Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - INTERVIEW REPLAY: Jeremiah Sirles on when JJ McCarthy will return? What to expect from Wentz?

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

This is a replay from Tuesday night's livestream. Former Vikings offensive lineman Jeremiah Sirles joins the show to discuss J.J. McCarthy's injury, what it means for the Vikings, a timeline for his return, and what to expect out of Carson Wentz? The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome into another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar, here and Jeremiah Searle's joining for another episode of Tuesday morning left guard. And, you know, I just want to thank you, Jeremiah, for last week where you said, hey, this is finally fun. We've been through a lot of tough times with the old quarterback position. This is great. That was really a thing to say when you're around the Minnesota Vikings, isn't it? As a guy who watched the 2016 season play out, a guy who was at a practice where Teddy Bridgewater suddenly had his career altered by an injury, you were the one that was stepping out on the limb and saying, this is so much fun, this is great.

Why don't you just go to a baseball game and say, hey, this game's moving on fast. There won't be any rain in the forecast, right? Jinksy Jinkserson is now what you will be referred to. what do we do now jeremiah what do we do now i don't know i mean it's it's one of those things where as you're watching it you're like this can't like this okay this is bad right this is bad but it'll be fine and then all of a sudden you get the news like and j j's hurt and you're like okay like are we really doing this are we really what it is is we use all of our health karma up in 24 every ounce of health karma that the minnesota vikings have accumulated over years of bad

injuries all got used up in 2024 and now it's just like hey got started over you got to start from the bottom your left tackle not not playing your center brain oh your backup left tackle brain oh your franchise quarterback ankle it's just one of those things where it seems like injuries are contagious like and i don't know why but sometimes it just feels like injuries are contagious and that somewhat feels like where we're going with this and i just really hope it's not the case for the entire year and i know there's the discussion of well you know they signed older players and stuff but blake cashman's not old andrew van gink was healthy all of last year.

Ryan Kelly, I mean, a concussion, that's just a really bad break for a guy who was playing awesome football too. I thought he was really playing well in these first two games. And now he's had several of them in his career and you're concerned about where that's going in the future. And it's also anybody who has ever wondered, I don't know how many fans have ever said, why would they pay a left tackle? But if you've ever had that thought, like, it's just another fat guy.

I think that we were reminded. it. Actually, I think Vikings fans have been fairly blessed since the Clemmings era. Riley Reef was solid, not perfect, but solid. And then Derisaw follows him up and has been a monster beast for the entire time. And these last couple of weeks show you how hard it is to play quarterback in the National Football League without Christian Derrick. Yeah. I mean, it's the same thing when Trent Richard or Trent Williams got hurt in San Francisco and the wheels kind of fell off of Brock Purdy there. If you don't feel comfortable on your blind side, you're constantly your first read's not where's the route it's a quick it's a quick glimpse to my left going did he get beat

am i okay now i can get back to the route tree and with a young quarterback that's already struggling with timing already was struggling with getting the ball out and then you're constantly getting pressure from the left tackle position and then now de-coordinators are sensing that right there's a little bit of blood in the water after the chicago game and then they really came after that left side this week early and often. Stunts, twists, blitz. They tested Donovan Jackson and Justin's school a lot early in this game and it got home. And when things like that get home, you open, I think I text you like Pandora's box has been opened on the left side of the line now. They will week in and week out now get tested. Can they pick these things up? And until they do and they put on tape that

if you stunt, we'll pick it up, they're going to keep getting tested on that left side, especially with Walter Rouse in there now. It reminded me of exactly what it looked like. like with the Rams game last year for the Vikings and mostly really the end of the season where we saw the Cardinals last year beat that left side by using a lot of stuff like delay blitzes and stunts and twists and then the Rams just threw it all at that when it was Cam Robinson and Blake Brando because they knew they couldn't handle it and it was very clear that they were in over their heads in that game against the Falcons and Rahim Morris no dummy like knows knows what he's doing with defense they also know how KOC wants to

play offensively. That's a guy who has a lot of experience with that McVeigh offense, having been out there with the Los Angeles Rams, and it was a perfect storm for pressuring J.J. McCarthy. But let's talk about the big issue at hand here, which is Carson Wentz taking over for J.J. McCarthy after this ankle injury. Now, there is the, is it a soft benching part of it? And I think everybody had that thought. I think that it's an injury that would take a quarterback out for a couple weeks, but you especially don't want to rush him back in there if Darisaw is not going to be back or just at all. Like he was struggling so much that you wouldn't want him with any sort of injury trying to play versus Carson Wentz, who can probably get this offense

back on track. So let's let's talk about the McCarthy part of it first and then we'll get into Wentz. What did you identify with your NFL player brain as you were watching J.J. McCarthy struggle against the Falcons. Yeah, you know, what I've witnessed with him is I'm giving the kid grace. He's young. And anyone that wants to fight me and say that he's not a rookie, my address, you can find it, come to the house. The dudes are freaking rookie.

I don't care that he was in the NFL for a year or not. Until you take live bullet reps against the team that can hit you, kill you, put you in the dirt, you're still a rookie. And what I saw from him was his processing speed just isn't. there yet, right? And that's okay. It's going to happen, right? I played with Josh Allen when he was a rookie. His processing speed wasn't there yet either, and we were terrible. We went six and ten. It happens, but he needs to have better answers. And as I watched, I'm going, okay, there's a couple things here that are not making a ton of sense to me. I get Kevin O'Connell wanting to say, I have full faith in J.J.

