Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jordan Addison practices and Manny Hill projects Sam Darnold's stat line (Part 1)

Episode Date: September 3, 2024

Matthew Coller talks about his notes from TCO Performance Center on Jordan Addison and Aaron Jones and then gets with Manny Hill to answer fan questions, mainly focused on projecting Sam Darnold Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and it is a game week for the Minnesota Vikings. So I have returned from the Vikings locker room where we had a really good chat with Aaron Jones that I want to talk a lot about. Some updates from practice as far as injuries go. They don't have to put out an official injury report until Wednesday, but did make a significant observation today. Plus, the Vikings lost Jaron Hall. We'll talk about that. And a football power index maybe that the Vikings don't want to see. And it's 7.30, so about a half hour from now, Manny Hill will return

to the show and Manny and I will be back in hot routes mode. And just to preview that, we're just going to talk about what we're excited for, for football. That is going to be the whole conversation for an hour with myself and Manny Hill. And of course, I want you guys very much involved as well. Your questions, your comments, your thoughts. We will be answering them all throughout the next hour and a half or so. So we are back. Once Manny arrives on the scene for a weekly basis to Mondays and Thursday nights live on YouTube, you know that football season is here. So let's start with my notes from TCO Performance Center and the Vikings today.

And then we'll get to Manny in a little bit. And if you've got some questions or comments, throw them in the box. I'll start answering them. And then when Manny comes in, we'll all have a good conversation. So let's jump right into it. Jordan Addison was at practice today. That does not mean he's locked dead in 100% to play this week. It just means that Jordan Addison was at practice today. He did not look like he was doing a lot. But when the season starts, we don't watch the whole practice anymore. As reporters, we go out for the warm-up section and the individual drills,

and then we go back inside. They practice because they're doing their game planning, everything else. It's only open to the team during practice. So I can't tell you how much Jordan Addison was able to do. And since the official injury report doesn't come out until Wednesday, that we're not sure about whether he's going to be listed as limited or a full participant in practice. But what you can say is the fact that he had a uniform on and pants and he was doing stretching is a very good sign for Jordan Addison toward potentially

playing in week one against the New York Giants. And if he were to have the ankle injury and not miss any time at all, that would be a big win for the Vikings that have not gotten many good injury updates throughout this training camp. But in this case, it would be a very good one for Jordan Addison. So a plus sign for him potentially toward playing in week one to be out on the practice field today. On the negative side for the Vikings from practice. Jalen Naylor was working out off to the side. So he was not looking like he was going to participate in practice. And Jalen Naylor with his injury history certainly makes you raise an eyebrow with that because if it was somebody else, you might say, all right, well, let's see see on Wednesday let's not talk too much about

this because sometimes guys need a day off when they're banged up or they tweak something or whatever but with Jalen Naylor this is always the concern is with his injuries and his potential availability not sounding the alarm yet Wednesday will tell us a lot more toward Jalen Naylor's status and we haven't heard anything that would indicate so far that he won't be able to play, but the fact that he was not looking like he was working with the rest of the group, a little bit concerning, something to keep an eye on with Jalen Naylor. But I also think that this year is going to be, just in general, different from a wide receiver three perspective because in

the past the most recent past it was it was KJ Osborne's job it was just all KJ Osborne and he was wide receiver three we didn't see too many other people mixing in and that's over the last three seasons but now they have other guys that are going to mix in, I think for different roles. So somebody like Trent Shurfield, I would guess that he's going to be someone who's out there at times when they want to run the football a little bit more. Brandon Powell is an underneath wide receiver three type. And if Jalen Naylor cannot play, then you might see a little more of Tristan Jackson, who's a similar type of downfield, maybe a third down and long type receiver that you're throwing in there. And I also feel like

they're going to use a lot of two tight ends with Josh Oliver and Johnny Munt, and they want either to have that advantage of the opposing team in nickel when they're in their big personnel, or they want to have opportunities to throw the ball out of that big personnel if the other team goes with their multiple linebackers they have three linebackers out there in more of a base package and it's not just going to be hey it's Jalen Naylor's job he's wide receiver three he's going to get 80 targets I never thought it would be that way but after a very good training camp, you want Naylor to carry on with that, especially being a downfield threat that he is. So that's

something to very much keep an eye on for Wednesday when we go back out there for their next practice. And that's when they will release the injury report. So we get an idea of Naylor's chances to play at that point. We talked to Aaron Jones today. Always a pleasure to talk to Aaron Jones, one of the best guys in front of the cameras and microphones that you're going to find as a veteran player. And he went into great detail about signing with the Vikings and how from the outset of the moment that he signed with them, he said they gave him cards with plans for making sure that he could stay as healthy as possible. And he really wanted that to go to a team that he felt like was going to work with his body that is on the older side. He's aware of the running back curve and he named off a bunch of running backs

from the past, even going back to Emmett Smith, who had beaten the age curve. And he named off a bunch of running backs from the past, even going back to Emmett Smith, who had beaten the age curve. So that is on Aaron Jones's mind and he's aware of it, but he talked, he called it prehab, uh, doing things to try to make sure that he was going to be in the best possible shape. And he said, he feels like he's in his prime, uh, which last year, the last five games of the season certainly looked like it. And we asked him what was the difference between those last five games? And he said he was a hundred percent. And when he's at a hundred percent, that's what Aaron Jones looks like playing football. And I thought that that was really something notable when he was talking about them having a plan versus he didn't want

to say the Packers didn't have a plan for him physically. But he also mentioned just his usage during training camp and how it was somewhat limited. He didn't practice a whole heck of a lot, didn't play in the preseason games for good reason, because you want to have him play for 17 games. So, I mean, I think that the Vikings are trying everything they can here to give Aaron Jones a better chance to play the entire season. And he's going to be entering at close to a hundred percent if he's not a hundred percent at the beginning of the season. And this is a edge that the Vikings can potentially get just by having individual plans for players and health is such a big deal in the NFL. And so we'll see. I mean, my expectation is still very high for Aaron Jones. He came across

as incredibly confident in where his body is. I think it was also Adrian Peterson who once upon a time predicted he would play another 10 years or something in the NFL, but Aaron Jones said he wants to play another eight years in the NFL. I don't know about that. That might be one of the oldest running backs we've ever had in the NFL if that's the case, but just from the way that he was discussing it with us, it seems that Aaron Jones feels very good about where his body is at. And when it comes to that split of carries, having Ty Chandler there, and he also talked about trying to bring Ty Chandler along and somebody that he feels like is very explosive.

I think he said he's got the juice, which we've seen before from Ty Chandler. So having those two mix in, maybe it's a 60-40 type of split could also help get the most out of Aaron Jones. So an interesting conversation with him. And I think he's a real swing man to this season because if the Vikings can run the football better and behind the scenes, I'm absolutely certain this has been a major priority for them because they know that there's going to have to be a little bit of Shanahan Kubiak style building the passing game off the run looking for play action deep shots which gets set up by handing the ball to Aaron Jones and gets set up by having big personnel at times

in the game. But the other team has to be worried that you're going to do something with it. If you don't run successfully, but you have two tight ends out there, then you just have two guys who aren't that much of a threat to catch the ball down the field. But if you can, as we saw with the Vikings in say like 2019, when they had Irv Smith as a rookie and Kyle Rudolph, you saw teams really struggle to deal with Delvin Cook in the backfield, the play action game off the big personnel. So if you can make it work from a run game perspective, then it can be pretty good. I

think that's what they want to do with Aaron Jones. And knowing that there are some limitations compared to Kirk Cousins that Sam Darnold has, he's going to be a big deal for the team this season. All right, Jaron Hall, all of you Jaron Hall fans, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to exchange your jerseys for somebody else. Who is, who took his number? I think Will Reichard. Hey, that's not bad. So if you had the Jaron Hall 16, you could just put some tape over it that says Will Reichard. I'm kidding, but Jaron Hall's a Seahawk. And I'm not sure what went into Jaron Hall's thinking. The Vikings said that they wanted to bring Jaron Hall back.

