Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jordan Love pulled a Favre and the 49ers are going to the NFC title game

Episode Date: January 21, 2024

Matthew Coller reacts to the Packers coming so close to beating the 49ers in the NFC Divisional playoffs and compares the Vikings to those two teams and where they need to go and talks about some draft options for the Vikings based on a Daniel Jeremiah mock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and had to go live to react to the Green Bay Packers losing in the divisional round to the San Francisco 49ers on a across-the-body, last-second interception that was actually kind of the most Vikings-y thing I've ever seen. Not only did their kicker miss a kick, wide to the left of all places. It was like they recreated every meltdown of the Vikings all at once. And then an interception across the body for Jordan Love, who easily

could have run for a first down, checked it down, thrown somewhere else. He had plenty of time on that final play and decides to whip it into the middle of the field. The San Francisco 49ers intercepted, and we have ourselves now a 49ers NFC championship against either the Detroit Lions or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of all teams. What a game that's going to be tomorrow, but an incredible, incredible day of football. The Ravens, of course, had a good first half against the Texans. And then, you know, that game got out of hand in the second half and Lamar Jackson just dominated. But in this second game, an instant classic between the Packers and the San Francisco

49ers. And the crazy thing about this game is that Debo Samuel gets hurt early in the game and it just throws off Brock Purdy instantly. He's not dealing well with the rain. He's trying a glove, the balls flying all over the place. He looks extremely uncomfortable throughout the game. And then at the end, when he was needed the most, he makes a throw on a really nice out route, perfect pass to set up the San Francisco 49ers to score. And also

he scrambles for a near first down that sets up the touchdown. So as miserable of a game as it was for Brock Purdy, the 49ers find a way to get away with it. Talk about getting away with it. That was the whole story of the San Francisco 49ers in this football game. Brock Purdy threw at least two, three, four interceptable passes that were dropped by the Green Bay Packers. And if there's anything that is a consolation to Minnesota Vikings fans about the Green Bay Packers over the last, well, whatever it's been since they won the Super Bowl. It has been playoff meltdown after playoff meltdown. And this one has to go into the all-time lore of Packer meltdowns to go along with the blocked punt by San Francisco,

the onside kick by the Seattle Seahawks. They have found a way to melt down in the playoffs so many times. And this one, it's not just the missed field goal and the across the body interception. It's the dropped picks. It's the missed opportunities. Jordan Love down the stretch of that game. He also gets intercepted because he throws a pass to a wide open receiver that was simply too high and bounced up in the air and ends up getting intercepted by Greenlaw, who needs to learn maybe for the NFC Championship that if he catches an interception to just go down. He was running around at the end, and I was having flashbacks of the time that happened to the Chargers where they picked it off from Tom Brady and then fumbled the interception. But Jordan Love sort of went back to two weeks, no, 10 weeks ago

on the final quarter of that game, which was really wild. And also, I love when stats get debunked, right? Bad stats get debunked. And the one that was being shared around is, well, San Francisco has not won a game when they're down by more than seven points or whatever it was, which of course they were only down by four with four seconds into the fourth quarter. And they end up coming back in this game and not, you know, the Packers defense, which had played such improved football. They actually did a good job at containing Christian McCaffrey

through a good portion of the game. He had the long touchdown run, but it wasn't a consistent success for McCaffrey, which made the 49ers keep going back to the passing game, back to the passing game. The chemistry wasn't there. They were kind of freaking out. George Kittle drops a ball toward the end,

and then it all clicks into place, but also was helped by the Packers defense looking like the earlier Packers defense. And so the Green Bay Packers kind of reverted in the final quarter of that game to where they were. And think about how differently Jordan Love looked like he was playing until the fourth quarter until he threw those two interceptions had a couple other passes that were inaccurate and kind of freaked out at the end of that game because by the end of the third quarter if you guys could see my twitter mentions and texts I'll tell you what every Vikings fan was saying to me, not this, not this,

not the NFC championship for the Green Bay Packers in the first year of Jordan Love starting. And that will not be happening. And through three quarters, I thought it was going to be the same thing. I mean, Jordan Love did a lot of things in this game against the 49ers defense that looked like all worldworld quarterbacking, great control of their offense, the drive where he throws it up for grabs, they get a penalty and then throws the touchdown right after that. And I think at that point, of course, Vikings fans are freaking out that they could have to watch the Packers in the NFC championship game and maybe making other

plans to go skiing or ice fishing or whatever else you want to do rather than watching the Packers play in the NFC championship. But instead, San Francisco ends up there and we have the two strongest teams in the NFL throughout the season that kind of appear on a collision course now with the Baltimore Ravens winning the early game and San Francisco surviving. And I think what it says, I was thinking about a quote from Kwesi Adafo Mensah in the end of the year press conference as I was watching the 49ers today, because what Kwesi said was that he wants to build a roster strong enough to be able to overcome adversity. And to me, that really stuck with me because right now the Vikings do not have that type of roster,

not even close. And we can get into that as we go through the rest of the thoughts from this game. But that was one of my biggest takeaways as the 49ers were slamming into the end zone to take the lead and then making the interception at the end to wrap that game up is how bad did the 49ers play for much of this game? They lose one of their best players, an all pro wide receiver who is the centerpiece or one of the centerpieces of their offense right off the bat. And yet Christian McCaffrey is making the plays. George Kittle, despite that drop at the end is making plays. They're pressuring Jordan love. He rolls out, makes a bad throw. Green law comes up with two interceptions. He's a great player that their roster is so stacked that their quarterback could have a pretty horrible game

where he was all over the place in the rain, couldn't seem to grip the football, was throwing low, high, left, and right, seemed off with his wide receivers. And yet they have so much talent that they were able to overcome all the things that went wrong throughout that game to beat the Green Bay Packers. And it certainly says a lot about how good San Francisco's complete team is. And one of the things that I wouldn't do is overreact to Brock Purdy having a tough game, in part because you saw him come together at the end and make some really key throws and lead that drive and make a clutch run to set up the touchdown but also just because of the circumstances because the weather was not good because he lost his top wide receiver and if Debo Samuel is able to come

back next week you would think that under better weather circumstances that San Francisco's offense will be even better than that. And I would also wonder from Kyle Shanahan's perspective that he forget to run because for a lot of that game probably should have been leaning heavier on Christian McCaffrey. But I think it really says so much about how good San Francisco is that they could overcome a poor performance by their quarterback, overcome losing one of their best players, and they continue to fight all the way through to win this game. Now on the Packers side, of course, Vikings fans should be happy to not have to watch Green Bay in the NFC championship

game because had Jordan Love led a game-winning drive, you would have spent the next seven days hearing absolutely nothing except for Jordan Love, Jordan Love, Jordan Love, next great quarterback, here he comes, and everything else. Here come the Packers, youngest team in the league. You'll hear that statistic about their wide receivers. It would have been pretty nauseating. But I will say this, that there's no way to watch this game and not say, uh-oh, a little bit about the Packers. Because the San Francisco 49ers were the best team in the NFC by a country mile this year. They outscored their opponents by 200 points.

