Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is the Vikings GM so let's give him some advice to start his tenure

Episode Date: January 26, 2022

Matthew Coller and former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Sirles talk about the Vikings hiring Kwesi Odofo-Mensah, why Ryan Poles picked Chicago and whether the Bears are a better job and then give advice to Odofo-Mensah on how to handle his new job, including not having any reservations about moving on from beloved players and not trying to reinvent the wheel with analytics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Searles for Tuesday Morning Left Guard on Wednesday. And look, this is the first Tuesday Morning Left Guard that has ever been done. In fact, the first Purple Insider that has ever been done with Kwesi Adolfo Mensah as the Vikings general manager. It has not been officially, officially, officially announced as we talk, but it has been Adam Scheftered, which means that it's happening. So now we're here, Jeremiah. The Minnesota Vikings have a GM.

Your reaction? Finally. I think everyone had a little bit of the heart palpitations, a little bit of the fear when all of a sudden Paul was like, going to Chicago. And I was like, wait, are we going to be the ones standing there? Like the music stops and we don't have a chair to sit down in. Like, I think that was the initial panic button,

but I've done some research on this guy. I'm excited now to see, okay, now that's the first step, right? Everyone talks about is this a rebuild? Is this a reload? What are we? Until you got over this hurdle, we had no idea. So now you can finally, hopefully, start to see the path that he's going to want to create

for 2022 and beyond. All right. So what have you heard? You're in the agent world. You are in the football player world. You know scouts and everything. What are you at? The Shrine Bowl or something right now? NFLPA Bowl.

Oh, NFLPA Bowl. I'm sorry. NFLPA Bowl. So you're talking to people. What have you heard? You know, so Andrew Barry from the Browns is a very much analytics guy. He is. He's just known for it, right? very much analytics guy. He is.

He's just known for it, right? So that was my first thing is, okay, so he's got to be an analytics guy. The other piece, as I've been doing some research on him, dude's a finance wizard, right? Like he's got these bachelors in economics from, I think, Princeton, and then he's got his master's in economics from Stanford. Like, okay, dude's a genius, right? Like you don't just – those aren't things you just kind of limp yourself through.

The one thing that worries me a touch, he's only been in the NFL for 10 years. That's not a knock, but that's not a long time to be in the NFL and to see how things unfold, especially when it was on only two separate teams, right? So I think that one of the reasons that they brought him in for what I'm seeing is cap health. Right. Get us out of cap health. Help us manage these contracts that we have to help us find a way to get up from underwater.

Right. And I think that that's part of the reason he was such an alluring candidate was based off of his finance background and how well he can try and manage the finances of a team that let's put it. Vikings aren't very well managed right now financially um and then the second thing is he really looks like he wants to kind of be the new face of the how he wants to be the face of the new wave of football right the staley's and the lafleurs and the like how the fourth and two, well, the odds say blah, blah, blah to go 40-20. Nice job, Joe Staley. But I think that he is that fresh new face. And everyone in Minnesota has been saying Zimmer's the old school. You swing the pendulum one way or the other, right?

And I think that this hire starts to show the pendulum being swung from old school, in your face, my way or the highway, to the everyone's going to be involved, we're going to have a calculated new age, new waves, all that stuff. This is kind of the first step towards that direction. And I think he kind of wants to be the face of that. He wants to show that this is the new way of the NFL, how to win in the NFL. And I think that that's kind of where I'm starting to see all of this take shape now

before he actually gets officially, officially, officially hired. Yeah. The word that I have been used, or I guess if you use a hyphen, it's one word would be cutting edge. You're trying to be cutting edge because you were, and you should always try to be that in sports, but because you were, and you should always try to be that in sports, but because you were falling behind. And I know that Rick Spielman liked numbers, but that doesn't mean you really have a completely analytical approach. And, you know, I think that when we say analytics, there's sort

of a, like some people's brains just go brr, like, I just don't understand this or want to hear about it. But the way that I would put it is just it's following research is all it really is so for example if you want to look at a draft prospect and understand how close they are to daniel hunter as a prospect by their production in college by their height weight arm length all those different things right then you could study it and look at was daniel hunter just a random outlier or is there ways to find similar players who are like him? Like that is kind of a very basic way to do it. Or like you said, like with fourth downs, it's really just based on research. I mean,

you are researching what your odds are of getting certain first downs and how much those improve your chances to win if you get them or how much it hurts you if you don't get them. Like it's just research. So I think you want a management and a front office like any other business in the world. In fact, it's funny that like sports was falling so far behind because all the other businesses in the world have always used research-based approaches. Look, McDonald's, when they come out with that McRib sandwich, they do it in a way that they researched. I'm not kidding you this. I used to work at McDonald's.

