Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles needs to see progress from J.J. McCarthy

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

Former Vikings lineman Jeremiah Sirles joins the show to breakdown another rough day for J.J. McCarthy and the Vikings in a 19-17 loss to the Bears. 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, Matthew Collar here. The show is always presented by Fanduil and joining us for another episode of Tuesday morning left guard to break down maybe the best offensive line play we've ever seen since we've been doing this show. And much, much more, Jeremiah Searle's, you're doing okay after watching that tapeback? I mean, there's got to be the guard part of you. that was thrilled and then other parts maybe not as much. Yeah, I mean, I went back and watched the tape and go, wait, we lost that game? Like, because you watch it from an entirety standpoint and you're like, man,

this offensive line is jellin. They're clicking. Brake Brandle is, he's addressing things. We're not seeing free runners at the point of attack. We're seeing the line of scrimmage get established on the other side of the ball. Darison O'Neillard deleting guys on the outside. This is awesome. And as I'll be accused of this quite often as an offensive line watcher, I rarely watch what happens after the ball leaves the quarterback's hands, right? Like, as I watch, you all the time, okay, next play, click.

But this time after watching it and doing that, I was like, wait, something had to happen again. Oh, yeah, I watched the live TV copy. And you go back and watch it. You like, okay, I see why we lost this game. And you go through that. But overall, man, from an offensive line standpoint, I feel like since the Cleveland game, things have just started going up, right, climbing the ladder, better each week. Donovan Jackson comes back.

Derisaw is something healthier. Brian O'Neill's back. Will Fries is starting to be more consistent in the way. this offense. Very happy with where the O lines at. It's a bummer that we're at this developmental stage with the quarterback. Yeah. And I want to talk about that because West Phillips had something very interesting to say. So we'll dive more into the offensive line play and what was working for them in just a minute. But something that you said, I have stolen on the show that it's frustrating with young quarterbacks that in the media stratosphere and

also fans as well that we often crown or kill based on the most recent results from the quarterback. So I want to talk about how to balance the part in between that, but I asked West Phillips today about quarterback development in the quarterback atmosphere and whether it's different than at other times in his career. He's been coaching for a long time in the NFL. He's coached tight ends, but he's also coached quarterbacks. And everybody knows West Phillips family lineage. There's been a lot of quarterbacks in his lifetime that he's seen. So I asked him about development and how it's changed over the years. And here was his answer. I'm curious about just the, since you've been in the league and in football, the development process for young quarterbacks. They used to have

four preseason games. The starters would play a lot of them. You know, there used to be two days and things like that. I just wonder if that quarterbacks are now kind of like JJ asked to play themselves into development during real games and you know I guess how that might be different than in the past I would say maybe different from the past is that the time that people give a young quarterback is it's it's it's kind of the same across the league a young player people are at any position it's just the quarterback position is obviously the one getting the ball and highlighted the most. But I feel like in general, people want to put guys in a box immediately.

This is up, he's a bust, he can't do it, or he's a Hall of Famer, you know, on the other side. And what you see is even the players who come right out of the box, you know, playing great football, end up having some struggles at some point or the second year or all those types of things. I mean, each guy is different. There's a development to each player in this league, each young player, and, you know, the time that guys are given now before we just declare what this guy is. So there you go, pointing out that there isn't a whole lot of patience in this world, Jeremiah. I want your reaction to what West Phillips said there.

He's exactly right. And it's just the landscape in which we live at. And we talk about all this show all the time because it's not just the micro bubble of the Minnesota Vikings. I mean, look at every quarterback's been drafted in the first round for the last 10 years. Everyone believes when you draft a quarterback in the first round, he's the savior. He's the next Josh Allen. He's the guy that's going to lead us from doom and gloom to hosting the Lombardian in February. And so there's this immediate expectation.

that's placed upon them, that might not just be fair because he's drafted in the first round does not make him Brett Far. And there's going to be bumps along the way and it's going to be moving up and down. But when you're the quarterback position and when you come into the team like the Minnesota Vikings that had already been built and it was just like, you're just the missing piece. Here you go. And then it doesn't go well. It's really easy.

It's like, oh, he's a bust. He just can't do it. Look at all the weapons around him. It's not always about just the weapons around you and the environment that you built. And there's a personal skill set that has to be developed. There's a personal environment that you have to build. around you to understand what's like to practice week in and week out, to be the guy to have

game defense quarters game plan against you specifically, right? Not just like, oh, well, this is what they do. It's like, no, no, they're game planning you nine. They're trying to figure out how to help you and not let you get going and just learning how to battle through those things. It just takes time. And unfortunately, time is not something

that is really given much in the NFL anymore. So how do we balance it then to be the most reasonable folks that we can? Because also, I have eyeballs, and so to you, And when you watch a game like that, and I would also include the Ravens game in this and you look at the numbers, I think you know quite well from what does that stat mean that it's one of my things for a very long time here is to study the numbers and look into what they tell us. And five games worth of stats is not a lot to work with, but also it starts to form a picture pretty early when you look historically. There are very few quarterbacks through their first five games who have ever completed this. low amount of passes. And even when you adjust it for drops, if you removed all the drops,

