Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jordan Addison is back -- how good can the Vikings offense be? (Part 2)

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.

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? So, you know, it's crazy the data we have these days. It's crazy because I was able to look up using true media every route that the Vikings ran in the first two games. what a world, right? I mean, you imagine me, right? The person who wrote the book on PFF, just, I'm like, you know, those Burger Kings that have the play place.

That's me with all the data. I'm just like jumping in the balls of data and throwing them up in the air. It's really fun. And the thing that stood out to me was that the routes on a lot of the sack. So I looked up the routes on every sack. I didn't see too many of them going 50 yards down the field. I think with J.J. McCarthy, the main issue was, and this is from watching the tape, it's looking at the routes, looking at the data. The main issue was not seeing it and not

having the timing right. That to me was the main issue. And here's how I check myself is not only the data, not only the film, but also when you listen to Kevin O'Connell talk about Carson Wentz. He's, I mean, he's talking about Carson Wentz as, well, the footwork is right. right. The timing is right, and that's why it worked. And it's like, we don't have to read between the lines magically here to understand what he's saying is the, when it's rhythm and timing, rhythm and timing, well, it's all supposed to be synced up to two and a half seconds. And when it's not, then something is off. So I think we can admit that if we're doing like a pie chart of stuff, of all the factors that cause McCarthy to struggle in his first two games, Darisaw being

out is in the pie chart and it's got a slot there and probably some of the play calling has a slot there as well. But J.J. McCarthy's got the biggest piece of the pie because the ball wasn't coming out of his hands and he's ultimately responsible. This is something that's been studied over years of who's responsible for sacks and pressures and it's the quarterback is the most responsible, not 100%, but they're the most responsible and I felt like he was the most responsible because the ball wasn't coming out on time. You have to throw people open in the NFL, which is hard thing to learn. It just takes time. So by saying that the pressure rate and the sacks were on the quarterback, which goes into a lot of data that we have, including how long it took them to throw, plus the routes, we can literally look at the plays that were called and where they ran, that, you know, I think that's a pretty fair conclusion.

It's also something that happens when you haven't played a lot of football. I, throughout training camp, thought that McCarthy did a pretty good job of getting his mind in the right place with throwing with anticipation and with getting the football out. I was impressed with him during camp, but they hit you in the NFL. And I think that that caused, you know, some of the issues with holding onto it longer. Because what happens is guys get hit and then they start speeding up, which forces them to go to their reads. too fast. One, okay, it's not open. Two, okay, it's not open three. Oh, no, now I'm panicking. Now I'm hit. And that happened on a number of occasions with McCarthy in there. Again, that doesn't mean that he'll never be good or it doesn't mean that he couldn't come back soon and be good.

It means the analysis of the first two games. I don't think that Kevin O'Connell went into this game with Carson Went and said, I'm giving him the good place. I don't think that that happened. I don't think he went into the game and said, you know what? I really want to look good now. I really wanted went. So I only called up downfield plays with McCarthy. I don't, I don't think that's what happened, not from looking at a lot of different sources. So whether it was numbers or tape or whatever else, do I think that he had a great game as a play caller that night? Absolutely not. I think that they got schemed up. Their offensive line got beat and he struggled. But it's sort of a different conversation because he got hurt now if he had gotten benched straight up bench no injury

and it was just hey you're out kid sorry this would be a bit of a different conversation because i would have been saying hey you got to play him against cincinnati it's not as good of a defense you know i would not have been for benching him just make that clear i would not have been for benching him at all after the atlanta game and i said that in the post game after the Atlanta game like keep going with this and it's going to have to work itself out he's going to have to fight through these tough moments we've seen them with many other young quarterbacks pennix just had this happen daniels two weeks ago we've seen it a lot like you got to work through it but he gets hurt and wence comes in and plays like that what are you supposed to do as the head

coach other than look at this and say well we got to go with the guy who gives us the best chance to win that's that's the way that you often have to go with you're a head coach of a team that's supposed to win and has expectations. Carl says confused as to win PFF grades matter. Everyone is hammering JJ about how poorly he played and there's all this Wentz praise. JJ got a 55 grade and Wentz has a 61 not being snarky. No, I understand you're not being snarky. Right.

So I think that this is why I kind of talk about single game grades a lot are pretty difficult to pick apart in part because and we love them because we like to look at well, how did they grade everybody after a game? But for a quarterback, I think it's really hard. A 61 for Carson Wentz, well, there's a few things. Number one, they weigh in when a guy is responsible for a sack. So Wentz, I think was either one or two, pretty bad sacks. Penalties also weigh into that, into the quarterback.

So if you have pre-snap penalties, I think that they weigh those into the quarterback, but definitely sacks would go into it. And running if he attempted to run it all would pull. play in, but also the way that the scale works, I don't know that Carson Wentz made any throws in that game that would have been major pluses. So the one issue with the system is it doesn't give enough credit to what they would call zero throws, which are just routine. So you drop back, T.J. Hawkinson is wide open over the middle and you just go, dink, there's the football. That's a zero play. That's not a major plus or a major minus, but it moves the sticks.

This is why Jared Gough is perpetually underrated by PFF, where he's often graded as a mid-quarterback and his offense is number one in his passing game is elite. Because Jared Gough makes easy throws. He makes a lot of zero throws because he reads it really well. He knows where to go with the football. His timing is good. Well, that guy was wide open. So it's an easy throw.

So it's not a plus one or a plus two. It's a zero. Where I think J.J. McCarthy ran really well in that game. and probably got, I can look at his score right now. I'm guessing that he got a lot of credit for his running in that game. Let me take a look at it. It's a great question. I love the question.

I'm not offended at all. No, actually, he did not get very good. Maybe because of the fumbles. Yeah, the fumbles would have brought it down. His grade for that game was a 49, by the way. So that's a pretty big gap. That's a pretty big gap of 49 and a 61. A 61 is sort of like anyone could have done that, like a routine.

you know, replacement level quarterback could have played the same way. I would mostly agree with that, with Wentz. A 49 is the catastrophic. Passing grade 51, rushing. I assume the fumbles are mixed in. Yeah, that, right. So, but he did. Now, here's the other thing, though.

He did have a big time throw in the game. So that would give him some credit. And he did have a 50-yard completion. So that would give him some credit. He did have a couple of good runs. I think that that's why. But he had three turnover. plays and six sacks.

I mean, if you're that, that's the thing, when we go back to that game, as bad as it was, there's not a lot, there's not a lot you could do to justify three turnover worthy plays, six sacks, fumbling snaps. I mean, that was all, it was all pretty tough. It was all pretty tough. So, you know, it's, and that's marauder. See, this is where I think you're just, you're just doing it wrong. If you're saying, well, you know, Wentz had this PFF grade with a lot to work with, but

McCarthy had it. Look, look, a single game grade is one tiny data point out of 50 that we should use to evaluate the game. The most important is the production is going to tell us the best story. The production was they moved the ball great, got the ball into receiver's hands, completed a ton of passes, did so at almost nine yards of pass. Like, that's going to tell us the most information. And then what I think the PFF grade will tell you is how responsible the quarterback was. for the result. So if you, if you get 300 yards passing and the guy gets a 65 grade probably means he was thrown to a lot of wide open people and didn't get a lot of big, big pluses from them.

