Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Justin Jefferson asked about 2,000 yards -- what's realistic?

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

Matthew Coller talks about Jordan Addison saying in the locker room that he's playing on Sunday and Matthew and Manny Hill try to project Justin Jefferson's season and then talk about Week 1 officially beginning, what happens if the Vikings win or lose to the Giants and answering Vikings fan questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Hot Routes, Matthew Collar and Manny Hill here. Over here to my right is a television with a National Football League game on. And I told you, Manny, that I need you to make sure you set up your house so you can keep your eye on this game. Chiefs and Ravens as we talk here. And of course, we're going to talk a lot of Minnesota Vikings. We'll get into a little bit of week one as well. A lot to talk about as we march toward finally the Minnesota Vikings hitting the field. But already we've seen Lamar Jackson make some

nice throws marching down the field. And it's not a National Football League season, Manny, until you and I have been snarky about Lamar Jackson throwing the football. So here we are, week one. How are you feeling, man? Yeah, I'm just in utter shock that Lamar Jackson is throwing the football. I mean, running backs throw the football? I mean, what is this new revolution? No, I mean, he's been, we both know and many people know that he's been an outstanding thrower of the football, even going all the way back to his days in Louisville, which

is why he won a damn Heisman trophy. He's fantastic and he's off to a great start this season. It's awesome to see. Well, he's only won two MVPs since switching to wide receiver as Bill Polian suggested during the draft time uh well this this game though couldn't have started off with a better matchup and then who knows what's going to happen tomorrow night in brazil with the packers and the philadelphia eagles uh that seems like kind of a nightmare situation and there i saw something about the

travel oh wow we've got a track meet already with, uh, Xavier worthy scoring a touchdown right off the bat, by the way, real quick on Xavier worthy, the Buffalo bills made a trade that allowed Kansas city to pick Xavier worthy. And I will just never understand it. They made a trade with Kansas city that allowed them to get my homes and then did the same thing with worthy the fastest guy. I mean, they just gave him Tyree kill 2.0 and already he's got a touchdown on the board. Um, so great job bills helping your biggest competitor. Oh, they helped the Texans as well by giving them Stefan digs. I don't really understand what they're doing when it comes to that, but, uh, we'll keep an eye on this game,

of course, and have a good time watching it. But I want to talk to you, Manny, about a question that was posed to one Justin Jefferson today. Justin Jefferson was asked about the 2000 yard mark and whether his eyes are on trying to clear it. And I thought Justin Jefferson would say, okay, bro, let me, why don't I just go to the metal lands, catch a few balls, and then we'll figure out where I go from there. But he actually did say, Hey, you know, I've always kind of had 2000 on my mind. And that's a, that would be the NFL record. And that would be pretty cool. Do you think that Justin Jefferson has to readjust his expectations for his own statistics for this year based on whom is playing quarterback for him? Or do you think that he'll still do the same stuff

statistically as he has done before and end up pressing for records and everything else? How do you think that this is going to go between him and Sam Darnold? It's, it's interesting because, you know, I, I think on, on paper and, and, you know, we've talked for multiple years now about how Justin Jefferson it's basically throw him the football, right? I mean, it's just, it's, and it's really seemed like Kevin O'Connell has figured out that that's the formula to make this offense tick is to just throw Justin Jefferson the damn football as often as possible. The expectations from a number standpoint might need to be tapered just a little bit because I think, you know, I mean, let's be honest, the Vikings in the offseason, at least for now, downgraded at quarterback.

I think that's fair to say. I mean, Kirk Cousins, I think, is a better quarterback than Sam Darnold. in you know what they've done in the running back room now adding aaron jones into the mix we could see them start to run the ball a little bit more and be more effective in the running game which i think would just reduce some of the opportunities for justin jefferson or anybody in the passing game really to get as much um as many targets because if they're running the ball with success i would imagine that they're going to do that a little bit more. So for me, I look at it as far as expectations. I don't even really think about what the numbers are going to be. My expectations are, though, for Justin Jefferson to be him, be the guy that we've talked about as the best guy in the world at his craft,

at what he does in his position. And to really kind of help elevate Sam Darnold into having a really good productive season. Is he going to catch 2000 yards worth of footballs? I have a hard time believing that because we've seen guys come close. Calvin Johnson came uh many years ago um and so cooper cup i think came kind of close a couple of years ago with the rams but i think that's a really hard hard number to get to now if there's somebody that could do it i think it's

justin jefferson uh but i think just when you factor in what this offense might look like with, you know, in theory, the improved running game and with Sam Darnold, you know, maybe being a little bit of a downgrade of the quarterback position, I think it would be hard to see him getting to the 2000 yard mark this year. Would love everybody watching feedback on this conversation. And also any questions that you have going into week one, what is remaining on your mind about this game and about what is going to befall us into the future of the Minnesota Vikings 2024 season, uh, jump in there, ask your questions. We had a great

time answering them on Monday night. I want to make that much more of the show this year than it was for those OGs who listened to us last year. We didn't do as much, Chad, and I want to do a lot more of it. Jordan Addison, by the way, said today we had a chance to talk to him, said that he is expecting to play 100%. He said that he's had this injury before. He knew as soon as it happened that what the timeline would be and that he would be back in week one. And, uh, it was kind of funny because he's like, well, you know, I think you guys made a little too much of this injury. And I'm like, well, you did miss several weeks of practice and you're still limited, but okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. He says he's a good to go and we'll play

on Sunday. And I tend to believe him based on the fact that he has been out there for practice, even if it is on a limited basis, I'm going to give you a number that an NFL wide receiver had last year. And you tell me if this is a realistic situation for Justin Jefferson, numbers wise, this wide receiver caught 79 passes for 1,255 yards and 13 touchdowns last season. Would that be now 13 touchdowns would be a lot for Jefferson since everybody always defends him so much in the red zone, but let's just say 79 catches 136 targets for 1,255 yards. Would that be a good season for you for Jefferson? Is that a little low for Justin Jefferson and maybe disappointing or how would you feel about that? And then I'll tell you who it is. I think, I think it would be a little bit of a disappointment now. I mean, obviously if he's,

if he's healthy for the entire 17 games, that is, I think that would be a little bit of a disappointment. I think he had, what did he, I know he got to a thousand yards last year i think he had 68 finished with 68 catches something something like that and that was in basically what nine ten games that he ended up playing in which is you know if you average that out he would certainly would have gotten over 100 and you know 15 1600 yards something like that but i think if he plays all 17 games and those are his final numbers, the touchdown numbers would be pretty high, but I, I, I still kind of feel like the catch in yardage numbers would be a little bit low, even, even for him. Okay. That was Mike Evans

last year with Baker Mayfield and with Tampa Bay and Dave Canales, they took a running approach, even though they were bad at it. They still ran 272 times. I didn't even realize this until I looked at it with Rashad white. I did not remember anyone in the NFL having 272 carries in the year, 2023, but that happened. They really rode him hard. In fact, the next best guy in terms of carries for running backs only had 49. I don't think it's going to go that way with Aaron Jones, but they ran the ball a lot over 400 times total and only through 568 passes to get Baker Mayfield just over the edge of 4,000 yards with a 94 quarterback rating, 28 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. When we make the comparisons to Baker Mayfield,

