Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Is it possible to overreact to Sunday's loss? Going down the rabbit hole of the Vikings' future

Episode Date: September 21, 2020

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the Chevy Silverado is in a league of its own. Strong, advanced, and dependable. Download TE1 today, wherever you listen to podcasts. Hello and welcome to another reaction podcast. Matthew Collar, intern Paul here. He has five questions as we are going to do this each week. We won't always have Courtney and me doing a reaction. That depends on the situation a little bit.

But we definitely will always have five questions reacting to each game. And this one in particular deserves extra reaction because I believe Paul we talked about the panic level and I had it maybe in orange last week well guess what the meter has gone to red it's actually exploded yet we are in the land of total freak out when it comes to Vikings fans after this 28-11 loss. And I do not blame them because I looked this up. There have only been 12 games since 2010 in which a quarterback threw more than 20 passes and put up a quarterback rating under 20. So I think that that is wholly worthy of freaking out. And silver linings to the loss to the Colts include nothing. Not even the punter was good.

Britton Colquitt had a bad punt that set up an Indianapolis touchdown. There was nothing that you could look at and say, well, at least this happened. And by the way, just got done watching a couple of plays back, Drew Samia at one point was picked up off the ground as a 300-pound human being picked up off the ground on a particular pass rush. So everything, you didn't even get, well, the right guard who we were watching played pretty well. Nothing. So why don't you kick us off? Take us wherever you want. You've got five questions, and I can't wait to answer them. Yeah, I just got done listening to your podcast with Courtney, and the panic level was off the charts.

And you talked a little bit about the game, mostly on the offense, mostly on Kirk and the stuff that just wasn't happening there. But the defense was still struggling, and this was something that I was kind of thinking about after the Packers lost, but it was clear the pass defense was a big issue. But Jonathan Taylor kind of could do whatever he wanted with the Vikings' rush defense today. So moving forward, which unit are you worried about more, the pass defense group or the rush defense group? Well, I think it's always the pass because think about the drive where Jonathan Taylor really shredded them.

The first drive that Indianapolis had drove all the way down the field, handing off to him almost every other play. It took nine minutes off the clock and they ended with an interception. And I think if you dare teams to run to win that in 2020 that's okay if you're saying we're going to play our two deep safeties we're going to give a ton of help to these corners and you know what we're going to give up five yards to carry but think about what happens when you give up extra yards in passing you give up 40 yard touchdowns to Aaron Rodgers and from that perspective I thought the defense was okay that Mike Zimmer mentioned after the game that his philosophy tweaked there with the defense from

instead of we're going to try to blitz to get home we're all of a sudden now going to just play more help and play back and give more linebacker and safety help to the young corners I actually thought that for a large portion of the game it worked. And yes, good running backs, good offensive lines, very few offensive lines are as good as Indianapolis. They're going to be able to do that. And it feels really bad to watch when your defensive line is getting run over like that. But if you're not giving up 30 or 40 yard passing plays as they did to the Packers, you can survive. And that's the thing about this game in particular that was so frustrating to watch is that you felt like the defense gave them at least a fighting chance and that the Colts defense is not particularly

good. They had their starting corner out, Rakia Sin. Xavier Rhodes is their other starting cornerback. They don't have a whole lot of talent to speak of in terms of edge rushers. They don't have a Joey Bosa or somebody who's one of the top five edge rushers in the league. Even the overall pressure on Kirk Cousins was just kind of meh. I'll have to look at what the PFF numbers say, but the fact that you couldn't get into kind of a semi-shootout there with Indianapolis and force them to throw down the field against your extra coverage with Anthony Harris and Harrison Smith mostly playing deeper back, the fact that you couldn't do that on offense is the part that would drive you up the wall here, because I think that Zimmer got the

right answer for how they're going to need to play defense until Daniil Hunter came back. And yet it didn't play out to even have them slightly in the game really at any point past halftime. Yeah, and I think we kept looking at it, and you're going into halftime, and they were down only, what, like 12 or so? And you're like, okay, well, it was like the Packer game at some point. It's like, well, they're still kind of in this like something can happen and just last week it was the offense got going but the defense just couldn't stop anyone and this it was kind of the other way around the defense just kind of bled out they were still on the field a really long time and the offense just Kirk Cousins didn't put up the garbage time numbers that he did last week like you mentioned with Courtney

um another thing you briefly mentioned with her was Irv Smith and the lack of his involvement in this offense. I think you were talking a lot about it in training camp, but everyone was talking about it a lot in training camp. He was flashing. We thought this was going to be the Owen Daniels for Gary Kubiak. This was going to be someone who was going to maybe threaten 1,000 yards. He was going to be up there.

He was going to be someone who was going to maybe threaten a thousand yards. He was going to be up there. Like, he was going to be really, really good. So is he, like, the most disappointing piece on that offense other than Kirk Cousins so far? Hmm, that is a good question. Who's the most disappointing? It's a lot of people so far. Let's talk about who's, like, not disappointing. Justin Jefferson has done basically what I thought.

