Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles talks Kevin O'Connell working around Vikings O-line problems

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

Former Viking Jeremiah Sirles joins the show to discuss how Kevin O'Conell can work around the Vikings' current offensive line issues. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. 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 Fandul. And it is time, though it is a Wednesday for Tuesday morning left guard as Jeremiah Searle returned from his hunting trip to look at the all 22 and go, who's playing offensive line right now and why, Jeremiah, that must have been quite startling because you go off on your trip, you try to unplug. from everything, and then you come back, and it's always a unique surprise that you get when you see that tape again. But the Vikings don't have any offensive linemen. And the update today is that Michael Juergens was not practicing, which could potentially leave, depending on

where that goes the rest of the week, Blake Brandl, which would move then, I think, Joe Huber into starting guard, an undrafted free agent who's on the practice squad. You've compared this, I think, to 2016 before where all the offensive linemen got hurt and they had to play number 71. But I mean, this, this might even be worse than what this might be the worst I have ever seen of offensive line injuries. I think, I think if I leave town, crazy crap happens, right? Because when I, my first weekend gone, I'm watching the Bengals just, I'm watching the Bengals just get throttled on national TV, right? Just get abused up and down. Like, okay, well, we can work with this, right? right there's some things moving on here and then i come back and i'm watching this game on sunday

when i fire up starlink at camp on monday and i'm like wait where's o'neal hold on why is kelly not in wait where's donovan jackson and then i come back and i i've watched the all 22 this morning again because i like i have to rewatch the tv copy just didn't do it justice i never want to watch that again i i wanted to turn it off after the second quarter because carson wents has no time to throw you've got receivers starting to do the arm throw down the field we are heading into dangerous waters right now as a viking's offense and i really don't know i don't see and maybe matt maybe you do i don't see a clear path out of this right now like i don't see like where's the light at the end of the tunnel where like we can just get there like i don't see a clear path out

of where we're at right now okay so i wrote about this and you're right the tape was uh disturbing uh very it should come along with a warning like you should have to click like I'm 18 or older to watch this like it's that bad it's so bad and then yeah I mean so I want to I want to get into this of like what KOC is supposed to do here because one thing about the tape was that there are guys running wide open all the time against Pittsburgh's coverage but what difference does it make if they're sacking your quarterback and some of that is on wence but he's also Carson Wentz like this is a guy who does this like he is another quarterback that needs a good offensive line in front of him. or at least reasonable blocking because he will still try to make 2017 Carson Wentz play sometimes. And you're like, no, just like me, I used to be able to get rim, by the way. I am six foot one and I used to be able to jump up and I used to be able to grab and like hang on the rim. If I try to do that now, both Achilles tear on the way back down. So like, it happens to all of us, Carson, but there's times where he's like, oh, I'm going to, I'm going to juke somebody.

And it's, nope, and you're sacked. so that happened a lot but the offensive line went into complete disarray and Kevin O'Connell's still running his Kevin O'Connell offense where he's sending guys down the field and they're open and so I'm sure he's watching the taping like I was good play my guys are open but there's no world where you can execute it and I sent one to you one particular play that hurt my soul that this that this would ever be a thought was where T.J. Hawkinson was supposed to block T.J. Watt and then drift off into the flat for the ball, leaving T.J. Watt completely unblocked. One of the greatest players in NFL history, let's just not block them at all. And shockingly, it resulted in a sack. But I'll give you the path. And then we're going to talk about how they need to manage through this. I'm wandering in the dark right now.

Well, the path is this. Cleveland's starting Dylan Gabriel. And they have the worst offense I've ever seen in my entire existence. If you can score 14 points in this game, probably win. And then you have a buy week. And then there's a good chance that Jackson comes back. There's a decent chance that Brian O'Neill comes back.

I don't know what Michael Juergens, he might still play, like what his status is for this week. But then you've got Derisaw, Jackson, your center that you've developed for two years, Will Fries and Brian O'Neill. And suddenly that's a good offensive line again. But for this week, surviving against this defensive line, to me, is this season make or break here you lose this it's dunzo like you're not getting into the playoffs if you lose this game against the cleveland browns and oh by the way they have the best defensive line in football so that's not impossible that they could but that's the path to me is that not only could they get those linemen back

erin jones like cashman like they get an entire half a roster back potentially after the by week and then we could finally see at least some version of what this was supposed to look like you know makes me really sad to think about and i mean we're going to talk a little about ryan kelly here we may never see the offensive line that we wanted to see we may never see darisaw jackson kelly fries o'neill because kelly's now seven concussions six or seven now i mean we're starting to get into the point where he's older in his career the dude's got a family you and i talked about it a couple years ago when Tua had the thing like there's more to football and then there's more to life than football. That's starting to concern me a little bit there. And so I do think it's

going to be Michael Juergen's show probably for at least the month of October, right? And maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it was just a little thing, but it didn't look like a giant hit. He just kind of got bumped right at the end there in the second and then hit the ground. So I think he just had hit the ground again. But if he's starting to get those frequency concussions, I really worry about him and what this offensive line can look like. But when you just look at, as a whole, it almost looks like at times we don't really know what we're doing. And that for me is the scary thing, because you're right. We're going to get some pieces back.

Donovan's going to get back. O'Neill will get back. It's the confusion of new quarterback with Carson, new center there. And even if JJ does get inputted back in, how much can he control and move and go? And so I just worry a little bit about the operation of the offense because you're right. There was dudes wide open. They're trying to run these funky coverages. And then Jefferson's screaming wide open down the field.

The DB falls down and Naylor's going to walk into the end zone. But Carson's first read is, where am I going to get hit from? Where am I getting? Where's the pressure coming from? And even Derisaw still trying to round himself into form. I mean, I like watching him hit little people out on the edge. I think that's really fun when he runs out there and just bench presses little people into the ground. But you can tell he's still not back to his final form of lockdown left tackle.

