Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles is not into JJ McCarthy for the Vikings future

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

Matthew Coller talks with former Vikings lineman Jeremiah Sirles about hte performances of two potential future Vikings quarterbacks in the college football playoffs and how Justin Jefferson, kirk Cousins and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah are feeling going into the offseason. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, joined by Jeremiah Searles, former Minnesota Viking. And just before the show, Jeremiah broke some very interesting news to me. That, Jeremiah, you have been the fat man checking into the game, similar to what happened in the Lions and Cowboys game that has become such a big controversy, but also the NFL, with accountability as their main goal, put that reffing crew right back on national TV this week, so clearly they care about that. But I am interested to hear what you thought of that entire operation, having been the dude who checks in and runs that play. So since you don't want to talk about vikings packers and

what happened tell me about that absolutely i gladly gladly will i tell the story of 2018 in buffalo uh so yeah so it's 2018 i was with the bills we were playing new york we're playing the jets and we put in this play all week which is exactly what the lions ran which is i was the heavy tight end so all game i had ran in and, hey, white hat, Mr. Official, number 74, reporting as ineligible. You go like this. He points at you. He announces to the team.

You go on your merry way. But we knew when we got down into like inside the five, we wanted to run this trick play that got our left tackle, Deion Dawkins, a chance to score a touchdown. So we get inside the five, and we run out there, and Dable, as i'm running onto the field uh points me he's like hey this is the play like go do your thing and so our whole plan was as i was running on the field dion and i were gonna walk up to the official together right so he was

number 73 i was number 74 we walk up to the official together as we're both there i point to dion i go he's reporting and dion looks at the official and goes i'm reporting but doesn't do the whole song and dance of like hey i'm i'm eligible right and then as once we reported the offense was then supposed to break the huddle right so because we already knew what the play was so we didn't need to hear the play call so as soon as they saw us report they broke the huddle and went to the front and ran up to the line so as we're running up to the line and the offense the white hats announcing hey 73 is reported as ineligible but the defense isn't paying attention because they've seen me run in all games so they just assume it's me and they're getting lined up trying

to get going and we quick count and we snap it and sure enough Dion runs into the corner of the end zone throws a touchdown everyone's celebrating the defense is all pissed off, and the ref's like, well, he reported, right? So the whole, like, they were trying to confuse. I saw an article today, it was like, well, Dan Campbell admits he was trying to confuse the Cowboys. Like, well, obviously, like, that's the whole point of the play. The whole point of the play is to cause kind of confusion

and then get a guy open. So, yeah, I've ran that play before. We've executed it well. I think the ref just totally botched it. I think the ref wasn't listening. I think the ref looked and was like, oh, here comes 70 70 again he's obviously the eligible and wasn't listening to taylor decker going no 68 68 is the eligible receiver here and yeah and then he doubled down on it in the end post game too like he's gonna die on that hill and there's no way to prove that he didn't hear it well Oh, and when number 70 is running in on the camera, you could see he doesn't even get close to the referee enough to even try to report himself.

And Decker is standing right there in front of him. So the story that he's trying to tell after the game doesn't really add up. But just in general, think about it this way. There was a study that looked at people in car crashes and what they said after the car crash versus what had happened if it was like on film or whatever. And they routinely got it wrong, that things were way farther away or way closer than they thought or whatever it might have been. It can be in a hectic situation, difficult to recall or to focus or whatever. And I know this is their job. This is what they're supposed to be good at, but sometimes you just space and make a mistake or you just assume and make a mistake. The only thing I'd like to hear is just them say, yes misunderstood i thought it was 70 because he came in the whole

game i announced the wrong player and i'm sorry remember i was thinking about how there was that first base umpire when the dude was about to get a no-hitter and remember this this was like years ago but he catches the ball to get the no-hitter and he raises his arm and then the umpire goes safe and he's like what what happened and he was he should have been out by a mile the guy should have had a no hitter should have been the night of his life and instead it was a one hitter and the umpire came out and he said i just missed it and i apologize it was one of the reasons that replay ends up in baseball i don't know why we can't do the same thing here. I think if you just come out and you're like, I misunderstood.

And also the Lions should acknowledge that somebody on the sideline needs to be paying attention to number 70 or number 68, because when they hear number 70, somebody's got to be going, no, no, no, no, no, right? Like someone in the stadium for the Detroit Lions. You know how many people are on a sideline? 700,000 human beings. And nobody was like, let's make sure that he says number 70.

So of course, a hundred percent, the rest fall. Absolutely silly that the NFL won't just be like, here's what happened. Sorry, Lions. We know this messes up the season, but there's not a whole lot we can do for it. And instead, this is what we get. We get them being like, no, instead, this is what we get. We get them being like, no, no, the lions are liars. The lion liars. Like, come on, man, everybody. And all the other teams that have run this similar stuff, they all know exactly what happened. I

don't understand why we have to do it this way. And I also think that it has just been a really bad year for these national TV games with refs. i think somebody said this to me who knows whatever enough they think they're shook they think they're shook there's like a handful of these big controversies in these big games and these big moments like the kansas city chiefs thing and the lineup offside that i think a lot of refs are really on edge and you can see it with some of the focus when it comes to these games yeah we used to call that swallowing your whistle like don't swallow your whistle now right but i i think you're right i think a lot of these guys are starting to think like i don't want to be the one that makes this

