Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles on where it went wrong for JJ McCarrhy

Episode Date: November 26, 2025

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Hey, Everybody, Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, presented by Fanduil. once again for another episode of Tuesday morning left guard with former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Searles. And I got to tell you, Jeremiah, in all the time that we were together there in the locker room when you played for the Vikings, I don't think it's ever been like this since I've covered the team. And there's never been a time where it has felt so uninteresting to watch the Minnesota Vikings that there have been so many games that are just over and nothing happens. And there's really never been a time where the quarterback play was so poor that we're just watching with fanned fingers like J.J. McCarthy don't get hurt

out there. And then he did. What was your reaction to watching the second half of Vikings and Packers? It almost felt, I don't even know how to like I was watching with my wife. And she was watching he's like, is he just that bad or is like a bad game? And I kind of looked at it for the first time. I looked and I go, I think that's just who he is. You know, and the question marks have been, can he grow? Can he develop? Can he work to it?

But the more I watched that and the more I thought to myself, I don't care if you're a first round rookie, an undrafted free agent, an eight-year vet. There's a certain standard that you have to at least hit in the NFL to be considered a starting quarterback. And it doesn't matter if you're young or old. If you can't meet that minimum threshold to be one of the 32, you've got to get off the field. You just can't. You cannot. It is impossible to win with that.

And when you look at his stat line and you look at the things he's done over his last seven starts, I believe it is, he doesn't meet that threat. Six, excuse me, six starts. He doesn't meet that threshold. You can't turn the ball over like that. You can't have that many incompletions. You can't have that many turnover worthy plays. it just isn't reaching the standard bar of okay you can start in this league it is well below that bar if not at the bottom of that bar and if that's the case and as I'm watching going this might just

be who he is right now it's a detriment to keep him out there for the other 52 guys on your roster I felt that way several weeks in a row like if COC had just pulled him from the game it would have been completely justified because you cannot even acceptably operate rate as an offense, even just getting in and out of the huddle, dropping back to pass and throwing the ball to someone wide open. And as I was looking at the second half, there was some conversation about, well, you know, the offensive line got banged up and then Parsons was teeing off. And all that's very true. And the Rashon Gary play where it's an interception, but it hits his hand, that's a really tough one for the quarterback because the win happens so

fast on your blind side. But there are other plays where T.J. Hawkinson doesn't have anybody around him where C.J. Ham doesn't have anyone around him on one scramble that was pressured. And he's not seeing it at all. And that is where I feel like we've devolved to the point where he's not even seeing the field. And even the first throw that he had, a 19 yard completion, I think, to Justin Jefferson, he like double hitches. And for me, that is maybe even just as concerning or more concerning than some of the turnovers or some of the inaccurate plays is that that is as basic of a drop back, hit the back foot, and throw the football to the best receiver in the world, and you're still hesitating.

And I think that we can look at all the different explanations. But wherever his confidence got to in the second half of that game, I think it was basically gone. And I asked him about it after the game. And he said, I'm always confident, things like that. But there was no confidence there to his performance at all in this game against Green Bay. And now we're at the point where you're looking at first six starts from people. And you're going, the name's on.

on this list are guys like Deshawn Kaiser, like guys who got in, got their chance and were so bad that the NFL said, we don't even need to try again. Like, this is fine. We're all set. And I think that's a really hard place to be of declaring J.J. McCarthy just over right now. But that's also the NFL. Ask Anthony Richardson. Ask Trey Lance. That's the NFL. These teams do not have five years to sit around and wait for you. No, they don't. And I think that the worst it got for him, easier the decision will be made for KOC and company because the more statistics he has, the easier you can point to it and go, benchmark, you're not there. And so I can't justify putting you on the field. And so I was under the camp and I think I even was texting with you

about this going, I just want to see JJ the rest of the year, good, bad or ugly, get a full rest of the year in, see the lines, make the decision in the off season on what we want to do. And then I get the news on Monday, JJ's in concussion protocol, and this just throw there's a whole other wrench and a whole other element into, well, now we're going to probably miss one, if not two weeks, of J.J. McCarthy. And so then we're going to get another three, four games out of them at the end of the year, and you're going to look at it and go, 10 games. Okay, what did he do over 10 games?

But what you can't hide from is what you just mentioned. If you're in the list and with those names of what has been associated with those names in the NFL, that is what you will be judged on. You are now going into year three, and that's where you're at on the list. the NFL has no problem they show they have no problem moving on from you in fact Shane Steichen probably kept his job because he moved on from Anthony Richardson right Kyle Shanahan kept his job because he moved on from Tray Lance eventually these coaches who know that hey I will be judged based on the product that I build as a roster and I will

be judged based off of the product that we do between the white lines on Sunday if I keep putting this guy out there and this is the result that we're getting doesn't matter if you was a first round pick for us or not we missed We swung and we missed, and that happens. But with him getting hurt again, now it's when he comes back. Is he rusty? Did he have these problems?

Like the excuses build themselves in, rightfully so I do think he probably has a concussion after watching that McDuffie RKO out of nowhere into the ground. He probably does have a concussion. So those questions are warranted, but the question is how long can you keep making those excuses? Because also now you're talking about a guy that's had a season-end inning injury, an ankle injury he missed six weeks,

and now a concussion. Him getting hurt is now also part of who he is. And that can't be just rushed to the side of like, oh, well, injuries happen. Well, injuries happen when you scramble poorly. You don't know how to get out of bounds. You don't know how to get down. Like that also goes into the resume of who you are. And so now this resume is getting bigger and it's getting more built.

And the resume looks like doesn't see the field, injury prone, turnover prone, sack prone. There's a lot of negatives. And it's like, well, he has a couple really nice touch passes, which he does. But the cons heavily outweigh the pros right now. And you can't win football games like that. And when you talk about the injury prone thing, that's one of my least favorite phrases in football because, you know, some guys get hurt a couple times with bad luck and then they're fine or whatever,

you know, no one's to blame when someone gets hurt. But if that's the way you play football because you're not seeing it and the game is moving way too fast, that gets into the Jaron Hall territory where Jaron Hall's first start, he thought, I'll just beat this safety to the end zone. And then he found out, yes, that that safety plays in the NFL and not, not at, you know, whatever, TCU or something.

Like, this guy is going to hit the heck out of you. And then he gets knocked out of a game. And I think we saw the same thing from McCarthy against the Packers. You could say, well, you know, he didn't get sacked against the Bears or the Ravens too much. But those teams are bad with their pass rush. Now you're supposed to go face Seattle, which, you know, just of course, you know, go with Max Brosmer there, somebody who could get rid of, right, somebody can get rid of the football. Their interior is sick.

