Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles talks locker room dynamic of Vikings QB situation

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

Former Viking Jeremiah Sirles joins the show to discuss the locker room dynamics of the Vikings QB situation. Then, Maggie Robinson joins for the Robinson Round Up. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, presented by Fanduil. Matthew Collar here. And it is time for a Tuesday morning left guard with former Minnesota Viking offensive lineman Jeremiah Searle. And because we are coming off the bye week, we've got a lot to react to from around the league. We'll get to some Viking stuff at the start. And then the whole episode has loved to see it, hate to see it here from there. But I want to start out with this, Jeremiah.

Yesterday, Kevin O'Connell talked about what he wants to see from J.J. McCarthy and his work during the by week. And he talked a lot about footwork, technique, fundamentals. And it sounded to me like they kind of broke it all down and are rebuilding it throughout practice. I guess my question is when you're in the middle of the season, even if you get a buy week, how hard is that to do if O'Connell wants to to get back to those fundamentals that apparently the last time he saw him against Atlanta,

he saw a lot of things that fundamentally he was not too happy with. I don't want to be the sound the alarm guy, but like I tell the guy like be in position to hit the sirens because that is very alarming. Like when you talk about entering into year two after you didn't play for a year and then you're coming off an injury and we're talking about getting back to basics and you only started two games that is very concerning to me to listen to because you always can say,

hey, we just got to get back to techniques and fundamentals. Well, that's just saying, hey, yeah, we're just getting back to where we started, let's get off and going. But for him to be like, hey, we had to basically rip the thing down and start all over again, that means that there's something fundamentally

completely wrong starting from the ground up, whether it's his footwork, whether it's his hips, whether it's his arm angle, whether it's just seeing the field when you're talking about going into week five and six of the regular season not really the time for that you want to say hey come back how are you off the injury let's make sure you can get to where you need to go because again it just adds more questions than answers and that's all we've been talking about for the last two weeks since carson once

came in is what is the question what is the answer is carson the answer is jj all these question marks then when kevin o'connell comes out and goes yeah got to strip him down build back up from the basis. You're going, well, where's the problem? Like, what is the problem with J.G. McCarthy? And we just won't know until we see him back out on the field. Maybe this week. I don't even know if he'll be back this week. What do you make of just the overall tone of O'Connell about this situation? Because he's a different kind of cat at the podium than maybe the first coach that I covered in the National Football League, Mike Zimmer. Right. Exactly. But I would have expected that there might have been some defensiveness

or maybe even kind of lashing out at us a little bit about this situation. That'll happen from time to time with coaches where they'll be like, hey, you guys, you need to stop X, Y, or Z or putting pressure on him or whatever it might be, or you need to stop being so critical. It was only two games. I haven't really sensed that. In fact, I've appreciated the level of detail that O'Connell has gone into to give us the insight into what he's looking for.

for with McCarthy. So I can't really put a finger on. Is it just that O'Connell likes to kind of take you inside the building as much as he can and tell you like, yeah, here's what we're working on? Or on the other side of that, could it be a little bit like he was concerned about what he saw, maybe possibly very concerned about what he saw, and he's expressing some of that through the press conferences when he's talking about what needs to be improved? Yeah, I can't figure it out either.

You know, there's a part of me that when I watch that press conference, I'm going, okay, he's trying to protect J.J. McCarthy, right? He's trying to make it so that when he comes back, he understands that this is not the normal scenario of starter coming back. We're not talking about, oh, Matthew Stafford, he'll be back in a week. And even Matthew Stafford, at 80% is better than most people in the league. So part of me thinks he's hedging his bed a little bit going, hey, JJ's back to working on some fundamentals, like he's still young,

like just trying to ease him back. into the media world so that he's not setting an unrealistic expectation for when he steps back on the field or on the flip side he's also just trying to hedge for himself a little bit with a little bit of hey this is why I'm going to continue to play Carson Wentz right so it's one of the two I don't know which one it is it's either trying to protect JJ McCarthy or lay the ground for for why I'm going to continue to play Carson Wentz because JJ's not ready from not just a physical standpoint but also from a fundamental standpoint that if less I clear him fundamentally and I see what I need to see, I'm putting Carson Wentz still back out on that field.

And he did say that he's going to assess from a health and readiness standpoint, which also tells you that he wants to assess what he sees this week from McCarthy. And if he gets those things down that he was talking about with him during the bye week and that those two were working together during the bi-week to try to get, then it would make sense that he would be ready to start. I wonder about the sheer amount of time that you have in the NFL, which is not very much. You guys have a Wednesday practice.

You have a pretty intense Thursday practice. And then Friday is what? Like Red zone? Fast Friday. Yeah, right. You're red zone short yardage goal line two minute and we're out. Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, there's not really a real practice on Friday.

you can't have everyone practice like crazy people and then go play a football game. That would be a bad idea. So we're talking about a light workout on Monday that you get an extra little practice. And then Wednesday, Thursday, and you got to make a decision here. I don't, I mean, is that enough time to get the rebuilt fundamentals and techniques down? I mean, I guess that's what I'm wondering. If he starts, then I guess the answer is yes. But as we sit here right now early in the week, I just, that seems to me like he might need a

little bit more in terms of practice to be truly ready. I would honestly say that readiness comes above physically ready for me at the quarterback position, right? Readiness from a mental standpoint, from a sharpness standpoint, from a trust standpoint between coach and quarterback is more important than, hey, how's the ankle? Because that's what's going to win or lose you this football game. McCarthy being able to move and be mobile is going to help, but it's the on time, on schedule, throws in the pockets, where the route constant. needs to be. That is going to be what wins or loses this football game. And so if I'm Kevin O'Connell, I need to make sure that J.J. McCarthy 100% can run everything that I put on him against

the looks that we need him to do or else I'm putting Carson Wentz in the football game. And when you're talking about a few practices to get this, yes, the biweek's been here. So hopefully he's been able to study the game plan. But there's only, I mean, he may only get 15 reps on Wednesday, if he's the starter, 15 reps on Wednesday, another 15 to 20 reps on Thursday. and then he'll get all the reps on Friday, but is that enough to prove to me, hey, I'm ready to go play the defending Super Bowl champions? I don't know.

That's it. That's a Kevin O'Connell again. That's why he's the big bucks. But I know from an offensive line standpoint, you know, we always had to coming off injury and all that stuff getting back in there. It was a lot more about are you mentally here and in it? Like, can you understand the game plan and everything

versus, hey, are you good to throw your hands and punch? Because everyone can gear themselves up on game day. there's enough Tylenol and ibuprofen you can take did not feel anything like you'll be fine with the adrenaline on game day it's can we do it between the years i also want your perspective from the players inside the locker when you have a quarterback situation and you have uh sort of gone through this i mean i remember there was some case keitham teddy bridgewater discussion when uh teddy came back and i i mean we were in the media talking about it all the time like if case falls apart do they go back to teddy do we know what teddy can

do at this point with the coming off the injury and all that sort of stuff. But he is active and is Sam coming back and all that. Now you guys fought through that to a 13 win season. But I think that what maybe sometimes we don't even realize is that in the locker room, you're not immune to the same discussions that are happening on the internet or on podcasts like this one. This situation, you were told if you're on the team, if you're on the offensive line, JJ's the leader. He's the guy thick and thin. He's our QB. And then now we get to a point where Carson plays well as the veteran quarterback. We all know that there's limitations with Carson Wentz. At the same time, if you're Justin Jefferson and you're catching a bunch of

