Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Kirk Cousins is an Atlanta Falcon

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

Matthew Coller reacts to Kirk Cousins signing with the Atlanta Falcons and talks about the Andrew Van Ginkel and Blake Cashman signings and chats with fans about what's next https://surfshark.deals/PURPLEINSIDER Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. And this is the one that we have been talking about for a very long time. Years we have talked about what is going to happen at the quarterback position. When is Kirk Cousins going to play somewhere else? When will the Vikings take another step toward trying to win a Super Bowl rather than exist in the mediocre circle of hell that they have lived in for the last six years? And that answer is today, March 11th, somewhere around 1.30 central time, the Minnesota Vikings no longer have Kirk Cousins as their quarterback. As Cousins' agent announced a four-year contract with the Atlanta Falcons.

And now the doors are wide open for the future. Drafting quarterbacks, looking elsewhere for other veteran quarterbacks to bring in, building around a potential rookie quarterback contract. The draft just got very, very interesting for the Minnesota Vikings. And for Kirk Cousins, this is the best possible landing spot for him. It was from the outset of this. The Falcons have built their team over years to be in a position where they could sign a win-now type of quarterback to a preposterous four-year contract for someone who's 36 and just coming off of an Achilles injury.

But that is a risk that they are in a position to take and that the Minnesota Vikings were never in a position to take and that the Minnesota Vikings were never in a position to take and had Kirk Cousins come back and if the Vikings had signed him to a four-year deal I see no path that they would have been able to win around Kirk Cousins history tells us that no matter what they did no matter which players they signed no matter the any way that they messed with the salary cap, no matter if they had a great defense or a bad defense or great receivers, or if they beefed up the offensive line, or if they had a great play caller, or if they had a great running back, all the options through the last six years, all the buttons were pressed by the Minnesota Vikings and it never got them where they wanted to go

and really never got them anywhere close. One trip to the divisional round in six years is not enough to justify another contract for Kirk Cousins. This also matches up with exactly what we thought the plan was from day one with Kweisi Adafo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell, which was to build up to this moment where the Minnesota Vikings could seek out their future quarterback in the NFL draft. It also just so happens to be a very good draft for quarterbacks. And Kweisi Adafo-Mensah said, we've been looking at this draft class for years. Well, now you get to look even closer over the next couple of months as the Vikings will have their opportunity to try to find their true franchise quarterback. They will have the cap space to put into the roster that they have not had for so long. they will find somebody who is a playmaker, someone who makes the head coach wrong,

or I'm sorry, right when he's wrong. If he calls a bad play, maybe they find a guy who can do something rather than just get sacked or checked down. Now, this is not to hate on Kirk Cousins, but it is to live in the reality of what we have watched over the last six years, which is a day late, a dollar short, a free agent signing goes bust here or there, and everything comes apart because the quarterback was just not good enough

to take them over the top to the next level. That is the reality that we have lived in for the last six years in watching Kirk Cousins as the quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings. And now as he leaves, you do have to acknowledge that he gave the Vikings the best possible quarterback play that Kirk Cousins could have given them. Over all six years, he performed better than he ever did when he was in Washington, but it still wasn't enough. And it speaks to the flawed decision to bring him in in 2018 and how they thought he was going to be the final piece that took him over the top. And of course, the Atlanta Falcons are trying to make that argument to themselves right now that Kirk Cousins is the final piece that's going to take them over the top.

And we'll see how it plays out. And there's no ill will, I think, from Vikings fans or anybody else about Kirk Cousins that he played nearly every game until the final season. He performed at a very high level, one that constantly put him in the top 10 to 15 quarterbacks in the league. But as far as the weaknesses that made him a top 15 quarterback rather than a top five quarterback that made the Vikings a good offense, but never a great offense. They held the Vikings in this place in mediocrity and as being an average team,

they were a road cone for the real teams, the real Super Bowl contenders to go around in route to actually contending. And it feels like those shackles have come off today. And now the opportunity exists to become Philadelphia, to become the San Francisco 49ers, to build around one of the best wide receivers the NFL has ever seen, and to build around one of the best left tackles in the league and to give the head coach, who is a former quarterback, an opportunity to pick his guy and to grow with that quarterback into the future. This right now is one of the most exciting moments for Minnesota Vikings fans, I believe, since I've covered the team. I started covering the team in 2016.

Obviously, the Minneapolis miracle and the lead up to the NFC championship would have been at the top of the heap for the most exciting moment. And for many signing Kirk Cousins in 2018, the Super Bowl or bus season, that would have also qualified as one of those moments. But since then, how many have we had a throw to Kyle Rudolph in the back of the end zone in the wildcard round of 2019. A fourth and 19 conversion against the Buffalo Bills by Justin Jefferson with an unbelievable catch. And beyond that, a comeback against the Indianapolis Colts. There's been fun moments along the way.

But beyond that, did you ever believe after 2018 that the Kirk Cousins Vikings could go deep in the playoffs and could be a championship contender? And I think the answer is no. Even during their best season in 2022, when they won 13 games in the regular season, by the end of that year, a lot of people were picking the New York Giants to beat them in the playoffs because they were never truly a contender. And then ultimately, the Giants proved the people right who thought this team is not as good as it looks like in the standings. And if that is the best year that you have to boast is one time you didn't even outscore your opponents and won a lot of games at the end, and that was the best you could do over six years, then it was not a success.

So we have to deal with those two things as we look back, which is that Kirk Cousins played about as well as he could have played. He gave the Vikings everything that they needed to get from him. He gave them dedication. He ran their, their offenses, the many different kinds of offenses they tried. He learned them. He operated them. He was available for them. He played almost every single game until his Achilles popped. And the numbers he put up are all time. Great in Vikings history, Fran Tarkinson, number one, Tommy Kramer is right behind a friend as far as your yards and touchdowns and things like that. And then there's Kirk.

Well, I think Kirk is actually second in touchdowns and third in total yardage. And throughout this era, he had moments where he played and stretches where he played like an MVP. But it was always fleeting. It was always glimmers of hopes and then disappointment. It was always a great performance against the Saints and then a meltdown against the 49ers, in which he didn't even reach 200 yards passing in their loss in their only divisional round appearance when he was with the Minnesota Vikings. It was an amazing game in Buffalo and then a 40-point loss to the Dallas Cowboys. It was an amazing comeback

against the Colts and then a loss to Green Bay where the offense no shows. There were far too many times where Kirk Cousins would get your hopes up and make you believe this year could be the year. This offense can really do it. This game is the one that they're going to win that puts them over the top only to come just short. And that is how I will remember the last six years is that the first two years, one in 2018, is one of the most disappointing seasons in Minnesota Vikings history. And he did not play well that season. And he could not overcome a poor offensive coordinator, a poor left guard, even though they did have a very good defense that year. And in 2019, his shining season, his best by quarterback rating, his best by their accomplishments in the playoffs still was short of what they needed to make that group that had gone to the NFC championship in 2017, an actual Super Bowl contender. So it was always just not quite enough. And then over the last few years, from 2020 on, it felt like we knew the ending to the movie right before it even started.

When we walked into training camp, we understood that the 2020 through 2023 Minnesota Vikings did not have much of a chance to compete for the Super Bowl. And that wasn't just my feeling or your feeling. Go back and look at the Vegas odds. They never took the Vikings seriously from 2020 to 2023 as an actual contender, which tells you really everything about this era of football with Kirk Cousins is they were always expected to win eight to 10 games and they were never expected to actually be a favorite for the Superbowl. And this is where we have to say one last time, one last time, say it with me, folks, you know what we're going to say. It wasn't all Kirk's fault. Say it one more time, just for the road, because you'll never have to say it again. Man, that feels like something,

to not have to say it again. You won't have to say it again, but we should say it. It's not all Kirk Cousins' fault. And from my own perspective, I have a deep respect for Kirk Cousins. And it's always been a difficult balance for me as covering the team and covering the franchise and talking about the franchise's lack of success with Cousins as their quarterback, while also analyzing his play that was routinely extremely good. And this is a guy who went from a fourth round draft pick from a team where their fans didn't want him. The owner didn't even want him. They wanted RG3. And he has fought his way through hard work, dedication.

You saw it during the Netflix series. He has improved himself through his toughness, his mental toughness, and all those things to get to the point where even at 36 years old, another franchise wants to give him a four-year mega contract. It's an incredible accomplishment. And that's what's always been difficult about this. I think this goes for everyone is that it's an incredible accomplishment for Kirk Cousins to have reached this level that so few quarterbacks ever reach. I mean, we're talking about only the Aaron Rodgers is of the world. Get these types of contracts late in their career. That's not to say he's Rogers. It's just to say that Russell Wilson just signed for $1 million. I know there's contract stuff there,

but Russell Wilson is probably going to have to battle for a job in Pittsburgh with Kenny Pickett. Whereas Kirk cousins is being locked into the Falcons as their franchise quarterback now going forward. That's amazing. That is amazing. And it speaks to him. It speaks to his football character. And what we saw over the last two years is, especially under Kevin O'Connell, the locker room believing in Kirk Cousins buying into him the emotions of Brian O'Neill in the Lambeau Field locker room after he tore his Achilles were real and his belief in Kirk Cousins and the leadership galvanizing around him that was real over these last two years and I'll always wonder what it would have been like had Kevin O'Connell been the head

coach over the first four seasons of Kirk Cousins in Minnesota, because maybe fate is different if that had happened because over these last two years, they never had the roster to truly, truly be a contender with Kirk Cousins in 2018. They did in 2019. They did. And yet he didn't have the belief of his head coach and they were always a little bit short uh in part i think because of the lack of confidence that was instilled in other players around kirk cousins but over the last two years we saw him come out of his shell we saw him become much more of a leader inside that locker room and i don't think it was him acting different i think it was really

the younger players and the coach embracing him as that leader and making him their guy. And that's relevant to the whole discussion that as he leaves, I think there is a little bit of a, I wonder what could have been if this type of coach and this type of buy-in had happened for Kirk Cousins during the entire time here. But that also defines the time of Kirk Cousins in Minnesota, which is, hey, what if that had happened? What if they had not had to go to Tom Compton as their starting left guard or Dakota Dozier? What if the offensive line from last year had been there in 2018 or in 2020? What if the defense from 2018 had been superimposed into 2022? Maybe they're a Super Bowl contender, but that's not how sports works. That's imagination land. That's always been where

we've had to live with Kirk Cousins is imagination land. We always had to imagine a world where it worked, but in the reality, in the final standings, it was just okay. And it didn't work. And they didn't reach the levels that they were trying to reach when they signed him. So it was not a success. Kirk Cousins as a person, as a quarterback is a success in the NFL, massive success story. But this franchise was not a success with him as a Minnesota Viking. And I think we can live in both of those worlds. We can respect him. We can appreciate his abilities. It's one of the most accurate quarterbacks of the NFL in the last decade. He is prepared. He works incredibly hard. All those things you can respect for him.

And in this last year, it's worth mentioning because I was told it meant a lot to him to be named the Media Good Guy Corey Stringer Award winner that we as a beat awarded Kirk Cousins with. You saw his personality come out more this year. You saw him take on that type of leadership role more. You saw his honesty after he got injured with the Achilles. And I'll tell you that anybody who was in that stadium, even Green Bay Packers fans, had to have been gut-punched by watching Kirk Cousins go down and end his Vikings career that way because it seemed like he was coming into a different level of performing in Kevin O'Connell's offense and then to hear him talk about it and how difficult it was you could tell how much football means to him and one of the things that I will

never ever say is that he's greedy he's only about money, he doesn't care about his team, he only cares about him. I don't think so. I think that's football. I think that's pro sports. That's how all pro sports, all entertainment works, that you go out into a free agent market and you look for the best offer. You look for the most buy-in.

Here's what the dollars represented, four years from the Atlanta Falcons. Would any of us take a one-year or two-year contract from the Vikings with mediocre buy-in with a tepid buy-in versus a four-year contract that says, we love you, we want you, we care about you? All of us would negotiate contracts for the most possible money. And if you're ever going to blame anyone for signing Kirk Cousins, it shouldn't be Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins and his agent are allowed to ask for the world. And the Vikings gave it to him repeatedly.

And now the Atlanta Falcons are giving it to him. And you know what? This is a very competitive person. And I think even the contract element has been part of Kirk Cousins competitiveness. He's always felt underappreciated. He's always felt underrated going back to even Michigan state where he was never penciled in as the guy that was supposed to be the starter. So it shouldn't come as any surprise that he would go out and look for the most appreciation and the most love from a team that really wants him.

