Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles wants competition for JJ McCarthy next year

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

Former Vikings lineman Jeremiah Sirles joins the show to breakdown the Vikings' ugly 16-13 win over the Giants and what J.J. McCarthy's latest injury signals for his development. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, presented by Fanduel, Matthew Collar here. And it is time, once again, for Tuesday morning Left Guard, which is being recorded on a Monday because the Vikings are playing on Christmas and people got plans. So let's jump right in, Jeremiah, with we get to use your offensive line expertise all the time to explain stuff to us. because no matter how much you watch football, I promise you you don't understand everything that's going on up there. So we need to start with the play where J.J. McCarthy got hurt. And then we can get into all the other implications and what it may mean if McCarthy is not able to come back this season.

So why don't we start there, my friend, break it down. What happened on the play? Well, actually, we don't know if that was the play McCarthy actually got hurt on. It could have been another play. but the notable strip sack. Yeah, so it's a tunnel screen to the left, right? So when I say tunnel screen, that means it's a wide receiver screen to the left. And so what is?

It's a three by one set. Your ball's supposed to go to the furthest receiver. And then from there, receiver number two goes and blocks through a guy over number one. The guy over number three goes and blocks from number two. And then the front side tackle, which was, I believe, what's his name? Justin's cool. Cool. Yeah, that guy.

school he has to go out and block it and so it's a trickle-down effect so what that means is that the entire offensive line is stepping left right we all are stepping left to make it look like it's a full slide protection and so from there you go full slide you get the front side three out so front side tackle front side guard in the center get out the backside has hot rules which means you have to protect inside out so you have the a gap and the b gap are priority number one so as i'm watching this play fall out brian o'neill is very much doing the letter of the law of the rules of, I have BGAP defender standing at the line of scrimmage. He is threat number one. I must step to him first and then worry about getting out. But by the way it's written up and now it's drawn up on the install sheet, Burns is unblocked. We beat the furthest defender away from the play got has to get beat with the ball. Now, hats off to the Giants. They run a nice zone pressure into it. They drop everything into it. And it goes. And I'm not saying that this is because, oh, JJ sucks. I think this is just a young quarterback thing, you have to recognize that so quickly and dirt it so fast

that you don't take the hit. And I think even if he dirted it immediately, he probably still takes a hit, not as big of one, but he drops to it. He sees it. He looks inside, sees Dexter Lawrence standing in the A gap, then goes to dirt it. But by then, Brian Burns, who's one of the best pass wrestlers in the NFL, has eaten up all kinds of space and smoked him. So it was really just a combination of a young quarterback, still learning how to to evaluate things on the run and knowing that the eyeball has to be out of my hand immediately because there's an unblocked guy behind

me. Also, it's a good play by the defense. So those two combinations of things led to a huge hit and obviously a sack strip fumble going the other way, but it was not Brian O'Neill's fault. I saw a lot of people, including our guy, Connor Stallions, who wants to say that it was Brian O'Neill's

fault for not blocking the edge defender. It was not. That is how the play was supposed to be drawn up. I've ran that play a thousand times. Well, if there's anybody that we can trust, that is just a generally very trust. Pillar of truth, Connors now. Yeah. You mean that people can't just watch games on TV and know all of the things that are called and happening in every player's assignments. I, for one, am shocked by that. Although that is such a common play that some of the people that I saw misidentifying, I was just like, really telling on ourselves here, aren't we? I mean, that's one that's not. That's not.

not a new play. That's not a, it's not, oh man, the KOC drew up some crazy stuff and got JJ hit. It's like, that's a, that's a screen to the left. I think even if you run it on Madden, it probably has that guy unblocked. But anyway, that's not the point. That's why we have you here to clarify such things as that. Although from Kevin O'Connell's comments, it sounded like JJ McCarthy may have gotten hurt on a different play and that one of the reasons he was not able to just quickly dirt it, whether it was identifying it or not, which you, you are right in how slow that came out. But also, he wasn't gripping the ball. So even when you see him and you have to slow it way down, it's a pruder film style. But when he goes to even just throw it right at the ground,

the ball just comes out. And he just drops it because I think his hand is already injured. So we move forward into that conversation, which is what now? If J.J. McCarthy cannot play in these last two games. What in the world are we supposed to do with the J.J. McCarthy evaluation? Nothing, unfortunately. All it does is add one more question of can he make it through 17 games? And up to this point, the answer is no. And I know like hand injuries are kind of freak deals. And, you know, it's one of those like, oh, well, that's because he took the hip. It's just, it becomes a durability issue. It has nothing to do with, oh, well, it's soft tissue. It's that. The other thing, it's just a durability thing of the best way to win football games, you've got to be

available. You have to be available to be out there on the field to do what you need to do to be asked from that piece there. And so you look at the track record here, we didn't know if he was going to be able to stay available in college, one year starter. Right. And so now you come in here and go, okay, well, he got hurt in the preseason. Okay, we could chalk that up. And then you have the ankle. And then you have the concussion. Then you have the hand. And a lot of those things you could say are avoidable by just changing the way he plays the game. That being said, the same conversation is being had in the New York Giants realm of saying, hey, Jackson Dart, change the way you play or you're going to get killed. You have to eventually

just learn the hard lessons. And unfortunately for J.J. McCarthy, the hard lessons are going to come at him probably only playing in quick math 11 games this year, right? 10 or 11 games. That would have been best case scenario. If he doesn't, it's going to be eight and a half. Right. And so you're going, okay, so now we have half a football year to try and evaluate where we go forward. It doesn't change how I feel about the fact of you have to continue to move forward with him based off of where the cap is and how the team structured. It just solidifies for me. I better have a great insurance policy for if and when this guy gets her. So when it comes to the injury prone thing, we've talked about it in the past. I can't stand it. I think it stinks for players

because you get unlucky. Somebody falls on you, whatever, and you get labeled because you've had bad luck. But there's also a playing style of J.J. McCarthy's that seems to lend itself to injuries. So here's a, what does that stat mean for you is pressure to sack rate. He is fifth worst in the NFL in getting pressured and taking sacks. So the amount of times pressured versus the times he avoids the pressure. He's the fifth worst. So he takes a lot of hits, a lot of sacks. And also the other injuries that he had. Now, one is scrambling and someone falls on his ankle. I get that. But one is running himself directly into a linebacker. And then, you know, we ask about, hey, you know, don't you got to kind of protect yourself? And this is a similar

