Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - PFF's Sam Monson talks about past draft picks and whether the Vikings would make a Super League

Episode Date: April 22, 2021

Matthew Coller is joined by PFF's Sam Monson to talk about Vikings draft picks of yesteryear that went wrong, specifically Laquon Treadwell and Christian Ponder. They also discuss whether the Vikings are in the top 12 best teams in the NFL right now and how they could possibly get into that list and Sam gives his favorite player comparisons. 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 Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hey, celebrate. SimBowl using the promo code PURPLE, you will receive six months free of premium Purple Insider written content at purpleinsider.substack.com. So go to SimBowl.app, deposit $20 if you're a first-time user, six months free of our premium written content at Purple Insider. If you are not familiar yet with SimBowl, it is a new sports marketplace where you can trade shares of professional teams like stocks. So as we are fully into draft season you're going to want to get in

now with your team before their stock rises here's how it works you buy stock of teams and when your teams win you earn cash payouts that are instantly deposited so check it out symbol.app follow them on twitter at symbol exchange and check out the Marketplace for Sports. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Scout with E6 and Symbol, your stock market for sports. We welcome into the show from Pro Football Focus, Sam Monson. Sam, I have a question for you right off the bat. I want to ask you the same thing I asked Sam Ekstrom yesterday on the show, which is tell me which Vikings player at the time they were drafted that you had a blazing hot take about?

Now, if people don't know, you have followed the Vikings for a very, very long time. And I have one that was a you take that I remember from years ago that I can tell you if you can't think of one right off the bat. Well, okay, you tell me my take, and then i'll give me a second to think if see if i can come up with anything better you were not you were not a treadwell guy you were an anti-treadwell guy yeah you did i remember you did a big piece on why you did not think that laquan treadwell would be very good in the nfl and despite the fact that most analysts really loved laquan treadwell and talked about oh his contested catch and he's so strong and all these other things, he'll be able to overcome the lack of speed. But I think maybe you analyzed his routes or something like that and you just didn't like it. So that was the one that came to mind right

away. It's funny. I was about as down on Laquan Treadwell as I think anybody in that draft process. And it turned out I was still too high on him. like that's that's how bad Laquan Treadwell has been in the NFL I thought he was like a second or a third round type of player turns out he's just not worth having in your on your NFL roster yeah I he was a player that a lot of times you get through the draft process and so it's fun when I do it because I don't watch a ton of college footballs so when I come to these guys as prospects I don't I'm not weighed down with whatever the sort of standard narrative is on them already so you kind of hear it in bits and pieces in the background and you you heard this sort of description of Laquan Treadwell and then you get to the tape and you're

like really those don't sound like the same people to me like are we what am i missing here like i'm not seeing the player that's been described to me so far and everybody else's draft profile and you know when you looked at some of the reasons that people were going nuts about him it was kind of funny like people loved his blocking and there were a bunch of these plays where i've never seen one guy do this as often but back before they kind of essentially outlawed this block the kind of crack back wide receiver block the one that everybody if you've ever played wide receiver it's the one that you love right where the play is coming in your direction and you get to look back at where it's coming from

see a DB coming and just bury the guy he He never sees it coming. He's running towards you, but with his eyes on the ball carrier, never knows you're there. And you just get to bury the dude. Laquan Treadwell had a bunch of those plays where he's like, you know, stalk blocking a guy on the outside and then sees it coming inside and just destroys somebody. And those were like people losing their minds going, look at what a great blocker this guy is.

