Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - NFL News is flying around everywhere, how do the latest deals and tags it impact the Vikings?

Episode Date: March 10, 2021

There's so much going on in the NFL right now and Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom attempt to capture it all and debate its impact on the Vikings. Does Sam agree that Kirk Cousins should view Dak Prescott's deal as a reason to attempt to hit free agency in 2022? Will Allen Robinson getting franchise tagged affect Russell Wilson's desire to play for the Bears? Will two tackles getting tagged make Riley Reiff want to hit the free agent market? And why the Raiders are a cautionary tale of making mid-tier signings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, presented by Scout Logistics and by Symbol, your stock market for sports. Matthew Collar here along with Sam Ekstrom. There's a bunch of news items that we need to get to and address how they impact the Minnesota Vikings offseason, and that has to begin with Dak Prescott's contract. I mentioned it very briefly at the beginning of yesterday's show, but I need to get your opinion on it. I think if you're Kirk Cousins, you look at Dak Prescott's contract and you say, we are hitting the market in 2022, baby,

because the 17-game season is coming. The Monster Monster TV contract appears to be coming i don't think jerry jones spends this much money on dak prescott if he doesn't believe that's going to happen and so if you are cousins your contract is up after two more years why would you not plan to just play that out? It's an interesting question because typically quarterbacks at Cousins age or whatever his age will be if he hits free agency in two years, I think he'll be turning 34 that year. Quarterbacks that are Super Bowl champions, future Hall of Famers, they can get the megabucks at that age. No problem.

Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Tom Brady, they've still got a lot of earning years left, but for a quarterback with Cousins track record, and I verified this, I think yesterday, he has an exactly 500 record in over a hundred starts now. So we know who he is. I'm not sure quarterbacks of that caliber continue appreciating with the market. I feel like, and it's a little bit unprecedented, to have a quarterback of Cousins' track record to continue getting the major bucks like this.

I mean, the salary cap's been only increasing at this current rate for so many years to the point where these contracts have gotten into the $30 and now $40 million per year range. So Cousins might be a really interesting test case. To me, in two years, unless he leads this Vikings team to 12 wins and multiple playoff wins, I feel like he's depreciating. But I don't know if I can underestimate quarterback contracts. Maybe that's stupid of me because they keep getting given out like candy. They keep one-upping each other. Dak Prescott has a season-ending injury and makes over $40 million per year. So credit to Dak, first of all. And one other

entrail to this, I wonder what this means for Daniil Hunter too, because this sort of proves that you can get hurt and still cash in if you're a star player. I think on Hunter's standpoint that other teams who are trying to trade for Daniil Hunter will say, ah, you know, coming off an injury, sorry, can't give you that second first round draft pick. But in terms of Hunter's people, his agent and the way that he views what he should get paid, I think this is a major win for him to look at another young player who had a horrible injury that's maybe even worse than what Daniil Hunter's is and say, well, look, his team still paid him. So I think you're going to have to pay

me too. And that has kind of been the norm for younger players. they are of a certain cut if you are in the three top three percent of the nfl in terms of your value which hunter would probably be and dak prescott of course is as being a top seven to ten quarterback you're in just like wins above replacement type value you saw their wins last year with andy dalton it didn't go so well then you can probably say yeah my injury my injury, my injury, whatever, but still you got to pay me because there are only a few human beings that can do what I do. To circle back to your point, yeah, I tend to lean toward there's always going to be quarterback desperation, that this isn't going anywhere. We have seen just in the last few weeks,

