Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Kirk Cousins says he 'wouldn't turn down' playing with Belichick

Episode Date: January 19, 2024

Matthew Coller and Manny Hill talk about a quote from a Kirk Cousins interview with CBS about Bill Belichick. Plus they answer a question from a listener about possible quarterbacks the Vikings could acquire via trade and look at every divisional round game Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with Manny Hill as always. And you know, we were planning out the show. We got all these things to talk about. Here's what we're going to do minute by minute, moment by moment, discussion by discussion, all plotted out with hours of research and meetings and all sorts of those things. And then, you know what? Sometimes even the best laid plans, they are changed by the internet. And so I'm just getting ready to dial us up here, go live. And then I see on the interwebs and let me make sure that I've got the reporter reporter's name correct here uh isabel gonzalez who apparently writes for cbs sports she interviewed none other than kirk cousins

and she asked kirk cousins manny about bill belichick and of course cousins gives a normal belichick reaction answer great coach whatever really hard to play against and then she follows up and she goes hey so you want to play for Belichick great follow-up by the way good work you ask him about Belichick and then casually just throw in like hey you want to play for him and he says that he quote wouldn't turn down playing for Bill Belichick. Now, Manny, Bill Belichick is doing job interviews, and he interviewed with none other than the Atlanta Falcons, who do not have a quarterback. I'm seeing the pieces coming together, Manny, Bill Belichick, Kirk Cousins, Drake London, Kyle Pitts, Bijan Robinson, a good offensive line, a budding defense that will be improved greatly by Bill Belichick.

It just makes so much sense, Manny. Am I trying to speak it into existence too much because of where the show stands on resigning Cousins to the Vikings? Or is this just too perfect for Belichick to get hired by the Atlanta Falcons and bring in Kirk Cousins as his quarterback and destroy the NFC South, which is just marred in mediocrity? It makes all the sense in the world, doesn't it? I mean, it just seems like a really, like a really, really good fit. He's a veteran quarterback who's had success in the league.

We know about the numbers that he's put up. He's had a couple of winning seasons, getting his teams to the playoffs. He's won a playoff game. You know, Kirk Cousins has had himself a nice career and he's a good quarterback. And I think if you're the Atlanta Falcons, when you have all the weapons that you mentioned, and if Bill Belichick is going to be the head coach, I know they're supposed to be talking with him again, or did they talk to him a second time already? I saw something that said he's supposed to have a second interview with them, which makes me think it's fairly likely that he's going to end up getting that job. You know, it's usually when guys go in for like a second interview, typically it makes sense that they're going to take that job. So hypothetically speaking, if Bill Belichick does end up being the

head coach of the Falcons, they've got the cap space. They've got a vacancy at the quarterback position because I don't think anybody is really a believer in the guys that they've got a vacancy at the quarterback position because i don't think anybody um is really a believer in the guys that they have right now um so it it makes all the sense in the world so i mean i i think and if you're kirk and you know i know there's been talk about you know the vikings want to bring him back and maybe he'd give them a discount or hometown discount that sort of thing but if you're kirkins and you're 36 and you're or you're going to be 36 and you're coming off a pretty substantial injury with tearing your Achilles you want to get as much money as you possibly can and I would not hold that against Kirk Cousins for

wanting to chase the money especially at this stage of his career, and going to a place where he's going to have kind of a nice setup and arguably the greatest coach ever as well. It seems like a perfect fit to me. So if I'm Kirk Cousins and I'm trying to make this decision, you have to factor in how much Minnesota has bought into him over the last couple of years. You have to factor your relationship with the coach. Your number one wide receiver is Justin Jefferson. The stadium you play in is amazing. The state you live in, Manny, we love this place. Minnesota is fantastic. All these things are factors. He mentioned this when we talked to him at the end of the year, he said, look, I mean, my kids love their kindergarten and so forth, but then he followed up and said, but also I could find another kindergarten if I needed to. Kids can adjust if you need to.

And I thought, that's what I thought, Kirk. And like you said, this man has handled his business in the right way so well that he gets a second chance to do something that most quarterbacks never do, which is become an unrestricted free agent and make your choice. And the thing that he started off with, so there were other quotes in that press conference that made more noise, but the thing that he started off with the very first question was something like, what are you looking for when it comes to this decision? And he said, the first thing on my mind is winning. And if I am advising him, I would say, do you think that in this NFC North with this roster right now, that you will compete for a Superbowl next year? Because it's real when you tear your Achilles at 35 years old, you got to be thinking next year,

and that's really as far as you can go in your brain. You can't go, hey, yeah, I got five years to win a championship. You got to go, I might have one year to win a championship. Is that here? I don't see how that's here, Manny. Every time I go back, I go check over the cap.com to look at the roster and the players they have in the free agents, just to make sure I'm not taking crazy pills. No, I'm not. They don't have a single defensive lineman outside of Harrison Phillips. That's pretty tough. He has

to know that his best year as a Minnesota Viking came when the Vikings had a very good defense in 2019. That's when they were able to go to New Orleans and shut down Drew Brees largely in that game, give him a chance to lead a game winning drive. And what was it that happened against the New York giants? I'm trying to think, Oh yeah, he checked out on fourth and eight, but what Kirk would tell you, and he would be right is all we needed was a stop. All we needed was a stop on defense. And we let Daniel Jones march the field, convert a fourth down and beat us in that game. And he would be a hundred percent right that not having a strong enough defense, how many years has it been with a guard,

a running game or whatever? This is a really complete team and Atlanta and on the defensive side, it is going to be a good defense. I mean, there's no question. There was already a decent defense, but there's no question. Bill Belichick still had the New England Patriots defense playing well. And go look at their roster. There's not a lot of special people. That is the one thing that you can always say for the history of Belichick.

