Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - JJ McCarthy is 'ready to start' ...what do we want to see in the spring? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about JJ McCarthy's comments to the media and discusses the next steps for him after we saw a handful of passes to receivers during offseason workouts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of purple insider Matthew collar here and wow look where we are the off season. It just goes by in an eye blink, right? It feels like it takes absolutely forever to get to the NFL draft and we have all our draft Sims and all of our mocks and all of our debates and all of our Conversations and then it goes on for a couple days and then we look around and go wait a minute the Minnesota Vikings Have a roster now look at that

We made it all the way through free agency all the way through the draft and so now We have some time to have some really fun conversations about what this team is, what they're going to be. There will be a schedule release at some point. I don't really understand why, but the NFL likes to wait until the day or two before to say, surprise, there's a schedule release, even though we basically know when it's going to be coming out. But trust me, we're going to have a lot of fun with that. But I think what this time of year is for is for a lot of fun questions to be

asked by you guys and commentary and back and forth, and we can have really good discussions about what the Vikings are going to be and our biggest questions going forward. So I will toss that out there to you folks right off the bat is it's open season, anything that's on your mind, questions, comments, thoughts about the off season, what's still to go, what's coming up the season, comparing with other teams, questions that you have. Anything is out there on the table for you. And we can really look back now and say,

oh, is it May 14th? Is that when it's going to be released? Do we actually have that date? Because I hadn't seen that there was an actual date for the schedule to be released. It seems like they always just say the week that it's coming, hey guys, there's a schedule now, but maybe we figured it out when it's coming. Hey guys, there's a schedule now, but maybe you we figured it out

when it's going to be by now, but one way or the other, that's our next little landmark. We've also got a rookie mini camp that's coming up and then OTAs and mini camp, which usually tell us a good amount, but they don't tell us anywhere near what's going to happen in training camp. So get those questions in the comment section and we can start a dialogue here about the Minnesota Vikings on this evening. And I've got some playoffs going on over on this TV.

I'm sure some of you are watching the wild. Oh, did they say on what NFL network during the draft that that's when it's going to be? Because I just remember in years past that they hadn't announced it until the week that it was going to happen and i just wondered what's the secret what do you think what are we trying to pull here i guess with waiting until the last minute but okay if it's may 14th and that's fantastic and uh we've got a couple weeks before that but I did want to start out with just the other day where I had a chance to go out to TCO Performance Center and see JJ McCarthy throw actual footballs. Now I was laughing really hard when I was poking around YouTube and somebody had taken

the videos that all of us took with our phones or that the local news took with their amazing $20,000 cameras of JJ McCarthy. And they were trying to break down how he's throwing or something. I'm like, okay, all right, man. Shark has been jumped on football content, seriously. That wasn't anywhere near as bad as what happened with Justin Fields, where a bunch of nutcases took a video that the team made.

And then they were trying to say with Justin Fields looks like he's really adjusted his throwing motion and he's going to be a better version than he's ever been. I like this world has gotten nuts when it comes to this stuff. So first I would say, as we talk about my main subject here, which is what we're going to be looking for for JJ McCarthy in the spring. The first thing is just like, let's all be rational about what we're going to be looking for in the spring, because I know that there's going to be this rush and this desire to want huge conclusions from JJ McCarthy and how he looks

in OTAs and Minicamp. And I can say that Minicamp is a little more intense than OTAs, that there's more 11 on 11 and that's usually the last thing that happens before the break and is in June and we'll have more takeaways from how he looks then. But there have been years past where they just cancel a day of minicab. Like, all right, everything looks great. Let's move on. I mean, it's not the most serious thing in the entire world. So realistically, from JJ McCarthy the other day, the only thing we could really take away from watching him throw a football is like,

look, he's there. He's throwing great. He still remembers how to take a large pigskin and hook it down the field. And that's good. And I thought it was interesting that, you know, when there was a route that was coming toward us on the sideline that McCarthy tuned it up a little bit, just kind of a reminder to everybody standing over there. Yeah, put this one on film I don't know if he did that on purpose or just because it was Jordan Addison. He really threw it hard

But yeah breaking news. He can still throw a football. There's literally no other takeaway from seeing JJ McCarthy Do that but listening to him talk my biggest takeaway was just that I think someone as cerebral as JJ McCarthy, who seems to really think through everything, whether it's he's, you know, he gets asked about the meditation all the time, which I don't think is an uncommon thing for, uh, human beings in general, but quarterbacks, athletes, sports psychology is a really, really big field in all sports.

Now football included and meditation is common. I wrote about this with somebody who does some work with the Vikings on that side of things last year when McCarthy talked about it, but I think even something like that just takes you a little window inside of who JJ McCarthy is, that he thinks through every part of how can I be the most locked in? How can I put in the most work? How can I get the most out of every single practice and all those sorts of things. And when he talked about the behind the scenes stuff, there was some things that we knew

about like him meeting with Kevin O'Connell and how those two would get together each week and JJ McCarthy would do the same thing that Sam Darnold would do. He would act like he was gonna be QB1. He would talk about the concepts and go over the film and have that meeting with KOC and that's enormous.

Uh, just for him to have that time, understanding the scheme, having all those discussions. But even when he went beyond that, we did not know until the other day that McCarthy had been working on the defensive scout side. So watching film, scouting the defensive players and building up this bank of knowledge for himself before he gets ready to be the starting quarterback. So that type of experience too, and just knowing what you have to look for on that side and that part of the

work being inside that room. Uh, he said that he really took away from Sam Darnold his ability to just stay focused and be himself on a weekly basis like all those types of things were interesting to me because of the discussion of him not ever playing before and of course we don't really know what he's going to look like when he gets out there, but we do know that all this experience mentally will matter at a position that is so much above the neck. So that brings me to what are we going to be looking for as we go into the spring? We're going to have an OTAs. We're going to have a mini camp.

