Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - How will the Vikings adapt to Aaron Jones injury? Jeremiah Sirles breaks it down

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

Vikings RB Aaron Jones was injured in the team's 23-17 win over the Jets. The team announced he was week-to-week. Matthew Coller is joined by former Viking Jeremiah Sirles on this edition of Tuesday Morning Left Guard (on a Tuesday evening) to breakdown how the Vikings can adapt their offense should Jones be out for some time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, along with former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Searles for some Tuesday morning left guard. And Jeremiah, there is one less National Football League head coach today as Robert Sala was fired by the New York Jets after playing against the Minnesota Vikings. And I got to tell you the truth. I was coming out of that game going, man, you know, that's solid. He knows what he's doing over there on the defensive side.

They really gave the Vikings a hard time. Nobody has bothered this offense like that. And then he comes home and goes to the facility. The key card works enough to get in the building. And they say, get your stuff and get the hell out. What is going on with the New York Jets? I mean, my favorites watching and reading all the, like, we don't know what actually happened. Right.

There's one report that's like, he was escorted out by police, like hands behind his back. And then there's one where it's like, he didn't even address the team. And one was Joe Douglas wasn't even like talked to before they fired him it just makes no sense it is however completely on par with the new york jets like completely on par the biggest thing that is amazing to me is i saw a stat that through five games last year the New York Jets had 93 points through five games this year the New York Jets also have 93 points and so you're starting to look around like was it Zach Wilson probably not is it Aaron Rodgers maybe but that defense I mean he's a defensive guy and that defense is built very well. The roster

is extremely good on that side of the ball. The roster, even I'd say 60% of the offensive players are also extremely talented. It's just, there was a missing link and chain of command, but I really don't understand this firing in week five. It makes no sense. You're essentially telling all your players like, Hey, we'll try again next year. It's mind-blowing to me that you're going to let Robeson walk after a week five close loss to undefeated football team. It's like they lost to the Panthers or the Browns. They lost to one of two undefeated football teams in the NFL.

How is that a fireable offense? I don't understand that. And not only that, but his side of the football was good in the game where he got fired and actually was great the week before and allowed 60 passing yards to Bo Nix in a loss somehow. If we could only find the person responsible for them being two and three, the guy who plays the quarterback position, who is not what he used to be. And the Vikings defense deserves a lot of credit. They hit him like crazy. They picked the ball off when it came to him, but Aaron Rogers usually doesn't throw three interceptions.

I think he actually had in his lifetime seven against the Minnesota Vikings or eight, something like that. And he throws three in this game because he's not the same dude. I also think that offenses have changed from when he was really at his best. And I think he's still trying to do a lot of the same things with individual route adjustments and stuff like that, where offenses have just changed the operation to deal with so much deceptiveness at the front line from defenses. And Rogers just looks like a day late and a dollar short these days. And him getting up off the turf the other day, I mean, that looks like me just waking up ever, but that's not what a pro athlete should really look like at that point. And this is the reason.

I mean, the reason is that you sold your soul to bring in Aaron Rodgers assuming that he would turn around a lifetime of absolutely horrendous quarterback play for this franchise and they chased something that wasn't there with Rodgers it also doesn't feel fair to me that he really has only gotten five games with Aaron Rodgers he didn't play at all last year right I mean they all went in on this plan of hey hey, here's what we're going to do. We're going to bring in Aaron Rodgers. We're going to rebuild this roster with some youth. We're going to bring his old buddy, Alan Lazard, over so he at least has someone to hang out with.

And then we're going to just kind of regrow as we go from here, get some youth in the backfield. And then five games in, you're like, hmm, didn't work. You're expendable. You can go. We ain't firing Rodgers and then i read today that rogers is going to go on the mcafee show tomorrow and it's just like oh can you not like can you just not and then talk about how you need it needs to be all ball needs to be all this that that that and then all of a sudden your coach gets fired and be like i know what i'll do i'll go

defend myself on the mcafee show because you know that's what it's going to be you can already talk about i loved robert i thought it was great i can't believe like he's gonna play the victim card 100 even though if i had a gun to my head i'd say he was probably the executioner he probably was the one that walked in and was like you guys seeing what i'm seeing because i think i'm doing just fine i'll clean up the picks the picks will be fine i'll get that fine this operation though we gotta we gotta change something up and yes mr rogers acts it's just so unfortunate for robert sally because i actually think he's a really damn good football coach i think so too and they played better offensively with mike white against the vik Vikings a couple years ago than they

did with Rodgers I mean this is very much a if we could only find the person responsible for this type of thing like oh everyone's looking for who did this as far as you guys being two and three uh but maybe a blessing in disguise for him because he could go work for an organization that isn't a total epic clown show i have to imagine sam darnold look on his face though he got that text message or the you know adam schefter alert and just went like oh interesting uh okay yeah oh really that happened somewhere zach wilson they're in a group they're in a group chat all the failed Jets quarterbacks Zach Wilson's like oh really like that that that's what's uh going on here in New York a

