Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Let's go with the trades, Vikings ft. ESPN's Courtney Cronin

Episode Date: October 29, 2020

Matthew Coller and ESPN's Courtney Cronin ask why the Vikings haven't traded anyone yet and then look at the upcoming schedule, what things are most interesting to watch the rest of the way and how Vikings ownership will be evaluating the coach, QB and GM going forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. I'm Taneo Blumike. I'm Lisa Leslie, and we're very excited to tell you about our new podcast with Blue Wire, front and center. Lisa and I are breaking down what's going on in our lives, in the world, and keeping it 100. We're also learning from amazing guests as well, like Emmanuel Acho. People that show love to me, I forever got their back. Vivica A. Fox.

If the foundation isn't right, then the rest of it's going to go wrong from there. And more. Subscribe to Front and Center today. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with ESPN's Courtney Cronin. What is up, Courtney? Just hanging in there. Five weeks over.

Week eight coming up. Second half. Home stretch. Two more months of this. Whatever this is. I mean, I'm trying to mentally prepare myself here for what could be a very wild, but also maybe not a very wild, maybe a very awful two months. But yeah, these next three games coming up,

I've kind of been gearing myself up for what could be or what might not be. It's crazy when you think about the division stretch that they have here coming out of the break, how that could seriously alter what they're going to do this offseason. So, I mean, I am a little excited just to kind of see, like, all right, which team actually shows up because I don't think anybody thought the team that showed up against Atlanta was going to be out there

after the Seattle loss. But, yeah, for a team that's 1- five, I feel like there's still a lot of news around this team and a lot of interest still with this fan base. At least in figuring out what's going to happen beyond this year. And I thought that things would be a little bit more interesting this week in terms of trades. What is your take on why nothing has happened yet are they waiting until after the Packers game to make some moves here I mean do you think that it's going to come down to the deadline because there was a report from Chris Mortensen the teams were going to try to get going before the deadline so they could get players in get them through

COVID protocols and get them ready to go but But we have not seen that play out. So has your opinion changed in any way since there has not been trades as we record this? I'm refreshing Twitter every once in a while to make sure that nothing has happened as we speak. I don't think it's too concerning right now. I mean, this is Thursday. The deadline is Tuesday. And typically the NFL is not a very active league when it comes to midseason trades. We know that.

But this year in the state that they're in and the state that other teams are in too, I mean, obviously everybody's dealing with the coronavirus protocols and being able to get guys into practice. I mean, the Vikings are missing four cornerbacks right now. And one of them is Chris Jones, not the defensive tackle Chris Jones, but some cornerbacks they just signed named Chris Jones who can't get on the practice field yet because he's still going through protocol. I still think they could be really active and I still think they could sell.

It makes too much sense to do it, especially with certain players that they have, the Riley Reifs of the world, the Anthony Harrises, maybe even a Harrison Smith. Might be a little bit of a stretch, but you never know. Like, I think they're still in a position to sell high on certain guys to help their own situation right now and for the future, but will they do it or will they kind of get caught up in the same stuff that

kind of hindered them in the draft and then in free agency when they got greedy with draft picks I don't know I mean it's really I think going to depend on what other teams needs are before the Vikings are going to be able to pawn off a Riley Reif because this is a point where he could you know really solidify anybody's left tackle, especially if you're a playoff contender. Do you have multiple bidders? What's the deal? Cleveland, for example, with their safety depth, it's terrible. So why hasn't Anthony Harris gone there yet when they tried to get him anyways back in free agency when the Vikings tagged and traded him?

So maybe it's a time thing. Maybe we're just waiting for a few more days. But, you know, at this point, I don't rule out that they could still do something to change the look of the roster. Because, I mean, they got the ball rolling with the entire league last week when they traded Yannick Ngakwe, which I still think was a great move for them to unload that. Or at least the only move that they could do

I mean it's either pay the man a lot of money that he's not worth or get rid of him for something that remotely resembles what you traded for him now here's a question for you because we know that this team can be a little reactionary over the last few years. If they beat the Packers at Lambeau by 20 points, do they decide not to trade people then, or do you think that the course is set? Well, watch something like that happen, because that would be the most Vikings game ever, where coming off of a horrific performance,

when really the pressure's kind of off them now, watch Kirk go and throw for 343 yards and three touchdowns and no interceptions um the pressure's off like they're one and five but they're not making the playoffs like of course he'll play better now right that's the logic even still if they beat Green Bay I don't think they're in a position where they're going to all of a sudden march towards seven and nine or eight and eight and make the playoffs. Like, I just feel like you have to not be short sighted and get caught up in the

wins that may potentially happen. The ones that you should win and the ones that you steal, because that it's just delaying the inevitable, right? Like I wrote a piece the other day, just about like some off season moves. Like if they don't want to be active at the trade deadline, deadline fine but you have to be next year because your cap is not in a good spot and there's also several moves that you really should should be making Kyle Rudolph being one of them restructuring Anthony Barr a lot of different things that need to happen certainly what the heck's gonna happen with Daniil Hunter but I don't think it should I really don't

think it should alter one win here there I don't think it should, I really don't think it should alter one win here or there. I don't think that should alter things. But, you know, people fighting for their jobs, to keep their jobs, i.e. Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer might look at it differently. And I say fighting to keep their jobs. Yes, I'm well aware that they have three-year contract extensions, and that doesn't even start until next year. But, you know, there's still nothing is guaranteed in this world.

