Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Let's talk about Vikings future questions for a minute

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

Matthew Coller and Manny Hill are bored with the Titans, so they talk about some future questions like Sam Darnold's chances at returning, Cam Bynum and Byron Murphy's pending free agency and extensions for the coach and GM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with Manny Hill for another live show on a Thursday night. As always, taking your questions and comments. But Manny, I was inspired by a Friday mailbag question, which I do on the newsletter side every Friday. I think it's about 50 of them a year because you get a Thursday night game that throws me off and maybe something else that happens that I need. The draft. Those are the only two times. If there's a Thursday night game or if there's the draft on Thursday night, the only times I don't do a mailbag. So I get lots of questions from subscribers and all that. And a subscriber asked me today,

hey, can I ask you about future free agents or is that like off limits because, you know, they're seven and two and stuff. And I said, look, it's been my policy that I do not want to dive deep into the future here. Seven and two, you got two teams playing on Thursday night football that are your contenders. This is great. We're in the meat of a very good and fun and interesting season.

We talked all about that on Monday. So let's just keep our eyes on the prize. But I will allow it because it's the Titans. And I don't really have a lot to say about the Titans. Other than you better win this football game. Because they're not very good. So I decided that tonight. That future questions are allowed.

And I wrote down some future questions for you. But tell me Manny. Am I in the right head space about Vikings and Titans? Yeah I would say so just because I mean, you know, listen, you've heard me talk about the Tennessee Titans before. And I do have a top five Titans of all time. We, if we have time to get to that later, but they're, they've just historically,

they've always just been a tough team to watch because they've always just kind of been that grind it out slow pace run the football beat you 15 to 12 like it's just even going back to the days where they were going to the super bowl and going to afc title games they were they were like that even in the super bowl when they played the st louis rams and fell one yard short that was kind of uh i mean kurt warner threw for a lot of yards that game but that was kind of a lower scoring super bowl because of what the titans did on defense and they ran the ball with eddie george and and uh controlled the clock and played a lot of like grinded out type of game so i've personally never been a huge fan of the Tennessee Titans

overall. And just like the overall sort of persona of the football team has just never been viscerally appealing to me. And now, I mean, the Vikings are playing well this year, but they're going into a game against the Titans and the Titans are just bad right now. So it's, it's hard to really get that up and excited for this game. Now with all that said, Vikings better win on Sunday. Like don't screw around like you screwed around against Jacksonville last Sunday. But yeah, I don't blame you at all because I think in a matchup like this with a team that has this kind of history and now they're just like not even good, and they have this kind of history and they play these kind of games.

I get it. I feel you. So I'm not mad at you. You know what I've never thought about until this very moment is how Tennessee drafted one of the most fun quarterbacks in college, really ever in history, in Marcus Mariota. And they had them just try to run a regular football offense and it failed. And I always thought, ah, he just must not have been that great. You know, that must be the case because he's never made it again as a starter,

though. He made Atlanta more competitive than they were when they put in desmond ritter uh and i'm not saying that marcus mariotta should have been a star quarterback or anything but to your point about the playing style this is the franchise that put the handcuffs on a quarterback that probably if he comes into the league right now and plays with cliff kingsbury like jayden daniels or nick sirianni that he's probably running a lot and they're spreading it out and they're giving him half field reads and he's getting rid of the ball quicker. Maybe he would have become something, but the Titans ruined him. Uh, they also ruined Jake Locker by getting him hurt a bunch of times. Not that he was ever that great, but he got banged up so fast. And also when you talk about playing the Titans, the last time

the Vikings played the Titans, it was super fun, but not in Tennessee. In Minnesota, nobody saw it except for eight reporters in the press box. And it was the empty stadium. How about that? The fact that Justin Jefferson, one of his greatest games greatest games his debut one of the best games I've ever seen a wide receiver play in person was seen by absolutely nobody except for those who were in the stadium to witness it I was lucky enough to be there but there was no fans and so he's doing the gritty into the end zone and you're like well you know we don't cheer so it just completely silent watching one of the great football plays that you're ever gonna see uh but when you go back to Tennessee I know you remember this game Sean Hill v Mariota Mariota throws a pick six

to Eric Hendricks when actually Tennessee could have put away that game and Sean Hill. This is one of my favorite Vikings games because it was my first one covering, but also because Sean Hill who had a dad bod at the time, he was my present age. So like how old I am right now is how old Sean Hill was. And I just cannot imagine getting the body to work at that point. And he threw like two dimes in that game. And I was just like, quarterbacking makes no sense. You have guys who come out of college who are Adonises that cannot run an offense. And Sean Hill just won a national football league game

and threw a freaking dime down the sidelines to Stefan Diggs. It made no sense at all. And he actually, I went back and watched. He ran for a first down in that game. Sean Hill did. So that is my everlasting memory of Vikings and Titans. Yeah, it's not one to get too jacked up about. Something about people with the last name Hill and dad bods, man. I just got to tell you.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, you definitely have that. Oh yeah. Yeah. You definitely had that going for him. Yes. Sean Hill had a better bod than either one of us even still. So anyway, well, this is all I have to say about the Titans and Jeffrey Simmons may eat their face. And that's the one thing I'm concerned about, but we'll allow for a future questions. And I have some for you along with a couple of present questions, though. I just wrote down a bunch of stuff on my mind. So let us start out with this, Manny,

about what's going to happen in the future. I want near and far with the future. Sam Darnold, the second half of the season, because this is officially the halfway mark, sort of at halftime against the Jaguars, but we couldn't have that conversation then. I want you to tell me where Sam Darnold is going to rank the rest of the year among all quarterbacks. And you could do it by some sort of grade or statistic or whatever, but how about just

if you at the end of the season wrote down all the starting quarterbacks in order, best to worst, for the final eight games of the season, where do you think Sam Darnold will end up on your list? It's a great question because you kind of wonder with some of the things we've seen him do over the last couple of games, you know, turning the ball over and things like that, you kind of wonder like, okay, is this a trend that's starting or is this just kind of a little blip on the radar and he's going to turn things around? I tend to think that it's more likely he's going to turn things around a little bit. Now, do I think he's going to be as great as he was, you know, those first handful of games? You know, probably sans the Jets game. I don't think he'll be that good. But I do think he'll, I do think some of the things that we've seen over the last couple of weeks, I do think some of those things are going to get cleaned up a little bit.

