Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - JJ McCarthy is energizing the Vikings (and Aaron Jones practiced) (Part 1)

Episode Date: November 7, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about the Vikings players talking about JJ McCarthy's youthful energy and the matchup with the Ravens. A positive injury report. Manny picks the schedule. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here. And the show is always presented by FanDuel. We'll have a FanDuel question of the day coming up in just a moment. We got a lot of things to look at, including the injury report as well as the vibe check of the Minnesota Vikings lock room, having been out at TCO Performance Center for the last. a couple days, want to bring you some player comments from the podium today, along with some West Phillips and a lot else to discuss surrounding the Minnesota Vikings, things that stood out to me said by the coaches, and it's Vikings and Ravens, which should be a very

interesting matchup as well. So why don't I just get you the Fandul question of the day right out of the gate, and then we could start getting to your questions, your comments, and start throwing those in the comment section for me to answer what's on your mind, thoughts, feelings, whether it's something with McCarthy, the rest of the team, the outlook for the season, the Ravens, whatever you got, toss it in, and we'll answer those in a couple of minutes. But the Fandul question of the day is in this game, Fandul has the over under for Justin Jefferson, 75.1 yards for Jordan Addison, 47.5, and T.J. Hawkinson, 30.5. which one of those players do you think is the most important to hit the over?

Like, put it simply, who is the most important against the Ravens to have a big game, Hawkinson, Jefferson, Addison, or, you know, fill in the blank with whoever you like there. So why don't we run down the injury report, then we could talk a little bit about what players had to say about McCarthy and something that has kind of emerged since the win over the Detroit Lions. but some good news, which is that Aaron Jones was limited in practice today. The only DNPs were Christian Derisaw, presumably with rest. Derisaw sounded in the locker room yesterday, like things are going well for him, and maybe he's turning a corner.

So don't want to look too much into that DNP because we had been told that on Thursdays for the rest of the season, he was going to have rest most of the time, that they're going to try to manage the recovery in part by not having him practice on Thursdays, and he's been around long enough that he could still take in the game plan and everything else without having to actually get out there on the field. So no panic for his DNP. Okuda and Oliver seem very unlikely to play this week. I had a conversation with Nick Venet, who's stepping up into that tight end blocking role

very well, actually, against Detroit. So he's probably going to have to do that again. this week. And C.J. Ham limited, which maybe means that he could come back. That could be big for them as well because they have been going with the bigger personnel. And I think they've been missing C.J. Ham, especially in past protection, where you don't want Aaron Jones with an injured shoulder out there trying to ram into blitzing linebackers, which you know that the Ravens are going to blitz like crazy in every past situation. And Jordan Mason, I just think it's not his Forte. From a technical standpoint, it doesn't seem like he has maybe the experience in doing

it the same way that Aaron Jones does. But you don't want him out there on too many third and nines. I don't think taking on blitzing linebackers, we saw some of the issues that cropped up against Detroit. So getting CJ Hanback would be enormous. Also good news on the concussion front that Theo Jackson practiced in a limited capacity. We'll see if he ends up getting cleared to play or it could be Jay Ward, who ends up out there. But at least good news for him getting back on the practice field after being put in concussion protocol. And Jalen Redmond has been limited as well.

It doesn't seem like there is anything serious to talk about there. And Will Fry's Josh Mattelis and Harrison Smith on the report, but all were full participants. I mean, with Aaron Jones, this is by far the most important, right? I mean, Jones last week had the energy I thought and had the explosiveness that we maybe didn't see from him a little earlier in the year, and then he got hurt pretty quickly, so hard to judge. It was a very small sample size, but you were reminded of what Aaron Jones looks like

and how he can get extra yards out of runs that might not be there, how he can catch passes and be such a difference maker in the passing game. And I think that if he is able to play, they should lean on him even more from a past standpoint. point. And I agreed with Kevin O'Connell when he said that he loved the early checkdown where maybe he's got a shot to the end zone, but hey, just they get nine yards from Aaron Jones. I love the swing pass. Like this guy and his effectiveness, I go back to 2023 and how Aaron Jones helped Jordan love take that big step, especially as a wide receiver out of the backfield. I think it's vital that they have him out there. And judging from his past, the way that he's fought through a lot of

injuries, wouldn't be shocked if he's able to do it. If he's not, that will be something that's really hard to replace in the backfield. But that is one that we're going to be watching really closely as it might end up going up to game time with Aaron Jones. But I think they can lean on him a lot, especially when they get into spots where, all right, like second, third quarter, seems like they want to get into shotgun. It seems like they want to, you know, really lean into J.J. McCarthy doing well and him being comfortable, but, hey, don't forget, like you could just check it down to Aaron Jones, throw a swing pass, throw a screen pass, which last year, remember, Aaron Jones was the first running back since KOC got here to have

some success in the screen game. We haven't really seen that so far this year. You'd like to see that get going that it's been one of the more ineffective screen games over the last few years, but that is a cheat code that you can use if Aaron Jones is in the game. And I think what we've learned from Jordan Mason is that Mason has a certain skill set. He's very powerful. He's extremely aggressive. He can run over people. He can get you extra yards.

But, and I think that he can catch the football. If you're throwing it at him, he can catch the football. But he's really only in the traditional running back sense where Aaron Jones, I fully believe that if Aaron Jones had made him into a slot-wide receiver as a young player, he would have been a well-above-average slot-wide receiver. Like, he can run routes. He has tremendous hands. Like, that's not most running backs.

That's the reason they're in the backfield. Otherwise, they would be wide receivers because receivers have longer careers and get paid more. So Mason, there are limitations there. He's kind of an early downback. What they used to refer to as an early downback. Like, that's what Jordan Mason is. And I think you need to have him as part of a duo.

