Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles wants to see more of Ty Chandler

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

Matthew Coller and former Minnesota Vikings Jeremiah Sirles talk about how Ty Chandler emerged as an RB1 type running back against the Cincinnati Bengals what the implications of that going forward. Plus why Brian Flores' defense showed cracks in the foundation and an interesting stat for the future of the Vikings QB position Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and it is time for another Tuesday Morning Left Guard with none other than former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Searles. Although this week, maybe you want to be former Carolina Panther. You've got the shirt on, and the Panthers were winners against the Atlanta Falcons somehow in a game that I hope no one actually watched. But let's talk about, so it's been a few days since the game. Everybody's like maybe calmed down, gotten over it a little bit.

And we've also talked in circles about what it means for Kevin O'Connell, who should be pushing who's tushy and all that stuff on QB sneaks and the way that the Vikings melted down. But I want to talk about everything else. Like as we were so focused on the way that the game ended, what did we miss Jeremiah? And I think that we should start with the running game and Ty Chandler where Kevin O'Connell said that Chandler is going to be a featured part of the backfield. And by featured, I hope that means like in the same way Emmett Smith was featured for the Dallas Cowboys.

And yeah, he had a backup and I'm sure that guy was wonderful, but you know, yeah, I didn't want to see him a whole lot. So I think the same way should go for this, where Alexander Madison is fine as an NFL backup running back. This should be the Ty Chandler show, the Ty Chandler show from here till whenever. And maybe even the Ty Chandler show going into next year.

I watched every run play back and a couple of the screens to him and pass blocks. Was it perfect? Like, no, but man, I was impressed by Ty Chandler in this game, Jeremiah.

Yeah, me too. You know, that's the thing is I rewatched the tape, you know, watching the game live. You're like, no, but man, I was impressed by Ty Chandler in this game, Jeremiah. Yeah, me too. You know, that's the thing is we watched the tape, you know, watching the game live. You're like, man, this guy's having a hell of a day. But when you really dive into the tape and the X's and O's and how he was patient in the run reads, he trusted the run reads. And then he hit the hole with such acceleration. He looks like an every down NFL back, right?

He's really coming into that. And you've seen kind of the steps he's taken throughout the year to get to this point and for when it was finally his show he made the most of it man I mean to have he had over 100 yards he did great the offensive line stepped up in a big way and helping him too but I think yeah it's his show going forward and it's his spot to lose in my opinion from here out, because he can bring a level to this offense that we've been begging for, for a year now, like,

man, just get this run game going, find a way to get it going. And you start seeing the, the building blocks of next year, right? I mean, I hate saying it,

but building blocks of next year, cause you're looking forward to it. But even at the end of this year, building off of a run game makes you feel a little bit better about maybe some options at quarterback. If you can a little bit better about maybe some options at quarterback if you can start feeling really good about this but ty chan there was excellent in this game that the blocking tight ends were also excellent in this game a lot of good stuff in the run game that kind of got glossed over because of the collapse but you can't speak

enough about the run game coordinator and how all 11 guys were really keyed into getting this run game up and going yeah and it was a major part of overcoming even some bad circumstances to start drive. So on one of the drives, I think it's coming out of the second half or late in the first half, late in the first half where they're pinned back maybe by a penalty. And the first play of the drive is Ty Chandler running for 30 yards. And it's really simple play. They just put two tight ends to one side and then all Jordan Addison has and the first play of the drive is Ty Chandler running for 30 yards.

And it's a really simple play. They just put two tight ends to one side, and then all Jordan Addison has to do is kind of run into a dude. And it's like, all right, it's Ty Chandler versus their cornerback. And he just blows right by their cornerback for 30 yards. And that's speed. It's a speed position. I mean, Jerome Bettis weighed uh, you know, weighed 260 pounds and ran over people. And Derek Henry, like is probably not the fastest 40 in the world at this

point, but basically just slams over people. How many other running backs can really do that? And what you're usually asking is to hit very small spaces very quickly. And that's what Ty Chandler can do. And another thing is I went through the game. I don't remember more than maybe one negative run. I mean, like if you hand it off and you bounce off a dude and you go for like two yards, that still keeps you moving like, all right, second and eight, you can run again and you could try to get third and short. You can go to a play action. You could pass the ball.

You could do just about anything. There were very few times where Cincinnati was able to just stop Ty Chandler immediately that he was often falling forward. And I think when we think of a dude who runs a sub four, four, it's like, oh, well, is he going to be too light? Is he going to get taken down easily? But I don't see that from him. I see him pushing forward on every play. So even the bad runs are like three yards and not negative three yards that pretty much kills drives. And we saw that way too often from Alexander Maddis. Yeah. And you know, the thing that I always look at for

a run game is called efficient runs. Tony Sperano was one of the guys that pounded this into our heads when we were players is you have to be efficient when you run the football. And in his word, an efficient run is four plus yards, right? That is an efficient run, right? Because every, every run's blocked on paper to score. And it just is like, everyone should be accounted for and it works, but that's just not the way it goes. But if you can cover guys up, get some movement at the point of attack, a good running back should be able to efficiently get you four yards. Ty Chandler averaged 5.7, right? 5.7 yards, which is almost two yards past what an efficient run would be. And so to your point, what knocks down those yards per carry are the negative runs, right? A carry for a minus six or a carry for a minus five. And those can be a combination of free runners, right? If a guy gets a free runner

and there's someone standing in the hole, or if a guy's trying to just dance too much in the backfield instead of putting his feet and go. And then the thing that Ty Chandler has going noticeably different than the rest of the running backs on this roster is the acceleration through the hole, right? The ability to put his foot in the ground, see the hole and accelerate, right?

