Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles thinks Sam Darnold is sustainable if...

Episode Date: October 2, 2024

Former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Sirles talks about what he's seen from Sam Darnold so far and analyzes the Vikings' chances to be the best team in the NFL Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here, and look who is back from his precious hunting trip, Jeremiah Searles. It is time for Tuesday Morning Left Guard. And as you return to humanity, Jeremiah, the Minnesota Vikings are 4-0. Your thoughts? Just like we all anticipated, right? Just like we all thought Minnesota would win the North,a goes through the south seattle's first place you know it's just as we all sat around in august and predicted no we're all just the brilliant talking heads but it's just it's what i love about the nfl so freaking much dude every single week you're just going into it and you're like oh this team's gonna

get dirt stomped and you're like oh my gosh they won you're like man gut wrencher and lambo oh they're up 28 to nothing like it's just the nfl is so glorious in that fact and are the vikings the best team in the nfl they're in the conversation they're in the conversation for being the best team in the nfl right now from a consistent weekend and week out basis my opinion okay so there's a lot of different things that we need to break down it's overwhelming when you miss a week of things to talk about but why don't we just begin there how many national football league franchises would you say right now are better than the minnesota vikings because i have been perusing the power rankings and i i gotta be honest i don't get too worked up about power rankings but when i see see the Vikings seventh, eighth, I'm kind of thinking, what are power rankings

supposed to be? Because you couldn't be much more powerful than running San Francisco, Houston, and largely Green Bay out of the building in the three last games that you've played. This is entirely them not getting ranked number one or two based on who is their quarterback because everything else the way jefferson's playing getting jordan addison back and he reintroduces himself immediately by annihilating a dude for a touchdown and then the defense aside from well they didn't get much help with a strip sack at the 20 and a punt return that flies through a guy's fingers.

Jalen Naylor, it's not a baseball. You don't have to go back and catch it. You can let it go. But aside from that, they got worn down at the end of that game. A couple of amazing passes and catches. But aside from that, they are the number one defense and expected points added. They're the number one team in DVLA, which is another kind of analytic stat.

Where would you have them at the moment? I think I'd have them probably three. I think it's hard for me to surpass them with the Chiefs right now. You know, I think the Chiefs for me are the clear number one spot. And then maybe it's just because I watched that game last night, but Detroit, Detroit's still right there. When they're clicking offensively and defense, I know defensively it didn't look great last night,

but when that offense is clicking like that and you're hitting Williams for long passes and Amon Ross ain't proud and for the underneath stuff, and then you have who wants to score, Montgomery or Gibbs? Who wants to flip a coin on the sideline when we're inside the five-yard line? One of you two is going to score. That team, when they can operate like that with that Dan Campbell team, is probably two.

And then I have the Vikings right there at three, and Tampa probably right there at four. Yeah, I mean, Tampa being three and one, I think that it would be almost hypocritical if I looked at them and said, I don't know, their quarterback is Mayfield and then went, but Sam Darnold will be just fine the rest of the season. It's going to keep doing that. That doesn't seem quite right. And San Francisco does belong on this list right up with the Vikings because at full

strength, San Francisco has the talent to go back to the Super Bowl. It's just at what point exactly do we expect them to be at full strength because george kittle has heard a lot debo samuel's heard a lot uh trent williams is coming back and is banged up and hasn't been exactly the same and then christian mcafree has bilateral legs something really bad sounding. And what? I don't know that he's going to be back at all for this entire season. So they're not exactly the same team around him, which because the Vikings are healthy, it makes me want to put the Vikings ahead of them. But let's talk about what parts you think are sustainable and what are not sustainable

and begin with Mr. Quarterback Sam Darnold. How much of his play or what parts of his performance in your mind are the most sustainable and the ones where you would say this might not be something he can continue to do? I think the most sustainable, as weirdly as it is to say, is the deep ball. You know, I think that his accuracy on the deep ball shots, the receiving core in which we have with Addison Naylor and Jefferson and their playmaking ability to go up and get the football and yards after catch type stuff. I don't see that going away anytime soon because he is insanely talented.

There's a reason he was a top five pick, right? It's not like he just lucked into that and then he got in the nfl and it's like oh this guy sucks right like he was on two dumpster fire type organizational times and the giants and the carolina panthers and then he gets here yes jets excuse me i mean pick or choose flip it doesn't matter same thing flip a coin they both didn't score touchdowns this weekend you know and you start going through there and you're seeing this on display i'm like man i'm starting to remember him doing this in college a little bit too and so that's in his mo so i think that's completely sustainable for a long time in the future here until defenses want to completely take it away you know and i don't

think it'll be anything that he does i think you'll maybe start seeing more of that too deep shell to try and take that away and then force him more into the intermediate stuff. The thing I don't know is sustainable is his decision-making. Can the decision-making continue to be on point for 17 weeks? I don't know. I think it could be, but if there's one thing I think that could go awry a little bit here would be that he starts forcing some things because the safeties are taking away and now it's more the intermediate and I have to find the window. I have to find the matchup and can his decision making continue to be elite as if it has been the last four weeks. You know, the one thing that they do have going for them is that because

