Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Kellen Mond says Vikings wanted Derek Carr (seriously) (Part 1)

Episode Date: February 13, 2026

Matthew Coller talks about former quarterback Kellen Mond saying the Vikings wanted Derek Carr in 2023 when he signed with the New Orleans Saints. Will they want Carr to be the QB in 2026? The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

everybody welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fandul, Matthew Collar here. And, well, we'll start the show in a place that I got to say I didn't really expect to begin today's discussion, which is with Kellyn Mond. Yeah, that's right. I mean, and not in some sort of conversation about, hey, remember that guy played for the Minnesota Vikings, but somehow in a relevant tweet about the Minnesota Vikings current. quarterback situation. We'll get into it. And of course, your questions, comments, thoughts, feelings about where the Minnesota Vikings stand and the QB discussion will carry on. I've got a few updates on that, but there's also plenty of room to talk about just about anything here on a beautiful Thursday night that feels like spring is finally a little bit in the air. So why not? When

spring is in the air, it's time for NFL rumor. when we're done with NFL games and we haven't gotten quite to the part where we see NFL transactions. So let's just get right into it. Kellyn Mond, uh, tweeted today. And Mond has been active recently on social media. He had a very long LinkedIn story. That's right, LinkedIn about Mike Zimmer not too long ago. And it wasn't anything that you didn't already know about Kellyn Mond and Mike Zimmer.

But today, he quote tweeted. a Vikings Twitter page, a fan page, literally called fan page, that said the Vikings are listed as one of four potential landing spots for Derek Carr, according to NFL.com. Okay. And Kellyn Mon quote tweeted that and said they wanted him in 2023. Might be tough to pull him out of retirement though. What else do you know, Kellyn Mon? That's what I want to know. What else is Kell and Mon holding out on us. Does he now just scroll and say, I'm just going to put it out there. Here's everything I know.

It's been long enough that people may have forgotten about my time in Minnesota. So I've got to remind them that I was there. And here's a juicy little nugget for you guys to chew on. Well, thank you, Kell and Mond. I appreciate that because it opens up a discussion about Derrick Carr and the Minnesota Vikings. So let me take you back to. 2003. If you recall, Kirk Cousins had had a very good 2020 season in which he won 13 games and led, what was it, eight fourth quarter comebacks for the Minnesota Vikings. And then, you know,

they came up short in the playoffs. And the Vikings and cousins in that off season were negotiating for a new contract. My understanding from that off season was that they were fairly close on a new contract, which would have made sense, right, to sign him to a multi-year deal. They could always move on later if they want to. But when somebody wins 13 games, you think, I don't know if we fired the defensive coordinator and bring in somebody better and run it back or something, right? Who knows what exactly would have happened? We know what played out with them not extending Kirk and with them moving on from a lot

of key players that might have been different had they given an extension to Kirk. and if I'm not mistaken, I recall there being quite a few rumors about the potential of the Vikings trading cousins away in either signing sort of a bridge quarterback or even trying to draft one that year, but they were not very high on the list. Then there were rumors that they were trying to trade up for Anthony Richardson or C.J. Stroud, which of course, those guys went at the very top of the draft so they couldn't get up there, couldn't muster enough draft capital. but I think there was a Brett Coleman tweet, you know, a great YouTuber, Brett Coleman about the Vikings wanting to get Anthony Richardson and trying to trade up for him and so forth. And that never came to fruition. But clearly they were thinking still about the future, but wanted cousins, if I recall correctly, to sign sort of a short term deal. And when Daniel Jones got $40 million a year, then the price went up for just about every quarterback at that point. And the Vikings said, you know what?

We're just going to just going to walk away from the table here and not sign you to an extension and will let you be a lame duck quarterback, which eventually led to one of the great quotes in the history of my life as a reporter when Kirk said it's not about the dollars. It's what the dollars represent, which still waiting for 50 cent to make that into a song. But that was what happened, right, with them not extending Kirk cousins. So I imagine that in 2023, they were weighing their options because when you don't extend a quarterback like that that has been your franchise guy for multiple years, then you start getting phone calls, other teams. And there were teams that got mentioned back then. I don't remember who they were.

I think the Colts came up at one point as a team that may have been interested in trading for Kirk Cousins. I don't recall exactly when that was. but you know, there's always teams that don't have quarterbacks that are going to check in. So they could have decided to trade away cousins because they weren't going to extend him and then sign Derek Carr to a multi-year contract like the one that the New Orleans Saints did. And you wonder about these things. Now, first, I will say that it's plausible what Kellyn Mond is saying. And I would never accuse him of going on Twitter and just making this up.

But clearly, Kalin Mond heard this from somewhere that his team was interested in getting Derek Carr to be their quarterback. Generally speaking, players find out about stuff that happens from the front office when Adam Schaefter reports it, just or if their agent calls them and says, hey, in five minutes, you're going to see a report that you've been released or that the team has done X, Y, and Z. So normally, but, you know, things get kicked around behind the scenes and you hear things. and maybe that was one of the things that Kellyn Mond had heard back then. But remember, Derek Carr, his time had come to an end with the Raiders after the

2022 season in which, by the way, DeVante Adams had 1,500 yards. I'm just saying that he threw to the number one wide receiver a lot. And I can imagine that when the Vikings were thinking about different ideas, this is a little bit in the same vein of people who put out there that, They had considered trading Jefferson and getting Malik neighbors. And it's like you throw out a lot of ideas. These people have a lot of days where they're working on stuff and having meetings and having discussions.

And there probably was at some point a discussion of, well, what if we did move on from Kirk and then brought in Derek Carr, it would be a similar caliber quarterback. Carr had played well in 2022. I think he was a pro bowler and not the pro bowler. with like finger quotes like Shedur Sanders or Tyler Huntley pro bowler. Like he had a good season. And so I imagine that they would have looked at that and said, well, if we're looking for a quarterback over multiple seasons to kind of get us through this competitive

rebuild, get us in the playoff race and so forth. And Kirk has already decided that he's not going to sign this extension. We offered him. What are our other options? And Derek Carr's name would have been fairly high at the top of that list. Now, as far as Derek Carr goes, there was a segment of his podcast that he's doing with his brother, where his brother sort of says, hey, Derek, it's out there that you might be coming back as if both of them or, you know, Derek or his representation wasn't the one who told the NFL insiders that he's interested in coming back. But if you were wondering, Derek Carr did confirm on his podcast that he said, quote, would I? I come back, the answer is yes, would I do it for anybody? Absolutely not. I'd have to be healthy,

which is interesting, and have a chance to win a Super Bowl. I'd have to be healthy. He's talking about it as if it's someone else. Like, don't you know if you're healthy or not, Derek Carr, I would have to be healthy. Are you? You're you. Don't you know if you're healthy? That's an odd comment, but a team, you know, that he could potentially win the Super Bowl with. What he's saying is somebody come beg for Derek Carr to play. Someone come get me. I, I mean, I guess I would come outside and play with the kid. I mean, I don't.

