Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - New Year's Eve Minnesota Vikings regrets and resolutions

Episode Date: December 31, 2021

Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom get together to talk about some interesting fan questions, including about whether Vikings fans have the right to cheer for the Packers to win in order to induce changes at coach and quarterback this offseason. They discuss whether the Vikings should let Aaron Rodgers' future dictate their plans at QB and then give their regrets and resolutions for the 2021 and 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another Purple Insider and Bring Me the News live stream. Matthew Collar along with Sam Ekstrom. And I'm coming to you from my parents' house because I was at my younger brother's wedding last night. And so I flew home and then I'm flying back. And then, Sam, you and I are then driving to Lambeau Field for Vikings Packers, where it's either going to be a huge win for the Vikings that keeps them alive in the playoffs and almost in the driver's seat, or it's going to be a loss that we talk about like a funeral.

And rarely is it that a game holds so much in the cards for everybody. I mean, not just are you making the playoffs, do you have a chance to make the playoffs, but even potentially jobs at stake with this game. Now, Sam, I want to ask you right off the bat. I got a great question for the Friday mailbag that usually I save for our sub stack, the Friday mailbag questions. But this one was too good. And I wanted to start the show and get your answer. I was asked, can people consider themselves Vikings fans if they are rooting for Green

Bay this Sunday to ensure that there is a coaching change? Can you root for Green Bay and still consider yourself a Vikings fan? Your answer. I mean, there have been other times over the years when there have been reasons to root for Green Bay that I guess those reasons probably benefited the Vikings' playoff hopes or something of the kind. But, yeah, you can be a fan in a lot of different ways. I think that you can get from point A to point B,

kind of the circuitous way with that by saying, yeah, I want what's best for the Minnesota Vikings' Super Bowl hopes. And if that means falling to a hated foe, so be it. I don't think that endangers your fanhood that much. Maybe I'm coming through it through more of an unbiased sort of neutral lens. Maybe, you know, you need to ask the Ragnar, the old mascot or something who might be looking at it through a different lens. I don't know. But I don't think there's a problem with that. Now, I wouldn't go that route. I would still enjoy the game. I'm an enjoy the game kind of guy. I am not like just jump off board and,

you know, swim away from the falling ship. I'm more of a go down with the ship kind of persona. But you do you, you know, do whatever you want as a sports fan. It's supposed to be fun. And if it's fun for you to cheer the opposite, then then yeah. Well, I think that there's a couple different ways of looking at this. I mean, the one would be that some people see the bigger picture and think, well, what does this game really mean anyway? If you don't believe that this team is a Super Bowl contender, which after Los Angeles, where the Rams tried to gift them the game and they didn't want to take it after losing to the Lions,

after throwing for 87 yards against the Bears, I mean, who is thinking, oh, this team is primed to run through the playoffs and beat a bunch of great teams and get to the Super Bowl. I don't think anybody is there with this team. If they were able to destroy the Packers, maybe there would be a different thought process, beat a bunch of great teams and get to the Super Bowl. I don't think anybody is there with this team. If they were able to destroy the Packers, maybe there would be a different thought process. Or if they had done that to Los Angeles, then I think there would be a lot more excitement

about this game for playoff purposes. But at this moment, there's a lot of people that would, I think, be right in saying, if you're not going to be a Super Bowl team, then take the path that leads to you potentially being a Super Bowl team in the future. And is Mike Zimmer being here as the head coach and Kirk Cousins as the quarterback, the path to a Super Bowl team? We have a very large sample size now to say no. And I think that you can overlook, oh, it's the Packers and that's the team we're supposed to hate to see the bigger picture, the forest through the trees kind of mentality.

But I also fully understand anybody who says I have hated this Packers team for my entire life. I can't stand Rogers. He is arrogant and obnoxious and so forth. And I will never, ever say it's okay to lose to the Green Bay Packers. And in that way, I would totally understand that as well. I mean, I think it makes for a very interesting discussion because you can see both sides of the issue. I always tend to think, look, fans telling other fans, you should root for this. You should root for that is pretty tough. But when I was in Buffalo covering their hockey team, they were tanking. The team intentionally was ripped apart to lose.

And that caused a lot of these same discussions where some people said, look, I can never root against my team when I go to the arena. And then there was a game where the Sabres, I mean, needed the Arizona Coyotes, Phoenix Coyotes, Arizona Coyotes. Now they needed the Arizona Coyotes, Phoenix Coyotes, Arizona Coyotes. Now they're the Arizona Coyotes. So I needed them. They needed them to lose to get the tank, to get the first pick. And people showed up with signs that said, let's go Coyotes.

And it was super weird to see Buffalo Sabres fans holding up signs that said, let's go Coyotes. And I actually covered that game from the stands to just be in the atmosphere because it was so strange. I don't know what the right answer is here. You and I always look at the bigger picture and say, how can you get to the Superbowl path? So maybe it's better for you that you lose. And I think the prime example, Sam, is that game in new Orleans. It was super fun for fans in 2019, but if they don't win, maybe Kevin Stefanski is your coach. Maybe you draft a quarterback the next year and we're having a very different conversation about where this team stands. Well, here's the thing. If the Vikings winning against Green Bay changes the outcome,

I guess maybe it leads to a path where the outcome could be changed, where they win a couple of playoff games. Maybe that's the reason why people would cheer against it. But odds are a win here doesn't change a ton. It shouldn't dictate everything. I don't think, at least I would hope the Wilfs aren't that results oriented, that there's a little more process-oriented decision-making here. Maybe they are results-oriented. I mean, maybe that Saints win that you alluded to, maybe that was the result that they needed to extend everyone after 2019.

