Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - POSTGAME REACTION: SAM DARNOLD IS IN THE SUPER BOWL

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

Matthew Coller and Manny Hill break down an insane day of football, capped off with Sam Darnold leading the Seahawks over the Rams with an incredible performance. Seattle will play the New England Patriots. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fanduil, Matthew Collar, with you along with Manny Hill. And my friends, Sam Darnold, is headed to the Super Bowl. And Manny, he's not just headed to the Super Bowl. He's headed to the Super Bowl with one of the best performances in NFC championship history, 346 yards, three touchdowns, and every single person in the United States, States of America thought the Rams are going to win after Tyreek Woolen committed one of the dumbest penalties in history of football, dancing on the sideline, giving the Rams second life. And yet Sam Darnold gets the ball back. They get a stop. And he completes several humongous

passes, dead on accurate first downs when they needed him most. And when you talk about slaying the dragon. When you talk about blowing up narratives, Sam Darnold took an A-bomb to narratives. He took a gigantic sword, the size of Lumen Stadium, and slayed the narrative dragons today. Anyone who thought, oh, it's just Seattle's defense. Not today, it wasn't. anyone who thought, well, Seattle's a run first team for a reason because they don't really trust Sam Darnold. Not today. They had to trust Sam Darnold. He had to make every single throw.

He had to be dead on accurate. He couldn't see a single ghost. He couldn't turn into a tiny little pumpkin today. He had to be damn near perfect to reach the Super Bowl. And you know what? He was up for the task. And every person along the way, it reminds me of Bill Parcells, when he said, nobody can say you couldn't do it because you did it.

And that is Sam Darnold, who proved wrong the Jets, proved wrong the Panthers, proved wrong the Minnesota Vikings for letting him go, and proved wrong every single person who said he was not good enough that they should go to J.J. McCarthy. You can't get it done with a quarterback like Sam Darnold because he'll see ghosts. He'll melt down in the biggest moments. Manny Hill, my friend, Sam Darnold proved all of those people wrong.

And then in the postgame interview, did he come out and dunk on the haters? Did he come out and trash the Minnesota Vikings? No, he did not. And that is why to me, if you're a Vikings fan, just say, congratulations, Sam. I'm glad to see you in the Super Bowl. And this is the worst mess up that has ever been made by the Minnesota Vikings organization. It is worse than Herschel Walker to give another team a franchise quarterback capable of going to the Super Bowl, which they have not been able to find their quarterback since Fran Tarkington,

and they have not been able to reach the Super Bowl since Fran Tarkington. And in one season, the guy they had in their building who threw for 4,300 yards, 35 touchdowns, and won 14 games and took all the blame for you getting out-coached, for you not having a good enough running game for you not having a good enough offensive line. He took all the blame and he never said a thing about it. And he went to Seattle and they beat the brains out of the Vikings and he never said a thing about it. He did it all with his play. And now he's going to play for the biggest prize in all of freaking sports. Sam Darnold, everybody. Mani, your thoughts. It is a tremendous story. And I just cannot say enough with

how impressed I am with just the way Sam Donald has carried himself. You mentioned never thrown anybody under the bus, never thrown shade at previous teams that, you know, I guess kind of failed them because you go back to the KOC quote, right? The, you know, organizations fail quarterbacks, more than quarterbacks fail organizations. Well, the New York Jets failed Sam Donald. And the Carolina Panthers failed Sam Donald.

and it, I mean, I won't say the Vikings failed Sam Donald, but the Vikings in a way kind of failed themselves by letting Sam Donald go and basically handed him to the Seattle Seahawks. The Vikings are responsible for the Seattle Seahawks going to the Super Bowl. The Seattle Super, the Seattle's, I almost call them the Seattle Supersonics. I'm so hyped up. I miss the Seattle Super Sonics. The Seattle Seahawks are going to Super Bowl 60

because of the way Sam Darnold played tonight. And Sam Darnold would not be with the Seattle Seahawks if the Minnesota Vikings had franchised them, signed them to a new contract, whatever the case may be. And I know there's going to be people that are going to say, well, if the Vikings would have brought Darnold back, you know, they wouldn't have gone to the Super Bowl. They wouldn't be in this position.

Maybe. But you know what? You know who else wouldn't be in this position? The Seattle Seahawks wouldn't be in this position. So this is where we're at now. And this is something that is going to kind of haunt the Vikings here. Unless they can turn it around, unless we see J.J. McCarthy make huge strides and can put the Vikings in a similar situation next year or two years from now. If you show some improvement, this is going to be something that's going to linger.

And it's going to be talked about for a long time because you had him. You didn't have to let him go. nobody told you to let him go. You had him right. You had him. You literally had him and you let him walk. And now he's going to the Super Bowl and you're sitting at home. You didn't even make the playoffs this year.

And I was thinking today about Stefan Diggs going to the Super Bowl and how I don't think Vikings fans feel very good for Stefan Diggs going to the Super Bowl because of how it ended and it was kind of ugly with him forcing his way out. And I think history definitely told us that he was right about Mike's. Zimmer and he was right to force his way out. It was a sinking ship and all those things. But the difference with Stefan Diggs and why that even if he had won the Super Bowl or gone to the Super Bowl with Buffalo and now he reaches it eventually with the New England Patriots is that they were able to get Justin Jefferson in return. And without the Stefan Diggs trade,

you don't get Justin Jefferson and you don't end up with maybe the, you know, probably the second, but maybe the third best wide receiver in franchise history and a guy who now for years has driven your offense and, you know, wonderful franchise player and all the stuff that goes along with Jefferson, that's great. So you ultimately made the right move. Moving on from Diggs, a kind of a melt content, a frustrating guy for, you know, someone who is actually a better wide receiver. And you identified that opportunity in a receiver draft that was really great.

And then you get him. And he eventually goes to the Super Bowl and it's just sort of shrugs. Like, well, okay, but we got Justin Jefferson for it. So, no big deal. If J.J. McCarthy had made the playoffs this year, had he played really well, let's say through 24 touchdowns, six picks, 3,800 yards, and they lost in the divisional round. You'd be like, well, I mean, come on. Like, congratulations, Sam, but we got our guy.

You'd feel we're going to have a bunch of shots at it. but for J.J. McCarthy to play like the 38th best quarterback out of 45 this year who legitimately played and for Sam Darnold to play top 10 football again, for your team to misidentify so badly the gap between those two players to think that Darnold was not worth it. By the way, I thought if you paid Sam Darnold, you couldn't get this far. That's what I was told. Now, I believe in the rookie quarterback contract. We'll get to that with the New England Patriots. I believe there's six teams since 2017 who have made it with the rookie quarterback contract. So I believe in that, and I know that that works, but this was a forest through the trees

type of decision where you miss the thing that was right in front of you. And I've gone through the history many, many times, Manny. Quarterbacks who won more than 12 games through for 4,300 yards and 35 plus touchdowns did not turn into a pumpkin. They continue to be very, very good quarterbacks, if not Hall of Fame level quarterbacks. And I will also say that Egg is on the face of all the other teams that decided that they were, you know, we're going to draft our quarterback. We're going to get somebody else other than Sam.