his stats were very realistic for what Sam Darnold's could be in a good case or best case scenario. And if Justin Jefferson ended up with over a thousand yards at, you know, I think that would be like you said, a little on the low side from what we've come to expect for him, only about 1200 yards, but he averaged 16 yards a catch. And the reason that I thought this was a perfect comparison is there might just be a little bit more deep down the sideline, just go. And I'm going to huck it up to you and see if you could go catch it for Justin Jefferson from Sam Darnall. I wouldn't be surprised if that ended up being the case a little bit more rather than intermediate, intermediate, intermediate, short, intermediate,

like it was with Justin Jefferson and Kirk Cousins. I do think that if you alter this offense in the correct way, that even if the numbers are tweaked a little bit and are not the same, and by the way, if Addison ends up with Chris Godwin's numbers, 83 catches for a thousand yards at 12 receptions of pop. I mean, that's a more than ideal season for Jordan Addison, but you can kind of see the comparison because they had really no number three wide receiver. Their number three wide receiver at 39 catches. They leaned on their tight ends a bit. They leaned on their running backs a bit and just threw the ball over and over to wide receiver one and wide receiver two. And if it's the good case scenario, if you go nine and eight, your offense is somewhere in

the middle of the league. You're running the football a little bit more than Kevin O'Connell feels comfortable with and pushing it downfield to justin jefferson i think he would be disappointed in numbers like that because he's used to having historic numbers at the same time if you are getting 16 yards to catch out of him even if he's not getting as many targets i think that that's helping you win if you're still getting those explosive plays yeah it's kind of like it's almost kind of like randy moss's i mean randy moss's rookie year in 98 was absolutely historic but it's kind of the same thing like randy had he scored i think he had 17 touchdowns as a rookie i think he only had 69 catches you know maybe 13 1400 yards but to your point every catch that he made because there were so many deep passes um and even some of the short

passes you know like the play in dallas where he caught the the sort of the sideline pass from cunningham and then sprinted down the sideline for like an 80 yard touchdown you know there were so many of those type of plays for randy moss which you know you kind of look and say okay well he only caught 69 passes it could be a similar situation with Justin Jefferson. And also, I think something I didn't really think about, too, is you have Aaron Jones now and he's a guy that you can kind of throw the ball to out of the backfield as well. So I wonder if we'll kind of see a little bit more of that because we didn't, you know, the first two years under Kevin O'Connell, we didn't really see a lot of that. Certainly last year, we didn't see them throwing the ball to running backs a whole lot, maybe a little bit more in 2022 with Dalvin Cook. But, you know, Aaron Jones is a guy that we saw in Green Bay. You can throw

the ball to him and get him out in space and he can make some plays and make some things happen. So I think if Justin Jefferson can get to that 16 yards a catch type of threshold and have more explosive plays, then you're probably right. It probably will. It'll look a little different, but it will still be every bit as productive. Yeah, and I think with Aaron Jones, he is kind of what everyone always wanted delvin cook to be it felt like a classic off-season story every year well is delvin going to be more involved in the passing game and he just never was i don't think he had he would catch up a pass downfield

every once in a while but it seemed like they never had confidence of putting him in any type of downfield role in 2019 he did a lot of screen stuff but then they got worse at the screen stuff as it went along 2021 2022 was terrible with the screen game and he just never really came to fruition as that receiving back which i think aaron jones can and i also think ty chandler could catch the ball out of the backfield as well so if that ends up being being your distribution, if it's 79 to Jefferson and a lot of explosives and 80 to Addison, it's a lot of underneath and you've got 50 or 60 to the tight ends. Hockinson will probably come back middle of the season and then 60 more to Aaron Jones.

Like that's a good distribution for Sam Darnold, even though it doesn't result in just a Jefferson with enormous numbers. I still think he's going to get the ball Darnold, even though it doesn't result in Justin Jefferson with enormous numbers. I still think he's going to get the ball plenty. I just wonder if it's in a bit of a different form than it has been before from him. And you're going to have to find ways to get him the ball on some short stuff. But when I went back and looked at how Sam Darnold threw the ball to DJ Moore, it was a lot of shots down the field. And a lot of, if he got in trouble, he would just wing it

in the general direction of DJ Moore, which can work for you, uh, with Justin Jefferson. So let's get into some of these questions here. And then we've got some other things to talk about with Vikings giants. Uh, I want your all time favorite New York giants list. I'm very curious to hear who your favorite giants of all time were and we'll take anything else you guys got so i shot you 99 says what would you be your i'm surprised this happened and surprised this didn't happen for the team this year that's a good question what do you got for that manny i'm surprised this happened huh i think something that would probably surprise me is if well i think a big one is if if they just like win the division i think that would be a big that would be a major surprise

but i also think like if they get into the playoffs and like as a wild card and like win a game i think that would kind of surprise me i think they've got an outside chance of you know certainly i think they have a chance to be in the conversation late in the season for a playoff spot and an outside chance of getting in but if they get in at like nine and eight ten and seven and then go on the road against a division winner and win that would kind of shock me i think you know just because it's it's Darnold, right? And we're still not really 100% sold on him being a guy that can just be fantastic and lead a top-flight offense. We just haven't really seen him do that yet.

But I think there's a chance that you can get a little bit more out of him certainly than previous teams have and they can kind of be in the mix but they make the playoffs and win a game that would uh that would really surprise me um hmm the the surprise that this didn't happen is kind of hard because you know we have some expectations for this team but i'm still like i'm not sure exactly what to expect from this team exactly what what this team is going to look like so that's a it's a good question it's a great question but i just because there are still kind of a few unknowns i guess i guess one i could go with is if this defense is just like bad so like if this defense is like not good that would that would surprise me i think like i i think that there's enough on this defense to be you know to flirt with a top 10 spot and to give this team a chance to really win some games where the offense might struggle occasionally um if this

defense ends up like in the bottom third of the league, that would really surprise me. I am going to go with, uh, I would be surprised if, well, you could kind of use this either way. If it didn't happen, if they didn't clear six wins, if they didn't get to seven, eight or nine wins, I would be surprised if that happened or didn't happen, whichever phrasing you would prefer for that. I guess I was thinking this from a global and an individual standpoint. I would be surprised if Blake Brandel was a pro bowler or something like, Hey, there's gotta be, if you're going to go somewhere, you need someone to really surprise you. And I think about who on the roster that could be. If Stefan Gilmore is amazing and leads the league in interceptions, I would be surprised that that happened. Maybe level of surprise wouldn't be completely blown away because of his talent. But for someone who's 34 years old coming in, if he suddenly was the one that propelled the defense to a totally different

level but you could go deep surprise as in total shock hey if uh harrison phillips got nine sacks then i would be very surprised if a run stuffer ended up getting a ton of sacks so i guess we could do this on a on a sliding scale but if we're thinking about just the result of the season it would surprise me if they were as a team, if they were catastrophically bad and you can always have a quarterback injury, you can always end up playing Brett Rippon by week four or something. If yeah, that would not be ideal. If that ended up happening, that can always happen in the NFL. So you can't count it out. Also, I think just in general, as far as this

franchise goes saying what would surprise you at this point for even as long as I've been here for as long as you've lived here, nothing. I mean, what, how can I be surprised after 2016, my first year here, they go five and oh, and then miss the playoffs. And then the following season, they reached the NFC championship after I thought no way, are they even making the playoffs as soon as case Keenum went in and they end up with the Minneapolis miracle. I mean, we've just seen so many things happen that I don't think there's any way you can be terribly surprised by a lot of results, but I think with, um, with Darnold, it kind of is the same take as the entire team. I would be surprised if it's any extreme for him.

