Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Is Brian Murphy ready to call Kirk Cousins a winner?

Episode Date: October 31, 2022

Matthew Coller and Brian Murphy talk about the Vikings' win over the Arizona Cardinals and why Brian has been impressed with Kirk Cousins' play despite some of his statistics being down. He discussed Patrick Peterson's beef with the Cardinals and how veteran players are starting to drive the Vikings' 6-1 train...though there are challenges to come.  -- For more of Matthew's Vikings coverage, head to purpleinsider.substack.com For bonus discussions, interview clips, and more videos, check out our YouTube channel! Interact with us on Twitter! @Purple_Insider Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider presented by Liquid Death. Go to liquiddeath.com slash insider and learn about the Tallboy can, which actually has water. Find out where you can get it near you at liquiddeath.com slash insider. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. It is a Monday morning Murph. Brian Murphy, what is going on, sir? Happy Halloween to you and yours well uh nothing spooky about the vikings win over

it was a this was not planned folks that was not planned no i yeah uh i was gonna say by the arizona offensive line giving up all the sacks to zadari smith was ghoulish or you know whatever um but uh hey brian at least there wasn't the october storm this tells you how minnesotan i am now that i wasn't even here for that but everybody talks about it so at least there wasn't one of those oh you mean the hollywood the the halloween blizzard of 1991 i think i've heard vaguely of that. People here carry that around like a disease. No, it's going to be gorgeous today. I mean, that's, you know, I even kind of threw that in my column. I'm like, okay, I know it sounds ridiculous to be all in on these guys

at six and one, but why not? I mean, it's 70 degrees every day. It's almost November. It just feels like there's unicorns and rainbows and plenty of golden horseshoes in Kevin O'Connell's arsenal right now. Well, and you talk about the weather. We all know where that train is headed. But with this one, it's harder to say. I will say about that win yesterday that I was more impressed at the way they played than I have been in some of their other victories this year. And I think that the one in Miami was the least impressive victory that they had, or if not the Lions game where they were down for the majority and should have been

closed out. So there's a couple ones where we walked away and said, yeesh. I mean, they're surviving advance, but that was not great. I didn't feel that way about Arizona in part because a lot of their good players had good games. It wasn't entirely the other team gave it to you. It wasn't entirely just getting away with stuff. It was Zedarius Smith, who is probably what a top three free agent off season acquisition in the entire NFL. I mean, he has been every bit the best version of Zedaria Smith. So it's him doing it. It's cousins running in for a touchdown.

It's Delvin cook averaging 5.6 yards per carry. When there were plenty of times this year where we kind of went like, Hey Delvin, are you okay? And the really funny thing is too, and it was, it was run blocking, Delvin, are you okay? And the really funny thing is, too, and it was run blocking, that Delvin Cook, in terms of rushing yards over expected, was still at zero yesterday, which means that he didn't gain any more than was expected, but that's how much they dominated on the offensive line with their run game.

Like, that's something that we know they're going to need to be able to do. Harrison Smith gets an interception. Like, the guys who need to be great were great in that win, and they haven't been for the entire season. But if that is something that continues on a week-to-week basis, then they can play with some of the bigger boys that are coming up on their schedule soon. Hey, let's not forget Patrick Peterson, the old man cornerback

who was a man possessed yesterday against his former team, played like it, stepped up huge, taunted and delivered. And, you know, I think that's I think the secondary is feeding off that. It looks like Harrison Smith has gained five years off of his legs. Cameron Dantzler is really emerging as a solid, reliable, I don't want to say shutdown corner, but at least, you know, he, last year he was kind of flailing around. This year, it looks like he knows what he's doing. I mean, I, you mentioned every, every solid player, every superstar, they're making good plays, great plays at very, very key moments. And that often is the difference in a one-score league, which is where we're at every week, it seems like.