He would get a couple of catches in the first couple of weeks, but if you were expecting Justin Jefferson to carry the offense as a rookie in a very strange offseason, then you were probably asking too much. Delvin Cook has been Delvin Cook, but there just haven't been that many opportunities for him to run over people because they've been playing from behind for most of these first two games. And if you are the against signing running backs, one of your arguments is,

Hey, usually these guys do a lot of their damage when you're running out clock, as opposed to getting you ahead in games. And if you look at Delvin cooks yards per carry, it's not bad in these first two games, but what does it really mean when you're not in those situations where you're playing from ahead and yes of course Cousins is the most disappointing player through the first two weeks

because he was coming off of a really good season a career season last year from pro football focus from quarterback rating yards per attempt any of the efficiency numbers were Kirk Cousins best and you expected that he would come out and do that again but I think the answer is totally with Irv Smith Jr. that he is first on that list you might though if you wanted to go off the board a little bit you might just say Adam Thielen because even though he had a bunch of catches at the end of the game against Green Bay he didn't have big plays in the first game when it mattered and then in this game, it was a complete no-show outside of the first drive for Thielen. In fact, I mean, Xavier Rhodes was able to tip a ball away from him at one point.

And I think the defenses are going to focus so much on Thielen that it shouldn't. With the players that they have and the talent they have, it shouldn't destroy them. But it seems to be so far through two games. But aside from that, that does feel like a little bit harsh on Thielen that Irv Smith Jr. only having – what has he got, two catches now? That's just not enough. It's not anywhere close. And something that really struck me as Mike Zimmer was talking after the game

was he said that their philosophy of controlling the ball, running, playing conservatively, that it just is not going to work with this group. And I thought that it was really self-aware, actually, by Mike Zimmer and totally 100% correct. You cannot kick field goals at the three-yard line of the other team at the goal line. You can't do that. You can't kick a 21-yard field goal. You have to try to score a touchdown if you've moved the ball there. You can't have Delvin Cook catch, what, two passes, three passes

in these first two weeks. Delvin Cook has to have the football in his hands in space. It can't just be hand him off up the middle and then throw him a screen pass or a check down every once in a while you've got to use them in more creative ways you've got to use Justin Jefferson and Irv Smith in more creative ways to just get them the ball in space to make some plays and I think that we might see a shift against Tennessee to a more aggressive nature for Mike Zimmer and Gary Kubiak because this way this way didn't work. And the other thing that was kind of weird, Paul, was that they ran a bunch of play actions on the first drive, and then just didn't seem to do it anymore after that. Now, they got themselves another safety

that wasn't on a play action, but this one was on Cousins, and the interceptions were problematic. But again, it just felt like they went away from the bootlegs and the play actions after doing it on the first drive and then didn't have a whole lot of passing success after that. So I think that even though the defense is an issue that we talked about, that's not going to change. But with the offense, they have the talent to be far better than they've been these first two weeks.

So I think I might just circle all on that one. You get three names and then just like all. Let me just fill that one in. Yeah, a couple of comments. I want to just go off what you said. First was on that first drive when they, I think the first play was play action. Then it didn't work. It was second and 10.

And they lined up in a heavy set. And I was like, oh, please, are you really going to run the ball on second and 10? Like, I'm so used to this. And then they didn't. And I was like, okay, all right, we're doing something. And then it just never continued. And so, yeah, I think there have been a couple people are going to start to look at Kubiak at maybe some more questionable calls after last week, after the slow pace of the offense this week. But I still have a lot of confidence in him. Like his track record speaks for itself.

And I think he had a lot to do with that offense last year, even though Stupansky was calling the plays. He had a big influence on it. So after two games, I'm not really ready to bring out the pitchforks for Gary Kubiak, and I don't expect Zimmer to do that either. They're really good friends. There's no sort of DeFilippo situation going to happen. It doesn't seem like with Kubiak this year, so that's not something I'm worried about. What do you want to say? Real quick on that. Just that there is, I think something to be said about losing Kevin Stefanski through these first

couple of games that we all went, Oh, it's the same system, but it's not the same person teaching it necessarily. It's not the same person calling the plays. It's not the same person who signs off on the game plan at the end of the day. And that could be part of this, that Kevin Stefanski was very highly regarded in his game planning ability and his understanding and usage even of things like analytics.

He was into that side of the game. And you have to wonder if a progressive coach like Stefanski running what Kubiak and Zimmer wanted, but also adding his own things to it, is a little different than this. So you're right. I don't see Kubiak getting called out in the media. I don't see him getting fired or anything like that. But I'm saying that maybe we didn't pay enough attention to that potential storyline without your regular offseason and so

forth. Yeah, and mostly that's just, I think he's going to figure it out, is my main point. From everything that he's done in the NFL, I believe that he'd figure it out. And one other point is, I think it was in an article that you wrote recently, Kubiak was saying, I learn a lot from the younger guys below me. So maybe we're hoping that he takes like some more screen game stuff from Stefanski because we haven't seen that much. Not at all. Yeah, not at all. Huge, huge part of their success last season.

