Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles loved the Vikings plan, O-line play vs. Browns

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

Former Vikings offensive lineman Jeremiah Sirles joins the show to discuss the Vikings' narrow win in London. Plus, why he loved the gameplay against the Browns and his thoughts on how Minnesota's patchwork offensive line performed. 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 Fanduil, Matthew Collar here, along with former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Surles, and this is the official podcast of breaking down Blake Brandel's game. Oh, do you want to hear about the quarterback situation? I'm sure you might or kind of do, but, you know, look, if we're going to have a former offensive lineman on this show, this is. your day. This is your time. So I'm going to clear the stage here. Maybe I'll just even get up and walk out of the picture and you can tell everyone what you thought of Blake Brandel.

There will be no, there will be no Blake Brandel slander in this podcast or going forward. And let me just say this. I know you're a PFF guy, read your book, fantastic. I'm done with those idiots. I'm done with the way that they grade offensive linemen. It makes no sense to me. I have a client who had zero sacks, zero hits, zero hurries, three beaten by defenders, and 40 pass protection, eh, 43 grade. It just makes negative amounts of sense to me. And so similar can be said for Blake Brandel. He had a very low PFF grade.

But what I saw when I watched the film was a player that stepped into a role that he had never stepped into before in his entire adult football life at any level. I didn't see any miscommunications across the board. I saw IDs being corrected. I saw people going in the right spot. I didn't see a single, but maybe one low snap throughout the entire game. And I felt like he played extremely well for what the position he was given to. And I would even say and go as far as if Michael Juergens is healthy coming out of the buy,

I still give Blake Brandl the not at center over Michael Jurgens. So one thing that is troublesome about the PFF grading system, and this goes for everybody, not just offensive linemen, is that one or two really negative grades can sink an entire day when there were 50 snaps. So if you have one really bad beat and it's like a minus one and a half or something, you get beat instantly, it can really sink your grade. And I think that that makes it tough sometimes in really small samples, just like a guy could get a 99 grade if he picks up a fumble or has a ball tip to him and runs an interception. Well, that doesn't mean Isaiah Rogers is the best ever. So, you know, I think that that tells a good story about the sample sizes we need.

But there's one particular play where I was not just impressed, but almost even blown away by Blake Brandel, where when Carson Wentz completes a 38-yard pass to Justin Jefferson down the middle, Joe Huber to his left gets thrown by Malik Collins. Who among us hasn't had it happen. And he just gets totally tossed, instant loss. and Wentz is going to get killed. But somehow, Brandel, who is dealing with Mason Graham, one of the top picks in the NFL draft, moves his body in a way while still blocking his man, where he can just throw a hand and kind of a hip out

to just get in the way with six foot six. And it gives him just enough time to make the throw. And I thought, that's a guy who's played some football before and some awareness. And that's why when we talk about who should play center going forward, I think experience is such a big deal. and you really saw it on that play because if he just blocks his man, well, okay, no problem. You didn't do anything wrong and your quarterback gets sacked, but yet he had the X-ray vision

to sense that the guy next to him had gotten beat and make up for that play. Instincts, intellect, and experience. Those are the three biggest things you have to have to play center position in the NFL. Blake Brandel has all three. He's played tackle. He's played guard, right? He's been in this system for a very long time. And coming from a guy that was a career backup in a similar role to Brandel,

I never started a full season, but I understood my role, which was sixth man, right? And if you're sixth man, you better know what all five dyes are doing on every single given play because you never know what position you're going to have to go in and fill. Well, what better guys suited to play the center position than to be able to tell the undrafted tree agent guard on his left, to be able to talk to the third string right tackle on his right and be like hey played that position played that position hey this is where we're all going then carson behind him worrying about the snap count and what's the route tree and going hey this is the protection scheme i've ran for multiple years there's our mic point we're sliding here

here's the call let's go and also you and i talked about brandle has shortcomings right and what were those shortcomings well they learned last year let's get him out in space let's move those three techniques out to four eyes let's make him rush change direction move his feet at center those dudes are right there they're right on top of you. And he's a monster human being. He's huge. And so I felt like he learned how to use his tools of being a large guy at the center position to his advantage, snatching Mason Graham really early, using his length against

