Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - How much can a new scheme help the Vikings' offense? (A Fans Only podcast)

Episode Date: May 15, 2022

Matthew Coller answers fans questions, including the timeline for Kirk Cousins, what happens if the Vikings get off to a slow start, whether Kevin O'Connell's scheme is being relied upon too much, what we remember about Rick Spielman's first draft compared to Kwesi Adofo-Mensah's and much more Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and this is a fans-only podcast where I answer all of your questions, some from Twitter and also some through the email. If you want to send me a question, you can go to purpleinsider.com. There is a contact me space there. Feel free to send me an email. I will put it in the queue and try to answer it. I've got a lot to get to. I'm going to do the best that I

can to get through as many as I can. But if you've sent me a question and you're waiting to hear it, I try to get to everything everybody sends me. So it means it's there. It's just probably stacked up, but I'm trying. So let's get started. And a lot of great questions to talk about here. Okay. So this comes from John through email says, Hey Matthew, I can Twitter. So I'll have to send this question through email. Good for you. Honestly, social media. Just wondering your thoughts on when the vikings will come out of their delusional trance and finally decide to move on from cousins what would it take in your opinion in my opinion even a tank wouldn't do it as the team would justify it as a lost season due to injuries etc and kirk wasn't given all the tools he needs to succeed. I believe another eight or nine win season with Kirk showing the same flaws he always has

may actually jolt them into reality that he is what he is and that the contract ties your hands so badly you can never fully rejuvenate the roster enough to offset his shortcomings. You know what? Speaking of shortcomings, I forgot to open my Diet Dr. Pepper.

So let's do that first before I answer this. Okay. I'm going to need a sip first. There's a lot here. First of all, delusional trance sounds like an EDM band, and that's an awesome name. And if you want to borrow it, please do. Maybe a clothing line, delusional trance.

So the way that Kirk Cousins' contract is set up, the delusional trance, as you call it, could end after this year. The no trade clause does make that harder, but not impossible. But I think that's not really your question. Your question isn't like contract wise, how they could get out of it. But just think that's not really your question. Your question isn't like contract wise, how they could get out of it because, but just to clarify on that, like the no trade clause means that if they were to trade him, he needs to agree to it, but it doesn't make it impossible. So sometimes, and I, and I'll throw myself in here too. We act like that means he is dead set the quarterback for the next two years but i think

matt ryan had a no trade clause russell wilson had a no trade clause and those guys wanted to be sent to greener pastures and agreed to trades to very good teams and uh should kirk cousins agree to it after this year that could set them up to be able to do it. Also, I think it comes along with a $17 million dead cap hit if they trade him next year, which means that they even designed the extension so that is possible and would not destroy their cap. So should they decide to move on, draft a quarterback, say we want to start this new quarterback, trading you to wherever, then they could do that without a cap ruining situation. So just to clarify kind of where we stand with that.

Now, as far as the team, I think that they did signal at least something like now that we have the draft over and we realized that there was only one first round caliber prospect and some people, you know, didn't even think Kenny Pickett was as high of a prospect is where the Pittsburgh Steelers drafted him. But, you know, we'll just go on the theory of believing the teams in terms of a prospect caliber. But the fact that there was only one quarterback worth a first round pick makes their thinking a little more clear. That doesn't mean that they nailed it. We'll find out if they nailed it. But it makes their thinking a little more clear to pair that with a short term contract extension that only takes Cousins through next year. If I had to guess what would make them decide for sure that they're going to make a move.

I think it's as simple as missing the playoffs. If they were to go 8-9 or if they were to go 5-12, 6-11, I think all of those scenarios would all point to a quarterback change because it's really nowhere close to where they want to be. And then you can't get to the point where you're saying, oh, it was Mike Zimmer's fault. He didn't like Kirk. He didn't support him enough. Or it was Clint Kubiak's fault. He was a new play caller. He didn't know what he was doing and left Kirk out to dry too many times. And then there's truth in both of those things. So I'm not

mocking those sentiments because there is some truth there, but I think that what they need to decide to move on would be proof of that proof that it, Kevin O'Connell does not have the magic formula to change what they can produce offensively. Uh, and just missing the playoffs, I think would put a lot of pressure on them to make a move. Because five years of failure for the Wilfs and for the fans is a lot different than one year of failing for Kweisi Adafo-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell. But I think what it would prove to them, to the Wilfs, since they seem to be in charge of this decision, it would prove to them that they made the wrong call by keeping him and that they finally have to live in reality that it's not going to work. That's what it would take. Now, your point is interesting though, if Cousins were to get hurt or something, and then he's got the no trade clause for next year,

and they go four and 13 with Brett Hundley and Sean Mannion playing quarterback. And Kellen Mond would probably play at that point. But let's just even say they go four and 13. Kirk gets hurt. Then it puts you in a really tough spot. Like, do you move on from him at that point? Or do you say, well, it was just bad luck. He just got hurt.

