Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - If the Vikings next GM is Chiefs Ryan Poles, he is making a change at quarterback, right?

Episode Date: January 25, 2022

Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom discuss the Vikings interest in Ryan Poles as the next GM and how his background working with the Kansas City Chiefs might influence the Vikings' decision at quarterback. Would he watch the AFC playoffs and think Kirk Cousins was the right way to go or would he see the Alex Smith situation all over again? Plus how far are the Vikings away from the NFC Championship teams if they were to hit on a young QB? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

and we are officially watching the polls is what i'm calling it. You like that, Sam? Ryan Poles is supposed to have an interview, a second interview with the Chicago Bears, and then another interview with the Minnesota Vikings. And the word on the streets is that the Vikings want Ryan Poles to be their general manager, but he is listening to both teams. And the Chicago Bears get to go first so do they do a thing where they lock the doors and you know whatever oh sorry there's a fire and you have to stay here like uh the office when uh they burnt the strudel or whatever it was or the

the sandwich and they all had to stand outside it's like sorry sorry ryan you can't fly home because we can't get back in the building. There's been an emergency. So that's what we're doing. We're watching the polls here to figure out or find out soon whether Ryan Poles will be the next general manager of the Minnesota Vikings. And not a bad evening and couple of days for Ryan Poles

as his team pulls off one of the most preposterous comeback wins in NFL history after getting the ball back with 13 seconds left and end up winning the game. And then he's got two teams saying, please be our general manager, Sam. Yeah, well, first of all, your pun is not as bad as the Will Raggett's tweet that he just sent out where he was like it's gonna be poles bowls and foals when they sign nick foals and have caught todd bowls be their head coach um so i i can't i can't fault you as much as i i fault will raggetts who i love by the way that's a great tweet um and it's it's

good to be ryan poles and hey it's good to have a candidate that's actually looking decent because all the head coaching candidates have belly flop for the most part, it seems like, including Todd Bowles, who apparently is one of the front runners. I guess Dan Quinn, you know, made some leeway. Jonathan Gannon got a good report. It's tough to sift through what's true and what's rumor, what's speculation. Who's using the Vikings as leverage? Is Ryan Poles using the Vikings as leverage, is Ryan Poles using the Bears as leverage? We don't know where their mindsets are at. But I put together some thoughts

on Ryan Poles earlier today, and I think it's a sensible hire for the Vikings with what they need to fix, upgrading their offensive line. Poles is a former offensive lineman. He oversaw the reconstruction of the Chiefs offensive line. And it's hard to have a bad-looking offensive line when Mahomes is your quarterback, but they really have pulled all the right strings in Kansas City. But even more so than that, Poles kind of oversaw the Alex Smith era into the Patrick Mahomes era. And he knows what it can do for a franchise when you pivot from one to the other one of them gets you playoff appearances maybe

the other one gets you to four straight AFC championship games and if you're sitting in pole seat look at who the contenders are in the AFC, the teams that Kansas City is buying with. Baltimore, and not this year because of injuries and close losses, but Lamar Jackson, playmaking, exciting quarterback, that's your competition. Joe Burrow, exciting, making plays, getting out of the pocket, vibrant young quarterback, that's your competition josh allen uh yesterday wow unbelievable i think ryan poles has a pretty good seat to see what's winning in the afc and i imagine that perspective would follow him to minnesota which i think makes him really well suited for this particular conundrum that the vikings are in it is truly impossible to ever tell for sure what someone will do based on their previous experience. However, with Ryan Poles, how could you watch

your franchise go from Alex Smith to Patrick Mahomes and have this type of success after being, like you said, a decent football team over and over again, where you could even win your division if you have a really good year with Alex Smith. And Alex Smith won a lot of football games, but it just wasn't good enough. And then you go to this, where you have an alien playing quarterback who is capable of anything under the sun. I mean, when they get the ball back with 13 seconds, it's like there's one person on this universe that can do this, and's that guy and he did it and not only that he's slinging passes sidearm underneath he ran for like 70 yards yesterday that Patrick Mahomes doesn't always take off and scramble but he can run and I was thinking about something

funny from yesterday's game was that Kirk Cousins over the last year rushing had as many yards as Josh Allen plus Patrick Mahomes in that game alone like that's that's the game in a lot of ways if you want to break the game you need that kind of thing and how many times here's another part of this too how many times were both quarterbacks almost sacked like we talk about rebuilding the offensive line both teams have good offensive lines I think Kansas City's is a little bit better. But how many times was somebody right there in Josh Allen's lap and he just runs away from them? It's a fourth down and he makes a play where somebody breaks through instantly

and he dodges the tackler and finds a way to get a pass off. That is not what we see from Kirk Cousins. It's just a completely different caliber of talent when you're talking about those guys and Burrow and Herbert. And in the NFC right now, the NFC is transitioning out of the legends category with Drew Brees retiring. Aaron Rodgers may go somewhere else

or Aaron Rodgers may retire. Tom Brady looks like he's finally going to retire. And you are in a position to start looking for these guys and something that I just keep going back to. And I'm not saying the next Mahomes is in this draft. So don't take this the wrong way, but the 2017 draft was talked about as being very imperfect that Patrick Mahomes had footwork issues and he was too reckless with the football and all these things. And Deshaun Watson, if you remember this, how ridiculous draft season can get Deshaun Watson, didn't throw the ball hard enough at the NFL combine. Like they have this velocity meter