He had some leakage on his end, too. And so when you're talking about leakage here, leakage there, miscommunication here, the clunkiness of this offense has to be driving Kevin O'Connell and St. And that's the part, I'm not sure that's going to get fixed before Cleveland. And what Pittsburgh dig to Carson in this offensive line was, okay, we'll give up some stuff in the back end. We're coming after you. We're coming after you guns blazing, blitz in corners, blitz and safety, sending linebackers

off the edge. and we didn't show that we can stop it. And when you put that on tape, there's blood in the water. And I promise you, Cleveland and their defense is going to test our front. And can we communicate and pick things up early in this game? And if we can't, we're in for a really long day. And you're talking about a quarterback who arrived here a month ago.

You're talking about offensive linemen starting either out of position or backups. Could be out of position this week, but just even backups. We know the limitations of Blake Brandel. He can play in the NFL. He's not going to be a difference maker in the NFL. And Juergens is starting for the very first time. And I think Will Fries hasn't been as good as I expected Will Fries to be at least so far. And then Justin School spends his entire offseason at left tackle preparing to play the first handful of games. And then it's like, actually, Justin, can you just maybe go over to the right tackle,

which we all think is easy and fine, but it's really not when you've been working for your entire off season on one. side and then, hey, just go play on the other side. Also, T.J. Watt is there. So why don't you just go ahead and handle that? And then it does not get any easier as it's Miles Garrett against Krisha Derisaw, but Miles Garrett doesn't always these days just line up over. That's exactly right. He'll go over the center sometimes. Like he'll he'll sneak around. And then they have Malik Collins, who's been one of the better past rushers interior. I mean, they've got a number of guys who were rotating and a secondary that's very, very physical wide receivers, Denzel Ward, Greg Newsom, these are high draft picks. This is one of the best defenses talent wise in the NFL. And my question

now is, well, what is the plan? Because I was actually impressed with Kevin O'Connell for the last two opening game scripts where I thought that Carson Wentz had easy reads, got the ball out of his hands really quickly, and he continues to be very efficient if it comes out under two and a half seconds. Like he made some mistakes on, you know, there was a tip ball, so I guess that's not really a mistake that was a pick. And then the interception on third down is really bad. But aside from that, like when the ball came out quickly, he was fine. I think this is the game where we really see whether you can have a consistent quick game from Kevin O'Connell. Because to me, there should be almost no other option. You cannot be sending people 20 yards down the field on third and 11, which

drove me insane. I sent you that play or it's just like, dude, what? I mean, yeah, anytime. No one at the sticks. Yeah, anytime you can have three receivers 20 yards away from a backup quarterback who got here a month ago that was last benched when he was a starter in 2022 for Taylor Heineke. You've got to do it. But I think the aggressiveness from Kevin O'Connell has to be tampered down. Well, I think, you know, watching that game, it just makes me realize the complete different players, I'm going to say Sam Darnold and Carson Wentz, right? Sam Darnold had the big arm, trusted it, could sit in there and swing it and struggle with those intermediate because he just wanted to go. Carson's the complete opposite in my opinion. He likes the quick game. He likes the

intermediate game. That's where he feels comfortable is get the ball first read go, first second read go, not these long developing things. And that was what the opening script was. You're exactly right. It was just right down the field, ball in hands, Addison, Jefferson, Hawkinson, right boom boom checkdowns and it was like as the game progressed kevin o'connell got away from his script and went into his bag of tricks and that is a hard place when that is what you want to do as a coach because you're right they're open right as a coach you're going they're freaking they're open right just throw it to him but as you're if you're playing you can't play chess with checkers pieces and that's a little bit where i feel like kevin o'connell's at war with himself right now

now is he's going, okay, I know what Carson can do, but I know what this receiving court can do. And Jefferson can take the top off. And we got our shiny toy Addison back who got hocked by a white linebacker that can't, that can't happen, right? Hey, that guy set a record for the fastest next gen. I was at the combine when he ran like a 4-4-1. I mean, the dude's a freak show. Yeah, that's not a regular linebacker.

I'm just saying. I still, you still can't get caught. His 40s faster than Addison's. Can't get caught. okay anyways you you look at it from a hole and then you also try and sprinkle in well now with with our backup offensive linemen how do we run the football like how do we want to run the football is it going to be this pin pull thing and will fries is really good going north south but you start getting him east west and the he's not great at that and that's not what he did at indy indy's a

downhill scheme with jonathan taylor and so i feel like kevin o'connell sits at night and stares at his whiteboard and goes i don't know what to do because i know what i want to do, but I can't do what I want to do with the pieces I have in play. And I bet that's really frustrating as a play caller. And but this is where you have to live in reality, I think. And sometimes I have felt like there was just a little bit of common sense that's been missing over the years from, hey, my quarterback's playing a certain way. I cannot do this right now. And where I really like aggressiveness, and I think if you have Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, you should look at every third down and 11 and be like, we can get this.

