Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - JJ McCarthy is 'ready to start' ...what do we want to see in the spring? (Hour 2)

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.

Uh, dances, uh, most improved player next year. Hmm. Most improved player. You know, I could see it being one of the outside linebackers or D lineman. So Levi Drake Rodriguez comes to mind. Uh, Bo Richter, you know, Bo Richter was one of those guys that I always keep an eye out for somebody who is undraft drafted or a late round pick. And then they do well in. guys that I always keep an eye out for somebody who is undrafted or a late round pick and

then they do well in special teams because as much as we don't really talk about special teams ever, they the coaches they see it. If somebody could play on special teams, there's something there because it's so fast and it's so physical and he was great at it. So Bo Richter I'm very curious about. I wrote about him last year. If anybody wants to look that up again, purple insider dot football. Uh, but, uh, he was really interesting to talk to because he came from, uh, air force. And so he was kind of a late bloomer guy where they couldn't really

find a position for him. And then he's an incredible athlete. He was one of those 40 inch vertical guys. He actually was going to play basketball and then decided that he's not tall enough to be an NBA player and thought he might have a better chance at football. So, uh, but really has only big production in his final season and then came to camp and was excellent. It was really good in the preseason games.

Gabe Murphy's another guy I'm keeping an eye on. Takita Imani, I'm kind of interested in too, because he made the team last year. Remember what a big surprise that was. So there's a lot of guys in that room that I think could be pretty good. Marley says got plantar fasciitis jumping on a trampoline and it never fully healed. Dude, I'm saying it's it's not fun. It is not fun. Let's see.

Keenan Allen, Rasul Douglas, Julian Blackman, CJ Beathard. Yeah, I know, Son of Beavers, you've been pounding the CJ Beathard maybe because I still think it's possible they bring in another quarterback. Julian Blackman is a weird one. He was pretty good. Right. And. He just has got no interest at all. That that was odd to me that Julian Blackman's safety for Indianapolis. His numbers were all right, and he just has not gotten any interest.

Here we go. Now, here's your neck roll worthy is Oscar Hampton. It's going to be the punter of the future. He's one of those Aussie guys. Oscar Hampton. It's going to be the punter of the future. He's one of those Aussie guys. Oscar Hampton, they brought him in. I'll be a punter competition. You guys, the last couple of years, they've had punter competitions, but we've never really gotten there with it,

where I think Matt Daniels has told us, yeah, it's going to be a punt off. And then it just didn't happen. And it just. Has, non-existent and they keep going back to Ryan Wright. So maybe this year, this year is the year folks. This year is the year that we get the punter competent, you know, everyone, like the whole world, the whole outside world, it's going to be talking JJ McCarthy. But here, the people who really know.

Talking Oscar Hampton versus Ryan Wright. Jacob says, I don't want to put too much stock into it, but man, JJ can command a room. There there's there you should you should because the way that I look at quarterback is that it's not just a position. It's a executive position. It's a leadership position, probably as much as coaches. And sometimes with some quarterbacks, it's been more important than who's coaching. You can't tell me that it mattered more who was coaching than Peyton Manning being the quarterback or even Tom Brady.

And maybe we'll get into Belichick in a little bit, but. Commanding a room's a big deal. Confidence is a big deal. One thing that I do notice about McCarthy, because I'm just a disclaimer here. Every single little thing that happens with McCarthy, we're going to try to take something from it because that's what that's what we're doing here. This is the most exciting young player. That's going to debut in Minnesota sports since who, right?

When Anthony, even when they hit the Edwards, he's become a megastar he's amazing I love watching him play basketball but when Anthony Edwards got here that franchise was so dead I don't remember us being like oh my gosh Anthony Edwards plays his first game it was sort of like okay what let's even who cares about this team right with JJ McCarthy taking over this circumstance and so what you're talking about the way he carries himself The way people talk about his genuine nature and also the way he walks around on that practice field Just a lot of joy in the way he walks around and I think that people see that the energy He's one of those guys that has a magnetism to him that you just know when you see

So it does matter. It does matter when you're talking about how he commands a room Yeah, I would say that definitely matters Sean says now if the upgrades of DT pay big dividends What would more quarterback pressure from the interior making the secondary look even stronger? Oh yeah, sure. Uh, well what I'm curious about there is schematically, if it changes anything schematically, because last year they're just having to do so many blitzes in the last two years really.

And the defensive tackles were kind of body movers. So what you would see on early downs is Harrison Phillips, Jerry Tillery and Jonathan Bullard. What they would be doing is they would be taking offensive lineman and moving them in directions to create gaps for blitzers. It was kind of cool to watch. And once Harrison Phillips explained this to me, because I asked him about it,

Harrison Phillips had this great PFF grade in the game. So I went up and asked him like, Hey, what do you, you know, like what happened to get this grade? And he said, the hard thing about grading me for PFF is that sometimes I will move in a direction that the goal is not to go get the quarterback. The goal is to bring the center with me or bring the guard with me.

So I'm jumping over here to get the guard to shift so we can run somebody by him. I'm like a football man. That's cool. But now you're not doing that. Now, Javon Hargrave and well, Harrison Phillips will still do it, but Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen, they're just there to get after the passer. So on a lot of downs, I think you could just drop back, Blake Cashman. And we might see, I was thinking about this the other day.

We might see Eric Wilson play kind of a lot because Ivan pace is, uh, a little more of a blitzer and a run defender. So we might start to see Eric Wilson on later downs. I could see him being more of a coverage linebacker. He's that kind of guy because they're not necessarily going to be blitzing all the time like they were in the past. And that to me makes it easier on the secondary. I don't think it changes how they cover that much,

but it definitely makes it easier. King Dickham says, how are the fans in Pittsburgh? Well, I need to wear Kevlar and leather. Hey, look, man, this is an equal opportunity podcast. All are welcome. If you want to wear leather to the game and whatever, I mean, you can do it. That's I'm not going to question you. You're still allowed here.

You can ask any questions you want, even if you're a little on the different side. But as far as the Pittsburgh fans go. Well, that statement is very true. All are welcome to talk football, but I know that's not what you meant. As far as the fans in Pittsburgh, it's not Philly. Two two different sides of the state couldn't be more different. Pittsburgh fans are there. You know, they love their team.

Obviously they love their team, but they are not the violent types. It's not like it is in Philadelphia where they might throw batteries at you or something like that. Totally different vibe. Totally different side of the state. It might as well be when I lived in New York, we talked about how New York City and where I lived, which was Western New York, are very, very different. Might as well be two different states. Same thing with Philadelphia area and Pittsburgh area.

