Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Is this the most intriguing Vikings offseason of the last decade?

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

Matthew Coller is joined by Dave Campbell of the Associated Press to rank each offseason by intrigue over the last 10 years. Does 2023 take the cake? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by Oakley. Express yourself. Build a look that's made for you. When you wear Oakley, there really is more than meets the eye. Try it for yourself. Oakley is not only the best looking, but the best quality. So head on over to oakley.com for more information today. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here inside TCO Performance Center following the final mini camp practice and it is summertime. So now we're going to have some fun and joining the show to have a good time is Associated Press, Vikings writer and of course others I'm sure. Everyone has seen Wild Twins, Gophers, Jimberwolves, maybe a little soccer, random stuff, Twins. Gophers. Jimber Wolves. Maybe a little soccer.

Random stuff. Random stuff. Dave Campbell, the Associated Press. I have no idea how you do this because you are every bit dialed in with all of our inside jokes. And yet you go cover all the other stuff. Are you like every beat? You know all the inside jokes of every beat? Pretty much. stuff are you like every beat you know all the inside jokes of every beat pretty much although

the vikings beat is kind of the gold standard for you know chicanery camaraderie just for the sheer amount of time spent at a building standing around doing nothing not having a game in front of you there's just so much more time to fill and it's it's the most prominent beat for obvious reasons based on the nfl stature so well because i feel like you're here as much as anybody else is and then you're also like i see you at you know covering a twins game or something like oh okay i don't know how you do this all but well that's that's part of my secret i'm actually not here quite as much as you think but i managed to make everyone think that that i'm always here okay i just roll in at the right times roll out just like a fog you you are very impressive at this like if you told me that you were there for all of the practice when you just are at the postgame press conference

i'd be like oh yeah yeah what's up i would have just assumed that you were out there but um you're you're a veteran and you know how to do your job but also i like i like to have you on every once in a while god is good to be on a different perspective i think um and what i asked you to do while we were closely studying every rep at this minicamp practice was to rank June intrigue from the Mike Zimmer era starting going on to now, which I think is like up for interpretation of what you decide is intrigue. And the goal is to determine how intriguing this team is right now. And I didn't want to influence you too much, but I tend to think this team is pretty intriguing but i think that you have great historical perspective on this team and so i want to know how you kind of view where they stand right now in comparison to other years so you've made a list and you've also got lots of notes on where jacqueline roy was lining up

and everything else there on your notebook the kind of stuff that makes this year's team the most intriguing and like you said yeah right but so we went back to 2014 was the starting point so it gave us 10 seasons to work with or 10 junes to work with and i think we could just start from number 10 on your list the least intriguing june and we can count down and i can pick it apart we can go from there so of the last 10 10 years, what is the least intriguing June? Uh, I went with 2020 cause there basically wasn't a June. It was a couple of zoom interviews. The team players weren't allowed in the building for COVID reasons. That's kind of the easy pick. Now, granted you had Justin Jefferson coming into the team, and maybe part of this was COVID-related,

but there wasn't that kind of a buzz the way that maybe there even is about him now. Even despite being a first-round pick, you've still the fourth receiver taken in that draft, and it was a playoff team, you know, with a fairly productive passing attack already. So it wasn't like just drop everything. How is, what's this new guy looking like kind of thing. And again, it's so much that shaped by COVID and how it cut off access,

cut off off season workouts and all that stuff. But that's, that's an easy choice for the least one because it was sort of like, are we really doing this? They're going to have a season, I guess. You know, the world was a much different spot that you're, everyone seemed to be like thinking about other things and sort of like, I guess they're going to play. We may have been watching the Jordan documentary in June.

Yes, that was about all of us going on in the sports world, really. They hadn't even resumed live games yet. It was a very weird time, kind of almost in the way, and I don't want to make this comparison, but in the way that your parents or grandparents would tell you about other historical stuff. And you'd kind of be like, oh, that must have been crazy when that was happening. And as we were going through it, you're kind of just day by day and you don't know what's coming next.

You don't know if football is happening. So you're right that there wasn't a whole lot of intrigue. I think what was on everyone's mind was all the same thing of, well, one, I mean, how are we going to stay safe throughout this how is it going to be resolved even as a country how is it going to be resolved or the world because at the time there was no vaccination or anything and it was like football is kind of the farthest thing from your mind which is what made it such a weird time to start purple insider was because it was like can i get anyone to try to pay attention to what i'm writing in June when we didn't even have a whole lot to work on?