it's still not an acceptable completion percentage. The interception marks, I mean, the stats are just rolling in at this point now because even this many interceptions through this few games, there are very few quarterbacks who have ever made it. I mean, Justin Herbert, I know he played a lot more football in college, but I think he had one interception through the first five games that he played in. A lot of the quarterbacks that have succeeded recently are not turning the all over, like it's 1983 or something. So I think that there are some very disturbing signs that we've seen, but we can also say that we really don't have the full picture yet and that it might

end up being that he can turn a corner at some point. But so far, with all the information we have to work with, I think we have to admit what that says to us at this point. Yeah, and I think it's fair to be able to look at the picture and look at the numbers objectively and go, is he ever going to be elite, right? And you can look at some of these guys' numbers from rookie years and see some of the things they've done and go, okay, they're going to be a good quarterback in this league, but are they going to be elite? And I think the jury is still out on him, but it's trending down towards like, yeah, he does enough things in crucial moments

in the game where you can see flashes and go, okay, it's in there. But if he can't start putting it all together, I don't know if he's ever going to jump to that. I'm so glad I took this dude with the 10th overall pick type of feeling. The other piece of it is I can remember being on this show, I think it was just last year when they benched Anthony Richardson for Joe Flacco and us going, dude, you just can't complete 50% of your balls. It just doesn't work like that way. You're not going to win games in the National Football League. And here we are going, now our guy's doing it. Right. And it's a tough feeling to be because you want to not give up on the kid and you want to continue to give him the chances. But eventually, Shane Steichen was like, I've seen enough.

And I can't keep putting this guy out there and putting the rest of my team at risk. And I don't think we've reached that point with J.J. McCarthy yet. But if these numbers continue and don't get, I'd venture to even say drastically better in the next three to four weeks, that conversation is going to have to be had. And you have to look and I go, okay, if he's doing this consistently where it's 50, 52 percent completion rate and multiple turnovers a game and Turnover worthy plays through the roof statistically. Those type of things are just going to continue to get you beat in this league. And so you have to have that conversation.

But again, with five games, it's hard to label them at that point. But you can't argue with the numbers. You just can't argue with the production that's coming from the quarterback position. It's just not good. And when we start to look at the comparable players at this point, there's so few of them that have performed at this low of a level, statistically, that it's hard to even say, oh, there's this one guy you can latch on to that through his first five games, he did this outside of Josh Allen.

And as we know, that's one of the greatest running quarterbacks in NFL history. And also one of the biggest outliers, I was thinking about this through DeNeal Hunter and how many times we said, oh, you know, DJ Wanham could be just like DeNeal Hunter. And you're like, actually, he can't because no one can beat Daniel Hunter. And it's the same sort of thing with Josh Allen. And you're like, okay, that's great, but what about the 50 other guys? He's the 51st. One out of every 50 who can't throw the ball effectively coming out probably ends up succeeding because they're a freak or they make huge, huge gains.

But even then, it wasn't until year three that Josh Allen was able to make those gains. And so you are right now at the level of performance of someone like Jimmy Clausen. Like, that's kind of where you're at. This is the first one that comes to mind for me. Some people have said, well, you know, Sam Darnold struggled early. here's the other problem though is Sam Darnold was playing with a terrible New York Jets team that drafted him

what was the third overall. They fired their coach the next year. I don't think their offensive coordinators even ever worked in the NFL again. Their number one wide receiver was nobody. This isn't playing with the coach of the year elite wide receivers, a Pro Bowl tight end, and the best blocking

that we've seen since I started covering the team. I think that's for me the hardest part to reckon with is okay, the Atlanta game. Ah, Justin school. You know, he missed some time in practice and there were, there were excuses there that made sense. But these last two games, I can't find many. Folks, maybe you haven't started your holiday shopping yet, but those holidays sneak up on you fast. So let me give you some advice. Check out Uncommon goods. Uncommon goods makes holiday shopping stress-free and fun with

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another example. That team's terrible, right? The Titans, I mean, they knew they were terrible. I can remember them laughing in a post game in a preseason press comments. We're like, so, you guys think like Super Bowl contend? Whoa. Like, we hope to be 500. Like, that was not the expectation with this roster that was built with the Minnesota Vikings this year.

Like, the expectation was, yeah, we might have some lumps in the road, but we think we can overcome those things with the talent that we've built along with the roster, but I don't think anyone anticipated being this bad, like truly just this bad of quarterback play, because it doesn't matter how good your roster is. If the guy that touches the ball on every single snap is the worst part of your offense, you're going to have a problem. Because it doesn't matter how great Addison and Jefferson and Hawkinson and Naylor are. If you can't get them the ball consistently, well, then no one respects the past game. So then everyone's going to load the box,

and then you want to try and run the ball, but then the number counts terrible. And you got some issues, and they still were able to find ways to effectively run the ball at times during this game. But overall, it's just one of those things you just have to be like, well, we just have to sit here and suffer, I guess, because that's what it's going to be for Vikings fans.

