Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Lions pull an all-time meltdown in NFC Championship

Episode Date: January 29, 2024

Matthew Coller talks with Vikings fans about the Detroit Lions collapse in the second half against the San Francisco 49ers and how this shouldn't change anything about the Vikings' view of Detroit. Was Dan Campbell's decision to go for fourth downs right or insane? And the different routes to being here in the near future for the Vikings Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by PrizePix. Go to prizepix.com and use the code PURPLE for a first deposit match up to $100. prizepix.com, code PURPLE. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. And guess what everybody? We have two teams that are going to the Super Bowl in one of the biggest meltdowns in playoff history by the Detroit Lions. And, you know, I got to say that if you're a Vikings fan who was rooting for Detroit to have that happen, I don't know what to say to you.

Because last week, I came down here to the studio to do a show right after the Buffalo Bills missed wide right. And it was like, oh man, another franchise, just like the Vikings that has been so close so many times that messed it up on something right at, right at the goal line,

right where they needed to be to win, or at least in the bills case, they would have had a chance to win. And it's a wide right kick. And then here is the Detroit Lions up two scores in the third quarter. And a receiver drops a ball. Then a pass bounces off a dude's noggin like it's Little Giants or something. And then a fumble. And all of a sudden, San Francisco is back. And Detroit has its chance. And they decide to go for it on fourth down. Goff gets pressured,

can't make the play. And all of a sudden the San Francisco 49ers are going to the Superbowl. Jared Goff played a terrific game overall. Couldn't have done a whole lot better. He threw it right to the guy in his hands on fourth down. He handed it off to Jameer Gibbs and he fumbled. There wasn't a lot that Jared Goff could have done better in this game. They handled San Francisco so well early in the game to get the lead and end up giving it all away on just a ton of dropped passes and huge mistakes down the stretch. And what's really unfortunate and frustrating is that now for days, all of you are going to have to listen to people yelling about analytics. And

that's going to be a little frustrating, I think, because, and Greg Olson was trying to get ahead of it toward the end of the broadcast, but it's not going to work, Greg. We know where this train is going. We know that the story of the Detroit Lions lost to the 49ers, regardless of whether it was actually analytically sound to go for it or not, is going to be about those decisions by Dan Campbell. Here's what I would say about this, that those fourth downs in a way did cause them to lose. Now, did the ball bounce off of a guy's head because of the fourth down? No, it did not.

Did Jameer Gibbs fumble because of the fourth down? No, it did not. And I can't say that there was any sort of magical force that hit the Detroit Lions when they missed on that fourth down that made that happen. That was a stroke of unbelievable luck for the San Francisco 49ers that they would drop a pass, drop an interception and end up fumbling the ball in succession. And then, by the way, drop more passes and then and then by the way also fail on another fourth down uh but i can tell you this that from the immediate analytics people that i saw who analyzed these decisions it was about 50 50 and one thing that is going to uh be forgotten is that the

detroit lions have a terrible kicker. He only made from what I saw about 76% from between 40 and 49, which would be a major factor. Uh, they didn't have Justin Tucker. If they had Justin Tucker, they kicked those field goals. But I think what Dan Campbell is thinking is it's a couple yards and he's gotten receivers open all day. They've moved the football all day. And if you miss the kick, then San Francisco gets the ball there anyway, and they don't trust their kicker. So you could say,

take the points, but is it really taking the points? If you're not a sure thing with your kicker, if they had one of the best kickers in the NFL, I guarantee you that they would have gone for the field goal there, but instead they call up a good play. Jared Goff dodges a rush, throws it right to Josh Reynolds and he drops the ball. And that's how we do things in football is we look at what happened. And then if it didn't turn out, we say, well, should have done something else. Now, of course that is we say well should have done something else now of course that is true

that they should have done something else probably you don't know how the kick was going to turn out but i mean when you can go back and recreate any loss ever in history you can always say well they should have done something else of course they should have it's just like us with play calling if a play call doesn't work then you should have done something else. Sure. I mean, that's what the results would say in this game is that that allowed and opened the door to San Francisco coming back. But here's what I could say is that the analytics, which you're all seeming to blame in the comments. And I just, again, cannot wait, cannot wait to just have a whole week of how analytics blew the Superbowl for the Detroit lions. They were dead. Even they were dead. Even the analytics weren't even for going for it.

You just assume that because analytics over the years have leaned a little more toward going for it on fourth down, which is why teams do it. But that's not what they said. That's not what they said. If you look at the fourth down bot, you look at Seth Walder. It was like this very, very close go for it or not go for it. So the analytics did not drive Dan Campbell to do this probably as much as Dan Campbell drove Dan Campbell to do this. One of the reasons that the Detroit lions turn themselves around is because of Dan Campbell's aggressiveness.

He's been going for it on fourth down like crazy for years. In fact, Gabe Henderson of the Vikings, Vikings Entertainment, tweeted out that nobody has gone for it more than Dan Campbell since 2021. This is who the guy is. It's one of the reasons that they've maximized their offense. They were fourth in the league in offense this year. Did they not go for a fourth down earlier in the game and get it? So it's not necessarily he looked at an abacus and said,

well, it seems that the analytics say we go. No, that's not even what the analytics were necessarily saying. It was much closer to even when you factor in that they have a bad kicker, maybe they would have leaned slightly toward going for it. Because if you kick two field goals at 75%, some of you are better at math on the fly than I am. But that is certainly not a guarantee. If you do two things that have a three out of four chance what's the chance of

both of those things coming true but everyone just assumes that going kicking both field goals would have gone in so it's frustrating from my perspective to hear that the analytics are going to get blamed and are already getting blamed and it's not the analytics that made the decision. It was Dan Campbell and it wasn't Dan Campbell's decision that caused Josh Reynolds to drop the football. So I'm, you know, already sort of exhausted of this. Uh, but it was an all time meltdown for sure. When it comes to the Detroit lions in one of the most bizarre third and fourth quarters that you will ever see. And you could blame the coach all you want, but it really is a wide receiver dropping a wide open pass that hit him right in the hands. And then he did it again, by the way,

that happened again to Josh Reynolds, where he threw the ball right to Josh Reynolds as he's running across the middle of the field, to Josh Reynolds as he's running across the middle of the field. Two possessions later, hits him right in the hands and he drops it again. I mean, this was an earnest binder for the old school fans level disaster for Josh Reynolds. It's one of those games that will go down in history as the Josh Reynolds game to Detroit Lions fans where they were this close to reaching the Super Bowl. Josh Reynolds just became your Gary Anderson. They're going to be bringing this one up unless they go win a Super Bowl next year or something. They're going to be bringing this up for a very, very long time. And then every comeback ever requires a super lucky break.