If it's extremely good, it's surprising. Or if it's worse than it's been before, or even if it's as bad as it's been before, that would also surprise me based on what I've seen in camp. Sorry, go ahead. No, I was just gonna say I I kind of echo the same thing like I can't imagine with this with the setup that this team is going to have offensively I I just would be really shocked to see like Jets Sam Donald that would be almost completely impossible with this setup but anyway how about this would you be surprised if at the

end of the season if it didn't happen an extension for Kevin O'Connell and quesia da flamenca of serious years into the future so not a one-year extension or something like that would it be surprising to you if they did not end up saying we're going into the future with these two guys so you're saying like if darnell plays poorly and they give koc and quasi an extension i just mean i just mean in general based on the results we think are going to happen would it surprise you if they got to the end of the year and the ownership said we're not going to extend them right now, or we're giving them a courtesy one-year extension. So they're not lame ducks.

If it was, if there was a situation where we could get to the end of the year and the ownership doubted where this thing was going enough to the point to not want to extend them long-term, that's what I mean. Yeah, mean yeah that that would that would surprise me because i i think it you know unless this becomes like a 4 and 13 3 and 14 type of situation where you because i think at that point even you and i would have some question marks about what's going on um but if this is if this is a even if this is like a 7-10 type of thing, I just don't think it would be a very good idea to not give these two guys, certainly KOC and extension, because I just think there's a real plan in place here, and I think you really need to give these guys an opportunity to see this out.

Let's see this J.J. McCarthy thing play out. Give them two or three years to kind of see his growth and development i mean if you if you go seven and ten and you don't give these guys an extension and you're going into 2025 with a lot of question marks that doesn't do anybody any good it doesn't do certainly doesn't do koc and quasi any good it doesn't really do the young quarterback any good because now there's uncertainty about like okay well if you move on and get another coach is that coach gonna want jj mccarthy or is he gonna want to go and to the draft again and get his own guy so i i would be kind of surprised by that and honestly i'd be kind of disappointed if they don't go that route of giving these guys some extensions again i think you got

to show it this year so show something this year don't let this year be a complete disaster but i think you got to give this whole operation this front office this process a chance to fully play out questions comments keep throwing them in there we will answer them through the night okay jp says jaylen naylor once again hurt opportunity for Tristan Jackson. I believe Powell will be more of a gadget player this year. Either way. I hope they run the ball more often. Well, we'll see if Naylor plays.

Uh, he's only limited in practice and he was out there jogging around. We shouldn't, he shouldn't tweak an ankle. And then we go, okay, he's made a glass. He doesn't want to play. It's over season over for Jalen Naylor. I think he'll be able to get out there this weekend and play, or at least even if he isn't a hundred percent, he'll be able to mix in. That's at least what it looks like right now.

That could change by game day, but we don't have to, in his first time on the injury report, lots of guys will show up on the injury report throughout an NFL season declare that his career is now over and he can't stay on the field just because of a limited tag on the injury report on a Thursday and maybe even Friday he'll be off we'll see about that but I think with these backup receivers Manny I'm just not putting big numbers on anybody. I'm not putting big numbers on Naylor, Jackson, Powell, uh, sure. Field. I think that Trent sure. Field's going to play quite a bit because he has experience and brings some good blocking to them. I just feel like we're going to get a lot of two tight ends and we're going to get a lot of throws toward Jefferson and toward Addison and the other guys will mix in. But if somebody

ends up with more than 35 catches, that's another receiver talk about being surprised that I would be surprised. I think Naylor can hit a few shots down the field. I think Shurfield could be a guy underneath and the same with Powell, but there's nobody here that I look at even Tristan Jackson and go, yeah, well, the guy had a great training camp. So now he's suddenly going to come in and be Jake Reed. That's that's just not the situation. And I don't feel like as of this moment, there is a KJ Osborne even here that they can trust consistently with the wide receiver three. It's going to be a lot of one, two throw to the running back underneath to Johnny Munt, underneath to Josh Oliver, underneath to Hockinson when he comes back, and then trying not to throw 50 passes a game.

The thing with Kirk Cousins and KOC together was if you're a weapon of theirs, you're going to get the football because there's a lot of football to go around. You know, that whole thing when a team has a lot of weapons and someone goes, man, it's too bad. There's only one football. It's like, yeah, well, in KOC's offense with Kirk, everybody got the football a lot. And I just don't know that it's going to be exactly that way with this team. I'm kind of envisioning, as you were talking about that, I was kind of envisioning kind of what Jarius Wright was in 2017. You know, I mean, a lot of the passes in 2017 went to kyle rudolph they went

to digs and feeling um and jarius wright was kind of like the third receiver but he i think he only had like maybe 20 catches that year i mean they didn't you know he had some big catches had some in the miracle game he had a couple nice catches in that in that game um but yeah for nailer jackson those guys i'm just not really expecting a lot of production from them if if we get anything from them it i think it might top out at like you said probably 35 maybe 40 catches if like you know jefferson or addison maybe miss a game or two, then, you know, they would kind of slide into that number two spot and maybe get a few more looks. But I can't imagine they would be super productive.

But I think the fact that we've kind of seen them do a little bit in preseason, certainly with Tristan Jackson, it kind of lets you know like, okay, they at least have somebody competent that can step in if, you know, Jefferson or Addison have to miss a game or two. I just feel like that Tampa Bay example is exactly what you can expect for. This is number one and number two with quarterbacks in this range. That is generally how it tends to work. But even as you mentioned, when it was dig stealing, that's how it was going all the time. It was thrown to wide receiver one and wide receiver one a over and over and over again. And then occasionally to Kyle Rudolph underneath,

and that's your passing offense. And if you have your choice of who to throw to, you're going to sneak Naylor in there every once in a while, but you want the ball going to the other two guys a lot more often, which leads me to be not that concerned about jaylen nailer because i think the guys behind him are all kind of on that very similar level and just to add on to what you said about jerry's right i think it was 17 receptions but it was the most talked about 17 receptions because every single one of them was enormous in that season. It was Mr. Third down and he would just show up and that's what really matters, right? Not exactly the volume of Jalen Naylor or Shurfield or Trisha Jackson. It's when they show up. Wade says,

question, how much did JJ McCarthy's injury help the likelihood of KOC and KAM extensions? I don't know how much it did because I can't play it out and see how it would have gone otherwise. If McCarthy had gone in there and looked terrible, then it wouldn't have helped at all. If he had looked great, then of course, I guess you're eliminating one of those possibilities. If McCarthy had come in and win 10 games, then KOC is your coach for the next five years after that, at least. But as far as him getting injured, I don't know that it changes a ton. It might actually hurt him in some ways because this opens the door for not only a season that's bad, but one that doesn't have hope vibes. If you were playing JJ McCarthy and you start off one

and six, and then you, or I'm sorry, if you're playing Sam Darnold and you start off one and six and then you put in JJ McCarthy, and even if you win four games, the rest of the way, he's going to look good at times. And you can always go back to that. Hey, I know we only won five games or six games this year, but did you see the flashes? You got to believe in that. You got to believe in us going forward. Whereas if you win five or six games with Sam Darnold, by the end of this thing, it's just going to be a nightmare. It's going to be so miserable going to the stadium for every Sunday at that point.