But he landed in the perfect spot for him, in the perfect offense for him. And you know who else does look a little bit silly today is also Mike Zimmer, who held back Clint Kubiak in 2021. Now he is going to the Super Bowl, and he's probably going to be a head coach after he ends up going to the Super Bowl. He called a brilliant game for Sam Darnold. The couple of plays at the end, third and eight, was it third in seven, third and eight, third and seven, those two huge completions that he had. Clint Kubiak had a rollout on the one play, had Cooper Cup coming across the middle open on another play, and Darnold was able to deliver. So, I mean, there's all of that stuff of going back to last year and going back to that decision, which I think we'll be thinking about time and time and time again through the rest of the history of the Vikings at quarterback. Because when you think about one team is talking in their post game press conference or postseason press conference about creating a highly competitive environment for J.J. McCarthy, which means we're getting a different quarterback.

and another team is going to the Super Bowl with a chance to raise the Lombardi trophy with Sam Darnold, you couldn't miss by much more. And I know that you'll have people say, well, they wouldn't have done it had they brought back Darnold. They wouldn't have been able to recreate what Seattle has done

because they've drafted better or something, right? Which they have. They've drafted really well. And their front office deserves a ton of credit. And the Rashid Shaheed trade totally changed, totally changed them. But, manny when we look at

Seattle it's a top five defense what do the Vikings have well top five defense it's a good special teams unit well the Vikings have a good kicker and punter maybe not quite the return unit and the Rams I mean who would have known that they would make a mess up on special

teams other than everyone in this game but it's not like the Vikings didn't have a number one wide receiver capable of what Jackson Smith the Jigba did this year it's not like they didn't have a system that was built on him playing under center. Now, they didn't have the run game previously, but they had Jordan Mason this year. They had a better run game than they've had in the past. I guess I would say, I don't know. A lot of it depends on just what your matchups would have been like. And Seattle had a very favorable path to the Super Bowl and who you

went up against. But you know, sometimes, Manny, somebody's first playoff game does not go the way they needed to or the way you expect it to. And then they get more experience and they perform better the next time. And that I think was the most impressive part to me. The first drive, he hits Rashid Shaheed down the sideline. And it's like, uh-oh, Sam's going to be on today. And that was really the story of this game is that even though the Rams played well offensively, Darnold just kept hitting throw after throw after throw after throw.

and man, I mean, this was his game. I mean, this was you won because of your quarterback play. And I don't, I just will keep going back to I don't know what you saw in J.J. McCarthy to make you think that you could get. I mean, J.J. McCarthy, I'm sorry, Manny, I'll stop. But J.J. McCarthy, he threw for like 160 yards against Washington and they celebrated it as if he had, you know, just won the championship. It was like, oh my gosh, look how good this game. Look at all this progress.

If you really want to go to the Super Bowl, you probably have to throw for 3.46 and three touchdowns at some point. And they had a guy who could do it and decided he wasn't good enough. And they decided they needed an expensive guard. They decided they needed another defensive tackle. They decided they needed to bring back Aaron Jones to have him get injured for half the season. And that that was worth a quarterback who was capable of what he was doing. It just, it's going to be hard to ever.

let that go to ever move on from that because if he if he wins it in two weeks which his team's better if he wins it in two weeks I think the worst thing to ever happen to the viking's franchise is that field goal by you know Gary Anderson this is if he wins a Super Bowl it's probably second yeah I mean this is you know and I know you brought up the Herschel Walker trade the thing that makes this different from the Herschel trade is you know the count. Cowboys, after they made that deal with the Vikings, the cowboys were in such a bad position as a franchise that they needed a lot of things to go their way. And look, you give Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones a lot of credit for building that team up and they had a lot of draft picks thanks to that trade to be able to build a championship team. But that took them multiple years and some luck to be able to formulate that dynasty in the 90s.

this was you literally by letting Sam Darnold walk in free agency, you handed the Seattle Seahawks a Super Bowl birth within that following season, within that ensuing season after you let Sam Darnel go. You literally said, here you go, here's a franchise quarterback. Now you're going to go to the Super Bowl. And, you know, my first initial reaction to this matchup is I think, like you said, I think Seattle's a better team. I would expect them to win this game.

I mean, you know, Drake May is obviously very talented. We'll see how the game goes. I'm looking forward to the matchup. I think it's going to be really fun. But you have put the Seattle Seahawks in a position. The other thing that I don't think is getting talked about enough, as far as, you know, like rather or not the Vikings should have brought back Sam Donald in the first place. I don't think you can put a price on Sam Donald coming back and having another offseason and training camp in this system.

with Kevin O'Connell. He's still very much in the prime of his career. He's in his late 20s, obviously physically gifted. You give him another offseason, another, you know, opportunity to gel even more with Justin Jefferson, with J.Len Naylor, with Jordan Addison, with T.J. Hawkinson. I'm having a hard time believing that he would have been as good, if not better than what he was last year. And the first half of this year with Seattle, he looked every bit as good as he did.

And, you know, he kind of tapered off a little bit towards the end of the year. And some of it was offensive line issues and, you know, the running game kind of helped them and the defense, obviously. But I just, I don't think that that part of it has been talked about enough to because I think people were just so hyper-focused on the Detroit game last year and the Rams playoff game last year. And they thought that that was it, that that was Sam Darm. and that's who he really is. And we're going to let him walk because we can't trust him. And, well, the Seahawks trusted him. They trusted him in the biggest game of the year

against the division rival, against a defense that has been giving Sam Donald trouble for multiple seasons now. And he came out and he bawled out and he delivered. And now the Seahawks are in the Super Bowl. The Vikings are sitting at home. So people are going to have a hard time convincing. me that the Vikings didn't really screw this up. I'm sorry. That's just, we were going to have a

hard time. People are going to try to spin this and say, well, you know, this stat and that's that. But dude, the Seahawks are in the Super Bowl and the Vikings are at home. That's the only way you can really explain this. Folks, you may have noticed by all of my old football references that I have reached the age where my friends and I are complaining about hairlines as much as we talk about football these days. But here's the thing. Why be down on yourself or frustrated when there are answers. Maybe back in my favorite era of football, the 90s, the hair loss products were not so legit, but there are answers now, and I present you with HIMS. HIMS brings expert care straight to you 100% online access to personalized treatment plans that put your goals first.

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Prescription required. See website for details, restrictions, and important safety information. And not even in the playoffs. There's a few things that I think will linger for me with this decision to let Sam go and then him taking the Seahawks to the Super Bowl with a remarkable clutch performance. It doesn't get much more clutch. It doesn't get much less choke than what he did today. It doesn't get much less turn into a pumpkin or less seeing ghosts than what he did today.

This was a Tom Brady type of performance that he had in this game. And really, I mean, against San Francisco, he didn't have to do a whole lot. But even when you go back to, I think the turning point was the other Rams game where he was able to bring them back and win at the end. It almost felt like something opened up there, like a confidence to come out and play against them today. But the thing that lingers with me probably the most is the logic of it based on football history. So one of my favorite stats of all time, because you know I love Eli Manning. One of my favorite stats of all time is that Eli Manning only one playoff games in two seasons.

And he won four of them both times and won two Super Bowls. And he's probably going to wear a gold jacket because of it. That means four other times they made the playoffs. And he was bad. And Matthew Stafford's another one, which Stafford was also pretty great today, by the way. Their defense didn't help him out at all. But he made some throws. And we'll get into the Tyreek Wollin thing and everything else because that made it way more nerve-wracking that it needed to be

and was almost one of the worst plays in NFL history. But, you know, if you go through, you can find 15 different quarterbacks who we talk about is clutch or won Super Bowls. Joe Flacco is a great example. His early, his first several playoff games were very, very bad. There's a lot of quarterbacks who did not get it done right away. And Stafford was one of them.

You know, sometimes they talk about Stafford in Detroit as if it was like, oh, well, you know, he's just a victim of a bad team. But now he's on a good one. Like, wait, wait, wait, do you guys remember some of those playoff games? Do you remember that he had good enough teams to make the playoffs? And he no-showed in several of those games. and at a time it was, well, Matt Stafford's not good enough to get it done, right? And then, oh, he goes to L.A. gets it done.

And then we just don't talk about that anymore. There's so many quarterbacks like that. And yet it's always been with Sam because everyone's initial impression of him with the Jets and with the Panthers was this guy's bad. And then he goes to the Vikings and they think it's KOC and they think it's, I mean, it is somewhat just to Jefferson, just like it is Smith the jig. It is for sure. But they, everyone, you would have thought Darnold was like had one leg out there and, and O'Connell just, you know, made him into, you know, turned him from Pinocchio to a real boy or something the way that it was talked about.

