Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles needs the Vikings to simplify the offense

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

Former Vikings lineman Jeremiah Sirles joins the show to discuss the Viking offenses continued struggles and the release of Adam Thielen. Then Maggie Robinson joins the show for the weekly Robinson Round Up. 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, and is time once again for Tuesday morning left guard with Jeremiah Searles, which actually lit up the internet last week as you responded to the struggles of J.J. McCarthy, and if anyone said it couldn't get worse on that podcast, I don't recall, but if you did, then you were wrong because it did get worse. And I was finding myself explaining to people that nuance of the quarterback rating stat where if you just threw it into the ground, you'd have a higher quarterback rating. The reason is because when you throw interceptions, the other team gets yards on them, right?

So think about it yards per attempt. A turnover would be like worse than a punt in terms of giving up yardage. So that's how it's actually worse. Uh, anyway, that's what happened in Seattle. Vikings and Seattle Seahawks. But here's where I want to start with you, Jeremiah Searles. And this almost feels like under the category of you can't make it up, the discussion over the last two days of press conferences from Kevin O'Connell,

then offensive coordinator, West Phillips, are about simplifying the offense. And it does feel like a better late than never type of situation. and there were lots of things that were mentioned by West Phillips when it pertained to this, including the number of formations, you know, trying to work a little better to certain players' skill sets, which, you know, I think they're always doing anyway, but maybe simplifying how many different things and moving parts are with the offense, which I believe has been something that's been asked for from this offense for about four years now, but especially this year it has been glaring how much is asked of the quarterbacks. And now we are at

Jaron Hall, J.J. McCarthy, Max Brosmer, where it's not just that it's not working. It's been disaster performances from the young quarterbacks. So when I present you with this factoid, what say you about simplifying an NFL offense? Seems like it's not the easiest thing in the world to do. Well, no and yes. The simplest thing you can do is why 80 wide 80 set hut you turn around and you hand it to someone else and that's about as simple as it can get ask the buffalo bills or the Chicago Bears or any of the other three teams this week that ran it 45 times in a football game I'm losing two tackles right big a McDermott Dionne's out Spencer brown's out we're playing the Steelers James cook come to play we're just

going to hand you the ball till you die Christian McCaffrey similar thing hey we're struggling up front. Brock Purdy's hurt. You want to just hold it until you die. That's the simplest way you can perform an offense. The absolute simplicity of an offense is run the football and just commit to it. Just 100% commit to the run and just say, this is what we're doing and simplify it. And then guess what? Easy things simplify off that. Play actions, bootlegs, naked, one, two man route combinations because you're cutting the field in half, simplifies what a quarterback is seen. When you just say, oh, simplifying means. we're going to go from 800 pass reps to 400 pass reps.

That doesn't scream simplify in my mind. Well, what about the number of formations and motions that this team has? Because that doesn't matter to you? That doesn't matter to me because it's all pre-snap. It's all pre-snap, right? All of that is what we call window dressing, right? It's the, it was Thanksgiving last week, right? So it's the sides, right?

It's the mashed potatoes and it's the green beans and, oh, it's the creamed corn over here. At the end of the day, it's all about the turkey. And the turkey is what matters, right? If your turkey sucks at Thanksgiving, everyone's going to be pissed. No one's going to care about the sides. Window dressing for me is nothing more than understanding what the first part of the formation is and the final part of the formation is. And from there, it really doesn't matter if you start and doubles right to end and trips left.

If the formation changes, the play is still the same. The play has not changed. It's a matter of getting people there. And honestly, motions and those type of things help a young quarterback identify a defense in front of them. Hey, we shift from doubles right, which is two by two to three by one on the left. The corner runs over. It's man. Hey, everyone bumps over. It's zone. Hey, they shifted this front here. It's probably a blitz. There's so many things that pre-snap motions can give you as an indicator that you want the answers to the test before it begins. And so the idea of we're just

going to line up and go, if I'm a defensive quarter, I'm going, please, please just line up in a simple formation, allow me to get my call and not have to worry about making a check. And not having to talk to my linebacker in his ears and go, hey, alert the motion for this or prepare for it like this, the simpler you become in a pass and emotions and that type of thing, the harder it is to actually gain yards. You want to be able to run the same play from two or three different formations. So I think we did see this. Dylan Gabriel's first start against the Minnesota Vikings. They basically just ran every play. And the past plays that they did use were often play actions, getting the ball out of the quarterback's hands quickly, which

has been a struggle. They did do it last week against Seattle. Max Brosmer was actually 8 for 10 when throwing the ball less than 10 yards and 1 for 9 when throwing it more than 10 yards, which I will say if a quarterback can't execute a hitch route on time when the guys wide open, you know, that's not really on the coaches, I would say. And that is really the struggle here, isn't it, for this entire season, which is, you know, I think simplifying always. sounds good when you say it. It always, I mean, who's, who's going to be like, no, no, no, more complicated for these young quarterbacks who are in over their head.

It's always going to sound better to talk about simplifying it. But I also think that the main struggle is really the timing with the wide receivers and when the ball is getting there and where it's getting there. I mean, even looking at Brosmer's tape, it's a lot like JJ where, you know, here's Jefferson coming out of a break and he's in a window and you have to throw it. but it's like, I'm not sure. Oh, I saw him come open and now I'm throwing it, but the linebacker's there. So I have to throw it high and it flies over his head.

There's just a lot of that. Or I'm getting sped up because the Seahawks are very scary human beings. And here's Addison running a 15-yard hitch. He slams on the brakes. He turns around the ball flies by. And it's like, oh, that wasn't supposed to be there at that time. And even though it was a clean pocket, it still was football scary. And it was coming out too quick.

I think that it's hard to figure out how much of it is on paper or in practice. I'm sure this looks great versus what your quarterbacks are actually capable of doing. And I think that this has been the thing that is dragged at KOC for so long kicking and screaming towards simplicity with his offense. It's like our guy even threw it in the right area and it just cannot connect. So maybe this is the time where you start to say, all right, you're going to have to go back to the drawing. board here. And what a team to do it against Washington. I think this actually is a pivot point moment for O'Connell, for the offense, for J.J. McCarthy, because now you've declared you're making a change. You're simplifying things. You've set it in public. Now we have to see it and it has to work.

