Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles is seeing legit progress from McCarthy (and KOC?)

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

Former Vikings lineman Jeremiah Sirles joins the show to discuss J.J. McCarthy's big game against the Cowboys and what it signals for his development, as well as Kevin O'Connell's offense. Then Maggie Robinson joins the show for our weekly Robinson Roundup. 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 Fanduel, Matthew Collar here. And it is time, once again, for Tuesday morning left guard with Jeremiah Searles, who is on the hunt for the next Nebraska quarterback after Dylan Ryola decided he was going to leave. Also, maybe going online and ordering a Buffalo Bill's Super Bowl championship banner as a, as a, as a, as a, former Bill. What a day this week for National Football League Football A. And we have progress from J.J. McCarthy. So why don't we begin there, Mr. Searles? We have, you know, gone on the ride here of a good training camp, a good start to the season, stops, starts, injuries, bad performances, good performances. So where are we now after back to back quality showings from J.J. McCarthy.

It's exactly what we asked to see out of him. And so I'm not going to sit here and be like, oh, it's just a Dallas terrible defense. Because, yes, Dallas's defense is terrible. But he showed that he can beat up on a terrible defense. And that's a step in the right direction. Right. That's a step we asked, hey, be simpler, execute more, go out there, play, have fun, be energy, right? Be the lightning rod.

And you're seeing all that from him. And so it was steps in the right direction. And do I think that this changes and erases, we, 0 through 12? No, but it shows progress. And that's what we were asking when we did to play the game last week of what happens if. Well, this was a step of, hey, we've now won one, right? We got one in the book. We've got two really good weeks. Now let's keep progressing. West Phillips, KOC, put more on his plate, right? Force feed him now. Push the issue. Let's continue to push the fold and see how much we can squeeze out of these next few games before the end

of this season and see really what we're working with. But I can't, I can't say any negative about the kid besides he'd get out there and he played there was some turnover worthy plays in there that he's going to want to look at and clean up but he executed and he led his team to a big time victory on the road so what have you seen from the offense the last two weeks because this is when we talk about contextualizing it's not just take the box score compare it to how bad the defenses are and say well you know this was another horrible game for the cowboys defense so that helped j jay a lot but there has been a lot of discussion about the changes that Kevin O'Connell talked about making.

I don't see schematically like O'Connell going, scrap the offense, it's all different. Like that Jordan Addison, 58-yard catch, I mean, they've used that concept in every single game. Some version of it would dress up differently every single game. The one that's like you're talking about had a nice detail like the, I think you're talking about like turnover worthy being the nailer throw, which Nailer has to make a great play on it,

but maybe the corner has an angle. But that's another, like, really well designed play. But it's a, it's a bootleg that O'Connell uses a deep over and, you know, somebody going to the corner. So, like, these aren't crazy changes that I feel like they've made. Yet he does seem more comfortable running this. Yeah, you know, I think if I'm KOC, I basically just had to lip us to the end of the season. And I don't think this is going to be a huge paradigm shift in his offense.

and we're going to come out in 2026, and we're going to live in 12 and 13 and 21, and that's going to be who we are now. I think this was, hey, obviously it didn't work out. We got to get, we got to get JJ to the end of the season. We got to get him some confidence. We got to see some things from him in the progression of the right way. And let's build him up in the realm in which he's comfortable before I make him uncomfortable because playing quarterback in the NFL is uncomfortable.

And you're going to play. And if you want to go to the heights that you want to reach, which is a Super Bowl winning franchise, you have to learn to play uncomfortable and to do things that you have to develop and work and go through. But the thing I can respect about KOC is we're still seeing a lot of the crazy mechanics from JJ. We're seeing a lot of the not sound mechanics, that piece there. But you can really tell when KOC said, I just said, we'll fix that later, go do your thing, that JJ's bought into that. And KOC's bought into that. And he understands the risks that come with that, but you're seeing the rewards that also come with it. High velocities on the ball,

playing fast, playing free, not thinking set feet, turn hips, throw football, like, it's not robotic. It's what he's used to. It's what he does. And you're going to know that, hey, at one time he's going to sail a ball or it's not going to be as pretty as it needs to be for the future. But at least we're working with that now. And he's believing now himself, I can do this. And I don't know if he ever didn't believe that from a standpoint of like, I don't know if I can do this. But there is doubt that lives in every professional's mind of, am I good enough to do this?

And with the performances that he had leading up to that, that doubt could have crept in more and more. And I think what's happened in the last two games is he silenced some of that doubt in his own mind. Hey, I can beat NFL teams on the road. I can beat. I can produce. I can do all the things I need to do. Now just becomes the development from a player from a professional player position of doing,

okay, that was this. Still not good enough. I have to take the next step going into next year. So I see a lot of the KOC coaching points coming to life in the last couple of games from what we've heard. over the entire season. I think him saying, don't worry too much about the mechanics was more or less a,

we've already come this far with our mechanical work. And over the last four games, we're probably not going to be able to just fix this in practice. So let's work with it. I also think maybe it was KOC telling himself a little bit that conceptually try to work to this guy throwing the ball really hard. And what we saw a lot was, I think he was four for six on balls that traveled over 20 yards.

I feel like we've seen a lot of footballs, just a lot of route concepts that really work to, hey, this guy just rips the ball. Like that scene pass to T.J. Hawkinson, that's one where every quarterback in the league gets to be like, all right, okay, I'm going to let this one go. You're not throwing a little floating touch pass in there. You're going, yeah, and you're letting it go in between, you know, the linebacker and the safety. and they've done that the last couple of weeks with those. Some of those deep overs and things like that,

those are a little more fit to what he was doing in Michigan. We even saw a couple of slants from Justin Jefferson, right? And I don't think that the NFL necessarily loves running a bunch of slants like college where you can just have this huge field and the defenders aren't as quick. The windows are so tight. The linebackers are so good when they're not playing for the Dallas Cowboys. But mixing it in here or there. because that's kind of one of his passes.

I think that they've done a lot of that stuff, but I also think that I saw them doing this stuff against Chicago and Green Bay, and it wasn't really working as well because those defenses are just a lot better than these two. So we can, I think, evaluate this in two different worlds and have it all be true, where we're over in one world saying, yeah, it was those defenses that made this stuff work. And then also say, I think that he has clicked in with some things that are fit, for JJ at this moment. 100%. Both things are 100% true and both things will come to light, right?

Hey, we play better defenses. Those things become harder to do. The easy things become harder to do against better defenses, right? The easy things, the play actions, the bootlegs, consistently being able to run the football, like those things are easy against poor defenses. And that's what you're supposed to do when you're a good football team. And people viewed the Vikings in August as a good football team. They still have the same personnel.

so there's still pieces that you're like this is still the building piece of a good football team when you start to play the packers and you start to play the seattle's of the world the good things become and the easy things become exponentially harder and that's where you have to be able to go okay we can't rely on this anymore shift pivot now i got to throw the football down the field because they've taken that away we haven't seen that in the last couple weeks because we have played lesser defenses in the NFL i mean bottom three defenses in the NFL that's just reality of the situation, not taking anything away from what JJ did, but you can't just ignore that fact. You have to look at that.

Okay, what happens when he can't and the defense takes away the things that we're comfortable with? How can he adapt? How can he pivot? And that's part of the growth of a young quarterback. And so seeing him be able to click in and make and do the easy things, make them at times look easy, that's signs in the right direction. And I think it's a fallacy to believe that we'll be able to do this every single week of what we want to do. Like, you have to be more complex than this. And so I applaud him for what he's doing and JJ and KOC, but I'm also excited to see what he pushes forward and what more we can squeeze out of JJ McCarthy. But there are things that he's done in the last two weeks that both you and I for a long time, maybe just because

of the timing of things. Like your best offense that you played on was 2017. That was my second year covering the NFL. And so I watched Pat Schumer put a couple tight ends on the field. Here comes David Morgan. I watch, you know, it was, CJ must have been, right? I think he must have been. Yeah. It was the hammer time, baby. Right. So you're, you're using a lot of CJ. You're using a run game that even when it wasn't really popping, Pat Schumer would stick with at the request of his head coach who really enjoyed watching three yard runs. But what Mike would always talk about, though, was that those will either eventually pop or they will set up the passing game. And in this game, to me, it's even more.

impressive from KOC's standpoint that they only averaged between their two running backs, three yards per carry. And yet you saw the impact of that their concern where they're running certain play actions and those linebackers are coming up. They're running Jordan Mason. That guy can run us over or they're running Aaron Jones. He can break out a big run. And they were respecting that run game.

