Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jim Harbaugh will interview with the Vikings, is he a good fit or is this crazy?

Episode Date: January 30, 2022

Matthew Coller is joined by Pioneer Press reporter Jace Frederick to talk about reports that the Minnesota Vikings are interviewing Jim Harbaugh for their head coaching position. How would this fit with the Vikings' timeline? Would he need to take all the power in the organization? Will he be up to date? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to an emergency of Purple Insider podcast, Matthew Collar here and joining me a man who is available and excited to talk for an emergency podcast from the pioneer press jace frederick jace um you know it's uh the royal rumble is on a lot of people are watching that as we record this it is a saturday night and i just want to say how much i respect you and appreciate you for saying yes like you may cover the timber wolves a lot of the time but you are a football guy at heart for saying yes let's talk jim harbaugh interviewing with the minnesota vikings what is up man i didn't realize the royal rumble is on um i'm gonna have to dip out thanks for having me on this first two minutes here uh but no they always say the best availability i mean

the best ability wow i botched that the best ability is availability so that's that's what i'm bringing to the table here right they didn't say that you have to be able to say the best ability, wow, I botched that. The best ability is availability. So that's what I'm bringing to the table here. Right. They didn't say that you have to be able to say the best ability is availability. No, no, no, no. It's just to be available. Well, let's get right into this. I mean, so when Jim Harbaugh's name was floated because of his connection with

Kwezi Adafo Mensah, my first instinct was to be like, nah, come on. It wasn't even really something that I considered because our perception when they moved on from Mike Zimmer was you're going to go with someone young, someone new, someone fresh, someone that has ideas with analytics and everything else that can get on the same page with Kwezi Adafo Mensah and that those two can grow together. Like when you hear D'Amico Ryans or you hear Kevin O'Connell, you think like, yeah, that's right. Inexperienced people. And they could sort of find their way in this world as they build a roster together. If you hire Jim Harbaugh, your franchise is now named the Jim Harbaugh Vikings. Like he becomes

the face, the decision maker, the power holder. Everything is about Jim Harbaugh Vikings. Like he becomes the face, the decision maker, the power holder. Everything is about Jim Harbaugh if you hire him, which doesn't mean that that will not win games because it certainly did before in San Francisco. But I'm just surprised because that would be even a consideration for them. Do you agree with that? I think the one thing when we talk about like, oh, you got to go a different direction than Mike Zimmer. You got to go opposites, whatever the case might be. That makes sense if it's the same person who had just worked with Mike Zimmer now picking the next head coach. Like I want to go in a different direction.

But when you pick the general manager and now you have Adolfo Mensah come in and now he's picking his head coach. He doesn't have to pick the opposite of Mike Zimmer. He's picking whatever he idealizes. And he doesn't care who the guy was before. He doesn't really care how things were before. It's not like he's like, let's totally flip the script. Cause he doesn't even exactly know what that was. Um, so he's going to go, okay, here's what I think is going to work. Or here's a guy who I've had my eye on for forever. I don't really care how this lines up with the past of this team. I'm going to do what I think is best. And if he's like, I watched Jim Harbaugh up close and personal, I worked with him. I think he would

be dynamite in any situation. That's always been the guy I thought I would go after. If the opportunity arose, then that's who I'm going with. And it like past considerations don't really matter at that point. And yeah, like if they do go with Jim Harbaugh, like the Vikings will be more featured prominently on SportsCenter, whatever the show might be, you know, all the NFL talk shows, like they will be up higher in those programs because people like to talk about Jim Harbaugh. So they'll definitely be pushed into the spotlight for that case. But you know, maybe the Vikings of new aren't aren't scared or concerned about that. All right. Well, maybe a best way to ask you about this is does this thing scare you about Jim Harbaugh? Okay. So how about this? Does it

scare you that if Kwezi Adafl-Mensah hires Jim Harbaugh, that we know the real person who's pulling all the strings is Jim Harbaugh and Kwezi Adafl-Mensah I think has a great direction for the team in mind, probably, right? Like the analytics guy who wants to have everybody involved and listen to everybody's opinions and all those things. But I think that that goes out the door if you hire Jim Harbaugh. Would that scare you that all of a sudden, this is a guy who did not get along in San Francisco and was out the door really quickly in San Francisco after having a ton of success because he could not get along with the front office and get on the same page with it. I think it would be a little naive of Adolfo Mensah to think, oh no, I'll be, I'll be the one that tames the wild horse.

Like, no, that's, that's just not who Jim Harbaugh is. But does that scare you if that's the case? I just wonder, like, if that was the case, you know, and that's the way they split in San Francisco, then what side was Adolfo Mensah on in that? I mean, who was he thinking was correct? Because if it's if he thought if he had a sour taste in his mind about his mouth about Jim Harbaugh, as Jim Harbaugh is leaving San Francisco, then when Adolfo Mensah not immediately go after Jim Harbaugh, like that doesn't make any sense. It doesn't line up to me. There must be something where he's like, I think Jim Harbaugh was right. I think he did things the way that I want to do things. And frankly, like if Adolfo Menzo thinks he would get steamrolled by Jim Harbaugh, why would he target Jim Harbaugh?