Jackson Dart point. And it's like, well, you know, I, I jump forward for all these wonderful reasons. And you're like, I get that. But you're also jumping yourself into people. So the combination of taking a lot of sacks and a lot of hits. And even in games where the offensive line is graded extremely well, his pressure rates will still be high because he hangs on to the ball for a long time. So you have this culmination of things that leads to taking a lot of hits in the NFL, which if that happens, and it's Dexter Lawrence and it's, you know, Brian Burns and it's Abdul Carter.

Like, these guys are not players from Bowling Green. Like, they are going to hurt you. And that was kind of like the linebacker in Green Bay. It's like, bro, that guy is an animal. Like, you do not want to run right into him. So I think that that becomes after this many injuries, a serious concern with just how he plays. Yeah, and I know I think it's,

it's one of those things you just have to learn that as a young player. And unfortunately, you hope that sometimes you learn as like you stand up and go, ow, that hurt. I shouldn't do that again, not, oh, my gosh, I'm going to miss a game or I'm going to have to miss the rest of the year or whatever it might be. And that's where you talk about the unluckiness of it. I mean, but I think back even to Anthony Richardson, right, comes in this league, I'm big, I'm strong, break my shoulder, right? Okay, I guess I can't do that. And then now you just continue to go down that. You have to be able to learn and adapt. There's a reason Matthew Stafford, Tom Brady and them turtle now when they go to get hurt. They're like, I'm not taking this hit, man, down I go. And as a young quarterback, you're trying to win the trust of your team and you want to be that lightning rod and you see Baker do it and all that stuff. But even just look at Patrick Mahomes this year, I can remember talking about on O'Line Committee, hey, too many hits too early this year weeks one weeks two week three you're like man i haven't seen

my homes get hit this often this long ever and now here we are in week 16 going dude's got an ACL tear probably because he's running around too much make it too much happen like it all continues to compact and that's where you have to look at it from the viking's perspective and go okay he's only been able to make it eight nine games this season this is a league where you're going to get hit very rarely do you just not get hit but how you get hit and the way you put yourself and protect yourself matters to being available for the entirety of the season. And so, yes, you have to look at it from JJ's perspective and go, yeah, but I'm trying to be the lightning ground.

I'm trying to be nine. I'm trying to be that guy. You have to be smarter than that guy. It's okay to embody pieces like that. But with the evaluation piece, you're just sitting there still scratching your head going, I thought we were going to have a clear picture at this point. We don't. I really don't know.

I think you have to continue to roll with him and go with them and be like the guy, but you have to be able to be like, listen, we can't. flounder our whole year if this dude gets hurt in week two again next year. Fellas, do you ever have that feeling when you see an old photograph of yourself that maybe your hairline isn't what it used to be? No need to be in shamed. You are certainly not alone. But why sit around feeling bad about it when there are solutions? I present you with hymns. Hymns brings expert care straight to you with 100% online access to personalize treatment plans that put your goals first.

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were going to be good evaluation pieces, although I will say that the Lions defense has completely fallen apart. It's been one of the worst in the NFL. But even then, like Christmas Day, short week, everyone's watching, like show up, play really well, play the Packers. Maybe they're playing for playoff position. I don't know after Detroit's loss, how realistic that's going to be. But, you know, maybe they're shuffling for something. And if you finish with a strong five games, then you can make a really good argument of, okay, that might be fools gold.

But at very least, it's enough to go forward with and say, all right, you got your guy for next year, now get a reasonable backup and move forward. But I'm not sure after this, if he misses these next two games, if you don't have to try to turn the level up on what kind of other quarterback we're talking about. But there's a point in trying to get the, like, if we go from the, all right, Tim Boyle would be the guy that, sorry, Tim, you've had a good career as a backup, but like, you know, that's the guy that you never want to play. And then you got your Carson Wentz where you're like, okay, if we have to play him, the season's probably not over. we don't want to play them any more than like four games. Then you have your, all right, we'd feel pretty good about our backup guy. That's Joe Flacco.

Then you've got your this guy's competing. Then you've got this guy's our actual quarterback and it is better than JJ. Now, where on that scale do you think that they should be looking? I think you bring in just below the competing for a starting quarterback realm. I think you're flirting with that line of, hey, we're going to push JJ and not call it in open competition. we're going to back J.J. publicly. We're going to back J.J. in the building. But we're going to bring in a guy that we know will push J.J. And if it's clear he's better than J.J. It won't be a hard transition to be like, well, he just outplayed him in camp. Right. And I think back to then. But the question is who is that. Is that Jacoby Burset? Is that Mac Jones? Is that, you know, there's just that that that list is pretty small. But I think that's the level of competitor you need to bring into that room to a push. J.J. McCarthy and make him a better player and like him build in a fire, like in a pressure cooker, which is important. And also just for the longevity of if this happens again and he gets

hurt, I need to make sure someone can go in and operate the offense the way it needs to be operated and no offense to our guy Max, but this is a tough league, man, and being an undrafted free agent and having to walk in and just saying like, hey, here you go, buddy, run the offense. It'll be okay. It just doesn't work like that. There's a reason you were an undrafted free agent. and I was an undraft grader. You get thrown in the fire, it's really hard. I can't even imagine doing it from a quarterback's perspective. And so obviously when you go into that, okay, that didn't work, right? Let's keep Max, keep him developing.

