Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles breaks down Wentz handling, expectations for McCarthy

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

Former Vikings lineman Jeremiah Sirles joins the show to discuss the team's handling of Carson Wentz and what to expect out of J.J. McCarthy for the rest of the season. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, presented by Fandul. And it is time again for Tuesday morning left guard with Jeremiah Searle's former Minnesota Viking. And my friend, we got some real inside the locker roomy type of stuff to talk about with Carson Wentz and playing hurts and getting the surgery and how that whole. situation was handled. I will admit to being a little on the zealous side in my analysis because, you know, when bad play calls happen, when mistakes happen, a lot of times you could go, I mean, that's football. That's how it goes. The other team gets paid to. But when you see a player like that dealing with that amount of pain and being put back out there down 31 and 34 to 10, there's something that fires that is much more human, I think,

inside of us than the typical it's the gridiron to go you know kill the lion like that i i think it's a little bit different there it's called empathy that maybe goes off in your brain when you see cars and wince dealing with that but you have played through injuries you've been on the field when maybe you shouldn't have during your lifetime uh take me through your thought process as you were seeing that play out and then seeing the fact that he had season ending surgery yeah you know as watching the game you can just you told you could tell from the first snap like just watching him warm up you're like do that shoulder's not right like i've worn one of those braces before it makes it makes your it makes your arm shorter you have no range of motion and that just told me it's like

he had a torn labor like i knew from the second he had that brace on because that is the labrum brace right that is like oh your shoulder's unstable oh that means your labrum's torn strap this harness on and you'll be okay which i've done and played an entire year on it in college and it sucked. Like, it wasn't fun at the end of the year. They're like, oh, you fix it. Because they kind of said the same thing. Like, well, you can't really make it worse.

Oh, I did. Right? I made it worse. It was a little tear. And by the end of it, the surgeon was like, oh, man, you had 11 anchors in there. I think it was holding on by a thread. I was like, awesome.

Right? And so as you're watching that for Carson and you're seeing the game progress. And I'm going, man, every time he holds that arm, it's because his shoulder is slipping out of socket and then slamming back in. Like that is what happens. And with you have a torn labor. again, I've had two, right? Both these shoulders have been torn and fixed. And what happens is the easiest movements, like for me, it was pulling my bed sheets up in bed, which slide my shoulder out the back, right? And so when you're talking about playing quarterback and you're loading up that arm to throw or when he tries to knock down that ball, right, those are movements that the shoulder usually does. But when you don't have that labrum in there to keep it in, right, it's a slide out and slam back in. And that's where the bone damage can start to come in. And so as I'm watching that game, I'm going, dude, this dude is subluxing his. shoulder on like a play-by-play basis and like kirk herb street was talking about oh he's got not that

show that much i was like dude that is painful like and so that's a painful thing and so i mean i don't think anyone's ever going to question carsis wince's toughness but you as a football coach as as his teammate eventually need to be like dude enough's enough right like we get it man we appreciate you we thank you but NFL players have to save our save them from ourselves because we will continue to go out there until like we die right camp scataboo is probably like just tape it up i'll be fine right like we're just nuts like that but yeah i mean cars and man's i feel terrible for him and what a warrior but very questionable of how all that was handled yeah and uh there is certainly a moment in the game where you can clearly see that he cannot play uh to any effective level and that's where this

devolves into two different discussions of should they have just played max brosber to give themselves a better chance to stay in the game because a healthy Max Brosber, even with bad tackles and even with the struggles they had, is going to have more effectiveness than someone who is in so much pain that they cannot perform anywhere near the level that Carson Wentz is capable of. I don't love that premise just because I think Max Brosmer, as I think very highly of Max Brosmer, but I would not have liked to see him in there against Khalil Mack, against, you know, those guys slamming into him from time time again not early in the game not to start the game i don't think that that would have done him a

whole lot of good in his progress and he's a developing young quarterback um so i get i get the logic there i could buy the logic there where i where it loses me is calling four straight pass plays down 34 to 10 where your win probability i double checked on this was point one percent to win that game i'm not sure anyone with seven minutes left to go down 24 points has ever won a game so uh in the NFL, maybe Maxian, probably Maxion somewhere along the lines that's happened. I don't think in the NFL on a Tuesday night in November. Right. Exactly. In Northern Illinois, possibly. But I don't think it's happened in the National Football League. That was the point where if he's going to stay in, you can't have him drop it back to throw or Max Rosmer needs to be in. And it just feels to me like the

threat of the game was lost or there was maybe frustration there. And it was like, well, the trainer says he's fine. So I'm going to keep pushing the past. button, see if we can get something going and maybe lost the bigger picture on this that you, even if you claim you're not doing further harm to Carson Wentz, you are putting someone through something so unnecessary. If it was 17 to 10 in the fourth quarter, okay, Carson, go be a hero here. You know, that's what a backup quarterback sometimes has to do. But that is where you started to wonder, like, where is your head at on the sideline at this moment when you're not seeing that he needs to either come out

or you need to just hand off and end this game. Yeah, and that's the bigger question, right? The question is who, who is communicating that with KOC, right? Because there's a lot going on, right? You're the headball coach of a game that's going on, your clock management, your personnel, your play calling, like, you're doing all of that. So who needed to be the one to walk up and say, hey, Carson's done, right? Because like I said earlier, he wasn't going to be the one to say it.