And we really haven't seen any of it. I thought there'd be more of that. Definitely. So maybe Kubiak can look to some of the things they did last year and try to implement that this year. Maybe that helps the offense get going, going back to some of the things that were really working for them last year, like the screen game. And then going way back, I just wanted to make a funny comment on the Xavier Rhodes, the Xavier Rhodes play when he was in Thielen's face. It just felt good to have him

back on my screen where you saw him kind of grab Thielen's jersey. He didn't get called for it. And then right after the incompletion, he's bragging about it as if, well, they probably could have called you for a hold there. So it was just nice to have him back in my life to see that because that's something we've seen a ton on the other side. And on that, I always enjoyed being around Xavier Rhodes, his personality. And he was really fun to talk X's and O's and things like that with when he was at the top of

his game because he loved explaining how all that worked you know the the technical elements and so forth of being a corner so yes uh nice to see his personality added to I think Frank Wright called it a little swagger but it was also a little pass interference now I still think that when you see that you go wow they got Xavier Rhodes matched up with Adam Thielen and couldn't get anything out of that. Even if he did kind of grab the shoulder, still not great with the fact that Indianapolis had their secondary beat up and they were still able to hold down Kirk Cousins. Like we have to talk about it again with if a team gets interior rush against Kirk Cousins, they're going to win. So you can almost circle who are the defensive tackles they're playing. Okay, this one will dominate Garrett Bradbury in the interior. This one will, this one will, this one will.

And by the way, it's not always better to have the backup. If someone's worse than Pat Elfline, that means they're bad probably. So I'm just saying Drew Simi is not going to enjoy watching that tape back. So anyway, all right, what's next on here? I want to go a little bit more macro on this one. 2022, is Mike Zimmer the head coach? 2022. Because you've talked a ton about it, and i've become a prescriber of this theory

of 2021 is kind of when they're set up yeah to do to do everything before this season that's kind of what we thought the young players are going to get a year older everything's still going to be in place 2021 seems like the year i think we can still say that at this point even after oh and two i think it's a little early to write off another season or anything like that but 2022 that'd be after that season and there were some rumblings that they didn't win that Saints game that maybe Zimmer wouldn't be in here this season so could they just get tired of it at that point that is a really tough one because I still think that the roster is set up very very well for 2021 And if you look at it from an ownership perspective, of course, you are going to be horrified at what happened in these first

two games. But like you said, the season is not over after two games and it wouldn't completely stun me if they were two and two after four games because Tennessee's a little weaker than I thought going into the season. I had them as one of the strongest teams. They haven't really looked that way through two weeks. And then, I mean, Houston is a disaster. And even as good as Deshaun Watson is, they have looked super bad. Of course, they've played the two best teams, but they haven't even been competitive in those games. You can go down and beat a team that's kind of like a little looking in the mirror here with a lot of problems at a lot of different positions. So yeah, let's not completely write this off, but let's say it goes the most likely direction, which is seven and nine. At this

point, you might even say six and 10. I don't think that they fire Mike Zimmer after a bad season this year, as long as it's kind of how it ends rather than how it starts. If it ends with some of the young players coming together, some of the corners playing better, Justin Jefferson looking decent and so forth. Let's say they win four out of their last six or something. They've got Jacksonville and Carolina mixed in toward the end of the season. Maybe you could beat Chicago at home. So you've got opportunities there to win a couple of games at the end of the season. You play competitively with the Saints in the Superdome. Then I think Zimmer stays as long as the inside of the organization isn't just shredded to pieces.

And after that, 2021 is going to be the year where expectations go up again. And that's when we'll find out. Now, normally with Mike Zimmer, when he's had a roster that's good, they've been right there in the playoff mix. The question would be, if you went in 2021 with expectations ramped back up, fans in the stands, no pandemic, hopefully, I mean, my God, hopefully.

And then we don't have any of this other stuff that is from the outside, potentially determining what happens to you. If they went nine and seven under that circumstance, then I don't know, they might make a change. It would all depend on how it looked, but I think that they would. I think that 2021 is where they get ramped back up. But then there's a whole other conversation is if you don't perform particularly well and there's a couple of quarterbacks at the top of the draft are you taking them are you not taking them they the only quarterback they've taken gosh in a long time is

what nate stanley in the seventh round so yeah that it's a really great question because i think that when you go oh into this badly you start to look at the bigger picture a lot more. And that's what Courtney and I, Courtney and I looked backward. You're looking forward here. But I think you do look at the big picture a lot more and say, all right, when is the pressure on? Is the pressure on if they go 0-5?