Or he got lucky and there were dropped interceptions, which I think there was one, uh, turnover worthy play for Wentz. And it was a throw that was maybe behind a receiver. You can't have that happen. But it's more of a comparison. If a guy throws for 195 yards, but he has to go through held to do it and he's amazing and all that sort of stuff. Well, then he's going to get a high PFF. This happened with Stafford week one. He got an amazing PFF grade, but you looked at, they scored like 14 points. You're like, what the heck happened?

Well, he did a lot to get them to where they were in that game. That's what it's supposed to tell us. So the clear, to me, the clear takeaway is from the grade in the game against Atlanta. McCarthy graded about as poor as you could grade, which makes a lot of sense. And Carson Wentz didn't grade all that great because he didn't have to do a whole lot, which O'Connell doesn't want him to. That's the whole idea of the offense. So hopefully that kind of explains it of how we can use stuff like that to as an evaluating tool. It's not just a, they don't just sort of watch the game and go 60.

Like there's a, there's a grading scale that tells you something, but it does not tell you. everything. It tells you just one, one part of it. So, uh, let's see. Oh, apparently, uh, remember last week, this, this actually tells you a lot, like you guys were talking about this. It tells you a lot. Last week, I was asked about, hey, uh, Bradbury and Ingram had good PFF grades for their first two weeks. Like did the Vikings screw up? And then this week they didn't because that's who they are. Like, they're inconsistent, right? Uh, they're matchup based. especially Bradbury, who could be very good against a very bad defensive tackle, but if he has a good defensive tackle, he's getting steamrolled.

And they played Pittsburgh, right, and he got steamrolled, which is kind of to be expected. That's what I mean about the small samples and PFF grades, where we love to look at them for a game and analyze them, but they need a ton of work to really get the true conclusion out of what they're trying to say. and they're just a piece of a huge analysis of how someone played and why who was it on the field who was the opponent what were the different reasons like all that stuff's really important uh let's see not completely insane is the irony of this great victory over the bengals as we finally get back derisar run game is humming and what happens

jackson is a wrist surgery and is out yeah i mean it is that's how it goes sometimes The thing about Donovan Jackson, though, and I know for my friend Jeremiah Searles, you don't want to call it too early with any young player because things happen. Injuries happen, inconsistency happens, et cetera. You know, that's how it goes. But, boy, he's looked good in two out of the three games. And the skill set and the attitude, I mean, the intelligence of this guy, like that looks like a really good draft pick.

And I think he's just going to get better and better. It looks like a really, really good pick. Sorry, I got way behind in the chat again. Sorry about that. That happens. Let's see. Joe says, KOC said something like if you can't be a game manager, you can't play in the NFL.

100%. That's how I feel. 100%. I mean, most quarterbacks who are special are playing game managing football. I think Drew Breeze is like an all-time game manager. Yeah, he's unbelievably accurate. But what that means is you played at the situation. So this is what I thought Carson Wentz did well.

I actually thought, like, okay, some of his sacks were bad. Like, one of them he should have definitely got rid of the football. But versus taking, like, knowing that you're up versus taking a risk, doing something with the ball. Like, that's kind of good game management. Or, all right, this is the right time to take. a shot play or this is the wrong time to take a shot play. This is the right time to push it into this window. This is not the right time. This is the right read on this play. If you get that

right, I heard somebody say this one time about great quarterbacks is when you're talking about toughness, it's not necessarily get hit and get back up sort of toughness as it is running like the concentration and the focus to every single play. in the huddle, get the call in, get to the line of scrimmage, read the right reads, throw to the right place, no matter what's happening, no matter how loud the Gallowhorn is, or who has hit you in the face, or what the cheerleaders are doing, or, like, what the score is, or what, like, if you can, if you can do that, that's true toughness at the quarterback position. That's game managing.

And it should be celebrated because all the best have done it at the absolute most amazing level, including Patrick Mahomes, even though there's wow moments, there's a lot of game managing. There's a lot of, like, you look at how he won the Super Bowl. It's like, this is the right time to take a risk down the field to Tyreek Hill, or this is not the right time. And last year, they won a lot of games because he just didn't turn the ball over. This was something that Teddy was good at. It's just not turning the ball over, ending drives with field goals sometimes. and then, you know, we never got to find out the next step of that. But there was a lot of quarterbacks who were really great at that.

We love the highlights, but 70 or 80% of their plays are not the highlights. So that's what KOC is looking for is he's looking for that game management. And when you get sacks six times, when you fumble, when you throw two interceptions, you're not, you're not managing the game. I don't care who's playing. I don't care if it's T.J. Clemmings and Dakota Dozier and whatever. other, Mike Remmer, I don't care if it's the worst offensive line that's ever played. If you're

turning it over and getting sacked, it's not game managing, it's not giving your team a chance to win. So, no matter how much stuff went the wrong way, how many play calls were wrong, whatever, that's not playing the game the way that the head coach needs to be played to win. Now,

I think he would have done much better against Cincinnati. I guarantee it if he hadn't gotten hurt, and that's the unfortunate part of it. Because I agree with anybody who says, you know, they they would have, he would have probably come back with Derisaw and he would have done better and they, it wasn't a great defense and they would have been in favorable situations. I totally agree with that.

I totally, totally agree with that. And that's why I will say time and time again that you need to see McCarthy get back out there. He needs to continue to develop. He needs to continue to play, but they're in a conundrum of how you figure out how to do that. well also having Carson Wentz doing the thing that KOC wants the most, which is managing the game. And if the wheels come off, then we'll see just, you know,

maybe that changes or something. But they need to be sure that he can do that. And they also need to be sure that he can protect himself and not get hurt again. Because when you play a grand total of four times and you have two injuries, that's worrisome. You know, I don't like to ever say the whole injury prone to, thing. I think that that labels players the wrong way. But if you get are getting sacked and holding out of the ball longer than anybody else, you're going to get injured like that. You're having to

scramble all the time. Like that is how you could get hurt. So, you know, they've got to be sure when they put him back in that he's good to go and that he can play on time and he can game manage. And it's not just looking lost and then hoping to make a great play, hoping to make an awesome throw to Jefferson in the end zone, hoping to scramble for 20 yards. I mean, it's got to be a down to down type of thing that he's able to do or it's just not going to work. So, uh, let's see. Folks, I know a lot of you out there either own your own business or you are in a

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but like, I don't know when, you know, I don't know how Kirk ended up in the conversation here. KFT, Wentz was good, not great, is Collier, that's not my name, aiming to be Wentz's agent. Look, Kevin O'Connell said it all. Just go watch the press conferences. He said it all. I'm just saying the things the head coach said about Carson Wentz and how he played. I don't know. I mean, you could, you could believe Kevin O'Connell if you want or not. But, I mean, I think it was pretty clear from the way he talked about Carson Wentz. He raved about how he played on time, played point guard.

