Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Is Matthew Stafford better now that he's with the Los Angeles Rams? Or should the Vikings be unafraid?

Episode Date: December 23, 2021

Matthew Coller is joined by Ryan Dyrud of LA Football Network to talk about the Los Angeles Rams' matchup with the Minnesota Vikings and how the Rams have approached this season with Matthew Stafford at quarterback. The Rams are all-in on winning this year and sometimes it's worked and other times this season they have shown their weaknesses. How losing Robert Woods hurt them. Is Odell Beckham fitting in? Is Sean McVay using Stafford correctly? Who is a comparable for Stafford in the past NFL? Why is Aaron Donald so freaking good? Get your football tickets at TickPick.com/Insider Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Want to remind you before we get started, the TickPick is the exclusive ticketing partner of Purple Insider and the Blue Wire Network. TickPick should be your first choice to buy football tickets because they save fans money by never charging service fees ever. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. And join me for a little LA perspective. Ryan Dyrude. He runs the LA Football Network, which basically, Ryan,

you're kind of like me of LA. I don't know if you're like cooler because of that or more hip because you're the LA football guy. Well, instead of one team like I cover, you cover all the LA football teams. But what you've built with the LA Football Network is very cool. And you apparently, you guys have hats. We don't have hats yet. Oh, I think you'll get some. Cause I think, I think you're cooler than me. So I think the LA football network is cool, but you are probably cooler than me, but Matt, the excited to be on, I've had you on my show to preview. It's kind of ironic that the Vikings played the chargers earlier in the season, my team we cover, and now the Rams travel to Minnesota to play you guys. So it's fun that we get to do this both times. So thanks for having me.

Yeah. And you have some Minnesota roots, but you're not stopping by. I mean, the weather is great this time of year compared to LA. It's funny because I actually love going to cold for Christmas. I'm actually in Denver right now, ironically, where my parents live. I just got in today, but it's nice sometimes to get seven days of frigid cold temperatures and then go back to the 65 and sunny, but it's a nice break. But, but yeah, roots there. Grandparents live up in, you know, Fergus falls up in the, in the Lake area. And I have friends in St. Louis park down in the Minneapolis twin city area. So I love Minnesota always we're at, we're out there at least once a year, which is great.

So does this make you familiar, I guess, then with a Viking fan mentality? I'm just going to have you guess. I'm going to have you guess here. We'll see how good of a Minnesotan are you because, or Minnesota, how connected are you to Minnesota? Because how do you think Vikings fans believe their final three games will play out? They play the Rams, the Packers and the bears in the final three weeks. Okay.

And if they go two in one, they have a decent shot at making the playoffs. How do you think that plays out from Minnesota Vikings view? Like, how do you think fans think it's going to go? So I'm not, I'm not super connected. I'll be honest, but I'm going to, I'm going to go out of the limb here. I think Viking fans, if I were guessing are probably more like my childhood team fans, which are Denver Bronco fans, that every year the sky is falling. If you're not winning every game by 40 points, the coach needs to be fired or whatnot. So I could be wrong, but I feel like Minnesota fans probably think the season's a wash, time to get Zimmer out of there, move on and start fresh with the whole new thing. Am I wrong or am I right?

No, you're right about that. but for how these final three games are going to go vikings fans probably believe that they will win one of the two games here that they'll either beat the rams or they'll beat the packers the hard games and then we'll lose week 18 and have that ruin their chances that's that and then and then lose on a technicality or on the well whatever you know the the tiebreakers of some ridiculous, absurd fifth tiebreaker to New Orleans or something. Like that's how the Minnesota Vikings fans are thinking. But to your point, though, about changing coaches, yes, that hot seat conversation is extremely real. Mike Zimmer, though, today said that he was not aware of that conversation at all,

but, uh, we have gotten to the point and I think there's a connection here with the chargers. I don't know that there's one with the Rams, but maybe it'd be like the Jeff Fisher Rams where you're in the hunt, you're in the race, you're going along. Okay. But eventually it just kind of falls off and you end up in the middle all the time and you need your McVay or you need your golf, which is your quarterback on your rookie contract or your Herbert. Uh, if we're talking about the chargers and that's kind of how it feels like it is where it's not that there's anything wrong with the coach necessarily that he's a good coach. Uh, and it's not like your quarterback is horrendous or

anything like that. It's a good quarterback, but we've been doing this for so long. Anthony Lynn, maybe a, uh, you know, a connection here that when it doesn't work for this long, you just have to do something different. Yeah. It's, you know, it reminds me again, going back to my Denver roots, uh, nuggets basketball when George Carl was the coach here. And it's a little different because the Nuggets made the playoffs like nine straight years, but they could never get out of the first round. I remember one year playing the Minnesota Timberwolves who were the one seed, Nuggets were the eight seed. And then after that, the Nuggets started getting better and better. And George Carl could always do stuff in the regular season, couldn't get past that first round.