He just needs this, this, this, and this. Whatever. That is one of the tougher scenarios. One of the other more difficult scenarios would be 10-7 in a first round out in the playoffs. Then what do you do? Do you say, oh, well, we just need to fix this, that, and the other thing. But at the same time, he's still expensive. The players who are good will get older.

It's a very difficult juggling act with this quarterback situation um i think either way though they are in line to draft a quarterback next year because of kirk cousins age i mean when you talk about a quarterback getting into 35 years old um that's when you're always looking at other quarterbacks, including, I mean, even the Green Bay Packers, twice, Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, when those guys got into their mid-30s, mid to late 30s, their teams drafted quarterbacks anyway,

even though those players still had something, if not quite a bit, left in the tank. So any team is that way. The Baltimore Ravens with Joe Flacco drafting Lamar Jackson when they didn't technically need a quarterback. So it really seems like next year is lined up for them to draft a quarterback one way

or the other. And the only thing this comes down to is, is 2022 Kirk Cousins last year or 2023. Beyond that, there would need to be a 14 win season or well maybe not quite that aggressive but let's say a 12 to 14 win season a deep playoff run something like that in order to change it but if it's if it's 10 and 7 if it's 8 9 if it's 5 and 12 like there's most scenarios here that aren't oh my gosh, it's great. Probably results in them drafting a quarterback next year. And then the decision comes down to, all right, do you feel like the team won 10 games and has two more in them? So keep playing cousins and rest your rookie for a year and let them train. Or if you win six games and cousins plays

the whole year and the roster just wasn't all that good and the scheme didn't help them that much, let's just say, I don't think that's going to happen, but let's just say, then you're probably trying to move on after this year. But to even talk more about the dynamics here, if Cousins were to not play well and win six games, you're not getting a whole heck of a lot back

in a trade for Kirk Cousins. So, you know, I mean, Carson Wentz, even last year, got his team to the brink of the playoffs and at least enough to convince Washington that they should make a move there. But Cousins is still going to be extremely expensive for whoever trades for him. And, you know, so that means the delusional trance very well may last through 2023. I mean, there's just a lot of situations where it does. So a lot at play there with Kirk Cousins. A lot rests on just how he plays this year

and how much Kevin O'Connell can boost this offense. All right, sorry, the voice is a little weak. Maybe too many hot takes here. So let me get another sip. Okay. This comes from Paul via the email. Now that the 2022 schedule is out, I'm curious what you think might happen if the Vikings get off to a slow start.

Given it's a rookie head coach, new coordinators, new defensive scheme, lots of new players on the roster, I think a slow start is definitely possible. If the Vikings go 2-4 or 1-5 at the bye, do you think they'll shift into desperation mode again, aka Ngakwe, or mortgage the future to try to salvage the season? You know, I think that what they'll do is, and you mean they were desperate before the season and traded for Ngakwe, not when they traded him away, which they probably should have done with some other players.

But, you know, the slow start is possible. I do think that they have a schedule that gives them an opportunity by the time they come back from London and then play the Bears. By the time things kind of get a little more difficult to be in a good spot, to be 3-3 or to be 4-2. I think I picked them initially to go 4-2 in their first six games. Now, that doesn't mean I'm right. I've been historically

not good at picking games, which is funny, right? Like I cover every aspect of the team, but when it comes down to picking one game, will they win? Will they lose? I'm not, this is why I don't gamble, right? But in your scenario, if they were to get off to a slow start, I think they just play it out. I don't think that there's any real move. I don't see them saying, oh man, this is our winning window. We have to trade a first round pick for whatever player is disgruntled in another city to get us turned around from two and four back to the playoffs. I think that even though we haven't seen a lot of signs of the rebuild part, I think the rebuild part might exist to them in some of the things that they wouldn't do. Like for example, they wouldn't