I think he could be a good third string quarterback, right? Help him develop and turn into something. But you have to bring in a veteran presence that you have a lot of faith in in that realm of not truly competing, but you're right there. And that's what you have to sell them in free agency. The thing is, it'll be very telling how much you pay a guy like that. Right, because you can talk and you can do all of a sudden. All of a sudden you're like, oh, he's making how much?

Like, oh, that's interesting. Your dollars in your words are not adding up here. And that's where you'll really be able to tell us. Once you see the contract, they give a backup quarterback will be very telling of where they actually view that quarterback on that scale. So I think that they're, I want to talk out of both sides of my mouth here with it. Do it. Yeah. The best thing we can do.

Love to do that. Yeah. Because, well, I think that since they went to full. and eight. My take has been, oh, no, you made the bed, you sleep in it. You fix it. Like, you're the ones who decided Sam Darnold wasn't good enough. You're the ones that decided you didn't want to draft Bo Nix. You're the ones that decided you didn't want to bring in Aaron Rogers because this was your guy. You picked him over three playoff quarterbacks. So you better make it work. You better coach, coach, coach, coach. And also, as you said, like with the salary

cap situation, everything else, they really pushed a lot of chips. the middle of the table to make this work with J.J. McCarthy. So I think ride that all the way to the end and then we'll look at the results, not after just his first season. At the same time, when I look around and I go, Jefferson, Addison, Derisaw will return, O'Neils late in his career, Cashman, Grenard, Van Ginkle. There's a lot of really good players here who can't screw around and finish 31st. in quarterback rating as a team next year and lose a bunch of games and just go, what was this all for?

Like, we're really good NFL players who should be competing with real teams. And instead, we're screwing around because the organization decided it was way too smart to bring back Sam Dardell, not a franchise tag. And what are we doing here? And so that's the other part of it. And I also think from Kevin O'Connell's perspective, sure, this year you get to seven wins, maybe you get to eight wins. all right doesn't look that bad on paper and we're not talking about firing but we are talking

about seats warming i mean when you are directly responsible for selecting the guy it's also if you don't believe in it then you got to fix it like forget the sunk cost forget who else you let walk out the door you got to fix it and i think that there's a pretty darn good argument for okay let's call kiler murray the top top top of this conversation the next level down though is Jack Jones where that guy can be a backup, but we'll probably beat J.J. McCarthy in a camp competition next year. And I don't want people to lose sight of this. The overall, if this is the end of the picture, 42nd out of 44 quarterbacks in quarterback rating this year, 31st as a team in quarterback rating. If Brian Flores was not here, you would have three wins.

If Will Reichard wasn't kicking for you, you'd have three wins, basically. on your quarterback play. I don't know that you can run back a guy that's been of that level, even though he showed some nice little progress over the last couple of weeks. The bigger picture is as horrendous of quarterback play as exists in the National Football League. And as I'm watching Drake May drop 380 and I'm watching Matt Stafford drop 450 and I'm watching Caleb Williams make the throw of the year to the end zone to DJ Moore,

I'm thinking, can you really compete with this? If the only teams you can put up, I don't know, 160 yards or 200 yards against our, you know, Washington, Dallas, the Giants, I just don't know it's the level you can really compete, especially if Brian Flores go somewhere else. It's the, are we, how long do we want to hold on to the dream?

How long as an organization, how long as a fan base, do we want to hold on to what we were promised, which was first round quarterback, franchise that's going to build around that and Super Bowl on the first round deal like we've all talked about forever and we're going to hold that and we're going to squeeze it

and we're going to squeeze it and we're going to squeeze it until we can't squeeze it anymore at one point do we just put our blinders on and go oh wow that's actually a terrible idea and I think Indy ran through this with Anthony Richardson right we got the guy fifth overall picked he's our guy we're going to squeeze it and Shane Steichen quickly realized I will

lose my job if I keep squeezing this. And I need to pivot. The hard part is I don't know if Kevin O'Connell views it that way with J.J. McCarthy. I think you hear the way he talks about him and how much he loves him. And then you also hear some things where it's like, just don't be that guy, be a different guy. So he kind of is also going through this internal conflict of do I do what's best for J.J. McCarthy because he's a young quarterback and I don't want to shatter his confidence and build them up, or do I need to do what's best for the other 52 guys on this football team? And I think if you're looking at it from that perspective, the best thing you can do is to look at Jefferson and Naylor and go, hey, first of all, catch the freaking football.

Yeah. Second of all, like, I get the quarterback play, hasn't been what it needs to be. We're going to go out and make an adjustment for that and we're going to bring someone else in to compete with JJ, but at the same time, we can't lose sight of the fact that JJ's the guy. That's how I would do it is just like, you have to have that. open conversation. I go, hey, it wasn't good enough. And I'd have the same conversation with any of you in here. In fact, I am having it with you. Jordan Addison, catch the football.

Like, and we're going to bring someone in if you can't. However, we still believe in this guy. We think he has a lot of promise, but we can't just put all our eggs in that. As a player, you would go totally get it. Best will play. Like, and you have to just continue down that road because the second you just pulled a cord on JJ at this point, there's really no getting him back. Like, if you go bring in a Kyler Murray for your example and say, Kyler Murray is going to bring in. There's no open competition. Right. It's Kyler Murray's job. And once you do that to a first round quarterback like a JJ McCarthy, you're setting him down the path of Baker Mayfield,

Sam Darnold, somewhat maybe of a Jared Goff, right, of saying like, your first round pick, but you're not going to do it here. Right. And that's where you have to make that decision of that's what we want to do or not with JJ McCarthy. And that's a hard thing to do off of eight career games. Right. But this is the way that we frame it is, it can be looking so much different. Also, I do want to point out that even despite drops, PFF works on this, uh, adjusted completion percentage for drops. He is 36th out of 44.

