Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - JJ McCarthy practices, what can he gain from playing???? (Part 2)

Episode Date: January 1, 2026

Matthew Coller talks about McCarthy returning to practice and the chance he can play against the Packers. They won't play starters so what can JJ gain from playing? The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Purple Insider is presented by Fanduel. So I want to talk about something else a little curious to me. Let me give you that Fandual question of the day again. The Fandul question of the day was, excuse me, that the Ravens are three and a half point favorites against Pittsburgh on Sunday. Loser of the game may have serious consequences. Do you think that Flores is a candidate for the Ravens or Steelers, should someone lose their gig for losing that job?

I tend to think the answer would be yes, that he would be for the Steelers. For the Ravens, I'm not as convinced, but if the Ravens lose and Lamar plays, it seems like a real possibility that they could move on from Lamar Jackson. I just don't think that that makes any sense at all, but the tension there is really interesting and pretty bizarre. Now, let me get to something that I saw today.

It was kind of buried in a pro football. talk article about how many open head coaching positions there would be and making the case for different ones. But there was something shoehorned in there. I don't think any of us believe that Kevin O'Connell should be fired or there should be a hot seat discussion for him. It's really, there's a lot of pressure for next year. I think we all agree on that.

When you take your big swing and you miss like this, even if you finish with a nine and eight record, we know that you were once four and eight. we know how the season actually went. You started winning after the pressure was completely off and you played the worst teams and like whatever, right? I mean, all the criticisms that we've made throughout the year, they still stand. Plus, the other guy that you should have had as your quarterback is playing for the number one seed again this year. All of that. Like, that doesn't go away if you get to nine and eight, okay?

But I've never thought that firing the head coach was the solution here or a good idea. I think when you reach a certain level of head coaching, I had this discussion. Well, actually, you'll hear it later with Grant Bills. We recorded a little earlier today about Matt LaFleur. Green Bay Packers want him fired fans, a lot of them. And I think you get to a certain level with a coach, even if he's got flaws, where you know you can win year in and year out.

And even in your bad years, you're 7 and 10, you're 9 and 8. The wheels are never fully coming off. And in your good years, you're at 13 and 14. Like, that's not somebody you want to get rid of as the head coach. So I've never thought that. And I was a little surprised to see the Vikings even mentioned in this PFT article, but I'm going to read you the paragraph. And you guys can tell me what you think about it.

And I'll get back to answering your questions. I'll give you a little take on it. PFT wrote here, Coach Kevin O'Connell is the right leader for the team. How much leading are they letting him do? Someone bungled the quarterback decisions for 2025. we've got a feeling that someone wasn't O'Connell. If the sense is right,

O'Connell needs to have more sway in 2026. Well, that doesn't necessarily require GM Kwasia Daffel-Menza to be replaced. Then again, his draft record is not flawless. It does require O'Connell to have a larger voice in personnel matters. That is on pro football talk. And every sentence is more perplexing than the last. I mean, the idea that Kevin O'Connell

was not involved in the quarterback situation is absolutely ludicrous. This is a guy who led an entire Viking party from city to city to meet with each quarterback, including J.J. McCarthy. This is a guy who stood in front of me, six feet away from me in Cleveland and declared J.J. McCarthy, the franchise quarterback. This is the guy who had the phone call with Aaron Rogers. And I'm supposed to think that he wasn't the one calling the shot. I mean, that is as bizarre of a comment as you could possibly make.

I mean, you might as well be telling me that, you know, the sky is red in the middle of the day. I just a little bit bizarre there. But if you are a between the lines reader rather than reading it directly, I think you can start to figure out who this year might be pinned on. I think you could start to figure that out. and maybe whose side is posturing for such a pinning, you might be able to figure that out, depending if you're into like House of Cards or something like that, or succession,

then you might be interested in the Minnesota Vikings off season. That's how I read that. Now, I think personally that everyone is responsible for what happened this year, and everyone should be put together to fix it. And that certain people who are, I guess, I mean, I don't know, like PFT claiming don't have power in this is just downright strange to me. But I think that it should go exactly the way that it's gone and they should fix it together. You brought them in to get to this point with this roster and from players 2 to 53, you're pretty darn good.

And that draft record is starting to look a little better, by the way, when Donovan Jackson is good. Dallas Turner has been very good this year. He's not Jared Verse, but he's been very good. 40 pressures is a good number for the snaps that he's taken and certainly progress and he's going to be the old age of 23, which, you know, past rushers really peak around 26, 27, as we've seen from Jonathan Grenard. They made personnel moves that, some that worked and some that didn't. I think Jordan Mason was a good move.

I think that Eric Wilson was a great move. Moving on from Harrison Phillips maybe hurt them early in the season, but it opened the door for Jalen Redmond, which is a good move. and overall they have a defense that can be elite despite the fact that they got no help from the offensive side when the offensive line was healthy it was really really good it's it all comes down to that quarterback position but the idea that the guy who was the quarterback whisper who won coach of the year based on finding sam darnold and guiding him that he had nothing to do with the quarterback decision is just i mean beyond all comprehension but i think if the vikings are

going to have a fall guy. I think it's going to be the general manager. And if they do that, my idea would not to be to give the head coach more power in terms of the roster. My idea, in fact, I mean, even when you look at some of these draft picks, every time I bring up Jordan Addison as a successful draft pick, all of you tell me that O'Connell did it. So, and Donovan Jackson was called by Quasi keeping it on the fairway. I haven't, in fact, I haven't seen the analytic type angle and moves and efficiency and stuff like that really at all since he's been here. It's been much more like coaches are calling the shots just from the outside on paper than it is one guy taking a hold of the reins and doing whatever he wants. So none of this

really clicks for me other than if he's the fall guy, then he's the fall guy. Like oftentimes that's how it works in the NFL. But to me, if you're getting a general manager, a different one, what I'd like to see is someone with a lot of experience who can tell the coaches no or who can tell the owners no. If certain people want to go out and trade for Adam Thielen, then someone needs to tell them, no, that's not a good idea. Or someone needs to have the credibility to get a good deal from the Carolina Panthers instead of getting robbed. Or somebody needs to tell certain people that, you know, defensive tackle who was good two years ago might not still be good. So I don't know. We'll see how that ends up playing out.

