Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Post-bye picking the Vikings schedule and NFC North order

Episode Date: October 15, 2024

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Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here. And hang on, I just tweeted out the wrong link to the show tonight, so I have to fix that and give me one second because for some reason this started up a different link than I thought it was going to. So that was kind of weird, but let me get this right and then we will go from there. So that was a of weird but let me get this right and then we will go from there uh so that was a little surprising but we'll get this uh tweeted out in a second okay so uh welcome anyway everybody

and uh gonna be talking a lot of course about the nfc north and the minnesota vikings So jump right in to the mix here and questions, comments, thoughts at 7.30 this evening, we will have Manny Hill picking the Vikings schedule as he does each week. And yes, even though the Vikings did not play, we are still going to have Manny pick the schedule because so much changed in the NFL this week that we have to continue with doing that. And what is on my mind tonight is really who is going to win the NFC North, how we see this ending up playing out for every team in the NFC North, not just the Minnesota Vikings, but what the order is going to be, how it's going to end up working out this year and also at the end of the season. And also Aaron Jones and his health

is a big deal for this week. And we saw today out of practice that Aaron Jones was practicing today a little bit, and it was a very light practice for the Vikings. So it was hard to say whether Aaron Jones was taking kind of a real practice or he was just starting to do a little ramp up. On Wednesday will really be the day where we get a good sense for whether Aaron Jones is actually going to have a chance at playing this week with his hip injury, which I think is maybe the biggest factor in this entire game, is whether Aaron Jones ends up playing because everything has played off of Jones so far this

year with the offense. And they were clearly very different when he was not in the game against the New York Jets that Ty Chandler is just not as versatile, does not bring the same sort of presence or even intimidating factor where the defense has to pay attention to him when he's in the backfield and the versatility, the screen game, the blocking, all those things that he does at an elite level. And also he allows that if you don't block perfectly, he can still find a way to four or five yards, which I think Ty Chandler is not quite as good at. Okay, now I'm tweeting this out.

Okay, so gather your thoughts amongst yourselves, put them in the comment section. Let me know what's on your mind for the next half hour. We'll chat. We'll have a good conversation. And then Manny will pick the schedule about 730. So what is the number one thing on your mind as we lead into Vikings and Detroit Lions? JP says, I think we can win the North, but someone's got to keep Kevin young Bruce Arians aware that he needs to keep running the ball like on week one through three screens and short passes are really important.

I agree with you completely JP that I think that Kevin O'Connell is a guy who gets a little bit of tunnel vision at times where it's calling plays that he thinks will work at any given moment. Here's what the defense is playing. Here's what play is going to have success. I'm pushing that button. Here's what I've seen from the defense. Here's my trust in my quarterback. Here's my receivers getting open. And if you go back and watch the Jets game, there are a number of opportunities for Sam Darnold to find open wide receivers in some of those situations where he did dial up passing plays and you were at home and I was thinking, Kevin, can we just throw a short underneath pass here or get a quick completion, get a

swing pass, get a screen pass, get something that is going to keep the clock running, keep your defense off the field, churn out some first downs. But also, if you look at the tape, the receivers are open. So the play call that Kevin O'Connell dialed up is also something that definitely worked. It's just that it wasn't really the right thing for the situation and probably wasn't the right thing for who was playing at the time and who they were playing against. I mean, they're playing against such a tremendous New York jets defense that maybe it just wasn't the right time to do some of that stuff. But I also think too, that after that game, even though we have asked Kevin O'Connell on the show a number of times,

hey, man, you're going to have to really focus on the game management part with your play calling. And the over-aggression has put the defense on the field too much. And Sam Darnold has had now several times where he's turned the ball over when you have the lead and you need to find a way to make sure you prevent that. I don't think that that permeates Kevin O'Connell. I really don't. I don't think that it is the way that he is ever going to approach the game. He is got his own mind in the body of that quarterback and he is dialing up plays the way he would do it if he was out there running him himself and that aggression throwing downfield trying to create explosives trying to put daggers in teams it's going to be who Kevin O'Connell is and I think

what I decided after the last week is I'll probably have other instances throughout the season where I'm talking about this or where I'm saying, hey, O'Connell, trust the run game, trust the screen game, trust the short pass. But maybe TJ Hawkinson is a major factor here where you can end up trusting TJ Hawkinson a little bit more and continuing to go back to TJ Hawkinson in those short situations. But there's also maybe just the fact that he's not going to ever take the foot off the gas and we're all going to have to strap in and deal with it. And I really think that that's something that is probably going to be the case here because even in 2022, I thought there were times where they allowed teams to get back in the game. But the excuse for not running the ball then was, well, Delvin Cook is really struggling

and just doesn't look the same. So you have to continue to throw and you have to keep the gas pedal down because Donatello's defense is so bad. And it almost feels like O'Connell has not quite adjusted to the fact that he has the number one defense. But on the other side of the coin, he might say, well, we have the top defense, so we can be more aggressive because if we make a mistake, then we know the defense is going to make up for it.

I suppose that you could make a pretty strong argument there as well. There will be definitely opportunities to pick apart what O'Connell has done with some of the play calling when they're up. At the same time, if he is going to live and die by this aggressiveness, it's kind of like how when a team lives and dies by three pointers, a basketball team, and well now kind of almost every team does, but if a team is really, really specifically charged to shoot threes, then when they're up 10 points, you're like, Hey, dump it down to the pain or take a little mid range, a little safe jumper. And they're hucking threes and you're going, come on guys. That's who they are. That's what their identity is going to be. And they're hucking threes and you're going, come on guys, that's who they are. That's what their identity is going to be. And they're going to take that all the way to the end of that

road. And, you know, you mentioned Bruce Arians, uh, it was with Tom Brady, but he won a super bowl. He got deep in the playoffs with Carson Palmer doing the no risk at no biscuit. And, you know, there is a little bit, I think Palmer was better early in his career than Sam Darnold, but if we were doing comparables, Carson Palmer and Sam Darnold, big arm USC quarterbacks who throw the ball downfield and who had a lot of ups and downs in their careers because they pushed the ball downfield as much as they did. So I think that they will keep doing it. What I would like to see is just a little bit better on the game management side also from Sam Darnold, because there were some underneath opportunities that he also passed up himself that could have potentially been there. And he didn't throw. So it wasn't just all O'Connell. Sometimes it was, dude, you've got something underneath there and you're just not getting the ball off. So Darnold has to be a little more balanced as he goes into the

second half of the season or whatever we're calling it in part, just with throwing to Justin Jefferson. Justin Jefferson is the best wide receiver in the NFL. He's a great asset for any quarterback. But I think what you saw a little bit in the jets game was Darnold get a little too much Jefferson centric where every play starts with Sam Darnold trying to throw to Justin Jefferson as it should. At the same time, you have to know when to come off of that to work the other guys. There was a play where Josh Oliver was open. There was a play where Johnny Munt was wide open and he just forced the ball toward Jefferson. So even though we say it's always good to throw the ball to Justin Jefferson, it can also not be a hundred percent always super wise to force it to him when you have other options. And it's incredibly difficult

for a quarterback when you have an elite receiver to strike that balance of like, okay, this is a play where I need to get off of that top read because he's double teamed, but also Jefferson catches the ball when he's double teamed. It's not an easy situation. I mean, it's a champagne problem, but it's also something that every quarterback with a receiver of that caliber does have to learn a little bit. As they go into this week, though, I will say that last year,

Nick Mullins didn't throw to anybody else and it worked out great to pick up a lot of yards where he just targeted Jefferson over and over. So maybe that will be the case with Sam Darnold against the Detroit lions, where lots of other quarterbacks have had a ton of success with throwing against the Detroit lions. So we'll have to see how that works out, but I do think that you're just going to have to strap in and understand that when o'connell's team is winning it's going to be gas pedal down when they're eventually losing again at some point gas pedal down like there's not really another gear it's uh if you used now

everybody throws 100 miles an hour now but in major league baseball when they used to bring in closers that threw 100 and that, when they used to bring in closers that threw a hundred and that was all they did. They came in and they just threw fastball, fastball, fastball. And every once in a while, somebody hit one in the stands. Well, but they struck out more guys than they allowed home runs. So it might be the same sort of thing where you're going to get more success overall, but there will be a time or two where we are frustrated with that approach. I don't think it's going to change. After last week, I thought if there was any time where it was going to change, it was then, it probably won't.

