Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Is Anthony Richardson being benched bad for the Vikings?

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

Matthew Coller and Jeremiah Sirles react to the Colts benching Anthony Richardson and talk about Jeremiah's best plan for replacing Christian Darrisaw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. It is Tuesday morning, Left Guard, Matthew Collar, along with former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Searles and Mr. Searles. We have some breaking news that just came out, which is actually kind of bad for the Vikings. Anthony Richardson, the Colts quarterback, has been benched in favor. He tapped out, so he's done. He tapped out, yeah. we'll talk about it for joe flacco so you're telling me a veteran quarterback who knows where to go with the football and has a good offensive line is now going to face a vikings offense that has struggled against good veteran quarterbacks the last couple of weeks right this is not good for the Vikings no I don't think it

is either because you look back and we asked the question last week is this a blueprint did the Lions create a blueprint and it's not necessarily a blueprint as much as the kind of an answer of just replace the blitzer over the middle of the field and you can only do that if you have good protection and a quarterback that knows where to go with the football if Anthony Richardson's playing Brian Flores this is a four interception game. Not sure holding onto the ball, trying to create his legs. But the veteran quarterback that's going to understand and watch the game tape from the last two weeks and see exactly what this defense did, exactly how Matt Stafford and Big V figured it out,

exactly how Ben Johnson and Goff figured it out. It's not, it's going to be on Flores to change some things up and give Flacco some really different things to look at, or else he's a veteran enough presence to understand how to go attack this defense right now. And I do not think that Shane Steichen is a joker. I think he does know what he's doing. He came from the Philadelphia team that had so much success.

And then they actually struggled a lot after Shane Steichen left. And it feels like they're just starting to get it figured out in Philadelphia a little bit but what he has been dealing with with Anthony Richardson is a quarterback who never should have been playing in the National Football League over the last two years they do this every time Jeremiah we go through it this guy's a raw prospect he He needs to sit. He needs to develop. There needs to be a veteran quarterback who plays while he figures out just what it means to be in the NFL, how to read a defense, how to run the operation,

how to get your body in game shape to not have to tap out when you get tired as we don't see Mahomes or Lamar Jackson, the scrambling quarterbacks, having to do that. Or even something as small as knowing how in the post-game press conference to say, yeah, I banged up my leg a little bit on the play, but it was good. It just got dinged, and that's why I came out. Right, just to know not to say that. But here's the crazy thing about Anthony Richardson.

The man is the same age as Shadur Sanders and Cam Ward. This is Sam Darnold kind of all over again, where the team cannot help itself. We got this shiny toy. It needs to go out there and play. And he shouldn't have been playing last year. He gets banged up. That puts his development behind.

And I just think no matter how many times we tell teams, Mahomes and Rogers guys, now Jordan Love too. They developed. It's okay. They're like, no, no, I don't think I will. I want to play that guy. They can't. Yeah.

And it's, it's exactly like you said, it's the shiny new toy effect, right? I have three young children. I can't bring it. I have a toy that's sitting on top of my refrigerator right now because we do, you can buy a toy with your Halloween candy. So I don't have gallons ofeen candy sitting around my house forever more for my own personal interest than my children's right but they're just every day they're like can i touch it can i can i can i play with it like it's not till halloween well how many more sleeps is halloween

right that's exactly what these teams do with these quarterbacks they just look at them and they're like oh we'll develop the crap out of this guy. He'll sit. And then the second they get in the building and they watch him throw the ball one time, 70 yards to receiver, I think this guy can play right now. And it's not the case. And I have not been a Richardson fan since the moment on his podcast. He said that the NFL is easier than college because I learned at a very young age, if you don't respect the NFL, you're toast. You have to respect every player, every organization, every game plan, every practice, everything, because it's the hardest job in the world to do as a football player.

You're the elite of the elite. And for him to take that mindset going into the year already raised a bunch of question marks for me. And so, yeah, I'm with you on that. He should have been playing last year. His development's gone. Joe Flacco, on that he should have been playing last year his development's gone joe flacco though he did it in cleveland last year he's looking like he can do it again this year i worry that if they try and put anthony richardson back out there next week if things don't go well that the colts are headed for a train wreck of the season well and i think we

also just with the colts organization you have to look to the very top where it's Jim Irsay, and this was an organization that had one of the great talents in history at quarterback and could not find ways to keep him healthy either. And I think that's a big part of development, by the way, is that these young quarterbacks, they go in there, they don't know what they're doing, and they get hurt. And Anthony Richardson has his shoulder injured and then that delays his throwing and that was the biggest thing with him that he needed to develop

was the throwing part of it but now I also see him not really reading the field very well not running the operation where he's fumbling on snaps and those handoffs the whatever they're called the RPO type of handoffs and things like that. It's just not very sharp. And that's what you need to get from developing. There may be some argument, well, you have to develop while you're on the field. But I don't think that that's really actually true. I think developing in practice and in meetings and all those things, we discussed this with

