Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - New Vikings general manager candidates revealed (Part 1)
Episode Date: May 14, 2026Matthew Coller gives his thoughts on new candidates for the Minnesota Vikings general manager position. They have something in common with the first batch of potential GMs as the search is underway. P...lus the Vikings are playing in Mexico City in November. Do we like international games? And Matthew's ranking of opponents that improved the most. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fanduil.
Matthew Collar here.
And we have another very open evening here for conversation.
So if you want to jump in the chat right now, questions, thoughts, comments, I'm actually
curious if you want to start out here with just what are you talking about with your friends
about the Vikings right now?
Because I'm going to have an update on the GM search.
And we've got the schedule coming out tomorrow.
I'll be going live as soon as the schedule drops.
We were scheduled to have Manning Hill, but he's at a family thing.
Probably won't be able to join tomorrow night.
But that will not stop me from breaking down the schedule game by game, picking it along with you guys for the very first time talking about best road trips and toughest matchups and toughest runs of games and all that sort of stuff tomorrow night.
But what about right now?
Like, what are you debating?
What are you having discussions with with your friends in terms of topics?
because I was golfing yesterday with Dane Mizatani and Myron McCaff and Sam Ekstrom,
a couple of my friends,
and we were in the wind blown around like crazy.
And we were actually having the conversation about NFC teams because I was telling them
about the power rankings.
And we were going back and forth for like three holes about like, well,
what if Chicago, you know, gets Caleb Williams to take the next step?
And yeah, but they don't have a pass rush.
And what about the lions?
Like what if they're, you know, finally healthy and they have this offense that's fantastic,
but the defense finally stays together.
So we were going back and forth.
What have you guys been talking about as the schedule gets to release?
But we've got a lot of time here.
I've got a few things I want to go through.
And since I do not enjoy strength of schedule very much, I have a list of the teams that are the most and least improved that will be facing the Minnesota
to Vikings this year, so we'll get to that as well.
So why don't we jump right in to the new GM?
I almost said improved, but they kind of seem almost exactly the same.
General manager candidates, my friends.
Tom Pelliserro reports that the Vikings have requested interviews with Detroit Lions
assistant GM Ray Agnew, Broncos assisted GM Reid Burkart, and Dolphins assisted GM,
Kyle Smith, for their general manager job.
Yes, you've probably noticed something that ever.
Every single one of these candidates so far has been an assistant general manager.
And I'm going to run through their backgrounds.
And you're not going to be shocked by any of the backgrounds.
It's not going to be, hey, this guy came from the woodworking world.
And now he's a general manager or this guy invented a data machine that plugs out all the different best draft picks up.
No, these are very similar to our first batch of candidates.
So why don't we jump into each gentleman?
that is going to be interviewed for the job.
Kyle Smith, the current assistant general manager of the Miami Dolphins,
just became the assistant GM of the Dolphins.
He was previously the assistant general manager of the Atlanta Falcons under Troy Fontno.
And before that, he worked in scouting.
That's where he started as a scouting intern in 2010 in Washington, D.C.,
eventually became the commander's VP.
of player personnel in 2020 and has worked his way up the ladder.
Our next GM candidate for the Vikings is actually the first GM candidate who I have played
golf with, and that is Reed Burkart, the assistant general manager of the Denver Broncos.
Pre-COVID, the Vikings used to have a media golf tournament.
It wasn't really a tournament because if we kept score, I don't know, right?
It might get ugly.
But one time I was paired with Courtney Cronin, Rob Brzezinski, and Reed, and we played nine holes together, and it was a grand time.
That was quite a few years ago when Reed was part of the Minnesota Vikings scouting staff.
And then he got bumped up to director of pro scouting under Rick Spielman.
I do know that Reed is a very sharp guy and is very highly thought of.
Otherwise, he would not have been hired by George Payton to go out to the Denver Broncos.
they've built a phenomenal, phenomenal roster out there.
And I know that, you know, there is a perception that Sean Peyton is just pulling every string and, you know,
everybody else just kind of works for him.
And there's some truth to that.
It is a coach-led franchise.
But George Peyton and Sean Payton, yeah, that's right.
And Sean Payton have worked together very closely.
And Reed has been a huge part of their success, building a roster out there.
And Reed was a big part of building Vikings rosters.
under Rick Spielman as a scout and then moved his way up the scouting department in Minnesota.
So a lot of success there for Reed and a connection with the Minnesota Vikings.
And then so he's on the younger side.
And I mean younger is.
He's old enough to have been, you know, with the Vikings for 13 seasons.
And then now the director of player personnel then up to AGM with the Broncos since 2022.
But compared to our next candidate.
who's been around quite a bit longer in the NFL, that is Ray Agnew of the Detroit Lions.
So he joined the Lions in 2021 as their director of pro scouting and then worked for the Los Angeles Rams.
So we have another connection here with Kevin O'Connell working for the Los Angeles Rams for 18 seasons as a scout.
And then Ray Agnew played in the National Football League for 10 years with the Patriots, Giants, and Rams.
And I did want to include one other note as we look at the GM candidates here, which is that
Albert Breer reported that when they're starting these first round of interviews, usually the way
this goes is they have the Zoom interviews, everybody gets together on a Zoom call, and then they'll
have the in person. That's when they fly them in. If you remember the famous, you know, Jim Harbaugh's in
Minnesota, well, they'll fly them in. Then they'll have the more, you know, kind of intense meetings
with the GM candidates and eventually make a decision. But Albert Breer reported that Kevin O'Connell
is a part of the Zoom meetings with the Wilf's Willf family. And it also sounds like from a couple
reports that it is kind of a small group that are meeting with these GM candidates. So they don't have,
you know, I don't know, 50 people that are involved.
O'Connell said the other day that he would be as involved as the Wulfs want him to be.
And it makes a lot of sense if they want O'Connell and they believe O'Connell is the right guy
to be at the very head of the snake of the franchise, that he gets someone like a Ray Agnew
that would be connected to him or that gels very well with him.
It doesn't have to be someone from the Los Angeles Rams.
John Mackey was the other one from the Rams, their current AGM.
But once again, what we have here,
with our list of candidates is all AGMs with all scouting backgrounds.
And I do want to be clear that I am absolutely not against the scouting backgrounds.
It's just become very obvious what the Wulfs are looking for here.
And I think that it represents a shift in their thinking toward building through the draft
in the future and building for a longer window.
I'm sure that every team in the NFL would love to build through the draft, hit on every
draft pick, and just it would be glorious to just draft every year, seven great players
and build a franchise that way.
But I think that after really not just under Quasi Adolfo, Menta, many years of being
largely ineffective in the draft.