Nothing, you know, cold world, no blankets. Like, you've got to, you know, you've got to fight to keep your job or at least, like, put out the appearance that you're fighting to keep your job. And that, obviously, is why Rick Spielman said what he said last week when I asked him, like, are you ready to concede a replay? No, we're still trying to win. If the Wilfs can afford to pay whatever in dead cap money this year, you know, I mean, they have converted salaries to bonuses. They've handed out huge contracts, huge extensions. In comparison, a general manager and coach contractor, just not

that much. I mean, so if you're talking about half a percent of the total that you plan on spending, it's just hard to see that holding them back if they truly want to make a change, even though there is a case, because they extended them, that you'll look a little silly if you get rid of them. But we see this in football all the time. Coaches get hired and get fired the next year. Even now quarterbacks will get drafted and then traded the next year, and they'll draft someone else. Like it is a very, in general, reactionary league,

and sometimes, like in Arizona, that works out. Sometimes you fire a coach in the first year after it doesn't work, and the next guy is great. Sometimes the next guy is terrible. Like it's hard to say. um with dallas right now we're in a situation where they might be getting rid of their of their head coach right yeah i mean mccarthy although he has kind of a built-in excuse now with his third quarterback playing that maybe it's like a detroit situation last year where they weren't good even with the starter but once the starter goes out you're really not good but yeah I mean they signed I think McCarthy to a five-year contract they would

blow that out in a second if they decided that he's just not the guy and I look at it the same way like we always should assess Zimmer and Spielman as if they're on year-to-year contracts even if they have extensions because I just don't think it's that big of a factor now the question they're going to be asking themselves I think down the stretch and even with this game, is just how does it look as it pertains to Mike Zimmer specifically? I think how it looks, even if you don't win a ton of games the rest of the way, will matter. Because if you go to Green Bay and lose by 20 and Kirk throws three more interceptions and Zimmer's defense allows

500 yards to the Packers, and it looks like guys are just not even motivated to continue to play hard for Zimmer. That could be a pretty bad sign for his future, but I'll tell you, I don't have a very good feel, and I get this question. I'm looking at the Friday mailbag questions now for the website, and a lot of them are like, is the seat hot? How hot is the seat? What would the Wilfs do if this, this, this, and this? And we talked to Mark Wilf once a year, and he tries to kind of navigate the questions and say what he wants to say.

And I just don't have a great feel for whether they would react to this Green Bay game in one way or the other. If they would say, hey, 5-2, we can get back in this thing. Don't trade anyone. Or if they lose by 40, get rid of Zimmerman. Like, I don't really have a good sense for this. Yeah, I think that their bigger concern right now is the quarterback, right? Like, that, from everything I've been hearing is, sure, the coaching situation, they probably are not thrilled that they gave out extensions prematurely.

They're probably regretting that. Just because, like, the situation that you're in right now, like, that's just kind of an unfortunate thing when you've already locked yourself into, financially at least, a certain amount of money in a certain amount of years for Zimmer and Spielman but I honestly think that their biggest concern um is the play of the quarterback because that is um that'd be financially catastrophic like to move on from him and I know they're billionaires I'm sorry 41 and dead cap is a lot. And I think that that's probably keeping them up at night more so than Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman. But then again, it's like, you know, with all these things and how the next three games play out, like so many people will ask me, well, what is it going to take for them to fire somebody or to move on from Mike Zimmer, Rick Spielman, who comes first? Is it losing the Green Bay, getting completely blown out? Is it losing all three of your next games to a Green Bay team that's clearly the best in the division, who you and I both picked to win the division preseason?

A Detroit team that kind of looks like it might have its stuff together probably not but kind of you know they're three and three like what you know they're not awful there's plenty of teams worse than them including the Vikings and then the Chicago team that you know clearly is not as good as its record indicates but always manages to give the Vikings fits like what is it going to take beyond like this stretch is why I think it's so important like we talk about stretches that define the season this could be one because if they are just not good and like not competitive and not close and injuries obviously are a huge thing right now but like you can barely feel the team like whose fault is that like I mean

it's just little things like that that made me think, okay, could there be some serious decisions made based on what happens these next couple weeks? Go to SodaStick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. If you have not seen this stuff yet and you've been listening to this podcast, what are you doing? Make sure you go check it out. A couple of my favorite designs. They've got new gritty gear after the Vikings young superstar receiver.

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That's Sotastick.com, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K, original Minnesota sports-inspired goods, code Purple Insider for free shipping. Well, let's decide. Let's look into your crystal ball and pick the schedule so you can tell us exactly how this is going to go since your picks have been very accurate from training camp on. Good Lord. Kind of crazy when you think about it.

Like, I do have my own crystal ball. Yeah, yeah. The one that said, and I picked the same thing, so I'm just picking on both of us. But the one that said 10 and I picked the same thing, so I'm just picking on both of us. But the one that said 10-6 from the beginning. Well, I will say that we did tweak our picks after Daniil Hunter was out, which we'll definitely get to in a bit. So let's go for it then.