100%. And everyone's going to question what does simplify mean? Because that's such a, it's a broad term, right? And everyone has in their mind what simplify actually means. Simplify to Kevin O'Connell does mean the same that it does to you and me right and when i hear simplify i think run the football high percentage completion throws and not these five to seven yards step five to seven step drops with long complicated with a lot of option routes with the receiver's ability to hey if it's man you take it here if it's zone you take it here and then max and them have to jj have to guess well did i know it was man or did i know it was zone and and like that's the that's what i think the simplify means for as far as with the Kevin O'Connell is you take a lot of the option routes off of the receivers and the

tight ends and the backs, and it's just called routes. Hey, gun trips right, X. Dino. Done. No kill. No alert. We're running this play and it might not be the best look for it, but at least I can trust that maybe JJ's going to win a one-on-one matchup or Addison's going to win a one-on matchup. And it's not the perfect ideal look, which so many times Kevin O'Connell wants to get to because he knows that he can't. He knows that I can tag this route with, a kill and an alert that if we get a certain type of coverage or a certain type of blitz,

we can get to this play and it's going to be a better play. But if you can't execute it on both ends, then who cares? What's the point? So I think it's going to be a lot more instead of the check with me system of getting ups and alerts and kill, kill, kill, kills. It's just going to be call it system. Hey, here's the play. Call it, run it. Manor zone. It's designed for someone to win. You know where your first read is. Go read to read to read and get rid of it. But a lot of it, I think simplifying comes down to just trusting you're a line to run the football. And the commanders have struggled to stop the run. They're not the Seattle Seahawks.

They're not the scariest front four that you might play all year. They are very beatable. You can rely on running the football. I watched it two nights ago with the Denver Broncos. There is a lot there where you can feel like talent-wise you can overcome this front. Now it's a matter of just staying with it, executing it. And again, getting Max or Jake, I don't care who it is. Get them on the run.

get them on the rollout, give them run pass options and one or two person routes outside the pocket instead of having to truly go one to two to three to four to check down and run every single time. Yeah. And this feels like when they're talking about how it looks in practice that there's just no way whatsoever to simulate the actual speed that the other team is coming to destroy you. And when that happens, everything gets tweaked out, whether it's second guessing yourself or whether it's, you know, trying to get the ball out too early and not being able to time it up, I noticed, and I was certain they were going to do this, Seattle threw a bunch of different stuff at Brosmer. They had lots of looks. They had lots of different pressures.

And there were a bunch of times where it was like, oh, it's not two deep safeties. Now it's cover three. And then there's, he actually made a really nice play on one of those where he hit T.J. Hawkinson down the seam. But they ran a bunch of those where they're not, designed to just shock the quarterback who has no idea what he's looking at, but just make him hesitate long enough to get Leonard Williams in there, Byron Murphy in there. They got some freaks. That dude,

Eman Juare, there was a play, oh man, you talk about trying to run the ball and they couldn't do that either. There was a play where Josh Oliver went to block him and he stuck him right in place. And I was like, oh, my gosh, this team is nuts.

That play from DeMarcus Lawrence, where he tracks down. That was like Lawrence Taylor. it should have been NFL films music behind it. It was just, okay, this team is way too physical for you guys. That is not the case with the Washington commanders. But my question is, when you limit it to that, when it's the short play call that old purple insider could get in the huddle and call,

I mean, how limiting is that to J.J. McCarthy, though? Very. It's very limiting. But at this point, you have to do something different. And it's limiting there because if you publicly come, out and you say we're simplifying, the defense is going, well, we're cranking up, right? If they're going to be simple, we're going to be complex. And we're going to get up there and we're going to give, just like you said, a bunch of different looks pre-snap, we're going to rock and roll safeties.

We might do something completely different than we've done in the last two weeks to really rattle him, right? Hey, we're a four, three, and all of a sudden we come out in an under, we usually play over and just make it look different and make them say, okay, we practice simple all week and then come off on the first series. I'm like, that didn't look like anything we went against all week. What do we do now and try and make their in-game adjustments on the sideline, which when you're a veteran quarterback and you're a veteran team, super easy, peasy, not a problem. Redraw it. Hey, we've done this a ton before. When you're a young quarterback, it's much

harder to do because now you're trying to adjust and adapt on the fly. And even like you said, Kevin has the right play call he's called, but if you can't execute the throw, then he gets put in a rock and a hard play. So I don't even know what to do. I can't even, if my quarterbacks can't even execute the simple game plan, how then am I supposed to expect them to execute the complex one, but you have to do something different. You have to re-go back to the drawing board and start over here because the last three weeks are three weeks that Kevin O'Connell's never going to want to remember the rest of his life. Also, I thought we saw this already against Chicago and Green Bay. Green Bay, they ran a ton on early downs. Chicago, they ran a ton on

early downs. And I didn't see a lot of crazy complicated stuff from the offense. And the throws were just missed. And this is where you can bring us into a practice in the middle of the season because they've been talking about, well, you know, Brosmer's look good at practice and McCarthy's look good in practice. But something else that West Phillips mentioned was, you know, maybe we need more full speed reps or something as opposed to walk through reps. But the hard part is you are in week 13, is it 14, that's hard, hard to do. You're not doing that. Right.

You can't do that. You can't do the full speed rep stuff. This is really on you to figure it out in real time as the quarterback, which I understand with Max Brosmer. And had he not had the cartoon interception, I actually thought there was some things that he did that were really good, decision making and getting rid of the football. That one just kind of washes out everything. But there were really just a true, this guy's never played with this wide receiver before.

I think he's probably never played with a wide receiver who is even in the stratosphere of how fast Justin Jefferson. And I think this throws off JJ too, how fast he gets there to the spots because he does not slow down out of his breaks. That's what makes him so great. But for a quarterback, you're expecting a guy to go up, stop, turn left like they do in college, and then be like, I'm wide open. and in the NFL, you have to throw it before he's even turning because he's so freaking fast. I don't think that the expectation of Brosmer locking in was realistic. But JJ coming back, if he can't get it with this, some of the timing stuff, then I don't know what to say.

Like, if that's, they've tried everything, they're simplifying it, they're going into this with a very straightforward game plan. Now you should be able to work it out and get on the same page with your wide receiver. And if that doesn't work against this caliber of football team, then I got nothing as far as solutions. I completely agree. I mean, you can only dumb it down so much. This is still the national football league. You can't just say, oh, well, we're just going to have to dumb it down even further than the lowest team.

That just doesn't work. I mean, you look at like what Tennessee is trying to do with Cam Ward and a young quarterback. They're getting killed every single week. You look at teams that are not complex and not unique on offense. Defense coordinators are feasting on them all the time. And so even you look at the great run teams in the NFL, like the Eagles, they were simple running the football last year. Well, guess what? You put a year's worth of it on tape.

Defense of coordinators figured it out. And so if you just want to keep saying simplify, simplify, simplify, eventually you're just going to outclass yourself in the classroom. And the defense corner is just going to win before the ball is even hiked because they're going to be in the position that you put them in because you put such simple things on tape that all week long, they're not preparing for 25, 30, different looks. They're preparing for 10. And they can lock in on those 10 different looks and those 10 different formations. You become predictable and you become stagnant and stale. And then there's really, it doesn't matter if you can execute it or not. The defense is always in the right position to execute. So there's only so much you can truly dumb down an offense in the national football league and expect to still have success. But I agree with you, JJ has, they've done everything

they can. And so if JJ comes back and it still looks like it has the last three, four weeks, then I don't know what else Kevin O'Connell can do besides just turning them back into a handoff merchant. What usually ends up happening when a team does something like this is for one week it's fine because Washington doesn't know what's coming and they're awful. And usually you do something like this against an awful team so it's got a chance to succeed. And then the very next week, I mean, you're going to Dallas. Quinn and Williams just joined that team. Ryan Kelly's banged up again.

