Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Pro Football Focus' Sam Monson talks about Kevin O'Connell as a modern head coach and DeShaun Watson rumors

Episode Date: February 17, 2022

Matthew Coller is joined by Pro Football Focus' Sam Monson to talk about what a "modern" head coach will look like and why he thinks Kevin O'Connell is a good hire for the Vikings. He also breaks down why he's skeptical that DeShaun Watson rumors will ever come to fruition. Sam talks about the possibility of the Vikings letting Kirk Cousins play out the rest of his contract and why there were only two Vikings on the PFF 101 best players of 2021 list. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Folks, before we get into the show, I wanted to tell you that you can save 15% at SodaStick.com by using the promo code PURPLEINSIDER at checkout. That's S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com for your Minnesota sports-inspired hats, hoodies, shirts. Use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER at SodaStick.com. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. Yes, fresh back from day three of jury duty, uh it's becoming more and more hopeless so today we spent the entire day waiting to get on a jury of which did not happen and so i have to show up tomorrow but i am scheduled to potentially be on a jury tomorrow and i don't know whether i'm going to get out in time for kevin o'connell's press conference that is at four o'clock so we'll see

we're bringing it right down to the wire. The least dramatic thing ever has become dramatic. So on the show today to talk about Kevin O'Connell's hire, among other things, including a rumor that has upset the Internet. Sam Monson, what's up, Sam? How are you? Good. How's it going? I'm bored.

Jury Dewey's boring. You get like a night when you tell them that, hey, look, Kevin O'Connell's press conference is tomorrow. I can't be here today. People have brought that up because there's, I guess, an episode of 30 Rock where maybe Tina Fey pretends to be Princess Leia and they let her out of jury duty. Yeah, you can't really do that because in Minnesota, I just discovered this this week. You have to be there for two weeks unless you get on a jury and then do the thing. So I'm either there for two whole weeks or I end up on a jury and get out earlier. There is always a possibility that tomorrow I could get out before the press conference and then drive out to TCO Performance Center in time for Kevin

O'Connell's press conference, but I'm not 100% sure. We'll still do a show. We'll do a breakdown. I'll watch it. Someone will ask him about Kirk Cousins, everyone. I promise. I guarantee that that's going to happen. So how's things with you? You need to get Alan Page. Surely he can pull some strings, right? He's in the legal profession now and he knows what the Vikings are all about. Surely he can pick up the phone and spring a guy out from jury duty. Sure. I mean, he comes down. He rips open the door.

That man has a football press conference to cover. I mean, can you imagine telling the judge that? Like, sir, I'd love to be on this jury. Look, American, that's me. Civic duty would love it. However, there is a coach that's talking. He's only going to do one introductory press conference. I'm sorry, sir.

I have to leave. I cannot wait for his response. I almost want to try it just to see what the judge would say. Just to see if you end up in contempt of court for it because of it. Exactly. I mean, yeah, that's the thing is that people keep saying, well, just say something terrible and they'll let you out. Like, it's actually on the record.

They record this, people. And like you said, it's a little intimidating when you're in there with the judge and everything. I don't want to rock any boats, but I will escape eventually the legal system. But let's talk about Kevin O'Connell to start out. And then I want to get to your PFF 100 list because you did the top 101 players from the 2021 NFL season. So I shouldn't call it the top 100 list. That's where practice squad players fill out who their favorite teammates are and turn it into NFL Network. So we'll get to that. But on the matter of Kevin O'Connell, look at us talking

about a different coach and GM, Sam. Yeah, this is fun. I feel like every time that we've ever spoken, it's been about Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman. And it's usually had the same sort of theme of like, well, you know, they kind of do the same stuff over and over and there probably isn't any real route to them winning together, but maybe so kevin o'connell quasi adolfo menzo what do you think yeah i like it i mean it's tough to be too harsh on the rick spielman mike zimmer era right because in theory everybody there was good at their job

it's just that they never they weren't better than good and together it didn't magnify that into something different it just made you three lots you know the most important three people in the building the gm the head coach and the quarterback they're all good but none of them are great and together they didn't magnify each other's strengths so they just became this above average franchise but trapped in that world of above average where it there's no pathway from that to anything special because ultimately everybody wants a super bowl trophy and there's there's basically no way of going from where they were to that unless you get exceptionally lucky and

kind of put it all together for one year and go on a run and you could argue 2017 was that year and they didn't get there so the chance chance of that happening again, we're just getting smaller and smaller. Ultimately you make the move and you say, look, forget it. It's, it's thank you for your service, but it's not working anymore. We're going in a different direction. So I think the one thing you want to get out of that, when you have that opportunity for a hard break and a reset and just go in a different direction is ensuring that you are actually going in a different direction, right? And getting some guys in that are very different from the people that just left the building. And, you know, the Vikings had, there were people on

the market that would have represented a more conservative, you know, same old type of approach. And they didn't go that way. They went with two guys that are much more radically sort of new world in today's NFL. I think that has to be exciting. It doesn't mean it's going to be a rip roaring success right off the bat, but at least this is pointing in a different direction from the Avenue. We knew wasn't working. All right.

