Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Kirk Cousins vs. the QB schedule, Part 2

Episode Date: May 27, 2020

Is Matthew Stafford better than Kirk Cousins? Can we see Teddy Bridgewater having a good year in Carolina? How much does Tom Brady have left? Can Drew Brees continue to stay at the top?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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A Touch More. New episodes of A Touch More drop Tuesday only on the Blue Wire Podcast Network. Be sure to subscribe to the show on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. Welcome back into the Purple Insider podcast. Matthew Collar and I welcome in now former NFL quarterback Sage Rosenfels. What is up, Sage? We are back, buddy. We are back.

Not much, Mr. Collar. Not much is new. Sort of the Groundhog Day effect over here in Omaha, Nebraska. But I cannot complain. Doing well. Staying healthy. Trying to get some exercise each day and keep my kids busy. And obviously summer vacation is coming up for my kids.

I think this is their last day of school. So my younger two. And we'll have to figure out what we're going to do all summer. Obviously not a lot of traveling going on. Not a lot of public swimming pools as far as I know. So we'll have to see what we can come up with to stay busy this summer and hopefully get ready for the fall in which we hope that there is football. Yes, yes, absolutely.

And trying to go forward here with thinking that everything is going to go off on time. And at least the NFL has given us hope by releasing its schedule on time, by doing the draft on time. And we've got a little while until training camp starts so we can ramp up to that and just keep our fingers crossed that everything goes the right way. And luckily, since we have a schedule, we've already looked with Eric Eager at the first half of the schedule and the quarterbacks that Kirk Cousins will face. And now with you, we can break down the second half of the schedule.

So coming out of the bye, the Vikings face the Packers. We already talked about Aaron Rodgers earlier in the show. But Matt Stafford, they will face him twice in the second half of the season, including in the final game. And I want to know, Sage, what you think of Matt Stafford and his career and kind of where that has brought him, because it's fascinating to look at how he's got the Kelvin Johnson years and he's got a 5,000-yard season thrown in, and then he has some down years and starts to kind of come out of that to put himself back in the category of being a top quarterback.

Then Matt Patricia comes to coach the team. They can't stop anybody on defense. He gets hurt last year. And it always seems like Stafford has been a victim of circumstance for why he hasn't won a little bit more. But now this year, he's coming off a season where he performed really well before he got hurt. He's got weapons to work with. TJ Hawkinson into his second year. Galladay and Jones on the outsides.

I think things are setting up for Matt Stafford to have a very, very good season in 2020. Yeah, you know, the Matt Stafford sort of conversation, at least when I think of Matt Stafford, I always think of a really good quarterback. I've always really liked Stafford. I've always thought, you know, he has years. He really lights up. He has games. He lights it up.

He also has games that he'll throw a couple interceptions and those types of things. But I feel like since he's on Detroit, it's almost like, well, I feel bad for him a little bit. I mean, it's like he's given a crappy hand to start off with, and I think he's done pretty well with it. He just never has a great team. He's never been in a situation where, hey, Stafford, go out there and just sort of do your job and we'll win a lot of football games this year. You know, it's sort of like what Kirk Cousins has to do.

Go out there, hit the guys that are open, do your job, execute, run game. We got good defense. Stafford's, like, never had that in his time in Detroit. And we first got in the league Scott Linehan, who had been with the Vikings not that long earlier before that, going back to the early 2000s. He was the offensive coordinator. And actually, we stole, when I was in Miami, we stole Linehan sort of from the Vikings to be our coordinator with Nick Saban. And that offense, we were constantly pushing the ball down the field. We had a decent running game, but we didn't really focus too heavily on the running game as far as, like, great scheme and all these things. But, you know, we had Ronnie Brown, we had had Ricky Williams but we loved throwing the ball down the field he was like one of the

you know the North Turner the whatever of push the ball down the field and so he obviously had Megatron uh in those early years and put up some really really big numbers I mean 41 touchdown passes uh you know one year and as said, 5,000 yards in 2011. But he also generally threw too many interceptions, 20 interceptions, 16, 17, 19. And then that number, as he got older, you know, got into your 5, 6, 7, those numbers started going down as far as interceptions, you know, those types of plays, the younger, overly aggressive plays. So now you're talking about 12 13 10 10 11 and then five last year and basically a half a season and you go back to last year 2019 he pretty much plays half a year starts

eight games and uh and but maybe he was it was on pace for the for one of the best years of his career. He was going to throw – he threw for 2,500 yards last year, 19 touchdowns and five interceptions. You just double that, 5,000 yards, 38 touchdowns, 10 interceptions. I mean, that's almost MVP caliber right there, right? I mean, he was really having a very, very good year last year under Darryl Bevel, former Vikings offensive coordinator, former Wisconsin Badger quarterback. They had a good offense last year. They had a good team last year. So, you know, you add another year to it, and he's got some weapons up there.