Please come on. Come on. Oh, all right. I guess. If you really pull my leg, I'll do it. Or whatever the saying is. I mean, come on, man. Clearly Derek Carr.

wants to come back play football. He probably watched a little Philip Rivers, and he also probably watched the New Orleans Saints have their quarterback and said, you know what? I don't want the last impression of Derek Carr in the NFL to be the guy who just, you know, left and retired. And then now everybody loves Tyler Shuck. I want to prove that Derek Carr can do it. So, you know, that's fine. You certainly are one of the top 32. I guarantee you that, considering some of the quarterback play from last year really made you look at it and go. Actually, Derek Carr was pretty darn good, which brings us to the peak of this discussion, which is Derek Carr, anyone?

Should the Minnesota Vikings be in the Derek Carr business if they were once intrigued by the idea of having Derek Carr as their quarterback if we believe Kellyn Monde, which I have no reason not to believe Kellyn Monde heard that at some point. my answer would be, I think yes. And it's similar to Kyler Murray in the discussion for me where I didn't really look into it much because I thought he was retired. And I didn't really watch him much because he was in New Orleans and they were bad. And I remember watching some of him leading up to the game they played against the Vikings. And that was a really tough day for Derek Carr because he got hurt and had some tough throws.

and it was just not a very good day. That was Brian Flores' defense starting to ramp itself up there in 2003. But, you know, I hadn't thought about the idea a whole lot and hadn't thought about him a whole lot when he was a New Orleans saint. So as I started to look through what he did in New Orleans, and we could take a look at some of his PFF information and some of his stats here. I mean, the box score stats do stand out to you because he thought.

through for 40 touchdowns and only 13 interceptions. I mean, these are stats that look like a quality NFL starting quarterback. Now, is it a top five or top 10 level quarterback performance for New Orleans? No, I would not say that. But when you look at, you know, completion percentage is near 70 percent of a good touchdown interception ratio, quality grades, 85.6 and 77.2, good ratio of turnover worthy plays only around 2%. Quarterback ratings of 97.7 and 100.

And then we look at his game by game up here and we see that we have some very, very good games, 15 yards per attempt in a game against Dallas. Other games here where he threw for over 10 yards per attempt, 80% completion percentage against Cleveland in a two touchdown performance. I mean, all of this is, it's quality, it's quality quarterback play from Derek Carr as a member of the New Orleans Saints. And those numbers in comparison to what we saw from last year for the Minnesota Vikings, I mean, it blows it out of the water. And if you had those types of numbers, then you would have been talking about being in the playoffs pretty much unequivocally for last year if you're getting similar level play from Derek. car now that is enticing in itself to try to get derrick car here also when you look at and i know

that michael thomas was critical of him but you look at chris oliva's performance you look at devante adams when he was with the raiders i mean this is a gentleman who can throw an nflbass to just in jefferson and if he did join the vikings it would be the best perf uh you know supporting cast, probably of Derek Carr's career. I mean, when I look over the seasons that he had in Las Vegas slash Oakland, I mean, he came into the league in that second season and had a great year. And it always felt a little bit disappointing after that with Carr because he never quite got back to the level.

But actually, when we go back to the, from a PFF grade perspective, the following season, because he came in 2015 and through for 30, two touchdowns, 13 picks, great season. They won, what, 12 games? The next year in 2016, he had a 26, 28 to 6 touchdown to interception ratio, 85.3 pff grade. I mean, these grades routinely put Derek Carr in that Kirk Cousins, peak Kirk Cousins, kind of level of quarterback play. So, I mean, I can understand why, if the Vikings are interested, that they would be

interested that they would be looking into the potential for Derek Carr, because if you had a season like this, let's just take an average Derrick Carr season, 2020. I mean, he threw for 4,100 yards, 27 touchdowns, nine picks, 37 big time throws that year, which had to be one of the highest ratios, and 101.4 quarterback rating. I mean, that would put you right there in that discussion with every other team. If you can improve your defense a bit, if you can find yourself a center, if you can find yourself an explosive running back. And Derek Carr still got it.

I have no reason to think that he doesn't. He's only been away for a year. That's happened plenty of times. So I would say that they should be at very least in the Derek Carr conversation. It also does not have to be a quarterback that would sign or I guess he's, See, it's a little convoluted. They would have to trade for him, and I don't know how that works exactly with his salary cap situation.

This could be complicated in trying to acquire Derek Carr. So that is a potential roadblock for him. And I don't know how they could rework the deal or how much New Orleans could eat of the contract. I would imagine that New Orleans, if he's saying, hey, I'm playing again and he's back and he's on the same contract, which I assume still exists, it doesn't, disappear into thin air when he retires, then they would want to move that, right? That they would want to try to move at least some part of that to another team and get

some draft capital back rather than just have it sit there or whatever. I mean, if he came back to the New Orleans Saints, which obviously he's not going to do. So there's multiple layers to this thing. But the average Derrick Carr performance season and then sort of superimpose that in to this offense, these wide receivers, this offensive line, which I do expect if Darrysaw comes back 100% to be a good offensive line and maybe a little bit more commitment to the run, which I know everybody wants from Kevin O'Connell. I mean, is it the worst thing I've ever heard? Definitely not. I mean, when you compare it to

other quarterback options, the Kyler Murray thing, I'll admit, is more risky than this. Derek Carr's injury history is a little scary because he retired because of a mystery shoulder injury, which if you listen to my episode with Nick Underhill the other day, he was a little confused about how that ended up happening. He has had a number of injuries where he's missed time. But even then we go through his seasons. I mean, he had a run of, gosh, from the start of his career all the way through 2003, where he threw over 500 passes every single year.

So he's been extremely durable. He's been on the field. All it would be, I think, in terms of the reaction if they were to do it is the question of, is J.J. McCarthy just done? Or is he going to sit behind Derek Carr for a year and learn? Which maybe doesn't sound like the worst idea I've ever heard. And what is your ceiling if you have Derek Carr as your quarterback? Now, you could say, well, I mean, another team took not.

the best quarterback in the world. Sam Darnold, who is still really, really, really good, but not the best quarterback in the league. He's not Allen. He's not Jackson. He's not Mahomes. He's not Burrow. Okay.

