Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - JJ McCarthy is ready for the big stage

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about comments from JJ McCarthy and Kevin O'Connell at TCO Performance Center on Wednesday. McCarthy said he's ready for the nerves that come along with his debut. Plus updates on Harrison Smith, Christian Darrisaw and Dallas Turner. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider Matthew Collar here. And what a day. It was at TCO Performance Center as players were talking about a real football game coming up. And it was J.J. McCarthy's first time as the QB1 walking up for that Wednesday press conference. There will be many, many more in his future. but I want to bring you what he had to say today about being prepared. Some interesting comments from Kevin O'Connell. And why don't we get some health updates going as well? We might as well do that off the bat. And there will be official injury reports coming. But as far as Harrison Smith goes, I'll read you what Kevin O'Connell had to say about that. And then we'll get into the McCarthy stuff.

He said that Harrison Smith participated in the walkthrough today, but will not practice, and the hope is that they can ramp him up. He is back in the building in meetings, building up his workload for the week. We'll see where he's at throughout the remainder of the week. So that didn't sound to me like, hey, look out everybody. Number two, two is coming back. It'll be something to watch going forward, but maybe they have to prepare themselves for the possibility that Harrison Smith won't be playing.

And as far as Christian Derisaw, well, let me just bring you right off the top. here what O'Connell had to say about Christian Derisaw. Then we'll get into all the McCarthy stuff. But it was a update that sounded like I badly want Derisaw to be ready to go, but I understand that there are many, many football games to be played. So here's what Kevin O'Connell said about Christian Derisaw's health. Is Darisaw 100%? Does he look like he was before the injury?

Yeah, he looks, I mean, you know, he looks really good. He's consistently, I think he's surprised, even, himself early on in training camp as we began that kind of really crafted plan by Tyler and the doctors and Christian himself. You know, I think in the moment he has, you know, had some really, really good progression days where we've been able to stack it up. And we're in game week now and he's going to take a lot of reps today, if not all of them. And then we'll see how he feels and we'll see ultimately Christian's such an important player to our team that we want to make sure that we're smart about the plan. It's more so just about known we've got 17 games,

including a short week next week, and then ultimately, you know, our trip overseas. Like, there's just a big, there's got to be a big picture mindset to a player of Christian's caliber where this game, all that matters is this game to the Minnesota Vikings Monday night in Chicago. But, you know, our jobs are to make sure we're doing what's best for the team. for the greater, the greater, you know, duration of 17 plus games. And what that means for Monday night, I, you know, I don't know as of right now. I just know what my eyes have shown me, what Christians there demonstrated, have given us through a really, you know, calculated plan, a good possibility of Monday night.

So there you go. Good possibility, O'Connell says, about Christian Derasaw, but could not lock it in 100%, because they have to see how he responds to the. practice reps. So there's a few different things that I want to talk about tonight. But I mean, number one is the main question for you guys. And then I have an extra fan dual question of the day. But the main just question I want to talk about is realistic expectations for this game. J.J. McCarthy in Chicago. And we know it's going to be a crazy atmosphere. We know Chicago can be a bit of a house of horrors that they have a good defensive coordinator. They've got talent on their

defensive side. There's some new weapons that he's actually working with because he didn't get to practice in training camp with Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen is here. What's a realistic expectation for J.J. McCarthy, not best case scenario, not worst case scenario. Give me realistic. And so let's go through what Kevin O'Connell had to say. And the first question off the bat, naturally from my friend Chris Long. He said to Kevin O'Connell, hey, man, it's Soldier Field. It's Monday night football. How do you keep J.J. McCarthy on the tracks?

And I thought Kevin O'Connell had a very interesting answer to this question. We've tried to build a world where running the offense and playing quarterback is a, you know, a collection of really small things. Some would even consider them routine things. and can we do the routine things routinely? And then, as the clear, you know, obviously it's different than, you know, the Egan practice fields here, or any, you know, anything he's experienced, at least in the NFL, I think he's got a lot of really good experience,

you know, at the collegiate level in front of 100 plus thousand people. But it's still Monday Night Football. Everything you said, all of that, we don't just start talking about playing quarterback in the NFL this week for him. It's about doing a lot of the things that make up playing quarterback for us in our offense with the guys in the huddle with them who were really excited about that group

and then just locking in on the nuances and subtleties of the game plan that hopefully by Monday night we can make them as a routine as possible. Then the ball gets kicked off and he knows he's definitely not going to be alone out there from a standpoint of the coaching staff and myself right there with him.

maybe me too much sometimes in his ear via the coach the quarterback system. But I know those 10 guys in the huddle, regardless of who's in the game, those guys are excited for number nine to come in and call that first play. I thought that that was a really interesting approach there from Kevin O'Connell. And, you know, we talk a lot about O'Connell as the quarterback whisper, what he can do for quarterbacks and things like that and how he uses his past experiences to help his quarterbacks. but sometimes it could be hard to put a real finger on that.

Like, well, why is it? Why is it that O'Connell seems to work so well? And sometimes I will maybe get a little snarky and I will say maybe it's because they have Justin Jefferson. And that's why he's so brilliant, right? Which there is definitely truth to that. But I think what he said right there of trying to create these things for the quarterback that become routine, routine ways of.

approaching the scheme, routine ways of getting to the line of scrimmage and dealing with different problems that are presented by the opponent. So you don't feel like you are having to do something miraculous. Now, every once in a while, we have seen whether it was Kirk Cousins making, you know, great throws with accuracy to Justin Jefferson down the field or some of the rockets from Sam Darnold or even the brief Josh Dobbs having to do some incredible things with his legs. If you're going to win as a quarterback in the NFL, there's three, four times a game that you have to do something that your coach cannot get in your headset, cannot tell you what to do. But how many times a game is that versus how many times you drop back? Most of the time, 90% of the time,

it's something routine. It's seeing a defense. It's reading where you're supposed to go. It's checking into something that looks like it's going to work. You know, maybe it's checking into a run or changing the past protection or whatever it might be. And so I like the way that he approaches that of, yes, it's a big stage. Yes, there's a lot going on here, but you're not alone out there. And if you just do the things that have become routine to you over the last two years of training camp, you're going to have a lot of success. And I feel like that doesn't overwhelm a quarterback.

Like, that's making it sound way easier than it is. And my goodness, if everybody could just go out there and do the routine things, then, well, this game would be a heck of a lot easier than it actually is for quarterbacks. But I like the mental mindset of that from O'Connell. These are the things that we do in this offense. These are the things that you've done. And if you keep doing them, if you keep getting rid of the ball, making the right decisions, throwing it to the right places, then things are going to work for you. Now, there's another part of J.J. McCarthy, though, as he goes into his first game,

his reputation over his career and one of you said in the comments like I'll be glad to get his first snap so we no longer have to say that McCarthy has never taken a first snap in the NFL and that's a great point right there that I've probably said that myself 500 times and even thinking about all the last minute opinions that are getting shared about McCarthy and what the Vikings are going to be that just comes up time and time again well he's never done it before. He's never done it. Well, you know, once he does it, then he will have actually been out there. And we don't have to say that anymore. But what O'Connell was talking about just in terms of J.J. McCarthy's past, Kevin Seafurt asked about throughout his high school life throughout his

college life. This is another thing you've heard a million times, but that he's only lost one game. And I even said it to Aaron Jones today. I'll bring you that a little bit later as well. But But Kevin O'Connell had a good answer to that when he was asked about the element of being a winner in the past. And does that matter? And, you know, my analytical brain often goes to, well, look, and I've probably said it, college doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot. High school doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot. There's lots of guys, you know, Tim Tebow or Ken Dorsey or whoever you want to go through in the past that have had a ton of college success, a ton of high school success. but when they got to the league, it was a lot different.

But O'Connell talked about McCarthy as a gamer type of quarterback. And that isn't a word that I think I've ever heard him say before. So here's his analysis on McCarthy and him as somebody who can elevate his game once he gets under the bright lights. If you look at the records of the teams that JJ has been on going back to high school, I mean, they've won almost all their games. I know there's a lot of things that always go into that, but what do you think is about him that what part do you think he plays

in that kind of extended success, whether it's his personality traits or just the way he plays or the way he is or just happen to be on a lot of great teams? Yeah, you know, I would not discount the fact that a lot of the times when, you know, JJ, whatever team he's been on, tends to be a good version himself on game day. And there's a lot of guys that are talented. There's a lot of guys that can, you know, light up the practice field every day,

but the guys that can either take it to the game or maybe even be a better version of themselves in the game, you know, have those, you know, the gamer, whatever tag you want to put on it. I think he's got that trait. I think it's important he doesn't just solely rely on that trait showing up to Soldier Field. I think he's going to, he pairs that with the work that he puts in throughout the week so that he's comfortable. and then, you know, it's going to be, you know, it's going to be his first start, you know, in the NFL. I'm very much aware of that.

He's aware of that. We're all aware of that. And but that doesn't mean we put a ceiling over him. And at the same time, that doesn't mean because of all that success throughout his football journey, we raise the floor either. It's, I want him focusing on the little details of doing his job against a really good defense. We're going to make some plays.

They're going to make some plays. The ebbs and flows of the game, you know, it's just, you know, on to the next nap and, and start banking some of this experience and using it for your benefit moving forward. Once again, there's O'Connell sort of bringing it back down to the micro, right? The macro is big and like McCarthy's been a winner and all that sort of stuff and this is his background and so forth. And O'Connell brings it back down to the, hey, let's focus on the things that you're supposed

to do from a play to play and a drive-to-drive basis. which I really think does a good job of helping center his quarterbacks. I mean, his message last year to Sam Darnold was, yeah, you might have a big contract on the way. And, yeah, this season means a lot to what your future is going to be. But you got to win this play, this rep, this down. And that seemed to really resonate with somebody like Sam Darnold. And I know some of it seems cliche, but it's almost like when O'Connell puts it that way, it doesn't seem as cliche.

It seems like kind of profound that if you can whittle all of that down, then all of the noise of everything else kind of starts to go away. So I'll get to your, actually, we should make that the Fanduil question of the day because you guys have had great responses and I'm going to read a bunch of them momentarily. So let's make that the Fandual question of the day is realistic. What is realistic? And if you are wondering for J.J. McCarthy's first start, His over under for yardage is 220.5 on Fanduel.

That seems pretty realistic to me. Do you think realistic should be higher? Do you think realistic should be lower for J.J. McCarthy? So he was asked today about just how prepared he feels. And I thought to myself, well, man, he's at about two years to get ready for it. But here is McCarthy's answer to that. It's the first opportunity to start. How prepared do you feel?

how much confidence than you have that you'll be able to go out there and have some success on Monday night. Extremely prepared. You know, most prepared I've felt in my life. Obviously, we still got to get, you know, third down, red zone, all that stuff in. But I feel like, you know, just talking with, you know,

Coach Wentz, Carson, just like he's breaking down, like, you know, when he was going through his first start and when he was playing that soldier at night and just like, you know, first games, you never really know what you're going to get. So you could prepare as much as you want, but they could do a completely different thing.

So the most important thing is, like I said earlier, just staying, you know, locked into the simple things, locked into what my job is, that play, and then reacting to what the defense is giving me. But very prepared and very confident. Is your ball like Michigan in your first start? Do you remember that? Does it feel the same?