It's something Saquon Barkley was fantastic at young in his career. It's something Chris McCaffrey is still incredibly successful at. And you talk about all the backs that are great, the acceleration through the hole, through that immediate first line of contact, like you said, running through an arm tackle of a defensive lineman that is being blocked or a linebacker that's covered up and using that burst and that acceleration to get on the second level.

And then when you have that kind of speed, you put those safeties in a bind because they think, do I run up to this guy and try and get him on the ground? Or do I try and corral him a little bit here and wait for the Calvary to come? And you saw the Bengals secondary time and time again, getting stuck in that no man's land, right? A safety at 11 yards. He accelerates to the hole. Now there's a five yard buffer between him and the safety and they have to make a decision and a lot of times he just like you said blew right by

him or made a nifty little nifty little shake to kind of bounce and glance off them and turned a six yard run into an eight or ten or twenty and that was just really fun to watch and I mean he's no alignment I was like yes more keep it going right like and then we can circle back to why didn't you give it to one fourth and one or third and one, but all to be said, I loved it. I loved every second of it. I want to see more of it. I want it to become a staple because when you have an O-line that trusts a back back there, we just kind of start feeling ourselves a little bit more too. Like, hey, we have a home run hitter back here, right? We felt it when Dalvin Cook was a rookie. I'll never forget. We were like, dude, this dude can take it the distance at any time.

And that's what Ty Chandler brings is that explosiveness of, we give him a, just a little crease. He can accelerate and get through. And this dude can be in a legitimate home run threat. Every time he touches the football. So this is the crazy thing coming out of the game. If they squeeze forward for five more inches, just pushes Tush a little bit farther,

right? A little bit harder. Maybe get Harrison Phillips in the backfield to do the, uh, now at some point, we're just going to have a defensive lineman, grab the guy and throw him. And then that'll be fine. I think that'll be a good strategy. Like who's willing to fly. Let's have Daniel Hunter pick you up and just heave you over the line of scrimmage for a first down how fast would that get banned in the nfl just a three-yard running start hammer throw just win like when uh when josh dobbs won the game in atlanta there there was the video from the locker room and they're all waiting for him to come in everything else. Harrison Phillips just grabs him and puts him up on his shoulder. Like a child, like an eight-year-old, like, come on little Timmy, here you go. Like

that's how strong some of these guys are. Like somebody could throw him. I know somebody could throw Nick Mullins. He's not that big. Uh, so what was the point I was getting to? Oh yeah, that's right. If he could get, if he gets that first down and they kick a game winning field goal and we're talking about still having, you know, a great chance to make the playoffs, which they didn't lose out on. Actually,

I saw the charts. They lost like 8% for a potential chances. It didn't mean a whole lot the way that the other results were, but we would be talking about, this is the most dangerous. The weapons have been, I mean, in the KOC era, because Jordan Addison is bringing more than Adam Thielen did last year. And Ty Chandler in the couple of games where he's gotten a ton of work in Denver and then

in Cincinnati, he's been more dynamic than Delvin cook was last year for them outside of a handful of really big plays. I think we'd be saying that like the way that TJ Hawkinson is playing for the entire second half of this season. And yet the interpretations of completely different because T Higgins did some space jam stuff and went up and made the most insane play. And then they couldn't get the first down on the tush bush, but like it makes you believe that they can go toe to toe with Detroit for at least one of these two wins and potentially beat the Packers because Ty Chandler is playing the way he is because Justin Jefferson came back and

looked really, really good in that game. Yeah. And it just, it goes to, it's the old saying winning fixes everything, right? We win this football game and our tune is look out are the vikings a team that you want to tussle with in the playoffs right all those things come into play and that's why again because we've talked about it and i've listened to plenty of vikings radio we talked about the class like there's a lot of good stuff on tape and i know there's no

participation trophies and i know that's not what people want to hear but when you put your true tape hat on you watch this game you're going man for three quarters this was a dominant performance it really was defense was playing with their hair on fire the offense was um being very efficient they were hitting on all things nick mullins was doing exactly what we asked him to do outside of the crazy weird interception funniest one you'll see all year but you know throwing for over 300 yards managing the game good completions getting the ball in his playmakers hands like all of those things were just like really fun to watch and then they just all get brushed under the rug because one goes up in the alcohol and that's what football is that's how it goes the margin for error is so small each and every single week

between winning and losing but you do have to highlight the fact that all the criticism can and should be pointed at times at KOC. But what he's been able to do with what he has with Nick Mullins and then featuring the guys that he feels he can put trust in, like Ty Chandler, that's a big plus in my book for KOC. That's a big plus in my playbook for this whole offensive staff of being able to adjust and adapt and pivot almost on a week-in out basis and still put a team out there that is competitive on offense every single week well and one thing with the struggles in the run game is we can't like use ai to simulate what

it would have been like if someone else was in there and if there's a reasonable criticism it's okay i get that ty chandler may have not understood everything before, but could he have understood more than you thought he could or some stuff? How about like 40% of the carries worth of information? And I think he's pass blocked just fine for the most part. Also, I tend to believe that Latavius Murray is the only good pass blocker I've ever covered. Like these running backs are just not great at it. Also, I tend to believe that Latavius Murray is the only good pass blocker I've ever covered. These running backs are just not great at it.

And if it's a younger, inexperienced player and he makes a mistake, they're like, oh, my God, we can never play him again. If it's Madison, he makes a mistake. They're like, it's OK. He's a veteran. Like what? I mean, it's the same result. But that that to me is a miscue of just not believing enough in a guy with super talent that you can find a way to have him on the field. And I guess all's well that ends well if you found your running back for the next couple of years here in Ty Chandler.