It was all, it's KOC, it's KOC, it's KOC. And I just remember Pat Schumer saying the first time I ever heard it, Jimmy's and Joe, you know, Jimmy's and Joe's not X's and O's was Pat Schumer saying it to me. And I was like, yeah, you know what? That's right. the minute you think it's you, the minute you're a coach and you think you're the reason and not Michael Jordan or Tim Duncan or whatever other championship player and not Tom Brady and not Peyton Manning or whatever, the minute you think it's you, the NFL will come back

and remind you it's not you. It's the guy with the golden arm. And I think that's what bothers me the most is that sometimes you could go back to a decision and you could say, man, you know what? it made so much sense at the time. The logic was there. The process was there and just, you know, it didn't work out. That's the draft. You know, like all the time this happens. You look at a draft pick who's a bust and you go, gosh, the guy made sense on paper,

but Jamarcus Russell just didn't work out. If you go back to this decision on paper, Quasi Adolfo Mensa said we had to do it with incomplete information. You know, like, then why'd you do it? And the information you had was the guy, in-house was a former number three overall draft pick who can throw the absolute skin off of the football who is tough, who is a great leader, who is mentally, I think, stronger than anybody ever gives that guy credit for when you think of the hell he's gone through versus a kid

who I still believe can be a good quarterback someday, JJ McCarthy. I still believe he can, but he didn't play at all. It's not like you had a full season behind the scenes and a week 18 game or something and you were like, you know what, man, this kid's just got it. We've seen it all. He was coming off of losing 40 pounds in the off season,

trying to put weight back on after the injury, trying to just remember how to throw a football with some of the techniques, trying to relearn the offense. And you said, we're good. We're going to give away the guy who has already shown us that he can put together a top 10 quarterback season for,

incomplete information. And I think that is the thing that's going to linger. And there's another thing that's going to linger. And this is going to hurt some feelings, but I'm going to say it anyway. I remember saying when I was sitting in Glendale, I said, you guys got what you wanted. Not the Vikings, the fans when he lost.

I said, you guys got what you wanted. Because all we heard from Vikings fans after that loss was, oh, thank God. Thank God Sam lost. So we're not going to go back to him. we're going to go to J.J. McCarthy. The way that Sam was treated by Vikings fans, as if he was just in the way last year, you and I sat here and begged Vikings fans to enjoy the ride.

Guys, you don't get a 14 win season all the time. We've been through it all. Maybe you should just, you know, enjoy it. And it was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Get out of the way, Sam. You don't mean anything. I got my J.J. McCarthy jersey already. Forget you.

There was so much of that. So much, not just, hey, I think it's the right economic, decision. It was, oh, man, good thing he saw ghosts today so we could get to the real quarterback. And I don't believe that he got the respect that he deserved from the team or from the fan base here for the performance he put on, which was one of the best in Vikings history last year. And now Vikings fans who rooted against him in the playoff game and hope that he melted down so they could go to J.J. McCarthy. And the team who clearly just based their decision on those last two games.

They got to sit home and they got to watch this guy live a dream that none of them have lived. And that, I don't know, I just don't know how you, how you don't talk about that every minute of every day going forward here, Manny. That's, that's going to be my struggle, as you can already see as you're listening to be ran. It's like, how, how, what, what else can you even talk about after this? Yeah, it's, it's kind of like I had, I had some.

somebody, a friend of mine a few weeks ago, you know, because we were kind of just having a conversation about McCarthy and, you know, what what his future looks like and how good he can be and everything. And, you know, this person was telling me, well, you can't give up on McCarthy yet because, you know, look at Sam Donald. Sam Donald's an example of why you don't give up on a quarterback. And I said, aha, here's the counterpoint to that. you had Sam Darnold last year. You literally, you didn't have a quarterback like Sam Darnold. You literally had Sam Darnold and you let him go because you didn't think he was good enough to get you to a Super Bowl. And now he's showing that he is good enough to get you to a Super Bowl. And the amazing thing about is you and I talked after they beat the 49ers in week 18 to clinch the number one seat. And remember I told you, I said, all Sam Darrow really needs with his defense in this running game,

if he can just be Brad Johnson, the way Brad Johnson was for the Buccaneers in 2002, which wasn't like, I think people needed, there needs to be a distinction between Trent Dilfer for the Ravens in 2000 and Brad Johnson for the Buccaneers in 2000. Like Brad Johnson was a good quarterback. It wasn't a superstar, wasn't a pro bowler,

wasn't an all-pro caliber quarterback, but he was very good, made some good throws, made some plays when they needed him to at that time. all Sam Donald needed to be was, was that, was a play at that level, make some plays and don't sort of don't do anything to sabotage or torpedo your team. Kind of like what Rick Woolen almost did tonight, but that's a whole nother story. But he was so much more than that tonight. And I don't think that that can be stated enough how actually, like this wasn't, you can say what you want about

the 49ers game last week, how he didn't have to really do a whole lot. Tonight, they needed him to put on that kind of performance to throw for 346 yards and not turn the ball over and make big time throws and big time moments. And he did exactly that. When everybody was expecting, you know, there was a lot of people that were expecting,

oh, he's going to see ghosts, he's going to make the bad throw, he's going to make the turnover. And then everybody, you know, and then the Rams are going to go off. to the Super Bowl and everybody's going to be like, ha, ha, see, I told you about Sam Donald. He didn't do it. He didn't do it.

And now, now what are, what are people going to say? And who's to say this guy is not? Carlo, this guy's 28 years old. Right. Who's to say he's not going to be even better next year than he is this year, that he is now? Yeah, I mean, with the team that has a lot of young talent that can continue to be good. Yeah. I mean, and that I think when we.

go back to last season. And if this was a situation, Manny, where it was, let's say it was Taylor Heineke, let's say that Taylor Heineke took a team to the Super Bowl, then you and I would have been like, I never saw that coming in a million years, right? Like, I was, I was thinking about like,

because you know, I watched the old games and stuff. So I was watching Jake Delome for the Panthers get into the Super Bowl. And if you were the Saints, you had to be like, that guy? That guy's in the Super Bowl. and even like a Nick Foles. Like, you know, the Rams had him at one point. And then he'd been a journeyman and Nick Foles goes and wins a Super Bowl.

You know, what? I never would have saw that coming in a million years. But there were so many performances from Sam Darnold last year. I mean, I can name them off the top of my head easily because I was there. I mean, the comeback win against Arizona, five touchdowns against Atlanta. The maybe the most impressive throw of the 2024 season happened against this Seattle Seahawks defense that's so good. where he finds Justin Jefferson down the field and he dodges a tackler and he jumps forward in the pocket and he lets it rip and they win that game. And then the Packers game, which all the pressure is on there, beat the Packers, you know, get a chance to play for the division.

The only reason you had a chance to play for a division with a 15 win team is because of Sam Darnold and those huge performances down the stretch. And he was dealing with an ankle injury. He was dealing with a hand injury also. there was tape on his thumb the entire season long, and he fought through it, and he led the team. And I saw Jonathan Grinard just tweeted a bunch of dots. Like, you know, but I mean, if you're on the Vikings right now, you've got to be like, I can't believe it.

We loved this guy. He was our dude. And it really shows how NFL teams are not immune to being like Mad Dog or Skip Bayliss on TV and just judging the entire thing off of, whatever just happened. And I think that that logic erasing all of the great throws, all of the games just like this.

It wasn't like, oh my gosh, Sam Darnold through, it wasn't like when Case Keenham went to Denver. If he had started throwing for 350 or something, we would have been like, what? I mean, it never would have saw that coming in a million years. But he has the physical ability to make a throw like he did tonight, down the sideline to start off the game, which I thought was enormous for him

to just get in a rhythm immediately. And I do think last year, I will say, I do think last year he was very nervous. And I do think last year he felt the weight of the narratives and felt the weight of all that last year. But this is why experience matters in the NFL because that throw to me said,

uh-oh, Sam Darnel's not feeling the weight of it today. And also the Vikings having to play on the road, Imagine had he been at home against the Rams, maybe it would have been different with their pass rush, which was not that impactful in this game. And I think that was a huge part that helped Seattle was that this Rams pass rush had had two games already of very high stress, tons of snaps, tons of reps and physical games where, you know, Seattle's offensive line didn't. I think that evened up the playing field that had really heard him before.

But, you know, the Rams had done an amazing job in those first two games of mixing coverages and infusing him. And that didn't happen tonight. There wasn't very many times at all where he was hesitant or he looked like he was off of his rhythm. And, you know, he took a sack. You know, there's a hit here, there. But overall was super accurate, was on time with his throws, was really seeing the field extremely well. And this was it the first, must have been the first touchdown to Jackson Smith, the Jigba, where he's getting a little pressure. But he's just patient enough to glide the ball over a touch pass. Oh, quarterbacks can do that?