Malik Collins when sliding to a three technique. Right now, was there things that needs to work on for sure, generating more push in the run game. But that I can tell you, from going from guard to center, where you're used to being like, oh, I have some space to get my two feet in the ground and get some momentum going forward to being as you put your hand on the ball going like dude back up like you're really close to me like get the hell away from me like it just takes a little bit of time to learn how to get quicker feet in the ground to get those steps for being six inches to three inches that all just comes with natural time at

the position and that's really the biggest detriment when his game is he didn't generate a ton of one-on-one push when he was singled up with the nose guards or singled up with a two-eye and have to reach them but from the mental and the past protection standpoint i felt like he did a very good job in this football game. And I do think that when you're making the comparison to Juergens, his quickness is going to be a Juergens quickness is going to be a little bit of an advantage there. When they were running outside zone against Cincinnati, he had some reach blocks that you need to get up and out of there very quick as a guy who's played a lot of center in his life as opposed to a six foot six tackle who's just kept moving closer and closer to the football. That

That will be right. That will be some of the disadvantage if they play Brandel. However, you get Donovan Jackson back coming out of the break. So if the left side, you're running behind, I think, elite outside zone guys in Jackson and Christian Dara saw, maybe you can survive the center. But I think the past protection is much more important. And I came in here today ready to try to impress you with a film observation. And you sort of alluded to it. But I was like, after watching the film, I'm like,

I'm going to talk about his mic point. I'm going to come in and Jeremiah is going to be like, wow, we've been doing this for five years and you finally learned something about line play because there's a couple plays where he gets to the ball. And without even like, I mean, it's one Mississippi and he's got that mic and you know what? It's not like, uh, you know, we doing this guy. It was like that guy. That's where we're going.

And I thought that the offensive line in general, even though they got whipped on some plays by some. freaky dudes over on the brown side. You know what they did? They played together. They played organized, which I think starts with that guy. And if you're going to say leadership and being able to organize the boys and get them to all do the same thing at once, that's more valuable than, hey, is this guy

slightly better than that guy? Or does he have a shortcoming? It's going to be hard if he plays a DT who's like 6-1 because he's going to be like down there. Like here's my body. But I thought that that leadership element was very clear. I agree. And, you know, we say it all the time. All five can be wrong and still be right.

But if four right and one is wrong, it's a disaster. And that's what I saw from Blake Brandles. He made sure that everyone was on the same page, right? Including Josh Oliver, including T.J. Hawkinson, including Carson, including Carson, there's times where he's bending down and looking back and talking to Carson before the snap. Like, hey, this is where we're going. You good with that? Like, hey, yeah, we're good.

good delta like the communication with the center position is so important and as we project and we look forward you pull veteran carson once out you put rookie j jay mccarthy in who do you want up front do you want the third start of his career michael jurgens who might be a little quicker and a little faster to run the football or do you want the guy that's going to make sure there's no free runners at j jay's face and do you want the the veteran guy that can help settle the rookie down next to him. Hey, you're more important to me, Donovan Jackson, than Michael Juergens.

And your development, and I'm sorry, I'm not trying to slander Michael Juergens, so please don't take it that way for people who are listening. But you have to look at it from a broader perspective. Who are we more concerned about growing and developing in this offense? Michael Juergens are Donovan Jackson. And it's Donovan Jackson. Right.

It's no secret. He's the first round pick. So would I rather surround him with Darisaw and Blake Brandl who can help him from a mental level, so that he can go play fast, free, and physical and not be worried about, can Michael and Donovan communicate and make sure that the mental side of it is on the same page?

Flip it on to the right side. Will Fries is also not an elite outside run blocker. He's not. That's not what he's good at. What he's really good is going north-south. Well, guess what? So is Blake Brandel. Right.

So now you're talking about two giant humans that you can run duo and gap schemes and inside zone and lead and be like, hey, I've got six foot six and six-foot-six and three-th 30 and 3.30, blew your hips together and move that dude and dent the defense. That is something that you're going to be able to look at as if I'm Chris Cooper and go, hey, we can run some big time interior run stuff with Jordan Mason and with C.J. Ham getting back inside now and not have to get on the outside. And then, oh, yeah, we can still pin

and pull Brian O'Neill. We can still pin and pull Derisaw. I feel like Blake Brandle gives you a lot more security on the interior offensive line, maybe not from athletic standpoint, but just from a can I put my head on the pillow and sleep at night type of standpoint, then Michael Jurgens. Folks, this year is the year that I actually get my holiday shopping going early for all of my friends and family. And there's only one place on the internet that's going to help me best. It's called Uncommon Goods.