Blowfishes says to run the ball that way and incorporate screens, we need Aaron Jones to remain healthy or a different option to Chandler. Chandler is great, but a completely different running back to Jones. Yes, I am a hundred percent with that comment. Aaron Jones has changed the shape of this offense. They can do so many more things. They can lean on the running game in ways that they couldn't before. They have more opportunities to run play action. It's not just the success of play action. It's the opportunity. If you are in second and five, you can run play action all day. If you are second and 12, you really can't. And Aaron Jones always getting positive yards has been such a big benefit for the Vikings offense. The screen game you mentioned is terrific.

The pass protection, he's done a really good job helping out with chips and things like that. Jones has just been a game changer. If he's not there this week, then it very likely will be the Sam Darnold 400-yard passing type of game against the Detroit Lions because we've just seen that there's limitations to what Chandler can do. And I think that throughout history, we've seen a lot of really good number two running backs that came off the bench and we're blazing fast. And we're

just like track runners out there where it's a nice change up to the starting running back. And the guy comes in, he's super fast. You pitch him the ball a couple of times, see what happens. That's Ty Chandler to me. And he can always prove differently, but just last week, and I know he got screwed out of a couple of runs that were called back on penalties, but it just wasn't very consistent with him. With Jones, it feels like this force where he is, if you will, imposing his will on the opponent where it's just give the ball to Jones, positive play, give the ball to Jones, positive play. With Chandler, there's a lot more zeros mixed in and then bigger boosts of rushing yards. And that's harder to plan around than it is with someone like Aaron

Jones, who's almost always getting you between three and 10 or more yards on every single carry. It's rare that he doesn't get at least three or four yards on each time he's got the ball. And then there's also the versatility. You can line them up in different places. He, he is a total game changer. And if they don't have him, it's going to be tougher going forward. I am with you in the idea that they need to search the running back market. And there's a few guys that could potentially be out there. They need to search the running back market for a trade to get another running back in here.

Nathan says, just realized today there is actually a chance the whole division could go to the playoffs. Yeah, how wild is that? Because the addition of that seventh playoff spot makes it, yeah, it's possible because you got the division winners and then the wild cards. And I mean, Chicago is the team that is the most suspect with this, right? Because when it comes to a rookie quarterback, the season goes along, teams start to kind of game plan a little better. Some of the wins for Caleb Williams recently, not to downplay big wins for a team.

You guys know that I don't do that. If you beat a bad team by 20 points, then that's a really good win in my book. But it is Carolina. It is Jacksonville. And with Caleb Williams soon having to face this division, we're talking about how hard it's going to be for the Lions. We're talking about how hard it's going to be for the Packers and for the Vikings, much more experienced teams. It's going to be for the lions. We're talking about how hard it's going to be for the Packers and for the Vikings, much more experienced teams. It's going to be really hard for Caleb Williams. That's the team. That's the most suspect to make it.

But when we go to the other divisions, I mean, Atlanta and Tampa Bay both have a shot San Francisco and Seattle. I wouldn't completely dismiss for a playoff spot out there in the West. And I mean, I guess like, are we counting out Dallas completely? Maybe we should after what just happened to them. I still think they have a lot of talent and the Eagles and Washington are going to battle for that spot. But I mean, if every team finishes with nine or 10 wins, then yeah, it could be the entire division representing the postseason. How crazy is that?

And one of the things that's so interesting about the NFC North is when you go back and you look at 2022, the Vikings win 13 games. Look at the rest of the division. Total mess, really. I mean, the Lions win nine after starting one in six the green bay packers win nine missed the playoffs nine or eight uh missed the playoffs in 2022 chicago just completely tanks chicago at the end of the season is tanking their faces off at the end of the year and they ultimately end up get the the top draft. They traded to the Carolina Panthers.

That whole thing happens with Bryce Young. Just at that point though, nobody is close to the Vikings. Then the Vikings take a step back. All those teams make gains and now everybody is in their winning window all at once. We didn't think that everyone was going to be here. We thought the Packers, we thought the Lions. But now that Chicago is in the mix, now that the Vikings are 5-0, four teams in the same division in their winning windows at once is pure chaos, and I am here for the pure chaos. Blowfish says the home crowd will be more important than ever this week. Need to make the Lions live

off the silent count and trust their offensive line to have multiple false starts. I don't think that they will have multiple false starts. The offensive line for the Lions is healthy and much better than the Texans was when it was here. And also these guys have all been there. All of them have played in US Bank Stadium. Maybe, I mean, I assume Kevin Zeitler has at some point, but he's a veteran. He's played in every venue. So Detroit has a ton of veteran talent

who has been to US Bank Stadium before. Goff has been there a bunch of times. This isn't anything new for the Detroit lions in general. Even if you look at their whole roster, they've all been here before the intimidation factor is not eliminated, but it is mitigated versus what they face for some other teams where it can play a role is just in Jonathan Grenard is so quick off the line of scrimmage. I think it helps a little bit there with the silent counts where you can time it up a little bit better.

And communication, even a very good offensive line can struggle with communication when they're facing off with Brian Flores and all the different things that he can do with the guys that he uses as loopers, edge rushers who come rushing up the and all the different things that he can do with the guys that he uses as loopers, edge rushers who come rushing up the middle and the different things that he does as far as who is pressuring, who's dropping back. That is not easy to solve. I mean, that is a little bit sometimes baffling to offensive lines, no matter how experienced they actually are. But it is, when it comes to these division games, it's always been my experience that they're much closer than normal games. That teams who come to visit, like the Bears, although with Caleb Williams,

it'll be a little different for him, but the Bears, the Packers, just like the Vikings going to Lambeau field, it's a tough place to play, but it's not as tough for the Vikings as it is for other teams because they've gone there. They've been there. They're not in awe of it. They're not surprised by the noise or anything else like that. It's really just another place for them that they're kind of used to. They're not shocked. And I think that goes for Detroit, which said even the playing field a little bit, but it's still a big advantage of us bank stadium to use the noise against any team. I just think that if there is a team that can handle it the best in the entire NFL, it's probably Detroit. Let's see. Austin says any

clarification on what happened to Darnold when he went out for a play he was noticeably worse after the hit and he didn't really have a lot of dropbacks before the hit so that may have happened before uh or or anyway it might have happened anyway even if he hadn't taken that hit that they might have gotten thrown off their game i really felt though that the timing for him, because of the pressure and because of the physical play with Jefferson, there was a lot of plays where the timing was just off. Uh, we haven't seen an injury report yet for this week. And I'll see if Sam Darnold is on it on Wednesday is when they have to put out their injury report.

If Darnold is on it, then we'll know that that hit had some significance to him. I think it was just getting the wind knocked out of him though, because he got hit really in the middle of his body and just kind of stayed down there in the same way if someone punched you in the stomach. But I'm sure that there's a psychological effect to taking a hit like that. You take a hit like that, it's going to throw off a little bit, your nervousness of pressure coming in. And there were a couple of throws that I thought that Darnold rushed and didn't get his footwork right because maybe he was, uh, you know, pressured a little bit more himself

thinking that it was going to arrive. And then at other times it did. I mean, there were times where there was one play where Derrissaw got beat. It was really the only one of the game, but it was a clean beat. There was of course a couple where the right guard got beat. There was even, I thought Blake Brandel had a tough game against the Jets. They're good. They were really good. So I don't know about as far as did he hurt his ribs? Did he break a rib or something like that? That's hard to say if he's on the injury report, I guess we'll know. And sometimes stuff like that, as you guys saw from the quarterback documentary with Kirk is not ever put out there. Um, but I wouldn't assume that. I

mean, I think it was just in general that the jets defense did such a good job of pressuring him and being physical with the vikings receivers that the whole thing threw stuff off um yeah a lot of suspicion about his ribs i just don't know really what to say there because i don't know i mean it looked to me like him he might have ended up hurting his ribs. I just don't know really what to say there because I don't know. I mean, it looked to me like he might've ended up hurting his ribs, but there were so many factors in that game. There was the defense, there was Jones being out. There was, it was raining. It was in London. It was like everything kind of played into a bad game there. I think that against this defense, that's not as good as the jets and doesn't have its best player.

