Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles break down what Vegas missed about the Vikings and Sam Darnold

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

Former Viking Jeremiah Sirles has some fun talking trash about the Vikings being 12-2 and breaks down what everyone missed about this team in their preseason prognostications Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matt McCullough here at this time once again for Jeremiah Searles, former Minnesota Viking, and Tuesday morning left guard as we get a real thorough, hardcore breakdown of what happened last night between the Vikings and the Bears. What happened is the Vikings are freaking 12-2. Jeremiah, thoughts, reactions? It's unbelievable. I mean, you look at where we were from the start of the season

to where we are now to talking and watching the National Football League yesterday going, oh, the Detroit Lions, they don't look very good. Oh, the Pittsburgh Steelers just got squashed. Then you watch Sunday night or Monday night football, and you're like, dude, the Vikings are rolling. And even if it wasn't pretty, right? And that's when you really start talking about a team that's got it all together. I mean, Justin Jefferson drops a wide open walk

in touchdown. Sam Darnold doesn't look as sharp as he's been over the last few games, but the game was never in question. There was never once in that game where I was like, Ooh, the bears were letting them hang around. Right. That's the, that just shows me that the Vikings are hitting their stride. They are hitting stride in late December, talking about number one, overall seed by week road to the super bowl goes through Minneapolis, right? All this stuff is coming together. And it's just so much fun because for years, you and I have had to sit here talking about a eight and eight football team or a first round team that we don't really think has the talent to go all the way. And here we are saying this team could legitimately win

the super bowl this year and it's just so much fun to talk about for our bikes man it is and i don't want to spend uh very much time on the chicago bears but no whoa no yikes and i mean i think that's where you just leave the analysis there it, you watched the game back on tape. Was it as bad for Caleb Williams as I thought it was in the moment? Yes, it was. So I actually rewatched the entire game from the all 22 this morning. And Caleb is, I don't know if he's blind. I don't know what's happening, but I mean,

there is receivers standing over the middle of the field like this with no one around them. And he decides I'm going to run and jump from nobody and try and i just think he's rattled troy acheman hit it on the thing he's defeated right and it may be time to just say hey you know what caleb this didn't work this year let's have a seat let's put tyson bashan out there see what happens because at this point i think you're doing him more harm than good putting him out there week after week i thought it was really telling when Caleb Williams scrambled around. He really did jump over no one and then got laid out by Jihad Ward.

I just want to throw it out there. If you think you could get a couple yards in the league, just watch that play because I don't think you'd survive. But he takes a really massive hit from jihad ward and in real time i was looking around for who was going to come go pick him up and the answer was no one and there was the picture and art made at sports that whole account that you know looks back in historical art of him just laying flat on his back and no one comes over and we double check this on the all 22 to see waschecked this on the All-22 to see, was I remembering this correctly?

The receivers are frustrated. Their offensive line has clearly got to have enough about at this point of him. And I think Chicago, after that type of showing and last week as well, they should be really concerned with the resiliency of their young quarterback. And I just want to say yeah i know roll around roll around on the bench and pain oh you think so bad you think it's tough caleb try

podcasting through 2020 and 2021 vikings then you'll find out how hard it is but uh it goes back to when he's coming out in the draft, they acted like this person was just the next Mahomes and he was flawless and he was untouchable. And one thing that really sets off flares in my brain is when coaches get blamed for everything. And I'm watching this coach draw up open wide receivers and the quarterback's not throwing it. There is two coaches who've already gotten fired.

And if Caleb Williams was even remotely good, they would still have their jobs at this point. And that team would have more wins and more competitiveness. But he, at this moment, is kind of everything that we talked about leading into the draft that would be a major concern about him, the way he handled some tough losses, which was flopping himself on the bench and and quitting on his team the way the way the way that he that's tough the way that he is is fair but it's tough the way that he scrambles around and just doesn't stay with his reads he

can't see the field and you got six four jayden daniels ball in you got six four drake may balling it's just you know maybe some of this stuff should have been taken more into account i know they had to draft him because he was labeled this but we need to stop calling people generational honestly oh that that word and draft season is the most overused maybe besides late day three right that big is always when you're talking to hey he's a late day three guy. I mean, I can't tell you. The graph must have 800 picks for everyone I talk to that's a late day three pick. But you're exactly right. So much of the NFL is it's not this, oh, we can work the flaws out of him

as you get in the NFL. You're entering into higher stress, higher competitive, higher everything. It's just going to exuberate all the flaws, right? Very rarely do I see a guy that you go, man, he's got some flaws in college. Get to the NFL and be like, oh, he fixed them in year one. Everything's great. Caleb, my man, this is a tough place to be. And when you're in the quarterback position, you are a leader, right?

You're the leader. Everyone looks to you, including the media, including the ownership, including everyone. And when you're flopping around like a fish on the sideline and Troy Aikman's going, oh God, look at this guy. Not good, but not good. And I'll tell you this, if I'm Ben Johnson, I don't want that train wreck. If I'm a high caliber coach for next year, am I looking at that going? Yeah, I'm willing to stake my head coaching career on that guy.

