Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Justin Fields looks like he's toast and is it time for the Vikings to make some moves?

Episode Date: September 18, 2023

Matthew Coller runs down 10 things that stood out from Sunday's games, including how bad Justin Fields looked -- again. How the Packers played with Jordan Love and a bunch of players hurt, the 0-2 stats that kept being repeated everywhere and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and I have just finished up watching an entire day of football, which for me is a little bit unusual because normally I'm at US Bank Stadium or wherever else the Minnesota Vikings are playing. So when they have a Thursday night game, I watch football all Saturday and it finished up with that crazy Colorado, Colorado State game. And then I woke up and I watched some more football all day on Sunday. And you know what? I got to say, I can see why everybody else does this all the time where they sit on their couch and watch all the games because it's pretty fun. So I enjoyed that opportunity. And there were a ton of very good and very

interesting games. So what I have for you is I have 10 rapid fire takeaways going to try to keep them to just a couple of sentences. And some of them are relevant to the Vikings. Others are just things that I thought along the way. And I had quite the setup today. I had red zone on the phone, but also was watching the Packers and Atlanta Falcons whole game. So it was kind of a nice little setup there for me today, which was good. I've seen people tweeting out. They have like 11 televisions. That's a little too aggressive, but during all the commercials, I could just look down and watch red zone on the app. So that was good. I was surrounding myself with football. So I came up with 10 rapid fire takeaways

to discuss from around the league. And then I have a bunch of questions that were sent to me after the Vikings and Eagles games. A lot to get to there. You can always go to purpleinsider.com. Feel free to send me an email there, or you can hit me up on Twitter at Matthew Collar. Just fire it into my DMs.

They're open. So just go in there, whatever question you have, and we'll work it into the show. So I've got a bunch of those to get to as well. So let's begin. Biggest takeaway from today relevant to the Minnesota Vikings is that it's almost over for Justin Fields. Now, it's only two games into the season, but when you spend the entire offseason

talking about how Justin Fields is going to take his big next step and he's going to go from this raw player who could run like crazy and has a big arm, but he's just never quite figured it out and the magic is going to happen this year. And let's keep in mind the Chicago bears organization decided that they believed enough in that next step to not draft Bryce young CJ Stroud or Anthony Richardson, who Richardson, unfortunately got hurt after he was looking really good today for Indianapolis. But Richardson has

looked, I think the best so far of the rookie quarterbacks, but they said, nope, we're not going to take three, one of three really terrific young prospects who have big arms and who have athleticism and all that stuff. And we're going to buy into the second half of last year, Justin Fields, where he threw for like 150 yards a game and ran for like 100 yards a game. And okay, a risky decision, a bold decision. They're going to trade down, they're going to get draft capital, and they're going to go from there, all right? Even if it's two games in, it needed to look different. There needed to be something when you trade down and get DJ more,

and you make that the center of this argument that all Justin Fields needed was better wide receivers, a better situation. And Hey, Chase Claypool made a play today. How about that? Good for him. But that was the whole thing that they were betting on. And so now they're in a position where if Justin Fields turns it around enough to have a decent season, but not a great season, then what do you do? Do you draft another quarterback? Do you trade away Justin Fields? Or do you just continue to ride this train? I felt like today was kind of a Trubisky benched moment for Chicago.

And it is still early. and this still could change but it's getting harder and harder to see it change and the sample size is getting larger and larger of games that look exactly like this so you remember a couple years ago when the Chicago Bears benched Mitch Trubisky in favor of Nick Foles and Foles had a comeback win. And then they kept going to Nick Foles and it was a miserable season, but it was, that was the moment where everyone realized officially it's over sign the death certificate. Mitch Trubisky is not playing here long-term. He's never going to take a next step. It's done. And I don't know if it's done and I don't know if it's over over over today but throwing a pass directly into Shaq Barrett's hands to lose the game was a pretty it's over type of moment for Justin Fields and what this means for Chicago long term will be very interesting to see because if they are horrendous

which they look like they could be, they look like they are on the Cleveland Browns path of just losing every year, just tanking forever. And if that ends up being the case, then they could draft high again. And Oh boy, are there some quarterbacks in the upcoming draft, which we'll get to a little bit later in my takeaways, but this felt like one of those. All right. I don't know where this goes from here for Justin Fields where is the step when is it supposed to show up I mean maybe you give it about half the season but it needed to be better than this right away and the Bears are now 0 and 2 along the lines of the division here's what I could say about Jordan Love. He is at least competent.

He can play in the NFL. And it is not a great Atlanta Falcons defense, but it's not a horrible defense. It's not like what he faced in week one against the Chicago Bears, where I wanted to see much more than him play against the Bears. And he had some really good moments. He looked like he was in command. He looked like he was executing what Matt LaFleur was asking him to do.

But as it went later in the game and they really needed a play or two from Jordan Love, it wasn't there. And they allowed Atlanta to come back and win that game. And it felt in that quarter, very far away from the Aaron Rodgers era when Jordan Love was struggling in the last quarter of that game and allowing the Atlanta Falcons to come back and win. The other part of that, though, for Jordan Love's performance is they did not have David Bakhtiari. They did not have Aaron Jones.

They did not have Christian Watson. I still think, and it's a road game at Atlanta, I still think that that team has been a little bit better than expected so far and that Jordan Love has maybe even been a little bit better than expected. And I think we can say that if things go right in a game, that Jordan Love is going to be able to win. We cannot say that for Justin Fields. I mean, I think that even if Chicago was gifted three or four more great players, they wouldn't have won today because of their quarterback, because he was so miserable.

But I've liked enough of what I've seen from Jordan Love to believe that when the Vikings play the Packers, it's not just a, oh, you're playing Jordan Love. You should probably win in the same way it feels like it is for Chicago. Now, as we talk about early on playoff races and you're looking around going, what teams might you have to battle for a wild card spot? Atlanta could be one of those teams. If Desmond Ritter plays the way that he played on Sunday, not because I thought it was great, but because I thought it was good enough that he ran for a couple couple first downs.

He made a couple of throws when they needed them. And Bijan Robinson was looking about as close to Adrian Peterson as anybody I've seen since Adrian Peterson. I mean, he just is looking fantastic on the ground, but also is making plays through the air as well. And he's been everything that got him drafted where he was picked at the top of the draft. Now you can argue all day long and debate whether that's a good draft pick or not. I tend to think because of the position that he played. And by the way, Zay Flowers and Jordan

Addison are both great. And those positions are more valuable, but a lot of teams ignored that because they were short or skinny. I don't get it, but okay. So there's that debate. However, Bijan Robinson is going to catch the ball and run the ball and be very good. So long-term, is it a great investment? I don't know. Saquon Barkley got hurt today. You know, Josh Jacobs hasn't looked very good so far coming off of skipping the entire training camp. It's not a great idea to spend a ton on that position, especially when they were already good there. But this man with the football in his hands can be a problem and can win them games.