But maybe our first hint that 9 and 8 doesn't get everybody out of the woods when you botched the quarterback decision like they did. It's, this is the reason you listen to the show, folks. It's it is the best. This is why I can't really watch those Netflix shows. Congratulations to Netflix on their Christmas ratings, by the way. because the NFL is the best show there is. It is, the drama is going to continue into the offseason.

But you know, if anything also that I would take away from that is my inkling that they are not just locked into J.J. McCarthy is their guy and they're going to keep developing for next year. I mean, that's a read of that, too, of what PFT said. I mean, if we're already trying to pin what happened on somebody else, that doesn't mean you feel great about it and you just had bad luck this year. So, or it could just be that, you know, his, he has chosen his side and he's going to go forward from it. I'm not sure. It's a very, very odd, a couple of sentences, though. Let's see.

Derek says, I don't care about jets a thousand yards. Don't care to see McCarthy with a broken hand, treat it like a fourth preseason game. Well, it does matter that Jefferson gets a thousand yards because it's important to him. and he is important to the future of your franchise. Because presumably someone else who plays quarterback for this team will correctly throw the ball in his direction. He'll catch it. And when that happens, it's going to be a big deal.

So he's in a position already right now to be walking into people's offices and say, find me a freaking quarterback, guys, or I'm not signing that next extension with you. And I'm going to want my way out. Now, some of you'll be like, good, go then. But that's stupid. Like, we don't need to be stupid. it's a really good idea to have Justin Jefferson be your Larry Fitzgerald

and work his way through the ups and downs, but he should be looped into what the answer is going to be a quarterback or what J.J. McCarthy is going to be able to do to get him the football and ending on a strong note of getting over a thousand yards, having a big game. Little things go a long way, right? My parents would say that, and I agree with it. So it does matter. Rob, it's J.J.'s first season as a starter, so the comparison with other first starters is

first season starters is just as valid. No, it's not. It's absolutely not. It's not. The people who want to call him a rookie, oh, well, it's his rookie year. It's just not. It's physically, truthfully, factually not. He had an entire, it's so different. Last year, he had an entire training camp. He had an entire year behind the scenes to understand. understand how the offense worked, how the NFL works, and we were told over and over that he was doing virtual reality and that what he showed, Mark Wilf told us that what he showed behind the scenes with his work ethic and everything else was so important to them that that's one of the main reasons that they went with him and not Sam Darnold.

So, and actually I should maybe leave it up. Now, he mentioned, PFT mentioned the GM, so I should leave it. open to him referring to the owners. I'm not sure. But anyway, uh, it's not, it's not, it's not as for, it's not his, it's not his rookie season. It was his second season. He had the, the entire OTAs, training camp, all that stuff in his first year. So he was ahead of any other rookie that's coming in off of college football by eons. He should be. Now, when he got out there, it didn't look like he was. And that's, it may be part of inexperience. But how many excuses do you want to give over another full season

where you've had a full year and the way he played against the New York Giants still looked like a rookie quarterback to me. It still looked like at times you're missing reeds, you're trying to do too much, you're taking sacks, and things like that.

I mean, at some point, you get to a level, a moment where you have to say, it's got to be really darn good, or you got to do something else. And they have to figure that out, how much they believe in the idea that it could be really darn good.

And if they do, they're staking their careers on it or, you know, Kevin O'Connell is. And it's just hard to believe that he's going to stake his entire quarterback guy thing on just J.J. McCarthy next year. So I foresee an Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones type of situation. That doesn't mean the veteran has to win it. But McCarthy's going to have to earn his job next year. This idea that we just can wait forever, not this team. There are teams that can wait forever. and there are teams that can have 50 million excuses and a hundred missed games and

you know whatever the lowest every other number and everything and there's there's quarterbacks like that cam ward is like that you know cam ward can have those numbers but i sure as heck don't think that uh j j mccarthy can in this situation in fact i can share some of those numbers with you that i did in my research let me pull those up so i wrote a piece that the Vikings quarterback play was unacceptable this year and I think that's the proper way to put it. And here's

the numbers for McCarthy. Because we're all in agreement that whatever happens against Green Bay is not a real football game. So if after 17 weeks, these are the final numbers, he was 35th out of 35 in passer rating for guys with at least 200 attempts.

That is last. 34th out of 44 an adjusted completion percentage for drops. 29th out of 32 in points added by ESPN, 31st out of 32 in QBR by ESPN, fourth worst in terms of pressure to sack ratio, third worst in terms of sack percentage, and worst in interception percentage, and here's a little chart of adjusted net yards per attempt and success percentage, and there is McCarthy, and there are the MVPs. So, you know, and I've heard that a lot from folks who say, well, you can't compare

him to other quarterbacks, sure you can. I mean, you can't, no, you can't in his first night in the NFL, his first week or his second week, start comparing him to Matthew Stafford. But by the end of the first year of his career, we should look at the numbers and be able to see it. And with the ones that I just read you, hard for me to see it. And as I've said, it's always going to be the facts is what I'm going to rest on. And there's a lot of, well, this could happen and that could happen. And certainly I leave the door open for that. And I've said that many times that I think that J.J. McCarthy will someday be a very good quarterback. But next year, there's too much pressure on this organization to just say, oh, I believe

in those numbers when we're talking about, you know, the expected points added being at the very bottom of the league and, you know, things like that. So, you know, I just, I think we can delude ourselves as much as we want. But the reality is the team cannot go into this off season and say, oh, I feel totally fine about the stats that were put up here. Samuel says, Malik Wos plays, make him look bad, then go get him. Oh, that's funny. That's funny. Let's see.