Just get the ball to one of those guys or all draw up a concept that's going to, you know, bring the defense one way and somebody else come the other way. And if you have Sam Darnold, who was phenomenal in those third and longs last year and his touch on the football is incredible, his arm strength is incredible, his anticipation down the field is unbelievable. Like, that's why he was the top three draft pick. That's, that's fantastic. That's not who J.J. McCarthy is going to be probably.

and it's definitely not who Carson Wentz is right now. And it's not what the offensive line can do right now is convert plays like that. And I think that's where you might have to say it's third and 11. Let's run a checkdown little thing to Hawkinson and see if he could break a tackle, which I know triggers everyone from 2022 playoff game and maybe triggers Kevin O'Connell too. Somebody joked, and I'm not sure if it is a joke of like he took all of the checkdowns out of the third downs and long. after that play, but you sort of have to, I think, in a circumstance such as this, until you could get these guys back, you've just got to live to play another day. And that's where

the game script or how the thing plays out is so important, where you get that chance and Wilfries is illegally downfield. You got to score a touchdown there and play from ahead. I just don't think that this team, as it's currently constructed, can play too well from behind because they're not going to be able to hold up from an offensive line perspective. and you mentioned Darisaw, that guy hasn't played for how long. You're like, hey, how about 50 dropbacks? Like, that's the hardest thing you can possibly ask. But I think that they have to play a little bit of like old school here of maybe

you're running on first and second and maybe you're trying to play field position with Dylan Gabriel and turn the ball over in their own zone, get a strip sack, get an interception, and then get on the board that way. I'd think that this is at the type of game, though, that Kevin O'Connell has never really even attempted to play. And how he adapts to this, I think we'll say a lot about it. Yeah, it's going to be really interesting to see, can he do it? And, you know, you don't get coach of the year and you don't get all that stuff because you can't do it. It's just a matter of can you do it for 60 minutes because I think he can do it for the opening script and I think

he can do it for the first half. But is the game starts getting tight and it starts getting of a got a habit situation got to have it type of moments as a player you go to hey this is my best set right is i'm a tackle hey this is my whether it's my jump set or whether it's my vertical set or whatever it is like i got i need my best set right now in this moment because it's a got to have it thing i think coaches are the same way of okay got to have it moment i'm going to go to what i know i can do best and that's just human nature of a football player from all the way around and i think that's what we saw towards the second half of that Pittsburgh game is it started going to Kevin O'Connell going, well, I know this route concept works. I know this works against this coverage.

Like, we just got to get it out there. And then it all started falling apart underneath them. And so I agree with you. We got to play a little bit more of keep the ball away from turnovers. Don't give them a short field. Keep this defense fast rusher is frustrated. The best way to frustrate a pass rusher is a quick passing game because they feel like they get a great get off and they get around the tackle and the ball's gone. And you do that over and over and over again, they start getting really frustrated and like, why am I even doing this? And all of a sudden, then the deep drop back when you catch them sleeping a little bit. Right. So there's just that little bit of chess match that you got to play against this defensive line because they want

you to drop back 60 times. Miles Garrett would love for you to just drop back over and over and over again because eventually he's going to win. He's just that good. And so I think that what the Cleveland Browns are going to do is if they get into obvious passing situations, they're just going to to put five guys on the line of scrimmage and go five oh somebody win right you got a backup guard a backup center a backup tackle somebody go win and what that means is they're going to have to play tight man coverage on the back end so that's where carson wents and kevin o'connell are going to be really good if they're going to send five got to have answers got to have quick outlets got to get the ball out of your hand so this reminds me of a situation that you guys got in

with the offensive line in the middle of 2016, where Stefan Diggs was catching like 12 passes for 80 yards or something. And I just pulled this up. There was a game against Detroit, which you all remember quite well, one of the craziest games that I have ever covered, where the Golden Tate touchdown, and I'm sorry to bring up this bad memory,

you should have won this football game. And I think it is a really good example, because that was the first game that Pat Schumer called instead of Norv Turner after Norv quit. After that happened, then Pat came in, and he was like, look, we're just going to try to control the ball. We're going to throw a bunch of short passes. And Diggs ended up with 80 yards on 13 receptions,

which is handoffs. But I think that they have to do the same thing with Addison and Jefferson in this game, where it's going to have to be, like, they ran a play where Jefferson goes in motion. Or no, I'm sorry, it was, Naylor goes in motion, and then they have Naylor and Hawkinson block for Jefferson. And it ends up being like a six-yard little swing type of pass to Jefferson. That's a good play. And I know for O'Connell, it's not a good play unless it gains like 18 yards.

But to me, it's sort of you're going to have to kind of do that a lot, I think, in this game, to try to survive. And can you stick with it, but also can you get ahead and find a way to stick with it? the mentality just has to change. And then when you get everyone back, you can play with all your toys again, which I guess kind of leads us to another place in this situation, which is with the quarterback. And clearly Carson Wentz played really well against Cincinnati.

I thought he was very Carson Wentzy, exactly what you'd expect from a backup quarterback against Pittsburgh. If you expect a backup quarterback to make up for three backup offensive linemen, while you're trying to ask him to throw deep passes and come back from down whatever number of points, that's just too much for someone in his position right now. I've gotten to a point, Jeremiah, where I think at the, once the buys over, come back against Philadelphia, play J.J. McCarthy until the wheels come off. And period. Like, no matter what happens, just keep playing him the rest of the season. Because I think when you asked about the path,

I think that's the singular path to having an outcome where you actually make the playoffs and are good is if McCarthy comes back and it clicks in and it works. and he starts making plays and scrambling and they have the whole roster. And then it is what we thought it was going to be. I don't think that sticking with Wentz has any real outcome that gets you there. No, I don't think you, you didn't sign Wentz to be the savior. You're signed Wentz so that you couldn't scream for the old guy's head when the young kids screwed up. That was the reason you didn't go sign a good, like, solid guy that you felt could lead you to the playoffs.

And then when, you know, when he did what he did against the Bengals, you're like, okay, maybe that guy's still in there a little bit, but Carson is no longer developing. And that's okay. Guys would reach a certain point in the league where they are who they are. And that's what Carson is. He is what he is. And you're not going to all of a sudden rejuvenate his career and push him to a whole another level.