And if you go back, there are some good players that come out of it.
It's Josh Mattelis.
It's Cam Bynum.
but really since 2015, and I look this up, and there's a couple of different ways of
valuing drafts and who ranks where, but there's a website called Per 36, which has some
very interesting draft data in there, and it's got kind of a valuing system.
And the Vikings have only with any of their drafts since 2015, they only ranked in the top
15 in the league in value that they got one time.
and it was because of Justin Jefferson in 2020.
That's a really long time to be a mediocre drafting team.
You've got to be better than that.
And I know that a good percentage of that is, hey, if you would hit on JJ McCarthy,
that would be way more valuable.
And also a good percentage of that is you've always won,
or at least relatively one.
From 2015 to right now, the worst Viking season was seven wins.
And if you're going to end up with seven,
to 14 wins all the time and you're never going to draft in the top 10.
I mean, even Seattle had multiple top 10 draft picks in building that team.
Even though they remained competitive, they had the trade for Russell Wilson that worked
out brilliantly.
And then they had, I think Charles Cross was a ninth overall draft pick.
They picked, I think 16th was Gray's able.
So a lot of times if you're drafting always in the 20s, then it's going to be a lot
harder, but the way to counteract that is stockpiling draft picks, putting an emphasis on it,
letting players go like Jonathan Granard to get two extra third round draft picks, or just
letting go veteran players even to just get comp picks, which can be hard to do when you're
constantly playing in this world of, oh, we just won a lot of games.
Now we have to react to that and spend a bunch of money in free agency, which means that you are
not going to get any comp picks when any of your guys leave because that counteracts it,
it just feels like they are going for a bit of a change to the way that they have had
their rosters built over really a number of years now.
It's trading a first round pick for Sam Bradford, which could have, should have worked
out in 2017, but didn't.
It's trading draft capital for T.J. Hawkinson.
It's trading draft capital to move up for Dallas.
Turner, it's right? There's just been a lot of that. Uh, and maybe not as much.
We're going to put all the emphasis on building through the draft. And I think a major part
two is that in previous years, and this is going back pre-pandemic, but it's really been a thing
after is once the Amazon started showing up, once the YouTube's and the Netflix is
started showing up and putting games on TV. And there was this acceleration of revenue.
for the NFL, that meant the salary cap went up and up and up every single year more than
was even projected, which has allowed a lot of teams to keep their free agents.
You almost never hear if a team wants to keep a player they drafted, you almost never hear
of, well, they just can't afford it.
You just don't hear that.
And so if you're going to play in free agency, then you basically either have to get super,
super lucky like the Vikings did with Cashman and Grinard and Van Ginkle, all.
all being better than they had ever been before when they showed up here,
or you can put your eggs into the draft basket and then sprinkle in free agents.
Joanne Jennings is a perfect example of how you manage free agency.
It's, all right, I'm going to let somebody else pay, and I feel bad.
I've used this example a few times, but what, like, it's just a crazy overpay to me.
Quitty pay getting like $16 million or Romeo Dobbs getting 17 million.
We're going to let other teams do that and instead get a number three wide receiver.
Or here's an Eric Wilson, another linebacker, an Isaiah Rogers, an outside corner that are plugging gaps on a roster rather than, hey, let's go out into free agency and build a foundation.
That's just really hard to do.
And I think that, you know, maybe in a different world had 2022's draft worked out, the Vikings would have done that.
but they've been playing from behind for such a long time
that I think that the way that they're approaching this GM search says
they don't want to do that anymore.
So there's pretty much all the thoughts on the new candidates.
They're just like the old candidates,
but that doesn't mean they're all the same person.
A lot of different organizations, a lot of different philosophies.
The Rams' connections are obvious,
but it's interesting with Detroit because Detroit's been kind of a,
we don't care what anyone else thinks about the draft.
kind of team and it worked for a short amount of time, but then hasn't worked recently.
But he was, you know, Ray Agnew was a longtime NFL player and Reed Burkhart's on the younger
side of a riser and, you know, the same thing for Kyle Smith.
So they're looking, I think, at a lot of different people from a lot of different teams and a
lot of people with different backgrounds.
And what it feels like they want to do is see who jell's the best with Kevin O'Connell and
that fits most with.
the way they want to do this.
And also, who wants to be here with their structure?
I mean, if they want to keep, this is where someone like Reed Burkart and Terrence Gray would come
into potentially the mix is that there's a lot of people in the front office who have been
in the front office for a long time, do you want to come in and manage them?
Because it doesn't seem like the Vikings are going to just blow out everybody.
So are you willing to, you know, do it on their terms as well.
be in a certain type of position.
Reed is also very familiar with Rob Brzynski,
you know, as his former golf partner in a Vikings media tournament 2019.
But, well, truly, like, very, very familiar with that setup because Rob's going to be a part
of this in some way or another.
I think Rob should be the president and then the GM below him.
But if that's the way they want to do it, then whoever their candidates are have to agree
that that's also how they're comfortable,
becoming a general manager if someone else were to have, you know, the final say or maybe veto power or whatever it might be.
So there's a lot of layers to work through.
And we'll see how that plays out.
But I don't have really a timeline for when this is going to happen.
But I think we get a very good sense of the type of person that they're looking for.
The other news today for the Vikings is that they are going to play in Mexico City.
And I was a little surprised by the fact that the Vikings are.
going to play in Mexico City because I thought after two games internationally last year,
doesn't that buy you a year of not having to play internationally?
But Mexico City is not quite as intense as two back-to-back games, which turned out to be a lot for the Vikings.
And I think where it was very hard was maybe they didn't anticipate was injuries and players
recovering and who's practicing.
You don't have TCO Performance Center when you're going overseas for two weeks.
So I don't know if we'll ever see a team do that again.
But going to Mexico City, November 22nd to play the San Francisco 49ers,
what this does do is it mitigates an away game.
So, I mean, this is a neutral site, even though it's, I guess, closer to San Francisco.
I mean, right?
I don't know if I think people who show up will just be either travelers that go there,
or football fans in Mexico City.
So it'll be much more of a neutral site game.
I think this benefits the Vikings a lot because now when you think about their schedule,
it's nine home games and seven away games and one neutral site game.
And they don't have to go to San Francisco,
which has not been a very friendly place to them in recent years.
But I was a little bit surprised.
I mean, I guess in terms of trips,
that might be one that people want to take in November.
city might be pretty cool, but the Vikings having to go over, well, not overseas,
uh, over land, over a lot of more land, I guess to get there.