That's the compliment that I think O'Connell likes the most. These are things that head coach said. I'm not making these up. And I don't think O'Connell has led us the wrong way on quarterbacks when he's talked about the strengths of Kirk Cousins. I mean, I've listened to a lot of O'Connell. You know, I think I know how to interpret it. I've looked at a lot of data. I think I know how to interpret it.

I've covered a lot of football games. I think I know how to interpret it. It's not the game of the century. I don't think I said that. I think you're dissentative because you want J.J. McCarthy. I think that's what it comes down to. The Kurt Russell says Hargrave injury update. Seems like he's going to be okay.

It sounded like he was going to travel, but he was out today because he's dealing with something so might have to work through that. He did come out of the last game. And we're going to have to watch the injury reports for the next couple of games because of that. Not completely insane says, I agree with what you said. Pittsburgh and especially Cleveland will be much more difficult to score on. Well, yeah.

And look, they're not going to play the whole game up by 30 points. It will be very telling. It will be very telling where they're at. That is for sure that Pittsburgh and Cleveland are going to tell us how good this offense could be with Carson Wins. But if they come out of it, 2 and O, and they've scored 48 points in the two games or something, whatever, just pulled out a number, 50 points in the two games.

It's going to be hard for anybody to say, you know what, I think I want to go back to J.J. McCarthy. If they're 2 and 0 and they've won 2417 in both games or 24 to 3 or whatever, if it's Cleveland's offense, it's going to be pretty hard to say, hey, you know, you got to go back to J.J. McCarthy if you're winning like that. Williams's Eric Wilson has been exceptional. Really good, really good football player. Yep.

Really, really good football player. He's been great. It's one of the best signings of the offseason. And that's the thing. You look around, and this is a thing about Wentz and the whole situation, you look around and you go, all right, well, through three games, two and one, it's kind of where we thought they would be, maybe three and oh, but two and one is, it's about right. I would have maybe guessed Joe Burrow would have beat them, but he didn't play. I would not have guessed that Atlanta would have beat them, but they did.

Two and one, nonetheless. And you start to look at the individual performances and you go, all right, are the signings working? Jordan Mason, Isaiah Rogers. Yeah. Not, I mean, Hargrave and Allen were great in the first game. Didn't have to do a lot in this last one. Hardgrave got banged up, but still, okay, those guys are looking like what they,

they're doing what they do. The interior offensive line, Kelly, when he's been in, has been great. Fries was great in the last game, not as great in the first two, but I think, you know, he's looking like he's turning that corner. He's coming off that injury. Last week, he was really good. Jackson has looked really good as a draft pick. And then we go, you know, to some of the development guys that you get a Levi Drake and Jalen Redmond, like they're coming along. The depth where you see Eric Wilson step into a role and play extremely well. A lot of things are going right. They're getting healthier. A lot of things are going right. And this is why you have to focus on

who gives you the best chance to win each week and not just the development. So, DR says, imagine wanting Carson wants to play for your team instead of a young top 10 pick. Well, here's why. You're trying to win games. What I just said, you're trying to win games. The franchise is trying to win games. Kevin O'Connell, this is not. I think Brian Murphy said this the day. It's not a nursery. This is not a cutesy development project for a really bad team. It's not Tennessee, guys. If this is Tennessee, I'd be like, oh my gosh, don't play Carson Wentz one second. Are you serious? This is

not Tennessee. This is a team that expects to win and has all the goods to win. It's got the defensive coordinator. It's got the head coach of the year. It's got the kicker. It's got the returner. It's got everything on this team. Who gives you the best chance to win. Everyone wants the top 10 draft pick to be the guy who plays, but he's got to give him the best chance. And if he doesn't, then he's got to develop. Also, I would say, imagine thinking that you have to play someone who's 22, that that's always the best idea. Is it? Is it always the best idea when I, I mean, I've run through a hundred

examples of guys who needed more time. And imagine preferring to lose with a quarterback who isn't ready and setting their development back and possibly getting them hurt more, imagine wanting that instead. I mean, it seems like, it seems like a lot of just sort of wanting to just flip a table here. That's what it sounds like. I'm just mad. I don't have any good arguments. I'm just angry.

Flip the table. That's kind of what it sounds like. But we don't even know where this is going. I'm just saying if they continue to play Carson Wentz and he continues to win, it's probably the right thing to do it probably means that Kevin O'Connell who I think we all agree knows a little thing about quarterback play if they stick with Wence it means that he's decided to stick with Lentz because he's the head coach of the team and it means he thinks it's the right thing to do I just tend to believe him I don't know that doesn't sound crazy to me I feel like I've been gaslit a lot here over the last few days you're reading this wrong you're you don't know what you're like what you're like what uh k ft just continuing to hammer me on this about about wence acting like wence turned around the team uh yeah i mean look there's other podcasts if you want i don't know like i just don't know what you want me to say the guy played a good football game they won by 30 effing eight like their offense

was super efficient the guy got praised up and down by his teammates his head coach the tape was good and his receivers caught the ball in time i don't know what like what do you want me to do you want me to just tell you he was terrible in this 48 to 10 victory, if that's what you want, there's got to be a podcast. There has to be a podcast of someone saying that. So this is probably the moment where I've had enough. And that's how it's probably going to be a lot this week. And going forward with this situation is I can only take so much.

That's, that's probably how it's going to be for live streams. It's like, once I reach that point, it's just like, all right, it's clear we, we just can't. we can't move on with this. So I'm just going to talk about a few other things that you guys asked and then get to the Amad Hicks discussion because you are just BSing me. If you're saying, oh, this guy is saying, Wentz is the greatest quarterback of all the time.

Like, you just, what? Come on. Come on. That's clearly not what I'm saying. You know, it's like I'll sit here and break it down 50 different ways with a bunch of data points, break down the PFF grade, everything I saw on tape. and then you're like, why don't you just marry him then?

Why don't you just grow up? Sean says, best example for Dallas Turner is Hunter versus Griffin. Hunter was smart enough when to push for the pressure in the sack, tempering it with hesitancy. So it takes away the quarterback's screenplay. Well, Griffin took away, took a while to learn. Yeah, I think that neither one of those guys are kind of similar to Dallas Turner from a physical perspective.