It really doesn't, to be honest with you, Max. I feel like, you know, that was pretty intense. You know, this is very, intense as well. But just playing so many big games at Michigan, obviously it's a different level here. But just having those reps of those emotions that you feel and how you handle them and how you manage them. But this one, there's just pure excitement, pure confidence. And, you know, I absolutely can't wait to get on the plane with my boys and get out there. So I thought that that answer stood out to me where he said more or less, like I've already had these emotions before a game

where when he was getting to college after high school, because what happened with him in high school, he would have had some big moments, and I think won a state championship in Illinois before going to IMG because of the pandemic, and Illinois didn't have football that year. So at IMG, he would have played in big games, but would it have been the same as playing in the big house in Michigan?

Like the jump in terms of the stage was enormous from playing at high school, you know, and obviously he's good in that high school and he's playing in big moments. And I'm sure at the time it was a, you know, very exciting for him. But it's nothing like playing at the big house and playing Ohio State or something like that. And maybe the NFL Monday night football stage is a lot closer to playing in the national championship. Though I'll continue to say there's nothing like the NFL, the amount of people watching the pressure, the competition, all that sort of stuff. but what he's saying is emotionally he's already had those games where he had to walk out and try to win a game to go to the national championship against Nick Sabin and Alabama

where he had to go out and play against Michael Pennick so he's going to see in week two and Washington and try to win a national championship that that's the closest that you can get. He's had a little bit of a ramp up at U.S. Bank Stadium a couple of times, but it's not really the same when it's preseason. And maybe this year he would have had some nerves, though. This is, this is going to be something for him to deal with. But I think what I've always heard from McCarthy is that he puts effort into that element as well. It's not just effort into the X's and O's.

It's not just effort into the scheme, who he's going to throw to the defensive scout, but also just how he feels and controls himself and his emotions going into games. And he did that a lot at Michigan, the pregame meditation, was, you know, highlighted, but I think he does a lot of things to understand his own mental state in a situation like going into this game against Chicago. And that's, you know, maybe the modern athlete, right, has a lot at their fingertips that can help them understand this stuff. I mean, back in the day, you were probably just like, I'm walking out there and this is what I'm doing. But now he builds that into his pregame routine. And also, I think if you understand

how nervous you're going to be, you understand how much adrenaline. there's going to be that it can help you deal with that. I will really be watching closely, though, for that first drive. Does Kevin O'Connell say, all right, kid, like, let's throw a 20-yard dig to Justin Jefferson? Or, hey, why don't we send out Aaron Jones on, I talked to Jones about screen passes today and talk to Byron Murphy in the locker room about, you know, why it's so tough to stop Aaron Jones and screen passes and things like that. does he try a couple of screens? Does he try a couple of handoffs and just get the ball rolling a little bit, a little play action, a little quick bubble or something to, you know, Justin Jefferson or a little five-yard hitch? Or does he just start to air it out and say shake off that rust right away? That will be something that I can't wait to find out on Monday night. But I think McCarthy, you just, he is so thoughtful about every part of this that he's already running himself through what he's going to feel like when he's.

gets out there on Monday night. I think that was really noticeable. And just speaking of his mindset, he had another answer about that. And I also asked him about the best advice that he has gotten so far heading into his first start. You try to get your mind up just the moments before you take the field, especially in the game like this. I just try to be completely present.

You know, at the end of the day, there's going to be, you know, anxiousness, excitement, and, you know, a whole lot of adrenaline. But at the end of the day, that's completely normal and, you know, accepting those emotions, you know, you're able to let go of them a lot quicker than trying to deflect them and avoid them. So, you know, I know I'm going to be amped up, but at the end of the day, I know that, you know, Coach O'Connell is going to put me in a great position and my teammates around me are going to, you know, do everything they can to make sure if we're successful each and every play. But, yeah, it's just stay present, stay calm and center. all right there is uh j j mccarthy on more on his mindset there um but the uh the best advice that he got because i i asked him about that he said was just to be you like just to be himself uh was the best advice that he was given and that makes a lot of sense in running this team and i think that his authenticity overall is one of the reasons that his teammates have seemed to have galvanized around him already in training camp and now we're

they get to go see what it's going to be really like. But I also go back to what KOC said, which is you're not alone out there. There's a lot of other talented players on the field that can help support J.J. McCarthy in his first game. But you get a window there into what KOC is thinking, what J.J. McCarthy is thinking as they go into a couple of days of practice and then get ready to play football. So let's get to some of your answers. That Fandual question of the day is what is, what is realistic for J.J. McCarthy for a stat line. But if you've got another viewpoint on this, that isn't a stat line, that will certainly be accepted. And 220.5 yards is the over under on Fandool going into this game. So let's see. Oh, it was, I should give credit where it's due. It was Tristan that said, you know, it'll be nice when he gets his first snap. So we don't

have to talk about that anymore. Vegas Patriot says, have faith in KOC setting up JJ for success. This is why last year was a very important season for the Minnesota Vikings. And even another comment that McCarthy made was talking about Sam Darnold and what he saw from him last year and how Darnold had a balance between taking care of his body and preparing. And that's a small thing that a rookie would not know of how a quarterback went about his week. Also, I was thinking about with he called called him coach Wentz, but I mean, Carson Wentz is not that old. He's got to feel like he's about 500 being around J.J. McCarthy, but that's why it was also important for them to sign

Carson Wentz for somebody that he could lean on and somebody that he could talk to about playing at Soldier Field, winning at Soldier Field, winning on Monday Night Football. Sam Howell just didn't know anything about winning in the NFL, whereas Carson Wentz has won 40-something games and has led teams to the playoffs and so forth. That type of experience, I think, is really useful around him. But last year meant a lot for us seeing how Kevin O'Connell operated with a quarterback who, well, Darnold was much more experience, had not had much success and how he went about setting up his quarterback for success.

And every time we talk to O'Connell about McCarthy, we just get a little bit more of peeking through the window of why this tends to work for him. And somebody asked me earlier today, like, why is it that, you know, national media seems lower on the Vikings than local media? Did we suddenly all turn into homers? And I would say that, you know, national media, there's so many national media people that I've seen the Vikings be picked as Super Bowl champions. I had national NFL writer Matt Verdehram on here from SI.

And he said he was picking the Vikings to win the division. That was before the Parsons trade, but I assume that he still is doing that. So it's not like one monolith that has one opinion about the Minnesota Vikings, but there has been, I think, a lot of skepticism. And I think the reason that the locals have been picking double-digit win games and playoff appearances and good seasons from J.J. McCarthy as well, I mean, of course, we saw it in practice. We saw how they built on it.

But also we covered last year and saw how Sam Darnold, and this is a better offense than it was last year with the way that it's set up in the interior of the offensive line. And I think that it does, it is better in the screen game, which Aaron Jones was talking about. And it is better in the run game. There's no question about those things that can support J.J. McCarthy. And I even think that having Adam Thielen has the potential to make them quite a bit more dynamic than they were last year because they have an underneath option of someone who knows how to read defenses, get into space and be there for his quarterback. He's been a quarterback's best friend for his entire career, including in

Carolina. So I think the circumstances are better. And I think the quarterback is not quite as rawly talented, but maybe a little bit above the shoulders, a little bit more capable of handling certain things than Sam Darnold was. I thought Sam Darnold was a tick late on a lot. of stuff and then made up for it with arm talent where I feel like J.J. McCarthy and his timing is very good with the offense and that matches up a little bit better with Kevin O'Connell than Sam Darnold did. It's going to be very hard to reach that level of a season where you win 14 games and you're a top 10 quarterback in a lot of statistical categories. But I think that there are some assets to his game that just click with what Kevin O'Connell wants. Track Pat says we need a pie chart

of QB ranges for J.J. McCarthy in week one. Okay, let's give it a try. So the four categories would have to be he is unbelievable. He is pretty darn good and wins. He's pretty meh and wins. Or it's, well, I don't know about, you know, the winning, now we have to create like 18 categories. How about just he's unbelievable? He's really, really darn good. He's pretty me or he's pretty bad. I mean, for me, unbelievable is probably a, I'm going to try this off the dome here because I've been asked for a pie chart. When you get asked for a pie chart, you got to make pie chart. I will go 10% that it's unbelievable, that it's just 400 yards, four touchdowns.

It's Peyton Manning right off the bat. There's 10% chance that happens since the Bears, you know, who knows, right? Just the Jefferson plays here. So that could happen. I will say that very good, certainly good enough to win and then some is a 30% chance, 40. I'll go 40. So we're up to 50 and I will say another 30% then goes to pretty me, but they still could probably win if things go right. So now I'm at 50, 60, 90. 10% is just awful because I've just seen too much of him practicing to think he's just going to go out there and throw the ball into the stands every time or take a hundred sacks. We've seen him in the preseason. So that's where I'm going to go. I'm going to go 10% unbelievable, 10% terrible and 50% goes to pretty darn

good. 30% goes to me. And I'll get to your guys answers shortly on your expectations. Of course, LDR believer has the Vikings winning 63 to nothing is a very reasonable. I did say reasonable expectation. Kurt says this year's team is going to be good at something else that they weren't last year, hopefully maybe several things, but finding out what those are is going to be exciting. Yeah, I think we could take a shot at it. I think they have a deeper defense, even if the secondary is similarly thin. The front seven is quite a bit more talented than it was last year,

where they were taping and gluing spots together. and I also think that interior line is just such a difference maker. And KOC, I have the quote here, what he said about Donovan Jackson. He was talking about how Donovan Jackson has been really good at learning. And that's something that you want to hear from young players, that he has been very good when a rep goes wrong of being able to fix it pretty quick. He said, let's see, he might get beat on. something like being overaggressive against the veteran player like Jonathan Allen or

Javan Hargrave and a move that they use against him. But he learns how to improve many times not having to go upstairs and watch the tape. So, I mean, meaning that just from rep to rep, while he's actually out there, he's able to fix and correct things, which I think is a very valuable thing for Donovan Jackson. But even Jackson's athleticism and his ability in the screen totally unique from where they were last year, where they had no athleticism at left guard. Blake Brandel was filling a spot admirable, but did you want, do you want him running 20 yards down the field on a screen? Of course not. And Dalton Reisner, do you want him run 20 yards down the field? Of course not. Whereas, you know, Will Fries is a big dude who

can move. So they've, they've changed their dynamic quite a bit on the interior. D.L. says 254 yards, one passing touchdown, one rushing, and a 2713 win. That's something, yeah, that sounds right there is a reasonable expectation for J.J. McCarthy. A couple of touchdowns decided win, maybe not a huge blowout. It was, you know, in a game like 2713, you're probably talking about something that's fairly close throughout certain parts of the game. And then you're just a little bit better to the end, 254 yards, not unreasonable there. Adam says, 117 vikeses, just get the win.

Just get the win, even if it's by a little, that's completely reasonable. Digital planes, media, have they given any detail about Harrison Smith's absence? They have not. Can confirm that Harrison was in the building today, and he was at walkthrough, according to O'Connell, wasn't going to practice. That's the best we can do. And the whole thing sounds like it was a health matter that. he wanted to have be private and when it comes to something like that and we'll talk to him eventually when he gets back out and he can give how many of our details he wants to give

but if we're not talking about this is just my view if we're not talking about a wrist injury an ankle or something like that and it's more of something that he wants to keep to himself then i'm going to respect that i mean i think every person has had or in their family or something something from a health perspective that you wouldn't necessarily want the whole world to be broadcast. So I think that there is when it comes to certain things, entitlement to your privacy. So we'll just find out when we find out. But I will say that the update from O'Connell was not super promising. The way that he framed it of, well, he's not going to practice today.

