Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Picking the rest of the Vikings schedule, 5-0 edition

Episode Date: October 8, 2024

Matthew Coller is joined by Manny Hill, who goes through his weekly picking of the Vikings' schedule. How many wins does he expect? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

all right it's time i know what you all have been waiting for, and Manny shouting out the Gophers, victors over USC. I mean, what a freaking weekend of football it was, Manny. Oh, my goodness. There were upsets left and right. I'm going to tell you the truth. I turned off the Miami-Cal game. I thought it was over.

I didn't. I know you didn't because I saw your tweets later on. I went, wait a minute, what happened? And so I had to go back for that one, but what a, what an unbelievable weekend of football for everybody, but there's no delay in this Manny. I've promised seven 30 is when you were going to pick the schedule. The people are already guessing what you're going to end up thinking for this team for wins. If you haven't joined us before on a Monday night, Manny goes through the schedule, picks every game for the Vikings, and we decide how many games we think that they're going to win at the end of the season.

And early on, after a win over the New York Giants, you got a little excited and we were all kind of going, oh, Manny, you're just excited about one win. Isn't that so precious? Oh, no. Oh, no. It actually looks better than you thought it would look through five weeks by probably two games. I think you had them at maybe three and two through five games initially.

Now, 5-0. So why don't we dive right into this coming out of the bye the vikings will face the lions in the game of the year maybe in the entire conference what say you man i wonder if uh because the game's supposed to be on fox i wonder if burkhardt and brady might be doing that game because first place in the nfc north might be on the line there um that's going to be a really really fascinating game to watch um have you listened to brady i'm going to tell you the truth this is just a me thing i don't really care about broadcasters i at this point since all of my like favorite guys are have kind of moved on you know i still mildly enjoyed joe

buck at this point on monday night football i think they i think him and troy are fine um but like you know pat summerall was my guy back in the day you know back in the 90s so um once those guys kind of went away i started to kind of care less and less about you know who the who the number one broadcasting it's kind of fun to talk about, but I largely don't really care. The Jim Nance, Tony Romo curse, so to speak, with the Vikings has always been kind of fascinating because Vikings are like 0-8 when those two guys do their games or something like that. It's really weird.

I'm sorry. Go ahead. I also don't really notice unless I see people talking about it. I will just be going along watching the game myself. And then I will see people on social media saying, can you believe what a stupid thing that Tom Brady just said? And I'm like, I wasn't really like, it just kind of went by me. I, I, you know, I just, I'm watching the plays. I'm watching what happened. And it's sort of in the background to me, much less of I'm going to let that dictate whether I'm enjoying this game or not.

So it really has to be atrocious. But my understanding is that people really like Greg Olson, don't really like Tom Brady. Oh, well, it is what it is. Who's winning the Detroit game? I think I'm going to stick with my pick that i've had for the last few times and i'm gonna pick the detroit lions um i do think it's gonna be a really really close game i i just think you know with everything that's happening with the vikings right now you know being five and

oh and everybody's excited and i think everybody should be excited. I'm excited. I think there's been a little bit of, and I found myself doing this a little bit, forgetting about how good and legit the Detroit Lions actually are. One, because of all the excitement surrounding the Vikings and also because maybe it's just, we're still kind of coming to grips with the fact that the Lions are like really, really good, legitimately like championship contending good.

And so I think it's a little bit easy to kind of forget because, wow, it's the Lions. The Lions aren't going to do anything, but I think the Lions are still really good. And I think they're still a front runner to win this division. So I'm going to take Detroit to win this game on a Sunday, October 20th. Okay. Six and one. Then they go out to play the Rams. I watched a lot of the Rams and the Packers.

And my takeaway was, wow, the Rams don't have any wide receivers. I mean, who are these people? This would be like, if you took the Vikings camp roster and put the 78th guy in Cooper Cup spot. I mean, they had one of the best pairings in the NFL. Both guys are out. I don't know what their status is going to be by the time they get to this Vikings game. It may be better. Maybe Cooper Cup could be back by then. I think there's a possibility of that, but that offense is really struggling. They do not have a good offensive line.

Their defense is pretty solid, but still Jordan Love hits a big place on them. I guess the way that they're as beat up as they are, I'm not looking at the Rams as the hugest threat. It's really only similar to the London game. Thursday night is weird, but do you think that they split these two to open up after the bye week?

By the way, I'm old enough to remember when Tutu Atwell's father was a wide receiver for this team back in the 90s. That tells you how old I am. I do agree. This could be sort of a tricky game because it's a quick turnaround after just a couple of days flying out west. You know, Matthew Stafford, I think, is playing okay with what he's having to work with right now, which is not much on the offensive side.

And I do think that Sean McVay is still a very good coach in terms of just, like, putting together a game plan. I just don't think they have enough horses right now. And if they can get one of those guys back between now and then, I don't doesn't sound like they will. Maybe, but I think that this is going to be a win for the Vikings, even even on the short turnaround. I agree that it should be uh there is another factor that goes into my mind is just that mcveigh really knows kevin o'connell and sort of knows what kevin o'connell knows and i don't think that the rams defense is a joke i think they could pressure the quarterback

and the play the play that uh jordan love made out of the end zone throwing the pick six was one of the biggest funniest gaffes of the year we all make fun of dan orlovsky running out of the end zone throwing the pick six was one of the biggest funniest gaffes of the year we all make fun of dan orlovsky running out of the back of the end zone this was so much worse just flinging it up in the air and having a pick six the jordan love experience is a wild one because the throw he made to jayden reed later in the game was absolutely insane ridiculous but he also has the dumbest turnover you're gonna see and that was kind of how he played against the vikings um so i don't know if he'll cool it as the season goes along or if this is uh jordan love but nonetheless uh i am on board with you there for the vikings going to

uh seven no six and one it'd be six and one yeah six and one i'm i feel like i've done this every week where i'm trying to give them extra wins, uh, six and one coming out of that Thursday night, they get a nice little mini by here. Can't under rate the mini by then coming home to face the Colts. And we don't know who's playing quarterback for the Colts, but I just want to say, shout out Joe Flacco. I mean, Kevin Durant tweeted, put Joe Flacco anywhere and he will hoop. And I was like, yeah, but not only that Manny, do you know how good national football league football players are Manny? He ran like 19 miles an hour on a scramble. This is the guy we think of as the slowest human being on earth. And he hit 19 miles an hour. I saw somebody, you know, being snarky tweet, Hey, if he could do that, I could get one yard in the league.