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the game plan, what they're going to do at quarterback, your thoughts on that, the left tackle situation with Christian Darrasaw coming out of the game, played 75 snaps against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He only played half the game against the Cincinnati Bengals. He comes out in the third quarter. And watching back, I felt like you could sense the fatigue there for Christian Darrasaw. I mean, is this something that is just sort of typical of a guy coming back from an injury? Or is it something, call it to keep an eye on. I don't want to say, like, should we be worried, Jeremiah?

Yeah, yeah. But is it something to sort of keep an eye on? I think it's for sure. It's something to keep an eye on. And I don't necessarily, and I don't want, I'm not calling Kevin O'Connell a liar, but I don't think the idea that he was, oh, he reached his pitch count, time to pull him out of the game was really what actually happened. If I had to guess, and again, watching the tape, I go back to the third downplay where I think it was Hawkinson or Oliver chips Miles Garrett. Miles Garrett kind of runs around the hump and then chase his card and says went down for like a one one yard gain and i'm watching i'm like man darisaw's not moving great like he's not jumping out of there and using the chip to his advantage and closing

the space and getting hands on miles and letting miles run the humps not something you usually see christian derisaw do i think again full projection of what i think happened he tweaked something or he felt something either in his knee his hip something with that leg and went to the coach and goes something doesn't feel right. And I don't want to risk something not feeling right right now and going back out there and making now week five turn into I'm not back till week 10. I'm not right. I'm not good. I'm not where I need to be. I can't go back in and give the best to this football team right now. We need to move with a different option. Because if it truly was a pitch count, quote unquote here, you do that in the first and second quarter.

right you take some plays off of them and you check in hey how you feeling right how's it feeling like you're good to go you feeling like you're going you let walter rouse go start the third quarter and be like hey you're good coming out of halftime are you warm enough do you feel comfortable enough because the the idea that you're on a pitch count and then midway through the third quarter and a got to have a type of game season changing type of game you're going to go okay justin you go to left walter you go to right and we're going to have this three way musical chairs rotation here and then we'll finish the game doesn't make a ton of sense to me and i think that kevin o'connell didn't want to comment on that because he probably in the moment during the game

didn't get a full debrief of hey what's going on with cd it was probably trainers going hey cd doesn't feel right he doesn't think you can go back in okay let's put everyone in he doesn't have the full picture didn't want to put a comment like you could tell kevin o'clock like just get me back to home soil before i do it like get me off of this play i can't eat another plate of bangers and mash like I got to go, man. I think that that was probably more the likely scenario of what happened. Well, and I have said before that it's not under Roger Goodell's rules for him to tell us every single thing that he knows after a post game.

But, you know, I don't, it's very hard when it comes to injuries because I always want to be careful there. I don't want to say one thing happened. If I'm not, I was 100% sure, but it doesn't really match maybe the common sense to have amount of pitch count where he doesn't play in the most key moments against the best pass rusher in the world. So I think that with this situation in general, speaking broadly, that guys recovering from ACL injuries, we always just are like, ACL, you'll be fine. Just get right back. But, you know, we've seen a number of players, you know, struggle to have the same

sort of burst the minute that they come back and they need some time. T.J. Hawkinson, I'm not sure has it back at all. I think he's still been okay this year, but I don't think it's quite that jolt that he had before the ACL injury. It was really nasty. You know, even Delvin Cook struggled in 2018 after coming back from that ACL injury. Like, we've seen this a lot of times where it is not as instant as people act like it is. And also, playing 50 snaps in an NFL game versus the absolute best in the world, I mean, I just, how do you even explain? How do you explain what, what you need to do be in shape to play that many snaps. Yeah, I mean, it's one thing to go out there and play 60 snaps against the bangles when you're beating the living tar out of them and you're just

running the football and you're just kind of leaning on guys. It's a whole different ball game where every single rep you're getting the best of the best, right? Every single rep, you know that if I'm not on my top-notch game against this dude, he can make me one of my, the best left tackles in the NFL look like a moron like he's that good and the other piece going back to the ACL recovery I had an ACL I tore my ACL when I was 17 and it's not as much about the physical coming back to it it's between the years it's do I trust this leg again do I trust fully that all the rehab that I've done and all the strengthening that I've done and all the doctors telling me hey your leg's good right everything's fine you're medically

cleared do I trust it to stick in the ground and stop Miles Garrett right do I trust it to drive off as hard as I can and try and forcibly push on one leg that I tore my ACL on and in my brain I still remember the sound of that pop and the feeling of that that need the unstableness of when that ACL gave do I trust that and that's the hardest thing to come back from as an athlete is the mental side of I can't be thinking about my ACL and and my leg when I'm trying to block Miles Gary. Right. And if I am, I'm not going to be able to block it.