They researched when it was popular, how often they put it out, and what type of impact that would have. I mean, every company in the world has a research-based approach. And if you're not doing it as a sports team, when you have all this data at your hands to be able to direct your decisions, that doesn't mean every single decision is just what an analytics guy says on Twitter. But you have a group of people that work for you that research the cap, that research prospects and have processes to research prospects. I think scouting is an analytical approach in a lot of different ways.

It's not just, I think he's going, is an analytical approach in a lot of different ways. It's not just, I think he's going to be a good football player, man. No, they have a process for all the things that correlate to success that they try to find. So if that's your approach and you're now in charge saying, I'm going to take the analytics people and the scouting people combine the processes and make decisions based on everybody who's very good at their job doing this. I think that's much better than what it became with Spielman, which was one guy just calling the shots. I agree. I think it's great. I think the analytics is definitely has a piece in the game. My fear is that he's not what I would necessarily call a football guy. Now he's been in the league for

10 years. Like that's a, that's a long time to be in the NFL, but he doesn't have a ton of NFL background experience when it comes to building a roster from the talent standpoint. The money, the cap, that's all great, and it's a pivotal piece in building a football team. This just shows me whoever gets hired as head coach is going to have a ton of say in what this roster looks like from a talent level to the free agent level to okay here's his performance here's his number let's make this work i think that this front office and this head coaching candidate need to have a synergy unlike anyone else in the nfl because when you have a gm who's a younger cat who's a wizard like this with numbers you kind of need almost a gray hair coach that kind of has been around the league,

seen things, how things played out over the last 15, 20 years in the coaching world too. So I think if we want to dive into that a little bit too, like this may change who we look at for a head coach. In my opinion, I might be completely off base and he might be like, nope, fresh faces all around. Let's roll. Like that can also be a possibility in building this thing from ground up billy bean status right money ball but i do think this changes a little bit because he now has to help and it depends who he hires around him but the evaluation of players that aren't just coming out in the draft but in the nfl already and seeing that like this is going to be a little bit of a

learning curve for him. Now again, bachelors and Princeton and Stanford masters doesn't mean the dude can't do it and learn, but it might be a little, little bit longer than he thinks when he's got a little bit more on his plate than he did with the Browns. I also think that when it comes to managing a hundred people in a front office, there's nothing that prepares you for that when you were, when you weren't the one and also being criticized, there's nothing that prepares you for that either that having your name beyond every single move. I mean, if you're in a front office and you're working with other people, you can just kind of focus on your job. You don't have to talk to the media. Although Spielman took the option not to far too many times. And I thought it

was a disrespect, honestly, to the fans to not be more vocal and not be more available to answer their questions. But, you know, that's still something that you have to do. And there's a lot of other tasks and leadership elements to this than just, Hey, the guy's going to analytic every move and then they win. Like, you know, I mean, that's, that's not exactly how it works works so what i wanted to do for us is to give questy some advice as folks who cover this team and focus on every single element of it every day we talk about this football team and your former player experience and so we'll do we'll do some dear questy uh and i wanted to say that if i'm pronouncing his first name wrong, I'm sorry.

But guys like this, they're just not out there. So I'll find out in the press conference exactly if it's Quesi or Quazy. And I apologize to him if I've been saying it wrong. And we'll correct that and for the rest of time get it right. So I'm going to start out with a deer questing and I'm just going to start by saying like, don't have any sacred cows as you take on this job. Do not have any people that you feel like you can't jettison because ownership told you they're popular or that you came in and said,