Pittsburgh is basically a Midwest city and Philadelphia is New York City only tuned up and angrier. So very different. Somebody else is going to have to figure this one out. Which new Viking has the best nickname? I don't I don't know. I don't know if if we've got nicknames for everybody yet. Somebody's going to have to let me know that honey barbecue badger. We're gonna have to figure that out. I'm not really sure. As far as new guys, I'll have to look up on pro football reference if like Javon Hargrave. Oh, that's it, that's it, Javon Hargrave. Isn't he Gravedigger?

Let's see. Let me see. I think they call him Gravedigger, right? Gravedigger, yep, on pro football reference. That's definitely it. Jayvon Hart Gravedigger is an amazing name for a defensive tackle. Six shooter nation gaming. No one is talking about Gabriel Murphy.

I think he's still got a shot where where is Gabriel Murphy's position on the team? In your thought process? Oh, I mean, he certainly still got a shot. I mean, last year he made a really good first impression and then he got injured. Then we didn't see him until two thirds of the way through the season. And they were very suspect about the, um, just the nature of the injury. And then he comes back and he plays in a single game and that was about it.

But as far as where he stands on the team, the fact that they didn't go out and get anybody else's telling, I think they liked the depth in that room with Murphy and with Bo Richter and both of those guys have a chance to carve out a role. Patrick Jones's role is essentially going to go to Dallas Turner. And, uh, yeah. And then, uh, those two will kind of battle it out and we'll see if there's any other emerging guys or undrafted free agents or anybody I'm missing on outside

linebacker, but, uh, he could end up having a big rotational role for them. Folks, I'm trying a new thing to try to stop going to fast food restaurants all the time with my busy schedule. It is called tempo meals. Tempo is a weekly delivery service that delivers chef crafted meals from a dietitian approved menu, fresh to your door. They're perfectly portioned lunches and dinners take the guesswork out of eating. They're fully prepared. They can be heated up in the microwave in just three minutes.

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For a limited time, Tempo is offering my listeners 60% off your first box. Go to temple meals dot com slash purple insider. That is temple meals dot com slash purple insider 60% off your first box temple meals dot com slash purple insider rules and restrictions apply. Dusty says come on Dallas Turner was a first round pick. He must have 19 sacks in his first year. Otherwise, he's a bust Everyone knows that regardless of two Pro Bowlers being in front of him. Thank you. Thank you for the snark on that one dusty

Yeah, I mean the thing about Dallas Turner is that? Just in general historically it's the toughest position to produce at right away. And yeah, I mean, miles Garrett did it and we all know Jared verse did, but Jared verse is also my age, like Jared versus old, like five years older, four years older than Dallas Turner, whatever it is, three years, what it many years older than Dallas Turner, and we just have no patience for anybody ever developing.

Turner and we just have no patience for anybody ever developing. I try to, because I think that that's fair, but people who just come in and dominate, it doesn't happen a whole heck of a lot. I thought Dallas Turner showed the right attitude. I had a one-on-one conversation with Dallas toward the end of the year. This another, I'm just going to, you know, constantly promote the newsletter, but I wrote about it last year and he and I talked about playing special teams. He had a one-on-one conversation with Brian Flores about his approach and all those things.

And I came away very impressed with his attitude. And that's exactly what we heard from Jonathan Granada and Josh Mattelis the other day. I was very impressed with his approach because a lot of times that first round pick, if it doesn't happen right away, it can be pretty jarring for somebody like that. I mean, they are star players, the best of the best. I mean, just, you know, you're talking about, uh, these people who have been pumped up as dominant athletes since they were little kids. Then all of a sudden they get here and oh yeah,

there's stars ahead of me. I'm not going to be the first guy on the field. And Turner told Mattelis that last year he got kind of chewed out about special teams. And he was like, man, I got to do my job. Like this is real, you know, that kind of thing. And I think that midway through the season, it really started to click for Dallas Turner. You saw it in the snap count, the production, hell of a play in Seattle to get an interception, big sack in Chicago,

get a great game against Indianapolis. Like the game started to pick up. And I think that of course, he's going to have to get bigger. And I think that he's going to have to get bigger. And I think that he's going to have to understand that he can't just whip around everybody or he can't throw tackles and things like that. I mean, there's a lot to learn for Dallas Turner, but it also takes time in the NFL. It wouldn't be great if it was easy.

This is what I always think about the NFL. If it was easy to just show what I always think about the NFL. If it was easy to just show up and start, you know, dominating, if all the hyped rookie quarterbacks just came in and threw for 50 touchdowns, it wouldn't be great. It's great because it's hard. So we'll see this year. I think we'll know a lot more by the end of this year. And if he gets 570 snaps and six sacks and some pressures and some past breakups or interceptions or whatever, it'll be a big progress and we can start to see the writing on the wall. That's what you're really looking for from him, but we can't, we cannot discount how young he was

coming into the league last year. Uh, Don and Bethany, one of you says, uh, what a great contrast we've had watching the Sanders circus and then hearing McCarthy speak. Thankful we have that leadership that understands building the culture. Well, I mean, JJ McCarthy, the main thing about him was everybody knows that he's got skill. He, he has a lot of physical skill to throw a football. And even just the other day, okay man, that guy, you know, he can let it loose, right? But a major part of the reason why JJ McCarthy is here as the Vikings draft pick is what's above the shoulders. I don't know. Shoulder Sanders. I didn't cover him in Colorado. All I know is that the arrogance that he exuded throughout the draft process of

not doing the shrine bowl, not doing the senior bowl, not throwing at the combine. Like JJ threw it the combine and JJ crushed the meetings and JJ went on TV and, and it was asked by everybody on television. Hey, um, why, why didn't you throw the football that much in Michigan and had great answers and I know they're prepared answers and things like that, but he has a natural way about them that is just relatable and you could certainly figure that was the case inside of those buildings and then the Vikings go to visit with him and he had the private meetings.

And remember, should Derr blew off some of those meetings teams wanted to meet with him and then his pro day was no good and a McCarthy's pro day was good. So there's a big gap of why a guy gets drafted in the first. And a lot of it is just, this is your job interview. Are you taking it seriously? He didn't. He thought, I'm like the best player in the draft. So I'm not going gonna do any of this stuff

that all the dweebs like Michael Pennings and JJ McCarthy and Bo Nicks had to do. Well, those guys proved themselves in that process and he didn't. It doesn't mean that Chaudhuri won't learn and grow up and figure it out and become a good quarterback. It's possible, but you can really see the difference in the approach.

And if he doesn't figure that out and he just thinks he's victimized, well, then it's not going to last very long. Uh, thank you so much Jacoby for the super chat. Really appreciate that and the kind words. Thank you. Thank you. All of you showing up during a wall or a, uh, a wild playoff game is wolves. And I wouldn't have any audience, but not everyone's a hockey person, a wild playoff game. And I got the Knicks game on over here. That's why I keep looking over there.