fascinating situation but I do think that it is a lesson also not only if you chase what happened in the past you won't succeed in the future so they had this good team with the Mike White season that they couldn't get good quarterback play. And they were like, oh, if we just chase the past with Aaron Rogers, similar to Denver, let's chase the past with Russell Wilson. He's not that guy anymore, but if we just get our hands on him, then it'll be great. So that kind of arrogance, I think, doesn't really work out. But also if you hand over the keys of your entire organization to one person, better be the right person, because if it's not, this is what you're going to end up with. Yeah. And along those lines, talking about the right person, talking about Aaron Rodgers from putting away the coaching stuff, but like just his performance i cannot remember a time that i prepared for an aaron rogers team or when i was running the scout team and every time zimmer would be like listen we have to blitz this guy at our

own risk we have to pick our times we have to pick our spots because if we don't get it right he's just going to hit us deep and he's going to pick us apart he's going to get the protection he's going to hard count like this command that i remember the buttholes puckering in Winter Park when we'd play Aaron Rodgers is that I look at him now and he looks completely lost. And it's hard to watch from a respect standpoint of one of the greats. I mean, I know Vikings fans are just like, yes, more, more. But as a player who got to share a field with a guy that

is going to go down and probably the hall of fame right like he's probably gonna eventually wear a gold jacket one day and to see him chasing ghosts air mailing balls over the middle looking like he's just gonna need a hip replacement it's just tough to watch and i don't know if it's all the ayahuasca that he's done or if it's, hey, I went to Egypt and missed minicamp or if he truly has just lost his edge. But I've never seen Aaron Rodgers rattled the way I saw him rattled on Sunday morning going against this blind Flores mind meld of a defense versus I've seen some other teams at least be able to pick things up. But he just, I mean, Harrison Smith coming free, doesn't even see him, takes him out of the back of the head, Ginkle dropping right into the hot route as he sees him point over to Garrett Wilson goes, hey, it takes one to be hot. And Ginkle goes, okay, well, I'm the one, so I'll just drop right

into the hot read. He just had no idea where anything was coming from. Didn't look like he had command of the offense it just he doesn't look like the aaron rogers that i remember seeing in a green bay packers uniform 100 i thought that he looked like a frail version of that that occasionally when he put some zip on the football you were like oh yeah there's some arm but the accuracy and the other thing is too no one has ever looked more miserable playing football than that guy he just every throw that wasn't complete was an affront to him he was disgusted with his receivers he's looking to the sideline he's staring people down right right right doing that whole thing the wine thing waving his finger it just he looked like

he's having a terrible time playing i think that guys like peyton manning and drew breeze and tom brady had leadership elements where they could kind of fight through age and they all had their bad moments at the end of their careers but tom brady fought his way into the playoffs still at the end peyton manning finds a way his way into the playoffs. Still at the end, Peyton Manning finds a way to win a Superbowl, even though he had played pretty poorly, if not horribly during the regular season, but in the post season kind of found it a little bit,

got them there. And Drew Brees had a really great age into his late thirties and forties, a great run there and probably should have made another Superbowl if not for some miracles, some push-offs to the end zone and so forth. But those guys all had that joy for football. I think they all had the leadership element and he just doesn't look like he wants to be there. So firing Robert Sala, good luck with that being the solution to all of this, because I think it's the guy who's throwing

the football around. And one other thing, just the last thing on this, the Minnesota Vikings, every once in a while, I'll see a comment. This was in the past, not when they were five and oh, well, you know, the, the, the Wilfs, like they're really the problem here. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. When you look at the jets, when you look at the Browns, you want to see ownership calamity. You look at the Jaguars. I mean, you look at the jets when you look at the browns you want to see ownership calamity you look at the jaguars i mean you look around this league snyder for the longest time oh my gosh washington's winning now and is being run well when he's gone i can't believe it the vikings ownership appreciate what you have because they're not like this the worst thing they've been accused

of is not being willing to tank when things are going badly if that. The worst thing they've been accused of is not being willing to tank when things are going badly. If that's the worst thing you've got for your ownership, you're in good shape because the Jets, teams like that, are in the worst shape. Yeah, I was lucky enough. Obviously, I played for the Spanos family with the Chargers, so I thought it was a great organization.

I thought they ran it really well. The Wilfs were great. I was there with the David Tepper who I thought was a great organization. I thought they ran it really well. The Wilfs were great. I was there with the David Tepper switchover in Carolina, which was interesting, to say the least, as Cam Newton's in the front row. Mr. Tepper, Mr. Tepper, how much money do you have? That was just an interesting team meeting when he bought the team. And then obviously with the Pakula family up in Buffalo, I was very lucky to be a part of some organizations that I felt are run very respectfully.

The owners were there, but they didn't meddle. Like they were just there as support and the whole bit. So, yeah, I don't think it can be stated enough how important ownership is because no matter what it is, whether it's a CEO of a company, whether it's a small business, it trickles from the top. Everything trickles from the top. If everything's putting and buttoned up at the top, it will trickle down. If everything's a mess at the top, it will trickle down. It's just the nature of it is. So yes, Vikings fans be happy with the Wilfs because I think they're very, very good owners.

And I think they do a great job of keeping the support that you need to a professional football team. Okay. Let's talk about this game that got Robert solid fired. I want to know how much you are weighing this game and the performance by Sam Darnold and the offense in the analysis of what they can be. And we did hear from Kevin O'Connell today. It's not great for Aaron Jones.

He said week to week, we're going to reevaluate it when he gets back. And I'm just curious who else is playing running back because they have shown so little trust in Ty Chandler. And O'Connell did point out today in defending Chandler that he had a 30 yard run that was taken off the board because of a silly procedure penalty. And then another one where for whatever reason, Ed Ingram decides to push a guy in the back and directly in both.

