Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - POSTGAME REACTION: Vikings no-show in Seattle (Part 1)

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

Matthew Coller reacts to the Vikings' disaster performance against the Seattle Seahawks. 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 into the Minnesota Vikings postgame show here on Purple Insider, presented by Fanduil, and I want to start out the show with the only way that I feel it is appropriate to start out the show here reacting to the Vikings 26 to zero shameful effort against the Seattle Seahawks, which is with a moment. mock draft. Let's mock draft. I've got the PFF mock draft simulator up here taking a look at the 2026 draft because this is where we are at with the Minnesota Vikings. Let's see. They probably won't get to the very top. Going into this week, they were in the 12th draft slot. Well, they get to move up a little because of that. Hey, the Jets won. So that moves them down. Maybe there's a chance to be a little closer to the top here. Caleb down. a safety from Ohio State. He's going at the top. We got some quarterbacks.

I know that a lot of you guys are going to maybe ask about drafting a quarterback. Ty Simpson or Fernando Mendoza, Dante Moore. I don't know if Arch Manning is coming out. Let's see. We got the running back, Jeremiah Love. Your team would actually have to run to use them. Let's see, Mansour Delaney. Okay.

I'm interested. I'm interested. A corner from LSU. On the clock right now for my mock draft. Jermad McCoy from Tennessee. You know, I always like drafting wide receivers. I mean, if, you know, Jordan Addison's not going to catch the football, then maybe they should draft another wide receiver and, you know, trade him away.

Let's see, Caleb Banks, a defensive tackle from Florida. They're going to have to get rid of some of these defensive tackles to get some cap space, Avion Terrell. I don't know. There's a tackle in here. If Christian Derisaw is not going to be healthy, then maybe that's in consideration. You got Caden McDonald, defensive tackle, guard, they seem okay.

I think they're okay at guard. Anyway, the point is that that's where we're at right now, that it is on to talking about how high the Vikings can draft and what the heck is next for their future, because if there was going to be any, I don't even want to call it a glimmer of hope, but just a small little thing, a little morsel or a nugget for Vikings fans

to say, hey, it's been an absolutely horrible year, but maybe, you know, Max Brosmer could be interesting and kind of fun. And instead, he throws four interceptions, including one of the worst picks that you will ever see in your entire life. The Vikings were down three to nothing. They had the ball in scoring position, fourth down in one. And for some reason, they traded a draft pick for Jordan Mason to have him stand and watch as the quarterbacks and a tight end last week screw up constantly all season long on third and fourth and short.

This has to be the most pathetic, awful third down or fourth down and short offense that the NFL has ever created. It is already over the last four years been a total mess every time they got into short situations. But this was a new low for Kevin O'Connell and the Vikings offense as he decided with a third string quarter

who has never played before to not give the ball to Jordan Mason, but instead trust his quarterback because he could be playing with a quarterback with no arms and he would trust him on third down. And he rolls out, he gets grabbed, course, Max needs to go down there. Instead, tries to throw the ball away. It's picked off by Ernest Jones. He runs it the rest of the way. And all of you could have gone out to shovel snow at that point.

It was completely over because there was. was no chance against this Seattle defense that they were going to be able to move the ball, especially with Christian Darrasaw out, with Donovan Jackson out. They could not run the football for most of the day, but when were they going to do that anyway because they were down by double digits almost immediately. Whatever words you want to use for the rest of the game after that, because that's the one interesting decision that was made or thing that happened, the rest of it was just a laughing stock, a calamity, a disaster, a mess.

I was suggested the word tragic comedy, which I had never heard before, but certainly a word that applies to this game. They could not catch the football. Jordan Addison had, I think, two drops. Justin Jefferson had another drop of his own. It was a little bit behind him, but of course, you know, the broadcast is saying you expect Justin Jefferson to catch that ball for somebody who has been the victim this season. and he certainly is a very bad quarterback play.

Justin Jefferson has also had his moments where he could look in the mirror himself and say, I need to bring that football in by the third quarter, Jefferson, maybe it was early in the fourth. I guess early in the fourth, Jefferson is alone sitting on the Gatorade cooler. Again, just every game now, we've got Justin Jefferson at the end, sitting alone, looking around, wondering what the heck he can, even do from here. I mean, he's under contract. I know people have asked, could he ask out? Not really. Not really in a spot to do that. But just pondering life over there on the water cooler.

And Brosmer had a couple of moments where you went, oh, okay. He had a throw down the seam to T.J. Hawkinson that was pretty nice. Both of the drop passes were a decent enough throws. But the pressure was too much. The coverage was too much. He had what I thought was a. decent throw to Jefferson that the coverage was good, tipped up in the air. There's not enough velocity on that ball because it's a third string quarterback who is undrafted. And I know, I know I'm not, I don't have the comments section up just yet.

But I'm sure a lot of you are saying you guys in the media told us that Brosmer might be pretty good. Well, just like so many things this year, we thought there was a chance that it would go okay. I certainly thought that it was in the call. of one of the outcomes based on everything that was said about Max and what we saw during the preseason and what we saw during training camp, was it unrealistic to think he was going to be great? Yes. Did I expect him to throw four interceptions? No, I did not. I expected it

to operate a little bit better than that. And there were additional things that went wrong as well, including Aaron Jones, not sure if he's going to have a rest of the season after being tackled by DeMarcus Lawrence and something popped into my mind when DeMarcus Lawrence made that play because it was a third and long and Brozmer just gets a little screen pass they couldn't even run I mean they had a couple screens that kind of worked but you can't even run a third and 14 swing pass without fumbling like what are we that means nothing is going to work for you in the year 2025 but Jones shipped to Marcus Lawrence on the way and he went flying by he actually

hit the ground and then he's the one who chased him down and stripped the football and the words play style pap just popped into my head about how Kevin O'Connell used to talk about and we haven't heard it much lately play style we need to have a different play style better play style a tougher you know more aggressive play style and I thought Seattle now that is a play style they didn't let even a wink of offense happened the rest of the game. They didn't allow the Vikings to even think for one second that they were scoring any points in this game, including, and I respect this even though it's illegal. Nick Iman Ware, who is a top pick of the Seahawks, just giving them a camp chancellor,