call or you know if i make the call i better just live with it right there's no going back because then i'm my reputation is ruined but i completely agree with you i think the amount of the amount of people that are talking about the referees this year is by far and away the most i've ever heard even when i was a player since i've been watching football my entire life like the referee talk this year discussion and you've got patrick mahomes the greatest quarterback in the league talking about how they're affecting outcomes and the league the league has to do something about it and i don't want to belabor the point too much but i think we've reached the point where the league needs to go, we're really the only professional league that doesn't have refs

on full-time staff. How is this possible? And then you can flash just the graphic that they put up of the Christmas Day viewing where it's like, yeah, the NFL pooped all over everyone else. We are king. So we better start acting like kings and doing stuff a little bit better because it's the one thing. The NFL, the only thing that will kill

the NFL is themselves. If the refs are the ones that start getting in the way and doing those things, then it's going to be a problem, but I'm with you. I think that he should have owned it. He should have came out and said, I'm sorry and whatnot, but I also understand because he's not protected by anything, then why would you? Why would you? You don't have a

union or anyone protecting you. You can get fired at any time, so why, right? Like, why would you don't have a union or anyone protecting you? You can get fired at any time. So why really own up to a mistake if you don't have to? Right. And it's a matter of he is eligible. He is eligible. And so if he said he heard 70, then he's going to say he heard 70. And who's going to there's maybe the NFL films.

Mike's are the only ones that might be able to pick up on that. I think the answer is so simple. It's right in front of us is if you have one or two referees in every game in a booth with the live feed right directly to them so they can see everything and they can see every replay and every angle that they want. And then you put those people on TV to explain what's going on. And if you say, oh, well, they can't do that. The XFL already did this. They put people in the booth and they went to them and they said, you know what, here's what I'm seeing.

That ball is out. And even for a play like this, even for confusion, could you go up to the refs up there? What are you seeing on the film? Did it look like it was actually 68? Who said that to me? It was 68, touchdown stands, bang, it's over. And we never have to have this

and i i don't i don't think that they like this i mean they've got to be tired of this being a huge story uh i would say replacement refs is the last time we were having this much discussion about them so yeah i know interesting that that you got to be a part of that uh deon dog it's fat man touchdown though so let let us let us briefly very briefly just go back to green bay and what happened there what is your what is your bigger takeaway because we know what happened there backup quarterback offensive line low key got demolished so all of you in the comment section were like hey what was with the offensive line i was like i don't know who cares uh but true though really bad data for them in that game probably the first bad game that they've had in in some time

but bigger picture my takeaway on this was that it revealed all the weaknesses that were simmering under the surface the whole time and sort of waiting to get exposed. And then in one night, in one flash, in one flicker of Jordan Love's arm, they all got exposed by the defense, even on the offensive line, the shortage with receivers outside of Jefferson and Addison, the running game, all those things. It was like, here's kind of who you are, but you've been squeezing out these close games before, but you've, you've got a lot to work on. Yeah. We talked about it last week. I think, you know, it's the Newton's law, what comes up must come down. And this team has been trying to just ride this high of make the

playoffs, play as hard as we can do everything we can and, and stay relevant, stay in the chase. And after last week's game, you know, and then you go into this week, you kind of felt like the letdown was coming and it's just a little bit of human nature. And, you know, and then you go into this week, you kind of felt like the letdown was coming. And it's just a little bit of human nature. And, you know, as I watched that game, I didn't see the same fire that I'd seen from this team for the last 15 weeks. Right. I didn't see the guys running around hustling.

And when guys are getting beat, you know, it's one of those things like you're getting beat, but it's not as much like sometimes not technique. Sometimes it might be effort. It was kind of all over the map of why guys were getting beat like there wasn't a pinpoint thing and i think a lot of it just comes down to like this team's tired this team's emotionally tired for physically beat up and i know that's not an excuse i'm not giving that to them as an excuse but at this point of the year when you're playing for nothing besides pride it's really hard when you come out and get

punched in the face early like green bay did against these dudes to to really be able to take a step and punch back right at that point you're kind of just surviving right you're surviving like oh okay we didn't we weren't ready this is bad like we'll just have to kind of figure this out as we go i think back to 2016 with the colts right the colts right we've got adrian peterson back we're feeling good and we came out and they punched us square in the face right off the word go right we've got Adrian Peterson back we're feeling good and we came out and they punched us square in the face right off the word go and we never really felt ourselves get back on our feet the rest of the day and that's what kind of looked like against this team is you know we never made the splash play to get ourselves back into it we never got the signature stop like

nothing went right so I'm right with you everything that was a shortcoming of things that have gotten swept under the rug because of high effort or one guy being able to bail us out at one time just didn't happen this week and that happens when you play against a team that's hungry trying to make the playoffs fighting for their life and they're trying to do everything they can to win week in and week out where versus a team that's just kind of like well i think my mexico vacation starts at the end of january so we're getting close yeah right go call up the travel agent I think we're good to go. Why don't you just make the booking a 3% chance? You never know. But I did get a listener question from Evan who DM'd me and he was asking about like kind of the push from, I mean, I can't remember

exact details of what he was asking, but the bolt, like both sides, like just the extra little push that the Packers seem to have that the Vikings didn't in the trenches. And I think a major part of that is that, well, one, the longer the quarterback holds onto the ball, the more chance you have for a negative rep there for the offensive lineman. When Tom Brady would make pro bowlers out of guards, one of the reasons was he would get rid of that ball in 2.2 seconds. And Ben Roethlisberger hung around the league and won a lot of football games, I think because he was just getting rid of the ball quickly. But Jaron Hall, not seeing it.