We don't. We really, here's the thing, though. Here's, I do want to say, we don't have to make this about McCarthy. It's really about Sam Darnold because you can't compare the two when they were the same age. They look the same. Sam Darnold made tons of mistakes early and he wasn't ready to start either. This is really about the quarterback whisperer, the front office being inflexible, the ownership and everybody else deciding he effed up the last two games for us.

It's his fault. He's got to go. And we got to bring in the kid who's not ready. And they're incredible hubris to believe that, oh, we can just be so good at our job. Now, everybody else goes through absolute hell to get these quarterbacks to where they're at, right? It's so hard. But we're better than that. We'll just coach it out.

Our offense is so perfect. It's so brilliant. Our receivers are so great. We'll just have JJ. We'll roll them out there. It doesn't even matter. He'll be fine. Because anybody can do it is the way that they treated it.

And I think the arrogance of that is what got them here, is believing when people called you a quarterback whisper. There's no such thing. Bruce Ariens book is called the quarterback whisperer. He doesn't mention Tim Couch. He doesn't mention James Winston a single time in that book. He only mentions Manning. He only mentions Rathesberger. He only mentions, you know, Carson Palmer.

So I think that there's so many different layers to that. But, you know, Manny, I also think that the Seattle Seahawks, we do need to point out their roster construction, their draft pick of Nick Ima Wore, who is a instant superstar. And look, I'm always the person that says the reason the Vikings don't have success in the draft is because they trade away all their picks. Well, Seattle didn't. And they got a lot of draft picks out there on the field. Ken Walker was tremendous today.

He looked like Levi-on Bell on. on a handful of plays. And I also think that, well, this whole thing for us and our conversation is about Sam Darnold, there's also another layer to this that's, hey, Seattle deserves all the credit. They did what you couldn't, which is the competitive rebuild. And they saw a quarterback who was really, really good. And they said, yeah, we want this guy and we believe in this guy. And we're going to plug him in.

and he's going to play really well for us because we've put together an infrastructure that's going to fit him perfectly. I mean, it's the Seahawks organization as a whole, really going all the way back to, you know, when Mike Holgren took over in 1999, they've been a pretty well-run franchise. There were some dips. There were some bad years where they were down a little bit. I remember, you know, the Jim Moore Jr. year was was not. good. But they quickly rectified that by bringing in Pete Carroll. And he was able

to, you know, because Pete Carroll was a great coach and he was able to turn that thing around. And, you know, within a couple of years, they were in the Super Bowl and the rest is history with the Legion of Boom and all that. But that's just been a really overall, a really well-run organization

that has the receipts to back that up. They have Super Bowl appearances. They have strong decisions that have been made. They, they, they understood when it was time to move on from Pete Carroll and bring in a younger coach with, with some new energy because they had become so, you know, they'd, they'd, they'd notice like, we'd become kind of stagnant here with, with Gino Smith, and this is, this is not bad, but, you know, we need to have better. We need to,

we need to strive for better. And so they made the move at the right time, and they saw an opportunity to, to bring in someone like Sam Dunner. And it's, it's worked out perfect. They, they've just, the way that they have been able to keep this thing together, when the Leason of Broome broke up, they were able to stay competitive with that with Russell Wilson for a few years. And then when that, you know, when that started to show signs of kind of falling apart, talking about Russell Wilson here, they made the right decision and moving on from him and transitioning and, and kind of keeping things afloat.

So it's just, it's a, it's a really, really, really well-run ship. And they deserve a lot of credit for that. McDonald is a terrific coach, the way he's built that defense. And sort of the attitude and the nastiness that they play with is, is really impressive. That defensive front is outstanding. The secondary is great. It's a really good unit.

It's a really together organization, a together team. Sam Darno fits that, fits that locker room. perfectly. It's just, I'm impressed. Sam's been great and we're lauding his success and it deserves, it's well deserved, but I think the Seahawks overall as an organization of just showing why they're one of the best in the entire NFL. And this is the thing about the Super Bowl, once again, you know what I like to say, mani, about the Super Bowl is what's the model to get to the Super Bowl and it's be awesome at everything. And then you get there. And we have, I believe, is it the number two and three ranked offenses. And if the Rams had won, it would have been number

one and two. And the New England Patriots, which we will get to here, put on one of the best runs of defense that we have ever seen in NFL history. There should be comparisons to the way they played defensively. Little help from the snow. But the way they played defensively in this entire playoffs to get them there. And the same thing goes for Seattle. They have a great special teams unit. They have, they are extremely well coached. They built their offensive line up through what, an undrafted center, a or a late round pick center, and then Gray's able, who played really, really well this year, but seemed to get better and better and better as the year went along. They've locked up their offensive tackles.

They have receivers. And you can't say enough about the subtle moves of like bringing in Cooper Cup. And it's like, ah, he's washed. He's not the old Cooper Cup. And that's true. But in the biggest moment of this game, Cooper Cup, a little underneath route. And there he is. and oh, did you overpay for Cooper Cup?

Because when he signed that deal, that was the like, well, Seattle's overpaying. And well, I guess not because he made that play. And then the trade just can't say enough about Rashid Shahid and the trade that they made there for this explosive weapon, a guy who, you know, runs an end around. Was that against San Francisco or was it when, yeah, right, against San Francisco, right? We had the end around. And the punt returning and, you know, there's a deep threat. he could kind of do a lot of things.

And that was just a, hey, they made a nice little move at the middle of the season. But it turns out that that was an absolutely enormous move. They built through the trenches and worked backwards. They got Ernest Jones for nothing from Tennessee. And he's become a huge player for them. DeMarcus Lawrence was supposedly washed, not washed in my book. And then, you know, the secondary, they've invested in and they've had some development success there to build a truly complete and elite team.

and then you can't say enough about the coaching either. Clint Kubiak on offense. Mike McDonald is a young head coach, a defensive-minded head coach who kind of installed a mentality of, yeah, we are going to run and play defense. And then when we need our quarterback, he's going to be there to step up. And it's another Kubiak making the Super Bowl, which it feels like those Kubiaks are in every single Super Bowl going back to like 1980 something. But, you know, Clint, I think has had a.

really great plan for Sam Darnold. So it wasn't just that. And maybe you could argue that the Vikings are deficient in some of those areas in comparison. And they wouldn't have been here with Sam Darnold. But the idea was that he couldn't do it. And that idea today was completely exploded into a million bits. And, you know, I saw in the comments and I appreciate the big audience here this

evening talking about me gloating. And it's not so much. I wouldn't call it a gloat. Like, allow me to be a Larry David for a second. What I would call it is more of, I go back to you and I in the shows we were doing last year. And the warning flags that we were waving about, are you sure? And when they did it, I said, well, they must be really sure about San or about, you're not saying, but about JJ, right?

They must be really sure. And then to have them come out and say, well, we weren't really sure. It was incomplete information. It's like, wait a minute. You did this. So it's really more about you could see this coming from all the different factors of like, this is why I do the research and this is why I think a lot about these things is, well, a lot of these quarterbacks, you know, who have done this, they've continued to be great.

And are you sure because we never actually really know with draft picks, whether it's Lewis Seen or J.J. McCarthy or Justin Jefferson, who would have been the first or second overall draft pick or whatever, top five. had anyone known how good he was going to be, it's always a crap shoot. It's really more about the response to that. Like, I would just like you to go back and I generally don't care that much about, you know, abusive comments and stuff. Every once in a while, say something back.

But, you know, it goes along with the territory. I don't care. But when you go back and look at the comments on any show we did where I said, are you guys sure you want to get rid of Sam Darnold? I think maybe you should like franchise tag him. every one of those shows is F you collar, you don't know what you're talking about. JJ's the go.

You're an idiot. Like all that stuff. And the level of abuse was so high that, yeah, I think on a day like today, I could say, I don't know, man. That's why I do the research. And I guess you don't.