Vikings at Packers. They are 1-5, going to play 5-1. How does that go? I already picked this game. I have them losing 37-30. I think it's going to be fairly close, too. I think that the Vikings can score against this defense. I think the Packers are fifth worst quarterback rating against,

so they've actually not played particularly well on defense this year and have just had a great offensive performance. But I agree with you that I think Kirk has a good day. I think they put up a bunch of points. Justin Jefferson has a good day and it's still not enough because no one is playing cornerback. All right. November 8th home against the Detroit lions.

I'd like to pick this game to be a loss. Cause I just feel like it will be. But I do think they can beat the Lions. I do. I think they'll lose this week, and then they're kind of in this rut, and it's like, all right, let's get it together against, you know, a really bad run defense, even though that run defense looked okay against Atlanta last week.

I think they'll beat the Lions. Okay, so they go to 2-6 and face the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field where things usually go super great. And, hey, Monday Night Football audience gets to see it on November 16th. Everyone will be super thrilled for this one. 2-6 Vikings versus the question marks Bears. How does that go? That's a loss because it's Soldier Field.

That's all I'm going into with that one. All right. That's all you really need to say. That's their history. Two and seven. I'll never falter from that. No, I'll pick against them in Chicago every year. I don't care if Patrick Mahomes gets traded here.

At home against the Dallas Cowboys. There are two and seven. That's a tough one. Dallas just traded their entire defense away. The Vikings didn't have a defense. Dallas had a defense and then traded everybody away, including Everson Griffin, who they'll face two weeks before this game against Detroit.

I bet this is actually going to be a win because Andy Dalton got rocked, and I don't know how long a concussion like that takes to recover from when your neck basically almost snaps off. So I think Dallas might be in more dire straits than the Vikings, so I will give Minnesota this win. And, yeah, I think they will actually win pretty handedly against the Cowboys again the Fox broadcasters did not expect the 325 game between the Vikings and Cowboys to look like this on November 22nd so the Vikings then go to three and seven and they play Teddy Bridgewater's

Carolina Panthers at home loss I agree like Carolina doesn't have much for defense but Joe Brady and Teddy Bridgewater are cooking like their offense looks great and they would have two more wins if they could play defense at all they lost to who was it Vegas on opening day and then New Orleans both close games yeah where they the offense was great for them and then their defense just couldn't hold up. So that puts them at 3-8 on the year. They face the pathetic Jaguars, who I keep wondering when they're going to fire their coach.

That'll be a win. Yeah. Didn't you hear Doug Marone going on and on on his Zoom call about how he's bleep fired up or something like that? He used some swear words and got everybody super hyped up and motivated. Yeah, I think so. Doug is a unique guy, I will just say that. Who's their backup quarterback?

Now that I think about it, just because I'm wondering, since Gardner Minshew has fractures in his hand, assuming he has to go bye-bye for a little bit, who is their backup quarterback? I think I know it. I'll give you a hint. He has a really long neck. Really crazy long neck.

I don't know. Who? He used to play for the Bears, briefly for Arizona. Kyle Orton? No, not Kyle. Drafted by Tampa Bay. Oh, oh, Glennon. Yes, yeah, Mike Glennon.

Crazy neck. Yeah, that'll go great for Jacksville. Yeah, that's probably going to be a win. I don't care who's coaching or playing quarterback or left tackle or anything. I think they're beating the Jaguars. So that puts them at 4-8 going to Tampa. 4-8 loss. Yeah, 4- and nine and then they

play the bears at home and i don't mean to swing you one way or the other this seems like a game the vikings win and the bears are just um devastating dumpster fire yeah we lost to the vikings who were four and nine at the time they'll probably lose i mean they'll probably bears will probably lose that game just because like by the by the time that point in the season rolls around for them, probably not going to be great. Like, is Foles still their quarterback at that point? Do they have an offense? Because they don't have one now.

Right. So, yeah, that'll be a Vikings win. So what am I at? Five and – Five and nine is where you are going into the final two weeks against the Saints and the Lions. And they lose both of those. So they're going to finish five and nine is where you are going into the final two weeks against the saints and the lions and they lose both of those so they're going to finish five and eleven five and eleven so what does a five and eleven season mean for mike zimmer and rick spielman and kirk cousins if that's what

happens well who do you who do you want to like go through first it's like all right so they're five and eleven is it because of their quarterback plays because think about several games this year where Kirk has been the catalyst for why they've lost yeah certainly Atlanta but like think about the strip sack and what that led to in that 21-0 stretch by by Seattle if you can fault him for that um in that moment and then obviously Tennessee being you know what that was like I'm not blaming Kirk for everything but like he is the catalyst for a lot of those losses how does that affect what does that trend continue here in these final 10 games if so then that to me is the first thing you're going to the table with because you have to decide very quickly if he's going to be on your

