Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Kellen Mond says Vikings wanted Derek Carr (seriously) (Part 2)

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.

This episode of Purple Insider is presented by Fandul. Carl says Malik Willis to Miami. Makes so much sense, so much sense that he would go to Miami. They are not a very good team, though. And is he going to be, because we're talking nonstop about circumstances, supporting casts and all those things. Like, is he going to be supported if he goes to the Miami Dolphins? I don't know.

Can't really see it. I mean, they're losing Mike McKeys. Daniel. Now, if McDaniel was there, that would make a lot of sense to me, but they're losing Mike McDaniel. I think their running game will probably regress a little bit. I don't know. That's the thing about Willis is I don't think he has great choices. Denny, funny, where all the Kyle Slaughter fans when you need him. Callan Mon and Kyle Slaughter. Now, there's two guys who should do a podcast about the Vikings and just air the grievances. They've kind of done a little bit of it, but air their

grievances. Kirk was not accurate, throwing over 30 yards now. Yeah, now, now is true. Yeah. Throwing deep is not. He was really in Atlanta, able to throw intermediate, but deep, that's gone. I think once upon a time, he was really good at that. Denny says, didn't the Saints guy say Carr was weird in the Saints locker room?

I mean, he may have used the word weird, but even with the Raiders, there's a little bit of, and it was like this with Kirk. there's a little bit of personality that's maybe doesn't gel with everybody. And I think that accountability thing kept coming up of, you know, people thinking like, does he really, you know, put it all on him in post games and stuff like that, which, uh, you know, they expect from the quarterback. So maybe there's some of that. I think KOC might be able to smooth that over, but you're only asking, you're really only

asking for a year. And if it went amazing, maybe you'd go two years. But that's really, you're really only looking for a year. Can you get a professional quarterback to come play here for a year and make this team competitive with the roster you have? That's what you're looking for. The magic man, JJ's not accurate at any range. What's your point? That unfortunately has been the truth.

But from that 10 to 19 was where he was at his best. That's why I was pointing out, you know, when you have some of those big time throw percentages, him being able to just crank up the arm and let it rip did get into tight windows sometimes and turn into really spectacular. throws. You know, there's the one in the end zone against the Ravens, uh, with, uh, Naler for a touchdown. That was a really good throw. There's the one to Naler again in the end zone against Dallas that was a pinpoint to him in the corner of the end zone. So he had some of those where he could just kind of let loose. It was the down to down consistency. So big time throws is great. If you can have that consistency. If you don't and you also have a bunch of turnover worthy plays, then it's not

really all that good. And, you know, Dan talking about the last four games of McCarthy. I mean, like with the people who the people who roll this stuff out, like with the last four games of which he didn't even make it through all four games. I mean, you're kind of just, are, are you just sort of like trying to talk yourself into it? Are you trying to talk other people into it? you're trying to talk yourself into it because it nothing works that way for one nothing works

that way well if we only take this little section of time where he was good ah i mean we can't do that if you do that with sam darnold and the jets he had this little run that was pretty good but i think when the jets moved on from him it was it made sense i think he would even say that uh e j manual had a run i've made that comparison before christian ponder i bet i could go into christian ponder's game log and find four games where it went decently. We all watched those games. We all know who they were against. Three of the teams fired their defensive coordinator.

Another team wasn't playing their starters. The Giants game wasn't anything particularly special. And the Packers game and the Giants game, he got hurt. And also, there was a whole rest of the season. And also, when has anybody defended the performance? When has anybody said what you just said? Any Kevin O'Connell, teammates, anybody. I mean, we all kind of know that those last four games were progress, but they were also

in the dumb down offense versus the worst defenses in the league when all the pressure was already off. It was preseason. And that's why I called it fools gold as it was happening. It's like, these are classic fools gold type of games. And it was okay, by the way. It wasn't spectacular. It was okay. It wasn't like everyone watched that and went, oh my gosh, the corner's been turned. There was a good game against Dallas, and there's enough flashes from McCarthy where you think someday it could work for him.

But if they thought that, you would have heard someone defend him, including Kevin O'Connell, who had multiple chances to say he's my quarterback. So there's really not a lot of point of talking about, like, oh, in the last four games, like it just doesn't really mean anything. Lenny, you bring in a quarterback to raise the floor,

not the ceiling. The ceiling lies with J.J. McCarthy. Is that true? Because I heard that last year about Sam Darnold. I heard that McCarthy's ceiling was higher because he was clutch or something. That's, I was told that in the comment section last year that the ceiling was higher. Every player, let's, let's be honest. Let's all be very honest about J.J. McCarthy. I think he can make it. I'll say it a hundred times. I think he can make it. I think he's going to work really hard at it. And I think his skill set from a raw tools perspective is there. and I think his playmaking mindset, I think he could do it.

His ceiling's not that high, guys. It's really not. It's just not. Those tools are good. They're not great. He doesn't, he does not have Josh Allen's arm. He doesn't have Lamar Jackson's running ability. There's not one tool that I would consider elite.

And all quarterbacks who have struggled with accuracy early in their career, they never become top notch at accuracy, including Josh Allen, by the way. like Alan has been a monster and makes plays that are so breathtaking and unbelievable that your eyes pop out of your head. He also has games where he can't hit the broadside of a barn. And but he makes up for it with unreal running ability, astonishing physical skills, six foot six, two hundred and 40 pounds, never take sacks. Like there's no comp there.

The ceiling of players who have started their career like this is like Ryan Tannahill, maybe an Alex Smith, but I don't really see that with him. either. Like, I don't see the style of play. Smith was accurate and a very conservative, safe type of football player. Just because someone has not played doesn't mean their ceiling is higher than someone who has played. The ceiling with Derek Carr, if he were to come back and play like he did in New Orleans, where he threw 40 touchdowns and 13 picks over two years, is that you're in a playoff game with a top five defense lining up saying, we got a chance. to go compete for a Super Bowl here.

That's the ceiling with Derek Carr. I don't know that that's the ceiling in 2026 with JJ McCarthy if you're asking him to take this enormous leap in one season. Whereas guys who have even done it eventually like Tannahill or Alex Smith, they've needed multiple seasons in order to get there. So I think that that is a myth when we talk about like every player who hasn't done it, their ceilings higher than the guy who's actually played. I don't think it works that way.

the magic man says uh vikey's probably view car is safer to bring in than kirk easier guy for jj to objectively beat out of the job there's no beating out there's no beating out if derrick car comes out of retirement he is starting he will not come out of retirement to compete in a training camp that he would take every single rep from day one he is wearing a sea on his jersey he is the guy the from from the start to whenever he is done done here. There is no competition. That means it doesn't mean they're done. It means that he's, that McCarthy is not their starting quarterback for 2026. You would not put yourself through that. You would not put yourself through the work, the physical strain. I don't know where he lives now.

