Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Peter King presents a DeShaun Watson-to-Vikings trade so let's talk about it

Episode Date: February 23, 2021

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I haven't touched it. I've just been like, I don't think so. I don't want to be that guy. I don't want to be going too far and crossing any lines and talking about Deshaun Watson and the Vikings because there's just no evidence that the Vikings would ever be connected to Deshaun Watson, even if they would want him to be their long-term quarterback. That was until yesterday, Sam, when Peter King wrote in his Monday Morning Quarterback article a hypothetical trade that would end up with Deshaun Watson coming to the Minnesota Vikings.

I will present this trade to you in a second, but just give me your sort of like instant, oh, reaction to Peter King actually including the Minnesota Vikings in a Deshaun Watson hypothetical trade. Wow. You're jumping right into it, aren't you? You don't leave a lot of time for foreplay on something like this. I know people are listening on a Tuesday, but we're recording on a Monday, and I feel like I'm coming off the weekend.

I've got to wrap my head around this. It's intense, Sam. This podcast is intense. It's football. Put on your neck roll and let's go. And all the consultants say you should just jump right into your content, so I guess that's what we're doing um yeah let me just remind people that deshaun watson was 11 and 5 in 2018 so if you're part of the qb wins contingent that's pointing to the 4 and 12 last year let's also take into account that he was

11 and 5 in 2018 he was 10-5 as a starter in 2019, and the Texans were leading the Chiefs by 24 in the playoffs in the divisional round. So if you want to look at the 4-12 and fully dissect the 4-12, there's really not a lot to explain other than complete dysfunction. A coach that was overworked so stretched way too far um you know made short-sighted deals traded a franchise wide receiver for an injury prone running back like the the 4 and 12 doesn't bother me at all with Deshaun Watson dysfunctional

Houston organization kind of going in the tank along with the rest of Houston sports right now. I love Deshaun Watson. I love that he's multifaceted, super, super smart, super, super good on deep balls. He can manipulate the pocket. He can run a little bit, but he's not like over-reliant on it. I think he's an awesome quarterback. And if the Vikings could make this work somehow, and I think in King's, jog my memory, in the King scenario here, was it a first in 2021 and 2023?

Yep, correct. And then second rounders in 2022 and 2023. Okay. And then Anthony Barr and Alexander Madison, which seems super random, Alexander Madison. But both of those guys end up gone as well in this trade. Is Madison going to be the next David Johnson? I guess so.

I guess so. He gets handoffs for the shotgun. They get two yards up the middle all of a sudden. And, well, let me just – That's not a terrible price to pay. That was my final point. That's not a horrible price for a quarterback of that caliber at that age. And that's where I wanted to pick it up, is the price that Peter King has is very high,

as to be expected to get Deshaun Watson. But let me say this. If you're trying to look at the difference between having Kirk Cousins and Deshaun Watson both on expensive contracts, I think you have to look at it through a wins above replacement type of sort of lens. Like if you have a replacement level quarterback with the Minnesota Vikings last year, that would be Sean Mannion. You probably go, I don't know, maybe five and 11 last year. I'd probably put it about there that there were still games that they probably could have won. If Deshaun Watson is taken off the Houston Texans, they go 0-16.

There is no chance they get a win. That is the worst roster in the NFL. I think hands down the worst roster in the NFL. Their only good players are Laramie Tunsil and J.J. Watt. And Tunsil is overrated and Watt is old. Watt's gone. And they took. Watt's released.

Right, exactly. But last year, even with that team, they have like one good player on defense. And on the offensive side, they took Deshaun Watson's best receiver and sent him to Arizona for nothing, for absolutely nothing. The Vikings did trade their top wide receiver, and what they got back was another elite wide receiver. So the difference between the circumstances was absolutely massive. And when you look at the expected wins, losses,

take away like a last-second field goal that's missed by the Texans, the fact that they lost a bunch of close games. I know the Vikings did too, but they also won some close games. So pro football reference has the expected wins, losses. The Texans were an expected win-loss team of 6-10. So they even had some bad luck to go along with this, and the Vikings were 7-9. So this quarterback is able to raise the level of play,

even when his team is an absolute atrocity to give them a chance to be in games including against the Minnesota Vikings they were one alleged drop pass away though the Texans probably claimed that uh Will Fuller had that ball I mean I thought he did I kind of thought he did too by the definition with the catch definition just keeps changing all the time and I thought by the catch definition that Will Fuller had that ball. And we saw how bad the Texans were in that game and how Deshaun Watson was able to bring them back. That was really the only look that Vikings fans have probably gotten at Deshaun Watson really in a long time. I mean, they're not on national TV a whole heck of a lot.

So it ends up being, well, what was their record? What was their numbers and I think that the difference is how much Watson can level up everyone around him and that includes and is especially applied to the offensive line the Houston Texans have not had good offensive lines in those years that you were talking about where he went 21 and 10 over two seasons and had a lead and put up 388 yards against Kansas City in two touchdowns and put up 31 points, and they gave up 51 to the Kansas City Chiefs. So the way that I look at Watson versus Cousins is bringing in Watson would give you a decade to build a good team around him that could win a Super Bowl.

