Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Is this Kirk Cousins's last dance?

Episode Date: September 4, 2023

Matthew Coller talks with Vikings fans about the implications of a hot or cold start and why the game against the Buccaneers could shape the opening part of the season. Is this really it for Kirk Cousins? Is there any scenario where it isnt? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and guess what everybody? It's a game week. I was thinking about whether I should go live on YouTube tonight or not. My wife is actually broadcasting a Lynx game as we speak. That game's just wrapping up. And so I was watching that and I was thinking, man, I'm enjoying the couch here. It's been a nice day, a nice, you know, summer afternoon. I played basketball. I mowed the lawn. It was a very nice day. But then I was thinking, no, it's game week. We got to go. We got to talk football because we've been through a lot to get here. I mean, think about this. The last time we had a game week to talk about was in January. It is September, my friends. How did it happen? It has been a long journey. We have seen

all sorts of Minnesota Vikings players that we were around for a long time leave. We've seen a lot of new players come in. We've gone through OTAs, mini camp, training camp. I got sunburned, bought a new house, went to a wedding, lost my voice. A lot has happened in all of the time that we have gone through in order to get to week one. And I can't miss any opportunity whatsoever in order to talk football with you guys. So here we are week one and there's a lot on my mind of course that we're going to be covering throughout the week. Another very exciting thing is that this channel if you're watching on YouTube or if you're listening on the podcast version there's going to be new stuff this year and it's

going to be very exciting. So we are relaunching the Hot Routes brand. And so there's a separate podcast feed, but it's going to be the same Purple Insider channel. Tomorrow night will be Manny Hill. Jonathan Harrison, as always. Manny's going to be on Thursdays. And then the other days, I will be here chatting with you guys. So it was such a success throughout training camp that i decided we need to carry on and also i mean i finally got this background looking good and uh each day i've

added something a little bit new to it so we're good to go ready to go with football and so if you enjoy this you're going to get a lot more live on YouTube. And also make sure you go find the Hot Routes podcast feed because there will be episodes that aren't on YouTube as well. So there you go. There's the self-promotion. And now it's time to talk football. I got a really interesting direct message today from a listener to the show. And that's where I wanted to start out. And, of course, taking your comments and questions all throughout the show as well.

That's what it's going to be. out and of course taking your comments and questions all throughout the show as well that's what it's going to be every night on here uh the audience participation has made this a really really fun off season by the way so ryan wrote me and said the vikings have a front-loaded schedule if they start one and five or two and five do you think they would intentionally tank or push for the playoffs? This is a really interesting thought because of week one, I think, hinging a lot of things with this entire season. And that's something you can't often say for week one. Normally, it's, guys, it's just week one.

We're all overreacting. But when you look at the schedule and three days later, you have to go to Philadelphia and then you go to Philly and you come back and it's the Los Angeles Chargers. And that's not an easy team to play either. Go to Carolina. OK, well, that should be a win. But then you have Kansas City at Soldier Field. Never a gimme.

And then the San Francisco 49ers. That's the beginning to your season. And so I think if you beat the tampa bay buccaneers it it doesn't guarantee you anything but it gives you a good chance for the worst case scenario to be two and three in the first five games and that's okay you can deal with two and three you could get past that make the playoffs get on a little bit of a run in the middle of the season when it gets easier when it's at green bay atlanta new orleans denver chicago that of a run in the middle of the season when it gets easier when it's at Green Bay, Atlanta, New Orleans, Denver, Chicago. That's a run in the middle of the year. All right. Well,

you know, that's fine. That's not I mean, that's a lot of winnable games at that point for the Vikings. But if you lose the Tampa Bay, then all of a sudden the pressure feels like it's ramping up from the outset of the season, from the first kickoff. And then you go to Philadelphia desperate for a win. You start 0-2, and then everybody starts bringing up all those numbers. You go 0-3, and the chances to make the playoffs go way down and all that stuff. So this is a huge week for the Vikings, and I'm excited to get out there.

We're going to be out there at TCO Performance Center tomorrow, first open locker room of the year with a game coming up. And just to dive a little deeper into this Tampa Bay team, going to be talking with Trevor Sikama from PFF, who has long covered the Tampa Bay Bucs, to find out where they stand. They have a quarterback who's kind of unimpressive, but they also have receivers who are good. A defense that I just looked this up today was top 10 in net yards per pass attempt allowed.

And a Todd Bowles, who is a blitzing, aggressive defensive coordinator, much like Brian Flores. So it's no easy task to play the Bucs, even though I think it is an advantageous start to the year. But it swings a lot of how we feel about the early part of this schedule. And so I think that this is maybe a bigger game than it would seem than when you just say like, oh, it's okay, Vikings-Bucks, like NFC Central, old school matchup. But if you don't win, then the tension rises right from the very kickoff of the season.

I think that makes it really interesting to have a game that you believe that you should win, but also knowing that week one can be a little random and a little weird as well. But to the question from Ryan, I mean, first, it's kind of like, well, that's a way to start out. I mean, you know, no, no surprise from Vikings fans thinking of like the worst case scenario from the, just from the jump, like training camps over. What if we go one in five? Like that sounds like a very Vikings fan type of thing to think about, but I don't think that that decision. So when you say intentionally tank, it really means one thing and that thing is trading Kirk Cousins because Cousins is in the final year of his contract and if you start one in five what would be the point if you didn't believe that you could turn it around and make the playoffs and in 2020

that's exactly what happened I mean they started and five. They went down to Green Bay, got a win, kind of a weird weather, strange game, but a great win for them. Delvin Cook went completely nuts. And then they believed that they could go and make the playoffs and they were close, but that doesn't mean anything. Right. And so maybe there was an opportunity at that point to have traded cousins, started anew and tanked and gone to the very bottom and everything else. Like maybe there was at that point, but they weren't in really a position to do that because they had not acted that way. I mean, they had traded for Yannick Ngakwe and I guess they traded him away after he wasn't maybe the fit that they thought he was going to be. And I think they tried to trade some other wasn't maybe the fit that they thought he was going to be.

