Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jets analyst Will Parkinson doesn't see a Rodger-Vikings fit

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

The rumor mill has been on overdrive trying to connect Aaron Rodgers with the Minnesota Vikings over the last week. Matthew Coller got together with friend of the show Will Parkinson of Turn on the Jets to discuss if that would make sense for the Vikings and if Rodgers would fit.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Coller here and returning to the show to talk about a subject that honestly neither one of us really want to talk about, but we have to. Will Parkinson, well, Will doesn't have to. Will Parkinson turned on the jets kind enough to come on and relive some of the Aaron Rodgers time with the New York Jets with us because rumors continue to be pervasive out there. The athletic continues to report that there is interest between the Vikings and Aaron Rodgers and will I've tried to stay away from this for the

most part. I've tried to say, you know, it just doesn't really add up. Doesn't make sense. But the longer we go without anybody coming out and telling us that it isn't true, it makes me think as Stefan Diggs once said, there is truth to all rumors. So what has been your reaction having covered the Aaron Rogers era in New York to seeing potential interests between the jets and the Vikings or, and uh, Roger or the Vikings and Roger. Sorry. I would say this. I think it makes me feel like Aaron clearly wants the Vikings.

If you believe both the reporting, but also if you try to read the tea leaves of like the Giants have been out there for like Rogers got, we knew Rogers getting cut over a month ago and he could start talking to teams and a lot of these teams knew where they were at. Right. I think Pittsburgh went through their due diligence with Fields and wouldn't guarantee him the second year or any part of the second year. So he obviously moves on to the Jets, which I know this sounds biased,

but like the Jets are a better situation for Justin Fields than the Pittsburgh was. They turned to Ross, they clearly want Aaron, right? This has been, or there's at least a significant mutual interest between the two sides. The Giants have been out there for over a month. And the Vikings weren't really talked about much, I don't think. I think there was a little bit of like the joking,

hey, we're doing this all over again. And I was like, cool, let's do this all over again. Because last time the Jets were good and I got to like witness playoff games was when the last time this happened. The Vikings obviously made it to a title game and like everyone knows the deal. So yeah, it did kind of work out for both sides. This is where I don't get particularly what's, like Rogers wanting the Vikings to make sense.

They have the best weapons, they have the best offensive head coach, you're playing inside for 10 plus games a year at a minimum. All these things add up, although Rogers has talked a million times about how he hates playing on turf, but whatever. Like there is a lot of the reasoning makes sense for Rogers sake.

And I guess if you're the Vikings and you think to yourself, I just don't get like, you could have brought Sam back and running back this year. And then like, if Sam sucks, you pull the cord and JJ and like he reverts back to a pumpkin, you go to JJ. It just makes me think they don't love JJ quite as much or there's something off there that why would you even entertain it if you

love JJ because he had the year off, right? He had the year. I know he didn't get to practice and the whole thing, but it was a kind of a dream scenario. The Vikings developed themselves into a contender. They spent a ton of money this off season on some good players. Some players maybe I wouldn't have spent money on, but it doesn't matter. Like they should be a really good team next year. Detroit should be worse. Scream Day, we're not sure. Chicago is better on paper, but what are they like?

Well, you can pick the Vikings to win the division with JJ and not even know who he really is. So again, I get Aaron's point of view. I just from the Vikings perspective, I'm not sure what the like, it's the opposite, I guess, of the Daniel Jones thing, which is like, we're so arrogant that we can make Daniel Jones good because we did with Arnold, which I don't know, I wouldn't have done either. But I just feel like if you like JJ, you

play him. And if you if you like, damn, we messed up the knees not right. Something's off. We missed value, then, like you could have gone after a lot of other guys were just kept saying, I don't know. I'm very confused what the thinking is from the Vikings perspective. Well, that's what I've been trying to work myself through over the last couple of days is what would be the reasoning on their side if it's not that JJ McCarthy's recovery is problematic in any way, which Kevin O'Connell did tell us

at the combine that he is in line to start the off season program and everything. So he didn't give any indication. There was no like, Hey guys, you need to be a little bit cautious with JJ still recovering. Like, I think he would have done that if there were some problems there, but maybe, maybe there are if it's not that I think it's two things. Number one, Kevin O'Connell is terrified of ruining his young quarterback. He's talked about this a number of times, even last year. Like, Hey, let's not start a quarterback controversy with Darnold and McCarthy because we're developing him on my timeline and how I think he's going to be ready and so forth.