So it's not like, oh, if you just made the drops catches, he would be fine with completion percentage. Like, no, it's still, uh, way below, below even the starting 32 in the NFL. Um, so that's a point. Uh, but, you know, when you talk about like, those other quarterbacks. Some of them did turn out to be good quarterbacks eventually, the guys you mentioned. It took Sam Darnold a lot of years for that to happen or Gino Smith, a lot of years for that to happen. You don't really have a lot of years. And that might just be

the reality. But also there are other guys where this has happened. And it was pretty clear that it just wasn't to the level that you need to compete for a Super Bowl in the NFL. Because when we talk about things that need to be fixed and corrected with J.J. McCarthy, and this is where we talk about even the potential for another injury here is another slamming of the brakes on progress. I mean, you're talking about, you know, accuracy needs to be wildly better than it was for the accumulation of this year. The reckless play, certainly in risk taking. I mean, they paired this offense down to play actions and screens and throwing to the outside. of the field to just try to get to seven or eight wins.

But that's not how you're going to go through the NFL next year and put your name right next to the Green Bay Packers. And I'm sure the Lions will be back. And, you know, the Chicago Bears that are going absolutely nowhere and a lot of other teams that in the NFC have an argument for being good into the future, are you really going to, you need to make not just gains, but enormous gains from a technical throwing standpoint. And it's hard not to do this, Jeremiah. When you watch Drake, May, you're just like, I don't know, man, that's two different sports. I'm sorry, that's just two different

sports. That doesn't look like what the Vikings have been doing. And at the end of the day, the results are just nowhere close for what they need to be. And I think there is a really good argument to try to bring in somebody else to be the starting quarterback. And if not, then I'm at the next level down for, all right, you need someone who's certainly competing with him similar to what they had in training camp for Tray Lance, Brock Purdy, and Sam Darnold in San Francisco in 23. Yeah. So, I mean, that's kind of the option, right? You either turn it into the gulag or you just have someone who's like, hey, the unspoken competition. And so those are your two options of like, hey, we're going to have three guys in here and we're going to have tryouts, fight to the death,

we'll see who figures it out, or you have to back behind. I just don't know. I mean, here's I think Kevin's flirting with his job and we let's just not dance around it. Any decision he makes here with the quarterback will be intertwined to his careers of Vikings tenure head coach. Yep. Right. Whatever he makes in the next, call it the next five months, right, going through free agency will determine how many more years he stays here in Vikingsville and who he ties

his fate to. Hey, JJ McCarthy, if they go down this road together, if JJ has success, Kevin keeps his job. If JJ fails, Kevin is out, right? Hey, we bring in someone else. I'm now tying my fate to Kyler Murray. I'm now tying my fate. Whoever he brings into will correlate how much longer he has with this franchise. And so for him, this can't be an easy decision. This can't be fly by the seat of my pants, shoot from the hip, try and put a band-aid over open heart surgery. If I'm him, I'm looking at this as a five-year decision. Whatever I'm doing, I'm setting myself up for the next five years to be the Vikings head coach.

And that's the way he has to build it from a cap perspective, from a roster perspective, all based on who is the quarterback of my team. And that's such a hard place to be. It's such a handcuffed place to be based off the way you've built your cap already. Your wish list grows a whole lot smaller when you only have so much money you can spend to go do it. Draft capital-wise gets smaller. like it's very much all negative things that go if you don't back j j mccarthy and so that's where he has to go am i just going to go all in and say screw it we'll stay with j jay because of the infrastructure we've built because as soon we start going outside of that picture other pieces are going to start to crumble you're going to have to worry about restructuring being more cash heavy going back to the wilps and saying hey i need more cash out of pocket right now like those are all conversations i're going to have to have and then you have to also explain yourself why you're bailing on j j j j mccarthy So there's just so many issues that come up with this.

Here's what it comes down to then. What it comes down to is, does Kevin O'Connell believe in the guy? Because, you know, when you go back to, and we really saw this from Mike Zimmer and Teddy Bridgewater, that Teddy, as you know, you played with him. Teddy had his flaws. Didn't have the strongest arm in the world. Wasn't the greatest athlete to make plays out of structure. But the head coach was all in on Teddy Bridgewater.

And they would have kept going forward with him through thick and thin. I think because of the belief in Bridgewater had things, you know, not gone the way they did with his knee. But when you ever listen to him talk about him before he got hurt, he, I think he called him like the best person I've ever met or something one time. It's like, Mike Zimmer hates all quarterbacks. The greatest human being I've ever been around. Yes. The greatest human being I've ever been around. And, you know, it is, it is true about Teddy. He is that great of a human being. Right. But at the same time, it was like, okay, if your head coach is talking about your quarterback like that, then you, You know, hey, if he has a bad game, throws for 90 yards, three picks.