Carson Wentz, who was one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL last year, get traded and in a horrible contract situation, and he still gets moved. And we saw the Los Angeles Rams way overpay for Matt Stafford, who does not have as good of a record as Kirk Cousins, doesn't have as good of stats as Kirk Cousins, gets sacked more often, wins less. Like, I mean, it's kind of remarkable when you look at what Matt Stafford has actually done and how he's still valued in the NFL. Now, maybe there's some sort of perception or they look at his tools and things like that, but he also doesn't have anywhere near as good of health as Kirk Cousins. So I think if Kirk hit the market, there's always

going to be that team that has a bust quarterback. And so they've built up their roster and they've been building for years. And then they say, oh boy, now what? Kind of like Indianapolis last year, they paid Phillip Rivers when Phillip Rivers was coming off a pretty bad season with the Los Angeles Chargers. And they still said, yeah, come in, come in, come play for our team and try to get us to the playoffs with this really good roster. And I think there's always going to be that team out there. And if you're Kirk, you've been incredibly healthy and incredibly consistent. I mean, I can't think of another quarterback in the NFL that is as consistent

as Kirk Cousins from year to year. He is exactly Kirk Cousins, right down to the streakiness. Every single year has a seven-game stretch where he's the best quarterback in the NFL and a seven-game stretch where you're like, what's going on there? And it's really remarkable. So I think that it would be worth rolling the dice if you are him because you know that there's going to be a team out there. So my my question is let's say he does take that approach and says i want to get that dac money well what do you do if you're the vikings then does that mean you draft someone this year and try to groom them so you can trade cousins next year

i i don't think that the vikings would be opposed to kirk saying yeah, I'd like to hit free agency because now that does put them on the hook for potentially a $45 million cap hit, which is troublesome. Now that 17 game season money might be coming in. Maybe that doesn't take up 25% of the cap like it would today. Maybe it only takes up 17% or 20% or whatever it might be, a little more in line with normal quarterback contracts. I think the Vikings at some point are going to have to swallow a large sum of money. Unless they get out right now and give Cousins to somebody else, maybe it's the Broncos, maybe it's the 49ers. If that $45 million cap hit kicks in, I think they should just accept that they might have to eat that and they might have to have a really bad year where they have no money to spend and they're in salary cap purgatory. That might be the cost of doing business.

And you're right to some extent where I think there will be a team that looks at Cousins and says what the Vikings said about him three years ago. Oh, if we just give him this, that will maximize his potential. The Vikings have had a pass-blocking unit, bottom quarter of the NFL every year. If we protect him, he will succeed. And someone will convince themselves of that because of the flashes that Kirk Cousins shows. And even Rick Spielman, trying to convince himself of it, said Kurt Cousins was one of the best quarterbacks in football down the stretch last year,

which I think if you narrow it down to sort of the right amount of games, yeah, like from week, I don't know, eight on, sure, you could probably make an argument for that. But again, the Vikings also went six and five in that stretch. So it's not exactly overwhelming, but Kirk Cousins' future is such, he's such an enigma for being as consistent as he is. He really is an enigma because you don't know what you can expect game to game, but you know what to expect season to season, if that makes any sense. No, it absolutely does does you can start any

season with Kirk Cousins one five I mean that's always a possibility but then he can get hot and play as well as anybody in the NFL but I mean last time I checked the seasons are 16 games long but you can always talk yourself into it though and that's exactly what Rick Spielman was doing one of the old school Bill James don'ts for statistics was pick arbitrary endpoints. And people love to pick arbitrary endpoints when trying to make the case for cousins. But if you're the Vikings and you've sort of gotten exhausted on each one of these seasons has a long stretch of ineffectiveness. One of those stretches got John D. Filippo fired. Another one of those stretches put them in ailippo fired another one of those stretches put

them in a one in five hole where he led the NFL in interceptions I mean if you are the Vikings and you look at this and say Kirk is who he is he's not going to get better he's in his 30s and we realize now that there's only so much we can do around him in order to try to win and we've given him good teams and it still hasn't happened and they decide to move on i think you have to make that decision today make it right now you know what it's going to cost to keep him long term so if you make that decision right now that you are or aren't going to keep him then if you are then you put on your full court press for next year for an extension for cousins and if you are not going to keep him then you plan on your full court press for next year for an extension for Cousins. And if you are not going to keep him, then you plan on drafting a quarterback this year,