or whatever. And Watson didn't throw it hard enough. I think his arm strength was just fine at the NFL level, other problems for Watson, but not arm strength or playmaking or leadership or anything else like that. Just some off field things that who knows how that'll play out. But the point being that the draft experts looked at the 2017 draft and said, I don't know. I don't know if there's a real franchise quarterback here. And one of those franchise quarterbacks guy who wasn't even drafted first this shows you how little anybody knows about the quarterbacks who are coming out the guy who wasn't even drafted first is going to his fourth straight afc championship ryan poles has to understand this

like there's just no way that someone could be at this position with two teams courting him as their general manager who would be saying like i don't know guys yeah i really think a game manager is the way to go like that just seems impossible to me you couldn't be more correct i mean to to see excellence up close um for this amount of time and that has to be part of the standard now for a new gm you kind of have to chase that model, even if it means failing. You have to go after it. And Mahomes don't grow on trees, obviously. The Bears might have flopped with Justin Fields, just because Kellen Mond is mobile doesn't mean he's good. Doesn't seem like he is. So you're not always going to get it right. But what you can do is fail quickly and fail cheaply. And that's what Ryan Poles could bring. And he's in a position where you probably can unload Kirk Cousins somehow.

You probably can go forward with this young quarterback or a bridge quarterback. And then you can start doing what you did in Kansas City. And that's surrounding that person with young playmakers on offense and good choices on the offensive line. The Chiefs did not have a lot of draft picks over the last four or five years. They've made some trades. They've used a lot of their draft capital to acquire because they know their window is open. So they only get like six picks a year, but all of their offensive line picks have been contributors. They bring in, you know, pieces like McCall Hardman who contributes had a huge catch in overtime.

Clyde Edwards, Hilaire, you know, it was pretty valuable for them when he's healthy. They just know how to make that offense strong, but without breaking the bank either. You know, they acquire Orlando Brown on a, on a rookie contract um in a trade this year like that that's big so i love that i love the way that they've approached it um constructing that team around patrick mahomes and um i i it's easy to get attached i think to ryan pols as a result of that um even though he's not like the the only decision maker there there's certainly been other voices involved but i think you want what's in his brain and what he's taken away from these four or five years

with Mahomes and watching that turn into a dynasty. Yeah, I think with polls, it's kind of like if, you know, I don't know, you were a NASCAR pit crew guy and you didn't see that the car goes real fast and that's why it wins like it's it's so obvious that that's why you win and that's why ryan poles has a ring that he could put on his finger and that's why he might have very well might have another one coming this year because the chiefs are easily the favorite now to win the super bowl with the way that the homes played but

it wasn't just him uh this has been the case in most of the cities we're looking at. I mean, think about like the teams that are left. You have Josh Allen, who took over for Tyrod Taylor, who what? Was pretty good, but not good enough. I remember there were articles being written. People totally rewrite, try to rewrite history on me with Tyrod Taylor. Folks, I was there. I worked in Buffalo when Tyrod Taylor was the quarterback.

There were just as many debates as Kirk. It the same stuff it was the same stuff it was like Tyrod just needs another receiver Tyrod needs the right offensive coordinator look at his interception to touchdown ratio look at his quarterback rating look at his PFF grade there were articles written by national writers I remember a huge piece by ESPN that came in, flew into Buffalo and wrote this huge piece about how, well, if you don't see how great Tyron Taylor is, maybe you don't know football. I mean, this whole thing, I'm telling you that this was a huge debate the same way it is here, but what did the bills do? Oh, that's not, that's just not going to work. That's just not good enough. And they drafted Josh Allen. And at the time that they drafted josh allen

guess what there was a lot of people who didn't think he would be good enough including me at the time so this is why i've changed my take on how i view drafting quarterbacks because i looked at josh allen and what he did at wyoming and thought what you can't dominate at wyoming i'm supposed to what is this dan m McGuire? If anyone is old, they will understand this reference. Dan McGuire was this six foot seven quarterback who went in the first round way back in the day because he had a cannon. And I mean like an all time cannon, he was horrendous. Like couldn't play at all, but he had a, he wore a visor and he was six, seven. It looked ridiculous, but like, I just thought like, okay, yeah. All right. It's

accuracy folks. That's what's going to win. But Josh, I just thought like, okay, yeah. All right. It's accuracy folks. That's what's going to win. But Josh Allen developed his accuracy over a couple of years, found the right offense, and then uses his freakish talent to win. And the same thing with Mahomes where footwork and all those types of things, he just honed those and got in the right system with the right playmaker. Same with Josh Allen, playmakers matter, but the Vikings have those. And so the point is just that at the bills looked at that situation and they said tyrod's a nice player and a lot of the fans love him but it's just not good enough and it needs to be one of these guys and the los angeles rams did the same thing they went to the super bowl with

jared goff and they said well look this guy is a game manager and it's just not good enough. We need somebody with a bigger arm. And I was skeptical of that one too, for the same reason. Like, I don't know. I mean, I didn't know they were going to add Odell Beckham. Okay. Like that's pretty helpful or Vaughn Miller in the middle of the season, but still, what did they say? We just need someone with a bigger arm, with more talent to be able to maximize everything we can do on offense. And even in San Francisco, now they're going to have these debates for the rest of time. Though I think, I think Jimmy's a little bit different in terms of his skill, but they were saying the same thing. Like we need a guy who has a bigger arm, who's more athletic and all those