So maybe I'm wrong about this, but we've talked several times before that the wheels should already be turning. Like if you're thinking about making changes today, you should not make a change based on what happens tomorrow, because we've got the four seasons sample size. This is one game and it's going to be zero degrees. So there's sort of a pretty big variable there that does make this game, I think, a tad more 50-50 or maybe a little more unpredictable to the point where it could be a blowout. Packers could be an ugly game that the Vikings managed to win. I think there's a couple different scenarios here. But, you know, people

too, if they want to, if they're cheering for the Packers, they are cheering for potentially smoothing the path for a Packers Super Bowl too. I know there are a lot of Vikings fans that would just as likely or just as rather see the Packers lose in the playoffs as the Vikings win. If the Packers win this game, the path to the Super Bowl probably goes through Lambeau. So think about what's going to bring you joy in January. Will it be a coaching search or will it be the Packers losing? You know, you got to weigh it all out, Collar. There are emotions at stake in a time of year where people need that kind of post-holiday pick-me-up. I think that a coaching search is what the majority of the fan base wants.

Even if there's a lot of people, and I don't blame you for this, that think that Mike Zimmer is a good coach and still want him to succeed. I mean, there's just no looking at this thing and saying that it's working or it's worked or this is going to be the right path for the future. Maybe if you were to say you're changing quarterbacks, changing GMs, rebuilding the defense a different way,

drafting a quarterback, but that seems like a long road to keep the same coach all the way through. You know, one thing about Mike Tomlin and his longevity that everyone points to and says, well, you know, the Vikings want to be like the Steelers. It did have Ben Roethlisberger the whole time. So the same quarterback with the same coach is a lot different from sticking with the same coach through who knows who at quarterback next year. Is it, you know, Jimmy Garoppolo or Andy Dalton or Teddy Bridgewater

or some, you know, Ryan Fitzpatrick bridge quarterback to go along with a rookie. Is that what you want with Mike Zimmer? Um, there's also the other part about Justin Jefferson and do you want him still paired with a defensive head coach or do you want an offensive head coach to come in and say, how can we get even more out of one of the NFL's greatest receivers? And we want a young quarterback working with an offensive minded head coach and on and on and on, right? All those different things. So I think that if you're looking at that solely focused on your own team winning your Super Bowl, that that's the most important thing to you.

You're looking at what the long-term results are. But, I mean, the reality is that it doesn't make any difference who you root for. The game's going to happen how the game's going to happen. But if you're in the fourth quarter and the Vikings have the ball driving to potentially beat the Packers, I think there's a large portion of the fan base that if cousins overthrows Jefferson and the game is over and you lose, you know, I don't know, 28 to 31 or something. There are a lot of people who will go like, eh, well, you know, it happened.

There's a lot of people I think that can't root for the Packers because you just fundamentally can't. But if it goes the way that it probably will go, then okay. Well, and then that ultimately may end up being the game we look at. That was the final nail in the coffin for the Kirk cousins and Mike Zimmer era. And I, I just get the sense that if you put a poll out and asked how many people want to see something different next year, it's probably 90%, if not higher, um higher from those two positions, or at least one out of the two. Here's another question that was asked me on the Friday mailbag

that I liked was, do you wait on Aaron Rogers decision before making a decision to either trade or extend Kirk cousins? So do you wait and find out if you're the Vikings, if Rogers will be the Packers quarterback next year before deciding whether to move on from Cousins or to give him a contract extension? What do you think about that? That is a great question, because I guess there's probably a scenario out there where Jordan Love, Kellen Mond, Justin Fields and Jared Goff are the NFC North quarterbacks, and whoever can upgrade from that to become the best quarterback in the division has a nice chance next year.

That is a good question, and Rodgers has said, I'm not going to draw this out. I think subtweet Brett Favre. I'm not going to be the waffler who takes until April or July or whatever it is to decide. So I guess you kind of can hedge your bets, right? You don't have to make your decision on Cousins for a while. I mean, you probably have until Rodgers makes his decision anyway. You can pull the trigger on that trade after the draft, before the draft, whenever you need to. So that's actually convenient for the Vikings.