So then they end up firing him for that same mentality, right? Just like, okay, we're good. We're not great great we want to be great we're going to move on still haven't been great so they still haven't figured that out we're going to the nba is a whole different animal just because of the super team and whatnot um but yeah it seems like the vikings are just in that limbo i was talking with you last time about how i feel like every off season i pick the vikings to be this dark horse horse NFC team to kind of surprise people and come out of the NFC North and really be a team to be reckoned with. And every year, like you said, they have some great games. They have some really bad games. They always finish right around the middle. They're always draft in the middle, so they don't get that top tier prospect. So it's like that. Mike Zimmer, I don't think he's a bad coach.

I think he's a great defensive mind. Clint Kubiak, I think, is an exciting, young offensive coordinator, but it just doesn't seem like they're quite getting over the hump. Obviously, you know more than me, but yeah, they're just in that limbo stage, which unfortunately, sometimes you just need to make a change. Right, and this is where we transition to your team, and I don't make you talk and give all your Vikings takes, but now the Rams are trying to go for something different. They're trying to go for the approach of let's push all the chips to the middle of the table.

They even tweeted out a gif after they traded for Von Miller of the sort and say, you know what? Who needs future draft capital? Because we're going to try to win this year. And I have been critical of this approach because I saw it with my eyeballs a couple of years ago with the Vikings, where they said, we're going to bring in cousins. We're going to pay everybody else to stick around. And they even did this trading a first round pick for Sam Bradford. We're a Super Bowl team.

We're going to trade a first for Sam Bradford, and he's going to get us to where we want to go with this great roster. And the couple of times that the Vikings have made quote all in type of moves, they have ended up with four straight years of no division titles. And I think that you have really gone on this roller coaster ride with Los Angeles of at the beginning of the year, look, look, it's working everyone. Oh my gosh. And then, oh no, it's not working. And here you are kind of coming up on the other side. So I guess your assessment of is it right? And is it working to have taken this approach to try to build an all-star team pretty much for this year? Yeah. You know, it's, it's fun

covering the Rams because there's never a dull moment ever. Like, you know, Superbowl goes, it's we're in the dead period before free agency and all of a sudden trade for matthew stafford when everyone's in cabo and then you know free agency there's always a big signing they always are trading so they're always the news so they're fun to cover but it's a fun approach it's you know it's i can't say it's not working because mcveigh has yet to have a losing season now five straight winning seasons as a head coach just five years as a head coach um into one super Super Bowl. So in a sense, it worked. They've kind of been, everyone talks about this year being all in, but they've been all in kind of since the beginning.

I mean, if you remember, in his second year, they traded for a keep to leave for Marcus Peters, adding that kind of arsenal in the backfield. They signed Robert Woods. They get Brandon Cooks in a big trade for a first-round pick out of New England. And then they're doing it now again andrew whitworth they sign um sammy watkins is the guy they signed so they've done this since mcveigh's been there so it's not anything new this year but this year i think

with the change at quarterback is why it was such a big kind of now the national media is saying okay they're all in they want to go do this you talk about that three game stretch where things just weren't going well and everyone was kind of jumping off the bandwagon on him and saying okay no this approach isn't going to work they they're not playing together as a team they're doing this and that and i think it was just kind of the perfect storm in those three weeks where they had new guys coming in and von miller and obj that you know you do need time to get acclimated i know von miller just rushed to the passer but i've talked about this you know in my podcast how you know, in my podcast, how, you know, for his first 10 seasons, he's rushing next to the same guy in Denver. He's rushing next to Shelby Harris or, you know, Draymond Jones. Now, like

he has the same pair of guy that he knows exactly what he's going to do on every rush move. So he knows if he's going to do a spin move, swim move, whatever it may be. Now he's rushing next to either Aaron Donald or great gangs who are phenomenal players, but they take different approaches. So it's just getting comfortable in their skin, how they pass rush differently. So I think that was one thing. Sean McVay's offense is an extremely complex offense. I don't think it gets talked about enough in that regard.

Everyone talks about, you know, and being a genius or whatnot or that, but it's a complex system. And you listen to Cooper cup and Robert Woods talk, and you can see why they need smart players in that system. And so OBJ, it wasn't going to be a come in right off the bat and be a star player. And then Robert Woods goes down. So now he has to learn Robert Woods's role.