Having four quarterbacks who, you know, three of them know the offense makes sense. They had to use four quarterbacks last year, but I think that if you were upset that Jaron Hall is signing somewhere else, I don't know what to tell you that this wasn't somebody who was at all in the mix or the running for a future starting quarterback. And I was pretty skeptical that he could be even a future backup quarterback because he had was pretty skeptical that he could be even a future backup quarterback because he had never really shown that. And even when he was in the preseason game, the last play that he played in preseason, he took a huge hit and you were concerned that Jaron Hall was never going to be able to play at the speed of the NFL and that it was going to be potentially dangerous for him to

be out there considering the way he got hurt against the Falcons, the hits he took when he was out there for the Packers. So the best of luck to Jaron Hall in his future because the way he handled the whole situation was very good and he was somebody that worked professionally and represented the franchise well and was good in the locker room and all those things. But it's not, it's not something you should be worried about. Don't lose any sleep about Jaron Hall signing with another team, because I don't think he was ever in this team's plans, even as the backup quarterback for next season. I just can't see it because usually that role to go along with JJ McCarthy would have been

a proven backup. Somebody who started a lot of games. I don't know if it'll be Mullins or someone else, but it will be a veteran. It's not just going to be a guy who has barely played. And when he has, it's, it's been him getting whacked a lot by the opposing team. So again, good, good for Jaron Hall. Maybe he gets another chance to be a backup somewhere else and develops a little bit more, but a new start for him with the Seattle Seahawks and have to include this one because it's hot. This is something that we could go on TV and we could yell at each other about. This one of those those debate show topics espn's football power index that's extra football with more power in a form of an index simulated the season and

found that the vikings are drafting number one overall i understand why a simulation would come up with something like this, because if you plug in Sam Darnold's past history into a simulation, you would probably, probably not get the greatest results out of that. However, uh, did Sam Darnold's teams even draft number one at any point? I mean, I don't even know if that ever happened. He had a seven win season where he went seven and six as a starter with the jets. He went eight and nine with the Carolina Panthers. I mean, I think it's a pretty tough sell to me that a team with this much talent with Justin Jefferson, and I'm sure that the NFC North is also a factor as well, but with Brian Flores, Kevin O'Connell, the supporting cast,

we just talked about Aaron Jones, the offensive line that has two very good tackles and experience center. There's just way too many good veteran players here to say that they're going to pick number one. I can get to, well, all right, they are going to miss the playoffs or they could even have a tough season considering the schedule. But number one overall draft pick, I don't know about that football power index. That would take catastrophe after catastrophe after catastrophe. And while the Vikings have had that in the past, this franchise has just not been in that position.

In order to get there, you have to have everything go wrong. And there is a scenario where it could happen. And that scenario is Nick Mullins. If Sam Darnold were to get hurt and they had to play Nick Mullins over a very extended period of time, over 10 games or something like that, and they had nothing else except for him and Brett Rippon then I suppose it could happen that's usually what happens to a team that ends up drafting number one is oftentimes they get their quarterback hurt or in the case of Carolina that gave their pick to the Chicago Bears they had drafted a quarterback the year before and he was extremely bad along with their roster that had been tanking before and had been horrendous i don't think the vikings are in that spot i mean when you go just through the

players that they have on the defensive side uh the the grennard van ginkle harrison smith even stefan gilmore had a really good season last year, last in the league. I mean, we're talking about maybe three or four wins all season long to get to the number one spot. Just can't see that happening. And some of you were online last night and saw me say, and I'll say it again, that in this scenario, somebody brought up the idea of the Vikings drafting another quarterback. That is not going to happen. From what they saw from J.J. McCarthy, I think that J.J. McCarthy was,

had he not torn his meniscus, going to go to Cleveland and make his case for starting in week one. And if he wasn't going to start in week one, then it was going to be early in the season. As soon as Sam Darnold hit some stumbling blocks, he was going to be early in the season. As soon as Sam Darnold hit some stumbling blocks, he was going to start. They loved what they saw from JJ McCarthy. They believe he is the future franchise quarterback that they're going to build around that the draft evaluations, whether Shadur Sanders or somebody else, Carson guy from Georgia, whoever is better as a prospect does not matter because

JJ McCarthy has done it in a real NFL setting. So no matter where they end up drafting, in fact, if it was that high, if everything went completely to hell and they didn't fire the coaching staff and the general manager, and that would be a thing. If they drafted number one and the Wilfs want them to win, then that might be the case. Cause that's just the nature of the beast. I still wouldn't think that was a good idea, but it might be something that happens if they're that bad. It's going to feel like really, really, really terrible if that ended up being the case. But if that were to happen, then the Vikings could do the trade down, could get a lot of their draft capital back,

and then help build around JJ McCarthy. So there you go. There is no chance whatsoever, zero, that JJ McCarthy will not be their guy starting for next season. And if you see that anywhere, then I just reject it. Just reject it. What they saw from him was a dream scenario from JJ McCarthy. And that's just the facts. That's just what was actually happening at TCO Performance Center. I don't know what else is happening on the internet, but that's what was actually going on there. But I don't think that they will draft number one. And we were talking about this today because we have these walks from the media center up to the practice field and the media center to the locker rooms. You kind of walk and walk and

talk. And we were talking today about like what we all think the record is going to be like, what do you think it's going to be? What do you think it's going to be? And it was like nine and eight, nine and eight, nine and eight, nine and eight. I eight everybody kind of thinks it's going to be nine and eight because even teams that have terrible seasons but have a halfway decent coach the Giants included I think Dable is a halfway decent coach even they finished with six last year playing Tommy DeVito even the Jets who I think have a halfway decent coach and Robert Sala they finished they won seven last year, finished seven and 10 with playing Zach Wilson. And I think Tim Boyle started a game. The Vikings last year, they started what one in four and then lost their quarterback mid season, still won seven games.

I just would have, it would have to be so, so bad. And Darnold would have to be hurt in order for that to happen. and who can ever predict quarterback injuries as you all know so that's kind of i just thought that was something that i saw rolling in in the ticker and uh on the internet as well i figured i would toss that out there that i just i have a really tough time thinking that's going to happen but then again maybe no one ever thinks their teams that they cover is going to be the number one pick. I don't know. So let me scroll back to the top.

I'll start answering some questions. About 10 minutes from now, Manny Hill will join. And, yeah, we'll keep answering your questions, but also talk about the things we are most pumped about for the Vikings 2024 season or are fascinated by. And I would love to hear yours. What's your number one you're most fascinated by, you most want to find out from 2024 Vikings or otherwise, but of course we'll do a lot of Vikings stuff.

One in 16, Chocolate Thunder says, I mean, before Zimmer took over 2013. They, it was about as bad of a season you could have. It was Matt Castle and Christian Ponder, I think is the quarterbacks and they ended up with five. If you have talent and you're trying, usually you end up with at least five. Let's see. Hamza says,

how big of an upgrade do you think Aaron Jones is from Alexander Madison? Seems like everybody was mentioning how good Jones looked in training camp. Can Jones be a huge difference maker? Absolutely. This is a player who has steamrolled the Vikings in recent years. You've seen it. I mean, he's, he is powerful, shifty, smart, versatile. This is a superstar running back that the issue is not even how he's played recently. It's just whether he could stay healthy. And if he does to even some

extent and isn't trying to fight through a bunch of injuries and they can mix Ty Chandler in there to take a little bit off of his plate, then you are talking about a huge upgrade from Aaron Jones to Alexander Madison. And I still think that Madison could have been better than he was last year had they blocked it up and had they had an identity for their run game. I think that that's something that they can't just roll the ball out and say, Aaron Jones, save our butts in the running game. It has to be more well-planned than it was last year. And I was a little bit surprised that they didn't make a change at the run game coordinator position because it just didn't make sense to me watching it. It looked like it didn't fit the blocking of the offensive lineman, like the blocking talents that they have, especially Garrett Bradbury.

If you're asking Bradbury to just go straight forward, is that really his thing? Or is it moving? Is it getting out? His mobility as a lineman has always been his strength. He put on some weight this year, I guess, but I still think it's his ability to get out and to move, to reach block, stuff like that. The tackles are the best players you have. And yet it didn't seem like much was headed toward them on the outsides.

So they have to improve schematically or nobody is going to be able to overcome terrible blocking. But you're talking about a guy who has one of the best yards per carry marks ever. Not just pretty good, but five yards a carry is one of the best yards per carry marks ever, not just pretty good, but five yards of carry is one of the best ever. And last year he was still somewhere around a four and a half, 4.6. Um, I think he will be a massive upgrade as, as long as he continues to play. And that's one of the reasons that talking about them being tremendously bad, it's just hard to see if you have so much talent with your receivers and in the backfield and their offensive line at least has strengths to it. Andrew says, I'm willing to wager $1,000 that Sam Darnold's

a top 10 statistical quarterback this season. If you give me some odds, I'll even wager thousands that he will be top five. Okay, Andrew. I don't bet with people aside from milkshakes. So how about a milkshake? What are we talking about statistical? What does statistical mean? I don't think that Sam Darnold is going to be a top 10 statistical quarterback. I don't think he has to be for this team to make the playoffs.