Oh, this person looks like a lot of people love him or he's a pro bowler or he's very talented or whatever. It should be, it has to be cold, hard facts when it comes to some of these contracts and when it comes to some of these players. And I know that fans are going to be gut punched if you make a move like trading Delvin Cook for a third round draft pick. And when Delvin Cook runs for a 75 yard touchdown for another team, they're going to go, what did we do? Why did you trade that guy? But it has to be that way. I mean, I'm not saying Cook has to be traded exactly, but you have to look at every player as their cap number and what they bring to you in terms of

their value. And that's it when you take this new job. Because what happened with Rick Spielman was they went, Anthony Barr, you were our first pick and we love you so much. Look how tall he is. And Barr is a really good player. We've gone over that, but it was not worth it. They spent more cap space on linebacker than anyone in the NFL. That makes no sense in any

world when you're building a team. Although I guess someone has to be number one, but to have two really expensive linebackers just doesn't fit anything. So he should come in and he should say, look, everybody is basically what they're worth and what we're paying them. And if Adam Thielen doesn't want to restructure his deal, then we have to move him. With Delvin Cook, that might be a thing where it's just not worth it with a running back. With Daniil Hunter, it might be a Khalil Mack thing where it's just, you're great, but you're not worth it.

I think that's the way he has to look at everything and not be influenced by people in the front office who say, but we love this guy. And he's such a great person. Like Daniil Hunter is such a great guy, but like cold hard facts. That's, that's my first advice to the new Vikings GM. All right. My dear, dear, uh, how do you, how are we, how are we saying it? How are we pronouncing it? I've gone with Kwesi, but it might be quite, we're no, we're, we're selling the farm for Kwesi, dear Kwesi, my advice is don't reinvent the wheel.

You come from two programs, two organizations that have run the football and built defensive lines to rush the passer. Historically, you look at the Niners, you look at the Browns, right? You've got Bosa, you've got Eric Armstead that was over there at that time. You go to the Browns, you've got Myles Garrett, Olivia Vernon. You see the formula in which success has been made in these teams. Just because you're now the guy that has the decision-maker hat and you're the guy that gets to make it,

don't think I have to put my own flavor and twist on it. I think a lot of times GMs, new guys, think this has to be mine and I'm going to make it different because of X, Y, Z. Build it from the basic building blocks of, hey, we're going to build a great offensive line, a la Vikings, a la Browns and Niners, right? We're going to send draft capital. We're going to build up an offensive line. We're going to run the football, right? We're going to build an offensive line coach that's come in here and we're going to have a running identity of a

football team. Because look, the Niners are in the playoffs because they can run the football, right? I mean, that's why they're there. And then, you know what, we're going to look at where we have to get after the passer because the receivers in this league are getting better and better and the corners, I don't care how good they are, if we can't get to the quarterback, it really doesn't matter. And I think that those are kind of the two building blocks that you can really say have built the teams that he's come from. And so I'd love to see him take that advice, take that experience that he has, and then just kind of input it in and then let it be here's what we're going to do. And everyone's kind of like, why? Why are we doing the X, right? Like, where did you learn this along the way that's going to help us win football game versus, hey, here's what I know. Here's what I said I'm going to do. We'll start there and we'll work our way there. And that can go from what you said, like, hey, we got to move this guy. We can't afford this guy. If we want to build the team, we want to build the team this

way, or we have to go get this guy, right? i think you could flip it the other way of hey have a guy that you're like no we're going to get xyz guy because i think he can really shift a whole bunch and we might not be able for him we got to make moves to go get him right like have plans of action to build off those building blocks but i think he really needs to just hover it around running the football and getting after passer, if you look at the teams he came from, and I'd love to see him just kind of continue that mold as he takes the Vikings. I wanted to expand on the run the ball thing because, is really important because you can't just stop running the ball. And there's another thing to it that look, I love the Buffalo offense too, where they throw every single play. But there is another thing to it of being able to control the ball on the ground, have low risk plays, dominate the other team when you can do it like having that in your tool bag to be able to do it not relying on it all the time like indianapolis

where it's kind of the only thing you do um but but understanding how to build a complex run game now that can be effective and that's san francisco and also san francisco made a mistake early in shanahan's era there where they spent money on these running backs. They paid Jarek McKinnon. They brought in some other people. Tevin Coleman, I think. And then they went like, oh, it was like undrafted guys who – and they even drafted Trey Sermon still. So I think that was a mistake.

