seasons that would take him into what? 2028, I believe is when he'd retire. Uh, to me,

that makes a lot of sense just with how quarterbacks, um, how they're officiated, how they're protected. Kirk has never gotten hurt. That doesn't really seem to be an issue for him. So it's just how long he can play his game. And we haven't seen any sign of that falling off yet. So I would say five years, six years still feels like pretty strong. He's going to keep going as long as he can continue to get good contracts and figure that out. But quarterbacks are just playing longer and longer every year. I mean, the longest ones are Brady, Breeze, Rogers. They're all guys that have played recently. There's a reason for that. I think Cousins has the game, the lack of injury history to the point where I think he's there. He's somewhere in five years still.

I think you're right. I think he will continue to play for a long time. The thing that I would be surprised that, and I could be totally wrong when it comes to this, but I would be surprised is if he took a backup job. You see someone like Andy Dalton, for example, and I could be totally wrong when it comes to this, but I would be surprised is if he took a backup job that like you see someone like Andy Dalton, for example, who I think, and maybe this might annoy people, but I think that at like peak Andy Dalton is sort of average Kirk Cousins. Like the, the Andy Dalton in Cincinnati, when they had good teams is kind of what Kirk Cousins is. And there's a comparison there, but Dalton falls off a little and maybe doesn't have the best circumstances in his future teams. And he's just not good. So he's a backup with Kirk. If you take away 10% of Brett Favre's powers, for example,

he's still Brett Favre and it's amazing. You take away 10% of Kirk Cousins powers. He's already not a great athlete and doesn't have a super strong arm so he is more of a he is more of like a borderline type of backup quarterback if if he starts to really fade over the next few years the only thing is though like there's still even with a lot of great quarterbacks in the league we're just talking about how somebody kind of always needs a kerry collins to step in like tennessee went 13 and and three once with Kerry Collins, where he wasn't what he was when he played for the giants or for Carolina, but he was still competent enough to operate an offense and had enough physical skill left.

So it's like, can you just kind of come in and be our game manager and see how it goes? There will, I think, be teams like that for a while with cousins, but I'm not sure that he would even take like a Teddy role where you're kind of the backup for the next guy or the bridge quarterback. Like does Kirk take five contracts for five different teams to be their bridge guy? Like, I don't think so. I think what ends up happening with him is he will play for the Vikings this year. They'll draft a quarterback after the season, and then he'll play out his contract. That rookie quarterback will sit. He'll sign with someone else as a free agent, and that will be his last contract. Let's say like a two or three year deal,

and that'll be it. And then by that age, I think people will be saying, especially if he hasn't done anything else, like a MVP or one with that team then it'll be like all right we're just moving on and you could be a backup if you want so I'm going to say that within the next four years Kirk Cousins has probably done maybe you know 36 to 38 the other thing is it's totally unpredictable his injuries Ryan Fitzpatrick didn't get injured a lot for his reckless as he played sometimes but he had that one bad injury you get hit you in the hip, and then he wasn't able to come back from that and play again. So I think that's it.

But I would bet, and I don't know if you would, but I would bet that Kirk Cousins does not end his career as a Minnesota bike. Yeah, I wouldn't think so either. I mean, even the really great quarterbacks often have one or two years where they're somewhere else uh much less just kind of your average or above average quarterbacks like those guys are probably going to get moved are going to be moved on from uh i don't think his tenure in minnesota has been enough to where it's like man we're going to ride out like ben roethlisberger a bad season or two

just because of this legend like i think that's not really what's happening in Minnesota. And for Kirk Cousins, like he's him and his agent have done a masterful job of kind of working the salary cap and working his contract situation. I think this next one, instead of kind of betting on himself year after year, I think this is the time where you say, all right, now I've done that over a year and year out. Now we got to be smart and say, can I get a four-year deal somewhere else? Can I get a five-year deal somewhere else that maybe is a little less money, but that fourth and fifth year, like I'm not going to be that great. Like some self-realization there. I think after this Minnesota contract, if he does that,

like he could still play for a while. And I think Matt Ryan's a pretty good comparison in terms of just physical skill sets and everything like that. He's coming to the end of his run, but he's probably got one, maybe two more years. So that gets him to 15 or 16 years. That feels very similar to Kirk cousins.