And the coach, I don't think, should hinge on Rodgers. I think if you make the coaching decision either way, whatever you're going to do, you stick to that. You don't have to wait. So, no, I don't think they have to wait I feel like you can still um you don't there's no urgency to make that Cousins move to me there's no reason why what the Packers do should dictate what the Vikings do I mean if you're saying oh well Rodgers is returning to Green Bay so you're not going to win the division next year. So just move

on from cousins or, Oh, Rogers is gone. The division is ours. I don't really see it that way because if you look at recent history, second year quarterbacks are having a lot of success. Even Justin Herbert, uh, Jared Goff's team quickly, uh, you know, jumped with Los Angeles in his second year, Carson Wentz in his second year, his team was in the Superbowl and he played the majority as, as the starting quarterback there. Even Miami, all of a sudden with Tua here is starting to take big steps forward. Cincinnati is taking big steps forward. And so Justin Fields will be going into his second year. And I don't know any better than anybody else. If Justin Fields is going to be a good quarterback, but it's a pattern that happens in the NFL that it's a pattern that happens

in the NFL that it's kind of quick that these teams that draft quarterbacks, if they hit, they turn out to be good. So there's no guaranteeing that everyone in your division is just awful and you'll cruise to first place if you have Kirk Cousins. And the other thing is too, the Packers really haven't been the problem for the Vikings. They have done okay in the Cousins era against the Packers. And there have been some bad games, some bad years. 2019 was a particularly rough year, but 2018 was great. They tied them, should have beat them, and then kind of whipped them in the second matchup. Earlier this year, they beat them.

Cousins played great in that game. That's not so much the issue. It's the issue is you end up, no matter who's coaching or who's playing or what the ups and downs were of a season, you end up at 500 every year with Cousins. And so I don't think that the decision should have anything to do with Rogers or what's going on in Green Bay. It's how can you set yourself up in the best way possible long-term.

And I think if you make that decision after this week, all right, we're going to move on. We're going to reset that quarterback position. I think right after the Superbowl, you start making phone calls and seeing where everybody's at, because if you haven't hired a coach yet, which they probably will have, you can give that coach his options. Do you want to extend cousins? Do you want to see, would you rather have a first round pick to go along with your fairly high first round pick if you miss the playoffs and then take the quarterback with one pick, take a defensive end or guard, maybe a defensive end more likely than guard, I guess, in the first round. But, you know, do you, do you want to do that? Or do you

want to stick with cousins and see if you can make it work over a two-year period? I think that's one of the big questions they'll be asking when a coach gets hired. And so if you're making a move with cousins, just make it right after and do the best thing for you. I don't think you wait around. I also think that this is sort of how Vikings fans think about the Packers, like the Packers. Sorry, they're always in your head, Vikings fans. You're always thinking about how can we compete with the Green Bay Packers? And the reality is you just, you have to be better. You have to have a better team.

You have to have a better roster than this, or they're going to keep winning the division. Even if Rodgers goes and they still have a great coach and they bring in another quarterback who's good, or if Fields gets better, or if the Lions draft somebody that works out, like there's going to be a good team in this division, I guarantee it. So how do you make it? You would be my thing. Yeah. I think if there's a new coach,

I think there's going to be a temptation to look at the offensive window that this team has and say, we need to have a veteran quarterback to try to capitalize on this. And they might think that they can solve cousins. And as we've discussed, there might not be a solution. There might not be a magic bullet for it because he's had the best minds still not be able to squeeze out more than seven,

eight, nine wins, but Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen, Dalvin cook, Irv Smith, Brian O'Neill, Christian Darisaw,

Alexander Madison, everyone's back, right? Except maybe Conklin. So you're rerunning it with all your weapons. Osborne, you know, like everyone who sort of had a role in this offense, plus Irv Smith, and who's going to be your quarterback? I think whenever the Vikings decide that the Cousins era is over, they're automatically set up well because they

shed the money, right? They can shed Daniil Hunter. If they trade Daniil Hunter for a first round pick, that saves them a lot of money and gives them an asset. They can draft a quarterback too if they want someone to compete with Kellen Mond sort of for the heir apparent to career Cousins. There are a lot of ways to go about it. So do you want that reset in year one, knowing that you have all this talent on the offensive side of the ball? Or do you look down the road and say, well, let's hold off on the hard reset. Let's just see what happens if we sort of shuffle the deck again. Because Collar, tell me if you agree with me. If Kirk Cousins lived to play quarterback until he was 125 years old,

so you get like 100 seasons, if you do that simulation 100 times, how many times does he win 12 games? Like 10, 15? That's probably in the simulation where he gets you on a very, very good year. I think he has that in him. And whoever is next to coach him is surely thinking, you know, like I'm going to be the one to capitalize on the one in 10 Kirk season where it finally all comes together. Yeah. I think that this is where whoever they hire at GM,

if they decide to make a change there is really important because you're talking about someone who is new to have a long-term vision. What this team has not had is a long-term vision in the recent years, really since 2017. And it's always been, if you just give Kirk this, or if you just give Kirk that, but the problem is they can't glue it all together and make it stay. And this year was really the perfect test case for that. And so, yeah, I mean, if you give cousins the exact right situation, if you give him the Los Angeles Rams from 2018 or 2017, when they are just a perfect offense, their blocking is great. Their running is great. Their weapons are great. He probably does the same thing that Jared Goff would do where he would win a good amount of

games and have a chance to put you right there in the playoffs. But when you ask, well, how do you do that? What's the path? I don't see the path because you have to rebuild so much on the defensive side and still your offensive line is not figured out. So how are you doing that? And then the answer is last year. Oh, well, it was just draft Wyatt Davis. Well, the guy can't even play over Dakota Dozier at this point because he's a draft pick. And that's what happens with draft picks is that on draft day, we all assume that these guys are plug and play and they're all going to be great. And then sometimes they're not. And sometimes they are. But you can't count on that for a guy to step in. But that's what they've kind of had to do.