And I think we have seen some of the reasons why San Francisco, of course, they were getting back McCaffrey, probably said, you know what, we could just take some draft capital for this, make a little cap space for us, because he does have some limitations. So asking him to be the complete back. And I still think he's very good. And he needs kind of a breakout game, needs to have a couple of explosive runs to get back on track from where he's been. But it's just different than having Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason. as a duo back there, along with C.J. Ham, who can help with blocking. So good news on that front to at least get him back into practice and give him a chance to play. So the other thing that has really been a theme at TCO Performance Center this week has been J.J. McCarthy and his post game, everyone's seen the video by now of how kind of crazed or psychotic in a good way.

J.J. McCarthy looks when he's out there. And then some of the clips that they showed from McCarthy, the up close where he's got the mean mug on and he's jumping around and stuff like that. And look, I think with McCarthy, and then he gets to the podium yesterday and he talks about how that's number nine. That's not JJ. That's his alter ego, which, you know, I sort of laughed when I saw on ESPN.com, Kevin Seferts article about J.J. McCarthy at his alter ego being one of the I was like, okay, quarterbacks move the needle, even if it's something like this is as funny as that is as a story. But, you know, look, I think that stuff like that is really fun for players inside the locker room and that McCarthy, as he is out there, when he's bouncing

around like a bit of a lunatic and he's going crazy, hyping people up and he's going crazy hype of people up in the locker room and he's creating alter egos for himself. And, and Walter Rouse talked about where the dogs in the street thing came from. I still couldn't really make a whole lot of sense of it, but there's a fun element of it. I think with McCarthy. And he said, yeah, you know, it's no longer the smiley face thing that he had on his hand when he was playing football at Michigan. And, you know, that time on IR kind of pent up a lot of anger and rage that he's kind of

trying to go out onto the field and play with. but I think the youthful energy and exuberance in which J.J. McCarthy plays with, you can tell the reverberation that it has on the locker room and on the players here. And that is something that you can't try to do. I think you have to have that. And McCarthy, when you watch him at Michigan, he has that. It's one of the reasons that teams liked him in the draft, the Minnesota Vikings liked him in the draft,

is when you watch and play, there's always an energizer bunny element to that, which at some point will probably go down from like a 13 out of 10 to an 8 out of 10 and maybe hit the right note of where you need to be from overly amped up to in the right spot and maybe not exerting energy too much, you know, going crazy out there. But at the same time, he's 22. and this is a veteran team. And I think you wonder about that. How is it going to click with this super young kid

and these older veteran players and the leadership dynamic there? And the way that it's worked is that he has acted every bit the part of a 22-year-old, but in a good way, not in a immature type of way, but in a, like, I'm just going to be that kid bouncing around and going crazy while all the veteran players are kind of locked,

in the way they normally are. And it seems to have gelled very nicely right from the beginning, the first game in Chicago, the way he acted on the sideline, you know, going up and down the sideline after the pick six, trying to get, you know, tell players, hey, believe in me, and we're going to come back. We're going to, and then having it come to fruition and happen. And then you see it in this game where it has to be paired with success.

If you do that stuff and you don't succeed, well, obviously, it's not going to go over the same way that it does now. But at 3 and 4, when they lost to the Chargers, they needed nothing more than a shot in the arm of pure J.J. McCarthy energy. And it wasn't just that they beat the Lions. I think it was how they beat the Lions and how he played and how he handled himself that everybody rallied around. And I made this comparison last night,

but I'll say it again because I like it, is it feels like some of the same way that people talked about Case Keenum. And throughout the Kirk years, there was a changing in energy through the Kirk years. Like when he first got here, it was all guys who had been Zimmer's guys. And it seemed like Kirk never found really where he was supposed to fit in. And he would try to yell, you like that sometimes. And it wouldn't really click. And then when O'Connell got here and they moved out some of the older players and they brought in, uh, younger players around him or different guys from the outside, I thought that Kirk's specific brand really started to work there. And O'Connell pushed him and pushed him to be like,

hey, you're the guy that's got to get in front of the team and you're the guy that's got to lead. And that sort of nerd energy or dad energy type of vibe, it started to fit with them. And I think it really started to gel. And by the time, you know, when he got injured, the players had, I think, changed their view of him. as their leader pretty significantly. But he was not like McCarthy. He was not this guy who's sort of out there breathing fire and jumping around and, you know,

going nuts all the time. Like it wasn't, that wasn't Kirk. And that wasn't how he was. And I don't think that was Sam either. Sam Darnold, it was much more of a smooth California guy. He was chill.

He would have something bad happen. And I remember asking Sam Darnold. So my point is you could do this a lot of different types of ways. I asked Sam Darnold. about how he moved on so quickly from interceptions or mistakes. And he said something like, well, you know, I go to the sideline, kind of slap my hands together and then go back out there. And I was like, okay, well, that makes a lot of sense, I guess.

But he didn't have that kind of outward. I don't want to say it's the leadership style as much as just a natural personality. He had much more of a calm, chill, relaxed. It doesn't seem like anything's ever bothering him, whether they're up 20, you're down 20. That was Sam Darnold. Sam Bradford, who I covered, was pretty calm and chill. And, you know, I think that this type of energy from a Case Keenum, where he was jumping around

and he was hyping people up and things like that, I thought it played a role in their success in 2017. And this is one of those unquantifiable things. It might also be, hey, they won. So everything makes sense now, right? But it is something that can carry you through tougher times in a game if someone has that type of consistent feeling that they are spreading to the team at all times. I think it can push you through at different moments where if you don't have that, then the downs seem to stay down. And I do think that there's a comparison here too of early Teddy Bridgewater, 2015 with J.J. McCarthy.

And Bridgewater was not the most accurate at that time. And he was not the guy that they were leaning on to throw for 350 yards, for sure. But they had a really good defense. And he had the belief of the locker room. I remember how much people cared about Teddy Bridgewater. And it wasn't exactly this way, but he had that same personality that had a magnetism to it in a different way than McCarthy, but the same sort of thing. So even though there were, you know, misthrows or parts of games that didn't work out or games where their offense didn't exactly thrive, the team kept going that year and kept fighting that year and eventually won the division.