I think he's got to be more like top 20 for this team to make the playoffs because of their defense. And if we're talking about PFF grade, are we talking about QBR? Are we talking about quarterback rating? He might not end up with a great quarterback rating because he doesn't complete the highest percentage of his passes. I don't think Sam Darnold is great at the easy stuff all the time. I mean, the check downs, the slant route over the middle, deciding whether he should throw that or not

throw that into traffic. Sometimes he waits too long to throw it or doesn't see it the way that he's supposed to see it. For quarterbacks that complete higher percentages like Kirk Cousins, it's usually they're very good with anticipation and accuracy, and it's not really his thing. And quarterback rating usually rewards touchdown passes and completion percentage. Well, I don't know how many touchdown passes he's going to throw, and I certainly don't think he's going to be one of the highest completion percentage quarterbacks. And usually with PFF, the more accurate you are. And sometimes it really rewards conservative quarterbacks that just throw completions with that's one of the big problems with that PFF system. It loved Andy Dalton, I think with the Saints a couple of years ago, because he just took

everything underneath and he didn't really have negative plays, but he didn't really have positive plays. So it said he was pretty good, even though he wasn't moving the needle. Well, with Sam Darnold, the big plays and the big negative plays, sometimes that's going to come out in the wash. Maybe yardage could rack up quite a bit, but I do think that they want to run a lot of play action stuff and build off the run game. So I don't think that he's going to be top 10 statistical quarterback, but I do think that he can be in the top 20 and he could be a quality starter and keep them in a lot of football games.

That's a best case scenario. It would be pretty shocking if he turned it around, but if someone else wants to make a bet with you for a thousand dollars, well, I guess they can just reach out to Andrew. Oh gosh. Says Jaron Hall is the Tyler think pen of this generation. Certainly is. Yep.

Certainly is quarterbacks like that. They work hard and they become fan favorites. They have good preseason games. And then you remember after watching one quarter of real action. Oh yeah. That's not the preseason. It's not playing against Philly's third stringers. And the game I think was just too fast for Jaron Hall when it was really being played out there.

And that's probably why the Vikings decided they needed to get somebody else. Zoomer Kev says, I want to vomit every time I hear it. Number three, wide receiver, to be honest with you, drives me crazy. It's something that you guys talk about. I feel like we've got a bunch of them that makes you want to vomit. Wow. So number three receiver, here's where I agree with you is that it can be multiple people. And a lot of times what you have is two or three wide receivers that do different things and you use them for different situations. And sometimes you try to throw the other team off by putting in a guy that doesn't usually

run block and then running. So the other team thinks, oh, well, this guy's in, he doesn't run block. And then, oh, they ran, or this guy's just a run blocker. And then there's an example of this, the touchdown that JJ McCarthy threw to Trent Shurfield, where he looks like he's going to block. If you go back and watch that play, he's like, I'm going to block you. And because it's Trent Shurfield, they thought, oh, he must be blocking. And then he just ran by the guy. Wide open touchdown. That's one of his roles and what he can do. Tristan Jackson's a different guy.

Brandon Powell's a different guy. But the point that I'm making with the wide receiver three thing is that there clearly was one over the last few years, and that was KJ Osborne. There was no question who the top outside receivers are with jefferson and addison last year and then kj osborne is the number three uh you could call them whatever the xyz you know you could use those or the the flanker and uh what's the other ones and nobody ever uses those old terms anymore but it's not the case now. They need somebody to step up though. And maybe it's Jalen Naylor and maybe it's a Trent Shurfield or Tristan Jackson. Someone has to

be that guy because that position does get a lot of targets in this offense. Daniel says we need some guard talk. All I can tell you is this, and this is actually quite important, is the Vikings offensive line is healthy. That's a big deal. They don't have any injuries preseason going into the start of the year. And I tend to think that a lot of success or failure on the offensive line has to do with just health. And last year, some of you were shocked when the Vikings had a pretty good PFF grade for

pass blocking. Some of that is Josh Oliver's good at it. CJ Hamm is good at it. And PFF counts the entire unit. Kirk Cousins wasn't pressured that much, though. And part of it was they had no injuries on that offensive line past, I think, the third week or something. And they were healthy the rest of the way.

Ezra Cleveland got banged up, but they wanted Reisner to play anyway, and they were healthy. And that's going to be a big deal for this year because you go one level down. Reisner is on IR currently. Blake Brandel has already been a backup for his career, the backup center, Dan Feeney. You don't want him to play an extended amount of time, but that's a plus coming out of training camp is really you go across the roster and they are mostly healthy outside of the big injuries that they had. J.J. McCarthy and Mekhi Blackman, Shaq Griffin back at practice today looked like he was going to participate fully.

So now they have a secondary that's healthy. They have an offensive line that's healthy. And if your starters are playing there, then you're in good shape. And once again, and this is why I've always been for Kevin O'Connell not playing the starters in preseason, is once again, he's coming out of the preseason into week one without any real serious injuries other than the ones that happened at total random the meniscus the acl aside from that though healthy and we'll see with uh jaylen naylor uh angel dust

says over under 15 interceptions for darnold i will go under just because it's hard to throw 15 interceptions not too many guys throw even darnold in his career hasn't been throwing 15 interceptions. Not too many guys throw, even Darnold in his career hasn't been throwing 15 interceptions a year. Now, if Kevin O'Connell is pushing the gas pedal down and having him throw all the time, then I guess that could be the case. He could end up with 15 or more interceptions. I might go a little bit under that 12, 13, But you go 15 or higher, and you've had a lot of picks at that point. That means you're throwing numerous games of multiple interceptions, and it's going to get pretty rough. But I don't think that's a crazy over-under, though.

If he plays all 17 games and he is Sam Darnold, then he's going to play recklessly at times. But I would go a little bit under that, I think. Mike says, is Aaron Jones on the Harrison Smith veteran wellness plan? Yes, he is. Yes, he is. And you'll see this from Stefan Gilmore. Gilmore didn't practice at all until he got here, obviously, at the end of the summer. And now he's just going to play because these veteran guys, they know what they're doing. If you've been around long enough, you know how to pick up on a defense.

You know how to keep yourself healthy. Aaron Jones did not need a ton of reps in order to be ready to play for the Vikings. All right, you guys, speaking of ready, you guys ready for this? Here he is emmanuel hill man what is going on my friend let me put on my headphones i hear you it is hot routes time with manny hill every monday and thursday night you can keep asking questions comments reacting to the things that we're saying. But Manny, I am extremely excited to have you back to talk about the biggest subjects in the National Football League, especially everything Minnesota Vikings. So how are you doing, sir? Great to have you.

It's football season, man. I'm pumped. I'm excited. I'm ready to go. I mean, we've already kind of gotten an appetizer with the college football season getting going the last couple of weekends. And now the NFL starting this week. It's a great time to be alive. I love this time of year. Well, we were just talking, Manny, about the Football Power Index having the Vikings drafting number one overall next season. I have a pretty tough time seeing that happen, but I'm just reacting to people's questions, comments.

So why don't we have some conversation with the fans here, and then we can talk about things that we're most pumped about. You made a list. I made a list for the Vikings in the 2024 season. Mike says, did you make your official guess at the team record? I'm going with 7 and 10. Manny, mine is make your official guess at the team record? I'm going with seven and 10. Manny, mine is nine and eight is my official record. I'm not changing it from the night that I picked the schedule. Nothing has happened that has changed this roster so

significantly. I mean, Makai Blackman is a starter who got hurt. They brought in Gilmore, but aside from that, they're running out the whole team that I thought that they would be running out. And I think that they can get to that 500 mark with this team. What do you think? What's your official Vikings record prediction? Yeah, I was kind of on that fence of like an eight, nine, nine and eight type of type of season. If everybody can, I think, stay healthy. And I think of what we expect to see out of this defense, I think this is a defense that showed a lot of improvement last year under Brian Flores. And I think with the additions that they made in free agency,

I think we should see a defense that's even better. And, you know, maybe hopefully everybody stays healthy enough down the stretch of the season where we're not seeing a lot of big plays given up like we saw late in the season last year that kind of hurt them when they started going up against some better quarterbacks late in the year. But yeah, I'm really excited to see how this defense turns out. And I think with the guys that they brought in it should be improved from last year and um and man sam darnold if he if if sam darnold can be as good as i think that he

can be in this system with these weapons um i think this is a team that can be in the mix for a playoff spot maybe not necessarily get in but they'll be in the conversation late in the season i think so too but a lot of it does hinge on what Daniel says here. If Darnold does really bad, I could see top 10. And that is the hard thing here because I wrote a very large article. It kind of got away from me. Usually you try to keep articles to 1500 words or something. It's a pretty quality read.