I snark about Brady all the time. But Belichick is one of the great defensive minds in the history of the United States of America. So I think that it all comes together for Kirk as much as it does even for Atlanta, who has Desmond Ritter and Taylor Heineke and like, you're not winning. You're not taking that job in that case. And if I'm Belichick, it's as much him interviewing them as it is them interviewing him for the job and he's got to be asking what's our plan at court or what's our plan at quarterback i mean he's got to be he's got to be asking that because now let's look at the other options if all right so i'm belichick and i want to know well what are you going to do for me a quarterback

that's what he's asking their gm that's what he's asking their owner. Are they going to say, well, Gardner Minshew is out there or Hey Bill, we're going to plan on trading up for a Jalen, Jay Din Daniels. I said, and you got to develop him over like three years and then he'll have a chance to win a Super Bowl with you. I mean, if I'm Belichick, I'm like, what? Like, look how old I am. Look how good the roster is. This is not the time for me to be drafting Jaden Daniels and trying to develop him over multiple years or J.J. McCarthy and trying to develop him over multiple years. If they cannot even get Jaden Daniels because he's taken by bill's former team

the new england patriots or you're trading you know a bunch of assets that you could draft and put right in from the first place he wants a veteran quarterback the only true options for actual starters who are good kirk cousins and russell wilson and i don't know russell wilson already tried this with denver and that didn't work out so great. That's where I feel like it's all come together. It's not even about the money. You're right that he should chase money and that's totally fine if players do that. But if his number one thing is winning, and I think that I believe him when he says that Atlanta is the only team that you could go to where you could say, you know what, you could really be there other than maybe Pittsburgh. I think those are the only teams where you could say

you have a serious chance and let's compare the AFC North versus the NFC South. That's not even close. And trust me, Kirk watches enough ball to know that I think. Yeah. And I think even if you, well, first let's, let's take it from the Vikings perspective. I mean, you're a hundred percent right. If Kirk Cousins is thinking about winning and like winning big, and I'm talking about going to a conference championship, maybe going to a Superbowl, going on that sort of a run and having the best chance at that. He's got to look around outside of the Vikings, I think, for that opportunity. And this is not to say that the Vikings are in a terrible spot, but you just have to consider the

position that they're in. You bring Kirk Cousins back, you're going to have to pay him. Even if you're getting a hometown discount, you're still probably paying him in excess of $30 million a year. That's a huge chunk of money. You're probably waving bye-bye to in fact you're likely waving bye-bye to daniel hunter and free agency anyway i think it's a foregone conclusion that you'd be doing that if you were to bring kirk back that makes your defense weaker and then still having to resign jefferson still having to resign derisaw, where is the money to improve the defense going to come from? And I think if you're Kirk, certainly Kwesi and KOC have to factor that in. But if you're Kirk, you got to look around and saying, okay, well, you guys are paying

me my money, but are we going to improve the other side of the ball? Well, we don't really have enough space to do that, Kirk. Well, then why am I here? If you're Kirk Cousins, you're thinking, well, why am I here? If you're, you know, if you're Kirk Cousins, you're thinking, well, why am I here? We're supposed to be trying to win now. So with that, you know, you factor that in, it just makes all the sense in the world

for him to go elsewhere. And Atlanta just seems like it almost, in a roundabout way, kind of reminds me of when Tom Brady, and I'm not saying Kirk is Tom Brady, but it's like when Tom Brady left the Patriots and went to Tampa Bay. That was a good team. They had a lot of talent, weapons at the wide receiver spot, some really good players on defense,

an older veteran coach who had had some success in the past. They were just coming up short of the quarterback position. Jameis Winston wasn't getting it done. He was throwing it to the other team too many times. And you plop Tom Brady right in the middle of that, and everything, like Moses, part of the Red Sea for them that year, and they end up going all the way and winning the Super Bowl in their home stadium.

I can buy how Kirk Cousins could step into a situation in Atlanta, especially if Bill Belichick becomes a coach, and it can be a similar type of situation. That defense or that division is not going to be good again next year. What's going to happen with Tampa? Tampa's in a great position right now, getting to the divisional round, winning a playoff game with Baker Mayfield. But what is that team going to look like? I mean, they're in a really tough salary cap situation.

Are they going to be able to bring Baker back? Can they afford to bring him back if he wants a certain amount of money? Carolina is terrible with no first round pick so um you know their their their way of improving is is really gonna really be a tall order and new orleans i don't know where new orleans is going so this is an opportunity for atlanta it just makes too much sense um that if you're talking about the best landing spot for kirk cousins should he should he depart Minnesota. It just makes all the sense in the world. Pittsburgh makes some sense too, I think, with that roster. I just kind of wonder how Kirk would fit in with that city and that culture.

Because if they sign him and they go, let's say, they compete hard with the Ravens for the AFC North, they come up just short and they go, you know, 12 and five. If they don't go to the AFC championship game, they're going to be running ready to run Kirk cousins out of town after one season with Atlanta, not quite as much pressure and expectation to compete and win, but not quite as much pressure due to the history of the franchise there.

So Atlanta seems to me seems to make all the sense of the world. If I'm the owner of Atlanta, Arthur blank, I can definitely squint and see Matt Ryan and Kirk cousins. Now, personally, I would take Matt Ryan over Kirk cousins at his peak, especially when he was one of the great quarterbacks in the league and is a borderline hall of famer. So it's a little bit different, but you can see it. It's a pocket quarterback. It's lots of weapons. And in 2016, Matt Ryan wins the MVP by having a lot of weapons, a good

offensive system and so forth. That would be, I guess, my one concern is which cronies are Belichick bringing to Atlanta with him to fit the offensive system? If I'm Kirk, I'm certainly asking that question, but he would know that by the time he's going to make that decision. There is some holdup there. By the way, on Pittsburgh, does Kirk want to run away from Miles Garrett twice a year would be a question. Not that there's not pass rushers everywhere, but that's the pass rusher in the entire NFL. So that might be a factor that you're playing multiple defenses that are elite against you. And it's still a mystery how the Pittsburgh Steelers won 10 games this year playing three different quarterbacks in that division. So the NFC North is, it's very hard to even lay out how those other teams are

even good or great. New Orleans is stuck in the mud with Derek Carr. You can't see them going much farther. Maybe they could get to 10 wins. Tampa Bay. Okay. They pay Baker. They've got a good team. They're fairly competitive, but it's not a 13-win team. And Carolina's not a one-year fix. So you've got a chance to step right in, win 11 or 12 games and be right there. And then when you look around the NFC, all right, San Francisco's probably not going anywhere. Philadelphia has certainly taken some hits for how good we think they could be in the future.