Although I made the joke that the 49ers are as close to San Francisco as where they
actually play as they are in Mexico City because Santa Clara is nowhere near San Francisco,
as everyone found out when the Super Bowl was there.
But, um, I guess a net positive for the Vikings and it will be interesting, you know,
the broadcast.
There's always a bunch of things.
the elevation, the turf.
There's just these different things that come up with these international games.
And the Vikings have mostly had success in doing them.
So they will be doing it again.
Then I was looking at something the other day.
This is a graphic.
I want to show you a graphic that the NFL put out on their social media.
This is from, you know, the National Football League.
I didn't make this.
And it shows strength of schedule rankings.
And this always drives me.
So this is their graphic that I'm showing here where it ranks the strength of schedule.
And what it's ranked by is opponent win percentage in 2025.
And what's odd to me is that that doesn't make any sense because teams change by so much.
So this has the Vikings as having one of the 10 most difficult schedules in 2020.
but there's a lot of things that have changed since 2025.
There's always teams that go worse to first.
There's always teams that make big improvements.
There's always teams that have injuries.
There's always teams that are tanking now after going all in and whatever else.
So I made this.
I made this list right here of the most improved Vikings opponents on the eve of the schedule release.
So I'm going to run down my list and then we will get to your questions.
We'll get a fan dual question of the day mixed into our life here and we will go from there.
But let's just start out with this.
My most improved Vikings opponents, I'm going to start with the New York Jets.
The New York Jets are way better than they were last year because they were a crime against humanity last year.
But they've brought in Gino Smith, who is not good, but also much better than Brady Cook and whoever else was playing quarterback for the Jets last year.
they have added three first round draft picks that should all play right away,
including DeAngelo Pons in the second round.
So that's really four guys that could be impact players right away in the draft.
They went and got some veteran players, including DeMario Davis.
They kept Breece Hall.
Now, it's still a down on their part that Aaron Glenn is still their head coach
because just didn't look like he was really up for the job last year.
They also had about the worst roster that you could ever have last season.
have improved enormously around Gino Smith this year.
That doesn't mean they're good.
It just means they're most improved.
The commanders are number two on my list.
They've added a lot in free agency.
They get Sunny Stiles in the draft.
And they get Jaden Daniels back,
which I included for most improved because they get their starting quarterback back.
But also they hired Durante Jones,
who I think is going to be great for the Vikings.
or I'm sorry, former Viking defense coordinator who I think is going to be great for the commanders.
Number three on my list is the Carolina Panthers, big spenders and free agency.
They went and got Jalen Phillips.
They got Devin Lloyd linebacker, impact player.
They drafted some potential starters or impact players weapons around Bryce Young, Chris Brazzell,
two offensive linemen that could potentially help them.
Defensive tackle, Lee Hunter.
I thought Carolina did a lot to get better and spend.
New Orleans also getting Jordan Tyson in the draft.
They're number four on my list.
Not just that, but they've made other additions to that team.
Travis E.T.N was probably the biggest one.
And if Tyler Shuck takes a big step forward, then the Saints can be much better.
So there's like four of the opponents that you probably would have gone,
okay, well, they weren't that good last year.
Their records weren't that good last year.
But they could all be a lot better.
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The bills are next.
They got Bradley Chubb.
They had a solid draft, a couple second rounders that could make an impact.
but it really falls off from those first four of teams that may have completely overhauled their teams.
It's more of just, you know, one addition here or there.
But the bill's got DJ Moore.
And that's, you know, a guy who's falling off from where he was two years ago.
But still, we've seen DJ Moore be really good against the Minnesota Vikings.
And he's probably Josh Allen's best receiver since Stefan Diggs.
So that's big for them.
Mike Evans goes to San Francisco.
They do lose Joanne Jennings.
They largely stayed the same.
They're sixth on my list.
The Patriots, you know what?
I baked into the Patriots being seventh is that they get A.J. Brown.
It seems like the most thing that's going to happen thing that I've ever heard of.
It's like the deal has been done for a long time, but they can't do it until after June 1st.
So we wait.
But I bake that in, assuming that it's going to happen.
And we're finding out, you know, that the insider who was pushing it was very credible on the New England Patriots,
or at least very dialed in.
So I'm including that as an improvement for that.
over Stefan Diggs didn't make huge, huge moves in the offseason, but I'm putting them number
seven. Detroit is eight, and this is the group that didn't really change very much.
Detroit didn't make a lot of huge moves, didn't have any splashy draft picks, but they're still
solid and they made a couple additions.
That's the middle of the list.
Same with the Packers.
The Bears, this is where the list goes the other way.
Packers are the same exact team relying on the same exact stuff, so they didn't do
much outside of getting Javon Hargrave.
10th on my list is the Bears who probably got worse overall.
They lost several players in the secondary, did not improve on the defensive line,
and lost Drew Dalman and try to replace him with two undersized centers,
not going to likely be the same from last year.
The Bucks losing Mike Evans and losing Rashad White,
not doing a whole lot to improve that.
They did get Ruben Bain, who I think is going to be good.
but losing Mike Evans is just huge.
Indianapolis barely did anything in the off season other than keep Daniel Jones.
They didn't have any money.
They are 12th.
Atlanta got Tua, which I don't think makes you better.
And they're 13th.
I'm not sure that they had, because they traded their first round pick,
I'm not sure they had a single impact move the entire offseason.
And then the dolphins are intentionally trying to lose.
So they did get Malik Willis, which helps them.
but they are the least improved team.
They have like seven gazillion dollars in dead cap.
They cut everybody and they've torn it down basically to the screws.
They have no weapons for their starting quarterback.
So they are 14.
There you go.
And the dolphins weren't that bad last year.
They were a middling team.
So that's why last year's record, when we look at these,
last year's record might mean something for Detroit,
Green Bay, in Chicago because they're very similar.
But certainly not for a team like the Jets and certainly not for a team like the
dolphins. The Jets are much harder of an opponent and the dolphins are not much harder of an opponent at all.
So there is your list. You can tell me if you agree or disagree with the most or least improved
opponents for the Minnesota Vikings coming up. I'm very excited about the schedule coming out and
we're going to have a really fun show tomorrow night to break that down. So here is, here's the
Fan dual question of the day.
I'll get to the fan chat in just a second, but real quick,
fan dual question of the day.
So I noticed that today was the day that the shows, you know, the TV shows, they argue
with each other, started to debate where does Kyler Murray rank in the NFC North for
quarterbacks. And some had him as first, some had him as fourth. And so I'm interested in
what you think of that. But here's what I keep coming back to with Kyler Murray is that Justin
Jefferson has a chance at a bounce back year. So Justin Jefferson right now is plus 1,700 for
offensive player of the year on Fanduil. I want you to tell me what you think Justin Jefferson is going
to do if Kyler Murray can start 17 games.
