Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jordan Addison arrested, Vikings end-of-year press conference takeaways

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

Matthew Coller and Dane Mizutani break down Jordan Addison's recent run in with the law and what Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell had to say about the future at the QB position. Plus another team emerges with interest in Brian Flores. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fandul, Matthew Collar here, along with Dane Mizatani, the Pioneer Press, Inside TCO Performance Center, following the end of your press conference from Kevin O'Connell and Kwayce Adafel Menta and to once again break down a Jordan Addison arrest. Well, this is our third time with that. And then you add in a little sprinkle of a one-quarter suspension as well. What a run, not even out of the rookie contract yet for Jordan. Madison. So we can start there and then get into the takeaways. For me, Dane, I'm all set now. I remember sitting on the porch with you doing a podcast after arrest number two, right after Kyrie Jackson had died in a accident that included drunk driving and then he was arrested for DUI and saying, you know what? He's not Justin Jefferson. And if they decide to move on, I'm okay with it. And now the decision. not to move on from Jordan Addison does not look particularly great, especially after a 41

catch season that also included seven drops this year and then immediately dropping the ball as he is arrested for trespassing. And look, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. We know that. The team should do all of their diligence, finding out what happened. Trespassing is not the most serious offense that I've ever heard of in my life. but when you have this pattern of behavior being arrested again, which could go along with eventually another suspension. And Roger Goodell will have all offseason to think about that and the legal system and everything else. There is always a conversation about the off-field issues versus the performance on the field. I think we agree that Jordan Addison is a very good player.

But now if the question comes up, would you rather just resign Jalen Naylor? and move on. I am completely good with that after what has happened here with Jordan Addison. Yeah, I just don't know if you can trust him anymore. And I think that trust has been fraying ever since he drove 140 miles on 140 miles per hour on I-94 in St. Paul, like a few months after he was drafted. It was like, okay, my antennas are up. Can we trust this kid? And then it's just, it's been one thing after another. And it seems like they have to legitimately worry every time he's not in Minnesota if something bad is going to happen. If he's going to make a decision that that makes him end up in the headlines somewhere that he shouldn't be.

And I think Quasi Dauvinza put it best while he was trying to play both sides of the fence. Yes, we support Jordan Addison. But he said 99% of the time he's a joy to be around. But that 1% what are you doing in that 1% of the time? And that's enough for me. You have to be able to trust the player, especially if you're going to commit to him long term, pay him a lot of money. You have to be able to trust him 100% of the time. He has not proven that over the course of his career.

So, I mean, yeah, it's probably an easier decision than it was 48 hours ago. If you're weighing between do you give Jalen Naylor money or do you commit to Jordan Addison, I don't know how you can commit to Jordan Addison long term with what he's not only, proven to not do on the field, but the way he just kind of carries himself off the field, it just raises too many questions for me at this point. And it's not just a matter of the headlines. It's also a matter of can you play in the football games if you are getting suspended? Because this year, it's part of the story of the 2025 Minnesota Vikings that they did not

have their second best wide receiver for the start of the season. And they lost one of those games against at least. Atlanta, maybe it's a little bit different. They didn't need a ton of offense that day, but they didn't have him. And he had some of the best chemistry with J.J. McCarthy coming out of training camp, and that went back to another incident off the field. And then we never really got full details about what happened overseas, but even something happening to the point where you can't play in the first quarter.

And by Kevin O'Connell standards, that's very punitive because the first two arrests didn't result in any suspension of any kind. of any missed reps or anything else like that, which we were critical of at that time. And the accountability has not felt like it's been a lot from inside this building for Jordan Addison. It's often been apologies, excuses, and it'll be better next time. And I think that that just ran out. I was willing to buy arguments that the first two incidents were more immaturity, more youth, though I think once you get to a certain age that that goes out the window. But now three, and he's only been on the team since

2003, that's enough for me. And I think it does have to alter their decision-making. Number one, I don't think you can give this person a fifth-year option. I definitely don't think you can even begin to have conversations about a long-term extension. I think you are taking trade calls, making trade calls, and I don't see how you can let Jalen Naylor leave the building if he doesn't want to. Now, Jalen Naylor may say, sorry, guys, I'm not going to be wide receiver. So they may have to move on from Jordan Addison in a trade in order to keep Jalen Naylor because there are teams around the league.

I've heard this. I know you have as well that Jalen Ayler is really highly respected in the NFL. And there's a lot of belief that there's much more ahead of him. And his character, I think we really saw this year for how hard he worked. He improved his body. He made every block. He did every clear-out route. He was open all the time and didn't get the football.