things. So a lot of teams are looking at it this way. And that's why with polls, I don't know how you could miss that. That's the big takeaway from what has been happening recently in the NFL is that the, the game manager type, the limited physical type of player, it can only get you so far. And even Ryan Tannehill, who is, I think a more physically gifted quarterback than Kirk Cousins, he still shows his limitations at times. So it's, you know, it's Cousins, it's Derek Carr, it's Ryan Tannehill, and they're sort of sitting in the same spot year after year, even when they have a really good team like Tennessee that had one of the best rosters of

any team going into the playoffs. They end up watching Joe Burrow with, I would say, a roster that's probably 20% worse than Tennessee's beat them at the end because the quarterback's just not good enough. And I think where people often get caught up, Sam, in this conversation is how frustrating it is that everything revolves around one person that it's like, well, I want to know football and talk about what the tackle means and what the defensive ends mean. And they mean a lot in the playoffs. There's no question. I want to talk about all these things. So it seems too simple to just say everything is around the quarterback, but I think it's just so clear from the history of the game. I counted them up. If Eli Manning goes to the hall of fame, 43 out of the 54 Superbowls will have been won by hall

of fame quarterbacks. I mean, mean it's it's kind of right there for you and uh i think that with rick spielman if he had stayed in charge we would have been talking about are they going to come out and sell us on we just need a right guard now oh the left guard's fixed you just need a right guard just need a defensive end to go along with daniel hunter like are these the things we're going to be sold? And that's why I think it is so exciting for people to, to have the idea of Ryan poles potentially coming here is that at least we can all figure that he's on the same page with this one super important thing that actually nothing could be more important than this decision with cousins and quarterback. Yeah, I totally agree with that. And I think a lot of people are, you know, maybe I don't know if upset is the word, but a lot of people want the guy from the Brown when you come from an organization like the Chiefs that has had sort of a winning process in place for so many years versus the Browns who are are just now figuring it out.

Like, yes, Adolfo Mensah has the analytics background that's very appealing. He's very different. And I think different is good. But Poles is like from sort of a proven concept right so i think there's value in that um he's still pretty young i think he's still going to bring some of the new new age thinking to the job so i don't think you're not getting that just because it's not his calling card he's still a personnel guy at heart but um you know the chiefs have found a pretty efficient way of doing things even with an expensive quarterback.

And I think that if you can learn how to construct a roster first around a cheap quarterback and then pivot from that to, OK, you've paid your quarterback. Now how do we do it? He's done both those things. And I think that obviously brings a lot of value to the position if the Vikings bring him aboard this week. I feel like people should like the hire also if well we'll see if it works out because Chicago you know he's gonna go visit them first supposedly if he decides not to because the Vikings step up to the

plate and make him an offer he can't refuse then we'll be doing an emergency podcast very soon on Ryan Poles is the new GM I just I just was getting a kick out of people trying to sell one of these guys or the other when you don't really know anything about him. I mean, it's like, oh, I like the guy with the analytics background, but actually that just shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what the GM does because the Vikings have analytics people. They're talented analytics people. If you are good at the general manager job, you're melding all of these people to work together toward one thing. It's not hiring this guy and then he just analytics is the hell out of everything and you win. That's just not how any of this works. What you're hiring is a leader of the organization.

So whether it's an analytics background or a scouting background, if you look at the way that the league is laid out, I mean, there's all sorts of leaders of organizations who have landed on every side of this fence. There are some of the most analytical teams. Think about this. The Baltimore Ravens are considered like the elite of the elite analytical teams who made a lot of their decisions for a long time as the general manager, Ozzie Newsome, a former player. I mean, so there's just no, there's no like hard line. And I thought that was just hilarious.

Here's two people, you know, nothing about now pick from one. Okay. So, but you know, as, as it looks like it's leaning toward Ryan Poles, I think that it's worth discussing their decision that they made. And if you're wondering, cause I looked this up, Alex Smith was traded for Kendall Fuller, the corner and a third round draft pick. Would you trade Kirk Cousins for a starting corner and a third round draft pick? Are they taking the money? Yes. I mean, I would assume. Yeah. They, I mean, I think they, in Washington, they gave Smith a new contract, which is what Kirk Cousins' team would have to do. I think that getting rid of the money to me is equally as important as the capital you get in

return. Now, I don't want to get fleeced. I'm not trading him and giving a sixth round pick with him and then saying, all right, take the money. I still want something, but if it's not a one, I'm not going to nix the deal and just harpoon myself into, oh, we're going to dig our heels in here. I think getting rid of the money is first and foremost critical because then you can start your roster building immediately and you can maybe even cash in on the draft capital right away. If you can get that trade executed in the next month here, going to free agency, knowing you can spend and the draft with an extra pick. That's great. Also, you'd solve your cornerback problem because you have one.

There is a significant cornerback problem on this team, which is one of the biggest issues aside from quarterback this offseason. Cameron Dantzler and Chris Boyd are your starting corners right now. That's a problem. So if I'm getting a starting corner and a day two pick, 100% I'm doing it. 100%. Get rid of the money. Start anew. The more I go down this road, the more I think it's important to do that. Because if you just keep Cousins with this albatross of a contract and you can't do any roster building around him this year. I mean, what did you really change?