And if Donovan Jackson's not. playing or whatever. You just don't want that. You just don't want Byron Murphy, there, Byron Murphy coming after you, Leonard Williams. You don't want that. But you're putting yourself in harm's way. And there were some of the signs of that against Detroit, where he was trying too hard to hang on to the ball while he was escaping the pocket and not just getting rid of it or running. And he was getting smashed. And like, that's just, you're going to end up getting hurt worse. I think McCarthy for me has reached the point against Green Bay where I just don't think that you're

ready to play in the NFL right now, I don't think it's anywhere remotely close. That doesn't mean your career's over, but I think it's got to be much more of a Sam Darnold type of arc where he goes somewhere else and is a backup quarterback for like three or four years and then gets another chance at someone. It is that far away for me because there's just too many things on the checklist of you can't run the operation correctly. KOC very subtly hinted at that the other day. But I'm sure eight fault starts or whatever was, you know,

not how it was supposed to go from the quarterback position. You can't see the field enough to throw on time. You're putting yourself in danger holding on to the football far too long. And the overall offense can't even operate with some of the best receivers in the world. Jordan Addison can't get a target. Jordan Addison? I mean, that's to me where I would say he's just got to be on the bench for a long time. And the one concern I have, Jeremiah, is if he comes back and plays against, like,

Dallas or the Giants, the Giants have given up on defense. They got their defense DC fired. James is still out there slinging it. James is not. You put some respect on James's name. Hey, the Vikings 2026 starting quarterback has not given up in New York, James Winston. But, you know, I mean, I think you risk, I would rather see Brosmer the rest of the year and not have a good game or two that could fool people into thinking that this thing is

closer than it is. I agree with you. He is very far away. And I think part of the issue is him getting hurt last year and missing that whole quote unquote red shirt year screwed the whole plan. It screwed the whole plan because I do believe that the plan no matter what was to start Sam Darnold last year, right? You paid him $10 million or whatever it was. He was going to come in. He was going to be the starter. And it was going to be a red shirt year for a quarterback that came out of college throwing like 200 total passes as a senior to come in, understand how to get into an offense that is a past first offense, a heavy scheme-based offense, learn how to operate, learn how to practice, learn how to be an NFL quarterback on the field, and then going into 2026 would have been his year.

I truly believe that was the plan when they drafted J.J. McCarthy and had Sam Donald on the roster. You kind of lose that whole year because he gets hurt. Okay, bad luck, things happen is what it is. Now he gets thrust. into this role, and you're playing as a redshirt freshman in the NFL, redst freshman and college struggle. And so now you're playing at the elitist level possible of football. You're struggling, and there is no backup plan because the backup broke his shoulder. And so you don't even really have anywhere to turn to.

And so he feels that pressure. KOC feels that pressure. There is no other option. And if you're just not there at quarterback in the, if you're just not, not there physically, mentally, emotionally, and ready to go at a quarterback in the NFL, you're going to get crushed. You're going to get crushed because you're going to get it from all angles. You're going to get it from the coaches.

You're going to get it from your teammates. You're going to get it from the media. You're going to get it from everywhere. And if you can't just put that all away and go play and fix it, it's not going to happen. And I don't know if JJ McCarthy has the ability to fix it right now. And maybe it's an offseason thing. Maybe it's a get with your quarterback guru and figure things out and back to the drawing board. change my throwing mechanics. Okay, I got a year under my belt. I know how this works.

The NFL doesn't wait for you, man. The machine turns on and the machine goes forward and coaches get fired and front offices get fired and move on. There is no time to wait. You are what you are. And unfortunately, that's just not good enough. Sorry, try again. These franchises are worth six billion. They can't just sit around and wait and wait. maybe at one point in football history we would have seen a lot more of that and one thing I do want to say is that the entire situation

is unfair to J.J. McCarthy based on where he is at just as a person, his actual age and the expectations that were put on him and I'm not saying by us, I'm saying by them because they will, I'm sure at some point have a press conference or some conversation with us

where they say, well, you know, we expected a lot of development, and I'm sure that's true, but also the way that they acted was all we need to do is move on from Sam Darnold and put this guy in there and stack up the roster at this position, that position, that position, and then we'll get the same performance or at least relative same performance out of McCarthy. It'll be made up for by the running game, a better defense, et cetera, et cetera. Like that was the theory, and he didn't do that to himself. He didn't put himself in that position to be,

potentially way in over his head. And when you draft him, one of the main conversations is how far this guy has to go. The initial plan was to not play him really at all or maybe get in in the second half of the season if it went back or badly for Sam Darnold. And last year he wouldn't have played because Darnold was good all year. I mean, that was the initial plan because you felt like he was so far away. And then they decide in March, you know what? Actually, even though we've seen nothing from him to know. you're the guy, you're the franchise quarterback, and Kevin O'Connell, I'm sure he would take this back.

It was an emotional kind of moment after McCarthy got hurt and was out for the year. But him coming out in Cleveland and being like, I know we got a franchise quarterback. That to me also put the expectation on of and set the bar for the fans as well of, oh, well, if KOC, the quarterback whisperer, if this guy who is the best quarterback mind in the world is calling him a franchise quarterback. and for me to justify the decision, because we talked about wanting Sam back on a franchise tag. It was like, well, he knows more than I do about McCarthy. So I guess, you know, that's the right move to do if he can spot that in J.J. McCarthy.

But they were working with so little information. Yeah. And I think you and I talked about it as well of JJ just had to not crash the car. That was the whole preseason talking point of everything you just mentioned. they've got Jefferson. They're going to get Addison back week three. They have Hawkinson. Oh, they traded for Jordan Mason. We all said it. If JJ can just keep the car between the white lines, we'll be okay. Operate, get the ball out. I don't think any of us. None of us thought it was going to be this bad. Yeah. And it's so it's a fair criticism to say, did I fully believe in J.J. McCarthy? No. I am on record saying it on this show many times. I'm on record.

everyone calls me a JJ Hater, whatever it might be. I never was a true believer that he was going to be the next Andrew Luck, or he was going to be the next Patrick Mahomes, or pick one of the top tier quarterbacks right now, Josh Allen's. I did believe he'd be able to drive the car efficiently. I thought he'd be able to pull it out of the garage, take it to the grocery store, maybe go on a road trip, and not wreck it completely.

He has proven incapable of pulling the car out of the garage. And when that is the case as a quarterback and you have proven that you cannot operate any elite offensive roster, not a bad offensive roster, any lead offensive roster with the best wide receiver, a top 15, top 10 tight end, Jordan Addison, one of the best left tackles who's back, some of the best O line play that's been played on the Vikings in the last recent memory, that shows me that you're just not ready to play quarterback in the national football league. And if you can't, if you're going to crash the car, man, you've got to get out of the driver's seat. And that's where KOC and Quasi are at right now is you have to find

someone that can just operate within the white lines of the offense. JJ has proven now time and time again, and I agree with you, not his fault. He is in this moment. He's 22 years old. He's still very young. He's not even, I didn't feel like I was at my best as a football player to like 25. The problem is when you get drafted and everyone in the NFL loves youth, but with youth comes in maturity. With youth comes lack of football IQ. With youth comes a lot of other problems with the football sides, besides just the like, oh, we've got to get younger. Yeah, that's great.