And I think they tried to trade some other players, but it didn't eventually work out. But they never really went for a tank, which would have meant trading Kirk Cousins that year and then gone into the uncertain future after a four-win season. They could have done that in 2020, and they didn't. If they run into that scenario again, I've got to think that they're considering it, right? That they would have to at least take phone calls from any quarterback desperate team that maybe is off to a great start and thinks, uh-oh, we don't have our quarterback or somebody who gets their quarterback hurt. It's not a guarantee there's anyone looking for a quarterback at the trade deadline,

but normally there's somebody who gets their quarterback hurt and they're playing a backup. I mean, last year, the San Francisco 49ers called Ben Roethlisberger to see if he could play potentially when they got a bunch of quarterbacks hurt. So these teams are always having to look for answers, and I think it was something like 67 quarterbacks played last year. So quarterbacks are going to get hurt at some point. So if that did happen, they would have to consider it being that they have already signaled that they're moving on from Kirk Cousins.

What it would come down to is whether ownership would let that happen. And when you look at the schedule after the fifth week, you still have at Chicago, San Francisco, at Green Bay, at Atlanta. So three out of four games are on the road after that. It's not going to be a very good situation, but what has to influence this? And Bob is ahead of me already on this is it might be a good quarterback draft and you might not have to tank. That's true, Bob. But if you were already there, if it's, it's not starting today, like starting today, they're trying to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers there's I think that three and two is a good start to this season considering the challenges that they face schedule wise so if they were able to start three and two that's fine go forth try to win as many games as you can win the NFC North but hey by the way somebody told y'all that quarterbacks would emerge by the early part of the college season how about that that? They did a bunch of them. It was an incredible week for college quarterbacks. How about that? There was never going to be two

college quarterbacks that were going to be in the draft. So, you know, the freak out over what if we win too many games? Well, you know, at least as of this moment, it looks pretty good for those teams who are going to need a quarterback next year. But not the point. I think that you also do have to consider how good of prospects there are at the very top of the next draft. And the fact that there will be a few that you might not need to get number one, but you might need to get to number 10. So if you trade away Kirk cousins and you play Nick Mullins and you win five or six games, you can be Carolina and do what they did last year, trade up, draft your quarterback. So there are a lot of kind of crazy scenarios from the, I mean, for the first couple of weeks that could happen. And I don't think it's completely outrageous for what Ryan's asking. Would they trade away Kirk Cousins? But at the same time, they might also have restriction on that and just say, no, we Justin Jefferson pretty unhappy to go through an

absolutely horrendous and miserable season and then be asked to sign a contract extension after that. So that, you know, it's, it's, it's never as simple or easy as we make it sound when it's, oh, you got off to a slow start. Well, just lose all the games. No big deal. Always, always harder and more complicated than that. But let's talk about the other side of that coin, because that's one, that is one scenario. When you play the teams that were in the Super Bowl last year, you have to consider that it might end up being a slow start. And I mean, we can't count out the Los Angeles Chargers at that point as being a potentially good team as well. So the slow start scenario is plausible.

But there's another scenario in which they start out fast and they beat the Bucs and they surprise on Thursday night the Philadelphia Eagles. I think if you're going to play Philadelphia at any point, having them on a Thursday night is probably good. Having to go there, not great. It's not an easy place for this team to play. But on a Thursday night where they don't get the entire week to prepare, that might help even the score a little bit. I don't know what it says. Maybe gamblers know this about Thursday night games. I feel like the results are more random and the more random, the better for the Vikings. So let's say the other side of this coin is they get hot to start the season and they win three out of four, they win four out of

five. I get, are we talking about, Hey, maybe you guys should go all in on some other trade. And look, you thought it was going to be a competitive rebuild, but the future is here. And then what? Are we talking about Kweisi Adafo-Mensa making a phone call to Kirk Cousins' agent and saying, hey, you know, we usually don't do mid-season extensions, but they just, you know, he's just led them to a six and one

start. I mean, I think it's really, really interesting the different ways this could go. And I was just thinking about this today for something that I'm writing, which is that this is kind of a one man last dance for Kirk cousins. I mean, I know that Daniil Hunter, Harrison Smith are here as well, and they're the last remaining, C.J. Hamm, the last remaining elements of the 2017 team. But it's really a kind of a solo Kirk Cousins last dance because they moved on from so many other pieces this offseason, but they kept their quarterback who can remain

competitive and who can win games for them. And it's a scenario that you just don't see very often with a team that's rebuilding, but keeping its quarterback. It would kind of be like if Detroit had moved on from a bunch of people and refreshed their entire roster when they hired Dan Campbell, but kept Matthew Stafford. That's sort of how it feels right now. It wasn't quite to the level. It wasn't to a tank level like it was with Detroit. keeping the same guy in Kirk Cousins who can get you eight, nine, 10 plus wins at quarterback and taking away a lot of the other pieces, but not signing him to an extension. So if you were refreshing the roster, but sign him to an extension over multiple years,

that would also be pretty normal too. And I looked this up, the only quarterbacks who are starting this season who are not on a rookie contract or finishing up their rookie contract, like that happens where someone is technically a free agent in the last year of their rookie contract or whatever. So those guys will throw those out. It's only Kirk Cousins, Ryan Tannehill, and Baker Mayfield who are going into the final years of their deal and their teams are letting them get there. Of course, with Baker Mayfield,

it's a one-year deal for the bucks and Ryan Tannehill's in a similar spot where that team has changed a lot about it, but they're still trying to win. And then here's Kirk. And I was thinking about where the different outcomes could take this team depending what they do and what Kirk cousins does this year. Like at what scenario does Kirk cousins stay? Is it 4,500 yards,

a top five offense and 11 wins. Is it, if he wins eight, but the offense is good and the defense is bad. Like, is there no scenario whatsoever because he's going to want too much money and they can't project him into the future it's so interesting and then if he's just okay and they decide to move on like how do we feel

what does it feel wasted does it feel like it was nothing like if they start two and three and they scrap their way to eight wins and miss the playoffs by a game like has happened in the recent past, are we all going to go, what was that for? Why bring them back? Why did they stick with that direction when they could have replaced them and started looking for their new quarterback? So a lot of storylines just regarding the quarterback this year. So anyway, well, that's just what was on my mind. It was a really interesting question from Ryan. I appreciate him listening and you're always free to send me an email, go to purpleinsider.com,

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PrizePix. Daily fantasy sports made easy. Jordan says week one is a must-win schedule-wise. You know, I hadn't looked at the schedule in some time. Probably since it came out, honestly. I mean, just every once in a while, I have't looked at the schedule in some time. It probably since it came out, honestly. I mean, just every, every once in a while I have to book travel and stuff. So I would look at, you know, what date the Eagles game is or whatever, which we're going, we'll be there.