And Brock Purdy overthrowing a deep shot that hits a guy in the head, bounces to Brandon Ayuk, who makes an astounding catch to get them, what, a 40-yard gain or something? For that to happen as well. I mean, I know, I guess, according to some of you, Dan Campbell should have known that was going to happen when he went for it on fourth down. But when he decided to go for it on fourth down, I'll give you the numbers because from what I saw from Seth Walder of ESPN, it was like I said, neck and neck for going for it. And probably because of the bad kicker, Campbell was leaning toward going for it,

but it was a 90% chance, 90% to win, whether they kicked it or whether they went for it. But 90 isn't 100. And it opened the door and it allowed San Francisco to come back. And now they're going to return to the Super Bowl. And you're saying, I'm seeing in the comments, he took away six points. But let's do the math here. If you have a kicker that only makes 75% and he's kicking two kicks from that similar long distance, is that a guarantee that it's six points? So I mean, I think that people assuming that they're terrible kicker on the road in San Francisco was going to make it is a pretty big assumption. And then, yeah, like we're going to go round and round and round on this probably for the rest of time with this fourth down. And of course, all the fourth downs that went right for the Lions to be here in the NFC championship, we will not bring those up.

And the overall aggressive way of going about it for Dan Campbell will not be brought up. It will only be mentioned that one of them failed because that's how we do football talk. And I think we can do better than that. I really do. And a huge part of it too, is even though you end up missing the fourth down, Brock Purdy had to make some incredible plays

to bring this team back. And of course, Brock Purdy being a playmaker more than a game manager, how he was able to take advantage of the Lions defense. They got the ball moving on a couple of big third downs. He ends up running for first downs, making plays. And for a team that is as good as the San Francisco 49ers, one of the best in the NFL offensively all year, if not the best in the NFL offensively, I believe they not the best in the NFL offensively. I believe they were number one in expected points added through the air,

which again, Brock Purdy, whatever you think is causing Brock Purdy to be good, whether it's luck or teammates or whatever, he certainly is pretty, pretty, pretty darn good. 56% chance from Dale. Hopefully you're a math guy, Dale. I appreciate that. So if it's only a 75% chance, making both would be 56. I mean, that's, so that's a coin flip. It's a coin flip that the kicker makes both of those kicks. So look, Dan Campbell decided to live or die by the

way Dan Campbell plays. And I would go back to the way that they played within those decisions. Because if they go for it on fourth and three, complete a short little pass and win the game, I don't think anybody goes, wow, what an amazing decision by Dan Campbell. It would just never be talked about. Then we'd go on to something else that we could debate. And that's how it works with those decisions is when they are at the center of something like this, it becomes a massive debate topic. And I totally understand that. And what I would say is this is one of the strangest, most random, bizarre games, especially in the second half that I have ever seen. I mean, even a catch by Jamison Williams bounced off of him and then he was able to grab it, even though it looked like it was picked off at first.

And gosh, even the Ravens game with some strange bounces and Zay Flowers fumbling into the end zone. Like that's how it goes sometimes. But in this case, I think that the Lions as a team ended up blowing this game and Brock Purdy ended up coming through at the biggest times again. And that's what did it. I think that if you're blaming analytics, then that's probably what you do every week. You just don't take any time whatsoever to put in to trying to understand how any of it works. And you just yell at analytics because maybe some of your favorite talking heads on tv or who you follow on twitter like to do that um and and look here's my thing too when i saw it

tweeted out what the numbers were between kicking it and not kicking it in the moment i thought that they were going to kick it and i I personally probably would have, I would have leaned toward kicking the field goal. But I think the point is that when you're Dan Campbell and this is how you've handled it and your offense has been moving super well with the football all day long, your receivers are open, your quarterback's playing great, and you have a chance right there to end the game. And he did it again late in the game when they didn't get the fourth down. He was playing to win the game. You have two choices there.

You can either play to try to tie the game and then give the ball back to Brock Purdy, who's been throttling you and let them travel the length of the field and kick a game winning field goal, or you can go for it. Once again, the analytics were very, very even on that play. It was really, really close. And at the end of the day, it didn't work out for Dan Campbell and the Lions. And they let it slip in part because their defense couldn't make plays, in part because of bad luck.

And maybe it is, I don't know, something in the water or whatever that has caused certain franchises, the Vikings included, the Chargers, the Bills, the Lions, put them all in a single division and see if anybody can win it. Or if they would just miss field goals and fumble and have footballs bounce off their helmets for the rest of time. I mean, the one thing that I do not understand though, is I'm seeing only a little of it, but a Jared Goff criticism is wild to me because Jared Goff in this game, a hundred percent deserved to win. He played a great game. You couldn't have asked for anything more from Jared Goff. And at the end of the game, also you want to talk about where Dan Campbell really made a mistake. At the end of the game, they hand off at the goal line and then have to use a timeout, which meant they were guaranteed to have to kick the onside kick. That was a big mistake.

That was a huge mistake. You cannot run in that position. You have to throw the football. So look, I mean, sometimes these games go this way, but with Jared Goff, I mean, he played fantastic football this entire game. They came out with a great game plan. They were right on the cusp of winning, but the problem is whether it's right or wrong. If you open the door for a great team, one of the best teams in football, in my estimation, the second best team in football all season, regular season, the Baltimore Ravens who lost today were probably the best regular season team. If you leave the door open for that team with those playmakers, with Debo Samuel, George

Kittle comes up with a huge catch. Christian McCaffrey. There was only so long that the Detroit Lions defense was going to be able to hold them down. In fact, this was a Detroit Lions defense. And maybe look, this is another potential factor for Dan Campbell going for it is the Detroit Lions defense has let teams back in the game all year long, including the Minnesota Vikings twice with Nick Mullins were right there on the cusp throwing the ball all over the place.