Can he win off it's a player of the year?
1,500 yards.
What is it going to be?
And if you want to answer the question of where Kyler can rank in those top four
teams in the NFC North, then feel free to do so.
So there's your fan dual question of the day.
Now let's get to your questions, comments, thoughts, feelings, and whatever is on your
guy's mind, I am absolutely down to chat about.
Very curious.
I threw it out there early in the show about what.
What you're talking about, the water cooler, if you have one or your group chat or your Zoom meetings before the boss gets there regarding the Vikings, not regarding anything else.
Okay.
Evan says, I knew we'd get a podcast before Jaron Hall's retirement or for Jaron Hall's.
I didn't know that Jaron Hall retired, but I'm happy for him, I think, because he should retire.
Look, Jaron was a hardworking guy, but I think he would actually.
make a better quarterbacks coach, then he's going to make a quarterback in the NFL.
And the hit that he took against Atlanta was so nasty that I, it just, some folks are not really
made for this physically in terms of size, speed, arm, power, violence. And that was Jaron.
Some cannot play at the speed of the NFL. And that was him. And it happens all the time,
but when it happens to a quarterback, it can get really ugly.
If it happens to a strong safety, you might never notice it in a game.
He might be out there backpedal it all night long and you don't ever realize it.
But, you know, when it comes to a quarterback, it's going to be pretty obvious.
So, uh, okay.
Pizza Gary.
Uh, thank you for the super chat, sir.
Really appreciate that.
Says, uh, it's going to be funny when Kyler's six and two dinged up,
McCarthy comes in, loses the first two, but then rattles off five in a row only to get hurt to have Wentz take us to the promised land.
Okay, well, you've already, and look, this, what's going to come along with the schedule launch is going to be, you know,
we're going to pick the schedule, but we're also going to kind of lay out what we think of the games and make some predictions and things like that.
So that's yours.
That's a funny one.
It's probably the most Vikings way.
I've always said that if the Vikings do win the Super Bowl, it has to be weird.
It can't be that they just draft a top five quarterback and he plays great and they win the Super Bowl.
It's got to be something that makes absolutely no sense.
But you do touch on something, Pizza Gary, that has been on my mind a lot.
And I did an appearance.
I don't know when it's coming out soon.
I recorded with Bucky Brooks on his show.
And he was talking about, you know, the quarterback situation.
And my thing for J.J. McCarthy is that I hope for his sake that he really truly embraces his opportunity here to get better.
I don't think that it is a true competition as in Kevin O'Connell is sitting there counting which guy had more good throws each day and putting him in a spreadsheet and saying, oh, well, you know, McCarthy's got a one throw lead on Kyler going into the last preseason game.
No, I don't, I don't think it's like that.
Kyler is a very good NFL quarterback, so he's going to start.
But, you know, McCarthy, as you said with Kyler, could get opportunities to play and is very likely to and can develop during this time and be healthy and be ready to do it.
We don't have to write someone off after such a short period of time.
And I was saying to Bucky that I feel like the rookie quarterback contract has made us all think.
that we have to have the guy or his entire story is told in the first year or two.
And teams have treated it this way.
So it's not just you and I.
It's teams have treated it this way too that the story has to be written on a quarterback
that quickly, even though historically a lot of quarterbacks have turned corners
after several seasons in the NFL.
So if J.J. McCarthy really truly embraces this and treats it as a great opportunity
to get much better over the summer and into the season,
then I think he can have long-term big-time benefits from that
and eventually become the quarterback that people thought he was going to be
and possibly prove it to the organization still.
None of it is completely off the table.
You know, just because, you know, people make memes or whatever
about JJ not being any good or something doesn't mean, as we saw from Sam Darnold,
just because the world decides exactly what you are in your first,
couple of starts doesn't mean you have to be that.
So I think if he treats it like an opportunity rather than a setback that he can make the
most of it.
But, you know, your scenario, it's not crazy.
It's not crazy in some ways.
That's for sure.
Is this Sneedly says it will end up being one of KOC's minions as a GM?
I mean, I'm not so sure that I would say minions exactly when you're talking about.
people who have played in the NFL like Ray Agnew and worked for the best organization in football,
the Los Angeles Rams, and then went to another organization that's completely turned around
under Brad Holmes and drafted well and built their franchise well and success.
I mean, if you're saying that's just a KOC minion, I feel like that's pretty disrespectful
to former NFL player and pretty nasty defensive tackle in his day, Ray Agnew.
So I don't know it's going to be like that.
But the relationship between the GM and the head coach is going to be very interesting.
And is it a, you want it to be a collaboration, but is it a situation like we had over the summer,
which I thought worked very well where you had a decision maker who was the guardrails
and who was operating, you know, the meetings and everything else and then managing the assets
and making final decision?
because Prisinski did have final say over any sort of roster move and decision,
that doesn't mean that he was, you know, holding a gavel and saying,
no, we will not overspend for your favorite tailback.
Like, I don't think it was like that.
But if you want someone who's presiding over those meetings,
coming to conclusions as a group and COC having a big voice in that,
but also the general manager having the credibility like a Ray Agnew, I would say,
to say, I'm sorry, we're just not going to do that.
Like, that's not good for us as a long-term franchise.
That's probably the best way that you can go about it is to have somebody that has that
final decision-making power, but of course is working closely with Kevin O'Connell.
And I guess I see your point, though, even though you put it in that way, I see what you're
saying is, is it going to be someone who basically just works for Kevin O'Connell?
Like, you go get me this.
you go get me that.
And I think we saw with at least Brzezinski there that it probably didn't work that way.
I'm sure they would have loved to have kept Jonathan Grenard.
And I, I'm sure that there were a few free agents as they were keeping their powder dry and
trying to be as patient as possible that they wanted to, hey, can we jump at those free agents?
And it was managed the right way.
So I think you want somebody to come in and have it be very similar to what it's been with
Rob Brzezinski in the relationship with Kevin O'Connell.
coming to conclusions as a group seems to be something that's very important to the
whelves.
They don't seem to want like that one towering figure who is like the face of the franchise
GM like a Howie Roseman or a Les Sneed.
But they are clearly looking for people who can take on the other part of the offseason
that the coaches only get involved in late in the process.
Like Kyle Shanahan pulled back the curtain a little too far and got ripped on
the internet for it when he said, yeah, pretty much I have like 200 players that I'm going through
that they've presented to me, the scouting staff. And I'm, and I just look at the highlight cutups
first. And if I don't like them, we're not drafting that player. It's like what? But yeah, I mean,
the coaches, they don't have the time to go through the whole process that the college scouts and so
forth do. So they want somebody who has managed that side or is going to manage that side and then
be able to loop in the coaches when it's time for the draft.