But at the quarterback position, I'll take old and wise over youth anytime of day. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think there's been many, many examples of that in the NFL, even the way that Matthew Stafford is playing right now or the all, one of the all time examples, Rich Gannon, where he showed up, you know, in his mid 30s and starts winning MVP's after when he was with the Vikings, he was a very raw quarterback and had some of the same struggles that J.J. McCarthy or Sam Darnold have gone through. We've seen a lot of examples of this as quarterbacks getting better as they go along. Even Mac Jones played a lot better, you know, just this last year

for San Francisco than he had ever really looked as part of the New England Patriots. And that's just a lot more experience for, you know, Mac Jones. So I think with J.J. McCarthy, there's no reason to start declaring that it's over or his career is over or anything else like that. But I think it is the point where we can declare like this did not work, didn't even come close to working. You missed by 50 miles. And to even get to average level of quarterback play,

he would have to make gargantuan gains in the coming weeks if he returns or in the off season or wherever it's going to be, which then for myself, I want to go back and I want to look back of like what. happened here. How did we get to this point? And I've said over and over, we're at every training camp practice. I came in after every practice, did podcasts, talked about it looking good. But I just don't think there's any way to simulate what real football is going to look like. So I don't know, like, do you want to, do you want to go back to the draft when you questioned them and you got

torched by every comment section? I mean, I think, I think the issue is with every player, there is a range of outcomes based on their skill sets and there's a bad range that if X, Y, and Z goes wrong, for Patrick Mahomes, if he couldn't figure out the footwork, he was going to fall apart in the NFL. And he did, and he's amazing. And for JJ, it was like, if you can't figure out this technical stuff and also learn how to play as the centerpiece of an offense,

it's going to fall apart. And that's what has ultimately happened. Yeah, and going back, let's go back to the draft. Right? Because I think this is what happened. You draft quarterbacks for two reasons in the first round. One, they are the most crazy talent, arm, everything that you've ever seen imaginable. Two, they've played a absolute ton of football. And they've got tons of experience.

And you know they're going to come in and be able to operate because they've seen a lot of stuff in college. They've seen everything that's going in there. Or three, the upside could be tremendous. And that's the fool's gold is the quote unquote, upside. side. And I think what happened with J.J. McCarthy is you got, there was all these quarterbacks in this draft, right, legendary quarterback class, Drake May, Bo Nix, Jaden Daniels, Caleb Williams, like all of these names started getting thrown out there. And then I can remember the interview with Jim Harbaugh. And he said, quote, don't be surprised when J.J. McCarthy

starts getting first round buzz. And from that moment on, it was look at this dude's potential and what he can be and that narrative took off with itself. And when you really dove into the tape, like I did, like you did, when you really looked at the tape of all of those quarterback class,

there was one giant thing that stood out to me and JJ doesn't have all the football acumen of playing a long time and being a multi-year starter in college. He wasn't putting up Heisman numbers as a thrower. He was operating a running first heavy offense they were blowing teams out winning by 40 and 50 he never really besides

one or two opportunities had the let's lead my team on my shoulders back to a giant win and then it was but look how athletic he is look how much he loves football look at all these untangibles and all that stuff and people convinced themselves including a lot of teams in the NFL that he was a first round talent when he wasn't if he gets drafted in the fifth if he's a fifth round pick, everything that's happening into it right now, you can be like, okay, that's expected. But because you go in the first, you vault yourself into this level of expectation that if you're not ready to meet, you're going to be graded and you're going to be yelled that more harshly. And the more I think back to some of these quarterbacks that had the similar traits to

J.J. McCarthy coming out of college, Zach Wilson, right? Young, gunslinger, threw it all over the yard, Trey Lance, one-year starter at NDSU, right? All of these multiple different things. And so as things started to spiral and as they started to go with all these young players, the eject button is really easy to hit. And I'm worried that's where we're heading for J.J. McCarthy. And it just happens. Sometimes you miss on quarterbacks in the first round. Same thing with Anthony Richardson.

He runs 4-4 and he's 255 pounds and he could throw the ball 600 yards. Cool. Can he check it down for 20 yards? Can he operate an overrout? Can you do all those things? He can't. So he therefore cannot play football in the National Football League. those are similar things that I can remember having concerns with on J.J. McCarthy and then he missed a whole year of football.

So we never saw it. And so we never talked about it again. And then now he gets out on the field. And also we thought that all those concerns that we had in the draft were gone. And yet here they still are. They're still right there. And that's okay. That's part of the issues we had. The difference was we drafted to be the franchise quarterback. They put the stamp on as the franchise quarterback. He didn't live up to that unreal expectation. What are you going to do? How are you going to follow Sam Darnold's 14 win football? Like that was the other thing. Sam Donald wins 14 games, lights the world on fire, there was a zero world in which JJ McCarthy even sniffed the expectation that was set by Sam Donald last year.

Right. I think the, you know, the expectation was maybe if you get to the 14, what did I say? I think 11th best quarterback, which now is very far away from what it actually is. But I remember looking at last year's playoffs and going through with different metrics, like where did everybody rank who made the playoffs? And the average came out 11th. And I thought, okay, well, that's where the bar has to be. If the average playoff quarterback is 11th, then that's where he's got to get.

And I didn't think that was crazy based on all the things that we've talked about, the supporting cast specifically of we said it many times, poor Nick Mullins. He needs a lot more credit than we ever gave him, right? Nick, we need to talk about Nick Mullins as if he was great because he was able to run this offense really effectively in a few games that the Vikings couldn't come away with. but that looked like the Fran Targerton compared to what we've seen in terms of the execution. But I thought, okay, well, if you can even get to a reasonable place and you can maybe run a little more play action stuff and that kind of thing. But if we go back and so I don't think it was crazy to think that just based on what we had seen from every other quarterback with KOC.

But if we go back to the draft, my concern was really the throwing, I think more than anything. And then sort of the common sense of like his own coach. that worked with them every day, didn't really want to lean on him. But the actual throwing of the football bothered me because of the 100-mile-an-hour fastballs. And it's just not how the NFL is, right? Anticipation is king as at the quarterback position. But how do you ever know, and this is where I would give them credit for this, how do you ever know who's going to figure the things out or not when it comes to, you know,

the ability to throw the football, the ability to make a change? they were betting that he would be able to figure these things out, and then he didn't get a year to try to do it. So to me, it's more about, I understand drafting on upside versus Bo Nix, who was almost 25, and you knew exactly what he was going to be, and you couldn't mold him the same way. You were going to have to play the way Bo Nix plays, and that's what Sean Payton has done.

So I'll always, like, understand why they decided to pick him over Nix, which is really the only one to one there. I think that this offseason not having Darnold back, is not a just hindsight second guess thing. I think that's much more of a, the history of quarterbacks who played that well in the NFL is very clear. And I, you just,

we're so committed to the plan and maybe also so shaken by how much the Rams were better than you on the D line versus the O line that you missed the forest through the trees of if your quarterback doesn't play well, you just lose all the games. Yeah, it's, it's not a C. secret. And that's unfortunate for, for all Vikings fans involved because everyone was so excited when we took him. And even you and I were like, we believe that KOC can fix him, like, or at least develop him, right?