And when you look at the NFC, you would have the best quarterback in the NFC, number one. I mean, okay, Tom Brady for next year if he comes back is maybe number one, depending on what is left of Tom Brady at that point or how much he wants another Super Bowl. I don't know. But beside that, give me a better quarterback in the NFC. Instead of saying, saying well you know cousins

is kind of like this guy and he's kind of like that guy and you need this this this this this this and this you start your starting point in a deshaun watson trade is you have the best quarterback in the nfc can you take that and sign people in free agency that suddenly want to come here because of deshaun w Watson can you develop some players which the Vikings did so successfully once upon a time but not as much recently can you take the high draft picks that you've had recently and develop them like Cameron Dantzler like Jeff Gladney and can Deshaun Watson be even better with two elite wide receivers an elite running running game, and maybe an offensive strategy. Like if you've ever watched the Texans,

you can complain about Zimmer wanting to run a lot, but they don't even have a system. They just put Watson in the shotgun and say, go figure it out, my friend. It's remarkable. I think if you put him in a Kubiak system, he'd be incredibly successful. So all of that is to say that Peter King's proposal here would take moving mountains to get this done. But all day in my Twitter mentions, it's been Watson isn't that good.

How would we build the team around him? All those things. You have the most important thing to pair Watson with that equals having a chance to get to the Super Bowl, and that is Justin Jefferson. That tandem right there, when the top four teams in passing success are in the Super Bowl, and you could pair an elite passer, the guy who's number one in the league in yards per attempt last year, and can run, and can move, and can make up for your offensive line with one of the five best receivers, you would have the foundation set to build around a Super Bowl type of situation. And so for that reason, I think you should be for it.

I totally understand that giving up all that stuff makes it harder, and it might take a little more time to win the Super Bowl. But I also think having the best quarterback in an entire conference gives you the best shot that you could ask for. So should you be excited that it might happen? Say no. But if we're going to talk about it because PK is talking about it, we have to acknowledge it makes a lot of sense for the Vikings to try and do anything they can to get Deshaun Watson, if that is even the most remote possibility. Yeah, PK is plugged in.

And at some point, you have to turn in your assets. You know, you have these assets for a reason, and that's to occasionally jump on an opportunity. And that's what Watson being available presents. It's such a rare thing for a quarterback at this age to be disgruntled with his organization and to be potentially available even though that the the new i think casario the new gm is actually playing this well and trying to claim that he's going nowhere to raise the price i do want to want to

just question you briefly on the nfc best quarterback in the NFC thing. Rodgers? Okay. You put him above Rodgers? Long term. Long term? What about Prescott? Better than Prescott. I think decidedly better than Prescott.

Okay. There's no one else I can think of. Next year, it would be like Rodgers, then Watson. But, I mean, how much longer is Rodgers going to play at this level? I'm not even sure he's going to play at this level for another year. I mean, their cap situation is such a mess. Their offense really fits well for him. But I mean, you're talking, this is, this is my whole thing about a potential Watson trade is if you were talking

about just for 2021, okay, let's even say he's the second best. Sounds good to me. I mean, like, right. Like who's the second best quarterback last year in the AFC? Josh Allen? Well, he's in the AFC championship, right? So if it's, you know, it doesn't always equal with a great quarterback that you're going to win. You need to have a team around him.

Of course you do. But there's just no comparison to what they have foundationally in Houston, which is an entire disaster of an organization with no talent and nothing to rebuild it with. Oddly enough, they don't even have cap space. It's like, what? How do you have this horrible roster and no cap space? And you have a sociopath who has convinced their owner that he should be running the team even though he knows nothing about football. Like, that's what's going on in Houston. Here, it's not perfect.

But when you can hand somebody – and by the way, the offensive line, you are not handing him all garbage on the offensive line. You are handing him two guys that you drafted in the first two rounds, another guy that's about to sign a big contract in brian o'neill so you have talent there you do need to fix the guard situation but that is not impossible and it becomes much easier when your level to reach decent guard play is lowered because your quarterback can escape and can make plays outside the pocket so yeah yeah i mean for 2021 if this move was only a one-year deal i'd say no no no that's sam bradford kind of repeating itself that means if things go a little bit wrong for 2021 you just have to like eat it right it is a long-term play this guy can be your franchise quarterback for a very long time. So you can draft other players. You can develop them.

You can sign them. I mean, this is the thing. When you start with, you have an elite wide receiver, which like you mentioned, when DeAndre Hopkins is there, the Texans are a legitimate competitor. You can start there. That's your starting point. And then you have the next 10 years to figure out the rest

because Justin Jefferson is going to be great for a long time. And that's why I look at it as being a move that makes sense. It's sort of like with Ngakwe last year. When we initially believed that Yannick Ngakwe was being brought in to be the tandem for a long time with Daniil Hunter, we were all kind of behind it. We're all saying like, oh, okay. All right. Well, that makes sense. It's good to have two defensive ends. When it wasn't, then we all, oh, okay, not a great move. But the key was if you can trade for someone who's going to be a part of your organization, the key piece, the centerpiece, and you can't talk about a better leader, a better person, somebody that you want in your community. I mean, all these things that people like about Kirk Cousins I think also apply to Deshaun Watson

in terms of the character of the quarterback. And with Watson, I think there's a leadership element that seems to exist there too, maybe even a little more so. I struggle to find reasons not to do something like this. I only find reasons that the other teams wouldn't. Like San Francisco, why do you want to help the Vikings have the best or second best quarterback in the conference I'm not sure you want to do that if you're San Francisco well here's what I like too is that right now with Kirk Cousins father time's catching up the clock is ticking and you perpetually feel like you're kind of in a, a like winner bust year with him at this stage,

because every year changes the equation on cousins because of, you know, the, the end of his timeline running out. So if he has a bad year this year, well, suddenly you're, you're trying to get out.