So there's so much more to like about Jalen Naylor as a duo with Justin Jefferson, knowing the character of the player and the reliability and the ability to be on the field. Where with Jordan Addison, as you said, I mean, the offseason is early. There could be more. Who knows with Addison? There is a tone-deaf nature to what happens outside the building that doesn't seem that it could be corrected with coaches or front office members, was sitting down with him and telling him not to. So that has a potential ripple effect on this entire offseason with the fact, I guess

they're lucky it happened now as opposed to after Naylor had already left or decisions had already been made. But there is a clear disconnect with him of not understanding how he needs to carry himself as a national football league player. And to me, that's just if you're going to hold up certain standards in your organization, and talk about the character and everything else that you have. And I fully believe Addison's been a great teammate and everything else. I'm not criticizing how he acts here.

You know, he practices hard. We've seen that and everything else. But it matters if you could stay on the field and not get suspended and not be a black mark on your organization. So there's that. There wasn't a lot of reaction to that. But I agree with you that Kwezi Adafel-Menzza was telling when he said the 99%. And he also did mention that something. like this could impact long-term decisions.

As far as the quarterback position, I know that was the main goal of everybody coming in is to find out where they stand with the quarterback position. The best way I could describe it is that nobody in any way, shape, or form committed to J.J. McCarthy as the Minnesota Vikings starting quarterback for 2026. Do you agree with that characterization? 100%. Now, I think there are probably varying levels of degree. some people could read into this press conference and say, do they believe in McCarthy?

Do they think he could become a player that they thought he could be? You could probably squint and say, yeah, they probably think down the road if everything was just in a vacuum and their jobs weren't on the line moving forward. They probably believe that there is potential in that right arm, in that body, like that he could become the quarterback they thought he could be. But I don't think any of them, whether it's Kevin O'Connell talking to us or Quentin. Way Seedolph-Omenza talking to us today, believe that they can bank on that in 2026, and that's all that matters right now, because who is going to be the starting quarterback in 26? If J.J. McCarthy was truly the franchise guy that you claimed him to be, thought he was going to be,

and I know we referenced us after the final game of the season in, I believe it was July, 24, August, 2024, when Kevin O'Connell sat there and said, we have our franchise quarterback in the building, and you juxtapose. that with what we're talking about now, there was no declaration of he is our guy moving forward. It's we believe in him, but we want a highly competitive environment. That's the words they use. Their words, not mine. Highly competitive environment, which would indicate to me, like, it's not going to be a 35-year-old veteran backup quarterback coming in here to compete with J.J. McCarthy. To me, highly competitive environment means taking as big of a swing as you possibly can take.

what does that look like? The market is going to dictate that a lot. But I think they're going to unturn every single stone this offseason. And they should because look at this team. It's still built to win now. And whether you look at the rest of the NFC North and the rest of the NFL and think that that's a realistic idea that they can chase a Super Bowl, Quasidoff of Menses, since he's gotten here, has talked about working in time horizons. And they're still in this two-year, three-year time horizon where they are competing for a Super Bowl. And so unless you're going to tear it down to the studs, like, you have to try to

compete for a Super Bowl next year because that's the plan. That's the plan you've had in place since you got hired in 2022. You can't change that plan right now. And the only way to markedly shift what this season looked like compared to what next season could look like is who's throwing the football, who's under center, the quarterback position. So they said highly competitive. I expect that to transpire into probably a busy off-season, a chaotic off-season, one that ends with us covering somebody a heck of a lot better than Sam Howell as the competition in digging into training camp this coming summer. And there's a few things to pick apart there because I asked Quasi Adolfo Menza specifically about looking back at the decision. This is the first time we've spoken in a press conference setting to Quasi since the beginning of the season. and so was looking to get his review of that decision that was made.

And one thing that he said was what maybe they didn't fully factor is if you remove one thing from the offense, can it still produce at the explosive level? What they kept going back to was explosive plays, which they were at the top of the NFL in 2024 and were nowhere close to the top of the NFL this year and that those explosive plays basically disappeared. And, I mean, that one thing you take away is the right arm cannon attached to the body of Sam Darnold. And when you go back and look at the explosive plays that a lot of them were the quarterback doing something very special with the football down the field.

