Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - PFF analyst Seth Galina talks about how the Vikings can be a modern offense

Episode Date: January 13, 2021

Matthew Coller is joined by Pro Football Focus analyst Seth Galina to discuss what makes a modern offense as Part 3 of the series that has looked at how teams are getting the most out of their players. How do the Vikings differ from teams that spread the field? What are the limitations of the Kubiak style system? What would a more athletic QB look like in the same system? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Folks, do you feel like everything these days is go, go, go? It's non-stop from work to friends to family and a million pressing issues. Sometimes you just need to take a playoff and hit the reset button. That's when you reach for a Coors Light. It's made to chill. Hey, it's that time of year in Minnesota again to get out on the lake, go to the cabin, sit back, watch some baseball. Coors Light is the perfect refreshment to chill during these summer months. There's only one beer out there that's made to chill.

The mountains on the bottles and cans turn blue when your beer is cold, and that way you know it's time to chill. Hit that reset button with some mountain cold refreshment. Coors Light is cold lager, cold filtered, and cold packaged. It's literally made to chill. It's crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies. Coors Light is the one you should choose when you need to unwind, when you want to hit the reset button,

reach for the beer that is made to chill. Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizway or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate! Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collard here, and joining me from Pro Football Focus, in my humble opinion, one of the best tape analysts out there, just wrote a tremendous piece about what went wrong with Russell Wilson in the playoffs,

Seth Galina. What is up, Seth? Not much, man. Just trying to get through the end of the season. Just trying to grind my way until February 7th, honestly. Can't wait until the end. Hey, we made it through the college season, though, right? Like, congratulations to college for actually getting their season in,

whether it was moral or not, highly questionable. But they made their way through, and you did a ton of great work on the college side, and I love your tape analysis. Because of your coaching experience in your past, combined with what you do now for PFF, I wanted you to be the third leg of our Making of a Modern Offense series here. And let me start out broadly with this question for you, because I haven't addressed this so much in my previous two episodes. Every coach always talks about maximizing the talent that they have, and every coach always talks about playmakers in space.

I want you to explain to me how the best offensive teams in the NFL do those two things, maximize the skills they have around them, and get playmakers in space, because literally everyone says that. My best example, and I use this all the time, is when I think about the Saints do this all the time. You know, they haven't done it as much this year, but like the past five years, the past ten years, however long it's been, they've been doing this all the time. So they spread you out.

They don't play with a running back in the backfield. So now you're creating space via width. You're creating space because now the individual has – one individual has to go cover an eligible receiver. So that creates space between the two – between two defenders. So the Saints, what they've been doing in – so they're creating space and they're maximizing their playmaker by putting a very good receiver, whether it's Michael Thomas recently or last year. They haven't done as much this year, but last year Jared Cook did it.

And then the running backs over the years, whether it's Darren Sproles, Reggie Bush, or now Alvin Kamara, getting him on the short side of the field, a one-on-one with, you know, hopefully a linebacker. Sometimes it's the safety who's coming down. Running off basically everybody and then letting him pick where the open space is. So that is like, like for me, like the most obvious example is like weak side option route.

Like we're going to push everyone down the field and we're going to give our, our very good player, Alvin Kamara, space to do whatever the hell he wants. Go inside, go outside. You can sit down if it's like zone. And I think, so I think that's like one way to do it. I mean, there's a million other ways that the Patriots over the years ran a strong side option route with Edelman and Welker and even Gronk would play in that role sometimes. So it's like, he's the guy to the trip side, to the three receiver side, still an empty, to the three receiver side

he's the one closest to the quarterback. And then he's running the option route. So the guy next to him is running down the field. The other slot on the other side of the field is running down the field. The other slot on the other side of the field is running down the field. Create space. Stretch them wide. And then there you're able to get between the, you know, they say in soccer, like, play in the half spaces. So, like, you know, you spread them out,