I think that that's something that really over, you know, this whole section of five games, there has to be some of KOC himself. saying what worked with J.J. McCarthy because 90% chance as of this moment, JJ is your starting quarterback week one next year. And I think sticking with the run, even if it's frustrating you and the most annoying thing, I'm sure for a play callers to be like second and 10, all right, we're going to hand it off here. We're going to get four. And then the other seven, baby. And the other team gets to do whatever they want on third down. And that's why it's a little easier to do against Dallas, but I also think that if your tendencies are so clear that

you're always going to, you know, pass on second down or something that opponents can figure that stuff out. And the use of the big personnel, the 13, the 21, like, these are things that a lot of teams are shifting to because of the amount of freaks and the amount of, you know, deception on the other side with the pass rushes. So I do think some of this is travelable down the road for him and J.J. McCarthy. Yeah, I mean, look at what Buffalo did to the Patriots this week. They had 12, 13. They had more tight ends on the field. I think more than they had receivers on the field. And it just, it strains defense. And let's get real footbally here for a second, Matthew. Do you know why teams love 12 personnel? Do you know why an offense if he could

live in 12 personnel would do it all the live long day? Well, I mean, I'll let you answer, but I would say that it certainly helps with the blocking, uh, where you can do a lot of different things, but I'll let you explain it. It's the schematic pretzel that you put on the defense because if you have good tight ends, and I mean good tight ends,

Dalton Knox, Dalton Kincaid, good tight ends, 12 personnel, you then force the defense's hand, do I play base, do I play nickel? Sure. Right? And because if I play base, because those guys can run over the little nickel defender in the run game,

right, then I'm putting myself at a disadvantage of, as a play caller like i can't do that they're just going to run at that small guy and so great okay well i better play i better play um base put that extra linebacker in there stop the run well then you go okay well now i have a pass catching tight end that's a mismatch on a linebacker and so if you can find two great tight ends and it's why you see a lot of teams looking for that 12 personnel why tucker craft and luke musgraves were so good together and with how the packers it's why cole commit and colston loveland right it creates this defensive decision that they almost can never be right because it's you go up there and once that goes back into the check with me system from the

quarterback's play of hey you walk up oh base base base hey x dino y spot right oh they're a nickel hey 96 boss like you can just start to check and go and so you're seeing more of that from the nfl lately and then you're even seeing more of the 12 muscle of putting the extra alignment in there to everything you said. The DNs are freakier and they want to just rush the passer. And so body blows on them for three yards matters in the fourth quarter. And so I agree with you. I think Kevin O'Connell looks around the league and sees that too and he's going to implement that more and more. And it just so happens to play to the strength of JJ McCarthy. And that's a plus. And so if you can start to sprinkle that in and say, okay, this is also going to become a bigger

wrinkle in our offense. But at the end of the day, we all know it. There's no doubt in our minds. The deep, cool passing game will be a piece of Kevin O'Connell's office. It just matters what has a bigger percentage of the pie. But if you're talking about like a very fundamental Stafansky Kubiak and what Shermer was running with you guys, it was, you know, you're talking about getting into those situations where the quarterback can pretty much check down or take a shot. And you build up to those shots. You build them up through a lot of running the football, a lot of underneath stuff and then

get the defense, kind of leaning forward, look for those right opportunities and then go down the field and you're not seeing quite as much of what Kevin O'Connell is really done, which is lived in the intermediate. But living in the intermediate is hard because that's where linebackers are dropping back into their zones and safeties are dropping back into their zones and you're trying to find spaces in between them. And that's why it's so hard to throw to Justin Jefferson in this type of situation and with this quarterback is because that's the most complicated area of the field.

And a lot of the Stefanski and Kubiak stuff is to kind of. get those shots up over the top and if it's not there then you're checking it down to a tight end and just completion and move on and that kind of thing. That's just not who Kevin O'Connell has wanted to be and now it feels like we've seen him

and this is really more of a second half of the season thing because he was still running his offense with Carson Wentz and in some of the games it was really working quite well with Carson Wentz to throw those intermediate and anticipation throws into windows because he's 33 and or however

old he is, and he's been doing that for a long time. And to your point about the tight ends, the blocking advantage against nickel is enormous, but also the blocking advantage against a five-man front is pretty big, as opposed to five-on-five, and you're sending out three wide receivers and then praying that nobody loses up front, getting all that help as well, off the edges, get a Josh Oliver helping. And then, you know, I think it messes with team's brains. Josh Oliver on one of these plays lined up as a wide receiver outside the numbers. And whoever went to guard him had to be like, what the heck are you doing out here? But somebody's got to be out there because he can make a play.

So leaning into some of these big guys that are talented, I think has helped them quite a bit. But here's the question. It all ties back into, is this now going to be who you are going into the future? Or are you going to say, all right, that was great. great, and that's a nice club in the bag, but we can't just do that all the time because there's this fellow we pay $35 million a year to drive our offense, and we need him to be driving our offense. I think both can be true.

I think, you know, we got caught in the middle and Kevin O'Connor got caught in the middle this year of we installed an offense for Justin Jefferson for him to go. I had to tailor an offense to J.J. McCarthy. I don't think I can do both in the middle of the year. I don't think I can just flip everything. It is possible to do both, a la laud the Detroit Lions, right? Amun Ross St. Brown is a focal point of that offense.

And it's a run-first, big personnel type offense. And so there are ways to do that, but that then requires you to practice those things and to be in timing and rhythm with those things, and there's just not enough hours in the day during the season. And so if this is the direction where we go, okay, love you, Justin, think we have to get you more involved, but we can't do it in the way that we're used to doing it.

You're going to have to change the way that you're thinking about this. It's not going to be 80 yards over the top anymore. It's going to be a 10-yard screen, but we've ran everybody out there, and now you're on your own with yards after the catch. It's going to be tunnel screens. It's going to be different ways to get you the football than you're used to, but I think you can make both work.

And I think there's a way for harmony to have both sides. and if I'm Kevin O'Connell, I'm going to lean more towards the way I need to tailor it for my quarterback than I am for my star receiver. So in theory, I like what you're saying. But if there's something Justin Jefferson's not that great at. It's yak. It's yak. And this is where like an Amin Ra is so special.

And just to make the point about the middle of the field and the intermediate throws, Jared Goff this year in the center of the field, an intermediate between 10. and 20 yards has a 144.7 quarterback rating. If you can attack that, and that's over, that's over 58 passes into that area. If you can attack that, you can win a lot in the NFL because most teams are trying to just be at the edges. And that's something that McCarthy, he's only thrown in these games, 16 passes in the same area.

So he's not getting a lot of throws into that space that quarterbacks for the Vikings, with Justin Jefferson have generally had most of their success running daggers and stuff, clearing out with one guy and he ducks in underneath it. I also think he is so incredibly fast out of his breaks that timing that up is not always the easiest thing in the world. Like I know that, you know, Carson Wentz was able to do it. So maybe it's not the hardest thing in the world either. But when things are moving fast in terms of defenses flashing different stuff and pass rush is coming, there's even a play where he misses that Jefferson comes out of his break. He's running a crosser and he should just release the ball. But he hitches one more time just to make sure he's

really that open. And then he fires it and it flies high. It's like the timing is really important here. And you could make a case that, hey, if they have a training camp together and they grow together a little bit, that you could get some of this stuff down. Because that's, that to me is your only hope here. I don't think throwing screens and slants is to this guy. This guy's here to average 15 yards to catch. Like that needs to be happening for this offense to work, I think. Yeah, no, you definitely have to have him more involved than he was this whole year. This can't happen again, right? This cannot even remotely come close to happening again is the lack of involvement that Justin Jefferson has in this offense. I just think it's not going to be able to ever be what we

saw before. It's never going to be what we saw with Kirk. It's never going to be what we saw with Sam Darnold even. And I'm not saying that that's a, that's not a, I don't take that as a like a shot to J.J. McCarthy. Like, don't take that as like two shots to the head. He's dead. It's just a reality of where we're at. We can't think that all of a sudden this offseason, everything's going to click, everything's going to change, and JJ is going to be just fine running the old offense. It's going to be a progression. And so if you're going to be a progression and you're going to say, hey, I need to tailor this to help J.J. McCarthy. Justin Jefferson has to be involved. You're going to have to ask him to do things that he hasn't done before. And that's

why he makes $35 million and he's on a rookie scale deal. And it might lead to some friction and some controversy early. But what's the alternative? You go back to what we asked you to do and it's a disaster and the team suffers or team wins. You're not as thrilled as your role ever was, but we're winning. You're getting catches. You're eight for 92 and a touchdown. I think Jefferson will have to work with that, but I just don't anticipate in the near future. I'm not saying in 27, 28. I'm just not anticipating in the near future,

even those last few games, that it's going to all of a sudden just revert back and we're going to see the old Jeffers Jefferson of old doing the stuff that he did because the quarterback plays just not there with J.J. McCarthy yet. Right. And it might someday get there with McCarthy, but this is the hard thing about working on two different timelines. Because I've seen enough for McCarthy to think

that you should go forward with this into next year because I also think that the alternative of getting somebody else who's not that great is just not going to get the job done. Like you can have average quarterback play with Bo Nix and win a lot if your defense is good. The Viking special teams has kept them in a lot of games. It's like, you know, there's, hey, they had this one bad play or that bad play. And those were costly for sure in Green Bay against Chicago. the way these specialists are playing, best punting, best kicking in the league.