Marauder says it's gotten negative because Matt decided he is a bust and Matt's stats are both, let's see, accurate, anyone can make stats say what they want. How many did I just read you? I make stats I don't have to try I don't have to try to make stats look at these I don't have to try to make these stats look like they're at the bottom of the league these are they they just are every single one of them I mean oh yeah Matt's just taking stats and molding them like touchdowns interceptions sacks I know look at me like just twisting the stats man you know how freaking fun it would have been if the this season was was great and he played really well and everything else I mean. mean, it would have been awesome. You think it's better for me that those are the numbers? They're not. And I have never used the B word. I have never said he's a bust. You are saying that, not me. And I have said repeatedly that I think given time, he could be a good quarterback. But I have no idea how you could look at all those numbers. And that's why I included so many of them. So you can't

say, oh, well, you're just stat spinning with your EPA and your successy rate. These are all of them. and when I compare him to all those other quarterbacks, I mean, the number, they are what they are. I can't change the facts. Like, you're accusing me of that, but it's the fact of the matter that I can't change those numbers to try to fit your hope. I, I'd like to because you seem upset, but I can. They are what they are. And that's how I operate. When somebody is good, then I will say it.

And I will point out the numbers that say it. But I've never said he's a bust. I've never said this could never work out. It's that he has to prove it next year in training camp. And also, if they went and got somebody else to be their starting quarterback, I'd be okay with it. I'm not going to criticize them for it. If they decide this isn't good enough, we're going to get Kyler Murray, I'm not going to say, how dare you? I'm going to say, I get it because those are the numbers.

And again, this was the plan that I had. forever. So it not working at this moment is not particularly great for me. Now, I did think that they should bring back Darnold on the franchise tag last off season to give JJ more time, you know, to prove himself. But, I mean, even then I thought, well, if they believe in McCarthy, they should go forward with it. That's what I said over and over. If they believe in him, they should go forward with their plan. The rookie quarterback contract thing, how many times did I talk about it? this is what's happening right now and the idea of them going and getting

Kyler Murray or Gino Smith is making me wrong actually it's making my plan not work out so if criticize me for the right thing as opposed to putting words in my mouth he needs to have he he needs to prove it next year and have competition in training camp at the very least at the very bottom barrel he needs to be taken on somebody like Daniel Jones or somebody like Gino Smith or somebody like Kirk Cousins and trying to beat them out. And if he can't

beat them out, then you know. That needs to happen next year. There's no way you can look at what's happened this year and the injuries and say this is fine. You just can't. It's not, it isn't, the thing is that's funny is it's not negativity, it's reality. Which I noticed that those

two get conflated way too often in sports. analysis why are you hating on a guy i just i'm just living in the real world my friends so if they decide to stick with him and have sam howl is their backup for next year in camp then well that means they really believe in what they saw and they're on your side so i guess we'll find out but if they don't and they get someone better than that then it means that i have nailed it with my negativity. So I guess we'll see.

And negativity is in big old finger quotes. Let's see. Mike Purple Husker says, Matt, if J.J. McCarthy stays healthy all next season but shows little improvement and the Vikings have a losing record. Do you think there's a reality where he gets benched? Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, for sure.

I mean, that's exactly what happened in the situation I was talking about with E.J. Manuel is his first year was very, much like McCarthy's, where it was stops and starts, injuries, some good play, some struggles with accuracy, some, you know, he was a little bit less on the confident side, I think of McCarthy, but I would even say that McCarthy's confidence has waned throughout the year. He won't say that, but, you know, just watching him, I think that there were times where he looked like he was really trying to, you know, kind of guide the ball as opposed to playing loose and free, seemed to help when he got to play the commanders to play a little more free. But I think it did help that the pressure was off. They were out of the playoffs. The coach told

them, just go play. Like, I think that that helped. But then the second year with Manuel, I remember it really well. They were playing against the Houston Texans. They were leading a drive. And he threw it right to JJ Watt. And he ran like 90 yards for a touchdown. They benched him. And he, I don't believe you ever played. No, he did play one more game for the bills. He came in in relief of somebody in a game against the Jaguars. But that was it for him. And then he lost the competition the next year. That's my point about when you play like this, competition arrives the next season.

Across the board, unless you were a tanking team before, unless you're a full rebuilding team or the guy was top three. If you were a team that drafted a guy while expecting to win, Trey Lance is a good example, got hurt his first year, and then what? Was it year two? Did he make it to year three? Was it year two where competition arrived where, you know, maybe it was year three. But either way, it was quick, right?

It wasn't a lot of starts for Trey Lance. It wasn't a lot of starts for Anthony Richardson. Competition arrives fast when you play like this. That's just a fact of the matter. So the answer is yes. You can't continue to go through that. Let's see. Langston says the blinded delusional attached to this whole process was so

draining. I've never seen so much love for such terrible play. Truly sad. Appreciate you calling a spade a spade. Well, I mean, it's just, that's always going to be the show is here's what I see, the accumulation of the evidence and, and let me present it to you the way that I view it. There are other shows that are probably more hopeful. I'm not a hopeful person. I'm a straightforward person. And so that's how I've always done the job. So, you know, spade a spade is for everything. Spade of Spade is for saying, you know, Will Fries probably was not worth $17 million,

and Dalton Reisner could have given them just as much. Or Spade a spade is saying that, you know, give Dallas Turner more time because I'm seeing some good things from him in training camp. And then eventually it comes to fruition, right? And sometimes I'm wrong about that. Sometimes I think Theo Jackson will be a lot better or something. All of it.