So it's been the progression for the last four or five games that you just feel like, yeah, we know what the script is. You know, they're going to look great on their opening drive. They're going to rack up some yards. They're going to build a lead. They're going to lurch around for a while. Then they're going to take a nap in the third quarter. Then there's going to be an adrenaline rush, and they're going to figure out something in the fourth to make it happen. And lo and behold, that's what happens. Now, that is not usually a recipe for success, and it's probably not going to be a recipe for success in the three-game march that they have next month at Buffalo, home to Dallas, home to New England on Thanksgiving night. Probably not going to be able to get away with that, but

the other thing is they're building confidence because now they go into the fourth quarter, whether they're trailing or not, feeling like this isn't an issue because we know our big players on offense, our big players on defense, heck, even special teams always comes up with at least one good play a day, a game. That's a lot of confidence and you can't really account for that as this goes on. And now there's seven games in. So yeah, they're going to face some tough games and tough challenges in November, but I feel like they're not the same team they were going into Philadelphia in week two. They're a much more hardened group, and we're going to know where they're at

Thanksgiving night for the rest of the season, but this division is absolutely theirs to lose, and now it's a matter of if you can get double-digit wins, maybe you're the number two seed behind Philadelphia. That's what they, that's what they should be setting on their horizon. Yeah. It's funny because I was looking at the playoff situation and this is just sort of neither here nor there. And they almost don't want to be the number two. If San Francisco is going to be the number seven, because that's not a good matchup for them. And so you actually should be as Vikings fans, keeping an eye on how the playoff shuffling goes along because at the current state you'd be playing, I think what might be the third best

team in the NFC or fourth best in San Francisco and a really bad matchup for your team. Whereas you know, there's, there's other teams that are like division winners that are not going to be as good. So it's, so it is a weird season that might give it and take it away in some ways. So wait a second. Are you, are you advocating for a playoff seating tanking? No. Well, no, I don't think I can do that, but I think that what I would be advocating for is keeping an eye on that playoff race and rooting for San Francisco if you're Vikings fans, because you'd rather have San Francisco

win. I'm looking at it right now. You'd rather have them win the NFC West. So you would face probably Seattle or I mean, maybe the Rams. I think the Rams are kind of bad and probably going to miss the playoffs this year. And I also like don't have any real belief in Tampa Bay as being the playoff team either, or in green Bay,

it's like surprisingly showing up and getting that number seven seed. Same with Washington. Like, I just don't think that they can sustain it. We might know all the playoff teams right now, except for maybe the NFC South. Like, can Atlanta make the playoffs? That would be pretty surprising. But if Seattle is the number three seed

and San Francisco is the seven, that's just not a great matchup for the Vikings. But again, like we're a really long way from that. And yet still, it's already feeling like you should be looking at the playoff races because so much seems to be determined in the NFL. Maybe that will all change. I wanted to circle back, though, and talk about Patrick Peterson because I saw after the game there was a video of him kind of going off and saying, like, Steve Keim, where are you at?

Like, why didn't you ever call me and then there was another anecdote that came out about them the team when he was with Arizona printing out emails that had been sent to ownership and leaving them at his locker about how he wasn't covering well enough and how he was old and overpaid and things like that which I don't know why in the world you would do things like that I have been so impressed Murph with Patrick Peterson that he has taken ownership of the organization in and of the secondary room and it not just been like a rent a hall of famer like you've seen in so many different places but somebody who has completely made himself into a Minnesota Viking and and one of their top leaders and one of their top players over the

last two years, easily their best corner over the last two seasons. I don't know what happened in Arizona, but that organization seems like a total mess. And I felt like it showed up yesterday at times where that's a team where their quarterback fights with their coach, where their coach is kind of clueless when it comes to game planning, where their defense has been built on a house of cards. And then here's the Vikings who are galvanized together. And one of the key guys because of that has been Patrick Peterson. Oh, he seemed to be in his element yesterday. I mean, every opportunity he took to glance over at that bench and wag a finger and jaw jack anybody that was within earshot was quite entertaining. I mean, if anybody saw, I guess somebody had video clips.

I'm not sure. I don't know if Fox did, but somebody had them out on Twitter. When Harrison Smith picked off that pass at midfield, Peterson turns around and literally takes a bow at midfield looking over at the Cardinal sideline while Smith is running the ball up the field. Now, if Smith had gotten caught from behind and fumbled, there could have been a storyline there of, you know, why are you saluting the crowd when you should be maybe at least accompanying your fellow defensive back downfield, but neither here nor there. He's backed up his talk.

He's backed up his energy. It's kind of, you could tell it was pent up because, obviously, they played last year week two out in Arizona, and it was one of the Vikings' – one of many painful losses. I believe it was an overtime loss, wasn't it, in week two? Missed field goal at the end, yeah. Missed field goal at the end. I knew it was one of those teeter-totter games.