And I hate saying that because, again, I am a Vikings fan. I watch every single game, and I want them to be good in a whole bit. But this is just with the nature of where we're at right now. And unless you want to scream, kill the kid, and we'll find someone else and we'll pick it up, this is just what we have to handle and hope that we get through it on the other. side and eventually see a light at the end of the tunnel.

And it felt like last week that a lot of Vikings fans were hoping it was KOC's fault. There was a lot of discussion about, hey, are they putting too much on his plate, which I'm willing to hear for maybe past weeks. Did you, you know, ask him to throw too many passes? Was your run pass ratio off? Is it too complicated at the line of scrimmage? And I think this is the other part that's hard to reckon with as well coming out of that game, is that I thought he did a good job of setting the protections and getting into the looks that he wanted to get into. I even thought that his eyes, and a lot of times were in the right places.

And the technical stuff was just so far off with the footwork, the throwing, that and the accuracy that, like, I wish I could just say if he could learn to do this, if he could learn to do that, if he could learn to read a defense, it would be fine. But can you fix that stuff? So I want to know what you thought, though, of the game plan. overall in the approach, because there's no question that it was different than some game plans in the past. Yeah, I thought that, you know, I thought the KOC did a really nice job of adjusting, which is what we've been asking him to do since JJ took back over is, hey, adjust

to your player. I get it. You have this fantastic bag of tricks that you like to carry around with you and dig down to the bottom of the sack and be like, this one. But then if your guy can't execute it, who cares? I mean, there was so many high percentage completion routes called crossers. dig, seven-man protection, two-man route, throw the ball there. If he can't execute the simple game plan, we have more problems than we thought. And that for me, watching this game this week was the biggest red flag going, okay, KOC did what we asked. He dumped it down for you.

He made it so that you met together this week and said, what do you want to throw? What do you feel comfortable throwing? How can we get that there? And I bet you look pretty great during the week. But when you show up to Sunday and things speed up and you don't have a different colored jersey on and those dudes are trying to kill you. If everything just falls apart on you from a mechanic standpoint, from an operational standpoint, from just an overall execution standpoint, we've got a lot bigger problems than

is J.J. McCarthy, our quarterback. It's, oh, my gosh, can he play quarterback in this league? Like, that becomes the question is, is it not just the Vikings quarterback, but can he, can he play in this league? Does he have the skill set and how did they get into the first round? And like, all these questions start to pop up if he can't execute a very simple game plan because I thought Kevin O'Connell did a really nice job with the route concepts and the protections and all the things from a full script standpoint from the opener

all the way to the end there. He put J.J. McCarthy in a lot of positions to succeed. And this is something that you mentioned that practice thing that's really hard for us because given the interest in J.J. McCarthy this summer, what choice did anyone have but to report on every practice like it was a game, right? And I don't regret that. I came back every day. covered in sunscreen and sweat. And I said, he went 18 for 24 and either was an in breaker that he hit like, way, right? It was fascinating to really study the quarterback position that closely because I never did that with Kirk. I mean, he'd been in the league for so long. I was watching like the backup safety to see if he was going to make the team or something, right? So it was very, very different this year.

And I learned a lot watching it. And it looked pretty good as it went along. And the, the coaches keep saying, like, it's working in practice. And I believe them because I've seen it, but it just is not the same as playing full speed. The other thing is the receivers run faster in the game. If you were just at Jefferson and you ran game speed in practice, your legs would rip apart into a thousand pieces and you'd not play very long. You can't do that.

You can't be like, okay, this is the exact speed I'm going to go during the game in practice because you're going to be dead by Sunday. So there has to be things that just are figured out on the fly of what it's like. And I guess for me, that's where I want to hold up from going all the way to bust to, hey, let's just call it and start seeing if Trevor Lawrence is available in the offseason or go get Kyler Murray or whatever. Like, I'm not that far. I want to know how far down the road you are.

But with this, where I'm at is I am willing to sit back and watch the next seven games and then decide kind of where I am. because right now it's in a it's in a concerning place but i also think that if you are trying to as west phillips said call it right now and say that it's over players and i know west went a different direction with my question but players these days are asked to just develop in the middle of the game because they can't do it in two a days and you can work with whatever online qb guru who's calling out Chris Carter like a complete fool, by the way. Maybe just shut it for right now. If you could, this is not your moment, bro. And that's the wrong guy to go after because sorry, he wants

his team to win and has eyeballs. But anyway, so maybe change QB Gurus, because this one hasn't worked out for you. But anyway, the whole point is just that, you know, he's probably going to need another offseason of work. He's probably going to, but I want to see how he can turn these reps and turn these negative reps into positive ones more consistently. I don't expect him to be great at the end of the season, but how much can you develop yourself in these games with these real reps? Yeah, you know, I think the jury will still be out on him until probably midway through next year. And I mean that because you look at Drake May, Jaden Daniels, even C.J. Stroud. I mean, the opposite was for C.J. Stroud came out and lit the world on fire as