and then you can throw the ball into those half spaces. And I think the other way, when you look at what the Vikings do, what all these wide zone boot teams, play action teams do, is they'll condense you. So they're going to put a lot of guys in the middle part of the field in order so that you have to move in too on defense, and then they're able to find space outside the numbers or outside the hash marks because you've condensed so much

on defense so like there's two ways to do it yeah I think those are the two main the two when I see like like broadly I think those are the two main ways to create space and then and then obviously putting put putting making those routes work for your best players, right? And you're like, okay, well, you know, we can have Michael Thomas. You know, not a great example because Michael Thomas runs every route in the world. But let's say, you know, Ted Ginn on the Saints back in the day. Like, look, you got one thing you can do. Like, you're going to take the top off the defense, and that's fine.

And doing so is going to allow us to maximize the rest of our talent, which means Michael Thomas underneath, which means Cook underneath, which means Kamara underneath, blah, blah, blah. Now it's Emmanuel Sanders. You know, stuff like that. So, yeah, I think that's how you create space in the modern football. So the kind of first thing, the Saints thing that you laid out, I don't think that the Vikings do that really all that much, if not ever.

That was something that in 2018 I think that they tried to do more often, but option routes, short throws, spreading out, I mean these are just not Vikings things. The Vikings had the lowest percentage this year in the entire NFL of three wide receiver sets, and I get it because Irv Smith's a good player. So they're using two tight ends, but they just, that's not the style that they do. And I was hoping you could explain some of the strengths, weaknesses, and maybe even limitations of the play action offenses off of the wide zone. Because I think that the biggest limitation is that when stuff goes wrong and you're playing from behind

it's not your best stuff like what you do what your base thing is what your go-to is is a play action deep shot down the field rolling out giving Kirk Cousins time to set and throttle and I think we see this from Tennessee and from Ryan Tannehill too and some of these offenses where if you are playing from ahead and you're running and they're you know they're putting eight in the box and all those things that it works really really well and nobody's better I think at rolling out setting and throwing down the field than Cousins but when they get behind and it's not against Jacksonville or Carolina who I know they had comebacks against but I mean against good teams like in the playoffs last year against San

Francisco I think that it showed some of the limitations of that offense. Yeah, I mean, look, with any type of offense, we're going to rely on running the football, and we're going to see it this weekend with Cleveland, I think. What are they going to do if they get punched in the face pretty early in that game in Kansas City, and then they got to come from behind? Baker's playing pretty good football right now, but I don't know if he's playing, I can drop back, or like drop back 30 times in a game football.

So, yeah, I think, look, it's an offense that I think clearly has worked for a long time now in the NFL, and now it's becoming spread throughout the league, and you're seeing quarterbacks who probably aren't all that good. Not even just, like, have good seasons. I mean, we're talking about go to the Super Bowl. We're talking about Jared Goff. We're talking about Jimmy Garoppolo for the past two years.

This year maybe it's Baker Mayfield. You know what I mean? Like, it could be three in a row for that type of offense. It does work. I think the horizontal nature of the running play itself, the wide zone, allows you to really move linebackers and then create defined reads. There's not a lot of stuff. The play action stuff off of the wide zone, off of the boot, you know, when you're going to boot the guy all the way around. I mean, there's like two things you can do.

It's corner route deep to hold the corner back, and then there's someone coming underneath. Sorry, there's an intermediate runner from the backside or sometimes from the strong side too. And then there's a flat guy, and it's like, okay, well, we can find a way on defense to take away those three routes. Then it's like, and, and, and doing that by playing a lot of too high safety stuff,

which I know a lot of teams are going to slowly start to slowly start to get into. Cause it's like one of those things where, okay, maybe this offense didn't take off when it should have in the late 90s when the Broncos obviously won two Super Bowls and had so much success. And then even, you know, you look at some of the success that Alex Gibbs, who was with those teams, those Broncos teams had in Atlanta, and then you look at what Kubiak did in Houston,