You changed the figureheads over the organization, but you did nothing roster wise to really get the ball rolling in the right direction. So I would say that, yes, I mean, I would I would make the Alex Smith deal for sure. And maybe even a little less than that. Maybe I would not even take the starting corner. Maybe it's just a third round pick. Folks want to tell you about HelloFresh. With HelloFresh, you get farm fresh pre-portioned ingredients and seasonal recipes delivered right to your doorstep. You can skip the trips to the grocery store and count on HelloFresh to make home cooking easy, fun, and affordable. That's why it's America's number one meal kit.

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Yeah, I mean, if they're taking the entire contract, if they had to eat 10 more million dollars or something like that to make a gain in the long term i think that you do that i was just looking at the nfc teams and thinking about their quarterback futures and this is a reason for ryan poles to want to be in the nfc north is like is there an nfc quarterback that you look at right now and say with uh with the right draft pick you couldn't possibly overcome it because this guy's going to own the conference like alan herbert burrow mahomes are going to own the afc for only god knows how long i mean i would hate to be any other team and lamar

jackson as you mentioned we shouldn't count him out he was hurt this year they were in the playoffs and then he got hurt and they're playing tylerley and that wasn't going to work out. But if you're like, there are people applying for the job in Denver. I would be like, I don't, please don't let me go to Denver. I admit, let me go to the NFC because then I'm going to have Herbert and Mahomes in that division for the whole time I'm there until I get fired because I didn't beat Herbert Mahomes. That's what happens if you, I mean, that's, what's going to happen to George Payton and whoever he hires as his coach, unless they find a guy that is similar, that's probably what's, what they're going to end up happening. If you're Pittsburgh, you're just hopeless for the future being in Cincinnati's division in Baltimore's division in the NFC. This is just not the case. Dak Prescott is a, I think a great quarterback. If you can have the number one passing offense in the NFC this is just not the case Dak Prescott is a I think a great quarterback if you can have the number one passing offense in the NFL or not one or two maybe one in yards and two or three unexpected points added like an elite passing offense then you have a great quarterback is

Dak Prescott Mahomes or you know probably not right he's really good but he's not one of those guys I don't think you say there's no way we're going to beat that guy if we face him in the playoffs. I think the same thing for Kyler Murray, where you would want Kyler Murray, but he's not on that level. Aside from that, if Rogers leaves and Brady leaves, I mean, who's in the PJ Walker is in the division. I mean, Jalen hurts.

I like some of the things he did this year, but you're not scared. Taylor Heineke, Daniel Jones. I mean, Stafford, uh, will probably stay in Los Angeles now after this, but you're not terrified of him because their roster is going to fall off. Russell Wilson, who knows where he's going to play in the future. It seems like he's going to still be in Seattle next year. The thing that you're only concerned about is whoever Detroit ends up getting as their quarterback after golf, because they'll probably be bad again next year and then draft at the top the year after. And if they get like Bryce young, then, I mean, we're far down the road here though. Justin Fields could turn out to be great.

You're concerned about that. He's got the talent to do that. The rest of the NFC's quarterback situations are just not scary. If you are the team that finds the person who can take you to the next level, there isn't a whole lot of competition, at least in the immediacy. And you can shoot to the top. This is if Rogers leaves, but I think he's going to, you can shoot to the top of the NFC North. If you land this person, that's like how vital this thing is and when people bring up and i was going to ask your opinion on this when people bring up while rogers is leaving shouldn't

they stick with kirk so they can win the north look winning the north at nine and eight doesn't make any difference it actually has not been the packers who have stood in the vikings way for making the playoffs it's been everyone has stood in their way the last three four years they have beaten the packers and it hasn't even mattered. That's not the team that's standing in your way. It's really yourself who's standing in the way. Well, the Bears kept them out in 2018 and 2020, right? Because the Bears were the seventh wildcard team.

The Bears were the division champions in two of the cousins years. So you're right. No, I mean, there's no reason to, again, belabor this. Like if you can get out from the contract, you should get out. And you shouldn't use sort of this one-year dangling carrot as motivation. I look around the conference and I assume that if Rodgers and Brady, well, Brady would, if he plays again, he'll play for the Bucs. If Rodgers moves, I think he would want to move to an NFC team

because he knows that he can own the conference again. 2024, 2025, you're right. I mean, it's going to be extremely young. A lot of the young quarterbacks have not panned out in the NFC. So you got to think Giants are probably going to find someone new. Jury's out on the Eagles. The Falcons desperately need to do it. They need a facelift. They need to move on in the worst way. The Saints have nothing going right now. Ian Book? Ian Book, anybody?

Ian Book, anyone? So there's going to be an influx of talent. And if there's like six new quarterbacks added in the NFC in the next two years, I'm sure one or two of them become franchise guys. I mean, just the odds, the odds would indicate that. And the Vikings want to be in that mix. They want to be the one or two that hits on their quarterback, probably a first round guy in the next couple of years. So I think if you're the Vikings, don't you just shoot a couple shots at it? You took your shot at Mond. Doesn't seem to have worked out.