But if you look at the other contracts that were signed, Jonathan Grenard signs with the Vikings. We'll talk about that. But are we criticizing Jonathan Grenard for taking a big contract? No. Would we have criticized Christian Wilkins for taking a big contract? No. Did we ever go back and say,

how dare you, Anthony Barr, take this big contract? No. Did we ever go back and say, how dare you, Anthony Barr, take this big contract? No, we said, why did the Vikings do this? So I will never criticize Kirk Cousins for asking for the world because people have given it to him. And now he is headed to the Atlanta Falcons as they are the team to give it to him. And before I get to some of your comments and welcome all of you who are watching in what feels like a franchise turning moment for us here that Kirk Cousins leaves the Minnesota Vikings and lands with the Atlanta Falcons, we have to turn to what's next for the Vikings. We've been talking about it a bit on the show. We've been talking at the combine about the quarterbacks and the

quarterback class and the best options and what they should do at quarterback in the veteran market to bring someone in. But I think we should stop before we get into that here and just say, it is a remarkable feeling to have everything on the table, as opposed to knowing what you have, knowing the shortcomings of that, knowing how challenging it is to build a winning team around a quarterback like Kirk Cousins, who is very expensive and not one of the truly elite quarterbacks in the league. Somebody who's made up as much as 17% of the salary cap in the past. That was very difficult to overcome. We all knew that. And even if you spent every free agency period of the past getting really excited about Delvin Tomlinson or Michael Pierce, I think you all knew in the back of your mind, is this really going to

be a signing that can take the Vikings over the top with this quarterback? And the answer was consistently no. And that's where it felt inevitable. The Vikings felt inevitable to be an eight to 10 win team. And I remember a couple of years ago doing a podcast with Dave Campbell, the Associated Press. And I said, what do you think about this team, Dave? What do you think the expectations are this year? And he said something like, don't we always kind of know? And that's the point, right? We always kind of knew. And now we can step back over the next number of weeks leading up to the draft

and appreciate the fact that we don't know. We don't know what's coming next. We don't know the answer. And we're all going to find out together. What a feeling to find out together what a feeling to find out together what a feeling to speculate with actual backing about this quarterback class in years past it was hey do you think they might pick matt corral or something hey do you think they might do something like trade up for justin fields where they meekly tried once upon a time?

Oh, they picked a fifth round quarterback. Oh, they picked a third round quarterback. Well, not this time. This time, the doors are open for just about anything. And there is a freedom to that, but there's an excitement to that. To every single conversation we have leading up to the draft feels so important and so relevant and i can't wait to talk to chris trapasso from cbs sports about this tomorrow on the show because now his opinions mean so much to me about this quarterback

class and i'm going to be reading everything and watching everything that I can to learn as much about this quarterback class because we know it's real. Not, hey, maybe they'll make some crazy trade for Anthony Richardson, as was rumored last year. And I think that we also have to stop and say that from the time a new regime takes over, you really don't know. You don't know how the coach is going to react to pressure. You don't know how he's going to call the game and how he's going to lead the locker room. And you don't know from a management perspective how the front office is going to operate with its roster. I would have been totally baffled at what their plan was because it just wouldn't add up with anything else that they had done and anything else that they had said. But the fact that they actually drew the line in the sand and they stuck to

that line in the sand, they were not going to give Kirk cousins four years. They were not going to say, no, no one else is going to be our quarterback you're our guy you're our one and only period and and we're going to build this whole thing around you for whatever dollar amount you want that is not what they did and they showed their appreciation for him publicly but with their offer they did not move and i think there are times in football

where you have to move where you have to say, where you have to say, all right, this is happening by any means. We need this player. We're going to get him. But did we feel like that was the case with Cousins? No. And if they had buckled and if they had given four years, it just would have made very little sense based on the rest of the roster and everything they did to this point so the front office and kevin o'connell and the ownership and the wilfs who many of you have chided in the past and i've said well let's hold on let's let's let's let's see how this plays out the ownership the management the head coach making this decision that Kirk Cousins is worth X number of dollars and not more. And if somebody else wants to go crazy, we're going to let them. And then sticking to that, that deserves a lot of credit. It deserves a lot of credit because they are now taking a step into uncertainty. And for us, that's very exciting, but for them, it's probably very scary. And what Kirk Cousins has always provided is sort of that security blanket that you

know you're going to get a baseline level of play from Kirk Cousins and to move on from him and to take that risk and to roll the dice on the next quarterback to really try to win something, to really try to build a roster around a rookie quarterback to really look for that next guy who has the huge arm or the playmaking ability and now this also makes me think that they've got a sense for who they want in the draft and who they could live with in the draft and assessing that this was the time to do it and not crossing the line last year and and holding tight last year and saying no we're not going to give you your three years fully guaranteed or whatever it was that he wanted last year. They deserve

a ton of credit for that. I don't know what's going to happen next. It could go terribly wrong. Maybe it will. I don't know. It could go really right as well. But the fact that they were willing to step out on that ledge and put this regime's future on this upcoming decision and take a swing at building a great team as opposed to just a good team with Kirk Cousins. This is what they should have done. This was what should have been the plan from day one of them being hired. I always felt it was, and now today it is, as Cousins leaves to go to the Atlanta Falcons. And before I get to your comments, and I see all of you, and I appreciate so much that you guys are in the comments and um let's see okay so uh i'm just getting because i i fired this up right after i saw uh that he signed but four years 180 million with 90 million guaranteed that would have been insane it would have been insane it just it just would have been an absolutely crazy thing

for the Minnesota Vikings to do, to sign Kirk Cousins to that much money. So to just put a bow on it, I will say that I think that it is very reasonable to think that... Very reasonable to think... Sorry, I'm just seeing the Van Ginkle signing. Hold on, we'll get to that. I just think that it's very reasonable to think that the Atlanta Falcons could be good with Kirk

Cousins. I think that they'll be a contender. They could very well win the NFC South. I would bet on that. But can he take them over the top? That I don't know. So $180 million with $90 million guaranteed. Hell no. Absolutely not. In no universe would that have made even the slightest bit of sense for the Minnesota Vikings, considering where they are, considering that they have to pay Justin Jefferson. Absolutely not. Now, hey, Andrew Van Ginkle, how about this? The Minnesota

Vikings already using the money that they have from Kirk Cousins to be real true players in free agency. They pick up Jonathan Grenard and Andrew Van Ginkle. These two players are excellent free agent signings. Van Ginkle is an extremely versatile player. He's a guy that was with Brian Flores before, who has played a lot of different positions. He graded extremely high by PFF as a blitzer and also as a guy who could drop back in coverage. He's not that old.

He's only, I believe, 29 years old. And Jonathan Grenard is only 27 years old or will be when the season starts next year. So now they have players who are real top notch free agents signing here. Well, let's think about why that's different from what's happened over the last six years where they have so rarely been true players in free agency. Oh yeah. That's because they were paying their quarterback an incredible amount of money. So what we're seeing right now, you guys have joked before, let Kwesi cook. How do we feel about him now? I mean, look, as far as Kwesi Adafo Mensah, where he stands, he's got to prove it. They have to prove it by winning the front office

does the head coach does they've got to get this huge decision right but let's have a look at just today they did not cross their line with Kirk Cousins and give him this insane contract that Atlanta just gave him that hey could turn out like Russell Wilson if he doesn't return to being the player that he was. So they didn't do that. And now already they have two defensive ends that are top-notch players in free agency. There were two of the biggest names that were out there, and now they are Minnesota Vikings. And immediately, let's think about the defense now they need a defensive tackle we all agree on that maybe in the draft that's going to be part of it uh that uh they have now two edge rushers that have the potential to combine for around 20 sacks together they have Ivan Pace

Jr. at linebacker they're going to need another one they're going to need another cornerback in which they have been connected to luxurious need in a potential trade, which would be fantastic. So if they were able to pick up a cornerback, that could be a shutdown player to combine with McKay Blackman, Byron Murphy, Jr. We'll see what happens with Harrison Smith if he retires,

but Josh Metellus, a key player can bind him a solid player. Now they have pressure from the outside that they didn't even have last year. We're already seeing the fruits of Kirk Cousins leaving, and it's only three hours into the legal tampering period. And this is what we've talked about for so long, is you just can't spend that much money when one guy is making so much of it. But now, now they can. And we don't know what to put them as far as expectations for 2024, because we don't know who the quarterback's going to be. If it's Sam Darnold and Bo Nix, well, then I think that they could be competitive, but I don't know if they could be real contenders. And I, you know, Wilson's already off the board, Mayfield's off the board.

So veteran quarterbacks who are starters are not going to be the next quarterback here. So it's probably going to be someone like, you know, Ryan Tannehill paired with a rookie and there could be some serious ups and downs in 2024. But if you get the quarterback situation right, you've already signed these two young edge rushers. We've finally signed these two young edge rushers that are expensive and had the money to do it. They finally were able to do that. And then you go into 2025 and the dead cap from Kirk Cousins,

the $28 million that will kick in on Wednesday, then all of a sudden you're going to have more space. Tyrod Taylor, another option brought up in the comment section. And they could look to trade up as well to get their quarterback. They could take a number 11. I mean, there's so many potential options here for the Vikings, but 2025, considering they've already landed a couple of these big free agents, and then they can spend more. So you know how everybody is saying, well, the Bears, they're spending all this money. The Texans, they got all this money. That can be you now. That can be you, the Minnesota Vikings now, only next year. Although they've already been spending

this year because they can kick out some of that into 2025 when they sign these huge contracts some of it doesn't all have to go into this year and this year's cap situation so there is so much to be decided here and it feels like every day and the rest of this free agency period is potentially extremely interesting with who they're going to add to fill out this roster. Also worth noting, Blake Brandel and David Questenberry are coming back. So that's happening. But Andrew Van Ginkle and Jonathan Grenard already the fruits of allowing Kirk Cousins to go. And this has always been the point. And that's why I wanted to make it very clear on the day that Kirk Cousins leaves that it was never really about him and if he could play or if he was a good quarterback, it was,

can you win as a franchise? Can you actually win as a franchise when you can't sign? If they brought back Cous cousins on this dollar amount four years 180 million do you think that they could sign i mean that is over 40 million dollars a year do you think that they could sign jonathan grenard and andrew van ginkle and then add the rest of the roster no no they would not be able to do that and we know that for uh the entire past we we do we are very aware from the entire vikings past that they were not able to do that so uh aaron jones released is that true wow how about that that does sort of scream viking doesn't it aaron jones still had it last year is

that a cap type of situation tyrod taylor will out Purple Insider in his opening press conference. I've told you guys before that I have immense respect for Tyrod Taylor. It's really that he's a great example. And there are many of them. Examples of teams making this very move, which is to take an average quarterback and move on and aim for better. And it's not always the same strategy. I mean, the Detroit lions knew that they needed a complete rebuild. So they moved on from Matthew Stafford. They got a good quarterback in return and they built the rest around Jared golf. So there's not always one way to do it. It doesn't have to be draft the quarterback at the very top, but you have to either have a great roster or you have to have a great quarterback.

And the Vikings have not had either Josh Jacobs to the Packers. Wow. How about that? That is surprising that Josh Jacobs would end up with green Bay. Didn't really have a very good year last year, but maybe that was in part because of Vegas. I think he also missed a big part of their training camp. And I think that sets you behind. So, uh, no, I haven't been under a rock. I've been focused on the, uh, on the Vikings here. Uh, I did see that there was a report that Josh Jacobs was going to sign with him, but I hadn't talked about it on here. I haven't talked about almost anything because Kirk cousins is an Atlanta Falcon. So there is a lot of other stuff to talk about for sure, including Jonathan Grenard and including now

Andrew Van Ginkle, who I just, I really liked that signing. I mean, just a tremendously versatile player that you're going to see Brian Flores use all over the field. And we should even circle back and just say, as maybe everything coming up Vikings today, is in part that Brian Flores stayed. And as far as being competitive next year, I think that Brian Flores staying is a huge part of that. And being able to add this amount of talent now with Kirk Cousins' contract no longer on the Minnesota Vikings books, or at least in 2025, it will no longer be. So Kirk Cousins is still hurting you for one more year, but then he can't hurt you anymore after that.

I would also assume, by the way, since we're running down some other stuff, that Daniil Hunter will be gone now that they have signed these other two edge rushers. And I would prefer to have two guys that are a little younger than Hunter, or at least less of an injury history for Van Ginkle and younger for Jonathan Grenard than I would put 26 to 28 million dollars into Daniel Hunter we'll see how much he actually signs for Hunter is an all-time great Viking period one of the best Vikings who's ever played incredible numbers the way he bounced back from the neck injuries and there's just has to be a separation between how much you love a guy, how much you appreciate a guy and how much a guy costs. Now, there are some things to

talk about with Jonathan Grenard. He is only a one year guy for big sack totals. He had eight sacks in 2021, but this last year was his closest to being an every down player. And he does have some injury history in the past. He does not have a whole lot of history of playing every down, like being a three down player. But when you look at some of the underscore numbers or underlying numbers that he was solid against the run, he's a bigger guy. He's not one of those light edge rushers. He's more like 265 pounds. The injury history is a little bit scary, but let's not make a Marcus Davenport comparison. A guy having a foot injury here or an ankle injury there, it's pretty common for an NFL player,

pretty common for a defensive end. He's played a lot of football games over his career, just not in the role that he had last year. And when he had it, he absolutely thrived and became a star. It is a big commitment. So they must be much more confident than they were with Davenport because it's a four-year commitment for Jonathan Grenard. So there's a little bit of, all right, we're going to see him do it again. We're going to have to see him continue to put up the numbers that he did last year on a consistent basis. And there is a little bit of, hey, the injuries, I'm not really sure if that is going to be a problem going forward. But overall, I don't think that there's any comparison between Marcus Davenport and Jonathan Grenard. I don't think that those are the same things.

