Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles on JJ McCarthy's future resting on the next four games

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

Matthew Coller is joined live by former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Sirles, who talks about JJ McCarthy's recent improved performance and what the next four games mean for him. 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 it is time for Tuesday evening, left guard with Jeremiah Searle's, the first time this year that we've actually gone live because your schedule allowed it. And I thought, you know what? We got a lot to talk about, including one of your former teammates coming back into the NFL, which is an amazing story. I would love to hear later in the show what it's like to play with Philip Rivers and your expectations for him coming back to the NFL. But Jeremiah, you know, we've kind of made this a running bit through the year. So why don't we do it again? Where, where's the McCarthy meter at now?

There was the, hey, after Detroit, are you buying in? Hey, after the next couple games, are you out? Where are you after J.J. McCarthy's most recent, very solid performance against the Washington commanders he checked a box for me he checked a box which was okay maybe you can do it right maybe you can do it in the structure in which we have implemented for you and I think this is more of a testament to hey Kevin O'Connell way to meet your quarterback in the middle 12 personnel multiple tight ends play action pass bootleg handoffs I like it if he can do that okay let's load that a little bit onto his plate. We saw what

Simplify actually meant in real time. It was effective. It worked. We didn't ask you to do too much, which is okay. But what we did ask you to do, you were able to execute. Right. So I think we've moved a little bit from like sell, sell, sell to, okay,

we're still in the red, but we're hovering into the orange category. Like we're still, we're moving our way up into that possible orange category, but we're still very much in the red. One of the things that I've enjoyed about doing the show with you, over the last few years is how easily you could be moved when things happen. And we wouldn't have such a great industry of football analysis if we all didn't overreact

to what we just saw. I don't think that I was moved in any direction after the Washington game, but I think you can live in both places safely where you say, good job to J.J. McCarthy playing winning football. He had zero turnover worthy plays, his first game ever in which he has had zero. turnover worthy plays. That is a positive. He executed some very nice throws, uh, the play down by the goal line to T.J. Hawkinson. It's decisive. It's accurate. It gets him the ball quick. He makes the right read with Jefferson, you know, taking the other defender kind of out of the play and there's

space and you made it work, right? And there's some intermediate throws that are really cooking. And they hit the, you know, Addison right on target. And it was good, right? Like leading a 12 play or I'm sorry, 19 play 12 right 12 minute drive there's nothing wrong with that in the national football league and i never thought i would see the day from a kevin o'connell offense at the same time all the things that you described are stuff that you can do against the league's maybe worse team i don't know tennessee was like putting up some scores against cleveland i think washington truly has an argument maybe the giants in that little cluster of if anyone called you the worst team in the league they wouldn't be wrong. And certainly the worst passing defense to the league. They are dead last and expected points added aloud. They are dead last in yards per attempt allowed. And they don't stop the run particularly well either.

So I do want to know what you saw specifically like on the film, the X's and O's of what McCarthy did versus how challenging or not the Washington defense was. Well, I mean, first of all, I think most of that Washington, Defense has already bought their ticket for Cancun and mentally they're there. But I also, you know, you look at okay, what happened with McCarthy. And I think a lot of it was very much what we talked about last week where Kevin O'Connell was like, this is the play. And on this play, you throw it to this dude. And if you don't throw it to this dude, then you just kind of keep running and seeing what happens. Not, hey, option routes, choice routes, like reading, coverages. It was very simple in the fact that you could tell he did not give. McCarthy lot to think about. He gave him answers. And there's a difference between when a quarterback has given, hey, options of, hey, this is what you do against man coverage, zone coverage, this, that, and the other thing. And those are options. You give the quarterback options to win. Kevin O'Connell gave him answers to win, which was this play means you throw it to

Hawkinsons. This play means you throw it to Addison. This play means you hand it off to 27 and just made it very simple. And it showed me, you know, hey, okay, that's what somebody like, okay, JJ can operate that and that's the start right we talked about like don't crash the car and i said he hasn't pulled it out of the garage well it's idling in the driveway right it's you've moved it out you didn't scrape the mirrors off and you're just kind of idling in the driveway and now you're left with now what and from an exos perspective you were able to see him kind of just fall into comfortability and that's because it looked a lot hey multiple tight end sets handing the ball off the michigan aspect of hey i'm handing it off i'm allowing the run game to open up the

last game, bigger windows to throw into. I'm not trying to feed it into super tight windows. The offensive lines leaning on these guys. We're able to tire them out. Hey, we're running the ball. The linebackers suck up. There's that bigger window behind them, like you said, in the intermediate stuff. Everything from the game plan's perspective worked really well. And then also you got involved in the screen game, right, the quick screens, get it out of his hands quickly, get it into your playmaker's hands on the edges and go. And I think, you know, to your point of it didn't really move me. like again, I'm not ready to be like he's back nine killer. Yeah. But like you look at that from a perspective going, okay, that worked against Washington. That's great to get that put on film and be able to teach from that. How much can you now load on to him for another week? Because one thing I wanted to talk about with you is this idea of, hey, that was simple. That was awesome. That was fun. But you caught the league's worst defense by surprise. You came out in 12 and 13 and 21 and all week long they prepared for 10 and 11. And now you put that all on tape. Dallas now has watched that tape.

They're looking at it and they're going, okay, this is what you want to do. Here's how we're going to combat it. And Kevin O'Connell and J.J. McCarthy are not going to have to put in something new to do that because Dallas is not just going to let them line up and do that all over again. By the way, if folks are just joining us, we are live here tonight. So jump in the comments section, questions, thoughts, comments, reactions for Jeremiah Searle. You know, this is the thing, right? like if you need to win one ball game to get everybody in the organization a little bit

settled down you know people are talking about are your jobs on the line you're coming off of a game against Seattle that was an epic failure and it looks twice as bad because it came along with all the stories of how the Vikings let go sam darnold and all that right like you're as we talked about they were as low last week as i have ever seen them in the last entire decade and they really needed to beat the Washington commanders, so they devised the game plan, also probably knowing that they were going to kick their ass on offense. I mean, why in the world, just a small ramp, but like, why in the world would you play a guy who's a franchise quarterback for you if he can't fall on his arm? If that type of force of just being shoved down and falling like regular football stuff

is going to send him out of the game, that means he shouldn't have been out there. That was malpractice by Washington, especially with their record. So they probably figured, like, that's not, that's not looking good over there. And we're going to very likely get a good defensive performance. So all we need to do is X, Y, and Z. And this is why we talk about all the time how the quarterback environment dictates so much. And you have been a part of a team like this.

With Case Keenham in 2017, you guys had a favorable schedule. And you also had an unbelievable defense, number one, in passing, rushing, and scoring. And it was that. It was keep the train on the tracks. And sometimes he would throw it to the other team or make some crazy throw that The Eleanor Diggs would come down with. But a lot of the times it was a screen to McKinnon. And then every once in a while, you know, check down to Rudy. And then every once in a while take a shot down the field and those guys were catching everything that year. And there you go. You've got a pretty darn good offense to go along with it. But how often does this really work? I mean, that's a one year type of,

solution. It's a one game type of solution. It reminded me of when Gary Kubiak and the Denver Broncos got Jake Plummer to a 13 win season by running the football and running play actions. Then they went to the playoffs against Indianapolis and lost by like 50 points because it is the simplification always sounds great. The the favorability percentage among fans when coaches say they're going to simplify is 100%. Everyone's like, yes, because you were probably too complicated. You overthink and coach. But there's a reason why all this stuff is what it is. And when you watch some of the best quarterbacks in the league and how they're orchestrating up there, you get it. And even that would go for Sam Darnold and what he was doing at the line

of scrimmage. So there's four games to go. Where do you strike the balance from a one week type of solution versus are you going to do this for the rest of this season? Are you going to do this with him next season? Do you feel like he can learn this stuff and he can grow from this, that he just sort of needed this type of easy button game to get some confidence? Like, where are we with that? That's a great question. I honestly don't know where you go from here because Kevin O'Connell kind of has to make a choice of,

hey, what worked in one, do we double down on that and do we just keep leaning into that? Running the football, making sure we can give these play actions, like leaning on the O line. Or do we progress him in what I want to do, which is route queries and fun concepts and down the field shots and or is it somewhere in the middle? And I don't really think those two things have a middle because they are so polar opposites. Like it's either play action, deep shot run the football or we have to set up some of these things from throwing the football early and then moving into the progressions of how we want to see coverages and how we want to see route trees against this man coverage, that zone coverage. And so if I'm Kevin O'Connell, I'm in a rock and a hard place right now. And it's do I just continue to try and win football games limiting my offense? Or do I try and progress my quarterback on the track that I need him to progress on?

