Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - NFL.com's Eric Edholm power ranks most important people of Vikings-Lions matchup

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

NFL.com's Eric Edholm talks about the Vikings and Lions matchup and ranks the most important players in the game and reflects on Sam Darnold's rise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and joining the show, Eric Edholm from NFL.com. And how about this, Eric? We have talked so many times through the years about the draft, your analysis and who the Vikings are picking last year quarterbacks all those things I thought it was only right when this team's 14 and 2 playing its biggest game to bring you on to talk about a Vikings football game so Eric at home what is up my man how are you well first of all I feel honored you know I mean like I I thought you just called me in like you know for

uh like those those 18 inning games not kidding kidding i i'm i'm this is the biggest game of the year i couldn't be more excited like this is this is one of those games where you know you could be a chargers fan from venezuela and be like i'm i'm settling in from this one and i'm you know i have a good following in venezuela so i could say that but um you know just it really checks every box. It's a great discussion for coaching, for team building, for the X's and O's, the storylines with the people involved. There's so many tentacles to this thing.

I love it. So here's what I want to do. I want to, since you do power rankings on NFL.com. I do. I want to power rank the most important people doesn't have to be players but most important people go back and forth and rank them in this episode but i also want to talk to you about the journey of a power ranker with the minnesota vikings this year because i wrote an article about the you know the vikings exceeding expectations. And so I looked back at everybody's preseason power rankings. And, you know, actually, you had the Vikings early in the season higher than most.

But that was like 19th is where you had them. Others had them 25th, 28th going into the season as you're ranking along throughout the year. When did you buy it? When were you like, okay, you know what? I got to move them up from where I thought and just get rid of my priors on this team. Yeah, that's a great question. Yeah. First of all, the power ranking journey, as you said, I mean, they asked if I was interested

in doing the assignment two years ago. I had done it years and years ago, more as like a bean counter type. Like I took everybody's votes, averaged them out and then wrote the little skinnies on them. And that was easy when I did that at Pro Football Weekly, because it was like a 12 word comment and the votes were all done for me. I could break ties and things like that. But this has put me in a different kind of position, you know, these last two years. I definitely feel like, you know, you pay for your sins, right, because you're going to be wrong at some point on every team probably almost.

I mean, even the Chiefs moving them down to four. I was probably wrong about that, you know. So I can't remember the exact path. Obviously, when they got to the bye at, what, 4-0, 5-0, was it? Yeah. So, you know, at that point they had impressive wins, presumably impressive over the Niners. And the Texans, I think we still felt like were a quality team at that point.

Packers certainly qualify for that. The way it went down was a little bit jarring. But nonetheless, you go on the road and win a game like that, you earn some credit. So I think going into that bye, were the Lions and Rams games back to back? Is that right? Yes. Yep. Yeah. Right. I'm just trying to remember the order of the games. Yeah. So at that point, I had to have had them in my top 10. I mean, I had to incrementally inch them up because,

you know, the more often than not, the victories were impressive. You know, you started seeing a little bit more out of Darnold at that point, Aaron Jones, you know, they hadn't even had the full complement of players back, you know, and so I felt like, boy, this thing's looking good. Now, you don't panic after two straight losses, but you certainly have to reflect it. And I would say a couple of games after that where, you know,

their little run through the AFC South or whatever where, you know, there was still a buy-in period. So I think I gently eased them back at that point. I would have to imagine that the Falcons win was pretty statement. And then obviously the second Bears game, I would say was about when we started kind of turning the corner and the wheels started screeching a little bit. That was like, how good is this team? Have we underestimated their peak? Have we oversold their bottom? You know what I mean? Have we made too much of the idea, well, let's, you know,

remember that 13 and three, you know, whatever, 13 and four. I think at that point I was like, why haven't I bought in a little sooner? You know, I think I should have been a little bit. It's easy to get in these 32 tracks on what a team should, it should be or is, or what we think they are. And I think at that point, so the last really what four or five games, I would say it's been, okay. Yeah. Now, now, now I get it. You you've now smacked me across the face 14 times and I'm starting to, to, to understand. Well, I don't think that your journey is much different than a lot of Vikings fans when it came to this team. Because after the two losses and the fact that they lost Christian Deresoff for the year,