I think I was like a 4,000. So I just, I kept gathering and gathering information, but it's crazy how bad this man's offensive lines were in his past. We focus on the receivers because he's got Jefferson, but the Vikings do have two good tackles. They can block it up a better, way better than what Sam Darnold has had before. And that's really been his main issue is when he gets pressured. If you can lower that pressure percentage, even a bit by just having a more competent offensive line, I think you could get a better performance out of him. And that's not even to mention that the career of Justin Jefferson,

anytime a quarterback, mostly her cousins and a little Nick Mullins, but anytime a quarterback hucked a pigskin in the direction of Justin Jefferson, the quarterback rating on throws his way is 112 for his career, which is what Aaron Rodgers is was in 2021 when he won MVP. We cannot understate what that's going to mean. I think that Jefferson has even more potential downfield for deep stuff than he did with Kirk Cousins because Darnold throws a pretty good deep ball, but also is more willing to take those risks as well. There's no denying it though. If he stinks, then it's going to go badly and uh cup of joe mama i love the nicknames these

people have uh if we get a top six pick who would your main priority be my main priority manny is not talking about the draft as long as i possibly can but i will still answer this question just because your name is cupo joe mama it's defensive tackle and corner for me. It's outstandingly those two positions. You agree? Yeah, 100%. I mean, I think, you know, getting Stephon Gilmore was really good for the secondary that, you know, was really kind of banged up this offseason. And, you know, I think you're just kind of hoping that that unit,

at least with the corners, can just hold on for most of the season because I think they're pretty solid everywhere else on defense. And if you can get a young guy in that can be a high impact player, young player next year, then that'd be great. And you mentioned defensive tackle. I mean, you and I have been talking about, you know, the interior of the defensive line being able to apply more pressure in the passing game um that's kind of something that this defense is really even under brian flores last year was kind of missing we

didn't really see a lot of that and certainly it was missing under ed donatel two years ago so that is something i think we'd be looking at but i'm with you i don't want to think about the draft yet i want to see how these 17 games go first to see, you know, where they'll be picking in the first round next year. And, you know, maybe if things go well enough, we could be talking about a team that gets into the playoffs. And, you know, that'll be fun. I think playoff football is fun.

And with what they did in the offseason, I think that should be the goal is to try and make the playoffs, even if it's going to be tough sledding along the way um i'm i'm just really excited for what this season is going to look like for this team for sure they have yeah they have way too much talent to think about the draft at this point and that's why with a football power index i mean i respect seth walder a lot from espn the analytics person but all of it whether it's Vegas, whether it's this, it's all guesses and it's all wrong all the time, which is why we watch. I like to do, and I haven't put it out there yet.

I got to put it out there this week. I usually do 50 bold predictions going into the season. And I think I've written like 30, but I haven't filled out the rest of it, but I'll get it out. I promise. And I always go back and look and some of them are super right. Like I think I predicted the exact week that Desmond Ritter would be benched or something like stuff like that. But I remember two years ago when I did it, I said, the Seattle Seahawks are going to draft number one. Gino Smith is their quarterback. He's absolutely horrible. I have no idea why

they're playing him. And he made the playoffs at nine and eight. And then you go back and look and you go, oh, right. Because they ran the ball pretty well. Their receivers are excellent and their coaching was good. And I think that the Vikings have a lot of those same signals and the same thing with Baker Mayfield. You saw the Cleveland Browns, even despite having Joe Flacco, who gave them competent play, make the playoffs. It's not impossible if you have other talent and a head coach who is good. And I think the Vikings have a head coach who reaches a threshold of good. I'm not saying he's great. This is a thing. You miss this during the six months we haven't been doing regular

shows, Manny, but Brian Flores was adamant that we don't crown players who haven't done anything yet. So I'm not crowning. I'm not crowning Kevin O'Connell. Okay. He's got to win some playoff games. But I think when you have a baseline for O'Connell and Flores,

we know that it's not an urban Meyer. We know it's not a Matt Patricia. We know that this is somebody who I think moves the needle in a positive direction. And when you have that, it shouldn't be that hard to have a competitive season. Digit says the schedule is beyond nuts this year. I'm sticking with eight wins. It's it's order is beyond nuts the beginning, but then the middle is not nuts. And then the end is kind of nuts. How much do you factor a schedule, Manny? Because

last year I was thinking about all the times they played, played like a backup quarterback. Remember when Tyson Bajan played, I mean, you just, you, the schedule is determined by how healthy the opposing quarterbacks are on your schedule. So right now it looks pretty nasty by week two, it might look different. A mean you know they've got you know you've got the houston texans coming to town on week three i mean knock on wood i wouldn't root for this to happen because i really like them but if something happens to cj stroud between now and then that that completely changes i mean you look at that matchup right now at first thought you're thinking yeah the texans might be favored in that game and they probably should be i mean

that they're a team that has one of the best young quarterbacks in the league they're a playoff team from a year ago they've got you know they've they've improved they've they've upgraded in the receiving core with stefan diggs you know they got to Neil Hunter now on the defensive side of the ball as well. So on paper, you kind of look at that game and think, yeah, that's going to be a tough game for the Vikings. But if something happens to CJ Straub between now and then, again, not rooting for that, that changes everything for that game. So I think you just have to kind of let these things play out

and you just kind of see what happens. I mean, you know, week, week eight against the Los Angeles Rams. I mean, that's figures to be a tough matchup. Are the Rams going to be healthy by then? Who knows? You know, we'll just kind of see how we'll see how things sort of play out the rest of the way, but that's why they play these games because you don't win or lose in a season,

according to how your schedule is set up before the season starts. You, of the way but that's why they play these games because you don't win or lose in a season according to how your schedule is set up before the season starts you right you have to play these games to see how things uh to see how things turn out and i have the exact same opinion looking at it on paper though i mean it is a it is a bear but speaking of bears you don't you don't know what caleb williams looks like by middle of the season you don't know what Caleb Williams looks like by middle of the season. You don't know what any of these teams. So I can't quite go on that yet. I think having the hardest four teams or five games stretch, I guess between the Texans game and the Rams game is that five games there is really, really hard. And it is in the beginning of the season. You'd rather have it in the later part of the season where maybe a quarterback is injured. Last year, I just had ESPN's Kaylin Kaler on the show the

other day, and we were talking about how she had some stat that like 65 quarterbacks played last year, and four of them played for the Vikings. If you were doing the opposing schedule last year, you would have said, well, you know, the Vikings and Kirk's playing. And I looked at Mike Sando and his opposing quarterback schedule piece based on the quarterback tiers. And I looked at Mike Sando and his opposing quarterback schedule piece based on the quarterback tiers. And I think the Vikings were 14th as far as opposing quarterback schedule. It was not as high as I expected it to be. So we'll see. I'm not saying that the schedule difficulty is fake news or anything, but it's just hard to figure out in our position right now. Daniel says my number one thing I'm fascinated by is do we improve as an offensive line?

Kirk was a statue, took pressure badly, more mobile and young quarterback. The ironic part of that is that under pressure, Kirk Cousins statistically way better historically than Sam Darnold. But Sam Darnold can run away and he does have mobility to his game and a playmaking element that has resulted in some of the most insane highlight plays over the last five years have come from Sam Darnold running away. Also some of the most boneheaded plays. So I'm of, I'm of two minds here, Manny. I do think that when Dexter Lawrence inevitably comes at him, when the New York Giants play the Minnesota Vikings,

Darnold will scramble away and we'll all go, oh yeah, you don't have to check down if you can scoot. But then he'll also fumble and throw interceptions that Kirk would not have thrown. It's the yin and the yang of quarterback play is figuring out how to deal with that type of pressure. But the interior of the offensive line will be a major determining factor here still, even with a more mobile quarterback. 100%. And you've got, you know, you've got guys in there that you just kind of have, you kind of have some question marks about.