Justin Jefferson exists, uh, opponents, opponents have been playing too deep against them against them uh at two years ago they were playing it at the same rates that they're playing at league wide now so this is something that and we asked kevin o'connell about it that uh when mel kuyper said it should be banned then uh still the most idiotic take i think i've ever heard in my entire life uh mel it's not baseball it's not the shift although i will tell you historically there was a discussion once in the nfl in the 80s over whether team or whether they should ban zone defenses imagine how different that would be kind of like the nba did for a while there but uh neither here nor there funny the the point just being that Kevin O'Connell spends his February,

March, April in the lab, looking at different ways to beat too high and shells and playing over the top and doubling Jefferson. And when you watch back on tape, it's really fun to see this game of where's Jefferson. Oh, he's in the backfield. Oh, he's motioning across. Oh, he's in a bunch with a tight end and a fullback or whatever it might be.

He tries to get him away from a lot of the coverage. He also tries to get coverage indicators by moving Jefferson to different spots all the time. And I think that that helps Darnold a ton. But to your point about the decision making, there were a few choices and a few snaps in that game that definitely made me go, if Sam Darnold does this repeatedly, then they will get burned at some point because you're not always playing up 28 to seven for the vast majority of the game. And now after that game, his turnover worthy play

percentage was 18th in the league after that game, which is not great. I think it speaks to how good KOC is, how good Jefferson and Addison are that they could have a game where he played a little shaky at times and still put up 31 points and be as good as they were. It speaks to the talent around him and it can smooth out some of those rough patches, but they're on the way. And I think the biggest thing for sustainability is really just, can he work his way through when they do have a bad game, when they do have a rough patch and like get out of that quickly, because the thing that was really excellent about Kirk Cousins, he could have have the worst game we could all be talking about how the season's over this guy is awful this is the season whatever you know trade him to the moon and then the next game he'd throw for 340 and three

touchdowns and they'd win you go oh okay well all right he's back and they're back in the playoff race or something I need to see that a little bit from Darnold at some point how he responds from a punch in the mouth that will inevitably come yeah and that's the thing is we've been saying that for four weeks now right when's it gonna happen every week you're like okay this is the week Lambeau it's gonna be crazy loves back it's gonna be a dog fight in it all the way to the fourth quarter then you jump up 28 nothing like that I don't know if're going to see the killer instinct that we need to see out of Sam Darnold this week.

So it's just going to continue to be, and it's not fair to him. It's really not to think there and be like, well, we need to see you win a close game. It's like, but we're blowing guys out. It's like, I, we need to see you win a close game until we can really sign off our stamp of approval on Sam Darnold. And it's like, I just keep blowing people out, right? It's just, it's not fair to him by any stretch of the imagination but it is the truth because we all know the NFL we all know the

statistics that most games are won't come down to win and losses by one score in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter and we just want to feel the security blanket and the comfort that our guy can do that and until he shows that he can week six seven eight nine ten it's just going to continue to be a question mark i'd love for us to keep blowing guys out it's just not going to continue to happen i don't think yeah i think i'm taking it even a step farther is wanting to see how he responds from a game where he's just not good oh just a wreck yeah because there will be one i mean there's always one it's kind of like uh 2017 the game against carolina for case keenum yeah he was just bad and they lost the game and then i think the very next week was maybe cincinnati and blow

them out completely right exactly although they thought their coach was getting fired for the game that may have helped a little mental warfare there. But the point just being that the really good quarterbacks, the league do have bad games and you're not going to play 17 gems where you're blowing everyone out. So when you do lose a game, he has gotten into ruts before. I want to see him work out of a rut and make those adjustments. But I just think as we talk about the sustainability for Darnold,

which part is supposed to fall apart around him the way aaron jones is playing the way the offensive line overall not every person but overall is playing the way the defense is setting them up and giving them opportunities there's no other part around him including the coaching that i look at and go yeah well you know that's going to get him eventually like i don't know what that is. And they're getting Hawkinson back here soon. Yeah. You know, the one thing that could maybe derail is some injuries, but that's, that's every

weekend and out as a, as a evolving thing, but I'm excited to see Hawk get added back into this and he's not going to be full speed right away, but man, talk about, I think we forget how much of a weapon he was last year to really look back at the way he was able to be that security blanket for kirk every quarterback loves a big friendly tight end they just do i mean oh everything's covered where's that big guy okay throw it up and high and he's gonna box out the safety and give me a nice eight yard hitch route right over the middle here and josh oliver's done a fine job and johnny munt and all those guys but they're just not as gifted as hawkinson is of route running and getting open and yards after the catch so