And you could tell he probably had bottled that up for a year uh if he's if he's showing receipts in the postgame press conference about how the front office was uh trying to motivate him with with spicy fan fan mail i think he's you know but it not only is he delivering and making plays but i think the team is gravitating towards him. I think O'Connell's leaning on him heavily. As I said, you know, he's rubbing off on Dantzler. I think Harrison Smith has been revived.

I mean, I think he carried the burden of the decaying Zimmer defense for a long time. And I think it weighed on a mentally and physically. I mean, he looks like, as I said earlier, it looks like he's three or four years younger the way he's making plays. Although he does, for the first time I think yesterday, I saw him taking oxygen on the sidelines. So I think that is a sign that you have become sort of an AARP player when you're grabbing the oxygen tank

after an interception. But I just love what Peterson brings as far as energy. It straddles the line of obnoxiousness and over the top and intensity. So even Cousins was even saying, I was a little worried about him before the game because he seemed like he was really, really too amped up and almost to the point where that may have been detrimental, but it wasn't, obviously. He's a veteran. He knows how to scream right up to the edge and still get his job done. So there's just so much, I mean, they're obviously flawed. I mean, we will pick apart aspects of play, of games, of play calling, of, again, that third quarter nap that they had for most of the season. They did finally wake up and get a couple of scores. But there's, you know, Greg Joseph, you know, this may rear its ugly head later too with missed extra points. And I don't know

the last time he's even made a field goal at U.S. Bank Stadium. So there are things, obviously, to pick apart. But they are entertaining, and I think when you're, you know, you're not just surviving on luck. You're also, your big-time players are making big-time plays and big-time games, and you can't script and account for that, and when that happens, it does bring a level of confidence on the sideline that can be contagious. So as long as they're going to ride this wave, they are only going to get more confident and build up more scar tissue. And if you're a fan, enjoy the ride because, what,

this is the first time since 2009 and Brett Favre was throwing, you know, unicorns all over the place that they've been 6-1. So there's potential doom along the way. We all get that. But this is probably as pleasant a Vikings team heading in November as I can remember in the last 10 or 12 years. Folks, you've heard me talk about liquid death, and I'm glad to see that some of you are getting on board.

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That's liquiddeath.com slash insider. That's liquiddeath.com slash insider. I think Peterson is part of a group of players who do have their AARP cards and are veteran players that by all numbers and all of history should be fading. And some are noticeably fading. I mean, Adam Thielen is not the same as he used to be, but yesterday he provided exactly what they need.

I mean, six catches, 67 yards, had a big 17-yard catch late in the game. If he's doing that, he doesn't need to be 90 or 100 catch Adam Thielen. He just needs to be a really effective second player. And they still need more from Irv Smith. They still need more from K.J. Osborne or whomever they trade for by the trade deadline. They do need more from some guys. But I think that when you look at the veteran and the oldest players and guys that in some instances are showing signs of age, but still overcoming it

to be above average players. I mean, Harrison Smith, Patrick Peterson, Adam Thielen, Delvin Cook, relative age for running backs is pretty ancient. And Zedarius Smith. I mean, these are their oldest players and Kirk Cousins, of course, as well. And some are versions closer to their prime like zedaria smith that looks like 2019 over the last couple of weeks but at least when you're bringing enough you're still above the curve for what is the rest of the nfl to drive a team to be to this point and i think another part of it too is that all these veteran players and some who have been brought in from other places, they could throw Jordan Hicks in that group as well. They have very much gotten behind Kevin O'Connell's approach. And Z'Darrius Smith said yesterday, from day one,

a coach who lets the players be themselves and lets the players drive the bus is good with me, or something like that. He said it's like those guys in particular, the most important players that are going to decide where this thing goes, they are really enjoying the way that Kevin O'Connell is giving them the reins. And I think that that's something that maybe we couldn't have figured at the beginning of the season. Like how much is something like that going to matter? And it seems to have mattered. Right. I mean, all the off-season happy talk made sense. You know, again, you're making a clean break from the tension of the Zimmer Spielman regime. So it makes sense that you're going to, the pendulum's going to swing the other