No, thank you. They're going to have to overpay a coach to come in there coaching career on that guy no thank you they're gonna have to overpay a coach to come in there i believe that okay here's the question is exuberate a word that's a question let's take a look here how is the word i don't know x u b r a t e uh let's see don't test my vocabulary exuberate uh okay to become exuberant it is a word how about that congratulations hey of all the names that i can't pronounce i have exuberant in there i i exuberant sure but exuberate that one i wasn't 100 sure that's fair so uh bears that's someone else's problem to cover but as far as rip courtney cronin sorry yeah oh man oh she is in hell over there but uh that'll teach her that'll teach her to move so yeah i want

to play a little game with you i i want to do something serious of course and talk about the most very serious podcast we should we're going to make a list of five most important players down the stretch here to the vikings but first it is completely unreasonable to pimp this home run talk trash about the vikings being where they are because none of us really thought that this was going to happen but who cares about being reasonable let's talk some trash let's just talk some trash about the 12 and 2 minnesota vikings hey las vegas are you gonna have to shut down a casino over there for how bad you are at your job six and a half wins just this far just a little bit outside right just just barely missed the edge of that strike zone whoops what what do you think because we thought they would be a lot better than six and a half wins what do you think that the gambling universe

missed or the projection universe missed so epically bad about this team i think they missed the overall talent level on the offensive side of the ball right right? I think, you know, if you looked at last year and saw what Josh Dobbs was able to come in and do, Nick Mullins was able to come in and do with the supporting cast around them, you would think anyone with a pulse that's a competent quarterback could come in and operate this thing

to a 500-type season, right? They're just too talented on the offensive side of the ball. You've got the best receiver in the NFL, one of the best tight ends. You go add Aaron Jones in the offseason two bookend tackles that both would be pro bowlers if they were if Derrissaw was still healthy possibly an all pro you can't just say oh the quarterback's gonna come in it's Sam Darnold he is so washed he's so terrible he's essentially like a CJ Be bethard or he's like a guy that can't even throw the football that dude was a top first round pick for a reason like they went back and showed some of his workout from usc when he was coming out and thrown in the rain and you're like i

forgot this dude was a dude at usc they just did not understand that with the offensive talent that we have paired with a brilliant coach and kevin o'conConnell bringing in a quarterback that was probably going to be middle of the road regardless he wasn't going to be trashed he wasn't going to be great when we thought we brought him in but then to have that ability to do that I think Vegas didn't think it was possible I think they didn't understand also that the dude who wears number 18 can just make kings out of normal men and Darnold's not even a normal man, but I mean, he made Nick Mullins look great. They were in real games last year, should have won against Cincinnati. They blew that game. And that was Jefferson doing his thing. And then really

special performances against the lions. And with Darnold, I think they also missed that Sam Darnold's recent performance leading up to joining the Vikings, which was a fill-in game in San Francisco where he was good. And then the end of Carolina where he was good. And if you do a really deep dive on his stats and look at the parts that can kind of be controlled when he was throwing to DJ more, when he was using play action, when he actually got blocking, how did this guy perform when he wasn't trailing in games and desperately trying to come back? What did it look like? It looks like, and I did a study on this. It looked like a much better quarterback

than just pulling up his box score stats. And I think that was part of it. I also think that no one ever heard of Jonathan Grenard, Blake Cashman, and Andrew Van Ginkle. I just think no one had any idea who these people were, and they're like, I don't know, Darnold's their quarterback. They can't be good. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. And the reason I believe the defensive side is you just put one of those guys in there, it's probably not a big deal.

The combination of those guys, and you add Ivan Pace an undrafted free agent rookie last year going into his second year as a starter now you add Harrison Smith as a veteran you had Stephon Gilmore like the combination of the whole on the defensive side of the ball is really their success it's not you're focused around one player right it's not hey you have a TJ Watt you have a Miles Garrett right you had a Daniiel hunter oh you let him walk what are you doing right all that stuff but the combination of the whole they are the epitome of team defense everyone does their job guys show up in their moments you got filling guys like uh ward or bullock that are bullard that are playing big time moments big time games you have guys that have to fill in and spot start that are showing up more and more.