So what, what are we going to be looking forward with JJ McCarthy from there? I think the first thing to me is just how comfortable he looks physically when he's actually doing some reps 11 on 11 or seven on seven. From my recollection in recent OTAs, there has been very little in terms of 11 on 11 or seven on seven from my recollection in recent OTAs. There has been very little in terms of 11 on 11. I think that Kevin O'Connell is very serious about not getting anybody injured during an OTA or a mini camp. And that is the right way to go.

The last thing that you want is anybody going down. And he said this before he has said things like, you know, I don't want to see anybody hitting the ground. I don't want to see anybody falling down in an OTA or a mini camp practice because you don't want ankles, hamstrings, anything like that, that is going to slow down progress when you get to the actual training camp. So from that perspective, we can't really take it super, super serious,

but we'll be just looking for how he looks physically to start with his drop backs. Does he look like he is getting his feet in the ground, trusting his legs the same way that we saw before, because he's really doing this for the first time out there with that group. How sharp is he accuracy wise? Remember last year during OTAs and mini camp, he struggled quite a bit with his accuracy. And again,

I'm not going to try to take away how accurate was he in the 10 passes you saw at TCO Performance Center the other day. That's ludicrous. But in an OTA, we'll get, I think three different accesses to OTAs. That's a off season training activity, I think organized, no organized. Training activity. Somebody correct me if that's right. It's basically a practice. That's all it really is.

But there are rules to exactly how long they can be and what you can do. It's just a practice and they have a couple each week, um, in the middle of the spring and into June and then it's mini camp and there's really no difference between OTAs and mini camp. I don't, I don't know. Ask the NFL why they're not just called practice. Um, but either way, usually what we get is access to one of the days, one of the three practices each day. Folks, I'm trying a new thing to try to stop going to fast food restaurants all the

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So we just get a little snapshot of what they're doing and I imagine that they do the least amount when we're there It's not like they don't know that we're there, but we get to see a lot of the seven on seven stuff. And last year, McCarthy was struggling a lot during OTAs and mini camp with his accuracy and he was getting a little bit better and a little bit better. And it wasn't until he got to training camp where he really seemed to lock in because he put in all that work in between and understood the offense a lot more and the steps and everything that went into a lot of the routes started

to build chemistry with his wide receivers. But in this case, does he pick up where he left off or does it feel like it was last year? Does it feel like he's still trying to get his feet underneath him and still get that accuracy and that control back. The other thing that will be really something to watch is this will be the first time we see him with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison if Justin Jefferson decides to attend. That we don't know because OTAs, I guess that's the difference between OTAs and mini camp, is that OTAs are

not mandatory where mandatory mini camp has it in the name. That you could be fined for not coming to mini camp. I would assume that Justin Jefferson is going to be at OTAs. Last year he wasn't just because of the contract. And the last thing you'd ever wanna do is practice and potentially put yourself at risk days before you're

about to sign a $35 million per year deal. And so he got that done in mini camp and he was out there, but JJ McCarthy basically did not throw to Justin Jefferson all of last year. So now he's going to have an opportunity to start doing that right from the very beginning, right from the spring and To see how those guys get their chemistry going will be interesting and then there's just a general feel of Somebody's control of the offense. Does he look like he is locked into what the assignments are supposed to be and if the accuracy is Not perfect. Well, that's not that big of a deal as long as he can

Well, that's not that big of a deal as long as he can look like he's in command as he was starting to do last year at the end of training camp. But what's most interesting about JJ McCarthy is that he's taking over as the starting quarterback of a franchise that is really looking to compete for a Superbowl. And if you listen to Brian O'Neill and Jonathan Granard, the other day, this was one of my big takeaways from those two talking with us was these guys. They feel it. Like when you win 14 games and also are in your prime, or even in Brian O'Neill's case, he might view it as getting toward his late prime, which, you know, that's

just the reality that, you know, tackles will play longer than a lot of other positions in the NFL. But when you have a 14 win season and such a letdown, there is a sense of urgency. And that's why Jonathan Grenard and his tweet, you know, more is required is becoming the mantra of the team. I mean, last year it was kind of, Hey, one day at a time, and we're going to prove that, you know, the outside world is wrong or the Vegas gambling community is wrong and all that stuff with the over under and Kevin O'Connell was smart last year to lean into that. Hey, we're going

to show the world that we're not a six-win football team. Well, you can't do that anymore Now you are at the point where you're saying how do you get from a 14-win team? over the top and yet you've got this really interesting dynamic of a Quarterback that nobody's seen actually play a football game So every single time we see him get on the field, it will be in some ways a referendum on that decision. Uh, even though that's silly and I know that we shouldn't overreact to anything, but every single time we see him, it's going to be, does he look like he's ready to lead a team that thinks that it should be winning the division, competing

for the super bowl? I, that's where everybody's mindset is with this team. They've got the coach of the year. They've got all pros and pro bowlers and Harrison Smith came back to try to compete for a Super Bowl and all of that is going to be on the shoulders really of JJ McCarthy. And I know Josh Mattel has said, Hey, you don't have to be my homes, but also my homes is in the Superbowl all the time. I mean, yeah, I mean, Jalen hurts.