roster next year um and it's not just a matter of we'll keep him around one more year maybe you know no the the cap number does not go down like he's 21 million dollar base salary fully guaranteed next year he also still has 20 million in signing bonus the proration of that over the final two years of the extension um or you know the two years of the extension because he had one year left obviously uh on the last deal so so nonetheless 41 million dollars in dead cap and i still i'm trying to drill this into people's heads to realize no you can't keep him for 2021 and get rid of him for 2022 because three days into next year's league year march whatever that is his base salary which, which is $35 million, becomes fully guaranteed

for, like, on the third day of the 2021 league year, his 2022 salary becomes guaranteed. So it's either all or nothing with Kirk. And I think that that's a really tough conversation. You know, if he continues to play very poorly, to me it seems like the right conversation to have and it seems like the necessary conversation to have with with ownership they have to be on board for that because think of it this way like if he if he's awful

and you i mean you don't have any sort of way to rebuild like because you just basically would be like in this again purgatory. Because, yeah, you'd pawn off some veterans, you'd cut some people, you'd restructure, whatever. But, like, you really don't want to be building around this guy anyways if he's terrible. And you shouldn't be locked into him – you don't want to be locked into him financially. So it's kind of like we just need to take our lumps here and realize we want to speed – I mean, it's going to be a long process anyways. But we want to get the rebuild done as fast as possible take advantage of our draft positioning um and do all of those things in order to right the ship at the quarterback position but like what if he's just

mediocre that's the vikings like in my opinion that's the worst case scenario like let's say over these final 10 games he's five and five like I mean you're you're at you're at that point I don't think you're getting rid of him because he'll have a six and ten record as a starter um you know this year and that's wait a second did I just screw up the math no if he uh if he wins five games the rest of the way, it'll be 6-10. But they've got... But I said they were going to be 5-11 this year. Yeah. I thought you were saying hypothetically, if he's a 500 quarterback the rest of the way, that it means he

probably played well enough to convince them to have him stick around. Yeah, I did. They have 10 games left, right? See, I think, yes. Okay, sorry. You didn't mess that up. I thought I screwed that up. A pie chart's coming later, so mess that one up. So this is an interesting thought to me because I think that they should decide

at this moment or already have decided that the plan for Kirk Cousins is going to be to play him in 2021 with Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Justin Fields as his backup, or maybe even Mack Jones is an interesting name that has sort of emerged as a first round quarterback from Alabama as well, or even Kyle Trask. That guy is his backup. And then after 2021, they trade him to another team that's going to sign him to a contract extension to lower his cap hit and they'll have him in the future and I know that people think no one will ever trade for Kirk Cousins and it's not the easiest thing to do I'm sure at this moment but like you said we know Kirk when a bad thing happens a good thing is around the corner and when a good thing happens

a bad thing is around the corner so all he needs to do is go 8-8 on a mediocre team in 2021, and someone will trade for him. I mean, there's always going to be quarterback desperate teams looking to trade for somebody who has a track record. There's always going to be a coach who's on the hot seat who says, let's go all in. I can help Kirk. I can figure him out.

I think they should decide that is the plan today. But to your point for why Kirk is still to blame for the one in five, despite the fact that they've had a horrible defense, I've got a stat for that. The average starting position that the defense has faced is the 36-yard line, their own 36-yard line. That is dead last in the NFL and I think that tells you like how much turnovers and bad interceptions just destroy your chances as a defense and we saw this last year where Tampa Bay was not that bad of a defense I'm not saying the Vikings aren't that bad but Jameis Winston with all of his interceptions he just killed them and I think the same thing has really happened this year with the Vikings I mean that that last game you start off the game first pass is right to Deion Jones and then all of a

sudden you've got a touchdown a play later well how many defenses are stopping Julio Jones when you hand him the ball right basically in your red zone like not that many and then you don't have a good defense so it just makes it worse and worse and worse. This is how some game managers help their defenses. Case Keenum did not turn the ball over at all in 2017. Number one defense was, yes, very talented, but also helped a lot by Case Keenum, the running game, the time of possession, all of those different things that they have not had as an offense. So even though it is not entirely on Kirk's shoulders, you could see when things don't go exactly right and you don't have a defense that can bail you out when you make mistakes and turn the ball over, this is kind of what you end up with. And it's just not a

quarterback worth paying as much as they're paying for it so I think they need to have an exit plan now and not flutter in the wind and decide well you know maybe we'll do it if blank maybe we won't blank and I think the same thing should apply to the coach or GM decide now and then stick with it regardless of what happens the rest of the way yeah I do think that you should have the plan now so you're not in a situation like I don't think they were discussing the quarterback situation in the midst of the 2017 season of what happens afterwards um in the middle of the of the crazy run uh towards the NFC championship that to me was something like hey we're gonna just see if Case can continue to do this um because they didn't really know what they if it was sustainable so it's like they waited till after the season

that year to truly dive in and decide this is a situation where i think that they could start to kind of work get some of that work done ahead of time you know like i'm with you i've kind of developed this uh like just like what I would do from now on. Draft a quarterback every single year. Like, I really think that we should start, like, having serious conversations about that. I don't care if it's in the third or the fourth or the fifth round. Draft a quarterback every single year.