They just have figured out a way, and that's a testament to Brian Flores and what he can do. Team defense, superstars on offense. It was really going to be hard for this team to fail miserably like a six-win season. I mean, think about this. The New York Giants last year with Tommy DeVito and Tyra Taylor, they won six. It is hard if you're actually trying to end up with fewer than six and a half wins. The division was factored in for how tough it was. But as far

as what they missed last part is that the Vikings have a good kick good kicker no i'm just kidding sort of the kicking has been fantastic but they missed coaching matters so much in this league i mean look around who's in the playoffs once again it's all the same coaches that are always in the playoffs here's the indianapolis colts with whatever they're doing over there, flinging passes across the entire field with receivers, get them picked off and run for touchdowns. Meanwhile, Sean Payton's got the bleep eating grin going to the playoffs with a rookie quarterback. It's like, well, turns out the guy probably knows what he's doing. Here's a Harbaugh. Here's another Harbaugh. Even heck, Todd Bowles is a pretty good and proven coach in the league. He's got a team rollingugh here's another harbaugh even heck todd bowles is a pretty good and proven

coach in the league he's got a team rolling it's like yeah it's the same guys over and over again that are always in the playoffs and the vikings they got two of them guys hey miami brian forest might have a higher win percentage i think he actually does than uh mike mcdaniel so i don't know like maybe they've got some coaches that know what they're talking about. What, what trash you want to talk? You got some trash. I mean, you were a Viking. So like you're more qualified than it is.

I'll tell you this. I have a lot of Packers friends and it's, it's really fun to look at them and go, man, how's it feel to be third in the division, right? Like in a division, you guys all off season. Do you see Jordan love? Do you see how he finished the year last year? That guy's going to be third in the division right like in a division you guys all off season do you see jordan love do you see how he finished the year last year that guy's gonna be great he's gonna be the next one and then they're gonna be like you guys i mean you're gonna have to work for these playoffs now you're gonna have to go on the road like yeah we'll get three teams in but you're the

third team right like how does that feel and they just sit there and it just drives them down we'll just wait we just wait it's like no no it's over the vikings are better than you you just have to accept that with sam darnell guess how much he's making 10 how much is your oh 55 that's just tragic right it's fun to be able to compare and contrast the the pieces that are paid right and you look and you're like oh we got a bargain on a guy that's playing better than your guy oh we have 18 oh yeah you guys oh that's right jaron reed had zero catches the other day that's weird right it's really fun to poke fun at the packers fans right now i love it they are a very uh sensitive bunch but but i'm not sure i want to go there with you on the talking trash of the pack because there's still

another contest to be played between these two teams and credit where it's due jordan love's been playing excellent football and i think more than anything here's the here's the one here's what i'm saying like i don't know why don't you wait till december 2030th or whatever to do the trash uh i'm gonna i'm gonna exuberate after that but uh their defense is actually really coming around. And in the past, you could always say, well, they'll probably melt because their defensive coordinator has the defense line up across the goal line and wait for the other team to get there.

I mean, I just think that they're rolling. But what fun is it to talk trash after you've won? You know what I mean? If you're going to talk trash, you've got to put it up front. You've got to put it up front and plant the flag and say, no, we're better than you. Watch us. Oh, and then when you – because then when you beat them,

the ability to double down is even better. Because they're saying the same thing, right? There's one more game. Just you wait. And then the day after, you hit those text messages and you start sending out the box score. You start sending out everything and you just double down and get the day after you hit those text messages and you start sending out the box score you start sending out everything and you just double down and get the crickets now i will be said you do set yourself up for some rebuttals right you you can set yourself up but that's

the fun in it matthew you've got to talk the trash before it happens yeah you've had a been a victim of a few rebuttals with nebraska maybe to wear an Iowa shirt next year. It happens, right? But you got to talk the trash beforehand. Oh, that's a good point. Just from the objective standpoint, though, the Green Bay Packers, I think, belong in the conversation for the best teams in the league

because it's how you're playing right now and who you are right now. I guess if you were going down that NFC North trash trash talking route i might ask who plays for your team lions you do hey do you need that do you need a defensive tackle you're a big guy maybe you could fill in and play defensive tackle oh i thought that this was your year dan campbell can you scream a defensive tackle into existence can you can you bite someone's ankle to make him exist on defense they couldn't stop nothing no pressure on the quarterback couldn't stop

the easiest hire i've ever picked on underdog was james cook in that game they are not stopping anybody from running the football bang earned 26 bucks doing that i mean all you have to do is go well you kicked an onside kick with 12 minutes left so if that tells me any state of how much you believe in your defense right now i don't i don't really think you could say much more of yeah we weren't going to stop him so we just tried the most uh lowest percentage of success rate play in the NFL. Gifting is hard, but here's a hint. Give the gift of connection from U.S. Cellular. Not sure what that means? Here's a slightly more specific hint.

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That's how bad it is right now. I get it. And I feel bad a little bit for the offense of Detroit because, man, they're so fun to watch and they're running up and down. But they're going to have to score 40-plus to win from here on out. And when you enter into the playoffs, it's not going to happen. Those teams are just too good. You're going to run into a healthy Eagles good. You're going to run into a

healthy Eagles team. You're going to run into a healthy Vikings team. And now you might not even get the buy, right? I mean, for all year, I mean, everyone's been like Detroit will get the buy. It's going to, the city's going to run through Detroit. If there's a team that needs to buy more than anyone in the NFL, I don't know them. They need that horribly, but I think it's all going to come down to week 18 of who's going to get that by whether it's Detroit or Minnesota. There's also a important factor with their defense, which is that Aaron Glenn plays a lot of man. I've kind of thought that their defense has looked like when Aaron Glenn played football in the NFL a lot of times,