rookie year. And you're like, dude, Hall of Famer, gold jacket, put it up now. Like, this dude's going to be an MVP candidate next year. And he's struggled. And right, there's a lot of other factors that go to that too. But then you look at, hey, it takes these guys like all the things you just said, to understand what it's like to play a full season, to understand how to game plan, to understand how to get to with your receivers and all that stuff on the same page. I'm willing to give him till mid next year to say, can you put it together? The issue will become if it's status quo the rest of the year. If it's the same product that we've seen the last two weeks through the rest of this season, I'm going to be a lot more concerned

with that. If we see marginal improvement, and there's one or two games there that he puts together a game like Bryce Young put together against Atlanta last week and throws for 350 and a few tuddies, you're like, okay, it's in there. That's in there. And you see it like the end of games for whatever reason it's in there. But if he can't do that consistently over the next few weeks and start seeing the growth go up, if it's a status quo to the end of the year here, I'm going to be very concerned about the future of him being the guy, but even I can just see some good improvement, taking care better with the football, because he has done that in areas.

Like I think back, he's taking less sacks, but he's taking last sacks. He's getting up the ball. But it always seems like it's five steps forward, four steps back. Like, hey, oh, he's taking that sacks and he turned it over. Or, oh, man, he's taking less sacks. Oh, okay, he's airmailing footballs. It just seems like he's just fixing one thing. and it's creating another issue.

And again, he's just got to keep growing and getting better. And so I'm not ready to hit the eject button by any stretch of the imagination. But it is a very concerning thing to think about this is just who he is for the rest of the season. I think it's very much sink or swim. It's you are in the deep end of the NFL now. And hey, Micah Parsons plays for the next team. And then Seattle is maybe the best defense, them and the Rams in the entire NFL. So these are games that are kind of make or break.

if you get through these, you give your team a chance to win, you win one of these, then you're going to feel like, all right, I could climb to shore against the commanders and the giants and the cowboys and start put together a couple of games. And I think that the real question kind of comes down to now with these final seven games, since the playoffs are basically off the table for this team, is which bucket can you land J.J. McCarthy in by the end of the year and just make sure we know which one he's in. Don't have ambiguity, don't have the gray area. It's, is he in the bucket of, holy cow, it clicked, and he was fantastic.

He is our guy. Is he in the bucket of, some of it was better, but I'm still concerned. We need to go get somebody else to compete with him, or is it in the bucket of catastrophic? As you said about Anthony Richardson, like he's pulling himself from games and stuff. It just looks like a total nightmare. You need a different starter. I need to know which one of those buckets that it lands in. because if we're somewhere in between and there's these, well, you know, maybe, maybe Andy Dalton's a free agent and he can compete with him.

Like, no, you got to know whether you need a real, like Daniel Jones competition type player, a Mac Jones trade for him or something. Or if you feel like, all right, you could sell this to Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison and T.J. Hawkinson and Daryson, this is our guy. I think you needed really everyone should be able to see where that bucket is. yeah i agree because you can as a teammate you can love him to death and i can see why players love him from a guy standpoint like oh man he loves football and he's all about it and he studies and he works really hard and yada yada yada all that's great but if you can't perform at the level that you need no one gives a crap how great of a human being you are eventually they go yeah i love you buddy but we're gonna move on right the old yeller you at one point and they'll just put you down out

back and and so if we get to the end of the year and the shine has worn off and he's in that second bucket i think you can say okay let's bring someone in to help work with him as a veteran backup right because that's the other thing that i don't think enough people are talking about right now the fact that carson wents isn't in that room with them and watching film and be like oh hey when i played the packers five years ago this is what they did or when i played this guy's like Max Brasmer's like, I don't know, dude, I played, I played Buffalo last year, right? Like, I played Central Arkansas.

Why'd you have to go Buffalo? They played him this year. I don't think they played him last year. Okay, well, yeah. By the way, Wentz is supposed to be back around after surgery. Okay, well, that's good. That's really, but like not having him there now when things are going poorly is hard. Like that, that's hard.

And so you want, you want a guy like there that's willing to go in there, but it's also the guy that's, can get on the field with you. like Carson right like you can it's one thing to be in the meeting room it's the other thing to be on the field with that guy when stuff is flying on Sundays and you've got a minute to be like hey well we'll breathe right and I can remember that's what happened with Josh Allen we signed Derek Anderson yeah like we signed Derek Anderson in 2018 to come in and we cut Nate Peterman and we were like hey come in and just work with Josh like you're not going to be the guy like you know it I know it you're like but work with him on like film study and work with him on what you see and what you've been through like for not a coach's standpoint, but from another player standpoint that can be out there in the huddle with you and going through the reps, that stuff's really important.

And when you have a young QB room with two guys that have a total combined starts of five, that's really hard to kind of look at each other as you're problem solving in the meeting room and on the field, even in the game when you're looking at the tablets together, like, what'd you see? What'd you see?