And we can go back and look at, you know, Nick Mullins or Kirk Cousins and their ability to create explosive plays as well. They were toward the top of the league in 2023 when they didn't have their starter for most of the season. Mullins was, I think, a savant when it came to the offense. He really understood where the football was supposed to go and win and how. Now, could he throw it accurately all the time? Of course not. And that's why he's not a starting NFL quarterback. But when you combined Darnold's experience and command of the offense with the cannon that he has, you ended up with those explosive plays. I think that they believed that they could recreate it because of the

arm's strength of J.J. McCarthy. He can clearly. throw the ball incredibly hard. We saw the throw in Dallas about, you know, downfield and where he is capable of putting the football. But a lot of those things have to do with downfield anticipation, which requires timing and fundamentals and a phrase of Kirk Cousins that he loved so much, time on task, which they missed. And that was part of the discussion about fundamentals.

They missed so much time on task last year and then so much more this year as he failed to get to even 250 passes. So the emphasis on we're going to look for someone who can get us those explosive plays is how I interpreted it, because we are not sure that J.J. McCarthy is that guy. Now, they didn't say we're done with McCarthy and he's cooked and it's toast and we're moving on. But there was definitely an air of, we wish we had the Daniel Jones situation here, which was more or less acknowledged by Cuezio da Fomenza. And Daniel Jones probably wins the job. in training camp if he had been the starter. And then who knows, they probably win 11 or 12 games with Daniel Jones as the starter. And JJ develops behind the scenes and we're talking about an entirely different world. So I think that what they would like to do is correct that mistake and have a player of that caliber competing with J.J. McCarthy next year.

And if McCarthy wins the job, then they'll know, wow, we've got something because he could beat out quarterback X. But they cannot treat this organization like the Minnesota McCarthy's. And at some point, Quasi Adafo Menza said that, where he said, I have to do, we have to do what's best for the Minnesota Vikings to get back to the playoffs. And as of right now, there isn't a lot of evidence that what's best to get them back to the playoffs is to roll into a 2020s training camp with J.J. McCarthy and Carson Wentz or Sam Howell or anybody of the like. Yeah, I think your point about Daniel Jones is a good one because I think in a perfect world for the Vikings, it would have looked last summer, the quarterback room would have looked like Daniel Jones, J.J. McCarthy, and probably Max Brosmer.

And even though we gave J.J. McCarthy grace throughout the training camp period, because he was growing, there were days where he looked good. There were days where if you zoomed out, you could say this offense is going to look good. If you really look back to the summer, it was shaky. And there wasn't any competition. It was Sam Howell looking much, much worse than Jay Jim McCarthy. So it was never a question, is he going to be the starter heading into this season? He was.

It was his job, no doubt about it. If Daniel Jones is in that training camp, he probably does win the job. And then we're probably having a completely different conversation right now. Maybe one where we don't have any answers about J.J. McCarthy, at least to our eyes, they probably still have some pretty good answers from just practice day to day, his development on that front. But it's not as front-facing as it is now. And that's why, because of how everything's played out, it's become glaring.

Like there is a deficiency there. Kevin O'Connell talked about we want to produce the most talent or bring in the most talent possible into this quarterback room. I mean, and at times this season, J.J. McCarthy was the most talented player in that quarterback room. And it simply wasn't good enough. So you asked Quasi daffamensa about kind of the thought process and going back in evaluating himself and in the decisions he made. I asked Quasi D'Auf Menta

if he thinks they miscalculated how ready J.J. McArthur was to be the guy this season. And I think that does coincide back to the Daniel Jones conversation. If he would have signed here, they would have felt a heck of a lot more comfortable because what Quasi Dauphamensa said was we were going off some incomplete information. He admitted that they were kind of hopecasting what this kid could be because everything they had seen to that point, the improvement from rookie mini camp to training camp to the preseason game, the preseason game against the Raiders. Everything you had seen was, if he keeps going on this trajectory, he's going to be good. But Quasi Dauv Ments admitted that they in some ways were trying to project something that they

did not know without it with an incomplete data set. And I think that's how we end up to where we are right now. So yes, I think they're going to try to correct, maybe even overcorrect the mistake they made last year because the backdrop of all of this, they still don't have a playoff win under their belt. This regime that came in together in the name of collaboration in 2022 has now been passed by by every team in the NFC North, including Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson, who just won a playoff game and will be preparing to play another playoff game this weekend. The Vikings are firmly right now at the bottom, and they have to figure out. a way to get themselves back into that conversation in the NFC North, the only way to do that is to make sure the quarterback position is solidified going into 2026. You can't do that by just hoping J.J. McArthur's going to take growth, make strides over the offseason. He might. I'm sure