From a Pff guy perspective i mean if you could paint the picture of what a new world coach thinks about stuff what because we don't know yet we got to listen to him talk and then after he talks and says all the right things then we got to watch him actually do things and then we got to study those things so it'll be a while before we really get a feel for what kevin o'connell is as a coach but if you were laying it out for him if you were saying look we study this stuff here's the the best most modern things you can do that doesn't mean you'll win the super bowl in 2022 because we'll talk about the roster and how few players for the vikings are on your list of 101 in the NFL. But in order to set the stage for him,

let's say there were indicators that you could see, okay, this guy really is kind of on the cutting edge. What would those be? Well, I think the first thing is he's coming from an offensive system that we know works, right? Not just in Los Angeles, but the McVay coaching tree is starting to bear fruit. And it was mocked a couple of years ago, right?

When everybody that had ever had a cup of coffee with Sean McVeigh was getting a head coaching job. All of a sudden, all those guys make up like most of the business end of the postseason. Like all of those guys were having success this year. And so you can see that that system is functioning and is successful and has various different iterations and evolutions depending on which guy is operating it and I think O'Connell coming from that system is a good thing in today's NFL secondly you you talk to some people and they say he's smart like he's a good coach he knows what he's doing you know you there are people in

the NFL for whom if you ask those questions you wouldn't hear that back you know they would be like yeah I mean he's fine right he's he's okay he's done a good job but you know you you hear people talk about him and they are encouraged and they do say good things so I think that's a an important thing even if it's much more intangible and a little bit behind the scenes and smoke and mirrors and off the record and all that kind of stuff um i guess the single biggest thing for coaches right now is like what is their attitude to this new wave of information that's being bombarded their way right where do they stand on fourth down decisions and analytics is a general concept like analytics i think is applied as a word much too broadly and we need to most of the time i think you need to dial down or

drill down deeper into what it is you're actually talking about like analytics is just this umbrella term for any information that's thrown your way but you know do you have a guy who deals with game flow and fourth down decisions and clock management and all that kind of stuff? And is he in your ear? Do you generally advocate the approach of going for a fourth down and two-point conversions and those kinds of things? Are you using data and numbers and information behind the scenes to power the things that we think of as just typical the way the world works.

One of the interesting things about the Rams is this all-in approach that they've used, and a kind of stars and scrubs approach that Eric has been calling it. It only works if those stars stay healthy. If those guys all get injured every year, the whole thing falls to pieces. And the Rams in the last few years have been really, really good at avoiding injuries. Okay, they had Robert Woods and OBJ got hurt in the Super Bowl, but generally speaking, they've been one of the least injured teams in the NFL for a period of time now that starts to suggest it isn't just luck and variance. Right.

And we don't know what they're doing that might prompt that, but we don't know what kind of information or use they have with the, you know, load management and player tracking and all that kind of stuff that goes on. So again, like, are you using this stuff to the,

the, the fullest extent you can to potentially get an edge here. And I think ultimately that's it is there's 15 different small ways that head coaches now can be gaining a little edge relative to old school, you know, the old way things used to be done. And how much of them are you using? You know, how many of these ways of trying to steal an edge are you willing to volunteer and kind of acknowledge that yeah we are hip deep with this

stuff it also feels like when we talk about edges that coaches can get um certainly teams being more aggressive on fourth down is uh going to work in terms of an edge because the nfl is still not there yet we saw an increase but it's not like they're absolutely nailing it. The Vikings are going to go from one of the analytics sites ranked Mike Zimmer 29th when it came to in-game decision-making, which doesn't surprise you. So if you go from 29th even to top 10, that's points on the board right there in terms of decisions. They could probably lean more into it.

I don't expect that Kevin O'Connell is going to lead the revolution necessarily. Like, it's Madden time, baby. Let's go. We're going for it on our own 15-yard line because there is a case to do that sometimes. But anyway, I do think that having a player's coach is an edge in the NFL now, and I think it's in the right way. Like, you absolutely have to have a leader. You have to have someone who can turn it on and who can be tough at the NFL now. And I think it's in the right way. Like you absolutely have to have a leader. You have to have someone who could turn it on and who can be tough at the

right times. But as we ever increase player empowerment, like this McVay making the Odell Beckham thing work saved their season. If they don't have Robert Woods and it's that dude who dropped the ball in the super bowl. I mean, that's a huge gap. Instead, Odell Beckham is mossing a dude in the Super Bowl, which underrated catch.