I think that's a piece of development that's missing there as well. But if he's anywhere into that third bucket, I don't know if Kevin O'Connell and them can actually make the move of bring someone in to compete because if you bring someone in to compete with him you might tank his mentality completely

and so that's a very fine line to walk too. Ideally, I think they'd like to get to a place if you're looking for a recent example of where Bryce Young got to last year. Bryce Young's first couple games of last season were atrocious and he was benched and the only reason he ended up going back

in was because I believe Andy Dalton got a car accident and like hurt his thumb or something and they were taken phone calls on him from a report I think ESPN had about that whole situation at the end of last year that there were teams calling and I think it was under consideration to maybe trade him away. And then he turned the corner. And that's why I don't want to be the person who tries to call it because Bryce has looked way better. And Jared Goff was somebody that early in his

career was pretty bad. And then he turns the corner at some point. So we've seen it happen enough times to where I think seven games is the right way to do it. But we also have to break down game by game. And if it looks like that, then we're going to talk about it like this. Let's talk about that offensive line, though. Last week I mentioned Donovan Jackson. I think he was even better this week. I just thought it was all clicking with the interior.

And the really good part of this is every one of these guys should be back. Ryan Kelly, I think is going to end up playing. I'm nervous about that. I like the way Blake Brandel has played. but even if Ryan Kelly decides after this season to hang it up, I think Blake has shown a lot at that position. Like you should have competition and look for veterans and upgrades, but to have four office of linemen all under contract,

O'Neill is the veteran, but the other guys are all in their prime. And Donovan is what 21 or 22 years old, Fry's is I think 26 or 27. He could be good for a while. They have a foundation here of something to really work with. Absolutely. I mean, what they've been able to build and what they've been able to do, even with so many moving parts early in the year,

this was the offensive line we thought we were always going to see. From when they signed Fries, when they drafted Donovan, and when you signed Kelly and you're like, okay, this is the product I wanted to see. And then just pieces not missing and then pieces not fitting at the beginning part of the year, trying to figure it all out. Since this group has gotten together with Brandl at Center,

Jackson, Fries, O'Neill, and Darrasaw, they're performing in the last two weeks like a top five unit. they really are from the run game to the past protection. I mean, so many times I'm counting 1,0001,0002,0003, 0,0004, and JJ's still clean. He's not even moving off his spot. And when you can have that, you allow for that development of that quarterback. Because when we saw it against Atlanta and he's already struggling and then he's also getting

pressured, things can go fast so quickly. But this offensive line group is playing super well together. I love what they're doing in the run game of displacing, moving. Donovan in space is fantastic for screens, for second level blocking. And Derrissau continue to just get better and better and better. I still don't think he's back to his peak form. And that's also scary for other edge defenders. But he can keep progressing the way he needs to.

In the next two, three weeks, I think he'll be back to that absolute lockdown, shut down to offensive tackle that he was before the injury. Yeah. And he didn't play Micah Parr since these last two weeks. So that is going to be a very different challenge when they have to play him, which brings us to the Green Bay Packers. I think that these two games for J.J. McCarthy are a true pivot point for him. I mean, if they go nightmarishly bad, then it's confidence-wise.

It's going to be very hard to come back from. If you play well and you battle and you're in those games, then you're going to feel a lot better about yourself. The Packers are such a conundrum. They've got a lot of guys injured. They are asking the coach if he's going to be fired, which I think is pretty wide. I'll even be considering that with Matt Lafleur.

I mean, he's just, I think he's had so much success and he's such a good coach and he's gotten so much out of Jordan. Love over the years. Love, of course, plays great last week after playing poorly before, which, hey, that's, that's the whole thing we're talking about, right? Like week by week, loves a fraud. Wait, he's an MVP. I have no idea what I'm talking about.

So what do you think of the Green Bay Packers? I don't know what to think about this damn team. I mean, I picked him a line committee two, three weeks ago. I said, I think this team could win the Super Bowl. I was like, I think this team could go to the Super Bowl. I think they have a legitimate chance to win the NFC the whole bit. And then they went out, lost the Panthers. Okay.

Well, maybe not. And then this week you watch them too. And now Josh Jacobs is hurt, right? That's a big piece that they're going to be missing as well. But now they get Christian Watson back. And he looked like he had a breakout game, you know, coming back on that piece. But then Tucker crafts out. And then defensively, I feel like there's holes in the defense.

but overall it's a very solid group from both sides of ball. Now, losing Kenny Clark has actually been a fairly significant loss for them in the middle. They haven't really been able to generate that pressure from their three techniques like they had with him. And granted, yes, you have Micah coming off the edge. You have Gary coming off the edge. But I watched the Giants use that middle part of the field against them a lot, right? The tight ends, James Winston getting the ball out quickly. They even ran the ball pretty effectively.

The screen game was great because they're a super aggressive defense. And so the screen game, the Giants took advantage of that a few times with Tyrone Tracy. So overall, I think this is a very winnable game. But I'm also just very curious to see if they just don't go, we're coming after JJ, man. And let's see if this offensive line can pick stunts and twists and Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason and whoever else they want to throw back there can pick up linebackers or safeties or nickels. And can J.J. identify it correctly. I mean, if I'm the Packers, I'm just going to try and throw the kitchen sink at JJ and say, hey, not only are you struggling mechanically. Let's see if I can't rattle you mentally, too.