playing this thing out, and then moving on from Cousins after 2022 and letting him have his dream and hit the market. Something tells me that Cousins is done being committed to as a long-term franchise quarterback. It strikes me as he is a bridge. For the rest of his career, he will be a bridge, a long-term franchise quarterback it strikes me as he he's a bridge for the rest of his career he will be a bridge a well-paid bridge like a very well constructed like a lot of time and attention being put into building that bridge but i don't think he's getting more than a two-year deal beyond 2022 i just can't i can't see any team looking at the track record at that point he'll have eight years of starting experience under his belt,

and he'll be almost 34 years old. I think he becomes sort of the veteran who is going to give you a high floor to kind of keep you competitive until your next guy is ready. I don't think he gets like a massive commitment anywhere for the rest of his career. Even the Vikings never gave him a massive commitment anywhere for the rest of his career. Even the Vikings never gave him a massive commitment. The first one was three years. The second one was two additional years. I think that his next step is probably two more additional years, whether that's with the Vikings or his next team. I think he's done considering those long, long-term deals,

unless he goes and wins a Super Bowl this year. And then what if that happens, Collar? What if Kurt Cousins wins a Super Bowl? I mean, at that point, it's all gravy because you've won a Super Bowl. So what do you do at that point? Do you give him two more? Do you give him three more? Obviously, you're going to extend him to get that cap hit down.

What's your play at that point? If the unthinkable happens. You give him the Joe Flacco Memorial contract, which is we know we're probably not going to win again, but here is the most money in the NFL because you won us a Super Bowl. And that is irreplaceable in our history. I think that's probably what would happen. The question for me is if you haven't made the decision yet, and that's why I say make the decision now so you can treat this as a long-term thing.

But if you haven't made the decision yet, then what's your bar? And I like asking this question for everybody. I like asking this question for Rick Spielman. I like asking this question for Mike Zimmer. What is your bar? Is your bar 10 wins? Is it 12 wins? Is it the, you know, divisional round? Is it like, what does he need to rank top five by PFF? Does he need to have 40 touchdown? Like, how are you deciding whether he's going to be your long-term guy? And that's why I say, you know what you have right now, go with what you have right now for your information and make that decision. And if Mac Jones is there at 14 or Trey Lance, then just take them if you're planning on long-term moving on from Cousins.

And if you're not, then start trying to work on an extension for him now. See if you can prod him into it right now if you really want him to be your guy. Because the longer you wait, the more money is going to be available with the salary cap and the more he's going to demand. Well, he probably has more trade value today too than he would in one year. If this next year is in line with his career average, I think that gives more or less reason for teams to think they can change him. I think this year, he is coming off statistically very good season. I think there's probably enough of a case where Kyle Shanahan could talk himself into it. There's more reason to think that in year seven of being a full-time starter,

we can turn him into something than it is year eight or year nine or every year thereafter. So if you've got a chance, I think, to take that guy at number 14, I think you got to do it. And I'm coming more and more around to that as the draft gets closer and closer. I still don't know if I'm in team trade up for a quarterback, but I might be on team take someone if they're right there. And more likely than not, there's always the one guy who drops. Lamar Jackson was that guy at one point. Teddy Bridgewater was that guy. You're always going to see somebody sort of surprise you. And maybe it's Justin Fields.

Maybe it's Trey Lance. Usually the NFL has a different opinion on at least one of these quarterbacks to the point where they do make it to the middle of the first or to the end of the first. And Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, those guys both dropped to the middle and turned out to be franchise quarterbacks. So if that does happen, maybe you change course based on what happens on draft night with your long-term view of Cousins. If you have one of those quarterbacks that you think, if this is the guy that falls, we are going to take it. But just with Prescott's contract, I think that becomes more realistic than it's ever

been for the possibility of the Vikings drafting a quarterback this year. Let me ask you this before we move on to some other things and how they affect the Vikings. Do you like Prescott? I mean, do you think that Dallas is a long-term or even short-term Super Bowl contender with Dak Prescott as their quarterback? I might be a little biased because I went to that Vikings-Cowboys game to cover it in 2019. And I thought that was one of the most impressive quarterback performances in a losing effort, mind you. They lost the game. But I thought Prescott was incredible.