They paid Nick Chubb. He really is special. But still, you're not in the playoffs with Nick Chubb in a, he really is special, but still, still you're not in the playoffs with Nick Chubb. I wonder if he does see a running back as a valuable thing to spend on, even though that's not really the valuable, like the value play. But I think if you look at San Francisco, they really show you that you shouldn't do that, that you should, it's really the offensive line that determines how good a running back is aside

from a few guys in history that were just different like barry sanders you and me could have been blocking out there and barry sanders would have been fine you probably would have blocked slightly better than me uh but i could get blown up you sort of half block your guy and barry sanders finds a way um that's not usually the case though i mean with and you saw it with the vikings this year their run blocking wasn't very good. Delvin Cook's production, um, was not the same as it was in previous years. So I think if you understand, and this is Cleveland, if you understand how to build

that, and you're on the same page with the coach of how to use that in context of an offense, like what we're going to see with the Rams and with the 49ers is two teams that brilliantly marry the run in the past. And when you do that, you become very scary for defenses because they don't know what's coming. Linebackers look like they're screwed into the ground. So I think understanding the context where running the football exists is really important.

Yeah. And I think you nailed it on that. Like it's not just a run the ball to run the football, to run the football efficiently. And then on you flip, let's flip it on the other side, not just run the ball to run the football, it's to run the football efficiently. And then let's flip it on the other side. You go to the defensive side. In my mind, I think that he sees what Daniil Hunter is and was like, okay, we can't let this guy out of the building.

He's had Myle Garrett. He had Nick Bosa. He understands the impact that those players have on the defensive side of the football. And if you find one you can't let him go right those guys are not growing on trees that you just pluck them off every year like finding a multi-digit sack guy year in and year out is hard to do and especially i think we fall into the trap as viking fans like well daniel's been here a while like the dude's still

only like 23 like he's only 24 like the dude is still unbelievable he's gonna be 20 he's gonna be 28 he's a real boy now is he 28 now he's going to be 20 next season i guess that was seven years ago anyways yeah he's still a real boy but whatever he's still got a lot of years left in him gosh dang i'm that old he's still got a lot of years left in him now i think that is he a five-year contract guy? No, but I think because of, even though he's had the injuries, he hasn't taken a ton of wear and tear on his body the last two years. And you look at the guy and you're like,

yeah, he's still a physical freak. Like, I think that that's a guy you don't let out of the building until he proves to you he's completely fallen off. With the games he played in this year, he absolutely did not fall off. He was still playing at an incredibly high level. So I think you look at the defensive side and he starts building there.

Okay, we can't let this guy out of the building. And then build from there. Again, you probably got to move on from the linebacker and Anthony Barr, probably not Kendrick. Kendrick's, again, a piece of that glue that you really got to keep in there. But there's going to be some major earthquake shift change on the defensive side. What there needs to be with how poor the performance was on the defensive side this year.

I know we all love those guys. I love those guys. But it's a production-based business. In the last two years, the production just hasn't been there, what it needs to be. And that means some guys probably got to go and some guys got to come in. And I think this defense is going to look totally different. But again, that's a lot on who's the head coach and who's the D coordinator. Is it an offensive head coach or a defensive head coach will make a ton of moves on that side of the football folks want

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16 free meals and three free gifts. That's HelloFresh.com slash Insider16 for up to 16 meals free and three free gifts. Again, HelloFresh.com. So my next one is hire a coach that you're comfortable with telling no on certain things that they're going to want. And I'm sorry to Anthony Barr for this. It's not fair, but he has to be the guy we bring up. Mike Zimmer loved Anthony Barr as much as you've ever loved anything in your life. Mike Zimmer watching Anthony Barr robot and turn around and go back and cover a crossing route was like you hitting a hole in one on the golf course. It was just his favorite thing in the world. But what you needed was somebody to tell Mike, no, Mike, no, we can't have this, this guy come back at that price because we can't afford it. And we can use Eric Wilson

or somebody else and get most of the production and spend that money on a right guard. Like, cause that's what we actually need. You know, and I think you need to have a coach who directs you in terms of what he needs for his team to be able to build that. And, uh, you know, who can say, this is how, this is what I i want go find me the best players like this uh but at the same time when somebody's not worth it when they're not worth the price you can't go out in free agency and overspend you can't also fall in love with your own players because you drafted them and overspend to keep them which i think was a it's kind of a big problem i mean even the harrison smith contract is i I love Harrison Smith. Here's all the money. Like,

uh, you didn't even have to do this contract right now. And you just gave them the biggest contract in the league. Like what? I mean, Kyle Rudolph was this way. We need Kyle Rudolph. No, you didn't. Yeah. You just didn't in 2019 and 2020, you did not need Kyle Rudolph. And, I mean, I know he made the touchdown catch at the end there. So he was good in 2019, but he had like 30 catches or something. I mean, he just – you could have gotten away without it. And here's Tyler Conklin emerges, and this system is a good tight end. Owen Daniels once upon a time was Kubiak's tight end.