So it's an interesting process, though, and an interesting relationship there, I think,
that they're going to have.
Pizza, Gary says, my friends like other teams, they say nothing positive about our offseason,
but your podcast has made me realize, especially through your guests,
that it was a pretty good off season.
I would say it was.
I mean, I think the issue, Gary, is just that it took a long time to
present itself that we got to free agency and we went okay restructure some contracts rob get some
free agents we're we're live on the purple insider channel do something and then they did nothing
it was like okay what's going on is is rob it does rob work here any did he do we hear the tires
squeal out of the parking lot in the back like rob said screw you guys I'm not doing free agents
No, that's not what happened.
They were just patient.
And they waited and they had to wait even past when free agency started.
If you remember, for Kyler Murray to make his decisions.
So we didn't know what they were doing at quarterback.
There was a lot of things that were unclear.
And then we get to the end of free agency and look at the roster and go,
there's some pretty big holes here in this roster.
And then they end up with a draft that addresses.
is some of the biggest holes at defensive tackle.
They end up with Joanne Jennings at the end of the rainbow here.
After everything is settled and they don't have to give up any comp pick for that to sign
Joanne Jennings because it was past the deadline.
So I think because it was a slower offseason, the way that it played out, like if all
of this stuff happened on day one, if they signed Joanne Jennings on day one, then we would
have felt very differently about it.
But it's much better to sign him after you don't have any.
penalty for compics.
And then the trade of Jonathan Grenard is also something that I think if you are on
the outside, you're like, well, you just got worse.
And it is very possible that they did if Dallas Turner can't rise to the occasion.
But you can see the vision of a little longer term setting yourself up for much more flexibility
into the future, which is ultimately good for them.
But it was not an offseason that was flashy or that was going to catch anybody's attention.
but you go position by position.
Safety is definitely one that still has a lot of questions there.
But aside from that, it's a subtle improvement at receiver.
It's a subtle improvement in the backfield.
It's a subtle improvement in depth in the offensive line.
You know what does not get your friends talking to you at work about the Minnesota Vikings
is Ryan Van Damark.
But you know what?
We'll make you very happy in week eight if Christian Darrasaw can't play.
Ryan Van Damark, not being just in school.
So those types of things.
And look, defensive tackles and a versatile outside linebacker, wow, I could just hear Mel Kiper arguing with whoever on TV.
Right.
Like it just was not controversial at all.
And Kyler is the only part of it that is a needle mover.
And I think we've been over that a lot that people just don't think Kyler's any good outside of people who have actually covered Kyler.
like the guests that I had on the show,
or the Vikings who can see
where he could take this offense potentially
with way more, way more, way more support
than he's had in Arizona.
So yeah, I think it takes looking like very closely
to kind of really get it.
Alexander, it would be a home run move
to hire Agnew from the Lions
as the new GM elevate Rob to President of Football Operations
and block the Lions from getting two third round
comp picks. Now you're playing,
that's, well, that's what happens.
You're referencing what happened with the Atlanta Falcons hiring Ian Cunningham.
So they hired him.
But technically Matt Ryan is the top decision maker.
So they did not get comp picks for hiring a minority.
And it's, you know, been a huge thing in Chicago.
Those people, you know, their fans are very angry that they didn't get the extra draft
picks.
And realistically, they probably should have.
but that the NFL, this is according to Kail and Kaler, VSPN, when she was on the show the other day,
she said the NFL only recognizes one decision maker for each team.
So if it was Rob, then it would not be Ray Agnew, but you're really, you're really playing the 3D chess game by bringing that up.
But, you know, Agnew is very, very, very experienced in the NFL.
And with two organizations that have had to build, the Rams, he was there before they,
found, you know, all the talent that they had. It helped that they got Jared Gough as a successful
top draft pick and then traded him for another successful starting quarterback, but they really had
to build a team in Los Angeles. They were a mess under Jeff Fisher. And so they built that team up.
They built the lions up from the dirt. And it is a team that, you know, both those squads kind of
went to the bottom at one point. And, you know, I don't think the wulfs are ever going to accept that.
but maybe someone with a longer-term vision, a year-over-year type of way of looking at it,
as opposed to, oh, my gosh, we're really good.
Now what do we do?
Spend all the money, which, look, last off-season leading up to it,
it made a lot of sense to do.
It made a lot of sense to spend a lot of money around J.J. McCarthy to chips to the
middle of the table, rookie quarterback contract.
It's worked before.
but when you make five or six decisions that on day one of that decision you go,
okay, I see it, but is that the right investment?
Is that the right amount of money you should be spending on that guy?
Is that a player coming off an injury who hasn't produced in two or three years?
Or is that someone you should really be keeping at that dollar figure?
You want someone who's going to manage it a little more methodically than that
than as opposed to reactionary.
So Ray Agnew, I think, would understand that.
You know, when you're with multiple excellent organizations,
you bring along a certain amount of credibility with that.
Dennis, what is, what time frame do you think that we're expecting for a GM decision?
So I saw Jonathan Jones of CBS kind of tossed it out there where there's some league meanings coming up.
Those are ones that, I don't know, we usually don't go to.
Sometimes Mark Wilf talks at them, but usually it's not like a big media event.
So there's some league meetings.
There's Memorial Day.
Maybe after that is when they'll get candidates in for meetings and such and then make a decision.
But, I mean, I don't know.
They haven't sent us a schedule.
I would just guess that they would want to get this done maybe before minicamp.
But the way that things work out is just in general, you have your mini camp in the middle of June or early June.
And then everybody's off for six weeks.
and then the whole season starts with training camp.
Maybe you want to get the person in for just a little taste of here's your roster,
here's what it looks like for a couple practices,
here's what the building's like,
here's how you use the elevator or whatever,
like the different stuff like that,
get that person a little bit comfortable before real things start happening.
That would make sense to me,
but, you know, I don't know exactly.
Usually these teams are on a very serious time crunch.
it's like we just fired our GM we got to hire a new one two or three weeks later bang but they don't
really have to feel too pressured when the season doesn't start for a while and you have to make
decisions on players in training camp so that's a ways out you don't have many roster decisions to
make now i would like to see them maybe get an outside linebacker to help but that's really it
so yeah i mean uh goblins is probably at the end of the month that would make the most sense to me
Jay, do you think that Rob Borsinski can say a hard no in future drafts?
I think he could have about a center during this year's draft.