he will grow. But what does that look like in training camp that needs to be, you know, performed against someone else who's proving himself as a starter in the league? I think what nobody wants to admit is that they moved on from Sam Darnel because of the last two games. And there's a break in the logic chain when you listen to Quasi da Fulmenta talk about it because he said, well, certainly I've stayed up a lot of nights staring at the ceiling thinking about those decisions that were made at the quarterback position, which again, doesn't exactly scream we love where we're at. But when you think about it, he went back to the process. Now, I have been very much in favor of the rookie quarterback contract and taking advantage of that and spending

around and look all over the league. You see it in the playoffs now with Bo Nix, with C.J. Stroud, you know all the names. And even the Carolina Panthers got into the playoffs after spending a lot around Bryce Young and played a competitive football game against the Great Rams. That process I have fully agreed with. And I think everyone can see the logic in that. But where the chain kind of breaks for me is, when he talks about the incomplete information because this was the trouble with going into this year with J.J. McCarthy is that if he had developed behind the scenes for an entire year, then you would have said, all right, we are very, very sure because we have seen him throw a thousand passes as the scout team quarterback and he's nailing it. He's got the timing down. He just looks like

he's ready to explode. And, you know, that was maybe the case with a Patrick Mahomes or an Aaron Rogers or a Jordan Love, who their teams got to evaluate them. And then when they made those moves, they made them confidently because they knew what they were dealing with behind the scenes. This team had very, very little information. We're talking about second team reps for a couple months of practice and then one preseason game against the terrible Las Vegas Raiders second teamers. And I was impressed.

You were impressed. And we understood why he called them the franchise quarterback. But when you have that plus. not practice for an entire year, you don't see any of him. And then you still make that decision. To me, it says, we just felt like Sam Darnold couldn't get us over the top because of the way he played in the last two games. Now, I guess he hasn't won the Super Bowl yet, but he did win the conference.

And he did lead the best offense in Seattle Seahawks franchise history. So I think the other part that they missed was it wasn't just you. It wasn't just your. coaching, your wide receivers, your offensive line, that that guy deserved a lot of credit. But had J.J. McCarthy got them to the playoffs, I think we would have said, well, all's well, that ends well for everybody. It's they did exactly what you asked about. They misunderstood how much they could pump him up. And they also misunderstood how much he would be reset by the injuries back to day one, which leaves you with, then why didn't you just keep Sam Darnold and go forward?

Now, it's a tough review because we had talked about this before. If they kept Sam Darnold, then fans would be screaming out for J.J. McCarthy with every bad game and so forth. But I do think that there was an easy path to that, which was just to say the injury set him back. It's unfortunate. We have to treat this like a rookie quarterback situation. They chose not to. They felt that they were swinging big and investing a lot of money in other positions. and Dane overall, when you review the dollars spent versus production,

there are other players in the league that signed for a lot less at the running back position, the guard position, the defensive tackle position, the ones that they so desperately needed because they thought they could recreate Sam's performance, and they did not perform up to that level. So, well, the process of building around the rookie contract makes total sense. You also can't just toss heaps of money at everything, that is a free agent and expect that to work. It feels like they went with a chainsaw and not a scalpel into last off season and then

came out on the other side and went, you know, here's what we missed, X, Y, and Z. And now it's on them to correct it. So coming out of this, how do you feel like they will correct it? Like, did you hear in your mind as they're talking, we need a new starter? Did you hear in your mind? we definitely need competition. I mean, we didn't hear it's just going to be a regular old backup. So now we can eliminate that.

There's going to be competition. They've set it. But what degree of competition? Yeah. I mean, I think it's going to be somebody whenever it happens, however it happens, that we'll probably look at and say, that guy is the clear front runner to be the starting quarterback in 2026. And to your point earlier, if we get to July,

2026 in August 2026 and the guy that you brought in is far inferior to J.J. McCarthy. And then that means J.J. McCarthy's taking massive strides and that's a good thing for you. And then J.J. McCarthy gets to be the starter. But you still have the insurance of that guy in the room, too. I think it's going to be a pretty big swing. I like Joe Barrow. No, I don't know. Lamar Jackson. I don't know. Justin Herbert. My problem with those three names is like, why the heck with their teens trade their guy because then they're going to be looking for a guy like their guy. But yeah, I would assume they make a call. Like, why not unturn that stone and figure out if that guy's available?