Like, I mean, not really like those aren't great blocks. Those are just plays that come in your direction. And sure, like the most impressive part of those blocks was seeing it coming and just leaving his guy and burying somebody else. And but the actual block itself is just it's lucky, right? It's lucky that the play came in your direction so people were giving him credit for all those kinds of things and even independent of the fact that that's a pretty irrelevant skill for a wide receiver in the first place even that was not really a fair reflection on how he was playing and then he was maybe the first guy that kind of cemented this thought in my mind, which is if the first thing you're telling

me about a wide receiver prospect is about his contested catch skills, he probably isn't a very good wide receiver. And it's not to say that that isn't a useful thing and a good trait to have, but if it's his calling card, if it's number one on the list of things you're telling me about a guy, it probably means he's not a very good wide receiver because everything he's doing is a contested catch. The beauty of a guy like Devontae Smith is that contested catches are like a really small part of his game. It's not that he doesn't have that skill as well, but it's that most of the time he isn't involved in a contested catch because the dude is open all the time. And that's like the important thing for being a wide receiver right great point this was the

thing with justin jefferson where he had a great contested catch rate but it was like 11 for 12 or something out of 100 and whatever number of catches he was great when called upon to do that but most of the time he was getting himself open running after the catch I think is a huge talent that's another thing with Laquan Treadwell that he just really couldn't do and then there was also the personality stuff and it's I love that you mention the blocking because there's a personality part of this too with Laquan Treadwell that is connected to the blocking so one week he did exactly that for the Vikings he did a crack back block that was illegal and so Mike Zimmer explained to him you can't block that way in the NFL that play is illegal and he did it again the very next week and it was just like that is Laquan Treadwell everyone

that is why he failed I mean I think that all the stuff about the skill set is right but I think that's why he failed like Mike Zimmer told him to stop running stadium steps, and he still ran stadium steps after training camp practices. I mean, that's why I was still too high on him saying he was a second or a third-round player. He may have had the skill set for that, but I had the attitude for a guy who's just not going to play. Let me ask you about a couple more that were like debated Vikings picks. I want to know how you felt about them at the time. Teddy and Christian Ponder,

because the quarterbacks are always debated. I really liked the Teddy pick and I didn't even live here yet. I just thought, man, if you can get a quarterback that was, you know, mocked up at the top of the draft at number 32, you've done a good job for yourself. When Christian Ponder was picked I was extremely low on that and kind of like couldn't believe he was a first round pick how did you feel about those two at the time yeah I like the Teddy pick as well um the Christian Ponder pick I didn't like but I was kind of in this and I think I still am when you need a quarterback I I'm never gonna hate too much on a team just rolling the dice,

even if it's a massive reach, even if you're taking a guy in the first that shouldn't be anywhere near there. If you need it, you need it. Like, there's no alternative. The alternative you have is just punting on the position for a year and coming back and trying it next year. But if you swing at the quarterback and you miss, then you'll be doing that anyway.

Like, it doesn't actually change anything. And the difference of let's pick a linebacker or a defensive end or whatever that position, like, those guys aren't moving the needle unless you get the quarterback either. So I'm never really big on hammering teams for swinging and missing at a quarterback. It's one thing, you know, if you took a guy like Ponder and there were many better options available, you know, and you'd taken him above it,

but that was a crappy year for quarterbacks anyway. And you just, yeah, they swung and they missed, but I hated the idea of like, that's, that's the answer because it was almost never going to happen, but I didn't hate too much the idea of, yeah, I mean, they were in a bind. That's kind of where they had to go. Is it just me, or is Christian Ponder one of the least interesting bus quarterbacks? I mean, it just seems like, sorry, man, you just didn't have it. No, because Christian Ponder is my, I have named a syndrome after him,

Christian Ponder syndrome, which is my descriptor for players that were athletic enough to beat players in college, but not in the NFL and never realize that there's been a change. So you see this all the time. Christian Ponder used to do this where he would break the pocket, start running to the sideline, right? And in college,

he would probably outrun the defensive tackle is chasing him down in the NFL NFL, he couldn't and never figured it out, never figured it out. That guy that weighs 330 pounds that's chasing you down from behind is going to catch you before you make anything happen. So that's Christian Ponder syndrome. There are players that do that, that were athletic enough to beat the fat guys in college, aren't in the NFL and never get it through their brains that there has been a change in dynamic here, and you can't do that anymore. That is, I think, a great observation.