The dude would show up at every team Kubiak was at, and he'd get like 5 million bucks and be great. And they're giving out Rudolph a contract that makes him look like he's George Kittle. It's just like, don't fall in love with your players and overvalue them. And if the coach says, no, I need Kyle Rudolph for my red zone production. Like, no, no coach. And the coach has to be comfortable with that because like you said, you can't have this head-butting because we saw how bad that got with Zimmer and Spielman toward the end

yeah my next one uh uh dear sir I'm just keep saying dear sir until it's Mr. GM Mr. GM sir um start small don't think about how do I win the NFC think about how do I win the NFC. Think about how do I win the NFC North. Start building your team in that regard. Look around you and see what the teams in Chicago, Detroit, and Green Bay are doing. Everyone you always hear, like, hey, we have to go down to, if you're building with the Saints, we have to beat Tom Brady. There's a top dog in every division.

Start by how do we beat them. Win our division. That's not, Oh, we got to get to the playoffs. We're like, when your division, like start small in that realm. Like I want to be Chicago twice this year.

Maybe I want to be Detroit. Like make it so that you're owning your own division before you start thinking about, we're going to the super bowl, right? Like have realistic goals. Obviously everyone's just saying, we're going to go to the super bowl,

but as you're building this thing, look at, okay, how do we brought, how do we block Kenny Clark? So that he doesn't ruin the game? How do we block Akeem Hicks? How do we stop Devontae Adams if he's still there? Hey, they got a young gunslinger,

Justin Fields of Chicago. How do we build a team to make sure we beat him twice? Look at your division and build your roster according to that. And I think that that's one thing that sometimes guys can get in front of themselves of all like well look who won the super bowl this year it's like he's not in your division you

might not have to play him until you get to the nfc championship right like don't think about how do i be if you're for example if you're in the afc how do i beat the bills and the chiefs oh worry about getting there first right like don't put the car before the horse and look at that and really just analyze that. Use your analytics brain that's big and strong and find a way to analyze how to win the NFC North before you try to bite off more than you can chew. I think that's good. Very good advice to take a long view on getting there. We know that NFL teams can turn things around quickly.

So this doesn't mean long view as in 10 years right it means don't run to free agency and sign a bunch of players to contracts that you shouldn't be signing them for or make trades because look when you're the new gm you're the mark for everybody you're the guy that everyone's going okay all right analytics boy let's see if we can rob this guy blind because he's the new gm and he's going to want to win some trade right away they do this and i think that that is what happened in carolina with sam darnold was like okay they got a new gm they got this head coach from college like let's see if we can rob them blind and oh my god did they ever and and so you have to take this slow approach of not

i'm gonna go out and i going to sign five defensive ends or something and spend all of our cap space and whatever else right away. Because a lot of times, if you go back and look at the previous year's free agency, there's more misses than hits because teams will be like, oh, we need a good example would be Miami. We need Will Fuller. He's a deep threat and we need to pay him a bunch of money so he can help Tua.

And like, okay, but he gets hurt all the time. And that's just like not a really great move to be doing right now in your progress because you're not ready to win the AFC East if you're Miami with where you stand right now. But they got like a little overexcited. We need to trade up to get Jalen Waddle because he's the guy we need. Now he's great. He looks like a fantastic player, but you know, Philadelphia has got another first round pick because you did that. Like that wasn't something like, how do you feel about that right now? You know? And so there has to be, um, this was referenced the other day on a show but when the bills traded a first round pick up to

take sammy watkins because they were desperate to help their draft pick quarterback watkins is a good player but he was never going to transform the franchise like he was never going to live up to that it has to be like julio jones to live up to that and even then they went through some tough times with julio because they traded off those assets. So taking the long approach is absolutely the way you should do it. But I wanted to ask you just about the Chicago part of this, because I wrote about this. It's really interesting that Ryan Poles wanted to go to Chicago and didn't even come back for his second interview in Minnesota. If you were given the choice, and don't factor in that this is a Vikings show, please.