And maybe he goes one or two years less just because he doesn't have the cache built up. But Matt Ryan didn't have to settle for kind of a, a Teddy Bridgewater type role. So I think in the same vein that's kind of where kirk cousins is going to be there's going to be teams that are looking to do that and i could see him you know going to his next situation playing two years and then he's in this same exact role where another quarterback gets drafted and he just kind of plays four games

in a season and he gets benched and then that's kind of an acrimonious end to his career that kind of feels like where it's going to be but this year i think has a big big indicator on where that could be if he plays really really well that could be another long-term extension here or somewhere else that kind of sets him up for a while yeah and he's been asked about this before and he's never come across as being like oh yeah they're gonna rip the football out of my cold dead hands. But at the same time, I mean, he works hard enough to have gone from a fourth round draft pick to a borderline franchise quarterback. So it's like, I'm not really sure. Like, I'm not sure if he decides to take the Matt Hasselbeck route, like many things with Kirk cousins, he's a little bit hard to pin down. Like he's not like a

Roethlisberger where the guy is just a big ball of football meat. Like that's all Ben Roethlisberger ever has been. You knew that it was going to go to the, to the bitter end. And then I think Roethlisberger even said something, or there was a report that he was like unhappy with how he was treated at the end by the Steelers. You're like, what?

What? They would have had a case to bench you for Mason Rudolph. You were playing so badly. And yet they had a lot of loyalty to him i don't know if cousins quite has that vibe or not um he's as always a difficult guy to figure out all right speaking of that situation uh quarterback situation a 24th lawsuit is going to be filed against deshaun watson you know what for by now uh two questions what do you think that watson's suspension ends up

looking like from the nfl and do you think the vikings are sighing with relief that they were that deshaun watson was not interested in playing for the vikings because remember the vikings looked into deshaun watson and also you know you make that matt ryan comparison and this is where i've always wondered like about cousins behind the scenes and what he thinks about stuff about everything like your team reportedly went after deshaun watson matt ryan said bleep this you guys want watson you go get him i'm out of here trade me and the vikings tried to trade cousins and looked into other options there and took offers on him and looked into Watson. And he just came back on, I mean, a reasonable deal, I guess, like not good for the salary

cap necessarily, but not also like $50 million or didn't hold out or anything like that signed pretty fast. I don't know what to make of that. I guess, think about it, what you will, But do you think the Vikings looking at the Deshaun Watson thing, which appeared like it was going away and now appears like it's not going away, are going, all right, good thing we didn't do that. Because look at that contract that Watson got from the Browns. Oh my gosh, his cap, it's going to be like $50 million in a few years.

And also the lawsuits didn't stop. Strange how that works also that these things don't just disappear into thin air but uh how do you feel about that yeah on the first question of how long the suspension was before i was thinking like half a season eight games uh that's still kind of where i'm at that's what kareem hunt got suspended for when he had his misconduct most recently that's's just a most recent name. This latest case doesn't really change much. And that kind of, at least in my thinking of it, and that kind of moves me to my second point, which is, I don't know if like the late, any more lawsuits that are going to happen, change how the Minnesota Vikings feel. If they were okay with 23 potential

lawsuits not saying the 24th isn't significant but in terms of this and what NFL teams think I don't think they're saying oh now 24 now this one I don't think so like they knew it was bad beforehand uh they would have said the same things that the Browns have said oh we did our own research we we feel comfortable about it that that's basically what every team was going to say in that situation. And so I don't think really any other details that come out at this point really changed the fact that I think, I don't know if the Vikings are breathing a sigh of relief at this point. Like, again, they were willing to do it at 23.

Are they not willing to do it at 24? Or if it gets a little bit more ugly, like if they were committed and thinking about it, and I don't know one way or the other, if the Vikings pulled out, or if that was a Watson situation where he decided not the Vikings or the Vikings got uncomfortable with it. I don't know if it was Watson saying no. And the Vikings were all in on it. I have a hard time believing they now look at this and say, Oh, we have a sigh of relief. I think at that point you were getting in bed with some, you were getting a deal with the devil there. And so you were going to do that regardless. Um, and so I think nothing new

really changes how one, I feel about Sean Watson, uh, and two, how I feel like NFL teams feel like about Sean Watson. If, if the Browns miraculously, if the Browns said, okay, that's enough, we're not doing this. We'll trade him. We'll release him. I think a lot of NFL teams line up right in the exact same spot. They lined up in a couple months ago when they thought they could get Sean Watson. And I think that's just the sad truth of the NFL as they, everyone prioritizes winning and they know they need a quarterback and they're willing to do a lot of things for it. And so I don't, I don't, I'd'd love your perspective but i don't feel like a lot has changed with nfl teams um because you know i i really don't think this is what would you know