JJ McCarthy. The first thing you said after McCarthy got hurt is maybe this will actually protect the Vikings from themselves because even as as much as Kevin O'Connell is like we're going to develop this guy we're going to take it slow he had that preseason game and a couple of great practices and you could see the stars in his eyes like oh if Darnold has a bad game I'm gonna play my guy. And this protected them from themselves. It might have actually been the best thing for JJ McCarthy. Now that doesn't mean every quarterback needs to sit, but it is crazy to think about Jaden Daniels, similar

skillset, right? Huge arms, super fast at 21 years old, he was throwing like 10 touchdowns at Arizona state. And now he's one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL so far. I just think that Anthony Richardson, this is probably the best thing for him, is to be sat down. But he has also been failed by the Indianapolis Colts for forcing him into this situation. Yeah, and it all goes back to the tap out thing. And I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about it. I can't believe it.

It was one of the most unreal things I've ever seen. It's one thing if it's the first quarter and you're like, oh, I need a wind. You're talking third down, three minutes left in the game, AFC South Championship type game on the line. And to tap out like that, I mean, even Ryan Kelly came out and was talking about how that's not this culture thing. That's just a young player making a bonehead mistake.

And it just goes back to why you should hire guys like me as your agent, you know, to help you understand things to say and things not to say when there's a microphone in front of you. Well, the, the, the tap out thing too.

It also just goes to inexperience, you know? Okay. So Sam Darnold didn't know he was miked up when he said, I'm seeing ghosts out there. So that is a little bit different, but it kind of reminds me of the same type of thing,

like where it's going to end up sticking with a guy that is a young and bad mistake. And from Anthony Richardson's standpoint, you would much rather call a timeout, take a delay of game, or just check to a run play and say that you saw something out there but you taking yourself off the field it's not just tapped out physically and Brian Flores did kind of point out when we asked him about that today in Richardson

of course they couldn't have made this announcement or right before Flores talked so we didn't get a big analysis of Joe Flacco from him, but I mean, his point was kind of the play right before he had to dodge some tacklers and do a lot of things with, uh, you know, his running ability to get there. But from his perspective, you are the guy, like, I don't, I don't think there's any good way to explain to a young player how much you are the guy of an organization and a franchise, and everyone is looking to you. And if you're like, I got to get a break here,

it's just that it's not going to work. They need to believe that you are never going to let them down. And on a third down in a situation where you need something there, you let everybody down by pulling yourself off the field because still with his talent he gives them the best chance to convert there so it was a big deal I think it was a big deal for the locker room and I wouldn't be surprised I don't know anything about this but I wouldn't be surprised if the veteran players said to Shane Steichen we need Flacco to play. This guy can't complete any passes. He's tapping

out. He's doing things that very inexperienced players do in this league. And we're a good football team, which circles back to, I think that now suddenly we go, this is a lot harder with a great line, a great running back receivers who can make plays. Josh Downs' catch last weekend was absolutely incredible. He can play. Pittman can play. This is much more of an even contest, I think, with Flacco in there, who I believe, after watching last year, can still quality execute an NFL offense. Yeah, and I was curious.

It came up when I was doing my last podcast, and I looked at it, and then before I jumped on, I checked the line for the the game it's moving two points in favor of the colts right it's right it's moved that far and just making that one move and it's crazy to think about but you know you look across the nfl cleveland made one move and james winston led them to a win against the hottest team against the ravens sometimes change is all you need Just a little bit of change because when you're struggling like the Colts have been with Richardson and oh my gosh, he's four of 20 at one point, right? I saw that stat pop up. It's a tough thing to come to the sideline and be like, no matter what I do, I'm blocking my ass off here, dude. This dude can't hit the broad side of a barn. It's frustrating versus a little bit of a change and a little bit

of a, ooh, this is fun. This is new. Let's play for Flacco. Let's get him. We know the things he can do. It does kind of create a microcosm for the Vikings of running into a bit of a buzzsaw, even when it doesn't feel like one. And it's something that the Vikings are going to have to play extremely well defensively and offensively put up a good amount of points, because I do think there's going to be a lot of adjustment periods for Brian Flores to, Hey, this is the Flacco game plan versus the Anthony Richardson game plan. We're watching tape from two weeks ago when Flacco played versus just the most recent tape. It's going to be a lot of moving chess pieces for Brian Flores with also having to fix a lot