He's been on too many teams and had too many times. He is what he is. So I agree with you. Once JJ's healthy, you put him in there and let him roll because this is maybe no longer about 2025 in two or three weeks. about 2026. It's about how do we get this young quarterback reps and reps and reps so that he can continue to develop and he can continue to get better. And then maybe he does click over in week eight where he takes that next step where the game slows down for him a

little bit. But you also have to be very careful about putting a JJ injured, not a mean you're never 100% healthy again after you get injured. You have to be a little bit careful about how do I feel about putting my little bit gun shy, little bit hurt rookie quarterback. behind this offensive line if it's not its full complement. And that's where you're going to have to really make that judgment call of do we stick with Wence until J.J. is 100% healthy or do we stick with Wence until our offensive line is 100% healthy? And that's where you're going to have to make that decision because you put J.J. behind this offensive line right now and it's going to be even worse than it was last

week. Yeah. To me, they need to be at at least 80%, four out of five in order for him to go back in or maybe even if school is starting at right tackle against the eagles, that's still pretty tough. The other part, though, is that you can't wait in the NFL for a perfect circumstance with the perfect opponent and the perfect roster. If he has most of the guys around him, I think you have to just go out there and see where he's at. And then I was looking at this last night as an example of what Bo Nix did last year.

He went four and three in his first seven starts and was very mediocre. and then the light went on for him and through the rest of the season he was an elite quarterback. He had a 105 quarterback rating. I think it was 27 to 7 touchdown to interception ratio. And I know Knicks has played a lot more football than J.J. McCarthy in his life overall. But I think we do see that pretty often from a young quarterback. You have to survive in advance. And that's going to have to be the thing. I think for this team, which is get through Cleveland, go two and one with your backup quarterback. You feel okay. about that, if not really good, considering how bad backup quarterbacks are in the NFL.

And then can you get through 500 against a flawed Philadelphia team that does not have the same offensive output as they did last year with Saquan Barkley regressing and A.J. Brown Instagramming. And then you have a Chargers team that might not be able to handle Brian Flores's heat. And then you have a Detroit team that's pretty darn tough and a Ravens team that who knows if Lamar Jackson is back or 100%. and they can't stop anything. And all of a sudden, things open up a little bit to you could win some games here, get 500 through that run, then play the Giants, then play Dallas, have a chance and maybe split your division games.

It's still there. It's still on the table, even though our pets are, heads are falling off right now. I think that is still an outcome that exists for this season. Yeah. The biggest thing for me is that outcome for us is anticipating that nobody else gets hurt. Yes. And that's the hard part is we're so early in the season still. And we've had it, we've had a year's worth of injuries in the month of September. And, and so you're saying, okay, we'll get this piece back and we'll get that piece back. And then it's, but this piece is going to be missing or that piece is going to be missing. And that's the part for me that when you start having the injury bug early in the season, it tends to linger. Yeah. And it doesn't always be the same guys to get injured. Right. We might get Donovan back and we might get back. And all of son, Jonathan, Allen's old and he's going to get oh he's out for three games now and then we get cashman back and it's like oh man Isaiah Rogers has a hamstring like it just it always seems to kind of as when you

lose this many pieces this early in the year you never feel like you get back to where you need to be as a roster standpoint and you're really lucky if you do but it's a war of attrition and so when we start talking about can we get to 500 that's just assuming that we can all stay healthy and that's the part that I'm not sure is a feasible ask in today's era of NFL yeah No, and that's, that's true because, right, we're just sort of assuming, like, well, this week they'll stay healthy against one of the most physical teams in the NFL. That's where you might, you know, you got to get up early and sort of take care of business there. But I don't think Miles Garrett's going to stop, run around and trying to throw people in the pond. It's a very tough situation to be in for this team.

And I've struggled with what do you criticize versus what do you just go injuries? and but that's the worst analysis it feels like even if it's the correct one it's just boring to be like well why is the O line struggling is it the play caller it's probably just that they don't have this great line that they built that they'll never get to use and Donovan Jackson against Cincinnati I was wowed by his game and then he's out for multiple weeks Ryan Kelly had started off fantastically and then he's out for multiple weeks like there's sort of nothing you can do there I don't know how many teams have nine off offensive linemen that are awesome.

I'm going to guess the answer is probably zero. But I want to throw something because we shouldn't let the defense off the hook for this game because Pittsburgh did have a lot of success there that we kind of didn't expect. I have a proposal for you for the Vikings and a suggestion for every other team in the NFL. And there's some smart teams already doing this. So this is me looking into the future. What is the biggest challenge for offenses right now in the NFL? They can't block that there's all sorts.

sorts of different blitzes and twists and everything and deception. I say that there should be a team, maybe the Vikings, when they get their line back healthy, that plays six offensive linemen on every play. And here's why, exactly what Pittsburgh did to the Vikings. At one point, they had a six foot seven tight end, two offensive tackles and a guard that were going against, I think it was maybe Jonathan Allen, Harrison Smith, Isaiah Rogers and Ivan Pace, that was the matchup. Like, they, they were smart.

They created these incredible mismatches in the run game where the Vikings are out there playing their lighter personnel on defense or their regular personnel with two linebackers and they're just being like, yeah, we have two tackles. We're just going to mall you. And one of their tackles was like, where's somebody to hit? And Isaiah Rogers is running 23 miles an hour the other direction. I'm not going to have any part of that. I think that team should start playing six offensive linemen all the time.

in the NFL with the way that things are being played on defense. I agree. You know, after watching what the Eagles did last year to win the Super Bowl, I felt like there was going to be this kind of pendulum swing back to big boy football, full backs, heavy tight ends, 13 personnel, 23 personnel, and make these defenses go, you want to play these small, fast packages? Good luck, right? And we're just going to roll and go.