Didn't have to be my homes last year with his team and Brock Purdy might not have had to have been before, but even then those two in terms of the value from the quarterback position, I mean, how valuable was Jalen hurts to them, especially in the playoffs and then Brock Purdy the year before almost won the MVP in order to get to the Superbowl. Like if they're going to win, JJ McCarthy has to be somewhere between very good and great. And that starts in OTAs and the confidence that that's going to happen

starts in OTAs. So there's going to be the physical perspective, the overall feel of it, the chemistry with his top wide receivers, TJ Hawkinson included, and then just how he looks accuracy wise. That will be kind of the biggest things we start to take away. But of course, I will just have to implore you to not overreact to OTAs and mini camp and the reports that come out because including for myself, and we're going to try to hold ourselves back because it's not going to be the final truth. Like in years past, what were OTAs? I mean, we would go out and stand on the

Hill at TCO and crack jokes to each other for two hours, waiting to kind of have a conversation with Kirk Cousins or whoever was going to the podium after. But I mean, I don't remember really taking copious notes because they're just running around out there in shorts and not really having like a real intense practice or anything like it would be a training camp. But now I just think it's a sign of the times the sign of the expectations and the anticipation for JJ McCarthy that I'm now talking about this subject of What are we going to be looking for from JJ McCarthy when it comes to? Just offseason practices, so that's kind of how I'm looking at it right now. After we spoke to JJ McCarthy, it seems that his confidence is sky high in himself. And I think you won't find too many other situations where there's going to be

as much support. Yeah. We always think of this as a roster thing of like, Hey, he's got his line. He's got his running backs. He's got his, you know, his wide receivers and the that's going to matter the most naturally talent around your quarterback. But I also think that the support beyond that of, you know, Jonathan Grinard saying we got 10 toes behind him and, or whatever it was, whatever the saying is, and you know, Josh Mattel is kind of saying he can lean on us.

You don't have to be the last guy to say a word to the locker room. Every time there's a lot of us here that are taking leadership roles and you don't have to be that guy that just runs the franchise from day one. There's it's a very rare type of locker room already with the veteran players that they have, the leadership that they have, the coach that they have, the quarterback coach that they have, the wide receivers coach that they have. Like there is a lot that they have to work with there around J.J. McCarthy so he could be that confident, I think, and not feel like the weight of the world is on his shoulders. So let's get to some of your questions and comments. But it was if you missed that episode with myself and Dane talking about

J.J. McCarthy's first comments after you're done here, make sure you check that out. So Son of a Beavers, nice to see you, says lots of good veterans still out there. I wonder which one would make the most sense. I, you know, when it comes to this time of year, the Vikings might sign somebody. Everybody wants them to sign somebody badly. Who else can we get? Who else can we get? There's still free agents.

Can we get somebody? There's nothing more that we all love. And I'm not saying I'm not pointing the finger at you. I'm saying all of us love. Then looking at the free agent list being like, yeah, that guy. I remember that guy. He's got I've seen him. He could help us.

And everybody loves transactions. They love signings. They love trades. They love moves. We want moves. Give us some moves, Casey. It's been like two days since they've had a move. But if you're still on the free agent market now, it's kind of like when a guy drops to the fifth round where you have to say, there's probably a reason that certain players are still

on the free agent market. Now last year they did get Stefan Gilmore late in the process and he worked out really well for them and was a good corner for them. Key part of the defense last year and a veteran leader and all that sort of stuff. So it can happen. But when I look at the remaining list of free agents and I go, well, who am I tossing over the side of the boat to bring in this guy? Well, who am I tossing over the side of the boat to bring in this guy? And the corner back room is the one that I know most people have focused on, and maybe they could dip into bringing in a veteran at corner. There's guys out there that if they're looking for a chance to make a roster,

maybe they could. There's like a Mike Hilton. I think is still a free agent Russell Douglas. There's like a Mike Hilton, I think is still a free agent, Russell Douglas. There's still a couple of guys, but every one of them is either old or banged up or not that good at football. There's only a handful left and that kind of goes for all positions. So the Vikings would have to make decisions of, well, if you bring a guy in and injuries can change all of this, but if you bring a guy in and injuries can change all of this,

but if you bring a guy in, then that means you're taking practice reps away from somebody else. So even just when you think about the cornerback position, think about, well, they want Dwight McClothern who they seem to believe in to get a lot of reps. They already brought in Jeff Okuda. Now I don't think a lot of Jeff Okuda based on where he's been that there's gonna be a great chance that he's a contributor but if they've got a plan for him they're going to want to see it in practice so do you bring in a veteran another veteran player and then kind of push everybody else's snap counts down and practice, they're going to be thinking about stuff like that at every position. So I want transactions as much as you.

I mean, an emergency podcast in May because they signed somebody would be a lot of fun, but I just don't know if they're actually going to bring in too many other people or make too many other moves, maybe one other guy on the roster. But I think that what you see in front of you is what you got for this roster now. And you also want to leave the room open for undrafted free agents and late round picks to have their chances too, because you went out and got that guy and you want to see what he's going to look like.

So the corner room is certainly one that still is open a little bit. Safety is another position that they could grab one more guy and free agency if they want to, but I just don't, you know, see a ton of room on the roster to do this. Steve asked, do you think they'll bring back shack shack Griffin? I mean, they might, like there's always that possibility that somebody gets banged up or they just decide, like Shaq Griffin just decides,

I'm not going to get very much in the free agent market. My market is dried up and Hey Vikings, will you take me? And maybe they will cause he played pretty well last year. It just seems like they've kind of moved on. It just seems like they have this room that they are happy with and want to see just seems like they have this room that they are happy with and want to see. Developed. That's what I'm looking at right now. I'm not so sure that they're saying we've got to get another guy in here.