Can you hit 19 miles an hour? That guy can, it looked like a giraffe had escaped from the zoo. If Flacco plays, it feels more dangerous than if Richardson plays as of right now against the Indianapolis Colts, but that team clearly not a joke. You just don't know what's going to be happening at quarterback or if Richardson plays. Is he starting to get it? He still looks like he needs a lot of development, a lot of football. Is he healthy? What's his situation going to be?

I got to think Brian Flores is going to have him in hell, though, if he plays in this football game at US Bank Stadium. I would imagine that Brian Flores is hoping that and that uh anthony richardson plays in that game on november 3rd which is funny because you talk about the mini buys basically all right it's it's october 7th the colts game is on november 3rd the vikings are going to play basically two games in the next what like 28 29 28, 29-ish days. I mean, that's going to be interesting to see how that plays out because it's going to be a lot of rest for a lot of guys that are a little bit nicked up right now.

And I think that's something that can kind of work in their favor. So I think even if Flacco plays in this game, if Flacco plays, I think it'll be more competitive. But I still think the Vikings are going to come out on top in this game, uh, being that it's at home and because they're going to be, the bodies are going to be a little bit more rested because they're just not going to be playing as much football over the next four weeks. Okay.

Seven in one. And they had down to Jacksonville in what everyone will call a trap game. I imagine at this point, unless Jacksonville really turns everyone will call a trap game. I imagine at this point, unless Jacksonville really turns it around, I guess that's possible that we've seen teams get off to miserable starts before and get back on the horse and improve. I think that someone like Cincinnati, for example,

is going to win a lot of games this year. Still, even though they've started out this way, they've just had a lot of close calls that have gone against them. Jacksonville is probably not as bad as their record, but still trappy nonetheless, heading down to a place where there won't be a much energy or excitement, except for me to be in Jacksonville in November instead of Minnesota.

That will be, I'll be energetic. But what do you think of the seven and one vikings headed to jackstown they call jackstown no no one calls it jackstown do they duval they call it duval duval yeah because i think that's like that's the name of the county county yeah duval county florida um jackson deville though is their mascot unreal talent i'm serious look up the highlights it's crazy the guy's wild okay he like propels down the stadium i'm not even joking before the game oh wow he like skydive basically down out of the stadium on like a rope yeah he like propels down

onto the field that's amazing yeah that's amazing that's pretty cool um that is i i will i will say this there could be some energy depending on who's coaching that team by then because doug peterson we know he's on the hot seat right now he may have fanned some of those flames by getting the win over indianapolis yesterday um, you know, if things kind of continue to be out of control for them, they may move on from him and they, I don't know who would even take over. I don't know who his top assistant is. But that person might kind of take over and give them an extra little jolt of energy. We've seen that happen with many teams in the past.

So that could be kind of tricky. But for right now, I will call that a win just because I think the Vikings are going to have a pretty good crowd that travels down there, down to kind of North Florida. And I just don't think the Jaguars are very good right now. They found a way to win yesterday, but I just don't think they don't seem like a very cohesive unit right now. There's talent there, but I just don't think they don't seem like a very cohesive unit right now. There's talent there, but I just don't think they're very good. And I'll call that a win for the Vikings for now. I do think, Manny, there has to be one letdown.

Yeah, I know. Because the Vikings could not go a whole season without a letdown, not unless it's 1998 all over again. So 8-1 and headed to Tennessee where they're still carrying the goalposts from Vanderbilt's win over Alabama. One of the most magical football games. And plus also a friend of the show who went to Vanderbilt is at the game. Brad Spielberger,

formerly of PFF now works for an agency that represents nfl players but uh he tweeted a picture and said hey let's shock the world like a joke before kickoff and they did that was one of the coolest honestly one of the coolest football games i've ever seen in my life that has nothing to do with tennessee titans whose football is miserable um but the vikings go there after a win at jacksonville riding high at eight and one emmanuel my gosh what do they do this is where i think there could be even though i mean it's been well documented on this show i'm not a huge fan of will levis and i just don't think he's very good um but this is kind of one of those games that could end up being kind of a trap game. The Titans just historically, all the way back to the Jeff Fisher, Steve McNair days, they always just played these physical, tight, low-scoring, defensive struggle type of games,

and then we'd see McNair just do something superhuman and find ways for them to win. I think this could be something similar to that. I'll put this down as a loss for now. Okay. And I know people are not going to be pleased with that, but you have to pick a letdown game. Is it like a rule going forward for the picking of the games that there has to be one letdown game?

So that's going to be that eight and two tennessee's defense is good too like they've got some they've got some guys on defense that can that can be troublesome especially on the interior defensive line and realistically they should have won games this year and they threw them away with very weird interceptions okay but that's the letdown game bears come to u.s bank Bank Stadium November 24th. And I would say yesterday, and I will repeat, I fully understand what team Caleb Williams just looked like that against. But that's not great for everybody in Minnesota that Caleb Williams was looking that comfortable. But how comfortable will he look by November 24th? And will Caleb Williams be able to manage the U S bank stadium crowd and one Brian Flores pushing the buttons?

Oh, this, this one's going to be at soldier field. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Soldier field. My mistake.

My mistake. Yep. Soldier field. Okay. Still the second part, pay attention to the second part. So they're eight and2 going to Soldier Field. Generally a house of horrors, but you know,

of all the things Kirk did here, him erasing that entire curse, he should get credit for that. That curse went out the window after 2019, and he just beat Chicago every time there after that. Yeah, I think he won three or four times there, didn't he? Yeah, I don't think he lost. I could be wrong, but I don't think he lost.

