Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jordan Addison is back -- how good can the Vikings offense be? (Part 1)

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about Kevin O'Connell's comments on Jordan Addison's return, what Carson Wentz had to say about getting ready to play with Addison and a conversation with FOX 9's Ahmad Hicks. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. 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 with you as always. And tonight, so we're going to talk a little Jordan Addison returning. Also, some good news on the injury report and some bad news as well. So we'll get to that, your questions. And then later on this evening, Amad Hicks from Fox 9 is going to join for our nine questions. where I ask Ahmad nine questions and we break it down. And I've got a lot of guests coming on through the rest of the week.

I mean a lot. It's going to be the fantasy show. If you guys have caught that, that's always a fun time. And I've got a first time guest coming up, got Andrew Kramer with the hardcore breakdown. I've got Andrew Filiponi from Pittsburgh. So all of that is to look forward to in the coming days.

But Ahmad will join later on tonight. And I want to start off with the Fandul question of the day because it relates very closely to the conversation. And that is Jordan Addison over under 42.5 yards on Fandul for Sunday's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. How many yards and receptions if you want do you expect Jordan Addison to get in his return? I would throw it out there that had a pretty darn good return the last time he came back from a short absence against the Green Bay Packers.

If I recall correctly, didn't he catch like a four? 40-yard touchdown on the first drive. So 42 and a half is the over under there. But I think Jordan Addison's return will lead us into a bigger conversation about the Minnesota Vikings offense and just what the expectations are now with quarterback uncertainty. But a lot of the weapons back, Donovan Jackson on the shelf with his surgery. But Darisaw back and today, the best news of the day for the Vikings on the injury report is that Ryan Kelly practiced in full. And well, I actually thought Michael Juergens, outside of some issues

with penalties, did a really good job. It did have one high snap. And I don't think he's ever mastered that entirely from what we saw in training camp. The snapping was an issue at times. And one day, they even put Joe Huber in there because I think they got a little frustrated with Jurgens and the snapping. But his actual blocking performance, run blocking and pass protection, which was a big concern. for a lot of folks during training camp. Do they need a different backup center? Do they need a veteran? And I think Juergens showed that he could go in there

and at least hold his own. But he's not Ryan Kelly. He's not a four-time pro bowler. It's not the size of Ryan Kelly. He's not a first-round draft pick. So having him back, at least Blake Brandel gives you an experience left guard who has played well before in stretches in the NFL

and then Derasaw all world. So the offensive line is very, very close to being its complete self, Although I would say missing Donovan Jackson is unfortunate because of his athleticism adds something different. But getting Ryan Kelly is not only just someone who is large, but also somebody who is very highly experienced, very highly intelligent to go up against the defense that has a lot of talent on it. Even though it may not have been the best so far this season in Pittsburgh, they've got a lot of skill players there in their front seven, a lot of great defensive line. talent that Ryan Kelly will help Carson Wentz, no doubt, block against. But the big story today, we talked with Jordan Addison for a few minutes. Jordan is not the most talkative guy in the entire world, but you could tell from the

smile on his face, just how excited Addison is to be back in the building, talked about how important it was the last two weeks to be back around his teammates. And he got a chance today for the very first time to work out with his quarterback. So here's Carson Wentz talking about getting to play with Jordan Addison for the first time. Jordan Addison, I mentioned that today was really the first time you guys got a chance to throw. What do you think of him as a receiver? What do you know about him? And then what's it going to be like trying to get up to speed with him?

For sure. Yeah, this was the first time I've seen him live on the field. And so it's fast and furious. To be honest, a lot of things are still kind of first. And so I just throw him into the mix as well. Obviously, I've seen his game from afar, extremely talented, the way he gets in. out of breaks just kind of his competitiveness. I've seen that from afar. Now I'm looking forward to seeing that up with him personally, but I know I'm excited to have him back.

Everybody else is raving about having him back as well. So I think everybody's pretty excited. Do you guys expect extra practice work throughout the week here? As much as you can. There's only so much. At the end of the day, they need to be ready to run on Sunday. So there's only so many extra things you can do on that front. But when we can, we definitely. There was Carson Wentz there talking about getting Jordan Addison, although it was very interesting to watch Jordan Carson Wentz on Sunday throw with anticipation

to wide receivers and tight ends that he had never played with before. So I asked him about that today of how is it that you're able to lead wide receivers out of their breaks when you're just getting to know them and obviously there's a connection there with Jordan Addison where he's never really thrown

with him before, just doing it for the first time. In the middle of the week, they have to travel to Europe and still try to get their, practicing and here's what Wentz said. Wes Phillips was talking about your ability to throw with anticipation when you've just sort of learned an offense, how were you able to kind of go out there and still do that? Great question. I think the play calls, you know, the extra time that coaches have put in to help me understand timing, spacing, all the things within this system. You know, there's

there's still a lot of carryover within this system to other teams I've been on. You know, it might be called something different. There might be little nuances and intricacies, but at the same time, you know, throwing into zone versus cover three is still, there's still the same window. So, you know, just understanding the timing and the footwork that the coaches have been super helpful in me understanding since I've got here. That helped a lot. And I think that showed up on Sunday. Carson Wentz there talking today. And I'll bring you one more. What Kevin O'Connell had to say about how Jordan Addison fits himself back in in a receiver room that has added Adam Thielen along with also having Jalen Naylor. How much does having him back at

pages to the playbook possibly or does it just unlock things for other guys that everybody bumps up yeah i think it's probably more so the latter just just uh from a standpoint of his role clearly you know is is a role that um he's kind of really made for himself over his time here uh knowing how versatile and all the things we do with justin jordan's kind of the same way um he can be at any position in our formation um and then that's where i'm really excited about having both Jalen and Adam, you know, to really kind of fuel having, you know, the best group we can have fresh. We can keep the group fresh, specifically with Jordan working his way back in. And that should have bode really well for, you know, being able to hopefully play our most

consistent game yet. Is there something about his skill set that's enabled him to be productive regardless of who's been the quarterback in college here? Yeah, I think, you know, he's very, very unique from a standpoint of his route running. His ability to use the tools of our offense, albeit motion, alignment, stacks, and bunches, and different variations of how we play to be able to get on edges. And then he's got such unique separation

ability throughout the different levels of routes. He can win early. He can win late. And then he's proven time and time again, just how elite catcher of the football he is. So I think that's a. You know, that's Jordan, the training camp he had, you know, if you asked me to, you know, have, you know, figure out the podium of first, second and third place of the best training camps we had, he would for sure be on the podium. KOC there on Jordan Addison, I want to point out that in training camp, or maybe it was mini camp, there was a clip of me asking J.J. McCarthy about being a thrower of the football and Rich Eisen used the clip and made fun of my phrase.