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but I really see tons of talent there. Tons of talent with the football in his hands. So the other thing is too, what I was getting at is that the run scheme, you know, it was like, is it wrong? Is it weird? Is it bad? No, it's not. They just need a guy who runs really fast in order to hit which shocker right from the running back position. But I thought even the run blocking didn't even look that bad to me over the whole season and PFF was grading it well. And the next-gen stats were grading it well. And yet they couldn't run. It was like, what is going on here?

And I think we have now a pretty clear picture of what was going on is they needed Ty Chandler to run. But I wanted to ask you what you think happened on defense and whether that should be a blip and a strange confluence of events or is that something that the Detroit Lions are going to go oh yeah baby we're going to use everything that they use in the second half of that game and look out Brian Flores's defense I think it's a little bit of both I think Jake Browning made some really critical throws and critical moments, almost more than I've seen Goff make at times this year. I think that's a guy rising to high emotions, battling it out. And sometimes that happens.

Sometimes you run into a guy that's just red hot, and he's seeing the field, he's seeing everything. And hats off to Jake Browning for being able to do that in those moments. But I also think the offensive line for Cincinnati did a really good job of what I call sifting through the trash. And what that means is just being able to get back off the ball, let things develop in front of them, pick up who you can, and then try and let your quarterback say, okay, we've got five guys we can block. We're going to block those five, mix and pick

someone else up and go. But also there was times where mixing misses a blitz pickup. I distinctly remember, I think it's in the third quarter, Mixon steps up and he's looking around like this, and here comes Ivan Pace screaming up the middle, and he's just kind of like, oh, I'll just run out to the flat, and just forgets him, and somehow Browning gets away and ends up dumping it to Mixon for like an eight-yard gain. Those things just kind of happened, and those are just guys making plays.

So I do think it was a little bit Bengals rose to the occasion, but the thing that you did see was if we can pick up some of these blitzes And those are just guys making plays. So I do think it was a little bit Bengals rose to the occasion. But the thing that you did see was if we can pick up some of these blitzes and some of these exotics, the back end is still a little weak at the cornerback position. And when you have superstar receivers, which Jamar Chase and T. Higgins, who hasn't had the year that everyone expected him to, but he's still he's been a great receiver in this league for a long time. You can start to see where just give these guys some chances and maybe our receivers are just better than your DBs. And that's kind of what Jake Browning did. And you talk about what the Lions can do with Amon Ross, St. Brown, Sam Laporta, Reynolds. Like they have some dudes that can go back there and make things happen, but it all started because the guys up front in the blitz package could not get Browning on the ground, right? They just, in the fourth quarter, I'm talking specifically in the fourth quarter, they couldn't

really get him on the ground. He had time to get back there and make the throws. So I think Flores is going to have to go back and be like, okay, maybe we need to change some things up, how we're going to get to guys, how we disguise some things, because we obviously can't just line up and go. So I think it's, it's more, I don't know if that really answered your question. I think it was twofold. I don't think there's anything glaring off that defense where I was like,

there it is. There's the chink in the armor, right? That's the one. Besides the fact that sometimes the receivers are just better than your DBs, and that was the case in the fourth quarter this week. Yeah, I've got a couple observations from the film. I mean, one of them was that they would run a bunch of clear outs and then stuff underneath it. And the Vikings defense is

kind of built on the back end to keep everything in front of them. It's like aggressive upfront, conservative in the back, sort of like a reverse mullet defense. And that you would see a receiver going deep, like I'm running a go route and then somebody else coming underneath, you know, you call it a dagger concept or whatever you want to call it, but the defense would be kind of pushed back by some of those deep routes. And then that one guy underneath there'd be something there. So for Jake Browning, it was like seven, 10, 12, eight. And, and he was, I think he completed like seven of eight passes at one point on one drive. And none of them went more than maybe 10 yards through the air, but they were clearing everybody out, like pushing the safeties back with those deep routes. And I thought that was pretty effective. The other thing is too, that, and this is just a trend all

year long, these corners cannot play the football. So if teams are willing to put the ball up and this is probably going to be in the, in the reports now at this point, like put the ball up up if there's a one-on-one corner Byron Murphy doesn't play the ball particularly well Caleb Evans as we saw uh Makai Blackman in the end zone against Cortland Sutton like these guys have been mossed this year Chris Alave got them Cortland Sutton got them and now T Higgins got them and I think this is what you get with kind of like, when we talk about, well, this guy was drafted in the second, this guy was in the third, this guy was in the fourth. Well, they're corners for a reason, like that kind of stuff. But none of them have some long history of being like sauce Gardner or Patrick Peterson or something. If you give Patrick Peterson a chance to play the football, that dude is picking it off

like a wide receiver. That is not what they have have right now so I do think that there's some cracks in the armor here as in like teams know now what you can do that doesn't mean they're going to collapse the rest of the way but there are maybe more answers than it looks like coming out of the Raiders game if you have a good team which of course the Detroit Lions do. Yeah. And it all starts with just picking up what Flores wants to do up front. The dude's a gambler, right? He sends six more than anyone else in the NFL. And it's not even close. I mean, it's like triple what the next team is as far as the pressure rate. And it's been successful. So that's why you're like, yeah, we're just going to keep coming back to the well, but

offensive line coaches. And as you get better against better offensive lines, which Detroit is one of the best offensive line, and they're finally healthy, right? They've been rotating guys in that middle, and Glasgow's bumped out, whatever. Their dudes are back. Jackson's back. Glasgow back. Ragnow, Decker, Sewell. Top three unit in the entire NFL.