They just took him to the Super Bowl with a really good defense and an effective enough running game and good wide receivers. Okay. Well, you're supposed to have a really good defense. I don't think it, I don't think that that logic is insane for a team that needs to maximize everything they have right now. If this team was in a position where half of the roster was young and half of the roster was old, and we were just saying, I don't know, you're going to get stuck in the middle.

See, the thing about Kirk Cousins and his last couple years with the Vikings is that they really had a two-year window to win with Kirk. That was 2018 and 2019. It was very clearly defined two-year window. They fail in 2018. They win the playoff game in 2019. but Kirk played some of his best football in 2020 and 2021. It's just that their defense completely came apart.

They didn't have the money to rebuild it in part because of Cousins contract. But if that version of Kirk cousins, like imagine you could take the 2020 version of Kirk and put them on to the 2026 Minnesota Vikings with Flores, their front seven, maybe an improved offensive line, certainly better guards than he had back then. and peak Jefferson, I mean, you'd be talking about something pretty legit. Well, that's kind of what you could do with Derek Carr, because if you bring back Kirk, he is now much older and you cannot really do that.

Derek Carr is, I mean, he'd be 35, so he is a little older, but he never had a torn Achilles that would slow him down. I mean, I think it's one of those ideas that feels like it has a ceiling, but the ceiling is a playoff game, winning a playoff game, and getting just a Jefferson back on track, maybe hitting some explosive, accurate throws. And I don't think that that would have to mean, because he is 35, I don't think it would have to mean, you guys are completely, epically, unbelievably done with J.J. McCarthy, whereas there are other quarterback options that would feel like you are completely done with

him. Excuse me. Okay. So, uh, let's get, uh, let's get your thoughts on this. Uh, but I got a couple of more quick updates and then we'll, then we'll get to it. Um, Kyler Murray. So ESPN on NFL here on Twitter, field Yates, who is very well dialed in used to work in the NFL, said today that a change of scenery is best for both parties involved on Kyler Murray and Arizona. So people have asked, asked me like, wait a minute, why would Arizona like fire their coach, get a new coach and then get rid of their quarterback and leave themselves in quarterback purgatory, right? Why would they do that? And my answer would be when you look at his contract, he has three years left on his deal.

And they're all very, very expensive. But he only has guaranteed money left this year. So what usually teams do is they will do a contract like that. but when the guarantees run out, then that's when you negotiate an extension and then lower the cap hit. That's the little trick they do. But if Kyler Murray is going to make 50 or 45 million on your salary cap for a team that's not really ready to win right now and just went all the way to the bottom, I mean, that's pretty hard to justify. And you can kind of take your medicine now and maybe take a lot of that salary back, try to trade something for him,

and so forth, or just sort of wash your hands and move on. And, hey, here's your money. Thanks for the memories. We'll see you later because you know that it's really unlikely. He's not going to sign an extension with him. And you probably don't want to sign an extension with him because you haven't succeeded with him as the quarterback. You've dealt with whatever personality conflicts.

And sometimes when somebody, and I'm sure that some of you have had this experience as well, if you work in the same place for a long time, things kind of build up, you know, and sometimes it's just time for somebody to go. So it feels like it's that way with him. And also this tweet made me laugh from Andrew Philpony, friend of mine. He tweeted NFL analyst Steve Palizzo, on 937, the fan in Pittsburgh projects Malik Willis will get $40 million per year in free agency.

I don't know that I agree with my friend Steve. that he will get $40 million a year. I think with Malik, there's only going to be three to four teams that are negotiating here. And all of them are not really in a position where they would be saying, hey, all chips to the middle of the table. They're all teams except the Vikings, potentially. That would be more on the rebuild path. The Miami Dolphins, the Arizona Cardinals, the Cleveland Browns, the New York.

Jets. Those are all teams that it wouldn't make a bit of sense for them to jump completely into the pool of the deep end with a quarterback and investment in them because they could lose a lot of games and end up with a high draft pick the following season. You don't want that on your salary cap. I look at it as much more of like two years and 40 million rather than 40 million per year for Malik Willis. And it's a prove it. Hey, we're going to give you the starting job, but you got to prove that you are really a NFL starting quarterback. So that's kind of your quarterback speculation update of the day presented by Kellyn Mond and wherever he's working now.

So let's get to the chat here. And I'll scroll through when you guys were yelling at me for screwing up the audio. But I'll make sure that I never forget to check that again. So Kit says Mon is about to tweet his LinkedIn posts into ESPN2 talking head roll. That's a good tweet. That is a good tweet. And I wondered about that myself. I did see that Anthony Barr and Eric Hendricks dip their toe in a little bit of podcasting.

I retweeted that if you want to go look at that. I had been bothering Anthony. I saw him at his retirement thing here in Minnesota. And I mentioned it to him. I was like, you seem like a guy who needs a podcast. And then I did an article with him about Harrison Smith toward the end of the season. If you want to go back and look at that on the newsletter, Purple Insider. Dot football.

And, you know, Anthony's great. It's one of the smartest players you'll ever run into. And I was giving him a hard time then. I was like, dude, you know, I think you should get into podcasting. I think you'd be pretty good at it. And so when I saw that, I was like, I knew it. I knew it. Him and Kendricks, they live next to each other, best friends, great podcast pair.

If they could ever, like, really fully let their hair down. I don't know if they would do that, but if they did and showed their whole personalities, that would be really good. But you're, you're right. I wondered about the same thing. It's like, is Kellyn starting some sort of, like, YouTube channel or something where he really wants people to remember Kellyn Mon played in the NFL? I'm not sure. But I thank him for that insight. And I guess I never really gave a final verdict on Derek Carr, because the downside is that it would sort of,

look like we're just trying to get back to the playoffs, squeak in enough to keep everybody around, and then we'll deal with this later. That's kind of what it looks like, but also, here's why I would say that I'm in on Derrick Carr. Now, Kyler Murray is my first choice because I think it's got the highest upside. But the reason that I'm in on Derrick Carr is the locker room. When you look around the locker room, these are a bunch of guys who just had their quarterback go win the Super Bowl for someone else. and they just went through a year from hell where they were four and eight at one point and where their quarterback couldn't stay healthy.

