Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles lays out his plan for the Vikings offensive line

Episode Date: January 24, 2024

Matthew Coller talks with former Viking Jeremiah Sirles about the Bills' loss and what it's like to have a season end abruptly and then discusses the Vikings' O-line plan and why he's buying the Detroit Lions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by PrizePix. Go to prizepix.com and use the code PURPLE for a first deposit match up to $100. prizepix.com, code PURPLE. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. And it is another Tuesday morning left guard, this time not on location, Jeremiah Searles. But your visit to the studio did allow me to fix the broken mic arms that I had put together wrong and was using incorrectly for many years. And I didn't realize it until a 6'5 person walked in and tried to adjust the microphone height. So I appreciate that.

You just do good everywhere you go, Jeremiah. I'm just trying to bring the best out of you. You know, I'm just playing my role, playing to keep pivotal. You come in, spot start every now and then, make adjustments. You know, I'm not an everyday guy. I'm not in every game. But, you know, I just come in and play a pivotal role in the success of this podcast. Not an everyday offensive tackle. not an everyday podcaster but uh very very helpful nonetheless so we got a lot to talk about and there's a mel kuiper mock draft which

needs to be discussed uh the world's content creation just circles around what mel kuiper is doing still all these years after he started but we got to begin with the playoffs and a wide right field goal in Buffalo you as a former Buffalo Bill that one had to be pretty crushing for you absolutely you know you watch that game and you go Allen's the best quarterback on the field right now. He played out, played Mahomes. He did everything right. Diggs drops a big one. You go, there's a couple options.

You know, he misses that one in the back of the end zone for a touchdown. He doesn't take the check down to Diggs. I love the aggressive play. And everyone's just, Bass is going to knock it through. That's just everyone in the stadium. And I know a lot of people are like, I should have went for it. It's like, no, you play for overtime. You've got the best quarterback in the league at the time.

Like, you go for it. and to watch that thing go wide right and to feel the air get sucked out of Orchard Park and just know what that place was feeling I mean those dudes are pissed they've shoveled that stadium two weeks in a row now like they're not happy and just feel so bad for those guys just cannot beat Mahomes and Kelsey and those dudes this was the year to do it but yeah complete deflation for everyone that's ever claimed themselves a bills fan i don't mean to rip open any old wounds here but uh in 2017 it was not a field goal just barely missing that caused the l in philadelphia that was everything but there with a team like the vikings in 2017 that had been good over several

years and it had the blair walsh kick go wrong then the teddy injury and then to be there and then not have it work out it feels a little bit similar to what buffalo has gone through where they've just been so close and time after time it's something that has gotten in the way what does that feel like when it's over? Like when that happens and you get to that spot and you're like, we're almost there. We are one step away because Buffalo has just been that franchise over the last couple of years. And you get to the end, you go, how do you climb back from this, from this moment that took so much to get here? It's such a deflating moment,

but at the end of the day, it's no different than walking home at the end of the season. When you don't make it, there's only one happy team at the end. And when you lose in a playoff game or you lose the last game or win the last game that you've seen, you get the finality of holy crap, my season's over.

Like, and it's a little bit different when you're in the playoffs just because it's so abrupt, right? When you're leading towards, like, in 2016, we knew we had no shot of making the playoffs, and it was like the whole last week was everyone kind of doing the dap up goodbyes, like, hey, man, last Friday, right? This is fun.

You don't have any of that when you're in the playoffs because you're always assuming we'll be here next week, we'll be here next week. And when you lose that type of environment, you get back to the locker room and you're just sitting there like, holy crap, that really just ended like that. Like just in the blink of an eye, everything we've done since last April, we showed up in OTAs is over and we're not happy about it and no one's happy about it. And just have to walk out. You have to get away from it all for a good 72 hours to really digest what just happened to you and to think about what went wrong, how do we fix it, and your mind swirls in a million directions. But for Buffalo to be that close that many times and to run in really the one element, which is Patrick Mahomes, over and over again, that's the piece for me that they're just going to keep themselves up at night over the next six, eight months, just going, man, how, how do we let that one slip through our

fingers? How do we not take advantage of that? And it's just a, it's a mind numbing exercise that you go through time and time again. And until you get back on a football field, you can't really escape that thought process. Elves have basically become like all those 90s great NBA players who lost to Michael Jordan and just got left behind by history. Reggie Miller, Patrick Ewing, all the great players, the Utah Jazz. And yet this guy just found a way every time or even like the number of ways, different ways that Tom Brady stole championship rings from the Carolina Panthers on a final drive the Atlanta Falcons despite being up 28 to 3 and then Tom Brady comes back and rips their souls out that's what Patrick Mahomes has become to the AFC and especially the Buffalo Bills where they were 13 seconds away just get one stop don't let them get into field goal territory and they do it and they make the field goal and then here it isn't a game winning field goal but you'd be tied and the second half the chiefs were not playing as well on offense and they seem to be i wouldn't say

panicking but just getting a little anxious after fumbling the ball out of the back of the end zone and it felt like that chance was there and it's a ball off of digs his hands which is one of the most insane throws i have ever seen in my entire life and it was this close to ending the game right there just catch that ball and you probably score a touchdown on that drive and then a mostly reliable kicker ends up going wide right i mean i just i look at that team's cap situation what josh allen's about to get paid, all the things. I mean, that feels like a 17 to 18 situation where they might end up having to take a step back. And then when you look at how difficult the AFC is, they had to work really hard even just to get here,