I remember myself doing a two-hour live stream trying to talk everybody off the ledge. Like, hey, guys, they're about to play the AFC South. So the season is not over, I promise you. And, uh, they had to win those games against those bad teams and they were able to do that. But I agree with your point that I think it was actually the Falcons game because one, the Falcons are a good team and they're in the playoff race and all that. And also Kirk's return, it was getting a lot more attention, but Sam, Sam Darnold went crazy in that game. Three hundred seven yards, five touchdowns, blowout victory, 21 point win.

And they had a 98 yard drive to close that game out. That was one of those. If you're a really good team, put a whooping on somebody that's good or in the competition. And then they did that. They've passed the late game tests against Arizona and against Seattle. And suddenly you got to a point where you couldn't say, well, who have they really beat? Well, they beat a lot of people. And then with green Bay, that's a heck of a statement win because that was way closer than the score ended up being. So now they reached this point where that 2022 conversation of, Oh, are they for real or whatever? That's way in the past now at this point.

Absolutely. And you brought a great point about Darasaw, too. I, you know, I, Cam Robinson's been so steady and so solid, in my opinion. You can you can tell me if I'm wrong, at least what I've seen based on, you know, TV copy and a little bit of deeper dive than that. But like at the moment moment that was a big big deal i think vikings fans clearly understood how much this guy has grown to mean for the team especially you know at that point i would say you you're still selling yourself on darnold and you're still you know hockinson's i think it's just coming back to the lineup at that point and all this stuff so there was this volatility about the team, and then you pair that with, you know, a couple losses and some close wins.

And, yeah, I mean, I think back to that Rams game, I mean, they had the ball in a one-score game, you know, potentially going for the game-tying score. You know, we know how the Lions game ended up too. So, I mean, you know, they've not only been in every game, which they accomplished in the 2022 season, but like you said, they've also had those statement victories, either over quality teams or by significant margins against respectable teams. And yeah, I mean, that whole thing I think has kind of helped put the bow on

the top of the wrapping. I don't know how often I've ever seen a team go through an entire season and it's not over yet without getting beaten badly even once i mean even the great patriots team would always have some game where they just yeah exactly there was a jets one mixed in there there was the one time that sam adams ran a touchdown against tom Brady. And then, you know, of course the Patriots win the Superbowl that year, whatever, but there's always one meltdown. And with this team, their two losses are combined by 12 points. And really if a face mask is called in the end zone against the Rams, it's 10 points to only have two losses by a total of 10 points is really

shocking. I think the consistency of this team week in and week out that there's never a complete no-show the focus behind Kevin O'Connell. And I also think Eric, this is why veteran teams win. And when you look at the average age of Superbowl teams, you see a lot of older veterans because they are the most consistent players. And I think one of the things that maybe we underestimated is some of us had them finishing with a winning record at the beginning of the season, just saying, but I didn't have 14. But one of the things I thought was they have a lot of proven players that we can actually project out and say, you know,

this Van Ginkle guy is probably going to be pretty good. And Cashman and Gernard and even Stefan Gilmore, we can say with big samples, these guys will give them a competent defense. It really just came down to, is Sam Darnold going to be consistent? That I did not think was going to happen. I thought it was going to be three weeks up, three weeks down. And at the end, you just hope that he gets one of those big ups. And instead he's been one of the most consistent players on the team. Yeah. I mean, to your first point about the, the, the week to week consistency and the, and the being in every game or, or controlling, you know, either controlling or being in the game with a chance to tie it or win it at the end. I mean, that's coaching, isn't it? I mean, I know it sounds pretty elementary to say that and, you know, duh,

