Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Power rankings? Oh why not, let's do some post-NFL draft power rankings

Episode Date: May 10, 2022

Publications like Bleacher Reporter, USA Today and NFL.com put out their post-draft power rankings and they were not very kind to the Minnesota Vikings. Are they wrong? Matthew Coller and Paul Hodowanic rank NFL teams until they get to the Vikings. What might throw off the rankings? Which bets are we willing to make on teams with uncertainty? Are the Vikings a lock to have a middling record or are they volatile ? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to a very special and exciting, breathtaking, some people might say, episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with Paul Hodowanek of WCCO Radio. And Paul, we are past the draft conversation. We can move on from the words consensus draft. We can never talk about draft charts again until April. Arm length? Ban it from the show. No more discussions about arm length, quick twitch, oily hips. It's all over with.

Now they play for the team, and we evaluate them so forth, of which on Friday, by the way, I'll be out there at TCO Performance Center for Rookie Minicamp, which if you don't think it matters, usually it doesn't. However, every once in a while, there is a player who stands out that ends up making some noise as a rookie or down the line like Tyler Conklin. I remember had a very good rookie minicamp. So we'll talk to the players. Then that'll be our first chance to see them in person. So we're going to have some fun this week. And I wanted to start that off by power ranking NFL teams. How do you feel about that, Paul?

I feel great about that. I am so ready to find out where the Vikings are in my rankings. You did not give me much time to prep for this, so I am making this up on the fly. So it's going to surprise me. It's going to surprise everyone. I'm excited for this. It's much better that way.

If you do your research and then you're ready, you've overthought it at that point. This needs to be snap reactions, power rank teams. And here's why I wanted to do this, because I wrote an article about how like the imaginary rebuild is kind of our test case to compare what happens with the Vikings against. Right. So like if they go seven and ten, then we can always go back and say, well, there was this other path

that you didn't choose. If they go 12 and five, then we could say, oh, I guess it's a good thing you didn't choose that other path because that was the other way you could have gone. So we're always going to kind of compare their results over the next two years, really, because that's kind of how they've set themselves up. And upon my research, I was interested to know, well, what does the rest of the world think about this vikings off season like the non-local non-viking fan uh non your local media kind of thing think about what they've done outside so i went in search of power rankings and the results i found paul were uh there's a famous line by the rapper Nas

in a disc song where he says, not positive. That's the way I would put this. Not positive. That is too, that is too old for you. That song was in like 1997. Uh, not born, not born. Nope. Nope. Nope. You weren't, uh, you, you missed Nas's prime, uh, a real shame, but you've got Kendrick Lamar. So you're good. good um but i will pull this up for you what i found in terms of the power rankings um first of all vegas has actually dropped their win total from nine to eight and a half which is not hugely different but still that is uh 13 teams have win totals higher and three other teams have win totals of eight and a half the nfl.com power rankings have them 22nd cbs sports 20th bleacher report 22nd usa today 17th and pff 18th so that is where the

vikings stand in power rankings and our goal is to see if we agree with them so why don't we just kick it off and i will let you go who do do you think should be considered going into next NFL season? The best team in the National Football League of football? I have not done the research of these other consensus boards and things, these other rankings, but I would assume that is kind of the consensus pick. I think just with the Chiefs taking a step back, the Bengals obviously made a good run, but they were still only a, they were a 10-win team, 11-win team, so they weren't some regular season juggernaut. They feel like the team primed to kind of take advantage of maybe one of the last years of flexibility they

have with Josh Allen and his contract even though it goes up they still kind of can push money down the road this first year or two into this big deal they got Kair Elam I believe they got James Cook in the draft I think they got some nice pieces and but more than anything I just feel like this has some of the best returning talent. I believe in their GM. I believe in their head coach, Sean McDermott a lot. And some of the other, uh, AFC, I think the AFC West is going to kind of cannibalize itself and the AFC East. I mean, Patriots don't inspire a ton from me.

The bills just feel like the clear cut team in that division. And thus the clear cut team, at least in my power rankings is that where you go so uh the post draft i'll be kind of comparing what we say next to vegas because i have this up at vegasinsider.com if anybody wants to check that out for the win totals and they would agree with you that there are two teams whose uh win total over under is 11 and a half. Buffalo is one of them. The other team I won't pick for this spot is Green Bay. I do not think that they're the second best team in the entire league. I think that the Los Angeles Chargers are the second best team in the NFL. Right now, the Chargers are my pick for the Super Bowl. And, you know, last year, maybe people were picking Cleveland for the Super Bowl.

So that's why post-draft power rankings are for entertainment purposes. But I think when you look at how things align as far as who their quarterback is, and this is going the same direction, Josh Allen is still cheap. That team, that roster is still good. Same goes for Justin Herbert, still on his rookie contract.

They were able to add a ton of talent this offseason, improve their offensive line, which was a problem for them. And as good as the AFC West is, I think that you're right. It's going to hurt them to have so much good competition in the AFC West, but I think they'll be the best team. And then they will go into the playoffs with a great chance to win the Super Bowl because of who their quarterback is, because how they've improved their defense and what's around Justin Herbert. I'm a little dubious about their offensive

coordinator after what we saw last year when the Vikings played them, but I think their talent will overcome. So I am pushing the Los Angeles Chargers of Los Angeles all the way up to the number two spot. Okay. Third, then I have the bucks. Uh, I, they had 13 wins last season, I believe. And they were pretty much like one, not Todd bulls blitz away from beating the Rams there and getting to the NFC championship game. And then you don't know what happens. They could have easily been in the Super Bowl, but they ran into the Rams who eventually obviously win the Super Bowl. And Tom Brady comes back.