Maybe that'll be wrong. Maybe they will add another veteran corner. I just, I look at it as they really seem to like Isaiah Rogers and they probably could have drafted a corner if they wanted to early but there maybe wasn't an opportunity to do so after the first round. They could have taken Will Johnson but then look at how far he fell. Clearly there's a serious issue and it was reported that there's a knee problem. I'm sure that they had that discussion of like, man if this guy's a top 15 talent,

do we roll the dice on Will Johnson? They decide not to do that. So maybe one more body, maybe one more guy. Uh, but I think that they're happy with Isaiah Rogers and with McKay Blackman, Byron Murphy, obviously the leader there and a couple other guys that they've got. So, um, I don't think that's like desperation. Uh, Stephanie, good to see you. Uh, do you have any thoughts on Tommy Hill? Can't hide my corn Husker love. Uh, I do not know anything about Tommy Hill, so you're going to have to tell me

about thoughts that I should have about Tommy Hill, because I'm going to tell you the truth. I don't know anything about him. I did see enough corn husker games this year to know some of their players, uh, the quarterback who looks like Patrick Mahomes, but you know, when it comes to the undrafted free agent guys, I mean, to me, that's all just like, well, we'll see, just Like well, we'll see right we'll see so let me look up what he did last year Tommy Hill You never know when a guy is gonna make it by the way I mean it does happen so it looks to me like he's got some really good numbers over the last couple years

2023 had an 85.9 pff grade. That's really good last couple of years, 2023 had an 85.9 PFF grade. That's really good. Uh, only gave up in 2023, a 40.4 quarterback rating into his coverage. But then last year he struggled more good run defender every year at Nebraska, six foot tall and a little bit on the older side. So that that's the best I could do reading his PFF sheet, but I can't say that I have dug into the Tommy Hill film. So you have to tell me what he looks like.

Matt says, how did JJ's arm circles look? Yeah, I mean, that's what we're really dealing with and watching the warmups. He's out there doing fake drop backs, tweaking the hips. Like, I don't know guys, I think he's got it. Leonardo says, how do you feel about the corner back room? It looks like we lack a shutdown number one corner. Well, I just don't think that the shutdown number one corner is really a thing in this defense.

Now look, if they had Patrick Sertan, they would have a different defense and they would figure out how to use that type of player but when i think of number one shut down corner i think of like to rel river. And i think of him lining up straight over the top of chad ocho cinco and shooting his hands and hit and ocho cinco and playing super physical and not letting him get any room. That's just not really the NFL as much these days. There's so many underneath passes. There's so much pre snap motion and there's so much zone coverage that's getting played. I can get you a number on this if you give me a second to just demonstrate how much the NFL has changed in its coverage over the last couple of years. So when you say shutdown, I think, you know, Byron Murphy is probably more valuable than

you think he is because he's not just, Hey, track that number one guy like Xavier Rhodes was a couple of years ago. So I'm going to have to let this load, but, uh, PFF does have the different coverages, like how often someone played in man coverage, how much someone played in zone coverage. And what it shows in their coverage scheme data is just how much. That teams have shifted toward playing everybody in zone outside of a couple teams, I'm sure you're going to see the New York jets play a lot of man coverage. I'm sure you're going to see the New York Jets play a lot of man coverage. I'm sure you're going to see a couple other teams that still kind of play that way.

But most teams have shifted to playing zone all the time. So just for example, last year, if we look at starting corners or corners that played more than half of the snaps, what you see in the man coverage is that it's mostly New England Patriots and Detroit Lions at the top and then everybody else Just for example, there was only 16 guys who played man coverage more than 35% of the time so 35% is not even a high percentage and There was only 16 guys who played man coverage 35% or more. And if we go back we'll see if this takes a second to love but let me just go back to twenty seventeen when xavier roads was doing his thing see if they've got the data then.

This might be a little more of a new thing that they've come out with but we'll see it's this is the cornerbacks always take longer to load cuz there's like 200 of them But what we'll see is that they used to play a lot more there used to be a lot more So I told you 16 right remember 16 guys played more than 35% in 2017 that was 42 that was 42. It just shows you how much that's changed Xavier Rhodes actually in 17, Xavier Rhodes is listed as only 34% of the time playing man, which was his best year, but they also played a lot of cover three, which kind of looks like man and the NFL. If you're playing cover three, you're getting beat by a lot of play actions and deep stuff.

And so that's why it's really changed a lot. Uh, the point just being that you're often looking for guys who can read and actions and deep stuff. And so that's why it's really changed a lot. The point just being that you're often looking for guys who can read and react, who understand route combinations, who are mentally shut down corners, but not necessarily that lock in guy. I'm not saying you don't want it. I'm not saying that you don't want that guy or they, you know, you wouldn't change your defense if you had them. Um, but Byron Murphy, I think is really valuable. That didn't entirely answer your question, but it's just something

I've been thinking about a lot. To your question, how I feel about it is if we put it in like a confidence meter, I think I would go like a six in terms of confidence. When I hear Kevin O'Connell rave about Isaiah Rogers and how much Brian Flores likes him, I do lean on that side of believing them because I think that Brian Flores, he's not, sometimes we treat him like he's superhuman and he could never be wrong on a player. Well, of course, you know, they've been wrong on players during his time here.