I mean, they were incredibly, incredibly good this season from top to bottom and they're playing at home and they didn't play last week. So they're well rested. And green Bay is this far away from a kick going through and maybe winning this game. And they're going to bring back everybody, including their quarterback, who now has had a trip to the divisional round in the playoffs already. So the Vikings cannot look at this and say, all right, well, the Packers, they're not going to be that great or something. I think they should say they were right there and had a great chance to win that game and probably should have won that game. And that's now the bar to reach. And when you look at the roster for the 49ers

or the roster for the Packers and how young it is and how these players are developing and how their coach and their quarterback are tied together, the Vikings have to look at these two teams and the way that they played today and think we are far away. We are not right around the corner from competing with Jordan Love for a very long time from now.

And yes, that fourth quarter was very bad for him. The two interceptions were both terrible throws. And the last one, man, that was such a throwback to what he was doing earlier this season that he had protected the football so well. It was a big storyline coming into this. Even his sit down interview. This tells you what I've been doing all day. Nothing but watching football, hopefully just like you.

A sit down interview with Aaron Andrews. She says to him, how many interceptions have you thrown in the last 10 games or whatever it was? And he says says just one. And he throws two in this game because he got a little reckless at the end. That still does not take away from the fact that the Green Bay Packers were still right there and right on the doorstep of potentially going to the NFC Championship and what that means for the Minnesota Vikings.

When you look at the San Francisco 49ers roster, and think about that, if the Detroit Lions get there, think about these rosters. Look at the Baltimore roster. Can you match up with these teams? And, of course, Kansas City and Buffalo, unless it's the Bucs. If it's the B, if it's the bucks, then I guess you can tell me, well, you know, Hey, uh, all you need to do is to just, uh, get into the dance.

But, you know, I, I don't think that, uh, that's really the case. I think when you look at these rosters and how good they are of the teams that are at the end, uh, that how are the Vikings going to get there are they going to get there by bringing back her cousins and playing around in free agency and trying to bring in whoever they can and spending all this money on who knows who in free agency they don't have a whole lot to develop and by the way when you when you look at these teams, the Ravens, the 49ers, even the Green Bay Packers, who again, right there, they need a field goal or they need, you know, Jordan Love to not throw across his body. But when you look at the rosters,

look at how much developed talent is on these rosters, how much was drafted and that was put into these rosters through the draft, through development, through years of guys coming up through the system and on the offensive side for the 49ers, their receivers, some of their offensive line. And then they added the final pieces, guys like Trent Williams, guys like Christian McCaffrey on the defensive side. They were able to add Chase Young, who didn't have a great game today, but they were able to draft Nick Bosa and bring a lot of these guys together through drafting and developing those players. And when we compare that to the Vikings, they just don't have that. I mean, they have a handful of players that we know can play who have been drafted.

They have a couple of superstars in Christian Derrissaw and Justin Jefferson and TJ Hawkinson. But outside of that, there is so much work to be done. And also the other thing too, is we can't deny watching these games, how important it is in the playoffs to be able to run the football. I mean, the Bucks don't do it very well, but everybody else, San Francisco gets a big touchdown run from Christian McCaffrey. Two of them, actually the one long one. And then the one at the end where somebody tries to shoulder tackle him and he just bounces right off him. And then Aaron Jones giving green Bay a chance to win that game with a 53 yard run that ultimately I believe that's the right drive,

ends up leading to the missed field goal by Carlson. Another Vikings-ish connection. And how about Eric Wilson, by the way? This game had so many things that happened. This will be one where you go back on YouTube, especially people who like the Vikings and want to watch the Packers lose, but you go back on YouTube years later and you're like, hey, what happened in that game? And then you go, everything happened in that game. So many things happened. But shout out to Eric Wilson. Eric Wilson makes an incredible play that would have gone down in playoff lore after the kick returner fumbles the ball, dives all out onto that football at full speed to give the Packers that possession and allow them a chance to score. And I mean, what a great play by a guy who's kind of become a journeyman, but he was originally picked up by the Vikings as an undrafted free agent. And just having covered him, super hard worker, super intelligent player, played a lot of different roles. He filled in

for a while for, I think Eric Hendricks when he was hurt a couple of years ago and then went to the Eagles. Didn't work out there. Ends up being latched on with the Packers and makes a great play. I like when I see that from guys who have bounced around the league or underdogs. So a great play by Eric Wilson, which all of you can appreciate a lot more now that the Green Bay Packers did not win this game. Anthony says, please no more. Bring back Kirk talk. It's time to turn the page on that dude and another balloon contract to keep him rather use that money to build the rest of the roster. or I mean, I think that the playoffs are a big giant laser beam in the sky saying you can't do this again. You cannot do this again. And part of that is how close the Packers just were. It has

to be that through they are, they are one quarter away from the NFC championship for a team that was not supposed to be there. And for a team that is going nowhere. You know what I mean? Like going nowhere is in not going to leave off of the top and being competitive in the NFC North. They are not going to fall apart. They have their quarterback and gosh, he was right there. They have their wide receiving core has got four dudes who can play.

They can build on their lines, offensive, defensive. They can get a new defensive coordinator. They can improve their secondary, improve their linebackers. I mean, the Packers are in a position to now take a team that was this close to the NFC championship to the next level. And when they go out in free agency, players are going to want to play there because they see what just happened and how close that team was. So for the Vikings, you have to read the room and you have to see how close they just were and think they'll be back. They're not going to go anywhere. And then you have to look at a few other things, which some of you guys are bringing up. And I think is very astute that the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers is making $880,000

on the salary cap this year through three quarters. I had some people tweeting me saying, Hey, do you think the 49ers will try to get Kirk if they lose and get rid of Brock Purdy? And the answer is they can't because Brock Purdy is the reason this roster is so incredibly good. And how do you go about building it? If Brock Purdy was not their quarterback, if Kirk Cousins was the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, they wouldn't have those players. They wouldn't have all of these guys who stacked up that roster and allowed them to somehow overcome all the things that they had to get by in this game. I mean, you see Brandon IU going out there and make it plays. I mean, you could, you see Trent Williams blocking Christian McCaffrey going into the end zone. Like all

these guys need money, Nick Bosa, they just signed to a massive contract. And at some point they will run into that problem with Brock Purdy, but he's only in his second year. So they're going to be able to pay whoever they want to pay to keep this roster together for San Francisco only because their quarterback is making so little money. And look, I think that Purdy had a brutal game for the most part. And he showed a lot of the weaknesses that people were concerned about when there was this big argument throughout the year. Is Brock Purdy actually good? Is he not actually good? Should he be the MVP? And I don't really care about all that. I mean, his numbers are fantastic and the team around him is great. It's a big part of it. Usually it is. Usually it is

a big part of why any quarterback is good is the coaching and the team. So I don't downgrade, I don't, I don't downgrade quarterbacks for having a good supporting cast. I mean, it's kind of the same with Kirk, right? Like he's thrown to Justin Jefferson or Stefan digs or whatever, but when he plays well, he plays well. But when you watch a guy who was Mr. Irrelevant, who's making 800,000 with a team that is so good around him that they can overcome this type of game and still get to the NFC championship, it has to be a giant flag. Like we, we have a new state flag in Minnesota. What it should be is look at Brock Purdy salary cap hit. That's what it should have said.