Dallas will melt down against you in the first round. You want that draw. And then you've got to deal with the Lions Packers and possibly the bears, depending on how that goes, but more likely the Packers and lions. It's not as terrible of an NFC as it was a couple of years ago, but it certainly is not as daunting as talking about going to the AFC where in order to get to a super bowl, you have to beat either myomes or Josh Allen. And now CJ Stroud is here and the defenses are good and the divisions are full of quarterbacks. And every year someone's this, some great quarterback is disappointed and sitting home like Justin Herbert going, well, what the heck happened to me? Right. You know,

so there's so much competition in the AFC. I think he would want to stay in the NFC, and that's why all kind of signs would point to and all roads would lead to him playing in Atlanta as being the most plausible destination if the Vikings don't extend him. And I guess what I would want to know is, how do you not have a conversation with Atlanta before signing with the Vikings? How do you not have your agent go

to the combine? He keeps saying March. So that's interesting as well. This was another, here's a little tiny thing to pay attention to with Kirk is when he does this interview with the CBS sports reporter, he says, I guess we'll find out in March, which doesn't sound like I'm getting extended by the Vikings before I hit free agency or before we get to that right to the goal line of making that decision. And I think that there is some sort, you know, like a period, a legal tampering period that he will have where teams could technically negotiate with him. So, you know, there's that little space in between,

but you know that they're going to find out before that how much Atlanta would offer, what the plan was, and where he would fit in if they are indeed interested. So this, I think, has some momentum after he brings this up if Atlanta does hire Bill Belichick. But I have one more follow-up on this question, Manny, which is if Kirk Cousins went to Atlanta and got to the Superbowl, what would that feel like? I mean, Brad Johnson did it for Tampa Bay, but I think everyone liked Brad Johnson so much that they were just like, okay, well, you know, Randall Cunningham came in for Brad and had the best 98 season. So, Hey, cool, cool for him. dante came in right after that was your quarterback not really that big of a deal it probably all depends on how it went at quarterback for the vikings after but can you imagine what this place would be like if kirk cousins is facing patrick

mahomes in next year's super bowl as a member of the Atlanta Falcons. That would be absolutely wild. And where's the Super Bowl? Where's Super Bowl 59 supposed to be at? Is that the New Orleans? Is it the Superdome? Yeah, I'm not sure. Yeah, it could be. I don't know.

Yeah, I mean, that would be wild. I mean, I can't even. Well, you're always, there is the pocket of Vikings fans that some way, shape or form, they're going to find a guy that, they're going to find the guy that got away. player or whatever the case may be, a GM maybe or something like that. I mean, it was, you know, in 2007 when Mike Tomlin got the Pittsburgh Steelers job, you know, everybody was so down on Brad Childress at the time. So it was like, oh, you know, Tomlin should have been the guy. And then, of course, in his second year with the Steelers, Mike Tomlin wins the Super Bowl while the Vikings are getting bounced

in the first round by the Philadelphia Eagles that same season. So, of course, everybody's like, well, you know, should have had Tomlin, should have made Tomlin the head coach instead of Childress and all of that. So, yeah, I mean, there's going to be a pocket. If that happens, there's going to be a pocket of Vikings fans

that are going to be like, see, you should have kept Kirk because he could have gotten the Vikings to the Super Bowl if they would have just brought them back. It's like, well, not quite sure about that. So I guarantee you, if that happens, there will be a pocket of Vikings fans that will be like, see, you should have kept him. You shouldn't have let him go.

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sent him to Los Angeles. He wins the super bowl there. They take their long-term track. Now they feel better than the Rams do about where they stand after beating them head-to-head and playing in divisional weekend against the team that they have a very good chance to beat. And also the Lions aren't going anywhere. Their quarterback is still in his prime. Their roster is completely stacked. They're going to have a window of years and they feel like they made the right decision. And from my perspective, I would look at it the same way. If the Vikings

drafted Michael Penix and won seven games and he was pretty good and they looked like their offense was going to roll with him, just for example, it doesn't matter which rookie you want McCarthy doesn't matter. And so they McCarthy doesn't matter and so they look like all right you know this team is coming along and they had a good year with their rookie quarterback and they are an off season away from being a contender much like the Lions went eight and nine uh in 20 or was it nine and eight and missed the playoffs in 89 whatever yeah nine and eight in 2022 and they missed the playoffs but they felt really good about where they were going because you could see the pieces.

And if that guy goes and wins the Super Bowl with another team that took years to rebuild with lots of high draft picks, Drake London, Kyle Pitts, Bijan Robinson, these guys are not eighth round draft picks. These guys are eighth overall draft picks. And they built up over years with the offensive line, the defense and so forth

well that was their timeline and it's better that Kirk went there to have a chance to win and I would say if you love them in Minnesota just root for him to win there because it wasn't going to happen here with the roster that you have and the only chance it has to happen here for next year is if they do wild stuff and look you can go look at the free agent list and talk yourself into hey if they just signed brian burns christian wilkins couple of these veteran corners a left guard grab one of them receivers we're good to go and you know what i still play old school madden video games i love the madden 05 off season we could play the training camp and you negotiate with players and sometimes they don't want to sign with you and you're just like, what the heck, man? But what you normally could do is you could just

give the guy the most money and they'll sign with you. That's not how this world works. Usually free agents are looking for places where they can win and they're looking for the most dollars and there's 31 other teams negotiating against you, so you can't just go to free agency and say, whatever happens to Kirk happens in Atlanta. If it works out for him, great. But that's not the good, that wasn't a good idea for us. And this wouldn't have happened here as it hasn't in six years. And so I feel the same way. Like maybe you could look at it as that they wasted the Kirk era in some ways because they, you know,

were scrambling all the time and they were always this move or that move away. But you can't have that back. Just like they couldn't have it back with Matthew Stafford. You couldn't go back in time and draft better players or not have certain people in charge or whatever else. And you have to live with what you have. So, you know, I think that with Bill Belichick, if he ends up going to Atlanta,

he's going to have that first question of who, who could I potentially win with? And, you know, what about Bob says Belichick likes winners. Why would he want a 36 year old currently injured non-mobile check down quarterback? Well, first he won a bunch of super bowls with a non-mobile quarterback. So that's one, and I'm not saying Kirk's Brady, but if you're Bill Belichick, I'm pretty sure that you think that you can win with a lot of different stuff is my guess that, and also you are not taking a job unless you have that guy who, you know, can play quarterback. And if you look at, you know, Kirk Cousins career and his career in Minnesota, I think he's like 50, 37 and one or two, one, they had one tie fit, something like that. If, if I'm looking at that as Bill Belichick and I know what I have as a roster and I know the division I play in, that's about the best bet that I could possibly, possibly end up with. If I'm Belichick, better than a washed Russell Wilson, better than a rookie, better than a Gardner Minshew.