But, uh, when you're talking about somebody that they're putting that much trust in to the point where they haven't gone out and get gotten another corner, then, all right, well, I'll, I'll buy on that. And the data on Isaiah Rogers is really good from his previous stops in Indianapolis and with, uh, last year, the Philadelphia Eagles. All right. And Murphy, we know exactly what he is.

Mackay Blackman was coming along nicely and the depth is still pretty concerning. I mean, Dwight McClothern had a good training camp, but that's it. Jeff Okuda, I mean, we'll see. So I think it's probably like a six. What we know from last year though is it's not like it needs to be a 10

in order for this to be a good defense because they are going to create so much pressure that you need guys who can play aggressively. You need guys who could be in the right spot and tackle and make a play now and then, but the overall secondary, I think last year I was really a little bit. Well, no last year with the, with the corners, we were still lacking in confidence with the secondary in general, having can't buy them back or still there. That helped a little bit for the confidence. But last year, I mean, we had those discussions all in the off season.

What are they going to do a corner? They got assigned Stefan Gilmore. They're old. They're not fast and they ended up with a top five defense still. So I think it should still should be fairly high. It deserves to be above a five for me, confidence with the cornerback group. But it's definitely not a 10 when there's still

enough questions. Rodgers has never played a full season before. He is topped out at just over 500 snaps. So even if they love him, he's still going to be asked to do more than he's ever done before. So there's questions. Let's see, Jason says says rumors the Vikings might be Pittsburgh's opponent for their game in Ireland. Is there enough money in the purple insider budget to go to Ireland? I don't know. I'm paying all

these interns all the time. That's just because I know Clay is listening. But I don't know. The trips, think about the trips that I usually make last year I went to Seattle which is not a bad trip from Minnesota. I was planning on going to Pittsburgh. I usually go to Green Bay and Chicago this year I'll go to Detroit again. Ireland is a little much I think a lot more of you need to sign up for the newsletter at purple insider dot football. If I'm going to go overseas, one of these times I'll do it.

I haven't gone to the London ones. One of these times I'll put some little budget into it, but just as far as the business aspect where I've really put a lot of the budget is while traveling to the owners meetings, traveling to the combine, like those things kind of add up. Uh, and then, you know, road games and also all the guests that you see the regular weekly guests. Like if someone's like Jeremiah Searle is going to come on every week, then, you know, I'm going to pay them to do that.

So I've kind of invested it there and not so much in the international travel but maybe Ireland would be a really interesting place to go. I'm hoping it doesn't happen because I want to go to Pittsburgh. I have not covered a game in Pittsburgh that was not one I went to in 2017 and the Vikings haven't played there since then. It's one of my favorite cities. When I used to live in Buffalo, we would drive down to Pittsburgh. And what was really great about that is that they were so bad, the Pittsburgh Pirates, that you could just get a ticket right behind home plate for like 14 bucks. So the wife and I would drive from Buffalo down to Pittsburgh for a weekend and we would go to like three Pirates games for 50 bucks a piece and it was awesome like I saw Albert pools hit like a four hundred and fifty foot home run from right behind home plate and I paid nothing for it. And then we'd go see different parts of the city as so there's a lot of great memories for me there and I would like to just go there. And so I hoping that they don't.

And I'm sure the Vikings from their perspective are thinking we've gone overseas a bunch of times, not sure if we really want to do that. How is Will Riker doing? Probably fine. I don't know. He was out there and he was warming up, but that was all we saw. I mean, when it's, but it's off season workouts. We're literally talking about watching five minutes of them basically stretch.

And that's really about it. So it's not even seeing the entire practice. And even if it was, if I was good enough to see an OTA practice or something that's coming up and tell you how many field goals will record wasard was going to make. And then if L team would hire me right away, you're a genius. But he was out there. I'm sure he's fine. I mean, you do have to have some concern over Will Rikard from the standpoint of his health because he did get hurt last year and. It seemed that he maybe didn't inform the team that he was hurt and then went into

the game and missed a couple of field goals. Yeah, I mean that definitely threw me off a little bit with him because you have to do that. You have to let the team know if you're the kicker, if you're a defensive tackle, maybe you just grind through it. But if you're the kicker and you got a leg problem, you got to let him know. But I still think the expectations are super high for Will Reichard. And just historically, it's always taken some time with kickers

so the fact that he could have a Good season last year overall. I think bodes very well for his future as long as he could stay healthy Viking drones has any word on quasi's contract There has not been any word on quasi's contract as of yet. It's been four days since the draft So I guess we will wait and see on that You know, I kind of go back through this journey of the discussion about quasi's contract where it was like Maybe the combine where I said well, you know we get to the combine and he doesn't have a contract

I will raise the eyebrow and then you know, you get to the combine and he doesn't have a contract, I will raise the eyebrow. And then, you know, you could see it under the hat. The eyebrow was raised. It was like, okay, this is, this is interesting, I guess, and worth paying attention to that. He doesn't have the contract yet. And then after that, I mean, there's so much in free agency mode and draft mode. That's where I totally understand. All right, they're in free agency mode,

they're doing all these phone calls and getting guys in and signing them to contracts and negotiating and formulating plans and then they go right into draft mode and it's pedal to the metal and I know they only got five picks but still, you're talking about draft meetings every single day and it's a pretty intense process. You're meeting with guys, you're having guys in, and there really isn't a whole heck of a lot of time to be negotiating a contract there.

But now we are in the off season and it's something to pay attention to. I don't know when this could happen. All I know is that the last information we heard about it was Mark Wilf saying he wants it to happen. He wants this leadership to continue. They just built a team that has one of the five best rosters, six best rosters in the NFL. And that's not even just me throwing it out there.