He didn't know it was me, but just the question asker. And I just want to point out that Kevin O'Connell says that all the time. So it was clearly in my brain, the catcher of the football, Jordan Addison. Well, he is very good. As a catcher of the football, there is no doubt about that. And I think that what you heard there was just how dynamic this offense becomes when Jordan Addison is out there. And while they have survived in years past at times without him,

I think when you look at his career numbers, the different places he's lined up. He's been a slot outside that you mentioned all the different types of things. He's been 30% a slot receiver in his career. And I think that shows you that he can line up just about anywhere, do just about anything. His deep numbers are good. His underneath numbers are good. Two years, 204 targets for Jordan Addison and almost, well, I guess just over 1,800 yards, 19 touchdowns. I mean, those are probably what, top 30 wide receiver numbers to add on to having

Justin Jefferson. And the reality is that this group is not given them a whole lot outside of Jefferson and T.J. Hawkinson, it's also had the wonky quarterback play, a game where you get to defensive touchdowns and you're blowing them out. So the offensive numbers are horrendous when it comes to throwing to wide receivers so far, but they will eventually get into games where you're using the wide receivers a lot more. And I think we're going to see a lot from Jordan Addison. I think it's clear that I would go with the over when it comes to the Fanduil question of

the day. But why don't we get into your answers, your thoughts? And the main question for tonight here is how good can the Vikings offense be? And I think that that starts with us using a couple of game sample size of the next two weeks where we know that it's going to be Carson Wentz, and then we could talk about what goes on forward and where the expectation should be set. Because when you think about getting a receiver back in the lineup

that has 1,800 yards and 19 touchdowns over the last two years to go along with Jefferson, and by the way, T.J. Hawkinson looked a lot more sharp, I think, when his quarterback was throwing with anticipation, and he was seeing him come out of breaks and getting the football to where it was supposed to be. and that was the Hawkinson that we expected throughout really the end of last year, but also at the beginning of this year that had not shown up.

And there is always that chicken and the egg thing of is it the wide receivers not getting open? Is it the quarterback not throwing them open? Is it actually is it the chicken egg, egg chicken chicken egg because there's four or five different factors. Is it KOC in the play calling? Is it the protection? Is it the tight end having the chip, which has been. brought up, you know, at times. And I think that what we saw last week is how the offense in KOC's vision is supposed to look. But we mostly saw that to wide receiver one and

tight end one. But how does that pertain to Jordan Addison and having the full bevy of weapons back with this passing game? And clearly the ceiling is higher when you have Addison there. But as we're trying to figure out what this offense can really be over the next two weeks where it's two talented defenses. One's playing amazing, and that's Cleveland. The other has not played well in Pittsburgh, but my goodness, they've got an all-star team worth of guys over there, so you'd think that they would start to figure it out. Eventually, I think the ceiling for the next two weeks is, can you be just good enough and win with your defense? That is where you set the bar when you have a backup quarterback in the game, even if he's been really good before in his career in Carson

Wentz, even if he played extremely well. And let's not forget, I mean, the defense, yes, did score two touchdowns. They ended with 48. I mean, they moved the ball incredibly well last week. It was Cincinnati. It was not Cleveland. It was not even Atlanta, who doesn't have a great defense overall, but certainly better than Cincinnati, who struggled over the last few years to put anything together with their roster. And that probably factored into how successful they were in the run and the past game. Last week, the offense looked like a team that could score 30 points a game. I don't know if we can really expect that from Carson Wentz.

And he did bemoan the fact that he took some sacks. He said when he looked back at the tape, he realized, yeah, I need to get rid of the football. I need to throw it away. That's an area of improvement. They should be a little bit better there with Ryan Kelly in. But I also think that at least one of the sacks was purely on Carson Wentz, holding the ball too long. maybe another one was Jordan Mason not because they PFF only gave one of the sacks to an

offensive lineman and he gave it gave the other two to somebody else. I think Mason got one and then Wentz was probably dinged with the other one. So he does have to improve there that he can't take bad sacks that put them back. They can't have penalties, which happened to them. And they can't rely on getting eight yards of carry from Jordan Mason against the next two teams, especially Cleveland, who has been extremely good at stopping the run and totally stifled the Green Bay Packers' ability to run the ball. They also shut down, you know, Joe Burrow in week one. Like, that's a, that's a really good defense and an amazing defensive line. Even just

outside of Miles Garrett, they've got a lot of talent. So I think that, I mean, how many points is expected from an offense with a quarterback who just got here a month ago, with a quarterback who's been a backup, but all the weapons, and we know how it all can work together when it's clicking. Even, you know, he talked many times about the Nick Mullins portion of that, of just getting the ball to the right places and he throws for 400 yards. And I mean, some of that was because those were shootouts. But Mullins often threw the ball to the right person in the right place. And in Kevin O'Connell's offense, if you do that, on time, you will have generally a lot of success. But even for the bigger picture for this season, where do we set the bar for this team

in order to call them a contender? Because watching the defense, looking at them at full strength, seeing what they really look like with Harrison Smith, which is a different team, I thought, with Harrison Smith out there, getting healthier as they get Blake Cashman back later in the season, though Eric Wilson has been phenomenal in two out of the three games. you know, the defensive ceiling is the best defense in the league. And even if they don't finish number one in points, they could still be the best considering who they're going to play in the future.

But they have the ceiling of being a top five defense. So how good do you have to be? Their special teams is playing well. They're getting good returning. They're getting good kicking. They're actually getting good punting and good punt coverage. I'm writing about Ty Felton. Maybe some of you who watch the press conferences heard me ask that.

to Kevin O'Connell, got a piece coming out on that. So they've been good in a lot of those areas on defense, on special teams, outside of offense. But if you play the way that you played the first couple weeks, that's not going to go anywhere. You're not going to win any games. If you play the way you played last week, well, you're going to win every game, but you're not playing Cincinnati every single week. So where are we setting the bar for this team to truly compete in the NFC North? Folks, I know a lot of you out there either own your own business or you are in a management

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in order to make the playoffs. I think in the NFC this year. I think that's fair to say that 10 and 7 is the old 9 and 7. And you have a lot of competition. You have teams like the Rams, Seattle, Washington, Philly. You know, I may be probably only one team out of the South because it's the South, but there's going to be a lot of competition for those playoff spots this year. So how good does that offense have to be with all these weapons?

and my answer would be, I think, like, 13th. That's the number that popped into my head first, was I don't think that you have to be first, but I don't think you could be 20th. And we have kind of seen the extremes of that a little bit, not first under KOC, but last year at times their offense was very exciting and put up huge point totals in a couple of games.