And you just kind of wonder like, all right they hold up can they stay healthy can they you know grow and improve over the course of the season and then it's it's going to come down to sam darnold i think just being able to make some plays getting outside of the pocket extending some plays he's got a really really strong arm so he can really make the throws down the field it's going to come down to him being able to do that and to just try and limit the boneheaded interceptions. You want more big, good plays than turnovers. And that's why I think it's really going to be fascinating to watch how this plays out with him, because he's never been in a situation like this where he's had these kinds of weapons, this kind of a head coach that's really

going to lean into his skill set um i mean it's just adam gaze and matt rule to to to kevin o'connell and you know there's a kyle shanahan stop in there as well along the way last year even though sam didn't play that much but it's i've seen enough from kevin o'connell in his first two seasons a head coach to know that he's a better coach than adam gaze was like i don't think that's it's that's a pretty low man coming in with flames here yeah i mean you know and matt rule too i mean it was just i i don't think, I mean, it's easy to kind of make fun of Sam Darnold and to say like, yeah, there's a lot of bad stuff there. But you got to also factor in the situations that he was in those first couple of years. And the funny, you know, as soon as Matt Rule was gone out of Carolina, and I think it was Steve Wilkes that took over, Sam Darnold actually started playing a little bit better.

He actually started playing well. So I think that year in San Francisco, I think, really helped him as well. And now I'm just really excited to see how much that really helped him. And you couple him with the weapons and the system, I think it has a chance to be really good, but he's got to, he does have to limit some of the mistakes that we've seen him make over the years. I became a little bit of a darn old truther after gathering as many stats as I could. And I was pulling from NFL next gen, all the PFF stuff.

And one of the ones that just sort of made my eyes pop out of my head was that Carolina didn't have a ton of other quarterbacks that played during Darnold's two years there. It was Baker Mayfield, Cam Newton showed up for a minute and PJ Walker. And that was really it. And those guys combined, and that's not an impressive group, but it's three guys who have played in the league. They went four and 12 and Darnold went eight and nine and their quarterback rating was under 70 and his was closer to 80. That's again, not saying that he's going to be Joe Montana here, but it does just suggest how bad the situation is because if you look at San Francisco's's quarterbacks even nick mullins had

big numbers in san francisco jimmy garoppolo was a star quarterback in san francisco and then someone who i think is very good brock purdy becomes mvp level we know that the circumstances push the needle with quarterbacks the real question for me isn't whether that's going to happen here it's just how much it's going to happen. And just to tie that back in, if the offensive line is good, it's going to happen more. The more clean pockets you could give Sam Darnold, his arm talent is outrageous. If he could throw the ball from clean pockets, he's going to be good. But I think that they have to play a little bit differently than they've played before. And they have to be more malleable than they were when Josh Dobbs was in.

That's not a good sample to pull from because he showed up in the middle of the season. And this is the true challenge for O'Connell is that he has now an entire spring and summer to design this offense and curate it for this man's skills. So can you identify this man's skills, what you have on the team, Aaron Jones, Ty Chandler, that's a much better backfield and work to your strengths there rather than just plug and play into your offense and do it your way. We're going to see how that plays out because this is the first real look we're going to get at that. Janet says, most excited to see how good the pass rush is with grunard van ginkle turner

and some more experienced cornerbacks it is the sad state of last year's corners manny that they are significantly upgraded with shaq griffin who has bounced around and stefan gilmore who is our age actually he's in our age bracket somebody a friend of mine who is in his early 20s mentioned not knowing what the matrix was or not having seen it or something and i was like oh but stefan gilmore's still around he knows what the matrix is because he was watching it in high school like we were anyway a grunard van ginkle turner versus hunter wanham i think is also an upgrade just like gilmore griffin and byron murphy is an upgrade over murphy and evans and uh mattel is always playing the slot right i think that the personnel on defense is being

overlooked for how much better it is now yeah Yeah. You know, going with the corners first, I think Byron Murphy Jr. moving inside into the slot is a spot like that. Like that's, I think that's a better spot for him versus having to be on the outside. And I think we'll get, you know, I think we'll start seeing more out of him. I think we'll start seeing him play better. I mean, he wasn't terrible last year, but he was just kind of meh last year, it seemed like. But I think he was in a position where he was being asked to do something that might not be best suited for him. In that particular situation, it had to be that way because they didn't really have a lot of

better options, Brian Flores, last year. But i think now you kind of you you put griffin in there and you put gilmore in there and now it allows everybody to kind of fit into the spot where they're probably going to be at their best and you know gilmore's 34 years old but i but i think he's there's enough tread left on that on those tires to where he's, he still has this, you know, he still has the smarts and the, and the veteran savvy that has made him a great player over the years. So I think that's really going to help up a lot. I'm with you on the, on the, on the edge rushers. The thing I love about this particular situation is you're not,

they're not going to have to rely on one guy to do all of the beastly pass rushing work it felt like i mean dj want him was was okay at times last year but it really it was like daniel hunter or bust like if daniel hunter isn't getting any pressure off the edge then the defense was gonna get they were gonna get gashed a lot. And I think when you throw in this three-headed monster, Van Ginkle, Grenard, and then, especially for Dallas Turner, because he, now there's no pressure on him to step in as a rookie and, okay, you know, Dallas, we, you know, your first round pick, we traded up to get you. Now, as a rookie, step in there and give us 14 and a half sacks. Like, they don't need that from him because Van Ginkle is going to have a role.

Renard's going to have a role. These are guys that have been in the league for a few years now and have been productive. And now it's kind of like I think whatever they get out of Dallas Turner is going to be a bonus. It's going to be a plus. And I think that's really good for him coming out of the gate because there's not going to be a bonus. It's going to be a plus. And I think that's really good for him coming out of the gate because there's not going to be a lot of pressure on him. So I, it's going to be fun. I'm with the commenter. I think this defense is going to be really, really fun to watch because I think it's starting to really kind of shape into Brian Flores' vision as well. And I think that's going to be really important.

And with Van Ginkle, he has been a little banged up in his career. So a lot of the players, like even Grenard as well, they come along with a bit of that asterisk of they have to play and they have to be healthy. I don't think people know

how good Andrew Van Ginkle is because he has not been a double-digit sack guy and he's played for the Miami Dolphins. So I don't know how many Miami Dolphins games you were looking at one of their outside linebackers for, but this is a guy who's been way up there by PFF. And when I went back and looked at him after they signed him like, Whoa, this dude is all over the field. They line them up in different spots, but he makes plays. He even in training camp, he was getting sacks and interceptions. He is an all around type of player. That's one of the reasons you believe in Brian Flores is he identified this

guy as a fifth round draft pick out of Wisconsin, and he just starts making plays. That's who they brought in here is someone who can do multiple things, can get after the passer. He's quick. He could bend around the edge. He's a smart player. That's something that they just didn't really have up there last year. It's DJ Wanham was the extreme poor man's version of that who could sack Justin Fields if he was hanging around the pocket for four seconds, but Van Ginkle makes plays. And I'm excited to see just where he lines up and how they work this combination. I think that's what Janet was talking about too, is how they work that combination of those three guys. It is more versatile than Daniil Hunter, who's really just a lineup on the left defensive end and that's it. Zoomer Kev, league most interested. I tossed it out there for folks for most interested stuff

because we've got our lists. Lack of teams with answers at quarterback and limited quarterback options in the draft and free agency. Are this many teams going to be content to be the 2021 Vikings? So who, who are we talking about? Who doesn't have answers at quarterback right now? Because I always think Manny, that it feels like at the beginning of a season,

everybody's got it figured out. And then four weeks into the year, we go, Oh, there's a bunch of teams that don't Cleveland. Uh, I just pulling up my list of NFL teams. Cleveland is definitely stuck from what I saw from Deshaun Watson. I don't think that that's going to change from what it's been over the last few years, Pittsburgh Steelers. Oh, can you? They're talking themselves into in Pittsburgh because they always do, and their fan base is insane. Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, but it's not a good scene. We'll see about Tennessee. I'm curious about Will Levis since the Vikings passed on him,

and he showed some flashes last year, showed some flashes of bad last year. There's a couple. The Giants are another team that doesn't have a future quarterback. I don't think it's Daniel Jones. They're trying to grind out a playoff appearance so they can keep their jobs with Daniel Jones. You talk about, this is why it was so important that they drafted McCarthy, man, because we just Zuber calves point about the 2021 Vikings. We felt hopeless. It was just what you're not winning the Superbowl with that

team and the future. You're not drafting a quarterback because you weren't bad enough. And what, and what is this? And I think that if you're a team like the giants, you have to be saying, what is this? They don't have a great team around their quarterback, but if they were to get a good quarterback with Malik neighbors and their defense, they could start, they have a great team around their quarterback but if they were to get a good quarterback with malik neighbors and their defense they could start they have a good left tackle they could start building but with daniel jones in that contract they can't even do that i think a team that maybe i'll be proven wrong about this that doesn't have an answer quarterback is seattle with geno smith imagine if the vikings the Vikings didn't have McCarthy and it was just Darnold. That's where Seattle kind of is.