And it's at us bank stadium. I think that it will be a different looking Sam Darnold when he returns this week. Mike says, who do you think has the best secondary in the NFC North top of my head? I would say that Chicago probably does. Um, Brisker didn't play the other day. I think he's banged up, but Jalen Johnson, I think they have the best player of any team secondary wise. I was not blown away by the Packers. They were okay, but not particularly great. And when it comes to Detroit, well, Detroit, you know, branch,

Terry and Arnold's going to have to prove it, but he is very, very talented and Carlton Davis is pretty good. They've really improved a lot there. So Detroit is close. I think with Chicago and the Vikings are right in that mix too. If Stefan Gilmore keeps playing this well, and Shaq Griffin keeps playing this well, then they can stay in that mix for having one of the better secondaries, which we were very concerned about because you also like how good is Harrison Smith going to play and everything else. And he's been really terrific. Stefan Gilmore though, is the swing player to the entire conversation because I think

the Vikings do have an argument for the secondary who's played among the best. And the other thing is too, that secondaries play off of the front seven. The front seven for the Vikings has been excellent. They're number two in pressure rate. And when that's the case, then it's a lot easier to play cornerback for the Vikings. Still, that said, I wouldn't be against them going out and trying to get another corner if they possibly could. That's going to be the one that I'm looking at. By the way, I am interested in your ideas. I'm working on an article of trade targets potentially for the Vikings because I think we're about there now where they could be on the phones.

We saw a trade today with the Jaguars. They traded away a defensive tackle to Seattle. So the trades are going to start here and the Vikings could be in the mix. So I'm curious about your ideas, the names that you think the Vikings should investigate in potential trades. I got one that I want to throw by you guys and Manny. Maybe I'll just do it now and get your reaction. Would it be crazy? So I know the Bengals won. Would it be crazy

though? If the Bengals lost another game or two to try to trade for T Higgins, is that crazy? Like they've been good. They've been so good with the receivers and they're getting Hockinson back. So maybe that is crazy, but I kind of went, eh, well, I mean, if you're all in, then you're all in, right. Uh, and you know, Addison has been great, but I don't think he's as good as Higgins for this career so far. Naylor has been great, but you know, the same sort of deal. If someone gets banged up and Naylor does have the history of being banged up, you're getting Hawkinson back. There's not a lot of football to go around.

But at the same time, the Vikings, you can see how much I'm kind of going back and forth on the idea. The Vikings are going to throw a million times game. So maybe it's not bad to have more and more weapons. I don't know. I don't know if they should actually do that or not. But I'm curious about your potential trade targets. If you have any ideas, anybody in mind,

who you think the Vikings should look for, because I'm making out this list. Let's see here. Blowfishes says, Patrick Peterson has interest in returning to the Vikings. Would he really take a backup role as we can't complain about our starters this season? Did he say that somewhere? Did he say that in like a podcast or something that he has interest in coming back to the

Vikings? I mean, who wouldn't at a five and O team? And Peterson was a really beloved player. I just don't know though. I mean, he didn't play badly for Pittsburgh, but with them being healthy right now, and he has been out of the league. I just, I'm not sure. I'm not sure if it would be right to bring him back in. The other thing is too, and there is a little bit of a dynamic that the team has kind of taken on its own group of leaders and Patrick Peterson is a natural leader. Is he going to want to take on a leadership role that has already kind of been divvied up to other

players? So one of those little dynamics you kind of think of the system was also way different when he was here and when he had success uh that was not the brian flores type of system i mean i would welcome patrick peterson back and if they have any injuries of course that would make a lot of sense but i'm not entirely sure that that would be the best option uh as opposed to maybe some other guys that they could potentially get. All right, Manny Hill. Let's welcome in Manny Hill to the show. 5-0 Vikings, 4-1 Lions. And, you know, because of the bye week, Manny, we get to spend all freaking week leading up to this one

talking about the Vikings as the best team in football, facing off with the other best team in football, NFC North everywhere. It's a heck of a time to be alive, Mr. Hill. It is. It really is. It's a great time to be a fan of sports. It's a great time to be a fan of football.

We got baseball playoffs going on right now. I got both games happening tonight on my screen right in front of me. One to the left of you, one to the right of you. Juan Soto just hit a home run for the Yankees. And it looks like the Bills are trying to score a touchdown right now against the Jets. So I'm excited. I got all the sports juices flowing and I can't wait for this Lions Vikings game on Sunday. Saturday, I spent probably 14 hours watching college football. And then Sunday I had the links game on with red zone on my computer. So you just watch, you know, back and forth. So every game on the computer, WNBA finals on the TV, you're right. It doesn't get any better than

this. The fact that the weather has also been pretty really good is like, can we just stop right here? Just keep this, what we have at this moment. The hype for this game, Manny, is going to be great. Vikings and Detroit Lions leading up to it. And I was thinking earlier today, you know, should we still have Manny pick the schedule? I mean, nothing changed for the Vikings,

but the answer was absolutely yes, because so much changed around the National Football League. So I don't think we should waste any time, Manny Hill. Let's just get right into picking the Vikings schedule and we'll get back into answering your questions, your your thoughts and of course your reactions to Manny's picks and I was told last week Manny that I was being a little bit leading with some of my lead-ins to each game now I know you were not influenced because you probably already made the picks but I will instead give you the game reaction and then I will react to your reaction okay all right that works for me just just so nobody thinks that i'm shading your opinions on the picks man he's a grown-up folks

okay uh the vikings are five and oh they are playing the detroit lions if you have not heard on october 20th at u.s bank stadium let's start picking this viking schedule with this sunday's game who do you think wins this is i've i've been wavering on this game now for the last almost 24 hours now um you know aiden hutchinson going down for the lions is a massive massive loss for their defense he's their best best please i mean he's arguably their best overall player, but certainly their best player on the defensive side. And losing him is a huge, huge blow to that defense. And I think that can really work in the Vikings' favor.

I do think that the Lions, though, at least on offense, are really clicking on all cylinders right now, as they showed against Dallas yesterday. I don't think that the Vikings are going to get blown out of the water the way the Cowboys did yesterday because the Cowboys are just so banged up and beat up. I'm going to take the Lions winning a close one here at US Bank Stadium, but it's going to be a really really fun entertaining game so i think that before the aiden hutchinson injury i would have said okay yeah this is going to be pretty tough that has to have a domino effect for them he is not just okay they lost the best defensive player in the nfl and they had handled some other guys pretty well. The, the, the Nick Bosa's and so forth. They had done a really good job against them, but this, this dude was on even another level from where those guys are playing. He looked like Reggie white out there over the first handful of weeks and to have him gone, they don't really have other edge rushers.

I think that might've moved the needle a little bit for me, but this is your pick the Vikings schedule. So six and one. If I told you Aaron Jones was playing, would that change your mind? He's not. I'm not telling you that. I'm not sure yet. But is that shading your pick at all? His injury?