of issues from the last two weeks with the Lions and the Rams. Right, because this isn't just a quarterback change. This is a complete change of offensive philosophy as well. And Flacco can handle all the same type of things. I don't think he's anywhere near as good as Stafford or Goff, but intellectually and also the noise and things like that. What we've really seen is when young or inexperienced quarterbacks come to the U.S. Bank Stadium, they melt into a puddle. But that doesn't happen with Jared Goff, and it's not going to happen with Joe Flacco, who has played in 2017 against the Vikings in U.S. Bank Stadium

before. He knows what that's like. He's played in the AFC North for most of his career, playing at places like Pittsburgh, hostile environments, national TV games. He's played in the Super Bowl. There isn't anything that is going to be a factor that can help. And also with the Vikings, you're throwing defenses at him that he can identify and that he can make adjustments at the line of scrimmage. All these things were going so far against Anthony Richardson that I'm sure the Colts also said, yeah, we can't beat Brian Flores' defense if we have a young quarterback that's going that way.

But how far do you want to go with this? Of course it's bad for the Vikings that they're going to play a more experienced quarterback. But I think with Flores, and he talked about it today, a little bit of a wake-up call for the defense of the thin margins between winning and losing. And I think that they're also kind of kitchen-sinking this one a little bit, too, thinking we've got to prove that we are that top defense and get the confidence back. And they also have a mini bye week to get prepared.

How do you kind of think that they will make adjustments to what happened that went wrong against Detroit and the Rams no the number one thing that baffled me watching that Rams game is zero sacks you know zero sacks against an offensive line that is on their third left guard their third center I mean you'd look at that and I was thinking man this is going to be a Grenard feast fest or Van Ginkle like they're just going to go for it and they just could not get home and Stafford at times was getting the ball out quick but there's also times

where he sat back there and padded the ball padded the ball and there's Pukunuku 18 yards over the middle of the field and so if I'm looking at this from a from a player's standpoint those guys got to play better up front that's a big way of fixing this is giving a, when you're one-on-one matchups, like you'd been doing through the first six games of the year

and get to the quarterback, go get to it. Don't make me scheme it up, go get to it from a schemes perspective. You really have to start picking and choosing now again, when to blitz and when not to blitz, because teams are starting to figure out the tendencies and just replace the blitzer. And if that's the case, then you guys start tellingry and bynum hey you guys got to play a little bit more up right because that void between the linebackers and the safety right now is where the last two weeks have been exposed and i don't mean that in negative expectation except for that it's on tape it's on tape and what you are is who you put on tape and so that's going to be where this team is going to attack and so you're going to have to play your safeties up a little bit more or trust

your guys up front to get home and try and keep those linebackers to drop a little bit to take away that middle of the field piece of it because that's where you're going to get tested very quickly in this game it did feel a little bit like the donatel days the last two weeks where teams both teams were like, okay, we'll just complete 10 passes on a drive. That's fine. Uh, and those two quarterbacks, they're going to take what you give them because they've been in the NFL for a long time and they're great. And that there needs to be a lot of credit given to the receivers, the quarterbacks, the schemes for the opposing teams over the last two weeks as well. But I think that what the Rams really did well was they said, yeah, we'll run four or

five bubble screens or quick little passes in a drive and negate a lot of that blitzing. They also lost their best blitzer, I think, in Blake Cashman at this point, which was a big deal. But I think you know that the Colts are going to come in and we saw it last year from teams like the chargers that came in and said yeah we'll have justin herbert convert 40 passes in a game that only two of them travel over 10 yards we've got no problem with that the average how about this for a what does that stat mean what does that stat mean uh 2.5 seconds. Both Goff and Stafford average snap to release 2.5 seconds. What can a defense do?

That's such a frustrating thing as a defensive lineman, right? Because you're just rushing and rushing and ball's gone, ball's gone, ball's gone. And you're just, man, I'm never going to get home. And all of a sudden you rush again. Like, oh, here comes another two and a half second. And that's when he holds it. Oh my gosh, that was my chance. And then you miss it.