Grenard has made himself develop over a couple of years to be a really excellent player. All right, the Vikings signing a Blake Cashman, Minnesota guy, another Texan. Wow, look at all the money that they can spend. I guess I just have to say it again. Look at all the money that they're able to spend in being able to sign Blake Cashman. Now, Cashman last year, let me pull this up. He had a real breakout year as well for the Texans. I'll pull up his numbers here. But he had been kind of a special teams guy, hadn't played a whole lot with the Jets, played 655 snaps, had an 84 or 83.7 PFF grade, graded really strongly across the board, run defense, pass rush, coverage, all those things, of course, would be important to Brian Flores.

His coverage numbers, which can be a little tricky. I'll admit with a PFF that's, you know, sometimes linebackers can look better or worse than they were before or from year to year with the PFF grades, but across the board, Blake Cashman was really excellent. I got to check here where he ranked among all linebackers. And also, I'm sure that a lot of you love the hometown guy element. But, I mean, this is another. They are rebuilding this defense. They are rebuilding this defense to win and to be good for years because a lot of these guys are in their mid-ish 20s. So last year, let's see, where would he have ranked?

Did he have enough snaps? Just trying to get this figured out here on the PFF site. Let's see. Let's see. Oh, wow. He actually graded extremely good in the top five. Wow. Yeah.

Wow. He graded in the top five last year. That is remarkable. So a guy who as a linebacker developed over a bunch of seasons, wow, he graded in the top five last year. That is remarkable. So a guy who as a linebacker developed over a bunch of seasons and now they get him in his prime could be good over multiple years. That's really excellent. That is really excellent. I mean, they are crushing this free agent period.

Folks, have you ever heard of test driving a phone network? I did not make this up. It is an actual thing. And U.S. Cellular is letting you test drive their network for free for 30 days. You can try out U.S. Cellular wherever you have that spotty service, like on your commute to work, that one spot in your house where your service dips. Test drive U.S. Cellular at your kid's school on parent-teacher night. Okay, maybe still pay attention, but by all means, make sure you test it. It's as easy as doing a little boop, boop, boop on your phone. That was me getting the app to try it out. I know, great sound effects there. Test drive U.S. Cellular's award-winning network for 30 days.

U.S. Cellular, built for us. Term us terms apply awards based on open signal independent data visit us cellular.com for details i mean you have versatile players that they're signing guys who have put up big sack numbers and now a linebacker who has emerged as a really excellent player last year with a winning team in Houston to pair with Ivan Pace Jr. They are a defensive tackle away from having a pretty solid starting lineup and a defensive tackle and a corner away from maybe even having a really good defensive lineup for Brian Flores to work with. And look at what happened with Brian Flores last year when all he had was Daniil Hunter on the defensive line, really, as far as someone who

could create pressure. And they still have Harrison Phillips, but they need someone to go along with him. He had a rookie undrafted free agent linebacker. He had outside corners, Byron Murphy, who is a decent veteran player, but Caleb Evans on the other side, they could do a lot better than that. And then made Josh Metellus into a versatile player. This does mean that Jordan Hicks is not coming back. And I have to shout out Jordan Hicks as a player who you're just kind of in awe of when you're around a veteran player like that. And I don't mean just from his pure talent. I mean, from his character, from his toughness, from his personality, he was a guy that you just look at like, wow, somebody who had

one of the grossest leg injuries you've ever seen and then came back from it. I mean, and played, just fought through that. Super, super tough. He had had multiple injuries in his career, played really well as a Minnesota Viking. That turned out to be a great signing for them with Jordan Hicks. But they go to a younger guy to now put together with Ivan Pace Jr., who was an emerging star last year. Now let's take a look at the entirety of the roster.

Is it deep? No, it's not. And they're going to need to do a lot more to fill out the depth. The defense needs a lot more work for sure. But this feels like at this moment, a solid roster that can stay together over multiple years. So they can continue to build around this group that are all in their mid or it's not even really late twenties.

Van Ginkle's a little bit older, but Grenard is still 26. He turns 27 soon. So, all right, I've, I've talked a lot and trust me, we're going to have so many guests coming on and

discussions and everything else. Uh, but I want to know what you guys are thinking about this. And we can continue to talk for a while here because this is the, uh, it is a momentous day. It is a day where it feels like they have an opportunity to take a big step forward as a franchise. And they already are. Cashman's 28. So they signed somebody who's going to be 27, 28. And I think Van Ginkle's 29. So these are guys who could be good over multiple years. These aren't guys that I would look at and go, oh, well, you know, they're 33 and they're just on the edge or so forth. These are players who have all actually developed over a number of years.

And I think you want to give Brian Flores veteran players. It was nice to see him develop younger guys. But if you're going to really maximize the defense, younger players. So I would guess that this was part of the tradeoff. The tradeoff is, look, for Kevin O'Connell, if you're going to lose your starting quarterback, that you got to go all in and throw a ton of cash at the defense and a ton of cash, man, at the defense.

Get it? Cashman, Blake Cashman. Okay. Throw a ton of cash at the defense and rebuild this thing. So it's a good plan. A good plan that I've liked all along. Andrew asked, will the Vikings get comp picks for Kirk and Hunter? Likely no. They would have, but the signings that they've made will probably counteract them. So that's how it works is if you sign somebody, uh, after letting somebody go, then it cancels it out. So I don't know right now. I mean, we're talking about a year

from now when they'll announce them, but that's usually how it works. And the fact that they've made big signings, very possible that the, they cancel out and they don't get compensation for those two guys. Caleb asks, and here we go. Now, here's something I'm excited about, guys. This is the first question I'm going to answer about the draft post-Kirk signing with the Falcons. I went to McDonald's, got a little Diet Coke here. I'm going to take a sip, and I'm just going to let it sink in a little.

This question matters. This question is super relevant and we know it matters. So I'm just going to let that breathe for a sec. It's the first time it's mattered in six years. You got to let me take it in. All right. Caleb wants to know, would you trade three firsts and Addison if it guarantees you Drake May it's a good question it's a great question it's a question

we're gonna ask over the next month leading up to the draft because the Vikings are gonna pick a quarterback that's a lot man that's a lot adding Addison to it makes it very tough. Would I trade two firsts in Addison? Very possibly for guaranteed Drake May. That third first, I mean, I guess once you've already gone all in with two firsts, it's a lot, but three firsts means being unable to do anything at the top of the draft. Now, if your assumption is, hey, we're not going to be at the top of the draft because we're going to spend like crazy. But Addison is such a key part to making that player successful. If that was the only way to do it and it was the only quarterback they really believed in, then I don't know, man, that's a hard one. That's a hard one. I probably

would stop at three firsts or I would go two firsts Addison and maybe a second in the future in order to move up. But I also think that there are other quarterbacks this draft who are good. It's not just Drake May or nobody like it was last year with Anthony Richardson or nobody. Enigma one says he is doing it the right way because he already understands the salary cap is going to rise by 25 million and i believe the vikings already projected um at five i'm not sure what five what five means oh um do you mean like for next year uh perfect time to reload your roster no i agree with you 100 agree with you enigma 100 is that the salary cap already went up this year so they can spend a little bit more

this year than they thought. But next year, the cap really goes wild for the Vikings. You get out from under Kirk's dead money. You get out from under Hunter's dead money. If Harrison Smith retires, then that's another chunk. They can restructure Brian O'Neill at any point if they want to. We'll see if they end up doing something like that. And Justin Jefferson won't yet be expensive. This is important that when you talk about windows to win and why 2025 would be the mark to hit is that Jefferson will sign his extension and he will get a huge number and everybody will freak out and they'll say, oh my gosh, how are they going to build around this? But then the structure will come out and he won't actually be expensive until 2027.

That's what's very likely to happen. That's what usually happens with all these deals. Even if you look at Jalen Hurts' deal as a quarterback, if you sign while you're on your rookie contract and you sign a longer term deal, four to five years, you could spread it out more and have those cap hits hit later. And then also set up for times to restructure. So, you know, I, that 25, 26, um, they should have this window to spend like crazy as they're already doing it. They're already doing it right now today, which has been an incredible thing to see how the freedom is created by moving on from Kirk Cousins for the future.

Jefferson to the Pats for the number three pick. Not into that. Definitely not into that. I think that it's too important to the quarterback That Justin Jefferson is here And I would not want to do that Jeff says we're not going to be good this year We're acquiring young talent and clearing cap for 2025 But I This is a It speaks to like expectations and how

It all requires a lot of context So if you were to tell me next year That the Vikings drafted Bo Nix and signed Sam Darnold and they won seven games and they were competitive, but it just wasn't enough. And they won seven games and Bo Nix started 10 of them and was pretty good, but not like all time. Great. I would look at that and go, huge success. Because it's all about where you're headed in your timeline, in your window. And if they were headed into 2025 with a legitimate chance to be like the 49ers, to be like the Eagles, remember it was year three for Jalen Hurts.

It was year three for Josh Allen. It's been year two for some other quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes because that team was farther along, but usually you year two, year three. So what you're looking for next year is to find out you're looking to learn is the quarterback they drafted going to be the guy, or does he show signs? I mean, I remember Joe Burrow's first year was pretty tough, but he showed signs and everybody in Cincinnati knew it. And I know I referenced Buffalo a lot. I have so many friends and family there. After two years in Buffalo, they knew it with Josh Allen. He didn't have the best numbers. They didn't win the Super Bowl, but they knew it.

And so that's the that's the question that we're going to be watching so closely is are are you going to know by the end of 2024 and if you do then it's a huge success that the number of wins next year uh are you know important i mean you want to win games you don't want to lose that's why they're signing good players here they want to win kevin o O'Connell doesn't want to win seven games, but they'll have the opportunity to find out where their quarterback stands and now move into next year with a chance or the following season with a chance to be very, very good. So next year is a bit of a transition, a bit of a transition year, I think, next season because they're very likely to have a rookie quarterback. But I mean, that's good though, because I think all of you get that. All of you understand that. Okay. This is funny. I have to put any reference to arrested development

goes on the screen. Brian says Atlanta right now, now just the arrested development but it might work for us meme so good such a good meme you're right you are right about that the only difference is here's what i'll give the atlanta falcons is that they could make an argument that they're like the lions with jared goff because they have so many young players that have rookie contracts right now. Kyle Pitts, Drake London, Bijan Robinson. These guys are inexpensive and they're young and they're key pieces for them. So if you can have cheap and young players around your expensive quarterback, then it is possible to be successful in doing it. But there's always the question with Kirk Cousins of, can you actually get to the next level? Can you actually get deep

in the playoffs? Can you go into San Francisco and get a performance that is going to have you, have you win from your quarterback? the answer was always no it was always it was always bumping up against potential success and falling short with Kirk Cousins so what would you expect from the Atlanta Falcons probably to bump up against success for Cousins to go 10 and 7 or 11 and 6 and to have really good statistics and then for them to lose their home playoff game that's what you would expect if you were laying it out, because that's what we've seen so often before. Jeff says, we're talking about tactical success versus strategic success. 2024 win total does not matter as much as building a team that can compete for a championship for a couple years.

100% agree, Jeff. you are dead on with that. That is totally true that you are looking at 2024 as a route to true success. And you're going to have to go through that season and your young quarterback is going to have to get experience. And Hey, look, maybe, maybe you pick up Sam Darnold and he's amazing, but I doubt it, right? More likely than not, what you're going to have to do is go through that season to develop your quarterback

and you can win some games and you can have some good moments. But I look at it as like 2014. 2014 Vikings was a fun year for Vikings fans. They saw enough of Teddy Bridgewater to think that it was there. They saw enough of Mike Zimmer's defense to believe that he could scheme them to success enough of young players like Anthony bar and, uh, Everson Griffin taking a big step forward.

That's what you're looking for next year. Not necessarily. Oh, this is a championship caliber team. Tyler says, Taylor, sorry, says, can we all agree Kirk will destroy us when we play Atlanta next year because Vikings? I don't know. Maybe Brian Flores does know a lot about Kirk Cousins, and so does Kevin O'Connell. So, I mean, what a revenge game it's going to be. Although, Kirk doesn't get a revenge game. It doesn't count as a revenge game against the Vikings.