footballs and you're winning some games and your offense is looking good, if you go back and it doesn't look good right away, I feel like there's going to be at least some conversation of like, what are we doing here? Our guy was running the offense just fine before. I think it becomes a delicate locker room situation here. See, with this type of situation, it's actually not as delicate as you think because we get to see practice every day. Right. And so we are there. And it's very clear and apparent if the guy can't operate. Yeah. Right. It's

no longer us like, hey, well, on Sundays, what's it going to look like? If on Wednesday, Thursday, Thursday practice, we're all looking around going, dude, JJ, it ain't it this week. Like, it's pretty easy to be like, okay, yeah, well, Carson's the guy. right that's the difference between being on the outside of the walls looking and being on the inside of the walls is they see every rep they see every meeting and it's very apparent when the quarterback is ready versus not and that even goes back to my experience with case and teddy right teddy came back off a horrific knee injury and he looked fine in practice but there was a noticeable difference between case and teddy operating the offense and so if there is still that noticeable difference when they do put jj back in and there's that noticeable difference of either a drop-off or in elevation when JJ comes in, it will be very apparent to the players in practice. So then you go, okay, I feel really good

about the decision we're making this week because we did it all week in practice. Let's go execute it on Sunday. The problem then becomes if there's a big disparity between what it looks like in practice and what it looks like on Sunday. That's where you'll start to have more of the conflict of, man, he looked right on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,

but everything went to hell on Sunday. Like, we have to figure out what's going on here. That's where more of the issues will start to arise. Well, and I would also say that if you, as players, see in practice that he's not the better quarterback and then he starts anyway, then there could be a conversation will be had. Right. Exactly. And that's why I think with Kevin O'Connell, he being a former player in his experience, helps him a lot because I think he could put himself in the locker room's shoes and understand. And plus he's a great communicator with those players and with Justin Jefferson. I think that's why he has to hedge is because he, he's going to understand that you can't fool these guys. Like, they all know who's mastering the offense better, who's going to give them a better chance to win.

And that is first and foremost. I know everyone wants to find out. Everyone wants to develop McCarthy in game. But you are three and two playing the Philadelphia Eagles in an NFC that has, how crazy is this, 11 teams that are either three or four wins. You are right in that conversation. And so if you sacrifice your chances to,

win. I think that there are going to be a lot of players in the locker room who are like, hey, what are we doing here? Like, we put this team together to win and look around. Nobody's special in the NFC. I mean, somebody said today, like, is it crazy to rank a three and three team number one in power rankings? The chiefs, like, no, it's not. It's truly not. Like, that's the league this year, which I think would play even more into this team believing in itself if it gets decent quarterback play. I mean, if you asked me today, who's playing, in the Super Bowl. I'd say the Colts in Tampa Bay. And that's where

we're at as an NFL organization. Right. Like, you just have to go week by week. You're just kind of like, well, I don't know who it's going to be this week. I mean, Atlanta lays it on the bills last night. And I blame the Giants for not killing the chiefs when we had the opportunity to kill the chiefs and end their dynasty. And so you go on and on. But I agree. If you're talking about, hey, we got to figure out what's going on.

We got to make sure we are still in this hunt. I think it's a totally different conversation if Carson Wentz has lost the two games, the last two games. Because you put yourself in the position to be able to go and win the division, win the playoffs, like all of these things are right out there in front of you. You got to go make it happen. And that all starts with who plays the quarterback position. It's going to tell us a lot who starts this weekend. But I would say that if McCarthy does not start and they want to see more of Carson Wentz for these next two games and want to see McCarthy in practice a lot more and have him prove it to the rest of the team that he belongs

back as QB1. That doesn't mean that his career is over. It might just mean that patience is required and it's not easy. Would you like to share the statistic that you came up with from doing a little NFL research? Because I think this makes my point pretty strongly that patients in the NFL is hard to do when it comes to quarterbacks. Yeah. So I'm laying in bed last night and And it's after the Thursday, it's after the late Monday night game. And of course, they pop up that Brian Callahan has been fired, right? And they start talking about all of that. And so I started thinking in my head and I'm just going back and forth and I'm going,

how many quarterbacks have been drafted in the top 10 that have played out their rookie scale contract with the same head coach that drafted that? But like, it's just something I was like, I don't, I just don't know it. And so obviously I look it up and I go through and I go, okay, all the way back to 2010, there's been 30 quarterbacks drafted in the top 10, okay? 20 of those quarterbacks have gotten their head coach fired before their rookie scale contract has gone up. 13 of them within the first year.

Wow. Right. And so when you really start looking at this, like you're looking at this going, okay, yeah, Blake Bortles, Jaguars, Gus Bradley, gone, Marcus Marriota, Ken Weisenhert, gone, James Wisden, Lubby Smith, see ya, Josh Rosen, Steve Wilkes, see ya. And you just Mitch Trubisky, right? You just start going down the line. And so then you look at just recently,

you go, okay, Cam Ward, Brian Callahan, see ya. Caleb Williams, Matt Eberflus, see ya. Jaden Daniels, Drake May, Michael Pennix, and J.J.M.C.N.C.M.C.M.D. But if history seems to repeat itself, which it seems to do in the NFL, you will see it probably at least one of those quarterbacks, get their head coach fired, or it'll be exactly like what Shane's Dykin did in Indianapolis and they will cut bait and move on from like they did with Anthony Richardson and that's how they keep their job. So it's just a really fascinating thing to go where

hey, if you're drafting a, if you're drafting a quarterback in the top 10, you're probably drafting them for the next regime. Like that's just how the NFL is viewing it lately. And I think it's a really fascinating thing to look at and think about. Right. And this situation is quite a bit different. It's more San Francisco-ish because of you have the coach of the year. You have a really good team and a very, very sound organization. And a lot of those organizations you mentioned are kind of bleep shows or coaches were pretty incompetent. So if there's someone who could continue to guide them through,

regardless of what happens, it's probably Kevin O'Connell. But to me, it just speaks to the pressure of when you draft someone and you have to put them out there because that's your guy that the pressure just goes up to 100. And if you come short of expectations with that guy, then you're talking instant hot seat. And I mean, with O'Connell, we are very, very, very, very far away from that. They have a winning record.

Like they're, you know, I mean, even just, you know, going back to last year with 14 wins. So I'm not saying that. I'm saying it gets late early when it comes to a quarterback who is young. And if you play them too early and they are bad and you lose and you win six games because you play McCarthy the rest of the way, the contract, the coach of the year stuff, it doesn't matter for very long in the NFL.

You know, someone once said it was a, what have you done for me lately league? And, you know, I'm going to go ahead and say that's probably true. Yeah, I mean, and what's crazy is you look at it, all these quarterbacks besides Patrick Mahomes, Blaine Gabbard and J.J. McCarthy were inside the top 10. Patrick Mahomes was number 10. Yeah, J.J. McCarthy was number 10.

Majority of these dudes that got fired were picks one through three. Yeah. Right. And so that's natural. team is awful. Right. If you're picking number one overall, it's not the great thing. You're not walking in to a stellar situation. You are truly being drafted to save the franchise. Not necessary with J.J. McCarthy. And I think that's the point where I think Kevin is hedging a little bit where he's going, hey, we didn't draft this guy that we have to play him right away.