They also have a really good receiver in Drake London. And I think an offensive line that is tremendous when it comes to run blocking. And I think that their defense is good enough to at least make Atlanta a playoff contender for this year. So that's someone that the Vikings are going to have to play on the road and someone that they might end up competing for a playoff spot if they aren't at the top of the division, which by the way, and we'll talk about it in a second is pretty up for grabs looking at the moment. So there's, there's a stat, a couple of stats that have been bouncing around that maybe I don't love

the most. And I'll tell you why later, as we get to a little bit more on the division, but the lions game, the lions lose in overtime to the Seahawks. Can they not play defense still? The Lions put a lot into that defense and everything comes with a qualifier that it's weak too. But how long will they give Aaron Glenn, their defensive coordinator, to continue to have bad defenses? And the Lions today got behind because of a Jared Goff interception, came back, tied the game. You could see everything that's there for their offense. And they can execute it. They've got at least better secondary receivers than it looks like on paper.

Kalief Raymond and Josh Reynolds made some plays. Amin Ross St. Brown is a star. And they're working in Gibbs. And so, okay, all right, they've got the weapons. They've got the offensive coordinator, but here they are again, just like last year, losing a 38-31 game where they can't come up with a big stop. And when we go over those games, Justin Fields,

the Packers losing and having some injury problems and Jordan Love not being able to get them over the top, and then the Lions, explosive, explosive offense, still very big questions on defense. It's hard for me to say that the Vikings are somehow out of this divisional race at sitting at 0-2 behind two teams that are 1-1, who also clearly have some flaws. I think the Lions are a more talented team overall, and yet they also had an injury on the offensive line. They could end up playing big, depending on how that goes going forward here.

So it was really a same old Lions. Tons of hope. They're at home. They were doing this ski mask thing, which I don't quite understand. Unless you're ice fishing, then I get it, but I don't understand the relevance of it. That was a whole thing. They were mad at Mike Tirico still for giving them an asterisk last week, all that stuff. The hype was there and the lions let them down. So you had a same old lions moment here early in the season. But here's the question on

the other side of this. Tyler Lockett was incredible today. Geno Smith was incredible today. Is Geno Smith actually going to continue this and be just really good for the Seattle Seahawks? This could be another wild card discussion because San Francisco, excellent again today, and they're probably the favorites to win that division. So Seattle looks like after a bad performance against LA to start the season, they have an offense that is going to make them dangerous. But as for the lions, they're going to have to prove it that that defense weekend and week out and

not just when Travis Kelsey is out can be competent enough to make the most out of their offense. Or we're talking about maybe nine and eight winning the division, which was kind of the joke going into the season. But with all the shortcomings and strengths of the three teams, not Chicago, you know, we could still see that we could still very much see that I came out of today thinking that the 49ers and Cowboys are one and two in the NFC. Philadelphia did beat the Vikings and they were up 27 to seven at one point, but they do not have the same strength on defense,

especially in the secondary as they did before last year. And they've got a lot of people injured. I know that's a major part of it. And their offense looked a little bit more wonky in the passing game than it looked last year, where it seemed like everything worked for the Philadelphia offense and their running game destroyed the Vikings, but their passing game was spotty outside of a couple of big plays. So in the NFC, if you're power ranking,

I think that either the 49ers or Cowboys have to go number one. I'd probably go 49ers with a little bit more impressive of wins and then the Cowboys, but the Cowboys, here's the other thing though, when you demolish bad teams, that's what you should do. If you're a great team. So you could say, oh, it was New York and it was the other New York. And these teams are bad, right? But they mold them from the start of the game. And Micah Parsons looked like Lawrence Taylor out there.

I mean, just that defensive line is so dangerous, and of course, you know what the 49ers can do. That Christian McCaffrey trade, which at the time seemed bananas and weird, and what are they doing? Why are they trading this much for a running back who's had all these injuries? Well, McCaffrey has just been incredible

and a perfect fit for them. Brock Purdy continues to roll. Those two teams, to me, are on another level from everybody else at this moment. And the Vikings do play the 49ers, by the way. We've talked about that Kansas City game, but then a couple weeks after that, San Francisco comes to town. Sam Howell, everybody. If you've watched the show for a while, you go back to that draft where nobody went until the third round except for Kenny Pickett. And the one that I was always confused by was Sam Howell,

because before the 2021 draft, going back to 2020, he had been talked about as a potential top draft pick. And then his stock just plummeted. I honestly am not sure why it went all the way down to the bottom, and he ends up being a fifth-round draft pick. But for Washington today, he was wonderful. 35 points. They come back against Denver. They win that game.

Russell Wilson was actually throwing around some deep balls today. But the Denver defense is supposed to be pretty good, and Sam Howell was able to avoid getting sacked as much as he did against Arizona, made some great plays and they end up getting a win in that game. So now Sam Howell is two and O and I don't know if he's actually going to be a good quarterback. I mean, they have really bought into him. I overall, his numbers were great today. 27 for 39, 299 yards. I mean, you cannot ask for anything more than that from Sam Howell. I mean, that's a great day against the defense with a reputation and they've got some playmakers. And so they've got off to a nice start. And this again

ties back into that wildcard race that I don't think anyone would have had any discussion about Washington and maybe they won't. And maybe this will fall off the face of the cliff and it will that wildcard race that I don't think anyone would have had any discussion about Washington. And maybe they won't. And maybe this will fall off the face of the cliff and it will be brutal. But you have my attention, Sam Howell, because of that performance. Joe Burrow's injury is a big problem. And the Vikings don't play against Cincinnati until much, much later in the season. But this was my Super Bowl pick, Cincinnati, to go to the Super Bowl.

And right now they're 0-2. It's not looking very good. But if they were 0-2 and they just had two tough losses, you could definitely shrug that off. All right, well, they played Cleveland and they played Baltimore. That's a hard start to the season. No big deal. They'll get it going.

But Joe Burrow said that he re-aggravated his his injury as calf injury that's not good that is not good for them at all that's a very good football team that with joe burrow at 100 is a super bowl contender but you can't really fall behind in the afc and they have now fallen behind in the afc and where that's going to stand later in the season. I don't know. Is he ever going to be healthy when you're dealing with an injury like this? That's so easy to re-aggravate. And we know this from even in the Vikings with Jalen Naylor, he sat out all of training camp and it was like, well, all of training camp.

But my understanding is that it was a calf issue and those are easy to re-aggravate as it seems that Joe Burrow had. So my Super Bowl pick, and I've never gotten it right, by the way, my entire life, my preseason Super Bowl pick, never right. Not a single time. So it was Cincinnati, and it's looking bad. Very bad for Cincinnati. Also, Baltimore, good thing you kept Lamar Jackson.

That was a good idea. Good job. Good choice. Keeping Lamar Jackson. Well done. The Chargers truly are. Good job. Good choice. Keeping Lamar Jackson. Well done. The Chargers truly are the Vikings West. It's remarkable. These two teams are going to play this week and they are just, if you're a social media person, you know, the Spider-Man meme, Spider-Man looks at Spider-Man, they point at each other and it's like the same thing.