the straw that breaks the camel's back so yeah i mean there is a um part of it that you say just based on track record the league won't do anything here. And Deshaun Watson will get a slap on the wrist, if not nothing. And they'll say, oh, well, you know,

it's just a lawsuit like they did with Delvin cook. Oh, it's just a lawsuit. So shrugs. But there was a sense when I think one of the lawsuits, I don't know exactly the timeline here of how that worked, got dismissed that it was like, oh, Watson is just good to go. And that was when the trade ends up going through. And now it seems like maybe he wasn't good to go. There's another development that adds to the mix

here that happened in major league baseball, where major league baseball seemed to have done its real due diligence as opposed to the absolutely phony, fraudulent, garbage nonsense that NFL teams claim to do during the draft where they say we did our due diligence. And then you say, did you talk to the alleged victims? We're not going to tell you who we talked to. So no. But baseball actually did this with Trevor Bauer and suspended him for two years. I don't know how much the NFL cares about that, but if the NFL looks at Major League Baseball and says, man, we're going to look really far behind if we do this and we just let this go

and there's more lawsuits. And also imagine in the process of these lawsuits, if certain things come out and he ends up losing the lawsuit, because if let's say they take it the distance and he ends up losing the lawsuit, which will take a very, very long time. So that's, I don't even know if he's getting suspended this year, but let's even say a year from now. And a lot of things come out and a jury decides that he did these things that he's accused of the nfl might say two years i don't think that's likely but the trevor bauer ruling

kicking him out of the league for two full seasons might change the dynamic a little bit of how leagues feel the importance of dealing with something like this. And then they could just say like, Hey Brown, sorry, but you knew this was going on and you decided to trade all the draft picks and sign them to the contract. Guess Jacoby Bursette or bring back case Keenum are your quarterbacks now. Sorry about that. But the cynical part of me says the same thing as you're saying, the Vikings were clearly ready to do whatever it was going to take.

And if they were even looking into it at all, you're prepared. Like you don't, you don't start to just tiptoe down that line. Like you're, you're either in or you're out and they were in reportedly. So they were willing to deal with whatever came in the future. And I guess if the Browns eventually get totally burned by this they will have made their own bet and whatever team was going to trade for him will will have made their own bet more likely than not a year from now the guy ends up with a six game or eight game suspension and then everybody moves on and then when he returns, NFL broadcasts talk about how he's overcome adversity. And he fought through all those difficult off-field issues that he had because they did that with Roethlisberger and Winston and everything else.

Yeah. The interesting thing about when he would get suspended, if it would be this year or next year, is they set up the contract for him to get suspended this year. Like both sides basically conceded, like, like in the contract, it's basically telling you, we think you're going to get suspended. We're going to do you a solid. And that tells you Watson side was also like,

yeah, we're probably looking at a suspension. Let's try to figure out a way to do this. So I think both parties understand, like, even though some, some things were going to maybe be dismissed or they thought maybe they had a window, they crafted the contract in such a way that they were expecting something to

happen. And so I think if they know they're going to get suspended one way or another, they'd want it to be this year, uh, because he's, he's inclined to make a lot more money in these following years. Uh, so that's part of the reason why I'm clinging to the fact that he would still get suspended this year. I mean, along with just the heinous acts that he's accused of. But that felt like an admission from both sides. Like, yeah, this is coming down the pike. We know it's coming down the pike. Let's do what we can to minimize it.

So that's part of me is just that's been sticking in my head is I think he's going to get suspended this year. Now, maybe it gets extended till next year, but that's definitely not what Sean Watson wants. Not that he should have any say on whether he gets suspended or when he gets suspended, but I thought that was an admission of like, it's happening this year and it's probably going to be lengthy because we're going to really reduce your salary. So you lose as little money as possible. Go to SodaStick.com.