Like, we didn't, we didn't bring him into a situation in which we said, hey, if J.J. doesn't play, we're all getting fired. Right. Like, everything's out the door. We brought him in because, we had the opportunity to draft a young quarterback on a rookie scale deal, and we did it. Now, we are in the great position that if we don't have to play him because he's not ready, the sky will not fall. And I think that's what I got more out of that press conference than anything was him just hedging going, we don't have to play this dude if I don't feel like he's 100% ready because that's not where we're out as a team and as an organization. Right. And that's the advantage that Carson Wentz gives you by

playing good football so far. And I will say that like Pittsburgh's defense is pretty darn nasty. I guess even Atlanta looks a lot better in the light of day, them and Pittsburgh than maybe they looked when the Vikings lost to those teams. I mean, now the Vikings losses are against four-win teams right now. So anyway, it's a, it is a situation where the Vikings have the rare benefit of a coach who is in very good standing. They can win with their backup quarterback.

They do not have to rush because rushing will often get you in trouble in the NFL. That said, JJ could very much still start on Sunday. We just don't really know how he's going to look in Wednesday and Thursday practice that seems like it's going to determine this. So let's flip the switch here, though, enough quarterback talk for right now. And let's get to some love to see it and hate to see it. I'm going to kick this off with I love where the National Football League is right now with parity. Last year was sad. There were so many horrific teams.

so much unwatchable football. And this year we have so many teams that are at least good, at least competing. We've got young quarterbacks who we didn't know what they were last year that are starting to rise, even Caleb Williams a little, and Drake May and Michael Pennix. And, I mean, we're just seeing a lot of that gap between halves and haves-and-havs-nots last year where it was so clear get muddied up by a lot of franchises that are starting to look more competent so you could turn on the TV and watch Carolina, Dallas and not want to die. I think because it's a fun, I'm not saying that they're going to win the Super Bowl,

but it was a fun football game between two middling, but solid type of teams. And there's a lot of that this year. Yeah, my love first love to see it is the revenge games. Like, I mean, Rico Dattle against the Cowboys. I mean, he told them, you better buckle it up. And they didn't. And he let them freaking. habit. I mean, he had over 200 plus yards scrimmage yards again. He has revitalized that Carolina Panthers offense that was really struggling to go through. They string two in a row together now coming off of that game there. Dallas is now what, two, three and one or whatever it is because they have that stupid tie when they keep going there. But I agree with you. I absolutely

love the competition that's in the NFL right now. I think it's great with you don't have a clear clubhouse leader in your quarter of the way through the season. and you're like, anyone could win it right now. My hate to see it right now is I really don't understand the Brian Callahan firing. At this point in the year, you let him draft a one-one quarterback. You figure that team, I mean, they even, I remember so many times in the off-season, people would ask him questions, like, so it was the Super Bowl, the goal this year,

and they'd all kind of look at each other and laugh, like, this roster is nowhere near what we need. Two years with the head coach, I get it. It's a win now league and what have we done from the lately league. But I really don't understand the idea of not at least giving this guy a full year to see if he can get turned around and go. And Calvin Ridley gets hurt. Now you're just living on Tony Pollard and who? I don't even know who he's throwing the football to. And so you don't give a guy to truly rebuild a roster and put the plan in place that you asked him to put in place when you fire a dude into his six years, six games into his second season.

Here's what's weird is they won last week. They get there. And I know it was like a cartoon win. but still they won last week and then that was another thing the players were talking about how their practices weren't good after they had won the game and there was no juice and like who knows right what does any of this mean but it does seem like the titans are a bit of a throwback to the completely incompetent have no idea what they're doing at the ownership level and just react to everything and fire everyone i mean when you get to the point there

is no way that like five GMs and four coaches or whatever they've been firing and hiring over the last number of years could all have been that awful. They hire a GM who seems like he's a little in their same realm as Quasi Adolfo Mensa, a little more in the analytical side, and then they fire him and then they hire somebody else. And respect to the reporter in Tennessee who said yesterday, why is the owner not here? And there, I don't know if their GM said she's in her house it was like maybe you should have anticipated that question might show up and not said she's at her house

he's in an important meeting couldn't miss she's got the sniffles would have been better than she's in her house yeah she's watching live online right now watching us roast here as she has no answers I think it's sad it is I hate to see it that that franchise is just pathetic and here's Cam Ward, just trying to be

an NFL quarterback. And it actually reminds me a little of Baker Mayfield in Cleveland where you draft him, you fire his coach, you hire his buddy running back coach, was no idea what he's doing as a head coach. I mean, just let's elevate this guy like

17 spots inside the organization. I don't forget about losing one of the best O-line coaches that has ever been in the game because you fired my son, why would I stay? Right, right. Yeah, right. Bill Callahan. I mean, just crazy incompetence. And I'm already welcoming Cam Ward to the San Francisco 49ers in 2029 or whatever, where he revitalizes his career under Kyle Shanahan.

I mean, it's already, it's already got that vibe. And if they don't hire some, but if they like you're talking about, oh, they should hire someone to turn it around. Who the hell wants to do that? Exactly. To the flip side of that, though, you and I are in. the wrong business. The best gig ever is being a terrible head coach. Yeah. Yeah. Because if you go, go ask James Franklin. Go ask Brian Callahan. Because as I did it, Brian Callahan, let me look it up here.

I was looking it up. He will make $708.3,000 per month until 2029, right? James Franklin will make $66,000 per a month until 231. And so, yeah, you know what? I think anyone would take that head coaching job because here's the thing. Those are fully guaranteed contracts. As much as owners and everything want to whine

and complain about fully guaranteed contracts to the players, oh, well, they're always going to get hurt and this and everything. Stop paying coaches a ridiculous amount of money if you're just going to fire them in two years. It makes no sense. I mean, you guys are just willing to put all this money on the table,

for a head coach who's not willing to get fully guaranteed money to your number one wide receiver or your number one edge rusher it's just if you're going to be it everyone should go take it so people are like oh don't take that coaching job stay one more year why if they fire me i'm just going to make millions of dollars for the next five years sitting on my couch watching all of you idiots go out there and coach football so good job everyone or uh coached nebraska after yes come coach nebraska not penn state please matt rule please don't leave i really don't want you to go to Pat State. We will see. As far as love to see it goes, I sort of dovetailing off of the original point of the parody

am really enjoying the wave of young quarterbacks from the 2024 draft class. And I'm not trying to pour any salt in the wounds because there is like the meme of, you know, looking out the window and everybody else having fun. Like that's kind of the Vikings with this. But at the same time. I mean, there's nothing more fun in the sport, I think, than ascending young quarterbacks and what can they be and what's the ceiling and watching Drake May has been a lot of fun this year and seeing him in joint practice and his raw skills through the roof, but we're like, I don't know, the team might just be bad and he's going to have some struggles there and watching him turn that corner and watching his offensive linemen get roasted and him just making

plays anyway is like, oh, yeah, this is a different one, folks. And Michael Pennix last night against the Buffalo Bills and the way that he's managing that team right now, not perfect, but finding ways to get the ball, the Bijon Robinson, who is also a love to see it, was just one of the most exciting players we've seen in the league in a long time ascending. But that draft class succeeding and the young quarterbacks ascending onto the NFL, it has made this year really, really entertaining. And Vikings fans, at some point, maybe you'll have the same feeling.