Mike Zimmer's running out there the next week. It's not going to be a week-to-week type of evaluation. He is your guy. That does not feel like the way we've heard Kevin O'Connell talk recently about J.J. McCarthy. But I also think trying to parse through comments in a 10th season can be really difficult. That's what it's going to come down to in those meetings. If this is it. Now, if he comes back and the hand is fine and off they go, well, okay.

all right, great, didn't look that way to me. But if that's how, all right, then we'll see what we get for the next couple games. And then we'll have our, our clearer picture. But in my scenario, we're talking about if it's over now with this injury, then it comes down to, does the head coach truly believe that this kid has got a big step to take? And he's the one who's around him every single day. He's the one that's teaching him, game planning him for him, working with him closely. And if he doesn't, you need to go find somebody else because I do think they have enough

talent on defense they just held the opposing quarterback to 33 yards passing like there's enough talent on the rest of this roster that even a decent quarterback this they have seven wins with some of the worst quarterback play in the NFL bottom three how many would they have had with the 16th best quarterback right so i think they're going to take that logic into next year especially if we're talking about a last place schedule which they need to make sure that they secure against Detroit because there's a big difference between last place and not. But that's to me, that's the entirety of this is behind the scenes. Does he think that JJ can take that step?

And if he doesn't, then they probably need to go get something else. Yeah. And that's the conversation that we won't be privy to. I think a lot of the next time we hear from him will be at the combine, right? And he'll have a clear path and a clear picture after doing postseason. meetings and all that going in. And I think his tone and tenure at the Combine will be very telling because everyone's going to be like, so, who are you watching here? Right. Like, what are you looking at? Who are you meeting with? Right. And then all the swirling reports

of that we love about the hubbub of the Combine of the Shepter's like, hey, last night at 2am and Prime 47, Kevin O'Connell was looked at talking to Mack Jones rep, right? And like all that fun stuff that goes down at the Combine. You know, you'll be able to really kind of see what path we want have is he hedging a little bit on j j is he putting a stake in the ground on j jay j is he leaving the door open for other quarterbacks to come in it's all just going to depend on what him and the other people look at and go can we win a super bowl in the next two years with j j mccarthy or not that's the number one question that you have to go to bed at night once you make the decision answering the word yes to if you move forward yes we can win a super bowl with j j j mccarthy and this roster in the next

two years. If there's even any hesitation of, I don't even think that's a realm of possibilities, then yes, you have to move on. Can I just, before we move on to other stuff with our conversation, can I just complain for a minute? I just want to complain. I love, I love it. Come on. I just want to whine about this. It just feels like we found out nothing this year. I mean, it feels like, I know. Yes. Right. Doesn't it feel like. Yeah. It's a wasted year. That's how I feel that. I feel that it is like it was a wasted full of what if year. That's all it is it's a what if here and i hate it my dad you say we don't believe in what ifs it's like yeah but like what if he didn't roll his ankle against atl what if he what if kevin o'connell switches to this friendly

offense earlier in the year what if he told him to stop worrying about mechanics and just go play the game earlier in this year you know you just live in this what if world with him and unfortunately it's another year of the contract it's another year of frustrated all-star receivers jordan addison's going to have to be in going into a contract year like it just was a wasted year for viking football to not make the playoffs and to watch someone else go win at the Lombardi trophy and a wasted great defense as it turns out I mean you know early in the season they had their problems at times but even then they played well enough in many of the games that they lost to be right there they played certainly well enough against a team like Atlanta or you know Pittsburgh was

probably the most disappointing game, the Chargers game. But aside from that, I mean, even against Philadelphia, where the offense just could not finish a drive and you give up a couple of long touchdowns and you just lose if you're not perfect. But then over the last five, six weeks, they've essentially been perfect as a defense. Oh, they ran for a handful of yards. Great. Well, the quarterback did nothing. I don't remember. There's a stat about when the last passing touchdown that they allowed was, I think it's Detroit is the last passing touchdown. That was a long freaking time ago. So that's how good it has been defensively.

So you waste that and you waste one of the best years we've ever seen from a kicker in franchise history. You waste, I mean, I think an offensive line that when it was healthy was one of the best offensive lines we've seen in a very long time, if not the best, very, very tough. Now, that does bring me to Brian Flores because I saw Ian O'Connor, who works for the athletic, wrote, hey, Giants, it wasn't it fun to get owned by the guy you should have. hired in 2020 as opposed to Brian Dable. I guess that might be fair.

But when it comes to Brian Flores' future, it's been reported by multiple outlets, the Star Tribune and CBS Sports, that he is not under contract for the future. If you were advising Mr. Flores on what to do going forward, what would you tell him? You know, this comes back to a little bit of the conversation with the JJ thing is if him and Kevin O'Com. are in lockstep on what to do with J.J. McCarthy, he's probably gone. Right. If Brian's like, listen, I've done this before. His name was Tua, and we're seeing how that's all playing out

down in Miami right now. I'm not doing that again. And Kevin goes, well, JJ's my guy. Then he probably leaves. Like, hey, I'm not going to tie myself and have to be a perfect defense every single week for us to win six, eight games and then tarnish my name and tarnish my ability now. you only get so many options to be a head coach in this league he obviously failed at the first time he's gone he's learned i think being with kevin's taught him a lot right you see how much the defense rallies for him and loves this guy i think there's any time to make the jump into the head coaching realm it's probably right now for him and now that'll be another team's decision because there was that suing against the steelers and suing against the league like there are other closet stuff that might keep him from becoming a head coach but i don't think there's anything from a football percentage of perspective that if I was advising him, I wouldn't be like, dude, go be a head coach in the National Football League. You've showed it. You've deserved it. You've earned it. Go do it. The question is, will the off the field stuff transfer over where a team's like, yeah, we're just not going to risk that? So here would be my question. Would you take a lateral move? Because

there are, I don't know, 10 teams in the league that are just floundering defensively. And when you look around the NFL, everybody is doing what Brian Flores was doing two or three years ago. But he's continued to advance this defense. If you talk to the defensive players, including and especially Harrison Smith, who pretty much came back in part because he loved working with Brian Flores and their closeness has been well documented. He's made really good relationships. He's gotten them the most out of a lot of players, a lot of players that other people

maybe didn't believe in, like a Josh Mattelis. Overall, Isaiah Rogers has had a very solid year as an outside corner. Nobody was making him a starter before. He's done a lot of stuff here. Van Ginkle has. having his best years. Jonathan Grenard having his best year. Like, we've seen this a lot.