Try again. Try again. Like, try three times if you have to. Do what the Cardinals did, where you give up on Rosen after one year, geniusly, and you get Kyler Murray, who, you know, maybe with a little better coaching staff, could be like that guy in the NFC. He could be the long-term problem that everybody has to deal with in one of the best divisions in football now with two NFC representatives in the championship game. But I think those quarterbacks also show you though, how, um, how much parody there was in

the conference's quarterback play, because we've talked ad nauseum about Stafford and the flaws that he has and how how like how uninspiring did both of those quarterbacks look playing the Vikings I mean you walk away from the both those games and you say well darn it you know the Vikings lost and the quarterback didn't even do that much to beat them in fact Matthew Stafford was was a huge hindrance um Jimmy Garoppolo was propped up by a great rushing attack and Debo Samuel. Neither of them did a lot to win those games, but they have good rosters around them and are sort of the exceptions where they don't need to be phenomenal, especially Garoppolo, who continues

to get wins despite putting, he is such an enigma. But here he is an NFC championship game and that's probably not a sustainable approach either to have a quarterback that's that average and make it that far so I think there there's probably change coming in San Francisco before long um Stafford's not going to play forever so even those NFC title game qualifying quarterbacks will not be long-term answers in their cities I wouldn't think um so it's it's there for the taking as long as you give it a quality shot and don't you know pigeonhole yourself into kellen mond or mediocre rookie du jour um if it's not working out you don't need to double down on it right i i don't think with garoppolo or stafford and i think that there's things there

for uh like their talent wise that are a little bit on the next level but um they're not ones you look at where you say anything that happens to that franchise they'll still be great i mean that was the funniest thing is googling articles where people said that the chiefs had been figured out like you don't figure out patrick mahomes in the same way that you don't figure out Patrick Mahomes in the same way that you didn't figure out John Elway or Dan Marino. Like they didn't always win all the way to the end, but over long periods of time, the great quarterbacks are never figured out. Like you, you just maybe have a reset year from time to time. Same with Brett Favre Packers had one really bad, like four win season, but for the rest of the time time they're just winning and winning and winning and winning because that's not what happens when you have those

Stafford and Garoppolo aren't that way like when those rosters dip you'll probably see both of those guys not be as strong as they were and that's kind of the point it's like you you have this little window of opportunity here where there's nobody who's dominating the conference and you can at least build a really good team around a young quarterback, even if he doesn't become a Holmes or become Allen. But you have to always aim for that. To me, that's what you have. You have to always aim for that because the history of this franchise is so much of like, let's develop rich Gannon. Let's, you know, let's let's see if Sean Salisbury has it. You know, let's let's give it to Randall Cunningham or Brad Johnson or these quarterbacks who are good. And Brad Johnson won a Superbowl with an incredible Tampa Bay team. But that is

the extreme rarity. And there's they've so often let's draft a guy in the second round and see if that kind of works out. And the closest they've been, and this's draft a guy in the second round and see if that kind of works out. And the closest they've been, and this is what's crazy, is the closest they've been to a great team was for over a couple of years period was when Dante was here. I mean, yes, they had some down years, but they went to the NFC Championship. They had another year that was, I think, 11-5 and really good with Dante. And that was the only guy drafted in the first round, a physical freak that you ever believed would be a 10 year solution where you're competitive all the time around Dante Culpepper. And yet, you know, they did it with ponder. It

didn't work out, but as you said, they didn't fix that quick enough. And then when they finally did, like they didn't realize right away, Oh, we're screwed. We should draft someone else. Then when they did, they get Teddy and he ends up getting hurt. And probably the way that it's played out with Teddy Bridgewater, this is how fast the league changes, by the way, in 2015, Teddy Bridgewater and that kind of quarterback. I think that there were a lot of opportunities for that type of quarterback to win. And that's just different now. I mean, just a couple of opportunities for that type of quarterback to win. And that's just different now. I mean, just a couple of years later, the league is just different. It's leaning into physical free quarterbacks who have to make unbelievable tight window throws and run with

the ball and dodge sacks and all those things that as it played out, there would have been maybe this slight section of time in Teddy's rookie contract, probably 2017, where they had a chance to win. But think about since 2017, the Super Bowl, the final four are Blake Bortles, Case Keenum, Nick Foles, and Tom Brady. And since then, it's just all Mahomes all the time and Brady all the time. And this year, it's going to be one of these really good stacked NFC teams with talented quarterbacks. It just, it just has changed really quick. And even if you look at the offensive production in the NFL, it's changed really quick. And if Bridgewater had been their long-term quarterback, we're probably at this point

talking about how it would not have been enough physically. We'd be watching this and they'd be, we'd be saying like, oh man, he just, he just can't make some of these plays that these guys can be making. So I think that that point exists throughout. Now, let me ask you this question. If the Vikings draft a quarterback this year and the guy is good. And again, Mahomes is the all time example, not saying if he's Mahomes by year two, they're in the Super Bowl. That's just a fact. But like, let's say he's the next notch down from Mahomes, but very, very good. How long do you think it would take for them to end up back in the NFC championship game if he was a hit? Doesn't it seem like year two is sort of the opening of the window, right?

Like no one expected the Patriots to be there this year. This was sort of house money just to make the playoffs with Mac Jones. And I think Mac Jones could take a step and the Patriots could be in that mix next year. Now he's got the tough quarterback conference to go against and he's not the alien that Allen, Burrow, Mahomes and Jackson are.