It is. Yeah, it's influencing it a little bit because we've talked all season about how important Aaron Jones is to this offense, how big he is in the running game, screen game, how important he is for Sam Darnold as kind of a safety net in that short passing game. It really, you know, his ability to run the ball kind of opened things up for everybody else, certainly for Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison and those guys too. So if the Vikings don't have Aaron Jones, I think it's going to be that much, that much harder for the Vikings on Sunday. I agree. These two factors may, if Aaron Jones plays, push me a little over the edge toward the Vikings. That may be the factor that influences my pick the most when we get to later in the week. So just a couple of days after losing, in your opinion, to Detroit, the Vikings will travel to

the Los Angeles Rams still as a five and one football team to play a very banged up Rams team. Maybe they'll get a little healthier at that point, but still, it has been a tough time for the Los Angeles Ramsams what say you about this game yeah i think the vikings will bounce back off of the loss to detroit and go to los angeles it'll be a short week obviously um and a bit of ways to travel out to the west coast but i think they'll come away with the win the rams are just they're just banged up they're just not playing very well right now matthew stafford's kind of doing whatever he can at this point, but he just doesn't really have a lot to work with. And so I think that is going to be, leave things kind of ripe for the picking

for Brian Flores and that defense. And I think the Vikings will come through with a win. Okay. Six and one. Can you explain something to me,ny on september 22nd the vikings played the houston texans they played detroit on october 20th and then only play one other home game until december 1st how the heck did this happen between september 22nd and decemberst, they will have played two times at US Bank Stadium. Like, what were they thinking here? I mean, I know you robbed them of the home game for London, but this seems completely unfair to the Vikings to be at home so rarely. So they go on the road. Well, they go back home for the other game that's here

against Indianapolis. After that, at six and one, I assume Anthony Richardson is playing quarterback. I also assume it's possible that as soon as Richardson picks up a football, he could be injured again. And it might be Joe Flacco at that point. That makes this game a little harder to pick. And that team has not been a joke. They've been in a lot of games, and they've won some games, but I don't know what to expect from Anthony Richardson, assuming that he is the starting quarterback here. Yeah, if Anthony Richardson plays, and I think the last time I picked the schedule, I said this too. If Anthony Richardson plays, I think Brian Flores is going to have a field day, and I'm still high on Anthonyardson i still think he has a chance to be really good

but he still has a lot of growth a lot of development still in front of him that needs to happen um if it's joe flacco then things could get i think really interesting uh because flacco seems to i don't know how he's doing it because he's 39 years old and he he looked like he was cooked when he was playing for the Jets a couple of years ago. And then he comes back with the Browns and he does some stuff. And then this year, he's been playing pretty well for Indianapolis too. So I'm going to pick this game with the assumption that Anthony Richardson is going to play because I think because he's a part of their future, they want him to play. They want him to be healthy.

So when he is healthy and ready to play, they are going to put him out there. So I'm going to assume that he is going to be ready to play and that the Vikings will come away with a win on November 3rd. Okay. So now they are a seven and one football team facing two teams that are absolute laughing stocks and back-to-back weeks. The Jaguars, there is no way doug peterson continues to coach the jacksonville jaguars by the time the vikings face them on november 10th

vikings at jaguars what's your pick this is a win i think this is a win i depending on you know i mean doug peterson might get fired next week because they got another london game next week right they're staying over there in london yes so which is probably the only reason he's not fired yet right so if they lose again this coming week uh he's going to be fired and they're going to have a new guy in there. And I think by this time, you know, November 10th, I think sort of the honeymoon, the extra jolt of energy with the new interim coach, I think we'll have kind of worn off a little bit

and they'll go back to being the Jacksonville Jaguars who are an absolute mess. And so I will take the Vikings to win in Jacksonville. So if I'm not mistaken, that puts them at eight and one to start the 2024 season, matching what they did in 2022, Manny, when they went eight and one to start that year. And the game that they got their eighth win was against the Bills. And then things started to come apart at the seams.

But I don't know if that's going to be the case here because after going to jacksonville and getting a win they then go to tennessee where they will play i guess will levis there's some quarterbacks in this league manny deshaun watson will levis where you go yeah really you're gonna You're staying with that, huh? I mean, Watson's the worst ever, but I mean, Levis has looked almost just as bad as Deshaun Watson this year when he's not running over sound guys that they have to take away on the cart, if you saw that.

He's throwing crazy interceptions, but he also doesn't create a lot of explosive plays. That is one where we will be talking about how Kevin O'Connell evaluated Will Levis had a chance to draft Will Levis and said, nah, I'm good and made the right call. So anyway, Vikings and Titans. And remember Manny at some point it's the rules and you don't have to do it here.

There has to be a letdown game at some point on this schedule. So they are 8-1. Is this it? No. No? Okay. 9-1. Yeah, they're 9-1.

And, you know, Will Levis just stinks. And I keep thinking, like, all right, the next game, Will Levis is going to pick it up, and he's going to play a little bit better. But he just seems to get worse and worse by the week, and this is going to be another win for the Vikings. Move them to 9-1. Whoa, 9-1 headed to Soldier Field to face Caleb Williams. Now, the thing is, I don't even know if this could qualify as your letdown game

because Chicago might be good at this this point though they're going to have to beat someone a little better than they have beaten throughout the season so far the difference maker though is their defense is pretty darn legit their playmakers are starting to come alive chicago's been looking pretty good vikings at soldier field as a nine and one football team. Holy cow. Yeah, it's crazy. I've been pretty consistent ever, you know,

all the times I've been picking the schedule of putting this down as a loss. And I think I'm going to stick with that this week as well. It's just a tough place to play soldier field. I think the bears are pretty good. And Caleb Williams is starting to play better, starting to build some confidence and can start to see some of the development with him um i do agree with you like it would be nice to see you know a little bit more from

them against you know a higher quality opponent and the vikings might be that opponent who knows um but i will put this down as a loss just because it's Soldier Field and the Vikings typically just have trouble there, and I think the Bears are a pretty formidable opponent this year. I can just feel the comment sections rage every time you pick a loss, but this moves them to 9-2. They're not going to go 17-0, folks. Well, you don't know that. You don't know that, Manny. You can't prove that they won to go 17 and 0, folks. That's just not going to happen.

Well, you don't know that. You don't know that, Manny. You can't prove that they won't go 17 and 0, but that does not count as your letdown game. It does count as one hell of an exciting game, though, because that one will be on national TV, which I think that they likely put it as national TV to start the season because of Caleb Williams,

and now it might be because of the Minnesota Vikings nine and two going out to Seattle, who has been a, Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I saw the other Chicago, Arizona, Arizona, December 1st home against Arizona at nine and two. Yeah. I was feeling pretty good about Arizona. And then yesterday they kind of laid an egg in Green Bay. I don't know what that was about. I'll put this down as a win for the Vikings.

The Cardinals are still just kind of tricky, though. I don't really – there are times where they look really, really good. But there are other times like you get – like yesterday or like what they had against Washington a couple of weeks ago where they just look abysmal and you're like, what's going on there? So for now, I will put that down as a win at U.S. Bank Stadium. You know what I think it is? It is mediocrity. That's that is what it is when you are just a math team and they're going in the right direction overall. They also lost Marvin Harrison yesterday to an injury, which is tough. But when you're middling, sometimes if you're the Vikings and you're middling, you play

every game to a three-point winner loss for three straight years. But I think a lot of other teams that are middling, they just one week they're great and one week they're terrible and you never really know what is going to happen there. So it could be either version. I lean toward, though, that Arizona team just cannot match up with the Vikings, and they might be in a little bit of a tough spot by the time they face them. So that makes them 10-2. And guess who is coming to U.S. Bank stadium on December 8th, the return of Kirk cousins, who is suddenly come alive as a Falcon.

And finding his weapons still not moving at all in the pocket whatsoever, but they're running game has gotten a lot better. Kyle pits is actually playing. playing okay the viewership just shot through the roof the more i cacawed so i decided to keep doing it uh do you think they win december 8th atlanta yes i do think the vikings win this game um there's going to be so much drama storylines all that stuff with k Cousins coming back to US Bank Stadium the thing is with the Falcons they've played almost all of their games really close and the one game that they have that they have won by more than one possession was yesterday against

one of the worst teams in the league in the Carolina Panthers where they won by 18 and even like early in that game it was still kind of close, and Carolina was kind of hanging around a little bit. This is just kind of Kirk Cousins in a nutshell. I don't... I'm not sure how good the Falcons actually are. I know Kirk is playing well well and the numbers are there, but they haven't really beaten anybody and look super impressive in the process. You know, I mean, they beat Carolina yesterday, but it's a bad team. I'm talking about like good teams, you know,

good quality teams. They haven't really done that as of yet. But, you know, they're four and two. So there is some quality football being played there. I will put the Vikings down as winners here. I think it'll be close just because that's what Kirk Cousins does. He'll have the ball. I think Kirk will have the ball with a chance to drive down and maybe win the game, but he'll come up short, and the Vikings will hold on and win.

That sounds familiar somehow. Yeah. I don't know. win the game but he'll come up short and the vikings will hold on and win uh that sounds familiar somehow i don't know uh they should be two and four because they had something like a one percent chance to beat the eagles and they did and like a one percent chance to beat the bucks and they did it's only in kirk fashion that he could be set up in this situation after having really four games they should have lost. But somehow he pulled some magic out of a hat. But you're right. The only impressive game they've played all year is yesterday. He did throw for 500 yards in that Bucks game, but they were losing most of the time.