You can, if you can read, if you can read the name, you can't hit him. Like this is, Oh, hello. That's,

that's a no, no, no, no, it's a no, no. They do teach you that when you're six, usually,

but there's also as an offensive lineman usually not guys behind you facing the other way normally it's kind of a grappling situation um we don't need to go over how bad that's been it's just it has been but the point being that he had two runs that were pretty good that were taken off the board it was still an atrocious day he allowed a pressure he fumbled the ball on a simple outside zone pitch, which should be easy for him. I thought he missed running lanes. It's pretty rough. But this offense has been so good other than this game and Chandler has had his moments. So how much are you looking at this and saying all right they've got some

problems they got some some issues that they need to deal with versus hey let's look at the bigger picture it was in london it's a good jets defense they should fire their coach and you know we'll just sort of move on to the next one i how do you sort through all that yeah i'm not panicking a ton right now because if you think about the preparation for all of training camp through the first five weeks, Aaron Jones is getting all the first team reps. He's in the one that, hey, what do you like to run? How do we want to set this up for you? And so Chandler will get some reps here and there during practice, but he's never been the featured guy this year. And so to get

kind of thrown in there as, Hey, you're the guy go, go, go, go, go. That's a tough thing to do when you don't feel like you're in sync with everything because you just haven't got the reps at it during the week. So I'm not going to hit the panic button until after this week. You know, I think we'll see more of a polished Ty Chandler this week. Gaskins a little bit in that role of the support piece, but I want to see Ty Chandler, what he looks like with a full week of practice being the guy, right? How do you operate? How are you going to become the guy? Are you going to take command of running the football? Are you going to really hone in and be that guy? My bigger concern is I feel like Sam Darnold leans a lot on Aaron Jones for in the huddle type stuff, right?

Veteran leadership type stuff, because he's still kind of young as being a leader of a team, in my opinion. And that's the piece that I'm more worried about missing from this offense of a command standpoint in the huddle of Aaron Jones not being there than I am of Ty Chan. They're not kind of figuring out how to be a good nfl running back because i do think he's talented it's just more of can we trust that backfield now without aaron jones back there to help get things right they also have to buy week this week oh yeah that's right they don't play but but no that's even better though that's even better he has two weeks He now has two weeks to get himself put together and have, hey, two weeks of practice and some time off and all of those things. I think that's going to really help going forward as well. Yes, the bye week. I always forget about the bye week. I mean, I think so, too. But there are things in that game that they just did not do that they normally do with the running back because he was in there and not Aaron Jones. I mean, Aaron Jones will line up in different spots. He'll line up at receiver every once in

a while and run a crossing route for a touchdown because he could do anything. He is as trusted as it gets to chip block. He'll chip interior players because he's tough and a good technical player. He has been masterful in this screen game that has entirely changed them. And I thought they desperately needed a successful screen as Sam Darnold was struggling with hitting the ball downfield. And they just didn't seem like they were comfortable at all running it. They ran two screens in this game. So I think that if there is an injury to Jones that could linger throughout the rest of the season, not just when can you get back, when can you be yourself,

and should you start to limit him for his snaps? This is where I think they need to go outside the building and try to bring in another running back at some point, and I mean potentially a trade. Free agency's tough. Latavius Murray's still around. Shout out Latavius. He's got to be like 35.

ETN might be on the block with Tank Bigsby. Tank Bigsby going off down there. ETN, maybe he's a guy on the block. This is also when you don't have Kirk Cousins, you have a little bit of room. You got a little bit of room with some money to be able to do some things. It's kind of nice.

And the other guy that came to mind, I know he's playing against them soon, is Tony Pollard for me is interesting. Miles Sanders is interesting. He's not getting a whole lot of work in Carolina. So there are players that they could go out and get, and I think that has to be something that maybe if Kweisi Adafomensa is just chilling on the beach somewhere in Mexico,

he can pull out the phone and make a call to some other general managers. But what did you make, though though of Darnold's performance and do you want to give do you want to give a color for concern meter over the last six quarters of Sam Darnold football it's I first of all I'm gonna say I think Sam Darnold is tough as nails I think he probably has a broken rib from that shot he took in the first quarter by I mean just the way he got up the way he was holding himself, and the way you saw the rest of the game, him kind of wincing a lot. It brings me back to the quarterback documentary with Kirk.

Oh, my ribs. So I think he does, and he showed a lot of heart in that game of battling through, going in there, and going through it. But the decision-making that we touched on last week is still very much a concern meter for me, and I'll put it in the orange. I mean, I think it goes blue, yellow, orange, red. I'm going to put it in the orange because that is the thing

that will derail this offense is turnovers and poor decision-making. And, yeah, six quarters has been bad. And I don't think we can take away from the Jets' defense. It's so hard to be like, well, they firedubs like that is a very talented Jets defense I mean Sauce Gardner is as good as they come you got Mosley in the middle Quinton Quinton up front that is a very talented defense and no one's had a ton of success against that defense all year and so yes Darnold struggled and he stumbled but he battled and I'm okay with that that because he battled and he showed that he's got the toughness and the grit to get through it.