You know, like, I mean, if you're coming in, you're thinking, this is my opportunity. I'm going to do this a certain way. I don't think he, I know the concern of like, you can get run over by other people. But I don't think you would start it off being like, I'm going to go with this guy who I know will run me over. I don't see how anybody would start their general manager term being like, okay, I got the job two days in. I'm just ready to hand the keys off to somebody else and be like, all right, whatever you think, man. Well, I don't think that that would ever be the plan either.

But I mean, isn't that reality though with Jim Harbaugh? Like if you are hiring him, he's not coming here to Minnesota unless he has what roster control, extremely long contract. He's going to look at Matt rules contract to be like, yeah. Okay. What did he get? Seven years. Sounds good.

And Adolfo Menta's contract is not seven years. So it's like, who is given the power from the very start, even to get him in the door. And I think this is the biggest potential pitfall. I don't think you interview Jim Harbaugh unless you are very, very interested in hiring Jim Harbaugh. But if there's the one thing that's going to hold him back and just allow him to stay at Michigan, it would be roster control, contract length, how much money was going to go out. Those are the types of things that could hold them up. I wouldn't be scared of it right away because I'm sure that it would be like, oh, great to be here with you. We worked

out so great, but it wouldn't be the first time with Jim Harbaugh. It would be every time with Jim Harbaugh, just Google like Jim Harbaugh drama or, you know, whatever. Like that's what I did when I was writing my reaction piece. That's what I did. And here's what, here's what Jim Rome of all people said about Jim Harbaugh. But I thought that this was really well phrased. He said, he runs way too hot and he's wearing people out. Don't get it twisted. He's a great coach, unbelievable coach, and he'll do a great job. But when you have a coach who wins as much as he wins and nobody is ever sorry to see him leave, it tells you something about the a great coach unbelievable coach and he'll do a great job but when you have a coach who wins as much as he wins and nobody is ever sorry to see him leave it tells you something about the guy

does that quote scare you yeah um and frankly like what do you think this says about Adolfo Mensah if he hires Jim Harbaugh like I guess that's the main thing with me like what does it say about him then if he is willing to go back down that road um because like I say like it really is kind of handing off the keys to the car pretty early on and even like you said like because there have to become like he has to say like yep you can have some control over this obviously you'll have a big say in this I'm like instantly kind of ceding that control to the head coach like what do you think that says about him because that would be my only concern is like, if you're not willing to put your foot down

against Jim Harbaugh, and frankly, I don't know if you can get Jim Harbaugh here, as you mentioned, if you aren't ceding that control. Like, what does that say about the new general manager than if he does hire somebody and gives up that right away within like a week? Unless that was never part of the deal anyway. I mean, that he would have complete roster control

because he was asked about that and he sort of gave an answer that implied that he was but he did not confirm that he was and if you didn't have complete roster control as the gm would you want to tell everybody i mean probably not right i got no say here man i'm just here okay sorry this is gonna be the coach calling the shots i'm just collaborating sorry guys i'm like kirk i'm just here doing my job okay i'll just stay in my lane you know what i would say about him it would say i mean bold would be the thing i think it would say it would say that he's got this one shot at being a gm and he's going to go all in and get a coach that he thinks has the greatest chance to win and throw the rest of the caution to the wind and not bring in somebody that is sort of brothers in

arms of building this football team together. Like that would be Patrick Graham. I was reading about Patrick Graham today. I was very impressed actually with his mentality and all these things toward analytics and things like that. I thought like, Oh, this, this seems like a really good person for a daffodil Mensa to be with. And then they interviewed Jim Harbaugh or at least reportedly as of this moment, they have not announced it. So I guess we'll see if that's officially official at some point. But I just thought like my view of him from only one press conference was that he would want somebody where they could sort of walk hand in hand with the whole rest of the organization, a Rocco Baldelli, so to speak,

right? Like somebody that's, that's just a cog in the machine. Jim Harbaugh is not a cog in the machine, but here's the thing though. And I'm sure that this first nine minutes and 20 seconds sounds like I hate it. I definitely, I don't, I really truly do not. I mean, when you look at the guy's record, it's kind of ridiculous. Like 44-19-1. When's the last time the Vikings over that section of time went 44-19-1 or better? I mean, the guy took a team to a Super Bowl. He went 13-3 after they had been, guess what? 7-9, 8-8, 6-10. Sound familiar? And also Vic Fangio's part in this too as a defensive coordinator being kind of the de facto guy you would assume comes in.