And it's a very frustrating thing and i can remember in 2017 when we had some teams that were just going the quick pass game listening to everson and brian robinson and daniel hunter on the sideline just be like why can't we just cover them a little bit more we're getting there right we're beating our guys it's a very frustrating thing for a defensive player to have that. And that's why, you know, watching the film back, our safety's got to get closer to the line of scrimmage. And I don't know if that's because Flores is worried about guys going over our heads or whatever it might be,

but the way that you take away the two and a half seconds is by getting your safeties a little bit more than 12 or 15 yards, having them stand at 11, be there, sink back to 15, keeping things in front of them still, but forcing them to go over your head. Because if they want to go over your head, that two and a half turns into 2.7, 2.8, three at times. That's the way you force that.

It's not by getting to the pass rush quicker or blitzing more. I don't think that's the answer. The answer is playing tighter coverage up towards the line of scrimmage and daring them to throw it over your head and having the faith in your corners to be able to do that and then saying, hey, if we're going to do this, that's where it goes back to my first point. If we're going to do this on the back end, you guys up front have to win.

You have to win if this is the strategy we want to do. And Joe Flacco is not going to move a lot. He's not going to get out of the pocket. He's not going to escape and do things with his legs. I would expect a lot more of guys trying to really get after him on that front five. Hold on. Let me silence my phone real quick so I can tell you that us days are back at us cellular again, exclusive offers just for customers just to say thanks right now you'll get $1,200 off any phone plus 400 off any tablet. Amazing, right? Yeah. but my family is so excited about

their new devices that they keep texting me during the show. They're all about us days deals like $1,200 off any phone and four plus $400 off any tablet terms apply. Visit us cellular.com for details. Yeah. And I think there just needs to also be a little more, a little more confusion, but maybe the quarterbacks over the last two weeks were not confused because they were running tempo and they were running the quick stuff and you don't have to do a lot of changes.

If you're the quarterback, when you're running a bubble screen, just go up, snap bubble screen. And you don't, you're not going to get confused. We're trying to read a bunch of things about where players are lined up. Everyone wants to hear your opinion about what to do about Christian Derrissaw.

I'll throw in another, what does this stat mean? What does this stat mean? He only allowed 10 pressures the whole season, and he faced Bosa, he faced Burns. He faced Anderson. I mean the best players in the league, 10 pressures the whole season in seven games for Christian Derrissaw. Now a what with this position? First of all, it takes my win total down to like nine. It's crazy as that is for me to say. And as much as like, oh, he's just the left tackle.

It is that big of a difference maker. Him and Jet, I would almost say he's a harder player to replace than Justin Jefferson. And, you know, we won games without Jefferson last year. If you can't get the ball to him, who cares how good that guy is? And we talked about it last week. Sam Darnold loves to pat that football. He loves to hold on to it. He loves back there.

He's going to have to speed up tremendously. If I'm the Vikings, I think you roll with David for a while, and then you're looking on the market for a guy like DJ Humphries, a guy like David Batiari, right? Bringing a veteran presence in to start getting ready to go. If you really believe that you're making a run here or your trade for a guy that you can bring in and have in there and get ready over the next couple of weeks. And if it doesn't go well with Q having a backup plan there,

because as much as I love him, I don't think he's the guy that you want out there protecting Darnold's blindside. You think I'm going to get you, you let you get away with not knowing how to say his last name? Questenberry. Okay, there you go. I know how to say it.

Don't worry. Yeah, I got DQ over there, the old ice cream sandwich. David Questenberry. I got you. Good guy over there. But you weren't confident in it. I wasn't. You had to think for a second there.

I wasn't. On the fly. When you had a moment. But as far as quick processing, quick twitch. No, you were not going for David Questenberry. That's why I'm't. You had to think for a second there. I wasn't. On the fly. When you had a moment, but as far as quick processing, quick twitch, no, you were not going for David Prestonberry. That's why I'm retired. Okay, how about this? I think what they will do is plug in Dalton Reisner at left guard

and move Blake Brandel over to left tackle. This is not sources or anything like that. I just think that that's the best idea because when they talk about best five, that's the best five is to have those guys out there. And Brandel spent his entire life as a left tackle. They just recently moved him to left guard. It's the same side of the line. And when he played left tackle,

he actually was the left tackle in that game that they won against the Patriots on Thanksgiving night in 2022. He got destroyed by Micah Parsons, so would pretty much everybody who's not a starter. I like that idea more than Questenberry. Questenberry's a pro. He's a pro backup. He could be thrown in there like he was last week. But 10 games of that for a guy that hasn't been playing and is 34 years old, to me would be too much to ask as