And then when he's out there, he's not playing well. And then he has a few highlight type of games. And then he's heard again. And then this whole thing. And so they went through that. And the guys who are in their prime, you're Jonathan Granards and Blake Cashman's and Justin Jefferson's,

so forth, they all feel like, what was that for? Like we sat here and wasted a year while the Seattle C, got to win with our quarterback, it feels like you have to give that locker room a real quarterback. Somebody who is proven, who's done it before, like, I come to you with this gesture of peace. Like, if you, it's like coming home, uh, with flowers from work after you've been in a fight with the wife.

Like, here, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stick you guys with a quarterback who wasn't ready. Will you accept this? And from J.J. McCarthy standpoint, here's the thing about McCarthy. if he were to sit a year behind Derrick Carr. Number one, I don't think Derrick Carr is necessarily a guy who's like, yeah, come on, be my little bro or whatever, but he is a pro. And he has been around and he's won a lot of football games in the NFL.

And even with a bad New Orleans team, he was over 500. He was 14 and 13. But at least here's a pro. He's going to go about his business like a pro. He's going to play football games like a pro. And you can watch him not from the recovery room. from inside the room. You can see what that's really like for that starting quarterback to do his job on a day

and day out basis. Derek Carr with his injury history probably also doesn't play 17. That would be my guess. So if McCarthy could get into a couple of games, maybe he wins them one, maybe the confidence starts to grow. But here is the big point about McCarthy if he were to sit one year behind Derek Carr. If we look at Sam Darnold, and I know this is not a fair example because of Darnold's raw talent, I think is a little bit on a different level. I also think that his mental ability and toughness is on a different level for most human beings, too.

But he sat a year in San Francisco. And he has multiple times cited that year of sitting in San Francisco as being the turning point for him in watching Brock, pretty play up close in that quarterback room, going through the preparation with Kyle Shanahan, and then coming to Minnesota, ready to play point guard is what he said time and time again. And you see the difference between Darnold, not trying to do too much, staying within himself, some of the things that J.J. McCarthy needs to learn how to do. So I don't even dislike this for McCarthy. It doesn't have to be done.

And then it's a real test of character. Like if you can go to the bench and have the humility to be a backup quarterback and to learn and get better and grow and develop, there's a chance that you could still make this work. So from those kind of perspectives, like I think they can make the playoffs. I think it would go over pretty well with the locker room. I think he would give the freaking ball to Justin Jefferson endlessly. I think they have a defense to prop him up when he has his ups and downs. I think they can improve in the running game. The offensive line is reasonable enough for him to play.

and you don't have to necessarily be done with J.J. McCarthy. So there, there's the argument. Kellen who is funny. Yeah. Kellyn Mon, man. I don't know. This is, this is the world we live in.

Right? I did not expect Kellyn Mon to show up in my feed. Hunter. Why don't you want to see more of him? It was the exact line from Courtney Cronin was, don't you at least want to get a look at Mond? And it was not particularly. And Chip Skagin said, why not?

And he said, because I see him in practice every day. And it was incredibly mean. It was incredibly mean. Somebody asked about JJ McCarthy and his big time throw percentage. I mean, we're talking about such a small, small sample size. But one of the things that I have noticed about the end, rightfully Hunter points out, James Winston had a very good big time throw rate. and we can look at other quarterbacks.

Like it doesn't mean it's not some guarantee like, oh, well, he had these big time throws that it's great. But the one thing about McCarthy that stands out when I look at his data is that throwing in the intermediate areas 10 to 19 yards was by far his biggest success. And that is a lot of the Vikings offense. But when he was asked to throw quick game when it was the most basic type of get a completion plays, that's when he was atrocious.

That's the timing stuff. That's the rhythm, like drop back, hit the back foot, hit somebody accurately. Between zero and 10 yards, it was a disaster for him. But when he actually sort of could let loose a little bit and fire it down the field, he graded pretty well. And I do think what you're talking about, sometimes that stat can be really telling, which is, hey, Matthew Stafford always has big time throws. and Josh Allen always has big time throws.

But in a very tiny sample size, I don't think it means almost anything because you can kind of like think about like throwing a ball up for grabs and your receiver gets it and you might get a big time throw for that. Like is that really telling over a big enough sample? Like not, not really. We're talking about, I mean, I can look it up here. But I think in total it was probably like 10.

You know, in the top quarterbacks in a season get, 30. How many was it actually in total? Because this is why trying to reach for stats to make something look a little better than it is can be, can be dubious. Yeah, it was, it was 19 of them, 19 of them in, you know, 243 dropbacks. Like, it's a pretty good rate. But also too many turnover worthy plays, way, way, way too many sacks. and not anywhere near accurate enough. So kind of if you're going to be super aggressive down the field all the time,

which McCarthy was, then you're going to hit on some of those. But I also think that we know that J.J. McCarthy has the arm. Nobody ever said that he didn't. And we know that he is gutsy and is willing to take a risk. No one ever said that he wasn't. So that was something I would expect. Is it proof that he could work out?

I don't think that it is. but I also think we saw different parts of games that would make you think it eventually could. There are some quarterbacks, and this is really the difference, probably between him and Christian Ponder, there are some quarterbacks where you just never saw any wow factor. J.J. McCarthy had some wild factor throughout this year that made you think, all right, well, there's something there. And I have said time and time again that I believe that J.J. McCarthy with the right development can be an NFL starting quarterback. And I think probably the best thing for him with this franchise is to have a Derek

car in front of him or a Kyler Murray in front of him for one year and then see where he's at. And if he does develop in that year, maybe we're talking about a redemption arc for him. Usually when a quarterback gets benched, it's sort of so devastating to their chances that that's the end. or they've just been so bad and McCarthy by the numbers was pretty darn rough, but with such a small amount of play that he's actually had, if he were to have 2026 on the bench, maybe he starts three or four games due to an injury with a veteran there,

who's there to get them into the playoffs. This is something that would have happened in, in history's past. Like if you go back to, you know, I don't know, like the 80s, of the early 90s. John Schneider was actually talking about this, talking about NFL Europe and the different quarterbacks that he'd seen along the way that get him on the pod.

Hey, Callan's welcome to come on the pod for sure if he wants to. It seems like he wants to talk about it, doesn't it? But, you know, John Schneider was talking about how the number of quarterbacks, and he named, I think he named Brad Johnson, that had come through and had developed and eventually got there. We just don't do it anymore because it seems like they're, think about what everyone did to Sam Darnold when it didn't work out. They just slaughter a guy.