And I think that you're right. It feels very weird to call it a must win because it's week one and there's so many games. But the fact is that they have fewer home games this year. And I didn't even think about that until I was kind of reviewing the schedule to answer this question and going through. It's not just about the first five games. It's also about this midseason run that they have on the road.

October 15th, October 29th, November 3rd, November 9th, or November 5th, November 19th, road, road, road, road, road. And then they come out of the bye week and December 10th and 17th, they're on the road again. I mean, it's a remarkable how much they're on the road this season. When you have nine road games last year, going to London, they actually only had seven road games because that would be I guess in my mind considered a neutral site so that was part of everything kind of going in their direction last year and everything getting a little bit harder uh this year uh David says get Aaron Donald well that's what I mean though isn it? Like if they start off hot and Detroit's just

okay. And you're neck and neck. And the whole idea for this season is the competitive rebuild. And it's the, we're going to find out what we have and we're going to give a lot of young players opportunities. Someone was also emailing me today about Asamoah versus Ivan pace. And I think they're both going to play. And that's great for them to find out what you have at linebackers. See if you got some future dudes there, find out what you have at outside corner. But if you start out hot, do you go, okay,

I know we just got our salary cap situation, right? But you know, we're, we're five and two and it's the deadline. And now I'm interested like the hawkinson trade worked out really well but do you want to give up any draft capital considering what we saw on saturday with the number of good quarterbacks who appear to be in college football at least one weekend that is an interesting question Would you give up another second for a player who could help you this year? Because the NFC is pretty underwhelming. And that's got to be part of it as well.

I mean, if you start out hot in the AFC, I don't know. No, I don't think so. There's way too many beasts there to trade for a defensive tackle or something. But if you're in the NFC, you have to consider it much more, even if it could hurt you if they get off to a hot start. Christian says the Vikings got to take this year in the schedule one week at a time more than ever. Yeah, I mean, you're right about that as far as like that's how they have to treat it. But at some point, we're going to have a feeling for what this team is. And we're

going to know probably about five or six weeks in, right? When they go to Chicago in week six, which is one week away from the trade deadline, I think we're going to have a pretty good idea who they are as they head to Chicago. Are they a fledgling team that had some expectations, but started off slow and just looks bad? I mean, more likely than not, if they're losses, they're going to be close losses, and it'll just swing the one-score games back the other way. But are they going to be called, you know,

the one-year wonder from last year or the regression candidate or whatever? Or do we go to Chicago talking about,, Hey, that one score game stuff. That was the, that was a whole different team last year. This is this year. And now they're in the top of the playoff race. I mean, I don't know. I think both things are very possible and a lot of it swings on these first two weeks you beat Tampa and then go to Philadelphia. I mean, who knows, right? Then you can potentially get off to a hot start. Let's see from Bob. Always take the home team. Oh, you're talking about the gambling. Yeah. Always take the home team on Thursday night. No travel short week, national TV recipe for success. Yeah. I guess I was looking at it in the way of they're more random,

but that might not be true because I haven't studied it. It was just kind of a general feeling from watching Thursday night games is there's a lot of strange results and odd games and so forth, but you may be right. I mean that traveling to Philly, it is a hard place to go. It's a hard place to play. It's also a team and here could be the advantage in Philadelphia.

And this could be why Tampa Bay is so important to win this game. Because Philadelphia has been together. They lost some pieces out of their team, but they've been together. They've got the same head coach, a lot of the same pieces that were in the Super Bowl from last year. Same receivers, same offensive line, same same quarterback a lot of the same pieces on defense and i know some some turnover but a lot of players that are foundational to them coming back with the same coach and i think that helps for an early season thursday night game because

they already know how their coach wants to play their system, what their game plan is going to be and, and so forth. And it could hurt the Vikings defense because they're still trying to gel and come together. And there's not a whole lot of time to put in a new game plan. Thor says, are you hearing rumors that KJ Osborne to the chiefs is part of a trade for Chris Jones? Is that a rumor?

Wow. No, I'm not, I'm not hearing that. But I don't know. I mean, trade things, conversations happen all the time in the NFL. And I don't know how they get out as far as rumors, if someone makes it up or if a janitor overhears it or somebody knows somebody who sees Chris Jones at the airport.

I don't know. But I think that would be a pretty weird trade for the Vikings to do. And I think Chris Jones is an incredible player, but he's also on the older side. And you have to pay him a ton. Like, I can't really make quite sense of that one. But if it's a rumor then uh well stefan digs once said there's truth to all rumors so maybe there's truth to all rumors here i don't know uh jordan says thinking about the hawkinson signing seems like quacey might have decided that signing a tight end contracts uh might be a value disparity in the market i think that from

the beginning of that trade i think think from the time that Quasey picked up his phone and called Brad Holmes, he thought that honestly, because now the difference between a great receiver and a great tight end, and then we all know what it is downfield explosive plays. You're going to get fewer explosive plays with TJ Hawkinson than you are with even a KJ Osborne, who can go deep and win the game against Detroit the way he did. Osborne's an underneath receiver who's had a number of deep catches during his time, a lot more than TJ Hawkinson. And I could probably look up how many TJ Hawkinson has.

So this is just the difference between a wide receiver and a tight end. I don't think it's very many. And then I'm always thankful for a PFF being able to confirm or deny these things receiving depth. I'm looking at right now. Yeah. So last year between the Vikings and I'll even include the playoffs here to see how many was.

Yeah. Between the Vikings and the Detroit TJ include the playoffs here to see how many was. Yeah. Between the Vikings and the Detroit TJ Hawkinson ended up with eight targets that went over 20 yards. So not very many. And let's see, even if we include, I don't even know if he had any, how many he had with the Vikings. It doesn't say, but just in total, he had only eight. So you're really not going down the field and he caught two. So you're not going down the field with a tight end. But as far as just pure weapons standpoint, which is kind of how I think of things on the offensive side, like, of course you need a number one wide receiver, but everything is just weapons.