way and you got a young, unproven guy who's going to come in and basically say, I want to be the breath of fresh air. I want this to be a family. I want us to come together. Kumbaya. So you can roll your eyes at that. But the fact is they're six in one. So it sounds great. And it seems to be working. They have not faced that much. They haven't faced any adversity. They haven't faced any injury adversity. They haven't gotten screwed really on any calls. They haven't had something go wrong, flight problems, or somebody's setting off the fire alarms in the hotels. um you know they bounce back from their one humbling loss at philadelphia which is going to linger with them because obviously philadelphia is the class of the nfc and it's probably going to be their their constant measuring stick um at this point as the number two seed but i it it all works because you're winning i mean bottom line they're winning if they were 500 you know it might wear a little thin but the fact that they're winning and everybody's happy and they're, and they're all, they're not pointing fingers at

each other. They're pointing fingers at the, the coach and the scheme and the atmosphere as being the fuel for their success. Again, these are all intangible things that they kind of take on a life of their own. So I've been just, I've kind of been enjoying watching it a little bit at a distance because for so long, even when they were, was it 5-0 back in 2016? It felt like a house of cards. It felt like Zimmer was going to melt down at any moment. And it didn't feel legitimate. So the fact that this feels a little bit more like, you know, I think they do believe in this guy and it's, you know, he's not stringing up cats to get slaughtered in the locker room and pulling cats like that. Fat cats.

Fat cats. I mean, it is Halloween. So in honor of Zimmer's ham fisted motivational tactic, for those that don't recall, I think it was 2016 when they were 5-0. He put up the stuffed animals with fake blood and said fat cats get slaughtered. I mean, you think back now and you go, what was he thinking? That might have been one of the moments where he literally lost grip with the team. Granted, the next year they went to the NFC Championship game, but that was the first time you're like, I don't know about that. I question that tactic with grown men. So, you know, O'Connell to that effect hasn't really patronized his team yet. Again, we'll see where they're at in November.

We've been talking about this three-game stretch. It's looming. They should take care of business in Washington next week. We all know what should take care of business is a euphemism for fall flat on their face. I got to imagine Cousins as, you know, as milquetoast and as, you know, as much as he has an aversion toward narratives and storylines involving him and what it all means, especially with the way Patrick Peterson and Jordan Hicks responded to playing the Cardinals yesterday.

Deep down inside, you know he wants to wander into Washington and put his foot down on that team. So he may not talk about it. I want to see how he responds to that. I mean, he's kind of taking care of his prime time woes a little bit. So here's another checkmark for him is going back to your former team an inferior opponent on the road i mean how do you like that collar uh this one is tailor-made for everyone tailor-made taylor heineke uh but i mean it's it's really laid right

out there the some of the people covering the team will be able to handle that storyline pretty easily this week. I think Kirk returns to Washington. Sometimes they just give you some gifts. But I do think that Washington should be a little bit of a scary team for them because they have a good defense, a good defensive line specifically. And the Vikings got smacked on the offensive line, especially in the middle as per usual in the right guard position and I do wonder if they're going to have to make a change this week as they go face a team that could absolutely strip sack them several times the way Arizona strip sack Kirk Cousins in a key moment but I want to talk about Kirk because

you wrote about Kirk right Right now, statistically speaking, Kirk is having the worst season since 2014 of his career by the numbers. His quarterback rating, even his QBR, which judges play versus situation by ESPN, is the worst of his career. Yards per completion, the lowest. His interception to touchdown ratio isn't that good his yards per pass attempt are by far the lowest and his uh adjusted net yards per attempt is down a whole yard from last year which is like 17 basically um all those numbers should suggest

that they are not six in one uh usually if your quarterback declines in play by that much, and yet there are vibes with Kirk Cousins, and yet there is belief with Kirk Cousins more than there ever has been before. Reckon with all of this for me, Murph. Well, you're the numbers guy, so you sound like you're just completely befuddled and confounded by all of this. I frankly, I don't want to say I, I view him as a winner because there's a long way to go before he has to, you know,

assume that title. He needs to obviously make a deep playoff run. Um, and, but what you mentioned, they are galvanizing around him. And I have not felt that in the four years he's been in town where the, you feel like the team, um, doesn't necessarily have to apologize for him and doesn't necessarily have to close ranks and protect him. And doesn't necessarily have to maybe fall on a sword on their own play for him, especially since Zimmer was constantly undermining him subtly and not so subtly either at a podium or behind the scenes. So I feel like the team recognizes that he's had a productive career, but he just hasn't – he's been a 500 quarterback his entire career. So I think they may be recognizing the long term blossoming of a very, very savvy, productive, durable quarterback who hasn't always been the alpha male leader in the room. Maybe he doesn't have to be. I mean, maybe maybe that's Patrick Peterson's role.