They bring back a lot of those pieces, Chris Godwin, Mike Evans. And the massive thing for them at the end of last season was just, they were so injured heading into the playoffs. Just horrible, horrible, horrible injury luck. And if we know anything about the playoffs, you have to be really but you also have to be healthy the healthy teams make it the furthest the bucks didn't make it the furthest because of that their division is going to be god-awful again uh just i mean they really should get probably six wins out of that division uh alone and then i don't know i the rams still don't have Odell Beckham back. Maybe they feel like they're

still on top with Allen Robinson. Obviously they add, but to me, the Bucks are the top team in the NFC still. Tom Brady still played at an MVP level last year. And I don't think the Bruce Arians departure is going to affect them too much. I think if Todd Bowles lets Byron Lefkowitz kind of have his hands all over the offense, like Bruce Arians did, I think if Todd Bowles lets Byron Lefkowitz kind of have his hands all over the offense, like Bruce Arians did, I think this offense can continue to flourish. Todd Bowles can continue to have the defense playing well, and obviously has to take in a little bit more responsibility. And so maybe that deters them a little bit, but I just feel like Brady's coming back because he feels like he can win again with this team. The Rams, Packers, for me, both took a little bit of a step back in the offseason.

And so the Bucs feel like they're still right there. So they're the top NFC team to me. I think maybe that's debatable. I would like to hear what you think, at least in the NFC. But they still feel like the team to beat there. Yeah, I think there's three teams in the NFC that stand above everybody else. And that is Green Bay the Los Angeles Rams and the Tampa Bay Bucks and the the thing that you wonder about here

is okay is Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady going to be as good as they were last year because they both played at an MVP level they're number one and two in the MVP race and age eventually should catch up with everyone. I mean, we've been saying this about Tom Brady for a really long time, but the caliber of weapons around Tom Brady in Tampa Bay, the offensive line, they're reworking it a little bit, but I mean, still going to be pretty good in front of him. Like you said, last year, they had a great chance to win the Super Bowl, got really beat up, had some things go wrong in that game against Los Angeles, including Todd Bowles drawing up a blitz that he shouldn't have drawn

up. But aside from that, still a very strong team. Matt Stafford is the youngest of the quarterbacks, but he is also the most volatile of the quarterbacks. I think that's a very hard one to pick between those three teams, but my next team on the list is not going to be one of those three teams. It is going to be for fourth place, the Kansas city chiefs. I do not believe that the exits of Tyree kill will ruin the Kansas city chiefs. They've added weapons. They drafted sky more. They brought in Juju Smith Schuster. You know, the Marquez Valdez Scantling like these,

these players will help them have a little more options, a little more versatile offense. And also now they've had an entire year to look at how other teams are going to play against them. And even last year, like the narrative halfway through the season was people have figured out Kansas City. They finished the year with the fewest punts in the NFL and one of the highest scoring totals and one of the highest,

they may have had the highest scoring percentage in the NFL, meaning percentage of drives in which they produce points patrick mahomes is still the best quarterback in the entire nfl and i'm not taking the best quarterback out of the top five even if they've had to retool rework a few things even if they lost one good player in tyree kill but replaced him with several potentially good players. Uh, and their offensive line is much improved from where it was two years ago when they were in the super bowl. So there's a little bit of push and pull there, but I'm going to say the Kansas city chiefs still deserve to be, uh, considered one of the Kings of the AFC. And I guess it speaks to the AFC strength that three of our four teams do come from the AFC. So round out the top five for me here,

Paul. Yeah. Well, just quickly on Kansas city. I think like the Vikings are in what they're calling a competitive rebuild. I think the chiefs are kind of in a like competitive retool or something like that.

If that's the way you want to phrase it, because yes, they lose Matthew. Yes. They lose Ty Tyree kill. They go, they get Trent McDuffie in the draft. They go get Sky Moore in the draft.

They go get George Karloftis in the draft. They added Marquis Valdez-Scantling and Juju Smith-Schuster, I believe. So added a ton of talent, got younger. And with Patrick Mahomes and his contract, they're going to have to make some of these sacrifices where they decide not to pay guys. But they did about as well in the draft as I think they could have to fill the holes that they needed with players that at least projected seem like they can come in and start right away. So they feel like they have kind of

hit that competitive retool and done really well toward the point where maybe they don't have the ceiling that last year's team did or this team's before, but they're still going to be really good. They're still going to have a chance to win the Super Bowl. And then they're probably set up long term better than they were entering this offseason, just with some cheaper contracts on the books, getting younger as a whole. So I really like them at four. I don't know why they would drop any further than that. Five, I'm going to go the Rams. I'm going to keep the Packers outside of our top five. For me, I think the Devonta Adams loss is going to be big and so for the Rams I think yes they don't have Odell Beckham back but they did

sign Allen Robinson they do still return obviously Aaron Donald Cooper Cup they have still tons and tons of weapons on the offensive side they still have Sean McVay as much as Vikings fans don't want to hear it I don't know if Kevin O'Connell, the loss, is going to be that big for them. I think Sean McVay can pretty much put anyone in that spot and continue to work. We saw it with LeFleur. We saw it with O'Connell. We've seen it with Zach Taylor.