We're going to try to ramp him up. Looking at my watch here, there is not that many hours left. until they kick the football off on Monday night. So how does that change things? Because if there's one guy who can mind bleep Caleb Williams, it's Harrison Smith, right? He's been messing with quarterbacks for how many years coming up to the line of scrimmage, dropping back,

making adjustments, checks and changes on the defense. He really is the center of their communication. If they're missing him, it's not that Josh Mattelis can't do that stuff. Or maybe Theo Jackson. We've at least seen Josh Mattelis do this stuff. Theo needs to prove it this year. But it does take away some of the dynamic element of Mattelis is up at the line of scrimmage.

Now he's somewhere else. Now he's somewhere else. And does that mean that someone like Jay Ward has to play a lot in this game? Or does it mean that they play a lot of nickel, which is Jeff Okuda? And then we get our first major test of Jeff Okuda. that I could also see where they just play nickel for the entire game if they don't have Harrison Smith and it's Theo Jackson and Josh Mattelis, does that impact the deep passing game? Because I think Mattelis is at his best when he is playing up at the line

of scrimmage. And I'm not sure how they're going to manage things with Harrison because we didn't see a lot of camp. We just didn't with him. I mean, he was only out there for the first couple weeks and sometimes they were having Josh Mattelis play next to him and sometimes it was Theo Jackson. So I don't know exactly what the plan was going to be with Harrison Smith, but it may take some time to ramp him back up and be ready to play. They need them. They need him against Chicago. Maybe you get away with that. But, you know, it's not like Caleb Williams can't throw the football. It's not like he's incapable of making some plays and some great throws, but especially against Atlanta and Cincinnati, those are two really good offenses, or at least, you know, Atlanta should be.

They need them back as soon as they can get him. Kit says for Monday night, 18 for 25, 240, one pick, 40 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown. Very reasonable expectations there. That's a great stat line for him. Complete a lot of passes. It's not crazy yardage, but it's also not total dink and dunk. 40 yards rushing. I definitely think that he can make an impact with his.

legs right away and that's probably the biggest surprise i think a lot of people outside of here are going to have is that j j mccarthy's going to run he's going to make plays with his legs he's not going to just sit in the pocket and wait wait away and take some of the hits that sam darnald took there were a lot of times last year where i thought sam run move your legs my man like get out of there and then he would run backwards and take a sack and there were a few really good scrambles the one in Seattle comes to mind. And I think he was dealing with a bit of an ankle or a leg injury throughout the season. He had to miss a couple of plays there.

He got hurt against the Jets, got hurt against the Bears at Soldier Field. So that may have limited summit of Darnold's rushing ability. But I think McCarthy that that's really in his DNA to be a runner. 40 yards would be, would be very good. Williams says ESPN posts an article, Anointing Green Bay, the class of the NFC in Minnesota misses the playoff. offs. Well, put that down for about the, you know, 25th straight year of things like that. Not saying it's impossible. Green Bay is a good team. I have a ton of respect for their coach,

their running game, and now their defense with Micah Parsons. But, you know, that seems how it's always going to lean when it comes to preseason prognostications is Green Bay gets the benefit of the doubt. For some reason, Chicago gets the benefit of the doubt. Well, Detroit and Minnesota get questioned and that's what's going to happen going into this season. I still think Detroit's a really darn good team. I still would put Detroit as the strongest roster by ever so slight over the Vikings, but very, very, very close. And I would still have Green Bay behind them because I think it's Micah Parsons and still a bunch of B plus players on that roster. There's not multiple A plus players. It's now Micah Parsons, welcome to the A plus club, Green Bay Packers. But that race,

it's neck and neck and neck. I mean, the gaps are very small. I would say the Vikings are better as a complete team by only a shade. And that's if J.J. McCarthy plays well. But Jordan Love, there is a sample on Jordan Love. And there's a lot of evidence on Jared Gough of how good he can be offensively. But I'm not surprised by that because Green Bay has all the hype going into the season now after this big trade. And there probably is, and look, I think that it's great for them and their defense and the trickle-down effect is enormous. So you've heard me talk about this. You've been annoyed at me for talking about this. But one player suddenly making you the favorite, I think would be a little bit too much for me from going from a lot of the

projections of being third to is one defensive player worth two more wins or three more wins, probably not, especially if he has any sort of back issue. And that's with, all the credit due to Micah Parsons. But should they have jumped wildly in the betting markets? Should they have jumped wildly in everybody's projections? I would move them up. But not, oh, those other teams are just dog meat and it's Green Bay and everybody else. But that does seem to be how they're being treated after this.

So I was not very surprised to see that. Matt says, I think my only expectation is that he looks like he's in command of the offense and doesn't get rattled. 175 yards, a touchdown to pick. I'd probably say that's about what I expected. I like that explanation and that answer to the question. That's why I said it doesn't have to just be stats. It can be something that you perceive,

something that you feel watching him. Does it feel like it's in command throughout the last two training camps, throughout his couple of preseason appearances, throughout the joint practices? That's the word I would just use over and over for J.J. McCarthy. And actually, let me get you what Aaron Jones had to say about McCarthy being a gamer. I asked him about that.

Did you give him any advice this week cutting into his first game week? Yes, same thing you've been doing since you're a kid. You're a winner. Let's keep it going. But our job is to make your job easier. So let us know how we're going to do our job to make your job easier. But if there's any other way we can help, let us know. But no, he's ready for the moment.

And I'm excited to be able to go out there with him and get to see him start his first game and lead us. You talk about him being a winner. Kevin was talking about earlier, just like a gamer element to him. Like, how would you define that? I mean, he hasn't, like if he's lost one game since high school or something like that. Like, how would you define that? So I would define JJ's gamer for sure. He's definitely a gamer.

We were playing in a kickball tournament. and just to see him diving for like the balls and I said oh this kid's a gamer like he when the game's on he's going to like he's going to go out there he's going to give that extra effort he's going to he's going to strain and he's going to get the job done so like I said I'm excited for him we're here to just give him everything he needs like I said and be that be that person in his ear to hey if you need to pick me up we're here we're here to pick you up or if you need to tell somebody to tell you good job we're here to tell you good job we're here to tell you good job as well. Who else had the thought, J.J. McCarthy. Don't dive when you're playing

kickball. That's a Vikings quarterback injury waiting to happen. But I think you get the point from Aaron Jones that no matter the circumstances, he sees McCarthy as a competitor. And I think that being in command that that comes out. So there's the preparation, there's the competitiveness, there's the big stages he's been on. There's a lot of boxes checked going into this game to say that it won't be too big for him or that he won't be in command or that he gets rattled easy. I did really like what Jeremiah Searle said yesterday, which is offensive line. It's on you to not let J.J. McCarthy get hit early in those first couple drives. And there's real data behind that. There was a study of a few years ago about how quarterbacks

performed after they had just been hit. And did they play differently after a Q. be hit. Of course, Matthew Stafford did not and actually somehow played better after a Q be hit. But even Tom Brady played a little bit worse after he had taken a hit. So I expect, you know, McCarthy to have toughness for that. But every quarterback gets impacted by pressure. How he starts the game, I think will make a big difference for how in command we feel like he is throughout the game. Rob says Caleb Williams still doesn't do the routine things routinely. That's another thing we're going to find out right there is can Caleb Williams do the routine things routinely because he most certainly did not last year. Mr. Marauder, realistically, JJ is a second

year guy mentality, but most quarterbacks have rough first seasons because of the mental aspect. I see him being way better than expected because he has been studying the offense for a year. Right. I mean, you and I are thinking along the same lines of something I've said a lot, which is don't call them a rookie. Just don't say that. It's not true. When you get to, it's kind of like having an internship is what it was really like last year for J.J. McCarthy. Because a lot of times if you've ever had an internship or something like that, a job shadow in your life, well, just for example, we got intern Maggie on the show, right? Well, I'm not going to say intern Maggie. Why don't you just host the entire show? And I'm going to go

sit over there. Jay-J. McCarthy was not hosting the entire show. He was not running the offense. He wasn't out there. But that doesn't mean he wasn't learning the entire time. And I think we saw the fruits of that during this training camp. And I also think that going into that injury, having confidence of what he had done before that made a difference as well in the way that he came out of that injury. Like, oh, yeah, this is me. Like the first time that he was out there and practice throwing. Oh, yeah, that's right. Where I left off last was pretty darn good practices. Let's see. Dystopian Utopia says ready for an easy start, rely on the running and defense. Ideally, it would be 17 for 26, 180 yards, no touchdowns or interceptions in a win. Does that win you the game?

Does 100, I mean, maybe if Miles Price gets a punt return for touchdown or, well, look, touchdown stats, we know how those are. Sam Darnold's touchdown stats were pumped up last year by the fact that they couldn't run. There's no doubt about it. So if they run three touchdowns and they win 21 to 14 and they control the ball and play defense and he throws for 180 yards, I don't think anybody is going to be unhappy with that. I think realistic expectations as far as have a lot of completions, stay on the field a lot, hit a deep shot or two to show off the cannon and that's all they need from you to win this game potentially now we should mention that caleb williams last year did score a lot of points

against the vikings though a good amount of those were playing from behind but he does have that in him i mean i think we all think this viking defense should go in and hold them under 20 points but this is a very very talented offense with a lot of weapons and a play caller that's beaten the viking before. Like, I don't know if 17 for 26 and 180 yards is going to be able to beat the Chicago Bears. Like, you might need more than that from J.J. McCarthy. I think it's a fair realistic expectation is, hey, just keep the train on the tracks. But I think it's also realistic that if the train goes off the tracks on defense, that you find a way. I mean, that's what Darnold did last year against the Bears. And I think if they need that from McCarthy, then he's got to do it.

this because there's a little bit of kid glovesness to the way we talk about it like hey if he throws for 180 that's probably fine play to the score and and i agree with a lot of that run the football well don't turn it over all those things can win you a lot of games but you're a first round pick for a reason if this gets into a shootout you're going to have to go do something and that's where i think we'll learn a lot about McCarthy at some point is you know if Cincinnati or Atlanta or, you know, whatever game turns into a shootout, you know, how's that going to look? And it might happen right away. I mean, there's no guarantee that the Vikings just completely shut out Caleb Williams because even as bad as his first season was, you saw last year that

he will have those glitches in the Matrix where he makes ridiculous plays, ridiculous throws, scrambles, runs, all that sort of stuff. So it may be realistic or it may be a realistic expectation that if that he will do whatever is required, that he's capable of doing whatever is required. If it's required to go ball out and throw for 320 and four touchdowns, then you're going to need that from him. And it's not like he doesn't have enough around him to do it. That seems like a high lofty expectation. But if the other quarterback who's a 2024 first round draft pick,

if he's balling out, then you need your quarterback to do the same, whatever it takes to win, I think. let's see. Mr. Mayor says, I don't deal in realistic. I want him to turn into Tom Brady week one. I do not blame you for that, says, will that happen? No, but my cognitive dissonance is stronger than my logic. We're going to make the Bears cry that they picked Caleb. Well, that might be true by the end of the night. That might be true. You know, and that's something that is an interesting discussion, though, Mr. Mayor, because I'm sure that because you're talking about two years of hype.