Whereas with Watson, you're not making short sighted moves with him. Whereas with cousins, I think you're sort of stuck tryingsighted moves with him. Whereas with Cousins, I think you're sort of stuck trying to, every year, try to create this roster around him at the expense of your future, like with the Ngakwe trade, where you feel like you're sort of forcing it, right, to make sure that you capitalize on his age 31 season, then his age 32 season. Well, now he's turning 33, and again, you don't necessarily have a Super Bowl

winning roster here. With Watson, you don't quite have the same amount of pressure because you're not really operating with the same timeline. You mentioned this earlier, like it does maybe extend your window, even if it means maybe it's not quite as wide on the front end because of the draft capital you give up. So in that sense, I like upgrading the quarterback spot from an older guy to a seven years difference in age. Like think of how much prime is left in Deshaun Watson's career. Now, let me be the foil here because it can't all be good, right? So what are the knocks there have to be some at least there give me one good negative on deshaun watson um sack rate pretty high sack rate and the pass blocking was not as bad as a lot of people suppose last year i think it was six in the nfl and the year

before that it was like top 10 so sack rate there's one kind of russell wilson-esque in that sense yeah and and that's made up for with the running ability and escapability and playmaking outside of the the pocket and things like that he's also improved in his uh time from his catch to throw by quite a bit where a few years ago it was all like trying to you know hang with plays move around and move around and move around i think he got a lot better at making first-read throws. As far as the player goes, I don't need an upgrade in almost anything in his game. It's not about him, really, because to me, when you look at all the evidence, whether it's his traditional statistics, the winning he did when he even had an average roster,

and then when you look at the pro football focus stuff you just wowed by how good he was I mean he was up there top three quarterback in the NFL last year and that to me just gives you a different kind of ceiling which is sort of part of the point that even if this doesn't work at least you took a shot to really win the Super Bowl right like that would be one of my things that if it blew up in their face, and this, I've actually always defended the Sam Bradford trade because of this. At least you took a shot at it. You had a roster that could win.

And so you took a shot and it didn't work, but that's okay. I mean, that's all right. If you're taking shots to win the Super Bowl, I get it. And you're in that window where you can actually do it, not miscalculating. But circling back, if you're talking about the negatives to a potential move like this, it's entirely that there's a lot of players on this roster right now who just aren't very good. And you need to replace them, like most of the defensive line. Like, what else does this mean? Does this mean that you can't extend Daniil Hunter? I mean, I don't see why it would change Daniil Hunter's, you know, situation a ton

because Kirk Cousins also has a big contract. But there are a lot of players that you would have to lean on because you weren't drafting in the first round this year, and then you were not going to draft in the first round in 2023 and so you would have to hope that the Ezra Clevelands of the world end up being a hit that Jeff Gladney that Cameron Dantzler because you're still going to have this issue of not a wild amount of cap space and uncertainty when it comes to developing these players because if you look at Tampa they won with an expensive quarterback Tom Brady had a 25 million dollar cap hit but one of the things that was good for them is they hit on a bunch of draft picks and you know that part of this is that you know Tom Brady makes people better of course

he does but even on the defensive side they hit on a bunch of draft picks Vita Bay is a good player they had a bunch you know Antoine Winfield Jr. is a good player. They had a bunch of corners that they drafted that turned out to be decent. So there is that element of you have to be good all over the field to win the Super Bowl. It's just getting Deshaun Watson does not do it for you. But my thing is, when you look at recent trends, what you see is the teams that are in the playoffs, the teams that are reaching the Final Four, they're always at the top of the league in passing. And if you think that Kirk Cousins is a guard signing away or a guard draft pick away from being a top five passing offense, okay. I mean, I'll listen to it.

I totally think they need to be better at guard by a lot I'm not convinced that they can do that even with a guard signing I am convinced that Sean Watson can do that with Justin Jefferson and I'm also gonna float this theory to you and you can tell me what you think but I've heard people say on twitter um not to use a straw man which you know sometimes you have to but it has been tweeted at me at times that deshaun watson would not be as good here because mike zimmer wants to run the ball all the time and i have suspected of zimmer that the reason they run the ball all the time is because he doesn't trust kirk cousins or he is afraid kirk cousins will turn the ball over that is not the approach that I would take with Kirk Cousins,

but I think that's one of the reasons why they want to base everything around the run game is because they're afraid of Kirk Cousins will turn the ball over so much like he did in 2018. So I think anyway, if you're trying to make the don't do it case, it's entirely that the roster in a lot of areas would be hard to fix. It's not super close in a lot of areas to build a Super Bowl level roster right now. I think that would be it. And the gamble then, you know, this is the one position where you could, if things worked out, get an upgraded player that could make up for those deficiencies in other areas, if things worked out, right? Like, you can't trade for a defensive end and have them elevate your team. You can't trade for a running back, have them elevate your team.

I know Bill O'Brien thought that. It doesn't work that way. It does work that way at quarterback. Right. So, and I think you have to consider when you're, you're wondering if you can win the Super Bowl with Kirk. Okay. Well, you can make the playoffs with Kirk. Sure. You can even win a playoff game, but what are the odds of Kirk playing three or four, probably four good games against good teams in a row and delivering? Like, what are the odds of that?

When he struggles so mightily against teams with winning records in the regular season, like, we saw it in the playoffs. We saw how efficiently he played against the Saints and then how it all blew up in his face the very next week against the 49ers. I feel like Watson probably maximizes your ability to sort of catch fire, you know, late in December and in January if you need to. I'm trying to look through his game logs to get a read on quality teams he's beaten. And maybe this is available in his PFR splits somewhere, but like in 2018, they won nine games in a row after an 0-3 start, where they lost

like three really close games, and then they just rattled off a bunch of wins in a row, and I guess I can't, yeah, they beat Jacksonville that year. Jacksonville was really good. Dallas was good. I'll need to look this up a little more closely, kind of reacting to it in the moment here. But to your point that this was the straw man I was supposed to knock down, right, your argument that Kirk Cousins is limited by Zimmer's sort of fear that he'll become turnover prone, I think there's some validity, but I think Zimmer always has that fear. He had that fear with Case Keenum.