So I'm not super like, oh my gosh, abandon ship. But there are some things that he has to clean up after this bye week or else this can go south in a hurry. He is presently in the top 10 in turnover worthy play percentage. So the number of turnover worthy plays by PFF versus the dropbacks. And that is not a place you can just live for the rest of the season. And these last two weeks, the end of games,

their defenses come through. But if you're not getting first downs and running out clock, when you're ahead, you're going to put a lot of strain on your defense. And this defense has been as good as any in the league i mean we can reasonably look back at 2017 and say this defense is putting up numbers like that they are number one and expected points added on defense in the entire nfl which is a marvelous place to be they've also had to get interceptions fumbles all those things to just

make sure that you get the game to the barn because the offense has not been able to put anyone away and looking at you know who you're going to blame well I think part of it is O'Connell part of it is Darnold though and when I watched the tape back and ever so carefully KOC mixed this into his press conference today. There was a little bit of a reference of, well, you know, when we got some of those deep balls or deep routes going over that maybe some stuff opens up underneath and you're like, oh yeah, what do you mean by that? Because that's what I saw on tape with Darnold where, yeah, you don't really need to be calling into the headset.

Hey, Sam, run another deep crosser as your rib is broken or whatever. I'm not saying that it is, that wasn't like an official thing, but he certainly was beat up and he wasn't throwing the ball like he normally does. Plus the metric system ball just flies different over there. So weird uh but there were underneath things sometimes not all the time but sometimes and i just thought those two guys weren't really on the same page maybe for the first time this season it also i'm worried that sam's gonna fall into the trap of i have to get it to 18 because there was multiple times and listen i love the vikings i'm getting crushed on my other podcast the o-line committee because i said i think jefferson's starting to get a little bit of the mahomi treatment because he is there i mean every

time he doesn't catch it the ref's like hmm maybe the yellow flag i think he kind of grabbed him but that's a dangerous place to fall into as a quarterback of hey where's 18 i'll just throw it up there he'll go find it or they'll they'll call a PI because those are the plays where safeties are going to start keying in on that and going, hey, we're getting some pressure on him. Let me just cheat over here to 18 side because he's just locked in on him with those deep overs and those deep crossers. And I'll tell you this, Hawkinson can't come back soon enough. I think Hawkinson's going to be a guy that can come back and do all the things that we're talking about with those hitch routes over the middle for 10 yards

or the out route for eight yards and then get some yards after the catch. And I'm not saying he's going to be in midseason form right when he comes back, but he is that bit of a security blanket because in the last six quarters, where's our tight ends been? Where have they been? They've been basically non-existent as far as Sam Darnold finding his tight ends. When you talk about over the middle type stuff, I watched the Arizona Cardinals beat up on the Niners.

It's just the Trey McBride show, right? Trey McBride over the middle, 13 personnel, and they're just leaking tight ends out all over the field. That's not a weapon in our arsenal right now. It's very much just a lot of Addison and Jefferson. And then it was Aaron Jones. And then you take away Aaron Jones and now it's just Addison and Jefferson. Sam Darnold needs more answers than that.

He's not going to be able to just put the shoulders on his back and say, I'll carry us through all of this. I just don't think he's that guy right now. So, yes, we need some more of those answers to it, and KOC's got to help him out a little bit more. Yeah, and I think with Jefferson, it is a difficult balance for quarterback because, and Kirk went through this sometimes if Jefferson wasn't open, he always feels like he's open. And that's true. A lot of the time and Kirk wouldn't often throw it there. He would check

it down and throw it underneath. And we would go, come on, Kirk, throw it to Jefferson. What are you doing? You dweeb. And then Darnold was doing it early in the season. Like, oh, well, Jefferson, we, and it was working. But then this Jets team comes in with these great cornerbacks and then it's not working. And what is the counter to that? Certainly wasn't Jalen Naylor. They found Johnny Munt late in the game, but he wasn't a part of this.

Josh Oliver's really good at leaking out into the flat. Just get him the ball. There were so many things there that I thought, how is this not happening? How is Jordan Addison? And I looked this up statistically just to prove that we're not crazy for harping on this point. Jordan Addison only had three games all last year, whereas average depth of target was deeper than it was

in London, which again, doesn't make a lot of sense because of the way things were going in that game with the deep passes. Addison is a monster off the line of scrimmage, getting open really quick, quick feet, hitches, slants, stuff like that, that you could get them the ball. And it just wasn't there. And I think that O'Connell is trying to play to the strength of Darnold, which has pushed the ball down the field, but there has to be a counter punch there. So let's push this forward. Darnold is going to lead this team out of the break against the Detroit lions five and O in a division that is incredibly difficult.

What do they need to do to still be at the top of the division at the end of the year? We have to get the running game figured out without Aaron Jones. You know, that is, we talked about, I think it was two weeks ago, what needs to happen to keep the success. And I said,

the running game has to continue to go. And then also we can't give up four sacks. Four sacks cannot happen. This offensive line is too talented. It's got too many great tackles, but that all comes back together to our previous point. You know how you don't give up sacks? Get the ball out of your hand. When a team's feeling themselves and they feel like they've got a beat on the pass rush and they feel like they're going and they know you're not running the ball because it's not working they're pinning their ears back and going and the way to slow that down is the screen game the way to slow that down is the quick pass game frustrate those pass rushes for even if they put a great pass rush move on

and beat the tackle ball's gone and they're like damn it right like they hate that and so that's a big piece of just getting back to simple football. I think we had so much success. So we're in the first four games that KOC felt like everything's open, like the whole playbook's ready to go. I'm going to scheme it up in the lab and we're going to do all these things, get to the bi-week, go back, self-scout, okay, weeks one through four, what was working well? Okay. What did the Jets take away from us? Because that's what's so great about the NFL and defensive coordinators. It's copycat league.