I don't know if that'll happen here, but it feels the same. And as you were going forward with Bridgewater, it felt like as the season went on in 2015, he got better and better. And there was the game where they played against the Broncos who ultimately won the Super Bowl. and they were close in that game and you saw some of it. That's the same feeling that I'm getting from seeing these things with McCarthy, where you go, the guys in the locker room know, and this other stuff has to be refined for sure. The accuracy has to be refined.

The base has to be refined. The touch on the football has to be refined. But you cannot make somebody have this. And you just sort of gesture at that. And are people going to make fun of them for calling himself nine and call him Russell Wilson? Yes, they are. Of course they are. What was Russ tried to call himself Mr. Unlimited.

Calling yourself nine is way better than Mr. Unlimited, by the way. But, you know, I also think with Russ that when Seattle was having success early in his career, there were some similarities and all that stuff hits pretty well when you're having success. it's only when you fail that then many years later, everyone starts saying, oh, yeah, that's cheesy, that's corny, that's Russ. But when your team is doing well, it usually clicks pretty well. But I don't know if there's an exact comparison there. But a lot of quarterbacks over the years have this kind of,

how do you even define it? Like, what's the right word? Like they have this to them that they don't come across as the, most calm, most perfectly adjusted type of adult, a lot of them do come off with a kind of a wild man type of feeling. And, you know, I kind of compared him to Nuke La Looch from Bull Durham, where, you know, the post game press conference, if you guys have seen Bull Durham, the post game press conference, it's really funny. And, you know, they're, Kevin Costner's talking to him about that on the bus afterward and hitting the mascot with the fastball, but also,

showing all the stuff like he's that raw and we'll start to grow into this and become more and more comfortable but you can't you can't invent the stuff that's there with him in terms of his natural personality that the team seems to be connecting to so i want to bring you a few comments about that we talked to t j hawkinson today just about and you know a lot of these guys it is funny because they're adults so they have you know wives or kids or you know how and stuff like that. And so to have the 22-year-old around, well, I guess he's got the fiancee and the kid, but you know, the 22-year-old around, I think is a little different for them when they had played with veterans for a while. So here is T.J. Hawkinson talking

about J.J. McCarthy and his youthful energy. McCarthy coming in there all hot after I mean, excitement, you know, I mean, that's his first game back in, you know, in a few games. And so he's got to be excited, you know, I mean, like, that's, that's, that's the life of the NFL and that's that's you know you get such a euphoria you get such like you know burst of energy when you are able to take the field and then you know when you're able to come off of the field with a win and see your teammates and see all these guys that you you you grind with and you see every single day and you don't want to let down you know that that whole energy comes to you and you know you're just excited so I think that's every

single person in that locker room you know not just nine so yeah Do you feed off that? I mean, you know, he's a young kid out there, but how do you think? Of course you feed all that. I mean, you know, he's a captain of his team. He's a leader. He's a quarterback. You know, a lot of things go through him.

I mean, he touches the ball every single play. And so you feed, you feed off of a guy like that. Doesn't matter how old you, how young he is. He's got more energy than a lot of us, though. But, you know, it's always fun to be out there with him. We feed off of him. And, you know, obviously, like I said, he's a captain on his team. So there's a lot that goes through him.

So there's Hawkinson. Let me bring you Justin Jefferson talking about the same subject. In fact, he refers to himself as nine. He puts on a different persona. Like, what have you seen for him in those kind of roller coaster times that has really helped him become who he is that we saw in Detroit? Yeah. The persona, you know, that, I mean, I like it personally. I feel like he, you know, he understands that, you know, he has to turn on another switch when he, you know, gets in a game and mentally, physically, you kind of got to talk yourself into it. You know, you have to, just like me with Jets, you know, it's the same thing. I'm Justin right now, but when I step on the field and it's a whole different mode.

So I kind of feel the same way for him. You know, he kind of turns it on and he turns into a different mode, you know, when we're out there on that field and we're competing and we're going to war. So that's something that I'm kind of interested into seeing how far he takes that. But, I mean, I'm just excited for him to continue to go out there with that confidence that he have and to continue to perform. Well, made you laugh at the beginning. I mean, I feel like everyone has it. Everyone has to have that ego, you know.

I mean, I feel like, especially on this team, they have a lot of nice guys on this team and, you know, great human beings. You know, when we go out there on that field, we don't need any more nice guys. You know, we need some guys that, you know, our dogs and they, they, they, they, they. they bound to scrap through anything. So I feel like he has that dog mentality and he knows that he got to turn on when he stepped foot on that field. Now I know that when a team wins,

you get a big victory against a division rival, then everyone in the organization is walking into the building with a skip in their step. But can you see with Hawkinson and Jefferson, and if you're listening, I'll just describe it, there's a smile on their face as they're talking about it. and they're having a lot of fun with it. And I think that players have to do that in one way or the other.

Like they did this a couple years ago with Kirk where, you know, he's playing the creed and he's wearing the chains or whatever. But it's that same type of thing. Like they have to find joy in this to, I think, go out there and play the best that they can. But he's absolutely right. Like, one of the things about J.J. McCarthy is that he is a sharer. Like, he is willing to share what he thinks, why he does. things, why he meditates before games and stuff like that.

And I think that a lot of quarterbacks probably are polished at the podium from a young age, if you're this type of kid, if you've been a prospect for a long time, a lot of them will just sort of give you the platitudes. And even if they have some nutty stuff behind the scenes, it oftentimes doesn't come out until maybe later in their careers. I remember my friend Sage Rosenfeld is telling me because he played with Eli Manning. He said, and this is now being discovered, he said, Eli Manning is one of the funniest people that I've been around.