He's good, but he's not good enough. He's supposed to be a filler while they could get someone else, but he played too good in one year to be that. And they don't really have an answer going into the future either. Carolina. I'm super interested in Bryce young. I'm jumping the, uh, I'm jumping the gun a little there for our lists, but I am super interested in that. How about New Orleans?

Tampa Bay with Baker, are they actually winning anything there? This is a good point. It's a reminder that this spot right here the Vikings are in is one of the better positions to be in for the future with the young quarterback that they were able to draft. I'll throw Las Vegas in there as well, you know, with Gardner Minshew. I mean, he's not a long-term answer. He's another guy that's just kind of a stopgap guy. And I don't think Aiden O'Connell is the future there either. I mean, he couldn't even win the job out of camp

this year. So yeah, I mean, the Vikings are in a good spot like you said i mean that's why when you get when you get into a draft class like the 2024 draft class of quarterbacks if you're in need of one you got to take one you just you just have to and and try and build around that guy because otherwise you end up like the New York Giants. I mean, the Giants, in a lot of ways, the Vikings are kind of responsible for the Giants being where they're at right now because Daniel Jones bleeped around and won a playoff game at US Bank Stadium and got himself paid. And the Giants stupidly gave him that contract. And now they're kind of in no man's land

with him because you know you don't really think that he's good and you know he's getting paid a lot of money so like do you do you want to do you want to continue to invest in him I don't know what the situation is as far as like can they get out of that contract or what you know or how soon they can get out of that contract but again like next year too it's like all right well what does this quarterback class look like next year i mean we know shadur sanders is probably going to get taken pretty high outside of him i mean we're gonna have to we're gonna lives if he survives with that offensive line yeah by the way, side note too, and I love me some Coach Prime,

but him saying that his offensive line did a great job protecting Shador against North Dakota State, I kind of wonder if we were watching the same game that Coach Prime was watching. Smashed, yeah. Stephon Gilmore is old enough to remember when deon sanders was the coolest person on the planet that's that's the thing i i always say this about

him like i don't think he's doing a good job or and i think the press conferences are a clown show but but it's deon man it's deon he was the coolest person uh let me just stop real quick before we move on and i i love what we're doing here answering the questions when we started doing this last year as a live show manny we probably had a dozen people and some of them were my parents watching and now we have a big audience watching us so welcome everybody if you don't know manny hill we worked together 1500 espn for a long time he produced for Patrick Royce, uh,

one of my best friends, huge W guy as well. And we're going to be doing the show together Monday and Thursday nights. And I wasn't sure about, uh, whether, you know, we'd be doing the,

the answering questions and stuff, but you guys are so good at this. I love this. I love this format of doing it. So keep throwing your questions in the comment section. Uh, do have a couple of ad reads for us, Manny, as always. And so far, your internet's doing a great job.

So shout out to your internet. That was a joke from last year for those of you just joining that Manny would freeze once per show. But I have to remind everyone, and there is an interactive element, by the way, to the ad read. So don't, don't zone out on me,

Manny, but I have to rewind, remind everyone that us cellular notice the way that we use our phones has gotten ironic. We try to put our phones down for dinner, but the menu is on a QR code. That is ironic. We hit like on social media posts.

We don't like ironic, which is why us cellular created us Mode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less. Ironically, a phone company wanting people to use their phones less. That's ironic. So let's find us again with Us Mode from U.S. Cellular. Visit uscellular.com slash built for us to get started. Also, Manny, Underdog Fantasy is now a sponsor of this show, which is fantastic. They are the easiest place to play fantasy sports, also the fastest growing fantasy app in the industry.

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I get a little bonus. So if you could, that would be awesome over at Underdog Fantasy. Promo code purple. Claim your special pick. First time deposit offer up to a thousand in bonus cash so manny a couple of pick'ems for sunday let me throw out we'll do some more uh on uh thursday night because there's a bunch of them for this game let me just throw one at you right now since we're talking about underdog fantasy attempts and completions and yards for Mr. Sam Darnold. The higher or lower numbers are 20 and a half for completions,

33 and a half for attempts, and 244 and a half for yards. Would you go higher or lower than 2433 with 244 for Sam Darnold against the Giants. I'll go lower on completions. I will go higher on attempts because KLC loves to, as you say, push the pass button a lot um and i'll go i'll go higher in yards as well i think he's gonna hit a lot of i don't think he's gonna complete a ton of passes but i think there's gonna be a lot of deep deep passes to justin jefferson and jordan addison to make some big plays so you're thinking a little bit of a lower completion percentage there. I will, I'm going to go lower on everything. I think that Darnold's going to end up with

something like 215 yards on 16 for 28 passing. And if that's the case, if they don't need to throw 33 times, they're going to win another stat from doing way too much. Sam Darnold research when Sam Darnold through 35 passes or more in his career, he was two and 14. And crazy thing is Kirk cousins was, I think 10 and six or something when he did it under KOC, because he threw so much with Kirk cousins all the time. And I mean,

that's because he's playing from behind. It's not where you want to be with Darnold you you don't want to be making him throw uh 35 passes he was the he was the rich coat tight jets when he threw that many passes my goodness yes exactly uh Mike says it's so hard to know what this team will look like feels like an all-new defense new quarterback brings a question about the offense what if we are actually good what if they're actually good manny then great right yeah right great uh what okay put it put it this way uh because there's limitations to how much you can write in the comment box

what are the chances they're actually good i think there's a decent chance. I honestly think there's a decent chance. I mean, I think the weapons, Sam Darnold has talent. I think this defense has talent. I think there's a chance that this team can really compete and be really good. I'm not putting them in the NFC Championship game by any stretch of the imagination, certainly not doing that. But I think there is a chance that they can compete well enough, win enough games and get into the playoffs. What they do after that, I don't, I don't think we'll see much outside of that, but I think that there's enough here to, to make you think, I mean, they lost Kirk Cousins, you know, what,

I guess 40% of the way into the season last year, the Packers game when Kirk got hurt. What was that? Was that week eight? Week eight, yeah. Week eight. So about halfway through the season. Yeah.

So about halfway through the year, they lost Kirk. And they were in the conversation with Josh Dobbs and Nick Mullins playing quarterback for them. I mean, things kind of fell apart at the end. But, you know, those first couple of games, they kept themselves in the conversation. And so I think with, you know, you factor in Sam Darnold being here now, going through an entire offseason, going through an entire training camp. You know, I think Sam can have an opportunity to play kind of free because he doesn't have JJ McCarthy looking over his shoulder and he does not a lot of pressure

on him. It is kind of like, all right, Sam, there you go. 17 games. You're going to play. And if you're,

as long as you're healthy, I mean, don't throw 30 interceptions like James Winston, but you know, if you play at least competently, you're going to play this entire season. And I think that's going to help with Sam as well. I think if they can kind of weather this storm of these early tough games,

get off to a good start against a bad team in the Giants, at least in theory a bad team in the Giants, this coming Sunday, and then hang in there for these first five, six games. If you're around 500, then I think you've got, I think you've got a shot to really contend and get yourself in the playoff conversation. Well, Sean says, are you surprised that the Vikings are so undervalued in the rankings? No, I'm not surprised because everything with Vegas over-unders, everything with predictions is always going to come back to number 14. And anybody who is trying to talk themselves into Darnold, and I've got all the stats and somebody else, Sean tweeted that the

Jets line rankings for PFF were 28th, 30th. There was one year Carolina was 31st and the Vikings preseason offensive line ranking for PFF was 11th. I mean, even just having good tackles is something he's never had before. And you can get talked into that. But at the end of the day, if you're the predictor, you're the power ranker, you're Vegas, whatever. You're going to look at the stats that he's put up in his career and say, I just don't see how this team is supposed to be good. And it's hard to get over that with, even with everything else that we have been talking about for this entire show, where I think that they're going to be better than that. You think they're going to be better than that. It would surprise me if, if Darnold didn't have his moments throughout

this year and didn't win games. You talk about the end of last year, they are winning in Denver and Madison fumbles. They are winning in Denver and Cortland Sutton catches a punt off the arm of Russell Wilson in the back of the end zone for a touchdown. Cincinnati, T. Higgins makes the most absurd catch and scores touchdown in Randy Moss fashion in part because Mackay Blackman started celebrating thinking his teammate had caught it. And, and, and they blow a tush push twice because I guess they thought Brandon Powell was the right guy to push the tush, but I don't understand any of that, but they, they

should have won that game. And then, uh, even Detroit, Justin Jefferson is running wide open and all Nick Mullins has to do is just lofted out in front of them and they score a touchdown. They win that game. These are games with quarterbacks that are worse than Sam Darnold. And they were able to win in Atlanta. They're able to win a big against new Orleans. That's pretty convincing to me that you can play with other teams in the playoff race. It doesn't mean like you said, they're going to the NFC championship, but I think you can be in the conversation a lot more, uh, than what some people are predicting.