Is the pressure on at all this year, considering that they knew they had to do some rebuilding? Is the pressure on 2021 only? If they started that season slow, would they do it? So, yeah, I think that we're having that conversation starting now. And the only thing that can stop it is if they win two or three in a row here and get back on track, and then we're going forward toward playoff land, which, hey, football season, it happens.

I mean, the 2008 Vikings started 0-2, and, you know, so it does happen from time to time. They made the playoffs. And Vikings teams have started 5-0 and missed the playoffs. Yes, they have. I was here for one of them, yes. It's gone both ways. And with that, I want to know, what's more likely?

Is it playoffs because there's the seventh seed, so there's a little bit extra margin for error, but right now it doesn't seem like this team could be primed for that. But is it kind of married to the guys that they have and they might want to make another run with another left tackle like to come in or another Zimmer can't be stopped from taking some defensive game record so what's more likely playoffs or tank for Trevor isn't it interesting that the best question about the Minnesota Vikings right now pertains to the draft for next year, which isn't until May, everyone? Next May? So I still say take a deep breath on the Tank for Trevor thing.

There's another part of it, too, that I just don't know what to tell people when they bring up Tank for Trevor because what are you going to do to Tank for Trevor? Are you going to bench Kirk Cousins? Because then you can't play Kirk Cousins in 2021 if you benched him for Sean Mannion for the last five weeks of the season or Jake Browning or something. Then you have to trade him. So I don't know if they want to trade Kirk Cousins, but that's where you get if you're benching your starting quarterback to lose games on purpose. There's also, I still think, too much offensive talent to lose 13 or 14 games. Could you lose 10? Yes, but that doesn't get you into Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields' territory.

So that remains the question. Now, you also don't have a second-round pick. Would you trade away the future to do it? I can't see it with this team. So you're more looking, if I had to guess, because Ezra Cleveland just does not look like the future left tackle at this moment. If I had to guess, the tackle from Oregon is the guy who they would be targeting toward the top because I just can't see them being better than the Jets, who I think will draft Trevor Lawrence number one overall. I don't know how they're going to win a game.

You could see Carolina drafting one of those quarterbacks and competing with Teddy Bridgewater. I just think, like when I'm looking through here, there are teams that are just decidedly worse. I think the New York Giants could also draft Justin Fields or Trevor Lawrence, but are still decidedly worse, even after two horrible weeks than the Vikings. But getting into the conversation for the playoffs, now that's where it gets really, I'm trying to weigh my odds here as I'm looking at the NFC. So Atlanta has played two kind of weird games, especially the loss to Dallas.

All the NFC West teams are going to make the playoffs, it seems. Geez, I'm just having a tough time getting them into the playoff mix. Detroit going 0-2 helps a little, but I could even see Atlanta being better than them as they go down the stretch here. I don't know. You know, with seven teams, though, it opens the door to somebody being 7-9 and making the playoffs. So I'm going to say that that is more likely than they are actually drafting number one or number two with Justin Fields. I think that it's – I'll go much more likely that they kind of bounce around and win some games and get to like, I don't know, 4-6,

and we're talking about could they sneak in at 7-9 or something like that. That's more likely. And there's literally no chance that Mike Zimmer, if there's even an outside possibility of them making the playoffs, if they have to go six and oh in their final six games to make the playoffs, they're going to try to go six and oh. And even when they lose one, Zimmer's going to think that maybe five and one will do it. So I don't like, there's just no part of this coaching staff that's going to want to quit. There's so many veterans on this team that aren't going to be okay with doing something like that. It's the fun thing to think about because you watch Kirk Cousins and what he did today.

And then you're just even watching Justin Herbert come in and no one really thought Justin Herbert was going to be that good, but he was playing well against the Chiefs. And you just, fans just like to see that promise because we know what Kirk Cousins is going to be and it's almost like we know what this team is like if they do well and we know what the team is if they're bad we're seeing it right now and there's just they want that sort of like hope and optimism that maybe this team hasn't really been able to give them yet that's the hardest part right now of being a Minnesota Vikings fan for everybody out there is that you know what it looks like when it looks good and it's still not good enough with Kirk Cousins that's the very

tough thing that people will go to bed today with is when it looks bad you have zero chance of winning we have seen this I mean if he's okay the Denver game is the only one I can really think of but when he looks lost for the first half your chances of winning are just about nothing and that was today aside from the very first drive again looks lost looks like he doesn't know where to throw it certainly can't make plays with his legs and then you just lose and and when you play good teams, you usually don't win with Kirk Cousins. That has been his history aside from the game against New Orleans. And even then, you had to kind of win a coin flip and go down and make some plays. Not to take that away from him, but that's probably the ceiling.