obviously, but like to the New Orleans Saints and the Chicago Bears and, you know, maybe the Raiders, maybe the Giants, whoever else is looking for a coach this offseason, like this is the hallmark of a good team. It's like you give yourself a legitimate chance to win on a daily basis, or weekly basis, I mean. Now, to spin that forward, I didn't know that Darnold, like you, would be able to do that. We had always known Sam as kind of this, you know, swashbuckling guy who on his best days could be pretty darn good. On his worst days, seeing ghosts against Bill Belichick with the Jets, you thought, oh, no oh no you know there's

there's there's something missing if you're capable of that kind of performance am I ever really going to trust you that kind of vibe was always sort of hovering around him like a black cloud and you know that the Carolina experience and how funny is it by the way that they had both Sam and Baker Mayfield on the depth chart in 2022. It let both go and let, you know, had to pay through the nose to get a quarterback. They're now just starting to feel comfortable with again anyway. But yeah, it's, it's, that's what held me back too.

And I remember you and I talked prior to doing the show. We were just kind of gabbing about, Hey, what's happening with JJ, what's going on with Sam. And you were kind of telling me how, you know, JJ was ramping up at that point. He was just starting to make a move when he got hurt and everything. So, you know, it's hard not to get the wheels spinning when you're looking back in August and projecting, look, the Lions are going to be good. I think the Packers are going to be good. I think the Bears are better. Wrong. But you know what I mean? Like those are the parameters in which I kind of operated back then. And it's, you know, with the Bears defense and Caleb Williams, I thought, how are they going to be worse, right?

Same conversation I had with the Jets this year, by the way. So what you realize, sometimes wins and losses don't always reflect in how a team's – where they're at, but also sometimes they do. And there can be second acts in the NFL. That's the other thing with Darnold. You pair the right quarterback with the right coach, there's a trust, there's a process of them growing together, living through the ups and downs. And, you know, I think the faith that

KOC has had in Darnold, like not that he really had, like if McCarthy was healthy, that's a different story, obviously every week, Hey, you know, what's going on. So maybe that in a way kind of helped ease the pressure just a little bit in terms of, I don't have to look over my shoulder because the guys who would play in, if they're playing, it means something really bad has happened, and it probably was inevitable anyway. So that probably helps. But also I believe that O'Connell is kind of the model of what teams should be looking for in a coach because you too can take a retread, let's call him what he is right and make him into something

potentially special here so uh you and i i did an article before the season and i talked with you about old draft takes on sam darnold and if draft analysts were still holding out hope that darnold could be that guy and almost uh all the draft analysts that i talked to were like yes i think we are a little bit still holding out that hope uh because of kevin o'connell justin jefferson and so forth yeah but i remember asking you hey who do you think nfl.com's lance zeerlein compared darnold to coming out and you five different guesses six guesses the. The answer was Andrew Luck. And we laughed about it like, man, wow, that was a high bar to set. And yet the man has played like Andrew Luck this season, pushing the ball down the field, sort of the quiet leader guy who doesn't have the huge personality.

He has now become so efficient with the running this offense that it's short passing, deep passing, intermediate passing he's not afraid to hang in the pocket and take a big hit if he has to he takes more sacks than he should sometimes like andrew luck he can make a play with his legs what am i looking at andrew luck here because it's really felt like that through the season and there were times where i went well i don't know if we should get that excited because there can always be a cliff, but there's been no cliff with Sam Darnold. There really haven't. Yeah. I mean, I don't think, boy, what would you, what's the game that, that, that we look back at and be like, oh, if he plays that way in the playoffs, they're just doomed.

Right. I don't think, especially given how all the other pieces have played around him, I don't think we were going to see anything like that. You never know, right? I mean, again, people can slip into old habits. There were a few times in the Packers game where I felt like, okay, buddy, dial it back a little bit. But these days, the NFL, it's this hyper-aggressive mentality. It's playing with fire a little bit, but you're catering to players like that.