And probably put him more on the track I need him to progress on more than limit my offense. Because the more I'm going to piss some people off on my offense. Like I'm going to not, I didn't bring Justin Jefferson here for $35 million to not throw him the football, let him do what he needs to do. I did not pay my franchise left tackle to not pass protect 56 times a game. This offense was built a certain way and Kevin O'Connell is built a certain way that when the games get tough and you're not just absolutely beating the piss out of Washington and you need a, hey, this is a back and forth shootout type game, which this weekend could turn into, you want to be able to rely on what you know and you feel comfortable with as a coach,

which is your offense. And so that's where you need to be because so many of the games in the NFL are, one score games. So many of those games come down the stretch. They're one score games. They're super competitive back and forth. And you want to be able to operate in that system. And so if that's where you need to get to as a football team and as an organization, you have to progress your quarterback in that realm. And if he can't do it and you can't get him there, then you have to make a pivot switch. But we won't know until you slowly ramp and put more and more and more on his plate on his side. So I think you'll see this week a little bit of trying to start out vanilla and

start out simplified, but as the game progresses and this game is closer than it was last week, you're going to need to see him take steps in the right direction in the passing game for Kevin O'Connell's offense. So Jimbo says if McCarthy won with a simplified offense, why make it more complicated? I mean, the reason would be that what they won with last week was, and I don't want to be like condescending here to O'Connell in an NFL offense. It was an NFL offense, but it was very close to a Michigan football game where it was a lot of play action. bootlegs, it was wide open receivers against a defense that's just as bad

as you can possibly play against the past. And we saw then. And there are so many details, you and I were talking before we went on of, you know, a cornerback in a bracket coverage who decides that he's not going to cover the boundary. And it's just like not even realizing he has help to the inside.

Maybe that guy in the inside wasn't even supposed to be there. I mean, it's very hard to say. They made so many errors. They gave him so many clean pockets. and there were also still some signals of okay that was almost scary like a couple of times where he ducked his head down and looked at the pass rush there was a run out of bounds for a loss uh they was a sack where he had a wide open checkdown there's another pressure where he just sort of goes ha toward justin jefferson and it didn't turn into a turnover worthy play but i don't even

think he looked over there before he threw if the corner's in a different spot it is a pick six and that's sort of a it's like a process versus results actually discussion because this process is very unlikely to work week to week to week versus the results that were good and you won but you have to wonder in a different world where that's jaden Daniels from last year and you can't just sit there and hand off hand off and then complete a deep out route to one specific part of the field that he's good at throwing to i mean this was as designed for him as set up to succeed as you possibly can have. How many weeks out of 17 does that actually happen per season?

Maybe three or four? Most of the time the other team decides to fly to your stadium, put on their jerseys, and actually try to play, unlike what Washington did. So that's why is because usually you're supposed to have answers to what the defense does to you. So they're creating pressure. They're sending certain blitzes that you're struggling with.

they're devising different coverages. If you watch Chicago, Dennis Allen, they don't have the most talent over there, but they switch up their coverages a lot. Like, they get very tricky on third down. And you could see the moments of McCarthy being like, I'm not really sure. And then Jeff Halfley, we talked about a ton in Green Bay is a mastermind like Brian Flores of that. You need to be able to execute the answers to that level, not just this level, which is

why you can't just have it simplified all the time. However, the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants certainly leave the door open for doing it for at least a couple of more weeks. Yeah, I mean, then that's the nice thing is we're not facing one of the Texans defense this week where you want to be simple against them, you might as well just crawl in a hole and die. And so when you're looking at it from, okay, I'm not saying, hear me, Vikings fans. I'm not saying Let's just, oh, he did it well this week, back to what it looked like against Detroit, back to the game plan that we did against Atlanta and let's sling it all over the yard, but you have to start progressing him. You can only baby a guy for so long. And from a more macro level, the NFLD coordinators, if they get a beat on what you're doing, they will beat the living crap out of you.

They will line up and they'll know exactly because they're really smart and they've watched every single snap and they know your tendencies when you're. you're simple and they will just tee off on you. And I will say this, I never played on a team in my six years in the NFL where we didn't have a check on almost every play because there are certain plays that you just, why run your head into a wall if it's not a favorable wall? And and so when I watched this week, I don't know if I saw JJ check one time. And I mean that. Like, I don't know if I watched him get up there and go, hey, alert, alert, opposite opposite. Oscar, Oscar. Hey, kill, kill. Like, it was so just call, run, go, call, run, go that you have to eventually work that stuff back in. And it's not something you're like, well, we'll just do that next year.

No, you need to do that now. You need to work that in now. You need to be able to understand, can this quarterback take two plays to the line of scrimmage and get us in the right play? Can he see something and check out of it so that we don't have a negative play? Because you can't be simple if you run your head into an unfavorable box count in a run game, you've got to unblock safety there and he tackles you at the line of scrimmage and our second and 10. And so that's for more of the progressions with, yes, you can keep it simple, but you have to start putting more on his plate because that's the only way you're going to grow and develop. And it's going to be trial by fire and it's going to probably suck sometimes. He's going to make poor decisions.

I'm watching Caleb Williams still make poor decisions in year two. It's going to happen, but it's the only way he's going to grow because he does it in practice in the safe environment and he can do it and he can show that he can do it in practice, he's only going to grow and develop if he continues to do that in real game reps in on Sundays. And this is where I think that the truth ends up being maybe somewhere in the middle. I don't think that KOC created a system that is absolutely impossible for anybody to run. And we saw Darnold succeed in last year. And then we rewrote the narrative like, oh, well, Donald is a veteran. So obviously he could do anything. And like, wait a minute. Last year, we were talking about how he made that system.

him very easy for Darnold to understand and then just had to put the ball where it was supposed to be put. He talked about that. How many times did we hear him say, I'm just out there playing point guard. I'm just following my reads and the plays and putting the ball into the right spaces time and time again. I think when KOC first got here, Kirk made a comment or two about the struggle picking up the offense.

And I do think in 2022, KOC maybe tried every single thing he'd ever thought of on Kirk. when he first got there, as, as coaches do when they get their first job. But I didn't see last year's offense as, oh, my gosh, this guy is the conductor, the wizard, like what you see from Matthew Stafford and McVeigh's offense now, or Peyton Manning once upon a time where those guys are maestroes at the line of scrimmage. I didn't see that from Sam Darnold. He was running the plays. The plays are there.

The throws are there. And actually one of the crazy things about McCarthy this year is I felt like he's actually thrown it to the right person a lot of times it's actually been the accuracy and the timing that have really been off for him so i think what kOC was trying to do is not just make it like simple as in he can't possibly read through this stuff but as in stop thinking too much about it because it's slowing you down stop thinking oh is this the right one because i think it's supposed to be the right one uh-oh it was ha i'm gonna throw it as hard as possible and that's what was kind of happening there. But also, he was under duress 12 times, 12 dropbacks. He completed two passes in this game.

I mean, even when he was pressured, things went wrong anyway. This was clean pocket after pocket and you can drop back and execute. But I think that there's, there's a middle ground of KOC may be saying, all right, you know what? When the other team cannot stop our run game, and this has been our dream. So we really should be celebrating what happened on that 98 yard drive. when the other team cannot stop your run game, it's okay to keep running. And I think the all-time great, at least recently,

coach at doing this, is Kyle Shanahan, who has found a way to master this, I'll stick with the run if it keeps happening. And what I'll do is I'll take mostly simple concepts and I'll add a wrinkle to them. And this is where KOC did a nice job on the conversion to Justin Jefferson,

one of his two catches. which is really a signal, right? Like, there's no way the game plan was to get Jefferson two catches. So it was not done flawlessly. But he has him go like on a screen looking thing. And then he breaks toward the middle of the field. They have C.J. Hamm run out there and Hawkinson run out there. And those guys are blocking, maybe premature blocking actually from Hawkinson,

but they didn't call it. So he catches it on a little, you know, it looks like a screen, but then it's something else, just a little wrinkle of something that's not complicated that actually works. there are times where I have felt and you have felt like, hey, man, this isn't reinventing the wheel or this isn't going to space or brain surgery or whatever you want to call it. This is football.

And if you're running over the other team, just run over the other team. Yeah, it's okay to keep calling something if it's working. And I think that every pass happy coach has just sat there and been like, oh my gosh, I haven't ran the ball three times in a row, dude. Like they know we're going to run it. I got to do something different. I got to change it up. I can't do it again.

It's like, no, no, no, no. It's okay. You got to, like, coax them along. Like, it's okay. We just keep running it till they stop it, man. And then we'll figure it out. And I think you saw a little bit of that with KOC this week was it's okay. Like he told himself, like, it's okay to be simple. This is working right now. My fear then becomes is when things aren't okay in the game, right? One score game, two minute drill, trying to double up before half. Can he stay with that? Can he stay? Can he stay. committed to the run game. Can he stay committed to the simple things on that front there? Or is it going to be, hey, nut cutting time, crunch time, I got to get back to it. And that's where I get torn internally because I'm like, yeah, he needs to do that. Like you need to do that in order to be competitive in the NFL, but you also need to not do that in order not to crush your young quarterback's confidence. And that's where this is such a hard thing to go back and forth on because you saw steps in the right direction last week, but you can't forget weeks one through 13. And so as a coordinator, you have to go, okay, what do we do here to mirror the two to make

sure we're competitive and make sure we want to go beat the, we want to beat the Giants, we want to beat the Cowboys, like we want to beat these teams, but let's not do it at the detriment of taking three steps forward and five steps back with our quarterback. And that's where the simplifying piece of this really turns into, is it the right move? is it not the right move and how do we move about it? I am super fascinated on what the like opening script plays look for this team coming out against the Cowboys. Right, because the reality is we just, we don't really know.