That is S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K. Our loyal sponsor. Check out all of their great Minnesota themed gear for your playoff run in hockey or for baseball season. If you're headed out in the nice weather to a baseball game, that is S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K. SodaStick.com. Hats, t-shirts, hoodies if you need them for a cool evening in the summer, so to stick.com has you covered. It does seem that way that this year would be the year that he would get suspended, but with new information continuing to come out and new lawsuits continue to

come out. And also if you're the NFL, this is very dicey territory because they have sort of drawn a line in the sand about the difference between a lawsuit that is a civil suit and a criminal suit uh or a criminal charge and so deshaun watson has not been criminally charged that does not mean he cannot be criminally charged and the same thing honestly still goes for delvin cook that at some point that is possible but if it stays on the civil side they've backed off of this and not suspended deshaun watson like why would they suspend him this year but not last year when he

was not suspended he was just pushed aside by the texans or he didn't want to play or they didn't want him to play or whatever number of combinations of those things. But they were saying, well, it's a civil matter, so that's his problem. But how long can they really stand on that ground? And then as things come out, will that change their stance as opposed to that and eventually work out that him trying to work his contract around it doesn't work for him? I think you're probably right that by the beginning of the season, they'll decide, hey, it's a six game. Hey, it's an eight game. But if I'm the NFL, I don't know that I'm in a hurry to make this decision

as things are still developing. So that is something I'll be sort of asking myself as it goes along in this. Like, at what point would the Vikings have maybe regretted this had they decided to go and get Deshaun Watson? I feel, honestly, myself, relieved that they didn't because that would have been just a nightmare to talk about Deshaun Watson all the time in this situation. I'll tell you, well, just quickly, I'll tell you when the team regrets it,

when they don't win a playoff game or two playoff games. I think that's the only time they regret it. Unless this guy, unless I don't even know what else could come out to darn to tarnish the reputation even more. But really the only thing that makes me think an NFL team would regret it is if the on-field results don't come. Yep.

No, you're absolutely right about that. I agree. And that is the cynical view, but it's also the correct one based on history. This was a pro football talk headlines. The next question here, could Nikhil Harry move to tight end? If you are not familiar with Nikhil Harry, I don't blame you. That is because he is a first round bust for the new England Patriots

wide receiver. But here's my question for you, Paul, who is the best player in the NFL past or present who changed positions who either in college or came into the league and then was asked to change positions and actually had it work out. Cause most of the time breaking news, it does not. Yeah. I'm going to have to lean on you for the history. As we know,

I am young. So this is not going to, I'm my depth going back a long time. And I stuck to just the way the questions were to guys in the NFL that changed once they were there and so I mean you get the like odd guys moving from like cornerback to safety like I think Charles Woodson went from cornerback to safety and stayed in the league much longer than he would have I believe Ronnie Lott did that too um the one that stuck out to me just again um from a young mind was uhrell Pryor, who was a quarterback drafted as a quarterback by the Raiders and then was just actually pretty decent wide receiver for the Browns there for a while.

I think he went to the Washington football team for a little bit. Those were a couple of names that came up that were more just like recent in my memory. But I'd love for you to break out a little history lesson for me. And I didn't name like Julian Edelman. That could have been one just going back to college and stuff like that. Cause I mean, in all honestly finding guys that in the NFL transition positions doesn't work out that well.

Normally they're one position for a reason. I think the Vikings have learned this along the offensive line a few times or along the defensive line a couple of times, maybe just play him where he spent his entire career and lifetime playing and became an NFL level prospect playing. Maybe don't try to change it immediately once he gets inside your locker room. So yeah, going through this exercise made me realize there's not a lot of them, but lay, lay something on me. I know you got something, you got something.

All right. Time for a time to break out old man. Once upon a time, Paul, wide receiver Troy Brown was a very good player for the New England Patriots. And he was asked to switch and play cornerback because they had so many injuries at corner. And I believe was still wearing number 80, if I'm not mistaken, playing corner and won the Super Bowl with the New England Patriots playing corner. And then I believe he moved back to wide receiver after that. That is an incredible feat. Also, Robert Tate for the Minnesota Vikings did the same thing. It might have been corner to receiver and then back, or it might have been receiver to corner. i don't remember which one he started with

but he was also asked to play on both sides of the ball now the most impressive i've ever seen maybe one of the all-time great feats in nfl history is deon sanders playing cb1 and wide receiver 2 in the same season 475 receiving yards as wide receiver two for a Dallas team that lost some wide receivers that year. And Deion Sanders stepped in, made plays at wide receiver. I thought of Ray Lucas, who I think went from maybe backup quarterback to like special team or receiver and then back to quarterback. That one I'm not a hundred percent clear on, but Antoine Randall L was a very good wide receiver who I think threw a touchdown in the super bowl as a quarterback, as he had played quarterback for Indiana and then became, you know, a wide receiver, but they used them on a trick play.