So from Campbell's perspective, he may have thought, look, my kicker's not very good. My offense is great. But if I give this ball back to the 49ers on a missed field goal, then they're going to have a good chance here because my defense isn't that good. So he could, he could have been thinking of it that way as well, but we will never know because he did not kick the field goal. And again, and from my perspective, I thought he was going to

kick the field goal. I thought it was the right thing to do to kick the field goal at that time. If it was me over on the sideline, I was thinking I'd be thinking, kick the field goal. But I think when we talk about it, we have to talk about it the right way, that this was a coin flip decision that he decided to make in the moment, which is a decision he has made over and over and over again this year to get to this point. And all he needs is Josh Reynolds to catch a ball right in his hands. Jared Goff sidesteps the rush, delivers the pass right there, and it just goes off his hands. And that's life. It reminded me very much of the Vikings and Chargers game about how it was a Caleb Evans who got hit in the face mask and it turned

into a touchdown. And then at the end of the game, there a throw from kirk cousins that hits tj hockinson in the hands it ends up not uh being you know a touchdown and instead the vikings lose that's exactly what happened here but what they really could not have predicted after that was the next two possessions one of them is a handoff and ends up fumbling i mean mean, that's the Jameer Gibbs was great in this game and they were on point the whole game, but they seem to get really shook by what happened and how quickly San Francisco scored. So I think that, you know, if you want to call this a choke, oh my gosh, yes. All time meltdown, choke, disaster, all of that for the Detroit Lions. I mean, this one goes down in all-time Detroit Lions lore that they were right on the cusp. They were Gary Anderson kicking a field

goal to go up by two scores and close out the game. Only in this case, it would have been three scores. And Gary Anderson goes wide left. The Buffalo Bills go wide right. Detroit goes, the ball starts bouncing around like crazy. That's exactly what happened there. And you're probably right about maybe going for two at the end, but I think you want to stay within field goal position. Yeah, I don't know. You're probably right. Maybe a Hail Mary. I don't know. But at the end of the game, you definitely cannot hand off and end up running the clock on yourself. So you have to call a timeout. But there is a difference between saying that the analytics caused the meltdown and calling it what it is, which was a lot of

plays by individual players that caused this thing to totally fall apart. And I completely disagree with people who are saying that Kirk Cousins and Jared Goff are similar. They're not. This was a great demonstration, I think, by Jared Goff in this game and would have been a great demonstration of him going to the Super Bowl had they not fallen apart, had the receivers not dropped it throughout this game, Jared Goff is throwing laser beams left and right converting third down in 15. And yeah, no, you're right. Of course, Ben, big surprise that

this chat ends up making it about Kirk cousins. It's really not. It's really not about Kirk cousins, although we'll get to that. We will get to that. But, you know, when it comes it comes to our Superbowl matchup here, it's a little bit disappointing from the perspective that it's a Superbowl that we just saw not too long ago. And it's two teams that seem like they're there all the time with, I mean, San Francisco, just over and over and over again, building these super strong teams, even if their quarterback isn't perfect and finding a way to get to the Superbowl. And then Patrick Mahomes, four of the last five years, that was also disappointing as well. You know, and I, and I,

I just, I, I know that some of you are thrilled that it's not Detroit because they're in your division. Although I don't see why exactly Vikings fans would be thrilled. I mean, look, it doesn't change anything about the future and what this meant to the future, which is the Detroit lions are a really stacked team that should be in the super bowl. And if you look at their roster, they are not getting worse. They're going to get better. They've got more top 100 picks than the Vikings. They've got cap space to work with. They've got a very, very good quarterback, receivers, running back. Their offensive line is largely going to be back, especially their superstar,

Penny Sewell and Frank Ragnow. I mean, they just have a really stacked team. And maybe this is the one thing that you get to hold on to is that the Packers and the Lions both completely collapsed. So if that's the banner you want to hang, other teams in our division were in big games and found ways not to win. Well, I guess that's a banner you can hang uh personally i would look at it and say the detroit lions deserve to be in the super bowl

with how good their team was and how well they played and losing their offensive coordinator might be a big deal i'm sure that there are teams that are waiting to hire ben johnson but where is anybody else going? I mean, these receivers are not free agents. They might lose one offensive lineman, but their key offensive linemen are there. Their coach is going to remain aggressive. Their quarterback is extremely good. They were fourth in the league in scoring. Their defense is going to get better. I mean, this is a big thing to talk about is when it comes to Detroit, the biggest issue for them all year was really what got them in the end as much as anything else, which

is their coverage and their defense that they allowed Brock Purdy to take off and run. They allowed wide open wide receivers for San Francisco. They gave up a big play to Christian McCaffrey. They let Christian McCaffrey pound the ball. Well, actually it wasn't, it was Mitchell pounded the ball in to the end zone, but McCaffrey had another one. So they're not a great defense. And that's something that I think Detroit's probably going to spend a lot of time trying to improve. San Francisco was able to take the one difference maker out of the game largely, which is Aiden Hutchinson. But it very much could be a big loss of Ben Johnson.

Their offensive strategy has been really excellent to maximize Jared Goff. But the personnel that Jared Goff has to work with going forward, and he's going to be their quarterback for a long time, is extremely good and extremely young. And if I'm the Minnesota Vikings watching this year's playoffs, I'm not thinking, ha, I'll just rely on Dan Campbell missing a fourth down. I think that I would be looking at it saying, you know, there's a long way to go here. How can I match up and be a team that is as strong as Detroit is to be in this position? Or how can I match up even with Green Bay and what they're going to be as they build around Jordan Love?

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Now here comes the fine print. Lucy products are only for adults of legal age and every order is age verified warning. This product contains nicotine and nicotine is an addictive chemical this was a very much a day for vikings fans on social media which i was you know keeping track of throughout the day to kind of be acting out is how it felt like every play that kyle hamilton made was a can't believe we didn't draft Kyle Hamilton. Uh, Jamison Williams had a great play running for a touchdown and then he caught the touchdown at the end. So kind of a breakout game for Jamison Williams who the, uh, you know,

Vikings did not draft and decided to trade down. So there was a lot of that. There was a lot of discussion of, see, these were the players you could have drafted. But to me, that's a forest through the trees type of issue, which is if you're looking only at the 2022 draft and saying, man, we could have had Kyle Hamilton instead. That might be true. However, when you look at what Josh Metellus became, he is essentially doing the same things as Kyle Hamilton would have been doing. So a player that you didn't expect emerged and yet what difference did it make to where you're at now?

Is that a long-term piece? Yeah, certainly is for Baltimore. Just like Metellus is for the Vikings. Would it have helped if they had had Kyle Hamilton, of course, or Trent McDuffie or anybody else that they could have drafted. And we can do that for every draft of all time. Here's the players you should have drafted. I knew it right in the moment, which of course is the same type of analysis as the fourth downs. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. Good for you. Congratulations. If you didn't like the draft in 2022, neither did I. I didn't on draft night. It got yelled at by the comment section, but

you know, what they're looking at going forward is so much bigger than Jamison Williams or Trent McDuffie or Jordan Davis or any other player that they could have drafted and didn't and traded down to get Lewis seen. It's how can you build a complete roster that's going to look like what Detroit just looked like? I mean, Jared Goff has now been to the NFC championship twice. He played well enough to win this game and he has a roster around him that not very many players are leaving. So how are you going to get to a place where you are on par with them? And also, of course, competing with the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears. It's because they lost.