Jalen Redmond, a development guy who comes from the UFL and has now become a star for the Vikings, you see that if I'm Jerry Jones, I'm going, look what he did to DAC. Nobody does that to DAC. No one makes him look ridiculous on third downs. That's his thing. I'm getting all of my oil money and all of my cowboys money in a big sack and dropping it on Brian Flores' doorstep and saying, and just drawing a star on it.

What do you think? Just a big old Dallas star. Why don't you come over here, be the D.C. Brian Schottenheimer is a leader and a good offense in mind. We've seen that. If they got it, and look, that division's not good. Giants, Washington's majorly flawed. The Eagles are starting to crumble a little bit.

If Lane Johnson retires, that thing is going to be in disarray on offense, if it's already not. If I'm Jerry, I'm thinking this guy turns around my defense, and we're winning that division next year. Yeah. And I think the only way that he probably makes a lateral move is a money, right? Let's stop. Money is a big piece of this. And B, if he is fully at a disagreement with Kevin O'Connell on the quarterback position, right? And I think that Kevin has every right to say, hey, I wear head ball coach on my hat. This is my team. I make this decision. Great. If you don't make the decision that we all kind of agree on here, I'm willing to leave. Like I'm willing to leave. I'm willing to leave. I'm willing to. to go somewhere else because I don't believe in the guy like you do. I don't believe in JJ or I don't believe in going and getting Mac Jones or whatever decision Kevin O'Connell makes of the direction of which to go with the quarterback.

If I'm Brian Flores and I don't agree with that decision, I'm going to go, right? Because now you've fractured your relationship with the head coach. You've fractured now it's going to be this blame game. It's going to be this Mike Zimmer. Who am I thinking? Oh, several. Just say several. Norve, right, whoever you want to.

throw out there. Di Filippo is who you're thinking of it. That's who it was. Right. Like, now you're going to start this thing because you're walking into 2026 without a united front. And so I think that's probably a big factor in Brian Flores' decision to stay or go if it's going to be a lateral

move. I want to toss it out there. Some of the reporting from the insiderers when they were going to play Seattle and everybody was digging into that last off season did include that there were dissenting voices ongoing with JJ. And I don't know that Brian Flores was one of them, but if Brian Flores was one of them,

and then, you know, when we asked Flores about Sam Darnold, I think he called him one of his favorite guys ever that he's been around. And you just were like, okay, well, if we're, you know, playing clue here. But, you know, I'm not, I'm not saying. I'm sort of just saying that, like, it's possible that what you're pointing out here, if Flores doesn't believe in the quarterback situation, then what does he know that this narrative about Brian Flores could change very quickly if they have another season next year and they go with McCarthy and he gets hurt or he doesn't play well and they win seven games, then all of a sudden you might not have the momentum that Flores has built up in the same way. And you might be talking about everybody just getting

let go. So that's not a situation that's necessarily favorable versus somewhere else where he is being brought to be the savior of their defense, where they are welcoming him in with a four-year contract of oodles of dollars, highest paid defensive coordinator ever. Like, you could see all those things happening for Brian Flores. I think it's very realistic that the grass will be greener somewhere else where it's instead of a tense and pressured 2026, it's a Flores is here, here to save the day. And if you make even decent improvement, then you're like the guy who helped the defense completely overhaul. So all those things need to be considered.

What do you want to, what do you want to say about Vikings, lions? Anything. Is there anything, is there anything that could be said about this other than the NFL? Here's what I'll say. The NFL is not rigged. Because if it was rigged, let me tell you, they would not have this on Netflix after the gazillions of dollars that they paid for it. Yeah. Can they just flex this game? I think that's what Netflix is going. Did we not? put flex rights into our contract when we sign this game with you where we could pick the game that we actually wanted to put on here. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of another what if. What if this game could have been important. It's a bummer. Obviously, you know, watching the Lions defense

let Aaron Rogers carve them up is like, oh, what the hell am I watching, right? And then you're going to go, oh, Max Brosmer, going to take over Brosmer, however you say it, going to take over this year. It's just, it's a lackluster game. It's a short week. So it already, the football is never as good when it's on a short week. You throw everything together. You're just kind of like, well, let's see what happens. I don't know. Maybe we'll do something cool. Maybe it'll be a complete train wreck. I don't think

it'll be anything in between. So you just kind of want to those watching with one eye open. Like, I don't really know what's going to happen here because just teams are going to start. I don't think this team will quit, but I can tell you this, there's not going to be a whole lot of motivation to wake up here on a Monday morning knowing I got a game in a few

days. My body feels like trash. Well, there's also not going to be a lot of players. Because Ryan Kelly, a concussion again, which is crushing. I don't even know what to say about that, man. It's just like, I feel so bad for him and his family. And I pray that he doesn't come back. Like, and I don't say that in a malice way of like, dude. But just for an overall health perspective and as an organizational perspective,

you better be also saying that. Like, if you truly talk about player care and you. love your players and you always want the best for them. KOC, Przinski, Mr. Wilf, you walk into Ryan Kelly and say, we thank you, but please don't put a helmet back on. Right, like, because it's just going to be, I mean,

this is now three this year, on top of how many do you have six coming in or something like that, six documented or four documented, something like that? That's just too many to be talking about. I don't care what the number says on the other side. You start about three and one full season. You need a full year off to let your brain. I was very, very worried about him coming back in general and I get it like these guys,

they're warriors, they love football, it's in their soul. And I truly believe he did everything that he could to try to prevent it. You just can't. It's football. You just can't. Like people hit you in a face sometimes. And if one thing goes a little bit wrong and then we know that these concussions, they get worse and worse as someone goes along or easier and easier to have another one. And even like you think about if you had the one that he had that sent him out initially I mean a regular person would not go back to work for a really long time and then he comes back two weeks later and then comes back even a few weeks later after that it's just I don't know it sucks it just sucks that's the best way it just sucks like all around

organizationally individually fan perspective wise it just sucks yeah so you're talking about you know, potentially Max Brosmer without his starting center, without his starting left tackle, two of the best players in the entire NFL. You're talking about maybe one running back whose ankles, I'm guessing this morning, were swollen. And I don't know, is Cam Acres available to bring back again? Because it's just him and Xavier Scott. They don't have anybody else.