Donovan Jackson. I don't know what the outlook is for him. This, you know, Will Fries is struggling, I think, at times this year. It's really dependent on matchup. Like Leonard Williams is a terrible matchup for a guy who's a big giant human being that does not have the best quickness. And he just shot by him a couple times. But Quinn and Williams has it all.

He has the size and the quickness and everything. So that doesn't seem like a great matchup to me. The Giants, they could potentially beat with any sort of game plan. Their kicker won't even swing his leg. So, I mean, and Jackson Dart, there's no way he's playing by then. He's going to be injured. There's no chance. There's no chance.

So, you know, you could get through these next couple of games and look like a reasonable offensive outfit, but then you've got to play the Lions and the Packers. And I think those games will be really telling if they improve. I do want to get into a little bit of longer term quarterback discussion. But I also don't want to, because I know I've been guilty of this. just let everyone else off the hook for 2025 and just be like, no. Christian Derisaw is a really tough one for me because I don't like the idea.

And it's been out there with fans and stuff of questioning a player and how he's handling his own injuries. To me, that's just from my seat. That's wrong. That's crossing a line. But there is a truth of the matter about the number of games missed for Darisaw that I think has to be at least a little concerning. for this team going forward with the amount that they have paid him and the fact that he has

struggled to get back with this knee injury and then there's an additional injury where he misses a game. I mean, where do we stand on just him in general about where he's at in his career and is that paycheck going to work out? Is that contract? Because it seemed like the best contract in football when he signed it. And then a year later, you're kind of like, should I be worried about this? I don't think so. You know, I think this year, because you got to think about for a player, when you go through a season-ending injury like he had late in the year, you lose your whole off-season. I mean, your whole off-season in the NFL, it's not like college where it's like bigger, faster, stronger, right? Like, just, go for it. It's about getting your body back to

baseline and getting yourself back to baseline. And then once you get back to baseline in about February and March, then going back and perfecting your craft and working on things that you struggled with during the season and getting back in the weight room. I mean, it's not about just like this huge growth, but when you lose that whole time and then you're trying to rehab one single injury so you can't run like you used to and you can't squat like you used to. And so your whole routine just gets completely thrown off of what you've done for years. And then you come back in and your leg's still not 100% right and you're knowing you can still play, but mentally maybe you're not ready to go. You start overcompensating with other things and other.

things can start getting injured there. And so very rarely do as a player, in my opinion, that has a season ending the injury the year before, come back and look to form the next year. And I think that this conversation, we can punt until September and say, okay, what does 2026 Darosol look like now that he has his full off season back? He's back in his regimen.

He's back in his training routine. Everything was back to normal before he got hurt. And then once 2026 kicks off, I'm more willing to have that conversation. I'm not concerned about it right now because of how hard it is to come back, especially from a big time knee injury. Right, for a guy who is naturally gigantic in Christian. So the other thing is, too, that in a season like this where you're 4 and 8,

your 4 and 7 with a third string undrafted quarterback going up against the Super Bowl contender last week, if there is a part of Christian Derisaw who's saying, I want to play in this league until I am 37 years old, or whatever Trent Williams is still facing off with Miles Garrett in one heck of a battle the other day. If he wants to be that, playing through every injury and risking yourself into the future when you're looking for not just this contract,

but also another contract on top of it to keep you in the league for a really long time, which he has the talent to do it. I have a really tough time saying, how dare you? Yeah. Under these circumstances, like they're, it's called the business. decision, but sometimes you have to make that decision for yourself. Like, if I go out there and play with it, and look, he did come back and played really well, but just missing another game, if I push through this, yeah, if this was Super Bowl

Sunday, and I'm not putting words in his mouth, I'm just like, this can be a reasonable mentality for a player. And even from my seat, I'd prefer Christian Derisaw be the healthiest version coming back next year and continue to be the franchise left tackle. Let me ask you about another player, Jordan Addison this year. has done very little and I think we all understand if Justin Jefferson can't catch passes

then how are we to judge but there's another part of me that has been kind of nifted by the number of drops and there was another one in this game and there's one in the Chicago game and look in the bigger picture you're like whatever right I mean this was that really going to go in a great way

but in terms of actually putting a reasonable football product on the field make a catch against Chicago, you get a big play. Maybe you get a field goal there or something. Make a catch against Seattle. Get your quarterback a little bit of confidence. There's just been drops, and then there was the suspension in London for a quarter with him. I think we all know how much KOC loves Jordan Addison, so I'm not advocating necessarily a trade or whatever, but it just feels like we have to also point some fingers at other people

then just continue to say it was all the quarterback. We can't overlook all the drops that they've had this year. Yeah, the drops have been an issue this year. And I think so much that leads from frustration, right? When you're a receiver and you're open, you're open, you're open and you're not getting a football and you're frustrated and you're pissed off on the sideline and you're slamming helmets and you're sitting next to your buddy like this guy can't even get us the football.

Then all of a sudden the ball's right on. You're like, oh, there it is. Right. I think that just a lot of that frustration, but that is no excuse. You have to understand that. you're considered one of the top wide receivers in this league for a reason. How many terrible quarterbacks did Larry Fitzgerald play with? He didn't care.

He just found ways to go and make plays and catch footballs. I mean, Jerry Rice and Megatron and all these team guys that were great, you hold yourself to a higher standard. And I don't, again, I don't know Jordan Addison, but it doesn't seem to me like he wants to hold himself to that incredibly high standard from what I've talked about and seen, right, just the way he acts and talks on the field. And so you just expect more from a guy like that

because of the numbers and the production that he's had the year before. But also off the field issues carry onto the field. It's just a reality in every team that has off field issues besides the Eagles, they worked through it last year, but this year it's kind of coming to a head. But a lot of off field distractions can lead to on field performance issues. And I think that's part of what happened with Jordan Addison

with the suspension for a quarter, missing the first few games. Like all that stuff plays a factor into, a player's psyche, into a player's ability. And so I don't think we've seen the best of Jordan Addison this year. And when you're struggling at the quarterback position, you're struggling in offense and your number two wide receiver is struggling too. You're right.

You can't just all fall on nine and say, you're the worst. Die, move ahead. Like everyone plays a part in this. And both Jefferson and Addison have taken their terms with some really bad drops this year. And they have to, yeah, they have to look themselves in the mirror and say, could I have done something different to help. this young quarterback, and maybe I did.