McCarthy, and I'm going to let him go out here, and I'm going to let him get the reins and go. But it felt almost like you threw him in the deep end of the pool without any floaties on and then held his head underwater a little bit and said, keep throwing it. You're okay. You'll make it to shore eventually. It just felt like he was forcing the issue a lot with JJ McCarthy. And I think JJ felt that pressure. Hey, we're not running the football. Kevin's calling past plays. I got to hit the plays down the field. I got to keep doing, doing, doing. And for a young player that's still trying to figure out his way in the NFL with all that added stuff to it, I just think that he's really in his own head right now trying to do a little bit too much. And then also, dude,

every ball does not have to be a thousand miles per hour and put a hole through the back of your receiver. Touch passes are a thing in this league. And I think it just takes time to develop those type of touch things because Josh was the same way. Josh wanted to use that cannon and put the ball wherever he could, faith in the arm. That gets you in trouble in this league a lot more than it helps you. So a few different thoughts on that. I mean, one is that West Phillips said last week about the offense, that we can't dial it back because he needs to have all the answers to be able to win. And that's the same answer they gave when we talked about with Josh Dobbs,

dialing it back when Dobbs was new to the offense and also like not very good. And, you know, I mean, he was like three and nine or something as a starter. Pasture not, baby. What a time to be alive, the past or not. It was a great run. It was a great run of two weeks where we talked about him as the bridge quarterback. But ultimately, he was asked to do a little bit too much. And it was the same sort of look.

It was the same sort of, I'm not really sure. And then, oh, the throw is a little bit late. And then Justin Jefferson is coughing up blood on the sideline because the throw was a little late and a little inaccurate. And I just, I think that that's okay. If your philosophy as a head coach is the quarterback better be able to do every single thing. But you can't start someone who's never played before then and throw him into the deep end. then you need a veteran quarterback, then you need two years of development. This is something that you need much longer to because in training camp,

I felt like he was getting a lot of the stuff that they were asking him to do. I thought that I was seeing touch passes. I thought that the timing was pretty good. But as you said, it's just not the same. It's just not the same as when someone can suplex you into the ground legally, as opposed to tapping you and be like, sacked you. Like it's just not, I could do that. I'd be like, oh, oh, he sacked me.

cares. That's, that's not how this works here. And that pressure, two and a half seconds in practice probably feels okay. Two and a half seconds with 70,000 people watching Sunday night football and two first round picks coming after you. It's, it's just a different story. And I think if when they bring back J.J. McCarthy, it needs to be a different philosophy. But I just don't think that they have that different philosophy in their bag. If they did, they would have used it. Folks, there's no way to prepare yourself for hair loss. when it happens and you either end up frustrated or in denial, but I promise you that there is help and it is simple and easy.

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all the time kevin o'connell can't change his stripes and that's okay it's one of a lot of football games it's made him coach of the year you can't ask a guy to be like, hey, all the stuff that gave you the success and puts you in the position that you are right now, you need to change, right? Like, that's not a fair thing to ask Kevin. But I will say the greats in this league, Andy Reid, Bill Belichick, they can adapt with what they have, right? It's not square pay ground hole, right? It's okay. We have certain pieces that we can't just open the whole toy box here and just let it go. We have to build, develop the box before we let everything go. And I just, he needs to rely

JJ has to be able to rely on other pieces around him to shoulder the load right and I'm going to use Daniel Jones as an example here. When Daniel Jones had Sequin Barclay, he was able to share hey, 26, you take the load here, I'm going to do what I need to do

and it got him paid a lot of money and he won a playoff game. All of a sudden you remove Seyuan Barclay and say, Daniel Jones, you're the guy, baby, you're going to chuck it all over the yard, you're going to go. Things kind of filtered and didn't go that well. now look at Daniel Jones with hey I have Jonathan Taylor I have other things around me I don't have to be the guy that's where you need to build a young quarterback right when you build and you draft a young quarterback usually first round quarterbacks are drafted to save the franchise right hey come in we are a desperate need of anything you just come in we'll turn this thing around we'll go JJ's walking into a unique situation where he's not here to save the franchise he's here not to crash the car and for seven of the eight quarters that he's played he's wrecked the car in spectacular fashion and so

So if that's the case and you're the parent of the guy driving the car, take the keys away a little bit and say, hey, here's the, here's the bike. Let's ride the bike first, right? Let's ride the go cart first. And then we'll develop you into the car. I think that that's where this probably was going to head if JJ McCarthy was still the starting quarterback. At least I hope that's where it was going to head. And that's where Kevin O'Connell was going to want to go. I'm not convinced that it was. But that's how I would look at this and go, okay, we did too much, right? We did too much. Back it up, back it up, back it up. But I also don't know if that's in Kevin Connell's DNA or not. I think that there's some smoking guns here to it not being. One is trying to throw the ball on third and short at the goal line with a great play that should be a touchdown. But if you draw up a play that your quarterback is not able to execute, is it a great play? A little bit of a tree fall in the forest type of thing. Like, is it a great play if he can't do it?