And, I mean, you know, they've done it or they've signed somebody every single year as a UDFA. I mean, remember Jake Browning was the highest guaranteed, like the highest paid in terms of like total guarantee that he got in 2019. Like there's, to me, that's just have a better backup situation in place than what you have currently. And then maybe that guy is groomed to take over

when you realistically can move on. Because that's another question I've gotten. Can they trade Kirk ahead of the deadline? A, who wants him right now? He's not playing great. And B, where's he going to go? They're like, oh, San Francisco. Sorry, last I checked, Jimmy Garoppolo is still the quarterback there,

and I don't think their cap situation is that great right now. So a lot of things would have to move around and change in order for that to happen. But, you know, there are ways you will – I mean, you're going to incur financial penalty for this either way. And, yes, there is some offset language. Like, if you did cut him, like, there is some offset language in 2021 that would – assuming another team does sign him. Because I don't think he'll – he's too good to, like, be out of the league. Don't get me wrong. Like, he'll get signed somewhere. Obviously like be out of the league don't get me wrong like he'll get

signed somewhere obviously it'll be on a reworked deal and maybe this time around he doesn't have the the luxury of kind of throwing it around being like yeah I'm gonna get a fully guaranteed deal like if he continues to play the way he did and he gets cut like no one's signing you to a fully guaranteed deal I don't care how good your agent is um but you know we'll see um but yeah I think that you could very easily have a plan I mean heck think about it last year with like the coaching stuff like they were considering hey what about Stefanski they were weighing their options about keeping Stefanski like so it wasn't like oh they win a playoff game in New Orleans oh we should now decide to keep Stefanski it was before then they were even talking about it.

So I think that you make a great point about trading him after this year where it's almost impossible. I mean, the contract doesn't help you at all. And who wants to sell low? I mean, this is the problem with how the Vikings have done business pretty much since 2017 is let's pay top dollar for everything. Let's pay top dollar for our linebacker that we drafted in the first round in his second contract. Let's pay top dollar for Kirk Cousins.

Let's pay top dollar for Yannick Ngakwe in a trade to bring him here. And, you know, I think that that got them in trouble when you do that over and over and over again. So don't do the opposite of that and sell low. That's not the good time. The good time is if you go into 2021 and he plays pretty well, but you already know you're done with him. With Alex Smith, he led the league in quarterback rating the year they traded him. They just decided we're done with this.

This can't work. And when I look around at the league, I mean, trying to use my crystal ball and look a couple of years out, think about a team like the Pittsburgh Steelers. Okay, so let's say Roethlisberger plays this year and they go to, I don't know, the AFC Championship or something. Then he's going to come back because he's going to say one more swing, one more bite at that apple in 2021. And then they probably don't play that great and they go 8-8. And Roethlisberger says, great career.

I'm going to the Hall of Fame. See you guys later. The Pittsburgh Steelers are not a team who drafts a quarterback number one looking down the road. They're more of a team that's going to run it all the way to the end and then get somebody else to be their quarterback. I think there will be situations like this with teams that expect to win or teams that have had quarterbacks

go bust like let's say let's say Denver likes what they see from Drew Locke a little bit this year they say let's give him one more year 2021 and then he's garbage like they wanted Kirk too I think they were in the midst of the the bidding there so would they be a team and I think when you start to consider how much quarterback situations shift from year to year after 2021 there might be some opportunities to move on from him and it gives that other guy the golden opportunity to sit and wait but the fear I think that a lot of Vikings fans have is that what will happen is they'll look at this year if he has a decent end of the season and say okay here's what he really needs.

He needs a defensive tackle to help him get the ball back. And you can totally see. And that's where, again, you have to decide on Spielman and Zimmer, and is this really the direction you want to go? Because I think that the Zimmer direction of wanting to invest a lot on the defensive side and rebuild that part is conflicting with what's best for the future and that's why Zimmer might be better off coaching a team that's ready to win now but has a bad coach than he would be for the future of the Vikings just

philosophically there's a conflict there how wild would it be if what we thought could have played out in 2020 with Zimmer going to Dallas, whether he was traded or not, like if they fire McCarthy, who's to say that, you know, they don't try to pull something off this year. If Jerry really wanted Mike last year and it was going to take a first round pick and, you know, however much else, and, you know, the Vikings could have had Stefanski whatever if that's still on the table maybe that's his best situation because honestly I I agree completely it's like if this season goes as poorly as we expect it to do you really think you can try to like run it back with the same leadership and the same guidance next

year and not have the same result like that doesn't make any sense like I don't and especially like say you're in a situation or in a position to draft a quarterback um one that like either plays next year one that's like you know a young impressionable dude that's gonna like a high draft pick not some like third rounder but like somebody you expect to take over after Kirk do you want Zimmer leading the charge on that that's a question you have to ask yourself. Like, you know, with rookie quarterbacks, is he the right guy to do that? So, yeah, I think – and anyways, like even if they didn't go like full-on

rebuilding of the coaching staff, like if it was just the head coach, like if they kept other pieces, you still – every time typically once one coach moves on or is fired or whatever, the team takes the opposite approach. So Zimmer's defensive guy, it would make sense for them to hire an offensive person as the leader, especially if you have a quarterback situation and try not to screw up. I would do that. Even though sports took a break, your business didn't.