There was opportunities out there, and he was just not seeing it, which means sit in the pocket and wait and wait and give Rashawn Gary, give Preston Smith, give Kenny Clark, give these guys a chance to just push and push against your, your linemen. Not a very good situation. And yeah, I mean, in hindsight, of course you shouldn't have started Jaron Hall because it wasn't, he wasn't capable of handling it, but, uh, we didn't know that until we actually saw it. So, but I also think the other factor was too, there was a few, uh, like there's gambling shows. There's like shows in Vegas, there's fan duel shows, whatever. And I was

on a couple of them last week, because they always focus on these big primetime games. And they kept asking like, well, you know, the Vikings are favored to win. And I was shocked by that. I'd like their favorite to win. The defense was on the field for 77 plays the week before against Detroit and that's a very physical Detroit offensive line and their receivers ran them all over the building and Jameer Gibbs ran all over it was like I don't really understand it so I guess in hindsight we pretty much should have seen that coming but it now forces everyone to live with the reality of what this team was

always going to be when Kirk Cousins went down. Yeah. And you talk about like with the Green Bay is you got to remember Green Bay squeaked one out against the worst team in football the week before. Right. So they had their kind of humble moment the week before this of like, maybe we aren't as good as we think we are. And everyone's got to button up and everyone's got to have a better week of practice. And everyone's got to prepare a little bit better. And everyone's got to do everything a little bit better coming into a game where they know that they historically haven't been great in us bank stadium right like they have issues there they know that historically the vikings have given up great games against them so like they had a lot of bulletin board material that i'm sure the coach was giving them about

why they needed to go and why this game meant so much to where they were going and you know i felt like that was the one of the biggest differences in, like, the demeanor of both teams. Like, the demeanor of the Packers were like, we can't let what happened happen again last week. Like, we can't let that happen. That can never happen from here on out if we want to make a run at anything versus the Vikings have just been like, we're just trying to figure out who our quarterback is

and who's going to be playing this guy. And TJ Hawkinson's dead now. And, like, you know, it's like one of them's dead. And so it's like, it's just like, you're just surviving weekend and week out. And it's like new faces here and there. And when you're talking about the margin of error in the NFL for victory is so small, it's so small. I mean, every week that any team can win.

And when you start out about distractions, that type of thing, the Vikings have had plenty of them all year. And I think it finally just boiled over to the point where it just couldn't handle them anymore folks i hope you've enjoyed listening to us talk about prize picks this year but if you've missed it here's how it works you go to prizepicks.com and it is simple you pick either more or less between two and six players stat projections and that's it now you're playing so if it's x number of yards for a quarterback you just decide are they going to throw for more or less than that number of yards but it works

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The code PURPLE. Daily fantasy sports made easy I think emotionally the hockinson and Wanham injuries were really tough because everybody knew how much those two players meant to this team DJ Wanham was a guy that I had I'll be honest I had dismissed I mean I just honestly thought this guy can't really play. And this year proved me wrong. He had eight sacks, but played 800 plus snaps and was a little bit about an average player, which is good. Like being an average player in the league is good. That keeps you in the league for a long time. You can be very helpful to your team. And when Davenport went down, he stepped in, he was a big part of their run defense, which is also why I kind of thought they might get steamrolled because I

think the jury is in on Patrick Jones. And we can say that he's not anywhere near as good as DJ Wanham, but you're down to your third and fourth Andre Carter. Shouldn't be on a football field yet. I mean, he is a freakish wingspan guy, but he's not ready to play in the NFL. He's like a third year into his career. He pops and it all comes together. He's not ready for this. And so they were just down, but also down from the perspective of these guys meant so much to how they hung around and to see them go down. I was like, all right, what, what, what more do we have to do?

And of course, also the quarterback through interceptions and fumbled again. And there's like, just all just all kind of piled up. So here we are now moving on to the offseason discussion already. And so Vikings fans, they're sobering up after New Year's Eve. And they're looking at the standings like, oh, no, it's over. And then a savior arrives on national television. He rises to the occasion. Michael Penix Jr. with one of the best games I have ever seen in my life

by a collegiate quarterback. I didn't check the big-time throw numbers for PFF. It must have been like 14. This man, at one point point he's 18 for 21 he finishes with 430 yards and last night all of a sudden all these tweets start rolling into my inbox you think we give michael pennix we're back baby um i i want to know your interpretation of the games that we watched yesterday and then i have a very specific quarterback question for you but mccarthy also a guy who's been mocked to the vikings and then pennix and those performances

yeah first of all great game of college football i mean would i love to see florida state in there with all their guys yes obviously i would have and i know you're gonna shake your head but i'm just gonna plug that in there but all around i mean fantastic day of college football the games lived up to all their hypes. I still, I like the matchup of the Alabama, Michigan, and Texas, and Washington because they were like the same team, right? Physical, brute, going after the other ones like this is going to be a track meet. Like everyone just knew from the word go, Texas and Washington was going to be a track meet.

But man, talent all over the board. And it goes back to people always asking like, well, why are these teams the players? Like every single one of those teams has like multiple day one day two picks on it like that's just the nature what college football is if you have nfl talent you're really really good right if you don't you get steamrolled right and so looking at just the the talent that showed up week or in both those games is phenomenal but man you can't speak enough about what penix has done you know i didn't realize i kind of forgotten that he had had like four season ending injuries like torn his ACL a bunch of times

from upper body like for him to come out and make the kind of throws he makes I'm willing to put the stamp on I think he's the most accurate college quarterback in this year's class like where the ball placement dropping them like he only missed in my opinion one throw last night which was a touchdown that he overthrew a tight end in the corner of the end zone but like from from what i've seen from him like i don't think he's as gifted physically as drake may or caleb williams or jayden daniels but as far as like a precision quarterback i think he checks every box above all three of those guys i just mentioned and i have been very much on the train for the years. Yeah, I have because I really like, and this is what I wanted to ask you about. I really like the way he runs the offense.