They are just a machine. I don't think their personnel losses are going to cost them that much. And they're the Super Bowl champs. I mean, I think they deserve some respect here. And to round out our top five, yes, they had some things go their way to get to the Super Bowl, but I think just as easily

if they're in the Super Bowl next year, I'm not surprised. And their setup, their window was kind of a two-year window. They won in that first year of the window, but they still have this second year to kind of work with and see if they can

get all they can out of it. And so I, I have the Rams at five. Yeah. I think that they actually might have an easier division than they did last year. I'm going into the last year. I mean, Russell Wilson is still playing for Seattle last year and that you, you know, you had Jimmy Garoppolo, who knows what his situation is if he's going to get traded somewhere. But at least a proven quarterback who has gone to a Super Bowl, that might end up being Trey Lance.

We really don't know what Trey Lance is going to look like. Arizona has had some turmoil throughout this offseason. So things look actually a little easier with the path for the Los Angeles Rams. And when we factor the power rankings, I think that you have to look at the division, which is why the Green Bay Packers are going to be my next pick because the Green Bay Packers path to winning the NFC North once again

is just not all that tricky. The Lions, I think, will be a better football team and Chicago, you could see them winning five or six games. And really, if they win any more than that with Chicago, it's quite the accomplishment for Justin Fields because that team is just bad. And with the Vikings, if the Vikings are an eight-win team again, which is what Vegas is projecting them to be, then the Packers can cruise to double-digit wins.

I also think that losing Devontae Adams is a big deal. Christian Watson is probably not going to fill his shoes in year one. It takes time to work with Aaron Rodgers. It takes development. But at the same time, they've been without Devontae Adams at times throughout Aaron Rodgers career, and they've still won and they've improved their defense. And they are healthier by a lot than they were last year. David Bakhtiari comes back. Jair Alexander comes back. They add some pieces in the draft. Green Bay is still a top three NFC team. So long as Aaron Rodgers doesn't do too many strange medical things to himself and completely fall off. But you know, that's the way that he played last year. That just doesn't look like

it's going to be the case. I don't think I would say that I would bet them to win the Superbowl, but I think in, as far as the division, I'm going to factor that into how strong I think that they'll end up and give them the number six spot. All right. Seventh, I think is probably a bit of a surprise, but I really, really liked the Ravens next year. The Ravens, I think, are going to be the best team in that division. The Browns are going to deal with a lengthy suspension for Deshaun Watson. And like I said, the Bengals obviously had a good run in the postseason, but they weren't in a fantastic regular season team. And I know obviously we're going for who wins the Super Bowl, but I think the Ravens retool in the draft class. They get Tyler Linderbaum, they get Kyle Hamilton, they

add David Ojabo. He's going to be kind of a next year project for them. But for me, mostly it goes back to how many one score games did the Ravens lose? How many, you know, they were kind of the people, the anti-analytics community was having fun with the Ravens because they kept missing two point conversions to win games, fourth down conversions. I think the math says those are the better plays. And at some point, that stuff evens out. It didn't work out for them last year. They obviously have Tyler Huntley have to come in for Lamar Jackson and play towards the end of the season. So they missed the playoffs. But for me, this is kind of one of those teams where they're, they're the, we missed the playoffs last year. Now we're going to be kind of a powerhouse heading into next season. I think the AFC North, uh, Steelers, I don't think they're going to be great with Trubisky or with Kenny Pickett.

And I just feel like maybe the Ravens can capitalize on a Superbowl hangover by the Bengals and they can just be flat out better than the Browns, especially when Sean Watson's out. And so for me, the talent of Lamar Jackson, I get losing Marquise Brown hurts, but I wasn't a huge Marquise Brown fan to begin with. I think Rashad Bateman can take some internal growth. That team can grow internally in the wide receiver core and they can kind of continue to build what they're building. I really, really like John Harbaugh as a head coach. And so for me, last year felt kind of fluky for them to miss the playoffs and for all those one score weird games to go against them.

I think that turns for them this year. I think Lamar continues to get better. And I think that team is primed to win the AFC North. Folks, while there is plenty of classic football gear to check out at SodaStick, the hockey playoffs are beginning and you can jump on board with SodaStick. The hockey playoffs are beginning and you can jump on board with SodaStick's amazing hockey designs. Dollar Bill, Krill, Moose, Madonna, the old North Stars logo. They've got everything for you for a deep playoff run. Hats, shirts, hoodies, and prints for your fan cave. Go to SodaStick.com. That is S-O-T-A-s-t-i-c-k.com use the code purple insider for 15 off

yeah not only that but they lost the most i believe it's like most snaps or most value to injuries last year and they were playing tyler huntley in key games uh down the stretch so with number nine i'm having a lot of trouble here. There's a huge debate to be had about who gets to go next. I mean, you have Russell Wilson now playing for the Denver Broncos. The Dallas Cowboys, it might be unfair to them to drop them too far, considering that they won 12 games last year. One of them was with Cooper Rush.

There are other teams, though, that I think have a pretty good argument. Like, are we maybe underrating San Francisco that they could get even better quarterback play if Trey Lance steps in? I think that's an extreme wild card that you wouldn't bet on. But Denver, Dallas, like these teams are,

I mean, Arizona won 11 games last year. This is a really hard place to go, and I think that I will pick Dallas, even though I do not believe they had a good offseason. But I want to go and lean toward – like they lost Amari Cooper. Like they're not a better team than they were last year, but I also think that we're forgetting kind of who the quarterback is and how Dak Prescott has played the last couple of seasons. And like, let's not miss the forest through the trees that they still play in the NFC

East that I think I'm going to go Dallas over Denver because of the division they play in. I think they'll put themselves in a position to win that division again and still be a team that goes into the playoffs ready to extremely disappoint their fans in the first round. That's how I see Dallas. I mean, but I think this is the first six or seven. I mean, you kind of maybe reached a little with Baltimore, but I think there's a good argument for it. You could say, all right, those are the teams that probably are the best. And now we get into a lot of I'm a little less confident on these teams. How do you feel about my Dallas selection?