On the other side of the field, you have a player like Jared Goff, who I know he had a five-pick game this year, but historically low interception rates outside of that one game. He's a different animal a little bit. He's more the glue of the whole thing, whereas Sam, even with some stars around him, I think has some juice to him, right? And the luck comparison still to me is a little bit of a clunky fit. But now, like you said, it makes a lot more sense. There was never any question about his talent

or his sort of natural feel for playing quarterback. It was almost sometimes for me like he felt too comfortable back there. Like, I can get away with this. You know, like I can try this throw. I can make this training camp throw, you know, in week 11 on the road in a division game. No, you can't. You know, but that version of Sam has, I don't want to say it's been exercised, but it's certainly been, uh, been shoved into the closet and I don't know when the next time we'll see

it. So let's power rank the most important people in this game. Uh, I would try to do some sort of countdown, but I gave you no prep on this. Yeah, I know. We'll start at the very top and work our way down as opposed to trying to work backwards from 10. That would be a lot harder. I'm not, I'm not that gifted.

I promise. Yes. Who's the most important person in this game? I was going to say like, who's, who's reffing the game. Yeah. I was going to get cute a little bit on you.

Yeah. It's not Kansas city. Yeah. Right. Yeah, exactly exactly let me look here so we're we're saying most important player to the outcome of this game i did say person i did say person right yeah i know that's where coaches get a little yeah uh not to keep kind of that's a tough one because you could argue O'Connell. Let's start there.

Let's just say he's the choice. Well, you know, it's not as if there aren't major questions right now with Detroit's defense. So I guess the argument would be, well, he just can't get in his own way. He can't be too cute. He can't try to out Detroit Detroit and have this super clever game plan and all this stuff. But I don't think I would go with him, number one.

I would almost say Dan Campbell in the sense that we saw in that Bills game where he, you know, got hyper, hyper aggressive by Lions standards. Like, you know, and I didn't hate it, but I understood where some people were kind of questioning the wisdom of it. And obviously if they get to that point, if the defense is that kind of hapless and he starts kind of hindering his chances, team's chances of winning, that's where you say he's important in the sense that it might hurt his team, right? We know how much he's meant the last two and a half seasons now, really since midway through the 2022 season they've been on fire.

So I tend to pick him because I think he's overseeing this troublesome defense, all the decision-making on offense, and having to deal with Brian Flores' defense and having to deal with Kevin O'Connell too. So I think he's maybe got more on his plate than O'Connell does, if that makes sense. I don't know if I'm really talking my way through it the right way. So I'm not saying one's better than the other. I'm saying Dan could have more of a tangible impact on this game where we go.

Plus, people are reactionary, and we're now ready to pounce on any mistake he makes in this regard. So that's my choice. Am I crazy for that? No, definitely not crazy for that. And especially because I feel like it's always a funny thing when we go into a game and we're talking about how, well, the fourth down decisions, the aggressive decisions, the fake punts, stuff like that. Well, that could be a huge determining factor in the game. You feel like you have no control over that. Like, oh, well, this matchup versus that matchup.

You can kind of, well, how are they going to deal with that and so forth? This is those coin flips on fourth down. Who ends up winning them. And how often does Dan Campbell push that button? We saw Dan Campbell in a game against the Vikings in 2022, go ultra conservative at the end of a game and kick a field goal. And they blew it because of that big catch by KJ Osborne. And it was almost like the light went on for Campbell

and said, I'm never doing that again ever in my life. I'm just going to go for it and go for it and go for it, which as a Madden player, I very much respect, but I also know that it comes along with a cost sometimes and the Vikings have to make him pay for that. So how crazy is Dan going to get, or is he going to dial it back because i actually thought that his biggest mistake now i'm trying to remember back to the nfc championship but he went weak on a different fourth down in the red zone i believe in that game where he kind of went anti-thematic dan campbell and it was the one that they failed on. Everyone talked about, but he actually changed course. I think it was at the end of the half in that game where they could have really put San Francisco on ice. And so I wonder like, does Campbell pull up for field