I think getting TJ Hawkinson back the lineup um and more implemented and more comfortable back in in in playing regularly i think is going to help with some of that stuff um so i i would say as far as like a rank where he'll rank amongst the other quarterbacks i could see him being around because he's what 16th right now i could see him being around 12th or 13th maybe and that might be all they really need um you know provided that the defense can continue to stay strong and play the way that they've been playing now the last couple of weeks um i think yeah i can kind of see it being like a 12 to 13 i don't think he's going to go on this run where he's going to just light up the scoreboard and throw for 400 yards a bunch of times or anything like that.

Cause he hasn't really done that either yet this year. But I think he's, I think he's going to play a little bit better than what he has the last couple of weeks. At least the turnovers I think will, will start to, you know, go away a little bit.

So I'll say he'll play somewhere in sort of that 12 to 13 kind of range. I discovered an interesting factoid about Sam Darnold. And I say factoid because I don't want to say that this is predictive, but his best month of his career, if you take all of his games and split them into months, is actually December. And it's not close. He has been so much better in December than any other month of his career that he has a touchdown to interception ratio in his career in December 21 to six, uh, which is again, blows away any of his previous performances that would include that really good run that he had with Carolina. But I guess what it says to me is that it's not like teams have just figured him out and then he's never good again. Throughout his career, he has had strong

finishes two seasons, and that could be the case here. I would also look at, too, the defenses that they have coming up, starting with Tennessee, which I don't think is a good defense, but Arizona is not a good defense. Atlanta is not a good defense. Seattle is not a good defense. There are, as Kevin O'Connell would say, ops, there are opportunity, I guess opportunities was too long to say. So they're just, they're ops that they have the rest of the year to put up big numbers. I mean, green Bay and Detroit are beatable defenses,

but those other ones in the NFC are just not that great. And we could see Sam Darnold putting up some huge numbers in those games. So I like your range. He's 16th by PFF. You mentioned that. I would put him probably a little better than that, maybe even just outside the top 10, because I just always bet against overreactions.

Like what we just saw in the NFL, you always know that there's a swing the different way. The game wouldn't be so great if it wasn't like this, like whatever, you know, we, every year, week one, we're like, oh man, this team's in trouble or something. You know, we week one, week two, we're making all these big statements. And then by week five, it's totally different. Then by week five, it's totally different than by week 10. It's totally different. And I think that this is, this is the swing. This is what I wrote at the beginning of the week is that you're going to have to ride the wave with Sam Darnold. And I think it will upswing because of the talent that he has around him. So let's get to some of these fan questions that are pretty good again tonight and tonight only only, because next week it's all Bears. So ask your

future questions about the Vikings, and I've got more for Manny. Let's see. Mustenser, sorry if I can't pronounce your name. Are the Vikings considering, if we win four or five more games, in decent position to draft Ashton Gente, the running back from Boise State. I would have a tough time justifying this team drafting a running back as great as Gentee is. And as we are seeing maybe the value of running backs increasing a little bit, but when you need a defensive tackle, when you need a corner, when you need a guard, when there's very pressing things and you need a very valuable position. I don't know that you could do it with running back. You just found Aaron Jones for 7 million bucks. He might come back for another 7 to 10 million

and you could add somebody else. I just couldn't do that as much as I love watching him play. Yeah, Jenty's really good. i think he's gonna be invited to new york uh next month for the heisman ceremony uh along with probably travis hunter and maybe somebody else too um but yeah i'm with you i you know i don't know what round he's gonna go in you know maybe he's a first round pick um you know because there is kind of that that conversation about you know do you use a first round pick on a running back i'm still kind of in the camp that you don't unless he is just absolutely a beast special once in a generation adrian peterson type of just absolute monster of a running back i don't know if Jenty is that.

Maybe he will be, but I'm not sure that he's that. So I don't know if I would use, I don't think I would use a first round pick on him. Maybe if he falls to you in the second round, you might be able to think about it maybe. But even then, I'm probably still not sure because of some of the other things that this team needs. And if they had a second round pick, which they do not.

Yes. That's true. Although I could see, though, them trading back. That is almost a given that they'll trade back no matter where they are. Because just historically, and I'm sure Kweisi D'Affomenta has looked at this, but just historically that back end of the first round, the difference between pick 25 and pick 40 is you're, you're probably out of blue chippers. It's not that much. I think the difference between drafting 10th and 25th is way bigger than 25th and 40. So you could trade back. We might have

a whole draft night where they don't make a pick. I would love to see Jenty on this team. It's just that with those other needs, especially corner, I'm not sure that they could really justify doing it, but he is one of my favorite college players to watch. This is the first time since Kellen Moore. There is a person on the Vikings PR. She worked at Boise State, actually, before she came and worked for the Vikings. So I was telling her, like, this is the first time I've watched Boise State since Kellen Moore. But now I'm, where's Boise State?