I guess we'll find out you did for week one. But it's just, it's just been great for the NFL. Yeah. I mean, anytime you can see a good group of young quarterbacks come in and all look like they can be serviceable and not look just awful. Right. I mean, because you can, you name like, Johnny Mansell came in the NFL and you're like, this ain't going to work, right? Josh Rosen, same thing. You're like, man, this just, this just isn't going to be it.

So far, none of it. of the quarterbacks in the first round that were taking in 2024, can you truly just be like, this is not going to work? Like, this is going to be a train wreck. This is going to be a disaster. And they're just going to get everyone fired. All of the quarterbacks, including JJ McCarthy and his queen, he came back, found a way to win a game against Chicago. And he struggled there. We don't have a large enough sample size. Look like they can be contenders in this league for a long time. And when you have kind of the perfect blend of a big group of young guys, this solid group of middle quarterbacks and then your elites, it just makes the NFL so much more fun to

watch. Because listen, I don't want to watch Cooper Rush. I don't want to watch Jacoby Versette. Like, I don't want to watch these dudes. I want to watch the fun guys, the guys that can throw and make every throw on the field and throw it 60 yards, stand it still. Those are the dudes that make it fun to watch. And so as much as I might whine and complain about some of the roughing the passer calls, I get it. Like, I totally get it, dude. Like, let's keep these dudes upright to make this actually watchable and not just have to watch Cooper Rush hand it off 80 times. I'm actually really shocked, and this is maybe a dumb take, but I thought Cooper Rush should be a great backup quarterback. I thought he would be fine. I think it speaks to maybe how bad that team is

right now. I also think that there's something to be said about mirroring your backup quarterback with somewhat physical traits as your starter. Yeah. Like, you know, Cooper Rush and Lamar Jackson, one of these things is not like the other. You know, you start looking at that going, man, the whole offense changes, your RPO's, your reed schemes. And then Tyler Huntley comes in at the end of the game. You're like, I can kind of see how this might work better than Cooper Rush versus you take Cooper Rush and go, hey, go back up Daniel Jones, go back up Baker Mayfield, go back up one of these other guys that isn't just one of the most electric football players

with the ball in his hand. Maybe he would have been in a better situation. I don't know. Do you have a love to see it? You want to take this? I do. And I talked about this on O'Line Committee yesterday. I love to see that I think that the NFL is going to take a case study from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Seattle Seahawks and the Indianapolis Colts and go, if I can get a quarterback for $30 to $40 million per year and build a team around said quarterback, we can win the Super Bowl, right?

Not just the rookie scale contract anymore, right? It's not just we have to get these guys on the rookie scale, rookie scale, rookie scale. you can still get a really, really good quarterback for $30 to $40 million a year, not $60, not $55, and spend that extra $20 to $15 million on a number one wide receiver, a number one defensive tackle, pick a position around your team that can help you, and you can still go win the Super Bowl. And I'm hoping the NFL looks at it and goes, okay, this is the thing, unless we have a top three, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson.

Those are the dudes that deserve, a, $60,000. million keep it by take the farm with you whatever it might be other than that i think there needs to be a big disparity drop between top three top four quarterbacks and the rest of the field and then build the team around them and i think the NFL is going to look at that and ownership's going to look at that and go this might be the way with that said buffalo's roster not terrible so good Cincinnati's roster not looking so good the chiefs uh they're better and everyone should be very scared, but their defense is still not good because they've lost a lot of players and they haven't been able to spend money. Dallas, a lot of the top teams who are paying the

quarterbacks are struggling to keep these rosters together, even if they have the dude. I'd even say Baltimore, but Baltimore just is completely falling apart in terms of their roster. And injuries play a role in that one for sure, but even those teams are struggling from this same thing. And it does connect to, I'd love to see it that I had. which is Sam Darnold in Seattle. I think everybody knows who listens to the show how much I appreciated the way Sam Darnold handled last year. And to me, if you weren't hoping that,

I know not against the Vikings, but if you weren't hoping good things for Sam Darnold and you're in Vikings land, like, what is wrong with you? He gave you a great season, super fun, 14 wins, one of the best regular seasons ever, perform great. Justin Jefferson had another amazing season. And you never heard a peep from him about like oh well you know this this team has their other quarterback that they really want and not me everyone knew the deal and how it was supposed to work but even from the start of training camp mini camp just handled it like a pro all the way through and i gotta say i'm not surprised i'm just not surprised that darn old has been good the offensive line there is not perfect uh the maybe the running game isn't perfect they don't have seven great wide receivers but that dude can huck a freaking pig skin and it's been really fun to

watch him launching it deep to Jackson Smith and the jig, but making that guy into one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. And I mean, when you look at the NFC, Sam Darnold, Seattle Seahawks are right there with everybody else as far as actual contenders. So I love it for all these guys because you think about the amount of scrutiny that you get when you go bust Daniel Jones. I mean, I'll say the same thing for him. He never trashed the Giants. He came to Minnesota. We talked to him. He was, you know, did all the cliche stuff, but never said a bad word about them. And now he's killing it. And, you know, Baker, he's a little more chatty about certain things. But, but Baker's moxie. And now, now it looks cool that he's actually really good. So seeing these revitalization

stories, it had kind of been a while in the NFL since we had those. And now they've just sort of emerged the same way. I feel like a lot of quarterbacks did that in the 90s and 2000s, where they were left for dead with somebody, Rich Gannon, and then all of a sudden win an MVP later on are really great. Carson Palmer was kind of that way. And now we're seeing it all over the league. Yeah, and I think it's one of those things, too. It's exactly like you said, everyone in the pro personnel department's looking at Cam Ward going, okay, there's rookie contracts up, Tony. Okay, yeah, so 2028, 29-ish, we're going to go get Cam Ward. Everyone's good with that. Good. Okay, sweet. It is. It's just going to allow those guys to have more opportunities, more chances,

because, like I said, if you can get a quarterback for cheap, you can just build such a better roster because it's not about the starters. It's about when the starters get hurt. What is behind them? Is it just a dude that's on a rookie sale deal because you couldn't afford the $2 million linebackers? So you have to afford the $800,000 linebacker. And then you do that at seven different positions to save $5, 6 million. And now all of a sudden, five different linebackers get hurt.

And you're like, uh, that dude came off the street, right? I think he can play linebacker. Like I'm watching the Lions game. I can't name you one D.B that was out there besides Kirby. Yeah. And you're going, dude, this is a problem. You're playing against the reigning AFC champions, the dynasty that it is. And they're not pushing the ball down the field.

They're just going, hey, make these dudes tackle in space. Like, just see if they can do it. And that's why I'd lastly hate to see it is, why are we still punching guys in the face in the NFL post game? Like, why is this still something you think is acceptable? Why is this still something you think you're going to get away with? You're just hurting your team. It's a completely selfish act. Like, that stuff has to just go away.

Like, I'm so sick of this tough guy after the game nonsense or before the game nonsense. Like, just make it end, man. I don't, like, suspend the dude for three games and make an example out of him. And be like, this stuff is just not going to be tolerated anymore. So there's no place for it in our game. And it's just stupid. Yeah, Brian Branch, I mean, did get suspended for a game, which is. That's not enough.