It's not quite as tragic as while they're going to the Super Bowl but when you look going forward do you see where this Detroit team is going to fall off outside of their offensive coordinator leaving I can't find a spot on their roster that is going to be different so how do you get there and we also have to look back to it, how we got here, which in part is, again, you could talk about 2022 should have drafted that guy should have drafted that guy. And you're right. Of course, the same way you'd be right with all draft picks saying you should have drafted someone else, right?

Well, they shouldn't have drafted bar. They should have drafted Aaron Donald. Cause I know now that he's a hall of famer, but that's not what happened. What, what happened though was where they did have a choice and the draft can be very random. We all know this, right? Brock Purdy's going to the super bowl. Can't tell me the draft's not pretty random. Uh, we, so, I mean, gosh, there's so many, there's so many draft picks from the teams that are going to the super bowl where you're like, Hey, the same team that drafted McDuffie drafted Edwards Allaire, the same people that drafted Mahomes, right? Drafted him, drafted Sky Moore, who's a total non-factor.

I think he's injured, but hasn't been any good. So you can talk about that all you want. But if we talk about where they had a choice and how Detroit got here and how they had a choice, it was a total rebuild mentality. And they started from 2021. They stacked up as much draft capital as possible. And if you're watching this game, who's their best wide receiver? That's Amin Ross St. Brown. That's a draft pick. It's a fourth round draft pick. I guess the Vikings could have a draft pick is it's a fourth round draft pick I guess the Vikings could have picked him too it's a fourth round draft pick but it was one of many many draft picks that they've had over the last couple of years so not every player that they've drafted in Detroit has turned out to be great it's not like Brad Holmes has just been this magical genius. It's that they draft a ton of players and that they're all drafted very high.

Penny Sewell is a monster. Where was he picked? Aiden Hutchinson is a monster. Where was he picked? And then you got to hit on some that are in the middle of the draft or in the second round, but they get Laporta. He ends up being a really good pick. And until Gibbs fumbled the ball,

even the pick that didn't make any sense, uh, ended up working out pretty well for them, but no surprise because the guys picked in the top 10. So they went all the way down, they took it apart and they were this close to walking into the Superbowl. I mean, they are Josh Reynolds catching the ball from going to the Superbowl. That's the team that you want to be. Now let's compare the rosters and how you got there. The Vikings, instead of taking a similar route, and this doesn't have to mean tank, it really has to mean so much more of a total rebuild mentality, which wouldn't have to be, Hey, look, you're going to have to go down to the bottom and tank and draft top two or something like that. Uh, Hey, look, you're going to have to go down to the bottom and tank and draft

top two or something like that. Uh, it, what it really means is taking a long-term view of everything you do. So I'll give you an example, which would be when they hire Kevin O'Connell and Casey, they decide, Hey, we're going to run it back with Kirk. We're going to sign Zedarius Smith. We're going to keep everybody and see if we can compete for a Superbowl. And they got a fun season out of it, but no playoff wins because they weren't a strong enough roster to win in the playoffs, even though they had 13 regular season wins. Did anyone think going into that season that they were strong enough to win the Superbowl? No. So in this way, we could have

seen this coming, right? That the Vikings would end up in this place. They went 13 and four with a negative point differential, had to set a record for one score games, and then got beaten the playoffs by a nine, seven and one team. That was not good in the New York giants. How did that work out for you? And that was the best version of what could have happened. I mean, really, like the best outcome was you get lucky in a bunch of games and end up with 13 wins in a home playoff game. And the fact that the division had some down teams that year. But how did that end up working out for you?

Since they started eight and one, by the way, there are 500 team. That's it. And who would have guessed that other than everyone, right? Because that's who they really were the entire time. So they decide only this last offseason to take it apart. But they only take it apart to here and not to here. And they end up keeping Kirk Cousins because they won 13 games the year before and compound a bad decision for their long term.

So while the other teams in the division were full steam ahead with their plan, the Vikings were falling behind, fiddling around in the middle. And when Kirk gets hurt, they're four and four. And do we think that the Vikings with this year's roster would have been playing this weekend? Absolutely not because they're nowhere close to where a team that took a long-term approach ended up getting. So now the question is, how do you get from here to there? And yeah, I mean, I agree with George in the comments that it's time to move on from the 2022 draft. There's nothing you can do about it. It didn't work out. They tried a strategy that I didn't love at the time because my feeling is it's the same logic as Justin Jefferson. When people talk about trading Justin Jefferson, it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. If you

want to get there, then to where the Lions just were, you got to have elite talent. Where do you get elite talent? Higher in the draft. So don't be giving away higher draft picks. That was my logic at the time. But look, if they had traded back and it was somebody else that worked out, we might look at it totally differently. I don't know. I guess we could still say that eventually. I'm not sure. Probably not with the way that things have played out. But circling back to the point, now that you know where the bar is going to be set, when you've seen what elite tech, come on, we got to do better than what elite talent does Detroit have. I hope you watch the right tackle today. I hope that you watch the right tackle today. I hope you saw the, what Aiden Hutchinson led the league in pressures. I hope you did you watch Amin Ross St. Brown.

They've got lots of elite talent. Please, please. The Detroit Lions have a complete team with all sorts of great players. They have a top three tight end in the league. They built a phenomenal offensive line. They've got an elite running back already in Jameer Gibbs, who is just starting in his prime. There's a lot to compete with here

and they're, and they're going to get better. So how are you going to get here? Are you going to get here by starting today, looking at the free agents and saying, Hey, you know what? Let's get, let's sign back Kirk cousins and do a bargain bin like that. You're not going to get there with that. Hey, you're not, you're not going to get there with that you're not you're not going to get there with marcus davenport and byron murphy jr type signings how are you going to get there well when i look at san francisco now they had to draft a lot of their talent but not all of it they did have to draft some of it i mean debo samuel for sure uh brandon iuk my gosh the catch of the century just an insane catch off of a dude's head.

That was wild. But so they drafted those guys. They drafted those weapons. The Vikings have drafted some of those guys, Christian Derrissaw, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison. But how did they do? How did San Francisco build this team in part? Well, they had a bad year, a down year and drafted a superstar edge

rusher. That helps. They also, when there was an opportunity to trade for Trent Williams, they made that trade and they paid him. How did they do that? Because they're cheap at the quarterback position when they had a chance, when they felt like they were right there and Christian McCaffrey became available, right there and Christian McCaffrey became available, they traded for Christian McCaffrey. How did they do that? Because, and you guys are hitting it. You guys are, you guys are sharp. I'm making fun of some of you, but you guys are sharp because their quarterback makes $800,000. And all you need from your quarterback is to make a couple of plays. And Brock Purdy was out there.