Who are they playing? Because I want to see this guy. I just don't think that the running back position is, is quite there in order to make it that valuable. And there's, there's still a lot of them. There's a lot of them. There are a bunch in free agency this year. Samuel says, now that Sam is coming back to more normal, what does he or the team have to do to make you think about signing him TBH? I'm not interested unless we get to the super bowl so manny what and that was actually tied into a question that i wrote for you uh so you could put both of these together the present odds that jj mccarthy is the starter week one 2025 and this is something that we could

probably track through the rest of the season on a weekly basis like what's our odds meter saying that mccarthy is the starting quarterback at the beginning of 2025 right now i would say i would put it at about somewhere between like 65 and 75 percent that mccarthy starts week one next year um I think because right now, even with Sam playing pretty well for the most part this year, there's still sort of maybe a little bit of uncertainty of how this is actually going to finish. Now, you mentioned in the past

how he's finished seasons very strong and certainly with his time in Carolina. But I still kind of go back to J.J. McCarthy being sort of the future plan of this team. And I think it would, if you're going to bring Sam back for, I think I would bring Sam back for one of two reasons if he plays just lights out the rest of the year and they make a run to the nfc championship game or the super bowl then i would definitely think about bringing him back or if you know maybe you're not sure that jj mccarthy is going to be ready week one you know in terms of health don't want to alarm anybody i know there are a bunch of people with the news that came out the other day everybody's kind of panicking like oh my god what's

going to happen you know um but i i think those are the only two circumstances where i would bring sam back because if you do bring him back you're you're gonna have to pay him more than 10 million dollars it's gonna cost you more than 10 million dollars and again with the other needs on this team you have to sort of prioritize like where some of this cap space where this cap money is going to go to uh for 2025 because you got to do this you have an opportunity to build around a young cheap uh rookie scale quarterback you got to do it right to put yourself in a position to contend over the next several years. And if you're, you know, if the Vikings finish 11 and six and you make the playoffs and you're one and done with Sam Darnold and you decide to bring him back for

30, $35 million a year, that's going to kind of throw a wrench in some of the other things that you're going to need to do to try and upgrade this roster for next year i mean and it's probably going to cost more than even 30 or 35 if he throws for i mean he's on pace right now for 34 touchdowns and you know that a lot of yard i don't know what the yardage is but definitely over 4,000 yards. That's a pretty darn good season. That's more of the 40 to 45 plus range season. After Dak Prescott raised the bar for everybody at 60, you could franchise tag him, but there goes all the flexibility for free agency. I suppose you could franchise tag him and then sign free agents and push the money down the road. They kind of did that this year, knowing that there was still 28 million from Kirk. franchise tag them, and then sign free agents and push the money down the road.

They kind of did that this year, knowing that there was still $28 million from Kirk. The first year of Cashman, Van Ginkle, and Grenard is all pretty cheap, where it gets more expensive over the next couple years because their plan was to have J.J. McCarthy. I would put it right now at 90% that J.J JJ McCarthy is the starting quarterback for next year. I just think that they were so impressed with him that that's going to be the plan. But Frank asks a similar question with a twist. If the Vikings finally make it and bring home a Lombardi trophy this year due to dominating defense down the stretch would you be okay to let darnold walk so what frank is saying is the vikings win the super bowl based on their defense we have seen

this before in history yes we have the 2000 ravens won the super bowl with trent dilfer as their quarterback they went and got elvis gerback i think they won a playoff game the next year but they did not make it deep in the playoffs again. So it's not exactly the same. They didn't turn to a young quarterback. The 49ers sort of did this with Jimmy Garoppolo, where they were in the NFC Championship with Garoppolo, and then they go to Purdy,

and Purdy continued to be the starting quarterback. I don't know if Garoppolo was out for the year or if they just kept with Purdy because he was great. I don't recall the detail there, but kind of having a different quarterback take over a great team. I mean, see, you could look at it both ways, Manny. You could look at it as,

well, he already won the Super Bowl, so why don't we just put in J.J. McCarthy from here on out because he's going to want so much money. You know, Flacco was a free agent too, when he won the super bowl and they maybe should have even let him go at that time. But you could say,

well, the job got done. They won the super bowl. This is great. And now onto JJ McCarthy era, or you could say the man won a super bowl in Minnesota. You can never let him go. Blank check forever. Doesn't matter what happens the next 10 years.

I actually think you could make a case for either one of those things. Well, I mean, you could even go back to the Philadelphia Eagles with Nick Foles, where he took over for an injured Carson Wentz, went all the way to the Super Bowl, played poorly towards the end of that regular season, by the way. And everybody was like, uh-oh, this season's going to go down the tank for this once great Super Bowl played poorly in the towards the end of that regular season by the way and everybody was like uh-oh this season's gonna go down the tank for this this one's great season with Carson Wentz gonna be the MVP of the league and it's all of a sudden going down the drain because they're stuck with Nick Foles and then he gets to the playoffs and we know the rest is history there

we all as Vikings fans saw what happened Philadelphia, and then we saw what happened at U.S. Bank Stadium two weeks later. But the interesting thing with the Eagles is that they came back the next year with Carson Wentz as the starter. Wentz got hurt again. They had brought Nick Foles back, and Nick Foles goes in, and they go to the playoffs again and they win a playoff game and go on to New Orleans and almost win that playoff game,

if not for Alshon Jeffrey dropping and deflecting a ball into an interception in New Orleans. So, yeah, it's interesting. I just think with the economics of the position now, you know, and, and you also have to think like Sam Darnold, he's getting this opportunity to be a,

a starter on a good team for the, really for the first time in his career for an entire season, he's going to put up numbers and there's going to be somebody in the offseason that's going to look at Sam Darden and say yeah he played pretty well with Minnesota in 2024 let's bring him in and make him our starter and just say Sam you're our guy you know depending on what the money is and everything but you know and at that point it might just be a situation where he's just priced out of what the Vikings can even afford. And even if you're going to have him in as a backup, you can't have a guy that's making $40 million on a franchise tag or just on a one or two year deal. He's your backup quarterback

because you're starting JJ McCarthy. So I think it's going to take a very special circumstance for them to bring him back and just have him be the starter. Uh, because I think just the ultimate plan to your point is for JJ McCarthy to be the starter and the future quarterback of this team. I don't know why I worked so hard for other examples when case Keenum was right there, like of the quarterback who went deep in the playoffs for the Vikings. And then they decided to move on. Another example would be Jeff George who won a playoff game and they moved on and went to Dante Culpepper. Especially if it happened, if a Darnold played like Peyton Manning 2015, and they just somehow won the super bowl anyway, that makes it even easier to move on

and that's the scenario frank is presenting it's just that the fact that the franchise has never won one before to move on from the quarterback the following season seems like you're really playing with fate there or something right like what are you doing but yeah it's an interesting scenario i like that one frank uh just a dude says thinking free agent priorities. Would you rather try to sign a chivalrous ward from San Francisco or DJ Reed from the jets to be the stud in the cornerback room? My answer would just be yes. Yes.