But then if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. It's not planting flags and staying there, forever. If they bring in Daniel Jones and J.J. McCarthy and Jones battle it out in camp. If Jones is healthy, I'm just using an example. And McCarthy takes this huge step forward and lights him up and looks great. Then guess what? The old purple insider show is going to be talking about it every day from training camp next year. McCarthy's taking a big step. Here we go. This could be interesting. If he throws for 300 on opening night next year, four touchdowns leads him to a win. Guess what old purple insider is going to say, man, he's really turned

some corner here. That's how we do it here. But anyway, as far as your point about the, you know, the attached people, that I will never criticize anybody for. I will never criticize any fan for becoming attached to J.J. McCarthy for a couple reasons. Number one, the first impression of him was our training camp reports from 2024 that he was showing a lot of progress. And then the preseason game where he looked really good. And you saw all the flashes of talent there. His personality, under the right circumstances

before the whole nine thing and everything else, which was, I never criticized that. It's fine. But, you know, it's just internet is very mean. So, like, whatever. It doesn't matter. Or him saying, let's ride. Or Russell Wilson saying, let's ride.

Like, who cares? Stop being so mean. But I know the internet bullying people who would ever expected. but you know the point about you know just where he was at last year is that he had showed a lot and then the head coach comes out and says he's our franchise quarterback like that is a lot of hype plus the 10th overall pick plus all the things that they gave him plus what you saw the head coach do for Sam Darnold or with Sam Darnold we should say all that stuff added

up to like this is exciting it's exciting when your franchise has never done this in terms of drafting a top 10 quarterback. And then they do it. And, you know, the kid's a national champion and he's likable and he's got a lot of physical skills and everything else. And then his first impression in the NFL is a huge comeback and an awesome win in Chicago. I'm, I'm supposed to tell everybody like, you're, you're stupid for buying into that. No, of course not. Of course not. That's not, that's not anything I'm saying here. I'm presenting what the facts are of what's happened this year. And the decision or the position that the leadership of this team has been placed in because of this poor of a performance. But I would never say to any of you who watch

or listen, how dare you cheer for J.J. McCarthy? Like, of course, of course it was right to get excited. We did that on the show. You know, talk to Jeremiah Searles, who played for the Vikings, loves them, you know, bleeds purple. And. He wants them to win. He was super pumped before the season. Drew McGarry, who's a Vikings fans, a great writer for Defector. He came on, talked about it. There was a lot of reason for excitement.

It was something that they had not done before. It was something I had banged the table for the offseason even. You know, I think that we all, in terms of being realistic, went over the odds of all those moves working out was not high, but you thought, well, if even half of them do, they did so much to this roster, it'll be good. And overall, it was. but all of it made sense, all of it made sense for why McCarthy would,

if they turned down Aaron Rogers and they turned down Sam Darnel for McCarthy, well, then they must really like him. So you're not wrong for getting excited about that. I wouldn't criticize people for that. I think that, you know, when people get a little bit abusive about quarterbacks sometimes. But I remember the Bears fans who thought, you know, that, who was it? Justin Fields was a great quarterback because he had a little run there, you know, that kind of thing. So let's see. Christopher says, when did

mediocrity become the new success measure? And then Forrest responds with it was a success measure for six years under, you know, with Kirk. Yeah. So, well, I mean, That's the thing about next year and the problem, right? The problem that they face for next year is how, if McCarthy's not your guy, how do you reach anything but mediocrity? And that's why I continue to bring up Kyla Murray, because to me, he's the only guy that I could see that actually happening. Murray has at least shown a high end to his performance.

I mean, I guess Gino Smith, but to me, you know, bringing back older, Kirk doesn't do it. To me, Daniel Jones doesn't do it. I like Jones, but I don't think it gets you. There's even a scenario where it gets you to a different place. That's the trouble with, and that's why there is a lot of pushback here whenever I talk about this is because if you get into that realm of thinking, all right, well, here's the quarterbacks they can get.

if they don't believe in McCarthy at all, and they're just needing to start somebody else, none of them are inspiring. None of them make you think this will be better than what has happened in the recent past where you're just okay or you're not that great. That's the trouble. And so they need McCarthy to work out.

But what I don't know is how far they are on a decision of what they think behind the scenes. Like, do they think this just isn't going to work? Do they think, well, we're very intrigued to see what happens next year, but we got to protect ourselves better with a backup quarterback or competition for him? That's where I think they are. Or are they, like, hey, these last couple of games have really been proof that he's on his way. Like the, I think it's in the middle, but the truth might be one of those extremes.

It's just hard to get a total sense for that. the reason that I need a schedule. The reason that I'm going earlier today is because it is New Year's Eve. Normally we have a pretty set schedule for the week, or at least I try to. But happy New Year, everyone. I assume that people got plans. I assume that everyone wants to watch football, which will be starting pretty soon here. So that's why.

Adam says, why were people selling Max Brosmer as a starter? One of the silliest narratives, who was that, Quase Eve? fire him. Okay. Okay. I mean, we always get to that last part. It's just like your comment is fine and I'm going to like respond to it. And then you just say something like really over the top. It's a third string quarterback. The Minnesota Vikings liked Max Brosmer because he showed some promise in the preseason and in training camp. But I don't think any one of us would have said and look, I liked what I saw too. And their excitement for. it is always what we're using as our barometer.

So when they seemed excited, it was like, well, maybe, you know, what I'm seeing makes sense. And I still think that it is. You know, he came into the Giants game and operated that pretty well. The pressure was a major problem. And I also think that they basically told them in that game, if you don't turn this over, we're going to win. So if it's not wide open, just take a sack.

And he did. But I don't think anybody thought that it was a great idea to have. have an undrafted rookie just jumping right into the fire in his first year. He's an undrafted rookie third string quarterback for a reason. I mean, you're saying whoever thought, which third string quarterback is just crushing it out there? Oh, man, Brady Cook, look at his numbers. They're just as bad.