Now, if O'Connell expects his quarterback to take a snap. Okay, I'm not saying he's asking too much there. But, you know, maybe just Jordan Mason. here's the football try three times to run in the end zone from two yards and if you fail with that everyone should be very sad with themselves but here's the other one is there are 15 quarterbacks who have thrown more screens in the first two weeks than j jay mccarthy we love screens we love screens on this show so much he is tied with lamar jackson and matthew stafford and jared goff like these veteran quarterbacks with six screens the guys who have thrown Trevor lawrence

is thrown 16 of them. Like, Bo Nix has thrown 11 of them. He's looked pretty bad these first couple of games. Josh Allen, MVP of the league, has thrown more screens. Baker Mayfield has thrown at the point just being, like, is the easy button stuff there? I haven't seen it succeed. And here's where the real issue is with McCarthy. Short passing game from zero to nine yards has been atrocious.

He has a 33 PFF grade, 3.4 yards per attempt. And that to me is the evidence you need for the timing of a quick game is not there with J.J. McCarthy. So you either play someone else or you figure out how to not have to ask him to do that. The quick three step, I see it, I throw it. Like that's, we saw Kirk do that pretty well in his career. We did not see Sam Darnold do that all that well. And we're not seeing J.J. McCarthy do it all that well. But when you've only thrown seven passes behind the line a scrimmage in two games with this young of a quarterback. I mean, I'm going back to Jake Browning with Cincinnati when he had to take over for

Burrow. It's kind of all they did was deep shots to those good receivers and then the screens and runs kind of did that with Jordan Love early in his career with Matt LaFloor. I just don't think that's who O'Connell is. I don't think it's a philosophy, which means it's going to be really hard for McCarthy to run this, which kind of brings us to the next level of the conversation, which is how long are we going to see Carson Wentz because Schefter's out here saying two to four weeks, but is it going to be two to four weeks or is it going to be

longer than that? I don't think it'll be longer than that, but the thing that worries me the most is young quarterbacks, especially rookies, they usually suck in the first part of the year. Like historically speaking, right, CJ Stroud was kind of the anomaly that just took the league by storm and now he's regressed in his second and third year, if you ask me, but you kind of see this shift of these young quarterbacks, first five games, first six games in the league. league, just an eye-opening moment, right? Hey, those dudes literally are giants that run really

fast and the windows are a lot smaller than I remember the margin for air. Oh, that 42nd clock matters now. Like, there's just a lot that goes. So usually those first five weeks, you're growing pains. And then you start to see guys, the good ones, start to grow later in October, November, December. This problem is this pushes that growth period back into late October, into early November when the game start to really matter a whole lot more. You can't win the division in September, but you sure as shit can lose it. Like it can be out of your grasp really quickly. And so now you're saying, okay, one in one here with McCarthy.

Now he's going to sit the bench for two weeks, four weeks, whatever it is. Well, now we're just pushing that growth period back to if he comes back and you're never really 100% healthy when you come back from an injury in season. like you don't ever feel like you did before the injury it's just managing the pain so now you're saying on top of the ankle his mobility might be a little bit limited and he's still speeding up you're pushing the growth of this guy back further and further and that's where you have to decide if carson wince has success do we go back to what our master plan is of grow j j mccarthy or do the veterans on this roster like jonathan allen hargrave brian o'neill like these dudes are feeling they're looking around going i don't have two years for us to figure this out we need to win right now, that's where you have to start going. Okay, where do we go from here? Do we redshirt him a little bit here? You only played in two games.

We can still redshirt him. Or is it, hey, this is our guy. All our chips are in this basket. We're putting them back out there. So this is where the tree of scenarios that you start following down, like the if then type of situations, because if they win the next three games, which is extremely plausible considering the quarterbacks that they're facing, then you end up sitting there at four and one coming back from London to face the Philadelphia Eagles at home.

And I just don't see how you could say, hey, I hope that ankles healed up. Here are the Eagles with one of the hardest defenses schematically to face against a team that's got a great defensive line. Jalen Carter, I mean, if he's facing off with Donovan Jackson, that could be a homicide right there. And Jackson certainly got welcome to the NFL a little bit more in week two than he did in week one. but that, I mean, that goes for anybody. Like any offensive lineman who faces Jalen Carter is going to walk out of that arena

feeling pretty bad about themselves. Is that the environment that you want McCarthy to come back to? But then you play the Chargers in a short week. And is that the environment you want him to come back to with a limited game plan? And then you go to Detroit where Sam Donald freaked out at Ford Field because of that atmosphere. That's a division game. And I also think that the locker room is a huge factor here because there are

are a lot of players who came here with the idea of competing for Super Bowl. That's what they were sold on and not to spend their entire season trying to help someone become the best versions of themselves eventually. And that becomes for Kevin O'Connell, something he's going to have to really manage the rest of the way. Because at the same time, for the betterment of the long-term franchise, you need to find out if J.J. McCarthy can play. And I can't tell you that after two games. no one can no one can tell you if j j mccarthy is going to be a dude in this league or not right we talked about the it factor and he had that piece and yes i still think that's in there but if you have the it factor but you lack the overall talent to be able to do it on a week in a week out basis that's a bigger problem there's plenty of dudes in this league that have that drive and that fight and that everything to it but the talent just doesn't develop into what you want it to be i'll put trevor lawrence in that category right like there's times Trevor lawrence has incredible moments but there's times we're like oh you you leave a lot to be desired here. Now he's making $55 million, so they'll pay those dudes.