I even think of Baker Mayfield for this, where he has figured it out, but he is not athletic enough to make plays and run away from linebackers in the NFL. It's just quite clear. But in college, he could. So you better run like a 4-4 or 4-5 and be really quick and dynamic, like Justin Fields or Trey Lance, if you're going to actually escape the pocket. Otherwise, you might as well be Mac Jones because you're not going to be able to do that. I guess I just mean it really never took off. It never got controversial about Christian Ponder.

There was a 10-win season mixed in there, but that was all Adrian Peterson. And it was just kind of – it never happened. It sort of reminds me of when I was in Buffalo covering E.J. Manuel, where there was no real point where we could even have an argument about it. It was like, this is just bad, and this is not going to work out and he seemed like ponder uh like he just was kind of scared and and just didn't you know couldn't couldn't really handle the speed of the nfl and then got really um i guess just you know sort of turtling and that was it you know it's not like there was this man that guy could have been if only like nah it was like, nah, it was never going to happen.

And I think E.J. Manuel is a similar deal, right, where it's just that was a bad year for quarterbacks. And he got elevated into the first round based off the senior bowl, where he was essentially the only viable human at the senior bowl. Like every other quarterback at the senior bowl just looked atrocious that year. And E.J. Manuel didn't look terrible. And therefore, just by not being terrible, it was like, well, that guy's probably got to go in the first round because otherwise what else is happening here?

Right. Let me apologize just for going off on Christian Ponder because I know that Vikings fans just get very sad when talking about Christian Ponder. In fact, I still get that if I write anything about quarterbacks. Like, hey, if there's a quarterback there at 14, then the first person comes in, what if he's Ponder? Then it ruins everything. Which, you know, I guess I can understand that you would still have that PTSD

when it comes to that. But here's another question for you. So the soccer leagues, and this is a very big change, so sorry, but the soccer leagues wanted to make this Super League kind of thing. Now, that's my only interpretation of it because I don't understand what's going on with soccer. But if the NFL were to make a Super League with 12 teams based on next year, just who they think are going to be the best teams next year would the vikings make it um probably not because that would so 12 teams that's essentially an old style playoffs right

like it's the it's the division winners plus your wild cards now you've expanded that but i don't know if the vikings make that next year it's possible they'll be in that fringe you know either side of that barrier but i mean they need to have a few things turn around from last year for that to go in their direction i think this is just sort of another way of asking you like do you think that they're among the top third of the league right now. And I'm not sure that they get in that. I mean, Vegas doesn't think so. Vegas has them at eight and a half wins, and I think there's 15 teams that are projected to have higher wins.

And it's another way of asking you, like, how much of a jump do you think they made? Because, you know, so they're drafting 14th, which means they were the 18th best team in the league last year. Like, have they jumped six teams to be in the top 12 NFL teams right now, which I think is the group that you start talking about. Can you get in the playoffs? Can you go potentially win the Super Bowl?

Could you surprise us? And I'm not sure either. I think that they're right outside of that. Like, I don't think that we've talked about their offseason and free agency like did you like it sam um it was interesting i don't quite understand the thinking with you know defensive tackle um like particularly so it was one thing when it's like all right dalvin thompson's going to come in and play three technique which is everybody's assumption right it's like, all right, Dalvin Tomlinson is going to come in and play three technique, which is everybody's assumption, right? It's like you already have Michael Pierce.

He's going to come in. He's going to be your three tech. And now you're just taking a guy that's sort of out of position and has never really shown that he can do that. And then it was like, no, actually, we're going to basically play two nose tackles on the field at the same time, and both of them are going to be nose tackles, and there isn't a three tech.