considering all the other teams that were fighting for those playoff spots. That's going to happen again. Yeah, I saw the list of free agents on the defense specifically and the contract that no one's talking about and i've seen a little bit von miller the the von miller contract i remember we thought i think it was two years ago and they did it for the first time we were like this is absurd this is not a good contract for anyone but von miller and i saw something today that he made $2.8 million per tackle this year because he only had like nine tackles, right? He did not perform the way he did. And there's no real out in that contract. So you start adding Von Miller's cap hit, Diggs cap hit, Allen's cap hit, the bottom

half of this roster and the mid-level free agents are gone. They're gone. You're not going to be able to keep them strictly out of the pocketbooks, just not big enough. And when you start going there, and we've seen it time and time again, if you pay your quarterback all this money, the rest of the roster will suffer. And this felt like the time that they had to do it all in this year with the Rocky start, the way they came together and finished the season. I think they're gonna have a really hard time getting back to where they were this year. Now, I say that Josh Allen allen is josh allen he's gonna will this team to a lot of wins but the roster you're only as good as your roster in the playoffs like when it comes down to it you're only as good as all 22 guys that can start on offense and defense and switching gears a little bit we have

i have to love up on patrick mahomes as much as it hurts me to say this dude is gone six for six to the afc championship mind-boggling mind-boggling like my entire since i've left the nfl i've done nothing but watch the chiefs go to the afc championship time and time again and whenever you think that dude's out or whenever you think it's a down year he may be the best i've ever seen and i know he's not the goat yet because you got to chase tom brady and all those things but when you talk about arm talent mobility leadership all the things that dude doesn't have a box he hasn't checked and man I don't know how you beat him when he's on his game I really don't you have to get lucky to beat him when he's on his game because he is absolutely incredible something that Kwesi Adafo-Mensah said that's gonna stick with me during his final press

conference of the season where he said you want to be so good that no adversity can get in your way and that's patrick mahomes he is so good that no matter what seems to happen to the kansas city chiefs even fumbling out of the back of the end zone, which might have ruined other teams' seasons, but just continuing to find different ways to adjust and adapt. And when they lose to the Las Vegas Raiders, everybody was thinking, okay, they're human now. And they may look very human against the Baltimore Ravens, who I think have been wire to wire the best team in the NFL. And they have a quarterback who is not very far behind

Patrick Mahomes in his talent, and in my opinion, is playing the best team in the NFL. And they have a quarterback who is not very far behind Patrick Mahomes in his talent. And in my opinion, is playing the best football of his career. And he already won an MVP. And yet from the pocket looks the best that he's looked during his entire career. And I think has a scheme that is the best fit for him and receivers that are the best fit for him. So I'm probably going to pick Baltimore in this game. But even to be at this point

with all that that team went through throughout the season, the fact that Travis Kelsey was clearly getting older, their offensive line issues at the tackle position, the receivers just forgetting how to catch footballs, which it's funny that they remembered mostly in the playoffs, finally, how to catch balls. But one of the crazy things about their offense is how it doesn't really push the ball down the field anymore.

When Mahomes came into the league, and this is another sign of true greatness, when he came into the league, it was just downfield to Tyreek, downfield. Tyreek's down there somewhere. And then they would throw underneath to Kelsey sometimes. But teams have just taken that away, knowing the arm talent that he has. And yet

he's become now a mastermind at the line of scrimmage and executing his offense. And the average depth of target for his throws was like six yards the other night. And yet it's using all the tools that he's given, finding different ways to get people, the football, playing head games with the defense and their play caller and everything, and to watch somebody come into their own from a physical freak from arm talent and playmaking to a Tom Brady-esque looking quarterback has really been incredible over the last couple of years. Yeah, it's remarkable to watch, and we're lucky to watch it.

I mean, I grew up in Denver watching John Elway through the 90s, right? And you're just like, man, this is so fun to watch. And anytime you turn a Chiefs game on, listen, I'm from Lincoln. I can't stand it. Chiefs fans have been insufferable for the last half decade, right? Just insufferable. And yet you turn it on and you can't help but just respect the greatness, right? You don't want to be like, oh my gosh, look at those guys. But you just watch it even from a non-fan perspective, just an analytical perspective. And you're analyzing the game. You can't help but watch 15.

You just can't help. Your eyes are just drawn to the stuff that he does. And you just sit there scratching your head going, how? Like, how did you do that? How did you see that? How did you know that? How that was coming? And he's just continuing to get better and better.

And the fact that he's like, he's not even 30 yet, right? He's not even 30 yet. Like this dude's going to play for such a long more time. The AFC is so loaded with quarterbacks. I mean, we forget. We basically got to hurt Herbert all year. We had a no Joe Burrell all year. Like Trevor Lawrence got dinged up.