And we kind of know about that a little bit. Okay. know about that a little bit um okay so the vikings are now 11 and 2 and playing chicago on december 16th is that a win or loss against chicago at home december 16th as an 11 and 2 football team i will put this down as a win for the vikings as they avenge the loss from uh three weeks prior. They'll be at home. We'll have the home crowd behind them. And I think they'll put on a better performance and they'll bounce back and get a win in a

close game against the pretty good Chicago Bears. Yes. And this is the Monday night game that will have all the juice. I was looking ahead at the schedule earlier, but yes, this one, Caleb Williams, Monday night football, the brightest lights, but also the loudest version of us bank stadium you will ever find. And I think that a rookie quarterback in that environment, trying to diagnose what Brian Flores is throwing at him is going to be almost impossible.

So I like this pick. You are now obligated by the laws of manny picks the schedule to pick a loss for the seattle seahawks game to make them 12 and 3 you have to have a letdown game and now officially you get to use this because seattle i don't know what has happened to their defense they traded for a defensive tackle who's not all that good they are just not a very good football team on that side and the geno smith thing is funny so is trevor lawrence sometimes i am amazed by the way and i'm just going to rant about this because you're not picking this game it's a loss it has to be by the rules but i was going to pick it as a loss. Anyway, one thing I just don't fully understand though about quarterback analysis is when

people are obsessed with arms and not so much with the bigger picture of a quarterback. So with Trevor Lawrence, at some point we have to admit Trevor Lawrence isn't that good. He's just not. He just never has been and until he is I can't say that he's a good quarterback and them paying him of course they had to but put him up against Sam Darnold and their careers yo tell me where it's so much better than what Sam Darnold ever was that doesn't mean at another franchise that he might not have been better, but the guy is not accurate. I don't like his decision-making. He throws a lot of picks. He's just, I don't know, just kind of a mess. And I think with Geno Smith, he's better

than that, but he's also a 500 type of quarterback, even at his best for a reason, because there are weaknesses there with the decision-making with throwing into traffic sometimes with long stretches where he's not that good that have cropped up over the last couple of years where I don't think this is an elite quarterback. And still we have to put it down as a loss because the Vikings will have one of those at some point to make them 12 and three, but I'm not impressed by the new coach. And I don't think that Gino's a long-term option for Seattle. So there's the, there's a Seattle take now green Bay comes to us bank stadium, proving they're still allowed to have

games at us bank stadium in the same month of which gosh, December, I'm going to be going to that venue a lot. December 1st, December 8th, December 16th, and December 29th. I'm going to just put up a cot there in the press box at US Bank Stadium for December as the Vikings face the Packers at 12-3. Real quick, what's the Packers record? 12-3 Vikings versus the what Packers? I think the Packers will be 10 and five. I like that. I like that pick who wins. I will pick the Packers to win. Oh, you had to do it. I had to do it. 12 and four.

So now it's a great record. It's a great record. I can just feel the seething with anger from the comments, but I get it. I'm they, I've always had this rule picking the schedule that I split the division games, just three and three. You never really know. Sometimes they win win one more sometimes they lose one more i always go like that and it

makes sense to do that and that's what you've done here so far but are you picking a 13th win at ford field in the final week of the season which now really looks like it could be for the conference, Manny. Yep. And I'm going to pick the Vikings to win. Oh, there is 13 wins. He has risen the bar from 12 wins last week. The Vikings didn't even play to now 13 wins. The high water mark of manny picks the schedule circle the date this was the day that manny picked the vikings to win 13 you know it's it's interesting with the division with the divisional games too because i i almost i just look at all four teams in this division. They all seem to be too good to get swept by any of the other three teams in the division. Yeah, yep, I agree with that.

They're all really good. It's like I can't really pick, I can't really imagine the Vikings beating the Packers twice this year. They've already got the win at Lambeau. I'm not saying it's impossible, obviously, but I just feel like all four of these teams are too good. And these four teams know each other so well that they're going to kind of beat up on each other a little bit. And this division is going to be really tight. I mean, the Bears might finish in last place in this division and they might win.

They might win 10 games. They might win 10 games. That is my follow-up though for you, Manny. My follow-up is give me the order and the wins for every NFC North team. This is a new addition to Manny picks the schedule, and then we will get to your questions and comments. So jump in, throw some more questions and reactions to Manny's 13 win season that he has just projected. But what's your what is your NFC North projection? All right. So I have the Vikings winning week 17 at Detroit, putting them at 13 and four. I have them as winning the NFC North. I have the Lions right behind them at 12 and four i have them as winning the nfc north i have the lions right behind them at

12 and five i've got the packers at 11 and six and i've got the bears i'll put the bears at nine and eight finishing i mean i just i was thinking just about the same thing uh maybe i mean the Same thing. Maybe, I mean, the Packers, I think can be the most inconsistent team of this group that with the lions, they have so much talent, even without Aiden Hutchinson, there's so much talent on offense there that I just don't see them stumbling too often. The biggest, the biggest variance here. I mean, earmuffs, everybody who doesn't want to hear it. The biggest variance here is the Vikings. When you're making this pick because of who is playing quarterback. And I think that Sam Darnold has been tremendous and has a great chance to repeat everything

that he's done in these first five games. But if he hits some stumbling blocks for any stretch of games, if there are three shockingly stunningly bad games that we can't explain or understand, then they won't win 13. It'll be more like 11. And then likely someone else is at the top instead of you. I'm not saying that's going to happen. I'm just saying it's possible.

Even when you look back at 2021, Matthew Stafford, remember the three great games stretch where they lost, he struggled. He came to us bank stadium and threw like three picks and a win against the Vikings in 2021. I think that Darnold is kind of a light version of Matthew Stafford, um, where he throws the ball over the place. He's going to take risks, but he's also going to absolutely wow you at times with his arm talent. That is the biggest question. But the thing is when you start five and oh, and then you play the AFC cell three times in a row with all those teams kind of being a disaster, then you got a pretty good chance to kind of have a bad stretch and still win something like 12 or 13 games. So, well, great work picking the schedule. Let's get back to answering some questions now.

Mike says, fantasy question, will TJ Hawkins have been on your roster on his week one return when he first comes back? So by the way, my expectation here, I would be absolutely shocked if he plays this week. I don't think that's going to happen. An ACL injury needs more than just a couple of days of practice to play in an NFL game. I also think that they don't really want him playing against Kirby Joseph and trying to go kill him. So that could be another element, but I really think that this injury is one that you need to take slowly. I'm looking at Thursday night against the Rams for him to play in some sort of role. And then the following week, there's that long break for him to play against Indianapolis. But Manny,

in your opinion, how big is, and actually this reminds me, there's another news item we have to talk about that I should have started the show with. How big is TJ Hawkinson to Sam Darnold sustaining that success? Huge. Absolutely huge. I think when you're looking at, because we've kind of talked about, can we see Sam Darnold start to, you know, throw the ball underneath at times instead of just, you know, chucking it 50 yards down the field all the time on play action? You know, can they utilize a screen game with Aaron Jones? And can they kind of get some of those intermediate, short to intermediate routes with TJ Hawkinson going once he comes back.

I think that's going to be absolutely huge. If Hawkinson comes back and he's healthy and he picks up kind of where he left off last year, which he was having a really good year before he got hurt, I think that's going to be astronomically huge for Sam Darnold's success. Because I think we kind of saw in that Jets game that, you know, forcing the ball down the field, not really looking at some of the intermediate stuff, some of the safer throws.