And now you're just like, okay, now i just don't understand what's happening like um and i we've been you know connecting them with christian barmore in the first round a lot because they don't have that skill set they're absent of this sort of interior pass rushing presence and a lot of people hate that as well because well you just signed just signed Dalvin Thompson to this big money deal. I think three into two on the inside does work. Everybody rotates. Nobody's playing a thousand snaps. It's not a redundancy. Plus, it gives you contingency for Michael Pierce being a shorter-term option or whatever. So, yeah, the problem the Vikings have still is that they haven't been able to address or fix the offensive line, which has been this team's biggest problem for a number of years now.

And what's concerning for them is that everything they try goes wrong. So they've actually, they're in a similar spot to the Chargers in a way where I think they've done a lot of good things in terms of trying to fix it they've just all come up bad so does that mean you stop swinging and you try a completely different tank or does it mean you are just you've you've been really bad at this there's a missing skill set somewhere in the building you need to find somebody that can evaluate offensive linemen or does it mean you just had a bad run of luck and these things happen and eventually you'll get the you'll catch the high end of that wave but like this team is not going anywhere until until they have a better offensive line it isn't like kirk cousins can only play so well behind a

bad to mediocre offensive line dalvin cook has been making magic happen despite an offensive line in front of him that isn't great. They can only take you so far, particularly as long as the defense like isn't in those sort of 2017 levels of amazing, like the defense is not what it used to be. And so you need that offense to be firing. And with Thielen and Justin Jefferson and Dalvin Cook, you have players that could make this offense dominant

if you just had the platform to function from with the offensive line, but they don't. Hey, everyone. Anybody who listens to the show knows that Sam and I may not be scratch golfers, but we love to have a great time playing golf. And that's why we have partnered with birdie golf in Woodbury birdie golf is hands-down the best indoor golf experience you will ever have there are eight of the world's best golf stimulators where you can sharpen your swing and luckily for us never lose

the ball but it's not just for hardcore golfers birdie golf is for everyone bring the family play arcade style games while dining on great food in an upscale and comfortable environment. They have private bays for social distancing, a luxury lounge for private events, outdoor patio, and scratch kitchen. You'll want to try the whiskey or beer float flights and the best boneless wings in the metro. Make golf a night out or the place to hold parties, events, fundraisers,

even your fantasy football draft. Check out Birdie Golf at 494 in Valley Creek in Woodbury, just a short drive from anywhere in the Twin Cities metro, and at birdiegolf.com. Or you can call 651-998-2200 today. I'll see you there. Folks, the football offseason is off and rolling, and SodaStick

has you covered with Minnesota sports themed gear. Some of my favorite football designs that you have to check out include the Chuck Foreman Spin Doctor gear. You can commemorate Randy Moss' disgusting act on a shirt or a hoodie, and if you're old school, check out the Purple People

Eaters design as well. Go to sodastick.com and check them all out. If you use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER, you can get free shipping on all your Minnesota sports-inspired gear. All of their apparel is screen printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies. You will love it.

Plus, keep your eyes and ears out for our giveaways going on on this show as well on social media. Follow them at SodaStickCo on Twitter and at SodaStick.com for your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. Code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. Is that a good case to draft an offensive lineman in the first round, or is it just, guys guys you screwed it up again

because not bringing in anyone in free agency and your only move is trading for mason cole and it is remarkable how many times they will just do the thing that you guys at pff would look at all of your data and go oh don't do that i mean right it's just like mean, trading for Macy Cole is like, oh, the 31st ranked center. That makes sense, I guess. What? Their problem, I think, is that the team sitting one space ahead of them also needs a starting left tackle. Like, the Chargers are sitting there, and they've done a really good job,

actually, of overhauling their offensive line this off season. But the one position they haven't overhauled yet is left tackle. So chargers, I would say are almost certainly going to draft the left tackle barring some crazy run on them in the top 12 picks, which doesn't seem likely they're going to have one of the top three available to them, which means that's a player the Vikings aren't going to have available to them so they I think are going to wind up in this really tough spot where the

the three tackles they would love potentially to jump on are all gone now you're saying well do we like somebody like Elijah Vera Tucker at this height to move him inside the guard or even to keep him a tackle and hope he can play when most people think he has to become a guard because of his body shape and those kinds of things um or do we punt on this again and have to come back in the second and third round where we just have this crappy track record of um finding those players so yeah i think they i mean they have to keep working on it you can't just abdicate responsibility for fixing an offensive line because you've had a bad run at doing it so far.