Did he go four and two there? I think he lost the first two. You know, when they had competitive teams and it mattered. And then I think he won all the rest. Maybe it was Justin Fields who really erased that. But anyhow, eight and two, two and two to soldier field i think it helped that akim hicks wasn't around anymore either definitely helped um i will i mean soldier field games are always kind of tricky and i think you know i think caleb williams is seems like he's

starting to kind of pick things up a little bit uh get into a groove so i'll put this down as a loss but a very close loss at soldier fields wow okay so now they're sliding they're sliding a little bit here now they have gone to eight and three still having a great season but three and three coming out of the buy now they face the arizona cardinals at home and i gotta tell you manny i was watching yesterday i was doing a little red zone action i had the links game on and then I had the red zone and it, it was a wonderful vibe for me. Had some chips, Dr. Pepper.

What a great day after the, uh, the Vikings game. And, uh, when Arizona got down, I think it was 2313. I was like, all right, Hanson, don't show me that game anymore. I don't care. Move on, move on. And suddenly Kyler Murray made some plays and this Marvin Harrison Jr. gentleman, I would draft him rather high. I mean, they've got some dudes. And I also know there's familiarity with Jonathan Gannon who used to work for the Vikings. People within the Vikings loved Jonathan

Gannon. They thought he was a rising star and that is a heck of a comeback win for them so I do not think that the Arizona Cardinals are a pushover as the Vikings will face them at home on December 1st I'll put this down as a win for the Vikings but I agree with you I I don't think this is going to be a you know 30 to 7 type of dominant performance for the vikings i think the cardinals have got the firepower to make some things interesting in this game so i'll put this down as a win for the vikings but i think it'll be close and competitive okay so that moves them to nine and three correct all right well last week i lost track so now i'm trying to be much more careful and kirk cousins a reinvigorated kirk cousins comes to u.s bank stadium december 8th i think

it'll be all love between cousins and the vikings organization leading into it nobody's going to play into the revenge game kind of like aaron jones Green Bay, but oh, it's revenge-y. It's revenge-y. They didn't pay you, Kirk. You're coming back here where this new quarterback, everybody likes this new quarterback, and they say, oh, he scrambles. Look at his arm. Yeah, there's a little juice to this game if Kirk is playing well, and to be honest

with you, Manny, that's how I want it to be. I want this game to have some relevance. They're fighting for the NFC South. Kirk's trying to prove he was worth every dollar like he did the other night against the Bucs. The Vikings are trying to show, no, no, no, no. We're better off that we moved on. Look at us.

We're a 9-3 football team, Kirk. Who wins this battle of the narratives manny what did kirk finish with 509 yards on thursday yes he did yeah and one by three or whatever yeah as he as he as he typically always does puts up great numbers and wins a close game um you know who they're you know they're talking about struggling there you'll never believe it the defense of the guards imagine that imagine that kirk cousins quarterback team struggling with defense and interior offensive line play who knew who would imagine that yes um this is this is going to be an interesting game it's going to be uh really fascinating just all of the the storylines the whole week i know I I would imagine

you and I are going to have a lot of fun just talking about this game that week um leading up to that game uh I will call this a Vikings win I think it'll be close because I think pretty much every game that Kirk plays in is is close and I think he's he's going to be super motivated to come into U.S. Bank Stadium a place he called home for six years and he's going to be super motivated to come into u.s bank stadium a place he called home for six years and he's going to have something to prove i think he i think he can actually play pretty well and handle handle the atmosphere um but i think with the vikings being at home i'll give them the edge and so i'll have them get the win in a pretty close competitive game so to 10 and three, I know this.

And of course, when we get there, I can't wait to talk about it, but the Bella checky and style of defense has given Kirk nightmares in the past. The, he can't read it before the snap. It's not obvious until after the snap that things show themselves. He was really excellent at reading before the snap. And after the snap, he got, he got better as the years went along and his experience went up. But Flores is a nightmare. I kind of reminded of the 2018 Patriots game. That Patriots team had a phenomenal defense. They went out there and he was just flummoxed for most of that game.

I think Flores is probably going to look at that one for some of the things that they did to kirk so now it's the bears at home caleb williams at the u.s bank stadium sound 10 and three vikings face the let's say winning record at that point bears i think they will i think that's a a pretty good overall team and the way that williams the ball, his comfort with the offense, it also shows you, look, I get it. I know what we do here week one, week two. It's got to mean everything for the whole rest of the season. But some of the analysis of the young quarterbacks was just absolutely ludicrous. And I think you and I talked about this. It was like, okay, Caleb Williams looked pretty bad in that game against the Houston Texans.

They didn't block well. But if you thought at that point, well, the guy will never play well in the NFL. Like, okay, pump the brakes here. Looking pretty good now. But at U.S. Bank Stadium, though, on December 18th, this one's going to be tough for young Caleb Williams, I think. Yeah, second straight year, the Bears will be playing at U.S. Bank Stadium on Monday Night football, right?

