Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Picking the rest of the Vikings schedule, post Rams loss edition

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

Matthew Coller and Manny Hill pick the Vikings schedule and talk about Dallas Turner's lack of snaps Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here back home in Minnesota. Kind of just got off the flight here, so the head is swimming a little bit from the last few days of talking about the Minnesota Vikings and the travel and two games in four days and everything that happened yesterday, which was just a wild and crazy day in the NFL. And so now we're here. We can take a deep breath.

We're back to normal, back to practice this week and then a game on Sunday. It feels like the last few weeks have just been, you know, off to London. And then the Thursday night game, the bi-week that we just have not really had much in terms of normal scheduling. So here we are. And I've got a few questions for you guys and throw your questions in the chat.

As always for myself, Manny Hill is going to join very soon. His schedule bumped him back just a couple of minutes here to pick the schedule. But don't worry, we would not let you go a Monday without Manny Hill going through the Minnesota Vikings schedule and picking it game by game. And it's been so fun to track this year Manny's reactions

to the games along with you guys and where we are setting the bar for this team because at the beginning of the year it took a little bit of effort when we would pick the schedule to find nine wins I remember the first time that I picked it when the schedule came out and I said oh gosh I think they have to maybe beat Green Bay twice to get to nine. And then Manny has gotten as high as 13 wins this year for his expectation. But I have a feeling that might come down just a little bit after the last two weeks. So I want to know from you guys, how much have your expectations for the Vikings changed here in just, I mean, what, eight days? How much has it changed?

And also, I would love to know how much your thought process about what the Vikings should do at the deadline has changed because mine has adjusted a little bit. I have not massively changed my opinion on what they should do at the trade deadline. I think a couple of weeks ago when they got to 5-0, I was saying, look, you just don't get too many of these seasons. The NFC is not all that strong.

Push the chips to the middle of the table. And if you have to, if you have to use the first round pick, then do it. Get the best player you can and go for it. But over the last two weeks, now, when you look forward at the schedule, it does maybe hamper that a little bit, the go for it attitude. But I always thought if they were going to go for it, that they would be looking for the type of player that they could try to either give a contract extension to, or that was already under contract for multiple years. And I saw Alec Lewis put out a bunch of names. Nate Hobbs was one that he threw out on his list. He was looking more closely at guys who were upcoming free agents that

the Vikings could try to extend after they got in the building. That's a little more risky though, because if you spend assets and then get somebody in the building and they don't want to resign with you, then you have spent something for nothing if it doesn't help you get deeper in the playoffs. So there might have to be some sort of understanding that this is the type of player that you might be able to keep over multiple years, or it's just got to be some sort of understanding that this is the type of player that you might be able to keep over multiple years or it's just got to be a player that you're not giving up that much for now there was a promising trade as it pertains to not giving up much for a good player which was uh josh ushe who plays for the New England Patriots.

And he has been sometimes effective for them, not always effective for them. And the Kansas City Chiefs traded for him. I believe the return was, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong, either a fifth or a sixth round conditional draft pick for 2026. And that's a guy who's going to be able to help the Kansas City Chiefs for almost nothing. The Vikings had the conditional swap to get Cam Akers. The prices don't seem to be crazy high. I thought that Amari Cooper was going to take a second round pick or a first round pick to get to Buffalo. I think it was a third as teams become more into, Hey, we got to sell off for whatever.

I think that the prices go down because teams are no longer saying, Hey, look, we'll just hang on to our guy. They're going, all right, just take anything for him. He's not coming back. And if that is the case, then around the league, upcoming free agents, even Cam Robinson, who's a left tackle for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Brandon Sheriff is also on that offensive line that the Vikings could take a look at as the right guard. I've always been into that idea. I know that doesn't solve the left tackle problem, but I saw Will Raggetts bring up Cam Robinson. It's an interesting idea.

If teams are saying we're not resigning these guys, whoever gives us the best offer, it reminds me of when I moved to Minnesota and I had a yard sale and I was selling things for one 20th of the price that they were bought for. I remember I had a PS three, which kind of, I guess shows how long ago now it was that I moved from Minnesota or from Buffalo to Minnesota. But I had a PS three that was worth, I'm sure when I bought it 200 bucks or something, and I sold it to my neighbor for $15. That's what teams are doing right now. When you see a player that has talent like Amari Cooper or Usha and they are being sold off at such low prices, that might be the case for some of these teams that are going to be big sellers that the Vikings could add. And I think as far as doing that with your

fifth round picks, Jason tells me it's a 20, 26, sixth rounder for a guy who can play. He's not a superstar, but he can play if that's what it's going to cause for the Vikings to add maybe a cornerback that they can actually trust. They have not played anybody else at the cornerback position, literally anyone else except for Shaq Griffin, Stephon Gilmore, and Byron Murphy Jr. I believe Caleb Evans has three snaps this year and Fabian Morrow might have one. Theo Jackson has 20 and he's a defensive back, not a corner, but he can play a little nickel. If you ask him to, he only has 20 snaps this year. Brian Flores has not found too many guys that he has trusted to put in the game as rotational players in the secondary.

That's important right there. As far as looking over the possibilities for defensive tackle, someone brought up DJ Jones from Denver a couple of weeks ago, but now Denver is in the playoff race. I don't see them being potentially trade partners for the Vikings. There are only a limited number of teams that are in complete sell mode, which may increase some prices for some players. But if you're giving out a guy who has played a lot of snaps and had a decent number of pressures for a sixth round draft pick in 2026, then the Vikings the door now as a rental to fill out the roster in a position of need. I don't think that there's any problem with that. And that's a good way to use late round capital, especially since the Vikings have been so successful at getting

undrafted free agents where they do have some guys for the future that they're developing. We haven't heard about Gabriel Murphy's injury and what that might be, but Dwight McClothern is a guy who we liked during training camp and is probably in line for next year. Makai Blackman, a draft pick that will come back and be a guy for next year. See if there's someone out there that you might rent to potentially buy. If you like the way that he fits in the secondary, that would be part of the plan. It's hard to find rotational interior pass rushers, but if there's an option there, I've looked kind of up and down and it's really been the big fish or not a lot you can do

there. But there are rentals to be had for the Minnesota Vikings. Left tackles and other ones hard to find. But Cam Robinson, if he's that guy, then that's a good idea. I've never thought he was that good of a player, but he's experienced at left tackle. Maybe they would like that idea better than bumping out Blake Brandel to left tackle. And they do have experience with trading offensive linemen to the Jacksonville Jaguars because they gave up ezra cleveland who's actually been kind of good there um so i'm curious what you guys think has your mindset changed about your overall expectation has it changed about your

trade deadline expectation is now we suddenly live in an nfl world over the last couple of years that has become a lot more trade crazy and teams that are going to the bottom. They are saying, take, take what we got. Our PS threes are available. Our old guitar amps are available. Come buy them. Some, I remember a lady, we had some shoes that were relatively new, weren't worn very much.

And a woman wanted to negotiate to talk us down from $6 to $3. That's kind of what's going on in the NFL right now. The prices are cheap and teams are trying to talk other teams down. But when you look around the league on the other side, how many teams should be buying? The answer is quite a bit. So I'm curious how this ends up playing out. I tend to think that since you have to get rid of everything, it's all right, who's sell or rent a player fits best for whichever team. But there are a lot of teams that

now live in the same spot as the Minnesota Vikings sitting at five and two that you would put in the same tier. If we were doing the elite tier of the league, it might only be three teams. I think Buffalo has put themselves back up there, but maybe it's only two, maybe it's only Kansas city and Detroit. And then there's this next bunch of teams down where Baltimore just had a bad loss. The Vikings just had a bad loss. The Eagles are on the rise. San Francisco is still hanging around. They're kind of cagey. You got the commanders getting their win. The Packers belong in that. And who's ahead of who you could make an argument for a lot of those different teams. Houston has been kind of underwhelming at times, but there's

still a very good team. All these teams should be looking around for potential trades. Houston, if Stefan Diggs is out after suffering a knee injury, could be in the Vikings mind. Maybe it is because that usually involves someone that they could get for multiple years, or if they're now thinking, Hey, let's just try to rent and get a few guys that can fill out the roster. So I'm curious about your opinions on that. Skoll Viking says, do something at the trade deadline to get better now. But the something is really the question the something is the question is it go out and get two players with fifth round or fourth round pick for next year fifth round pick from this year both fifths from this year two players or somebody in the secondary somebody at left tackle if you can uh maybe even i don don't know, I think they're okay at running back now with Cam Akers,

but they haven't used them yet. Another defensive lineman interior would be good. Maybe, I don't know, somebody else in the secondary really comes to mind, especially a cornerback. So there's kind of two or three very clear positions that they could go after. Do you do that with the fifth round picks or are you making all the phone calls to any potential star player who could be available to bring in the, the Jeffrey Simmons? I don't think that the giants are trading Dexter