Yeah, I like it. I mean, they lose Amari Cooper. They lose Randy Gregory. Some of those things scare me. Mike McCarthy as a coach scares me just a little bit. But yeah, I think they are probably, they're one of those teams where everyone kind of sees them regress a little bit uh but yeah i think they are probably they're one of those teams where everyone kind of sees them regress a little bit and i think that maybe pushes them down too far because everyone

kind of agrees oh they're going to be worse and so then you probably don't give them as much respect as they probably deserve but i'm going to need you to read out the top ones that we've had so far because i know you're keeping a list so i know who we've taken who we haven't so i know where i can go here okay so we have uh buffalo los angeles chargers tampa bay kansas city los angeles rams green bay baltimore dallas that's where we're at right now okay all right so then i'm gonna go back to the afc and I'm trying to decide between the Bengals, the Broncos, where we go here. I think this is when the Bengals have to go. Obviously just coming off a Superbowl.

You only assume Joe Burrow is going to get better, especially with the offensive line. They added several pieces to the offensive line in free agency to kind of beef up that unit. Cause we saw in the Superbowl, that was their Achilles heel. They added the secondary too. I think they got Dax Hill in the first round there. So they're continuing to add bodies to the secondary, which was a strategy that they employed last year to get average secondary play. They were kind of a team we talked about with the Vikings where they just took shots on Trey Wayans, WZA, other guys that I can't quite remember off the top of my head right now. And they got enough of them to make it work and to get average play there and to get some

push from the defensive line to where they had a pretty solid defense. And so they continue to do that. They continue to add pieces in the secondary. And I think, although I picked the Ravens for that division, I think the Browns are right, or the, sorry, the Bengals are right there. There's tons of teams. The Browns are right there if they had a full season to Deshaun Watson, but I think the Browns are right or the sorry the Bengals are right there there's tons of teams the Browns are right there if they had a full season to Deshaun Watson but I think the Bengals are right there that division is up for grabs and it might just come down to who has the best

quarterback for the longest period of time Lamar has dealt with injuries Watson's going to be out for a while Joe Burrow even all healthy all things considered he might just be the best quarterback in that division and a lot of the times that's just what matters the cream rises to the top I think the Bengals have another really good shot to do something in the playoffs or at least be a division winner so that's where I would go with number eight number nine wherever we're at right now we are at number nine yeah and Cincinnati improved their offensive line significantly yes throughout this offseason that was their number one goal is just get better players to block for Joe Burrow because when push came to shove at the end, Aaron Donald sacked Joe Burrow and they lost the Super Bowl. It's really tough, though, to go from the Super Bowl with such a long playoff run.

Like this is something that I've always felt like when you lose the Super Bowl, how many teams teams lose the Superbowl and then ever get back like right away? It doesn't happen very often. I mean, even look at a team like Atlanta in 2016, Matt Ryan wins MVP. They're great, but you lose, you know,

one of their coaches, Kyle Shanahan as an offensive coordinator, and then players get hurt. Guys have a lot more snaps. Think about the number of snaps on the body when you play every round of the playoffs if you didn't have a first round by. But they did make significant improvements in their weakest area and probably got a little bit better on defense.

I think that's a hard team to decide where they should go because when a team was just in the Super Bowl, your inclination is to put them at the top and say they should be back. But the two Super Bowl teams from last year, we have fifth and ninth. And I think that those are the right places to put them. The next one is another bit of a struggle because Cleveland is hard here. Is Deshaun Watson getting suspended is really the big question with that situation. Is it going to be Jacoby Brissett playing six games for the cleveland browns because if that's the case then i can't put them here also am i underrating arizona i mean

they're going to be without deandre hopkins for a handful of games they did it get another wide receiver did they improve a lot in the offseason though i don't really think so and cliff kingsbury keeps proving his critics right that he just doesn't adjust throughout the season. So I'm a little skeptical on the Arizona Cardinals. The question is, do I believe in San Francisco or do I want to put Denver here? And I think that putting Denver here is the safest play that, you know, we once again, can't look too far, look too far away from the quarterback. And Russell Wilson gets a team that may, what do they say, let Russ cook and let him throw more often.

It's a really well-setup team that was 500 with Teddy Bridgewater as its starter last year. And as much as people like Teddy Bridgewater, Russell Wilson is better than him by quite a bit, I think. So let's not lose sight of them. And that puts what the AFC West has what three teams in the top 10. I mean, I think, I also think that that is the right thing to do is to have three of the AFC West teams in the top 10. So I will round it out with the Denver Broncos and pass the ball back to you. Yeah here like we have six afc teams in the top 10 for nfc teams so i want to go back to the nfc but i just don't feel great about these teams here