So you would just take your risk, I guess, of going with a guy who has been injured and hasn't taken a team deep. Yeah, I mean, the alternative, if you're the Falcons, is, you know, you draft a guy i mean that's but again that's if you're bringing in a 72 year old bill belichick does he want to spend three four years developing you know michael pennix or bo nicks or something like that if atlanta were to use their first round pick on a quarterback i I don't think so.

I mean, he's going to want a veteran guy, and I guess the only other alternative would be Baker Mayfield, but why would Baker Mayfield leave Tampa to go to Atlanta? I mean, it's a pretty decent situation down at Tampa Bay, and I would imagine with the success that they've had this year, they'd probably want him back. So that, to me, just leaves Kirk Cousins as the most viable option. At this point, he's a veteran. He's had success. He's a good quarterback. You throw him into a situation where you have a lot of young talent around him, and you just take your chances there, and you see what happens. And I mean, who knows, maybe it'll work out for them.

And it's a bad division that they'll have a chance to win. It just, like I keep saying, man, it just seems to make all the sense in the world. It seems like the ideal fit. Well, we've got a few steps to get there. First, Atlanta has to hire Bill Belichick, and then they would have to figure out, you know, a price for kirk cousins and negotiate against whatever the vikings price is and the viking sales pitch because they may very well have a sales pitch that's worked out for him that is here's what we're going to do to rebuild the

defense florist can pump up you know whatever talent we have and here's how we're going to spend our money and here's the free agents we think we could get like i'm sure they have a powerpoint presentation for kirk we also know that last year they drew a line in the sand and i think if last year was this year if it's the same contract offer then someone else can beat it now last year he was under contract so no one else was negotiating against it that number has to be higher now than it was last year because other teams can beat it because right. And when you go to the combine and ask around, if you say, here's the Vikings line in the same number, then Atlanta can say, I, we can beat that and we can push money down the road and we can do

whatever because we're in our super bowl window uh and so it's funny about how these things happen where we have these wild swings with cousins and it through this entire year it's been that way of we felt like when he tore his achilles though that's it i mean it's over for kirk cousins in minnesota and after a couple of bad games by backup quarterbacks then it was oh oh boy, I mean, he's coming back. There's no question. KOC needs him back.

And now as of today, just as of this comment by Kirk cousins, who seems a little giddy about talking about March, by the way, and I would be too, if I was him and I knew I was going to have interest. He even kind of seemed that way when we talked to him when he i mean he had a couple of baller lines when we talked to him when he said it's not about the dollars it's what the dollars represent i mean did wu-tang write that that's that's pretty sick that's pretty ill man i i thought you know i didn't even recognize at the moment until i said it again to somebody else and i was like that's actually that's like turn the beat up in my headphones on that. And then when he said, you know, my kids can find

another, uh, kindergarten. And he said, the league needs quarterbacks. Like this man, this man is intrigued by what might be out there for him. And if that ends up being the case, uh, then I think the Vikings are on a good track for their franchise and Atlanta would be for theirs. And, you know, Kirk would end up in a place where he could have one last shot at potentially chasing a Super Bowl. I just don't know if that is here. So anyway, how about that for a wrench thrown in a pre-show preparation? Something I wanted to talk to you about along the quarterback lines, and then I want to get into these divisional games, is a question I got from a listener, Josh, who asked me about trading for other quarterbacks. Now, his idea was, would Carolina bail and trade and want

number 11 for Bryce Young? And I think there's no chance. If you're Carolina, you put so much into that guy, you fired your coach, you're going to try everything you can. And I also think it is there anybody in the quarterback trade market? We know who the free agents are. You mentioned Baker, Gardner Minshew. Those are really the top, but I was having trouble. I was having trouble. Kyler Murray. I just, it seems like they are going to stick with Kyler Murray and try to do what the lions did, which is rebuild around a good quarterback who is expensive, but they're hoping it doesn't matter with all their draft picks. And they also have Houston's draft pick. So they have two first rounders.

They're in a good spot to rebuild there around Kyler. I would imagine they're going to do that. I was struggling to think about anybody else who would be trading you a quarterback. If the Vikings wanted to dip into that market, do you got anybody? I got, I mean, Kyler Murray was the one that I kind of thought about when, when you texted me that question earlier today, I just thought Kyler Murray was the only one I could think

of, of like, okay, maybe I could see them just wanting to start over completely with a complete clean slate and take the, take a young quarterback, you know, with their, with their high draft pick and, and just move on. Um, other than that, I just, I don't, you know, any quarterback that you could think of that might be traded is just kind of, kind of a meh type of guy. And it's like, do you really want to give up draft capital? Even if it's like a fourth or fifth round pick if you're the vikings do you want to give that up for a guy that's just kind of meh when you can go in free agency and sign a guy that is kind of meh so yeah i mean kyler

kyler was the only one i really thought of and i don't even know how likely that is that arizona would move on from him at this point it sounds like they want to stick with him and try and build this thing around him and maybe get him some more weapons and try to boost that defense up a little bit. Would you trade number 11 and Jordan Addison for Kyler Murray? Probably not. uh probably not and the only reason why is because well it's interesting like what would how would that impact the cap because he's got a kyler's got what i think is a 52 million dollar cap hit for 2024 and it can be restruct yeah it can be restructured. Yeah, it can be restructured.

It can be restructured. Yeah, you can make that about half what it was. It's like Deshaun Watson's deal. It was going to have a $50 million cap hit this year or something, and then they restructured it. So you can always do that, which is kicking the can down the road. But if you're trading for Kyler Murray, it's sort of a now and later type of thing

where you'd be trading for him to come in now compete now with justin jefferson but then you are hoping to draft to build around it um trading away your 11th pick would would be difficult addison is a big part of what i think can make a quarterback great here right but is is he so good though that you wouldn't give him up to get a quarterback who i know that we think Kyler Murray's not good now. But when you look at 2021 and where he was and then before 22, when it fell apart with Cliff Kingsbury, which, hey, Chicago. Yeah, go ahead and do that. Go ahead and do that.

That's a great idea. What a great idea. Yeah. Vikings fans are sending the Bears letters. Please, please bring Cliff Kingsbury into coach Caleb Williams. That'll work out great. Their USC offense was garbage anyway. And so it was Arizona's, but Kevin O'Connell downfield passing offense, dude with great arm and mobility and playmaking skill, greatest receiver in the league, good tackles, like this all kind of can come together to be a good team right away and then build around that. But I do think that the expensive part of it is a holdup, even if you can restructure, because we know that you got to pay that bill eventually. And I wouldn't want to give up a receiver who's that good on his rookie contract,

because to me, that is worth the weight in gold. This was the argument I was making last year for receiver is if a receiver works out on his rookie contract, it's not quite as good as a quarterback, but it's close to being as good as a quarterback because when they're great, they're super expensive. I would probably rather draft a quarterback than do that. But if they did that, I would think, okay, let's see. Let's find out. Let's go.