What's at your disposal. If you have a great running back, it does matter. That's not what running backs don't matter is. Like, it matters a lot if you have a great running game. That's a weapon. If you got a great tight end, that's an option. If you have a number three receiver who does one thing well, goes deep, that's an option. That's a weapon for you. And to be able to get a weapon who is a, essentially a possession receiver who occasionally blocks and has very reliable hands.

I think, I mean, he got criticized a little for a couple of drops. When you consider how many targets he had, his drop rate was not very high. And it's just, you remember them because nobody on the Vikings ever drops the ball. It's unbelievable.

The last since, since Bobby Wade was here, nobody's dropped the ball. It's unbelievable. The last since Bobby Wade was here, nobody's dropped the ball. Now, who would have been who would have been the last time they had bad receivers? 2014, I guess, would have been the last time they had bad receivers. So you got to go back to like Charles Johnson or something. So anyway, the point just being that TJ Hawkinson is an option. He's a weapon. He does several things very well. He's versatile. And you're only paying him, in reality, $5 million this year on the cap, $14 million next year, $15 million the year after. Would you be able to get that for a receiver that was really good? Probably not. I mean, there are some receivers who have, not all receivers are that ridiculous deal that Christian Kirk signed, but if you're going to get somebody who's toward the top of their group, if toward the top of receivers, it's going to be

nowhere close to that. And so you're probably going to end up overpaying even for someone who's just okay. And Odell Beckham and Adam Thielen are evidence of that. So the answer is, yeah, I think from day one, Kweisi D'Affomensa makes that trade. He's thinking, sign him to an extension and it's a better than market deal for a weapon. So I think that's right. All right. We're already trading KJ Osborne here. I w I don't think that's a very good idea. Uh, Bob wants to trade him. Uh, when Naylor gets healthy, uh, Naylor had like seven catches or nine catches last year. Um, I don't think that getting rid of KJ Osborne would be a bad idea just because he's a free agent next year. Sometimes this is what I mean. Sometimes we play a little too much front office. They're trying to win games.

They can win the division. You know, you're, you're trying to, trying to be the best team in football folks. We're not trading away people. Not, not right now. Now, if you're talking about, maybe that might've been in response to the tank scenario to the like bad start.

So I apologize if that was, if that, because sometimes I ramble on something and you guys leave comments and i have to scroll so if that was in response to if things go bad then yes kj osborne is a person to trade yeah i agree with that um let's see if they can keep kirk's cap at 20 to 25 million or lower uh no they can't. That's not possible. I mean, when in a world where Daniel Jones is making more than Kirk Cousins now, $37, $38 million, if Kirk Cousins has a good year and they come to him and say, we want you back, it starts at like $ million dollars that that's the conversation discussion begins at 40 to 45 so that's why it's so weird to have it this scenario because if he has 4500 yards

and he has i don't know 35 touchdowns and they have a top five offense then i i don't know man like they they're gonna want to have a conversation about an extension, right? If they have a top seven offense in the league and they win the division. But if you're Kirk, you're saying 45, 47, that's what I'm worth. And when you compare the rest of the market and then it becomes very dicey or they have to say, well, it was great to win 11 more games with you and have a top five offense, but we'll see on the flip side, that just doesn't happen. That just does not happen in the league. So that's what I mean. That's why it's so unique of a situation. Scotty says, airdropping a young quarterback on a rookie contract seems like an optimal move next

year, regardless of a hot or cold start window, maybe one to two years with Kirk three to five window with a quarterback on the rookie deal. You are preaching to the choir on that one, Scotty. I completely agree. And I do think that the right play, the objective, right play the you're, you're playing poker or chess here. And you're just trying to make the right statistical move is no matter what he does this year you move on anyway because how many more years is he going to do it i mean that when you get to this age in the late 30s usually historically you're not talking about going up for quarterbacks that aren't named Peyton Manning. And even then, Manning eventually hit a wall and fell apart. And also the cost difference is so much.

Plus, when you look at some of the quarterbacks and the way quarterback is being played, this is an observation I had from watching college football on Saturday. There are very few Saturdays that I just get to watch games. And luckily, this was a great Saturday to be that way. Cause I got to see Colorado and TCU tape to tape. And let me tell you, Colorado quarterback Dion's kid. He could stop by. He can stop by. He honestly, true, truly looked like an NFL quarterback from the first game against a team that was better than his team or should have been better than his team.

What were they? 20 point underdogs. And he stood in the pocket and delivered dimes. But what I notice is that think about when you were growing up. If you're like my age, if you're in your thirties and the quarterbacks, it was like seven step drop. Sometimes they used to drop back with their shoulders square.

They would drop straight back, or even Warren Moon would turn the other way and flip around and throw the ball, and no one ever does that anymore, right? And the way that quarterback has been taught and has played and how different that is from traditional quarterback play. And now every quarterback is looking to go off schedule and looking to find people downfield.

And it's not always good and throwing across your body and things like that are not always good. But like when Steph Curry started shooting threes from all over and suddenly everybody said, I want to do that. I want to play quarterback like my homes. I think that there's just something to that where we're entering a new era of young quarterbacks coming into the league going forward. And it's very, it's very interesting to me to think about adding that type of playmaking

to the weapons that the Viking Vikings have, if they can find a prospect who can do things like that and there were certainly three of them at the top of this draft guy i mean maybe stroud is a little more traditional of a quarterback but the other guys playmakers and that's like when we were talking about kyler murray like that's the intrigue for me going forward so So yeah, I mean, dropping a young quarterback with some playmaking ability into this situation seems to me to, to be pretty good, a pretty good idea for the future. And yet we've got a season to play. It's just so funny to me because I'm watching on Saturday and I think this is how it's going to be this year where I watch college football on Saturday and I go, okay, that guy's interesting. That guy's interesting.