Like, I don't think that it's the craziest thing I've ever heard. I just think it would be extremely bold and risky to do for somebody in Adolfo Mensah's position. I'm with you. And frankly, like, I just keep going back to the fact that Adolfo Mensah was in San Francisco during the falling out. And clearly, I would just assume that in that situation, he saw how it played out. And maybe he doesn't agree with everything that Jim Harbaugh did down the stretch either, or, you know, the way the interactions went or whatnot. But it tells me that he probably was sitting there watching and going, well, here's how I would have handled it differently. And I think maybe that this relationship could have been salvaged or it could have been handled a better way where we could have moved forward from it. And maybe he just has confidence in himself as like a relationship guy where

he's like, I know how to communicate with Jim Harbaugh. I know how to handle or manipulate that relationship where we are. Even if we have disagreements, we are still kind of steering the boat in the same direction together. And it's not turning into this head-butting situation all the time. I know that Jim's a great coach and I know the warts and I think it's worth it. And I think that I can get the best out of Jim the same way he can get the best out of this team. So I'm with you. It is bold because frankly, there is a situation where three years from now, maybe Jim Harbaugh is still here and you're not. That type of situation can

play out where that's not the case if you're hiring like a Patrick Graham. So I guess I kind of, in general, I like it. I mean, like Jim Harbaugh, he goes to three straight conference championship games and with two different quarterbacks, like you don't do that unless you can coach football. And he's shown that at the, even the college level. And I know college does not translate to the pros, but he's clearly one of those guys where it has gone both ways. So I think Adolfo Mensah being like, yep, I see the flaws. I know the history. I've had probably as good an idea of that as anybody else. And I'm still in, and I'm still confident that I can make it work. I think that should give everybody else confidence that it can work because like, if it was just somebody else, like if Adolfo Mensah was not in San Francisco, if he doesn't know how it

played out, then he could be like, well, he's just going off his resume, but like he knows Jim Harbaugh and he saw him at the worst and he still likes him. So I think that says something about it. Well, it is also worth mentioning that it was Trent Balky who was involved there and his history since has not been all that impressive, I would say. And so you can understand that, you know, that might be part of it, but also if it was only just there, he's been a headline maker in Michigan basically since the day he walked in the door. Now, this recent year, they were very good. And so people are talking about like, oh, Harbaugh, he's been great here. I looked at 2020 articles where people were saying, you know, why aren't the players doing this or whatever, responding to Jim Harbaugh?

And why is he causing this problem and that problem? But then, you know, he wins and it kind of goes away. And our last impression of him is like, oh, wow, he turned around Michigan and got them back to national prominence. And it's like, okay, yeah, I mean, that just happened. Now, let me ask you if this scares you. When over the three-year period where they were at their best, or maybe I ran for, I probably ran four years, right? That was how long he was there, four years. So during his entire tenure, the 49ers ranked third in rushing yards and 30th in passing

yards. Now the league changes fast. And I'm not saying that Jim Harbaugh doesn't know how to coach football anymore because he went to college. I'm saying the league changes fast. And when you are, it was either second or third, one of the top rushing teams in the league during that time, 10 years ago, that was actually pretty darn effective. That was even just, even think about when Russell Wilson first came into the league and Pete Carroll is running, you know, Marshawn Lynch all the time and then hitting some big plays with Russell Wilson. But how that doesn't really seem to work anymore. And now you see Mahomes and you see Josh Allen in

these past first offenses where they're throwing it all over the place, having the most success. Would it scare you that he's been away from this particular game for kind of a while now since 2014? I mean, I think that probably should concern everybody because we do see with veteran coaches that the game can pass you by, but it doesn't pass everybody by. It doesn't pass Andy Reid by. It doesn't pass like...

And I think the thing with Jim Harbaugh is like, he takes Colin Kaepernick and he uses him to the fullest extent of his abilities. And obviously, Greg Roman was there and they ran an offense that definitely best fit Kaepernick, but that took ingenuity, like going back into like the, the read option and spreading teams out and running read option like that at the time looked like, I think a lot of people at the beginning of that were like, well, this isn't going to work. And yet it was one of the most effective offenses in football. So like, I'm not always like, Oh,

we insist we have to run the ball. It's like, how creative are you? How much are you willing to push the envelope? And yeah, Greg Roman had a lot to do with that, but the head coach signs off on it and they build the game plan together. And he clearly was able to say, well, like, here's our players. Here's our strengths. Let's maximize them. And it wasn't even like, let's run Frank Gore into the line of scrimmage 30 straight times. And it wasn't like, oh, well, I think football's moving towards the past.

Let's throw it 50 times because that didn't fit their personnel either like they did they got the most out of what they had um and i think that's the thing for every coach right like it's not always like okay this is moving towards patrick mahomes we got to throw it 50 times even if your personnel it doesn't work at all um it's what do we have how can we be creative to get the most out of this um And we see San Francisco still right now. They don't throw the ball that much. And yet it's still a pretty dynamic offense because there are different ways to do it. And I think Jim Harbaugh has shown at least a willingness to find different ways and at least embrace different ways to move the ball in the most efficient way possible, whatever that is, with who you have on your team.

Now, this would be obscene speculation, but why not? If Jim Harbaugh becomes the coach of the Minnesota Vikings, how do you think he looks at Kirk Cousins? Oh man, I don't know. I mean, that's, that's a tough one because I just know how I would look at Kirk Cousins. And I will say that I don't think Kirk Cousins and Alex Smith are in the same boat, but he certainly was willing to move on from Alex Smith. And maybe that's an indicator that he just was willing to go, hey, this guy's not good enough. We need to find something different, move on to something better that gives us a higher ceiling. Maybe.