throw their name in the hat for Tyreek Hill and trade two first round picks for Tyreek Hill because that's just not something they can afford or something that's going to be able to take them over the top for where their roster is right now. Of course, if they had the space, maybe you'd think about it. But they want, you know, if anything, they would probably try to move players and get draft picks back if they started out one in five. But more likely than not, I mean, the NFL, it's not like the NHL, which if you're not in the playoff race, you just move everything that is not nailed down. And it makes for the NHL trade deadline to be really fascinating. But for the NFL, it's really more just an odd move here or there of, you know, Ngakwe

is the good example of like, well, we're in a tough spot. Ngakwe wants to be traded. He said in a recent interview with Tyler Dunn that Rick Spielman asked him, do you want to be traded? And he said, yeah, trade me to a contender. And interestingly, he said that he wished he'd stayed, which I, you know, I guess I didn't anticipate because it seemed like Ngakwe was not a fit and that was really more of the issue. But always, always interesting. That is a really good interview about Yannick Ngakwe, by the way. Go long TD is where you can find that. But if they were in that spot though, you're probably talking about maybe one move to trade somebody to get a draft pick or something. Now, the Vikings do have an inordinate amount of players

that you would want to move at the deadline. It's just that the money situation is not great. So if they got to one in five and it was just a total disaster right from the start, I mean, it's not super easy in the middle of the season with the cap situations as they are to just start unloading Harrison Smith, Adam Thielen, Eric Kendricks. Like that's just not an easy thing to do. Maybe they would be able to move someone like Zedarius Smith if they felt like, all right,

well, we didn't get really what we wanted out of that. And somebody's offering us a second round pick and we're one in five and we're really struggling so they do have players that you would talk about this for i think it's just what we learned a few years ago is it's very hard to just unload stuff because a lot of teams spend especially the contenders spend all the way up to the cap and it's very hard to finagle your cap in the middle of the season um i i think they would just play it out and see what happens. And what we know about Kirk Cousins throughout his career is he's certainly capable of going one in five through any stretch or five and one, right? It really has jumped up and down like crazy where he'll be the best player, best quarterback

in the league statistically for a month. And then the next month they'll lose three key games and struggle and he won't play well. And that's the roller coaster that Vikings fans have been on for a few years. But that means that if you go two and four, your season isn't over because he could always get hot. You could always make the playoffs.

I think the Eagles maybe started two and four last year. They would likely be talking about continuing to battle, still making the playoffs. And just with this team in general, it's very unlikely. They have enough talent. It's very unlikely that they would just get blown out in all these games. They're going to be in football games with Kirk Cousins as their quarterback, with Justin Jefferson, with the defensive players they have. They're going to be in football games with Kirk Cousins as their quarterback, with Justin Jefferson, with the defensive players they have. They're not going to just go one in five and get outscored by 150 points, which would tell me they'll say, we need to adjust this. We need to adjust that.

We need to fight. We need to keep battling. And plus, the NFC is not so impressive. That's kind of how I think it would play out. I don't think that they would say, all right, now it's time to tear it limb for limb. That's much more of an off season thing. However, if they went two and four, one and five, then you would be talking about the next off season, them saying, all right, now we've got to make a lot of changes here that

we didn't make last year. Folks with baseball season in full swing, just a reminder, if you're headed downtown for baseball, make sure that you are dressed right. Go to sodastick.com for all your Minnesota baseball gear. That is S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K. Go to their website, sodastick.com. Check out everything. They have hats, t-shirts. If it's one of those cool summer evenings, bring your hoodie as well. Check it out.

Soda stick.com. You won't find anything better. Go there today and use the code purple insider for 15% off your purchase. All right. Onto the next question from Logan via the email. How did Rick Spielman's first draft as a gm turn out and how do you think quacey's first draft as a gm compares okay well that's an interesting question because i got to look up when rick spielman was named the general manager so let's find that out first um so we can look at when his first draft was. Because was it 2012?

Was that his first draft or was it 2013? Let's see here. Because when would he have been named? Because he was vice president of player personnel through 2011. So I guess we can assume that his first draft, because I don't have a date here on his Wikipedia, that his first draft would have been 2012. So let's take a look at that. Now, always with drafts, we have to say it's weird, it's random, it's small sample size. These things are hard to make a big judgment about how somebody did in their first draft. he could have been extremely lucky or unlucky in his first draft.