So just kind of threw it into the wind. So it was like a perfect storm in those three weeks while also playing three good teams. But to answer your question, I guess in a long, longer way, long winded way, I think this team is built for a Superbowl run and they've shown that the last two weeks, longer way, long-winded way. I think this team is built for a Super Bowl run and they've shown that the

last two weeks, you know, having a good blowout win against the Arizona Cardinals and in that last night on Tuesday, having a solid, you know, wasn't a dominant performance as far as far as a scoreboard 20 to 10 went over the Seahawks. But when you look at the yards, you look at what the offense did, you look at what the defense did. I mean, it was an overall dominant performance, missing still 18 players on the COVID list. So I think they're getting in their groove right now at the right time, similar to what Tampa did last year.

It's all about in the NFL. It's all about who gets hot the right time. And I think they're getting that rhythm, you know, heading into the last month of the season. But the reason that I have been skeptical in part is that I've watched a lot of Matt Stafford play football and as, as talented as he is, and he's made some of the best throws I have ever seen in person, you know, just fallen backwards, whatever, like all the Mahomes throws and everything else, like Stafford's been doing them for a really long time. But also when Stafford got grabbed by a Tennessee Titan player and whirled around and threw the ball right to the Titans for a pick six, it's like, I know that player as well.

And when you trade away so much to bring him in and then you sort of anoint him, like, this is the guy that's going to take us to a different place. That just rings bells with me of like, well, we're moving on from Case Keenum to Kirk Cousins because he's going to take us to a different place that just rings bells with me of like well we're moving on from case keenum to kirk cousins because he's going to take us someplace different than the previous quarterback could and i think that with stafford some of it has been extremely impressive this year and certainly the deep stuff i mean he is dropping some incredible throws down the field but there's also this other part of stafford and i think as they come into minnesota that's the part as the vikings and as mike zimmer where he's saying there will be big plays there will be impressive throws but there's always just that part of it and i think that when you look at

his time in detroit if you just say it was all detroit's fault like you're really ignoring a lot like you're ignoring you're ignoring golden t're ignoring golden take Kenny Galladay. Marvin Jones were his receivers. He had proven offensive coordinators at different times. And there were always hot stretches that made everyone go, wow, this guy's unbelievable. But then there were always those cold stretches too. So when they did go on that dip and then here comes the injury report. Oh, Matt Stafford, he's playing through 14 different injuries.

Like I have seen this so many times. So I think that's where my skepticism comes from. It's not that, you know, the roster isn't good. Of course it is. It's a very talented roster. It's, is this going to be different? And I guess I'm still up in the air on that. It's been a roller coaster for this opinion because, um, uh, early in the season, I felt like, well, I guess I was wrong. I mean, I guess he's just going to dominate the league and then it's kind of come back to earth. Yeah. And that, you know, the biggest thing with him specifically just talking with the Rams is, you know, how he adapts in the face of adversity. And when, when the Rams get down, it's almost like, like I've talked about this before. It's almost like he flips on this, like hero ball mentality from his days in detroit is trying to do too much and and making those throws when guys

are wrapping him up and where when they're up he plays much more okay you know we're winning i don't need to force things and so it's it's that progression throughout now 15 weeks is if he can bring that into the playoff mode and if when you know the going gets tough and if they're down three or seven live to fight another day instead of trying to force it. And we saw against Seattle on Tuesday, they were losing in the game early and he took two big sacks on third down. People weren't happy about it, but at the same time, those are good sacks to take

instead of forcing a throw where all of a sudden you're looking at a pick six, like he threw three straight in those three losses. So for him, it's going to be that growth and that we've seen it a little bit. But I agree with you, it's going to be that growth and that we've seen it a little bit. But I agree with you, you know, it's a mixed bag and, you know, last night he becomes the fastest player to ever throw 50,000 yards. But how much of that is, you know, a lot of people will call that, you know, garbage time stats and stuff like that. And, and I, it's certainly valid in some

regards. I do think he's a very talented player, but it's going to be time to prove it, you know, when it's actually, you know, showtime in the playoffs with the roster he has now, because now there's no excuses. I mean, you used to have the adage of the Detroit lions. Now he doesn't have that. So it's time to put up or shut up for Matthew Stafford. I think he can do it, but I totally get the mentality. And we'll see this week as Minnesota knows him better than anybody.