Oh, uh, where is my article? Oh, I I'm sorry. sorry i'll just i'll just plug the newsletter that thank you digits uh if you go over to purpleinsider.com or actually even if you type in purpleinsider.football i bought that uh you can go over there and that's where you can sign up for the newsletter and you can see my articles but i left the sam darnold one completely free so you don't have to sign up or pay for it you just go and check it out purpleinsider.com and give that a read but i dug into everything i could possibly find looked in looked back at every quote from jefferson from o'connell from darnold and talked to three different analysts about it so did my deep research on that wade says if darnold plays 17 games over under for him 4 000 yards 30 touchdowns 20 interceptions 62 completion percentage what does manny think

wade doesn't manny's been here for one show and uh wade is done with me asking these questions he only wants this from you manny so what do you think for each one of those numbers? Okay. Yards, 4,000 yards. I'll say over because I don't think it's that it's not as hard to throw for 4,000 yards in the NFL anymore as it used to be. If this was 1995, I would probably say under, you just didn't see it that much. 30 touchdowns, I think, is a little bit aggressive. I'll say less there. And I think he'll throw less than 20 interceptions. 20 interceptions in 2024 in the NFL is a lot.

I mean, if you're throwing 20 picks, I mean, now, we did see Jameis Winston throw 30 just a handful of years ago but um I think if you're throwing 20 or more interceptions in today's NFL you're just flat out bad and I don't think Sam Darnold with these weapons with this team and this system is going to be that bad so I I would say you know 41 4200 25 touchdowns, and maybe like 13 interceptions. I think that's good. There were only, I think, four guys who threw 30 plus touchdowns last year. So I don't think that's going to happen. 20 interceptions. Also, as you said, that takes a rare bad season.

This is not 1996. Stephon Gilmore is old enough to remember when quarterbacks through 20 interceptions sometimes, but most, uh, younger people are not because it doesn't happen much anymore. 62 is a great number for his completion percentage. That's very close. The other ones are easy, easier. If he stays healthy, should go over 4,000 yards. But even if it was 3,800, 3,600, and it was a much more 18 touchdowns, nine interceptions, they run the ball more, hit on a few deep shots,

you could still be in the conversation, I think. Manny, we still have a lot of questions from people, but I want to get to our list. I don't want to let that get away from us. You're here until 8.30. I go marathon style, so I'll probably stay even after you go. You have another job. I don't. I just sit here and answer football questions. So let's talk about your list and we can go back and forth on this. Things that we are most excited for, for the Vikings 2024 season and the overall NFL 2024 season.

And I did figure out how to play some music underneath this. So I could also try to do that if I can get a, okay, let me turn it down a little. How's that? You want this for a, for a, for a ranking bit here. Let's do it. I love it. Okay. All right, let's go. All right. You go first. Okay. Well, we kind of hinted at this earlier. We mentioned this earlier. I'm really excited about the Vikings defense and what it's going to look like. They spent a lot of money in the offseason getting Grenard and bringing in Van Ginkle, Blake Cashman as well, former Gopher,

for a lot of the local folks who have followed Gopher football like myself. I think this defense is going to be pretty good. I think they've got a pretty good chance of being top 10 if they can stay healthy and, you know, and play to their full ability. And like I mentioned before, there's not a lot of pressure on Dallas Turner to be just like a beast out of the gate. Now, if he is and we saw some signs of it in the preseason, then great. That's awesome. Then maybe this defense can be top five. But I think this is a unit that I think if everybody stays healthy,

they can avoid the catastrophic injuries. This is a unit I think that can be pretty good. And depending on how Sam Darnold plays, it might be a unit that has to kind of carry this team along this season to kind of remain relevant in the playoff hunt. I am going to go other side of the ball coaching, which would be Kevin O'Connell

and how he adjusts and adapts the offense. We've been talking about it quite a bit here on the show, and I just really want to see how it's different. Is it going to be a little bit more like what gary kubiak would do with this team or is he just gonna have no risk it no biscuit bruce arian style whatever sam darnold hunk it down the field let's find out uh how what you could do with that arm i i mean you could talk about it all you want you could see it in training camp and how it's playing out but will it actually be something different than it's been before?

Or will we end up with a little bit of square peg round hole like we did last year with Josh Dobbs, that it just didn't seem like there was an adjustment that they could really make? And I'm going to pair that with just Sam Darnold's arm. Even if it goes bad, you're going to see things from his arm that you haven't seen in quite some time because Case Keenum's arm, pretty meh. Teddy Bridgewater's arm, pretty meh. Sam Bradford's arm, a lot more like this. But this is even crazier because Sam Bradford would throw from the pocket.

He could roll out a little bit. But with Sam Darnoldold he can be running that way and just flip and turn the other way and throw it kind of what people have been talking about with you know caleb williams and patrick mahomes he can do those things with his arm and it's pretty fun to watch so i'm gonna i'm gonna connect those two just the offensive scheme and how it's adjusted to darnold and darnold's freakish arm what What's next on your list. Next on my list, Vikings related as well. Will Reichert,

man, let's see this. Let's see this kicking game, man. I mean, the kicking, the kicking game for the Vikings has historically really going all the way back to Gary Anderson in 1998,

when he was perfect during the regular season, it kind of feels like ever since he missed a very infamous kick in a certain game against a certain team at the Metrodome. It's just been a kind of a roller coaster of a ride with Vikings kickers really ever since then. And Will Reichert was great in the preseason and he was really good at Alabama. Now let's see if it just carries on and if the Vikings have finally found their Justin Tucker,

their guy that's just going to be their kicker for the next decade because he's really good and he makes as many kicks as possible. I want to see it. They may have had that with Daniel Carlson seven or six years ago, whenever it was, and then Mike Zimmer just decided, no, he's got to go because he missed a couple of kicks early in the season. So I'm excited to see how Will Reichardt does. And, you know, if he misses a couple of kicks this year,

let's just ride this out with him. Let's just see how it goes. Let's not panic. Be patient. He's young. Let's just see how it plays out. But I'm excited to see how the kicking game goes this year. Shows how dyed in the wool you really are, Manny.

You go right to the kicker. I'm going to toss this out there. You know, we've been talking about the schedule. But I like, this is crazy. You'll never believe it. I like good football players and I like good football. I get to see CJ Stroud.

I can see what Jordan loves going to be the San Francisco offense. The lions are really good. This schedule has a lot of fun on it. Matthew Stafford in person is really something because talk about arm talent. It's ridiculous. I'm looking forward to the players that they're going to play. The star talent that the Vikings are going to go up against this year is phenomenal. Caleb Williams. I can't wait to see what Caleb Williams looks like. I show up at the stadium on Sundays, often thinking about how really interested like last year against Kansas

City, Patrick Mahomes in person where I hadn't seen him before in person because it was who was it that started? It wasn't Matt Moore. Yeah, that war started in 2019. Yep, the botched punt Tyree kill thing in the game winning field goal, all that in 2019. So I hadn't seen my homes before. I'm like, this is awesome. Let's let's, you know, let's see what my homes looks like. I've got that feeling big time for week two and CJ Stroud or week three and CJ Stroud.

Haven't seen him in person. Let's go. I very, very much excited to see Flores's defense versus some of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Did you have more for Vikings or what do you got for around the league? Well, just to piggyback off of your schedule thing, also one game you didn't mention,

December 8th, the Atlanta Falcons come to town. Oh, yes. Yes. I hadn't thought too much about that yet, but no, I am much more interested in Dallas and Atlanta. That's who I'm interested in.

I don't know what you're talking about. I'm excited to see Michael Penix play and come to USP. Yeah, right. Yeah, we'll see. Did I say that out loud? We'll see. That is on my list. I'll spoil that.