But I think you've been kind of banging the table for Kyla Murray. That makes sense to me because it's a guy who, for all of his warts, when he's on, he's a top 10 quarterback. So you're not going to get the picture perfect franchise quarterback. the guy who, you know, the Patrick Mahomes, the Josh Allen, every single guy, regardless of who it is that you end up on, every single guy you're evaluating and would this guy make sense for us next year, is going to have warts. That's the way it's going to go. But you have to figure out then like what is worth kind of dealing with, like the issues that might pop up, the deficiencies in this person's game. Is that still going to be enough to then take us over this hump that we are out?

right now or this inflection point that we're at right now with such an unknown at the quarterback position but i think it's going to be a pretty big name i think it's going to be somebody that whenever it happens however it happens like i said we will look at each other and say yeah i think he's kb1 until further notice i would be pretty surprised if it was somebody underwhelming where it was a pretty clear cut like this is going to be a definite competition they just didn't talk about it that way go back and really listen to how Kevin O'Connell and Casey Offa Mentsa just talked about the decision that they're going to make. It didn't sound like we believe in J.J. McCarthy and we want him to win this competition.

It sounded like he's going to have to prove it. And I think in order to prove it, it has to be a clear-cut established guy who has been a starter in the past. Right. I don't think that this franchise is in a position to sit around and wait any longer to have good quarterback play, if not really good quarterback play. And the reason that I would go into the Kyler Murray Waters of thinking about that is one. I mean, he's your clear-cut starter from day one. But the emphasis numerous times on explosive plays. And I think what Kwezi Adolfo Mensa was getting to,

because we know that Kevin O'Connell believes in downfield passing. But I think what Kwaysi Adolfo Mensa was getting to is they know the numbers of when they create explosive plays. How often do you win? How many points do you score? and they don't have a lot of options where you would look at and say, oh, that guy, he's an explosive play monster. I mean, Kirk Cousins can throw the ball down the field,

but probably not to the degree that he used to. And I believe they were throwing about 30% of their passes behind the line of scrimmage to Bejohn Robinson and, you know, Kyle Pitts when he was in Atlanta this year to get them through those games. Mack Jones is not a downfield type of passer. We saw him running an underneath offense for San Francisco. Daniel Jones is probably just returning to the Indianapolis Colts because they love him there and it'll likely be a multi-year deal. But he was never a deep shot artist himself.

Kyler Murray is the guy who is the number one draft pick in part because he has a major league baseball arm and can push the ball down the field. And when he was with DeAndre Hopkins, they had a lot of success in doing so. That's just to me like a tea leaves type of situation. They might have no interest whatsoever. They might be referring to Russell Wilson for all I know. Probably not, though, right? Probably not. I think that it does narrow our discussion about which quarterback is the most interesting to the Minnesota Vikings because that person has to be able to execute throws 20 or 30 yards down the field with timing.

And I know that Murray is not necessarily thought of as a stand in the pocket and deliver on time. But when it comes to downfield passing, he does have the arm talent to do it. And then we know about the legs and the playmaking that he has. that's just a thought for me coming out of this press conference. I don't think any of us truly knows exactly what they have in mind, but it felt like they know what they have in mind. And this is something that they may have been discussing for weeks. And I don't want to say that that means J.J. McCarthy's career is over.

He's very young. They could look for a one-year solution. And whoever they bring in could get hurt in week three. And then it's back to J.J. McCarthy. But the onus is now turned to him. And I also thought that the discussion of his fundamentals was interesting as well because Kevin O'Connell basically said, I didn't actually stop coaching JJ's fundamentals. I told you guys that so you'd stop talking about it.

And if you weave through the way the phrasing, like that's what I took away is, guys, I would never stop trying to teach someone fundamentals. I just, there was so much conversation about it, so many questions, so much noises, as he said, that he wanted. that noise to go away. And then he was asked specifically about the technical elements of what he needs to see from J.J. McCarthy. And the one remaining question here is how much can he do in the off season to get him

to a point where he could win a quarterback competition next year? O'Connell was very effusive in his praise about the progress that was made. And he kept going back to like, yeah, we just got completions. and stuff like that. But can you do it? Can you improve that much in one off season? That's the question I think we're really going to find out here. Yeah.