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Don't forget to use the promo code BLUEWIRE at betonline.ag. That's BLUEWIRE, all one word, BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. Well, and this is sort of where the league's going anyway. I mean, when you look at punt numbers, they're way down. Marwin Maloof mentioned how far down punt numbers are because offenses are thriving. Jimmy Garoppolo has been playing hurt and not even playing that well, and the 49ers are still 4-3 because they have a genius head coach in Kyle Shanahan. And the Cleveland Browns do not have a good defense either.

They just got demolished on defense by Joe Burrow, and yet they're a winning team because their offense is amazing. And I'm not saying defense doesn't matter. It most certainly does, and the way to win at football is to be good at both things but I think that the offensive side is weighted heavier when it comes to being a good team and we've seen that the last 10 teams to make the Super Bowl all were in the top five in points scored and if Zimmer is not going to go along with investing in the long-term future at the quarterback position the most important in the franchise and rather wants more corners or

another linebacker or a defensive line like that that just to me doesn't add up and someone sent me a note about because I don't know when I did this, but comparing like relationships to where the Viking situations are at. And I think of it this way, that if you are with somebody who wants to live in the country and have a ranch like Gary Kubiak and Mike Zimmer, and they want to have horses and everything else and pigs and chickens running around and you want to live in the city in a high rise where you know you belong to a very cool gym and you buy expensive bags or whatever i don't know uh that you can't go forward together if you have totally i agree if your future as a relationship you just can't go forward with that person no it's just like conflicting philosophies, like fitting a square peg into a round hole. Like it doesn't make sense.

And there's no harm in that. There's not saying that one's better than the other, but one is probably better suited for the overall direction of your franchise. So if you're forced into that situation, do not make it difficult on yourself of being like, well, maybe we can try to make this work one more time. No, move on. Like, you know, you've got to cut the umbilical cord at some point because you can't continue on trying to be like, okay, well, this time it'll be different. This time it'll be different. Like, you need fresh blood in there. from people speaking with people around the organization is maybe a change of voice, a change of perspective, not having the same thing over and over again for seven years. If that's the way that they want to go, maybe that wouldn't be the worst thing.

And even sticking with the example, like just because you have different visions for the future and those don't add up to a successful marriage, that doesn't mean like either one of you are bad people. Like I don't think Mike Zimmer is a bad coach. I don't even think that Kirk Cousins is a bad quarterback, but he came to a team that immediately spent money on a defensive tackle like the day after he arrived and they let Tom Compton play guard and they let Laquan Treadwell be the number three wide receiver. And they said, no, we've got to spend money on Sheldon Richardson. And you and I love Sheldon. He's one of the great personalities we've ever covered but I mean that

just shows you that that has been where they've wanted to spend their money and not put everything into Kirk Cousins and I think that even for 2021 it might be interesting just to see if they did like just if somebody came in and said you know what we're going to throw the ball a lot. We're not going to run on second and 12. We're going to get you not one, not two. I'm doing the LeBron, not three. We're going to get you four receiving weapons. We're going to get you five receiving weapons and then have at it Kirk. And let's see how this works out instead. And then if it doesn't, you just hand it over to the next guy in the draft and you say, you're inheriting a great offense. And so go go forth, young man. So anyway, I just think that we've reached a situation where that's sort of an impasse of of this being able to work with these three.

Now, I have a pie chart situation for you if you want it. I'm ready. Okay. Things to watch the rest of the way, because the Vikings playoff odds are about 2% at this moment. I don't know what ESPN has them at. Football Outsiders has them at about 2%. That sounds about right, because they were basically at, like, what was it before? It was like 5%.

4% when they were, like, 1 and 4? Yeah. Yeah. Faced on the other teams that had done it, so. So you're not watching for the playoff run. It's possible, but not really. So what are you watching for? I want you to give me percentages of intrigue that you have. Justin Jefferson and everything that Justin Jefferson can do the rest of the way

and how he adapts to coverage focusing on him. Because I was looking back at Randy Moss's rookie season, and there were even a couple of games where Moss was not dominant during that rookie season and then adjusted and killed everyone for the rest of his career. The cornerback progression, or in Mike Hughes's case, does he play again would be another part of this. So Justin Jefferson, cornerback progression, the defensive line, and just who steps up now that Yannick Ngakwe is gone,

and just Ezra Cleveland. Ezra Cleveland is the other one. So those are your four. Give me percentages of how intrigued you are by those four things the rest of the way. Okay. Give me two seconds. I will be very quick. How intrigued are you by these things?

This is a pie chart. Okay. That's all you have time for. Okay. I'm ready. I'm ready. All right. So Justin Jefferson adapting, you know, what does this look like?

Because everybody's calling him a star. And Matt LaFleur is saying he's going to be number one receiver. So I'm like, oh, Christ. Like, that means that if you're a fantasy owner, start Adam Thielen this week because Jefferson is getting bracketed. He's getting two guys on him and man coverage. Like, whatever it is, they're going to take Justin Jefferson out of this game. That is their game plan.

Read between the lines of what Matt LeFleur was saying. So I'm curious. Like, even Gary today was talking about, you know, like, they want to keep him healthy. They want to keep him on the field. The progression has been so fun. But it's like it's going to get harder because, you know, we figured out that you're really good.