The corner gets his hand in between Odell Beckham's arms. Perfect technique to knock the ball out. And he grabs onto it and holds it for a touchdown because he's still really good. But that was the place that he wanted to be. And you made it work with him and and it it does draw back with the Zimmer thing to Stefan Diggs being a pivot point in his entire tenure with Minnesota that he could not connect with the players that Diggs forced his way out because of it like those things not happening um I I think isn't an edge that isn't like an analytics edge that you could put a finger on but I think, is an edge that isn't like an analytics edge that you could put a finger on.

But I think it is an edge. Yeah. And just intuitively, you know, Kwesi has come from this world of finance and then analytics and those kinds of things. It seems unlikely that he would, his first order of business would be to sign a guy who is vehemently against that kind of stuff, right? To just be like, all right, we're bringing in this guy, even though he hates everything I stand for. And, you know, we're going to make it work anyway, because he's the best guy for the job. Just intuitively, it would seem likely that by virtue of the fact that he is crazy selection, Kevin O'Connell is at least amenable to all of this stuff that most progressive types of

organizations are now trying to push. Right. And so what he says about analytics will be kind of interesting because Kwezi Adafo-Mentz's first press conference was trying to explain to everyone that he also knows about football and then mostly about his background. So we haven't heard any comments from anyone about kirk and the you know future of the quarterback position how they're actually going to apply analytics we'll see if we get some answers on that but i have to ask you about the deshaun watson thing now i want to say first that if you're going to put in an article tease on twitter something that makes it look like Deshaun Watson is going to

the Vikings inside of your article should really say that and not just, oh, the Vikings are another team that could be a thing like, come on, man. But it set the internet ablaze on Wednesday. And so let me get your thoughts on the idea of the Vikings trying to get Deshaun Watson. I have a very hard time talking about Deshaun Watson, the football player, right? Because, you know, we're in this world, we're in this holding pattern where until the legal process does something, we're in limbo, right? Deshaun Watson is literally kind of off to the side on his own doing nothing while his own team plays football around him and acknowledges that he's just not part of the franchise right now while we sort this out. In this country, there's a, you'll know this as a jury,

prospective jury member, but you know, the presumption of innocence, right? Innocent until proven guilty. That being said, there's a point at which, like, the sheer volume of accusations, the balance of probabilities suggests that at least one of them, there's something to it, right? So as much as we have to presume that Deshaun Watson is innocent until he's found guilty of something, the fact that there's 22 civil lawsuits and, what is it, 10 criminal suits against him at this point. I'm kind of OK with people assuming there's something sketchy there, at which point, if there's anything to any of this stuff, you don't want that guy as your quarterback. Sure, he'll make your team better because he's a really good quarterback.

But if any of these things are true, he's a pretty reprehensible human being. And that whole dichotomy of just this discussion is extremely awkward to navigate because yeah, if Deshaun Watson was entirely lawsuit free and therefore actually innocent, you would absolutely want to bring him in, right? And if you had any way of achieving that, you would make whatever trade was necessary to make that happen. But that's not the situation we're dealing with. We're talking about a guy who has a multiple dozen lawsuits hanging over his head, has had that for an extended period of time. There's no sign of it going anywhere anytime soon, at which point I still don't see how anybody can trade anything significant for him as long as that's the situation. And every time a trade discussion comes up, it always reads like it's come from his agent.

And it's like, hey, team X has done plenty of homework and are very confident that they can either make all this go away or that he will be vindicated and blah, blah, blah. And they'd be willing to trade whatever, if that happens, it's like, okay, that might be true. Or it might be every now and again, his agent throws out one of these stories to keep his name in the paper or whatever. And that's kind of what it feels like all of these things are at the moment. Hey, everybody, I've been making my meals from HelloFresh. And I have to tell you, I cannot make enough of these things and if I can make them literally anyone can. With HelloFresh you get farm fresh pre-portioned ingredients, seasonal recipes delivered right to your doorstep, skip the trips to the grocery store, count on

HelloFresh to make home cooking easy and affordable. That's why it's America's number one meal kit. One of the nice things for me as i'm grinding the football tape is that hello fresh cuts back on the time spent in the kitchen meals are ready in around 30 minutes or less plus their quick and easy meal options including 20 minute recipes low prep easy cleanup they provide an even faster route to putting food on the table you guys know we love stats on the show how How about this one? HelloFresh is 72% cheaper than a restaurant meal of the same quality, and you can save on average over $65 per month when you order HelloFresh instead of grocery shopping.