Last year, it was the corners. Gladney and Dantzler, well, we'll just plug them in and play. And then they struggle. This year, it's, well, we'll just draft Davis and Derrissaw. They'll fix the O-line. That has not happened, even though I've liked what I've seen from Christian Derrissaw. And in the scenarios, it's like 100 years of Kirk Cousins on a bunch of different teams. But if it's 100 years of teams just like this, I don't know how many you can get to 12.

I mean, things would have to go really your way if it's this same formula with this amount of money and this type of roster that you have built. So I think that that kind of paints the picture. So if you get a GM that looks much more into the broader picture and can see that, then you're talking about someone probably looking toward the draft rather than sticking with Cousins, which brings me to another question, by the way, that was asked in the Friday Mailbag about the 2022 draft class. Now I'm just getting started, uh, peeking at some draft stuff. Our friend, Chris Trapasso from CBS sports put out a thing on Malik Willis.

He's really intrigued by Malik Willis. Um, but somebody asked if the 2023 draft class would be better for the Vikings to wait for. And here's my thing. I'm going to read you a headline this is from 2017 april 12th 2017 nfl draft colon trubisky leads class lacking elite talent that was a headline from nfl.com that's not from draft dong.web that is nfl.com saying draft class lacks elite talent and they projected Trubisky one Deshaun Watson two Patrick Mahomes three and the greatest quarterback maybe ever comes out of this draft class so when I hear that this draft class coming up does not have to you're probably going to hear this rant like a million times Sam and I apologize for that but when I I hear, Oh, you know, I don't know, this draft class doesn't have any good quarterbacks. Like I don't think we ever really know. Uh, this last draft class was supposed to be amazing. Trey Lance isn't on the field yet. Justin Fields has struggled.

Trevor Lawrence has struggled. Zach Wilson looks like you and me playing quarterback half the time. I don't know. Nobody knows. And that's kind of the point you have to just take your shot. So I'm sorry that I took this in a million different ways, but I feel like we're going to hear that a lot of like, well, you know, the draft class is not quite good enough. But I just I just cannot accept that as a reason to keep going this way no i mean you think you could forecast anything two drafts down the road you can't forecast anything one draft down the road right everything is like a dart throw whatever the the regulation distance is for a normal dart throw you like multiply it by 10 like that's every draft pick and if you hit the board it's a good pick most of the time right like it's so hard to evaluate these guys because you don't really know their mindset so mental um and like we crunch the numbers we do all the research and we have our own predictions and a lot of times they're wrong too right like you can sort of circle guys and say they might fit but i mean the reality is is that we can only know so much and the team can

only know so much and the team knows more than we do and they still get it wrong a lot of the time so it's such an inexact science um and have the vikings had a good you know process the past couple of years i don't know about that. So I wouldn't trust anybody's judgment to try to handpick. Oh, stay away from this class. They're all duds. They're all duds. There's no one good.

No. I mean, there's going to be good players that come out of this draft that we don't even realize yet. And a lot of them are going to come from like day two you know because they have just that one part of their their dna that like allows them to rise to the top it's it's a really tough evaluation process and i'm i'll rant right along with you caller i don't think you need to uh try to get cute with your 2022 versus 2023 approach right because if you decided, oh no, we're going to trade for somebody else, fill the spot with Andy Dalton for a year,

and then draft someone in 2023, more likely than not, one of the three or four guys who gets drafted for the quarterbacks in the first round becomes great, and then we're looking at him going, I mean, I'm not declaring Mac Jones great yet, by the way, but that's the feeling of right now, isn't it? If the Vikings had Mac Jones this year and he played the same way Mac Jones has played

this year for the Patriots, for this team, they're probably at the same number of wins. Like, I don't think that he would have taken them over the top. I also don't think that he's played much differently than Kirk Cousins and you would feel great about it you'd say like oh we have so much money to spend on the free agency bring in the pass rushers bring in the guards Jefferson and Mac Jones for the future but yet when that draft pick was made Vikings fans so many said well you know he doesn't have the arm strength or he doesn't have this or that and i used to try super hard sam to look so closely at every detail of the first round quarterbacks and we will because that's fun to do their strengths and weaknesses i used to look so closely at them and i used to hone in and laser focus on my guy that i liked and i thought i know

how to pick the guy and there were a few times where I did. And I thought, ah, look how clever I am. I knew this guy was going to be great from the start. And then 2018 draft happened. And I thought, this Josh Rosen, I'll tell you, he's the guy. I like Lamar Jackson. Anybody who listens to the show knows that. That I never bought into the he's a running back or anything else like that. But I was the Josh Rosen.

Just great footwork. And that's a running back or anything else like that. But I was the Josh Rosen. Just great footwork. And that's a quarterback's quarterback right there. He's terrible. Instantly. We love Zach Wilson. He was super fun at BYU. Terrible instantly. So I don't know.