And that for me is when Christian Derisaw says, I feel something in my knee, whether it's my ACL, whether it's my quad fatiguing because it hasn't had this much load on it, whether it's my hamstring, like something on my left leg or, yeah, his left leg doesn't feel right. And if that's the case, I can't go out there and do it. And it's not a, oh, he's a thing or anything like that. has nothing to do with it. It's talking about when you're an elite level athlete, you can't afford to be thinking about your body. You can only afford on the snap that's in front of you, on the

process that's in front of you, the person that's in front of you, if you're thinking about anything else, you already beat before the ball is even snap. And so I have no problem. That was actually the case. I have no problem with Christian Darisal going out there because he probably would end of hurting his team more than helping him in that moment. Right. And Walter Rouse, you have to give him credit both games that he's, yeah, he did a great job. And they were moving Garrett a little bit from left to right. I think they were trying to get him against school early on, which makes sense. But no matter who you're facing on that Cleveland team and Rouse showing some of his development, both times he's been asked to come in and to survive just overall a game where you had

to play four backups is pretty wild. As far as Derasaw, I guess the only, the only thing is that you just, you hope he's going to be able to get back to that Christian Derasaw. And the surprising thing, and I know you were ranting about the PFF grades still graded well in the game. I mean, he's still overall played a very good game. But if he decided this isn't working for me at this moment, it could be worse to go out there and then get beat in a key spot as opposed to letting the veteran, you know, just at school move over to left tackle. And, you know, a lot of heroes in that game up front. And also heroic, though, is Kevin O'Connell in his game plan. And here's about, here's what I want to talk about, though, because I'm writing an article about this. And,

And I'm fascinated by it because we've broke down a lot of different, hey, Kevin O'Connell, stop. Hey, we got to give him credit on his trick play, by the way. But hey, you know, stop. It's third and 14. You don't have to try to get this. Like, just throw it underneath and don't be a crazy person. But when it comes to clutch play calling, when it comes to, hey, Sam Darnold needs a drive.

Or even, my gosh, Nick Mullins almost pulled one off against the lions, except for he threw it right to the guy. but Jefferson was wide open. I mean, Darnold, five game winning drives, eight game winning drives from Kirk Cousins. Explain to me what you see from his clutch play calling. And also you have been on the field for these game winning drives and the chaos that goes on there. Why does this work so often for him as a play call?

I think it's because he's willing. He's willing. He doesn't like it. But he is willing to adapt to. the players that he has and it takes him some time right we said it last week like hey buddy you got to stop with the whole carson wence big arm down the field thing it's not going to work right you had a great opening script and then when the wheels started coming off you kind of got away from that and they lost that football game i felt this week he's stuck with the opening script he's stuck with the things that hey this is what carson is good at this is what we know carson can operate

these are the things we'll move the pocket we'll get them out on the edge We'll get the quick game going. We'll continue to just do what he does. And then even when we get into the clutch moments at the end of the game where you got to have the moment, he didn't go, okay, time to dig into the Kevin O'Connell bag of tricks, baby, here we go. He went, all right, back to the openers, right? What worked? What worked early? What are the plays we wanted it circled at halftime and said, we're going to get back to this, right?

We're going to continue to work on this. Okay, let's get back to this route concept out of this formation and change the look. and he stuck with the game plan. He didn't deviate from the plan this week. And I think same can be said when he had Kirk Cousins, when he had Sam Darnold. Those dudes' game plans were sort of different than Carson Wentz, right? Because he knew what they could do with the pushing the ball down the field

and the trust factor. And he hasn't built that big of a trust factor with Carson Wentz yet, where he believes in Carson enough to pull the one bag of trick play out, the down the field. Like, I know you can make this 30-yard throw to the corner, put it on the sideline where only 18 is going to be able to go get it. He just was like, I know what Carson can do. I know what Carson is.

