Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Kevin O'Connell said what about Sam Darnold?

Episode Date: February 8, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about a tweet of a KOC quote that set the internet ablaze... even if the quote wasn't quite right. But let's talk about it anyway Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Regulator! Mount up! We're coming! 🎵 Thank you. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here for a little midday football talk. We've got some things going on from the NFL awards last night and a hall of famer for the Minnesota Vikings. Also another guy being elected to the hall of fame that I am really, really excited about. And we've got some comments from Kevin O'Connell that we need to talk about at radio row and at the NFL honors because there was a kerfuffle a little bit

between Vikings fans and a Detroit Lions reporter about a quote and the quote is still up. So it's kind of interesting because I've seen a few people say as False Prophet says here in the comments to start that he was talking about Justin Jefferson. So I'll just lay it out for you. And then we'll look at some of his other comments and his clarification as well for what the latest that Kevin O'Connell is saying about the quarterback position. So last night, right after the announcement of Kevin O'Connell, coach of the year, Dave Burkett,

who covers the Detroit Lions, tweeted, Kevin O'Connell and his coach of the year news conference said, our goal is to win a championship and Sam Darnold is going to be a huge part of it when we do it. And then Dave commented, sure sounds like the Vikings want to ride with Darnold. Now, some of you have said that he was answering a question about Justin Jefferson, and I didn't hear the question. I don't think it was videotaped press conference. There was not video of Kevin O'Connell saying this. Now that doesn't mean that Dave Burkett, who has covered Detroit for a long time, and I've met Dave and he's a go-to guy for Detroit Lions coverage, but there can be misinterpretations when you're trying to be at a press conference. And I've run into this before myself is, did I hear that exactly right? And you're trying to fire it out on Twitter for the

content and maybe you didn't get it exactly right. But even if the quote was word for word, exactly what Kevin O'Connell said, I mean, I don't think any of us would be surprised at all. If Kevin O'Connell got really hyped up and excited to talk about his quarterback and said something really nice. We went through this last year with O'Connell and the combine and every interview he did, because of course, every interviewer as they should, and every press conference as it should, is going to ask about the quarterback situation. And I saw my friend, Kevin Seifert put it out there. He said, yeah, Kevin O'Connell got about five minutes of being coach of the year before he had to start answering questions about his quarterback situation.

So O'Connell was then asked by the local media on a conference call about that comment. And he clarified with kind of a long answer as Kevin O'Connell want to do. But in his clarification, I can read you the whole thing, but it's, it's long in his clarification. I'll give you the crib notes version. He just said, I'm excited about Sam Darnold. He's earned the right to be a free agent and we'll see what happens. We love our quarterback room and et cetera, et cetera.

It was very much not definitive. And then today O'Connell was on XM radio and he said the same thing that he has earned the right to be a free agent. They love the way Sam Darnold played. He was super happy to be a part of Sam Darnold's journey. So no matter what happened with the tweet, with the quote, who he was answering a question to, whether he possibly misspoke and said Sam Darnold instead of Justin Jefferson, whatever happened there in that comment that lit up the internet. My takeaway with that was even if it's what he said, it's not a definitive answer. And there's no way that right now, Kevin O'Connell is going to walk out after winning coach of the year and just say to the entire

world, Sammy D is back. Everybody I am coach of the year and we're rolling it back out again. I mean, O'Connell says so many words in so many interviews, which all of us reporters greatly appreciate because we get a lot of detail from O'Connell. But there's also when you talk as much as he does, sometimes there is some open interpretation for, Hey, did he mean this by that comment? Or did he mean that from that comment? And there's also a little bit of, if you take one sentence and paste it into whatever you're kind of getting

at, then you might be able to make it work or make it sound like this is what he thinks. That's what he thinks. Maybe that's the trick of being somebody that talks a lot for O'Connell is that he can always kind of work his way around maybe plausible deniability. I don't know. But it's strange though, to me for that quote to be out there and then have no one else have said the same thing because a quote that sounds like Sam Darnold's coming back would be one that you would see everyone who was at that press conference fire out immediately. I mean, at these press conferences, uh, they're now maybe at the awards. I mean, there should have been a lot of reporters there, right? And so you would think

that there would have been a lot of people saying the same thing. So it seems like maybe there was something a little lost in translation there. I haven't seen from anybody else, a clarification on exactly what he said, but it doesn't really matter. I mean, the bottom line with Kevin O'Connell talking about Sam Darnold is that he's always going to be complimentary and he's always going to talk about his quarterbacks as if he wants the best for them. He's earned the right to be a free agent. So if it's here or somewhere else, which he did say, if it's here or somewhere else or something like that in the XM interview that I was just listening to with O'Connell, but there was no chance he was going to come out at the honors and then just announce what

they're doing at quarterback because that has probably not been fully decided yet. And this is the thing about the NFL off season schedule is when you go, okay, so it's the NFL honors are either doing that your coach of the year. That's great. And he's probably going to go to Hawaii or something. Everyone says Cabo. I don't know where these guys vacation. He's probably going to go somewhere and not do football for a couple of weeks.

And then they're going to come back and they're going to have their meetings about Sam Darnold. And they're going to decide exactly how they want to approach this because it is more complicated than just Sam's gone. Even if Sam is gone, it's more complicated than that. And when he talks about, well, he's earned the right to be a free agent, it's only kind of sorta. And, Timothy says that he's trying to maintain his tag and trade value. I really think that as a full organization that they have not resolved this thing yet. So he can't say that like he can't and, and really, really doesn't have to try to maintain any tag and trade value because Darnold won 14 games and had 102 quarterback rating and was top 10 by PFF.

I mean, those are really the things that are going to make his value high. And everyone knows how highly O'Connell has talked about Sam Darnold, the way Darnold led the team, the way he carried himself. All of these things would be stuff that other teams would want to trade for if the Vikings are going to trade him away. But there are moving parts here that have to be worked out. A number one is what does everybody want? Just, just for starters, if you're having the meeting, what does everybody want? What does everybody think about JJ McCarthy? What are the projections say? What, what would Kweisi Adafomense's numbers try to pump out based on what they know about their offense, what they know about second year quarterbacks with nothing to work for

in the first year? Does his college play go into it? I saw the Ravens GM said they use Madden ratings sometimes, which there was a couple of explanations from analytics people and why you do that. They were pretty good. So there's a lot of different things that have to be talked about with Sam Darnold. So if everybody goes into a room with the Vikings, we've got Kweisi Daffel-Mensah, the Wilfs, Rob Brzezinski, everybody in the coaching staff, And they go into a big meeting and they sit down and they say, what does everybody think? And they go around the room and

you get to just hypothetically, you get to Kevin O'Connell, who I think should have the biggest voice in this decision. And he says, look, I want Sam Darnold back. I'd love to try to roll it back, but I also understand that we don't have unlimited cap space and I can't bring everybody back, which is a line that he used in his interview. He said it would be great to bring everybody back and do it again, but that's not how our league works. So if we're looking into one particular comment, that one might be the one that is more telling than whatever exactly happened to get that Dave Burkett tweet out there. But him saying, yeah, it would be great to roll it out and have everybody return, bring back the entire roster and try it again. But that's not how our league works

is what he said. And so it's possible that Kevin O'Connell would be happy to have Sam Darnold back as the quarterback and give JJ McCarthy more time, but that costs money. That's not free. And that's really the issue with Sam Darnold that I know everybody wants to get right to JJ McCarthy starting, but then they have to weigh that other part too. So there's a lot of different moving parts to this. You start with, does Kevin O'Connell want Sam Darnold to be the quarterback next year? And where does Kevin O'Connell think that JJ McCarthy is going to be? And he mentioned in this XM interview, he mentioned that this is a huge off season for JJ McCarthy because he gets a full off season, assuming that he is good to roll and he was throwing.

They talked about that. So, hey, he's good to roll and he's going to have this big off season, but they need to see what that progress is going to be like for the off season. So you're probably trying to assess that even in real time. By the time we get to the combine, where is he physically versus the timeline of his recovery? Like they're not doing anything football wise, but JJ McCarthy certainly is. So you got to start with that fundamental question. How ready is JJ McCarthy? How much does Kevin O'Connell want Sam Darnold to come back and be his quarterback for next

year? And if the answer is that they think that McCarthy is going to be totally ready based on his timeline, then there really isn't a whole lot of reason to bring back Sam Darnold because this was the plan the whole time. If there are concerns that they have, what are those concerns about McCarthy? Is it based on the lack of playing time? Is it based on what we don't know about his medical situation? It seems like it should be okay. There was another procedure that happened that everybody said was pretty routine. All the medical and doctor people out there, that's a thing that happens. Okay.

But if it set him back at all, how far did it set him back? What's the expectation there? How much does he have to relearn in terms of the footwork? How much weight does he have to put back on? Is he ready emotionally to go? Because there's not just the physical aspect of it and the mental aspect of it. It's you have to lead a team that is full of guys who are in their mid twenties to early thirties who are expecting to compete for a championship next year. Do they feel like he's ready to do that? My observation about him last year was that he's a natural leader and he's mature behind beyond his years, which makes me

think so, but there's nothing that can really repeat how challenging it is to go through all of what a quarterback goes through in the NFL. And that's the reason why a lot of them fail. It's not whether you can throw it or not. Uh, so all of that stuff, Kevin O'Connell has a lot more information than us. And then when you get to the Sam Darnold part of it, and he's saying, hey, he's earned the right to be a free agent. Well, sort of, but Kevin O'Connell is well aware that he can franchise tag Darnold. So if you're a franchise tagging Darnold, which tag are you using? What is the trade return that you would take?

