Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles thinks the Vikings shouldn't wait to make trade calls

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

Matthew Coller and former Viking Jeremiah Sirles talk about what happened to the Vikings against Kansas City, how they put together their best offensive line performance yet despite the loss and what's next for the front office as they stare down 1-4 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and the well-groomed and beautiful Jeremiah Searles for another episode of Tuesday Morning Left Guard. And we could call it Tuesday Morning IR if you want to, to start in the most obvious place. Jeremiah, your reaction to Justin Jefferson hamstring injury, injured reserve out at least for the next four weeks. Well, it makes me really sad because that means it's a pretty bad hamstring pull.

You know, if you have a hamstring tweak or a strain and, you know, it's like, okay, let's leave him a couple of weeks. Maybe we'll work him back in the third week and then he'll be back in four weeks, like on the fourth week or maybe even in that third week. to put a guy on ir means they got an mri they went in there they looked at it and they're like this is going to take some serious time for you to get back up to where you need to be and that's a crushing loss to this offense i mean crushing loss of the league he's fun to watch everyone turns in to watch justin jefferson play the game because he's so explosive he's so good with the ball in his hands and massive blow to a team

that needs every star player that they can possibly get right now to try and find ways to get in the win column and to lose him to an IR is going to be a big detriment to this offense. It most certainly is as impressed as I was by Jordan Addison the other day and just watching the all 22 back.

It was even better than I thought it was. I mean, he really roasted some dudes off the line of scrimmage. And so there's an exciting element of, okay, well, he gets to kind of be wide receiver one and all right, let's see what you got. And it's a good test for him. But with Jefferson, yes, I enjoy watching Justin Jefferson play football. So does the rest of the universe.

It is a massive blow to their offense. The crazy thing to me is how much of their offense over the last few years has purely been Justin Jefferson. The running game has been inconsistent. The other weapons around him have been inconsistent. I don't think we've seen nearly enough from KJ Osborne and from TJ Hawkinson to trust that you can lose Justin Jefferson. And even though you have the names and guys with past histories who should be able to step up, now how many teams even have two good wide receivers and a highly paid tight end and two of the best tackles in football?

Like this doesn't seem like it should be as devastating as it is, but Osborne and Hawkinson have just not done enough in the running game consistency-wise to give you a ton of confidence that this is going to work out. It also makes me really wonder, you know, when you talk about those guys not being like big factors, but how much attention was defenses giving to Justin Jefferson with the double and the bracket coverage and all that?

You're going to see teams that don't have to do that anymore can truly just kind of sit back there and play whatever system they want to play. We talk about it on offense of the werewolf of who's the guy, who's the star, the game wrecker that we got to take care of and neutralize on defense. Well, Justin Jefferson was that on the other side. You walk into your defensive meeting room on a Monday morning and you're playing the Vikings the following Sunday and you're going, hey, we got to know where 18 is.

At all times, all points of the game, we can't lose eyes off 18. Well, you lose that element now and there's really no player on the Vikings that you circle star and go, he's the game wrecker. He's the dude that's going to run up and down the field and beat us. So you're going to see a lot more of defenses be able to just kind of play their game, play the scheme that they going to run up and down the field and beat us so you're going to see a lot more of defenses be able to just kind of play their game play the scheme that they want to play until someone else emerges of being that guy and you nailed it it's got to be tj hawkinson and i don't know if you can say it has to be addison because we haven't seen enough of that but he has the potential to do it i think he has the potential to go out and be a dude but the other day he's still a rookie right i had my light baby blue watch on Justin Jefferson when he was a rookie and I may have missed the boat on that but

it's same for Addison yes he looked great he looked the part but when you are wide receiver one now there becomes a lot more pressure for you right you're now having plays and entire offensive schemes that uh KOC are going to look and go hey this is what we want to run for you now it's a it's a lot of pressure to put on a young player like that. So it does need to fall on the shoulders of TJ Hawkinson, and it does need to fall on the shoulders of KJ Osborne and even Josh Oliver or some of these other guys that are going to have to be more involved.

The screen game was this close to being good again. No, but things are going to have to revamp because you can't just have the security blanket of, all right, where's 18? OK, let's just find a way to get him the football. I think that this is a real challenge for Kevin O'Connell, and I don't want to stray too far away from Justin Jefferson going on IR because it is a massive impact. But it does tie back into O'Connell. He got a lot of criticism for the timeout stuff the other day, and that is deserved criticism. You just cannot blow through three timeouts in a one-score game

where every possession is going to matter. Also, your quarterback can't throw a three-yard pass that wastes 20 seconds off the clock. And when you have a minute left trying to drive down the field, but that's, you know, we've seen that before. Old news. Yeah, right. Not the first time. minute left trying to drive down the field but that's you know we've seen that before old news yeah right right not the first time but when it comes to O'Connell how do we evaluate Kevin O'Connell because this is a one and four start everyone deserves to get criticized for a one and four

start that's not where we expected you to be expected the season to still be very much in play at this point even if it was two and three, that would have been better. There have been times where I've felt like his offensive play design has been fantastic. Receivers are open. There's opportunities. He clears out a lot, gets space for his receivers. There have been other times where I've felt like the offense is just a roller coaster that has way too many dips to compete.