My, my friend, Sage Rosenfels, who some of you know, was on the show before the Vikings played the 49ers. So a couple of months ago. And he said, I said,

who does Brock Purdy remind you of? And I was thinking like Jake Delone, like just kind of a, and I love bringing up Jake Delone. Cause he's kind of this gritty, like, you know, I don't know. He wasn't that great. And everyone kind of knew he wasn't that great, but he had a great team is a good leader and he could make enough plays. And he said, Doug Flutie. And I thought that's actually perfect because the guy is undersized and he can run

around a little and the ball doesn't travel super fast, but he can make just enough plays to win some games. And that's exactly what he did. He got a little lucky, super stupid, lucky on that IU catch, but also, you know, you guys know who watch a lot and those of you who don't welcome. Great to see you. Uh, we do this all the time and it's usually about this intense, isn't it? Uh, but, uh, you know, you can't win the lottery if you don't play and Brock Purdy plays, he pushes the ball downfield. He gives his wide receivers a chance. He makes a couple of plays, he runs, and then he's got a great team around him. But you know, and you're saying like, okay, you know, this is, this is just, it's funny because no matter what you say, somebody else can say, no, no,

no, that's, that's a bunch of crap. That's why football is so great to talk about. So Lucas says we just need an $800,000 quarterback. Great logic. Once again, well, well, well, uh, oh, and then you said the other quarterback makes half a billion. First of all, he doesn't make half a billion on the salary cap. You might want to look that up for what Patrick Mahomes makes on the cap. He is cheap compared to how good he is. He is also the greatest quarterback maybe of all time. At worst,

at worst, he's the greatest quarterback of a generation. Okay. So you can probably pay the greatest quarterback of a generation in fact if the chiefs wanted to trade the vikings patrick mahomes i would love that that would be great we'll figure out the rest just as they have however that's unlikely to happen i don't know if you know that so the other way if you don't have an all- time great quarterback who goes to the Superbowl every single year is to what? Have a cheap quarterback. So you can build a roster just the way I laid out. They ended up trading for chase young who was hit or miss today, but they got Randy Gregory. They could pick up whoever the heck they wanted because they had so much money to be able to do it. And Christian McCaffrey is a great example.

And Trent Williams is a great example is even if free agency can be a little bit spotty, then you can also go out and trade for the disgruntled superstar. And as we're looking at this, we can't look at Kansas city as any type of model because Kansas city has the goat. It's like trying to do things the Patriot way. You can't do it the Patriot way because they had Tom Brady. So there's no, one's going to be able to recreate that, but you can recreate what San Francisco has, which is great weapons, a great receivers. A running game is really necessary. We all agree on that. This is something, can I say something that I know the whole chat will agree on a great running game would be great, would be great. Let's see here. Three of the four teams this weekend have expensive quarterbacks. Didn't

know if you know that you'd be surprised. I do know that. I do know that two of them are multi-time MVPs if Lamar Jackson wins the MVP. So again, if the Baltimore Ravens want to give the Vikings Lamar Jackson, that'd be wonderful. I would totally take that. We'll figure out the cap. That's not happening. So how about Jared Goff?

Great question. How did they build around Jared Goff? Again, not that expensive, but they did it by tanking and drafting a ton of players who are on rookie contracts. Aiden Hutchinson, Penae Sewell, Amin Ross St. Brown, Jameson Williams was big for them. They're all on rookie contracts. This may remind you of something. In 2017 with the Vikings, all those guys who they drafted in 2015 were on rookie contracts. Daniil Hunter, Eric Hendricks, Stefan Diggs. How much money was Stefan Diggs making when he got the Minneapolis miracle catch? Was he making like 1.1 million or something on the cap?

These are the only routes where you can do it you either get an all-timer which again would be wonderful so they should probably draft one this year and see if he becomes that or you get one that's really cheap that you can build around him by making moves and bringing in veteran talent which they could do by drafting one and see how he turns out or you can have a very expensive one and hit on about 10 draft picks around that player now that's harder to do and the vikings have been trying to do that for years and have not and that's the problem they've put themselves in a position where they would need in order to have kurt cousins and win to hit on like 10 players tomorrow.

And since that's not going to happen, the only other ways are the route that they should go. So, you know, I really think that this playoffs, even the way it turned out with no NFC North team in the Super Bowl, should be this big, giant, neon sign. It's in Vegasgas the super bowl it should be a neon sign saying draft bo nicks or michael pennix or jj mccarthy whoever you like i'll just say bo nicks because that's who i like he was making is that is that right he was making 615k in 2017 when he got the Minneapolis miracle. I mean, come on. Right. So, uh,

and yes, uh, to, uh, Jay Z man, 75 Detroit traded Matthew Stafford and got first round draft picks. That helped when the Vikings of course could have traded Kirk cousins. Uh,

when Casey Adolfo Mensah and Kevin O'Connell got here, they also could have traded the Neil Hunter this year. Maybe not for first round picks, but they could have traded Daniil Hunter for at least maybe a second that helps give you a chance. Because to me, first and second, like top 50 picks are all like good choices for you that you expect a lot of those guys to become starters. So if you can get a second round pick for a player, who's probably not coming back, that's a good idea. Uh, loaded guitar says Jaden Daniels or no one. I was thinking about this today. Now, so here's where I go back and forth because you watch, uh,

with Brock Purdy and you think, okay, playmakers, good offensive system. Let's maybe get a running game, a little more road grading on the offensive line. Definitely need that. The rut look that you're, no, one's going to disagree. The run game is a huge deal. The Vikings can't have the 27th ranked run game and expect to be here anytime soon. Okay. Running backs matter. I don't think anyone thinks they don't. It's usually about the value. So could someone else have done it? And Montgomery's running just as well as Jameer Gibbs, and you're going like, well, I don't know. Maybe you can find one. The point is they need a running game in order to succeed. But if their plan is to draft either Bo Nix with 11, and I just keep using him because I don't know, I think he might be the guy who goes after the first three, but I

don't know that. Or it's to trade up for Jaden Daniels. There has to be an additional plan in trading up for Jaden Danielsiels which would be how are you going to acquire other talent it becomes harder to trade for other talent if you've given up three firsts right that's pretty difficult um but you can do it you're still leaving your roster a little spotty also gosh i was thinking though playmaking quarterback would be pretty nice because even even brock purdy's ability to take off and run for a couple first downs we see it from the homes we see it from jackson we know how good they are but even a guy who's not blazing speed and neither is my homes but just willing to see it and run can make such a difference. Folks, if you've been listening to the show,

then you know how much fun we have been having with prize picks this year. Just go to prizepicks.com slash purple. Use the code purple for a first deposit match up to $100. And let me tell you how it works. If you haven't heard us talk about it enough yet, or you haven't tried it yet, very simple. There are yardage totals on prize picks. You either pick more or less and boom, each week has been a

rollercoaster ride of fun. And the best part is that when I have a bad week, I didn't lose much. It doesn't cost much to play. You can turn 10 bucks into250 very easily. And if things go sideways for you, you're not out a whole heck of a lot of money. That is prizepicks.com slash purple. Just more or less on yardage totals. And you are in prizepicks.com slash purple. The code purple for a first deposit match up to $100. JP says, what does your gut tell you? Will the Vikings run it back again instead of planning for the long term?