a guy that we talked about a lot potentially for the Vikings, not that I'm down on Donovan Jackson, who's played well this year, just been a little banged up. but Eamon Wari at one point picks up Justin Jefferson and throws him to the ground and he gets a flag for it's a bad play but it's so much disrespect like think about the level of disrespect

for a rookie player to pick up one of the league's biggest superstars and body slam him like he's Roman freaking reins and everyone stands around Jefferson gives him a push everyone just kind of stands around nobody really running in nobody's starting any sort of backyard

there just like you're going to let that rookie do that to your superstar player and nobody do nothing and yeah I know if it was hockey you'd have a lot of gloves flying in the air and I'm not advocating fighting but it was just like any anybody nope nobody's even really coming flying in there doing a little pushing and shoving a little jawing no that's how the Seattle Seahawks felt about the Minnesota Vikings that their rookie player can body slam your superstar and they can be like, what are you going to do about it? The answer is absolutely nothing. But I have to say that the Minnesota Vikings defense was pretty darn good today. They knocked down a bunch of passes from Sam Darnold. They stopped a lot of run plays,

and Seattle certainly had a lot of run plays, but it didn't feel like Kenneth Walker or Zach Charbonnet were dominating them. They won a lot up front, and Dallas Turner played one of his better games, and this is, what, three games in a row now that Dallas Turner has put together pass rushes, he knocked down, tipped a pass from Sam Darnold. Darnold early in the game looked pretty unhappy. He was a little inaccurate. He was definitely under pressure all the time in this game. He scrambled multiple times and just threw the ball away. And the irony of the Minnesota Vikings 2025 is that I think, and I know they don't always tackle perfectly and I know that it's not a flawless defense. I think it's actually better than last year in terms of

complete talent and when they're playing at their absolute best. It was just that last year's defense was not on the field when they were down double digits time and time and time and time again. But you saw them today when the game was close, when things were even, they were out playing the Seattle Seahawks. That from that side, they were succeeding. Forcing field goals, getting stops. I didn't look because who cares at the final third down and fourth down count. But, I mean, the Vikings were very good in those downs against Darnold.

And then this is just where you're at any tiny little mistake. And then you end up giving up, you know, 26 points, but one was the touchdown. So still under 20 points, 19 points given up by the defense today. that should easily be in a position to win. You think about last week, the Packers were not special, the week before that, the Bears were not special, the week before that, the raves, I mean, if you got on this run with even the 18th best quarterback in the league,

the 22nd best quarterback in the league, you're winning half these games, if not more, with the way the defense played. And this could have been a revenge game on Sam Darnel. They could have found a way to be right in this game all the way to the end if they got any shred of offense from Max Brosmer and look, it's a very tough position to be in. It's one of the hardest places to play in the league. Their coach is really, really good. And he's really good at dialing up defensive coverages,

looks. They have a ton of defensive talent. It was always going to be an uphill battle. I picked a 24-14 loss because I thought they'd move the ball a little bit. They didn't. And when they did, they threw it away to the other team. Here's the bottom line on this. Last week, I said, this is the lowest point I can remember since covering the team. And then I went through a couple of them,

2016, when Adrian came back against the Colts, and they melted down some random tight end, lit them up. That was pretty dark. that week 18 against the Chicago Bears for Kirk Cousins in 2018, or I guess it would have been week 17. And Thielen and cousins are pushing each other. That's healthy scratch, Adam Thielen, by the way. You're welcome Carolina Panthers who beat the Rams today

for giving them some more draft capital. Good stuff there. Yes, I know. A lot of these things are, well, at the time, I guess I thought. One of the biggest issues is that a lot of things, that I would raise more questions normally. We were giving benefit of the doubt because they won 14 games last year. Benefit of the doubt is, well, when you are a team that's expected to win this year,

you make a trade that isn't maybe necessarily perfect by the trade charts because you need that guy because you're going to win this year. And we assume that that was going to be the case. We assumed J.J. McCarthy was going to be ready because QB Whisperer and now you're going to you're getting you got this week it was actually the more entertaining point of this week than the game which was everything i shoveled snow and that was better i took the dog for a walk that was worlds better than this football game but more entertaining in the football realm than this game was actually the beginning of some wheels turning of the NFL insiders

rehashing the sam darnold decision where we got tom pellis talking about how the Vikings offered Darnold the contract. Yet we all know that they offered him a contract that he was never going to take. You needed to franchise tag him, clearly, because that could be you. And instead, it's not. Folks, this year is the year that I actually get my holiday shopping going early for all of my friends and family. And there's only one place on the internet that's going to help me best.

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Goods.com slash Purple Insider for 15% off. Don't miss out on this limited time offer, Uncommon Goods. We're all out of the ordinary. Nobody gets to at all in this organization. Say, I wasn't the one who let Sam Darnel go. Well, maybe Flores. Flores can. He has nothing to do with that.

Everybody's responsible. Everybody. COC, Quasi da Fu-Menza, and the Wilf's. They're all responsible for what we just saw. The first shutout since 2007. They're all responsible for this season going down the way that it has. All of them. Nobody gets to leak out this, that, or other spin

to try to make themselves look a little bit better in the public realm. You don't get to do that. And a few fans said to me today, hey, do you think today is the turning point of talking about hot seats and you know my standard position has been well look they took their big swing it didn't work but they created a window which is 2025 and 2006 and i have felt like they deserve to see that through and have this year and next year this year utter failure okay now fix it and a lot of times through viking's history

we have seen the next year, like the light after the darkness, sometimes at total random. 2024 following 2023. 2022 following 2021. Every other year, right? 2016, utter calamity. We're talking about maybe Zimmer being fired

and then they go to the NFC championship. So there always seems to be these ebbs and flows. Maybe a lot of it's based on your schedule. You get a first place schedule. You get a fourth place schedule or third place schedule. I don't know, right? Whatever it might be. The luck factor.

They did recover a fumble today. So that happened. They got the turnover. Actually, two of them. Two turnovers that they caused. Unfortunately, they lost the turnover battle badly again. The point is that turnovers can be kind of up and down. Schedules can be kind of up and down.