No. Yeah. And the thing with Stafford is it's not like he never won at all. I mean, he has, you know, an 11 win season in there is it's not like he never won at all. I mean, he has, you know, an 11 win season in there. He's got a couple of playoff appearances. It just seemed like it was always, there were years where, oh, the, you know, the Lions are a very competitive team and they're going down the stretch in the playoff run. And then you hit this cold stretch from Stafford or it's the injuries or whatever else sort of adds up. And he just lets you down. But I think that what has bared out overall is that if you take someone who was even in an okay or average

situation and maybe didn't have a good defense or maybe had, you know, whatever other cultural issues from the organization, and then you put them in sort of the premier coach situation, the premier wide receiver situation. You'll have to tell me if the offensive line is good, but generally the Rams have had decent to very good offensive lines. And then a defense that is all of a sudden getting hot as well. It's like the perfect storm for almost any quarterback can pump you up. And then you're talking about a guy who already has kind of a very high baseline

of talent. And what, what I can't decide now is like, are they a real contender for the Super Bowl or are they just, you know, Hey, this worked for them to be better than they were last year, or is it the real deal? And I guess when you look around the NFC, like, I mean, kind of anybody is who's in that race is sort sort of in that category there's like those those five teams who have been there from the start and then everybody else is chasing from behind yeah it's there's not truly one dominant team well i guess green bay we could call the most dominant uh at this point and they have the most season you know other than tom brady obviously uh but the most you, seasoned quarterback in that regard.

And Tampa is interesting too, because Tampa obviously, you know, defending champions, but they've had some bad losses and looking consistent and, and, you know, it, the NFC is wide open. It's fun to see, and it'll be interesting to see what the Rams do. Who's your, I'm curious, who's your like comp, like Matthew Stafford comp. If you were to pick out a quarterback from history,

because I know a lot of people throw out like names and stuff i have one that i kind of compared to i think he's better but i one that reminds me more but who would be your comp that's a good question so because here what's often happened and i and i'm talking well i think uh what's often happened is just that uh he gets compared to kirk cousins here which would be really offensive from a skill set standpoint because clearly matt stafford is an adonis i mean just like this big giant guy with an unbelievable arm um in his earlier days was really mobile and things like that and that's not kirk like kirk but when you look at their numbers and you look at their careers and their career arcs there's just a lot of similarities there um they both, they both take sort of inopportune

sacks or inopportune interceptions, or just have these shocking letdown games where you go, what happened there? So we've always, we've always done that. I wonder how about Carson Palmer for a comp to Matt Stafford? Yeah, I could see that. I'll give you one too, that if you want to think more, I, I wonder how about Carson Palmer for a comp to Matt Stafford? Yeah, I could see that. I'll give you one too, that if you want to think more, I don't know. I could be off base here, but I've kind of, I've looked over time and I saw him later in his career and kind of just the same thing where they have this great talent, but then

they just, they make those inopportune mistakes. And I see a guy like Jake Plummer. I don't know if you remember his days with Arizona and then in Denver. And obviously Matthew Stafford, a better quarterback. So not saying they're like that comparable. And obviously the stats are much better. Like Stafford almost has double the passing yards now in his career. But when you just see that the arm talent, the mobility Jake Plummer had in his career and the times where he could wow you, but then the times where you're going, what was that?

So I don't know. It's kind of comparable. And if Stafford needs, if Stafford's going to win a Superbowl, he needs to get past that Jake Plummer comp and be closer to that John Elway that some people have been putting him with. Hey everybody, Minnesota football is in full swing and there is no need to exhaust yourself searching all over the internet for Minnesota football tickets because TickPick, that is T-I-C-K-P-I-C-K, is the original no-fee ticket site. It's the only one you'll ever need as your go-to for football tickets. TickPick got rid of all those awful service fees that the other ticket sites charge, which allows them to guarantee the best prices on all of your tickets.

Don't believe it? If you can find better prices on the same seats on another site, TickPick will give you 110% of the difference. Now we've had lots of exciting games at US Bank Stadium this year. There are still more to go, including Los Angeles coming here. It's always interesting when Chicago comes to town. So you're going to want to go to TickPick.com and check it out and make sure it's tick pick.com slash insider, because you can save $10 on your first order for Minnesota tickets. That's tick pick.com slash insider. Yeah, no, uh, no, not John Elway. He's definitely, no, no, I know. I know you're not saying that, but if people are making a John Elway. He's definitely. Oh, I'm not. No, no, I know.

I know you're not saying that, but if people are making a John Elway comp, then you're out of your skull. But yeah, I mean, those, those teams that John Elway was able to take to the Superbowl for early Denver teams were just unimpressive. Like go back and look, the rosters are not that good. The coaching isn't that special. It isn't until the end of his career. He finally gets with, uh, you gets with the Gary Kubiak,