And there's not going to be anything to look forward to and go, yeah, but next week, you know, we get to see the rookie quarterback again. I don't know how much all of that plays into a contract extension. I just feel like it's so many bigger factors about how the organization is run in general. And I can understand where the Wilfs would want to see this year play out and just see another sample size season from Kevin O'Connell. But I think we know that the locker room is not going to turn. It's not going to turn into a toxic situation as it was in 2021. The team building has been good so far, I think to this point in executing their vision. I just am not really sure that that injury altered the extension situation I don't know if you feel

differently yeah no I agree I I mean I I kind of feel like like we said before you know if they go 3 and 14 I think everybody's gonna have some questions you and I will have questions the Wilson will have questions I think a lot of the fans will be like yo what the hell was that? And I think that would be if rather J.J. McCarthy was healthy or not. I mean, so I think ultimately what you're just kind of hoping for is that this team just can stay competitive, remain interesting for a majority of the season, even if they come up short of the playoffs. And then I think if that happens,

I think it will kind of proceed forward as we kind of expect, which is that KOC and Kwesi will get extensions after the season. Wade says the offensive line rules on the line of scrimmage will help Grenard, Van Ginkle, and Turner if the tackles can't line up at 45-degree angles. That does seem to be a point of emphasis now for the league Manny that they want offensive lines to look like offensive lines. And I watch old games. You watch old games. It is so much different from where the tackles used to

be on the line of scrimmage to where now they're playing way back. And it does help edge rushers in the NFL, just in general about, you know, coming off, coming off the edge, I think. And that's why they started doing it was to try to get that extra step. The kick return so far has done absolutely nothing. There's been a couple of kneel downs here. It looks to me, and there was a comment earlier, I'm sorry, I scrolled by it, but it looks to me like they are going to have to make it the 35 on the kneel down if they want this play to actually be a play because it sounds like a lot of teams are just going to kick it in the end zone teams are going to kneel down and everyone's going to punt on this play being a big impact thing matt daniels has said

that he thinks that it can be but if they're going to handle it this way, as Baltimore and Kansas City are, because there's so much uncertainty, then maybe we're not going to see the return of all the great kick returners of our life's past, Manny. Yeah, and the other thing that I, you know, I applaud the league for trying different things to see if it can change

and maybe bring some excitement to the kick return. Because like you, I'm kind of an old school person with football. I like kick returners being a factor in games because we've seen so many great ones over the years. And we're about the same age growing up and seeing. Obviously, Devin Hester is one of the goats but guys like dante hall and and um and uh some of the other guys uh was it brian mitchell with the eagles and and washington for a while was really good yep um so i kind of miss that and i want to see that but it's it's hard to really it's hard to really know if there's really anything that they can do at this point to kind of miss that and i want to see that but it's it's hard to really it's hard to really know if there's really anything that they can do at this point to kind of bring those days back because

you know kickers are just blasting this football into the back of the end zone even with the with the change rules now i think if it doesn't work sorry the ravens just ran a very goofy play on fourth down if it doesn't work like this just end the kickoff all together just call it a day say we tried no more kick returns there's so many of the past so many here Percy Harvin Cordero Patterson uh even in the division the Mel Grays of the world I mean just a lot of a lot of fun players that carved out niches for themselves and even Kenny Wong Wu for a little bit there uh as it was on its way to a complete death, even he showed some excitement of how good that play can be. But if this is what it's going to look like, just end it, just start every drive, just start

at the 25 and let's not talk about it anymore. And I will be sad, but I just don't want to waste my time. I don't want every kickoff to be all the fans just get up and go get a soda or go to the bathroom or something during the kickoff. And that's what it's become. And that's what it's been here on opening night so far. Matt says no offense to KOC because I think he's a good coach, but him running more than 45% of the time would be really surprising. The KOC run the ball challenge. Let's put a mark on it. What would you be impressed by? KOC's development as an offensive play caller, and we have to acknowledge too, when you have one of the worst yards per carry averages in the league. Now, Dave Canales,

as I showed you, even though his running back was average of 3.6, he stuck with it in Tampa Bay. And I think there is something to that. If the defense knows that you will stay with it, you can build stuff off of it. There is a benefit, but I understand why he didn't want to trust Alexander Madison much. But my issue with him was even when Madison was doing well, he would still go back to the past over and over again is it is it 40 should we make it 45 the koc run the ball challenge can he get over the season plus 45 of running the football i think he can but i think it's gonna have to be a situation where the Vikings are getting a lead in games and having a, you know, a substantial lead in the second half of games to where it's like, all right, yeah, we're

going to run the ball here, try to control the clock and get out of here with a win. Otherwise, yeah, it just feels like, as you say, he's just going to keep, just going to keep pushing that pass button. Just like he's got a, it's like he's got a PlayStation controller in front of him and he's just hitting the X button, which is the pass button, just over and over and over again. You get it. I mean, it's a passing league now.

He's a quarterback. He's a former quarterback himself. He's an offensive guy. But I think I would like to see this running game be a lot more efficient because I think, you know, if I think we really want to see them get the most out of Sam Darnold, I think that's going to be a big part of it is having a good running game and not have Sam Darnold in situations where he's got to kind of do it all himself you know where you've got third and 15 third and 16 type of situations i think at times you could maybe count on kirk cousins a little bit more to do to come through in situations like that certainly not all the time um but i think it would be harder for a guy like sam donald to really come through in situations like that and I think to avoid those things, you're going to have to have an efficient running game. Yeah, no, I, I agree with you that, uh, they must be aware that they have to run the ball successfully in order to have a good offense, just period. You're not going to lean on your

quarterback all season long, make the playoffs that way. I don't know that that means that they're going to be a run first type of team or that they're going to go over even 45%. I would advise it, but also you have to understand. I just think that when it comes to running the football, there's something that requires a deeper understanding of how to coach the offensive line to do this, what type of schemes match up against what types of fronts. And if there isn't a person who is really your expert, and that goes back to the Alex Gibbs thing for those Shanahan teams and the Kubiak and all that. And it's just such a, such a good example that you could go to because it was here and we saw it and we still see it. Stefanski runs the ball successfully in Cleveland. So if your thing is kind of old school in a way, run and shoot where, uh, you know, Kevin Gilbride's passing the ball over and over again, uh, which got him whacked on the sideline by it. Was it a

buddy? Ryan smacked him on the sideline. Um, that is going way back. You've got to be quite old or an NFL historian to remember that. But the point just being that those old run and shoot teams, that's what they would do. They would just pass and pass and pass. They'd run a delay and then they'd pass some more. I think that is more of KOC. And I will say overall in the big picture, when McCarthy arrives, when you're designing your offense of the future, I want that to be their

offense. Mahomes, just a breathtaking third and 12 completion, by the way. I want that to be their offense. I want it to lean into the quarterback. I don't want it to be a conservative run first type of thing. I think it's this year where you're taking a little bit of a deviation from what you, yeah, there you go. You saw it. Yeah yeah i'm about 15 seconds behind you but my goodness wow yeah yeah he's back football is officially back when uh that play happens although this year manny we may see a quarterback scramble and make some plays unlike historically from you and i watching this team in most recent uh years i but the 45% challenge will be in place. I just think as far as scoring the most points in the future, his philosophy is right to pass a lot more.