And I see that from him from time to time. His arm strength, his mobility, and obviously he's got great weapons there. That shouldn't be overlooked. He is equipped, I think, with a really good offensive line, or at least he has been in previous years. Wide receiving core is elite. So I think Prescott's fantastic. I think he's,

he's got a great personality. He's really marketable. He's really smart. I would love him as my franchise quarterback. Um, and he's still really young. What is he? 27 now? 26. Let me pull this up. He's, uh, he's 27. Yeah. He's in's in his prime. I love Prescott. Yeah. And I think Dallas made the right move, to be honest with you. We've had there's been enough comebacks from injury where I think I don't think Dallas needed to be overly cautious about this. If Alex Smith can come back from what he suffered, if Teddy Bridgewater can come back from what he suffered, I think there's reason to believe that Dak Prescott can come back and be just fine. So I like the move for Dallas. I don't know how they keep inventing cap space for all these stars.

I think that might come to roost one day and sort of and back up the trajectory of what the Cowboys can be because they are paying a lot of expensive players, including a running back, which is not very smart. So I don't know if he wins them a Super Bowl in the next three years, but I still wouldn't want him to leave. I mean, you got him at phenomenal value, fourth round, I believe. And look at what he became. I mean, you got to hold on to an asset like that. He's a top 10 quarterback. Yeah, good move by Dallas, I believe. And look at, look at what he became. I mean, you got to hold onto an asset like that. He's a top 10 quarterback. Yeah. Good move by Dallas. I think. Hey, I want to tell you about our very cool new sponsor symbol. Symbol is a new sports marketplace where you can trade shares of professional

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That is SodaStick, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. Original Minnesota sports inspired goods. Code Purple Insider for free shipping. I think he's ascending still, and we'll see how the injury impacts him for the start of next year, because that might be where things take off a little bit slowly from the beginning. And of course, in the first two games, that's where we'll judge the entire contract as we do. But if you look at his PFF grades from year to year, he started off with that great offensive line and

in a good situation offensively where he was kind of handing off a lot and then making the throws he needed to throw. When we saw him in 2016, you could sort of get to him. And then as he's gone along, he's become much more of a pocket passer. There's still some inconsistencies with his accuracy, but I think those get made up with the run game where he can be someone that you design runs. He can be a red zone, a very serious red zone threat with his legs, and he could be a playmaker. He could throw on the run. And that performance, like you said, in 2019 was not against a bum defense. That was against the defense that finished in the top five and points against. And he shredded them for 400 yards or something like that that night and was, as per usual, let down by his coach. And I think that that's one thing that remains a major question for Dallas is how long will they stick with Mike McCarthy

and will he ruin some of the best years of Dak Prescott's life just like he did in some ways with Aaron Rodgers? There's other things going on here, lots to talk about. One of them being that Allen Robinson, actually, as we're speaking right now, franchise tagged by the Chicago Bears. Do you think that makes anything more interesting for Russell Wilson to know that if he came to the Chicago Bears in a trade, that he would join Alan Robinson there? That he has one weapon instead of zero in Chicago? Really good weapon though. Yeah, he's good. I don't know if this is going to make Allen Robinson any happier.

Allen Robinson was obviously discontent last year. Getting franchise tagged is not the way to appease your stars. They would rather have a little more security than that. So that doesn't really tell Russell that he's going to be around beyond 2021. I don't think that changes the equation for Russell. No, I mean, they've got to do more than that for me, at least in my opinion, for him to really consider Chicago. It's a short-term move. Maybe they do use this year to negotiate with him. I know they have that window open now, but they probably won't have done that by the time Russell makes a decision or the Seahawks

make a decision. So I am not enamored with that move if I'm Russell. The way I look at it is from Allen Robinson's perspective, I'm telling them, get me a quarterback and we will talk about this long-term contract extension. And if they were to trade for Russell Wilson, and I can't come up with a trade that really works in terms of salary cap, I can come up with a trade that works just player for player, which would be Khalil Mack and some draft picks. But I don't know how that works with the salary cap.