He had another year to it. And if he plays, he could have a really breakout year this year. I shouldn't say breakout, but another really good year, sort of a comeback year. But the problem is that he's on the Detroit Lions, and it just sort of seems like it's hard to get over that hump when you're the Lions quarterback. And it's amazing how much his career has changed, even stylistically throughout different offensive coordinators and things.

When he was with Jim Bob Cooter and they had Golden Tate, all of a sudden they were throwing lots of short and quick passes and letting Golden Tate make plays after the catch. Because Tate is basically like a running back who can catch the ball and then rip off 20 yards just by himself, or at least that's what he was in his prime. And so they went to a lot more short throws. But then last year, he was going back down the field again he almost threw 20 percent of his passes over 20 yards in the air which you just do not hear a lot of I mean that's a number that you would have seen in the 80s with quarterbacks throwing it downfield all the time but you know what goes along with that is he ranked 21st in turnover worthy plays by pro football focus and 21st in a bad way um and and i wonder what you think about him in terms of he's got this great arm

and he can make any throw he can make big time throws all over the place any window he can get it into but at the same time there's always been these moments of just inaccuracy and not being on target and things like that that we've seen when he's played the Vikings, where it does turn into turnovers and so forth. And I guess the way that I look at him, Sage, in comparison to Kirk Cousins, is Cousins is more accurate, but his ceiling is generally lower because of the physical gifts are different. But Stafford has more volatility to him, but the ceiling on him is higher. Yeah, I agree with you on that. He seems like he's always asked to do a lot. I think that's the difference. When you go play Detroit, you immediately think, okay, Stafford's going to have to do

a lot to win this football game. And I think he approaches almost every game that way. He doesn't go out there and go, you know, I'm just going to manage this thing, and if it's not there, I'm going to throw it away and move on. I feel like he's always maybe trying to do a little bit too much, which has caused some of his turnovers. It's also why the numbers that you have is why he does like to push the ball down the field so much.

And he came into the league and was trained in that mindset to push the ball down the field. I've always seen him. He's always got a huge arm, so he's always had this sort of gunslinger mentality. And then he sort of brought that back and sort of honed it in. And I think it's been much, much better. And then, again, last year, you know, five interceptions through eight games is pretty dang good, and 19 touchdowns, two to almost two and a half touchdowns passing a game.

That's pretty dang good. So I think that he is, as I said, him and Bevel's offense, rather than just the right fit for him. I also think he's a guy that will play for a long time. I think he'll be one of those guys that plays until his late 30s or even 40 years old. So I'm not sure if it's going to be for the Detroit Lions, but I think a lot of teams in the NFL would be happy to have Matt Stafford as their quarterback. So at our website, Purple Insider, I decided whether Kirk Cousins had the advantage or not in every matchup.

And I had this one as even, Sage. I mean, the way that Kirk Cousins is able to execute against Detroit's defense last year, especially in Detroit, he put up one of his best games. That throw to Adam Thielen where Thielen got hurt was just remarkable. And he won a shootout with Stafford. Stafford still, I i think has a little bit of the lesser supporting cast but it's pretty good now so i i have this one is even do you do you think that there is an advantage here between cousins and stafford yeah i mean i feel like

they're even but i feel like you know stafford has a higher ceiling but also a lower floor at the same time if that makes any sense. So I see him as a guy that can sort of tear it up and throw three or four touchdowns in the game, but also a guy that has definitely lost his fair share of games for the Detroit Lions too as far as hanging on to the football, trying to do too much, and turning the ball over at times. And so, yeah, I can see these guys being about even.