And when you score 20 points and hey look there was one fumble not five so you can avoid you can overcome one turnover in a game but their offense has been middling and the game management hasn't been like pristine fantastic a plus i think that there is some room for a critique here with Kevin O'Connell yeah and a lot of that comes from just the operation standpoint you know I'm gonna put the play calling aside for now and just as a second year head coach you didn't have a ton of turnover on your staff you didn't have a turnover at the quarterback position the operation of getting the personnel getting the play call getting the formation everyone getting lined up call, getting the formation, everyone

getting lined up, it's an inexcusable error. And a lot of that is just a lack of focus. It's a lack of focus because it's something that you should drill and you've been drilling since day one of OTAs. It shouldn't become an issue. And so there's somewhere in the chain of command of getting things called, there's a blip. And they got to really look into what that is and what is causing that, whether it's taking too long to get the initial play call or Kirk having to repeat it because he's trying to talk to someone else and get lined up. And then really just if you're a young player or any player,

focusing in on the play call and hearing the one specific thing that is for you. That's one thing I don't know if people understand. The play call is this long verbiage, lots of different words and numbers and things, but everyone on the position is only listening for one or two things, right? The receivers don't care what the protection is, right? Just like the alignment don't care what the route concept is, but you have to be so dialed in when you're in that huddle that you're listening so that you don't have two or three seconds to waste going, hey, what was the snap counter? Hey, was that doubles right or was that trips right? You can't be so caught up on, okay, what was that route called that you forget the formation?

And that's part of it in there. But also there's a communication factor between whoever's in his ears. And I think it's KOC who's in who's in kirk's helmet right they need to find a way to communicate better non-verbally right because kirk can't have a conversation with koc that's a one-way radio goes right into his brain like they have to find a way to streamline that communication quicker so that there isn't all these pre-snap issues happening which are what's causing us to burn these timeouts. And also getting a delay of game. And this is why I didn't have much sympathy for the flag being picked up.

And I haven't looked that closely at that play. I understand why Vikings fans would be irritated at that. I get frustrated with what is past interference. So does everybody else. But when you are sitting at fourth and 12, because you've got a delay of game that moved you back from fourth and seven, it's a lot more manageable and you have to throw a balloon down the sideline fourth and 12, because you got a delay of game that moved you back from fourth and seven, it's a lot more manageable and you have to throw a balloon down the sideline with hopes and dreams.

Well, you kind of made your own bet when it came to that. And that is how are you getting a delay of game penalty at that point in the game where the call needs to be in? And I think that goes back to spike gate that happened at the end of the chargers game where it's like, who's whose job is it to call for a spike? And O'Connell, we know he's going to defend his players no matter what. So it's hard to say whether it was his call or not, because he said, well, in hindsight, I should have spiked it. And I, it was my call to go for that. But then there was a whole, well, Kirk couldn't hear me in his helmet and et cetera, et cetera. So you're like, wait a minute, what was going on here? Did you actually want the spike?

And you're just like falling on the sword here because it went sideways. Either way, a little bit of a communication issue, the helmet, the headset, not knowing what to do, looking scrambly. I mean, there's always a little scramble in Kirk Cousins game, but I don't recall too many times with Gary Kubiak or with Kevin Stefanski where they were just taking delay of game penalties or calling timeouts. And there was a weird situation where Garrett Bradbury got pulled off the field by the concussion spotter. And that, OK, I guess I can excuse one because that was weird. But even then, it's a perpetual thing where they seem to be getting a lot of these types of penalties and okay if you're on the road at green bay i get it i understand it happens sometimes stuff like that you're at home at u.s bank stadium i just don't

get it and i wondered i don't know if you saw this clip did you see where peyton manning and eli manning were doing the like where they have the headset thing and Peyton Manning's like shut up like I don't need I just give me the play call then I'll figure out the rest I have wondered how much Kevin O'Connell a big talker has to say inside of Kirk Cousins headset and if he likes that or not because that wouldn't be a thing that he would like come out and tell us unless he wanted to make national headlines for flaming his coach for talking too much in his headset. But it has gone through my mind that O'Connell would be the guy who look for the linebacker, look for the safety, look for this read or that read. And I wonder if that can sometimes be a little overwhelmed.

Yeah. And I'm sure most people know. But for those that don't like this headset shuts off at 15 seconds left on the play clock. So that's when the heart out. So, I mean, they could be trying to call play, and all of a sudden it's at 18 seconds, and all of a sudden KFC's like, by the way, you got to watch out for the... And then it just stops, right?