Coaches are also very cautious about this. I wrote today about how the 49ers tried to get Brady out of retirement instead of Purdy and then Purdy took them to the Super Bowl. How about Nathan Peterman starting over Josh Allen in week one of 2018? We see this all the time. Your guy Tyrod Taylor starting over Justin Herbert. Herbert comes in throws 30 touchdowns in his first year. It happens a lot where these coaches they want to play it safe if they can.

And the other thing too, I think it's just about Aaron and the fact that he is an NFL icon. He's one of the best of all time, but you can tell me better because you watched every game. Sorry. What is there? What is still there? Because on paper, it hasn't looked good since 2021 yeah, look the numbers at the end of the year look fine, right? A lot of them some of them don't look good. But you know, we can the touchdown interceptions yardage Yeah, it's fine like he's still he's still a good player no one's I'm not sitting here telling you he's not a good player

When he's healthy, which was at the beginning in the end of the year, he was awesome, like in a lot of ways. Caveat. His numbers were awesome. The Jets beat one team that was not terrible last year. They were in a million games and they blew at the end of pretty much every game. They led NFL history for most, you know, chokes, if you want to call it that, you know, six leads entering the fourth quarter and lost six of the eight games. Insane. Rogers had five or six fourth quarter

comebacks ball in his hand to try to win the game either down by a score or tied. It happened like once or twice they were successful. My issue with Aaron is more so I thought his Achilles got much stronger as the year went on. He looked more mobile at the end of the year when the calf, post-bi, when the calf was healthy, the knee was healthy. I mean, he played through a torn calf this year. He played through a sprained MCL, I think, or something like that.

Like, he was legitimately hurt, and he's a super tough dude. And like, for all you want to say about Aaron, like, he always has been like that. He's always played through injury, and he, like, won't miss time. And he did come back from the Achilles faster than anyone in the whole thing. But it's a calf injury now, three years in a row in to some extent. He had the thumb, he had the ribs. He's taken a lot of abuse over the years. He's a 20 year career. He's one of the three or four best players I've ever seen play football at the quarterback position. The NFL is probably two for me. Like he's that like I think of him that highly and when it's on it's he's still got it the Patriots game this year week

three I don't know three hundred yards three touchdowns like 70% like it's still there So at the end of the year again, I keep emphasis. It is still in there Like you will see if he's the Vikings quarterback in 2025 Five to seven really good games like we're MVP level isish Rogers three touchdowns no picks the whole thing you'll get six ish games that are like fine like the numbers aren't terrible but missed a lot of yimmies and you're just like it's not great but like you figured it out and then let me five or six we looks

terrible I think people didn't watch the Bills game in week 17 this past year, where it's the worst game of his career bar none. He was benched, a lot of the guys were benched, but Rogers was benched, they're two picks, he missed three open touchdowns, he took his safety essentially, he got a personal foul penalty, it was terrible and it comes back week 18. Miami has nothing to play for,

Tiger Kill quits in the first quarter and the Jets, It was terrible and it comes back week 18. Miami has nothing to play for. Tiger Kill quits in the first quarter and the Jets throws four touchdowns. And like, it was fun, right? It's a good fun. Like I thought that was it for him. And I thought that was a nice way to go out. Got 500, the whole thing.

The arm strength is still 95% there. Like he still got, he can still rip it and he still has some tight window throws and can still throw it. The deep ball accuracy is not great. He just gets rushed a little bit now. I just don't think he trusts his legs as much as he used to. People forget, and Vikings fans won't forget this,

but Rodgers was like, Mahomes before Mahomes where it's extending plays and the creativity and the trust with receivers. I'm sure Justin Jefferson will put up 2,000 yards next year and have 199 targets. Everybody else won't really eat because it's like Aaron kind of just like goes to his guys now and like that happened with Devante and they don't have to deal with that. But the mobility is not the same. It is in spurts.