Like they've got, they've got a lot to work with going forward, a lot of defensive talent to work with going forward. And I think we talked about this. My number was 11th. Like if he played the 11th best quarterback in the league this year, they would have a really good chance to compete. Well, obviously, they didn't even come close to that.

But I would still hold that for next year. Who's the 11th best, the 11th best quarterback in the league right now is, well, it's Mack Jones by PFF, who had his team winning games. Jared Gough is 10, who's obviously great. Bo Nix is 13. Caleb Williams is 14.

Daniel Jones 15. C.J. Stroud, 16. So, I mean, you could even say 15th. Yeah, you could make that argument and say he needs to be the 15th best quarterback of the NFL next, which is what we said. Just don't crash the car. Because the 15th best quarterback is just cruising. He's just cruise control, lane assist, right?

Like he's got the blue cruise, so it'll stop his. Does he come up too close to the car? Like, if he can just be 15th, this team is talented enough to be really good. Can he get there is the question? And my question for you then is if that's your belief, because I think it's probably got a little, maybe it's nitpicking. It's got to be a little better than that, I think, in this division. Because Caleb, I would assume, is going to continue to ascend as he grows more confident.

and Jared Goff's still going to be great. And Jordan Love, I mean, you want to know, Vikings fans don't want to know who's number two by PFF in the entire NFL and PFF grade. I'll tell you anyway, it's Jordan Love. So he's likely not going anywhere as a top quarterback. It's going to be hard to compete, even if you have someone who's 17th or something like that. I think it's got to be a level higher than that to win against these teams and win a division. So, yes, don't crash the car.

But you also have to drive success. And I do think against Dallas, that was the first time that I felt like he drove the success of the team. And that's what I have to see more on a week to week basis to believe that this is going to go anywhere. But I also think, and you can tell me where you stand on it, that if you go a different direction, you're basically punting McCarthy out the window. All right, there's a top 10 draft pick. Also, the salary cap stuff that you set up for years to work right within this space, you might have to pay somebody else.

I guess you could trade for Mack Jones, but that hurts your draft cap. Like none of these options outside of somehow getting Joe Burrow, to me, sound like a good idea versus staying on this road. No, and I agree. You've got to stay on this road. But the thing is you have to bring in an insurance policy. These last two games don't swayed me off of that point. Yeah. They don't swayed me off of the, oh, well, maybe we can just live with the old undrafted free agent in here is the backup quarterback. It just you can't in full heartiness say, I can't bring in a backup that will push him that I know can operate the system that whatever system we put in, whether it's a hybrid of what I like to do, my Jay likes to do, you have to build that within the security blanket, which you can do still under the security cap. You mean, you're not going to pay a guy 10 million like Sam Darnold to come in, but you're going to have to bind a backup quarterback in that 5 to 7, 8 million range, which still sucks and you're owed 20 million over the cap and you've got a lot of decisions you have to make, like, and that's still a really crappy place to be. but that's probably a reality where you have to at least put some allocation of those resources, but you're 100% right.

You can't just punt on J.J. McCarthy based off of how your team structure is set up from a cat perspective. What did you see from the offensive line in this game, my friend? Because this was another strong performance overall from the gentleman up front. Yeah, they're getting better. I think it's weird because you kind of forget, but Kelly being in there calms the ship. right and I'm glad and I'm knocking on wood I don't need him to get another concussion and get hurt again and it's a little scary every time you see him out there in that

wonderful guardian cap but at the same time you can just tell the communication the calmness the conversations everyone's lined up and when you can be calm and you can know that everyone knows what they're doing and you're there you can then just focus on I got to worry about werewolf number one across from me and that's what I'm seeing from this offensive line is there's no confusion. Everyone knows their job. Everyone knows where they need to be. And then that allows them to execute faster.

And I do believe that the lynchpin and all of that is Ryan Kelly being back. I totally agree. And, yeah, I mean, every conversation has to shift to next year. But it has to. This year's over. Right. Yeah, exactly. You'd love to have him back.

And you know that, you know that Blake Randall can play center. And you can be in games and win them with Blake Brandel. And maybe this time you'll practice with Blake Brandel as opposed to having Michael Juergens through all of training camp be center two. And then you're like, oh, no, now it's Blake Brandel. Jurgens did get hurt and that sort of force their hand. But he can build on being a center. This guy brings so much value to the offense and to the rest of the offensive linemen. I've always thought this that there are probably five guys in the league.

any given time through history at center that move the needle and they are worth their weight in gold like that's one of the most valuable positions and players for a franchise if you have him this is also my Kent hall belongs in the Hall of Fame argument uh the center for the bills during the Jim Kelly era who you know never really got his credit because everybody else but like that guy's running the entire operation Jeff Saturday. Absolutely right like Peyton Manning is not who Peyton Manning is without Jeff Saturday. Philip Rivers is not who Philip Rivers is without Nick Hardwick. You go back and you look at some of the great quarterbacks that have ever played the game,

they've all had their guy up front because it's just this cohesive relationship. You're basically one brain working together in that piece there. Like, I agree with you. A solid center, which you see, Creed Humphrey and Patrick Mahomes. Like, it is worth its weight in gold when you can know that the quarterback's not worried. Did we mic this right? Did we ID this right? Am I going to get killed off somewhere I think I'm protected?

Are we sliding somewhere that I think that I'm hot? Like that stuff matters in minute details that caused fractions of a seconds of hesitation that in the National Football League lead to sacks and disasters. And so I agree with you. And that's a part that Ryan Kelly has done. That's why they trade it. That's why they signed for Ryan Kelly. Well, the issue becomes does Ryan Kelly's wife look at him and be like, hey, that was fun.

But I don't want to see you not knowing your name. again when you're 55 years old. Like, I can't do that. And I would not fault him at all if he put the cleats up after this year. I would not either. And I think then it begins find your center, but I was looking at free agency. The Jets just signed, what's his name, Josh Myers? Josh Myers. It's not that good. And that just shows you how few of these guys there are, right? I mean, the Patriots, Garrett Bradbury's having an okay year in New England. And he made a block the other day that sprung a big run. And like, he can do that. But this is a team that cut Garrett Bradbury and someone else scooped him up right away and said,

you're a starter. Like there's just not very many dudes in the world that can do it. So if he doesn't come back, that becomes to me one of the biggest offseason questions. That is not a spot that you could just, oh, let's just have somebody snap the ball. Who cares who it is? There's a lot that goes into that when you have a younger quarterback. Is it too early for draft season? Because I've got a couple drafts.

I've got a couple draft centers that I'm already looking at that I'm like, maybe. It may. It is, it is not. Let me look at my, let me look at my mock draft simulator. Let me see who comes up for the first center. I don't know who they have. I would take the Texas A&M center. Okay.

Let me search by center. This is just, the Bsatis. Okay. Bizantis, Byzantis, Chase Byzantus. Okay, they've got them listed as a kind of like early third round pick for, which is a chase.