And when you can pair those dudes up with saying, Hey, you just nailed the perfect storm. They don't have receivers. They don't have DBs that can play the football, but they're really effective at getting to the quarterback. Let's neutralize them, getting to the quarterback. And then we're going to win on the backend. That's the game plan against this defense, right? Pick up the crazy stuff, find a way to sift through the trash, get everyone blocked that you can. And then golf, pick your matchup you can and then goff pick your matchup right jordan love pick your matchup who do you want to throw the football to and give them a chance and that's kind of a feast or famine thing right you're gonna have ones you maybe it's a dpi maybe it is interception or maybe it's a big play but when you play feast or famine like that that's it's a hard place to live as a defense because you got to decide do i gamble do

i do i sit back in protection or do i sit back in coverage and, and all that stuff? And you're talking about some good receiving crews coming down the stretch here. It's going to be tough. It's going to be tough sledding because you're not going against, I mean, golf last week looked elite, right? And that's, that's the hard part with golf. Like sometimes like, dude, top 10 quarterback, look at this guy go. You can give him a good car to drive.

He can take you all the way. And then other times you're like, maybe, maybe Hendon Hooker should come in and play. Right. Like you just, you don't know with him. And so I think the plan is still to be to rattle golf, right? Rattle golf, get to his feet, rattle him, see if he'll throw you one. But if this offensive line can step up and protect with Daniil Hunter and that crew, then yeah, there's going to be some serious issues on the back end against Amon Ross, Sam Pratt and Sam Laporta. Folks is there any

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Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code INSIDER for $20 off your first purchase. Download GameTime today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Well, and I was looking at some numbers about the Vikingsikings defense in general dvoa which is the you know aaron shots the old football outsider stat that uh is is pretty useful to give us kind of context about yardage and how strong is the team really that kind of thing like last year they really could not stand the vikings dvoa and then it was much right. And the end of the day that they were

not as strong as their record. So just looking through that, comparing the Vikings defense to some of the other ones where Baltimore, San Francisco, the jets, the Browns are just another notch above. So this defense is very good, but what it does is adjusts for opponent. And of course, you know, Aiden O'Connell, Tyson Bajan is mixed in, Justin Fields a couple of times. And I think even though Jake Browning is not that great of a quarterback, the supporting cast and the coach are so good there that that was a level up from a lot of the teams that they had really dominated. So we should have expected a tougher challenge, which it will be with Detroit as well, and more answers to be found and more receivers to make catches and so forth. And I think that when a team has multiple weapons,

they're going to be bringing Gibbs out of the backfield. Now, Jamison Williams is involved. Like, this is going to be a tougher challenge. But that's where you look at the rosters and go, okay, I get it. Like San Francisco, Cleveland, Baltimore, there's just stars across the entire defense. Where with this team, it's like Harrison Smith and okay, Daniil Hunter. Anybody else you got that's like a proven star?

And that kind of comes into play in some of those bigger moments, which could get them down the stretch. And that's why, as we think of everything as short-term and long-term, like short-term, that probably will get them to not have another pass rusher unless Davenport comes back. Haven't heard anything about that happening.

So DJ Wanham asking Harrison Phillips to play like every snap and try to get after the quarterback, that's pretty tough. I think they brought Sheldon Day off the bench to use him sometimes because they were like, maybe he can get some pressure up the middle. Like, I don't know, uh, that, that part of it is still a little bit short, which I think will show up as they play a team like the Detroit lions. But the crazy part is that they only need two of these games, but maybe even only need one to get in the playoffs. So what does it mean to you if they reach the playoffs? I think no one's going to sit here and say we're Super Bowl contenders.

You watch football across the league, and it's a pretty clear cut of like, yeah, that team right there has all the key pieces needed to make a run to win it all. But you also look at some of these teams that are quote-unquote in the hunt right like and you're like yeah they could get frisky and fun in the playoffs but they're not going to be a team that's going to be a contender at the end of the day and that's where i group the vikings is like yeah you guys could be frisky and fun and get in and maybe make a little noise in the first round but at the end of the day you're not a contender and that's what everyone's trying to be in the nfl is they're trying to build their roster and build their organization to be contenders and so yeah is it great that they make the playoffs

yeah i think with the turmoil that this roster has been through with the injuries and the up and down it's a great moral victory to make the playoffs and And as a player, you're like, man, we got to the dance. Like, we did our best, and now let's go make a run, 0-0, everyone's record, let's go. You know, but from sitting back where we are, I think we have to appreciate the fact that if they make the playoffs, we have to appreciate the ride that they took us on. And we have to sit there and go, okay, this was fun.

It was crazy. It was all over the place. Like, we appreciate all that you've done, but let's be realistic and say, okay, let's start thinking about what we're doing for next year, because in no way, shape or form do I think this is the nine and seven giants team that snuck in in the wild card and is going to go all the way. But so for me, I'd be excited for the team. I'd be obviously a fan cheering them along, but as a player, you kind of look at it like, well, we did our best. We achieved our ceiling.

And I think the ceiling for this team is to sneak into the playoffs. Well, that's what I was going to ask. What do you think of the best possible outcome for these last couple games? And let's just put aside that they lose all three and then trade up for Jaden Daniels. And then we all finally have a quarterback to talk about. Although I do have a what does that mean for you in a second that I'm very excited to bring you that I think points to the potential quarterback of the Vikings future. So there's a tease for five minutes from now. But as far as like what's the best possible way that these games could go i mean for me it's

all right you're probably going to lose one or two of them out of three whether you make the playoffs may end up just coming down to how it goes how everybody else plays scenarios tiebreakers whatever else we've been through this a bunch of times and the super bowl feels really really really far away after what we saw against the Bengals. But I always think of things as like on a slider. Are you sliding closer or farther away from the Super Bowl? With everything you do, with every offseason, with every move, with every game. And it's impossible for me to not say,'s a double negative that they've got.