Like we don't really know what's going to happen next. It might be a blip on the radar where we go, hey, remember that game. But even then, even then, like let's not talk about it like it was 404 touchdown. I mean, it was 163 yards passing. And it's like a revelation for us to talk. about, but it is a baby step, I would say, in the right direction toward the right idea, the right fit for him, as well as him gaining back some confidence, but anytime the quarterback in week 14 says, yeah, we kind of just ran stuff that we put in as our base plays and OTAs

and training camp. That's what he said after the game. It was like, okay, well, I mean, good thing they shut them out, because I don't know, you just can't do that, right? Like you said, I mean, all these other defensive coordinators, they stay up till four in the morning watching tape trying to grind on every single one of your details. And now they have more data than they've ever had before on all of your tendencies, what you do with your play calling and everything else. It's really hard to just line up with, you know, a full back and an extra tight end or something and hand off, hand off, hand off, and then run a play action off of it. That can work for a few weeks. I don't think it works over a long period of time. So what they have to decide is

by the end of this, how far do you think he can go after this? So, why don't we play a little game here? You like games. I like games. I love games. All right. I love games. I'm going to give you a number of victories for the Minnesota Vikings the rest of the way. The options are

zero, one, two, three, or four. Those are the options. Yeah, right. Those are the options. For it's, wait, there's, is that five options for four games? It doesn't make any sense. No, wait. Or is that four options zero one zero one two three four so it's five options for four games how does it work

that way because zero technically is a number i need a mathematician to help me out here anyway so they so they have four they have four games left so i'm going to give you a number of wins that they get the rest of the way and then you tell me what they'll be thinking about j j mccarthy if this happens okay so why don't we start with zero wins which would mean that and let's just assume that he plays consummate with the victim like if they win he plays well let's just make that an assumption all right so let's go with uh if they's only three games left yeah wait a boy giant's giant no the packers week 18 there is four games left why does it work this way i don't know it's so weird anyway my brain hurts okay sorry i was like wait what that's like how it's my 10th season

covering the team but i started in 16 to 2025 and one One of my, one of my friends works analytics in the league. And I was like, why is it like that? And he's like, I don't know. I'm like, what the? Brain no work. Anyway, I don't know. You can do complex math formulas with next gen stats,

but you can't tell me why that is. Anyway, let's say that they, that this was, this was it. This was their only win the rest of the way. What would they be thinking slash doing at quarterback if they do not win another game? burn it all down. Burn it all down, start it over, bring in a veteran, sell the farm for Mack Jones, do whatever. Hey, maybe we'll bring Daniel Jones in with his torn Achilles and figure things out. But if you go defeated the rest of the way, you have not proven that J.J. McCarthy cannot play in the NFL. It cannot because if you go defeated, it is usually 90% of the quarterback's fault. Because to go defeated, especially with this defense, means you're turning the football over. You can't move the ball. fall up and down the field. You can't score. Like you get in the red zone and you're settling for field goals and you're just proving that if you go zero, it's over. It's done. Thanks for trying. We'll try again

in 2026th and was someone new at the quarterback position. Crazy stat for you here. What does this stat mean? The Washington commanders have the 29th PFF graded defense. They are tied with the Dallas Cowboys and they are one spot ahead of the New York Giants. So if you can't win any of these games, then not only was it an aberrition what happened against Washington, but you are bad. You are super, super bad. Like, that's the one thing that was a little unfair to Max Brosmer. Hey, it's your first start, buddy. How about the number one defense in the league? How about like the sickest D-line? You know, how about great corners, great scheme? Nick even Warray looks like Superman out there, like. And one of the hardest stadiums to play in the NFL.

with a guy who's a defensive head coach, too, like, come on out, Max. It's time to play. Who you play matters a lot, as we've seen in the NFL every single year. But, okay, I agree with you that there's nobody whose job should be safe. There's definitely not a situation, a quarterback, where you could go 0 and 4 and then be like, all right, on to next year with J.J. McCarthy. But what is the rest of the answer there? Like, who are we talking about?

Because I got an email the other day about Malik Willis. And I'm like, oh, that's interesting. I agree. Yeah, that's interesting. But no, probably not. But not for saving jobs and running KOC system. Like, I kind of like Malik, but not for that. Let's see.

Now that everyone who's old can play, maybe they can convince Matt Ryan or Andrew Luck to come back or Vinny Test DeVerti. He's got to be like 60. I think Doug Flutie's still on the waiver wire. Yes. He's mobile, I'm sure still. How about Jeff. George would be amazing in this system.

But aside from that, like, I have thought of a lot of different permutations. I can't come up with a job saver outside of a Gino Smith who at least had 10 wins last year. But outside of that, I mean, Kyle, where are you at on Kyler Murray? No, I mean, no. I think you talk about what you need to be a quarterback in this league. It doesn't just talk about the talent, which I think he has plenty of, but he's just not a great leader. and you need to be a good leader at the quarterback position. You need to pull people with you and they want to follow you

and you want to lead them out of the tunnel and you want to do the pregame speech and you want to be the guy, Kyler's not that guy. And I think that Kevin O'Connell likes having alphas at his quarterback position, right? Even Kirk was a leader. He wasn't the best promoter motivational speecher, but he was a leader, right? And people liked him and they got behind him. I just don't think bringing Kyler Murray into this locker and when they preach so much about culture and how everyone in there is important, like, I feel like that would not jive well

with this. And then so then you lead yourself to Mack Jones and you're giving up something for him, unfortunately. And even that, it's like, is he the guy or is he the best of the situations in which we had? Right. There's a lot of different question marks there too that are not answers job savers of, oh my gosh, we just went oh and four down the stretch. Right. I've really struggled to find a single option where I go, hey, that would be pretty good. Even like as bad as Sam Darnold had been career-wise. He had been pretty decent in Carolina in 2022, pretty good in his starts against San Francisco.

And when they signed him, I was like, okay, yeah, I could see it. I mean, I could see this working. There's very few of those options. There isn't even, I mean, Anthony Richardson is on IR without even playing. He is, I mean, if it was, if it was an accident, well, no, this is his face. Remember his face guy? Yeah, if it was truly like an accident, that really sucks. That's awful for Anthony.

It doesn't seem like a bad dude. He's just not been good at quarterback. But still, like, he's injured all the time. So that's not an option. Daniel Jones just tore his Achilles. He's a free agent. That's not an option. I really can't come up with a whole lot that I like. Aaron Rogers. Uh, that's, I mean, that's a choice. It's not the choice. It's not the right choice, but it is a choice. If let's just say that he finishes the season with like a 58 quarterback rating and your own four, then the rest of the way and you finish. five and 12. Well, actually, you know, I think there is a solution there that makes a lot of sense, which would be drafting a quarterback with the new regime. Because if they can't win another one of these games, that might be the case. So I think, which I think they will. I don't think we're talking about. This is doomsday. This is this is scenarios. So they might be talking about drafting a quarterback with the new regime at that point. But okay, let's just assume that one is very close to that, except for people aren't fired, but we're still having the same conversation. How about two? How about you go two for four? You beat, let's just say, put it this way, you beat the

Giants. And last week of the season, Malik Willis plays for the Packers and you beat the Packers. How about that? You're still not feeling great about going into 2026, but at least at that point, you've got a bigger data sample. We're going, okay, we now know the caliber of quarterback that we need to bring in to compete with j j mccarthy you you split these games and he looks good in some he looks bad in some he looks horrendous in one and we're kind of still on the roller coaster that has been j j j mccarthy throughout this career and you go okay so this is what we're still dealing with at this point in the year now we need to decide what level of competition from a backup standpoint to push him do we bring in is that a drafted rookie maybe in like the fifth six seventh

right a lower round guy that can come in and we're kind of saying hey we're developing we're moving we're just getting you some depth but he feels a little bit of the pressure cooker or is that you go and you find another one of the veteran guys that's not your mean tyrod taylor one of these kind of like jacobby brissette like one of these guys you want to bring in that's a veteran to compete with him because you're not sold on him being the starting guy i think you would someone would still get fired from the coaching staff i think if we split these things um because you're going to have to look and go this is not an acceptable result in the national football league something has to be changed i don't know if that's mccowan if that's phillips if that's somewhere in between but you know if you only win two of these four games i think someone's head has to roll to in order to be like something must change yeah i agree i think that uh two out of four it'll feel it'll feel very purgatoryish because that will mean that there's moments for j jay mccarthy like there has been no one has ever said that there wasn't moments where he showed his flashes of arm strength, athleticism, leadership, uh, intensity, playmaking. Like he's shown flashes of all of it, but you, that you don't get a ring for that.

Like, you have to be consistent, uh, week in and week out. You can't have a solid week against Washington and then go out and throw three picks against Dallas and then be fine against New York and then come out against Detroit on Christmas Day a few days later and throw a couple more picks. That's, that's not, that's backup level play. That's what you get from those. backups that you named so if they win two i think you're still looking for someone who could beat him out potentially what they had in sam howell was someone who had zero chance of ever pushing him in any way possible i think you are looking at along the lines of a jacobi brissette or a marcus mariotta where as awful as he look coming into the game the other day well mariotta does

have a relationship with c oc which he told us about last week and uh he is not someone who I would say is going to beat the NFC North with Jordan Love playing like an MVP. Sorry, folks, he is. And Jared Goff, who continues to lead an elite offense, even if they haven't won as much. And then Caleb Williams, whose team is clearly on the rise and he's improving. I mean, you're going to, you're going to roll Marioata or something and or Berset and compete with these teams. Of course not. But at least you'd have someone that it, here's how to put it.