Lawrence. He's like the best player at his position in the whole league, but Tennessee, what's Jeffrey Simmons doing there I mean what what's he doing for that team that is just at a complete mess right now I don't know maybe they would change their mind on him and anytime there's a report that a team isn't considering trading someone you always think well that sounds like they are Skoll Vikings adds the Vikings will be fine Cashman, Hawkinson, and reisner coming to help not to mention more targets for free three yeah so uh today jordan addison i uh was not able to get back in time enough to be at the locker room i'll be out at tco performance center tomorrow and then

the usual schedule but jordan addison did talk to the media and did not dispel the notion that he was frustrated. And that's why he posted something on Instagram. So there was a lot of people, as I was talking about it the other day, that said, well, this is his thing, free three, and totally understand that. But also when you put it out there the way that he did, it looks a certain way. And his response today, essentially, I read Andrew Kramer's tweet. I'm sure other people put it out there the way that he did, it looks a certain way. And his response today, essentially, I read Andrew Kramer's tweet. I'm sure other people put it out there too. His response essentially today was, well, I'm getting open, so I'm doing my job and I'm going

to keep doing that. And he did not say, I'm sorry, everyone took my thing wrong on Instagram. That's my brand. That's whatever. I don't know. Read into it. However, you feel like reading into it. I think that we can pretty easily put two and two together of the timing of that, the recent amount of targets, the two back-to-back losses. It's about the perfect time for a wide receiver to go to social media and start calling people out because they just tend to do that these days. But is there something bigger in the mix as far as trade goes? I don't know if you would consider something with Addison or not, because if you're another team, you are maybe not making the highest

offer for him based on what has happened off the field. And you know that you're buying a player well under contract that will be missing more than likely multiple games for next year. I would like to see them, especially on first down, lean heavier into their other weapons, Hawkinson, Jordan Addison, and set up Justin Jefferson for big plays. I think that Addison, like his predecessor, Stefan Diggs, who was one heck of a social media poster, is right that he can do a lot more for them. But when you don't throw the ball a lot, especially on first down, Kevin O'Connell has become,

and I know that some of this is score affected, but has really become a run on first down play caller. I even ran this through a pro football reference and checked when the score was close. So when it was within one score, they've still run the ball twice as much as they have passed on first down, even when the scores have been close. And I think that might need to change a little bit. I know everybody has complained about O'Connell not running the ball enough. And so I'm not saying he's run it too much with Aaron Jones and they're much closer to 50 50 now with run pass ratio. But Sam Darnold has been really, really successful on first down. And you have some guys that can move the chains

right away on first down by getting the ball into their hands. Addison is one of them. If they're not going to consider any type of big blockbuster shocking, they trade their former first round wide receiver type of deal. Then they really have to figure out a way to have him more involved in the passing game because he should be getting seven to 10 targets per game. But the thing is, Justin Jefferson should be getting 10 to 15 and TJ Hawkinson should be

getting seven to 10 as well. And they're only completing 18 passes a game right now. That number has to rise in order to get everybody their targets and receptions and you know they're also going to throw to Jones out of the backfield Jalen Naylor cannot be left out of this party this might be a lean more into the past as we go forward you also can't have Aaron Jones on pace currently for over 300 touches and he has never had 300 touches before in his career. So I think that Addison probably should have just said, look, I just posted to the social media, my brand. I didn't mean for people to take it that way.

I'm all in. He didn't say that. And so here we are with that type of situation, I guess, on our hands. And it's something to monitor. I'm not saying freak out or anything like that about him doing that. It's a pretty small thing by Gen Z standard. But I also think not the time, dude, not the time. All right.

It is the time to welcome Manny Hill. And Manny, I have been very excited about this. It is time our Monday night pick the schedule show with Manny Hill, and we will get back to your questions, comments, thoughts, and feelings after we look at the rest of the Vikings schedule and figure out how many games Manny believes they're going to win. Manny, last week after they lost to the Lions, I believe you only dropped your win total by one.

You went from 13 to 12. And I am really curious to find out. But before we get into this, I want to know your mindset. Like, how are you emotionally dealing with this? Because I can tell you a lot of Vikings fans were not dealing with it very well over the last few days of the fact that they lost those two games. Yeah. I mean, I think Thursday's game was certainly disappointing. And for a lot of reasons, I think, you know, it felt like the offense left some, left some food on the table, so to speak. Um, and obviously the,

the defense just really had a terrible night all around, really from start to finish. But, you know, I think, well, and obviously losing Derriss off of the season is a big blow to the offense. But, you know, I kind of feel like they might be able to kind of piece something together there. I mean, obviously you want one of the best left tackles in football to be healthy.

But I think they'll find a way to maybe kind of navigate around that something together there. I mean, obviously you want one of the best left tackles in football to be healthy, but I think they'll find a way to maybe kind of navigate around that and at least kind of survive that loss, at least through the regular season. What happens in the playoffs when you get an unfavorable matchup that could maybe change things. But overall, I'm OK with where they're at. I mean, if again, it's kind of the cliche. If you would have asked me or if you would have told me the Vikings were going to be 5-2 after seven games

before that first game against the Giants, I'd be like, okay. I probably would have guessed the two losses were against, like, San Francisco and maybe at Green Bay or something like that. But no, I mean, the last two games have been a little bit tough to watch especially on the defensive side but i think overall they're still in a pretty good spot especially with the schedule coming out we're gonna pick the schedule here in just a moment but um i think i think they're okay and um i think they should be fine especially over these next couple of games i just want to

say before we start that it's okay to talk out of both sides of your mouth with this team it's okay to say five and two is a good record and it's better than we thought it was going to be it's higher than the expectations for this team not just that we set but also the outside markets set they've overachieved still at five and two, but then also go and say, yeah, the offense needs to be on the field more and the defense is getting worn down. Brian Flores mix in a Fabian Morrow or an Caleb Evans every once in a

while, because Stefan Gilmore is playing two games in four days at the age of 35. And Hey, the middle of the field is, Oh, Matthew Stafford just completed three more passes there to the middle of the field while we werethew stafford just completed three more passes there to the middle of the field while we were talking so i think it's it is okay to critique what happened

these last two weeks and also say that they are in the thick of the race this is where you wanted to be the quarterback is playing really, really well overall, especially versus expectations. And so you shouldn't be heaving yourself into one of Minnesota's many lakes out of pure rage that they lost two games by a total of 12 points. But you can also say, you know, they're going to face some competent teams and some decent quarterbacks down the road. And if they don't fix this stuff, they will collapse. If they play they play like that they will fall apart but it's not like they got beat by 34 they got beat by really eight face mask uh if that is not called they were beat by eight and then by two by the detroit lions so it's not like they suddenly forgot how to play football.

Anyway, well, let's get into this. The masses have waited. They are now five and two, Manny. And on Sunday night football, you have to figure that NBC is seething that the Vikings lost twice since they flexed this game. Or maybe what day did they flex the game? They flexed the game on. So it was last week. So were they five and oh, still when did they flex the game they flex the game on so it was last week so were they five and oh still when they flex the game or did they i think they were yeah because

it was before i think it was before the lions game right okay okay then that's fun then that's funny right i mean they're thinking like oh this everyone's talking about this vikings team and sam darnold we got to get a whole crew out there. Let's shift the entire NBC schedule. And then they lose two games. And also Anthony Richardson is a struggle right now at the moment. So do the Vikings on national television, are they Anthony Richardson's breakout game, or do they make everyone think that Richardson is going to be a bust?

Do they win this game against the Colts? Well, Shane Steichen said that when they asked him about Anthony Richardson after the game yesterday, he basically said, we're evaluating everything, right? He gave the cliche sort of, we're looking at everything. We're evaluating every position. I mean, they invested so much in Anthony Richardson. They invested a high draft pick in him.

So I have to imagine they're going to continue to try and invest in his development, even though things look really terrible right now. I mean, if Vikings fans are thinking about panicking after Thursday, I mean, put yourself in the shoes of a Colts fan right now that the first round draft pick that this team invested in last year looks terrible and hasn't shown any signs of improvement at all. So it seems like maybe they're going to stick with him for this week. If they do, I think this is an opportunity for Brian Flores to have a field day. And they should have a field day. I'm going to pick the Vikings to win this game. And I don't really think it'll be particularly close either. It feels like Anthony Richardson, three turnovers in this game.

He didn't see a guy throwing out of his own zone. Didn't see a guy just standing there and threw the ball right to him for an interception. The other day, usually Brian Flores, his defense have to work for the deception but anthony richardson kind of does it to himself right now and as a side note on richardson the man just hasn't played any football and we knew that he was going to have to improve but the josh allen comps don't work because allen came in and played what 16 games or something his first year? Or 14 games his first year? And then he wasn't even good until year three, but he was playing every single week.