There was another running back that someone else poached off their practice squad. I don't remember the guy's name. I mean, they are just out of players. at this point. And Detroit, not having Jonathan Grenard over there, I don't think they're going to do what happened with Jackson Dart. You know that Detroit is going to play their hardest with Dan Campbell. It just, it all feels, it all feels pretty rough.

So. Yeah, they still have a shot. I mean, they need help. Yeah. Right? But they're not mathematically dead. The Vikings are mathematically dead, short week, short players. It's just hard to gear yourself up to go in there and be like,

I think you'll fight initially. but as soon as something goes wrong, there's just only so much fight you can store in the tank. Love to see it, hate to see it then, just transition right into that. Hey, I'll love to see it. I'll start here. I love to see Drake May and the New England Patriots go into Baltimore and fight and go down and go up. And you talk about how is this team going to look in the playoffs? How is this team going to be able to go? What's the battle testedness of Drake May? Because the playoffs are everything's heightened. I mean, that was a a playoff atmosphere last night and for him to go in there and lead his team do all the things

running the ball throwing the ball digs having another huge night it's it's it's it's love to see when a new superstar is emerging in front of our eyes i additionally love to see win games that i'm excited about then just deliver and over and over and over delivers Seattle and the los angeles rams than Green Bay and Chicago, a game that in Chicago, I think they're going to remember forever. And then last night, when it was 2413 and New England wasn't playing while, I was like, okay, well, you know, I guess it can't last forever, the magic. And then it did.

And he came back and he hit, I think he hit four out of five passes over 20 yards. And the one that he didn't hit was a clear tackle that should have been caught by Kishon Booty, who even had the ball in his hands and then hit the ground and had it bounce out. The national TV performances recently have been insane. And of course, my biggest love to see it from the entire week is Sam Darnold, throwing a two-point conversion, a touchdown. Look, yeah, he got outplayed by Matt Stafford in that game. He made some big mistakes that cost Seattle.

But the thing that I love about Sam Darnold, and I've always appreciated so much, is this guy will never give up. There are so many times in his career where he could have just said, all right, it's over. I made many millions of dollars. There are analysts doing college football broadcasts that are like 30 years old or whatever who just, hey, it didn't work out for me in the NFL

and I'm a bust and I'm going to go, you know, move on with my life. And Sam has fought and fought and fought and fought and fought. And no one has believed in him. Even the franchise, he won 14 effing games for. And then he goes to Seattle and everybody says going to that game, he's probably going to choke. The Rams own him.

got it, yada, yada, and you're freaking down 16 points in the fourth quarter. If there's ever a time to just be like, ah, well, you know, it didn't work out for me. Sam Darnold could have done it and instead came back with some insanely clutch throws, the sideline throw to Cooper Cup. I mean, two point conversion. Is there any more pressure? And look who you're playing that defense. And he is not thrown to his first read there.

He has to sit in that pocket and wait for that play to develop. It was amazing. It was amazing to watch. And, you know, all it sets up for is maybe an NFC championship between those two teams that could be a classic. But that was really cool for him. Yeah, 100%. I think, you know, seeing him, I mean, obviously, I think a lot of Vikings fans are still Sam Darnold fans. It's not like he burned his jerseys on the way out.

Sure. I think my hate to see it is, listen, group of five, love you. I love you to death, man. I appreciate the way that you fight and I appreciate the way that you go after it. But get the hell out of my playoff. I don't want to see it. I don't want to see it anymore. I want to see Alabama, Oklahoma four times.

I want to see Texas A&M, Miami. I mean, those two games, you're like, oh, yes, playoffs. And then you're like, okay, here we go, wind up the band. And it's just an, it's an exposition game. Like, it is no more than that. You know that that group of five teams going to fight really hard for the first quarter. Maybe some things go right. But after 60 minutes of playing against Oregon and 60 minutes of playing against a power for school,

you're just not going to be able to hold up anymore. I don't know why we're still holding on to this 2007 Boise versus Oklahoma and praying that it can happen again. In today's era of college football, give the group of five their own national title. Give them their own playoff. I don't care. Keep them out of the playoff, man. It's just a joke.

It's a joke. They're not going to win. They're not going to win the whole thing. Put the best teams in the playoff. That is pronounced exhibition game is, yeah, the way that that said. it was it was over so fast for both of those teams that it was it was very sad to watch and i agree that when james madison is getting dog walked up and down the field and they're running stupid trick plays because they know that they can score the next time you got to think and i

don't ever want to side with notre dame because they're so annoying but i mean Notre Dame would put up a better fight than this like come on now and i know people were like well last year and some teams got blown out like okay but those were good teams at least uh these teams were just not competitive on the same level uh i will say love to see it the jacksonville jaguars uh i mean it doesn't matter how badly you say duval in your opening press conference uh it matters how you coach that offense and i think once the jaguars this is this feels like weird to say but like once Travis hunter went out and they stopped feeling like they had to force the football

to Travis Hunter all the time, who is a corner, by the way. All of a sudden Parker, Washington is great. They go get Jacoby Myers because they're like, oh, man, we don't have our receiver anymore. And he's awesome with Trevor Lawrence. And you could have been like, oh, well, it was bad teams or whatever else. Denver

is a great football team. And they went in there and dropped 34 points on maybe the best defense of the entire NFL. They are a legit serious Super Bowl contender. and Trevor Lawrence is playing like the type of quarterback that everyone has expected him to play like going into the playoffs. It's like, who wants to face the Jaguars?