I promise you, the next opponents of the Vikings are going to watch the Jets game and go, okay, let's do what they did against Jefferson and Addison and see if they have answers. And then if they have answers, then we can adjust. And that's the chess match between the coordinators. That's always so much fun to watch. And what makes the NFL so great,

we need to get back to what weeks one through four we're working continue to build on those and then get with ty chandler over the next two weeks and go what do you like to run what are you comfortable with is it duo is it the outside toss is it mid zone is it inside zone what do you feel most comfortable running behind this offensive line practice the crap out of that the next two weeks, and then come out and perform. I was curious about Darnold's mentality to see how it worked after he had success, because this was a thing that got brought up. And I think it's entirely different circumstances than winning those first three games in Carolina and then having it fall apart. The people around him are quite different than they were in 2021. Still at the same time, I think that you're onto something there where it's, oh, we're rolling. He's hitting everything.

We could just open it up. Let's just do the same stuff with Matt Stafford that we did in Los Angeles. And I thought that in the first couple of games, especially the giants game to open the season, he was so good at game managing that he checked it down. He threw the ball away when there was pressure. There was one play I remember really praising. I can't remember exactly how it worked out, but I think it was an outside bootleg and Chandler was underneath and he could have tried to fit it into a window to Jefferson,

like let it rip, but he just gave it to Chandler, got like seven or eight yards, got the drive moving. went yes sam play like that play like a smart game manager and then every once in a while bring out the cannon and i thought in london it was let's just bring out the cannon and fourth and two is not really a good time to do that so i don't know if I'm quite into the orange. I think I'm more in the yellow that this bi-week comes at a good time to assess what really worked for Sam, what did not work for Sam. But if he keeps getting sacked, that really is maybe the biggest concern is holding onto the football as long as he has that even if the offensive line is doing their job, somebody is going to get to you when you're holding it for four seconds,

as he was on his average pressure the other day. It was over three and a half seconds. That is too long to be holding the ball. I want you to comment on the NFC North, though. A big win for the Packers, despite a hilarious interception by Jordan Love, one of the funniest I've seen in a while. That's so much worse than Orlovsky stepping out of the back of the end zone. That was Daniel.

That was Daniel Jones preseason, right? Daniel Jones preseason falling away, just throwing it up for grabs. Kind of will levy CEO over the first couple of games. Detroit put on quite a show against Seattle before their bi-week, which was last week. And the Chicago bears got a great performance out of Caleb Williams.

How do you think this thing is shaking out? It's one of those things where I think we all believed at the beginning of the year, Detroit was probably going to run away with the division with just green Bay threatening. And now you look at it, or Detroit dropping that game to Tampa. And now the Vikings need five-0, Jordan Love kind

of figuring his life back out, I mean, coming back from the injury, and then Caleb on the Bears, but the one thing that I look across the NFC North and I go, every defense is legit. Every single one of those, Packers, Lions, Vikings, Bears are all built to run through their defense. And it shows they have great pass rushers. They have great coordinators. They've got good positions all across at the back end, at the front end. And as long as the defenses will continue to stay healthy, I really think the NFC North is going to come down to which quarterback can continue to play at the consistent level and not ride the roller coaster can Jordan Love and Jared Goff elevate themselves to the elite level that they're being paid like quarterback play or are we going to see the golf roller coaster

that we saw kind of on the back end of the season last year before they got into the playoffs is Jordan Love going to elevate himself to the back half of 2023 season where he was playing lights out and not have those hilarious interceptions and not have the bad interceptions like he did the week before to the Vikings and clean all that up. And then as Caleb Williams, he's a rookie. I think we're going to ride the roller coaster with him all year long, just strictly based off the rookie. And then that leaves Sam Darnold. He's maybe the biggest question mark of what are we going to get out of all the quarterbacks right

because like i said roller coaster with the rookie i'm going to guess the two elite guys in the division are going to figure their lives out and continue to play high level the question mark comes how is sam darnwell going to play through a 17 game season and so you look at the north defenses are great quarterbacks become the question mark of who's going to win this division weapons are good for the most part. Coaching is good. I'm not totally sold on the bears coaching yet, but we're going to see on that, but it certainly is for the three other teams.

And Matt Lafleur just looks better every day with Aaron Rogers being a disaster with New York. And he's just like, yeah, I dealt with that for several years. I hope you guys know. And he won two mvps with me um but you know when it comes to darnold we can break down every single part of this from every throw he's made to the mentality to the relationship with koc to the play calling and all those things the answer is we really don't know what is coming next for sam darnold because historically around the bend is something not great, but he's also

never had this group. It could be within three, four weeks, Aaron Jones comes back healthy. So does TJ Hawkinson. Dalton Reisner needs to take over right guard as soon as he's ready to take over. I'm good with that. And you trade for Travis ETN or Tony Pollard and you go, what is this team on offense? I mean, there would be no weaknesses whatsoever to talk about at that point. And that would be a supporting cast. So could that no one can really screw that up. At the same time, if Aaron Jones doesn't come back soon or isn't the same and they stick with the right guard, as for some reason they have for three years now