And my guess would be that Micah Parsons on a third down is going to be lined up right over Blake Brandel. Right, or wherever he's going to be. Pick your poison, walk back and forth. Don't let you figure out where he is. Yeah, he's going to do that whole thing. Looking at their defense overall, it is kind of the Mikea Parsons show. Rishon Gary is just not the same as he was in his breakout year a couple seasons ago, where he's still effective, but it's not the guy who's completely dominating.

And there are other linebackers and outside linebackers have just been okay. Carl Brooks is kind of just a guy. They're actually sort of missing Eric Wilson from last year where I thought he brought a lot to the table as a linebacker for them. Let's see. Quay Walker has not been the guy. That's what I was thinking. It was not been the guy that they thought he was going to be when they drafted him. So there's a lot of okay players.

McKinney is great as a safety. Yes. But and, you know, I also, you know, I think Edgeron Cooper was a guy that we talked about a ton, is taking a huge step forward from last year. I don't know that that's happened in the same way that maybe I expected it to after seeing him be a beast. So there's a lot of okay players there. And then there's one, holy cow,

this guy is one of the best of the best. It's him and Miles Garrett. And I'm not sure I need to talk about too many other players after that. And I think they have a really good defensive coordinator, though. I think Jeff Halfley is doing a lot of the same stuff as Brian Flores. And that's where it's going to be a true test. Because the bears tried to throw a lot of stuff. at McCarthy. The problem is their players couldn't win one-on-one.

Yes. Pretty much ever. These players, even if you sort it out, they could still win one-on-one, especially one guy in particular. So I think there will be a lot more pressure on him. I also want to know from you, what was your first Lambo field experience? Because it will be JJ McCarthy's first trip to the hollowed grounds. Yeah, mine was 2015. And we won the division. Yeah.

I believe. We won the division in 2015 in Lambeau Field, but I can remember walking out of that tunnel for the first time when you go through where they come down to the locker rooms, it's that single stall tunnel that you walk out and be like, man, there's been some freaking legends that have walked on this same ground that I'm walking on right now.

And to pull up to the stadium in the middle of nowhere and be like, this is like houses right here. Like this is a neighborhood. And then they just planted a stadium right in the middle of it. The place is awesome. my parents went to that game too because they wanted to go see green bay and then uh i can remember that's one right here and rogers i'll never forget it he tried to throw a uh two hell mary's right at the end of the game and he threw the first one and it went out the back of the end zone and i think

it was prefer or someone was chirping at him from the sideline about it and he just looked over and he gave the old like flex and was just like and walked back to the huddle then he went through another one that they almost caught i mean i just that was such a fun game to for my first time at green bay to win the division there, but the field is ass. The field is not good. It's slippery. It's all over the place. It is one of the worst grass fields that you could ever play on.

That was an ugly game overall, right? Horrible. It's cold and nasty. And it was actually kind of built for the 2015 Vikings, which was all kind of lower score games, running the football, pounding away, playing great defense. A memorable time at Lambo there.

There's been a lot for me. just going down there. I will say, no matter how many times I go down there, they shoot off the fireworks before the game. And wherever they shoot them off is right over the press box. So it's like, out of nowhere, like, all right, stand for the end. Boom. Oh, my God.

What is going on? Best press box food, I would say, or at least elite. I mean, what is it? What kind of food is it? Well, I mean, they have a normal spread, but then also you can get sausages or brats, if you will, whenever you like. So anytime they're just around, you could just be like, all right, well, it's third quarter and I'm just going to grab another one. And they've got a lot of pastries out there.

Like, they're, they got cheese curds. Oh, yeah. They're not trying to help you get on Weight Watchers here in that press box. And I am all for that. There's just, there's been so many crazy games against these two teams. The tie in 2018, even 16 nothing in 2017, when it was. was like minus 10 degrees and it was uh i remember that was it bret hundley yeah bret humley i end up having to go into that game like three plays in because uh fline broke his ankle i can remember

someone got hurt nick my east got hurt and so yeah i remember being on the sideline like god's freaking cold and they're like oh you got to go in you're like high kneeing it out there like it's eight degrees it's so cold we ended up winning that game too though that's one where um kevin kevin our long snapper, like broke his shoulder or whatever it was. David Morgan had to come in. I remember, we scored a touchdown. We go up then also and I see David Morgan come and sound like, what are you doing? Because I was the guard.

And I was like, what are you doing? He's like, hang in there with me, boys. And I was like, oh, God. Like it's like, you're just, you knew the second they were like, they all pointed out. They're like, do backup snapper. Backup snapper. And so they all get all juiced up. And I was like, oh, this is going to suck.

Because like, click is closer. Yeah, I remember that game vividly. And you also remember the result. of what happened with bringing in the backup snapper who went the wrong way on the blocked punt that ultimately caused the Minneapolis miracle. Yep, yep. I also remember that.