So this was the one where, now he also gets pinned with Christian Ponder, maybe just his involvement, but he wasn't the GM until 2012. This was the one where they took Matt Khalil first, and then with the 29th pick took Harrison Smith and then Josh Robinson, Jarius Wright, Rhett Ellison, the ghost of Greg Childs, Robert Blanton and Blair Walsh also Audie Cole and Trevor Guyton well this is a Rick Spielman draft though friends isn't it to be taking the sixth round wide receiver, the kicker in the fifth, or I'm sorry, the fourth round wide receiver, the kicker in the sixth.

It's very Spielman-y. But, you know, Matt Khalil, I remember when he was picked that it was like one of those you have to do it, obvious, take Matt Khalil, don't even think about it, this guy's going to be a superstar. And for a season, it looked that way. Harrison Smith is an all an all pro caliber player Josh Robinson was not all that good Jarius Wright a fan favorite Rhett Ellison briefly helpful I mean I don't know like what can we what can we really take out of it the 2013 one is more interesting because of the way that they traded up to get the three first-round picks.

And one of them became a great player, Xavier Rhodes. Cordero Patterson should have been better. Sheree Floyd, some really bad luck there. But, I mean, that really tells you that you can do the right things, or you can have a high pick, or you can take a swing at somebody and have it blow up in your face or have it be a home run. I mean, I got an email the other day from someone about Rick Spielman's record and consensus boards and things like that. And Harrison Smith was not as high of a prospect

by that metric as he was drafted. So he was overdrafted. Now it wasn't like a fifth rounder to a first, but maybe people had him as more of a second round pick and he's turned out to be a great player. Nobody would have questioned the Matt Khalil pick. And this is why every year I get broken by draft season because we love to talk about it. And it's so interesting. And you're trying to form opinions about these things based on data, history, process,

like all those things. But in the end, as soon as they get on the field, you go like, oh, okay, who cares about all that, right? Like now this is what really matters is how this player plays, and a lot of it comes down to good or bad luck. Matt Khalil going from a pro bowler to somebody who couldn't play in the league pretty quickly is bad luck. I mean, he was a great prospect. You couldn't have asked for much more and it just fell apart. And I don't know that

Matt Khalil has ever done an interview to explain what happened. I think injuries were a part of it. I think confidence was a part of it, that he seemed to get pretty rattled. Didn't he throw a snowball at fans or something? I mean, but these things happen. And Harrison Smith is another example of someone where you're drafting at the back end of the first round and it's hard to get great players

at the back end of the first round. History tells us that. But just like with Louis Scene, just where you drafted does tell you the odds. But if something is 75% odds that you won't get a great player, that means one in four, you do get a great player. I don't know that the odds are quite that high at the 32nd pick, but let's even say it's one in 10. That means you get one in 10. That does happen. And then that's the same thing with Harrison Smith, where he's the one in 10 pick at 29th overall. So it does happen that that can be the case. So I think, yeah, this one, I mean, there's always that had, had they hit on Matt Khalil, how would things have been different?

They're probably in the playoffs in 2016. They wouldn't have had to spend the money on Riley reef. That's another part. That's absolutely crazy about the draft is it's so random and it's so luck based. And yet the domino effects of hitting or missing on these picks. I mean, think about if the Vikings hit a home run with their first two picks, how instantly better and long-term better their secondary will be after floundering these last couple of years.

But if they don't, then we're talking about the same thing. Like the impact of missing on Hughes and Gladney means you have to draft two more corners this year. And it means you have to sign Patrick Peterson and spend money there. There's just always this. It means you have to sign Bashad Breland

and then hope to the football gods that the guy can still play, which it turned out that he couldn't. That's the tough part about the NFL is how much has to do with just, did you hit or did you not on these draft picks, even though your control over it is pretty minimal. All right, on to the next question. This is from Len via the email.