And, you know, Jefferson had the one that's a little behind him, but is usually a snag that he makes pretty easily. And I think there is something to from the wide receiver position getting into a rhythm with your quarterback where, I mean, if you've thrown a thousand balls with each other, the timing is right, your stride is right, your eyes are right. And, you know, that thing is a lot harder to catch than it looks. I stand next to that judge, uh, jugs machine all the time and watch the rest. receivers catch it. It's mind blowing how fast that football is coming. But that's what you're

paid for. That's what you're a first round draft pick for is to pull in the ball when it's not necessarily perfect. And they're going to have a decision to make with Jordan Addison. I assume that they just will pick up the fifth year option. I believe that it's time to do that. But in terms of long-term contract extension, I don't think that you can start having that discussion based on where things have been at. I'd like to see a full offseason of no issues. and then kind of go from there, but you also probably have to see the production that's consummate with someone who gets paid

like one of the better number two wide receivers in the NFL because that is a very steep price. So if you're going to do it, it's got to be for T. Higgins. It's got to be for somebody who is really definitely worth it or Chris Godwin. But I don't know that Jordan Addison has shown that this year. In the past, it's been borderline that,

and it's always looked like it had another level, but there's been just too many lapses, it feels like for him to say that. I want to not spend too much time on that because we'll have an off season. But Adam Thielen waived, what was your reaction to that? Makes sense. You know, I think that makes sense. You know, when he got traded here, he basically was talking about how this is where he wanted

to end his career, one more year, make a run. Obviously, that's not going to happen here. Respect to the organization of just letting him go and maybe join a Kansas City or a Buffalo or, you know, someone else. The thing that sucks is we gave up draft picks for, right? I mean, they weren't high round draft picks. They're not things that are going to make you really loose sleep at night. But at the end of the day, when you're looking at a roster that is the most cash-heavy roster in the NFL,

you need draft picks to perform and even low-round draft picks to show up and contribute. And so, you know, to trade for Adam Thielen and get draft picks and then to just let him walk and release him feels like you just kind of got burned. a little bit and it's unfortunate and I don't think anyone anticipated this being what happened but also what did he really expect did he think he was going to come in here and unseat Addison and be the wide receiver two and unseat maybe even Jestersen and the Naylor had a strong year coming there in the middle he was a very distant wide receiver four with this group when everyone was healthy in my opinion I don't know if he thinks that he's different than that and I don't know if maybe he'll go somewhere else and prove me wrong but I think that's kind of where

he's at right now as a receiver in this league on the back end of his career, super bummer to see him go, but I think it's probably the right move for both parties. Well, you and I both know Adam pretty well. He is like one of the reasons he's here is because of how delusional he is. I mean that as a big compliment. I'll tell you a real quick story. I was doing an article one time about Phelan and how he almost played college basketball. And so I wrote about the type of basketball player he was in high school, interviewed his high school basketball coach. all that sort of stuff, talked about some of the crossover skill sets. And so I was interviewing him about it.

And I said, wow, thank goodness. You picked football, right? I mean, good choice because there's no way you were like making the NBA. And he goes, people said there was no way I was making the NFL. I'm like, okay, but you're like six to, but he, but he was, he was a little ticked. He was a little ticked. Yeah, he was serious. He was like, what?

I was going to make the NBA. Like, okay, I don't know. That was a little harder than the NFL. but like there's only 12 of them. There's 53 of this. There's almost as many receivers as there are NBA players. But anyway, the point is that like Adam has always believed in himself in an irrational way, which helped drive him to be an all-time outlier in this organization and in the

NFL. So I would not be surprised if he felt like I have the belief in myself to go help a championship caliber team. Also, if you're going to hang it up and you've decided and you've talked with your family like we're done after this year i don't know if you want to do it this way on a team that's going to win six games and just kind of go out like that take your one last swing try to latch on with an organization that's got a chance to be in the playoffs he hasn't won a super bowl in his career went to carolina hoping they were building something turns out that he kind of missed when they

were building something and uh you know i get it from his perspective i think it's just a sign of the times of where the vikings are at it's more telling than anything that even one of the players who's from here and is so beloved is like, okay, I'm out. This is not, this is not working. Folks, the holidays are almost here. And if you still have names on your list, don't panic. Uncommon Goods makes holiday shopping stress-free and joyful with thousands of one-of-a-kind gifts that you cannot find anywhere else. You'll discover presents that feel meaningful and personal, never rushed or last minute. Uncommon Goods looks for products that are high-quality, unique, and often handmade or made in the U.S., many of which are crafted by independent artists and

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to give 15% off your next gift. Go to Uncomcom slash Purple Insider. That is Uncommonogoods.com slash Purple Insider for 15% off and don't miss out on this limited time offer. Uncommon goods were all out of the ordinary. But yeah, I mean, it's a bummer. I was hoping to see him have his last shot here in Purple and great teammate, great guy to be around. And, you You know, it just didn't work out. But unfortunately, that's how a majority of the time it works in the NFL. Very rarely is it the picture perfect story on how it ends. Just a another signal of where this team is at.

So what's realistic? I'll give you the over under here on Fandul for this here football game is 42 and a half. We have seen a lot of low over unders. And the Vikings, as I've mentioned before on the show are, oh, wait. Oh, it changed. Okay. So the Vikings were initially, I did not realize this. They were initially underdogs and now they are one and a half point favorites.

So this is, this is, yeah, wow. Maybe this is with JJ coming back. That could be the case with JJ, with the starting quarterback going back in, now they are one and a half point favorites against Washington. How about that? So 42 and a half, I mean, one and a half point favorites over a three and nine team. I don't retract any statements that I, made about what that line says about

where you are. But I make no apologies. What, what's, let's make it broader. What's realistic for the rest of the season? I honestly, I don't know the answer to that because it's been such an up and down roller

coaster every single week. You don't really know. This is the first time I remember watching the Vikings in a long time. When they walk out on the field on Sunday, you really have no idea what's going to happen for the next three hours you knew even when i played with them in 2016 hey we're probably going to turn the ball over our defense is going to get us a couple turnovers and we're going to maybe win maybe lose but probably lose in a one score game great punt

returning guarantee yeah marcus sherrills will return one like something that'll like special things happen you turn on the viking tape and if you were to watch them out of order you wouldn't know which week was what you wouldn't know oh there's marked improvement here and it's all like week one can look exactly like it does in week 13 everything's in between so from a broader picture I would just like to see some consistency across the board on this team good bad or ugly if it's ugly consistent on offense okay at least now we can at least pinpoint problem problem problem fix it in the offseason if we go out there and light the world on fire against the commanders and the giants it almost raises more questions than concerns and so I really don't

know from a broader picture what to expect I think this defense is continuing to get better at but then, you know, Dallas Turner showed up in a big way against Seattle. And she's like, okay, there's some promise there moving there. Eric Wilson's been a bright spot of this defense. Unfortunately, I think Harrison Smith probably should have retired last year. Love Harry, but he's got a bit of a falloff in what he's been able to do this year. I don't know from a broader perspective, Matt, every time you ask me, what do you think for this week of the Vikings?