Like, he's hilarious, he's a prankster, he's a jokester, that kind of thing. And if you just saw his press conferences in New York, you wouldn't have really known that. But he had some of those traits behind the scenes and knew how to, you know, be a good teammate and keep it light and things like that. I think McCarthy maybe lives in a world that has grown up in a world that just seems to share everything. We're like that now with social media. And I also think maybe comfortable enough in his own skin to not worry if people are

going to make fun of him on the internet about being number nine or whatever it might be, that he's never been afraid to kind of lay it out there. Like, yep, this is who I am. This is what I think. And that's all right. And so the team seems to have. well around him with that, and now we go forward with it. I mean, look, the two wins that he's had have had a certain shade to them of energy in

itself, because if he just came to the podium and said, yeah, I'm number nine, and then he went out there and played lifeless, listless football that looks like that guy on the show that we don't mention his name from maybe a decade ago, a draft pick that didn't work out at the quarterback position. If he said all this stuff, but it didn't translate to how he played, then nobody would be smiling at the play. They'd be like, oh, yeah, number nine, sure, whatever, but it really does. And I also think that because of that, this is why as Vikings, the fan base, has wanted

to and has been buying into J.J. McCarthy is because you see something there in the way that he carries himself that I think also connects to the audience and you're more forgiving of an inaccurate throw or a bad decision for here or there when the guy is going to go play like this and he's going to make a play out of structure and he's going to scramble and he's going to try to do something when nothing's there like you get the sense when he plays that he wants to win really really bad and then when he does he turns into a werewolf or whatever he said yesterday a complete crazy person. person, because that's how much he wants it.

Again, this is why you draft him in the first round. Because if it was just on, if it was just on arm, if it was just on speed, you know, I don't know if you draft him. But I think that the teams who evaluate and Kevin O'Connell evaluating, you see this type of thing. And no, you kind of know it when you see it. That's why they bought into him. And it just took a while to get there because he's had to deal with the injuries.

So I'll give you one more. and then we'll get to your questions and comments and thoughts and answers to the Fandul question of the day. Wes Phillips on the energy of the young quarterback. How important was it for JJ, not only to have a good game, but immediately after coming back again, we saw his emotions, but just for him going forward, just how powerful that each time he's had to come back, he has shown that he can rise to the challenge in some way, shape, or form. So going forward when you've seen young guys, how important is that? I think with JJ, you absolutely love the competitiveness.

I think the guys feed off of his energy, his fire, his passion for the game. And it's like any young quarterback in this league, he's got to be able to balance the times where he's completely amped up, but also has to be locked in from one play to the next regardless of what play it is or what down and distance situation, all those types of things. And there's going to be a continuous growth from a young player who hasn't played a lot in this league. So and what you love about him is he's a sponge. He's taking everything in all the time,

listening to everything, writing things down, asking the right questions. And he's extremely intelligent. You know, he's got this fire and he's jumping around, but he's a very intelligent guy. and I believe that's what you need to have kind of as a baseline before the talent shows up, you know, a baseline level of intelligence to really be able to function at a high level in this league. So there's Wes Phillips reminding everyone that he's not just a lunatic like he's out there on the playground,

but also has put in the work. And I think that what impressed me the most about the game in Detroit, and I asked T.J. Hawkinson and West Phillips about this today was really the operation, the fact that it did not look choppy. It looked like he had made improvements since those first two games where the clock was running down and there was panic and the checks that he was able to make, the changes in protection, getting those out. And Dan Orlovsky of ESPN did a great job talking about how quick that 40 seconds happens. You know, the guy gets tackled and you're in the huddle and you've

got and Orlovsky read a play call and just how long that takes and he was discussing like about the the wristbands where our friend Courtney Cronin did a great story on ESPN about why some guys have the wristbands, why some guys don't like them. And Orlovsky was demonstrating getting the play call in, getting it to your teammates and then getting to the line of scrimmage. And by the time he had even read the play call out to his teammates, there was only like 15. seconds left in the clock to get the snap off. It's not an easy thing. And you know that Kevin O'Connell probably has some long play calls and there's a lot of detail and he's trying to get those extra words into the headset and all those things. It's crazy out there. And it's crazy

of Ford Field. And West Phillips said that most of the mistakes were just really noise related that they felt they made where, you know, maybe an offensive lineman couldn't hear or receiver couldn't hear on a certain route. But it wasn't that McCarthy didn't know, what he was doing. I think if you have the number nine stuff and you have the feed the wolf thing and you have the all that stuff, but you don't know the plays, it's not going to mean a thing. And so you have to, I think that's Wes's point there, is you have to pair it with being the leader in that way, which I think is true leadership in the NFL is being prepared to direct the entire offense, which takes so, so much work. And I thought it showed from J.J. McCarthy there. So what does that

mean for the future? Well, you know, I was just on WCCO radio with Dave Schwartz, a friend of mine. And he started off our segment by saying like, well, multiple Super Bowls, right? And, you know, the expectations, I think, since McCarthy got here, have been through the roof. And when you choose him and you don't bring back the veterans and you don't bring in the legend that they have been high. And when you see a game like that, the way that he played and all this other stuff and the way his teammates are responding to him, I think the expectations should be very high for J.J. McCarthy. There will be times throughout the coming weeks where I think there are going to be dips in performance, dips in accuracy, high roller coaster type moments where he

looks absolutely fantastic and great drives and down drives. But something like this and the buy-in from the rest of the guys inside of the huddle, that can sustain you through that. And now it feels like a new season as we start the second half of the year ish. I guess what would it be like in the second quarter it'll be at half time. Yeah, at half time it'll be halfway through the season. But it really feels like a new season began against Detroit. So let me get questions, comments, thoughts, answers to the fan duel question of the day, very interested in what is on your guys' minds for tonight. Let's see. Marauder says that I see Asante Samuel Lurke. around the building. I believe he's going to visit tomorrow on Friday. But even if I do see him,

I don't, I mean, I don't know what I'm going to do with that information. We already know that he is coming here. And my guess is that he will have an answer by next week. He's got the tour laid out and there's five or six teams that he's going to visit with. And then we will see. I think to get Asante Samuel Jr. would be a boost for them. Maybe not right away against Chicago or something. I don't think he's going to walk right in the building and then, hey, I'm playing. It might only be for the final four or five games of the season. But if they're going to be in the playoff race, and also it could be a multi-year thing for Asante Samuel Jr. 26 years old, the type of player that you could see why a bunch of teams are interested in him. And I think

there's a decent chance that they beat out the other teams, whether it's from their offer or whether it's the general, you know, facility and the team culture and all that stuff, I'm sure that the connection with the, you know, the training staff when I'm sure they'll have a discussion and how that discussion goes and working out a plan where this team has been good at that in the past of laying out plans for guys who have injury histories like Aaron Jones to try to make sure that they're going to stay on the field. And this is now a guy with a very serious injury that he's recovered from. So my expectation if the Vikings do sign Asante Samuel Jr.