So I think that Brosmer, you know, West Phillips was vehement the other day when I asked him about Brosmer, about what he can learn from the game. And he said, look, he's going to be in the NFL a long time. I fully believe that. And he said it with a lot of conviction, and I could see why. Like, Brosmer's got the right stuff that he's made up of. But he needs more experience too. He needs more preseason games.

He needs more training camps. And he's probably a backup quarterback in the NFL. And he'll be someone's QB2 someday. But if that's not right now, like give him more than this to figure, you know, figure it out and take some steps forward when we're talking about, we're not talking about a first round draft pick that you stake your franchise on we're talking about a QB3 so it's quite quite different uh junt j un t hopefully that's not some word that i don't know from the internet uh jj doesn't even know the basics of being a QB he

barrels down the field head first like a torpedo with the ball in his hands he's he's gonna get killed at some point uh yeah i mean the diving forward thing makes me nervous too the playing style the way he plays, his style of play, is concerning for, you know, potential injuries. Grant Bills is going to come up soon, although you guys have still, I've still got a lot of comments to get to. But I want to remind you of two things. One, the Fandul question of the day, Ravens are three and a half point favorites against Pittsburgh on Sunday. Loser will face consequences. Let's just put it this way.

What do you think those are? And could it involve Brian Flores? What do you think happens to the loser of that game? Um, also wanted to mention that Kevin Williams is a finalist for the Hall of Fame, which I think is awesome and it is well deserved. Uh, every one of those finalists, I thought, how can they keep any one of these guys out? And I hope the NFL, uh, vote, or I should say the, the, uh, the Hall of Fame voters. I hope that they, last year they were talking about tighten in the purse strings,

making it harder for people to get in. I don't like that idea. The Hall of Fame is to celebrate the greatest players for fans of the game, but they need keep that in mind right like if you're talking about all time great players fans of those all time great players wanting to celebrate them let them do it like as opposed to drawing some super super hard line of like because then you get so many guys backlog that there's a ton of players who are sitting there deserving and have the same numbers as guys in the hall fame and you're going well we've already put this we can't put this person in and there's two

many this year whatever like don't don't do that a guy like kevin williams is totally deserving he just was not like a big celebrity type of player uh but six time all pro that usually gets you in uh also got to remind you again about zip recruiter my friends over there you know purple insider we're always changing and doing new things setting new goals for 2026 thinking about like a multi-cam type of situation for i don't know maybe we'll improve the studio a little. I will not be changing out the flags, though. The flags are going to stay. But there will always be goals for a Purple Insider. And if you're hiring for your company and you're trying to reach goals too with new people, you might want to check out ZipRecruiter.

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ZipRecruiter.com slash audio. ZipRecruiter.com slash audio. ZipRecruiter.com. the smartest way to hire. All right, back to your questions, comments, thoughts. Christopher says, I hope I'm wrong, but I think KOC's next coaching stop will be his successful run. I think he's learning and taking his lumps. This is why I will continually say that when the idea of firing Kevin O'Connell gets brought up, I don't think it's a good idea.

I think what you'd rather do is have your guy for a long period of time that you know sets a certain standard for the franchise, the organization, which is even in your bad year, you're 9 and 8, you're 7 and 10, and in your good year, you're 13 or 14, you can win a lot of games with this guy as your head coach. Is he perfect? Absolutely not. Are we always going to take down every single thing

and look at every single detail of what he does? Oh, yeah, because he makes a lot of money. And I don't feel bad about that. We're looking at the run game or the screen game and saying, hey, man, figure it out, right? Like, those aren't, those are things that, you know, there needs to be always improvement from somebody like him. But a lot of coaches have reached their peak as coaches after several seasons.

And a lot of good coaches went through bumps along the road, tough times, times where people talked about firing them and so forth, and end up, you know, getting to eventually the mountaintop after, you know, problems at times. So, you know, I, I think that if you're going to make a change, you have to think really long and hard about something like that. Usually for me, it's more about, unless the person is completely inept with their scheme, which maybe some of you would say that O'Connell is, but they won 14 games last year with Sam Darnold. So I would not say that that's the case. I think that there needs to be, at times, some of the lessons that he talked about from this year

applied. And if they were, and I just, you know, it's a simple example, but it's a, it's a second and one at the goal line with Carson Wentz as your quarterback, like, just give it George Mason. Like, sometimes, like, the simplest answer and letting the defense win a game can be your answer. Like, grinding out the other team is okay at times. And then that can be learned. But if it was a, if it was an issue of the players think that the coach is lost, the coach is losing his mind or, you know, a lot of different things inside the building had become super toxic. I do not think that's the case. And I don't think they would have won all these games in a row if it was the case. I don't think they perform like they did last week on

defense if they had just given up on O'Connell and wanted him out. I remember Sage Rosenfeld's telling me that he played on a couple eight and eight teams under Gary Kubiak that probably should have won four, but the guys at the end of the year just wanted to fight like crazy for Gary, which doesn't surprise me. And, you know, so this team has continued to play professional football. I mean, you look at the Jets. Like, that's a team. I know they don't have a lot of talent, but they're not even playing pro football the way that they were playing last week. So that's when you fire someone is when your team, when David Cully was coaching the Texas, when they're not even playing just at a pro level or the building is super toxic like it was with Zim, I mean, then fine, but not right now.

I don't think that would be a good, a good thing to do right now. Did Archmanning in Texas beat Michigan? No, that's interesting. You know, I've probably mentioned this that I want to be an Archmanning guy because it drove me insane how much he got declared the B word, a bust. I mean, think about that, like, how fast that the world wants to do it. Like, people are sitting here criticizing me for it. I'm saying, like, I still don't even know, but he certainly deserves a chance to compete next year in training camp,

but there's got to be somebody else. And if they decide that they're getting another starter, I'll understand. That's my official take. And it's like, you hate him. Of course. I don't know. I just, I do set a high standard for the team. I expect them to try, you know, I expect them to try to do everything they can to win.