And I remember we talked about it. If you're going to have Kirk lean into him, KOC did, they had a lot of success doing it. So it's not really an overall criticism as much as, well, you need to be better when you do run it and this year you probably have to do it more than you're comfortable with okay that that's a lot of the vikings run game to talk about uh derrick says a question for manny the new york giant with the most rushing touchdowns i assume this means of all time i don't know the answer to this. Is it Frank Gifford? I'll find this out. Oh, that's a great question.

First person that came to mind was Tiki Barber, but I don't think Tiki ran for that many touchdowns, to be totally honest. And Tiki also didn't play very long. By the way, the all-time leader, these are two different answers, but the all-time leader these are two different answers but the all-time leader is frank gifford for uh touchdowns for the giants so that's a long time ago that i did not actually see this one is uh fairly recent is it like brandon jacobs or something it is there you go nailed it there you go don't don't test the steel trap uh

Aaron says uh do we expect Flores's defense to start slow a lot of new guys what do you think uh maybe maybe but I I think you know I think facing Daniel Jones out of the gate, I think could, could help the defense get off to a pretty good start. Um, you know, and then we'll kind of see how it plays out after that. I mean, it's a tough matchup with San Francisco week too, but, um, yeah, I, I, I think they'll get off to a decent start. I think there'll be all right. It's really about the number of veterans that they have in this defense. This is a weird situation with the Vikings in general, because I feel like the way that a lot of people are talking about this team as if they are rebuilding in some ways.

And I was just texting with a friend about this, about rebuilding. What should we really call this? And I compared it to having a bunch of projects around the house to be done and some of them are done and look great and you're very happy with where the house is getting to but there's also sawdust and piles of wood and you know stuff on the ground everywhere because you're not done fixing the projects but you gotta have you gotta live in the house you can't just put it on pause and go to a hotel, you got to live in the house. You can't just put it on pause and go to a hotel. You've got to live in this house. That is the Vikings roster for this

year. But the defense has a ton of experience. Dallas Turner and Ivan Pace are really the only young players here. Everybody else, Phillips, Buller, the defensive line, Van Ginkle, these guys have all been around in the league. And what they're trying to do here is build a defense that could be good for several years. And Grenard's got a four-year contract. I think Van Ginkle and Cashman are on two-year deals. For their age is probably a good choice. They're going to have to replace some stuff after this year, the cornerback room, you could probably keep Stefan Gilmore if he's really good and he wants to play another season and you end up liking how it looks. But for the most part, this is a very experienced and veteran defense that I think can jump right out onto the field

and be completely fine to start the season. And as you mentioned, yes, they're playing Daniel Jones. It's a great opportunity for everybody to get, uh, ramped up. Uh, Tim says, uh, hard choice to go away with the, from the past with Jefferson. If they try to run more, uh, he might be even more successful. I want to make a comparison with this, which is in basketball. Sometimes if you pass it to someone else, and this is Anthony Edwards, I've really, really honed in on this idea with Anthony Edwards. If you come down the floor with a basketball and you pass to someone else, so often the ball gets back to you in just the general way that the ball movement ends up working when you're the star players. If you try to just dribble and dribble and dribble

and then shoot, it's not a high efficiency shot all that often and of course edwards can make any shot but i think when he started to really take the next step was when he would come down the floor and he would deliver the ball to mike connelly and then go go move and get through some picks and force somebody to run with him it feels the same way with passing to a star wide receiver where you think that you should just keep throwing that wide receiver over and over but sometimes if you let the ball end up back to him by working it to other people and by running the ball it ends up playing out a lot better than it might if you were just trying to go to that person over and over again and will koc actually understand it i guess we'll figure that out but i did want to ask you a question just about this Giants game, Manny,

which is I have it written down and it's on my phone. So now I'm opening it. So then I can tell you what that question is. Oh, I know what it was. Your number one factor for this game. What is your number one factor? We get to do win loss factors nfl factors do do do do do do do do what's your right yeah nfl factors with manny hill um that

could be a thing we do every week yeah what's your factors uh well i kind of hinted at it already i think it's the biggest factors for the vikings defense to really get off to a good start and this is an opportunity for them against a quarterback who is not good and really has never been good ever on save for playoff games against ed donatel's defense um you know i i think this is an opportunity for them to get off to a really good start. And, you know, it's the first week of the season. We typically see that defenses are a little bit ahead of offenses at the start of the year because a lot of number ones don't play in the preseason. And so those first couple of weeks, offenses are still trying to get trying to find that groove. So it might be a situation where the Vikings defense has a better day than the Vikings offense does. Vikings still, I think, would win the football game. But, you know, this could be like a 20 to 13 type of type of game. And I think that would mean a good performance for the defense and we

know you know i just called daniel jones a bad quarterback 30 seconds ago and he is a bad quarterback um but we know that like one of the things we saw from him in that playoff game two years ago was he can he can run the ball he's a good enough athlete to kind of hurt you with his legs a little bit as well and i think that's going to be a key for the Vikings defense to just not, not let him pick up, keep easy first downs by just, you know, running with his legs and everything and, and, you know, sustaining drives and things like that. I'd say rattle him early, get to him early. You get to Daniel Jones early and it's a wrap and you've got him.

And at that point you can kind of cruise to a victory. So I think that's going to be the number one factor for me as a Vikings defense, getting off to a good start. And if they do that, I think they'll easily win this game. I even want to take it a step further, specifically someone like Andrew Van Ginkle, who has been a big player for them in training camp after he recovered from his foot injury and surgery that he had but i saw the immediate impact of him when it came to sax turnovers coverage he just does so much where he had i think something like 147 snaps where he was dropping back and 300 snaps where he was rushing the passer so you don't know where he's going to be 300 snaps where he was rushing the passer. So you don't know where he's going to be.

And one night, Sam Darnold threw an interception to him where he just assumed that he was rushing and then threw the ball directly into him, which is not good for Sam Darnold. And always goes for camp picks because you're like, well, great play to bet. Oh, bad throw. But in this case, it was just an example of what you can do with Van Ginkle. And I think if he is in Daniel Jones's head, because unlike when he played at Donatello, where everyone just lined up in the same spot, never moved, dropped back deep in coverage and said, yes, certainly, please complete all the passes right in front of us.