People keep saying that you can't grade a draft for three to five years. That makes sense, but does anyone actually do this? Are there grades from previous drafts based on actual success of the players? i'm not a researcher but i did a quick peek at 2017 18 19 surprised to see that more of them were still active than i expected uh but not all with the vikings like mike hughes daniel carlson and pat elfline but there weren't really that many absolute busts well one thing i would say is uh back in the day there used to be more what you call absolute busts where the person either never plays as a fairly high pick or is just out of the league in like two years that used to happen more back then um than it does now because of the way

that everything is structured with the salary cap it's so valuable to have a player at any position who is on a rookie contract that's playing a huge role that teams are very patient with their rookies and they continue to run them out there a lot of times. Like Laquan Treadwell is a good example. The Vikings just did not have the cap space to replace Laquan Treadwell. So they just kept trying it. If this was back way back when, if they didn't have salary cap and also the expensive players are so expensive, they take up huge percentages of your cap. So you desperately need Laquan Treadwell to be good. If you're going to have three great wide receivers because there just isn't other options. Well, he wasn't and it hurt them them but there wasn't a lot that they could

really do about it they tried signing kendall right and they tried signing tajay sharp it's just well got to keep running him out there see if he figures out how to run routes so those guys are still in the league that's not your question but that sort of struck me about that that you see teams really being forced to lean on these guys, which was connected to what we were just saying about, um, you know, relying on these draft picks to succeed and how much that has to do with who wins and who does not. Now your point. No, uh, nobody does that. No, not really. You only do it when you're looking at a whole roster analysis of where a team is, what happened with those rookies, how it impacted your long-term. That, of course, happens, like you don't have to really do a deep dive into whether 2015 was a success. Like we know it was or 2016. What is agitating about the whole, oh,

you can't judge a draft, whatever. Like, I mean, first you can usually judge it by year two. I think that we've known on almost every prospect by the second year, maybe midway through the second year, whether it was a success or not. But I think what you're judging on day one, it's like, these are two different things. Like what you're judging on day one is the process from the team, the thoughts of the team. Like maybe I've mentioned this before, but my friend, Eric Eager says that the draft kind of reveals what's inside the heart and soul of the team. Like what they're really thinking is shown by the way that they draft. So what we're doing in grading it, and I didn't give the Vikings ABCD. I made up that survey so everyone could have fun figuring out what their draft grade is, but you're judging the thought process of your team. Did you agree with it? Did you like what they

did? Did you, did you think that they were smart in going about drafting the players? And do you think that they did a good job, which we won't know for two years. And then everybody knows that also the people who say like, Oh, you can't judge a dragon. Like everybody knows that everybody knows we have to see the results, but we can't just sit here and wait. I do this podcast every day. So we can't, we can't, who wants to do that? Does anyone, is that fun? Does anyone want to do that? Does anyone want to sit here and go, well, I'll just wait. I'll wait until 2025. Then ask me about the draft.

Like, no, we've got a lot to talk about here and it's interesting. So we should discuss it and then reevaluate what we thought. That's always fun for me to go back and say, hey, you know, I thought that that draft pick wasn't going to work out. Brian O'Neill is a good example. The first time I saw him in rookie mini camp, I was like, what, who did it? What they, they picked a tight end for tackle. And then by the time training camp came around, he put on 20 pounds. And then by the time the next year came around, it was 30, 40 pounds. And all of a sudden the guy is a around, it was 30, 40 pounds. And all of a sudden

the guy is a pro bowl player. Uh, and that's how much things can change. And that's always going back and looking what you thought of the picks versus how they worked out, I think is, is a, um, an instructive type of thing. Like what should I be reacting to to what should i not be overreacting to that sort of stuff but no i mean nobody really has to go back and evaluate it is fun to redraft though if you want to if you want to have a little bit of entertainment there's a website i'm sorry i don't have it right off the top it was one of those things that popped into my twitter and i played with it but there are places probably if you google it you can find it where you can redraft for your team. Like knowing what you know now, who would you take? And that's an entertaining process to do,

but I always look at it as, can you say from day one, what were you thinking or not? And the Vikings have set themselves up for this by trading down and trading with a division opponent that if Jamison Williams becomes a big star, I will not disagree with people who say, guys, you gave a huge star to a division opponent that was rebuilding. And that's a process we can question. But the pick of Louis Seane at number 32 is a really good pick. This is a really good prospect who might solidify your secondary. And that's one where I would say, well, who they took at 32