So I keep sort of adjusting and adapting this opinion. And after watching the playoffs, I would lean toward the Vikings moving on from Kirk Cousins slash Kirk Cousins moving on from the Vikings. And here's something that's important. Zach Robinson, same system, same McVay connection. It has been hired in Atlanta. And for those of you who are new to the stream here, I wrote a book about PFF and it's right over my shoulder here called football is a numbers game in which I interviewed Zach Robinson because he worked at PFF for a while and it helped him get the job with the Los Angeles Rams. So make sure you check that

out. Football is a numbers game. Thank you. But so I talked to Zach a little bit and he's a very typical type of McVay coordinator and I expect, or a position coach, but now coordinator, uh, he's come up through that system, which would mean a likely to run a similar system in Atlanta to what Kirk already knows going back to playing for McVay in Washington and then for Kevin O'Connell, their roster is much closer to what we saw from the Detroit Lions. They've got a star young running back, star young tight end who hasn't been utilized very well, star young receiver in Drake London, an offensive line, a lot to work with there. And then now an offensive system that Kirk is familiar with makes a lot of sense.

I'm leaning toward it being better for everyone to have a divorce here, because if you're going to bring back Kirk, you have to explain to me how you get those 10 young players that you're going to win with, because I got to be able to match up what Detroit has versus what you have, or I'm not going to believe you, or what Green Bay has the capability of having with their young receivers and some of the other young players that they have as well, and a new defensive coordinator,

so you can't just expect to beat Joe Perry year after year. There's a lot to be done there. Right now I sit at like 30%, 35% that Kirk comes back, but it's pretty low at this moment. All those things that we just talked about, how are you going to match up with the team that you just saw today, which was this close to being in the Superbowl? The Vikings have nine, nine picks in this draft. So that means you can't get to 10. That's by the way, one of the problems with the Vikings drafting is in two years, they've only drafted, I think 14 players.

Now they did trade for TJ Haw hawkins and that's kind of a big deal um uh groovy skeptic says bringing back kirk would be ridiculous i feel the same way uh i feel the same way that it would be ridiculous and not just because it's kirk and we can argue over well is he good is he not good and so forth. The really main reason is that I just was joking about the 10 draft picks, but you could eventually, if you had 10 more years with Kirk Cousins or five more years, you could eventually hit on some drafts and build a roster around him to be really strong. But you don't have that time. He's 36.

He's coming off an Achilles. You don't even know if he's going to play in the NFL two years from now. So that is a main reason that you can't bring him back and hope to build around him to match up with a team like this. I think it would be incredible arrogance to think that over the last six years what's happened won't happen again. Because you're so special, Kevin O' happen again because you're so special, Kevin O'Connell, or you're so special, Kweisi, that you'll just analytics this thing to a different result? Well, as we've seen and maybe saw tonight, although I still don't call those analytics decisions, analytics are imperfect. The win percentage for the Lions was 90% when they decided to go for it. And that 10% happened. So it's not, nothing is a perfect science. You can believe you have the best offense. You can believe that you have the best receivers and that you can build a defense through Brian Flores and be right back there in a year. But what if one of the players that you signed ends up getting hurt

for the year? Like Marcus Davenport did. What if, what if, what ends up happening so often with Kirk cousins in his era is that they have so little in terms of depth, uh, depth of stars. It's usually reliant on one or two guys. And if something goes wrong and then you fall off from, you know, being a good team and competitive team to, if you go from Byron Murphy to, I forget who replaced him, who, what was it? Andrew Booth Jr. Was it a Caleb Evans, I guess, took over CB1. It's just a huge drop off from your starters because you don't have enough because you haven't been drafting the depth well enough because you haven't had the money to sign people it's just not enough so and and this is a great point by dan what if he gets hurt and i know that

kirk and and let me just say this i fully Kirk Cousins and his business acumen, but they're putting on a full court press when it comes to Kirk telling people that he's ahead of schedule and that he's going to be backed by OTAs and all that. We saw the same thing from Aaron Rodgers, except for Aaron Rodgers didn't have a reason to do it, whereas Kirk Cousins does because of free agency but if you're talking about a 36 year old coming off of a torn achilles on his

plant foot i believe it's his right foot right right leg right achilles who didn't have a great arm to begin with i mean he's very accurate and can throw the football, but he did not have Jared Goff's arm, for example, to be able to get the ball into tight windows already. Is he going to throw it harder? When he comes back, I believe in modern science, and I'm very impressed by modern science. But I also know that there are realities to the human body, especially for some of us who are in our mid-30s. But I just can't see a reason. And Rob, you talk about him passing a physical, I will pass a physical if they want him to pass a physical man.

Like you're not, if you're Atlanta and you're signing Kirk cousins, you know, he's going to pass whatever physical you give him. So, uh, that's how it is. But you know what, um, see, there's just, I'm sorry, your comments today are coming fast and furious at me. And Jamie says, sometimes I think analytics are bad. What happened to the coach's instinct? I mean, what happened to the coach's instinct was tonight. That wasn't an analytics decision. And if you just joined, I could go through it again, but it, the analytics on that decision were a coin flip. They were dead,

even for kick it and go for it. And I believe the reason that Dan Campbell did not kick it is because his kicker stinks. He's been one of the worst kickers in the league this year. So it was a gut instinct. I got a 50, 50 call. I'm going to go with it. And he expected his wide receiver to catch the ball. I mean, the thing is that sometimes people expect analytics to just give you all the answers in a sport with so much randomness. And every time they don't, or every time something goes against them, then it's like, see, they don't work. Should have done the other thing.