Like, I see what you're kind of getting. at there um with those two in their development because everson griffin was a guy who was a fourth round draft pick who was a physical freak and needed to learn the game and took a little time for that again imagine letting a player develop how many times do i need to talk about this like quentin johnston i watch him look really good for the chargers and i'm like we're allowed to let somebody develop my friends it can happen ever since Griffin, Daniel Hunter, great examples of guys who developed. So even though they're different from Dallas Turner, I see where you're getting at where

both of those guys came into the league with a lot of physical talent and they had to learn the game. They had B-Rob there who helped them work in sound familiar, who helped them work in Danielle Hunter. And then, you know, by year two, three, he was really, really excellent. So, you know, I do think that Dallas Turner, the reason that we gave him the benefit of the doubt with time is because now you're starting to see that progress. And when you see somebody who gets, you know, a five pressure game and also is involved

in stopping the run, like, that's very impressive, very impressive from DeNeal Hunter, or I'm sorry, yeah, not, Daniel Hunter is always impressive from Dallas Turner, very impressive in this game against Cincinnati. And I thought he was really good against Chicago. now it's about doing it on a week-to-week basis in large part because you might need him. If Van Ginkle's not 100%, you need to be able to say, okay, Dallas Turner, you might have to play for like two or three weeks and let Van Ginkle get back to 100% because he was only able to play a handful of snaps last week. And then here he is on the injury report again, while this team continues to be banged up, it might just. just have to be the case that he doesn't play very much or at all in these games over the next

two weeks. And then here it is, Dallas Turner. So we thought we kind of made a big deal out of that Atlanta game. Like, oh, what an opportunity for, you know, Dallas Turner in that game. We made that about like, this is his game. You take the mound with the ball, Dallas Turner, go pitch a perfect game or you're a bust. But then it doesn't really work that way because he's going to be a big part of the defense for the entire season, and we kind of need to weigh with the sample that we end up getting. And as that grows, then we'll see more of the full picture on Dallas Turner. Again, though, how old is he? We're talking 22. So I think you want to say more and more progress from him. A five pressure day is pretty good. Let me take a look at what he's done so far

in total, because I think it may be seven or eight pressures for him so far this season. Let's see. Hasn't graded particularly well. I think coverage has been a big part of that. Pass rush, a 64 grade. So he's got, he's got nine pressures in 44 pass rush snaps. That's a pretty good win rate right there. Last year he had 12.

So he's already got nine this season so far. And he has missed, yeah, he's only missed the one tackle. That's part of it. Coverage has been something that he hasn't graded super well. It doesn't have a lot of targets, though. So we'll see on just how. just that plays out in general. But nine pressures through three games is, that's pretty solid. It's kind of where you wanted them to be.

Mr. Mayor says, KOC in the O line didn't help, but you got to do better than bottom three in the league. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing about, like, evaluating an individual game and trying to make a assessment of a player, no matter who it is. I was just saying that about Dallas Turner. Like we all treated Atlanta like it was the biggest game of his life. And if he didn't succeed, he was a loser. And he didn't have a great game. And then the next week he comes out and is excellent. And like, well, that's that's football. That's kind of how it works sometimes. And I have no doubt that if J.J. McCarthy had been able to play against Cincinnati, that they would have won and that you would have come out of it feeling a lot better about J.J. McCarthy. But if we're talking about

breaking down that individual game, we've got to live in reality about what happened in that actual game and live in reality about why the head coach would be talking so much about playing on time, anticipation, footwork, all the stuff when he's talking about Carson Wentz. Because those are the things that you have to master as you go along in your career as J.J. McCarthy. And I think that he will. So I think a lot of stuff is being misconstrued that I'm saying because you just want to hear play McCarthy now or quit KOC, but I've seen a lot of quarterback play. I've seen Rogers in his prime, smoke the Vikings, I've seen Breeze. I saw a lot of Kirk Cousins, who was a really good quarterback, by the way, saw a 14 win

quarterback last year, saw Mahomes, seen Herbert. I've seen a lot of them play. It doesn't usually look like that. So sometimes somebody needs more time. I said it all last year about Turner and everyone wanted to tell him, oh, he's a bust. Why don't we give him a little more time than 300 snaps? So this is a pretty consistent take for me, by the way, when it comes to this, of giving players time, giving their development. And I don't think that that is any sort of hot take. So, you know, Anyway, if you didn't answer the Fanduel question of the day, that was about Jordan Addison, 42.5 yards on Fanduel, how many catches and yards in his return? Make sure that you answer that question had a lot of very similar answers. A lot of very similar ballpark of 60, 50 to 70 kind of yards for Addison, four or five catches. I think that would get him back into the mix and, you know, be a good contribution. And it certainly gives Wentz another option. if he doesn't want to throw to a double team, Justin Jefferson. So, you know, a huge help getting back Jordan Edison for this game.

Anyway, so appreciate the conversation. And I had a chance to get together with Amad Hicks from Fox 9. Also does a podcast as well. And whenever I get together with Amad, what we usually do is nine questions. So some of these will be about the quarterback situation. Some of these will be about the rest of the team. the NFC North, the NFC, and so forth. It's kind of rapid fire at Ahmaud.

So we'll put a wrap on the night with my conversation with Amad Hicks. So thanks everybody for joining. And here we go. All right. We welcome into the show, Amad Hicks from Fox 9. And we've had a lot of fun doing this in the past, where I come up with nine questions to rapid fire at you, Amad. Also want to mention that you've got a very cool podcast

coming out. Your podcast must be two sides. You're going to have Eric Kendrix on your show. So welcome back. Congratulations on that interview. I'm sure that fans will want to find that. So where's the best place to find the Kendrick's interview? You can go to YouTube.com and just type in Must Must Be Two Sides Podcasts with myself and my buddy Michael Pruitt. He's a draftee of the Minnesota Vikings from that 2015 draft class with Eric Kendrick, Stefan Diggs, DeNehner, just to name a few. So we talked about that draft class and a little bit more. So I hope you guys check it out. He was actually, if I'm not mistaken, drafted before, Stefan. Yeah, I'm sorry.

Yeah, it was the year before we talked about that. But then, yes, I'm sorry. I apologize. Yeah. So anyway, always, I think, I mean, wasn't it that let me look this up. Now I'm confused. I think it was, it was the, I mean, in the same draft, he was taken before, like in the same round, I think, right?

If I'm not mistaken here. He was in the fifth round and they took him first and then they took Dix. Yes, yes. Yes. That's how it went. Okay. All of them in the same class. Yes. Eric Kendricks was the second pick after Trey Wings. Yes. Yeah. But then that's the funny thing about the draft, right? Is that like Diggs becomes, you know, the big superstar, miracle guy. Like, who could ever predict the draft is kind of the point. Anyway, well, I got a bunch of questions for you. So make sure everybody goes and, uh, and checks that out as well as your phenomenal coverage on Fox 9. But why don't we start out with the most obvious place to begin, Ahmad, which. which is the quarterback situation. Here's what I want to know. First of nine questions. How many starts do you think Carson Wentz

will make for the Minnesota Vikings this year? As of right now, three. I'm going three. I think he gets to start against the Steelers. I think he gets to start against the Browns. And I think you have no choice but to go back to J.J. McCarthy. Just my hunch. I just feel like if you're ever going to see what you have in your quarterback,

you got to do it now. Because if you keep delaying, get pushing it off to next year, we keep having the same storyline every year. Okay, this actually pairs with question one and two. So why don't we just bunch those together? Because the second question is how many games would they need to win to justify Wents starting over J.J. McCarthy? Because if you look at, you know, the next two games are winnable in Ireland and London.