like, okay, maybe it wasn't the right time because the league wasn't as one high cover three as it is now. And now, you know, we saw the Seahawks do it. Their offense spread throughout the league. It became a one high league. So maybe now it's just that's how offense works. Now we're seeing all these eight-man boxes, like you said,

and we can play action off of it, and we don't have enough deep safeties to deal with all these crossing routes. I think we had talked about that over the summer, where if you're going to get routes that cross the field, it's so much easier to deal with them when you have two safeties because now one can put one could hit can crop can can nail down on that crossing I can cut it and the other one could play in the post and and the opposite with one safety you're kind of you're he's got to stay in the middle of the field to a certain degree um and if he comes down then we have other players that can go run a um you know a corner post i'm sure the vikings ran tried to run that a lot you know um

i see the packers trying to do it all the time to devon adam so it's like with two high safeties i think you can you can find a way to um to deal with it but then you got to be in a world where hey you're going to get gashed a couple times now on the ground. That's always the cat and mouse game. I think there are ways to deal with a zone run from different fronts. You know, you see it in college and we're seeing it in the NFL. I just watched the Baltimore-Tennessee game from last week. Tennessee is playing a college offense.

They're playing a high school offense. I'm sorry, sorry, sorry. Defense, defensively. Like Tennessee's playing a high school defense, and that's not a knock on like Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore offense. It's just like they don't have a choice because you have a transcendent talent at quarterback there, so you kind of have to do things that you wouldn't normally do.

And I think it helped them against all the zone runs now you have issues with other types of runs but i think you know playing a going back to a 34 playing too high 34 type of look i think that could help i think that's probably where defenses need to go especially if this offense keeps spreading and spreading and spreading and spreading which is kind of like kind of what we're seeing. Arthur Smith is going to get a job this off season. Whoever touches McVay gets a job, you know, all this stuff. Nathaniel Hackett might get a job after working under LeFleur, you know, and he's been around for a while, but he might take,

he might look at that and say, man, I like that stuff. Like, you know what I mean? Like I think Hackett was in Pittsburgh, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, he was in Buffalo with Chan Gailey, I think, maybe. So it's a very different, you know what I mean? It's a very different style. But, like, you know, if he were to go somewhere else, even as an OC somewhere as a head coach,

like he might bring that style that he learned under, that he's taking now under LeFleur. So, like, that offense is going to spread, and therefore we're going to have this defense going to have to adjust because i don't know if you can live in a one high world um with with all that all this action you're getting it's so much dude like again you're you're playing with a lot of linebackers because you spun that safety down who is you know now acting as a as a third linebackers, because you spun that safety down, who is now acting as a third linebacker or a fourth linebacker, whatever. Well, now he's a linebacker. So he sees run action going this way.

He's following it. And so you're putting all these linebackers on the field. They're acting like linebackers, how we're teaching linebackers to play, and you're able to boot away from it and get a lot of success. And the funny thing is that outside zone run play, it's not good. Sorry, sorry. I should say it's not good. It's not efficient.

Yeah. The actual handoff to the running back does not get many yards. There's like i think maybe one team who has like a positive epa per play on outside zone this year maybe two like that doesn't like that's not the whole point of the the offense the point of offense is we we have this we can show this action and then we can boot around it and that's where the big plays are you know um uh with you know the packers are absolutely killing everybody now that Rogers has decided he's going to play in this offense and not just be himself like he did

last year. So, yeah, I don't know. I think that's – those are just a lot of thoughts I have on the White Sox offense right there. They are. Want to remind you about our friends at SodaStick. If you use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER, you can get free shipping at SodaStick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods.

There's so many great designs, including Chuck Foreman's Spin Doctor shirts, Skull Hats, Straight Cash Homie shirts, and much, much more. And if you're a hockey fan without getting going soon or a basketball fan, make sure you check out all sorts of great designs. Their apparel is screen printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies. You will love it. That's Sotastick.com, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com,

original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. Code Purple Insider for free shipping. Well, a few things. Number one, I think that this is why they love Delvin Cook so much is because he can be efficient in that running offense. Although I noticed this year that they went to a lot of inside zone and even occasionally some power stuff, and I was very surprised. It's like, wait a minute, why is a guard pulling?