I like the way that there's a lot going on and he is totally in charge. And from the word go last night, he was like, I'm throwing this thing that this stage is huge. I mean, this is a stage that Washington has not been on in a very long time and here you are carrying the torch my guy you are the man and he comes out and is like 50-yard bomb let's go and i just i have really liked his leadership and his mentality and you played with sam bradford case keenan was a great leader not quite as physically gifted as these others all named but uh cam newton josh allen you you've got a pretty good quarterback resume philip that's right philip rivers and uh teddy bridgewater so

you've got i mean the quarterbacks you played with are a lot of really good players really great leaders when you are watching a quarterback from a leadership perspective what what are you looking for and and where does that show up when you are in the huddle with those guys? Yeah, you know, I've watched Pennix quite a bit this year because I really love his offensive line, right? They won the Joe Moore Awards. So, I mean, they're two tackles.

I mean, he had the slowest release time. It was like 2.98 seconds last night and he was not under pressure. Like his offensive line did amazing against some really good pass rush against Texas. But as far as back to your question with like the leadership styles you know everyone is different but the thing i love about pennix is his is demeanor like you can tell he doesn't he doesn't ride the roller coaster right like you see baker mayfield the other way right he is absolutely up and down and right where's his emotion right on his sleeve and there's a place for that if you can operate within that but like i've watched pennix when they barely beat arizona state i watched him when they were beaten up on oregon like i've watched him throughout this year

and he is just very cj stroud like in the fact that just nothing seems to rattle him right like he just seems to be super calm and when your trigger man is like that it's a trickle down effect for the rest of your team like it really is everyone kind of looks when the panic sets in everything's going around you look to your guy like you good okay he's good i guess we're all good right like and and that is where you look at what he did on the biggest stage and obviously he's got one more game to it but i think the nfl is gonna love that about him and maybe it goes to the fact that he is a little bit older and he's a little bit more mature and he has those things

and he's been to multiple schools and he's got to see more. You're going to see more of that from players that bounce around like they have, but when you can have a guy that can walk into a huddle and just command it and during the broadcast, I believe they said too, that Penix called a team-only meeting for like 20 minutes. He went in there and the coach doesn't even know what was said and it was never shared. That just shows how much the team believes in a guy like that too and when you have a guy that's all bought in and then can go out there just

confidence and moxie and sling that thing go i'm putting this ball wherever i want it and it's going to be exactly where i throw it i mean the sky's the limit for what that kid could be i just like when i watch the offense and uh we've got some critiques about play calling in that game, maybe clock management, maybe why throw a pass when if you run the clock winds down better for you, why not kneel down at the end? It's college, man. It's college football. You just you never know what you're gonna get i there's there's bad football on nfl sundays but there's nothing like these calamity games where punt returners are trying to catch the ball at the four and have it bounce off what are we doing here buddy uh it's there's just a lot of that going everywhere yeah just uh but you know putting that back aside uh the play calling was weird running a double reverse when

your quarterback is having absolutely zero problems. In fact, one of the best games you'll ever see. So maybe just let them throw, but it's a lot of different stuff. It's motions. It's short stuff. It's intermediate. It's long. It's all over the place. And he seems, and I'm not calling this an NFL offense that doesn't exist. And when people say that, it drives me insane. Oh, he's from pro style. Nothing's pro style here, buddy. They got pictures of children's characters from Nickelodeon over on the sideline they're holding up. This ain't the NFL.

But when I see him operating those motions and getting everybody lined up correctly and then throwing to the right spots and throwing on time, that stuff looks like it just happens because he's got a big arm, but it doesn't. It goes along with timing. It goes along with chemistry and he's got good receivers, but he uses all of them. Everybody was getting in on that. And I just, there was so much to be impressed by, but I love how, when I said, what'd you think of McCarthy and Pennix? You were just like Pennix. Let me start talking right about him.

But I think with McCarthy... McCarthy sucks. I'm going to say it. He sucks. He's not a college... He's not an NFL quarterback. And that's okay. I'm saying he sucks for the NFL. You can be a phenomenal college quarterback, and the streets are littered with them. The streets are

littered with really, really good college quarterbacks. That doesn't automatically make you a great NFL quarterback. Tim Tebow is a fantastic example. That dude was the best to watch in college. He was so much fun to watch in college. He could will his team to do anything. Doesn't mean he was going to make it in the NFL.

Blake Bortles, really fun to watch at UCF. He did some things in the NFL, but when you're talking about arm talent and the ability, like McCarthy's not it. And I, I will be really sad. And I do mean the sad, the Vikings draft McCarthy in the first round. I'm going to be really sad because I don't think that dude is a first round

talent by any stretch of the imagination. Now you've got Harbaugh saying he was the best quarterback to ever play at Michigan. I'm like, are you dumb? You know, who came out of there? out of there like are you dumb like you can't say things like that you're just making the kids set up to fail no Elvis gerback was out of Michigan what are we talking about here Brian greasy Brian greasy was a great Michigan quarterback Drew Henson could do a little bit of everything don't you forget about Chad Henney, Chad Henney. Now, Chad Henney,

man, he was the guy, the Kansas city chiefs do not go to the super bowl without Chad. Henney. That is a fact. That's right. Drive, baby.