Let me put it a different way. I think they've gotten closer and it's probably by quite a bit from even where they were last year. Like last year when they lost to the playoffs, I was like, I don't think you got closer. I think you're in the same exact spot. But with the number of players, even including most recently Ty Chandler, who I believe now are part of this long-term thing that they could build around. If they make the playoffs, that means those guys will have continued to play really well. And it's hard not to argue that they've gotten closer because of that. I think this year is a true example of what a competitive rebuild actually looks like.

Honestly, you know, you take Kirk out of the equation, right? Kirk was always the linchpin of like, we can't be competitively rebuilding when we're paying our quarterback this much money, right? Like that's always, that was always the argument of how are you rebuilding when you're paying a quarterback, go win a Superbowl type of money, right? So as soon as you took and eliminatedousins from the equation, we've seen what a competitive rebuild really looks like, which is we have really good players. We have young players that we're trying to bring along. And so we're going to be competitive in every game that we play in, we hope. But in the end of the day, the goal is to rebuild to, like I said in our regular segment, to make ourselves contenders.

And so I completely agree with you. Those steps have been taken this year. And you see some of the youth show up at times, but you also see the superstars show up at times. And the thing that I love too is our superstars actually got better this year too, if that makes sense. I think that Daniil Hunter is still playing at an extremely high level. Harrison Smith is still playing at an extremely high level.

I didn't see drop off from those end of guys. TJ Hawkinson took big steps in the back half of the year, becoming the guy at tight end that we expected earlier in the year. Just kind of wasn't there. So you see big steps there. Derisaw continued to be one of the best left tackles. Garrett Bradbury

stepping up, elevating. All these pieces that have been around are not maxed out of their potential from what you see on tape so that's really it's frustrating because you're like we're right there but it's also just it's reassuring to me that the coaches are still getting the most out of these guys and so yes you're competitive but this was a rebuild season and an 8-9 win season looked at as a bit of a rebuild and now you can go into next off season going now we're competitive no more rebuild right no more we have the building blocks that we need now it's just about inputting certain pieces that will elevate us from this competitive rebuild area to maybe

we're contenders we got to develop into contenders but i think you nailed it the steps have been taken to put us in position next year to truly think that we could be competitive. I also feel like when you can reasonably say, and it's not some sort of weird twisted logic that you were very close to being just competitive after taking a rebuild approach, which doesn't happen that often. Usually if you take a rebuild approach you get a rebuild but instead had Kirk Cousins stayed healthy you're at least one more win than you're at right now I would say but it might even be two the way that they were playing on defense through that run they wouldn't have had to be that great on offense and Kirk was really clicking in to the offense at that time so you were farther ahead than you probably even thought you were

because of the number of players that did develop and come along, including Jordan Addison, who we just are like, oh, he's great now. Who else can we talk about? That's one of those frustrating things about football. It's always like, all right, that guy, Derrissaw is like the best left tackle in the league other than Trent Williams. Who else we got?

It's like, wait a minute. Can we just stop and recognize that he put himself in that Trent Williams ballpark with the way that he performed this year? That's now two years in a row of superstar, megastar level left tackle play. And I swear it's just because Derrissaw is so chill and never gets noticed for anything. And look, you're going to have to play in some playoff games and everything else to get the national attention. But he's just, he's not like a guy who really self promotes. He doesn't have a podcast. He just, he just, he's just vibes. And yet goes out there and dominates people. Addison is sort of the same

way where it's like, all right, once he did that San Francisco thing, we're like, all right, he's good. Who sucks? Who can we talk about? But the way that you have that offense now set up with the way Addison has come along, it's in really good shape. And I'll tell you who it's in really good shape for. So I saw this statistic from Eric Eager, our friend. Everybody follows him, Sumer Sports on Twitter, comes on the show all the time.

But he was talking about pressure to sack rate in college. So how often does a quarterback get pressured and how often are they able to get rid of the football anyway and not take a sack? Sacks are very bad. Now, of course, someone like Jaden Daniels does end up with a lot of sacks. Lamar Jackson did too. Lots of running quarterbacks like who have that as a big part of their game do take a lot of sacks as well as they try to make too much out of it. But Michael Penix Jr. only turned those into sacks 7% of the time, pressures into sacks.

So when he got pressured, he got rid of the football and didn't turn it into massive negative plays. You add that with his arm strength and his accuracy, his anticipation, his ability to push the ball down the field. And I was looking at the open receivers the other day going, if Michael Penix is the quarterback of this team, he's just gunning it to everybody all over the field. Who's wide open, right? Addison, Jefferson, he's given dudes jump balls to make plays like i think that that stat and his skill set and watching koc operate better with nick mullins has brought me into the michael pennix camp how do you feel about that i mean besides the fact that he's a couple years away from his aarp card sure you know. No, I mean, he is, he's old. He's 26, right?

So you would expect 26. I think he's 26. He might be 26 years old. He might be 25, at least 25. He's not even that. I promise you, he's at least 25 years old. He's not 25 years old. I'm going to look this up.