All of you showing up to have a chat. Really, really appreciate you. It's a good one tonight. I know Clay's itching behind the scenes because I answer these questions for too long, but we'll get to him very shortly after a few more questions. Joel says Eric Hendricks released the minute and 32nd video of Viking highlights to retiring or coming back.

Certainly better chance that he's retiring than coming back. It'd be pretty shocking if he came back or maybe his social media manager just posted it. I don't know. If he retires, I'll, I'll sure have a conversation about it on the podcast. That's much longer than this. But all I want to say is of all the players I've covered, if we were doing an all respect team, like the guys that I just respect the most, Eric Hendricks way up there as far as just had every single thing you could have wanted from a character perspective.

The heart that he played with intelligence, just a tremendous human being, really, really special player, Eric Kendrick. So if he's retiring, then I wish him the best. I wouldn't be surprised if that ends up being the case, or maybe because he's still a free agent. He wants somebody to, hey, look, I was good. Rob says when Okuda has played, he has been very good. He's missed three of five seasons through injuries. It's just not it's just not the case, Rob. It's just not the case.

We got numbers for that. It's not been good. It's been quite bad, actually, from Jeff Okuda. I can pull it up for you. He had a moment against the Vikings, but as far as his actual performance, and this is why I love the PFF data so much, but he hasn't had a single season where he graded above average and as far as quarterback rating against when he's been thrown at 106.3 quarterback rating allowed when he's been thrown at.

So my expectations are not very high. Maybe they can figure out something for him and Brian Flores always gets the benefit of the doubt that there's something there, but I honestly think this is just the case that the guy played really well against them one time. And so they signed him Anthony Zettel Anthony Zettel theory Anthony Zettel Did the same thing? You're saying that 95% that Okuda makes the roster because his money's guaranteed. I promise you that's not that big of a deal

$2,000,000 guaranteed is just not that big of a deal. But we'll see. We'll see how he fits in. He's he's he's not so I put him under that same category as they take swings at these types of guys all the time. This guy was a former first rounder. Give him a couple million bucks. Let's see if there's anything there. I don't think that that's a bad idea But I also do think that if you're setting any sort of expectation for him Then you're probably too high on that. He's just somebody that You know could potentially Play some sort of role. That's the best I can do Dusty says do you think that?

With the note we might see some sub packages when the tell us as a third safety instead of pace in coverage snaps? I mean, they've done that. They've done that at times where it's Mattel is and even last year they had to have Mattel is that linebacker a lot. There's just going to be a lot of different looks for them as always. I do think that last year pace showed some weaknesses in coverage, but I also think that linebackers in general from year to year can really have a go look at

Anthony bars numbers or Eric Hendricks year to year. There's a lot of different numbers that they'll have in coverage. How much were you attacked? Was it your fault? That kind of thing. But I don't think with his size and his lack of length, that he's the best fit to be a great cover linebacker. So they might mix and match a little bit more because they're not blitzing every

single third down. I just think that all of a sudden Brian Flores has a little bit more in terms of options than he had before. Because he's got the interior rush. that's just going to be there. Is there a chance of Moss making the team? Yeah, they got, they did pick up a Randy Moss's son or invite. Well, they invited him to rookie mini camp, I think, right? He's got an invite. Making the team is really hard from being a camp invite, a rookie mini camp invite.

It does happen. It does happen. And that was Chad BB. Chad BB was one of those guys. So I would never count it out. And that's what makes football so great. Like Chad BB was too bad that he got hurt the way that he did. Cause that was a cool story.

That guy didn't even really produce in college. And then he came out in rookie mini camp and was really good and ended up getting on the field. I mean, what's the percentage chance of that? So I never count anybody out. If, if the team brings you there, they do it for a reason and you've got a chance. And then we evaluate everybody and see how it works out. So I'll get all the time.

Like, can this guy make the team connect? I don't know. If Adam Thielen could become a consistent Pro Bowl player then anybody can do it. When does rookie mini camp start? I believe that the first time the first day is the ninth of May. I have to check that you guys knew when the uh you guys knew when the schedule was coming out and I did not know that but yeah I think that's I think that's when okay I need a I have Diet Coke here I bought the little ones they were on sale so I need that which means that it's time to bring in intern Clay who has put

together his Clay's corner for this evening Clay we've hopefully you've been able to watch Knicks and Pistons. What I've been able to see over my shoulder here is a pretty good game. But other than that, how's it going? What's on your football mind this evening? Yeah, I'm good. I'm just continuously impressed by this fan base and how locked in they are. No matter the time of the year, no matter how little news there seems to be,

they're always here showing a ton of interest, asking great questions. So it's pretty cool to see. So it really it really is. It really is unbelievable because normally like I'll get this question all the time from people that I know, like my friends and stuff like, oh, well, it's got to be now. Now you're done right now, like it's off season and you could take some time off. I'm like, I don't know, man, there's still a lot, a lot of great conversation.

As long as I'm showing up here on a Monday or Thursday night and we're having an hour and a half worth of questions that aren't even redundant, like different questions, different ideas, then I'm going to keep doing that because I enjoy talking football with y'all. So you're right. You're definitely right about that. So you've put together five different things from the news or different thoughts about what's going on.

Where do you want to begin? No. So before the off season, I think it was clear that the Vikings didn't have as strong of a roster as some of the other top teams in the league, such as the Eagles or the Lions. And now that the off season is over or nearly over, how much do you think they close that gap? And do you think they're officially in the conversation for best roster in football or do you think they have some work to do?

I think the answer is a lot that they've done a lot to close that gap because last year, even though they won 14 games, they did do a lot of it last second. I think Sam Darnold was one of the top in the league when it came to, um, last second drives, fourth quarter comebacks, that sort of stuff. And then they played the AFC South, which was just free wins for everybody in the NFC North. And that made them look stronger than they were.

And then that was all exposed against the Rams when they got to the playoffs. They went into the offseason and just tried their darndest to fix every single thing. And when I think of roster strength just in general, I kind of think of it as roster weakness. Where are your biggest holes? Where do I think that you're in a lot of trouble? And you go through and you go, all right, so last year I would have said you need more in the backfield while they get a guy who averaged five yards to carry. I would have said you definitely need a lot more on the interior of the offensive line. I mean, I probably defended Garrett Bradbury the last couple of years more than anybody else, but I think we all realized that the his ability to pass protect against the best

players was not good enough to win in the playoffs. But I think we all realize that the his ability to pass protect against the best players Was not good enough to win in the playoffs And then the right and left guard to have the fixes a first round pick and the second most expensive guard Like those are very serious investments and we go over to the defensive side where for years we've been talking about well You know, they can't really get this interior pressure And now they signed two of the guys who have produced the most interior pressure over the last five years. There's still things that are not elite.