Yes. DJ Reed is younger, I think. And I think he's better, but it's still just, yes. I mean, there is a number of, yeah, there's a number of corners there that people have talked about this free agent class is not being super strong, but I don't know what they expect Reggie white to be a free agent. I mean, the Vikings did a great job of getting what you would call second tier players who are actually really good in Jonathan Grenard, who I think last year was

kind of looked at as like, Oh, he got like some sacks down there. No, this dude's a monster. And Blake Cashman might be the best player on defense. And Van Ginkle has been phenomenal. I think you're looking for kind of guys like that who are second tier defensive players, but they're really good. They're not Miles Garrett. They're not Micah Parsons, but they are the next level down and they're really excellent. I think DJ Reed falls into that category.

He might even be a first level corner. Ward is more of maybe a second level, but even if you just have good cornerback play on this defense with all that they have in that front seven, coming off the edge and linebackers. And I'm working on a piece on Blake Cashman. And it's just so interesting to see players' reactions

when I ask them about Blake Cashman. They're like, dude, did you guys know that he was this good? I was talking to Garrett Bradbury about him today. And Bradbury was just talking about how when Blake Cashman comes on a blitz, offensive linemen are like, okay, I can easily handle a linebacker. And then they get drilled by him and don't expect the amount of power. It's just those types of signings. My point is that they can be really valuable. And I think they'll find somebody at corner for sure. Let's see. Horsefeather says, Bears, will we get some pie charts from our favorite

draft scout? Yes, I'm working on that to get Courtney Cronin on the show for sure for next week. Aaron says, re-sign Byron Murphy. This was a question I was going to ask you, Manny. Will they re-sign Byron Murphy and Cam Bynum. Well, that's interesting because, you know, if you don't, you're going to have to replace them. And do you have enough behind them? Is there anybody behind them that you think can step into that role? I tend to think no. And what's interesting about those two guys is that they're at ages. They're kind of in their draft, you're going to have to replace them in free agency.

And what type of players are you likely going to try to target in free agency? Guys that are kind of in their mid to late 20s who are good, solid players. That's kind of what Byron Murphy and Cam Bynum both are. So if you don't bring them back, you're just going to have to go into free agency probably to replace them. And it's just it's probably going to cost you around the same amount of money. So I would say just obviously you don't want to you don't want to overpay them not to really kind of soak up your entire cap into what you're doing to bring them back. With Byron Murphy, there have been times where opponents have picked on him a little bit, but he also makes game-changing plays. That's a big deal when you have guys who can play the football I mean that's what they ran into with the Caleb Evans where even though he could stay with receivers he wasn't making game-changing

plays on the football and even I understand interceptions do go up and down from year to year but he also has PBUs he also punches the ball out and gets fumbles I mean this is a defense that is going to try to lean heavily on turnovers at times and take risks to get turnovers at times. And he fits into that well. He also understands it. I think that there's a learning process for some guys with Brian Flores' defense. And then there's dudes who just fully get it.

He has flexibility. He could be outside. He could be inside. I think that that role has been really good for him. This year has been part of the improvement is that they can play Shaq Griffin 20 snaps a game on the outside and slide Murphy into the slot when they need him there. I like him as a player and I really like Cam Bynum as a player. He's become a great tackler. He is a playmaker on the ball also and he brings a lot of energy to the team i mean you see that and not just the celebrations i think just there are

certain people that you know for their personality who they are this guy is a fit with kevin o'connell with brian flores and you want to keep those guys that are fit and not risk bringing in other people that might not be the same type of fit to try to save a couple of bucks. That's why you have all the cap space is that so you can keep the players that you need. And I think those guys both fall into that category. Murphy has changed my mind. I think this year on that quite a bit before we continue, let me remind you guys that this show is big and important enough to have sponsors. And one of them is future fans.

If you guys have ever tried to explain football to little kids, you know that it can be a little tricky at times. But there is help in future fans. A new brand that helps you teach little kids to become big fans of football using storybook-led activity boxes. And I can tell you what that is. You get a football playbook that not only explains the game, but it has a ton of different activities, match games. You have coloring books. There's all sorts of things.

And I gave the box to one of my good friends whose son is seven years old. He's big into flag football these days. And there is a game watch bingo that actually Manny and I could even play where you watch the game and then events that happen. You try to, uh, you know, play a game of bingo with it. And there's also a play sheet that you can, you know, drop plays with it. It's very fun for little kids. He's my friend has really enjoyed, uh, him and his son using this, and then now his son wants to watch games and play more often. There's all sorts of things in this, though.

That's his favorite part, but there's lots of different things in this activity box. So if you want to share your love of football with a little one, your kid, grandkid, niece, nephew, future fans, the best gift for a sports fan and their little one this holiday season, only $49.99 at at future fans.com. Use the code purple, get 10% off there to unlock a lifetime of memories with a kid in your life. Okay.

Let's move on here. And appreciate future fans for jumping in on this. David says with the strengths and depths of the draft matching the Vikings needs, I do think the Vikings move back to accumulate more picks, not quite the Spielman esque excessive. Maybe Kweisi Adafo Mensah will be a little bit hesitant because the last time it worked out so poorly to move back,

but it's likely going to be the right decision. Even if the Vikings draft 22nd or something, that they're going to want to move back to try to get more picks. And this is part of the reason along with comp picks as well, that everybody kind of lost their bleep over Dallas Turner. And especially that one week where he didn't play a whole lot last week he was in the game but they only played 40 snaps or something and there wasn't many opportunities for him but there are pathways to get draft picks back and that's one of them

and I think that they will use that pathway. Amir says, which hole will be the easiest to fill in free agency? What do you think of that? What is the easiest position to find in free agency is a good question. So when I'm thinking about the biggest holes, probably I'm looking on, you know, despite the fact the defense for the most part has been good this year. I'm looking at, you know, defensive tackle. I'm looking at corner.

