Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Justin Jefferson and the next boss

Episode Date: July 28, 2022

Matthew Coller breaks down the most notable clips from Wednesday's press conferences and then takes fan questions, some focusing on Justin Jefferson's future and the different scenarios that could play out going forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and thank you to everybody who reached out and said, yes, keep pulling clips from the press conferences and talking about them. And one really good piece of feedback that I think I'm going to implement is using fewer clips, but talking about them more. And I think that's a good idea, because uh, if I use 10 or 12 clips from the press conferences out at training camp, uh, it'll just be like me talk a little and then clip me, talk, clip me to, and just back and forth. And that can get a little monotonous. So instead we'll take sort of the best of the best clips from the day from the press conferences and then go through them. Uh, so let's start right out with Justin Jefferson. He came

to the podium and what I noticed about Justin Jefferson was I think he was going out of his way to be cautious with his words and not say something at the podium that was going to make all the headlines of pro football talk and steal all the headlines at the Star Tribune and everything else. I think he was trying to make sure that he wasn't talking too much about his future or about expectations for numbers and things like that. He did have a few interviews throughout the offseason where you could tell his enthusiasm for this year and you could tell that he understands there is a contract on the way for him and that this offense could really benefit him numbers-wise and everything else

and even take it to another level. But he was not going to come out to start training camp and say, yeah, guys, I'm going to go for 2,000 this year. Everybody watch out. I think that Jefferson is a more savvy guy than that and maybe isn't of the ilk of someone like Tyreek Hill, who has just said one ridiculous thing after another about Tua and playing for the Miami Dolphins. So Jefferson doesn't want to be that guy. But I did find it interesting when he talked about what his goals were and his goal is to be considered the best wide receiver in the league.

And, you know, I didn't want to interrupt the press conference to say, uh, Justin, yeah, I think people think you're way up there, my friend, but, uh, sending his goal to be considered by the end of this year, the undisputed best wide receiver in the league is kind of a great way to put it right. Like to not say, Oh, I want to be the highest best wide receiver in the league is kind of a great way to put it right like to not say oh I want to be the highest paid wide receiver or something like that but I just want people to think that I am the best wide receiver in the entire NFL and what I've noticed from Jefferson he talked about it later in this press conference as well that he always is looking for improvement. And that's not always the case with NFL players that he was talking about how he's not considered the best receiver

in the league. He's not the best player of all time. So there's always areas where he can get better. And I think what we saw last year was he needed to improve some details of his game to put up the same numbers. And he did that. And to have that sort of growth mindset as a young superstar player, it shows, I think, just a bit of maturity on his part and his obsession with the game and his obsession with being great seems to really drive him. So here's what he said about wanting to be considered the best wide receiver in the league. Well, I'm not labeled as the best receiver at this point.

So that's my motivation is just becoming the best receiver and being the best teammate for my team. Just, you know, just doing stuff to provide for my team and, you know, just trying to get to that main goal, just like I said. Jefferson did admit that it was difficult on him the last two years to lose games as often as he did, having come from LSU and having won a championship. And you could see sort of the frustration even in his voice when he said, I hate to lose. It was the kind of the most, you know, I don't know, like excited that he got during the press conference was to say, like, he's really tired of the way that things have been going with not winning games and wants this offense and wants this team to be in the playoffs where, I mean, if you're the best wide receiver in the league, like that's where you get your big chance to shine. Now, he was asked about the contract situation, and I'll play the clip and then we can talk about it.

Focus on contract after the season. Our main thing is reaching to that goal. But I'm not really too fond of money. I'm really just trying to get that goal of being the best receiver. So I don't think the Vikings are going to be able to use the quote, I'm not too fond of money when they sit down at the negotiating table, because I think his agent will say, that's not really what he meant. And just sort of chuckling yesterday. And, you know, he has a lot of endorsement deals for somebody who's not fond of money. But I think what he's trying to say there is he is not concerned about the money that he's only focused on playing the game and everything else. I don't know how you

couldn't be like when it comes to this season, it's a little different from last year. There's with the NFL, when you're a great player and there's only what at any given time, 30, 40 great players, if, if we can even stretch it that far, I guess I'd have to look at like how many highly paid players there actually are, how many real superstars there are in the league, but it's less than 50. There's always this like video game style. If you guys ever played like super Mario back in the day, or I'm sure that, you know, modern video games still have this where you just, you have to beat one boss and then you get to the next boss. And for Jefferson, when he comes into the league, it's prove that

you can play in the national football league with the expectations that you're going to fill the shoes of Stefan Diggs, the Minneapolis miracle guy. And he quickly does that. And he quickly makes the trade pretty even for digs for Justin Jefferson. And then the next boss is, all right, you know, that everybody in the league saw what you did the first year, and they're all going to be targeting you that they're all going to be double teaming you every, you know, red zone. You see this on, on, on tape where the red zone defense will just rotate toward Justin Jefferson, because they know that even in a small space, he's going to be able to create separation and score. And you just see that there's game planning.

He's the guy that they put a star next to his name when they game plan. And he beat that boss and came out and played exceptionally well last year and nearly set the franchise record for receiving, even despite some times where we felt like the ball should have gone to him more often. The next boss is dealing with the pressure of everyone talking about you, living up to expectations, and then getting the next contract. Now, if Jefferson doesn't have 130 catches this year, he's still going to get the contract. Like if there's some regression, nobody is going to say, ah, Jefferson, he's a fraud. He wasn't that good.