It's a bar. If you can't meet the Marioata bar, you're, just not a starter in the NFL or at least at this moment. So at least it would give them that, but they would also be extremely screwed for the 2006 season if he did not meet that bar. Now, here's where

it gets interesting is three or four wins, because if you win three, that probably means Dallas. It probably means even if you lose on Christmas Day, Dallas, the Giants, and either the Packers of the Lions would be a pretty good win. So if they get to three

or four, where are you at like would you be at hey just to get a traditional backup it's fine going to 2026 with him can we put that much on these four games i don't think you can i really don't i think that if you win three or four and my gosh it's so subjective how did we win these games did we win them seven to three right did we win them 17 to 14 like did we win them on the backs of brian flores or did we win them on the backs of our offense and that's where you'd have to judge hey if we get to three or four wins in this how did we get to those wins was it because JJ limited his turnover worthy plays like he did in Washington and then had more

flashes than blue screens of death like did he have more of that did we get to that point but I still think you have to bring in someone not calling it an open competition but knowing but based off the the caliber of the signing it's to push the kit right because right now when a quarterback room with an undrafted free agent and a second year guy there is no pushing. And the NFL is all about being in a pressure cooker all the time, right? Whether it's practice, game, like, you just have to build yourself into being comfortable inside the pressure cooker. And without someone in that quarterback room that's going to be pressing him, like you said, Marcus Marriota or James Winston, or someone that you can bring in

that's like, man, that guy's played a lot of football. That guy's been in the NFL a long time. Like, they would be comfortable going to him to operate this if I don't, pick my crap up. You need someone like that in that room to, if you get three or four wins, just again, to show JJ, hey, this was great, but there was a lot of unacceptable this year that we will not tolerate in 2026. You, we just, you have to set that bar with him. And you still say, hey, you're, you're still the starter. You're still the guy. We're going to give you every rep in OTAs. We're going to give you every rep in training camp. You're going to go into the year, the starter barring disaster. But we have an insurance plan, right? You fooled us in 26. We did not have an

insurance plan. We went in Carson Wentz, like, but we did not, we're going, it's 25, excuse me, 26, we will have an insurance plan because if it goes off the rails like this again, we can't just keep beating our heads against the wall on year three of your contract. Excuse me, that is Minnesota Vikings current leading passer. Carson Wentz, you're talking about. That's why we can't really go too far with the Washington game because Carson Wentz still has more passing yards. Yeah, I think if they were to win four and he played spectacular football and clearly, clearly KOC found something and it clicked perfectly right. I will not say that the offense has clicked until just the Jefferson goes for 10 for 120. Because that, I mean, that's his standard.

He averages 95 yards a game for his career. He can't even sniff that with this quarterback. Like, you're definitely not doing it right if 18 doesn't have any catches. So because all of the plays, base plays, simple plays, plays with 18 fat guys, they're all designed for number 18. The only, I guess really the only now that I'm like really thinking through this, one of the biggest issues with the insurance plan is if he's clearly out playing McCarthy in camp, right?

Like, which is, which is not impossible. Yeah. It's not impossible for if you sign a Jacoby Berset or you sign a Winston Marriota type to come in and all the sudden like, you're like, this dude's training. camp has been kind of baller right this has been kind of neat like that's the only thing you risk with that but at the same time if that's the case then you got to go with it right and that's the nice piece about having options and not just being like well we're just it's j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j like you can't go into 26 knowing this was the result and not have something put in place

knowing you're putting yourself at risk for a quarterback controversy in august okay let me give you one more question and then uh i got a couple questions from the chat that i want to to throw your way. I like the questions. I want to get your reaction to Philip Rivers in our love to see it, hate to see it, which is our both of our love to see it, I'm sure. But I need to give you guys the fan dual question of the day, which you could play along, Mr. Searles. The fan dual question of the day is this. J.J. McCarthy's over under against the Cowboys is 186.5 yards. Dak Prescott's is 260.5. Which one of those quarterbacks will hit the over? is cd lamb playing i'm gonna i'm gonna guess not i'm gonna guess not that was really bad yeah so i'm

gonna say because cd lambs not playing i'll probably take the mccarthy over i would really i'd probably hammer the i'd probably hammer the deck under if i'm being honest because of the the ability of what this viking defense can do from a rush perspective not having both options at wide receiver so i'll probably i'd probably take j j if i had to pick an over i'd take jay isn't, isn't Dak, isn't he Kirk? Like, isn't he just all the time, if he's got great wide receivers, he could get him the ball, he can make some great throws, super accurate, but he can be got. And like there were times, he played really well against Detroit, but there were times

where he was just got because he doesn't run anymore since he had that one injury. He's not a scrambler. It's not really that much of a playmaker on the move. It's kind of, if it's not working for him and if you get the heat on him, he, he, he, He's just going to struggle, I think, a lot. Without C.D. Lamb, that could be a serious issue. Although my question would be, who is trying to stop George Pickens? Last week, they played Jay Ward at Outside Corner and no disrespect.

I love a good cornerback or safety, whatever he is, who develops on special teams. Like, we, we like that. But if he's facing George Pickens, that could be a, that could be an issue. So, like, remember when Amari Cooper caught like 14 passes against them the, what was that? maybe 2018, that happened with against Mike. Raiders? Was it the Raiders when he was still with the Raiders? It was that it was 2018 Dallas. It was out. Mike Hughes had just come back from an injury and they just attacked him all night long and lit him up for that. So they could do that. I will say, though, that I think JJ's going to have to go over 186 and a half because you're playing a team that will score. Like this isn't Washington.

They're not just going to fall flat on their face like a cartoon as. Washington did. This is a team that has one of the best offenses overall in the NFL. So it'll be also a challenge for Brian Flores as well. So here is a question for you from the chat. And I am, I rarely punt on questions that I'm asked. Every time I've been asked this one, I've punted it because I know how little I know about this subject.

Okay. But you know. Steve says, I wonder what Jeremiah's opinion of O-line, Chris Cooper is. He's one of the Vikings assistant coaches that might be on the hot seat. Now, my take has been, I'm not in that room. I don't know, but I do know how big of a challenge this must have been for Chris Cooper. This is ridiculous. You're moving guys to center who have never played center before, just in schools, your left tackle. I don't know who could coach him up. Like, I don't know what you're supposed to do. And then when they've had the five,

they whooped Washington with the five when they had four out of the five they were good against the Ravens, they were good against Chicago. I don't know. How do you decide if someone's a good offensive line coach or not? Yeah, it's such a hard thing

because it's so, it's offensive line play is so scheme dependent, right? Look at Cincinnati. They just, the offensive line coach falls on the sword almost every single year because of like, oh, Joe Burroughs has been sacked so many times. Like, yeah, because they throw the ball

63 times a game. What do you think is going to happen? Those dudes are paid a lot of money on their side and they're freak shows. I look at it from, can this guy develop players? And I look at Brian O'Neill. I look at it at Christian Darrasaw. I look at it as, okay, those two guys, he's developed. But then you can also on the flip side, okay, well, why does Ed Ingram struggle? And then why does he go to Houston and have a career year? Don't say that. Chris Jones just go ahead and knife twist head down right bad things happen 50 54th out of 60 now in pass blocking for head ingram the point zero a quick zero do that real fast the point the point with ed ingram was always that that was the issue right like he'd have four or five games in a row and then he would

just give up a bunch of quick pressures i don't i don't think that's a smoking gun i don't think it's a smoking gun with this i i really don't know i think that a lot of the best o line coaches are really, really good in their connection to the run game. And that may be something with him that they do not have on the same level because he is a former offensive lineman. I also think that clarity, like when if you look at an offensive line and after the sack, they're going, was that me? Was it you?

Did you know what to do there? And when Ryan Kelly's in there, I see none of that. When other people are in that, I see a little of it, right? It's like, that's the hard part because Ryan Kelly, can O-line coach himself up there. Here's what I think about that situation is when they've had the five and it's all veterans and it's except for Donovan Jackson, who's been great, they look awesome. They look how they're supposed to look.

But the job of the O-line coach is to make it work no matter what. And sometimes it's worked and sometimes it hasn't. There's no replacement for left tackle, none whatsoever. You cannot fix that. If your left tackle is awful, you lose. You were there in 2016. But, you know, so I think it's a hard thing to judge. I think if the guys have his back, because they'll know best whether they're being taught all the right answers or whether they're solving it.

It's also about preparation. So much of an O-Line coach's job is to prepare you for what's coming. Hey, first down, second down, run, install. Here's what we plan on getting against 11 personnel, 12 personnel, 21 personnel. here's the plays that I am installing to attack this defense. Okay, hey, third down, here's all the blitzes that I have been able to see. Here is our blitz pickup protection scheme. Hey, here's our checks.