This does not happen very often in this type of offense. But they started to mix it up. You are exactly right that when the Vikings have played a team like Detroit that played a lot of single high against them, they just murdered them. And then it was all man coverage. It was like, okay, Justin Jefferson, man coverage, running deep routes with nobody in the middle of the field because linebackers are diving up toward Delvin Cook.

This is going to be too easy. Kirk Cousins destroyed the Philadelphia Eagles twice, and they ran the same thing, like single high, single high. I was like, did you guys watch Kirk Cousins play at all? Because that's not going to work. And it has seemed like, even though he's had very good seasons, that at times teams will do that. And even some bad teams can frustrate him and frustrate this offense

by playing too high. I remember when they played Washington on maybe it was a Monday night football and Case Keenum got hurt, Dwayne Haskins came in, he was garbage, and they won. But early in the game, the Vikings were really struggling with them playing too high because their defensive line was so good. And this is where is where to me this is where everything always breaks down and if you want to be great at this I think you have to have an incredible offensive line like the Rams did in 2018 or like the Cleveland Browns have right now and this has been in my mind the shortcoming of the roster building because the one thing that consistently blows this up is just beasts on the defensive line and i know they make everything tougher but i think they

especially make it tougher when you don't have a mobile quarterback well it's also i mean we're just talking off the air about kirk cousins and how he just can't like that that is the quarterback himself is just not set up for that type of – for not having those type of people inside. And, again, going back to the Saints, look at how they built that team early in the Sean Payton years with the two guards and the – you know, they wanted to get Jarry Evans and Carl Nix to big guards.

And, like, okay, Breeze is Breeze, right? Like, it doesn't matter. Like, yeah, he's like 5-2, And, like, okay, Breeze is Breeze, right? Like, it doesn't matter. Like, yeah, he's, like, 5'2", but, like, and you put in, like, 6'8 guards in front of him, but he's, like, he gets it. He understands enough that he can still throw over the middle of the field and, like, he's, like, blind, but he can still see, right? He's, like, that superhero that I forgot his name,

and I look like an idiot. But Daredevil. Daredevil. Um, so like, but like that was the whole plan early in the career was, Hey, we're not going to allow any interior pressure. Cause we don't have a tall quarterback. We don't have a guy who can, who's very mobile. Um, and that obviously has not been the case for Minnesota because they allow a two-year pressure. I know they've tried to draft.

Obviously, they drafted Bradbury. They tried at least, but it's not great, and then you're seeing the results. Now you have to live in this wide zone offense, and if it's not there and you're dropping back 100 times a game, you've got problems, man. Right, and sometimes they do. And this is a great point.

It's actually funny that elite edge rushers, aside from Khalil Mack, Khalil Mack always does damage to whoever he's playing, but top-notch edge rushers have not always destroyed the Vikings. It's usually the interior guys. And with Green Bay, when, especially in 2019, when they beat the Vikings twice, they were putting Z'Darrius Smith right over the guards, rushing them up the middle. There's a play where Jason Pierre-Paul against Tampa Bay rushes on a third down over the guard. It's like other teams didn't miss this. Okay. They didn't need the PFF grades to see that the guard situation is a problem. I mean, so maybe we can pinpoint it better that it's one of the worst issues

of any team in the league is this team's guards in terms of position groups. And that's where I think, you know, when we talk about playing to the strengths, that doesn't just go for coaches drawing up X's and O's. This goes for the front office saying, you know what, 14 million bucks for guard is actually pretty bad for most teams to do, not necessarily bad for this team to do. And I also think that with wide zone, and I'm stealing this from a former offensive lineman that told me this, so tell me if you think I'm wrong here, but the size of the man doesn't necessarily make someone incapable of being good at, at blocking the wide zone.