Okay. You look up. He's 23. No, he's not. He's definitely older than that. He's 23 no he's not he's he's definitely older than that he's 23 he's played seven years of college football seven six i guess six but yeah i think he will he will turn 24 after the draft so he would start his rookie season at 24 you're giving him like five more years. You're like, yeah, yeah. He's, he's older than a Sean Hill was when he was a Viking. I don't know, dude. I just feel like he's old.

I feel like I've watched him forever. Cause he was at Indiana forever. And then he was at Washington. I'm like, this dude's like, he's like the guy that was at Minnesota Tanner, whatever his name was, uh, Tanner Morgan. Yeah. Tanner Morgan. He felt like, I mean, I felt like i played against him when he was in minnesota but anyways michael pennix for me he's an interesting prospect because when you look at him on paper you think he's more of like a dual threat guy that's going to run around but when you really stare and watch him and break down the tape his accuracy is maybe the best out of all these quarterbacks like the the, the balls that he puts and I get,

he's throwing to a first round receiver. That's great. And he has two tackles that are going to get drafted on day two, probably with Roger Rosengarten and Troy Fanantu. Like those two are great. And so you start trying to put them in the camp of, is this like an Alabama quarterback where he was really talented and just through to really talented people,

or can you really break it down and look at him and go, no, the tools are all there? And I'm still on the fence a little bit about that because I think some of his leadership stuff is interesting. As far as there's times where they won a big game and he's got his head in the equipment box, and you're like, you okay over there? But then you see his teammates rally around him.

So I like Penix. I don't know if I like him in the first round type of guy for Penix, but I agree with you. The accuracy and the ball distribution is very good by him. I'm excited to see what he can do in the college football playoff because I think that'll be also very revealing on a big stage. But I agree with you. There's receivers running open.

Nick Mullins has the operable brain to get it there but he lacks some of the arm strength and the the nuts to say i'm just gonna throw this up there right which is to be expected of a backup quarterback versus i think if you can get a guy like pennix or even a rookie quarterback in there that's serviceable bow nicks that's like hey i'm gonna give these dudes a shot right i don't know any better i'm just a 28 year old young guy running around in here. Sorry, had to. I'm just a young buck in here just chucking it around.

I think you're right. This is an offense that's set up to be a run-and-gun, really fun offense, and that's something I think KOC is going to definitely be looking for in the draft. Folks, if you've been listening to the show, then you know how much fun we have been having with prize picks this year. Just go to prizepicks.com slash purple. Use the code purple for a first deposit match up to $100.

And let me tell you how it works. If you haven't heard us talk about it enough yet or you haven't tried it yet, very simple. There are yardage totals on prize picks. You either pick more or less and boom, you are playing. So last week, each week has been a rollercoaster ride of fun, and the best part is that when I have a bad week, I didn't lose much. It doesn't cost much to play. You can turn $10 into $250 very easily,

and if things go sideways for you, you're not out a whole heck of a lot of money. That is prize picks.com slash purple, just more or less on yardage totals. And you are in prize picks.com slash purple, the code purple for a first deposit match up to $100. The mobility is, is lacking for sure. And they, they will run occasionally with him and you're like, come on, buddy, you can do it. You can get there. Drop the trailer. Right? Yeah. He is a get what the, get the piano off your back was what people used to say to me. Cause I'm, I was slow even when I was much faster than I am now. But, you know, I go a long way from all that. There's still another game to be played.

And I thought where we really learned about C.J. Stroud last year was the bowl game against Georgia. So we're going to see him in a different environment. But, man, the guy went like up to Corvallis in a rainstorm and fought through like a tough start. And it's been a very emotional year for them. They're overachieving what they've ever done before. I think the best possible version of him is like a left-handed Phillip Rivers

who just kind of sits back there, plays point guard, great leadership, gutsy dude who just has great accuracy in throwing the football. I think that we also have to consider who's the fit for KOC. That's my thing. Like I want Jaden Daniels there run around, make a crazy plays. Is that going to be actually the best fit when you want timing accuracy? Like Nick Mullins survived in this game that I was thinking is with Nick Mullins. I don't know if he could throw the ball 35 yards down the field, like with his arm strength, the ball just goes, and like, just kind of dies out after about 12.

And I'm thinking like Michael Penix does the same thing only with a real arm. Like, what are we talking about here? So this is, this actually leads into another subject I want to get to before we go love to see it, hate to see it, which is just, is there anything left to find out here? I mean, like when we watch Ty Chandler and he actually gets a chance to be the RB one, we're like, okay, that's all right. There we go. I don't know that there's anything left. I think that it's make the playoffs. Don't make the playoffs is our entire discussion. The rest of the way. I don't know that there's any other players to learn about. I don't know. I think we've players to learn about. I don't know.

I think we've learned everything about KOC strengths, weaknesses, ability to handle adversity. We know everything about Flores, the defense, where it's still got to go, what it's capable of. Is there anything else?

Like what are, what are we finding out here in the last three games? I think this team's reached the ceiling. It's like I said, the ceiling is they scratched their way into the playoffs. And that is you squeezed everything you had out of this team. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's part of rebuilding of a team is you found a way like, Hey, that's good coaching, man. If I squeezed every last drop that I had out of these players with that I have, and this was our ceiling, then great. Let's see what I can do when I get

everything else involved and some new pieces added and new juice to squeeze. But I'm with you. This is kind of it. This is what we've learned. We've had new players emerge. We've had some players fall out. We've got rid of some players.

We traded some players. Everyone has had a chance to showcase, especially on defense, everyone's play. Everyone that can dress in purple I feel like has been on the field at one point in time for the Minnesota Vikings defense this year. And this team is who it is. And that's okay. They are who they are.