That's probably things going about as good as they're going to go. So if you build a team in 2021, my question is, okay, is it going to be better than the 2019 team? Probably not. Is it going to be completely healthy like the 2019 team? Probably not. So that's where it's really, really tough for Vikings fans is just to have to say, yeah, we know what the ceiling of this is and that's why I think for sure you would have more fans rooting for let's see what you can do for drafting a quarterback and get to the get to the top of the draft take somebody else

who's going to be the 2022 quarterback and go from there and go into 2021 saying Kirk Cousins lead us deep into the playoffs or we're going to whoever it is or or that that's the plan no matter what the Alex Smith plan which they could have lived out this year and decided not to so we'll see if they do that again but of course we'll see a really long time from now yeah I I've grown up a Minnesota fan and so I it's like you kind of want that to happen but then you just you just have to look if you're a basketball fan you just have to look at the Timberwolves and say what is tanking year after year right gotten them you look at the draft lottery every year you're looking at promise you get that guy and then something still

doesn't happen but you have a known commodity that you know is good enough to get you into the playoffs it's almost kind of like a Jimmy Butler type of situation where you don't think he's good enough to be that star who's going to take you to some finals and we got him in there and it was sure a lot better than what would have happened if he's not there as we've seen. And maybe when everything gets put around him, like Jimmy Butler for the Heat this year, they could go to the finals. Like the Vikings could very well be in the NFC Championship game. If something happens, maybe there's an outside shot. So it's do you want to stick with that known commodity which isn't as fun or do you want to try to tank for trevor and i think it's almost kind of a meme at this point

it's just let's tank for trevor let's tank for trevor yeah like it's it's the alliteration of it it's it's everything it's the twit it's twitter on it it's watching trevor lawrence light up citadel yesterday it's just it's all of that. All that is so much more fun. I want to remind you to go to SodaStick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. They just launched their official collaboration with Bud Grant. Yes, Bud Grant. You can now get your official Bud Grant shirt and Man Cave art print.

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more than ever, local businesses need our support. So now it's time for us to return the favor. The next time you go shopping, make the choice to shop at local businesses and look for the contactless symbol and tap to pay with a contactless visa to help support your community because where and how you shop matters. Visa everywhere you want to be. Official partner of the NFL. Do you think that they're going to, if Kirk Cousins, I'm talking about fans here, if Kirk Cousins comes out the next two games and plays well, he did this last year. He played as bad as you could play against Chicago, awful, awful loss, looked like Christian Ponder, and then all of a sudden comes out the next couple of weeks, lights it up, wins player of the month in October. This is a guy who has a long history of doing this,

where he has down games, and then he pops back up and has four or five games where he's hot and puts up big numbers and even wins some games. He did it in Washington, where he had games that were way down. This is the Kirk coaster. This is what it is. And so maybe the games are just spread out. So these two happen in a row, but then he pops back up going forward here. Do you think that we'll still hear about it though? I mean, like how good would Kirk cousins have to play over the next six weeks to not hear anything about tank for Trevor for those six weeks?

I, I honestly don't think that there's much he could do for that not to happen. I think if I'm judging my household as the bigger Vikings fandom, which I believe I can, my younger brother is screaming at the TV as I'm watching it. So he's probably representative of a lot of Vikings fans. You see these games, you see the Chicago game last year, you see the Green Bay game last year. And as much as you want to be excited about the games that he has 300 yards, we've just seen a big enough sample size to know it's not going to be there when it needs to be there, especially when the team isn't doing everything it can to be good around him. So I honestly don't think, I I mean maybe if they go 6-0

and he lights it up that we we just we start believing again because everyone is going to be convinced like like if they have if you have a chance to come around on something and say we could be good Vikings fans will like make themselves think that but I don't I don't see there there to be much that Vikings fans could really progress at this point. Yep, I agree that if he went 5-1, 4-2, and he's fantastic over the next six weeks, that maybe it just quiets that down. But I still think that there would be a part of the fan base that would be saying, no, no, you were supposed to be bad.

Why did you bounce back and be good? Because now you're ruining tank for Trevor. And this is where we're going to keep going back to be bad. Why did you bounce back and be good? Cause now you're ruining tank for Trevor that, and this is where we're going to keep going back to the contract extension because how interesting would this year have been? Just imagine in your brain, if cousins doesn't get a contract extension, if he is only sitting on the final year of his deal through two games, that is a much, much more interesting conversation than, well, you know, you're probably not moving on from after this year because that

would be really tough with your salary cap. And even though he doesn't have a no trade, if he has a horrible year, you know, who are you trading him to? So this, they made it on whatever it was, March 13th, or whenever a free agency started, and they signed him, they made it a lot less of a conversation for this year to get that extra cap space. But I like to always go back to that and say, I wonder how he would feel about it now. And I wonder if he goes four and two and lights it up and has some big wins, go out to Seattle or something and have a huge win. I wonder how, how that chain would have changed the conversation

if he hadn't signed the extension versus how it feels with him locked in for the next couple of seasons. What else you got? Yeah, I would, I would just also push back on one thing that you and Courtney talked about was that he'd be untradeable. I don't, I don't totally think he'd be untradeable. It was much different circumstances when the Vikings traded for Sam Bradford obviously they were reeling after the Bridgewater injury but like you saw what they gave up for Sam Bradford when a guy went down that's true Kirk Cousins is kind of in that mold it's not if he can stay healthy it's if things can be good around him and so if a quarterback went down I think you'd be able to, and they were in contention, they'd be able to say, we have all the pieces around him.