Even just, I wrote about the other day, Mike clay of ESPN, who I'll try to get on the show at some point here. He's been on the show a handful of times. Great guy. I mean, just looking at his positional rankings, if you took out the quarterback position, I believe there were three other teams ranked higher on offense and four other teams ranked higher on defense. I mean, you're arguably, you know, if you take out the quarterback, we're talking about a top five offensive defense in terms of raw talent. That's the roster this general

manager has built. I don't think you really want to make too many changes there. I think you want to make sure that he's locked in, but there's also, there's also time. We've got May, June, also, there's also time we've got May, June, July. But if we do get to training camp, I think it goes beyond an eyebrow race. So I've left the eyebrow up. That's where we're at right now. One eyebrow raised. If we get to training camp and there's no contract for the general manager,

then it's way more baffling than just an eyebrow raised. Then it's what is going on here? Uh, what, what is happening with this leadership of this team if you have I mean he would be officially lame duck status In fact, I think Ben Gessling reported that his contract officially Started at the draft or something like that I'd have to remember the details or ask Ben, but it was something like that. Like it runs through next year's draft.

And that's when it's officially up. So that means we're in lame duck status right now, but nothing's really happening. So if we get to the beginning of the season and it's lame duck status for the GM, then it's weird. Then it's okay. What the heck is going on here with this team and its leadership? But I still expect this to get done because of how confidently Mark Wilf talked about wanting to get it done. And even when Quacey discussed it the last time, he said, look, you know, it's kind of like building a house where you get 90% of the foundation done and then the 10% is the

hardest at the end. That made me think, well, they must be at least on the other side of the field on this thing and maybe getting it done. But so I'm going on the assumption as of right now that it's going to get done. And I just don't know why you'd want to change a thing about where this is at. They have done a tremendous job. I mean, when we go back to where this team was when they took over and how far away they looked from competing and now to be talking about top five on each

side of the ball, look how many teams are floundering, look how many teams are struggling to get anything accomplished on both sides of the ball. And you have a team that's become a premiere organization. Did free agents want to sign here in the last year of Mike Zimmer? Are you serious? Of course they didn't. And it wasn't just cap related.

I mean, the culture was horrendous. They have the nice facilities and everything, but now they get their free agent wish list and everybody signs because they want to be here because of this leadership. Yeah, I don't know. So we'll wait. We'll wait and see.

I've been willing to be patient on these things in the past and it's paid off when we talked about Justin Jefferson and his contract. And I think all last year around this time, I was saying, just wait, just wait. Mark Wolf said this is going to happen. It's going to happen. And then it did. And, uh, so I'm going along the same assumption as of right now, go wolves heck of a day for you says, uh, Sam Howell is a great backup plan.

He's like Jamis on steroids, 40 touchdowns, 40 interceptions. Uh, I think he's a good backup plan for a competition. I'm going to toss it out there. I'll throw it. I'll throw it out there. I'll throw it out there. Put this, put this in the back of your mind on May 1st. I think it's going to be a real competition.

I think it is a real backup quarterback competition between Sam Hall and Brett Rippon, they seem to like Brett Rippon. KOC seems to like Brett Rippon. They seem to like Brett Rippon. KOC seems to like Brett Rippon. Now he's played before. They both don't have stellar impressive records. I think Brett Rippon may have won two of his four starts. None of them was wildly impressive, but Rippon is actually older, more experienced in that way.

He's been around the NFL longer than Sam Howell. Sam Howell's personality has to fit in the right way. If it doesn't, then it might be somebody else. They could also still add another person to the quarterback mix. I think with Sam Howell's history, he had about as horrible of a situation as you're ever going to find. I mean, it was Sam Darnold level Carolina stuff in Washington. Everybody found out exactly why Eric Bnemy never got head coaching jobs because he did not know what he was doing outside of KC.

But also they had a terrible offensive line. They couldn't run the ball. They threw every play. They didn't have good wide receivers. Their head coach just wasn't the same as he used to be, Ron Rivera. So Sam Howell, the year that he started, it was a joke and he threw a bunch of picks and took a bunch of sacks and that's kind of how it goes for a first time starter. So I see the potential in Sam Howell and I will play that game of saying, I liked

him coming out in the draft. I'll be that guy. Like I liked Sam Howell. I was a kind of a Sam Howell is QB one guy back then. And he went in the fifth round. I went, whoops. See this is the difference between me and Mel Kiper when I thought Sam Howell was the best quarterback in that draft and he was a fifth rounder. I went, ah,

guess not. Didn't scream like a lunatic, but I don't, I didn't scream that I was right. I was like, I guess I was wrong. But he's still in the league and he's still here. I just don't think that his history is enough to say that this is not Daniel Jones. It's not like he's won a playoff game or something like that. And it's not like he was a former first rounder. His history is not enough for me to say he's locked in. I think that's a real competition between Sam Holland, Brett Rippen. And I wouldn't be terribly shocked if Brett Rippon won the job or if they brought in somebody else.

Just wouldn't be surprised. Wade says, uh, quasi da Fomento wins UDFA and free agency and needs to prove he can win the draft. KOC wins preseason and regular season and needs to prove he can win in the postseason. Well, look, uh, I mean, they had 14 wins last year and have built a top five roster. I don't know if he needs to prove he can win the draft at this moment because it's not that they just win

free agency, it's that they annihilate free agency. It's that the last two years, no team has come anywhere close to adding as much talent through free agency as the Minnesota Vikings. It's not in, there's no team that is remotely in the ballpark of bringing in a Grinard van Ginkle who we didn't actually talk about that extension. Maybe I should do that next. I'll do that next.