If he lives in California or whatever, uh, went to Fresno State. I don't know where he lives. Maybe he lives in Vegas. Wherever he lives, he's not moving to Minnesota for months and months and months away from his family or moving his family here or whatever to be a backup to a 23 year old kid it's not going to happen so there's no competition if they do something like that then that means he's the starter uh carl warming up to aaron rogers for a year i don't know i've been ice cold ice cold on the aaron rogers idea the entire time i think if rogers had come here the same thing that happened to him uh with the steelers would have happened to him here He would have played okay.

The offensive line struggles would have been an issue for him. He would have been okay. They would have maybe made the playoffs at 10 wins. And then it would have been quickly over. I mean, at least with someone like Derek Carr or Kyler Murray, there's a chance you go into a playoff game and the guy, you know, has got it at least and make some plays. I mean, Aaron Rogers didn't really seem willing to throw it over the middle of the field.

When he was moving, it was feeble. I mean, he's just an old. guy with an Achilles tear. And that's a limited ceiling right there. Denny says, would love to see Zimmer with McCarthy's the quarterback. As you imagine, I don't, yeah, I don't know. I don't know what that would have been like.

Well, he wouldn't have been, he would have done it. He wouldn't, he would have brought back Darnold. I'm with Zimmer, I think, I think that's what would have happened. I think. Because I don't know that Zimmer would have trusted a young quarterback if he liked Darnold's leadership. That was something that I think Zimmer always was not high on with Kirk. But Darnold didn't have that issue with the locker room.

When Kirk first got there, he never really like took the reins. I think Zimmer wanted him to do that. And it didn't happen. So I think and remember, like they resigned Kirk while Zimmer was the coach. They would have likely, if it was Rick and Zim, they would have, I'm almost guarantee you, stayed the safer path. This was about believing. that Kevin O'Connell could coach him up.

That's what a lot of this was about. For Quasi, it was about the rookie quarterback contract. For KOC, it was about believing that he could coach up any quarterback. And was not able to do that. Let's see. A bunch of letters, Runner, 87. Sorry if there's a name in there. Just want J.J. McCarthy to take a leap forward this season to go from 33 to 15

in quarterback rating and efficiency. It's a big ask. I mean, let's go, let's go take a look. Let's go take a look. Who was 15th this year? Let's take a look. 15. Well, Kirk in his small sample size, this is a funny thing about the grading system.

Because Patrick Mahomes had such a high turnover-worthy play rate, his PFF grade was maybe I had the worst of his career. But, I mean, okay, you got Mac Jones. All right. Well, you could make that case. 12th was Jared Goff, but Mahomes is right there. Bo Nix. Oh, man, it's not the craziest thing I've ever heard. It's not, it's not the craziest thing that would maybe ever happen if he got to 15th.

It's possible. But the main part is you need to throw the ball to Justice Jefferson. And I don't know if that can happen right away. Should have signed Rogers last off season. I'm not convinced of that, not convinced by his performance of that. Chris says we should trust Mon who isn't connected to the NFL now. Well, Mon is saying before in

23. Where's that tweet? Where is it? He see, Mon said they wanted him in 2023. So Mond he was, when was he let go? Well, he was let go in 2022. So I don't know. I don't know how he knows that. But he's referring to in the past.

That's what he's talking about. It's 2023, not just like right now. now. Why her? You hear? Please stop saying JJ has an arm. Velocity alone does not equal arm talent. Well, I was referring to his velocity. Yeah. I don't disagree with you. I mean, I think anticipation and accuracy are number one, always in forever. Uh, but arm strength, the actual strength does matter. Velocity does matter. As you see from Donald, who could throw the heck out of the ball, and Alan and Mahomes, you know, but Burrow is much more of a touch type of passer, uh, and an accuracy guy. So it doesn't always have to work that way, but I agree. I didn't say arm talent. I think I said

he has an arm, uh, strong enough arm. Does he have the accuracy? No. And can he get to a point that he could ever be top notch with that accuracy? That's a, that is a stretch. It's a tough sell. I think at very best, you'd be talking about erratic when we're discussing. what his arm would be because I'm just not sure how many years it would take to really lock that in. And when you watch a lot of quarterbacks, usually they come out of college and you can see the throwing ability, the accuracy, the touch and all that, whereas he didn't have that in college either. So you're now in year three in the NFL and it hasn't shown up yet and it wasn't there in college. It's hard to believe that it's going to suddenly show itself. But in terms of

does he have the arm to throw the ball down field, to push it down field, to push it into tight windows. Yeah, no, he does. And that's, I think I was referring to the tight window throws, like, which take arm strength. Arm talent is definitely different. I agree with that. Denny says, uh, JJ passes something in the eye test at times. Ponder never did deer in the headlights.

That, that's what I mean. Like, there's, there is a, a bit of a baller nature that has not been rained in for McCarthy and that matters too. Can you grow up in a year? And I don't mean an assault on his character at all, which, you know, look, people say a lot of stuff. When we say maturity, everyone knows what we mean. You're not saying you're an immature human being or you're a bad person or I'm assaulting your care. We all know that. We're talking about how did you act as the centerpiece of an NFL team that's worth $7 billion or whatever. and has a bunch of star players on it and high expectations.

And the answer was, you looked like you'd never done it before. That's all we mean we're talking about that. And everybody with a rational brain stuck inside of their skull knows that. But I, you know, you have to clarify sometimes. But to your point, though he has shown some of those traits that you could circle and say, all right, here's where you can see the arm's strength, not arm 10. necessarily armed strength. Here's where you could see him throw a touch pass that actually worked out.

It's in there somewhere, but can you do it consistently? Here's where you could see athleticism. Is it Kyler Murray's level and his peak? Or is it Lamar? No, it's not. But he can scramble and make a play, score a touchdown from 10 yards out, and he's willing to do it. And he has not rained that in either.

And it's funny because as I was watching like the documentary and the 49ers, some of Steve Young's plays, when he was a young quarterback, kind of looked like it, not saying he could be Steve Young, one of the most accurate quarterbacks ever, but the athleticism not really matching up with, like, when to use it correctly, which is intermittently not, uh-oh, something went wrong and now I'm, now I'm scrambling, and now I'm trying to make a play, which was happening to McCarthy too much at times. Devin says, I think COC is way more on the hot seat than anyone talks about. for me, everyone's on the hot seat in the NFL, except for Mike McDonald.