The top centers go in the second. second. Yeah. So probably have to adjust. Right, unless you're Tyler Linderbaum, unless you're like those dudes, even Creed Humphrey, my guy John Michael, who was the top center in the draft, those dudes go in the second. And so if you're the best center in the draft and a team needs a center, you draft him in the second round. That's just how it goes. Okay, there's like three guys that are kind of second roundish prospects. Connor Lou from Auburn. Coming off in ACL. Jake Slaughter from Florida is the other guy. Good player too. I think him and Chase are very similar in what they do. They're a little different size-wise, right? And so it

really depends what you're going to ask him to do. But yeah, Slaughter's really good. Conor Lou, I think, is amazing, but he's coming off in ACL mid-season. So that'll probably drop him down a little bit. Okay. Jake Slaughter, you have my attention. He allowed four total QB pressures this year. Yeah. And had an 86.7 grade against Georgia. We're mocking. We're mocking already. Actually, you know, but even if Ryan Kelly's playing another year, this is actually really good guy. You still draft one. You still draft one. Like even if you still draft your next guy and you go, Kelly, teach him in ways young, young Padawan. You go listen to your master and learn all the ways of Ryan Kelly. I love that. Speaking of which over these last three games, draft status will be determined for the Vikings. What else do you think? What else will be determined? And this could be roster. This could be coaching. This could be anywhere you want to take it.

because I am desperately on the hunt for other stuff. I'm trying to write article today of like everything to watch for over the last three games of the season. And it's like J.J. McCarthy and, and, and how close to the age cliff are our defensive veterans. Oh, sure. I think that's a big piece to look at this. We really win all in this year. And I mean that when you look at Jonathan Allen, Harrison Smith,

even Hargrave to an extent and you look at some of these guys that are flirting with the age cliffs, some of which are starting to tumble, some of which you see flashes of you're still up there and some of which you're going, is it next year? Because that's a big piece of this defense

of what you're looking at is there's a lot of youth and then there's a lot of old. And there's some in between, but I think, you know, if you're looking for next year already, you're going, okay, how close can we really push this? to where we're still feeling good about Allen and Hargrave and maybe even Harrison Smith, or did we waste this year? What was this year a waste for those veterans that we brought in and we got a lot out of them?

Is it fair to ask them to replicate that in 2026? Or are we worried that there's going to be not just a slight downgrade, but a disastrous shelf fall off? And I think that's something that I'm going to look at through these next three games is, hey, how did these dudes hold up these last three games? Are they showing signs of life that they're just going to, be fine and come back into it or his father time as he does catching up with all of us. I think even for players like that, we've probably already gone past go.

Like to me, I look at, well, Brian O'Neill. But, you know, I want Brian O'Neill and he will never do this. And if I said this to his face, he'd throw me in a garbage can and laugh at me. But like, I want him to not play. I think this guy's been playing through stuff all year long and battling. And finally it had to come out in the last game. but you wouldn't want him to have to go into the offseason with any sort of injury that's going to set him back. I kind of feel that about a lot of people, but we know that

Brian O'Neill is a beast and he's going to go play. Same with Christian Derisaw. Like, just shut it down. Like just put this away. Like, if he can't. Go to bed. If he can't, right? If he can't get through a week without swelling. And they're talking about, oh, it's a week-to-week plan. And why? You're out of the playoffs. You're eliminated. Put him in the hyperbaric chamber and wake him in April. Right. Like, hey. You're going to play in the metal lands. Like the worst turf in the National Football League? No way. Not worth it.

No, I agree with you. Like with those guys, save them. Save them like the guys that are really going to be there. But I think you need to also play some of the guys that you're worried about next year of like, what are we going to do? But it really doesn't matter because we're so cash heavy that they're not going anywhere anyways. Well, let's look at some of the players that they might have decisions on. Because we're what, 20 million over the cap, right?

Like isn't that where we're sitting going into 26-ish? They set it up to be able to readjust a lot of stuff. But, yeah. I mean, if they, if they had, you can see, it's pretty clear on paper when you look at the, our friends at over the cap. If you use the little restructure button, you're like, oh, I see what you were doing. Rob Brzynski, you know, so they'll, Rob is amazing. He's very good at his job. So they will find a way to get that cap space, but probably not going to go into the off season being able to be crazy spenders, no matter what. He's good at his job, but he, you know, the cap is real. But I'm talking about, like, you men. You know, somebody like Javon Hargrave. This year he's got, in terms of his, just his numbers, he's played 464 snaps, 67.4 PFF grade with 28 quarterback pressures, which is in the range of what you pay a guy at

that position, what he was paid. I think the expectations were a little bit higher. I think he got put on the field a lot for a lot of run plays that maybe they didn't expect this year because they thought that they would be chasing passers. I think versus expectations, that's okay. But he's just such an obvious place to make a lot of money, create a lot of space. And Jalen Redmond leading the entire team, he's leading the whole team BFF grade and has been probably their best defensive player. He might go to the Pro Bowl.

He should. Yeah. He's been fantastic. He's a Pro Bowl level player this year. He's been fantastic. Undrafted free agent three years ago. Crazy. It is crazy.

And he was in Carolina camp and they didn't keep him. And, you know, he ends up in the UFL. and now he's here. But the fact that he's emerged to be this good opens the door. I think the one, but still Hargrave like dollars to donuts, not bad. I think the one where they're going to look at it and go, that was one we should not have done is Jonathan Allen. He has a 49.2 pff grade.

He is one of the worst against the run in the league. He has 32 pressures, which is not what the expectation was when they brought him in. And yet that contract is more. restrictive than Jayvon Hargrave. So I don't know what they can really do with that. And he was coming off an injury to be to begin with. Yeah. Like he was hurt last year. And so it's, it's one of things like, oh, well, he's just got to get back into form. Like he had the injury. It's like, but he's old. And unfortunately, your body just breaks down over time unless your name's Daniel Hunter. Right. And you don't ever break down because you're a machine. It's just part of that thing. And so like,

that's the contract. That's the one contract that I was looking at going this, this could be a problem when we need to get some other pieces. But that is a very restrictive contract. Hats off to his agent. Nice work. That's what you're supposed to do. Yeah, no, for sure. He sold them on this idea and they bought it. But that was one from the very beginning where I was like, are you sure? Are you? Because it's risky. And I think that a lot of the moves that they made in the off season, they were a roll of the dice, a roll of the dice on Kelly, on Aaron Jones, on Jonathan Allen. And a lot of them or too many of them kind of came up snake eyes. Here's a decision they have to make on a player.

Eric Wilson has 31 pressures this year. And when did he even start rushing the passer? Let me look at this up. He didn't start playing to like week five, I feel like. He did not have his first three pressure game until week seven. Wow. And he has 31. And well, you talk about Eric Wilson because you played.

Did you play with Eric? Yeah, you played with Eric. when he first came in the league. A drafted free agent. Yeah. I'm going to look up where he ranks since week seven. But what do they do there? Like these are numbers of a guy you pay.

Yeah. And if you don't, someone else will. Yeah. Like in that and that's the piece of it. Like that's a guy where obviously you brought him as a depth of peace special team where that has turned into a dude. And similar to like what happened was Zach Bond in Philadelphia, right?

Guy comes in on a lower contract and also needs an all pro and you're like, hey, pay me my money. And that's what you're going to have to do to keep Eric Wilson because if you let him hit the free agent market. His number is going to be very high because he's shown that he's a green dot wearing every play playing linebacker in this league. Number one, tied with a guy from the Jaguars, Dennis Gardek, number one. I mean, in pressures since he started really taking over that starting role, him and Cashman are a great combination. That's the thing about this whole season that is so messing with your mind is when they got everybody on the field, And even though Alan has not lived up to expectations and maybe Hargrave is not what he used to be five years ago, when everybody's on the field, this thing is good.