It should be more. It should be more in my opinion. He's a repeat offender. He's been doing this his whole career. Like, you got to put it, you got to stop this nonsense. Yeah. No, I totally agree. Once the game is over, it's over.

And I actually thought you were going in a little bit of a peanut punch direction with that because I see guys getting punched in the helmet every week. Like, there was, there was one way going for the ball, baby. Josh Jacobs goes out of bounds, sort of like slides down. And the Bengals player punches him in the top of the head. And you're just like, first of all, that had to kill your hand. But that wasn't going for the ball. That needs to be a flag.

Like I truly think the NFL needs to look at this as if you miss that football and you punch a guy in the face, you need to get a personal foul. I look, I like that there's a strategy here. It's fun. Peanut Punch was really cool with Charles Tillman, but also you're not really protecting players when you can punch them in the mouth and say like, oh, I was trying to cause a fumble. So that needs to be something they pay attention to. Let's close on just a couple of Vikings ones here, rapid fire. I think my favorite love to see it is the number of players who are undrafted free agents, guys that we never expected, who have really emerged so far.

I mean, Jalen Redmond, to me, is one of the best stories on this team. He's a legit, good player. But I would also say, you know, Xavier Scott, somebody who came from out of nowhere, picked him up, you know, from Indianapolis, and then he can actually get out there and play. Joe Huber had to go play last week and held it down despite being thrown around. a little bit, but found a way. We've just seen a lot of guys be able to step up that we didn't necessarily know a whole heck of a lot about before this year.

I mean, even going back to Ivan Pace. Yeah. Ivan Pace is another great example of that. And it speaks a lot to, you know, I think the idea that there's a lot of great coaching from a development standpoint in the NFL is a bit of a fallacy. Yeah. Right. Like when you get to the NFL, if you really truly have to develop a whole lot more, not the time

nor the plays. But I can say speaking to the coaching. staff at the Vikings, they put a lot of emphasis on making sure those young guys come in and develop and continue to get better, even rather you're a first round picker and undrafted pre-agent, that bodes really well for an NFL team. Because if you can get those dudes that were undrafted, they're cheap. And if they can actually contribute, then that's great for you, because again, you can go spend money elsewhere. So love that. I also want to say, I love the Donovan Jackson interview where he was basically like, you can just cut it off, right? I can

just keep playing if you just like, you just nub it, right? Like, that's, that's the mentality you want from your offensive lineman where it's just one of those things is like so I can play and they're like well yes but okay and they're like I don't care what comes after yes but like I just heard yes that is great I think that's a really great tone setter for the offensive one I've really enjoyed speaking with Donovan Jackson because he's a very intelligent guy and he he's sort of soft spoken and matter of fact but then it's really funny to hear a six foot three three 110 pound guy who could launch you over TCO performance center be like yes i told them that if they need to stab me in the heart to play that's fine like in in not a like i'm a football but just in a like yes that's what i told them is if they need to take my entire arm off so i can reach block against the bengals like i'll do it uh that he's he's a really impressive kid uh and to know that he's going he already has a great maturity about him and toughness about him that he's going to grow for years to come i i think that we've only got to three-game sample, but I'm pretty confident in saying that that's somebody I would make my bets

on. And that would, I mean, the hate to see it is just too obvious with the Vikings. It's just injuries. And I don't know what else. We've covered all of that. It's tough to see. Just like Ryan Kelly especially, I think is my biggest hit. The other guys will come back, but that one is probably my number one hate to see it for the entire season. And my hate or love to see it is what we do with the center position moving forward, right? We'll know more this week. Is it Michael Juergens? Is it Blake Brandel?

Like who moves there? But the unstable center position is a hate to see it because it's just one of those positions we're like, we just need reliability every week from that position. And right now it's more of a question mark than an answer. And I don't. I hate that. Love or hate to see it is we have absolutely no idea what's coming next for the Minnesota Vikings.

No clue what is on the way. for us. But you know what? Seven wins. 13 wins. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. What I love to see, though, is that we will be breaking it down every Tuesday, as we do on Tuesday morning left guard. So Jeremiah, thank you so much for your time. And we will have Vikings Eagles. Who knows who plays quarterback. Who knows who will win, who will lose and how it will play out. We do know that they won't hit a TV wire with a field goal, at least this week. That's the one guarantee that I'll make that U.S. Bank Stadium will not knock down one of its kickers field goal. as it did in London. That wire was still there when they were kicking the other day with the Jets and Broncos. But I appreciate your time as always and we'll do it again very soon.

Football. Football. All right, it is time once again for the Robinson Roundup with Maggie Robinson, former NFL producer. Now, ACC Network also has been a part of Purple Insider

here as an intern, special contributor, your official title these days. Maggie and your role here is to take a look around the National Football League with us, although this week we actually got to chill, watch football, didn't have a stressful Vikings game. We'll save that for this Sunday. So there is a lot to talk about in the NFL. Where would you like to begin? This was kind of a hilarious week six. And this backed up my week six theory that I've had for the past two years when I was at the league. Things start to kind of unravel or shake out or get weird weeks five and six because it's like when you're dating someone in like

the first like few months or few weeks they're like normal and they hit you with the bait and switch this week six was kind of like where everyone just was like wait are we who we thought we were is our identity what we thought it was i don't know and the first team that stood out to me was the ravens who now sit at one and five going into week seven that's insane they had a huge fall from glory, 17 to 3 lost to the Rams, and they're tied for their franchise's worst start. Shocking, truly shocking, that the Ravens could be this bad because I think all of us, including me, thought that, all right, they've been so close so many times. And if we go back through history, usually the teams with all-time great quarterbacks,

if they keep getting close, then one time they will eventually break through, sort of the Peyton Manning theory where Peyton Manning lost a bunch of bad playoff games. early in his career. Everyone declared him a playoff choker, but if you get 12, 13 wins every year, you get home field advantages. One of those years, it's just going to click for you. And I felt like looking at their roster going into the season, they had pretty good weapons, very, very talented defense. It should be the same old Ravens, and it has not even been close. And Derek Henry got it going a little bit against the Rams. He hasn't been quite the same. They're playing with Cooper Rush, who I also thought would be a totally fine backup, though.

He had a winning record for his career. He once beat the Minnesota Vikings in what we have referred to as the Cooper Rush game because it was a kind of death punch to the Vikings 2021 season. But he has been a competent backup. And you felt like with good coaching, with good weapons, good defense, they would be fine. They have not even been close to fine. This is by far, I think, the most stunning result of the 2025 season. and with Lamar Jackson out and not coming back until after the bye week,

I mean, it's hard not to look at this and go, they're just going to be toast. I don't know how they can improve enough, especially defensively to make a season of it, even if Lamar comes back and plays great. And this is a weird one because they've been hit really bad by the injury bug. So it's not necessarily like they're a team, like say the Titans who are fully having to commit to a rebuild.

They're in this awkward limbo where it's like, our really good players are either not performing. or are really badly injured, but we can't quite fully go out and look to bring people in. It's also a little too early in the season to start getting drastic. But, I mean, you spoke of Cooper Rush. He's been abysmal. Zero touchdowns, four interceptions, a QBR rating of 27. He got benched for Tyler Huntley.

And all the Baltimore fans cheered for Snoop Huntley when he came back because that's their guy. He went to the pro bowl in 2022 with them. Like they have good memories with him, but the fact that he was benched in the fourth quarter, he couldn't even see the game out. That's pretty amazing. But, you know, I think the one area that they did not address really enough was the offensive line for a lot of years. They've kind of just pasted it together and said, hey, Lamar, go be special.