I mean, I might say Andy Reid, but if they missed the playoffs two in a row, he might be. There's like five coaches who aren't one bad season away from being out. We learned that this year. This year, I think the NFL took another step into lunacy when it came to getting rid of coaches, to where they're just going to cycle in half the league every single year. So, of course, I mean, when you've already fired someone off your regime, then the spot, light is on you. I don't think that's hot seed is just such a like, I don't know, like a really aggressive way to put it. It sounds like he's going to be fired tomorrow. But it's much more of a,

like, we all know this. We all know 2026 is an enormous year for Kevin O'Connell. Derek says I am at the point where I think a total tear down is necessary, including ownership. I don't think that. I don't, I don't think the, I don't think you need an ownership change. I think a, A total teardown does not make any sense right now, but next year, if this doesn't go right, then it will. And a few of you have sent me this tool that someone created that allows you to kind of play general manager. And it's a really cool interface and you can restructure contracts and do the draft and

free agency. I will be doing an episode with that. I was thinking about that for today. I was working on the mailbag all day and just didn't get there. So I want to do an episode with that where I try to play general manager and rebuild the Vikings for this year. But with the way that they're going to have to manage the cap with the ages of a lot of their key players, it's really 2026 and maybe 2027 where they could keep this thing together. But after that, they will have to go through a refresh as you usually have

to do in this type of position. Didn't Ponder win a playoff game? No, he did not. Sadly, Ponder played his best football game ever against the Green Bay Packers. to get them in the playoffs. That's probably what you're remembering and then got hurt and Joe Webb had to start the playoff game. And it did not go well, my friend, it did not go well. Such as Minnesota Vikings history, having an interesting young quarterback, or at least at that time, I think Ponder was still considered maybe mildly intriguing,

and then they get hurt. That was mostly Adrian Peterson, though, just being insane. The fan dual question of the day, if you missed it, is, uh, how about early MVP next year? Who, who's your Sam Darnel? I know Darnel didn't win the MVP, but Drake May did. And I don't know what his odds were going into last year, but it couldn't have been great. So if he was somewhat of a long shot for MVP, who's your long shot MVP for this year? I have Jane Daniels at plus 2000 as, hey, the league forgot how great Jaden Daniels is because he was hurt.

but he's going to be good. And I also think they made a nice OC hire with David Blow. I've liked what I've heard from him early on. That is my pick. Caleb says, I think people saying that KOC isn't a QB guru because of last year's insane. He would get a lot out of Kyler, Carr, Jones, let JJ learn for another year.

Maybe he hits or they missed and we move on. I tend to agree with you that we can't, we can't look at, all right so just for example kyle shanahan worked with what the cleveland browns didn't have any great elite quarterbacks there then went to atlanta and that's how he ended up as a head coach is matt ryan won MVP then he goes out to san francisco jimmy g looks really good then he gets hurt then it's nick mullins who we love but they win four games get nick bosa did that help and then jimmy comes back, they go to the Super Bowl, then Brock Purdy goes to the Super Bowl, but in between they draft a quarterback who couldn't play. Is he a quarterback whisper or not? Well, the person who's

playing quarterback has to be able to make the throws. And that was the point I made the other day about the completion percentage over expected. The expected completion percentage was the same between Darnold and McCarthy. But Darnold just way outperformed it and McCarthy way underperformed it. And that's based on how open your wide receivers are with the separation. I mean, the only thing you could do is draw up the plays and call them. You can't throw the ball for him. And I think what you're talking about with those guys with Kyler, with Carr, probably Mac Jones too, is that those guys can throw the ball and are experienced.

I think that experience does matter in this system. But I also think that it is about pressure to. And McCarthy, I mean, I know that he talked about a bunch of times how like the pressure wasn't getting to him and whatever else. And I think it did. I think it, I think it definitely did because I think that that he's human. And I don't know what human being would go through last year and through the entire time be like, yep, it's great. it wasn't great. There's a lot of stops and starts,

a lot of frustrating, tough moments. And if he makes it through that, then I think that it will say a lot about him. But it's hard. It was very hard mentally. And I think that that was a part of the reason that you would probably want to bring in a starter because what's different from last year to this year,

only the whole world is making fun of you for the guy you let go winning the Super Bowl. That's really the only difference. Devin says getting too desperate for a quarterback is bad. All these quarterbacks are mid and there's like 10 of them. So what's to do then? What's to do? It's saddle yourself to someone who might not be able to make it.

I mean, let's just be honest about the history of the NFL draft, right? We try to be honest about the draft here on the show. When there's five quarterbacks drafted in a class, someone won't make it. when there's three quarterbacks probably one of the three won't make it it's very very rare that you get into a 2021 situation where they all turned out to be at least good at least worth the draft pick or uh 2020 yeah 2020 right that was burrow to uh herbert love and hurts that's very rare because the very next year is justin fields mac jones tray lance like quarterback sometimes don't work out.

And every fan base where it didn't work out, they grab onto certain things and they hope and they dream and maybe it'll, maybe it'll happen and don't go out and get another quarterback because we got to give our guy that much time, but sometimes it doesn't work out. And McCarthy might still, but it wouldn't be unusual at all if he didn't. It would be, in fact, very usual for the NFL that a drafted quarterback, just had it gotten to go wrong and it didn't work out. And you have to be desperate for a quarterback right now. You have to.

You have to get Jefferson the ball. You've got to get back to the playoffs. I will continue to believe that this roster is very good and can be added to. And why would you waste it? Tom, that's the same thing we're talking about earlier, about the, you know, McCarthy's win-loss record, six and four. Like, come on, man.

man. I mean, why even, why even? Like, what does this do for anyone? Like, you know that that's not a very telling statistic. You know that someone who ranked 42nd out of 45 quarterbacks and quarterback rating going six and four doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot. I mean, Drew Locke went like five and one with the Denver Broncos and they never turned into anything. I mean, there's a million quarterbacks who did that. I, it's six and four and he didn't even finish two of the games. It's more like five and four. I just don't know what to do with that. Like you, you have eyeballs. You know what happened. We can all work with the same set of facts here that it was a very, very bad season, one of the worst quarterback seasons in the league by J.J.

McCarthy. And he's put them in a position where we're talking about Derrick Carr. And no one has denied when they've talked that they're going to look at other quarterbacks. In fact, the head coach announced it. The head coach announced at the end of the season. We're looking for other quarterbacks. I mean, he said a highly competitive quarterback room, not JJ's our guy. So we don't have to like gas light. I mean, that's just six and four is not even any.

I mean, it's not like he was eight and one. I mean, six and four. Like he's a 500. That's okay. Like anyway. Kit, uh, Jared Allen suggested to a, for the Vikings. It's a little bit of a problem with that.

It's that Brian Flores works here. Don't think Tua would be so happy to come to Minnesota. I also don't see any point in that. I mean, he could throw it with anticipation and accuracy from the pocket. But his limitations and also, whoever gets Tua, you're taking your life in your hands with that guy.