And I think finished in the top 10 last year with Sam Darnold, And that was good enough for 14 wins with a relatively easy schedule. With a harder schedule, if you have the same offensive performance, maybe you end up with 12 wins or 13 or something like that. But I think it has to be in that there's going to be tiers of it. There's going to be, it looks like, the Buffalo tier, the Lions tier, probably the Ravens tier if Derek Henry stops fumbling the football that are way up there. And then I think you've got to be in that maybe second.

back end of the second tier offenses in order to still compete when you have a top-notch defense. But how good do you guys think that they have to be? So we'll look at your thoughts on Jordan Addison, the Fandul question of the day, over under 42 and a half yards for his return and whatever else is on your guy's mind this evening. So Aaron has four receptions for 55 yards for Jordan Addison. I mean, it doesn't seem like this is, well, this is kind of hard. to say because I was just about to say this doesn't feel like the type of game where we get 600 yards passing between the two teams because they're overseas, the weird schedules,

there's not always offensive explosion games when it comes to playing in London, at least, as a sample size, but I would assume that Dublin this applies for as well. We don't know what the playing surface is going to look like. I think that's a legitimate conversation. So is this going to be an explosion of offense game? I would expect it to look more like the Jets game, which was pretty gnarly last year. Or even if we go to 2022 against New Orleans,

pretty ugly offensively there. They needed a pass interference. They got them like 40 yards to win that game. And we go back to 2017 where, I don't know, do they have six points in the first half against Cleveland before running away from a really bad Cleveland team in the second half? So a lot of these games that have been overseas,

have not exactly been beauty contests. So I'm not setting the bar for Jordan Addison and, hey, 120 yards right out of the gate because I don't know how much passing yards they're going to end up with. If they end up with 210 passing yards, that might be a pretty good day. At the same time, this is a Steelers team that let the Jets score 30 plus against them and nearly beat them with a bunch of screen passes and stuff. So maybe COC could get that screen game going against the Pittsburgh team that's, seems to struggle to tackle. But I think four catches for 55 yards, C.J's got five for 70.

That's, I think, a pretty good number there, maybe setting the bar a little bit on the high side, depending on how it goes. I mean, how many passes do you end up throwing? If Jordan Mason's playing the way that Jordan Mason played last week against Pittsburgh, you might only need 20 completions in the game to win or less to win if he's playing like that. You know, maybe you end up 17. for 27 or something and that can win you a game if Mason is so much in control like he was last week though I assume Pittsburgh is going to have it on their their big whiteboard stop Jordan Mason as a thing that they circle for this week so five for 70 would be a little on the high side for me not that we haven't seen that for Madison before but that would

be a really good day chicken I'll just call you that says did you know Notice the joy Carson Wentz approached his press conference today with. It was very telling to me, and it made him so much easier to root for in McCarthy's absence. Yeah, I mean, since Carson Wentz has gotten here, I mean, I think he has really had a lot of enthusiasm for being a Minnesota Viking. That was before he knew he was going to play. You could see that with him when he talked about walking through the halls and looking at all the pictures of guys that he had grown up rooting for as somebody who came down from, The one of the, I think he's from North Dakota. I don't want to mess that up.

I know he went there, you know, college wise, but I think he's from North Dakota. So coming down to the Twin Cities, to the Metrodome and cheering on the Vikings and then, you know, someday you're wearing your favorite team's colors. I mean, that's pretty cool, you know, for these, these folks who play football, they get to play a kid's game for their entire career. So having that kind of memory for him, loving football, seeing. the Vikings coming down, you know, now playing for the team. I think he's been really happy to be a Minnesota Viking. And, you know, but to your point, I didn't know how he was going to approach being the backup.

And when we first spoke to him, I mean, I've not been around Carson Wentz before. I've seen a press conference or two, but I've never spoken to him before. So I didn't know what we were expecting. Sometimes you get a guy who's been a veteran before who's like, I could still play in this league. Like, don't ask me questions about being a backup or helping the start. and you're like, okay, man. But in this case, he was enthusiastic the entire time about talking with McCarthy about

his preparation, helping McCarthy get ready for those first two games. I think he was well prepared to do that for the entire season, just like he did for Patrick Mahomes, just like he did for Matthew Stafford. Like he had done that before, but now it has to feel like a second life for him. because in Washington 2020, that's a bad situation. That was a, that's a team that was just falling apart and it wasn't coached well and the ownership thing was going on and it was just a total mess. So the last time he got to play with a halfway decent team,

he was one game away from making the playoffs. They fall apart in the last game of the season, 2021 with the Colts. They missed the postseason. And then after that, he only starts a couple of games until now. So for him, this has to feel, and you walk in too and look around and there's Jordan Addison back and Jefferson. And I agree with what KOC said, by the way, if I was giving out, maybe we need that to be an award of like who gets the podium for the best camp. It probably would have been Grenard, Jordan Addison. I'd have to think about who else.

But I mean, Granard and Jordan Addison were both dominant players during training camp, probably Jordan Mason, I think. I think we probably talked about that 50 times during camp. Like, this guy looks pretty legit. So Jordan Mason, you know, he gets him out there and is probably throwing, you know, some balls to him in practice being like, okay, you know, after having Justin Jefferson catch a ball from him where he throws it eight yards in the air and he turns it into 36 last week. So, you know, I would be pretty pumped too because you get to land in the situation wherever