I don't know if anybody else came from there, but that's the full list of quarterbacks that I can think of for Michigan. So, okay. But you bring up a great, a great topic here because you're because this is your opinion on McCarthy. I share a similar opinion. I wouldn't go sucks, but I would probably go very skeptical based on what's the skill?

What's the answer? Okay, so he runs pretty well, but do you see what it takes to run in the NFL as a quarterback? And you're not going to be an impact player there bryce young ran well he tried to run away from some vikings backups and got tracked down in like two seconds daniel hunter ran down justin fields from behind this year like you're not you're not running so uh he doesn't even have that shiftiness anyway to dodge people in traffic he doesn't have the you know that natural running ability he does he has a good arm but it's not precise like there's not this like precision it takes a little bit to get the ball out so there's a little bit of a uh bring the ball down and and Huck type of thing so there's a little delay there it has to throw with more anticipation because of that these things are

going to make his life hard however if the minnesota vikings draft him i will say thumbs up vikings here's why here's why here's why because i don't believe in myself i don't i and and look i i've done well in the past i've done well guessing quarterbacks you go look at my tweets about lamar jackson or uh pat Mahomes, but I've also done really poorly at times. And I've also been really stupid. And so has everyone. And that's where I'd be like, all right, here's what I want. Here's what I think is key that Kevin O'Connell thinks the guy's great. And that those two can work together and they can design the offense for this guy. And then whatever happens happens. So I am not going to believe in myself too much because i think the

process of drafting a quarterback that kevin o'connell loves is correct even if i will be like i don't know guys so if i'm just warning everyone that if i spend the next three and a half months saying that i'm not huge on mccarthy and they pick them i will be the biggest hypocrite and be like good traffic i'll do it i don't care i will do that you die on that hill i will not i will be upset right i will be upset mostly because all this stuff you laid out you can't be a difference maker i'll put my cam newton hat off right cam newton hat on right you a game changer you a game manager right like which one are you and you look at mccarthy and immediate impact i think if you're drafted in the first round the idea is you need to be ready to make an immediate impact that doesn't mean that you should right like my home

sat for a year under alex smith perfect it was great for him but you have to be in that upper round of like if we need you to come in this year you need to be ready and you need to make a difference i don't see that from jj mccarthy i just don't right i mean he went he went an entire game this year he threw like nine passes and they were all on the move right and it's hard to look at a michigan quarterback and go how often you drop him back right and and that's where you look at guys like pennix and you look at drake may and you look at even daniels and caleb williams like they live in drop back offenses a lot like they drop back they have you look at guys like Penix and you look at Drake May and you look at even Daniels and Caleb Williams, like they live in drop back offenses a lot. Like they drop back, they have to see the field. They have to understand where the field is. And if there's one thing Penix is doing right now

is it's his ability to see the field, to understand where the coverage is and where the route concept can beat the coverage and when to get the ball out. I don't see that from McCarthy. A lot of times McCarthy is like, I see him, he knows the route, he thinks it's a certain coverage, and he kind of locks in on that. I'm not saying he can't grow into that, but that's not a first-round talent in my mind. You can have all the stuff of like, well, he could be this, he could be that. You can't take a quarterback in the first round on potential.

I hate that. I hate when you're like, well, this guy's potential is through the roof. It's like, you willing to bet $20 million on it because i'm not right like you have to be willing to say that and i think with all those other guys i think mccarthy's a distant fifth i think he's a distant fifth above you go drake may caleb williams daniels pennix like and then mccarthy's kind of right there in that mix too. Somewhere is Bo Nix, which I just really wish they had provided him with an opponent, uh, as opposed to a, uh, like that, that game was like when the other team pays $2 million to your college for you to beat them by 70.

I don't, I don't know how that pairing ended up happening. Oregon could play with anybody, and they end up playing against Liberty. It was like, why did Bo Nix play in this game? He shouldn't have bothered. So he was a hard one to evaluate all year long. I guess here's my point, that there are people in every comment section who are like, no, you guys are underrating McCarthy every time it's come up. And here's my answer. Maybe maybe i mean it could be because look there's a we know this guy on twitter greg gabriel who when he's wrong everyone owns him about everything and it's hilarious there he had a tweet about like you guys think the bears are going to be bad after they won a game or two and then they drafted number one last year so like this guy everyone

like loves owning this guy on twitter but he used used to be in the NFL and he likes McCarthy. And so you're like, well, this is the thing about scouting is even within a scouting department, within a front office. I have heard from people that there were teams that had Kellen Mond above Mac Jones and neither one of those turned out to be great. But Kellen Mon couldn't even run a practice much less win NFL games and that's how hard it is to figure it out so I'm seeing some of the same things you're seeing with wondering what's the cheat code here for McCarthy and when people talk about well he's kind of like a Kirk but the thing is that like a Kirk usually doesn't work out Kirk is a very unique

dude. He was a fourth round pick for a reason. And he worked like a total madman psychopath to maximize every single ounce. And he's actually pretty good at processing in the moment in comparison to most quarterbacks. So it's like Kirk is a, an outlier. Usually this quarterback doesn't work out um as that was a similar criticism of Mac Jones but we were we will get another look at both of them head to head in the national championship game and isn't that funny that here on our show we've spent this much time talking about college because that's where we're at with this football team uh so how should the Vikings approach this last game against Detroit