So, yeah, I think it'll be all eyes are going to be on these two teams. Really fun matchup. I'll give the Vikings the win. I think Caleb Williams will be playing really well by then. Again, I think it'll be a closer game, but I think the home crowd and the home field advantage of U.S. Bank Stadium will propel the Vikings over the top. 11-3 with a couple of games to go here. Three games to go. They go out to Seattle. Now, this was a game that you were very skeptical about that the Vikings could win. And then Daniel Jones just beat them in Seattle. I don't know how much that means. They had to block a kick at the

end to get it done. There was some weird stuff that happened. And I saw Dexter Lawrence bench press a human being into his grave for them to block that field goal. I've never seen anything like that. He just took a person and put them into the dirt and they jumped over and blocked the kick that was wild um and the giants are much more plucky than we thought they were going to be after the vikings demolished them but still the last couple games for seattle you know they lost pretty big to detroit their defense really not been very good uh they didn't even have malik neighbors in that game and daniel jones had a really good day are you feeling different now after these last couple weeks about this game out in seattle uh are you willing to go 12 and 3 vikings you madman

i don't know if i can do that yet um fair it it is like the it the last couple games for the seahawks does kind of have me it's it's kind of the old what's the old gif of the guy his his eyes he's just like oh oh yeah you know like yeah hey like okay maybe guy who's like oh you know like yeah audio not as hard to play there anymore you know um so yeah I'll put this down as a loss, but I think if things continue to kind of trend this way for Seattle in future schedule pickings, this could transform into a win. Stay tuned. Okay, so 11-4, and now the Packers come to play the Vikings December 29th,

and the venue, it might explode I'm already expecting that it's going to be wild against Detroit there is something though this one could be right now it's scheduled for noon but this one could be flexed if that's a big game and if that one ends up going to Sunday night and it's for the North or whatever, oh my gosh, it could be absolutely wild. But as of right now, noon game, December 29th, Vikings and Packers, what say? Huge. I think this game is going to be absolutely huge because I think the Packers are going to start playing a lot better. And this could be sort of a three-headed monster for, you know, if you factor in Detroit as well, for the NFC

North around this time. So really tough game. I think the Packers are too good to get swept by the Vikings. So I will give Green Bay this win. Reluctantly, I will give green Bay this, this win reluctantly. I will give green Bay this win. And I will say this about Jordan love. He did not look intimidated last year. And I know

Jalen or Jaron, Jaron hall helped out with that, but he played so well at us bank stadium last year under all the pomp and circumstance leading up to that game and wasn't it wasn't that shirtless kirk doing the gala horn and everything in that game and the roof was about to explode in that one and then it just imploded actually throughout that game fair enough so they end up being now 11 and 5 as they go to Detroit, presumably for the division for this one. And this also has the potential. This one has a TBD on when the game's going to be. And my hope is the TBD is that this ends up being a night game. I'll tell you a funny thing about my time covering the Vikings, Manny, is that I actually have never been to Detroit for a Vikings Lions game because

our old employer only allowed for so much travel when I covered for 1500 ESPN until 2020. So I did the 16, 17, 18, and 19 seasons on the old AM radio. We just, that's an expensive flight and Chicago and green Bay were always easier and always less expensive. So we always went there. And then since then there was no travel in 2020. Since then there hasn't been a relevant game between the Vikings in Detroit, except for maybe the 2022 would have been, I don't know why I didn't go that year. Maybe that would have been, but the Vikings were were already so far ahead they had won the division that it didn't really look like and detroit actually wasn't that good at that point in that season so this year i think will be the year that

i actually make the trip and go out to detroit for a huge game but the question is manny who wins this game it'll be worth it too because i think this game will be for the NFC North crown. And you know what? I'm going to give the Vikings the dub. He's going for it, folks. 12 wins. 12 and 5, and I think it'll be for the division. And that would mean a season split between the two teams.

I think both teams would be 12 and five at that point. And there'll be some sort of tiebreaker that goes in the Vikings favor. I don't know what that tiebreaker might be conference record or something, some sort of tiebreaker that goes into the Vikings favor and the Vikings will win the NFC North at 12 and five. Now I still think that we should do this again next week because so much will change. We could talk about the opponents and everything that happened to them. So we should do this.

But we're going to be doing this through the whole rest of the season, picking the schedule. And I suppose that the segments will get shorter as we go along than they are right now. But I think talking about it in detail is a really fun thing, trying to look forward and figure out how many wins is this team really going to end up with because 12 would be really something man uh that would be quite the season what are you laughing at is there a comment i didn't see yet no i'm just looking at all the comments everybody's just like no no the vikings are going to win this you know games that i picked them to lose it's like oh no they're going to win this game now three weeks ago when i was having this team go like 12 and 5 everybody thought i was crazy right now i have you know because they thought i was being too optimistic now i have them

going 12 and 5 and i'm not giving them enough credit now everybody thinks they're going to go like 14 and 3 or something i still think that and remember folks it was mandatory that you have one of these as a letdown game this is a rule rule. So you had to do it against the Titans. Once they have that mandatory letdown game against somebody then, or if they never have it, I guess, but until if they do, if they lose to Jacksonville, then you don't have to do that anymore for your schedule picking. But I'm sure that was the one that most people were like, what, what it was Manny do crack before this show.

What was he talking about? Losing to the Titans. No, he had to, because this is a thing for every Viking season, even the greatest seasons they've had the letdown game. So let's answer some questions, Manny, and get more reactions to you. Picking the Vikings as a 12 win team. I don't disagree with your number. I don't know what order it will happen in but 12 is a good place to i think

set the bar for this team and expect them to win 12 because if you go right now that would make them a what seven and five team the rest of the way is that right seven and five okay can you go seven and five the rest of the way i think with this schedule that's pretty much a reasonable ask. If not, they could even be better than that. But at least if they do play like they did against the Jets in another couple games, you could lose those if you have some turnovers, if you have some inconsistency. So I do expect that there will be a game that Darnold plays like that, that they do lose. Or maybe they'll go 17 and 0. I'm not sure. Uh, let's see. Flick says curious if they sat Aaron Jones in the Jets game to see

if Chandler and Gaskin could carry the load. My guess, Manny, is that if Aaron Jones can play on a football field, he is going to be on a football field, but also, also it could be one of those as long as it's not a lingering thing blessing in disguises because he did not have the workload gets an entire week off plays two quick games and then has a little more of a break Aaron Jones and his workload is becoming a very big story for me yeah I mean when I was talking earlier about how basically the vikings are going to play essentially like two games over the next month over the next like four weeks i was thinking about aaron jones when i said that because i think if if anybody you know maybe sam garnall could use a little bit less of a of a you know pounding on the body so to speak speak. But, I mean, if anybody could use these next four weeks

of only having to play like two games over a four-game stretch and then everything on the front of that and the back of that is a more extended time off in between games, it's Aaron Jones that could use that. So, I mean, I think he is so vital, I think, to what they do offensively with the running game as a pass catcher out of the backfield in the screen game. He's so good.