They have to keep going, but now I think they're actually going to be in a tough spot to fix that. Yeah, right, and that's the thing about asking a rookie to come in, even if it's Vera Tucker, who's projected as a guy that's supposed to be a rookie who can come right in and play. And the same thing for Slater and maybe Derrissaw too, but you just don't really know how that's going to work out. And it feels like not only is the offensive line not better, it also might be worse. I mean, losing Riley Reif, I mean, you can look at this and say,

objectively right now, you don't have more talent right now than you did last year when you were one of the worst pass blocking offensive lines in the NFL. And what really I just don't understand is the lack of investment at the guard position. And I know there's only so much money to go around. But using your data, I discovered that 50% of Kirk Cousins' pressure last year came from two guys out of six, including him. Two. That's bad. And tight ends are mixed in there and running backs are mixed in there. And 50% is coming from just the right guard and the left guard.

And yet here we are again with, you know, I think we'll bring back Dakota Dozier. This will be okay. And it's like I don't understand what is missing in terms of them just seeing what other teams are taking advantage of. And last year, about midway through the season, everyone was like, oh, we're just going to blitz a linebacker right at the guard and get a pressure almost every time in every big situation. I guess I just don't get it. Like when everything points to you really need this position to help kirk cousins and you spend one million dollars on dakota dozier to bring him back i'm at a loss and that's what

makes me concerned the most is that it does seem like they are missing just the fundamental like evaluation process when it comes to offensive linemen which isn't it's why they can't they haven't been able to find them that when when they signed you know mikeemen, which isn't, it's why they can't, they haven't been able to find them. That when, when they signed, you know, Mike Remmers and Riley Reif, it's like, all right, those are, those moves make sense to get average to above average play on the offensive line at a couple of spots that have been problems. And neither guy worked out. Now, is that because you just got unlucky? Because we kind of like that as well.

Or did you screw up actually evaluating those guys and the same thing is true with basically every other offensive lineman they've signed right now that offensive line is still like brian o'neill and four guys that need to be upgraded um you draft ezra cleveland and now he might not even be a tackle going forward and if he isn't like he's a bad guard as well like he's he's one of those tackles where you know that we're talking about elijah vera tucker projecting inside like cleveland only ever projected a left tackle that was not a guy that had a body shape or a skill set that made any sense inside um i get okay the guard position is so bad last year let's just throw him in there

how bad could it be but if he's not now immediately kicking out to left tackle and being your left tackle of the future, you might as well write him off as a pick as well because he isn't a guard going forward, and if he's not your starting left tackle when you don't have a starting left tackle, what is he other than a failed high draft pick again? So they've just got this hideous track record at the position that's the biggest area of need for them

right now which is ultimately going to be the thing that caps how good this team can be maybe their next coach will be a former offensive line coach and we can just not have this anymore uh it really it really is um kind of mind-blowing to see the amount of money that they spent on the defensive side and then just looked at the guard position and said, no, you don't want it, whatever. We'll just kind of patchwork that together, even though it's been holding them back for I don't know how long. And I'll try not to obsess with it,

because I'll just shift gears and ask you this question. Is there anything that they could do from here to the end of the offseason, so including the draft, trades, whatever is left in free agency, that would make you think they were a top 12 team? the end of the offseason, so including the draft, trades, whatever is left in free agency, that would make you think they were a top 12 team. Because right now, we agree that they're kind of on the fringe of that, and they would need a lot of things to go right, and also nothing to go wrong. Like if the Daniil Hunter thing does not go right for them, they're definitely not a good defense.