They should have let me design it. Look, look at the NFC North is what it should have said on the other side. Look at the NFC North and look at Brock Purdy's contract and tell me that you think that you can bring back Kirk Cousins and recreate what those teams have or what the 49ers have and the Ravens on their team as well. The teams that are here and how deep they are and how good they are that are going to be playing in championship weekend. How can you go player for player on a roster when we go through it? If we go through the Vikings defensive line, the only guy under contract is Harrison Phillips.

Look at San Francisco's defensive line and all the players they have and how much work they needed to do in this game. And even then, their defense was not perfect. So how much better in the playoffs would your defense have to be? That can really be the only takeaway. And even if Detroit melts and Tampa Bay makes it, it'll be one of the most random kind of shocking championship game appearances if Tampa Bay gets there. But I would still say, is Detroit going anywhere? Is Detroit leaving?

Because, and we'll do another one of these after that game. But I'll still say Detroit's going to come back with the entire roster that they have. And they're still going to be right there in the mix at the top of the NFC North. And of course, because we're recapping this game, we haven't talked about even the bears that are in great position, but through three quarters, it really looked like we were going to be talking about the green Bay Packers in the NFC championship game. So I'll take more of your questions and comments, whatever's on your mind after this game, but I'm just thinking about how great of a game it was and how this is where you want to be. And your marker should be there. If you're the Vikings, it should only be there. Here's a crazy stat for you. And you guys know, I've been digging up a lot of them on the show

lately, but a lot of these kind of crazy Vikings related playoff stats, the green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers alone, just that matchup has happened more times since Favre was in Minnesota than the Vikings have been in the playoffs. So they've had more times of just Packers and 49ers than the Vikings have even been in the post season since Brett Favre left. That's where the bar should be. These are the teams that you should want to play with. These are franchises that walk into every season with their fans thinking we will be there on championship weekend. How often as Vikings fans have you guys been allowed to have that feeling?

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would have won all the games that Dobbs won, that they wouldn't have been in the same position. Because remember, they started one and four. And go back and look at all those stats of teams that start 0-3 and how often they make the playoffs. It's very rare for a reason. Remember, in 2020, Kirk got the Vikings back to 500, and then they faded down the stretch. Was this not the exact same season even for the defense, where the defense faded down the stretch. Was this not the exact same season even for the defense where the defense faded down the stretch? It would have faded down the stretch anyway. Would they have gotten maybe one or two more wins because he's better than Dobbs and he's better than Mullins?

Yeah, I think so, but it would have either been 8-9 or 9-8, and I don't think it would have been much better than that because the defense was always going to come apart once they played better teams. I'm certain of that, that they were a little bit overly pumped up by playing a lot of bad quarterbacks. And that's not a criticism of Brian Flores. He was great this year.

He got everything out of it. But once a guy or two got hurt, once they lost Byron Murphy, once they lost DJ Wanham, you know, that defense was not going to be able to hold up. So I think that they would have been looking at probably what happened to the Rams. They would have gone to Detroit. They would have lost and maybe in a good game. And we would have said, well, you know, they were pretty close to beating a good team. And that would have been the best they could have taken home.

But a lot of times, even those teams that fight their way back, you have to do so much to get back into the race that it's really hard to keep that going. And that's why teams that start 0-3, 1-4 almost never make the playoffs. So I wouldn't have even been surprised if they finished at 8-9 and still missed the playoffs anyway. But yeah, it's an interesting discussion, but really toward the future, it doesn't matter if they would have made it or not with Kirk because you can't recreate what you had. You can't go back in time and say, well, all right, well, that defense is coming over to next year because it's not because this year's defense had

16 and a half sacks from daniel hunter and you don't get that back unless you sign him and then it's hard to say if he can recreate that and even if he had gone nine and eight made the playoffs they would have celebrated a fake banner do they get to even this game i don't know uh if they did i think it would have been maybe a successful season in their eyes and probably ours as well. But that's not what happened. What happened was they finished seven and 10. And now with so many players leaving, including their left guard, including their number three wide receiver who didn't have a great year, but also is an NFL player. And I think what you saw from San Francisco and Green Bay

is receiving depth really matters. The more guys that can make plays for you. I mean, Bo Melvin, what? All of a sudden, the Packers have guys all over the place making plays. And San Francisco brings a guy who had three catches off the bench and he makes a great play. That's the type of depth that you need to have to get here. Players get hurt. You have to have guys who can come off the bench. And the Vikings just didn't for this year on their defensive side. But that's the thing is that if you could take all the pieces that you had from last year

and then just plop on a couple more free agents maybe instead of marcus davenport it's someone who could stay healthy and bang okay now you've got a much better defense but that isn't how it works and the other thing is too that as we look at next year midway through the season and i will admit to this of thinking that a caleb evans was in a really good place then over the final couple of games, he kind of falls apart. And so now you're asking for the Vikings, who do you have as your foundational defensive pieces? Who's going forward with you?

How many guys do you really have that you're sure of? I'm sure of Metellus. I'm sure of Bynum. I'm sure of Pace Jr. I'm sure of Byron Murphy and Harrison Phillips. And that's about it. And none of those guys, when you look at San Francisco, Fred Warner, Nick Bosa, Javon Hargrave, you look at those guys, these are stars all over the place. Armstead, they had Chase Young out of nowhere. I mean, these guys are stars and that's what, and

Chavarrius Ward, you know, is a good player as well. I mean, they guys are stars and that's what, and, uh, Chavarrius Ward, uh, you know, is a good player as well. I mean, they have a lot of dudes who are among the best in the league. And when they showed the 49ers offensive defense and the bottom, you know, when they're introducing them, it's like all pro all pro all pro. I mean, that's, that's the bar. That's what you need to try to reach uh bernie mack says r.i.p bernie mack uh after seeing uh lamar earlier jayden daniels is even more appealing and this is another takeaway from the playoffs it may feel a little different when you're watching the lions and the bucks because neither of those quarterbacks are playmakers uh or at least like true playmakers. They both were drafted number one overall and have huge arms. So there is that. But what Lamar did was even though things were

going a little wonky and he was getting pressured, he made plays with his legs to totally take out the Houston Texans defense over and over and over again, a hundred yards in that game. The third time in a playoff game out of five tries that he's run for a hundred yards. And how do you defend that? Now Lamar is throwing the ball better than ever, by the way, I was looking this up. This is crazy. You know, anybody who watches the show and welcome anybody who's new Matt here. But those who watch or listen to the show all the time know that we think it's funny that Hendon Hooker is so old.