goals? Sometimes he's got a trustworthy field goal kicker. Does he punt more than we would expect? Or is he just going to go for it and go for it and go for it? I think it makes him the most important, but also the biggest wild card in the game because he's so unpredictable. I would select for the second power ranked most important person, Brian Flores in this game. He got shredded. He got shredded last year. He got shredded before that. Ben Johnson and this offense, not that they don't do this to everybody, but they have owned the Vikings since Brian Flores got here. They're the only team that can really say that. And now it's adjustment time. He's got Blake Cashman back, did not have him in the first

matchup, which was huge for stopping the run huge for stopping Jameer Gibbs out of the backfield, the stump over the middle that Jared Goff was so good at. How does he determine how much pressure he's sending? How much man coverage are they going to play? All these questions. And does he have a Belichickian rabbit out of the hat thing that we go? He hasn't done that all year. He's never played that coverage. He's never said that blitz that players never play one, one game.

Gabriel Murphy was playing like 20 snaps we were like why was Gabriel Murphy playing 20 snaps but this is what Flores does and that's what Belichick did and I am very interested to see what unique wrinkle he throws at this team yeah you you make 17 game plan specific plans when you come from that Patriots tree. Not that everybody else doesn't do that too, but they take it to a degree, or they've taken it, I guess, in Belichick's case. I agree where you say there was a Super Bowl where some, like, you know, the number five defensive tackle was out there on the first series,

and I'm kind of wondering, you know, like, what's going on here? Same idea, and you find out afterward, well, they want to keep their defensive linemen fresh, so they run some of the deep reserves. Okay. That makes sense. Right. But then again, it's like the, the cornerback matchups and how much, you know, how, how many pressures do they bring and do first time and then fake it the second time, then bring in a third? You know, those are all the little things that, um, kind of cumulatively add up. You may give up 16 yards on the first one, but you've kind of planted a seed of, all right, they're coming again. Then are they're not coming this next time and they'll do it again. And yeah, that, that stuff's really, um, I think a big part of what they do. I, I, for mine, I almost went with Jameer Gibbs for number one. I don't know if that would have been a stretch, I think, but I think I would do him for number three.

As you mentioned, the Cashman factor is a real sneaky big one for them. No David Montgomery, obviously. They've had guys like Craig Reynolds and Jamar Jefferson step in and do a really nice job, but there's a difference, right? And so Gibbs has looked terrific in this starring role. had you know guys like Craig Reynolds and Jamar Jefferson step in and do a really nice job but there's a difference right and so Gibbs has looked terrific in this this starring role you know he says he's ready for extra duty whatever it takes you know maybe they get Montgomery back at some point who knows excuse me um they'd love to buy obviously for that reason things like that but uh yeah I would say Gibbs and just how they're going to be able to keep – I mean, you know, they're going to have to have others run the football,

but he's going to be the primary ball toter, and he's going to obviously be involved in the passing game too. And you saw him with a great blitz pickup last week, something he hasn't really – probably it was his best blitz pickup since he's been there. He hasn't been asked to do it a ton. There is that question of can he handle a big blitzing Vikings linebacker. I mean, they've got some size in the secondary and the second level.

And, you know, that's something I think they'll want to test. Because Montgomery, you knew you could trust him in that role. If he missed, he missed. But, you know, more often than not, the effort is going to be there. So pass protection, pass receiving and running. Possibly they have him on some other, you know, special teams player or something like that, too. You never know. I would say Gibbs plays a massive role in this game and how it plays out.

And I'm not just picking all Lions, but I figure that may also kind of complement your knowledge of the vikings a little bit better too so well i think gibbs is a great pick for this because he doesn't have that other guy to work off of and david montgomery has been a viking killer but then again so has jameer gibbs who's kind of crushed everybody now i've ran across an interesting stat about jameer gibbs yesterday i'm just kind of looking through some of the factors that when he gets to the edges, he's actually not as effective as running between the tackles. Now that kind of makes sense because look at the guards they have, look at the center they have. So they're great at creating space for him to run up the middle.