I mean, you watch the way that they played with Dak Prescott. They pressured him. PFF had it at 55% of his dropbacks. Next gen 51. Either way, those are ludicrous numbers where usually it's like a 35, 30 to 35% pressure rate. They were all over him. And it's like you've been, you want to keep a lot of this together, I think. maybe add a corner. That's what I've got is a first round draft pick for them and maybe add, I don't know, something else on the D line or in the secondary, a safety if Harrison Smith hangs

it up. But it is a pretty darn good defense. Yeah, it's a great defense. I mean, it's a great places to want to build around and want to be a part of, but you're projecting a lot on can Eric Wilson, there's a reason he hasn't been paid yet. Can he replicate it? Right. Can he do it again? And that's the question you always have to ask with these guys, and the one hit, they did it one year ago, Ivan Pace, what happened to you? Right. Right. Like, that's the questions you have to ask yourself from a front office of do we pay this guy, do we not? In the same way, you have to keep betting on the come for a guy like Dallas Turner, right? Be like, he's got to take it, right? It's next year. He's got to take that step. It'll be this off season, right? Like, we saw

flashes. Like, you have to place bets accordingly. But I agree, you want to keep as much of the core that makes sense from a financial perspective that you can also brian flores right what happens with him there's going to be a lot of uh you're fired coming up in about three weeks a lot of head coaching vacancies are going to come available does he leave right who else stays like from a coaching there's macawan go and get an offensive coordinator role somewhere like there's a lot of it's just part of why i feel like and i don't know maybe this is too harsh this was a wasted year yeah there was so much potential and there was so many pieces laid that Vikings could win the Super Bowl on this first show that you and I did in 20 in August of 2025 we looked at each other and went they could

do it right the pieces are in play how does it happen and to then sit here at the end of year going no playoffs over the cap what a waste of a year and that's just how it feels from a fan's perspective of like man everything was laid out in front of us but now it almost feels like there's tiny pieces you got to blow up and start all over and that just leads to more uncertainty going into 26 They have painted themselves into a corner as well where 26 is really it. I mean, they can argue that it's, you know, 26, 27 because that's J.J. McCarthy's rookie contract. But with the group that they have now that on so many levels performed very well, I mean,

I think the offensive line when it was healthy or even four out of five healthy performed as a well above average is not really good offensive line when Derisaw was in there. And then on the defensive side, after some early struggles, which a good percentage had to do with just the fact they were losing all the time, but after some struggles stopping the run, they mostly figured that out. I mean, Dallas ran pretty well against them, but how many times have we said, man, they got steamrolled, like not many over the last number of weeks. And then they've legitimately given them chances to win games. I had the stat a couple of weeks ago, but just to update it, most of the time when you rank in the bottom three in team. quarterback rating, you win between two and four football games. To even have six speaks to how good your defense has been, how good your kicking's

been, some of your, at least the running game has been a lot better than it has been years past. So there's a lot there to work with, but there's also a lot of questions that over these last three weeks, I will probably just grab some out of a hat and answer them about the future. Now, love to see it, hate to see it. Oh, can I go first? Yes, go ahead, please. hate to see it

Diego Pavia Oh yeah What on God's green earth Are you doing? Like do you want to be Johnny Mansell Yeah do you want that to be the persona That you have walking into the senior bowl Walking into the Combine

You're an electric football player You're really fun to watch People are hit and miss on you in the NFL Of can he do it? Can he not? You go do ridiculous things like you just did in that club And then try and issue this big public apology people see straight through that crap man and it's a problem for him i hate to see it for how the disrespect it gave to mendoza who had a fantastic year yep all over that that was just a classless act

that i hated to see because i think there's no part for that on a large scale like he did for the true disrespect he showed indiana mendoza and the heisman voters yeah that was the part i mean look kids are online and they'll do stuff you know like he sends out the don't give an excuse and stuff like that. But he's also not that young anymore. Like he's been in college for a long time. And I get that you're an underdog and you had to grind your way up from, what was it, New Mexico State or something.

And I get all of that. But Fernando Mendoza took a team that has never done anything in most of our lifetimes. And now they're on the brink of going to fight for a national championship. And his game against Ohio State was, marvelous it was a give me the heisman i earned this the biggest stage the toughest defense their defensive coordinator was in the nfl they got half the roster is going to get drafted some of those guys are going to be you know caleb down some of those guys are going to be top draft picks and mendoza stood in there took a huge shot to start the game got up played his butt off and

earned that with clutch moments throughout the year great performances it was not some sort of like Totally bogus. Oh, the glue. The strongest glue. Yeah. Yes. Strongest glue ever. He earned it.

He earned it. And to disrespect him like that, I thought was bogus. Just totally bogus. And soft. And like, look, you win or lose. You got to go shake the other quarterback's hand. And you really disrespected him. You're right.

I hate to see that. It was weak. And I mean, look, he doesn't look like an NFL quarterback to me. He looks like a guy that is fun to have. in college and I hope he made some NIL dollars, but not, not going to be playing on Sundays. No. Love to see it is, I'll just bring our friends of Fanduel into the conversation here. When I look at the Fan Duel Super Bowl odds, listen to this for the top five or six here.

The Los Angeles Rams plus 360, the Seattle Seahawks plus 750, the Buffalo Bills plus 850, and this is to win the Super Bowl, Denver Broncos plus 900, Philadelphia Eagles plus 900, the Patriots are plus 1,200, the Packers are plus 1,200. The Texans are plus 1,400. The point is, they don't know. There's like, these odds are pretty darn tight with each other. And I'm sure even, uh, the odds makers are sitting there going, well, do we really drop Green Bay out of it just because of Parsons?

Like they could still, they've got great quarterback play. Could the tech, could the Jaguars run through the playoffs and just have some crazy stuff happen? have their defense and Trevor Lawrence get hot. It is a love to see it that in most years we go into the playoffs and go, all right, it's Keats, you know, it's, right? Last year was about as predictable as it could get, right? It was Casey and then the Eagles were the best team. This year, I have no idea what is going to happen next.

It's fantastic. And it's also crazy. Those names mean there's not the known names up top. Yeah. It's not the, it's not the same faces that we've been talking about. It's the McDermits and the Andy Reeds and all these things, right? It is truly a crapshoot and it is so fun to watch. I am loving it.

I hate to see it was all the injuries this weekend. I mean, Devante Adams, Micah Parsons, obviously the huge one to Patrick Mahomes. As much as we sit here and say, ah, the chiefs, the chiefs, the chiefs, you never wish that on a great. You never wish that the NFL is better with those players in it. And so you hate late December injuries. Late December injuries suck because they roll over into 20. I'd like to congratulate the New York Jets for finally finding the person responsible for their failure and firing Steve Wilkes. It took you the whole season. Congratulations. You got to the beginning of December, no, mid-December. And finally, you smoked out the one guy who was responsible.

What I hate to see is that some of these franchises are just such clown shows that you just, he's here's what I wish could happen. When we get to December, these teams go play each other. They play, this is, I would change, I'm going to present this to Raj.

I'm going to present this to Raj. This is what I would do. I would say, all right, commanders, just to reseat December 1. Received the league at December 1, you all clowns,

you go clown on each other and you play in some other league that we're going to put on USA Network. And the real games in front of, of America get played by the real teams that are here. Because Jaguars, Jets, a Jaguars team that's very good and has a great defense and has been very competitive. Like, they don't, they don't deserve a preseason game. That's, play a real team because the Jets are a comedy show. And the, the Raiders, what? Philadelphia, all they do is put their face masks on right. They won that game

against the Raiders. That's just laughable. These teams have fired coaches. They have no idea what they're doing they've got injuries they're completely lost and then the good teams are coming in and just being like like that's a waste of everyone's time why get on a plane uh like it's like it needs be like soccer right the relegation where it's like hey you guys got to go down here and play or else you're going to the ncdb a and we're pulling up someone else you're wasting san francisco's time by making them play tennessee this this is a great idea because you could have like people would still watch these games because they'd be like oh well what's my team going to be in the future and they might look better against other crappy teams, but what it would do is pair

the league to everybody who's eliminated from the playoffs, December 1, you just get the hell out of here and then the real teams play. And it would be all great drama games that matter. Raj, listen to me. Because this week had the most amazing football and the most shameful football. Yes. I was at the Giants game, freezing my tail off. And it was the same thing. It was terrible football, but yet entertaining, right? It was like, oh, the Giants are going to lose. It's like, oh, Mario dauntled. Oh, wait, did he?

Yep, he just took the ball away from him. Oh, Darts and concussion protocol again. Like, it was just like, it had all these like ups and downs, but at the same time you're like, this is just bad ball. Like, it's just not good football right now. Uh, I'm going to throw out a quick hate to see it. Very quick. Lathen Ransom.

Come on, man. Lathen Ransom, Carolina Panthers, Tyler Shuck, Shuck is sliding. And he, helmet, into the shoulder, here comes the hanky, and that's how you lose the game. I just, you just hate to see that's how you lose a football game. It was a really great game back and forth between those two teams. It was kind of wild. And that's how you lose it, because Lathen Ransom, a rookie made a really, really dumb play.

And I always feel bad for guys who are the absolute only reason your team lost. Like you, you'll hear that about kickers when they miss a kick. Like, hey, that's not the only reason. Like, it's most of the reason that this guy did this. yeah it's one of those we win and we lose as a team but not really like but this guy did it but this guy this guy is 100% of all I think back to like pratt against Kansas City a few years ago in playoffs where he hits him laid out of bounds and it's like that wasn't that one play it's like it kind of was but sure we could say up to that point it was a team but that play

definitely was the problem did now here's a question for you was philip rivers a love to see it or hate to see it for you he was a love to see it for me man a hundred percent even in the, that as he falls down in the back field and stands back up and falls back down. But, hey, he had some vintage Philip Rivers moments in that. He comes up, checks the protection, comes back, does the crazy clap. Like, I need the ball, feeds it to the tight end into the blitz. Like there was some vintage stuff there, but the poor guy can't throw the ball more than 35 yards down the field. And it's just one of those three like, that's not going to go well, man.