And I think it's something that he's tried to kind of use this season, like even if he wasn't talking about it front facing to us, as like a baseline, like a control variable, like this is where we're at. And like how different is it going to look come OTA's training camp? Like the thing with the NFL, season is like OTIAs will be here pretty quick before we know it. It's already January pretty soon. It'll be combine, then it'll be free agency, and then boom, it's May. So like how there's not a ton of time for him to just completely break down his fundamentals to the studs and build him back up. So

like how much can you grow? And that grows back to kind of what we've talked about from the moment they drafted him. How much can you improve your accuracy if you are inherently fairly inaccurate. And the only person who's been able to kind of take their wonky mechanics and go from being a really inaccurate guy early in his career to an accurate guy is Josh Allen, who is going to be a Hall of Famer. So like, do we think that level of talent is in J.J. McCarthy's body? Maybe it is, but there's nothing that would indicate that that's the growth trajectory that he's going to be on come this time May. So, like, there's just not a lot of. of time to totally like take the mechanics, the issues with the mechanics and fix them.

So I don't know how much he's going to be able to grow. And over the next few months, I think it's going to be obviously something that they talk about. I'm sure in exit interviews, there was a very clear plan. And this is what it needs to look like. This is what we want. They're going to work together throughout, you know, whenever they're allowed to within the parameters of the NFL rules.

I'm sure that there will be times. Jay J.J. McCarthy and Justin Jefferson get time together to throw and work on their chemistry. I believe J.J. McCarthy will do as much as he possibly can to be the quarterback that he thinks he can be. But, like, believing in yourself isn't always enough to then become a great quarterback in the NFL. A lot of busts probably believed in themselves over the course of their career, and it just didn't happen. So the story is not fully written on J.J. McCarthy, but I, I, I, I don't think you can confidently go into next season saying the mechanics will figure themselves out and he will just become more accurate. Everything that I want and everything we've talked about is just going to happen.

Because it didn't over the course of this season. And to the people that would criticize Kevin O'Connell for coaching his quarterback, that is what he is supposed to do. Like if a player lacks in some area, you are supposed to coach them to be better. And if J.J. McCarthy struggled to take that coaching and apply it onto the field, that's one thing. But if taking that coaching turned him into a worse player, then that's, that that is another issue that they'll have to, I think, confront over the course of his career. So there's a lot that that still needs to be determined with him. But I think when you just kind of zoom out and look at the information that we have, and it's still probably a pretty important. complete set of data going back to what Kwayziedoff and Mensa said. But I think you have more

information now. It should lead you into a direction of bringing in a solidified player at that position. I just think that that whole discussion psychologically felt better for Vikings fans than what was really happening. That, oh, it was the coach. He was overcoaching him. That was the explanation. That's what was really going on when I agree with you that if you're going to play in the NFL, whether it's a wide receiver coach, Keena McCartle, Offensive Line coach, backfield, whatever, you have to be able to take the direction of the coach and apply it on the field. And it's funny how things change because Kevin O'Connell's coaching with Sam Darnold was declared as brilliant. He won coach of the year. Wow, it's so great how he was so hands-on

with the quarterback. And then now, oh, he wasn't supposed to be. No, no, no. He's supposed to just let the guy go play. That was really the issue. No, that doesn't really stand to reason, that he needs to have his quarterback be coachable in order for them to have the most success possible. And I think that the easiest answer is the right one, which is you can't make a huge step fundamentally coming off of an injury where you start throwing in January and then you go to OTAs, you go to minicamp, and then you're trying to fix fundamentals in the middle of the season. I just don't think that it's that possible unless it's something that's small. Oh, you're overstriading. Why don't you just fix that? But if we're talking about multiple things,

the answer about his mechanics was very long. It shouldn't be. If you're in that spot and the Josh Allen thing, we have to remember too. I have become, I know probably people are tired of it, obsessed with this idea of how many passes J.J. McCarthy is thrown. Josh Allen in his first two seasons off the top of my head, I think it's probably about 900 to a thousand drop back. And in the NFL, and it wasn't until year three that his accuracy really took off that also correlated with Stefan Diggs showing up there, but where he really truly became an accurate quarterback. So when exactly will J.J. McCarthy hit 900 NFL passes when he's at 243, I think, right now. It just feels like too big of a leap. I don't think it means J.J. McCarthy's career has to be over

if he doesn't win a competition. Just the leap is very, very, very. large. So let's get to Brian Flores in that situation. Mike Tomlin is done in Pittsburgh. This just happened if you want to check your phone as we're recording this. But yeah, right. I mean, the coaching carousel is insane at this moment. The Raven's job is open. Brian Flores has been there for an interview. Pittsburgh, I would assume with their familiarity, has to check in with Brian Flores. But we also have a new wrinkle to this story. And Kevin O'Connell told us today that they are going to be or have been very aggressive, which to me, with Mike Patton retiring, says offering him an assistant coach job, potentially.