And health, which they've struggled with this year at times. So next year, hey, they go into the offseason, they add some talent, they go find a quarterback, have a competition, see what happens. That has been my standard position that they have found ways to get back on track after things have been bad. But today, once the factoid's come out, I can't, I can't say I know anything that's going to happen next. once you start getting to first time shut out since 2007, I don't know what I can tell you to avoid that conversation. The dog, he's down here. I don't know what I can do to avoid that conversation of if it looks that bad the rest of the way,

how do you go forward with this? That that discussion has to be at least in the air. It is the NFL. You go four years without a playoff win, and you win four games. If that's how this is going to go, the rest of the way. And they finish with four wins or five wins, usually that has consequences for somebody. And I don't think anybody deserves a free pass. And at very least, they've put themselves today locked into a shameful, embarrassing, pathetic no-show.

They have locked themselves into hot seat, absolutely guaranteed for sure. There is no avoiding that. And one thing that I know is that the Wilf's, even when they went 7 and 10, if you remember, they did not give an extension to KOC and KACA Adaflmenza after going 7 and 10. And there were some other coaches that got extensions. They waited until the following year when it was turned around. Now, I have never been a fire KOC person. I have thought in general that we can't lose what happened last year when they had good quarterback

play and they won 14 games, but if you reach the point where you're responsible for what happened in the quarterback development, and you're supposed to be a coach who elevates offense, and when your quarterback play goes down, you don't just become a struggling offense. You become worse than the Jets. They are. I think that they're worth, they are handily worse than the Jets. The Jets won today. The Jets beat a team that supposedly had a great defense,

which is something that they talked about, J.J., you know, having a bad game in week two, that the Falcons had a really good, secretly good defense. I'm sorry, they don't. They lost to the Jets. I mean, the Browns are who you are. That's the only team I could come up with

that's even comparable to the Minnesota Vikings at this point. So when you go from setting the bar at competing to you are the Browns, that's not just a decline. It's not just a, oh, well, you know, the JJ thing didn't work out. They won seven games, but they were in a bunch of them. And if only you had this one player, you only had this. No, no, no, no, no. You're getting crushed.

You're getting killed. You're not even showing up for these games. You're not even given Justin Jefferson a chance to even catch the ball and do anything with it. And then you get one chance to score and you decide to put your undrafted third string quarterback. in a spot to throw the ball. I'm sure someone was open, man. I'm sure when we go back and look at the tape, once again, for the hundredth straight time

on a third or fourth and one in short, somebody was open. It was a great play call. It just didn't work out. Well, at some point, if it doesn't work out time and time again, but that's nitpicking. The bigger point is just that when these things have failed

to this degree, if we go back through history, there are coaches of the year who don't have their jobs the following. season. I don't think that we're in a spot where that's a great idea, but they have put themselves in a spot where anybody who brings it up, I am not shutting you down. I am not. You win four games with this team if you lose the rest of the way, which is very much in play. There's a winnable game next week against Washington. How can I say they're going to beat anybody? The Giants, how can I say they're going to beat them? Dallas, they're going to get killed by Dallas. Lions,

at the end of the season, how can you say they can even compete with any of these teams? And I know it's a backup quarterback, man. It's just that, well, this has been the quarterback play all year long. The highlight of 2025 quarterback play is a game-winning drive from Carson Wentz against the Cleveland Browns,

a game in which they scored, I don't even remember. Was it like 18 points? That's the highlight of this season's quarterback play, aside from a fourth quarter from J.J. McCarthy against Chicago, a first quarter against Detroit, circling back, this is the lowest moment of the last decade for the Minnesota Vikings. It feels like there's no way out that they are going to be stuck shopping the garbage bin for anything in terms of quarterback play. Today was kind of one of those last hopes. You heard Brock Purdy's name a bunch of times.

There's a reason why outliers are outliers, because it usually. doesn't happen. I still think Max Brosmer can develop into eventually a backup caliber quarterback, which is what I've said all along, but, you know, let people have Purple Purdy, right? I think he can. I actually think that he did not look to me like he was lost out there or scared. He did throw the ball in the right places, not always accurately. And then, you know, I mean, just made a catastrophic mistake. He can develop. He could be in the mix for the backup quarterback spot for next year, but clearly you were not, after today, finding the purple purdy. That's unfortunate.

But that was just the last shred of hope for, hey, maybe there's something here somewhere. And alas, there was not. So this is as bad as it gets in terms of, I mean, all franchises in the NFL, if you're talking about the money that you spent, the salary cap space that you're lacking for next year or the overhaul that you're going to have to make in order to create salary cap space and the available quarterbacks to you. I mean, in a theoretical world, it does make sense to draft Mendoza from Indiana or whoever you like if you get a top draft pick because that's the better thing for the franchise. And you could say, well, don't write off JJ yet.

Okay, fine. But when we're talking about some of the worst quarterback play that anyone's ever seen through six games in the last decade. And that's all the numbers back that up. Sorry for looking forward. That's why we started with a mock draft. But that's all we got to do from here on out. It's not even December yet. And that's what we're talking about.

But in a theoretical world, yeah, draft a quarterback, but they can't do that. And I guess, I guess if you were talking about a reason to make changes, that's one of the reasons why. is because if you wanted to draft another quarterback, then you probably can't do it with people who are on the hot seat. And this kind of season puts everybody in the NFL on the hot seat. I do not care who you are. I don't care what award you won last year. I don't care if people called you a quarterback whisper or not.

You have a season like this, you're not in good standing. You have no playoff wins. You're not in good standing. Even if you've got a hundred reasons why it happened, it does not matter in the NFL. It does not matter. So they are at a point here where we're talking about what they're going to do going forward, but the options aren't pretty.

And this week, I promised it last week and then I forgot because we got caught up in Max Mania or whatever. I forgot to grade your quarterback ideas. But I guess I'm going to need to do that this week for 20206 because we can officially count that. one out. I suppose there is a world where J.J. McCarthy comes back and he will definitely be coming back as soon as he clears the protocol where he comes back and he plays better. That's possible against Washington, against the Giants, Dallas. These are terrible defenses. And to me, the damage is

done. The damage is done. If you could get to seven wins, I guess that would be impressive considering where you're at. My expectation is not that. Just to give you the fan duel question of the day. Before the game today, the Vikings were minus 250 to win at least six games. That means they are favored to win at least six games. Do they get there? Do they win six? If they win against Washington, what is it worth? The damage is done. You can't go, if McCarthy plays better, we'll talk about it, but it's already gone so far that you can't feel comfortable with where you are at next year. So I do feel a little. bit for Max Brosmer in part because he was asked to get something turned around that has already

hit the bottom of the ocean. And the question that I walked out of this today was, is there anything left to ask about this team? Is there anything left to say about this team? We're just in the off season, right? I don't know that there's anything left to say other than I'm interested to watch Dallas Turner the rest of the way. I'm interested to see if Will Reichard, I don't know, sets any more kicking records or something, I've got nothing else in terms of stuff to watch. I don't need to see more of anyone. I mean, this is not an interesting team to even start evaluating for next year outside of Dallas Turner.