is a really good potential player. I find it all to be fascinating, the entire exercise. I just get annoyed when I hear the, who cares about the draft? We won't know for years. Like, yeah, I know, but what else are we doing? I mean, we're all interested in football and the off season is, it's really become just as interesting to discuss as the season and sometimes even more depending on the results uh this one comes from at matt varick on twitter after processing the draft one thought that i had was whether this draft was focused on addressing the one area that has been neglected the most on the Vikings roster, and that is depth. They didn't pick anyone that seems to be a

difference maker, but a lot of players that have a possibility of being solid contributors down the road, which is an area the roster has lacked for the last few years, am I completely off base here? I don't think that you ever really draft for depth. What we've seen in relying on rookies to be depth is that it's bad. And this is where the cap stuff comes in. Like there are not a lot of teams who have great depth, but one thing that teams with cap space can do is add veteran depth and veteran depth, as we've seen in the past was is pretty important. Like think about having Brian Robison come off the bench in 2017. That's that's good. That's pretty good for you to be able to have that or for Terrence Newman to start over Mackenzie Alexander, so Alexander ends up being your backup who can come in and play in a pinch,

or Anthony Harris, a player you've developed over years, which is another area where they've struggled. So a lot of these guys who get their first chance after being special teamers in depth, Eric Wilson was a guy like this, usually it's after a couple of seasons of development. So what the Vikings need to hope for their depth is that the players who were drafted by Rick Spielman in recent years can be that for

them this year. The issue is it's not all that promising. I mean, when you look at something like the defensive line, Armond Watts can play a little. He could play in the league. Kenny Willekes, Janarius Robinson, we haven't seen him on the field yet. Patrick Jones was on the field a little bit. No real feel for whether he could play or not. Look at the linebackers. I mean, those linebackers, Troy Dye and Chaz Surratt, these guys were picks that were supposed to eventually turn into depth and maybe long-term starters. And yet they were not very good depth at all. And that's, it's another one of those randomness in the draft and how much it impacts everything you do. It's not just, do you get stars out of the draft? Do you get solid football players or do you find solid football players as UDFAs that when someone goes down, that next

person can step up. That was the case in 2018 when Everson Griffin went down, Stephen Weatherly stepped into that role and was pretty good for the time that he was there. Last year, it didn't work out with Weatherly, but in that particular season, he handled that role all right. Afadi Adenabo was another guy as a depth player who was good as a starter he was in over his head but these guys both were on the practice squad on special teams and then eventually developed into being decent depth so whether they get depth or not will for this year, we'll rest on what happened in previous drafts. Unless you're lucky. I mean, really, unless somebody who's a third round pick or a fourth

round pick suddenly becomes that. Now, maybe you could say it about Andrew Booth, but I think that's also a guy that you draft to have a role. A Caleb Evans is more of the depth type of player, but Louis Scene is a guy you draft to play right away. The guard in the second round is maybe someone that does qualify as depth or a starter the next year. Yeah, I mean, that one, we're still sort of scratching our heads about where that is supposed to fit in,

but maybe they're looking at that as a future starter as a guard. But I guess what I would say is in the same way that Wyatt Davis, Chaz Surratt, et cetera, did not provide them depth from last year's draft. I wouldn't look at any of these players and say, oh, well, they're, they're much better depth wise. Cause we don't know if they can play or not. We have to find out if they can even step on an NFL field as a first, second, third round pick to know if they could be depth. And oftentimes when you rely on it,

then it ends up burning you. So if you're looking for the depth, you have to look from a couple of years back. I think what they're trying to do with this draft is look maybe a year down the road for all the positions except lewis seen and say all right patrick peterson's got one more year in him we're going to need other corners uh at the right guard position you have you know jesse davis and chris reed those are not long-term

options eric kendricks is up there in age so draft brian asamoah i think that's more of what they're doing with these positions is looking a year down the road. Okay, this one comes from atro28. It seems that some of us misread Kevin O'Connell as a new head coach. Although the players haven't hit the field yet and the chess pieces have not been placed, it looks like the high-flying, wide-open, pass-heavy offense that we assumed he would bring from the Rams may not materialize. He has already talked vaguely about a plan that involves Cousins and Ham and whatever tight end is healthy enough to play. Is it possible that we miscalculated in other areas too? For example, is it really safe to assume that he has all of the offensive answers that Zimmer and Kubiak did not? Is it possible to