but if you got guys who could play man, that actually will work. But when the bills and this was, this was just a great job by their offensive coordinator, Joe Brady did a tremendous job here. They had, I think it was a fourth down or a key third down. They just lined up three guys on the right side and they ran one of those pick plays where the inside guy runs around the outside guys. And here's Detroit's poor cornerback who probably just got there chasing after somebody

wide open pass down the sideline I mean it's just if you're gonna play man you better have great players who can cover and Carlton Davis was one of them and now he's not so I do feel like yeah the uh the jaw I do feel like the matchup would benefit greatly the Vikings because they play a defense that the Vikings have shredded apart through the years with Kevin O'Connell and even going back to Kirk, really, but since Campbell and O'Connell have been there, and they don't have the dudes to do it. And, oh, they're just going to press Justin Jefferson.

With whom, though? Well, they're going to double-team him. Yeah, but if the guys aren't good, like the way Chicago and that first matchup handled them was with a good player. So that's not something you can do unless they're good. The matchup right now, I would lean toward the Vikings. If those two teams were playing in the playoffs right now. I agree with you. And you know, I think I would lean towards the Eagles as well. If those two teams were playing right now for all the similar reasons. Devontae Smith, A.J. Brown, and oh yeah, Saquon Barkley, right?

I mean, there's so many teams. You look at the NFC. You even look at the Rams, right? Pukunukua, Cooper Cup, like all these teams that are getting kind of some momentum heading into the playoffs here have some really dynamic receivers. And you talk about a team that's really struggling on the back end with injuries and defense the lions are at the top of that list and you never want to limp your way into the playoffs ask the eagles last year right they just kind of barely limped their way in and then they got out quickly that's what's going to happen

to the lions in my opinion if they cannot figure some of these injuries out and get some pieces in there the problem is it's December 17th. Like there's not dudes just hanging out on the street, ready to come in and give you meaningful snaps and 40, 50 snaps a game. It might just be too little too late for the Lions, unfortunately, to ruin an absolutely magical season that they've been having. And on offense, they deserve all the credit that they get. They are that good.

They are that tough to stop. So I would not count them out but over if they have to play four playoff games it's just hard to see what happened in buffalo not happening again to them uh let me talk some trash to the eagles that no i'm not gonna do that i first of all my safety that's important if i have to go there we know about that i'll find you the other thing is i think they're just really good i i think that them and the vikings they probably have the edge right now over the vikings you could talk some trash to the jets and to the panthers for allowing sam darnold to be here and i couldn't help but think about as i'm watching you know darnell they clinch the

playoffs they get their 12th win he doesn't play his best game but he did a great job of not playing his worst game which i think is really important right the other defense is doing some good things maybe you're not locked in and yet check down to aaron jones first down great job underneath to t.j hockinson great job but jets and panthers how how how did you blow this look at this man throw the there's a throw from yesterday you know what i'm talking about in the red zone to justin jefferson window is this big through a freaking keyhole he drops back and when he goes to throw this ball, you don't even see Jefferson in the all 22 from behind because he throws it with so much anticipation and leading him into that spot. And if it's not going 700 miles an hour with flames behind it, the linebacker

probably knocks it away, but it is. You've also seen the way he's been a leader, the way that he has been teachable and coachable. I don't know what it is you guys did wrong with Sam Darnold, but it looks pretty good to me. Great job. Well done, Jets and Carolina Panthers. I mean, we know it was Robbie Chosen and our boy from Limestone State. That would be the reason why and it just goes back to your quarterback's only as good as your supporting cast and that goes back to what i

said earlier why the vikings have so much success their offense is incredible and it doesn't matter if you're the greatest schemer known to man if you don't have the dudes that can go out there and win one-on-one matchups and get open and create separation, you can be the most talented quarterback in the world. It's not going to matter. Or you have an offensive line that's like a leaky dam and you're just getting hit all the time. It's not going to matter. So, yeah, hats off to you guys for ruining a young quarterback.

But he went to the Vikings quarterback rehabilitation program, which Daniel Jones has just checked into as well. And who knows? We will see how he goes. But I'll tell you this, his price is going up every single week. I really do. And I don't think the Vikings are going to pay it unless we do go win the Super Bowl or whatever, but someone will pay him 50 plus million next year. I really believe it. I really do if he continues to play this well throughout the stretch. There's a picture of Caleb Williams looking at Kevin O'Connell like, please, please save me

hey you gotta wait till 2031 we got a long line buddy rehabs are on a wait list pal rehabs on a wait list oh man does everybody try it's like the text jj like what's it like over there just send me some pictures is it as cool as they say it is mccarthy sends him the virtual reality it's just like damn it's like the donut shop when it gets real popular it's in and out out in los angeles it's just the cars around the corner meanwhile he's hacking bergs back there like ibrafu said he'd never leave me This is just the cars around the corner. Meanwhile, he's hacking Berg's back there.