But I agree with you. When is the right time to bring JJ back? Is it when he's fully healthy? Is it when Carson finally stumbles? Because he will, right? I don't think, I mean, that's another, the big what if is that Carson is what we hope Carson can be the best version of himself or is he the one that lost 30 to nothing against the Denver Broncos in week 18 last year.

I don't know. He's been on the couch all summer. He's been on the couch, all training camp. He hasn't had the reps that make. me feel like, oh, I feel good about Carson Wentz coming in this game and operating. I think he's going to operate better than J.J. McCarthy just based off the ability to he's played in this league. At one point, he was looking like a rising star in this league. And then he never really came back from the ACL injury. So there's signs pointed there. But I agree with you,

man. And it's not that the locker room's giving up on J.J. McCarthy. I don't, I don't want that to be the, we don't want the kid thing. That's not what it'll be. It's just a this is a win now leak. It always has been. It always will be. And if you're a head coach, you can't put the development of a young quarterback above the other 52 guys on the roster. You just can't do it. You'll get upset. You'll have chasms in the locker room. You'll have fights. You'll have guys not happy. You'll have a bunch of media questions. You have to eventually do what is for the betterment of the 52 guys, not the quarterback position. But at the same time, you have to go, but is this guy our future? Do we have to start figuring other things out? It's why the head ball coach

makes the money he has. It's why those dudes, the buck stops with them. It's not a fun position to find yourself in week two of the season. And the other scenario is that if Carson Wentz does not play well and they lose two out of three here, then you're talking about all this money spent, this whole season that was pumped up to be this thing that they had reached for for three years. And then it's on the brink. And you're saying, hey, JJ, would you mind just like saving the whole season for us? You know, like that's, that's a lot to ask to, well, you know, but it'll be, it'll be fine. Look, you're only playing the Eagles and they won the Super Bowl last year.

I mean, my goodness, like suddenly it's crazy in this league, how fast life can sneak up on you and how the twists and turns happen. Because if McCarthy was going into these next three games after the way he played against Atlanta, I think we would have been sitting here saying, all right, let's break down what went wrong. Let's talk about how they're going to fix it. But we still think they can fix it. I said after the game. I still think this is a double digit win team. They just need to figure some things out with J.J. McCarthy. But now it feels like everything is on the table. We don't have any idea what's going to happen. And I was going to ask you, Fandual question of the day here

is on Fandual right now, nine teams have a better chance or better odds to make the playoffs than the Minnesota Vikings. I'm sure this has been adjusted in part from the recent results in injury. Is that fair? Like, do you think it's fair that nine other teams have a better odds to make the playoffs than the Vikings? I do because the NFC is there's some really talented teams in the NFC. I mean, you look across the whole thing of it and then you're going, okay, well, the easy way into the playoffs is winter division. Probably, I mean, watching what Green Bay is done, watching what Detroit did to Chicago, tough road to hoe, not impossible, right? But tough road to hoe based off the two offensive performances that we saw. I mean, I don't even think

we ran 100 plays yet this year, Matt. I mean, that's unheard of for an offense in the national football league to not get 50 to 65 plays a game. Like that is just kind of industry standard. And so you're looking at that going, okay, they're probably not going to win their division. Are we certain that with this quarterback problem, they're even a top seven, eight team in the NFC? There's a lot of really talented teams that are not going to win their division. I mean, shoot, the whole NFC web, is two and oh or one and one, right? So you're saying, okay, maybe there's the teams we're going to come out where the Rams are healthy with that Stafford.

I think it's a very fair thing to say right now, just based off of the rest, the status of the rest of the league, we get out of our Minnesota bubble and you look across the league and see teams like Seattle taking the next step and their evolution of who they are. Carolina shows some life against Arizona. Tampa goes down and beats Houston. I mean, there's just a lot of teams in the NFC

that I think are way ahead of where the Vikings are at this current moment. Again, we'll reassess this in November, but the path on which the rest of the teams are versus the rocky roller coaster that the Vikings are writing right now, I think that's a very fair assessment. I think that if they can get to four and one, and even three and two, it's not over, over. No. If you go one and two in these next three games, say good night to 2025. And I guess we'll start our draft analysis in October. Just I threw up in my mouth right now talking about that after such an interesting and entertaining off season where they made so many moves that I thought were the right thing to do. So this next run is very pivotal because if you get to, if you get to four and one, then the whole rest of the way you need to go six and seven and you can make the playoffs.

If I'm doing my math right there, if you need 10 wins to at least get a shot and look, if you get a 10 win season and don't make the playoffs, then well, it's. bad break. But to get to double digits, so these next three games become enormous for them in order to actually make this work. So let's talk about some of the other things on the roster going on because it's just been so much focus on this singular issue, which is now the biggest thing facing the franchise for today, for the rest of the season, for the future. So it really is that big, this injury for McCarthy coming off that performance. And, you know, the other part of it, too, Jeremiah, is just how it looked in the last thing we saw. and how much that impacts decisions, because if the last thing we saw before he got hurt was

Chicago, we'd be like, oh, well, two to four weeks, he'll be back. It's fine. Like, you're getting back out there. The last thing we saw was him not looking like an NFL starting quarterback. And that makes it a lot harder for reintegration. But the offensive line is problematic. What did you see outside of just like hammering away at Justin School? I always feel bad when that happens. Like there's, he's trying. There's nothing you could do there is trying. Imagine how bad guys who aren't playing in the league are at left tackle. But, and how good Derisaw is and how much money he's worth. He should ask for a restructured contract.