They gave him $200 million. They gave him every opportunity. They gave him every extension. They spent to the salary cap every single year around Kirk Cousins. He has nothing to hold against them other than that they made a wise move to let him walk and not give him four years, 180 million. Say it again. That is way too much. If they had done that, I have no idea what I'd be saying to you right now. If they had, if they had signed him to four years, one 80, I would have just stared at you guys in shock silence and just been, I don't know what to tell you. I don't know how you get out of this.

I don't know how you make this work. At least with Atlanta, you could see how it would work for sure because they have the team that's ready to do it they were competitive last year with desmond ritter and taylor heineke so you could definitely see it with this team where they are right now so look at the players they just signed jonathan greener andrew van ginkle and blake cashman all have really cool names uh imagine having none of them or one of them would that be enough to get you anywhere? No, of course not. So I would have no answer. And look, I, I would think about this all the time when I was going for a jog or when I was going to Taco Bell or whatever I would think about. Cause anything that I say on the air or podcasts or YouTube, whatever it I've tried to organize the thoughts in my head.

I don't just turn it on and go, Hey guys, what do we all think? Like, I think about this a lot to try to come up with metaphors or to put it in context the right way. So I think about this stuff a lot. And I was racking my brain over the last two weeks of if they bring back Kirk, what do I say? What plan could I come up with? What spin could I have on this? Not to try to spin positive, but just to say like, all right, well, this must be what they're thinking because I would not understand. I would have had very little to say. This would not have been going as long as it is right now because I would have just said, all right, I guess we'll see you guys week one.

Because now this is another part of it that has me excited to talk with you guys about it. And I think a lot of you excited as well. And Chris says, I'm actually excited for the future of this team for the first time since the miracle. Yeah, I think that 2018, the problem with the way 2018 went was that by week

three, you knew something was wrong. And then it was a slog after that. You didn't have this run of, oh, we could really do it. And then it fell apart when they had lost that game as whatever it was, 17 point favorites to Buffalo. You went, oh no, Oh no, something is not right. But what I've been thinking about and talking about with my colleagues on the Vikings beat is all of a sudden, like, so I have to apply for a credential to the owner's meetings. I really have to do that today.

I'm doing that because I want to know what Kevin O'Connell is going to say down at the owners meetings in Orlando in three weeks about the quarterback situation. I've never gone to the owners meetings before I'm going because it's exciting. And I'm going to do podcasts from down there. I mean, I'm ready. And OTAs, minicamp, all that stuff, the draft, it all becomes super relevant. It becomes franchise shifting. It becomes exciting to report on and talk about. Every one of those things, rookie, minicamp, let's all go look at Michael Penix and see how he looks, right?

I mean, all of it is just a different energy than has existed around this team in quite some time i mean i think even when they signed or or i'm sorry hired quesadilla fomenta and kevin o'connell when they hired them there was a feeling of how much are they going to change what are they going to change? What are they going to do? Are they going to take this team to a different place? But because the quarterback didn't change, then the feeling on what their ceiling was didn't change. Had they gone out and traded Kirk Cousins right away in 2022, then we would have been talking the same way as now. And I was really fascinated. I want to downplay that. That was an exciting moment to have a new gm and a head coach for fans but when it was the same

players then it just didn't have the same type of feeling of well all these things are are going to be crazy different because it was the same guys just with different people pushing the buttons now the kevin o'connell quaffel-Mensah regime can begin. That's how it feels today. Today, it feels like they've begun, now that they're going to be picking their own quarterback. Nick says, could Darnold have a Geno Smith-style comeback? He's only 26, younger than Kirk was in his first year as a starter.

So, what I like about Sam Darnold is that what you just said to me doesn't sound insane. A lot of times with quarterbacks, if they didn't work out, it'll be like, do you think that he could do this that he's never done before? And you're like, I don't know, man, probably not. That's how I feel about Justin Fields is like, do you think that Justin Fields with a good receiver could be don't know, man, probably not. That's how I feel about Justin Fields is like, do you think that Justin Fields with a good receiver could be great? Like, no, no, I really don't. But do I think that Sam Darnold,

after going through hell in New York and in Carolina, and then spending a year to develop and acting as a backup, which just, it does impress me that he spent time working on the sideline as a backup with Brock Purdy. And you never heard a thing. You never heard his agent say, Oh, well,

Sam Darnold thinks he should be the starter or anything like that. They liked him so much as number two, that they moved on from a guy they spent three firsts on. And I like that about Sam Darnold. He comes across as a, liked him so much as number two that they moved on from a guy they spent three firsts on and i like that about sam darnold he comes across as a as a mature quarterback he's never i've never thought that he was a doofus like i think about zach wilson who's just weighing over his head in the nfl environment it's really been with samold, the mistakes that he makes, the crazy decisions, and then the supporting casts and the coaching have been so poor.

I mean, even when Teddy Bridgewater left Carolina, and you know, Teddy Bridgewater never has a bad word to say about anybody. He was on a podcast and said, we didn't even practice situational stuff. Like, is that the coaching that Sam Darnold had in Carolina? You can convince me pretty easily that there's more there with Darnold than there ever has been before. Does that mean he's a franchise quarterback? No.

Does that mean I would pass on drafting a quarterback? Oh, no, no, no, no. We're still drafting a quarterback here. But I like it, though. I like having someone who's mature, who's kind of been through it as a top draft pick to pair with somebody else. And then the potential that if Bo Nix or JJ McCarthy, isn't ready, that's okay. You just play the other guy, play Darnold and let them develop. That's okay. We can do that. Now it feels like we've got a lot of time.

Nathan says, yeah, this is something I haven't brought up Nathan says uh guards are getting paid paid oh yes they are my friend guards are getting crazy crazy dollars out there I think what it was a Jonah Jackson got 17 million a year the the dollar bills are flowing for interior offensive linemen. You know why? Because there's not very many good ones in the NFL, as you guys have been privy to. Although, I will say, if they get a playmaking quarterback, doesn't it feel less important that they have the best guards? Because maybe the guy could run away if there's some pressure. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

You're right. I wonder what they're going to do as well and this might be a situation where they have to sign multiple guys and have them fight it out in training camp that might end up being the case at guard because the top guys are just so expensive and that that is really difficult to spend 17 more million or 15 more million on the next best guard. So is there somebody analytically who they like or somebody scheme fit wise that they like and then get two or three veterans, let them see who fits the best. You can't fill every position. Sometimes not only just price tag, but just availability. There's not very many guards

available. Justin says, who's going to be the bridge now? There's a lot of options. There is a lot of options and I'm comfortable with a lot of them. Sam Darnold is my favorite option as a bridge quarterback. Again, doesn't mean he's going to be great. Just means that I like the idea of it. I like the personality fit with he and Josh McCown. They know each other extremely well from the Jets. And I like that there's some upside. But there are other guys that are more pure veterans. So if it was Gardner Minshew, that could be pretty fun.

And look at the way that he handled the situation last year in Indianapolis. That's going to mean some great. That's going to mean some bad. I've brought up Jacoby reset before as the ultimate mentor quarterback, not a guy you want to start a lot, but if he's got to start six games to begin the season, that's okay. That's all right. So I think that there's a lot of options. Yeah. Minshew is a, is a guy that I really like Chris likes that option as a, and when we say bridge, I kind of like the term mentor quarterback a little bit more because when I think of a bridge quarterback, I think of you got nothing and you have to get to a point where you can draft one.

I'm more of thinking along the Ryan Fitzpatrick lines of someone that I can put together with my young quarterback, rather than somebody who's getting me to win the team can draft the quarterback. If that makes sense, it's just a little bit different. So, um, let's see here. Jeff says, when I saw the Kirk headline, it instantly gave me hope for the first time since 2018. That's a long time to be down. And I've loved the team since 1961. You know, it's a great point. On a day like today, there is a feeling very much of the shackles coming off.

And the hope that something next could be coming. And you felt the malaise inside the stadium. You felt it in the comment section. You felt it. Like, think about this. The audience right now watching the show is five times bigger than we had

for previewing games early in the season. Why is that? Because there's a belief that someday they can get there as opposed to when you're going to, I don't know, play the chargers and you're oh, and two, it's just like, here we go again, just another football game that we've seen many times before. And Hey, it came down to the last moment and it wasn't his fault how about that so now with all the different opportunities that they have at the quarterback position there's just a wave that i think has come through vikings fans of belief that there could be something else there to really chase for a championship.

So, you know, that's, that is a feeling for sure. You guys are funny. What will Kirk say about Collar and his farewell letter? You know, it's so funny that some people wanted on the internet, and this just tells you how fake social media can be that wanted to make it seem like there was some beef or something. Go read the article that I did on Kirk Cousins and his hometown newspaper in Detroit Lakes, Michigan

this last year. In the middle of the season, Kirk Cousins, and this is one of the reasons he won Corey Stringer Award, Media good guy, and I deeply appreciate this. I asked if he would be willing to talk about this. I interviewed the editor from his hometown newspaper. And in the middle of the week for a starting quarterback, they don't make time for reporters on the side one-on-one very often every once in a while maybe once a season but especially since they were one in four or something at the time that's a tough

time to ask and so i said i asked cousins if he could talk to me about this and we walked and talked for about 10-15 minutes that time that he gave me specifically to write about his relationship with his hometown newspaper, which was super awesome, by the way, huge fan of small newspapers, the people who get those jobs done that cover high school games and stuff like that. That's why I wanted to tell that story because Kirk still reads his hometown newspaper in, wait, did I say Detroit lakes in holland sorry that was adam thielen in holland michigan so he still reads his holland michigan newspaper and has a relationship with the editor there and it just it's just such a great story to tell about kirk like his personality and how he keeps that hometown connection to holland michigan and he gave me that time. So if you look at it, and I wanted to

tell that story. So if you're reading people on social media that tell you there's some beef, there's some, he hates me, I hate him. That's totally bogus, total garbage, total nonsense was never a thing. The only thing was that the reason why people made that up is because I was willing to acknowledge that it was a failure, that they didn't win more with him. And I didn't think from the beginning of signing him in 2018 that it was a good idea. And that's it. That's the whole thing. There's never been anything else. And I've written dozens of features on him, some praise, and I've written columns being critical and that's what a reporter is supposed to do.

So on the way out, I mean, this is someone who I thought was as first class with the media as any player that I've ever covered. And no matter how many times I've mentioned that like, this is my job, that when there's things that have to be criticized, I say it. When there's things that should be praised, I say it. That's the job.

And some people want to twist that maybe for their own gain, for their own attention and so forth. And some people are just sociopaths and make stuff up. So you got to be careful online who you're reading. Anyway, that probably needed to be said, I guess. Cardo says thoughts on the Snead trade rumors. So man, I'm just like,

go crazy, go crazy. If you, if the foundation of your defense was Grenard, Van Ginkle, Pace, Junior, Metellus, Bynum, and Snead,

and Brian Flores, you got something going. You got something going. You're not a championship-level defense without more depth and without more development. And some of you, of course, because we're doing a live stream, have mentioned that they have failed on some draft picks recently. That is true. And they can't have that happen. They need to continue to develop some of

these players. And sometimes they draft a player and then three years later, they become good. We saw this from Josh Metellus. They drafted him and three years later, they become good. We saw this from Josh Metellus. They drafted him, and three years later, he became good. So the players that they've drafted over these last two years, we really can't say at this moment are all just busts. There's time to develop still, but they need to find some of these players because you can't just have a starting lineup. You need to have much more than that. And I see Jonathan has put in the chat the story about Kirk Cousins. And I just can't say enough how much I appreciated his, it's part of the job to say the truth, regardless of your personal feelings of whether you like somebody or not. There have been a lot of players through the years that I've talked to in the in the locker room or I've done interviews with or written stories on.

And I thought this guy's the best. But then if he makes a mistake in a game, that doesn't matter anymore. And so with a quarterback, the quarterbacks are always going to be at the center of all the criticism and all the praise. When Kirk was winning games in the last minute, 2022, what did we all say about Kirk Cousins? We all said, wow, I mean, he has taken this to a new level, a new level of leadership, all those things, things that in the past we had criticized. We got new information, the situation changed. And so we changed what we said, but people, some people will never understand that it's not personal. This is the, this is what we do. This is what journalists do. We talk about the team. It's not personal. And sometimes that's hard for players too. And look, if Kirk Cousins over the years got pretty tired of media saying he couldn't win and of turning on the TV and

watching ESPN and have those guys say he was a middling quarterback and not good enough. I mean, would you blame him? Would you blame his family for getting tired of it? Of course. I mean, social media beats these guys down. Television beats these guys down. That's why it takes a lot of mental strength for you to be a starting quarterback. It's the hardest part. So when it comes to the next draft pick, mental capacity has to be a huge thing. The ability to let some of that slide off off the ability to not really worry too much about what i'm saying on the live stream about him uh or what ryan clark is saying or stephen a smith or

whatever whatever social media nuts that are out there criticizing the next quarterback they will be there because we already see this that uh every single one of the quarterbacks that i bring up there's somebody in the comments who hates them. Like that's that's just how it is. So a lot of these quarterbacks have had everything kind of, you know, pat them on the back and whatever else over the years that they've just been loved so much. It's kind of actually why I like Bo Nix and Michael Penix a bit, maybe more than other people, is that they've actually gone through some hard times, and that might help them. But it gets harder, and the fact that Kirk Cousins could keep the horse blinders on and never worry about that and just keep going and just keep playing the way Kirk plays.