49ers have tons of question marks cardinals have tons of question marks kyler murray's not happy eagles have question marks i think they're actually going to be pretty good, but this is a little too rich for them at this point. Vikings still too rich for them at this point. So I am going to stay in the AFC and I at least am operating under the idea that Sean Watson's getting suspended for a while. I don't know if it's six games, if it's eight games, what it is, but in my head, that's kind of what I've put it on so whether or not it happens that's kind of how I'm approaching this and so for me I'm going next best AFC team and I think it is the Colts uh the the Colts Matt Ryan comes in for Carson Wentz I don't think Carson Wentz was very good at all for the Colts we saw at the end of the season they kind of collapsed but for a while three weeks before the the playoff, they were like this frisky team. No one wants to play. They've got everything going for them. I think Matt Ryan comes in. He at least provides a stabilizing presence for them at quarterback. They've been searching for that. They've always

been one of these kind of on the edge teams, their division, again, not very good. I think the Titans are probably bound to regress a bit without AJ Brown. They seem to kind of admit it in the draft that we need to kind of take a step back. We need to retool. We're going to get rid of AJ Brown. We're going to draft Malik Willis. Maybe he turns into something, probably not going to start this year, but I think that's kind of an admission from them that we might not be very good this year, or we just kind of need to see what our future looks like. And so the Colts feel like the clear cut team to me, and this would be the seventh playoff team if we're going down the AFC. And so I think that's where an AFC East team or AFC South team needs to come in. And I think the

Colts are the best one of the group. I think I really like what Frank Reich has done. And for me, that's where I go for the Colts as kind of that seventh team to kind of round out the playoffs there in the AFC. How about this? The Indianapolis Colts last year ranked ninth in points for, ninth in points against, and missed the playoffs because Carson Wentz let them down against the Jacksonville Jaguars. I mean, just remarkable that you could be top 10 in offense and defense and still miss

the playoffs. But if Matt Ryan is even competent, which I think that for Atlanta the last few years, Matt Ryan has qualified as a competent quarterback. He just hasn't been great. And if they were going to be anything other than a seven win team, they needed Matt Ryan to be great because that team, I mean, last year, Cordero Patterson is basically their top wide receiver. Kelvin Ridley is suspended for the year this year, but wasn't playing last year. I mean, it's just a very ugly situation in Atlanta that Matt Ryan was playing under last year.

The Colts had the best running game in the league or top two running game in the league. One of the best terms of time of possession. I mean, like they're kind of a monster when it comes to running the ball and then doing the play action thing. It's just that Carson Wentz let him down in the biggest moment. So I don't think that's a bad pick. I think now is probably where I have to go, Arizona. You're right about Cleveland. They are really tough. There's a couple other teams that are difficult here as well. I would say that you know Tennessee was the one seed last year leaving them out of this spot San Francisco was in the NFC championship last year and if Trey Lance is more dynamic they've got a chance but that's really a big projection the Patriots were a 10

win team last season uh they I think deserve some consideration for this spot but you know Arizona was an 11 win team for a while they were at the top of the NFC West and I don't think that they got better but I also don't think that they got massively worse to the point where they're just going to fall off the edge of the earth that they still should be right there in the thick of the playoff race so uh yeah I'll go with the Cardinals for the number 12 spot. Yeah, they scare me just with how they finished the season. That's two seasons in a row where they just kind of fall their way into a playoff spot, or this year they fell their way into a playoff spot

that they didn't quite deserve towards down the stretch. Kyler Murray's unhappy. It's just weird vibes with that team. DeAndre Hopkins gets suspended. Cliff Kingsbury is just a wild card. Like nothing about that team makes sense, but they have talent on both sides of the ball. So I understand why you put them there for me now. It feels like I have to go the Browns at this point, just so much talent on both sides of the ball. Uh, if Deshaun Watson is suspended and they can just get out there like three and three, two and four, and then they get Deshaun Watson back with the roster

that they have. They add Amari Cooper to that wide receiver core. They still have a really good defense. I believe in Kevin Stefanski. Uh, so this feels like if they can just survive when he's gone, just right around 500 football or one below 500, then they're kind of poised to the second half of the season to kind of go off on a run and then be one of those teams where they're coming in as a wildcard team and you do not like it as a divisional team. Like that kind of feels like maybe their path this year as they deal with whatever comes to Sean Watson's way. And so for me, so many of the other questions, so many other teams just have way too many

question marks to feel like I can justify putting them ahead of the Browns at this point. So this feels like the right spot to put them. So I'm going to go with the Browns here. So I think we've reached the area where the Vikings start to come into the discussion. And so if we're comparing teams that we have on our list to the Vikings that are still remaining, the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC deserve, I think, probably to be considered better than the Vikings, but I'm on the edge of that opinion.

And in the AFC, the Patriots in the playoffs last year, the Miami Dolphins get a new head coach, but they also get Tyreek Hill. I mean, the Miami Dolphins, we kind of laugh at them, but they have winning records over the last two years. I mean, they have better records than the Vikings. So I don't see how you could say that the Dolphins don't deserve to be in this conversation, especially getting an offensive-minded head coach. They had two offensive coordinators last year. I mean, just a mess with the Miami offense. And now they've just loaded up on those weapons and brought in Mike McDaniel. They deserve to be in this conversation too. I think that I will go with the Philadelphia Eagles because I think that they had probably, I mean, maybe the best off

season in the NFL for the Philadelphia Eagles, getting AJ Brown, getting Jordan Davis, who could be an instant contributor, a contributor for their interior defensive play. They've improved on the defensive side. Their head coach who got them to the playoffs last year has another year of experience. Um, and, uh, they improve their offensive line in the draft. Like, I think that they have a really good case for kind of that surprise team that wins their division. And we go, Oh, I think that they have a really good case for kind of that surprise team that wins their division. And we go, Oh, I guess we should have guessed that the Eagles would take that step forward. The hesitancy that I have is the same hesitancy we'll have with a lot of these teams

that now get into the middle is how good is the quarterback? How good is Jalen hurts? Really? How much last year was this crazy run they had of not playing against winning teams to get into the playoffs. But this feels like the right spot. And the difference here between 14 and 20, the 14th team and the 20th team, they're all going to be shaky. They're all going to be like, I don't know. I don't know who we should go with here. But I think that's the right range to have with the Philadelphia Eagles. So who do you have? We're up to number 15. Yeah, and just quickly on the Eagles, we saw it's Tuesday or Monday. We got that leak with the schedule. The Vikings are going to play the Eagles week two.