We believe that. And we told ourselves, we will believe in KOC because he sees something we don't. And I'm not a headball coach and I'm not a quarterback whisper and all the proven things that he had done with Josh Dobbs and Nick Mullins and even what he got out of Sam Darnold and all the quarterback rehab school jokes and all those things. We all believed that he could do it with this quarterback that got drafted in the first round. But when you really go back and look at what the totality of the work of J.J. McCarthy was at Michigan, you're pulling and you're grasping at straws. And I think that it was a reach. It was the fact that we were at number 10 and all of our fun quarterbacks that you really were, could rubber stamp and say 100% going to happen with were gone.

And then you had to look at it and then pick, do I want young? This is the decision you were left with. Do I want young potential upside moldable clay in J.J. McCarthy or do I want to break a bunch of bad habits of Bo Nix? And that's the war that I think that was between KOC and KWC and maybe the front office of which one do we choose with. And they went with the moldable clay. Well, with the moldable clay, there was a lot more problems there than I think we're even on the real surface before you get them behind the scenes and look at it. You get to that point, you look at it now and it's easy to have hindsight 2020, but $22 million or however, much you're going to have to pay him over the next four years. It's a pretty big mistake.

And unfortunately, we're going to have to wear that. And I also, when you start doing the math of, you know, Sam Darnold, okay, the contract he signed, he wouldn't have signed it here because he would have wanted to be the guy. And there is an application of in real life. If the offensive line is hurt, the defense doesn't play as well as you think, you have some bad losses. then even if you're a good team competing, if it's not good enough, then there's going to be the pressure ramping up to

when are they going to go to JJ and every single bad quarter that Sam Darnold plays. And so maybe they thought also that they didn't want that controversy constantly with Darnold. But I also think that at the end of the day, the most obvious thing is probably the truth, which is he played so bad in the last two games that they were just like, all right, move on.

And to me, it's a pretty dubious way to go about it just based on the history of a lot of quarterbacks go look at stafford's first playoff game go look at flackos why does justin herbert never get any flack for this like i mean i okay i'm sure there's some talking heads that go after he's like the worst game ever against jacksville people were like did you see darnold like what the what no but he's but his team drafted him and everyone liked him in the draft so you know he's the franchise quarterback and you know he gets to be untouchable um but i think that that influenced them way more than they would ever admit out loud because the way he

played was consummate with a team that was not that great by the way in certain positions was consummate though with a uh a quarterback that normally you would sign to a long term contract extension and those last two games were so horrifying that they were like well we probably won't win the super bowl with him next year on a franchise tag so let's just go right to jj and you can go back and forth on it all you want. But that's how we got here to this point. So now, Jeremiah, Max Brosmer, are you interested? Interested, 100%.

But I'm a little concerned that it's the same way with just about every team. Everyone loves a backup quarterback till he actually has to play. But the problem becomes, could it be worse? I don't know that it can be. I honestly don't know that it can be worse and it's been the last two games. 87 now it's passing. I mean. Right.

The only thing that makes it worse is if he turns the ball. all over like four times. Now, if you just throw four interceptions or you're, because even though I'm like, well, if he fumbles the snap, I was like, well, JJ did that too. Like, so I don't know that it can be worse. And even if it's a little bit better, we're going to give ourselves a chance to win. Now, if it's marginally better, we can win. And that's the part that's so intriguing about what's going to happen with Brosmer is if he's marginally better, because he has played more football in his career than JJ has. He has operated a little bit more in the preseason. We saw a lot more game operation from him. Granted, it was the preseason and you don't do anything based off that, but you just saw

some of the maturity level of Brosmer to walk in there and say, I can do this. And now it's going to be a totally different ball can of worms when you're going against one of the best pass rushing defenses in the NFL. But I'm interested to see what he can do. And I'm also really interested to see what game plan, Kevin O'Connell puts together for him because you're no longer game planning for your franchise quarterback. You're game planning for your backup quarterback. You're not even game planning for Carson Wentz, who was one of the MVP candidate at one point in time in the NFL. Your backup for an undrafted free agent quarterback, what does the game plan even look like? What are we going to do? Is it going to be screens and bubble screens and slants and

running the football and play actions and all the things that we screamed for for early development JJ McCarthy? Or is Kevin O'Connell literally going to be like, no, he's been here forever. He can operate exactly what I need him to operate for. That's what I'm most. intrigued about is what this game plan looks like on Sunday it would be very interesting if he went full mullins with this and had him throw 35 passes just like let's see the there's a couple things that I really like about brosmer and there's some things I'm a little concerned about uh well I mean number one is that this guy has played a lot a lot of football and as we always have to include when we talk about McCarthy again not his fault he didn't play a lot

of football before this that's a bad bet his franchise made not necessarily him. But with Brozmer, this guy played a ton of football. He continued to get better and better and better to the point he goes to the gophers. They have their best offensive year in a long time since they had Bateman and Tyler Johnson with Tanner Morgan. But aside from that, I mean, like my lifetime, one of the best quarterbacked seasons

from a gopher QB. And his ability to process information quickly, I think is the thing that stands out to me. like dropping back seeing the defense this is in practice too and in the preseason games and then get the ball out of his hands it was the first thing that I noticed in rookie camp OTAs the ball comes out and sometimes it'll just be thrown out of bounds but that's a great play sometimes they drop back oh it's not there as is not good throw it out of bounds like let's go to second down that's fine it's catastrophic mistakes that kill you I think the thing that concerns me most is I'm sure you watch Teddy a little bit the other night and that's not

the athletic Teddy that was once in the NFL. There was a few plays where he was like, I'm going to run. And then the Rams are like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no. No, sir, you are not going to run. And I worry a little bit about that because I don't, and it happened to Jaron Hall. And I don't think there's any way to understand what that's like, how fast that's happening. And you're like, oh, I could just kind of like move in the pocket or I could just juke a guy and this team has animals on the other side. They have beasts. This is not a team you could just sort of run away from.

So I mean, my advice to him would be throw it away. Like if anything is wrong, just throw it away. But I think that he is as well fit mentally as any quarterback that I've come across that's young in any way. So I've been so impressed with him from that perspective, his maturity, the way he's handled this entire situation. So I think there is a decent chance that with this offense, just getting the ball out to somebody on time and not double hitching and not like going back to your fourth read and then back to your first read and you're looking all over the place. I don't think we'll see that from him.