Lamar Jackson is one year older than Hendon Hooker. How crazy is that? One year older. He's only 27 years old and going absolutely nowhere. Just like a lot of these teams that are at the top that are going to be the bar. And that's sort of the theme is a lot of this is coming back. And yeah, I agree with you that when you have watched this playoffs, even including some of the things that Jordan Love was able to do today, even if it's not running, it's playmaking. It's

out of structure. And there's even Brock Purdy, who is a decent playmaker when he's on the move, runs for a huge first down. This is something that the Vikings are just not capable of at the quarterback position and have not been capable of at the quarterback position as long as Kirk Cousins has been the quarterback. And of course, I make a lot out of how it's the total roster and how that's the focus as far as Kirk Cousins goes and relative to Kirk Cousins. But also, let's take a look at some of the quarterbacks who are left. One is insanely cheap.

The other ones are amazing. I mean, somehow, unfortunately, either Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, or two out of the three of Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Lamar Jackson have to go home. That's absurd. That's absurd. And then in the NFC side, obviously a lot weaker as far as the quarterbacks go, but you still have a cheap, insanely cheap quarterback, a quarterback in Jared Goff, whose team tanked and built around him to make a complete team. And then a Tampa Bay that's kind of random. And it was nine and eight in a very bad division and needs to get super lucky. And yeah, every once in a while you can get super lucky, but that's not really what you're playing for. You're not playing to be once a decade team. And Tampa Bay has a really good defense and has superstars on defense that the Vikings do not.

You guys, you guys in the comments, very snarky. If the Vikings made it to the NFC championship game, maybe it would have been enough time for Marcus Davenport to finally come back. What an odd situation. And then just as an aside, the Vikings firing their trainer. I want, I just wonder what that's about because it seemed like they were very happy with their trainer situation. And I wonder how Marcus Davenport plays into that at all. Bob says case Keenum had a 98 quarterback rating, 3,500 yards, 22 touchdowns, seven picks in 2017.

We should have kept him a little bit ancient history, Bob. That is true that we're always going to go back to that decision. I don't as much. And now if you want to go back and listen to the tape, I was not for that decision to bring in Kirk Cousins at the time. I was more along the lines of either Alex Smith or going with the draft, which happened to have Lamar Jackson and sticking with Keenum and Teddy Bridgewater and sort of letting them play it out. But I'll always say this because I've

seen a few of you going back to that Wilfs thing. And I'll always say this about the decision. The Wilfs pushed the chips to the middle of the table to try to win a championship at that moment. And then after that, seemed to not really take that approach again. They seemed to take the approach that they wanted to justify the Kirk decision rather than truly think they were right on the cusp of actually winning something. Because from 2019 to 2020, they went through the same thing they've gone through these last couple years with losing

all of their talent, losing Linval Joseph, Xavier Rhodes, et cetera, et cetera, Everson Griffin, all their defensive players who had been there. And it was at that point where they really should have said, all right, it's time to let Cousins contract play out or trade them away or move on and reset, rebuild. And they chased the past. They kept chasing the past. And with the Vikings, I think there's probably a lot of people in the building who think, man, we went 13 and four, and then we were 500 when Kirk got hurt, but playing our best football.

And we need to get back to that point and just have things go different. But you can't chase what you missed out on in the NFL. You missed out on the Super Bowl because Case Keenum wasn't good enough. And that defense fell apart in Philadelphia. And they chased it with the Kirk decision and it didn't work. And then in 2020, they felt like they were close after a win in new Orleans, get a win in new Orleans. We just need to be a little bit better. And they didn't get there. And in 2021, it was one desperate flailing to try to justify it and save everybody's

job. And it didn't get there. And then if this off season, they go back and they sign Kirk Cousins to another extension, it will once again be chasing what you had before rather than dealing with the fact that right now you have almost nothing on this roster on defense. And let's be honest here. Look around the other offenses. They're as good as you for supporting casts. They're as good as you. I saw tonight two good offensive lines. I saw tonight two good offensive

lines. I saw lots of good receivers. The Packers receivers may be young, but they're good. Romeo Dobbs can play. Dontavian Wicks can play. Jaden Reed can play. They got a bunch of guys and they're all super young. So it's not like they don't have anybody to work with. And San Francisco, they got Iuke and Samuel and McCaffrey and Kittle. They got a lot to work with. Every team has this. So where that's good. The bad teams don't, obviously.

But where is it that you're going to get your advantage is the question. Justin Jefferson is an advantage, but he's not so far ahead of what other teams have. He's not so far ahead of what other teams have. He's not so far ahead of Debo Samuel. He's not so far ahead of Brandon Ayuk or Amon Ross St. Brown on the other side of things. Or even with Tampa Bay with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. He's ahead of the other receivers in the league, but not by a million miles better than like Stefan Diggs or somebody. So a lot of teams in the league and in the NFC have great supporting casts for their quarterbacks. Where do you get your edge? And a lot of times it's in defense, it's in offensive line, it's in running game,

it's in having a quarterback making almost no money. I mean, all these things need to be addressed in the offseason, and you really can't do it in one offseason. That's what they really have to recognize, is that they cannot do it in one offseason, where you just try to mess around in free agency and then hope that you hit on draft picks, but they don't even have recent draft picks who are about to take the next step. So Makai Blackman, I think is a good cornerback, but he had a decent year and that's okay. So that's something to work with, but that's not players coming up through the pipeline that are going to be massive difference makers on your team. The only guy they've drafted, who is that? There's one guy.

It's Jordan Addison. That's not going to be the difference. And Hamza says, did you happen to see Daniel Jeremiah's first mock? He's very plugged in and goes based off what he's hearing from scouts and teams. He has Bo Nix, 14, and Pennix not a first rounder. So I have seen a little bit of buzz recently for Bo Nix. And here's what I will say about Daniel Jeremiah. There is almost nobody, if not nobody better than Daniel Jeremiah at scouting players, giving information, broadcasting. I love that guy. Like he is

fantastic, but no one is good at mock drafting. No one, no matter what they're hearing or they think they're hearing or how plugged in they are. If you go back and look year after year, Mel Kiper, Todd McShay, Daniel Jeremiah, everybody, they're all off when it comes to that because teams don't leak that information. You could talk to scouts, but it might be one scout trying to mislead the media knowing that Daniel Jeremiah is in that position now. So I would just say that I kind of take and think about, you don't have to look look farther than Will Levis for how even the most plugged-in people believed that he was going to be a top 10 draft pick and then wasn't, or believed that there was going to be three first-round quarterbacks in 2022 and there was zero, or there was one.