They're not going to do that now. They're going to have so many moving parts and the moving parts of the defense would be a major factor for me. Of course, it's the star players, the quarterback and how everybody performs. But if we're getting more specific than that, looking at a swing player, I think probably Andrew Van Ginkle could be that player. I think it's time, Manny, for you to give your favorite Giants. We got into Brandon Jacobs and Frank gifford getting a mention i i have to

know this is something that we do almost every week unless we're talking about the packers or the bears but when it's a team that is not in the division i need to know you as an nfl historian your five favorite new york giants of all time all right so i'm going to count them down from five to one and i'm gonna start with number five let me get you some music here here we go there we go nice love it all right number five favorite new york giant of all time this might this is a name that might surprise you dave maggot oh yeah we're talking kick return yeah great great returner running back could catch the ball yeah and i was looking up his, you know, I was thinking about him earlier today,

and I was looking up his numbers. He only ran for, I think he had 1,686 career rushing yards total. He played in the league for like eight or nine years. But, you know, he actually ended up having more receiving yards as a catcher out of the backfield than he did on the ground. And he was just kind of that multi-tool type of guy you mentioned as a kick returner um could catch the ball out of the backfield he was kind of like he kind of reminded me of a lot of like you know vikings fans older

vikings fans will remember you know david palmer what david palmer kind of was vikings offense back in the 90s number 22. yeah that's right you know know, Dave Meggett was kind of that David Palmer type of guy. He could do a little bit of everything, just get the ball in his hands and good things could happen. So love Dave Meggett. Number four, Amani Toomer. Just the consummate pro wide receiver. And you go back, you know, when they won the Super Bowl

and beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, you know, he was kind of towards the tail end of his career. I think he only played one more season after that. But if you go back to the years before that, there was like a four or five-year stretch there where Armani Toomer was a really productive, really good wide receiver. And again, just a consummate professional, one of the real leaders in that locker room when that team won that Super Bowl. So Amani Toomer is my number four. Number three is not my favorite Giant of all time, but I think he's the greatest Giant player of all time, and that's LT. It's Lawrence Taylor.

Of course. Yeah, Lawrence Taylor, just an absolute menace on the football field we've heard bill belichick you know just rave about lawrence taylor for so many years um just on how great of a player he was and he was that guy that just literally struck fear in every offensive player all 11 offensive players were terrified of lawrence taylor uh coming off the edge and making things happen. So I heard Belichick the other day saying that the second best player that he felt he ever had was Rodney Harrison. He didn't even have to say number one.

We knew exactly that he meant Lawrence Taylor. And one of the cool things about YouTube that I just cannot get enough of and probably probably don't produce enough work because of sometimes is all the old games that you can go watch and all the old NFL films features. And the more that I've been able to discover about Lawrence Taylor, it's like everything I knew about him. It's even crazier how talented he is. The statistics don't even begin to tell the story with him. You have to put him on any new york giants list absolutely all right number two for me is eli manning and the reason why is eli manning there were so many reasons to rip eli manning you know there were a lot of

interceptions i think he was roughly around500 in his career as a starter. You know, the whole thing of, you know, getting drafted by the Chargers and not wanting to play for them and that trade to the Giants, all of that stuff makes it kind of easy to rip Eli Manning. But then it just, all of that gets usurped by him beating Bill Belichick and Tom Brady in the Super Bowl twice. Those two playoff runs were unbelievable. The guy was much more of a winner than I think he gets credit for.

And he was just, in those moments, when they were going on those two Super Bowl runs, he was just magnificent. Won a Super Bowl MVP both times, if I'm not mistaken. Just fantastic. And him and his brother, what they do on Monday Night Football now, too, is a lot of fun and entertaining and fun. So Eli Manning is number two on my favorite Giants of all time.

I think when you say get credit for it, it depends on who you're talking about. If it's people from New York, that's all they talk about with eli manning what i think he doesn't get a lot of credit for is the league really changed statistically during his career and by the end when he wasn't good anymore his statistics were bad but early in his career they used to throw the ball down the field more they used to run and they used to run play actions and throw deep down the field. And that was just the NFL at that time. And his average depth of target, his aggressiveness, all those things have to play in. Sometimes I think people look at quarterback rating and go, ah, you know, you look at John Elway's quarterback rating and it's not that great because the guy threw the ball down the field a lot. He was aggressive. They were a

little more comfortable with interceptions back then as sort of a fact of life of passing the football, where modern football in 2024 is much more protect the ball, don't turn it over, don't take risks. And if Manning was losing in a game, he was going to keep taking shots. He wasn't going to protect his stats because I don't think he cared about that. But I did a little bit of a statistical look at him a few years ago, early in his career, because he was consistently in the top 10 during that time. And then the playoff runs.

And that's the one thing I always go back to with Manning when I defend him on the show is he doesn't have to give them back just because you say he's overrated. And if a Vikings quarterback won two Super Bowls in the way that he did, you'd have a statue. You'd rename it US Bank Stadium brought to you by Eli Manning. And you'd have people. People were putting Nas Reid's name on their bodies. What do you think they'd do if Eli Manning had won the Super Bowl for this team? You can never downplay how great that was.

You can't go, well, you know, other than the time he was unbelievable. That's like saying, hey, other than those Mr. October home runs from Reggie Jackson, he was just OK. Like, yeah, that that matters a lot. So he's he's one of my favorite historic players, because I also think the way he handled himself in new york through some tough times early in his career uh has broken other people so what do you got number two number one i'm down to number one but one more quick note on eli manning too i think vikings fans should appreciate eli manning a little bit more too because if it wasn't for him the packers might have two more lombardi trophies that's's true. Just throwing that out there. That's true.

And it was at Lambeau both times, right? Yeah. So it was the NFC Championship game the first time and then divisional round the second time. And that was that 15-1 Packers team in 2011. So, all right. Number one for me is Michael Strahan. And I think, obviously, Hall of Famer, great pass rusher, one of the best defensive ends ever, went out on a high note, winning that first Super Bowl for the Giants and then retired after that.

That was his last game. And I think, really, Michael Strahan, what he has become and what his life has become, like, after football, he's become a television personality, hosting talk shows. He's obviously still an analyst for fox as well for many years i just think that the the way he has you know carried himself and been you know a a giant's lifer you know played his whole career with the giants um i i just think it's really cool and really awesome and he's just uh turned himself into a pretty good, pretty good entertainer on TV as well. So Michael Strand is my number one.

A very, very likable, entertaining player and probably didn't deserve that last sack on Brett Favre, but one of the greatest pass rushers of all time. I would toss in, I loved Rodney Hampton back in the day. He was that pound, grounded pound type of guy, couple wide receivers. You know, if Plexiglas burst head and shot himself really,

really good, really good wide receiver. Plexiglas burst was great for those teams. Victor Cruz was a lot of fun. Might depend on what kind of guy you are, whether you liked Jeremy Shockey or not, but he was a heck of a football player. Maybe not always the guy that

you exactly wanted to be around. They also had great offensive lines when they won those Super Bowls. And those guys, I think were a main part of why Eli Manning was able to push the ball down the field as much as, as he did. And Tiki Barber, another guy, after he said that Eli Manning couldn't win, it wasn't a great leader. And then he won two Super Bowls. He looks so bad and so stupid after saying that, but he was a great player. He was one of those because I've always had a thing because I grew up with watching Thurman Thomas.

I've always had a thing for the all around back, always been big with the all around back. And that was Tiki Barber. And if you're looking for an aaron jones comp for someone who went into their late 20s and 30s um that's a good one so uh before you go manny what do you think what do you think gonna win yeah gonna lose i think they're win i think you know i i just don't i don't think theants are going to be very good. I've kind of soured on Brian Dable as a head coach.