And he's like, looks over, like, on one, ready, break, right? Like, that is 100% a thing. And the other thing that I noticed, I don't know if you saw this on the tape and you watched it back, they started sending blitz zero at us at the end of the game multiple times in a row, and I didn't feel like we really had an answer for it you know and that comes back to to if you're breaking the huddle or you're getting there at 10 seconds on the shot clock eight seconds on the shot clock you don't have time to try and check and get into a better play

to beat some of that cover zero or to beat the certain blitzes that Spagnuolo was sending after you and that all comes back to what I talked about the beginning of this the operation at the beginning of the play call as soon as that 40 second clock has to be more mainlined it just has to be a well-oiled machine no no hits in the system no repeat that no looking over there and seeing the quarterback go like this and I need it again. Right. It has to be more man. I'm so that we have ourselves to put ourselves in a position to be able to combat some of the stuff the defense does, which is why you saw like Phillip rivers,

Peyton Manning, Eli, like all those old heads, they used to snap it with one left on the shot clock, but they used to be at the line of scrimmage by like 17, right? Get in, get out of the huddle,

have some pace. Let's get up to the line of scrimmage, see the whole picture and then have some answers to it. I'll have to. I mean, you might have a stat for me eventually. But what is like I'd love to know what our average time of breaking the huddle and getting up and actually getting set looks like compared to some of the rest of the league. Because I feel like we're really late getting out of the huddle and getting up to the ball. Now, there's one I don't think even PFF has ever thought of, but maybe they would like that. Now you make an interesting point though, because

one of the things I noticed about Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs was how well they picked up Flores' blitzes. And there's sort of been this thing like, hey, don't blitz Mahomes. He's really genius. And that's true, but they also pick them up. And I think that's on the quarterback. And I'm sure they have a good center and they're working together. But a quarterback like him is probably setting the protection. Right. So it feels like if you get out of the huddle quickly to the line of scrimmage, you can play the I check you check game with the linebacker. And then you can spot where the blitzes are coming, make your protection adjustments. And also it was like half of a home game for Kansas City. So it may not have been that loud.

But I noticed everybody went where they were supposed to be when it came to those blitzes. And I was like, OK, that doesn't happen with the Vikings all the time. And I wondered if there was like something with that. That operation, though, that shouldn't be happening at this point. And that's where, yes, some things we can say have been unlucky. And I hear this every time anyone talks about the Vikings, well, boy, the luck just came for them. It's like,

and they've made a lot of their own luck. And I really thought that was the case in Kansas city. Some three announced that were kind of inexcusable, some penalties, some game management, and this all results in why you're a one in four football team. It's not just that bad luck came for you. And look around the league. Look at the other one in four football teams. They have the same issues. Look at the Giants. They're taking delay games. They're taking timeouts like, yes, they have an excuse of being

beat up like the Vikings don't have that excuse. Jefferson's out but like the Vikings the Giants have just been gutted especially up front with injuries but you mean I watch the Bears you know I watch some of these other teams that are bad football teams and they have the same type of issues the difference being a lot of those dudes are kind of in newer regimes you know the Giants are similar to KOC it's the second year under their regime and so like is there some regression going on through some of that but that type of stuff loses you football games in the NFL where the margin for victory in the NFL is already so small week to week it doesn't matter if you're the worst team in the NFL or the best team in the NFL the margin

for error is very small and those things start to compound over weeks right when you can't get lined up you can't get a whole snapshot of the picture in front of you as a quarterback you can't tell is it manner zone you're you lose the advantage of having a motion that maybe is a pre-snap indicator like you lose all those slight edges that maybe it's in the first quarter but that first quarter could have turned into an extended drive that turned into points that matters in the fourth you know when you having those issues that are coming up at critical points in the game that maybe not seem like a two minute drill or whatever it's just a first and ten with eight minutes left in the third but you're

scrambling and you don't get to see something now you're looking at second and ten you end up punting those are critical moments in the game that are kind of those hidden yardages and hidden things that when you don't take advantage of it it comes back to bite you in the end. And we've just had too many of those from week zero, week one to where we're at now that it's no longer like, oh, we'll get that fixed. It's what is the problem? Like, I don't know if we were able to identify what the problem is. And that's the bigger issue at hand.

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And there was a three and out that happened, and maybe there's a catchable ball there for TJ Hawkinson. I don't know. But there's always that three and out, that time where they seem discombobulated or thrown off their game, and then they punt it away and the other team scores or the other team wears out a bunch of clock, and then you're scrambling at the end, hoping and praying.

And, you know, when Kevin O'Connell says about Philadelphia, hey, we were an onside kick recovery away. Like, dude, come on, man. Like against the Chargers, they had at one point only a 12% chance to win late in the third quarter. And then here against Kansas City, there was a point in the game early in the fourth quarter where they're down to about a 10% chance to win by the win probability models. It's like if you're going to play that game and then say, well, we were close. Not really.

If you wanted to stay close, you needed to be going back and forth. Not we're close, we're losing the whole game, and then we didn't lose by that much. They don't put that on the trophy, didn't lose by that much. I mean, played from behind the whole day probably means you're not doing great. It's kind of like in basketball where you'll see a team get up by 20 early. The other team will go on a run. Oh, they close the gap to four, and then the other team just wins the game. And then after the game, their coach says, well, I was proud of our guys.