I mean they haven't announced a starter as we speak I'm guessing it's just going to be Nick Mullins I I don't see any reason to go back to Jared Hall what what what what are they supposed to accomplish here against Detroit I mean I think as a coach the the the message to the players as a coach this week is like you're playing for your jobs right like that last week was embarrassing right all fronts and i'm the one that has to stand up in the front i'm the one that takes the spears and takes the arrows like i am ultimately responsible for the product that comes on the field on sunday so know this everyone on this team you're fighting for your job right and there's gonna be certain dudes like derisaw and other guys will be like got it sure thing okay i gotta step my shit up right but then

there's gonna be guys that are like man i i i'm playing for my life like i'm playing for my life maybe not just on this team but in the nfl and so i do think we're gonna see more effort i think we're gonna see more fight out of this team. You know, but with Detroit losing to Dallas, they've got a lot to play for. Like they've got a lot to play for in this game. I think at one point it was like, well, maybe they win,

they can stress their starters or whatever it may be. But no, this is a Detroit team that's going to be coming ready to rock and ready to go. And so I think weathering the initial storm is going to be really important. You know, if we get punched in the face, like we did in screen Bay,

bounce back, fight back, understand that learn from last week but you know i just want to see a team that fights a little bit more this week you know just as a whole just a little bit more effort a little bit more fight a little bit better execution and you know they always are they already know who the starting quarterback is it's no secret like the team knows right and so just rallying around your guy and maybe a little maybe a little assurity per like, Hey, that's our guy. We can know we can rally him or maybe going into this week.

It was like, is all the guy, are they going to pull them at half? Right. Like, I think a lot of that's just going to come down to like, Hey, Nick Mullen's is our guy.

One last ride. Let's go out and do this thing. I think we should find out who the emergency position player quarterback is in this game and see if cj ham could throw a few passes or uh whatever it might be so i i have a little game for you that i want to play before we get to uh love to see it hate to see it but uh i i've been thinking about feelings lately you know i have a lot i have a lot of feelings when it comes to football uh mostly watching it i i like it feel good uh so i'm going gonna ask you about a person and you tell me

what you think they're feeling right now okay and then you can ask me about somebody and i'll tell you what i think they're feeling you understand the game i get it okay i'm with what do you think justin jefferson's feeling right now frustration a lot of frustration you know i think for multiple fronts one he knows he's the best receiver in football and he knows that at any time and any given Sunday, he can go have a 200 catch a 200 yard type of game frustrated about getting hurt. And then also frustrated about like,

I'm trying to get paid as much as humanly possible. And you don't even know who's throwing me the football, right? Like, I think there's a lot of frustration and Jefferson and what he's going through and what this year was for him because i think he had high aspirations of breaking records and all that stuff and so you compound the injury with the quarterback situation i think he is just wildly frustrated i agree and you could see it in his body language and once everybody calms down after the season and once there are

pieces of paper slid across tables with gigantic numbers on it and once he is assured of what their plan is a quarterback i think that he will feel better i imagined justin jefferson on his couch last night like the dicaprio jiff where he's like with mich Penning, that, that, that man right there that throws that football downfield, I can be Roma dunes and better. So, you know, I don't, I don't know how he feels about the quarterback situation. He's always going to show appreciation for Kirk cousins. I don't know how much influence he really has. I think that this plan was laid out years ago when they hired these guys now two years ago and they have told jefferson what the plan is and he's got a sense for it but whether they stick

with it i don't know because when they laid out a three-year time horizon and then didn't extend the quarterback i think i have a good idea what the three-year time horizon was but i don't know what it will be and if they'll stay to it. Who do you want me to talk about how they're feeling? Talk to me about Alexander Madison. How's Alexander Madison feeling right now? You know what? I'm feeling like I missed my shot is probably how I'm feeling as Alexander Madison. Because as a philosopher from Detroit once said, you get one shot, one opportunity for everything you ever wanted. And he didn't, he didn't capture it in the same way that maybe B rabbit did in the rap battle. But, you know, I think if you're Madison, what he's shown this throughout his career is that he could play in the league and he could be a good guy on a team

that everyone's going to like, and everyone's going to care about. But the things that we thought would translate from a part-time player to a full-time player are different. And this goes for lots of dudes. Like, I mean, for example, the longer Caleb Evans was out on the field, the more it became obvious that this is a guy who could play in the league, but I'm not sure he's a guy who you want playing a thousand snaps. And Rick Spielman used to have color coding for this because of course he did. It was like a blue player and a red player and a maroon green player or something. And the blue player was, this is a guy who plays a thousand snaps, plays the whole season. It's going to be either a really good player or a star.

And then there was like this other category of, hey, we trust this guy. We like him. Call it the Dakota Dozier. If you need a Dakota Dozier for four to six games in a season, you could survive those. You need him for 16. Oh my God. Like, this is not going to be good. So I think that Madison belongs in that category that he should be on the

team and he should be happy. He got his contract when he did, but he's going to be part of a duo at best. I really think Ty Chandler is the running back and they need to bring in another guy, draft another guy, bring in another guy in free agency because it's, it's just not,

you didn't get RB one. And one of the benefits of 2023 and moving on from delvin cook who got cut today by the way um was to find out and so even though i i've deviated from the question about how he's feeling he's probably not feeling good at all uh but you found out that you didn't have rb1 there and then you have to act accordingly i think the same thing about a number of things uh if tell me how you think quasi adafa mentz is feeling right now i think he's actually feeling okay you know i think obviously the year didn't go where he wanted it to be but i think i think enough things happened this year that give him hopeful optimism about the future for some of