Before he even stepping on the field. Before I come back, what if we just, what if we just made a fake tree company and gave me like 10 more million? Or maybe that's only the NBA and the Patriots. You can Google that one with Brady. But anyway, so what else offensive line wise was causing them issues? Yeah, you know, when Kelly went out, the communication was really bad up front. You saw, like, I can remember very specifically an inside zone play to the left where we leave the front side linebacker completely unblocked.

That's a communication error, right? That's a we pointed the wrong guy or Donovan didn't get the call or Juergens just had a straight up mental error because it was his first time playing in the National Football League and listen, dude, I've been there. It's not an easy thing to all of a sudden be like, hey, you've never played center. it's Sunday night football we're down we got to go score get your butt in there and let's make sure everyone's on the same page oh by the way there's a rookie next to you right so make sure you help him along as well it's it's it's that for me is the bigger issue than the left tackle right

daresaw will be back is it this week is it next week like that that position at one point in time we'll be like okay I feel good about that the bigger issue I see is the center position Michael Juergens taking the helm there with Carson Wentz who makes the calls who's in control what are we doing who's on what plate right if i'm guessing it's going to be listen michael you walk up there and you call the protection by the letter of the law right you don't get to flip you don't get to see fun things you don't get to chase goes if it's three by one protection and we're going left you go up there and say mike left we're going here and then carson can change you from there so you're talking about the communication standpoint having to be very much streamlined

with the center position the right side of the line i feel like has been a bright spot i feel like Will Fries and Brian O'Neill's playing at a great level. They gave him that sack the other night. I don't know if I can necessarily give that. It was kind of a tweener on an empty situation there where he kind of squeezed and then didn't come back out late. But I do truly believe that if Ryan Kelly's in there, we turn that protection to that guy. So there's just certain things that look like there.

But the communication, the free runners and the mis IDs are the biggest things that are hurting this run game and this past protection game. But they're like you said, all that's fixable, right? besides the left tackle, getting physically beat at times, and Donovan being a rookie and going to take his lumps and going to be the growth curve is going to be just there, just like it is for J.J. McCarthy, I feel okay about where this is going to miss anywhere from three weeks plus, because this is his fourth concussion, right? If he's going to continue to miss multiple weeks here, I worry about the center position for the offensive line. And the folks who in the off season were concerned about the backup center, like this is your day. but at the same time, there's not a lot of good backup centers in the NFL. It's not like they're just bouncing around. You've developed this guy for a year, and that's the best you can do in a lot of,

I mean, there was only, there's also only so much money to give free agents. Like, why don't we get like four more guys? It's like, they spent every dime to build up this team. You have to have some young players step up. And now it's time for Michael Juergens. He's a very bright guy. But maybe a week of preparation will. help him and maybe working a little bit with Kelly behind the scenes as much as that could be

possible will help him. But there's only so much you can do. And that's why Ryan Kelly has been paid what he's been paid and why he was drafted in the first round. He was phenomenal in these couple of games. So missing him is a massive drop off that now is maybe part of the reason that you want Carson Wentz in there, even if JJ wasn't injured. Like you can't have somebody who doesn't understand how to flip protections if it was relying solely on Ryan. and Kelly, if now the center doesn't really understand it either at that level. The strips act that you were referring to, we asked West Phillips about it today. His answer was basically that wasn't what was supposed to happen.

And maybe you can explain that. And I know that you don't know every single call and protection like you're not in that room, but kind of how that's supposed to work and how someone could end up just completely free running. Yeah. So it's an empty protection, right? So does everyone remember the Anthony Richardson preseason where he got smoked off the edge because he didn't see the hot protection. It's similar to that.

So when you run a five-man protection, you can only block five. And so in this situation, the center, the left guard, and the left tackle were sliding left. So the three-man slide was going to the left. What that means is the right guard and the right tackle have to protect inside out. So they have to protect the A gap and the B gap are the number one priorities in their protection. So obviously, Will Fries, he sticks on the three technique. Boom, his job's done. As Brian O'Neill sets, he watches that linebacker that stacked over that three technique, take two steps forward. And as a tackle, as your rules, if that linebacker looks like he's coming into that B gap with bad intentions, that's where you have to say, okay, I have to jump in here and

protect him. Well, what happened was he took two steps forward. And then as the back free released, he also released with the back. Well, Brian had already committed to protecting the B gap. And by the time he tried to turn back out, that D.N was already by him. Right. So it's a tweener thing where you as a quarterback have to know where your hots are. And as a tackle, you either have to kind of commit or be able to put yourself in a position to get back out and at least get a hand on that guy. So it really, it's on both of them, right? It's on the quarterback and it's on Brian O'Neill.

But it is just one of those plays. It's a football play, right? Sometimes those guys are paid a lot of money there too. Sometimes those guys make plays, right? And that was a good call against that protection specifically. So, yeah, it was just based on the fact, like, if there's a running back in there and it's a six-man protection, that never happens. But it, again, it was an empty protection.