Like things are not going to, unless your arm magically like loosens back up, this is going to be. a problem with the Colts. Yeah, I kind of, I kind of hope that that's it. Did I tell you my conspiracy behind that? Oh, what's that? So speaking from a guy that also has been out of the league since 2019 and my health insurance also ran out in August. 12 kids is a lot to insure, man. 12 kids is a lot to put on the old health insurance premium and him being back for one week reset that five year clock. He now has five more years of NFL insurance for his entire family. Okay. Now, I do understand that.

I also think that Philip Rivers may have made a few more dollars along the way than Jeremiah Searles did. Maybe just a couple. Still expensive, okay? Okay, I believe it for an entire hotel's worth of children. Yeah. I don't have 12 people in my family, like at any level. So it's, yeah, that, look, I enjoyed some of it.

And sometimes I thought, oh, gosh, don't get. Don't get back up. If you fall down, you stay down, man. And what I would have loved to have heard from Philip Rivers is how he felt the next day. He didn't do media. He didn't do media availability on Monday, if that tells you anything. Oh, man. And I also hate to see it.

And I don't understand this at all. Why the Miami Dolphins can't play under 40 degrees. Like, you guys are. It's impossible. They can't do it. It's so strange, though. Players who play on the Steelers are from Alabama and Georgia. stuff like what why can't this franchise your blood your blood gets so thin down there dude i'm telling

you i can remember the opposite we went and played when i was in buffalo we didn't play in miami like december 22nd and i thought i was going to die and it was like 81 degrees yeah it was like i'm gonna die of heat stroke i'm i'm gonna low like i'm pouring sweat my body's blood is thicker than freaking anything right now down there dude it's just thin blood happy life and then you go up cold and you're just and you literally i think it like hypothermia is him. I don't know how to explain it. It's horrible. This can't be real. It's real.

Blood gets thicker and thinner. They can't be right. Someone fact check me in the comments. No way. That's real. The colder it gets, the thicker your blood is. We need a doctor or a biologist or something to confirm this. I'm sure they're selling on Twitter that would claim that. Bull season is upon us, which you know is my favorite. I don't care what bowl. Who's playing? I will watch it.

Yep. So all right. Well, Vikings Giants. That's a football game that would be in the other league that I was talking about, not the good relegation league, baby. Not the good one. So we'll see what happens. And I like the idea of us checking in on the off season each week and some of the decisions that they will have. So Jeremiah Sterles, you're the best, my friend. We'll talk to you soon.

Football. Football. All right. It is now time for the Robinson Roundup with special Purple Insider contributor, Maggie Robinson, who is on the road and got to experience a little bit of Midwest cold over the weekend and what a weekend of National Football League football. Maggie, it's so crazy. You know, we've commented before that every week it feels like our entire earth shifts in the NFL, but man, this was one where there were so many things that are going to now

shape the postseason. So what's going on? How are you? Well, for one, I'm good, but to start off. I was, I'm in Chicago. I was here on Sunday when the Bears played. It felt like negative 13 degrees. And I'm seeing these Bears fans march on over to the stadium just in like a little winter jacket. I'm sorry. Are you psychotic? It is freezing out. So in their defense, like all these Midwestern teams, I get it. I get the outdoor stadium. Like that is a whole different ball game when you're starting to play in late November and December. It's insane. That being said, this was also an insane week of NFL football like you said this was a week to just be sat on the couch and like all right popcorn in hand let's go no yeah no question about it i really hope that we don't

end up ever in a world where all the 32 teams or whatever how many of a roj actually wants 38 teams and then four or six over in uh europe uh i hope they're not all playing in domes because of games like that where the football was meant to play in the elements now in Minnesota, you just can't, like they did, but now that the season goes into January and you know, deep January sometimes, that would kill people. So you can't really do that here, but in Chicago, absolutely, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, watching the Miami Dolphins fumble around against Pittsburgh is kind of funny. So we should, we should never stop doing that. And, you know, New England, there was snow coming down in the game against Buffalo. It's just,

magical. We have to have to maintain that part of the NFL. For sure. I just kind of wanted, because so much happened, to give you guys a rundown of the big headlines that you may have missed or like, let's get into what you need to know this week around the NFL, starting off, unfortunately, with an injury report. Okay? Patrick Mahomes, as we saw out with an ACL, just got surgery in Dallas. He's out for the rest of the season. That means the chiefs are just their season is kaput. We already know they're out of playoff contention, but they are shot. This is the first time in 10 years. They haven't reached the playoffs. My question to you is what do they need to do? Do they just need to fully rebuild? What is the offseason strategy? Yeah. And also there was news yesterday that

he not only tore his ACL, but LCL as well, which doesn't really change the timeline, but does change the recovery. And as we've seen from Christian Derisaw this year with the Vikings, all ACLs, don't just magically wave a wand over them and like, boop, you're Adrian Peterson, who came back very quickly from an ACL and then ran for 2,000 yards. Not everybody has that happened. So there should be some concern there about how Patrick Mahomes is going to come back from this. I think that they do need complete rebuild.

But the problem is that's really hard to do when you are still a winning team. Like they're going to have enough wins to not get the number one overall pick. and this is how the NFL is set up. It's set up to allow the bad teams to get top draft picks and the good teams to struggle to stay on top. And Kansas City has just fended that away for so long because of Pat and also Steve Spagnolo and their defense. But once some of those things really corroded, I mean, they have mediocre to poor

wide receivers, they have a bad offensive line. And I'm not so sure that there was great adjustments over the last maybe two years to defensive innovations from Andy Reid, who's been an incredible offensive mind for so long. But, you know, if sometimes it gets you, sometimes the NFL gets you. And their defense really bailed them out a lot of times last year where all they needed to Pat Mahomes to do was kind to keep the train on the tracks and then be clutch. Well, once their defense was not as strong, then, you know, that didn't hold up anymore. So, you know, I've seen the people doing the one score game thing. It's not so much. I don't think it's so much regression. I think the team got a lot

worse. And they just couldn't win those games anymore. And I also don't think Pat has been playing as well over the last couple of years. So I wouldn't say he's cooked or chopped or whatever you like to say. But I would say that that team is not like one off season away from, hey, it's all fixed. And you guys are going to just completely dominate the league. There's a lot of now good teams in the AFC West with the Chargers and with the Broncos. And if the Raiders ever figure anything out, but at least two of those teams are probably not going anywhere. And my other question or a bit of speculation, is Kelsey going to retire? Because he thought about it at the end of his Super Bowl season last year and was like,

nah, no, I want to go out on a better note. Well, this was certainly not a better no, but the guy has not been performing. At what point does he make that decision? What do you think he's going to choose this off season? Feels like it happens all the time that guys stay for just one more year until, the football gods say, all right, sir, that is enough for you. I mean, Travis Kelsey is still a fairly effective player, but he's nowhere near what he once was, which is a major reason that Pat Mahomes is not what he was. I mean, when you're talking about two guys that were on the same page to the

level of like Montana and Rice, I mean, there's all time on the same page. And then the guy who's catching the footballs doesn't have the same burst that he used to. Clearly, the hands have not been as good as they used to be. He's dealt with some injuries through the years. I think this should probably be it for a very clear Hall of Fame career for Travis Kelsey. But even with somebody like Harrison Smith, who I don't think regrets coming back because he's gotten to play football and maybe that's how Kelsey feels. But in terms of you're hoping, oh, we got this far last year, next year we'll just go a little bit better and then we'll get it over the top. It's like that it's really hard to repeat, even if you're the Kansas City Chiefs.

Yeah, and I'm sure he watched his older brother who was making those same decisions and thought through that process with him. But I just can't see how this isn't the logical end to Travis Kelsey's season. But on that same other side of the same coin, Philip Rivers, okay? Let's talk about it. We were so excited that he was taking the field last week. The guy still kind of has it. Listen, I think I mentioned this last week. Mentally, he's there.