You know, maybe that's Justin Jefferson's role. Maybe that'll end up being, I mean, Harrison Smith on the defense is kind of that guy. Kirk's going to be Kirk. Kirk's never going to change. He's a little bit Joe Maurer in the sense that I think people here want him to be more of a Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers-like force, and he's just not equipped for that. So are you satisfied that he is a middle-of-the-pack production quarterback who seems to be living a charmed life on a charmed team, or are you waiting for the other shoe to drop in the sense that he's going to get piled on from a little bit of a shaky offensive line. He's going to make the wrong play at the wrong moment, or he's not going to be able to step up at the right moment when he's needed. That hasn't happened yet. So I think he's just taking baby steps toward becoming, dare we say, a winner. Folks, I know you've heard me talk about SodaStick for a long time now, but I'm telling you, you have to start following them on social media

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Well, here's the thing about the NFL and what's so glorious about how it all works in sports in our brains is order of operations really matters to our narratives. If a team starts out six and one, then we really notice, oh, my gosh, they're at the top of the division. They're six and one. This is an incredible start. They're a great team. Signed, sealed, delivered. And we easily forget that in 2020, they had a five-in-one stretch. And in 2019, they had a seven-in-two stretch. And of course, Kirk was the quarterback for both of those. So it's not as if he's never won games in a row. It has happened throughout his career. The problem is that there always has been another shoe to drop with his play. Now, in 2020, they had a poor defense, and New Orleans scores 50 points,

and that's not Kirk's fault. So not every win and not every loss are the quarterback's fault. We know that. But I think what you see from Kirk Cousins is a 500 quarterback doesn't win one, lose one, win one, lose one in the same way that a 250 hitter doesn't go one for four every single game. Now, the question that I have, though, is did they survive a stretch of poor quarterback play mostly? And then the upswing is on the way as they play the better teams, or is this who Kirk is going to be all season, and they are going to fall off the edge of a cliff, which has happened in these other seasons?

That would be the conundrum because I don't have an answer to that. I don't have the crystal ball that Mike Zimmer had. I can't look into the future. I mean, statistically speaking, you would think an upswing would be on the way, that he would start playing better. But yesterday wasn't really better. I mean, he's doing all the same things that have driven everybody crazy, but they've had everything be favorable.

And they have a coach that was a quarterback who's willing to talk with him on the sideline and adjust things throughout a game. Imagine that. And then he's also surrounded by this sort of like cocoon of dudes. Like you mentioned, like Zedarius Smith, Patrick Pizzo, like these are dudes. These are bad men. These are like NFL dangerous people that other teams come in and say, man, you got to watch out for Zedarius Smith. Or I mean, even like Christian Derrissaw is becoming like a dude, somebody that's a top player at his position. So if you have these

players who do have, Derrissaw doesn't have a big personality, but you know, Z'Darrius and so forth who have taken this locker room and basically said, this is our locker room now. That's great for Kirk. And I also think that if they get another wide receiver in a trade, that's great for Kirk. And I also think that if they get another wide receiver in a trade, that's great for Kirk. But if this stretch, like the one in 2019 and 2020, are the best that we're going to see, as opposed to the start of something where he hits a high note and starts rolling, I mean, then they're going to lose some games going the rest of the way. And they're going to lose some that you don't expect because he just hasn't played all that well. And the passing game has not been all that effective.