That's more money to put toward your NFL draft guides. How about that? We've been cooking HelloFresh meals here in the house for the last couple of weeks. Just made the Parmesan chicken the other night, and it's a game changer, guys. So go to HelloFresh.com. That's HelloFresh.com slash Insider16. HelloFresh.com slash Insider16. Use the code Insider16 for up to 16 meals for free and three free gifts. HelloFresh, America's number one meal kit. Are you suggesting that NFL insiders would carry the water for agents?

I never. I just, you know, especially players who have been accused of certain heinous things, Adam Schefter and Delvin Cook situation. There was one tweet that came out recently where um you know it concluded with something like Vic Fangio is not going to take a job this year he's going to spend a year off and then return next year where he'll be like the hottest defensive coordinator candidate available and Steve texted me that and he was like from the desk of Vic Fangio

yeah I mean my favorite was Kellen Mond is not playing because the team is keenly aware that, uh, rookies struggle. Like, uh, no, that's not why he's not playing.

Maybe you should ask your ESPN reporter. That's actually here. But anyway, uh, that could be a rant for the entire show on the matter of Deshaun Watson. This is not, he said,

she said it's, he said, she said, she said, she said she said she said i mean it's like it is it is really i mean the the largest scale group of accusations against the pro athlete of all time like this is bill cosby level stuff that is happening to john watson and think about how good at football he is and his team will not play him and wants nothing to do with him and his team is sketchy as hell and think about like right even they are like no no we're not going to do this he also comes along with a 40 million dollar cap hit i mean

how do you even put together a trade package for someone who brings 22 lawsuits with them that could explode at any time? And the NFL is hilarious just sitting off to the side being like, oh, no, I don't, you know, I don't want to do anything about that. Civil matter. Like, OK, Warden Roger Goodell. I mean, but I mean, like, what is anybody supposed to figure out here? Oh, three first rounders. Is that what you want for the guy who, who knows if he can play as soon as he even gets here? I mean, wasn't that the thing with Miami that they wanted either like assurances that he was going to play or some sort of compensation if he suddenly got suspended for

life? I mean, how do you trade for a guy where you literally do not know the limits of the penalties that this person could face? And as you said, they've hid behind the civil thing, but that doesn't have to exist forever either. Let's say somehow he miraculously clears this all up. Even then you're talking about bringing someone in with this in their past that could also resurface at any time because that's not something that someone just normally gets accused of doing. Yeah, I've never understood how there can possibly be a sensible trade done with these circumstances. If Houston wants anything in return for him, there's no way this trade can get done until whatever happens in the

legal process works its way out. And we know what we're dealing with, right? Because the problem is not just the number and all this. It's like the spectrum of punishments or repercussions range from nothing, right? He gets away with all of it and he's innocent and we're free to move on to like jail time, right? Significant jail time. Like that's the spectrum we're free to move on to like jail time right significant jail time like that's the spectrum we're dealing with here how can you possibly put together a package that encompasses that entire spectrum of outcomes it's impossible so maybe if it was a case of like hey the Texans just want rid of him you know and a conditional seventh round pick would get it but like they're talking no he is a franchise quarterback. We're

treating it as if this nothing is happening. So it's going to take three first round picks and whatever else to make any kind of deal done. At that point, no deal is happening, right? Because nobody can possibly trade that with the current situation. A neighbor of mine actually ran the numbers in terms of what number of cases you need to have brought against you before the probabilities is more likely than not that one of them is true. And he put the number, the over under at eight. So we're at 22. And I don't know if you want to double count the criminal ones, but let's say 22 is a minimum. We are way past the point where your default assumption should be he probably did something. And the other thing is, this gets even trickier as I was reading about it today,

because there's not just sexual assault allegations. It's also like coercion and threats and everything else. And then there's potential payoff stuff that the FBI got involved with. Like, this is not, I hate to call it run of the mill, but like this, this isn't even, and Roethlisberger's stuff was on a pretty high scale of yuck. And it's like way beyond that. And so I don't know what you're supposed to do with it. I agree with you that it seems like there are people on his side that want you to think Deshaun Watson is playing in the NFL next year. It's just very hard for me to see him actually playing there, much less the Vikings trading for him.