Is not that he will come in and just completely change everything right away, but eventually get on the field and maybe even if he's a rotational player and they're still starting Rogers and Murphy, that gives them a dynamic that they really haven't had. They may have to just continue to play Fabian Morrow for now. And if they don't get them, then it's going to be a weakness that they have to make up for. with turnovers. They have to intercept the football. They have to knock some balls down.

They have to get sacks. They have to get fumbles. I think that's who this defense is going to have to be because they are going to give up some big plays in the secondary. Last Samurai is hopefully we can figure out a way to slow down Lamar and King Henry. What worked against golf and the lions won't work against the Ravens. So I think that yes and no to that I'm really interested as well because the funny thing about football, right, is that even if it's the slowest quarterback in the world, which is

Jared Goff or the fastest quarterback in the world, Lamar Jackson, nobody likes to get pressured. Nobody likes to get hit. And I'm curious, I'll pull this up right now. I don't know the answer to this question. Just with Lamar Jackson and how much he's been pressured this year and how that's impacted him throughout his career even. I mean, he can make insane plays for sure. And he can scramble and he can turn nothing into, you know, everything. But still, when you watch that game against Detroit, he had some problems in that game. So I'm going to try to find where he's ranking this year in terms of pressure. I guess he doesn't have enough dropbacks hang tight for the.

Okay, yeah. So his, yeah, this is crazy about Lamar. His PFF grade under pressure is a 44.4. Now, he's had success in terms of actually, you know, throwing the ball and getting completions, but he's also got a ton of sacks. He has 17 sacks this year and does miss some time and has, let's see, four turnover worthy plays while under pressure. And he has been pressured on 43% of his dropbacks, 44%, which is the third most in the league.

So that's, that's the key right there. And that is the key to the game is that Lamar, like everybody else, doesn't like to get hit, doesn't like to be pressured, has had turnover worthy plays, has had lots of sacks. And where do they rank in pass protection? Not good. They are 26th in pass protection this year, the Baltimore Ravens. And that's something that might be a little different from years past. They don't have a single guy who's graded higher than a 70 by PFF. Daniel Fulele has been pretty decent in his past protection, but some, oh, man, they've got some grades here that are that are pretty brutal.

It looks like Tyler Linderbaum has been attacked quite a bit. Andrew Voorhees has been attacked quite a bit. And it really seems like when Joe Noteboom has had to play, he's given up a lot of pressure. So there's, there's an offensive line here that could be attacked. And with Henry, that's another interesting thing. If you can avoid giving up the major explosive to Henry on a play-to-play basis, he just hasn't been the same guy. It's really the yards per carry still looks decent because of huge runs, but otherwise it has not been as impressive of a season for him. So they are as vulnerable as

they've ever been, which is usually not at all. It's usually almost impervious to this stuff. But if they're not blocking that well up front and even like their, their tackle Roger Rosen Garden, I mean, he's giving up 15 pressures this year. He's got a 69.9 PFF grade, which is not that great for a tackle. I mean, that's just above what you'd expect for maybe a backup. So they are beatable. They are beatable. I mean, this is the game. This is the one where three sacks from Jonathan Grinard seems like it's not a crazy thing to happen with the amount of pressure and how quick pressures he's been able to create this this year so far. That's, if you could sack Lamar, because you're probably not getting a lot of picks against him. He doesn't make a

ton of terrible decisions. He has five interceptions since the start of last year, I think, which is totally insane. So you're probably not, he's good. If he throws the ball, he's going to throw it well. And he's got receivers who can get open. They're not as big of stars as we've seen in recent weeks, but they're still good. If he could get it to his tight end or tight ends, you know, they're going to move the ball. And if Henry can break out in a few big runs, it's going to be a problem. But if you sack him and it sets it back and now you're talking third and 14, well, nobody's good on third and 14. So it kind of has to be the fundamental stuff that they've done when they've had success

and the same stuff that they did against golf. They made the lines one dimensional by stopping Gibbs. And that's where it really all began. So BM says, I sense the story of how like a dog in the street came about and what it means is edited for public consumption. Yeah, that's probably true. That's probably true. like my thing is if they like it it's none of our business i mean not not that i'm saying we shouldn't

ask we should always ask if everybody's enjoying something but hey like they if they love it and it's their thing whatever the backstory really is is uh totally fine just have as much fun with it as you can when you see a team bonding together having inside jokes like you know enjoying like the alter ego discussion and things like that that's that's what you want out of this team because it felt very disjointed this year, especially with so many players being out, but even as angry as they got about the whole Khalif Raymond thing, like even that was kind of telling of a team that did not lose its connectedness when they were not winning games, the meeting that they had with the captains and the different messages from captains and stuff

like that. West Phillips even said that Jonathan Grenard stepped up when they had their meeting with captains and Granard said, we shouldn't have to do this. Like this, our team should be at the point where we're not having to have the players give a message because everybody should know their job and what they're supposed to do. But it feels like this win against Detroit has the potential to bring them together in a way that because so many guys were in and out, it just didn't seem like they ever had the chance to build that connection, which now they do. Marauder, Jordan Mason is the most important piece this week.

They need to grind their defense down. a very average defense against the run that, again, with Baltimore, it just doesn't feel like this is the Baltimore that we're used to seeing. So I said very average. Actually, PFF disagrees with me. They think they're terrible. 27th in run defense PFF grade for the Baltimore Ravens. Now, they were missing a lot of players and they're getting guys back and Kyle Hamilton is in there, Roquan Smith. And then that's going to make a difference. their injury report, by the way, was all clean again today. No injuries, no one limited whatsoever.