opposed to a guy who's been playing all year and has usually played that position I think I I don't necessarily know if I would want that for for Brandel because he is playing well and the question is is he going to continue playing at the level that he's playing out right now if we bump him out to the hardest position on the line? Or do we want to keep, hey, four out of the five right now, three out of the five, are doing a really nice job? Do we want to try and shuffle the whole left side, or do we just want to give Questenberry a few games to see if he can do it? I would much rather leave Brake Brando where he's at, let him continuing to play the way he's playing, being a guy that you can rely on next to Bradbury

in there next to the new left tackle and have him be the staple over there on the left side, instead of trying to shuffle and move two guys and put guy out there and go with that just based off of a performance standpoint for him he has a lot of confidence right now he's playing some of his best football you move him out there and he struggles a couple times and then you're like okay never mind we're putting you back inside confidence can be a real thing that struggles for an offensive lineman I don't want him to lose any of the confidence that he has right now because he's playing the best ball I've ever seen him play yeah and then that's the thing is that he has been an above-average left guard this season.

I thought that he did have a little bit of a tough night against the Rams with a couple of pressures there. But overall, he's been an above-average run blocker and pass blocker by his PFF grades, and he's middle of the pack in the NFL, which is pretty good. We've always said average is good, but below average will kill you. And they've also been getting killed still at right guard. Ingram had funny. He had his best game last year when they got Reisner and his best game this year when Reisner was eligible to come back. Maybe a

connection, maybe not there. So this is the other option, which would be maybe to replace Ingram with Reisner, leave everything else as is and put questenberry there and then put calls out at the trade deadline or as you said i mean i don't know david boctieri seems like that's uh he should be retired right he just he should be but you never know maybe you may you're asking to play maybe six games down the stretch or something but i would he wear purple as a lifetime Packer? I guess he wouldn't be the first, but there is that option of trying to get,

just see if Questonberry can handle it over the next couple of weeks. I think where they do get a good break is they don't face those elite edge rushers for a while, if not ever really for the rest of the season, except for Green Bay. And then Montez Sweat, I think he's had kind of a tough season so far for Chicago. while if not ever really for the rest of the season except for green bay and then no montez sweat i think he's had kind of a tough season so far for chicago they don't have elite rushers

tennessee jacksonville has one good guy but aside from that not a dangerous defensive line that's where they get a break here if you were going to have christian derisaw get hurt have it be after he faced everybody who was the toughest parts of their schedule is there is there any other way of going about this I would not want them to play Walter Rouse right away I thought he had a very good preseason but a sixth round rookie thrown in I just think that would be a little much for them to do yeah I don't think you want him being the starter right away but he's I think we're gonna need him before the year is done you know it's one of those things where yes you don't want him to but we're probably gonna need

him to go out there and the good news is he did have a strong preseason but I don't see any other way besides trying to find someone at the trade deadline or just rolling with with DQ there for a few weeks and seeing if it'll happen I'm not a fan of moving Brandel I think that just may be a little selfish of me of having a guy that's had to move and bounce around before. And it's hard. And it's something that he hasn't done since last year. Right. And just to say, hey, you're doing really good in here inside.

You'll just bump out. You'll be fine. Just bump out. Like, it just doesn't work that way. And I just don't want to do that for him. That sounds like if the coach is a former quarterback, he says, just move him out. Somebody who hasn't done that before.

Yeah, it's really since 2022, because last year was when they had him do the big switch. And they were right that he was much more of a guard than he was a starting left tackle. So then having him do it for 10 games, I thought though, maybe part of the reason was you've got Derrisa and he's going nowhere and Brandel's one of the best five. So let's find a way because normally

six foot seven dudes who weigh three 25 aren't being put at guard, but it was a way to make sure that he could be a starter. So what is, what is the biggest challenge you had to do this? You had to play tackle guard, uh, pretty much, both sides, anytime, anywhere during your career, what, what would be the toughest part? If you had been at guard for a whole season to go play tackle the timing of everything, the timing of your footwork, the timing of your punch and pass protection, all of a sudden in the run game, you have so much more space you're working with and then just the entire technical standpoint of your pass set well i'll start there you know as a guard you hear guys all the time he's a great

phone booth player right because when you're a guard it's it's just a bear fight in a phone booth most of the time you're just right there the dude's right on your face there's immediate contact as soon as the ball is snapped all of that you go out to tackle and now all the timing has changed you're getting back off the ball. He's three yards outside of you. Now my timing with where I'm punching and my hand placement has to be also while I'm moving backwards. It's just a timing thing that can get sped up or slowed down,

and when you're used to a certain rhythm in your pass set, it really can throw you off. And that's where you see guys getting their feet stopped or so when the game's on the line and you fall back on your training and what's habit, all of a sudden he's taking a shorter set because he's used to it. And now that guy's running around the edge.