The other thing is, too, the Vikings have been very much on this empower women type of thing as an ownership, which I mean is, is very, very positive. Like women in football. And, uh, one of the people who was on their GM search party, uh, is, is one of their top people. I mean, like they want that. How can you do that? And then bring into Sean Watson, like, how can you say like, yes, we're the progressive team that is pushing women forward in our front office. And Kelly Klein, who people know now works for the Denver Broncos. They were super proud of her as they should be. And like, okay, we're developing women in our front office and our coaching staffs and things like that. But Hey, here's the Sean Watson in your building. Like what? So I, I don't see it. I don't see any chance that that happens. The Vikings are always able to surprise me at times, but I just can't see it. So what do you think happens at quarterback for the Vikings?

I think there's a pretty good chance that Kirk Cousins is their starter day one and probably plays the majority, if not all of next season. I think they're in a situation where they're stuck with him anyway, right? And they can use that as a way to potentially draft a guy and develop him from the bench in a way that, you know, Kellen Mond kind of was supposed to be last year, but instead of a third-round pick, a guy that, you know, maybe there's some talent there, let's actually spend a high first-round, you know, a first-round pick on this and see what we can get done.

And this is an interesting year for it because it's not a great group of first round quarterbacks. It's not this year. It's not like last year, right? Where at one point we were talking about maybe five in the first six picks. It's not going to be like that. You might still get a guy go in the first six picks because that's the nature of the NFL and how valuable the quarterback position is but I think you're going to see a few of these guys drafted in the low to the mid first round somewhere and when that happens there's a reason for it and a lot of those guys are less likely to pan out than the high-end prospects but I think those are actually good guys to have the flexibility to sit down for a year and redshirt essentially right like a guy who has tools and the ability to be a starting quarterback

in the NFL but does need work and you actually have the rare opportunity to go about doing that for an entire year the game plan from day one will be this guy does not play and can spend the entire time developing. And if you think about a guy like Malik Willis from Liberty, I think he's the perfect example that that is somebody who from this draft class has genuine special talent. His arm is insane. His athleticism is crazy. He's got real skills to the point where you could picture him putting it all together and being an elite NFL quarterback, not just a viable starter. But I don't know if I would want him starting day one. There's a lot that needs to happen

before he is a high-end NFL starter. And he might get drafted by somebody and they need a quarterback and they throw him in day one and who will see? They'll sink or swim. But if he get drafted by somebody and they need a quarterback and they throw him in day one and who will see they'll sink or swim but if he was drafted by a team like the vikings they can sit him behind kirk cousins and it doesn't have to be a you know a mentor protege relationship just you simply do not need to worry about playing this year it's not on your table somebody is going to be in this building teaching you from the ground up a lot like the Ravens did with Lamar Jackson. And, you know, they from the from day one, they essentially had this thing. They had a guy assigned to Lamar Jackson coaching him up so that in the future he could take over as a starter.

And they were developing the Lamar Jackson playbook like behind the scenes in the basement while the real playbook was being used by Joe Flacco, you know, until he reached the end. And then as soon as they ended up needing to go to Lamar Jackson, they just went, right, let's toss this one. Let's bring out the Lamar playbook and we're ready to go. I think you can do that with a guy like Malik Willis or, you know, one of these other quarterbacks and Kirk Cousins gives you that flexibility and just to get the ability to take some bullets for a year while you work on a future plan. So the Malik Willis thing, I don't know which quarterback is going to work out. Nobody ever does. You know,

we think a lot of different things and then it doesn't play out that way, but it's such a good comparison with Lamar Jackson because the NFL evaluated large Jackson 32nd and they just didn't think that his throwing was going to translate or whatever. They thought, oh, he's a project. He's too far away. And then his running was so significant and his throwing was better than they thought. And then like, boom, the guy is the MVP in the second year. There's only one player that has that vibe and that's Malik Willis. And that's why like the draft Malik Willis sit him, bring him in for the next year. Just makes so much sense in my mind. I also wonder if the NFL is going to look

at it and go, Oh yes, Malik Willis, lots of problems. Can't play anytime soon. Cause we draft 10th, right? You know, it was like the leaks come out. He's not ready. Uh, maybe he's got character problems. I saw in his interview that he likes playing chess. Well, you know, it's like the leaks come out. He's not ready. Maybe he's got character problems. I saw in his interview that he likes playing chess. Well, you know, he's too obsessed with the chess app. We can draw a draft them high. You know, they always come up with some reason, but the Vikings being there at 12th and a lot of the draft analysts think it's not going to happen like in the top 10 with a quarterback.