I mean, think about what happened in 2019. Stephon Diggs is going rogue or whatever, saying there's truth to all rumors, not showing up to practice. Everybody is hammering Kirk Cousins after losing that game to Chicago in, I think it was week four. The guys on television are going ballistic because he apologized to Adam Thielen for missing a throw, which is wild to me because that happens all the time. Not missing the throw. I mean, apologizing to a receiver that you missed.

I mean, my bad or whatever happens all the time. but for some reason Kirk did it and they went crazy. And the next week he went out and torched the New York giants, won the game. Like he's just never seemed to let that get to him. And it was always very impressive from him. Folks, if you don't know what a VPN is, you might actually need one and not even realize it. If you already know the positives, you also might not be using the right product. In either case, you want to check out Surfshark. VPNs keep your information safe and anyone who tries to track what you're doing online will not be able to do so if you are using Surfshark.

IP addresses, what you're searching, what games you're playing, or what shows you're streaming will belong to you and you only. Plus, if you use a VPN, you can virtually travel the world from the comfort of your own home, and Surfshark gives you over 100 countries to choose from. Once you change your virtual location, you'll be able to bypass censorship and restrictions, find your favorites on Netflix, Hulu, Disney, and other streaming services, and even access new libraries to watch even more content. Can't see a YouTube video because of your location? Use Surfshark VPN. Can't access that one website to buy limited edition sneakers? Use Surfshark VPN.

Try Surfshark today totally risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Get Surfshark VPN at surfshark.deals slash purpleinsider. Enter the promo code purpleinsider for three extra months for free. You heard me right, three extra months for free you heard me right three extra months for free that is surf shark dot deals slash purple insider uh jeff says uh on the day that kirk just earned 180 million dollars he's not mad at anything or anyone that's probably true that is probably true the only people he might be mad at is the vikings for not matching the offer but even then you can't be you can't be upset if you're kirk uh chris says other than quarterback what in your mind is the draft priority now this is a

great question because i had them if you would have said rank the draftees of course quarter quarterback is up there on this golden throne of draft needs uh quarterback for sure but then what's next after that uh was defensive end but now that they've signed to or outside linebacker but now that they've signed two edge rushers is that now the draft need now i think it still could be. You still could get Dallas Turner with 11 and trade back into the first. That seems a little risky to me. Or look for a defensive tackle in the second. I'm just like, my mind is a little haywire right now with all the guys who could be potentially drafted.

But the guy, Braden Fisk from Florida State could be available in the second round. Beast defensive tackle, great at the senior bowl, crushed the combine, but doesn't necessarily look like someone's going to spend a first round pick on him. So that's the type of guy you're looking at. I think a penetration defensive tackle could be at the top of the list. And the other thing is too, that, you know, if they don't land in a trade, LeJarrius Sneed,

then they could also look to the draft to take a cornerback in the second round. This appears to be a deep quarterback cornerback class that they could grab somebody. Will says, any guesses on a veteran running back that the Vikings will pair with their starting quarterbacks and improving defense? Go eat up some of that game clock. Yeah, so Tony Pollard is off the board. You guys will have to tell me because you've been scrolling Twitter and I've

been talking to you over the last, whatever, hour or so. Tony Pollard, I saw, is off the board. That would have been a good idea there hasn't been any steam i think for the vikings and saquon barkley they were connected to pollard though which means that they're playing in that sandbox and look with the running backs i know and josh jacobs off the board to the packers i know that no one wants to spend on running backs and a fan of analytics such as myself would tell you like that part of me would tell you hey like you should not pay a running back but the prices have been very reasonable i mean deandre swift signed for eight million dollars a year that's not that much you spread that over three years the first couple years of cap hits are are under that

that's totally fine if it 15, if it's 20, well, of course you're not spending that, but you know, there's, there's still those guys out there. Saquon Barkley. I'm very curious to see what he gets. There's, there's guys like, you know, Gus Edwards, who's a pretty good player. There's some veterans out there. If I had to guess, I would say they go cheaper veteran, but the fact that they were interested in Tony Pollard makes me wonder. And even Aaron Jones now being released, you put Aaron Jones with Ty Chandler, kind of like that Aaron Jones revenge games we could have. But just from a practical standpoint, so that would be fun from a practical standpoint, you'd probably prefer to get someone who's a little on the younger side less injuries less mileage on the body and make it a duo with ty chandler that you can have for

several seasons that's what you're probably looking for sean says if pennix is really a second round talent i'd love to move down a little bit from 11 grab an interior defensive lineman then pennix at 32 after moving back into the first. All of the ideas about moving back into the first, taking another position at 11, or shuffling a little bit back, they all feel very risky, and also they all feel right. They feel like a good idea. If Nix and Penix truly are back-of-the-first first round prospects in a lot of people's minds which we don't really know where the league stands on them we only know where the draft analysis world

stands on them but uh if that is the case then whichever one they like better i mean i i don't know it's hard for me i go back and forth every day ask me on a different day who i like more nicks or pennix it's probably still nicks a little bit because of the injury history, but either way, whoever they like is fine. It is more risky, but it also makes a lot of sense to trade back into the first to get the fifth-year option and so forth. I like that idea, and they do need, even though they've signed some defensive linemen, they still need defensive linemen. You just can't have enough i see the eagles added another one bryce huff you just can't

have enough also eric armstead from the 49ers is a free agent as well but they've already put a lot of money into this so you know i don't know uh j asks, how do you think Kirk is feeling right now? He has to be the exact deal he wanted, but bittersweet to leave Minnesota. Oh, for sure. I mean, what Kirk Cousins said, did I sound very Minnesota when I said for sure? Oh, boy. The Packers are signing Xavier McKinney to a huge deal. This is from Adam Schefter right now. And the Packers are signing Xavier McKinney to a huge deal.

This from Adam Schefter right now. And the Packers are spending, buddy. They are all in on their quarterback. Isn't it nice to draft a quarterback? And then, well, actually, their money situation with Jordan Love is going to be a little different. They won't have the whole advantage of the rookie quarterback contract. But they got their guy, and now they're going all in with Xavier McKinney. So a difference-making player for the Packers in their secondary. They're also going to have a new defensive coordinator. This is one of the reasons the Vikings moved on from Kirk, by the

way, because these other teams, they're all in and they are at spots where they can compete for a championship next year. The Vikings aren't there yet. And another all in type move for the Packers but to your question I think Kirk made it very clear that over the last two years he felt much more accepted and appreciated by Vikings fans now that doesn't mean he always wasn't liked by Vikings fans I think Vikings fans wanted him to succeed and when he didn't that's when they were upset but fans wanted him to succeed. And when he didn't, that's when they were upset, but they wanted him to succeed badly. That was why it was super bowl or bust when he came here is this is the guy that's supposed to take you to the next level. But I think Mike Zimmer and some of the veterans, but really Mike Zimmer very much set the tone with Kirk cousins. And then

you also saw he came through big time in the clutch in 2022 and showed that he was capable. That was another sort of Kirk myth. Like this is another episode sometime to talk more about this, but there's sort of a like Kirk myth. In fact, like Kirk can't be clutch. I thought it was always kind of a myth that, I mean, his rate of, I remember doing an article on this, his rate of, I mean, this hater, of course, of whether the narrative was real. I looked into his opportunities for fourth quarter comebacks versus how often he converted. And it wasn't different from any great quarterback that there were some quarterbacks like, you know, Tom Brady, who might've been a little bit higher when they got their opportunities.

But for the most part, he was right in the ballpark as far as being able to come back in fourth quarters, lead game winning drives. Most of the time quarterbacks don't. But the problem is that the Vikings lived on the edge so much with cousins because they could never run away from people because they played conservatively with him because he would take the check down rather than take the shot. So often because he couldn't make a play and scramble for a first down

with his legs, they stayed close in games all the time. And so there were a lot of those opportunities. And when he failed as most of the time, the quarterback does with game winning drives, then it just was more of a spotlight. And when every game was, Oh,

you're in the hunt, you need this one. And then he doesn't come through more of a spotlight. And then in 2022, he proved that he was capable of that. And he also showed us just how much luck goes into that. Sometimes where Taylor Heineke throws you an interception or Josh Allen fumbles a quarterback sneak or something that

a lot of times fourth quarter comebacks can be a little bit overrated in our minds because, you know, John Elway did it all the time or something when we were growing up or at least me. So I thought, you know, with cousins, it was always that he just didn't have the next gear to run away from teams when he had opportunities, which led to a lot of those things. Now, that's not really answering your question, but the fact that he did that in 2022, the fact that he did the Netflix series that really showed a different side of him and that he had his head coach having his back this entire time and a young locker room that bought into

him that overturned from the previous group. I thought he was leaving, or I think he's leaving Minnesota with a very good feeling. Oh, Barkley's going to the Eagles? Oh, wow. Okay. Sorry. My sentence is already getting finished because this news is coming in. But I think he leaves Minnesota with a very good feeling about the state and about the team. And look, they gave him every opportunity.

They gave him six years. That doesn't happen that often. Saquon got paid, huh? Okay. You know, I never thought that was super realistic for the Vikings. So thank you guys for these updates, by the way. Three years, 37.75 with 26 guaranteed. That's too much.

Yeah, that's too much. Vikings could not play in that sandbox. That's just too much for them to give. Now, the Eagles are all in, as they are every year when they have Jalen Hurts in this good roster still. So something like that you could see. Probably not a great move for them overall. Probably not the best way to spend their dollars on a running back who overall has been a little bit on the overrated side. I think he's really spectacular to watch, but he's got an injury history.

And he never became the receiver that they expected him to become. I think he averages like 5.9 yards of reception or something. It's not impressive for Barkley. I thought it would have been a lot of fun if the Vikings signed him, if it was $9 million. But that dollar figure, that's a little bit excessive, I think. For a player who's a star, it's not insane, but it's probably more than the Vikings wanted to spend.

Robert Hunt gets $100 million over five years. Oh, my gosh. How many out of 100 people know who Robert Hunt is? The guard who once caught a ball and ran for a touchdown that didn't count. That's what Robert Hunt is known for. The Panthers, though, they're making the right move. Their offensive line was an atrocity, an absolute atrocity. That's where, with Bryce Young, there is an opportunity for him to take a big step forward this year

because he had nothing in front of him last year, nothing to throw to, no running game to work with. They need someone like Robert Hunt. But also, this shows you let the first wave of offensive linemen go vikings just let it go and then sign two or three veteran players to compete for a guard spot that's the best you can do right now draft one in the third or fourth well they don't have a third draft one in the fourth round see if you can develop that player um oh now we got another running back off the board this is crazy um devin singletary is going to the giants so we've uh we got more going on here

what a day what a day i agree with hunter this this wild this day one folks we got a lot more time to go uh cj ham is the man can't help but agree there says is it possible that the falcons tampered uh yeah yeah it's possible like there was uh kirk to the falcons steam for weeks yeah yeah i mean what are you gonna do arrest them like i don't know at the i came back from the combine and i felt very confident that the falcons were far and away the team that was most likely to get kirk cousins because of everyone i talked to there thought that he was going to go with the Atlanta Falcons. Were they tampering and that's how people were hearing it? Or were we just putting it together?

I don't know. Who cares? That's how I feel. Who cares? Yeah. I agree with this take. This take. Who cares?

Yeah. It's a silly thing. Just overall. Like with the whole tampering and all that. People are going to talk. That's how it's going to work, you know? You can't stop Kirk Cousins' agent going to Indianapolis and having a conversation about the Falcons about where they are. So that I'm not concerned. Huge Boy says, we spent $27 million of cap space on Cashman and Grenard.

Wow, we are doing so much with the cap space freed up. Well, yeah, I mean, that's an edge rusher at 12 and a half sacks and a starting linebacker who was in the top five by pff that is a lot yeah i don't know if you're being sarcastic or not but um that's that's significant right there and that's not even what the quarterback's contract is going to be because cousins is making over 40 million dollars a year so if they were to bring back cousins just by that math because i know you're not using actual cap hits because we don't know the structure of those contracts yet so those contracts are not going to be the average annual value and the dollar figure if that makes sense like is not the cap hit because the cap hit will be spread out over years and is unlikely to be what their average annual value is for the next two seasons. But even then, even if we did it that way, we're talking about,

see that? Yeah. I mean, not impact players. I mean, what? Okay. Everyone's allowed to have opinions. That's not a good one. Cause that's 13 plus million dollars short of what cousins number per year is going to be and jonathan grenard had 12 and a half sacks last year that's not an impact player what a a mid linebacker who was top five by pff last year man i don't know what you're talking about i i really i think uh i think that you wanted Cousins back. That's what it sounds like. And that's okay if that's what you wanted, but that doesn't make any sense.