You're like, oh my gosh, I was supposed to vertical set that. It's just things like that that'll creep in. And it's not going to be an every play type of thing. You're going to be able to be a pro and adapt. It's going to be two or three plays a game that are crucial moments that you haven't been in that moment and practiced that for since OTA started that it's going to creep up.

And that's just a hard place to be as a player when you've been so hyper-focused on one position, one thing, and perfecting that. You always hear guys, don't be a jack-of-all-trades. Be a master of one. And he's become that master of one at left guard right now. And now you're kind of asking him to dig back into his old bag of tricks and just bump out and play the hardest position on the line. Well, let me throw another stat at you because I want to hear your opinion

of how this offense can continue to operate, but also it has to operate better. They are at the bottom of the National Football League in terms of plays per drive and time of possession per drive on offense. And sometimes when we think about how many points they've scored as a team, we kind of overlook that they have three defensive touchdowns so far this year. The offense has been good. It's averaged by a lot of metrics. Expected points added right there in the middle of the league. This is good enough to be a playoff team, good enough to compete.

But I don't think that being the 14th best offense is enough to make an argument for a serious contender for the Super Bowl. That has not been how it's worked in the NFL, unless it's the Chiefs last year who didn't have the best regular season offense. But we know they're operated by the best quarterback in the NFL unless it's the Chiefs last year who didn't have the best regular season offense but we know they're operated by the best quarterback in the world so how can this offense stay on the field more and maybe throw it to Jordan Addison a few more times so we don't get any more cryptic IG posts free three baby free three um it all goes down to the run game everything about anytime you hear about time of possession and controlling the clock and

staying ahead of the sticks, all the addeds or whatever coach speak you want to say, it comes back to having a successful running game. Being able to rely on the running game, not have it be a change up. I felt like that's kind of been the Vikings MO is the run game has been more of the change up than the

staple. When you want to talk about how do we flip some of those stats you just mentioned it's running the ball it's taking care of the football and not having mental errors and guys running through and putting negative plays in the run game it's being consistent in the run game and going through there and Aaron Jones is a good enough back and we've seen him do it time and times again just to continue to rely upon him and then also being more of a quick explosive offense is the words I want to use to kind of describe it, which is not, you know, you hear explosive

and you think down the field, Tyreek Hill, Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Waddle, Tyreek Hill. I'm talking more two-step slant, Jefferson, explosive, quick offense, using tempo, getting up on the ball, three-yard out to TJ Hawkinson when he comes back bubble screen to Jordan Addison quickly ball out of my hands getting the ball in a high completion percentage throw and making that quick and keeping a defense on their heels heels and I think using tempo Sam seems pretty comfortable when you go with tempo like he seems like he's in command because it forces the defense to show their hand. You're up at the line of scrimmage.

You have time for KOC to be in your head and tell you something to look at or see. So I would love to see us go a little bit more tempo, but not tempo where we're throwing incompletes. Tempo, if you go tempo, it's got to be high completion percentage throws. It can't be tempo, 10-yard in route, incomplete. Oh my gosh, we just burned four seconds off the clock right that's the type of stuff that I would like to see this offense

continue to evolve and take the next step with they just haven't had a lot of sequences that have gone first down pass completion six yards second down run first down that hasn't happened very often it's mostly been and and Jones has been great on his first down runs, but I think he averages 4.9 yards per attempt on first down runs. But it's been a lot of, all right, first down, hand off to Aaron Jones, maybe run play action on second down, or if it doesn't work, it has to be a second down pass. We know Kevin O'Connell will not run twice in a row,

no matter what, if the first down run is not successful. And there's been a predictability a bit about this offense. They have run on first down twice as much as they have passed on first down. I think that has to switch a little bit. I'm not for second down and 10 runs. That's not a very efficient play, but I am for a six yard quick out to Jordan Addison. I do think Jordan Addison needs the ball a lot more.

I tend to agree with him. I don't think that you should post anything on the internet that can be perceived, whether he meant it that way or not, that can be perceived as this receiver is unhappy because we know the connotation of that based on other receiver things around the NFL. But this is a guy that a quick little slant, a quick in and out, something like that. He's good at, he will get open and he's not getting pressed by two guys at the line of scrimmage because those guys are on number 18. And TJ Hawkinson, I think is the real linchpin to this whole thing because that's your six-yard completion guy, and he can turn it into 10 or 12 by breaking a tackle,

as he's been so good at. I think that they really have been running it successfully enough to stay on the field, but they also have not had enough of these short completions. The other thing is, too, though, the penalties are killing them. You can't line up. You can't snap the ball. You can't get your play calls into your quarterback to get them out to everybody getting lined up. Why are they committing so many quote procedural penalties?