I think things went so bad last year. This guy was the coach of the year. His first year as head coach and winning one playoff game here. But last year was just such a disaster. And Daniel Jones is just not good. And I think the Vikings take care of business. It's, it may not be a blowout.

Like I kind of pointed out maybe like a 20 to 13, 20 to 10 type of game. But I think the Vikings are going to come away with a win. If they don't. Might be a little bit worried considering the following games after that. That was the other thing I wrote down as far as things for us to talk about is what if they don't pull this out? But I think we all know the answer to that is it gets bleak very fast.

And this is my one thing for the season. So it's always my approach is as is evidence i cover this team no matter what happens i've covered one in five stretches i've covered the nfc championship i'll be here tomorrow no matter what happens when they when monday morning murph will happen after the game i don't shut purple inside or down if it's not a good season but I want it to be a season. I think that's what everybody is nervous about with the start of this thing is just let it, let it be a season. Let it be something entertaining. Let it be something fun. Let players have big seasons and not be an injury festival and not be a disappointment and not be talking about the draft when we get to,

I don't know, November and let, let it, let it be playoff scenarios and in the hunt. And if they win this game and this team loses the game, it could actually be fun this year. If that's the case, it's been so miserable to do that in years past. I snarked about it endlessly. Oh, you're in the hunt again. Congratulations. But this year, if they get there with Darnold, it could be fun. It could be a reinvigoration or an invigoration, I guess, of his career. But if it goes sideways on Sunday and they lose to the Giants and then we're coming back talking about, well, here's Kyle Shanahan and all the superstars couldn't beat Daniel Jones so but once upon a time Chris Winky won his first game against the Vikings and then never won again so I was at that game did I ever tell you I was I was at no you didn't tell me so quick story before I go I was at that game

we were on the field at one of those like field in the corner of the end zone seats. And because you remember Steve Smith, rookie Steve Smith, took the opening kickoff of the season back for a touchdown. And you, Collar, you could hear. Mind you, this is the Vikings, 2001, the Vikings are coming off a trip to the NFC Championship game, a game that didn't go very well it's 41 donut but there was there was a lot of hype with this team um you know still going into

the season because this was thought that okay this team can still compete steve smith brought that opening kickoff back for a touchdown you could hear a pin drop in the metrodome after that and uh it was uh it was a uh telling sign of how that season was gonna go what what a cra i mean it's such such a crazy result that i still remember it to this day i mean i don't know that there's any other game that was a surprising week one result that would have been so shocking it would stick in my mind george seifert was the head coach of the Panthers. Yeah. George Seifert two times Superbowl winning coach with the 49ers. George Seifert went one in 15. Absolutely crazy. Unreal. Absolutely crazy. Yeah. Uh, well, good times, Manny. Uh, we

will have a football game to break down next Monday night when you and I talk again every Monday and Thursday night. Well, I got the TV over here. We'll be watching the games, having our Vikings conversation, and we will see what is next with this football team. So good stuff, Manny. And I will talk to you on Monday. Football. Football.

We'll see you later, man. Thanks for doing this. Got it. All right. Well, hold on. Let me put my head. Whoop. All right. Who's got questions? Anybody want to talk football? I will chat for maybe another half hour, but I know what you guys

have been waiting for, which is the ad reads. I know that that's what nobody reminded me again in the chat, really just failing the show. Thanks everyone. But I remembered to remind you that U.S. Cellular noticed the way that we use our phones has gotten ironic. We put our phones down for dinner, but the menu's on a QR code. That is ironic. We hit like on social media posts we don't actually like. Also ironic, which is why U.S. Cellular created UsMode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less. Ironically, a phone company wanting people to use their phones less.

That's ironic. Let's find us again with Us Mode from US Cellular. Visit uscellular.com slash built for us to get started. And folks, you don't want to pay attention here. There is a very important deal that underdog fantasy is running. Okay. Saturday for midnight Eastern until the game start, they are going to have four discounts on players from your favorite teams in college football, midnight to game time on Saturday underdog is discounting the dog. So they're going to have a promo there. Ifdog is discounting the dogs.

So they're going to have a promo there. If you go to where the college football is on the pick them at underdog fantasy, you'll see it. It'll say discounts. Click it. Lots, lots of good deals there. You want to go to that on Saturday, discount the dogs and use the promo code purple to claim your special pick and first time deposit up offer up

to $1,000 in bonus cash must be 18 or older terms apply concerned with your play call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit ncpgambling.org. So that's what you're going to want to do on Saturday. I've been looking through the college football for this week, and there are some very exciting matchups. Jeremiah Searles and I talked earlier about a dog related team in the Wolfpack, but you know who's got my attention and I'm not looking at quarterbacks. Okay. JJ McCarthy's the guy, but as far as college football goes, Quinn Ewers is a really entertaining quarterback, and he looked like he's made some progress for this year. And his higher or lower number is 238.5 yards passing against Michigan. This is the matchup of the week. You're going to want to get it on this one. I'm going with Quinn Ewers needs to pass for more than 238.5 yards going with the higher on this one for Quinn Ewers.

It will be quite a matchup there. Also with Donovan Edwards 0.5, a rushing or receiving touchdown. Uh, I'm going to go higher on that as well. That one I think is going to be an extremely fun game, but make sure you go check out all those dog discounts at a underdog fantasy and use that promo code purple because that helps the show. Uh, okay. Zoomer Kev says 50 bold predictions. I have not put out the article yet. I've, I started making it, but then stuff happens like my job, bold prediction. I'll try to get it by Sunday. There's only going to be two games before Sunday, but if you guys have bold predictions, I would love to hear them. And we could talk about some of them and maybe I will potentially steal some for this year.

But my bold predictions, I just haven't gotten around to the list. I usually make it every year. Aaron says a pie chart time, playoffs, win playoff, lose first round sub six win season. Oh, so there's nothing in the middle. You're saying pie chart with not the outcomes that everybody thinks the Vikings are going to have. I like it. This is a good idea. Aaron playoffs with a win losing the first round or a sub six win season. I'm going to go. How about if I can only use these outcomes? So you went into the future and said, one of these three outcomes happen, not eight, nine missed the playoffs. And I got to guess which one is the most likely. Unfortunately, sub six win season would seem to be the most likely based on what Vegas thinks.

And based on the fact that if Sam Darnold were to get hurt, they would be in a lot of trouble with their backup quarterback situation. And just with the schedule, you could start off really poorly. Even if Darnold plays okay, that is the most likely scenario here, but I'm not going to go wild with sub six win because I've picked them to win nine games. So I can't say, oh yeah, well, actually this is the most likely scenario here, but I'm not going to go wild with sub six win because I've picked them to win nine games. So I can't say, oh yeah, well, actually, this is the most likely of the three by far. Logically, it is the most likely of the three though.