Oh, maybe this guy, let's find out about him. Let's do a little Google search. Who's this quarterback, right? And then Sunday is, oh yeah, but this is actually a huge game for this Minnesota Vikings. So we'll try to keep our feet in both buckets as we go forward this year. What about Bob says the whole half in half out thing uh mentality bothers me competitive rebuild is just eight nine or nine and eight maybe uh i mean that's the thing about this division

is i'm not sure it has to be based on the division but you're i mean probably if you're making a bet you're probably right and we are going to have that discussion. If that happens, if they go eight and nine, I will be on here going, what was that for? Like competitive rebuild has to include the first part. It has to include the first part. If it doesn't, if it's just mediocrity and not great, then that's not good enough. Like you have to, to me, you have to make the playoffs. And I know I'm just, you know, salivating over all these quarterbacks in college football,

but if you're going to do a competitive rebuild, you still have to make the playoffs and be the competitive part, because if you're eight, nine, then it was not worth it. And you should have just got rid of your quarterback and done less and been worse and put yourself in a better position to get one of those top guys. Uh, what road games am I going to this year? Okay. Tentative plan at the moment, I guess you guys can try to talk me into any other ones, but, uh, Philadelphia is always a guarantee. Always go into Philly. I gotta, I just got to see that. I mean, it's one of the most unique atmospheres, possibly dangerous atmospheres, but it's worth it. It's also easy to find the media gate there, which means I'm definitely going. Not all places are like that. We'll

certainly be in Chicago to see our old friend, Courtney Cronin, October 15th, Green Bay, every single time, every single Green Bay game, I will be there. I am debating about Atlanta or Denver, probably one of the two. I'm thinking Denver because I've never been there and Las Vegas. We'll be back at Circa. So Circa is bringing us out for that. I don't know about Cincinnati or Detroit because I want to see if it matters for Detroit. I'm not going to go to a meaningless week 18 game. It's actually kind of expensive to fly to Detroit. So that's the plan right now for travel. And we'll see kind of how it goes. And, you know, a little bit, a little bit play by ear, if anything changes, I'll, you know, if there's some,

something that makes one of these games, a big, crazy, huge swing game for the playoffs or something, then I might change my mind and go to Cincinnati instead, things like that. Folks, this fall season is an unbelievable time for sports, and I'm always a fan of trying to catch... Folks, this fall season is an unbelievable time for sports, and I'm always a fan of trying to catch... Folks, this fall season is an unbelievable time for sports, and I'm always a fan of trying to catch other games when I go on the road to cover football, like baseball, hockey, basketball, just about anything.

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That is one of the most unique names of anyone who has ever shown up on the stream. So credit for that. Must be in reference to the 90s running back for the Dolphins, right? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Must be. Anyway, Kareem says, For some strange reason, I feel like if the wind blows correctly, we can beat the Chiefs.

I know it's crazy, but I feel like we could pull it off. Well, stuff can happen. I think as of this moment, you would have to put that one down as an L because Patrick Mahomes is actually better statistically on the road than he is at home, which is totally insane. And that's the best team in football. But, you know, I mean, the thing is when we're trying to project it, none of these are impossible. We've seen all sorts of things go either way. I mean, we've seen Vikings meltdowns and we've seen Vikings upsets and Vikings big wins. Look, I didn't think there was a whole heck of a lot of chance they were going to win in Buffalo. And when I was there last year in Buffalo and it started snowing, I was like, this is over. This game is over. They were down,

I don't know, 17 points and it started snowing in Buffalo at Ralph Wilson stadium. I was like, no way. Right. And it happened. So, you know, I would never say never for any game. Anthony says, Jordan Addison is going to have a big game against the Eagles week two. If our offensive line can hold up and keep cousins clean, Addison is going to carve a big game against the Eagles week two. If our offensive line can hold up and keep cousins clean, Addison is going to carve up the Eagles. Book it. I like this. I like making predictions about these games because they're interesting and fun.

But yeah, I mean, Jordan Addison is one of the biggest question marks of the entire season. And we're going to talk about this throughout the week. But as far as if we were doing a list, we probably should have swing men for the season. Jordan Addison's probably number one, because I think you can overcome and we saw it last year. You can overcome a bad defense. If you have a good offense, at least enough to be good and in the playoffs. And again, we saw it last year. They were a horrible defense and a really good offense. And there you go, or at least good enough to be in all those games and then win at the end. So I think that can happen. I don't think the Vikings

could be a great offense without Jordan Addison being really good. I think they could be above average and I would almost guarantee that as long as they have health, but not great. If Jordan Addison is what he was in training camp, then they could be a great offense. Then you can beat the Eagles. You can go toe-to-toe with the Chiefs. If you have a great offense, you could play against anyone. I mean, Philadelphia last year, elite offense, and they were there to the very last minute with the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. So that makes all the difference to me. And yeah, I know you bring up the offensive line. That's just going to be a question until they prove that it's not a question.

I tend to always think because of Per Cousins, he holds the ball. He isn't mobile. It's always just going to be a thing. I mean, I'm not saying if you had Steve Hutchinson playing right guard, it would be a thing, but it's really hard to have Steve Hutchinson. It's probably always going to be a thing as long, no matter where Kirk plays, it was a thing in Washington. It's a thing here. They could have done better. That's for sure. But I think it makes it worse, and it probably will now anyway. But he went there in 2018 and played really well. So I think that game just has a ton of intrigue to me, especially if they're going there at 1-0.

Anthony says, I think we can beat the Eagles. It will all depend on offensive line. Always, always, always against a team with a great D line like that. And that really goes for both. I mean, that goes for both of these first two games because Tampa Bay has a very talented defensive line. And that is a little bit scary. Anytime we're talking about Kirk cousins, because that's always been the answer. How do you beat Kirk cousins, beat them with the front four, four. Freight Train asks, will getting rid of Cousins and Hunter's contract be the only way they can extend a contract for Jefferson? It's not the only way, but you couldn't sign all three. If you sign Kirk Cousins and it's $ 40 million dollars a year that's going to be pretty

hard maybe they could work it out to lower the cap hit a little bit but that dead cap space that 28 million that can't go anywhere like that has to go into the new contract you can't just be like oh new contract never heard of it like it has to be a part of it which is makes it even harder to have him with a lower cap hit right so it's probably going to be a part of it, which is makes it even harder to have him with a lower cap hit. Right. So it's probably going to be a pretty big cap hit. Daniil Hunter. It's not easy to make a veteran player who's going to be making 20 plus a very low cap hit. So all three are pretty difficult, but it really depends on timing because as I was mentioning about the Hawkinson deal, if you, you look at his contract, the first three years

are very reasonable. And with Justin Jefferson, if he signs tomorrow, maybe, maybe we'll go out there and have a contract. I don't know. If he signs tomorrow, then they could push some of it into this year. They could spread it out a little bit more. They can make it so it doesn't have to destroy you from the beginning of the contract. And then it jumps up later. But even if you look at A.J. Brown's contract, it was like a progressive, not, I mean, pretty reasonable last year and a little bit more this year. And then at some point it jumps way up. That's when they restructure.