The thing I worry about a lot this week is the 12s. That's a loud place to play football. That is a hard place to communicate. It's a hard place to get a snap count. All that stuff is in play here. And trust me, if you don't think Seattle and their media staff is, saying 12s. We need you this week. We've got a brand new undrafted free agent, rookie quarterback coming to Seattle. That place is going to be on fire. That place is going to be

on absolute fire. And I worry about him being able to handle the noise and handle the poison the noise and all that because it's going to get chaotic. It's going to get loud. And if God forbid, they get a couple sacks early, that place will go nuts. That's my biggest concern for him because not only you're trying to operate as a first time starter, you're doing it in probably a top five hostile environment in the NFL. And that is a really, really tough place to be. And that's where I'm talking about KOC's got to find ways to

hand the football off, bubble screens, get the ball out early, because Leonard Williams is coming. Obey Maffe is coming. Those dudes are going to be humming off the edge because they all also understand that a quarterback that's a young player takes a half second longer to process, maybe a

full second longer to process. Full second longer in the NFL is the difference between a touchdown and a sack fumble. And so that margin of air that he has. I hope that he can handle that when the bullets are coming at a million miles an hour because his last taste of real football is in the preseason, it's 10x the speed, man. It's 10x the speed. And I don't care what happens in practice. And I don't care how fast practices, you just will not be ready for that kind of speed when it hits you in the face. Yeah. It's as tough of a task as you could ever ask of someone, hey, go have your NFL debut at that

place against that team, which is a very legitimate Super Bowl contender right now in Seattle. and it's partly driven by their defense. Right now on Fandul, the Vikings are 10.5 point underdogs, which never happened during your career with this team and has never happened during my career covering this team before. That, I think, leads me into something different. I don't think either one of us are going to pick the Vikings,

so we'll go forward with that. That leads me to something, though. Is it too bold to say, This is one of the lowest moments for the Minnesota Vikings franchise in the last decade. Because I think it is. It feels like there's no answer going forward. There's no answer on the roster. There's not a lot of glimmers of hope to grasp onto and say, oh, yeah, well, this, it's not a great cap situation going forward.

It's not like they have 23 draft picks next year. It's not like they've won a playoff game since KOC's gotten here. I mean, if I go through like the lowest moments, probably 2016 against the Colts, 2018 when Kirk and Adam Thielen are pushing each other, 2021, Mike Zimmer losing to the winless Detroit Lions. I think this gets a nomination. Yeah, I mean, I'm going back from, I mean, I was on that team in 2015. So we're going back to my rookie year.

We get embarrassed opening night against the Niners. That was pretty bad. but yeah I mean there was a lot of hope that there was a lot of hope that year there was a lot of hope that you went in the division that year I mean 16 Teddy loses his knee right before the season we bring in a new quarterback in our offense

we just couldn't stay healthy yeah I mean you go through it there was at least glimmers of hope through each one of those seasons and there's not a huge glimmer of hope and optimism for the future for the first time that I can remember you know even last year you know 14 wins

Sam Donald was awesome, but there was this glimmer of like, man, when JJ steps in and the franchise has the quarterback on the rookie scale contract and we can build this roster around him and all of these things, now you're looking at it going, oh, my gosh, we're going to have a quarterback on a rookie scale roster contract and we're going to maybe have to go get a veteran and we're not going to have a lot of cap room because we plan for the rookie scale contract. And everything is going to come buoyant to a head. And I think this goes back to what we talked about on the show, why so many coaches, get fired after their first round quarterback doesn't work out because when you put all your eggs into that basket and that's how you structure the next five years because you plan on this quarterback being your guy for the next four or five years and it doesn't work out your team really suffers because you just don't have room to overcome those type of contractual mistakes those type of contractual things that you forecasted three four years in advance and now you've got to go buy a quarterback for 30 million when you anticipated having a guy for four years for 22 million and things really start to kind of come unraveled so yeah I would

tend to agree with you. The future looks very bleak right now, and that's just unfortunate. And I haven't really missed on a first round quarterback. They have a lot of talent to go forward with on the roster. But as we've seen this year, if you don't have that answer at quarterback, then it just disappears into thin air. Let's go love to see it. Hate to see it. Where would you like to begin that conversation? Yeah, I'll hate to see it of the Buccaneers and Baker Mayfield getting dinged up. Yeah. The shoulder is. issue there. I mean, that dude has been just everything you could ask for of losing Mike Evans, losing Godwin, losing Bucky Irvin, and I'll put on my Superman cape and do it myself. And then

to watch the pain he was truly in when he threw that Hail Mary there at the end of that game and realizing how banged up he actually is, you hate to see that for a guy like Baker that's revamped his whole career, rebamped how the league looks at him, how the world looks at how his teammates look at him. I hate to see guys like that get heard when really now they're pretty much out of contention. I mean, we'll see what happens there with him and his health. I can't say they're out of contention because the NFC self is not good at all. Super Bowl contention. Super Bowl contention, yes.

Okay. The vision, yes. They can still make the playoffs. Yeah, they can still make plays. They have a good enough team early in the season without the injuries. I did feel legitimately bad for Teddy Bridgewater to have to go into that situation. It was like, okay, they are mauling that offensive line. There's nothing to be done here.

You're down by 30 points. just survive this teddy also the state of backup quarterback play in the national football league is that teddy bridgewater is going in in the year 2025 hey the heart on that guy to still have a career is unbelievable uh love to see it and i know this happened against uh my parents favorite team and a team that you collected a paycheck from denille hunter man denille mf and hunter I believe someday should be wearing a gold jacket. That was one of the, I mean, Will Anderson as well, of course, got a lot of the shine for that. This guy has continued after that neck injury that we wondered if it was going to harm his entire career to just be the most consistent player in the NFL.

And I don't know if you saw the clip. Do you think that he purposefully let go of Josh so he wouldn't like drill his knee? Or was he trying not to get a penalty or is it just happened to too fast to do that? I think it was to not get a penalty. Yeah, I thought it was to not get a penalty. Right. I was like, I don't know if DeNeil cares about hurting someone. I think he's pretty nasty.

But look, he doesn't want to get fine. He doesn't want to hurt his team. I think that was more what it came down to. Those two decisions were like, can I pin his knee and break it and then get called for a personal foul? Or can I just move my hand and get a sack on the stat sheet? If DeNeil Hunter had a podcast, which he will never have because he's one of the quietest people of all time, it's actually funny to say it. If he had a podcast, they would talk nonstop. about DeNeal Hunter. If he was like on TV, if he had a big personality, if he promoted

himself, most underrated player of the last decade, I think. Unbelievable player. I mean, from the moment he walked in there, you just, the dude was different. I mean, because he was also a child when he walked in. I mean, he was so young that someone else had to buy the booze at his rookie dinner because he wasn't 21 years old yet. I mean, a literal child, but also just a genetic, a genetic mistake in a good way. Like the way that like, he was molded and built by God was just like, okay, yeah, we gave you maybe a little too much ability here. But man, it's so fun. That

Texans defense, if CJ Stroud can come back and operate that offense, like, they are no one who's going to want to see them in the AFC South. I mean, they're going to give Daniel Jones to that career run, because that defense, Tomico Ryan's hats off to you, sir, you have done a

fantastic job building in all world defense. It's just unfortunate your offense is kind of stuck in mud right now. Got a hate, was that your hate to see it? You got to love to see it? My love to see it, my love to see it is Chip Kelly, not even making it to the car. You love to see it. I was going to throw that to hate to see it because the rain is so bad. I mean, I love to see a coach that's willing and Pete Carroll will be like, this is just, this experiment is over, right?