Again, they will have moments, but it's not a full four quarters of MVP level Rogers. And if any level of your team is not 100% locked in that game, it's just really hard. He doesn't overcome an issue or two in Green Bay. For all those years, it was like the defense isn't great, but Aaron's going to put up 28 to 30 a game. This is more like 14, 21, 26 some weeks. They just put up 30 points at one time this year,

and they lost. And I don't know, like Gary Wilson, Devante Adams is just as good, if no offense, better than Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. Like I'd probably pick, I might pick the Jets duo just on paper. Breech Hall's better than Aaron Jones. I mean, like if you want to start, the Jets offensive line was good. Like there's no reason it shouldn't have worked. My biggest concern for the Vikings and this is the thing that I'm sure you've

thought about a million times. Aaron changed the play a lot at the line scrimmage. He wants the perfect look, especially as he's gotten later in his career. He doesn't move quite as well. He wants to make sure protection is like 1000% spot on and like he identifies, like he knows exactly where identified, he knows exactly what the ball pre snap. And again, I'm not saying it's a bad thing always, but Kevin O'Connell is kind of like, this is my show. I'm one of the best coaches in the league

because of what I do, especially on the offensive side of the ball playing calling plays. Is Aaron gonna come in and learn an offense that's very similar to the offense he ran in Green Bay that he had a huge issue with motion and he's different person. Like he went to the jets to run the Aaron Rogers 2010 scheme and it didn't work. So I guess, you know, my point is just like, how does him and O'Connell mesh one thing and then two, I know he'll be fine mentoring JJ,

but he has no equity in it. Like he meant or Jordan love cause he wasn't going anywhere. And it was like going to be a year over year relationship. This is like, he might be around JJ McCarthy for six or six months. And like, I don't know, I just, it doesn't really add up to me other than on the field. Rogers is a better product as of March 17th. Then we know what JJ McCarthy is folks. I'm trying a new thing to try to stop going to fast food restaurants all the time with

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Go to TempoMeals.com slash Purple Insider. That is TempoMeals.com slash Purple Insider. 60% off your first box. TempoMeals.com slash Purple Insider. Rules and restrictions apply. Right. And I think uncertainty always drives these coaches insane. But just to go with some of the things you said about stylistically,

I think the NFL has changed a ton. Well, Rogers has been here. We used to see Brady and Manning. They would go up to the line of scrimmage. They would ID the defense and they would call out Omaha or something, and then they change the route. But offenses are working a little bit differently these days where there is a lot more motion and there are a lot more changes and also defenses

are not showing their cards like they used to. I mean, I could sit at home and watch a game from 2010 and say, Oh, it's zone. Oh, it's man. Oh, that's where they're sending the blitz. They weren't hiding as much as they are now. Oh, that's where they're sending the blitz. They weren't hiding as much as they are now. And you see this from Brian Flores all the time.

And Rogers was mostly a disaster against Flores's defense. Well, where is this trending in the NFL? More toward Flores or more toward 2010? Of course, it's more toward where Flores is really showing a lot of different things at the line of scrimmage and then changing once the snap is taken. And that's what KOC system is designed

to actually battle against. It's more of like, I think they call them progression reads or whatever you want to call it, but it's more of looking to spaces as opposed to trying to read the defense. That is very different from what Aaron Rodgers has done for his career. And looking at the numbers from last season it's exactly how you described it it's a handful of games that are really spectacular and then a handful of games that there's total no shows

and if you're the vikings this is my thing about bringing in rogers if you bring him in you have to be playing super Super Bowl Sunday or it's a disaster because you didn't find out anything about JJ McCarthy and you just let him sit on the bench. And then you also brought the circus to town and everything else. If it's anything short of pure greatness and excellence. And if he had nobody at receiver, no offense to Robbie Anderson, but he was like the best receiver Sam Darnold ever had. And that's not the same as this. These were good receivers.

It was supposed to be. That's what we forget because everyone could go. Oh, well, it's the Jets. The Jets were talked about is the team that somebody wanted to be on. Oh, they're a quarterback away. And then now all of a sudden we're going, well, it must have been their fault. I don't think that the Vikings offensively offer something that's crazy different than what he already had. That's why I just can't really make this fit.