We're not paying him. Like, of course not because you believe in his talent and you know how good he is. But there still comes along with this next level, this next hurdle that you have to get over, which is you've established yourself as a star. And now the expectation is set. And now every article in the off season is about how Jefferson's ready to take that next step. And Jeff, which by the way, like next step, I mean, he's already at the top of the league. Um, but you know, I think that that is the next thing that you have to get over and the true superstar all time

great players. They always are able to keep reaching and beating these hurdles and you know, whether they win or not is obviously not entirely in Justin Jefferson's hands, but that's sort of another hurdle as well to get the attention you're looking for. But the contract pressure and, and you knowing what's on the other side of that rainbow if you have another great season that we're talking top paid wide receiver in the entire NFL that the Vikings will sign up for that in an instant you have to deal with that and you have to get through that and

Jefferson just seems like a very focused person about football and doesn't let these things bother him he's he, my impression of him from day one is that even with the pressure of being a first round pick, like some guys come in and that's just overwhelming for them. And they're like, Oh man, I gotta, I gotta succeed. And everyone's counting on me. And I'm a first round pick. He has this sort of disposition that does not seem to get bothered in that same way. So I don't expect this to be an issue, but it is a different challenge when you have this on the line from anything that Justin Jefferson has ever faced before. So let me entirely switch gears here and talk about Jalen

Twyman as one does, uh, Delvin Tomlinson at the podium. Delvin is not the most talkative guy. Uh, you know, he's a, he's a nice person to talk with but he isn't going to give you a bunch of quotes that are again going to make headlines on nfl.com or anything else the man is a nose tackle but one that stuck out to me in particular was when he was talking about jalen twyman here's. Yeah, Jalen, he's super explosive. And in the run game, he's improving at a great rate. In the pass rush, he's a great pass rusher, as you already know. And I'm excited to see him get out there this year.

That's one guy I'm ready to just go out there and be successful because I know how great he is and how hard he comes in and works every day. And just to finally see him go on the field and just have fun again is gonna be exciting if Jalen Twyman could work his way into any sort of rotational role or at least even just show in preseason games that there is something there I think it would be one of the best stories of training camp a guy who skipped his final year of college to work out and get an NFL shape and was hoping to be drafted much higher than he was drafted. He ends up going, I think in the sixth round. And then in his first offseason, he gets shot.

He's unable to play at all. And even having seen him last year, just walking around, you were were like is that guy in the NFL like he just didn't look like he was in the type of shape that he could play in the NFL anytime soon and then he comes back this year and you go oh okay wow uh that guy has some guns like you could clearly see that he had worked very hard to get in NFL shape and now it's about proving that he could be the pass rusher he was at Pitt when he showed some signs and got some buzz of being a potentially high draft pick. There's also the element that he went to the combine. His combine numbers weren't particularly good,

especially the speed and explosiveness numbers did not stand out. But he's somebody that had a lot of production. So he's one of those, like Mr. Mankato, put him on the watch list, and the fact that Delvin Tomlinson was so complimentary and specific about what he thought that Jalen Twyman could do, I thought, okay, this is something that we're definitely going to be watching as we go through. In the preseason games, that's where i think you really

see offensive and defensive linemen how they're performing on a day-to-day in practice you'll see the one-on-ones and we'll get a sense for it but in those preseason games i mean they're going full out trying to make the team and you get an idea of like can this guy actually get after the passer so put jalen twyman on your watch list as one of the most intriguing players of training camp. All right, for our last clip, before we get to fans only questions is Irv Smith,

Jr. And Irv Smith talked about how this is a new beginning for him after missing the entire last season that he got a tattoo of a butterfly on his neck. And I was thinking with Irv Smith and and you'll hear it in in this clip just about the mental toll that players go through when they have to miss an entire season due to an injury when you came right up to the season last year and you're put you've put in all the work in the offseason there's the expectations irv smith's ready to take that next big step he was a second round pick and now he's going to be tight at number one finally.

And then you get that crushing injury and you could still kind of see the pain on his face about having to miss that whole year. But he talked about how he watched games. And I think you just got a sense for how much Irv Smith was missing football. And I know that we want to think every single guy is super committed to this and it's all football and nothing else. That's not always the case, but this quote right here stuck out to me as you can really tell how much

Irv Smith loves football. I mean, I watched the whole season as a fan last year, basically, you know, during the games, I wanted to watch it kind of, and I watched all the games in the suite last year, basically. You know, during the games, I wanted to watch it. I watched all the games in the suite just so I can kind of feel the vibes of the stadium

and feel the energy and, you know, kind of outlook and watch the guys compete and kind of just see a different side for sure. So it was cool just seeing that uh seeing that side but you know i want to be on the field and on the field irv smith was uh yesterday at practice he caught a touchdown he said that he's making it his goal this year to not drop any passes during training camp and justin jefferson was also asked about irv smith that just said the guy had a heck of a preseason last year and everybody's excited for him. And I remember how crushed everyone was after Irv Smith got hurt last year. So we'll continue to do this because of your positive feedback about going through the clips

and talking about them. We will have plenty more as there are daily press conferences here. We're at U.S. Bank Stadium on Friday and then Saturday I think is maybe a day off and then we go forward to is maybe a day off and then we go forward to the padded practices the fans all those sorts of things will be out there and camp will roll on folks it was great for us to be back out there and actually covering some football stuff and having some headlines and having some things to discuss and new information and so forth getting you know updates on the, which if you want to listen

to all the analysis on the lineup, check out the conversation with Will Raggetts, where we went through everybody who's playing where, what the depth chart looks like to start practice. So listen to that episode as well. And now we will get to your fans only questions. So let's crack open the Diet Dr. Pepper and get rolling here with your questions. Okay, here we go. Let's start right out with this. This from Mystopheles on Twitter. Fans only question.