Like, this is the cap game that you play. This is why extensions are important. This is why you don't just franchise a guy because then you got to take that entire cap it. Uh, that's what makes it tough. So if they really wanted to, they could, but you also will at some point sacrifice the roster around you. And I mean, it's going to for sure with cousins and Hunter, like just immediately because it's going to be hard to make those cap hits low. So I don't believe that Jefferson signing in the early years will make it harder or too much harder with the rest of the roster. But if you sign cousins or Hunter, it will, uh, will the, uh, Rob asked, will the NFL ever ban the Eagles short yardage? Nonsense. Hey, if your team was doing it, you wouldn't call it nonsense. You'd say geniusness.

I don't know. I don't know what rule they're breaking. That's the thing. I thought that they probably would, but they didn't. So they're going to keep tushy pushy that guy for a first down. I don't know. Yeah. It's a weird, it's a weird thing, but teams are just going to have to find a way to stop it. I think we're probably going to see it all over the league and that's when there will be some sort of change, but are, is it like the, you know, the fullback may not have one hand on each cheek you know he can have one hand on the left cheek and or one hand on the right cheek but not to it the same cheek like how are they gonna what are they gonna litigate you just can't push the quarterback from behind i don't i don't know maybe i i just i think maybe after it starts to dominate this year, then coaches will start to get

annoyed. Jordan says it's a very civil last dance for now. Isn't it though? That's been interesting to me. The whole off season is basically Kirk cousins coming out and saying, it's fine. It'll be all right. Well, one thing is Kirk knows he's not going to struggle. He's, he's not going to be on LinkedIn being like QB looking for work.

He's not going to be tweeting about how he's got some excuse for why no one's paying him or something. He'll be on a team. He'll be playing for somebody if he's a free agent, and it'll be for a very good amount of money. So he's well aware of that. He can come out and say, that's all right. And the Vikings said, I was just looking at this quote earlier today. Let me see if I got it here.

Hold on, because I'm putting it in an article. Okay, here's what Kwesi said a few weeks ago. And this didn't go over my head, but maybe it didn't really sink in. He said, you always have to be scenario driven in this job prepared for every potential outcome you go to the draft you have to be prepared for who's there who's available what happens if they're not available trade back trade up that's what we do in this job i mean he laid it all out there that you know we got options so both sides are just like sounds

good to me let's last dance dance. Uh, Thomas says, since I'm alone on here, well, I'm sorry if you're alone. Uh, what about, uh, going after Chris Jones for a one or two year deal? We need to stop the run and his size and need his size and speed. Yeah. He does more than stop the run. That guy's a beast. He is a beast. The thing is that we're talking about, you know, they have to pay Jefferson. They have to pay Derrissaw. They already paid Hawkinson and they probably hope some players on defense emerge that they want to pay, or they have to sign some players on defense. And I think what you'd want to be looking for is players who are a little on the younger side and maybe not the absolute top of the market.

This is the problem with Chris Jones, is that this guy is like a top three player at his position. So would you love to have Chris Jones? Sure. But as an investment over multiple years, how does that fit in? I mean, yeah, he's a great player would love, but it's, there's just so much more consideration and that's what makes the front office game so much fun and interesting for all of us is when you have that salary cap, it's how would you do it though? And what do you need to trade for him? Do they need a player? Do they need draft capital? Is this going to hurt your chances to get a quarterback? There's a lot of different things that, uh, have to go

into it, you know, um, other than just, he's a good player and he, he is a good player. He is a great player. So let me, uh, let me scroll. Let me scroll. Uhogie says, not the Doogie from local media here, says, why does everyone think we'll lose week two? I have us winning in Philly this season. It's possible. It certainly is possible. Look, they did it in 2018. They went and beat a team that had just won the Super Bowl in Philadelphia.

But if we're doing percentages, that team is stacked, and that place is hard to play. And the last thing we saw of the Vikings in Philadelphia was not good. And they have a better offensive line, and they have a better defensive line. So that's kind of where it starts with Philadelphia. But when you're talking about whether they're going to win or lose every NFL game between competitive teams is like a 55, 45 proposition. That's why when I see sometimes scrolling across the bottom, the football power index or whatever, it'll say a team has a 73% chance to win the NFL. I'll be like, I don't think that's a thing. I don't know that I, unless you're

talking about a horrible team versus a great team. I don't think that there's ever a 75% chance. One team wins maybe in college that happens probably all the time, but you know, it's like 60, 40 and you're going to lean toward the Eagles, but that means 40% of the time the Vikings win. They can, they can win. They can have a great offensive day and they can win the game. I would not pick that if I had money, you were giving me, but it can happen. Uh, Alan, Josh said a burner for someone, a quarterback maybe, uh, says, uh, don't be fooled. Tampa still has a solid defense and great weapons. Yeah.

Oh, I agree with you. I completely agree with you. When I looked at the numbers today, I was surprised. I thought, wow, they actually had a pretty good defense last year. It really was. Their offense was horrendous at running the ball, but they have receivers for Baker Mayfield to throw to. The weird thing about Baker Mayfield is that the whole thing, the whole thing of Baker Mayfield is not great,

but there are plenty of blips. It's kind of like the Vikings lost to Andy Dalton the one time or Matt Moore the one time. He's better than Matt Moore, but he's kind of an Andy Dalton where you think, well, that's a guy you should beat, but he can have a good game because he's a talented quarterback. How well he's fit there, I don't know. I'm going to try to find out this week from Tampa Bay

when I talk to the guy who pays attention to them. So we'll find that out. But I wouldn't look at Baker Mayfield and say, oh, there's no chance he has a good game. This isn't like the time they played David Blau or something. So, all right. So that's a 55 Vikings, 45 Tampa Bay, but they have a good enough defense to make a couple of plays and make that week one challenging.