If you were given the choice to take the Chicago or Vikings job, if you had been Ryan Poles, which one would you have taken? So I actually did this thought experiment with my partners last night over a couple of fashions, and here's what we came to agreement on. Ryan Poles looked at both rosters, he goes what am I going to be judged on immediately as a GM well if I go to the Vikings the number one thing is what are you going to do with Kirk Cousins immediately your entire career with the Vikings could be made or break in year one based off of what you do with Kirk Cousins versus go to Chicago. I don't have to worry about the quarterback position for another three years

because we spent a first-round pick on Justin Fields, who looks like he's going to be pretty good. The tail for the tape for him is still out, right? But right now we have our quarterback position solved, and we have the formula that we've seen be successful with these other teams of building a team around a rookie deal first-round quarterback. And now I can really start putting, okay, let's build this team around this guy instead of starting with the number one question of,

Kirk Cousins, what do you do with him? How do you manage him? Is he there? Is he gone? And you could be judging your entire career here off of what you do in your first year. And so I think that was the ultimate decision maker. Do I think that the roster for the Vikings is better than the Bears? Probably.

I think that, especially on the offensive side of the football, defensive side of the football probably goes the Bears' way, right? So coin flip there, 50-50. But I do think the decision making of what you have to do with the quarterback position was a huge decision driver in this. And ultimately, he felt like he would have more success building a team around a first-round quarterback that's still on a rookie deal versus trying to figure out how do we offload

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That's two zero insider at manscaped.com 20% off with free shipping at manscaped.com the code 20 insider, unlock your confidence and always use the right tools for the job with manscaped i also think that chicago just paid ryan poles more money when he showed up they had uh they had a brinks truck right outside the stadium and said would you like everything inside there um but that's part of it but to your point this is exactly what i wrote about is that well i mean there's two things one you're just a step ahead in the process.

If we think about everything as sort of like climbing that little ladder to the Super Bowl, or if you watch Price is Right, the little guy who climbs the thing and falls over the edge. But if you think about everything like that, their little yodeler is one step ahead of where the Vikings are because they have their quarterback situation set with a guy in a rookie contract. So now your job is Ryan Poles, I think is much less complicated. It's just find good players to put around this guy. And if he fails, if you're Ryan Poles, you didn't draft him. Ah, well well hate to see it that now we'll draft my quarterback three years from now and so it's there's some longevity there that is almost guaranteed unless you completely botch the entire roster but it's more of a you know a direct route point a to

point b that you have to go you have to get the man receivers you have to get the man offensive linemen and you have to be savvy with how you build out your defense. And that's the job with the Vikings. It's just more complicated with the quarterback situation because you are a step behind that. You don't know which guy is your guy long-term. And let's not forget. He's watched Eric B enemy grow Patrick Mahomes. And so, you know, in his mind, he's like, I don't know this, but Hey, if I can get Eric up here to work with Justin Fields, maybe we have some lightning in a bottle, right? Like maybe we, I watched him. I watched him work with and grow this offense. And I know Mahomes is generational talent, but I mean, Fields has got really good talent. He's a young player. Like let's get Eric and let's get those two guys working together right now and see if we can

recreate some of that magic we had in Kansas city. plan is so much like you said it's it's two years in my opinion is a step ahead versus where the Vikings are at offensively and I don't know if you bring Eric the enemy in with Kirk Cousins is like what's the synergy there like it's such a different style than what they run in Kansas City. The Justin Fields, the enemy style could be so much similar, which is scary as a Vikings fan, to the Bears than it would be for the Bikes. So I think that was a leading factor with it, too, is he probably knows he wants to bring the enemy with him wherever he went. Yeah, the other name that's been thrown out there is Jim Caldwell as well, which I said Vikings fans should be rooting against. I root against Jim Caldwell because he coached for the Lions for, what, four years and had one year below.500, and it was 7-9.

I mean, you should have a case for Canton doing that with the Detroit Lions. But your point, the synergy between the coach and quarterback, you look at the final four teams, and you can even expand that out to final eight really I mean everybody it's their guy I mean it's Jimmy Garoppolo they traded for him and that's been him and Kyle Shanahan I know that they're looking toward the future with Trey Lance but that's still Kyle Shanahan's guy they've worked together closely with McVay and Stafford they picked him and they traded everything for him if you're Stafford you show up feeling loved