And I feel like the Vikings have kind of like played into that. Like, Hey, Kubiak always has that lightest offensive line in the NFL. Yeah. But in 1998, those guys were 270 pounds and it didn't matter. Like this is 2021. It has been a long time. And that to me is their biggest failing as an offense, is if you're not going to even play into the weakness or try to protect the weakness of your quarterback, it's going to bite you. Like, there's no way around it.

Well, I mean, look, so I agree that, like, we've always thought about, you know, zone offenses. You can have a little more nimble guards and tackles at center. They've got to move. They've got to reach and stuff like that. Well, you talk about the Broncos offensive line. Sure. Look at the quarterback they had.

Yeah, right. And I'm not even super high on John Elway. I never really watched him. I'm too young to really watch. Oh, no. Trust me. He was as good as people say. I know his quarterback rating isn't great, he was as good as people say. I know his quarterback rating isn't great.

He was as good as people say. Don't tweak me with that. Real quick, same with Trey Aikman. People will be like, well, you know, he only threw 14 touchdown passes. It's like, okay, I watched Trey Aikman dismantle my team when I was a kid in the Super Bowl. I don't want to hear that he wasn't that good. But carry on.

John Elway. What type of player was he? So, like, yeah, if you got interior pressure, like I don't know if that was a thing that was happening in Denver at that time, but if you got interior pressure, why? John Elway's an athlete, man. Like, he'll make a play for you. Yeah, and obviously that's not the case with Kirk C's obviously not the case with um with kirk cousins or you know the crazy thing it's not even a case it's not a case for any of

these guys that we're putting in this offense these days right except maybe rogers and then look what happens look what happens when you put rogers in this offense it's like the greatest offense of all time right like the epa for play is better than the 2016 uh falcons can i like i Falcons. Can I give you a hot take? Because you wrote or you did a video that was really great on Justin Fields. And I was thinking as I was watching Justin Fields, put this guy in a bootleg offense. Yeah, for sure, man. Give him the platform to throw off of.

And I don't think he's like a playmaker necessarily as in like someone like Zach Wilson is. And I'm sorry to get like way off on a different route here. But I just think like it's always the guy's unathletic. We better boot him out. Right? What if you do it with the athletic guy? Also, you could do that, and that would be great.

And then he could run off the bootleg if he wanted to. And, okay, going back to the Rodgers thing, it's like, okay, what do we do it with? Obviously, Rodgers has always been athletic know athletic to be able to move around but his athleticism is is in being able to throw in weird angles right so now like you know we talk about um uh you know booting to to one side or the other because your handedness is one side of the other well now you know with a guy like Fields and his athleticism maybe, I think this is more Wilson, but like, hey, we can boot

and use the athleticism to create throws that maybe some other guys can't create from weird body angles. I mean, that's Roger's game, you know, 100%. We know that. And, again, putting him in this offense, like, man, I remember these throws against the Saints down the field on a boot, all these throws on the boot that are just insane because he could just get his body to do whatever he wants in quick timing. So, yeah, anyways, I also just really like Justin Fields.

So, yeah, I think he fits any offense. Yeah, right. It's just if you're talking about, like, what – I mean – Well, you know what? You know who fits that offense really well? Because you can do exactly what I'm just saying. Trevor Lawrence. Yeah.

I mean, most quarterbacks do because it's a quarterback-friendly offense. Yeah, exactly. It's always wild to me that it's like, oh, well, we can just have an unathletic guy who, you know, can do downfield throws. You know what, though? It's funny how you can't find a lot of – you're going to watch what I'm about to say, but you cannot find a lot of black quarterbacks who we've put in this offense because we're like, oh, you're athletic.