Here's the things we need to be alert for. Here's their tendencies, right? Putting it all on a preparation level is also a big part of the O-Line coach's job. And for the most part, to your point, I think he does a really good job of that. and any former player that Play-Doh line is going to be really good at that because you know if you send guys out there not prepared for what's in front of them and you as a player you didn't feel prepared you might as well felt like you were standing naked in front of the zombies dude like if you're standing out there and you're like I don't know where anything's coming from like it's a terrible terrible feeling and so I feel like a lot of times with the ability to identify the protection flip the protection there's the the mic there's the will there's the sam here's the things that is a big piece of the offensive line coach's job and i think chris cooper does a nice job with that i just honestly don't know how much freedom kOC gives him in the run game right because i've been part of teams too where the old line

coach is like hey here's 20 of my favorite runs let's do it he's like oh that's so cute thank you and he puts it in his desk you worked really hard on that didn't you here's our route trees go install protections yeah right like there's a lot of that that does happen in the national in the league so the align coach will always prepare runs and have things ready to go but if you don't ever get to see that fruition you can always kind of be like well why does the old i coach do the run game like maybe he does and it just doesn't get shown on sundays which i think is part of it and then this week he probably was like all right give it to me coop he's like here's the run team you want to do and then it works and like okay that does work so a lot of it too is just how much opportunity is chris cooper

we're given on the game install piece of it. I don't know to answer to that. So two more quick things on that. Number one is if they were to lose three, four of the last four games here, usually someone gets tossed into the volcano. Like you've said that. That's your phrase. I like that phrase.

Yep. Whether they deserve it or not, there's always somebody where it's like, and there was a joke about like the gophers fired their assistant D-line coach. She was like, we found the guy, folks. We found the problem here. It was the assistant D-line coach. He was the issue.

But that's how football works. The Giants are every time they lose, they fire someone new, which is a hilarious, like, you know, like a reality show. And you are out after the most recent loss. So, you know, I think that I think that's a part of it. I also think that you talk about Cincinnati, they're instructive. Because when Joe Flacko comes in, all of a sudden, there's no sacks anymore. And all of a sudden, those PFF grades start going up. And why do they start going up?

Because those guys are never in a situation where they have to block for four seconds. J.J. McCarthy did a good job this last game of getting rid of the ball, but he hasn't this year. And Lord knows that Carson Wentz really didn't and ran himself into a bunch of hits. So when you have a quick quarterback with the football, then all of a sudden, everybody looks a little bit better. So, and the scheme plays into that as well. If you're asking for deep drops and you're asking for deep developing routes, those guys got to hang on. I had a conversation with Garrett Bradbury about that last year about KOC's offense.

And just like, yeah, we got a PFF's going to ding us sometimes because we're holding on, hold on, hold on, and then the guy gets an edge on us. And it's a minus for me. But, you know, I had to block for three and a half seconds. So there are many different factors that play into offensive line. That's why it's so complicated. that's why you get the questions and you're on the show. So let's do love to see it, hate to see it,

which we do at the end of every show. Obviously, number one on our list is love to see Philip Rivers at age 44 coming back to the National Football League. It is absolutely insane. You played with Philip Rivers. So please tell us what it is like to play with Philip Rivers. And why is he doing this? I love Phil.

I love Phil. And if I ever needed more reassurance, to not have 12 children, this is it. We're going into the holiday season, the magic of Christmas. And he's like, honey, I'm going to, I'm going to go back and play Seattle. Like, I'm going to go play the number one defense in the league this week.

Have fun rapping those presents. I'm out. But no, he's an unbelievable human being. And I grew up hating Philip Rivers, right? I went Denver. I was a Denver fan growing up. My dad and I used to call him Crybaby Rivers, like the whole song and dance.

I end up going to the wonderful, wonderful chargers here, right? And I remember calling my dad within the first two days and be like, Dad, we were so wrong. This dude is awesome. Right. Unbelievable, dude. Such a smart football player. If there was one thing I know is that he probably

already has the Indianapolis Colts offense memorized. Like, he just, he knew everything. And it was my first real taste of elite level quarterback play. And to the point where I remember being in a blitz meeting, he'd pause it and go, all right, why are they coming off the left side here? And I was a rookie.

And I'm in the center meeting because I was finally activated. And I was just like, I don't know, man. He goes, to see that safety? He's three yards off the hash compared to that other safety. And I was like, what? Like, you see that? Like, you know, as a rookie, you're like, that's crazy. And then to watch him then execute it in real time and call things out during the game in real time

where you'd see him at the line of scrimmage, hey, he's coming over here. And you're like, how? And then to see him be able to go and put the ball wherever he wanted to put it. Now, he couldn't run worth a damn. And he sure can't run still. But his IQ got him out of so much just because he knew where to go with the football, knew how to get it. He had the answers.

And his crap talking was hilarious because he never cusses. It's daggum all the time. But it'd be like really picking at you. Like he'd remember, hey, you put that blitz on tape? That's terrible. I can't believe you put that blitz on tape. I'm going to beat that all day long. And he just poke and poke and poke.

And so I'm so excited to see him back on the football field. Now, I don't think it's going to go great, but at the same time, why not? And also, I think it speaks to the fact of how bad quarterback play is in the National Football League right now. If you're calling some dude off the couch that hasn't played, retired officially in July as a charger, and you're like, four more games, baby, four more games and maybe more. Maybe you can take us to the promised land, Philip. I think that Joe Flacco showed us that you don't have to move at all. you could just play seven on seven

quarterback. All right. Give it to me. Number one, ball. You know, he doesn't have Jamar Chase and T. Higgins, which really helped there. But he does have Jonathan Taylor, which should help them in a good offensive line. This is the wrong team to start

your re-career against that 44 years old. But if you can keep the train on the tracks a little bit, now they're going to evaluate whether you can actually play this week or at all. Like, they're signing him to the practice squad. He might just be here to help. They might get him in practice to be like, okay. All right. Um, Brett Rippin, you are up, my friend, and please save our season. Uh, or

I watched Ben Danucci do a flag football thing the other day. So he can still sling it a little bit. They might have to go get him. Yeah, like his arm is live, but it does, I agree with you. And when we were having that conversation about like, what if they don't win any more games and they have to find another quarterback, I don't have a good answer for you outside of trying to beg Matt Ryan to come play because there just aren't a lot of guys available. And there's no better evidence of this that there aren't developing quarterbacks, backups that someone would release for you or something at the end of the season. Like, you're just kind of out of luck. I will be fascinated to watch it. I love to see it. I'm going to give you another love to see it. And then you can, you can,

I know this is on your list, I'm sure, probably on I hate to see it. College football. Thank you. Thank you. I love it. What have I told you many times? I'm here for the circus. I'm here to look at the zoo animals. And if there are button heads with each other, the two rhinos, I'm like, ooh, let's take a look at that. I don't care who's right. That's the best part. I'm watching the Notre Dame athletic director flame people in the ACC. I'm watching the ACC respond. That poor Pop-Tart is like, why won't you play with my bowl game? It's the funniest stuff ever. And then the committee just being like, Alabama sucks, but Alabama. It's hilarious. Every bit of this is hysterical. It gets what it deserves. Yeah, and then you have Notre Dame with I'm crying and taking my ball and going home. It's like, dude, join a real conference like the rest of us.

I don't know what to tell you, man, like because you just decide we're independent. Doesn't just mean you get to automatically go in the playoff because of it. Join a conference like the rest of us. Like they've damaged, they've damaged the relationship. Oh, no. How dare you? Right. I will say the love to see it for me, that Indiana, Ohio State game. Yeah.

Awesome. That's it. Those are probably the two best teams in the country. I love that game. It was everything. It lived up to the hype. It had everything you wanted it to be. You had Mendoza. You had Julian San. You had big time plays, big time defensive stops, field goals. It was everything you wanted in a college football championship game, unlike watching the Georgia Bulldogs just drag Alabama. up and down the field. That was a highly competitive to very good college football teams going at it. And I love when the, I love when the conference championships live up to the hype. I got to tell you, with Indiana, I had seen them.

I watched the game that they kind of barely got away with it against Penn State. Yeah. And I thought, it's a nice team, but I don't know if they could play with the big dogs. Mendoza, nice quarterback. I don't know if he can play with them. And Indiana, I was not familiar with your game. I mean, they played super. physical in that game. Their D-line really dominated Ohio State's O-line, which I did not expect at all.

And then Mendoza, he was up for the challenge. Like they got dudes who were going to play in the NFL. Caleb Downs is going to be a top 10 draft pick. And he made plays. He made big time throws. The fade ball to the end zone had great touch on it. His post game speech, I think it might need a little bit of work. Because it was, we're the glue. A little bit of glow. We're the best clue there ever was. I'm like, we were talking. I was like, dude, this guy doesn't win the Heisman. And I watched that. I was like, there's no way you can give it to him after that speech. Like that speech has taken him out of Heisman contention.