I mean you really do, right? And then they build the offense around his skill set. You need to have that. And with the Vikings, as you hire a coach, you don't really know if it's going to be cousins or if it's going to be someone else. I mean, it looks more like it's going to be someone else than not, but that's going to be our first big tell of how, uh, Kwesi Adafo Mensah decides that he wants to do this is, is he going to stick with the expensive quarterback and try to sign

him to an extension? Or is he going to, you know, move on and draft a quarterback? Then if you draft a quarterback, you are one year behind the Chicago bears. And then it's the pressure of your quarterback. You pick this guy. Uh, uh my next one i don't know if you gave another one but i'll just give it and you can react is uh don't be afraid to fail sir do not be afraid to fail with the quarterback position because if you fail with the quarterback position you'll probably know pretty quickly and you can correct it and you can go a different direction do not be so scared to fail in the draft because it is an allegedly weak draft that you say, we're going to just stay status quo here. And we're going to,

we're going to pair my new coach with a quarterback that he didn't pick and be bold, my friend, and do not be afraid to fail. Because I think that in any walk of life, Jeremiah, you, you pass the agent test. You weren't afraid to fail that test think that in any walk of life, Jeremiah, you passed the agent test. You weren't afraid to fail that test. You have to have guts and you have to go for it. And if you play it safe and you're afraid to fail and you say, well, I'd really like to win in my first year and make a good impression. And if you do that, you're just sort of going to resign yourself to the fate of the previous regime? Be a competitor, right? Every great competitor in the history of their time has bet on themselves at one point in time,

whether that's taking a one-year prove it deal somewhere, whether that's breaking out on your own as you're an accountant and you want to go start your own business, whether you're a podcaster and you're like, Hey, I'm going to go start my own website. Right? I mean, everyone's done it at one point in time and it's scary. And I mean, it's nerve wracking. But if you build something on your own merit, it's the best rewarding feeling. So, I mean, for a professional, for him, I hope that that's the case. I really do. I hope that's the way he looks at it. My other dear Mr. Sir is don't underestimate the love that Vikings have for this team. I know you come from the Browns, the Vikings fans, excuse me. I know you come from the Browns with the dog pound and the crazy Cleveland people, but Vikings support is just as good as any NFL team I've ever been on.

It's just as good as any fan base that I've ever been a part of. Vikings fans love Viking football. So don't be afraid to make Viking season 365 days a year, right? Be out there talking about the team. Be out there putting content because it's only going to make this fan base love you more and support you more. Now, if you absolutely botch the thing and the thing goes up in flames, yeah, they're going to let you know about it.

But if you are open, and I think this comes back to being the younger guy right if you're open with telling the fans like hey we know we're into the entertainment business we're here to help entertain you like here's what we're doing i think the support then the outpouring from the viking fan community can be one of the best in the country and so don't be afraid to embrace vikings nation don't be afraid to embrace the purple people eaters and the fans and include them in a lot of stuff. And that will just make it so much easier to communicate with the media and the fans and the scrutiny and all that. And when things go right and things go well, there'll be no one there supporting you better than Vikings Nation. I've seen it when it's good. When it's good, it's amazing. And when it's bad, it sucks. But I think that if you can close the

gap and feel like it's not the us versus them mentality it can really help you as a gm yeah i totally agree i think that with rick and mike it was very much we're in charge you guys don't know what you're talking about and not just us media i mean you're really saying it to the fans um you don't know what you're talking about we make all the decisions and we're not going to tell you why and that i think is a really really tough pill to swallow from viking fans it's like you're making decisions and never answering for them never explaining them and you leave everyone in the dark to be like so why is ezra cleveland a guard and we still don't know we it's not a complicated answer they could have just told us we evaluated him as a guard and

that's where he wanted to be but instead it was always well you know we're not going to talk about this and we're not going to talk about like that's just not the way it's done now because there's so much access to to the information and there is such a thirst for this i also i would just add on to that and say read the room read the room and understand that vikings fans have patience for this in the way that if you're going in the right direction, they will go with you. But if they're, if you're not, they'll boo you off the field in victory formation. Like they, like they know, they know there is so, there's so many people who I see tweet things like, Oh, fans are so stupid and everything else. Some,

there's no question. Some fans are, but I mean my experience with bikies fans is they are about the most informed and knowledgeable they know their team inside and out as well as the general manager does most of the time they want to know the camp battles i mean think about that one of the most popular podcasts of the year is cut down day because everybody becomes invested in those decisions at the very bottom of the roster and And I think that says, says a lot about it. And my point is, if you're going in the right direction, they'll know it and they'll go along with you. Um, so don't be afraid to do that is what I would say. Um, last thing is just that, uh, Chad graph is reporting that the Vikings are going to, uh, interview more candidates

for coaches. So the ones that they've interviewed so far don't necessarily have to be the answer. So just wanted to tack that on. All right, real quick. Love to see it. Hate to see it. Love to see.