I mean, Grenard was in the top 10 in sacks last year. He had very good under the radar type of statistics that he's not a perfect player. He's not Miles Garrett. They still need more on defense. I agree. the radar type of statistics that he's not a perfect player. He's not miles Garrett. They still need more on defense. I agree, but this is a very important position. The last time I checked edge rusher, isn't it the second highest paid position in the NFL? That's pretty important. Not to mention a linebacker in a defense run by Brian Flores is pretty huge. And if you're going to really compete for a Superbowl,

then you probably just can't have a quarterback who can get you to the 10th best offense and no defense. You're going to need a complete team and they are much closer to that today. But look, do all signings go right? No. Is it a guarantee that, you know, Jonathan Grenard is going to be great? No, but he was really, really excellent last year. And so was Blake Cashman. And so was Andrew Van Ginkle. So they're getting three players who were difference making players on defense, three of them for the price of the quarterback. Yeah, that's that's a big deal. So that is a big deal. Anyway, I mean, not only that, but like the ceiling of just Cousins and what he can give you in general is not that high. So it really doesn't have to be like that. It doesn't have to be just a comparison of three

free agents that they sign. But I think this shows you though, how much more free they are to make these types of moves, how much more free they are to make these types of moves, how much more free they are to go out and give the biggest amount of money to these top free agent players. So yeah, I agree with you, Chad, that they are feeding Brian Flores. Look, you got Brian Flores back. I don't know how long he's going to be here. It might be five years. It might be next year. He gets back into the mix as a head coach, but giving him this talent, considering what he did with not a lot of talent last year, gives them a chance. And if they weren't able to sign these players because they put 40 plus million dollars into the quarterback, then you'd just be hoping and praying. You would just be, let's, let that patrick jones takes the next step or something

like that i mean you know i just it it's all it's all right if you wanted cousins back um that's okay but we can't then say that these guys that they signed aren't good when they were um so i mean let's let's be realistic uh the a number two defensive end, as you called Grenard, which is fine, uh, is very valuable and very important. Their number two defensive end in their best season is Daniel Hunter or Everson Griffin, depending on how you look at it. So they need to keep adding, they need a complete team. They need much more on defense other than this, but this is a big progress this is adding 20 something sacks and you know 700 to a thousand snaps from a difference making linebacker who we all knew

blake cashman when he was coming out that he had a lot of talent it was just that it took years for him to get there uh andrew says what are your expectations for wide receiver three? I would expect that. And I don't want to get into Kendall Wright's land or Tajay sharp land where they sign a guy deep into the process. And we all go, Hey, this is their number three receiver. And then the guy never does anything, but that might have to be a little bit of the approach here because receivers are expensive. Gabe Davis was a target for me. He went off the board to a pretty big price to the Jacksonville

Jaguars. So, you know, I think that you got to wait with guards and number three wide receivers. You, you probably have to wait and see. I don't have like, if someone's got a target that they like for a number three wide receiver, cause they're going to have an idea of who fits. I think they should bring back Brandon Powell as number four, but they do need to get a number three. They could wait to the draft. They could try, you know, Jalen Naylor. They've been looking for that for a couple of years, but I think they need to sign a veteran. It's just probably not right away. That wasn't something I was looking super close at outside of someone like Gabe Davis, because I just think that, um, you know, that they're going to be

expensive if they are at the top of the market, like Gabe Davis was, and he's, he's okay, but he's not a great player. And he got paid. Like he's a really good player. They could also, I don't love the idea of bringing KJ Osborne back, but I don't know if I'd be tremendously shocked if he did because I don't know what his market is actually going to be. After last year, it was a down season for him. He dropped a lot of balls. I thought that the pressure got to him. That might be something that they consider is bringing back KJ Osborne.

And I know a lot of you would say, oh, are you serious or whatever? But look around at number three wide receivers. It's kind of hard. Like if they were to bring back Osborne and Powell, who I thought as a duo when Jefferson was down, the whole group, Addison, Powell, Osborne performed pretty well. Hawkinson was a huge part of that. If they were to bring him back, draft a receiver, bring back Powell, have Naylor in the mix. It's a pretty good group behind two great wide receivers. Skull City Blues says after

that statement about these defensive players we signed, my gut is telling me Flores got a lot of toys today. Look for Kc to get one come draft night well that's the thing uh he's that's the trade-off but if you're brian florist you have to be like dude look what i did last year with not a lot give me a complete roster and we're gonna have something going on there jordan asks addison or o'neill who will other teams value more for trading up it would be addison for sure uh brian o'neill is a great player and has been really good for a long time but i don't think in some sort of trade that brian o'neill has a whole lot of value you'd be looking if you're another team in a trade up that means you're rebuilding your roster. You don't really rebuild around a veteran expensive

offensive tackle. You would want, of course you would want, you know, somebody like Christian Derrissaw. Why only two years for Van Ginkle that I don't know. Maybe it could be because he's in his older twenties. I'm not sure. Maybe he wanted a shorter term deal so he could have the potential to hit another um another free agency i'm not really sure that's something that would be that'll be worth asking when we get a chance when they announce these guys uh and we talked to kevin o'connell and quayse dafomenta because i i would have expected something to be a little bit longer than that for him uh jared says there's so many decent wide receivers out there. Give me some names. I don't have the list right up and I'm reading all of your comments.

So throw me some names in the comments. If you've got ideas for wide receivers, I'm all ears. Andrew says, if we get Osborne back, we're buying low. So I don't mind it. That's right. Now, is he a perfect fit for what they were asking him to do last year? I don't think it. That's right. Now, is he a perfect fit for what they were asking him to do last year? I don't think so. I've always looked at KJ Osborne as much more a get the football in this man's hands and let him run. And they did more of that, I thought, at the end of 2022. Just put the ball in his hands, underneath stuff, end around sometimes.

And he's really good at running with the football. So if they're going to bring him back, they have to have a little bit better of a plan. But I also feel like Justin Jefferson getting hurt through a wrench in everybody's plan that suddenly they couldn't use them in more of that wide receiver three role. He also just had a couple of drops where I thought he looked anxious to me because he had never dropped the ball before and then this year not like problematically and then this year he did it's like whoa like what's what's happening there uh what type of quarterback is koc looking for well it must be one in the draft for them not to go crazy as far as like one of those skill sets. So O'Connor laid this out for us

at the combine. He said that he's willing to work a lot of things around different quarterback skills. So that might be mobility, for example, but he said that there's some non-negotiables for him and his top non-negotiables accurate. So definitely looking for an accurate quarterback. And then he talked about character and the, you know, the like toughness and makeup mentally and processing and stuff like that, that he would understand how to scout better than us. We can only watch the games and read what people say. We can't sit down in a room at the combine or have a guy

come on a visit where we can actually take them through something like O'Connell can. So I'm going to trust his judgment when it comes to which guy has the mental makeup. And that's probably the most important thing, because if you look at any of these draftable quarterbacks, all of them can throw the football. McCarthy's a little erratic and Bo Nix does not have the power of his arm, but he did throw really effectively last year. So a lot of it might come down to what he thinks of their personalities. Does he think that they have the mental makeup to be his quarterback in the NFL? That's going to be a big deal because he's going to ask a lot of them. He's going to ask for a lot of reads. He's going to ask for a lot of command at the line of scrimmage, things that these guys have never done before. And that would lead you a little

bit more toward McCarthy because he played for Jim Harbaugh and Jim Harbaugh is as close as you're going to get to somebody implementing NFL stuff in college, even the kind of run first and play action that he runs, that he loves so much, but he's going to need a quarterback with a lot of mental capacity, which may be JJ McCarthy. I've always looked though at Drake May and that arm talent as the thing that Kevin O'Connell would like the most. But I think that a lot of these guys match up with the things that he laid out. Jared TG says, you don't need someone crazy as wide receiver three. How many times are you throwing to him? 40 times, maybe.

So this is true. But I also think that it's important because if you're going to throw all the time, then you need to have other options when they are able to take away somebody like Justin Jefferson or double team him. And that number three position could be, could be pretty scary. TJ Hawkinson was kind of doing that.

He might not start the season. But yeah, I mean, I think, yeah, you're like those 40 to 50 receptions that they matter. They could be a big deal in key spots. And I think that Osborne was that for them in like 2021 and a little bit in 2022, just not as much last year. The Colts are keeping grover stewart i kind of liked grover stewart this is big old strong dude so the colts are keeping him that's another uh interior option that's off the the list okay what else we got uh let's see is the

faithful says with k going to Atlanta, what does this mean for Justin Fields? Doesn't seem to be a market for him. You guys have great questions today. You guys are crushing this. That's a great question. And I was talking about this with somebody earlier today. I have no idea. I mean, the Raiders, maybe like, who are the Raiders looking at? Could they be a trade-up team? Are they drafting a quarterback? But how much are they going to be willing to trade? I mean, Mac Jones. Oh, we got another running back off the board as we speak.

I mentioned Gus Edwards. He's signing with the Chargers. So no Gus Edwards. We'll have to look for other running back options. Thanks, Adam Schefter Alerts. My phone is running out. I've had so many Adam Schefter alerts that my phone is running out of battery. To your question about Justin Fields, when Mac Jones gets traded

for, was it a sixth round draft pick and Mac had his moments, but was never really that great with new England. I look at Justin Fields the same way that he had his moments, but was never really that great. And bears fans love to gaslight you. I mean, bears fans and some of their media act like they saw greatness with Justin Fields. You guys watch Justin Fields play against the Vikings. Did you ever see it? You saw flashes, you saw moments, but a lot of quarterbacks can have flashes and moments that doesn't make you a great quarterback. And if you're going to bring in in fields I think you almost have to do it in the same way where you remember when the Titans got Ryan Tannehill they were actually starting Marcus Mariota first

so that whoever's doing it probably has to put Justin Fields with another quarterback in a competition if I'm the Vikings I'm not. I just don't see him as a good fit. I think that what Kevin O'Connell needs is someone who plays on time in rhythm. He's mentioned this, he's talked about this. That is the opposite of Justin Fields. Everybody also has eyeballs. They saw the number of sacks that the guy took. They saw the number of mistakes that the guy made. And I've just never been huge in blaming the coach. Oh, well, Luke gets, he wasn't good at his job. You know, that might be true, but that doesn't mean you should throw for 2,500 yards and 82 quarterback rating. If you're actually a star, could I see him going somewhere else and winning some games, more games? Yeah. But I don't look at him as someone that anyone

buys into as a true future quarterback, which to me says Justin Fields is like a third or a fourth round pick type of guy. And maybe some of you would be into that for the Vikings, but I'm not, I just don't see it. I don't see this magical ceiling that he's supposed to have. I look at him as somebody who could be a competent and somewhat successful quarterback for a handful of teams. And that's about it. And I don't really think the Vikings would be a good fit for him. Daniel, does the immediate spend on defense make it seem even more likely to go all in

trading up? I guess so. I think what it is, is kind of like if, oh, here's a good example. So for a long time, I had a car payment, my Honda Civic, shout out to my Honda Civic thing is literally duct taped together, but I love it. And I'm not giving it up anytime soon. And for years I had to have a payment for my Honda Civic. And then once I paid that off, that was a couple hundred bucks in my pocket that I didn't have to spend anymore. So I went out and bought myself a new guitar. That's what we're doing. They don't have the

Kirk Cousins payment anymore, so they're buying toys. That's what it looks like to me. They are instantly taking the money that they save in 2025 and putting it into multi-year contracts for expensive defensive players who could be serious difference makers for them uh that's how i look at it i don't know if it's an indicator of trading up or not um because they have so many spots to fill even if they still went out and got an edge rusher and use van ginkle as more of a roving type player, would that be a bad idea? No, that'd be a good, good idea. But I also think that they're looking for veterans to improve their defense right away over the next few years, not just for like getting a 30 year old for right now or whatever,

but also not getting just super young players and just drafting them and hoping they're looking to kind of do both. It seems like, but they know, they know they're gonna have to spend on a quarterback, one of these picks. And that means they can't put a ton into the defensive line for draft picks. So I'm not sure that it points us in a certain direction. What points us in a certain direction what points us in the direction of a trade up for the vikings now that kirk cousins is an atlanta falcon is that they tried to do it last year and that this is probably your one shot as a regime just the way the nfl works is it fair absolutely not but it is what it is you don't usually get to fail twice so if

you're going to take your one shot and uh my friend from the star tribune ben gesling says this all the time he's he's brought this up numerous times about the vikings is the regime may view it as we have one guy that we want more than anything. And it's our one chance to look for our 10 year quarterback. So we're going for it. Now that's only if they're sold on Drake may, but I think they would be willing to do it because of that mentality. You and I can sit here and say, Hey,

just draft a guy. And if it doesn't work, draft another guy, but that's not how the NFL usually works with quarterbacks. Justin, any chance they get a bridge quarterback this year, win like five games, go all in on Shadur Sanders? Not after today. Was there a chance?