Sometimes it's okay to take those. We would get on Kirk's case sometimes for taking those passes too much. But I think having a good balance and taking those passes when they're there, um, I think will be huge. And I think once, once CJ Hawkinson comes back, those types of situations will be available, will be a lot more available to Sam Darnold. And I think it'll be huge, huge for our Donald to continue to play well. So the news today was that dalton reisner and his window is now open to practice as he returns from an injury and i think that the minute he's really 100 ready to go he should start at right guard uh i just it's it's just over for me there's no more development wishing hope and praying

you need somebody who could pass protect uh too many plays have been blown up and i get it ingram is very physical in the run game but look look what we're talking about here talking about kevin o'connell pass first offense there just needs to be better pass protection and you can't lose immediately you can't have these mental mistakes where you're just not blocking the right person. That seems to happen sometimes just dudes flying by him where he lunges. It's the same mistakes that he made as a rookie. They have not changed. And as a rookie, I thought they should bench him for somebody else. They never did it. And then last year I thought at times they should bench him and maybe he made a little progress

but then at the end of the year he still ends up with some of the worst numbers in the league and this year the patience the development the hey you know you're gonna have to give him more time I'm I'm finished I don't need to see any more Reisner can start as soon as he comes back he's he's a proven great pass protector I'll work around the run part of it I need Sam Darnold to have a very clean pocket and Reisner was great last year as a pass protector I'm gonna so much more lean toward that yeah no I'm a thousand percent with you you know and I mean Sam we've seen kind of we, we've seen Sam Donald get a little bit nicked up in the last few weeks where, you know, he's getting brought down and like knees twisting and he's getting

hit, you know, and in different situations. And you just need that pocket to be, like you said, as clean as possible. You can't mess around with this anymore. As soon as Reisner is ready, he needs to be in there starting at the right guard. I'm not as worried about the running game because I think Aaron Jones, provided that he's healthy, is good enough to maybe overcome some of the shortcomings from Dalton Reisner in the run game. So I think that the time is now. As soon as Reisner is ready, he's got to be the guy.

You just can't afford to mess around with this anymore especially now knowing what we know about this team now getting off to this good start this is the the the the perspective on this team has really changed now with them being in first place and getting off to this good start now we're talking about getting to the playoffs winning this division making some noise in the playoffs, maybe a run to the NFC Championship game. And if that's the goal now for this season, you can't mess around with it. There's no more time for developing the young right guard. This is year three for him.

We're not seeing a lot of progress. It's time to put Dalton Reisner in there when he's ready. Rob says says do you think aaron jones is going to be good to go this week it could koc be playing the questionable game up until game day i mean i don't really know how severe the injury is i do think when you get the opportunity to play that game with the other team that you should take it. If you're in a position to be like, we don't know, he got banged up last week. I guess we'll see. Uh, but I do think it was probably legit because he couldn't go back in and looked very stiff and he just has this history of

injuries. Uh, so it might be a serious, actual questionable. They need him to play and they need at least him to play half the game. Even if he could just go in for a couple of reps, this is a big one on the other side of that. Gosh, I mean, it's a long season and you need Aaron Jones for the whole season. So I'm of two minds of this. Like if he's close, should you just play him some? So the other team knows that he's there and has to pay attention to it. And even if you play Ty Chandler more, you still

have Aaron Jones for the big moments that you could put him in. Or do you just say, well, look, you got to make sure that he plays for the entire season because they're looking at a 12 or 13 win season here that they're aiming for. I don't know. I think that's a tough one, Manny. They really do need him to play. But also they could go out and try to get another running back in the trade market. Thing is, if he doesn't play though, it's miles Gaskin as the backup running back and CJ ham. And that's it. They don't have anybody else. That's pretty hard to work with. If you're the Vikings without Aaron Jones right now. And this is a team in the Detroit lions where.

As for as good as the Vikings defense has been, they've been fantastic. This is an offense in Detroit that can put a lot of points on the board. And this is going to be a game where, you know, I don't think that you can really rely on Brian Flores' defense to just completely shut down the other team, the other team's offense, and hold them to 13 or 17 points. I mean, it's possible the Lions are going to get, you know, 20, 20 plus, maybe even closer to 30 points in this game. You're going to need to be able to put some points on the board and your best way of doing that is with Aaron Jones on the field. Now, how much you're able

to use him, you know, we might find out, you know, but I think it's going to be really important for him to be out there. If he's out there and it's not working or if he's not feeling right, then obviously you pull him out of the game and you just take your chances with Ty Chandler and Myles Gaskin. But I think the idea should be, let's try and get Aaron Jones out out there in the field see if he's healthy as possible and then you know give ourselves the best chance to win that i think has to be the mindset for the vikings for this game alex says is it time to raid the cowboys for some players i don't think the cowboys are trading anybody they are not tanking they're not playing for next year that don't have anybody healthy oh that's true but that that's just not a team who does that i mean if you're the jaguars you lose one more game you're

trading everything that's not nailed down clearly the guy i know i didn't think of this they traded a guy who has to fly from london to seattle that's a nightmare for him. But obviously the Jaguars have started that process already. And I imagine several teams have that. The Dallas Cowboys are going to fight until it's completely over because they just have no other choice. Mike Zimmer is lucky though, to have a job today because injuries are not 47 points is a lot of points. Digits. I'm concerned with the Vikings losing effectiveness via exhaustion if they do not get time of possession under control. I wholeheartedly agree, Manny.

I think that they have been on the field just too much as a defense, and they have a lot of players who have had some injury histories before who have not played this many snaps either recently or ever, and it does have to be a concern that this Vikings offense has been quick strike but has not been slow churn long drives and I know that's not O'Connell's style but they do have to flip a switch there at some point or the defense is going to get worn down because they now have two games in a row. Yeah, and I think that's maybe why, you know, the bye week kind of came when it did, like why it was important for the bye week to come when it did.

You know, because if you go back to the London game with the Jets, between that game and after the Los Angeles game, the November 3rd in Indianapolis, or at home against Indianapolis, you've basically played two games in the stretch of about a month. So I think the way this schedule is going, and I know that it's going to get tough because they're going to have three straight road games after that, but I think the two games are going to be really close together on a short week but i think the fact that you're only playing two games in the span of about a four-week stretch

i think can be really helpful i think coming off the bye if it seems like the vikings defense should be a little bit fresh um a little bit rested uh but yeah i mean i i think this is where this goes back to the complimentary football stuff we always talk about like this is where you look at the offense and say all right koz i know you want to hit the big place i know you want to do the play action and deep pass to jefferson deep passes to addison but you know you can establish a run game, a quick short passing game, short intermediate routes, screen game, again, screen game. We talked about the screen game over and over again. That's going to help you sort of maintain drives and pick up first downs to where it's not, you know, three and four play drives.

Nine and ten play drives that take five, six minutes off the clock that can really actually help your defense rest a little bit so that they don't get worn down late in games. Well, let's see. Mike says, I think if we are shopping offense at the deadline, guard center or running back has to take priority. So I threw it out there, Manny, about T Higgins. I don't think the Bengals are going to trade them. I think they're also in for the long haul. I don't think they're in teardown mode. They're going to play until they're eliminated from the playoffs, but I couldn't help myself, but think about, you know, Addison has been pretty good, but Jefferson and T Higgins, you can never have too many.

And then of course, unsurprisingly, the Adam Thielen suggestion arrives, but he's dealing with a serious hamstring injury. So I don't think that's a very good idea. Now, Chuba Hubbard from Carolina is David's idea. But I don't know if they're going to give him up. He's really good. And that team is going to want to win eventually. But with running backs, if you hang on to them too long, they will kind of run out of steam at some point. That might be an interesting one. I brought up Miles Sanders because he just doesn't play with Chuba Hubbard being as good as he is. But running back is the most robust for a potential trade. I mean, I just think that that's the position with the most number of

guys that they could go after in the trade market without having to give up their first round pick. Comment on that and this one, because I like it. Clifford says trade idea, defensive tackle, Jeffrey Simmons from Tennessee. Again, I don't know if that team's looking to trade one of the best players in the league who's not that old, but he's very expensive. They tried to spend some money in the off season and totally flopped as a team. So those two ideas, a very good running back or going all in, because you have to give them first round pick for sure to get jeffrey simmons yeah i i like i like both players i mean simmons is fantastic um i i do you know

i i i feel like the the running back i mean you could use both positions obviously you could use some help from both positions i feel like the running back, I mean, you could use both positions, obviously. You could use some help from both positions. I feel like the running back thing, though, is maybe a little bit more important just because of maybe the uncertain health of Aaron Jones. And just you don't really have a lot of depth there outside of Ty Chandler as a backup. And so, you know, and again, you know, I'm not sure that Ty Chandler is a guy that can really, you know, if Aaron Jones has to miss significant time, if he has to miss, you know, three games in a row, I'm not sure Ty Chandler, you know, is able to really sort of carry that load

and carry that responsibility of being the number one back, a number one feature back. And it's a, I think it's a huge drop off after him down to Myles Gaskin. So that position to me is, I think is absolutely huge. We've talked about at almost ad nauseum, how important Aaron Jones is to the offense. I think really any running back that can be, you know, an Aaron Jones light, I think could really help this offense.