that's going to be an added piece to it and it's hard for me i'm in complete agreement with you when you try and poke holes in okay what's going to be the bottom that falls out the it kind of defaults to Sam Darnold, right? Like, I don't think Aaron Jones is going to have this giant fall off. I don't think Jefferson's going to have this fall off. I could see maybe a couple guys up front getting hurt and some pressure coming and getting to Sam a little bit more. Maybe that's it because he stayed pretty clean

for the majority of this first quarter of the season, and that's a big piece for his success, in my opinion, as well. So maybe that's what happens is for his success in my opinion as well so maybe that's what happens is he starts getting some guys up front but I think it's going to be an internal factor with Sam Darnold before an external factor derails this and even then you have Dalton Reisner coming back who is a better guard than the guy who's starting and at the tackle position one of the best swing tackles I think in the in the league, and David Questerberry. They really have improved the depth on this team massively

over the last couple of years, which is built to – they lose Ivan Pace. Kamu Grugier-Hill has played thousands of snaps in the NFL. I don't have the number, but a lot. As a starter and special teams player, he comes in, and he's just out there playing like Luke Kuechly, picking off passes and stuff. Like, okay, well, you know, the cornerbacks are part of it as far as like their sustainability.

They did get lit up a little bit in this game. And then there, if there are injuries that will be tougher at that position. But as it pertains to Darnold, I want your assessment on the coaching from Kevin O'Connell, because I think that they are two or three handoffs away in the right spots for us talking about a 38 to 14 win. And just it's a party versus the two point win that they actually left Lambeau with. At the same time, they score 31 with Sam Darnold and receivers are running open. But I do think with Kevin O'Connell, there is a delicate line to walk now. If you're going to be playing with leads and you're going to be playing in these games that are important, it's no longer, hey, we got to just do things to show Sam we believe

in him. You got to do the best thing to make sure that you don't put your team in harm's way of turning the ball over and giving momentum back to the other team because if you do you can mess around and find out yeah well we've all known it and you and i talk about it quite often he has that voice in the back of his head that just never stops talking that's just like throw it keep throwing it and he might fight it for a little bit but eventually that loud voice just keeps going and i think he fell into that trap this week i think he fell into that trap of i schemed this up so great in the lab on wednesday afternoon when i was in my board by myself eating

lunch and i saw it and it was there and i drew it like i know it's the third quarter we have a giant lead but we have to run this play right because then this team in front of us is going to think about it and like he starts spiraling out of control with why he needs to get these run pull air pass plays going and forgets that Ty Chandler and Aaron Jones are really good running backs and very efficient run blockers up front have this year have been and Josh Oliver is a very good run blocking tight end. Utilize those guys. Utilize those guys. Let them go and let that open up some more in the passing game instead of trying to force some of that pass stuff in there

because I agree with you. You run the football a little bit more, milk the clock a little bit more. This game shouldn't even have been close. It should not even have been in consideration. You get a 28-point lead on someone in the NFL when you're as talented as the Minnesota Vikings are are you should never let them come back within a one score game ever it should never ever happen strictly off of game management type of stuff well right because there's just not enough time to be able to do that and if you stop the clock

yourself by throwing incompletions or give up turnovers by throwing interceptions or getting strips act. This is why that old saying, what was it? You pass to score, you run to win. And I know that maybe a little like over the top to just say, can you dial it back to like 1994 real quick when you're up by 28? It's a weird criticism almost. Cause you're saying, do you know how to manage well up 28 what is wrong with you you know like for the coach who got them up by 28 points but i think that this will apply to closer contests in the future where it isn't just hey protect this huge lead and don't let them come back but far too many times in 2022 when they had all of those one score wins, there were games against Arizona against Chicago, where they needed last minute stops

at the final. They needed Daniel Hunter to sack somebody on the final play or something just to survive. And I think some of that was the same kind of deal. This, this, this over leaning on the quarterback when you need to also let everyone else help the quarterback. And it wasn't just running. Ty Chandler played eight snaps. Come on, man. Like you can't have Ty Chandler playing eight snaps. He's just too good. You need to throw him a swing pass. Justin Jefferson is probably the best everything in the NFL pertaining to receiver. He went a long time without a catch. And it was only when they were like, Oh no, where the Packers are back. We need to throw it to Jefferson again.