Every quarterback has talked about wanting to be, including Aaron Rogers, who they're going to play this week. Aaron Rogers wanted to be here. Everybody, I think, wants to play quarterback with this group of weapons and with KOC in their headset after what happened last year with Sam Darnold. So I'd be pretty pumped too. But I agree with you. I think that his overall attitude has been very, very professional since arriving here. And seems like a guy who's just very happy to be in Minnesota and to have this operational. opportunity. So yeah, I agree with you. And that I think is, you know, part of like the bigger

discussion about Carson Wentz. And when we were talking about, you know, the disappointment from fans that J.J. McCarthy got hurt. And I made the metaphor about going to see a movie with Brad Pitt and then 10 minutes in. I take over for him. And you're like, wait a minute. I didn't sign up for this guy. So, like, I get it. But I think you can separate wanting J.J. McCarthy to be the long-term answer and the franchise quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, well, also looking at a guy like Carson Wentz, and I know, you've seen this many times, you've been forced to root for this type of guy many times, but it's still a good potential story here that Wentz shows up after being such a journeyman and gets his

chance to play. And if he guides them through and they win games, like that's really cool for him. So I think you can put those two things in two different buckets of being disappointed that J.J. McCarthy's not playing, but also not, you know, turning your TV off on Sunday morning because it's not J.J. McCarthy. Like, I think Carson Wentz is not only a good story of a guy who is getting his opportunity with the franchise that he grew up rooting for, but also I think he has been a good quarterback before and really wants to prove that he still is. And I made, last year, I talked with Rich Gannon for a story, and I made that comparison with Sam Darnold, who really became Rich Cannon, truly, like Oakland Raiders, Rich Gannon, but it's the same

kind of thing. And we have seen it a number of times through the NFL, where, you know, starting quarterback, and it has a fall apart, is a backup for a little while, comes back, wins games, and I know some of you will say, well, how often did they win the Super Bowl? Sometimes, I don't know, sometimes, but at least for now, like, let's not put the, you know, cart before the horse here. They have two games to win, and then we'll see where it goes from there. Because if they go one and one, if they go oh and two, you're kind of going to look at it like, what is this season? If they go two and oh, I think it's a much clearer path that they would likely stay with Carson

Wentz going forward out of the buy week, and then you see where it goes. And if he has two really good games, you might feel. like look around guys this this man can seriously compete in the nfc and even though i think a lot of jared goff and you know i think a lot of jordan love too i think those are both very good quarterbacks neither one of them is crazy better than carson went at his absolute best and it's not like he's 47 he's like 33 uh we kind of treat him like he's about a hundred years old so i don't know like i think what you're talking about is uh like put that in just two different places in your mind of wanting McCarthy to come back and Carson Wentz could be very good for your team.

Nick has five catches, 90 yards and a touchdown for Jordan Addison. That would be a huge day. Nick says, KOC joked about the chill caused by him calling four runs in a row. Was he staring me down? I'll tell you the truth, I'm not the only one to have taken note that Kevin O'Connell does not always run the football and stick with the run. And in fact, Kevin O'Connell himself is well aware of the fact that he has not done that. Like, he knows what the numbers are. He knows what the offense has looked like in the past few years.

And I think that what he would say about that is it's not that he doesn't want to. And that was part of the answer. It's not that he doesn't want to give the ball to Jordan Mason. It's that in years past, he hasn't felt like he could really slam the throttle down. Now, I think there were times where he could have. there was the time against Chicago where he's got Dobbs out there throwing 35 passes when they're averaging five yards of carry. Or there's the time, you know, against Green Bay where you're up 17 points, you kick a field goal, you're up three scores and you're running away with the game and instead you're throwing an interception, the red zone. The last time they were in London, I know that Aaron Jones was hurt, but you're throwing third and 16 passes.

Like, yeah, there's been plenty of times where it's been very reasonable to say, okay man that's that's that you can run there it's okay it's a wind some clock or something but i think what gives him a lot of confidence to do that is when you dial up a play call outside zone here you go seven yards eight yards nine yards and you're like well don't i just push that button again that is what gives you a lot of confidence and i also think with jordan mason one of the things i I really like watching him run is that there will look like there's nothing there. It's collapsed and he'll just push somebody for two and a half yards. And while that's not amazing, that's still a good positive run for Jordan Mason where we

had seen in the past, you know, Madison when it wasn't working for him or even Aaron Jones last year, I thought at times he had wiggled to him and he would kind of sometimes get a few yards where there was nothing, but he would also get caught at times where he runs into a brick wall and he's just not big enough. Jordan Mason is big enough. So I think KOC has shown us a little bit early on that he's willing to do that. I think the first two games needed more of Jordan Mason. And all of us, myself, all of you guys who said, hey, man, I want more, want more Jordan

Mason, just like the, I want more cowbell, S&L bit. Like, you know, I got a fever. And the only thing that could cure it is more Jordan Mason. Mason, I think everybody was a little bit justified there by the way that he played against Cincinnati. They need answers if he doesn't, but he looks like someone to me that can be consistent from week to week because of the way that he runs. Zach says, we know for sure, no McCarthy, week five, didn't see that. So we don't know 100% with, well, is week five the biweek?

So, yeah, I mean, no one's playing in the bye week, but not to be nitty. picky. As far as week four, I think you mean probably against Cleveland, I don't know that for 100 percent, but that's been reported that he would not play overseas. He is going to travel with the team, but we'll have to find out. I mean, even Kevin O'Connell today with his update on J.J. McCarthy, I don't know, did I play that earlier? His update on J.J. McCarthy was very, very If I didn't hear it is. Kevin, do you anticipate JJ practicing it all this week? McCarthy.

I don't have an answer for that right now. I just know that he's continuing to progress along and is into a kind of a different phase of that rehab from the initial kind of just the reactionary, kind of early treatment to that injury and swelling and kind of getting some of the healing started. And then now it becomes the strengthening, the mobility, and kind of building himself back. So not much of a real specific update about if he would practice this week.

Could he be ready to play against the Cleveland Browns? If I had to guess, if Carson went through three interceptions and they lost 28 to nothing, then I think that it would magically heal a little bit faster. And maybe he would be ready to play against Cleveland. And if the same thing goes, if they lost the Cleveland in a blowout, and it was really embarrassing and they lose both games and all of a sudden they're looking at a season on the brink you're probably going to see j j mccarthy coming out of the break there uh i think it makes a lot of sense to play cars and wents against two very nasty defenses especially

cleveland which has an argument for the best defense in the entire NFL so you'd rather have j j j mccarthy with a by week to be a hundred percent totally healed to go over and play i don't kevin o'connell has never said specifically that it wasn't going to happen. Tracy Wolfson reported, I thought I saw one other place. Maybe it was Schefter. I'd have to check on that about like him not playing until he comes out of the buy. But they've made it clear that they want him to be 100% if he gets back on the field, when he gets back on the field. It's hard to pick up any hints, though, of them saying, oh yeah, guys, he's definitely going to be back at this time. So none of us really know when J.J. McCarthy is going to get back. But that injury update right there. And you could tell Kevin

O'Connell, I think his least favorite part of the job is answering injury questions because that one was pretty pained as he was trying to get that out. But it was not, this is how it's going to go. This week, he's going to be at this point. And then next week he'll be ready to play. And they are truly playing this by ear. And if I had to guess, I would say they're playing this just by how Carson Wentz performs. And if he keeps playing well, then he's going to keep being the quarterback. And if he struggles and they lose and the season feels like it's coming apart at the seams, then you're going to see J.J. McCarthy come back and probably the hardest situation is if it's a little bit of this and a little bit of that, that would be the hardest.