I am so happy that we finally went through this like purgatory of really terrible quarterback play for like five, six years in the NFL after kind of the Manning breeze, Philip like retirement to now it's just this next, next generation of loaded, super good talent that all got drafted in the first round and all are leading their teams to go play in the super bowls. And every year they're going to have a chance because of it,

but no one has unthrown the King of Patrick Mahomes even when he had a very vulnerable target on his back this year no one's been able to do it and it is Elway-esque in the way that early in Elway's career he ran around like crazy and just threw the ball as hard as he possibly could and then later he had to adapt and become more of a system quarterback, which is not a criticism. It actually made things a lot easier for him. And then you occasionally push down the crazy playmaker rocket arm button. And then it's mostly unstoppable,

which it has been for Patrick Mahomes now. And it will be everything we want it to be. I think Baltimore and Kansas city in the AFC Championship. And on the other side of things, you have the Detroit Lions there. And I wrote about how the Detroit Lions executed a plan. And this is where we transitioned connecting the Vikings to these things. Because my only Vikings and Patrick Mahomes connection is, and Josh Allen is, you don't win the lottery unless you play. And they decided they wanted to play in the draft. And hey, by the way, the Vikings have the 11th

pick. Mahomes was the 10th. I believe Allen was maybe 8th. That doesn't sound that far away. 6th or 7th, yeah. It doesn't sound that far away from where the Vikings are picking, but we'll get into a Mel Kiper draft in a minute. But as far as the Lions go, there are some people I think who are in denial about how good that team is going to be for years to come. They will be with the young talent that they have. And so many great players on rookie contracts, Aiden Hutchinson has at least several more years on a rookie contract.

Plus you can fiddle around with the cap if you need to, and they can build around Aiden Hutchinson, who has become immediately one of the best players in the NFL. I mean, there's just a lot to work with there. But from a Vikings perspective, I think that the thing to take away is Brad Holmes laid out a plan. That plan was a complete rebuild. The Vikings laid out a plan. It was a competitive rebuild. But what they did is stuck with it. There were tough moments through it. They start one and six, and they are 22 and seven since then, by the way, since that one and six start. But it looked like at times when you go 0-10-1, this is bad, bro.

This is way worse than we thought it was going to be. But they didn't fire their coach. They didn't make some crazy changes or moves. They stayed to the plan, and they saw their way through it. And if there's a lesson for the Vikings, aside from, hey, the bar is raised for who you have to compete with. It's if you stay with your plan and execute that plan from start to finish and don't panic and don't freak out because you watch Josh Jobs

and Nick Mullins play that you can get to the other side of that. But there's so many great teams and there's so many great teams, and there's so many good team builders, and there's so much talent in the league that it's not something where you could just snap your fingers, bring back your veteran quarterback, and then whoop, you're just great because you're you. I think it shows that it takes a lot of work to build a roster like Detroit has. Yeah, and you have to hit on your draft picks. That's the number one thing.

Everyone can say, well, this, that, or the other thing. If you don't hit on your top three round draft picks for multiple years in a row you can't truly rebuild because when you don't have serious playmakers on rookie deals that are contributing in a big way maybe even pro bowl caliber level all pro type level it's really hard to rebuild because those dudes aren't on the field and yet you're paying them a lot of money again i say a lot of money but when you draft for a second, there's investment capital where they're not just going to, oh, cut him, he's fine, we'll go somewhere else.

And that is where Detroit and Green Bay, in my opinion, have made the most hay is they've been a really good job drafting. Very good. Very guys that are contributing, even down into the later rounds. And for the Vikingsings it's the opposite there's been dudes that have hit and been big but i'm talking if you go over the last four or five years how many first rounders are still really contributing on a big name basis derison jefferson right that's really it right and that's i'm missing someone but those are the

two that come to mind that are like yep contributors, contributors, all pros, everything we want them to be. But then you even devil into the second and the third. You're like, where are these dudes at? Why are they not helping us? We got to buy one in free agency and then that's taken away from the bigger cap. So all this is great. And I agree with Casey and those guys sticking with their their plan and what they want to do. But unless you start drafting well and getting guys and developing them from within, it's going to be really hard to stay on this path, which is to compete with the Green Bay Packers, the Detroit Lions and the Chicago Bears year in and year out and win your division. Folks, I just got another box from HelloFresh this week. And let me tell you, their meals are fantastic.

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that sometimes happens and there's not a whole lot you could do about it, but it does have major ramifications in the future to miss on all of those picks at the beginning when you traded back. And I don't think the process was horrible of trading back. I thought personally they should have just taken a guy at 12 or wherever they were at that time, because usually Hall of Famers are drafted in the top 10, 15. Just take your guy. But I understood where they're coming sideways. But if we go through Detroit's great picks, is it any coincidence that their amazing tackle was taken seventh overall? Their unbelievable edge rusher was taken second overall. And even, you know, their running back, which was a controversial draft pick, Jameer Gibbs, he is a freak show and he was taken 12th overall. And it was a luxury pick, but they had the luxury because they've hit on so many others of these draft picks. And yeah, they've hit on some second rounders,

Sam Laporta, Brian Branch. Those are good picks. There's been other guys that they haven't really hit on. Jamison Williams, you know, Kirby Joseph. He lays some hits on people's knees, but I don't know that he's a great player. Josh, Josh Paschal. I'm not sure how great he is. Like, I think he's okay okay but i don't like not a

franchise changer or anything they have not hit every single pick but they had a ton of picks and so even though they draft a running back which may be not the smartest thing of all time they had how many picks here last year one two three four guys that they were taking in the top 50 and when you're consistently taking i think i had seven in the last two years top 50 draft picks some of them might not work out i don't think jack campbell's been all that good so far but when but you will hit on more than you don't when you're picking that high over and over and this is the biggest trouble that the vikings face right now is having two top 100 draft picks the lions have four this year to go on to all of this

talent i mean that is the issue when we talk about how are you going to get yourself out of this the answer is more likely than not when you look at the detroit lions it's not next year it's not oh well you could just go to free agency get brian burns and then profit it's just not going to be like that it's just we're too many pieces away. We're too many pieces away to consider ourselves in that boat of, I keep going back to 2017 because that was the last time I truly felt like the roster was 100% complete besides like one or two spots, right? Like across the board, like we talked about, I think, two weeks ago,

pro bowlers on each level, maybe an all-pro sprinkled in there, and you go across the board and you do that with the Vikings, especially on defense, you're kind of just like, we're not one piece away. And the reason is because we haven't had those draft guys. And even the guys you mentioned for Detroit that haven't hit out or be stars, they're contributors, right? They're starters, right?