I don't really understand that.
But so I'm on the fence about Rob B for the future.
You mean that he could have, like, demanded that they draft a center?
Well, they're not going to do that under any GM.
Like Eric DeCost that talked about this from the Rams, any GM is not going to reach from
what they think their draft.
board say about a certain position.
And he admitted that they got a little bit fooled on the centers where they thought they
were going to go in the third round and they went in the second.
And they were taken aback by that when Logan Jones and Jake Slaughter went.
And it was clear that the league had those two way above someone like Sam Hacked,
who was kind of tossed out there as another guy who could be drafted that high.
So I guess it reads like you wanted him to sort of pound the table to get a center.
Rob in the draft room.
Now, if they hire one of these general managers and not Rob and make him,
even they make him the president of the team and give him final say or whatever,
he's not going to come in as a salary cap guy through his entire career and say,
sorry scouts,
sorry acting GM or GM next GM.
We are drafting this guy.
Like, that's not how it's going to work.
It's going to be about operating, you know,
overseeing the whole process in the draft and working with directly the general manager
through that.
But the next GM is going to be a scout person who's done this for a long time, who's been
in many draft rooms and has gone through that process a lot.
And they're going to set boards and they're going to draft off their boards.
And it's probably not going to be very different from the way that it was done during
Spielman or any other place in the NFL.
Like, there's only so many different ways to, you know, draft.
Oh, look at this.
We've got Devon A. Chan.
This is a little small breaking news that has nothing to do with the Vikings.
But Devon A. Chan reached a contract extension with the Dolphins.
So I guess that means, even though that idea was already long gone, I guess it's like extra long gone now.
But the point about, you know, Rob and the GM is that they're going to work together.
But the GM is going to be there to run that draft.
process and they'll make the decisions on should you draft this guy or that guy.
But Rob with his background wouldn't be the one to do that.
And I think you might want a GM who says, this is the way we're going because I say so.
You want that kind of final say situation, but they're going to run the entire process.
Where I would be curious for the next GM is if there was disagreement with the coaches.
If the next GM, because they ran into this with Zimmer and Spielman in that 22,
21 draft that really started to sour their relationship because they had gotten along really
well building the teams before.
And then in 2021, it was Wyatt Davis.
It was Chaz Surratt.
It was Kellyn Mond.
And I think it was the Mond pick where Zimmer walked out of the room.
Like, is the next GM going to be willing to say, hey, Brian Flores, I know you like this
player, but I'm not overdrafting him here?
And like, do you have that credibility and that authority to be able to do that?
that's kind of the question.
Jarrell says the offense will have more success than the defense this season,
but defense will be absolutely no slouch.
You know, that might be true if Kyler is able to perform at the peak level of Kyler,
which they're going to give him everything they possibly can to do that.
And in terms of the defense, on paper right now, they should decline a bit.
But I also think that,
when we look at this schedule tomorrow,
that we're going to go,
I don't think that there's as much scary there
as there's been into previous seasons.
You know, last year was a pretty tough schedule
that they faced overall.
And the north is going to be tough.
But Atlanta's quarterback situation,
Miami's, the Jets,
there's a lot of teams that,
I mean, even Baker Mayfield or Tyler Shuck,
there's either unproven
or just flat out not that great.
A lot of quarterback situations in the NFL going against the Vikings.
And they have now nine home games, one neutral site, and seven road,
which I think helps them a lot defensively to have more home games.
So I don't know, like Flores always seems to find a way.
You look at last year, they had all the injuries they had and they still kind of found a way.
But I agree with you that on paper, especially if Harry's not there,
that there should be some regression.
I just wouldn't expect enormous.
I mean, if you can end up somewhere between 8 and 12 in the league and offense and defense,
and you have the best kicker in Will Reichard, you should be right in the mix for the playoffs.
Bryson, thank you so much for the enormous super chat.
Really appreciate that.
Says, you live in Georgia.
Wouldn't have nearly the insight of the Vikings.
That's great.
Great to hear Bryson.
I really appreciate, you know, I have a lot of people that listen all over.
sometimes different countries and all over the country that are Vikings fans.
And it means a lot that you guys want to listen.
And thank you so much for the contribution.
I appreciate that very much, Bryson.
Jay says Rob Brzynski needs to be able to have a hard no during future drafts.
Oh, I see you're saying.
Yeah, that's what you're saying.
But do you think Rob is too nice?
No, I don't know why you think Rob wanted a center like you did.
But I don't think during the draft, no matter what.
What structure, Rob is going to say hard no unless it comes down to trading draft picks.
If they were in a situation where they said, we're going to trade a first rounder in the future to move up five spots to take this guy because we love him so much.
That's where if Rob is the president, he could step in and say, look, this is just not a good use of our assets.
So I don't believe that we should do this.
And if there was a battle over it, he would win out.
that's the structure that I want to see.
I want him to be able to say that.
But in terms of we must draft this, that's not what Rob's going to be.
He's going to oversee, but he's not going to be that guy who's telling the new GM with the
however many years, 20 years of scouting background, which is what most of these guys have,
somewhere between 10 and 20 years of scouting background, he's not going to be telling them,
I'm sorry, you need to draft a center.
Like, that's just, it's not going to work that way.
Those guys are here for that.
They are here to improve this team's drafting with their scouting and drafting experience.
That's the idea of having all these AGMs who came up in the scouting world on their list to interview.
Alex, the flight to Mexico City and Santa Clara to Minnesota is about the same distance.
Mexico is still central time rather than Pacific time, so it really benefits the Vikings.
Yeah, I know when it's an international game, there's a natural, like we've been saying, overseas.
forever, but it's like, it's just, it's just over land.
They don't have to travel over a sea.
I guess central time should help a little.
I mean, look, the way that teams travel now in the NFL,
it's kind of been long known in the Fandul type worlds that the home field advantage
has drifted a bit in previous years.
I think it still exists at US Bank Stadium for Brian Flores' defense, but just in general,
like teams are so good at traveling, guys are so good at managing their bodies,
there's sleep, all that sort of stuff, that it's been mitigated kind of quite a bit.
So I don't know how much edge you get from playing in Mexico City, but you don't have to have their crowd.
That's the biggest thing is that you don't have, if there's anything that does, and we saw this in 2020,
if there's anything that still does make a difference, it's crowd noise.
And San Francisco's got a great fan base.
It's not always been the easiest place for the Vikings to play.
So having it in Mexico City for them against the hard opponent,
I do agree.
I think it benefits them, of course, a lot more than it does San Francisco.
Jarrell, the interested to see the cornerbacks this season.
Pass rush will be there.