I honestly have no idea what to expect when they go out there on Sundays. So recently, the consistency has been ineptitude. They're just not having any answers and totally and over their head. And you mentioned a roller coaster. Roller coasters tend to go up. This has not done a lot of that this year. This has just been a one of those like train rides that you can take at them. I don't know if you know this.

Yeah, we're like, well, I was falling. Yeah, right. It just just keeps going down. Right. I was, I guess that's right. But I was thinking about like there's a mall train. in the Mall of America, they have a little person that drives around a train and kids get in it and they, you know, go around.

That's kind of what it is. It doesn't go up. It just kind of moseys around to different places, but it's the same thing. That's been this offense recently. The up was really just Detroit, but when you leave there with under 150 yards passing, it's really hard to say that, like, wow, you nailed it. And there was also a stat that Drake May hasn't thrown for under 200 yards all year. Oh, man.

Maybe that'll show up in a second and love to see it, hate to see it. But I just, just, just think that marked, mark, is it marked or marked, marked improvement on offense and execution from J.J. McCarthy. Show signs that it was just Green Bay's defense that was whooping you and that a little bit of a reset here, get you back on track. And show something of a. of an adjustment. I mean, I think that it's something that we could come in here on Tuesday morning,

left guard and say, oh, okay, like, they did this different and it worked and like, that's what they were supposed to do. And maybe they were a little late to the party, but here, here they go. And let's see what, how this thing ends. That's the best I can do at this point because it's just been, when you're 32nd in the quarterback play in the whole league, what can we really set as our standard? But love to see it, hate to see it. Why don't I just begin with, with that?

uh both love and hate to see it because one of my good friends chad graf is covering the new england patriots you had to go through some really bad years to get there but now has one of the best quarterbacks in the nfl breathtaking quarterback play from drake may week in week out looks like an absolute megastar and that team's not even that great yet and uh you know when they were here we were like oh their receivers aren't that good their lines not that and here you are The quarterback does a lot. So love to see it is for him covering that team that's so exciting. And the hate to see it is clearly that we sat here for, I don't know how long and said,

maybe you shouldn't have won games with Josh Dobbs because maybe you could have got Drake May. And they didn't. So now Chad has what we wanted. It's painful, but he is really good. And he is really fun to watch. I mean, just the processing power that he's built in the first two years of Blitz, there it is. dump it, lob throw here to the tight end over the linebacker, catch first down, game over.

You're like, okay, I see, I see how this works here. My love to see it is going back to Thanksgiving, the Dallas Cowboys. The Dallas Cowboys, I think everyone looked at Jerry Jones with kind of cross-eyes when you made the trade for Quinn and Williams and Logan Wilson and you're kind of like, you're a three-win football team. What are we doing here? Probably not making the playoffs. They go out, they beat the Eagles.

They go out. they beat the Kansas City Chiefs, and that division is getting much, much closer. George Pickens, C.D. Lamb are coexisting way better than I ever thought imaginable. And hats off to Mr. Schottenheimer, because I can say, when they made that higher, we might even set it on this show as I hate to see it.

Like, what are we doing? Like, really, that's the guy? He's got that team to buy in. He's got everyone on board. I like to see the Dallas Cowboys making it super interesting in the NFC East. I mean, I know that that's most people's hate to see it, because they don't want more cowboys on their television. But in this instance, I think we could all make an exception

because that team went through an unspeakable tragedy around it. And Brian Schottenheimer has had to guide them through that. And we've been there, you know, with teams that lost people inside the building. And it is so brutal for every single person who works in that building to have something like that happen. It is so hard for a head coach to get everyone back focused and moving forward. I mean, it's almost impossible. So for them to do that, it is a really impressive coaching job. And if they somehow make the playoffs, then he's got to be in the running for coach of the year.

It's been impressive. And also, what I end up rooting for is quarterbacks that everyone wants to say stinks all the time, who actually don't stink but are not perfect. So that's the Jared Goff, the like earmuffs everybody, Jordan Love, the dialogue around Jordan Love just makes me want to throw myself off a building. and the same thing with Dak Prescott, where it's like, I get it. He's had some bad playoff games, some no-shows, some shocking no-shows. He's never been perfect.

He's had injuries, but this guy has run top offenses, and you give him these guys at receiver, and you're like, look at him, you know, the processing that he has, the accuracy he has. And now, thanks to the recent quarterback play, every person who can do that, I'm like, wow, how do you do it how do you do it um so no i like i've always wanted sort of dack to overcome the jerry jones and the whole thing and uh kind of prove people wrong so that's a little bit of a love to see it but uh i again love or hate i'm not sure the lane kiffin situation is so freaking funny to me but i i just can't get enough of it you got people trying to run him off the road on the way to

the airport you got people as he's flying out flipping them off. He's like, no, it's not about the money. Like, what? He's getting called things we don't say on this show by podcasters and then yelling at him in press conferences. The thing about college football is, it's a circus. And once you accept that that's not a sport, that's a circus, it all becomes so much better and more fun. Like, oh, this is so illegitimate. This is so, so wrong. And you're like, yeah, that's college football. My favorite is. like i don't even know how much money i'm making no idea told my agent it's not about the money it's like well what about the 65 hours on the private jet the country club membership like you

didn't know about any of that no no idea did you did someone have to inform you of all these wonderful perks i i love or hate to see it i love it that ls u's paying three head coaches right now like they're they're paying lane they're still paying ed o and now they're paying Kelly. You love to see it, man. You love to see the haves and the have-nots in college football and LSU is the haves. They're like, I just pay him 50 million. We'll find it somewhere else. We'll continue to go. My hate to see it, Penn State. What are we doing? You fired Franklin without a succession plan. You let him go in the middle of the year without someone who was waiting in the wings to just usher in the new era and we've now gone three days since the last college football

game and you don't have a head coach. What are we doing Penn State? What on earth are you thinking that's going to happen here? You're going to lose your entire roster. They're gone. You're going to bring in a late head coach that no one's going to be super excited about. They had some deal done with the BYU coach and someone from Crumble Cookie apparently made a huge issue and now it's not going to happen. You hate to see it if you're at Penn State. fan because that is a problem in college foot station right now. Everything you just described is a circus. It's a love to see it.