Usually offensive coordinators like empty protection because it makes the defense declare what they have to do, which tells the quarterback, okay, this is the zone scheme, this is the man scheme. I have my answers. But you kind of live in the die by the sword too when you only have five blockers if they send six. Here's my trouble.

For that entire night, the Atlanta Falcons are kicking their ass up front. From the start of the game, every moment, every drive, they're winning that battle. that's why they drafted two guys in the first round and if Chicago could beat you up front sometimes with that current roster situation then certainly Atlanta more talented team could as well their coach is good they're sending a lot of stuff at you and you you texted right for the beginning when Donovan Jackson didn't quite get around on a stunt like they're going to attack them that way it's first in 10 and there's an empty protection and this is where we get

into what we were talking about, but also I want to hear you talk about play calling because I think it's the easiest thing in the world when a game goes wrong for everybody to be like, play caller must have been his fault. What a fool. If I was calling plays, it would have been much better. And we fall into that trap as media as well, sometimes, where it's just fully on the result and not based on, was it a good play or not. But I think when you get to something like that, you're like, I don't know if that's the situation you want to have there with the lineman you have and the quarterback you have just standing there. What have you said before?

Like butt naked with nobody there to help you, no Aaron Jones. Naked in front of the zombies. I mean, that's, that's a lot to ask. That's what Matt Stafford does. That's, they don't, they don't even let Jared Gough do that a whole lot. Like, there's a lot of quarterbacks to league or not an empty very often, unless it's like a panic situation. How did you feel as you were watching about the play calling issue? Yeah.

I think my biggest issue with the play. play calling is it's not simple, right? If I have a young quarterback and especially a young quarterback who the first eight quarters of his career are struggling, I'm going to go to the seven quarter, excuse me, I'm going to go to the kiss method. Keep it simple, stupid. Right. Keep it simple. Don't have, okay, if I'm an empty, I have to know where my route is and I have to know where my hot is, right? Just let him think about, hey, protection set. If they send six, I'm protected. I'll be able to get the ball away. It's just putting a lot on his plate. And we talked about it. That's Kevin O'Connell's thing, right? I got to have all the tools at my disposal to call the game plan that I need. I just don't agree with it with a young quarterback. And he's been maybe still thinking, hey, Kirk Cousins could do it. Sam Darnold could do it. Josh Downs could do it. Like, Dobbs could do it. Like, these dudes could all do it. Why can't J.J. McCarthy do it? Well, JJ's proved to us that he's not there yet. I'm not saying he can't do it. He can't do it right now. So if he can't do it right now,

let's not add another thing to his play of play call snap cadence formation motion is it empty am I hot am I not hot like just one more thing on his plate can be a half a second to a second of processing speed which in the NFL is the difference between ball out and dead like two to three seconds is ball out and dead and there was so many times in that game where I saw JJ go should I run it no I shouldn't and then by that point boom the sacks there or the plates there And so I just, I worry a little bit from the play calling standpoint of, are we just asking him to do too much? And that also goes to the fact that I thought Jordan Mason forgot to get off the bus or was late to the game or something where he didn't exist in the first quarter. Like, he started your comeback against the Chicago Bears.

Why wouldn't you just say, let's start with this dude and pick right back up where we left off? I think that there's just a little bit of Kevin O'Connell looking himself in the mirror and doing the old point. the thumb, not the finger, and going, how can I help this offense get back on track? Yeah, I mean, I think that it's one of those common sense things, like whether you've played in the NFL or you're just watching casually and you see the quarterback looking in over his head. There has to be an element of how do you get that back on track? And we've talked about it a lot, you know, you run play actions, you throw in a couple of tight ends, which I think Josh Oliver's really banged up and was trying to play.

and they probably would have used them more, but you get some stuff to get that guy in a rhythm of completing passes. And the commonality with this team since O'Connell got here is it seems really hard to do to just get the ball in the hands of Justin Jefferson, get the ball in the hands of even an Adam Thielen, even if you gain five yards on a completion, six yards on a completion, a screen, whatever it might be, I think the average yards per screen completion is something like six.

and I'm you know they're not all like that but although they they did drop one that should have been a big play and that was brutal as well it's definitely not all KOC it's definitely not all JJ it was kind of everybody with this and I think that's the struggle for O'Connell and I would totally get it if I was him if you're looking back at the tape and you're like guys wide open in the end zone and we drop the fumble or we drop the snap what you want me to call a different play the guy's wide open I got you a wide open guy but at the same time I think that there's, the truth is somewhere in the middle of that. It's, you can get those guys open, but if you can't find him, so I kind of go back to that. I also think this is one of the first times that I watched Kevin O'Connell be a human and allow his emotion to overrule his coaching at times. And it happens. We're all emotional human beings. I mean, it's, it's a hard thing to win in the national football league. It's a hard thing to play in the national football league.