I think the fact that he was – that them as an organization with Jim Harbaugh on board there said, OK, yep, Alex Smith got us to a conference championship game. And yet it's clear he has limitations. And so let's move on to the guy that we think gives us a better chance. That would probably tell me that maybe with Kirk Cousins, they would look and say, well, it's clearly not working. And maybe they'll think, well, we can get more out of it, which I think is maybe like what coaches think coming into a situation. But I would think if you look at Alex Smith and what he did there, which was not bad at all with San Francisco and said, not quite good enough. I have a hard time thinking you wouldn't think the same thing looking at Kirk Cousins body of work here.

So there's two ways to look at it. There's the route that you just took, which is, well, like Kansas City, they went from Alex Smith to a guy who was more athletic with a stronger arm and they had success in doing so and reached the super bowl. And we're one play away from winning a super bowl with Colin Kaepernick and his skillset, which is different from Alex Smith. There's that, but there's also, if you look at kind of the landscape of where they are on the roster, you think, well, there's a rebuild route here.

And that rebuild route is you move on from Kirk, you draft a quarterback, you start drafting defensive players and developing them, and then you save your money for the next year. And then you go crazy in free agency and we all have a grand time. But the other route would be stay with Cousins. You draft a quarterback maybe in the second like they did in San Francisco or something, but you look to rebuild quickly through free agency, through the draft for trying to draft potential starters

because Jim Harbaugh wants to win now. And that's another part of it too, is that if you hire Jim Harbaugh, I just don't see how you could say to him, hey, Jim, let's just chill for a year, my friend. Get to know everybody. Let Vic Fangio teach some corners how to play. He's not going to want to tack on a 6-11 season or something

with a rookie quarterback onto his incredible record in the NFL based on what he did in San Francisco. And this is one thing that I've just continued to wonder over and over is do the Wolf see this as something that needs to be rebuilt or do they see it as, ah, well, Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman, they screwed it up last year, but you and you, you guys could take us back to the top. And that keeps going through my head because I know what I think it should be. And I think I know what I think it should be and I think I know what you think it should be but if you hire Jim Harbaugh it just probably isn't going to be that

no because he really has never lost I mean I don't he it's not like he had to go through a rebuilding season in San Francisco as you've discussed already on this podcast like he's only one um and he probably isn't looking to leave a really good situation in Michigan to come in and lose games. And like the thing about NFL rebuilds is they can be really quick, but you have to commit to like one year of it at least. And if you do it right, then you can quickly get the wheels rolling. But I'm with you that if you bring in Jim Harbaugh right away and now you're Jim Harbaugh is probably like,

you probably bring in Jim Harbaugh. Like he's going to a situation where he thinks he can win, right? Like that's probably the NFL situation that he's looking for. Like he's probably has had opportunities. It seems like there's been interest in him to come back to the game. And I'm assuming he was looking for the right spot and the right spot for him is probably where can I go win right now? So that, that probably does scare you that like, they're just going to kind of try to push through this and rebuild in one off season, whatever that looks like. And maybe that is Kirk cousins, or maybe that is a different quarterback. Um, and just, okay. I think this defense is still good. Like these guys have been good in recent years. Let's just keep

rolling forward with them, make little cuts where we have to, to make the money work and, and call it good. So yeah, I think that's probably the biggest issue of concern with all of it is Jim Harbaugh is kind of a win now hire. And this isn't a team that should be in a win now mode. Folks, wanna tell you about HelloFresh. With HelloFresh, you get farm fresh pre-portioned ingredients and seasonal recipes delivered right to your doorstep. You can skip the trips to the grocery store and count on HelloFresh to make home cooking easy,

fun, and affordable. That's why it's America's number one meal kit. The new year is a great time to focus on what's important to you, whether it's saving money by ordering less takeout, learning to cook, or just prioritizing your wellness. HelloFresh is here to help with endless options to make cooking at home simple and enjoyable. HelloFresh offers the flexibility that you need to easily customize your order. You can do that online or with their app. You can easily change your delivery day, your food preferences, your plan size, or you can skip a week whenever you need to. I've had a chance to try HelloFresh, and trust me, it is as easy as it sounds.