Man. Yeah, look, I think when Nate Hackett was the OC short, like that's a drastic difference. I'm not telling you that Hackett is who's the worst offensive coordinator in the league was not a difference. The Jets struggled in the red zone. And again, I keep coming back to the fit in Pittsburgh makes so much sense to me. He gets to play the Jets next year. He can do that.

He gets to play Green Bay next year, the AFC North. While we talk about it, it's the hardest conference ever, the hardest division ever. Cincinnati is the worst defensive ever seen. Cleveland stinks. The Ravens choke every January. So you kind of go, oh, Mike Tomlin's a good coach, but he's not on the offensive side of the ball.

So he's not dealing with it. Arthur Smith's a good offensive coordinator at points, I guess. But Rogers has more validity, so he could maybe change some things he wants to do. The Steelers offensive line, again, not great, like Pickens and Dekay, like can you just hit them on crossers and go balls the whole season and like the defense is good again, like on grass field, Nicole, it kind of just fits the Rogers mantra a little bit. Where I'm struggling is

the Giants make no sense other than if you want to just make the most money and like, yeah, the Giants on paper have gotten better, but Philly, Division, Washington, even the Cowboys, like the Giants are just clearly the fourth team at least at the moment. And like, you know, whatever, even if they got Travis Hunter and Malik neighbors out there, like, cool, who's blocking? out there like, cool, who's blocking? The Vikings again, on paper, makes sense, right? Like for him. I just feel like, I don't know, I just, I don't, I really just don't, I don't even know if the culture fit makes sense. Like, Rogers has never really been spiteful towards like the organ, he like, he's been spiteful towards like, Gudakunsen, like those guys, like the upper management of Green Bay, but like never any bad blow with like, they just did a documentary and like the Packers were extremely involved,

like LeFleur is talking in the documentary enough, so it's not like, Favre had like a lot of the other things and the Vikings again made sense and Brett Favre kind of turned back the clock after the torn biceps, so you can start to make those comparisons and if he doesn't throw the interception against New Orleans, like, hey, are they playing the Jets in the title game and in the Super Bowl? And like, we're having this crazy conversation. I just go back to like, what's the best case that happens for them this year? Rogers is what we thought he was going to be this year. So he's the top eight quarterback.

The Vikings are one of the top five seeds, right? They're either the one seed or they're whatever you know, whatever. We just went through this with Sam and if you don't make it to at least the title game, it's probably a failure. And then now JJ's in year three, he's never played like at all and you're kind of doing that, you're hoping you have the Jordan Love year three breakout or year four, but Jordan Love kind of sucked the first like eight weeks and then the Packers dug themselves out and like it went well, but they lost in the divisional round. And then this past year, they got smoked in the wild. You know what I mean?

So I don't know if JJ is going to be the guy. I really don't. I didn't love him coming out. But he showed some stuff in the preseason last year. You hope he'll go into O'Connell. Sam's obviously a great dude. I'm sure he answered a ton of questions for him. And I think the Viking ceilings may be higher

with Rogers for a year. But I don't know. You've invested a lot in JJ. They traded out for him. You know, you let Sam walk out of the building, even as much as I don't love Daniel Jones. You let Daniel Jones who you brought in, you could have brought Daniel Jones back.

You didn't. So either it's all smoke with Rogers and he just wants more money from Pittsburgh and the Giants, or I feel like, and I think you feel the same way, that he's really hoping Minnesota says, F it, let's do this thing for a year. But Aaron's also said, like, I want to play two to three years.

So it's like, what is it? You know, that there's just too many variables to me. And the Vikings culture last year, I felt like was so strong, I helped them. Aaron's not a culture. He's not a bad guy, and he's not a bad like teammate. It's that he's 41. He's stubborn in his ways.

So was Tom Brady, by the way. But a lot of Aaron's friends aren't very good at football outside of Devante. That's the problem. Tom Brady's friends were Gronk and Edelman. And these guys who are borderline or are Hall of Fame players outside Devante. Most of those guys stink like Alizard stinks. Billy Turner was very bad. Randall Cobb was a great player, you know, for presidential administrations ago. So, um, my point being like, if Aaron's going to come in and be tailed between

his legs, I'm going to run Kevin O'Connell's offense. And if it, I'm okay, if it, it's bad in week six and I get benched, like I'm going to, I'm going to take my medicine. That's a different conversation. If we're talking Rogers is a certified 17 game starter, no matter what I'm running my offense, I'm changing out of Kevin O'Connell's plays.