Todd says, why didn't the front office address the offensive line, especially offensive guard? We need to get big mallers at guard instead of undersized. Well, I don't think they have undersized guards um ezra cleveland was a former tackle and ed ingram is pretty big yeah they did with like nick easton or i tom compton was tall but he wasn't thick dakota dozier was undersized that's true there's so there's a little bit of a difference between like history of not addressing the guard where it's absolutely unacceptable to have gone into a season with Tom Compton or to have gone into a season with Dakota Dozier and hoped that maybe Drew Samia

would do something like that was absolutely absurd that that happened. But what they have right now in the interior offensive line is two second round draft picks and a first round draft pick. And there's evidence to suggest statistically that offensive lines that stay together have a better chance of being improved than when you're switching people out. The other thing is too, and look, I would have done something else to be a parachute at guard if Ed Ingram doesn't work out. So I'm not saying I wouldn't have, but you have to have an answer to that. When you say address the guard, how, I mean, they addressed it with draft picks,

but there was no cap space. They had to restructure Kirk Cousins just to get cap compliance. They had so little cap space. And, I mean, they signed Byron Murphy to a very small deal, especially in the first year with his cap hit. I mean, I guess they could have used, what, Josh Oliver's money to get who, though? Like, who's a good guard that was available for cheap? That's the problem. I do agree that there should have been other people brought in with, I also think that they didn't expect Chris Reed to be heard and he has a decent history as

well. This is a question I don't actually know the answer to. Why, Rob says, why did they play the Eagles on the road? Well, they didn't in 2019. That was at home. And someone would have to help me out with that. Is that because when you play a first place schedule, you play the other first place teams? Is it because they had a better record that they get to play it at home? I honestly don't know. I've never gone through the schedule rules other than to know that the first place plays a first place schedule. Someone will have to clarify that. I'm sure some of you people know the rules to that. Let's see. Is that Swerve God is your name? Sorry if I'm pronouncing that wrong. Did you see what Ryan Clark said about the Vikings declining from last year?

I did not. I do know that everyone thinks they'll decline. Everyone in all organized media thinks they'll decline. And yeah, they probably won't win 13 games. I mean, the thing is though, could they be a team that's just as good or maybe even a little bit better,

but not win as many games. Yeah. Yeah. That, that is possible because the one score stuff is just not going to happen again. The randomness and crazy stuff, probably not going to happen again, but that doesn't mean they can't be good. It doesn't mean they can't win the division. They have a good chance of winning the division. If you were laying it out, if you were doing pie chart to win the division they have a good chance of winning the division if you were laying it out if you're doing pie chart to win the division it's probably close to even with detroit maybe it's 35 percent detroit 30 percent minnesota and the rest is split between well the rest is mostly packers and then uh a little bit of you know a little bit of the bears there at the bottom but

i mean it you know they're probably not winning 13 again and running away with the division. It's just unlikely for that to happen. They won the division, I think, as fast or faster than anybody else whatever or something last year. I mean, it was one of the biggest blowouts of a division that's ever happened. That won't happen again. So there's reason to talk about some regression and so forth and i i respect if that's like what ryan clark said but i also i don't know

like when i'm covering the team as much as i am as close as i am i generally don't watch like shows like that or worry about what is being said about the Vikings. It really just, I mean, you know, you know, your team better than any analyst that's on TV. I promise you do. If you're here tonight on a Sunday night at nine o'clock PM watching me, you know, the Vikings better than anyone on TV. So I wouldn't worry too much. Uh, Rob says, uh, do you expect the bears to be much improved? Well improved well much much could be almost anything i mean they could hey they could double their win total and have six and that would be much improved i have a tough time seeing the bears getting to nine or ten but i don't have a tough time

seeing the bears getting to seven or eight, which seems like those numbers are fairly close, but I just have a tough time with their defense envisioning them having such a good offense with Justin Fields, because it really is DJ more. I think they've got a decent run game. Their offensive line is still not good. And Tevin Jenkins is hurt. Is that right? Yeah, Tevin Jenkins. I mean, I think that they're like a seven or eight win team at most, but that is actually much improved. And I wonder if at the end of the year, they're having a conversation about, did we make the right decision with Justin Fields? Because the whole thing with Justin Fields, part of that decision tree was if it goes bad, well, then we could just draft one of these quarterbacks at the top of the draft.

But what if it goes average? Then are you drafting someone? Are you sticking with fields? Like that's going to be an interesting decision. And I see every day for the last, this is why it's great to have games folks every day for the last eight months, I've seen someone acting like they know if Jordan love or Justin Fields is going to be good. I promise you they don't and no one does. And so we're going to find out about that very, very soon.

I think that fields will be improved and I think their offense will be much improved, but they're not going to, but improve to like 16th. And if they're 16th and they're 25th in defense, they're probably a seven win team. That's my guess right now. And we might go back on that and be very wrong in one way or another. Bob asks, why did the Vikings trust Greg Joseph? Missed so many kicks last year. He hit some game winners, but he was the only guy available to do that.

I don't know. Other than, so here's the only thing I know. The only thing I know is that Greg Joseph is talented and that chasing kicking can go worse than sticking with someone who's probably just okay. If you're running around with your head cut off, looking for a kicker and you're bringing this guy in, he kicks for a while and you bring this guy in and wait until he struck, like that can go really bad. So maybe they just think that that game that gets played where the, you know, you're every time a guy misses a couple of kicks,

you're cutting him is, is not a good idea. Maybe that's why that's the best guess that I can give you after 9. PM. That means we can ask Matthew is top five Taylor Swift songs. Ah, that's not something I've never thought about trying to rank them. I mean, without Google, I might have a tough time with this.

Figuring out the names of them. So, I mean, I went to her concert and I know them. Like, I know how they sound. But figuring out, trying to think. This isn't like asking me Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterbacks, folks, this, this takes a lot more thought process.