They're definitely different quarterbacks, but both have great arms, and both have won a lot of football games in the National Football League. All right, let's move on here to you tell me which one of these next matchups that you find the most interesting and we can talk about it. They're going to face either Nick Foles or Mitch Trubisky, Dak Prescott, and then Teddy Bridgewaterwater which one of those three would you like to discuss because they've got uh all their own interesting phases that we could get into well dac prescott's an interesting you

know guy to talk about just because you know one he's been in the news a lot lately with his you know with his uh contract situation i don't you know they're going to get that thing figured out. You just can't imagine moving on for a guy that threw for almost 4,000 or 5,000 yards last year and had right around 100 quarterback ratings. So he's coming off a very, very good year statistically. And those types of guys just aren't hanging outfl or in or in the draft or they're not easy to get and so yeah they're going to come up with some sort of deal i can't imagine them not

doing that it's going to be a big number uh but he has a very very good supporting cast around him and that's why i want to talk about prescott he's obviously got zeke elliott in the running game he's obviously got all the investment the cowboys have done along that offensive line i mean that was sort of a Jason Garrett thing. When you go back to Jason sort of helping, I think, build that offensive line, when he had success as a player, it goes back to those Dallas Cowboy years of great offensive lines. And then he got to the Giants at the end of his career, and they had really good offensive lines as well when he was backing up Kerry Collins.

And so, yeah, I think he always wanted to get this top-notch line there. They've got a really good line there. And then they started going out and getting some of those wide receiver weapons. And, you know, of course, you have Amari Cooper. And then they drafted a wide receiver, I believe, was it the first round or the second round? I feel like they drafted a wide receiver. And so, you know, he's got tons of weapons there. So I imagine Dak Prescott is going to have another very, very good season.

They're just all signs point to another good season. And that's not going to lower his price tag anymore if the Cowboys don't get a deal done with him sometime in the next couple months. Yeah, the draft pick of CeeDee Lamb was one that I think that Dallas was probably shocked. The career that C.D. Lamb, I know that you watched a lot of Jalen Hurts tape, but you must have noticed that C.D. Lamb is awesome and is like one of those do it all receivers who can go up and get it. He could get himself open.

He can make plays after the catch. He averaged 20 yards of reception at Oklahoma last year, and they add that to, like you said, a very, very good supporting cast, and that's probably the concern from Dallas is how do we pay Dak Prescott but also the supporting cast, and if we got some other quarterback, well, how would that look with this supporting cast if that quarterback was drafted next year and they plug him in or it's someone else?

But I look at Dak Prescott and what he's done over these first few years, 40-24 as a starter, and he's never been a top-10 pro football-focused quarterback, but he also leads the NFL in rushing touchdowns. So what he is a little short sometimes in throwing the ball. His accuracy numbers are pretty meh, rushing touchdowns. So what he is a little short sometimes in throwing the ball, his accuracy numbers are pretty meh, but he is really good when it comes to adding that extra rushing element to his game, which I think it tells us also, just as an aside, a little bit about having the mentality to run the ball because Prescott's not that fast. I mean, you look at his 40 and it was like a 4.8

or something, but he's always had the running mentality, which really helps you when it's third and long and it's man coverage of being a pocket passer if not good at being a pocket passer to where even if you do pay him I think you're still a relevant team you're still winning a lot of games going forward and but he is one of those great like good but not super super great quarterbacks that you do struggle a little bit with what the price tag comes along with? Well, you know, one thing is that he does play, as in like he rarely gets injured. And that's, you know, number one, when you look at, you know, a franchise quarterback, there's a lot of stats and a lot of things you can look at. But number one is, is he available all the time? You know, that was like Sam Bradford's problem.

And then some other, you know, a lot of quarterbacks' problems is they just get hurt too much and they're available for 10 12 13 games a year but you really want to have that 16 game guy that just doesn't get hurt uh that is Dak Prescott he plays 16 games every single year um his a lot of his stats have gotten better I think the last couple years his number you know his yards per attempt, his touchdowns, all those things were the best that he ever had last season. So he's not a – you know, Russell Wilson, I don't look at Russell Wilson as a running quarterback either, but he runs when he needs to, and that's sometimes on the third and five,

and teams play man-to-man coverage, and a little bit of a crack opens up in the offensive line, the defense, and they take off for an eight-yard run. And it's a huge play in the game. You know, that's not a running quarterback. That's a guy who runs when he sort of has to or needs to. He's also awesome in the red zone. I mean, he's a thick, strong, you know, and I don't know about Donovan McNabb type of

body, but he is a thick strong yeah a quarterback and so you know those types of guys can run uh for a while and not get hurt again in particular inside the red zone inside the 10 you know those types of things when having that running quarterback uh to do his zone read on the five-yard line, man, it makes it really, really hard in defense. It's like having an extra blocker out there. So he has a lot of different skills. He's not the best thrower in the league. He's not the best runner in the league, all those things.