I mean, what's new to say about, I guess they have to decide, are they going to keep someone like Javon Hargrave? One thing we can say, though, is that T.J. Hawkinson can, can catch the ball still if you throw it to him, which I think was the positive thing that Max Brosmer did today. He actually had a nice ball up the seam where Hawkinson got it.

He had a yards after catch for Hawkinson. And just because we're in that mode, I was looking at his salary cap situation. Restructure and cutting him is about the same amount. Might as well restructure. But I think at least we did, if there was one thing we took away, it's that Hawkinson's not different.

It's just that J.J. McCarthy has never been finding him. I guess you can really work with that information in the future. And also, if you weren't already convinced trading draft picks for veteran players is really great if you're winning 14 games. But if you don't, then you're just losing draft picks. And that is the case with Jordan Mason, who I think's a good player and I think deserves the ball on third and one or fourth and one. But they won't give it to them. So what's the point? And they can have Xavier Scott not get the football on third and short or anybody, anybody.

And, you know, the Thielen trade going that much of a disaster for him to not even play today. Again, that's like when we're doing most interesting things from today, one of them is a guy who didn't play, which is Adam Thelan. And this has gone as bad as any trade or signing that they've ever made to bring back Adam Thelan. And meanwhile, his former team, the Carolina Panthers, gets a huge win. against the Los Angeles Rams, and everybody thought at the beginning of the season, the Vikings are competing. I know I thought this. The Vikings are competing for a Super Bowl or at least for playoff contention.

And, hey, the Panthers are rebuilding. And, you know, so it makes total sense for them to get some draft capital and the Vikings to get the Leland. Now it doesn't. Now it doesn't. Now it's just giving away draft picks again and not getting anything in return. turns. So the situation here, if you're looking for silver linings, I don't have many aside from one guy has done his job this year on one side of the football, and that's Brian Flores.

And I think that there were some weak points of this defense previously that they had some poor showings. They were bad against the Los Angeles Chargers. They were bad against the Eagles, which that game looks a lot worse. But they've also gotten it turned around to the point where they're in all these games with a chance just get halfway decent offense and it was nothing anywhere close to that. So I don't even know what else to talk about from this game. I mean, do we just take quarterback ideas for next year? That makes more sense to me. Is there anything? Is there anything? That's your challenge right there. Is there anything to talk about from this football game? Because aside from Turner continuing to play well, which is, again, ironic, right? That

they have made the most epic mistake at quarterback, at least so far, they've made the most epic mistake of quarterback that cost them this entire season. But at least one of the draft picks that was thrown in Quasi Adolph-Met's face the most had a great game again. So I don't know, is he good at drafting or not? I'm not sure. But Turner does look like he is a player that can start going forward. And the ceiling is still, I don't think he's there yet because he's only 22 years old. So that's some nice progress. I guess we could look at that, which is just what do they have to work with going forward?

I still think it's a lot. I mean, I still think it's a lot. But, I mean, even how do you even evaluate certain people? Like we were just talking about T.J. Hawkinson. Jordan Addison drops a ball today. He dropped one in the game where, what was that, Chicago? early in the game where that might have been a bit of a game changer, drops that one, hasn't been great.

And yet one or two drops in the past, when you're going to get a bunch of targets and a bunch of opportunities, we wouldn't even notice. If it was darn old last year, we wouldn't even notice if someone dropped the ball. And like, well, unless it was a huge one that cost them something, but they'd be like, okay, well, next play. And it'd be a third down conversion,

and the offense keeps moving. And we never even remember it. But now every drop feels like it's the, worst thing to ever happen because your offense can't do anything and you know brosber didn't have a lot of time to throw but also wasn't very accurate when he did uh the interception that he overthrew nail nailer nailer's wide open poor jalen nailer this guy's been wide open all year long all year long maybe they can bring him back just because nobody around the league is going to know that he's been open and how good he is and and quarterbacks have been overthrowing him underthrowing him

completely missing him, not seeing him out there, and, you know, Brozmer overthrows him. I mean, this is, this is one of those starts from a quarterback that you would throw under the category of like a Nathan Peterman kind of caliber start, where even the opportunities that were there few and far between were not at all taken advantage of, which, yeah, I mean, you could say could have seen it coming. I don't think I would have seen a shutout coming. And so you get to the next natural question of, well, Kevin O'Connell has thrown in Jaron Hall,

he's thrown in Max Brosmer, he's had J.J. McCarthy starting. And we are at the point where no one, other than I guess Nick Mullins was a lot of fun, but it wasn't good. He benched Nick Mullins at one point. He benched Josh Dobbs at one point. I mean, this is the tough spot.

right, to do that evaluation, which is, is it all these, all these quarterbacks can't play? The answer is probably yes, right? Or is there something else? I think that's the question that in their meeting with ownership tomorrow probably has to be answered by the head coach. Is there any, is there anything else that could be done to enhance these performances? Or is that just how it's going to be? undrafted free agent I know

everybody wanted him to be good and I thought it was a chance because he does have a great mind for this first game Seattle really difficult but there's a lot of past plays in this game

and a lot of downfield routes that I mean there were some screens but there's a lot of downfield routes there they kind of reminded me of the Dobbs thing where the guy's throwing picks and it looks like it's a real struggle and he just keep doing it. Mullins kept doing it

and he didn't care about the picks and just kept throwing deep. But there are things to question there when we can run through all these different quarterbacks who just haven't even given them a chance outside of Mullins who had been in the league for quite some time before. I don't know at the same time

if there's a lot of coaches around the league who are taking their backup quarterbacks and looking fantastic. But this is a shutout. I mean, even the take the points guy was probably right today. Take the points so you don't get shut out. Maybe, maybe that's what they should have done there. Just take the field goal so you don't get shut out.