It's a hard thing to coach in the national football league. And after JJ misses that third in one pass, the deep shot to Nailer, that again, it's a game. right play call the wrong play call the dude was open yeah but the dude was open you hit that play call you're right back in this game you're you're you're moving forward and i saw the emotion of him getting upset right like physically like angsty and angry and then there's like oh just pun it right and i'm sure that's one of those things where he's looking back on i i let my emotion overrule my logic at that point i should have went for it on that fort down they needed to yeah they needed to i should have went for it and i do think that that what played an element in this

of all the things you just mentioned, the dropped, the drop snap, like, I think emotionally it wore on Kevin O'Connell through this game, and he allowed that emotion to overrule logic, and you can't do that as a head coach. You can't. Now, he hasn't done it in a long time. I don't anticipate him doing it again, but it is just part of the human element of the football game. And so I hope he learns from that. He's played in the National League. He knows what it means, but this was the first time I saw the chink in the armor of Kevin O'Connell allowing his emotion from his frustration of where the offense was to overrule something that should have been a no-brainer coaching decision. Yep. And I think 70,000 were feeling that at that moment because Naylor catches

it. I don't know if he goes all the way, but he's getting his name is speedy. I mean, he's getting 50 plus yards there and you're kind of back in it. But at that point, even if he, even if that happens, like to get, it's not like you win. Like, there's been so much struggles throughout the game. But I can understand from a coaching perspective, when you keep drawing up open plays and your quarterback can't convert it, how frustrating that would end up being. Let's get to love to see it, hate to see it. I'm going to start with love to see it, all of collegiate football on Saturday. It was just one of those days where you paste yourself to the couch and every game just

brings you everything you hoped it would give you. Tennessee and Georgia was magical. The Notre Dame game was absolutely insane. And then while the Gopher's game was a little bit of a rough watch. But everything throughout that day was just sheer entertainment. And I felt like we're really back now once this happens in college football. Yeah. I mean, you've got Vanderbilt beating up on South Carolina.

That was a fantastic game to watch. You know, you're just looking through it. And it's just giving you hope like doing weekend into these conference games. It's going to be fun. Like I can't wait for Big Ten play starts this week. We got Michigan here in Nebraska. Like that's going to be an electric game going forward there. my love to see it and I don't know if you watch the post game Sunday night football coverage

but when they're introducing Parker Romo to Leonard Floyd and they're like hey do you know who this guy is like oh yeah that's Sequin Barkley they're like oh do you know who this guy is he's like I don't have any idea who this guy is he's like oh yeah this dude just hit five field goals in the game he's like oh Leonard Floyd nice to meet you like it just goes to show you that sometimes these kickers they don't know anyone on the team they're the bastard children that no one really wants until you want to hoist them on your shoulder, but most of the time you want to put them in the closet. Like I just thought that that was so funny from Parker Romo there,

going back to Matt Prater with Josh Allen. We're like, he said he was shown him pictures of his kid playing and he's like, I'm going to give you everything I have. It's like, who's this old man they let in from the street? Like, I just find it so funny that like the kickers are starting to become more and more like, oh yeah, you guys really aren't actually part of this team until they really need you, are you? I was actually going to include Parker Romo's,

love to see it because that guy's a great kicker like we saw it last year he was great in training camp and he was called I mean they don't win 14 games without parkeromo he had a game winning kick was at Arizona and he hit five field goals against jacksville and a very memorable football game that was and when he lined up to kick one from I think it was 50 that was kind of a dagger I was like he's probably going to make this like this guy knows what he's doing so good for him I like to see some guy who has just kept with it find away. Now, here's a, speaking of kickers, I was going to throw a love to see it and hate to see it. Do you get to the point where kickers are so good and they're kicking from so long where you're

like, stop it? Like, this is too much. Like, Brandon Aubrey kicking a 64 yarder and looking good from 70. I'm like, I don't know if I'm comfortable with this. Yeah. Like, you don't have to do anything to get a field goal now. You just like fall. They should just like do a fullback dive three times to kick a field goal. I mean, it just, I don't know, it's a little bit silly. They need to what's in those K balls at this point? This is nuts. Someone used to kick a 50 yard field goal and you'd be like, whoa, that guy now it's like 50 yards. It's just chip shot. I mean, I remember watching that Dallas game going as soon as it hit the star. I was like, oh, this game's over. Like it literally is like, oh, they crossed the 50. This game, well, that's not going to be so great anymore. But I mean,

they're weapons. If you're not like 85 percent. from 50 anymore you can't kick in the NFL and now they I think I was talking about week one they like change the rules where you can break in these kicking balls now during the week it used to be you could only get the kicking balls like three hours before the game and so they're just going to continue to make eventually I think they're going to have to make the goalpost smaller like I don't know these dudes are getting so much better the kicking specialist camps from getting younger and younger and getting more and more talented I mean I don't I wouldn't be shocked if in three to five years, the goalposts kind of shrink in, like, the arena football league.

Right, where it's just like straight up and down. It's like a 10-yard window you got a hit in there. So, yeah, I love, I mean, Brandon Aubrey, what a weapon. He's going to be great. But also just put so much pressure. I mean, Youngway Koo has a rough first week. And they're like, oh, we're bringing a guy on practice squad to see if he's going to push you. You're going to see a lot more kicker revolutions in the NFL as we move forward here, too.

What's your hate to see it? My hate to see it is Mike McDaniel's demise in real time. I mean, from the way. he's talking about impressors, the way the team is figuring freaking out on the sidelines. I mean, you start the game. You start the game, I mean, over the last two weeks with turnovers, like to open your first series of the game is turnovers, then you never really get yourself back on track. I am concerned about the Miami Dolphins and Mike McDaniel making it to October, if I'm being honest. I think that's, he's actually taken over maybe for Kevin

Stephansky for most likely coach to get fired. At least we all knew that Cleveland was going to be terrible when they were starting Joe Flacco. But I think there were a much higher expectations for Miami to be a competent team along the same lines. The New York Jets are who we thought they were and them just getting run out of the building after there was a little bit. This is always so hard.