That seems like that might be very difficult. But if I'm Robinson, I'm totally fine with staying in Chicago with the long-term contract extension. If you get me somebody better than Nick Foles, if you get me somebody better than Mitch Trubisky, who he's had to deal with, or Blake Bortles once upon a time, he had to deal with in Jacksonville. That's not going to work if I'm Alan Robinson for signing me to a long-term contract extension. And I think that this puts a lot of pressure on the Chicago Bears to be aggressive still in the market here, whether it's trying to sign somebody or, you know, I mean,

I don't think that Ryan Fitzpatrick is going to convince Alan Robinson that he needs to sign a long-term contract extension there. So that, that will be an interesting part of this. And that kind of leads me to, if, if they did sign him to an extension, they can do the thing where he has a low cap hit this year, and then has a huge cap it later on when the salary cap goes back up. So they can do that. I mean, should you be afraid of the bears a little bit? If they do it, Like if you see Allen Robinson signs a long-term contract extension, are you like, oh no, they must have a plan at quarterback? I can't believe that the Bears have a plan at quarterback until they do something competent.

They've never had a plan. They've never executed the plan. Also, I don't want to sleep on Darnell Mooney too much. Mooney was really good last year but what what scares you about that bears offense like with with a league average quarterback nothing like they would have to win defensively it would have to be the classic bears team that somehow grinds out wins kind of like last year's five and one start where they were winning in spite of themselves um they don't really have a tight end that that strikes fear uh the montgomery cohen combo you

know at running back is fine and then mooney and robinson yeah that's a decent one-two punch but i don't love that and the offensive line is is you know average so i don't really love that the makeup of that bears team i don't know if it's like a super big draw for quarterbacks to go there so um I'm not I guess I'm sleeping on the Bears I don't I'm not that intimidated by that franchise right now it's really if they get Russell Wilson then just by proxy of having Russell Wilson you are a Super Bowl contender yep when you I mean when you look around the NFC too Tom Brady's probably going to come back and Tampa Bay will be a serious contender. But if Drew Brees retires, you are looking at a lot of teams that are in the middle

type of tier, unless we see the ascension of someone like Kyler Murray, who suddenly becomes a superstar or something like that, where right now he's kind of in that mid pack of quarterbacks along with Kirk Cousins. And in my opinion, Matt Stafford and Jared Goff and all those guys, Jimmy Garoppolo, everybody's in the middle. Wilson would be other than Aaron Rogers, the best quarterback in the NFC. And that right there gives you a chance. And I think even with those weapons that you mentioned, he's going to have a top 10 offense just because he's Russell Wilson and he's that good. And they've run out worse for him in Seattle. And I imagine that part of this would also go along with trying to upgrade their offensive line, as you mentioned, which did struggle last year. So that's what is the entire swing here is could they possibly because now Dallas is off of the list New Orleans is not

really a possibility and that was also on Russell Wilson's list so that brings us to Chicago and there was one more team the Raiders and that that's my that's my club yeah Raiders okay and that's a team that could trade quarterback for quarterback and be attractive to Seattle so I agree that yeah that would be interesting but now it's kind of down to two for teams that could trade for Russell Wilson. If he decided to, you know, really put on the full court press of get me out of Seattle, a few more things for you. So Brandon Sheriff, Sheriff is off the list that leaves Joe Thune and James Carpenter was also cut, but like, I don't know, you don't, you don't really, you don't want to probably not. No, no. But you know, I was using the hashtag guard frenzy because there seems to be more guards every day hitting the market who have also disappointed

their teams. Any chance that the Vikings put on the you know the big sell to Joe Thune to come to Minnesota because he is now the far and away not even close best guard on the free agent market yeah I think we're both realistically on team spend your money not all in one place and that might be what it requires to get a guard of joe thuny's caliber the top guards are making you know 14 million dollars a year if you're zach martin uh and i think thuny would command that i don't think thuny's taking less than than the top so how are you going to fit that in i think that only comes in conjunction with a significant move or two like a danil Hunter trade where you shed a bunch of