It feels like are they being a little passive aggressive toward the NFL? That's what it feels like, but I don't know. Do they have passive aggressiveness in Baltimore? I thought that was only in the Midwest. But I don't know. Maybe it's not. Maybe they have zero injuries and no one was limited in practice and everything is perfectly fine. Seems a little suspicious to me, because I've just have never seen that.

before and apparently it's only been a couple of times ever that that's happened but that is between them and the league that will find them for it uh but to your point about jordan mason that's you're absolutely right is the reality of j j mccarthy is as exciting as it was for him to run around and scramble and make plays and so forth everything started in the game against Detroit with a successful run and once you can do that once you can get going on the ground against the team that clearly has not been the same as a run defense as they have been in the past. I mean, you got to think that a team like Baltimore that's underperformed this year and

has struggled in run defense, if you get going against them, that's when they'll start pointing fingers and looking at each other going, well, what are we doing? And they're not going to feel very good about themselves on defense if that starts going. because you've seen floods against Baltimore, Buffalo, Detroit, those games, there were just floods of explosive plays, floods of explosive runs against them. The David Montgomery run against the Lions.

You know, Buffalo had a number of big plays against them and their comeback. You can get in a rhythm against this team. And even Miami had some plays in that game where they did rip off big plays and they just screwed it up in the, you know, red zone because Miami, but it's a vulnerable defense, more vulnerable than you would have expected against Baltimore going into the season. And if they can pound into them with Jordan Mason

and not have to ask Aaron Jones to be on the field too much with the injury, you'd like to have him get a week to recover here. So I agree with you. I think Jordan Mason is extremely, extremely valuable here. Eric says, I'd say Jefferson would be the most important. I wonder if any other QBs are getting pet clones. So that's a a non sequitur there, but, you know, to your point, you're answering the Fanduil question of the day, which is of the three main targets for J.J. McCarthy, Jefferson, Hawkinson, and Addison, which one is the most important to hit the over? And Jefferson's over under is 71.5. Addison's is 47.5 and Hawkinson is 30.5.

I think that it remains T.J. Hawkinson. And I feel like I've kind of banged this drum all year long, that the offense, when it's got Hawkinson involved, that's when it feels like it's at its best. Because Hawkinson can be a beating drum type of player. And I know he

had two catches on three targets against the Lions. You'd like to see it be more than that. He can be a eight yards, 10 yards, 12 yards. He can be an emergency outlet. And we've seen flashes of it this season. Sometimes I feel like people act like he's not

even on the team. And he's like 15th in catches among tight ends in the NFL. We've seen it at times. We saw it against Cincinnati. We've seen it in some of their better games as an offense this year where he has been more of a part of it. Philadelphia, where they move the ball really well throughout most of the game and then fell apart in the red zone. He has six catches, 43 yards. Cleveland. He's got six catches, 38 yards. Like, these are not big, huge numbers, but they are successful plays. And just, just, you know, keeping things moving. And in Cleveland, he had two huge catches late in the game.

So I think it's probably, probably Hawkinson. I mean, Jefferson is always going to be super important. But we've also seen games where the other team puts so much effort into Jefferson that everybody else cooks. And with T.J. Hawkinson, remember that Chicago game where Jefferson really didn't do anything. And Addison and Hawkinson went crazy. You'd like to see, too, that connection really start to close.

click, because Hawkinson even referenced it today. He said, you know, you guys have seen the connection that I have out there, like referring to us having been at training camp. Like, you guys have seen the connection I have with McCarthy and sort of speaking it into existence a little bit. So I think him, if he goes over 30, what was it, 31, 30.5. If he goes over 30.5 and he's getting 50, 60, 70 yards in the game, I think that means your offense is moving pretty consistently.

Let's see. Amir says Vikings have played the Ravens seven times. Every time the Vikings won, they made the NFC title game. And every time the Ravens won, the Vikings fired their coach. However, the Ravens have never won in Minneapolis. Yeah, a few people sent that last night. I was confused because I hadn't heard this statistic before. And now I've gotten it from a couple of people who've emailed or sent me DMs about it.

Very bizarre, very bizarre and coincidental. I think both of those things are kind of. of unlikely for this year, but hey, here's the thing about the NFC, and this is going way too far down the road. But when you look around and back when things didn't look so terrible for a while there and they dropped to three and four, we sort of stopped saying this because it felt like other teams were running away from them. They've played Philadelphia already, and they outplayed them on a play-to-play basis, got beat on explosive plays. But we're right in the game until the final drive, right? They needed one stop to have a chance to win the game against Philadelphia.

I think Philadelphia is fantastic. They just beat the Detroit Lions. Chicago's got a winning record and they beat Chicago. I mean, can you play with the other teams in the NFC that are contenders? You can play with Detroit. I don't doubt with Tucker Kraft out that you can play with Green Bay. We're not looking at Green Bay saying, oh my gosh, there's no chance. Seattle's going to be a heck of a test. because right now Seattle is extremely hot and Sam Darnold is playing the best football in the NFL at the quarterback position.

That's going to be a great test for them. So we're going to learn there. And the Rams, I think, are just better than the Vikings. I just, I mean, look, we saw it in the playoff game. We've seen how good they are. We know who their quarterback is. We know who their top receiver is. They're a better team.

Maybe you could prove that someday down the road if they face each other again. But the record says what it says. the quarterback is who he is like that's a better better team the 49ers are so banged up they're playing a backup quarterback it's unclear where they're headed from there you're in that you're in that discussion i think i would still put philadelphia with their additions that they made at the trade deadline ahead of the vikings they've won head to head i would definitely put the rams and that's my two tier of very clear or two team first tier of very clear super bowl contenders the rest is up for grabs

Is Tampa Bay that much better than the Vikings? I mean, I think on paper with their record, it says they are, but I don't think they are. They won a bunch of games on the last second. They got crushed by Detroit at Ford Field. I don't think they have a great argument. So you're in that, you're in that mix. Can you go to the NFC championship game?