They're the same thing. They're the same thing as the Chargers. Today, the Chargers were in position to win their game. And, okay, well, that's what they need. They got to start off here with a win against the Titans. They're ahead in the game, and they blow it to Tennessee. And Justin Herbert has just not looked different under Kellen Moore, which I was skeptical about going into the season. Does an offensive coordinator change anything fundamentally about Justin Herbert,

who has his moments and has a special skillset, but has not ascended anymore. And look, you could blame this or that, or the other thing that's always the case in the NFL. But with Justin Herbert, the question is always, is there another step? Is he going to make them a true contender and so forth?

And Tennessee has a good defensive front. We saw that in the joint practices. So give them credit for a very good game today. And Ryan Tannehill totally redeeming himself after a horrendous, horrendous start to the season for Tannehill. So he was much, much better today, but that's not a game that the chargers can really lose. So now it's Owen two versus Owen two. And this is where I want to go next with the discussion because I mean, other than there's nothing else to say other than like the chargers are constantly

the team, just like the Vikings where it's like, you know, that team, they look like they could be something this year. And then there's great moments and there's bad moments and the ups and downs and you lose games that you shouldn't. And, you know, all, you know, the whole roller coaster that is the Los Angeles Chargers, very Vikings like. But I want to talk about the 0-2 stats. Oh, boy, did everyone love the 0-2 stats. Everywhere. Adam Schefter starts the day by pointing out that since 2020, teams that started 0-2, there's only one that made the playoffs

after starting 0-2. Wow, that's incredible. And you heard it everywhere. Any team that was 0-1 leading up to the Patriots and Dolphins game, which was kind of a crazy game, but the Dolphins look like they're up there at the top of the AFC. They're talking about what the Patriots lose. Then only one out of the last 700,468 teams that's gone 0-2 has made the playoffs.

And credit to Justice Mosqueda, who covers the Packers, and he calls it 0-2. I love that. That's hilarious. I don't know that it matters quite as much as we're making out the stat. So if it's, think about this, it's one out of every 10 teams, essentially, that goes 0-2. But the Bears going 0-2 versus the Vikings going 0-2 versus the Chargers or the Bengals going 0-2, these are not the same movie, right? Like these are not the Spider-Man meme.

These are very different teams with a long season left to go. It certainly puts the Vikings in a hole to be 0-2, but if the Chargers play like the Chargers and then the Vikings go to Carolina and win, you're 2-2, and all those stats change, right? Now it's, well, 50% of 2-2 teams make the playoffs. I'm like, wait, which stat matters here? I don't even know.

Sometimes those factoid stats are kind of goofy because a lot of like Arizona's 0-2. Is Arizona like the Vikings? Probably not, right? I mean, it's quite different in terms of actual team strength. So I would say that more than half of the teams that start 0-2 are just legitimately bad. And you have to throw out that sample size of teams that were never going to make the playoffs anyway when we talk about the 0-2 stat. So everybody loves it. It's a great factoid. It doesn't mean a whole lot. The next two games mean a whole lot for the Vikings. The New York Jets, the poor New York Jets. I mean, if you are a Vikings fan and follower,

you might look at the Lions and just think it's hilarious because they've always been in your division. So, ha-ha, you're irrelevant. You always lose. You always disappoint. That's funny. But maybe you can look and have empathy for the New York Jets. This team has had it as bad.

I think if you're going to make a list of which teams have had it the worst in the last 20 years, they made two trips to the AFC Championship. They lost both of them with Mark Sanchez. And since then, it has been a nothing burger for the Jets. Now, again, I'm sure that there's not a whole lot of weeping for Aaron Rodgers in Vikings land. But when you watch Zach Wilson, you kind of want him to succeed, right? Like prove them wrong, man. Go make some plays against Dallas today.

Tough defense, very difficult task. And in the first half, he made a throw to Garrett Wilson. Okay, here we go. All right, maybe this will be a game. It wasn't. It wasn't the game. It was sad. It was actually sad to watch Zach Wilson play.

And Zach Wilson is one of those quarterbacks where when you go back and watch in college and you watch how he played, the confidence, the arm talent, some mobility, and then watch him in the NFL. It's a totally different universe. And if you're scared of drafting quarterbacks, I guess you could watch Tua and think, oh, that's what it looks like when it works. Or you can watch Zach Wilson and go, sometimes it just implodes in your face. And I know there will always be people who say, well, it's not the answer. And look at the jets.

I think the jets are one of sports is most insane outliers. And so are the bears. There's these two franchises out of 32 who just cannot draft a quarterback, no matter what happens. They are, I mean, if you believe in curses, and maybe I do, after seeing the Jets, they have to do something, right? The division is not completely decided.

The AFC playoffs are not completely decided. Dare I say that Carson Wentz could play way better than that? Carson Wentz is bad, but it's got to be better than that. Or, I mean, they can't tank. They can't run out every week with all the talent on that team and just give up. And we'll talk about the Kirk thing and ESPN discussed it and everything else and whatever. But I mean, Gardner Minshew look great. But if you're Indianapolis with Anthony Richardson's

injury, I think you want to keep Gardner Minshew as your backup. A lot of teams do. They name all these backups. Well, they could get this guy or that guy or that guy. Like, okay, but why would they give them to you when they like their backup? The guy at the top of the list, though, should be Case Keenum. They should be looking to Case Keenum. He's done it before.

And the last takeaway, and I feel sort of proud of myself. I kept this to close to one or two minutes per take. The tank wars are going to be insane, insane, insane. Like Arizona blowing was a 28- seven lead against the New York giants. These tank wars are going to be wild. Also the Houston, Texas. I mean, I get what they did. It was bold last year. It was exciting for them to trade up. Hey, who cares if you get Will Anderson this year, draft somebody next year, if it's not going to be a quarterback, then do it. They'll get criticized for that move. And okay, well, look, they were bold.

They thought they had somebody great. Maybe he's going to be great. But if you're the Arizona Cardinals, you have to just be so thrilled right now. So thrilled. Your team is playing competitively, but they are losing. And you are watching the Houston Texans who have put nothing around C.J. Stroud. Nothing at all. I think Stroud has been resilient through these two games.

There's nothing there. There's no receivers. There's no line. There's really no offensive line. It is a tough position. This is why a lot of quarterbacks fail, I am convinced. Is that when you draft them high, you're often putting them in such poor positions. But CJ Stroud is, you know, he's done enough to say, okay, you don't have to bench him or anything,

but that team's bad. That team could win three games. And so you could have Arizona get two of the top four draft picks. That's the way it looks. It kind of felt like that going into the season, but now that we've got a little sample size, that's the way it looks. It kind of felt like that going into the season, but now that we've got a little sample size, that's the way it looks. Marvin Harrison Jr., the quarterbacks, this draft class has got some incredible talent. And I think that Arizona clearly in the lead for the tank wars,

but you could also see some other teams emerge like the Chicago Bears potentially could be one of those emerging teams, you know, and hey, the Denver Broncos, it's going pretty bad. The Patriots going pretty bad. I think those teams will win a little bit more, but we are off to a very interesting tank wars start and the New York Giants, they won today, but they looked like a tank wars team and Saquon Barkley is out now as well. That's not looking great. All right, let's get into some fans only questions. I've got quite a few here that I want to run through a lot of great messages. Thanks so much to everyone who sent them.