I mean, he's had so many injuries, so many concussions. I mean, we just went through that with Ryan Kelly. Uh, I, I don't think anybody. should do that. I think he should be a backup quarterback. He played like a backup quarterback for

like the last two years. Ron says Ben Lieber or Chad Greenway would be excellent if they were involved in some way. Um, maybe. I don't know. I mean, I know Lieber, uh, I like a lot of his football opinions and his analysis and breakdowns. I haven't heard a lot of Chad Greenway talk about the team, but that sort of sounds like you're just like sort of plucking guys being like, I don't know, he seems cool. I mean, Anthony Barr is a really smart player, but I don't know about like running a franchise, Harrison Smith. Like, should we just make a president of football something?

In fact, like doing it for Matt Ryan is kind of crazy to begin with, but Atlanta's crazy. But putting Rob Brzeinsky as president of operations and then having a GM report to him. Now, that's not crazy. That actually sounds like a good idea. Now, N-T-V-R-E-Z runner says car doesn't take you to the Super Bowl. This is what you told me last year about Sam Darnold. When I said, hey, maybe they should just bring back Sam Darnold. And, you know, it was like, he's not going to get to the Super Bowl.

Oh, okay. Well, you know, he got somebody to the Super Bowl. Look, it's not true that any old whoever can make the Super Bowl whenever. but if you look at what happened with Seattle or what happened with Philadelphia and the paths that those teams took to get to the Super Bowl or even New England, think about New England. So the Vikings next year are not going to be a perfect team. I think Seattle's is close to a perfect team as you can find. So let's say New England is not a perfect football team or Chicago.

New England needed Justin Herbert to come out to New England from the West Coast with no offensive line and do his Justin Herbert thing. Then they got to play a backup quarterback. Think about the 2022 Eagles. They got to face Daniel Jones

and the giants who were not that good. And then Brock Purdy tears his arm. And you're in the Super Bowl. I mean, if you get into the playoffs, you have a chance and you need a hot defense and you need the right pairings and are you going to tell me like think about this alternate reality are you going to tell me the vikis had no chance like at the 2024 Super Bowl if i told you they got to play at u.s bank stadium and start with the tampa bay buccaneers i mean then you would have said well yeah they could have beat them well that's what that's my

point it's like that is something that could have happened under the right circumstances if detroit hadn't won 15 and you end up, you know, getting the whole, usually 14 gets you home field. 14 got Seattle home field. So in a different world, these things can happen. I would, this is what my point about you. And people had said, oh, well, the Vikings would have won it with Sam Darnold anyway. Like, you don't even know who they would have played or how it would have played out. But my thing was, would you like a lottery ticket where you have a 10% chance to win a million dollars or would you like nothing?

I mean, I think I'm going to take the lottery ticket. I think. And it doesn't mean there's no chance they could get to the playoffs with J.J. McCarthy if he was the starter, that is possible. But, you know, saying that about Derek Carr or whoever, it's like, I mean, if you have a quarterback who could throw for 30 touchdowns and 4,000 yards and get you to 11 wins, at least you're going to have a lottery ticket. That's better than nothing for this year.

And would it have been a lot better if J.J. McCarthy was great and you could build the best possible team around his rookie contract. Oh, hell yeah, it would have been. But that's not the reality we're living in. Denny Kirk finally becoming elite as a broadcaster would be a fitting career arc. Look, Kirk, Kirk knows the league inside and out. And he has a big personality. I'm sure you've seen the videos of him like singing as a high schooler. I mean, even at the podium, like there were times where I interviewed Kirk and of course, you know, it's just funny. I don't know. I shouldn't even bring it up. But when people, you hate Kirk or whatever, it's like, okay, well, you might want to read my one-on-one article that I did with him in 2023 where, you know, we talked about his hometown newspaper and he was great and everything. It's like you can criticize a player and respect them. it's what I do. But anyway, you know, when I had that conversation with him or other conversations

along the way in the locker room or wherever else, you just got the real sense that he was so dialed into the league. And I think that that's a thing that a lot of players who leave are not. And even when you listen to guys on TV, some of the ex players, you're like, did you watch any of the games? Like did you, did you just scroll Twitter and then like go on television? And it's kind of like spout.

I mean, this goes for a little bit of Cam Newton sometimes. And then Cam will then do some breakdown that's amazing. But then he'll go on TV and spout some crazy hot take that I'm like, Cam, did you watch this guy play that you're talking about at all? And that happens with a, you know, a lot of different analysts over the years with their hot take. or analysis where you just think, I'm not sure this guy's paying attention.

And so when Kirk gives really informed takes, if he were a broadcaster, you know he's going to watch every single game. You know that he's going to be a perfectionist and want to go out there on TV and be super prepared for every single subject. I honestly think he would be as good as anybody on TV. I think he'd be absolutely terrific.

Raymond, Kyler would be entertaining running around. I think that's true. Matt says, I can see it with Carr, but I got to squint pretty hard. That's a great way to put it. Yeah, I think we could all see it with Carr. It's been to the playoffs before. He has worked the ball to a number one receiver before.

He's had good seasons before. And it's not that long ago that he did these things, just 20, 24. Yeah. I mean, you could see it all with Carr. What is hard to see is like it being consistent because that was always his issue. Is in a Kirkian type of way, it would be a, a hot month. It would be a cold month. You know, he starts out so hot in 20, 23, and then he's got some rough patches. That's always going to be who he is. You got to be able to smooth those out with

your defense. You got to be able to smooth those out with your running game. And that was something, look, if there's one thing that KOC said that really resonated with me, and I hope he was, you know, being really genuine about this. And he thinks about it every day going forward. I can't remember who asked there, what the question was about a judge. the offense or what he's learned. And him saying that, you know, he learned that sometimes from that Christmas day game, you just have to grind out a win. Like, you just can't keep going back to stuff that you had on your play sheet that you really

wanted to do. You just have to fight tooth and nail and sometimes win the game with your punter. And that's what they did that day on Christmas. And if you can do that a little bit better, because that would have been my one, thing with him that always stood out to me with the play calling was sometimes you just have to grind the other team into a pulp rather than trying to always dagger them with the long third and one play action or something. And he did that. Napster, where he taking the wife for dinner for Valentine's Day? The wife and I have never celebrated a Valentine's Day. It's never

happened. And one of the reasons is, uh, because she's often out of town during this time, broadcasting basketball or in this case broadcasting curling at the Olympics. So I don't know. I don't even like is today Valentine's Day? What day is it? I truly don't even know. Like I've never circled it on the calendar. We've never celebrated it.