But you combine it all together, and I would put him as a top 10, top 12 quarterback in the National Football League for sure. So interesting, because we talk about sometimes or get into QB wins and what it means. And it's always favorable to have the quarterback on the rookie contract so you can build up around him and everything else. But only Tom Brady has more regular season wins than Dak Prescott since Prescott came into the league. And in my mind, that's a guy you want to pay if you can consistently win with him at the quarterback position. I have this one also as an even matchup, Sage.

I think that Dak has his weapons and he's dangerous, but Cousins is a better thrower of the football. I think if you were trying to win one game and you could pluck either quarterback and drop him into a roster that I would probably give the very slight edge to Dak but in terms of Vikings Cowboys I think that this one's very close well I I if I if I was starting a franchise or you know I was the the general manager head coach you could say you could have which one of these two quarterbacks I'd take Dak and when he's younger but I think he just does more things for a team.

He has sort of more value. No, he's not as accurate a thrower as Kirk, but those things that he can do with his legs in particular inside the red zone. I feel like he's one of those guys that, you know, when the game is on the line or when you need the quarterback to really step it up and be a thrower, a guy who's making things happen. I think he can and has done that more than Kirk in his career.

And I just, you know, I think there's just more value there all around. And I think he's a really good quarterback. When the Vikings went down to Dallas last year, was that a Sunday night game? Yes. It was a Sunday night game. Yep, it was. You know, and the Vikings won. But we've said this a few times.

The game-winning drive for the Vikings, they hand the ball off ten times in a row. It really had very little to do with Kirk's ability there at the end of the football game and crunch time when it's all on the line. They hand the ball off. They didn't really put the ball in their quarterback's hands. They took the ball out of their quarterback's hands. And I think if you had one game-winning drive scenario, fourth quarter, five minutes left, in my opinion,

I'd probably rather have Dak Prescott with the ball in his hands than Kirk Cousins. Yeah, that rushing element. And also that night, the edge rushers, Daniil Hunter and Everson Griffin, pressured him a lot and forced him to escape. And he was able to make throws on the run and things like that. He does have a few more tools in the bag than Kirk Cousins, even if Cousins is a better overall executor.

Let's talk about Teddy for a second here, Sage. Teddy's going to be back as a starting quarterback in the NFL, which we should never stop talking about how incredible that is based on what he went through with his knee injury to be back and win five games last year and then earn a paycheck now to go be the Carolina Panthers starter. That's all great for him personally, and I'm happy for him and everyone else should be. But this particular situation is not great. He is dropping into a spot where the running back is the main feature of the offense. They signed Robbie Anderson, who's pretty okay, not a great wide receiver. So they really don't have a ton of weapons for him to throw to. Greg Olson, who's been one of

the best players in the franchise over the last few years, he goes to Seattle and signs there. They trade an offensive lineman for another beat-up offensive lineman, so they're not in good shape there. And then in the draft, and I understand why they did this, but in the draft they didn't do much to help Teddy either. They sign or they draft a bunch of defensive guys. So Bridgewater, I mean, he's going to be in very much game manager mode, I'm sure, with this team, because I just don't see any way that Matt Rule brings an offense that's so special that he's going to put up huge numbers and things like that in his first year as a starter for the Panthers. Well, you go to the Panthers, this is a 5-11 football team, and one of the, if not the most year in and year out competitive divisions in the National Football League.

You know, that NFC South, the Saints, you know, they're going to be good. They're one of the teams, one of the two or three teams that everyone has is going to the Super Bowl this year. The Falcons, you know, obviously we know that they haven't been as good, but they've been a pretty consistently good football team when Matt Ryan's been their quarterback. Now, obviously, Tampa Bay. Now they have Tampa Bay with – they were 7-9 last year, but now they've got Tom Brady and blah-biddy-blah, right?

So, you know, the Carolina Panthers being the fourth team, so they're in a very, very tough competitive division, and that's where you start, I guess. But they do have the running back. McCaffrey, everything sort of goes through him, and he is a unique back. Man, he is so good out of the back, catching the ball, yet he is still a very good just runner as a just straight-up running back. And so everything sort of goes around him.