And we kind of saw it yesterday morning where when he came out of the game, they really struggled offensively to move the ball. I mean, it was a point where there were three and out after three and out after three and out. So I'm going to add to do with play calling, I think. But I think he's so vital to what they do on offense, right behind, obviously, Justin Jefferson in that pecking order. So I think they need him to be as healthy as possible because i think we kind of saw yesterday if he's not out there it's it's going to be more challenging for the entire offense and especially

sam darnold they threw two screen passes and gained one yard yes see that that's not good enough that's also to me the play caller losing the thread a little bit of where you are in the game because that's something that is vital to sam darnold but i guess he didn't trust ty chandler for it i think chandler usually catches the ball but when he couldn't catch a pitch right to him then maybe uh there was some worry there i don't know uh tang says is it me or is the pass blocking of the vikings offensive line suspect at times i watched the jets three-man rush and sack darnold i mean i think we don't need to talk about which person it's been suspect uh welcome to the last seven years welcome to the last seven years basically it isn't it isn't i mean one of the things is that darnold is gonna

have to take a lot of hits because he's holding the ball for three and a half seconds they run a lot of play actions they run bootlegs He tries to make plays with his legs and extend plays. That's part of it. The tackles have been so obscenely good this year, considering the competition that they have faced through the first five games. As long as they have those guys, I think it'll be okay. But I do think that there is a change potentially coming at guard. I just, is it Dan Feeney out of the break? Is it Reisner when he's healthy? I just don't think they could continue going, but I also don't want to beat that dead horse anymore. Um, is the faithful says they need to trade for another running back. I, I agree.

I came up with two names, uh, Tony Pollard if things keep falling off for the Titans I know Pollard's expensive but you get to keep him I don't know what Jones's status is going to be into the future those are the two that were interesting to me to mix with Jones but I think that's exactly right this was you want to talk about how bad things can turn out to be good for you that bad thing is Aaron Jones gets a little banged up. Good thing is that we saw exactly what it looks like if you rely on Ty Chandler against a good team and it was not pretty. Yeah, I mean, I think that, like I was saying before, I mean, if you don't have Aaron Jones and you're asking Ty Chandler to sort of carry the load, I mean, I expect next to nothing out of Myles Gaskin.

I just think he's just a guy, a guy that takes a roster spot, and maybe you'd have him contribute on special teams as a return man maybe. I don't know, but I don't expect much of him as a pure running back. So now if Aaron Jones is banged up, now you're just relying solely on Ty Chandler. And I don't think that Ty is ready for that sort of a role yet. He hasn't really shown that he's ready for that role. I think he can be good for you in spurts, in moments. But I don't think he's a guy that you can really rely on to do a lot of the

work that you need out of a feature back. And so if Aaron Jones is going to be banged up, which look, I mean, we knew when they signed him that this was a possibility because he has a history of being, of being injured. It just, it just sucks right now because they really need him. But if they can go out and get somebody before the deadline, I like Tony Pollard a lot. When he's healthy, I'm really kind of surprised the Cowboys let him go.

Maybe he wanted to leave. I don't know. But if you could swing a move for somebody like him, Sanders is another guy that would be intriguing as well. You mentioned him. I think that would be really helpful just because i think they should just do it even if they should really consider doing it even if aaron jones in a couple of weeks is healthy and he feels fine because you just never know with him uh if you can get another

guy in just for depth purposes and a guy that can take some of the workload away from aaron jones as well to keep him fresh the rest of the year I think that'd be huge and if you're mixing and max matching Chandler in different spots then that's okay or you could put him back for kick returns where he's good it's just you can't you just can't have a game like that uh and one of the big things was I thought that they ran blocked run blocked okay not great but there were opportunities there where Aaron Jones does get five yards over and over. And that seemed to really surprise or not help Kevin O'Connell with his play calling that he wasn't often in those good situations. So it seemed like he kept

trying to go for the daggers deep downfield because he knew that he wasn't going to be able to be able to run. I think he probably should have stuck with it a little more, try to get Chandler out on the edge where he's good. But then they committed a penalty when he had a good run out on the edge. So it was it was a mess back there. Flick says it was such a fast swing in the NFL to from running backs don't matter to we need to trade for a running back at the deadline? The thing about that, Manny, is that sometimes this happens in pop culture or politics and a lot in sports where there's a cute little phrase that just takes the nuance out of everything. And what it was supposed

to mean gets completely lost. And if I gave examples, then the comments would just be a disaster. So I'm not even going to really go there, but when it comes to running backs, don't matter the running backs position and how that player performs matters. But there are real things like offensive lines and blocking and scheme impact the running back success. And also there is a salary cap that if you pay a running back who is 29 years old on a multi-year contract, you're kind of taking your life in your hands unless it's certain guys. And Derrick Henry is clearly one of those certain guys. And Aaron Jones is clearly one of those certain guys. But even then you look at their contracts and go,

they didn't get paid that much because it still comes along with the risk. That age curve is real. And also there's always guys that are coming into the league that are having success at the running back position. But the value of how that player performs in a given year is incredibly important to your team and your success on offense and we saw that from Jones we saw that when Delvin Cook started to fall over

or fall off the table so I think that we've gone too far with that whole running backs don't matter thing because that performance is worth a lot of points at the end of the day yeah i think and i think a lot of times shelf life matters too when you're talking about these type of things because you you obviously can't you can't treat a running back and sign a running back to the same kind of contract that you sign a quarterback to because the shelf life of the two positions is just drastically different so it's like if you have a running back and he's really good and he's an integral part of what you do on offense like an aaron jones for example with the vikings yeah it's good to have that guy it doesn't mean that aaron jones doesn't matter because running backs have a short shelf life. It just means that

you have to have conversations about, okay, how old is this guy? What's the production been like in recent years? You know, what sort of contract can we give him and still get the most value out of that player before he falls off? Because it's, it's really hard to tell and really hard to predict when some of these guys are going to start to decline. And really, if you look back at history, it's only like the all-time great historical running backs that are super productive when they get to their late 20s

and into their 30s. You mentioned Derrick Henry. We saw Adrian Peterson win a rushing title at 30 years old, running for almost 1,500 yards. But those guys are going to be wearing gold jackets. You know what I mean? Derrick Henry's probably going to go to the Hall of Fame. That's how great he's been as a running back.