Because at very least, it gives you a playmaker back there who could push the ball downfield. And I would be very intrigued by that. And it's not like Kyler is old or anything. I mean, he's a younger quarterback. So you could start to make your plans around that salary cap hit. But I think that's probably the biggest holdup that would be. Someone brings up Tua. That's another hard one

because I don't want to pay him. You know, you kind of like Tua is very much like Kirk in that he's extremely accurate, very smart, good leadership skills, and just limited to the playmaking ability that I think holds him up in a big game against a good defense and so forth.

I wouldn't necessarily want to do that. If I'm doing it, it's for someone with number one overall pick type of skill like Kyler Murray, and maybe it's worth that phone call. But I guess if you're trading up that far, you might as well trade Jordan Addison and the 11th pick to get the fourth pick and then draft Jaden Daniels, right? So that's probably better. Yeah, I mean, the thing about trading, get the fourth pick and then draft jayden daniels right so that's probably better yeah i mean the

thing about trading potentially trading jordan addis in a way is that you'd have to you'd have to find his replacement you know what i mean you'd have to whether it's in the draft or you know spending some money in free agency you'd have to find somebody that can kind of step in and be that number two wide receiver uh to take some pressure off of Justin Jefferson. I mean, you've got, you know, the other part of this is for 2024, you've got, you're going to have TJ Hawkinson back, but when exactly are you going to get him back? He tore his ACL very late in the season. You know, I mean, I know that ACL recoveries have advanced in the last 15, 20 years. You know, it used to be, you know, a guy was out for 12 months,

eight to 12 months. Now, I mean, hell, we saw Adrian Peterson bounce back from an ACL injury and run for 2,100 yards. So, but that still is a factor that, you know, it's possible that you might not have TJ Hawkinson for week one of 2024. We don't know that for sure, but, you know it's possible that you might not have TJ Hawkinson for week one of 2024 we don't know that for sure but you know that's something that has to be factored into it and you know if you make that move you trade Jordan Addison away in that 11th pick you get Kyler

Murray great but now now you're going to have to do some do some work in free agency or the draft to try and make up for some of the losses that you would have. Josh asks here, who says no? Sign Russell Wilson for a one-year veteran minimum contract. He still gets $39 million. Yeah, there's this offsetting thing with the dollars with Russell Wilson. So a team can sign him for very little money, and the Denver Broncos pick up the bill. Hilarious. Just, I mean mean what a hilarious situation with them but at least they have a great guy as their head coach uh he gets

to play with the top three wide receiver tight end skill position group in the league i agree with that i'm a little conflicted on the russell wilson idea because it feels very much like bringing back Kirk only a different version of that and Russell Wilson if you were telling me 2014 Russell Wilson I'd be like oh yeah let's go but it's not yeah it's not the same guy as it was then I do think that his deep passing was still really effective and that they would be good at that but the one issue with Russell Wilson always in forever because of his height, is throwing the ball over the middle. And this is something that Mike Zimmer took advantage of a few times,

that he would kind of try to force everything into the middle, make him read the middle of the field and throw it there. And when I watch the Vikings offense play, that's where they're going with the football a lot. They don't throw always just off to the edges. Justin Jefferson, a lot of times is going over the middle and is Russell Wilson going to be able to read all that, see all that and stay in the pocket and throw. And sometimes when you say anything about a quarterback, who's

mobile, uh, people kind of jump on it. Like, you know, with Jalen hurts when David Carr said that, you know, maybe his strength of running, if it's not there, is going to be a problem. And then people jumped on him. Now, I don't like tropes about quarterbacks either, but there's a point to be made there that certain quarterbacks need the mobility, need to be outside the pocket, are not necessarily a straight drop back, stand there, and then throw into traffic. And I don't think that's Russell Wilson's game. When he was at his best, he's running around playmaking and then running a lot of handoff and play action and connecting the run in the past together. That's where he was at his best. He was a high efficiency, 500 attempts per season type of quarterback, not a 700 attempt stand in the pocket like Kirk Cousins was for

Kevin O'Connell. So I don't really like the fit for Russell Wilson and Kevin O'Connell, even if it didn't cost very much. But if someone said to me, they're going to draft quarterback, then I would say, ah, let's do it then. I'd be totally fine with that being your bridge quarterback. If you were drafting Jaden Daniels and you wanted to develop him for a year or J.J. McCarthy even develop those skills for a year, play Russell Wilson. That I don't necessarily dislike. I just have a tough time seeing it as being a great fit for Kevin O'Connell. How do you think Russell Wilson would handle a situation where he's brought in and then that team

also drafts a young quarterback as well yeah that's a good point i mean it's the same thing we say about kirk yeah that's a good point yeah i i just i just kind of wonder it's also kind of like i look at it kind of the same way like we were talking about baker mayfield a couple of weeks ago. And like I think Baker would be like we talked about, he'd be a great fit for this offense. He's got a big arm. He could push the ball down the field. He could stand in the pocket, gets in a little bit of trouble when he when he faces intense pressure. But overall, like it's a it's a pretty good fit. But you also have to wonder like Baker still at that point in his career where he thinks that he still maybe has that belief that, hey, I can be somebody's long-term starting quarterback here.

And so if you bring him into a situation and then also draft a young guy, like, how is he going to handle that type of situation? And I kind of wonder, like, Russ, you know, Russ kind of, I mean, well, he's essentially getting kicked out of Denver here. And so he's probably a little bit jaded about that. Probably bitter. That competitive side of him is probably like, oh, you don't want me? Okay, I'm going to show you that I can be somebody's long-term starting quarterback, even at, you know, 34, 35 years old. And so he's going to come into whatever situation he goes to with that mentality, I would think.