They've got a college head coach now, Matt Rule, who doesn't have a ton of nfl experience he hired mostly coaches from the college ranks uh you know and you know obviously joe brady the offensive coordinator who would who would spend some time with with new orleans saints and obviously last year was the lsu offensive coordinator passing game coordinator so we'll see how that transition goes is, it's just a jump from college football to pro football. It just is. People don't realize it, but when you're in college, you only get maybe an hour a day with your quarterback's coach or your offensive coordinator, and then you're out to practice.

You've got class on morning. You've got weightlifting times. You have all these things going on, and then you have this to practice you got class on morning you got weight lifting times you have all these things going on and then you have this afternoon practice in the pros you get you know to the office that you know some people six o'clock in the morning some people seven but usually your first meeting is you know 7 38 o'clock and from that point forward until you know 5 5 30 in the evening uh it is all ball all the time. I mean, it's 100% football. So the detail is so much more.

The strategy is so much more. And that's where I do wonder. Again, I think it helps that Joe Brady was in the NFL, in particular with the Saints, so a very good coach and teacher, and Sean Payton. But that is my biggest concern with Matt Rule's whole staff and whole scenario here is they do have a lot of college coaches on the staff. And I just wonder how they will make that transition to the league.

I, you know, I was out one night at the Combine going back to February now. It seems like three years ago. But I remember talking one night with a couple of the coaches on that staff that had been college guys. And they were really excited. But, you know, they had an interesting view of it. Like, you know, hey, they knew that they were learning too. And they knew that, you know, some of the guys that they would be coaching probably know as much, if not more, than them in some aspects. Like, you know, some of the older offensive the older offensive linemen, let's just say.

So there was going to be this sort of work in progress. I do think this owner, from everything I've seen of him so far, would be on the team for just about a year now maybe, maybe a little bit longer. It does seem like he's one of those owners that is going to do things what I consider the right way, and he'll have patience. He's going to try to hire good people. He's not the Dan Snyder of who's the next free agent we can sign and who's the next coach we can hire and fire and the grass.

I think he's going to be one of those guys who tries to build this thing with the right coach who is not real who everybody really likes but it's not going to be a win now mentality at all I think this is going to be a three or four or five year plan to try to build this thing up and I think Teddy Bridgewater really is a perfect quarterback in a lot of ways for that type of team he's trying to prove himself everyone's trying to prove himself Teddy Everyone's trying to prove himself. Teddy knows how to win. He knows how to work. He does know how to manage football games. He's going to be a very stable force. As long as he stays healthy, he's going to be a very stable

force for this football team. But if you had to have one or the other, you know, right now, I'd probably go with Kirk Cousins if you want to go. Who would be better? I mean, Kirk's one of those guys. He is always available. He has played a lot more in the last few years. And, you know, Teddy just has so little experience in the last, you know, four years or whatever it's been that, you know, it's just he's lacking that right now. But he did play really well in that offense last year in New Orleans. And that's got

to give him some hope, that team some hope as they go forward. All right, before we continue the discussion, I have to tell you about BetOnline. There's no shortage of action going on right now in our exclusive partner, BetOnline. NASCAR is back, and BetOnline has hundreds of other games, events, and sports to get in on. You can still bet on simulated NFL, NBA, UFC events 24-7, or you can participate in a $10,000 Madden Bracket Challenge, a March Madness-style NFL simulation tournament that you can enter for free. And live right now on BetOnline's YouTube channel,

you can find an exclusive interview with ex-Chicago Bulls Ron Harper, Horace Grant, Bill Cartwright, and Craig Hodges to discuss the Michael Jordan documentary on what they are calling the final dance. Visit BetOnline.ag and use the promo code BLUEWIRE to receive your new welcome bonus and check out all the action. BetOnline, your online wagering solution. Yeah, and that's the thing about the kirk versus teddy conversation is if you are on the side of wanting teddy bridgewater back as your minnesota vikings quarterback i i get that because of what he did early in his career but it's much more if you were going to argue for teddy bridgewater it's much more of what you saw

him becoming eventually as he grew into that starting quarterback role because through the 2015 season, he improves his play through the year and then he comes out in preseason 2016. His arm looks stronger and things like that. But then it's been such a massive setback. I just don't know what exactly we're going to get over 16 games.