That would be insane. But I mean, playoffs, having a chance, going up against the team that you could beat. I think if it's not traveling to L.A. and it's not traveling to Philly, then you're right there. Then you could play with anyone. And, you know, they have a chance to prove that they deserve to be in that conversation

if they could get there. But I don't want to go too far down that road with one win against the Detroit lines to start declaring them as good as the Rams who've been great all year. Matt says Addison going off feels like the best predictor of a win. Addison is the one where that connection, I think, at some point, is going to click. I talked about that today with Mike Shope on the fantasy show about how this, that that's my prediction for this one. I think that Hawkinson is really important to stay on the field, keep Lamar off the field, have extended drives, have it feel like McCarthy isn't freaking

out and trying to do too much, which he did at times against Detroit, no doubt about it. Hawkinson is a calming presence. But to your point, yeah, two catches for 48. I mean, there was another chance to make a big touchdown catch as well down the sideline. If it's more than that and they're putting all their eggs in the Jefferson basket and Addison's going off, yeah, you can win that way because he is a number one receiver. He is the caliber of a number one wide receiver on a lot of teams. So if you can lean on him, then you are getting number one type of production at times throughout his career. Also, the big thing with Addison, and this is the,

goes along with what you're saying is when he's at his best and when he's at his best with the quarterback, he scores touchdowns. He's scored a ton of touchdowns. He's great in the red zone. That's where they need to get him going with J.J. McCarthy, too. Marauder, does Flores shock the world? And I assume you mean bring down the blitz rate and drop seven. Oh, yeah, and drop seven.

Probably not. No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I really don't because I think that the coverage isn't good enough to do it. If you're going to drop seven and you're going to give him time and let him sit in the pocket, then, well, usually you do that with someone that you're saying, hey, you want to make him sit there and throw. I mean, if we look that Lamar Jackson's throwing,

Lamar Jackson is one of the best passers in the NFL and has been that for a really long time now. I mean, when we look at his career statistics, he averages almost eight yards of pass. His career quarterback rating is 101.9. Yeah, I mean, if you're, if you're saying, hey, make him sit in the pocket and pick you apart. Oh, oh, he can't. I mean, this is the MVP of the league twice and could have been last year as well. Last year had a 93.3 passing grade, 35 big time throws to 10 turnover worthy plays. I don't know. No, to me, it's, it's roll the dice is probably the way that he's going to go about it. It's roll the dice.

It's go after him and if you, you need to get the big plays, even if you give up some of the big plays. That's how, and that's how they beat the lions. They got the big plays. They got the sacks. They got the fumble turnover. And they gave up the big plays. That's what it's like living with running a bunch of blitzes. And the other times that they've played Lamar and it's Brian Flores has, that's what they've done.

They've just blitzed him a lot. Bloody Soup says Lamar is the best against the blitz. Got to have a spy in coverage. Tough to do, but I think, yeah, and they have the right player in Blake Cashman to do it.

Let's see how Lamar is done against the blitz this year. It's a little bit of a small sample size. Let's take a look. This is a great thing about having the numbers. So, you're right about the blitz. No, you're right about that. So far he has shredded the blitz.

Wow. but he's kind of shredded everything. That's the thing. This guy, this guy, man. His quarterback rating win, not blitzed, is 128.1. This looks like me Madden playing with Lamar Jackson. And his rating against the blitz is 138. I don't know, got to do something.

He has actually, now this is interesting, though. He has taken 13 sacks. So maybe, hey, maybe you got something. Maybe you're on to something here. taken 13 of his 17 sacks when not blitzed. So maybe there is something of trying to get him to be a little indecisive.

That could be it. If you're trying to get him to be a little indecisive because he can 100% stand in there and pass all day long and be as good as anybody in the NFL. But if you can get some indecisiveness, but here's the thing. Last year, so last year, though,

that's why this year it's a small sample size. Last year, he had a 94.1 grade when not blitzed and a hundred and twenty-four quarterback rating. I mean, this, look, this is one of the best players to ever play football. So is there a clear-cut answer? Probably not. It's probably more along the lines of, and he really, you know, he was sacked more when not blitzed, but he wasn't sacked as much last year.

I mean, maybe here's what you have to do probably is see if you're winning your matchups. If you're winning your matchups up front, rushing. four like they were last week, you know, you don't have to blitz every single play. And you can send those simulated pressures with four guys coming after the quarterback and, and, you know, go from there. But maybe it's not the four that you expect. That's what they did a lot last week as well as sending the blitzes. I think it's probably, it has to start with, if you could stop Derek Henry on early downs and get a sack, maybe get a fumble out of him.

That's the only way to really do it because he's just really freaking good. of football. He's one of the best. And that's what it makes it fun. I mean, I've never, I've never seen him in person because 2021, I did not travel very much that year, the, you know, COVID and everything else. So, yeah, I have not seen Lamar. This will be really fun for me because the Lamar thing for this show goes all the way back to when I was on the radio, banging the table that Lamar was actually a good passer and the Viking should draft and develop him. That was one of those things that he changed the game. with that draft pick. I mean, my appreciation for Lamar is through the roof because the NFL said,

no, you can't develop accuracy. You either have it or you don't. He should, you know, some teams, some people in the league said he should be a running back. He should be a wide receiver. He's just not a good enough passer. And I think they missed the forest through the trees there. They let biases shape what they thought of past guys who had been pure athletes and not great passers. He also played with a Louisville team that wasn't that great and had a lot of drops and a certain throws he was really good at. And you could see, hey, there's development there that could happen. And he opens the floodgates for a lot of other quarterbacks that now get drafted with the idea, including, I mean, I would even say with J.J. McCarthy, the idea that you can improve accuracy, that that was a

major part of it, but also a running quarterback, you can't win with them. Now running quarterbacks really hard to win without him, actually. So Lamar is. completely changed the game. So it would be fun to see him. I think this one, this one does have the lead up, the elements. It smells like a fun football game. It smells like a three-point game with some team having the ball in their hands trying to lead a game-winning drive.