If they win those two games, then it is hard to tell Carson Wendt, sorry, pale, but they do come back and they play against the Philadelphia Eagles. If that doesn't go well, then are you considering starting, McCarthy on a Thursday night against the Chargers. Like, it's not the easiest thing to figure out if they win these next two games. Right. Yeah. I know it's a very, very tough decision for Kevin O'Connell and Quasi Adolph-Mintz.

Look, Carson Wentz was a starter in the National Football League. Hasn't been a starter for a very long time. I think that speaks volumes of why he's been a backup, you know, what I'm saying? So even if he is given multiple opportunities, we don't know what we're going to get from Carson Wentz. We saw him go out and orchestrated team, will lead a team to victory when his defense have five takeaways. Can you do that when your team doesn't have five takeaways? So I think, you know, like a lot of Minnesota fans do, they jump to

conclusions really fast after one game. They're like, all right, this is our guy. Let's go see him, like, half them lead this team down to win a game. Like outside of the first drive, can you do that consistently? And I think if he plays well, like in games in the Steelers, in the Browns, and he has like 300 passing yards, two touchdowns, all right, now there's a legitimate case for him to be the starting quarterback. But I just think that, you know, right now it's JJ McCarthy's team and Carson Wentz is just doing what he's asked to do. I think that skepticism is reasonable when it comes to Carson Wentz because, as you mentioned, his recent history is mostly as a backup quarterback, but I have to say that I am influenced

in my thoughts on this by what happened last year, where most of the world thought that Sam Darnold was going to win six or seven games and then he ends up winning 14. I think it does come to a little bit of a bigger question about Kevin O'Connell and his offense. and just whether this offense can be run by a brand new quarterback. It kind of reminds me a little bit of San Francisco throwing Trey Lance in there and then being like, we want the athletic quarterback. Oh, no, we want the game manager, right? Like turn around the car.

We did the wrong thing. So, look, I don't know where this is going to go with Wentz and how well he's going to play because it was kind of a unique game where Isaiah Rogers gets them up by so much that he didn't have to really put a lot on his shoulder. but I do think there might be something to be said for the challenge of running this offense where it's not like Kevin O'Connell makes life easy for his quarterback. Right. And you know what I'm saying? Like we saw what he was able to do a couple of years ago with Josh Dobbs coming in

and having to get him up to speed and whatnot. But I think you're at your best as a play caller and as a head coach when you have someone that fully understands and trust your system and knows where to go with the football. Like I think we saw very a bare minimum thing for Carson Wentz. And the game this past weekend, like he wasn't asked to do a lot, you know what I'm saying? So can you get to those second, third, and fourth reads and things like that? Can you identify where blitzers are coming from and where to shift your offensive line?

So, you know, I think you kind of got to go with the guy that's been around, but I'm not sold on JJ McCarthy, just like everybody else, but I'm not willing to just push him to the side yet and be like, this isn't the guy of the future, you know what I'm saying? Oh, absolutely. I think that if you're bailing on JJ McCarthy after two games, that would be foolish. and it would be foolish for the Vikings as well. I think what it comes down to is question number three, actually, which is the trust level of Kevin O'Connell

to manage the way through this quarterback situation. So I gave you for the bit here to put it on a one to 10 confidence level of O'Connell working his way through this because I do think that if you're a coach and he's not in the hot seat or anything like that, but you want to win, you want to get to the playoffs, and developing a quarterback on the fly while you're trying to win with a great team doesn't exactly gel as much as it does to have a veteran game manager.

So that's where I think it becomes tricky for him. So your confidence in Kevin O'Connell managing his way through this quarterback situation. 10. I think he's a quarterback whisper. I think Daniel Jones wanted to come here for a reason. I think Sam Darno wanted to come to Minnesota for a reason. I think Carson Wentz wanted to come here for a reason. And we asked him that prior to his first start.

And he said, look, I'm still learning, you know, about Kevin O'Connell's, you know, level of genius and getting quarterbacks ready in such a short amount of time. So I think these guys put a lot of trust in him. And I'm giving him a team because Matthew, he was a former quarterback that didn't make it. And he's come out on the record and say, like, look, I would have been more successful as a quarterback of the national football league if I had a coach that believed in me. If I had a coach that would tell me, hey, you're doing okay, this is what I want you to do better instead of just putting you down, how kind of the NFL was back in the day. It was very cutthroat, you know, very blunt. You're not good. You're not meant for this business, you know, and I'm saying.

So I just think that Kevin O'Connell's ability to put his self and his player's shoes and understand the struggles they may be going through or the challenges they may have and look, reading defenses and whatnot, he can always dumb it down for him and things like that. So my confidence in KOC is a 10, I think, because he was in these shoes. He's walked their path before. And he kind of knows how to get the best out of his quarterbacks. And he said it first. He said, I think the NFL and organizations fail young quarterbacks,

more than young quarterbacks failed the organizations. Right. And that's where the hard part for Vikings fans might be if Kevin O'Connell lands on the conclusion that regardless of how Wentz is playing, that McCarthy needs more time, that is, I think, very disappointing to Vikings fans because he was presented as being ready to start this year to us, to the fans. And I mean, look, we watch, you and I. we're out there watching Sam Howell all summer being like, they're not even challenging

J.J. McCarthy for this job. So why would anyone think that suddenly Carson Wentz would show up? But it's hard to figure it out watching training camp for anybody, for the coaches, for the teammates for us. And in those first two games, some of those key markers were not matching up of getting the ball out on time. And the thing that I wonder if what O'Connell thinks about this is McCarthy has now had two injuries, and he's played a grand total of what, including preseason, like four games, I mean, and he's had two injuries. Do you want him out there if he can't protect himself because he's holding onto the ball too long?

But then at the same time, I'm odd, I do buy when people are talking about, hey, they didn't have Christian Derisaw, and it wasn't maybe the best game plan, and they didn't lean on to the run game to help him out. So I think that there's also some, there has to be some evaluation, but also maybe some reflection as well. If you're going to bring him back in, there has to be more easy button stuff for him. And he has to be protected better. Yeah, absolutely.