cap, releasing Anthony Barr. And even if you make just one of those moves, okay, then you can use the money to sign Thune, but you have nothing else. The Vikings have gotten inventive with opening up cap space that we don't really know exists so maybe maybe they find a way and maybe they could get that cap number low in year one but boy that's that's a lot of money to give to a guard that is that's a lot of money um i would say no more than likely not i also say more likely than not no unless they moved on from riley reef which I'll get to in a second, and decided that our one and only answer for all of that cap space is Joe Thune and Joe Thune only, because the reality of free agents is they're just going to take the best offers. I mean, sometimes you'll hear that, oh, well, they really like the food in that city, but usually that's

just to, you know, I mean, kind of paint over the fact that that team had the best offer or an equal offer and they chose between two. So if you're the Vikings, can you give the guy the best offer and still keep Riley Reif? Probably not. And still sign defensive free agents you're going to need? Probably not, unless you're making other very drastic moves. So I don't see much of a chance they go that way. I think even though I sort of just brushed off the James Carpenter, who's a, comes from Atlanta, used to play for the Jets, was good for the Jets briefly, but you blow off that idea, but that's the type of guy that they'll probably be looking at him or like an Austin Blythe or like

guys that, you know, when you sign them, they don't exactly hold a press conference in the middle of mall of America. You know, it's just like, okay, well maybe you've heard of this guy. Maybe you haven't, uh, well you pulled up as PFF grades and they're not perfect. And that, you know, all that sort of thing that of course is the expectation for the guard position, but on the matter of Riley reef. So they're going to have to make this decision. I think soon they could just wait and see how the draft goes. I don't know if that'll happen, though, because I think they want to have the space to be able to spend if they're going to move on from him.

If I'm Riley Reif, I am telling the Vikings to fly a kite because Cam Robinson and Taylor Moten were both franchise tag taking two tackles off the market. So it's Trent Williams. And then it would be Riley Reif for guys who you can pay and play and feel halfway decent about and not have huge concerns about them as your left tackle. You know, Trent Williams is going to get massive money from somebody. If I'm Riley Reif, I don't see a reason to restructure my contract or sign an extension before the start of free agency. I'm telling the team, cut me. I'm not signing your extension.

Okay. You brought up something on a recent Purple Insider Extra on our YouTube channel about Anthony Harris. And you said that the fear with someone like that at his age, almost 30, is that you get caught in the middle of free agency, which might incentivize you to at least consider a medium offer with the Vikings on a one-year deal. Is Riley Reif in the same boat? If he strong arms his way out of Minnesota, is he actually going to regret that decision? And I know what you laid out is compelling, that he might be the number two tackle on the market. I think you could make that argument. But I also would hate to be Riley Reif and get stuck or get shut out of that first wave. And then you wind up sort of waiting and waiting for somebody to make that offer.

And the longer you wait, the more money gets spent and dried up. And suddenly you're signing for a $2 million deal. That has to be part of the equation for these guys. That if you don't get signed kind of right away when there's a lot of money, well, you're going to be in trouble. Now, I think Riley Reeves' last season is going to convince a lot of teams that he's worth it because he was very good. So I think I think he'll probably and he's not too old where people are going to think, oh, he's washed up. I think he'll probably find a home, but I think it's in the back of his mind.

Like, OK, if I leave here, I might lose a lot of value And I'm not sure I'll be able to make that value back. Hey, everyone. I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics. And since they reached out wanting to support this show, I want to tell you about what they do. Scout Logistics is just-in-time transportation for full tractor-trailer loads,

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I mean, there's a lot more Rashad Hills on the market than there are Riley Reifs. And go back even a couple of years when the Vikings signed Riley Reif. He was coming off of a year that was a little questionable. He had played right tackle for Detroit, and they were talking about, well, we've got to move him back across the line. Now he's got to go back to left tackle. And I remember being pretty skeptical. Now it's worked out well for them,

but I remember being skeptical of the move, saying his own team moved him over to right tackle, and you're going to ask him to be your left tackle for that much money. But I'll give you my name, my one player that proves that Riley Reif will make a lot of money in free agency. Matt Khalil got a huge contract in free agency. Matt Khalil was just, I mean, hands down one of the worst left tackles in the NFL for multiple seasons and still landed a gigantic contract. Nate Solder got a huge contract after playing very average football for the New England Patriots. And even if you're