If Patrick Peterson gets hurt, or if he is bad, you're definitely not a good defense if Patrick Peterson gets hurt or if he is bad you're definitely not a good defense so what would they need to do to convince you that they could be one of those top 12 teams well obviously the only thing kind of major left to fall is the draft so if they come out of it with a draft that does look fantastic on paper you could buy into it and then the other thing is they had so many young players last year that if those guys do take a step forward, particularly in the secondary, obviously, they threw a lot of resources at that.

And we love their draft last year. Like they came out of this draft that looked like they absolutely nailed it. The problem is it's this world of if you go into the draft needing to fill a couple of glaring starting positions, the chances of that going well year one are minimal. Like it just doesn't tend to happen. Now, Minnesota actually did insanely well when you look at it. They got Justin Jefferson, who essentially directly replaced Stephon Diggs and did it without any drop off.

That shouldn't ever happen. That's insane. And then you've got, okay, Jeff Gladney didn't work out your one, but you got Cameron Dantzler in the third round to come in and play really well down the stretch and look like he could be a starting cornerback going forward. So you left yourself essentially needing to come out of this with two high end starters and you've got at least one maybe two it's it's about as well as it could possibly go but it still needed more and now they're in the same position

on the offensive line but if they do get steps forward from the group like particularly Dantzler right you bring in Patrick Buse and to be a solid viable starting cornerback who can just at least avoid getting lit on fire like some of the guys they had last year if Dan Slurk can take a step forward and show for a full 16 game schedule 17 game schedule um what he looked like down the stretch you know take a step forward in his development and become a viable corner maybe even a number one going forward that changes a lot. Like that is a genuinely transformative move in one guy's development. And then, you know, if anything else happens in terms of young guys developing, I also think there is potential that that interior duo,

and maybe if they get a Christian Barmore or another guy that can add just something in terms of pass rush pressure, that that could with Danelle Hunter coming back, transform that defensive line into a factor again when it wasn't a year ago. Yeah, that's really polite, right, that not a factor is really polite about their defensive line last year. Abomination could also be a way that you might describe it. I mean, you know, you give up six touchdowns to one running back. It's just not great.

Now, so when I look at the big picture of this, Sam, and I think about, you know, Mike Zimmer, how long he's been here, Rick Spielman, how long he's been here. And this is kind of their second bite at the apple of building the team up because they have their first and they go to the NFC championship game and then it falls apart. And now they're rebuilding it a lot through free agency on the defensive side. And then through the draft, honestly, on the offensive side with Justin Jefferson, the offensive lineman that they've drafted and so forth. And then you have this her cousins thing that just overrides, you know, everything. But I wonder if you were the owner of the Vikings, if you would be thinking they need probably a couple more years to continue to build this roster up for another shot at that, like they had in 2017.

Or if you would be thinking, you know what, like, go win this year, man. I mean, come on. I spent all this money for you and get back into the NFC Championship or get back a couple offc championship or get back you know a couple of playoff wins or we need to change direction like which one of those things would be the more prudent for ownership um i think you could definitely make i mean i don't i don't think expecting them to win and be contending this year makes any sense like if you are irrationally evaluating this thing as an owner it seems unreasonable to be expecting that. So what you're looking for is some kind of indication that you're at least

heading back there. And if you can see some kind of development and you see an offense that's getting better, if an offensive line starts to take shape, if the defense does look like it's heading back to being a good unit as opposed to one with like catastrophic failures up front and on the back end. If you can see those things start to get pieced together this year, they don't get incredibly unlucky. They end up with a reasonable record.