Richardson is not even in shape enough to keep playing for full drives where he has to check himself out of the ballgame. I have never seen that in my life from a quarterback. Just call a run play or something. Anyway, that was bizarre. It's not going well there. never seen that in my life from a quarterback just call a run play or something i don't anyway that was bizarre uh it's not going well there i uh i'm with you that the vikings win this one and go to six and two then they head down south to jacksonville i'm excited about this one uh or at least i especially was at the beginning of the season when i thought this would be a good game now i'm just thinking about the weather being potentially nice in Jacksonville

and seeing what percentage of the crowd is going to take over that Jacksonville stadium. Cause I think a lot of people are planning vacations on this one. Do the Vikings beat the sputtering Jags? I think the last time they were in Jacksonville was, was that 20? Don't say it. I know when it was, don't say it. Oh was it was 2016 it was 2016 yeah and after the win we thought well this is going to put them in the playoffs now because all they needed to do was beat the indianapolis colts

funny that these teams are involved again with the parallels. They just needed to beat a super struggling Indianapolis Colts team. They were getting Adrian Peterson back. Okay, win this game. You'll still make the putt. And that didn't happen. But they did beat the Jaguars with Mike Zimmer. I patched up for that game. So what do you think?

That was a bad day at US bank stadium that goals game um i i think the jaguars are just not you know and they they hung with green bay yesterday i mean you know they they made it a game made it interesting there at the end um but i just don't they still don't really look like a team that can get out of its own way right now. They're still making some mistakes in that game yesterday. And the Packers were able to take advantage of that. And I think the Vikings will do the same. I think the Jaguars are kind of an unserious team with an unserious head coach that just doesn't seem like a well-oiled operation right now.

I think the Vikings will go in there and take care of business and get another win. Okay, 7-2, well, from an unserious organization to a very serious Tennessee Titans squad who cannot cover punts or kicks or stop the run. And I'm not kidding, Manny. If I played quarterback for the lions on Sunday, we win.

The lions would win. They needed so little to beat the Titans that any person could have played quarterback. As long as you could take the snap and hand it to Jameer Gibbs, uh, do the Vikings though, go to Tennessee and beat the Titans? I think this is the worst team in football right now.

Carolina, Titans, probably. Carolina, yeah, I think it's down to those two. New England is pretty bad, too, but it seems like New England's at least kind of playing hard for Deron Mayo. But Tennessee is just just they're not good um I mean maybe they thought Mason Rudolph was gonna spark that offense or something kind of kind of seeing the same thing same results uh the Vikings go in there it I could kind of see this being a little maybe the Vikings getting off to a slow start because they're not quite taking Tennessee as seriously as they need to out of the gate but I think eventually they'll

break out and and win this thing running away okay so you have them getting on a roll here steamrolling these next three teams then we're talking about an eight and two football team which would be one of the better starts in vikings history despite how everybody felt after they lost to the rams i have a very important question as we go down the stretch here with these picks though manny does the rams game count as the letdown game do you are you now required to pick a one or was that it It's a great question. I'm going to say no, it's not a letdown game. Okay.

Because I think getting those two receivers back for the Rams, I think changed a lot for me. I mean, it sounded like Cooper Cup. I mean, we knew Cooper Cup was probably going to be back, but Puka Nakua coming back was kind of a surprise. I didn't think that was going to happen. And when I found out that he was going to play, I was like, oh, okay, this might actually get pretty interesting. This might be a tougher game.

And it ended up being a huge difference, a huge deciding factor in the game because Puka Nakua was great. And I think with those two guys back and healthy, the Rams look like they don't look like a team that's three and four. It seems like when those guys are healthy and Matthew Stafford has those guys, their defense, I was actually kind of impressed with what they did on defense on Thursday night as well. They've got some guys there, some young guys.

I think the Rams are a better team, and that might be a team that we have to kind of look for, that we might be talking about later in the season, that's right there in the mix for a wild card spot, because they might get rolling here with the two receivers back, hit a hot streak, and next thing you know, we're like, oh, the Rams

are 7-4. Where did that come from? They look so terrible earlier in the year. Well, now they're healthy. So I will, so I'll chalk, I'll chalk that up as, as a, it was disappointing, but it's a loss against, I think a team that is going to be around and in the conversation later in the year. The Puka Nakua thing. I spent the couple of days leading up to it thinking and talking about, I don't think

they could stop the vikings which they did and didn't when they face mass they did and there were some other times as well where the defensive line got to sam darnold and sacked him in big moments and jaylen nailer dropped a pass that would have been an easy touchdown right in the midst and doesn't go in so they kind of stopped themselves in that game more than the Rams stopped them for the most part. But the offensive side, my expectation was this, this offense for the Rams is just going to be brutal and Cooper cup can only do so much. And then Nakua comes out and looks like a top five wide receiver. Okay. That is very different. So I will give you that.

That is a moving, that is a moving goalpost though, because if the Rams actually are bad, then we have to later for now, I will accept not calling that the letdown game, but if they do end up losing the next three or four games, then we go, okay, actually that Rams team wasn't any good. That was just the Vikings beating themselves. So for now, that is not the letdown, which means there has to be a letdown later. You have the Vikings now at 8-2 headed to Chicago. Hail Mary's accepted for the Vikings in this game as a strategy because the Bears will play with 10 players and then tip the ball right to you if that's what you want to do.

Vikings and Bears' Soldier Field should be an interesting one there. How are you feel about that i would just love to see that matchup of justin jefferson and tyreek stevenson if we actually get a chance to see that it might actually be kind of funny um i i was laughing hysterically at that hill mary not necessarily like cheering on the Bears to lose that game, but just the way that game ended was hilarious. I'm going to stick. I've been pretty consistent with this every week that I've picked the schedule.

I just have this down as a loss because I think I've just been kind of trained in my 30-plus years of following the Vikings. I've just been trained to chalk the Soldier Field game down as a loss, even in years when they've gone in there and obliterated the Bears. I just always anticipate that game being a loss. So I'll stick with my guns here, put that down as a loss. It's always tricky going there. Yeah, I got nothing else outside of that other than just Soldier Field, Bears, late November. Weather could be nasty. That could make things tricky as well.

They should have beat the Commanders yesterday. They are a hell Mary away. And what I thought was interesting, though, and I'm going to watch as this goes forward with Chicago is that I think there's a very big part of me. And I laughed as hard as anyone else at Tyreek Stevenson, just being like hyping up the crowd and the crowds pointing, dude, the play started. What are you doing? That was so funny.

I've seen maybe five Hail Marys work in my lifetime. And it was a really random thing. It just was random. I mean, most of the time a guy picks it off, it bounces off his hand and goes the opposite way. The guy doesn't catch it. They around a bad Caleb Williams performance. We're still right there playing with Washington. And that's a very good Washington team. They've shown that this year, this is not one where you take for granted the Vikings will win. It would be hard in the next quarter of the season to just go four and oh. Um, so three and one would put

them at eight and three on the season coming back home to play back to back home games versus the Cardinals and the Falcons. And any given week that we have come in here and done the show, Manny, we've been able to say either, man, you know, the Arizona is just no good or Hey, Arizona is better than you think. This is a Arizona is better than you think week. Kyler Murray was great yesterday, all sorts of phenomenal throws, avoiding sacks, making plays left and right. But there have been other weeks where the Arizona can't do anything. this is a hard one to pick because of that vikings cardinals the eight and three vikings december 1st start with a what this is very tricky because i want to lean into the idea that this could be the letdown game um and and say that, and maybe Atlanta the next week could be a letdown game as well.

But you kind of look at the rest of the schedule, it's hard to really see a potential letdown game, maybe at Seattle. But Seattle's always a tough place to play, although Buffalo didn't have too much trouble yesterday. So I... You might have to use this one because... Yeah that's that's where it's tricky this is okay I'll use this as the I'll use this as a let down game okay so then we're freaking out again back-to-back losses you know a couple weeks ago

I think there was you picked a couple games that were losses people like no no way no chance no no chance they lose those games now I think uh everyone will be much more accepting of the idea that it's possible that they lose back-to-back games and this is the letdown this would be just kyler murray scrambles all over the place that they have dudes who can catch the ball marvin harrison's a freak and he's got good chemistry with him now they They can also run. And that's something that I am looking at with a lot of teams going forward. Who can run? Because Detroit ran and the Rams ran. Everybody before that got down so much in their games that they weren't in a position

to hand the ball off very much. But I still think this defense is a bit susceptible to the run game, which the Falcons have. December 8th, Falcons at Vikings. Kirk was on fire against the Bucs. I said yesterday, he's found his lions. It was when he was in the NFC North, that man just abused the lions, and now he's abusing the Buccaneers as a Falcon.