So it was more of a scary time than it was a, oh, is Justin Jefferson going to be or whatever? They've revamped the cornerback room. I would say that that was another thing that would play into 2020 being a good pick is that they had made the playoffs and they had had a bunch of players leave but it wasn't like they brought in so many fascinating bodies it was kind of like michael pierce oh michael pierce is here oh but then he wasn't yeah because he wasn't gonna play and uh holton hill like oh is he gonna take the next step or something yeah it was not and we all sort of knew this team is gonna drop back from what they were but yet they extended kirk so why did they do that and yeah it was a little bit confusing but i don't think one of the most intriguing because there wasn't even any hope to really sell it wasn't like oh guys well they've got this next wave of players and here they go

they're going to take off with this new wave. It was more like, well, half their team left, and I don't know if we're playing football. Yeah, basically. And it was still sort of another wave of the run back, the 2017 NFC champion team. So they're just, for obvious, I think that's the easy pick for anyone if it's doing a draft, at least last 10. Okay. Well, what is number nine on your list?

Well, I actually went with 2019 for number nine. Okay. Why is that? Their first-round draft pick was a center. Okay. So that's a good place to start, right? That is true. And again, we're trying to put the lens on June.

This is topical. It's minicamp time. It is, and it also is June. Exactly. Right now, as we speak. Right now. Yeah. put the lens on june this is topical it's mini camp it is and it also is june exactly right now so you know maybe uh that season began to take on a little bit different life into training camp um obviously stefan diggs um sort of dissension uh bubbled up in uh i guess it was September, early October, right in there. Yeah. Yeah. Right after the bears game. So, but these things weren't really simmering in, in June. Um, you know, there's, there's always someone up for a contract extension,

but it's, it's kind of garden variety stuff that I always think about what was the last season like and how did the roster change in March, April. And, you know, they missed the playoffs, kind of a disappointing year for sure after signing Cousins and, you know, how far they've gotten in 2017. So, you know, 2019 is sort of like you just sort of assume because the Zimmer era had developed this odd year success and even year failures, and so you just sort of assume,

at least I didn't know, they'll probably be better than last year because they underachieved the previous year, but not in any kind of like really like, ooh, there's a lot here. They could really make, ooh, there's a lot here. They could really make substantial steps. And they went 10-6 and won a playoff game. But that's sort of why I ranked that so low, just because of kind of fitting within expectations and not bringing a whole lot of mystery, tension, controversy.

I think tension, I would say there was. There wasn't mystery because we felt like we knew exactly what that team was going to be. And that is what makes something not intriguing to me is when you're in June and you're seeing a lot of the same people and maybe they added a couple of guys that offseason, but they've never had the cap space to really add a lot of people was that uh well let's see it would have been the last year of some guys right it would have been the last year of like xavier rhodes trey wayne so we knew

almost everybody going into 2019 that was before they had let everyone go the following season in 2020 like we were talking about but this was basically the 2017 team yeah just older and with her cousins but with the same shortcomings and not the same luck and not the same magic that it had and you know trey waynes wasn't the same xavier rhodes wasn't the same they didn't have the depth that they did in 2017 on the defense del Delvin Cook stayed healthy, so there was some balancing out in some good, some in bad ways. It was really that Stefanski was taking over. Yeah, that was the big offseason storyline, I guess. But if you remember when Stefanski got hired as the OC,

it was a very uncomfortable press conference where he seemed the least happy of any person to ever be named OC. And I think what everyone knew going into 2019 at June was this year is going to be potentially the last for Mike Zimmer if this doesn't work out. If they don't make the playoffs again, Mike Zimmer's getting fired. It was kind of how I interpreted it.

But what was there to say about anything new? The new roster? It was, will Kirk better fit with Stefanski than he did DiFilippo, which I think we all kind of knew that he would in a play action and running offense. And so there was a little bit of that. But, yeah, I mean, there was a little bit of, could Irv Smith be a thing in this offense? Yeah, sure.

But these are all not super exciting. He wore 84, so ooh, maybe it's the new Randy Moss. There's definitely a difference between intrigue and tension. When you first brought up this topic, if you remember our conversation, I sort of off the top of my head thought, oh, this year is kind of fairly low. But after thinking about it further, teaser alert, it's going to rank a little bit higher uh the reason i immediately thought of this year is sort of being low on this sort of scale it's like well

it's not there's not a lot of tension around we've got we've still got this new regime we've still got this honeymoon period for for klc and quasi and um yeah they dumped a lot of guys for salary cap reasons but you know aside from the daniel hunter absence you know there's not a lot of uh tension going around so but we'll get to important to separate those two things we got to go down keep going on the list i know i'm talking both of those off seasons i just remember really well so I feel like I'm talking about them more. But we'll move quicker through the list, so we're down to number eight. I rank 2016. It was sort of a run-it-back thing. Largely the same roster for obvious reasons.