I'm sure this is more complicated than I think, but why can a center not long snap? I understand. I understand that it's a learned ability, but you would think a professional could learn this. I've wondered this for years. It seems like an easy place to save a roster spot. Oh no,

sir. It is not something that you can just learn. Absolutely not. No. Uh, you have to put thousands and thousands of hours into being a great long snapper. You have to go to camps. Uh, you have to practice this every single day for many hours. I mean, the precision of the long snap required, it can't be high. It can't be low. It can't be timed poorly. It can't float back there, spin sideways. I mean, these guys are so gifted at long snapping that they could put it in a mailbox from 30 feet away. Do you remember when David Morgan had to step in as a long snapper and the ball floated back there and was almost blocked as a punt. Uh, when Kevin McDermott

got hurt during the game against the Packers in January, 2000, or maybe late December, 2017, like that's what it looks like when a guy is a regular player who has to step in and long snap and centers center snapping the ball just with one arm back to the quarterback is not anywhere close to what a long snapper is doing. Long snappers are using both of their hands and they're putting spin on the ball. So it's flying back there accurately and as easy to catch as possible. And the preciseness of that operation takes, it is a truly a full-time job. and I know that sounds ridiculous, but this is the National Football League, folks. Teams are worth $3 billion. Like, this is how precise it all needs to be.

Back in the day, yeah, you would just pick a guy and he'd snap it back, and the kickers would make 58% of their field goals and so forth. But with so much on the line, you need someone who is a professional at doing this. Because, you know, I mean, imagine you're in any sort of big situation and the guy who's doing it has spent one fourteenth of his week's work on being a snapper as opposed to somebody else who's doing it every single day for hours and hours and making it their profession. There's just going to be a different level of preciseness there. The timing is super important of that operation. You saw it even with, think about Austin cutting, like how much Austin cutting practiced long snapping in his

life. So much that someone wanted to spend a draft pick on him. And yet when it was a little bit off, he was just gone instantly when it was a little bit off. he was just gone instantly when it was a little bit off. That's the level that you have to be at of long snapping. And you think about it, you got to put some respect on long snappers name, because if you were just saying like, Hey, why can't the punter kick? Well, we tried that once. The punter is probably the best kicker you've ever met in your life.

I bet that the punter can kick way better than you can. Like use Pat McAfee, for example. I mean, that guy was, I think, a college kicker and they turned him into a punter, but he wasn't good enough to be a kicker. Like he had a strong leg and he could be a punter and he turned out to be a very good one, but the accuracy required to be a kicker.

Watch the USFL, watch the CFL, the XFL. Watch those guys kick. Like, it's not like the NFL guys because the bar is so insanely high. So if you think of it that way, how good you have to be for those other positions, and then you can't just say, like, oh, well, just have another guy do it because he's sort of similar. It's a fun question for sure. But also on this show, we have respect for the long snapper.

So I appreciate that. No long snapper battle this year. Disappointing. This comes from at old Norris fans only question here. Do NFL team beat pools discuss Mr. Mankato prospects? Oh, do all NFL team beat pools discuss Mr. Mankato prospects? Do they have better or worse names than Mr. Mankato? I'm going to tell you the truth. I don't know.

The only, I was not, when it came to Buffalo, I was the pre and post game host and worked on a morning show. And we didn't have something similar to this. Like we had, you know, guys who were rising and falling the beat reporters who were there every single day might have had some name for it for some guy, like a Charlie hustle type of player that emerges and makes it. I would guess that lots of beats. I mean, the thing about being on the beat is with, you know, all the people that cover the team. So, you know, Courtney, Chad Graff, Chris Thomason, Ben and Andrew from the Strib, Mark Craig, like all those guys. And now Kevin Seifert from ESPN, like we're there together every single day for all of training camp, all of the season, we traveled to the same places. Like you end up with a lot of messing around

and little like inside jokes and things like that, where if you're talking to each other and other people were around that aren't on the beat, they wouldn't even know half the stuff that you're talking about. Cause a lot of it is inside jokes. So I would guarantee that there are Mr. Mankato like things for other beats where they have kind of some name for it or some inside joke about all the random players that have come through. I'm sure they know them to a T who have shined in camp, who fans have gotten worked up about. It's like, yeah, you're not that unique in that way that I guarantee this has happened. We had crazy debates in Buffalo over this guy or that guy making the team for sure. Who are like backend players.

I just don't remember if there was a name for it. It's possible, but yeah, I mean, we're not super different when it comes to that. I think it's a really great idea. I don't really know the origin story of the sort of Mr. Mankato award. I think it came from my previous station, 1500 ESPN that they like gave it out to the player and everything else. I think that happened and that's where it came from. And it's really, really fun.

I mean, the fans get into it and we talk about it throughout camp and everyone sort of adopted it, that this is called Mr. Mankato, even it's traveled to Egan and it's lost a little pop, but I think that it's still the same concept that it's Mr. Mankato. And I mentioned the other day that, you know, Chris Long of KSTP used to, and I don't know if he's doing it this year, come up with like odds

and everything else. You know, I think that that pandemic training camp kind of like ruined all of our souls because it was just a miserable situation to cover the team that year. We were watching practice, then going up to the press box at the little stadium there and going on Zooms to talk to Tajay Sharp. It was just the absolute worst. But maybe now there's like more energy. Fans can be back out there. They can watch guys practice. There's preseason games.

So Mr. Mankato is kind of back, but I don't know what other teams versions are. I'll have to ask Courtney now when she's in Chicago, if they have some sort of version of this, or maybe she can bring it there. I don't know where they practice, but it can be, you know, Mr. Whatever. Uh, all right. This is, uh, from at DB underscore Josh D on Twitter, uh, question for fans only. And sorry if I missed this being discussed previously, but put your GM hat on and tell me how often you would check in with the Ravens GM about Lamar Jackson and his contract negotiations. I think it makes a lot of sense to try and see what kind of contract he's asking for and let the Ravens GM know that you're ready with a package of picks and Kirk Cousins if they decide that Lamar is too expensive.

Makes sense for Lamar because he can get a new contract and play for a team with an offensive-minded head coach and better weapons than he's had in Baltimore. Makes sense for the Ravens because they get picks and a quarterback that keeps them competitive while they search for the quarterback of the future, presumably with said picks. Finally, I think it makes sense for Minnesota because they get a top young quarterback and can pay him with Kirk's contract off the books. So in a couple of years, it is not only, uh, let's see, it's not as cap heavy when it's time to re-up Jefferson, no first round picks for a couple of years, it is not only, let's see, it's not as cap heavy when it's time to re-up Jefferson. No first round picks for a couple years, depending on how valuable Kirk is to the Ravens.