No, I don't know if I'm necessarily on board with that one. I think that the culture point is very important though, because JJ McCarthy really did a great job of assimilating himself to the Vikings last year. And it is the perfect character personality fit for KOC. I mean, it's like a younger KOC when you listen to JJ McCarthy talk. And those guys seem to gel really quickly. His teammates galvanized around him really quickly. You saw the way that he operated the offense

in the preseason game, but during training camp, that was a daily type of performance. That wasn't just, oh, well, he did it in one preseason game. For us, that was part of a bigger sample size. And I think JJ McCarthy is also the type of guy based on what he did in college, who is going to be a good soldier for the offense. And that could mean just making checks and changes

out of things the way that his coach wants him to. I think that's who McCarthy is. I think he wants to do what his coach wants him to do because it got him a national championship working for Harbaugh. It's a very different offense. And that might be part of Kevin O'Connell's concern if there is one, is that it does ask a lot

of the quarterback Sam Darnold there. I've seen people in Seattle saying, well, you know, you had it easy in Minnesota last year. I don't think so. I don't think it was easy in Minnesota. I mean, I, yes, Jefferson makes life easy, but as far as the entire offense, you have to do a lot as the quarterback. And that might be some of the trepidation from Kevin O'Connell, where it is a, if Aaron plays well this year and he's on the Vikings and they do well, I don't want to hear it's all Aaron because Sam got dragged through the Coles last year. There's no reason Sam Darn. I wasn't a top three MVP finisher.

No reason stats makes sense. They win that game in Detroit. Like I could argue pretty heavily that he should have been the MVP and no one gave him any credit. And I get it because then like Kevin O'Connell needs to be like, he's the number one, no doubt best coach in the league. Like someone's got to get credit for this. And it can't be like everyone gets a little bit like, I don't know. I was very surprised by and I just know what's going to happen. We're going to do the same song and dance. It's going to be like, Oh, Aaron's the reason.

It's like, well, no, I'm not sure that's entirely accurate. Right. But he does want, I'm sure, to come and work with KOC's offense and Jefferson and all that. So this has been my read on the situation is that I think Rogers wants this really badly because the other options are not that great. Pittsburgh is OK, but it's definitely not as good as it is in Minnesota, especially since they just brought back Aaron Jones,

his buddy, he loves Aaron Jones, and they got Jordan Mason. Like it's a pretty stacked team overall, which is why they probably would have some success, relative success, but we went through this middling expensive older quarterback with Kirk Cousins thing, where he had good rosters, he had good coaching and you needed everything to go perfect for it to work. And I think the same thing would be the case for Rogers.

And if it doesn't go perfect, the circus is in town. And that's what I wanted to know from you about that whole experience of the Aaron Rogers circus, because even if Aaron Rogers didn't do anything particularly crazy last year for the jets, I don't remember. I mean, he like missed mini camp or something, but I don't remember. Oh my gosh. Rogers did something totally wild other than like getting the coach fired and

then the GM and, but no, sure. Feel free, feel free to sign up for the same stuff biking I don't anyway, but the point is like I think it will mostly be fine but the world wants it not to be fine like the the Media the outside like you know that every single day every single breath the guy takes is going to be covered And I think the Vikings last year flying under the radar really benefited from the fact that the only thing anyone ever talked about with them was Oh, well, there's a fun story. Darnold's a fun story. Moving on to the Cowboys.

Like you are the team that if you go 0-2, you are on fire. The building is burning to the ground. Like that's the type of attention that Elvis brings when he's in the building is burning to the ground. Like that's the type of attention that Elvis brings when he's in the building. Yeah, no, 1000% again, like I aren't, not a bad teammate, not a bad guy, but he's got his circle usually. And like he's, I would say a couple of things. One notice if you, if you're a Vikings fan, look at,

you know, obviously when Aaron got released, but also just during the year, the guys were the most vocal about Aaron and loving Aaron or the defensive guys. This is a Jets team that had Zach Wilson and Tim Boyle and Trevor Simeon and Darnold and obviously Zach was just whatever, but like the whole thing, right? So Aaron in their heads gave them the best chance to win. So they obviously defended them and Aaron's close to a lot of those defensive guys. So they obviously defended him and in Aaron's close a lot of those defensive guys You know who wasn't really vocal is the offensive line Garrett Wilson