And you got these owners who are lunatics that are firing coaches every other year and stuff like that. Like, there's no, there's usually no time for that sort of patience with a young quarterback. So I am of the belief that J.J. McCarthy has enough talent, but he has to learn how the NFL works. and if you are still in the phase of learning how the NFL works, how to carry yourself as a franchise quarterback, how to play quarterback in the NFL, going into next year with that pressure cooker, think about this,

there was a lot of pressure on him this year, and it didn't go particularly well. You think there's not more next year, where you've already fired your general manager? You've already got the entire world cackling at you because you let go the Super Bowl quarterback. you've got the Wilf's hiring a new GM, potentially somebody who is going to evaluate your head coach.

So you got a bunch of guys careers, maybe your head coach, and you talk about, you know, being made fun of last year for the whole nine stuff, which I've never done, by the way. Yeah, the whole, you know, that, that whole thing. But you know that people had a lot of jokes and a lot of things to say, right? A lot of mean things to say to JJ McCarthy last year. And you know he saw him. look at his age, it's impossible to stay offline. And I'm sure Sam Darnold, you know, saw him when it was going on,

but now the world's even different. You're going to ask him to take on that when he still essentially feels like a rookie to me with the way that, you know, he performed and how few throws he got. That's a lot. That's why I, that's why I am okay with the Derrick Carr idea. That's why I don't think it's that crazy. KFT says Derek Carr took the Raiders within a touchdown of beating the Bengals. that went to the Super Bowl and lost by three points to Kansas City.

He is a good quarterback throughout his career. He is, gosh, what's a, what's a comp for him? Like a Trent Green or something or like a Dave Craig from the past. I'm sure that you guys can come up with something better than that. Throughout history has been a lot of these quarterbacks that are good, but either never have it go quite right or have some sort of flur. law that keeps them from making it. And Kirk Cousins falls in the same exact categories, Derrick Carr.

They're kind of doppelgangers because AFC, NFC, Derrick Carr, Kirk Cousins, because they don't have the best mobility and they are really good throwers. I mean, Derek Carr can throw the football. And he can throw with anticipation. He can throw into windows. And you see those, those completion percentages, those PFF grades, like he can throw. And that was true of Kirk.

like Kirk was accurate. Kirk knew how to throw on time. He knew how to run an offense. He knew how to be in command. But with both of them, there is that athletic ability that was not of the next level that usually you need that playmaking to get through, through an entire playoffs. And even with Sam Darnold, he had a huge scramble the other day that helped put away that game. And he's not a runner, but he has that tool in his bag.

and also has one of the best arms in the league. And I think with Carr and cousins, neither one of them ever had this beastly insane. Holy cow, this is the best arm in the league. Cars is better, I think, in terms of arm strength overall. And Kirk may have been a little more pinpoint at times, you know, but they're in the ballpark in a lot of different categories. And there's similar questions about Carr and kind of his leadership style

and whether it rubs some people the wrong way. and that always existed with Kirk. But, you know, I do think that Kevin O'Connell is the guy who can smooth those things out. That's for sure. Dan says, why would we want car? Why would we want cousins? Why? Well, I just laid out this scenario with all the players in the locker room who are really expecting

to get back to the playoffs next year. With Kirk, the difference is an Achilles. That's the difference is it's the, I mean, with an Achilles Terry is just not the same guy. Derek Carr's had a year to get healthy. So if he is the same guy and he performs like he did in New Orleans, that would be, I think, pretty good here. You know, Zed says,

Carr wants to be the next Wentz. I mean, Carson Wentz is nowhere near as good as Derek Carr. Carson Wentz had a good start to his career and that was kind of it. I mean, I think that he did a lot of good things with the Raiders. And I think he did a lot of good things with New Orleans. And this team is.

probably better than whoever they had, you know, for most of those times. They had some okay teams, but they didn't have Justin Jefferson, except for when they had Devante Adams. And that went actually really well between Derek Carr and Devante Adams. In fact, Devante Adams wanted to go to the Raiders because of Derek Carr. And then he threw him the football like crazy. And then they got rid of him. Mike says, do you think that Flores would allow,

a draft pick to fill Harry's spot or could only a veteran manage a similar role. That is a very good non-quarterbacky question, and I appreciate that of bumping us to some other part of the roster, which is definitely allowed. I think that there are a couple of guys in this draft, McNeil Warren and Thineman, McNeil Warren's from Toledo and Thineman is from Oregon, who look like they would be Brian Flores fits. what you would do is that you would not have them be that guy. You would have Josh Mattelis be that guy.

So Mattelis would play the role of Harrison Smith as he did at the beginning of the season. And you would try to get your rookie where he could play fast, play simple, not have all these different things that he had to read and react and change to and just use his athleticism at first and then slowly build along throughout the season to where he gets it. and then you're hoping for a complete player there. I would not take that off the table. And considering that even great safety prospects drop lower than they're expected, that is something the Vikings might be able to address in the second round.

Think about, I mean, Derwin James, Kyle Hamilton, both of those guys were projected very, very high and ended up going in the middle. And, I mean, even Xavier Watts was a third rounder when most people had him is maybe mid-second round last year. Nickyman Warray, who people had in the first round, he ends up slipping into day two. And all these guys have worked out really, really well for the most part. So safety seems to be still a position in the NFL that teams are kind of willing to let

drop in the draft. So if, you know, somebody like McNeil Warren ends up going in the second round, I mean, the Vikings could be there, you know, to pick him up. I wouldn't count that out. I think safety would be very important, assuming that, you know, you're talking about Harrison Smith retiring. 1-216 Vivick. Curious to know your take on if the Vikings take a similar path as the Falcons and hire a former player as GM or president of operations, which former Vikings player can fit there.

I would not expect that. I think that the Wilfs want a structure of head coach GM owner. I don't know if they want, and they could do this because everything is really on the table, or they could make Rob Brzezinski president of football operations. So you have the Wills, then Brzezinski, then the GM and the coach work underneath. I don't, I actually don't dislike that. I actually kind of like that idea to have, because this is what I really want from the Wills. I don't want a head coach and a GM that are clashing.

and then everyone has to kind of pick sides because that's happened twice now under the current structure where it's supposed to be, well, you have some of the power and you have some of the power and everybody be friends. It needs to be,

this is the person the wulfs are never going to fire because that is their guy. Rob Brzezinski makes a lot of sense for that. But if Rob Brzezinski then plays a huge role in hiring a GM and is like president of football ops and then GM and then coach and that's your structure. I kind of like that for a power structure because then you have that person who is

there every single day, the liaison to the Wilf's, who can tell them the coach and the GM aren't getting along and we got to figure this out as opposed to it going on behind the scenes for two or three years. And then we finally kind of get some resolution on it. I don't think you want that. anymore. I mean, it's already happened twice. You don't want that again. As far as a former player goes, though, I don't know. I saw, I saw Jared Allen on Kay Adams show the other day and I thought, I wonder what Jared Allen would do as a general manager. Just get all, all speed rushers or something.