There's no magic wand that's going to wave and bing. Now, that's not saying that this team isn't good enough to go win games still because they've proven time and time again that they are. But there's no big surprise at the end of the rainbow here for us. There's no big behind-door number three the rainbow here for us there's no big behind door number three we found this undrafted free agent now that's all of a sudden like yeah i haven't paced has been fantastic to watch like there's been guys that have emerged but the season is

everyone right now is who they are right and you're starting to see guys start to emerge all over the league but this team is who it is they're an eight nine win team just like we predicted back down in september um and there's nothing wrong with that as long as they continue to play at a high level they keep trying to get everything they can out of all the guys around them coaches coach hard it's okay it is what it is just understand that it's not going to be some special big magical run just because i don't see the pieces put there that can make that happen do you think they make it i think if they split with detroit they can make that happen. Do you think they make it?

I think if they split with Detroit, they can make it in the playoffs. I think you're going to get a good shot against Green Bay. That's more of a coin flip game for me, just watching how Green Bay has been up and down and not real consistent. I think Detroit's gotten themselves back on track a little bit last week. They were kind of figuring their lives out. Are they contenders? Are they a joke and everything in between? They figured their lives out. I think if we can split with Detroit,

I think we can beat Green Bay and then give ourselves a chance with maybe some of the other stuff that needs to happen. But I really do think if we can find a way to go one-on-one with the Lions, we get a chance to get in. And I would say if they are able to go one-on-one against the Lions,

that the door is much more open than against anybody else to go to Detroit and win a playoff game. Yes. And if they win a playoff game, that will be about as much as you could ever dream of getting out of this situation. All right. Love to see it. Hate to see it.

I will start. I can't believe Aaron Rodgers isn't going to be able to come back. I just hate to see that. will start i can't believe aaron rogers isn't going to be able to come back i just hate to see that i just can't believe it this whole time i was on the edge of my seat going is he going to do it is he going to come back from an injury that literally no one has ever come back from within the season oh yeah probably because he's got the modern science answers that's the guy i would really turn to for all the knowledge about science and biology and everything else. That is my dude. And then what a disappointment to find out that he won't be able to return from an Achilles tear in the season. Too bad.

What a shame. We were just it was prime. The Netflix documentary was already written, Matt. It was it was already ready. You know, Rogers returns and leads the jets to super bowl right it was already written netflix had bought the rights but yeah that was never going to happen and anyone who ever thought that was going to happen just go buy a lotto ticket like you might be real lucky it just it's not it wasn't real it never was real and hats off to him for building a

huge audience and probably capitalizing a lot of off the field opportunities because he stayed relevant he stayed in the news he stayed very like hey business businessman aaron rogers nice job but anyone who's ever had a surgery on any type of tendon that has been repaired knows that you can't go play in the nfl at a high level unless you're a one billion percent healed from that thing and it's just human nature you're not healed it just doesn't work like that yeah I would say narcissist Aaron Rodgers that feeds off only attention uh had a great year and you know he didn't play and was never gonna play but he had another really good year for him just going on Pat McAfee and getting all the tweets from the insiders and the retweets and everything else,

the clips that came out of that show. So well done from that perspective. But hate to see he won't be returning. What do you got? I love to see it is Buffalo Bills, man. Like that team last week, we were like, okay, Dallas is back. They got the signature win. They beat the Eagles. they beat they beat the

eagles their rivals in the division they're looking like they're going to contend with san fran is maybe the second best team in all the nfl and here are the buffalo bills just sitting there going man just get me into january just get me into january and let's see what we can do you know you put them on you compare contrast them to the vikings of like they're kind of similar situations of like we just need to squeeze our way into the playoff the difference being the Bills roster you look at from top to bottom it's a Super Bowl contending roster and if they can play like they get against Dallas the other night running the football with James Cook Josh Allen making good good decisions and guess what Stefan Diggs hasn't even really been involved in the game plan in the last like three weeks so

you start figuring that thing out. The bills are legitimate shot in the AFC to go challenge the Ravens and look out, like look out for that team. I love watching Josh Allen play. I love watching his moxie, how that all things goes, but I just love to see that the bills might be getting themselves on track

to go play upset as they sneak their way in the back door into the playoffs. Similarly to the Minnesota Vikings, when the Bills win a Super Bowl, it will have to be in the strangest, most unpredictable, bizarre fashion, including having the turning point of the season being that it came out their head coach said, you can Google it. But that's a chapter in the book. Whoever's writing that one.

If it turns out, no, I actually agree with you that this bills team has sort of been a sleeping giant, but they couldn't get out of their own way. And I'm not going to say that what that story said that McDermott said galvanized them in some way. But I think they were that team before and they just weren't having it work out in some of those end of game situations. Once they figure that out, uh, they're a much better team. I would be very scared if I'm another team and I'm facing them seven,

two matchup or something. I'm like, Oh, you gotta be kidding me. Cause you're really facing like a one seed caliber football team. Uh, my love to see it is drew lock, Jake Browning.

We'll throw Josh Dobbs in here. Like every backup who has had their moment, who knows they're capable, who has had opportunities in the league that haven't worked out, and they get on a national stage and they throw a game-winning touchdown and they give an emotional interview after and all that. Look, Drew Locke's probably never going to be a starting quarterback ever again in the NFL. Right. He's just too flawed to be that. But you go through a lot as these backups. I mean, you wait and you wait and you wait. Hey, how about our guy

Case Keenum? Right. Like like I mean, that guy, you know, he didn't live up to that contract in Denver. He lost a starting job in Washington. He's bounced around since then. And, oh, man, now you're called into action. And was it pretty? Absolutely not. Finds a way to win a game.