And if you don't have that guy, I think it's just going to make things that much harder for Sam Darnold. You can get, you know, if you could get Simmons from Tennessee, then, I mean, I'd say do it because that would just strengthen and already really, really, really good defense. But I think running back for sure has to be like priority. Number one, when you get close to the trade deadline.

I think so too. I mean, of course. I mean, Dexter Lawrence gets brought up in this, and yeah. I mean, do you want one of the best players in the NFL at a position that's really important? Yes, of course you do. Would they actually do it is another part of the conversation. But I mean, if you are the Tennessee Titans, you've just kind of changed leadership at the,

at the head coach position. Maybe you're looking a little farther down the road and saying, you're putting so much money into this one guy and he doesn't want to be here. I don't know how he feels. I'm just saying that's possible that he doesn't want to be here, but otherwise I don't really see a reason why they would trade him teams rise and fall all the time. And he's not that old. He's extremely good, but I'd throw him on any trade target list just from the sheer possibility that he could be that guy. Um, is the faithful says if they beat the lions, I don't want to hear prove it game for a long time that, you know, this year there, every game in the North is going to be a prove it game because

of how good the competition is, but fair enough, this game Manny. And I think they have proven it. I mean, I think when you get to five and Oh, when you have the best point differential in the league, you've proven that you are a serious Superbowl contender at five and Oh, with that point differential, the thing about beating Detroit is that it's so let's say right now, you're kind of hovering around in this atmosphere with several other NFC teams. Oh, there goes the Packers. They're floating with you a little bit. They're a little below you because you beat them. And here's the lions. They've just floated up because they've been oh there goes the packers they're floating with you a little bit they're a little below you because you beat them and here's the lions they've just floated up because they've been killing people

and you're a little above them but if you beat the lions you float to the top and there's not even a discussion of who the best team in the nfc is if you beat the lions, it's you. And I think that's what the prove it is like prove it can mean numerous different things. Uh, every game, like prove it against the Packers was, Hey, go show us that you are a super bowl contender. I didn't think that London was prove it. London was more like just survive it, uh, than it was prove it. then it was prove it so the last prove it was against green bay now it's a different version of that after you go four and oh all right this seems pretty for real but you go to six and oh and two wins in the toughest division in football you are the best team in the nfc no debate no fpi power rankings, no whatever anybody could put without the Minnesota Vikings at the top of the NFC.

100%. And you look at around the rest of the conference, all the other teams are there. There's major, major question marks. And, you know, on the Vikings, the big question mark for the Vikings going forward the rest of the season is like can Sam Darnold sort of maintain this level of play um but I don't think there's really any question marks about you know the defense I think with the defense is just stay healthy and the defense should be fine you look around the rest of the conference I mean I think what Washington has done so far is pretty impressive I don't know if I like what they have on defense, but Jaden Daniels is playing really well, and they went toe-to-toe with a pretty good Baltimore team

yesterday. The rest of that division, Philly doesn't look very good. Dallas is a mess. The Giants aren't even in the conversation. Yeah, I mean, the South is you got Atlanta and Tampa Bay, but do we have either one of those teams really scare you right now? No. San Francisco has been the class of the conference for the last five years, but they're banged up and dealing with some serious injuries. And there's really nobody else in that division that I think could stand out either. So it's, it's the Vikings in Detroit right now and green Bay's right there. And Chicago's been, you know, plucky and, and, and kind of a nuisance and, and, you know, a team that has some talent too, uh, especially on the defensive side. So you're the Vikings, you take care of business against the lions. It is you at the top the nfc and you are looking down at everybody else

and you're saying get at me dog let's go so this is uh this is going to be a huge huge huge game on sunday intrepid fool says lions might win but let's not hype them too much they aren't better than the texans i think the vikings win a close one to stay unbeaten i do think that they're better than the texans as a complete team uh the te Texans have one of the great quarterbacks in the league. They're good. I mean, I picked the Texans to go to the Super Bowl on the AFC side, so I think the Texans are fantastic. Here's where it's different. C.J. Stroud had never come here before. Jared Goff has come here numerous times and beat this team and put up huge performances. And even when he was facing Brian Flores, his defense last year was still pretty good in that building in us bank

stadium. The other thing is, here's what I don't get Manny. I've gotten this sense over the last two days, there is some worry from Vikings fans or some annoyance at us talking about me last night, us now talking about how good the lions are. What are you afraid of? I don't know why you'd be concerned with, and by the way, it's the truth.

They're that good. They have just annihilated their last two opponents. They have had a top five offense for, is this the third year in a row now? Top five offense. This is probably the best version of that top five offense from a roster perspective, where they have multiple good receivers, multiple running backs, elite offensive line, quarterback who's been to the Super Bowl, one of the best offensive play callers in football, a vastly improved defense without Aiden Hutchinson. But your team is 5 and oh, like you don't need to do that anymore. You could say, all right, roll the ball out to great teams. Let's see them play. You don't

have to be the ones like, well, they're not that good. We might be able to beat them. You don't have to be that way. You can admit that they're that good. They have Superbowl expectations. So do you. That's what makes this football game great. I don't think that Vikings fans should be backing away or saying, well, the lions aren't, they are dude. They are. They were in the NFC championship last year. They're great, but your team should be able to play right there with them. And I think also we need to kind of shake. Cause i think part of this is i i still i think some people are still having a hard time coming to grips with the lions being good because they've just been terrible for so long but this is not marty mornan wegs detroit lions folks i think i think they showed that last year they were on the doorstep they had a a double-digit lead in the NFC Championship game against the 49ers.

They were on the road. I mean, they have the Niners on the ropes. The Lions were on their way to the Super Bowl last year, and they just came up a little bit short, and they've got just about everybody back from that roster. All of those young players that they had that kind of emerged last year, they're a year older and a year better. Jared Goff is a year better. I mean, Jared Goff is, you know, he's really kind of in the middle of his prime now. He's 29, 30 years old, playing his best football of his career. And this is a guy that already took a team to the Super Bowl once. So they are a serious football team.

They're very good. Now, losing Aiden Hutchinson is massive. That's a massive blow to their defense, and I think that can work in the Vikings' favor on Sunday. But when you look at what they have on offense, that is a serious championship level team and like you said we don't have to we don't have to like assume that they're just not that good because they are very very good and this is going to be like this is i'm so excited for this game because there's so much

riding on it um and and i just can't wait because this is a quality opponent. This is an opportunity for the Vikings that if they win this game, they can really grab a hold of this division, take command of this division, and really take command of the entire conference. I feel like this is, and maybe not quite as physical, but sort of reminiscent of the Ravens and the Steelers for a few years where these last couple of years, the Vikings and the lions have played these crazed offensive wild games. And I don't know if that's going to be that or, or, or if it's going to be kind of knocked down, drag out, but there's already been some down to the wire last play last drive type of games that the Steelers and Ravens always seem to play against each other. And that feels kind of the

same way. And I don't think that if you were the Roethlisberger Steelers that you had to go, oh yeah, well, the Ravens, they're overrated that Ray Lewis, what does he even do out there? Just dance around. No, like Ray Lewis was amazing you can say that that's great if you could go toe-to-toe with teams that were in the nfc championship and are four and one and just beat someone 47 to 9 and you're saying i think the vikings and your team is favored by the way i mean that says a lot about where you're at you don't have to worry about them being good uh andrew says uh anybody throw out chase young as an option for a trade he's on a one-year deal with the saints only 25 it's crazy he's only 25 um i don't mind that uh

i do wonder about the saints are they going to pack it in or not there's so much when it comes to certain organizations like with the Cowboys, with the saints, I think these are teams that just won't give up that we'll just keep fighting. They're not in a position like the Titans, like the Jaguars, where they could just be like, we're beat. It's okay. They are going to be a little bit more stubborn. And I think jobs are on the line in new Orleans, which always makes a difference.