Can he pick it? So nobody is so dialed in that they know everything that's going to happen. But that's just the disclaimer for draft season as you guys look at mocks. However, I think that Bo Nix has a good chance to go in the first round. And I really like him as a Vikings fit. Doesn't mean I'm off on Pennix completely. But what I was thinking about over these last couple of weeks watching the playoffs is the playmaking aspect and the athleticism of the quarterbacks involved. And Brock Purdy is a little bit of an outlier on this. So, you know, Jared Goff is not the best athlete. Baker Mayfield's not the best athlete, but it's an advantage. And even just having the ability, like what Brock Purdy did,

to escape and make a play and gain a first down with your legs. That's something that Bo Nix can do. So I I'm, I'm into that. Like I am into that idea of Bo Nix because he has that ability. Benjamin says, never trust the Carlson.

I imagine Mike Zimmer watching just being like wait a minute i recognize this i remember i remember a carlson missing some kicks uh also led to some reminiscing about some great uh one-liners from mike zimmer in the short daniel carlson which is not him that was his brother but in the daniel carlson era of mike zimmer going for two on purpose to send a message to his kicker. And then after he cuts his kicker says, did you see the game when he was asked why they made the decision? So, uh, Bradley says, well, the depth of receiver, uh, well, the depth of receiver is a result of how good the quarterback is playing. I imagine that you meant that a little differently, but is the depth at receiver a reflection

of how good quarterbacking is? Or I guess what you mean is how much does it impact it, right? And I think a ton. I think an absolute ton. Even when you look at Carson Wentz, for example, we would all agree that Carson Wentz is not a great quarterback. But at one point, Carson Wentz is not a great quarterback, but at one point, Carson Wentz has his team home field advantage for the playoffs before he gets hurt in 2017,

go through and look at that receiving court. They had a bunch of great receivers. How did Jalen hurts look when he didn't have AJ Brown to throw the ball deep down the field against the Tampa Bay bucks? Not, not as great. And how did he look last year when he had A.J. Brown 100% healthy? He looked really good. It is a huge impacting factor, and it matters that the Vikings can give their young quarterback that. But for me, it's a lot of teams have this, have a good supporting cast, have good receivers to give to their quarterback, a lot of the competing teams. So where are you going to be different than just, hey, we have receivers, we have young guys who can help is in, in having a cheap quarterback that you can use to just continue to stack and stack and stack for, uh, the rest of the roster. That's, that's how I look at

it. Um, and of course people have, uh, lots of opinions on rookie quarterbacks, which we're going to get to as we go through the draft process and all that about Bo Nix and Jaden Daniels and whether it's worth it to trade up for him and so forth. And you know what? We'll get there. Some people are very skeptical on Bo Nix. I don't know. I read something that Mark Trestman did, the former Bears coach, about how much he liked Bo Nix and saw him as being not far away from the other really good quarterbacks in this draft. So that's somebody who is a quarterback guy and offensive coach for his career was in the NFL who has that opinion and maybe other people do in the league. I don't

know how the Vikings will feel about it, but I do know this. Could Bo Nix do what Brock Purdy did today? Probably if he's even halfway decent, but you need to give him all the tools to be able to do it. That means an offensive line Lamar Jackson, you still have a chance to be there on championship weekend because you are so strong. Folks, if you've been listening to the show, then you know how much fun we have been having with prize picks this year. Just go to prizepicks.com slash purple, use the code purple for a first deposit match up to $100. And let me tell you how it works. If you haven't heard us talk about it enough yet, or you haven't tried it yet, very simple. There are yardage totals on prize picks. You either pick more or less and boom, each week has been a roller coaster ride of fun. And the best part is that when I have a bad week I didn't lose much it doesn't cost much

to play you can turn 10 bucks into 250 very easily and if things go sideways for you you're not out a whole heck of a lot of money but normally I do much better than this so that is prizepix.com slash purple just more or less on yardage totals and you are in prizepix.com slash purple, just more or less on yardage totals. And you are in prizepicks.com slash purple, the code purple for a first deposit match up to $100. And yeah, I know in that same mock and I saw it, Bradley, Daniel Jeremiah predicted the Vikings would go after a defensive lineman. Yeah, I know. I think the mock drafters don't know what to do. They don't know what the Vikings are going to do because none of us know what the Vikings are going to do. Skoll Vikings says, do you think that New England will trade back? That is also really hard to tell because I could very much see Gerard Mayo

saying, yeah, I'll take over this job, but I got to take my quarterback and you got to give me time to build with him. If you're Gerard Mayo taking over for Bill Belichick, what's the number one thing you want? You want time. You don't want pressure. You don't want the fan base going, well, we just signed or traded for this veteran quarterback. You got to win with him or run back Mac Jones and say, you got to win with him or run back Mac Jones and say, you got to win with Mac Jones, or this is the worst decision ever. You want somebody new to say, Hey, we went seven and 10, but we're really happy with our young quarterback and off we go to the future. That's what you're looking for. I think I would be surprised if they decided to trade down,

but I'd be surprised if anyone at the top did. The question is, how much do they like Jaden Daniels? Is it enough to use that pick or would they trade it away? And if, or, or if they want to use it on something else, then you get to number four, number five, where those teams want to draft receivers. Can you make a trade with them? The problem is there's some really great receivers in this draft that need to go top Harrison jr. And neighbors, they will go at the highest part of the draft. That's where it's difficult to see any of those teams trading too far back. So I think the Vikings really should focus on the other prospects, Bo Nix, Michael Pennix, and JJ McCarthy and say, can we build around any one of these guys?

And I do think that if there's a quarterback that JJ McCarthy is like, and I don't know how much we would love this, but I think that he's kind of like Brock Purdy only a little bit taller and a little bit faster, maybe a lot faster, but he's, he scrambles in the same way. Purdy's got some quickness to him. He might be the most similar quarterback in the draft to someone like Brock Purdy. So if you're looking at that and saying, can a guy execute an offense? He's got the arms. He's got more arm strength for sure than Brock Purdy does. So all those guys I think are on the table, but I'm not sure about the top three. And it would take a lot if that's going to happen.