Nobody knows. The NFL doesn't know. Otherwise, they'd get it right way more often. So the point is, you pick one and you take a shot at it. And if it doesn't work, you take another shot because it's better than what you're dealing with right now. So anyway, we'll have that discussion, you know, as we continue, but I just thought it was an interesting thought of like, well, if the draft class isn't that good, then maybe they should

kick it down the road. And I'm just not a buyer in that because if you mess it up this time, you draft another guy next time. Now I want to play a little game, Sam. Okay. I know you're surprised. What's the date today? It is December. What?

30th. Yep. So we are approaching the new year. And what do people do at the new year on new year's Eve? As the clock is counting down, you think about your previous year, what you've been through and the things that you're happy about, things that you're not so happy about. And then you think as that clock strikes midnight about your resolutions and what you want for the next year.

So here's what I want. I want regrets and resolutions, regrets that the Minnesota Vikings should have for this year and resolutions. So I'll give you a second to think about this and I'll just start with this. I think that one of the biggest regrets they should have is not even necessarily something that they did this year right away, but something that has happened over the last few years. And that is Cordero Patterson because Cordero Patterson has wanted to come back to Minnesota every year. I believe there was even a report that he wanted to come back to Minnesota every year. I believe there was even a report that he wanted to come back this last offseason. He has been a dominant player for the Atlanta Falcons. He was a very good role player for other teams, Chicago, New England in the Super

Bowl. And Stefan Diggs said the other day of all people that Cordero Patterson is one of the best players with the ball in his hands that he's ever seen. And I think that it's not just Patterson, but regrets from this last year encapsulate not quite getting enough out of the guys you should have gotten so much out of. And it's a regret that they've had every year on midnight or 11, you know, december 31st but i feel like it's carried over again and when you look outward and you see digs dominating you see patterson dominating there should be an extra level of regret that they never got the most out of cordero patterson yeah and you're right that is a multi-year regret, probably going back to the year after he left. I think the Oakland Patterson wasn't that rueful, but the New England Patterson, the Bears Patterson, the Falcons Patterson.

And now he's making viral videos of finding footballs to give to crying little girls. I mean, the heartstrings are being pulled now at this philanthropic, altruistic, big-hearted wide receiver. So my regret would be to assume that the offensive line would just be fine, that We're so good at development of offensive linemen that we've got the guys in house. We don't need to spend a dime on anyone. Well, Dakota Dozier, yeah, you can come on back, buddy, but we don't need to spend because we've got it all figured out. Our draft history is unimpeachable. We're just going to draft a couple. We're going to groom a couple from within. We're going to be all right. This is good.

This is what we do. That strategy backfired. Your draft picks weren't ready. Your in-house options were atrocious. I mean, the two you counted on, Udo and Hill, yikes. I guess Ezra Cleveland's been a mild hit, but that's it. Bradbury's improvement, nowhere to be seen. It's a big regret in this 2021 year.

It most certainly is, and I could hear the regret in your voice, so I like that you added in some extra regretful tone. Even though, hey, we didn't do it. We said sign some linemen. In fact, we were at Bernie Golf doing struggled. But when your process is, here's how we're going to solve this and this will get into our grip, but we got to do our resolutions for these. But the process to solve this is to draft someone. And then if they don't work out, you trade a late round pick for somebody else because other times it kind of worked. And this is where you can kind of go to a lot of the decisions by the Vikings where you go, oh, that time that they drafted Pat Alphline and he filled in the first

year and it kind of worked. Okay. That'll work for Wyatt Davis or the time that they traded a late round pick for Nick Easton. It kind of worked. So it'll work again with Mason Cole. The time, you know, you move, well, I don't even know of a time that they moved a project tackle to guard, but they've certainly tried it a bunch of times. They tried it with TJ Clemmings and Willie Beavers and everybody under the sun who couldn't play tackle. It's never really worked. Maybe it has for Collins. Yeah, that's right. I'll be. Avion Collins. Is it Avion or Aviont? Aviontay. Yeah, that's right.

He was briefly Aviontay. We said his name so many times for a guy that I think played like eight snaps. And they just called him AC. Yeah, AC Collins was C, his middle name. I don't know. There was so much controversy over the guy's name and he never played, but that's, that's a great one.

I mean, this would be like if they had started Avion Collins with what they did with only Udo and the process was bad, but it ties into the process of where they decided to spend their money because Kevin Zeitler and a couple of other guys like that, Matt Filer, there were other guards out there that they could have spent seven million dollars or ten million dollars a year on and just decided not to and

spent ten million dollars on patrick peterson like that that's not a good way to spend your money when your quarterback is so susceptible to the interior pressure and then you have to panic right before camp so that is that is a true serious regret. Now resolution. Um, well, we could start with the Cordero Patterson issue, the resolution. I mean, it's kind of right there in front of you. If you haven't happened multiple times where multiple wide receivers are great and super explosive and everything else unstoppable and they go elsewhere and produce more you kind of got to look at who's calling the shots and you know we give mike zimmer i think a lot of credit for being a much better coach than a lot of people in the league but this is a bad blind spot to have it's just a blind spot that could be really costly. Imagine Cordero Patterson on the 2017 team.