I also want to remind you, just take a second that my book on the history and background of pro football focus and the analytics revolution in the NFL is coming out in just two weeks, October 3rd. Pre-sale is going on now. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see it next to me over here. That's my book, where I went behind the scenes of PFF for a year and a half reporting, almost two years reporting on what Chris Collinsworth does for PFF, how the grades were formed, how the grades are used within the NFL. And so there's a lot of interesting stuff and where the NFL has come a long, long way in terms of its analytics revolution. So I put a lot of work into it with love. If you took the time to order it and read it, Amazon,

wherever you get your books, you could go to your favorite local bookstore and just ask them to order it. And it. Amazon, wherever you get your books. You could go to your favorite local bookstore and just ask them to order it, and they will do that. So football is a numbers game. That's the book. And we're going to hear more about it on the show as well very soon.

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And while you're there, also check out the member reviews to find out what others are saying about the month-to-month Grillmasters Club plan. Again, grillmastersclub.com. Get 50% off your first box with the code PURPLE. All right, let's get to Vikings fans' questions about the loss to the Eagles and today. So we'll start with John. All the NFC North teams lose, so you are saying we have a chance. Yes, John, you do.

And that was kind of the rant about oh and two and how oh and two is not oh and two is not oh and two like the vikings oh and two is extremely different from the cardinals oh and two it's it just is like it's even different from the patriots oh and two i mean if we go through all the teams that are oh and two after this day i I mean, the Vikings probably, and we're not talking, see, sometimes when you hear that only 14%, or I forget what it is, 12%, you think it's zero. It's not zero.

That means one out of 10. And we look at the teams right now, the Patriots, Bengals, Texans, Chargers, Broncos, Vikings, Bears, and Cardinals. And it could be Carolina as well. Out of those teams, you would say statistically, one, maybe two, will make it to the playoffs. And with the way that the NFC North has started out here,

uninspiringly, then, I mean, yes, I mean, the Lions got a big win against Kansas City. That's a problem for the Vikings. So you've got the division race, you've got the wildcard race, and you've got a Viking schedule that allows for them. And this is why this week is huge because oh, and three, I'll have a lot more trouble making this point, but one and two going to Carolina does not feel like the season is over. It doesn't feel like anything is decided at all if they can win this week. So, yes, very much you have a chance. From Seth.

I don't know why I said it that way. From Seth. Do we have a personnel issue or have we just been sloppy? I'm sure it's a combination, but I can't help feel like we should be 2-0. I think making the argument that you should be 2-0 is maybe a little much, but 1-1 for sure. You should definitely be 1-1. The Tampa Bay Bucs game was given away more by turnovers, in my opinion,

than the Eagles game because the Eagles and what they were able to do on offense against the Vikings, totally controlling the line of scrimmage and having these long drives where they just ran the ball and ran the ball and ran the ball. And look, some fumbles are random, but if you had no turnovers at all, okay. But did any of us project no turnovers against that defensive line with how dominant they were and the biggest turnover of the game happened late so i don't think you can just sort of give yourself a w against the eagles who knows how it plays out maybe it's different maybe it is a right

down to the end type of game maybe it's back and forth maybe they throw the ball like who knows what happens if you don't fumble as much as you do. I can't say that I would just give a W though and say, Oh, well, should have had that one. They were the better team. They were the better team on offense, passing the ball, went down 27 to seven. That is true. But through the early part of the game, I think it was a little more 50, 50. And then as the Eagles wore the Vikings down they were the better team on offense just grinding out those long drives so I don't know if I want to say should be 2-0 but I would say should be 1-1 they should not I'll give you that they should not have two losses here and that Bucks game is the one that should really haunt their dreams because I don't think anyone expected

them to go to Philadelphia and win as tough as it is there, as good as that team is coming off of going to the Super Bowl. But the Bucs won for sure. That's not your question. Is it a personnel issue or just sloppy? And the answer is exactly what you said. It's yes. I mean, the sloppiness level is unlike anything that I've seen, except for when I'm watching old NFL films. And they're saying the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fumbled four times in the first quarter of the 1981 season. It's like usually you don't see that in the NFL in the year 2023. So it's been bizarre and it's been very unlucky because they haven't recovered them. Sometimes you'll fumble four times in a game and you'll recover all of them

and we'll forget they ever happened. But the Vikings have lost every fumble. That is super bad luck. Still though, if you look across the roster, how everyone's performed, you cannot say, oh, it's gone great. Everyone's been phenomenal. They just fumbled.

No, I mean, that's clearly not the case. The offensive line has not been good. The defensive line has not been phenomenal. They just fumbled. No, I mean, that's clearly not the case. The offensive line has not been good. The defensive line has not been good. And the secondary has been a little spotty, but they gave up some huge plays the other night, especially the Caleb Evans touchdown that went against him to Devante Smith. So I think that, yes, there's personnel issues that are probably not getting better. And we'll talk about that a little bit, but there's personnel issues across the roster, but that doesn't mean that there's not enough talent apologies for the double negative, but it doesn't

mean there's not enough talent to make the playoffs and to still be a competitive team and go into the playoffs thinking we'll see what happens or win the division. I don't think that because you have Justin Jefferson and the way Jordan Addison has played and the way TJ Hawkinson played against Philadelphia, the way Kirk Cousins has looked so far comfortable in this offense at times, really comfortable at times, making some great throws, doesn't look like he's regressing. I mean, he did get hit a lot again. So we'll see how that plays out through the season. But the point just being that they have the personnel to still be very much in this. And it has been an absurd amount of sloppiness

and a lot of bad luck that has led to Owen too. Now that doesn't mean you can raise a banner. We were just sloppy for the first two. But if you're trying to project the next couple weeks, you should expect this team to get to two and three after five weeks, three and three after six weeks. Really, that should be the target because it's Chicago after Kansas City. If you get to three and three after six weeks, it's on. You've got a chance to make the playoffs. You're still in position to have a good season,

and then we'll see where it goes from there. They have the personnel to be that that's. So that's what I would say. There are issues, but that doesn't mean so. So it doesn't mean we could just say, oh, it was the fumbles. But I also don't think that they're as bad as they've been for these two weeks, because normally you won't fumble and lose all of them in two straight games like this from a hobby. Do you think the Vikings call Kareem hunt Dalton Reisner and maybe any other offensive lineman out there?

Cause this team can win. So he's buying that this team can get it together. The Reisner thing. I mean, the guy's tweeting like, Hey, come get me. Maybe tomorrow we'll get an announcement that they've signed Dalton Reisner thing. I mean, the guy's tweeting like, Hey, come get me. Maybe tomorrow we'll get an announcement that they've signed Dalton Reisner. I don't know. Uh, they have a little

bit of cap space. It's not a lot, but it's enough after restructuring Brian O'Neill's deal to bring in Dalton Reisner. They met with him. We've talked about him for weeks. He still doesn't have a job. I don't know. I think probably you've seen enough from, you can probably say the right or left guard position. I personally would lean a little more toward the right guard position. And I could look up kind of where that ranks so far in the NFL,

but it's probably easier after this week when we get all, when PFF gets all the games in and everything else. But I can guarantee you it's not good where they rank at the right guard position. And there's really been a massive struggle in the run game with the offensive linemen. Reisner is an average run blocker and above-average pass blocker. If they have above-average pass blocking and don't give up strip sacks every week,

this passing attack can be one of the best in the entire NFL. We've seen that at times through these first two weeks. That's very, very possible. So do I think they do it? I don't know. They should. And if there's any time to kind of push a little bit of a button here, it's now.