Kirk played really well yesterday. That team has started to get it together in recent weeks, but do they win the Kirk Cousins revenge game? I think they do. I think the Vikings do bounce back from the sort of the letdown loss to Arizona and win this game. I have a feeling this game could be, especially if both teams are, know the vikings are eight and four going on this game and atlanta's got a decent record by then too it's gonna be a game that could get flexed flexed to sunday night yeah yep and uh um yeah and that would be a lot of fun and we know

what the obvious storyline would be going into that game so uh but i the Vikings will take care of business. I'm really, really curious to see Brian Flores go up against Kirk Cousins. That's going to be fascinating to watch because Kirk has played well at times this year. He's had some games where he didn't look so great. Typical Kirk Cousins. We've seen how he performs against defenses that are very good and if the vikings kind of play their cards right over the next several weeks and get their defense back on track um this could be a game where it could be a long night for kirk cousins so

i will put this down as a win for the vikings for now i was thinking about yesterday watching some of that game about how sometimes mom and dad get divorced and they find people who are better for them and live happily ever after. And Atlanta's getting the best quarterback play that they have had since Matt Ryan's prime. And the Vikings are five and two with Sam Darnold with JJ McCarthy waiting in the wings. Everybody, this is the all's well that ends well game potentially if things go the way that uh you are laying them out for the vikings so they win this game against atlanta they are a nine and four football team headed down the stretch and they get their third straight play or a game at home isn't this a stupid schedule i mean this has been so bizarre they They're in London, then a week, then they get the bye week,

then they're headed, then they're playing two games in four days. Then they have back-to-back away games against the Titans and the Jags. And then in December, I can just set up a tent at U.S. Bank Stadium because I will be there the 1st, the 8th, and the 16 16th and the 29th four times in one month at us bank stadium for the Vikings who have not been there almost at all so far, which sort of plays into the other part of this. The five and two record is pretty good. If you consider how few home games they've had so far, anyway, that Anyway, that's the rant. Is this a Monday night football game against the Bears? Yes, it is for the second year in a row at U.S. Bank Stadium

Monday night against the Bears. I will put this down as a win. I think that the Vikings will have, you know, bounced back the previous week against Atlanta and I think they'll carry some momentum into the home game against the Chicago Bears and get a little payback on the Bears from beating them earlier in the season or just like three weeks prior or whatever and they'll come away with a win and they'll be I think this puts them at what 10 and 4 that would be 10 and 4 headed out to seattle just

like arizona always depends on the week how we're feeling about this game because seattle couldn't get out of their own way against buffalo now buffalo uh i apologize for being a doubter of that team my bad just don't doubt just don't doubt go quarterbacks that's that's what you should do i just want to know from the qb wins people who are like QB wins isn't a stat. What are Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes doing? Cause those teams are not as strong as teams as they've had and they keep winning. They're, they are doing the Brady Manning. It doesn't matter what happens to their team.

They just win all the time type of thing. And now Josh Allen has a really good receiver. Buffalo is super scary. And maybe that's an element of that game as well, is just that Seattle is not in Buffalo's ballpark as a total strong team or at quarterback, but you have to be get second guessing Seattle. They just don't have a good defense.

It's a very, didn't they hire a defensive guy and he is not doing the defensing. That is what I've noticed. But do the Vikings win in Seattle? Quick side note. Uh, have you seen Patrick Mahomes's numbers this year? Oh, they're horrendous. He's got an 84.9 quarterback rating. And yet he's the best quarterback in football. He's got an 84.9 quarterback rating and yet he's the best quarterback in football he's got an 84.9 quarterback rating he's not even playing well but that team just and i think that goes into the leadership the intangibles that a guy like him brings to the table i think we're seeing the

same thing with josh allen and the bills uh as well But just from, from a Holmes's perspective, I liken it to some of the years where Tom Brady didn't have good teams around him or good offenses. And they had good defenses and Brady would average seven yards pass. He would throw 20 touchdowns, six picks, and people would talk about how he's overrated because he didn't have Manning numbers. System quarterback system quarterback is what they would say. you have to be old enough to remember when people

talked about tom brady that way because the second half of his career it's just goat goat he's just a goat okay and then he did the crazy numbers with uh tampa bay and bruce arians and all that but there this is this is a you know who he's playing. Like, it's actually funny. He's playing like Teddy Bridgewater where he is playing with a bunch of short passes and he, every once in a while scrambles for a first down. It's plotting slow drives with short passes, keep the defense off the field, and then just score at the end and try to beat the other team because he's missing everyone. He doesn't have receivers. He doesn't have his running.

They can't run the ball. Kareem Hunt is so washed when they get Pacheco back, when they get some of their receivers back, I think those numbers are going to go up, but I have found it remarkable how some guys, even with the circumstances not being good around them and their numbers not being good, are still finding a way. And that's exactly what Mahomes did. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Seattle needs to score 50 points a game to win because their defense stinks.

So do the Vikings go to Seattle December 22nd and win? I want to pick this as a win really, really bad because of what you just talked about, the Seahawks defense just being awful, just being a complete sieve. I just think that with it being on the road, that crowd is still kind of a factor. I'll put this down as a loss for now. But if things kind of keep trending this way with Seattle, where they just kind of start to fall back because they can't stop anybody, stay tuned for future schedule pickings that this might turn into a win later on down the road. But I'll call it a loss for now.

This is why I love the Monday night schedule pick, because everything changes so much in the league, but including Jordan Love's health. That's the next game, December 29th Packers at Vikings. I assume Jordan love is an out for the year. There hasn't been any reporting on that. So we don't know. I'm thinking by the end of December that Jordan love will be playing, but he's now been hurt twice in the same season that muddies everything up the Vikings though. Now a 10 and five team playing the Packers on December 29th. Yeah, I'm going to put this down as a win because I don't know that even if Jordan Love is back and playing by then, don't know how well he'll be playing because he's just been in and out so

much already this season. And it's hard to really get into a groove and find consistency when that's happening, when you're in and out of the lineup, when your number one guy is. So I'll put this down as a win. Even if Jordan Love is healthy, or at least just back in uniform and on the field, I have a hard time seeing him having a lot of success just because I just don't know how healthy he's going to end up being at the end of the season. So I'll put this down as a win for the Vikings. 11 and five. And there's something difficult. You have to try to factor now with the final game of the season, which is the, will the lions be playing for something? But

the lions had this same situation last year against the Vikings and they played their starters. And a couple of them kind of got banged up in that game I don't know if Dan Campbell's ever going to change that though he is not a sit the starters type of coach so I guess we have to assume that the Detroit Lions are going to play their hardest to try to beat the 11 and 5 Vikings do they do it at Ford Field? It will be interesting to see if the Lions have like the number one spot in the NFC locked up by then, which I would imagine considering the current standings, like the number two team in the conference is probably going to be a few games behind them. So they might have the number one seed locked up and but then you know you're the number one seed and you're only you know you're the only team in the conference

that's going to have a bye in the first round of the playoffs so it's kind of like do you really if you're dan campbell will you really feel like feel the need to rest your guys if you're going to have that extra week off that nobody else in the playoffs is going to have i don't think he believes in it i just don't think he believes in sitting as players yeah i think he'll probably just play everybody and i think if he plays everybody that's going to be a tough game for the vikings and i'll put that down as a as a win for detroit 11 win season then 11 and 6 which would be a huge success for kevin o'con for Sam Darnold, for the Vikings franchise overall. But it would mean winning these next three and then sputtering down the stretch

that after the next three games, it would mean losses to the Bears, the Cardinals, Seattle, and the Lions. So what is that? Like three out of the last five games of losing, which would probably feel like they were going into the playoffs backing in now here's the other thing i have to ask you about manny with your thought is i'm sure you're aware of this uh that if the playoffs started today the vikings would face off in atlanta with kirk cousins and the atlantacons. I think that as far as history repeating itself,

that people have made this into 2016 too much just because they blew the five and Oh, I think it's more 2019 ish. I think this team is like 2019. They have irritated receivers. They have a really good defense. That's not perfect. They have already kind of a bright lights type of game that

they had to let down at really two of them but especially the the thursday night in 2019 they had a few of those and i also think that they could go on the road in the first week of the playoffs and beat someone who won their division because the toughest division is their own. And then in the second round, we'll probably face if it's Detroit or someone like that, then it's going to be tough to win multiple rounds. But if we're trying to project it right now, I think that the Vikings make the playoffs, go to Atlanta, beat the Falcons, and then lose in the second round. That's where I would predict this season going as of today. Well, I mean, I picked, you and I talked off the air after the Falcons signed Kirk Cousins.