Right. Go drop back 100 times. Go run shotgun. Go drop back 100 times. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go. It's like, look at Deshaun Watson. My God. Bill O'Brien ran

play-actions twice a whole season with him. No screen passes. Like, oh, well, you're so athletic, we'll just drop back, and then you can dance around, and then you'll make a play no matter what. And it's like, man! Like, put some of these real good players, real athletes

like Deshaun Watson, who's a great athlete, like Trevor Lawrence, who's a great athlete. You know, put them in those offenses. Fields, too, like a great athlete. Put them in those offenses, and let's see what they do. I mean, look, Lamar kind of does it, too. I mean, it's a heavy run for his offense, but they will stretch. They do it from pistol, a little different, but they're going soft offense, but they will stretch. They do it from pistol a little different,

but they're going to stretch and they're going to boot off of it. And man, that's a killer with those types of players there, man. I want to tell you about blue wire hustle, a brand new program where you can host your very own podcast here at blue wire hustle was created to give everyone the opportunity to take your podcast to the next level. Or if you want to host a podcast and just don't know where to start, Hustle is the perfect place for you.

As part of the program, you'll receive personal cover art, Q&As with Blue Wire's top podcasters, access to our community Discord and e-learning course full of tips and tricks. And on top of that, we'll help you get your show pushed out to Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, and all listening platforms. The best part is you can get all of this for $15 a month, the same rate as any other hosting site would charge for an initial setup.

So whether you're starting from scratch or have an existing show that wants to grow, Hustle is an open door leveling up your sports experience. Acceptance in the program is limited, so get your application in today. Go to bwhustle.com slash join. Check out the description box to find out more. That's bwhustle.com slash join. It's funny you say that because I was thinking about, and I don't mean this to be disrespectful to Kirk Cousins,

but with the offensive design, I was thinking, like, I wonder what Marcus Mariota for $5 million would have done instead of Kirk Cousins. And the answer is it's probably not that different. I mean, because Mariota is not as good at throwing, but he is much better at running. And when you look at Mariota's play-action stats from 2017, he led the league quarterback rating with play action it's like a lot of guys are capable of doing that it's the other part and this is what I want you to explain the play the the straight drop back game and why

that's so difficult and I agree with you it is a great observation about how few black quarterbacks have ever been put in this situation even Even how about Randall Cunningham, who was way better at throwing than anybody gave his credit for when he played for Philadelphia, but it was just shotgun, run around, run around, run around, make a play. He comes to Minnesota, they have Moss, runs play action to Robert Smith, throws down the field all the time,

and wins like the MVP of the league or right up there. It's like maybe some of these guys would have been better if they hadn't been asked to play that way. But why is the drop back game so challenging? Well, so, you know, just as the difference between play action is obviously the linebackers, the zone defenders, because there's usually a zone defender on every play. Even man coverage is going to have a deep safety who usually a zone defender on every play. Even man coverage is going to have a deep safety who's a zone player.

It's going to have a rat in the hole. It's going to have a robber who's a zone player. So, like, those players can just drop into their zones, get their depth, and go find receivers. Like, without having to, like, oh, is it a run? Is it a run? No, I got to turn my bag. I got to find a guy.

Whatever. to like, oh, is it a run, is it a run, no, I got to turn my bag, I got to find a guy, whatever. So just being able to drop into your zone, get depth, find the receiver you're supposed to be covering, or the guy who understands the route concept that's happening, allows you to just play better against the pass, period. So that alone just makes it harder when you're just going to drop back and do it. I think that throwing a football accurately is really hard. It is. I think that's the main thing because it's like there's a technique involved, right?

And it's like, you know, for me to throw the ball from point A to point B, I need to go through all these steps and my technique has to be good to throw the ball from point A to point B. I need to go through all these steps, and my technique has to be good to throw the ball accurately. And it's like there's so many things that a lot of other positions don't have. Depth is probably the biggest one. You're throwing the ball 30 yards down the field. So a defensive end who there's technique there to play you know any other position but let's say defensive end you know it's not like he's got to do a swim move