But if the Vikings hit on top 100 picks, they do have then Minnesota as one of the favorites for the NFC for the length of Lamar's contract. This regime is already used to operating with the quarterback eating up most of the cap and at least Lamar eating up the cap. The games will be more exciting than watching cousins check down on third and long. Oh, you had to throw it in there. Uh, let's see. Am I taking crazy pills? Should Kweisi Adafo-Mensa be looking for this kind of move? So funny thing about the third down and long, I actually looked this up the other day because I'm a sick individual who just does this all day, even when I'm not podcasting or writing. I was curious because we've made these jokes about him checking down to the fullback.

And I only found one actual third and long where Kirk Cousins checked down to CJ Ham. And it was against the Packers, though. So very memorable for everybody. Uh, and when I searched second down and long, well, then I found, I think 19 or 21 check downs to CJ ham, um, that maybe eight became first down. So it does happen. It's not, you're imagining it, but there was just one memorable one and it became like the Kirk cousins joke. Uh, let's see. So Lamar Jackson, if you have a chance in any way, shape, or form to acquire Lamar Jackson, I think you have to do it. I just feel like, and I don't mean to pour cold water. You put so much effort into that tweet. I just feel like no franchises letting go of Lamar Jackson,

that if Baltimore did that, they would regret it for ever because, and this is what happens with someone like Kyler Murray, who I guess has it in his new contract that he has to like watch film, which is weird. But with someone like Lamar Jackson, who is capable of winning the MVP, you can find quarterbacks in the draft. And there is this hack where if you hit on a quarterback who's even halfway decent, a golf or Wentz, you have a chance to go to a Super Bowl because you can stack around them. That's very much a fact that if you do it right, you can have it gold for at least a couple of years that you'll have your window wide open for at least a couple of years, that you'll have your window wide open for at least a couple of years. However, if you're the team that trades away the MVP of the NFL and ends up drafting

someone who is bad, let's say you draft Spencer Rattler and you lose and you're bad. Like it's worse than Herschel Walker because you knew how good the guy was. I know. Do we recognize how good Lamar Jackson and the Ravens have been? And I know rookie car, rookie quarterback contract. I get it. He's had a lot of advantages there. Some disadvantages, as you mentioned with the weapons, uh, they lost some offensive

linemen that maybe impacted his, you know, MVP type of performance from last year. Like it wasn't quite the same that they lost some offensive linemen. They are pretty much without any great weapons outside of Rashad Bateman, which is questionable to how well Lamar is going to pass the ball this year. But this gentleman has gone 37 and 12 in the regular season. I mean, you could talk about on the playoffs, this happened or that happened. Yeah. Didn't have this great performance or this team found a way to solve Lamar Jackson. And okay, that's fine because he has not played well

in four playoff games for, okay. Four playoff games there. I mean, do I have to go, do I have to go really truly? I was born in the nineties and say that Michael Jordan like didn't get to his first championship until like seven years into his career, 37 and 12 in the regular season. This is one of the most dynamic players that has ever stepped onto a field in the NFL. And if you let him go and he goes somewhere else and throws to Justin Jefferson and wins a bunch of games and goes to a Superbowl, you're the biggest joke of all time. You would much rather have Lamar Jackson, who by the way, has anybody checked how old Lamar Jackson is? Lamar Jackson, who's already being talked about, like what about his health and everything else? He's only 25 years old in 199 days.

That's Lamar Jackson's age. All right. So what isn't Kenny Pickett 24 and Lamar Jackson is only 25 at this moment. If you are the team that lets him go and he, for the next four years, five years gives whoever he goes to shots to win the Super Bowl and your team picks the wrong guy in the draft, not only are you fired, but you are mocked and laughed at for the rest of your life.

I just see no way the Ravens do not bend to Lamar Jackson and give him what he wants, especially now. I mean, Lamar, for a guy without an agent, I think he's played this pretty well. Like, he's played it pretty well. Like he's played it to the, to the point where Kyler Murray already has his deal. So he knows where the bar is. He's better than Kyler Murray, at least as of right now, I think. And there's where Kyler Murray's Murray's bar is. So now you can top that bar and right. If you're Lamar Jackson, it's not super complicated.

If Kweisi Daffo-Mensah called the Ravens just to see, hey, just want to check in, just see how you're doing, everything good. Like, what about Lamar? And they said, oh, man, it's just brutal. Like, he just won't negotiate with us. He wants to play with an elite wide receiver, and we just don't have one what about cousins in your next three firsts done it's not even a conversation because you can pair him with jefferson and by the way two offensive tackles who you drafted high and are good a guard who you drafted high another guard

who you drafted high you can replace a center like you have some young offensive pieces and then you know what if you end up with lamar jack, but you are piecemealing a defense together, this is a guy who can lead a truly elite offense that can overcome some of the defensive issues. So I wouldn't be worried about his throwing last year. I think that he was in a very ugly situation with that team last year. And his throwing historically has been really good. His career quarterback rating, by the way, 98.1. Like that's his career quarterback rating.