It's a circus. And once you decide it's a circus, then you're like, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Yes, what's happening today that's not even on the field. And I can't even imagine what a zoo it's going to be when they decide to which teams are in the playoff because that's going to be a mess too. North Texas going to like Ohio State or something crazy. They hate to see it about Lane Kiffin.

is the state of Louisiana probably needs money to use for stuff. I'm just thrown it out there. Like, no, no, no, four head coaches, five head coaches, pay. Because you know Lane Kiffin's going to get fired two and a half years for something. I'll throw out a couple more. One is the instant replay system. I will credit Tony Dungey for still screaming about this on the internet. There's a play where I forget exactly how it plays out.

in the Denver and Washington game where someone gets kicked. I forget, was it Marriota or, yeah, it must have been Marriota, right? And the Denver player just kicks him and like, well, that's not legal, but they're reviewing something else. So as they're in the little thing, they're like, didn't see it, nothing there. And you like, couldn't you just, it's sort of like the Sam Darnold face mask where you go, couldn't you just hey he kicked him right the leg

yeah that's not legal just say it just say it no one will care it's the right call I mean the replay that they could look at some stuff and then have egregious personal fouls happening right in front of them shouldn't there be an exception for a personal file this is my this is my middle ground if you went back for every call and we're looking for holding one of you big dopes would have probably squeezed your hands on somebody in a way you shouldn't but personal fouls i think if you're reviewing something and

you spot a personal foul that's pretty rare you should be able to add it to the play or what was it where the guy punched the dude in the balls yeah right where you're like no nah didn't see it it's like there's cameras everywhere that's what i mean like personal fouls if you are somebody right there, which I heard from the Cleveland guy that he deserved it. So, you know, it is what it is. But like, that was one of the better post games I've seen in a while. But same exact thing where it's like, oh, we're, we're going to, oh, on tape, he did something really egregious that's a 15-yard penalty.

We should be able to buzz in from New York and add that to the play. I think that if it's a finable offense, you should then be able to call it. Right. If you're looking at that in New York, you're like, well, he's getting a FedEx off. on Wednesday, then, yeah, buzz in and make it affect the outcome of the game. Those are outcome changing pieces of the game. And if you're going to get a personal foul for kicking a guy, punching a guy, ripping a face mask off, whatever it might be, that should affect the outcome of the games.

That's unacceptable stuff that shouldn't be in the game. So if you're in New York and you see a personal foul that you're going to send a guy of FedEx for on the Wednesday, buzz down to the tower, get the white hat and say, hey, drop that flag right there at 37 yard line, mark off 15 yards, and let's play again. one more for me um shoulder sanders didn't have a very good game and um kevin stefansky or no no he was asked if was it something like is kevin stefansky trying to harm you or something i it was something like that sabotage i believe board was sabotage yes what are you doing smack like what are you talking Okay, so that's a question, I guess.

And, but one of my favorite plays I think I've ever seen is we were talking about quarterback rating earlier, it's fourth and 26, trops back to pass. Nobody's immediately open. So he's like, you know, I'm going to wander over here and lay down. I'm just, I'm watching that play because the Vikings, you know, they come on at three. And I'm watching that play. And I'm like, wait, what? What are we doing there?

I mean, he just wandered over. to a safe area where there were no San Francisco 49ers and he just went, I'm here now. I'm laying down over here like my dog. It would be looking for its bed and then just laying down in a safe warm spot. That's what he did on 4th and 26. And I was like, okay, we got ourselves a contender here, folks. What are we doing, dude? Yeah, it's not good.

It's not good. I mean, it's that whole thing is just a circus. Again, that's a circus, the quarterback situation over. They're paying eight of them this year. So they're actually paying more quarterbacks than LSU's paying coaches. So you got to just, you just got to hate it, especially because it's wasting away one of the greatest defensive performances that we're ever watching in Miles Garrett.

It's, he is the most unstoppable force in the NFL right now. Yeah. It is absolutely crazy to look at and watch and see what he's doing. But at the same time, you're like, no one's going to remember. No one's really going to care. and that's just super unfortunate, and I hate to see it for Miles Garrett. Yeah, what did the Vikings have three wins the year Jared Allen had 22 sacks? I think that that's true.

And it feels like very much the same thing. Well, there's not much more that guy could have done to help the team. Anyway, well, we'll have another week of Vikings football and stuff will happen and we'll try to talk about it next week. So thank you, as always, Jeremiah, for your time. And we'll see you that. Absolutely. Football. all. All right. It is time once again for the Robinson Roundup with special contributor to Purple Insider Maggie Robinson, who has just discovered that it snows a lot in Syracuse, New York.

So you're dealing with that. But otherwise, how are we doing, Maggie? Cold. It's cold and wet. And there's more snow than I've ever seen in my entire life on the ground. I sent my friends a photo this morning. And I was like, it feels like I'm trekking, like in the wilderness to get to my 9 a.m. class because the snow is covering my boots. It's so high. high, which for those of you in snowy climates, that's nothing new. I'm from Tennessee. This is crazy. You feel like that Leonardo DiCaprio movie where he fights the bear or whatever in the woods,

that's you trying to get to class. Well, you're going to have to buck up. You're going to have to toughen up a little bit there in Syracuse. It is actually quite a bit worse than it is in Minnesota when it comes to how much snow, but it's warmer there, just in case you were wondering. You know, I guess you could pick your. battles, freezing cold or a lot of snow. And I guess here we got a lot of snow. So at least we have stuff to do here. But what do you have on the roundup for today? Okay. So today is a little

different. And I figured with all due respect to the Minnesota Vikings, since their season is shot and vibes are at an all time low, I thought I would make today's segment more positive. So we're going to look at everything with a positive spin on it. Okay. I cherry picked the very best. so that I could find from around the NFL with some feel good news and just some overall vibe pickuppers. So to begin, parody. We've talked about it literally every week,

but it's because we keep breaking different records and CBS sports reporter Doug Claussen did some research and found that there are 20 teams with a 500 or better record and that is tied for the most through week 13 in NFL history. Like tied for the very top. And that's really,

impressive because I feel like every week these power rankings things keep shifting teams keep being like really high up and then dropping back and it's fluctuating and it keeps people really engaged it's been a great season from that perspective that you know last year it really felt like there was about six teams that were even worth knowing about and there were so many bad teams the NFL and it does seem like it's really gone back the other way and you and I have looked at you know the Super Bowl odds and things like that right now the Los Angeles Rams are the Super Bowl favorite on Fan duel, but there's four or five other teams that aren't too far away in those

odds. And you could even see somebody getting hot down this final stretch and then making a run. I continue to say that even as flawed as a team like the Buffalo Bills are, that they should still be a Super Bowl favorite because they've got Josh Allen. It wouldn't shock me if somehow Kansas City won a bunch of games or if they missed the playoffs completely. So that has been, I think, the most surprising year in quite some time for us going down this stretch and really feeling like we have no clue who is going to be there. Because even when you look at a team like the Bears on paper, are they really as good as they look? Or Carolina's got a winning record, but a negative point differential. You just, you have so many teams in it that these

final couple of weeks are going to be fantastic, dramatic football. Yeah. So don't turn off your TV. I wanted to go through some of those games and those teams that kind of stood out, had underdog come from behind wins or just are kind of popping off at the right time, starting off with the Houston Texans who beat the Colts, who were on a role. Some reporter I was reading said they brought Daniel Jones down to Earth, and I think that's exactly what's happening to the Colts. They were on top of the mountain, and now they're kind of hitting a backslide. But the Houston Texans, 6 and 5, C.J. Stroud, now back from his concussion.