They're on that precipice of playoffs or not towards the end. Then I think, okay, now we see what you can do next year, and that becomes your big year. If things fall apart, though, this year, if they have another season where they're just never in it and not there are catastrophic failures and the offensive line is still just prohibitively bad and causes the offense to have a serious cap on how good it can be the defense is not making any kind of impact if there's like literally no sign of any of this getting better then yeah i think

everybody has to be kind of on the hot seat in terms of where are we going now? Right. I think the whole thing is complicated by Kirk Cousins contract situation because carrying a $45 million cap hit into next year is just not tenable. I mean, I don't care what TV deal they sign. There's nothing that's pushing that cap so far up that $45 million is going to work for Kirk Cousins. So you sort of end up at a fork in the road before you really want to be there in terms of rebuilding your roster with so many players off the 2017 team that are gone. There's almost no one left outside of Hunter, Harrison Smith, Eric Hendricks, Anthony Barr, and that's pretty much it. And so you have to replace all those other positions, and you really do need to be an elite defense for the Vikings to be truly competitive

with Kirk Cousins as their quarterback. But you have this contract situation here, so you need to say, we're going to sign on to you long-term, or we're going to trade you and draft someone else. And then when you're drafting someone else, that's always sort of hitting the reset button no matter what. So you see what I mean? Like these things are not quite adding up for the way we talk about typical NFL timelines. of winning like now, you know, it's not a contract that's can do. It's a contract that might be conducive to keeping intact a roster. That's already really good. You know, it gives you just enough flexibility that you can do. You can make that happen kind of the way the chiefs are right.

Like the chiefs are, they've got this Patrick Mahomes deal. It's fairly team friendly, but it's going to be a squeeze all the time from now and for the next decade. But obviously it's worth it because you have Patrick Mahomes. The Kirk Cousins contract is sort of similar in that it's not like it's crippling. It's just that it's always going to make you make a few tough decisions every single year, like a Kyle Rudolph for $7 million or whatever it is. Like, do we really need that?

Now is probably the time to move on. We save $7 million. That's the kind of move that this deal should be making you do. The problem is when the thing falls apart the way it has done, and now it's like, well, we don't just have to maintain a roster. We actually need to piece one back together again, and that probably means spending in free agency pretty big. It probably means swinging more than we need to

because we're going to miss somewhere along the line. And you just don't have the capacity to do that anymore because the money's all tied up. So it's a really bad, it wasn't a great contract when they signed it, but now it's a really bad one because the circumstances have changed and you need more money and flexibility than you did. Hey everyone, I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics, and I really do mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics, and since they reached out wanting to support this show, I want to tell you about what they do. Scout Logistics is just-in-time transportation for full tractor-trailer loads, and if you're

wondering what that means exactly, well, if you own or work for a company that needs shipping solutions, they are the preferred carrier of Fortune 500 companies across North America. And we have quite a few of those in Minnesota, right? They can ship perishable, non-perishable, FTL or LTL, and they have on-time delivery rate of over 99%. So if you're like them and you enjoy the show and you have shipping needs, check out ScoutLogistics.com or call 855-217-2688 extension 232 to connect with them directly to find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company. You know what it feels like is they got a puzzle, a box with a puzzle,

but they were half of the pieces to one puzzle and half of the pieces to another puzzle. And you could sort of put together half of each, but you can't really make it all work together with the quarterback contract, where the rest of the roster is, and just with when a coach has been around for this long, it feels like you're just a target anyway. You know how this is. If you're the coach for a long time, I was watching the 96 playoff game the other day with the Vikings and Cowboys where the Vikings got beat 40-15, and the broadcast is talking about how Denny's been around a long time

and there were rumors that they were going to hire Lou Holtz. Like it feels like even just by proxy of being around a while and not winning a Superbowl, you're just always going to be talked about with that pressure of like, when are we going to make a change? Cause that's how the competitive environment ends up working. Yeah. It's,

it's, it's a really kind of tough spot because I think fundamentally Kirk Cousins has dramatically outperformed what you would have expected of him coming in from Washington. Like, I think he's been a better quarterback for Minnesota than he ever was there or ever even really threatened that he was going to be. He's been dramatically better despite the situation not being great. They've had receivers to work with, but that offensive line has been bad and the offense itself has never been amongst the most cutting edge

pioneering quarterback friendly um systems in the nfl and and yet the just because of the way the contract is structured and because of how much money is tied up with him like it still isn't enough it's still there's no way that Cousins could essentially win based off the contract that he was signing. Right. Like the math just doesn't really work. And also, it is fascinating, like the nature of Kirk Cousins to go one and five and lead the league in picks and then have the second half of the season be fire.