Like he said, he'd never leave me. Zach Wilson's like, I'm here. You know what? I, what I think about this Sam Darnold game against Chicago, because when you look at the box score, it's like,

you know, not good. And even some of the tape, you go, Hey Sam, that throw was there. There's an out route. I think Jefferson like that should have been there. There's one to Addison where he's crossing the field. I mean, put it on him and it's a big play,

but the fact that he could have a game that was tough. And I did not think his decision-making was bad at all. And I thought that he never got shook again. We're just reaching the point where you can't shake Sam Darnold. They did not protect very well. And this is one thing that I love your comment on because it's getting a little leaky up there, especially at the left guard position. And then Cam Robinson didn't know the snap count all night or whatever. And Darnold impresses me more and more with his pocket

navigation and earlier in the season we were going Sam get rid of the ball I'm like get rid of the ball but he's not he did not take sacks in this game he did not take risky throws I don't I don't know if he had a turnover worthy play but it didn't look like it to me that is the progression to have a bad game where you play good enough to win though and you don't throw the game away that's the that's the real growth with sam darmer yeah because it's on it's we can't expect him because it's not fair to expect anyone in the nfl to be lights out every single game it's nfl the guys get paid a lot of money it's human nature you ride up you ride down unless you're the greats of the greats but what you can expect out of a quarterback is how to take care of the football right you mean ask will levis how well that's going for him dude just got benched after 10 turnovers or whatever it was it would have been really easy for sam to force

some things last night because he didn't feel like he was having a good game where he felt like he had to just know i gotta be better whatever it might be but he just took care of the football made good decisions but the the protection back to to your point, has got to get better. Because, yes, the Bears have sweat and they have some dudes on the edges, but you watched Philly's D-line lately. You watched L.A.'s D-line lately. Those dudes are hunters, and they are coming. We need to sure up some things big time.

I'll tell you this. My heart dropped into my stomach when I saw Brian O'Neal get hurt last night. I mean, deep into my stomach, like, oh my gosh, if we lose both tackles or in a lot of troubles, we try and go down the stretch here. So glad he's okay. But I think people are starting to figure Blake Brandel out a little bit, uh, get him right out in space, widen out on him, make him move his feet, coming across his body, really struggling with the cam and him to pass off stunts. And that's to be expected. You know, when you have new tackle used to working

with the greatest and Dara saw, and now it's not quite the same. The chemistry is just not quite there. So they're going to get stunted to death. Cause if you open up Pandora's box of stunts, you're going to see it over and over and over again until you get it fixed. So that's a big issue going on over there. And then, you know, on the right side, O'Neal's holding his own, doing great. But if he's a little dinged up, that's going to be an issue too. So Sam's just going to continue to have to understand what is in front of him. What's the matchup I'm going against every week? What's my internal clock this week?

Is it two? Is it one and a half? Is it three? Whatever it might be, he's just going to have to keep developing with that every single week because it is a little bit leaky up front than I would like to see it in December. I also think from the left side in Brandel that we're seeing that it's very hard to play a full season, that he had not played 17 games ever. He's never had this type of workload, and it's been years since he was an Oregon State tackle and I also think is this is this right or wrong the guards as far as the physical exertion it feels like the guards have a lot more like in terms of stamina maybe I'm wrong

about this but they're just all they're taking instant smacks to the face over and over again. They're usually the guys who are pulling. It just feels like it could be a let rather than dropping back into pass protection, trying to get a block, like a lot of physical stuff that's going on there instantly at the line of scrimmage over and over again, which is probably wearing him down more than he's ever had to deal with before. Yeah, that's a very fair statement. You know, it's one of those things where if you're not used to doing it for an extended period of time, it's hard to build that resiliency. It's hard to

build that conditioning, right? And so it's not unusual to see a guy like that start to fade a little bit towards the end of the year when you really don't want him to, but it's just the nature of having a first year starter, right? Usually you see it in rookies, especially rookies, right? They get to week 12, they get to 14 and like, this is bull prep time. Why am I still doing this? Right? Like, Oh no, buckle in four more weeks. Right? So you're starting to see a little bit of that out of him. But I also just think it's a lot of, he's got a lot of tape out now, right? And defensive linemen are very smart and defensive line coaches are very smart and they'll have rush plans and they'll have, Hey, here's what he's really struggled with. Let's test him early on that and see if he's got it fixed. And if he's this, then here's what we

want to get to, right? You can't underestimate how smart the linemen are when it comes to a rush plan perspective, right? A lot of time you think guys just are out there. It's like, Oh, I'm just going to rush the passer off my athleticism. But these dudes have crazy rush plans. I've seen it written down from guys like Everson or B-Rob of, hey, first third down. This is what I want to try and hit him with so I can set up this on the second third down. Or, hey, this is what he struggled with. So we're going to spin early, but then we're going to come back with a fake spin into a dip. Right.