Not every guy is like that. And I think, to your point, I think it just calls for a nuanced conversation. It can't just be, it's not a one size fit all. Everything is very circumstantial. Depends on the player. It depends on the team. It depends on the contract. It depends on the money, all of that stuff, the age, all of that stuff has to be taken into account. And you can't just say, well, they gave Derek, you know, Derek Henry ran for 2000 yards and they, and the,

the Titans paid him that, well, another guy ran for 2000 yards. So we got to give him this same, the same kind of contract. Well, that guy's 30 years old. You don't want to give him the same kind of money that the Titans gave Derek Henry. You know, it's, it just calls for a lot of nuance. No, absolutely. And I think that the, uh, the thing that the nerds really missed when it came to that is they might look at Saquon Barkley and say, well, Saquon Barkley only averages 4.4 yards per carry, but you may forget that each situation has context. And also guys like Aaron Jones can play such a huge role in the passing game that even the screen pass game, how good he is at sifting through all the things that are out there. The guy has x-ray vision to be able to see all the holes that are

there and be patient. He has great hands where you can run them across the field. And even though his touchdown catch goes for 10 yards in the box score, it's a great route. It's a great catch. It's a great score. And if you could do that with a running back and actually make the other team care about it, there's a ton of value there. So could do that with a running back and actually make the other team care about it, there's a ton of value there. So I think that he was one of the most important signings that they had, by the way. So previously consistent watchers slash listeners to the show really memorized some of our sponsors messages.

And I appreciated that. But we have a new message from our friends at us cellular. First, let me silence my phone real quick. So I can tell you about us days at us cellular. It's back again, exclusive offers just for customers, just to say, thanks right now, you can get $1,200 off any phone plus $400 off any tablet. Amazing, right? But my family is so excited about their new devices. They keep texting me during the show. They're all about us days deals like $1,200 off any phone plus $400 off any tablet.

Terms apply. Visit uscellular.com for details. And we appreciate them supporting our here program. Jeremiah says, what's up with dallas turner you know i think that dallas turner had a couple plays that stuck out to me uh yesterday a couple reps but the way that patrick jones is playing the way that jihad ward is playing i i think you gotta keep putting them out there you can't really make changes to start developing a rookie on the fly. I don't have any issue with what I saw from Turner in training camp. And even with his snap count and he's getting out there,

it's not like he's just riding the pine the entire time. Haven't heard any issues as far as his attitude or whatever else. When Jonathan Grenard is putting up seven pressures, Andrew Van Ginkle is picking off passes and running for touchdown. Jahad Ward is rushing up the middle and blocking an Aaron Rodgers pass. Who are you supposed to bench? I mean, it's like good problems to have

that he can slowly develop and that they don't have to just ride him and hope that a rookie produces for them. This is what I talked about before the season started, right? That with the depth that they have at edge, this is a perfect scenario for Dallas Turner to just kind of, you can just slow cook this thing.

There's not a lot of pressure on him to go out and get double-digit sacks as a rookie. I mean, if he were to do that, awesome, great. But they're getting so much production from the other guys right now that it's okay that we're not seeing a lot from Dallas Turner when he's been out there, he's done a little bit. It's a good sign. I think he's going to be fine. I think he's going to be a really good player eventually,

but the fact that they don't really need him to be super productive right now is a good thing because I think it just shows the depth that they have at edge. And I just, I mean, Andrew Van Ginkle, man, this guy is like seriously defensive player of the year conversation for this guy. He's been so good and not just getting pressure on the quarterback, but just making plays, being disruptive, making things happen. As long as he's doing that then i think it's okay that that

dallas turner is is doing what he's doing right now it's fine it's funny because with van ginkle you want to say man this is one of the best free agent signings they've ever had and they're like and so's the other guy and so's the other guy and so is aaron Jones. And so is Blake Cashman. I mean, what an unreal off season that they had to get Van Ginkle. And it was, I think it was like two years, 22 million or something. The most underrated player. It is almost impossible to be underrated in the NFL today with so many

people watching all the time and analyzing and breaking down film. Van Ginkle was one of those guys in Miami. And that was where where by the way you know we use a lot of the data on the show i remember talking about it when he was signed and saying guys this guy's numbers are ridiculous his grades where he lined up uh the the mix between coverage and pressure and all that stuff and uh you've seen every bit of it i didn't know that he was going to score touchdowns i i know you liked my tweet when I said, all Andrew Van Ginkle does is score touchdowns.

Tang says, I swear since Jarius Wright and Adam Thielen left KOC, quit using slants. He didn't coach Jarius Wright, but yes, the slant, there's no slants. You know what I think that is though, Manny? I do think O'Connell is trying to work to Sam Darnold's strengths and I don't think slants were one of them. He threw a couple of picks early in camp with slants.

Just didn't seem like the real timing was good for him. So I think that might be part of it. David asks, JJ McCarthy mentioned the first six weeks of his rehab were most important. Any updates on how he's doing? We have not spoken to him, but I think as far as how it's going, I haven't gotten any indication that there's problems.

I KOC talked about it when he could be on the sideline and said he should be ditching the little motorized cart that he's been a run around TCO performance center. It's sort of funny to be in the locker room and then he seemingly whiz by. And what was that? But yeah, I you see him like whiz by and whoa, what was that? But yeah, I did see him on crutches the other day,

just walking on crutches. I think it's important just for him as far as not doing anything, watching Netflix, grinding tape, just hanging out. Like don't do put any stress on that and it needs to heal. And then he'll go from there, but we'll see if there's any other updates other than that.