We closed that gap to four. Put a banner up, man. I don't know like this is something that has gone on perpetually over the last even two years at times because there was a lot of offensive inconsistency that we forgot because greg joseph made a 60 yard field goal because taylor heineke threw him a football because mike white that'll do it like you know just all those things that were going on last year. But a lot got papered over that I think is not just a Kirk Cousins thing that I don't know what they're supposed to do to address,

but it needs to be fixed. But I do want to say, Jeremiah, the football gods who write the script for each season, they have a twisted sense of humor because the offensive line played the best game in years. Since you were playing for the 2017 Minnesota Vikings, I have not seen them play an offensive line game as well as they did against Kansas City. And to lose that game was, I think, very frustrating for this team

because you couldn't have asked anything better from not four of the offensive linemen, but all five. Yeah, watching back the tape, you know, the first thing that pops out is like, man, Kirk's got some space. Kirk's got some time. There's a few holes in the running game that are popping out here. You know, overall, I thought everyone, I completely agree with you, collectively played their best game as a group. And I don't know if getting that little bit's getting Gary Bradbury back into that mix.

You know, having him get back in there and settling everyone down and knowing that the calls are going to be made and everyone's going to be put in the right position so everyone's a little less tense there but both guards handled Chris Jones for the most part I mean Chris Jones is still going to make plays because he's Chris Jones and but he took his turn trying to go on Derrissaw on O'Neal he bounced around like he likes to do and he really only got Ezra Cleveland clean one time, and Ezra was able to push him by as he crossed his face and pushed him away, and Kirk stepped up. And the true just four-man rushes didn't really just get home and disrupt.

Kirk had opportunities to throw good footballs and make good decisions, and there was some tight coverage on the back end. But overall, I was really pleased with what this group and Chris Cooper was able to have this group ready to go against a pretty damn good front in Kansas City. Had 50 total dropbacks in the game and only 15 were pressured, did not play very well against the Blitzes overall, which I think is something that Matt Eberflus dialed up a lot of against Washington and is going to definitely turn up again with Justin Jefferson out. That's kind of the effect there.

But, okay, so Ezra Cleveland's future is unclear. Ed Ingram's, I think, has moved from, oh my gosh, this is over, it looks so terrible, I don't want to watch anymore and burn my eyes out, to, wait, all of a sudden the last three games, he's been competent, if not good. And that's why I think Dalton Reisner hasn't played yet, because they saw a little more from him over these last couple of weeks.

I mean, the only one who might leave in free agency is Ezra Cleveland, and he's more or less of a weak link. I think that as we start to move toward the possibility of discussing the future on this show each week, it's an interesting development that Bradbury came back and looked really, really good, and that right guard position has not been a disaster the last couple weeks, and the tackles,

are they getting better? Is it just me? I think this has been the best year even for derisaw and o'neill like this offensive line is legit yeah i mean derisaw i mean we saw it last year and we're like man if he can continue to develop and even get better because he's still a young kid young player you're seeing his development as a pass protector get better every single week he's he's adding tools to his tool belt you're seeing his jump set you're seeing his ability to flash his hands then a guy puts his hands out he traps him and he falls down

he put chris jones on his face twice with that you know one of the best pass rushers in the league and then o'neill you were i was concerned about the fact coming off an achilles issue coming back is he going to be the same guy is he going to have that same explosion of his stance and trust his ability to put his feet in the ground and he looks as polished as ever too and to have two championship tackles on the edges of a one and four football team is just a shame because it is so hard to find one great offensive lineman but when you have two and you still can't find ways to win you know you're on a ticking clock because guys only play at that such a high level for so long. Now, Derrissaw's going to do it for a long time, but O'Neal's getting older.

You know, he's getting a little older, and you're paying him a lot of money, and Derrissaw's going to back the Brinks truck up here in a couple years and be like, listen, remember Trent Williams? Yeah, I want that. I want that kind of money that you paid him. And you're going to have to pay it to him because he's playing at that type of a level. But so fun to watch those two play well and you got to see the question has been forever is it Kirk's fault or is it the O-line's fault and you can't look at this game and go that is the

offensive line's fault why they played that way or why Kirk played such a way and that's going to be an issue because that's been kind of the fallback for all the Kirk lovers forever been like well you see what he did you can't make chicken salad out of chicken you know what right and it's like well did he because this was really clean game by this offensive line keeping him upright but I reserve the right and I'm not because I've had to do this before I've had to do a retraction on the show before I reserve the right to say I need to see it happen again and again and be consistent because the definition of a good offensive line is consistency. Anyone can dial it up for a week.

Anyone can buckle up and go and balls to the wall, make it happen, and be like, man, that was great. But a great offensive line does it week in and week out consistently. And so until this O-line, as this group, does it consistently, I reserve the right to say and retract everything I just said. They do play San Francisco in two weeks, so it's possible. We'll see. I'm going to give them a pass if they give up some pressures in that game.

But do you know where Derrissaw and O'Neal rank by PFF among all tackles? Of course not. I'm going to take a gander. I'm going to take a gander i'm gonna take a gander that derisaw is probably number four and brian o'neill's seven that is an incredible guess they are four and six ah so close that's i started thinking about like who's better tackles in the league and i can only name probably three or four that i would say are better than christian derisaw and probably only four or five that are better than b O'Neill. And this is the crazy part about the start to this season, isn't it?