Larry Fitzgerald was like the King of this. You need like an eight yard little route to just get a first down or just keep the sticks moving. He would catch 97% of those. Just get open a little quick. route let jefferson do quick underneath stuff a little in and out the other team is terrified of him they're going to give him everything that's eight yards when you're winning i do think there needs to be a real focus on how to close a game out because when you're up by 28 you can screw around and get away with it when you're up by 10 in the third quarter against a Detroit or someone, they're going to make you pay for it. If you have, if you do stuff like this.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. It just comes down to understanding situational football, which I think KOC does. And listen, he's human, right? We all talked about how Darnold's going to have a bad game. KOC might just had a bad game like it happens but the really good coaches and you know KOC I've heard his press conferences he's very good at pointing the thumb not the finger you know I think he's a really good job of a self-evaluator he probably went back and looked ago I made some really bad calls like I made some I made some bonehead calls I made some things that cost my football team a chance to win that game and I expect him to continue to learn from that as long as he can quiet that inner voice that yells throw it all the time because the former quarterback in him, like as long as

he can quiet himself, I have full faith that he's gonna be able to bounce back and do those things because we're going to need the game management side of this because as great as our defense is, it doesn't matter who you are. You're out on the field as much as our defense was in the second half even if you're the 85 bears you're going to tire out you're going to get wore out you're going to be tired of running up and down the offense is in tempo and they're going like it just wears a defense down so the game management piece of this is going to be incredibly extremely important as we continue through this young season okay i have a better question in a moment but i need you to do this for me let's say it's third and one at

the three yard line draw me up a play tell me tell me what they should do there because i know the answer is not pitch it wide no no no no no you go 12 personnel right you get two tight ends you go a wing set to the left the wing set to the left you've got johnny you've got johnny and josh oliver right next to christian derisaw bl Blake Brandel, and you run duo. You have double teams on the front side, and if it's an over front, you're going to have a double team with Brandel and Derrissaw. If it's an under front, you're going to have a double team with Oliver and Derrissaw.

Common denominator here, Derrissaw. And you hand it off, and you do that two times in a row, and you find yourself in the end zone. If you don't score on the first one, you'll score on the second one and there you have it it doesn't have to be complicated it truly does not um this is very much i i have felt almost silly because of how good they've been and the coaching is an a plus so far but when that happens and you know you're right that o'connell did criticize himself and so did b Brian Flores today. Both of them were like, hey, this is a bit of a wake-up call in that second half that we're not just going to cruise to these victories,

that teams will take advantage if we make our mistakes. Now, you were present for two quarterbacks who everyone went, oh, this guy's playing good at football in 2016 with Sam Bradford and 2017 with Case Keenum does either situation remind you of what is happening at the moment with Sam Darnold little bit with Bradford just because I can remember the Bradford when he first showed up realizing how talented he was right when Bradford went out there against Green Bay in 20 I think it was 16 week 10 week 2 and just lit it on fire right just lit I mean the whole field just was Sam Bradford just gassing it up I can remember standing there going yeah I remember

why you were so damn good right and I think that's a little bit of the darnold piece to it is he was a stud in college i mean an absolute stud and listen bradford had a lot more success early on in his career before he had the injury bug but i think it's a little bit more bradford because you see the natural quarterback talent in darnold that was similar to the bradford type stuff and once you get going with that you you tell yourself as a player when you're on those teams like this guy's going to give us a chance to win every game he's talented enough that if we do our job as the 10 guys around him he will give us a chance to win every game and i can remember that was the factor going into 2016 now we just didn't have a great supporting cast around him at times but this cast now the 2024 Minnesota Vikings is much more talented on offense

than we were in 2016 not even close and I think that is where I see more of the comparison versus I think Keenum just kind of caught lightning in a bottle I think he did I love Case great guy and he's made a long career off of 2017 right he's still I think he's still now he's in driving minivans and progressive commercials I mean he's done a great job for himself but I think that was a little bit more of a guy got hot at the right time and didn't have all the God-given ability that Bradford or Darnold or those guys had, but just took full advantage of the moment and went and made a bunch of money with Denver and it didn't work out. Yeah, it didn't. But I, the one thing that's similar to Keenum is that he didn't have the track record of winning.

Because as you mentioned, Bradford did have some of that rookie of the year. And then he had done pretty well the season before with Philly and the natural talent. But the throw it up for grabs, the times that he scares you a little. Darnold had not scared me much through the first three games. And I thought, this guy's learned how to be a game manager with a cannon. Like that means you're just a great quarterback uh and then this last game he rolls out to the left he doesn't see a guy he tries to fire it into a place where he shouldn't have just done anything there and it's almost picked and that's not good he doesn't see the rusher come in he does hold on to the ball a

little longer than he should trying to make things happen. Like when Nick Bosa hacked his hand and somehow he held onto it, you usually don't hang onto it. So there's been these little moments of, Hey, you can't throw two red zone interceptions when you're about to put games away, no matter what I don't care. And KOC, oh, that's my bad. It's my bad call. Okay. But this is the man out there, hucking the football into the wrong spots. You just, that, that can't happen. So there's a little bit of a combination of the two. Now in one of those seasons, your squadron completely fell apart and had one of the biggest collapses I've ever seen. And then the next year, as you recall, was the NFC championship game. Which one is this? Like, like what's the difference what happened in 16 that they need to avoid what happened in 17 that allowed the case keenum train to never fall off