He did improve for sure in the final three games that he started for New Orleans. The first two were a little shaky, but then his game against Chicago was a classic Teddy Bridgewater game where he was making some highly accurate throws, a couple of them down the field, making plays a little bit off schedule, coming through on third downs, and anticipation and accuracy and all the things that people always liked about Teddy Bridgewater, but you plunk him into a team that is not very good and is rebuilding, it's hard for me to sit here and say, oh yeah, well he's just going to get back to what we expected him to be.

He might not ever be that quarterback again, but we do know that he's going to be a positive influence. He's not going to turn the ball over. He's going to know the offense. He's going to be smart. He's going to operate it in at least a fairly efficient way where he's not making big mistakes and things like that. And that would be great if he was playing for the Bucs and he had all that talent around him. Or if he's playing for the Vikings and they had a good defense and so forth, this particular team, I think they're going to get in a lot of shootouts that he's not going to be able to keep up with some of the other quarterbacks in the NFC South.

And it is the toughest division. But going forward, it'll be very interesting. If they stick with him as their quarterback, you might have this year where he's facing Ryan and Brady and Breeze. And then one year later, all those teams have new quarterbacks. And all of a sudden, you know, right, you're rebuilding. I mean, it can really flip a switch that fast. And I think from that perspective, he might be in a good spot if he can show enough this year to be their quarterback going forward.

Yeah, you know, he is very consistent. He is sort of your game manager, you know, type of quarterback. He doesn't seem to turn the ball over very much. He you know rarely throws for you know four or five touchdowns but uh he's a he's the game manager type he wins a lot of football games by throwing for 200 yards you know that's sort of his thing and that's what his deal was last year uh you know he really only had about uh you know six starts last year they have him playing in nine games but i think there's a couple kneel downs and some handoffs and maybe a throw in a couple of these games. The most part, he played six games last year and threw for about

1,300 yards. You're talking about 200, 210, or 220 or whatever yards a game. He's not a guy who's going to throw for. He's not a Matt Stafford. He's not a guy who's a gun slinger and throwing the ball in the field. Like Alex who's going to throw for. He's not a Matt Stafford. He's not a guy who's a gunslinger and throwing the ball in the field. But, you know, like Alex Smith, you can throw for 200 yards a lot of games and rely on that defense, rely on that running game more. Don't screw it up. Sometimes you allow the other team to lose the football game as well.

I remember a coach told me NFL games are really easy to lose and really hard to win. Yeah. You know, like, you know, you can play, you know, I know that as much as anybody I, you know, probably the one of the best games of my career, I played unbelievable for 56 minutes and it all fell apart in the last four. And we lost the game.

I mean, that's just sort of the way the national football league goes. We've seen all these games where teams will have a lead the whole game and now they're playing well. And then somebody turns the ball over and the other team gets the ball back and boom boom boom and and uh and they lose and uh so you know NFL games are really hard to win easy to lose I think Teddy allows sometimes for the other team to lose the game in a sense yeah and doesn't uh he gives his team a chance and a chance. And that's different than college football. I think that's where the pro game is different. And sometimes those non-slashy quarterbacks, those Alex Smith types,

I put Teddy sort of right in that mix. They do a really good job of keeping themselves in the game, not making those big mistakes, sort of playing the game out. And if they have to, try to make things happen more in the game, not making those big mistakes, sort of playing the game out. And if they have to try to make things happen more in the fourth quarter, you can't really, you know, like in golf, they say, you can't win a tournament on Thursday, but you can lose one. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Like you go, you go, you go four over on Thursday. Like it's, you're probably not going to do very well in this tournament. Maybe I would make the cut. Right. So, you know, Teddy's one of those guys who doesn't make the, you know, two, the two interception mistakes in the first quarter. He's one of those guys that, you know, waits for a better day and moves on

and, you know, gives his team a good chance to win. So, you know, we all love Teddy as a quarterback, and I hope he has success. I really do. I mean, man, it would be great for him if he does. I don't think any Vikings fans have ill will towards him. I don't think he has ill will towards the Vikings, but he is in a tough situation in that tough, tough division in the NFC South. Yeah, I think if he gets seven wins or something this year,

then that will be a huge victory for him. And for Carolina, they'll know that they've got their quarterback because if you can pull off even an average record with that team in that division, you'll have shown something. So maybe that's the best-case scenario for them, if they could somehow get to 8-8 or 7-9. But it's going to be a tough road because our last quarterback to look at that Kirk Cousins will go up against is Tom Brady, who is now in the NFC South.