And I don't know if that's the greatest situation for like a young quarterback that you are hoping, you know, a couple of years down the road or maybe a year down the road can take over and, and, and lead your team. So that, I think that would be something that they would have to consider as well, you know, along with, you know, know the overall fit like what you were talking about yeah i completely agree that the only circumstance that it works for me

is if we're talking about him as a bridge quarterback who doesn't cost very much and maybe they have a tampa bay like year year with Russell Wilson, where they're in the playoffs. And we all say like, Oh, that was fun. Uh, somebody brought up in the comments, uh, Donovan McNabb, like, is it going to be the next McNabb? And it could be, that's what, that's the risk you take is that it could get really ugly if it doesn't work out. And it got pretty ugly in Denver. I mean, the guy needed to beat the new England Patriots to get at least, or to hang around in the playoff race and have a chance to sneak into the playoffs and kind of had a no show and lost to the Patriots. And they really pulled out a couple games at the end to win. They pulled out a Buffalo game.

They pulled out a Vikings game. His numbers and their performance in Denver wasn't even good. And it was still kind of smoke and mirrors he it was really a not a great season and a bad team I wouldn't have much confidence it would be great but if you were telling me hey it's Gardner Minshew or it's Russell Wilson that you can sign to be a bridge quarterback to develop Daniels like uh I'll listen I'd probably still rather have Gardner Minshew, but maybe it's better for Justin Jefferson if he has. Russell Wilson, I'm not really sure because even then they had

miserable receivers this year as well that they were talking about trading at some point. So let's run through these games this weekend and what we think. But just to put a bow on the Cousins thing, I was going to ask you. So I was talking about myself wavering with the percentages. And I keep saying, I'm going to stay 50-50 that he comes back. And yet one small comment, I'm like, oh, 70-30? That's just how it is, right? We all ride that roller coaster of emotions when it comes to this and where we think it's going to go. What is your percentage right now that Kirk Cousins returns to the Minnesota Vikings?

I think it's about 40-60 that he's back. There's about a 40% chance that he's back. I just – and I know KOC loves him and and i think that you know quacey likes him i think the wilfs like him there's a pocket of the fan base that loves kirk cousins you just have to take the emotions out of it for a second and think like does this make sense you know what i mean for the long-term future of your franchise does this does this make sense? You know what I mean? For the long-term future of your franchise, does this, does this make sense? Is it even feasible to bring him back, pay him, you know, market value, or maybe a little bit less and still be able to field a championship roster together and do it,

you know, within one or two seasons? I just, I just can't see it. And it just, to me, it just makes no sense to do that. But, you know, I, I say 40% though, because they might have it in their heads. Like, no, we can do this. We can bring Kirk back and we just need this guy and that guy to, you know, put them on defense and then we'll be fine. So I got it at about 40%, but I just have to think that they can look at this thing bigger picture and recognize what the right direction might be. mentioned the fatalism of Minnesotans when it comes to this team and hey 25th anniversary of

1998 but I think it would be the same reaction we'll just be like of course of course yeah of course that would happen yeah well it's kind of like when Andrew Wiggins went to the Golden State Warriors and then was like showing out in the NBA finals and like won the title and then people were like oh of course that you know of course, Andrew Wiggins, but it's, it's the kind of the same thing we're talking about. It's like it, but it wasn't going to work here. You know what I mean?

It just, it just was not going to work here. So, you know, you just, people move on. That's professional sports. Players move on.

They go to other places and sometimes they go to other places. Then they win championships and you just kind of deal with it. And you just kind of focus with it and you just kind of focus on your, you know, your favorite team and the things that they need to do going forward to get themselves in the right position. Clifford says some team is going to outbid the Vikings by money and years. I say 20, 80.

Jay, Jay, Jesus says Kirk will test the market. 100%. I mean, I, i it it does feel that way it his he's been doing a little bit of a media tour and i mean again this man knows business he knows where to be he's never done a end of year in the locker room press conference before the entire time he's been here and then did one this year to talk to us about hitting free agents. And I thought business hall of fame, man, that's, that's, that's good. And look at not begrudging. I am not begrudging. I am not making fun of him. I think it's brilliant, but no surprise, no surprise that like he's, he's out there doing the interviews and he's trying to tell everybody and anybody who will listen, look, the Achilles is fine.

He said, OTAs, buddy, you ain't going to be backed by OTAs, but you should tell everyone that. That is for sure. I mean, he's doing his thing, which makes me think that he's trying to either put pressure on the Vikings or say to everybody else, hey, I'm out there. And again, that is not a criticism for me. That's exactly what all players

should do is get what works best for them but all signs do not point to kirk being like oh yeah man i'm a viking for life and that's it like there's nothing that points to that well and think about it collar how many like good you know above average to good quarterbacks to great quarterbacks, get a chance to go into free agency like twice in their career. Like Kirk's in a rare situation right now where he's a good quarterback. Most of the time, good quarterbacks, they end up with, they might play, you know, they might switch teams, but it's usually like, that's the only time they ever really hit free agency. This is, this is going to be a second time for Kirk cousins. You think he's not loving that and not going to embrace that.

Of course he is. He is. And his agent, I'm sure is looking forward to that combine as much as I am. It's returning to Indy for the next two years as super fun. Purple insider will be there at the combine in Indianapolis with sit downs, as we always have with Casey Adafoomenta and with Kevin O'Connell.

So those new to the channel, that's where we'll be. Last year, it was this year, it'll be more. But last year, it was three of us interviewing Kweisi Adafomenta. It was me, Alec Lewis, and Ben Gessling. And that was it because we were the only ones that made the trip. So good content there. And Chris Trapasso is coming with CBS Sports Draft sports draft analyst he came with us and did a bunch of shows so i'm really excited about that that is weeks away but i thought i would throw that out there for our listeners

uh what about bob says i got a feeling koc wants j nah you were trying to fool me by writing jaylen daniels i see what you did it is j Jaden Daniels. And I know that, uh, much like he wanted Anthony Richardson last year, watch for a big trade coming up. I would not be surprised if that's the case. If they feel like, you know what, put, put a super dynamic player in with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. And we got something here and that makes all the sense in the world to me. Let me just real quick before we get to the games and what we think is going to happen this weekend, just give you the prize picks for this week. PrizePicks.com is the place that you could go. Great sponsor of

our show. And all you have to do is go there and pick more or less on yardage totals, touchdowns, field goals, a bunch of different options, tons actually of different options. So each week I've been making these picks of more or less with yardage totals, and we've had a good time with it this year. Sometimes I've been great. Sometimes I've been terrible. But for this week, Jordan Love with more than 249.5 pass yards,

Brock Purdy with more than 263.5. And Baker Mayfield with the lock of the century, more than 258.5 against that miserable Detroit Lions defense. It will be a passing heavy weekend. So prizepix.com where you go use the code purple and you will match up to, or they will match up to $100. So make sure you check that out. But again, Jordan Love more than $249.5, Brock Purdy more than $263.5,

and Baker Mayfield more than $258.5. I think Love is the only one I'm concerned about there. So let's talk about these games. Texans and Ravens start off the weekend on Saturday. Manny, give me your one key factor and who you think is going to win. So my one key factor is going to be the Texans defense. It's I think it's kind of an underrated defense. I think D'Amico Ryan's really done a nice job there.