If you win against Pittsburgh, lose against Cleveland, you come home going, I don't know, and then you're playing the Philadelphia Eagles. That is an incredibly difficult team to play. Nolan Smith went on IR and that helps and they've looked a little more human defensively than they did last year without Milton Williams but still that's not an easy matchup and then four days later

it's the LA Chargers I was just I was watching Jim Rome earlier clip of him talking with Steve Mariucci who was a former Detroit and San Francisco head coach and he asked him how he would handle this situation and Mariucci said I don't know

I mean, basically it was like, well, you know, if Wentz keeps playing well, and then if he doesn't, I don't know. I mean, I think everybody is in Wade and C mode about when he's coming back. But no, there hasn't been anything quite official. So, you know, Nick, I'm mostly, I'm just joking about the Rich Eisen thing. It was just funny to me that I ended up in a clip asking a question and he made fun of how I asked the question. But then I'm like, that's how KOC talks. I was just using their language, man, and that's all. It was, I didn't, I wasn't offended.

I'm a big fan of Rich Eisen. I just thought it was funny because I said throw out of the football because that's KOC's language, as you heard in that clip about Addison, where he said, a catcher of the football. And I think they all, like, use that type of terminology. Let's see. A grateful dad says there weren't any wide receivers running routes. the middle of the field last week.

Can't wait for Addison to get back. Yeah, that's, I'm trying to think about, there were a few. There were a few is mostly T.J. Hawkinson, I think, right? When he caught the ball in the middle of the field because there was one where Wentz did a little bit of a pump fake and then kind of just flicked it to T.J. Hawkins. I mean, it seemed like he was taking a similar approach to Kirk, where it was, I'm going to look at my first read. And if it's not there, then I'll probably just go.

to T.J. Hawkinson and keep the train on the track, which is a pretty good strategy for an offense. I think we've seen that work pretty well before. But, I mean, everything was open for them last week to the outsides. I would have to look at the next gen chart to see how many he completed over the middle of the field. But, you know, that's something that they will have to use at some point. I mean, that's where Hawkinson usually tends to live. They run a lot of crossing routes, especially deep type of crossing routes with Jordan Addison. And I guess that's what I wonder when it comes to Addison is like what type of route tree are we looking at because the guy hasn't played yet this season. I have no doubt he's in good shape, but he hasn't played yet this year. So getting

him like how many snaps do you want him to get? Do you want him to go play 50 snaps? That might be a lot for somebody in their first game coming back after being out a few weeks, not like he was injured, but It's just, you know, from a stamina perspective, are you having him run deep stuff? Are you getting the football into his hands quickly? I think he could do anything. And where he's specifically really good is those downfield routes where it's a double move and he can, you know, snap off a route and you could time it out. Like, that's where he's at his absolute best.

So will they be able to execute stuff like that with Carson Wentz? They did some of it last week and he pointed out that some reads are going to be the same versus some defenses pretty much no matter what and who you're facing. It just comes down to getting it right with the wide receiver for how many steps they're at and their timing and their speed and stuff like that. But no doubt, Addison makes this more dynamic. We just have not seen a lot from Adam Thielen in terms of targets. But we haven't seen a lot from anybody in terms of targets because the first two games,

they couldn't sustain drives. And then the second game or the third game, they blow out Cincinnati to the point. where you're just taking out starters and you're, you know, having Carson Wentz hand off a ton and only throw 20 passes. So everybody needs to get a little more involved. But yeah, I mean, when you have someone like Jordan Addison, you can use the middle of the field a lot better than before. Hunter says last week's Wendt's game reminded me of Sam Darnold's game against the Giants. I think it's a great comparison, a great comparison of, and I talk about this all the time, that it annoys me when quarterbacks are talked about as game managers because that's the game

most of the time. There's a handful of great throws, great plays that have to be made to win. And the guys who are unbelievable aliens like Allen and Mahomes and Lamar, those guys routinely do things that are highlight real worthy. But you know what? They also keep the train on the tracks and manage the game most of the time. Josh Allen does not throw. 50 passes down the field a game. He and he doesn't throw him off structure 50 times a game. It's five

times a game. And those five times for him are all time great. They're super special. They're incredible. But a lot of times it's take the snap. Where are you supposed to go with it? Get it out. Josh Allen throws a ton of short passes. I mean, that was what Carson Wentz did last

week was I think he was seven for eight on short passes. And I would be curious to look at since Allen was the MVP last year, how many passes of his were under 10 yards? I'm going to pull this up on PFF just out of curiosity. 40% of Josh Allen's passes last year were between zero and nine and 20% were behind the line of scrimmage.

So do some math. Yeah, that's 60% of Josh Allen, the MVP of the league. 60% of his passes last year were not over 10 yards. So that tells you just how much, game managing is important to succeed in the NFL. And I felt like last year, early on, Sam Darnold did an amazing job of game managing,

not making mistakes. Now, Wentz took too many sacks in the game and he knows that. It has to correct it. But, you know, and Darnold took the sacks too. And it was problematic for him at times. I think that's a feature of the KOC offense. I think it's hard not to take sacks when you have downfield routes sometimes.

but, you know, otherwise, when he was getting rid of the ball in those short areas, he was succeeding. Darnold did that too, and then hit one deep shot, hit two deep shots. For Wentz, he never had to go deep down the field, but he did get a couple of big plays in. One was a deep comeback that I think was maybe 20 yards or something for Justin Jefferson. There's another one that slant route that went for 36. So he was able to create a couple of explosive plays that way, but he probably will have to push the ball down the field a little bit more, and now it's easier to do that with Jordan Addison.

C.J says, how good can the offense be, health the side? It's going to come down to the quarterback. Can Went to have a Randall Cunningham run? You're looking at 98 to 2000 or Keenum level 2017 stack team everywhere else. So 98 is an aberration that will never be repeated probably for an all-time great. At the time, if I'm not mistaken, They scored more points in that season than had ever been scored by an offense in NFL history. So I don't think we're looking at that.