The Vikings, if you look at what they did last week with Harrison Phillips, Jonathan Bullard, Jerry Tillery, Jalen Redmond up front, these are not household names, but these guys were able to stuff gaps. Brian Flores loves to run these kind of run blitzes where he just fires a linebacker into a gap and kind of tries to guess right about where they're going to run the football based on tendencies. And I think if you hit on some of those and can slow down Jameer Gibbs on early downs and if Harrison Phillips can at least stalemate Frank Ragnow who is such a beast at the center position

you've you've got a chance right you've got a chance to slow him down just enough so they're not constantly working in second and three and I think when they constantly working in second and three. And I think when they can work in second and three, that's when the play action stuff happens. That's when you're never sacking Jared golf, when they're going to throw screens and, and get the ball out of his hands quickly. It all kind of starts there and tumbles downhill. Also, I didn't want to say people don't say tote the rock anymore. They really need to say tote the rock. That was a great saying about running back yeah i feel like that goes along with people devaluing running backs but not this

running back uh in jameer gibbs really not this season uh with running backs i will go for the uh number four pick yep i think we're at number four i to go way, way off the board here and go with Sam Darnold. It's crazy. I know it's a wild pick. Yep. It's a, yeah, I know. I know he's number 14 on the team. If you're looking at your depth chart there.

Now, I think that it's, it's not the, it's not just Sam Darnold. It's Sam Darnold versus everything. It's versus the atmosphere versus Sunday night football versus the crowd versus the narratives about Sam Darnold and everything else. What I've seen from him is a guy that just doesn't seem to feel it. He was like this at USC. He's gone through so much that, you know, maybe it's like the Batman, like I was forged in the darkness or whatever, like that there's nothing that can throw this guy off because he's just been through so much misery

that this is just all gravy for him. And he was supposed to be a big moment quarterback when he came out, and he's been a big moment quarterback for him this year. But this is so much on the line. This is the difference between one and five. It's the difference between chilling at home next week versus probably traveling to Los Angeles or Tampa Bay, two teams you don't really want to face. And it's also, and I think he's coming back

either way, but it's also kind of the ultimate test. Like, does Sam Darnold really belong in that discussion with Alan Lamar Jackson, all that? You see the chart people. He belongs in the MVP race with those guys. And, you know, they don't factor the running or whatever. But still, do you belong in that conversation? Because if you win this game and you play your butt off, I think there's a case that he does. Narrative changer. Absolutely, yeah.

Because, I mean, you know, we're all kind of having these discussions, too, about what's next for Sam and how do the Vikings play this and all this stuff. You know, I mean, you forget how public sentiment. Again, I would hope teams don't have this much sort of, you know, back and forth in their discussions. But, like, you know how fast these things can change. Like, we love Sam. Screw that guy.

He threw three picks. Go to JJ. You know, that happens immediately, you know, over the course of two quarters of a game, you know. So, yeah, there's no doubt that the stakes could be higher for him. And, by the way, if going to USC for three years is being forged in the darkness, I'd love to try that one. You know, I'm just saying saying I would give it a go.

You know, I would stay on campus. I've heard it's a little crazy out there. But my number five selection is Aaron Glenn. And I think he's in a tough spot, man, for all the reasons we've kind of laid out already. You know, plus some other pretty good ones we haven't mentioned yet. But I just feel like, you know, there's now talk, obviously, you could take the New Orleans job. He's got connections there.

That's not a distraction for this team or whatever. But it's certainly a story that is going to, once they get to the playoffs and once we know their interview schedule and stuff, that'll have an impact. But still, he did a great job early in the year they were a turnover defense they had hutchinson they had waves of depth the secondary was starting to come together you could see some progress and then this injury wave hit it was just like man you know i know you guys don't care but like you know as a neutral truly neutral football fan in the sense that I don't have a favorite team, I don't care like who wins. Like it was hard not to sort of this. These are the two best stories in the NFL for me down the stretch.