I don't know. Yeah, I can't think of anybody off the top of my head that fits that. I will, I will say to Kirk Cousins credit, he is going to be a great. great broadcaster if he wants to. But I think Kirk could actually do a job like that. I think that Kirk cousins, from the times that we talked with him about different stuff around the league, this guy knows every player inside and out. And he really understands, like, high level thinking of a franchise and a roster construction.

And I actually think it was maybe to his detriment a little bit sometimes that he could see the entire picture. But if you listen to him, do it. do his broadcasting. Already he sounded like a guy who could be an NFL executive. But I don't, I don't know. I mean, there's a lot of smart former players out there who wants to be that. I don't know.

There isn't like a Matt Ryan for the Vikings in the same way. But if they were to do a structure that had Brzezinski at the very top and the GM who runs day to day roster stuff below him and he works with the coach, that I think would be good. It needs to be someone they really, really trust to be over the GM. and the coach if you're going to do it that way. KFT says, I heard there are three teams he would play for and the Vikings are one of the teams.

Maybe that's the, is that the NFL.com report about four teams? I mean, why wouldn't you if you were Derek Carr? If you were looking at teams to play for, because there was a little bit about, well, maybe he could go to the Raiders with Clint Kubiak. But when he says compete for a Super Bowl, I'm sorry, they're just not for next year. They could be fun, but they're not competing for a Super Bowl, not with Denver there, not with Kansas City with the fire lit under their butt. But I mean, not with the Chargers with Mike McDaniel. No way.

So which quarterback actually, let's go through this. Is there any other quarterback needy team in the NFL that you would actually say could compete for a Super Bowl? Now, I know, you can, you know, the snark. The Vikings will never compete for a Super Bowl. Yeah, I know, I know. You can leave that in the comments if you like. But who actually has the defense to make an argument, who actually has a recent season where they have performed at a very,

very high level like the Vikings have, who has in the past, not so much this year, but in the past maximized a quarterback and their production. I don't think that Kevin O'Connell's reputation in the league changed a ton after this year. I think most people looked at it like, wow, what a mistake. But I don't think they thought. thought, oh, wow, this guy forgot how to do quarterback stuff.

Not its work says I'm on team Murray or team McCarthy and not budging. You know, I don't blame you for that. And I think here's where my, and this is something we can update the standings as his time goes by. Uh, the standings for me would be Kyler Murray at the top because it represents the highest upside potential. It's a guy that if it clicks. you feel like it's going to really click and it could get super exciting with Kyler Murray,

that he is the only one that sort of screams Sam Darnold, the next guy who was still on the younger side, still in his prime, that had a bad organization that he was with and he comes to you, reinvigorated, and he finds himself and he runs around and throws the ball to Justin Jefferson, it's awesome. I mean, that, that world exists. Derek Carr is a let's get this bus back on the road. Let's make sure that this franchise doesn't teeter, totter, and fall over. And then you got spilling out all these veterans who wasted years of their careers.

And you got spilling out, you know, head coach who's fired. And now you're doing a whole new revamp of the front office and the GM's hiring a new coach. And you're looking for a new quarterback. Like if it, if you go with McCarthy and it goes sideways, This franchise in 2027 could look insanely different, which maybe you'll say is okay, but like you don't want to let go of Van Ginkle, Cashman, Grenard, all these guys who are in their primes and are still playing really well. Derrisaw coming back, maybe the last years of Brian O'Neill.

You have, you know, Addison in his situation, and is not great, but like his performance, he is a good player still. Donovan Jackson, a budding player. You got the best kicker. Like, you don't want to waste these things. So that's where you could see number two on the list being, I mean, I like the Malik Willis swing a little bit more maybe than Derek Carr because of upside. But you could see Derek Carr stabilizing the franchise and getting it back on a track

where you're actually competing and trying to get to the playoffs and then addressing your quarterback situation really down the road. you can see that this is where i was mute oh thank you kit for uh giving the super chat while i was muted thank you uh you guys couldn't read lips uh matt that's very funny he says uh thought he said you should never draft a wide receiver in the first round you want to get blocked matt say you get blocked saying that we we don't draft a first round wide receiver we always do hey look i i'm just saying last year i was advocating luther burden Luther birded on the Vikings right now would look pretty good.

I'm just saying. We have not had a fan duel question of the day yet. So let me see here. If I can dig one up. How about this? NFL MVP is one of the things out right now that you can look at for next year. If you had to give a sleeper MVP, who would it be for next year? Like, I'm already, we're on to next year.

we're starting to think about like what, look, what could be interested? What do we expect for next year? Who would be a sleeper, like low key long shot MVP that's also within reason? And I think the answer for me is Jaden Daniels at plus 2000. I saw that they are going to put him under center more often than they did before. So that's an interesting one. I don't know. The favorite is Josh Allen at plus 600.

Jaden Daniels at plus 2,000 would be at the top of my list for a sleeper MVP for next year. That is your fan dual question of the day. Back to your questions. Why is he miming? Hello, darkness, my only friend. Sorry. Oh, and thank you, Tim Bob, for the super chat. I'm going to do that more often.

I'm going to shut off the audio and then you guys give the super chats. Um, Lenny says, uh, worry that Derek Carr has regressed with the injury and age. So that, yeah, that's an interesting discussion because sometimes there have been examples of guys who took a year off of football and came back and were actually much better because they were constantly grinding through injuries. And one of them is Randall Cunningham. Randall Cunningham started his own business. Maybe you've heard this story before.

and I think it was doing flooring or sheet rock or something. And then came back in 97 and was a backup for Brad Johnson, ended up winning a playoff game and then ends up as the starter eventually in 1998 after Brad gets hurt, has one of the greatest seasons ever offensively. And the rest is history. It has happened. I mean, even like Richie Incognito was out of football, maybe not necessarily for, you know, retirement,

but he was out of football for a little bit. I was there in Buffalo when they signed him. And I remember saying, why sign this guy? I mean, he's been out of football for a year. He might be a problem. I don't know. And he was a beast. And he was a beast for multiple years.