So call it whatever you want. But I, you know, I think it also just frustrated me so much how people wouldn't give Sam his due. I think that's, I think that's more, it's more it's not about me really it's about it's about him because i've taken that sort of crap about a lot of opinions i could say hey i don't like their kick returner and i would get that in the

comments but i think it's more about him how i just felt like it was so wrong the way that he was treated by viking's fans on the way out after giving them one of the best and most fun seasons that certainly that they've had other than 2017 that's the most fun season i've covered since i've been here. And the whole season long, it was just like a slog to get through the comment section every show because people were just, you know, oh, bench him for Nick Mullins because he's not playing well against Jacksonville or whatever. It just was, it was very, it was very frustrating at times throughout that season. So I feel good for him. And I always, always, and this, you can look at any quarterback I've ever talked about. One of my favorite things is when they prove that they can do it when

people said they could. When Brock Purdy, you know, oh, well, he's just, you know, this or that and he plays well, I come on here and say, that's great. I love this for Brock Purdy. So it's not, it's not new for me to say that. And I also felt like, and I know I'm putting this on Vikings fans, I also felt like the national media and stuff was, was ridiculous when it came to Sam last year. And you go back and look at like quarterback tears or whatever it might be, you know,

coming out, the way that they. quarterback rankings, all that stuff. Go back and see how many people had Sam Darnold as a top 10 quarterback going into this year. He was an afterthought. Oh, he's going to go out there. He's going to win like seven games.

Who cares, whatever. And I just felt like everyone's putting this all on a coach when the guy with the arm is the one who made the throws. And I just, I thought that he didn't get his respect. So to me, it's much more about respect Sam Darnold, appreciate Sam Darnold, rather than, oh, well, I care about being right. I'm wrong a lot. I like, you know, I picked the Rams to go to the Super Bowl and the bills. And look, hey, this is the 10th straight year I've been doing this that I didn't

pick the right Super Bowl teams. It happens all the time. I didn't believe in Stafford when he made the Super Bowl and he did it and he proved everybody wrong. I was happy for him. So it's not so much about old purple insider as it is about Sam Darnold. Let's talk about it. Well, do we think I got two questions for you can answer both of them? one, how much do you think this sticks to KOC and impacts the way that he's viewed next year? That's one question. And then I wonder what you think of Stafford. Like, is Stafford going to keep going?

Is he going to keep playing? Okay. First question, how does this reflect on KOC? I, I'll give it an incomplete for now because. There's still an opportunity for the Vikings to salvage this, I think, right now, this moment of kind of egg on their face for letting Sam Donald walk into a team that he is now leading to the Super Bowl. If you can turn things around with J.J. McCarthy and turn him into the quarterback that quite a few people in this town believe that he can be. and he becomes the great quarterback that you're expecting, and he leads you into deep playoff runs,

and he can get you to a Super Bowl, then I think that's going to change a lot of things. But right now, it feels like that's a very tall order. It feels like J.J. McCarthy is going to have to take a very, very, very, as we've been saying for weeks, he's going to have to take a massive, massive leap for this team to even have a chance to compete for his Super Bowl because he's just not there yet.

He hasn't shown anything to indicate that he's there yet. I don't care 160, whatever yards against Washington, 140 yards against Detroit. That's, I mean, come on. Sam Donald just threw for 3.46 against the Los Angeles Rams to go to the Super Bowl. Okay. So, you know, it's going to take a huge leap for McCarthy.

I think in order to, you know, gain some of that. credibility back because this just looks bad, car. This looks really bad. This reflects badly on Kevin O'Connell right now because if anything, forget about the quarterback whisperer stuff. It's just more of like, hey, you guys had this guy. And he played really well for you. He led you to 14 wins last year.

And you just let him walk based off of two games. And now he's led another team to the Super Bowl. It's just a bad look. but I think there's an opportunity to salvage this, but they're going to have to go out and do it. They're going to have to, I mean, rather it's J.J. McCarthy or if it's Kyler Murray or something like that, they're going to have to make up for this. Otherwise, this is going to hang around him for a really long time.

As far as the second question with Stafford, he looked pretty damn good tonight. He's probably going to win the MVP. I, you know, I know there's some people that say, like, needs to get to a second Super Bowl for, you know, the Hall of Fame stuff. I think he's already a Hall of Fame. I think the fact that he's been able to play at this level, at an MVP level at this age, with that much on his tires, that much mileage on his body and his career, I think is really impressive.

And, you know, the Rams did not lose tonight because of him because he was outstanding. So it'll be interesting to see if he can. continue this, I don't get the sense that he's going to retire. And if he's back, can he, you know, because sometimes we see these quarterbacks, they have that, you know, they'll look really good one year. And then, you know, we kind of saw it with Peyton Manning, where his last year, he just, there was this huge drop off. I don't know if we'll see that with Stafford next year, but, you know, I think right now he's playing as, as well as you would want any quarterback in the league to play. And so I, I was really impressed.

with him. I've been impressed with him really this entire year and, and this playoff run at the Rams that obviously came up short has been really impressive as well. Yeah, what you don't know there is how much has he been dealing with physically to get on the field? And you're, I mean, I know he wouldn't be going off like holding a trophy, but NFC championship and playing like he did today. And, man, I can't imagine he's going to think forever about that last throw that gets broken up in the end zone because if they score there, I mean, then it's back to Sam Darnold, the pressure to go score a touchdown and maybe that, you know, things are completely different if they don't get that stop. Hunter in the comments says to answer the question about whether it's sticking to KOC is to ask

what his role was in letting Darnold walk. And for me, Manny, if you're going to, and I know he didn't put the praise on himself, KOC, but if you're going to win coach of the year based on your work with a quarterback and you're going to lead the traveling party across the country to Oregon to talk to Bo Nix, which I guess you didn't like what you saw. Or if you're going to Michigan to talk to J.J. McCarthy in a deli or whatever the story was. And it's all coming down to your evaluation and you having the final kind of sign off on an organizational decision at quarterback, but you're the one that, you're the one that, is brought here for this, you cannot tell me that Kevin O'Connell, if he had said, no, we need to

franchise tag Sam Darnold. There is no way J.J. McCarthy is ready. We got to do this. I'm sorry. I know that that's going to be harder on our roster bill, but we got to do this. And if you go back and you listen to everything they said last year about the decision, it's about the money with J.J. McCarthy. it's about their belief in what they saw in 2024 camp,

and he is the one that referred to J.J. McCarthy as the franchise quarterback. I was standing five feet away from him. And when you do that and then you make this decision, you can't now back away from it and be like, oh, well, actually it was Quasi. It was great Unitsky. Yeah, it was him. Don't hire him. No, no, no, no, no.

you are the guy that holds the strongest power who took all the praise and deserved it last year. KOC did a great job with their passing game last year and with Sam Darnold. There's no doubt about it. He deserves a ton of credit for 2024 and we gave it to him. And he was coach of the year and he deserved it. I didn't come on here and say KOC doesn't deserve coach of the year because Sam is good and it's all Sam. No, he deserved all that praise. but if you're going to take all that praise,

then you also have to own it when this happens. I mean, overall, it is an organizational decision, and if it goes down, then everybody goes down. But it does stick to him as being the guy who was the former NFL quarterback who is supposed to be here to make this call. And then when it doesn't just go wrong, it goes Mount Vesuvius wrong and just explodes the way that it has with Darnold, not only being good, being in,

incredible tonight playing like more than a franchise quarterback. That's a legendary performance that he put on, 346 and three touchdowns and clutch throws at the end. If Mahomes did it, that's what everybody would talk about forever, just to be a complete meme at this point. So that to me does. And it connects to, you know,

making sure you get Flores back and paying him whatever he needs. It does put the spotlight on next. season that you either figure it the bleep out with J.J. McCarthy or you get somebody else who can be your, your Sam Darnold, and you get back in those playoffs and you freaking win, or you're going to go to somebody else because that's the NFL. And I'm always against like overreactions and stuff like that. And it's not probably fair because they made a decision and sometimes it blows up in your face. And I still think that in so many ways, he is a great coach and in some ways he's got serious deficiencies.