to a guy 30 yards away with like you know what i mean like like with like elastic stretch arms and he's got to swim on him like no he's right next to him like that makes things a lot easier now i'm not saying it's easy to to go rush the pass or anything like that I'm just saying when you have to do all these things correctly in terms of your technique and then still throw the ball 30 yards away it's hard um yeah I didn't it's hard man I don't even know what else to say like playing quarterback is really hard dropping back to pass is really hard because um yeah i i really think it's the accuracy i think it's it's hard to see man you ever just you ever like try and like think about like you have big all these big bodies around you and then you're trying to you're just trying to see flashes of color like this flash of red went

this way so the purple guy is open now. You know what I mean? And it's like, man, I don't know what else to say. I think it's just really hard. And I've done it a little bit in my life, and I've stood behind. As a quarterback coach, you know, I've stood behind in practice, you know, when we're running like shell or whatever, like, you know, scrimmage or whatever

you're standing behind the quarterback a couple yards away and like man it's fast man it's fast like you know i've never seen it at the nfl level but yeah i don't i can't give a good answer but i'm like i just know it's hard i just know it's hard, if you stand on the sideline for training camp, which is the closest that I've been, and just holy bleep. I mean, the speed of the players just alone. I mean, think about how much you have to even lead a guy accurately who's running a 4-3. I mean, you know, and that always wows me about Kirk Cousins and what you talk about. His technical elements are so right.

But the thing is, you know, some guys can do a happy Gilmore. And that always wows me about Kirk Cousins. And what you talk about, his technical elements are so right. But the thing is, you know, some guys can do a happy Gilmore. Some guys can run up on the ball or, you know, off platform and do these things. And you have distractions and everything else. And I look at Kirk Cousins that needs, he needs silence to hit it off the tee. And that's, to me, that's why. And he's a guy that, you know, he can, well, I'm going to try to stay with the comparison here. He doesn't like a thin fairway.

Like if there is a very small window, there's this little tick that is slow with him. And this is why I think he gets sacked on a lot of third downs, because it's just like, you know, I don't know. I don't know if I can do it. I don't know if the arm can do it. And this is where, and I wonder if the NFL goes this way with drafting guys, where it's like Josh Allen and Justin Herbert,

I didn't like either one of them in college all that much. But, man, when they got to make NFL throws, you just wind up the bazooka and let it go. And it's like it's a lot easier for those guys to make a tight window throw. And for Aaron Rodgers, my God, like I can make any throw, any window whenever and that's just not what the vikings have so they have to build this infrastructure for cousins and the issue with that is the contract but it's really interesting the math problem they have especially when they have a a head coach that wants everything to be about defense so it's like you know where you really need to put your things to help your guy.

Your coach wants it to go on the other side of the ball. So it's a really interesting sort of conundrum that we have going. Well, I wanted to ask you before we wrap up, who is the must watch offense or offenses for this weekend of national football league football in the playoffs? Like if you were to say, hey, focus closely on this one offense, it doesn't have to relate to the Vikings, but just one that you really love watching, who would it be? I've been enjoying the Bills offense because they've kind of scrapped a lot of the fat, I'll say.

There's no quick game. There's some RPOs. In the NFL, you're not running RPO every snap like you saw with Alabama on Monday night. Right. So there's not a lot of quick game, not a lot of RPOs. They just say, you know what? We got exactly what you said. We got this guy with a cannon who became accurate.

Now, if he still was the same Josh Allen who wasn't accurate the past two years, they're probably – well, they might be in the playoffs because the division is not very good. But they – like, they wouldn't be the best team in the NFL, which they might just be right now. So they said, you know what? We're going to run everything in the intermediate level. And Josh Allen is so good at in-breaking routes, like 10-yard,

12-yard in-breaking routes, because the velocity is insane. They run play action all the time. It's not the same. It's not that wide zone play action. It's still play action all the time. It's not the same. It's not that wide zone play action. It's still play action. So you get a little different vibe from it. But, yeah, like, just the fact that they're like, you know what? Who cares?

Why do I have to, like, Dayball is like, you know, I don't need quick game. My quick game is, and you saw it against the Colts, my quick game is Josh Allen leaving the pocket. That's fine with me. He gets five yards, gets six yards sometimes, and honestly the reason they beat the Colts is because in the first half they created plays when he left the pocket. You saw those sideline catches.