He got back in week 9, and the defense is looking. lights out. And the question here is like, okay, playoff implications. Like, I thought they were out, but they might actually have a shot. Yeah, they're speaking of Buffalo, like their win against Buffalo where they sacked Josh Allen 93 times, really kind of jump started them back into this race. And, you know, Indianapolis kind of had some of the signals of a team that was not going to maintain their success. They were relying so much on a running back to score three touchdowns a game. And, you know, and also their schedule earlier in the year was pretty unimpressive. They beat Denver.

Think about how good Denver is. They beat Denver on a really random situation with a field goal at the end of a game. Like, they had a lot go their way. And also, Daniel Jones is now playing with a pretty serious injury. So that opens the door for a team like the Texans. And in today's NFL, where we had, you know, been all about who's got the best offenses a couple years ago, it's really shifted to now teams like Denver, teams like the Texans. since it's all about who's getting after the passer and DeNeal Hunter and Will Anderson are

absolutely crushing it. So I think what we've seen from the Texans is they simplified their offense a little bit, just kind of keep the train on the tracks with CJ Stroud rather than trying to have him be a superstar all the time. And they can be in just about any game. That was a fantastic like drag out, knock them down type of battle. But I think the Texans might actually be the better team. Yeah.

They're ranked number one in the NFL with points allowed from other teams. So it's like 16 and a half from an ABC article I read. That's really impressive. And I feel like that is not getting enough love in the news. And like you're saying, the defense is never like the hyped up stat. That's never the big thing that's making the headline. But that's what wins games. It's not flashy, but it works consistently time after time.

Yep. And they've got every part of it. They've got one of the best corners in the league. they've got top pass rushers and you know look when you draft high as many times as they did you can get derrick stingly you can get will anderson and but they've really taken on the mentality of their coach which is a hard thing to do but when demico ryan's was a player he was a nasty hard nose tough player and then he coached for san francisco that's what they were known for under him and it feels like the texans have taken on the same thing and now even we're seeing some of that mentality on

the offensive side a little bit with their offensive line and the running game starting to get going. So I do think that they are suddenly a team to watch after, as you said, they were kind of left for dead there. Yeah. And another team to watch, the Carolina Panthers underdog win versus the Rams 2831. They went into that game as 10 point underdogs on like all these betting tables. And this was a really back and forth game. Like this was edge of your seat. Don't turn the TV off. But again, Carolina just came to play. And I think what separated them, the X Factor here, was that in all the big moments, every single player on their team stepped up when they needed to. There was no one person who folded under pressure. You're exactly right. I mean, they converted

fourth downs. They caused turnovers. And it's actually kind of funny because you look at the success rate on a play to play basis. And the Rams dominated that stat throughout that game. But Carolina had a few long drives. As you said, came up with some clutch plays. And they, end up getting a win. How weird is Carolina, though? They lost to New Orleans this year, one of the worst teams in the league. The top, two of the top three favorites on Fandul to win the Super Bowl, Los Angeles at plus 490 and Green Bay of plus 900. They beat both of those teams. Who are these Panthers? It's crazy from a week to week that they can either swing from beating the best teams in the NFC to shocking us with how poorly they play. I wonder if this is like a lock-in,

type of moment for them. They've got a chance if they keep winning, they'll play Tampa Bay and they could potentially win that division. Yeah, second now in the NFC South, it kind of makes me wonder because this game, they were missing three of their defensive starters even. So like, what is what's happening? Like, are you rising to the occasion of these insanely good teams and then falling to the bad ones? What is happening in this locker room where things are just not jiving all the time? Right. Just every other week, I guess. I think, what it has to do with is just the NFL this year when you have parody like you're mentioning and there isn't wide gaps between great teams and mediocre teams that anything can happen.

I mean, look at the Denver and Washington game. Washington should have won that game. If they, if Marcus Marriota throws the ball up over a defender in overtime, there's a wide open receiver, they win the game. And they're three and eight at that time versus Denver, who's a great team this year. I think that the gaps are small. So if you, fumble, you turn the ball over, you give up a long kick return, you give up a fourth down, anybody can beat anybody. And I think Carolina is really well coached this year by Dave Canales, who was, I think, maybe my pick for a potential coach of the year, because you're always looking for somebody who overachieves and then get celebrated. If they win the division,

I think he's got a really good chance at it. I think that's what it really is, though. And Bryce Young has reached a point where he's good enough to have really good weeks. can he put 15 of them together in a 17 game season? I don't think so. But he is good enough to at least have these ups in a roller coaster, whereas before he was mostly down and then started to kind of emerge last year. But it's a really interesting team because they've been so bad at times. And then, I mean, they got destroyed by Buffalo just a couple weeks ago.

And it was like, okay, oh, they were frauds or were they not? I don't think anybody really knows. Yeah. I want to pivot, though, really quickly. What about the Rams performance was stressing you out or was making you think like, oh, man, maybe not the Super Bowl contenders that we all pitched them to be? So I wouldn't change my mind about the Rams because, I mean,

maybe if you were looking at just their defense and some of the big plays they gave up in their secondary, possibly, you know, against Tetaroa McMillan, who is a top draft pick and I had a huge fourth down catch for them. But I probably wouldn't change my opinion because when you look at on a play-to-play basis, they were better. It was really the turnovers of big plays. So if you get beat on big variance plays, like fourth downs or turnovers,

I especially since Stafford's protected the ball so well this year. I wouldn't change much. And that's why, you know, they still are the favorite. That didn't move the line much. And they lost by three. Like they turned the ball over a bunch of times, gave up big plays, and they lost by three. I think that they are still the team to beat in the NFC. Okay.

Let's look at the Chicago Bears. I know the media wanted to dog on the bears after last season, but they just beat the Eagles and their run game was solid, 281 yards. And now they're like leading the NFC North after Monday's games. Like things are looking up for the bears in a way that I don't think a lot of us had predicted in the off season coming off their pretty horrendous performance the year before. So the bears have had a very weird year of close, uh, wins and narrow escapes, including against Minnesota a couple of weeks ago, where they get a long kick return and then kick a field goal and win that way.

They blocked a field goal to win a game. They had a quarterback, fumble a ball in the wet weather to win a game. And they've kind of been mediocre on defense to the point where you could say, I just don't think that they're that good. But the issue with saying that now is their offensive line is dominating in the run game. And that's dangerous because their coach is great in designing runs and passes off of it, but also their defense is getting healthier and it's secondary, and that was their main issue before.