They may not be game changers or franchise changers, but they're starters giving you 400 to 500 snaps a year type of players where I think of Louis C. Louis C, first round pick, I don't think he played 200 snaps this year. Way less than that. I don't know if he played 100 snaps this year. Nope. Keep going down. That can't happen.

That physically cannot happen for you to be a competitive team. When you look around the league, every team that's in the playoffs has rookies that are contributing in a massive way i think of zay flowers immediately for the baltimore right they've drafted him again somewhat of a controversial pick right people like oh he's too small he's this he's that balling absolutely balling right jameer gibbs for detroit absolutely balling kansas city like they didn't have – I don't know who their first-rounder was, but the Rasheed Rice guy, balling, right? He's a rookie that they drafted, right? And then you go through and you're just like, yeah, this is how this works, I guess.

Like this is how this all goes. And then you look at San Francisco and it's just littered with first-round picks across their front, right? Bosa, first-round pick. Oh, we got the overall guy from Chase Young. Let's bring him in, first-round pick. They just find ways to get these guys that were picked and developed from within. That's the only way it works in the NFL now with the way that the cap hits are going to the quarterback.

It's the only way you can build a true team from inside and internally. And the problem is a lot of times the coaches don't get the time to do that because it is such a win-now mentality league. And even with Kansas City, taking Trent McDuffie, ended up working out extremely well for them as a massive key player. And that's where the Vikings have to find a way to get more draft capital, which may include a trade down, I'm not sure, for this year. And that will eventually lead us into the quarterback situation

where some people believe that Bo Nix and JJ McCarthy and Michael Penix are going in the top 15 and some people don't. And I guess we're going to find out as we get closer to the combine or through the combine where those things kind of shake out, but it seems to be very much up in the air what the world thinks of them. And it just feels like at the moment, no man's land. And how do you get yourself out of no man's land but one thing we can't forget necessarily is that on the offensive side Jordan Addison of course is their best draft pick uh if the Vikings pick a receiver it's either the worst receiver ever in the draft or the best receiver and uh Jordan Addison luckily for them turned out to

be really good Makai Blackman has turned out to be very good, but it's really all they have to write home about. But on the offensive side, they are in a position to match up with some of these teams, talent for talent, roster for roster. And what I noticed about the Detroit Lions, and you'll appreciate this, is their offensive line is just sick. It is very, very good. They understood that if you're going to have Jared Goff as your quarterback, having a great offensive line is really, really necessary. And I would say the same thing for if the Vikings do draft a quarterback or if they do bring back Kirk Cousins. And this year they pass blocked really well.

But I also noticed that these teams in the key moments, even Pacheco's breaking off a big run. Gibbs is breaking off a big run. Like a lot of times the running game in the key moments, even Pacheco's breaking off a big run. Gibbs is breaking off a big run. Like a lot of times the running game in the playoffs shows up in some of the biggest moments when you've worn down the other defense and you can pound through them. Your quarterback doesn't have to do absolutely everything. I thought it hurt Josh Allen that they were not able to run the football with James Cook in that game. And that kind of comes down to the offensive line. So I am curious about your

offensive line plan for the Vikings, because weirdly enough, as much as we talk about how empty the roster is, if you have a rookie quarterback with a great line and Jefferson, Addison, Hawkinson, and a run game, you can be competitive right away. You can put that quarterback in a good situation or even, you know know have a reasonably good offense with Kirk Cousins right away but I don't think the offensive line is in perfect shape it's in better shape but it's not like untouchable at this moment Dalton Reisner's a free agent Garrett Bradbury another sort of average myth type of season overall and Ed Ingram took steps but still was in the top five and quarterback

pressures allowed at the guard position so what would your plan for the vikings offensive line bait yeah obviously don't let the two tackles walk out of the building like no way shape or form extend arisaw back to bring struck up back like when you get a guy like that in your organization you can't let him leave you can't let him leave that's too much for a premier position you can talk about the edge rushers receivers all receivers all you want. If you haven't left tackle like that, you don't let him walk out the door. So do whatever you want to do to keep him. O'Neal, you try and probably extend in, I think he's got two more years on his deal. Right?

So he's locked in for at least a couple more years. So you know your bookend positions are great. Right? So you start there. You probably let Dalton and Reisner walk. I think he played well enough. He's going to want a bigger contract. And, you know, guy getting older. I think he played well enough. He's going to want a bigger contract and a guy getting older.

I think you probably bring in, either within, I think Schlotman was the guy that played and stepped in a little bit this year. I think maybe you try and see if he can be a starting caliber guy, and then you draft for depth. You draft for depth, and then you also, in 2019, the Bills did this to us, and I thought it was interesting. They signed a bunch of just mid-level free agents. And I remember watching it.