I believe it was strongest glue ever. So that's, I was like, do you know Harbaugh? I feel like that's something like Harbaugh would like, it's still into your brain. I said to my wife, I'm like, I'm sorry I left that out of our vows. Like, strongest glue ever. That's now kiss the bride. uh i have my hate to see it was that football game last night oh i mean there's the difference between a defensive struggle and just terrible football yeah and last night was just terrible

football i mean my son who was six years old he likes to fall asleep in my bed on monday night and watch the games and he comes running downstairs and he goes dad did you see that interception fumble fumble fumble like the tv like the announcers didn't even know what was going on i was like yeah this is this is really bad but like and also why we're really going to put a quarterback out there that has his wrist that looks like it's just can't even move and you're like he could break it again at any moment and turn in the football over bad ball all around neither one of those teams deserve to win last night part of me was rooting for a tie like when they went into overtime I was like you both deserve to tie this game like neither one of you deserve to win this football

game this should end right now call it a tie go home lick your wounds and try it Um, your son's description of interception fumble, fumble, fumble, fumble, fumble is absolutely correct. It's in the play by play is that that's what it says, uh, the end of the game. I just something broken Jalen hurts. It's broke. I someone needs to be hired to fix it and I know who is not fixing it. And that's their offensive coordinator. That decision at the end of the game, those two players don't have the spacing to make that throw. Like that's, that's obvious. And, Clearly, like the corner is breaking back on it before he even releases the ball because he knows that's exactly where it's going. What are we doing? I mean, it's a three point game, worst case scenario, chip shot field goal, you tie, or, you know, maybe you get another shot at it. And I guess, and you're taking a risk there with the football, weird decisions from him, bad throws. He can't throw to the middle of the field anymore. A.J. Brown's dropping footballs.

It's just, it is gross. but my love to see it is that they had a giant bunny in the locker room and it's a positivity buddy. The positivity buddy didn't out, you know, strangely. Like the worst in the cats, hats, getting ripped off. I'm not sure which was fat cats get slaughtered. I don't know. Here's why fat cats get slaughtered is worse because the head coach didn't even admit to it.

He pretended it didn't happen. It was like he could have, and he could have let it go and just been like, yeah, I did some crazy bleep and whatever, man. I'm nuts. But instead, he was, he read the headlines. He was like, oh, coach is a cat murderer or whatever. Like, I didn't murder any real cats. It was like, Zim, just move on, man.

Just move on. Like, get away from this as fast as you can, you psychopaths. The cover up was worse than the crime at that point. Love to see it, Bill's Bengals. And really just the upcoming, the upcoming. Oh, and. Chicago, Green Bay, football, outdoors. It's awesome.

Please don't ever take it away from us. It's awesome. Cold. You're watching the guys breathe and they're at the line of scrimmage and there's just a cloud. It's so good. And I will say this. It's probably a hate to see it because we're doing a Vikings podcast. Hate to see what Ben Johnson's doing with the Bears if you're a Vikings fan because that team,

trajectory wise is on a fast, rapid rise. if he can even stop making Caleb Williams just go blue screen of death like two times a game. Like that last throw of the game. If he just puts some mustard on it, game's over. And second and one, if he just runs it and gets a new set of downs, probably win that football game too. And so you're just looking at it going, man, they're close to turning a switch here. And it might be before the end of this season. But if you're a Vikings fans, you hate to see what's happening in Chicago because Ben Johnson

has got a lot of good things cooking down there right now. And, you know, look, there's no moral victories. that was a game that they have a chance to win right at the end in a tough environment. And the second to last drive where they get in the end zone and maybe tie the game, it was just masterful. I mean, I texted someone in the league. And I was just like, Ben Johnson's awesome, isn't he? And the answer was, yeah, like, yes, he is.

That drive was sick, like the way that they ran and played off the run and the bootlegs they're using for him. And if Caleb would just throw the ball slightly more accurately, that would be a problematic offense. I still don't think that they have a great chance to really compete for the Super Bowl with that team yet, but probably next year. And what Ben Johnson's proven to me and winning helps this a lot is that he can actually run a team because I thought, I mean, at the beginning, he's bringing in like medieval

weapons and, you know, harming people and having these psychotic practices. You're like, oh, he's a lunatic who's going to fail instantly. But I guess what maybe Caleb Williams really needed was just. some real coaching with somebody with some credibility to come in and tell them what to do. Structure. Yeah, it should be very interesting. Do you think the Vikings will win in Dallas? No, I don't.

I think, you know, obviously the Vikings are playing for pride and they're playing for money and they're playing for I want to keep my job for a lot of those guys. Dallas is playing for everything. Philly dropped another game. They're playing for it all. they're trying to still get and punch their ticket to the dance. I think this offense on the road for this Vikings team, they're going to score, but they're not going to score enough. I think, I think, you know, this Cowboys defense is not great,

but I'm just not sure they're going to be able to match and keep track on the road against the Kenny, the Quentin Williams, the Kenny Clark's, the piece there. So we'll see, but I just don't think it's going to be enough offensive power. I vowed not to pick them again the rest of the year after Seattle. and maybe that will be what turns them around. There you go. Historically, I'm terrible at picking games. I'm not great either.

Some people have said this. Gambling and picking games is a totally different skill than like discussing the team and breaking down every detail. So I don't know. Jeremiah Searles live for the first time this year. Hopefully we can do it again. But if not, we usually record in the middle of the day Tuesdays for Tuesday morning left guard. You are the best, sir. Tremendous, tremendous breakdown as always.

and we'll find out what happens next week and be back and we'll just keep track of that little meter of yours and see if we can get it up into the yellow after this week. Thank you very much. Anytime football. Football. All right. Jeremiah Searle's there.

Now, I did record earlier with Maggie Robinson, but I haven't uploaded it into the system. So if you all be patient for just a moment, I can get Maggie's interview uploaded here and get that to you. If you just joined the show, thank you for dropping in. Make sure you watch the rest of Jeremiah Searle's great breakdown of what J.J. McCarthy did against Washington, how much we should make of that. And don't forget to answer that Fandul question of the day, which is J.J. McCarthy's over under against the Cowboys,

186 and a half yards. Dak Prescott is 260 and a half. Which one of those guys will go over? Do you expect McCarthy to get to 200 yards in this game? so let me let me just load up my conversation with maggie we recorded earlier today and we go through a little more in depth with philip rivers and the game last night and then that will be the end of the show this evening so this is gonna look a little weird for a second here and uh all right it is now time for the robinson okay let me sign off first and then i'll play you that entire interview but thanks everybody for watching slash listening and now to close out the show uh Maggie Robinson. Folks, are you overwhelmed by the number of different options for hair loss? Are you exhausted by looking around the internet for answers and watching late night television commercials, seeing if any of the options will work for you? Well, getting your hair back doesn't

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ED, weight loss, and more, visit Hymns.com slash Purple Insider. That's Hymns.com slash Purple Insider for your free online. visit hymns.com slash purple insider individual results may vary based on studies of topical and oral monocodil and finesteride featured products include compound drug products which the fdaa does approve or verify for safety effectiveness or quality prescription required see website for full details restrictions and safety information all right it is now time for the robinson round up with special purple insider contributor maggie robinson and this is one heck of a week as playoff races turn up and now suddenly I feel young again for a certain

reason. So why don't you take us around the National Football League, Maggie? What's up? All right. So if last week's theme was parody and positivity, this week's team is desperation. Okay. And that's kind of fitting because for me, it's finals week and I'm desperate to get out of here, desperate to finish up all my assignments. But on the football side, teams are feeling their season slip away from them, we're having injuries, and they are trying truly everything to keep their playoff hopes alive. And as you alluded to, news of the day, Philip Rivers will be playing with the Indianapolis Colts most likely this weekend. Okay, this was not on my 2025 bingo board. Was it on yours? It was not. There have many times been stories of this team called this guy.

Just for example, when, who was it, maybe Jimmy Garoppolo got hurt a couple years ago, the 49ers called Ben Rafflesberger. They said, hey, how's the old canon? And I think Ben said, come on, guys, be serious. And in this case, though, Philip Rivers, it's a little bit unique. Not only has he been coaching and staying in football shape, throwing balls every day, but also he's been running major parts of the Indianapolis Colts offense as he's coaching, apparently.

So he is not only been throwing the ball and staying in shape, but also staying even in contact with the Colts about how to run their offense at the high school level. So there was a report. I think it was Schaefter who said from a mental perspective, he feels like he could come right away and play. They're going to assess what he can do physically. And you can bet that I absolutely love this. I mean, this is insane. But also, there have been other quarterbacks who have come out of retirement.

Randall Cunningham did it in 1998 for the Minnesota Vikings. other quarterbacks who have played at 44 years old. Tom Brady was into his 40s. You see Rogers doing it right now. Vinnie Testaverty was a 44-year-old Carolina Panther at one point. So the quarterback position is very unique. And earlier this year, we saw Joe Flacco come in, take the snap, just throw it to his wide receivers and survive for a little while.

So I guess they're hoping that Philip Rivers can do the same. But five years out, the highlights that they're showing, Maggie, have people in masks with 6,000 people in the stands or no people in the stands. Like, that's how long ago this man was actually playing football. I can't believe this. It's actually insane. And so I pulled the other a little bit here. So we say age is just a number, right?

But here's some other numbers that I really want you to think about. The first one being 2020, like you just said, that was the last time Rivers was in the NFL. That's a long time ago, guys. And I was reading some reports and they're like, yeah, his arm strength is still there. he's still got a good hand. Right. His agility, his movement in the pocket? No, it wasn't that great when he ended.