And people act like he just can't throw at all. I think that last year it was down his numbers for sure. But if a guy has a 98 career quarterback rating and is the best runner, not named Michael Vick in the history of the game, I think he can run for five more years and continue to be a decent passer. So what I do it. Yeah. Yep. I would,

I might do it for Kyler Murray. I mean, if you could give Kyler Murray a competent coach and a good offensive system, a couple of really good receivers. Like I would do the same thing in today's NFL. Here's where I don't want to totally dismiss this conversation because in today's NFL, it's like Kevin Garnett said, anything is possible with, with these trades and with players basically picking where they want to play. And there's

been some buzz about Lamar's frustration a little bit in the passing game with Greg Roman, which also happened when I was in Buffalo with Tyra Taylor, that they got sort of tired of the lack of creativity from Greg Roman and fired him when Tyra Taylor was the, the quarterback there. So anything is possible and I'm not going to completely dismiss this. And yes,

everyone should be making that phone call just to see, is it actually possible? Probably not, but you don't, you never, you never know. You never know. I mean, there's a level of like, we're the, you know, the thinkers of the future from the Ravens, which is actually really good the way they handle a lot of things. But if they're the team that says, you know, the MVP is just not worth it. We got to keep together the strong roster who, man, I think that would be a huge mistake, but Lamar might be just saying, I want to play somewhere else. Um, we'll find out. I, my guess is a contract is signed pretty soon with Lamar Jackson because of Kyler Murray's numbers being out. But you're not crazy to think, is there some creative way to make a trade or something when it comes to the situation?

You know, it's still come to my mind with Jimmy G out there. Like, is there a three team trade? Is there a three team trade somewhere? Maybe. Great question. Thank you folks. Training camp is here and there's no better way to represent your purple fandom by going to soda stick.com and checking out all their Minnesota sports inspired goods. The best football designs in my opinion are Randy Moss's disgusting act and the purple people eaters look, but look, there's lots more for you to check out at soda stick.com. S O T A S T I C K.com t-shirts, hoodies, hats, whatever you're looking for. Use the promo code purple insider at checkout for 15% off your purchase. All right. This comes from Alex via the email. Is there a chance that the Vikings pay Justin Jefferson at the peak of the wide receiver contracts and the

market corrects itself quickly after maybe it's just because I'm a doomsday Vikings fan, but I could see a scenario where the league shifts away from massive wide receiver contracts soon and it would be just so fitting that it happens when the Vikings give a truckload of money to Justin Jefferson. In tandem with that question, will the outcome of the JJ situation tell us more about Kwesi and the actual power of the or his actual power in the organization? I could see him being potentially waiting to cash in on Justin Jefferson prior to the big extension. If he saw the value in return, specifically in the Kirk KOC experiment, doesn't go as planned that they want to tear it down. But I could see ownership forcing his hand, doing the extension and overriding Kweisi's long term building slash analytical approach.

All right. There's a lot there. Kweisi Daffel-Mensah will not find any analytics that tell you that paying Justin Jefferson is a bad idea. It's just, that's just not going to happen. Um, because there's, there's sort of an idea that analytics say like, don't ever pay anyone, but if you don't ever pay anyone, then you don't have star players and then you lose games. Like, right. Um, the, the Los Angeles Rams are a good example of this. Okay. So the Los Angeles Rams pay the players who are the best on their team. And then they have done very well for themselves. And a lot of luck has been involved here as far as hitting on players that can fill in the rest of the pieces or are willing to come there like an Odell Beckham because they think you can win a championship. So when we look at their cap situation, they have, let's see, Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey,

Cooper cup, Matt Stafford, whose money is kicked down the road as always are all paid over $10 million. And all of these guys' contracts eventually will be problematic, but it's in a Super Bowl window. Now, I think what you're saying is you don't want them to be expensive in the Super Bowl window, but it can be if it's a couple guys, if it's your best players, because the quarterback contract, and this is aside from Aaron Donald, the quarterback contract is just so much more expensive that I really think it only applies to that player. Unless dot, dot, dot, like, unless you don't actually think that Tyreek Hill is worth it, because if Tyreek Hill loses 1% of his speed down the road, he's just not that good anymore. And if think about this, Devante

Adams wanted to go, he wanted out. So he wasn't going to sign the long-term extension. So they had to make that move. If Justin Jefferson wants to stay, then they should have just the Jefferson stay. And here's what you try to do in that case. You try to work the contract around when you think you're going to win. So if it fails this year, let's say the experiment is a struggle this year and they go six and 11, and then you go to Justin Jefferson and you're like, look, we're going to have to draft a quarterback this year and you're going to help that guy be good right away. And then in his second year, we'll have a chance to compete for a championship. So you sign the extension now and think about this. He's in year three. So you got

year four, year five. And if you sign the extension, you can make year five pretty inexpensive. And there are players who have done this at the quarterback position. Like I'll, I'll, I'll call up, um, somebody like, uh like Josh Allen. Let me see if I could find Josh Allen. So Josh Allen signed $43 million a year, but we'll call up his history on over the cap. So his history, one, two, three, four, five years where his highest cap hit his first five years of his career, his highest cap hit 16.3 million with the way that they set it up. Now that goes up to 39 million in 2023, but Josh Allen this year, still in the Superbowl window is getting paid on the salary cap, not cash cash paid is 47 million because the

cap is real, but also you can mess with it. $16 million cap hit, $47 million in cash. It's good to be Josh Allen, no? You can do that with any position, with the way that you set up your contracts to organize them to when you have a winning window. If you trade away Justin Jefferson, and once again, you think there's a lot of great receivers out there, but when I start naming them for you, you get to like number 12 or 13 and that person then becomes nowhere close to Justin Jefferson. Then you better have three or four who are good if you're going to play like that.

So I think that I don't, I would not assume at all that Kwesi's analytics think that he should move on. I mean, I think that all analytics point to, and you could even do it this way. How do you win a championship? The team that has the most elite players. And of course that starts at quarterback. But if we just did it that way, we would come up with a lot of the NFL champions over the years. Think about the 98 Vikings. How many, and I know not a champion, but how many elite players did they have? John Randall, a couple of offensive linemen, three wide receivers, an elite running back. I mean, they had them all over the field. Like that's how you win. If you get rid of one of the three best players that is positioned in the league,

you are really playing with fire. And I don't believe the Packers would have done that if Devante Adams had said, yes, I'll sign a contract here. So what you need to convince Justin Jefferson is sign a contract after next year, believe in the vision for the future. That's what you need to do with, with him. So I don't think that it's going to tell us necessarily about who has the power in the organization, because I think that everybody would sign Justin Jefferson. There are probably other things that will in the future and maybe more things that already have though, right?