Would you rather just let him walk and get the comp pick and then just go from there? That doesn't seem all that logical, but how much are teams willing to pay for Sam Darnold? The thing that other teams have in their pocket is the fact that they know the Vikings have JJ McCarthy. That's what they have in terms of their negotiating power. So say you're the Raiders and you call up the Vikings and JJ McCarthy. That's what they have in terms of their negotiating power. So say you're the Raiders and you call up the Vikings and they say, what do you want for Sam Darnold? He's going to cost us a lot. He's on a franchise tag. What do you want? And if the Vikings say, well, we want a second this year and a third next year, they could always say,

Hey, that's great. But we know you guys want to go to JJ McCarthy. So how about we just give you a third rounder instead? And then is that really worth it? Maybe it is. Maybe it is worth a third rounder. There might be the other part that they want to make sure if they're trading Sam Darnold, that they're not trading him to football hell. And this would be a Kevin O'Connell thing, but I'm sure that has to be a consideration. The guy, and I don't know if the Raiders are now with Pete Carroll, if it's football hell, but I mean, Tennessee might be the New York giants. I think with Malik neighbors and Brian Dable, he could be okay, but it's also the New York market. So they have to, or they don't have to, but they should take some consideration into what Sam Darnold wants out of

this. And then there's this other part of this discussion, which is what type of contract would Sam Darnold sign if you offered it to him? Because as much as fans want him out, gone, don't ever want to see him again after the Rams game and the Lions game. If you think about it this way, if Sam Darnold said to the Vikings, I'd really like to take another shot at this, even if you guys end up trading me next year, what if we worked out a short-term deal

with a low cap hit this year so we can put the guards out there and improve the defense and so forth. What if we do that? And what if we decide to just do a three-year deal with a little bit of a no trade clause and I could come back for next year and then we'll go from there?

And Kirk Cousins always talked about this. Everything is a year-to we'll go from there. And Kirk Cousins always talked about this. Everything is a year to year type of leak. If you're the Vikings and Darnold would sign a three-year deal that had a cap hit of $10 million for next year, and then they could do all the off-season stuff they wanted and trade Darnold at the end of next year and slowly develop JJ McCarthy and feel much more solid where JJ McCarthy is physically and mentally and have a year of him sample size of practice. It's not the worst situation in the world to have that, to play it more patiently. That to me does not sound like that is a bad idea to have Darnold do that. But if you're on Sam Darnold's side, then I don't see why you wouldn't just want to be somebody's franchise quarterback, right? You would rather probably go to New York where they have no answer to the giants,

where they have no answer quarterback and be the guy and pair with Malik neighbors and sign a three-year contract with them and start playing football as opposed to always looking over your shoulder and knowing that there's another guy that the team has right behind them. So, uh, yes, for those, uh, just joining everybody popping in, we're just taking a look at what Dave Burkett tweeted the reporter from the Lions last night about Kevin O'Connell. And as I said, I think it seems like it's something that maybe should have had a correction on it or that he should have maybe just taken down off of Twitter because it's still up there. And everyone has said that it was not how it was really meant. But my point is no matter what Kevin O'Connell says in any interview, however you want to take it, he's not walking out to radio row or he's not walking out after winning coach of the year

and declaring what's happening here. So we're all going to pick apart just line by line what Kevin O'Connell says about this quarterback position, just as we did last year with Kirk Cousins and everything that he said about Cousins the whole time. It was basically the same lines last year about Kirk Cousins. And what ended up happening was they had a line in the sand for Kirk Cousins. We would bring you back if you sign for X. And it at least seems like that X was nowhere close to where he actually signed for with the Atlanta Falcons.

So that may be the case. The situation that I just laid out, Sam Darnold is totally fine with a three-year contract with a super low cap hit. He's also totally fine with the idea that they might trade him after 2025. It gives them more of a sample and more time to develop JJ McCarthy. Maybe the Vikings say, that's not bad because we can do everything we're supposed to do on the offensive line, on the defensive line at corner. And then we can still get a draft pick back for Sam Darnold next year after he plays this

year. And we can get to see JJ McCarthy in practice for an entire season. So he is fully, fully ready for 2026. This is a scenario that nobody wants. And I don't mean me. I just mean, it's so clear from every comment section and every tweet that I've gotten and every email that I've gotten and everything else that everyone wants to see JJ McCarthy. But the difference between you wanting to see J. J. McCarthy and the Vikings having to make this decision is that you are perfectly comfortable with the fact that we don't know anything about J. J. McCarthy as a starting quarterback. And the reason you're

perfectly comfortable with that is because you think that Sam Darnold's not going to be good enough to take them over the hump. And you are probably right about Sam Darnold's not going to be good enough to take them over the hump. And you are probably right about Sam Darnold. Now we don't know what it would have looked like with a better offensive line. Okay. So there's that or a better running game, but I think we got a really good sense for the strengths and weaknesses of Sam Darnold, the things that can make him great on a given Sunday, the things that can be his weaknesses. And if there was no JJ McCarthy and there was no first impression of him that was so strong last year, then we would be spending this off season talking about, Hey, how do you get Sam Darnold one more notch up? How do you

protect him a little bit better? How do you adjust the offense just a little bit? And you would still feel like Sam Darnold had a chance to give you an opportunity to compete next year because of how good he played and how well he led his teammates and all that stuff. But the presence of McCarthy complicates that entire thing. I think that the team has more to lose than you do. What you have to lose is nothing. If JJ McCarthy plays and Sam Darnold leaves and he doesn't play well and they win five games. Well, okay. Another year where the Vikings disappointed you and didn't win the super bowl. That's whatever. But if you're Kevin O'Connell, if you're the Wilfs, then you might look at it a little bit differently than that.

You might look at it as there is a difficult schedule. As Andrew mentions in the comments, there is a very difficult schedule and the Wilfs want to be in the playoffs every year. And here's what we know about the Wilfs and the direction of the Vikings. Most recently is that they chose the safe option a bunch of times with Kirk cousins. Think about the guy who's playing in the Super Bowl right now, Jalen Hurts. Jalen Hurts was available in the 2020 draft. The Minnesota Vikings were in a rebuilding type of moat after losing Everson Griffin, Xavier Rhodes, Trey Wayans. They had to completely rebuild their secondary. I think Linval Joseph also left. I

mean, they lost the whole defense after 2019 and yet, and they also traded away Stefan Diggs. And yet they went into that draft filling holes, which of course ends up in Jefferson. Everybody would have drafted a wide receiver, but they also end up drafting a cornerback and ignoring the quarterback position. They signed Kirk Cousins to an extension because he won a single playoff game the previous season. They have played it safe here in the past. They have played it safe.

And even for this most recent draft, there were what six quarterbacks that went in the first round. So that was at least an opportunity there, but they did play it safe with Kirk cousins for years. And why was that? Because the guarantee was on the box that Kirk cousins would have you either in the playoffs or in the playoff hunt to the final day of the season. You were never going to win four games with him. And I don't know if they've changed their thinking on that or not, but just looking at recent history, it's not crazy to

suggest that the head coach who just won coach of the year and the ownership who always wants to be in the playoff race would prefer to find a safer option and give themselves more of a sample size because KOC is going to coach here for a long time. The Wilfs are going to own the team for a long time. They're probably not looking at it just as a pure 2025 type of decision for this. They might be also looking at it as a longer, longer term. So the next five years type of decision with Sam Darnold. And that's why I've always thought that it's not crazy that that could turn out. But if you're Darnold, what do you want? I mean, if to me, if he says, I want to play on the franchise tag,

which I think no player does, they all want fully guaranteed. If he signed somewhere else, he's probably getting 60 to 70 million fully guaranteed. So I'm sure he doesn't want to play on the franchise tag. But if he said he wanted to play on the franchise tag, or if he said the only way I returned to Minnesota is if I'm on the franchise tag, because then I have no other choice. Then if you're the Vikings, I think you have to move on and you have to try to convince Daniel Jones to stick around and be there for JJ McCarthy, because that's just so much money to work around. It's not impossible. As I've laid out on the show, you can restructure, you can structure deals a certain way to cram it in there, but there will be ramifications if you play Sam Darnold on the franchise tag. There's no question about it that you'll have to squeeze smaller cap hits for your new offensive guards into 2025. And then those cap hits will expand into the next couple of years. It's actually comical to look at

the Philadelphia Eagles on their salary cap situation because they've got a couple more years where they're keeping this window open. But after that, they've scheduled out everything to explode within the next couple of years. And then they're going to have to go through some sort of rebuild. Well, that's what you could do if you're the Vikings is you could push that money into when you expect to have JJ McCarthy and down the road, but you're still not fully maximizing in that case, the rookie quarterback contract. So there's ramifications of having him play on the franchise tag. If that's what they want to do. That's why if they are set on having him come back, trying to get him to agree to a short-term offer where they could still trade him after 2025 would make the most sense. And now you start to see why I think in terms of moving

parts, as opposed to the most obvious, clear and obvious type of conclusion, I want to think in terms of what's everyone's motivation, what's everybody's fear. What's what's everybody want out of this? Because it's also very possible that Kevin O'Connell was thrilled with what he got out of Sam Darnold, but he wants to get to JJ McCarthy starting and he's been around him for the entire year. He was around him all last year. He knows how good JJ McCarthy looked. So what we don't know is everybody's motivations. And from the front office perspective, I am sure that they would either really like to get onto JJ McCarthy to start spending. Actually, there's no other option. I'm sure that that's what the front office wants to do. I'm sure they want or, or sign that short-term deal. But even then, uh, the short-term deal does have its issues as well.