the people on this roster but i think also like you said enough stuff revealed itself through natural consequences of guys having to play a lot of understanding who he feels he can trim some of the fat around and i think as a guy that's very analytic driven very numbers driven he's going to have a chance to look at a lot of this stuff and go okay where do we pick what do we need where do we allocate our resources and who do we keep who do we don't? And I think as far as from a pure managerial standpoint, I'm not talking about the win-loss record,

but if you're talking about just a true GM taking your hat off and looking at this team and this roster from a pure potentials and what's on it, I think he's feeling pretty good right now. I think he knows that he has front burner and back burner issues. Front burner is obviously Justin Jefferson's contract. Who are we going to get a quarterback? That type of thing. And then back burner is kind of like you said, who are those maroon to green guys that we want now with what this roster has and where it is compared to some of the look around the teams that are complete messes around the NFL. I think he's in a really good spot and I think he knows it. And I think he's excited about where we're at. I think that he was, is probably thinking to himself, this is what I thought would happen, but not this way. Like I didn't think Kirk would get heard or I didn't say whatever,

but I thought we would be seven and nine going into the last. I didn't think Kirk would get hurt or I didn't say whatever, but I thought we would be seven and nine going into the last. I didn't think that Brian Flores would do as much as he did or whatever, but I didn't think that we were going to be a team that competed for a Super Bowl this year. And whatever plan that he came up with going into the off season, he's probably still looking at that going, yeah, okay. And there was a lot of good outcomes for for him as well including two draft picks that actually turned out really great from this year's draft and an undrafted free agent uh i mean you got three legit players mckay blackman to play and you have a star ish we'll see where it goes from here in jordan addison but at very least a quality quality receiver and a absolute long-term starter in Ivan Pace Jr. You feel

really good about what you did in that draft. And you also are probably a little bit daunted by the number of things that you're going to have to decide on. And here's where I wonder, for his feelings, it entirely depends on his boss. Because if his boss says, this is your show, you do what you're supposed to do here, what we laid out at the beginning, he probably feels great. If his boss says, you know what? I know that you said, but now I've seen Nick Mullins play. And now I think then that might change. But they did not force an extension on Kweisi Adafomensa for Kirk last offseason.

So that kind of makes me wonder. Give me one more and then we'll do a quick love to see and hate to see it. How do you feel if you're Brian Flores? Where are you at? I thought you were going to ask me Kirk. Can I give you Kirk and then Brian Flores? I'll do Kirk. Yeah, let's do Kirk.

Oh, you do Kirk. Okay, I'll do Brian Flores. No, no, you do Kirk. I want to hear your Kirk. I want to hear your Kirk. So how does Kirk Cousins, number eight, how does Kirk Cousins feel? Appreciate it. That's how i feel i feel

kirk cousins i think his whole life has thought that people don't like him and most people i've ever talked to do like him but i think he's always thought people didn't like him and he maybe didn't like his personality didn't always feel comfortable totally because in an nfl locker, there's a lot of really baller ass dudes who wear expensive chains and come from South Florida. And they're just a little different than Kirk. And I think over the last year, after they embraced that about him last year in the locker room and then the Netflix documentary and everybody liked it and they liked how he came across and then he was playing well and his coach was talking about how much he likes him i think he felt really like good about who he

was and how he operates as a quarterback and then he gets hurt and then everyone stinks after that and so and then everyone's talking about man kirk was really good wasn't he and he's like oh yeah yeah he is yeah that's right kirk is good and uh so him going up and taking off his shirt and doing that whole thing, it felt like a man who's never felt better about himself. And also, I would also be looking around the league and talking to my agent and I would say, hey, Mikey, how are we looking out there? How are you feeling about that market? Well, we got Atlanta, we got Pittsburgh, we got there. Oh, I'm feeling good about my prospects as well, whether it's the Vikings or where it's anybody else. So I think he's never felt better. I would agree. I'd agree. I think that someone's going to pay him a bunch of money next year. Might be the Vikings. It might not, but I do think someone's going to pay him a high dollar

amount to come be their starting quarterback next year. I think so. So how's Brian Flores feeling? Feeling a little let down over the last couple weeks, maybe? Yeah, you know, I was going to say, I feel like he's probably the most disappointed. You know, I think he knew that he was getting everything out that he could out of this defense, and he was doing a great job, and he's starting to feel the sand fall through his fingertips.

Right? Like, he had it. It was right there, and he knew eventually it was going to come down to where, and I think he was like, I just needed two more weeks. I needed two more weeks. I also think he's thinking, I did enough in this league. I'll be able to truly

know if I'm getting blackballed by the NFL or not or if I can go be a head coach again. I think he proved that he has the capacity to be a head coach in this league again. I also don't know if maybe he loves Minnesota and he wants to stay or whatever it might be. I think he feels like he has options which is good um but i also know that he's probably the most disappointed on that team because he felt like he had built something of a culture

on that defense that just hasn't lived up to it the last couple weeks yep 90 points in the last three weeks uh against brian flores so he probably felt like it was kind of right there and all the hype was going his way and then i don't know ended, but still, if they finish in the top 15 defense, he's got a pretty good case. And I think that, I think what people always remember is kind of like the general vibe of stuff and not the specifics. So the general vibe was Flores did an amazing job with this defense and the, the ending, I don't think will influence it a ton. What will influence it is, is there an owner who's going to decide

that that's what he's going to do? Very, very quick. If you have anything for love to see it, hate to see it. We kind of talked about loving to see the college games last night. So what do you got? Yeah, my hate to see it is Mr. Tepper. Mr. Tepper, you cannot throw things at the fans.