I never said the word procedural ever for anything before this year. And I feel like I've said about 500 times this year. It's baffling to me. I have no idea. I wish I had an answer because I think the same thing. I'm watching it going four seconds on the shot clock. What are we doing? Why is this taking so long? And that's kind of where my train of thought went to tempo.

You take a lot of the variability out of the timing. If you practice tempo during the week and it's guys looking for signals on the sideline and everyone getting lined up and now you're lined up with 27, 26 seconds left on the shot clock, then we can change the play. Then everyone can get lined up because there is a missing link in the chain of command, right? The chain of command, offensive coordinator, KOC calls the play or talks about the play before they decide on a play, goes to Sam. Sam goes in the huddle. It goes to the line of scrimmage, and then there's a possible check. That is the chain of command when you're playing in the KOC offense.

Somewhere in there, and I don't know where it is, and none of us will because it's all in-house, there's a blip. And that blip is causing five to eight seconds to come off, and that's where either we're feeling hurried out of the huddle. And so guys aren't getting lined up properly because they're hurrying up because they're someone in the huddle is going, hey, 10 seconds, 10 seconds, right? Or we're losing a lapse in judgment because we're in such a hurry. We're not listening to the snap count, right?

Or we're losing a lapse in judgment. We're not getting enabled to get to the checked play because we're running out of time. And all those things are procedural, as you say, and I really don't have an answer as to why this is happening. In the NFL, this should not happen. This is the kind of stuff you see in college. This is the kind of stuff you see in high school going through. But in the National Football League, this should be as easy as breathing.

The operation of calling a play and getting to the line of scrimmage and checking a play should not be hard. I watched the Pittsburgh Steelers do it 30 times last night, right? Russell Wilson has eight different snap counts, but hey, can, can turbo set,

right? It's not hard to do if you practice it properly. And I, Sam's been the starter for the whole way. It's not like it's a backup quarterback in there. I really don't understand where the issue is coming from, but it has to get fixed. A listener pointed out to me that the Vikings have ranked number one

three straight seasons in delay of game penalties, and there's been wasted timeouts. So I do think that this comes from the sideline. And Kirk Cousins, there were times where he was going, get the play in, get the play play in and he would be frustrated I do wonder about being the head coach and also getting the plays in and if there is something happened there and the other thing is O'Connell really likes to talk to the referees is that part of this is it communicating he loves to have this whole communication thing is he communicating with what do you think we should do what do you think you're seeing whatever and not just getting the

play in uh is there too many options for motions and stuff like that because i i think what game was it was in san francisco where they had two guys in motion at the same time and then darnold's answer was to throw it toward the stands like just stuff like that in the first week or two, you go, okay, God, new quarterback. I get it. But that now I'm wasting a time out in a game like that with the Rams in the second half, because you can't complete a pass and then go down and run another play.

Just not acceptable. And I think that that's been a major part of why this has not had that steady turn of an offense uh as we expect it to and it also it's like you said we're the 16th best offense we can't overcome those penalties right right that's the difference if you're the number two or number three offense and you're first and 15 whatever well that's not an issue when you're middle of the pack offense first and 15 or you get a holding penalty and it's second and 18 or whatever it is. It's might as well punt. Right.

And that's what it's kind of felt like is if we get a penalty, well drives over. And that's more of the issue is you can't have procedural errors and be a middle of the road offense and think you're going to have success. I mean, you have to kind of be, if you're 16th, you got to be as buttoned up as possible because the margin for error is so slim when you're trying to do those things. And so, yeah, the penalties have to get fixed there. This offense, you get them behind second and 10 behind the sticks.

They really have a hard time converting. So do you think that they get back on track? Do you think that they win? I do. I think they win. I think the Colts have enough question marks going on. I give the nod to U.S. Bank. We're back home. Is Cashman going to be back this week? Do we know? It's questionable. He's going to be a big boost. He's a big boost because he's the play caller. You'd let Ivan Pace now be a little bit more free and not having to call plays and be in the huddle and doing that thing and get him back in there with the green dot on his head let these guys i think they're gonna have a chip on their shoulder from the performance they had last week from the defense because they have been the guys all year right they've hung their hat on we're the strength of this football team this is what we do

they got shoved a little bit last week i expect them to come out with their hair on fire and really get after flacco and try and collapse that pocket so i do think we get back in the wind column this week okay i love to see it Hate to see it to finish up the show. I will start with, uh, I'm happy for Russell Wilson that a lot of folks thought that they should have stuck with Justin Fields. I get that.