They signed me. I extended in January. Then I just remember in March, it was like tackle, guard, tackle, guard. And I was like, well, this sucks. And sure enough, they brought us all in in OTAs, and they're like, listen, we know you all aren't going to be here, but we want you all to compete and battle it out for who wants to be here. Okay, cool. We're all fighting for a job, right?

And we all were kind of on similar contracts, some were a little bit over minimum, some were like a bigger contract for a guy that was like a four-year guy. And so you're like, all right, he's safe, but the rest of us, we're fighting for our lives. It bred great competition and it kind of allowed you to rise.

And if you were smart, I think that's kind of the approach that I would go is, hey, find the guys that have been in the league for a long time, started a long time. You know, Chris Reed's still on the roster.'s started a lot of games. Let these guys come in and fight and battle, and then draft a guy in the late day two, early day three as a developmental prospect. Because O-linemen are not truly hitting their peaks, in my opinion, until probably year three.

Bring a guy in that's going to be a fourth rounder, maybe an early fifth that you're like hey we want you to develop under chris cooper we want you to develop under these tackles develop under these guards learn the system go in there and then if we need you to play this year great if not just keep getting better the next year it'll be your turn that's kind of where i would go with it as an interior guy or maybe even a guard a tackle that maybe is a shorter arm tackle i think of a guy like from maryland delmar glaze play tackle there he has long arms but he's going to move inside he's six four so he's going to play guard right those type of guys that you want to bring into your system i think you need at least two of those

guys to get brought in as rookies those guys who are six four six five but have short arms look really funny to tell you like because you're used you're used to guys being like having these huge long arms and they're like oh that's a T-Rex. That's not a man. It's funny because short arms is like 33 and a quarter versus like 35 and 5 8s, right? It's not a huge difference, but you can see it. The guys that are built, the ones that God shaped,

like you must go protect pastor, like Teron Armstead, Tyron Smith, like TJ Clemmings. he was the one we always said first off the bus right you are built to do it there's certain guys that are just built on put on this earth to pass protect and other guys are like oh you sawed off the arms a little short you just go play guard the funniest is when they don't have huge hands and because you know when i interview a player i'll shake their hand say thanks for your time whatever and normally with like daniel hunter or something you're just like i have a tiny little man hand but if it's a lineman who doesn't have a huge hand you're like what happened to you what all these other guys are just freaks anyway that's uh not the point i think what i would want to do here is look for a

left guard who can be and i love to use this term, a road grader. Give me a road grader. I think I need somebody really good, better than Dalton Reisner. I think Reisner's pass protecting was fine, and he didn't allow a sack, which is great. But I can sacrifice a couple percentage points on that to have an average pass protector if I can get somebody who's points on that to have an average pass protector. If I can get somebody who's really making a difference over there, because if you can run over the left side and have Christian Derrissaw, somebody really good and the movement skill of Garrett Bradbury, I think you can really make a difference on that side of the

ball. And on the right side, I would not lock Ed Ingram into this position. After two years, the totality is bleh. It is not good enough. To me, it's you are a totally mediocre backup level sign for $1 million type of performing player so far through two years. And I don't know if he's going to take it another step forward. And this year he had a couple of really good games and then had once again, those atrocious games that we see from him from time to time. And in the middle of the season, after they brought in Reisner, it seemed to even out

a little bit, but then as it always does with guys who need motivation from bringing in competition, it did not last. And that to me means you should be shopping for, and I, this is where I agree with you, multiple players and have a real competition, not the bogus competition they had when Ingram was a rookie so they could justify their draft pick. No, I mean a real one where you're having guys fight it out, rotating on first team reps in training camp. But I think there's got to be some money spent there because you just can't have... One of the issues with the run game is you can have five people

run blocking. And if one messes up, it's not going to crush your overall PFF grade, for example, because four guys did a great job. But that one mistake can ruin the play. And it's so often did this year where it was one guy just letting somebody in or not holding the block or confusion for who was supposed to climb to the next level. And the other thing I would say too is, so they haven't made any coaching changes, but who's bringing the identity to this run game? Because it was just a lot of like, oh, I don't know.

Anybody got a button to push? And I'm sure that's simplifying it too much. But it felt that way when you'd watch back and you go, OK, well, there's a gap scheme. There's a zone. There's a whatever. Like, they're trying kind of everything like me at any buffet ever, but that's not really how you should do a run game, I think. I think you really got to have a total feel for how you're going to use it

and then build your pass game off of those play actions. Yeah, you got to have an identity, a bread and butter, right, where it doesn't matter if they line up in a six-man box, an eight-man box, seven-man box, we can run this play and be efficient at it because we're really good at it. But that all comes back to you start your run identity in OTAs. What is my personnel build? Do I have, like you said, big road graders at guard and interior that are double-teamers and want to roll guys off the ball?