I just, I don't know. I celebrate my love every day, guys. Dave says Matt was also telling us how great JJ looked in camp and preseason. Well, I mean, preseason he played like one series this year. did you see the preseason game in 2024 he looked pretty good now if you think old matt's wrong about that what did the vikings do based on his training camp they made him the starting

quarterback this year and let sam darnnell go i wasn't telling you the wrong information my friends uh and then this year's training camp was now i did a live show every day came back in here is like pouring sweat, sunscreen in my eyes. Guys, you know, he was 22 for 33 today, you know. I will say that training camp is only practice. And Alan Iverson, a great philosopher once said, not a game. It's not a game. It's just practice.

And they can't hit you. And that's very different from in practice. because Atlanta hit J.J. McCarthy and Green Bay hit J.J. McCarthy. And in practice, they did not. That was a big difference. But the after the joint practices, I mean, I remember listening to go listen to New England's podcasts because, you know, I'm friends with some of those guys. Chad Graff, Doug Kyd's a great guy. And, uh, I listened to their podcasts after the joint practices. and they were like, yeah, I mean, you know, J.J. McCarthy was really sharp and looked really good. Go watch Kevin O'Connell at the podium talk about McCarthy after the joint practice.

Look at out, look at how pleased he is. It doesn't guarantee anything. I can only tell you what's happening out there. I mean, I, that's, that's all I can really do. He did look good. He did look good in the joint practice and had quite a few good practices this year. And I thought coming out of that, that it was probably going to work. work. And I had them at 11 wins. They got to nine. So it wasn't like a million miles away,

but did I know he was going to get hurt in week two and miss five weeks and then totally reset the clock again? I did not. And I think that that made it really difficult on him. But I also thought that he would be more accurate. He wasn't amazingly accurate in practice, but it was better. and you would hear players talk about it, coaches talk about it, like he's getting in practice, but the game is just a different story because the defenses are so complicated that it happens so fast. There's no truly emulating game speed. It's just, it's just a different story. I can only tell you what's going on out there. Did you want, did you want him to like be having good practices and me say that is bad? Because that wouldn't have been true.

true. It wasn't bad. It didn't blow my socks off. It wasn't as good as Darnold's and it wasn't as good as Bradford. But that was actually one of the hardest parts because Darnold and Bradford had played in the NFL before. So I had a certain expectation for their training camps. And then I was like, oh, wow, they actually, you know, were over that expectation. But with McCarthy, I mean, he had only had the one taking second team reps the year before. So like, where do I even set the bar for a young quarterback? How do I know if this is going to project to the season? I can't say that it did. Devin also going with Jaden Daniels for that fan dual question of the day.

Lenny J.J. McCarthy at 12,000, is that what it is? Is that what the odds actually are? Denny says going to say, Burrow for MVP for the fan dual question of the day, but for what team? Obviously, Minnesota. KFT, if you think Kirk threw short too often, the new version of Kirk is even worse, 6.4 yards per attempt. Yeah, that's. So when we look at Kirk's number,

let's take a look here at his depth of target i've tossed it out there i think i memorized the stat was i right uh okay it was 20% was behind the line of scrimmage i think i said 40 that was that was that was too much 20% though one out of every five being behind the line of scrimmage and 60 what is that 62% of his throws did not even travel 10 yards I mean, that's, that's a lot of short passing right there. That is a lot, a lot, a lot of short passing. So he was not pushing it down the field very much. Denny says, I wonder if Zim and Incognito ever reconciled.

Have you known Zim to ever reconcile? I'm not sure that that's really in his DNA. Young cringe gamer, can you ever trust what Kellyn Mond says? Is Kellyn Mond credible? I mean, I have it. I've talked to Kellyn Monde when he was with the Vikings. I think he was most people thought he was a good dude. Like I don't, I don't know.

He has no reason I don't think to make it up. He's not doing content. He's not pumping a YouTube. He's not trying to get an analyst job. I think he's doing some sort of business or real estate or something like that. That was what was on his LinkedIn. I think he's probably now separated enough from it that he can feels like he could sort of throw some stuff out there because he's,

he's out of the league and I think is given up on the dream. And that's why he's just sort of, hey, I'm out here and I'll just throw something out there that I know. But I wouldn't say that he's like not a reliable source. I mean, maybe he is. I don't know.

It's Kellyn Mon. It's hard to say. But I did think it was an opening to. And I believe it based on the situation that that would have been something considered. Now how closely that ever got that we don't really know. Um, Palm Pine Aussies with the super chat. Thank you very much. Derek Carr comeback player of the year could happen.

Um, Kit says Carr and McCarthy would be a generational, memeable quarterback room. Uh, guy liner. Yeah, what? I think that's the shadows, right? That's all that is with his helmet. It just creates a shadow on his eyes. I think that's what that is for Derek Carr.

I'm pretty sure that's it. Uh, runner 87. would trust Flores on not playing Ivan Pace Jr. Yeah, that clearly just fell out of favor. And I think it had a lot to do with Harrison Phillips and Jonathan Bullard. That, you know, when those guys were creating lanes for him to just run and tackle, he could do it. But when he had to fight through linemen, it was harder. I finally got to the point where you guys are explaining the forest and the trees thing.

Yeah, sometimes I lose the metaphor a little bit there. Sorry about that. cause and effect out of your quarterback options, what each of their records would be at the end of next season and who could pick up KOC's offense the quickest. So you mean if I were guessing, like, out of all the quarterback options, like how would they finish? How would the Vikings finish?

Let's say that all of them play 17 games and it works out the best it possibly can because we can do it that way or we could do it that way. do like a median outcome. But let's say like best case scenario, I think you can win 11 or 12 with Kyler and seriously go into a playoff game with the other team being like, uh, you know, this is going to be hard. With Derek Carr, it's more like 10 to me where he can have 4,000 yards, good season, but there's going to be those games that you're left disappointed and enough to make the playoffs. Mac Jones is probably in that same ballpark, nine to 10 wins.

and you're competing on the last day for a playoff spot. I mean, Malik Willis, I have no idea. If it clicked and all the stuff you saw with Green Bay was consistent, and I mean, he could be amazing, but I don't know if that's going to happen from a week to week basis for him to be amazing. So I don't even know where to put that one. Kirk, I've got eight, obviously, right?

I mean, you're probably going to get some reasonable quarterback play early in the season, but I just don't know if he could play 17 games and be good the whole way. Aaron Rogers, I'd probably go 10. I think you probably get to 10 with Rogers and then you just get blasted in the first round of the playoffs. Kyler's the only one you could go into the playoffs in the best case scenario and somebody on the other sides being like, man, that dude's bawling because he is still capable of bawling. He, I mean, I go back to this game that he played against the Rams last year's preposterous in 24.