They don't have forever to do it with this roster. Anyway, with Arch Manning, he lost the first game to Ohio State and was like, this is the biggest disappointment of all time. I was like, the guy's playing his first game. So, you know, he's going to be under the spotlight a ton, and I'd like to see him succeed. He's a fun player. He's good.

Let's see. Forrest says this will be my third game of the year from Wisconsin. If it's Clayton Tune versus Max Brosmer, I might swan die from the crossbeams. okay that's a little aggressive uh i think you're going to see j j mccarthy and that's a reason to push through it if there is not serious potential implications this is a reason to try to play through the pain do anything you can because you know this guy forest is driving from wisconsin to see you play and i'm guessing that you paid for the tickets and that something that i feel like maybe the NBA lost sight of at times and i know all the math and science and i've read it all

understand but sometimes you feel like guys lost the fact that people pay to come see them play and it's just that oh i'm taking another rest day because i can rather than hey and this is why i really like anthony edwards uh anthony edwards drives me crazy sometimes with some of his play is erratic nature and i don't love some of his post game stuff but the guy plays every freaking night and i love that about him because he knows that people are coming to see him play and he's the franchise player and he needs to be out there So I think the same message was probably imparted on to J.J. McCarthy's like, bro, starting quarterback's got to play, man, we can't have three net yards again and just hope that the defense gets six interceptions.

So not a twerk says KOC is going to pick his spots, but I guarantee you they're going to find single readplays for Jets. And he's going to tell McCarthy, better throw the ball. Yes. Yep. KFT says showing improvement playing against Green Bay would be evidence of improvement. McCarthy would have thrown for 300 yards against the Bengals. Yeah, okay, but he didn't play Seattle either. You can counter that. I mean, missing out on that Seattle game, help as bad as those numbers are.

It probably helped to miss that game. But to your point, I mean, look, if he plays well against Green Bay, I'm not going to view it as some massive improvement. But I will view it as like, let's weigh the different games. okay the the commander's game is fine i would not weigh that super heavily i thought the dallas game was very impressive uh the dallas game was the one that they won because of their quarterbacks performance now there's a lot of great play on the defensive side too but their quarterback drove them to victory in that game he was down in the third quarter leads a touchdown drive like he played really really well in that football game uh and then against the giants it was a little

bit of a mixed bag where it was some stuff I liked the some of the sacks I really didn't like and then an injury, you know, is pretty tough there. So if I'm weighing those different games, while Washington totally quit. So I'm not giving a lot of credence to that. But Dallas was playing for their playoff lives. That one matters a lot. The Giants, they seem to want to get their sack numbers up. They weren't like giving up an offense. They kind of were. But they were getting after him a little bit. They were playing hard. But it wasn't his. much progress as maybe we had seen before. So this one would be weighed the least by far, by like a million miles.

It would be good for confidence and it's good for reps. But I don't think that it's proof of like a massive jump. That's how I put it. Mock draft season is this fun. Yeah, I can't wait to get into some more of those. Matt Ruhl still can't beat a top 25 team. Did Nebraska lose? I was watching the Duke Arizona State game.

that was awesome. Tony the Tiger Bowl? Who else saw the Tony the Tiger Bowl? Tony was on fire. He was the guys when they scored a touchdown, they jumped into a bowl of cereal. Tremendous content. Let's see.

Not a twerk says McCarthy gets a free pass for the rest of the season. It's about what he does after. Yeah, I mean, free pass, I wouldn't say that. I mean, if he throws three picks against the Packers' backups, that's not going to be great. Does he learn more of KOC's playbook? Yeah, I mean, he should know it by now.

That's the thing about the dumbing down. It's like he had two years to learn it. As far as the mechanics, that's where the biggest part is for me. It's all about the mechanics for me. All about the mechanics. Because you just can't play in the NFL and be consistent throwing like that. It's just not possible. When you watch Brock Purdy play,

I think he's a great example of anticipation, throwing to windows, timing, accuracy, all those things, picking the right spots to be a playmaker, all that stuff. And that's where McCarthy has to greatly improve is throwing into windows, anticipation, accuracy, touch on the football, all that stuff. And it can be improved. It can be improved. but he's got to make significant gains there to the point where he should be able to lead consistent winning efforts. He doesn't have to be next year the best quarterback in the entire NFL, but he needs to reach a certain bar. And that's why whoever they bring in next year, he's got to be able to beat that person out. Christopher says Vikings can't keep doing this running out backup quarterbacks to write the ship or the, I mean, it's funny about Vikings history, Chris, because, you know, If you go back, and maybe time is a flat circle, right?

Because if you go back to, I'll take you to a time and place, okay, the year is 2017. I am in Mancato. There is a Zulgad along with me in Mancato. And we're doing a show down there. And I said to Zulgad, I said, hey, would you rather be the Vikings right now? This is 2017 training camp. or the Browns, who were supposed to be absolutely awful. And he was like, well, obviously the Vikings because, you know,

they're going to be and, you know, have a chance to go to the playoffs. I was like, well, not so fast. Are they really going to have a chance to compete this year? Or is it just another hang around in the middle? And you'd rather be the franchise everyone thinks it's inept that's going to draft high next year, right? Like, wouldn't you rather be that team? Now, whatever, it didn't work out for the Browns.

It's just a conversation we're having, right? So I'm like, I'm not so sure. And they've got Sam Bradford there, who I thought had a ceiling on San Bradford, which probably was higher than I thought it was. And then Case Keenham. Case Keenham comes in after they had had a first round pick go bust, not for his reasons. Teddy was on the rise. Teddy was playing well. He looked like he was taking another step and then his knee.