This is like this little bit of, oh, like maybe they found something with Justin. No. And he got hurt again because he hangs out of the ball for. forever and sadly he will remain just in fields i also think i hate to see it wise watching the monday night doubleheader i don't know how you feel about that as a man with kids maybe he just wanted to get to bed um but uh the texans i mean just after such a great start with cj stroud have just kind of bumbled around and denille hunter oh my god the euro step that he put on like the sack he's great their defense is great they got lots of tools

and they just can't really figure it out. And I don't know what's wrong. I don't know if it's Stroud. I don't know if it's the line. I don't know if it's the coordinator again. But I was really excited about where C.J. Stroud was going to go. And now I kind of hate to see that it's just not going anywhere.

Yeah. I mean, I remember after his rookie year, I was like, dude, this dude's going to be an MVP in the next two to three years. I mean, he just, he saw the field. He dealt it. He got the ball out. He saw the vision. I think a lot of it is the offensive line play.

You lose, you trade away, Laramie Tunsel. You trade array Kenyon Green, right? Your center ends up. going somewhere else. You've now got rookie at left tackle and Arionte, who's, I think, going to be a really good player, but still a rookie, right? It's just, it's hard to watch that offense. And it's like, yeah, Joe Mixon will be back eventually, but Chubb's not a slap. Like, he's older now, but they just have no rhythm offensively. And that defense is so good. I mean, Will Anderson, Daniel Hunter, might be one of the best tandem rush duos in the NFL when

they're both playing lights out like that. Hunter's for Neil Hunter, golf clap for him. Congratulations. you're terrorizing tackles everywhere. I feel bad for the Texans. I thought they were going to turn the corner and maybe win the South this year. And again, right? I mean, the South's been kind of a nightmare. But I think my last hate to see it's going to say,

I'm going to stay in the South. I'm not sure Trevor Lawrence and Liam Cohen like each other. I mean, there's that interaction of literally Trevor giving him the wave off when Liam's like hit him in the chest, right? And then they're asking him on the pro's game. How's your relationship? And he's like, it's fine. He's a competitive guy.

That I think is going to cause some serious. issues down in Jacksonville between Liam Cohn and Trevor Lawrence. I was thinking about how, well, here's this, maybe a sarcastic love or I don't know which one, Ben Johnson, but the same sort of deal of can some of these offensive freak boys, like also know how to work with human beings or do they spend all their time in a locked room with one light and they're just drawing on napkins like, this is, this is my bootleg, that no one will ever figure out. Ben Johnson, I'll throw to the tackle. Then no one will ever see Penae Soule with an end around coming. And you're like,

but if you ever talk to another person, that's a question. And the bears just getting run completely out of Detroit. Just a reminder, the Detroit Lions were not going to have one bad game, be like, we give up, we quit. But I don't know what the bears are supposed to do. And the same thing with Jacksonville. I don't know what you're supposed to do. When you draft a quarterback who's just good enough to give you hope and is actually not great, I don't know who's supposed to coach him, like what you're supposed to do there. Because with Trevor Lawrence, guys, there's not another level to this. He is who he is.

He's pretty good at times and he's pretty bad at times and shrugs. And I think the same thing is going to go for Caleb Williams. And that, to me, is you just cycle in new coaches time after time. Yeah, because unfortunately, the way it works is that player, the coach is more expendable than the first number one overall pick. And then when you double down and you pay him a large scale contract, he's not going anywhere, right?

You can try and figure it out and the coach is a little bit handicapped and handcuffed to that player. It's going to be really interesting. Did you see Ben Johnson after the game like defending Dan Campbell to the death? They're like, were you upset that they went for it on that fourth time?

He's like, it's who they were. That's who they always have been. It's like, oh, buddy, you're not there anymore. It's okay to be like, yeah, though, he should have done that. But he just, I think he's I was a lot of respect for Dan Campbell in that realm there. But yeah, I don't, I feel bad for Ben Johnson because Caleb Williams just, it's, he's not it.

He's not it. And I know it, we can, you can call him a bust or not, but what he's shown in the sample size that he has given, he does not show that he has what it takes to be a quarterback in the national football league. And, uh, Jerry Gov. Five studies. Still out there doing it. Uh, okay. Well, we'll see what happens going forward.

We're going to, uh, maybe hope for some more love to see it as we go forward. But you know what? we'll be here no matter what that has been proven from us throughout history and we'll just have to see how it goes i i don't think anybody knows where this bus is taking us from now on jeremiah we just know that we're going to be on it and we have no control so uh see you next week i will be here next week i'm going out cunning i'm going out cunning but i will be back the following week because it always happens whenever i leave to go out cunning something wild happens it always so i'm probably going to come back from the woods and be like to carson wendt's MVP

MVP talk you're like we're like we're through for 500 yards like oh okay sounds good or like dude jordan mason 250 on the ground like oh sweet can't wait to watch this happen okay two weeks from now then we will be back in action thanks for your time as always and uh football