I wondered about that myself. And I'm also wondering about Sean Payton and the offense out there last year, Nate Hackett, and just this Russell Wilson play action, build off the run, throw down the field. He looks like Russell Wilson again. And I also love to see it. Mike Tomlin, every year winning national football league team. It is remarkable how consistent he is. Teams fire coaches and it's the stable ownership that has the belief

we've got an above average coach we're going to stick with him he's going to make the right decisions they're a really darn good team in the afc again despite never being the team anybody ever wants to talk about going into a season i think i read a stat this morning that they've won 22 straight monday night football games which is insane but that just isn't a testament to Mike Tomlin right has his guys ready to play gets the long week and has everything go so I agree with you I'm happy for Russ you want guys to succeed in the NFL I very rarely root for guys to fail unless they say the NFL is easy right but other than that I normally want guys to succeed um in the. I hate to see it for me is Houston losing Stefan Diggs to an ACL. That's a hard one for them, especially with not having Nico Collins.

And then Diggs goes down. It's just that team seems to just have a lot of issues at the receiver position right now. I think if they can get Nico Collins back, they'll be okay. But also just hate that for Diggs. Late in your career, big-time injuries like this are really an uphill climb when you look at Von Miller with the Achilles Kirk with the Achilles Aaron Rodgers with the Achilles I mean historically when you get up to 30 plus and have these bigger injuries it's just really hard for guys to come back from and

Diggs was still playing at a high level so definitely hate to see that for for him and Houston's been an exciting team to watch this year, but now Nico Collins down and he's down and now you have to rely on tank Dell. That's going to be difficult for CJ Stroud. Another love to see it for me. Every single weekend, I make it an appointment to see Travis Hunter play football. This guy, what they're doing is should have Deion arrested. There is no world where you could justify

a guy being out there for 100 snaps every single weekend and yet he's roasting people as a wide receiver when he's on offense I'm going oh he's a receiver in the NFL I mean just look at this and then when he's at corner I'm like oh he's obviously a corner in the NFL and the answer is probably going to be a little bit of both from him there hasn't been a talent like this since Charles Woodson in college football and every single week I just want to see it happen yeah he's absolutely incredible and he's making a point for him to be a Heisman he's also making a point for him to be pick one you know because you I think personally he should go play DB in the NFL because there's never enough DBs with the ball skills that he

has to understand the route concepts from such a knowledgeable position to know when he can bait a quarterback, when he can't bait a quarterback and then having the athletic ability and ball skills to go make those types of interceptions. He is an absolutely unreal talent. He is so much fun to watch. And I, it's unfortunate that the Boise running backs having the year that he's

having, because he's going to win the Heisman if he brushes for 2000 yards in college football. But I mean, yeah, he has been so much fun to watch. It's been just incredible to see. You got to love to see it. I do. My love to see it is that the bills are back. Yes. The bills are 100% back. They're figuring their stuff out. Josh Allen is playing some of the best football of his career. He's taking care of the football better than he ever has. And they're relying on the run game with James Cook. Amari Cooper's now there. The defense is rounding out into form. They have a clear path to the playoffs because that division is an absolute nightmare.

The Bills are putting themselves, we're looking for another matchup of bills kansas city again heading into the super bowl game and i am excited for it because i just love everything about those guys in that organization it's uh feeling very much like the days of manning rothasberger and brady only now it is lamar pat and josh and also we have to give huge credit to sean mcdermott he went through a lot last year with a certain story that came out about maybe his past but that he looked like a guy that had no idea what he was doing early in his career as far as relating to players and that story really emphasized that and yet he has continued he guided his team through the Damar Hamlin thing

and he's maybe a field goal away or a missed chiefs field goal or whatever from that team eventually as we saw from peyton manning eventually the greats will get there drew breeze a lot a lot of different quarterbacks have come close many times and then finally they get there and get what they deserve and it's starting to look like buffalo and they've got an easy track. That division is terrible. The AFC, before the season, we're like, man, the AFC is just so good. It's so loaded now.

Like, it's probably a four-team race. And the Texans just lost one of their best players. So we will see how it goes, Jeremiah, and then be back next week to break down whatever happens between the Vikings and Colts. Great stuff as always, man. Absolutely.

Looking forward to it. Football. There you go.