its rails i think here's what i'll say in 16 as a player we all knew we weren't five and oh quality team i mean we all knew we got to five and oh we were like we've got them all fooled we've done it right like we had so many injuries and people going down and i mean we lost our starting quarterback before the year bradford's in there playing by the seat of his pants and we lose our offensive coordinator so as long as you know the entire world doesn't fall apart underneath him which goes back to our previous conversation of the supporting staff around him is a plus i can't say and this isn't a knock on norver mike or tony or any of the guys that we had there on the coaching staff it wasn't the staff that 2024 has it just wasn't and i think a lot of that too is because it's an offensive staff right ahead offensive head coach versus

a defensive minded head coach and so then 2017 rolls around and we got healthy kind of and then you know but i felt like we had a more stability on the offensive coaching side with schirmer now there and stefanski there and tony and everyone there in kind of year two of that offense feeling really good about it i think with koc and the stability around him i see this leaning more towards the 2017 side than the 2016 side unless of course injuries kind of derail that well a big part of it too is that the 2017 offensive line largely stayed healthy until the very end uh when nick easton got hurt and that and that kind of sent things awry and maybe bad decisions were also made for how to replace that. I don't mean to open up a wound there,

but I don't understand why Mike Remmers was a left guard. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I apologize. That one still eats to me to this day. I won't lie to you. That conversation with Tony of, hey, we're going to start Remmers and we're going to put Rashad out at right tackle. Like, sounds great.

I, I, uh, okay. Sure. Didn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense. Anyhow, uh, again, uh, sorry for that, but well, at least it didn't cost you in the biggest well, it actually did, but, um, I can't help myself. Can I do a quick story real quick yeah go ahead so I get I essentially get benched for the Saints game right like because I started against Chicago in week 17 and then we go into the playoffs and they're like hey here's what we're gonna do like we're gonna and then I'll remember Tony told me Sperano he goes we're gonna need like we're gonna and then i remember tony told me it's verano he goes we're

gonna need you at one point don't we're gonna need you and then it's quarter four against the eagles we're getting killed and uh pat effline snaps his ankle right and so joe bergeras moved in and i remember tony looking to be like told you we were gonna need you i was like the season's over like what the season is oh yeah you need me to finish this game thank you like i'm very glad you needed me because i had to go finish this game and i just remember that conversation on the sideline like told you we were going to need you i was like yeah for the next eight minutes before i go to cancun in two weeks thanks tony i also remember just philadelphia eagles fans being eagles fans that elf lines family was in the stands.

And I think they must have had Pat Elf line shirts or something. And they were yelling like, yeah, I'm glad your son got hurt or whatever. It's terrible. Just terrible. My I have a client. So I don't know if you remember the game two weeks ago, Saints, when he decapitated Devontae Smith. That was my client. He called me. He's like,

I'm getting death threats. I was like, you played Philly. He's like, yeah. I was like, yeah, they're really not nice people. Just turn off your social media for the next couple weeks, bud. I had people going back responding to my tweets from pre-draft that were like,

you're a dirty player. i hope he dies like i hope is i hope like i hope he breaks his legs i'm like oh my gosh you guys are terrible just get a better hobby philly fans yeah it's uh the last year we had to have a press conference for alexander madison to request people not say racist things to him after playing philly so it is a different world out there. Anyway, to, uh, to cycle back, uh, the offensive line protected case Keenum very well, including yourself throughout that season. And that is what is happening with Sam Darnold. The only way you could see it coming apart is if there are injuries on the old line and they can't protect as well, because they have the weapons to get open

down the field. I also want to say this, that with Sam Darnold, similarly to Sam Bradford, he came into a situation where it wasn't really his team. It was Teddy Bridgewater's team. This was kind of Kirk's team and then JJ McCarthy's team to everybody on the outside world. With both gentlemen, I just can't say how impressed I've been with their professionalism. That Bradford came in and first day was like, all right, well, I guess I'm the guy. I guess I'm in charge. And I think that his natural cockiness is higher than Sam Darnold's.

There was a confidence about Bradford that was unbreakable, which I don't know is the truth for, for Darnold, but we can't say enough how little ego he's shown through this whole thing. Every reporter is like, do you want to throw the Panthers under the bus? And he's like, no,

I'm good. It's okay. You know, I could have done things better. And isn't McCarthy really the starter and not you, you dweeb that, no, I'm good.