So you think it's gotten better in five years when he was coaching Alabama football. Tactically, guys probably with it. I'm sure he's like there. The wheels are turning. You can see a play. That's important. Can you move your feet fast enough to make that happen? Right.

And can you readjust your brain to NFL speed? And also things change a lot in the NFL. The coverages have become more complex. have become more complex. I think you see a lot more free runners. This is what you're referring to. A lot more free runners than in 2020. And we discussed this all the time that Brian Flores has been leading the way

in complicated coverages and complicated pressures that, well, Philip Rivers, I'm sure, is still watching a lot of tape. He has not seen in real time. I will say, though, having stood next to Philip Rivers one time in my life in the locker room after the Vikings beat the Chargers in 2019, he was coming over to give a Vikings player his jersey, the Vikings player gone to the same college. And I was standing outside and I was like, hello, Mr. Rivers.

He is a ginormous human being. So if anyone can stand in the pocket, just like Joe Flacco and just take the snap and get rid of the football as fast as he possibly can and not have to move around a little, he also played a playoff game once on a tour in ACL. So like this guy has done this sort of. before. But I think it's reasonable to be skeptical. And also they're playing the Seahawks who have one of the nastiest defenses in the NFL, maybe wait till next week, but I don't know if the Colts can wait till next week. That was something else I wanted to point out. So he's elevated to the

practice squad right now. Like that's all he's kind of listed as. I don't see that holding. I simply don't know who else is going to play quarterback for you. You have Riley Leonard, who's currently injured. Anthony Richardson, orbital fracture, whatever. That man's kind of in the back of everyone's memory, you got nobody else. He's going to be elevated from the practice squad. Like, this is going to be your QB1. I don't see any way around it. Yeah, I suppose if Riley Leonard can play, if they feel like Philip Rivers needs

another week or really literally can't do this when they see him in practice, which I think is a potential outcome. We had heard that Frank Ragnow was coming out of retirement. And then he either already had a terrible hamstring injury or suffered one trying to get ready to play for the Lions again. So it's not a guarantee at all. But we can't forget former Minnesota Viking QB3 in training camp, Brett Rippin, who was also on the team.

He lost out to Max Brosmer, who as you saw against Seattle, had a very, very difficult day. So that's the level of quarterback that they're down to. I totally understand why they would do this. They also gave Derek Carr a call just to see like, hey, man, anyone out there. Can anyone come in and play quarterback? there was that one time you remember that the Broncos had to have a wide receiver play quarterback. Like that's what they were approaching if Philip Rivers did not say yes to come back. So it's, it is a wild story.

I hope he does get in the game, but I also hope that he's safe while doing it, that he doesn't get clobbered and immediately have to leave the field. This feels like in soccer. So I was a goalkeeper, right? In college, you always have like three rostered goalkeepers because it's like quarterback. It's a very specialized position. You got it like three deep. Cool.

If everybody's injured, you have a designated player on the team who has gotten at least a few reps and goal. They might be terrible. They might have no confidence in position, but they, like, kind of maybe played in high school or, like, rotated in. This feels very similar, except for they're calling on the super senior who has two years of COVID eligibility, except for he's 44. And just a crazy, not to rub it in, but just a crazy storyline here and definitely want to follow. NFL teams do have the same thing. They have one player just in case everybody got injured that would be able to come in and at least take the snap and probably just hand off. You would never have them throw.

I don't actually know who the Vikings is now. Probably was Cam Acres, but then they released him. So I don't know who it is now, not that they need it with three active quarterbacks. But for Philip Rivers, here's the wildest part of this story is Philip Rivers was a semi-finalist or still is technically a semifinals for the Hall of Fame. But if he gets into a game, he resets his clock and has to wait like five more years. Right. Imagine loving ball so much. Imagine being so obsessed with this game that you would be willing to set back your own

Hall of Fame candidacy, which he I think was very likely to make it, considering his star power, an obvious Hall of Fame quarterback. So setting it back five years, putting your life at risk for the Indianapolis Colts, a team that wasn't even his lifetime franchise. He just played for them for a year at the end. It is, it's crazy. And this is why we love the NFL because you never know what is around the corner. You literally never know.

And I just have to imagine what that conversation was like with his wife. He was like, honey, listen. So once in a lifetime opportunity, they only come knocking once. And then in my mind, I'm thinking about Tom Brady and Giselle. But I don't want to extrapolate. Yeah. Well, he is going to leave the 10 kids. Well, they're not all at home because some of them are grown.

Right. Some of them are grown. He's a grandfather and he has grown up children. That actually reminds me of Josh McCown when he was with the Jets. He had a daughter that was the same age as Sam Darnold when they drafted Darnold. So it's a, it is a crazy, crazy, crazy world. All right. We have spent so much time on that, but there was so much there.

It's such a juicy little nugget. Let's look till Monday night, the Philadelphia Eagles. All right. We know the wheels have been slowly, maybe not so slowly falling off for a while. But it came out in the media that the Eagles had a giant inflatable positivity bunny sitting in their locker room to boost team morale. And I'm just saying if it comes to that and you have a all men's football team relying on an inflatable bunny to boost team vibes, that's a way bigger issue.

and some helium isn't going to solve it. So here's the natural question is, like, who took down the bunny after the game? Was it like, who had the job? Because they did. They had a huge, if people didn't see it, it was like, I don't know, 10 feet tall. Yeah. Yard inflatable bunny. Ginormous, right.

Like what you would put a huge Santa or something in your yard. That's what they had in the locker room, which you really have to, win after that or that's going to be a joke for them my questions which like what intern or person it was like all right grab the bunny like you know come on i'll take it out and they you know it just deflates just like their chances it's very interesting that right now on fan duel they are still plus 1100 to win the super bowl which is one two three four five six seventh in terms of super bowl odds they don't look anywhere close to that. And it actually reminds me of something because their offense was so good last year.

And their running game was incredible. And their offensive line was very healthy last year where they haven't had Lane Johnson's been a huge issue for them. But their offensive coordinator clearly is not giving Jalen Hertz the answers. And for a quarterback who's been this good over the last few years and has won the Super Bowl to look like that, I feel like they've made a huge mistake. by not just axing the offensive coordinator and making a change there, the Baltimore Ravens, the year they won the Super Bowl actually changed offensive coordinators late in the season.

And I think that the Minnesota Vikings would have gone deeper in the playoffs in 2022 had they not stuck with their defensive coordinator at Donatelle. And instead, they did and lost to Daniel Jones in the playoffs. I don't know what more needs to happen to make an OC change than what we saw against the Los Angeles Chargers. I mean, it was just a sloppy game. Hurts with four interceptions, one fumble. This was actually hilarious to me in like kind of a messed up way.

As if 2025 hasn't been bad enough for AJ Brown, seeing him drop three passes as Mike Wazzowski was unreal. Seeing a little one-eyed monster run around the field and be unable to catch a pass was just like, oh, I'm so sorry. You're really going to have to explain that to everyone who didn't watch. the Monsters, Inc. broadcast. If you do not have children under the age of seven or are not interested in an NFL simulcast, Monsters Inc. put out, N. ESPN, put out their own version of the game.

So it was a whole animated game where you had different players identified as different characters. So you had a Sully, who's like the big blue kind of dinosaur guy, giant. And then you have Mike Wozowski, who's a little, looks like a pee with an eyeball. okay and that was a j brown and that is just hilarious me so you're watching the game in this little animation kind of box they have different announcers it was really entertaining and i helped work on that when i was the NFL it's a really big initiative they do it draws in little kids but um man to not play well and to see fumbles happen in an animated style it's just brutal they did that with uh toy story a couple years ago and it was a big hit so that is fun

a one-eyed monster dropping the football. But, you know, there were several plays in that game because, of course, it's going to go all on Jalen Hertz. And the interception at the end is 100% Jalen Hertz. If you look at where his eyes are, it's an easy play for the underneath corner to drop back. The spacing isn't good enough there. So he goes to throw to the corner. And all it takes is just the underneath guy looking at him and dropping back and getting a hand on that football. That was a huge, huge error where you should have just thrown the ball out of bounds.

You already have the three points. you can already tie the football game. Why take any risk into coverage trying to make a hero play? So that was a lot on him. But there were drops. They did not play well as an offensive line. There were mistakes left and right. So that team is really floundering.

And it really looks like what happened to them in 2023, where we just kept saying like, oh, the Eagles are going to get it. The Eagles are going to get it. They just kind of never did. But luckily for them, the NFC East is a wreck. This is actually now, I think, becoming a game that matters for the Vikings this week to play against the Dallas Cowboys. Because if there's like a small chance, it's not a big chance, but there's a small chance that the Eagles could just continue melting. And I don't think any of us saw that coming.