Let's just call this the way that Carson's going to do, even though it's going to make me want to throw up at the podium and maybe throw up on the entire 11-hour plane ride home, we're going to make a game plan to help us win the game, right? He just says it to himself in the mirror over and over and over and over again. There's great points there because the understanding of how much time they had, the final drive and to go underneath several times to run and get nine yards when they were clearly playing everybody back in the parking lot and then okay you get 14 on a checkdown you get

six you get and then they had waited all day for jefferson to get a single high and get an opportunity one on one and then they take advantage of it and what he said when i asked him about this yesterday he said that keeping this sort of a bunch of i don't know what you call it what's the old thing when they used to have the phone numbers, a Rolodex. Yeah. A Rolodex. Yes, keeping a Rolodex. Google that one if you're under 30, I guess, of all the different concepts that the other

team has used against them throughout the game and waiting to use something. This was also a thing I heard that Gary Kubiak was amazing at is the way that a team played some play and concept in the first quarter, he would stick it in the old Noggin and wait until the fourth quarter to take advantage of it. And I think O'Connell's very good at that. I also think that there's just a calmness in the headset where he doesn't freak out in those type of moments and he just stays sort of centered. And even the little coaching points that he mentioned when I asked him this question about, hey, if you catch it here out of bounds, if you catch it there upfield, if you if you've got the ball, get it to the right referee, not just flip it to anybody, right? Like little details that are extremely well coached.

So I think that O'Connell, in terms of his coaching in this game, turned out really, really well. And it's a lot of stuff that can carry over. Now the question is, and it took us 20 minutes to get here, but we got here. Is he going to carry it over with J.J. McCarthy or Carson Wentz? It has to be J.J. I mean, it has to be because we have to know what J.J. is. We have to. We're watching all these other quarterbacks in his class start to,

some break out some stay the same starts some start to put it together and they all have 20 some on plus starts under their belt and we're looking at j j mccarthy going i mean it's the old meme where you poke it with a stick like do something like we we just have to know what he is from a fan-based perspective from a veteran-based perspective on the team and from an organizational perspective is this dude the answer and the only way we're going to know that is to put him back out there. The problem is when you put him back out there in the middle of the season and you don't have your full compliment of people around him, it's going to be hard to really find out, is he what we want him to be? Because the game plan might have to be much

more simple. But that might be what's best for the team. It might not be what's best for, hey, what's the development of J.J. McCarthy? What's the development? Thank you guys. What's the development of what does he look like when it comes to can he operate the big downfield throws? Can he operate the play action passes can he operate this complicated system that we have or can he just win us football games and i think the first the latter part of that is what we need to focus on is can we put together a game plan that allows for j j mccarthy to win us football games and the development of what can he do has to come second i am uh in a spot where i can't really effectively plant myself in one camp because if I put myself in the, if you don't play

J.J. McCarthy, you should be fired. Kevin O'Connell, you clown. Well, I can also totally understand his explanation and actually give a tremendous answer when I asked him about what he wants to see for McCarthy. And he was talking about like, I need to see the fundamental stuff where I think he called it mandatory. Like there's things and that was a great word for him to use. There was there are things that are not negotiable to play quarterback in the NFL and me believe that you can win and not get yourself killed. And those things didn't happen against Atlanta and for at least some portion of the Chicago game, but especially against Atlanta.

And if you lose your fundamentals when you get hit and get sped up a little bit, are you going to be able to face off with some teams that have good D lines, including the Eagles, the Chargers can get after it, the Lions can get after it? Like, there's no team you're going to face where you're just like, you know what? Bowling Green's coming to town. Just going to drop back, chill out back there for five seconds, find my open guy. So I think that O'Connell has set himself up to where he can evaluate in practice. And whatever decision he makes, I'm going to kind of assume that it's the right way to go.

I don't think that there's some sort of, like there are coaches in this league. You'll never believe this, Jeremiah. They have like egos. No. Yeah. No. And like agendas and maybe don't always do the right thing. It's best for the team only, Matthew.

All times, ever. I don't think, I don't think COC's that guy. I think that nobody wants to see McCarthy succeed more than him and he's going to handle this the way he thinks his best. And I'm going to go with that no matter even if I know it's better long term to just see if McCarthy can play. Well, Boone and I were talking about this on our line committee. We were saying, you know, when you have, when you have like injuries like this

and you're looking around most of the time you can just kind of look at each other and be like just wait till our guy gets back like let's just hold on like matthew stafford will be back in three weeks boys let's just three more weeks we can we can band together and we can gut this out and find ways to go two and one or whatever it might be it's the complete opposite thought in minnesota right now where this isn't the let's just hold on until jj gets back and we'll be able to all just oh collective big breath and move forward. forward, there's more questions and answers of that position there is right now. Because the game plan for Carson Wentz will not be the game plan for J.J. McCarthy. It's it's a completely different because we talked about this early in the season. We don't believe that the quick game is J.J.'s skill set, right? Longer release time requires faster processing. He's just a young player. But it's just different. And so I think when you're looking at this going forward, you have to go, okay, we have to play J.J. I'm in the camp that we need to play JJ to see if he's the answer for the long-term solution moving forward.