And I was surprised that more teams didn't go back to that. this year. You know, the Ravens kind of go back to it. Pittsburgh has gone back to it. And then, but you're looking around like the Chargers even. I'm like, Gero, who are you? You're just letting Justin Herbert throw this thing all over down the field. And I mean, you're just looking around the league going, I get it. We want to be a pass happy league and we're paying receivers $35 million a year or $40 million, whatever it is. In order to win football games in the NFL, you've got to be physical. You've got to be physical at the point of attack. And you've got to have offensive linemen and tight ends that are willing to block down field.

And so I agree with you. I think that the teams that decide to move back to the big boy, big set, big personnel football are the teams that are going to be there playing in January. I do think that this was supposed to be the idea with Josh Oliver. I think an ankle injury has kind of slowed him down a little bit. But Buffalo does this all the time. They bring in a sixth lineman and they're just like, well, you know, they used to have this with tight ends where, you know, Jim Klein saucer or Mark Bruner would be out there at six foot

six and 270 pounds. And if the ball came their way, it would stick to them. Right. But at least my gosh. That guy was a nut. And but they just don't have too many of those anymore. And I loved what Pittsburgh did to the Vikings when they got ahead. It just started pounding away. They need to find a way to pound away at Cleveland's defense if they can get a lead early in this game, which kind takes me to Dylan Gabriel getting his first start in the NFL. What a time to be alive for Dylan Gabriel. He's got to be like, yeah, I made backup quarterback. I beat out Shadur, who wasn't, I guess that good of a prospect, good for me. And then it's like, someday I'll play. I wonder when. And they're like, well, we're flying all the way over to London and we're playing one of the best

defensive fronts in the league with Cam Robinson just got traded here. They have no receivers. they can run the ball a little. If Dylan Gabriel throws for 200 or more yards in this game, I mean, I'm going to be really concerned about the defense. This is as hard of a first assignment as you'll ever see. Well, their tackle situation might be worse than the Vikings' offensive line situation. I mean, they're down to KT. Levinson, who they traded for at the end of the preseason. He's starting.

And Cornelius Lucas, who is 35 years old and they signed him to be the swing tackle. to, you know, spot start here and there for Conklin and DeWan Jones. Both those guys have now started one game, one game KT started at left, and now he's over it right. And I mean, their tackle situation is not good, which is why they traded for Cam Robinson. But again, if I'm Dylan Gabriel, it kind of goes back to what we were talking on. There is no perfect moment to start a rookie, but there is a non-perfect moment. Like, there is, there is the wrong moment. And this might be the wrong moment to put Dylan Gabriel out there. but it's kind of the same thing that New York

had to do with Jackson Dart. You got to do something. But you just, you got to do something different. And the easiest thing to do is be like, I just swap out the trigger man. Maybe he'll bring some energy and some juice, which it worked for New York.

But I don't see that being the case for Dylan Gabriel this week because your offensive lines beat up. You don't have a number one receiver. And you're going against a Brian Flores defense. This is going to be a rough outing for Dylan Gabriel's NFL debut. I do want to say that I'm kind of a, Dylan Gabriel, like, enjoyer from watching him at Oregon. I thought that he was a better athlete than you think.

Combine speak. Yes, exactly. Every, every Sunday when like Ryan Tannihill or Alex Smith would get a first down running, be like, you know, Alex, he's a little bit of a sneaky athlete is like, he was drafted number one. I don't know. I will say that have you, have you, were you around the combine? Are you around Dylan Gabriel at all?

Uh, no, I mean, I didn't see him. Like, I was at the combine, but I didn't see him. Itty, eddy, oh, yeah, 80. Yeah. I was at the senior bowl, and I was standing next to him and I was like, who's this toddler you guys let on the field? Like, because his head's huge. And so he has this big old helmet and this tiny little body.

Like, it is, it's actually pretty wild. He's not a very big guy. I mean, that you're going to see it. When he's back there, I don't know if he's going to be able to see over the front. And it's going to be really interesting because college. is not NFL, my friend. No, definitely not. And I do think he's got armed talent that he throws the football extremely well,

but I don't know how this is going to work because, right, exactly. Yeah, they don't even have receivers. The only threat there is Quinn John Judkins, who looks very talented and could be problematic for them. But I think it is going to be a rough ride. If it isn't, then some red flags are going up, which I wanted to ask you about because the defense this year had one of the best games ever in NFL history. history against Cincinnati. But if you look at the expected points added on defense for the other

three games, it's average. It's not exceptional at all. And I just, you know, and we saw what Cincinnati is against the Denver Broncos. Like that team is just a tire fire. Um, Dalton Reisner should have waited a little longer to sign with the team. Maybe there was a little better. Not that team. But, uh, I, I just, I think I had a higher expectations. And I don't know how much to say, it was a good game plan. It was good Aaron Rogers. It wasn't that amazing. I mean, it's not like they went for 500 yards. But this idea going into the season was the defense is going to get you through any of the

tough moments that we expected for, you know, JJ McCarthy, of course, or Carson Wentz. And they've only sort of done that for me. It's hard for me to pin the blame and, and do that thing because I've been on the team where the offense is just abysmal and it just wears a defense down right defense is all about energy and excitement and hype and riding the high of a touchdown and going out there and shoving it back in their face there's been nothing for this defense besides the bangles like take the bangles game out they've just been kind of like come on offense go like we're trying and it just wears those dudes out yeah and i mean we finally eclipse like 70 plays this week i mean they've been

out there for a long time. Not a ton to be excited about when you're losing football games and you're getting the ball ran down on you because you're not an obvious passing situations, which is what this defense is built by. The blitz schemes, get them back, get them pin your ears back and go. That's when Brian Flores is at his best, in my opinion. But when you're just kind of death by a thousand cuts of just driving down the field, going there, it just wears these dudes out. And so I think we had a lot higher expectations for them, but football is a team game. And it's a complimentary thing. You've got to compliment the offense of the defense to the special teams. And when one of those phases is just stuck in its spin in its wheels, it's hard for the other