They have these rush plans put together when you go against guys because that's how you play the game within the game. And right now, a lot of people have a rush plan on break brandle yeah and i think seattle this is going to be a huge challenge for them leonard williams yep and boy a mafe and they can get after the passer there and if there's one thing to be really concerned about with seattle other than they have good receivers it is that they have a really good rush plan, really good defensive line that could create pressure. So you're not out of the woods, uh, just because you're going out to play a team that is coming off of a tough loss against the green Bay Packers. And these are things that have to be resolved. So, uh, last, last tiny bit of trash talk for me, all the front offices that have tried competitive rebuilds. Better luck next time.

I mean, the Tennessee Titans signing Tony Pollard and trading for LeJarius, the dude is broken, Sneed, and giving him all this money and trying to just free agency their way there. Whoops. Didn't work out for a lot of those. How about the Raiders? They thought they were going to win.

The Raiders thought they were going to win. They ain't winning. They made moves to be competitive and have not been remotely competitive. The Vikings are the very rare bird that were able to pull off the competitive rebuild. And the only other team that I could think that did this recently was actually Philly.

Moving from Carson Wentz to Jalen Hurts. They tanked one game where they took Hurts out of the game and Doug Peterson got fired, but the next year they were nine and eight. They never had to really tank. And then the next year after that, they're in the super bowl. And that's very similar with the Vikings. They acquired outside talent, AJ Brown. Uh, they did hit on some draft picks but they also went out into free agency and went out into uh the trade market and got players to stack up i mean saquon barkley to stack up their team not too many others who have had successful competitive rebuilds no and it's it's a hard thing to to divvy a competitive rebuild when you're paying someone top dollar right i think that's

that was the issue forever with the vikings with kirk is like you could never rebuild when you're paying a quarterback this much money it's the issue dallas is going to run into it's the issue that the bangles are going to run into right when you're paying a quarterback and a receiver or a quarterback and an edge rusher or you know if you have two or three guys taking up 35 of the cap you're never going to be competitive, and you're never really going to be rebuilding. You're always going to kind of be in this no-man's land of we're going to be an 8-8 football team or 8-9 football team,

whatever it is. So, yeah, competitive rebuild, I wish that that would just go out the window and you're either going to be competitive or you're going to rebuild. You don't get both. Saints, they tried it. They tried. Derek Carr. You don't get both. Saints, they tried it. They tried. Derek Carr. Not great.

All right, so I want to rank the most important people for the Vikings. We'll just say players. We know Kevin O'Connell and Brian Flores. I also want to say Matt Daniels. Some stuff to get together there on the special teams, but the most important players on the roster going forward over these last three games and Justin Jefferson and Sam Darnold are off the tape. It's just too obvious. Where would you like to begin that list? I'm going to start with Brian O'Neill. Obviously,

I think that him being healthy down the stretch is going to be really important because all the things we just laid out earlier, hey, Randall Robinson, you're going to want Bradbury to slide that way. You're going to want to give some help that way. You can't do that if you don't have full faith in the right tackle to lock dudes down. Right. So he is going to be number one on my list. Cannot non-negotiable. He goes out. I give our chances very low.

No offense to DQ. Walter Rouse is a rookie. Haven't seen you do it since Oklahoma. Doesn't give me a ton of faith there. So Brian O'Neill is my number one pick. I think Brian O'Neill is a great pick because on the right side, hey, Dalton Ryser's played really good football over the last few weeks. Really good in pass protection again, and a much better right guard than what he replaced.

So if you can at least have one side that you feel pretty good about, and the other side is not horrendous, but it's rickety, it's shaky, it's imperfect. It solidifies that. And the drop off to the next guy is so enormous that I don't think they could go forward without him. I'm going to throw out a gentleman who has not been playing.

That is Ivan Pace Jr. Great job by Josh Metellus in this game. He was a beast. He was everywhere. That was the Josh Metellus that we saw a lot of last year, and he did a good job filling in at linebacker. But their blitzes are not the same without Ivan Pace Jr. Jamin Davis is trying.

They're throwing a lot of people out there. Kamu Grugier-Hill's trying, but he is an exceptional player. And over the last few weeks, we've seen the difference in the run where I thought they could have tracked down DeAndre Swift a few times if they had Ivan Pace. And really the blitz game is enormous. I'm putting him toward the top of my list when he returns, which Kevin O'Connell said he's on track, should be okay to return his window opens next week.

But we've seen in his absence, the importance of him in this line. Yeah. You know, he, I just, again, I was watching.

So again, I have the center for the Seahawks, right? So we were watching some Viking state this morning. We watched the bears game. Then I went back and went back like hey let's watch some of the rams game man it is a noticeable difference when zero is on the field just not just the way he blitzes but the it's the physicality that he blitzes with right it's the running back that's going to meet him in the a gap and that's going to hurt and that's going to wear on him that's going to wear

him down over the course of a four-quarter stretch so i agree with you him getting back elevates our blitz game to a whole another level just from a physicality standpoint of pushing the pocket from the interior the whole bit there sticking on the defensive side of the ball i'm going to go with granard i think this is a dude that is finding ways to get to the quarterback using a bunch of different tools whether it's his get off whether it's the spin move. And when you get deep into the playoffs and you have a game that you want to have someone on the defensive side of the ball, call game. That's what you say all the time.