and Hockinson doesn't click with Darnold, right? There's this stumbling that could happen here. And then having to rely on your defense, the whole way to win you the division is just, it's just tough to ask. Uh, I did want to run this by you though. The Flores defense in comparison to 2017 defense unbelievable for both uh compare and contrast to me the defense this year versus the one that you got your tail whooped in practice every day against in 2017 yeah i love this question i was actually thinking about this the other day the difference mainly being mike zimmer was going to line up in four three and be here and he just knew when to pick and choose to show his pressures but he relied on the talent at all the positions to really make the plays and you can compare and

contrast the talent back and forth and And I'm probably going to lean towards that's a more talented defense in 2017 from a player-to-player perspective, right? Trey Waynes, you got Planet Zay over there with Xavier Rhodes, Harrison Smith and Sandejo, Barr and Kendrick's in their prime, Everson in his prime, Daniil Hunter is coming up,

Linville Joseph, Brian Robinson. You just talk talent for talent wise. You're talking all pros at every level of that defense. We don't have all pros at the defensive line, the linebacker and the cornerback position and safety position across the board for this 2017 for this 2024 team. So Zimmer was very much relying on, I'm going to call the right teams at the right time, but rely a ton on my players that I built this roster with Spielman to go out and make plays. You look at the 2024 Vikings defense, and it's just such a mind meld to play against. Now, there's a lot of talent on that roster, but it's not relying upon the single individuals.

It's the group as the whole. The defense relies so much on the play call from Flores, the execution from the players on the field, and then allowing multiple guys to show up in big-time moments. Harrison Phillips getting a sack, for example. That's a big-time moment and a guy that you wouldn't expect in that moment to show up and get a big-time sack. You expect Harrison Smith to come off the edge at one point in time and just knock Rogers teeth out the front of his head. Like that's an expected thing. You don't expect Van Ginkle to be the

heady player and make a Luke Keekly type play to step forward and be like, Oh, guards coming at me. I'm going to drop to the three receiver side where I know he's going to throw Hawks. He doesn't throw it to the one receiver side. And I know it's going to be a quick slant. I'm just going to drop to the three receiver side where I know he's going to throw Hawks. He doesn't throw it to the one receiver side and I know it's going to be a quick slant. I'm just going to stand here and pick it off. Like those are the type of things that I look at this defense and go from a schematic standpoint. It couldn't be more night and day than a Mike Zimmer defense.

You knew what you were getting from Mike Zimmer. You never know what you're getting from Brian Flores defense. It changes week to week. It varies the looks. It varies the snap count. Everything. The players are different in different positions. It's just such more of a complicated scheme,

but they're equally successful because of the roster that's been built on both sides. Hold on. Let me silence my phone real quick so I can tell you that us days are back at U.S. Cellular again. Exclusive offers just for customers just to say thanks. Right now you'll get $1,200 off any phone plus $400 off any tablet. Amazing, right? Yeah, but my family is so excited about their new devices that they keep texting me during the show. They're all about Us Day's deals like $1,200 off any phone and plus $400 off any tablet.

Terms apply. Visit uscellular.com for details. We also can't understate with that Van Ginkle pick how fast that football is coming at him. I mean, linebackers don't catch that very often. He played wide receiver in high school, which may be part of catching the football where he's really good at it but i think if aaron rogers rocketed the football any of us i would squeal

and run away i mean it that is coming in fast uh but i i think what it is that is different is there is such a reliance on experience and football iq someone like Josh Metellus is not a special football specimen. He's not six foot four, 240 pounds or something, but he is a violent player and he is incredibly smart player. And you go across the board. You could say that for everybody. Okay. Stefan Gilmore is old, but he's also very experienced and super intelligent. And Harrison Smith, same deal. Blake Cashman has really shown something. I think that he's been the glue guy for this.

Played 72 snaps the other day. He's hitting the quarterback. He's stopping runs. He's dropping back and covers. It's like, my God, this guy is everywhere. But you can't just do that. I mean, that takes so much. He's the green dot too. It takes so much mental load for him to be able to do it, but they just went and got guys that could do it

mentally. And it is sort of a Belichickian type approach of, we're not always going to have a bunch of freaks, but we are going to have super smart players that allow me to be the mad scientist as Brian Flores. And that's exactly what's happened where I was surprised is some of the depth though. Kamu Grugier Hill make it plays. Jihad Ward make it plays. Patrick Jones make it plays. And okay, it's not the same three people each week either, which makes me think there's nothing that's a mirage about this defense. It's just going to continue to be great. Yeah. And it's so much of Flores doesn't

feel like he has to focal point his defense around a person, right? Last year it was, okay, I have to probably find a way to create one-on-one matchups for Daniel Hunter. I have to find a way to systematically put a blitz together. That's going to make the center pull the guard this way so that it's a true one-on-one with Daniel Hunter on the backside because I don't really trust anyone in that one-on-one setting to win. I've got three or four guys this year that I can feel like I can create one-on-one, so therefore I don't have to create it. It's just going to naturally happen based off the blitz that I call, and I can rely on that person to win his one-on-one matchup and when you have that piece and Gilmore signing was maybe the most underrated signing in all of the free agency that we did from March and he was the late ad because you talk about a glue guy