So I think if you're the front office and Casey at awful Mensah, you've planned this out to have the rookie quarterback contract now in this off season, and there's a good number of free agents to sign, go spend that money, stack up your roster as much as you can. But there's also the thing that we kind of leave out, which is the fear part of it, the fear. And again, a lot of people have decided that JJ McCarthy is a thing. JJ McCarthy is a clutch quarterback.

He's a star leader. He's better at throwing underneath. He reads defenses better he's faster he's more of a playmaker i mean all of that is possible and nobody was more impressed with than me at his training camp and maybe maybe o'connell but his training camp and his preseason game which you all saw the preseason game looked exactly like training camp where it wasn't perfect, but man, it was, it was pretty sharp. And he bounced back quickly from an interception and he looked like he was in total command. He was also playing the second team

defense of the Las Vegas Raiders. So that all has to be factored. There's this sure thing that has been invented in everyone's minds based on this very, very tiny sample that I think in an objective, realistic world, we can all admit that those things do not tell us what it's going to be like to go to Pittsburgh and play Mike Tomlin's defense and TJ Watt. And it doesn't tell us what he's going to really be like in the future. And there is a scenario where it is, is not great. And if you go into next year and if you're Kevin O'Connor, this is how fast things happen in the NFL, right? So think about this. Kevin Stefanski one coach of the year last year, right? I think he did. If not, he was nominated, but either way,

they took Joe Flacco to the playoffs last year and everyone couldn't talk enough about how awesome of a coach Kevin Stefanski was. They have some things go wrong. They don't get good quarterback play. Now they have their star defensive end, the best player in the NFL on defense at radio row, telling everyone trade for me. And that's how fast things happen in the NFL. And so when I talk about fear and motivations, there's gotta be a fear of any coach that you could go from the top of the mountain to, Hey, you play in the toughest division, have a hard schedule. And if your quarterback's not ready or just isn't great right away, then you're going to win like six games. And what does that mean for you as the head coach? Or if the ownership, the same thing in

your viewpoint of the head coach, if you win six games, that is a real scenario that nobody wants to think about because McCarthy is such an exciting prospect, but is possible because none of us really know. And there's no better proof for none of us really know than, than, uh, Sam Darnold, because I mean, I thought that Sam Darnold after watching him in camp would be pretty good, but, uh, as good as he was this year, I don't think any of us saw it coming. And this happens all the time where you just can't predict quarterbacks. So that doesn't mean that I am down on JJ McCarthy or even down on the idea of starting him. If Kevin O'Connell comes out and announces that, Hey, JJ is going to be our guy

or whatever. Well, it'll be presented to us. Probably if they trade Sam Darnold, it'll be presented to us the day that that happens. If it does, then I will assume that Kevin O'Connell fully believes in JJ McCarthy. And he's not wrong that often when it comes to these quarterbacks and was very right about Sam Darnold. And that's why you're in a good position because you have the coach of the year who is guiding your young quarterback. But if they come out and announce that they've signed a three-year deal with Sam Darnold, that will just tell me that they're afraid that JJ McCarthy throwing him to the wolves right away, that it would be too fast. It wouldn't say to me, McCarthy's a bust. He's never going to be a Viking. It would just say

to me that they want to develop him more and still have the same plan down the road. So let's get some of your comments, questions, thoughts, feelings. Doesn't have to be the quarterback position. I just thought we would go over something that made a little bit of noise on the interwebs and some other things that O'Connell has been saying. Also, Jared Allen's a hall of famer, Kevin O'Connell's coach of the year. So thoughts, feelings? I'll be here a little while. Decided for some afternoon football talk because I figured none of you would be around on the internet on a Friday night. So here we are. Flick says, don't resign Darnold. I believe it was KOC and the insane offensive weapons. Well, I think that if you were downplaying what Sam

Darnold did last year, then I'm not sure how close you were watching. I mean, Sam Darnold played absolutely phenomenal quarterback. This was not a case Keenum situation. This was not luck. It wasn't a guy just throwing it up in the air and having somebody catch it. It may have been a little helped by the schedule, but he had big wins. A San Francisco team that was mostly healthy, the Houston Texans who were in the playoffs at Lambeau beating Green Bay. I mean, that's at least four very impressive games off the top of my head that Sam Darnold played. Think about his performance at Chicago before their wheels totally came off in a very competitive game. The numbers he put up there, he played really, really good football. And that's why he ranked in the top 10 by PFF. I mean, they're grading every play. And when you say insane offensive weapons, are we sure? I mean, look, I'm defending his 2024

performance, not necessarily saying it's what he would do in the future, but one insane weapon, one insane weapon. That's Justin Jefferson. And Jefferson was insane again, for sure. Jordan Addison was good, but he didn't catch a hundred passes. He was good. TJ Hawkinson played half the season and wasn't really the same. He lost his left tackle halfway through the year and then won what nine games in a row. He had game winning throws. He had plays that were breathtaking. He, I mean, he, look, he did it. He did all that. I mean, it was not, I think if we rank who had the best supporting cast among quarterbacks, he would be in the mid. I don't think he would be at the very top of the league. In fact, there are objective ways to do this.

Maybe if I can pull it up, maybe I can't. I don't know. We'll see. Let's see if we look at just out of curiosity. So with Sam Darnold, just I'm calling up PFF here and looking at how they graded the individual parts of the Vikings offense. Okay. So pass blocking.

I need just regular season. Hold on. If we don't include postseason, it's probably a higher ranking. So let's see. 15th in pass blocking. That's okay. It's certainly not Tampa Bay or Denver or Green Bay or Arizona or Buffalo. They were the top five and the Eagles were sixth.

When we look at receiving, they were fourth best in receiving. That's adjusted Jefferson stat, no doubt. But they got some from Jordan Addison. They got some from the contributions from Johnny Munt and Josh Oliver at the start of the season, but they didn't have Hawkinson. So they're fourth. Okay. That's pretty good. The run grade, I got a scroll. They were 20th in rushing and they were, let's see, well, I guess run blocking doesn't matter for Sam Darnold. So 20th and rushing 15th and pass blocking fourth and receiving grade. That's okay. That's, I mean, it's good. It's not Philly. It's not like he had the best situation in the entire league. That's the point.

And he played top 10 football. So I don't think you can down play what Sam Darnold did as a quarterback this year. If the only way of doing this was you can copy and paste, and we've talked about this a lot over the years where we just expect all the things that went right to go right again. If you could copy Sam Darnold's year, click control C, and then you could go, all right, Trey Smith and Tevin Jenkins, you're on the football team, Darasaw, you're back. And hey, we're going to add a slot receiver who's really fast. And oh, by the way, we're going to get Ashton Gentry or something, some great running back.

Now, then you would compete for the Super Bowl. But is Sam Darnold going to play at the same level for next year? That's a big question. And not only that, is the performance repeatable for the other guy they have who's much cheaper? That's really the question can jj mccarthy if he is given a little bit more in terms of the spending can he perform better than what you would expect from darnold because there's no doubt that darnold had games against the afc self and it was not the hardest schedule of all time that he racked up i mean look uh the Falcons was one of the best games I think ever quarterbacked by a Viking. It was incredible. But I mean, they had one of the worst defenses in the league and he lit them up. So you can't always just copy and paste over and everything

comes along with a price tag. So if I go to the store and this is kind of how this decision has to be made, right? I go to the store and we got my generic o's versus my cheerios what's the difference in taste that's going to be uh the price here or is there a way that i can you know add sugar or something that's going to make it better this is the same kind of economic decision the vikings have to make so i but i don't think the premise of oh well it was just as weapons that's all it was it was just weapons no i don't think the premise of, oh, well, it was just his weapons. That's all it was. It was just weapons. No, I don't think that. I think Sam Darnold played freaking great football,

but can he do it again? And what does it cost? That's, and can someone else do it? Those are the real three questions that we're asking. Timothy says, how would the locker room dynamics be if Darnold has a couple of bad games during the 2025 season? And then the pressure on KOC to insert JJ McCarthy would be greatly increased.

Yeah, no, you're right about that. And this is why I have said for Sam Darnold's sake, that if Sam called me and said, Hey brother, what do you think I should do? That's not a, that's a terrible Sam Darnold performance. I don't, he's never called me that, but, uh, if he asked me what I think he should do, I would say, go find your own team, go find a team that wants you to be theirs. Make sure it's a good team. Make sure there's some stability. If you can now, no great team doesn't have a quarterback, but try to make sure it's a good organization that you're getting traded to. But if you can go find someone else to play for, and maybe there's a Tom Brady connection

there with those two after the broadcast that Brady watched him be amazing against the Packers that maybe you're going to an organization in Las Vegas. That's suddenly better. Now you have to play against the chiefs in that division, which I would not find to be very fun. Uh, that's not, that's not quite the same as playing in Jordan love and Jared Goff's division. That's playing in the division of the best of the absolute best of the last history of the league. So that's a little different, but if it's New York, it's still a tough division. I don't know. Like, where's a good place for him? The Rams?

If Matthew Stafford decides to walk away because they're kind of tearing things down there in Los Angeles. Now that would be great for him. You trade him to the Rams. He's with McVay. He's got Puka Nakua that he could take off and he could be successful there. That's what I would suggest. Try to work your way to the Rams if you can, because they're a good organization.