But the reality is like that first round pick didn't work out other than they get a division championship in 15, but it didn't work out for the long run, right? So they had to bail, not their fault, but bail on their first round quarterback after two years. And then a backup took them to the NFC championship. And, you know, the story of the Vikings has kind of always included something like this. So it is kind of funny. It's like they can't keep doing this and they sort of do. Now, the best possible outcome remains very clearly that McCarthy comes out of this offseason and is taking the step we're all talking about.

and is ready to rock and roll and lead this team and goes and wins a bunch of games. And I do think that he's shown some things throughout this year that win games, like playmaking, scrambling, like the touchdown against the Giants. If you can run, this is why I brought up the Josh Allen first year. It's like better than the quarterback rating suggests because he added eight touchdowns on the ground. If you can run and you can make plays out of structure, you can get a lot of first down, that, you know, keep you going. And with arm strength like that and aggressiveness like that,

you can push the ball down the field and create big plays, even if you're making mistakes, sort of like an Eli Manning. Like Manning's early career statistics aren't very good, in part because he just pushed the ball down the field a lot. It's a little bit different because it's a first overall draft pick, but it's arm strength and aggressiveness, which he has. So all those things, but if you don't have the down-to-down consistency of the technical parts and stacking completions, as, you know, KOC said, that's where you get into,

that's where you get into being just like a backup caliber quarterback. And he's, he has played this year by the numbers like a backup caliber quarterback because backups are in the league for a reason. Josh McCown is a freak athlete. They go, go look at Josh McCown and his combine numbers. A freak athlete. Amazing arm. I've seen McCown thrown out there and practice. The man's 50 years old. He's gunning it. The reason he's, he's, wasn't a starting quarterback was because of his consistency. And that's what it comes down to. That's why long drive champions don't always or ever win on the PGA tour, except for what. I mean, there's a couple that are crushing it these days, but it's because just because you can

hit the ball really far or hit downfield passes or big time throws doesn't mean that you're consistent enough though. That's what has to change. The easy stuff has to be easier. Adrian says, how is Quasi coming back after having the most cap space the Vikings have had in years and completely blowing it on veterans instead of signing young players as an investment and blowing it in the draft? Well, I don't think he blew it in the draft to get a starting guard who looks really promising. I think that there have been multiple layers to the draft thing, starting with the fact that they haven't had picks. when you trade picks for Cam Robinson and you trade picks for Cam Acres for the fifth time and you trade them for T.J. Hawkinson and you trade them for, like you've just gotten rid of them and you trade up to get a Dallas Turner. That's one reason you don't have a very high hit rate.

The other is that you don't have a defensive coordinator who wants to develop people as great as Flores as is. Mackay Blackman not being here or Nashon Wright is kind of bizarre, considering that they rolled out with, I mean, Fabian Moreau, who's been really nice, but it's like 30 years old. And Dwight McLeather and undrafted free agents via Vaughn's going to play this week. I mean, like they haven't developed the guys. Brian Osamon, they just got rid of him. And he, you know, I don't know.

He's probably not a great player, but you're not giving any of these guys any time, Caleb Evans. You just bring him in and move them out. And it's funny how the football works because they made the trade. They got Nashan right. And then the guy turns out to be good just for another team because your defensive coordinator didn't want to develop them. I don't know.

Like, there's a lot of different layers to that, but their first round picks are pretty good overall. Seen as a bust, clearly. But aside from that, with Addison and Turner and Jackson, and, you know, the quarterback decision is different. But, you know, still, like, I mean, people keep coming back to this drafting, and they did sign older players this year.

But is the roster not good enough? When you look at the Packers roster, they're going to be in the playoffs. When you look at the Bears roster, two through 53, are you saying, oh, the healthy Vikings are nowhere close? I'm not saying that.

I think they have just as good of a roster as those teams. They got the 31st best quarterback play in the league this year. I think their roster is pretty good. So I wouldn't be looking to get rid of people who built the roster necessarily, but they might need some sort of fundamental change. They might need a fall guy after the, quarterback thing went so sideways. To me, it's a one, it is a one explanation season and

injuries definitely impacted it throughout and early on. But even then, they, other than, like, the Chargers game went badly, but even then they had performances from their defense, performances from their other players in a lot of games that gave them chances to win. So, nine and eight season are you Vikings PR got a lot of friends at Vikings PR we get along quite well many years I've known those guys so you know don't like don't like the to say that as a derogatory thing uh it was over five weeks ago yeah I'm I'm well aware of that I'm well aware of that uh let's see timber wolves nation is mad that the uh the wolves lost today terrible loss terrible loss that's a dane more problem though that's not a matthew collar problem that's a dane more

problem i'm i'm on the wild i'm all about the wild now i'm gonna get a quinn hugh's jersey wearing green tonight i'm i'm a wild guy i love i love that they went all in i mean that that that move is great and those are my takes about other teams uh let's see see dan i think uh this roster's old and injury prone needs to get younger would hate to see another bad draft. I mean, the drafting thing is just going to, it's going to kill me. It's just going to kill me. The number of times that we have to go over it is going to end me.

But they have a good team. I really think they do. And we're talking about injury prone. Like, who are we talking about? I mean, Cashman has had some injuries. Van Ginkle, I guess, through their careers. Do you not want those players? Who else?

Like, yeah, Ryan Kelly. that was someone who had injury issues before. Ryan Kelly did. Will Fries had one injury. I'm trying to think of like guys play football. They have injuries. I'm trying to think of who we're talking about that was like injury prone. Alan and Hargrave played the whole season.

Those guys had injuries coming in. They played the whole season. Who had injure. Derrisal was not injury prone. He had a really bad injury. And even then they came out with a strong roster at the end of the day. Older? Yes.