Like, I think we already kind of know who has the power in the organization. It works like this. I think, I think it works like this. And I borrowed this from George Shahuri of pro football focus. So I did not come up with myself. Players number two through 53 are the GM and coaching staff player. Number one, the quarterback is the owners. And well, would any of us do it differently? If we had a team worth $3 billion, right? We would pick the quarterback. So if the Wilfs made the decision, bring back Kirk for now.

And that's what they decided. We're not taking a third round pick for them or whatever. Then what you have to do is try to win. You have no other choice. So that's what they did. Now. I, I didn't agree with the direction at the time. We'll see if I'm right or wrong. I don't know. We'll find out. That's why we're here. That's why we're going to watch the games and cover the practices and everything else.

We'll see. But you have really no other choice. If your owner says you have to stay with Kirk, if you start tearing it down, well, you know, then what are you going to end up with? Like another seven win season? So you might as well go for the playoffs. I think that was their thinking. Um, for me, it would have been okay. That's fine. We're going to keep them for another year, but we're still going to keep an eye on the future. That would have been a little more of my approach than what

they did. Um, but I think we kind of have the answer to who has the power and how it works. Now, what I want to see in the future is some more analytical type of moves, but I don't think that's going to be in regards to Justin Jefferson. I think that that's going to be a no brainer. If that man wants to stay, then he's staying. And if he doesn't, well, then we're going to see if anybody's willing to swing a deal next year with Kweisi Adafo-Mensah. Because something that I was told is that there were other GMs in the league who were kind of like, oh, you're new here?

No, we're not. You know, not so much. Like Rick Spielman had. And of course, if he traded you a fourth round draft pick for Chris Herndon, you would be in really good standing with Rick Spielman. You'd be like, yeah, call anytime my friend. But, um, that Spielman had been around for so long that he can kind of call most teams in the league and have a good relationship with their GM. Cause he's just been doing it where Kweisi is new and he's going to have to learn the ropes a little bit and no one's going to give him a deal at this moment, but we'll see how that plays out in the future as he gets to, you know, be in this position

more often. Okay. Onto our next question from, uh, at fixing Luke's or Lucas L U E C K S. This is a rapid fire type of question here. Pie chart percentage chance for team one reps at center and right guard is the first question. It's got a couple other ones mixed in here. Well, I would say that Garrett Bradbury is like 95% to get at center and everyone else 5% for first team reps. They just didn't bring in any competition. Austin Schlottman. And that's it.

Right guard. I think that it's going to go 50, 50 between Jesse Davis and Chris Reed for a while, like for most of the summer. Now, if Ingram gets mixed in there, we'll see. I would be surprised if that happens anytime soon, that would be toward the end of the summer. So I'll go and, and Wyatt Davis just seems completely out of this conversation. So I will go that, uh, you have maybe 40%, 40%, cause I really don't know who's going to win that competition. That's why we're doing it. Uh, 40%, 40% for Davis and read, and then split maybe 15% to Ingram and five to Wyatt Davis. All right. Uh, the next question are the specialists set to work with no competition? Uh, no, they will. They will

have competition. They will have, um, Ryan Wright. Okay. So no competition for Greg Joseph, but Ryan Wright is a person who will be punting against Jordan Berry. You might call that no competition. Who beside the Stars would be the most impactful starter to lose to injury? Outside of Stars, I would go with Delvin Tomlinson or Jordan Hicks. Delvin Tomlinson, like who's coming in for him at nose guard if he's out or nose tackle, whichever you want to call guard. If he's out or nose tackle, whichever you want to call it. If he's out,

I mean, you're talking like what TJ Smith season, Jonathan Bullard season. It's not a real great situation. I guess they would have to move Harrison Phillips and then they would have to move in Armond Watts to be the starter. And that would be your defensive line. Not too confident in that.

And behind a Jordan Hicks. I mean, you have no experience whatsoever as far as being a starter. You have Brian Asamoah, third round pick, Troy Dye, Chaz Surratt, Blake Lynch. Like this is not what you're looking for if Jordan Hicks goes down. So I think beyond the stars. And also, you know, you might say KJ Osborne too. If KJ Osborne is out in a three wide receiver system and nobody else emerges, then who are we talking about playing wide receiver?

The next one is, let's see. Oh, the last rapid fire question here. What NFL coach coordinator gets fired first? This is a hard one. The answer just seems so obvious that it should be Matt rule is kind of the most hot CD type of coach, but also I was taking a look at who Arizona's playing early in the season and they like start off with Kansas city and then they've got like the Raiders and it's not really an easy situation for Arizona. And if Arizona were to start, say, 1-2, 0-3, and by halfway through the season, they are well below.500 after just signing Kyler Murray to that contract, there's going to be fingers pointed and they could blow out everybody mid-season aside from that though it's actually hard to find someone who is on the supreme hot seat because so many coaches just got fired like look around the nfl and there's so many new coaches like who's who's been here a while like dallas could start really badly and they could fire mike mccarthy it seems like they were kind of on the edge of doing that before but aside from that like who is getting booted out?

Who's getting kicked off the island here if they have a pretty bad start? Like not Mike Vrabel, the guy just won coach of the year. Kevin Stefanski would be pretty surprising at this point. I really don't know who outside of Matt Rule is considered to be on the hot seat. That's going to get fired first. And as far as coordinators go, you're right. There's, there's always that situation where somebody gets mad at their offense and

has bad quarterback play and then fires their coordinator. Maybe like Pittsburgh, if Mitch Trubisky plays poorly, they end up just blaming the offensive coordinator, but that doesn't really seem as much like them. I don't know. So there you go. All right. This from a Worley owl with all the cap space, what's one move they should definitely do, but definitely won't. There just isn't a lot to do at this point.