I think back to the Titans when they really had Ben Jones and Roger Saffold, just dudes. Or do we have athletic guys like Ed Ingram and Garrett Bradbury, where we have to use them to their advantage and get into a zone scheme or a pin pull scheme and do our thing that all starts with the personnel in which you bring into the building, right? So the run game is built before the first players even put their cleats on because of the personnel in which you bring, because not every alignment is created equal, right? Not all of us be the penne sewell running around the edge and smashing a corner like that just doesn't work like that

so that all starts there and i don't know is is it chris cooper is it koc is it whoever the offensive coordinator was like he wanted to do it because for me they're just such a pass happy team i feel like it's such a secondary thought like it's kind of like oh yeah we have to have a we have to have runs in this week right like okay yeah i guess we should just throw some in there because well we're not going to run them but we just put them in there just in case it's got a reverse order you know koc can scheme it up you know jefferson and addison and hawk can get open in these schemes let's get them more open by really diving into the run game this this um this off season and developing a personality developing something we want to do and if you you get a running quarterback in here as well,

that can open some things up too. You get an athletic quarterback in here that just even can escape for eight, nine yards and threaten a defense that makes the linebacker hold for a second longer. It makes a safety get his eyes in the backfield for too long and there goes the guy by him. That all comes into what we have to do for this, but it's such a complicated beast as far as like,

oh, just get an identity. There's so much more that goes into it than size. It's like, we're a gap scheme now. Yep, we're gap scheme. It's like, why? Can you be a gap, guys? Do you have a running back that trusts and knows how to do it? You're going to draft Donovan Edwards out of Michigan?

He knows how to run gap scheme. Or are you going to go draft one of these running backs that ran zone their entire life, and now you have to teach them gap scheme. Like there's just so much that goes into it. I still think that was one of the major issues for Alexander Madison who had been running the outside zone. And then all of a sudden it was something different. And that could be the difference between a half a yard per carry, which is the difference between, you know, being a great run game and mediocre.

I think it's kind of like with Kevin O'Connell, somebody as far as running goes, who tried to learn to speak Spanish off of an app, right? Where you can learn a lot of the words, but that doesn't mean you're fluent in Spanish. And it feels like they need somebody fluent. And when they had Gary Kubiak here, I mean, that guy had taught that zone scheme to everybody for many, many years.

And from Mike Anderson and Olandis Gary Gary all the way up to Delvin Cook, everybody succeeded with that. And I think the offensive linemen really understood what their jobs were, what footwork they needed, whose assignment belonged to who. And it was kind of like when they got it right, it was like synchronized swimming. It just looked like they were all working in unison. This year, there was a lot of, especially with the duo blocks, it was a lot of like when they got it right, it was like synchronized swimming. It just looked like they were all working in unison. This year, there was a lot of, especially with the duo blocks, it was a lot of like, hey, are you climbing?

Am I climbing? Am I, uh-oh. You know, just, there was just this, like it didn't have this sharpness to it. It felt like there was a lot of after plays. That's what I love about the coaches film. You can see guys kind of looking like, wait, was you where I was supposed to,

but that's, that's gotta be how it's taught. And it does come back to kevin o'connell to some extent but also what are what are we teaching from the very beginning on this because it takes a lot of detail to be great uh in the run game speaking of which san francisco thanks christian mccaffrey for being unbelievable at football and there's a team that really understands a run game. How do you look at this one? Because everything that happens, we have to overreact about the quarterback. So Brock Purdy, football's a little wet,

had some pretty bad throws, wasn't so good in that game, found a way to win against Green Bay. Now they're going to play at home against Detroit. To me, they have a massive advantage in this game. They're the strongest roster in the entire NFC. I don't even know if it's particularly close. And I guess it comes down to, can Steve Wilks cover people? Because there has been some issues a little bit there with their coverages and open receivers. And then can they just completely command the game on the ground and work off of that for Brock Purdy. But I feel like San Francisco is the massive favorite for a reason here. You know, I agree that they have the most talented roster, but watching Detroit and the style in which they play football, I'm not as high on Sam Fran beating them as most. I think Detroit has a legitimate shot. And I went back and watched the coach's tape. And if they want to try and mimic what the scheme that Aaron Jones did to beat them in the way that he,

I mean, that's the first hundred yard rusher they've allowed in 50 plus games, right? That's the first one. And he was running up and on the field. And he even had that one where he lost like 30 yards with that crazy, like kind of jump off his hands thing. And they did it with pre-snap motion and giving Greenlaw and Fred Warner a

little bit of eye candy. And when you talk about the two headed monster of Jameer Gibbs and David Montgomery, copied with the O-line that you mentioned has been phenomenal. Now, they did lose Jonah Jackson, who's going to be out. He had knee surgery. That's going to be a problem. But Frank Ragnow, all pro. Penny Sewell, all pro.

Taylor Decker's doing it for a long time. I mean, you put the combination together. The way that the Lions win is they keep the San Francisco offense off the field. And watching what Green Bay did in the run game, I think Detroit's a better running football team than Green Bay was. And I give them some credit. I think they're going to make it close at the beginning. What will kill Detroit is if they have to get away from the run game.

If they fall down by two scores, if there's a couple explosive plays on offense where Ayuk blows the top off, or if Debo plays, or Christian takes one to the house, and now Detroit's playing in a 14-point deficit and now you've got the dudes with their ears back and going. But I think as long as they can keep this game close, I really think Detroit's going to have a chance to win it at the end because of their run game. Folks, if you've been listening to the show, then you know how much fun we have been having with prize picks this year. Just go to prizepicks.com slash purple. Use the code purple for a first deposit match up to $100. And let me tell you how it works. If you haven't heard us talk about it enough yet, or you haven't

tried it yet, very simple. There are yardage totals on prizeix. You either pick more or less and boom. Each week has been a roller coaster ride of fun. And the best part is that when I have a bad week, I didn't lose much. It doesn't cost much to play. You can turn $10 into $250 very easily. And if things go sideways for you, you're not out a whole heck of a lot of money. That is prizepicks.com slash purple, just more or less on yardage totals. And you are in prizepicks.com slash purple, the code purple for a first deposit match up to $100. Their defensive scheme, I just have not really trusted the Steve Wilkes defense in the same way that I did when D'Amico Ryans was there, or even when Robert Sala was there, after watching them play against the Vikings.