But the Washington commanders are now interested in Brian Flores, according to NFL networks, Ian Rappaport. There's another team now that not only will need a head coach, but a defensive coordinator. The Dallas Cowboys are still looming as a team that's clearly interested. I mean, it feels like every day we go by, new opportunities potentially arise, and the odds go down of Brian Flores staying. And as aggressive as they've been, he's not under contract yet. And when you just put your common sense cap on, it's still not under contract.

They've been working on this since last year. Other teams want him. I'm not sure how else I'm supposed to. interpret this day and is that it just doesn't feel like it's more likely now that he stays than that he potentially leaves. Yeah, because I believe the way it works is he could sign a contract to be your defensive coordinator still. And then if Pittsburgh says, hey, we just parted ways with Mike Tomlin, he stepped down,

we want to bring in for head coaching interview. You can still do that. Like, you're not committing to being the defensive coordinator just because you sign a contract. I do think part of it, maybe this is me being a little naive, is just like there are so many options right now. And that's probably driving up his price because his agent could say, well, Washington's interested in bringing him in for a DC job. You guys said you're going to be aggressive. Like, how aggressive are you going to be? Jerry Jones's checkbook is pretty big. Like,

how aggressive are you going to be? I think there is some element to that involved here of like, don't take the first offer, just wait and you'll probably get more money. But I do think it probably goes a little bit beyond that. I think if he was fully committed and fully like I want to be in Minnesota, we would have heard him say that and he probably would have signed a contract last off season. Like there, there is clearly enough at bay here for him to be wanting to look around and willing to look around. And obviously, if that's for a head coaching position, he's going to take it. But the fact that it is defensive coordinator position, defensive coordinator openings that that have seem to or at least reportedly piqued his interest, it's hard to at least not think about the

alternative of like, okay, if he leaves who else who is going to be available to fill that role for the biking. So I think part of it is just negotiation tactics. You see it sometimes with players. You see it all the time of players. You very rarely see it with coaches where they hit free agency and there's a bidding war for it. But he is a pretty unique guy. And in the skill set, He brings defenses he produces. He obviously has interest. I believe the Vikings, I believe Kevin O'Connell when he says we're being extremely aggressive. But we will know, like, obviously, like, the Vikings want him back.

So if he's not here, it's because he wanted to go elsewhere. And I think that is something that will have, like, very clear answers on. And then that will create more questions. Why did he want to leave if he does, in fact, leave? what motivated him to go elsewhere if it's not for another head coaching position, those questions will come to fruition if he's not back. Obviously, it is of the Vikings' utmost importance. And obviously, they're interested to keep him around.

But it might not be up to them. Yeah. I mean, as you hear that teams are now starting to call him about defensive coordinator positions, and he is going to be able to just weigh everybody, up against each other and pick, there's one thing that some of these teams that have that the Vikings don't. And you could say, well, he's a defensive coordinator. What does the quarterback position matter?

Well, look at their defense this year and how strained it was. And even Quasi Adolfo Mensa mentioned that when you play a certain way on offense, meaning bad and from behind, it's very hard to take the football away. If that's a main part of your ideal as a defensive coordinator is playing from ahead, playing super aggressive, taking the football away. Well, if you have no belief in the quarterback situation here, and you're talking about Kyla Murray and Mack Jones and Gino Smith and Kirk Cousins

versus Jaden Daniels, who is, well, he had a tough year this year, still a rising superstar in the NFL or Dak Prescott, who is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL and these NFCE teams, who are in bigger markets, by the way, and have in D.C., a new owner, ownership that their pockets are extremely, extremely deep. If you have that situation with Jaden Daniels, you could see Washington quickly turning it around and, okay, no, they don't have much talent. But what did the Vikings have when he got here?

Not a lot to work with. They went into free agency. They built it in his vision. He worked with the players to design their own scheme. And voila, they went from one of the worst defenses to one of the best very, very quickly. And if you're Washington, you're saying, okay. I've got this checkbook here and I don't have any numbers in it. Why don't you fill in the numbers?

