Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Is there a sleeper Vikings receiver? How will the next three years play out for the Vikings? (A Fans Only podcast)

Episode Date: July 5, 2022

Matthew Coller answers Minnesota Vikings fan questions, starting with whether Ihmir Smith-Marsette could be a receiver to watch in camp and then analyzing what the most likely outcome will be in the next three years for the Vikings and how reporters get an idea of the health of a locker room. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here. And we continue to roll on with the fans only questions because asking for guests in July 4th week would be very rude. No, it's really also because I have so many great questions left in the queue that I could continue to produce these episodes. So if you want to add to it and you want to hear your question on an episode, go to purpleinsider.com, top right corner, contact us, write your question in there, or go to at Matthew Collar on Twitter, send me a DM, send me an at mention, just tell me it's fans only, and I will put it in the file and we'll continue to roll through them. I will keep doing fans only as long as I have fans only questions. So if you keep sending them, I'll keep doing fans only as long as I have fans only questions. So if you keep sending them, I'll keep doing the episodes. All right. And by the way, the feedback on these episodes

has been so great. I mean, when I first started, I thought, let me give it a little bit of a try. And if people like it, maybe I'll do it every once in a while. And here we are doing episode after episode of fans only because you guys send such great questions. So let's open the diet, Dr. Pepper, and then we'll dive right into it. All right. Okay, here we go. We'll start out with at N Cunin 23, I think is how it's pronounced on Twitter. Fans only question. I am a huge Hawkeye

slash Vikings fan. What kind of impact do you think Amir Smith-Marset will have this season? Yeah, I think that that's actually up to Amir Smith-Marset because he has talent. There's no question about that. You saw that at the end of the season last year. And really when you go back to training camp last year, we saw some of it. There were plays that I can remember from training camp where one in particular Smith, Marset was in the back of the end zone.

It was like a 40 yard throw from Kirk cousins. And he jumped up and got it. And it was one that you're like, look, I know it's practice, but that's still a great play. Like tracking the football and going up and getting it and was one that you're like look I know it's practice but that's still a great play like tracking the football and going up and getting it and being a deep threat like those are things that not every wide receiver can do and I think Amir Smith-Marset showed an ability

to do that so as we go into training camp here and we'll do you know super duper hardcore footbally previews and all that as we go forward of every single position. But just to talk about the wide receivers for a second, you have B.C. Johnson coming back, and he got a lot of work in minicamp and OTAs because K.J. Osborne was a little banged up and didn't participate, so B.C. Johnson was out there taking a lot of reps.

I would not count out BC Johnson entirely because intelligence matters and reliability matters. And the fact that they know BC Johnson is the type of receiver who's going to be where he's supposed to be when he's supposed to be there. That means something. That's how he got on the, you know, that's how he got on the team to begin with is that he beat out other wide receivers because he knew the playbook better. He knew where to line up better. He knew the route details

better and was on the same page with Kirk Cousins. So I would not count out entirely BC Johnson, even though he's less exciting. KJ Osborne last year proved that he could play, but this year they're going to run three wide receivers a lot. And Amir Smith-Marset has a chance to earn that number four wide receiver spot or a chance to even earn a rotational spot with KJ Osborne. We know who number one and number two are going to be. There's no question about that. But that number three, number four, number five, who's used for what situations, how much they get in the game. I mean, that's all really yet to be determined. And remember, Kevin O'Connell is getting his first impression of all of these guys. So in the past, you might've said, well, you know, Zimmer likes this guy or, uh, you know, whatever offensive coordinator likes that guy,

he fits in this system or that system. Well's different now so they may look at Amir Smith-Marset and say this guy has some explosive ability down the field let's use him for those type of situations when we want to run down the field type route combinations and let's use BC Johnson when we want to do underneath type of stuff I think that's a possibility or KJ Osborne who's good with the ball in his hands. So how that all shakes out will be something that we're watching for sure. But I think that as far as physical talent wise goes, Smith-Marset has a chance to put himself in that mix by being an explosive player, by being a potential deep threat, but he has to earn it. He's going to have to make plays on a

daily basis in camp and he's going to have to master a new offense. And there's another thing to this as well, which is Amir Smith-Marset got hurt in minicamp and was in a walking boot, and it might have put him behind just a little bit behind these other receivers. So it might be a case where we go through training camp, into the preseason games games and maybe deep in camp before we really know where Amir Smith-Marset lands. But I think if you're doing most interesting players in training camp, which sounds like a podcast to me at some point, Amir Smith-Marset