But if Lamar's not in, then the backup has a very small chance of being special. I guess the question is with a team that does have this many players on the shelf, could they get healthy, could they get back in the mix, get on a hot streak? I mean, there have been teams that have started even as badly as Owen 4 and still made the playoffs before. And when you look at the AFC, there's a lot that is very much up in the air when it comes to who's going to make the playoffs. Nobody, including the Buffalo Bills, is running away with the AFC. So maybe there still is a chance for the Ravens, but that's only if Lamar comes back and plays MVP level football. And I guess who one of the teams is coming out of the

buy that will face the Ravens is the Minnesota Vikings. So they've got to hope that they're not turning a corner just as the Ravens are going to come to US Bank Stadium. It does feel like this playoff contention is still up in the air, though. And I checked bandwil, the Ravens still at what they're standing at with one in five have better odds to make the playoffs than the Vikings, the commanders, and the bears. what does that tell us? I think that tells us that they have a reputation. I mean, we are getting pretty deep into the season for them to still have better playoff odds than teams like that with winning records.

Chicago to three and two after last night and then, you know, the Vikings sitting in three and two commanders should be fine. They really blew that game, literally let it slip through their fingers on the final drive. They were about to close out Chicago. I'm sure Vikings fans were thrilled to see that happen against Chicago. but I understand why this is, why there's so much benefit of the doubt for Jackson coming back. He's been a multi-time MVP. He should have been MVP last year, or at least it was really, really, really close with Josh Allen. And he's won, what, 70 plus percent of his games over his career.

But I just don't know if they're going to be good enough. And then there's just the disarray factor where sometimes everything falls apart. Everybody's at each other's throats. and there's too much chaos and drama. This is really going to test John Harbaugh if he can get them through this to even be back in the race to the point where they'll have a chance, kind of like Cincinnati last year where they fell way behind. And then in the final weeks, they were giving it a shot.

But should they have better playoff odds than the Vikings after starting one in five? I don't know about that fan duel. That seems like a little bit of a reach to me. That's a very steep hill to climb. You know what this also feels like is the argument that people make with Brock pretty with like he's a systems. quarterback, except for this is the inverse where it's like the team can almost overlook its inefficiencies because it has such a stellar quarterback. It's kind of the Kansas City Chiefs

issue where like your quarterback is so good that he's just going to like patch over and gloss over all the problems. And it's worked for so long or gotten them far enough that they've never had to take drastic measures. And now it's kind of being exposed once their quarterback is taking a backseat due to injury. It's like, well, now you got to make the team as good as the borderback because you can't just rely on one guy. No, this is a really good point because when you look at all the teams that are like that, Kansas City is only three and three and the bills lost to the Atlanta Falcons. They've lost two games in a row for the first time.

Well, I think they did this last year early in the season and then got it turned around, but very rare since Josh Allen has been there. Cincinnati got Joe Burrow hurt, but I don't think that was a great team with Burrow. That even for these untouchable quarterbacks, you still have. to have at least a good enough team. And the bills, I mean, they can't stop anything. I think the Ravens are struggling with this same problem. Their defenses are so poor that even the great quarterbacks are not able to win every

single game that way. And then, you know, you get Lamar hurt and you see how bad the team really is because even mediocre Dallas teams or decent Dallas teams could get wins with Cooper Rush. Now he looks like a guy that should be back in the XFL or whatever. So, yeah, it's a stunning result for. the Ravens but I guess that really also tells us just and the Vikings have dealt with this too how much injuries impact your results even when you have felt like a Teflon franchise in the regular season in recent years yeah anyone can be taken down at any moment these injuries do not

hold back let's move on to the Carolina Panthers who had an upset victory over the Dallas Cowboys and I don't know if you knew this they ruined Jerry Jones's birthday oh you know that's too bad. I did not know his birthday. 13th. He's 83 years old. Happy birthday, Jerry. However, guess who blew out the candles on Jerry's cake? Running back, Rico Dowdell. Oh, okay. Yeah, I get you. I thought

that this was a real cake. Like, oh, I don't know. Like, Michael Irvin? Yeah, no, Rico Dowdell. So it's so funny because last year, the expensive running backs had these amazing years. It was Derek Henry. It was Saquan Barkley. And people were talking about, well, you know, and even Aaron Jones to some extent. Hey, I guess paying running backs actually does make sense. And then this year, the pendulum has swung right back where I believe Rico Dowdell signed for two million bucks. And even the

Vikings, Jordan Mason, not a highly paid running back. He's been terrific. So far this year, we've seen that from even Giovante Williams didn't have a great game for Dallas, but he's been good for them as well, not the high paid running backs necessarily outside of Jonathan Taylor. But Henry hasn't been great. Barkley hasn't been great. And I watched that game. and I was mind-blown by Rico Dowdell. They were playing with some backup linemen, but you know what I noticed is they had a lot of two tight ends? They had a lot of big personnel in the game.

And I think Dallas is a horrible defense, of course. But a lot of defenses are built smaller to stop the pass. And when you put in your big personnel, it's really difficult for them to stop. And I guess Rico's got the juice. It was an incredible game. He's had back-to-back unreal games for Carolina. And suddenly they've gone from,

from looking like a total joke franchise to now in the mix in the NFC with everybody else. Yeah, Carolyn is now one that you're like, wait a minute. I actually need to pay attention to those games. I used to write you off last season, but Dowdell rushed 30 times, caught four passes for 56 yards and had one touchdown. And the best part of all of this, you can tell how personal it was to him. He was talking so much smack to the Cowboys players, aka his former teammates. He was like, y'all better buckle up.

like this is going to be like watch out and then he actually like really backed it up so like the revenge he's feeling I'm sure is so sweet and I have to give him credit because it's one thing to talk and talk it's another thing to really put action behind it and be like yeah you all messed up and I'm showing you why we do love a good revenge game narrative it is one of the best things in the NFL of course I love the ironic one where it's a kicker or something who played for it's three teams ago for someone's like hey let's not forget it's the revenge game for this guy, but just Carolina in general, when they hired Dave Canales, he was at the start of the Baker Mayfield turnaround, which we've now seen turn out to be something really

special. But last year, midway through the season, and this maybe speaks to patience with J.J. McCarthy, it was unclear whether Bryce Young was even going to be their quarterback. And now is he playing elite quarterback? No, but he's definitely still playing good enough to win some games here. And if they're running like this, at least on a week to week basis, that franchise has a chance to win, which has not been the case in quite a long time. So credit to Dave Canales and Carolina for getting to that point. They still don't have a great defense. They still don't really pressure the quarterback. And Dax still had a big day. But they did just enough to win. And this year is the year of parody in the NFL. And I had this stat a little earlier in the show,

but I'll share it with you. 11 teams in the NFC have either three or four wins. 11. That's like 75% of the conference is either sitting at three or four wins. It's anybody's national football league, Maggie. And that is something that I know inside that office that they love to talk about. This is anyone's game at any time, which is why when they're building that schedule, they're like, yeah, we can kind of project what we think is the best.