phase to accelerate. It's hard for that other phase to take that jump and just say, we will handle this. We will go week after week after week. You can ask him to do it for, like you said, hey, McCarthy's going to have one out of four games. It's going to be an absolute nightmare. Okay, then the defense can stick up and bow their backs and do their thing. But it's been four weeks of defense hang in there man just just hold on and i just think it's a really hard place for them all all those defenders to be of like we're doing it man but why are we doing this we can't score we can't do this it just wears on those dudes yeah i can see that and that's why 16 is such a great example of this uh where the offense struggled with all the different o line combinations

couldn't run the football uh and then that defense which was very very good the year before when Teddy was on the field a lot because of Adrian Peterson and it was a really interesting stat about that 2015 season that I think that you guys finished maybe it was like 20th and actual points but seventh in the percentage of drives that ended in points there was a lot of Blair Walsh that season mostly making it until the thing uh but running the football not turning it over converting a handful of third downs and it made the defense right I mean I think it made the defense look better than it was in 15, and then in 16, it made the defense look worse than it was. And that's one thing that we don't factor enough in football is the

interconnectedness of those two units. And if you're going to be, which I think they are now 29th in plays per drive, your defense will get strained. The idea of this thing was score on offense, have Hargrave and Allen and Grenard and Van Ginkle, who is a big, big concern right now. have them kill the quarterback and get confused with all the coverages. That doesn't work if the other team's up 14 to 6 and they're feeling pretty good about themselves. And they're like, all right, let's throw a sixth offensive lineman on the field and we're going to run over Hargrave and Allen who are a little bit long in the tooth. So I guess there's a lot of things that are thrown around when you're disappointing of like is Flores, his defense not as good as we expected. Should they never have traded Harrison Phillips?

why didn't they draft Kyle Hamilton, you know, and some of these things are just too far and people are mad and that's how it goes. But I also think that if you're not going to get to play the way that you expected to play, this team won't be what we thought they were going to be. For sure. If you if you build a roster a certain way and then all of a sudden pieces fall apart and you're trying to change course of what this roster is built to do, there's it's not you can't rebuild a roster during season you mean you can't just all of a sudden be like hey we're getting the ball ran down our throats let's just go get a bunch of big guys off the street to stop the run it doesn't work like that you have what you have and you got to find a way to make it work but i'll say this all the great pass rushers that we used to that we used to play against whether it was darn old you know whether it was von miller whoever

it was our whole thing was beat them up in the run game yeah beat them up in the run game beat them up on first down, beat them up on second down, skip some third downs and just keep wearing on them so that when it is finally time to pass rush, they're not feeling great. They've been getting double team. They've been getting crackbacked and they've been getting all these things. And that's what I'm starting to see with the ginkles and the grenards. And those guys, they're just getting beat up in the run game early in the game because teams are trying to do that to them because they know that our offense is not this huge high-flying threat where they don't feel the pressure.

We have to score every time we touch the ball. we don't if you're playing the Vikings you don't feel the pressure of man we got the ball we better go score we're going to be in trouble it's hey let's beat up on these dudes and get three or four first downs and punt and then they're going to get stopped and we'll get the ball back at the 50 and do it all over again and maybe we'll kick a field goal this time it's just a totally different mindset playing the Vikings this year than it has been in the last four years which is when you played the Vikings last four years it's like we better freaking score boys like if we don't score we're going to be ran out of this building not the case we've play the Vikings anymore. So it's more the long game, kind of what we talked about Kevin O'Connell needs to do. Teams are doing that against the Vikings right now. It's like, hey, just beat them up, right? Just run it up the middle, run it up the middle, run it up the middle. And then we'll take our shots. And then by the end of the game, if they need to pass rush, they're not feeling good. Right. And so I think that idea of has it been solved, like the way that they played last year, I think is much more of a personnel thing because they can,

they can play this way when they have the players to play. play this way and they can't when they don't and when they don't it's it's not good it looks very it's not like they're built to have games be a bunch of 17 14 total like street fights that's just not who they are so let me get to one more thing before love to see it hate to see it which would be what do you think the best case scenario for this season is and if you want to say they win the super bowl but like within reason uh you know obviously winning the Super Bowl would be the best case scenario. But let me give you a little fan duel number here.

Let me call this up. I don't know if this has changed within the next, within the last day or two. So let me make sure I've got the updated number. The Vikings right now, yeah, they're plus 285 to make the playoffs, which to put that in context is below the commanders, below the Falcons, below even the Cardinals,

and almost on par with the bears and the cowboys. So that's kind of what the gambling universe thinks of where this Vikings team is at after four weeks. Let's say it's within reason. How do you see a best case scenario playing out? I think a best case scenario right now, if I had to say put my end, the people are going to probably come from my head for this,

is they put themselves in a position week 17 and 18 to fight for a wild card spot. Yeah. Like I think that I don't think it's, A, we win the division. It's you put yourself in a position in December. to control your own destiny. And I think that the more likely scenario is you're going to put yourself in a position in December

where you need help from other teams to screw it up. And that's probably where this team is headed right now, just based off of the trajectory and the things that are going on from the defense to the frustration of the receivers, the injuries backing up, starting backup quarterbacks with a starter that you're not super thrilled to come back and things going to save your season. And they, best case scenario right now is you're sitting there December 15th going, okay, if we win these last two, we can get a wild card spot. Probably not the most likely situation, though.