We know that's what we need. Like we can go and do this. So it might not be next year where there's two years on it, but like if it's after that 2021 year and things aren't going well and they've still got him, they're still not bad enough to have drafted someone really good. I just don't think that's untradeable as maybe it might seem like. Okay. Let's see.

Let's go down the rabbit hole real quick before you get to your next question for which teams would trade for cousins, because this is fully off the rails into the future. So I'm just going to look. I've got, yeah. Because we went there. Well, how about this? Tampa Bay, if Brady wins and retires, is at the top of the list.

Breeze is retiring after this year. Tampa Bay, I don't know, or not Tampa Bay, New Orleans, I don't know if they could afford him, though. The Taysom Hill and the James Winston, all the caps they have. Yeah, I mean, right. No, I guess they could. I mean, if Breeze comes off the books, then I guess they would figure out a way to do it.

But those two teams would be, hey, let's get an established quarterback and we could take another shot at it. After that, that is where. Those stick out, mate. Those were the biggest things for me. Raiders? If the Raiders wanted to move on from John Carr. John Gruden. I was, if the Bills just really hate Josh Allen's progression and they feel like reunite Cousins and Diggs, oh, they got the chemistry.

You can bring them back with another good defense. That would just seem like Vikings 2.0. The ones that really stuck out to me were the Saints and the Bucs because they both have aging quarterbacks. I don't think the Packers would take him. That's kind of the recipe you're looking at is 49ers. 49ers. Shanahan is obsessed with Kirk Cousins.

Shanahan loves him. Don't count that out. Okay. All right. Real back in. Real back in. Yes. I just quickly want to ask you a more NFL-centered question. Most surprising teams that are 0-2 and 2-0 at this point for you?

I think Minnesota would qualify as one of those 0-2 teams, so you can talk about them more, but I want to give you a chance to talk about someone else because there's been a lot of negative Vikings talk, so just to get off it for a second. Well, you know, I don't think that any of the 0-2 teams are stunning. So Miami, the New York Jets, poor Carolina and Teddy Bridgewater you got them to within seven today but Tampa Bay is just I was thinking about it this way that the Madden teams when they rank your your like overall Tampa Bay would be maybe like a 92 overall and Carolina would be a 64 they are so bad at so many positions for Carolina that Teddy's in tough with that one. It was almost your Cowboys.

I don't know how much you saw of the end of that Falcons game, but they basically just watched them as they grabbed the onside kick. So that would have been the one. And you were very high on them, I know, at the beginning of the year. Yes, I know. And I was about ready to be not high on them and wonder what the hell Mike McCarthy, but they got away with it because the Falcons forgot that they're allowed to touch an onside kick

and they just didn't look at it. That's the lens I'll look through this then is that the way that the Falcons and Detroit blew games on these first two weeks is mind-blowing. Like, blowing it on an onside kick when you have a complete brain freeze, and then having DeAndre Swift drop a ball that was right at his face. That's another thing, too, that from a Vikings fan perspective, Green Bay being 2-0, the way that they're 2-0 with Rodgers really rolling,

that has to be such a not fun thing to watch for Vikings fans because Rodgers looks like he is old Rodgers in these first two weeks. And the Lions are 0-2 as they always are. And here's the Vikings with now, when they're 2-0 and you're 0-2, there's a long way to go to get back over top of them if that's ever going to happen. I can't think of another team that's really a surprise that's 0-2. Not shocked by the Eagles. I don't know if I'm supposed to be, but I'm not. I didn't think they would be in it this year. Houston had the really

tough first two games. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think there's a ton of shocks in the early results for these first few weeks, but I would definitely say that I would not have predicted the Vikings to start their season 0-2. Even when Daniil Hunter went down, I thought they'll probably lose to Green Bay. This was one that when they went into the game, you look at Indianapolis's roster, you look at the Vikings roster and say, I mean, if they lose, it should be one of those close games where a field goal is missed. It should not be another whooping. It should be a much closer contest, and that's not what it was. So my guess is people around the league will be surprised by the Vikings

being 0-2 more than a lot of these other teams. Yeah, and just like looking at the teams, maybe you'd be surprised by the Texans until you look at who they played, just because you don't expect Deshaun Watson to be 0-2, but it's hard to start off with a harder schedule than the Chiefs and the Ravens. Can we talk real quick, though, about how the Eagles are the Vikings? Like, 2017, both of these rosters peak, and then following that, the Vikings go 8-7-1, the Eagles go 9-7, and then last year, the Vikings go 10-6, and the Eagles go 9- nine and seven. So essentially you have the exact same records and the exact same problems because you have a quarterback that is good, but flawed. You have a roster that was super

strong, but in part built on really good defense that is hard to sustain. The success of the Eagles offensive line, you could kind of equate to the Vikings with digs with their weapons and the fact that that's deteriorated. And you have two teams who are 0-2 that just a couple of years ago were competing for a Super Bowl, but that's kind of how quickly rosters change in the NFL, and I think that they're in the very same position.