He sees the reeds. He knows where the ball needs to go. obviously physically he's not in the prime shape of his life. Everyone was like, he looks like an OC on the sideline. There were so many cutaway shots of this guy just looking like a dude on the sidelines. I saw like his high school age kids cheering him on in the school cafeteria. It's a hilarious storyline, but he did enough to keep the Colts in the conversation. Yeah, it really shows you that sometimes you can stay in a game by just not turning the ball over,

not making the huge mistake, not taking sacks. keep the train on the tracks. They didn't score many points. They did get in the end zone once, though. And I thought as the game went along that he got tired like old men do. But I mean, look, the thing is, like it was probably a bad idea overall for somebody to try to do this because it's just so physically taxing to play any single game and have a week of practice in the NFL that asking your body to do it when you haven't done it five years and you're not the same. as you used to be clearly, because Rivers, I think, played at like 240. And that looked to me like he might weigh as much as some of the offensive linemen.

But, you know, still was able to get the ball out of his hands, throw some floating balls to give wide receivers a chance. I don't know that he gave them a better chance than if they had Brett Rippin starting or who is the other guy that they have on the team who Riley Leonard. That's right. Riley Leonard, their other quarterback. I'm not sure he gave them much better. of a chance if they had those guys playing either and then the seahawks you know they didn't play very

well offensively which really helped indianapolis who has a great defense indianapolis's defense if it had given up a few more touchdowns like that's probably a blowout but also you know rivers his message after was was was really cool for him to say like hey you got to try stuff and don't be afraid to fail because if you do oh well and he was fearless and going out there doing it's scary to play in the NFL. And it's certainly scary to play in Seattle against the Seahawks. So that man, he's got a ton of courage. And I'm happy for him that it went the way that it did, that they had a close and good football game. But I also don't know if he should play other games because they have in two weeks, they have, I think the, the Texans coming up or three weeks,

the Texans coming up. They've got some good defenses. And I'm just like the first time you can kind of get through it. But I'm not sure week after week that that that's, that's going to go all that well. Have you seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail? I have, yes. So Indianapolis feels like there's this one scene where the dead collector, the guy was wheeling a barrow and he's collecting all the dead people after the plague. And he's picking up bodies and he's like, bring out your dead.

And the one guy's like, I'm not dead yet. And that's the Colts in the AFC, right? They're like, no, but we're still here. We still got it. Maybe. No, but you're looking down the barrel of the 49ers, the Jags, and the Texans, with a quarterback who's 44 years old. Anthony Richardson is physically cleared,

but is he ready to step onto the field? Who knows? It's just kind of an interesting media storyline is what this team has devolved into. Yeah, I mean, you mentioned the Jaguars. That's what I was trying to think of. And they have one of the best defenses in the NFL too. So, I mean, maybe he could survive against San Francisco.

But I also think that Seattle had no idea what to prepare for. And even their defenders were saying, like his throws were going so slow that it like messed us up at first and then once we adjust to that then we you know kind of figured it out uh what what i would like to see them just go to a different quarterback here but i think they're going to try to tough this out i could just see a world where he has a really tough start it's like the there's this sort of concern of philip rivers was such a great quarterback and he was so much fun to watch that the last thing you want is him being wheelbarrowed off as you're talking about or you know throwing four interceptions and you know

18 yards or something like cam new new england patriots it was just really rough to watch so i thought it wasn't that bad to watch this week hopefully if they keep playing him uh it sustains that way but yeah i'd like to see them get you know Richardson in there something else because their season might be kind of over here it is it is a crazy league though you know we talked about um you know some of those Super Bowl odds in the middle of the season. It was like Indianapolis was right up there. Who's going to make the playoffs? And then one thing happens and all of a sudden,

it's just a completely different situation. We were, I think at one point I might have mentioned Daniel Jones MVP contention. Yeah. And now we're looking at a Jacksonville team with Trevor Lawrence, who just made history with his insane game against the Jets. Insane six touchdowns. Let me read you some stats, 300 plus passing yards.

50 plus rushing yards. He had a career high passer rating of 138. Like this man did it all. And I don't really know where it came from because he's been decent all season. What this performance felt like, okay, who's this guy? And where has he been all year? Yeah, you're absolutely right. The last three games have just kind of come out of nowhere because he was not only like not great,

but I mean, below average by pretty much every metric by, you know, quarterback rating, PFF grade, QBR, like, whatever. whatever metrics you look at, he was having a pretty poor season and they were surviving on defense. And then all of a sudden, you know, the torch ignites. But I really do think, and this is a conversation here that's going on as well after a Sunday night's game, that when you get to the end of the season and you're playing bad defenses, they are not just bad, but they're also injured. Guys have given up. Coaches have gotten fired. And the give up factor to the New York Jets was elite. I mean, they've got, you know, some injuries and stuff, but they also traded their

best player, their defensive tackle, Quinn and Williams, who wasn't really helping them that much anyway, but still, like, that was their best guy on their entire defense. And Aaron Glenn, I think, is just kind of lost at the wheel a little bit out there. He's not really a tactician. He's kind of a guy that needs his players to just line up and win, which does not happen when you have bad players from a team that is completely tanking. So, uh, yeah, I mean, I think that Trevor Lawrence has played great, but we also do this all the time where someone has three great games and then we sort of say, oh, he's different now than what he was before. And I don't know that that's the case with Trevor Lawrence, but it is interesting. The Jacksonville Jaguars on Fanduel are now

plus 1900 to win the Super Bowl, which moves them into the top seven or eight candidates to do it. And this is a weird year. Like you never know. And the AFC is so up in the air that it wouldn't be the most shocking thing if Trevor Lawrence got hot in the playoffs and that defense was able to beat just about anybody. The AFC as a conference is bizarre like you mentioned. But the Broncos look like they should have this number one AFC seed on lock, beat the Patriots. I mean, excuse me, sorry, they have a one game lead over the Patriots of the number one seed. Excuse me. But Sean Payton also just seems to have more trust in Bo Nix. I talked about this early in the season. And it feels like with his play calling now,

he's trusting him in these clutch moments to deliver because he's seen it. And I think this is something that as the media, we discredit a lot of quarterbacks early on of saying, oh, no, they don't have it. There's no way we've seen enough. Let me make my mind up. It's a thing called development. And it happens with young players.

We can't just say, this is where they're at. They're never going to get better. It's just a narrative that I think we've created. You even see it, again, don't come from Minnesota fans, but JJ McCarthy. the guy has gotten incrementally better that happens we can't act like game one is the same as game eight you know like there's growth in there yeah i mean with bo necks right now he is the 13th best quarterback of the league by pf f caleb williams is 14th but you can really tell

which player everybody loved in the draft and which player everybody did not love in the draft by the way they're talked about you know caleb williams has been talked about much more of like oh, yeah, this is the Caleb we expected. And he's had some spectacular moments. And with Bo Nix, it's like, oh, he's bad, but the team is actually good, which, you know, he has not been spectacular, but he's got 23 touchdowns, nine picks. He's controlled the game a lot.

And now I agree with you that in that Packers game, he was having to huck it to win because they were scoring early in the game. And the Packers defense, as we know, is really good. And I think we're seeing it come together for Bo Nix. And that's why they are, let's see, one, two, three, fourth best odds on Fanduil plus 900 to win the Super Bowl because if he continues to ascend and play like this, they have the best defense, I think, in the entire NFL. And they've got playmakers and they've got a coach who's won a Super Bowl before as much as that, you know, I'm sure greats on Vikings fans because it was the whole year where far threw across his body and so forth. But like we all agree, Sean Payton is a very, very, very good coach. and I think that there needs to be a little bit more fairness to Bo Nix.

I mean, they kind of had some ugly moments with him early in the season, but he's playing real complete quarterback lately. And if he does that, I mean, that's what I'm saying about the AFC. It's like you could see a world where the Jaguars do it. You could see a world where the Broncos do it. My pick is still Josh Allen and the bills because even though they are flawed, I still think they have the freak. They have the alien.

and they have the, the unstoppable. It's like in the NBA, if you've got that one megastar, you've got a better chance than anybody else. But it, I mean, they're flawed and the Broncos aren't and the Jaguars aren't as much. So, I mean, who knows at this point? On the bills front, okay, they need to help Josh Allen out. This poor guy is so stressed. He's yakking on the sidelines.

That is an indication that he is out of his mind stressed out, that he's just having to, again, take the team on his back in the second half of most games. And my commentary here is they just need to put together a complete game. Don't wait until the second half. You got to come out right from the whistle. I, you know, it's good to watch. It's probably great for the ratings because it keeps the game on the line. But man, just you're watching and you're getting it together.