point, um, is it possible to the point of being likely that saddled with the same personnel and key offensive positions, the team will have the exact same problems on offense last year. So, uh, one question at a time, I think it is very possible that they are going to throw in more advantageous positions than they did last year. Now, they still threw a lot of passes last year. They still threw over 600 passes. So it's not like you could just put the pedal to the metal and change everything and throw 900 times. Like that's, there's not, you can't really do that. And Kevin O'Connell is going to run the ball with delvin cook

he's going to use cj ham because cj ham can be a good weapon for them he's just not somebody you want to be throwing to on third and 11 he is somebody that can mess with the opponent's personnel on defense and cause problems where you can use motions from him you can get defensive indicators you can overload blocking wise and have mismatches that create big runs. Like there's a lot there to do still with a fullback. And look, I mean, San Francisco, that's the offense. Everybody oogles over, ogles, whatever it is. And, you know, San Francisco uses Kyle Juszczyk all the time.

So I don't think you look at an offense and say, well, they're going to keep the full back. So that means they're going to be old school, but also Delvin cook. Still, they're running back. Like they're going to run the football. This is not going to be stand in the shotgun and throw and throw and throw and throw. And they also need to set up their play actions. So they're going to run the football to give looks that they can work play actions off. That doesn't mean they can't be more efficient than they were from last year and more consistent and more effective and a little bit brighter when it comes to not running on second down and 10, for example, which we've brought up all the time, but even just avoiding those third and longs, I think, you know,

Kirk Cousins was up at the top of the league, might've been number one in third and long pass attempts last season. That's not something that you want to have happen again. So I wouldn't say right now because they haven't added to the offense. Oh, Kevin O'Connell's just going to do the same stuff as the other guys. However, not adding personnel. I have just long been a believer that it's the players and not the plays. And even though scheme is great and is certainly a big part of the game, always in forever, usually to win games, you need great players to make great plays.

And they have some of those Delvin Cook, Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen. They have some great players, but they've had those guys. And what we've seen is a cap on that. Seen a lot of different strategies from John D. Filippo to Kevin Stefanski to Gary Kubiak, who did things somewhat differently. And we haven't seen different results. So the onus is absolutely on Kevin O'Connell without new personnel to prove that there is something schematic wise that everyone was missing in that previous regime. Yes. So you'll make a fair point when it comes to that. I just wouldn't say, oh, he's keeping the fullback. I guess he's not going to throw the ball. I would not go there.

Now, as far as could they end up in the same positions with the same problems? Yeah. I mean, unfortunately, like that's something you would anticipate. What you should have is a much better defense, but you would anticipate based on the personnel that it's going to be a lot of the same things. Because there isn't one area that you can point to and say, on offense, they are so much better at X or Y or Z that it should be worlds better. We assume Kevin O'Connell is going to be better at calling plays in the second halves of games than Clint Kubiak was, but we can't be a hundred percent sure that that's going to be the case because he hasn't called plays. You know, Christian Derrissaw played half the season last year was good.

So if he's good again, that's certainly helpful. The interior of the offensive line, you don't make a change at center. You don't make a massive overhaul at right guard. Maybe you're hoping that Ezra Cleveland develops a little more, but how much of an impact that really has. There isn't a number three and number four wide receiver, unless Amir Smith-Marset really takes off that you're saying, well, this guy is going to have a huge impact and he's going to change your fate. Like, yeah. I mean, if you're projecting where could they land if it's the smartest best version of kevin o'connell you're probably trying to get to like the 10th best offense in the league because of the natural shortcomings that still exist on your roster the only way i thought and

they can change my opinion on the field of course that they would be better than that, be better than 10th is by adding another receiver. And they really decided just not to do that. And I would have also said the same for better interior pass blocking. They just decided, nope, we're not going to do that. We're going to stay the same. We're going to rely on our scheme. i i'm a little dubious about that and it's on them to prove that that you and i are thinking the wrong way and that kevin o'connell did have all the answers so okay let's get to one or two more here all right this from at dempdolph on twitter given the stats about kirk being a top tier quarterback when he throws to his first read. Shouldn't the number one priority be giving him an ungodly number of weapons to throw to and increasing the ratio of open first read throws?