Yeah, this was a question I was going to ask. I cut it just because we had a lot of ones that I wanted to get to, but it was going to be, who would you want to be going forward? And I was going to list a couple teams, and one of them was the Eagles. Like, for the next three, four, five years, who would you rather be? Because you're right, they have a lot of mirror images of each other. So going forward forward who's in a better spot I think the Vikings because of it might be weird to say but because of the two things we talked about earlier the 2021 you have enough young talent and also because tank for Trevor might happen I mean if they go 3 and 13 they're going to be in that conversation and they could draft a quarterback high and then move on from

cousins just the way his contract they didn't extend him five years they extended him three and so that gives you some opportunity to move on there with Carson Wentz he's been good enough where you're probably locked in I don't know his exact contract situation but he's younger so it feels like you're set with Carson Wentz I'm not sure he's the guy that can get you over the top. Also, the amount of young talent that they've stacked up with these last couple of drafts, I like their roster going forward better than the Eagles. But when you go team to team around the league, like Chicago, you feel kind of like them a little bit. Okay, their quarterback's not good enough, but maybe yours isn't either, Right. I mean, so, uh, would Vikings fans rather have Trubisky just a tank at this point? I don't know. What's the mindset? I mean,

Trubisky, this is the thing. Trubisky is way worse than Kirk Cousins, but he's good enough to get you Trevor Lawrence, but his team is better. So like, you know, this, this year that Chicago might end up being better and you might see Trubisky and Cousins through three years having the same record. And so, you know, same sort of deal, though, with Chicago, where if Trubisky plays good enough to get them to 9-7 or 10-6, they might hang on to him and make that mistake. There's a lot of teams. I mean, the Falcons you would talk about with the Vikings where just like,

where are you going? Where are you going with Matt Ryan at this point? They're very much the same. 2016, they make the the Super Bowl they blow a lead in the Super Bowl and then what since a lot of 10 and 6 7 and 9 that kind of thing since and that's where it feels like the Vikings are and now the question is how do you get back out of that hole so why don't you give me uh one more Do you got one more question there? Well, first I want a 2-0 team that you're surprised by. That's 2-0. We didn't hit that. I think I'll go while you look. I think Chicago's surprising, but I don't think it, like you're looking at the Lions and the Giants, the way they won those games was not impressive. So I don't think anyone expects them to keep that up um the other one that I that I was

just surprised by I was expecting them to be good but um Arizona has been really good through two weeks Kyler Murray looks like downright unstoppable and so they they'd probably be my surprise just how good they've looked Washington got in that game a little bit at the end but it was kind of already it was passed at that point. And then they took care of the 49ers, which they have a lot of injuries now, but they didn't have all of them last week, and they still looked really good. So they'd probably be my surprise 2-0 team. I'd say so the Bills played the Jets and the Dolphins.

I mean, you don't get a whole lot of credit for that. The way that they've beaten those teams with great performances from their offense and their passing game have been and will remain skeptical of Josh Allen. But Stephon Diggs has clearly added a next level to that, as he did with the Vikings when he was here. And so that's one to watch because when they start running into harder teams, that's what I want to see from them. But the way that they did it with their passing game, a little bit unusual. They were more of a run-and-play defense team. Not surprised.

Was very much on Team Arizona Cardinals. If anyone listened to the all-teams draft, I had them as a top-ten team. Los Angeles, maybe. Beating Dallas, I wouldn't have had them for that. They almost didn't. And whipping Philadelphia, I think they were on the road too. That's one where, yeah, they were on the road. So that's one where I would have said, I don't know if they can beat Dallas and then go on the road to Philly, but here we are with Los Angeles 2-0.