Why wouldn't you? These players who formed this core in the Zimmerman were much younger back then, so after 2015 kind of taking a lot of leaps, 2016 was sort of we're going to take that next leap. And this is where we first started to notice some tension in dealing with Zimmer, at least from the media's perspective. It surfaced more in training camp. He got the contract extension they announced, I think,

on reporting day of camp that year. And he definitely wore those heightened expectations throughout that season. But, again, that's the tension. Intrigue, you know, it was sort of a widespread assumption that this is a team on the rise and here's what we got. And, you know, there wasn't some big hot shot acquisition. They did draft Laquan Treadwell.

Plays a skilled position. I guess brought a little bit of intrigue, but, again, he wasn't like the first receiver off the board. Picking in the 20s you know enough said the biggest thing with that was just and i wasn't here yet in june um because i started covering the team in late july no no no late august 2016 is when i arrived and i from my perspective though having no connection with them just like the whole NFL was just Teddy Bridgewater is going to be a guy like this is the year he's going to take that big step kind of what you saw from Jalen Hurts was almost the thought of what he was going to do like oh he got them to the playoffs and he had a pretty good game there you know or whatever got

them a maybe a game-winning drive if Blair Walsh kicks it through the goalposts but now there's like big expectations you can't just sort of game manage your way and play defense you're supposed to grow as a quarterback become a franchise quarterback and it wasn't until training camp and preseason that he looked like that was actually going to happen I think at least from when I started studying the team and what was going on in preseason his arm strength looked like it had increased and his leadership had sort of completely taken over so that would create natural intrigue right there but it was very much a this team achieved a lot the previous season when maybe they weren't supposed to but now expectations are real and and that makes sense but not like some sort of huge overhaul not not some sort of wild story between this season and that season. So a little bit intriguing based around the quarterback, but not one of the most intriguing of the last 10 years, which means number seven is?

2021. Okay. I wrote down in my notes, Bashad Breland. It's because they actually signed him in June. They did. Yeah. And Sheldon Richardson came back in June, right? Yes.

So, you know, for those reasons, a little higher than the seasons we just ranked. But it was coming off a meh season. There's tension there. Obviously, Zimmer's still on a hot seat again. Does Zimmer exist? Yes. Then there is tension. And then sort of lump hot seat again does Zimmer exist yes then there is tension and then sort of lumping in Spielman too and the whole the whole thing but again that's tension not necessarily intrigue we know those guys were going to like reinvent themselves somehow you know they're trying to like they you know maybe he's introducing some wrinkles to the defense, whatnot. But, you know, it was still Kirk Cousins, a quarterback.

You know, I guess how much of a leap Justin Jeffries is going to make, but he already had a pretty awesome rookie season, so kind of knew what we were seeing with him. Not a whole lot else from the june minicamp perspective heading toward training camp from that season that people are like yeah once again if it doesn't work they're fired and we knew that and kind of knew that right and even by june we knew that and when they were bringing in guys like breland and richardson it felt a little panicky like oh man they saw what they've got and cam dancer wasn't healthy during that mini camp and

like oh we better go out and get somebody and then breland wins the job in training camp it wasn't until training camp that all hell broke loose with the vaccination stuff and with the right zimmer versus kirk versus the other guys and all that sort of stuff that the team was just completely fractured by. From June to August because I remember we still had Zoom-only access to off-season practice, I believe, at least for interviews. Yes. interviews right in in spring of 2021 because yeah because we had a zoom a may or june zoom and i remember they put harrison smith and adam thielen on one of those yes and it was just sort of an innocuous subject at that point uh what do you think of the vaccine are you gonna get it and those guys basically came for it no i don't plan to be vaccinated which i think maybe some most

people were surprised to hear at that point. It feels like that was a little bit before the topic became so much more polarizing and politicized. Right. And then led to actual team issues with guys missing time in games. Back then, it was sort of like, oh, okay, here's an off-season topic. Ask this player about it or that player about it. So that was what was going on in june but it didn't seem like all that out of the ordinary folks i've been wearing oakley's now

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change your look for the better. When you wear Oakley, there really is more than meets the eye. Try it for yourself. I've worn sunglasses in the past, and I can assure you that Oakley is the best looking and best quality out there. So go on over to oakley.com for more information today. Oakley, express your style and build a look that's made for you. And I remember doing a podcast with you in 2021, where we were kind of going through the whole thing. What do you think of this team and everything else? And I said, sort of, you know, where do you see them finishing or whatever like that? Some sort of basic question. And you're like, I don't know, eight or nine wins.