Let's go five deep at wide receiver, two pass catching tight ends, two pass catching running backs. Seems to me that would do more good than trying to give him a top 10 O-line. Now, I am always in favor of more weapons. And what the league comes down to so many times, and I'm quoting Adam Thielen here, so the guy who's doing it, is do you beat your guy? Just wide receiver, beat corner, or beat coverage. But usually in the biggest situations, it's man coverage. So do you beat your guy?

As the first read receiver, can you win that? The Minnesota Vikings have gotten more out of the first read than almost any other team in the NFL over the last, I don't know how many years. Going back to probably Sam Bradford. Because of who their receivers are. I mean, yes, that would give you more options. Of course. Like, of course, I think those number three wide receivers that get favorable matchups, like it's not just about the receiver being good, but also trying to find the cornerback who's bad, right? We learned that from Bashad Breeland. Can you attack the bad corner

who you can get a mismatch? So I am absolutely in on that. The only thing I would say is just they're throwing above league average first read from Kirk Cousins already. And that's two out of every three passes already. How much more can you do with defenses trying to do their job as well? Defenses throwing things at you that are confusing, throwing blitzes that you need to make adjustments, all those things, getting instant pressure, say maybe right up the middle. Yeah. I mean, those things are going to limit the amount of first read throws. Like if first read throws are the most successful ones.

So if you could throw off the first read all the time, then, you know, yeah, you're going to win more. Um, I'm just not sure that that really, uh, is what does it. Okay. Final question. This is from Josh R. Smith, friend of the show says I'm a sprinting fan how amazing would it be to see a 100 meter dash with all of them in their prime between kenny wong woo randy moss michael bennett and robert smith is there another viking speedster i'm missing from this hypothetical race should we toss in dan chesina for fun too there's a few other guys who never made it that come to mind with this that were brought around training camp or were even on the practice squad because of their insane speed. Like Jeff Bedette. I think he did this 40 competition that turned out to be totally not

legit that he may have won or done really well in. Terrell Sinkfield is another guy who when you watched him run and jump, you would have been totally blown away, but was not a good football player, really. There's a lot of those guys. That's what makes the players that you mentioned so incredible. So I looked up because I was wondering, like, did Randy Moss ever run track? He had to have. Right. But I knew he was a great basketball player who, according to his Wikipedia, averaged 30-14-5 steals a game as a high school basketball player. Not bad.

And when it came to track and field, he was the West Virginia State Champion in the 100 and 200 meter. So Randy Moss, we'll see if we can do this on the fly. Randy Moss ran a 10.94 100 meter. So Randy Moss, we'll see if we can do this on the fly. Randy Moss ran a 10.94 100 meter. Let's see if we can find out through wiki what Kenny Wong Wu ran for the 100 meter and maybe even Robert Smith too. Let's see. Okay. Kenny Wong Wu, his Wikipedia doesn't have it, but I'm sure we can find this. So let's go with Kenny Wong Wu, 100 meter. Didn't you always wish to listen to someone Googling? Okay. So Kenny Wong Wu ran a 10, nine, one that wow. Okay. So 0.03 difference between Kenny Wong Wu and Randy Moss.

All right, let's go. Robert Smith, 100 meter. Okay, his personal best was 10.24, which, wait, is that right? 10.24? What? No, that can't be right. That is insane. That's way faster than Randy Moss or Kenny Wong Wong. Was that on like a regular stopwatch? Cause it was back in the day. There's no way that he ran a 10.24. That's nuts. Okay. Let me see if we can find Dan Jacina.

Dan Jacina, 10.52. Okay. Wikipedia has Michael Bennett at 10.33. So the answer to your question is, it seems Michael Bennett and Robert Smith are the fastest. And then Dan Tracina after that, Kenny Wongwu and Randy Moss. So yeah, some pretty blazing fast guys. And Randy Moss's number was in high school.

So maybe he would have gotten better if he had continued to be a track star in college. Anyway, well, fun question. Sources say that Vikings players are fast, and there have been some insanely fast ones. You know what? Quadra Ishmael would have had a really good case against some of these guys for straight line speed as well. So anyway, well, another super fun fans only episode.

And I encourage you to continue to send me tweets, continue to send me your emails with all of your great questions as we go through the off season. If you wanna make them like that last one that are kind of ridiculous and kind of fun, then I am all for that. Go ahead and do it.

And we'll have a good time here on the show. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Appreciate it.