no way in shape or form. Carson's battling for a career still, right? He's been on a bunch of different teams. He wants to show that I still belong in this league. His arm would have had to literally be falling off, which it almost was, before he would have tapped. And so Kevin O'Connell needs to see that because he's a former player too, and he needs to understand that that mentality is what allows people to play in the NFL. The track mentality in the NFL is the worst thing they ever imagine, which is if I'm not 100%, I'm not going out there. right like if i'm not 100% you won't see me on that field you're never at 100 it's the national football league you're crashing into other grown men on a play by play basis and it's going to hurt and so i think that kevin needed to see that and have a little bit like you said a macro point of view and go what am i doing that why am i why am i doing this because i completely agree if the game is close and you grab them by the face mask and you do like you got this buddy i'm here with you like totally different conversation than like well good luck right you've been getting killed all game but maybe this is

driver we turn it around you just at one point have to now i'm not saying throw the white flag but you have to understand that you have limitations on a thursday night your team's beat up already from the week before right you have all these things going on hand the football off or even put rosemary in there just to get him some just to get him some experience because if carson was that hurt and you knew that he was hey it wasn't going to get any worse well that means you knew he needed surgery before you walked into that game you need to get the kids some some snaps because if j j jay comes back next week and Carson's going to need surgery anyways. That kid needed some real live bullets, right?

Just for operational standpoint, getting the play call in, handing the ball off, maybe a quick slant, right, a quick play action, a bowl, a boot out, just something to give him some snaps in a real live game because if history repeats itself, JJ's not going to stay healthy the rest of the year. Like that's just not something that we can confidently sit here on a Tuesday morning and go, oh, JJ's going to be back this week. I fully expect to see him through the rest of week 18. you might need Max in a moment this year and you're going to look back oh man I wish I got him

15 snaps on the fourth quarter on that Thursday night game instead of this being the first time he goes out there and as he's saying said HUD his hands are shaking so I think we can all get to a point with hey he should have been out of the game earlier and that is very clear from the results but maybe there's a question of like how big of a deal is this because when you have something that is out there on a Thursday night and everybody saw it and then the surgery comes after, then what follows that is a lot of attention, people texting and calling me about it and wanting to talk about it, then me getting aggregated and things like that that happen after something like this. I do think that there is an effect here because of the

bigger picture, not just that you're not winning, but also the Derisaw thing, the Van Ginkle thing. Maybe even we toss in Ryan Kelly going out. there pretty quickly after his fifth, sixth, whatever number it was, concussion. And I wonder about that NFLPA survey that has given them such high ratings before. And I have always wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt with that. But I think that this instance is a cherry on top to several different ones where we're saying, was that the proper handling of this? And I'm always very delicate about this because I'm not in the training room.

I'm not a doctor. I'm not a trainer. They've been so good at this. They've built up so much trust with the players in the past. But we can't ignore the results. And I also wondered about in the locker room with players. And this goes back to a Zim thing where Zim was critical of Anthony Barr when Barr was playing through a very serious injury.

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Yeah, it is a delicate situation because it is such a hush, hush, keep everything inside. We don't speak about injuries from a competitive advantage standpoint, and you never want to speak on. anyone else's injury right like those are the rules that you have but the second you guys and the media leaves we obviously all talk and we all are sitting around in the lunch room we're all sitting around in the meeting room right and you you have conversations right and it's not as much uh like you you see something on twitter and then you look up and you see anthony bar wrapping his wrapping his wrist up because he's going to go out there and gut it up and be a warrior and you see a comment from a coach of like well anthony's got to play better and you're like man

this dude this dude is giving everything he has to you right now like and he's trying his best but he's broken right and that's where you can really start to see the ugly side of the NFL and it's not on purpose right but a player has to is always supposed to be from an outside hey do what's best for the team you're here to help us win right you got to do the to do but then there's the other side of it's like I have to look out for myself a little bit here because no one else will no one else in this building, besides me and my agent, maybe a couple of my friends, will have my best interest at heart. And so what I might be trying to do for the team might actually be hurting my best interest. And those are where things can start to fracture is when you start

to have people kind of in both camps where training staff, coaching staff, front office is like, hey, we got to win some football games. Like, we got to continue to win. That's what drives this whole economy here. And then you've got the other side where it's like, I want to win too, but I want to have a career like i want to have a five six seven year career and if i go out there and i keep beating this shoulder up or this ankle up or this knee up or whatever it might be bad things can happen and you have to weigh that conversation and i'll use myself as an example 2016 we go out there injuries everywhere right and so i end up starting my first game at right tackle against the houston texans and i play pretty well i get named the starter for the next few games we go into the

biweek everything's good we come out and then against philly i get rolled up on and I actually tear my meniscus, right? And it was one of those things where I got the MRI. We go in there and they go, all right, your meniscus is torn, right? We know this. You can play on this. Like, there is no reason you can't play on this. Or you can have surgery.