So what, I mean, what's to talk about? Are we mock drafting? Are we grading? Uh, quarterback ideas. Do you guys have reactions to that? I mean, I'm just not, who's not really sure where to go with it, uh, in a day where, oh, I got one more thing. I got one more thing. So of course, Sam Darnold didn't have to do anything in this game.

Just nothing. He could have been Rick Meyer today. Could have been Dan McGuire. He could have been Seneca Wallace. Anyone wins that game. Glenn Foley, was he a Seahawk? Anyone wins that game for the Seattle Seahawks today, a quarterback. So he didn't have to do much, which really kind of negated all of that discussion, right? Of, well, you know, oh, the Darnold threw for 400 yards against them. See? But I do think that what was left of that discussion is probably just, and I would advise against it, is probably just the coping mechanism from Vikings fans

who now, in terms of rooting interest for the rest of the season, the best you can do is that Sam Darnold doesn't make the Super Bowl so you can make fun of him on social media and be like, ah, that's why we got rid of him. I saw some of that today and I thought, we smoke and crack because he is in a position for the second year in a row to lead a team as I was as impressed as anybody. I've ever seen a quarterback with his leadership last year from Sam Darnold. Just the beloved guy in the locker room, as you saw from last season, works super

hard at it has proven everyone wrong and now he's on a really good team with the right system for him and he's got a chance to go do it and he probably won't because most teams probably won't I don't know the Rams lost to the Panthers like random stuff happens all the time but if it happens in the playoffs then it's you know the truth I guess but when it comes to Darnold I would I guess just suggest not saying anything about it because he's going to be playing in some really big games here coming up and might win him, might melt down. I don't know, but he's in him. And the Vikings are now a million miles away from being in them.

And you might say, well, isn't that like it was with Kirk? And I would say no, their one playoff win came from a six seed back when there were only six seeds. And it was a shocking upset to get one playoff win. So they weren't playing in a lot of games with him either. They missed the playoffs in 2018, 2020, 2021, got the coach fired. I'm like, no. Last year, though, they were, Darnold was in big games.

And then this year, Darnold's going to be in big games. So I don't think that you could shoot too many arrows in Sam Darnold's direction. Yes, it's very, very clear now that they should have franchise tagged him. But I don't think that there's any reason to disparage Darnold. He did not play that well. today, but he didn't have to play very much today. So that's it. Oh, Mr. Buddy's got his favorite toy.

He gets anxious during the show, the dog, Mr. Buddy. So he'll go get his favorite toy. It just happens to have a really big squeaker. So we'll get you answers to that Fandul question of the day, which is the Vikings before today were minus 250 to win six games. Do they get there? I'm just advising cheering for Sam Darnold. He was great for you. You didn't let him go.

Someone else did. just that's a guy who did everything he could for your franchise and once again Sam Darnold this week once again this week Sam Darnold I'm gonna have to stop him this week Sam Darnold of course they tried you know hey so the Vikings let you go huh and you really proved him wrong huh and uh he wouldn't go there just like he wouldn't go there with the Panthers he wouldn't go there with the jets class all the way from Sam Darnold as you'd expect this week and I'm sure after the game he will be the same exact way. I have not seen his post game. But to me, he's a guy that if you're a

Vikings fan, you should be happy for that he's continued to have success because it's not your fault that he's playing for a different team. So let's get some questions and comments and thoughts here. I'll just start at the bottom and work my way up. And we'll have a bit of a conversation about this travesty of a football game, 26 to 0, the Vikings lose. And bottom line is over the last several weeks, I think that if you were in a spot where you were saying, it's not going the way it was supposed to go, but dot, dot, dot, dot. The but, I mean, but was probably followed by, but, look, give it more time. It's only JJ's second start, third start, fourth star, fifth star, okay, maybe you could be

that way. It's fair enough. and I restrained myself against the bust allegations of J.J. McCarthy, and look, he's very, very young. I don't think his career is over, but we can say, there's two different things. You could say that, like, if you say that J.J. McCarthy could never be good. Well, Bryce Young just beat Matthew Stafford today. It was fantastic. That guy got benched last year. So I would never say that. There's way too many examples of quarterbacks who have come back from looking as low as you could possibly be.

and have turned out to be good. This decision, though, has gone bust, and they cannot put themselves in a spot next year where they're just hoping and praying that McCarthy takes a big step forward. Because even Bryce Young is just okay. And on one week he's good and the next week he's not. I mean, usually if you're that low in terms of your performance,

there's not a big chance that you're going to jump back up. So I think we can surely say that. I mean, but with McCarthy, my point is just that, you know, along the way, there were a lot of different things where you could go well. And I did this. They beat the lions. So if they split versus the Ravens and the Bears and the Seahawks and the Packers, if they get two out of four, they could stay in the race or at least the race for a decent season.

And they lost all of them. So the conversation has changed from, well, maybe there's something around the corner because there usually has been with this regime, right? There usually has been something around the corner. They arrive, they win 13 games, then they have a rebuild type of year. Quarterback gets hurt, and then they draft the guy that they're expected to build around. They win 14 games with Sam Darno. Like, okay, usually there's been something around the corner that changes your mind.

Oh, Vegas thinks they're only this. Well, they usually outperform that because of who they have is their coaching staff. The way that this season has gone has not erased all the things that have happened, and I try to keep those things in mind, but it certainly has cast a very new light when you are playing like the Cleveland Browns, when you are playing as bad on offense as any team in the NFL. and your shining light of this season is two quarters of J.J. McCarthy and Carson Wentz for a game against Cincinnati. Goodness gracious. So let's dive into your comments. Hunter says

halfway through the season, I thought we were trending towards 500. What an optimist I was. I don't think that you were crazy, Hunter. I really don't. I have always felt like, with this coaching staff that they outperform what expectations are because that's what they've done in the past. So when you win 14 games last year, when you're over under is six and a half, and this is where all the people who, and look, you know, if you want to throw the arrows at me, that's okay. Like I'm, I show up here and give takes and see what happens just like everybody else.