Tyler Conklin Jeremy Rucker Bruce Hall at some points was and wasn't depends on what they're on Twitter it is but my point being like No one talked enough about the fact that like Garrett Wilson was like the nicest human being in the world and like the least diva receiver I can remember covering where I mean jetties is too but like it's even tonight garret just like kind of there and like yeah, he's tired of losing for sure, but it's like The this is the biggest issue with him is the culture stuff feeds into I'm at my spot. I won my one-on-one matchup I ran my route to the right spot

and I'm not getting the ball or the ball is in a different spot. And Aaron wants Aaron wants to a certain way because for a long time, like he's always had it his way. So kind of adjusting that's been a little bit difficult and. Yeah, everything scrutinized.

Everything is going to be the greatest thing ever and Aaron's a great quote and he is loves to tell you how much he hates the media. But you know, it loves a camera obviously. And I don't blame him like he's extremely smart intelligent well-spoken dude, and that's his thing You have to deal with McAfee every week and everyone makes a big thing. Oh the Jets are such losers They don't want the Jets never told him about an ultimate with McAfee, but I think they also were like for two straight years we've been the lead topic on get up and first take and every single McAfee

think quote is tweeted out 8,000 times and I think they were just like They might have loved it, you know, and you know after the truth detector test because it's good for you know good for the pockets, but When you're not winning games, it's not great like People forget like when Mac the McAfee stuff started and especially when it was at its peak, when COVID threw those first couple years, the Packers were like winning 13, 14 games a year. They were the one seeding, he's winning the MVP.

So like it was almost weird when they talked about a loss or they talked about anything negative. It was like, Oh, how was throwing nine touchdowns against the Vikings on opening day of 2020? Like that sounds fun. And it's like, that's, you know, as opposed to, hey, Jimmy Kimmel did this and, you know, Devante is gonna get traded here. And like, he gave this big speech two days into being on the team and it was the best thing I've ever heard.

And it's like, I don't know, the Jets culture wasn't a problem when they were in 2022, when, you know, they were six and two. And again, Robert Sala and Zach Wilson and everything, they have a lot to bear on that, but Braxton Barris has dropped against the Vikings. But the point being, this was this fun, great culture,

and Aaron talked about it in the documentary. I want to go play for this dude and this team, all these young guys. In two years, they became a really top, and not just Aaron, it's the guys, they brought in and the whole thing. Long story short, you got to have, it's got to be Ken O'Connell's locker room. It's got to be Justin Jefferson's locker room.

It's got to be Harrison Smith's locker room. And then Aaron's got to be a part of it. And I'm not saying that he did it a lot in twenty twenty three. He was a part of it. And then it kind of like. The Jets made the mistake of he was the savior, right? Of nothing was wrong with 2023. It's just Aaron getting hurt and the address left tackle and like, we're gonna go for it. And Aaron's gonna be the guy.

Aaron needs to be the 18th best quarterback in the league for the Vikings to make the playoffs. If he's okay with that, fine, it probably could work. And again, hopefully he plays amazing. But my point being like, you can't give him the, you can't give it the, like, he's the savior guy. Like he needs to be like, hey, our culture is good enough, our team's good enough, our home field advantage, the whole thing, like, the expectation should be high for the Vikings.

And especially if they get Aaron, like, people are gonna pick them to be the one seed and they're gonna be like, they need to win the Super Bowl and that's fine. I just like I said I keep saying it but like you gotta it cannot be Aaron's team anymore. It's just what happens when you get older as a quarterback like it wasn't Peyton's team at the end it just it wasn't and it wasn't Breeze's team with Sean Peyton's team so no it's no they're all living legends. Everyone gets old. It's okay. Aaron's still got a lot in there of talent. It's just not gonna be week to week. And you're gonna need the O'Connell's, the Brian Flores's of the world

to kind of overcome potential games when he just doesn't have it. And again, keep him not quiet, but like I would say this, I'll just finish with, cause this is the biggest thing the Jets ran into. The Packers did this at the end. People like Aaron Rogers want it their way, right? Most quarterbacks do. You got to challenge them still. And if Kevin O'Connell, who I think would have no issue doing this, you have to be able to say no. You can't always give them what they want. The Jets were like, your team, you build the staff, you do all this stuff. And I get it's what happens when you're desperate, but that's the worst thing you can do to somebody that already already wants it their way.