I that just kind of got away from me because we were talking to McCarthy out there and then we saw Drew Rosenhouse walking around and he represents van Ginkle and Metellus so we weren't sure which one of those guys it was gonna apply to maybe it's it still should Metellus at some point Maybe they were working on that also And it ended up coming out later in the day that they gave a extension to Van Ginkle So let me get don't let anybody let me forget that I'll get to that in just a second but as far as like quasi daful Mensa, I mean, I, they had five draft picks.

So I don't know how this year is going to prove that he can win the draft. They have added. I, I've said this many times that I do not care where players come from. I just care they're good. And that's the same way with, did you get them in free agency? Oh no, he didn't get them in the draft. Well, I guess he'll have to give the Superbowl ring back because he didn't get them in the draft. I mean, can you imagine how snarky I'm gonna be about that

if they actually win something? I mean, just this whole thing about the obsession over the draft when they've brought in some talent in the draft and haven't had a lot of picks. I think we're up to 28 draft picks, which is basically two years of Rick Spielman. We're still trying to judge whether he can do it or not. I mean, this draft, every one of those drafts has their context.

This draft, it's sort of one of those things like you if unless you draft at the very top and, you know, then if you botch it, that means you're really in trouble. But a lot of these things are, you know, you're not going to hit on all of these draft picks. Can you get some impact players? But most of the impact players have to already be there when you're drafting 24th kind of every year.

And when we talk about this drafting, Jordan Addison is just not a part of the discussion, which is weird to me because that's a Really highly talented thousand yard wide receiver that they've gotten that is a major part of their future success With JJ McCarthy over these next couple years and then we'll see That's kind of a big deal. You know, they've it's not like they've brought in nobody It's that that first draft went really really badly and dallas turner we're not even close to having an answer on dallas turner you think about the guys through the years. Who have developed after a year or two i mean a train wains took a couple years xavier roads took a couple years and when you're not drafting someone first overall it normally takes a little bit of time. So it's like i can't. Well, he's barely drafted anyone So anyway, I'll just you know, you don't need that rant today. They have a top five roster. That's the goal

We just obsess over the draft so much that if you mess up a pick it's worse than anything else on the Andrew Van Ginkle thing, I think that Van Ginkle was probably someone they wanted to roll the dice on a little bit when he got here. There was a concern over a foot injury and they just wanted to see the Kenny fit as a pretty solid player for them. I don't think even the Vikings or Brian Flores anticipated what Van Ginkle was going to be for them, which was just a straight up superstar last year.

Second team, all pro. Absolutely fantastic. I mean, you couldn't have asked for anything more for Andrew Van Ginkle. And I think that him, uh, last year proving that there was another gear to him. Made it where you have to give him an extension. You have to keep him around through the rest of his prime. Now one year is a shorter commitment because we are talking about somebody that's going into their thirties, but this also allows you to have this.

Rock solid outside linebacker group. And then Dallas Turner is going to fit in is more of a rotation guy. And I think what we're going to see is van ginkle or Gernard come off the field a little bit this year, unlike last year where they really didn't, they were on the field every single play. But now you can have Dallas Turner fitting in more in those spots than he was last year. But when someone plays that well, you have no other choice. Like you've got to make sure that they're rewarded for that and that they're sticking

around with you. And when quasi at awful Menta talks about thinking in two year windows, like, okay, you don't want van ginkle to play again at an all pro level or a pro bowl level, and then be talking about having to sign them in free agency for 30 plus million dollars. They've done a lot of these early to get money in the guy's pocket so he's happy, but also it's a good bet. Baseball does this with guys before they hit their arbitration. I don't know baseball rules so don't quiz me on it, but you'll see guys sign early so

they get the money in their pocket while they're still on their rookie deal and the team gets a nice, a nice deal and doesn't have to spend as much. That's what this is. Like Andrew van ginkle, you earn this buddy, you outperformed your contract, you deserve way more. But also if you get 10 sacks again and a couple of interceptions and you play like you did on the free agent market be worth more than twenty three million dollars, which is the extension they gave him. So there you go. That's a long answer to one question. Sorry about that.

Six shooter nation gaming says Emanuel Mosley, C.J. Henderson, Fabian Morrow, Rasul Douglas. Those guys are all bad, honestly. That's what I'm talking about with the everybody loves the late free agent signing because we kind of get bored. We go, ah, man, it's been, I'm getting itchy. I need an acquisition. Haven't had one in a while. Those guys are just not good players. Fabian Moro could kind of barely play last year. Russell Douglas was not good for Buffalo. Emmanuel Moseley and CJ Henderson are huge busts. Those guys are not good.

Let me get to back to the questions in just a second, but a reminder that this show does have sponsors. So I gotta tell you about something that I have been trying to stop going to fast food restaurants all the time. You guys know I love my fast food restaurants, but I've cut down now that I have Tempo Meals. Tempo Meals is a delivery service that allows you to get chef crafted meals from a dietitian approved menu

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Let's see. Red eight five four lava fires. That's a new one. Welcome. Welcome. My biggest concern is KO sees play calling because as much as Sam is to blame, I blame KO C for the play calling at the end of the year. That this is one I hear all the time. And look, here's my thing with it.

It, this goes back as old as time with football, and I like to watch old NFL films, old games, and all those things. It's one of the things that makes football wonderful is that we can we all have enough knowledge about the game that we can sit there in a press box, sit there at home, and we could play along at home. We do it with the front office stuff and we the oldest thing ever is questioning play calls. It's just what you're allowed to do. I mean it really is part of the fun and what makes football great is we can always say when a play didn't work, why did you not call a different play? The Monday morning quarterbacking all that stuff. The bottom line on Kevin O'Connell and the play calling is yes, they got out schemed in the playoffs. No question about that.