And I think one thing that, you know, people outside of us, I feel like don't understand watching the Vikings is they didn't have Christian Derisaw the first two weeks. They also didn't have the guy who J.J. McCarthy built a connection with during training camp in Jordan Addison. Now you're talking about you're going to have. Christian Darisaw back. You're going to have Jordan Addison back. So now you're going to have that full offensive line, especially when Donovan Jackson returns from his wrist injury, hopefully around the same time as JJ McCarthy. Now you're talking about he has all of his weapons. He has his head

coach's play caller. There are no excuses now. You know what I'm saying. And so I think we should give him a fair shake with the five guys up front because look, you can have all the pieces you want. You can have Kevin O'Connell. You can play bad opponents. But if you don't have a good left tackle in the National Football League, you're going to be in trouble. We're going to be in trouble. of who plays quarterback. And that's why Carson Wentz was sacked so many times. Yeah. No, that's, and I think Wentz also himself needed to get rid of the ball a couple of those times, too, and was trying to make a play or two off a schedule that is maybe not in his repertoire these days, like it was back in 2017, uh, when, you know, he had not been in the league for so long and,

uh, accrued all the injuries and so forth. Um, but we can't really figure it out unless we see it. but they also can't really put him back in if they're winning. And I think O'Connell has his work cut out and will earn that very large paycheck throughout the rest of this development process for J.J. McCarthy as they go forward. But I don't think anyone would say it's a good idea to just write it off that McCarthy could come back in and play well. Next question, it pertains to the game this week that the Vikings are playing that is so but you focus on the quarterback situation, but we know who's starting against the Pittsburgh

Steelers. We also know who's starting for the Steelers, which would be Aaron Rogers. Over under on fan duel for Aaron Rogers is 202.5 yards against this vaunted Vikings defense. Do you think that Aaron Rogers goes over or under 202.5 yards a month? Man, that's tough, Matthew. I feel like he borders that. I'm going to say under because I feel like the Vikings defense like is playing out of this world. Like especially Jalen Redman, you're talking about a backup interior defensive lineman demanding so much attention from the interior offensive line on opposing teams. Like I just think they have so many guys to get after the quarterback.

Like we haven't even really talked about the absence of Blake Cashman because the front line has been playing so well. And then you insert Harrison Smith back into the secondary. and Isaiah Rogers doing what he did last week in that confidence. I mean, I don't see Calvin Austin or D.K. Metcalf or Pat Friarmuth just torching this defense. So I'm going to have to take the under on this one. The interesting stat for Aaron Rogers so far that I've noticed is according to PFF, he has just two big time throws so far this year and five turnover worthy plays, which is the seventh most in the NFL. And they have him graded as the second worst starting

quarterback in football right now, right? Which, you know, I think with his traditional statistics hasn't been bad, 586 yards, seven touchdowns, three picks, but a lot of that came against the Jets in that first game, a lot of screen passes to D.K. Matt Caff, a couple of wide open throws. We just haven't seen Aaron Rogers look like a top notch quarterback since probably 2021. And yet people keep talking themselves into the idea that that's the case. The one concern, I guess, guess I would have is if they can get some of the Arthur Smith play action stuff going. The Vikings run defense was much better last week. I just don't buy Aaron Rogers these days and what's left of him outside of the every

once in a while. Whoa, he still got the arm. But when they pressure him, I think he's going to look slower than Jake Browning. Yeah, honestly, and that's my thing. Like, he can't really extend plays. And if he does, it's only for two seconds. Like, I don't know if you guys watched the tape of Dallas Turner last week, But that closing speed, my goodness, he looked like a running back, hunting down Jake Browning.

So look, Aaron Rogers, I think is going to be on the move quite a bit this game. And I think Jonathan Gernard, Andrew Van Ginkle, Dallas Turner, those guys are going to have a field day when you talk about a non-mobile quarterback in Aaron Rogers. His PFF grade, when pressured this year, is 27.4, which is absolutely horrific. Yeah, right. So if he's not getting rid of the ball quickly, he is in a lot of trouble. I do think that every once in a while when you have an old wily vet that they can find something, but the way he looked even for the Jets last year against this defense didn't look like he was seeing it that great. Speaking of this defense, the next question I have on my list here is how good are they really considering the schedule,

considering all the different stars that they're going to face going forward, but also how they've played so far, where are they going to rank Amman? Like, how good do you think that the Vikings defense will end up being, let's just say, in points against the thing that matters the most at the end of the year? There'll be a top 10 defense. I think there'll be a top 10 defense, especially with the teams that they end this season with. You know, I think there's, look, they have a gauntlet coming up after that buy, like a four or five week stretch where it's brutal.

But then it kind of levels out a little bit after that. So I think they'll be able to kind of like balance things out if they do give up a lot of points to the Chargers, Eagles, Ravens, you know. But I think they still be a top 10 defense. I mean, you're talking about, look at that front seven on paper. That's one of the best front sevens in the National Football League. Harrison Smith, Future Hall of Famer. Josh Mattela's borderline, all pro-and-pro and pro-bow safety linebacker,

whatever you want to call him. And then Isaiah Rogers, Brian Murphy, you know, coming into their own. Like, I absolutely think they can be a top 10 defense. And I think maybe their average points giving up each week under 20. I think that's what they'll end the season with under 20. What is your swing factor for that? I think for me, I mean, you mentioned Redmond, Levi Drake Rodriguez, the way that those guys have played on the interior.

I think that it's probably two people for me. You mentioned Dallas Turner. That's a big one. If he plays, I mean, he's off to a really good start. But if he plays at an exceptional level and continues to grow through the rest of the season, that becomes the deepest, nastiest front seven or at least up there in the NFL. And then I'm going to throw Isaiah Rogers out there as well. Okay, he's not going to do this every single week.

Yeah, yeah, Isaiah, just go score two touchdowns, the first half, every single game. But, you know, if he continues to play at a high level, then that solidifies that unit to where they don't really have a week point. If he is kind of a flash in the pan one big week and then it's inconsistency after this, then I think there's still going to be some questions. I would also throw out Jeff Okuda as a question anytime that he's on the field. So I know I just kind of named everything. But like what's the one that has your attention the most? Jeff Okuda. I think that's the I won't say biggest question mark for this team.

But you see like every game that he's played in, he's been somewhat nicked up. Like, you know, he's had a concussion. You know, he's gotten up slow after a couple of tackles, you know. But when he comes on the field, when like another team trots out four wide receivers and the Vikings go dime or they go nickel. And Jeff Okuda has to come out there on that field. And Byron Murphy goes inside and he spread out outside against an X or Z. Can you hold up?

Can you hold your own water? We saw Isaiah Rogers do that on a fade ball with T. Higgins where he not only was running step for step with him, he turned and found the ball. Then he was able to get a PBU. Can Jeff Okuda do that consistently? I think that's going to be the deciding factor on this defense, especially when you start talking about good quarterbacks with good wide receivers and being able to test a Brian Flores defense and a quarterback not being confused by

all the different looks they're saying and knowing where to go with the ball. That means your corners have to play tight man-to-man coverage. That's what Jeff Okuda was brought here to do. So I want to see him do better. I want to see him be consistent. I think if he's consistent, you talk about a defense going from top 10 to top five. I think he has that much of an impact on this defense when you're talking about the diamond nickel play.