He had that fear with Teddy a little bit, more so because Teddy was just young and he was trying to protect him and Norv's system didn't help. And the one time that they did throw the ball around, the offensive coordinator got fired. Right, but they threw it to the other team a lot that year. I mean, if you remember, I think it was something like 49 points that Kirk Cousins was responsible for the other team from pick sixes or fumbles. I just think like Zimmer looks at when he talks about other quarterbacks that are elite when he's talking about them.

I just hear a guy who's thinking like my quarterback is good when he does X, Y and and Z, and we can win when our offense does X, Y, and Z. But when it goes sideways, when Delvin Cook gets stopped, they just don't win. I mean, this has been a fact since Kirk Cousins arrived, basically, is that they're just not winning games that they can't run the ball. And part of that is certainly the system, but it's also just a different level of playmaking. Like you have to, you know, when you look back at John Elway's statistics, for the era, they're okay. But when you watch John Elway games, you go, oh, that's why he won. Because he's able to do things in certain situations that are big and swing games that a lot of quarterbacks that Ken O'Brien is just not capable of doing. And so it's not really a knock on Kirk Cousins

to say that this guy is just different, that he has a different level of playmaking that can make up for when the team, the other team pressures you right away. And it's funny because, you know, people will point to Patrick Mahomes and say well see even he couldn't do it with a lot of pressure I mean it took a historic amount of pressure but also he made plays to keep them in the game and they dropped the ball they didn't play very good defense all those things it was like you can interpret it however you want but I almost interpreted as he got them to the Super Bowl with a really bad offensive line and then it finally you know collapsed on them but the Vikings should be so lucky to get to the Super Bowl and then have it

go wrong so anyway I mean it kind of ends up like train off the tracks here when we talk about Watson but the the big picture thing to me is of course I do not see this as a really viable trade I mean three team trades don't happen very often. Someone pointed out to me that in 1987 one happened. I don't remember another one after that. I don't see San Francisco agreeing to help the Minnesota Vikings become potentially the best team in the NFC or have the best or second best quarterback in the NFC. And it's just so much has to go out the door. So much has to, you know, happen in order for something like this to go down. But if we're talking about philosophically,

should you be thinking, well, what type of situation would you give another quarterback? And can you really take this anywhere with Cousins? I mean, the answer is it has to be really, really great of a roster. And you might even argue that in 2018 and 2019 it was a great roster, and they still weren't able to get past one playoff win. So if you think that a big sample on Kirk Cousins in the NFL results in you're probably first round out a lot, if that's what you think, then you'd be pro-Watson. If you think that they can add this or add that, and then Kirk Cousins goes farther than that,

then you're going to be against it. And so I guess everyone can decide how they feel about it, but I look at it as I wouldn't do this for Matt Stafford. I wouldn't do it for, you know, who else do we compare to? Jimmy Garoppolo. I would only do it for a guy that I consider to be one of the three best quarterbacks in the NFL, and that's Deshaun Watson. Looked up his 2018-19 fourth quarter comebacks, game-winning drives,

eight fourth quarter comebacks, ten game-winning drives in two years. Cousins has, like, seven more years in his career. He's got 11 and 16. 10 game-winning drives in two years. Cousins has like seven more years in his career. He's got 11 and 16. So that's kind of a good playmaking metric too. I mean, just look at the ways that they find, the inventive ways that they can win games. And I think Watson definitely has that gene.

And even in that Vikings game in week four, I thought Watson was pretty poor for about three quarters. Vikings were winning that game pretty handily, but you saw a resiliency in that fourth quarter, and that team was buried. Their coach was a lame duck. They were winless, and it still felt like Watson was going to lead them back. If you were a Vikings fan watching that game, you probably thought they were going to screw it up because Watson was on the other side of the field. That's just an intangible that you really can't account for with Cousins. I want to remind you to go to SodaStick.com

to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. If you have not seen it yet, you've got to check it out. A couple of my favorite designs are the Duck Duck Gray Duck and the Randy Moss Goat, which you've got to see. All their apparel is screen printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies. You will love it. We're going to hook you up with free shipping on your next order. By the way, use promo code Purple Insider for free shipping. That's SodaStick, S-O-T-A-s-t-i-c-k.com original minnesota sports inspired goods code purple insider for free shipping and i do want to say if you're not into trading away a bunch of

draft picks and stuff like that and you'd rather take a different approach and maybe that's eventually drafting a quarterback and putting him into a better situation with a great team then that's totally fair. Or if you think that they can put enough around cousins and then focus more on a past game that they've got a chance, I think that's fair as well. I don't think that any of these takes are insane. I'm just telling you the way that I would lean on this one toward if you have the best quarterback, you've got the best chance, and then you have to figure out the rest and hope to hit on some draft picks and hope to sign some players and

then go from there. But you start with a pretty high ceiling from the very beginning with something like that. All right, so let's put that aside. Thank you to Peter King for allowing my floodgates to open a little bit on Deshaun Watson, because I didn't want to bring it up until someone with credibility actually talked about it. And that would be, you know, Peter King. You and I both have looked at free agents already, and there will be plenty more hashtag content on free agents. We'll talk about, you know, different positions and everything else and who might be best fits, all that stuff. But I tried with the over the cap cap calculator to make a big fish signing for the Vikings. I tried to sign Brandon Schreff and see how he would fit at right guard for

the Vikings. If I gave him a contract similar to Zach Martin and, and totally go play with this, this cap calculator, it's lots of fun. If you can sort of figure out how contracts work, it's lots of fun. And here's what I found, Sam. It's hard and it takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of work to get anyone who is a big name and would require a huge contract into the Minnesota Vikings situation.