It's not elite at every position. That's hard to do when you have 32 NFL teams. But I think if you compare position by position, where are your biggest weaknesses? And we say, all right, well, maybe it's at the second safety spot or maybe it's at the third corner spot. That, that means you're in pretty good shape, I think. And I would say they're not on the same level as Philadelphia, that even though

that roster went through some stuff, they lost some players, it's not quite the same Josh Sweat left and Milton Williams left. You're still talking about an absolute beast of a roster. I think it took a tiny step back, but not much aside from that clearly blatantly better rosters Detroit would stand out to me there. That's kind of it though. Like I don't know of many other teams where you could say, all right, well, they're definitely better roster wise.

The lions by a nose. Philadelphia is the champs. They get to own that. I don't know. Where would you rank them? Yeah, I think the only other team that might be in that conversation is Baltimore. I feel like they've had a great team and then I think they also had a strong draft, but I don't know. I think the Vikings are definitely up there.

I think they had a great off season and upgraded their most important weaknesses in the offensive line and the interior on the D line. But it's just hard to put them comfortably in that conversation cuz there's still so many question marks. I know Jonathan Allen and Hargrave have produced in the past, but it's still unproven that they're gonna come in and be who they were before. And the Vikings need those guys to be elite and they can't just be washed versions of themselves

if they wanna be a truly like scary team. And also the cornerback room, I'm still a little worried about. I'll give them grace because I'm confident in the safeties behind them and the D coordinator that they have, but there's, they're going to be tested as so much receiver talent in this division.

So I think if it comes down to health and just, uh, yeah, pretty much health, honestly, and just them being the impact players that they used to be, I think they could definitely be in the top three, four teams and, and, and in terms of talent. No, I think that's completely right, because if we go position by position, there's always one question there where you could say, well, if this doesn't go right, then it's not going to be what we think it is.

Now, that's also true for all the other teams as well. I mean, if some of these players that are moving into bigger roles with Philadelphia on their D line and they just decided to pick up the fifth year option for Jordan Davis, which was surprising because he really didn't play that much. But now with Milton Williams gone, he might have to play more like everybody's got these like his Lane Johnson still going to hold up for next year. Every team has those. I think the Vikings have a little more of those.

It's on paper right now. I don't see a whole heck of a lot of weaknesses. But if Ryan Kelly plays 500 snaps, that's gonna be a big hit for you. Or if, as you mentioned, Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen don't produce at even 75% of their best and they're just kind of okay or one

of them gets hurt, then your interior pressure is not the same and this big thing that you invested in doesn't work the way that it's supposed to work. So I think that it has probably more of those than maybe some of the other elite teams like Detroit, for example, where I mean, look how many injuries they survived and still were right there at the end. And then, you know, they get beat by Washington, but probably not if they had anywhere near their full roster. So anything can happen to any team.

But it does feel like when we're talking about this guy coming off an injury, that guy coming off an injury, you know, they could talk about their training staff working miracles and being, you know, healers or whatever. And I think that there's a lot of truth to that, that their individual plans are really good for players. But you can't tell me that everybody like Marcus Davenport didn't stay healthy. It's not that every player is just going to magically stay healthy all the time because of these plans. And the one thing that they do have though is a little more depth than in years past. And that's where I would say, if you get, just for example, if Will Fries has to miss some time

or something, like they do have Blake Brandle behind, likely behind, or if you do have to have a tackle miss time, they brought in a veteran backup, like that's what you can do with Capspace they brought in an Eric Wilson if like Cashman were to get hurt So they do have more depth than they've ever had but you're right Probably there's almost each position one question mark of if Isaiah Rogers is not what they're talking about him being That's gonna have a major weakness there right now It looks like it's at least average, but it could quickly turn into

below average if that guy doesn't work out. Yeah. On paper, it seems very nice and very clean, but eight weeks through into the season, it might be a completely different story. So I guess we'll just have to see how it plays out. That is true. Yup. So for my next question, I have five quarterbacks and I want to rank them on how

productive we think they'll be next year. Not, not the best, but who's going to put up the most numbers. Who are you going to get their team in position to win the most? And the five quarterbacks I have is Bo Nicks, Cale Williams, JJ McCarthy, Cam Ward, and then Drake May. I went with some young guys. Okay. So you want me to rank them one through five for who I think will be the most productive. Okay.

I will go with the most productive of those quarterbacks being, this might be a hot take. I'll go Drake May, because I think they got a coach who has a clue and he is I mean we're talking about the number three pick really showed a lot for last year and this adds in his running ability to these tremendous runner they got him weapons I mean coaching is such a big deal for that team they were being

coached by an amateur it was basically JJ Reddick last year coaching that team by just side note real quick because I don't get to talk a lot of basketball coached by an amateur. It was basically JJ Reddick last year coaching that team. By the just side note real quick, because I don't get to talk a lot of basketball. One of the most embarrassing coaching jobs I've ever seen in the playoffs from JJ Reddick. Congratulations. NBA teams stop hiring former players who have never done this before. And NFL teams, that's kind of what they did with Gerard Mayo. He had been a position coach and then they bump him all the way up to head coach He had no idea what he's doing now. They have Mike Frabel

I think he's gonna have also a lot to do there and throw for a ton of yards So I'll go with him number one. It's hard not to put JJ McCarthy considering how much they're gonna throw who he's throwing to as number two Then I would imagine Caleb Williams is going to throw a ton as well, but they want to run the ball more and Ben Johnson does run the ball a lot. Still if we add in rushing yards, it's probably close. It just is how many negative yards does Caleb Williams get with sacks, which matters a lot

to me. And then I would go Bo Nix. Now Bo Nix was very productive last year, so Bo Nix probably deserves to be in this discussion a little bit more. But I don't think that they put enough work into his weapons that maybe I expected them to this off season. They didn't go out and get like a Debo Samuel

or somebody or a DK Metcalf. I don't recall if they drafted. Did they draft a wide receiver? I got Pat Bryant in the third round, but it's kind of just a guy. So I liked Pat Bryant, but kind of just the guy. So I think he's going to still end up kind of being checked down. Bo Nix a lot of times and won't quite produce as much. And then you're always going to pick the guy who plays for the worst team with the worst roster.

It's a bad line. It's bad receivers. It's bad run game. Cam Ward probably has to go last here. How would you rank them? Yeah, it's hard for me to make this list because I think I really feel like all these core graphs me besides Cam Ward are going to show improvement and be impressive, but I had a quite different list. You I bow next at number one. Okay. I just feel

I know he doesn't have a lot of talent around him. And there I guess their big draft moves on offense were RJ Harvey and Pat Bryant, which really don't excite me too much. But considering he only had he really only had Coraline Sutton last year and still put up 33 total touchdowns and 4,200 yards. It's hard for me to not see him just keep growing under Sean Payton's leadership, especially considering that they have

one of the best defenses in the league. So I think he's gonna get a lot of chances. And then second, I have JJ McCarthy simply just because I trust Kevin O'Connell so much. I think pretty much any quarterback could prosper in his system and it helps that McCarthy's not just any quarterback. I'm really impressed with his mindset. I think he's gonna go crazy in this offense.