They have allowed and I don't know if you knew this, Collar. They, as a defense, allowed the fewest touchdown passes in the nfl this season i did not know that they they gave up their share of passing yards i think they were they were 23rd and passing yards allowed but they gave up the fewest uh touchdown passes and also they're they were pretty good against the run as well they were sixth um in rushing yards allowed and uh number two in rushing yards per attempt. So it's a pretty good defense. And we know the Ravens do like to run the football with Lamar Jackson and Gus Edwards as well in the backfield. So I think this is going to be a fun matchup. I do think the Ravens are going to win, but it'll be that Texans defense to see if they can make enough stops.

And then if their offense can do enough, it's going to be a tall order against that Ravens defense. But we thought it was going to be a tall order against the Browns defense as well. And C.J. Stroud came in and showed out. So I know the Ravens are favored by nine, but i think this game is going to be pretty close i still like the ravens to win but i think it'll be close i like the ravens to win as well and for me it's pressure uh and i mean pressure on cj stroud but i really mean pressure on lamar jackson lamar jackson had over 100 quarterback rating this year that new offense that todd monken put in was great for him the receivers that they got him were great for him. The receivers that they got

him were great for him. All those things that he wanted when he was kind of telling people he wouldn't mind being traded, they went out and they did those things for him. He wanted a new OC, he wanted receivers, they got those things. And Lamar was proven correct that he's a lot better as a passer when he has great receivers like everyone else in the world. But there is a lot of pressure on him. He's probably going to win the MVP of the league and he has not succeeded in the playoffs. Of course, Eli Manning didn't succeed early in his career in the playoffs and then won two Super Bowls. It happens to younger quarterbacks, but now he's not young anymore. He is in his prime. He just got paid. This is what you're here for. And they have the best team in the nfl it's your year everything is lining up for you even the best team in the nfc you whoop them so like it's all there right

there for you that's a lot of pressure kind of reminds me of what dallas was looking at and so i think that the ravens will win but i'm curious about how the game starts like if it starts that was what with dallas the game, and they struggled their first drive, and then C.D. Lamb's freaking out. And you're like, what's going on here? You guys are losing your minds because of pressure. Packers and 49ers. Emmanuel, what do you think?

I think the key is going to be if San Francisco gets off to a fast start. I think what really helped, to segue off of what you just talked about, what really helped the Packers last week against the Cowboys is that they got off to a great start and Dallas just couldn't Dallas couldn't recover. And the Packers were kind of able to kind of ride that momentum and take a commanding 27, nothing lead. And the game was pretty much over after that if the 49ers you know we know that the Packers have their issues on defense if Brock Purdy and that offense go down the field the first possession of the game and jump up seven nothing I think the Packers will be in be in some trouble because now their defense is starting to kind of feel a lot more pressure and the 49ers are just

one of those teams that they always seem to play really well when they have a lead. That defense can really do their thing and present some challenges for a Packers offense that has played really well in recent weeks. But I think the key for me is the Packers have to avoid falling down early to keep themselves in this game. Christian McCaffrey with two weeks off would be very concerning to me. And they have patchworked the defense together over the last few weeks, but it was also really helped by Dak Prescott, just throwing the football right to them. That made them,

I think, look better than they were. And even like, let's not ignore that Dallas kind of made that game close toward the end to the point where Matt Lafleur had to put his starters back in because they were getting a little nervous. And I think that's the Packers defense is a little, it's like,

it's like cheese with holes in it. That was bad. I'm sorry, everyone. But yeah, I mean, I think that the Packers defense that has had a little bit of a jump recently will fall off in this game.

I don't know if it's going to be that close. But one thing that could keep it a little bit close-ish is Jordan Love doesn't get sacked a whole lot. And he actually has a shockingly low number of turnover-worthy plays for an experienced quarterback who is sort of known for his recklessness in college. Well, he's not reckless with the football here. That could be a factor, but this defensive line, I mean, is Aaron Jones going to run like he did last week? Cause he didn't get anywhere enough credit as Jordan Love was getting all the attention. So I've got the 49ers in a pretty significant victory here.

Though of course, 49ers Packers, what a jersey matchup. Where is John Madden? Where is Pat Summerall to call this game? On Sunday, the Buccaneers and Lions, an interesting one because the Lions can't stop the passing game. The Buccaneers send a lot of blitzes. They get pressure on quarterbacks. But the Lions playing at home in that atmosphere is just unreal. So how are we viewing this one?

Yeah, the key for me is how are both of these quarterbacks going to handle pressure, like physical pressure of defensive linemen coming at them? We know the Buccaneers can apply a lot of pressure with their blitz packages. We've seen Jared Goff get a little rattled at times when the pocket collapses on him and he's forced into an errant throw. And we've seen the same thing with Baker Mayfield, too. If Aiden Hutchinson and those guys can get some pressure on him, Baker tends to throw the ball to the other team when he's under a lot of pressure.

And with the game being in Detroit, that crowd being just outrageously loud. It is indoors, by the way, that game is played indoors. I don't know if you caught that whole thing. Just real quick. Yeah. Just, just real quick. So if you don't know what Manny's talking about,

a reporter asked Todd Bowles about preparations for playing outside in Detroit. And of course the game is not outside it never has been did they play outside in like 1940 uh but it's been a while i think they used to play they used to play at tiger stadium murph would probably know because he's a detroit or the silver dome yeah i think they played and played at tiger stadium probably like during the 50s and 60s maybe or something like that silver dome opened in the 70s i think so it's been a while yeah it's been a while it's been a long while since the lions played home games outside and i saw a lot of people being empathetic toward that person and that's fair