I think that's going to be a really interesting litmus test for the Vikings early on in the season because that is a team that's really comparable to them. I think there's just a lot of fun parallels with that team and the vikings team and just kind of how they differed in their approach since they met in the 2017 nfc championship game obviously the eagles decide to trade away their high price starter while the vikings bring in a high price starter the eagles added a ton of draft capital in the lat in this last draft and in next year's draft to kind of retool they're doing the rebuild or competitive rebuild with a rookie quarterback see what we can do kind of build up

the surrounds if we then need to put in a really expensive guy and the Vikings obviously took the other approach taking a better more solid quarterback paying him money and seeing what happens so I think that's just a really interesting litmus test. And yes, I would agree. I think I have the Eagles above the Vikings at this point. And next I'm going to go with the San Francisco 49ers, the other NFC team. Again, I think you could make an argument for a lot of NFC teams here. If you want to put the Vikings in that conversation, I wouldn't necessarily disagree with you, but for the 49ers in particular, I mean, they made it to the NFC championship game right now. There's some weird kind of rumblings of what's still going to happen with Jimmy Garoppolo. Is he going to be on that team when they start training camp? Is it going to be kind of a Sam Bradford situation with Eagles where they wait for a team to kind of get a quarterback that gets injured and then try to trade them Jimmy Garoppolo? Or would they even go into the season with Jimmy Garoppolo? Like tons of weird questions with the 49ers.

And they obviously have the Debo Samuel stuff as well, but there's just still a lot of talent on that team. And one of the reasons why I'd put them above the Vikings is they have continuity. I mean, they have Kyle Shanahan who's been there a really long time. The Vikings, we're going to get to them at some point here soon,

but they're just bringing in new systems on both sides of the ball, another new system for the offense and a new system for a defense that hasn't seen a new system in a really, really long time. And that's going to take some adjusting to. So I think the continuity that the 49ers provide, the upside that Trey Lance could potentially have for them slots them in at this point. And even if, even if he's not that bad, I trust Kyle Shanahan to get enough out of him with his legs and with devo samuel and to create enough to where they feel like a good spot to go here and to slot slightly ahead of the vikings so we're in this spot right now with ranking these teams where if you can make some bets on big improvement or you can go with the vikings for example washington year, they won seven games with

Taylor Heineke as their quarterback. They added another wide receiver. They have a very competent head coach in Ron Rivera. I think Carson Wentz is a pretty rough quarterback, but I guarantee you he is better than Taylor Heineke. And does that mean they win 10 games because that division isn't super strong here? Here's, I mean, a few other things. I mean, the New York giants had the worst coaching in the NFL over the last couple of seasons with Joe judge. Do we believe that they're going to take big steps forward because their roster is actually better. And they also got bit by the injury bug as hard as anyone last season. We talked about that with the Ravens. That one seems like a tough stretch to make, but every year a team goes, the Bengals were that team last year from being really bad

to quite good. And right there in the playoff race. And are we trying to predict what team that's going to be Detroit last year had three wins, but would they shoot up with their rebuild? I don't think it's quite this far at but miami is a team how about the new york jets like year two of rookie quarterback contracts zach wilson was not good last year but we just assume that's the answer like i remember last year reading film pieces of joe burrow where people were like i don't know doesn't have the arm strength looks like he might suck you're like uh okay like we don't though, because guys go into that first off season. They do so much work and then they might come back improved or Zach Wilson might be horrendous.

So do you want to make that bet that Zach Wilson is going to be better or that Daniel Jones is maximized by Brian Dayball or that Carson Wentz? Like, do you make one of these gambles? I mean, this doesn't quite extend to Jacksonville, but in a way, maybe it does Jacksonville and Detroit. Like, do you want to make these gambles with your power rankings that these teams will take a big step forward? And then there's another one that's hard too, which is new Orleans. They won nine games last year playing with who at quarterback Ian book lost the game for them playing a quarterback do you want to bet that they get

over the Vikings threshold I think there's a debate for all of these teams I'm going to put the Miami Dolphins here because again I mean they've been a winning team the last two years they got better in the offseason probably got a better offensive coach in fact that's almost a guarantee and even if you don't think their quarterback is great, if Tua is sort of what Teddy Bridgewater was to the Vikings in 2015, that, you know, just a guy or even like Baker Mayfield was to the Browns in 2020, then that team can win 10 games. Also, New England is kind of here as well, but it feels like they're just not going to be all that great. So this is a very difficult part of the board to decide who gets to go above the Vikings. I'm going to put the Dolphins, but that might be the last team. I don't know. You tell me.

Yeah, this is to the point where I'm really considering it. I'm thinking Vikings or could the Patriots be there? The Raiders, their division is just so bad. But I mean, they make the playoffs to add Devonta Adams. They get Josh McDaniels in there. Like you feel good about some of the stuff that they did, but they're just going to have such a tough time in that division. And it's just such an uphill battle for them to even make the playoffs in that division.