It's just like ding, ding, ding. And I think we both just went, oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was 2021 was the we all know exactly what's going to happen here season. And there were weird stuff that went on in the individual games and losing close games and having Cooper Rush beat them and the Lions beat them. Things that I wouldn't have predicted but eight to ten wins was just so the thing that was going to happen

from the very outset from June to camp to every part of the season even when they started slow when they started with a couple of losses and they were close losses but you still knew all right at some point those will even out like they beat Carolina in the final moment in overtime. And you just had a feeling this team is going to be middling. And what I would have never predicted is how much the wheels came off with Zimmer, that he just completely lost it by the end. But even then, I think I probably could have figured that out. 2021 is, I think, the most predictable season I may have ever covered.

Okay. Just knew from the very outset what was going to happen, and then it did. Yeah, you're right. The ways that the games ended up or whatever were not necessarily – but that's sort of getting pretty picky into the weeds. Like, you know, the game at Arizona with Greg Joseph missing. Yes. Right? The chip shot field goal. Not necessarily what it predicted. The game at Arizona with Greg Joseph missing. Yes, right.

The chip shot field goal. Not necessarily would have predicted it. However, if you've followed the Vikings, then maybe you should have predicted it. Maybe you would have, yeah. All right, well, where are we at? Number six? We're on to number six. I had 2017.

We had no first-round draft pick. Thanks to the Sam Bradford trade. We are bringing in Dalvin Cook at this point, so he's a name, he's a skilled position. I think there's a fair amount of intrigue around him, how much are they going to use him as a receiver. This was Pat Shermer taking over the offense for the first time full-time, so there's definitely a shift there that was kind of interesting to watch.

But again, it's June. They don't show us much in the practices that are open. The minicamp portion of the season is just not that much of an X's and O's time, especially from the outside. It's also dangerous to draw any uh depth chart conclusions so you know let's consider those sort of factors and you know why 2017 didn't have why it's not cracking the top five in my book off the top of my head but you know um they had such a miserable end to 2016 when they couldn't block anybody and it went through 18 left tackles that i guess that sort of as why this season would rank higher than the others

we've just mentioned well like you know they're they're putting together a little bit of a different twist on the offensive line got riley reef in here spent a lot of money on him he's in sort of a name at that point so there's there's starting to be some things that are a little bit different than 2016 that are starting to bear watching nobody knew i don't think that they were going to go 13 and 3 especially behind case keenum but in fact talk about no intrigue like oh case keenum is the backup quarterback just check him out okay oh there he is doing your roster check of practice moving on yeah um nobody nobody saw that coming i mean that was the case through about the first preseason game even where it was wasn't even

sure if he's gonna make the team is case keenum gonna lose this job to taylor heineken right that was a real thought and i also think with sam bradford we felt like we had kind of seen maybe the best version of him which i don't know if that was true or not he might have been even better had he stayed healthy but in 2016 he had his best career season ever and it was kind of not good enough they had a great defense bad offensive line and we knew that if they improve that they could be a little better i don't think we took them that seriously as being a massively better team as we should have. And they proved that we should have ultimately.

But in June, it was like, well, I think they can make the playoffs. Yeah. But what they were going to do in the future with their quarterback situation was maybe the most interesting. Are they going to extend Bradford because he was becoming a free agent after that season? True. And so is he going to prove to be be their franchise quarterback and what's this going to look like? So I think that there was a little bit of the tension certainly is there and pressure

might be different than tension. So there was the first start of pressure on Mike Zimmer because before he had turned them around defensively, he had taken them to new heights. And even with 2016, as much of a calamity as that was, there was still this, well, look, he lost Teddy. He lost an eye almost. Lost an eye, right. But I remember there was pressure on Zimmer because he had manipulated the locker room the previous season.

So there was this, he kind of better get it together here, and they better take that together here and they better take that step and they better block better and everything um so yeah i think we are starting to get a little more interesting at that point yeah definitely true this is why why it's pushed in the top five not downplaying that one no all right on to the next one number five we got 2022 last year kevin o'connell kevin o'connell entirely new staff totally new culture getting to hear new buzzwords um but you know more more relevantly we're seeing new you know kind of this ram style offense that just won the super bowl right um and we were coming off the harbaugh thing that had kind of, you know,

really been crazy. A couple days worth of craziness. Decided not to. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, you're getting this team on the field, at least for our eyes, the first time, and starting to see even just, like, listening to how do they yell.

Right. Or they didn't. They didn't i think it was maybe adam thielen uh someone said like it's really crazy to keep waiting to get yelled at and it doesn't come and it's just like what's wrong with these guys i think i remember that coming out in spring practice or maybe it's training camp but anyway so but certainly any any new regime uh you know brings a lot of its own intrigue, especially in the summertime, especially following a previous coaching staff that lasted eight years. So it's a big change. Roster-wise, didn't change all that much,

especially not as much as most people on the outside were expecting. But that was intriguing that they didn't because we thought much, especially not as much as most people on the outside were expecting. But that was intriguing that they didn't because we thought they were going to. That's also true. We thought they were going to. Oh, wait. This new team or new front office, new coaching staff that's kind of new age and not tied to loyalty

and old school type stuff like the previous regime and they're doing database decision making and not letting their feelings dictate, and they're doing database decision-making and not letting their feelings dictate it, and they have no pressure to win right away. Wait, they're bringing the same team back. Maybe it's actually better than we think.