And I looked really closely at last year for Tom Brady, and he was much better than his quarterback rating. He suffered from a lot of drops from wide receivers, just a supreme lack of talent from his wide receivers. His offensive line slipped from where it had been in previous seasons, but he was still very accurate, and he still did not turn the ball over. And I think him going to Tampa Bay we are going to see a new Tom Brady a reinvigorated Tom Brady with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin and Gronk

is coming back I mean I know that sometimes we hype something up Sage and it ends up being disappointing but I just don't see a world where Tom Brady ends up being bad in Tampa Bay. Even if he's average, their supporting cast is so good that I think that they win that division or are neck and neck with New Orleans. You know, during the Brady sweepstakes, when he was looking to be a free agent, for whatever reason, I didn't take Tampa seriously. I remember going back at the time, you know, some people were talking about the 49ers and the Raiders and some other teams. And I, for whatever reason, I didn't give Tampa enough credit or didn't do my research, probably because I don't watch any Tampa Bay football games. I just don't really know. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, why would you have last year unless you really loved interceptions?

Yeah, or just the last few years. They just haven't been one of those teams that's competitive. They haven't been one of those teams that's on the primetime games. You only can watch so many football games, and watching Tampa versus the Atlanta Falcons is not necessarily that important to me. So you do go back and you look at it, and then it makes all the sense. He's got all these weapons around him, two of the best receivers in the National Football League,

Godwin and Evans, number one and number five in yards receiving last year. And, you know, they threw the ball so much. They threw so many receptions and a lot of touchdowns too, but so many receptions last year. That was the biggest problem. The fact that they were seven and nine and Jameis threw 30 interceptions is year that was the biggest problem the fact that there were seven and nine and and uh jamis through 30 interceptions is pretty crazy tom through eight and we all know we all know how important the interceptions are how important i should say turnovers are in the national football league yeah uh you know it's it's the reason teddy bridgewater is a starter

and jamis winston is in a one-year, $1 million deal in New Orleans. Interceptions, it's a turnover. Those are really, really important things. And Tom is, in NFL history, one of the all-time greats at not turning the ball over. He really is. And as you said, they had very few weapons last year for Tom. They had Edelman and then just some guys, and they were trying to figure it out, but they just didn't have those types of guys.

Now they do. They have those types of guys. I do think Tom has a good eye. I've always felt, you know, with his throwing motion, when you think of actually like a Peyton Manning and how Peyton threw, and, of course, the end of his career, it looked like he was throwing fade routes as hard as he could with all the juice he had and only going about 35 yards, right?

Tom has more, for me to describe it, he has more sort of upper body rotation and more whip with his arm. So he has more juice, I think, still on it, more than Peyton had at the end of his career. So I think he will be able to throw the ball out on the field, but not that they're going to. I think that Bruce Arians will adjust. I think Bruce Arians is one of those coaches who he has a certain philosophy, but this

is one of those guys who's not hard-headed. He's not one of those, like, this is my offense. This is the way we do it. We only have one way we do it. This is how we win. We've been around those. We've got to find guys for my offense. I think Bruce Arians is one of those more flexible guys who tries to put the ball in his athlete's hand.

If it's a running back on some years, they try to work their running back. If it's receivers, they try to work the receivers. And they have built something over in Tampa similar to what Bruce, think had when he was the Arizona Cardinals you know head coach when you know uh when he was in the prime of uh of Larry Fitzgerald and and the other receivers they had on that roster and they had Carson Palmer quarterback and and got them really close to win the Super Bowl so that you know he's he's you know been in this situation before they've rebuilt this Tampa team. They've got the weapons, and now they've got the quarterback who has been there.

He's done it so many times. You know, probably the all-time great quarterback. And most importantly, he does not turn the ball over. So, if they, you know, the Tampa play is basically how they played last year, and the quarterback doesn't turn the ball over, this is an 11-win football team. You know, this is a team that's going to have a real, shot in the nfc uh you know probably with the saints they're going to be some great saints games this year oh yeah against tampa bay and uh with those two old quarterbacks and dueling it out should be a lot of fun yeah no it really will be and uh this is one of the

hardest games on the vikings schedule no doubt about it in the last section of the hardest games on the Vikings schedule, no doubt about it. In the last section of the season, they end up having to face Brady and Breeze. The only thing is, there's always the chance that Brady does have that fall off and hits the Peyton Manning type of wall, and by the time they face him, we're all disappointed. I just don't see that happening. I think he was still good enough last year where he can have a very, very good season, and then, like you said, Bruce Arians can adjust. But I also saw that Bruce Arians, a lot of the success of his passing offenses is not necessarily 40 yards down the field.