I don't hate the idea of New York because of Malik neighbors, but they could fire their coach next year and they're the giants and they've sort of been bumbling, but that's why I've liked that idea for him. And I would suggest it to him because exactly what you're saying. If the Vikings start out the next season, let's just say their first three games are against Philly, Washington, and the lions. And you go, Oh, and three, what do you do there? I mean, because every time Sam Darnold walks out of the tunnel, he's getting booed by Vikings fans who want JJ McCarthy, every press conference, we're going to be asking Kevin O'Connell, when are you playing JJ McCarthy? And if you franchise tagged Darnold, now that's why the short-term deal works better for this. Cause you could

always trade Darnold to a team that gets their quarterback hurt or who needs one longer term if he's on a three-year deal. But think about it. They franchise tag him. Then you're just holding the bag. Then you're just sitting there with a $41 million backup and you look like Atlanta did last year. As far as the locker room dynamics, I mean, I'm thinking a little bit more along the lines of with O'Connell, the fans, Darnold himself. But I mean, the locker room, yeah, that could always be if Darnold struggles that they would have seen a training camp with JJ McCarthy and thought about like, you know,

if he looks really good in training camp and then Darnold starts, oh, and three, are they going to be wanting JJ McCarthy to come in and save their season? And then what a way to start your career. Hey, can you save our season for us? I mean, yeah, it gets, it gets very, it gets very dicey if they were to bring back Sam Darnold under almost any circumstance. Modern Moose says, I would like to have Darnold back for another season, but is he worth the open market price for the Vikings? I don't know. I'd love for JJ to get more observation time, which could be done under other quarterbacks, I suppose. It could, but if I just don't think that

Daniel Jones and Sam Darnold are the same, just because they're quarterbacks who didn't work out, Sam Darnold was way more talented than, uh, than, uh, Daniel Jones and Daniel Jones played way worse in his recent performance and had way more injuries than Sam Darnold ever had. So I don't think it's just, Hey, throw anybody into KOC. If it's Daniel Jones and you'll just win as many games or you'll be as good. I'm much more skeptical of that. Uh, O'Connell has brought him up in every interview though. So maybe that is something that he's considering and it does have to be an option. But if you're Darnold, that's the thing is that you don't necessarily have to pay market

price for a year. If you sign them to a short-term deal, if you sign them to that three-year deal, just look at Baker Mayfield. He was making $7 million this year on the salary cap. Now he signed a hundred million dollar contract, but he made seven on the cap. That difference there could allow the Vikings another year. If Sam Darnold would agree to it, because it isn't Madden and you can't just push the button and say, Hey buddy, you signed a three year contract because boop, we said so. Uh, so if you want Darnold back, or if there are people in the organization who maybe you write everyone's check at the end of the day and the Wilfs who want Darnold back, It's also a proposition of,

will he agree to that because of exactly what you were alluding to? There are problems to be had when you have the next best thing sitting there. When the chiefs did this, they had Alex Smith. He was really good. When they did it in green Bay twice, they had Brett Favre the first time and Aaron Rodgers the second time. That's a lot easier than having Sam Darnold because no one's going to say, get rid of Rodgers. We need this next kid. Even if you lose three games in a row, you're like, okay, well, Aaron Rodgers, our quarterback,

you lose three games in a row with Sam Darnold. Then you're going to start talking about, all right, you got to play JJ McCarthy. Nicholas, if you want to be a destination for free agents, you build them up and then allow them to explore the market, not trap them. Part of a good culture. Well, I generally agree, Nicholas, but the quarterback position is just different. It's just different. I don't think if you franchise tag Sam Darnold, that every free agent is going to look at Minnesota and say, whoa, keep me away from those guys. Like, I don't, I don't think so. They have treated their free agents. Well, they've treated their players.

Well, they haven't tried to play financial games with them and the culture they have, the facilities they have, all that stuff. It's, they're going to be a destination no matter what. Somebody getting franchise tagged as a quarterback is just a totally different universe. If they were playing games with lots of players, not paying bonuses, stuff like that, then you might end up with a little bit of a different situation

or dragging out negotiations by playing hardball. Last year, they signed Derrissaw and Jefferson pretty quickly, right? That's something that sends a message much more than how they handle this. This would be just kind of business. Let's see. Let me scroll here. Raymond says, need to fill the holes of need. Yeah, well, of course.

And that's what I'm saying, Raymond, is that no matter what they do, you will get your guards. I promise. I promise you. I cross my heart and hope to guards that you will get them. There will be people playing guard who are paid money and who are going to block better than what you've seen recently. I know it. I know it. I just know it. This is the year, Raymond, that this happens, okay? And that's going to happen regardless. Because if you're bringing Sam Darnold back and you play cheap at the guards, then what are you doing?

Where there could be sacrifices is really down the road, not in the short term. In the short term, the way that you work out the contracts, bonuses, the way you spread it out, the void years that we all love so much you can make that happen and here's my evidence look at last offseason they got Aaron Jones Blake Cashman Jonathan Grenard Andrew Van Ginkle and Stefan Gilmore and Shaq Griffin that is am I missing somebody that's six proven quality free agents, if not stars, that they were able to pay for with $71 million in dead cap. They had to do some gymnastics.

How much in terms of gymnastics do you want to do to keep Sam Darnold is really the question. Because if you do those gymnastics, as we all well know, there are implications to that. So two years from now, then you're maybe having to move on from somebody or not sign somebody that you want because you've done all the gymnastics to spread those cap hits out. That's where it comes into play with Sam Darnold is that the sacrifices will probably not be this year. They'll probably be down the road. Now does JJ McCarthy's rookie contract counteract that enough for it not to matter, which is very possible. So I've always looked at it as you can kick it down the road, probably through McCarthy's entire rookie contract. And then when he has to sign a deal, then you're running into complications. But when you look at the things that they can do

and the reason for this, and this is why it's a false equivalency to talk about it like it's Kirk, is because of what they did setting themselves up a couple of years ago with Rob Brzezinski and Kweisi Adafomensa setting up the salary cap for right now to be able to do stuff like this.

It's only because they did that, that they could potentially stretch out that window of when they can mess with contracts and so forth. So they can do it. They could do it for Sam Darnold next year. If they want to, it's just how much do you want to, or how much would you be willing to deal with problems down the road? And the franchise tag is what makes it, I think the hardest, uh, modern moose. I want JJ to have every single moment of preparation, uh, time that the, uh, I assume you mean KOC thinks that he needs. I think that JJ is smart enough to utilize that time for growth to take positives. And that's why when McCarthy talked the other day, I thought, sounds like a guy who hasn't gotten a definitive answer, whether he's the quarterback or not.

Now, of course I know they're doing interviews. They think about it beforehand, what they want to say. They're not going to come out and say, I'm QB one. Yo, did anybody even say, yo, did this? I don't think kids say yo anymore after everything, but at one time, my friends, we did. Uh, so I don't think that he was ever going to go to radio row and just start like, come out with a chain that said QB one right here, bleep Darnold across his hat. No, of course not. That's not what JJ McCarthy was going to do. But when he talked about like, Hey, nobody's crying for me with this situation. And all I can do is control what I can control. It sort of sounded like KOC has prepared him for some possibility that Sam Darnold could be back. That was my read on it because it's February and it's all I got

right now. So I got my read could be wrong, but That was my read on it because it's February and it's all I got right now. So I got my read could be wrong, but that was my read on what McCarthy said is it just doesn't sound like he's been given a definitive. You're our guy type of thing because he was more of talking about it being difficult. The situation that he's in rather than saying like, yeah,

I'm good to go. I'm ready to, I know he would never say I'm ready to start here. I come, but there wasn't even a tenor of like, yeah, I'm good to go. I'm ready to, I know he would never say I'm ready to start here. I come, but there wasn't even a tenor of like, yeah, like, you know, I'm, I'm going to be ready come, you know, that kind of thing. So, uh, Phil says, if you don't start JJ this year, next year, the excuse will be that he hasn't played in two years. Well, that's not true, Phil. That's just not true. Uh, because here's the thing about JJ McCarthy. He didn't practice. He did not practice. Practice is enormous in the NFL. I mean, it's enormous. This is how they knew

that Patrick Mahomes was good to go. Remember, let me quote a great philosopher, one of the great thinkers of our time. I see him every day in practice. Mike Zimmer. That's what he said about Kellen Mond. Why did Mike Zimmer know that Kellen Mond couldn't play? I see him every day in practice. Did he want to get a look at him? Not particularly, is what Mike Zimmer said.

So it would not be he hasn't played in two years. It would be he's had an entire training camp, two training camps. He would play at least two preseason games, maybe three. And then he would have an entire year behind Darnold practicing every single day. And at that point, the Vikings would have so much of a sample size that they would be sure of what he was. I mean, how did Atlanta know to play Michael Penix? They saw him in practice every day and they knew he was ready to go. So, you know, I mean, I don't think that that would be an excuse. I don't think that we would just say, oh, well, we can't do it now. I mean, they're not going to sit him forever. The point would just be the guy went through something traumatic. That's really unprecedented. There is not other quarterbacks who've had this happen. And his body has gone through something at a pretty young age here. That's really difficult and does set you back. And he's 22. He's so much younger than everybody else who was starting last

year, except Caleb Williams. And it's no surprise. I mean, the younger quarterbacks had a lot more problems. Now the older quarterbacks may have gotten into better teams, but they, they looked like Pennix looked like a pro the minute he stepped in there, that dude looked like a pro quarterback. And the minute that Jane Daniels got comfortable pro quarterback, but those guys can almost rent cars. Like they are so much more experienced. And if you look at the time of Jane Daniels at age 22, his age 22 season, he threw 10 touchdowns at Arizona state 10. I mean, that's how young JJ McCarthy is. So no, it's not a forever excuse. It's more of a acknowledgement that when they drafted JJ McCarthy, and this is, this is a point that I think is important if they end up going back to Darnold to keep in mind,

because I know that you guys are fighting it and you don't want it, get it out of my face, but just something to keep in mind is that, you know, JJ McCarthy, when he was drafted, the team told you, Kevin O'Connell told you, and all of us, we're going to be patient. And he is a raw prospect and he's young and we're going to develop them at our pace. And we're not going to listen to outside noise for how we're going to do it. And if they do that, then you're all going to hate it. But it's hard for me to hate it. If that's what they're going to hate it if that's what they're going to do, because that's what they told you at the beginning. If they want to develop him more

slowly, I still lean toward the outcome being that JJ McCarthy starts next year. I'm still leaning toward that, that that's the most likely outcome. My point is just that we all kind of agreed to this, like they've got the right idea. My point is just that we all kind of agreed to this, like they've got the right idea. They've got the right idea. Develop McCarthy slowly. He's super, super young. Don't throw him right in there. Remember, remember Sam Darnold with the jets where they decided to play him at 20 years old and what a, what a bad idea that was for his career. And it took them what, seven years to shake that off. Right. I mean, that's my thing is the best thing for JJ McCarthy is the best thing for the Vikings franchise.