Same thing with Dallas. When jobs are on the line, I don't think it's as easy to just be like, Oh, well, okay. They're going to trade people. Would I be interested though? I'm curious about him as a dude. I don't really have a good feeling for how he would fit in the culture, but as far as he went to San Francisco last year, he was a contributor. If he was a third down pass rusher only for this team, and he could give a little bit of a rest to Jonathan Grenard, could rush over the middle. Yeah, I mean, more rushers is always good. We've learned that from the Eagles.

We've learned that from the 49ers. That's a position that I wouldn't underrate the Vikings looking at, even though they're good at edge rusher, the more the merrier with that position yeah 100 and you know listen you you do have to sometimes when you have when you're having a season like this sometimes you have to account for guys getting injured I mean you just 2017 was you know that was kind of a magical year and everything kind of went right for the Vikings until that January day in Philadelphia, where, you know, everybody just, especially, you know, the health of any of these guys on the defensive side especially. And, you know, they've got some depth at edge with Van Ginkle and Grenard and Patrick Jones has kind of emerged and been a contributor.

But you can never really have enough of those guys because what happens if Andrew Van Ginkle gets hurt? What happens if Jonathan Grenard gets hurt gets hurt what happens if jonathan grenier gets hurt you know i mean dallas turner's been a little bit banged up but do you want to rely on him to step in as a rookie and be a huge contributor so far he really hasn't been um i don't think you can really have enough guys at that position and so i think if you can get somebody like a chase young for you know a, a low level draft pick, I think you can make it happen and, and, uh, you can see what happens from there on out. Yeah.

I I'm interested in that position just because the rotations are so effective. Uh, if you have guys with 600 snaps and you have four of them, then you're in really great shape. Uh, I don't know also how they think Dallas Turner is going to develop here. I've gotten a few questions over the last few days about Dallas Turner. It's like, we just, who was he going to take the place of even Jihad Ward has played really well. There's a lot of veterans in front of them. It's okay. If we don't shove rookies right into the fire, that's what, what good teams do is not have to throw rookies into these positions where they're in over their head. But I don't know if, is he going to buy the midway through

the season, be more of a contributor or not, or for this year, when you're all in, you just let him develop for a year. He was one of the younger draft picks this year. So if you got to do that for a fifth round pick or something, if they were willing to give you chase young, then yeah, that's not quite the big game hunting that I've been thinking of with this team at the trade deadline, but it's a clever idea. I don't mind it. Enigma one says not sold on the bears, no wins over legitimate competition yet. Here's the thing about this whole competition deal. When we talk about, well, this team hasn't beaten that team and that team hasn't beaten that team and et cetera. There's a lot of bad teams in the league. There's 32 and probably I'm going to guess, let's take a look at the bear schedule. I'm going to

guess they play more of them. Now I I'm with you, Manny, where I think they're more of a nine and eight type of team, but they play Washington. Who's obviously good. Arizona's not that good. New England's not that good. Then green Bay, Minnesota, Detroit, San Fran, Minnesota. Whoa. Okay. Here is a good point. Here's a good point. This is why I wanted to cross check. What is their future schedule look like? Let me read that again for the Chicago bears. They will play Washington, Arizona, New England. Okay. They can win two out of three there. Green Bay, Minnesota, Detroit at San Fran, Minnesota, Detroit, Seattle, Green Bay. I don't think that's the team that's making the playoffs out of the NFC North. Not with that schedule left. There's way too many good teams, way too many NFC North teams for Chicago they're

gonna have to be really good in order to end up making the playoffs I was not aware of that until just now that's quite that's quite a run the Chicago has to go on there yeah um that is you know they've they've kind of the Bears have you know everybody in this division is going to have that stretch of they're playing the afc south and you know so they're playing indianapolis they're playing jacksonville um and so and and you know they're playing the titans i mean houston's obviously very good the bears have already kind of done that part of their schedule. You know, they beat the Titans. They lost to the Texans.

They lost to the Colts. And they just beat Jacksonville. So all of the sort of the cupcake portion of their schedule, the AFC South, they've already done it. And now you look ahead with the Vikings. You look at the Vikings and the Lions schedule, the Vikings and Lions are, they're pretty much playing a lot of the same teams now over the next, you know, six, seven weeks. Um, so they're going to start playing a lot of those AFC South teams. Um, so it's going to be, it's going to be tough sledding for the bears. You know, I think there'll be in the conversation for maybe a wildcard spot,

but I think it's going to be really, really tough. Man, that's a murderer's roll of a schedule. I mean, what is San Francisco going to look like on December 8th when the Bears have to go out there? Are the Niners going to be healthy by then? If they are, that's probably going to be a loss for the Bears. So we'll see how it goes. Yeah. I'm now thinking the Bears are more of an eight win type of team than, I mean, nine is fair. Eight would be a good season for them. They do have a good defense and they're going to battle each week. Caleb's going to keep

getting better, but that that's a murderer's row right there. After the next couple of weeks, if they went two out of three against Arizona and new England, that would get them to six wins and they would only need three more the rest of the way to get to nine. So yeah, that's, that's still very possible. They've put themselves ahead, but I did not realize how they have all their tough games still to go. Uh, Kyle says Addison should consistently be getting targets in the backfield either as a running back or going for a pass on jet sweeps like three times a game I don't need that I need him to get the ball underneath though I don't need him to be in the backfield specifically I need him to get the I just need him to get the ball on easy passes and this is what we have not seen a whole

lot of Jefferson or Addison this year get which which an Addison missed a few games, but even Naylor is easy passes. When all of your receivers have to average 20 yards catch, that means you're always pushing it so much down the field. I think that you should, or O'Connell should focus on Addison quickly off the line of scrimmage. I think we will see that this week quickly off the line of scrimmage. I think we will see that this week. Quickly off the line of scrimmage. He has such fast feet. He is now back to being healthy after dealing with those ankle injuries.

I want the ball in his hands a lot more this week. Don't be cute. Just be efficient. Yeah. That's all I can really say to that. We don't need them to be doing any fancy trick trick stuff like, oh, this guy's in the backfield and he's normally a wide receiver. No, just get him the ball in the most efficient way possible. And I think it's it's going to help everybody, you know, everybody in the entire football team especially on the defensive side too because

you're maintaining drives you're moving the chains you're keeping possession you're not letting your defense get worn down okay one more for you anthony says you could throw a bet down on all the nfc north teams to win the nfc championship why not how about this manny before you go the nfc north to win the nfC championship versus the field versus everybody else in the NFC. So you can either take the whole NFC North or everyone else in the NFC. Who are you taking? Right now, I'm taking the NFC North. I would as well.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm not sure about Chicago, you know, winning, going to the Super Bowl this year. But I'm looking at Detroit, Minnesota, and even Green Bay and saying like, you know, I mean, kind of like what Aaron Rogers did in 2010, where they were just unstoppable and everything just sort of came together for them. I could see something like that happening for Green Bay. Obviously, I think Minnesota and Detroit are the class of the conference right now. And I think you're going to have Green Bay there in the conversation as well. I think of all the other teams in the entire NFC, there's only one that I would be concerned would have a better chance or a chance to eliminate the NFC North teams. And that is the San Francisco 49ers because they have been so banged up that if they were to

get healthy, if McCaffrey comes back at the end of the year and they were to get to 100% they are still very dangerous yep not having home field advantage that might hurt them a lot they've lost twice at US Bank Stadium in the last two years so there's that I'm just thinking of all the other NFC teams who really scares you it's probably San Francisco I'm not sure I could say Washington yet I don't think the Eagles are back at that level where they used to be. Nobody in the South. Yeah, I would definitely take the North over everybody else to win the NFC championship. Thursday night, Manny, we will go hardcore on this. And also I got a, I got a fun game. I don't want you to do your favorite lions

because they're just in the division. Everybody knows players, but here's what I want. I want a Vikings lions all time offense for us to put together for us each to draft Vikings lions, all time offenses and compare and have people vote on who has the better Vikings lionsLions all-time offense. So we'll do that on Thursday night, and we'll have a lot of fun then. This is going to be a really, really exciting week to lead up to the game. So I appreciate it, Manny. Thanks for your time. You got it. Football. Football.