But when at some point, they love to say process over results at some point, results and results. And that's it. And I'm sorry because you can't keep going back to, well, our process was fine. Obviously not. Obviously not. They, they hide behind that. Well, you'll hear coach as well, you know, I called a good play and we just didn't

execute it. Obviously not. Obviously you didn't call a good enough play. Obviously, you didn't make the. right decision or have the right process because maybe you missed the clear cut history of guys who perform that way that the worst quarterback I could find who had 4,300 yards, 35 touchdowns, and 12 plus wins was Dak Prescott, who's a really dang good quarterback. So or maybe Carson Palmer, again, great quarterback too. So, you know, to me, it has to stick with him. It has to put the

pressure on. And if you next year, I mean, I don't know, there's a bunch of different scenarios, but if you don't, if you don't get someone here to play really good quarterback that gives you a real chance to win, because the only time, you know, I have these, I've done the research, of course, and I have these kind of bars for are you a real Super Bowl contender or not. And those bars are usually, you have to win at least 11 games, you got to be at least plus 100, and you have to rank at least in the top 10 in offense and the top 15 in defense or you're not a real Super Bowl contender. Like almost nobody gets to the Super Bowl without checking all those boxes.

If you don't check all those boxes next year, I just, I don't know what you do. Like it's the end of the road. Right. It's the end of the road. Right. Because then you, how can you even show a clear path to where this is going to get better?

The defense is as good as it's ever going to be with Brian Flores. So you can't say that Sam Darnold and what he did this year doesn't. impact how this entire operation, uh, is viewed. I, I'm not calling for people to get fired. Not now, but I'm saying next year is kind of your, your, your final boss, that your final chance to really show that you can get to the playoffs and win because other coaches who have won many playoff games are getting fired when they didn't get to this level. So, you know, that's kind of the world we live in. Uh, let's talk about Drake May, because this is one, even if, even if Drake May had,

just made the Super Bowl and not Sam Darnold, you'd probably still have quite a bit of like, that was the guy, you know, like, oh, that was the guy. That's, that was the one that they wanted. But what did you make of that football game, man? Because I, I was, I loved what CBS did, where they had the still shots of the weather and how it just, yes, how it just like slowly progressed to like, it's green it's green there's a little flurry and now we're in a complete snowstorm i think that maybe i go back and forth on this between loving it and being like that's football baby if you don't like it go play baseball and then being like oh it's kind of disappointing it's it's like kind of disappointing the way the game played out because nobody could do anything like drake

may try to hand it off and Ramandre Stevens had just like slipped and fell you couldn't run you couldn't run routes you couldn't throw the ball you couldn't kick the ball I mean it truly felt like it wasn't even a football game at that point it was just it just turned into a total mess and I've got to be thinking about you know Sean Peyton I am the the the top of the 99th percentile I will defend any anyone going for any fourth down ever except for that one. Jared Stiddum's your quarterback, man. Kick a field goal.

And then by the end of the game, that ends up being the difference, that decision. I don't know. I just had mixed feelings about it because you want to see like a real football game. And I don't mind if the weather gets involved. But the weather just like ended the game

in the third quarter. Yeah, it just didn't feel like in the fourth quarter. It just didn't feel like a real football game. It just felt like, you're not really going to get the kind of finish that you really want. Like, I would have liked to have seen, I mean, Jared Stidham is who he is as a quarterback, but I would have liked to have seen him have like a real opportunity. Yeah.

And in normal, you know, conditions to like, hey, let's see if this guy who hasn't started a football game in two years can actually just like, hasn't played great today, but let's see if he can make a couple throws to put the Broncos. goes in legitimate position to like kick a field goal to tie it up or or even lead them on a drive to where they go ahead and go to the Super Bowl. I just, I did feel kind of cheated. I mean, R.J. Harvey couldn't even really run the ball the way that he's normally accustomed to. We saw him on a few plays just not really be able to get his footing. And that just took away from it, too. You know, Greg May, I mean, 10 to 21. for 86 yards is absolutely nothing to write home about.

But you look at the rushing touchdown that he had and then the run to basically put the game away. Yep, 28 yards. Yeah. Yeah, what a call by Josh McDaniels to get that done too. Just really, that part of it was, you know, stood out obviously and was really impressive. But you still just feel kind of cheated because it's like we could have gotten more better theater than that under, you know, maybe cold and maybe a little bit windy conditions, but I think just the snow just kind of, I'm normally not somebody that, like, hates

watching snow games, like the Tom Brady-Tuck rule game. Like, that was fun. Controversy, you know, a lot of controversy behind that game, but, like, you look at Benetary making the kick and all that stuff. That was fun. This afternoon just felt like, we just felt like we were cheated. It didn't feel like we got a real, the kind of finish that we really deserved in the fourth quarter. Because it was really headed in a way that I loved where like Denver is just beating the heck out of Drake May. And if there's one weakness for the New England Patriots that is could get them. And A, if you're wondering, I don't have a fan duel question of the day, but I do have the early line on fan duel. This would be interesting to track. The Seattle Seahawks on Fanduel are four and a half.

they open up at four and a half point favorites in the Super Bowl over the New England Patriots. So they're beating up the offensive line. And it's kind of a patchwork old line and Will Campbell's a rookie. And I mean, if you're a rookie in the NFL, you are now playing your 20th game or something. You've probably never played more than like 12 or 13 in your entire life. And you're doing it against Nick Benito and these other beasts of the Broncos great defensive line, great pass rush, great coverage. and I thought that May looked pretty shaken early in the game. And you could see some in that he had a third down throw.

I think it was kind of like a checkdown. He had taken a sack. It was like third and 20. And he drops back and he's got his guy underneath. It should be a pretty easy little dink. And then maybe he gets like eight yards or something. And he just misses him. And at that point, I was going, oh, Denver can really win this because they are in his head.

And they are dominating right now. And then Jared Stidham, why? I mean, one thing that is no one can ever explain, but backup quarterbacks and inexperienced quarterbacks just seem to do this at such a ridiculously high rate of you drop back to throw. And if you go down and take a sack, everything is fine. Like you'll punt the ball and you'll just carry on with your life. And he just passes it.

Like, man, when I used to play, C-Y-O basketball when I was like nine, we would do chest passes to each other, you know, is the warm-up. What are we doing, Jared Stidham? And he throws it backward. It's the right call, but kind of wrong, but kind of right by the referees. But they get it right. He throws it backwards.

They go in for a touchdown. And you're going, like, he pulled the Max Brosmer. He did the same thing where you're clearly in the clutches and you just decide you're going to go, like get rid of the ball. And he, otherwise, I'm. I thought he was playing okay. You know, he hit the deep shot to Mims, which was a nice throw. And he just wasn't throwing the game away and keep the train on the tracks.

And I actually thought there were sometimes after that where Stidham bounced back. Okay. Like he got a couple of first downs and stuff. Like your standard is very low for a guy who's playing against a defense that dominated Herbert and Stroud. So you're like, okay, well, you know, keep keeping the game. You didn't totally melt down. And then there's another. moment here. Tell me what you would have done in this moment. Because we talk about going for fourth down.

And I believe the kicking was one for five today, which again, like this is this was just not a football game. This was this. This was, I used to do this on Madden where you'd set it like 70 miles an hour wind and have it snowing and just like see if you could kick field goals or whatever just for fun. That's what this was set on. So they get a 46 yard field goal to tie the game. And it was something in the range of third and five, I thought they should have just gone for it because it felt like there was no chance anyone was going to make a field goal. Or is that me doing the hindsight? Like, do you have to just kick the field goal because Jared Stiddam's your quarterback?