It's up to the secondary.
I think, I mean, corners for me is pretty well set for one and two.
Isaiah Rogers and Byron Murphy Jr.
And luckily for the Vikings, they stayed healthy last year, which was extremely helpful to the defense.
If they do again, we may see a little bit of Chuck Demings.
we may see a little bit of, you know, James Pierre may play more than he's ever played before.
That's kind of a typical Flores type of move of, hey, this guy's never played 400 snaps, but he's playing 600 for us.
That's happened a lot.
I'm just more interested in the safety position when it comes to how is Jay Ward going to step up?
Where is Jacoby Thomas going to fit in?
Because it's not that unusual to draft a safety in the third round.
If you missed the episode with Cody Alexander the other day, he brought this up.
Like, Jacoby Thomas might start.
I mean, it's not that crazy.
This happened with Xavier Watts last year and Atlanta's just sort of comes right to mind.
But if you draft the safety in the third round, they might end up starting.
So is he going to play with Jay Ward back there or Josh Mattelis back there?
And Mattelis is not a big nickel anymore.
And James Pierre plays more like that.
That structure is absolutely fascinating.
time time zone take we do have time zone takes here yeah i i mean i guess Alex said that
mexico city is uh in the same time zone as minnesota i've never looked into it i've i've never
thought i've actually i've never had the thought of what time zone mexico city is in so if he's
wrong someone let me know uh let's see uh kit uh very curious to see if uh rob brisinski is happy
returning to his previous gm role if they go another way at gm i mean i guess uh a
assuming that he does if they don't make him the president, the team or whatever other role,
first of all, it's a really good job.
It's not a job that you would want to give up, like working salary cap and, you know,
so forth and overseeing stuff for a franchise trying to win a Super Bowl and everything every day.
It's a pretty good gig to have.
So I don't think with all the things Rob has been through with the Vikings that he is going to flip a table and whatever,
if he has to go back to what he was doing before.
It was always acting GM, interim GM.
There was no guarantees or anything.
But, you know, I think he's deserving of having the higher position.
I think that what really impressed me this year was it takes a lot of leadership ability
to not have the full-time GM job and operate through the way that you want to operate.
because it would be, I think, very easy to say, I'm just the acting GM.
And even though I've been here a long time, I just kind of do what everybody else wants to do.
And I think he really took, like, command of the steering wheel and said, this is the way I think is the best way to operate for the long term of the Minnesota Vikings franchise and did it.
So that was, that was really impressive.
But, you know, I don't think he's going to, he's an adult.
He's a grown person.
I don't, you know, I think it'll be fine if he works.
And plus, you know, a lot of these people, he probably already knows a lot of these people,
especially someone like Terrence Gray or Reed Burkhart, who he would have worked with before.
So I don't think it would be a shock.
I just, I just feel like the credibility he's built up over the years and the skill set that he has works
really well to the arms race that is NFL roster building because it's an arms race of can
you manage your assets the best and can you evaluate the best?
and where a lot of evaluation in the draft has been pretty similar and mostly historically
based on just what draft picks you have and how lucky you got.
I do think that in the future or we're kind of there now, but it's going to continue that
way, it's who can use all the resources.
And I don't just mean be an analytics team.
I mean every resource that you can not just scout the players, but understand your
own scouting reports, understanding what correlates to success.
I mean, there's just way more resources now to look at and build these data sets on.
And I don't just mean, well, runs this fast or has this PFF grade.
I mean data sets as in your own scouting reports that those can be studied in a very data-driven type of way.
And so your decision-making process along with your asset management, like those are the edges in this league.
And the Vikings, it didn't feel like had, well, the only time I felt like the Vikings
had an advantage was in 2023 when they tore apart a 13 win team because they looked into the
future and said, if we sign all these people and keep all these people, it is going to really
hinder us into the future.
And so not extending Kirk get a huge dollar figure and so forth.
I thought at that point, okay, Quasi is doing the thing that Rick couldn't do.
And this is the, this is right.
But then they didn't back it up with success in the draft.
and they did have a huge free agency,
but then didn't have the next free agency go as well.
And that's how we ended up here.
But I did think that that was at one point smart asset management.
I think Rob is extremely, extremely good at that.
And that's an edge for your franchise.
Taslios says, what's happening at PFF that you keep commenting about them not being around?
So Teamworks is a company that works with,
it's kind of like their name.
They work with teams.
And they purchased PFF after PFF had some issues.
And that's kind of outlined in my book of how they got there.
And a lot of people left.
And it kind of was thrown into disarray for a few years there.
So Teamworks bought them and a lot of people lost their jobs on the content side.
Trevor Sycambe, who was on the show the other day.
He has the NFL Stock Exchange, great podcast.
not working at PFF anymore.
Max Chadwick and his podcast.
So a lot of people on that side and they brought over the data collectors to
teamwork to continue that side, which works for teams.
All 32 teams work with PFF and they use all the data that they're huge network of
former players, former coaches and people who have been trained on their system to
collect that data.
So all teams use it.
they have a system that's different than anything you can see where they can look at, you know,
let's say down in distance and all the numbers of who played, where they played.
Teams use this at every single game plan.
But it now belongs to Teamworks.
So I don't know if they're going to continue with a public product.
I've been told that they plan to, but I don't know.
So if we lose the premium stats and the grades and everything else,
that would be a whole heck of a lot of data that I've used for many years
and have kind of really become very comfortable with the strengths and weaknesses
when it comes to evaluating the Vikings and the things that I could point out
about how different players were used and where they had success or where they struggled
or whatever.
I don't know if it's going to continue to be out there for us to use.
And if it's not, then we'll have to have to be.
to work on different data sources to evaluate, you know, and things like that. So I have found it
over the years to be invaluable in terms of my own understanding of just what to look for.
When players have good or bad PFF grades, we don't just go, well, it's a good PF grade. So it's
all set. It's like what, what can we learn from this about why that player is succeeding or why
they're struggling? So we will see.
son of beavers if k o'c loses to the jets i'm sure he's going to get fired i don't know i think
the jets can be a lot more successful this year a lot more competitive this year they brought in
veteran players they drafted a lot of talent um they have a competitive quarterback yeah i mean if
things are going off the rails but you know this i mean any team can lose the vikings lost to
cooper rush one time any team can lose a game the vikings lost to a winless
Detroit Lions, although you would probably say that that did result in someone getting fired.
But I don't know.
Like, I just think the Jets are quite, quite a bit better than they were last year.
So we're writing in an easy W.
I think it might be a little harder than that.
Norse, how did the Patriots improve after all the coaching distractions?
They might have a new head coach.