You have the fourth and sixth best tackles, the number one wide receiver in football, and you're one in four. I mean, and this game that there were some people, it's always split. You know how this is. But some people were very upset at Kirk Cousins getting a lot of the criticism after the game in Kansas City. He himself took us through postgame all the throws he was disappointed in. And one thing I wondered about, and we know how this works, every time you make a statement about Kirk the next week, you're wrong. So if you say like, oh man, it's over for Kirk, then he throws for 400 and they win the game. This is how it always goes with him. But he acknowledged that a lot of his throws were off and that he was letting the ball go a little bit high throughout the day.

He took us through the play with K.J. Osborne, which once we got the all 22. Oh, yeah, that was on the quarterback. He threw it way before K.J. was out of his break, which, of course, if you're going on a break, you're turning your body one way and snapping it back the other. Like that's how the play works. And he just threw it too early. I, I wondered about Kirk cousins taking more hits than anyone in the NFL last year. And if there would be some residual to that, and maybe this is like reaching on my part, but I have felt like there's been kind of a speeded up Kirk Cousins this year at times even when the pressure isn't there but sort of feeling it collapsing and on that Osborne

play O'Neal gets pushed back a little bit and it was like I'm getting rid of it and there but there was no pressure and I feel like that's been there for him so far early in this season and it was definitely there in that Kansas City game yeah last year it's no secret his clock had to speed sure and I feel like that's been there for him so far early in the season and it was definitely there in that Kansas City game yeah last year it's no secret his clock had to speed up he got smacked over and over last year and as a human being you know your body starts to tense up when you start having a little PTSD from last year oh my ribs right so those things do happen to speed up and I think your your nails you're dead on that. And it happens to a lot of quarterbacks. I mean, Daniel Jones is in his happened that right now. Andrew Luck had that happen to him throughout his career.

You know, you just start to feel a pressure. I mean, I even think back to watching the tape there. They sent a blitz and the running back was kind of late to getting up there and he stepped up and picked it up. But Kirk was already bailing out of the pocket right he's feeling these things and i think he resorts back to i got to create i got to move instead of just trusting hey the old line's going to pick it up my running back's going to pick it up i trust these dudes yes it might be a i might be getting glancing blowed as i go here but he's got to just trust these guys that they're going to pick it up and allow those routes to develop down the field. The really impressive thing to me about the fourth and the seventh best tackle

is the fact of how many times we've had to throw the football because we've been behind. Usually you see those best tackles, those highest-graded tackles, are the teams that are pass-blocking 23 times a game or 20 times a game. Trent Williams averages, I think Brock Purdy threw like 14 throws or something like that the other night. Like, yeah, great. You can pass block 14 times

when it's first and 10, it's a play action. No, but the Vikings have been in shootout games and trying to throw the ball to come back at the end of games against good pass rushers. And they still are ranking that high, which is still why it's so surprising to me that this is a 104 team. I mean, I look across the league. I'm like, this is, it's just too talented me that this is a 104 team I mean I look across the league I'm like this is it's just too talented this team is way too talented

to be one in four there's I can't wrap my head around the fact that you have all this talent and everywhere and I know the defense has its own issues but offensively you should be able to stay in any game with anyone with the talent that we have. Yeah. And a big part of that is, and we can't ignore it, is that every football they've had a chance to intercept, they have not. But that's a skill that's not random to me. I mean, when you have no Patrick Petersons on this defense, the only guy who's a true playmaker is Harrison Smith and everybody else can't catch the football. I mean, that that is how you're built. And that's why you need someone special in the secondary. And it's in part why they drafted Lewis scene was to hope that he could be that difference maker, playmaker that he was in college.

And when it's not that, then it's, well, hey, Cam Bynum's playing pretty well. Right. But this is Xavier Woods. Like this is a guy who is awesome that he's in the league and that he's a starter and he's maximized his talent, but he's not going to ball out and just like moss a dude for an interception that way. And I'm sure he would say he should have caught it, but like they don't have these playmakers that could get you

the turnovers back. And it ends up kind of that same conversation of how much can you overcome as the quarterback and the answer is only so much unless things are going your way which they did last year but i did have a thought i did have a thought so the big picture of kirk cousins as we stand right now and with jefferson out it's hard to make an argument otherwise is six years one playoff win a lot of meh some fun well that's a good amount of fun especially last year but that's it right it's got a chance right here to turn this season around and leave a lasting legacy i had this thought i thought like what would be the most unpredictable thing

for a team that's been wildly predictable for most of the time he's been here? Would be to go to Chicago, win by 20, beat San Francisco at home, get on a run, and Kirk Cousins somehow, now that he's not focusing on Jefferson, is dropping dimes left and right, and they turn the season around around and they make the playoffs.

They win a playoff game and Kirk is carried off the field in, I don't know, wherever Detroit or something. I had this thought of like, I always try to think what's the least predictable thing for him. This is the last stand, I guess like to go into Chicago is kind of the last stand of, if you're going to do something special here, this is it.

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you know, I just, it's hard for me to think her cousins, it's going to become something he's not, you know, I want him to, I root for the guy good I want him to have the success I want him to have everything that he's done but with no Jefferson I feel like the panicked Kirk Cousins is what we're going to see more than the MVP caliber let's go out and light the world on fire because when you lose your security blanket of the number one receiver in the world and you already have a slightly sped up clock in your head. And now teams are going to start just dialing it up, right?