And they sent me their cheddar wonder burgers, which look, if you're a football guy, the thing you're ordering is burgers, right? And it was delicious and great. And I didn't have to drive to a fast food restaurant. So HelloFresh has been great for me and you should check it out. Just go to HelloFresh.com slash Insider16 and use the code Insider16 for up to 16 free meals and three free gifts. That's HelloFresh.com slash Insider16 for up to 16 meals free and three free gifts. Again, HelloFresh.com so i was just pulling up here san francisco's drafting before jim harbaugh showed up you're going to be shocked at this they had an incredible run of great drafting right

before he showed up as they were going you know six and ten and seven and nine and all that they got alex smith and frank gore in 05 they got vernon dav Davis in 06. Patrick Willis and Joe Staley. They draft in the same draft, two Hall of Fame level players in that one same draft. Then Michael Crabtree after that, Mike Ippotti after that, like then Colin Kaepernick comes in in 2011. They just hit home run after home run

in each of these drafts. And the Vikings recent draft history is one very long. Mike Piazza hitting it out of Dodger Stadium home run in each of these drafts and the vikings recent draft history is one very long mike piazza hitting it out of dodger stadium home run with a wide receiver and a whole lot of pop flies in the infield other than that and that would be the difference because you could always kind of talk yourself into like well san francisco only went six and ten and then he came in and 13 and three. So yeah, I see it like, right. But who's playing corner, corner, corner, safety, linebacker, defensive end guard. Like there's just so much to fix here. So little money to do it with. And I just, I, this is why I hesitate because this was going to be my next question for you is to put odds on it. That's why I hesitate to put super high odds on it because what we talked

about with roster control and then timeline for this, I suppose if you give the guy a John Gruden contract, which is, you know, worked out super great for Las Vegas, but if you give him a Matt rule or John Gruden contract, then yeah, he could say, great, let's trade this guy in this guy and I can rebuild for a year. But if it's not super long contract and he wants to win right away, then yeah, he could say, great, let's trade this guy and this guy, and I can rebuild for a year. But if it's not super long contract and he wants to win right away,

I just don't see how you can have that kind of miraculous turnover or turnaround with the people that you have. Isn't it like if they go with Jim Harbaugh, that had to be who was kind of in Adolfo Menz's mind from the beginning, right? And that had to be the vision that he kind of sold to the Wills from the beginning during his interviews. So then Jim Harbaugh is just kind of like the next step in it. And then at that point, this whole thing kind of would have been doomed from the start. I mean, like that would have just said that the Wills didn't have the correct mindset hanging into it of what they were looking for. Adolfo Menza just had this vision that maybe it wasn't best for this team and the wolves were like yep that sounds awesome um like jim harbaugh wouldn't

even be the thing that doomed it at that point it would have been doomed from the very beginning and you could be right about that i mean like the the whole thing with this team and the whole problem in recent years was that they always felt like they were one or two moves away and if they go through all this change change the whole regime and still maintain that thought of where it's just one or two moves away then you kind of just manage to like reshuffle all the parts but stay in the same spot um and that would be disastrous for minnesota frankly like it's i mean anybody who just said this team was just poorly coached like yeah that could that was true but there was a lot that went into it. And so if you literally just swap out the characters,

but the script stays the same, well, then, you know, we could be looking at a lot more of the same here in the, in the near future. Yeah. And I think that's people's biggest concern is that you end up with a lot more of the same. And I think that if, if the vision doesn't go long-term, which is why I look at, you know, these other candidates and saying like, Oh, a lot of these guys work,

Nate Hackett, that guy will work because you could take a long-term vision with him. If it's a slow first year to rebuild, uh, to put the pieces back together. Well, that's okay. I mean, he's just taking over and he's learning too. And we even saw this with, um, Brandon Staley in Los Angeles this year, where the guy certainly has a lot to learn still about being a head coach, but has really good potential of like connecting with players and understanding to some extent analytics and fourth downs and things like that. That you know, that's, that's what they needed. They weren't going to win a Superbowl this year, the Los Angeles chargers, but with Justin Herbert,

they sure could someday. So they have to have that kind of thing. I was looking at this like that, not like, Oh, they're going to bring in this big superstar head coach. And that's why this sort of, you know, took me aback all of a sudden. I wanted to ask you about you cover the Wolves a lot. You're Vikings, too, of course. And that's why you're here. But the Wolves are kind of your main beat at the Pioneer Press. Now, Gerson Rosas came in and I've used him as an example of the gerson pro sauce is what people were calling it and that didn't really go the way it was expected and yet set the team up still as where they stand right now it really well by but but when he left people

were really unhappy in the front office with the way he handled things. I mean, if you were telling, if, if, uh, quasi Adolfo Mensah came up to you and said, Jace, tell me he's kind of my kind of guy that Gerson, other than the PR thing, don't mention that. And just give him, give him advice, give him advice on how to, how to handle all this, because I think it's a very tricky sort of needle to thread of involving everybody, but doing what you got to do, having a pro process, process, process, any of those things. And, and also like getting everyone involved, but not manipulated people. Like, I think it's really tough to do and very easy to talk about. So what did you learn about that from covering Gerson and the wolves? I think it's just one thing where maybe just like,

say what you actually mean. Because on top, like when you first come in and you sell like that, we're going to be super collaborative. We're a family. Everyone's going to be all involved. We're going to treat everybody like family, all these things.

And then you're going to go in and be like one of the most cutthroat executives there can be. And not only with like players and whatnot, and like, you know, Andrew Wiggins, big thing was always like, you know, this guy sitting there, like holding my baby, telling me all this stuff.