And all credit to Kirk Cousins for playing a great game against San Francisco. There was no doubt that he did. But there were a lot of open receivers, and one of the most bizarre blitz calls that I've ever seen in my life was zero blitz when there was no reason to do it at the end of the half. And even Kyle Shanahan called out his defensive coordinator at that point. And then as you're watching Green Bay play them through three quarters, Jordan Love has open receivers kind of all over the field. And even when he threw one of his interceptions, the dude was wide open running over the middle. And there there's the one touchdown where literally no one is around. He just has to throw a pop fly to the guy. I mean, San Francisco feels more vulnerable from a schematic perspective. And here's Detroit bringing in the premier offensive coordinator really in the league. That's not named Shanahan, who's been so great at game planning. So great at using his weapons to get the football in their hands like that i agree that it's a really good matchup roster for roster i lean heavily towards san francisco because they have more

experience there's more veteran players on their team and overall i think that they're better but that gap right there and the other thing too is that it seems like detroit's defense has toughened up a little bit and the one thing they do is pressure the quarterback they don't cover very well i i don't believe in their coverage schemes either very much way too many receivers one-on-one but they have gotten after the quarterback and they have an all-world player doing it and that could be a problem for brock purdy especially if debo can't play i mean debo not debo going out of that game you felt the way that they couldn't really have an answer for what he brings to that offense. Jennings did his best being the big receiver and getting in there, but it's just not the same when you can just pitch it out to a fullback that runs 4-4 and just power his way through. I mean, he's such a physical runner with the ball in his hands, and he threatens so much with the screen game, the safeties suck up.

I mean, when he went out of that game, you saw everyone went, where's Iook? Boom. And Kittle burned him deep for a touchdown. You know, the tight end's there. But when you can really lock in on one receiver, Purdy then has to really go through his progressions. And like you said, if you can pressure Purdy and get in his face, you're going to give your defense a chance.

So the weak spot of the Detroit defense, I agree with you, is the back end. They're strong points. They're front seven. So I would expect them to try and take the top off them initially early in the game and try and see, threaten those guys deep and see if they can cover, again, to try and get that lead to take Detroit completely out of their game plan. So what do you got? What are you thinking?

Super Bowl matchup. Detroit and Ravens. Oh, wow. I'm taking Detroit. I'm taking Detroit and Ravens. Oh, wow. I'm taking Detroit. I'm taking Detroit over San Fran, mostly just because I want them to win. I mean, I was rooting for a Lions-Bills Super Bowl, just like two quarterbacks that went through it,

two franchises that have been in the depths of hell of fandom and football to rise to the top. So I got ripped out from the Bills already, but I'm still holding out hope for the Lions. I think Baltimore-San Francisco will be the matchup that we all kind of knew was going to happen, like the collision course from the middle of the season when those two emerged as the strongest teams.

But Jared Goff has won an NFC championship before and has been to the Super Bowl before, so I don't think he'll be overly intimidated in that environment, but I like the matchups. I think a lot of storylines between these two. Now, two more things I wanted to get to number one, Mel Kiper released the mock draft and the most interesting thing,

other than he has Jaden Daniels, now the number two overall pick, which may be similarly to last year where we were like maybe the vikings can get anthony richardson and then like no no too good at football too big too strong too fast too high as many uh and drake may going to the patriots i guess they're going to regret that tanking they did if they get drake may and uh so going down through, we've got, you know, Marvin Harrison Jr., the Chargers taking Brock Bowers, which might be maybe not the best choice for them, Malik Neighbors to the Giants.

And then no other quarterbacks taken until number 16. And Mel Kuyper's got the Vikings taking Nate Wiggins, a cornerback out of Clemson. Nobody say it. Nobody say how's it worked out to take corners out of Clemson. But he's got the next quarterback being your guy, J.J. McCarthy, at number 16 overall to the Seattle Seahawks. And no Bo Nix and no Michael Penix, which is interesting because Daniel Jeremiah had Bo Nix as the next quarterback

taken after the obvious top three. So your thoughts? It's dumb. Penix is going in the first. Bo Nix is going in the first. Someone's going to probably reach and take McCarthy in the first and regret it for the rest of the next five years. It's going to happen because the teams throughout this process are going to spin themselves up, and this is what teams do.

They spin themselves up going, we'll never be here again. There's never going to be these type of prospects again. We have to take one now. We have to take one now, and they reach, and they reach. And I'm not saying that Pennix and Bo Nix and J.J. McCarthy shouldn't be in that consideration, but there's a big gap, in my opinion, between the top three and the next three. And when there's that big of a gap and there's a scarcity of good quarterback play in the league, dudes will reach. And like you said, play the lotto. Maybe he's the

guy, maybe we can take them. But also we've seen time again, now a couple of times in a row, if you take a guy in the first, he doesn't work out. People aren't afraid to take another one the next year, a la the Cardinals. They're not afraid to do it. So I could see all six of those dudes going in the first. I could see only three of those guys going in the first. It really will depend how the pre-jeff process weighs themselves out. I think Michael Penix going down to the Senior Bowl with Bo Nix,

going kind of battle for battle there, is going to be really interesting to see which one emerges that week because none of the other quarterbacks are going down so they're really fighting for the fourth spot which will be a great thing to watch at the senior bowl oh it absolutely will and i guess i think that the nobody knows nothing when it comes to mock drafts has just been proven over and over again but to see between top draft analysts such a gap between where they think those guys are going to go. I wonder like, what is the downside on Bo Nix?