It just sort of lays it out for you. Don't have to do a Trey Lance trade to get a Trey Lance type of prospect who's very raw, incredibly athletic, dynamic. I mean, all these things kind of align for me. The one thing, though, is if you're keeping Cousins, his contract is gigantic, $45 million deal. You have to either do something with that or you have to extend him, which I don't think is a really good option. They've been fiddling with contracts for too long that have caused, you know, void years, dead cap. I don't think that's a good idea. That's why it's always made more sense to me to deal Kirk cousins to a QB needy team. Even if you have to take back some

cash and get somebody like Gardner Minshew or Marcus Mariota to be your bridge quarterback. Because I think that the difference between those guys and cousins with Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen, Irv Smith coming back a running game. Like, I don't know how big it is. I don't know if it's a gigantic ocean sized gap for a bridge quarterback, except for one of them could get you a first or second round draft pick back in a trade yeah because of that though i've always wondered what the trade market for kirk cousins would be right for one i don't think there are that many quarterback desperate teams now there's a couple so it's not like there's no market um but there aren't many it's not like a giant bidding war for a guy like that. Secondly, I think if the one thing we're kind of learning in recent years,

it's that you need that guy that has the ability to be special, even if it's only for a period of time, right? A guy that can do the Matthew Stafford run in the postseason and be the reason you win a Super Bowl, even if he's not necessarily the reason you get to the postseason seating position in the first place i don't know how many people look at kirk cousins and think he's that guy so if you're a team that has a desperate need a quarterback like a denver or a washington or whatever are you looking at

kirk cousins and saying all right if we take on a big contract and we deal a first round pick or whatever for kirk cousins he's that big of an upgrade over what we have. And he's a significant upgrade over Taylor Heineke or Ryan Fitzpatrick or in Denver, Teddy Bridgewater. But is it enough that it's propelling you from like nowhere to a Superbowl championship? Probably not. And particularly when you compare it next to the, the solution that you just made for the Vikings, which is, well, why wouldn't we just get a Gardner Minshew and pay him a 40th of the price, right? Like that's the decision I think that you're battling against for a team if you're trying to trade him. Basically, their real hope is that, hey, Carolina desperately needs a quarterback and they are probably coaching their last year if they can't figure out something and go in the right direction that might be the one team in the NFL that is

desperate enough to just do anything to make that move happen and they are they have a pretty high draft pick I think they're six overall something like that they already have a ton of money tied up in Sam D darnall because they picked up his fifth year option you would almost certainly need to have to eat a chunk of that deal just to make them even viable but that might be the one team that's desperate enough to throw the kind of draft capital at you that would make you do it folks support for purple insider is brought to you by manscaped they are the best in men's below the waist grooming. Manscaped offers precision engineered tools,

and they recently launched the ultimate men's hygiene bundle performance package. 4 million men have trusted Manscaped, and you can check out their exclusive offer for 20% off and free shipping with the code 20insider at manscaped.com. Manscaped sent me the performance package, and I can say that it's a game changer, especially when it comes to their nose and eyebrow hair trimmer called the Weed Whacker. I'm a unibrow guy, so I need to keep that in check

for all the YouTube videos and streams that we do. You've probably also heard of the Lawn Mower as well, and they've come out with a 4.0 version, which is waterproof, it has an led light and advanced skin safe technology so you don't have to worry about any nicks or cuts again get 20% off and free shipping with the code 20 insider that's 20 insider at manscaped.com 20% off with free shipping at manscaped.com the code 20 insider unlock your confidence and always use the right tools for the job with manscaped.com. The code 20insider. Unlock your confidence and always use the right tools for the job with Manscaped. Okay, real quick.

You throw me a team. I'll make a Kirk argument for him. Go ahead. QB needy team. I'll do it. I can do it with anybody. Go ahead. Well, all right.

Pick one of those two we mentioned. The Washington or Tampa Bay. Go for Tampa Bay. Oh, Tampa Bay is easy. Kyle Trask. uh well all right pick one of those two we mentioned that the washington or tampa bay go for tampa bay oh tampa bay is easy kyle trask is that what you're doing yeah is that what you're doing bruce arians you are 70 years old and you have elite wide receivers a tremendous offensive line a defense that is built up todd bowles is coming back hopefully he he doesn't run the same play he ran against the Rams at the end. But other than that, Todd Bowles has done a tremendous job. The defense is pretty stacked. Everybody got hurt on your team last year,

and you still made it that far if you stay a little healthier with a little less quarterback play. But look, Mike Zimmer didn't believe in Kirk Cousins. You are Mr. No-Risket-No-Biscuit. Risk it with Kirk Cousins, and you will succeed, Bruce Arians, for the price of a first-round pick. But you're 70. You won't even live to see the player be good.