Joe Flacco comes off the couch after being completely written off. Finds a way to win a game despite three interceptions. It's not sustainable, but who cares? It's been really, really fun to see so many guys who are capable of coming off the bench and playing have these amazing moments. Yeah, it's, it goes to speak of, you just got to be ready because all those guys you just mentioned extended their careers by years, years, because the backup quarterback is the most thankless job but it's also the most important because when you're a team like houston and you're fighting for your playoff life in december and you have to go win a football game without your guy you have to have a guy you can be like you can do this right like you used to be able to do this can you still do this and if you

have a guy that's like yeah i've done it before you'll make a team forever matt barkley is still in the nfl right like because he's a guy that's won football games you just have to prove that you can win football games as a backup quarterback it doesn't have to be pretty you just found a way to win and you'll extend your career by multiple years in this league so excited for all those guys case in particular i love that guy he has been relevant since 2017 and here he is again on man on the manning cast just checking in doing his thing so um love that my. He has been relevant since 2017. And here he is again on the Manning cast, just checking in, doing his thing. So love that. My hate to see it is twofold. I hate to see some of the injuries going around late in December now.

The Mitchell injury was awful to see for the Ravens. Pittman being hurt. But my other hate to see it is I don't love the league coming out and being like, you're suspended the rest of the year. For a hit that, yes, it was vicious. and yes, it was to the head and neck area, but it's really hard for me to be like, man, that's a tough play for a guy trying to dislodge a football, and you could tell immediately he got up like, I wasn't trying to hurt that guy. I feel like some of these big-time hits, and obviously Kareem Jackson set this whole stage for all these safeties of multiple offenders. And like, we have to throw the hammer and come

down on these guys, but you're putting the DBs in my opinion, in a really, really predicament of like, do I selfishly not try and hit the sky so that I can stay in the, stay in the game and not get fined? Or am I trying to dislodge this ball so my team can win the football game? And you're putting some of these guys in, in really, really risky situations for football wise that I don't love the league's being like you're suspended the rest of the year and in the playoffs we're just not even dealing with it anymore it's not a one game a two game like you're just done I don't love that for the league I don't love that for football I think it's something that's gonna be have to address heavily in this offseason you know I think there is something to be said about intent like intent of a tackle versus like just trying to make a play. It's a bang,

bang things happen. Guys are moving different elevations constantly. You're running forward, you're running forward. So I just don't love to see that in the league. And it goes twofold with some of the injuries that have happened the last couple of weeks. I think hockey fans understand this one really well. Hockey and dirty hits are always really really tough because are you making a physically physical play to try to like you said dislodge the puck or are you trying to take someone's head off and sometimes that line is very close and by the way the guys on hockey skates or on cleats are moving insanely fast and we're asking them to basically play slow motion which is what we could slow it down and look at. And I think it goes under that.

No, when you see it type of thing, like I know it when I see it, when a dude just clearly lowered his head and said, I am going after this guy. And I didn't feel like it was that to the extent that someone should be suspended for the rest of the season. That to me is reactionary because it got shared around because everybody

lost their minds over it because the guy got hurt. At the same time, my hate to see it was going to be concussion spotters. What is it that you do here exactly? I mean, do they get paid? I hope not because there have been numerous times during Vikings games this year where I'm like, I've watched enough football to know exactly what just happened right there to that guy. And oh, somebody picked him up and he's back. He doesn't know where he's lined up, but he's out there. And then Trevor Lawrence, my guy got hit right in the brain on it. And then his next throw went to nowhere.

Like, okay, you can, you don't have to do it right when he gets hit you could also watch the next play and be like okay something's up with that guy you could look at the replay what what is the spotter just there for show yes he is uh because i've seen so many instances including brock purdy against the vikings where a guy had a concussion went back out there you could spot it if you actually saw the play and saw him get hit helmet to helmet. And then he ends up playing. And I thought the goal was to be able to see these things in real time, get the guy checked out, get him out of the game if he's actually got a concussion. And instead, I don't know, I may have seen it one time all year of

someone actually being pulled off the field. I'm not exactly sure what it's for, but that Trevor Lawrence incident was really bad for the NFL. And I think that the, uh, the, the total game was so much focused on, well, what a game for Lamar, what a game for the Ravens that that storyline just didn't really get picked up on very much, but this thing has been totally useless and they need to do a better job with it. Completely agree. And, you know, i think a lot of it comes back to some of these quarterbacks making sure that you're not over embellishing some of these like slide hits you know like i think of like tommy devito last week right like he slides and they kind of and he's just like and like freezes and so like is he dead because you have and then he pops up and he's like and so i feel like sometimes it's like okay well are you embellishing are you you real? But I agree with you.

If you're going to be a spotter, have the balls to be like, get them out for at least a couple of plays. Like if we really are going to hang our hat on player safety, making sure you guys are right, like have the balls to page the ref, get down there and be like 16 out of the game until he can get clear. What's the worst that can happen? Like I get it from a team's perspective. Like that's my starting quarterback. I can't just have a missed third and eight. But if we're truly going to say player safety, we have to all be okay with it.

I think that everyone needs to jump on board and be like, we need to be more aggressive with the spotters in the player safety realm. All right. Love to see it. Second straight year for the Vikings under Kevin O'Connell. Have a really good chance to make the playoffs going down the stretch and we will be covering

it, of course. Next time we talk, I'll be back in the home studio as opposed to on the road here although i seem to have fixed the lighting and i think i look okay at this moment so uh jeremiah i'm looking forward to cover these next few games with you where we will dive deep and uh learn more about this team so thanks for your time and uh thanks everybody for watching later