probably qualifies. So good question. All right. This comes from at never tweets three. Well, since this was a tweet you're not telling the truth you do tweet uh he says fans only big supporter and you're the only one i trust with this question okay thank you thank you um will you outline the most likely scenario to play out in the next three years you're trusting me never tweets with three-year scenario i feel honored uh bigger picture stuff for example 2022 missed the playoffs trade kirk begin rebuild 2023 losing record draft quarterback etc so you want to know what the most likely scenario is to play out over the next three years and i am the only one that you believe can do this man all right i feel like

bruce willis and armageddon you're the only guy who could believe can do this. Man, all right. I feel like Bruce Willis in Armageddon. You're the only guy who could go up there and save the planet, except for maybe it won't turn out as badly for me as it did for him. Or for that movie. My gosh. Not great.

Okay, anyway, I'll stop delaying on this question. I think over the next three years, the way, if I were to pick the most likely scenario, and then I'll give you the best and the worst case, but the most likely is dead in the middle, right? It's that they go nine and eight, miss the playoffs by a game or make the seven seed and lose in the first round. That's the most likely scenario for this football team. That's going off of your Vegas betters and everything else, but also off of my general feeling on where this team is at talent-wise, roster-wise, timeline-wise, all those things, is that they are probably a little better than last year,

but I'm not sure how much better. And so that's kind of where I'd put them. I'd put them at 9-8 or 10-7, and then losing in the first round of the playoffs to a better team. That's more in its Superbowl window. And then after this year, it really will depend on in that nine and eight or 10 and seven. How did Kirk cousins look down the stretch? Did he look like he was getting stronger down the stretch and playing well, or did he fade again, which he has in numerous years because his age matters here. And if he's fading down the stretch of each season, that's not really a great projection for the future, but let's just say that they decide that he looks okay enough.

So they draft a quarterback, they stay with Kirk cousins and they just run through his contract all the way to the end. And then they will play the quarterback that they drafted in the first round and developed for a year while drafting and developing for other positions, moving out other players. And by 2024, you will have a completely new quarterback and basically a completely new roster, aside from your very, very expensive Justin Jefferson and your very, very expensive Brian O Jefferson and your very, very expensive,

you know, Brian O'Neill and maybe Daniil Hunter is still here. Maybe Louis scene and Andrew Booth Jr. Are getting to the point where we're talking about their next contracts in a couple of years down the road. But I think that that right there is the most likely scenario for how it plays out. Now the best and worst is actually kind of hard because you could make an argument that they're like the worst case scenario might be just that you play pretty well this year, but get nothing out of it. So let's say you have a really good season and win 11 games, but you get nothing out of it. You lose in the first round. You disappoint.

Think about what Dallas did last year. That's like a worst case scenario, right? They win their division. They go 12 and five. They leave the NFL and scoring and go into the playoffs. It can't do anything against San Francisco's defense at home and then botch it at the end and lose the game. And then you're like, okay, well, we just wasted a 12 win season. So I think that the worst case scenario

is probably that because that means that cousins will come back and maybe even get another contract extension, which is very dangerous. I think because if they win 11 or 12 games, that means a lot went their way, which as we know, does not always happen time and time again. I don't think that losing a lot of games is actually the worst case scenario because it clarifies. It just means if you go 6-11 and everything goes wrong and Kirk Cousins doesn't fit in the new system and he struggles, I mean, you just know that they're trading Cousins,

they're drafting a quarterback, they're hitting a reset button on this entire thing. That makes it very straightforward that this didn't work and now you have to go another direction we thought we were getting that clarification after last year but if it's really bad this year which I doubt but I mean if it is if somehow they win six or seven games well then you're talking about this becoming very easy and I think that the best case scenario is probably that they have a good season but they still draft that quarterback after this year that they have a good year they win a playoff game but they do not go into another extension for cousins they go to another quarterback and then play it out with alex smith

patrick mahomes type thing. And that gives them time to reset the roster by 2024. But I think everything is sort of going that way. And it's interesting that all the scenarios, there's not like this super wide range of best and worst case scenarios. Because of the age of the quarterback and the price of the quarterback, they're kind of all running toward the same thing. But I think that the only worst case one is that they feel like they have to lock into cousins again, long-term, and you keep rolling the dice on the same thing, hoping for different results.