One year is not going to, for me, ruin JJ McCarthy. If, if the different outcomes are play at the most safe with the most valuable merchandise or be a, be a little bit fly by the seat of your pants with it. I think I would lean toward being a little more safe if that's how they feel. A swim bot says having watched a breakdown of the sacks on Sam, one of the two final two games over the half of those sacks were on Sam taking too long. Yeah. Swimbot I've been over the tape. I don't know, three times I've watched all the breakdowns from Dan Orlovsky and everybody else about, especially the Rams game. I think in the lions game, he was bad and he didn't get much

help because Jefferson dropped the touchdown and a third down reception that could have changed the game and KOC didn't go for a fourth down that he should have and, and, and, and in that lions game, but in the Rams game, uh, I thought probably now it's very hard for me to say, so I'm going to lean on people like Orlovsky and their takes because they know better, but it looked to me based on their breakdowns that maybe three of the sacks could have been Sam Darnold taking a little too long. I guess it's up for interpretation. They just beat the offensive line. They just outcoached Kevin O'Connell. The adjustments weren't enough for them in real time and they ended up losing, but it was really the way that, uh, he, I think looked into a two week sample that made everyone say, all right,

we're just, you know, we're, we're just done with this and we don't want to see it again. Cause he can't win, uh, because he's just not going to be consistent enough to win. That's unfair based on history. Eli Manning didn't go into the hall of fame yesterday. Uh, Eli Manning's first couple of playoff games were a nightmare. And then everyone said in New York that he can't win and he ends up winning two Superbowls. I don't know. That's football for you. Uh, Donald has a ton of talent, but there, I don't think any of us would have said that if he was pressured 51% of the time, they didn't run the football that well. And the Rams seemed to know everything that they were doing. I don't think any of us would have expected a good performance from Sam Darnold.

So the final impression has really shaped how people think of it. And it's not that he secretly played well, that is not the case. He did not secretly play well. He was not accurate in the Rams game and his timing was also bad in that game as well. And it was against the lions and he was inaccurate against the lions out of a total of 18 games. He played, I would say maybe eight or nine of them were really, really good. A handful were good enough to get by and maybe five were just absolutely terrible performances. And that's kind of a distribution that will put you in the fringe of the top 10. You know, if you look at the best quarterbacks, they'll probably have 14 of 18 games or 17 that are really, really good. And that's not going to be Darnold. He's not going to be

as consistent, which is why you're not signing up for, and no one is saying, well, Hey, that Rams game wasn't his fault. Five-year deal. Like no one's saying that. And, and they never have. It's really about this, this 2025 dynamic that we're looking at. Uh, let's see. Bore ranger. Uh, sorry if I'm pronouncing that wrong. If Darnold takes the deal, Matthew described I'm in, I don't care what's QBy name is if he's a top five quarterback it throws for 4 300 yards ahead of jackson and mahomes if he wants top money move on yeah i mean that's the thing if let's if you lay out a scenario where the ownership and the coach say look we'd like to play it safer with jj mccarthy and they go to darnold and they say would you sign a deal that would make you cheap this year and then you can have a no trade clause

and we'll work it out in the future but we kind of need you for next year and it'll be the same exact deal you're the guy mccarthy's qb2 it was the same deal that you signed up for last year to come here and be our quarterback. You'll know the offense. You don't have to change everything about your life again. Come back for this short-term deal and make it work. And this is only in a situation where KOC and the Wilfs both want the same thing and they want McCarthy to develop longer. I think if you're Darnold, you have to strongly consider that deal.

You have to strongly consider returning. Now, I don't love that for him, but then when you go, because of just the fact that everyone wants McCarthy, but when you go over the other teams, it is hard to find a team where you would say, other than the Rams, Oh, if they trade him here, he'll be great. What other team would that be? If you've got ideas, let me know what other team Tennessee, no New York. No, maybe it could be okay with neighbors and Dable, but Dables on the hot seat. So you could go there on a multi-year contract and then that goes to hell. What about, you know, Cleveland? No,

I mean, there, so if you're him, you would have to at least consider that type of deal. And maybe that would depend on the structure and the guaranteed dollars and so forth. Andrew says, Darnold would make more sense to bring back Sands McCarthy, but with a rookie in the building and Sam's projected costs, it would be a disservice to the team to run it back. Well, I don't think it would. I mean, disservice is pretty strong. I don't think it would be a disservice to the team. In fact, you could look at it the other way. You win 14 games and you make your case as a Super Bowl contender and then you get rid of your quarterback. Some people might look at it as a disservice to the team to focus on the rookie and not bring back the quarterback that just got you to 14 wins. It's funny what 14 wins should mean

versus what it seems to mean to a Vikings fans. Like 14 wins should be, and I know how bad it went. Trust me. I flew all the way to Arizona for it, but it seems like in their minds in the locker room, it might not be like that. It might, they might not look at a 14 win season. Like it just meant nothing because of the way it ended. And they might look at it like you're, you're really changing our quarterback after 14 wins. And if you're Justin Jefferson, you may be like third quarterback in three years. Well, not third. How many quarterbacks has Jefferson had since KOC has got here cousins. Did he play at all with Jaron Hall? Maybe Dobbs Mullins and then Darnold. So you're talking about six quarterbacks in three

years for Justin Jefferson. So I don't think everybody looks at it. Like, how could you do this by keeping him around, um, in terms of, well, if they didn't have McCarthy, well, of course, then Darnold would be your guy, which is another point of why it's not insane that he could be back for one more year because people would be excited about what Sam Darnold did rather than wanting him to be put in a rocket ship and sent to the sun. Josh, our writer, let's see, I'm of the mind that they need to get a speed burner, uh, or two on offense, someone with scary speed. So I look at this a slightly different, uh, because I think that J Jalen Naylor has really good speed. It is more, and this might

be what you're referring to. It's more to me for the short area stuff for the quick in and out routes underneath, maybe, you know, the, uh, the, the jet sweeps something like a true slot type of receiver. They had three receivers that did all the same things, just all the receivers that, uh, just, you know, went deep down the field. So that's really what they are constructed with right now that I think I would like to see change in the offseason, not get rid of Naylor, because Naylor can play the other guy's roles if someone gets hurt.

So he's a valuable asset. But if you have three guys that are all these intermediate to deep route runners, and you don't have anybody that's yards after catch anybody. Who's the Cooper cup, the slot short area, the West Welker, Julian Edelman. Uh, you know, there's gotta be the, even the Jarius, right? Right. Like there's gotta be like a cheaper version of that because those guys are really good. Uh, and, and we're big stars, but I mean, even the cheaper version of that would be someone like Jarius, right.

Who you could get 20 catches a year on short and underneath stuff. They just need some of that easy answer and they didn't really have it in the form of a wide receiver. So let's see. Uh, oh, the Steve Matt says the Steelers make the most sense for Sam Donald. They certainly do. And I saw that there was a report maybe it was jay glazer who said that he doesn't expect russell wilson to be back they need a real quarterback i think he could be pretty good there it's not an easy division but he could he could be good in pittsburgh you're right if there's if there's one organization that we're looking at that we could say, Hey, you sent Sam to a good place. It's probably the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yep. Uh, Leonard says, uh, what would the terms of a two or three year deal for Darnold have

looked like? So, well, uh, I've kind of, you said no one will answer your question, Leonard. I I've been trying on that with potential three-year deals, but let me, let me lay it out for you. I'll lay out my entire proposal to Sam Darnold if they want him back, if they don't feel like McCarthy's ready. My proposal is three years, $60 million fully guaranteed. And the first year cap hit is $10 million just with the way that it's structured. I don't know how to do that. Rob Brzezinski does, but I don't. But we'll just say. And then he gets a 15-team no-trade list for next year. So the Vikings can only trade him to these franchises that he would go to.