I, you know, I love JJ McCarthy. We've been golfing together, whatever, like dweeb. He's like, no, I'm good. I, you know, I love JJ McCarthy. We've been golfing together, whatever, like the way that he's handled everyone, the way that he's sort of been talked to through this whole thing and the, the situation in general, I think has really been one of the reasons he's had so much success. Yeah. And that just comes with the humbleness that the NFL gives you when things aren't going well when the world is against you I mean I can imagine some of his tweets that he got weren't great throughout his

career also and nothing humbles you like losing in the NFL and he's done a lot of that unfortunately in the places that he was at so it's not surprising that that carried on and sometimes that can crush a quarterback I mean you you nailed it there's a cockiness you have to have to play quarterback in the national football league you have to step out on that field and know that i am the guy i am one of 32 people in the entire world that can do this job and if you don't have that you're toast and so many young quarterbacks that get drafted early and go to really terrible teams because that's why they draft early and have not immediate success or really struggle out the initial that that edge that they have can completely go away

but i think darnold's done a great job of channeling it in the proper way not allowing it to crush his confidence as a person of who he is as a quarterback but allowing it to humble him in a way of hey taking correction taking technique maybe i'm not as a refined product as i thought i was and i can always get better and going to a program and understanding hey i know that you paid me 10 million dollars to come in here and play you drafted a quarterback ninth overall but that doesn't change how i'm going to approach everything that doesn't mean i'm going to mope and i'm going to be upset and all that it just continues to go about his work ethic and those are the guys that are like baker mayfield and the guys that bounce around that have that great confidence in who they are and their ability but are humble

enough to learn and understand what it means to get better every single week in this league 10th overall was jj mccarthy remember because sean pay Oh, that's mind bleeped the Vikings into moving up one spot. That's right. To get a guy who averages 2.4 yards carry in a victory last week. I'm sorry for a pass attempt, but that's the one of the funniest wins I've ever seen a quarterback. Anyway, that was hilarious. I was, I was only watching the box score,

but I was like minus seven yards passing at halftime. I was, I was only watching the box score, but I was like, minus seven yards passing at halftime. What I, what, uh, but, uh, to your point about the confidence of Sam Darnold, but also the willingness to look at himself and he's changed some mechanics. And, uh, Kevin O'Connell was talking about this with his deep ball and some things that he had done to just improve his mechanics. And the other thing he talked about was watching Brock Purdy. Now imagine you're the number three overall pick and you go to another team as a backup quarterback. You've got to be

like, we'll do Mr. Irrelevant. I'm better than this guy. And there's a lot of ego in pro sports. People would never believe it. But instead he watched Brock Purdy and some lights went on there of, Oh, I don't have to do everything. I can, I can just get it to the playmakers and I don't have to try to scramble like crazy or throw it into a tight window or do everything on every play. I can just manage the game. Like Brock Purdy has a lot of success with, I think there's an, a humility to Sam Darnold to take that approach, to learn a lot from where he's been and what he's seen to get to this point that kills most quarterbacks career. I think because I was listening to a podcast not too long ago with, I think it was Christian Hackenberg. And he was talking about how the jets just didn't

give him enough attention or something. And that's why he failed. And they didn't try to develop him. And I'm like, these are just excuses, right? And this, and sorry, Christian Hackenberg, I'm sure you're a great guy, but when you listen to that, you go, oh, I get it. Like, I get why you failed because you thought they were out to get you for some reason. And the fact that Sam Darnold has never taken that approach is the reason that he's still here. Yeah. I love the fact that, you know, when you, I think that just comes with the pressure of being a first round quarterback

versus Mr. Irrelevant, right? When you're a first round quarterback and you go to the jets and they look at you like fix the franchise, right? Fix us. We've been begging for a franchise quarterback and you're the guy and here's the keys to the billion dollar car do not wreck it but be really good it just can add such a pressure to a player that if they don't have immediate success everyone just willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater and be like oh that's that's enough of that versus he watched brock purdy who they were hey here's the Honda Civic just keep it between the white lines and we're gonna be just fine and had that success it's a very similar situation for Darnold

the difference is I would say that talent for talent wise Sam Darnold probably has a better arm than Brock Purdy and I don't I don't know decision making wise it's probably a toss-up I mean Purdy's doing a lot better this year than he was last year decision making but you know to have the humble heart as the what was he the third overall pick or the second third the third overall pick to have the humble heart to watch something like that and put it into your game is that's it that's it that's a true professional that's that's a true professional in this league which there are not enough of for young players that are used to being the guy and always being the guy to be able to truly self reflect and look at as an undrafted free agent because when you bounce around like a quarterback like he is you're no longer looked at on a team as the guy you're kind of looked at as the undrafted

free agent that came in as the backup and how do? Well, how do you get back on the field? You watch the starters. You watch the starters. How do I always? That's what I did. I mean, when I got into San Diego and I was an undrafted guy, I was like, I want to be like King Dunlap

and I want to be like Nick Hardwick and DJ Fluker. And I studied them and watched the way they prepared and watched the way they practiced and watched their pregame routines and just watched them and modeled some of my game

after all those guys to make myself the player I was. And Sam having the mentality is he got to watch some of those guys, and I'm sure him and Baker probably talked quite a bit. Like, gosh, aren't you glad we're not in Charlotte anymore? And to talk about some of the trials that they had together to work through and what he's doing and how he's doing it, and you can talk through it and just being willing to ask for help.