And then all of a sudden I'm traded. Um, and then you've got the other front office members were like, yeah, we're going to be really collaborative. And then he takes all this Intel and just veers left. Like, you know, like, it's like, you think you're heading down one way and he's like, Nope, we're going this way right at the last second. And then everybody's like, what kind of process did we even have here? It doesn't seem like we even had a decision making process. It just seemed like you knew what you were going to do. You locked in and you did it. And sometimes you're going to be right doing that. And sometimes you're going to be wrong, but maybe like have a consistent process and take everybody's Intel in

and you don't have to agree with it. That is the biggest thing. That's one thing that Gerson Rose maybe should get credit for sometimes is like, if you don't agree with it, then you don't have to do just what other people believe on your staff. You can take the intel and say, I hear you, but I don't think so. It's something that I think Chris Finch does really well on the coaching staff is like, yep, I hear what you're saying. We're not doing it. And I'll explain to you why I thought that later.

He might take 20 tips and do two of those things. And that's fine as long as everybody still feels heard and valued. And there can just kind of be a mutual respect there. Like, hey, I have the final call. This is my decision. I'm going to be the one who, because my head is the one, like my name goes on all these things. But let's talk about it. Let's get your point of view, your point of view, your point of view. And then I will take that information and I promise you I will consider it and I will value it. And then I will make my decisions based off of that. But it might not be what you want, but I promise your input is valued and will at least be considered. Right. And I think you have to show people that sometimes.

Right. And this is the hard thing, though, because sometimes you do have to do something that you don't necessarily want to do because that's what your process said you should do. Like, okay, we're going to plug it in the boop, boop, boop. Let's throw it in the numbers and let's throw the scouts out here. And, oh, this is like those people who mess around with pro football reference until certain quarterbacks look better than they are. You're like, oh, let's,

let's type it in this way. I'm like, oh, well, that doesn't say what I want to say. Let's make it since the middle of 2020. Boop, boop, boop. Now he's got the top rating in the league. Send that out to tweet. Like, if you don't think that real GMs do this, they absolutely do. Everyone does. It's a natural human thing to do to want to

be right and I think that that is the hardest part and we will learn as we go along if if even Kwesi is the one that's responsible for calling the shots because if it's Harbaugh we're going to put everything on him but I think that's the hardest thing to do is when the data and the scouting and everything else comes back let's say you love matt corral and it all comes back kenny pickett you're gonna be like um and then if you and then if you pick the wrong one and you mess up guess who's mad at you literally every single person and i think that gerson rosas a lot of the time just said okay i you know all right i the process didn't come out how i wanted i'm taking this guy anyway and that's where people always end up manipulated or feeling alienated. The other thing is Jace, if you don't win, everyone hates you anyway. It doesn't really matter. Right. There is, there is something about

just doing it your way. Right. Like, and it's, it's like, if, if it doesn't work out, okay. But if you do something in a way that you don't believe in and then it doesn't work out, then you're going to have regrets about it doesn't work out then you're gonna have regrets about it for years to come and you'll be like i wish i'd have just done what i wanted um and then maybe that wouldn't have worked but at least i would have felt better about it like d'angelo russell it was like he targeted him from the start and it was just all about like do we include this pick um you know this this on only top three protected pick from two years from now do we include that in the deal and i think a lot of people were like, value-wise,

it doesn't add up as a good deal for us at that point. But Gerson Rosas is like, I don't really care. I want D'Angelo Russell on my team. I've been eyeing him forever. I think he's what we need. And if that's what it costs, then you know what? That's what it costs in my mind. And that's just the price of doing business

and getting a player of that talent, regardless of what the value chart or whatever says that we spend months putting together to try to decide if we're winning these trades or not. It doesn't matter. I want D'Angelo Russell. It's trade deadline day. We're going to make this swap. And you know what? At least at that point, if you're the guy in that position, you can say, well, at least I got the players I wanted. And if it doesn't work, well, then I was just wrong. Folks, support for Purple Insider is brought to you by Manscaped. They are the best in men's below-the-waist grooming.

Manscaped offers precision-engineered tools, and they recently launched the Ultimate Men's Hygiene Bundle Performance Package. Four million men have trusted Manscaped, and you can check out their exclusive offer for 20% off and free shipping with the code 20insider at manscaped.com. Manscaped sent me the performance package and I could say that it's a game changer, especially when it comes to their nose and eyebrow hair trimmer called the Weed Whacker. I'm a unibrow guy, so I need to keep that in check for all the YouTube videos and streams that we do.