Yeah. And sure enough, they won 13 games. I know there's a lot of crazy finishes in there and probably not a repeatable season based on their point differential, but nonetheless, 13 wins. Turned out a lot better than people thought. And we were really trying to get, at that time, a sense for even who they were.

Like, who is Kwesi Naflamento? Yeah, we still don't know on the ladder. They try their best to make sure we don't know. And it would have been nice at some point to hear from Kwesi. I guess we will at the beginning of training camp so hold your questions if you have them hold them for the next five weeks i suppose about delvin cook and daniel hunter and every other situation that's out there but uh that is the way of the world in the nfl not unique that the general manager doesn't talk that much no i did have high hopes that maybe rick spielman hiding away uh that that wasn't going to be the

case but it kind of has been. So it is what it is. I mean, I don't think it's unique for NFL teams in that way, but we were just getting our first interviews with him, and I don't remember exactly when it was. I think it was during minicamp that the USA Today article thing happened, which really kind of changed stuff for him. Well, the interview took place in May, I believe,

but it was published the day before training camp. Oh, training camp. Yeah, okay. So we didn't have that. Okay, so we didn't have that yet. Yes. All right. Quick anecdote to interject because, as you know, I cover all the teams.

And just the other day, Derek Falvey, the chief baseball officer for the Twins, who knows Quasey quite well through some mutual connections in the analytics world. Anyway, he's the most available decision maker probably in pro sports, and he was just doing a little interview in the side of the clubhouse the other day before the Twins game, and I said, you've got to get your guy Quasey to do more of these. He's like, yeah. I didn't realize how how little nfl uh guys talk so totally it is possible our friend alec lewis came from covering baseball and he was shocked at how different it is i mean

with baseball the reporters kind of hang around and players come off the field and coaches are around and scouts are around and you like get to know everybody and it's not like that in football it's very much more buttoned up it's kind of like the white house is what it feels like you're covering but uh that aside though i think that's a good place to rank that i might have even had that a little higher just because of how different the regime change was how different the sports science approach uh the things that they taught the way that they talked was so much different because even though they weren't making the moves right away that i would expect to be analytical as they have this off season um talking to quasey was very

different than talking to spielman right talking to o'connell was very different than talking to mike zimmer and making those adjustments and trying to kind of observe them like in their first year as they were adjusting and i know that kevin o'connell said a bunch of times like oh there wasn't really that big of an adjustment period like i think there probably was during that that first time so uh that was number five correct on to number four number four i had 2014 okay Okay. Zimmer takes over. That I wasn't right. That I wasn't here for, but they had been so horrible the year before. Really bad. This is very rare in Vikings history that they would go six wins in 2010.

Then three. They make the playoffs with the Christian Ponder, Adrian Peterson, and then five. Like you would be hard pressed to find a worse run really inings history than that that zimmer was taking over coming off of that great point um the 2013 season stood out for just how abysmal the defense had become i believe they ranked uh last in the league in points allowed yeah if it was either that or second to last um they lost a ton of close games, could have easily pulled out.

It could have easily finished nine and seven, but the point is that it was time for a change. And, um, I think the D the defense, uh, was probably what made that most interesting defense and just sort of this long time assistant people knew

fairly well as as a name in the league and like finally getting his chance to be a head coach and for as well liked as lezzy frazier was you know certainly that um you know he had his hands tied and the level of talent that was available to him in the secondary down the stretch but um nonetheless uh some of the players talked about the the scheme becoming pretty predictable and i think it was even brian robison in the following year had said you know he remembered packers or other opponents you know calling out the the scheme has you scheme before the snap, knowing exactly what they were going to do. So that brought a lot of intrigue around just not only how were they going to play, because it was a different, you know, they're getting rid of the Tampa 2.

It's a different thing with the A-gap, stacking the linebackers, more aggressive basically basically, than. It's funny. It's quite similar from the Donatello to Flores transition. Right. You just wait a few years in the NFL, you'll get the same type of transition, no matter what team, no matter what side of the ball. It'll happen again.