And so if you think the cap is a myth, go play with the cap calculator and find out it's not a myth. It's actually really hard. And so I came to the conclusion that you have to cut Riley Reif if you want any sort of big signing, that that is the price to even begin. And then you probably also have to extend the Neil Hunter. You have to restructure contracts. You can't really sign anyone past $2 million or $3 million on one year

deals, even though it's something that would really help. I think it's a lot, a lot, a lot of work in order to get it done. Yeah. It's a lot, a lot, a lot of work in order to get it done. Yeah, and I've been on the sort of small fish bandwagon, go after numerous potential starters or contributors, cast a wide net, try to allocate your money a little more smartly than you did last year where it was one guy who didn't end up playing and then a bunch of cheap kind of in-house re-signings along with Anthony Zettel and Tajay Sharp.

The way that I calculate it, if you want to keep Reif, he's going to have to play at the same salary as last year, which would mean him taking, you know, and maybe if it's in an extension, maybe you can swing it if he plays at a $6 million cap hit, but then you are committing more guarantees down the road, especially if it's a share. Then you're paying Reif. You're extending O'Neal probably and paying Sheriff.

I don't think that's all going to work. There's no way that happens. Then you probably need to get bars down, what, half of what it is now? Yeah. And you're trimming a lot of fat, you'd probably have to cut Stefan you'd probably have to cut like either Colquitt or Bailey one of those expensive specialists and um it might prohibit you from re-signing a Fadio Denebo or Chad Beebe some of those moderate like restricted free agent contracts. And I think the Vikings want to create more competition in depth. I just, I think this roster needs that.

I felt like they lacked it last year and as appealing as it is to splash. And if it's at, you know, a position that's going to help protect Kirk Cousins a little better than I can see where the team might try to justify it, but you can get such a large chunk of that production for a fraction of the cost is the product like there are million dollar starters littered across the league and if you choose right like so dakota dozer wrong choice but they that player exists like every sixth team says look at this $1 million guard we have

who just played like a top 20 caliber season. So you need to just evaluate better. You need to find value in guys that can step in and play. Maybe they, you know, people think they're washed up. I thought Mikey Upati would be a nice play. He retired today. so sorry about that.

He retired. Yep. My favorite free agent guard. But, no, I don't see them spending more than, like, $4 million on one guy. That's just the way I'm looking at it. But as we've learned, the Vikings have a very interesting way of manipulating cap space. Maybe there are some tricks we aren't even aware of. Rob Brzezinski is a wizard I've been told. Yeah, well, I mean, he is, but at the same time, there's only so much you can do. Maybe the

cap calculator isn't factoring all the different things. That's probably true. Ten-year Cousins extension, I think. Well, this is another one of the takeaways though from my exercise is if you want to create more cap space you can trade Kirk Cousins or you can extend Kirk Cousins but you can't leave him at the same exact cap hit if you want to sign anybody big and that's where the conversation comes with trading Kirk Cousins it's never about if he can play quarterback at a high level or if he could win with a really good team or at least be competitive with a really good team. It's usually about what he costs in order to do so. And that's where when we circle it back to the Watson conversation, it's like they'll probably cost about the same long term and one of them is better than

the other, you know, by a lot of the metrics and in my opinion. So with Cousins, if you give him an extension, which they could do, I mean, they could add another year or two onto his contract. And I know that there are some people who say, hey, good idea, then get a guard. And there are other people who say, no, don't you dare do that. But leaving it be makes it really, really really tight and then you have to be very savvy on the free agent market let me ask you a question sam why do you think the vikings have not been savvy on the free agent market in recent years we look at some of their you know quote savvy signings or like low cap hit signings and And they have not worked out at all. I mean, the Tom Comptons of the world and like you said, Dakota Doziers of the world,

like these deals have not played out very well. And then we've talked about the wide receivers, the Jordan Taylors, the Tajay Sharps. When you looked at the free agent list last year, there were a number of these guys that they left on the table to go get Yannick Ngakwe. I just, I can't figure out exactly why that would be that. And I know it's bargain basement for a reason, but they really haven't even taken a lot of shots on bargain veteran guys to bring in. I mean, last year they bring in George Iloka, like great guy, but I mean, what? Right. So I guess I just don't really understand their bargain approach to free agency. Does it seem like they're a little defeatist sometimes?

Like when these guys come in, they value their own so closely. Even if their own is like a fledgling third-year UDFA, they tend to give those players opportunities. Like we didn't even get to see Anthony Zettel play a second-team rep, I'm pretty sure, last year. He was buried from the get-go in a season where I feel like veterans might have been a little better to keep around versus a, you know, and I'm not saying get rid of Armand Watts, but I'm saying, like,

if you've got somebody that has been around the block versus someone that you're expecting to develop, well, you might have a better chance in a shortened training camp with someone a little more experienced. And Zettel got completely buried. Tajay Sharp, I don't know if he was ever that good. So I'm not going to, I'm not going to sit here and say that about him, but in the past, it seems like those they bring in usually start kind of a step behind and they have to swim upstream a little bit. And even someone like, you know, Josh Klein, who was here for one year, you know, Sheldon Richardson was here for one year, Alex Boone was here for one year you know sheldon richardson was here for one year alex boone was here for one year but they don't tend to prioritize keeping them around like if there's a chance that they can have one of their own picks one of their own acquisitions or or you know

steinings um stick around well by all means they're going to make that move and and sometimes clinging a little too closely to, I think, their process and not looking to the outside for help. It's happened a ton. Like Emmanuel Lemur at linebacker was on the roster two years, didn't do anything. Brett Jones they acquire via trade, and they don't let him play. You know, I think you can go down the list.