I kind of joked like, oh yeah, the Falcons are going to win that terrible division, the NFC South, at like 10-7, and they're going to be the number four seed in the NFC playoffs, and they're going to play like an 11- or 12-win team. That's the five. And they're going to be the number four seed in the NFC playoffs and they're going to play like an 11 or 12 win team. That's the five. And they're going to lose. And I can totally see it. I can totally see the Vikings as a five seed going into Atlanta

as the four with an 11 or 12 win record and just taking care of business. I just... I know Kirk Cousins has a playoff win going back to the aforementioned 2019 season. I know he has a playoff win under his belt. He has that sort of monkey off of his back, but I'm just not, I'm not a believer in 36-year-old Kirk Cousins winning postseason games.

I'm just not I can't I can't see it I can't envision it maybe I'll be wrong but right now I can't see it so if that's the matchup sign me up let's go as of right now if the Vikings are playing another division winner you would like their matchup with anyone I, Jaden Daniels is a young quarterback. If it's Washington, if it's Philly, I like that less. I do like that a lot less of the Vikings going to Philly. That's not really the place they want to go in a big game. But if you're talking about the West, I still don't even know who's going to win that.

It might be the Rams, actually. It might be San Francisco. I really don't know. It might be Arizona. It might be Arizona. I mean, honestly, that is so. I really don't know. Might be Arizona. It might be Arizona. I mean, honestly, that is so up and down for that division. And then the self, give me whoever, whoever you got with the Vikings being favored there. That's why I think they do have a chance if that's how this season plays out.

But the bar has dropped from 13 to 11 over the last two weeks. And I think reasonably so. All right, quick ad read. And then I want to answer your questions and comments from the show so far. But first let me silence my phone real quick so I can tell you guys about us days at US Cellular. It's back again, exclusive offers just for customers

just to say thanks. Right now you'll 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 400 off any tablet terms apply Firms apply, visit uscellular.com for details. All right. Sean says, too bad we traded all of our draft capital for a guy who can't get onto the field. Would love some of those picks back so we could take advantage of this buyer's market.

I don't think it is fair at all to do this to Dallas Turner. Don't do the, he's the next Louis scene stuff. It's just too early. And I went through all of the edge rushers, uh, rookie seasons over the last 10 years. And what I discovered is of course, there's some guys who have come in right away and got double digit sacks. There's also a lot of guys whose first years were not a huge sack number. Alex Highsmith is one of them. Uh. Khalil Mack had four, I believe, in his first year. Trey Hendrickson may have had two in his first year, and he was a high draft

pick. There's a lot of players at this position. Kayvon Thibodeau was not a star right away who have a pretty slow start to their career as an edge rusher. He's been playing behind his best thing that he can do is line up on the edge and run by somebody. And there's not been many opportunities to do that when you have Van Ginkle and when you have one of the best rushers in the league this year, Jonathan Grenard, where I would like to see this change is Patrick Jones on the field way less. He has zero pressures in the last three games. That to me, that is just that you don't have to do that anymore. He's not on a heater anymore where he had the five sacks and you can replace him with Dallas Turner. Turner just needs

more reps rushing off the edge in pure rushing situations. They just haven't really been there with as well as Van Ginkle and Grenard have been playing. The one concern I have though, Manny, is that Brian Flores doesn't play anybody except for the guys that he likes on this defense. He plays Jihad Ward. That's a different role from Turner. That's an interior rush on third downs. That's fine. But the linebackers, the secondary, everything has been pretty much the same. And Van Ginkle and Grenard entered the week with top five snap counts in the entire NFL. That needs to be more Dallas Turner. I'm certainly raising an eyebrow. Want to see? There it is. I raised it about the Dallas Turner thing. I can do both of them. Both eyebrows are raised. What's going on with this? But if we're going to say, oh, well, so, you know, they gave up all these draft picks.

The guy stinks. Well, okay. He's a rookie at a position where they have two star players. Let's not go there yet. Rookies in general, people love the draft so much. They expect every rookie to come into the league, annihilate the league. And that's right away. It doesn't always happen

for every player how about rashad gary rashad gary for two years people were like why did they spend his draft pick on rashad gary he stinks and now he's one of the best rushers in the league it takes development at that position remember when everybody was ripping the falcons when they took michael pennix and everybody said they should have taken dallas turner because well you got to help you know they need help at edge rusher they need to you know why didn't they use that first round pick on an edge rusher well if they had and dallas turner was and things were going the way they're going right now for dallas turner because he's young and when i say young like young young very young like it's not like not like Dallas Turner is like a 23 or 24 year old rookie. I mean, he's what, 21.

So he's very young. Yep. And, you know, I mean, if they hadn't, if, if, if the Falcons had taken him and he was kind of this, this version, then everybody would be like, well, why are they there? Why isn't Dallas Turner doing anything for the Falcons? It's like, well, you know, that's why you just can't really put everything in a vacuum in terms of expecting rookies to just come out of the gate just, you know, dominating.

And I talked about this at the start of the season, about Dallas Turner's actually in a pretty good spot because there's not a lot of pressure on him to be productive right out of the gate. And I think this is a way for them to kind of ease him in. I would like to see him get on the field a little bit more, get more reps like what you talked about. And, you know, hopefully with more reps that he gets, the more development he gets, and then the more productive he can be later in the season. And if that works out, if he starts playing a little bit more and starts being a little bit more productive

later in the season, that's the perfect time for you to be getting something out of him because it's late down the stretch of the year. And you're probably going to need them because guys like Van Ginkle and Grenard are probably going to need, you know, their snap count to be kind of scaled back a little bit because it's going to be late in the season we've seen it happen so many times where when a rookie is not performing right away they just become the center of every every game every week every time the team loses oh Kweisi can't draft and this guy's the next this and everything else I just don't like what if that happens someday someday and we'll know when then we can talk about that but not now is not when and with lewis seen it's a good example we knew when last year when he couldn't get on the field for brian floris at all okay i'm saying when that was a bus draft pick before that i wanted to give him enough time to prove that maybe there

was something there. And I don't think he's getting on the fees with Buffalo, right? Or the Jets, Buffalo, right? I think. And they list them. They list them as a linebacker. It's kind of interesting and weird, but he's not getting on the field either. So that, you know, that, yeah, that pick just went completely bust.

We need at least to give him an opportunity to get on the field first. And Jason says a lot of rumors about Pat Jones being sent out at the deadline. I don't love the idea of getting rid of anybody, but Jones has not ever put up consistent pressure numbers. He's been very similar to DJ Wanam where the coaches love him and he's tough and he's a smart player and understands the defense and all those things. So they like him, but his role needs to be replaced with Dallas Turner. Like right now, uh, I, I Dallas Turner, I think can at least beat tackle straight up with his speed. And we've seen a couple of little flashes from him and you almost need to take the keys away from Flores here because Flores

loves these players who are high IQ, they're underdogs, they're fighters out there, but they also understand the X's and O's of his defense, maybe to a fault when it comes to the Pat Jones versus Dallas Turner thing, because the talent is just so much more from Dallas Turner and putting him at linebacker three plays a game is not an answer to this problem of not being able to get him on the field I I think about two and you got here in 2016 right yep I think it was was it the year before that the Vikings drafted Trey Waynes yeah yeah. Yeah. That's a good example. Yep. And Trey Waynes and remember everybody, you know, I mean, Mike Zimmer wasn't even playing Trey Waynes. He wasn't seeing the field.

I think he got in on like special teams and stuff like that, but he wasn't like out there on the field, like defending against wide receivers yet. And everybody was like, Oh, Trey Waynes, he's a bust. I it not seeing the field. Why isn't Zimmer playing him? Sometimes with these young guys, especially on defense, especially at prime positions like corner and edge rusher, positions that you need guys to be really good at, it takes time for those guys to get to that level.

And it took some time for Trey Waynes. Now, Trey Waynes. Now, Trey Waynes wasn't like an all-pro corner or anything. He was a very good player for a handful of years. So I think it's just going to take some time. But Dallas Turner, again, he's very, very young. The fact that he hasn't been productive yet, I don't, I get why I would raise some eyebrows with people and people might be a little bit concerned,

but I think to just write it off, to write them off and just say like, you know, this is a waste of time and just, he's a bus and all that stuff, I think is just really, really short sighted. And I think the hope I think is,

um, did Aaron judges hit a home run? No, sorry. I got the world series on a one screen. Um, I, i think the the hope for dallas turner is that he gets eased into this thing eventually you know kind of take some of the reps from pat jones like what you were talking about and then late in the year you start to see some growth and development he starts being productive

and that'll take some of the pressure off the other edge rushers. Yeah. And really just when you look through the history of that position, year one is not predictive of somebody's career. It's just, it's just not, there are guys who have had double digit sack seasons to start their career and then they fade quickly. And then there's other guys who don't get as many opportunities right away and then become good players. I don't know which it's going to be, but I want to find out before I start saying, oh, you gave up all this for nothing. We'll see on that. But they plan to have a franchise next year as far as I know, so we'll see.