Anthony says, Bo Nix seems pretty good. Maybe not the greatest talent, but enough talent to get the job done if put in the right system. I wouldn't mind him at all for us. I do think that the thing about Bo Nix that's interesting is that everybody thought that Bo Nix was going to be a

great quarterback at Auburn. They believed in his physical skill. This guy could be a top draft pick. The draft analysts were saying this for years, and I could never figure it out. I was like, what are they looking at? And now we know they were looking at raw tools for Bo Nix, and they all came together over the last two years, but especially this year. And his data is amazing. I mean, he has amazing numbers. If they make a bet on those numbers, you can't go back and blame them because he is incredible. He was great under pressure. He was great throwing the ball deep. Anything you asked him to do. Benjamin asks, have you talked to sage about the quarterbacks

yet sage rosenfels former nfl quarterback friend of the show have not uh i i will i will i've been mostly focused on the playoffs and kind of picking apart uh last year but we'll have time uh to transition especially through february into. Let's look deep into these quarterbacks and so forth. And I agree with this, uh, from Billy says that feel like the mock drafts are pointless until after free agency settles anyway, fun to look at though. I agree that they change a lot with the NFL combine because that's when everybody goes to the combine and they all talk to everybody they know and start to gather information.

And even then the information is not always the most clear. And, you know, I mean, based on the mocks that are kind of all over the place, there's always still misses that end up happening. So, uh, loaded guitars. Love that. That's cool. Name says, uh, we should trade into the top three way before the draft well that's exactly what san francisco did when they took trey lance and if you do that

then it maybe is easier where teams haven't fallen in love with someone yet how much do you have to give up do you have to give up three first round picks? That's the hard part. I don't know how in the world you can get there without giving up the number 11 and then two more firsts. And, and, and again, like, you know, Bernie says that, you know, McCarthy wasn't asked to do much at Michigan. That's totally true. It's been part of my question about McCarthy is can he really operate an offense that Kevin O'Connell wants where it's shotgun throwing all the time being the guy we saw that from Knicks and we saw that from Pennix in college. We didn't see that from McCarthy.

He has physical tools that are good though. So they might look at that and say, let's get a bridge quarterback, develop him over a year, and then plan for 2025 for him to be in because they want to continue with the competitive rebuild thing. But the option that should not be on the table at all after watching these playoffs is bringing back Kirk Cousins. It shouldn't even be a discussion. They should be sitting in the TCO Performance Center offices.

They aren't. They're probably in Cabo. But that's where they should be. They should be watching these playoff games with a big old yellow notepad, writing down, what do we need? What do we need to be in a game like this, knowing that the Packers are not going anywhere,

knowing that the Lions are playing tomorrow going anywhere, knowing that the Lions are playing tomorrow, what do we need? And we need an elite edge rush. Because remember, Daniil Hunter's not under contract. We need interior pressure. We need a shutdown corner. They do not have one. They have guys, but they don't have a shutdown corner. We need a solidified offensive line that has a new left guard, or maybe Dalton Reisner comes back. But I don't have a shutdown corner. We need a solidified offensive line that has a new left guard or maybe Dalton rise there comes back. But I don't know if that was good enough in the run game. Cause that's on my notepad run game.

Aaron Jones, 53 yard run, Christian McCaffrey, two touchdown runs. These things are in my notes. Who was doing that this year? Only Ty Chandler in flashes, but not like these guys. These are in my

notes. What do we need? Well, look, this team was able to have their number one receiver hurt and had other guys. Well, the Vikings had that as well with KJ Osborne, but he's a free agent as well. Are you bringing him back? Is that good enough? Because Green Bay's got three, four receivers themselves and another tight end. How many things did we just put in our notebook? Does Kirk Cousins solve all that? Or does Kirk Cousins only get you to a point where you can pretend that you're in the same ballpark as these teams? Because without Debo Samuel one time at US Bank Stadium, you beat San Francisco. Because one time when Jordan Love wasn't developed yet in the middle of the season,

you beat him in Lambeau. Well, congratulations. I mean, that's great. Other teams beat them at times as well in the regular season. But when it's ramped up like this, you really see the differences between your team and the teams that are there. And tonight was just another lesson in that. And also, I think the other thing is too,

that it probably is going to take multiple years for the Vikings to rebuild the roster to be at the same level as a team like San Francisco or Detroit. And they might be able to be good enough as a team like the Bucs. Sure, yeah. I mean, if you want to be a long shot and like a 10 point underdog in the divisional round game, sure. But I mean, I don't know. Like, I don't see how that's a bet that you really want to make.

Okay. Now we've reached the point where we always get this, which is trade Justin Jefferson to get those things? And my answer is always no, because the only way you get there is by having a great quarterback or a quarterback play great. And there's a difference, right? So there's a great quarterback, which is Josh Allen, or there's a quarterback who plays great like Brock Purdy. Those are the only ways to get there. And if you have a quarterback who's great with great things around him, you go to the championship weekend like Lamar Jackson.

You're looking for both those things. But if you don't have Lamar Jackson, you have to create ways for your quarterback to play great. And there's no better guy to help you do that than Justin Jefferson. And look, Debo Samuel is a good example of a guy who kind of went through it with San Francisco a little bit. They had a dip year, which I forget when they went six and 10, they didn't trade him for all sorts of draft picks and so forth. You want to keep the great parts of your roster great and work on the rest. I think that's robbing Peter to pay Paul. It would probably take three

hits on those first rounders in order to match the value that Justin Jefferson can give. It's the second most valuable position. I'm not giving that away. But I understand why you're saying that because that's where this roster is at right now. So I'm not for that idea, but the fact that we're even entertaining it tells you how far the roster is away from these types of teams. Uh, Benjamin says elite edge, fat defensive tackle. Yes. Fat defensive tackle. A hundred percent, not a 300 or 280 pound defensive tackle trying to play nose three 40, get a, get a big guy, a defensive tap trying to play nose 340 get a get a big guy uh defensive tap tackle depth playmaker at linebacker yes i agree uh because jordan hicks is a free agent two more corners probably kj replacement middle offensive line is still suspect yes it is and garrett bradbury had

a really good year through like week 15. And I may have reversed jinxed him because after I wrote an article about how valuable he'd been through all the quarterback changes, he had some of his worst games that he's had in years. And you still saw the weaknesses. Ed Ingram still was in the top five and pressures allowed by a guard. This is not an offensive line that is as of it stands right now. Amazing. It's pretty good. And they were really good in past protection, but is it amazing? I don't think so because that means it can dominate in the run game. That means when you get the ball at the

five yard line, you score a touchdown. Cause you just hand it off. That's that's when it's great. Uh, Matthew says, if we're so far away from having a good roster, is that a reason to consider trading JJ? And the reason I don't think that is, well, one, like I said, you need to hit on all of those draft picks to be as valuable as him, and that's a tough proposition. Also, you're not planning on being bad forever. And Justin Jefferson, has he turned 25 yet?