Just ridiculous. Six big time throws, 41 points. That's in there. Those games are in there. Gizincad car can be good because you either get a good year from him and JJ gets to learn or J.J improves enough and beats out car. Yeah, I don't think he's beating out car, but there's another scenario where he improves and Carr gets hurt.

And so let's say Carr plays the first seven games of the year and then gets hurt and JJ comes in halfway through, but is improved enough to the point where he could take him the rest of the way. That's a scenario. Deaver says this is the catch 22. the kid isn't good because he hasn't played, but he can't get better if he doesn't play. So that second part, I don't think is true. And there's enough examples of that.

I mean, Sam Darnold cites his biggest career growth is when he didn't play. And how about like all the quarterbacks that have gotten some development over the years and then finally got to start. The most recent is Jordan Love. Patrick Mahomes not starting his first year. But Jordan Love, I think is especially similar because he's a guy that was very raw. and not very accurate at first. And then he got there eventually. So, you know, Denny says, uh, that, uh, he needs to play, but anyone who plans for

that next year is taking a huge risk of getting fired. I think that that practice stuff is practicing every single day and watching a, a pro quarterback go through a season from inside the quarterback room is great, great. And playing three pre-season. season games play all three of them start them play the whole first half if not more than that like get get that that development time and truly focus on developing not focus on hey you got to go beat the green bay packers that's much harder um runner 87 in 2026 mccarthy he'll start 17 games we get fools gold and sign him to an extension well would they sign oh i guess they could after the third year or he regresses and we're

six and 12. See, that's one thing that I don't agree with because as it's been presented by some people who want to stick with McCarthy, it's like these two extremes. But I don't know if the two extremes are the most likely outcome for McCarthy. The most likely outcome to me is that he does make progress, but it's not enough to get you over the hump. I don't think it's a true, a true to outcome situation. I think the median outcome would be, it'd be like a bell curve where there's like a 90% chance that this is just okay. And maybe a 10% chance that it's absolutely horrible.

And a 10% chance, no, it doesn't work that. 5% chance. Get my bell curve slash pie chart wrong. It's like a 5% chance. It's amazing. And a 5% chance it's absolutely horrible, which would be the best possible outcomes. But those are also the least likely.

the most likely is in there in the middle, have to wait a long time for football. That's true. Denny did it ever look like JJ became shaken by what happened this year? He seemed to be handling things okay, but I may be wrong. I think he tried very hard to put on a brave face and to say, I'm confident, all that sort of stuff. But I think that after, I mean, after the Lions game,

he's very confident, very, you know, very back up. and I thought the attitude and everything was very strong after getting that win. But you could see the toll as it went along with McCarthy. And he's a guy that always wants to present positivity. He always wants to present confidence when he's talking in front of us and everything else. But there's just, there's just no way. And where I thought it was actually more kind of in the play during that stretch before he missed the Seattle game, which is a good thing he did. but before he missed that,

there was just a handful of plays where I thought, I just, I think he's trying to, to guide the ball. I think he's trying to think way too much. You can see it wearing on him. You would see him walk to the sideline after a series, and it just looked defeated.

That's anybody who went through what he went through last year. And then there's some confidence picked up at the end of the season, but going through the hand injury, it just, man, it's like every time it started to get a little momentum. some sort of setback. And it's been more than 20 years without a franchise quarterback is getting old KFT.

I know, I know. And it's it is the, the same old type of thing where it's talking about somebody else's quarterback, maybe coming out of retirement, hoping to get to the playoffs. And I could see where that's really exhausting when everyone had gotten so excited about J.J. McCarthy being their guy. And this was something that we talked about a lot leading into the season.

Like this could be different. This could be, this could be the time. This could be the guy, like that you finally land on and change the trajectory of this. Maybe it turned out that the guy had already been here in Sam Darnold, but not much you could do about that. There was reason to think that McCarthy could be that guy. There was reason to think that with the way that he had carried himself in 24, the training camp, the way that he had even played toward the end of training camp this year. there was reason to think that it could be there.

That's why I'm not saying that they should give up. I think the best path is just to take take a year behind the scenes and then see where you're at after that. Lenny says the Seahawks ran way more, not a little more. What I said was efficiency. Their efficiency was only a little bit better than the Vikings in 2024, believe it or not. Their yards per carry was not that good.

Their expected points added was not that good. They did run it a lot. They also led a lot of games. and they had an unbelievable defense. So they had like, look at the Vikings game. They ran the whole game. Why wouldn't you?

You were ahead. And the other team had no chance whatsoever of coming back. They were in quite a few of those games where the, the handoffs are running out the clock. Now, in some tight situations, they ran more than the Vikings in 2024 because the Vikings didn't have an explosive run game and they lost Christian Darrasaw. They were averaging,

Aaron Jones was averaging five yards of carry when Derasaw got hurt. that was a big deal. But Seattle's offense in their passing game was remarkably similar to the Vikings in 2024. That was the point. Bimmy says Malik Willis is the best option. I mean, Malik Willis is the more likely to have the true outcomes for the options. I agree with that.

He is more likely either click and be awesome or be a total calamity. what I do like about Malik Willis is the maturity that he displayed as Jordan loves backup. We've seen backups come into games and not look prepared at all and he always did. That impressed me a lot. He looked like he was in command of an offense.

That was impressive. Would you trade McCarthy for Pennix straight up? The injuries, the injuries for both. I don't know. Penix is a lot older. his organization is bad. I think in KOC's offense, Panics works out better though, doesn't he?

Stand there and let it fire down the, down the field. I don't know really what they were trying to do with his offense in Atlanta. The big time throws from him, though, you know, tight windows where anticipation, like he's got that. I think he's a better fit for the offense. I wonder if they would have drafted him

instead of McCarthy if he was on the board. And if he would have fit better than he did in Atlanta, But I don't know. I mean, both of those guys with the AC, another ACL is just so scary for Michael Penix. That's the dings and cuts of J.J. McCarthy or a meniscus that's fully repaired. That's less scary than a guy who's had a bunch of ACLs. Son of Beaver's Ryan Tannenhill is still out there just saying. Oh, yeah.

I mean, maybe he wants to go. There was last year, there was a report. I saw somewhere that he would come back if he was going to. going to be a starter. And everyone's like, no. Young cringe. Why are we making comps to players?

Comps never work. Oh. Oh, it's back. Okay. Sorry, just cut out for a second. Uh, yeah, comps are fun. Yeah,

comps are fun. I like doing, I like doing comparisons because I think what comparisons do for you sometimes is they, they give you kind of like a, like a new way of looking at something. that's how I like to think of it. Oops.