Titans at this point, do you want to the AFC one seed? Do we feel like this is far enough for them to slide? And, and, and that's where I'm going to go. I'm going to go with the Titans here, partially out of respect for the fact that they were missing their best offensive piece,

Derek Henry for most of last year, but they continued to hang on to that AFC one seed. And I think their team can just continue to kind of piece these guys together. Mike Vrabel is a really good head coach. Tannehill has shown he can do some nice things in an offense that is tailored around him, which they have it there. Traylon Burks comes in and fits that AJ Brown role. If he can just be 70% of AJ Brown, they can have an offense that still is all right.

The defense played well last year. So this is when I'm really starting to stretch for teams that I think are going to be good and teams that I'm stretching to put ahead of the Vikings. But for them, they don't have a clear cut number one in that division. The Colts kind of feel like it, but unlike the Vikings where the Packers are kind of that number one uncontested team, you feel good about them being one of the top teams in the AFC. I don't feel that one of the top teams in the AFC. I don't feel that way about the Colts and the AFC.

Yes, I believe they'll be better than them, but would it shock me if the Titans are at top of that division again? Not one bit. And so for me, that's kind of the upside I have to go with the Titans here. But if I just compare the rosters one and one with the Vikings, I'm not sure they're more talented than them, but I think their situation vaults them ahead of the Vikings at this point. I mean, when a team was a one seed from last year,

it's pretty hard to say that that team is, does not deserve a little more credit than the Vikings do having missed the playoffs the last two years. But when you say Tennessee, I have to go with the Vikings next because I don't believe Tennessee is a very good team that they're kind of a 500 ish team. And your argument with the Raiders, the Raiders are probably a better roster than the Vikings. And if the Raiders were playing in the NFC North, I would say that they would have a decent chance to really compete for that division. But their division hurts them a lot.

So I think that they that that's sort of a weird consideration to make that they might be a better football team, but I'm going to go with the Vikings here. And now let's talk about like, did, did we make a mistake? Like, so the Vikings are at 18th. Let's go just look back through the list. I'll, I'll just read the whole thing here. We have the bills. Number one, two is the chargers then tampa bay three kansas city four la rams five six through ten is green bay baltimore dallas cincinnati and denver then 11 through 15 the colts cardinals browns eagles 49ers and then just ahead of the vikings or essentially even is the dolphins and the titans um did Do you have any regrets? Like as we drafted these teams, do you look at our list and say, you know what, maybe we shouldn't have put

that team ahead of the Vikings. Or as you look at the remaining board of teams, maybe I picked them too early. Like, what is your thought? No, I think this is kind of the right area for them. Now, could they easily finish above the Eagles and the 49ers? I think that is very much in the realm of possibility for the Vikings. And part of it just comes down to the quarterback play. The Vikings have the most consistent quarterback, the best quarterback of those three. And like I mentioned, at some point, it just comes down to how good your quarterback is. And so for them, they could easily vault those two NFC teams,

but for each of them, you're banking on certain things. And with the Vikings, you're banking on them immediately coming in and getting a spark offensively from Kevin O'Connell. You're banking on them immediately picking up that offense and running with it. You're banking on the defense coming together with Adonatel. Like there's a lot of variables that we don't know about with this Vikings team just with a new coaching staff and a lot of new pieces on the roster that are going to play right away and so that just makes

me a little bit more skeptical but I think at the end of the season if we go back and look at these rankings I think it's entirely possible the Vikings vault the Dolphphins, the Titans, the 49ers, the Eagles. But if I also told you they were picking 11th in the draft, 10th in the draft, I don't think anyone would be surprised. Like there's their floor right there and their ceiling is, you know, a six, a five, six, seven seat. Like that's kind of the ballpark they're living in. So if you tell me that that's where they're going to be, they're going to pass the Eagles. They're going to pass the 49ers. I'd say, yeah, that makes sense. And if you tell me,

you know, it just took a little bit for them to pick up the offense. The defense fell off after they lost Mike Zimmer, like they're like, all those are plausible. And so for me, this feels like the happy middle for them, where if we just average out the season, this is kind of where they stack up, but I would not be surprised at all. If they're moving up just a little bit, they probably have a little bit higher upside than someone like say the Titans or the dolphins or someone like that. But I think this is kind of the right spot for them. I don't know what you think. Well, I think that there's a volatility element to all of this and like who we put ahead of the Vikings. We sort of bet on their volatility, which is Philadelphia and San Francisco that you mentioned that we're betting on Trey Lance coming in with Kyle Shanahan in year two and making the

San Francisco 49ers a nine or 10 win team again or better, which, you know, historically it's always, you know, roll the dice when it comes to quarterbacks that you haven't seen before. Sometimes Patrick Mahomes comes in in his second year and hasn't played and then is the best quarterback in the league. And sometimes that happens and the guy can't play at all. And we don't know what the answer is. Like Trey Lance won a game for them last year. It was not spectacular.