They got out coached Sean McVay. The, the, the proof is in the pudding there, man. They didn't have counters. They seem to have every answer to what the Vikings wanted to do offensively, there's no doubt about it. But we also need to probably on play calling in general, pull ourselves back a little bit and take a look at what just happened last year. And even in 2022 as well. But last year, they took a quarterback who had been legitimately a bottom five quarterback since he was drafted. I remember looking this up that out of all the quarterbacks who had played at least 30

starts since 2018, Sam Darnall was bottom three in quarterback rating and they just won 14 games and got a top 10 performance. That's pretty tough to say the play caller doesn't know what he's doing. And I think part of it is that we watch every single play in every single game and we just pick them apart like crazy because that's what we do. You don't watch every single Rams game. You don't watch every single 49ers game. You can tell me you do, but there's no way you do.

You don't have enough time. I don't have enough time. Nobody does. Nobody's watching every single cause I'm sure if you're watching every 49ers game or Packers game There's times where you're going. Why did he call that play and I think there's there's very legitimate Ways to pick apart some of the play calling and then there's ones where if you just sort of throw out there play calling it's like ah because they lost the playoff game where the other team was better and

Had the answer that also beat my homes in the Superbowl on the defensive line versus the offensive line. And they got a week to rest while the Vikings had to go to Detroit and they have a Superbowl winning coach and all those things. They got out coached in the playoff game. There's no doubt that as we go forward, that can't happen again. They can't go over two and get out coached in both playoff games. They can't go over three the next time

they're in the playoffs. But also we're talking about a guy in Kevin O'Connell who has been masterful at end of game play calling. And how about all the games that are one score where you need one more drive and they're getting that game winning drive out of their quarterback time and time again. How about the confidence of the quarterback in the play calls?

How about the production that they've had in the passing game from quarterbacks that just aren't that great? Kirk Cousins is just not that great. And look at the production that they got out of him a 13 win season. He had never come close to that before. And I know it was a lot of one score games, but somebody's got to call those plays at the end of the game. And the running game too. This is something that's bothered me a lot with the running game, but there's

been a pretty obvious explanation, which is talent. And so this year will be a test with the running game. Can you stick with it at times? But I think if you're talking about the biggest nitpick for a top 10 offense with a quarterback who had never been good before is, you know, they just didn't stick with the run sometimes. It's like, OK, we need to we need to center ourselves a little bit on this thing. Like what's what sort of like small critiques

and what's the bigger he can't call plays? Because saying he can't call plays is bat bleep insane, considering how much success they've had saying call plays because saying he can't call plays is bat bleep insane considering how much success they've had saying they need to figure out a running identity. Well, that's real saying don't get too cute when you're up to touchdowns, run the ball, get some first downs, grind out a field goal and win the game. That's fair. Don't run a stink and trick play in Jacksonville that gets you a 15 yard loss.

That's fair. Like that stuff. So I think we need to be specific about that because I hear that all the time play calling. It's like. This guy this guy how many offensive coaches out there are just totally lost in the woods that are finishing 23rd in offense and their quarterbacks are getting sacked all the time or just mediocre. It's like they're having a ton of success at the quarterback position. So that it's not at all my concern with this team.

It's more of just some things that I think that they can advance on and improve on with a better roster. But, you know, that's roster is always going to make you look genius or stupid no matter what. I mean, look at San Francisco last year is a Kyle. Did Kyle Shanahan forget how to football or did he lose Christian McCaffrey? Right. So a lot of it's going to depend on that, but now they have as stacked of an offense as they can possibly have. And I think they're going to curate this entire thing for JJ McCarthy.

So we're going to see a lot different on offense and maybe a little bit different of a play calling approach. Mr. Mayor, can you do a pie chart for Jeff Acuta? Jeff Acuta getting his own pie chart tonight is exactly what I was looking for. You get a neck roll for asking this question. get a neck roll for asking this question. Uh, makes the team and is good to great makes the team and is man makes the team and is actively awful. Doesn't make the team. Okay. So, uh, just off, off the dome here, I will go with makes the team and is good

to great is 10% makes the team and is man is probably 40% makes the team and is actively awful is 25 and doesn't make the team is 25. It would be shocking if somebody went from barely being able to play in the NFL to somehow good to great. But what I'd be surprised if he was on the team and just a backup and played special teams and occasionally got in? No, that wouldn't surprise me. I think that's the most likely makes the team and is actively awful. I don't know if he's going to play enough to be actively awful and doesn't make the team is very much in play. So yeah, uh, just going back to, uh, going back to the Nebraska guy, Raiola. Yeah, that's he's, he was okay.

I liked watching him play, but he, he does the Mahomes thing where I just think like, be yourself, bro, be yourself. So now, now I'm just, this shows you how long I've taken to answer some questions. And I apologize for that. I'm just getting to your Tommy Hill information that he had, uh, oh, plantar fasciitis, that's what dropped. Oh, that stinks. That's, that's terrible. Has anybody ever had that? I had that in my foot because I like to run. Oh, it's not fun at all. It's not, you can't play.

You cannot play the same football with plantar fasciitis. And so it's one of those where you just think like, well, whatever, man, right? It's just, just, uh, the foot arch thing, but it's, it's like being stabbed with knives in the arch of your foot. Every time you try to run.