So they may be better in the final five weeks than they were when they were narrowly escaping with some of these wins. The hard thing is that everyone wants to make everything about the quarterback position and it's football. You should. Caleb Williams is playing okay in big moments really well and in most of the game not that well. And is he going to give you enough?

is really the question for me because they're running the ball and their line is doing really well. But when push comes to shove in the playoffs, you need your quarterback to be good. And I think he's just been okay this year. I would not say that he's taken some massive step. I think he's not taking as many negative plays as he did last year. And they're just running way better than they did last season. So they're supporting him, I think, a lot better. Right.

They're playing around him, but your quarterback's weakness shouldn't be his passing game. Like, that's just not how this should be. happening. And I think his issue is that he's not, like, reading where the players are going to be in time. I don't know if it's a processing speed thing, but it's like he's not seeing the plays develop. I don't, like, when you do it and you draw it out on the little, like, whiteboard, if you want to say, and you got the magnets and you're moving stuff around, like, the magnets aren't moving fast enough before the players get there for him, for him to, like, throw the ball and know that they're going to run onto it. That is some kind of explanation, but I know exactly what

you're saying, which is that the timing of the offense still is a problem for Caleb Williams, which I mean, your demonstration there was tremendous, but that's what you mean, I think. And in terms of PFF passing grade, he's only 19th as a thrower, but he might be, let's see, number four as a runner. So he's been excellent running. He's been very good at kind of last second stuff where he can, you know, scramble and make plays out of structure, but in the structure of the offense when the things are moving around on the whiteboard, as you put it, it doesn't look any like a lot better than it was last year. It's just that they are in more advantageous positions because of their run game than

they were last season. Yeah. Thank you for putting that succinctly. My mind's eye, I was trying to draw it for you guys, being like, I'm a former athlete. The whiteboard looks like this, but we got there in the end. That's all that matters. I do want to highlight. one thing. The people of Chicago today were getting fed by Ben Johnson, okay? Because he took his shirt off in post game celebration in the locker room. And the Wiener's Circle, that is a real restaurant name, offered to give free hot dogs if Ben Johnson did this. And he did, and they came through on their promise. And today, in Chicago, they gave out around 3,000 hot dogs to fans. Wow. Okay. Good for them. I saw that my colleague Courtney Cronin, who covers the Bears there.

was eating a hot dog now she is a chicago in and she was eating it with only ketchup which like i'm not a food person but i understand that that's wrong to do in chicago right is it oh yeah it is they're really very serious about that so i think that she just disrespected her own town by eating it with just regular ketchup i think you have to have like pickles and onions and all sorts of different stuff on it like it's a it's a whole thing it's a whole thanksgiving feast there. It's like an art project. So that's, I think she did a wrong there

but good for them. And it just sort of shows you when a town hasn't won a long time and they finally do. It's really fun. It's a really big deal for sure. And I do want to look ahead though because they're playing the Packers.

What do you think we've talked about like the passing game as being one of their big struggles, but like what do you think is one of the big issues they're going to run up against against his Packers team. So this is an interesting matchup because Devante Wyatt, who's one of the defensive tackles for the Packers, has been big against the run. He is out for the season now after last week.

That's going to be the big factor for me. And Caleb Williams was able to do a lot of escaping against a lot of really good players. I don't know if he's done it against Micah Parsons. So that's going to be different for him, I think, is can you fiddle around back there when the guy who's chasing you is the. second or third best athlete in the world, maybe next to Miles Garrett. So that's going to be, I think, a challenge for them. And their defense is still, I think, falls more under the category of mediocre.

And if you can't pressure Jordan Love, as we saw against Detroit, where their line did a good job against Detroit, he sat back there and made a lot of plays. I think that Green Bay is a better team than them, but this is finally a true test. Like, Philadelphia has been kind of melting for a while. And so I think you could sort of see that coming. they had just blown a 21 point lead the week before. But in terms of what people think of Chicago versus Green Bay, Green Bay is plus 900 to win the Super Bowl.

Chicago's plus 2700. So it's nowhere close. Like no one thinks that Chicago's a real contender. If they beat Green Bay, then you have to start talking about that as, okay, they've turned a corner and they are legit. Yeah,

those are crazy numbers to put up against each other. Because in my mind, I was like, game. But when you look at those, the betting markets are saying, no, this is a pretty lopsided game. Right. Well, I'm curious about I'll look right now what the actual line on the game is because it really does feel like there's so much more respect for Green Bay. Yeah, Green Bay is a six and a half point favorite against Chicago at Lambeau field. No one is buying that Chicago is actually good. They're looking more, hey, it's a lucky team that's won at the last

second. So again, like this is, this is their big chance. And if they do it, Congrats to them because their rebuild versus the Vikings build is looking a lot better at the moment. Yeah, definitely a rosier picture. Okay, I want to end this off with a very good, feel-good story that is not very football focused, but is flag football focused, the New York Jets, home of a lot of really questionable front-office decisions made a really good one today. Woody Johnson is donating $1 million to the Eastern College Athletic Conference to help create the largest women's flag football league in all of college sports with D1, D2, and D3 colleges

all participating. And I just thought that was really admirable and also shows the legacy of flag football in the Jets organization because back in 2011, they were actually the first NFL team to help launch a high school program in any state. And so, like, they're just continuing this legacy of getting women into football, especially ahead of the L.A. 28 Olympics. You're actually going to make me say something nice about Woody Johnson, okay, well, you know, good for him. And just in terms of actual flag football, very much for me in favor of flag football. Now, I don't know about in the Olympics, that one maybe could be debated, but in terms of its growth in schools and with kids coming up playing the game, I mean, there's a, I would say probably a lot of parents who are concerned about injuries and things like that, but their kids love football. also get them into it early without the risks of injury and especially on the girls and women's side giving them an opportunity to play football where maybe I mean every once in a while you hear of like hey this woman who turned out to be a pro soccer player was killing young children back in her hometown but you know it's not too many opportunities like that so to have everybody gets play football more people loving our great game is always good with me so congratulations Woody Johnson you did something nice

Also, let me just note that Adam Thielen signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Well, they actually picked him up on waivers. So he didn't exactly choose that, but I imagine his representation talked with them about whether he'd be good with it first. That's where he ends up. They'll be competing for the playoffs. The Vikings will not. But it's not exactly the Super Bowl contender that we maybe envisioned him going to.

He'll play with Aaron Rogers for the final couple games of his career. and I guess we'll see how that goes. So as always, I wish Adam Theelan the best is one of the better players to cover that I've been around. So I wanted to throw that out there that that happened as well. So great stuff, Maggie, appreciate your time. Always great details. And a little shining lights on a show this week that has been pretty low at times.

So thank you very much. And we'll talk to you again next week. Of course. Football. Football.