Miles Garrett, go call game. Strak fumble, get the sack, get the fumble, keep the clock rolling, whatever it might be. He's going to be a guy that has to do that for us. If we can get ourselves a lead, turn his ears and go, he's a guy that's going to have to show up in a big way for us down the stretch. I mean, he has been the type of closer that you expect guys who are the top five paid in the league. And that's another just great job by the front office.

Daniil Hunter's been unbelievable for Houston. So it's not like they didn't know Hunter was going to be great, but the idea was, can you find somebody a little bit better fit for the system for a little less money that might bring you the same production? He's brought even more production than Daniel Hunter. And they do a lot of it through blitzing through moving Andrew Van Ginkle around bringing Cashman up the, that has a limitation to it. If they block it up, well, they got you. And now he's going to sit back there.

But you can't just block up that one-on-one guy who is so hard to beat time and time again. And there's a cumulative effect of an edge rusher getting around and around and around. I think the quarterback really feels that. Grenard is a good pick here. I'm going to try to go underrated here. Cam Akers I think is really important

because last night what they were able to do was rotate in Cam Akers and Aaron Jones. And Jones has looked more spry since Akers started to get more work. And the version of Aaron Jones that is full speed converts third and 17 or whatever it was on a check down. I mean, that's he's special. And for a section of the season, he wasn't because he was getting exhausted and banged up. Now acres coming in, doing a pretty good job. I think that that is a vital piece to the final

stretch here. If he can give them strong to competent running back play when jones is on the bench yeah give him 10 to 15 snaps a game right give him 8 to 10 carries a game let him find ways to get the football in his hands because he's a bit more of a bruiser than aaron jones right aaron jones is old right but he still has that burst he says still has that speed. Cam, I mean, you see a picture of this dude? He is just a brick house. I mean, the dude is stacked.

He needs to be that bruiser that's not afraid to four yards in a cloud of dust, continuing to pound and pound and pound and go and go and go. And then eventually he's going to be able to break it outside. The thing he needs to get better at is he's got to get better at his pass protection. His pass protection has not been very good this year. You don't want to have to have a tell of, Hey, CJ Ham's in the game. They're throwing it right.

If he can get better at pass protection down the stretch here, he'll be a big, a big threat of, Hey, are they running? Are they passing? He won't be able to give a tendency there, but that's something he's going to have to clean up down the stretch here.

I think part of that, just to add in is maybe still getting acclimated with some things that they may do differently. That surprised me. His struggles have surprised me because he was good at it in the past. Yeah, agreed, agreed. I'm going to go a little bit of a dark horse here too.

Dallas Turner. He was on my list. My man, that sack last night was chef's kiss i mean dip the knee swing underneath hit the ground pop up and murder caleb williams where has that been all year i mean the fact that he only has two sacks this year is outrageous he is too athletic way too good we need to find ways to create matchups for him whether it's lining him up over the guard lining up away from from the blitz, so he's going to, or away from the blitz, so you know that the slide's not going to come to him. He is too athletic, too much of a natural pass rusher to not send him after the quarterback multiple times.

Because you talk about now getting a couple of those guys with Grenard on one side, him figuring it out on the other side. That's that lethal, deadly combo that we saw for so many years back in 2017 with evan b rob or evan denille you have two of those werewolves coming off the edge good things happen for you i think what last night did with that particular pass rush was well it put it in everybody else's mind this is what that guy's capable of so every other team when they're prepping now you better be ready for that But it also might allow them to move Andrew Van Ginkle around a little bit more and just use how dynamic he is and not have to have him as an edge all the time because you can have Dallas Turner. He's earned a lot more snaps and his direction over the last few weeks has been a positive one.

He crushed Kirk on that one play. He was tracking people down in space. You can see it starting to come together and it's clicking at the right time because it's like adding a player that they didn't even have before. So he was on my list. I'll throw out one more. Everyone in the secondary. No, I mean, sort of, but I mean, Stefan Gilmore is going to come back and he's on, he's on my list here because Fabian Morrow did a great job over this last few games. Just tremendous. I think they targeted him maybe two times in the game yesterday.

Great job to come off the bench and be that guy, but they need the full version of Stefan Gilmore, the star corner who was great at the beginning of the season. And then I think got a little worn down toward the mid year. This might've actually helped him if his hamstring can stay healthy. They need a game changer. They need somebody they can put on any receiver because receivers that you're going to face the playoffs. You look around it's AJ Brown.