That would probably be the worst case scenario, especially as he gets older and older and quarterbacks continue to get more and more expensive. It just you end up with the same scenario that you're in right now. So I think what you're looking for best case is to have a good season, but also draft a quarterback in the next offseason that you can build around and be able to reset that roster with a winning window of 2023, where you could still go all in and try to win, but then also know that 2024 is when you kind of hit that reset button and clear out some of the older players on the roster, bring in the new draft picks and things like that. So I hope that that lays it out,

since you're the only one that will trust me, or I'm the only one that you will trust in order to answer that question. But I, I think that's sort of the interesting thing here is that there's it's football. So there are always crazy things that can pop up and, you know, look, I mean, if you had asked me the same question before Teddy Bridgewater got hurt, I would have said, Oh, they're going to build around Teddy and they're going to compete for a Superbowl every year and they're going all in and all these things. And then he gets hurt and the entire organization is sort of sent flying into disarray. So things happen, injuries happen, surprises come

up. You know, players demand trades out of nowhere. I would have never told you during the 2018 or 2017 season that Stefan Diggs would be demanding a trade to get out. So that's why we watch. But I also think that the best case, worst case, and most likely case are not that far away from each other. This thing seems to be steamrolling toward another quarterback in next year's draft. And then going forward from there. It's just whether you put the rookie in right away or whether you have Cousins play out his contract. That's going to depend on how well they play this year. All right, on to the next one.

This comes from Oliver via the email. Enjoy the show. I particularly appreciate your authentic opinions and neutral perspectives on the Vikings and NFL. Thank you. Appreciate that. Being on site, can you tell or sense when a locker room is divided, whether players despise how much someone else is making in relation to their performance or coaching issues or any other schism? Definitely. Absolutely. There's no question about it. You get a pretty good feel throughout a season for how everybody is down. But you can sense whether they're banding together to fight through it

or whether they're kind of going every man for themselves. You can tell by everybody's body language, how they answer questions, who's around in the locker room, if you're there in the locker room. These last two years have been a little harder, but they were making no bones about the difference in the locker room. These last two years have been a little harder, but they were making no bones about this, you know, the difference in the locker room between, you know, with Zimmer and cousins and all those things. So it was pretty easy to get a feel of what they were going through last year and their frustrations with Mike Zimmer kind of came out more and more and more as the season went along. But it was really obvious from the very start that this was going to be an uncomfortable season last year because of the stuff with COVID and Zimmer and cousins, and they still couldn't get on the're talking to the players every single day and the coach every single day.

And even though these guys are, I guess, you know, people say they're trained to do media. I don't really know that that's true. I mean, they may talk to other people about how to do it right. There may be quarterbacks who work on it, but I don't know that offensive linemen or defensive linemen or wide receivers are really sitting there in front of the mirror or something, or going to some sort

of media trainer. So a lot of times you get pretty honest answers from these guys about the vibe of the room and how things are going on. Now, as far as the contract issue contract issue yeah you kind of have to um yeah you kind of have to look at like the results and how people talk from that um you know when you when we the one that i really go back to is kyle rudolph from the difference from him from 2016 17 to 18 19 and kyle rudolph being more open about his frustrations, not getting the football as much, which I'm sure he pointed at the quarterback, but also when he came out and said, like, look, I'd be fine if I was traded. I mean, that's a thing right there that says to me, how did you phrase it?

Whether, you know, how much someone else is making? Oh yeah. I mean, these guys know absolutely how much someone else is making. Oh yeah. I mean, these guys know absolutely how much everyone else is making. But when you have a quarterback who pressed the team to get every last dime out of them, then I think you have other players who go, all right, well, that's not really going to help us win because we lost X, Y, and Z. So I just need to get mine. Like I need to get my amount of money too.

And that's why it's so delicate and so difficult to repeat. If you're a super bowl champion or to be good year after year after year is that happens when you have success or when someone else in the locker room got X contract, then everybody knows what's going on. It's not hard. Everyone has the internet. Now they all follow Adam Schefter. They know what people got paid paid they know how to find over the cap.com and find everybody's cap hits it's not hard and so if you're looking around it's somebody who's got a lot of money and is not living up to that money that they were paid and everybody knew that cousins because i'm sure that's kind of what you're indicating here everybody knew that cousins was brought here to take them to the Super Bowl.

And the first impression was 8-7-1. And so after that, we saw the Vikings having to pay full price for every single player. When they were coming off 2017, it was different because it felt like everyone was saying, let's just get back. Let's just make sure we're under contract. We can win a Super Bowl. And then as soon as that reality was kind of taken away from them, then it was much more, well, I got to get my contract if I'm staying.