He'll of course make the classic rookie mistakes, but I think due to the mental reps that he took last year, he'll make less of them than normal. I have Caleb Williams at three pretty much just because of the sacks. I'm still concerned that Braxton Jones and Jonah Jackson won't stay healthy and if you're taking a lot of sacks those are drive killers and you're not going to be able to move the ball a lot. So I have him three, Drake May at four just because I think the Bears have more talent around Drake May. So I think they'll just be able to move the ball more and get in the end so more and then Kim Ward gets the rookie treatment with because he's on the bad

team with all the more question marks. So yeah, the thing about Bo Nix is so last year he finished 12th in passing yards and because we're talking you said productive. He was sixth in touchdowns because they had no running backs that could run the ball in. And among quarterbacks who were starting, he was not not 17th in quarterback rating, but in the same sort of ballpark as a top 15 quarterback. And in rating, he was a good he was good.

I my thing is, if I'm going to project somebody to take a step forward, I need a reason. Like they just Corlyn Sutton's a good receiver. I think he's underrated. They got Evan Ingram and Trent Sherfield. And I like Trent Sherfield a lot. Great special teamer, but that was their big acquisition at wide receiver. Kind of on Sean Payton's part, like, is it a little bit, I don't know, pompous of

them to be like, Oh, well, we've got our wide receivers. I mean, Troy Franklin was a guy for them that they brought in, but I just have a tough time seeing another step. If there's not a player they brought in to drive that next step as far as the others, though, it's kind of a coin flip because with Caleb Williams, there are a lot of folks, I'm sure, in Viking land. Somebody, a friend of mine was texting with me about this the other day about, hey, good thing the Vikings didn't get Ryan Poles and then tank.

Let's not decide that quite yet because even though Chicago's been very messy, they are one light switch coming on for Caleb Williams from that team being the best team in the NFC North. He's got the talent to be able to do it. And one thing that I am absolutely certain of is that you can't judge a quarterback by his first year ever, no matter who it is. I didn't like a lot of the stuff that I saw. Some of it's pretty concerning. Looking like you're giving up is pretty concerning at the same time.

The game he played against the Vikings was eye popping. So there is there's there's time that's going to have to play out. But Williams could run away with this conversation. I think there's there's one guy who has the talent, the raw pure talent to run away with this conversation. He's the one. But with Drake May, I just think people aren't talking maybe enough. This is weird to say, because New England is so much at the center of everything for my entire life. And then just the spigot goes off the minute that Brady leaves.

I just don't think people are talking enough about how much better New England got. I think they have a chance to be an excellent team. And the fact that Drake May even survived last year and came out with some good games, they were as bad as any team for a top quarterback that has been around that quarterback in a long time. So yeah, but that's I want to revisit this question in the season all the time of reassessing all those quarterbacks who came into the league and where they're at. And I just I hope for Cam Ward sake that they just don't play him. They will, they're the Titans, they're dumb as heck. But if they play him, they're gonna lose

and he's gonna be bad and they're gonna fire their coach. And then guess what? Then they're doing the bear stuff where it's a coach who's inheriting a quarterback, it's not his guy, and then off you go again. And you can just see the writing on the wall, just play Will levice be Kind of bad, but maybe improved and only put in cam ward when he's ready to go

I would suggest that for them. So yeah, unfortunately that won't happen bring back the days where rookie quarterbacks did You know, it's funny because They never really have like that. Like it's kind of it's a little bit of a little bit of a mythology. Yeah. Sort of like, well, back in the day, we were more patient. I think what it was is that they didn't fire coaches as quickly when they had young quarterbacks and they gave everybody more time. So when Andy Reid was coaching Donovan McNabb, I think it was maybe

halfway through his first season he started playing and they were horrendous, but they didn't just fire him. Like they gave him time for these guys to get better as opposed to now where and Iber Fluss had it coming and they should have fired him the year before. But now a lot of times somebody had this. Maybe it was Jordan Renan who covers the Giants, who made the, when they were people were talking about how they have to draft quarterback. And he made this list of all these teams

that had drafted the top quarterback and the coaches were always fired within a year. Now, if it's Urban Meyer, of course you got to fire him. But a lot of times you just need some continuity with that guy and it's been, I think one of the Bears biggest mistakes. It's like, all right, we drafted a quarterback and you fire the guy and then it's not your quarterback. And he's like, well, it was my quarterback.

And then it's on to the next quarterback. And it's just this this cycle of firing and hiring and changing offenses and changing cultures and changing messages and everything else. And there just is no continuity there. So anyway, what do we got? What else next? So for number three, what are your predictions for offensive and defensive rookie of the year? About that time, we're post draft.

Travis Hunter and Travis Hunter. How about that? It's not really. Yeah, historically, it's usually been a quarterback, I think, right? For offensive rookie of the year, there's a lot of those. I always feel like they just pick whatever quarterback was not terrible. I also have never thought about this award like who won last year. Who was the rookie of the year last year? Do you remember?

Aiden Daniels won offensive. All right. And I think Jared Verz got defensive. Oh, OK. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. So I just Jared Verst got defensive rookie. Oh, OK. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. So I just never really think too much about this, but it would make sense that Travis Hunter would win one of them. You could see Abdul Carter also on the defensive side. I think that the favorite here, though, should probably be Ashton Gentry. He has the best chance to just come in and put up

1400 yards and 2000 all-purpose yards on a team that wins eight games in Vegas. And you know, just the fantasy stats, if you've got that kind of fantasy stats, you're going to get a ton of attention. And I think Travis Hunter will be split enough to not win that. And then when you look at the rest of the offensive players, the bears drafted a stinkin tight end. Who's not going to do anything more than any other tight end. And the next player is a Bucca offensive player who could put up good enough

numbers on the offensive side. Tyler Warren also could, but no one can throw him the ball there. And a Bucca is going to be wide receiver three. Matthew Golden has a chance at it. If he steps in right away. And then aside from that, like Luther Burden, there's just not a lot of guys in the offensive side who can even challenge Ashton Gentile if he stays healthy. Yeah, I also want Ashton Gentile.