I'm not a fortune teller. but if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. And so then we talk about what happened. But, you know, when it comes to, hey, you thought that they could win 11 games, I did. I really did. I watched the entire offseason. And I thought, okay, training camp, OTAs, mini camp, went to all of it, thought, okay, this looks like a pretty stout football team on both sides. The trenches are way better.

The running game should be way better. actually statistically it has been from a yards per carry perspective the you know some of the secondary stuff maybe a little bit questionable but they painted over that last year so I should give benefit of the doubt there and they let a 14 win quarterback go who went for 4,300 yards and 35 touchdowns and so okay if they believe that strongly in J.J. McCarthy then again benefit of the doubt has to be earned. It's like if you leave the house and your friend is there and you leave a hundred bucks on the table and you come back and the hundred bucks is still there, you're like, oh, that's a, that's a trustworthy friend. So, hey, they went out and got Sam Darnold last year.

I thought, okay, this is fine. Some of you thought, oh, this is, he's going to be bad and whatever. And he gets 14 wins. I mean, Vegas thought he was going to be bad. He gets 14 wins. So you're, okay, well, then this, this can make. any quarterback better. And I said it probably a bunch of times in the off season.

I'm sure everybody else did too. There were national analysts who picked the Vikings to win the division. Mike Clay, I think had JJ McCarthy thrown Mike Clay from ESPN, who does the projections, throws for almost 4,000 yards. I mean, why wouldn't we think that this would work out? And even then, there were enough signs from McCarthy at times to feel like, okay, well, he'll get it together. What my point is that Hunter, you're not crazy.

I thought after the Detroit win, oh, yeah, there is the 2025 Minnesota Vikings. We've been waiting. And I said that after. I imagine if you went back and listened to that podcast that I did after the Lions game, you'd be like, wow, this guy must have been snorting purple, something. But didn't that look like what we thought that they were supposed to be? Not a team that can get shut out. I mean, kickers can make field goals.

from 78 yards away these days and you get shut out. That's hard to believe. I just so many of these things I would not have seen coming. And even with Brosmer, I thought same sort of deal. Like, all right, well, Mullins went in there and got rid of the ball quickly and they succeeded. So if he just gets it out of his hands and gets it to Jefferson and Addison, I thought that they would catch it, but they didn't do that early in the game. still that's another thing too like who would have thought that those guys would have as many miscues as

they've had they are not solely victims where's the restart button yeah has anybody tried unplugging and plugging back in the minnesota vikings kft says i can't believe uh people thought it was childish for mccarthy to post go max oh well look i mean people are going to get they're going to make fun of mccarthy for anything online now i mean if he walks down the street they're going to mock him. I mean, all day long, people are making up memes to make fun of J.J. McCarthy. I think that's a pathetic way to spend your life, but hey, more power to you if you do that. So, yeah, I mean, look, JJ McCarthy, I think is tried as hard as he could try and has been a good

teammate when players say that they've, you know, they've got his back and they're trying to cheer him up and everything else. I believe them. I just think that it's gone really badly. And any time that happens, it's going to look pretty tough. Let's see. Raven wants to trade picks for KOC. Man, yeah, I don't know.

I don't know about that. See, my opinion, and this is where it's hard to figure out, like when do you change your opinions? Because my opinion for a very long time here has been that Kevin O'Connell is a really excellent head coach. and I would not say he is the best coach in the league. I think that that's the little guy from Los Angeles. It's the best coach in the league.

I would have put him up there. You go back to week one. And this is why I have so many guests on. One of the reasons I like to entertain and have friends. But like one of the reasons is to just cross-check my own opinions. Like are you seeing what I'm seeing? Like when I brought on Mike Renner the other day to watch the J.J. McCarthy tape, it was like he's the best at watching tapes.

So, like, are you seeing what I'm seeing? And I had Robert Mays on from The Athletic. This is that great podcast, the athletics football show. And I had him on after week one. And we talked about the pairs. And we were like, ah, same old bears, I guess. And I guess not because Ben Johnson's very good at his job. But we talked about this coaching staff.

And I said, man, is it like how many coaching staffs are better than this one? And he's like, not many. And that was the consensus take, coach of the year. how many coaching staffs are better. So my thing usually is don't try to ride the roller coaster up and down with every loss calling for people's jobs because you just look like a buffoon if you do that, I think. And it's senseless because try to take the bigger type of picture outlook. Like let's factor in everything.

Let's factor that they won 14 games last year. Let's not throw that out. It's the same people. It's the same head coach with the same system. So when we say, oh, it must be his system. Well, it won 14 games last year. But you do reach a certain point. And that's where I want to be clear.

I was not when I was talking about earlier, which I can't wait for it to be clipped and show up on Twitter. But I was talking earlier just about how no one escapes this. This is just a reality of the NFL. I still think that Kevin O'Connell has done a lot of really good things here. And we shouldn't throw all that out in the evaluation. but this also belongs in the evaluation. You do not get a free pass for this,

especially when you're the point man on making the quarterback decision. And he can try to put it out there through certain channels that it was this or that or whatever other factor or whoever can put it out there that they wanted to sign Sam Darnold and they wanted Daniel Jones back. I'm sorry, the results are the results.

The results are in and they're not good. You don't get to do that. You don't get to go, well, we wanted that quarterback who's playing really well. You don't get to do that. The results are what they are. And you have to live with them. Even if you're trying to control certain narratives or whatever and spin it a certain way, this one can't be spun.

This one cannot be spun. You are what your record says you are. You're a bad football team, a super bad football team. One of the worst football teams in the NFL. And that goes back to the quarterback decision. So I have been in the camp very firmly that the head coach of this football team is above average, never said he's perfect. We've nitpicked a lot of different things. But when we're talking about the future and how you evaluate this season, there is no question that this is a catastrophe.

This isn't just oops, they had a bad reset year or oops, they didn't get as much out of J.J. McCarthy as they thought. this is atrocious and unwatchable. Maybe the most offensive part is just how bad of a product it is. It isn't even enjoyable. It isn't even like losing with Nick Mullins. Oh my gosh, that would feel like going to six flags compared to this. This is unwatchable and it has been all season long. That is not something I expected, but it is something that someone has to be held responsible for.

And if the guy is going to be the play caller and the quarterback guru, and a hundred other things, well, the results, they go next to his name on pro football reference, and they have to go into the evaluation as we consider where this franchise stands long term and short term. So, yeah, I don't know how that started, but that's where we're at. Trade for Justin Herbert. Yeah, you wish.