in Cashman I think he's kind of the glue guy in that DB room him and Harry being the two older guys that everyone's going to look up to and talk about, you can't ask for better guys to have his mentors in the backend, all pros defensive MVP. I believe Gilmore was one year close to, and you talk about if I'm a young player in that DB room, I'm just going to mirror what those guys do for preparation for how they, how they lift, how they, how they breathe, they how they breathe how they shower how they do whatever i'm just gonna be like i want to be like you because that's where i want the trajectory of my career to go and when you have all of those things clicking back and

forth and then you on top of it add the experience like you said and have some of the young players getting in there and learning and picking up not having emmys not having blown assignments on the back end the sky's the limit for this defense the only thing that's going to stop this defense in my opinion is themselves and i don't see that happening with brian flores at the helm em is being mental errors for those of you at home not too many from this defense and i also think it's funny because in football, we always love a team that's young. Oh, they have draft picks playing. Oh, this is so great. They're so young.

They're so young. And yet, historically, a lot of the teams that win at the end of the day are usually experienced teams. And I think on the defensive side, that really shows up because it's so difficult. There's so many different things, all the motions, all the alignments, all the personnel packages, all the different things the quarterback can do at the line of scrimmage. It's also complicated for the defenders that you need to understand every single bit of it, or you're not going to succeed. And we have seen that it's, it's deep, it it's complete the only thing i would be concerned about for the first run of games is that all the corners were healthy and if they're not there's not much

back there behind them caleb evans got banged up and is just kind of out of the conversation fabian morrow has been around but the drop off from someone like shaq griffin to him is significant that would be another area that at the trade deadline I think would be uh worth looking at so let me ask you this question before we do love to see it hate to see it how many games you think they win I'm going to stick with what I said last week I think I said 12 I think I said 12 or 11 I don't think anything has really changed besides the Aaronones issue but again the supporting cast has not changed the coaching has not changed the defense has not changed darnold is the biggest question mark but i'm not going to write the kid off because he placed a really good jets defense

played with the broken rib i'm not gonna i'm not gonna just say oh he's toast it's it's back to the darnold of the jets days and all that i'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt going into the bi-week that we're still looking at a left 12 win team. Unofficially broken rib. Unofficially broken rib. We got no information on that. That's me watching the tape going, that dude's rib is broken. You guys are great at this.

Didn't – there was one time – was it you? We were watching – there was a practice, and somebody got hurt, and you were like, oh, it's an AC joint. I'm like, what? I don't even know what that is. You're like, oh, yeah, he's got an AC joint. He's going to it's an AC joint. They're like, what? I don't even know what that is. They're like, oh, yeah, he's got an AC joint. He's going to be out a few weeks. What?

But I guess you see people get hurt all the time so often that you get used to, okay, that's what that looks like and so forth. As far as love to see it, hate to see it goes. Love to see it was just the weekend of football was unbelievable with all the upsets and shout out to Vandy for one of the coolest upsets of all time. Their quarterback was super fun. He's on TV,

just swearing. They're, they're just taking the goalposts out into town. Everything about that was, was magical. That is the biggest love to see it for me. My favorite was following someone retweeted it. And so I started following the thread. Everything about that was magical. That is the biggest love to see it for me. My favorite was following.

Someone retweeted it, and so I started following the thread. It was the police scanner for Nashville, and it was like the students have broken through the police barricade and are now walking down Main Street with the goalposts. I was like, what is this, a zombie apocalypse? Let them celebrate. Open the barricade and say, go to the river. Throw it in the river. But I agree.

We've been blessed with college football. I saw more stormed fields this weekend than I feel like I've seen in forever. That's what happens when number four gets beat. And that's what happens when Washington avenges their loss to Michigan. That's what happens when Alabama obviously loses to Vandy. And I wanted Miami to lose so bad. I was like, this would just be the cherry on top. Just last game, college game day, Cal beats them at home,

but Cam Ward is, man, he's as good as advertised. He's going to be a great NFL quarterback next year going through it. But love that the playoff picture in college football, no idea. No clue. No one really has any idea. People are still talking about how CU could win the Big 12 and go in there, and they're like, Nebraska might have a chance at the Big Ten Championship. Minnesota upsets

USC. It's just been so wonderful. My hate to see it is Sean McDermott, my friend, my old head coach. If your quarterback is 9 for 30 and you've got, I don't know, on your own

three-yard line tie ball ball game let's just get to overtime and kind of reset and regroup that was just not it was bad clock management at the end of that bills game and you know that kai fairbairn can bomb the ball he's done it all game he's done it all year just run the ball even if they have three timeouts and you're gonna punt it away anyways wouldn't you rather punt it away with them having no timeouts and have to try and figure out a hurricane field goal at the end there i just i hated to see that for the bills because that's just not winning football and it was very strange to watch yeah and i also think that there's just been this run of coaches and it includes kevin o'connell that are just aggressive let's be aggressive

people like that like i know people like that but you just can't do that all the time and that is not a situation to be aggressive also along the same lines oh good thing stefan diggs is gone we got all these other players it'll be wonderful they'll all just catch balls and the footballs will be made of rainbows and lucky charms. And we'll just all run for super bowls. And, uh, turns out Svondegs is pretty important to Josh Allen that having a number

one wide receiver, probably a good thing in the NFL. And if you say a bunch of average guys, aren't good. One of the issues is, or are good enough. You lose one of them and then you're down to not just an average guy but probably a bad guy so they lose Shakir to an injury and now

Keon Coleman is not ready for this outside of one play they don't seem to know how to get the ball in his hands and Curtis Samuel is just bad like that they're down to now your fourth mediocre guy which is not really a good situation so i'm concerned about that team how about the afc east just stinks just absolutely stinks uh another hate to see it is okay here's a hate to see it let's see it okay now nobody thinks it's funnier that deshaun watson sucks than me like i mean the whole practice thing with the cleveland thinks it's funnier that Deshaun Watson sucks than me. Like, I mean, the whole practice thing with the Cleveland reporters, it's been brought up. But also karma, all that. It's just glorious. It's enough to say karma is real the way he's played for Cleveland.