I mean, with corner, if anything, because, I mean, is Stephon Gilmore going to be back? He's on a one-year deal. He's also older. Like, is he going to decide after the season that he's just done that he doesn't want to play he wants to retire i mean so not only are you gonna need probably to sort of upgrade that position but you might actually have to like bring in somebody just to fill that position because you may lose uh stefan gilmore um for next year. So that's a great question. I think because both of those positions are like,

if you have really good players at those positions, you don't let them get the free agency. Like, so probably defensive tackle might be a little easier just because it tends to be a little bit more of them available at times. I was thinking, uh, yeah, no, you're right. That both positions are tricky because everyone knows the value of both of those positions. Defensive tackle is not a hard position to fill. If you're trying to find a Harrison Phillips type of player. If you're trying to find a Linval Joseph, that's like super dominating. Those guys don't become free agents. Or if you're trying to find a Kevin Williams where they can rush the passer, those are really hard. Osa Odigizawa from Dallas is going to be a free agent. He rushes the passer.

He's 280 pounds and I just can't see Flores liking that. I think he is going to be a free agent he rushes the passer he's 280 pounds and i just can't see flores liking that i think he's going to want somebody a little meatier up there but if you want to if you want to find another run stuffer uh there's like adam butler from the raiders who i brought up who's going to be a free agent there's probably five or six of those guys corners the the thing about corners that makes them maybe a touch easier to to fill would be that they they fit a lot of different styles so you have corners who are better in zone corners who are better in man you have longer corners you have quicker corners you have and there's just a lot of people who play corner in the NFL. And sometimes what you can find is a guy who maybe didn't really fit in one

place, but might fit a lot better in your place and ends up working out where I'm not so sure. That's really like that with, uh, with defensive tackles. Like I think they just kind of are like they're either run stuffing or they get after the passer or they're a monster who gets a hundred million dollars.

And that's kind of it. Uh, Julian i hope the vikings re-sign aaron jones do you think that they will re-sign aaron jones i think they will i think they will and i think that they should um probably you know if they do bring him back, maybe lighten the workload a little bit as opposed to this year. Because he will be, I think he turns, does he turn 30? Does he turn 30 this year or next year? Or is he 30 already? Good question. He might be 30 already.

I mean, if only I had anything to look this up. That's a tricky, that's a really tricky age for running back. But I think. Hearn 30 this year. He's currently 29. December 2nd, he will be 30 years old. Okay. Yeah, that is a tough age.

Yeah, it's tricky. I think you can bring him back. I'd be fine with bringing him back as long as the plan is going to be to have somebody else in that position from a depth standpoint. You know, like maybe you bring Aaron Jones back and you bring Cam Akers back as well, and you kind of maintain that sort of one-two punch. And then Cam Akers gets even, you know, a little bit more of a workload than even he's getting now uh for next year um and cam is still kind of at a younger age he's what 26 26 is 27 something like that so he's got a little bit less tread on the tires he does have the a couple of achilles injuries that might make you think about that but

yeah i i think if you if if the plan is going to be to bring Aaron Jones back, I think you have to have another guy that you figured to get a lot of work. I mean, Ty Chandler, it would be nice if Ty Chandler can just like take that RB to roll by the horns and just be that guy, you know, but I just don't know if you can really trust him to take that position by the horns and just run with it.

No pun intended there. So yeah, I think if you're going to bring Aaron Jones back, I think the plan for that has to be another guy that can really be a really strong RB two for you. Yeah. I think the ship has sailed on the tie Chandler once they got acres and he got 17 carries the other day, that was probably the end of that. Let's see. Junkbuster says, my two main people I want back next year, Cam Bynum and Byron Murphy. Both guys so liked in the locker room and have made big time stops and picks.

Just keeping as much of the defense together as they can is a good idea, in my opinion. Aaron asks, will Flores get his lawsuit settled and be a head coach next year i don't think that one means the other i i think that regardless of him settling the lawsuit that brian flores this is just my guess and look no one's done better no one has done better this a tremendous, tremendous coach. So I think that the NFL should put their beef aside and hire Brian

Flores to be a head coach in the right opportunity. But the one thing that's going to hold them up, it's not that he's suing, it's that he, that he went against his owner. And if you are the owner of another team and you are hiring a coach, you're going to say this guy went against his owner. And if you are the owner of another team and you are hiring a coach, you're going to say this guy went against his owner. I don't care what Steven Ross told them to do. They should have kept that private. And he also went against the owners and kind of outing some of their bogus process for hiring and the bogus interviews that he got, which again is going directly against the owners, it's just very hard to see them saying, okay, we're going to break rank and hire this guy

knowing that the other owners are going to be against it. I don't see him ever getting another head coaching job again. It's a fine existence to be the Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator and have an elite defense year in and year out in Kevin O'Connell's work environment so there are worse fates but I just I just don't see it Manny am I wrong here no I agree with you you know I'd I'd like Brian Flores and the job that he's done here and I don't think he did a terrible job with the Miami Dolphins either. But you factor in, like you said, he kind of went against the owner of the Dolphins there. Also, you have the Tua stuff that kind of came out earlier this year that, you know, I think it's okay.

Because there are some guys that, you know, they get their one shot to be a head coach. They don't get any more shots to be a head coach again. But they just have, they go on to have great careers as defensive coordinators. We're seeing that with Steve Spagnuolo right now with the Kansas City Chiefs. He became head coach of the Rams after the great job he did with the Giants as their defensive coordinator. It didn't work out for him as a head coach,

and he's just been an excellent defensive coordinator ever since. You know, another guy like a Jim Schwartz with the Cleveland Browns. He's kind of the same type of thing. Got a head coaching job with the Detroit Lions. Had a little bit of success early on, but things just kind of tailed off. Hasn't been a head coach since, but he's been a really, really good defensive coordinator.