I got to get the most I could possibly get. I mean, Delvin Cook took them to the very last second before starting the season, before he signed his contract, and he won that deal hands down over the Vikings. So I think you do see that stuff, but that's more of just kind of reading the tea leaves there than it is necessarily people saying it inside the locker room. How about the Riley Reif situation? Everybody knew what happened there. So you have to assume that everybody inside the locker room knows what you know. That was trading for Yannick Ngakwe, making Riley Reif take a pay cut,

then trading Yannick Ngakwe. And so, of course, Riley Reif's not going to re-sign back with you after that. And also, you did that to a team captain who was really highly respected. So that makes it feel like, okay, we're really hurting somebody. This better work. We're really hurting a team captain here, money-wise and, uh, you know, just kind of his reputation. He had to be cut and then signed back. And then you trade the guy a few weeks later. It just looks like,

well, what are we even doing here? Right. And so the same way that you guys talk about your office, think about this, the way you talk about your office or where you work is the same way that you guys talk about your office, think about this, the way you talk about your office or where you work is the same way these guys talk about their office and where they work. It's, oh, you know, Sue in accounting is making this much money because she's been around forever and she doesn't do whatever, right? Like that happens in the NFL as well, for sure. So the answer is that one is much more you kind of get a feeling.

You don't get told directly because these guys won't talk about each other's money. It's a very smart decision. Remember when Baker Mayfield brought up, I think it was, was it Duke Johnson and how he wouldn't sign his contract and Mayfield said, what are you doing? Just like sign the contract, man, or something like that. That was a big no-no right from the very beginning. Players don't talk about each other's contracts, but they do talk about each other's contracts to each other

and to their agents and everything else. And resentment happens for sure. This guy's getting paid more than you. He's not worth as much as me, all those sorts of stuff. And that's where things get complicated when you win, but you don't get a Superbowl. Everybody wants theirs for their contributions. And this is part of the reason, like, I mean, we do often, and I'm guilty of this as well, look at it as, well, cousins couldn't take them to the next level, but it's

so much more complicated than that, why they didn't go to the next level, but it's so much more complicated than that, why they didn't go to the next level. And this whole thing is a part of that as well, that after 2018, there was nobody who was taking a pay cut from this team. So a very interesting question, Oliver. Thank you very much. Let me get a little diet. Dr. P here. Folks, want to remind you to go to SodaStick.com. That is S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. Use the promo code PurpleInsider for 15% off your purchase. It is summertime. It's baseball season.

They have all sorts of great Minnesota baseball gear. And if you are prepping for training camp, get your Purple People Eaters shirt, your Can't Stop the Thielen hat, and all sorts of other great football designs. Go there, sodastick.com, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com, promo code PURPLEINSIDER for 15% off. All right, another fans-only question. Fun hypothetical question for you.

This comes from, I'm sorry, at Matt Varick on Twitter. You are the newly appointed chief expansion officer of the NFL and you're tasked with picking two new cities for expansion. Do you go with two U.S. cities, Canada, or even Europe? Are there any funny team names that you covered from minor league baseball or hockey that you would recommend for the new teams? Well, for the minor league baseball realm, my team that I broadcast for was called the Batavia Muckdogs. And unfortunately, since they've gone from being single A, I think to like a wood bat college league or something. Uh, they lost their affiliated status, unfortunately, but we also had the Williamsport

cross cutters, the Jamestown jammers. I mean, it was, uh, yeah, it was great. So there, yeah. I mean, like there's, there's hundreds and hundreds of, of great hundreds of great team names from when I covered minor league baseball or the AHL. But let's see. Let's start off with your bigger question. Where would you put those expansion teams? I guess Toronto makes a lot of sense to me. I don't know logistically how that works, but Toronto is just this huge place that is right over the border

that is not being utilized for the NFL. And the Buffalo Bills took some games up there and this might be why they don't do this because there's already a franchise in Buffalo, which is only two hours from Toronto, but Toronto is so much of a different place than Buffalo. I don't know that there's much crossover. Buffalo tried to move some games every year up to Toronto and they didn't really succeed because I don't know that there's much crossover. Buffalo tried to move some games every year up to Toronto, and they didn't really succeed because I don't think there's that many Buffalo Bills fans. If you gave Toronto an NFL franchise, though, they are a sports nut type of city. I mean, the Maple Leafs, yes, they're more into hockey for sure.