Until someone can show they can beat man coverage on a consistent basis. You're going to see a blitz rate that this team has not seen since Justin Jefferson was on the field. It's going to be really interesting how Kirk responds to that. I hope you're right. I hope they go on a run. It makes our job a lot more fun to sit here and talk about it on tuesday mornings but i could see us going in probably not chicago chicago's awful but you know i could see us getting ran off the field by san fran and things

tanking from there have you had the thought of just blowing this whole thing up and going into the drake may caleb williams sweepstakes here i've had that have i had the thought my thought my thought was like all right jefferson take the year get healthy your hamstring's gonna be tight for the next 12 weeks kirk you like new york you ever heard of new york we're gonna send you to new york hey harrison do you still like it here do you want to win a super bowl somewhere right and just start trying to literally jump ourselves into the sweepstake of if we're going to do this, let's blow this thing up and move. That's the thought I had when I saw Jefferson was going on IR.

He says, have I had the thought? I have a tank in my driveway. I've had the thought. I've had the thought every day since they lost to Atlanta to go one in five in the year 2020 is how long I've had the thought. So, yeah, it did come to mind. But here's the question as regards to that. I think that in reality, when you have people who have different interests in the organization, you have owners who don't want to lose.

You have a head coach who, if you take all his good players and ship them to Jacksonville, is probably going to be a little teed. But like when it comes to if you're the if you're the general manager right now, our friends at Sumer Sports put out some analytics of Super Bowl odds. Do you know what they had the Vikings Super Bowl odds at? Just percentage-wise, out of 100. Just take a guess. 30. For the Super Bowl? For the beginning of the year?

Are you talking about right now? No, no, no. Right now. And also 30 for the beginning of the year. I was going to say 30 at the beginning of the year. I thought it was an eight-win team. Gosh, I don't know. What?

Five? Three? Somewhere in there? Keep going. there keep going 0.1 wow if i am in the general manager's seat at this moment and my super bowl chances by the analytic folk are 0.1 i don't need to wait until chicago because that was the mistake they made in 2020 they waited and they went to green bay and they won a game and then they got all talked out well you know we've got the jacksonville and the panthers and we can win those games and maybe make the playoff don't do it again they're gonna do it again but don't do it again like i'm saying now be on the phone today i saw the rams traded someone you can do it there are there are buyers there are teams that are that are buying themselves right now as super bowl contenders i would do it today that doesn't necessarily mean kirk like i don't i don't know that one's hard but it's not hard to trade an

edge rusher i mean hey go over there and do the same exact thing you do right now right so sorry edge rushers if that hurts your feelings but facts are facts so i would be doing it today i think it's a mistake not to be doing it today yeah i agree with you i think this team at this point you have to start trying to build for the future this year is and i hate saying it i mean as a player i'd be pissed off if someone was saying this but you look at a broad's perspective and a large lens of the bigger picture of what is the goals of this team what is the goals what we want to do isn't be playoffs win the super bowl all that things you can't start building it in january not right now your team's not in the position to say let's just get to the end of the year and reassess we can reassess right now we're not good enough

and so we need to start building for the future right now, what that looks like, whether it's trading, whether it's getting guys creating cap space, finding a way, you know, they have to start building for that future today. Like you said, because you want to also have some guys that you bring in that maybe on the last year, their deal trade for someone else or get someone else in here and say, all right, prove it to me that you want to be here.

Prove it to me that you can win, you can help us, and then maybe we'll pay you in the offseason. But signing a guy to a $4 million deal to ride the bench and create a fire, that's a really expensive $4 million fire you had to light under Ed Ivingrum and Ezra Cleveland there. That's not going to help you win in the future. And that is now, in hindsight, a bit of a panicked move. We got to try to save the season with a guard right away.

And I remember saying this when it happened of like, oh, wow. OK, they got a guard. But like, didn't they need that a couple of weeks ago? And why didn't you do it then? Why do it now? And then their argument, i guess is well he was too expensive then all right but if you were really in on winning then it wouldn't have been too expensive for you right it's like just a weird conundrum of where they stand and you could still

feel this tension of kevin o'connell is going to that podium every time now being like, I believe in this team. You hear me, you tall, gangly general manager. You hear me, you Wilfs? I believe. Don't buy into the general manager. Like, I don't know. I'm not saying there's a rift schism even, but I think there might be some different viewpoints on what to do right now, which would neglect them from doing it when they really should.