That's what it feels like. BM says Aaron Jones has biceps that are way bigger than seem possible for a guy his size. Some of these dudes, actually Aaron Jones has. huge hands. I have shaken Aaron Jones's hand before, and it is enormous. And he has crazy long arms. So that's, I think, one of the reasons he's a great pass catchers,

these huge mitts, but he has these wild arms that go down to, like, his knees. It's crazy. But I think with him, the work ethic and the toughness that he has is incredible. But you're right. I mean, look, these guys, Eric Wilson is so freaking jacked, covered to Neil Hunter. They're like, they're the best at what they do.

They don't leave too much on the table when it comes to what they do to prepare to play this game. If that's why I laugh so hard. And I know that people aren't serious. But when anybody says like, oh, I could get a couple yards in the league, you're like, nope, you'd be in the hospital. That's Aaron Jones. That's a little guy. You know, look at him. That's what you have to look like if you're going to take the punishment of the NFL.

That is not me and that is not you. B.M. says McCarthy needs to take a page out of KOC's playbook and learn how to have a press conference filled with long answers. That's funny. Yeah. Well, look, you know, O'Connell's the head coach of a team. He's got to answer a lot of questions. What do we have four press conferences a week with him. So, you know. And I do think, here's the thing, though, because the rest of your comment is have long answers that say nothing. That's where I disagree. That's where I disagree. That's where I disagree. I mean, I think with O'Connell, what he's really done is he's given us a ton of insight in the quarterback position. I mean, if you're listening, and I know the answers can get long, but if you're listening, I mean, he's laid this whole thing out about what McCarthy has to do, how he can improve, what we should be watching for, what he likes, the decisions that he likes, even sort of took us behind the curtain on what he was working with him technically in the buy week. I mean, he's provided a ton of insight when a lot of coaches probably would just be like, yep, I hope he plays well this week.

I think that he's really painted us a great picture from day one with J.J. McCarthy of how to watch a quarterback, how to understand the quarterback development process. I feel like I've learned a ton. I feel like I've gotten an entire, you know, weekly class, like a 400 level class on how to understand the quarterback position and the development of J.J. McCarthy. So the answers do get long, but I think that we learn a ton from O'Connell to how to understand the quarterback position better, for sure. I don't know. I mean, look, you learn different. There's so many different ways to do this. I learned a ton from Mike Zimmer, a ton. And his

answers weren't long. But yet, you know, you would ask him if you had a question about, you know, the football he stuff and we tried a lot and sometimes he would be in the mood and sometimes he wouldn't. But the number of things that I learned about, you know, player evaluation, how defense works, the different things that he was seeing with his eyes on certain players. And I mean, every one of these coaches is at the highest, highest level. So getting a chance to hear from them, you know, break things down is always great for me. But, you know, with Zimmer, I learned a ton about quarterback play from Zimmer because he would, talk about the other team's quarterback all the time and what he liked about him wouldn't

wouldn't always give his own quarterback a whole lot of credit but you know the even the things that he talked about for other quarterbacks uh you would learn how to look for different things and stuff like that so uh how to watch a cornerback i mean man like that's a zimmer who how many human beings know more about cornerback play than him so i i always think it's great um matt says his alter ego should be a guy who throws touch passes. Very funny. Very funny. Who else was number nine? Was Drew Bree's number nine? I think he was, right? So that's that that needs to be his alter ego. That's very funny. Marauder, JJ turns it up to 11. He does. And he's probably got to, he's probably got to get to a point at some point in his career where it's, it just is a resting eight.

But you know, a lot of quarterbacks early in their career, like they got to find that. And I mean, this guy coming back from the injury, I'm sure it was another frustrating rehab and everything. I mean, he had to be going crazy on the flight to Detroit. It had to be going crazy in the locker room waiting to get out there and play. And then to have the first two drives turn out to be touchdowns, I mean, you've got to be amped. I mean, look, I know this at the very smallest level. You can ask Dane Mizatani about this, that there are certain people who, when they get out there, are a little bit different than they are in real life.

So Dane and I, a few years ago, played in a rec league basketball league with another colleague of ours, Danny Cunningham, a good friend in Cleveland media now, but he was in our media then and a few other Chase Frederick for the Pioneer Press. So we played in this league, right? And it's all just dudes like me where it's guys who played like high school sports and, you know, maybe have some athletic talent, but none of us are six foot seven. none of us can dunk we're just you know out there for the love of the game and i remember we were in a tight game and like i can shoot the basketball pretty well so danny's coming down the left side he hits me on the run and i just straight cash a three like no no rim bang gives us the lead and going back up the court think about the think about the stakes here there are none like it's just this is just rec league basketball and i was like

let's bleep and go mother bleep you know like i'm not i'm not you hear me podcast all the time like i don't i'm not like that usually but hey when i'm out there competing get pretty intense so i i get it on the smallest level and these guys are 10 times 500 times more competitive than your local podcaster slash journalist slash author uh but i get i get what he what he's getting at like what happens when the lights go on with j j mccarthy and it's a different type of person you see this i mean there's so many guys over the years daniel hunter is one of the the sweetest nicest people of all time to talk to he's such a nice person in the locker room he gets out there and he's just leaving a trail of bodies like it's just just crashing the people in front of him and killing

and quarterbacks. They're like, that guy's a cycle, but like, behind the scenes, super nice. Same with, you know, quiet and doesn't say a lot. Christian Derrissau. I remember the story that somebody in the league told me about Derisaw that he wasn't drafted higher because they thought he just wasn't intense at all. And he was just, he was so quiet. But he's like a franchise left tackle.

So if you miss the, um, fan dual question of the day, by the way, Justin Jefferson in this game over, under 71.5, Jordan Addison 47.5, and T.J. Hawkinson 30.5. Those are the over unders. Who is the most important that they hit the over in this game against the Ravens? Brian says, what's the percentage chance that JJ Energy and Moxie boosts continue into this week getting the same intensity out of the team?