Getting him on the sideline should happen at some point fairly soon, but I don't really care about that. It's okay. If he watches it from the press box, you get to see what it looks like from upstairs. Kevin says, how does this team not make a big trade while the defense is on fire? Nobody expected this level.

Imagine Stafford on the team but they didn't can't disrupt um chemistry benching darnold uh i don't understand the last part of that exactly but um if you think about the 2021 rams manny how they sensed their chance and they went and got jaylen ramsey and they went and got uh vaughn Miller. They may have got Ramsey the year before potentially, but maybe 2020, maybe. Yeah. Okay. So, but they had him and then they went and got Von Miller and they sort of sensed the moment. I think that's where they are with this. I think it is since the moment you could potentially compete for a Super Bowl here, you got to take your big swing.

I'm going to sit on that for three weeks as we lead up to the deadline. Take your swing. Go get this year's TJ Hawkinson. But this team, I think, would blow the doors off the 2022 Vikings as far as how strong they've been so far. Particularly on defense. Oh, my God. It's not even the same

stratosphere defensively i mean just scheme coaching players personnel all of that stuff is just a complete 180 um yeah i mean i i think that this is we we talk about you know how the vikings have kind of laid out this plan with moving on from Cousins, drafting the young quarterback, having some money to spend in free agency. I think all of that is sound, and they've done a really good job of that. But 2025, 2026, 2027, it's cool to kind of be excited about that and the potential for having all the cap space even more cap space next year to spend but sometimes you just never know man you never know when your window of opportunity is there and this the way this is playing out with this five and oh start they have to really be strongly considering just making a big splash move

to help bolster what already looks like a really good roster. It could be trading for another running back like we talked about earlier. It could be trading for another, you know, another corner. I don't think another corner could hurt this team. I mean, because you just never know if Shaq Griffin and Gilmore are going to hold up with giving Gilmore's age and everything. They've both been really good, but one of those guys gets hurt, it changes everything for your defense. So these are all things I think that have to be on the table. And I think that they should be pretty aggressive going into the deadline to try and

bolster this roster because you just never know even if this season ends and you move on to jj mccarthy next year there's no guarantee that you're going to get this sort of sort of a team it's a you know this league changes from year to year and you just never know so they've got to go into the deadline i think really being serious about making a potential huge move first and a third for jc horn because i was looking at carolina's roster going of whom and that's how i came up with myles sanders like who can they pick off of this team because that one's going to be trading at the deadline obviously i think there's enough other teams that are kind of like give us a few

more weeks then we can really put together a strong list of candidates, but Carolina is going to be in cell mode. You could also extend JC horn. He's young. Keep him on the team. Go from there. That's my idea. Oh, and by the way,

I processed what you were talking about with Stafford a second later. Would you trade for Matthew Stafford? If you could. Yes. I think it's yes. I think it's yes. I think it's yes. Wonderful job, Darnold.

Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, Sam's on a one-year deal, so it's, you know, I think if the Rams are willing to part ways with Matthew Stafford, he knows the scheme. KOC knows him really well. I would think it would be an easy transition. I think you'd have to really, really, really consider doing that if he's on the block.

I don't know that they would do it, but yes. Yes, I would. I mean, Darnold has actually done what kind of what Case Keenum did, which was have a few amazing games, a couple of games where you're like, well, I don't know. Uh, and I think that he will be good the rest of the way I do. I don't think that, uh, what happened yesterday terrifies me, but if you're giving me the choice between a guy who has been really up and down throughout his career versus a super bowl champion in the same offense with these receivers versus what he's been dealing with i would i would probably do that well we might have to save that one for uh before they play the rams like should stafford come home with

them because i think that's right before the deadline should stafford just get on the play like hey nobody hit stafford tonight he's coming back with us. A couple more with you here, Manny, and then I'll ride till about nine o'clock myself. Steven says, what changes do you want to see after the self scout this week? I mean, one is I'd like to see a different right guard. That's obvious. I just, I want them to have a better distribution of the football between Jefferson Naylor and Addison I think we haven't seen much of all three of them Naylor came up with a few big catches against Green Bay so did Addison but then they kind of disappeared for an entire quarter I think they need to look at their third quarters and go, what's going on here? Because in, I mean,

even in San Francisco, I'm trying to remember this one, but it didn't feel like the third quarter was the runaway, even though they got up that you wanted to see. So now they've had this happen numerous times. What is it about coming out for the second half that other teams are doing? So it's more than just the play calling or, you know, things like that. I think I'd like to see just how are you going to spread the football around? Because yesterday it was just a lot of Jefferson, Jefferson, Jefferson. I wanted to see Jalen Naylor mixed in or even Trent Shurfield or Brandon Powell on a play. They get it to Johnny Munt toward the end of the game. But I am curious also how they

self-scout as far as how they're going to alter the tight end position with TJ Hawkinson coming back. Phil says, KOC saying the Darnold was going downfield because of short passes were covered up. Have you seen the all 22? Was that true? The answer is yes and no. I mean, there were opportunities for staff um stafford yes the vikings quarterback matt stafford to come no uh sam darnold there were opportunities for sam darnold to throw underneath that he didn't see or didn't go for as he was taking shots downfield i think some of the shots were there when he threw them and he just didn't make a good throw. Cause he was clearly off his game. But all I, all I was asking for Manny is just re reel it in.