It's almost like, and I don't want to make this comparison because I think the Vikings will win. I think McCarthy will play well. I think it'll look a lot like last year, week one with Darnold. So let me set that aside. But there is a little bit of the Arch Manning, Texas thing, where the guy gets hyped up so much in everybody's mind that he can't possibly reach those expectations. So you do have to be a little careful of that, I think as a fan base.

there's just been so much expectation from the minute that he's drafted to be the franchise quarterback. And there's so many years. Like, we always talk about Chicago and how funny it is that their only good quarterbacks are like, you know, Eric Kramer and Jay Cutler for a minute there, right? And then you have to go back to the 40s until they're actually good. Okay, but, you know, the Vikings quarterback history has a different motif, but a similar idea, which is lots of great quarterback seasons, but never the guy. And this is the guy that was promised.

So, of course, you can't judge him on the first game. But that expectation is going to loom large as he goes into this first game. That's why I use the word realistic, trying to force you to put your realistic hats on, I guess, for just today. And when you get to Monday, you can think and feel however you. want in terms of excitement. I'm sure realistic does go out the window. But like for the purposes of tonight, uh, realistic for this discussion. Chris says, realistic is 22 for 30, 260 yards, a touchdown rushing TD and the Vikes win 2817. I think that's totally fair. Vegas Patriots got them 20 for 29, 243 and a touchdown. I think you guys are barking up the right tree.

Uh, because realistic to me is somewhere in that range of complete six. 65 to 70% of your passes, hit a couple of explosives, score enough that it's going to be hard for the bears to match. So 24, 27, meaning the bears would have to have a good day offensively to keep up with you. And Mr. Marauder pointing out, you know, a win supported by 140 yards on the ground. No, that would be very good for them as well. And that's a realistic expectation, maybe not 140 yards, but that they run successfully. I'm a carpenter, 16 for 22, 196, touchdown, 32 rush yards.

Exposé has 220 yards, two touchdowns, and a pick. Kurt says just win. Right, but I think if your realistic expectation is you don't care what happens as long as they win, and then I come back with, well, what if they win, you know, nine to six and McCarthy throws four picks? I don't think that's going to feel very good. But it's realistic to expect in the 200s for yards, putting up 27 points or so, being in command of the offense, all those things to me are what you're looking for for J.J. McCarthy, son of beavers, 185 yards, one touchdown, probably a little bit on the low side is for the yardage there for me, just a little bit on the low side. I think even if you're a lower scoring game, you're still looking to get over 200. with the receivers that you have and so forth.

Mr. Marauder said, JJ has said that more pressure is better because it clicks in his extreme focus. Well, yeah, I mean, I think that he has the confidence from his background, and that helps. Having the confidence in his background of doing a lot of winning, he walks into this game saying, I've done a lot of winning, right?

and I expect to win when I go into these games. Where it will be interesting is if they don't, and then how do you bounce back and how do you deal with that? Because McCarthy hasn't had too much failure in his career, but that could be where the silver lining to last year's injury is. I think you can only really understand how to deal with adversity when you've actually faced adversity before. And JJ, going through that through last season,

having to be sidelined and watch, it seems like it was a nightmare. I mean, I'm sure it was. You're ready to go. You're ready to start the season thinking about when you're going to play or at least, you know, be available, be on that sideline, be one play away. And then it's taken away from you. Like, that's hard. And so now there might be something different where it's, yeah, there's a lot of pressure here, but it's way better than the alternative, which was last year not being able to play at all. J.D's he's got 220 yards seeming fair as long as he looks the part and,

doesn't get rattled at the first sign of trouble. And that's, to me, that's why you draft him. That's why you draft J.J. McCarthy is that not rattled part, that the yardage, those things, the completion percentage, Tom's got 66% completion percentage, William 18 for 25. I think you guys are in the right ballpark as far as completion percentage. It's fair to want a 65% completion percentage. And I know that's not a great stat because it could be pumped up by,

checkdowns and screens, but at the end of the day, not too many successful quarterbacks are completing 57%. For a single game, yes, but having that expectation of being higher and accurate. I mean, so let's go into more detail here. I mean, you guys have had, I think great stat lines. You're in a similar place with the stat lines. If I were to take the average of all of your rational, Fandul question of the day answers, it would probably end up with something like 17 for 26, 235 yards, two touchdowns,

maybe an interception, maybe a rushing touchdown. So let's just call that the answer, essentially crowdsourcing what the answer is. But the addition to that is command of the offense, not getting rattled on the national stage for sure. And for me,

throwing the ball accurately with consistency. I'm sure that the first throw that goes over somebody's head or is thrown in the dirt, that there will be some folks who are like, you know, that accuracy is a problem. But how many of those are there? There will be a couple.

There is a couple for every single quarterback. How many of those are there? Because the crazy part about the NFL is that the difference between completing 68% of your passes, or just call it 70, and 57% of your passes, is only a couple of game. Think about that over 100. it's 13 over 100, that's three games worth, that's four passes a game.

Four passes a game separates Kyle Bowler from Drew Breeze. That's nuts. So what does it look like accuracy-wise for J.J. McCarthy? Does it look like there's too many of those balls that aren't accurate? Or does it look like his improvement has been massive since he first got here and then, you know, off you go into the future? That's a big question. Matt says I do get a little nervous playing the Bears early. Johnson seems like a guy who is going to have some new wrinkles and some success for the first month.

So before his team gets sick of him. Yeah, that's true. And tomorrow, plan is tomorrow to record with Courtney Cronin, covers Bears for ESPN, also national radio and talk hosts. So I'm excited to talk with her tomorrow afternoon. And then we'll play that conversation tomorrow night is that that is. the plan as of right now. And I am really interested to hear about this crazy preseason and training camp and the relationship there. But you make a good point that you know Ben Johnson was in the lab cooking up all the different things that he's seen from Brian Flores' defense and how

Flores is going to try to counter and how he's going to try to manipulate those things. This guy's ready. And even if he does turn out to be a total psycho, and loses the team halfway through the season and Caleb isn't any good anymore. This first week, that guy is bringing every single thing to the table that he's ever thought of. And, you know, I didn't really think of that angle. I've just thought, well, you know, Ben Johnson has been good against the Vikings

and that's something you have to worry about. But you make a very valid point of playing them in their first week where they haven't run into any issues yet where he's throwing a chair at left guard or something. I mean, that's what it sounded like in training camp. It just sounded like he was a Will Ferrell character out there. But if they haven't faced any issues yet and he's taught them this game plan that he's got ready against Flores, that's probably the best that they're going to be unless he turns out to be a really good coach

and Caleb turns out to be a really good quarterback. So I think that your nervousness is rational there that he is the wild card. I think we have a good sense, I think at least, that we have a good sense for Caleb Williams' strengths and weaknesses. It's Ben Johnson and whether he can mitigate those and whether he can highlight the strengths and whether he can get him to play on time that's going to make the difference here. But I think that you want to talk about pressure. Both these quarterbacks are facing pressure. I think Williams, though, is facing more even than J.J. McCarthy because the entire narrative of the season is going to be set in this first week. If Caleb Williams goes, you know, nine, four, 23 with five sacks and Chicago loses 23 to seven, that place is going to explode.

I mean, it's going to be pitchforks going to the soldier field from everybody who expected Caleb Williams to be great and Ben Johnson to be the answer. And, you know, the national TV conversation will be nothing about the Vikings or J.J. McCarthy. it'll be entirely about Caleb Williams failures. I mean, that's the best case scenario for the Vikings because not only would you walk out there 1 and 0, but you would also walk out of their sort of having dropped the bomb on Chicago because they are going to be in full panic mode after one week and then you're already putting Ben Johnson in a position to prove that he can handle it, which other coaches, as you saw from Matt Eversluse, not exactly so great at handling it.

Jonathan says the RBs and tight ends will be the first stages in his ease to comfortability with the passing game. Yeah, no, I totally agree, Jonathan, and that's where I think, you know, I was thinking about this today about, you know, bringing back Aaron Jones and how we evaluate certain moves, right? So what we often do with different moves is we do them with no context in a total vacuum and we just go, was it worth the money versus the player and his statistics

and his age and things like that? That's how we always do it. We go, all right, this player was paid X number of dollars, here's his cap hit, here's his money, here's his stats, opinion, right? But with someone like Aaron Jones, I think you have to blur the lines there and really get into the nitty gritty with how important he is.

the screen game, the passing game, they hit down field a couple of times, the leadership, somebody who's been through absolutely everything, but also, you know, when you talk to people about Aaron Jones, the positive force, and you just get it from him, the positive force that that guy is in a huddle at all times, the calm force that that guy is at all times. And I think that means a lot to J.J. McCarthy. And, you know, Hawkinson as well, like these guys are your security blankets, use them. and the same thing goes for having Adam Thielen. And that's where when you talk about just how well you can set up somebody

and the quarterback whisper, well, it's a loud whisper because it's not just one guy who's whispering to J.J. McCarthy. It's an entire huddle. I mean, Donovan Jackson is what, the only guy who is younger than J.J. McCarthy, the only guy who hasn't been through things in the league, the only guy who hasn't had success in the league. else has in that entire huddle? How rare is that?

How many teams can say that where every single guy in that huddle has either been on winning teams or had success with their in like Indianapolis's case? I know Will Fries. I don't know if he I don't think any playoff wins in Indianapolis, but developed there alongside Ryan Kelly

and has had successful seasons in the NFL. Hawkinson's been to the Pro Bowl. Jefferson's the best receiver in the league. Thielen's been to the Pro Bowl. been in the playoffs and made game winning plays in the playoffs jones is one in the playoffs i mean there's just a lot there there is a lot there to work with uh let's see brad says why not carson went from the start why trade for howl initially leveraged some draft capital poorly i mean not really they moved down a couple of spots on day three for sam howell that's not leveraging draft

capital let's be serious i mean your odds what did they move down like 20 20 spots or something. I mean, your odds are 0% different for moving down. Seattle, and now we see why. Seattle wanted to get rid of Sam Howell and they did for nothing. So they did not leverage draft capital there. Let's not overdo it. But as far as why not Wentz from the start, I don't know this.

My guess is that Carson Wentz didn't really want to go through all of training camp. That's just a guess. Or that they told Carson Wentz, why don't you just hang out? Like, we're interested. But if Sam Howell's great, we're going to. going to go that direction and you can sign with someone else. There were probably five teams that wanted Carson Wentz that did not have very good backup situations.

And I know a son of Beaver's guy, C.J. Bethard, just signed today. So that dream has unfortunately died for you, my friend. But that's who's out there at this point. There were other teams that could have used Carson Wentz. I wonder if there was always kind of a, you know, like wink, wink, nod nod we'll give you a call if it doesn't work out and then that phone call in the and i'm just only speculating here this could be completely wrong but cars and wents is a tremendous backup quarterback that a lot of teams could have used i've got to think that it was halfway through

training camp they had a pretty darn good idea this is not working with sam how because i mean what date did i declare it over with sam howell i mean it must have been a three weeks in two weeks in and I remember just even wondering to myself, like, am I being too hard on Sam Howl? And the answer was, no, I'm not. This looked a lot like Helen Mond. It was not very good. Jay Deasy says the Homer Michael Wilbon said on ESPN Chicago.