It's maybe Mike Evans. It's maybe Puka Nakua. Like they're going to need the absolute best version of Stefan Gilmore. I completely agree. I mean, the NFC's receivers core is loaded and weapons like crazy and not just one, but multiple per a team. You have to have the confidence from a defensive coordinator's perspective of where that guy goes. I don't worry about, I worry about the other side or whatever it might be. Or, hey, Harry,

you need to cheat this way. Gilmore's got it set over there. So totally with you. He's going to be a really important piece coming down the stretch because regardless of how good our pass rush is, if there's guys running wide open behind us,

it doesn't matter because the ball is going to come out quick. Okay, very quick. I think it's a good list. Very quick. Love to see it. Hate to see it. I'll just start out with what I have here on my phone. This is a bowl schedule. Oh, it's season. It's season. It's look what we got here. Memphis, West Virginia and the Frisco Bowl. Yes. Boca Raton Bowl, Western Kentucky against James Madison. Yes. a raton bowl western kentucky against james madison yes how about the la bowl between california and unlv that's not in la but yes yes the answer is yes those are tomorrow

georgia southern versus sam houston state yes i will be watching that oh that is the new orleans bowl how about the cure bowl the gasparilla bowl that's the one with the uh the lawnmowers oh yeah all of my favorites the pop-tart bowl right where they cooked the guy live last year and everyone was like yeah eat him right like that was phenomenal and you saw the trophy actually works yes that's incredible just just a few more coming next week the myrtle beach bowl that sounds fun idaho potato bowl a classic game above sports no idea what that is but i'll be watching it 68 adventures bowl they're one off uh rate bowl armed forces bowl birmingham i want i want to see pj fleck covered in mayo that is what i want i want pj fleck with all that ooey gooey mayo just all over that bald head is i mean we just there is

there's so i'm still scrolling there's so many of these yeah the mayo the mayo over him just is kind of you can't write that uh so that's my love to see it my uh my hate to see it is new england did we really think that gerard mayo was going to work is this really what we thought was going to be the key was to get mayo and have the issues with judon early and draft drake may and we all kind of saw this coming i don't think it was a great hire to start with the guys had really very little coaching experience when it comes to running a ball club you move on from a great and you go to that i think we all saw the writing on the wall but you know you hate to see a guy get 14 games into his coaching career here and then get the axe now people are talking about well kevin o'connell's a former player dan campbell's

a former player and it's working ah not every former player is ready to be the head coach of a national football league team. I mean, remember KOC was the OC on a Superbowl winning team for Sean McVay. It might be a little bit different of an experience than a drawed male or Antonio Pierce. Who's just one week. He tells his team they're terrible.

The next week he's like, no, we're almost there. We just got to keep grinding. You're like, season's over. It's like, well, it's going there. We just got to keep grinding. You're like, season's over. He's like, well, it's going to work out eventually if we keep fighting. You're like, no, it's not.

It's truly not. It already hasn't. It's been, excuse me, it's been a rough ride for some of the inexperienced coaches in the NFL. My hate to see it was just the moat between good and bad teams. It's a wide moat and you might call it an entire river. I mean, when, when the Ravens are playing the giants, I'm like, is this the Gasparilla bowl? This is just insanely bad to watch. I mean, Lamar Jackson, he's just like pulling up his pants and run. I mean, that is the ultimate. Your team is a joke. I would not have fired everyone in New York before.

And then the guy ran while he was holding up his pants. I'm like, you're done. I just, if someone could gain 30 yards with their pants falling down, your team can't play here anymore. Yeah. I mean the, the have and the have nots have never been wider in the NFL. I mean, and honestly, that early slate last week was just so bad. Right. I mean, thankfully the backend slate brought it all back to life, but yeah, I mean, you're watching the Titans and the Bengals turn the ball over a combined 10 times and you're like, am I watching high school football?

I mean, when was the last time there was 10 turnovers in an NFL game? This is ridiculous. Right? So, yeah, it's gotten really bad. My love to see it, Boise State's going to host a playoff game. I want so badly to watch Penn State or Tennessee go play on that blue turf in Boise in December, my friends. It's going to be awesome.

I am so excited for that game. I watched a ton of Boise State this year because, obviously, they're running back. Ashton Gentry, so much fun. Got robbed, by the way. Stuff. Everybody was deserving. I mean, there's not too many guys who play two positions. But Gentry had an unbelievable season. Was deserving. I mean, there's not too many guys who play two positions. But Gent, he had an unbelievable season.

Was deserving. But that team can play, man. Like, their quarterback can play. They got a line. I think they could cause some problems for some people. So that's just, we'll end on that. Bull season, but also a playoff. You can yell about who's in it all you want.

But once that thing starts, we have dreamed of this. We have dreamed of this day. It's like if you're a preteen and you think, if I just get that driver's license my whole life, I've been thinking if they just had playoffs in college, how much fun would that be? Now it's some real playoffs.

That'd be a lot of fun. So I love it. I love it. We have a lot of fun. i love it i love you have a lot of fun 12 and 2 football team that we will be watching the rest of the way man it's uh it is very exciting and i am thrilled to have you as a part of it so thank you very much for your time jeremiah absolutely appreciate it football football