Always hire the opposite guy. Always hire the opposite guy. In 2029, they're hiring Dan Campbell to be the coach of this team after Kevin O'Connell's been fired. It's just like whatever the opposite is is exactly true funny thing about uh that's sort of unrelated to june of 2014 but uh when you go back and look at 2013 there is something that would maybe remind you of what's going on right now is the opposing quarterback schedule in 2013 was a murderer's row it was like i mean of course stafford rogers cutler is in chicago but you had eli when he was good cam newton uh that dallas might have still been uh it was probably still tony romo russell wilson i think had gotten to

seattle there i'm just looking at their yeah he was in seattle joe flacco um cincinnati still had a good quarterback at that time or we thought andy dalton had a good quarterback at that time, or we thought Andy Dalton was a good quarterback. It was really, really. And I think that that played into them hiring Zimmer was that they knew the division had good quarterbacks and they were going to have to be good on defense. And Zimmer also, even for me not being here, I was very aware of his profile as a guy who had been like, everyone who knew football was like, why isn't Mike Zimmer a coach?

Right. A head coach. I think eventually we saw why because of his nature. But I think that his X's and O's acumen as a defensive mind was super well known around the league. And I would still defend it proved it very much to this day uh number three on your list number three 2015 uh 2014 i think showed enough of the um potential the defensive turnaround had begun then in 15 they supplemented further by with the second and third round pick with kendrick's and hunter they get a they get digs late not necessarily a lot of you know buzz around him because he's a fifth rounder he played at maryland lower profile college career but nonetheless um he's added to the team and also mostly uh because they're coming in this is teddy bridgewater's

team now right and no it's vlad duukas' team. Yeah, that came later. Actually, no, it had already come. Yeah, it was that. It was Vlad Dukas' team. But, you know, Bridgewater had taken some strides. It was kind of up and down, but it was a low-expectation year in 2014. He's still kind of, you know, he's a quarterback, and he's got high upside, and he's got a very energetic personality.

Everyone on the team loved him. Fan base was really quick to warm to him, so a lot of reasons that the 2015 team is bringing some high level of intrigue into the offseason workouts, and I think the season bore that out. Yeah, and for that season i mean i think that they had been talked about as this team that was kind of a year away right that in 2015 they ultimately kind of overachieved a little bit but being a and this is this is what people forget maybe the owners forget of this team sometimes is that when you're kind of on the rise it's fun even if you're not competing for the super bowl it's fun when you have already risen and faded it is a nightmare it's the worst because you just can't get it back and and if you're

talking about all the time what's coming next what's next for teddy what's that next step is this hey what's this digs guy what's this hunter guy you know there is something so interesting about that and i and i noticed that you have not ranked this off season yet and i think we'll get into this but that's how i feel very much about this team so we're down to number two we're down to number two uh i've got this year this year's number We have arrived at the, as the present moment. Explain. Well, um,

rosters changed quite a bit, particularly in players who were, uh, strong leaders, very experienced, valuable contributors. Um, kind of the,

the changes that a lot of people expected a year earlier. But you've got a workhorse, one of the last few workhorse running backs who played in all 18 games last year, gone, turning over the backfield to a guy who was very clearly cast as a backup. And I think somewhat surprisingly, people on the outside decided to resign him to a contract that's too expensive for a backup. And they're ready to move forward with him as an every down guy for now.

You've also, and then probably most importantly or most intriguingly is Brian Flores. It's new defense. A lot of the offensive players are speaking about how confused they are by playing against it. Yes. So that's making an impression. We'll see if they're confused by playing in it.

Yeah. That would be the downside. That would negate any of the gains if the players playing it can't keep up with all the twists and turns. But it's certainly going to be more aggressive. It's a defense coordinator who comes with a lot of cachet. He's had a lot of success. Of course, he's been a head coach very recently.

So that change alone brings quite a bit. And then you've got some more subplot-type things with Brian Asamoah probably becoming every down player. He might have been the best draft pick they had in 2022 at what was probably going to be an underwhelming draft class. And he played like 100 snaps. I know, yeah. So we'd like to see more, you know, interested to see more snaps out of him and what he might bring.

Even just, you know, new players like Byron Murphy, Marcus Davenport, kind of these bargain-level free agents they sign, but nonetheless, you never know. some of them hit and and they outperform their contract and and they become valuable players um and then there's also daniel hunter is he here is will he be here ever again will they trade him will they sign him to big money extension will they try just a bridge contract to kick the can down the road a little bit so much does he even want to be here yeah um that that brings a lot of intrigue and then uh just the fact that it was not a given that justin jefferson would show up for minicamp he did went through practice like normal doesn't be to be any hint of tension about the lack of a deal. Who knows if that changes in training camp,

but there's two years out on him. I don't get the sense that that is going to develop into a thing, a Stefan Diggs-type conflict that becomes irreparable by any means. There are no rumors to have truth to. Exactly. And by the way, with this offseason, how funny is it that Kirk Cousins was not signed to an extension and it's not the number one contract story?