Like you got to go. Malafor was great for Rogers in a lot of ways. He went back to MVP is cause he was like, nah, dude, we're running it my way. And it's like, you just go play football. Don't worry about the other stuff. And it worked. Kevin O'Connell, I think we'd be able to do the same thing. So I think again, it might work.

Just don't know if it really still makes sense. If the Vikings had no quarterback answer whatsoever, and they were lost in the woods out here, but they had this great roster, then it would make sense to just say, all right, sign the deal with the devil. Just go for it because there's nothing else. But when you talk about that savior thing,

it really hits home because this is a fan base last year that struggled to enjoy Sam Darnold's run because they thought we probably won't win the Super Bowl. That's where they've gotten, which I know for you following the Jets, like just make the playoffs for once. But the Vikings in their history have so many times brought in this guy like the Randall Cunningham or whoever else it might be the older quarterback, the Jeff George, and they've gotten close or they've, you know, hey, we won 13 games, we got to go get Kirk Cousins and all he's got to do is be this good. But you know, that doesn't really work. When you look at the same conversation, it was there seven and 10. But I think it was like 14 to 17 games to get blessed and 20 and Rogers in

his career was 81 and 20. And those games or 81 and whatever it was. All the jets had to do, he had to be this much better than Zach Wilson. And yeah, he was. And guess what? Everyone else didn't have as good of a year and it fell apart. So like the NFL is weird. Like it doesn't just because last year Jordan Addison was healthy and played every week, it was really good.

Doesn't mean he won't like have an injury or like, I don't know. You know, I'm saying like, I'm not wishing I'm just more saying like the defense was amazing last year. What if they take a regression step and then the offense needs to go out and actually score 30 a game. Like, can he compensate for that? I don't, I don't, I don't know. I'm not saying JJ can either.

I just don't know at this point. If like Rogers is the answer to that question. It's just so different between if J.J. McCarthy wins 10 games with this team, you're like, all right. And off we go. Right. Yeah. Here we go. J.J. McCarthy era. If you win 10 games there and Rogers, like, what did you do this for?

What was the what was the point of this? And Vikings fans are so desperate for that Super Bowl that some. And it's a very small number are looking at Rogers being like, yeah, he could be the one, he could be the one. And my question is, how often does this actually work? Okay, it worked with Brady. Brady's also the goat and has won a bunch of Super Bowl. He does that all the time.

And Tampa Bay was totally stacked that year in 2020. Even then it took them going from- It's just like a Disney Channel Super Bowl because it was like during COVID. We just like seemingly forget about the fact that it was during COVID and they were playing in Florida. Right. No one liked to talk about that.

They had fans. It was like COVID rules were- I don't know. I just like we seemingly love to be like, oh, it works with LeBron and Brady. It's like, well, they're two of the three or four best athletes in the last 100 years. And also COVID was just weird for everybody. And I just don't know if using that as the example, or you can use the Broncos example,

that they had one of the best defenses we've ever seen. And Brad Johnson and Peyton Manning was a corpse. There's a reason they're outliers. And we make NFL films about that stuff. There's a reason they're outliers and we make NFL films about that stuff. I agree with your point. If Rogers gets them to the title game, it's probably worth it because it's like, hey, we've made the incremental steps. J.J. McCarthy is taking over a title game team. And he'll learn stuff from Rogers, no doubt. What if last year happens again?

If they have the exact same years last year, is it worth it at that point? I don't know. It's not sure one playoff game is worth it, especially if it's the way it's kind of turned out. I think also Kevin O'Connell now he's got a long-term contract. So that's great. That also means nothing in the NFL. And if you bring in Rogers and this is your point about the expectation. You bring in Rogers and you win a single playoff game or none

If he wins none, then that's three trips to the playoffs for O'Connell with three veteran quarterbacks and Zero wins and all of a sudden now the heat starts to turn on if you get to the playoffs with McCarthy Then it's hey, they're on the right direction. It's just so different Year over year, right? So it's so different if you do this. And I think he maybe needs to understand that. And this is also me who's covered, I don't know how many Aaron Rodgers games.