No, I think in that situation, because at that point in the game, it's already been kind of established that both of these kickers were having a tough time being able to make kicks. I mean, you know, I forget how to say the New England kicker's last name, but, you know, he missed a couple that, you know, you would think normally a guy like that would be able to make. And I think in that situation, you have to, I mean, look,

you talked all week about how you believed in Jared Stidham and that, you know, you had all the confidence in the world in him. you are a great offensive mind historically Sean Payton. You know, I get that he's a backup, but why not trust your guy in that situation? Just because of the circumstances called for you probably to just go for it

because how really can you, how much can you really trust your kicker at that point? And Will Lutz has historically been a pretty good kicker for a long time. He kicked for Sean Payton in New Orleans. But it was clear that he was not going to be able to make kicks in this environment and those conditions. And, you know, and even the fourth down earlier, you know, when the weather was actually a

little bit more cooperative, you felt like that might have been the time to kick the field goal to take the points at that point. But when the weather is what it is, I just, I think you do have to take your chances and try to go for it and see, you know, because Stidham showed early in the game with the deep shot to Mims that he can make some throws. And if it's fourth and five, fourth and four, whatever it is in that situation, if you dial up something simple and, you know, an easy play, a high percentage pass, something like that, you could maybe have been able to convert it and get yourself in position to go ahead. But I don't know, man, that was the brakes and New

England is riding their defense onto this is, you're right. I mean, this run for New England's defense, the way they performed against the Chargers, the way they made C.J. Strau just looked awful. And, you know, being able to shut down the Broncos today, albeit aided by the weather, it was still really impressive stuff. And I can't wait to see it get matched up against Sam Donald in Seattle. Yeah. I mean, I feel like this is such a great example of the plan that the Vikings had being

executed better than the Vikings did it because the one thing that when we evaluate the decision by the Vikings about Sam Darnold and all that, the struggle that I have is the incomplete information part where you had a lot of information about one guy being really good and no information about the other guy basically outside of a training camp. And I will never, ever again, I vow, I will never again treat joint practices like they matter. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You guys are saying, oh, you're gloating about Darnold.

No, no, no. I'm here to apologize. We treated those joint practices with the Vikings and Patriots as if it was game seven of the World Series. The way we covered him. No. Nope. I'm sorry.

You know, with Chad Graff, who's one of my good friends, and I love this for him, I'm so happy for Chad. He used to cover the Vikings. He's a tremendous human being. And he's a great. reporter and he, you know, he gets to go cover the Super Bowl, which I may have said some nasty words to him about out of jealousy, but, you know, I, I, I remember he said to me after the joint practices, like, man, I guess we'll be seeing the Vikings in the Super Bowl or whatever.

And then even after two weeks, like the New England didn't look like they were that great. And then it came together. But their execution of this going to the bottom, I know people don't like when I bring it up, it's a fact go to the bottom and they developed Drake May the right way last year where they didn't play him right away and they played Jacoby Brissette until they kind of couldn't anymore and then they got him some action and he developed and then they went into free agency and they got eight nine 10 11 people and they went out and got a very serious head coach and Mike Vrable is as awesome as it comes man I mean I've had only a couple chances he's been here for joint

practices to listen to Mike Vrable. But when you see the way he commands his team, I think that that's number one, like leadership for him. And also, you know, keep, you know, getting Josh McDaniels back, somebody he had great familiarity with is huge. Their defense and the way they've been run on that side of the football has been amazing. It's just, it's just been an incredible execution of what the Vikings aimed for.

Because I never criticized. the bigger picture. I thought the bigger picture for the Vikings was right, which was move on from all those guys after 2022. It was bold. It was smart. And then draft your quarterback in 2024, spend all the money in free agency. But sometimes things change like a guy tearing his meniscus and you having no idea if he could play or not. Sometimes things change of a guy throwing, you know, for all those touchdowns and leading you to 14 wins. And to not be malleable there, I think that's the issue. But if you look at the Patriots, that's the plan, folks. the Bears. That's the plan. Even give Washington, you know, credit for last year. And it,

like those three quarterbacks have all now been to at least the divisional round and two of them to the conference and one of them to the Super Bowl. I do, I did wonder the one other thing I want to say is if Bo Nicks plays today, I think they win. I honestly do think I do that because he could scramble. He can run really well. And I think they would have probably won the game. So that's a really tough break for the Denver Broncos. But they, they've got them on the rookie deal so they could continue, you know, to be a strong franchise. But I, let's, let's thought just real quick.

I want to talk about a couple of other things, but just real quick on the matchup in general. The early, I gave you the early line. Like, what's your, what's your first impression? I know you said, can't wait is an impression. But like, what's your, your kind of first feeling of Seahawks Patriots? I think it's going to be just an amazing chess match between Mike McDonald and Mike Rable. I think both of these guys are excellent head coaches and defensive-minded head coaches. Hey, those guys can still coach in the NFL and lead teams of Super Bowls too, by the way.

But I think the matchups of both quarterbacks against the opposing defenses is going to be really fascinating. Damn Darnold's going to be facing another really good defense in this Super Bowl. The Patriots defense is legit. They've been fantastic this entire playoff run. And Drake May is going to be really tested as well against the Seahawks unit. And we saw Matthew Stafford, was able to move the ball in them a little bit. But he was able to do that in the previous matchup in the regular season, that great game that they had that went to overtime.

He was able to move the ball. And Drake May has the ability to do it. so it's going to be fascinating to see how that plays out. I still like Seattle in the game early, you know, early thoughts, because I think they just have kind of a stronger overall roster. But I think it's going to be fun. I can see it being a really, really close game. I like it.

I think this is going to be what I love the most about it. And this is where, you know, I kind of lean toward, I mean, I feel for Denver, but I. kind of feel like with Drake May being kind of the rising star that he is and Sam Darnold already being kind of a star and certainly playing like a freaking superstar tonight, this this quarterback matchup and the storyline's going into it, I think it's going to be really fascinating. So I love the matchup. I think it would have been equally as as exciting if the Rams would have won tonight, Stafford versus May and that whole thing. But I like it. I'm really excited and

I can't wait. These are going to be the longest two weeks. weeks. Oh, always is until we get there because this is, this is going to be a really, really fun matchup, I think. It reminds me a lot of, uh, 2021 where you have a quarterback in a new location that goes to a level he's never been before. And then you have, uh, a young quarterback in his second season that's just kind of, you know, hitting the scene and becoming a superstar.

And I was thinking about how I believe it's the youngest quarterback since Dan Marino and how those Dan. Campbell words about how like you never know when your only shot is going to happen. Like this is it's like Drake May is going to be great for 20 years maybe, but also this could be his only shot and here he is in the Super Bowl. Their team is not as strong as Seattle, but they've certainly played like they are in the dominance on defense. They really do need better quarterback play than they've gotten, but all three games were

played in the weather. And the Super Bowl will be played in nice weather in Santa Clara. Everybody make sure you get it right because it is nowhere near San Francisco. I found that out when I went out there. Where's the Golden Gate Bridge? Oh, yeah. Nowhere near here. This is San Jose, my friend.

Oh, okay. I also wanted to, I skipped right over this because we got kind of rolling on the darn old thing and the decision and everything else. I think about all the time. Maybe my next book, Manny, will be things that almost didn't happen in football. and Rek Wullen committing the worst penalty that I've ever seen in my entire life. Oh, my God. We skipped over it because it was just, you know, so much from our angle with the Vikings and everything else.

It's all about, you know, a team doing it with their quarterback from last year. But in such a great football game that was played, I mean, Puka, Nakuwa's touchdown right after that's an incredible catch. and you just have drama and sort of swings and great plays by great players. It felt much more championshipy going into it. I kind of called it the cover band and then the main act. And it felt that way. But he gets that pass breakup and goes on to the other team's sideline to celebrate.

And I just like, this is going to go to if this ruins the Seattle Seahawks chances. I mean, that would be as bad as Russell Wilson throwing the ball at the goal line. I think, okay, maybe not. Oh, yeah. It'd be close, though. Like, it would be very close to being as bad. That's just a great play by a Patriots guy and, you know, maybe a bad decision by Pete Carroll. This was no one made you do that.

What are you thinking? And then you got to love Sean McVeigh going right after him on the next throw. That goes under the cat. One of the reasons you and I love to watch old games is because you go, that's right. They miss that field goal or they had that penalty or they had that bad call that changed everything. And Rik Wollin was almost legendary for the worst possible reason. You got to give it to that defense, though.