You think that Bruce Arians is going to itch his wagon to Kirk Cousins and be fine with that? They're not similar. I read Bruce Arians' book. They're not similar. No bruce arian's book they're not similar no their personalities are not however if you're bruce arian's and i mean you're looking around what are my options so okay like if kyler murray randomly becomes available you trade for kyler murray but i mean how many other quarterbacks have good deep ball numbers and accuracy enough offensive systems to be able to adjust to a new one like

there aren't that many that are out there like is jimmy garoppolo his guy probably not he's probably not really as accurate as kirk cousins i don't know i mean i i can't think of like how many options are so much better now if jeff george was around our guy that's a bruce arians quarterback but but really like is there a better quarterback option if he doesn't want to develop one to step into that spot no i mean this is the thing with kirk carson kirk cousins is that he's a really good quarterback and there aren't many better options in him period but he's not good enough um and we've kind of seen that in the last few years that it's a little bit, unless you're of the opinion that Kirk Cousins in a better environment can

have a Matthew Stafford kind of year, by which I mean have better production than he's ever had in the past and be capable of going, be capable of being the missing piece that takes a good team to somewhere different. Like, unless you're of that opinion, then any other team is kind of coming to the same conclusion that Minnesota is, which is as good as he is. It's not good enough given the money that we're going to have to pay him for us to want to hitch the offense to that guy. And if the Vikings are wanting to move on, then it's not a great endorsement for any team wanting to take that on.

You know what I mean? Because they don't have any better options either. Okay, one more. Do one more. One more QB needy team, and I'll talk you into it. Who we got? Let's go with the Giants. Let's assume that Daniel Jones is not all that.

Brian Dayball is going for Kirk Cousins. Okay, Brian, look. Look what you did with Josh Allen. All you did was play to the quarterback strengths. They haven't done that in Minnesota. They kind of have, but I'm talking into it. They haven't done that enough with Minnesota. Daniel Jones is a turnover machine.

Look at his numbers. I know he's got some athleticism and Dave Gettleman loved him, but do you want to hitch your wagon to that guy? I mean, look, also, if he's any good, you have to pay him. You already have to pay Kirk. They have Kenny Galladay. You've got Saquon Barkley. You've got weapons.

You've been drafting offensive linemen. This is a plug and play situation. And think about if Daniel Jones isn't good and you force these New York Giant fans through another year of horror. It has been horror for how many years you have not dear giants been anywhere close to the playoff since the time odell beckham and his friends were partying on the boat that was the last time that your team was even slightly relevant and you got blown out in the first round of the playoffs you need a quarterback who can get you in the hunt graphic who can maximize some of these playmakers like

he did with justin jefferson look at look at numbers. Look at how he threw to Justin Jefferson. Great idea. Giants go for it. Be relevant again. Ah, Kirk cousins in the, uh, the New York media market. I'm here for it. Yeah. Oh man. Uh, okay. So let's, let's do this. I talked to you into all the teams. I've been practicing this. So you did the top 101 players. And my natural reaction to this was to do control F as every, probably every fan pulls up your list and sees how many is on their team. But I did the same because I wanted a little thought experiment here. That I bet the winning teams have more on the top 101 than the Vikings, who had two, Justin Jefferson and Kirk Cousins. I mean, what does that say about where the roster is now,

that they only have two players on this list? So did you run that through, though, to its conclusion? Did you check that out in terms of cross-referencing that versus good teams and how many players they had on the list? I searched Rams. There are more. The Rams have a right tackle on there. Yeah, but the Rams are kind of designed that way, right?

Where they have five or six guys that are superstars and everybody else isn't very good. I found over the years that it doesn't necessarily work like that. That there are good teams that just happen to have a bunch of guys where they're really strong like players 5 through 15 on the roster and they might not have the superstars that other teams do but they have a way broader collection of depth and kind of quality throughout their starters and it's not necessarily a kind of one-to-one thing so but I do think generally that the Vikings roster I mean this is not a secret right the Minnesota Vikings roster has eroded over the last few years and they're not as strong as they were in seasons past and you know there's a few guys I think that are young and potentially

exciting moving forward and are part of the the solution not the problem that haven't necessarily got there yet like Christian Barrasaw I think, was very encouraging as a rookie, given the offensive lineman that the Vikings have had in recent years, he came in, you know, immediately looked different just in terms of how he moves, how he's able to live with pass rushers, that kind of thing. But you could see there was some, you know, he was raw. He wasn't quite as up to speed as, you know, truly elite left ankles yet. So, Darasol is not going to appear on the list, but I think he would be a guy that you'd look at and say, okay, he could be really good next year.