I mean, we could talk about players who are still out there. There's a few in free agency that are remaining. It's an unimpressive list. Indomitian Sioux is the guy who has been discussed, it seems, or at least was reportedly discussed. But if you go through the free agent tracker and look around, it's just hard to find. Carl Nassib is still out there. Uh, Carlos Dunlap doesn't have a job. Maybe like, maybe there's a, a defensive end who is a veteran. Like is

Ryan Kerrigan retired or is he still playing? He's 34. I'm not sure what he did last year. Um, Alex Okafor, like you're, you're kind of in a situation here where there's just not that many people left to sign who are in the free agent market. The other position I guess I would think of is, is there any other receivers like Danny Amendola just decided to retire? So maybe I would have said, Hey, what's left for Danny Amendola. I really, I really don't know other than that. Like there might be some other veteran receiver who hasn't signed yet. Um, I always think that I guess, uh, the cornerback market for some reason that those guys end up signing late. Maybe there's a corner out there. Like Trey Waynes is still a free agent folks, but it sounded to me like, and this was not surprising. He had a quote where he said,

basically, I don't really care if I don't play. Sorry, kick the microphone. But now this lists, and I don't know if this is true, that Janoris Jenkins, better known as Jackrabbit Jenkins, is still a free agent. If he's not, I'm sorry, but like there are a handful of corners who are still free agents and who are veterans that I think would be interesting to bring in, especially based on Andrew Booth Jr.'s health and some of his health issues in the past that if they wanted to spend a little cap space on that, but it's tight though now. It's, you know, there's just not a whole lot of guys remaining. And if they are out there, they're out there for a reason.

But, you know, the early camp cornerback signing or late, you know, late offseason cornerback signing has worked out before at times in the past. All right, let's move to, let's see. Let's see here. Okay, this comes from at Brutus bird on Twitter. I am of your older listener demographic 56 and have been a fan since six years old. I have been able to get excited about the Vikings every year for one reason or another this year, however, just screams cousins, frustrating me to no end. How did this happen? Well, Brutus bird, I've got a little story that begins with the NFC championship and the Vikings going to Philadelphia and not playing well on defense and a general manager and an ownership, believing that if they

had a better quarterback that day, that maybe, just maybe he would have overcome the defensive issues and finished some drives and taken them to the Superbowl, a group that talked themselves into a quarterback who another franchise didn't want to pay top dollar paying him the most dollars literally that anyone had ever gotten and maybe overlook some things as far as team building. And as far as that particular player's shortcomings, I don't know that that's what you're referring to of how did it happen? Cause you already know how they ended up with Kirk cousins, but how it happened that you got to the point where you're basically thinking about this season going into camp, like, Hey, uh, it's just going to

be another Kirk year and the same, same old, same old. I don't think you're alone. Uh, it's one of the most common questions that I get is like, tell me I should be excited for the season. And you should, because it's football and because every year is different and you never have any idea what's going to happen. It's a different coach. It's a different general manager. There's a lot of different players on defense, different defensive scheme. You haven't seen anything different with this team from the leadership perspective in a very, very long time.

Like think of what you were doing with your life in the year 2013. That is the last time where was i i think i mean i'm i mean i know i was in buffalo but like what was i covering the american hockey league at that point i don't even know if i was doing like bills pre and post game show or like what i was doing 2013 think of think of how young we were how. And, uh, we've gone through a lot because sometimes there's crazy seasons that happen and we've seen them just in recent memory. Not that long ago, you are two or three opposing quarterback injuries or surprising meltdowns away from this team being in the playoffs, getting a favorable matchup, winning a playoff game and going to somewhere with a chance to go to the NFC championship. Like you're always kind of that

far away. And also the other side of it is look, might be a train wreck. And we also haven't seen that in a while either. Like I'm not projecting that because I just think that Kevin O'Connell is a regular person and not one of these sociopathic whack jobs like Urban Meyer or Joe Judge or Matt Patricia, but we don't know. And if it goes up in flames, like think of last year. Now I know a lot of you would say, a lot of you would say last year was one of the most miserable seasons that they've had right but it was also at the moment a completely bananas wild ride where every game came down to the very last second where the coach slammed his backup quarterback at the end i mean training camps started with the coach started slamming his starting quarterback like all sorts of things happened last year throughout the season, including one of the all-time great years for Justin Jefferson in franchise history.

And now you have this complete change. And I guarantee, even though you're sitting here right now going, ugh, Kirk, more Kirk. And I saw that The Athletic put out its yearly, like, tiering system of quarterbacks. And it's based on Mike Sandoz interviews with all sorts of NFL executives and so forth. And they ranked him 15th. Last year, it was 17th. The comments could have been copied and pasted.

It's like the same stuff. So, I mean, nobody gets it more than me. The person who's been coming up with a million scenario we had a wheel we had a wheel that we spun of quarterbacks remember so i've been thinking of those as well but as and we sit here at the beginning of training camp you just never know i mean you've you've seen randall cunningham come off the bench and take your team to an nfc championship and within one field goal of making the super bowl, did you expect that in 1998 going into that season with Brad Johnson?

Like it's just a wild ride, man. And you can't look away and tell me what the heck else you're going to do. Like, you're going to follow this, right? I mean, what are,

what are you going to do? Rake leaves. We don't have fall here. It goes right to winter shovel snow doesn't really snow until later in the winter you're kind of screwed you just have to watch football all right uh next question this comes and and i'm sorry is that is that if that's uninspiring but i think i really think that is i know that we project certain things and we are confident about the things we project at the

beginning of the season. And we never remember what we thought it was going to be the year before. And then we get to the end. It's like, wow, never expected all those things. I remember I used to get sports illustrated as a kid being like 13 and I got sports illustrated and they predicted the outcome of the NFL season. Like every game they went through and picked every game. And so they had the standings and everything else. And I said, I'm going to hold on to this and I'm going to compare this to the end of the year. We're talking about peak Sports Illustrated. Like they're at their absolute best.