Probably not because they have Justin Jefferson and too much talent on the offensive side. But after today, after signing these players, they want to win next year. This is very clear. And this was probably part of the trade-off with the Wilfs to make this move. And earlier in the show, if you missed it, I said, look, you guys that crush the Wilfs all the time, I think we have to give credit where it's due, that they were willing to let Cousins go and not pay that contract and not

match that that contract but probably some of the trade-off was hey that doesn't mean you're tanking that means go out get these dudes who are going to fix this defense and be better uh thoughts uh jared says thoughts on keeping dalton rise. They're worth it. I'm okay with it. I'm okay with it. If that's what they do, price tag is going to be a big deal for sure. But when we talk about improving the running game, uh, that's where I think they probably need to do better because Dalton rise, there wasn't just, and I'll get you the numbers on this. He wasn't just meh in the run. It was very bad in terms of his run blocking. Now I really liked how he looked as a pass blocker. I thought he was an excellent, excellent pass blocker, but as far as how he was as a run blocker, he was bottom 10 by PFF grade as a run blocker. And for a team that really

badly needs to improve its run blocking that, that having a guy that's that bad can bring down everybody in the run game and bottom 10 is, is too low for me. So yeah, I guess if they don't have better options, he's good in the locker room, motivational type guy, tons of energy. I think everybody seemed to gel with him pretty well. But if he can't run block and you're not getting Saquon Barkley, because the Eagles apparently have gotten Saquon Barkley, then I need better. I need better as far as run block.

I'm a twerk says don't panic on running backs plenty of mid to late candidates also many heavy guys to go thunder lightning with chandler i like the option for the vikings at running back of getting somebody on uh you know the second wave of free agency and then drafting someone in the in the the late rounds, because sometimes you never know about the late round running backs. We see them succeed. And there's a good number of veterans. You know, you're Latavious Murray,

Jarek McKinnon types who can come in and run the ball a hundred times, 120 times and be in a pairing, but also be that third down blocker because they understand blocking scheme and let ty chandler play first and second downs kind of how the league works now that's a good option skull city blues says vikings worst green team in the nfl nick's best quarterback coming out of college throwing screen pass oh screen not green you meant screen oh so i see what you mean yeah now i got it uh that he's the best screen pass quarterback i mean they could take some stuff from oregon with those screen passes this is actually some of the point about dalton reisner you can't run great screens when you have a guy with no mobility

like that you need a offensive line that's really athletic to run good screens. And the best that they did was when they had a smaller off athletic offensive line in 2019, and they were successful with throwing a lot of screen passes. So they need that for the next quarterback. They need this stuff to be better. They need to run the ball better. They need to throw screens better. There's no doubt about it.

I also think that the idea that Bo Nix, and I know you're kidding, but the idea that he only threw screens is like people who just didn't watch enough. And, uh, that's where I've been going through. And now it's like really go time, but I've been going through film breakdowns from smart people, looking at Bo Nix, looking closer and talking, people in the scouting world that I know. And there's a little bit of split on that still, uh, about Bo Nix. Some people don't like that. He's a little older, but his ability to get the ball to the right places in the intermediate and even deep part of the field, was it the strongest, most perfect throw all the time? Maybe not. But also, he seemed to really understand where the ball was supposed to go and was able to get it to the open guys.

And we even saw that from Brock Purdy, where the physical skills are not insane, but the supporting cast, the offense, the execution put them in the Super Bowl. So sometimes you don't have to have the perfect quarterback if he is mentally tough enough, strong enough to get the ball to the right places. What defensive tackles are targets? Well, let's see. So we've got Grover Stewart's off the market, Christian Wilkins off the market market i'm very interested in eric armstead and if they were going to go with another big signing along the d-line sheldon rankins would be my hey that guy's not going to cost that much money guy that that's what would be for me uh jamie says either

mayor daniel's no risk no reward yeah that's true that's true. We've got Chris Sims entering the chat again here from Tristan. Chris Sims, 100% convinced me that Drake May is not going to be a good quarterback. Well, and look, not personal. Chris Sims love the bit. I love the bit that he does every year where he ranks the quarterbacks and he ranks them differently than everybody else has them. However, he was super high on Kellen Mond. So one guy's opinion is not the fact. And, you know, I just had Derek Klassen on the show from Bleacher Report, who has only studied quarterbacks. He charts every throw for years of rookie quarterbacks coming out. And I'm talking about using spreadsheets data every single

throw watching and analyzing every single throw he's not perfect but he said he would trade whatever it took to get drake may so which one of those guys put more work into that evaluation do you think probably derrick did but chris sims is on a bigger show and that's no hate i love the bit i i think it's fun for people to go against the grain sometimes and interesting to hear that opinion. But I don't think you should just watch one opinion on these quarterbacks and say, oh, yeah, well, I believe that guy is the faithful. I heard J.J. McCarthy started following Addison and Jefferson on social media.

Yeah, it's that time of year, and Jefferson on social media. Yeah. It's that time of year, buddy. I look, JJ McCarthy just makes a lot of sense. He makes a lot of sense because the Vikings could get another quarterback like Sam Darnold, pair him with JJ McCarthy,

develop McCarthy for a while, and then turn the reins over to him. And he has the tools. And I think the mental capacity and intellect to work with Kevin O'Connell to understand where to throw the football and what I've been a little bit I don't know like a little bit hesitant on is to call him a great athlete but then at the combine when he ran that absurd three cone and and I know that's the underwear Olympics or whatever, but it puts on paper, like how quick are this guy's feet?

And the answer is really quick. That's like wide receiver feet. And you know, who else has that? I mentioned Brock Purdy, but there's a lot of quarterbacks who have quick feet in the pocket. You don't run 40 yards as a quarterback. You probably run for 12 yards.

And McCarthy being able to do that impressed me. So if mentally he is all in with Kevin O'Connell and if he's, he's got the arm strength, he needs work on technique. He's got the arm strength and they feel like there's a ceiling there to develop into. Yeah. Then, then do it. Go, go get your guy that you feel like is going to be the best fit for this offense for Jefferson, for Addison, Hawkinson, and see what happens. Cody says, I'm in awe that you still have your voice. I know you guys know if you've been watching or listening to the show for a while that I do have a tendency to lose my voice after a while, but I turned the microphone up and I'm talking less loud than usual little audio trick. Uh, so I'm good, but I was prepared for that.

And I got the McDonald's diet Coke. This is the elite of the elite. Uh, if you're going to stay like at a hundred percent, it's the best. I don't know what they do to the diet Coke at McDonald's. It's incredible. Hatfield Barbecue says, been a fan since OG Purple Daily at my former show from the 1500 ESPN days. Shout out to Hot Routes. Yep. Hey, Manny. Manny's going to be back. Thursday night is the plan for Manny. So all of you who watch throughout the season, me and Manny Hill, Manny's coming back to break this down um not going to be doing every show through the off season but he's excited my phone has been exploding by the way uh over the last like two hours and I saw Manny texted me so he's excited thoughts on Aaron

Jones should we go after him my issue with Aaron Jones as a Aaron Jones enjoyer. I am always so impressed by him. He has destroyed the Vikings many times is just the injury history. That's the trouble, the injury history with Aaron Jones. I mean, if it didn't cost much, but you're really looking for someone who could be there over multiple years. I think I,

yeah, I really think that you're looking for a running back who could be there over multiple years. I think I, yeah, I really think that you're looking for a running back who could be there for two to three seasons. That's maybe 26 and not 29 with a bunch of injuries. I really like them though. If they did it, I mean, that's,

that's an exciting move and kind of a little bit of a win now ish move, which would be interesting to see how it worked out yeah i think he's a great player it's just how many games are you going to play david says why are people mentioning shadur sanders well if you can't spell shadur right i'm not sure i take your opinion super serious he's worse than fields a head case because of his dad david you have no idea what you're talking about man sorry you just have no idea what you're talking about, man. Sorry. You just have no idea what you're talking about. You don't know how to spell Shadurah Sanders correctly, and you're just making stuff up. Shadurah Sanders is a phenomenal NFL prospect. Everyone I've talked to feels that way. And I watched a lot of his games this year. It's a

terrible Colorado team. He was fantastic. He was super accurate, made plays outside of the pocket, had great analytic statistics. No, Shadurah Sanders is a great prospect. He should honestly, he should not, his dad is probably holding them back, honestly, because it's not a good team. If he was playing for like an Alabama or something, the numbers he put up would be amazing. He's one of the most accurate and calm quarterbacks that I've seen as a prospect in a long time. The point as it relates to the Vikings is just that that's not on their timeline. Their timeline is for right now. It's not to tank. If it was, then they wouldn't have signed Van Ginkle. They wouldn't have signed Jonathan Gennard. So, you know, they just wouldn't have done those things. Um,

because they clearly want to draft the quarterback right now. That's why they let Kirk cousins go. They don't want to do it next year. Uh, Ken says Bo Nix could be there. I think, I think so too, that at number 11 or even potentially a trade back that he could be their guy one thing they have to get intel on is how these other teams that are behind them feel about these quarterbacks because if you pass on Bo Nix to try to trade back into the first and then Denver takes him like Bo Nix could be a very Denverian type of quarterback so you might have to just take him at 11 or try to trade up potentially for McCarthy if the Giants want him. There's so many options. So, so many options. This must

pertain to Justin. Is this Justin Fields or are we talking about Caleb Williams? He's going to get run out of Chicago. Curious if we'll ever see a quarterback pull a Manning and straight up say he won't play for a team. No, I don't think that's ever going to happen. Caleb Williams is going to play quarterback for the bears. It's not going to happen. If Burrow went to the Bengals and Trevor Lawrence went to the Jaguars, it's just not going to happen again. It was a very unique situation and the NFL has changed massively since that happened. Every franchise is good. They're all crazy billionaires and teams get better so much faster now than they used to with the rookie quarterback contracts that we very, very likely will not see that ever again.

And I mean, will he get run out of Chicago? I don't know. I mean, I, it's going to be a curve for Caleb Williams to get used to playing in a market. That's pretty intense in Chicago. But I also think I've heard a lot of people say, well, it's Chicago. They can never have a great quarterback. I look, you're talking to the wrong guy when it comes to that, because my entire life, the Buffalo bills had Todd Collins, Drew Bledsoe, Rob Johnson, J.P. Lossman, E.J. Manuel. And then I move and they get Josh Allen. So maybe it was me.

But quarterback history has nothing to do with what's coming next. And what's happened in the past does not prove what's going to happen in the future. So with Caleb Williams, it's one of those people that are one of those situations where it's going to be a challenge because of the market. And he clearly has some up and down rollercoaster emotional moments that we've seen in college. And I'm really curious of how he handles that. But if you're the Vikings, you need to assume he's going to be good and you need to assume the bears are going to be a behemoth to deal with and build your team with that type of long-term vision. That's that the Vikings just need to take that very seriously. So, okay. Well, let's see here. Um, gosh, I mean a lot more, uh, comments coming in. What type of guitar did I buy? Uh,

let's see when I finally paid it off. Cause I have quite a few. Um, what, which one was that? I think it was a, a Nashville style fender Telecaster. It's what I bought after I paid off the car. And, um, that was about a year's worth of car payments, but it's a, well, if you know, you know that the Nashville style Telecaster is really cool. It's got the three pickups instead of the two. Very cool. Um, maybe that'll be my other YouTube channel at some point. All right. Uh, let's see. I'm not sure how to pronounce your name. Uh, Gattano says, will Harbaugh trade with the Vikings considering the history? I don't know. Maybe. He's not the one that's doing it. It's their general manager.

You've got 21 guitars. I'm at like eight. A lot of times I will bring them in and then move them out. So if I don't love one, then I'll just go get a different one. But 21 is a lot. That's like a whole house worth of guitars. Sue says KOC could possibly revive Zach Wilson's career. That's a pass on me. For me, I'm not into that idea. Because with someone like Sam Darnold, he's shown something before. There have been some highs for Sam Darnold and just some lows as well. But there have been no highs for Zach Wilson. And the character as well is just not a great situation.

He's not well prepared. He didn't seem to understand leadership at all. That's a total pass. I guess a lot of you are guitar players. That's awesome. The Packers gave Jacob's four years, 48 million, huh? They're, they're going for it, man. I mean, you would too. You would do with Jordan love and the way he played last year. You would to play us some Van Halen. I don't have my guitar in the room, but I do play that style, 80s shred style. Sometimes I think I was born a little bit in the wrong era, but Ryan Tannehill is the best option for a backup-type quarterback.