It feels like that's been a lot of their games this year against good teams. against Houston where they had a chance to win at the end, but it was kind of ugly. I mean, they get down 21 and, I mean, naturally, you think, okay, well, he's still got a chance, but they can't stop anything. And in the second half, they did a better job defensively. Teams that are up 21 play differently. That's for sure. But, you know, with Allen, the running game is also important with James Cook.

He's been, I think, one of the best running backs in the NFL. That also ties into Josh Allen, though, because defenses have to factor for Josh Allen running. And we've seen this with Lamar Jackson that when he's at his best, his running back six, you know, always succeed as well. So it all ties back into him. And that's the hard part about deciding whether they can really win the Super Bowl or not is, okay, if one guy has to do everything and then you have to rely on winning with running the football, but you don't really have great wide receivers. The offensive line is great at run blocking. Pass protection has been spotty at times. And then your defense can at any given time, just,

let somebody run right through you like Trayvion Henderson did the other day. You know, can that get you through multiple playoff games if you have to go on the road to start in the playoffs. Right now, they're the number six seed. I mean, there should be natural skepticism, but at the same time, if Pittsburgh keeps winning and Baltimore doesn't get in, and then you're talking about no Patrick Mahomes and no chiefs, no kryptonite in the playoffs, it's like, well, this should be their year. and if you match up Allen against any of the other quarterbacks in the

F.C. I take Josh Allen. I mean, him against the Texans. All right. I'll take Alan over C.J. Stroud. I'll take him over Trevor Lawrence. I'll take him over Bo Nix. It's like one of the best we've ever seen versus a lot of guys who are being supported by their teams. Usually that quarterback prevails. I saw someone and I unfortunately can't remember who wrote this, but he said, it's looking like Josh Allen and a bunch of guys you couldn't pick up from a lineup for the quarterbacks going into this both season because he's just the guy.

So is he your MVP pick at the moment? Or am I jumping the gun there? Yeah, I think that guy in Los Angeles probably has to be it. I mean, Matthew Stafford just torching the Detroit Lions the other day. Another brilliant performance from him. It's been incredible to watch. Stafford in the middle of his career, I kind of thought it was settled. Like this guy is a super exciting quarterback to watch,

but he's very erratic. He makes a lot of mistakes, takes a ton of sacks. There's a lot of picks. And, you know, like you can win with that, but you don't always, right? There'd be good seasons and bad seasons. He has become a totally complete quarterback that is winning cerebrally, but also has still a rocket arm and can make every single throw. And the amount, you talk about quarterbacks and how long a quarterback's lifespan could be in the NFL. I mean, this guy, when was he drafted like all the way, all the way back in the early 2000s? He's been around for such a long time and he's just a different player than he ever was before. Them losing DeVante Adams might impact him quite a bit down the stretch here.

So that could impact his numbers. But the way he's playing is as well as anybody is playing in the NFL recently. I mean, he's just playing great quarterback right now. So the Rams are looking at a short week, though, with this TNF game versus the C-Haw. obviously the NFC West title is on the line along with the number one seed and the first run by all the big things but like you said devante adams is out hook and a cool was kind of in and out with leg cramps that appeared do they play this safe and and and not put out all their firepower or do they just empty the clip here like what is this strategy i'm there's so many ways

you could play this as a head coach yeah i mean with devante adams i think that playing him i don't think they're going to. That would be probably a bad idea because you're trying to win the Super Bowl. But everything else has got to be all in. I mean, if you win the conference, that means you're at home the rest of the way. And you just got to win two games during the Super Bowl. It's crazy. Like what the benefit is since they moved from having two teams get home field advantage in the by week to one, that if you win that one seed, holy cow, it is such an edge. And they've got to make sure they win it. This is going to be the Sam Darnold narrative. game. And the thing is with Seattle versus Los Angeles is Los Angeles has everything. They have the

line, the run game, the passing attack, the MVP quarterback, the defensive line. Their secondary has been a lot better. I mean, Jared Goff had a pretty good day against them. They've got maybe some weakness there, but they've got a great defensive mind as their defensive coordinator. They've got the best coach in the league. I mean, it's quite a battle. They're an uphill battle to play against the Rams. better team than the Seattle Seahawks and the Seahawks offensive line as you saw against Indianapolis is problematic. So I still would say that the Rams should win because they are the runaway most complete team in the entire NFL and they have the MVP. But of course, if Seattle loses to them, it'll be once again, Sam Darnold can't beat the Rams and, you know, all that

sort of stuff that people have tried to, you know, shoehorn into the conversation around the Vikings with Sam Darnold being in this game. But Sam Darnold's playing in big games and the Vikings aren't. So I would just kind of maybe not mention that if you're following the Vikings. But I mean, what a Thursday night game between those two teams, two Titans that the last time they played, it came down to a final field goal that came up short for Jason Myers, the kicker for Seattle.

But I mean, they were that close to beating the Rams the last time. So their defense can cause a lot of problems without Devante Adams. maybe it's going to be a little closer than we think. And there's been a conversation around ratings in the NFL. Now you have the chiefs out that the cowboys are not looking great. Obviously, I think they have like less than a 1% chance or something by some odds to make it. This Thursday night game, though. Oh, yeah.

UNF is usually like the laughing stock of the games kind of in the week when it comes to scheduling. No, this is a blockbuster of a game and it holds a lot of meaning. So maybe the Netflix Christmas games now are kind of taken down enough. in terms of ratings, but this Thursday, sit down because this game is good. Yeah, I also think like the NFL is just undefeated, no matter what, like those Christmas games will run the NBA right out of the building, which is I think what Raj decided at some point where he was just like, why do they get to own that day? We should own that day. And then they did because they can own anything. I also don't like people who are media analysts, this does

not apply to them if that's their job. I'll never understand about ratings freaks. Like what, what a difference does it make it'll be like oh this this if this is the world series matchup it won't get ratings who cares what difference it make what what does that what difference that make to you like are you going to enjoy the game or not like the same sort of thing uh it is unfortunate that you know i think somebody pointed out that part of the branding was like this is for the north on christmas and it was like no it's not but but uh yeah i mean i think uh with some of the ratings darlings maybe not being uh what they are with the Cowboys and, you know, Mahom's not in.

At the same time, it's the NFL. Like, this is going to be great. And Thursday night should be a very, very highly watched game. And one record that I want to leave you with, record to watch for this upcoming week, Miles Garrett, single season sack record. He is one away from tying the NFL record, two away from breaking it. And he has three games to go. Keep an eye on this guy because that is a monster of a record.

He's about to break. It might be the best pass rushing season since they start. officially counting the sacks in in 1982, although you can find the old school sacks on pro football reference because they did this project where they went back and determined the sacks. But anyway, in part because the Cleveland Browns have not been on the field a whole lot on their offense and teams have not been chasing them from behind. So teams have been leading against the Browns all year long because it's such a bad team. So they're handing off. They're not dropping back to pass. The fact that you could get

this many sacks with other teams playing from ahead and not dropping back to pass a whole lot is really mind-blowing. And also, of all things, the Vikings did not allow a sack to Miles Garrett. And they had to play for half of that game, their backup left tackle. And he did not get one against them, which is really going to be an interesting, you know, a little factoid, I guess, when he breaks the record. Because I think that he ultimately will. I was lucky enough to see him very up close one time in a joint practice against the Vikings, it's unlike any other player I've ever seen. Like, it's not, the size is amazing, but I've seen big guys.

You know, I've seen guys as big as him, DeNeil Hunter's is as big as him. But I've never seen someone at that size that fast. Like the, the quickness looks like he weighs 240 pounds, but he weighs 275. It doesn't make any sense to the mind. And, you know, Jared Allen with the Sacks was similar to his explosiveness to combine with the size. I think even Jared might say Miles Garrett's a little quicker, but I mean, both of those guys are obviously all timers. Jared went into the Hall of Fame, but it's similar in that way. And it's amazing to watch.

It's too bad it didn't happen for a good team. It is kind of a bummer that it's like, look at him. Don't look at the team, though, but look at this guy. He's crazy. He's having an insane season. He's super athletic. Yeah, he's kind of a freak of nature when it comes to the way. he is built and the way he moves.

Yep. And maybe if he had accepted a trade or whatever to another team, then he would have been in the playoff race instead of just chasing this record. Maggie Robinson, I really appreciate your time and making a little adjustment here with you on the road. So enjoy the rest of your trip. And we will talk next week. Sounds good. Football. Football. Thank you.