So it was like Peter King and lots of other people who were like their top writers. I think if I'm remembering this correctly. And they were so far off by the end of the year, like the best football people, like that's how it goes, right? Vegas is good at their jobs. They're pretty good at predicting, but where do they have the Vikings going into 2017? Like, did they have them being 13 and three? Like probably not with a backup quarterback.

Probably not. So it's always a wild ride. And I'm here. And I'll be doing this. And we'll have fun. I promise. I'll make sure. All right. This comes from at Heckner Scott.

Let's see. Fans only question if every division had a Pro Bowl team, which division are you betting to assemble the best roster? AFC West. Yeah. I think the question is fun. I wish it was a harder answer, though. It's just the AFC West.

They have the most talent. They have the best receiver in the league until he's knocked off his pedestal, Devontae Adams. They have the best quarterback in the league, Patrick Mahomes, until proven otherwise. And even if you don't think he's the best quarterback in the league, they got two other candidates and the worst quarterback in their division in the AFC West is as good as your quarterback and maybe even a tad better. And it's had a 12 win season before in his past Derek Carr. That's the worst quarterback that

they have in that division. There's an elite tight end, Darren Waller. I mean, you've got good defenses there to build on if you're making a pro bowl team. I mean that, yeah, that would probably be the best. The next best might be the NFC West or the AFC East. I think the AFC East, if you were talking about Stefan Diggs, Tyree kill Josh Allen, you've got something pretty good there. Uh, Trey white, the cornerback from Buffalo. So I think, um, I think you've got a lot to work with there, but I just wish that I had a better answer for you or a more creative one. It just seems like it's right there that you get to pick the best quarterback and the best wide receiver to start with. And the, uh the AFC West ends up being the best

division in football. Now the Vikings avoided it this year, and that plays into the anything can happen because you're playing the NFC East, which is going to have to prove itself to not be garbage, right? Like you can project the Giants to be better. You can project Washington to be better. You can project Philly to be better and Dallas to stay the same. And then you say, oh, it's harder, but you are just, you are just this much away. You are Carson Wentz getting hurt, which does happen. You are Daniel Jones still being bad. You are Jalen Hurts regressing Dallas, not being as good away from that being a very easy division to play against this year. And then maybe it ends up like a 2019 season where you're in the playoffs without having to

really do a whole lot. Um, all right. One more question here. Let's see if you could own, this comes from Shane. If you could own one professional sports franchise, which one would you pick? Hmm. All of professional sports. Well, let me do, since it's NFL show, let me do NFL first. We'll think about like, who would you want to own? If you could own all the teams, do you, it almost feels like it, it almost feels like cliche to just pick a team based on their quarterback, but like, that's where you want to start, right? That takes up a big amount of space in your career history as an owner. If you pick the right one. So Kansas city's a great answer. You start with an amazing fan base

and incredible stadium. And think about this. When you think about the Vikings can never win or anything else, Kansas city was kind of you, right? Like for many, many years, you have to go way back to when they beat the Vikings in the super bowl. But after that, they get my homes. Everything's different. I would begin with them. Um, you know, it's my hometown Buffalo. They're being forced. If I could own the Buffalo bills, I i would make it so i paid for the whole stadium by the way instead of their rich owners forcing the people of buffalo to pay for them to have a stadium so let's start let's also begin there in my hometown that's getting ripped for 400 million dollars by owners that are worth several billion. Thanks for nothing. Oh, we kept the team in

Buffalo. Right. But also threatened through a leaking things out to the media that you'd move it to Austin, Texas. Okay. So I guess I would do that to make sure that they could stay in Buffalo and not be forced to pay for a stadium. Plus the quarterback situation is pretty good aside from them, who would be the coolest team to own? Uh, would you want to be the owner who restores the roar or like takes a team that, you know, like Detroit that's bad, you know, you know, it would be actually fun. Here's, here's my pick. Here's my pick. I'm going to go with the Washington commanders. They take it away from Daniel Snyder. They give it to me. And immediately we are going to build the new stadium again on my dime.

Cause I, in this scenario, I'm worth like a hundred billion or something, right? Which purple insider close, um, to revenue. Uh,

but so they give it to me. We're going to clean up the organization. It is no longer going to be a joke and it will be named the Washington football team because I thought that was pretty cool. It's not going to be named the commanders anymore. We're getting done with that. Those jerseys were pretty cool. We are going to honor the great history of that franchise on the field, not always off the field. I mean, what they were the last team to integrate or something. They've had Daniel Snyder. They've had scandals. They've had all sorts of problems, the team name, everything else. We're going to clean that up. We are going to make it into the best organization in football. That's what I would

want to do. And as far as other sports, I don't know. Um, maybe Mark Laurie and Alex Rodriguez will let me own the links. I would love to turn around a WNBA franchise guys. If you think the NFL teams are like weird and dramatic and don't know what they're doing, there's a couple of WNBA teams. Oh my gosh. That are just completely lost that I would love to help try to turn themselves around starting with the Indiana fever. But, uh, that's yeah, that's probably, that's probably some good choices there. Kansas city, Buffalo, give me Washington and help me fix them. Maybe give me Chicago and I'll build them a better stadium and I'll, I will get them a quarterback. I will be the owner that finds their franchise

changing quarterback. So that's a fun question. Thanks for that. And thanks for all these great questions as always making another fun fans only episode. And so we'll carry these on, keep them going purpleinsider.com go to the contact us, or you can send me a tweet at Matthew collar. I will get them there and continue to load up on the queue. And again, if you've got a question that you've submitted, more than likely I've got it. I'm just working my way through. And again, I talked too long and didn't put the timer on myself. So we will continue these episodes and I appreciate all of you. you you