They give you a new way of thinking of something. Like, let me put someone in perspective. So one of the things that I love using is that Hall of Fame monitor, for example, maybe I could show this guys. Have you ever used the Hall of Fame monitor? Let me see if I could show this to you if Pro Football Reference doesn't melt down my computer. It has the tendency type. We'll see if we can find it.

It is a huge website. I am human. verify. I love using so like let's go, because I don't know where to find this. Let's go to Kirk Cousins page and scroll to the bottom. Where is the whole? Okay, so here's the Hall of Fame monitor right here. And if we go, that's the explanation for the Hall of Fame monitor here. And we try to boot out all the AutoPlay videos. You can hear my computer screaming. And we look at like, so here's the Hall of Fame monitor. and here's all of the quarterbacks and how they score and this is kind of created based on history

and different numbers that have resulted in guys making the Hall of Fame and how likely they are. So if we're going to look for like Kirk Cousins, how likely is he make the Hall of Fame? Well, it's not that likely that Cousins makes the Hall of Fame. And his comparisons for his career are Jared Goff, Dack Prescott. I don't really see it with Vinny Testa Verdi, but who else? Derek Carr. Hey, not that far away from Kirk Cousins. And then Tony Romo, Alex Smith, Mark Brunel, you got a Brad Johnson mixed in, Jeff Garcia.

So I like to do stuff like that that's kind of looking at, you know, comparative type of things where we can go, hey, like what kind of quarterback could J.J. McCarthy be based on what we know. right now. And what is the answer to that? And Ryan Tannahill is the one that comes to mind for me over and over. Like Ryan Tannahill was not very accurate. It was a really good athlete, was probably in over his head starting early in his career. And it eventually ended up working out for him. But it didn't work out right away. Let's see. Deeran Morris says Raiders fan, hope you get Derek. He's my goat and a good quarterback who's smart, accurate, tough top 12 to 15 when he's healthy. Okay, there's a Raiders perspective. I thought that Carr was liked by Raiders fans.

He certainly made them more competitive than they have been since. He's in Bakersfield, California. Okay. I figured he was in California that that's where he was doing his podcast. I mean, bottom line is, I don't think it's a bad idea. And I could see it working for what they need to accomplish. and I could see him being welcomed by the locker room as a veteran quarterback who knows how to get it done, knows how to get to the playoffs, knows how to throw for 30 touchdowns,

knows how to lead an offense. And I think the happiest person would be Justin Jefferson to see someone who could throw a really nice ball. Lenny, do you think Drake May was a Super Bowl caliber quarterback this year? He almost won the MVP. I'm going to go with yes. I mean, huh? Yeah, I'm going to go with yes. just because it didn't go right in the Super Bowl

does not mean he was not a Super Bowl caliber quarterback. Corey's warming up to the Kyler idea. Definitely the kind of guy that has to get out of the pocket to make plays. How well does that fit? That's the surprising thing from 2024 is that he was under center, a quarter of the time, ran play action, a high percentage of the time and had success with it. I think he was in the top five in 2024 and play action yardage.

So that to me said that Drew Petting when he was the office of coordinator there, that he did a lot of KOC type of stuff. And, you know, we know that KOC likes to put his quarterback under center, bigger personnel, and would roll him out sometimes. If he's good with that, then he can do it. Some of the over-the-middle passing might be problematic for Kyla Murray. And I think that's part of the inconsistency of Murray, is that throwing over the middle can be a challenge for him.

The height thing is real. uh, Denny Zimmer would have loved Donald. I think Donald's a Zimmer guy. He's, he's just, he's just so football. He's just like, Donald is all about football. He's an uncomplicated, like just go out there and play, play for the guys. Like people are really seeing this.

The more he does interviews, you're like, this is, this is him. This is who he is. There's not some deep, dark layer to Sam Darnold. I think he's a straightforward type of person that is uncomplicated, undramatic and, leads the guys the way he's supposed to lead him guys buy into him yeah you would have i mean west phillips said it he's a guy's guy kind of guy and i think zimmer would have like that bretivics i think the crappy thing is i don't want k o c to try to save his job for one year just play mccarthy

and if he sucks then the 20 i assume you mean 2027 draft is rich it sounds good in theory but did you like was last year any fun for you? So really when you have all those good players and you just can't get any good quarterback play, which is obviously on the table as a potential option for something that could happen, decent percentage. Because that, that it was just unwatchable at times. And I don't know how you can ask COC to do that. I don't know how you can ask any of them to do it.

Lenny Allen's a bad comparison for McCarthy. Oh yeah. I mean, yeah, yeah. Um, no, but you've got the other part of that wrong. McCarthy was better in his first year than Alan. Like, no, he wasn't. No, he wasn't. It's a bad comparison because Alan is six foot six and 240 pounds and just way, way more physically gifted.

And, and it took him 900 passes before he figured it out. So, like, that's, it's not even really similar at all, those two. Lenny McCarthy's not as bad as caller makes them out to be. I mean, look, Lenny, Lenny, there's nothing I can do about the facts, man. There's nothing I can do about the facts. The facts are what they are. And this, my approach is always going to be the facts. We could start with whatever you want to start with.

If it's PFF grade, J.J. McCarthy was 36 out of 44. If it's quarterback rating, you know, which, you know, some people will dismiss, but look at the top quarterbacks, the two guys in the MVP race, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow. And he's, you know, 42nd right down there with Jake Browning, Tyrod Taylor, Shadur, Sanders. I can't do anything about that. I just can't. Like, I can't change that. It is what it is.

the bad throw percentage being the same as Nick Mullins. I just can't change it for you. It would be nice if I could, but just can't. Nicky is Derrick Carr a JJ comparison, or do you think, oh, competition? No, yeah, I don't think so. I don't think it's a competition. Nope.

Otherwise, he'd stay retired. Todd, in your opinion, does Anthony Richardson have a chance to be a good quarterback or is he washed up? He does, but, there's another guy who was thrown into the fire just too early. And how much did he take away from this last year of sitting behind Daniel Jones and Philip Rivers and seeing those guys operate? The issue with Anthony Richardson, somehow he got hurt when he wasn't even playing, is that he also got hurt so much.

He didn't have a chance to develop throwing the football. And the short stuff was so bad. The deep stuff was pretty good and sometimes really impressive. But the short stuff was so bad. He really wasn't playing on. time and rhythm. I don't think he's a real option. He feels like a someday guy, like someday shows up with some other team at age 29 and maybe starts a season. I don't know. It's so hard when guys can't throw the ball. And this is the challenge with McCarthy. The,

the degree of which you have to throw accurately in the NFL to be a starting quarterback this successful is so high. That bar is so high. I don't know. of any of the top quarterbacks that are as inaccurate as someone as Anthony Richardson. Even guys who are running quarterbacks have to be more accurate than that. You might have been able to get away with it in Vince Young's era or Michael Vick, but Michael Vic now would have had to throw more accurately or there would have been talk of you can't really play him because you could throw for 2,500 yards and get in the playoffs back then. I don't think you could do that now.