Hey, I was on that station. No, I was on the score. I was on the score earlier this week. Said that the Bears defense will embarrass McCarthy. And the JJ just rode the run game. Well, maybe. That's always possible. I look at the Bears defense as having some dudes and having a very good defensive

coordinator. This should be mentioned is that their defense does not have superstars. Sweat is as close as it gets if Jalen Johnson isn't playing. Johnson is very good. But they do have a star defensive coordinator in Dennis Allen. He has been really good for a long time. Not a great head coach. I mean, he was set up to fail in New Orleans.

But, you know, somebody who is over the years put together. are a lot of very good schemes and, you know, it's, this is not going to be something you just roll the ball out and beat the Chicago Bears. They've got enough talent and they have a really good DC. And I think that, you know, this is a really good matchup. I don't think that Chicago is a 10 win football team, but this is certainly not like going out there and playing the Cleveland Browns in week one or the Tennessee Titans. This is playing a real football team now. I think talent wise, coaching wise, I mean, from an offensive schematic standpoint, who knows about the leadership, but from a schematic standpoint, offense and defense,

there are a lot of weeks where the Vikings walk in with a huge edge schematically. I don't know if this is a huge edge. I think this is closer to even between Ben Johnson and Dennis Allen and Brian Flores and Kevin O'Connell. I think it's a little bit closer. But, you know, you're right. I mean, Will Bond's a Chicago guy. He's going to say that. I mean, is that, I was thinking about this a lot because this is how you get on TV, right?

This is what I've been doing wrong. This is how you get on TV. You just make this declarative statement about what's going to happen. Like, you're totally sure. And then when it doesn't happen, you're like, oh, well, I'll do it again. I'll do it again tomorrow. I guess, you know, we really should make up a segment where I do that,

where I just go through the games and have the most, like, ridiculously confident, you know, we should do that. We should do that. Just have this absurdly confident. Guys, the Dallas Cowboys are so motivated by losing. losing Michael Parsons. They will win this game by double digits. Philadelphia has got the Super Bowl hangover. They are done as a great team in the NFL on Thursday night. Is that my tryout? Did I get the job? I have trouble doing that because I don't know who's going to win or how it's going to go. So we try to think of all the different factors and outcomes and what could impact it and everything else. But that takes longer. That's why we have two hour, three hour live streams. It just takes too long. I can't do the 30-second bite so good. Exposé says, why do not enough people talk about JJ as the quarterback KOC picks?

They talk about him as quarterback whisperer, but then doubt the person that he handpicks based on the lack of throwing into Michigan offense. It's because they've got no information to work with. That's really what it is. I mean, also that people plant flags on quarterbacks. It's kind of like I was just saying, like you can do this. you can make a 30-second soundbite. Any of you could do it on any quarterback in the NFL. You just take a quarterback out of a hat

and you come up with 30 or 45 seconds of just the most boilerplate type of stuff on that person, but you say it loudly and you say it confidently. And you're good. That's a lot of times that's analysis. That's what passes for analysis. And, you know, like, look, there's not unlimited time like there is on the live stream on television, but I just see a lot of that. Like, give me any quarterback, you know, Trevor Lawrence, this guy was supposed to be a

generational talent. And then it's like a little adventure tree. You give his, a little bit about his bio. He was supposed to be a generational talent. And you either go left with, I still believe that's in there, or you go right with, he is proven that he's not. And then you take it from there. And then you give a little tiny bit of evidence and you say it really strongly.

and then you go forward. Get used to it, guys, because J.J. McCarthy is going to be at the center of this all year long. Every game, there will be, especially the start of the season, the island games, they're going to get broken down like this. It's going to be either,

you see, J.J. McCarthy can game manage his way because he had a very average game, but it shows you how good the Vikings are. Or if they lose, then it's going to be, you see he didn't throw enough passes in college. Like, I don't know, it's just how it works. It's relevant that he hasn't thrown a lot of passes.

It matters that he hasn't. When it comes to some of the details, the accuracy, the speed of the game, you know, the littlest thing can make a difference between whether you hit a guy between the hands or whether you overthrow him by six inches. Like, that's football. That's what makes it so great. So it does matter that he hasn't racked up 4,000 throws and that he's still a guy who is learning to develop on the fly in his first game.

But that doesn't mean he can't succeed in this offense. And, yeah, it is true that, you know, he picked, they picked them. They only picked him out of two potential quarterbacks. It was like him or Bo Nix. And they picked him. They could have moved up, I guess, but, you know, those top three were really locked in. The 2024 draft's going to be talked about forever, though. That is going to be super interesting.

And that's what Kail and Kaler and I are getting together tomorrow to do our podcast on the 24 draft class and talking about, you know, the Vikings face a lot of them this year. So we're going to have a good discussion about that. Couldn't get together today. Someone was painting our apartment or something. The life of a podcaster, my friends. But my point is that when you have a quarterback on a relevant team with the coach of the year

that just won 14, there's a first round draft pick, you are going to be at the center of what my friends on the Check the Mic podcast called the Shouty shows. You're going to be in the middle of that. And welcome to relevancy. that's how I look at it. Welcome, if you're relevant, then people are screaming about your quarterback on TV. I'm not great at that. But although, you know, maybe I just created a formula for myself with the Trevor Lawrence thing. But I'm generally not great at that. But you're going to see a lot of it. That's for sure. Let's see. Matt says Okuda gets a pick six and

gives a shout out to Rob E. Hey, Rob, Rob has been in the comments since they signed Okuda as an Okuda guy. We won't mention all the other guys that Rob also liked during the offseason, but nailed the Jeff Okuda one. I appreciate you. Rob, always being here for those shows. But he was the first.

Rob was absolutely the first that was saying, hey, you know, Mackay Blackman might not be that dude. Turned out that there's something wrong there. I haven't seen if he's talked in Indianapolis. I was kind of curious, actually, that if he talked at all to the... That if he talked to the Indianapolis media, I'm going to have to see. If somebody sees that, let me know if there were some quotes from Mackay Blackman about, you know, coming to Indianapolis and what happened.

Mr. Mayor says how many 40 plus point games this year? I mean, if you're betting, you'd probably say zero. It's hard to get to a 40 point game. Maybe one, if something goes really right. John says 20 to 16 score that Fandul question of the day of just your reasonable expectations for J.J. McCarthy for week one. Reasonable stat line. Reasonable what it looks like. Frost. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just going to call you Frost. I expect heavy nickel and zero blitzes when they can. I'm, yeah, I want to see what Dennis Allen has cooked up. Is he, his, historically a guy who does that or is that more of a thing because they did it against the Rams and zero blitz is right pressure right away like just just pressure right away uh Nick says what about Hawkinson more concerned with him not practicing in a month what

Hawkinson no Hawkinson's been practicing he's been he's been out there yeah TJ has been uh I don't think he missed any time during this off season I think that t j hawkinson now here's the thing about like the when it comes to like the target share every single person's not going to match expectations so we may get to a point in the season where you go well i expected more catches from hawkinson but you just can't have everybody maximize it unless you throw 800 passes you're not going to have everybody you're not going to have feeling get 50 and naylor have a breakout year and addison come back and look like a star and jefferson get as usual and hawkinson make the pro it's not possible there's just not

not enough human beings to hawk a pigskin at. But I do think that the chemistry between Hawkinson and McCarthy was really good during the summer. And that's where I expect us to see him early on leaning on T.J. Hawkinson quite a bit. This is a game where you could see the Bears trying to play over the top of Justin Jefferson. And also the update on Jalen Johnson didn't look great. I saved something that Will Raggett said earlier about Nashon Wright. Do you guys remember Nashon Wright?

If you remember Nashon Wright, you're a real one. Let's see. Dan Weiderer, who covers the Bears, said Jalen Johnson's availability for Monday night remains in question if he can't play or is limited. Nashon Wright is eager for his chance. Nashon Wright, he was with the Vikings, and I don't believe ever played. Maybe played in a game? maybe he appeared in a single game.

I guess I'll have to look that up if he played in any games. Nashon Wright has kind of been a bit of a journeyman. He played a little bit for Dallas. That's the guy that's going to fill in. That does not sound all that promising for Chicago. How do you spell his name? Hmm. I'm looking up how many snaps Nashon Wright has ever had in his career.

It is N-A-H for those at home looking up six-foot-four guy. He's played 484 snaps. Oh, in 2024, he did play 86 total defensive snaps. I'm going to tell you the truth. I, oh, no, wait, that was the preseason. Never mind. I was like, man, I don't remember a single one of those snaps. Regular season.

He has played 272 snaps, did not get on the field for the Minnesota Vikings, did not have good PFF coverage grades. Yeah, has allowed 68% completion percentage into his coverage, does have one career interception. That, I mean, that might change all of the expectations if Jalen Johnson. That is not a regular drop off. You guys are concerned about the Vikings going from, you know, Isaiah Rogers to Jeff Okuda or something. They're going to go to a guy who's been on three teams in the last year if they lose Jalen Johnson.

Mo says, is Addison as good as Vikings version of Diggs? I don't think so. Diggs is special. I mean, Diggs was one of the best route runners in the league, elite wide receiver at his best. I don't think Addison is quite on his level because Diggs was a true, true number one. He proved it in Buffalo that the Vikings really had two true number ones in Thielen and Diggs. And that's why quarterbacks were always so good, including Case Keenum. with that group and Sam Bradford and Kirk Cousins and so forth.

I don't think Addison's quite on that level as a complete wide receiver where Diggs contact at the line of scrimmage didn't do a whole lot for him because he was so lightning quick, so technically detailed. But I think Addison's on his way to being a number two that makes up one of the best duos in the NFL. The best duo is probably going to be Jamar Chase and T. Higgins. but when Addison comes back, he had a great camp and he's still growing as a player. But Diggs is a high bar to try to reach for Jordan Addison.

But he did have a very, very good training camp, and that matters. Mr. Marauder said Thielen is going to be a bear killer underneath. Yeah, I think that that's very reasonable because if they are playing Nashon Wright at corner, they're playing a million miles back. There's no way that they're playing as aggressively if that's who's playing cornerback. Maybe they do want to force JJ to prove it by having some one-on-ones, but I don't know. They still know that number 19 is out there. William says he's yet to take a snap, but I think that his comfort with the Vikings offense is way better than other quarterbacks making the first start.

No doubt about it, man. No doubt about it that when you have had an entire year working with O'Connell and McCown and a lot of these players, and have been in the meetings and have done all those things and had a year to develop. I mean, he started throwing in January. We are nine months later from then. So it's not a situation where he just got healthy last week.

I mean, he's had an entire off season. He had the workouts, the OTAs, the mini camp, all that sort of stuff. It is not like a, when you say first career start, you usually think rookie. This is not like that. I totally agree with you. Marauder says, do the bears keep jets doubled or do they believe the national media and Blitz JJ like he hasn't been practicing against Flores all summer? Hey,

that's a good point. That is a good point. Let me pull this up real quick. I'm curious about Dennis Allen was coaching the Saints last year. Last year feels like seven gazillion years ago. but let's just take a look at how much they blitzed. I'm going to pull this up because, of course, the Vikings were, I'm going to use a pro football reference, again, for those playing along at home. How much did they blitz? The New Orleans Saints.

Doesn't look like, no, it doesn't look like they blitzed a lot, 20%. Only 20% of snaps. So does that, I mean, are they going to be an insane blitzing team? Probably not based on that. I don't know that they've ever been an insane blitzing team, the New Orleans Saints. Dennis says JJ's number in his three high school seasons was 7,9505 yards, 94 touchdowns, 13 picks. He doesn't need to pass with the Michigan offense. Yeah, look, I mean, no one's high school stats matter at this point.