You'll miss four to six weeks and then you'll come back. And as a young player in my third year, in my first time truly being named starter, I said, I'm good. I'll play. Whatever. Like, I'll figure it out. I'll rehab it. I'll do whatever I have to do.

I played on it the rest of the year. I ended up getting benched. a couple times because like my play wasn't as great as it could been. End of the year, I go get surgery and I can remember Dr. Larson telling me, he goes, dude, it looked like someone put a hand grenade in your knee and just lit it off, right? But I made that decision because that was what was best for me in my career, right? But that was also one of the things where the training staff never said,

you shouldn't play. The head coach has never said, hey, you shouldn't play. You should shut it down. My agent was the only one that was like, baby we should shut this down. But I said, hey, I want to play. And so it is a conversation that has had and you have with your friends, But when those things become bigger situations, like the quarterback situation, not the third string right tackle, the starting linebacker, the first round pick,

those things become more and more contentious because who will view it as right? Will the fans view it as the players being a baby or is it the players looking out for himself or the fans view it as, man, this guy's not all in and going to die for this football team to win a Super Bowl? Well, and I think that your experience there maybe ties into a little bit of Christian Derisaw where it's clear to me that Derrissau has tried to push this as much as he could. He told us that he was ahead of the schedule when he came back against Cincinnati. So he has wanted to get out there. But I also think that in taking yourself out of the game against the Chargers,

at least we maybe understand that that's what happened, where he said it's just not working out. And it's quite possible that that's also what happened in Cleveland. I will say the head coach said it was a pitch count, but we've gone over that. It doesn't quite match up to have him coming out of the game at the biggest times at the end and not blocking Miles Garrett. So clearly it has not clicked to the point where he is feeling 100% and totally confident. And if you're Darisaw, your coach desperately wants you to be out on the field.

And there was a long discussion between those two before. the game that was going on. And at the same time, if you're Darissau, you've got to say, look, I can play another 10 years in this league. When you look at the great tackles, the Trent Williams, I mean, this guy's in that, at least in that, at that table. And those players historically, those elite tackles have played till 35. And if that's where you want to be, you can't go push yourself, especially for a team that

is just not special right now. You can't go push yourself and risk further injure. And for this franchise, the future of this franchise, they can't have that either when it comes to Christian Derasaw because if he's not 100% going forward, you're in a lot of trouble. That's a guy that you've built as your entire foundation of the offensive line around. So that situation has also been very difficult from my seat to figure out, well, what's really happening here with Christian Darrisaw and his discussions with the team and what was the real timeline versus the one that they kind of allowed us to believe? which I think Dar esau did not like that he that it because he's mentioned this a couple times. I don't think he liked the idea that it was allowed to be out there that he might play

week one when he was saying week three was way sooner than he actually wanted. And that's what you're talking about about some of the messaging and some of how things are perceived in a league where everyone's paying attention to every detail versus what the player is thinking himself about his own health and what's going to be best for him long term. and that's where these things get extremely complicated. Absolutely, because it's a similar thing with Lamar Jackson last week, right? Like practice report, he practiced, but come Friday, he goes, I'm not ready.

Like, I'm just not ready. And I can tell you from a standpoint of if you've played a lot of games in the National Football League, you understand the difference between being 100% and being play ready, right? Because it's there, and that's a wide threshold for a lot of people, right? if you're looking at it, I mean, Sequin Barclay's going, I got a groin that I could probably play through right now, but I know that I wouldn't be productive and I'd miss two or three weeks. I'm pulling myself out. Lamar's going, my hamstrings a little tight. I could probably play this week, but I might risk further injury. It's the same thing with Derisaw. And I think him practicing during training camp was his way of starting that process back.

But because he is so good and he looks so polished and he looks so good, people are like, oh, he's back. He's back and he's ready to go. And if I'm Kevin O'Connell, again, take. Take the church and state, right? Players and organization. If I'm Kevin O'Connell, I'm going, I want my left tackle to protect my first round, rookie left quarterback, right? That is, I need that guy. And so then there's that conversation of like, well, he's practicing and he's looking

pretty good. Christian, you feel really good, right? It's like, yeah, I feel like I'm right on schedule. Yeah, on schedule for week one, right? I don't know. And then that there's the contention a little bit. And that's where Darisaw is seeing the bigger picture. And he's probably talking to guys like Brian O'Neill who's been.