You've probably also heard of the lawnmower as well, and they've come out with a 4.0 version, which is waterproof. It has an LED light and advanced skin safe technology. So you don't have to worry about any nicks or cuts again, get 20% off and free shipping with the code 20 insider. That's two zero insider at manscape.com 20% off with free shipping at manscaped.com. The code 20 insider, unlock your confidence and always use the right tools for the job with manscaped. Yeah. And then, but right. That's the thing. If you get it right, then everyone's like, man, that Gerson, he got it right. We didn't know anything. And if you get it wrong, they're like, we hate you. That was a story that Jim Monis, who I had on,

who was the former Bills director of player personnel, told about Sammy Watkins is that everybody in the building loved the idea of trading up for Sammy Watkins until it didn't go right. And then everyone said, well, what were we doing? Why did we do that? It's like, this is how difficult it can be is that we usually have all the answers, but when you start making those calls and it's like this is this is how difficult it can be is that we usually have all

the answers but when you start making those calls and it's 50 50 um something that uh chris collinsworth coincidentally said to me um was you have when if calls are 50 50 you just make the call and then fix it because you you never know right it's a coin flip so you just do it and then fix it if it goes wrong and that's one of the good things about drafting quarterbacks is if you draft the wrong one, just fix it, draft the next one. Um, last thing for you is just about Tom Brady and the bleep show online today. Imagine not being on the internet and just being like living your life, doing regular stuff, not knowing Jim Harbaugh was interviewing and just, um, not realizing that Tom Brady retired and then didn't retire. And

then now no one knows if he's retired. What is your take on what transpired with Tom Brady? My take on the idea that we have no idea what transpired or what has transpired? Just how ridiculous NFL reporting is. I mean, that might, maybe that's the angle. I don't know. I mean, I think that he's retiring and people weren't supposed to find out, right. Is that, is that what it is, is that somebody said something that you weren't supposed to say? That's kind of my read on the whole thing. And like, we don't know, but generally just from like being in this industry, it sure seems like, okay, I was going to have this grand announcement. Like Tom Brady does a lot of stuff where he produces a lot of things. You know, he's got

like his weekly podcast. I mean, he had that man in the arena with ESPN plus, which is pretty good. I've seen a couple episodes of it, but plug for him, I guess he needs it. It's one of those things where he probably had this big idea of here's how I'm going to do it. I'm going to put this video together and then I'll have this Instagram post and then, you know, and then like five minutes after that, I'll come out with this letter, you know, that I'll post on Instagram as well. And then when all the thunder is taken out of that, it's like, okay, that's not how it was supposed to go. This was not supposed to come out in an Adam Schefter tweet. I'm going to go ahead and make some calls, have my agent make calls, whatever the case may be and say, Oh, he doesn't know yet. He's not even close. And then a week

or two from now, I can do it the way I wanted to do it. And I created enough doubt where people might be like, okay, he actually is. But this is why I like to make a little plug for newspapers. You know how plugged in we are. We all are online all the time and reacting to things within 30 seconds. Sometimes it is nice to just wake up the next day and be like, I didn't pay attention to anything yesterday. Oh, here's the news. Tom Brady might be retiring. Looked like he was. Oh, maybe he's not. Okay. So they just aren't quite sure yet. You know, and just get the whole scope of everything all at once. You know,

20 hours after the fact and not have to like freak out, react to each piece of information as it comes out over hour by hour. But yeah, I'm with you. I think he probably is retiring too. And man, it just stinks because there are like 10 good quarterbacks in the NFL, like great ones.

And every time we lose one, pour one out for them. Kirk to Tampa Bay. Hey, it's another possibility. A lot of doors are opening, you know, like as Ben Roethlisberger retires, which we knew, obviously Tom Brady retires. There are a lot of openings teams that where you might be like, well, they're in kind of win now mode. They look like they could contend right now. They could sure use a quarterback who throws for 30, 35 touchdowns, more than 4,000 yards, pretty good completion percentage. A lot of things for these teams to consider.

Chase, they're not listening. No, but if you take only first downs when it's sunny out, the numbers are great. Don't mix coverages. It should be illegal. It should be illegal. You should have to say what your coverage is for the game and move on. I know I've annoyed some people with this bit, but I'm going to keep it up.

Day 19 of Kirk Cousins saying nothing after his coach and general manager were fired and a new general manager was named. Still has said nothing. You know who? I don't know what his what are his numbers in the pro bowl they've got to be lights out the team can only cover a certain way there's no pass rush like no stunts yeah yeah they always talk about that on the broadcast i would think they've got to be pretty solid i don't know i'll have to do

the research uh ian harditz who works for a pro football focus had maybe the best line because we were all like looking at brady going like wow okay here's his accomplishments and how amazing are these which here was my favorite so i came up with a new theory jace because you and i talk about this all the time when we just talk football is sort of like how you win with quarterbacks and things like that and which quarterbacks can win and why because all the numbers everyone has 100 quarterback rating if you start looking around literally everyone has like 100 quarterback rating so how do you separate what it really means is a fascinating question but tom brady my theory is a franchise a true franchise quarterback gives you 10 shots in their career for you to win a super bowl and what i mean is you go into the

playoffs thinking we can actually win the super bowl. Not we're helped. We're thankful we got here. So like with breeze, um, 10 wins or more eight times. And with, uh, you know, Rogers, I think it's 10 with Tom Brady.