It's more between that 10 and 19 range. And I don't know of any quarterback in NFL history, maybe other than Joe Montana, who is as good at those intermediate throws. Just over 10 yards, you get 10, 15 yards. I mean, Brady is so accurate. Those are ones where you could drop back, plant, and throw on time, and he's perfect when it comes to that. So I think that they will figure that out.

And also, if you're sending vertical routes and things like that, you've got checkdowns underneath. Brady's always been great at knowing exactly when to check down, getting those yards after catch. Somebody like James White running back can get 80 catches in a year playing with Tom Brady. So we'll see who the rando who emerges as a really good running back with 50 or 60 catches for them this year.

But I really don't see a situation where this is a complete disaster I think it's gonna be what we think it's going to be in Tampa Bay and it's going to be one of the hardest games and one where you would say as long as Tom Brady's in the league it's a disadvantage when you face Tom Brady with Kirk Cousins yeah I think so is it what you said his accuracy has always been crazy and in particular in terrible weather. I mean, just bad weather games up in New England at Foxboro and the snow and the rain and the sleet and whatever. Balls just hitting guys right in the chest, as you said, over the middle,

in between the hashes, 10 to 15 yards deep, or with Gronk on some crossing routes. You know, the tight end situation, they're going to have to get on the same page with Tom because he loves using the tight end as he did for so many years up in New England. So this is going to be a legit football team. Again, to go 7-9 and to be the worst in the league in turnovers, that says a lot.

Usually if you're the worst in the league in turnovers, you're a 3-4 win football team. So this is a quality team that he joined and he's going to make them better. He's got the ability to be both a game manager, but also the guy that when you need a quarterback to step up at the right moment, he's done that so many times. You know, this is a tough spot on the schedule for the Minnesota Vikings. Now we're talking mid-December here December 13th is when

this game is scheduled which means if the Vikings are having the season that we all hope you're probably thinking at this point they're at you know eight nine you know maybe maybe 10 wins at this point you hope you know or whatever so you know that's where you're talking about seeding you're talking about playoffs or maybe they have seven wins. They're trying to get in the playoffs, and they've got four games left. So this is a very, very tough matchup down in Tampa at Raymond James Stadium

in sort of crunch time in December of the season. This is a very, very tough game on the schedule. And then two weeks later, of course, they've got Chicago in between. But then two weeks later to go to New Orleans, man, that is a very, very tough last month of season with those two football teams. Almost almost those are going to be hard games to win at Tampa, at New Orleans the last month. Those are going to be tough wins for the Vikings. Yes. And also, if we're in the hunt, you know, if we're talking about the in the hunt graphic is showing the Vikings through that section of the season,

it's going to be really a lot of pressure on them. And Kirk Cousins is going to have to rise to the challenge and win some of those games like he did in new Orleans with the playoff game. Well, Sage, it was great to get back together with you. And I hope to do this on a regular basis with you. And one of those things that is not, there's no silver linings to a pandemic, so I'm not

saying that, but I know you're not busy. So I'm not as busy as I'd like to be. And I, you know, for those who have listened to me over the years on our shows and stuff, you know, I love to travel. Of course, I love raising my kids here in Omaha, but when I can, I love to get out of you know I love to travel of course I love raising my kids here in Omaha but when I can I love to get out of town I love to travel so it's love get them to Minneapolis and going to football games and and you know last year I think I went to we went to Chicago and of course the combine the Super Bowl and had all these great experiences and man I hope

I can get back on the road I'm one of those who likes traveling a little bit some people just like to stay at home when they hate being on the road but I'm one of those who likes traveling a little bit. Some people just like to stay at home when they're on the road. But I like getting out and stretching my wings. And hopefully we can do that soon. I'm just hoping that there's a season. And, you know, a lot of speculation on how that will happen and where that will happen and who and what happens if this and what happens if this.

And, you know, I mean, it is a – we will see what happens we one day at a time one day at a time and uh and hopefully there's football this fall yes usually that's a cliche that we would avoid but in this case uh that's how we're all living our lives so we will definitely hope for that all right sage well great stuff uh make sure you go to purpleinsider.com to subscribe to uh the daily newsletter and get all of my written analysis there as well as bonus audio features. And we will catch you next time on Purple Insider.