Let's see, the, I'm not sure I can read your name. My question is how does moving, now does moving on from KOC make sense for the sake of preserving the locker room? Yeah, I don't think that there's a locker room issue. I don't think that at any point there's ever been a feeling in there that it was over or that the coach had lost them or anything like that. I think early in the year there was a lot of tension surrounding the injuries and stuff of that nature. But I've never gotten the sense that this team has looked around and said, our coach is lost out there or that we feel like he's cracking or something like that.

I've never gotten that sense from the players. I don't think that the locker room is so much a problem as it relates to the head coach. I mean, that's going to be KOC's biggest strength is that. if the team is rolling and if they're good, he's going to have everybody going. And I think if they're bad, to a point, they will stay together and they'll play together. They'll play hard.

I mean, I thought the defense played extremely hard today, but I guess maybe that goes to the defensive coordinator. I just don't think that that's ever going to be an issue with him. Because I think that he treats people the right way who play for his football team, regardless of the record. And that's not something that we always saw from Mike Zimmer. That's when the culture element fell apart.

So I'm not, I wouldn't throw that into the mix of evaluating it. It would really be, I mean, just that the, for me, the results, the offense, to be this poor on offense is almost impossible with these wide receivers. And I mean, the offense of Lyon got crushed today. You assume that they would when Derisal was out. But, I mean, you just, to not even be around in the game, not even be. And this is how many games now where you're not even in the ballpark. You didn't even show up to the stadium.

Los Angeles. There's a reason why I'm doing the show from home today. I made the decision. Like it's not going to be worth it. I don't think it's going to be worth it or I'm concerned. It's not going to be worth it. And I'm glad I'm here. Spent the day with the dog.

I mean, that's something that you have to say, what the heck happened here to be at a point where you're going to Los Angeles and they completely no show. You're going to Green Bay, complete no-show. Seattle, complete no-show. You could pretty reasonably call the Ravens game that. It was decent for a while. The offense didn't show at all in the Chicago game. They got kind of a lucky break on a punt return.

That stuff's just crazy. Let's see, vibrant works. I'd sign a veteran, draft a quarterback, and force JJ to compete with a rookie. In a theoretical world, man, that's exactly right. in a theoretical world, just throwing numbers at it is the right way to go, which would be draft another quarterback with your top pick and sign a veteran quarterback, whoever it might be, and then have JJ compete with them all.

All that makes a lot of sense. I just don't see any world where they can draft another quarterback. They just don't have time. These types of results, they just don't put you in a position to be able to do that. These types of results. I mean, I'm refreshing Fandul to see if they change the Vikings odds to win six games. Right now, it's at minus 250. But when your odds are barely in your favor to win six games,

you have put yourself in a position where at best, if you get another year, then you have to absolutely win in that following season. You cannot, let's see, as a change, no, it's still. minus 250. You cannot have another season where you play this poorly. It's just totally unacceptable. So you are right when it comes to just in general, like the philosophy of what they should do going forward. But I think trying to get the best veteran quarterback to win next year and save everybody is really the only way that they can go. And I will stay with that for right now, which is, I think that they created a window for themselves with a lot of really

talented players for 2025 and 2026. And things change so fast in the NFL that you shouldn't as an organization, because you will look very reactionary. You'll, you'll look, I think, a little bit like, oh, okay, the quarterback decision goes all the way to the top, but you're going to pin it on somebody else, right? I don't think it would be a good idea. But if you you get to the end of the year, and it's five and 12. I mean, that is the last time that happened, Les Frazier after making the playoffs the previous season was out. So, you know, like it becomes not unreasonable to have that discussion.

Marauder says JJ's gotten worse every week. How is that not the coaching? Well, I mean, there's another part of it to, I mean, is it that, is that the case? I mean, wouldn't you have to be good at some point to get worse? Like, when was it good? He had a good quarter against Chicago. He had 143 passing yards against Detroit. There was some parts of that game that were good.

But immediately after that, the week two, it was bad. I don't want to hear any excuses. Well, we had a kid that week. Well, it's the NFL. Guys have kids. Oh, his tackle was out. Okay. Tackles are out.

It's the NFL. So good week, bad week, on the shelf for multiple weeks, then comes back, has a pretty good game, give it like a C plus or a B minus type of game, got to win, and then bad, bad, bad, injured again. I don't know that you could say he's gotten worse. It's just never actually been good. And that you could say, though, maybe, is that on coaching. or is JJ just not there yet? But you can certainly say this is where you can that I think we would agree is that you can definitely say he was not ready to take on a franchise with this type of

expectation. He was ready to take on a franchise with the Tennessee Titans expectations, not this team's expectations. That you can definitely say. Hi boy says McCarthy was playing with scared eyes. he was shell-shocked from his injury wasn't even ready to start and just got worse. His fear showed and teams smelled the collapse. Yeah, well, I mean, I think the teams also just had a strategy against them after seeing him a little bit.

You get a little bit of a sample size on somebody and then that's what ends up happening. Davids says this year's offensive line has been a mess. The Vikings almost have to draft a few in the first two days of next year's draft. I mean, yeah, it's been, there's been a lot. lot of different injuries that have happened. But even in the games where they were mostly healthy and good, they still couldn't score against Baltimore and Chicago. Those performances were excellent.

They couldn't score. I'm assuming, and I don't know what to think about this, and I guess I'll have to ask, is Christian Derisaw, it's just been a no-good, rotten year coming back from a terrible, terrible injury. And KOC has implied numerous times that the injury was maybe worse than, was I don't know thought by us on the outside because we hear ACL and we're like oh yeah Adrian Peterson but I guess maybe it was worse than that so he ends up just not being able to

get to 100% health and then when he does he plays mostly great but you started to see it against the Packers just didn't look like the same guy and then you know he's out this week that's been really tough I think they have an offensive line though and I mean Brandel was a fine center maybe you're looking for another center it's really just been injuries Jackson I think has a very bright future fries man gave up a really brutal pressure today but aside from that has been okay I don't think he's lived up to the price I also think we knew that he wouldn't because the prices for guards were so out of this world that we figured he probably wouldn't O'Neill is still excellent I mean I think overall like you've got a good

offensive line they just have not been able to stay on the field entirely which has caused problems for the quarterbacks, absolutely. I don't know if that means, since we are mock drafting today, I don't know if that means you're looking for an offensive lineman in the draft. They have drafted, all these guys are high picks or big money. They've put a lot into it. Let's see. Vikings are missing that dog in the street. Yeah, although my dog's not so tough. He's a, he's a grayout. That's not a, it's not a tough breed. Let's see. Christopher says, I don't think KOC is that good of a play caller. He feels like a one-trick pony.