I don't think that we're looking at quite Sam Darnold's because, well, I did say that, you know, Carson Wentz is, what, 32 or 33, he's not 64. He's a little bit long in the tooth and not quite the athlete, maybe he was early in his career, where Sam Darnold was in his physical prime. And you still see it. Sam Darnold's playing great football for the Seattle Seahawks. Like he is, he is actually at an age. The funny thing, historically, and you guys know how much I like this stuff looking back at history and quarterbacks.

Historically, there's a ton of quarterbacks. And I mean a ton who did not hit their peak until 27, 28, 29, 30. I mean, Warren Moon, former Viking. I think his, what, his career didn't even start because he was in the CFL until he was 28, 29. 30. Jim Kelly was that way. Steve Young was 30 years old by the time he got to play. I've mentioned Alex Smith. I think was 27 or 28. I don't believe Eli Manning went to his first Pro Bowl until he was 28. This is also a J.J. McCarthy point on patience with quarterbacks. Baker Mayfield is now looking like a great quarterback. He's reaching his peak in his late 20s. So, you know, with Sam

Darnold, it was a little bit different for me because that was a former top draft pick. who looked like he was coming into his prime. I don't think that about Carson Wentz. I think that his prime is passed, but he certainly has a live enough arm and a quick enough mind to stand in there and make all the throws that Kevin O'Connell needs him to make. And that's where you can have a good offense and tying it back into what's the ceiling. Well, the ceiling on someone who's been around the block,

maybe isn't at their peak at this point. and has a strong arm and it lacks in mobility, et cetera, is not first in the league. It's just not. They probably won't have the best offense. But if they can have a good offense and do the other things well, you can win a lot of games. That, to me, is a Case Keenum conversation.

Where were the Vikings in scoring in 2017? They were probably, and that was a number one defense, but still, like they were probably something in the range of seven to 10 at that year. And the same with last year. And they finish up, I think, ninth or tenth in offense. If you can do that, then it's, you know, going to make a big difference. And, you know, Joe, I agree that the turnover has helped the offense score a lot of points. You know, that's true.

But also, like, look at the efficiency. I mean, what was it, 8.7 yards per attempt, 7.3 yards per run. Now, there's no denying it. I don't think, and this is what I just really didn't understand about some of the reaction to Wentz's game. Like, he played well. There's no doubt about it. I mean, there's really no debating it. When you can complete 70% of your passes at nearly nine yards a pass,

you play great football, period. Like there's really no debate about it. We don't have to downplay the way Carson Wentz played and how good that was just because you want to see J.J.J. McCarthy. I think, again, we can separate those things to this guy played really well. Can you play that well week in and week out? Can you get away with, as you're saying, you know, you got five turnovers, can you get away with something like, you know, the penalties,

the sacks that they got away with, are you going to get five turnovers? No, they need to be sharper than that. But from an efficiency, a play-to-play execution, it was good. It was very good. Pittsburgh's going to bring a better defense and Cleveland's going to bring a great defense and those will be better tests for how good Carson Wentz can be. And he's going to have almost a full offense. around him, which will be, it's, it's almost there without Donovan Jackson, but

Brandel's a starter. So we could say he's really going to have the full amount other than Aaron Jones of starters on offense. Rob is expecting a 45 to 17 type win. The Steelers looked very average. Rogers looks slow. I think the D-line will have more success against the Steelers this week than they had last week. Well, the D-line was phenomenal last week. They were all over, they were all over Jake Browning. And yes, Aaron Rogers does look very slow. And I know in Pittsburgh, they're having these debates about his PFF grade, which I always try to warn a little bit against single game or two games, three games.

Hey, in the last three games, this is a guy's PFF grade because football is such small sample sizes. Just for example, you have a couple bad plays or how about this, for example, you have a couple great plays for Isaiah Rogers, and he's like the highest graded corner in the league after this last game. Well, I think a lot of Isaiah Rogers, I don't think he's the best corner in the whole league, but right now is PFF grade. So I don't think that Rogers is the worst quarterback, but he's had a lot of turnover worthy plays. And that's where I think the Vikings could benefit. And, you know, we're just saying, hey, they're not going to have five turnover. It's like, if he plays the way he has the last, he's got seven. And so if he plays the way that he has the last couple weeks,

He's got seven turnover worthy plays, and the Vikings take advantage. They can get the ball a lot. Daniel says Dallas Turner will get two sacks, mark it down. I could see that. Dallas is playing well. He's playing well. He has been not Lawrence Taylor, not quite Chris Dolman yet, not quite Jared Allen yet, but he's playing well. And he is making progress in the way that I thought he would make progress, which was kind of not, I don't want to say super slowly.

but just one sort of step at a time, where last year, he starts very slowly. He's not getting on the field. And then he proves to them behind the scenes that he deserves to be on the field. He gets in in that Indianapolis game. He plays well. Then he's playing 30 snaps a game. He gets a couple sacks. He gets an interception.

And you see some progress. And he's starting to get it. And then this year he comes in. In the first game, he's excellent against the run. In the second game, he struggled. and then in especially when it came to setting edges. I don't think he's ever going to be that player with his size. That's just this amazing edge setter that you can rely on.

Certainly wasn't the only one that struggled against the run in that game. And then against Cincinnati, I thought it was terrific, kind of all over the field. He's probably going to miss tackles because he's not the biggest guy. He's probably going to try to punch the ball out at times and you're going to see that. But that quickness that he has and I think pairing that with understanding how, the defense is supposed to work is resulting in some good things for him. I did not mention that there was some bad news on the injury report, but that's Van Ginkle. And you got to wonder a little bit about where Andrew Van Ginkle is right now because when

Kevin O'Connell was asked about, he said, well, you know, it's kind of pertaining to the neck injury that he had. And that's why the snaps were limited. And that's why the practice is limited. And it's not really what you want to hear about where Van Ginkle is. at right now health-wise. So it's going to be a trial by fire for Dallas Turner. It's a heck of a backup to have a guy that, you know, is a first-round draft pick. But we might not see as much of Andrew Van Ginkle this year for his snap count as we saw last year probably nowhere close

if he's dealing with a neck injury throughout the season. So they're going to need Dallas Turner. Let me get in. And I know I've fallen behind with questions, but quick, quick, pause for an ad read here and a reminder about that Fanduil question of the day, Jordan Addison over under 42.5 yards. How many catches and yards are you expecting for Addison's debut? Also want to remind you, I know a lot of you are in hiring positions and your jobs, and it's just not a lot of fun because you look for great candidates, but you get flooded with resumes, people who aren't qualified,

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That is ZipRecruiter.com slash audio, the smartest way to hire. Got Ahmaid Hicks coming up in just a little bit, but let me continue with your comments. Marauders says the offense had more chances in short fields, not overpowering offensively. 14 points caused by the quarterback. No, I mean, look, look, the efficiency of that game was good. I don't think there's any doubting that on a play-to-play basis. They move the ball. Was it the great, let me mean, I could pull up the box score to see, you know, let's see.