And they said, no, sorry, don't need him. We'll get Michael Floyd for nothing. Okay. Imagine Patterson on the 2018 team where the offense was pretty good with feeling and digs,

but teams started to hone in on those guys. I mean, even just using him to his maximum in 2015 and they didn't do it. Imagine 2019 throwing to digs and feeling more. I mean, it's just, there's that particular regret. It kind of has to go back to who's in charge. Who's calling the shots.

Who's the one that can push any button they want on offense and say, no, no, no, we are getting this man, the football, that's a head coach. And that's an offensive minded head coach.

And that is the resolution. I think for avoiding things like that happening in the football, that's a head coach and that's an offensive-minded head coach. And that is the resolution, I think, for avoiding things like that happening in the future, whether it's Jefferson and him being unhappy or it's Kenny Wongwu getting the most out of him or whoever else they might draft in the future. So give your resolution to the offensive line issue. Well, again, you look up top and I think this is probably reflective as much on the GM as it is the head coach. The head coach probably pushes for a little more defensive attention. And but but the GM is still the one giving into that. Like if it's a cooperative, you know, arrangement, then the GM is allowing Zimmer to coax him into those decisions, or he's just making them for himself. Either way, the, the allotment of funds is wrong. Um,

the way that they've sort of turned a blind eye multiple years in a row to the offensive line. I'm not sure what analytic would suggest that it's bad to invest in your offensive line it's bad to invest in nose tackle it's bad to over invest in like safety and linebacker and running back so like clearly the Vikings are doing the opposite of what the the cap analytics would would suggest and that would seem to include the the neglect of the offensive line. So the resolution would be to use whatever money you amass through whatever moves you have to make. Maybe it's a trade of cousins, a trade of Hunter, whatever it happens to be, and go out and actually make a splash. Don't do the bargain bin approach this time. I think they've got two spots to fill. I think they've got center, and I think they've

got right guard. And I think you need a blue chipper at one of those spots. And I think you need to make it a priority. Because it's not like you're spending that much on the offensive line you have one big contract cleveland is still cheap derisaw is still cheap um add in one more big contract there to replace whatever big contract you shed and uh you know just take patrick peterson's money and generously hand it to the next offensive lineman. And that's, we're tying them together, so I won't make it an individual regret. But the distribution of funds should be a major regret for them. A nose tackle who's a good player, Delvin Tomlinson.

But they just got steamrolled by Sonny Michel and backup offensive lineman with the Rams. Well, the crazy thing too on that is caller like if you look at the the pff numbers they both suggest that tomlinson and pierce are playing well and this is still what's happening right i believe that right it's they're they're actually playing well and they're still getting destroyed that just shows you the lack of, of real impact at that position. That's absolutely right. Because now teams use motion to adapt where the linebackers fit. And if there's a box safety where he goes, they can move those players where defensive ends fit. And the defensive ends for the Vikings right now might be the worst run stopping defensive ends in the universe.

I mean, Sheldon Richardson has never cared about stopping the run. That's fine. When you're a pass rusher from the interior and the combination of Patrick Jones, DJ Wanham, whoever the heck else shows up at the outside against the tackle. That's where a lot of this seems to be coming from is that tackles can handle these guys one-on-one in the run and you get extra help on Pierce and Tomlinson. So even if they're stalemating and getting decent PFF grades, they're moving somebody. And when you look at Eric Hendricks, PFF grades against the run, they have gone into the complete tank, which usually has more to say about how your defensive line is performing. So I think we can use a process of elimination and say, well, you probably, because you're playing backup defensive ends, but it's a great point by you that the theory was, okay, you're going to stuff those gaps and teams won't be

able to run up the middle. And these teams have said, oh, okay, we'll just run at your corners who can't tackle. We'll run at your defensive ends that are backups and we'll still get huge gain after huge gain. And yet look how much money is tied up in those two. Look how much money is tied up in Patrick Peterson, who has been fine, in my opinion. I have not felt like he's getting roasted every week, but was it worth the money that they gave him to get okay play from that position

that hasn't had much of a big impact? I think that that sort of ties in. It could be its own regret, but I'll give another one for regrets and resolutions is the close games that they let go through their fingers. That's one where I'll have to think for a second, how to come up with a resolution, but we'll get there, but go back to week one. You get the football back. You've come back on Cincinnati borough gets kind of banged up.

Zach Taylor loses his mind and goes for it on fourth down in a place that I think was pretty questionable, fails to do so on a bad run play and gives you a chance. And then Delvin Cook fumbles. And then the next week you miss a field goal from Greg Joseph. And then you can't stop Amari Cooper against Cooper Rush and the Dallas Cowboys. And then you can't stop Amon Ross St. Brown at the end zone. Now, I know that you could do this with the ones that they won as well. But if we're talking about regrets, you know, you could say, hey, if Kirk didn't make this throw or they didn't make that field goal, so it's evened out. But at the end of the year, you have to be looking up at those standings and going so many regrets, so many regrets so many

drives that shouldn't have happened so so many you know a kick that shouldn't have gone wide decisions by mike zimmer in the arizona game that kept arizona in that contest rather than just finishing off the cardinals and instead they leave it to a kicker there's just so many regrets for the close games of the year 2021 for these Vikings. Yeah, and when you lose games at the last second like that, there's usually about six regrets per game. Because it swings on one play, one missed tackle, one bad challenge, one missed call, one missed tackle, one bad challenge, one missed call, one missed kick.