Don't tell me he's 28 years old. Cause he's not, he'll be 24 at the beginning of next season. Same age as Joe Burrow was it's not Hendon hooker. Who's 26. Hendon hooker is older than Byron Murphy jr. Do you know that? That is insane.

That is hilarious. Cause they, the Vikings tweeted out like happy birthday to Byron Murphy. And I was like, wait a minute. I wonder how old he is. And I looked, junior do you know that that is insane that is hilarious um because they uh the vikings tweeted out like happy birthday to byron murphy and i was like wait a minute i wonder how old he is and i looked i was like wait a minute he's younger than hendon hooker by like seven days uh it's not that type of situation what's the other criticism of him is it just that he wasn't that good at auburn or i think it's a little it's a little bit of a are we getting jekyll are we getting hide right because auburn and o Oregon's offenses were drastically different.

Oregon was this up-temp, fast, run-and-gun, quick slants, throw it deep, play-action RPO. Auburn was a little bit more pro-style when he was there. And I'm not saying guys can't grow, but there's always the fear with your drafting a quarterback. Is he the guy that can revert back to that or is he moved past that and when you have such clashing like drastic differences right great Heisman contender unreal to is this dude even going to start next year for Auburn like that was the question mark I think teams just get really nervous about that and really scared about are we sure he can sustain or was he a system quarterback was Was he a guy that, I mean, so many times, how many quarterbacks we've seen in Oregon, you plug them in

and they got so many good athletes and they just throw it around the yard and the up-tempo drive wears people out that sometimes that can be a knock of is he a system guy or is he a true difference maker? And, you know, I say that a little about Caleb Williams too, watching him with the USC. We thought the quarterback throws for six touchdowns as the backup that comes in like, well, okay, hold on. What's happening here?

But I think that's really the only knock. And then his age, obviously, is the only knock for a first-round quarterback. I do think that it's hard to pin down what they looked in college like versus what they would look like in your system. All I really know is that he was a big dude with a big arm and good athleticism who played out of the shotgun, which he's going to with the Vikings, and just throw, throw, throw, throw, throw, which was a lot of the Oregon offense as well. Well, that's what you're going to come into if you are with the Vikings.

But even if, and I know it sickens you to think about McCarthy, but if the idea was to draft McCarthy and bring in a bridge quarterback and then develop McCarthy for a year and see if that works, I wouldn't even be necessarily against that. I think that we all want to get started on the future today and like, let's, let's do it right now. And I just think right now it's going to be a little bit more of a longer process, but Bo Nix with his age would be more of it right now. And I just think right now it's going to be a little bit more of a longer process, but Bo Nix with his age would be more of a right now type of player.

You would expect to be able to put him into a system with these receivers that could have a competitive offense in your first year. So I'm much more interested in that. I don't really, I'm going to have to like, listen more to these people. Unfortunately, when it comes to the draft to just understand

what everyone's seeing because when i watched him it matched up with thinking well this guy doesn't look like jayden daniels but it looks like a first first round quarterback one last thing for you uh there's a report that jim harbaugh is close to becoming the san diego chargers and uh they're they're san diego till they do anything uh san diego chargers um head coach he was once a san diego charger if if harbaugh goes to the los angeles chargers and succeeds are we gonna be like should have done that here probably i mean the dude has won at every level he's ever been at he He won at Stanford. He won at Michigan. He won at the 49ers.

He's won everywhere he goes. And so you will obviously have buyer's remorse if you had him in the building and were like, no, we're good. And then he comes in the NFL and has a ton of success. The buyer's remorse and the not buying will be through the roof and everyone will be like, we should have done it, we should have done it. But shoulda, woulda, couldas, man, but absolutely. I think if he comes in and lights the world on fire

like he did in the Niners again with San Diego or LA, we'll absolutely be sitting here in Viking land going, we had him. He was right here. He just, he thought he had the job. I will, I'm going to stay with it, that I think they made the right pick at the time. For what they needed, who they needed to bring into the organization at the moment.

And plus the guy's resume as a former quarterback who had just come off winning a Super Bowl with Matthew Stafford is Sean McVay's offensive coordinator. And the results so far, I think, have been overall much more good than bad for how he organizes team. And really, okay, we're talking about the run game criticism. I'd much rather be criticizing the run game of a coach than the past game and his, his past game concepts will play. And that will ultimately be the difference is can you put in the right quarterback, whoever it's going to be, and then build the rest of the roster, but that's more up to the general manager to build the rest of the roster. But I think they still picked the right coach, even if Jim Harbaugh goes out there with Justin Herbert

and is in the AFC championship next year. It's not solidified yet, but it's a report that that's getting close. So did you have any love to see it, hate to see it that you wanted to toss in? We kind of talked about that. Not that I haven't really talked about. I mean, we talked about the obviously hate to see it. Buffalo love to see it. Hate to see it. That you wanted to toss in. We kind of talked about that. I would say that. Not that I haven't really talked about. I mean, we talked about the obviously hate to see it. Buffalo. Love to see it.

Detroit. Leave it at that. All right. Good stuff. Well, we will know who is going to play in the Super Bowl the next time we talk next Tuesday. So thank you so much, Jeremiah. And everybody for watching football football.