Mike Shanahan, Terrell Davis, great offensive line. And then the dude wins back-to-back Super Bowls at an old age. So that's how great he was. I think that's different. What made me think of Carson Palmer was just kind of the big arm, the draft status, the journey, the fact that the guy was always willing to chuck it. And a lot of times

it wouldn't go his way because of that, like led the league in interceptions at times. But when everything came together for Carson Palmer in 2015 with a great Cardinals team, they went 13 and three. And that's kind of what's happening here with Stafford where, you know, Carson Palmer had those years in Oakland that weren't that good. And even, um, you know, in Cincinnati at the end, it was, it was kind of ugly with him in the organization, which feels that way with Detroit. I remember his, uh, wife was Instagramming something about like, please trade us at the end of the time in Detroit. And then he, and then he goes out to, um, you know, Arizona and sort of changes the narrative on his career uh when he got to arizona and i think that that's sort of the opportunity that stafford has um but you know i i

think that the plumber one is is a pretty good comp because of what you said that the guy actually needs when you have this big arm and great athleticism coaches want to be like let's just throw it all over the yard warren moon, baby light it up. But what he probably, what he probably needs is jet motions, play actions, some bootlegs, things like that. But I have noticed watching it's not the Jared golf offense. So tell me how much different it is because Jared golf, like everything was a boot pretty much, unless he had to be in the shotgun and then he wasn't good in the shotgun. So tell me how different it is between Stafford's offense and golf's offense. Well, I think, Matt, that's what's been frustrating for Rams fans is Jared Goff and Matt Chalmik Bay ran this high play action,

11 personnel style offense that forced kind of Jared to be a little more mobile than maybe he should have been. There was one season where he was second in rollouts behind only Lamar Jackson. Like when Jared Goff is second by Lamar Jackson, or maybe he was third, just the Sean Watson was maybe second, but behind those two guys that probably shouldn't happen for a guy like Jared Goff. And so then you get a guy like Matthew Stafford's like, okay, here's a guy that can actually run what Sean McVay wants to do can run play action to a tee golf has a very talented arm, I think, but Stafford obviously has a better arm so he can make those deep throws more efficiently. And then they kind of change it up a little bit. And they,

you know, they still are doing a lot of the lesson personnel. They were doing more 12 personnel before they lost, you know, three of their tight ends to injury. So they're not doing that nearly as much anymore, but the bootleg has almost disappeared, but then some games he'll bring it back and it works. So it's really a good question that I don't have a great answer for because it's not that they've totally changed the offense. They've just kind of abandoned what they did last year and then just wrinkle it in here and there. And part of that too, is Robert Woods going down. A lot of the jet sweeps have been a lot less because Robert Woods, that was his big thing. Now they're getting

Van Jefferson more involved in that. In the past few weeks, he had one against Seattle. So I think we're going to start seeing that play action, that boot a lot more down the stretch. But like you kind of said, just a minute ago, when coaches get these big, shiny, big arm quarterbacksbacks they almost like forget themselves what they're good at and they want to just go show it off and we saw in week one against chicago the 250 yard plus bombs for touchdowns one to cup one to jefferson and the league was like whoa here we go and i think mcveigh said whoa here we go we're doing this on every play and then after a while it just stopped

working. And then when they ran to a team like the Titans, they could just punch you in the mouth or team like the Niners that could punch you in the mouth and the big plays weren't working. It really reared its ugly head. And so they've actually gotten back to that a little better now against Arizona and against Seattle. So again, long with the answer, but I think they're going to, we're going to start seeing that Jerryerry got offense more i think it was more just mcveigh kind of trying to show things off and and show that he's not just this play action coach he can do different things but it's like well that's what made you famous that's what made you sha mcveigh and every coach that you shake hands with gets a job because of what you did and i think now they'll start getting back to that a little bit

well and this offense it helps quarterbacks it just And why, like, why wouldn't you want to help your quarterback? Who's even more talented. And that's sort of the John Elway thing of that Denver back in the day, sort of rested everything on John Elway's arm. And then, you know, eventually they're like, well, he's kind of older, so let's help him. And then as soon as they did, it just took off and this is an interesting stat here about stafford he's only getting play action on 24 of his dropbacks which is 21st in the league this is pff but he's number one in yards per attempt when using play action 10.4 yards per attempt so the dude is having wild success doing it it's almost like this adaptation

of oh let's have him out of the shotgun more often. Like that's not really what should be happening with Matt Stafford. I mean, you should sort of, if you run the same offense as Jared Goff, he'll probably have more success, which overall, I mean, look, he has 35 touchdowns. Like it's been a good year for Stafford overall, but that is sort of curious about how that works. And I was going to ask you, Robert Woods is one of my favorite players in the entire NFL to watch because when the Vikings had their tight end go down, Irv Smith, I did a piece looking at LA's offense and how they use three wide receivers. And so my takeaway, and I talked to a couple of Rams people who cover the team and whatever X's and O's analyst people for it.