So I think that's probably what it's going to look like for Brian Flores going forward. It's too bad because I don't think he did, like I said, I don't think he did a terrible job with the Dolphins but there's just I think there's so many things that are going to be taken into consideration when these teams are looking for head coaches and I think it's just going to be really hard for him you could even say the same thing for even though he got multiple opportunities Wade Phillips where eventually someone was just not going to give him another head coaching job and he went to Denver won the Super Bowl he to the Superbowl as a defensive coordinator with the Rams. It does kind of go that way. It seems in the head coaching world, there's always the next candidate up.

So even if he hadn't had the lawsuit, he might've never gotten a shot again anyway, because that's just kind of how the league works. So I have one more question for you about the future that i want your favorite titans and we got to look at our hires and lowers for underdog fantasy before we wrap for the evening and then go watch some football uh the odds that kevin o'connell and quacey get extensions of at least four years after this season uh did i lose you am i still here i still got you manny yep i'm here you got me okay did you not hear what i said i mildly heard what you said you're kind of going in and out and then am i breaking up at all there's something uh how's my audio everybody we good audio's good you're frozen though and i'm frozen as well oh no okay that's weird uh i still see us just fine so

hopefully it's just not you're right you yeah you look totally fine to me uh but we haven't had a manny head freeze in a while usually you stop and i see you freeze not you see you freeze but i'm saying to both of us frozen right now but oh well as long as the audio is still good yeah then then okay it's fine as long as you guys can hear me everybody's saying in the comments that it's just you manny so uh that's good uh if it's gonna happen then it happened to happen this way so since you can hear me o'connell and Kweisi Adafo-Mensah, what's the odds that they get at least four-year contract extensions after this season?

Do they give out four-year extensions these days in the NFL? Yeah, I think when Matt Ruhle was hired, he got like a six-year contract. Okay. Wow. Yeah, I know. They're still paying a lot of money for matt rule to coach nebraska that just hit me like oh my god yeah okay yeah and then and then he's gonna get fired from nebraska and then they're gonna be paying a lot of money and then he can do whatever uh but but here's what i thinking. If they go deep in the playoffs. Yeah. I mean, usually it's two year, three year extensions,

but you might be saying, no, I want to sign up for this for a really long time. The other thing is too, is that because they'll be negotiating this going into the lame duck year and Kevin O'Connell's got to sign it. I mean, he could always say, I mean, unless you pony up, unless you give me the goods, unless you give me the length, I'm just going to let the contract run out. I don't have to sign it and I will be hired by someone else in two seconds. Yeah. Well, and, and I think there

has, there does have to be kind of this. If again, I go back to JJ McCarthy, if the plan is for JJ McCarthy to be the guy, I think you have to sort of lay out this foundation and say, this is the plan. We want to develop this guy to be our next franchise quarterback. And if you think you have the right head coach to do that, to accomplish that, then I think you really got to pony up. If you're that then i think you really gotta pony up if

you're the wolfs you gotta you gotta pony up and give at least kevin o'connell i think you know a four-year type of extension and you know i think in in that same on that same token probably crazy too i mean if if if especially like if if we start to see like Dallas Turner start to emerge, you know, later on this season, that's a that's a crazy move. And some of the other players, the players that they have on defense now, you know, with Grenard and Van Ginkle, those were crazy. Adolfo Mensah, you know, signings, signings with, you know, good contracts that are not going to really cripple the franchise. That's good general managing. You know what I mean? So if this kind of continues on, this season continues the way it should,

I think you have to really think long and hard about giving these guys long-term extensions. I would be all for it. There's another part the Wilfs have to consider too is just look around i mean there is so much incompetence in this league it is wild if you if you risk moving on from competence this is why the pittsburgh steelers are they gonna let mike tama go and they're like no what have you seen around this league if you you mess up your coach and GM hire, you are absolutely screwed. And we're just going to keep believing that that's the right guy to lead us to the playoffs

or winning records every year. And I think the Vikings would probably have to look at it the same way. Somebody told me a stat the other day that through this number of games, no Vikings coach ever has had this many wins as Kevin O'Connell. That has to be pretty compelling. Combined with the cap space, the quarterback that they just drafted, the foundation that they have, this would be a stay the course situation for me. Four years is a lot.

That's why I put it four years, because I thought, would you really want, would you go all in with that through McCarthy's whole rookie contract? I would. I would and say, let's see this play out through his whole rookie contract and then go from there. All right, let's get your favorite Titans of all time, and then we will take a look at the hires and lowers from this game. But let me quick, again, remind you that the show does have sponsors. And if you're ready to kick off some extra fun on football Sundays,

grab Catan and keep the action going off the field. While Minnesota's football teams are crushing it, you and your crew can build, trade and outsmart each other in the ultimate game of strategy, whether it's during halftime

or between big plays. Catan brings a whole new level of competition and excitement to your game day. Visit Catanshop.com and use the coupon code PURPLE for 10% off. Also, gifting is hard, but here's a hint. You can give the gift of U.S. Cellular. Not sure what that means. Here's a slightly more specific hint.

You can choose four free phones and get four lines for $90 a month from us. Cellular. Your family wants new phones. How do we know? They told us the good news is that compared to wrapping presents, you're great at taking hints. So take a hint and get four free phones and four lines for $90 a month. You have cellular built for us. Now let me see if I can pull up some music for you. Let's see. Or should I not mess with anything? How's this? All time. So let us begin.

I haven't seen people taking odds in the chat yet about your favorite Titans. Well, so this first one is uh it's definitely not chalk i didn't go chalk as much with the uh tennessee titans uh was that the outside noise get to you about going chalk i think that's it you let the outside pressure people were saying man he's too chalk about these teams and you let it get to you that's what happened it's also part of this is also just kind of like hey you know it's the titans and so it was a little bit harder to just like find you know there was one player that i wanted to include on this uh mainly because he was he was very good with the titans but also with where he went to school he was also very great there but just some

off the field stuff that just wasn't great. And I just didn't feel comfortable bringing them in into this mix. Talking about Albert Hainsworth. But so number five is definitely not going chalk here. Number five, Bo Scaife. You remember Bo Scaife? Yes, but what? Yeah.