Injury prone? I don't know. older is a lot there are some players who are older some who are in their prime they've certainly got enough to win next year i would just i would defend the rest of the roster i think the rest of the roster is pretty good certainly good enough to be in the playoffs in the nbc this year definitely think that uh jeff says i don't think flores gets a head coaching job until his lawsuit against the NFL and the dolphins gets resolved that's fair my thing about the situation with him is when you look around and you look at the potential candidates for head coaching jobs,

it's not the most impressive list I've ever seen. You know, Joe Brady's still getting in that discussion somehow. Always seems to find his way in there. I mean, I guess if you succeed with the bills and win the Super Bowl, he'll probably get a head coaching job somewhere. The Rams guys always get plucked, but they have another LaFleur and a Shula. Their defensive coordinator, Shula, is very good. Chris, Chris Shula.

He's done a great job this year. Clint Kubiak, maybe, but I don't know if he's ever struck me as like a head coaching guy, but he might, possibly. But, you know, Flores, these guys do not, any, anybody that I'm mentioning, Mike McCarthy will probably land somewhere. I guess the Giants wanted Marcus Freeman. He's going to stay with Notre Dame. There's just not a lot of great candidates.

And then when you stack up Flores and what he's done for this defense, if you're a team that is like, I don't know, the Cincinnati Bengals and you just need, Burrow can run the offense, you just need someone to come in and fix that freaking defense, well, you probably aren't going to spend the cash to make Flores the highest paid defensive coordinator ever, but you might be willing to make them your head coach. And if you're the, I don't know, the Pittsburgh Steelers and you've had the Mike Tom on experience and he decides, hey, you know, it's, it's time to back off from that job and go work on TV like Bill Cowr or something, if they lose, well, they have familiarity with Brian Flores and they broke

rank before. So I wouldn't count it out. I would not count out the possibility just because of that because I think in the NFL, you do reach a certain point. If you're an owner where you throw your hands up and go, we just need the best guy. We need to win. We can't, if you're Cincinnati and you're the owner of Cincinnati, and I know they're cheap and I know they've got problems, but you're saying if we don't win, Burrough's going to leave. And this will be the worst thing that ever happened

to the Cincinnati Bengals franchise if Burrow leaves, right? So maybe you do it because you need the defense to turn around and Burrow will take care of the offense. There's a case in a couple of different cities. Christopher, thank you so much

for the super chat. Really appreciate that. Could see trading Grenard for Mac Jones. San Francisco needs an edge rusher. Emergence of Turner at Granard's spot also helps. Ah, man, that's a tough one because Mac Jones, like, you see the difference between him and Brock Purdy. Jones is pretty good. I've always thought Mac Jones was a good enough

quarterback to win games under the right circumstances, but the athleticism is lacking. Playmaking is lacking. So you're probably going to need him and he doesn't have the strongest arm, like really need to design an offense. It's very much timing and accuracy based, which I think that he could have some success with, but it's probably got a cap on it. And when you have someone, I know that that's an issue with Grenard and Turner, because they are at their best at the same spot, I just have, if you're moving Jonathan Grinard, you better be really sure because he's become a very important piece and is a great edge rusher.

And usually you don't give those guys away. But, you know, his contract situation is a little bit on the side of, you know, having to pay him. and do you do you want to do that do you want to you know go rework that contract i would say yes i mean i think this is a guy who you want on the vikis for five six seven more years and i also think you're overpaying a little bit there uh and helping somebody that's in your conference by giving them jonathan granard like i don't i don't hate the idea of trading for mac jones because he's another guy that sets the right bar um but i don't i think i was thinking more along the lines of like a third round draft pick for mac jones rather than you know

you know, giving them someone as good as Jonathan Grenar. But, but I mean, I'm interested. I'm interested. Not a twerk says Quasey's anchor is his drafting. It'll always be brought up when talking negative about him. No, I fully understand. And look, I'm not saying that they've gotten a lot of value out of the drafting. But I also think that Dallas Turner turning a corner this year and playing really well down

the stretch is more of a, like, it changes the dynamic. And so does Jackson, because this was definitely more true last year than it is right now. And then if you have a DC that doesn't want to develop any of your draft picks and you have five picks, like here's, here's what they decided to do. They decided to put all the chips to the middle of the table on this year and next year. And that included moving draft picks. It included moving them to trade up, it moved, moving them to get veteran players. And even going back a couple years, the plan was to get T.J. Hawkinson and sign him to an extension. so there's a second round pick that's just off the table, right?

So, yes, they've busted on a good number of picks. But I would be curious, and I've done some, you know, research and looking into this about their hit rate, their hit rate, like, for where they've actually picked. Like, they haven't had 10th overall picks. They did the one time and traded out of it. That was egregious. I think we all agree with that. Like, what happened in 22 was egregious.

But the rest of the drafts, I mean, if you're picking third round corners, and then hoping that they turn into superstars. I mean, those are just darts at a dart board. They made the conscious effort to build through free agency, and they got tons of really good players here and built a good team that if they were going, you cannot tell me. And here's the true test of, like, what they have, that if the Vikings were the, it was flipped and they were the Packers,

let's say they won that Packers game instead of lost it. And they would be the Packers playing their backups with the 7 seed. Let's say that was the case. would we not be saying, oh man, this team could be dangerous. Look at the, like, look at the way they're deep. And Granard and Mattelis probably keep playing. Like, look at the way their defense is playing.

And if they get their offensive lineback, a little more healthy, maybe, I mean, Derisaw would not be shut down for the season. You'd be saying they could get somebody with, with their defense and with their offensive line. And in that scenario, McCarthy would have to be getting it. But he kind of was. So, like, they could be dangerous.

I think that's the test. that shows that, you know, the job is to build a good roster, but you're right, you know, they, they have not had the value through the draft overall, and that is always going to rest over him. But if you trade away all your picks to try to win now, you're not going to hit on a ton of them. That's just the reality.

I don't, like, I don't know, you decided to do it one way. You didn't decide to do it slow and methodical with the rebuild. You hit the gas pedal. You have pushed it down. and you said let's go win let's spend in free agency let's trade away draft picks and make it happen and they've got another year to make that work