It wasn't the call, I forget, I don't know, it was like the call was either go left or right or something and he couldn't remember. Yeah, I mean, he just went whatever reason the opposite way or whatever the call was. Yep, yep, that's what happened. But you wouldn't have one of the most magical things in Vikings history, if not for the long

snapper going the wrong way. So that's always one of my favorite stories. All right, well, do you think they will win this game in Green Bay? I don't, unfortunately. I mean, I just, I don't know. I don't know unless JJ takes a miraculous jump.

And I don't know if you will or not, Micah Parsons is going to be a difference maker in this game. I think that they're going to continue trying to run the ball. I think they're going to stack the box. If JJ can play better, then, yeah, I think we can win. But he just hasn't shown me that he's going to be that guy for 60 minutes, right? If he can show up like he did at the end in the fourth quarter of the Bears game, the first time, the last drive on this game and he can do that for six drives, yeah, we'll win.

But he just hasn't shown me that he can't. So I don't think, I think that they're going to pound the rock. I think they're going to try and control the time of possession, even without Josh Jacobs, if he can't go. I think that the Packers probably squeak one out here. I think so, too, that they are really banged up. and it's clear with this defense and offensive line, you can keep games close.

And if you hit a few of these downfield passes that they missed last week, then you're talking about a whole different ball game. I don't think they go down there and get run out of the building by a Green Bay team that's banged up and probably is just pretty average overall. That being said,

how can we even begin to predict what is next for the quarterback? The one thing I will say for J.J. McCarthy is I don't think he's going to leave any blood in the stone, like I think he's going to squeeze all of it out. I think he's going to do everything he possibly can. And sometimes that works. And sometimes the league is unforgiving when it comes to things like that.

So let's go love to see it, hate to see it. I will begin with a love to see it. Here's what I truly love, that I am not in the Cleveland market. That's what I love. As tough as this is right now in some of these conversations, if I was there, I probably would just walk off the job. if I was forced to talk about Chatur Sanders every day of my life. He is

an irrelevant player who was drafted in the fifth round who shouldn't really be discussed at all and looked like a fifth rounder and yet there are people who are saying that he played great in that game. People who are saying you played for Kevin Stefansky

Kevin Stefansky is sabotaging his quarterback. Oh, okay, that must be what happened. It's amazing how we live in such a conspiratorial world that the fact that he just wasn't that great of a prospect and didn't really look all that good when he got in there. And then now it's how dare they not give him first team right? And you're like, what team? What that's, do we know anything about how football works? Why would you be giving the backup quarterback a bunch of reps? I mean, it just, I don't, I just, I'm so glad that

we don't have to do that. Yes. I mean, we, I can't believe the outrage of like, what do you mean the backup doesn't get first team reps when your rookie quarterback gets all the first team reps like dude it'd be one thing if it was joe flacco and it's like hey joe you're broken you've seen everything take some plays off on wednesday right let's get the backup get the kid in when you're a rookie quarterback you are every rep on walk through every jog through every meeting like you have to get those reps of course you're not going to give the backup quarterback you never plan for the back quarterback to have to play he's not that good man i don't know what to say like he takes bad sacks he's not super mobile he's going to get killed if he has to play this next

game i don't know my uh my love to see it is joshua mother freaking allen six touchdowns three running three passing they get boat raced by miami the week before and he just goes screw it i'll do it myself and puts it on and what a haymaker game to go back and forth there early i mean bakers beat up his team's beat up and they fought all the way through but He is just, man, he is in a league of his own when it comes to just being able to put the Superman cape on and go and do it. He is so much fun to watch. And I just wish Buffalo's defense is a little bit better because I think they probably

win the Super Bowl, but that defense is very concerned. It still remains concerning. And yet I would have them in the Super Bowl against either the Rams of the Eagles today. I just, I'm not sure that I can get there fully on any other team right now. Friends over at Fandul, their Super Bowl odds have the Eagles plus. 500 is the favorite and Buffalo not that far behind it plus 850 only behind the Los Angeles Rams and in the AFC not behind anyone. I think that's completely fair.

Indianapolis at plus 950. Hilariously, Kansas City is still after losing to the Broncos plus a thousand where the Broncos, that's a hate to see it plus 1400. The Broncos beat Kansas City. They're nine and two and they're like, hey, everyone look at us. Get out of the way. The chiefs are still winning. But yeah, that's, that might be.

hate to see it is, I mean, you know who they're reminding me of the Broncos is the 49ers with Jimmy Garoppolo, where it's like, yeah, okay, like make no mistakes if you can, Bo Nix, and our defense will take care of the rest. And then a handful of times a game, we just need a big third down conversion. And I was looking at a chart that was in true past situations, expected points added. And Bo Nix is kind of middle of the league in that. And the rest, of the time he's below average. And I don't think he's a great quarterback, but it certainly fits for their situation. Can you get to the Super Bowl, though, if you have to play Buffalo in the playoffs, maybe if Buffalo has to go to Denver, but I don't, I mean, I don't know how to weigh that at this

point, because we're going to be talking about at some point, can Daniel Jones and Bo Nix take down Josh Allen? And I'm just not really sure that's something that can happen. I'm going to go another love to see it is my love to see it is the fact that I, I think Kansas City probably misses the playoffs. I think that you can say that the Kings of the West are a little bit dead. They're five and five going to Indy next or Indy comes to them next week. And then I think that they have to play the Cowboys the following week, which are kind of figuring their lives out.