But look at the Raptors, though. I mean, the whole thing was, oh, you know, it's hockey. They won't support the NBA. They support the Raptors. They're good. And they fill, you know, fill up that arena. I went to a Raptors game once, you know, awesome atmosphere, a lot of people in the stands. So I think that Toronto would support the NFL maybe right away. It would be a novelty and then they would get used to it. But I remember this, there was a story in one of the Toronto papers, I believe way back when, when the Toronto Blue Jays were new. And I remember coming across this somewhere that the fans didn't know what they were supposed to do with the foul balls. Like they knew so little about baseball in Toronto that they didn't know,

like, am I supposed to catch it? Am I supposed to get out of the way? Like, is it illegal for me to catch it? Like, they were just like, I don't even know what I'm supposed to do here. What are the rules? And so look at the way they are with the Toronto Blue Jays now. I think after a few years, they would really come around and start to, and you know, they have the Toronto Argonauts too there, the CFL team, which might be one of the reasons that the NFL is not there, that the Argos are fighting hard against it. Um, maybe it would actually help them though. If there's a ton of interest in the NFL, then there would be a ton

of interest in the Argos, but someone from, from Canada would have to tell me that's just the first place that I thought of that comes to mind for me. Um, beyond that, stay away from St. Louis. That doesn't work. I don't know about the London thing. I mean, it's so much easier to travel than it is, you know, in the past, but like the time change and just how difficult it is, how many things they have to do to even make that happen for a couple of games a year. I don't know about putting a franchise all the way there. I also don't know about the idea of Mexico. They've played some games in Mexico before, and I don't know how well that's really worked out. There's an elevation issue, I think, right? That it's

like really challenging with the elevation. I don't, I don't know. Like I I'm, I'm guessing on that. So, um, as far as us cities, and by the way, I don't want any more teams, my gosh, there's so many teams. There's already so many teams. Do we really need more football teams? Probably not. So that's a hard one though. Beyond that, where would be another place that would need a football team? I mean, you know, part of me thinks like Nebraska or somewhere that's really thought of as being very football-y. You know, I mean, I guess it makes sense, the idea to put one in another city in Texas just because Texas is so huge. So, you know, you had the 49ers and Raiders and Rams and, you know, all that going on in California. But you've got two teams in Texas.

You could probably have another team in, in Austin is a place that's been talked about. And I know that there was even some discussion if the Buffalo bills were going to move because of their stadium issue, which would obviously be a travesty, but Austin was another place that, you know, that came up Texas football. I don't think you'll have any trouble supporting them, but I mean, this just sort of speaks to what a bad idea it would be to add more teams that I'm struggling this much to, to find out, um, you know, to figure them out. Uh, let me see, let's see. I got to think of some of the AHL team names that were pretty fun back in the day. They

were less ridiculous than the minor league names for sure. Um, let me see. I'm just going to pull it up and see if there's any. Yeah. I mean the Peoria River men was a good one. I enjoyed that one. Didn't see the River men a whole lot. They were in a different division. There are so many minor league hockey teams though. Um, but the AHL does not have totally ridiculous names like the Charlotte Checkers. OK, you know, Chicago Wolves. There's the Coachella Valley Firebirds, which is a great one. Cleveland Monsters.

They're not as creative as as minor league baseball. And also back when I was doing the single A, a lot of the teams actually had the same name as their it was like the Brooklyn Mets or something, or the Staten Island Yankees. They've since changed those to funnier names. But when I was doing it, a lot of teams just sort of took the team that they were with, but good question, Matt. Thank you. All right. Uh, at George Lavelle three says thoughts on this list from a random website on, uh, most underappreciated Vikings, Jake Reed, Jim Marshall, Kai Forbath and Trey Waynes.

Uh, okay. Um, I'm not, I'm not really understanding this list like most under well first of all underappreciated to whom would be a good question because i mean i don't know that minnesotans underappreciate jake reed i certainly know that minnesotans do not underappreciate jim marshall so are we talking about in the big picture maybe the nfl by not having jim marshall in the hall of fame is under appreciating jim marshall but that's really the only case you can make i don't think that anybody in minnesota is missing jake reed or jim marshall those go under the category of like legendary players for this franchise uh let me see if i can can get some ones that might be a little better selection this kaibath is like, what, what are we talking about here?

I mean, Kai deserved his credit for hitting one field goal, but what do we, what are we doing here? I mean, he was a pretty average kicker for the Vikings for what? Like a year, a year and a half.

I mean, I don't know that I'd put them in the list. If that, if the most underappreciated player you have in your whole franchise history or top five is Kai Forbath, then you have not had the history that the Minnesota Vikings have had. That sounds like someone who, I don't know, just started watching football like a few years ago. Trey Wayans also, huh? I mean, Trey Wayans is an average corner.