That's a great point. Most teams, that would make them intriguing enough. The silence of not making a move spoke a lot of volumes, as did sort of interviews with, uh, over the off season with O'Connell, uh, quasi, even Mark Wilf,

uh, was on, I believe good morning football once in free agent time. And he said, you know, someone, one of the people asked him about his cousins and he said, well,

we're committed to Kirk for 2023 and we're looking forward to having a great 2023 season. So like, Whoa, you know, not necessarily a surprise, but also it's notable that they are couching sort of their commitment to him. It's very much this year, and then we'll see. And I think Kirk is smart enough to know that's exactly – he knows exactly what's up, too.

Right. I think he's probably happy to – He showed it today. He showed it today. He said – Just coming to work. Just coming to work. Just coming to work. And I think we're just going to talk about that next March,

which means that's almost time to be a free agent. And I guess I wondered, and it's hard to ask a follow-up or, I mean, you'd love to just be like, hey, just tell us the truth here, sir. But am I to interpret that as your tabling, like this discussion, like he is on his side because it seems like an extension could still happen, but now it doesn't, or at least the way that he talked today. And it was a very short answer, but he was just like, well, you know, we'll talk about that next March.

I'm just coming to work. It was like, wait, are we not talking about that until next march yeah could there be a discussion or are you just saying kind of a blow-off thing or it's hard to say hard to say probably all the above i don't it's june it's it's i don't think he had any interest in indulging that particular question so that could be all there was to that answer but let me say this though i mean because i know what your number one is because we did a finite number of years there's only one left only one left this this might be number one for me and i'll explain why when you give number one but i really really have enjoyed talking about this off season in part because i have no idea what's going to happen i mean if you watch a show that you've already seen the ending, you might still enjoy it. I've enjoyed covering every season here, uh, 2020,

maybe not. That was horrible. It's just, you know, eating frozen bananas in the press box with no other people there was weird, but okay. Aside from that, I've enjoyed every single season. So I, it just like I've enjoyed lots of episodes of the office that i've seen before but there's really something to i've never seen this show before and i have no idea how it's going to end i have no idea where the season finale i don't know your favorite show but i don't even know we're in like we're not even the season finale we're like in the first beginning of the season we're like in the pilot episode here and yet so much you know how they do this the pilot episode is insane and then it sort of you know how they do this. The pilot episode is insane. And then it sort of sets the stage.

I feel like this has been the pilot episode and I'm like in ready to binge, but they're only releasing it on a weekly basis. So we're going to have to wait. But this, this has really captivated me because I don't know where it's going. And when I felt like I knew where it was going, I would get frustrated and just complain about Spielman signing Michael Pierce. Like that was just sort of my go-to of, well, I know what's going to happen here. Uh, last year did surprise me quite a bit with all the end of game stuff. Did not surprise me where the season ended or how the season ended. But this time I am just like,

is Hunter coming back? Like, I don't know. Are they going to extend Kirk or are they like a lock to draft someone? Could some other quarterback show up here? Oh, by the way, there's a season to play. Like, how's it going to go? Is it going to get weird? Is it going to get tense? Because in 2015, if I told you the very next year, the players would be going rogue in 2016, you would have been like, what? Zimmer is totally safe.

These things change fast. and i don't know where this i don't know where this car is going so i i'm like really drawn into this i think it's great i mean i would have had it number one but you number two i think is very reasonable so explain number one well 2018 you know coming off the nfc championship game and they signed cousins uh huge bigger bigger off-season deal than any of these other off-season deals we've mentioned over this last half hour session no question no i mean fully guaranteed contract um you know they were backed into a corner by their situation but it's like we had an almost Super Bowl team, and this is supposedly the missing piece, or at least as a franchise, they're doubling down on just really trying to win.

And that taste of getting so close to hosting the Super Bowl in town, I think really just pushed the chips further, further into the table. Plus you had a new offensive coordinator coming in, John D. Filippo. He was pretty talkative. He brought sort of an interesting personality, background to the job. I don't know. Mike Hughes seemed interesting interesting and relevant at the time it didn't end up that way but we're talking june so there was a lot of things to watch a lot of things um going on a lot of reason to pay close attention back last that five mini camps ago you know why it was it was less intriguing to me than this year in part because,

and this is my own, like, I don't want to say arrogance. I try not to be arrogant, but like, I thought I knew what was going to happen. And then it did. Like I,

I, I, when you look back at teams that win 13 games, how often they repeat it, they only repeat it if they have my homes or Brady or breeze or whatever. And so I looked into that and kind of looked into what Kirk Cousins was and everything else and the players that they lost and the weaknesses they had. And I just didn't buy it at the time.