And the longer you go, the less I'm paying for the player that I'm getting because I'm getting fewer weeks of him. And if my Super Bowl chances were even a flicker, I'd say, OK, but they're not. And, you know, teams are like, well, we could make the playoffs or no, you're even your playoff chances are about nine percent right now. And that just doesn't sound all that promising to me. So I guess the question is then if they don't end up blowing it up and they just have history repeat itself, how, like, how do we believe this is going to be

different? Is it really just, they didn't extend the quarterback? Like how much belief do we have that they're going to get this right? This year? Or just, like, down the road? No, I don't care about this. Well, I mean, yeah, I do care about, like, this deadline and stuff. This year, I feel like if we don't make some moves, if we don't make some moves this year,

it gives me very little hope for next year. Like, I think if you start to see some moves made on the personnel and the player side, and you can start to see some moves made on the personnel and the player side and you can start to see the direction which we'll be able to see from the outside where are we going how are we starting to lay the groundwork for what 2024 looks like that type of thing I will have some optimism optimism because that shows we're actually thinking about the future versus for the last five six years I feel like we've just kind of been paying for the sins of the father and just oh the can got kicked down the road who are we paying in dead money this year okay i guess we can't go do anything else right now we have been playing

defense the whole time with the cap situation with how we've been handicapped with rosters and draft picks and guys on deals and guys getting moved out here that we're paying because they weren't playing good enough anymore whatever it may be i want to see this front office go on offense a little bit how are we going to start really shaping the future for the vikings organization under this regime last year was great we had a fun ride in 2022 we made the playoffs all that stuff all the fun but like this year obviously it's working. Are we self-sured enough that we are able and okay and comfortable in our own skin to say we're making our own changes now? And that's what we thought was going to happen last year. And it didn't because things were going well. You don't

blow something up when everything's fine, but it really takes the true test of a character, the true test of the strength of an organization from the Wilfs all the way down to look yourself in the mirror and say, things aren't going well. We have to make a change. We have to do it now if we want to have our hope of having any future in two or three years. Yeah. And what I meant is, I mean, I don't care if they try to win now or like, or I don't care like about the present and trying to win, meaning I think that they should move out everything that they can possibly move out. But I agree with you that this is a very interesting test for everybody involved. Like Kevin O'Connell, too. You're going to have to get on board with this, man.

And as sick as that has to make you as a coach, you just got to coach the players that they're giving you. And not, this is where, you know, the whole collaboration thing sounds so sweet and wonderful but we know that these egos get involved and interests get involved and hey what coach wants their win-loss record to say 4 and 13 or 5 and 12 and then everyone's gonna go wait Kevin O'Connell was it just all luck does he even know what he's doing and the wait, Kevin O'Connell, was it just all luck? Does he even know what he's doing? And the whole offseason, O'Connell's probably not as good as we all said as a head coach. I guess he was, you know, one year wonder or something. He knows that's the deal.

He knows he doesn't want those L's. And also it's miserable AF to be in a locker room that's losing and losing. But you made your own bed here. You had the choice to be four in one right now. You didn't do it. And this is what I always, you know, so we joke about tanking and everything else. I call it living in reality. You just have to live in reality. But I think it's a test of the strength of the triumvirate of ownership, head coach, general manager to get on the same page here and do what needs to be done. And look, you can't go back and unfumble.

You already fumbled. And so there's this whole, well, we just fumbled. We're actually pretty good. No, no, you already fumbled. You can't take it back. You lost. So now you're one in four. And there's no shot really at making a run out of this unless it is Kirk's magic ride.

So I agree. If there's no moves, then I'm going to kind of be like, I don't know, don't love it. And then if there's, if they win in Chicago and then lose the San Francisco and everybody stays because they think they could turn around, I don't know. Then the only thing different is you're going to draft a quarterback when the previous regime wouldn't, but you're not going to draft him at the very top.

And then who knows from there how the draft plays out if all these guys are actually first rounders i mean we heard this before where oh this guy's a first rounder and then it doesn't turn out that's really the case so this is a interesting pivot point in vikings history um what do you got for uh love to see and hate to see oh yeah i got a couple good ones here the hate to it for me, we're going to dip into the college football bag. The Miami Hurricanes. What on earth are you doing? You got the game one.

You got the greatest formation in football. All you got to do is walk out there. You dap up the D lineman beforehand. Hey, good game, friends. We'll try again next year you take a knee you shake hands you ride off into the sunset no we're gonna just run the football and go out there and fumble it and let them go 80 yards and two plays for a walk-off touchdown that is a fireable offense for whoever decided that was a good idea and you just hate to see it you do hate to see it

uh although i have to say so i went to the gopher game you hate to see everything involved with that you hate to see a coach who is not good at his job he's not good at recruiting he's not good at offense he's not good at game planning he's not good at game management he's pretty good at offense. He's not good at game planning. He's not good at game management. He's pretty good at interviews, but I have yet to figure out what the hell else PJ Fleck is good at. His Christmas tree in his house is very big for my understanding. That's impressive, but I doubt he does that. So that's all I got from the PJ Fleck era, except for the players that he inherited who were pretty good and helped them be a decent team at first. And then since then, they've been trash and have been destroyed by teams like Michigan. That was one of the most grotesque performances I've ever seen. And I went. It was a beautiful

night. And 52,000 people showed up. You've got support, you have care, and you just have a bad program. And at some point, maybe they'll realize this. I don't know if they will or not. That wasn't even my hate to see it, but I came home from the game because obviously I left in like the third quarter, just in time to see Miami fumble that. And I, Josh McDaniels would be proud of it. That was going to be mine. Josh McDaniels, you need one yard. You're and three and you're like no send out the kicker for 50 something huh like why like there is such a clear cut these guys are playing national football league 2023 these coaches and they're running away from the other coaches who are just like field goal like what what are we doing here josh mcdaniel's head coach getting

a win in that game was my hate to see it and also jordan love i don't know i don't know man not looking great we'll see hate to see that too i guess uh go with your love to see it i got a few i'm digging through here what do you got i love to see this actually is connected to jordan love and also to bill belichick and i saw criticism for matt lafleur and i've also seen criticism for bill belichick and what i love to see is people slowly realizing as it comes over their faces and brains that it was tom brady and a Rodgers. Thank you. I mean, Bill Belichick, such a genius. Everything he does is genius.