To not be like, well, we'll give them until the end of the year and we'll reassess. Like, no, this is is astronomically historically bad. Gino just got sacked 10 times. Gentee's going to get broken before the end of his rookie year. This just has to end. And I love to see when a coach is willing to do that and just put the brakes on it and say, okay, enough is enough. Let's see if we can find a spark by hiring an interim or bring someone up or whatever it might be.

That just had to happen because that was just painful to watch. I will throw out one love to see it, but I think the nation hates to see it. I kind of just, I kind of want my homes in the playoffs. It's just wrong to not have the best quarterback of the playoffs. They get a win. I know, I know that it's going to make most of the nation physically ill to see Kansas City there. But I don't need to see like a bunch of average quarterbacks to the playoffs. I want to see Alan Mahomes go at it again.

So I love to see them getting a big win that might help them, you know, get back on track. And I'm going to drop the most unpredictable, love to see it in the history of the show. I'm gonna just leave it there for a second because this will cause shock and I want people to prepare themselves so they don't crash their car, okay? Take a deep breath. Good job, Kirk.

Oh. Good job, Kirk. Well done. Good job. He threw a 50-yard bomb to Darno Mooney. Put some arm strength behind it. Look, I mean, the Vikings made the right decision moving on from Kirk. There's a lot of criticism on this show for Kirk Cousins

for the decision, for the way they built around him, all that sort of stuff for his own personal play. But, I mean, I didn't want to see bad things happen to him in Atlanta. Like, you know, he got his contract there and he expected to be a starting quarterback and he's had to sit there with a clipboard the entire season, came in, won a game. Good job, Kirk. Yeah, I agree. You don't want bad for the guy. You just don't want them on your team. Not at that price. Not at that price.

Like, you know, it's like, you don't, you don't want the guy to, like, fall over dead, but you also don't want to pay him what he was going to be asked to be paid. And so the Vikings did make the right move, but I agree. I was not upset to watch Kirk Cousins go out there and put it together. I'll end it with one more hate to see it here. That whole football game last night, the whole Monday night football game of just disgusting offensive play on both, you got drops, you got fumbles, you got interceptions, you got can't score off of three turnovers. I turned that game off in the third quarter and went to bed. I was like,

I'm going to rewatch stranger things. I don't want to, I don't want to watch this anymore. It was so pitiful. I hated everything about that game. I had to check what day it was. I was this Thursday? It was so bad. Is this Thursday night football? That's what it looked like. Yeah, it was it was a miserable miserable Monday night. All right. Well, look, we'll see what happens. We're going to go forward. We, uh, I think Max Roseberg. I think at least for today, we got a lot of the rehashing of the old history out of the way and will be solutions oriented in the future, but I think it was worth going back and taking a look of like, how the heck did we get to this point? Jeremiah Searle's, do the best, my friend, and through thick and thin, ups and downs, you are a part

of this show regardless. And I don't even pay you too much. So thank you for your time and the good fight each week having a conversation about this team. And we'll see you next week. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Football. Football. All right, it is time for another Robinson Roundup with special contributor to Purple Insider Maggie Robinson, home for the holidays. But of course, Thanksgiving is a big part of the NFL. So Maggie has gathered a lot from this previous week in the NFL for us to look at.

And you know what, Maggie, we need it. We need to look at some other stuff that is not rhyme with Shemay Shemay McCarshay. That's what we need right now on the show. show. So please, please bring some joy, some festiveness to a purple insider here. What's going on? Well, when I was back at the NFL, we would always say it was food family football, you know? So nothing says Thanksgiving, like throw in the rock. So I thought we would look. The athletic just dropped. They're week 13 power rankings. And I want to go through the top five with you because in my mind, nothing says Thanksgiving like fighting over football. So let's just get that muscle going. So it's

ready for Thursday, you know? Okay, perfect. Yeah, fire it up. I have a feeling the Vikings probably aren't in the top five. That's a, that's a good intuition. They're not. Okay. Well, the disrespect, imagine. Okay, what do we got? Let's kick it off. This one is undisputed heavyweight champ. Number one, Los Angeles Rams. They're nine and two, top of the mountain. I mean, like, this one feels inevitable. Can't fight this one. Stafford, we sound like a broken record, but the dude's having like the season of his life. They're just like a ridiculously consistent team. Yeah. And it's a complete team. I mean, you saw that against Tampa Bay in the first half where it's multiple wide receivers. They can block. They can run the ball if they want to. And their

defensive line, I mean, this has become, you know, an all these and forever thing in football, but especially recently, I think a trend is if you can rush four and get to the quarterback, there's not many offenses that have a good answer for that. And that's how the Philadelphia Eagles in part win the Super Bowl last year. And it feels like the Rams would have won it probably if they had beaten the Eagles in Philadelphia. And they bring back that entire D-line. And every time they show Aaron Donald at a Rams game, you're like, is he going to do it?

Is Aaron Donald just going to be like, give me 10 plays a game for the playoffs. Let me show up. If you've seen any of his workout videos, you think he could definitely do it. So that team is the best coach team, the best quarterback team, the best quarterback team, the best defensive line in the game. There's not too many weaknesses that they have. They belong at the number one spot. All right.

So we're in agreement there. Let's go to number two. And this is already where I start to have personally some thoughts. Okay. Number two, they got the Denver Broncos nine and two coming off their by week. Listen, they got a great defense. But the question that everyone is asking that all these sports journalists are writing about is Boe NICs.

Is he good enough? NFL.com literally snubbed him and said he's a tier four quarterback. Tua is in that category. I think there's just either some misconceptions or some like deeply held media bias against Bo Nix because like he has over 2,000 yards like 18 touchdowns. The guy's doing the thing. So this is an interesting point because I don't think people ever let go

what they thought of a quarterback at the draft. I really don't. Like I think it stays forever. And with Bo Nix, that's definitely the case. where he's actually kind of playing, and this is going to sound funny, but he's playing like Patrick Mahomes did last year, where it's not statistically very impressive. The defense keeps them in every game,

and then they have to win at the end. And I think that if you're making a case against the Broncos, that's probably what it is, is that a lot of their games have been low scoring, Bo Nix only has to make one or two plays, and can this really sustain you through the playoffs? Because that's what you're really doing power rankings for, is who has the best chance to win the Super Bowl.

And over on Fandul, they're only plus 1,400 to win the Super Bowl still behind or tied with New England and behind Buffalo and even behind Baltimore and Indianapolis. So the betting markets are not in agreement with this athletic power ranking. And I think that Nix deserves skepticism. It's not impressive. But there's also some hidden things that I think are being missed a little bit, which he's only been sacked 12 times the entire year, 12 times. 12 times for an entire season means the negative plays are not happening.

And this is kind of how the 2015 Vikings won the division, which was Teddy Bridgewater, not having too many negative plays. He got sacked more than this, but didn't have like a ton of interceptions, fumbles, and they play defense. And you can win a lot of games that way. Pittsburgh has made the playoffs many times that way. Can you really win a Super Bowl that way? That's where Bow Nix will have to be, I think, better than he's currently been.