And I mean, look how much they had to really lean on the run game yesterday. If somebody stops that and forces them to pass and the other team is good, it's just going to be trouble for them. I think like there's still those signs so I think that the people who sent me tweets yesterday and said I'm still not inspired I think that's fair because this is the biggest like beaming like red flag like hey if you're not passing the ball that effectively on a down-to-down basis it could come to bite you but I don't know which way this is going to go because traditionally, if he had a stretch where his quarterback rating was 90, then his quarterback rating was 118 the

next five games. So it's really interesting to try to figure out. And maybe that's not something they have to be immediately concerned with because as you know, they did, you know, Arizona showed very early on they were not going to stop Delvin Cook or the running game. I mean, Madison had a great day yesterday as well. I mean, Johnny Munt, they designed a beautiful play call down for him inside the five-yard line or inside the red zone where he found himself open. Jefferson hasn't scored in a while. I don't know if he's getting frustrated. There were a few shots of him kind of scowling a bit. Uh, in fact, just before he made that, I think it was a third down grab down on the sidelines,

probably his best catch of the day and maybe even cousin's best throw. Uh, it looked like he was on the verge of melting down. Um, so yeah, I mean, they're, they're stretching the boundaries of what, uh, could be considered adequate quarterback play to maintain this. What I would say, what feels different to me than in all of the seasons here is the defense. And as you mentioned, the key pieces that are stepping up and taking a lot of the leadership responsibility off of him as well. If Cousins is having a mediocre day, you can count on the defense for creating a turnover and shortening a field, coming up with a key third down stop. You can even count on, it seems like once a week, a special team's play that can flip the field and change momentum. It seems to be happening every week. So that burden of cousins having to, you know,

throw for 300 yards and post 130 quarterback rating and complete 90% of his passes, it hasn't really felt like it's been there because there's plenty of other players and units that are relieving him of that burden. You're right, though. I think in the big games coming up in Buffalo, he has to step up because Josh Allen will carve them. I don't care how good the Vikings feel about themselves defensively. If they wander into Buffalo, and because this is mediocre, they're going to be coming back probably with a double-digit loss. Dallas, maybe the home field gives them a, you know, it's a coin flip game.

And then what's Belichick going to do in a short week? Dallas, maybe the home field gives them a coin flip game. And then what's Belichick going to do in a short week? You keep thinking they're going to fall apart at any moment, but somehow he rallies the troops. They're 500. I still feel like that may be the biggest trap game of the three because you know what you're getting going into Buffalo. They know the Cowboys very well. New England seems to be the wild card on Thursday night, Thanksgiving, and what will Belichick be? That may be the game where O'Connell's got to bring

his A-game coaching, and what's that going to mean for him? What are the matchups going to be like? What are the adjustments going to be like? That may be, as I'm saying, this Kevin O'Connell's Waterloo moment way, maybe Thanksgiving night. I want to pivot back quickly to something you mentioned because we danced around a little, the trade deadline. It is tomorrow. It's November 1st. I don't know when it was that the NFL trade deadline kind of became a thing

where teams actually made midseason moves. When they moved to that. Yeah, I mean, I remember when I was covering the beat years ago, I mean, it was a, I mean, you might get a guy off waivers or some practice squad guy you might make a move for or dump some salary, but it was never like baseball or hockey where you're loading up for a run and we're going to go all in on somebody and bring them in in the middle of the season and jolt the locker room.

I think there's, you know, you can make an argument that could use another downfield receiver, on somebody and bring them in in the middle of the season and jolt the locker room. I think there's, you know, you can make an argument that could use another downfield receiver, not that they grow on trees, but maybe there's somebody disgruntled out there. But there's also the delicate question of chemistry. This is a very tight locker room, a very close team. What are your thoughts on whether they may be be quazies like never mind what i told usa today we're all in we're gonna go full ramps i think they would be foolish not to go all ramps because you're getting the best version you'll ever get again of zadarius smith patrick peterson and a number of other players i mean let's talk about future pieces that they even have to build around right

now that are sort of sure things. Brian O'Neill is going to be here. Justin Jefferson, I think probably signs a mega deal soon. And after this year, Christian Derisaw for sure. And then, you know,

like, I mean, really, it's really up in the air after that. I've liked some DJ want them things I've seen this year, but when we're talking about foundational pieces, at some point the wheels come off of the roster and you have to really do a major reset,

and that is probably coming fairly soon. So you've got this opportunity, you know, like Eminem, you know, one opportunity for everything you ever wanted. Why would you pass it up? Why would you be like, no, no, I think we'll worry about 2024. Like, well, but you don't know if everyone's going to stink in 2024. I mean, the Lions, if the Lions draft a great quarterback next year, they're going to be competitive. If Chicago spends 50 gazillion dollars, they look like they have an okay coach. Like if they spend $50 gazillion in free agency next year, they're going to be better.