So that's how I would do it. That's what I think it would look like. And that's not too different from Baker Mayfield. Matt B., do you think going to JJ McCarthy actually helps take some pressure off to win right away, especially given the tough 2025 schedule? I don't think in the national football league, there is ever no pressure to win right away. I mean, from us, from you and I rational folk who, uh, follow the team closely. I think that we would have that. We would have a little patience, but when you look at the construction of the roster,

there's not too many guys who are under the age of 25 or key players on this team. I mean, these are a lot of guys who are in win now mode, who just won 14 games and want to do it again, especially number 18. But how about Jonathan Grenard? The guy just had 80 pressures in the season, was a top player. How about Van Ginkle? How about Cashman? How about they've got Harrison Phillips? They've got a lot of their foundational players are in their prime and want to win right away. And the idea of taking a step back is not something that is going to be much accepted. I think in the locker room. And I also think too, that outside of the building, I mean, think about this. Like there's always these scenarios. And I talk about like the fear factor

of decision-making in the NFL. This is why it took them so long to stop punting because it always just was safer. If you wouldn't get second guessed if you punted. Well, they got us on fourth down, punted away. Okay. Well, that's what you're supposed to do. And it might not actually be safer to go to Darnold. If he regresses hard, it might actually not. So just like punting, it might not be safer, but trying to put yourself in their shoes, playing it safe is something NFL franchises do. And one of the reasons would be, let's say you trade Darnold to the Pittsburgh Steelers and they're in the playoffs with 11 wins and the Vikings are sitting home with seven because JJ McCarthy, let's say got banged up or just, you

know, ups and downs, sometimes effective, sometimes not. They don't win their one score games. They don't hang on to the football. Well, whatever. Like look at 2023, this can happen. Look at 2023. This can happen. How's that going to go? How's that going to play? Yeah. Okay. You were coach of the year, but one day you're in the next day you're out. Just like if you're, if you're a project runway fan out there, that's how the football works too. One day you're in the next one day, you're a genius. The next day you're a dope. This happens all the time in the NFL. And who are the only coaches that are never called dopes at any point? Who are the only coaches that never have these ups and downs? Oh yeah. The guys with Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen. Right. But unless McCarthy is that there is that, that possibility. I don't think that that would happen. I think McCarthy would be pretty good right away. Um, but I don't think you

get any grace in the NFL. I don't think anyone says, well, you know, like Kevin O'Connell was, uh, teaching a new quarterback. Kevin O'Connell has now set the bar at every person who plays quarterback should just be winning all the time. Like that's where he set the bar. By the way, I'll get to the transition tag question. Just a moment. Also, Jared Allen went to the hall of fame. Isn't that cool?

But the show has sponsors and I want to tell you about one of those sponsors, which is something I'm trying called tempo meals. I eat way too much fast food and I can be busy at times in the season. And you know, once we get to the off season, I got, I got time to reassess myself and I decided a little too much on the fast food side. Let's get in to a delivery service because I cannot cook. Tempo is a weekly meal delivery service with chef crafted meals from a dietician approved menu fresh to your door. They're perfectly portioned lunches and dinners. Take the guesswork out of eating. They're fully prepared. They can be heated up in the microwave in three minutes. Cannot wait for that. I've got an order coming with four different meals that I chose from in

about 30 seconds. Just what looked good to me. Uh, very easy to do. Go sign up there. Tempo, uh, tempo meals is the name. If you go to tempo meals.com slash purple insider, you get 60% off your first box. Tempo meals.com slash purple insider for 60% off your first box. So, uh, give it a try. Preston says, how's the transition tag work? If they were to transition tag a Darnold, it would go like this. He would have a $35 million cap hit. If nobody gave him an offer, if someone gave him an offer, let's say the Raiders come in with three years, one 20, then the Vikings could decide whether they want to match that offer and keep Sam Darnold, or if they want to let the Raiders take Sam Darnold, or if they want to let the

Raiders take Sam Darnold, but you get nothing in return if you let him go. So that means you don't even get the comp pick that you would get for next year, which might be a consideration for the transition tag. And I did check with someone in the league that it is possible. It's not likely, but it's possible that they could transition tag him. Another team could give him an offer. The Vikings could match the offer and then the Vikings could trade him. So that could all still happen to the team that was making the offer. It would depend on how the structure of the contract was worked out. Maybe with bonus money or something like that, it wouldn't be possible, but it's not impossible. Put it that way.

Uh, let's see. Boringer says it'd be just as bad if McCarthy plays poorly and we lose the first four games. Right? So that's the thing is that we've all got this, uh, vision in our head of, well, if McCarthy struggles right away, I'll be fine with it. Like, is that really true? Is that really true? Or if he loses the first couple of games, will you think KOC can't call plays? Will you say KOC was a fraud? Will you say that McCarthy was a bust? Will you go back and second guess? Well, why did they let Darnold go? If he wasn't really ready to play all those, that's football, right? That's what we do. We second guess the heck out of everybody who doesn't win the Superbowl. That's just life, right?

Including the refs. We've really found out over the last couple of weeks, but I do think that from my perspective, from your perspective, from fans and maybe from ownership, that if they're going to go to McCarthy, then they do have to have a little more patience. And they also have to make sure that there's everything in place. And that does mean the guards there's in a running game. There's everything in place and adjustments to the offense. They cannot ask JJ McCarthy to throw the ball downfield as

much as they did Sam Darnold, not right away. I thought he improved a lot with his downfield throwing, but that's not really him in the same way it is Darnold. They have a different skill set as far as the way they see the field. And I think his arm talent is good, but that's not downfield touch layering it over linebackers. Like Darnold was brilliant with that, where I think that what McCarthy is much better at than Darnold is seeing the field right in front of him rather than downfield. And rather than leading wide receivers deep, I think McCarthy is really good at getting guys on crossing routes. And he's, he's very good at making plays, scrambling, rolling out. He can really throw

the ball when he's rolling out on those bootlegs and things like that. Um, so they'd have to adjust the offense. They have to add more talent. They have to have an answer at the running game. Like all those things have to happen if they're going to set, uh, uh, set up McCarthy in the right way for next year. But, uh, I really do think that pressure is something you can't anticipate. So everyone loves that quote, the Mike Tyson, like you got to play until you get punched in the face. You can't really anticipate the amount of pressure in the moment. If your team doesn't do well, if JJ McCarthy struggles at times and you go back, how about this? Like I do radio appearances on Packers radio all the time. They always want to know what's going on over there in Minnesota.

They claim they don't care about you. Oh, Vikings. We don't care. We've got all the, they do. They do. They care about their neighbor. So I go on their radio stations and I was on right before the Vikings played Jordan love for the first time. And their, their hosts were talking about like, this could be a problem. Like this guy might not be any good. And then the way he played against the Vikings, right. They came out of that and ended up in the playoffs. But even at that point, they were willing to say like, we're, we're really concerned about this. Is this the wrong thing to do with moving on from rot?

Like all that sort of stuff. So you're always going to get the second guessing, uh, because it's so hard to lose. And there's so much pressure if you do. And that's what you're throwing JJ McCarthy into. I remember hearing a story. I think it was my friend, Sage Rosenfels, former Vikings quarterback. And we used to do radio together. And he said that, uh, when he was in the league, that sometimes after a couple of losses, that there would be players in the locker room

who had played for Alabama, young players or played for whatever good, uh, college situation. And they said, I've never lost two games in a row ever in my whole life. And I, and it hits everybody different. And with JJ McCarthy, what's that going to be like when it actually happens in the NFL? Is he ready for that? Is he not? I'm, I'm not trying to put him in a, in a glass bottle here. Like I'm terrified that if he falls down and gets a boo-boo, he's going to quit football. I'm not afraid of that. I just think when someone is as young as him, it's okay to be patient, uh, because it's a hard league and we've seen how hard it is. We've seen how good Sam Darnold is. We've seen how good Kirk cousins is. And these guys can't get there.

And that it's a, it's a very, very pressure packed type of situation. So it's not where we can go. Oh, well, if he doesn't play well, we'll all just be fine with it. Like that's just, you know, that's not going to be the case. You could say that now in February, uh, Joshua, the tougher schedule is why I think Darnold will be gone. They need the money to fill big holes on the lines and a DB and build a better overall team that can take another step in 2026 as he matures. You might be right. I mean, you might be right. They, they might feel like the more difficult schedule, the NFC North, that the only path to the playoffs, regardless of who plays quarterback is just to have the most stacked team. Uh, I still would argue that they can, they can do that stuff as they did last off season.

It just takes a different approach to the cap, which may make it harder down the road. But to your point, yeah, they can't roll out the same roster and expect the same results for next year. It has to be better. They can't just sort of, well, we're going to sign this guy for 2 million and put them in a defensive tackle and just hope we're going to bring in a couple of old corners and hope they stay healthy for the whole year. Like that's not really going to work. And that is a big part of the whole calculation is how good can you make this thing for 2025 and 2026? Well, your stars are stars. This is Grenard and Jefferson and Derrissaw and Cashman and even Van Ginkle.

Like this is their time. Those are your best players. You need to make the most of it within these next couple of years. Mustard serves as did the front office back themselves into a hole with the secondary multiple first round busts and reusing washed corners might just catch up with them. I also think it would be a sneaky. Oh, linebacker is a sneaky need. Now I don't really see linebacker. Well, backup linebacker. Yeah. Because Kamu Grugier Hill just didn't really work out and they just want nothing to do with Brian Asamoah on the actual field,

which I don't really fully understand to tell you the truth, but it seems that Brian Flores is just not sold on him. Maybe it's a schematic thing. I don't really know. I Kamu Grugier Hill struggled when he was out there. So I don't really understand that situation fully to your point about the secondary. You know, we've seen team building is always different. There's no one perfect way to do it in the perfect world you would love to do what philadelphia did and just fall backward into two really good starting corners and quinion mitchell and cooper dejean they wow like that's that's some good draft luck there you think about all the corners the vikings have drafted in the last 10

years and this team drafts two in one year, and they're both good. Like, what the heck? So there's that. But there are also a lot of teams that have filled out their cornerback rooms through free agency. The thing about the cornerback position is there's a handful of guys that are spectacular and that Patrick Sertan, MVP, amazing player. You look at, I think Denzel Ward is up there in this discussion.