But genuinely, like some of these games that look like sleeper, picks early on turned out to be like the best game ever. So this is just like their practice kind of in motion. And the fact that it is so even and so up in the air is exactly what they want because it keeps your eyeballs on the TV. Also, I saw a metric today and they're still doing it where it was like, oh, the Vikings have the toughest remaining schedule in the NFL. Can we stop trying to project schedules? I mean, we all do it. We all have fun with it. We try to pick the schedule. for the Vikings every single week, right? And then it's just a way to talk about their opponents and what's going on and see where

our expectations are. But when people try to put out metrics that can project what the schedule is going to be going forward, you can't even do week to week. The Eagles randomly had a top pass rusher retire and you think you know what's going to happen. Come on, man. It's too crazy to try to figure out who's really going to have the toughest schedules. there's no way your AI bot can read the minds of the 500 plus players in the national football league there's just no way exactly my god all right so minnesota was recently across the pond and the broncos just took on the jets in london and now sit at four and two and beat the jets okay it's the jets they should have beat the jets but this was a really interesting game because the defense fantastic stellar held them to negative yards. Justin Fields had negative 10 passing yards.

Yeah. I had to look up how that was physically possible. And the viewer also don't know that happens by the Jets allowing nine sacks for 55 yards and for fields only throwing for 45. Hence the negative 10 quick mass. I don't know what to say to that. That's just horrendous defense and bad looks from fields. It doesn't happen very often where someone has negative net passing yards, which that means, that if Justin Fields had just taken the snap and thrown the football into the stands for four quarters, that he would have gotten farther than he did by actually dropping back to pass. I think Aaron Glenn is toast in New York.

Sadly, that team is going to have to fire another coach. They just look like they have no idea what they're doing. And as bad as Justin Fields has been for his career, he wasn't this bad with Pittsburgh last year. They won games with him. they had him running options and doing a lot of pocket movement. This offense has him dropping straight back like he's Joe Montana or something. I don't understand. I just play after play after play.

It's just drop back seven steps, nine steps, look around. And that's not his game at all. It really needs to be a rinky dink high schooly offense for him to succeed because he's not a very good quarterback, but he is a very good athlete. At least you can make it competitive that way. but we do have to give Denver credit. A lot of focus is on their quarterback. For the last two years, though,

they've probably had the nastiest defense in the entire NFL. Their defense, yeah, it's the Jets, but they've been good against everybody. They were really good against Philly. Philly was having kind of a crisis after playing against the Denver Broncos of being shut down in the second half of that game. They have put together so much talent on that defense.

And I think what Sean Payton's strategy for Bo Nix is, just don't ruin everything. Just throw short, don't get pick sixes, don't fumble, and our defense is going to do the rest, and it's kind of working for them. It feels like they have them a little bit, like in the reins. Like they have like the kitty, like the parent leash on. You know how the parents know they have their kids on a leash at the theme park?

Like Sean Payton kind of has bone necks on one of those little like monkey backpack leashes and it's like, all right, we're going to keep it super basic. Okay. Like we're not going to do anything spicy, nothing that could, possibly mess it up. And like you're saying, it is kind of working. However, it was only a 13 to 11 win over the Jets. At some point, you got to cut the leash loose and be like, all right, we did bring you on for a reason. We trust you. Because right now it feels like there's not fully the element of trust. And understandably, it's also like, yes, your offense has to be able to like

connect passes and do the whole thing. But I think that's the next step to Broncos becoming an elite team is fully trusting in Bo Nix and their offense to make those plays. I totally agree. And we did see some of that last year where Bo Nix was having the offense open up for him. And it might have just been that game. Also, as we know, very well, London games are the ugliest. I mean, everybody's kind of a mess when you're going over there. There's so much distraction. There's so much travel. And I think that this happens to a lot of teams where you just can't move the ball, can't score points, kind of that way last year with Vikings and Jets over there. And not that either one of the Vikings games in Dublin or London were

very pretty either when it came to lighting up the scoreboard. That may be some of it. But I also think there's just limitations on that offense. And as wide open as the AFC is, can you really win something if you can't trust your quarterback to push the ball down the field and you're trying to play to win 13 to 11 and by the way maybe if they attempted a 60 yard field goal with the state of kicking these days as long as it didn't hit a TV wire like in the Vikings game uh you saw that right that uh wait i have a comment here because i rewatch that video multiple times you're saying it looks like it hit the sky cam is that what the comment was it's the angle the sky cam sits behind the ball let me tell you this from someone who like helped coordinate all those rest of sure

the sky came was on all those little cables that are on four corners of the stadium and it sits behind the kick. The angle at which it was shot made it look like it was directly up and over the ball. It's sitting behind the referee. But didn't it hit the cable? It looked like it hit the cable. Like not the actual cam, but the cable. I couldn't tell. I couldn't tell. Is that Vikings fans don't hate me. At least according to Jordan Schultz's reporting, the NFL has acknowledged it to the Vikings, but they. decided the Vikings wanted them to take away the miss from Will Riker's permanent record, and they said we can't do that.

But at least his reporting was that they acknowledged it to the Vikings that it hit the wire, but not the cam, but the wire. So it did hit a camera in another game where it was like behind, I don't know, whatever. Anyway, so I forget where we were going with that other than I guess we'll find out if the Broncos can open up their offense enough to, because if they had blown that game, it would have been a travesty for them to have had the opposing quarterback gain no yards and then somehow lose

and yet they almost did. Yeah, the bright spot though for the Denver Broncos, Nick Benito. Oh my gosh, what a day. He had eight, he's had eight sacks through six games. This current game is to suggest one sack, six tackles. A lot of people, and when I say a lot, I mean like every sports writer ever is saying

he could be a defensive player of the year. Fandul even has him at plus 340 to win it. others up there we got miles garrett aton hutchinson micha parsons where do you see the standings for defensive player of the year so benito it does have a great chance because if you get into the playoffs with an elite defense and not a great quarterback there's going to be more attention on the star player of your defense that's just how it goes if you lead the league in sacks historically you've got a great chance at it one guy that is not so much in the conversation when i was looking on Fandul. Let me check here for his exact odds, but that I think has a good chance of getting

into the discussion is Brian Burns of the New York Giants. He is plus 4,000 to win defensive MVP, but he has seven sacks so far. So he's only one sack behind Nick Benito. And if the Giants start winning with Jackson Dart and Brian Burns ends up with 16 sacks or something like that and leads the league, that could be a really good bet. And I just, I don't know. I mean, Miles Garrett has not been the same. He was not the same against the Vikings, was not the same against Pittsburgh. Aiden Hutchinson has been good, but I don't know if he's been unbelievable. Parsons has definitely not made the same impact over the last couple of weeks for Green Bay.

I think that Burns is a great bet here. And then it's interesting. I couldn't even find Byron Young, who's second in the league for the L.A. Rams. I couldn't even find him listed. So that also, you talk about wide open races. And right now, even when you look at like the interceptions, there's nobody who's running away from the pack. So pass rushers are probably going to be very much in the discussion.

But Benito deserves to be favored. I think that Burns isn't too far behind, though. Yeah. I think it'll be kind of like you're saying, it's up there. But a lot of the big names and the big flashy players haven't lived up to the hype that we've maybe given them. Yeah. No, I think that's totally true.