Other teams have also figured out you're really good and that we're not just playing in a slot. Like, you know, we figured out that you're really good. Other teams have also figured out you're really good and that we're not just playing in a slot. Like, you know, they settled him down, and then once they realized, yeah, this is not just a slot receiver. We're going to play him outside, especially since we only go too wide a lot with our receivers. Like, he can do a lot, but teams are going to catch up to that. So 60% for Justin Jefferson.

Oh, wow. I am all in on the Jets train. What do you call it? Yeah. So, yeah, 60%. You are doing the gritty as we speak. I am grittying my way into week eight. How old did I sound at that?

You sounded very old. Very old and sad. Okay, so to the next one. Cornerback progression, um 20 because you know what i don't think it's going to get any better what i reported yesterday is that everything is trending towards mike hughes being put on ir um potentially a season-ending surgery like he they're leaning towards shutting him down because the neck injury is not getting better last i checked you only have one neck it's not like oh one knee hurts and then the other knee hurts

and there are different injuries. This is all related to that December whatever, week 17 injury he had last year. He didn't have surgery from it then. I remember we talked to him about it and he said that it was something that was able to heal on its own. Maybe this is the point where they want to have him have surgery. Obviously, that's very, very tough for a career that never got off the ground.

They probably don't pick up his fifth-year option. And that's just talking about Mike Hughes. I'm not all that intrigued. I mean, sort of with the cornerback progression, we're not able to see that much that you can take away. Like, yeah, that's better week to week. Like, I just don't think you are going to see that where it's gonna look that tangibly different from you know where we are week eight into like week 13 so 20 i mean obviously they're a huge storyline i looked up a stat today um jeff gladney of the 76 cornerbacks to be targeted at least 20 times has allowed a passer rating of 140.3 as the nearest defender

in coverage this season that's the worst um so yeah like i i'm looking forward to seeing does that get better uh also like are they literally signing dudes off the street like or former cfl players to like do this because they they're they're in a bad spot right now. Like if Holton Hill, you know, the foot injury and Hughes and Cam Dancers on the COVID thing and can't even get – Our pet heads are falling off. Chris Jones, the non-defensive tackle, Chris Jones, can't even get him at practice. Like what are you doing?

Dumb and Dumber? Are you a Dumb and Dumber fan? You seen it? Movie? Not quite. Not quite. Not quite. Oh, okay. All right.

Well, that's where our pet's heads are falling off comes from. But go on. Carry on. So 60% to Justin Jefferson, 20% to the corners. 20% to the corners. You're going to hate me for this one. So I'm going to actually – I'll go in progression. I changed the order around.

I'm going from like most to least. 15% for Ezra Cleveland. I'm curious because are they going to trade Riley Reif? That's the obvious one of why it would be intriguing because then you get him over at left tackle, and that's the spot that you drafted him at. I assume, unless they're going to activate elf line off ir because he's in that 21 day window i assume that ezra will continue to play right guard for now but i am curious once elf line comes back where does ezra go because

he better not be back to the bench at this point because that is just a waste and it just does not look good and he needs to play because he's going to be playing next year riley reef i will maintain my stance he is not on your roster in 2020 15 so i'm i'm you know a little bit less intrigued by that than the cornerback progression probably should have made it even whatever i was trying to be cute with the numbers like so i could do my own math um and then for the defensive line i put it at a straight up 5%. Not at all then, basically. Not at all, because they're going to be blitzing a ton since they can't pressure the quarterback as it is. And just how intriguing, really, are Afadi Adenovo, Jalen Holmes, maybe DJ Wanham a little,

but I've got to see if he's not. And James Lynch, sure. But like, I mean, we know Jaleel Johnson is not on this roster next year. He is not your solution at three technique. I'll be intrigued by the defensive line when I figure out what their draft positioning is, and then I figure out are they going to go after – like, are they in a position to draft a quarterback? If not, then they're probably drafting a defensive tackle,

a three technique in that first round. So then I'll be – so call me – when draft scout comes back, when you call her up um to you know activate for the season then then she'll be interested in the defensive line okay uh i like i like the pie chart i think that you are right on with justin jefferson is the thing to watch the rest of the way i might have given a little more juice to the um cornerbacks just because gladney and Dantzler have been awful and that's expected. And I'm not saying they're busts, but they've been among the

worst corners in the NFL. Can they not be that for the next 10 weeks? Or when we get to the end of the season, our quarterback still turning into Joe Montana mixed with Peyton Manning when throwing the ball at them. I think you want to see progress. I'm kind of concerned about how they talked about Dantzler as being so smart and great with technique, and then that's just not been the case. I mean, the technique, if you watch the tape back, have been a lot of problems with just simple things like knowing where his leverage is, knowing where his help is,

just getting way off wide receivers in certain types of coverages where he needs to play tight. There's been a lot of issues there. So I'm a little more intrigued in the progress, totally less so, unless Ezra Cleveland is playing left tackle, then I'm interested. And I agree with you on the D-line. Like, I don't know, you need new players. I mean, it's really not a good thing.