it's fair that you know you understand sometimes people screw up questions and so forth. But to me, I mean, this is this is my job. This is what I do. I go out to TCO Performance Center and I ask people questions. I've been at 100,000 press conferences in my career, and I've seen some questions go sideways. But oftentimes it's just a person fumbling or panicking a little bit. The person who asked that question, like had the weather report for Detroit and didn't think for one second to think about, didn't ask anyone, didn't ask anybody in the room, hey, do they play indoors? They play outdoors. And I saw like, well, you know, newsrooms get cut down, everything else. There's probably 20 reporters in that room. You don't have to ask a question. If you aren't confident about where they play, if you aren't a sports reporter, you can go and you can gather all the information and let the other reporters who cover the team ask those questions. That's fine. You didn't have to ask that question. And also, if you're a news reporter, then your job is often to show up at places where you don't have to ask that question. And also, if you're a news reporter,

then your job is often to show up at places where you don't know what's going on. And my wife did this for years. Show up to places that you don't know what's going on and gather information and facts and bring it back and then report on it. That's what a reporter does. There is no excuse for that. There is no excuse for that question. There's no excuse for not looking it up. There is no excuse for asking it. If you're not a sports reporter and you're not confident and there's everybody else in the room who is, it's your job to have it right. I saw a lot of apologizing for that and I just can't, I just can't. So anyway, that's, uh, that's my thing. But as far as this game goes, there's a big part of me that wants to take the bucks

because I just feel like this Lions team is so flawed. But then I remember that Baker Mayfield scored nine points against Carolina. And I'm like, no, I think I'm going to stick with the favorites here. And the last one is Chiefs and Bills. And I just I have written Roger Goodell a personal letter saying, Roger. Thank you. Thank you for making this happen. I know that you rigged the league.

I know that you wrote out the script before the season. I don't know why you did that to Kirk's Achilles, but thank you for Bill's Chiefs. Ralph Wilson Stadium. I don't care what they call it now. Rich Stadium when I was growing up. I mean, it's just beautiful. I don't know who to pick. I don't know how to pick it. I don't know what to do. I just want to watch it. That's all I got. That's my analysis. I don't know who to pick. Who the hell do you pick with

these two? It's Buffalo at home. It's been their time. They're playing the best football of anybody, probably in the league since they had, uh, you know, the drama mid season. But if you looked at myomes' record on the road, for people who are not fans of QB wins, I would like an explanation of who is responsible for Patrick Mahomes being like 800 winning percentage on the road. It's probably not his left guard. So I love it.

I'm very excited about this one. I have no idea how to pick it. Yeah, I'm struggling with the pick too. I feel like this game to me kind of has, and I know it's a different round. It's a divisional round instead of a conference championship game. But you remember the 94 NFC championship game with the Cowboys and the 49ers.

And the 49ers had the history with Joe Montana winning the Super Bowls in the 80s and all of that stuff. But Montana had moved on to Kansas City and it was Steve Young's team. And the 49ers had lost to the Cowboys two years in a row in the NFC championship game. And everybody was having their doubts about, can Steve Young, is Steve Young the guy? Can he lead this team? I'm feeling, I'm getting that same sort of vibe from, you know, the Bills and Josh Allen.

Like, you know, Josh Allen is through 18 interceptions this year. People have been getting on him about turning the ball over too much, all of that stuff. The Bills were in a rough way midway through the season, and they've been playing a lot better. They went and won a gritty, tough game on the road in Miami in week 18 to win the division and get to this point, get home field advantage. You know what I mean?

And this has been the team that has been the thorn in your side since you have been a competing team for the last five years this has been one of the teams that you just can't seem to get past this is this is it for the bills like it it kind of has that vibe of like if the bills don't win this game will they ever really like get past the chiefs like it it kind of has that vibe to it um but with all that said i'm just like you i don't know i don't know what it's gonna look like because you would think okay you know buffalo weather all of that stuff you know mahomes has never played a playoff game on the road and all that. But you look at the way Kansas City is built.

Their defense is fantastic. Their receivers have been, you know, under a lot of scrutiny all year. But they're kind of built to go out and win kind of a slugfest, weather, low-scoring type of game. And they still have the greatest quarterback in the world, even though their receivers aren't great so this is going to be really close and i don't know how to pick it i'll pick buffalo because it feels like now or never for them in terms of just getting past kansas city and getting back to the afc championship game for the first time in a couple

years but it's it's i just i can't wait i'm grinning from year to year because it's just going to be great theater yeah there's uh examples of josh allen esque quarterbacks who have gotten there and there are those who have i mean he's kind of philip rivers like in that he's an elite quarterback that is flawed and philip rivers was this close so many times josh allen is 30 or 13 seconds away and there's also like a peyton manning that it took a while and it took a lot of close calls and it took a lot of disappointments in the playoffs i'm worried about the bills linebackers because they're hurt and look at where everything runs through with kansas city it's over the middle of the field it's travis kelsey it's rishi rice it It's over the middle of the field. It's Travis Kelsey.

It's Rasheed Rice. It's Pacheco out of the backfield. That's pretty tough when you don't have any of your linebackers. At the same time, I mean, Josh Allen can just do things that other people can't. 52-yard touchdown run is just, who can do that? Who can do that? So, yeah, I love it. I'm super interested to see what happens. And Marv Levy is most famous for saying,

where would you rather be than right here, right now? And that will be my answer. In my house, though. It's cold in Buffalo. I don't want to go there. Where would I rather be than my couch watching that game? Nowhere. So that's what we'll be doing for sure.

Thanks, everybody who was watching this show. This was a huge crowd for tonight. And thanks Kirk cousins for doing that interview with CBS because that made this a way more fun conversation. So I appreciate that. But if you are new to the channel, welcome subscribe, give that little thumbs up thing.

And also if you go to purple insider.com, there's all of my written work there. I'm doing a future of the Vikings, you know, the series where I look at every player on the roster. So sign up for the newsletter, check that out. You can join our chats on Substack and things like that. If you sign up for the newsletter and we didn't talk about it, but there was a bit of a kerfuffle with JJ Watt and Pro Football Focus. And it just so happens that I wrote a book on Pro Football Focus's history,

the analytics revolution, the NFL, all the things that PFF does inside the game that people don't know about, how the grades are made, all those things, and the insane story about where PFF came from. So it's called Football is a Numbers Game. And if you guys want to check it out, if you actually want to know, and not just listen

to player, a former player like JJ watt yell on the Pat McAfee show, uh, I would be honored if you checked out the book. So thanks everybody for watching slash listening. And thank you, Manny. And the next time we talk Manny, we will know what championship weekend is going to look like. And I am excited for that. Thanks everybody.

We'll see you later.