No, I think, I actually think that that is, I would put that as the most likely situation for this team because I still think there's enough talent here to split the games that they have coming forward. So if you end up at three and two and then you split the division games, some of the tough games, some go your way, some don't. Maybe you get a backup quarterback mixed in there. You can see them beating the, do you see them right now beating the Packers or the Lions? Like watching what those two teams are.

The Packers, though, looked pretty human. I'll, I'll agree there. But the Lions have, whatever happened week one, they snapped out of that real quick. Yeah. I mean, that's the part where I'm looking through the division. I'm going, okay, did Chicago kind of figure their lives out all of a sudden, too? Did Vegas and Dallas help them? You know, just decide to throw a bunch of interceptions, you know, but.

It's just, I continue to look at our division and go, man, I, I, I don't know if we'll win another divisional game. Like, there are all those games, I don't know if we'll be favored in any of our divisional games going forward besides maybe the Bears. Yeah, I mean, the Bears at US Bank Stadium, they should be. It's just sometimes it's just so hard to look into the crystal ball, as Mike Zimmer once said, because you guys were sitting at two and two in 2017 and it just lost to the Detroit Lions, 14, to seven with K you lost to Pittsburgh and then you lost to Detroit as well. Right. Right. So you're, uh, because there, there was a Bucks game in between where Keenum threw for 370 yards and it was hilarious. But then the next week, that's when Delvin tears his ACL. I mean, I remember doing the press conference with Zimmer at Winter Park where he was just distraught. Like I,

why do all these things happen to me? And then, you know, after that, the first time he was ever distraught. But, you know, he was sort of bemoaning like why, you know, my quarterback's out, my running backs out. Everything's going wrong. And then it clicks in. I don't think this is going to be a 13 win season. But I do think that it'll be there's a little light at the end of the tunnel after the by week with a lot of the roster coming back or getting healthier. So I'm still going to put it right now at they are playing week 17 and 18 for a chance to make playoffs. That's where I've got them right now. Uh, let's get to, uh, love to see it, hate to see it. I'm going to throw out. I hate to see it first. K ball discussion. I just, the kickers now apparently after a rule

change can take the ball into their homes and I don't know, put a little more air and mess around with it and apparently put it in a microwave as a possibility. I'm not making this up. I saw that from Sam Swartstein, and the ball can be now altered to essentially look like a soccer ball, which is why every 56-yard field goal looks like a chip shot. And I guess I want to know why. Like, who asked for this? Why did they change it? What I really didn't need in this game in the NFL was the kickers controlling more of it.

And that is what we've done on multiple levels for this year. Yeah, I don't really, that was kind of like a brushed under rule change that no one thought about. and then all of a sudden, week one, you're watching like, what the, these kickers on the, on the juice? Like, these dudes all just beat up in the off season, be like, boys, past the needle. Like, it was nuts. And then they started talking about it more on the broadcast. And I was like, what? Why do we do this?

But then I think about it all the time, it's a points driven league. Yeah. It's a points driven, offensive driven, fantasy football, band duel, overunders. Like, that's what drives revenue. And that's what drives the league. I understand probably why the league did it. I don't think the league really understood the repercussions of the rule. Like, I really don't think the league thought that, oh, if they crossed the 50,

they're just going to kick a field goal. So I agree. I don't really love it, but I think it makes for really interesting decision points that coaches have to make of kick it or not if you're standing on the logo at the 50 yard line. The 60-yarder that Will Reichard kicked, I... It's good from 70. That's, yeah, because that's the goalpost that I'm closer to in the press box. And usually when it's one of those long kicks, you're like, lean in it, like,

does it go over the bar? And you're just like, that flew way over the bar. That wasn't even close. Middle of the, middle of the all state good hands. That's right. I do think that if the Vikings get a chance, they will have him attempt like a 68 yard field goal. I honestly think it's realistic. I didn't need that. I don't want that. I liked when field goals were a little more risky and random as opposed to automatic unless they get blocked, which has also become a bigger part of this that I didn't need. So it's a, it's a weird world of kicking right now. And I kind of hate to see it. I love to see the New York Giants roll out there rookie quarterback and treat him like he's Tim Tebow and just run that dude. Like, hey, you're, you can run like Jalen Milro. Right.

QB power and just run. I'm like, dable's empty in the tank, man. Like that was a save my job. You've got Cam Scataboo and Jackson Dart back there. running the 19 or 2008 Florida offense just pound it and found it in QB power and find a way to win a game, right? It kind of reminded me when they used to use the, which is a wildcat with in Miami where they just change the whole game plan. And they're like, we're just going to do something totally different and see if it works for a week. Well, now we'll see if it works again going into next week. And that'll roll into my second hate to see it is Malik Neighbors with the AC. Ah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, just a promising young.

that had everything out in front of them going to be one of the next Jefferson's and Jamar Chase and everything. And just to see him have that non-contact ACL was just, I hate to see that. That was awful. And I don't know, do you want to give a quick turf versus grass take? I mean, I'll always say grass is better. I'll always say natural grass is better. But it's just not a reality that every team stadium. You can't grow natural grass in East Rutherford, New Jersey in December. Yeah. You can try. But it's going to be, it might be worse. It might be worse in December than turf because then it's just hard frozen ground

that they try and keep thawed during the week and then they roll it out and it's just mushy and gross. So it's just not a realistic thing. I always think grass is better for you, but you can't just to say all 32 teams must have grass. I'm going to toss this one out there. Love to see it. So maybe controversial. I don't know.

I loved the tie game. I loved it. I enjoyed the whole night. I liked the whole night. I thought it was one of the most ridiculous games that I could remember. And Matt Lafleur, not understanding how a clock works. And I, here's, I love to see it was Matt Lafleur just being like, I screwed that up. I just got caught up and I, and people don't understand how chaotic it is down there.