Michigan stats don't matter at this point. It's, they didn't matter that much then. And I had Quasi Adolfo Menta on the show after they drafted. McCarthy. And one of the parts of that discussion was about how my struggle with J.J. McCarthy as an analytics enjoyer and as a study of data in the NFL was that he just didn't have much. And what Quasi talked about them doing was trying to go through and identifying NFL throws or NFL situations and then evaluating them off of this very small sample. even his college numbers haven't meant that much

and everyone should have insane high school numbers if you're a top 10 overall draft big. If you didn't, that would be really terrible. He can throw the ball. Throwing the ball at the NFL level is a different thing than anywhere else, though, for sure. But somebody like him has the arm and he's got the players around him

and he's got the offense to do it. He's just got to be accurate and he's got to be on time. And that timing is just, you know, it can be. ever so slight is the difference between having amazing accuracy and bad accuracy. That's the biggest question for me is just how accurate is he going to be? And War Eagle, you know, bringing up that Kyle Shanahan was a quarterback whisper until he had Trey Lance.

This isn't Trey Lance. And, you know, it's, I can speak to that because I saw Trey Lance practice and it was horrible. It was against the Vikings in 2022. it was brutal. I remember walking away from that thinking, well, the Vikings defense must be great, right? And the Vikings defense was horrendous that year, one of the worst in the league and Trey Lance

because he just didn't get rid of the ball. He just wouldn't throw it. He couldn't see where it was supposed to go. He was hanging in the pocket too long. Like these are the things for McCarthy that I like so much is the ball comes out. He seems to know where it's going. He seems he's in control.

He seems he's confident. All those things. Anthony's got realistic for Fanduil question of the day. What's realistic for a stat line or how he looks as 285, three touchdowns, no picks and 31 points. To me, that's a little high on the realistic side. That to me is going past realistic and into extremely optimistic. That's like a Brett Favre game you just described right there.

285.3. I mean, what's your quarterback rating if you throw for 285, three picks and 31 points? you know i mean i guess it depends on your completion percentage but that's that would be a great great game if he played that way uh expose said is there something to the amount of one score games the vikings have won in the c oc era even the year kirk got hurt with a starting qb they likely win those right because they lost four one score games with either dobbs or nick mullins i did something on this a couple years ago there was a great analytical article by five of 38 because I saw this came up. Barnwell wrote about it for the Vikings and why he thinks

they're going to miss the playoffs is that they've won a lot of one score games. I think that those one score games have become a lot of games in the NFL. The amount of one score games has increased and increased and increased almost every year. So it's something where you have to know how to win them or you're just not going to make the playoffs. I also don't think that all one-score games are created equal. So I looked this up and Tom Brady was 91 and 43 in games separated by seven points or less. If they were all equal, then I don't think Tom Brady's win percentage would be like 70% when he was in a one-score game, right? And why was that? Because Tom Brady was ahead a lot. And then the other team would score at the end of the game, make it a

seven-point game. It goes down in the stat sheet that way. But 538 did this really cool. thing about the win probability. So how often did your team go into the fourth quarter with a 60 or 70% chance to win? And that's not really a true one score game. If you go into the fourth quarter with a 70% chance to win and you win by one score, you dominated that football game. And we've gone through this on a micro level throughout the years where the two Packers

games last year, the Vikings smashed the Packers in those games. I think everybody walked out saying, oh, they let them hang around. but they outplayed them massively, but they were one-score games. Is that going to regress? Like that's, well, to me, those aren't true one-score games. I think in true one-score games, I would describe that as Arizona last year. Probably an even game, maybe even should have lost, maybe got a shade out-played, and they found a way to win at the very end.

It was really tight. That's a true one-score game where each team has 50% chance going into the fourth quarter and then it's a little bit of whatever way the ball bounces. So those types of things cannot be evaluated in a vacuum. I think it's a team-by-team basis where, how about this? If you look at Kansas City last year and they win with a blocked field goal, they win with Isaiah likely's heel out of bounds in the first night of the season, there were a lot of those that it was a pass interference on the last play.

There were a lot of those that were lucky. And at the end of the day, at the end of the season, it turned out that, you know, that sort of showed up for them, that they couldn't just win every single game that way. Now, they got to the Super Bowl, though, and that's, I guess, maybe another part of the argument. Like, just because you won one score games doesn't mean that you can't ever win them again. Like, it's not something that's just guaranteed to regress. And where O'Connell plays into this and Jefferson, late game play calling, confidence of his quarterbacks, how to use Jefferson. in those big spots, it's pretty clear that he's good at this. And we've seen it.

And so when you look at some broad statistic, and I think I was talking about this with Anthony Barr, it's like, you could look at Barr's PFF grade, but we don't, we, we know more. We can talk to Mike Zimmer about it and find out more about this. And when it comes to this, you can, you can like zoom in a little on these games. If we go to, and look, it's a different team, by the way. It's a very different team. Why, why would something have to be guaranteed regression when the team is so different? I don't, I don't know.

Maybe they won't play in one score games and they'll just win by a lot. But it's a weird thing when the quarterback is different. The defense is revamped. The running game is like so much is different. And it's just this automatic, well, one score games means regression. I, I just don't agree with that statistical analysis when now, now winning all of your one score games would be hard to do again is unlikely because you play a lot of good quarterbacks. Of course it is. Uh, and 14 wins is not going to happen. But when we look at some of

the one score games and how much they outplayed some of these teams by, I mean, I don't know, like they were way up on the Jets. They were way up on the Packers. They were way up on the 49ers. Teams come back at the end. They outplayed Chicago and had 450 yards of offense. They, well, they had to come back in Seattle. That was a true one score game. They barely survived Green Bay last year, but that was not. It's just a little bit of a, it's a little bit of a thing for me that's, that's, it's been interesting to look closer into over the last few years that they've succeeded in them. But I think that we've watched enough of these games to see that a lot of the one score games are because because KOC wasn't putting people away. I mean, that was a major part of it,

because they couldn't score in the red zone to put a team away or because they were too aggressive and had three and outs and didn't run the clock down when they should have. And the other part of it is when they've needed clutch drives from their quarterbacks, they've often gotten them unless it was Josh Dobbs or Nick Mullins. So I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I love talking about stuff like that because I'm so interested in it. But I don't think you could just say, well, one score games equals you're suddenly going from 14 to 7 wins.

That I think is a little much. but, you know, R. Emmer says, does McCarthy, he's playing in his hometown, add to his nerves a pro or a con, I can't tell you. I honestly have no idea. I would think that you could make an argument that he's got a lot of people there for him, so he's going to feel pretty good about that. You could argue that it's the stadium he first went to when he was four years old. Shout out to Chip Skagans for that article and that, you know, that's, hey, that's really, you know, so cool. There's a lot of pressure. His hometown. I don't know. In the NFL, like, you got to be able to just block that stuff out. You just have to. If you, if you can't, then you're going to be

in a lot of trouble. He should be okay with that. I don't think that's going to make a lot of, a lot of difference. Dobbs was at his best when he had no idea what he was doing. Yeah, no, that's completely true. But also, maybe there was a bit, I don't know, he was Josh Dobbs. He's three and 12 for his career. They did the best they could. They should have won the Bears game. No, well, yeah, no, the Bears game. And then the Broncos game.

They should have won those games with Josh Dobbs starting. But that is years in the past. Reconnected says my expectation for McCarthy is no delay of game calls. Do not have that on Fandul. Can't make that prop of no delay of game calls. Speaking of which, we got the Purple Insider fantasy show coming up here in not too long. I have a ton of questions. I know you guys, I get behind because you come up with interesting stuff

and then I go off on tangents about TV people and so forth. And then I end up behind on your questions. I'm working on it. But later on in the evening, say 9 o'clock, we'll have the fantasy show with Mike Shope where we take props from the best four games of the weekend or four games that I'm really interested in from the weekend and talk through them, including Vikings and Bears props. So that's a really good discussion that's coming up.

a little bit later. Speaking of props, Jake says put 50 bucks on Grinard for a defensive player of the year. It's not a bad bet. If he, he's probably got to lead the league in sacks, though. He's been double digits. He would have to have an explosion sack season. And they have to have an elite defense for him to win defensive player of the year. But I don't think that's crazy.

I don't think that's insane. It's probably a good bet at, you know, really good odds. Sean says McCarthy getting the call huddling up to the line of scrimmage with plenty of time to run motions, him or having him or Kelly change the play, no procedural penalties. Yeah, I mean, look, that did drive me crazy last year. No, yeah, I think what you're talking about there is if you can do that, if you can do all those things you've just described, you're probably going to succeed. If you can get the call in, if you can get the huddle lined up, if you can get all the

motions and everything. He was able to do it at home. Now he's got to go on the road. And that place is nuts. That place is spooky at night. It's scary. I don't know if you guys have been there. You walk around that place at night. It's like, this is creepy. It's, uh, you would expect it to be October all the time. It's got quite an atmosphere at Soldier Field when those people are amped up. So it's not going to be as easy as it was for the preseason game for all the procedural stuff. But I do think that helped. Evans says, what's your gut feeling going in? My feeling is that the Vikings will win the game,

that it will not be a game where we walk out of saying, oh my gosh, that was Peyton Manning. But it will be the game that we all kind of expect, which is that McCarthy does enough, and there's a few exciting plays, and it's a little bit gnarly, and there's some strange moments, and that they just survive the bears because they're a little more talented.

2317. I haven't worked it out yet with the score. But that my, that's my gut feeling. My gut feeling is that he's going to be okay and that he's not going to freak out in the bright lights or anything like that and that the offense is going to move, but it's not going to go for 500 yards. And that's not a very hot take, but that is my gut feeling is that it will be not the most memorable game that we ever have with J.J. McCarthy, but it will be something that says, okay, yeah, he can do this. And on, to Atlanta in another national TV game, right? War Eagle says none of it matters.

Tebow played on the biggest stages. Josh Allen played nowhere. Talent above all else. Yeah, I don't think that it's like that because Tim Tebow couldn't throw the football. And Josh Allen needed three years until he was good. So, like, there's, there's context for every single person. You can't say that having won the national championship and been on that stage, means nothing to this day in Chicago.

It does. That experience is banked for J.J. McCarthy. It means something. It doesn't mean he's going to win the game. It doesn't mean he's going to play amazing. But at least you've got something there to lean on that you've played in a big situation before. And I don't think that he's going to, you know, freak out in this type of situation where, you know, I mean, maybe if he didn't have that experience, maybe he would have or at least been a little bit more overwhelmed. Chevy, Chevy Chase.

Great to see you, Chevy Chase. I didn't know you're a Vikings fan. Says Dallas Turner is going to go off two times better than last year. Quasi will be smiling by week 10. Yeah, I had a conversation with Dallas today. I'm going to write about it over at the newsletter, purple insider dot football, my friends, where, you know, I just asked Dallas about, like, how different are you?