But weirdos on the internet who take little five second clips of stuff in the NFL and then spin it to get engagement who are just dumb and wrong is not good for society. Okay. This is fake news. So the other day there were 12 men in the huddle and Watson went walking off the fields. He's like, okay, that's going to be a penalty and we can't go for it on fourth down now. And the person who tweets it out is Watson quitting on his team. Like, what the heck are you talking about? There's 12 dudes.

We all see them right there in the number of people. Also, this is not just for the weirdo who did this. It's also for all of you pay attention. Okay. Don't just read what the person said. Oh, I get that. What happened? No, that was not what happened. And they're not going to take the video down, even if it's a lie. So I hated to see it that we see this every week. It's not just this nut job,

but it's dozens of nut jobs, whether it's the Vikings or national TV or everything. Look at this guy. Look at what this happened. Look at this coach doing this. Taking little tiny clips of TV and trying to make it into whatever you're trying to make it into for engagement is gross and wrong. And no one will ever stop it because it pays. But all I'm suggesting is everyone pay attention to what's out there and follow your local beat reporter because they're the ones that aren't going to bs you i'm just saying yeah no i mean

that's stefanski that poor guy i love kevin i really do he was great out of his hands it's out of his hands he has no choice he is stuck with that dumpster fire of a quarterback until two more years three more years uh he will definitely be fired right this is like no way around I mean it's a mercy kill at this point yeah please just just do me in my last love to see it is spinning Joe Flacco baby oh yeah just out there throwing darts getting guys like who downs who the hell is down he's like oh that's my favorite guy right running out of the pocket for a first down just galloping for eight yards i truly believe he's the best quarterback on that roster oh yeah not even close i mean anthony richardson obviously has all the talent

in the world and he can throw the ball 70 yards on a on a rope but if you go from a who gives us the best opportunity to win here it's 100% Joe Flacco and you go back and look at what Joe Flacco did for Cleveland last year it's hard for me to be like how is this guy not a starting quarterback in the NFL I get it he's a hundred years old yeah like he's super old and all that stuff and you don't maybe want to trust him to go the full thing but if he keeps playing like he has when he had to come in last week and this week I know they didn't get the win but my goodness my man you can still throw it you can still command you can still do all the things i love watching older quarterbacks come in off the

bench and just let it rip okay you ever think of maybe a different world where the vikings signed flacco last year he takes a new playoff so they can't't draft McCarthy. They end up with Bo Nix. The Broncos get McCarthy, and Flacco is starting this year on the 5-0 Vikings. Super Bowl winning quarterback. Okay, just last one for me. Daniel Jones, great job. I mean, just great job. I have so much respect for any person

who can just get so annihilated by the outside world. Beat down. You're a punchline. Every time he looks at the internet, the newspaper, whatever, the way people are talking about him as if he's just the biggest clown who sucks the most at football of anyone, any person of all time. I respected the heck out of Daniel Jones with the way he battled against the Vikings in that playoff game. We all blame Kirk for fourth and eight, but somebody had to convert a fourth down on the other side and lead a game winning drive. And I remember talking about it going into the season. Every comment was this guy stinks. He's terrible. He's the worst quarterback

ever. And I know, I know he's not going to go into the hall of fame, but I like seeing him bounce back and just showing that he could play a little bit, because if you have the resilience to fight through that, you have my respect. I'm, I'm more high on the giants. Maybe it's because I have a client who's the starting center,

but I love the way that Dable is a coach. You know, everyone was after the dumpster fire that was last year. Like, Oh, how did this guy win coach of the year? All this stuff. I think Dable is a phenomenal coach.

And you go out there without your all-world rookie receiver Malik Neighbors. You get Darius Slayton involved. You get Wandel Robinson involved. You hand the ball off to your rookie, Tracy, and play and call a great game and just continue to chip away. I mean, they're a field goal kicker from beating the Commanders, who are arguably one of the best teams at football right now. The Jets, the Giants, excuse me, not the Jets.

The Giants are, I think, starting to feel themselves and get some more confidence, which is something they never had last year. Not one iota from the word go was there any confidence built on that team. I think the Giants are starting to be a little confident this week, and they've got Cincy coming to town

on Sunday night football. That's one in four. This could be a turning point for their season if they find a way to go out and beat the Bengals so much to be decided in the National Football League uh well next week maybe we'll do a state of the team bye week and go through give grades out or something fun like that and talk about next week's slate so uh enjoy your bye week not stressed from the minnesota vikings next week and uh who's the who's the huskers playing this week oh we've got uh bye week as well oh we'll double okay well no don't stress for you look like you just watch the ball and not have to worry about stress-free weekend perfect well jeremiah thanks for your time as always and uh we'll talk to you next week

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