Can I go first? Can I go? Well, yeah, I didn't know if you want to know what you're, well, I know what the hate, I know what your hate to see it is.

So my hate to see is the Buffalo bills with 13 seconds. My gosh, dude, like they have all three timeouts why are we playing sideline defense i i as soon as i watched them line up i was like oh god oh god no and i was like they're gonna the middle of the field's wide open they have three timeouts like it why are we doing and it was just so poorly executed and I just hate seeing that for the bills of mafia, man. Like they, they just, I had the visions in my brain of an AFC championship in orchard park and just the bonanza scene that that would be.

And the fact that bills mafia robbed of that is just, it's just heart wrenching. It really is. I look, I was 13 when the music city miracle happened, the forward pass that was made and not called and not flagged and uh I for all the children who are growing up watching this bills team buying their josh allen jerseys loving them to death and this is how it is

this is how it is I mean I truly though what truly, though, what are you doing? Like, what are you doing? Why are you not just playing defense? Because when you give the ball to Tyree Hill, that guy could cover ground. I mean, the play to Kelsey, where he's wide open, is obviously the one that you're going to focus on that set them up. But the first play is a screen pass to Tyree kill. And he just looks around and goes, Oh my God, there's no one anywhere near me and just picks up like 25 yards.

I was just at the, where was everybody? I mean, they were playing it as if it had to be a hail Mary and it did not have to be a hail Mary and also coaches save your timeouts for the end because you might need them. So yeah, that's, that is a very serious hate to see it what is your love to see my love to see it was matthew stafford dude like just vintage matthew stafford i was having ptsd back to 2016 when he did it to me with the lions or like they scored and i was like this isn't over like everyone was in like lenny playoff lenny runs in and like i was like there's a lot of time it's 47 seconds i know but like i've i've seen this movie before in person i've seen how

it ends and it just how do you how do you send the nickel sam and go antoine winfield hey cover cooper cup one-on-one as he's sprinting directly at you up the seam and think that's a good idea like again it's just poor poor decision making at the end of a football game that cost you the game and you can say it was a great call by McVay which absolutely was but there's just certain things you just don't do at the end of a football game like putting your stud safety who's not really that fast on one of the best receivers in the NFL and Matthew Stafford just being vintage Stafford to go out there and drop a bucket, drop it in the dime.

I mean, just whatever you want to call it. It was beautiful. Execution, snaps it, clocks it, game over. Like this weekend of football was phenomenal. Best weekend of football. It always is. Divisional rounds are the best. Wild card weekend sucks.

Divisional round is the best. Conference championships are even usually a little bit better than the Super Bowl usually sucks. So these these next two the last weekend and this weekend are two favorite football weekends of the year so i'm excited for that but i also am really sad that it's almost over uh yeah i was having that hit me the other day that uh after this week we get that whole week off and it's oh the the pro bowl and then we'll get to hear all the reporters who tweet out the pro bowl got good ratings. Like,

wow, cool. Awesome. Like ratings weirdos. Always. I don't get it. Oh my God. The NFL had 35 million people watch this game.

It was like, yeah. All right. People do watch the sport. I don't, I don't know. Does this make you feel more important? I don't know. I never understand you feel more important? I don't know.

I never understand it. Just my love to see it. A lot of different types of teams won in a lot of different types of ways. There were grind fests in the snow where it was special teams, and there was a shootout, and it was like this beautiful collage of footballness. And that's the thing about the NFL is there isn't one way. So as that's also what I guess I would tack on for my final advice for Quesi is just that there's not just one way.

It's not just, Hey, the analytics say this, and this is the way you have to go and that's it. That's positional value and you do it. There's lots of different ways to win in the NFL as we saw, but they all have to have a good quarterback. And that is where we end. But Jeremiah, the next time we talk, we will know who is in the Super Bowl. So I wish you the best with your NFL PA Bowl and so forth

and with traffic in Los Angeles. I appreciate you waking up early to do this. And we'll talk again soon, man. Thanks. Absolutely. Football. Football. Football.