No. The fact that things are still being shaken up and the fact that, to be so honest, that the Vikings have any sort of shouting, like, they're close enough even to like think about them is. shocking. Well, it's really, it's really more for Dallas, more for Dallas. Like, I mean, the Vikings technically aren't out yet, but it's really more for the Cowboys. Yeah, the Cowboys. Yeah, that the Cowboys. That's the relevance. Yeah, unfortunately, the Vikings relevance probably ended at, uh, when they got to four and eight. But I was trying, I was trying to find though the other day, because they aren't out, but there are these, uh, football, you know, playoff machines where you can type in the results and then it will tell you like, oh, do you get in

if, if. I was trying. one like the Vikings have to win every game what if like San Francisco lost every game what if this team lost every game I couldn't I couldn't find that 1% chance so I don't know but it is the Vikings so what else we got all right so speaking of playoff picture let's look ahead this week 15 slate has some good games and there's a lot on the table so I'm going to hit you some matchups and I want you to tell me who you think is favored from your perspective okay all right broncos versus the packers this is a monster of a game yeah so green bay on the road here on fan duel is two and a half point favorites over the denver broncos and i think that a major reason for

this is that people just still don't really buy into bo nicks i mean as they continue to win and win and win uh last week was a preseason game for them though i don't know if you saw the Vegas crowd was all orange last week. Yeah, yeah, to the to the point where it was probably 90% orange in, in the Las Vegas stadium, which is really crazy to think about like an additional home game. And Bo Nix didn't have to do anything in that game. He continues to be underwhelming, but their defense is great. They run the ball well enough. They just don't make a ton of mistakes. Kind of reminds me of Alex Smith in Kansas City for a few years there where they'd make the playoffs, then didn't have enough into the postseason. But here's Green Bay, phenomenal

defense. Like, how do they match up with another amazing? I mean, this is really the year of incredible defenses. And we're going to see two of the best. And it also is the point where Jordan Love has gone so far this year that you have to talk about him in the MVP conversation with Matthew Stafford, with Drake May. And if he has a great game against the Detroit, or I'm sorry, the Denver defense. If he has a great game against them, the road there, then that discussion is going to get a lot louder. And plus, I think their Super Bowl odds are going to go up if they can pull off a win. But if Denver wins, at some point, people got to give Denver some credit for being a legitimate

Super Bowl contender. Yeah, I mean, they're on a 10-game win streak. Granted, do they have the world's toughest season? No, but winning 10 games in the NFL is still a feat. And I believe the Patriots are the only other team who have a 10-game win streak as well this season. And they're in good company, but I do feel like, and maybe this is more just like of a gut feeling just from watching. Like the Packers have an edge here. They just have.

And maybe again, this is pulling on that they're like, we're gritty. We're, you know, like that's kind of their ethos. But they've just figured it out. And like they are chugging. Like they hit a bump. They keep going. And I don't know if the Broncos have had that kind of, I don't say like hardship. But like have they really overcome any massive issues this season?

Yeah, I mean, I think when you look at the schedules, the Green Bay Packers going into this year had one of the tougher schedules, the Vikings, the NFC North after last year where it was kind of an easier schedule. So there was a lot of thought of like they should drop off. They go get Micah Parsons. He's been everything that they dreamed of. And then last week, when you're talking about a gritty win against Chicago, Chicago's driving, they get a fourth down stop. They kind of did give up some on the ground, but I held Caleb Williams in check for a lot of. of that game. And I really foresee a similar game against Denver where I don't see any way that Bo Nix can just overtake Green Bay's defense. But I also think that it's a real true test for

Jordan Love facing a defense as good as the Denver Broncos. Absolutely. So that'll be one to watch. Let's look at another one. Bill's Patriots. Oh, baby. Okay. So New England, if they win this, I believe secures AFC East but who knows because the bills are kind of like these late season chargers like bad wording there

but you know what I'm yeah they're coming up they're hot they're on a good streak when we kind of wrote them off earlier like no they figured it out now so who do you have in this one? Yeah the bills have really gotten it together since that terrible loss against the Houston Texans

and even in that game Josh Allen found a way to keep them in it. And then last week against Cincinnati, Alan just playing Superman. I think that that's kind of the concern if you're Buffalo is that you're asking one guy to do so much all the time. And their defense is really not as good as some of the previous Buffalo defenses that went deep into the playoffs and then ultimately always lost to the Kansas City Chiefs. This though, when we talk about teams that have or have not been tested by their schedules,

New England's definitely a team that hasn't much. Their best win is at Buffalo, but they don't have a lot of other tough games that you would look at and say, oh, my gosh, look how hard the schedule is. They've got, you know, wins against the Jets, wins against the dolphins who are two of the poorer teams in the league. And so now they're facing a Buffalo team that feels like it's gotten it together a little bit. It's the best quarterback in the NFL. I think we can say that for this year that, you know, Josh Allen is still the most unstoppable force, at least in the NFL versus a guy in Drake May who's playing the best football of anyone except for maybe Matthew Stafford. That is one heck of a matchup. I really don't know how to put odds on it. I do feel like

the Patriots are the more complete team. Their defense has been really, really excellent this year. But I also think that if we're talking about which one of these guys at quarterback has been in these games, been in these situations a lot more and had the pressure of that, it's Josh Allen and not Drake May feels like a game that's going to come down to a final drive. Not to draw comparison to a current quarterback, but this kind of feels like the chiefs, when the chiefs haven't been performing, but Mahomes has been standing on his head game after game. And he's gotten them through it. But then you look at someone like the Ravens and they're like, Lamar Jackson, he's our guy. He's like, this is how we're building our team. And then

when he doesn't perform, then there's nothing there. You really have nothing to work with. And so it really is kind of a toss-up of is he going to show up and then are the right things in place for him to at least to do enough like is it will the team do enough but I agree that the Patriots feel like they have the more built-out depth and roster and just like strength at every position and last week they were playing in Cincinnati Buffalo was and that's one of the worst defenses in the NFL it's going to I think probably be historically bad so yes he was playing Superman but not against the team as good as New England or as well coached as New England And the line on Fanduil there is the bills are one and a half point favorites.

And the over under for points is 49.5, which is pretty high. I wouldn't be surprised if that does end up being a shootout. Maybe we get some snow flurries in that one like we did against Cincinnati. So, yeah, I mean, these games, I was talking a little bit about this yesterday. I just feel like I'm left out of the party this year. You know, there's so many great games, so many great teams, it's like, okay, well, you know, the Vikings are five and eight. so that is because the drama here is absolutely ridiculous this week

and it's only going to get more incredible as we go forward. Yeah, I mean, talk about drama. Colts Seahawks, come on, get your popcorn. This is a good game on so many levels and it's kind of made for TV one because as we mentioned in the top, Philip Rivers, come on. I'm turning the TV on just to watch that guy if he gets the starting spot. Two, Seattle, looking dominant. I mean, like if they can get a win this week and then a win versus the Rams,

Week 16, they're what, they're looking like top of the division, I believe, really helps their chances of a playoff berth. Like, I think they kind of came from, but I don't want to say behind, but they've been underrated this season. They're in the driver's seat to win the conference, but they do need to beat the Los Angeles Rams who have been the nemesis of Sam Darnold, Darnold through what, four interceptions against them earlier this year, and then the struggle in the playoff game. I do think, though, they're going to bring a different game plan.

to the party than they did. And they missed a field goal to lose that game that was at a distance where a lot of field goal kickers are making it this year from 60 yards. So even as bad as it went, Seattle was right there toe to toe with them. That's going to be the real game of the NFC, I feel like. But to this game right now, this is kind of crazy because you don't see this too much. Seattle Seahawks are favored by 13 and a half on Fandul. They're just assuming that who,

whoever plays quarterback for the Colts has basically no chance. And I don't disagree. I mean, as much as, you know, Max Brosmer got destroyed, this same Seattle team completely shut down Kirk Cousins last week. I mean, their defense is rolling. I think they may have the best defense in the entire NFL to go along with a Sam Darnold who's played excellent this year. They are, they're a Super Bowl contender.

I know someone will write in the comments, Do Donald melted down in a playoff game. As if that never happened to Matthew Stafford, by the way, about five times. before he finally won the Super Bowl. But when you look at their team, the one concern I have is at the offensive line because I don't think that they are stout enough to hold up through an entire playoffs,

but their defense is so good. Their top receiver is so good. And I mean, this game, it'll be all about what's going on a quarterback for the Colts. They'll probably won't be a single mention of how good the Seattle Seahawks really are, but they have put their name right up at the top of the NFC. yeah this week kind of feels like a quarterback showdown not that most weeks don't but specifically

this feels like we're looking at one name on the field and that's where the eyes are getting drawn and in every matchup there's something happening between these two quarterbacks either MVP title contention is kind of up in the air or someone random is coming off their couch and he's 44 years old or it's Josh Allen we're asking him to stand on his head again you know so this is a really intriguing week of football and I'm excited to watch you also have chiefs in charge which the chiefs, for as much as people threw dirt on them, the Daniel Jones injury does open up the door potentially for the chiefs getting favorable results if they could beat the chargers.

So there's a lot of implications going on here. Carolina is playing against New Orleans, and Carolina is racing against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the playoffs. And then you have Lions and Rams, which is always kind of the revenge matchup between Gough and Stafford. the lions are trying to stay in it. So all sorts of stuff going on. Maggie Robinson, a great rundown, as always, of what's going on around the National Football League.

And, you know, sometimes when you're on the show, I feel like I've aged a little bit, you know, reference things that happened in, you know, 2000 or whatever that maybe you didn't see. But today, thank you, Philip Rivers. I feel nice and young. I feel good. So thank you for your time, as always, Maggie. Of course. Thank you, guys.

Football. Football.