When you sense that it needs to be reeled in, like when Josh Dobbs throws four picks, maybe stop throwing it down the field with him. And when Sam Darnold is not very comfortable with some of those throws and maybe struggling to breathe out there after getting smacked, rain it in a bit, find a way when you talk about, Oh,

they're covered up. If three of the most unstoppable receivers in the league, I mean, I don't know that they could have covered all of them all at once. That was, that was my critique of yesterday and the kind of obsession with downfield passing. Yeah. critique of yesterday and the kind of obsession with downfield passing yeah and and i think that kind of falls into the part of kevin o'connell of just like sort of reading reading the vibe

from his players really having an understanding of like okay sam darnold's really struggling with like all of this down the field stuff let's's pull him aside. When this possession is over, let's pull him aside and say, okay, Sam, listen, let's reel it back a little bit. Let's keep things simple. We've got a lead. Let's just worry about protecting this lead right now and making smart plays. We don't have to hit a home run on every single second and nine

after Ty Chandler gets stuffed for a yard. You know what I mean? Let's just keep it simple and, you know, maintain possession and maintain control of this football game. And then I think you can, because Sam Donald to me strikes me as a guy that like, I think he's very coachable. And I think you can just pull him aside and say,

all right, Sam, relax. Let's just just let's do this this and this and we're going to be fine you know you just sort of instill that sort of that calm down confidence into him then I think that would change like I think if he would have done that yesterday I think it probably would have I think we would have saw Sam play a little bit better in the second half I think that's just it just kind of feels like KOC gets really wound up himself because he loves the downfield stuff, and he's just like, just throw it out there, man.

Let's just go. Let's just go. Be aggressive. Let's continue to be aggressive. And I think maybe that's where the bye week is maybe coming at a really good time. So now they can sort of look at the first five games, look at everything that went well, look at some of the things that went wrong,

figure out why those things went wrong the way they did. And then I think they'll come out of the bye much better prepared. But yeah, I mean, I was watching that third quarter and just like, it was like four possessions in a row where it was like handoff to Chandler handoff to gaskin one yard gain two yard gain and then it was like play action and sam just chucking it 50 yards down

the field it's like come on what are we doing here like just just relax you're up by 17 just chill and i think with koc what he's probably looking at and you know they get the little pictures and stuff he's probably looking at well the they get the little pictures and stuff, he's probably looking at, well, the guys were open, so you've got to keep running it because eventually it'll hit. And it did to move the sticks at the very end of the game. But also, if your quarterback's not hitting it, it doesn't really matter how open it is if he's not hitting some of the higher degree of difficulty type of throws.

And I think there was a lot of things that ultimately went into that um disc golf says the jets deserve credit 100 a ton of ton of respect for robert sala dj reed was great quinn and williams was great um their defense is fantastic cornerbacks incredible the jets they were they're really good man they're really good the jets problem is not their defense. It's their 40-year-old quarterback and their offensive line and their 40-year-old quarterback. That's really what it is. Laura says, if Flores leaves next year, who could replace him? And would the Vikings be able to keep the same scheme?

Durante Jones would be a candidate for that. But also, I got tell you this is this is not a week-to-week show I'm having my brain just is not working on a what's gonna happen in 2025 for the first time and I and my brain likes that you know I really like only talking about hey the Detroit Lions are coming up after this buy. How, how are they going to beat them? How many wins are they going to have? Let's look at these opponents really close because it matters and not as much looking at what's going to happen in 2025. What's going to happen in the off season? Who are they going to sign? Who are they going to draft? I have done

that for so many years, Manny since 2019, every year by this time of the year, outside of 2022, I've pretty much been saying, well, what's going to happen in the future? Let's let's live for today. But the answer is probably Durante Jones. So I will, I will answer your question, but I will have more trouble than previously. Blanto says 12 and five seems like what it'll end up being. I have a tough time finding five losses. Yeah, that is the thing, Manny, is that you had to stretch.

That's how crazy this is. You had to stretch to get to those five losses. I mean, I don't, even now, like I picked them to lose to Tennessee. Okay, I don't really think that they're going to go into Tennessee and lose. It's just one of those games where, all right, well, it's, you know, a month and a half away and a lot can happen between now and then. And, you know, you knock on wood and you just hope that everybody stays healthy. And if they are, then, yeah, if the Vikings are, what would they be?

Eight and two or they'd be ten. No, they'd be nine games into the season going into that game if they're seven and two or eight and one yeah i would like their chances to go into tennessee and win but it's one of those things where you just this this league changes so much on a week-to-week basis where you know you just never know what can happen. And that's still six, seven weeks or just, yeah, six weeks away between now and the Tennessee game. And so a lot can happen between now and then. And you just have to kind of let it play out and see what happens.

Manny, before you go, you know how much I like to share feelings. I want you to share your feelings about the five and Oh, Minnesota Vikings. Are you anxious about it to see what happens? Are you nervous? Are you excited? Are you confident? Are you what? Yes.

All of the fields, man, all of the fields. I, I, I just love this. This is about as, and of course we all have like nitpicky things to talk about. We just talked about kind of the play calling and all of that stuff. And, you know, I've been a little bit concerned about what we've seen on special teams has has me kind of a little bit concerned

but like dude they're five and oh none of us have them sitting at five and oh and i don't think it's fake i just don't think it's 2022 was so frustrating because they would win a game and give up 400 yards and need a field goal at the end or something crazy to happen. And I would do the post game and just be like, I don't know, guys, that wasn't actually very good. This is the first time this Jets game where it wasn't actually that good, but the defense was so good that it's not like they didn't earn it. It's not like they didn't outplay the Jets every single game. They have outplayed the other team. And that's not something you run into very often in the NFL, no matter how good you are. Superbowl teams don't go five

straight weeks in the league where they outplay every single team teams that are going to be in the playoff races, teams that had Superbowl aspirations going into the season. And they've outplayed all of them. That's it. It feels the most legit that it has felt since i'll give you the week 2017 when they beat atlanta after beating the rams is the last time that i said i think what's happening here is real so that's it's it's been a while it's been a while for everybody so uh mr hill tremendous tremendous job picking the schedule. You did everything. You were reasonable. You made people unhappy. There was excitement. There was drama. It was wonderful. And guess what? We'll do it again after the bye week next Monday. But we're also

probably going to talk Thursday again. Scheduling is always a little weird this time of year, but thanks for your time as always and uh we will talk soon sir all right appreciate it football see you guys later all right