My big takeaway was you can only really do this if you have Robert Woods. I mean, just like a tight end in a wide receiver's body can do absolutely anything, can run over people, can go deep, can block the best hands down, the best blocking receiver in the league. Losing him, I kind of thought might be a death blow, but then here comes Odell Beckham. So what has that transition been like with Robert Woods being so vital to now going to Odell Beckham and trying to fit him in this offense? Yeah, well, it was a huge loss. Probably outside of Stafford and then Cup, who I'll get to in a second, probably the biggest loss on offense is Robert Woods,

including everyone on the offensive line, all the running backs, tight ends. That's how important Woods is in the locker room. It is playmaking ability, but like you mentioned in his blocking, he's just that good and that important to their zone running scheme. And, and so the transition at first was not good. I mean, they lost him and they lost two straight games after losing him. And part of that was a Odell Beckham jr.

He's never really had to do that as a receiver in this league. He's been the, Hey, go make a play for us. We're not going to, we're not going to make you block. Not saying he can't do it, but he just never really has needed to. Um, but then B Cooper cup is also a very good blocker. I don't think he gets enough credit for that, but he was kind of the secondary role blocker. Like if they needed a crack block inside or something, it was going to be woods and they'd have coop on the other side. Now they've transitioned cup into that solid blocking role. So again, I keep referring to Tuesday, but it's just because it was the last game they played. There was a lot of big runs for Sony Michelle where cup was the one sealing the outside,

sealing the inside, containing, doing that. So he's kind of transitioned more into that woods role in terms of the running game. And then OBJ has kind of taken on the Cooper cup role in a sense of being the other blocker. So he is learning more, getting more involved in it. But they're not saying, Hey, you've never done this. Now you've got to become the best block receiving blocker on our team because that would just be silly. But he's done, I think, well in now, what is it, four weeks he's been with the team. He's definitely gotten better.

And then he's also getting more involved in the passing game, which certainly helps because he is still a talented receiver. I mean, people forgot how good he truly can be. But yeah, losing woods is huge, but I think now that it's been three or four weeks, they're starting to kind of stop the bleeding and they're able to adjust, uh, appropriately, but they'll never be as good as they were with him. Uh, it's just a matter of now trying to, you know, be as good as they can be without him. With Beckham, when he came to Minnesota with the Browns, he was wide open about

five times and just Baker Mayfield missed him and you can see that there's still route running and explosiveness there it's not that he can't play anymore and I think that if the Vikings have as much trouble covering him as they did in that game which again is hilarious that it went down in the box score as he had maybe one or two catches or something it's like he was wide open on at least three different plays. They could have been long touchdowns and Baker Mayfield just didn't have it that day as he was at the, was not,

was that the game? His dad made the video or I can't even remember what that video was. It wasn't, it was a few weeks later, but that probably, that probably got his dad irritated. Yeah. So,

so I mean, Beckham, I kind of make this comparison. You, you're making comparisons. So I like this. We Beckham, uh, I kind of make this comparison. You, you're making comparisons. So I like this. We should just, we should keep doing this, uh, to Andre, to Andre Rison, because Andre Rison was known as being very volatile, but was a big superstar in his career in Atlanta. And then he has this secondary career with some winning teams that you totally forgot he played with, but he actually was a pretty good contributor to like the Packers that won

the Superbowl. I think to Kansas city later on, I think that's kind of like Odell Beckham where he's never going to be the superstar face of the league receiver again, but that doesn't mean you could just forget to cover him because he could still make big plays. Well, I think he's,

he's embraced that come into LA now. And again, it's only been four weeks so things can change but i i was i was big on it when they brought him because a was a it was a free agent signing it's not like people talk like oh is it going to blow up in their face like well they didn't trade for him like they just sign him for a million bucks and then they can get him for half a season and move on if it doesn't work or it wasn't like this huge big deal um but i think he's embraced being that would have been the third role with woods

here but now with woods gone he's kind of taken that second role but i think he's kind of learned through his career that you know maybe he's not meant to be in that spotlight where everyone's you know expecting him to be this uber guy that takes over games because now you have cooper cup that you know just broke isaac bruce's record uh 1995 of most receptions in a season. And then Beckham can go and just have his six receptions, be a contributor, and be a good locker room guy. And he's kind of taken Van Jefferson under his wing a little bit as well while being here.

So I think he's just at the point in his career, again, four weeks into being here, things could change. But where he's kind of learned from some of those mistakes, embraced it. And I think Andre Rison's a great comparison because he can go on and, you know, have great seasons, especially if he stays in LA. I mean, secondary third receivers in this system still go for six to 600 to a thousand yards. So I mean, still pro bowl type seasons for a receiver, but he doesn't have to be the spotlight, which is great. All right. Make an Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey comparison. How can you explain their excellence? I mean, Jalen Ramsey, not going too far back. You almost just have to go Daryl Rivas, right?