So that's tough. But I think if you look at the second year, you know, in recent years, second year for Mahomes, second year for Lamar, second year for Herbert, second year for Burrow, all of these guys really took off in that second year. And I feel like if you, you know, play your cards right and you get some good matchups in the playoffs, I think year two, you can be there. I'm convinced that there is an opening right now in the Vikings' offensive window because you do not have to pay Justin Jefferson yet. You've got two more years where you do not have to pay him. You have to extend him after 2023. That's a huge window.

You don't have to pay a big left tackle contract. Dalvin Cook isn't going to get more expensive. He might get less expensive if you unload him or restructure or something like that. Adam Thielen isn't going to, again, maybe becomes a cap casualty at some point. I don't think that's happening anytime soon, but Irv Smith, don't know what's going to happen there, but you've got cheap assets on offense. So you've got a window there where you can, you can pour money into, you know, the defensive side of the ball once you unload the Kirk deal. And I think that's going to happen here.

So I think the Vikings could, and this is the best case scenario, right? But 2023, you could be in that position if you've chosen correctly. And I don't think that's unrealistic after what we've just laid out with the landscape of the NFC, the potential departure of Rodgers from Green Bay, leaving the division wide open.

It could be a deal where you see the quarterback blossom throughout the season, peak at the right time and go on a playoff run. And the other thing, too, you wrote about this early in the year. Home field advantage hardly exists anymore, at least in the very recent past, where you don't need to be a home team in the playoffs. I mean, all the road teams are winning here except the Chiefs, and they very nearly lost.

It's not that big a deal to get home field. It is a big deal to get a bye. You'd like to have a bye, but that didn't work out for the Titans or Packers either. So here we are. I think if you get into the field in a parity-driven NFC, you would have a chance. So it can happen fast for the Vikings. There's reason to be optimistic about the future, even if you take a little step back in 2022. And a lot of the quarterbacks that did not work out so far this year

were dropped into extremely bad situations that we saw, like the Jets, specifically with Zach Wilson. And I didn't see a lot of great in Zach Wilson, but we also didn't see a lot of great in Josh Allen his first year either. And now I'm more willing to say that you have to give some more time and you have to have the infrastructure around these quarterbacks that even as great as my homes is the play that Tyreek Hill makes to score the touchdown is absolutely mind blowing. And, you know, Travis Kelsey with the catch at the end. I mean, you have to have these players, but that's the thing. The Vikings do have these players. They have players who have propped up quarterbacks and given these quarterbacks their career

years, year after year. And I think that your Mac Jones example is apt for the next draft. That if you're talking about giving someone Justin Jefferson as a starting place, go ahead, you get Justin Jefferson as a starting place. Go ahead. You get Justin Jefferson. I don't think it's a huge shock that Josh Allen, his success correlates with getting digs. Gabriel Davis looks like a star. He's open all the time. They signed Emmanuel Sanders. Cole Beasley, maybe not a guy I'd want to necessarily hang out with, but like he is open all the time on third down when he runs those little out routes from the slot, like nobody's better.

And the Vikings have most of this to be able to give somebody, they just need more money to build the rest of the thing, which is what I wanted to bring up with you because though the quarterbacks are everything, always all the time for the whole history of the league, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers lost. And I think there was a similarity

with Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady losing the games that they lost, is that the opposing defensive line absolutely whooped their offensive line's tail. And that's the second part of this for me when we do kind of takeaways from the final four from divisional weekend. Of course, it's,

did you see what happened with Allen and Mahomes? But then the second part is signing two nose tackles was so preposterous that I, I mean, I cannot believe that it happened. I can't believe that the Vikings thought that the answer to their defense was to sign multiple nose tackles because the pass rushers are just killer when it comes to the playoffs. And I will admit that when they traded, when the Rams traded for Vaughn Miller, I was kind of like, Ooh,

I mean, does Vaughn Miller have it left? I mean, he's been injured and I don't even, you know, I don't even know what that guy's got, but when they have pass rushers coming from all angles at Tom Brady, I think I saw a stat that most of the pressures he faced were under two and a half seconds. They were, he was beating Vaughn Miller and Aaron Donald. They're beating people so fast. Like they need to desperately rebuild what they have on the defensive line in terms of pass rushers. That means probably cutting Michael Pierce, leave Delvin Tomlinson as your 500 snap a year guy, and everybody else, you have to focus on that part of the game. Even Cincinnati, I think a part of their defense being competent is bringing in Trey Hendrickson and having some other guys to rush the

passer. So I think that that was my other takeaway is that if there's one answer to when you do face a great quarterback on the other side, that is the answer. Yeah. I mean, it seems like a no brainer that you want to retain Daniil Hunter on this team via an extension. I think that his ability to perform this year off of injury should be support that he can perform off of injury next year and the year after that and he's still entering his physical prime that needs to be your centerpiece um and then yeah you're right you build the defensive line and Matthew how many videos early in the offseason did we mention well Melvin Ingram you know what's he doing out there could he be a piece on this team

uh he goes to Pittsburgh gets traded to KC for a sixth round pick. He was tossing guys out of the way at the end of that game. He was just doing the forearm shiver and knocking down 300 pound men. That was not an expensive acquisition for the Chiefs. Again, good process on their part. So you've got to figure out who's, can we find a three technique in here, right? Like, can we actually go after a penetrating pass rushing interior guy? DJ Wanham, probably not the answer. Maybe a useful rotational piece, not a starter. You need an edge rusher. You need one