He was drafted sort of maybe a little too high high and he was an okay player. I just totally lost on this list, man. Uh, I'm glad you didn't make up the list because then I would be totally confused by you and I would try to be more polite about it. Okay. Let's see if we could think of some real underappreciated players as opposed to Trey Wayans. What? Um, how about Bobby Bryant? Like that would be a good one. Like here's some ones that, you know, that the people maybe don't talk about a lot because the guys got overshadowed or something like that. Bobby Bryant was a corner. He was a two-time pro bowler. He was around for a really long time with the Vikings organization. I mean, a really long time from 68 to 80, 51 interceptions,

couple of Pro Bowls, really, really good player, at least by the numbers, you know, when it comes to this and the Pro Bowls and things like that. But when you're talking about the 60s and 70s, you're not talking about the defensive backfield and someone like Bobby Bryant. So maybe that's a guy that isn't talked about a whole lot, but was actually very, very good. Uh, I think in the annals of sports, uh, locally, this guy is kind of around. So he doesn't, you know, he's not short on credit exactly because he's around, but as far as the big picture in sports, and I know my friend, Josh Smith is going to appreciate who I'm going to say here, but Chuck Foreman is somebody who just does not get the credit as one of the great running

backs ever. And part of it was because he didn't have like a 2000 yard season or something like that. But if you look at what he did over a five year period for the Vikings, five, six year period in between 73 and 77, I mean, he's one of the best players in the NFL at that point. He had 73 catches in one season, still ran for over a thousand yards, scored 22 touchdowns in one year. Chuck Foreman, he was twice in the MVP voting. He was offensive rookie of the year. He was a four time, no five time pro bowler. Like that run as a running back is really really good and he was

an all pro at one point like he deserves to be talked about among the better running backs but he didn't have the longevity of some other running backs that are considered the all-time greats but his run from 73 to 77 where he's a pro bowl five straight times i mean he is a huge part of those really good offenses for the Vikings, huge part, really a centerpiece for them. And, you know, I mean, he gets talked about a little locally because he's around and he'll do interviews and, you know, that kind of thing. But, um, as far as the, the, the greater scheme of the NFL, he does not get brought up a whole heck of a lot. Offensive linemen are always underrated. So, you know, there's that thing, somebody like David Dixon, who was a Viking for a long time. I mean, you could do

so much better than Kai Forbath. My gosh, like, geez, I mean, use pro football reference just a little bit. If you could, you know, who might end up being thought of this way in the long run. And I don't know if it's right or wrong is Anthony Barr. If Anthony Barr will be considered overrated or underrated, I don't even know. Like you could say overrated by how much he got paid, or you could say underrated that he got criticized so much for getting paid that much. Like, I think there's a case either way for him for recent, um, player. How about Todd Stussy? Todd Stussy, man. Like think about this guy. He was a two-time pro bowler, but he was a part of so many great offenses for the Vikings as the left tackle.

I mean, he was great. He was a pro bowler, 97, 98. Of course, he's part of the 98 team. That's one of the best offenses in history. And you know, all these offenses from 94 to 2000 are really good in the time that he was a Viking. So shout out to Todd Stussy. Let's just, there's like a lot of good options here. And you pick Trey Wayne's. Oh my gosh. Um, I mean, we, we have Wikipedia folks. We have Wikipedia. So if you're doing a blog, that's fine. That's cool. Like have fun with it, but like use wiki, put some work into it. It's not that hard. All right. Uh, onto the next one. This from a dingo Donnie one. Appreciate you dingo Donnie, uh, mailbag question with the benefit of hindsight, who drove the Harbaugh pursuit? Was it, uh, and who S canned it? Wasn't it strange

that O'Connell was signed so quickly after Harbaugh left the building? Um, I don't think it was strange that, uh, he was signed so quickly after he left the building. It was the same sort of thing with Kwesi Adafo Mensah and Ryan Poles, where as soon as Ryan Poles said, I'm not going to be your GM, I'm going to Chicago. It was like, okay, well, Kweisi, here's the contract. Sign it up, my friend. So yeah, I don't think that part was strange. The strange part is that he was ever here. I mean, I thought you don't bring Jim Harbaugh to Minnesota to have an interview with him unless you are hiring him. I was very much prepared.

If you guys remember, if you are a hardcore listener to the show, then you will remember this. That me and Jeremiah Searles did a mock press conference where he pretended to be Jim Harbaugh because we were so sure that Jim Harbaugh was going to be the coach of this team. And then all of a sudden it didn't happen. And I think that at the last minute, somebody got cold feet. That was not the Wilfs. I think that the Wilfs and Kweisi Adafo-Mensah were ready to do this and they were ready to push all the chips into the Harbaugh table. And somebody else. Now there was a report of another owner.