through regime changes. And he's talking to guys where it's like, hey, you got to look out for you in this league, man, because if you don't, no one else will. And that can lead to some really uncomfortable conversations with coach, GM, trainers, and player. But I applaud this players that are in the position to be able to do that. I was not in a position to be able to do that in year three finally starting if I wanted to have a career in the NFL, right? And I had to weigh that. And I still live with the issues in my knee to this day because of it. Derisaw is in a position where he doesn't have to do that because he knows hey you guys don't want me here 31 other teams will right there's plenty of people that don't want me here and i have the longevity right and carson wince same thing he made the decision to play no one had a gun to his head and said carson if you don't play on thursday night i will kill you right like that's not how this works he made that decision knowing full well what was in his shoulder and saying i want to play because i still want to play in this football league it's definitely a hard conversation to have because at the end of the day kevin o'connell's going if i don't win football games i am fired and i lose my job and I lose my ability to feed my family and do all that. And then the players

going, yeah, but if I go out there and play for you so you can win football games and I hurt myself, I'm not going to have the 10 year career. Right. So it is just, it's two paths that all, obviously everyone wants to win. Everyone wants to go in and win a Super Bowl and have everything with the hunky dory, but it's never a clear cut path. There's lots of ups and downs and peaks and valleys. And I think this year, because last year, we were blessed by God and had no injuries. This year, we're having these conversations, but teams have every single year. This happens all the time like 2016 was the same thing right same thing injuries everywhere when's adrian coming back what happened to his knee why isn't he back earlier right same new kelly kelly probably wanted to play because

he knew he needed to be out there probably should have waited another week man but again no one has a gun to a head of an NFL player and says you must play that doesn't happen in the NFL and this is where i mean i empathize with all sides because the players want to get out there and another thing is I mean we see this all the time you know guys through training camp in preseason who find themselves walking around without their pads on and what's the first thought that I have if it's an undrafted free agent is like bye bye I'll just not be putting you on the 53 because if you can't gut it out I remember there was a wide receiver and I think this was after you were gone but there was a wide receiver who in warmups hurt his finger and did not play in the fourth preseason game

and I was like I mean come on man you just can't look I'm sure that that's really painful but you're you got to play and so there are guys and Harrison Smith is an absolute freak for this. Brian O'Neill is a freak for this. A lot of guys who become stars in the league, one of the things is they're insane enough to be able to push themselves through a lot of things that normal human beings would have no chance

at dealing with that much. You wouldn't be leaving your bed and much less going out there and playing against the best. So it's part of it and finding that balance between dealing with your personal health the right way you should and being a warrior with your buddies that's hard to do. And also from a coach's perspective, it is very easy in my seat to criticize the way that any coach handles this sort of stuff through the media.

At one point, Doug Marone and Buffalo when I was there got so frustrated with being criticized for being wrong about injuries that he actually had a PR person read the injury report. And then he would go up and answer no questions about injuries further than the PR person reading the injury report. And it was like, it's, because it is very hard to do because you want to give some insight into what's happening. You want to be able to say, yeah, this is the type of recovery we're looking at here, but you also don't want to put pressure on guys to return to fast and say, oh, yeah, he's right around the corner. And then everyone goes, well, didn't you say it was around the corner? Why is it six more weeks? Because health doesn't work like that. It's not like, oh, it's not Madden.

You get a guy injured on Madden. I personally turn injuries off. but it will say three weeks three weeks then he's back well that's not how real life and real recoveries and real injuries actually work i think a lot of this also comes down to the fact that there's only four categories on the injury report yeah right did not practice limited doubtful full that spectrum is massive right because the limited practice might be hey you're going to go through individual and that's it right well that doesn't mean you're going to be ready to by Saturday or Sunday, right?

But it's limited. And so people see limited and they're like, oh, he's almost there. Right. He's back. Right. And then doubtful is like, oh, he was on the sideline. And then all of a sudden you get guys that are going from doubtful to limited and they're like, oh, he's right there. He's on the edge. That might still be three weeks. Like it's just such a hard thing with the injury report to put into that category of just four categories when like you said,

it's such a wide spectrum because, yeah, he might be physically cleared. Hey, your ankle physically is healed. Right. Your knee physically is healed. But up here, if I'm not healed up here to where I can trust to put that leg in the ground and stop Jalen Carter, I am not clear, right? There's a big difference with the way that those things go. And I think that's a lot of what Darisaw is going through right now, is he understands the eliteness that he can be. And he's not willing to put mediocre stuff on tape because he doesn't trust his knee. And I fully 100% respect that. And anyone in the NFL who does that. And I'll tell you what else, every player in the NFL respects that. The coaches struggle

with that. But if you've played in this league and you put the helmet on, you respect that decision by that player because you understand how hard it is week in and week out to go out there and perform at any elite level or else you're getting cut or move down the debt chart or whatever it else might be. All right. Let's take a deep breath. Let's move on. Move on from injury talk. Let's just pause right there. Okay, they got a football game. They're playing against the Detroit Lions. And oh, by the way, J.J. McCarthy is coming. coming back to play. Right. On Fanduil right now, the Vikings are eight and a half point underdogs. The over under for this game is 47.5, pretty high, as you might expect from a high

flying Detroit Lions team. Let's talk about the offense and this discussion we've had many, many times about the scheme and KOC and the play calling and all that. And I continue to go back to when they've had good quarterbacks, this thing has worked. When they've been able to block it up, this thing has worked they are getting sacked though at disturbing rates so far this season actually kind of disturbing rates through chaos's entire time here how would you like to see the offense structured for j jay mccarthy against the detroit lines yeah uh it needs to start with jordan mason and aaron jones like that that it needs to start there because if there's one thing detroit is they are aggressive and if it's one thing that i'm going to do against

a quarterback that's coming back from injury and also a quarterback that's young in his playing career is I'm going to come after him. And so the best way to get a defense to pull the reins back a little bit and kind of not be so aggressive is to run the football. Right. And so I feel like this is a broken record every week on this show. Run the football, right? I don't understand how hard this is for everyone involved.