But he, but some people act like he takes the snap and just throws it into the stands or something. Some people act like he's been Tim Tebow and that is not the case. Yeah, I think he's played much better than that. I agree. You brought up a good point, though, the Patriots. That is my sticking point here. We're going to get to them later in this power ranking. But I think that they should be higher than they are.

We're going to get there. I'm going to save that. But keep that in mind because the Brongos and the Patriots, like those are my two. Like, I would swap. these teams. All right. That being said, did you have something? No, no, no, go ahead. Go to number three. Number three, the Philadelphia Eagles, which I think feels iffy, you know, eight and three, but they just blew a 21 point lead to the Cowboys. I'm sorry, two fumbles, 14 penalties. Those were all, like, Brable even, I'm sorry, not Brable, Siriani even called it. It was like,

these are self-inflicted wounds. We are doing this to ourselves. The roster stacked. We've known but they're not doing it. It's so interesting how it feels like every other year they have a good offensive coordinator. Like this is a little bit of the problem of having success when your head coach isn't the play caller or consider he's more of considered the running the entire operation is that people hire Shane Steichen and Kellyn Moore away from you. So you'd love to have Kellyn Moore running the offense year after year or Shane

Stuyken for four years with Jalen Hertz. But every other year, it seems like they hire the. wrong guy and there's just been a lot of breakdowns of this you know i haven't watched too closely because they're not on the the biking schedule but i've read some stuff and looked at it it's just very simplistic and predictable offense and i think we hear that you know a lot when an offense is struggling but you can actually point to some clips that people showed of the cowboys running the routes for the wide receivers like they knew exactly where they were going to be and to me that just requires them to take this to another level.

This actually, it did actually happen once that an offensive coordinator was fired on a team that went on to win the Super Bowl midseason. The Baltimore Ravens in 2014, 2014, 2012. No, yeah, it might have been, yeah, 2012. They fired their offensive coordinator and Jim Caldwell took over and they ended up winning the Super Bowl. So, I mean, I don't think that's the craziest thing in the world to change play callers or fire your office.

of coordinator or do something to mix it up here because if A.J. Brown continues to be unhappy and Hertz continues to struggle as much as he has to throw the ball and move the offense. They need to switch. They can't just hand off to Saquan Barclay anymore. That's not working this year. So there's plenty of time for that team to go, though. And when you look at their talent, I think that's why they're here is their talent across the board. Their defense is excellent and their overall skill players are excellent and you just keep believing that they're going to figure it out is why you put it there but it does feel like after blowing a 21 point lead to the cowboys they should get knocked down a little bit on a list like this like number

three is generous after performance like that and i did read some reports and syriani said he's sticking with his offensive coordinator at least i mean who knows how long that's going to hold we'll see next game once you're answering the question the guy's pretty close He's teetering on the edge once you're answering the question. And we got a Black Friday game versus the Bears. That feels like a real like, all right, this is going to shake things up

and this is going to make some decisions for us. This is a great point because these island games often sort of spur things to happen. Remember last year when the Chicago Bears forgot to form a little tea with their hand to call timeout and Matt Iberfluse got fired after that because it puts you in the spotlight. But I also think if you need a get right game for your offense,

Chicago's defense is really banged up. They were playing the last game without any linebackers. So that's pretty tough. I think this is one where they probably do get rolling. It's also going to be a panicked week for them, I would imagine. Oh my gosh. It's a short turnaround. They also, the Eagles had a bunch of injuries.

So it's a lot of like, okay, can we get guys ready? Can we rest them? But then also can we figure out how to make our offense better in this crazy short window. It's also a holiday game. Like that's tough on the guys, I would assume. So there's a lot stacked against them, but I do think this is like a

wait and see decisions will be made kind of game. Yeah, I think so. I mean, because if you can't move the ball against the Bears, this was kind of where we sounded the alarm about J.J. McCarthy and the Vikings. It was like, okay, well, you know, had a bad game against the Ravens, but this should be his bounce back. And when you couldn't bounce back against the,

whatever they are, 28th ranked defense, That's not great. And I feel like the same thing will happen here. Yeah, I agree. So we will see. All right, let's go to number four. This is the New England Patriots. They're 10 and 2.

That's nine straight wins, if you've been counting. And I think they deserve to be higher than number four on this list. I think they need at least a three spot. I think the Broncos are placed a little too high and the Eagles feels like a generous ad. They're top of the AFC. And like they've been doing really well. But I will say, the most recent showing was not their best. They have not faced this much adversity.

And Will Campbell is out. That's really painful. You got Jared Wilson out. Like your offensive line is now looking a little shaky when it looked really solid. So I think the question here is, like, looking forward, will they be able to replicate the sort of success that they've had? And the argument with the Broncos being higher is like, yeah, but they've been gritty. And they've like toughed out these late game wins. the Patriots have kind of been like, oh, but you have a great strength of schedule.

Like, it's not that bad. My one last thought here, let me remind you, they were four and 13 last year, bottom of the AFC. That turnaround is incredible, and that's why I will leave it. It is. No, it really is. And Mike Vrable's done an amazing job. And so did their front office to go out and spend a lot in free agency. What their plan is is actually the same as what the Vikings plan was, which is to use the rookie

quarterback contract, hope the guy takes a big step forward. and then bang, you got yourself a Super Bowl contender. Right now, the Patriots are plus 1,400. I should mention the Eagles are plus 600, and they have the second highest odds still. So the betting markets have not run away from Philadelphia, but they're not buying the New England Patriots yet over on Fanduels. So I think the reason for that is when you look at that offensive line

and you look at some of the weapons, you're asking, and Diggs has been really great for them, but you're asking, is this going to be good enough around Drake May? Clearly he's good enough, but, you know, he does take sacks. And what we saw last year in the playoffs, and probably every year of my life in the playoffs is when you have an offensive line that is not particularly stout, somebody's going to expose it, right? And I think when you do look at the Patriots schedule so far, you really have to squint. I mean, so they beat Buffalo. That was a great win for them.

But even Buffalo has had a bunch of games where they didn't look like the old Buffalo. you kind of have to squint to find the good wins for the Patriots as great as it's been and they deserve all the credit in the world and so does Drake May. But if we're all viewing this through, how strong are you? Could you beat these other teams head to head? You know, I think there's that one particular weakness that stands out that Drake May would have to be otherworldly to beat some of these better teams when they're kind of barely surviving against Cincinnati.

So where do you put them? Do you agree with the top four or where would you have them in this? Well, I don't think, see, here's the thing about a power ranking is a lot of times it ends up being like really close to the standings. And I probably would not put Denver as high as number two. I think that's too high. I also think that Seattle deserves to be in this list, I think, a little bit higher. I don't know if they're in your top five. I didn't look at it.