or two interior rushers. You need a backup edge rusher rusher I mean I look at this roster and I see Kenny Willekes yeah he might be involved in some capacity but I don't see a lot Janarius Robinson off injury maybe he's got some potential Patrick Jones like there's a lot of guys who just haven't done anything um that you're hoping take a step, but you need to invest pass rusher, cornerback, and figure out quarterback. I would say if I were to boil it down, those are kind of your three off season objectives and they're difficult objectives. And that that's what me, that's what makes 2022 concerning. It's not just that you haven't got the quarterback figured out, but key positions, valuable positions are total mysteries on this team and uh and

they're gonna have trouble kind of hitting home runs on all three of those but those are the three big ones in my opinion folks support for purple insider is brought to you by manscaped they are the best in men's below the waist grooming manscaped offers precision engineered tools and they recently launched the ultimate men's hygiene bundle performance package. 4 million men have trusted Manscaped and you can check out their exclusive offer for 20% off and free shipping with the code 20insider at manscaped.com. Manscaped sent me the performance package and I could say that it's a game changer, especially when it comes to their nose and eyebrow hair trimmer called the Weed Whacker. I'm a unibrow guy, so I need to keep that in check for all the YouTube videos and streams that we do.

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nobody debates that i mean nobody debates the things that Kirk Cousins can do. It's always been two-parted. It's always been, can he do the next level stuff? Patrick Mahomes, how about this? And there's another point about the roster that I'll get to, but Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey drew up their own play to win the game. That's Brett Favre stuff. That's John Elway stuff. That's what you have to do to win i'm not saying you have to drop your own place but like kirk cousins not changing a protection against baltimore because it's like not his job is just classic it's just well you know i i guess the center didn't get the protection right okay did you could you possibly might you nope's not my job, so I didn't do it.

I mean, we've all worked with somebody like this, right? If you've had jobs where you're like, when I worked for a grocery store, I didn't have a lot of money when I got hired by this grocery store, so I really needed the job. And I cared about it a lot. Like I really wanted to do a great job

because I needed the money and they gave me an opportunity to do this. And they were so nice to me. It's a family owned place. And I really cared about just the success of the store. So when something would happen, that wasn't my responsibility. I would take care of it if I needed to, because I cared about the store. But there were a lot of people that worked there who were just like, eh, that's not my job. Somebody else will do it. And that's how it feels like the difference and even the mentality is right now,

you have a quarterback who feels like it's just, it's not his store. It's just, they hired him and he is paid and that's it. And it's not my job to do a lot of these types of things. And then it's other quarterbacks and do a lot of these types of things. And then it's other quarterbacks and players like Patrick Mahomes have a mentality and Josh Allen, you can see it in his face, just how much he cares and how heartbroken he was for that to happen and how much heart and soul he gave into winning that game and how much he's put that city on his

back. Like this is what you have to have in order to get there. And then there's the other part of the San Francisco 49ers. Now I know that Jimmy G has got a decent contract now, but they invested so much in just defensive line Armstead and Bosa and they had Ford and they hit, they just, they just bring in these people and they're developing them, but they're often drafting them higher. They're paying them, which is usually how you get these guys. And some of them have been misses, but they've put so much into it. Like, well, that's kind of what you have to do, right? Is it is you have to have the one side of it is someone who's dynamic and leaves every bit of their soul left out on the turf there. But then you also have to be able to put these other things around and tell me how you're building a successful defensive line around

another cousin's contract. Tell me how you're building a second, you know, secondary around a cousin's contract. I don't think there's any answer there. And that's where it really comes from where it's like, you guys can yell at each other on the internet all day long about whether Kirk is good. That's not even the, that's not even the debate. That's not even the thing that matters. So you might as well be arguing about like whose colors are better you know on what team or something it doesn't matter so um anyway i just thought that was interesting i wanted to ask you if you had other observations where you were watching these teams not regarding the quarterback and thinking about you know if the

vikings are going to get there they need a kicker no I'm just kidding although the guy from Cincinnati what a kicker yeah McPherson wow rookie kickers I guess can can work out in the long run if you're if you're patient enough with them but um you know I look at Kansas City and again it's it's easy to point to like the greatest offense ever and say ah man if everyone could just do this but they've just got a million little fast guys right like the greatest offense ever and say ah man if everyone could just do this but they've just got a million little fast guys right like the Vikings don't necessarily have speed on their offense they've got you know Jefferson is fast enough Thielen sort of has that functional quickness Dalvin Cook has that lateral quickness but I don't't see even like a Jarek McKinnon type,

someone who's like, I guess, Wong Wu. Wong Wu would be in that category. We haven't really seen what he can do if properly deployed yet. And maybe the next regime does that. But getting fast, I feel like would mean a lot. Getting faster if you're the Vikings. The 49ers, I mean, they're running back stable. They always make people miss. They're so quick, whether it's Mostert or a couple years ago, McKinnon or Mitchell this year. They always just sort of bring that speed that stretches you. Samuel stretches you. I think investing in speed would be huge for this Vikings team

because they have the pieces, sort of the foundational pieces, but make your supplementary pieces really difficult on defenses. I think that that would be big. And I wanted to circle back to your point about Kirk sort of being the shrugs his shoulders kind of guy. He was open about that too, which is the crazy part is that he said things like well you know when i came in in 2018 this team had won some games i didn't want to you know have any ideas i didn't want to rock the boat and he's been open about being the ceo and and that has meant not celebrating with teammates after touchdowns just running back to the sideline and i i think you need somebody to be an emotional pulse

and i know that that's maybe people think it's corny or intangible but i think that a quarterback can legitimately transform like the the culture the identity the everything about an organization and that can come come up big late in games late in in playoff games. I mean, look at the confidence both those teams had offensively to keep counterpunching. Absolutely not phased. Like I remember seeing the clip of Allen after the Chiefs scored with 102. He was already going back to the bench saying three timeouts, guys, three timeouts, a minute two.