Because, you know, Rivas Island, just the way he was able to shut down. I think Jalen Ramsey is probably a little more physical. You know, he can need more smash mouth, if you will, tackling. Not that R Revis wasn't a great tackler but almost a little more finesse but just the way he's able to shut down guys I mean against again going back to the Seattle game but just because it was so recent it's always fun covering that game because the DK Metcalf Jay and Ramsey rivalry that's now begun since uh Metcalf's been in the league and Ramsey's shut him down every single performance had two receptions for 15 yards when Ramsey was on him in that game. And he ended up, I think, finishing with like six for 51, but those other four were against other corners. So he just, he takes your biggest guy and shuts him down.

And, you know, so that's what Revis was, Revis Island. Aaron Donald, I don't know if there is a guy you can comp to. I mean, I mean, if you want to stick with the Rams, Deacon Jones, maybe just because of how, how dominant Deacon Jones was, you know, creating the sack stat with what he did, or you could maybe go Merlin Olson. It was actually a true D tackle. Um, but I mean, you can't compare Reggie White because Reggie White was an end guy and, and, and Donald's in the middle. Um, Julius Randall, a great Viking, I think, but I mean, he was, he was a tackle, wasn't he? So maybe Randall's a good cop. I don't know. That's, uh, John Randall, by the way, your Minnesota card just got taken, but no, the eye black. I'll just stick with that. That isn't a, is there a basketball player? Isn't that the

basketball player, Julius Randall? Anyway, so I blended to, yeah, John. Yeah, no, that's actually who Andre Patterson, the Vikings co-defensive coordinator compared Aaron Donald to was John Randall because he's so undersized that people questioned him. Now, John Randall is actually smaller than Aaron Donald. I have been in the same room as John Randall a few times, and I can't believe it's John Randall. Like, you're like, wait, this is the most dominant defensive tackle. Like no way. Because when you see usually former football players, like Steve Hutchinson was here when he's doing the ring of honor thing, you're like, yeah, that man lost some weight, but he played some football with John Randall. Is this, what is this regular man doing here? It's not quite

that way with Aaron Donald, but the undersized thing, the incredible motor, the skillset, the quickness, the, the multitude of moves and just the sheer dominance. I mean, I think that's really what it is. I think Reggie white though is fair because it's the unquestioned part of it. You're like, it was Lawrence Taylor and then it was Reggie White. And those are the guys and everybody else is after them. And that's the way it feels with Aaron Donald from this era where JJ Watt had a run of a couple of years, but then he couldn't really stay healthy. But Donald has done it for so long that any given year he could have won defensive MVP. And I will tell you the truth, Ryan, I have no idea how the Minnesota Vikings will even begin

to stop Aaron Donald for ruining this football game. I really don't. I mean, now he did it to them in 2018 and they scored 31 points. So it's not impossible to score points when Aaron Donald is on the field, but after what Akeem Hicks just did to them, I just, there is no answer for this man. Yeah. No, I was at that game in 2018 at the, at the Colise no answer for this man. Yeah. No, I was at that game in 2018 at the, at the Coliseum out here in LA. It was a great,

great game. Yeah. He's a guy that you can game plan for, but there's really, especially now that they've added, you know, Von Miller, Leonard Floyd,

and Greg Gaines is playing some of the best D tackle football in the league right now. It's not really getting talked about nationally. So it's, it'd be one thing if it was him and then a bunch of scrubs because then you just triple or quadruple team him but i mean you have to count for the other guys too so you have to stick to a double team and that's just not enough so you know he is he's fun to watch i mean there's really not a lot of words to describe it you just see some of the things he does not just in rushing the quarterback but in

the in the run game as well and how he's able to plug holes like just within split second all of a sudden there's a hole and all of a sudden there's donald and it's tackle for a loss so he's he's special in any game what's what's fun about him matthew two to watch is there'll be games where two two quarters go by you don't hear his name is all you know he's you know you see him out there but like he's on the stat sheet you don't hear him and then all of a sudden three plays in a row he's being disruptive and takes the game over and just like that and then it's like the rest of the game, he is a force to be reckoned with. So any single Sunday, Thursday, Monday, Tuesday, whatever game they're playing, it's just a matter of time before he gets going.