Let me pull up the box score to see exactly how many yards per play they had last week. But that's, although, you know, Max Brosmer was in at the end and they were just handing off. So when, but we'll look at it anyway, just as an overall. Let's see. For team stats, they were at 352 yards on 58 plays, which is 6.1 yards per play. 6.1 yards per play is elite. That's at the top of the league every year is the top. teams are somewhere in that ballpark the yards per attempt he did lose some yardage on sacks but

yards per rush it was a really really good offensive performance it helped that they had short fields but one of their best drives and it helped that they had christian derisaw but one of their best touchdown drives was with brandle in there and it was a longer field and they were just able to move the football so if they play like that that's what i'm saying about like we don't need to downplay that. I mean, I think that it was very good. You can try to put it in better context, though. Yeah, that it was a team that got down in the game. They were probably distraught after a couple of the things that happened from Isaiah Rogers bringing back touchdowns and how poorly the offense was playing. And it got away from them. So that made things easier. When you come

out in the second half and it's 48 or 38 to 3, 34 to 3, whatever it was. at halftime. And then, I mean, are you super pumped to stop Jordan Mason running at you? Like, probably not. That helped. And last year, Sam Darnold's stats were helped by having a great defense. You're allowed to do that, though. You're allowed to take advantage of the things that are there in front of you.

It's just that I think we all know this. What is Carson Wentz going to need in order to have two wins here, in order to make his case to be the quarterback going forward, in order to have a good enough offense for this team to argue that they can run with anybody in the NFL, I think he clearly needs all of his receivers healthy, his offensive line healthy, and he's going to need help.

He is going to need short fields. He is going to need good special teams returning and punt coverage and all this thing. Like, we know this. If you're going to do this and you're going to have a great season with a backup caliber quarterback in there, as we saw them do last year or in 2017 and et cetera, you need to have a lot of other parts of the team cooking.

At the moment, this team is. And then the McCarthy decision comes somewhere down the road. But I don't think you have to downplay what Wentz did because, you know, you're hoping that McCarthy ends up coming back. I, that's the, I got a bunch of emails on this because I said the other day, I said, I think that 90% of the fan base would rather them not win with Carson Wentz so they could get back to McCarthy as soon as possible. And I got a bunch of emails that said, hey, now, like, I want to see them win every single game and, you know, that, okay, like I get that. But I, I think

there's some truth to that. And I don't think that that's the right approach. I think that Carson Wentz, if he struggles and he loses these two games, you're talking about potentially seeing a season that had so much hope and so much investment and so much work go into it with this roster swirling down the drain if Carson Wentz doesn't play well. I don't think you want that because that is miserable. J.J. McCarthy is 22 years old. He can develop over years, whether it's this year, getting into games later this year,

however it might be, he can eventually still be a very good quarterback in the NFL. He is extremely ridiculously young right now. But that's not the case for everybody on this team. I don't think you want to waste what could potentially be Harrison Smith's last year. I don't think you want to waste how many millions between Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen. I don't think you want to waste a year of Jordan Mason where he's crushing it or a year of Christian Darrisaw or a year of Justin Jefferson. It just seems like it's a little bit too narrowly focused to only be thinking about J.J. McCarthy when I think that all of you, when you put your flag outside your house or

you wear your jacket to work or whatever, I think it says a franchise name rather than just J.J. McCarthy, right? So I don't think you should be down on, you know, Carson Wentz's possibilities here because of that. Now, if you're down, if you're skeptical on it because he's been a backup quarterback and you just don't think he's going to be that great. Now, that's fair. That's a fair take because he hasn't been a great quarterback in the NFL for a while. And I know that part of what I do because I talk to you guys so much is I have become, I think, more interested in how the fans are thinking about certain things and talking about that because I hear from you guys constantly. And it was really striking the other day. But I think you

want your team to win here this is not this is not tank time if they were ever going to tank it was coming out of that 2019 season into 2020 they didn't do it it was 2023 when they get to oh and three they you know maybe you trade away kirk there or something or whatever that that would have been the time but those times are gone i think every sunday no matter who is your quarterback with this group you are talking about trying to win uh grateful dad how about signing CJ Gardner Johnson. I don't know, man. He just seems to be having problems everywhere he goes.

I think might be a bit of a personality issue. Plus, they're really good at safety. Don't think that you really want to do that. William says, well, Rogers isn't as quick as he used to be a bit worried about his past experience with B. Flo's defense will make him look better than he still is. I think if there's one guy who can be problematic, it's D.K. Metcalf. he is huge and he is not easy to tackle and he gave them problems last year against the Seattle Seahawks. He is a handful. So I think that tackling him is a big deal. This team is not

blown me away. Now they've blown me away with their ability to peanut punch and to take the ball away, but they have not blown me away with their ability to tackle so far this year. And what I notice is they throw a lot of short passes to D.K. Metcalf, which is probably a smart strategy, by the way, that I think Seattle was probably missing or maybe just Gino Smith because he's not great. And when I see people say he's great, I'm baffled. I never really understand that. But he's okay. He's sort of just a guy. I'm curious receiving debt. Yeah. So out of all of his targets this year for D.K. Maccalf, only six of his targets out of 12, 18. So only six of his 18 targets have gone downfield. And only two of them have gone beyond 20 yards. So they're going to

throw short to D.K. Metcalf and they are going to make the other team the tackle. And he's got some mistackles. He's got first downs. Like he's done a good job with their short passing game. And I think you're going to see a lot of D.K. McHaff in the quick passing game. That would be the guy I would be concerned about. Rogers could still throw the ball. That's what I've seen from him playing with Pittsburgh, but I don't think he can move. And his quarterback rating when pressured, or I'm sorry, PFF grade when pressured is 27. He's as bad as it gets when pressured. That's the key here. Can you make him uncomfortable because that is going to be a problem for him, that is, not for the Vikings. That's, and Bobby points that out, Rogers numbers this season and the plus

are all from clean. Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right. Yep. That's exactly what I was looking at, too, Bobby, is that it drops drop tremendously when there's any sort of pressure involved with Aaron Rogers. But, you know, he, he's seen a lot. Last year, though, he got fooled. Remember, you know, Van Ginkle picking him off. He got fooled a bunch of times. So he's, I've never thought that Aaron Rogers was the goat when it came to picking apart defenses mentally. I've, Tom Brady, you know, Peyton Manning. I always thought with Rogers that his physical ability made up for times because I would watch Harrison Smith play games with him and Harrison would win a lot and I think what would happen oftentimes was Rogers would scramble around and he would be able to make plays off of structure that were breathtaking. But he wouldn't read the defense necessarily right and he would just have to make something up. Well, now he's got to read the defense right every single time from the pocket.