That's the biggest thing. Willing to ask for help and being willing to learn is so important in the game of football it's uh such an interesting story to see someone go through all that come back on the other side and be now on a team that has a good case for being the best in the nfl and i think that someday Sam Darnold will do somebody's podcasts or something, maybe this one, and he will tell all the tales. But I really respect that he's not doing it now, that he is avoiding any of that. Told you so. I showed somebody asked him about the doubters and he's like, I don't know what you're talking about. I've just

got nothing for anybody like that that he hasn't played into that hey like look at me i'm back type of narrative that we see and the universe is so much built now in sports about just look at me my social media my following my playing time every every kid's got his own coach and everything else and i'm not saying that that is inherently bad but to to take more of an unselfish and humble approach has been really impressive and to not do everybody wants to dunk on everybody on social media it's fun like you should try it someday but it'd be very bad for him to do that now right and so the fact that he hasn't i think is a good thing uh how many wins is this team gonna end up with though

16 at least i i'm gonna say 12 okay i'm i'm gonna go with 12 right now and i haven't i would have to do a really a lot more dive deep into the schedule to really look at it. But, you know, from what I remember us breaking it down before the year, I mean, we were saying this could be an eight-win football team before the year. I think they're easily a four-win better team. Shoot, they have four more wins right now than I thought.

I mean, I thought they could easily start the year looking at that schedule. You're going Houston, Niners, Green Bay. Like that's a one-in-four start looking like start looking like or one in three start looking down the gun of the barrel. And you flip that around. You're going, OK, this definitely looks like it could be a 11, 12 win type of football team. All right, let's finish on this because last night, Manny Hill and I were picking the schedule

and he came up with 12 and it just doesn't sound ridiculous. I had him at nine before the season was the official purple insider prediction, because I thought that the Vegas side of it was forgetting maybe how many veterans that they scored and folk or that they signed and were only focusing on the quarterback and not enough of the rest, including the coaching. Um, but they're in a situation to blow away nine at this point and i think it's okay to raise that bar up to at least double digits if not beyond uh love to see it hate to see it what have you got for us yeah my my biggest hate to see it is rishi rice getting blown out by patrick mahomes on his knee just such a fluke play, such a weird deal. And, you know, he was

having a great start to the year, looked like he was emerging as the true wide receiver one for Mahomes. And to see him go down like that as a young player, I hated to see that for him. And you knew immediately the way he was grabbing his head on the sideline and stuff. I mean, I've torn an ACL, got torn ligaments. You know, you feel that pop inside your body and you're like, that's going to be a six to eight month or right there. And, you know, so just, I hate to see that for him and the young player, because he's going to be, he's going to be back, but you know, I just really hate to see that. I love to see it for me is Georgia and Alabama and the way that that game played out. College football has blessed us each Saturday with ridiculousness and upsets and everything else.

But every once in a while, you just got to have greatness versus greatness. Freshmen who are 17 years old who look like Percy Harvin out there make it plays. Jalen Milrow all of a sudden looks like a real quarterback developing there. Those two teams are going to play each other again, and I cannot wait for that. That was spectacular collegiate football. Yeah, I mean, arguably two of the best receivers in college football right now are true freshmen.

The kid out of Ohio State and the kid out of Bama are making just insane grabs and speed. It's like, you're 17 like i still had like baby fat on my face and like gangly and like these kids are out there putting seniors on skates so yeah college football has been absolutely incredible to watch uh i love to see it for me is i feel like every time i open up my Twitter feed, there's another team talking about how they're going to trade for Devontae Adams and how he's the perfect fit for the Jets, the Chiefs, the Bengals.

It's just like I feel like everything's going. And then Antonio Pierce liked an Instagram photo that said that this was his last snaps as a Raider. The saga of the trade deadline is coming, and I just, I love, I love the ridiculous speculation that comes before a trade deadline where everyone on every team is like this three-way trade could work and we'll move it here. But yeah, the Devante Adams saga and the Raiders is something I'm very enjoying watching on social media. You know, it sort of

reminds me with Devante Adams leaving green Bay as like, you never got over your high school crush or something. And then you're like, you know what? I'm leaving the wife and kids and I'm going back to her and we're going to live the dream. And then you go back and she has a bad job. And she just think that is a nightmare to be around. She's totally different than you remember from high school oh man i didn't just meet up with her i left the family yeah for her and now we're like uh take me back someone anyone uh around the league it's unfortunate for him uh that that team is a disaster but also not exactly unpredictable that that would not have been the best situation to go to a very sarcastic hate to see it is the Cleveland Browns offense though, which is putrid might be overly polite. And I just remember, I'm just gonna throw this out there that when I went

to those joint practices, I went on Cleveland radio and they asked me well what do you think of cleveland's offense i said are you serious it's awful i like you guys are gonna be terrible on offense the vikings defense ran you out of your practice facility and they got upset on cleveland radio their reporters were their reporters they were bringing on other reporters from cleveland to refute my report that their offense was bad. Dunk on them. Dunk on them, Matt. Dunk on them.