Get him in early so he's ready to play within the next couple of weeks. I don't know about Kareem hunt, but I also think that Alexander Madison so far has been disappointing. It's not just the blocking. When you look at rushing yards over expected, he is expected to average. And this is based on the dots and where the blockers are and things like that.

So it's not perfect. This, that it's not, but he's not grading well by PFF either. So you try to combine like multiple things. If you're looking for like, what, what should I be thinking about this? Should I be thinking, well, they just need to block better. Should I be thinking he hasn't run well enough? Like, what should I be thinking about this situation? And I tend to think that it's both that they haven't blocked well, but he hasn't run well.

And the rushing yards over expected suggests that he should be averaging about 4.1 yards per carry, and he's averaging, I think, three yards a carry, or something like that. It's 1.1 yards over expected that he's lost. So I think it actually might be 1.1 yards per carry. He's lost over expected than 3.3 overall. So he should be averaging much more close to an NFL average running game and isn't. And they, they put that stat on the running back. So I think the

accumulation of our information would tell us that it's everything. Does that mean Kareem hunt is going to be better? I don't know because Kareem Hunt wasn't good in this stat last year either. And when we talk about wash running backs, uh, Delvin cook fans cover your eyes because it did not look very good at all in these first two weeks for the New York jets. Kareem Hunt has the same kind of situation where he's on the older side and is coming off a pretty poor year. So I don't know if he's the guy to go to. I don't know if they need to play Ty Chandler more.

I'm not sure there's any answer whatsoever, but they need to figure it out. What works best for Alexander Madison in the running scheme that's going to help him out because it has not been good. But to your question, do I think that they do? I think that they should. Like you said, I mean, yes, this team can win. It can make the playoffs. And as long as you're not harming yourself in the future,

then I don't see any problem with it. And look, you want to give as many opportunities as possible. But it's kind of like with Justin Fields when we're talking about the right guard position. All right, you're supposed to take this next step. Is there any sign that that happened? No, not so far. I don't see any sign that happened.

He didn't strip sack Kirk, though. So maybe a little progress in week two. All right, from Manitoba's fake. There's an AHL team called the Manitoba Moose once upon a time. Maybe they were fake. I don't know. Should the Vikings, this is a Twitter name, by the way, Manitoba is fake. That's the Twitter name. Should Vikings fans be more excited about our young players improving than we are distraught over our record and the turnovers? The answer is yes and no. I mean, yes. The players who matter for the future cam

bynum you mentioned him he's been quite good through these first couple of games he's looked more confident more aggressive and then he's looked last year maybe a better fit for brian floris i think cam bynum has had a really good start to the season uh and jordan addison is a massive piece to the future he's been terrific so. So when we talk about those, the drafting and all that, like, well, uh, Ivan pace, even despite all the running and everything else graded very well by PFF, he had some successful blitzes, uh, where he pressured Jalen hurts. He made a lot of good tackles. So he's been off to a great start, probably better than I even expected.

Uh, Caleb Evans willans will see uh you know you didn't like to see him go down i guess he had just cramps though the other day so not a big deal i think he's played pretty well through the first two games but he gives up the big touchdown okay but you know he's been all right it happens so you've got a starter there it looks like a starter yes i think if you're focusing on what matters for the future and what's going to need to be filled, and do you look like you have some foundational players and how those young players play? However, I can't call this a total silver lining and just say, yeah, well, 0-2, whatever. I mean, you're not tanking. You're aiming to make the playoffs.

This was the deal. When you say competitive rebuild, that both sides of that matter. And so one side I think is going well. The rebuild side,, hasn't really played yet. Four snaps. DJ Wanham and Patrick Jones, these are not starters in the league. That's becoming more clear. We'll see on, you know, Makai Blackman hasn't played a ton. We'll see. We'll see what Josh Metellus kind of means to them. They clearly like him. He's been, I think, okay in these first couple of games and so they've got some pieces but when you look along the defensive line who's the future pieces there so i think there's also some revealing of holes of you're going to have a lot to replace is ezra cleveland going to be a long-term guard it doesn't look like it at this moment um you know garrett bradbury's been banged up with that back issue which is really concerning and you would have thought of him as a future piece. So I think it's been like the really young players from that draft. And then can't buy them have done pretty well from, or I mean this year's draft,

but there's also the element of Theo Jackson comes onto the field as opposed to Lewis scene. So I can't give them like an a plus for rebuilding so far. You'd probably give them like a B. You find Ivan Pace. That's great. Jordan Addison. That's huge.

But there's also some things that haven't gone well. And it matters. It matters to me that they make the playoffs. I know that there are some of you guys and I don't blame you. And I'm not saying like that it's not a smart take and it's not a good idea because it is when you're like, well, you know, if we went six and 11, not a good idea because it is when you're like well you know if we went 6 and 11 what a shame that would be i get it but i also think we have to judge it against their plan so if their plan is to fight for the playoffs make the playoffs

have a successful season and then address the quarterback position through the draft if that is the plan then you all you should be held to that standard. Could it be better long-term if you lost a bunch of games? Yes, that's true. Although there's about six quarterbacks who I think are going to be in the first round this year. So we'll, we'll see on that. But I also think that we can't just be like, ah, you know, oh, and two couple of bad losses

fumble the ball away. Who cares? know oh and two couple of bad losses fumble the ball away who cares uh i'm not taking that tact especially when we're talking about an nfc north is still very much wide open folks i am absolutely pumped about my prize picks this week because i crushed it if you have not heard of it prize picks is the easiest and best way to play daily fantasy, except instead of betting against thousands of other players or people who spend their entire life doing fantasy, all you need to do is pick more or less

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That's prizepicks.com slash purple. Use the code purple. Daily fantasy sports made easy. Ryan says, why do the Lions go for every fourth down but won't try a two-point conversion with their amazing offensive line? The Eagles could probably just tush push every single time. The two-point conversion thing is more sketchy analytically than the punting. The punting is very straightforward. I mean, the math on it, I think it is. There's some murky situations.

Say you're at like the 50 and it's fourth and five and you're, you know, up by three. Like there's probably some math that says you should go for it, but I don't know. You know, you know what I'm saying? Like it's a little bit, a lot of times when you see those charts, it'll be, well, there's three, 3% better to go for it than not. And whoever's posting the chart will say, see, they should have obviously gone for it.

It's a 3% difference. Like, okay, well that's, I don't know about that. Right. I like, there's a lot to be taken into account with that. And I think that the two-point conversion math is even a little more difficult because when you miss one, if you miss another one, and I know this sounds really a simple way of thinking about it, a basic way of thinking about it, but you can put yourself quite a bit behind if you have a run of bad luck. So what you're buying by not going for two is you're buying the security of getting one point. Now, if you had a really good, good luck, a really good run, then I mean, you could rack up points and run away from teams, right? I mean, you could be up 16 to seven pretty fast. And then it feels like, oh no, I need another score and whatever.