I don't know if it'll lead to wins, but they're just going to pound him the rock and he's going to be the main point of that offense. And like you said, I could easily see him go for 1,412 plus touchdowns. So I think and running backs, they just transition into the NFL so seamlessly, more so than other positions. So I think the transition for him will be a lot easier. And then for defense, I'm sticking with Abdul Carter. I said on the last show that I think he's gonna get that 10 sack mark and

I'm sticking with that, just because all the players that he's playing with. And I think in the last six years, five edge players won the award. So I can see him continuing that tradition. I was tempted to say Travis Hunter. I just don't know how many snaps he's going to play on both sides of the ball, but if he's primarily defense, but yeah, I can see him going crazy and maybe stealing this award. I also forgot to mention Ted McMillan, uh, which he would probably be my second pick. I looked right over that one. Uh, probably on the offensive side, if it's not Hunter, then McMillan, because look at that team.

They have, nobody is really wide receiver one. He could be wide receiver one right away and rack up 75 catches. And then he's the guy. Quinchon Judkins is a good one, although they've got a split between all the running backs that they drafted for some reason. Uh, Trevion Henderson is another potential pick in the second round. If they throw the ball to him a lot, he could be that or, uh, who knows if somebody like, uh, Tyler Shuck is good right away then he could

always I mean that's the thing if you're a quarterback you're even decent you're winning the award so everybody else has to reach a higher level to get a chance to win that award I know who's not it's gonna be Donovan Jackson will not all these offensive linemen in the first round sorry guys yeah we're not there yet award winnings over for you guys. Probably not. Probably not going to happen. Yeah, I've seen they some offensive linemen are trying to push for like an offensive lineman of the year award.

And that would be cool. I think there's some recognition. Why not have it like, I don't know. I don't think it brings any harm to the game. Well, they're never going to win the offensive player of the year, and yet sometimes it's been deserved. Trent Williams best years. He probably was the best offensive player in football,

but he's also not putting up 1500 yards like Justin Jefferson. So how do we even really evaluate that? I like it. I think it should be. Maybe it should be the Trent Williams award when it's said and done. And then they make this sort of thing, get a little trophy for it. I like that idea. Yeah. Yeah. Show the big men some love. Well, for my next question, it's a little bit of a curveball.

OK. Yeah. I want to talk about Bill Belichick because he had his interview recently and it's going viral because of the obvious tension and the constant presence of his girlfriend, Jordan Hudson, throughout the interview. What's your reaction to this? It's a very unique situation and I it's hard to really know what's going on. Just in general, it's always been a rule where guys, personal lives, coaches, players, unless they're getting arrested for it, I don't I don't want anything to do with it It makes me very uncomfortable to try to figure out

What someone's relationship is like with somebody else and what's going on there? Based on a little bit of information that we know and that kind of thing. I never Delved into like Mike Zimmer dating an influencer or whatever or anything like that. Like whoever somebody is with dating has nothing to do with what happens on Sundays or in this case now Saturdays. But actually in this case it does because it seems that and I know we're all reaching on this because it's such a salacious look of a 24 year old with the super old football coach It's not just a football coach. It's the most famous

winningest coach that we've a lot of us have ever seen and That changes the dynamic entirely we can all also infer exactly what's going on here and We can all also infer exactly what's going on here. And then the reporting on it makes it look even worse, which is, you know, now she's taken over as his publicist and his assistant and all these other things. No shock that Belichick that hired half of his family for the Patriots would also bring that same sort of attitude. And also, even if you look at like his coaching staff, it's a bunch of his old friends and his kids and stuff on his coaching staff at UNC. Like he's always done things that way.

So we shouldn't be terribly shocked that he's got his young lady by his side. There is something jarring though, to think about how I am like 40 years younger than Bill Belichick and my wife is ten years older than his girlfriend that doesn't really that doesn't really compute to me. What's the really crazy thing about this is that this story is so captivating to everybody everybody wants the details of this woman who maybe just robbing this old man blind and. who may be just robbing this old man blind and just infiltrating his life and doing everything that she can

to get as much of his money as possible. That's how it looks clearly to everybody. It is so fascinating to the nation that no one cares that he's written a book. No one wants to read it. No one's all that interested. There was an additional headline that he didn't include Robert Kraft in this book,

which to me is bananas. I mean, owners means so much to winning and it's like the art of winning football. And the owner, Robert Kraft, when Robert Kraft showed up in New England, they were gonna move. They were so atrocious as a franchise. I can't even tell.

They were the biggest joke of my life when Robert Kraft got there. And then he makes them into a franchise that goes to a Super Bowl a few years later in 1996 and then hires Belichick. Brings it, you know, they get Tom Brady and obviously that's the reason they're all super famous. But the organization was already up and running successfully. Pete Carroll had been their coach and then Belichick. He's like the main reason for all of this and doesn't get a mention in your book. Like that is unbelievable pettiness. And that's why another little shade of this is, you know,

if Belichick's getting cheated, well, that's a shame. All right. I mean, I don't know. The guy cheated to win football games. He's been. That kind of guy for a long time. And, you know, if somebody's taken advantage of that, I guess it is what it is. But I don't want to go too far down that road, because then I'll start making jokes and then it'll seem meaner than I mean it to be. It's just kind of like crazy that this story has captivated people who don't care at all about football and this book just means nothing. Everybody wants him to write a book on his relationship with this girl.

That's what, that's what they really want. And it's also crazy too, that he could be as old as he is and calling her a girl is actually like, this totally makes sense. Like she's literally that young, where I, I would, I would be like, Oh yeah, this young girl like that's an, and I am 40 years younger than him. It's crazy. I, I'm similar to you. I never want to like look too deep into someone's relationship because it doesn't really evolve me. And I also just don't really care.

But this one's just so out there because bill bellicott's always been like just straight up business. Like he's never smiling. And he's always talking about football. He's just so just locked in all the time. And this is just so out of that realm and it's just like what is going on? and it's just it's really just scary especially just when When when the reporter asks, oh, how did you guys meet and she shuts that question down? He can't even answer the the typical. How did you guys meet questions? So it's just a really weird situation

I think Bill still focused on winning football games. He still seemed pretty locked in on North Carolina. And he kind of seemed like he was just going to drag through the mud to do this stuff. But I don't know. It'll be interesting to see if or how it affects his North Carolina team and how that all works. It just makes me think this thing's going to crash and burn. And here's the where you start to get into.

Maybe I'm inferring too much from a situation like this, and maybe it's unfair to just from the small amount of information to guess where Bill is at. But at the end of his tenure in New England, kind of looked lost at the wheel. It just didn't look like he was as sharp as he once was, which is why there's a retirement age that's about 12 years younger than he is right now. It is generally the retirement age and everybody ever into their 70s is not going to be as locked in as they were in their fifties. I just wonder about if he can really do this with North Carolina and he's got

this book tour and he's got this massive distraction and you're trying to coach a football team with all of this. I just don't see and he's never coached college before. I mean, maybe he did early, early, early in his career, but in, you know, many, many, many, many years, many decades in a landscape that has wildly changed with college football, with NILs and recruiting and everything else. It's, it's a circus out there and he's letting a 24 year old girl run his life. It's just, yeah, I mean, I get it. I get why this is as crazy as it is.