Guys who could play man coverage and still be top notch, match up with any receiver. But then there's a lot of players who can give you good performances. And that's a Byron Murphy, what we saw from Shaq Griffin. They have a young corner in Mackay Blackman who I really liked what he put on tape two years ago. And I think he'll come ACLs. He should come back. He got hurt so early last year that he should be fully ready to go this year. And I think he's a good player. So I don't think, I mean, yeah, like, well, the phrasing,

they didn't do it on purpose as far as like backing themselves into a corner. It was missing on a Cam Dantzler, missing on a Jeff Gladney, missing on a et cetera, et cetera throughout the years. I mean, they, you know, did miss on Andrew Booth Jr. as well. But I think when it comes to corners, that's to me more of a free agency position, unless you can draft one of the top guys, because if you're not topping the, the, the drafting the top guys, you're usually not getting someone who could be a true difference maker as far as a shut

down type of corner. Uh, otherwise everybody's just sort of, there's, they're all Shaq Griffin and Byron Murphy and, uh, Stefan Gilmore. And they were a top five defense with those guys. So, I mean, it is an important need and they have to fill it. But when I look at the free agency list, there's a lot of guys there that I like, and there's some guys in the draft that I like as well. Uh, let's see. Let me, uh, let me scroll over here. Uh, sometimes you guys start arguing with each other, then it becomes more difficult for me to read the questions. Uh, Leonard says, I'm not pessimistic about McCarthy. He's almost a year younger than Schroeder Sanders. No, I don't think anybody is pessimistic about JJ McCarthy. That's the thing. And that's why sometimes I like to pull back for a moment and just, Hey, this is a reminder that this is a good

position to be in. You either there's, it doesn't have to be panicked. Your two options here are bringing back a quarterback who won you 14 games last year. And let us not forget as one of the best arms in the NFL and as a playmaker and a scrambler and a good leader and a good teammate. That's the worst option you have. It seems is bringing back that guy and having to throw him some money. And the best option you have is a top 10 drafted quarterback who might be a little bit behind

schedule from where you expected him to be. Those are your options. That's not bad. Alex says, I've always thought Darnold was a chill guy who got a bad deal whether he's worth paying or not is another thing no that's one thing you bring up a good point here that maybe has frustrated me a bit because sometimes i feel like with the way we've talked about sam darnold is as if he was not good at all and you just can't wait to get rid of him and he was tremendous. And the way he carried himself was tremendous. And he worked with JJ McCarthy and training camp last year, there was no ego about Sam Darnold. So when we talk about this, I like to also include how much

respect there is in the building for Sam Darnold and how much respect there should be because of the way he played last year. And also the way that he carried himself and the way that he led that, that to me was a really, really impressive because a lot of guys who have gone through it in the league have a chip on their shoulder. They are entitled. They're, they're not wanting to be a good teammate to the younger quarterback. And that was the opposite with Darnold. Uh, Leonard says Daniel Jones is a physical stud and highly intelligent. His ceiling could be pretty high. Yeah. The problem with that is that there's never been any evidence of that. And I guess you could say there was never any evidence

of Sam Darnold being good, but there actually was, there was 2022 in Carolina and there was repeated stretches with the jets. You go through, uh, with a fine tooth comb, there were repeated stretches where he was really good with Daniel Jones. He hasn't even really been healthy in quite some time. And he's played at a very poor level over the last few years. I'm not sure that physically he's where he was even a couple of years ago when he beat the Vikings in a playoff game and go back and look at that season. I mean, it's a very mid season. It just is like losing to him in the playoffs was an insult to the Vikings. Right. And then, so now we're going to be like, Oh, he's just like

Darnold and not really. I mean, he's got some wheels and he's a big guy and his arm is strong, but it's not as accurate as Sam Darnold. The down the field stuff is nowhere close to what Sam Darnold does. So I don't look at that as, well, you could just do the same thing. I look at that differently. Uh, learns to swim a fi. Is that what that says? Uh, my biggest takeaway with Darnold this season was that it was always on him and he still mostly performed virtually no other top quarterback

had all the offense on their shoulders every week, the way he did. Well, this is true. This is true. They did not run the football effectively. I mean, they finished 28th in rushing expected points added, uh, talk about it all being on his shoulders. I mean, they finished 28th in rushing expected points added. Talk about it all being on his shoulders. I mean, look at the red zone. It was all on his shoulders in the red zone that probably helped his touchdown totals. But in terms of hitting explosive plays, that was on him game winning drives. That was on him. I mean, he, he played extremely well. And when we talk about the circumstance, I don't think it was like Philly. And I respect Jalen Hurts, but in Philly, it's not on Jalen Hurts' shoulders.

It's on Saquon Barkley's, and he's got good receivers, and he's got a good offensive coordinator, and all those types of things. I mean, there was a lot more there. I would put the Vikings as far as, let's just add up the total things they were able to give to Darnold. So that includes coaching, really good coaching, really good elite number one wide receiver. Who's the best in the game? Average offensive line with the potential to be horrible.

As we saw, not really a running game that was scary to anyone. It was a, it was a running game, four and a half yards to carry for Aaron Jones. It was a running game, but it wasn't a scary one. It wasn't an explosive one. I mean, this to me puts them as maybe 10th, 12th, 14th, as far as supporting cast overall, probably like top 10 ish. If we throw in the coaching a little above that, but it was not one of those. Wow. Like case Keenum, you had the number one defense in the NFL. That was the other thing. Like the defense allowed points. They allowed points in Seattle. They allowed points in Atlanta against Atlanta. And he had to win some of those games by outscoring the other teams. He was really good.

I think anything short of he was really good is the wrong takeaway, but that doesn't mean it's, it's worth it. That doesn't mean it's worth a $40 million franchise tag or a three year contract that keeps McCarthy on the bench. Uh, Preston asks, isn't there a transition tag that a team puts two first round picks on? Yeah. So that would be the non-exclusive. The non-exclusive tag is what most franchise tags are, which means that if you were to put in an offer, the team could let that player go, but the acquiring team has to give back two first round picks. So if somebody had wanted Lamar Jackson, now they could still agree to it. Like they could still match it is my understanding with the non-exclusive. They could still match it, but if they let them go,

they would have got two first round picks. The fact that no team even put an offer in for Lamar Jackson will never, ever, ever, ever make any sort of sense. But that's the difference there. Transition tag versus a non-exclusive. Uh, let's see which, uh, presences, which two players can a team put tenders on like the second or third round tender? Oh, that's a, the restricted free agents. Yep. Uh, there's a few of them. I don't think there's anybody maybe, uh, well, no, they resigned Redmond. There's not too many people you need to worry about that with that's that's the restricted free agents. That doesn't happen a whole lot. Uh, let's see. Boringer says, is there a franchise tag option for Byron Murphy? I would be surprised by that because the cornerbacks are very expensive. And so if you think about look, a non quarterback question, I really appreciate that, Borenger. If you think about

how you want to get this done one way or another, if you signed Byron Murphy to a contract that was $15, $16 million a year, then you're spreading that out like we've talked about. You're making it cheaper early on. You're making sure his first couple of years are cheap and then he could be restructured. It gives you lots of options. If you franchise tag him, then you just have a huge chunk of cash dedicated to one player. You can't move that cap hit. You can't do anything with it. You can't move it an inch. It is what it is. So I would not franchise tag anyone except for Sam Darnold. Uh, but as far as, uh, Byron Murphy goes, I think he will be too expensive if he wants to return because he loves it here at $12 million a year. 14 is probably as far as I

would go with that. Then of course, I think that that would be a good idea. He's a good player. He is the center of the secondary over the last couple years and then he really showed it this year but i thought he was better last year than people gave him credit for he just didn't get the interceptions the same way i shot you 99 thank you so much for the super chat my friend that is a big super chat and i really appreciate it i shot you 99 says saw the top rookie quarterbacks play last year. Where do you place McCarthy amongst his draft class based on the performance from all the rookie quarterback performances this past season from May to Daniels?

Well, so are we talking in terms of who I would take, like how I would rank them knowing that McCarthy didn't play. I mean, first has to be Jaden Daniels. And then second has to be Drake May because the upside of both of them is still enormous superstars. And, you know, may had his problems, but that guy, when he was looking good, looked really good. He looked confident. His team was horrible. I mean, that's as bad of a football team as you're going to roll out there. Worst offensive line, bad coaching, bad receivers. The running back struggled. I mean, they had nothing. And at times he was playing pretty well. So I would still put him second. It's hard to put Caleb Williams anywhere else except for third. And there's probably an argument for second still knowing the pedigree, but we saw may

look more confident and play better. So he has to probably go number two after that. I mean, Penix looked pretty darn good. It's hard not to say Penix because I've seen them actually look good. And this is mostly just the draft order, right? Those top three guys you'd still pick. None of them talked me out of wanting to have them except for Williams gave me more pause and Daniels made me think this guy's going to be the Lamar Jackson of the NFC, but Pennix versus McCarthy is a tough one because McCarthy is a lot younger. Pennix looked great. McCarthy is a little more of a mobile quarterback, which is going to be really important, but Pennix didn't take sacks. And then, you know, Bo Nix made the playoffs, played really good football and had some great

moments. You can't be really down on Bo Nix, but I think the ceiling is still a little bit more limited with Bo Nix, but look, he's got a playoff appearance in his first year. That's pretty good. But the fact that McCarthy is younger and I think more gifted probably would put ahead of him. But I mean, with the sample size and knowing nothing about McCarthy, it makes it harder to try to rank him in that, in that group. If Drake may had played for the Vikings last year or something and not the Patriots, like, what do we think about him? What I really think about the draft class is that it was everything that everybody said

it was going to be. We talked about this. All these guys were really good prospects and they have turned out to be. I mean, if I don't know, like if Caleb Williams is the worst of them for this year, he still showed a lot of flashes, especially in that Vikings game. So it did turn out to be a great draft class, which maybe gives you confidence that if JJ McCarthy was right in the mix with all those other guys, that's the caliber of prospect he is. And I have no doubt whatsoever that if McCarthy had stayed at Michigan, played for another national

championship and was coming out now, he's the number one overall pick. I have no doubt about it based on his talent. He's a better prospect than Cam Ward. I think he's a better prospect than Shadur Sanders. So, but that ranking is going to be interesting to look at, uh, going forward. Uh, GDP says the plan with JJ was a year in development with a bridge that he never had, and they need to take a step back without just throwing him in there. Well, uh, GDP, what you're saying sounds rational to me and is an outcome that I'm not afraid of the Vikings doing. And I don't think anybody else should be either. I don't think that you should go into this decision thinking if Sam Darnold's the quarterback, I will burn all my gear and go buy a cheese head.