I think you said Ioloca too. There are veterans that come in here all the time that really don't get a great shot. You know, they bring back Andrew Sandejo to play in front of Ioloca. So the examples are endless. No, you're right. And even with Sheldon Richardson, when he left, Mike Zimmer took a couple of jabs about how, well, you know, we've got to fill our gaps better in that position. It's like, man, Sheldon Richardson was one of the best interior pass rushers in the NFL at that position. I know you want to fill your gaps, and I'm not saying that's not important,

but getting after the passer, I mean, the game that Sheldon Richardson played against Green Bay in 2018 was the most dominant defensive tackle performance the Vikings have had since what? Kevin Williams? I mean, he was unbelievable that night, and that was worth the signing alone. Now, they couldn't afford him, so I understand why they had to move on from him, but it still felt like there was a little, well, he didn't play exactly how I wanted him to play. And even with Yannick Ngakwe, that wasn't a guy who was going to play like you wanted him to play. And it would not have been a good idea to sign him long-term for that reason.

But, again, another outsider that you're talking about that was brought in, and then, oh, well, he doesn't fit exactly how we want to do it. Kendall Wright never played in the first team during the entire OTAs training camp, and the same went for Tajay Sharp for the most part. And these guys had track records of doing something in the NFL. They were not stars, but they did something. And then all of a sudden they're incapable of anything, which I agree does feel kind of odd.

And, you know, Tom Compton ends up playing pretty much by just default because Nick Easton got hurt that year. So he ends up playing. But you're right about the Brett Jones thing. That's always been kind of frustrating. Like all the numbers point to Brett Jones and the visuals point to Brett Jones being better. And yet drew some E is out there because he was the fourth round draft

pick. There really does seem to be this commitment to we're going to play our guy. They even brought Tom Johnson back, which was a good move in 2018, but it just speaks to your point that well we let this guy go but you know let's bring him back because he kind of knows how we do things here and playing Holton Hill over signing Dre Kirkpatrick or some other veteran

free agent who could have given you average play that was a bet that went very very wrong and the same with betting on Mike Hughes's health coming off of a neck injury as opposed to getting someone who would be a million dollar sign I mean it's remarkable I mean Ron Darby it's not a great player but he's an average player for Washington he would cost three million dollars last year he can play in the NFL and he's decent you don't even know if Holton Hill can play in the NFL and he's decent. You don't even know if Holton Hill can play. And I think that this is the miscalculation Mike Zimmer was referring to. And that's where I wonder,

and tell me your prediction on this. Like, do you think that this year is the year that they have to bend on this? Because they've just been seemingly in this same sort of mode of, like you said, extending their own guys, keeping their own guys, not really giving free agents much of a chance to make a difference that they've brought in on the cheap. If it doesn't change this year, I think you're in a tough spot. I mean, I think you need

like five of these guys if you can't land a big fish. Yeah, I think you rest on your own laurels when you have like a defense that is around for five years and a lot of them are homegrown. You start to think that you can do that all the time. And that's just not true. Like Andre Patterson cannot just take a Yannick Ngakwe and say, nope, you have to play my way because we've got the only system that works. I think Patterson's a really good coach. I just think that sometimes you need to bend a

little bit be malleable um you know who who is malleable who does things the opposite of the vikings the patriots yeah the patriots don't care if you are a draft pick even a first round draft pick second round draft pick they will take cast offs from all 31 other teams and turn them into something that, you know, finds a niche. And up until last year, well the year before last year, they were like a Superbowl contender using kind of that method where they just, they don't care whether you're a homegrown product and they get criticized for it. Like they've, all the articles were written last year,

how the Patriots have gotten nothing from their draft, but those are written in the heat of a moment on a team that's kind of floundering and in between eras doesn't have a quarterback. That's very good. It worked for them forever. And the Vikings are trying to do it a certain way. They're kind of emulating the way the Packers have done things as well. And I get that there's value in that. I creates a certain culture. Sometimes you got to stray from the rule book. And I think this is going to really test the mettle of Rick Spielman because he's going to be forced to do some things differently.

You've got to evaluate some real pro talent and get them in here because that's been a week. Other than Sheldon Richardson there's there aren't a lot of good sort of you know one one hit wonders that this team has brought brought along to uh to to squeeze you know a really good season out of so let's let's see what happens but yeah I think you need to to be really active and smart in free agency to make this thing work which is interesting because at the beginning of the Zimmer era, they hit on these.

They hit Captain Monterlin was good for a few years. Then Terrence Newman was very good for a couple of years. They find Joe Berger who becomes a solid guard. Nick Easton is a backup with what? Maybe it was San Francisco or something that they got Nick Easton from. Even our guy, Jeremiah Searles was a backup with the chargers. or something that they got Nick Easton from. Gerald Hodges trade, I think. That's right. Even our guy Jeremiah Searles was a backup with the Chargers, and they end up picking him up.