But also, I mean, players potentially. Think about this. That the Wilfs were talking with the players a lot this offseason. There have been multiple players who have told us, yeah, we had conversations with the Wilfs about where we want to go. So were there players that at the last minute or agents at the last minute that came in and said, whoa, whoa, whoa, you guys can't put this guy in charge. I've worked with him before, or my guy's not going to play well with him. Or, you know, we don't want this type of disruption after coming off of Mike Zimmer. We want Kevin O'Connell, a different type of coach. So I, that's how it feels to me because if the Wilfs were against it, they wouldn't

have flown the guy in. It's not a cheap flight from Michigan. I mean, uh, if you've, if you've tried to, you know, I haven't wanted to go as a road game to cover the lines and Vikings because it's never been relevant in the history of purple insider. And I have to kind of be a little discerning about which road games I'm going to. Um, but I have looked into the flights. They're a little bit expensive to go from Minnesota to Michigan. You don't put down the money to fly the man here. It's I'm they've got the money. I'm just joking around, but like like the you don't put in the time and the investment to bring that guy here knowing that all the internet and all the reporting and everything else is going to hone in on what you're doing and say wow they're bringing in Jim Harbaugh

this is a football celebrity that you are bringing here only to go nah you know not a fit I like it just doesn't seem to add up if the Wilfsfs didn't want him, they wouldn't have interviewed him. He wouldn't have been on their list. And I suppose it's possible that that was a favor to Kwesi Adafo-Mensa. That they said, yeah, sure, bring in your guy. We'll have a listen. But I don't think that's quite right. Because it seems like they were very involved.

And they had this whole team of people who was doing this interview. So who was it that said, no, I wish I knew. And if anybody knows DM me, but because I really, I've heard a couple of things about that, but I'm not sure which ones are exactly worth saying for sure. And that's the difficult part sometimes is sometimes there's buzz, but I don't really trust it fully to be able to say to you, this is what's going on. But that kind of is the indication. I'm kind of doing like a Brian Windhorst thing, like, but he came to Minnesota and then he all of a sudden left Minnesota. Hmm. What's happening there?

So that's how, that's how I feel about that is that I think they were ready to do it. And then at the very end, something kind of came in and someone or something at the very last second and said, no, we can't do this. So good question. I mean, we'll always remember the Jim Harbaugh, head coach of the Minnesota Vikings era. What a wild time. Also great for business, by the way. I mean, so much to write about, so much to talk about with that. It's the thing.

When people say, you know, oh, well, you know, you like to hammer them for this or that or whatever it might be. I win every way. If they're great, I win. If they're bad and people get fired, I also win. That's why I just tell you what I think. Because it gets crazy, as you saw, when they lose and then they bring in Jim Harbaugh and, you know, my downloads for the episodes are shooting up and

people are reading the website and everything else. It's like, well, you know, either way, this is great for me. So everything's coming up me. Uh, okay. We'll move on to the next question here. This from at Viking T E screen diet, Dr. Pepper. How did the habits start? Was it something that replaced drinking? No, no. Uh, I know some people that switched to sodas after getting sober. I'm sober and drink a LaCroix for example. Is that like the water? Uh, just curious if, uh, if it's part of your life story, I always appreciate sports people who don't drink or gamble since I once had real issues with that stuff. Um, okay. And, uh, that's part one. There's this two part question. So, um, okay. There's a little bit of a backstory, but it's nothing like that. So I've never, I've never drank. I just never started. My parents didn't

drink. I didn't hang out with people that drank. Uh, my wife doesn't drink. And so it was just like, well, there's no reason to, there's no, there's no like great time to start. It's not like, Hey, I'm 31. I guess today's the day. Like it just never came up. So that's not a part of it at all. And both of our families do have history of alcoholism in them. And so, you know, both of us, we kind of talked about that. My wife and I, like, I mean, not that we were really considering starting to do it, but this is maybe an influence of why we didn't because there's family history there. Uh, and you don't want to mess with that. If you, uh, if you have family history of alcoholism, it seems like it's something that