I think it was in the super bowl that he threw a touchdown. So people could fact check me on all of those things, but I wasn't even thinking like guard to tackle, tackle the guard. That's, that would be tough to figure out or outside to nickel, uh, Troy or no, not Troy Palomaro. It was, um, Rod Woodson and Charles Woodson. Both were hall of fame level corners who moved back to safety at the end of their career, which I don't know, maybe Patrick Peterson will do at some point, but they were also pro bowl level safeties after being hall of fame level corners, which again, not super easy to do. So yeah. And Tim Tebow became a fullback and a tight end. Yeah. Those quarterback ones are always the funniest when they're like, well, this quarterback can maybe play tight end. Like you think Cardale Jones could go out there and

block a little bit. It's like, well, maybe just draft a tight end. I don't, I don't know why we're trying to shoehorn these things in. Like maybe it's like we made a disaster of a draft pick. Now we're trying to save face by saying, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. He can play tight end. I think so. Yeah. Those, the quarterback ones are always funny. Terrell Pryor actually slightly was the most successful of them.

And even that was like a wide receiver, like three type situation. Still, that's impressive, but that's like the ceiling you're looking for on those guys normally. Logan Thomas has become a good player. He was a quarterback at Virginia Tech, I think, had a very strong arm and then ended up being a tight end in the NFL. So it does happen. But like you said, if you can't make it in your traditional position coming out of college, you're shot the corner to safety.

Like Cam Bynum is trying. That's kind of routine that happens sometimes. But if you're moving any sort of wild position, change quarterback to receiver, et cetera, you're in pretty, pretty bad shape there already. Okay.

Last question for you, Paul, I'd say this one, just core. I guess Cordero is kind of one just going from wide, like just, I mean, it's a little

bit different, but he's transitioned his role pretty significantly. That's been cool to see. Eric Metcalf played both wide receiver and running back at the same time. He was, I think more of a wide receiver in Atlanta, more of a running back in Cleveland. So there are a handful of those players throughout history. Oh, and Devin Hester. I think Devin Hester was a, was he supposed to be a corner, but never really played defense. and then they put him at wide receiver because he was so great with the football i think um okay last one davis webb remember davis webb cow cow i think hell yeah so when you draft a quarterback in the third round remember davis webb yes that's a third quarter i mean top of mind kellen mond sorry but that's what i was getting at uh but uh davis webb who's apparently still around and not in the xfl said that daniel jones

is the hardest working and smartest quarterback he's ever been around them maybe he didn't get along with eli i don't know i want you to rank the following quarterbacks chances of having a breakout season this year guys that uh have struggled so far in their career but can take it to the next level and be stars daniel jones justin fields zach wilson tua trevor lawrence mitch trubisky drew lock davis webb's on option no i just i don't think if we had played that game we played last week where you had to ask me if he was still playing in the nfl i would have probably said he was on the xfl um but this question uh trevor lawrence is the easy number one for me here i mean

he was in the worst situation that you could possibly be in last year and still managed to look halfway decent. I think he could be in for a really solid bounce back here, kind of that sophomore meteoric rise that you see. Trevor Lawrence feels like the easiest candidate to me. You just get competency in there around him, both from a coaching staff perspective and just an offense perspective. You know, Christian Kirk isn't amazing, but he's a serviceable wide receiver that can get open and can be a good person for Trevor Lawrence to throw the ball to. Like you have stability and you have just like a baseline of talent and a baseline of competency and respectability in the coaching staff situation. So I think the Jaguars strike me as the number one team there.

And Trevor Lawrence in particular to take a really big jump and maybe Jags win seven, eight games if he takes a big jump. And so I think that's kind of the easiest one here. All the other ones, you've kind of seen what they can do. I guess Zach Wilson, you could say. But my ranking went Trevor Lawrence, one. Tua, two. Just because he comes into a new offense. He's got Tyreek Hill. He's got Jalen Waddell.