He knew they were going to score. And then he scored 13 seconds too fast. So I feel bad for the Bills, but you look at that and then it's impossible not to pine for an upgrade if you're a Vikings fan. And I think if you've been watching the NFL closely this year, it's more obvious than ever what Minnesota has been lacking. Well, and I think that if there's, there's a couple of things that I think Garoppolo does better, that might be number one. It might be at the very top of the list. I think he understands his offense better Garoppolo. Like when we watch the tape, we just see a lot of sort of what happened there. Like this was obviously, this was a Sage Rosenfels

was trying to make this point on Twitter and people have been attacking him for weeks over it. He was trying to make the point that Sage played in the same offense as Kirk. And so he knows the place, he knows the reads and he's saying like, there's some balls that are just left out there. And it's not necessarily knowing where you're supposed to go with it, but it's actually doing it, executing it. That Jimmy Garoppolo, I think does not have a problem with executing everything that Kyle Shanahan puts in front of him. And he's had the same offensive guy, which I was going to point out. That's something I noticed four offensive coaches in the final four. And, you know, had Tampa Bay one, it still would have been four. If McDermott had won, well, we would have talked about Brian Dable and how he's been

stable there and successful. But, you know, I think Garoppolo has this ownership over the offense where it's his and Kyle Shanahan's. And that's, you even saw the reaction from San Francisco players to Garoppolo. He had a pretty tough game and was getting killed. He got pressured on like 50% of his dropbacks, which is nuts. And yet, you know, after the game, I mean, they're all coming up to him. And I just feel like there's a leadership element even there that does not exist, even though his team undermined him by drafting a quarterback. Also, we are on day 14 as we speak of Kirk Cousins saying nothing publicly after his general manager and coach were fired.

Talk about I don't really care about the future of the organization is saying nothing. Leaving Eric Kendricks out there and your right tackle of all people. And we respect Brian O'Neill a lot, but your right tackle is the last guy to talk about your GM and your head coach being fired. Also shout out to Lisa who's watching on Facebook that she didn't quite get the sarcasm on us talking about referencing Daniel Carlson. When I, when you were talking

about the rookie kicker. Yes. We remember Daniel Carlson was maybe the next coach will give his kicker some confidence. Did you see the quotes from Evan McPherson? It was Evan, right? McPherson, the kicker from Cincinnati. Yeah. 52 yard kick to win the game. And he said to their holder, we're about to go to the AFC championship, but right before he kicked it, like that's, that's great. I love that.

That's a confident kicker. It's probably helps a little, maybe the next coach will not tear them down. But I did think that just, I want your last comment on this is just four offensive coaches. The other team that was right there has an offensive coordinator in place for multiple years. I don't think that's a complete coincidence.

I don't either. That's why I'm lobbying for the offensive-minded coach. It's not trending that way, which to me is a little bit of a concern. If you're trying to find the Mike Tomlin unicorn, which some reports indicate that's what the Wilfs want, they to be the Steelers that's a little concerning to me if you think you're just going to conjure up a Mike Tomlin because Mike Tomlin was you know just a defensive mind who had like you know a good bearing over the team you can find that I think on both sides of the ball doesn't need to be defensive minded and I'm not and again defensive minded coaches can be good leaders like i don't i'm not disqualifying that i just find it far too valuable

to have that offensive continuity i'm sorry like to all of the the aspiring coaches who are focused on the defensive side of the ball i'm not saying i never want you as a head coach anywhere, but I don't think the Vikings should want you as a head coach. So take what you can from the interview process, but it does scare me a little bit that that seems to be the way they're going. Maybe not necessarily, but every report I've read is Gannon had a good interview. Bowles had a good interview. Dan Quinn is a front runner. Haven't seen a lot of follow-up on Kellen Moore yet. Haven't seen a lot on Nathaniel Hackett,

who I think is interviewing again with the Broncos. So they might be further down the road with him. A little bit of a concern for me. Lisa, no need to apologize. We appreciate you watching. You know, I do have that problem in my life that my sarcasm often goes over people's heads, which maybe means I'm not being all that effective with it. Sam, great stuff. We'll continue to talk. I think in the next few days, we're going to be doing an emergency podcast on, you know, Ryan Poles' general manager, I think.

But we will wait and see. Still so far, the interview scheduled in Chicago with him as well. So thanks for your time. If you're watching us for the first time, podcast happens every day, Purple Insider. In fact, I did three for a bonanza for Saturday, and those are still relevant and good because we looked at the full roster. I interviewed a former director of player personnel personnel and we did a breakdown of the kind of a layout of the draft and what that's going to be like at the quarterback position. So there's a lot there on the podcast feed that you

go check out. If you're watching us for the first time, very much appreciate it. We'll be continuing to do this throughout the off season. Thanks to bring me the news for having us and we will catch you next time. Thanks for listening folks.