I think you're planning on rebuilding this roster over a year, over two years. Because if you get the rookie quarterback contract, and then you've got another draft, and then you have straightened out your salary cap, which they have, and actually done a very good job of it when you look going forward, then you've got the opportunity to rebuild that roster using those free agent dollars. And of course, they're going to have to hit on some draft picks in the future. But in my mind, it does not take four years to rebuild

the team. It really takes maybe one or two if things go right. And Detroit's a good example. That team was empty, way more empty than the Vikings in just 2021. And then last year they're good. And then this year they're really good. And I mean, I can't, I just can't help but think that it doesn't take that long once you've got it figured out. Uh, and I don't think, you know, Dan brings up his popularity. I don't know how much popularity would play into it, but I do think that it's about supporting your quarterback in the quickest possible rebuild that you can get. You're not going to rebuild better with removing the best player at his position in the NFL. So even Aaron Donald, good example with the Los Angeles Rams, Aaron Donald was there for

the case keenum year 2016 and you could have said yeah i mean if they trade aaron donald they're gonna get several first round picks but i i don't think that uh that's you know a good idea you need to keep the players that could potentially help you win a super bowl not move on from them and then just hope and pray that your draft picks work out but i see why you're bringing it up uh bonix broke the ncaa completion record 77 percent yeah i mean his again his numbers are really fantastic and if you kind of start there and work your way back arm strength mobility athleticism mean, it works for me, but especially that ability to run for a

first down when everything else has gone wrong. I've been a really big fan of that. And the other day I was watching this NFL films piece that's an hour long from 1993 on John Elway. And it's all about his comeback wins. And I thought, well, this is great. Like NFL films, lore kind of thing. And as I'm watching it, I'm thinking, okay, I mean, of course I remember John Elway and his arm and everything else. The number of times where John Elway's great comebacks were sparked by running for a first down just made me think, I don't know how possible it is if you don't have Tom Brady or Peyton Manning to win without some mobility. And I guess we're going to find out from Jared Goff,

but even Jared Goff is so consistently great and excellent at getting the ball into his playmakers hands and his arm strength. And he doesn't take a ton of sacks, but even then Goff has had his limitations through his career. It's a lot easier when everything goes wrong for your guy to just take off and run for a first down. So let's see here. Sorry, trying to click. Benjamin says with the elite teams in the playoffs, they all create interior pressure. Yes, 100%. Vikings super struggle with that.

That's an understatement to say super struggle with that. And they can't run block. biking super struggle with that that's that's an understatement to say super struggle with that and they can't run block is this holdover stuff based on size from the rico era yeah i i mean it's weird because they had a lot of success with linval joseph and you would think that that would be what they would have wanted but you know new era i guess i don't know they didn't think of that or it doesn't and even with flores think about think about the Patriots. They had like Alan Branch, Danny Shelton. They always had those dudes, Vince Wilfork. So when they were winning, they had a sick nose tackle all the time. That's going to be, I mean, that's going to be a major priority. Anthony says, no way you let a generational

talent in his prime, jj walk out the building right because uh he says you want to free up money do it with other players yeah because you're not planning on being bad forever you're planning on continuing to oh here's another example i mean the texans went from a poverty franchise to contenders in a year it's possible of course they had to be bad really really bad for multiple years and draft high and completely tank so you're not looking to do that exactly but there are plenty examples of teams that were middling and that were okay and they were able to add around what they had and i think really the rams of sean mcveigh seeing that there's that Rams connection for Kevin O'Connell is probably the example to work with here because they didn't exactly have like a veteran quarterback in the

same way that the Vikings have Kirk. But if they move on from Kirk, that's where you draft your quarterback. And after that, they were able to bring in Robert Woods, Sammy Watkins, reload the defense, and they had a good offensive coach. They had foundation players to build around, hit on a couple of draft picks, and were really, really good. There's a lot of examples of that. And yeah, I agree. The only way they would let JJ walk is if he was a headache like Moss and Diggs. Yeah. So, and this, and this is a total misnomer. I mean, I don't know how old you can be if you have this take, but Sizzleman says Moss was a generational talent.

What did that get the Vikings? I mean, what? Like, come on, man. Every year that they had Randy, they were a field goal going wide left away from the super bowl after they brought in Randy Moss. What are we talking about here? What? I mean, this, there was, there was a little bit of a, of a take. And I remember this cause I was in college during this and friends of mine in college would try to argue this and didn't, it never made any sense to me that while Brady wins and he doesn't have great receivers.

Of course, he has best season ever with Randy Moss. And, you know, so receivers are overrated. You don't need Moss. You don't need Terrell Owens because those guys never win. Of course, Terrell Owens went to a Super Bowl. Randy Moss was this close. They also went to an NFC championship that they melted down in with Randy Moss. Vikings have been to how many under, you know, the last how many of years? Not many since Randy Moss left. So also they had elite, elite, elite offenses and

could never get the defense together during that time. Not so much Randy Moss's fault. So Chris says, why is Josh Dobbs been completely dismissed as a possibility? Yeah, I can't get with you on that one, man. I can't get with you on that one. I think the Josh Dobbs is a classic fringe NFL quarterback that isn't on the level of anyone you would think of for more than a backup. He's a. I would say he's a fine backup. I'm not even really truly sure of that. He had a couple of really good games because he's a good athlete. Backups do that from time to time.

But yeah, I mean, he's just not going to be this team's quarterback. I'd be very surprised if he's even here next year because it didn't seem like he was fit at all for what kevin o'connell wanted to do um but i respect josh dobbs and the what he did coming in here but it's just not a fit uh skull viking says 98 vikings were the best offense ever at the time yes they were that is correct a rookie quarterback contract will offset the JJ contract. That is correct. I am with you guys. But I, I, I think that sometimes we have to avoid just looking at things and saying they're the problem,

right? And like Justin Jefferson is that thing. Like that's the problem. We should just trade him for three firsts. So let's not go crazy. Let's not lose our minds. The explanation is right in front of us. The explanation is exactly what San Francisco did with Brock Purdy. They meant to do it with Trey Lance. They accidentally did it with Brock Purdy. So I guess when the Vikings draft Bo Nix, they should draft somebody else in like the sixth round too, just in case., what they've done is exactly what you're trying to do. And that is to get the rookie quarterback contract guy, take the players that are great on your team and build upon them. So the 49ers were really good before they got Trent Williams, but here's a guy who is disgruntled with his team. He's a superstar.

Do these guys not exist around the league? They always do. But you have to be. Think about the players. We could build an all-star team with the players who have been traded over the last five years. The Chicago Bears traded for Khalil Mack in his prime. Tyreek Hill traded to Miami. I mean, there's all sorts of stars who get traded.