Look at how Ben Johnson coached a young quarterback, Caleb Williams, hasn't played that well, yet they have a running game. Well, that's hard to dispute that they have found a way with some of Caleb Williams' limitations to still be in games and win games. And I was thinking about that for some of the other teams that have really good coaches that have faced adversity this year. San Francisco just won again,

and I know Shadur was not very. good today and you know it's cleveland etc but uh san francisco man that brock purdy hasn't been that good mac jones was just kind of all right and they found ways to win games chicago's at the top of the division where their quarterback play has probably been about average and can you say like that's because they've been able to lean on the run game effectively yeah um i think kOC would say during some games they were when they had a healthy offensive line and that would be true that during the Chicago game, for example, they did have success in running the football,

in part because the offensive line was completely healthy. And that's helped for Chicago. They've had a mostly healthy offensive line. They've done a really good job with it. But still at the same time, you're right that, you know, it's the job of the offensive coordinator play caller. This is your job, is to squeeze every ounce of what you got out there. And when you have results,

like this, which are literally the worst in the league, I think only Cleveland is the worst team in terms of quarterback play, but that actually might have gone down today because, I mean, Shadur struggle, but he wasn't that bad. And Brosmer threw four picks. The Vikings actually might be 32nd. I don't have updated stats on that. They might be 32nd in quarterback rating after this game. So you cannot argue in any world that you've squeezed the most blood out of the stone.

You can't because you're last. there's definitely teams with worst quarterback situations or or just as bad or expected to be just as bad. The Jets are out there playing to Rod Taylor and he gets a win and they've been playing Justin Fields all day, all year and the Browns have been playing three different quarterbacks. And yet their numbers are better. I mean, Tennessee, I don't know what I know that they got killed today, but I don't know

what Cam Ward's quarterback rating is, but it's better. And that guy's playing with the. the worst team in the league, not with Justin Jefferson. I mean, my goodness. In terms of Fanduil question of the day, the Vikings minus 250 to win six games, how do they get there or do they get there? And Phenom says, why would they want to?

Well, they would want to because of what we're talking about today. That last week turned a page to, holy cow it's really truly over there's no making anything out of this this week turned a page to you are in now what i like to call in minnesota sports factoid land i came up with this when the wolves were really bad because it seemed like almost every night when they were when ryan saunders was coaching them or whatever it was almost every night there was some new factoid like the wolves haven't done this in so many years or this is the worst comeback ever allowed by a team and it would always be them and when you get into haven't done this since 2007 when you get

into worst team quarterback rating since whatever season when they showed the quarterback graphic of performance of uh wence and j j j versus darnold tell me that your face didn't just melt off into a skeleton when you're looking at that just ah like right that's you're in factoid land and When you get there, that's where, yeah, I mean, they do need a couple of wins. That's the unfortunate part, right? It's way better if they just lose. It's way better if they lose every game for them next year to get a top draft pick. And at very least, you're talking about a corner was definitely on my mind.

As I was doing our first mock draft, I don't know who I didn't actually select anyone. I just kind of looked at it because I don't even know these guys' names. Like, I would watch college football. but I don't study the draft all season long because why would I have thought that I would have to study the draft all season long? But a defensive tackle would make sense

that they need more defense. What do they? I mean, it feels like they, corner is probably the position. But you'd love to have the best corner in the entire draft or whatever you're picking. But also, if you finish with four, then there's got to be a very long meeting

to decide whether they're continuing. continuing with this regime, which is crazy because they just got huge extensions in the offseason, but that's, that is the truth. Hunter, am I a bad fan if I don't watch this team next week? No, no, you're not. You got to watch the post game. Actually, it's the, the, another ironic thing is that last week was one of the better weeks I've had in a while in terms of downloads and watches because everybody accepted it's the

off season now. And let's pick apart everything that happened and let's get into next year. And that's the mentality of the show going forward is let's, let's get into it. Let's talk about what's going to happen next because that is where we're at right now. So it's probably more interesting to talk about than this team has ever been at any point this season outside of leaving Chicago. After we left Chicago, when has it been interesting? The win against Detroit for that post game. in Detroit's press box there that Dane and I did.

That was interesting. Since then, they haven't even played interesting games. They haven't even played games that we can pick apart and talk about and debate and argue about of, oh, should KOC have done this there? Like today, I mean, just, you know, I made fun and was snarky about that run play. But it was also like, who cares? Who cares if they ran or passed there? even if they got a field goal or even if they converted,

I mean, they scored zero points the rest of the entire game. So what difference did it make? Might as well throw it there. Might as well do anything. It doesn't matter. If you can't move the ball consistently and you turn it over that much, it didn't really matter. So even those debates have sort of gone out the window.

I kind of, I know I struggled with talking about play calling because oftentimes it is that, A, if it worked or if it didn't work kind of thing. I saw a bunch of teams running Cubey sneaks with their tight ends today, by the way. So, like, you know, I don't know, didn't work out. I don't want to fight about it. But that even that's out the window. Even a whole side of the ball can barely even be discussed other than to just say, you guys tried the defense.

You guys tried Harrison Smith's out there making a big play. And, you know, he's played a lot better since he's gotten back to full help. But what difference does it make? If you can't get even reasonable levels of quarterback player offense, it feels it feels like what's the use. So let's start talking about, I got a friend who's a cap guy, Texan's cap on Twitter, but he does everybody's cap. So maybe get him on the show, start talking about the cap. Let's get a draft expert. Let's get going.

Let's get moving. My first mock look was, I got a lot to learn. So, you know, the draft is right around the corner in April. So got to get going for that. But are you a bad fan for not wanting to watch next week? No, they'll probably win. I mean, Washington's bad, but I'm not picking them for any games from here on out. Is JJ damaged goods now?