Highboy says 49ers are keeping Mac Jones. The 49ers are telling people they're keeping Mac Jones. so they can get a better offer, I think. A high boy would take Murray over Tua. Tua, just to me is not an option. Just not an option. Just you're not going to go get that guy when, when Brian Flores now wields some significant power.

Social or dirty? Is that what that says? Am I crazy for thinking Marioita is the best available option outside of a trade? He's better than Kirk and Gino at this point. I don't know if he's better. I mean, Gino had a terrible year. I don't know if he's better than Gino because two years ago, Gino was one of the best deep passers in the league.

Mario da had good numbers throwing down the field. He's just perpetually disappointing. He flashes to you and has good games here or there when he gets to start. And then it fades with him. And I think he's never really seen the field that well, but he's got the arm. He's got some mobility. He, if Mario,

if Mario da comes in, then the door is open to McCarthy. I've been looking at only options where, McCarthy is not the starter. But if you want to talk about, maybe we'll have a whole show on this sometime or, you know, more time on it at some point. But there are a number of guys who would just be regular competition for him. And is there good options there?

Mario to by far the best option. Okay, it's pronounced native res runner. Okay, now I see it. NTV native art. Okay. All right. My bad. Trying to read on the fly.

it kind of looks like a bunch of letters and then Runner 87. But I appreciate you stopping by. Appreciate you asking questions, throwing comments in the chat. I appreciate all of you guys for doing that. I mean, think about this. We don't have a football game for a long time. We probably don't have a transaction for a little while. And we got a big crowd here talking football tonight.

I love that about you guys. You guys are as psychotic about football as I am, and I appreciate that. So thank you, Native Res Runner 87 and everyone else who has stopped by. Um, so your most recent comment is, I don't know if Carr takes the Vikings to the Super Bowl. Things can happen for sure. Still bitter that they let him go like a lot of us are with, you know, Darnold. Yeah. That's the thing, though, is if you go back to how you felt about Sam Darnold, it's really

proof that you just don't really know. The one thing that we know is that it's going to take a certain skill set for it to work. And that skill set is accuracy. it's someone who could throw with timing. It's someone who can have anticipation, someone who knows how to run every bit of an offense inside out. And Carr does check those boxes. JW, is there any reasonable chance?

Ownership sees this year as a year to tank, not being in quarterback who could guide them to 500. Next year's class might be worthwhile. This ownership is never going to tank, and certainly not this year, because this is all the guys still that they spend all the money on. They spent hundreds of millions of dollars on this group. They're not going to say, all right, let's tear it all apart.

Let's go to the bottom. Not now. If they don't do it after this year, if this year is a failure and they don't do it after this year, then I don't know what to tell you that, because that would be the exact perfect time to do it. Young cringe gamer. It's ironic that Kirk's best football was with Kubiak. Why did the Vikings kick Kubiak out the door?

Well, they hired KOC the next year. and Kubiak went to New Orleans or no, no, Kubiak went to San Francisco and I think that that was the connection. Yeah, that was the connection with, with Darnold is Kubiak went to San Francisco and worked there for Kyle Shanahan and then worked with Sam Darnold. But they hired KOC, brought in, you know, his offense, his guys. And that's why Kubiak went there.

But when you look at their coaching staff, it's a lot of guys who worked for the Vikings, Andrew Janoko, Kennedy Palomalu, Rick Denison. There's others. I mean, it was a good coaching staff. It was a good offensive performance in 2021. They, they had a good offense. It wasn't great, but it was good.

The game that Kirk played in 2021 against the Packers and Jefferson, holy cow, go watch that. This is how like when you're grasping his straws being like, well, he was six and four. And, you know, in the last couple games, go watch that game and think about how Kirk often came up short. And look how well, he played. plays in that game. He is amazing. And that's still a guy who left you wanting more. But the unfortunate part about cousins and the offense was that the offense peaked in 2020 and 2021 and the defense completely collapsed. And in 19, the defense was still strong, but the

offense wasn't quite there yet. And, uh, that's how it was, it was good. It was a good offense, but I think it could have been even better with Clint Kubiak in 2021, which I thought was their best version. And Clint also actually protected Kirk that year. He didn't take as many sacks. Devin Price is a sticking point with these quarterbacks. Great point. Yep, great point. Because we're talking about how Carr would fit. But if they want a second round draft pick for him or something, no. If his cap hit is going to be 30 million, no. So it, it does matter. And with Kyler, the same thing. It does matter. Saturday is Valentine's Day. Okay. Everybody who celebrates it's Valentine's Day.

I wish you the best for that day. My wife will not be in town. Son of Beaver's running on third and one. KOC just fainted. He's got to figure that out. That's, that's for sure. That is for sure.

All right. I think I got to, okay, that's funny. Epic, Kenny Pickett. That's funny. So what I'm going to do,

we made it to the bottom of the chat. I really appreciate that. What I'm going to do is, I don't know if I'm going to do another live one unless there's some news that comes out for this week. But we got some other pods coming. Did the show a little NFC North check in with Nolan Bianchi. Did a check in with Lauren Cox, who covers the Chicago Bears. So we got a couple of those podcasts coming. The fantasy show came to the end.

If you guys have seen that, it's always good football conversation on that one. Purple Insider.com football's got the mailbag. I'll probably do, I'm thinking about like a Monday night where I use that GM tool and try to rebuild the Vikings through the GM tool for a Monday night live show. That's, that's what I'm thinking. Because I got a few things that I'll roll out, maybe an off air one to answer some emailed questions people have sent me. And then we'll do that Monday night.

We'll all play GMs together and we could try to put together a good Minnesota Vikings off season. But hey, you guys turned a Kell and Mon tweet into a couple of fun. hours of football talk. So it doesn't get much better than that. I really appreciate all of you guys coming on in and having a good chat as so many of you do now on a nightly basis every time we go live. Can't thank you enough for that. It makes it really, really fun to have these conversations. And we'll see where it takes us. We'll see where the insider reports are. We'll do some more draft sims. And we'll try to figure out where this thing is going. Maybe we'll talk about

some other teams and their outlooks. If you're watching this back, make sure you answer the Fandual question of the day in the comments, which was, who's your long shot MVP? Drake May almost made it and was a long shot going into the season. Who would it be for you this year? I'm going Jane Daniels.

So all right, we'll definitely talk again soon, everybody next time we stream. Also just, you know, keep an eye on the channel, new stuff being uploaded every day. And have a, have a, you know,

have a nice failant. day when it comes along. All right. We'll see you guys later. Football.