Or you're forcing the other team. If you convert one to try to convert one themselves they might miss there's a big advantage to making them it's just that when you talk about something that's like a 55 proposition that's a lot of failing as well and you could blow games by failing two point conversions. I think that that's probably the reason is that the math is not so definitive. Like if you are just, for example, like down by three points at the 40 yard line in the fourth quarter and it's fourth and five and you punt it away, you're a lunatic and there's nothing that would back that up with the two

point conversions. It's much more on the edge that I think you could just barely make a case for it, but you know, it's over a long period of time. It's over a full season. You kind of have to play each individual little game and each individual little situation. And over, over a season, it might provide you with more points, but you know, some of those won't matter as much as others, right? provide you with more points, but you know, some of those won't matter as much as others, right? So not all those points are the same. If point differential got tuned to the playoffs, then I would a hundred percent make this argument, but I can get why

coaches don't buy into that. Uh, Evan says, is it time for the Vikings to bring in Linval, Joseph or Akeem Hicks? Uh, with that being said said what's more important oh to add yeah to add to to Harrison Phillips um and what's more important is it that or an offensive lineman so here's the thing and and I would support anybody they're going to bring it like look like I said you're trying to make the playoffs you're a good team i think still talent wise especially you know on offense and you should still have the playoffs as your standard despite the tough start okay all right but once we get this far into the season it's hard to make a case that there's anybody who's hanging out,

who all 32 teams have picked over and decided not to pick up, that is going to change who you are. Reisner might be that guy, because you have one of the worst right guard situations in the league. So maybe if he comes in, plays even okay, then that's way better, like we saw from someone like Josh Klein in 2019. All right. Well that, okay. You can make that case to me, but he's still got to learn the whole offense and he's still got a long, steep curve. How many games would it take? I think maybe he could get

in there fairly quickly. I don't know. Linval, Joseph, Akeem Hicks. Like are these guys, how many snaps can they play? Are they ready to play? What's left there? I mean, was Hicks good last year for the bucks? I don't know. I,

I didn't pay close attention. Linval has been around quite a long time. Can he still be an impact player above what you get from like Jonathan Bullard? I mean, I don't know. Age comes for these guys pretty fast. So I tend to think that with almost anyone, and Billy Price has just not had a good career. So anybody who you're picking up now, are they really changing who you are and where you're going? That's a question they have to ask themselves. And that's just to say that I would support it. But is Linval an impact player? Can he stay healthy? Can somebody stay healthy when they're at his age, his mileage, and they haven't been playing?

That, I think, is going to be pretty tough. So is it time? Sure. Do I have confidence that it changes your fate for the season? Not really. From Run Bayou, if we spend future capital and try to salvage this season we should not no hawkinson style trades this year we already have enough dead cap and we need picks for a future quarterback i'm just going to agree with that yes i agree that's why someone like dalton

reisner is a pretty easy one to make a case for like, Oh, well, he's a free agent. You just sign him. But if there's any desperate trades, which I don't foresee, by the way, from Kweisi Adafo-Mensa, I mean, he would have made them by now. I think in the off season, he had to have looked at this roster and known that the issues were going to be the issues and especially like defensive line and not being able to create pressure outside of the Neil Hunter. And I know that they probably thought Davenport was going to be a big part of that. Clearly from Kevin O'Connell's comments, he definitely thought he was going to be a big part of that and hasn't been so far long way to go,

but they didn't go out and get further depth for the defensive line. They've let a lot of positions kind of sink or swim. They didn't fill up the running back room at all. They didn't replace an offensive lineman. Like some of this stuff is by design, probably to see who can play and give guys who could be part of the future, a chance to play. But I a hundred percent agree with you giving up any sort of draft capital

outside of a fifth round pick anything before that, that you could use to make a difference in a trade up uh you do not want to do this year so unless someone's going to trade you my homes then uh then yeah go ahead go ahead and do that but most exceptions um outside of absurd exceptions i totally agree this one comes from. Do you see this year as another hangover year from a previously good season? I'm getting 2010 vibes. It is truly remarkable. And I don't know how this happens, how teams that had everything go right, then have everything go wrong. I mean, I, I don't know. I have no idea why this is. It's the forces of

nature. I think what it is, what made it made sense to me, and you've probably heard me say this before if you've been paying attention to the show for a long time, is just that when something is 50%, it doesn't happen every other time. So it's not like it just has this equal distribution, right? So you can have 10 heads in a row and 10 tails in a row, and then it's 50%. So you can have a 7-1 start where in every one of those games that you win, except for the Packers game, something insane has to happen in order for you to win it. And you have this run of luck through the start of the season. And then you can regress back to that. And now we are looking at, if I'm thinking correctly and doing the math right, I believe it's what the last 11 games for the Vikings, including the playoffs, they are five and six. So that luck kind of came back to earth. And I think it's just the random events that are truly 50,

50 in the long run. There's a reason why they don't all happen. Just like this game, you get lucky and win a one score game, this game, you get unlucky and then back and forth and back and forth for every one score game. And turnover luck is the same way.

Fumble luck is the same way. So I, yeah, I think that's part of it also. I mean, some bad bets were made in previous seasons following great years. But yeah, I mean, it could hang over is kind of a weird way to put it. Cause I don't think that anything that happened last year is impacting this start to the season other than just the whole off season, the outside world talked about, well, yeah, that team's not going to get as lucky as last year. And right away, they were right.

But, you know, it changes within a season. So you can have this go wrong for you now, and then later on in the year, things go right for you. It's impossible to say where it's going to be. But I haven't seen, like, think about even the fumbles that have happened. Okay. We got two strip sacks. Those to me are not random. Those are a feature. Those happen all the time through Kirk Cousins career. I'm not calling those random. I would just call those like sort of typical. That's something that happens to your team because of that, that guy. And because of your offensive line, you're blocking everything else. But the punt returner who's never fumbled before.

And the fumble out of bounds. That's just crazy luck. I saw today. From Jonathan Jones of CBS. That it's only happened eight times in the last five years. There's your factoid. There's your Minnesota sports factoid. It always happens.