And honestly, had the Vikings signed him, uh, when he was available, maybe that would have been good for them because he continued to be absolutely fantastic at football. But I think he played better after he came back from the year off. I mean, think about the amount of mileage on these guys. Dary Carr was probably playing through stuff when he was in New Orleans and has had a year to get healthy. But I love that I still love that he said it in that tweet like or in that podcast. He said it as if he was like, well, if Derek Carr is healthy and you're like, your Derrick Carr, are you healthy? So I guess we still don't know.

He would have to be healthy. They would have to be able to get a look at something medically. And this is where there's complications. what are they going to do about the trade to New Orleans? What are they going to do? Like for draft capital? I couldn't go more than like a fourth to get Derek Carr. And then how is he medically?

That that matters a lot. Denny says just woke up from an eight month coma, jumped on the live stream. Why are we talking about David Carr? Derek Carr. But David is on his podcast. Is JJ OK? The answer seems to be not really.

Reconnected says you're assuming car can beat out McCarthy. I guarantee you a car can beat out McCarthy. There's no question in my mind. McCarthy's just not going to have four months where somebody goes bibbidi-bobbidi-boo and all of a sudden he knows how to throw the ball like Derek Carr, who's been in the league for that many years and has that much knowledge. Derek Carr is going to learn the offense in an eye blink. And he can throw the ball as well as most starting NFTA.

quarterback's, and it's not Josh Allen, it's not Patrick Mahomes, but he's a guy that has thrown 30 touchdowns in the NFL before. And he's thrown to a number one wide receiver for 1,500 yards. Like, yeah, he's beating out J.J. McCarthy. My point is that that's okay and that you need McCarthy to develop for a year and then give it another shot. We, and it's not wrong, but are so, and this is how we got here, obsessed with the rookie quarterback contract, as everyone.

should be wanting that cheat code. But sometimes you miss the forest through the trees. That's what happened with the Vikings is you missed the forest through the trees. And the forest or wait, no, the trees were the tree Sam Darnold in this thing? I don't know. But the big picture was you got to have the rookie quarterback contract. You got to maximize it. And that's right.

And that's the right way to team build. The forest was he's or maybe the trees. Forrest, I don't know how this works, but he wasn't ready. And it doesn't work the rookie quarterback contract advantage if the kid's not ready. That's the point is the fact that he was not ready. That's what undid this. So now can you have him develop for a year behind another quarterback and then still have at least some time left, at least a year on his rookie contract to prove it, then maybe

he if he does, you're talking about, all right, you sign him to a deal into the future that's reasonable. Like, I don't know. It doesn't have to be impossible for this still to work out with JJ McCarthy. But if Derek Carr is healthy, he's, he's winning that battle because you're bringing him here. If he comes here, there's no battle, actually. If you're, if he comes here, there's no battle.

You heard him. He's not going to come out of retirement to go battle with a 23 year old. Like, no, he's taking the job. There's, there's no way that happens. happens. Yeah. Yeah. KFT.

I mean, why did he say, is he healthy? If he's already telling people clearly that he would unretire, he must be healthy. It's almost like his brain went into like analyst mode or something because he's been doing this podcast. So he's like, yeah, you know, if that guy's healthy, like, Derek, you're you. If, if Matthew's healthy, he'll do the live stream tonight. Like, oh, wait, that's me. I'm, I'm me.

That's funny. Lenny says, I'd rather find out what we have in McCarthy than bring in Derek Carr. That kind of logic got you into a lot of trouble this year, I think. I'd rather, I'd rather find out what we have in McCarthy to bring back Sam Darnold. Whoops. I mean, would you rather, how about this?

Would you rather put J.J. McCarthy in a position. Here's your two options in a position where every person in that locker room is looking at you going. the guy who left here won the Super Bowl, bro, you better be good. You better win. You better take this enormous, ridiculous step. And the coach is looking at him saying,

uh, daddy needs to keep his job. So you better be great this year, right? Or, or I'm out. So you, there's that much pressure on you. And by the way, yeah, you only threw 243 passes last year. So you don't still really know how to throw.

the ball in the NFL just because you went, I don't know what and worked out over the summer or spring? I mean, come on. Like, we're expecting this. He can improve for sure, but it took even the Josh Allen example that everybody loves so much. It took Josh Allen two years in order to be good. He was very poor at throwing the ball in 2018.

He was a little bit better in 2019. And then it wasn't until 2020 that he took that big step, 900 passes later. but hey if you don't take that big step our coach is fired the locker room is going to want to throw you in lake minotanka and your career might be cooked certainly is in minnesota if it doesn't work out good luck kid or would you rather have derrick car kailer murray take the reins for a year get this team into the playoffs have him learn how to play football see when you say find out what we have but if someone's not ready what you're going to find out is there not ready. You're going to find it out again.

So let's say you find out again, he's not ready. Like, where does that benefit the franchise? It just blows the franchise to smithereens. Maybe you want that. I don't know. I don't know that most people do. I think most people want this team back in the playoffs. So if he develops for a year, learns a lot about himself sitting and watching, because he really didn't have that opportunity to go through practice every day. You didn't have that opportunity at all in 2004. Yeah, he got to watch from afar. Yeah, he got to put the earpiece in and listen to the calls. It's not the same as going through practice day in and day out. Maybe he gets into a couple of games. Maybe he plays the entire preseason. That would be good for him, right? The longer term approach was

always the best one with J.J. McCarthy. And they tried to expedite the process because they were mad at Sam Darnold for melting down to two games. And they thought that that was evidence. He couldn't do it. and they also thought that he would pick up where he left off for his development. That did not happen. So now you get a chance to kind of undo a wrong. And then he can sink or swim with the way he handles that. Which one of those two options is better? I mean, I think if you've built a roster this good with guys who could get you to nine and

eight, despite the fact that you had the 28th best quarterback play in the league, I'd like to see what they could do with an average quarterback. I'd like to see what they could do with the 14th best quarterback in the league, which is probably what Derek Carr would be. And I'd also like to see what J.J. McCarthy could do with a year of development because now the entire world is shouting at the rooftops. You have to be methodical with some of these young quarterbacks. And the league has not been recently.

And it's a person to person basis. But I think McCarthy is the prime candidate for someone that needs to develop over multiple years. Denny says for my sanity, I need JJ to become great. I can't do the quarterback carousel anymore. Yeah, I don't know, man. I mean, this franchise has just never been blessed in that way. But you know what happens?