I don't think it's going to work at North Carolina. I think that thing is about to crash and burn in like a, in a pro. Excuse me. Probably. Sorry. That was a drinking too much of the diet coke. Uh, probably about a year. It probably lasts.

He's just in love. Let him be. He may be very much in love. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know how it was kind of when you were my age, but it seems like every all the goats and all the idols just seem to go crashing down and they never go out on top. It's just like we got to know our limits.

We got to wait. When can we cut it off? We need somebody to be like, are you done enough? Like you're already considered one of the best of all time. Like what left really is there? And sometimes it's just the love of the game. Bill's been doing it for so long. It might just be like all he knows at this point. And he's just holding on to that.

So I don't know. I just I thought that the other thing that's really unfortunate is for a year there, Belichick was doing what we're doing. He was making content and it was really good. He was good on TV. He had great stories. He had interesting thoughts on what teams were doing. He would make fun of the Jets at any point that he could do it.

And he was a really good television personality. I don't know why it really is that call of I got to be coaching because he fit in really well. This is where somebody like Bill Cower did. He was one that kind of left on top as a young person and just did TV and he's had a really successful career there. You're right that there are some people that they're just going to ride it all the way to the very end. Let him do what he wanted.

Hey, I'm not saying that he can't do this. I think what we're all looking at here is the same thing. How much is this person taking control of him and his life? Cause when you have somebody who's done a thousand press conferences and interviews, and then he's being told by his girlfriend that he can't answer questions, it's bizarre. They, there's no way not to look at that and go, what is going on? Is she running North Carolina football all of a sudden?

that and go, what is going on? Is she running North Carolina football all of a sudden? Is this random young person that he met on a flight running their football program? Cause it kind of seems like she's taking control of his life. That's where a lot of the intrigue comes from. We know that she's getting his money. Like, duh, that's obviously going to happen.

That's not my business. That's his money and his finances to deal with. But even his son's wife jumping in like this, this has become a whole real housewives of North Carolina thing going on here that is too dramatic for me to be comfortable, but also too hard to look away from. And, you know, the wife and I have been talking about it. It is such a huge story that my father-in-law who is not like a big football guy,

my wife called home the other day and that's the thing they're talking about. Like this is this crazy situation. It's like everybody wants to know what the heck is going on here. So I kind of want it to end as soon as possible, but I can't look away from 90% of my social media timeline being about Bill Belichick's crazy girlfriend, who is also suddenly built up an incredible real estate profile. Apparently that I read it. I'm like, oh my gosh, too many details. Classic one too many.

Yeah, too many details instead of the Kardashians, the Belichick's. I mean, absolutely. That's what I'm saying. They people your age. Anyway, we need to move off this before I make more jokes than. Yeah. All right. Offensive. I have one one more question. So we'll get back to real football stuff.

So so far, I think Kwasi Adolfo Mensah has really earned the trust of Vikings fans to where if he makes a move, it should you should put that trust in him that he knows what he's doing and kind of just have that faith that that he made the right move. But if JJ McCarthy struggles this year, will fans be right to question that decision to not bring back Sam Darnold who led them to 14 wins or is it unfair to judge Quacey just because McCarthy will be a rookie quarterback.

Yeah, I think so. What you mean is right now, if we were to do an approval rating for quasi da Fomenta and we're talking about rational fans, not the people who are just, you know, crazy, gay, draft and just ignore everything else, that kind of thing, because they never liked him or wanted him in the first place. Throw out those those types of opinions and look at the bigger picture of where they're at. Coach, general manager, overall leadership, decision making, defensive coordinator, ownership, all that stuff. The approval ratings got to be the highest ever been since I've covered the team outside of 2017 has to be.

got to be the highest it's ever been since I've covered the team outside of 2017. Has to be. And I think with that, it's always going to rest on what the results are. So if all of this comes to fruition, all of it works, then the approval rating will stay through the roof. And this group will be lauded and we're all assuming that quasi is going to be here over multiple years. We'll see on that. Um, but if it doesn't work, I don't think that people will question the move at quarterback if it doesn't work. Even if Sam Darnold is good for Seattle,

I don't think that that will be the main question. Even if JJ McCarthy goes eight, nine or seven and 10 and has a tough season, it will probably come back to drafting as always is going to be a big discussion. It will probably come back to the things we were talking about earlier, which is a lot of the bets that they made in the off season. They made a bet on an older running back. They made a bet on injured offensive running back. They made a bet on injured offensive

and defensive lineman and free agency. They made a bet on Theo Jackson by allowing Cam Bynum to go and not paying him. They're making a bet on Isaiah Rogers. So if they don't win a ton of games, those are some of the things that we'll start to question probably. And we'll also say that it's, it's not over. Like if JJ McCarthy doesn't have an all pro first year, well his career does not come to an end. I just think because it made so much sense to move on from Sam Darnold that he was going to be so expensive. He was not going to resign here for a regular contract,

even if they wanted him to do that, even if they had said how about a two year deal for 60 million guaranteed? He wasn't going to do it. He wanted to go be a quarterback for his own team. It was either franchise tag him or let him go. Those options are not very good. Franchise tagging him would have made it really hard to sign all of this talent. And you drafted the guy 10th overall because you believe in him. It was the right logical move to make.

And I think that we'll all ride that rather than questioning them. Just if McCarthy doesn't play well, if the other things around McCarthy are problematic, if the offensive line is not what we thought it was because Will fries doesn't play anywhere near as well as he should, or if Ryan Kelly gets hurt or if the DTs don't do much or whatever it might be then we'll start to say some of those moves you made were really risky and your bets just did not hit but aside from that I mean it's it's tough to see a scenario where we're saying wow they should have stuck with Sam Darnold unless Darnold's in the super bowl with the Seattle Seahawks.