And to see them have to be at this place at everyone's less than 100 percent, but to be at like 40 percent on defense. I mean, I don't know what number you give them, but it's rough, man. They've lost like, you know, Anzalone, you know, that's a factor. That's a big one, kind of like you said with Blake Cashman, where like Lions fans know this dude's legit and he's going to help this team out. So assuming he plays, you know, it sounds encouraging. Good.

Good on them. They can cover. That linebacker group was a mess. San Francisco knew it. They ate them up for four TDs and five drives. They should have scored on the other drive. You know, that's the kind of start the Vikings really want to have, and Aaron Glenn has to find a way to get back to at least creating a turnover,

a red zone stop, something, force them into a field goal kick, whatever it takes, limit the points. And I don't know if he can do it. I don't know. I mean, if he does, bully for him. That's a hell of a job if you scheme up a defense that holds Minnesota under 400 yards and under, let's say, 30 points. I think that would be a phenomenal job. And to me,

what that comes down to is does somebody jump a route? I mean, that's what, it's what it kind of came down to last time was Brian branch getting underneath the route. And we saw that again, San Francisco, not the second interception from Joseph.

Second one for sure. Yeah. So there, I think, and this is what Kevin O'Connell is going to know. They are going to try to take risks. Yeah, exactly.

And there's going to be some opportunities to take advantage of that. So that's a battle that is absolutely worth watching. O'Connell has completely owned Aaron Glenn the entire time. They've gone up against each other. And even the Vikings kind of owned it before when Kirk was playing against the lions. So this is a team they've never had trouble scoring against. But when you're facing an offense like that,

one possession can completely change everything, which is what makes it great. Let's throw out just one completely off the radar, totally underrated factor that nobody's thinking about. I got a deep one for you. Okay. Number two tight deep one for you. Okay. Number two tight end, Josh Oliver. I thought you were messing with me like the Darnold one.

I'm very impressed. Continue, sir. Yes. No, I want a deep one from you as well on this. All right. Here's why. He's the number one blocking tight end in the run in the entire NFL teams can run against this Detroit team, especially without McNeil up there. Anzalone does change it a little bit, but the linebackers, you can run against Detroit.

And if you can keep your team on the field, it is a huge advantage against an offense. That's so good in Detroit. Aaron Jones, big game player they are I think they're going to use him a lot and I also think too that he can be a sneaky weapon for this team in the play action the passing game where Sam Darnold and Jared Goff are the top two quarterbacks in the league at play action I think he could be a guy where you go wait a minute Josh Oliver scored two touchdowns or hey they ran for 100 138 yards with Aaron Jones in this big game and a lot of it's with two tight ends on the field.

You mentioned their shortage of linebackers. I think that this could be something that Kevin O'Connell likes to roll out in this football game. So what is yours? What is your deep cut underrated factor? Yeah, I guess. your deep cut underrated factor yeah i guess um yeah yeah i'm actually just i was actually just peeking let me let me backtrack i'm glad i glad we did it this way it doesn't sound like anzalone may play now so oh really yeah wow that one yeah it sounds like there may be some doubt i saw a

report i just i was while you were talking i just wanted to make sure that i was saying that right so we'll see. We'll find out if he actually does or not. But there's maybe a little, not 100%, but I still think he will try to go. So we'll throw him out. We've already used Anzalone, and I'm trying to look down here. I mean, is Kirby Joseph too obvious? Probably.