And even if he's just serviceable this year. And you go, okay, I can see what he can do. Next year, he'll take a next step. We'll keep moving forward with JJ. You have to let him play. Now, if he starts becoming the reason we're getting into late October, we're getting in November, and it's very apparent and obvious that we're losing football games because of JJ McCarthy, you then have to look at where you are at a team as a

situation and be able to look Justin Jefferson and to look Gernard and Harrison Smith in the eye and say, I'm going to do what's best for the football team, which to get us a chance to get a wild car spot and put ourselves in position on the playoffs, it's going to be Carson Wetz. And that's where I think you have about a month here, the month of October, to make that decision. And you need to see if JJ's the guy or not. And we're never going to see it through training camp practices. We're never going to see it through preseason. You're only going to see it through Sundays in the fall. There is an alternate way to handle this that I hadn't really thought of until right now, which is because we've sort of made this like come out of the by, he better

be playing or else, you know, yada. But when we look at the way the schedule plays out, you could have Carson Wentz take on the next section of games and then decide where you think you are as a team. so if you let's say that you play these next three you win two out of three you're sitting there and what does that make them five and four no that doesn't make sense five five and three five and three five and three and three and you're looking at the schedule where maybe the ravens don't look as good and you know you've got some division games you've got to go to lamo and you're like all right five and three we're still really in this and then he falls apart for two games in a row you're a 500 team And you're like, okay, well, this is kind of who we are.

There is not much of a chance that Wentz is going to end up being Jeff George and take us to the playoffs. So why don't we go back to McCarthy and then he could play. I mean, if you've gotten through 10 games, then you're still going to have seven to go. And that's a pretty good sample size to work with. And it doesn't force him to play two games in four days right out of this thing or have the pressure of all the veterans. Because I think that that's a great point where you have a locker room full of veterans. and if you go back to the young guy and it doesn't work and then you're benching him and then you might want to kick the ball down the road a little bit here and just see how this

plays out first because let's say you win the next three and you upset Detroit in Detroit and Wentz plays great like okay well maybe this is a real season then as much as I don't think that is a great scenario like great likelihood scenario as probabilities aren't high and at the same time who are we talking about what franchise that that might be alternate way to look at. Yeah, and I don't think you're wrong there either. It's just such a, it's such an interesting predicament. Like you're just, you don't really know which way is the best way to lean. And this is why Kevin O'Connell wears head ball coach. This is why those, this is why those dudes get paid the money that they pay because these are job altering decisions. These are career

altering decisions for players. I mean, millions of dollars on the line. Everything, everything is just coming together into this storm but i think because kevin's been in the situation as a player where he's probably had to have these conversations of what's best for the team what's best for me what comes first i do think that you you look at it and you know we named j j the starter like he got he was named the start now yes carson wasn't here to compete and you know that all of that but we need to let the starter go back out and play with the starters and see what happens and And if come hell or high water, then we can truly bench him if things don't go well, right? But for now, J.J. McCarthy is the starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings if he is healthy.

And that's where you got to go and go from it from there. Not as much the, well, he's healthy, but Carson's playing better. No, J.J. McCarthy was the starting quarterback for this team. We will roll with him as the starter until his play, not his injury, gives us reason to bench him. like it. I agree with it. And if O'Connell was asking my help, which he's not and shouldn't, I would probably say, hey, this is, this is the guy that you watched all offseason and hitched your waggatoo. And he did kind of note in there in his answer. Like, the guy, you know, he's got to do the things we saw from him in practice. So it's not like McCarthy is incapable of doing

these things. And it's not like my eyes deceived me when I was watching him in training camp look very good. Also, sometimes guys have a really bad football game and you have to go on to the next one. And if you just keep delaying it, you might get to the point where you're saying, how do we even have a sample size for him going forward? No better time than the present to find out with J.J. McCarthy. It also, let me, I mean, you have to ask yourself the question too, do we believe that Carson Wentz can win us a Super Bowl? Right. Like that, because that's what it comes down to. Do we believe that if we start Carson Wentz the rest of the season, we can hoist the Lombardi trophy. If the answer is not a very apparent 100% yes, then you got to play the kid.

Then you got to play the kid. Now, if it was, yeah, I think he's having a big Dick Nick type of season and he's not going to be able to be stopped and he's just, we're clicking, we're firing on all cylinders, we're blowing teams out and it's working different conversation. Carson Wentz hasn't shown me enough to make me believe that he's going to lead this team. to hoist a Lombardi. So go with the kit. Yeah. And I always want to say just to toss in there to make sure it's clear. What a great job by Carson Wentz

as the backup quarterback. It's your job. Phenomenal. It's your job. Like your jobs to go like 500 or with three quarters of your starting games and you'll extend your career another four years. Like Chase Daniel. It's just that's your job as a backup. Don't look completely unserviceable.