So I will go, how about 40% sub six win season? And no, I've got to go even higher than that. I'll go 50 sub six win season, 40 playoffs with a loss in the first round and 10 playoffs with a win in the first round. If those are the only three outcomes that we could potentially have here this year, just because anything kind of goes sideways for this team team where it looks right now with Aaron Jones, with the way Darnold practiced with Jefferson, with Addison should be okay. It should be competitive. I think that's my feeling coming out of camp. I've told you this guy before guys that I've had a feeling

about teams before coming out of camp that I think has been fairly accurate to where they've been. And you can never predict what's going to happen, but coming out of camp in i think has been fairly accurate to where they've been and you can never predict what's going to happen but coming out of camp in 17 looking around the roster this thing is pretty good uh and then the most surprising was 2022 but the vibes were so good in 2022 because zimmer was gone everyone was connecting with koc right away he was was the good cop. The bad cop was gone. And I would have never predicted all those one score wins. But even if we chopped down a few of the one score wins that were random, they still would have been a playoff team. And I think that team was worthy of that. The vibes coming out of this, despite the bad injuries of Makai Blackman and JJ McCarthy,

feel like pretty good based on what everyone's seen from Darnold and based on how good the defense has looked. That makes me think that losing in the first round of the playoffs is almost equal to having a really bad season, but going anywhere deep into the playoffs, that would be pretty, pretty difficult. See, this is proof that you guys watch slash listen every night. Wade, if Zimmer can be explained by Citizen Kane or there will be blood, what movies explain KOC? Those things, that has to come to me organically. It's usually something that I've run across or read not too long ago or stuck with me

for some reason. I don't know. With Kevin O'Connell, it would have to be a movie with a character, and maybe there's something that fits this, who tries as hard as he can to always stay on the optimistic side, no matter what comes his way, no matter if it's a quarterback injury or another quarterback injury or a losing streak that last year, even when they had a losing streak and they started off, was it Owen three? He was saying to us and saying to the team guys, when I was with the Rams and we won the Superbowl in the middle of the season, we lost three games and we still won the Superbowl three games in a row. And he's always looking for angles to try to spin things in a direction of we can do it. We can make it.

It's going to go our way if we just do the right things. And in football, you can't really will it to happen. And it, and it really beats you down. But the fact that he is still that, and I wrote an article about this last year and asked a bunch of people about him just being this energy, constant, positive energy guy, and always believing that the next play is the one that's going to work and the type of value to that. I mean, at times I've wondered, does he need to be even more critical? Does he even need to be a little more on the downside when it comes to getting in players faces? And do you praise everybody to the point where they don't know what they need to do better? Because you're telling them that they're great all the time. I don't know how that works in that dynamic

behind the scenes. If you can communicate the, uh, the messages. Oh, okay. Jonathan Harrison says that I'm describing Ted Lasso. Is that right? I have not seen Ted Lasso because I just don't get a lot of chances to watch much television. I catch house hunters from time to time. And I've seen the Sopranos and the wire and breaking bad and better call Saul. And that's about it. Uh, Oh, okay. Chris. Oh, this is good. This is good. Zoomer Kev, Chris Traeger on parks and rec. I've seen Parks and Rec. That's right. That's really good. That's really good.

If you guys watch Parks and Rec, Chris Traeger on Parks and Rec, always energetic, always super positive. And even at times where things go very bad for him, he's always trying to be the one who pushes people back to that. It's going to go our way. We're going to work this out. That's pretty good. And I think as a team is long and it's important that they have these veteran players, because as long as you have veteran players, you don't need someone to push veteran players. You don't need Jonathan Grenard, who just got this huge contract and has worked

his butt off to get 12 sacks last season. You don't need that guy to be pushed by a coach. And that was, I think something that veteran players got very frustrated by with Mike Zimmer. We don't need you to tell us what's wrong all the time. I'm Adam feeling or something, right? I've been in the league forever. I know what I did right and wrong. And I think Kevin O'Connell needs that in the locker room. And he needs those players to also push the younger players as well and help them understand how they're supposed to carry themselves and play because they're not going to have a head coach that is just going to drive into the ground, the things that they can't do well, which it can be frustrating for players. But also I think there is such a thing as if you are super critical, you can hold your players to

a pretty high standard and push them to get better and better. It's a, it's a delicate mix, but that constant positive energy from O'Connell resonates really well with guys who've been in the league because they feel like he respects that we're veteran players and we know what we're doing. So he doesn't have to tell us every single time a mistake was made. He knows that if it's Justin Jefferson, he knows that Justin Jefferson is going to correct that the next time and work. And it seems like he has trust in his assistant coaches, uh, especially Keenan McArdle, Josh McCown. There's a,

there's a lot of things that Kevin O'Connell does from the leadership perspective that I think really do resonate well with just people in general. Let's see. Wade says more serious question. What are some key week one personnel matchups you need to win? Let me call it my giants depth chart here. So I've got it in front of me. Giants depth chart football. Um, well, I mean, we could go all the way through the field for key matchups and I've got a podcast

tomorrow night with Andrew Kramer that we recorded today out of TCO about really the hardcore matchups. But since you asked, I mean, number one is Dexter Lawrence against the interior line, but I'll throw out there. We've talked about that a lot, but I'll throw out there. How about every other receiver that is not Malik neighbors against the Vikings coverage and secondary, because they have some good ones. They have, uh, uh, Jalen Hyatt, who I think is a very good player, uh, and, uh, has a chance to be

a serious deep threat for this team. Wandale Robinson is kind of interesting to me. He's never really broken out. I'm looking at his stats now, but he had 60 catches last year he had 500 plus yards that's pretty good for him so they've had some guys darius slayton has had good years before they have enough good young wide receivers around malik neighbors to be dangerous for daniel jones and this is why i don't want to quite go there as far as laughing at Daniel Jones. Oh, well, he's, you know, he's really bad. I think he's not good, but also don't we talk about, Hey, Sam Darnold could be pretty good because he's got these receivers. They're probably saying the same thing over there in the New York giants. Daniel Jones could have his best year because he's had no wide receivers around him at all so not just malik neighbors but everybody

else last year if a team had good receivers it was just good night for the minnesota vikings because they couldn't cover now they've got veteran corners can they cover a little bit more and i think that they should be able to but they they're young and the Vikings corners are not young. Shaq Griffin and Stefan Gilmore. All right. If anybody has any more questions, I will answer. If not,

then this will be the last live show before a football game, unless something happens. I don't ever want to jinx it because stuff tends to happen to the Minnesota Vikings, but, um, we're ready to go. Make sure you go over to purple insider.com and check out for sure. Uh, the writing that I've done this week, I'm working on something about personnel groupings and how I expect to see more big meaty dudes on the field this year for the Vikings. Got some really cool data from Sumer sports,er sports in this article that I'm working

on. There's going to be a Friday mailbag. So I'm just excited to get going, excited to go to East Rutherford. And I will be there with Dane Mizutani post game in the press box at the giant stadium. And then in a hotel at the Newark airport on Monday morning for Monday morning Murph.

And then back here for the evening show with Manny. Yeah, it's going to be exciting, exciting couple of days. So thank you all for such a great run up to this with all the awesome live chats, all the questions, all the fun that we've had. And I cannot wait to go forward. And just a reminder of the schedule. We'll have the game day pod, the Monday morning Murph, the Manny at the, in the evening, and then Jeremiah Searles with Tuesday morning left guard, which is often played

on YouTube in the evening. Cause it's ironic, just like us cellular. And then a Wednesday is, is the big chat. That's when I get a lot of stuff from TCO performance center, come home, answer all your questions. So that's what it's going to be pretty much every week going forward, unless it's a weird week or bi-week or something. So thanks everybody so much for watching and listening. And we will talk to you all very soon. Come on, say it, say it. Football.