Well, you know, that's just not how anything works as far as numbers go. If I told you that 60% of people were speeding in a certain area, you wouldn't think, well, that means everyone. Right. But that's how they do it with analytics. It's like, well, it's a, it's a slight edge toward go for it. So the coach does it, but it's a slight edge. It's not a huge edge. And that wasn't even tonight where it was a coin flip. It's a slight edge and it didn't work. Okay. So like that's that Steven 60, 40 means 40% of the time, 40 times out of a hundred that it's a, it's not going to go right. And again, this was, this was a decision that Dan Campbell made a hundred times in a row, this same decision. And it played a role in them being one of the best

offenses in the league because they got it more than they didn't. But it didn't happen tonight because a guy dropped the ball. So that's life. That's football. And you guys know all about that. I mean, you guys know all about that. Talk about percentages. How about a kicker who made every single kick the entire year and then missed one? This is not a sport that can be perfect when it comes to any analytics. Lucas says, how can the Vikings keep pace with the Lions? I don't know. Maybe Dan Campbell can blow all the big games like he did tonight. Is that what you want to hope for? But you got to beat the 49ers. They're in the Superbowl. So they don't blow all the big decisions, I guess. Cause they're in the Superbowl again. They're not the only team. They're not the only team. Chicago's on the way. Green Bay is already there. Philadelphia will reload. Dallas is going to be back. I mean that another team that blows all the big games, but they're going to be back. The NFC is getting stronger, not weaker. You know, they're about to add a top draft pick quarterback more likely than not to

your division. And you can say, you could say, well, Chicago always blows its quarterback picks. Maybe they will. Maybe Dan Campbell will always blow four downs. Maybe Dak Prescott will always melt in the playoffs. Maybe that, that hasn't gotten the Vikings really anywhere. But if that's what you're hoping for, I wish you the best of luck because somebody's going to be good, and it's usually San Francisco. It's not this team, and it's not next year. It can be this team if they take the right route. But what we're going to go back to and what we would have

spent a whole week talking about had Dan Campbell not gone for it and the kicker made it or whatever else, we would have spent a whole week rehashing the competitive rebuild. But shouldn't it just be a little more of a rebuild now going forward? I think it should. I think it should. And that's good because look at the teams that take the longer term approach. I mean, it doesn't always work. Nothing always works, but you're giving yourself better odds. I think if you're taking the longer term approach, here's another thing I wanted to point out as a Vikings connection, but it's kind of funny trick plays. Oh, the trick plays.

I don't count an end around as a trick play, by the way, that's a common play handing the ball to a receiver. It's not a trick play, but flea flickers. Oh my gosh. Why does a team need flea flickers when they're running the ball like that? Kevin O'Connell, Andy Reed, Dan Campbell, they all do these trick plays. You don't need them. You don't need the trick plays. You can throw those out. So anyway, look, we've got San Francisco and Kansas City.

And also, you know, you talk about the discourse being kind of brutal. Lamar Jackson throws the ball to his wide receiver. This is the razor's edge. Throws the ball to his wide receiver. He's reaching out, fumbles the ball to his wide receiver. This is the razor's edge, throws the ball to his wide receiver. He's reaching out, fumbles the ball, and that costs Lamar Jackson a chance to go to the Super Bowl. And I will say that it has nothing to do with Taylor Swift for me, but I have some serious Chiefs fatigue. I enjoy the heck out of watching Patrick Mahomes play as I did Tom Brady. It's great watching the best, but I think that anybody who's an NBA fan can relate to this. When I was growing up, I loved Reggie Miller. I love Patrick Ewing. I love Charles Barkley. And they all lost over and over again to Michael Jordan.

And then if you are a fan of the East, the Eastern conference in the NBA for a very long time, when LeBron James was there star after star after star doesn't end up getting to the NBA finals because LeBron, LeBron, LeBron, LeBron, it feels the same way here with Patrick Mahomes that he has just been so good and they have a great defense, which made a big difference. Steve Spagnuolo had an amazing game and it's just unfortunate. You know, the Lamar Jackson is one of the greatest players in the world and he's going to get criticized for not throwing the ball well enough. I get it. That interception probably should have been a pass interference, and all the Kansas City gets all the calls.

People were out for sure, and they do get a lot, it seems. There was a pass interference, but he throws into triple coverage, and they fumble at the goal line, and that's what I mean. That's the razor's edge. We are this close to talking about Dan Campbell and his aggressive style being awesome and so much fun. And it got him to the Super Bowl. And instead we're saying he blew it. And we're this close to maybe Lamar Jackson scoring that past Zay Flowers.

And then getting back and beating the Chiefs and saying they slayed the Dragon. And instead we're not. So here we go to a super bowl that I think a lot of us probably could have seen coming at the very beginning of the year. And now, you know, uh, it's not a big surprise. And I was kind of hoping for something different was kind of hoping for something a little bit different. So, um, you know, there we are. So that's where we're at. I think my sense for the playoffs the entire time was this should be a big flag to the Vikings. There's a new state flag in Minnesota. And what it should say is move on, move on to the draft.

Someone asked me about Marcus Mariota as a bridge quarterback Something like that I prefer the Baker Mayfield idea But I mean, I don't mind it You know, with Mariota Look who he was playing with in Atlanta Arthur Smith, he got fired I don't mind it There should be a bridge quarterback

A drafted quarterback And create as much cap space as you can get going into 2025 Hope to hit on some draft picks and see what happens because that's your best shot. Your best shot is not bringing it back and trying to play with these teams that were here tonight. So it was, it was a weird playoffs. I mean, we got a couple of good games, but they ended in such tragic fashion, man. I mean, I'm sure some of you were thrilled that it ended in tragic fashion for green Bay and for Detroit, because those are your division

teams, but you feel like teams kind of gave it away more than it was earned. Almost a little bit like Philadelphia last year where they played the giants and then Brock Purdy got hurt. So, you know, but that's, uh, that's, that's where we're at. Mariota was boring on the Netflix show. Yes, he was Dan. I don't, I don't love the idea of Mariota by the way. I mean, it's okay. I'd rather have Baker. I think just because he's better, but I don't know.