You walk away from every game with just this laundry list of, woe is me. So that's a pretty good regret. I think Vikings fans can attest to that one. I'm in the process of researching my next regret. I'm trying to find the biggest draft regret the vikings should have i'm scouring round three where you had four picks right so you pretty much had like every eighth person in that round um and here's what they've gotten out of it chas surratt who to my knowledge

has not played a defensive snap if he has it was like four of them uh kellen mond might have gotten passed by kyle sloder off the street um as the the backup quarterback seems to have no favor in the organization whatsoever patrick jones who hope he's all right currently on the coveted list was about your seventh defensive end this year and can't really get more than a couple snaps a game even though you're completely banged up and ineffective and uh wyatt davis who as you mentioned has been passed by dakota dozier and is about ninth on your offensive line depth chart that's your third round that's your third round. That's your third round. Um, Mari Rogers was, was in that mix. Trey Sermon was in that mix. Um, you could have had Ben Cleveland as your guard.

You could have had a Cleveland and Cleveland guard tandem. How fun would that have been? But no, you drafted the four, like most ineffective players in the third round. You could have called it like the Cleveland moving company or something, right? If they worked out guarding Cleveland, you don't want to do that. I, you know,

with, with the draft, your biggest regret might be Christian Darisaw. Christian Darisaw could be a great player, but he represents the Vikings, not taking Mac Jones. And I know that I drove everybody nuts with this opinion after the draft, and I didn't project it necessarily to turn out this quickly to be good for Mac Jones. But now having to reset and look for answers at that

position potentially versus having your answers and feeling good about where you're going is a pretty big gap for how Vikings fans feel about this team at this moment. They are as low as I have seen them since I've covered this team going back to 2016. I mean, that's kind of how it feels is the end of the 2016 season where there was just apathy from the fan base. That's where we're at right now.

And things can change quick as they did in 2017. But if you're saying saying where's your regret the left tackle that you drafted could be very good but you could also just go get one like you did with riley reef before or draft one in another draft to protect your quarterback uh i i think that that's one where not having a future answer and just feeling where everything is in limbo is probably the biggest draft regret but if we're not going to go like you know galaxy brain on the draft regret i would not say it's kellen mond i never believed that a third round draft pick is going to make it as a quarterback but i think picking a quarterback fundamentally there is not like a tremendously bad decision when they didn't have

a backup answer. And if the guy shows something, then all of a sudden you might feel better about your future. It does happen. There are Russell Wilson's and Dak Prescott's of the world. So, okay, take that shot. It's the connection of Wyatt Davis to believing he could start. And that that's the biggest regret. That's why I would say Wyatt Davis, Chaz Surratt was never going to be a starter year one. He was a guy that he might be good. I don't know. Like in the future.

I'm not sure. But picking a guy in the third round and saying, okay, yeah, he's going to fix our offensive line. That connection right there is what makes that the biggest regret. Can I give you my resolution to the close games? Win them. There you go. It's all set.

They just got to win them next time. No, I think the resolution to the close game losses is actually better corners. And that might mean spending real money on corners who are in their prime, not past their prime. And all the numbers go against them, as you talked about, like how many just anti numbers things they do for an organization that purports itself to be very analytical but then you look at patrick peterson's past two years ago so how exactly is this going to be different um you know that kind of goes under the regrets category too of just sort of like saying no we know more than the numbers on a number of different occasions but corners will win you football games in big situations more than a pass rush will. So often you're looking at like a four man rush or something else like that.

In a big situation, you got five or six guys in there blocking. You need to be able to cover. And we've seen it. They lead the league in sacks and their defense is terrible. You have to be able to cover better. And I think if they have better corners, they've probably got 11 wins, 10. I mean, just, just not Breland, not Alexander, not Dantzler, like good players. And I think when you look at any of the great defenses, that's what they always have is like,

they'll have a key to leave or somebody or Daryl Revis or, you know, Xavier Rhodes, Terrence Newman and Trey Waynes and Harrison Smith in his prime, like those, the secondaries for the Vikings were great. So I think that that's actually the resolution is put the emphasis on getting these corners. And I'm sorry that a couple of them blew up in your face draft wise. So their process wasn't terrible there, uh proven ones you need proven corners so um that's that's got to be the most hopeless part of this team is that at several key positions quarterback among them you don't really have a future pipeline pass rush corner quarterback that's a killer

especially cornerback because they're expensive and the Vikings tried to slip in under the cap with a couple of cheapies. Alexander and Breland, you kind of got what you paid for. Peterson, you probably didn't get what you paid for, but in neither case did you like get more than what you paid for, which is that really hurt this team that they didn't they didn't tremendously hit on any of those I think Xavier Woods was a fine acquisition I don't think he's going to be back I think Cameron Bynum is the future there you're probably secure at safety but what is the cornerback group this year let's assume that everybody uh next year I mean let's assume that everybody moves on the starters would be harrison hand cam dansler and chris boyd yeah that can't happen right that just can't happen uh but if they were to move on from