And the answer was like immensely different. That's paraphrasing what he said. But there's just so much more that he knows, so much bigger than he was last year in terms of body wise. And I mean, Kevin O'Connell was talking today very confidently about Dallas Turner. And he said, like I've been telling you guys all off season about Dallas Turner. And so his expectations seem extremely high. I think they're also trying to get Turner's confidence up because he's going to play. we are going to find out a lot about Dallas Turner, maybe not in week one,

but certainly as we go along about how he fits in and how much of a difference he can make. And I think that if he plays, and this is, I'm going to put aside because it's not fair to the person, Dallas Turner. He didn't trade up for himself. If he plays 500 to 600 snaps, has six and a half to seven and a half sacks, handful of plays in coverage. I don't know, picks are hard to figure out. Handful of plays in coverage, handful of tackles for loss,

and he adds this dynamic to the defense that makes them scarier than he's done a great job with year two. And then maybe year three you're talking about, is he the successor eventually to Andrew Van Ginkle? Van Ginkle's still going to be here. They want to keep this together. But that to me is a reasonable expectation for Dallas Turner.

And he's somebody that could take this defense from being like we think it's going to be good, but if he shines, then it's going to be really good. And it's going to be really scary for the front seven and for the blocking of the other team. So you're going to have to, you're going to have to ask a son of beavers what son of beavers is. I imagine like the people listening on the podcast feed to the live shows are like, who is this beavers guy, man? He's everywhere. But, you know, Beavers is one of the, uh, the OGs of the live stream. So we appreciate that. But I guess I did maybe throw that out there with no context whatsoever. Jay Deasy says, I think that Colston Loveland, Cole Komet, will be targeted a lot

like Sam Leporta was in John's, Ben Johnson's offenses. I think it's a great observation. And from the other side of this, I mean, we've talked about the reasonable expectations for McCarthy, but the other side of this is definitely how aggressive Chicago is going to be from the outset. Like, are they going to try to get the ball to their tight ends? Are they going to try to have long drives and possessions? Or are they going to come out and be aggressive and try to go downfield? Carter says, I need Matt sitting across from Stephen A. Courtney's done it. She's going to be on the show tomorrow. I'll have to ask her how that goes exactly. It's never really been, never really been my thing never really been my thing i had to get used to being in front of the

microphone actually i went to college really to be a writer and i still do over at purple insider dot football my friends but uh you know i i had to get used to because i got an internship at a radio station and then got hired into radio and just went from wherever it took me but it took a while to kind of get used to having takes on stuff because when you're a writer usually you're a little bit more on the side of playing it playing a little safer uh whereas when you're in front of the microphone you want to turn up the heat and then i think i went too far the other way and started turn up the heat too much and you know i've sort of found my place in this world i mean that's really what you try to do no matter what like this is this is the right spot for me covering this team

right here right now excited for monday night football that's my thing i i'm not the person who is going to scream into the TV. I also have to wear this hat everywhere because I don't feel comfortable without the hat. So, you know, I'm not that person that they're going to put on television. Hey, by the way, I want to remind you guys that the show here is brought to you by ZipRecruiter.

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get a quality candidate within the first day. So again, try that for free. ZipRecruiter.com slash audio, the smartest way to hire. All right. Back to your thoughts. AJ says nobody is worried about Theo Jackson. Hmm. Well, that's an interesting one because, so I was on earlier CCO radio with Chad Hartman, good friend of mine.

And he asked me about, he said, what player is nobody talking about that you think is going to be important? Not great, but important. And I said Theo Jackson. And what I said was he's been more of a concept than an actual person. Like he's this ball hawking guy who in practice gets a bunch of interceptions and then comes into a couple games and gets interceptions. And we like, who is this guy?

Why isn't he playing all the time? And he's just been behind this guy or the other guy, uh, can bind him, you know, over the last couple years. And suddenly, you know, he's thrust into this position where if Harrison Smith is out, then Theo Jackson is going to have. to play. And I think that if you've seen the practices and you've listened to people talk about Theo Jackson, you probably have more confidence than is justified by his very few number of snaps. I mean, let me, let me look here. How many snaps does Theo Jackson have in his career? It can't be

more than, what, 100 or so? Theo has 221 career snaps for the Vikings. 125 came in 23, 78 last year, but of course, really good in that 78. And he's got a couple of interceptions, got a couple other past breakups last year. He's, he's been good when he's been called upon, but this is a guy with 200 snaps in his career. And that's something where when you have a lot of confidence in the defense, I think that's right to have a lot of confidence in defense. But in this specific matchup, Theo Jackson, Isaiah Rogers,

Jeff Okuda, you might be talking about a lot of guys that are not as experienced as you would like in these positions. You might be talking about a lot of guys where you can, if you're the Bears, look to take advantage of that lack of experience of actually playing from someone like Theo Jackson. Now, Isaiah Rogers has played a lot, but he hasn't played a full season. So, I mean, are you worried about him? I haven't been really super worried about him because that position tends to work out. That position has tended to be something that the Vikings could develop. And I don't think they move on from Cambinam. They were willing to spend this offseason. I don't think they move on from Cambinum unless they really believed in Theo. But what's going to

be tested here is that, you know, Brian Flores and his ability to identify players, some of whom have not been starters before and take the risk to go out on that limb and say, no, I believe in Theo, Jackson. I believe in Isaiah Rogers. I believe in Jeff Okuda, despite not having the great sample size, that's really going to be tested by a lot of good offenses this year. Jay says the biggest concern for the Vikings, it's probably what I saw at Soldier Field from Caleb Williams last year. What I saw was the Vikings pressured him all day and he just did crazy stuff. And I said after the game, I was having, I think, dinner with Dane and Courtney or something after the game. And I said to them like are the Vikings in for the next 10 years of chasing around this guy and then of course

he melted down in the second half of the season but I mean he played really well in that game against the Vikings and knowing that that's in there that you can win up front and you can get in the backfield and you can pressure and everything else and then he can still make something happen and that's a big concern and it's probably just it's probably Ben Johnson it's probably that he has had enough success against Brian Flores. I know it's a different team. I know it's a different O-line. It's a way different quarterback.

But if you're talking about concerns headed into a football game, that's probably the one that I would put pretty close to the top. Jay says, I think if both O-line and D-line play well and JJ plays well, then we win. Yeah, I mean, yeah, if they win

the trenches battle, they've got a great chance of winning. Yep. Sloth says, did you see the clip of O'Neill telling JJ to off to the side to fire up the huddle, perfect leadership from both guys. Yep, I did. Yes, I did. I did. And that's what, when KOC talks about, you don't have to do it alone.

And these guys talk about, hey, man, you don't have to do it alone. That's exactly what they're getting at. You don't have to do it alone. He doesn't, I mean, Aaron Jones is a guy who is probably one of the best, not probably, hands down one of the best leaders I've ever been around in my life. I mean, just endless energy, endless positivity, tough as heck, smart as heck, like somebody, and that's just one guy in the huddle with that. Hawkinson is that way.

You saw how smart Hawkinson was showing up and make it plays right away. You see Brian O'Neill and he's got a captaincy on his shirt. I mean, there's a lot of guys in that huddle, Adam Thielen, who are there to help J.J. McCarthy. he's not alone he doesn't have to go out there and do it all himself uh dystopia and utopia it's all smoke and mirrors jalen johnson will play yeah i don't know he didn't practice a lot we'll have to see did not practice a lot during training camp so can he play the full game at a hundred percent kurt says my prediction is the zone is flooded with memes and videos of mccarthy meditating before the game and he goes for uh 20 for 30 285 two touchdowns

and one rushing touchdown. Yeah, I guess I don't know. I didn't ever look in preseason, whether he did the meditation out in front of everyone or if he's changed that and does something else these days. I don't know. But I think 20 for 30 with 285 and three overall touchdowns would be a lot. That's a really, really good game.

That is a really, really good game. And my reasonable expectation is not as high as that. My reasonable expectation would be something a little bit closer to what Vegas has it at 220, maybe 2.30, 240, and two touchdowns, maybe one mistake, and then you end up winning the game. And he looks in control and it's solid. And that's where I set a reasonable expectation. What did Sam Darnold do last year in the first game of the season against the Giants? I don't know what he did. I know he, I mean, I was there. there. So I know what he did. I don't remember his exact stat line. I should.

He was, oh, 19 for 24 is pretty, that's pretty high for a completion percentage. But 19 for 24, 208 yards, two touchdowns, one pick. Let's say that that's 16 for 24 or 15 for 24 with 208 yards, two touchdowns in a pick. That would be, that would be good. That's a reasonable expectation for J.J. McCarthy. just darnold was very good that day and the giants are very bad uh slothia you do remember the nashon right for andrew booth trade i mean who doesn't i i remember it i remember it well not not one of the ones that worked out for anybody i think that booth got cut this year didn't he i think booth did get cut by the dallas cowboys as if uh well that was because the travon diggs was coming back but also andrew booth just you know can't play

but if you're talking about a guy that was cut by this team is now potentially starting, that's what you'd like to see if you're the Vikings. You would much rather see Nashon Wright than Jalen Johnson, who's one of the best. So, all right, great stuff, great stuff. Let's see, you've got a couple of minutes here more before 9 o'clock. That's one of the fantasy show coming up. Actually, I can really run it anytime I want, but I want to keep answering your questions.

and usually it's about two hours in when the dog starts going crazy and needs to go outside. Let's see, Buckeye says, when will Mason become 1A instead of 1B? It's a good question. I don't know if that's ever going to happen at this point this season. I mean, if there's health, then yeah. But the dynamic element of, and I know I use that word a lot, but it's just so perfectly descriptive for what the Vikings have when we talk about an Andrew Van Ginkle, like dynamic or Mattelis, guys who get to.

do a lot of things. And Aaron Jones is special. And I did ask McCarthy about that today. And he talked about just how having Aaron Jones in his hands is really unique. And he said, we could line that guy up in the slot and he'd be fine as a slot receiver. He's that good at catching the football. And if you're that good at catching the ball and also Jones can handle pass protection, there's just a more likelihood that he's going to be on the field more often because he could do more things. But I think they will use Mason a lot. And I also don't think that Mason is totally one dimensional either. I think that Mason is very capable of running the football 20 times and being a starter and all those things because he's done that. He did that last year. But if you're talking about the duo

and 1A, 1B and who's going to be 1A, you're not taking Aaron Jones out of that, even if Mason is running more successful because of the past element. And there is nothing better. You know, when I talked to Kurt Warner, not too long ago, for a story, purple-asided out football, when I talked to him for a story, he was telling me that in his first couple of games starting, because I asked him about his advice for J.J. McCarthy, and his big thing was, use your running back, man. Like, he used the heck out of Marshall Falk.

And if he didn't totally believe in a throw-down field, he was just checking it down to Marshall Falk. and okay Marshall Falk's one of the best ever but Aaron Jones is one of the best of catching the ball over the last decade that he's really good at that and he should use him as much as possible which may keep Mason off the field a little bit more

I still think it's 55 45, 45 close to 50 50 somewhere in that ballpark because Mason's going to be different when running the ball. Just the Super Bowl vike. Am I delusional or not? The Vikings to me with their starters on defense look like a top three defense

if they do have a top deep. defense. They could definitely be a Super Bowl contender. So when it comes to where they finish as a ranking, if the schedule plays out the way that it looks and they play this many great quarterbacks, if these quarterbacks don't get hurt, like who knows, right? I mean, they might even face Michael Pennix, right? We don't know who's going to get hurt along the way. But let's just assume, based on what we know right now, that it is Pennix and Burrow and whatever is Aaron Rogers has in store and then it's golf and it's Herbert and it's

hurts and it's all these Lamar and it's all these really good quarterbacks that they end up going against. If they finished with say the eighth best defense in the league against this schedule, you can go into the Super Bowl. I mean, you could go into the playoffs thinking you have a Super Bowl caliber defense. If you

take on this schedule and that's where you finish. Last year, if you were top five, you may not have even been quite as good. I mean, I think the defense was really good, but I don't think it was quite as great as their top five ranking. I think if we had some sort of way to you know, use the strength of schedule to tell us, like, how good were the offenses that you faced? And maybe there's some analytics out there. Well, that's kind of what DVOA does.