He might not be the best prospect out of all these guys, but he certainly has the best situation around him. He has a coach that we think is going to be an innovative offensive mind. So Trevor Lawrence, Tua, Daniel Jones. I had three because of Brian Dable. Can he turn him into some sort of Josh Allen light, you know, diet Josh Allen, something like that. And then I finished it out with Zach Wilson, Mitch Trubisky, Drew Locke. I have no faith in Drew Locke and the Seattle offense to get anything out of Drew Locke. So Trevor Lawrence strikes me as the one with the most talent, the one with the most upside, was in a horrible situation last year.

Bring that back towards the mean, and I think he becomes much better of a quarterback. And if we're just comparing him along with Zach Wilson, the number two pick in that draft, I think now Trevor Lawrence's situation is better than Zach Wilson's. So if we're just going straight off that, I think he wins that battle of those second-year quarterbacks, and I think he easily has the best chance of breaking out among this group.

Yeah, Tua's supporting cast makes this one a little tricky. Now, Brian Flores was probably a pretty good coach. He also used two offensive coordinators at the same time, which is pretty goofy and strange, and I'm not sure that they really like had that lockdown, but also the physical, the physical tools of Tua are just not that impressive. And I think that that's probably a requirement at this point, but that's a, that's a little bit of a, we'll see for me. I think the top three are just the guys who were drafted last year. Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, and Justin Fields. Lawrence and Zach Wilson were number one and number three

in dropped passes by their wide receivers. Their teams were jokes. And that doesn't mean that like Wilson wasn't horrible because he absolutely was, but they have really improved what they're doing on offense. Doug Peterson is a huge improvement for Trevor Lawrence. Wilson is the one that I think it's almost like you would rather have no information. If he had sat the whole year, I think we'd all be going like, Oh yeah, this could be interesting folks. But he plays a handful of games. It didn't look good. He got hurt. I mean, it didn't look good at all. It looked like a total disaster. And so we think, Oh, that's Josh Rosen.

But if you look historically over how guys did in their first year versus what they ended up becoming, it's not very telling. I mean, it's just so hard. Like Jared Goff is a good example. Jared Goff, his first year is an abomination. And then he leads a team to the number one and number two offenses in the next following seasons. He's not an amazing quarterback, but clearly he didn't know to the number one and number two offenses in the next following seasons. He's not an amazing quarterback, but clearly he didn't know what he was doing and his

circumstances were so poor. So I'm going to have those guys at the top fields. I just have some big concerns over how long he holds onto the ball and how bad his offensive line is. I don't know that this is the year that Justin Fields takes a huge, huge leap. And then after that, I forgot to mention him. So I would put him between below Daniel Jones, above Zach Wilson.

I think they just did nothing to help him in the off season. And a new head coaching staff, that's gonna be hard for another rookie. So I think his potential is high. Just this year feels like not the year where he's gonna blossom. Tua versus Daniel Jones is interesting because Daniel Jones is kind of like a turnover machine.

And Tua is way too conservative with the way he plays so like Tua is like Alex Smith and Daniel Jones is like Jameis Winston and so these are just like kind of two extremes of that type of quarterback but I think that the conservative quarterback who doesn't turn it over has a better chance and then Trubisky and Drew Locke yeah there's just nothing there those guys are bad at football like they're just not good I mean if if sorry yeah sorry buddy but I mean if Drew Locke turns out to be great in Seattle that would be wild like what a turnaround but I just don't it's like we were talking about with Paxton Lynch where if you just can't really master an offense read defenses throw with anticipation even if you've got some big time throws mixed in drew lock is like a ryan fitzpatrick just gonna bounce around keep getting a couple of shots here there and maybe he has a long career and he's a fun guy to have around but that's probably uh

pretty much it so uh drew lock uh definitely an xfl quarterback at some point and what is drew lock's best moment ben it's been that viral twitter clip of him rapping so we at we started this how the podcast how do we get people interested in xfl maybe drew lock does like halftime like rap concerts for the crowd get some people in there uh just for the memes i don't know i don't know it could be got it you know there's a there's a thing called the big three basketball yeah where ice cube owns it, the rapper, and he will perform at halftime at the events.

I'm not kidding. He'll like do a couple songs. So that just gets people to come. So, I mean, it's an angle. Yeah. I mean,

they need it for the USFL. My gosh, they need a rapper to own the league. Uh, Paul, good stuff. Always fun. And,

uh, we will connect on the terrestrial uh radio very soon so thanks for your time thanks everyone for listening we got one more week of otas the vikings of course we'll report from there and uh then minicamp and then then it's a summer and uh we'll continue to roll on so we will talk to you all very soon