Mike says, how the defense responds to the next four games will tell the story if they show the form that for the most part was fantastic early, they will win games yeah i think uh manny when it comes to the defense getting back to what they did in the first couple games a lot of it comes down to cashman being back and also i saw aaron shots tweet about this analytics guy he was saying that every team that has ever been great through the first five games always is not that level. The next five games. And his tweet was kind of like regression to the mean is real,

but it's also the NFL is real. It's coaches are real. They figure stuff out. What the Vikings won't be playing though. The next few weeks is the best play callers in football. They played two out what the vikings won't be playing though the next few weeks is the best play callers in football they played two out of the best three if you were if you were to do an all play caller draft like let's just draft play that's something that a podcast might do in june let's draft all play callers right kyle shanahan gets taken number one i don't think there's any debate over that number two and three are ben johnson and sean mcveigh yep yep so that's what he faced

the last two weeks so i don't know i just i can't go crazy when that's the case and then you're going to face indianapolis who has a quarterback who can't throw it and then jacksonville their play caller might be 32nd and tennessee does anyone work there after what is it you do here what is it that you do uh rob says do you think the vikings are still going to make a blockbuster move with the loss of derisaw how do you think that uh changes the dynamic manny i think it changes it a little bit in that, you know, and I don't know how likely a Dexter Lawrence trade was ever going to be anyway. But I think a trade like that is probably off the table now. But I think they should do something. I think if you can get, yeah, keep going back to Jeffrey Simmons.

I think if you can get Jeffrey Simmons for a first round pick, I would probably still do that. Just because he's a guy that he's young enough. He's at a good age. Was he 26, 27? Yeah. He signed, he signed beyond this season. So, I mean, it's, I think if you're giving up a first round pick for a guy that figures to be a part of your long-term, that a guy that can help you right now, but also be a part of your long-term plan of building this team into contention over the next couple of years i think you still have to you know at least consider something like that but i i think overall i think they have to do something just because you you can't be at this point you know get off to this good of a start and just say

like see some glaring holes in your roster and just be like oh yep everything's fine we're just gonna let it play out i think you got to do something even if it's really little if you give me a fifth round pick for like just depth at corner i think you i think you have to do something like that at least with the number of players available and at least what we've seen from some of the prices to buy it's not unreasonable that you could get a decent player for that i i don't we lost manny did he freeze did manny freeze manny hasn't frozen a long time oh there you go yeah i don't know what happened there you just popped out uh okay now you're back uh i thought your head froze or

something uh which we just we've resolved the internet problems but it's taken away how funny that bit used to be uh but the fifth rounders for pieces to plug holes is an idea but you can also get some starters in with picks like that like we've seen from some of these trades that have happened uh even the amari cooper price just shocked me. Third rounder for that player, for someone with Amari Cooper's resume, the prices are just not super high right now. As far as the blockbuster,

not if it's a pure rental, not that's the, that is the true definition of chips to the middle of the table. And I would not do that now in part, because some of the teams in the NFC have looked stronger than they looked a couple of weeks ago, including the Philadelphia Eagles.

Washington has continued to do it. Green Bay is also looking pretty strong because for a minute there, it looked like the only teams that matter are in the NFC North. But now some other teams have kind of emerged. Joel says, is there anyone the vikings would trade away pat jones was solid weeks one through three but hasn't been great since uh yeah

i mean if someone wants to give you something for uh pat jones then the answer would be definitely yes for me to get dallas turner on the field uh but otherwise i can't see any potential trade unless Jordan Addison has truly infuriated them. And if there, we know though, after a social media post teams call. So I'm curious about what, what Kweisi Adafo-Mentz's phone did after that. That's how Diggs got traded. It was a tweet. And then the bills were like, wait, did you, did you see this tweet? We should call and check on that.

And then the price was right. But other than that, I can't see them giving away any players at five and two. Yeah, that happened with Stefan Diggs. And we found out that there was truth to all rumors. There was truth to all rumors. Yes. But hey, you know, Jordan Addison had a similar moment today. It just wasn't as catchy where he did not deny that he posted that on social media because he was frustrated.

Oh, so he didn't he didn't claim that his account was hacked or anything like that? Yeah, I can get the quote for you from Andrew Kramer. It's basically I'm out here to run routes. That was kind of what it was. I'll get it. kramer tweeted it earlier let's see yeah i know so let's see he said addison was asked what what he thinks he needs to do to be more productive and he said i'd say just keep getting open that's my job as a receiver so that's what i'm going to keep doing uh he said about his entire season, I'd say it's all right.

I wish I could be doing a little bit more, but I'm doing everything I can. I'm learning every day, watching film, trying to get better every day, just looking forward to having a good game this week. So someone wrote that for him and he read it to the media or advised or advised him to say that.

But do you think we see him he didn't say we see him. Do you think we see him get some, get some early targets in the game on Sunday? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Because I don't think that, yeah, I don't think that Kevin O'Connell handles stuff like this in the same way

that Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman did with Stefan Diggs there. Although, I mean, Stefan Diggs had a great year after that, after the truth to all Rumors press conference. That was another part of the mythology of the whole thing. He played his butt off to get them to the playoffs the rest of the year. So maybe that will be the case for Jordan Addison.

But I just can't see them bailing on that with Addison unless someone came with an amazing offer for him. Yeah, I can't see it either. You know, if somebody came in with, you know, a couple of first round picks or something like that, um, or, or, you know, if he just basically comes right out and just says he wants out, then maybe, you know, then in that particular situation is where, you know, you, you maybe make something happen, but I think it's just, this is just kind of an adjustment.

I think that Kevin O'Connell needs to make. And, you know, I, I think just offensively anyway, you know, it would be nice to kind of see them sustain some longer drives. Cause it just feels like, you know, we've, we've talked about how the defense has been out there for a long time throughout these games and you know i'm just thinking about and i know they got obliterated by the eagles yesterday but i've watched the bengals first possession of the game yesterday 17 plays and they took over 10 minutes off the clock now i'm not saying the vikings need to put together 17 play drives, but I'm watching this and I'm just watching Joe Burrow just dink and dunk his way down the field.

And they were just executing and just making all the throws, making all the plays. I would just like to see this offense do a little bit more of that just to give the defense a little bit of a break. And I think that may have may have played a role in the defense kind of struggling these last couple weeks obviously playing two games in four days can wear any team down but i think for this defense with the players that they have it'd be nice to see the offense kind of pick things up from the standpoint of control the clock dictate the tempo of the game i mean that's how kansas City is winning games right now. I mean, their defense is really good, but also what's helping their defense is the fact that offensively

they're not hitting a lot of explosive plays, but they're moving the chains every single time, sustaining long drives. And I think that's playing complimentary football, and I'd like to see the Vikings get back to that. Part of it against the Rams was that the Rams were doing that to the Vikings defense. They were the ones that were hanging on to the football for the entire game. I think that the last two games, there has been an

adjustment for Kevin O'Connell to use the shorter passing game more successfully and more often. And that's where Addison can come into play. Yes. And Hawkinson coming back, that's going to be a part of it too. Aaron Jones just didn't have a lot of success on Thursday night, maybe because he's old and had just played on Sunday and not 100%. Maybe someone else should have gotten some carries. I don't know. Maybe the run blocking wasn't as good, but you're right about sustaining drives. That's really the key here because they've just run so few plays.

And I don't know how, if you've run so, so few plays that you're supposed to make everybody happy by getting the football. I'll tell you a mind blowing stat Manny that I came up with yesterday is that Jordan Addison is catching the same percentage of completions by his quarterback. As he did last year.

His quarterback is completing six less passes per game. So he was catching 16% of the completions last year and 15% this year, but they're just not throwing as much. I need to see them start with throwing and then work the run after that. But some of it too, is that they've just been ahead in a lot of games and so forth. We've, we've kind of gone through that, but Addison, I think it's worth trying to get him the football more because he is a talented player and he'll be happy if he's getting the ball more.