Because Washington, you want to talk about desperation. They have a guy who took them to the NFC championship, but they had the worst defense in the entire NFL other than, you know, Dallas. And the same thing. Like Jerry Jones is a thousand years old. Even I think of Atlanta and Arthur Blank. Why did they sign Kirk to that contract? Because Arthur Blank's going, I want to win before, you know,

time takes its toll here. So there are other teams and there are still. so much in flux that it feels to me like if something is not done within this week, that then the odds really plummet because that means he's truly looking at all options. And it could be a little wild. Now that Pittsburgh is open, the Raven. I mean, those teams haven't been open for many, many years. Those are all-time great franchises.

So this thing's going to take forever to get sorted out. It's not like tomorrow. Oh, yeah, the three openings are filled. Half the league now feels like it's in flux in some way. way, either defensive coordinator or the head coaching position. And even if it's, imagine it's Pittsburgh, let's just say, and they hire Kevin Stefansky, but his main thing is, go get me Brian Flores. He was in Pittsburgh before, right? Like, there's so many possibilities there that each new possibility that opens up reduces the chances he comes back unless this aggressiveness

that they're talking about, he decides, okay, you know what, I'm not going to do it. But it's very clear that he left his options open for a reason and that he is going to take advantage of that. So if it's not soon, then, you know, I don't know if he's back. And then also other teams are looking at Durante Jones and the possibility of bringing him in as sort of a, you know, connection to Brian Flores, but someone who's absolutely earned the attention around the NFL, Harrison Smith has repeatedly praised him. He's been hugely important in their coverage unit, despite maybe not having the most talent in the league at corner or safety.

So there is a lot to be worked out here. And there's a scenario where we're talking about the Vikings not knowing who's their quarterback, who's their defensive coordinator, or even who their defensive back coach is because I would think Durante would be the guy in waiting to take over. I mean, there's just so much up in the air. This is why the NFL is always successful. Before we wrap up, tell me one thing, Dane, we'll get you a quick fan dual question. But I would like to know if there was anything else from the press conference that you heard from Kevin O'Connell that you would like to, or Acquacy daffomanza that you would like to highlight.

If the answer is no, that's fine. No, not really. I feel like the main goal today was to talk about J.J. McCarthy, figure out where they stand. That was accomplished. Talk about Brian Flores. See if their interest is still there. Obviously it is. That was accomplished.

And we even talked about Jordan Addison because he popped up in the news 15 minutes before we sat down. So that those three topics pretty much dominated the day. And so, I mean, like, are they going to resign Eric Wilson? They're going to try. But, like, that didn't matter today. So. I would like to find out some of those things. But, you know, maybe a little more time.

We got combine. Yeah. We'll get into the weeds. Right. There's, we got time. Let me ask you this. On Fandul, the Super Bowl favorite right now is the Seattle Seahawks and Sam Darnel at plus 270.

The Los Angeles Rams are second plus three. 20. And following that, New England Patriots have the fourth best odds at plus 550, Buffalo at plus 600, Denver at plus 800, and Houston at plus 900. So Seattle, L.A., New England, Buffalo, Denver, Houston. If I told you one of those teams won the Super Bowl, which one would it be? I think I've stuck with the Rams for most of this year. I think I'm going to still stick with the Rams. I think your championship games will more than likely, in my estimation, be the Rams versus the Seahawks. Stafford v. Arnold and the Bills versus the Patriots, Allen versus May. I think Stafford from that group, just the Rams, the collective they've proved to be,

taking nothing away from Seattle and the incredible season they've had, I've thought the Rams were the best team in the NFL for most of this year, even when they've hit lulls against the Carolina Panthers, and they still figured out a way to win it at the end. They are not a perfect team by any means, but nobody is at this point in the season. I don't think there is a runaway like Patrick's Mahomes, Tom Brady, level quarterback that you just point to and say,

they're going to the Super Bowl. So I'm going to go with the guy who's been there, done that, won it. Matthew Stafford, the coach who's been there, done that, won it, and the team that overall just throughout this season has felt like the best to meet. So the Rams, but man, an NFC championship game between the Rams and the Seahawks, that's what everybody wants. So let's make sure it happens this weekend. It could very well happen for sure with the Seahawks playing a San Francisco team that is very,

very banged up. I have the same matchup in the Super Bowl with the Bills winning because I think this is Josh Allen's year, but well, plenty to go. Just like our offseason, Danae Mizzati Pioneer Press, we will be on top of it and give you the play-by-play through the off-season of what happens along with much speculation and your thoughts, comments, and feelings as well. So thanks, everybody from TCO Performance Center. We will catch you next time. Football. Football.