But when you have all these factors going on, you need to be able to run the football also because I think our defense is gas. Like I think they have been out there for. so many snaps from the start of the year on, it's starting to wear on the older guys that we brought in on our defense. So running the football controlling the clock and trying to keep Jared Gough off the field. And also, I don't know what this is, and I think only Kevin O'Connell does, get to JJ's favorite pass concepts, right? Whether it's crossing routes or it's deep outs or it's play action bootlegs where you can put them on the run and give them a like run pass option,

And whatever Kevin and JJ sit down and JJ can give him his top 15 of like, I feel really comfortable with these routes and this concept and this protection and having an answer for if they said, man, blitz, or zone with this route tree, get to those early and often and get him in a rhythm. And stay within those unless you have to with a situational, whether it's third and long or a two minute, really try and stay within those concepts and get to those concepts from different formations or motions so you can disguise them not be predictable, but really try and stay in the

comfortability realm in the past game for J.J. McCart. This is my idea. Don't worry about the scoreboard. Like just call the plays that are best for him in a given moment. And that's it. In a given down and distance. And that's it. And even if it takes, and we saw this happen the other day with Aaron Rogers and the Steelers. I noticed that they would get into third and long and they would just be like punt, like we're just, we are not going to have Aaron Rogers stand back there for five seconds, trying to work the ball 30 yards down the field against this Packer defense that has Micah Parsons. We would, and this team has Aidan Hutchinson playing against a Brian O'Neill's come back from injury.

It's not the greatest matchup. So they have rushers. Calvin Shepherd's been aggressive. I think he's done a great job with that defense so far. I was skeptical of how's that going to work with Aaron Glenn leaving, but he's really stepped into the light there. This is not a defense who's going to give you all day to sit back there and throw. So if you get to third and 13, if you hand off, it doesn't work, incomplete pass,

live to play another day. Play like Alex Smith, complete some passes or, you know, who did this, Sam Bradford in 16. He had to do this a lot. It was like, all right, I'm just going to get the ball to Kyle Rudolph. We'll see if we get a broken tackle or something. But, I mean, we're done. We're going to have to punt. And the other thing would be if you're down 14,

late in the game. You just keep, keep staying on schedule with running the ball, play actioning off of that. Just treat it as if like you need to set up the best play for J.J. McCarthy because what can happen is you get behind and it's 14 to three. I said the fourth quarter, make it the second quarter. It's 14 to three and you're feeling like, oh man, we need to get back in this. We need to push the ball down field. We need to hit an explosive. But if that's not the right thing to do for McCarthy, then don't do it. Like I'm not saying throw two yard passes all game. That's not his best pass anyway. His best throws, I think our play actions and bootlegs that where he can throw it, you know, 20 yards down the field. But you have to build that stuff up off of a run game.

You can't just be like bootleg, bootleg, bootleg. So don't worry about the score. The score at this point is what it is. The standings are what they are. And that I think is going to be a really hard thing to do for a play caller because it's always like you're sort of trained to do it a certain way we're down we got to go empty we got to push it down the field we got to pull off a crazy comeback but that might not be in the cards for a game against a team like this the thing that you said that i couldn't agree more with is the on schedule right we can't live in second and 10 right regardless if it's a called pass play and it's an incomplete or it's a negative run play like we have to find ways whether it screens on first down or the simple bootleg to josh oliver for four

yards. Staying ahead of the sticks in this game is going to be extremely important because Detroit is very unique on third down. They give a lot of looks. They isolate their best rushers by blitzing the back. They understand the personnel that they have. That being said, they don't have a great back end right now. They're pretty beat up. So how do you create, how do you not protect the great back end? You get after the quarterback and make him get that ball out of his hands quickly, right? And so I think that's going to be important there is where if we can get into second and six, third and five, third and six and third and manageable, we'll give ourselves a chance because in the playbook's so much more wide open for quick passes and those things for JJ, if we start living

in past, past third and eight, third and ten, it's going to be a really long day for this offense just because JJ, regardless if he's back or not, he's still developing, he's still learning. I'm watching Jackson Dart and I'm watching these guys that are first time quarterbacks playing, the processing speed just isn't there yet. It takes reps in the NFL. It took Bo Nix, 18 games, in my opinion, to truly look like, okay, this dude could be something in this league, right? Drake May, same thing.