Russell Okung was just kind of a guy. And then all of a sudden he's a star in the free agent market. I think that's just kind of left tackle for you. And the fact that two very good tackles in Cam Robinson and Taylor Moten go off the list to me says, you know what? I think that Riley Reif would be wiser to do that. And the Vikings would be smart to try and, you know, I mean, I've been on the side of, if you move on from him, that's okay. But if they really want him, like, you know, maybe a couple of days ago, it would have been better for you in terms of your chances to keep him on an extension or a restructure. I've got a few more of them. Kenny Galladay was not tagged by the Lions.

Do you think the Lions are in full like, hey, if we go four and 12 mode, it's totally fine and rebuild this thing? Because, yeah, I think so, too. Does that mean are they going to be eyeing quarterbacks? Yeah, I think they have to be. I mean, I don't think that Jared Goff is their panacea for everything. They've also got no wide receiving weapon. Their entire wide receiving core is on the free agent market. Galladay now, Danny Amendola, and Marvin Jones.

Who's left? They've got, is Adrian Peterson going to re-sign and be their 2,000-yard rusher? Try to break Emmitt Smith's record this year. DeAndre Swift was good, though, for them. Say that again? DeAndre Swift. He was good. Yeah, no, I like Swift.

And they used him way not enough because peterson was eating up all the carries i i think that good for golladay like for for getting a chance to like reinvent himself with another franchise where he's not really gonna get buried because i think he's really good i think detroit is in complete rebuild mode. I think, unfortunately, there's not a lot of time for fans to have these reset years with new coaches. I think Dan Campbell is going to have a rough time of it this year. I hope he gets the leash to let his vision play out into 2022 and see what happens. Because usually it's two years for these new coaches heck even one year for um kevin stefanski's predecessor can't remember his name freddie kitchens sometimes it's one year so it doesn't seem like they're really setting up jared goff

or dan campbell to succeed in year one but um i think it's going to be tough in detroit i don't know who jared goff's going to to. Yeah, maybe they draft a wide receiver now and then try to address the quarterback situation after going four and 12 next year. And then they take Spencer Rattler or something with the top overall pick. I could see that as being the long-term plan in Detroit too, because there are so many good wide receivers and you add Kyle Pitts to that. They have TJ Hawkinson, so maybe that wouldn't be their guy. But Jalen Waddell, Jamar Chase. I mean, there is an upper echelon of wide receivers that are really special in this draft. So if you're Detroit, you're maybe trying to if your quarterback isn't there.

Like, let's say Justin Fields drops. All right, we're going to take Justin Fields. If he drops, anyone else is going to be a wide receiver. But as far as how this impacts the Vikings next year you can never write down two guaranteed wins when it's the division but that seems like a situation where if we're filling out the schedule which we will when it comes out in May we're putting two W's next to those Detroit games because I don't think they're going to go all in and do a lot of things in free agency they're going to take the slow and do a lot of things in free agency. They're going to take the slow approach, which for them is smart because they've just been fiddling around with being mediocre for

a really long time. One more thing for you, Sam. This is from Marcus Mosier. He writes a lot about the Raiders and stuff, right? So here is their 2019 Las Vegas Raiders off season. They traded for Antonio Brown. He was cut, obviously. They signed Tyrell Williams. They signed LaMarcus Joyner. They signed Trent Brown. Okay. And they spent 60, 40, 40, they spent $140 million on these guys and more with Antonio Brown. And every one of them is gone now. And that was just in 2019. They tradedrent brown just today to the new england patriots back where he had come from marcus joiner was cut maybe a guy that you know would be worth looking at for the vikings tyrell williams signed with somebody else already i think