He is a veteran, and he does have a strong enough arm, but the injury history is just not good. The last two years of Ryan Tannehill have been so bad that I think it's probably time to move on. So Jonathan tells me Jonathan Harrison, that the Raiders are apparently talking about trading for fields. That makes the most sense for a location. Am I a steel Panther fan? Yes. Their guitar player is it satchel is unbelievable. Yes, I do. I do. Uh, now, now we're onto the music takes, uh, you want to learn guitar, the best suggestion, um, to get started. It's just, it's just to go for it. Um,

there's lots of beginner YouTube videos, but it's just like anything else. It's a process. It takes a long time to get your fingers trained, especially if you're on the older side. So you do have to be very patient, but I would say, try to learn songs. Just try to learn songs early. So you can feel like you're doing something because if you're taking beginner lessons and it's just like a b c picking the notes you're gonna feel like a dope um gardner minshu signed with the raiders okay maybe they're just gonna throw everything at it i don't know yeah that's well two-year deal so that takes a bridge quarterback off the market there he'll oh he's gonna compete with aiden o'connell that doesn't sound that good for the raiders they've got it they've got to have something um definitely

have to have something more going uh matthias says thoughts on drake may being a viking i i will maintain this until someone tells me otherwise that drake may is the best fit for Kevin O'Connell. He is the quarterback that just has the arm talent. He throws over the middle of the field. This is something that Nate Tice of the athletic has talked about a lot, but throwing over the middle of the field is a huge deal in Kevin O'Connell's offense. And Drake may is big. He's his arm is strong enough. He's comfortable with doing that from his college offense. He just fits so much. We need a collar farewell ballad to Kirk on the live stream. Yeah, I guess, I guess I should have written one, uh, like an eighties ballad with the, the piano and all that, you know, I'm not,

I'm not going to, I'm not going to do it right now, but you know what I mean? Raiders unintentional tank coming. I don't think so because they've really improved their defense. But I mean, it's going to be a tough division. And if they, if, if the only answer they have is Minshew and O'Connell, they've got to be thinking about drafting a quarterback, right? If they don't trade for fields, they've got to be thinking draft. This is just another, there's a lot of dynamics here for the Vikings in the draft all of a sudden. Maybe we'll spend two months talking about it. Sounds fun to me. So, but the Raiders are one of those teams.

So the Falcons aren't drafting a quarterback now at eight. We know the Titans probably aren't at seven because they're going to stick with Will Levis. So the Giants, the Raiders, the Broncos, and because the Broncos, they don't have any options right now. They got to be looking to the draft. All these teams are going to be jockeying for position. Everybody knows that they want quarterbacks. How interesting Steven says is Howell a potential bridge quarterback. Yeah. I mean, I actually like Sam Howell probably more than most people that team last year was a wreck, but he battled for most of the season and he has a good arm. He just takes a ton of sacks and needs some coaching. I also think that no one, this is like we're two hours into the podcast sort of take,

but I don't think anyone's ever been more overrated than Eric Biennemi. Like Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, they won the Super Bowl without him. He goes to Washington, doesn't make his offense a shred better. Sam Hall, though, has an NFL arm and some athleticism and some guts,

very Ryan Fitzpatricky though. But that's like what a bridge quarterback is, uh, is the faithful says Justin Fields might not be traded at all. They may have to just hang on to him and then awkward, very, very awkward. Uh, this is an interesting option. Justin Fields to the giants. That is an interesting option, but don't the Giants. That is an interesting option, but don't they already have a bad quarterback who's drafted high? Had to be said, right? But yeah, I mean, if you're Brian Dable, you might think, hey, I turned around Josh Allen, so I can do it again. I don't know that he really turned around Josh Allen or he was just on his way to greatness, but coaches think that way. I like that as an option for them, for the Giants, or they're just going to draft

quarterback or the Vikings have to trade up ahead of them or many other things. Brian says defensive tackle Murphy, the 11th pick and Pennix next man, Byron Murphy is a beast. He is a beast. I'm not going to let go of the defensive tackle thing until they get one. I just very much still believe even after today, when they go and make these big moves that they need a defensive tackle. Okay. Sue says, what happens if we couldn't get a trade to move up and miss the top four,

then you pick the next one. That's what I would say. Look, there's six quarterbacks who at least have reason to believe that you should like them. So you would just have to pick the next guy up if that was what happened. What about Fields to the Broncos? I think that Sean Payton would absolutely despise Justin Fields. That would be a pretty, pretty tough fit. Okay. Hunter is with me, likes Sam Howell.

How realistic is it? I don't give it a high chance to trade up for Drake May. I think that's going to be hard because the teams at the top are going to want him. And now that Kirk didn't go to Washington, stupid rumor, by the way, can we just say that, that Kirk would return to Washington? Are you serious? That was never going to happen. I don't know where that came from. That was nuts.

That was that was that his agent putting out every team possible. You gotta be, you gotta be kidding me. So anyway, it's going to be hard to trade up. It's going to take a lot, and it would have to be one of those teams deciding they don't believe in those quarterbacks. So stardom 9-10. We aren't a contender contrary to their short-sighted moves. Well, they're signing multi-year contracts, and they're in their mid to late 20s, the players that they signed. So these are not just one year signings for this next season to try to win the

Super Bowl. These are players that you can build your defense over the next several seasons. I mean, Jonathan Grenard is only 27 and Van Ginkle's a little bit older. It's a multi-year deal though. And Blake Cashman is 27. So you've probably got, you know, three to four years more of him being a quality NFL player. So that it's, yeah, I don't think they went like all in today. Eric Armstead. Yeah. I would really like that. Yeah, for sure. I think that would be a great move. Now, how much money he's going to command, that's the question. It's probably a lot. And also, I mean, why are they releasing him is a bit of a question.

Maybe they couldn't work anything out contract-wise. But, I mean, I think he's a good player. That would be really something. Skull City Blues, does it seem strange to anybody else that mac jones was traded to the jaguars would that be worth a call to see if trevor lawrence might be available trevor lawrence is not available i promise you trevor lawrence is not available they're gonna they're gonna go after that with trevor lawrence for the next eight years they're not moving on from him anytime soon but mac jones to the Jaguars just tells me that

zero people were interested. So his hometown team said, sure. A sixth. Why not? And Lawrence got hurt last year. And I think there was like CJ Beathard as their backup. No Leonard Williams, please Leonard. I worry a bit about the age. He has passed where his prime was a few years ago but on a shorter term deal maybe not too risky i just didn't love the way that he played in seattle last year i had higher expectations for him didn't do a whole lot there so you know um this is the funniest comment of the day most minnesota fans are too young to know how much tarkington was like cousins as a real lover of nfl history i could tell you fran tarkington was absolutely nothing like her cousins absolutely nothing like it when fran tarkington retired he was statistically the greatest quarterback to ever play.

Statistically. He was also the ultimate playmaker. He was undersized, but he was doing Mahomes stuff before anybody else was. He was an unbelievable scrambler. Totally different as far as the way that he played the game and the caliber of player. Fran Tarkenton is the most underrated quarterback, probably in the history of the NFL. If he wins one of those Super Bowls,

then he is talked about in the echelon of the greatest of the great in history. So no, that's not similar at all. Fran Tarkenton's biggest problem is that he lost Super Bowls. So that's different. Yeah. I I'm baffled by that one. That's, that is definitely a,

like, uh, what are we doing here today? Uh, I mean, there's, there's, there's been some great takes from you guys today.

That's, um, that's a miss. That is a miss. Jeff says, uh, we're trying to acquire, uh, as much young veteran talent as they can afford

they are building for the next three years yep i think that's the perfect explanation jeff that these players that they're getting are going to be here over multiple seasons uh hunter says if fran tarkington was a quarterback today then sure but compared to that time period not even close if fran tarkington was a quarterback today, he'd probably be, I mean, saying my homes is a little silly, but he would be in the elite upper echelon. If you were transferring how the game is played now, just a brilliant, brilliant playmaking quarterback, um, field general tough as nails leader. I mean, just like, come on, like, well, let's go watch some NFL films together on, on Fran Targeton.

That's you're probably right. You're probably right. That, uh, it's a sign. It's time to shut it down. When, when we get to the Fran Targeton, that's true. Okay. From, uh, Jordan, thank you for this update. Gardner Minshew, a two-year $25 million deal

that includes 15 million fully guaranteed. So two years, 25 million, 15 million. I would have paid that for a bridge quarterback. That's not bad. I don't know that he was really a good fit for the Vikings. The arm talent is just lacking and you need arm talent to play for O'Connell. That's why I've always been very much on board with Sam Darnold and Blowfishes says, I've been watching Darnold games, way too many 50-50 balls. The easy pitch and catch balls made difficult with the lack of accuracy. Oh, he's got problems for sure. If he didn't need it, he'd be a starter. Yeah. I mean mean that's the reason he was a backup is that it seemed like there were way too many hero ball attempts from darnold way too many bad turnovers the highlight plays were countered by missing on the easy stuff and that's why if you're bringing

him in it's much more as a like let's see what we've got here let's see if he's developed some of that stuff worked it out as geno smith and ryan sannahill did once upon a time and if you have to play him he can win some games with the right circumstances but you wouldn't be doing it as all eggs in that basket darnold's our guy no that'd be crazy because he does have flaws and his flaws can be hilarious and insane sometimes with the stuff that he does. Sue asks, what do you think the best move for the Vikings is to make right now? Well, I think that they should look at defensive tackle and the luxurious need situation. Can they bring in one more really good player on the defensive side? That's going to be a difference maker. Maybe it's via trade.

And then ever then, then everybody just take a deep breath, then hit the brakes for a couple of days. This is the day where everybody overpays and let's let the dust settle and then fill out some of these other positions in the coming days. But they probably need one more defensive player as a difference maker. Mullins on steroids is such a funny description of Sam Darnold. Mike says, if the Vikings don't announce a bridge quarterback free agent, I would assume it's a high indicator of

drafting a rookie starter. Well, we know, at least we think we know, unless they have a plan we haven't heard of, Kyler Murray, maybe? Probably not. But unless there's a plan that has not presented itself to us, it's pretty clear that they're going to draft a quarterback that is going to compete for the starting spot. And what a time that is to be alive. That's going to happen. So let me wrap on this because now I am starting to lose the voice a little bit. And I think we've said, once we've reached the Fran targeted analysis portion and the guitars portion of the podcast, we've probably

gone too far and need new information. And look, I'm going to be around. I'm going to spend some time writing and, uh, you know, analyzing'm gonna spend some time writing and uh you know analyzing what's happened for the vikings and you should sign up for the newsletter go to purple insider.com look at the written work there you can sign up for the newsletter you can sign up on the free side or on the support the uh purple insider side if you like go check that out i'm gonna have a column going up about the end of kirk cousins era that you can read very soon got to work on that and then we'll see what happens if there's some other moves that go on today then i'll be back later on to go live on the channel but let me just put a wrap on this

day by reiterating something that i said earlier and that i've probably alluded to many times is that this feels like the gates have opened and you walk through it to the future. And maybe I've described it as something like the shackles coming off. Maybe that's not quite as accurate as the door is open to the future. Now it's wide open. They have an opportunity. now it feels like to take the step toward playing for an actual championship which it has not felt like that in a very long time and that makes it for Minnesota Vikings fans one heck of a day to see Kirk Cousins sign with the Atlanta Falcons and the best of luck to him in Atlanta I think they made the right move for their situation. I think he made the right decision

to go to a team where he could win. And this is good for everybody involved and especially for the front office, the ownership and the head coach. The head coach gets to pick his quarterback. The front office gets to spend the money and credit to the ownership for not bending to this dollar figure because this would have been a huge, huge mistake to have spent $180 million.

There is so much more to go. There is so much more work to be done for the Minnesota Vikings. This is not a championship. Nobody raised a banner. Nobody put a ring on. There's a lot to do here. But the fact that it feels like the opportunity is now there for the Vikings to chase that championship, to use a model that has worked for many teams, to be truly competitive, to build a full defense,

a full offensive line, to use the money that is going to be created to draft a quarterback who could have playmaking potential or a higher ceiling than Kirk Cousins. It makes it one of the best days for Vikings fans in a while. And I don't mean that as a diss to Kirk Cousins. That's just the world that the Vikings live in right now is it feels like one of the more exciting days in recent Vikings history for Cousins to have moved on to Atlanta. So thank you all so much for watching this version. There will be others. There will be guests. There will be analysis. There will be reactions. A lot will be happening. So really, really appreciate all of you guys coming and stopping by this live stream. Subscribe to the channel.

And you guys are just so good in the chat. Cannot thank you enough. You're respectful to each other. You have good ideas. You're knowledgeable and helpful in breaking news to me. So thank you so much to everybody who participated. And we'll see you again very soon. I'm not sure when, but as some of you have alluded to that, there's probably an emergency podcast right around the corner. So I may be back

soon. But thanks everybody for joining this one. And I hope you continue to do so in the future. Take care for now. Football.