And not that he was a star, but he's like a good backup type of player who can fill in and play a good amount of snaps. That just hasn't happened recently, I feel like, for them to find these lower- level type of hit players that end up turning out. So they're going to have to do that. And of course we'll take a look at the million different guys. I just feel like, you know, you included Nickel Roby Coleman in your list of bargain free agents. And I just went like, I don't get it.

I don't get why Nickel Roby Coleman wouldn't be a guy that they would want. Like then you can have a nickel corner for almost no money who knows exactly what he's doing. He's a decent player. He's solid. He's been on good defenses before. And then you can lock Jeff Gladney into a position instead of messing around with him, which this team could just put that under like every player that they draft is they

kind of messed around with them. And, you know, some players overcome and some don't. But with Jeff Gladney, well, now you're playing this position. Now you're playing that position. We'll lock him into one and then go forward with it. And they had chances to sign Coleman before, and they didn't do it. And I never really understood why they didn't do it, because he was so cheap but also decent.

And, you know, again, maybe it's the scheme fit. I'm not sure, but these are the type of players that they need to nail this year in order to build the roster around. And I think that my little exercise really showed that, that if you want to add somebody who's going to take up 10 to $15 million on this year's cap, wow, you are really in for a lot of effort to make that happen. All right, before we wrap up, Field Yates wrote an article for ESPN where he named where quarterbacks will be, like the quarterback carousel,

and he took shots at where quarterbacks are going to be. With Kirk Cousins, he said, still the quarterback for the Vikings. I totally agree with that. I enjoy the debates about should they trade him here? Should they trade him there? And, you know, when national people are talking about it, I think we should talk about it as well as a realistic possibility, but more likely than not, Kirk Cousins is the quarterback of the Vikings. I'm going to give you the ones that are changed and you can tell me what you think about those so uh we'll start off with the jacksonville jaguars drafting trevor lawrence i think that that is a dead lock 100 bet your entire house

and farm and family on trevor lawrence that whoever put out there that some teams have zach wilson higher like yeah sure they do pal trevor lawrence will be the number one pick to the jacksonville jaguars do you think lawrence would rather be in jacksonville or new york that's my counter question to you i don't think that there's any chance lawrence does the i'll only play for another franchise it would have to be a i don't think so either yeah but um i don't know it probably to someone like, it probably doesn't matter. With the NFL, the whole, like, big market thing might exist in some sports. New Orleans is not a big market. And yet Drew Brees has made them a premier franchise for many, many years.

So if you're looking at it that way, hey, the Jaguars were a heck of a relevant team when Keenan McCardell was playing for them and Mark Brunel and all those guys. They were on Monday Night Football, and they were all over the place. So if you're Trevor Lawrence, you're thinking, just get me to an NFL team. If I'm him too, I'm also looking at some of those wide receivers they have and being like, not bad. Wouldn't mind playing with LaVisca Chenault because he's pretty good. Yeah, and they've got a couple good ones on the free agent market too,

like Keelan Cole is a pretty good value, Tris Conley. Yeah, no, I think the Jaguars are just as good, if not better positioned in the Jets. I agree. Hey, I want to take a second to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics, and I really mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics, and they reached out wanting to support this show.

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I mean, I don't think it's Taysom Hill, but I think there's – I just can't see them staking the whole thing on Jameis. Now, I'd have to check his contract. He's a free agent. Yeah, they'd have to re-sign him. Yep. I would say yes, but not in a permanent sense. I'd say yes. I mean, Sean Payton has a way of extracting a lot out of quarterbacks. Maybe it's sort of a seat warmer year, sort of a Tyrod Taylor type year, assuming that he gets to finish it, unlike Tyrod.

But I think there's somebody in waiting. I don't understand the Jameis Winston thing. Like it seems that the internet really is into Jameis Winston, that there are a lot of people who I see talking about why didn't they play Winston last year instead of Taysom Hill, and Winston would be a great option for this team or that team and so forth. There's nothing about his career that suggests this guy can play. I mean, he looks to me like John Kitna, like a backup that if you put in, even in a good situation. Last year, Tampa Bay is mostly the same football team and they win seven games because he throws 30 picks. I mean, he's never won and they had

decent teams and they had decent talent and they had weapons and he threw for a gazillion yards and he throws down the field all the time and that's great, but he also throws a ton of picks. I just can't really see it, but're right Sean Payton if he's going to get the most out of somebody then maybe it's Winston I don't know I also think that Sean Payton might have something up his sleeve here that we haven't quite figured out that he's sort of waiting in the wings Deshaun Watson to the Carolina Panthers where we think of that yeah I mean I'd have to look at the potential assets going back the other way so i assume teddy goes back to houston and then a handful of picks i mean matt rule would love it matt i could

see matt rule you know really pushing for this and trying to kind of get his his guy in because i don't think we ever thought teddy was going to be the long-term answer there yeah i think jamis actually might be sort of in a Teddy kind of contract if he goes to the Saints. But Curtis Samuel, if they could re-sign him to pair with him. And then who are their other weapons? McCaffrey, obviously. Who else do they have on the outside?

Well, they have a couple of good receivers. DJ Moore. Robbie Anderson. Good receiver, Robbie Anderson. Yeah, I like that situation, to be honest with you. I don't hate their defense at all. I think they've got to get better. I think they've got to make the roster better and draft well,

but I don't mind that fit. For a team that is rebuilding, his age makes sense. This is not Peyton Manning at age 38 or something going to Denver, who is only going to want a team that can win the Super Bowl. It would be a build-around-him type of situation that they would have to do, and the weapons you could give them are good. Their offensive line is probably one of the worst, if not the worst, in the NFL, Carolina.