their quarterback and create a bunch of cap space then that conversation changes do you have a resolution for drafting a bunch of third rounders who didn't work out don't do that again um i mean get get pretty good at development i guess you know the the second year leap kind of can be a thing we've seen it you know cleveland got better um i guess james lynch got a little better it it can happen but kj kj do not forget kj yeah i was going to mention kj as well it can happen so you're going to need, you know, I don't know if I can say with a straight face that Wyatt Davis is going to start next year,

nor can I say that about Kellen Bond. I can't say about any of the four third-round picks, but if they can be meaningful backups, I guess. In next year's draft, maybe don't earmark starting spots for third round or later picks. That just seems like a dangerous game. So just focus on hitting on your first rounder. And hey, maybe this team will have multiple first round picks. That'll make our job pretty fun in April.

But yeah, don't assume you're going to find starters anywhere else. And for fans, don't put your hopes and dreams into the third round. You can assume your first rounder and your second rounder should be key players. But once you get to the third round, draft analysts might be telling you you had the best third round in NFL history. And I can guarantee you that nobody knows at that point. It's all just low percentage plays and hopes and dreams um so don't put your heart on a draft pick on day two late day two or day three uh okay just to wrap up how about personal regrets personal resolution you can start with uh whichever one you want i will let you uh

go first on that me me first i gotta go yeah you gotta go first first First thing that comes to your mind You want me to bare my soul Well you know I took this job Early in the year With Purple Insider And you know what I'll tell you what We're to the end of the year No it's been good

It's been really good I was gonna say the holiday bonus still hasn't been paid yet So whatever you want to say here Yeah should probably yeah, should probably stay a little, a little more tight lipped. Um, I think my, my like April, May, June golf game was really disappointing to me. I was trying to do too much. Um, I watched too much golf in the quarantine time of the pandemic. And I, I got all these ideas about ways I could improve my swing and I really didn't deliver as as you can attest early in the year I was I was hot garbage so it still sticks with me I still think about those matches we had where I was a shankopotamus and I couldn't hit it

straight and I lose sleep over it Matthew it's a pretty good regret from you because you were horrible uh early on but you really got your your wind at the end of the year you were kind of like an opposite of a vikings uh cousins and the dolphins yeah well uh call me tua i'm a lucky like tua you ended strong is what i mean um you were playing well by the end of the year i uh it's a it may be a well i have a golf regret which was not getting new irons earlier. I had been playing with the same hundred dollar golf set that I just grabbed to play with you guys one time when I hadn't played in a long time, got new irons. It was like a whole new universe.

So that's it. I, you know, it's hard to have a whole lot of regrets because we've had such a fun year this year, you and I covering this team. And I guess in a way, the only regret that I have is something that I have nothing, no control over, which is, I just wish that for fans who listen to our show every day, that they had been better. I mean, for those people, because you know how much I enjoy previewing a game and just like, let's talk about every detail and every defensive tackle versus guard. And it feels like for so much of purple insiders existence, we've spent talking about

if someone's getting fired and I don't regret saying those things, but I feel bad for people who have followed this team that we've gotten to a point where that is the driving conversation. I regret all the typos. And if you read my work, I'm sorry. There are, yeah, I, I re I do regret like sometimes putting so much, uh, trying to put out so much that I don't read one more time slowly because there have been a few times where I've sent out an article and just been like, no, why is that typo there? So i apologize for that uh resolutions i don't know man i i like i i don't know if i have uh any personal resolutions i've never done one like i've never joined a gym right after uh january 1st or no wonder you're such a terrible person you've never resolved anything

yeah that's it yeah no that that's that's just to say that usually if i want to change something that i'll just change it um i goal i do have i'd set goals but it's not like oh well i have to stop eating you know or drinking diet dr pepper like which will never happen um so i guess i i what one thing that i started doing in the quarantine was picking things that i wanted to get better at and trying to get better at them, like learning more about chess and getting better at guitar and things like that. And so I guess the resolution would be to find another thing to add to that, to try to get better at. So also, I'm not spending every moment of my universe around one football team. Maybe it'll be a little

more diverse as a human being. There's my resolution. How about you? Yeah. Well, I already applaud you for having interests outside of this because you are musical and you are cerebral with your chess game and you play robots on your app, which is impressive. I could not probably hold a candle to you in that regard. I've got a putting green now. I've got a golf net. I am coming for you in about April. And I can already see the bombs that are going to be hit and the putts that are going to be drained.

All right. Well, I look forward to it. I mean, we play fairly even when you're not shankopotamus, as you said. But I appreciate, just to say even when you're not shankopotamus, as you said. But I appreciate, just to say, for the end of the year, all of the people who have listened and supported us, it is unbelievable to have seen our growth in listenership over the last year. And that's just the loyalty of Vikings fans, I think,

seeking us out and sticking with us and supporting us. And I can't thank everyone enough. So if you are just watching us here on the live stream for the first time, maybe your resolution should be to listen to our podcast more often. There you go. So, Sam, I appreciate your time. And I will see you in Lambeau, my friend. Frozen tundra. It's going to be cold.

See you there, man. Take care, everybody.