So, I mean, as a Denver guy at heart, not a Denver fan, I love to see it for the Denver Broncos to be able to possibly reach through that. My other hate to see it is C.D. Lamb and George Pickens, what are you doing? what happened there what happened why are we getting suspended and i think one can only imagine well where are we oh yeah we're in los bagas right so something probably happened the night before the game and luckily i think shot numbers like well at least i'm playing the raiders we can just suspend for the first drive right that won't be catastrophic but man when those two guys are

on and the dallas offense is clicking wow but you just hate to see stuff like that we're just like come on boys like let's get it together we're in the national football league knock the nonsense all also i mean they really learned their lesson after that yeah now dare you never do it again um who would george pickens man wow like uh pittsburgh trading away george pickens dk's been good there though but he's a perfect fit for dac prescott and as i now every time i watch another quarterback i'm like look how the ball travels look at it so smooth it's like it's got Doves, wings carrying it right into his hands. Not mock three.

Doesn't look like Itchero Suzuki threw it from the outfield. So love, no, I hate to see it. I hate to see it. I had this on my list. Look, at a certain age, you're just not what she used to be. Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick. It's a hate to see it now because Bill Belichick,

okay, if he wants to date children that are legal, okay, that's weird, but that's none of my business. I don't care about that. You can date a 24-year-old and maybe whatever. Like, I don't want to ask about it. You can take a college program and run it into the ground. That's their problem. They were stupid enough to select you to do something,

coach something you've never coached before. But don't be a classless D-bag. At the end of the game, the Wake Forest coach is so excited to walk over and shake Bill Belichick's hand and say something to him. He takes off his hat and he's like, I'm Wake Forest coach, man. Like, when do I ever get this opportunity? I mean, I'm sure if you're Wake Forest coach, you've read Belichick's books and you've

watched his YouTube things and you're like, oh, his three, four and all this stuff. And you've seen as a football life and everything. And you're like, hi, coach, great to meet you. Just screw you. Walks right by. Like, come on, bro. So sad. And Pete Carroll, he's just got no answers for this.

He hires a college office. coordinator who failed in the NFL and shockingly failed again in Chip Kelly. It's just, it's not, it's not good. Both of those guys should have just gone into media. We would have listened to their grandpa stories. The guy who's done it right, you love to see it is Nick Saban. When it was time, it was time. And there was a video, I don't know if you saw it of Nick Saban's wife giving him a birthday

cake. And he's like, he's like under a blankie. And he's just like being a 70 year old man, she's like, sit up in your chair. Okay. I'll have my birthday cake like that man. does a little TV, tell some stories. It's what those guys should have done. Yeah.

My last hate to see it is if I'm the NFC West and I watched Aaron Donald on college game day the other day, I think he might be coming back for the playoffs. I think you watched him rip his shirt off and you go, oh, God, you still look like you were made out of marble. And I think that Sean McVeigh might have saw that too and been like, Aaron, you've got like four games left in you, right? like we'll get the one seed we'll get the one seed we'll get a week off we'll get you in here we'll get you acclimated then you'll just go kill for like four weeks and win another super bowl ring right and i don't think that's far out of the picture and that would be terrifying if you are in the nmc west there was a video of him lifting like a hundred and fifty pound dumbbells and he was just like do to do you know not just stayed in shape just too bad right yeah just just just you know just just you know just just you know so I look good at Beach Day or whatever.

Who is the scariest person you ever lined up against? Fletcher Cox in his prime was pretty terrifying. He was pretty much like, wow, you're really big. And then I wouldn't know if he was terrifying, but it's kind of like a wow, you're really talented guy. I was Jason Pierre Paul. Oh, yeah. Like Jason Pierre Paul, even when he only had a quarter of a hand.

But it was also one of those things where you're like, man, you're still like he did that like drunken spider monkey thing he'd run at you and you'd be like, oh, they'd just head slap you? He was another one. Those two guys were fun to line up against. Probably Everson practicing against them. Yeah, I mean, he was just a great A lunatic every day. And you're just like, you didn't really know what you were going to get out of him.

But he was, it was fun to block him as well. But I can't say I did it super often in practice either. Lucky you. We'll see. He broke some dudes along the way during training camps. But we'll see what the football gods have for all of us. I'll be down there making the trip down to Lambo. which will mean some great food for me at the very worst.

And then we'll see what else happens. I see Packers fans are urging each other not to sell their tickets to the Vikings fans. And I was like, I don't know if you're going to have a lot of buyers. We'll see. I'm not risk it if I, never mind. I just driving down there, it's not the pleasant drive. And there's a lot of deer.

And if you're going to do it, you better be sure it's a competitive game. We'll see if it is. Anyway, I've said harmful things on the show, and I'll stop now. So thanks, Jeremiah, as always. And we'll talk to you next week. Football. Football.