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Again, go to boogiebikes.com. Check them out today. Yeah, and the Vikings, as we're recording this, Mason Cole, their starting right guard didn't practice. Ole Udo has been not so great at right guard. They activated Dakota Dozier, which was a huge problem. Anytime he was on the field against just about anybody. And Wyatt Davis is just a complete non-factor for the Vikings as a rookie. Not that you'd want a

rookie to face him anyway, but the right guard situation is really up in the air. And so I could imagine that just over that a gap between Garrett Bradbury and whoever is at right guard is where Aaron Donald is going to live the entire day against the Vikings. And I don't, they have no answer. There is no response there. They're just going to have to work around it. One last thing for you, Ryan, I appreciate all your time, man, is just if the Rams lose this game, just give, give me the two things, the perspective on this, like, would this,

would you look at this as being like a crushing loss for them or just like, well, you know, that's how it goes. Or, uh, and the other question is just like, how would it have to happen? Because I think that I have this vision of how it could happen, but I also think the Rams are not a good matchup for the Vikings with their receivers, especially in the Vikings corners. And they should, they should roll offensively and it pretty much has to be a shootout for the Vikings. But I guess, give me the perspective on that. Yeah. You know, I, I view things differently. I know the fan base will be thinking it's into the world, you know, blow it up next year coaches on the hot seat.

Cause you know, every, every week is a rollercoaster with this Rams fan base. It's fun. Um, and that's what, you know, that's what you expect when you go all in like this you expect to dominate teams every week so um but i i and i'm not just saying this because i'm on your show but i truly believe this vikings team is a good team it just it's jekyll and hyde which team are you getting are you getting the team that beat the chargers that looked like a pretty solid fundamental football team um that was able to exploit the charters weaknesses in the secondary with their injuries or is it a team that i know they won against the Bears, but the offense was just so stagnant and couldn't do much. And you're not going to be able to do that against a Rams team that has a much

better offense and a quarterback that can actually score in the red zone. So it's just very confusing. So your first question, if they were to lose, it'd be disappointing. It's a game that they absolutely should win. They absolutely need to win being only a game back like if they win and the cardinals lose they are now in the leader of the division they're also in the potential lead for the conference to get a first round buy so it's a it's a win that they need to have in that regard but it's not one of those where i'm like okay pack it and they're not winning because you know it's a week-to-week league and i do do think this Minnesota team is a potential playoff team. So I wouldn't think the sky is falling like many would.

How you beat this team, right? That was the second part. Or how it unfolds if you do that is if they can – so the thing, too, that we didn't even get into, that the Rams have found success now in this two-game winning streak since those three losses is they finally established the run again. And that's with Sonny Michel breaking out as the Rams running back, you know,

Daryl Henderson was always seen as the starter. I was always against it, but he was the unquestioned starter. According to Sean McVay, they traded for Sony Michelle. It was still Daryl Henderson. He gets hurt. Jake funds hurt.

They have literally no one else, but Michelle. And he gets the ball 20 plus times in back-to-back games and dominates in between the the tackles and brings smash mouth football back to this offense which then allows Matthew Stafford to play action opens things up for the deep ball so it all in reality we talked about Matthew Stafford a lot but this offense success right now is running through Sonny Michelle so if the Vikings and your great linebackers you know some ucla products and anthony bar and and those guys there if they can shut down sony michelle and make this team one-dimensional and force stafford to throw 35 times like he did most times against the vikings when he was in detroit then it's a very winnable game for the vikings so i would say a lot of other

factors we get into but just the biggest one right there if they if they shut down sony michelle then this could be a very interesting game and we could see stafford maybe force some mistakes unfortunately yeah and on the defensive side um for the rams it's pretty much can you avoid having aaron donald destroy you can you find ways to get justin jefferson away from jalen ramsey because i think that if there's one guy who can actually slow down justin jeff in the entire league, it's Jalen Ramsey and could someone else step up. I mean, that's really, that's really, I think what it comes down to can somebody else have a big game because it's pretty much if Jefferson's not doing it and feeling is out or feeling is slow, then kind of nobody is. And that's what we saw against Chicago. It's like cousins is going to

lock onto Jefferson as he should. And he's told to do, but if he's not getting open in the same way, uh, it could be a struggle. So I think it's a great matchup for, Hey, this matters. This has a playoff feel to it. It's right after Christmas. It kind of has this extra little energy. So I'm really, uh, excited about this game, Ryan. And I'm glad that you can come on. I know that you're visiting family and you said, sure, I'll come on your show still, even though you're, you're kind of vacationing there. So I, I really appreciate you taking the time out, man. And, uh, and thanks for doing this. No, man, you're one of my, one of my favorite people. So thanks for having me on. Appreciate it. Um, love your show and should be a great game. So, um, we'll talk soon though. Appreciate it.

Well, I, I, yeah. And, uh, people can follow you by the way at lafb network uh on twitter la football network is what you do and it's uh it's it's great stuff man so uh anyway well thanks again and we will talk to you all later on purple insider