And then you look at the end and you go, Hey, well, the numbers are pretty good. Well, yeah, some of them, some of the season and that's sort of been the story of Kirk Cousins here. It's like, yeah, like 10 of the games were, were good. Sam, before I let you go, always fun to catch up. I want you to give me your favorite draft season overused player comp, because I put this out on twitter the other day got a lot of great examples of course the the one that i got the most was that every sixth round quarterback

could be the next tom brady what is your yeah what is your favorite well now everybody is looking for the next tyree kill oh yeah you know if you've got an undersized, fast wide receiver, he can be Tyreek Hill. And generally, I mean, I put all these things into the same category of like everybody's chasing unicorns, you know, and that's just a bad thing to do. Right. They're unicorns for a reason. You're not going to find another one of them. So, you know, Jalen Waddle is the new Tyreek Hill and everybody like that. It's just I think generally if the guy you're describing as a player comp for somebody is like a unique Hall of Famer, your comp is probably wrong. And you should – my favorite shtick this whole offseason has been Nate Tice from the Athletic Football Podcast has been like comping players to uh nfl players that were like good you know good solid nfl players but like everyone else would seem like an insult because you don't do that you comp players to like a hall of famer that's how this works but he's been like comping players to like you know jermaine wiggins or whatever it's like jermaine wiggins was a good tight end for

years like that's a good if your draft pick winds up as jermaine wiggins was a good tight end for years. Like, that's a good – if your draft pick winds up as Jermaine Wiggins, it was probably a good draft pick. But nobody wants to hear that. People only ever want to hear about the next Gronk or the next Travis Kelsey or the next Tyreek Hill, right? But I think actual realistic player comps are probably a lot more modest than that. Yes. This is for our little draft guide that we did which by the

way purpleinsider.substack.com go get it uh it's um i i was you know like this guy could be not aaron donald if he's the undersized but like maybe he could be your tom johnson if he's an undersized dt right like if if things work out for you yeah it's it's fun to even think about maybe there's an article there like to go back and look at some of the comps for guys that the Vikings drafted. Like, I don't think Garrett Bradbury is going to become Jason Kelsey. It's not going to make it. I'm not going to get there. No.

So that's how it goes. Sam Monson, PFF NFL show. You and Steve are the best. You still haven't grown out your hair. I'm working on it a little bit here. I got like a Jeff Weaver thing going on. Remember him? I don't have hair to grow out.

No. It's reached the point now where this is the longest it can ever be from now until death. Like there just isn't enough hair to do anything else. Yeah. I'm wearing the hat, and I have reached the point where like right at the top of the dome, you get a little bit of that, you know, it's lightening up there. Don't love it so we were talking though about how you know that my big master's uh takeaway was that hats are just like a cheat code for baldness right you yeah shave off like 10 years in age just by putting on a baseball cap and then you take that thing off and it's like oh my god that dude's old um matt hasselbeck was always the

king of this right matt hasselbeck on the sideline looked 10 years younger than Matt Hasselbeck when he took his hat off. So I'm thinking, I'm wondering if it's too late for me to pivot to being a cap guy, right? Put on the hat, nobody knows the hair's gone. I could just roll with that the whole way. I am a hat guy because when my hair grows out, it looks so bad. It looks like a scrubby baseball pitcher when I have just the hat on and kind of longer in the back. And it's like, oh, well, you just,

you know, you're, you're coming in to face the lefty or something. But if I take it off at the long hair, it just, it's just not a good situation because there's so little in the front and there's a lot in the back. And it's just like, I don't know. It looks like I should be playing country music or something. Nice. Anyway. So Sam, thanks for your time. Always fun to get together with you.

We will do it again soon, man. Thanks. Anytime. Take it easy.