Why? Did you know this? So you remember the Titans had that really good year with Kerry Collins where they went like 13-3. Yeah, I think they were like number two defense in the league or something like that. He threw like nine touchdowns. Yeah.

Yeah. Bo Scaife was the leader of that team in receptions that year with 58. Okay, yeah, you really showed the haters. That right there is enough for me. That's right there. That's enough for me right there. You showed the haters. Bo Scaife.

You know why I know Bo Scaife? Because I played with him on Madden. He had good speed. And if you had a tight end with good speed, forget about it. No one was stopping you. You run that post down the middle of the field it gets too high it's all yeah awesome okay who's number four that was a crazy pick all right number four went a little more chalk here eddie george number four um probably the second best running

back in franchise history behind chris johnson um i thought ch thought Chris Johnson was just better. I was looking up Eddie George's stats the other day because I figured I was going to have him on this list. You know, Eddie George, he played nine years in the NFL. He only averaged four yards a carry or more twice. It was always under four yards a carry. That guy was, for the most part, three yards in a cloud of dust for the most part in his career it's crazy i wouldn't be surprised because we always talk about leroy horde and how he said you know if you need two i can get you three and if you need five i can get you three or whatever the quote is

yeah i i would not be surprised if he averaged the same yards per carry as eddie george it was a grind fest with him and i would also bet that he had multiple years of 300 carries i bet they oh yeah they just gave him a ball every carry year in there too yeah i was looking it up yeah it was a crime dude it was a crime and a just should be jeff fisher should be arrested for what happened. By the way, I got the opportunity to stand next to Eddie George back when I was about 15 years old. I went down to Tennessee and

I spent the summer with my dad and we went to Titans training camp. It was the first year that they became the Titans from being the Oilers for so long. Played at Vanderbilt. Yep. And we went up to training camp, got to actually meet Jeff Fisher.

That was kind of cool. And then I got to stand next to Eddie George. And that man, especially at that time when he's like in his mid to late 20s, an actual specimen, just in terms of like, just big and strong and just, yeah,

it's very, very impressive. Very, very impressive human being. Here's a football life documentary. Tremendous. Must see. It's,

it's really, really good. Okay. So who's number three. Number three is Drew Bennett. Also not going very chalk here as well. Good receiver, though. Good receiver.

Yeah, very good receiver. Had a nice kind of pop-up year. What year was that? I think that was 2004. I think he had 80 catches, 1,200 yards, and like 10 or 11 touchdowns, something like that. The Titans weren't very good that year because they had some injuries. I think McNair got hurt.

I think that might have been the Billy Volick year where he started a lot of games for them. Billy Volick did not make the list, by the way. Talk about Drew Bennett without saying gritty. Just try it. Just try it. Talk about it without saying high motor, workmanlike attitude, sneaky athletic.

Give it a shot. Tell us why you like Drew Bennett without saying those words. Yeah, exactly. It reminds me of an older Adam Thielen. Maybe an Eric Decker. Julian Edelman. Maybe Ed McCaffrey, a poor man's Ed McCaffrey. Why did you pick Drew Bennett?

No, I picked Drew Bennett because I just remember him kind of just like popping up kind of out of nowhere. He was just kind of a guy in the league for a couple of years. And then he just pops up and he's got like 80 catches. And I can't remember if he made the pro bowl that year or not. But if you look at his numbers, you're like, did Drew Bennett make the pro bowl that year? He might've, I don't know. I don't remember, but I just remember him kind of having this that blow up year and then after that he kind of just went back to just being kind

of a guy just a solid wide receiver for a couple more years after that i'm starting to think this is like a titan's like sarcastic hate list like you're you're you're not not what you're talking and you're making fun of eddie george's yards per carry and picking drew bennett because one time he hilariously popped up on a bad team there's a lot well i see what you're doing though you're not using houston oilers which i respect yeah you're only going tennessee titans so also making fun of them is completely acceptable because if this was houston oilers we'd have a lot of players to talk about but mocking the titans organization i think is totally fine here the team that ruined

the dragon fire uh that the vikings can't use the dragon fire their stadium is a dump they have the worst jerseys in the universe oh my god yes two great players on their team that they let go. I mean, they are kind of a laughingstock. So I respect it. But the top two. The top two, I went a little more chalk. I went number two is Derek Mason, who was just really good wide receiver for a number of years with them. And then went on to the Baltimore Ravens after that and was very good for them too. But yeah, Derek Mason, just really steady, really consistent wide receiver. And one of one of Steve McNair's top targets back in the day and sort of the high end days

of the Tennessee Titans at number two. OK, K-Mac says that Bennett had a 200 yard game. So maybe you remembered it. Maybe you remember this 200 yard game from Drew Bennett. And that's why you had to throw it out there. Derek Mason was a great receiver. Underrated, I think. Yeah, yeah.

Excellent. Very good. And then number one, this was pretty easy. You know who this is. It's Steve McNair. Yep. Probably the greatest player in the Titans portion of the history of that franchise and I think one of the greatest players

just in franchise history. God, he was great in that Super Bowl. And just, he was kind of a one-man show in that Super Bowl and just leading them on that drive that they almost finished with Kevin Dyson coming up short. But just, just at his best, he was absolutely one of the elite quarterbacks in the league. Won a co-MVP with Peyton Manning in 2003.

He was just great, and he was a lot of fun to watch. If there was one thing that I did love about those Titan teams back in the day, and I didn't love a lot about them, but it was watching No. 9 play quarterback for them. He was just fantastic. I'll always wonder, because we saw it with the Ravens when they threw the ball a lot and he won MVP, had they not been an offense from the dark ages, had maybe leaned a little bit more into Steve McNair's passing talents,

what that would have looked like. I think it probably would have been better from a numbers perspective and maybe made a case for him for the Hall of Fame because you saw what his actual peak as a passer was and then we know about how dynamic he was as a runner as well one of my favorites to watch uh growing up there's some other options you could throw out there keith bullock was a pretty fun player not to watch uh the freak javon curse would go up there. I would not include anyone involved in the Music City Miracle because that was a forward pass. So that didn't happen.