It's 11 wins or more 17 times. And this is why when people say, Oh, well, I could never look at QB wins like, well, then how do you evaluate Brady? Because his career quarterback rating is I think a feather,

but there's no way he's eighth. Right. So it's like, I don't know, man. Like usually if you got a quarterback that great, there's must be stuff that's baked in that those box score numbers aren't really telling you like how silly it is that we throw touchdowns in. So if you, this is my John Elway rant, and I'm sorry to do this to you because I was about to wrap up and now you have to stay here longer missing Royal Rumble, but like John Elway would have season three through like 14, 15 touchdowns or something. And they'd have the fifth best offense in the league. And you're like, was it Bobby Humphrey

and Glenn Milburn? Probably not, right? That's all. Was it Kevin Falk? It's like last year, not this past year, but the year before that, Green Bay threw the ball an absurd number of times inside the five-yard line. And like Devontae Adams had more than 20 targets inside the five-yard line. And so Aaron Rodgers passed, and he was great at it, obviously. Aaron Rodgers passing touchdown numbers spiked significantly it's like he wouldn't have been any less of a quarterback had they just turned and handed to aaron jones at the two yard line

and scored like that doesn't mean he had a worse season because they're throwing all these one yard touchdowns like touchdowns is definitely a number where it's like yeah i mean something um and certainly there are some you know it's it can be hard to score in the red zone and that can differentiate quarterbacks but like that number is pretty over overweighted. Like you said, it's like, is the offense that the guy's running, is it scoring or not? Because that's the whole mission. And if it is, then you are doing a great job. And if it's not, then you're not doing enough. And I guess it's especially scoring when it matters when the games are still in, in, in doubt. But I think you'd be much better off evaluating quarterbacks just by what their offense did,

because Brady and new England from Oh two to 2019, they scored 400 more points than the next best team. That was not a mistake that did not happen by accident. That's your quarterback. So anyway, well, that was the rant go catch catch the rest of Royal Rumble, Jace. And I really appreciate you taking time because when stuff like this happens, I just want to jump on here and yell out whatever I think. And I'm glad that you were willing to do this on a Saturday night and apologize to your wife for me if you could. I just want everybody to know that when you asked

if i was scared of things like i'm just not scared of anything because no football guys never are right i didn't mean to say that yeah you can't can't live in fear wasn't it funny i'm sorry wasn't it funny one more rip this is how minnesota conversations work anyway it's like people are walking out of the media room this always happens and you're like hey just you uh get your credential for this thing or whatever you're like oh well let me talk to you about that for 15 more minutes it's always like they got your jacket on you're sweating how funny is it so with uh adafo mensa talking about like my first meeting with john lynch i was like what's analytics and i threw in a expletive and we're like in no other sport would you have to say this, man? Like you cover basketball.

I came up in baseball doing my early play by play and stuff like that. If executives got hired in basketball and baseball with his background, we all be like analytics, man. Cool. Right. And he'd be like, yeah. OK, but in football, I was like, no, guys, but I like football. I will tackle. I will tackle any reporter right now. Larry Fitzgerald, I will tackle. I will tackle i will tackle any reporter right now larry fitzgerald i will tackle i will tackle the shit out of you right now just like come on man it's cool it's cool like every other sport's doing this but you're i mean it's exactly how it is though like

you know i'm sure on that day they're like what are you like john lynch and kyle shanahan are probably like what are you like oh he's our analytics guy he's probably i don't i don't i don't know what analytics are what does that even mean he's and analytics guy. He's probably, I don't, I don't, I don't know what analytics are. What does that even mean? He's. And then they're like, Oh, okay, good. And he's like, I do have this data though that might actually help us make better decisions. And they're like, Oh, Oh yeah. That, that sounds interesting. Yeah. He's like, I'm not an analytics guy though. Like I just have numbers and things that can help us out. They're like, Oh,

that actually sounds useful. Thank you. Yeah. We'll keep you around. I mean, that's the thing. It's like, dude, man, this is what separates you. This is like the monumental hiring in the National Football League. So it's cool if you lean into it. You don't have to run away from it. Analytics can be a lot of things. So anyway, that was just sort of made me laugh a little bit. It's like, you always got to prove your football a little bit,

which is funny because we've talked about this before, is that we're the most emasculated people ever around pro athletes. We're just like, yeah, Jeremiah Searles, that dude is a six, five and three 25 and could pick me up and throw me across this room. But can you tell me about outside zone? Sure. You're looking up at Carl Anthony towns, like, hello, you're very large. You just look at me me you just look at like the biceps and stuff and it's like yeah yeah that's like my that's

pretty much my whole body thinking man myself exactly I'm a keyboard warrior right okay Jace I'll stop I appreciate your time Jace Frederick Pioneer Press get the newspaper folks it's very important and

we will talk to you again after we have two teams in the super bowl so thanks jace thanks folks we've got an even better offer to tell you about from soda stick if you use the promo code purple insider one word you can get 15 off your purchase that's right at sodaastick.com your place for minnesota sports inspired apparel you can get 15 off just by using the code purple insider i've told you about all the great football designs but they've added a few more including the axe is back for minnesota football fans you can get that on a shirt on a hat and also randy moss is the goat the purple people eaters bud grant designs for the old school fan.

Plus the hockey and basketball teams are both actually exciting this year. And SodaStick has you covered there as well. Go to SodaStick.com. That is S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. And use the code Purple Insider for 15% off.