Not everybody knows how to watch a practice. That's all I'm saying. I've watched a lot of practice. Not everybody knows. Some people stand on the sideline. They just talk. They look around. They look at their phones.

I watch, and I watched Deshaun Watsonatson look lost back there and guess what he still does and you're screwed cleveland and oh what a shame it is i feel bad cleveland reporters learn how to practice that's all that's all i want you to do just let me actually you can come to minnesota and next summer and stand on the sideline with me and I'll tell you what to watch for. That's what we can do. I need your X's and O's book to drop. When, when's your playbook, the Matthew Collier purple insider playbook edition. Look, it's not that hard to watch a camper.

I mean, it's, are they completing passes and looking like they know what they're doing or would it have been a sack? Like two thirds of the dropout did the dn run by him in practice and do a big dance and then they complete a long one and everyone cheers like no no he was dead like he he was picking his teeth up out of his hand it seemed like they were coping like that they were trying to hope it into existence that it wouldn't be as bad as it is but this man's career is over to sean watson and you just hate to see it i gotta love slash hate to see it and it's weirdly i don't love that players get hurt i'm gonna preface this with that but i do kind of love that anthony

richardson ever since he was talking about how easy it is to play in the nfl how it is to play in the NFL. Had another interception game and is now hurt again from running too much again. And now Joe Flacco has to go in there and save the Indianapolis Colts because the NFL is not easy. It's never been easy. It never will be easy, especially as a quarterback position. The second you think it's easy, you're toast.

You're done. The second you don't respect that quarterback position and think, oh, this is easy because everyone's doing their job, you're done like the second you don't respect that head quarterback position and think oh this is easy because everyone's doing their job but you're done for and anthony richardson stat line is hilarious if you look at it it is hysterical but nfl is not easy bud and i hope you get healthy here soon because i don't want you to be hurt but maybe don't put yourself out there like that next time i feel the show has grown very petty here at the end that's okay that that conversation i it just aided me like watching that podcast and listening to him talk about how easy it is compared to college and also i was like you're just you're you're asking for problems man because it's not nothing about this job is easy. No, it is not.

That was a mistake on his part. The only thing, the only thing that I wanted to forgive a little is that his Florida team was really badly coached and had very few good players. And so maybe what he was getting at is, oh, we have good players. They're open. We have good coaches, but he didn't really clarify that. Anyway, do you think that they will go to London and beat the New York Jets? Yes, mostly because you talk about putrid Cleveland.

It's not super far off to talk about the Jets offense either. I mean, that game was maybe the most atrocious game i've watched except for i did go to the giants patriots game last year and had to watch that in person so it's i don't understand what's happening in new york i thought they were going to make a corner turn this year i thought this was going to be the year rogers and garrett wilson get going again and figured out bruce hall was like the next guy and that defense is still really good and everything going on and figured out Brees Hall was like the next guy. And that defense is still really good and everything going on. And then you got the Hassan Riddick saga happening, but that offense just cannot get out of their own way.

Aaron Rogers cannot get on the same page with anyone, but Alan Lazard. And it's just not good. And I think that Brian Flores puts him in a blender. Another difficult thing to watch for all of us emotionally. Aaron Rogers struggling. What a shame. But Rogers, I go back to just looking at him in the off season and him deciding that mini

camp wasn't worth it. But the body, it's just not. He's got a little bit of the same arm that flashes and he he'll make a great throw, and everyone will tweet it out. But this dude weighs 20 pounds less than he did at his peak, and I don't think he can move very well. So they're going to throw a lot of stuff at them. Their offensive line is also completely lost. They don't know what he's calling.

They don't understand this cadence. They don't know what he's doing. Yeah, this should be a Vikings win. The only thing is it's in London, so it can get weird over there. Yeah, I mean, you've got Aaron Rodgers basically telling the head coach at post-press conference, like, we don't need to change the snap counts. I don't know what that guy's talking about. And Robert Sully's like, we should probably dial down on this.

I was like, as soon as I saw that, I was like, it's over. It's week four, and it's pretty much over in New York. Well, we'll see if the Vikings can put the nail in Rogers coffin. Great to be back with you for Tuesday morning. Left guard. It was the late afternoon when recorded, but that doesn't matter.

So good day to you, Jeremiah. And we will talk next week when the Vikings are either four and one or five and now we'll see five and oh, let's do it. Five minutes. Football. Football.