All la Jake Browning is not going to have a job in the NFL next year. Tommy DeVito, probably not going to have a job much longer. You can lose a backup quarterback really quickly. Matt Jones, someone's probably going to pay him to be their starter next year, right? It's just the nature of the backup quarterback position in the NFL. Poor Tommy DeVito just catches astray. Didn't do anything. Yeah. So let me ask you one more question. Then we'll get to a quick, love to see it, hate to see it here. So right now, on Fandul, the Minnesota Vikings chances to win 10 plus games are at plus 250. And just to put that in

context. It's right around the same ballpark as the Atlanta Falcons plus 175. So they're a little head there. And Seattle is actually minus 105. So slightly favored to win 10 plus games. What would have to happen for you for the Vikings to prove those folks at Fandul wrong with their plus 250 and to still come away with a double digit win season? Darison O'Neill come out of the bi-healthy and start the rest of the way. Donovan Jackson comes out of the bi-healthy and starts the rest of the way. Cashman returns. We get all of our players that are banged up back onto the field,

and we don't lose any more heavy key contributors for extended time. Right? We don't lose Grenard. We don't lose Hargrave. We don't lose Allen. we don't lose van ginkle again like we don't have another wave of injuries like we had the beginning part of the season that's number one number two jordan mason becomes the focal point and the linchpin that makes this offense go or not go he he is handling the ball 18 to 19 times a game

whether it's screens whether it's running the football whatever it is like we get him more involved and then jefferson ends up with a thousand yards season somehow but i think I think that's kind of the path in which I say. And so all of that comes back to quarterback service bowl. Quarterback doesn't have to win us every football game, but he just can't lose us football games. And that's where if it's J.J. McCarthy, that is his job. If it's Carson Wentz, that is his job.

They're both in the same category for me right now, which is you can't be the focal point of this offense. You can't be live or die by the quarterback sword. You have to continue to operate this offense the way we need to go. and then the defense has to just continue to play the way it's been playing, right? Keep taking the football away. Keep finding sacks. Keep giving this offense short fields.

And then no more guide wires hitting the flag with the football. That that's probably got to help too. I'll toss this in there. Ryan Wright has to continue to be a beast. He's at a great start to the season. 77 yarder. That was insane. So I like all those things.

I'm going to throw out one more, which is you have to play teams at the right time. And it might be the right time to play Philly, depending on where they're at in two weeks. It might be the right time to play the Chargers. It might be the right time to play the Baltimore Ravens that these teams this year, nobody is running away with the league. And you've got a chance every single week. But you've got to get good matchups for them when you actually arrive at those games, like against Cincinnati, where you thought you were playing Burrow and instead you're playing

Jake Browning. So they're going to need some of that, I think, along the way. Yeah, and it also goes back to, we got really lucky we had the week five by this year. Yeah, like usually you hate this buy. As a player, you get the buy, the buy week comes out and you're like, oh gosh, dude, shoot me like this is going to be the longest death march through October, November, December and January. We got really lucky we had this early buy to try and get some of these dudes back. So it's not a patch job this week. Because I'll tell you this. We had to start that offensive line that we played against last week. Not sure that goes great against Philadelphia. that's who we're playing this week. So really lucky to get the by week when we did. Also, what makes me concerned about keeping guys healthy through the long stretcher on the end without another buy week coming up to say, okay, we'll have one more break in here. Rapid fire. I love to

see it. Hate to see it. I just, I'm going to start out with total madness. Just total madness. That's it. You know, Sean Payton goes for two. They, they win a game. You have Arizona fumbling away a touchdown. You have Trevor Lawrence fall. falling down and running into the end zone. This week was the stupidest, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Good job football. Oh, dude. You could take highlights from a lot of these games and put the circus music over it.

Like, do, do, do, do, do, it would be a big total sense. But it would make total sense. And you've got coaches, upper cutting players, like it's, which well deserved, by the way. I have no, no problem with what Jonathan Gannon did to that. Oh, wow. Okay. Also, I'm surprised he still has a job. Yeah, that was crazy.