So it's been a little bit of. There's a random distribution of crazy stuff. That happens to every NFL team. We don't watch every game. So we's been a little bit of, there's a random distribution of crazy stuff that happens to every NFL team. We don't watch every game, so we don't see it happening. But think about even the Patriots. If you saw the end of that game, they're fat guys, like two inches away from getting a first down on a lateral and it doesn't work out for them. Like maybe just a random event. I don't know. Like a guy gets an interception. He toe taps perfectly. He's this far away from being out of bounds. Maybe you score instead. Like there guy gets an interception, he toe taps perfectly. He's this far away from being out of bounds. Maybe you score instead. Like there's just so many of those events that

happen in football that it's sort of part of the analysis of the game of, is this your team coming back to earth? Luck-wise, I think that if we pull out a little bit, just and look at the Kevin O'Connell era, we can see the start of it just went really well. Schedule wise, it went really well. And then the second half so far in these last 11 games, a lot of that luck has has come back and they have been who they've always been with cousins, a quarterback, which is around a 500 team. So we'll see where it goes. I mean, you can have a second half of the year where a lot of things go, right. I don't know. Their schedule gets easier. It's these things are impossible to predict, but I don't think it's like, Oh, well last year it was

so great. And there was those, so, so many highs and they came in off, off from the very start or something and started fumbling. I think the fumbles have just been just weird and just random. This comes from Ryan. The team hasn't taken a defensive lineman slash pass rusher in the first three rounds since Daniil Hunter. Patrick Jones was a third rounder, but that's close. I mean, he was like at the very end, I think very end of the third round. They've tried to address the most important position in the sport

by a free agency where the best players never land. Yeah, I mean, the defensive line as a whole is incredibly important. That's absolutely true. And you're right that the best defensive linemen very rarely become free agents. And I wholeheartedly agree that if you want beasts, if you want pass rushers, you want stars, most of the time you have to draft them pretty high because often what's required to be a great player at those positions, interior rusher, edge rusher, this is outside of a Grady Jarrett or Max Crosby, like those outliers happen. But for the most part, when you look at the all pros, it's a lot of miles Garrett's it's a lot of Micah Parsons. It's a lot of Aaron Donald, the first round draft picks who become these superstars because they're freakish beyond what

offensive linemen can stop. And I think that they put their emphasis on drafting in the secondary rather than drafting in the defensive line. And if you had to do it again, you'd probably switch those around and take all the cornerback picks, the Mike Hughes, the Jeff Gladney, the Lewis scene, and you'd flip it around and draft defensive linemen and look for, for pressure. And because right now what they have is just old, old players, Dean Lowry, Harrison Phillips, Jonathan Bullard. Kyrus Tonga's barely playing, but he's a limited ceiling. You're completely right that even if you try to go out and spend on those guys,

it's very hard to get someone who's great. And if you get a guy who gets 10 sacks a year on a rookie contract, it's not quite having a quarterback on a rookie contract. It's not quite having a quarterback on a rookie contract, but dang, it's valuable. And right now they're paying a huge cap hit to Daniel Hunter and have been for years, which is, you know, he's worth it, but they don't have that super cheap star player on the D line. And they really don't have anyone on the interior that can rush for years. I don't get it. I don't get it. Those't have anyone on the interior that can rush for years. I don't get it. I don't get it. Those who have listened to the show for a long time used to hear Courtney Cronin years ago when we'd be doing draft analysis,

talk about the Christian Barmore's of the world and the young players. Now they did draft Justin Jefferson and Christian Derrissaw and Jordan Addison along the way. Those are pretty darn good picks, but multiple second round guards, a safety corners. I don't think are bad picks, but should you get free agent corners? Should you trade for corners guys who are proven rather than rolling the dice there? I don't know, but I certainly know if you draft in the fourth round and beyond and hope for the next Daniil, very unlikely it's going to happen. John says, I was personally rather high on Ryan Poles as a potential GM candidate. Do you think the Vikings may have gotten a blessing in disguise by landing Quasey rather than Poles? I don't know yet. I don't know yet. There's really no other answer i mean because chicago put their eggs

in the field's basket and at this moment it looks very very bad but it might look very very different if they get drake may and then spend they still have a ton of cap space. And then spend it, you know, when we talk about rebuilds, look at the Lions. So the Lions have finally reached a point where it looks like they should be competitive. And I still have questions. But they finally got to that point. Now, they traded for a quarterback who had been to a Super Bowl before. So that's a big boost for them from the start. And they drafted well and hit on some players,

even some they weren't supposed to hit on. And still there's holes in that roster. Like they're not of the level of a San Francisco or Dallas, San Francisco and Dallas took years to put it together, hitting on some huge draft picks like Micah Parsons, Trayvon Diggs. And they had mediocre seasons and they had time before that to build it up. And San Francisco had a couple of really horrible years where they got Nick Bosa, right? Out of that.

And so, and they got Trent Williams, game changer, Christian McCaffrey, game changer. They drafted a couple of great wide receivers. It's a long process to build a great roster. So from last year, when polls takes over and strips it down, they're only in year two of that. It is a process. If you tank, if the Vikings had tanked last year and they had gone four and 13 instead of 13 and four, well, they may have drafted Anthony Richardson. So who knows where we'd be talking about right now, but they still would add a long process to building up the roster from there.

The chase Claypool trade looks really bad on Ryan polls. Some of his draft picks look pretty good, but there's just a lot of work to still be done. He needs more time. I think to know. And with Casey Adafo Mensah, we don't know that either. Uh, the Jordan Addison pick very smart signing Hawkinson. Good job. Haven't signed Jefferson yet. Question marks there. Offensive line, still problematic. Defense, still problematic. Like, you know, who's going to be here for the future?

And really, when it comes to both these teams, what happens at quarterback is probably going to determine who wins Poles versus Kweisi Adaflamenta. I think that you could make, if you're there in Chicago, you could make an argument of, Hey, the trade for DJ Moore, if you weren't going to draft a quarterback is a really good one. They've drafted some good players. They've brought in some guys

from the outside that are pretty good. They've gotten their cap, right? And then there's things they've done that are bad. And for Kweisi Adafom same thing so so far i think i'm i'm not even ready to begin to analyze which guy has done a better job not yet we're gonna need a while uh from hunter do you think uh it's a better idea for the vikings to bring in another swing tackle with only uddo out for the season that's really unfortunate. For O-line depth and keep the rest the same or ask Cleveland to play left tackle. Definitely don't do that. He hasn't played left tackle since Boise State.

Definitely don't do that. If Derrissaw is out, bad idea. I think that would go very badly. Of course, signing Dalton Reisner is potential. The thing is, Blake Brandel's just going to have to be your swing guy. That's just how it's going to have to be. He played left tackle a little bit last year. I thought he was good in Buffalo and had a tough time in Dallas or against Dallas last year when he was the swing tackle. So, you know, that's how it goes. But I think it's just going to have to be

Blake Brandel because he's played tackle before in the NFL and Cleveland hasn't at all. And the Reisner thing, if they sign them, you know, that's a good idea because they need an improvement there. But I don't know what swing tackle is available that can help you. Right. I mean, that's kind of the thing is when you get to this point, you're already a few weeks into the season. There's only so much you can do. And that's so much is probably small. And even with Dalton Reisner, still, there are teams around the league that are running out bad offensive lines and the Patriots looked like one of them and they haven't brought him in. So there's, there's something that is holding everyone back from doing that.

A couple more questions. Aaron says in the KOC quasi era, Vikings remind me a lot of the early mid 2010 Stafford, Kelvin Johnson, lions teams, elite wide receivers with top 10 ish quarterback and playing from behind a lot. Yeah. There's a couple of teams you could compare them to.