Like, I don't think you have to be that way. The plan was to have a year of development for him and he never got it. Now he got it mentally, which could push him even farther ahead. I just look at it as you have Justin Jefferson, Grenard, there saw the key pieces of your team and the coach. They're here for years the previous group and and i'm not saying that if they play mccarthy it's total panic of course i'm not saying that but the last leadership was in panic mode for several years and they made a lot of mistakes by being there and so i have leaned toward patience with everything be a little more patient

be a little more deliberate you're moving on from those older players in 2023 everything. Be a little more patient, be a little more deliberate. You're moving on from those older players in 2023. You're being a little more patient. You're being a little more deliberate. That's always been okay with me if they're going to do that. And I was okay with it when they drafted McCarthy and signed Darnold and said, Hey, we're going to start Darnold. It's like, okay, good. Be patient. Everybody wanted McCarthy to win the job and be QB one and everything else. But through training camp last year, when's McCarthy going to get first team reps? And it was like, Hey, Hey, we all agreed to this. We all said it was a good idea to be patient. So let's not push. That's how, that's how I viewed it.

Bradley says, so what do you believe is going to happen with Darnold? Only use one answer. Uh, well, uh, Bradley, if I can live stream for a 90 minutes straight talking about this, uh, asking for like a yes or no answer is tough for me because I'm like KOC. And then I have to give the complete and total picture. Right. But as far as what, I mean, when you say believe, I kind of don't think definitively very often about stuff like yes or no leaves or goes. I right now am leaning toward Sam Darnold is not the quarterback of the Vikings next year. That's where I'm sitting at this moment, but I'm only sitting there a little tilted on the fence. I've got a leg hanging over. I'm not all the way on that side of the fence.

I am less on the side of that fence as a lot of folks, it seems who have decided, Hey, a hundred percent chance. Donald's gone. I'm not putting it at a hundred percent chance because I think there's moving parts. I would still lean that way, but I don't think it's 100%. It's kind of like with Kirk Cousins last year. I probably would have said 70-30. I think I came back from the combine and said maybe 80-20 he's gone because everyone at the combine thought he was going to be a falcon and everybody was right.

Maybe that's because they were tampering there. So everybody already knew, but, uh, I'm more 60, 40 right now. And we need to see what happens with the franchise tag deadline and, and kind of go from there. So, uh, Andrew says, uh, in a world without the cap, I'd be happy with three quarterbacks, a vet, a rookie and a reclamation project. Yeah. I, in a world without a cap, it's a, it's a little bit different. Yep. Oh, and Andrew adds a, what do you think fits the reclamation project and vet scenario of DJ and Sam? Well, I mean, I, who else, I don't know if there's other quarterbacks. I mean, I'll tell you one that I kind of like, but I would not really want to throw into this situation because of his past would be Zach Wilson. But I mean, he was just with the Broncos for the entire year.

If you're talking reclamation project, you're right about that. By the way, you'd always want to have a proven vet, a younger quarterback starting, and then some guy that you're kind of developing behind the scenes. You're right about that. Uh, Zach Wilson, though, someday Zach Wilson's going to show up for a team and be good. I know it. Uh, modern moose, great time to be level-headed and knowledgeable Vikings fan. In my opinion, this is some of the most exciting Vikings history being written in front of our eyes. Well, that is a, uh, a very, uh, good outlook. I think of where they're at moose, uh, because I do think they're in a really good position with who they have when it comes to the weapons, the young players, the salary cap space

and who they have leading them. Uh, we're still waiting on that KO or a quasi, uh, extension, but KOC coach of the year got an extension can think long-term and is as good of a leader of men and as good of a play designer as we've seen. Everybody's got nitpicks. We work through those throughout the year and we talk about them, but I mean, having a top 10 coach, having cap space, having pillars at some of the biggest positions. I mean, corner is the only one when we go through those big money positions, wide receiver, they've got one left tackle. They've got one edge rusher. They've got one. I mean, they actually really two, and then they just drafted another one. They've got stars at the positions that you're really looking for. They have really two receivers,

two tackles. So they're in a, they're in a good spot. Um, and this decision is kind of going to be the first step to what's next interior D line guard corner. Like there's a lot to still build there, but I think you're right in feeling like they're in position to remain very competitive going forward. Uh, Matt says, uh, biggest need for next year, guard cornerback hit on rookie running back and better sack celebrations. Yeah. I don't know about that last part, but, uh, I think the running back situation is a little dicey. I would try to go veteran and rookie together for next year. Maybe that means bringing Aaron Jones back. I'm comfortable with that. As long as they draft one,

as far as corners and guards, you probably have to do that in free agency and don't forget interior D line, which I definitely want to see in the draft. That is my top position in the draft. And actually I got a live show for you maybe next week where I'm going to go through my first draft SIM and maybe we can do one live. Maybe we could do 11 of them live. I don't know. But there's a lot of options in the draft sim world. So let me get to something before I wrap up here. Great comments and conversation today, guys. Thanks for doing this in the middle of the day for saw that the Hall of Fame is now trying to be a little bit more stingy when it comes to how many guys they're putting in. And I just really don't like that. I really don't like that. And I know that they've talked about they want the best of the best of the best when it comes to the, uh, hall of fame and okay, sure.

But Luke Keighley, Mike Holmgren, Steve Smith, Reggie Wayne, these players can't be left out of the hall of fame. And the evidence is in a guy who got put in a couple of guys who put in Jared Allen should not have had to wait. And not only that, but also Sterling sharp having to wait as long as he did as a travesty. And it's really, really good that they were able to do this now. Well, Sterling sharp is not 97 years old, uh, because he can appreciate it and he can enjoy it. I'm sure all of you Vikings fans who

played against or watch your team play against Sterling sharp. No, he belonged in the hall of fame, hands freaking down. And the fact that it took this long was, was so bad. And I don't want to see that for many other deserving players. Uh, there are so many who have the statistical case who have the accomplishments who have the lore the pro bowls the whatever it might be and now they're going to try to make it harder for those guys to get in even though they have the resumes i i don't i don't like that i don't like that i think they've gotten backlogged and backlogged for deserving players to the point where like when I was growing up, Eric Allen was the guy like Eric Allen was the guy and the same with Shannon, uh, Sterling sharp.

I mean, these guys were the best of the best. I mean, you're tuning into games to see these guys play and they're getting pro bowls and they're getting records and they're getting whatever. And they had to wait till this long to get in. We'll think about the guys who are playing for this era, the last era and how long do we not think, I mean, you guys saw what Steve Smith did to the Vikings. Do we not think that Steve Smith is a hall of famer? I mean, that's crazy to me. He was the definition of a player who rose above the rest and was at the absolute top of the game. I mean, I think putting in less hall of famers is just going to hurt so many deserving players and backlog them for years and years and years and years

to come. So I think they got to reconsider that. But yeah, you know, you mentioned Harrison Smith. He came to my mind last night when they announced there was only forest like, okay,

how long is it going to take Harrison Smith? Is he going to have to be 75 years old when he gets in the hall of fame? Is it ever going to happen for him? Because you know, he didn't have those big moments on national TV. Didn't win a ring that, that you don't want to see that, but it makes me wonder if they're going to reduce this amount, but congratulations to Jared Allen, who was an easy hall of famer with the numbers that he put up and one of the most lightning quick players that I've ever seen off of the edge. And it was just unfortunate that his great season came in a bad season for the Vikings, but it's really cool to see Jared Allen get in. If you have a chance though, and a few of you have mentioned it. Yeah. Tori, Tori, Tori Hall

is not a, is not a hall of famer. Come on. I mean, that's as easy as it gets for me. Uh, that's actually easier than Steve Smith, Tori Holt, the greatest show on turf, the top player there, him and Isaac Bruce, come on. So, and even players like, and I don't, I don't want it to be the just okay. Like I don't, I don't want it to be the, uh, like hall of very good, but there's players to me who absolutely rise to that level of being hall of famers that are going to have to wait for a really long time. And even the fact that Jared Allen had to wait and the fact that Kevin Williams can't even get a thought or the fact that Jim Marshall

is seemingly never going to get in. I think there's a lot of players who are going to get backlogged here. But congratulations to Alan. I was, I was there when they announced he was going into the ring of honor, which was really cool to see. And just one of the great players over the last two decades. So if you get a chance,

as a few of you have mentioned, go find that video of Sterling Sharp being told. And also go watch Shannon Sharp's Hall of Fame speech. It is incredible. His Hall of Fame, Shannon Sharp, and he talks about Sterling

in the Hall of Fame speech. It's great. So anyway, well, thanks, guys, for the midday conversation. I really enjoyed this. Next week, we'll definitely plan on Super Bowl reaction So anyway, well, thanks guys for the midday conversation. I really enjoyed this next week. We'll definitely plan on Superbowl reaction and maybe, uh, yeah, definitely. We'll do the first draft SIM kind of start diving into the biggest headlines free agency. This show is going absolutely nowhere.

365. We talk football and it makes it easier for me to answer all of your questions when we're in this kind of hanging out, talking ball type of mode. So thanks again to everybody who popped in to watch and listen. And we'll talk to you all very soon. Thanks guys. Football.