I promise you, they're working out running backs as we speak on a Tuesday morning here in Arizona Cardinal football right now. Other piece, I'll do love to see it. James Franklin, you lost to a dude that didn't know how to turn the headset on and off during the entire football game for UCLA. Like, this team has been abysmal. They were the only team in the FBS that had not led for a single moment through the entirety of college football. You go out and lose a heartbreaker to Oregon, you fly out to the West Coast, and then to double down on it in the post game presser, you just start creating all kinds of excuses where you're like, this is on me, but you know, we had to travel really far, you know, we needed to emotionally recover from that last game and basically throw your whole team under the bus and then at the end of it go, but it all starts with me. And it all matters with me. James Franklin, you may be walking the green mile here along. or shorter than longer.

I'm going to go a quick hate to see it is when I watch the broadcasts for the Browns and the bills, they inevitably will show the future stadiums and they are indoors. And I am displeased every time I see it. I am, I am enraged. Come on, you watch that atmosphere the other night in Buffalo and you're like, you're going to put that indoors. Can you imagine had it been like a late fall, get a little snow going out there in Buffalo. a little flurry in the air.

I know it was like 80 degrees for this game, but that white out, I mean, the atmosphere outdoors. Like, I mean, like the Vikings playing a dome. It's okay if you have minus 10 degrees

that everyone could freeze to death. But like, Buffalo, it's fine. Play in the snow. Cleveland playing the snow. Taking away some of the magic of the game for me. And I just,

I haven't accepted that it's real. So then when I see it, I'm like, no, stop? Can I do something? Can I go there? Can I tie myself to a tree that's outside? No, they're going to play indoor football in Buffalo and Cleveland. And I just, I lose a part of my soul when I see it. I honestly believe that if you don't ever believe you'll host a Super Bowl, don't build an indoor stadium. And I can promise you Cleveland, Ohio and Orchard Park, New York will never host a Super Bowl.

Right. Like I get at Denver. Hey, we're going to build an indoor stadium because we're Denver and we can host a Super Bowl one day here in Denver. The whole song and dance. I agree. I mean, like Lambo, I got to play in a snow game in Lambo one time. And it was just, it was just football bliss, like just pure football bliss. You just love it. I'll do a quick. You hate to see it.

You hate to see it if you're a Buffalo fan, Stefan Diggs coming in and just handing it to you. Right. I mean, all the drama of Diggs and all the drama of the week before of him saying he only understands like a quarter of the playboy. book and everything going forward. And then just to watch Diggs and Drake May go up and down the field and get a game winning drive and a hundred plus yards. As a Buffalo fan, as much as you loved Stefan Diggs, you hated to see that on your own home turf. Yes, you did. And you know what? The thing for me is, uh, I won't be hanging out on any boats with Stefan Diggs. No. I, I won't be, uh, going on any, uh, red carpets. You'll be a Cardi B's, baby. You'll be a Cardi B's,

baby shower. I will not be a Cardi B's baby shower. So I live a very different life than Mr. Diggs. And I understand the shortcomings with him as a teammate and the way he handled things here and the way he handled things in Buffalo and everything else. That

dude is one of the best MF in football players I've ever seen in my life. And when he was doing that, I was like, let's go. I mean, I know, you know, it's for sure. Look like, it was special to watch him here. And the fire of which everyone gets annoyed at eventually also burns like that.

Like, hey, flawed, certainly, but man, is he good at football people? Like, that sideline catch, he makes it look easy. That's one that gets dropped all the time in the NFL. That's an incredible play. It was a magical night for him returning to Buffalo. So I kind of love to see it, even though, you know, the result was not the one of my hometown. I love to see it. But I was just saying from a Buffalo perspective, like, you hate.

it when the ex-girlfriend comes into your stadium with the new hot boyfriend and just throws it all over the yard. Because Drake May, when it's all set and done, and I might regret this, when it's all set and done, I am willing to plant the flag that Drake May and may be the best quarterback out of that trap class that came through it. He is, he is special. There's a reason why the Vikings got that second first round pick just in case. And I think we saw it. And joy practice is McCarthy was the more effective quarterback with a supporting cast. But May with the physical traits, my goodness. So the football is good, Mr. Searles.

And we will, I assume we'll do it next week. Usually on the by week, we do a love to see it, hate to see it, like full show. So let's plan on doing that and enjoy your maybe a little more relaxed Sunday. And hey, Taylor Swift release a new album. I know you're so excited about that. you'll get all seven different covers and sign up for a credit card that she wants you to get and all the all the things that the swifties do yeah i mean i heard she's talking about uh Travis's dong on there too so maybe I'll be able to take a peek at that and that's the end of the show football football football Thank you.