The Raiders with Derek Carr, he's had some great seasons. How about the year that Justin Herbert put up all those numbers? I mean, he threw for like 5,000 yards, but they missed the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, it kind of feels that way. I mean, the numbers are kooky because the other night, I mean, I looked at Kirk cousins passes, he's thrown like 60 passes from behind and like 20 when either tied or ahead so far this year, it's just been mostly playing for behind these two years or the, these two games. And last last year even it you'd be shocked to know that Kirk Cousins had way more passes when he was playing from behind last year maybe it wouldn't shock you

but I was surprised I was like wow they won 13 games and yet he had way more pass attempts when playing from behind and the defense has been really troublesome again already. And if teams can run like they did against Philadelphia, and I know not every team has that offensive line, but I'm not even sure it would take that level of offensive line to have some success on the ground. If a team is willing to stick with it, which they were, and we're going to see the chargers who probably will be as well. If Austin Eckler is at 100%. He missed today.

So, yeah, I mean, you're right about that, though. You've got an all-world receiver. You've got a good enough quarterback that when he's playing from behind, he can really deal. And sometimes he's going to come back and win. And sometimes he's not. And sometimes you won't get even back on the field. And that ends up with a lot of 500-h type of play. And that's part of

the whole timeline thing. How do you escape all that? How do you get to a complete roster and not just, Hey, you have a great receiver and a pretty good quarterback. How do you get to a full roster? I think we've talked about that answer a couple of times here on the show. And I think that's what the Vikings answer is, which is to draft a quarterback next year, create the cap space and profit. That's their hope. It's never a guarantee as we see around the week from Brandon Vikings, lose the LA Zach Wilson is Zach Wilson against the Cowboys.

Sure was jets trade their first rounder for Kirk Vikings, pick up Carson Wentz and go into the draft with two firsts and start over a quarterback. You know, I am surprised it took this far to get to Kirk to the Jets, especially since ESPN was touting it the other day. If the Vikings were to start 0-5, maybe 1 four but especially oh and five one and five if they were to lose to chicago that could be the straw that breaks the camel's back but where are the jets at that point the jets don't have an easy schedule if they're that if they're one in five then would

they make that trade would the vikings do it after this week I don't know going to Carolina playing Kansas I mean maybe but I don't know I just feel like this idea is very pie in the sky and that we saw this scenario before in 2020 where the Vikings were not going to trade Kirk Cousins they weren't going to tank they were just going to try to make the playoffs and be an outlier and they'll talk about how Detroit last year was one in six and had a chance to met and, you know, and all that stuff. That's kind of how I see it. I just have a very tough time thinking that this situation comes about that the Vikings are in so tough. They're, they're so far behind that they're saying, yeah, let's trade away Kirkins. I just can't quite get there.

I also don't know that the Jets, I mean, I think there is a scenario where they can give a first if they get like approval from the Packers or whatever, because Rogers is not going to hit the number of snaps that he would have needed for it to be a first, whatever it's going to be. But I just, even if they had their their first are they going to give it up for kirk cousins to try to come in midway through the year and save the season i just can't see it i just can't see it um it's it's an interesting idea and if it happened it would be wild it would be absolutely wild the vikings also have to have someone to play quarterback and i mean i don't know if nick m Mullins is the guy you want to go the whole rest of the year. That might be a lot to ask. He

has done it before though, for San Francisco. I wouldn't completely throw this out the door, but the jets might be so far behind already by the time this thing could actually happen. And then there's cap considerations. I guess the Vikings would have to take the whole thing. It feels like there's nothing to this right now. If it goes bad against LA and if they, even if they beat Carolina, if they lose to Kansas city, you know, maybe,

I mean, maybe there, maybe there could be something to, I just, I don't know. It would be nuts. And, and it's justifiable.

I mean, if the Vikings start off that badly, it's justifiable for sure. I mean, if you picked up Carson Wentz, because that's, you know, what you're adding in there is pick up Carson Wentz. I don't even know if he could come in and play because you don't even know the offense or anything like that. So that would be crazy. I don't know. It'd be a wild year if that, if that ended up happening. All right. Last question from Bill, should we be viewing this

as a competitive tank and not a competitive rebuild? I like Kwesi's moves so far. They seem logical, but I think he's trying to rebrand a turd as a taco. Someone asked once if I wrote the questions. That's how you know that I didn't write the questions. Yeah, so that is an interesting thought. Long ago, I branded it, I think it was 2020, the natural tank, where you try not to,

and yet you just end up doing it. You just end up being bad. You're trying to win, but you're just not. And whether that's things going wrong or your roster's not good or whatever it might be, it's not hard in the NFL to mess around and go 6-11. And we've seen this happen many times from teams that were expected to be good, and they just weren't.

I mean, Denver last year, they thought they were going to be great. They were bad. It happens. It's already happening with some teams right now that thought they were going to be good. And sometimes you sort of push it to the edge so much with trying to be good that it ends up falling apart. And with this, trying to thread the needle of bringing in a Marcus Davenport and saying,

well, if Marcus Davenport doesn't get eight sacks, we're in huge trouble. And so far he hasn't played. Or if one of the receivers gets hurt, it's huge trouble. Or if the running game doesn't turn around, it's huge trouble. That can be natural tank land. And I think what they were willing to do is take that risk. That there could be a scenario where it all goes wrong and you end up with a fairly high draft pick. But I don't

think that the intent was for the worst case scenario to happen there, or at least when loss wise worst case scenario, I think the intent was to give Kevin O'Connell and Brian Flores enough to work with to make the playoffs. That there was no way, there wasn't enough cap space or draft capital in the world to make them the Dallas Cowboys. But there was enough to make the playoffs with the offense they have, the passing game they have. And if it doesn't come to fruition, I also think that there wouldn't be a huge broken heart in the front office. Because they know the deal. Kirk Cousins doesn't have a contract for next year. They know what Shador Sanders just did.

They know what Drake May looks like against the Gophers. Not a great Gophers game. But they know what Drake May looks like. They know what Quinn Ewers looks like. They know what, you know, there's, I don't know, there's even more of them who could be first-round draft picks. They're aware of this. So if the forces of nature took this team to a 6-11 season,

I think, you know, long-term, it would not be the worst thing. It's going to feel pretty bad long term it would not be the worst thing. It's going to feel pretty bad, but it would not be the worst thing. No one wants to watch that, and there's a long season to go. So you can talk yourself into it until week after week you have to watch them lose. Then it's much harder, and it's much harder for everyone in the front office. But I truly think that they went through this offseason with the goal of getting their cap right for the future, getting a lot of young players opportunities, will beat the Chargers and beat the Panthers. And then we're talking about a week to week league for the Vikings after that. And it not all, uh, you know, being completely over, but your scenario, I just think that it's, yeah, it wasn't, I don't think it was a competitive tank on purpose so much as it was. They knew there was a scenario

where that happened and they were willing to go down that road because that road ultimately leads to a higher draft pick a quarterback. So great questions. Great stuff. Really appreciate you guys. What a fun day of football. This is good. You know, we're going to have tomorrow, Monday, more football and more football talk as well with myself, Manny Hill live on the YouTube, uh, buy my book. Okay. I'm going to be saying that a lot the next couple of weeks. I hope you guys get used to it. Anyway, thanks so much for all of your time and we will talk to you all very soon.