His bad drafting, genius. Gets rid of star players, super genius. Way more genius than anyone else. Oh, his defense that he cheats and films the other team's practice, genius. Wins all those Super Bowls. Oh, my gosh. He's just the best. Matt LaFleur.

Oh, man. He gets there. Turn that team around. brilliant 13 wins one of the best coaches to start a career in history and shockingly shockingly these things do not hold up the second your legendary quarterback walks out the door i can't believe it never would have seen it coming uh dude the fact that you're just so right it's so funny because the look on belichick's face in these games is more panic than i can ever remember seeing him since the day i birthed this earth right you're seeing him on the sideline just pure like i don't i don't know how to make it stop

like how this just usually just stops, right? Someone will make the bleeding end, and then, oh, it's fantastic. My love to see it, and I know people are going to kind of be like, well, they lost the game. The poise and the way that C.J. Stroud plays the game of football. That game, they obviously didn't win, but he leads them on a should-have-been-game-winning drive, takes them down the field, converts some big fourth downs.

His poise reminds me a lot of, like, a veteran. You know, that's not something you see from young rookie quarterbacks and their ability to move the ball, operate, and it was an ugly, gross game. But for him to come out and lead that drive gives me a lot of promise for him. And I know we talked about him quite a bit on the show, but he's really fun to watch. He's a guy that I'm going to love kind of keeping the track

because you look at Justin Fields and you look at some of these other young quarterbacks coming to the league, he's operating above a lot of those guys in my opinion and you know it's just one of those things that as a quarterback in this league you either got or you don't you know you kind of just you're a guy or you're not there's no this like floating in between of and i think cj stroud's a guy and i think he's gonna be a guy in this league for a long time you know when you play against georgia and you show the type of that you mentioned poise i think this is such a huge thing that he did against the team that blasted the tcu 62 to 7 like that's the

competition you're going up against uh have you seen jalen carter in the nfl that man was playing against cj stroud he did not flinch i mean you know hindsight's going to be what it is, but the whole like, Oh, did he take a cognition test or whatever and all that stuff? I, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I have really enjoyed like what we saw him play football translate into him playing football. Like there, there, there, that's how it works. But no, I mean, he's, he has looked like the most mature starting quarterback right away.

I mean, I don't know. Who's the last one that has looked like this good? Burrow, I thought. Burrow's team was an atrocity when he first came in the league, and he had a lot of that. So that's been fun to watch. But last hate to see it for me is along these same lines. One, Anthony Richardson getting hurt again.

I saw that they have like the hardest field turf in the league. You might want to change that. You ruined one quarterback already. Don't ruin another one. Also, Frank Reich letting the cat out of the bag, the Panther out of the bag, if you will, that the ownership drafted Bryce Young. Now, that doesn't mean that a lot of teams wouldn't have drafted Bryce Young number one overall. Doesn't mean he won't be great I actually kind of thought that at the end of the game he didn't look like totally defeated against the Lions which I thought was a positive sign but Frank Reich man some ownerships are more involved and this ownership uh what I love about it is they are as the the gun is to the side of his head uh much more involved um tough tough that's one we're going to talk about for a long time if it works out the way it's

looking so far yeah and but that's how it goes too it's so hard to evaluate a quarterback in college it really is you know you have to look at who's around them what type of player because if you're a great college quarterback, you're going to a dog team. That's just the way it goes. And I think a lot of college quarterbacks struggle with being the top dog, like Trevor Lawrence, Bryce Young, and CJ Stroud. They're throwing to NFL receivers, playing seven on seven

because they've got three NFL offensive linemen standing in front of them in college. So when they get to the NFL it's completely different versus you see some of the later round quarterbacks at times right bright or not excuse me I mean Dak Prescott when he first got in the league and some of these dudes that have just had to like battle right they've just been battlers from from the grinders from the way up Sam Howell and it's like yeah they're used to these pressure situations they're used to these pressure situations they're used to having dudes in their face and making these decisions quicker than it has to be and it's not seven on seven you see if some of those guys have earlier success in the league

sometimes but obviously the talent usually takes over eventually it's like well this guy is just really that much more talented but it is hard to evaluate quarterbacks at the top end of the rounds when you're asking them to come save the franchise from a terrible situation and that was exactly where the podcast froze but we were right at the end anyway and i think jeremiah was just about to say that young quarterbacks are hard to evaluate because they need more amazing offensive linemen and that is certainly the case with bryce young who doesn't have any so anyway thank you all for watching and listening. And as always, it'll be Tuesday morning left guard, no matter what happens going forward. Thanks, everybody. Football.