but he had a four-year contract that went bust and the antonio brown thing obviously blew up even though it has worked for some contending teams to sign a bunch of players in free agency, this would be your cautionary tale of overspending on middle free agents. Trent Brown was not that good and they gave him a gazillion dollars. Same with Tyrell Williams and the same with LaMarcus Joyner and I was thinking about what Steven Weatherly told us the other day about becoming a little complacent but also these guys you know they play through injuries and things like that to get to that free agent year they get there and you know where's their body at by the time that they're 27 28 29 so just a little bit

of a you know the best place to be is if you can get a superstar or if you can pick from the bargain bin in August. And I think anything in the middle, this is where the Vikings have to be careful. Don't sign your Trent Brown. Don't sign your LaMarcus Joyner. Don't sign your Tyrell Williams. Well, and you look at the Vikings track record, typically when they try that, it doesn't work out that well like mike remmers for instance that lasted two years um josh klein lasted one year a lot of it doesn't always work out for the vikings either but i think a lot of those guys for the raiders who signed they signed and they're like wait we're not in las vegas yet we have to play in oakland one more year and they were they said okay well we'll coast through this year and then we'll get to Vegas and everything will

be better. I wonder if Mark Davis has some debts to pay too. Like I know he's not one of the wealthiest NFL owners and not having fans and like losing a bunch of money. I wonder if he's not, wasn't really excited to pay all those guys either. Was the, was the Trent Brown thing, was that a trade with New England was that reported yeah it was and uh kind of just some draft picks going back and forth but it was basically like take them off our hands New England right yeah that it seems odd now that that this is where they're sort of losing talent instead of adding it this was supposed to be

like the the Mayock and Gruden era was building toward vegas like that year three was going to be the takeoff year and it came up a little empty and now year four might be a step back who knows they might even change quarterbacks um yeah the the vegas thing is not off to a roaring start especially when you play your first year there without fans. It just feels wrong. So I'm still lobbying for Wilson to Vegas. I think that's my favorite fit, and I hope it happens because the more Gruden and Mayock that can be in our lives,

I think is better for everybody. At least for entertainment purposes. Do you want Carlos Dunlap, Sam? You interested in Carlos Dunlap? He was released by the Seahawks. Right. And they just acquired him like a couple months earlier, right? So that's, again, we're seeing so many players get dumped

who are, you know, just got to a team that they can't afford. It's kind of in the Gino Atkins realm right like it's another Mike Zimmer guy that he he knows really well he coached him when he was young and I think Zimmer's largely kind of resisted the temptation to like get the gang back together from Cincinnati he gets the gang back together from minnesota um the former vikings always come back but he hasn't really dipped his toe into those waters too often where he like drake or patrick he could have brought back um i think he had probably a hand in darkweeze dennerd i think and and they didn't sign him anyway with dunlap yeah it's all about the price right i mean i think

he's got he's almost got 100 sacks in his career, but he's also like 32 years old and might be on the decline. So if you can get him for a small deal, I'm all for it. I think you need talent on that defensive line. I think Daniil Hunter is a question mark, and you've got to replace him somehow. So you may as well do it with someone who's going to be a little bit cheaper and Mike Zimmer knows something about. And I think he could be the guy, or maybe there's a number of players who could be like this, who are the one-year deal for a small amount guy who wants to hit free agency again next year when the money is back and that's the guy that the vikings have to target you know what that sounds like an article at purpleinsider.substack.com it sounds like a sheldon carlos dunlap can be the next sheldon

sheldon richardson okay that's who we should look for so uh just before we wrap up what now sam what's what what do you think's happening what's happening this week nothing's happened to us yet everything's happened everything everybody else i want it to happen to us yeah well unfortunately the vikings didn't really have any franchise tag candidates and uh today being tuesday was the day for that so that didn't happen um i think we're going to have one significant release. I think somebody is getting cut this week. I'm going to put my money on reef. I don't have a source on that. Just speculating.

I think reef might be the first domino to fall, even though I've been advocating for a, an extension and restructure. I still lean toward your opinion, which is he will not be on the team all right we will get back together for the friday round table which will be on friday with eric eager from pro football focus he'll be our guest this week and we will talk to you then thanks for your time sam yep see you caller