We're like, I play madden and I won't screw this up. Like, okay, well, why don't you go stand on that sideline and play Madden? Because it's a little bit different. But someone should have been in his ear being like, uh, bro, um, you might want to go like that. You got to go, man. Uh, the most underrated job in the NFL is the game coordinator person, uh, who can help with that.

But I have no problem with the game ending in a tie. In fact, uh, you know, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be against in the regular season, not even having overtime and just ending games and ties. You know why? Here's why. Here's why. Because if the game automatically ended in a tie and there was no overtime, teams would go crazy at the end of games trying to win, right?

They would be like, we need a victory this week. And it's that clock's running out. We need to start doing some wild stuff, aggressiveness-wise. Ends of games would be more insane. If they couldn't just like, teams will play for the field goal all the time when they're down three. Oh, let's just kneel down at the 38-yard line and have our chip shot 56-yard field goal. Those teams would either have to decide we're going to tie this game or let's handle that

drive differently. So I, but I didn't, I didn't mind any bit of it. That's, that's how it is. Like I, I grew up into a hockey world where there used to be ties all the time. I didn't mind then. Like the game tied. What are you going to do? As a player, I think a tie is the worst possible outcome. Yeah. Like, because you might as well have not just beat the living crap out of your body for the last three and a half hours, met at the 50 yard line beforehand, shook hands, and got back on the bus. Like, it's just one of those things where it's just, it's like kissing your sister, man. It's just like, what are we doing? Like, this is so dumb. We could have just, we could have just not played this game and I could not feel like hot garbage right now and go

sit in the ice tub to go, well, at least we tied. Like, I wish that they would play to the death. Play to the death, run another quarterback. Like, just keep going. Make it like hockey in the playoffs. Just play till you someone freaking scores. Or after you get through the quarter, go to the college rule. How fun with the NFL. That would be absurd with the two point shootout. You know, like you get to the end of overtime regulation it's like all right two point shootouts here we go best man wins that's how you should do it i i i just think so i yeah that would be high entertainment but imagine but also imagine like losing a game on two point shootouts in the nfl with all that is on the line here and then like well why did you miss the playoffs this year we had three two point shootouts and that's

i love it yeah sign me up for that i think they should have the kickers uh kick him from 60 and uh best of five. There's like the shootout. So I don't know. You just keep backing them up. You have to like, you have to match. So it's like I hit a 64 yard or you have to hit it.

Yes. Right. Keep going back. A game of horse. You can make the next line and then whoever misses first. Like how you want to get stupid? Let's get stupid. Talk about getting kickers paid.

Or what punter can drop it. What punter can drop it near the call in corner? Yeah. It's just like the, the Madden 2005 drills for the win. What else? Yeah. You got one more.

A line, D-line. I think, you know, my hate to see it is the Chargers tackle situation. Oh, brutal. Sean Slater goes out, then you lose Joe All, right, a team that I think is very talented and has a chance to be threatening for the AFC division towards the end there. When you start losing players like that, it's going to be a long road to climb. And I'll be really curious to see how Jim Harbaugh handles that and how Gero handles that there. Because I do think the Chargers are still the best overall team of the AFC West,

even though these freaking dudes behind me are still figuring it out, I just hate to see when a team is on the rise and you finally start to see them all put together and then a couple really key injuries early in the season really start to derail that. Yeah, I mean, no argument there that offensive lines should be one of the better lines in the league because of that.

Also just the Tyree Kill injury. Oh, gosh. It was a really, really nasty week for injuries this week. So my last hate to see it is, I'm watching collegiate football this weekend and there's a running back from Oregon who fumbles the football and it's a total game changer. And when they go to the replay, it looked like his kneepad may have flickered one piece of grass. A good thing they were playing on grass.

If they were to his turf, it would have been a fumble. And they show it and show it and show it and they zoom in and they see this one little piece of grass that wasn't mowed perfectly and it goes doop and then oh it's he was down and i'm like he's not down and the and the broadcast is like you can't what that you can't see that and the camera angle is is pointed down so is it like do we have a camera that is dead on the ground to really see if there was any daylight there instant replay is not made anything better in sports at all in college football it's one ludicrous replay after the next and then I go to the other game

because I was flipping back and forth with the Bama game and this guy tries to make a tackle and his head drops a little bit too low and he hits the guy and you're like oh that's a penalty and they throw him out of the game

like there was no intent there at all. It was just a little bit of a technical mistake in a play that where the guy's actually being dragged down so he's going down to hit him and then gets the wrong angle at full speed and you're like, get out of this football game, you monster, do we have to throw people out?

Like, there's certain hits where you're like, hey, that guy was out of pocket. You just can't do that. I mean, that's an accident. Can you, can we just 15 yards and move on? Like, why are we throwing people out of games over stuff like this? I still don't understand targeting. Like, because if you, and then flip it back to the Penn State Oregon game, that one dude absolutely murders that dude helmet to helmet. and everyone's gone up. He's gone, right? And they're like, no targeting. It's just so, it's just one of those things where it's so random of what gets called and what doesn't. I agree with you. Call it a personal foul, move it 15 yards up. Don't have this review for a hit. It messes with the flow of the game. Like, you're sitting there waiting around like, well, am I going to the locker room or do I get to go back out on the field? Then you have to sit out at the next half and next week. If it's in the second half, I just, I still all around hate the targeting room.

It's a disaster. Anyway, so is the Vikings offensive line. But we'll see if they pull it together next week. Next week on the show. Who is this guy? Does Carson Witts live this weekend? Right. Introducing Henry Bird.

Anyway, so Jeremiah Searle, we will be back Tuesday next week to break it all down. We'll see how it goes. The Purple Insider Show reminder, as always, presented by Fanduel. And we'll catch you all later. Football. football.