So yeah, not a ton of crazy, crazy results so far from being unexpected. And from that perspective, it feels a little bit like last year where going into the season, I think we were closer in predicting how things would play out than we've been many times in years past, and it kind of feels that way right now. Yeah, which is interesting. I think a lot of people maybe expected a little chaos in these first few weeks just without preseason games and without anything else. But you look at, I mean, the Chargers were almost 2-0

if they had been able to squeak out that Chiefs game. And the Jags almost were 2-0. The Titans escaped that. So I think maybe if those go two different ways, there's an easy answer here. There's your answer. The Jaguars are the most surprised. They are because we thought they were going to be a joke. And to get a win against Indy, who proved to be better than we thought,

and then to play within three of a Tennessee Titans team that has Super Bowl expectations, that's the right answer is that the Jaguars are playing much better. And so there's a question for you. Maybe we can wrap up on this. Sure. Would you rather be the Vikings or Jaguars? That was going to be my question. It was because the Vikings are in limbo. They don't really have at this point, we don't really know what they should be going for. Should they be going for the playoffs? Should

they not be? Jacksonville's clear and any, any good things that happen is just kind of like a bonus. Like, oh, they're, they're not very good. Like, oh, they're competing. This is fun. And Minshew's really good, weirdly, at least in fantasy. I have to pick him up because Daniel Jones is not doing much for me. Wow, that was a mistake. Yeah, I know. It was just a lot of weapons. I had to wait. Matthew Barry told me it was a good selection.

I listened to him. I don't, you know. It's a minor mentor. Yeah, we haven't progressed yet but I I think I think the correct answer is still the Vikings I think a lot of fans may go Jacksonville just because they're clearly in a tank for Trevor mode they're clearly in a rebuilding mode but I I think the Vikings is still where you want to be. They have a lot of young talent. People are asking out of Jacksonville. That's true.

If this was a different team that maybe had a little bit more, like people like being there, maybe I'd go that way. But Yannick Ngakwe wanted out, Jalen Ramsey's out. Everyone's gone from that team and seemingly doing well, like without them. Leonard Fournette ran a 45-yard touchdown in today. We'll see you with Ngakwe. But I think the Vikings are still the right answer.

They have the young pieces. They have Dalvin Cook. They have Adam Thielen. I still go with the Vikings, but it's an interesting hypothetical. And I wouldn't be mad at you if you said the Jacksonville Jaguars because I think there's a case to be made for them. Get back to the conversation in just a second. But even though sports took a break, your business didn't.

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which means more quality candidates that you will see fast. Try Indeed with free $75 credit at Indeed.com slash BlueWire. This is their best offer anytime, available anywhere. Go right now to Indeed.com slash BlueWire. Terms and conditions apply. Offer valid through September 30th. If you did this, if you took their cap situation, their quarterback situation in terms of his contract, and you just copy and pasted it onto the Vikings organization, the Vikings front office, their cap guy,

their stadium, their fans, their relevance, even if they're 0-2, the organization has still been one of the top ones in terms of how they're operated. I would have to take the Jaguars just copying and pasting the roster because they have a lot of draft picks, C.J. Henderson, Loviska Chenault, Caleb on chase on. They've got very interesting young players and a quarterback who's not in the big contract. So Minshew's played fine, but if he isn't good over this season, you can just move on whenever you want and you could just build the roster from there. I think that that's probably the right answer because of that, because it's not a quarterback contract that now if you want to move on from eventually,

you have to deal with. And Minshew might be Kirk Cousins. The thing about that is if Minshew is as good as Kirk Cousins, maybe with a little more baller mentality, but if that, you know, somewhere in that range, but you're not paying him anything, there's a big benefit to that. So, all right. Yeah, I would agree with you. I guess there's still just a little hope in me that Vikings can turn it around somehow. And they can.

That's the thing. over these next two weeks, we can be talking about two and two and two great cousins performances, the coaching staff fixed it. Like that is how fast things change around in the NFL. And I just want to remind the tank for Trevor people, the, the people who want Zimmer fired and they want Kirk traded all these things to just still,

you can panic. You can have that in the red. But still, we were exactly in this spot last year after week four. Okay, remember that. And so it could be two and two and not very long. Just going to leave that as a reminder. If they're two and two, then I don't know their direction is basically, I know Jacksonville's direction.

And there's some there's good things to like when you know your direction and you're not expecting too much there's something to be said for that because when we're in this like every game could shift the way we view this team for the next three years I don't know it's not a very stable like spot like if they come out and they blow out tennessee and they blow out houston then it's like okay well now they're building like now it's really for 2021 and if they lose it right and then and then if they lose it it's okay we're firing everyone like kirk needs to go everything like burn it all down so it there's just i i don't know there's so much uneasiness with that so that i guess that's why i would take jacksonville now i'm flipping now i'm flipping

all right now you're a flip-flopper. I will say this before we wrap up is just it's going to be a time. I mean, it's going to be a ride, and this podcast will be covering it, along with Purple Insider website as well. So you'll have to follow. Intern Paul, great stuff. React to the game. We'll do this every week where you have five questions or so.

Today was definitely not sure exactly how many questions were in there. Probably a lot, but a really fun episode and we'll do it all the time after games to give our reactions. And, uh, all right. So I will talk to you again next Sunday.

Can't wait to find out what we'll be, what we'll be talking about. The wait is finally over. Football is back. You might not be at the game this year, but you can still be in on the action at BetOnline. BetOnline is going the extra mile to make sure that you can get in on every possible change to win this season. From game spreads to totals to team and player and coaching props, BetOnline gives you more

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