DVOA is the, used to be football outsiders, that Aaron Schatz. It kind of does that. I think it still had them as a good defense, but I don't know if it had them as this unbelievable defense in the second half of the year. Ben, tune into Matthew Collar's take machine. That's good. Maybe I'll have to make it that. Maybe I will have to make it the take machine. Time for the take machine, folks. Every game, one take, Kansas City, L.A. Mahomes is dusted. He's washed, folks. He got two in love with the Taylor Swift and didn't look at the playbook. Give me the Chargers all day. I'm terrible at that. I am terrible at the. Let's, let's that be the end of the take machine right there. Thank you, Purple Jesus, for the super chat. And you're probably glad you did that before the last 30 seconds.

Let's see. Now, here's a guy. Well, yeah, that we can definitely do that with a lot of players on this team. Jalen Redmond was my other pick, by the way, other than Theo Jackson of a guy who is actually going to have to be pretty important. for this team. I think Redmond's going to have to play a lot. And he's taking a big step up. Kurt Plupy thoughts on the Indianapolis defense, Blackman and Bynum duo. I think that's a very talented team that does, doesn't know what to do a quarterback. I mean, if they have to start Blackman, I'd be concerned. But Bynum's a good player. They've got good players. They just do not know what to do at QB. That's what happens. When you put everything into a project quarterback, force him out of the field, get him hurt, then everything else that you did to build around him, it means nothing.

I shot you 99. Do you think that Trayvon Diggs is worth trading for if needed? You have to wait and see if Trayvon Diggs ends up on the market. And what he looks like coming off of his injury, that's a hard, that would be a hard one. I mean, I think Diggs is great, but does he play like they want him to play? seems like discipline is important, at least how unhappy they were at times with Dwight McClother, you know, trying to get interceptions. Do they want that or do they want, you know, guys who take their chances but also are not giving up big plays? I don't know. It looks like the cowboys are passive aggressively keeping everyone and paying everyone just to be like, we don't need Michael Parsons. We're good. We're paying these other guys. We're fine. No big deal. so not a twerk says i might have to go dark for the rest of the week you got me amped up for the game that isn't going to happen until monday night hey it's that we

wait a long time my friend we have all waited a long time for football i think everybody look the way the guys were even walking around the locker room today everybody's ready for this everybody is ready for this to start uh j who's my favorite viking's quarterback of all times jeff george of course it's jeff george that 99 season It's the, it's the one that I watch the most when I just go back, watch random games. I've been watching, this just tells you about where I'm at in life. I've been watching a lot of the 2003 Monday night football schedule because it was Madden and Al Michaels. And I bought this book about John Madden and so I've been wanting to read it.

So I wanted to watch some Madden, some later Madden because I was just curious, you know, I grew up watching all the Summerall and Madden games. but I didn't have any recollection of him and L. Michaels. And the reason I think was because I was working at McDonald's during that time, 2003, as a high school kid, and I was closing the store all the time and never got to see Monday night football. So I've been enjoying going back and watching these games. And that's neither here nor there. It's just that when I watch a lot of old games, I often go back and watch those Jeff George ones.

And I watched his entire season for the Raiders, where he threw for like 4,000, yards and went four and 12 so much fun so he's he's my favorite to watch of all time uh the favorite that i've covered uh would be a little bit different because i mean it's hard to make like favorites the one i mean i talk to kirk more than anybody else because i covered him for the longest um it was more it was you know it's funny about covering kirk was it was a lot more frustrating to talk with fans about Kirk than it was to actually talk to Kirk. Like, he's a pretty nice guy, pretty easy to deal with. That went fine for all the years that he was here.

He wrote some stories with him, you know, all that sort of stuff. But on the outside, you know, every time I got home and opened up my Twitter, it was a little bit different during that time. But, you know, Case was really fun. Everyone was different. Bradford was interesting because that was when I first got here. I enjoyed covering Sam Darnold, kind of a straight, forward type of guy really fun season it's all different lean into matthew's terrible take machine all

let's try again uh let's see what game we got here next one on the list is giants commanders jaden daniels will win 11 super bowls at least if in fact now that i've set the bar that high if he doesn't win double digit super bowls he's the biggest bust of all time so he's going to win week one against the Giants. Matthew Collar's terrible take machine. Was Mr. Mancato ever picked? It was two guys for me. It was a, for me, I don't know if there's an official thing anymore.

There used to be once upon a time. But for me, it was Elijah Williams and Max Brosmer. We're the co-Mr. Mancato winners. That's who I had. But, you know, Max Brosmer certainly deserved it. But Elijah Williams is one of the, all time. Where did this guy come from? Morgan State's, like, didn't even show up till rookie minicamp. So if, but I think a lot of people wanted Brosmer, totally deserved. Go for

quarterback, undrafted, played great. I had both of them. Will Reichert's stat line for Monday. I'll say, I'll say three, no, two field goals. Two field goals. A guitar person, clearly a little older than me. Joe Cap. Anybody who grew up in that era, usually Joe Cap is your favorite quarterback, even though it was only that one year, but that one year was unbelievable. William, will there be any highlights in the punting game? Maybe, maybe. That's what when I think about preview in that game, that comes up. So Andrew Kramer and I tomorrow are going to record, but we're going to run it on Saturday night or Friday night, probably Friday night.

we're going to run our hardcore preview, where we go through like every position, the matchups, all that stuff, you could bet Miles Price and that punting game's coming up. Kurt says my hot take on draft night 2024 was that McCarthy was going to be unanimously considered the best quarterback of the draft within three years. Well, Jaden Daniels has already put himself way up there. The rest is yet to be determined, though. The rest is yet to be determined. Kirk Cousins is a total fraud.

I didn't think there was anything fraudulent about Kirk. I think he was who he was. The issue always came down to a couple of different things. How much he got paid, how restrictive his contracts were. It wasn't just how much money went in his pocket. It was, if you're going to sign fully guaranteed short-term deals, there's not much you could do there. There's not a whole lot of wiggle room outside of extensions,

and he knows that. And that's why they did it that way. So he would always have to be kind of on his way to the next extension, but it didn't help the team sign anybody. And then physical limitations. At the end of the day, you need somebody to do something special. You need somebody to make a play. And that's hard for a guy who I remember looking this up on relative athletic scores,

that the only quarterback in the league, I think when I look this up, maybe it's 2022 or 2021, whatever it was, the only quarterback in the league with a lower athletic score based on his combine was Nick foals it's just and yeah i know he won a super bowl he's also uh on a really good team and only had to play a couple games and get hot but it's hard to win week in a week out it's hard to win in the playoffs it's hard to take over games when you just don't have the physical gifts of some other quarterbacks and that's where you know McCarthy uh he lives in in between like he's not josh allen but he is certainly a a high level athlete with his arm strength and his playmaking

and his quickness and his speed. And that was always the thing I kept coming back to is you need somebody who's a playmaker. Like the pocket's going to break down. And you can't just stand there and pat the ball and get strips act. But as far, like, he's a great quarterback overall. A great career for Kirk Cousins as a fourth round draft pick to, I mean, play as many seasons, be a starter for as long as he was, win as many games as he did, put up the numbers that he did. I mean, that's, yeah.

If you draft a quarterback and they turn out to be as good as him, you're going to have a chance to win, but probably only on their rookie contract. But he had, you know, overall a good career. And I got along with him fine. It was just the, the internet had its problems, I think. Randall Cunningham, yeah, Randall was one of my all-time favorites as a kid with the Eagles. I used to play with this S-N-E-S video game with Randall Cunningham. And then we had to ban him. That was the original, uh, the original Michael Vick for Madden.

04 was Randall Cunningham with my brother and I, where you just couldn't use them because you could run all the time. But Randall's story was great. His a football life is really good, too. Stephen, Adam Thielen is on the depth chart listed as punt return or two. Yeah, I think I said last night that I was going to give every person watching or listening 50 bucks if he returns a punt. So maybe I'm going to be in for it there.

We'll see. so okay i think you got uh the entire rundown here of analysis from today very interesting stuff i'm going to have a complete write up over at the uh the newsletter want to remind you though before i bring you the fantasy show it's a great discussion with mike chope uh fantasy expert here where we just go through the games we go through four really good and interesting games uh including the as a preview for tomorrow with dallas and philly and we talk about uh some cool an interesting props, how the quarterbacks match up, you know, those sorts of things. Tommy Kramer's a great answer.

Tommy Kramer's a great. People love Tommy Kramer. They've had a lot of lovable quarterbacks over the years. Do I think McCarthy is done growing? I mean, I'm not a biologist. But I think that there's still a little bit more room to grow physically. Yeah. But I don't know how I would figure that out.

I think you could get a little bigger, you know, as you continue to lift weights and grow. when do you become like a real boy like 24 25 i don't know i mean he's going to get yeah i agree jay is going to get stronger yeah that's true but i don't know how much i think he's got a good frame to work with what the heck was i trying to get to oh yes oh just a reminder a reminder that uh if you guys have any interest in uh the law that uh there's a podcast by a friend of mine who supports this show by the name of Denise A Tova and her team at Tova QDRO and retirement valuators, but she does a great podcast called Beyond the Bar where she, it's not legal stuff, it's personal stuff about lawyers and judges.

And sometimes a random celebrity like myself pops on to talk about my book because Denisea and her husband Glenn are big fans of the show. But for the most part, it goes into what happens at not the times that lawyers are standing in front of judges in courtrooms, what is their life like, what is, what makes them laugh, what's their sense of humor, what does it really like to be a part of the law? That's what the Beyond the Bar podcast does. So you're going to want to check that out. The way she describes it, I like this, is like a locker room regroup with folks from across

the legal field, sharing how they got into the game, what they would tell new people getting into the law. So look, if you're, if you know somebody who's going to college, looking for their law degree, beyond the bar might be quite interesting there. as well. And if you happen to be in the very specific area of divorce law, Denise also runs a forensic retirement lab. If you're a divorce lawyer and your client's 401k or IRA was around before the marriage, now it's all blended together. She can help you untangle it with her settlement language lab. That is also free, by the way. So make sure you go check her out on

LinkedIn, Denisa T-O-V-A, Denise Satova, let her know that you heard about her on the show and ask for that settlement lab. So thanks again to her for her huge support. And thank you all tonight for your huge support and your great conversation tonight. Kurt says, do you feel like Flores and visions using Turner like Dante Hightower? That was his LB coach in New England. And I do think that there is going to be that sort of role where it's not one thing. It's not just an edge rusher.

And when he came out in the draft, I think the one criticism of Turner was that he wasn't that huge. He wasn't this six foot five, you know, 280 pound defensive end or something. He was much more of a linebacker type of size and has very unique physical traits in terms of his quickness and his strength for his size. so yeah i mean i don't know if like exactly like high tower because he was more of an off ball linebacker and he would rush up the middle a lot and i think the turner is going to be an edge player um but they're going to use them in different ways i'll be very interested all right so every wednesday night myself and mike show do the fantasy show it's a lot of fun if you're not a big fantasy player we're just talking about projecting football players and what's going

to happen this week so that is what we did with some fan duel props so while.