Let me think of a different one. Pat O'Connor. I'm trying to think of somebody up on front who's just like, maybe like Josh Pascal or somebody like that trying to, you know, dent that good Vikings defensive line with pressures and, you know, at least kind of get somebody up in Darnold's face. That's not a great one, but I'll kind of roll with it and pretend it is. But, you know, active hands, good length,

enough power to be able to set the edge in the run game and things like that. And obviously what the Vikings do is, I think, throw to run, but also, you know, know the importance of the run game and when it comes into play and all that stuff. And, yeah, I just feel like he's sort of been one of the few guys who you can sort of feel relatively good about. And earlier in the year he had a few games where he really made an impact.

It was the Arizona game and one other one where i'm trying to remember but um yeah that's one where if you're looking for somebody other than branch or uh kirby joseph or gosh even like a you know zedarius smith i think a lot of people know the name or certainly he's one who would who would who would be a big help. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he was good against the Vikings in the last game as well. So let's get it on record here. How do you think that it plays out? I picked the Lions to win like 37-36 or something,

and as soon as I sent the pick in, this was like maybe three, four days before we taped this, and I went, I think the Vikings are going to win. And I said this, I think, before you asked me on. I don't know. It was right around the same time. No relation whatsoever. No, I mean, like, I've gone on here and criticized the Vikings before.

And, you know, I'm not a – like I said, I'm not attached to any one team. I'm starting to think that the – it's not like the lines are going to lay down or like oh attrition finally set in but like obviously there's there's a breaking point defensively it puts so much pressure on them now last week it looked easy like oh we fell behind no to the Niners no big deal turn the afterburners on use that Batman you know that little button you push in the car to get that extra boost right they have it no question it. They're in their home stadium, but, you know, the Bucs beat them there. The Bucs almost beat them in the playoffs. The Rams went in there. We know that great Stafford game last year. It's loud, I think, for teams like the Colts and the Titans and even,

you know, the middling teams. It's going to be a little bit of a crisis going in there. But if you can find, you know, you have the firepower and things like that to score and kind of put them on their heels a little bit. I don't know that like, again, I'm not trying to downplay a rabid crowd in a place that, you know, is birthed this amazing sort of football life there now. But I think the Vikings going, I'll split the score. I'll say 37, 36 Vikings. How about that? I got 38, 35. There you go. I think everybody I've heard, I don't know, I haven't like looked at a ton, but I've heard a few things on the radio and other people like everyone is picking three score points or fewer. Everyone is picking in the mid to high thirties or higher.

It's, you know, are we going to get, what's, are we going to get shocked by this thing? And it's going to be like 24, 22 or something, or what, what's the, what's the crazy scenario nobody sees coming? What was the Seahawks and bears score six to three or something? Six, three. That would be the one that's not coming. Yeah. The drive to the one yard line every time and fail on fourth down.

Like it's like 600 yards of offense and no points. That would be, that would be kind of fun, I guess. Yeah. Each quarterback. Well, if each quarterback has their worst game,

like a Darnold against the Jags or a golf against the Texans, they just throw interceptions back and forth. I don't know. I think the most obvious. They still both teams won those games, though. That's right. I know, which probably shows how strong they are. I just think the most obvious answer is the right one.

We don't have to try to go too far off the path with that prediction. Eric Edholm, NFL.com. The only person. This is actually true. The only power rankings I actually click on are yours so honestly i know you're saying that as a like i really appreciate that because to be totally honest before i wrote him i never clicked on power rankings my friend frank schwab i think you know from yahoo i i would click i would read his because i always appreciated his his perspective

he had a different view on things than i did and so so I was like, Oh, Frank makes a good point. So I did click on his, but like, I didn't read him like, Ooh, where, where, where do they have the whoever's this week? So thank you very much for that nice compliment. I appreciate that. Well, I respect the work that you put into it and, uh, that it's not just the standings, which a lot of power rankings are. So, uh, anyway, well, I do appreciate all of the times that you've come on the show through the journey of the Vikings working their way here to a 14-2 game, and you came through in the clutch. We'll see if Sam Darnold does as well.

NFL.com, Eric at home. Thanks, man, and we'll talk very soon. Appreciate it. Looking forward to it, man. Enjoy the game.