So it's an offense that I really like. Obviously the stuff they do, it's vertical. It's down the field. You add a number one receiver. You guys know very well. And that's a hell of an offense. Again, because they've decided, we're not going to waste our fucking time with quick game. Like, yeah, if you're the New Orleans Saints, yeah, you're running quick game because this is who you are. You don't have the quarterback to not run quick game. Like, yeah, if you're the New Orleans Saints, yeah, you're running quick game because this is who you are.

You don't have the quarterback to not run quick game. Unfortunately, Sean Payton also ran quick game with Taysom Hill, but that's a whole other story. We're not talking about that. But, yeah, so that. And so that's why I'm really interested in the Bills' offense. I don't say the Bucks' offense because now you're seeing that Arians' offense kind of at its peak now.

Yeah. You know, we've seen it before have success. Obviously, you know, Carson Palmer and the Cardinals. But now with Brady playing at this level with those receivers, you're getting that down. Again, it's different than the wide zone play. It's downhill play action. I'm just watching them like those. they run like the duo running scheme.

So it's like everyone's double teaming. It's kind of like inside zone. Everyone's double teaming. As many double teams as you can get based on the front that defense gives you between the guard and the center, between the guard and the tackle, the tackle to end, whatever. And they're pushing vertically. So now you're play actioning off that,

and you watch Washington the way they have to play it. They were like, oh, man, we see any type of downhill run action right at us. Those two linebackers or three linebackers, they're gone. They're gone. They're gone. Triggered so fast because they know that if they allow these double teams to happen, now those double teams are going to be pushed back, you know, three, four yards into their linebacker's lap.

So you've got to trigger fast so that when a linebacker triggers fast, now all of a sudden that, let's say, the guard can't stay on the double team as fast, as long, because he's like, oh, I've got a guy in my face now, so I've got to get off it. And now you end up with a lot of one-on-ones rather than double teams, which is what the offense wants. So trigger, Washington triggers.

Washington linebackers trigger. Washington linebackers trigger. Oops, there's Chris Godwin on the crossing right over their heads. Oops, there's a rotation, and then they let Antonio Brown go down the sideline on play action. So, like, that's a fun offense now that it's clicking. I don't know if it's an offense that necessarily is the future of football. I don't know if it's necessarily an offense that works without a great

quarterback like this because we've seen it where it's been tough on quarterbacks. But with the personnel they have right now, it is disgusting. And I'm nervous for Sunday night. Oh, so, you know, Tom Brady could win a Super Bowl playing football, huh? Yeah, I guess that would be a shocker. Well, speaking of that, I mean, just everything you just said, football. I mean, in your face.

That was great. That was tremendous. And I'll just add on that I would love to see Daybol go out and coach Justin Herbert and do a lot of the same things. Like if he's going to take a job, pick the right job if he gets offered jobs or stay where you're at because, you know, their offense probably isn't going anywhere well uh are you um like underscore seth these days like is that a thing is it pff underscore seth are you one of those people i became one of those people underscore nation i guess uh okay so as long as they don't put like nfl in my name that's my main

thing that's seth galena underscore nfl boy that That's a whole other thing off the podcast. But anyway, just tweet. If you do that, tweet about which draft prospects you were right about from three years ago. That's the way you do it. Yeah, but I can't because I haven't been right about any of them. Right. Yeah, Herbert. I saw the Herbert thing.

That's great. Well, none of us – my thing is always none of the teams even get it right very often. So I don't feel bad if I thought Josh Rosen was going to work out. Give him some bootlegs. You and me both, baby. Yeah, give him some bootlegs. Maybe it'll work. Anyway, so your piece on Russell Wilson was absolutely tremendous.

People should go to your site and find that. And I really appreciate you coming on and in ridiculous depth breaking down what makes a modern offense. Thanks a lot, Seth. Thank you.