Nobody. Yeah, Liam Cohen. I mean, probably coach of the year candidate. Oh, yeah. I mean, I think that if he didn't have that really funky, weird press conference, there's really nothing you can even nitpick at him about. Yeah. Like what else could you mean you see the way that him and Trevor Lawrence talk with each other,

that they push each other, that that team is fun to watch. watch. And I think everyone was kind of like, eh, AFC South, and we'll see how it is. But I hope, I'm, I think they have to play the Texans one more time in week 18. Believe that's right. Let's check. Sure. But that game is going to be electric. I can't wait to see it.

They do not. They do not. It's in Indianapolis and Tennessee. So they should win both those games. Yes. So they should win both those games. And then they're sitting at what? 11, 12, 12 wins. Is that 12 win football team? Let me check. I haven't been paying that close of attention to the

I have, I know, I've just been, I just know that, like, it's, well, let's see 13. They could get to 13. So, yeah, they could get to a 13 win and I could agree with you. I mean, Liam Cohen could lead that team all the way to a Super Bowl. Uh, hate to see. I have two, like, small hate to see it. One is the NFC South. You just, just bad.

Um, I mean, good for the Carolina Panthers. They've gone from the doldrums. Yeah, right. I mean, that was, Canales was my coach of the year pick going in. I don't think he'll win it because of, uh, Cohen. or even Kyle Shanahan is certainly in that ballpark as well. But that division, man.

And Baker Mayfield just going off the side of a cliff in the second half of the season. And it goes from Baker showed everyone to, oh, right. That's why they didn't give him all the money. What was the other? There was another one. And I forgot it because I was frantic about the NFC. South. Oh, I know. The refs at the end of the Detroit game.

Look, if you're going to say the game is over, like say, the call is first man like the crowd is like the game's over we won and they're like wait a minute what there was a what no come on come on bro yeah what are we doing there and you can like my favorites they're all looking at each other like well you threw it's like yeah but you threw it too so what you say i don't want to be the one to say it and they're like new york are you on the phone with Vegas what does Vegas say you guys tell me what we should call here and then just the horrible you needed ed hawkily to take control that yeah right you needed the gun show to be like offensive past interference ball game over Detroit loses like just come out there not just like

well we think this happened than that yeah it was just so so poorly rod I do I do think that by the letter of the law they got the calls correct I just thought the announcement and and including the offensive pass interference that negated the first touchdown I still think that's right you can't run into a guy lower your shoulder even if it's not the the strongest blow. You cannot just run into another player and lower your shoulder. Now, if you just run like this, you're fine. That's on your hands.

Right, exactly. Okay, just last thing real quick for you. We've looked at the Fandul odds for the Super Bowl. Let me update those for you and you tell me what you think. I'll just read them through the list here. The Los Angeles Rams on Fandul are the favor to win the Super Bowl at plus 430. Agreed. After that, Seattle at plus 600.

Buffalo remains at plus 850. They've certainly opened the door for a lot of questions, though, barely surviving the Browns. Philadelphia plus 900, Denver plus 950, New England, plus 1,000. Then our friends in Jacksonville plus 1,200. Then Houston, Green Bay, Chicago. The Chargers at plus 1, San Francisco plus 1,800. I mean, so just to give you the list again, so you've got it. Rams, number one, Seahawks.

Bills, Eagles, Broncos, Patriots, Jaguars, Texans, Packers, Bears, Chargers, 49ers. And then Steelers. I'm bumping the Pats way up after that game yesterday. Like after that game yesterday, because that's the biggest question with the Pats, right? They had a cakewalk schedule. Like, they beat the crap out of everyone on their schedule. And now you're like, okay, playoff football, it's different. That was playoff football last night.

And they showed that Mike Brable has that team buttoned up. They've got Diggs who's been in a lot of big games. games. They've got some veterans. They've got some young players. Will Campbell's going to come back for week 18. I'm bumping the Patriots up there to say, hey, I think that if they can get home field advantage and if they can find a way to do it, they have a very legitimate chance of going there. Now, can they beat Matthew Stafford? I don't know. But I think that the AFC, I'm saying it's the three, it's Broncos, Bills, and Patriots. Those are the three teams in the AFC. It's going to be all down to the quarterback play on how those. And I know you want to nod to Josh Allen.

be like, well, he's been there. But Drake May has gone toe to toe with him twice now. So we shall see. I think the best bet on the board is probably Jacksonville plus 1,200 or the Chargers plus 1,700. I just don't think their offensive line could get them through. They're not helping. And Vidal's hurt now too.

Kimmy Vodell, I think he got hurt this weekend. And so they are just a walking wounded, man. They just, they have, they might have more injuries than anyone else. And somehow, again, Harbaugh finds way to do Harbaugh things and get them where they need to be. How about, um, Did it go through your mind at all that Aaron Rogers could play against Sam Darnold in the Super Bowl? I have not thought about that. All right.

Well, good day, everybody. That's the show. You mean help. That's the show. Football. All right. Yeah, yeah. And, uh, you know, happy holidays to everybody.

Yeah, yeah. Merry Christmas all who celebrate. All right. Football.