He's looking like it's going to be, it just takes time to understand the internal clock difference between the NFL and training camp and Sundays in October and November, right? You're reaching teams now that are hitting their form. They're hitting peak. There is no more, oh, we're figuring ourselves out through the first weeks and the game. Detroit is ramping up because they know what done a push they're going to get. You're going to get everything out of them. This isn't a what are we going to get. Like,

you know what Detroit is. You have to have really good answers from a schematic X as a no standpoint to combat them and play the chess game of the up and down the field, not the home run game like you said. So staying on schedule is going to be so key this week. It is. I wonder about how you evaluate J.J. McCarthy from this game. Because when we have so little to work with, I mean, you go back and look some of my most watched podcasts are preseason J.J. McCarthy analysis and training camp analysis from joint practices. Clearly, that stuff can only take you so far. Not that I have regrets for breaking it down hardcore, but, you know, look, it's only one game. He's only played two games in his entire career. There's lots of quarterbacks that have played 20 games,

50 games, where we still are like, can he really or is he really good? Or let's, you know, argue about him. How do we do it for one game for J.J. McCarthy against Detroit? You don't. You don't take this game for gospel, good, bad, or ugly, right? You take this game for young quarterbacks coming back off of injury. The thing that I need to see from him is an operational standpoint. Things are going good. Right. I think there's going to be some great plays by him. I think there's going to be some bad plays by him. That's just the nature of the thing. But can he get everyone lined up? Can he get in and out of the huddle? Can he make the right checks? right can you get up to the huddle and if we have a two the three technique or a two the nose check can you get us in the right play from a numbers perspective can you throw on time and on schedule those are the things that i want to be able to see from him from an operational standpoint i'll let the skill stuff and the development stuff i'm going to put that on a back seat for right now just because this is only your third game of this season i'm okay with that but it can't come out there and this offense can't look clunky we can't have delay of games we can't have false starts we can't have illegal formations like those are the type of things from

from a functional operational standpoint, he has to be past that point in his development piece because he has been here for a year. He knows the playbook. He knows all of that. So I fully expect that to be in tip top shape and then to ride the roller coaster with the operational of the play. And once the ball is snapped,

understanding that might be a little bit more of a circus. Pre-snap stuff has to be dialed in this week from him, though. What I'd like to see is the stuff that Kevin O'Connell has talked about working so closely with him come to fruition. I'd like to see the footwork look like it's supposed to look on time for some of these plays. Does everyone have to be perfect? Of course not. Will some of them completely fall apart and he'll have to scramble or something?

Yes, they will. But can we get a sample of, let's say, 30 dropbacks and 17 times it looks like, hey, that was how it was supposed to look because it was, as it was going along in training camp, it got better and better and better for J.J. McCarthy. It's like, I know we can do it. I've seen them do it out on a practice field, but transferring that over to the game is a very different story a lot of times. So last thing before we get to some love to see it, hate to see it, which would be, as we

look at the overall picture, and you've been a part of this before, it's when you lose, it's horrible. It just, no one ever can survive or have fun or have a great season when you're losing in the NFL. everybody is tense the criticism is immense especially when you are underperforming where you're supposed to be as a team but how do we how do we balance rightful criticisms rightful second guesses with are you sure you're not just sort of throwing stuff around and smashing TVs with a baseball bat because and I mean this for not only us but I also mean it for them where how do you look at what you did right and what you should continue to do

versus what you did wrong? I think it's a really hard thing for everybody to do because at a point like this, I think you just want to flip a table. 100%. The frustrations will boil over and things that are little will fester, right? The extra shove and practice will get, okay, we're six and two. Okay, stop it. Like, stop it.

Now it's like, touch me again, I'll kill you. right like your trigger just gets really really small and that is not just from a player's perspective that's from a coach's perspective that's from a scouts perspective right the scouts start going who we need to bring it on tuesday to get better than what we have here right now and so you start as a player you're going they're working out linebackers right now i'm a linebacker why are they working out linebackers right we didn't have any injuries right and so that starts to go and then the coaches you screw up something in practice where if you're six and two you're going hey we can't do this again like this is what we need to do do and now it's what the hell is wrong with you right it all just the trigger gets smaller and smaller and smaller and it actually becomes a lot harder to focus on the things that you're doing well because you feel like even the things you're doing well aren't doing well enough because they're not adding to wins like you can do 20 bad things in a game and you win the game easy we'll get to the corrections right everything will be fine you do 20 bad things in a game and you're going and go all 20 of those things could have been a win for us right and it just it can compound to get on

top of yourself. So I don't have a great answer for you because I've never really been on a team that you can really say is a losing team and look at it and go, oh yeah, we just, we just were able to fix things that week because it always seemed like, hey, we fixed one thing and then something else where it like rear that ugly head, because when you are not a very good team, there's a lot of holes. And very rarely is it on a Sunday, all those holes are going to fire on all cylinders and we're going to put a complete game together when you have this many issues on your team. Love to see it, hate to see it. I'm going to say on both the sides of this. I was just pulling this up on

Fanduil. The favorite to win the Super Bowl is the Kansas City Chiefs, which everyone hates, which everyone is very tired to the Kansas City Chiefs, right? Okay, so hate to see that from a perspective of, oh, you again, but but here's, here's what you have

to be impressed by and you have to love to see. When you get a chance to watch the greatest of the great Patrick Mahomes, don't lose sight of it because you're bored. When I was a little kid, Couldn't stand Michael Jordan. I like the Knicks.