Then we'll be saying, yeah, okay. Probably they should have stuck with Sam Darnold. Yeah. Like his Sam Darnold goes off image, a crazy playoff run and the Vikings win eight games is going to be hard to not look at, uh, quasi like, yo, what, what the heck just happened. Um, but it's hard. It's like, I can't see that happening,

especially due to such like the foundation that Quacey has built. And I think it's fair to kind of have that assessment where you have those questions about Quacey if JJ doesn't come in and perform, because you just won 14 games. You have this good team, and you want to capitalize it. And no matter how unfair it is,

this league is oftentimes like, you are as good as your last move or your last season. It's a lot of like, what have you done for me lately? So if they end the year mid and that's stuck in their minds and fans will probably even have more eyes on him in the draft and like criticize every little move that he makes even more. But I think as a Vikings fan, I think you just have to have the trust, not only in McCarthy and his unique mentality, but Kevin O'Connell have trusted Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, the revamped old line. There's so much around

this that even if he doesn't come out and nail it right away, there's there's no there shouldn't be a panic that they can't do it the next year or even the year after that. I think so too and you have three years of his rookie contract and then when they sign him to an extension he's still going to be cheap for at least one other year. This isn't a one-year thing the only issue is that the roster really looks like it's set for the next two years and then there's huge question marks after that. So these next two years that it really is an evaluation of the next two seasons with them. If they don't make the playoffs and Seattle does and Seattle gets

knocked out in the first round, I don't think we're going to be going, Oh my gosh, it should have been Sam. Even if Sam Darnold is phenomenal, which I hope he is, I really enjoyed covering him and I think that he handled the situation in such a class manner, knowing that he probably wasn't going to come back such a professional type of manner that you want to see people who act that way with humility and great leadership. You want to see those people succeed. So hopefully he does. But when it comes to that decision, it's not made in a vacuum. It's not just this, well, this guy versus this guy performance wise, it's this guy at 41 million versus

this guy at 5 million. And I think they could have made a lot of the improvements in the short term, but they would have had a long term really hurt themselves. They could have gotten Will Fries. They could have gotten Jordan Mason. Could they have gotten everything? No. And would they have had to really sacrifice a lot in terms of those salary cap levers to pull and restructures and extensions and all those things? Yeah, they would have had to do a lot. And that gets us into Kirk Cousins territory where as great as Sam Darnold was last year, there probably is a cap on what he can do.

I think he's tremendously gifted, which makes him different than Kirk Cousins like physically. That's why he was a top pick, but there's probably some hurdles there of doesn't have the best vision, tries to run backwards away and get sacked all the time, hangs in the pocket too long, his decision making is a little bit slower at times, and then has those kind of freak out games that you can't explain that also Kirk Cousins had. So those weaknesses, you really would have needed this roster with Sam Darnold last year to compete for a Super Bowl, this offensive line, this running game, this defense. But you just can't have both at the same time.

And that's what makes it so darn interesting is that every team has this conundrum, and it's not baseball where the Pittsburgh Pirates and Colorado Rockies can just win no games and spend no money and not care. But the salary cap is what makes it so fascinating because in a non salary cap universe, Sam Darnold is just back and they're doing all this other stuff anyway, but it doesn't work that way. So that the entire evaluation of the decision, I don't think anyone gets to the end of this year and says,

oh, should have brought back Darnold. I don't think that's really gonna be the case. And I also don't think that Quacey is the one who's evaluated on that. I think it's the entire organization on their just overall approach. I think it was everybody. It's not just him. It's the coaches on the decision even to go get older players.

Like that's on them as well. Yeah. I think it's also important to remember that playing quarterback is hard. And we, even if a McCarthy comes in and has a great first year, we look at a guy like CJ Stroud, he also came in had a great first year, and then showed some regression in his second year, we're really not going to be able to fully have a true take on him until the end of next season. And look at Caleb Williams, like he struggled this year, but there's so many just stuff going around him that next year will

really be the year to decide on how we feel about him. So I think it's even if he does bad or good, I think there's still question marks in the future and it's really going to be at least two years until you can really get a good grasp of who he is as a player. So this is a hard thing for me because, you know, Miles says if JJ shows signs of being a franchise guy, fans could be patient. And here's where I go back forth on that. You just spent all that money in free agency.

You signed all those guys to extensions and contracts. You have put down a lot of dollars and you won 14 last year. I am not in the mode of saying, oh, well, if it just looks okay, it's fine. I'm not there with you. I am. You got to win the North. You got to win playoff games. You got to compete for a Superbowl. And I don't care if JJ McCarthy hasn't played before. That's the expectation. That's where you're supposed to be in the year 2025. You're there. You've earned it. We just talked about how good the roster is, but I, I'm not on that patient side. I'm on the like, these are the years you got to legitimately compete for Super Bowls because that's the money you've spent, the investments

you've made, the roster that you've built and the decision at quarterback. If you are not confident that he can compete for a Super Bowl with this roster Then you have to bring back Sam Darnold, but they didn't so Them making that move to me is not a well Let's give them like, you know two three years to develop well out of the frying pan and into the fire my friend It's time to go compete now lucky for him I think that's a coping mechanism from fans Honestly because they have bought into things so much so many times of like this year's our year and then gotten punched right in The stomach but I think that's that's where you're at as a franchise timeline

The time for it's okay if it's not perfect was these last two years now. You've got everything you want It's all there go win That doesn't mean if they lose in the divisional round, I'm going to say fire everybody. I'm just saying that's where we're setting the bar is it's got to be seriously contending for a Superbowl going into the playoffs in the playoffs or it's a failure. And also you cannot, you cannot hire a coach and a general manager in 2022 and get to 2026 with zero playoff wins and us be like, good job. Yeah. This year's got a lot of pressure, I think for everybody.

You worked so hard for these expectations and you can't just brush them off like they're nothing. And whether they like it or not, they have about a two year Superbowl window right now. And it depends on how the team shapes out in those next few years, but that window might not reopen in JJ McCarthy's career. We just never know. So it's important to capitalize

when you have a roster like this. And we see that all the time. We saw it from Carson Wentz. We saw it from Brock Purdy, where they had two years where they had a serious chance. And then now the 49ers have to rebuild. So they drafted multiple defensive tackles. No, no nose tackles.

Not, I mean, DTs are great, but nose tackles to stuff the run. I just, I have, I have been fixated on how silly that draft was. I just, like, I don't understand it at all. Anyway, well, great stuff, clay. I only regret the Belichick parts of our conversation here. Everything else was great. And I appreciate that you've got a couple of weeks left here hanging out. Well, you are attempting to graduate, so I should let you go so you can make

sure that you don't screw that up. They've, they do not hear that excuse at, uh, the university of Pennsylvania that, Hey, I had, I had late night podcasting. I couldn't get my work done. I don't think that they buy that too much there. So I'll let you get back to your work and thank you for your time, sir. Yep. Thank you.

All right. Okay. Well, this is a great chat, everybody. Another great conversation in the off season. The train will continue to roll along. Also, there is another intern coming in the bullpen later on in the summer, who is gonna be twice as good as Clay.

No, I'm just kidding. I'm just joking. If Clay's mom is watching, I didn't mean that. But no, we're gonna continue to do the live shows, live chats. It's my favorite part of the job job sitting here and talking football with you guys all the time. So Mondays and Thursdays at least emergency podcasts, sometimes other

randomly when I feel like it and we'll go from there. So thanks everybody again for watching slash listening and we'll catch y'all later. Football.