Not Kevin Dyson, not Lorenzo Neal, although Lorenzo Neal is pretty cool. Frank Wycheck. But yeah, not one of the more likable franchises, the Tennessee Titans over the years. And maybe they'll turn that around starting on Sunday. I guess we'll see. So why don't we get to,

before we wrap up our underdog fantasy, hires and lowers talk about how this game is going to play out with the Vikings and the Titans. And a reminder, underdog fantasy, the easiest place to play fantasy sports and the fastest growing fantasy app. I love the pickups. There's so many fantasy options though. We like to look at the hires and lowers,

but you can play for that weekend's games, all sorts of different ways, different price points you want to play at. I am not a high roller, so I'm playing a fantasy event this week that costs seven bucks. So you can kind of do it that way as well. And you want to sign up with the code purple to play along with us each week when we look at these hires and lowers. Claim your special pick and first time deposit offer up to a thousand dollars. Bonus cash must be 18 or older. Terms apply. Concern with your your play call 1-800-GAMBLER or

ncp.org some very interesting hires or lowers is in this one sam darnold is set at 239.5 higher or lower they seem to think that mr darnold is going to throw the ball quite a bit. Do you agree with that? Yeah, I'll say yes. You'll say higher? Higher, yep. I think so too. I think that they're going to put everything into trying to get him and his confidence back going this week. And I just don't think if the Titans try to copy what the jaguars do it's gonna work they'll be more ready for it they're spending the whole week preparing for it the one concern is the sax the defensive line it's pretty good jeffrey simmons is a beast maybe they just have to hope that jeffrey simmons doesn't feel like it that might be you know it's just not

going too well maybe i'll kind of give half effort and make sure I don't get injured. Play a little preseason style. Try to get a sack, but if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. How about Will Levis, 186.5. Underdog fantasy, just not buying Will Levis against the Vikings defense at all. What did Mac Jones throw for on Sunday? Like 80. Yeah, I just think... At all. What did Mac Jones throw for on Sunday? Like 80. Yeah.

I just think, I remember we were kind of, when we were making fun of Will Levis earlier this year, when he kind of threw the stupid interception against the Bears and whatever the hell he did that play against the Jets, where he just like was going down and decided to ladder the ball backwards. I remember just kind of seeing that and thinking brian flores is going to have a field day with this and i think that's going to be the case i can't see him doing much more than like maybe a buck 50 or a buck 60 in the air so i'm gonna say less uh that would be lower is what you're going to say uh justin jefferson 79.5 receiving yards i would be smashing the higher on this uh underdog

even giving some odds on if you go higher from his receptions 5.5. Every thumb I have is mashing hires on Justin Jefferson. Every time he has a week that's down, you know Kevin O'Connell on Friday night, his eyes are beet red, staring at his computer, drawing up X's and O's, trying to figure out any way possible to get Justin Jefferson the football. I think that that's what they're going to be doing this week. They're to push it to him hard and he's going to catch a lot of passes i think

he's i think jj's going to have a big day i think he's going to roast that secondary so yeah definitely going to say higher on that i'm trying to get a funny one here that they don't have so there is this is the worst special teams team ever. I've never seen anything this bad. If you watch the game against the lions, just ridiculous. There is an option for Brandon Powell for a touchdown, any type of touchdown that will get sometimes the money

that i gotta be thinking about here they haven't returned a touchdown i think marcus sheryl's punt it's time to happen bang bang the hire on a putt return for touchdown for brandon powell this team it's they are lost they are so when you look at other franchises just real quick man because i want to watch this game and i know you do too but like yeah who's the most lost in the entire nfl and there's a good there's a good argument for uh jacksonville but at least they still have trevor Trevor Lawrence going forward. And maybe someday you could see them figuring that out. I got nothing for Tennessee.

The most just non-existent, totally clueless franchise, probably in the entire league. The team stinks. The uniform stink. The, the stadium is the stadium is just meh. i do i do like nashville as a city i've been down there many times um nashville is a very fun city but just as it pertains to the

tennessee there's just not a lot to like right now and they're just bad and if the vikings don't go in and just annihilate this team i'm'm going to be a little bit upset. I'm not going to be hitting the panic button or anything. I think they're going to win. If they don't just blow this team out of the water, and I'm not saying hang 52 on them like the Lions did or anything like that, but if they don't go in and win this game 28-6 like they beat the Giants week one, I'm going to be a little disappointed.

Like, this is not a good team. There's nothing really good about this team other than Jeffrey Simmons, maybe. That's about it. You know, Tony Pollard is a nice running back, too. But, like, outside of those two guys, there's just not a lot there. And if the Vikings don't go and destroy them, I'm going to be really, really disappointed.

Just do the thing. Just do what you're supposed to do. That's the theme of this week. Thanks everybody for some good future talk, which was allowed because they're playing the Titans next week. It will be very much focused on Vikings and bears, and we will have some Chicago based guests happening as well. That will be a fun time as always.

Manny will pick the schedule again on Monday and we'll be back Monday and Thursday next week as usual. So thanks so much Manny for your time for everybody, for watching your questions, comments, and enjoy the rest of Thursday night football. So we'll talk to you next Monday, Manny. You got it.

Football. Football. Oh, quick reminder before I go. My article with Kevin O'Connell, my sit-down with Kevin O'Connell, is up. Purpleinsider.football. We'll take you there. Go check it out.

Actually, the Minnesota Vikings franchise that has a million followers or whatever on Twitter, they tweeted it out today. So if you want to look there, then you can find it there. I also posted there a couple of times myself. My story on Kevin O'Connell's viral post-game speeches. I sat down with him for 15 minutes last week. We broke them all down and I asked a bunch of players about them too, wrote about it. So make sure you go check that out. Sign up for the newsletter. Sometimes people ask, hey, how can I support Purple Insider?

That's a great way to do it. Go over, sign up for the Purple Insider newsletter. Purpleinsider.football will take you right directly to it. So thank you everybody for watching slash listening. And we will talk to you very soon.

Football.