I was like, stop it. Stop doing this. Stop hitting all these game winning shots. Stop making a, it was great when he went and played baseball. I was like, this is our chance. And I don't think I appreciate it. Of course, I was like 10, but I don't think I appreciated enough what I was alive to watch. And I feel like the same thing goes for Patrick Bahams.

Just another masterful performance made look easy against Washington. They're rolling. I don't know if they're deserving of being the best team in the NFL. I kind of don't know the answer right now. They're plus 500, Detroit's plus 650, Green Bay plus 750, Buffalo plus 800,

Philly plus 950. Like there's a lot of teams squished, which I also love to see that all these teams, there's nobody that's just so good in running away where I'm going to say, ah, well, you know, I don't know if anybody's going to beat team X.

There's a lot of teams that are really in true competition for being the best in the NFL. Yeah, I mean, I couldn't agree the disparity in the NFL. from top to bottom is fantastic. My overall hate to see it is I feel like the game sucked this weekend. I did not enjoy it. And we've been very spoiled from week one Sunday night football basically until this

week you've had down to the wire overtime, two minute game winning drives, got to have it type moments. To this week, you're kind of like, some teams decided not to get off the bus today. Like that's just kind of how it felt. I mean, 40 point blowouts. You've got backup quarterbacks in the third quarter, that type of thing going there. And so, yeah, I just kind of hated. the overall vibe of the NFL this week.

But I'll say this. My love to see it, Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos, they are a team that is super intriguing because there's certain weeks against the Giants for 45 minutes looked like dog crap, couldn't do anything. And it's, oh, 33 points in a quarter, pretty impressive, Denver. And then they go out there, and I can tell that Sean Payton has built that roster

to beat the Kansas City Chiefs. You see it. They want to have a really strong offensive line to handle Chris Jones and Carl Loftus and Drew Tranquil and run the football and then they built it to we're going after Patrick Mahomes. Nick Benito, right? Hey, you're going to go after Patrick Mahomes. We're going to find a way to go. And so I am going to be glued into the AFC West and how they go about trying to knock off the reigning kings and the kings of the NFL at the moment, Kansas City Chiefs. But I really like what Sean Payton's going on there in Denver. The overall team building

of that team, very, very impressive. I'll go with a love to see it. no matter how much, I love analytics, no matter how much we lead into, hey, passing's better than running. When the Buffalo Bills have built an offensive line that has the connectivity of that line, where they can run over and over and over and over again with James Cook and create these huge lanes

and win a game where, I mean, if Josh Allen didn't even play in that football game, they still win by 20 points. That's how impressive it was to watch one team physically impose its will, so incredibly the offensive line of the Buffalo Bills is a weekly love to see it even if their wide receivers might not be that was that was really something for them to do that and let me toss another love to see it a good for you Justin Fields good for you I nobody deserves

to have the owner and we all know the realities of Justin Fields nobody deserves to have the owner come out and crap on you before the game and to put that aside to focus I think that he earned a little credibility than maybe Justin Fields had had in the past through that. Yeah, piggyback on that, hate to see it, Nick Mangled. That, that one was awful. I mean, I had two of my Husker buddies played with him, right? No one has spoken highly of him. I mean, it's from a human, from a player, like just super sad to see. And also kind of cool the Jets came out and their offensive line kicked teeth in. I think they played a lot for him. And I'll go, I'll piggyback that on another hate to see it. Cincinnati, you're proven to us how not to build a roster, right? You're

proving to us that four players making 55% of the cap is not the move. It's not the way to do it because I felt like watching that Jets game, I felt like I was watching the 2024 Cincinnati Bengals all over again where it's like they have to score 45 to win. And they've got a comparable quarterback now and Joe Flacco who I think he targeted Jamar Jefferson 16 times, which is what you should do. Jamar Chase, yeah, Jamar Chase, sorry, Jamar Chase 16 times. Then T. Higgins twice, one for a touchdown. But you can't stop anyone on defense, man. You're benching Logan Wilson. who's your captain at linebacker, and you've got your edge rusher, Trey Hendrickson's now banged up and all these things that go into it.

You hate to see it Cincinnati. And I think Zach Taylor is more and more on the hot seat the longer we get into this season. I think so too. And I want to throw out there speaking, you know, you said hot seat, the Tennessee Titans fire their coach. And oftentimes you get like a, well, we fired our coach bump. Hate to see it. No fired our coach bump from the Tennessee Titans.

And this is where when you talk about franchises, ruining quarterbacks, more than quarterbacks failing franchises. What is Cam Ward supposed to take from all of this? I know that the NFL sucks. Like, I mean, this is horrible. Can I go back and play my ninth year in college? Like there are some guys that guy for Vanderbilt's doing it. Can I just go back?

It's that and also the New Orleans Saints. I mean, just teams that are completely inept. They give no chance for anybody to really succeed. seed at any position, but especially the quarterback position. That's a little bit of a hate to see it. But I did want to, I did want to end with the college one is, uh, love to see Brian Kelly getting fired. Don't love to see the amount that they're paying him.