could be passed down through DNA, not a scientist. I'm just saying it's something to look into if you have a trouble with it, but, um, it really, so I, I always drank soda growing up, just, it was always in the fridge and my dad always had, you know, a diet Pepsi with him or whatever. Um, and so I drank regular soda for a while. And when I was in college, just started to get the freshman 15 or 20 or 30 or whatever. And I thought I better get back in shape here. And part of it was cutting out sugar. I remember hearing an interview with Karan Butler of all people. And he talked about cutting out soda that had sugar in it and switching to diet and how he lost weight because of it. And I thought, well, I kind of need that. So that's really it. But the only reason I drink

diet Dr. Pepper all the time. And if the Dr. Pepper people are listening, this would be something you could sponsor. Uh, I just think that it tastes good. Like of all the diet sodas. And this is no disrespect to the Diet Cokes, especially Diet Coke at McDonald's. Delicious. I don't know why that is. Absolutely delicious Diet Coke at McDonald's. It just has more flavor to it.

That's one of the issues that diet soda suffers from is that it's just kind of, you can't really recreate that flavor, but Diet Dr. Pepper does. So put that in the commercial. Okay, your second question, put your arm chair psychologist hat on for a minute. Why, what do you think is going on inside the minds of people who have an irrationally high opinion of Kirk Cousins? Is it an evangelical Christian following? What the heck is it? You know, I think that there's probably a bunch of different reasons. I think that probably the most prevalent is that there's not that many people that you're

actually, yeah, that's how I would start there. There's probably not that many people that you see. Some are on Twitter a lot. So if you're on Twitter a lot and you follow those people, they've created whole brands out of fighting about Kirk cousins. Like that's their thing. That's how they get attention. And so I don't think that they believe the stuff that they're putting out there. It's just that that gets them interactions and stuff like that. So there's that percentage of people that makes it seem like there's more that have this irrational take on Kirk Cousins.

My experience here has been that most people are incredibly realistic about their quarterback. I mean, they look at how he's played and the good things that he does. And they've looked at Mike Zimmer and said, you know, maybe he held them back, but also maybe Cousins shortcomings are problematic. They look at the contract. They wonder if he was paid a third of what he's being paid now, if they could build a stronger roster and come. Like, I think most people hit on all the nuances that are correct when analyzing Kirk Cousins.

So when it's like, oh, you blame Kirk Cousins for everything. It's like, well, obviously I don't. And nobody does like, that's a straw man. Like no one does that. It's just, that's you're arguing with ghosts when you say stuff like that. I think that there is after last year with the vaccination thing, a section that wanted to defend Kirk Cousins more because of his decision, because it aligned with them politically. I think that that is something that exists. I don't know how strong that is though. I don't know how many people that would be. Um, but there are probably those that, uh, that that's something where it's like,

well, I want to support this person who politically aligns with what I think. Yeah, that's possible more than anything though, I think that you have a lot of people who in day one were so excited for Kirk Cousins. And I do not blame anyone. You're coming off an NFC championship appearance and you signed the biggest free agent quarterback. And they believed at that moment that he would take them to another place. And think about the power of first impressions, that with first-round draft picks, people will argue to the ends of the earth that they got screwed if they're a bust because they love them coming out of the draft, right?

That exists in the NFL. That exists in sports where teams continue to bring in bust first round draft picks. Laquan Treadwell still in the league. If he was a second round pick, he's not still in the league, right? But he's a first round pick. So that means some scout loved him. So that means the first impression dies hard. I think that that's the most, the vast, vast majority of people who want to irrationally defend Kirk Cousins and say it's everyone else's fault and everything else, they are dying hard on their first impression. And that's probably 90%.

The other 10% is the other things that you're describing. It's a small amount of people, especially the online people who 24-7 tweet about one player. That's just trying to build a brand and trying to rile people up and make people angry and everything else. It's not, it's not any sort of attempt to legitimately talk about football. So that's kind of the way I see it. But those people build followings and it's kind of like politics where it's really just, there are political accounts that just troll and just like, how can we get,

how can I say the most ludicrous thing so I can get more attention? And you see this in every area of media, uh, on the internet. So you gotta be careful of like having your perception from what is reality and how most people actually feel about a subject twisted by somebody with a big following on Twitter or on whatever else, you know, Twitch or Tik TOK or whatever. I think that's a, there's a good lesson there because I would say 90% of people that I've ever talked to, which is a lot doing this emails, talking to people in public about what I do, people that I meet 90% are very rational about the quarterback situation. So just keep that in mind, I guess, in your general life. Okay. That's going to do it for

this one and make sure you're going to purpleinsider.com, the contact us in the top right corner or sending me your tweet questions. And I'm almost through the file at the moment. So I need more questions. Send them my way and appreciate you all. And we'll talk later.