I don't know if they miss this in business school or where you came from, Mr. Tepper, you cannot throw things at the fans. I don't know if they miss this in business school or where you came from, but you can't be in the owner's box and throw things at the people that pay to come watch your team. Bad look. Bad look all around. It is. You know what? And I tweeted that Ziggy should have thrown a walleye at somebody when he was uh you know just david tepper throw drink i mean i think i just just hate to see it is to go

along with that is just bryce young is now saddled with that for at least the next four years of his life and we talk about it all the time about the situation that you land into and how it influences your career. I mean, it couldn't be any clearer with that, how much it influenced the career. My hate to see it is the new England Patriots for a really long time had Tom Brady and they were wonderful and they won all the time and they had the Patriot way and everyone was a genius and they're going to get another damn good quarterback. Aren't they? Aren't they?'t they they're not even gonna pay for this they're gonna keep getting away with this because they're gonna draft Jalen

Daniels and then Belichick's gonna retire or go into a consulting role with the defense or something and they're gonna hire Ben Johnson he's gonna come in he's gonna run a bunch of bootlegs and the Drake May or something is to throw for 5 000 yards and the patriots are going to go right back to the top of the division and it's just going to be miserable for another decade that's how you could tell where i came from in buffalo because that's that's what i think is going to happen the old inner bill and you is just beating that heart just beating that heart going right there um i also there um okay sorry go ahead go ahead i say my love to see it is i think people are finally coming around on cooling down on caleb williams i think with the fact that that usc quarterback walked in and

threw for six quarterbacks with six touchdowns everyone's like wait is is caleb really that good or is lincoln riley just a pretty damn good schemer right back to kyler back to baker back to caleb like i think people might be starting to see caleb for less of a generational type talent and maybe just a really good quarterback right and there's nothing wrong with that but i just i was so sick of hearing about how this guy was the next coming like i just i couldn't handle it anymore i think anytime the next mahomes it it throws me back to when i just show my age constantly uh michael jordan was playing yeah which was very long ago but every player that came after this guy's the next jordan

this guy's the next jordan it's like i don't know about that and the same thing with any tall quarterback who processed well in college this guy's just just like Manning. No, no, no, he's not. That's one of the all-time freakiest human beings to ever pick up a football. So probably not. And I think with Caleb Williams, we were just talking about penance and handling the pressure. I think Williams did a bad job of handling the pressure this year. I think he tried to look like my homes on every play he could. And the big disturbing thing, and I took this away from those old Gruden camps, I was watching his receivers, and Caleb Williams' receivers would be like, bro, what? I'm right here.

And the receivers, they are sheeple. They do what the quarterback is telling them to do in the right situation, right? I do job. I run route. I i get open and when they start to get their their that's the funny thing is that they're thought of as like divas or something i think of as much more of sort of like receiver bots they just like you plug in where they're supposed to go and they're like here i go and if you aren't getting them the football they'll be confused like what what huh what happened and there was a way too much of that and then yeah it's a bad look for some dude to come off the bench and be like, Oh, actually my receivers are wide open. If I stay in

the pocket and throw it, I have heard that there are people already that do have Drake May at the top. So there's going to be a lot more evaluation to be done. The only thing I was going to add is hate to see it, Sean Payton. And that's both sarcastic and serious. I mean, no one is more disliked people even like Joe Buck. Now I was walking into the stadium and I saw a dude that had a jacket that said dig sideline. Unbelievable. So Joe Buck has been forgiven in Minnesota and number one hated most person from Vikings fans is Sean Payton. So sarcastically, I'm sure for Vikings fans hate to see that that guy is in the middle of this. But it is absolute horse bleep that you can threaten a player to be sat down over not giving up his injury guarantees. What do we even negotiate a contract for if we can do that? That needs to be changed, investigated, whatever. That conversation that happened with Russell Wilson wilson and the denver broncos

that is it's messed up and the way that uh sean payton treated him this year was completely wrong and honestly the guy played pretty well he won a lot of games for them they did not have a good team they didn't have great coaching i think from sean payton and maybe just just maybe that drew breeze guy had a little bit to do with his success. I don't know. Maybe. Possibly. So, hate to see him being a bully pushing the edges of the rules. Not that that would ever happen before. Yeah, the PA is going to take him to the cleaners. They have the NFL and the PA behind him.

He's toast. Like, this is going to – and the sad thing is it's going to hurt the team. Like, he's going to get in trouble, and it's going to hurt taking something away from the team, which is the saddest part about it. He'll get a fine, but whatever. They take away draft picks or practice time or whatever it may be. That's going to eventually be what ends up hurting the organization over him.

Very poorly handled. I thought Russ actually has handled it very well. Definitely handled it better than I would have as a player. I'd have been burning the building down and hanging everyone's dirty laundry out to dry, but I think he's handled it better than i would have as a player like i'd have been burning the building down and hanging everyone's dirty laundry out to dry but you know i think he's handled it in a very professional manner because he still knows he's got football in front of him to still play all right next week you and i will get together and we will break down every single play of vikings lions one by one on the show i don't care how long it takes that we're here for nothing

else will be discussed about the offseason uh i'm just kidding but we are in we're in offseason mode unless something insane happens and then i'll be flying somewhere for a football game but uh i appreciate you jeremiah we'll continue to go through the playoffs yep so we are going absolutely nowhere and then you know if they bring in harbaugh for an interviewer again or something uh we might have to do another mock press conference like we did. One of the highest downloaded episodes ever. We did a mock press conference for Jim Harbaugh being hired. And then five hours later, they hired someone else.

Classic. Power for the course. Power for the course. Exactly. Thanks for your time, man. And we'll talk soon. Later.