Like, I mean, you only really get a shot where the whole division just doesn't even contest you at all. I mean, you have to do everything you can. And if you're only scared of one other team in the NFC that you don't even have to face until the NFC championship, If you get into the playoffs, take that shot, take that shot. I mean, it's just like, you can look at the thing going forward. And if you make a mistake and you trade a high draft pick and it blows up in your face, at least you gave it a shot. No, one's going to criticize you for that is the way I would look at it. If you, if you make a big trade to try to go for it at six and one and it doesn't work out oh well i mean

that that that's how i look at it like you spent with your first round pick this year you traded down and spent it on a guy who didn't even win a job out of camp like draft draft picks are wonderful and i'm all for team building but i'm also for when them when that light shines on you i mean be a star quacey That's what I would say about the trade deadline. I mean, go make this thing happen because I think also it means a lot to the team when they do that because everybody heard the words competitive rebuild. I guarantee you they heard it. And so if you make a big trade for Brandon Cooks or Chase Claypool or somebody who can really make a difference on this team. They're going to be like,

okay, no competitive rebuild. We're going for it. And I think that's a, that's a shot in the arm. And I also think when you look at the roster, it's pretty necessary. Is it possible that quasi's biggest decision or moment as an NFL GM,

maybe upon us nine months into the job until he drafts the quarterback, which will happen someday that's it yeah this is it i mean because you have to you have to go with the situation right like if they were a 500 team right now i would be like no no no no no do not be sending draft capital out don't be making silly trades like honestly even the the Jalen Rager trade at the time and still looked kind of silly. It was like, what is this? Why are they sending draft capital out when this team should be hoarding its draft capital? And then everything has gone their way to get to this point. So now it's just the calculus is different. And when you look at

Vikings history, and I think this is just a fact of life for every team that doesn't have Aaron Rodgers or Brett Favre or Peyton Manning, you get one shot a decade. I mean, that's just how it's been. And like, we didn't see it coming in 2017 necessarily. We thought they were a pretty good team, but we didn't think that they were going to go 13 and three. I mean, nobody thought when Favre arrived that they were going to go to the NFC championship game. Like usually you don't when you're one of those pop-up teams, usually you don't know that this is going to happen. I remember when they were two and two in 2017, uh, Brad Lane, who you worked for my old boss, he asked me, do you want to go to Chicago for this game where

Case Keenum is going to start. And I was like, I don't know, man, I don't know if it's worth the budget. Like maybe we should just save it and go to the, you know, spend it on the combine or some other, some other trip to cover the team. Cause I think this team is just going to come apart with Case Keenum there. It's like they didn't. So that's what I'm saying. It's like, you, you don't know for sure where it's going to go, but at least you had somewhat of a prove a game yesterday to get to where they are now. So that's, that's my case, Murph. I love it. I love that you're all in. I mean, hell, maybe, maybe they will shake things up tomorrow. And I mean, it'd be a hell of a story to cover. Like, you know, Vikings shove

every chip into the, into the middle in year one of the quasi O'Connell regime. I mean, it'd be fun to watch. And then boy, if it burns down, I tend to agree that, you know, you're right.

The moment is the moment again, I don't know about how much capital to spend or what the, you know, what the, the decision-making process should be, but as, but you're right, these are very fine. I kind of picked up on it maybe three or four weeks ago. I'm like, there's something brewing here. There's something that feels a little bit different. It is a bit of a lightning in a bottle situation. So don't let that moment pass by.

Beautifully put Murph. Thank you for your time, sir. As always. And just a sound of optimism this season, huh? Well, it's weird when they win games. Look what happens.

It's just, you know, it's my entire career from the time I started covering the American hockey league. People are like, why are you negative about this team when teams lost? And then it wasn't when they won. But I haven't covered a whole lot of winning outside of 2017.

So, you know, that's how it goes. But thanks, as always, for your commentary, Murph. And we will do it again. Maybe we'll be talking about in Washington how the new receiver who fit in at the trade deadline ended up performing. So it worked out for San Francisco to get Christian McCaffrey yesterday. So we shall see. Thanks, Mark. Yeah, sounds good. Have a good week, everyone.