And this Jimmy Garoppolo thing is sort of hung over them. And like, does Jimmy end up staying and then playing again? We don't even know yet at this point. And Philadelphia, I mean, if you look at their wins last year, a lot of them are pretty unconvincing, like who they beat. But then they made the roster better and they made their passing game better. And they figured out halfway through last season that they really just need to run the ball a lot more with Jalen Hurts and that they could be good that way. And their defense was not good last year. Maybe it improves. There's

volatility all over the place. And the same goes for teams like Washington, the Giants, the teams that we ranked behind the Vikings. I mean, we're just assuming that the AFC West plays out the way that it does. But, I mean, what if, like, Russell Wilson gets hurt again or something? I mean, if somebody gets injured, then the Raiders should be right there, ready to pounce and to be a good team. If there's someone who is disappointing, if the Chargers, like somebody gets injured, then the Raiders should be right there, ready to pounce and to be a good team. If there's someone who is disappointing, if the Chargers, like, you know, it doesn't work

out, then all of a sudden they're there and they could end up having a better season. You know, a team like Jacksonville, they're the Cincinnati Bengals, right? They spent all that money. They got a coach who's competent. They have a quarterback who's supposed to be an all-time great prospect who played pretty poorly last year but it's not like he played so poorly that he looked like he couldn't possibly step on a football field he just didn't play well with the worst coach in the league by far uh in in urban meyer so uh yeah i mean i think that this specific middle of the pack is the hardest and the jets also get thrown in there because trying to predict teams to take

big jumps from last year, that's sort of a way to have everyone be like, Oh idiot. They won four games last year. Are you a big stupid? And you're like, well, I don't know.

I'm just taking a, taking a swing here that like historically, this is a good thing to have is that rookie quarterback taking that jump. What's what's interesting about the Vikings is that they are a barometer where they have a high floor and a low ceiling, at least from what we've seen over the last four years with them. And yeah, there is this chance that that ceiling is pushed higher by Kevin O'Connell. It's also there's more volatility with them because there's a chance that Kevin O'Connell doesn't know what he's doing and that he can't coach at all.

And that they're bad, right? Like these outcomes, the range of outcomes this year for the Vikings is expanded from what it was last year, where it felt like everyone thought they were going to be nine and eight or eight, nine. And then they just were like, well, that wasn't that exciting. Right. I mean, the only thing that was exciting was the individual games and the idea that people could get fired where this year the volatility is much more. So you're comparing them to other volatile teams

and saying whose plan is going to work, who's going to hit. So I think that the range of outcomes for the Vikings is you end up somewhere closer to 11 or 12 or those teams we talked about that could take steps forward like Washington and New York Giants and about that could take steps forward like Washington, New York Giants and Detroit that you go, oh, wow, they ran past the Vikings and we just did not

expect that to happen. Yeah. And I think we talked about the 49ers and Eagles, but if they play up to their potential, like for me, the top 10 feels pretty like locked in. And those are the teams I feel confident that could win a Super Bowl. You're stopping basically at the Broncos for me, but then we start with the Colts and the Cardinals, and I think there is definitely a possibility the Vikings can be better than those teams as well. So I think that is some of the fun that comes back for Vikings fans this season

is there's a lot of unknowns in both directions. Each game is going to be really volatile. You came into the season, you kind of knew what Mike Zimmer was going to do. You kind of knew what the Kubiak system was going to do for Kirk Cousins. This year, you don't. O'Connell's offense could be amazing and Kirk could thrive, or he could just be totally out of his skis and he could be bad. But either way, it's like interesting and fun. And it brings back some volatility and some variety to what Vikings fans are going to get every day and I think you see that in the rankings because they really could

if they were that 11th team ahead of the Colts ahead of the Cardinals even ahead of the Browns who are going to deal with the Sean Watson stuff I think that's entirely possible I don't know last year if we could have called them maybe the 10th best team in the league or maybe the 25th best team in the league or maybe the 25th best team in the league like they've expanded their outcomes which i think is just more interesting for fans more interesting for us to talk about and i think the pain at which we went through this middle tier like any of those teams are interchangeable colts cardinals browns eagles 49ers titans vikings raiders patriots dolphins like any of those teams could end up at any point and that's

kind of the fun and that's the the risk you you live in when you're one of those middle teams there's just so much volatility that could happen and i think i think we saw that doing this exercise today yep and i think what you always come back to here is quarterbacks that we're not sure about are going to shape the way that the league finishes. Um, even including Jalen hurts, if he's the same version of Jalen hurts last year, and he isn't better, that team probably wins eight or nine games. If he is better with AJ Brown and a very good offensive line and good running game and their offense takes off. Well, then of course the rest of their roster is very good and they could be a legit contender but you could see jalen hurts not taking that step like are the physical tools

there for throwing the football to be anything more than a team that's 500 like and then there's the trey lance and then there's even justin fields like we didn't include chicago because we think chicago is going to be horrendous but the biggest thing that's going to shape Chicago is their quarterback. And last year it was a struggle and their coach didn't know what he was doing. And there's the rookie thing in the year too. Like the same goes for, um, you know, the New York jets, like all these teams, Daniel Jones has a new coach, like new coaches or quarterbacks that don't have a lot of experience. They're the ones in the middle of the pack that are the hardest to compare against the Minnesota Vikings and what we think they're going to be. So I think bottom line is we don't vastly disagree with the rest of the NFL world

and where they're ranking the Vikings. But also we look at the teams ahead, just ahead of them, not in the top five, top seven, but just ahead of them and say it could kind of go either way and the same thing goes for the teams behind them and that's minnesota vikings football always and forever it seems so fun exercise uh feel free to give us your reactions of course um you know tweet or whatever send an email at purpleinsider.com let us know where you think that the vikings should be ranked in the power rankings. And we'll continue to kind of, you know, look back at this list that we made and say, oh man, we really missed on that one. Or how did we not see it coming that blank? But I kind of like how it played out. I think we did

a good job. So I'm also me. So I think I did a good job uh i give myself an a a great job by me all right paul you gotta go run to uh report for wcco radio so you do that and uh we'll talk to y'all soon