Trent Williams gets traded to San Francisco. Christian McCaffrey gets traded. Why is that? Because teams are now more aware than ever of their timelines. So if they're not going to want to pay somebody or, or there's these expensive quarterback contracts and that's what happened with, you know with Tyreek Hill. So what you have is some teams are tanking and players aren't going to stay anyway. And so they move them. And look, if Justin Jefferson says,

under no circumstances will I ever sign with this team, then you have no choice but to trade him. And then I'll agree with you. So I guess I'll put that down as, hey, if he won't play, it won't sign. Then I guess you have to, because that's what, um, that's what everybody does. So, uh, but my, my point is that when you're in that position, you can be the hunter as opposed to hunted, like, as opposed to being the team that everyone's saying, Hey, are they going to trade Jefferson? You're the team that is trading for the disgruntled star

or the star that you can't, uh, that they can't pay because you can't, there's so many advantages that even go beyond just the, Hey, you can go into free agency, but you can also go into the trade market and say, yes, we will take you and pay you a lot of money. Hamza says, would you be okay with the Vikings staying out and drafting Bo Nix at 11? You mean like staying out of trading, trading up instead of trading down and risking losing him? Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, that's fine. Yeah, for sure. If you got your guy, I don't care if he's projected lower just take him if that's your guy just take him like uh even daniel jones when the giants took daniel jones and everyone said what are you what why are you drafting him so high go ahead if that's your guy then take him

it didn't really work out for them they won one playoff game uh but i've always felt that way about quarterbacks like don't mess around with the quarterback position, because if you end up taking or not taking a quarterback and trying to trade down and then missing out on them, yikes, then you're in a lot of trouble. Um, so, and, and, you know, a lot of people feel this way and I'm, I'm sorry. Um, is it, uh, uh, L tail LTA. Sorry. I'm, I'm bad with some of the names here. Uh, Vikings must trade up for Daniels and one and only Daniels. It's the only way to come close to a guaranteed franchise quarterback. So that's the thing, right? Is, you know, nothing is a guarantee and that's why it's so risky to trade up is that if you trade up

and it doesn't work out, then you're in a lot of trouble. And the odds of the quarterbacks, like take a look, we got Lamar Jackson, who was the fifth quarterback taken. We've got Josh Allen, who was the third quarterback taken, right? Third. So it's not always the guy that you think it's going to be in the draft because it isn't a sure thing uh however if they did make that trade up because that was their guy and they believe that you have to have a running ability i mean i'd be very much for it i would be very much for it um uh zelene says and i try not to put cusses on the um on the screen says uh brock purdy bleeped his pants for three and uh three quarters quarters and we were one more bad drive away from kirk being a 49er probably not no they would not be able to afford um to afford that and also adds

green bay sucks cinderella run that isn't happening again well that's just false so sorry man i i know that there's like some copium going on there uh where you want to believe that green bay was just some sort of smoke and mirror it's not it's not uh jordan love is extremely extremely talented and actually living in a fantasy world is kind of how the vik Vikings got to where they are. So I try not to do that. If you're looking at Green Bay and saying, well, they suck and they were just a Cinderella team.

No, no, no. If there's a Cinderella team, it's going to be the Tampa Bay Bucs who had no business being here and then just lucked into a win against a melting Philly team and then ends up beating the Detroit Lions or something. That's the Cinderella team, not the team that is built on a bunch of young players with a super

young and super gifted physically quarterback that has a really good coach. That's not going anywhere. That's going to be at the top of the division year after year. That's a fact. I mean, I just don't see any other way that they're not right there competing for years to come, especially when they're so young. So you have to deal with that. There's no changing it. You can't talk yourself out of it. You can't leave comments on YouTube and hope that changes what's coming. That's like what the Vikings would do.

That's what their owners would do. We don't work that way. We live in reality. The reality is the Lions are going to be good and the Packers are going to be good and the Bears are probably going to be good. So do you want to stay with them? You've got foundational pieces to work with to stay with them.

You might have an offensive coach to stay with them, but you don't have a defense. You don't have a running game. You don't have pressure on the quarterback. You have a good coaching staff. You have a good franchise. You can, but you can't if you try the same thing, because no longer are these teams tanking. When those teams were tanking, when the Lions were tanking, when the Bears were tanking, then I guess I understood it. But that's not the case now. And they were this close to being in the NFC Championship.

And I think that this playoffs should just be loud and clear to where the Vikings have to go. Let me finish on this. And the interaction here has been amazing. Super happy to have the number of people watching that we have. Thank you all so much. If you're new purple insider.com is where you can see my written work, future of the franchise.

I wrote a book. It's over here called football is a numbers game. Check that out. If you're new and also come back, subscribe, leave comments, argue with people here it's a great place to be it's really fun we're going to do another one of these tomorrow as well

uh but i i want to just finish with this thought what a great game what a great game it was a really really exciting and breathtaking type of game and as the lions take the field at Ford Field tomorrow, and as the 49ers and their fans were there, and I've been there to Santa Clara, covered the last Vikings playoff game there, there's nothing like it. And there's nothing like it. The intensity, how it feels to be at one of those playoff games, grip in the edge of your chair for three straight hours.

Every single play matters. Everything goes down in your team's history. Everything is remembered. Every single moment matters so much. The Brock Purdy scramble, it's going to be legendary if they win. The handoff to Christian McCaffrey, it's going to be legendary if they win, right? That's where you want to be. Don't set the bar anywhere else. Don't set the bar at, Hey, if we bring back Kirk, we can be in that first round. That's not where you want to be. It's here. It's now that's where you want to be. And if it takes a longer term approach to be there, that's okay. Because panicking and trying to, and you can have the wrong interpretation and say, wow, man, we need Kirk back back or we're never going to compete with these teams. You didn't compete with the

best teams when you had them. So I don't see how it's going to happen again. That's what this playoffs has said to me. And Hey, if next year, we're still sitting here talking about our reactions to other playoff games, but in 2025, somebody's flying here to US Bank Stadium because they picked the right quarterback for the divisional round and you get to be those fans that were the San Francisco 49ers and you get to see that game, that's what you're

aiming for. Nothing short of that. And that's the approach the Vikings have to take. So, have I tried telling this to KOC and Kwe and crazy at Alphamensa? Maybe they listen. I don't know. I mean, uh, that's funny. I hope they know. Uh, but I don't think they're the ones that make the call, the final call. It's really the ownership. And I am pretty sure they don't listen or they would have made other decisions in the past. That's good though. That made me laugh. I appreciate that.

You guys are awesome. This was super fun. I'm so glad that all of you could come by and, uh, and talk after this game and keep your ears out. Make sure you're checking out the channel because I'm going to do another one of these tomorrow. Instant reaction to the games tomorrow when they end. And then as always, you know, Monday night with Manny Hill, Thursday night with Manny Hill, podcast mixed in, got a fun series called What Happened to That Guy. So it'll be a fun time. We're going to have a great time this offseason.

Diving deep, getting in with great guest appearances. So thank you again all so much for joining. Really, really fun conversation. And I will catch you tomorrow. Football.