That's going to be a tough one. I might have to get back to you on that, on the top five. I'm sorry. I don't have that right in the top of my head. Anthony says, I know most of us, including me are looking at our new future quarterback in the next draft,

but it better be a can't miss top prospects. A game changing edge or monster defensive tackle is cool. Well, so here's the thing is a lot of the great quarterbacks in the league. We're not sure things can't miss actually almost all of them. Like, okay, Joe Burrow was number one,

but I think if you go look that there was even criticism and questioning there. How about Justin Herbert's going to come here week three? A lot of people didn't love Justin Herbert. His accuracy numbers weren't that good at Oregon. A lot of people didn't like Josh Allen. I had a lot of questions myself, I remember, about Josh Allen. And he's become a star. I liked Patrick Mahomes.

But also with the understanding of coming out that the guy didn't play NFL football, like style wise at all. He just ran around like a crazy person, threw the ball over the place. And it was, you know, wild to watch at Texas tech. So you, you don't know, and there's no safer way to do it. There's been generational prospects who have failed. There's been 32nd overall picks like Lamar Jackson, who become one of the best quarterbacks in the league. There's just no, uh, you know, no way to figure it out. There's no can't miss to it. You just have to take one and you can talk yourself into like, Oh, I could use a defensive tackle you

can get a defensive tackle there are other defensive tackles you can't just get a quarterback you usually have to draft them at the very top all right let me see let me see if i could just type in a list of taylor swift songs because that is the rule is that after nine o'clock, uh, the, the, the questions can get ridiculous. The takes can go crazy. Rolling stone ranked 237 Taylor Swift songs. Okay. I'll tell you ones that are on this list that I, that I know, um, all too well as a good song. I like that. 22, that one's pretty catchy. Going Old School with Love Story. That's a nice one. That was a good song.

Everybody was singing that at the concert. These are some good ones. You know, the only ones that I didn't like were the ones where she was going and trying to be like really overly catchy and just sort of poppy or like, you know, I, I think the singer songwriter stuff is pretty good. Okay. Two more questions. Was that three that I named a bland toe says,

can you rank the NFC North teams most to least likely to be drafting a quarterback in round one? Hmm. Uh, yeah. Well, you know, it could go horribly for the lions. Oh, shake it off as a fun song. Yeah. Maybe that's, maybe that does go into the category of like trying a little too hard to be catchy or whatever, but it's a fun song. So I like that one. Oh, uh, we'll never get back together.

That one. That's a good song. I thought that was kind of like her big, uh, breakout to us, like superstardom years ago. There you go. Anyway, NFC North teams, most to least likely. Weirdly, I mean, I think the Vikings are number one for most likely. And then, see, that's an interesting one, because if Jordan Love is horrendous, or Justin Fields is horrendous. So which guy has a better chance of being horrendous? It's I mean,

I don't, is it Jordan love? Cause he hasn't played. And then Jared golf is not a lock either because Jared golf is a free agent after 2025. And the lions could consider it. If they have an underwhelming year, if the lions go nine and eight and they rank 12th in offense

and Jared Goff struggles at times, they could consider it. But I think the Vikings have to be at the top of that. Who's Taylor Swift? No, no, no Taylor Swift hating here. Okay. I can't, I'm not like perfect when it comes to remembering all her, her songs, but she's pretty good. Let's see.

Jordan says, uh, who do you have in the Thursday night opener reigning champs or the chiefs? That's funny. Uh, I think the chiefs are going to win against Detroit. Yep. I don't think Taylor Swift can play guard. Yep. That's the problem. That's my biggest criticism of her as well. I think at 118 pounds or whatever, she probably can't play guard. Uh, and, and honestly is not good at even like moving or dancing. So I think the chiefs will win. I, if you ask me against anybody, I think the chiefs will win. I think they'll, I don't know. Like they're at some point, like they're just such a behemoth. We usually, I mean, we saw this for the Patriots.

Every once in a while, there's just every almost decade, I guess, there's just a team that tends to be the team of the decade. And usually it's because they have the best quarterback. But it was the 49ers in the eighties. It was Dallas in the nineties. It was the Patriots in the two thousands. And then here it is the chiefs. I mean, this is how it goes. So I would pick them against anybody. So I definitely going to pick them against the lions, but that's that. I mean, what a matchup for the lions to start off. Uh, what if, uh, what if Ivan pace wins defensive rookie of the year? Well, that'd be

good for them, wouldn't it? That'd be quite a find. Let's see if he even starts. Let's start there, and then we'll work our way to defensive rookie of the year. All right, last one. Jerry. What's up, Jerry? I'm glad you returned. How are you? The addition of season-blocking tight end, keeping C.J. Hammond having four tight ends on the 53, seems to indicate an increased ground game. Will the Vikings run over 45% this year? That's a great question, Jerry. I think the thing that would hold me back is that how often you run is like 50% offensive philosophy and 50% circumstance. So if you have a great defense, you're going to run the ball a lot because that means if you get up by 10 points, you just win. You just run the ball. Your defense

stops everybody and you win the game. Right. And so you're going to run a lot if you're ahead. And if you have a good defense, if you are playing in, you know, some sort of situation where it's giving up a bunch of yards, giving up a bunch of points and you have to pass and you're behind in eight fourth quarters, like they were last year, there's not a whole lot you can do. But I think to your point, like you've got a pass and you're going to have a bad pass ratio. You're not going to be near 50, 50. You're going to throw all the time. But to your point, there was a concerted effort by the Vikings to improve what they did on the ground, not just moving on from Delvin Cook, who had struggled last year with the system or injuries or whatever,

but to load up on players who would help them on the ground. And Josh Oliver's at the center of that. So I agree with you. And then the play action game, they just weren't that good at it last year. They weren't that great at play action. And for a Kirk cousins team to not be good at play action is very unusual. So anyway, great stuff, guys.

Always appreciate everybody showing up tonight on a Sunday at nine o'clock, which means you probably know a lot about the Vikings, which means you have to be excited about this week. And every night on the channel, going to be going live from this here place and additional shows are going to be popping up on the podcast feed as well. And on the channel as well, we're going all in everybody to this season. It will be very, very fun leading up to Vikings bucks. Of course, I'll be there after the game, Dane Mizutani, and I will be in the press

box, breaking it all down. So this is the place for you. Thanks everybody for watching. And we will see you tomorrow night.