Offensively, I'm going to go with Jordan Mason. I'm going to go with Jordan Mason because he's going to be the bell cow for the next two games for the Minnesota Vikings or three games. game, should I say? Aaron Jones has a miss four. But I think he's going to be the bell cow. I think he has a lot of first that people didn't know about. He has a lot of toughness. He is a bruiser, but I think he also has some wiggle that people don't give him enough credit for. So I think that the Vikings need to make him a focal point moving forward. No, I'm not saying bench Aaron Jones because Kevin O'Connell said it during training camp. It's going to be a

1A1B. And I think what he brings to the receiving game is tremendous. But I think you need a back that's going to beat down a defensive line and linebackers and then let a Aaron Jones come in and burst one for 40 to 50 yards. You know what I'm saying? So Jordan Mason, Jeff Okuda, those are my two guys that I think need to have huge seasons for the Vikings to have success. I don't mind if when Aaron Jones comes back, it's more of a one and two with the way Mason is played. I mean, look, time comes for everybody and Jones didn't look like he had the same burst. Now he's going to be coming off of a hamstring injury, his receiving ability, his leadership. I would throw is pass protection in there.

I think that's ahead of where Jordan Mason is at this time in his career. All that stuff's important. Also, they're going to get CJ Ham back to give them a little pass pro on third downs if they need that. But the way that Mason looks running the football, to me is exceptional. It's top notch. It's finding holes. It's seeing the game extremely well. I think that his eyes probably are something I would give him a lot of credit for.

We see his girth and how tough it is to tackle. But he spotted holes and picked out plays. to go in that outside zone that was so impressive during this game against Cincinnati and really all year long. I think he has the possibility of being one of the best backs in the NFL. So you want to ride that and then work back Aaron Jones in. But, you know, it's a, it's a great point that Mason has been a game changer for this offense. I don't know where they would be if it was last year or two years ago with the running game, especially two years ago. So how about this for the next question. I think this is number six. It's a question. Yeah, six. What has been your biggest

surprise this year so far for the Vikings that is not the quarterback position? Because of course, I don't think any of us thought we'd be saying, Wentz v. Rogers in Ireland. But something that maybe when you and I were watching camp or as you were going through the off season and now that it's come to fruition, you're like, oh, did not expect that. that's a good question matthew um that's tough um because i feel like offensively we we kind of expect it ups and down it's like i kind of predicted that i felt like the offense was struggled weeks one through eight and that the defense would have to carry the low um i would say okay this is very very nitpicky. But I will say outside of the Bengals game, just a little inconsistency from the

defense and stopping the run. I think that DJ Swift showed a couple of flashes in game one, Caleb Williams getting outside of the pocket, and then B. John Robinson and all those guys going for 200 plus yards on them. That's been the one area where I'm like, I'm surprised by that. Because with Jonathan Allen, J. Von Hargrave and, you know, Jonathan Granard and Andrew Van Ginkle setting the edges, and then Ivan Pace and Blake Cashman, like I didn't expect. the Vikings to give up a 100-yard rusher this early in the season, yet alone a three, I mean a 200-yard rushing game against the Atlanta Falcon. So that's been the one thing that surprised me, and they got to correct it versus the bingles.

Josh Mattel has said that's something they can't do. But I think if they want to be successful, if they want to get to all their trick plays, their gadgets, and do all that creative stuff that Brian Flores is known to do, you have to be able to stop the run. I think they've been a little inconsistent in that. They show what they can do versus the Bengals, but now you need to go. show that each and every week. Yeah, and I think they really missed Cashman against the Atlanta Falcons.

The area where that could be, I think, taped over is having a rotation with two younger players who have been really good against the run so far when they've been out there. And now Brian Flores has to kind of figure out how do you mix and match when you have two of the best interior rushers and teams pass a lot on first down? But at the same time, these other two guys are stopping the run. and even we've seen Redmond get after the passer. I mean, he has looked like a certified beast in there with his quickness and strength. So it's, you know, a good problem to have for them.

But I think those guys could be the players that take it to a different level of the run game that maybe didn't play as much against the Falcons and could end up playing more. I would say you want to talk about getting deep in the weeds for biggest surprise. I think Ryan Wright's been awesome. I honestly think I'm not kidding, man. I think he kept him in the Falcons game. I think he was great against Cincinnati and Chicago, except for maybe one punt. He has been holding that football,

which we heard a lot from Matt Daniels. No, I mean, overall, I just say this, the special teams over the last couple of years has been a snoozer. It has not been great punting last year. Overall, at the end of the year, they're not one of the best field goal kicking teams, even though they had streaks of being great,

and they were certainly not a good returning team. And now a guy who was an undrafted free agent, who apparently didn't even get a signing bonus, according to Matt Daniels, has come in and given them a weapon in the return game, and Ryan Wright is punting more confidently, and Will Reichert is hitting 62-yard field goals. And in this world right now,

where the kick return is happening 75% of the time, and field position is, I think, a different battle because you're talking about asking punters to cough and corner all the time. You're asking kickers to kick from 60 all the time. It's a big deal if you're playing well on special teams. It is. Special teams, like they always say, Matthew, complimentary football, can't win games that the offense and defense don't compliment special teams, vice versa. So Miles Price, huge addition. Oh, my goodness. Like, we saw flashes during training camp of his receiving ability. But once he got in that game and the injury happened to Rondale Moore and he was finally giving some opportunities, we're like, whoa, like this kid's kind of good.

Like, he has some burst. He has some wiggle. And like you said, it's exciting with all the returns in the game nowadays. is you need someone who can kind of shift that momentum or give you some momentum when your offense is coming on the field. So love what Miles Price is doing. You're right. You hit the nail on the head with Ryan Wright. He's been doing really good this season when called upon. And Will Reichert, booting field goes.

So I think if the special teams can keep playing the way that they are and the defense can keep playing the way they are, J.J. McCarthy will have some time to grow. That's my hunch. Okay. Three questions remaining here for you. Okay. What opponent coming up is the most intriguing

for you. Amad? Can I list four? No, no. You can't. There's a lot. I agree. There's a lot. That's the, it's, it's which opponent, not which four opponents. I'm going to go, the Chargers, the Chargers. I think they have the blueprint of how to be successful in the NFL. Coach Harbaugh is doing a phenomenal job with Justin Herbert, got, Armari and Hampton running the ball. well, Justin Herbert getting it out to his receivers and they're playing great defense.

They have three division wins to start the season. And so I think are they going to continue that momentum? You're talking about going to Los Angeles and playing them on Thursday night football, prime time game. So who's going to be at the starter for that game? Is it Carson? Is it JJ? Will they be able to perform under the bright lights?