I imagine it is frustrating when you run 50 plays for everybody to look around and go, other than Jefferson, I mean, everybody didn't get the ball very much when they went to the jets game in London, Jalen Naylor was just out there running a track meet. I, he didn't get a single target. He must've been like, I flew all the way here for this, for nothing, for no targets, but he hasn't gotten many either. I thought what the Rams did on Thursday, I thought that that game plan was perfect yeah i thought with what because if you look early on in that game matthew stafford was it was a lot of like quick strike stuff where stafford was dropping back and that ball was coming out right away and he was hitting nakua and he was hitting cooper cup hit two two at well a couple times like

and then we saw them like in the second half. Why was Matthew Stafford able to have a lot more time and sit in the pocket for a little bit longer, more developing plays? Because at that point, the Vikings defense was just completely gassed. And there was just no way they were going to get to him. And it was easier for him to just sit back in the pocket and relax. I mean, I thought what the Rams did Thursday was perfect. And it would be kind of nice to see the Vikings kind of follow that same sort of model offensively and just get Sam Darnold in a rhythm early on with some shorter stuff, and then you can kind of wear the opposing defense down,

and then that's where you can hit the play actions for the big plays in the second half of games and get some more points on the board. And we'll get deep into the Colts as we go along. But one thing that should be noted, they do have a pretty good defense that caused even C.J. Stroud some problems. Digital Plains Media says, Matthew, what do you remember about the largest comeback in history? Thank you for calling it the largest.

It was not the greatest. It was the largest because the other team was being coached by a guy who had never coached before. One thing will stick with me forever about the Vikings' largest comeback ever in 2022 against the Colts. And that is our friend Judd Zolgad left the stadium when the Vikings were down. I don't know how much it was.

It must have been when they got down by 30 plus, he just left and went home because he thought the game was over. And he said, I'll just wait until the post game. I'll do the post game show at home. Forget this. There's not going to be anything to take away from this game. So he left the stadium and did not see the NFL's largest comeback ever. And that will never not be hilarious to me. I remember tweeting out the, the, the gif of the old Looney tunes. That's all folks.

Oh yeah. I think when the coach went up 33, nothing, I just put out the gif of that's all folks. Yep. And yeah, that was, that was funny.

The other thing I remember is Trey Blake was the official for that game too. Oh, really? Oh, okay. He was. That's interesting. Same guy that missed the FaceMax call on Thursday. Same guy who officiated that game too. And if I remember, there was some odd officiating in that one as well.

Eric says, most likely position we trade for, right guard for sheriff, running back like Singletary or signing a free agent left tackle. Well, there's no free agent left tackle that's out there now. Who's going to be a better option than Blake Brandel, David Questenberry, or, uh, Walter Rouse, uh, sheriff, I think is probably off the table now that they really need a left tackle, but Cam Robinson might be, uh, I don't think they'll look still at running back. I'm more into corner these days after looking at those snap counts and what they've asked the corners to do.

It's just so hard to find an interior rusher. That's the, that's the big issue. It's so hard to find an interior rusher and people don't give them away. We're talking about Jeffrey Simmons, but the likelihood they give away for anything less than two first round picks is improbable. If you get one, you keep them for 10 years with those interior rush guys.

Corners though, they bounce around a little bit more. And that's where I could see them trading for a rent a corner who could play a little man coverage and just rotate with somebody. You don't have to replace anybody, but just rotate and keep these guys a little more fresh yeah i mean i think you just look at stefan gilmore he's what 34 shack griffin is what 30 29 30 you know these guys are a little long in the tooth and you just they've been on the field so much and you kind of saw it thursday where

just late in the game they just kind of it looked like stefan gilmore had never played football before late in the late in the game because it just you know he's just at that age where he's out there on the field the entire time um he's just going to get worn down because he's 34 years old that just happens with older. He's still a very good player. And, you know, if they didn't have him, I kind of, I'm scared to think what this defense would look like if they didn't have him. But, you know, the latter parts of the game,

it kind of did look like they didn't have him. You know what I mean? Because it was just hard. So I think getting another corner to just kind of, just for the sake of depth, a guy that can go out there and play because, you know, Caleb Evans has been really up and down. You know, he's shown some signs of being, you know, a productive player, but other signs of just, it's just not there.

And so maybe it's just Brian Flores just doesn't trust him enough to put him out there. Okay. Well, if you don't trust him enough to put him out there, you got to get somebody in there to, to give these first stringers a break, you know, and, you know, Byron Murphy jr has just been up and down and has had his struggles as well. And it's just, if you can just get another guy to just kind of spell these guys and give them a break, I think it'll be, uh, helpful for them in the longterm of the rest of the

season. Uh, Matt says, I heard you talk about how we're not passing as much, but shouldn't Addison be getting chances with all the attention Jefferson gets? Is he not beating the coverage or is Sam not looking his way? I mean, I think part of it is that, well, Darnold is an interesting watch on film because one thing that I don't want to be overconfident in saying, I know his reads, I don't know his reads, but you can often tell, or at least get a pretty good hint when you're watching the behind view and where the helmet goes first and where the guy's looking. And

sometimes they do look off players. So there's that, but he will come off reads quickly. I think, uh, at times where it looks like that he has someone on the first look and then doesn't go there. And there's some hesitation. And also I do believe the last two weeks, they wanted to get him back into the mode of game managing and less taking risks after he threw the pick against the Lions? They were probably saying, let's not be doing that again. And he game managed really well early in those first three games, then got a little bit more risky with the football at times. I think they wanted to dial that back a bit after the Jets game when he threw the bad pick on third and 15.

And that might play into why josh oliver gets a catch and why aaron jones gets a check down and things like that but yeah i don't really have a great answer other than there just haven't been a lot of plays and and when you think about you're ahead so much in the first five games you're just winning all the time you're running the football there, even though KOC at times threw it when I wouldn't have, but he was largely still running the football and not pushing it to Addison. He was also injured and maybe has not been as open

because he's been banged up at times. It's probably everything. And it's something over these next few games. The other thing is too, they've played good defenses in coverage going into this week. I was looking at this PFF had the Vikings playing something like four or five of the top 10. It must've been maybe four of the top 10 coverage teams in the league by

PFF. The next three teams are not in the top 10 in terms of coverage that may also help this problem as well. But I don't think that there's just one solution where you can go click. And, uh, now Addison gets the ball all the time. I think it's been a little bit of everything and all those things can change as we go forward um last thing for you tonight manny i'll stick around and answer a few more questions here from vikings fans although i will say i'm a i'm a little bit on the tired side um you have to leave for los angeles airport really early because of the traffic so got up early recorded with brian Murphy, left for the airport, was in the airport a long time, flew out here.

So I'm a little bit bushed, you might say. But as far as this week, what do you want to hear from this team? There hasn't, because they talked today a little bit in open locker room, but the coordinator is going to talk tomorrow. KOC is going to talk again on Wednesday. What do you want the vibe to be from this team as they get ready for a big Sunday night football game? I think the vibe needs to be high. I think that they need to be, I think that they, I think.

Stoned, you're saying they need to be stoned. That is something I didn't expect. Absolutely stoned. No, I think their confidence saying they need to be stoned. That is something I didn't expect. Absolutely stoned. No, I think their confidence needs to needs to remain high. Obviously, it can get very frustrating. You lose two games in a week like that, you know, two games in four days. That can be a little frustrating. And it's easy to kind of especially with the defense.

I know there's a lot of prideful guys on that defensive side, veteran players like Stephon Gilmore, like Harrison Smith, like Andrew Van Ginkle. These guys are prideful in what they do, and they want to be successful, and they want to be good at it. And when you've had a difficult previous two games where you got kind of worked, you got gashed by both the Lions and the Rams, I think you want kind of worked, you got gashed by both the Lions and the Rams, you know, I think you want to remain confident and you want to have remain, you know, in

high spirits and have the belief that you can get this thing turned around. I also just want to know from Kevin O'Connell without, you know, obviously sharing the game plan, that I want to hear that he recognizes what the situation is in terms of, hey, man, your defense has been on the field a lot so far. What are you going to do to kind of combat that? Is that going to be, are there changes that need to happen on the defense i personally don't think it's necessarily that maybe just you know getting some more guys

on the field on that side of the ball but also just offensively like we talked about are there going to be more you know is there going to be more of a focus on sustaining drives continuing to move the chains without trying to hit a 30-yard pass to Justin Jefferson all the time. Love when they throw to Justin Jefferson, but there's got to be other ways. He's so freaking good. He's the best receiver in football.

Not everything has to be, and it seemed like they leaned into this a little bit against the Rams. Not everything has to be a 20-yard pass down the field to Justin Jefferson. Sometimes you can hit him with a 20-yard pass down the field to Justin Jefferson. Sometimes you can hit him with a seven-yard pass and he can make somebody miss. He's very good when the ball's in his hands. Jordan Addison's kind of the same way.