Really, really rough. And their defense is really rough, too. I'm really also not sold on Matt Rule being any good at this he didn't win a whole lot at Baylor and last year they were in close games and botched them and we saw one right in front of us yeah on numerous occasions and I thought it was really telling that in the second in the second half of the year their numbers just go way down in terms of their offensive production. Early in the year, everyone's saying, oh, Joe Brady, look at this offense. But I don't know that Matt Rule understands exactly yet how much you have to adapt to what you're doing in order to stay ahead of the curve. And that's not to say that Deshaun Watson couldn't make up for that.

I'm just not sold is what I'm getting at. So let me go back down this list here. Marcus Mariota to the new England Patriots, to me, makes a ton of sense. You get a bridge quarterback and if Mariota is the next Ryan Tannehill, I don't know that he is, but if he is, then they feel like they've got their guy for a little while and they can rebuild that team because I mean, they got to a point where there was just not a whole lot of talent left with new England. Makes sense to have a bridge guy that at least gives you an evaluation,

everybody around you. And then maybe they draft Mac Jones or something. Yeah. But wasn't Newton the bridge like weren't, wasn't that supposed to be this year. And then you kind of know whether it's Newton to extend or stidum or, or maybe you find out it's not stidham it's definitely not stidham and then you can i mean i i guess if they have to draft somebody because it wasn't newton or stidham then it sort of creates another bridge here so i guess i'm comfortable with that the patriots probably

aren't thrilled that they're in this situation um but I think I think the Patriots need to draft somebody high yeah no I agree it's just with this year the quarterbacks are so attractive that everyone's picking them in the top five or top seven I don't see any of these guys in the top four quarterbacks dropping anywhere Mac Jones is the only one that I think has any chance to do that and then there will be a bunch of teams where Mac Jones is the only one that I think has any chance to do that. And then there will be a bunch of teams where Mac Jones makes sense. Mac Jones still makes sense for Indianapolis, despite what they gave up for Carson Wentz, if they're thinking about a long-term quarterback.

He makes sense for Chicago. We still don't know what their situation is going to be at quarterback. So I think it's almost better for them to sit out another year of this. And if they can build up the roster again, then it's attractive to someone to go play for Belichick and Patriot Way and all those types of things. And it looks like they just need a few years to rebuild. They've got Houston getting Justin Fields.

Obviously this would be part of trading with Carolina, and Zach Wilson going to the Jets. But those ones, okay, fine. But the Bears getting Sam Darnall what would you think if the Bears ended up with Sam Darnall I mean that's that's hilarious right like that's just the the Bears being the Bears again that's and and I don't feel that's a a realistic play if he's their starter. I think that that's kind of a reclamation. That's kind of a Josh Rosen role, like where a former first-round pick winds up in a location, battles it out.

No, it's not going to be Sam Darnold as the starter in Chicago. But it's a very Chicago move to make. Should they just bring back Mitch Trubisky? Probably not. Probably not. Probably not. They should probably try to do better than that. But they're really not a team that is ready to tank and try to draft someone high. They're not a team that has a high draft pick to be able to take someone this year. They're not a team that's all that attractive to a free agent,

especially Allen Robinson is going to hit the free agent market, so you don't even have a really good receiver to throw to. There's nothing for anybody else to say. I definitely want to be there. Mariota actually makes the most sense to me for Chicago because he can basically be like Mitch Trubisky only a little bit better. And Darnold, everybody's going to be talking about Ryan Tannehill for a long time. They're going to say, hey, man, he could be that Ryan Tannehill where his second location, that's where it really clicks. But, you know, when you look at Ryan Tannehill's career, there were flashes of him being really good.

There were years where he wasn't bad at all. You know, you go back to the year he gets hurt where he was 8-5, had a solid quarterback rating for that particular year before ratings blew up like crazy. I mean, he showed signs of being a starting NFL quarterback for several years. And then, you know,

he gets his chance to play with a really great team in the right system and not play with Adam Gase. It's much better. But Darnold has shown none of that. Like there hasn't been even a little bit of flash where you go, well, you know, maybe that guy someday could whatever. It's only been tiny little bits of he has a good arm, he takes a lot of risks. But I've never liked the idea of just saying, well, it happened with Tannehill,

so lots of other guys, because you mentioned, just like Josh Rosen, it wasn't there. And I don't think it's there with Sam Darnold. Maybe that turns out to be old takes exposed for me. But I think if you're the Vikings, you're rooting for Sam Darnold to land with the Chicago Bears. I think so too. 59.8% career passer. Basically, one-to-one touchdown-to-pick ratio.

Adjusted yards per per attempt 5.9 Watson who was number one in this 7.6 like there's a there's a just a massive gap between Darnold and like good quarterback play I 38 games in it's not a small sample either right I mean you're looking at like um Steve Young and Vinny Testaverde as guys who started out their careers really, truly horribly and then eventually picked it up. There aren't that many guys. Usually they show at least signs right away. All right. Deep breath, Sam.

Deep breath. There's a lot of offseason going on right now. It's like really offseasoning in my face here with this Peter King thing. And it's exciting. So, um, but people should go check out my piece on trying to sign a big free agent and you've got something coming. Well, if you're listening to this Tuesday, then it will be up on the website. That's really exciting about Brian O'Neill. So it is exciting. It is, it is. So yeah, well, you know, for us, it is mesmerizing for other people. It might not be for us. It is. Uh, so make sure you go check that out, for us it is. Mesmerizing. For other people it might not be, but for us it is. So make sure you go check that out at purpleinsider.com.

And, Sam, we will talk on Thursday when we have a little roundtable action. Thanks, Collar. Can't wait.