And even when it comes to somebody like Will Anderson, hasn't run away with it. Daniel Hunter's got four sacks. He's going to need a lot to catch up. Max Crosby's only got four sacks. So a lot of the players that we just assume are going to be at the very top are not right now leading the NFL and sacks. Yeah, I guess this is kind of a wait and see how it shakes out and cross your fingers for no more injuries because four knows we've had enough of those so far. Let's go down to Kansas City.

are they back? They're three and three. I think the answer is yes, but I would also say, so right now on Fandul, they are plus 650 as the Super Bowl favorite, which I don't think through six games many times in NFL history,

the favorite has been three and three. You don't see that very often. Usually they'd be six and oh or five and one. And yet Kansas City is the favorite. It's a reputation to make a Taylor Swift. reference. It is a reputation number there. But I also think what you saw was a scary site for the rest of the NFL, especially

in AFC that's having problems or a lot of teams are just in the middle is if Patrick Mahomes is going to play like that, then you're all in trouble. When he's got his full amount of weapons, when Andy Reed can use all of his receivers and now you're getting Rishi Rice back, their offensive line is blocking, their run game got going at least enough to dangerous. They're scary. And even if they can't stop that much on defense, they are scary and they could add somebody as well at the trade deadline. So I think that when you look at the other favorites,

I mean, Green Bay is second. Buffalo is tied with Green Bay, both plus 700. Detroit, who Kansas City just beat is plus 850. Philly's having their problems plus 950. I mean, this is the NFL this year. And if we're talking about a year of randomness, a year of parity where nobody is blowing away the field. Who does that benefit? Oh, yeah, the team with the best quarterback of the entire generation. That was a bar. You just dropped right there. And they snapped Detroit's longest win streak. They completely put them to bed and homestrow for almost 300 yards, three touchdowns, scrambled for another. Like, it looks like they just kind of woke up. Six weeks in they're like, oh my gosh, wait a minute. We're in the National Football League. We actually are a good

team savior worthy turned it on like they just looked strong on offense but it makes me wonder like what wasn't clicking beforehand and obviously you can't get inside the player's minds but it does feel like something switched culturally someone said something they were just feeling different i don't know what it was but like this game was really like oh we cannot sleep through this season let's get it going yeah i think the biggest thing was just Xavier worthy and hollywood brown Hollywood Brown feels like he's never been healthy and then oh yeah he was a first round draft pick dynamic player and when you look at

some of the losses that they had they actually played really well I mean against Jacksonville Mahomes led what should have been a game winning drive and then the defense fell apart Trevor Lawrence kind of lucked into falling down and then running into the end zone so some of that good luck from last year did I think regress early in the beginning of the season but they're back

they're good. Will they win more than 12? I don't think so. They might be a 10 win team that's one of the scariest 10 win teams that we've ever seen. But I don't want to go too far because Detroit was missing all of their secondary in this game. So I think Kansas City is still flawed, but I understand why they would be at the top of the list. Yeah, that's a good call out about Detroit. We can't, we can't fully write them off that quickly after one game. But someone that's getting kind of iffy in that i felt the bills just walked to the falcons that was the weirdest game ever 2414 win for Atlanta i mean like they struggled with penalties they allowed almost four they bills allowed almost 400 yards from just two players drake london and bison robinson

who i am honored to share a last name with after his performance yeah i'll tell you the the the bills fall into that same category. I feel like the theme of the season so far is, hey, we think you're good. Are you good? I mean, they're very much like the Eagles where, all right, they started out exactly how they should start out, winning a bunch of games.

Okay, you're good. Write you in as a Super Bowl contender. Let's pay attention to something else. But then they struggle in certain areas where maybe we didn't see it coming. I mean, I've been critical of the bills for not getting more wide receivers. But last year, their quarterback won MVP. and they went within this close to going to the Super Bowl. So, okay, maybe I was wrong and, you know, Josh Allen's just that good.

But now it's sort of rearing its head. I think they've got offensive coordinator problems. There seems to be drama there. If it's third and one and your quarterback is 6.6.2.40, do not run a reverse. That doesn't make any sense at all. And it seems like they've had this getting cute issue. And on defense, they cannot stop the run at all. and Bejohn Robinson took advantage of that.

We saw it also when they played the Ravens. They had to pull that win out of their behinds at the very end because they couldn't stop Derek Henry in that game either. I think the bills need to make a big trade here and then hope to kind of hang on for Deer Life defensively and just outscore everybody, which they can with their quarterback. But if you're throwing the bills into the mix with how many other teams here, I mean, they were already beaten by New England,

Pittsburgh's defense looks great. They were great against the Vikings. Indianapolis is rolling. Jacksonville's not a joke. The Chargers and Broncos are good. Kansas City, here they come. And how do you even put those teams into order other than to just say, hey, you have Josh Allen.

So you get like preference there. But even Josh Allen is not good enough to overcome none of his receivers being able to have a lot of success in getting open. It's that same thing that I was talking about with Lamar Jackson, of the opposite of the systems quarterback like yeah and they're being exposed so keon coleman not been super showy we haven't really seen much of anything from him if they're looking to make a trade who are you hoping they go to grab hmm that's a really good question shefter had an article the other day with a bunch of options i think that they need to go on defense for sure they need

pass rush michael pennix was not rushed a lot um so there's some pass rushers like maybe bradley chub there's a few different names that he tossed out there and i think number one is is there a disgruntled wide receiver around the NFL that they could trade for because you know they sent digs packing that had come to an end i understand why they did that but now he's playing really well with new england if philly loses another game or two would they trade a j brown because he's just so unhappy right could that be a situation uh could i mean gosh i mean there's just not that many teams that are looking to trade top receivers. Last year they acquired Amari Cooper and he was done and didn't contribute almost anything.

So you have to be careful with that. It's usually if you're going to get good wide receivers, I bang the table every year for this in April, you better draft them. And they drafted Coleman. It's kind of it. They drafted some tight ends. There's only so much tight ends can impact your offense. And now they are in trouble, I think, offensively.

they're going to need to score a lot of points with the way their defense is playing. Kean Coleman was like an amusing personality for the draft and I think he got a lot of buzz that way. I've been like, I've never had a winner coat before. It was like, this kid is so adorable. That's great. And then he actually hasn't been able to really play football at the level that he's expected to

in the National Football League. And I do kind of like the A.J. Brown idea. I don't know if it would actually play out, but it does seem like there's a lot of like beef down in the Philly locker rooms where, like, Players are just not, like the trifecta of Brown, I'm blanking on, I'm blanking on names. Barkley and Hertz, yeah. Thank you.

Who felt like they were buddies last. It was like, these were like the three musketeers now, like saying that they haven't actually spoken to each other and cross-referencing certain things. It's just getting messy down there. So maybe they take him and maybe he shows up. I don't know. It's very, very hard to win the Super Bowl two years in a row. and I think we see why.

As Sequin is regressing, Jalen Hertz doesn't have the same pass protection or the same run to build off of, and A.J. Brown can't buy enough targets. And then has also been shown on tape a few times, maybe not given 110. So it is, this is a situation where I think the Vikings are going to find out where that team is at because they are either going to come into U.S. Bank Stadium very motivated or very lethargic and get beat at inside that stadium for the Vikings. So we'll see how it all plays out. Every week, the Robinson Roundup, where you go around the league,

take a look at what happened in the previous weekend and the main highlights coming out. And we talk about it. So great stuff, as always, Maggie. And we will talk to you next week. Thank you. Thank you. Football. Football. Thank you.