And so I think that's a very intriguing matchup because you're going on the road. If you can win that game, be the quality opponent, maybe a front runner in the AFC right now, I think that gives you a lot of momentum. them. But if you lose that game, then you got to look at the rest of your slate and kind of be like, all right, well, can we really compete against the best teams in the national football league? So that's the game. That's the opponent that I'm circling where, you know what, they got to show up. I love that pick. I think that is, I circle that is the toughest game on the schedule. You know, like when you play 18 holes and you look at the scorecard and it says one, this is the toughest hole on the course.

That to me is the toughest hole on the course. I would say for intrigue, Vikings and Lions at Ford Field, the House of Horrors recently during the Kevin O'Connell era, where if we go through the last couple of years, it has not gone very well at Ford Field, especially last year. So can they actually get a win there against Dan Campbell's team, which suddenly looks very strong? That leads me to the next question, which is Packers, Lions, who is the tougher competition for the Vikings going down the stretch? Lions, their offense, it's too explosive, man. I mean, they got weapons all over.

Jameson Williams, Amon Raus St. Brown, David Montgomery, Jamir Gibbs. I mean, David Montgomery got, what, like 12, 13 carries the other day and still managed two touchdowns to go over 100 yards. Like, their offensive line was the question mark heading into the season, and they're just creating holes for these two running backs to run through Jared Gough past all the time in the world, didn't get sack versus the Baltimore Ravens. Like, look, I know the Packers, they have a lot of hype.

rounding them. Michael Parsons is there. He's made their defense a little bit better, but there's still a lot of question marks with that offense. Like, yeah, you have Josh Jacobs, but is Jordan Love consistent? Is Matthew Golden a true number one wide receiver? Can Romeo Dobbs hold is on later in the season? Like, I think those are a lot of unknowns, whereas the lions, their whole problem last year was injuries defensively. Those guys are getting healthy, and they still have the same offense. They just don't have the same offensive coordinator. So I think that's the problem. And like you said, going to Detroit has been a horror story for the Vikings recently. And you got to go there to win, especially if you want to be good in the

playoffs. So I'm going to have to go with the Lions because they've been there before. They've had more success recently and they still have all of their guys, whereas the Packers are still trying to figure things out. They just got Michael Parsons. So it's a flashy, shiny object. And everyone is, you know, obsessing and drooling over that. I do think the Packers defense will continue to be very legit. They have been phenomenal. If J.J. McCarthy is the one going to Lambo, which is also, you know, on the slate, that might be pretty darn tough as we saw how much Detroit struggled there. But it tends to be the case that offense is a little more consistent than defense from a week to week basis. And I think that you're right. And also that Detroit's

defense has started to show up the last couple of weeks where they got off to a really rough start. And if the Packers offensive line looks like that looked like they did against Cleveland, against the Vikings. Jordan Love's going to have a really, really long day. So love to me is not shown an ability in their receivers, their line to be consistent week in and week out, even giving all credit to Cleveland. So I might lean ever so slightly Detroit as well,

but I think this one's about as close as it gets. Let me look here. I'm curious about the betting market. The betting market has Green Bay to win the NFC plus 400 in Detroit, plus 800. So they're not as sold on Detroit after those couple of wins, which is interesting. That's surprising. Yeah.

I wouldn't have thought that there would be much gap at all between those two. Yeah. Okay. All right. So here's the final question for you. There's a couple of teams in the league. Amazing how this goes in the NFL, right? We've gone this far and there's only a couple teams in the NFL that are three and oh.

I think we all are buying the Buffalo Bills at three and no because they're a legit Super Bowl favorite. But there's some other teams that maybe they're three and O is a little. little suss. And that would be the Indianapolis Colts, the Tampa Bay Bucks, and the San Francisco 49ers. Whose 3 and O is the most legitimate of those three teams?

I love the thought you're putting into this. I know, because I wanted to say the Indianapolis Colts, but I'm like, I don't love their division. And I think a couple of their wins are kind of just like easier wins. I'm going to have to go Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. You know, I think they've been some quality opponents.

I think they have the pieces to be a really good football team, especially because, I mean, you talk about, like, a team that was kind of built, shaped around Tom Brady, then a lot of those guys still remaining, still lingering around. Chris Godwin hasn't even been out there. He's going to be coming back this week. And so their offense is just going to get even more explosive. Bucky Urban, former University of Minnesota running back,

starting for them. And then Rashid Wright, you know, as a backup, like, come on. Now, like, that's a lot of firepower. So I think they're legitimate. And you're talking about a former number one overall quarterback finally living up to the billing and playing up to his potential. So I think they have a lot of confidence. And I think confidence is key in the NFL. If you're a confident group, you can go out there and achieve anything.

So I'm going to have to go with the Buccaneers. I think that three and no start is very legitimate and it's impressive. Very interesting that the starting quarterbacks of these teams are all former high draft picks who maybe didn't get enough time or develop possibly or possibly were thrown into the fire a little too early. I don't know, maybe I'm just saying that that happens sometimes in the National Football League. In fact, it happens all the time. I think that, so you mentioned the wins for Indianapolis. I agree. They beat Miami.

They beat Tennessee and, you know, but their rest of their division, the Jags, just not impressive. Tennessee is going to be a free win for them later. The Texans are just not who we thought they were going to be two years ago. And that could lead them to being better. think that the NFC West is tough. The bucks, the unfortunate part, if they were 100% healthy, I'd say, hey, that's a Super Bowl contender. They're really banged up right now.

So they might go through it a little bit early in the season, but I think that they are a real Super Bowl contender as we go down the stretch when they get people back. Because Mike Evans heard their offensive line is completely shredded apart and they found a way to win some games. But San Francisco and Tampa Bay's wins haven't been nearly as impressive as Indianapolis. So I think I would pick Indy and make that tentatively because we just don't know what's coming next. Folks, make sure you go check out the Must Be Two Sides podcast interview with Ahmad, Michael Pruitt, former Viking, and you're having Eric Kendricks on the show.

That's awesome. You also do a podcast with Henry Lake, who's a great friend of mine, Fox 9 coverage. You're doing a lot, man. I love to see it. Love to see out there at TCO as well covering the Vikings. So great stuff. I love this bit. to keep doing it every once in a while. So I really appreciate you taking the time, man.

Man, thanks for having me on your platform. I really appreciate it. You've done a tremendous job. I mean, to go from radio to full-time podcast. I don't think people know how hard that is. I think a lot of people think anybody can pick up a microphone and broadcast it to people and start making money and create a living off of it. But it's not that easy. And I'm learning that firsthand. So shout out to you and the platform that you've created, the audience that you've built, you're doing a tremendous job. And I appreciate you having me on. Hey, once I got the camera, microphone, and lighting, the rest was easy after that. That was the hardest part and a lot of trial and error there.

So, well, I appreciate the kind words and we'll see you very soon, man. All right, Matthew, take care.