But man, there's a lot of teams that are just sort of hovering around. Like, I don't want to overreact to Buffalo and some of the losses they've had because they still have. the best quarterback in the world, but I think even with them, you got to start sounding alarms and going, I mean, you can't block up Houston. That looked like a playoff game. And it was treated like that by Houston. Can you really win in the postseason if, you know, Josh Allen doesn't have time in the pocket? Even he, like, will struggle when it comes to that. So I, I don't know, I think I get you on New England where they're at. And they've definitely earned that. I'm with Indianapolis not being here. I'm with Kansas City not being here. This is really tough. This is really tough. I think the only

one I might swap out is I'd probably move Seattle up at least ahead of New England, but maybe even ahead of Philadelphia as well. Okay. Well, that brings us to number five, because that is the Seahawks. And, you know, here's, here's, I actually watched this game in Tennessee, which was as a Titans fan, kind of, kind of big. They still put up 24 points against the Seattle. Seahawks, but Jackson Smith and Jigba just destroyed the Titans. Like, he was everywhere. He broke the Seattle single season receiving record. Like, this guy is going places year three and above.

He's just proved himself. They looked really good. And listen, they're taken on the Vikings. So I would love to hear your two cents here. Well, I mean, I think number one is that they found, like, when we were wondering, where's Sam Darnall going to end up? And we were going through all these teams, the Titans, the Steelers. the Giants, the one that we didn't have on our list was the Seattle Seahawks.

But what they knew from their own evaluation was that, or at least that they were guessing and were right, is that Sam Darnold is a better quarterback than Gino Smith. And with Darnold, it was such a one-year sample. It's hard to figure out. Like, oh, well, was it just Jefferson? Was it just KOC? But he has found a perfect fit. And remember, Clint Kubiak worked for Kyle Shanahan before.

And like that connection between Kubiak and Shanahan is lifelong for those guys. But Clint worked in San Francisco and is bringing a lot of stuff there, which is where Sam Darnold was before he came to the Viking. So it's a very familiar offense for him. And they've done a great job building off of the run. I'm sure you notice that it's not a high volume passing offense. It's not like they just drop back 40 or 50 times. They're going to hand off a lot.

They're going to run play actions. They're going to push the ball down the field, which to me is perfect for Sam Darnold. And then where they deserve a ton of credit for their coach hire and for their front office is on their defensive side. I mean, they have built up a fantastic defensive unit, which you know, Max Brosmer may have to go up against this weekend with J.J. McCarthy and concussion protocol, um, that's going to be a really tough task out at that place. So I think that, you know, they lost to the Rams and I was like, oh, see, darn, they lost by missing a 61 yard field goal at the very last second. They battled the Rams as hard as anyone has all year long. So I would probably put them,

I might put them number two. I think those two teams might be the best two teams complete from top to bottom in the entire NFL. Swab them out for the Broncos. I do think this is again, for some reason Seattle this season to me, and maybe this is just like my media sphere that I live in, has felt a little slept on. Like people aren't giving them the hype that they deserve. They've been doing it.

Like they've been consistent. They've been rolling. And it doesn't feel like the media is quite meeting the moment in the way that they will always hype up. The chiefs, the Eagles like we're seeing on fandles. like it doesn't feel like that's here yet. And I don't know what else they have to do to prove themselves. Well, you know, I think, you know, you touched on it a little bit with Bo Nix where there was a lot of folks in the media who didn't like Bo Nix as a prospect.

And so now when he's winning and it's not the most impressive, it's like, oh, well, you know, I'll just keep doubting him until he fails and then I'll say I was right. Sam Darnold is the same way where so many people just wrote him off and had their fun saying he's seeing ghosts and whatever else, that it doesn't seem to matter how good he is because he has truly been an elite quarterback. And maybe, I mean, there's an argument for him being the best quarterback

other than Matthew Stafford in the NFL this year. And really over the last two years, you look at the last two years from Sam Darnold. He is 22 and 6 with, let's see, what's 35 plus 19, 54 touchdowns, 22 interceptions, quarterback rating over 100, leads the NFL in yards per attempt,

I mean, this is a historic turnaround for a career. But when you start off and everyone's first impression is that you're not that good, they're going to hold on to that for a really, really long time. And I think there's a lot of people who said, oh, well, Seattle's going to win seven games because Darnold will regress. And it has not happened, as you mentioned in part because of Jackson Smith, the Jigba. So I would have them, I'd have Rams 1, Seattle 2. I would also probably still have either Kansas City or Buffalo

in the top five, because for me, a power ranking is based on how good can you be at the end of the day, not just what is your record right now. And putting Denver up there, I mean, I know they beat Kansas City, but that's still Patrick Mahomes, like, that's still the goat. And the same thing for, you know, the bills have lost some games, but they still have the best quarterback. And a lot of times that matters the most at the end. So I might try to sneak them in there.

But, you know, overall, I think that, you know, they capture the teams that clearly have the best records. Yeah. There were, excuse me, a few, like the Broncos, I kind of disagree with. I would move people around, but overall felt pretty solid. Looking ahead, though, Thanksgiving, I just want to tell you, my game of the week for this Thanksgiving holiday, don't hate me. It's the marquee matchup for a reason, and now it feels like it could be extra spicy is the Chiefs Cowboys game. Like, that's just, we just saw the Cowboys route the Eagles.

The Chiefs are doing chiefy things at the end of the season. sees it like this could really tell us a lot about where these two teams are going and I know the cowboys are kind of bottom of their table right now but this is just like a lot is up in the air for these two teams you know when Brian Schottenheimer was hired and there was a lot of laughing at Brian Schontenheimer I mean it was like oh they hired uh this guy he was probably just the cheapest if I remember they announced it in like the middle of the night or something like they didn't even make a big deal out of it when they hired him because they knew that they were going to get crushed and everybody wanted a flashier hire.

I think he's done an amazing job. They have no real defensive personnel after their crazed owner traded away Micah Parsons and their offense, but their crazed owner also traded for George Pickens, which has been the best. It's he gives and takes away. And now, you know, they get Quinn and Williams in there as well. Like they, they, if you do, I guess if you do enough big moves, like you'll hit, it's sort of like if you go to Vegas and roll the dice all night long, you're going to have

some, some big elves. and some big Ws, but them getting George Pickens has completely changed their offense and, you know, the Vikings are going to play them in a few weeks. They have such explosive abilities down the field with him that they are dangerous. And this game here, now that Mahomes, I think last couple weeks is, well, at least last week turned a corner. And overall, his numbers have started to kind to come back from last year. I mean, this one, neither team has a great D. Both teams have great quarterbacks. It feels like 35, 31 or something insane for Thanksgiving. So don't eat too much and fall asleep during that one, I think. Yeah, no couch naps at 4.30 p.m. Come on. Exactly. That is all I have

for you today. Let me look at let me look real quick. What's the line on that game? I'm curious. 51.5 is the over under for that, which is very, very high. And it is the Cowboys favored by three points. Is that right? or, no, three-point underdogs. Cowboys are three-point underdogs. So that should be very interesting. Well, enjoy your Thanksgiving with your family and watching football. I know we will hear as well.

And we will look forward to the Robinson Roundup next week. Thanks, Maggie. Sounds good. Football.