On the next drive, I thought they're giving up a touchdown, absolutely guaranteed. And they really held up at the end. I just can't believe he did that. What are you thinking? You just walk to the other sideline. Your team gets the ball up 11 points with, you know, 10 minutes to, go or whatever. My goodness. And Nick Eamon worried looked like he was who's who's a rookie by the way, one of the best players on the defense and he's just been fantastic this year, looked like he wanted

to fight. I know. Recooling on the sidelines. Like it looked like something was going to go down between the two of them because it's like here is this this rookie 21 year old safety who's like, dude, what are you doing? What are you doing to us right now? And req willing looked like he didn't want hear nothing of it and it's just like well dude come on man like what are you what are you thinking what are you thinking i yeah i i was at that point i actually thought the rams were going to win the game me too me too when i was on yes what nukua scores that touchdown and i thought the first thing i thought was oh seattle's offense better go down and get a touchdown here and put this game away otherwise if the rams get this ball back they're going to go down they're

going to score again and then they're going to go to the Super Bowl. Fortunately, like you said, for Seattle, their defense, you know, held up after that. But, man, could you imagine, could you, could you imagine Seattle Sports Talk Radio tomorrow morning if the Seahawks would have lost that game? And it would have been because of what Rieke Wolent did on that one. I can't even, well, and wasn't,

wasn't he kind of the subject of trade talk kind of early in the season where they're talking about maybe, yeah, he kind of, figure things out. But yeah, man, he may have, his Seahawks career may have, may have been extended with them being able to go on to the Super Bowl. Because I can't imagine they would have lost this game tonight. I can't imagine he would have been on the team next year.

They probably would have moved on. I want to say real quick, because there's a Viking note I want to get to with you. And then we can call it an evening and then spend a couple weeks talking about the Super Bowl. I have been chuckling a little bit at the people, who are new here, like welcome to the show. I'm glad you found us and thank you.

But in the comments, revisionist history, we all wanted JJ after Sam against the Lions and Rams. Welcome to the show. Not everybody thought that that was the right decision. I seem to remember myself saying many, many times during the offseason last year, JJ McCarthy does not have to play right away. You don't have to play him in 2025.

I strongly remember saying that. So I think the, I mean, truly the bottom line for tonight, let me just like summarize for all those who may be just checking in or whatever. The bottom line for tonight is this. Good for Sam Darm. Yes. That's number one far and away. And if you have any other take regarding Sam Darnold, you're just being a jerk.

Like there's no, that guy has handled this whole thing so well. He was out there at a joint practice in Cleveland. Well, his coach is calling someone else the franchise quarterback. And all he does is puts it in his back pocket and goes out and wins 14 games for you. He tried his butt off. He played through injuries. He was tough as heck. His teammates picked him up on their shoulders at the end.

They didn't have to do that. He won big games for you. He was exciting. He came to work every single day. We talked to him every single week. He never, never had an I told you so. He never had a single snarky comment for anybody. A bunch of people came in.

tried that's for sure you know media coming in oh what he got to say to the haters or whatever and you know never never never never took that road always the high road for sam darnald always hey i'm just leading my team just doing the best i can you know people are like oh sam darnold's boring i'm like no this is actually like how you handle this with class and after he left all he did was just work his butt off on a great team and do the best he could and here he is like that so you shouldn't feel any way about Sam Darnold other than this is awesome for him. And, and you showed like Rich Gannon did in the past or whatever number of quarterbacks along the way that your career is not defined by your first couple years. Number two is that J.J. McCarthy's career is not over

because Sam Darnold went to the Super Bowl. And Kevin O'Connell and the Vikings and Jefferson and Addison, feel free to catch the ball a little better this year. Christian Darrasaw. got to stay healthy. They got to run better. They got to play defense really well and everything else. But he is not defined by, hey, you're the one who they chose over Sam Darnold. I mean, unfortunately, he will get that tag, but he doesn't have to be. And he could take another step and many quarterbacks have.

And he can still be a great quarterback for them. So that is not over. It doesn't have to be. I'm not saying it. I would never say that. I mean, we're the ones that were when they signed Sam Darnow, I was like, maybe. Because we've seen it so many times. history. Why would I declare it over for J.J. McCarthy? I'm not. These are two very separate things.

And the main idea of the franchise tag was you can find out about McCarthy. You can develop him. That was the main idea. Not just that I think Sam Darnel was really good, but the other part was this actually benefits the other guy too. So that's another thing. And then this decision that they made is such an error that it does go down in Viking lore. There's no other way to put it. There's no spin, there's no silver lining, there's no cope, there's no, yeah, but no, well, actually, if he doesn't win the Super Bowl, it's fine. Like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Reaching the place that your franchise hasn't been after being here and playing like

that, it is on the all-time Mount Rushmore of Viking lore of mistakes. And there's no other way you can frame this to, like, justify it to yourself. And then should be a really good Super Bowl, I think. That's the last part. I wanted to mention, though, that Brian Flores is now like 99% to be the Vikings defensive coordinator after the Steelers hired Mike McCarthy for whatever reason. They decided they wanted to hire Mike McCarthy. You never know, I guess, you know, maybe that'll be fine.

But Brian Flores is back. and to me what that does, mani is that eliminates any and all excuses. None. It's like you know you're going to have the defense. You know you're going to have the weapons. A healthy derisaw would really help. You know they're going to spend a little bit more on,

maybe a running back and get somebody a little more explosive. Go make it happen. No more excuses. No more timeline talk. No more, well, you know, next year's our year or whatever. It's this is it that you can. got him back. That was the piece that you needed. And there you go. And I wanted to say real quick about Mike Petten and his comments, Mike Petten is an incredibly respectable person around the NFL.

So if you're saying, well, Petton, what is he done or whatever? I mean, you're just, you just look like a fool if you say that. The way Kevin Sefer put it was some coaches butt heads with other coaches. And some coaches are more prone to budding heads than others. I think that's the fairest way to look at it. But they brought him back at the highest price. And so you've got your guy. And that's how you're going to go forward into next year. So that's pretty much locked down now after the Pittsburgh Steelers hired Mike McCarthy. And I don't think I got anything else. Any any thoughts on that, man. Yeah. I just pretty much echo everything that you said. I think 2026 is just such a pivotal year for the Minnesota Vikings and one way or another, I honestly at this point, I don't care what they do

at quarterback. It just needs to be right. They've got to get it right. If they're going to move forward with J.J. McCarthy, then he has to grow and develop and he needs to make a big, big jump in 2026. And if he doesn't, it's likely going to mean that they're going to go that best like nine and eight and they'll probably miss the playoffs and then everybody's getting fired. So it's so imperative that either if it's JJ McCarthy, he's got to grow and develop, or if it's going to be somebody else, that guy's got to be the right guy and he's got to come in and he's got to play well. He's got to lead your team to the playoffs. And you probably need to get to the playoffs and make some noise there as well.

Maybe not necessarily NFC championship game or Super Bowl, but it's going to have to be something significant because the status quo right now with whether at in the quarterback room and going nine and eight and coming up just short and saying, oh, if we just would have had this guy for a few more games or, oh, if this guard would have stayed healthy, or, oh, if this linebacker would have gotten a chance to gel with the rest of the defense better, there's no more excuses. This has to happen. Kevin O'Connell, Brian Flores, the players, everybody, they've got to make this happen in 2026. Otherwise, I think we're going to see a lot of changes. So the pressure's on. Clock is ticking and the pressure's on. Time to get to work.

It's a great way to put it. Mani, thanks for the schedule adjust there. I know you're not in your beautiful home with your campfire behind you. So I appreciate you making this work tonight. We've had a couple of different locations for recording throughout the playoffs. It has been super fun, though, to recap games with you and break it down. And now we get the lead up to a Super Bowl. and we get, I think, a matchup that, you know, it's happened before. It's produced classic results before. And I think there's a really good chance for it to happen again. So I'm very, very excited to break that down.

And then now the clock, as you said, starts ticking and the decision at quarterback needs to get made. And it will start to see, you know, maybe, you know, rumors come out about, you know, who's going to be available and what's going to happen. And, you know, Kirk's a pretty good broadcaster. I got to say, I mean, I'm not being sarcastic at all. I think he's actually fantastic on television. And I don't know, maybe he'll have so much fun.

He'll do that. I'm not really sure. We'll see. So I appreciate everybody watching and listening to the recap here. And I'll try my best. I'll try my best over the next two weeks, not to just focus on one thing. But I will say, I can't be held responsible for the snark of the next couple of weeks. Because this is pretty, this is tough, this is a tough one to analyze any other way.

So thanks everybody again for watching and listening. Thank you very much, Mr. Hill. And we'll see you very soon. Football. Football.