You know what happens once you get, once you get that quarterback is that then the expectations go up and you start the season. Hey, if we don't win the Super Bowl that that person's a massive disappointment and they're not good enough. So you just go, you go on and on. Like it's a different, it's all different circles of the same hell for every team that doesn't win the Super Bowl. But if you're the Los Angeles Chargers, I mean, you've got your guy, you're not going to have another quarterback for a long time. And he just can't seem to get you there. And then every season when it begins, it's not like, oh, let's see how this plays out. It's, all right, is he going to show up in January or not?

Just get there. And that's not that's not that fun sometimes either. Jay Powers has stopped the excuses football is a team sport. Sam Darnold's legit, Vikings fans hate success from former players. I don't know who you're talking to there. But like this, this has been the,

hey, they, you know, Sam Darnold's actually really good show. So it is a team sport. That's right. He did not alone lose those games for the Vikings, just like he did not alone win.

that game for Seattle, just like every other quarterback that's ever played. Lenny says, Kirk Cousins is my favorite option because it leaves room for McCarthy to grow while still raising the floor of the quarterback room. I don't see how that's different from Derek Carr, but Derek Carr is actually probably better at football right now than Kirk Cousins. So I think if you're along that line of thinking, which is not a bad line of thinking, that you'd prefer Carr over Cousins.

I mean, watching Cousins play, it wasn't horrible. he won some games with Atlanta, but it looked like a guy who, I mean, 40% of his passes or so were behind the line of scrimmage. I mean, it looked like a guy who was really having to strain to just drop back to throw

because of where he is physically right now, as opposed to, you know, a Derek car that's been sitting and getting back healthy. And he's 35, which, you know, for a quarterback's not too bad. You know, yeah, I mean, 30, 35 is definitely old, but it's not.

ancient by quarterback standards. I mean, a lot of these quarterbacks have played into their late 30s. KFT, I don't think KOC wants to find out that McCarthy didn't improve in the offseason. They need insurance and Wentz was not good last year, but neither was the O line. Well, yeah, I mean, the O line was problematic in some games, but certainly not all of them. But as far as not wanting to think, I don't really understand that about McCarthy improving. I'm sure that Kevin O'Connell would love nothing more than to show up at TCO Performance Center for OTAs and have McCarthy looking like Drew Brees. I'm sure he is every night looking up at the stars and praying to the football gods.

Please, please. Let let JJ McCarthy take this huge step forward because that would be really good for my career. But the odds of the step being as big as it needs to be, this is always a thing that I end up getting into. to which is like look when when you have a baseball player and let's say they have raw power and you really like their potential but you go well yeah i can't really field and you know he strikes out a ton doesn't really make contact doesn't hit for average little concerned about you know his ability to read pitches and doesn't hit sliders and but you know he's got a lot of power it's like

okay, so you just name like five, six things that this guy has to correct in order to be good. That's where we're at with McCarthy. Can you correct them over several years? Yes. I think if Jordan Love had played right away, he would have looked like McCarthy. But instead, he had time to develop. And you need time. It's not, I mean, you get out of the season in January.

He needed probably a couple weeks before his hand would heal to feel good about throwing. I mean, you're into the playoffs. and now you're into the off season. You got OTAs coming up in what? I mean, six weeks or something. It's not a really long off season. It's a pretty short off season. And there's only so much developing somebody could do.

But if it's more methodical than that, if it's a multi-year type of plan, then I think there's a better chance. Karpuppy isn't Carr, the CEO of the hospital ball. I don't want Carr to turn Jets into Olave. Well, if you look at Oliva's first season, with Derek Carr, he was fantastic.

He had like 87 catches or something. And was he rookie of the year or in that conversation? He is known for that, yes. But I also think that there could be some bad luck element of that. He throws with anticipation, which sometimes takes receivers into tough places. But that was also said constantly about Trevor Lawrence. And what the great receivers tend to be really good at is not, getting their heads taken off.

But I mean, you're not wrong about that. I think that Jefferson's got a pretty good ability to avoid taking big hits as we've seen throughout his career. But that it does. Yeah, that that did that has happened with Derrick Carr before. And there's been questions from some of his teammates about his leadership style, accountability. You know, I think that it was mentioned by Nick Underhill the other day about, uh,

press conferences. and whether it takes responsibility when things go wrong and stuff like that. Like, there's, there's things there. I mean, there's, but when you look at the, at the end of the day, what are the numbers and what could he do for your team in a one year type of scenario with Justin Jefferson? You go back to that Devante Adams, 1500 yard season and go, well, kind of that. Julian says, wouldn't mind Derek Carr, but I think Kyler Murray's the better option.

Yeah, I think that's right. I don't think it, I don't think it's crazy different in terms of which quarterback might fit a little better with KOC's system and what he wants to do. But Kyla Murray actually has a surprising number of things that do fit. I looked at this yesterday because I wrote an article about whether KOC needs to change his offense. And I found something very funny, which is that almost everything from the 2024 passing game on paper looks exactly the same.

is the Seahawks. The play action percentage, the under center percentage, the average depth of target, the average depth of completion, the route tree and completion chart to the number one wide receiver. Like it all looks really, really close. And, you know, neither the Seahawks nor the 2024 Vikings had overly efficient running games. Now, they used it a little bit more than the Vikings.

We know that. And, you know, they were able to. lean on it when they needed to, which the Vikings really couldn't in 2024. But the actual biggest difference between the 2024 Vikings and the 2025 Seattle Seahawks, you know what the biggest difference was? When you compare their two offenses, not crazy different, especially the passing games, almost, almost identical. The biggest difference was, well, Sacks was one, which is not, I think that's not so much.

Their offensive line was a little better than the Vikings in 24 after Darrasaw went out. So that was an issue. But I also think that Sam Darnold learned to get rid of the football a little bit faster, just developing, just getting even a little bit better from the previous season. The biggest difference is that the Seattle Seahawks had a true elite defense. And the Vikings in 2025, 20204 had just a pretty good defense. But Seattle had an unbelievable defense this year. They were much better statistically than the 2024 Vikings.

And I think that was really, I mean, the biggest gap. And then, you know, that getting rid of the football, a healthy offensive line is other thing too. But the actual passing game and how he went about it, the number of explosive plays, throwing down the field success, throwing to a number one receiver, all very similar.

Just kind of interesting, isn't it? But Kyler, I think under center in a boot type of game where he could roll out a little bit and move away and find some of those throwing lanes and scramble, actually worked pretty well in 2024. And there is definitely that extra

gear to him than there is to Derek Carr. But Carr would be much more of a straight drop back, hit the back foot balls out to Justin Jefferson, different styles. The age difference to me matters. The athletic difference to me matters for the upside. So I would probably go Kyler Murray as well in the number one spot.