You get TJ Hawkinson back. I just kind of want to see some recognition from Kevin O'Connell that we might have to change some things a little bit to try and get ourselves back on track yeah i'm also curious about the you lost by 10 points and it's not like the sky has fallen right so how do you balance wanting to fix everything with also not tinkering so much i really just need to see them throw on first down more often they've been running a lot more on first down i mean that makes sense with aaron Jones. You're trying to set up play actions, but it might be time to just work some of those shorter passes to Addison and Jefferson right away, get drives going and not try to hand off, then pass on second down. If it doesn't work out, then you're facing third down sometimes in long and then a drive ends very quickly or

it's been handoff to jones play action 30 yard pass and this is the only two ways the drives can work for the vikings they needed to have another option of the way a drive can work the other thing i would like to see can we see cam acres on the field a little bit yes that'd be nice yes that'd be nice i mean why'd you trade for him why two games in four yeah two games in four days after just arriving here i can understand why but after this mini buy it's got to be on the field yeah i mean because you need aaron jones to be healthy and at this rate right now he won't be right in the season. So Cam Akers is a pretty good RB, too. I didn't do that a little bit more.

Was effective for Houston, was effective here last year. So, yes, I agree, and I think we will see him. But the tendency for almost everyone, even Jefferson's receptions per game are down. For everyone, it's, well, why isn't this guy's numbers? Why isn't that guy's numbers? Because they've only run less than 400 plays. On defense, they've run almost 500 plays.

That is not a sustainable ratio to keep up, and solving that begins this week. Manny, good stuff. Thursday night, prepare yourself. Your all-time favorite Indianapolis Colts list. I got a few. Cannot wait for that one. Cannot wait for that one. Thanks so much for your time, man. You got a few for that one. Cannot wait for that one.

Thanks so much for your time, man. You got it. Football. Football. All right. Let me answer some more questions. And then we got a Halloween baking championship to watch here, folks. So we got to do that.

Oh, is there a football game? I don't want to watch that. Is it good? I haven't even looked. Maybe if it's good, maybe if it's game? I don't want to watch that. Is it good? I haven't even looked. Maybe if it's good. Maybe it's good. I'll watch. But I was not.

No, it's nine to nine. I don't think so. I don't think so. Giants and Steelers. That's just not exciting football. David says, you mentioned recently is where the rotation of young guy. Where is the rotation of young guys on defense? I mean, that it's really feels like Brian Flores has had his group that he likes and that he trusts and that he feels like is his guys that know what they're doing and can handle him

running any play calls at any time. And everybody else this year has stood on the sideline. Last year, they used something like 20 players in games and they were putting out different guys, but that just has not been the case so far this year. It's less than halfway through the season. And this is where I do get very frustrated with the talk about Dallas Turner. We're less than halfway through his rookie season. Can we maybe wait until we get all the halfway to find out, to start talking about how this is going yet for him?

We're allowed to give some players some time to develop before they get on the field. And there just seems to be a vitriol toward Dallas Turner. And it feels like frustration coming out of a loss and just looking around for things to be angry at like, God, then this, and this guy's a bust. That's how it feels. He's, he's not yet. And you have to give that time and you have to allow it to develop. You have to see how often he gets on the field as we go forward and the second half of the season. And if he ends the year with a hundred total defensive plays and one sack in week one, then I will definitely be having the same feeling as you guys about more than just raising an eyebrow and ask what the heck was going on there. But I'm not there yet

with this player. And normally with past rushers or many, and you can look up the data on this PFF did it a few years ago where they looked at the each year. This is how we know that offensive linemen take until year three to know what they're going to be. Well, edge rushers was usually year two, year two and year three were the years that they took big steps. It's all over the map with great players in their first seasons. So let's not just judge yet as it comes to a Dallas Turner, because there is a good chance that Patrick Jones is snaps will go down. Turner's will go up and we'll get much more of a look at him than we've gotten so far rob says how concerned are you on koc's play calling outside of the opening script not too

much not too much we have to understand i i saw the stat i understand the stat but we also have to understand that they were winning by so much in the first five games that the second halves of games, and I had my criticisms of certain play calls and things like that in those games, but the second halves of games was protecting leads. They were not against Houston up by all those points and just trying to score 70. You're trying to get to the end of the game and run the clock out. And there's a lot of running this year. Kevin O'Connell is only calling 53% of his plays as passes. That's nowhere near where it's been the last couple of years. And I don't think that's all because of the quarterback. I think that's also because of the way that these games have played out against the jets. They're up by a lot early. Uh, it's, I mean, the opening scripts, of course, have crushed it.

And they also got turnovers that help them score and so forth. But I don't, I don't look at a stat like that over such a small sample. When we have score effects at play, it's kind of like when your hockey team gets up to nothing. Why is it the most dangerous lead? Because teams start to play differently when they get a lead. And that's all sports, basketball teams. If a team gets up by 20, inevitably it will get to six before the team that was ahead gets back together and wins the game.

That's how every sport tends to work. And that has impacted that particular stat. There are times though, with his play calling and his approach where I feel like it's a little bit horse blinders and not so much like right on with the situation. And maybe just, I thought this would be a good play. And so I'm calling it as opposed to, is it the right play in the right spot at the right time? That is something that I have questioned to some extent, but when we talk about the play calling in 2022, how many times did they lead game winning drives and they had big fourth quarters and they

had comebacks and things like that that were not a part of the opening script. There were many times where that was the case. I would need a much bigger sample of that statistic than just, I think every team in the NFL would look great early in the game, but then when they're blowing people out, their success rate is not going to be as high. So it's not a concern as of right now. If that sustains over the entirety of the rest of the season, where that's a Clint Kubiakian trend. I did think it was in 2021 where they would get to the third

quarter and then just completely disappear as a team when the opponent made some adjustments. But as of right now, I don't know. Play calling is always the hardest thing in the world to evaluate anyway. We all think that we're great play callers from the stands. And one thing I am good as a play caller is not calling trick plays. But other than that, everyone, we all think that we could call plays the best out of anyone in the whole world. But sometimes, and I felt this way after watching the Jets game on tape, it's just the purely the execution of someone was supposed to be the guy you threw a slant route to. You didn't do it. And then you

threw it longer and it was an incompletion and we go, what's KOC calling a long play for? Well, he didn't, there was a guy open underneath. That was where the ball needed to go. Right. Yeah. So I just look at it as it's very hard to figure out whether it's the play caller, the players, the execution, the opponents, they have faced good defenses. I want to see that play out a lot more. Eric says the bar is so low on Turner. I'm not expecting him to beat out Grenard. Who's been a pressure machine, or Andrew Van Ginkle. He needs to beat out Jones, who is a classic just a guy, and he can't do that. Big concern. I'm not saying big concern. Patrick Jones, you're saying just a guy.

He had five sacks. I mean, the last three weeks, he's been just a guy, but he had five sacks to start the season. He was making an impact. He made Trent Williams look stupid on a couple of plays. Now, maybe Trent wasn't at 100%, but that's going to keep you on the season. He was making an impact. He made Trent Williams look stupid on a couple of plays. Now maybe Trent wasn't at a hundred percent, but that's going to keep you on the field. He's got a lot more experience. It's a complicated defense. It asks the edge rushers sometimes to play in coverage, which might be a difficult thing for a rookie seven games in. I'm not going big concern, seven games in, just, we're not going to go there.

Now, if he doesn't in the next four games, see a lot more of the field and they do start taking Patrick Jones off more, if that, if that doesn't happen and he just stays on the bench and doesn't get to play these next couple of weeks, then yes, I will get there with you as, as far as being concerned. But as of right now, I mean, the fact that he has been behind guys who were really crushing it statistically, I mean, is, is Jones still leading the team tied with Grenard and sacks, right? And he has five, that's a tough guy to just take off the field. And in a short week, maybe they felt even more that it was harder to get him prepared. But it becomes, sometimes it just becomes, we have to talk about a thing that isn't going right because they lost.

So that has to be the only thing that gets discussed. And just like with people who wanted to trade Justin Jefferson, when he hadn't signed a contract by OTAs, sometimes that's the best approach for me is to not have some sort of blazing hot take on a player and just say, why don't we just give this time? This is something that is going to need just time. Dan says, we really need to take a step back and realize we're blessed to have a team that we can actually panic about this year enjoy the season uh yeah that they're in a position uh to be good enough

where we're complaining about players who are just developing right now because so many guys have had good seasons yeah maybe that's a good point so anyway well um we'll have another tomorrow night will be jeremiah searles and then wednesday will be a pure fan chat thursday night back with manny to preview the game lots of other guests and so forth coming this week, the fantasy show as well. It's going to be a really fun week leading up to this game, but let's not spend it entirely calling the first round pick. Who's not even played his eighth game yet.

A bust. Maybe we'll try to do that for the rest of the week. So I, I think that's just, there's nothing more to really be said about that. We've got to give it time. But otherwise national TV, big game, Vikings can get to six and two with a win.

You wouldn't think so with the way that the show has gone over the last few days, but that is actually true. That they could be a six and two NFL team when people thought they wouldn't get to six wins all year long. Keep that in mind as we go forward. We'll have a very fun week here previewing this game. So thanks everybody for watching and listening, and we will see you all very soon. Football.