They will not have a new head coach.
I would be absolutely.
Like, you could come at Norse Force.
You're here a lot.
You ask great questions.
Great comments.
I give you full permission to dunk on my face if I'm wrong about this.
But stuff happens like this all the time in the National Football League.
And over the years, I've heard about this or heard about that or whatever.
That's an open secret with everybody except for it doesn't make its way out to the public.
The biggest difference here is just that it was an NFL reporter.
That's where it's pretty shocking.
Like, wait a minute.
This person was putting out all sorts of.
of reports and now we have photos of them doing this or, you know, evidence of them being there
for whatever number of reports that came out like, that's crazy.
But other stuff, like distractions, off-field things comes into play all the time behind
the scenes in the NFL and people don't walk away for their jobs for it.
I don't see much chance that Mike Vrable says, well, TMZ has caught me unless there's
something crazy.
But now TMZ is putting out, hey, they were at this like five years ago and someone
snapped a picture.
Okay.
Like the, I think the story is completely run out of steam.
It's very salacious.
It's gotten a lot of attention and is kind of like, wow, can you believe this was
happening?
But I don't think it impacts the football at all.
And in fact, if you listen to the Patriots, players have been asked about it, they act
like he was victimized or something like, we've all got to.
is back. We're all behind him in this tough time. It's like tough time. The guy was, anyway,
I just, I have a tough time myself seeing this have any impact. And I will say, though,
that baked into the improvement is this report that they're going to get A.J. Brown. And there's
been Schaefter and Rossini when she was an NFL insider reporting that this trade is
essentially wrapped up and they just have to wait till June 1st. So if they get A.J. Brown, he is
an upgrade probably on Stefan Diggs.
They've added to their weapons.
They've added to their offensive line, offensive line depth with drafting Lomu.
So I think that they've gotten better.
They were also not very high on my list.
Like I don't think they've gotten way better.
So they were just kind of like in the middle.
AJ Brown does move the needle.
And, you know, for the Vikings, he's been a killer.
He's been so hard to go against for the Vikings, including crushing them last year.
So that's why they're on the list of Vikings improved.
you know, teams because it's through the lens of the Vikings playing them.
Uh, the magic scientist.
Does Jennings make it more or less likely we see a June 1st, Addison trade to Buffalo
for Coleman and a second sounds nice to me.
I don't think there's any chance on this earth that, uh, okay, and you too, you can come
back, feel free to dunk on my face if it happens.
I don't think that there is any chance in this universe that the Minnesota Vikings,
Kings trade Jordan Addison. Not now. They have built a good team around Kyler Murray. They need to find
out if Kyler can be their future franchise guy and they're trying to win the division. So you're
not trading Jordan Addison just because he got thrown out of a casino at 4 o'clock in the
morning early in the offseason. That's just not happening. They've forgiven him for much worse.
I mean, the actual reports or whatever that came out from this thing sound like something
that happens at every casino in the United States.
probably a couple times a night. So, yeah, I mean, they're not going, oh, well, you had that. So now
we're trading you. And for a second round draft pick and a terrible wide receiver, no, they're trying to
win games. KOC needs to win a playoff game. And he's going to do it with Jordan Addison. He's not
going to do it without him. This guy is he's capped for Jordan Addison this entire time. He's the one that
said, you know, we're going to wrap our arms around him and everything else. Like, he has always been
at the forefront to defend Jordan Addison. They're not.
going to move him at this point.
Now, if they get to the end of this year and are disappointed with the results and feel like
off-field things are impacting that, then we could be talking about a different story.
Sneedly or Snydley sees Kyler as third best in the NFC North.
I think that's fair.
As you guys know, and I think you can appreciate, Jared Goff perpetually, deeply
underappreciated in the NFL, consistently leads top five.
offenses overall last year was phenomenal.
And their defense completely fell apart.
Their offensive line fell apart.
But flawed.
See, that's the thing with quarterback analysis.
Like, if you're flawed to a lot of people, you just are terrible garbage who should
never even try to throw football.
That's how it's treated.
If you are not a perfect quarterback or if you have a kryptonite, you shouldn't even
try.
You should just retire.
And that's how they treat Jared Gough.
But the times he's played the Vikings with good past protection,
he's been really, really good.
When he hasn't, he has been not good.
And that was the case in both games last year where they didn't protect him very well.
And Flores ate him up.
But when they did protect him well, Flores struggled to get to golf.
And we saw how good he was able to be.
I think career-wise, he has been a phenomenal NFL quarterback.
He's gone to the Super Bowl.
He's gone to the NFC championship.
He's at a 15-win season.
I mean, my gosh.
if that guy does not, and he was a top draft pick.
I really, I honestly don't even.
It's because he doesn't run and everyone wants people to run.
And I get that.
But man, you got one flaw.
And it's like, just you are terrible.
Get rid of him.
Don't even like, man, Jared Gough's been a great quarterback for two franchises.
Anyway, and I think that that trade made a lot of people think, well, Jared Gough's not
any good.
They traded for an incredible quarterback.
And Gough got even better when he got to Detroit.
So I'll always defend him.
The wild card here, Norse Force has golf as the top quarterback of the NFC North, then Murray, then Caleb Williams, then Jordan Love.
There's just a lot of questions there about Caleb Williams because if you told me Caleb was first or fourth next year in the NFC North, I'd say, okay, I believe you.
If he doesn't get better, all those end of games are not going to happen.
But if he does, uh-oh, then everyone's in trouble.
if he gets better at the straight up execution from a play to play basis rather than just the playmaking.
Kyler and Caleb are similar in some ways.
Kyler's way more accurate.
Caleb's much bigger than Kyler Murray.
But I mean, he's not, he's not enormous.
He's like, what?
Is he like 6-1 or something?
So I guess he's, you know, he's still undersized, but he's bigger than Kyler Murray and is younger and is super fast.
And I think a much better thrower on the movie.
than Kyler is at this point in his career.
Like he does so much of his work there.
They're very different.
They're all very different.
Jordan Love has the athleticism to run,
but doesn't ever do it.
It's just a straight up pocket quarterback who lives and dies on whether his deep balls
are landing in wide receiver's hands and those high risk type of throw.
So he has a lot of variance even within a season.
I think Kyler does too because Kyler relies on like Jared or like Caleb Williams.
they're all, that's why it's a good discussion.
Like, they're all very different.
Golf relies on past protection.
Murray relies on making big plays with his escapeability.
So does Caleb.
And then love relies on those deep shots.
And whoever is the one where all that's clicking is the best at that given time,
I think that that race could change four different times through a season,
who people think is the best in the NFC North.