It is like one of the great things of my life to have watched this guy play football at his prime and shred the Vikings as a ball lover. Watch this throw like so many times, but does it fit with the situation? Does it fit with how this man has performed recently and not what he did in 2021? It is so different now for him.

There's so much more mileage. And when you've won 13 of your last 34 games, it's really hard to convince me that all of a sudden the light goes on at 41 and it's different. So that's kind of where we're at for, I'll let you go. Well, great analysis by the way, really appreciate that. Very, very fair, very even handed. I have not been so fair. I've just been like, this is a terrible idea. So I don't like this at all.

Well, officially for the jets perspective, it's better if he goes to Minnesota because they don't have to play Rogers and it doesn't have to be WFN every single day that Rogers completes a pass and I have to listen to it. So I'm selfishly rooting for it or like some rogue team. But yeah, football wise, I just I don't get it. I really don't. You are you feeling good about the Jets? I think you should be.

I mean, I know Justin Fields is going to be a roller coaster for you. I've seen enough to that to know. But, uh, somebody told me about Aaron Glenn that they felt that he would be a better head coach than he was even a defensive coordinator. I had my criticisms of him as a defensive coordinator, but I think that he will be a great leader for the franchise. Oh, I want to ask you one more thing. There's sauce gardener apparently responded to a tweet with a fake made up trade or something. They're not trading sauce gardener, right? No, I think that sauce is a little too online. Yeah. Topic for another day, but just stick to the golf, dude.

It'll get extended. The Jets waiting on sauce and Garrett mean the T Higgins contract actually helped the Jets and that attempts to stingly contract it very much did not I thought sauce was gonna get 25 a year while Derek's then we got 30. So I feel good about the Jets moving forward but I have to feel like I got to see it a little bit first. I think there's a lot of great conversations, there's a lot of great,

we're doing bill Parcells all over and the whole thing. And like a lot of it might happen, I don't know. I'm excited about Fields from the aspect of what's the worst case he sucks. Like, cool, you know, it's like, and what if he's good? We've seen it with Sam and Gino and Baker, and you know, numerous other guys where like, it just takes the right situation and them to kind of like, get built up like, the

Jets are going to build Justin Fields up as their guy and the starter and like, he's never really had that since like, he had a regime that didn't really want them that he had, you know, another regime that was like trying to was trying to save their jobs, really want them. Then he had, you know, another regime that was like trying to, was trying to save their jobs and they knew they had all these, you know, picks and then he goes to Pittsburgh and he actually plays decently well and they were like, well, sucks. We're going to bench you for like Russell Wilson. Um, he's never really had that.

So I'm hoping big run game, um, good defense, good special teams, good weapons, at least with, you know, Gary, maybe they draft a Tyler Warren and it's like, Hey, we're kind of off and moving here. And maybe they're a nine win team. But like, again, nine wins with a young quarterback feels a lot better than five or six wins with the guy who's not going to be there longterm. That's for sure. Uh, Will Parkinson turn on the jets. One of my favorite guys.

I saw you at a distance at the combine and I was like, no, not gonna too many bodies. I am like, everybody's the worst at that. There's so many people that you try to use. Oh, let's hook up. Let's let's have, you know, whatever dinner or something. It's very hard. There's so many human. It's like a, it's just like a, it's insane.

It's one of those things. It's so funny. Like you just, you see a million people, but you feel like you also saw nobody. I mean, you know, we're like, what just happened? But like this week was insane. Well, at the next time we're in the same place, same time, at least a friendly DAP, we'll do beers and talk about Brockport, Portland.

Exactly. Exactly. The rival, the real rivalry. That's all we need. It's really one sided on your side, I think. So anyway, well, you do great work and this was tremendous. Again, even handed analysis, which I appreciate from you, will you're the best man and we'll talk again soon whenever it's necessary for us to talk.

Maybe the Jets will sign a Viking and you'll need me for something. Yeah, that's where we're hold that hope, you know, we'll keep it. I'll keep moving. All right. Thanks, Will. Thank you.