Uh, Tim says, are there too many cooks in the kitchen? We're going to find that out. We are going to find that out, I think. But I mean, really, the main chefs, you know, you think of the general manager as the guy who does all the stuff. And that's true. Everything that happens is on Kweisi Adaflomense. And I have stayed in this spot spot and I'm going to stay there

for a while, no matter what Kyle Hamilton does or what Jamison Williams does, that we need to see how this off season plays out to start judging. Just like with your draft class, let's give it a couple of years. Okay. We're here. Let's give it some time with their most pivotal off season to make the pivotal decisions. And then we'll decide how we feel about competitive rebuild, how we feel about Kwesi Adafo-Mensah leading this thing. But he's not the master chef. He is in the kitchen and he may be the one doling out orders to the waiters and waitresses but the master chef is the i assume that's what they call it anybody in that industry i thought i mean i've seen enough like head chef honcho chef i swear it's like chef master or something isn't it but tell me if i'm wrong about that

anyway the wilfs the ownership they are the ones that are calling that shot. They're the ones that are saying, we're going to pick this overall direction. They're making that decision. So if you're Kweisi Daffomensa and the Wilfs say, we're making the decision to bring back Kirk, you don't really have a choice. It goes on him. Oh, executive chef. That's good. I like that. So the executive chef is the Wilfs and they have to, they have to make that call. And if you're just the one that gets the ingredients, but they're the ones that decide what meal you're making, then it's, it's pretty hard to say that it was just the general manager. I mean, it goes on him and he's got to make it work no matter what, but are they giving him a, just to try to carry this out,

are they giving him a meal he can't make? Are they giving him an assignment to make a meal that he can't get the ingredients for that no one would be able to? So I don't know. I think if you're the owners and you're huge football fans and you're watching the playoffs, I don't think you're saying,

hey man, wow, those 49ers and Lions, they're just like us. I would hope not, because that means they are not seeing it through very objective eyes, because I didn't see that. I saw a lot more talent than what the Vikings have right now. And they can get there, but they've got to go the right way. So anyway, well, we'll see what the executive chef, is there a show, something like a chef masters, or maybe that's like a competition. I don't know. Whatever. It doesn't matter. Uh, anyway, if, if Kwesi ignored

the Wilfs on draft day, would he be fired? Uh, maybe. Yeah, probably. Yeah. I mean, uh, this is a good question. Well good question well i mean yeah if you ignore your boss you get fired yes so that would happen top chef oh top chef maybe i should call them that they're the gordon ramsay of this thing except for they seem a little less psychotic uh ty d skull says is this the most frustrated you've seen vikings fans you know that's something that i've tried to factor in time is that every time we talk about this or they're watching kyle hamilton or whatever uh there's a lot of frustration that i think has been built up that just comes out in a lot of different ways and we were discussing this the other night with Christian Ponder and Vikings fans continually bring up Christian Ponder.

And it didn't feel like a logical discussion. It felt more of like, I'm really angry that this team is not where Detroit is and they're not where Green Bay is. We don't know who our future franchise quarterback is. That's how I was taking it from a lot of fans. And sometimes, because I always think of kind of the logical process of how to break this down and talk with you guys about it. Sometimes it just doesn't, I don't, I don't realize that in the moment that it's just frustration. It's been a long time. And now Brock Purdy has, well, how many home playoff wins is that three home playoff wins? Brock Purdy has three home playoff wins.

How many home playoff wins do the Minnesota Vikings have since 1998? Let's see. 2009 against Dallas, 2017 against new orleans is there another one i'm missing i don't think so so think about that brock purdy's only been a league two years has more home playoff wins now than the minnesota vikings have had since gary anderson missed left uh oh wait no yes it'd be the same because 2000 it was um that would have been uh jeff george thrown to randy moss right so that's a long time man it's 2024 that's exactly what it is it's the frustration that's built up year after year of just being like, meh, just being okay. Not good enough to ever be here in this weekend, only good enough to be talking about how you can get there. So I think that they have enough to work with as far as star talent and

as far as future pieces to be able to get there if they do it right, but it's not going to happen tomorrow. And I think it would be really refreshing when you talk about Vikings fans and I can't speak for everybody, but I think it would be very refreshing to have something different and to have that, like, remember when the lions went nine and eight and knocked off the green Bay Packers in green Bay, there was a feeling with Detroit that this is going somewhere. At the end of next year, you want to feel like this is going somewhere. That's where you want to feel. You don't want to feel like this went nowhere or even all we got a home playoff or even a home playoff game seems ludicrous at this point. We got a playoff game, right? Like no one

wants that. No one wants that. Even if the Vikings made the playoffs this playoff game right like no one wants that no one wants that even if the vikings made the playoffs this year no one no one wanted that no one wanted make the playoffs lose a game say good night no one wants that they want to find a way to break that streak we were just talking about that brock purdy has as many home playoff wins since you do since 1998 that's that's gotta change and it can't change it. Look, how did Detroit change this? This think about Detroit should take this level of a curse that they lose by three points, the NFC championship, because think about where they were for a long time with Matt Stafford. They just kept trying and trying and trying. They couldn't do it. And they had to say,

we've got to be a little more radical about this. And they were, um, golf. Juliet Bravo says, uh, the highlight video, the Vikings posted recently for Ty Chandler and Alexander Madison was mostly Chandler running really hungry and hard.

And then there were two screenplays to Madison. I don't want to be too snarky, uh, cause Alexander Madison's a class guy, but did he drop the screens? I'm sorry. I couldn't help it. Ty Chandler should be an RB1 going into next year,

but it needs to be even better than that. It needs to be offensive line. It needs to be system. It needs to be all those things. Bubby Brister was the backup quarterback in 2000. That's awesome. I love Bubby Brister. Here's another guy who like was

had such a fun journeyman career. Anyway, why don't we end the show on, uh, Bobby Brister? That seems like a great place to do it. So, uh, there's a lot to discuss and all the usual suspects will be back. Manny, of course, tomorrow night, again, if you're new, welcome check out purple insider.com to find out all the magical things, the newsletter, all of my writing, all that stuff is there. And we do this all the time with these live chats with fans. There were so many people, which is awesome. It was hard to keep up a little bit for me. A lot of times, though, I get a lot more of your comments up on the screen. I was a little fired up tonight. always do that and uh subscribe like do all those things that people do and

hopefully we'll see you back here more often because again manny and i are going to be on monday and thursday i'll probably pop in wednesday night to do a chat with fans and uh you know we've got jeremiah searles former viking doing the show on Tuesday. It's going to be great. Lots of great stuff to come. So thanks so much. Oh, and we also have the Senior Bowl, which we have a Senior Bowl correspondent. His name is Terry. He'll be checking in with us next week.

He's not fake. He's a real guy. And his name is actually Terry. That sounds like something I would make up as like a gag. Like, let's call Terry on the phone. It's just me being dope about the draft. But no, it's a real guy. So we're going to hear about Pennix, Bo Nix, what's going on at the senior bowl, all that stuff. So thanks everybody again for watching. And wow, we have reached almost the end, almost the end. We'll catch you guys later football.