And I love to see that every single week, we turn into college football. We're like, oh, we know what's going on here. And then Bama almost blows it. And then Vandy pulls off a crazy way, like the madness of college football with no true elites like runaway team. is just, is that not true? Ohio State. I think, I think Ohio State for me is the clear cut number one.

Okay, fair enough. I still think they got to prove it. I feel like that they have had a very easy schedule. But they also haven't had to do anything. Like they literally just run it, run it, run it, and I'll just throw it as far as I can to Jeremiah Smith. And it's proved to be pretty effective. So yeah, but I agree.

The paradigm shift in the college football world where everyone on every given week can be competitive. It's super fun to watch and it's made it so much more fun. And as much as people hate the transfer portal, NIL, all that stuff, I think there is some more narrowing the scope that needs to happen. But overall, it's been good for the sport because now you're not just having six deep at Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama of five-star recruits that just sit there forever. They're going to go to the Kentuckies and the Northwesterns and play and then maybe go to Ohio state later in their career. But for now, I think it's fantastic. The Brian Kelly thing, I think it's super interesting that now all of a sudden it's like remember the Notre Dame video guy I was

like whoa we're like pulling all kinds of crazy stuff out now that he's getting fired again and I mean I don't know if I've ever seen a coach speak to his assistants the way that Brian Kelly speaks to his assistants on the field but also why are we firing coaches midseason in this era of college football yeah I really don't like oh going back to james franklin going back to like what is the point unless you truly believe this dude's just a cancer and everyone hates him. All you're doing is giving your players a reason to leave. Yeah. And you're, it's open season on those rosters right now. The portal is open. You're now finding ways to negotiate ways to, hey, I still want to play, but you're going to pay me and I'm still

going to enter the portal and all kinds of crazy things on that front. I've never understood the fire guys. I get the buyouts, but you got to let those guys at least get to the year, end of the year, or you better have an option that's like, we're firing you and we're hiring this guy right now. Right. Yeah. I mean, I also think that I hate to see it would be the insane overreactive atmosphere of college football has gone way out of control where a coach loses one game that maybe they're not expected to. And it's like, is he next? Is he going to get fired after this? But one more, I love to see it for me in college football is I am now an Archmanning guy. And here's why. I am, I am all in on cheering outright cheering for Arch

Manning. I'll tell you why. Because I don't really care what happens to college football at all. I just kind of sit there and watch on Saturday, but here's why. The guy has a bad game against Ohio State, as you said, elite team. They have an NFL defensive coordinator running their defense and the amount of coverage that was like, Arch Manning's a bust, sorry guys, he just can't do it. And then he doesn't play great to start his career. He's never played before. Then, oh, here's a time in high school where he played someone who works way, well.

You're like, does that how it works? Can we see Derek Henry's clips? Can we say, hey, did Lawrence Taylor in high school look like the rest of the kids? Like, I just am wondering, it just, it was this piling on of like, MF, this guy overrated. You are track. Like, can we let the man play some football for God's sake? Joe Burrow was horrible before his last year in college. Can Arch Manning maybe play a couple years of college football and then we'll see if he's a draft pick?

I mean, that to me, like the vitriol of the guy not being. flawless right away. It was just upsetting to watch because you're like, can we give this kid some actual, you know, playing time first? So every time he has a good moment, I'm like, hey, good for you, Archmanning. I think a lot of that has to do with. And I catch myself doing this too is when you pay guys big money, you expect big results. Yeah. Right. Same thing. It was the Kirk Cousins. You give Kirk Cousins a bunch of money. He is now Brett Farr. It's like, whoa, no. Right. Right. Hey, Arts Manning is really good. You give him a bunch of money, but in reality, he's a true sophomore. Right. Who's starting for the first time. We're going through a little bit out here

in Nebraska with Dylan Raola. Right. Hey, this dude was supposed to be the savior of the program. It's like, he very well might be in two years. Right. Like, he's a sophomore. But there's this expectation that's coming with. And I think that's also a lot. What's leading to coaches getting fired is, hey, we just paid $30 million for a roster, and you're 5 and 3 or 3 and 6 or whatever it might be. You're getting fired, man. It's like, yeah, but I had to pay this dude to keep him here as a sophomore so we can develop them for two years.

Ah, don't care, win now, cut, gone. That is a dangerous game to play in college football, and it's a hard expectation to put on these kids. But it also is the same thing. With great money comes great responsibility, man. And you better be up to the task and be able to handle the outside pressure and not let it affect the on-field play. Right.

And I think that's another part with Manning, what I've liked. is that he's got to be aware that the number of people who just verbally assaulted him after he lost the first game to the best team in the country and didn't play well after that. But can we just see how it works out first before we decide that he's the biggest most hyped bust in history? Anyway, so good for him. Gets a crazy win there.

Next Tuesday, we will see where we're at, but we will move on hopefully from the drama. And we are going to be hardcore into what did J.J. McCarthy? do how did they handle it how did they scheme it against the detroit lions and how did they win 41 to three against the lions that's what we'll be talking about next week jeremiah serles thank you my friend hey every single time it's great to be here on a tuesday football football