And trust me, that did not go over well, especially on Twitter. But like, I just kind of like didn't believe that they were going to run it all back and be a Super Bowl team. I think objectively it is more intriguing because when you go from that close and add a new quarterback, that almost never happens, right? You just add this franchise quarterback. And here's what would put you over the top for having your argument in, I think mini camp, Kirk cousins became so frustrated with what was going on out there between DeFilippo and Zimmer. He threw the football into the road out of anger, which is a long way from the field and an impressive throw.

But he got so frustrated and he came off the field and he called it like a pity party or something and talked about how frustrated everyone was. We never see that in minicamp. So you talk about tension, super bowl or bust every national reporter is showing up here and they're all asking the same question oh is kirk super bowl or bust and that kind of thing so objectively speaking i just felt like historically speaking many times this has sort of been tried elvis gerback to the ravens and that kind of thing after scott mitchell to the line yes yes it's just been tried a lot of times and i think they've gotten maybe the best outcome out of kirk's play that they could have asked for at the time uh the accumulation of how he's performed is about as best you could have ever hoped for i just never really bought that it was going to work

and so then when it didn't i was sort of like yeah okay i thought so but that's that's just that's not how we should do this like that was a all-in this team is going to really go for it and how many of those do you really get this team is really going for it and they have a chance and vegas has them as top super bowl odds and everything else unless you have mahomes unless you have Brady Brees, you don't get in that conversation all the time. And 2018 is the only time, I think, wouldn't you say, in the last 10 years that they actually went into a season where people were picking them as a Super Bowl favorite?

Because 17, they definitely weren't. Oh, no. It hadn't happened before that in that in this 10 year span was was it mentioned at all in 2020 i don't know i'm also not trying to say i told you so about 2018 i'm just saying what i thought at the time yeah it'd be fair to say that was the highest expectations yes externally for this team in the last 10 years. Plus, don't forget, they drafted a kicker that year. Oh, yes. And there's nothing like a kicker in minicamp to catch your attention.

The one with long levers, as the previous special teams coordinator referred to him. They sure did. Okay, last question. This has been great. Your list was fantastic. I honestly think that I have no- Props to you for coming up with the topic.

I have no disagreements. And props to you for coming up with the topic. I have no disagreements. And props to you for making it and making it a really fun discussion. So I referenced when you had sort of gone like, man, I don't know, eight wins. What do you got? What's your June feeling? Come on, please.

The Associated Press can have hot takes. It's not against the rules, is it? Is that your handbook? Well, it wouldn't even be a hot take. It's a simple prediction about it. Does it say no hot takes in the Associated Press handbook? Well, basically, it's unwritten. Actually, it's more of my own philosophical sort of distaste for predictions,

and everyone just wants to know what's happening next. How about you just sit back and watch? But that's why you have to do it though like you have to give it's not a prediction so much as it is a feeling about feeling this team right now what do you think happens uh i think they still win the division. Oh, okay. See, this is a hot take. It's not a hot take. Yes, it is. Everyone's got the lines. Probably.

Yeah. Okay. So, yeah. You did it. Everyone's got the lines. And how do we think that movie's going to end? Right, right. We've seen that Netflix show before.

I'm going gonna pour as much cold water as i can finally as i can find in this room on this hot supposedly hot take your words not mine and say it's like a three-way nine and eight tie with the packers and alliance i could see that i mean yeah it in a vacuum forgetting about what the other team's gonna do because i know i have even less feeling of course about what the other team's going to do because I know I have even less feeling, of course, about how the other team's going to do. Yeah, a 10-win ceiling, I think, is what I would feel. Very difficult schedule, as you alluded to, with opposing quarterbacks.

And no matter how much of a genius Flores is, there's still a lot of holes that we think are existing on this defense i would say if they win 10 games that we are going to think about the future very differently as in you've got a ready-made contender for a quarterback as opposed to sure if they win five games you're saying there's a lot to rebuild here and you definitely are drafting one and then your timeline is two years but if you win 10 games and kirk is going to leave but then it's is kirk going to leave if you won 10 games with this and then run it back like things get very complicated then which is why exactly that's what's going to happen because vikings history always becomes

complicated it's never cut and dried it's never they win the Super Bowl or it's going to happen next year. It's never very rarely. Oh, they bottomed out. It's time to rebuild. It's always somewhere in that mushy middle. Yeah, as it always is. Well, great list. Great discussion.

And we will definitely do it again, Dave. Appreciate you, man. What's why? Usually I ask people for like their Twitter, where to follow them. But you like don't like Twitter. So do you want people to know your Twitter? Sure. It's at DaveCampbellAP.

Okay. There you go. You can count on links to my stories. Well, you do a great job, and we'll do it again, man. Thanks. All right.