Yes, you need new players. That's the excuse. But I do need a take uh from courtney our draft scout on a mock a very interesting mock eric edholm our pale from yahoo sports has the minnesota vikings taking zach wilson in his most recent mock in which he titled uh mocktober so um zach wilson give me a Courtney Ardusk out. Right? What's that?

The quarterback from BYU. Yes. Yep. Very exciting. I don't know anything. I mean, I don't really know anything about him, but like. Oh, you've got to start skull searching. See, you've got to get on board with the skull searching.

I've already gone head first into this quarterback draft class. Zach Wilson is legit great on him. You think he'll be behind Trevor Lawrence as a number two taken? Like potentially? Or is it still you think – I mean, honestly, it's kind of embarrassing because draft scout should be like well ahead of where she is right now. Yeah, it is October though. I mean, I still think it would be – the logical choices would be Lawrence

and Fields and then trey lance but like maybe i should start watching a little bit more what's the health conference are they in what i don't know it doesn't matter just when zach wilson is playing you watch him that's what you do okay i know he has a headband i'm looking at a photo of him right now guy looks like jim mcmahon yeah it's like jordan headband that's hair, dude. This guy's got like a coif. Is that what you call it? You know what? Perfect.

And he plays like a dude who wears a headband. Like he's gutsy. He moves around. He's got the great arm and just like has a little bit of boss to him, even though he looks like he's very young. So that's a guy you need to get on board with the skull searching and start grinding that BYU tape. In this mock, it actually has Wilson going behind those other quarterbacks that you mentioned, Justin Fields and Trey Lance.

But Dane Brugler reported that there's some buzz all of a sudden that Zach Wilson could be moving up, which I think is good news for the Vikings because that means Justin Fields or Trey Lance are moving down. Like that there's a shuffle here that one of them could end up playing for the Minnesota Vikings. So keep an eye on that. Last thing before we wrap up, your take on Daniil Hunter, not on the injury, on the other part of the report for me in Rappaport that he wants to be highest paid or traded next year? That's carrying the water for the agent. I totally understand what it was.

And putting that out there, I think it's a little rich because the guy has not played this year. Let's not forget, neck injuries are serious. He was so bad that he had to have surgery to to fix it and so that's why I just to expect that Daniil's gonna come back I know Mike Zimmer like said yesterday like yeah we expected him you know be didn't have a timetable but he should be playing football again soon not like there's like overarching confidence but yeah he's gonna be back to pro bowl form and you know 14 and a half plus sacks next year and blah, blah, blah. Like, you know, he's the 18th highest paid at his position right now. Does he deserve to be paid more than that? Yes. But am I going to pay him Joey Bosa money off a season he didn't play? Like, no! What are you doing, guy? Come on, Zeke. Like, you know, the agent? That is insane.

Like, to go out there and what I assume, and granted, yeah, I was an anonymous source, whatever. That came from somebody who represented Daniil Hunter, who has his best interest in mind. And I don't think the Vikings are in a position to do it, even with Yannick Ngakwe off the roster. Like, that is a tough spot for for them to to to you know concede that they would want to pay him that much and I also I I don't know I mean

how he recovers from this what it looks like going forward um but also like you're going to be making that decision if he wants to be traded that's a free agency type move because depending upon what you get, draft picks, things like that, unloading his number and not having to pay him a ton of money, yeah, that would probably be happening sooner rather than later. But at this point, I mean, it was already on the table for 2021. Daniil Hunter was not being seriously discussed this year as, like, oh, we should probably pay him, like, in 2020, like, fix it now. They didn't have any money.

They broke. And so, like, you know, but next year, next year was the year it was supposed to happen. But, like, now it's, like, can you fault them if they don't? Like, if they trade Daniil Hunter, they trade daniel they trade daniel hunter they'll be getting back a nice haul i think like i mean he's he's a great player but you know at the same time that's that's a big risk you're taking if you pay if you were to make him the highest paid which bosa makes 27 million dollars a year if if you would have asked me before the injury, was Daniil Hunter worth

something like that? I don't know if I would have said 27, but I would say at least top five, for sure. It's hard to give quarterback money to a player who's not a quarterback, is the way that I look at it. There's a range you get into that as soon as you clear that at almost any position, you're just not worth it. Maybe the exception to that would be DeAndre Hopkins. Like maybe he is worth quarterback money because he will help your quarterback so much. But aside from that, if you're not a quarterback and you want 27 mil, I don't know. That's just, that is too rich.

But I also think that it is just um somebody trying to position themselves for the future rather than uh really having a good argument for that to happen but if that's what they want then um you could trade players on ir make those phone calls now uh i would say so yeah it's just another wrinkle to a very interesting rest of the way that we will have Courtney yeah it should be I mean that that's one that we're not going to be like talking about like in depth right now but it's always going to be right there and that's just another layer to what could be a very complicated offseason and that's the thing about you know who you want calling the shots. Do you want to pay

another defensive player a lot of money to keep them around because you have a lot of holes? Or do you want to say, you know, who would love that money is our offense. You know, it's just, that's, these are the decisions that you'll have to make. So great stuff as always. People should go look at your, your Twitter. You've pinned it, the piece that you had on the Vikings rebuilding and where they are right now. Very good stuff. So people should go check that out. And I appreciate your time as always.