Rookie quarterbacks in general is on my list. So what do you got for around the league? Yeah, around the league, yeah, I had that as well. Some of the young quarterbacks that are going to get a chance to play the rookies. I mean, Caleb Williams is going to play. Bo Nix won his starting job in Denver. So those young guys getting a chance to play. And the year two guys, you mentionedj stroud anthony richardson

coming back now for the colts you know how healthy is he going to be you know is there going to be some growth and development with him you know all the things that we're hearing with anthony richardson is is you know we know the physical tools are there it's just you know his his mind is there he's got a really sharp mind in terms of decision-making and everything. There's just some questions about, you know, accuracy and ball placement and stuff like that. Curious to see, like, how that kind of progresses now as he comes into his year, his sophomore year coming off of that injury.

And I think Shane Steichen is a – I think he's a hell of a head coach. Having the Colts in the mix like that with Gardner Minshew last year was was pretty impressive. So Anthony Richardson coming back for year two is going to be really exciting. So all the young quarterbacks that are getting opportunities to play. Fortunately, we're not going to see J.J. McCarthy here locally, but I think all of the young guys getting a chance to play is going to be really interesting. I know he's not starting week one, but I do think we're going to see Drake Bay at some point this season. It might be late,

late in the year, but the young guys, I think we're going to see quite a few young quarterbacks playing this year. It may be sacrilegious, Manny, but I'm excited about the Dallas Cowboys. I want to see what it looks like

Zimmer, that defense, Micah Parsons, the drama. It's either going to be that they are great. And I picked them to go to the Superbowl, by the way, I'm riding that all the way to hell. I don't care. I have Texans and Cowboys for the Superbowl. And I'm curious about what you have is your prediction as well. But I want to see if they can overcome all this drama, what Mike's defense looks like there. If this is finally the year, they've been so good in the regular season

and that it just hasn't happened in the post season. Does it turn into a drama fest and McCarthy is fired or do they blow right past it? And they're one of the best teams in the league because that's reflective of their talent. And just in general, what team that we think is going to be good goes down because Dallas also

falls into this category as well. People are going to laugh at me. If they go three and six and fire their coach, they're gonna be like, didn't you pick them for the Superbowl? Well, that happened to me last year with the bangles borough got hurt. And I'm like,

well, and there goes my Superbowl prediction right away. But I've never got one right ever in my entire life. And that's why they play the games Manny. But what team do you think that everyone thinks is going to be great and just totally bombs? Because I, I was thinking about San Francisco for this. If Brock Purdy regresses big time Philadelphia,

if it implodes with their coach, which it kind of seems like it might with Nick Sirianni and the other one might be Buffalo. No Stefan digs. Their coach is a little on edge, maybe, after playoff failures, and they've had to rebuild and retool a lot of things there. They're kind of in transition. Is there one that comes to mind for you?

Yeah, Philadelphia comes to mind for sure. I just, with all the drama we heard about with Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts, you know, that relationship being awkward, fractured, whatever you want to call it. It does raise some some some question marks. You know, some some veteran leaders that have been kind of staples with that team over the years are not there. They retired. You know, Fletcher Cox isn't there anymore. Jason Kelsey retired as well. Those are guys that were like glue guys, leaders in the locker room,

terrific players on the field, obviously, but guys behind the scenes that really kind of held teams together. And those guys aren't there anymore. So now it really does kind of fall all on Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni to kind of keep that thing going and bounce back from their meltdown last year. You know, another team that I'm thinking about just because I don't, I think we're kind of assuming he's going to be the Aaron Rogers of old,

but I'm curious about the New York jets, you know, Aaron's coming off of a, you know, pretty significant injury and injury that we saw that we're going to see Kirk cousins come back from as well. I think we're kind of assuming that Aaron Rodgers is just going to come back and be Aaron Rodgers because he, I don't know,

got high on some ayahuasca or something in the offseason. I don't know, was on some island. Whoever knows whatever the hell he was doing. But Aaron Rodgers is 40 years old and he's coming off of a significant injury. The offseason was kind of weird because he was like not showing up and they were like, there was this talk about like, well, they're unexcused absences and, you know, the communication between him and Robert Sala.

Robert Sala is a guy that I really like. I think he's a good coach. But if his quarterback is just kind of marching to the beat of his own drum like he has forever, I kind of wonder if there's going to be, if that's going to come to a head. And if that team that has a lot of pressure on it, if they're going to be able to maintain that and really compete. On paper, they should be terrific. They should be winning that division between them and Miami, I think. I think we've got to see it play out first.

Probably the widest variance of any team in the league. Could win four games and have it completely fall apart and Salah loses the team and everything else. Or they could end up being in the AFC championship game because Aaron Rodgers shocks us all and wins another MVP at 40. Imagine being 40 also, gosh, someone would have to be ancient to be in that range of age. I would never, I'll throw one last one for me. And then I just want your Superbowl prediction. Since I've put the worst one out there as mine, you have to do better.

Harbaugh does Connor stallions show up at the sideline somewhere. Is he like wearing the sunglasses? Is this is Connor stallions like this on the sideline somewhere? Just trying to steal signs or whatever, steal whatever he could steal. I guess what what ridiculousness shall follow jim harbaugh is what i want to know and the other thing is too if they win and they make the playoffs and the vikings don't watch out for the harbaugh people they were very serious yeah during

the hiring process about jim harbaugh and even when he got hired back to the chargers i did a show and 60 of the audience was yelling that they should have hired harbaugh so that that's one i'm going to be watching very closely that's one of the more well we talk about wide variants i don't think that roster's got a lot of wide variants but knowing jim harbaugh he could just get them to the playoffs or it could be a complete disaster so So who's your Superbowl pick before you go, Manny? I'm going to go with the Baltimore Ravens. I think Lamar Jackson and company, I think they get over the hump. I don't think Lamar is going to win the MVP again this year, but I think that team is going to finally get over the hump and get to the Superbowl. You know what, Matthew? I think the team is going to finally get over the hump and get to the Super Bowl.

You know what, Matthew? I think the Detroit Lions are going to go to the Super Bowl. Oh, there it is. You're the second guest of the day who's picked the Lions. You won't be surprised that our friend Brian Murphy went to the Lions as well. He had to. So Lions and the Super Bowl would really be something. Lions, Ravens, and I'll pick the Ravens to win it. Okay, I like that.

I'll pick the Texans to beat the Cowboys in the Super Bowl because you just never, look, the Chiefs will probably make it. And the one of us should just pick the Chiefs, but I'll get you pick the Chiefs. The other team, Murph picked Cincinnati, which I think is a really good team that last year had the group to do it. And then Burrow got hurt and they still won a lot of games with Jake Browning. It also could be someone like LA, like not the Chargers, but the Rams.

They got there before they've rebuilt that team. Puka Nakua and Cooper Cup have not really been healthy at the same time. If they can get to that point, they've got a running game now the nfc is wide open there's nobody i think that there will be some regression with san francisco and there's nobody that is just the clear-cut nfc you are the team that that is going to be the big time favorite like there is in the afc with kansas city cincinnati Buffalo still gets that treatment in Vegas. So we have to mention them as well. And then Houston, that's kind of the big group along with Baltimore there. It could be any one of those teams though, going to the super bowl.

So, uh, Manny, this is good, man. This is good to be back with the hot routes. Uh, every Monday and Thursday, Manny Hill is going to join me. It'll be the same format as it was tonight. I will start out the show a little bit earlier, go through some of the notes from TCO Performance Center. Then Manny will come on. We'll have our topics. We'll answer your questions.

Did you enjoy answering questions, Manny? I love this format of people jumping in and talking with us, making it a whole kind of group effort here. I love this format of people jumping in and talking with us, making it a whole kind of group effort here. I love it. I love to hear from, from the listeners and the viewers and get their perspective and just talking football. I mean,

it's this is fun, man. I can't wait. Looking forward to Thursday and looking forward to every Monday as well. And thank you very much for that comment. I appreciate that. People are loving it. People are loving it.

Some people wanted to know where you were. I was like, what am I? I'm not going to make you come back in June. And, uh, when, when you have a life, but during football season, you have no life other than football. I know that. So I will see you on Thursday night. I'm going to keep, uh, answering some questions here for probably another half an hour or so and uh we'll we'll carry on but hot routes with manny hill monday thursday night and we'll be we'll be doing it we'll be starting around well i'll i think i'm gonna start around seven and then you're gonna pop in 7 30 so what people started doing last year once we got rolling with the show was turning on the tv for the monday and thursday games watching watching TV, listening to us.

It's a great plan for you. So thanks again, Manny. You and I will talk on Thursday night. Appreciate it, man. All right. See you guys.