That's hard. I think that's hard for him to do. I mean, he's all-time great, but I don't think that was his best asset. I think it was tight window throws, rockets into windows that you'd never expect, crazy, crazy athleticism of being able to throw from any platform, absurd, all-time great arm strength. But I don't think it was just standing there and reading a defense. That was more of a Peyton Manning type of thing. And actually, that's really hard to do. just in general these days with how much deception there is. Marauder says Caleb was successful

because he could read Iber Fluss's defense. I mean, that Dallas defense is atrocious. Yeah, I just, there were, there were throws on Sunday from Caleb Williams that were on time to the right guys. He's got great receivers. I don't know what that offense is going to be. I don't think Chicago has a very good defense,

but, and you're right, they were playing probably the worst defense in the NFL, it's just, yeah, we'll see. We'll see where that goes. Deplorable Neanderthals says, Addison had major chemistry with JJ, but does that mean he'll do stellar work with Wentz? I know he's a really good receiver overall.

I think that last part is right. Addison had good chemistry with Dobbs, right? Did he play with Dodd? I mean, he's just, he's just really good. I think, I mean, I think what Wentz showed us a little bit is that chemistry can be overrated if you run the, plays correctly and you have the receivers to make the plays because Addison, look, when Addison played with Kenny Pick and he made the guy first round pick.

When he played with Caleb Williams, he put him on the map for him to be the first overall draft pick. When he played with Kirk Cousins, Kirk said, man, they crushed that draft pick about two games into Addison's career. And then, you know, we saw it with Sam Darnold last year, how effective Addison was. So I don't really have much doubt that the guy's just really dang good. of football. I think that that's probably what it is. But it does factor in to J.J. McCarthy in the start of his season, the fact that he didn't have Jordan Addison that he got along

really, really well with Addison during camp, and then, you know, had to come out and didn't have the guy who was his go-to guy during training camp. I think that did cause some, some challenges. Let's see. Margaret says J.J. sure has a rough introduction to the NFL torn meniscus out for the year. Two starts in with a weak O line, had poor protection, not a complete defense. That's tough. It is, no doubt about it. And there's a lot of reasons for what happened against Atlanta. I would also say that that is kind of the NFL. There's not too many teams throughout a season that play 17 games with every player in the lineup. Now, that context is, should be brought up that he didn't have Addison, that he didn't have Dar esau.

Those are all world players. That's important for sure. And then loses Ryan Kelly and Aaron Jones. Like, yeah, like all that matters big time to the discussion about J.J. McCarthy. It's also something that happens in the NFL and you have to fight your way through it. Now, what usually happens, though, is that guys learn to fight their way through it as they play, as they grow, as they develop. So the challenge for Kevin O'Connell is how do you develop J.J. McCarthy with also a mind on winning games because there's not. I mean, look, this week, you're like, hey, great, this guy's back. Well, Donovan Jackson's out. And Aaron Jones is out. And there might be other guys banged up. There's very rarely 22 healthy players on offense and defense. The Vikings mostly had it last year with Sam Darnold. They won 14 games. It just tells you like how much that matters.

But it usually doesn't happen. So you're right, though. It has been a rough introduction for him. And I think that one of the reasons that you pick J.J. McCarthy is that the mental toughness for him is very important. The attitude is very important to drafting him is that you're expecting him to be able to work his way through adversity. And he's had a lot of it.

But again, that's the league. And like this was my biggest concern about someone like Caleb Williams when he came out in the draft was. if you draft Caleb Williams, you got to be concerned about the way he handled adversity at USC. It was not very good. And it hasn't been very good so far in the NFL for Caleb Williams when things have gone wrong for him. You draft J.J. McCarthy because you think that he can fight through stuff like that. Because if you go through the entire NFL on a week to week basis, I mean, you're going to see all the time crazy stuff, injuries, results where guys totally

no show shocking stuff that happens horrible losses sections of season i mean think about all the stuff that kirk went through kirk was as veteran of a veteran quarterback but every year was a roller coaster it was an office of coordinator gets fired one year and then the next year his wide receiver wants to get traded and sits out of practice then the next year covid hits and half your defense leaves and then the next year after that your coach hates you and he's calling you out in press conferences and like think of all the stuff that happen and then you finally get a 13 win season but you don't have any defense and it falls apart in the playoffs and well I do think Kirk should have not checked it down I think we all agree that that was the Ed Donatel loss in the playoffs

then of course it's Kirk can't win in the playoffs he was also playing that year with broken ribs it's hard it would you know why do we love it why do we love it why do we all feel what we feel when somebody raises the Lombardi trophy is because it's really hard. It's really hard. So McCarthy, you're right, has gotten an introduction to this. And in the best case scenario, all this stuff that he's gone through early,

that kind of builds the scar tissue up for what you have to face for an entire career. I mean, think about even like a Justin Herbert. Guys had injuries, the criticism. He has a great year last year. And then the minute they lose in the playoffs, he has a bad game. Then everyone calls him a schmuck.

says he's horrible. He says he can't play. He's not a top quarterback. They shouldn't have paid him. He stinks. And then he comes out this year and he's great. Every one of these guys has to go through stuff like this in order to get there. Monty says six for 65 with a touchdown for Addison. I could see it. I could see it. 65 seems fair to me. I think 65 is a good number. Yep. That's definitely a good. That's where I would put it is somewhere between, somewhere between 45 and 65 is reasonable for Addison. because I just don't think that you're throwing like a million passes. KFT says KOC completely changed his game plan for Wentz calling quick pass plays.

Did he make the same accommodations for JJ when he was getting pressured 59% of the plays?