You know, in year two, offensive linemen take a little bit of time to develop. Guys like Danell Hunter, you know, injured again, didn't get to see how much of an impact he would make. But, yeah, they've, a lot of their great players, the guys that are the best players they've had in the last decade, guys like Harrison Smith, they were still good, but they weren't as good as they've been in the past. And that kind of takes them off the list. What is your thought about what happened with Delvin Cook and his grade this year? I thought it was injury. They didn't have their

run game coordinator from years past, Rick Dennison, who is on the Aaron Rodgers side of things and you can't play if you're a coach like that, but a good run game coordinator for a very long time in the NFL. I thought that that hurt them. But I also wonder if there's any markers there for you of, uh-oh, Delvin Cook is suddenly almost 28 years old. Yeah, it's definitely, it's always a concern with running backs, right? That just the sheer volume, not just the carries and touches and workload and all that kind of thing, but general attrition with injuries. You know, it's not necessarily one in the same.

There is that sort of 1500 carry mark, which when a running back exceeds that in the NFL, that guy's almost certainly destined for a decline, but there's also like, how much have you been injured in the past? Like those are not things that are necessarily directly connected there. There's also, you can have under that 1500 carry mark but if you've been banged up and if you've been having various bits of your body knocked out of alignment and knocked back in again or you know staple back in again under the the surgery knife it can change how you're able to perform i think we saw with dalvin cook at times

this year he wasn't the same guy he'd been and he was battling through some pretty nasty injuries and still looks explosive, still looks talented, but wasn't quite the same guy he was when he was at the very peak of his powers the year before or the last couple of years. So I wouldn't write him off or anything yet, but I would say that was a rough year for Dalvin Cook, just in terms of just physically getting through it. Yeah, and start out the season, first couple of games, looks like he's got the burst. And this has happened really almost every season that by the end, the yards per carry goes down,

the yards after contact goes down. And that'll be something I'll be interested to find out with Kevin O'Connell is just how much he's going to lean on Delvin cook, assuming that Delvin cook is here. Like they could get into the meetings and decide they don't want to Delvin cook and they're going to move on from him or something. But I think that's unlikely. I think they want to give whoever is playing quarterback as much opportunity to succeed this year as they can give me before I let you go a player on the top 101 from 2021 who will be much higher in 2022 I'll give you a mind while you think uh I I did a control f on Kyle Pitts to see where he was and he's toward you know the the back end of it it's still very good to be on the list but I feel like what he did this year immediately stepping in at the tight end position

or this freaky hybrid wide receiver that's only going to get better for him i worry about matt ryan just like having no arm to throw him the football yeah but but i i mean if you can do that as a rookie tight end in the nfl i'm keeping an eye on you i'm also curious what his ceiling is because he's like he's a tight end in name only at this point. They bring him in and very quickly it became apparent that, you know what, we don't actually have any receivers. You're basically going to need to be the X receiver. And yeah, you can line up as a tight end every now and again, but basically you have to replace Julio Jones this year. And he did a pretty good job of that. But, and, and, you know, I'm, I don't want to completely contradict myself because I said at draft time

that if you told me that Kyle Pitts was just a wide receiver and you just sort of drew you, all that you had to go on was his tape at lined up at receiver in college, as opposed to tight end, I would have drafted him as the first receiver in that draft. I would have taken him, you know, one ahead of Jamar chase, and that would have been number two. He's that talented. But it is something he hasn't necessarily done full-time before. It is a different world in the NFL. And as much as he's physically freaky, he doesn't quite have that true elite wide receiver burst. It's a different speed, right? It's the reason that Vernon Davis didn't just get moved to wide receiver, even though he ran a 4-3. It's a different type of immediate quickness and short area movement skills that I'm not sure Pitts quite has to be that one true X wide receiver, as opposed to a hybrid or a tight end.

And they kind of need him to be that guy right now so that would be my one concern about whether a as you said i don't know if matt ryan can get it done for him anymore but b you know if he has quite that skill set if that's the the route they're going to go down with him and basically try and move him into that type of player uh two guys i think that are good calls to move up next year. One, Patrick Mahomes, because he had quite a crappy season relative for his standards and checks in at number 69. Patrick Mahomes is a top five player in the NFL in any given season. And I would assume next year he bounces back to something along those lines the other one though is uh who finished at 66 for the detroit lions and you know we had a really interesting season because um he played left tackle to begin with and this was after looking disastrous in preseason of right

tackle like he'd never played there before like he had no idea what he was doing like he was counting steps on his sets all those kinds of things you're like wow that guy i'm not sure he can play year one as a right tackle he ends up having to start at left tackle because um you know decker goes down sewell plays there plays pretty well and then decker comes back so we kick sewell back to right tackle even though he's playing well and he actually i think if anything got even better at right tackle so i a you have to be encouraged that he played extremely well on both sides of the line as a rookie b again offensive linemen take a little bit of time typically to get up to speed they usually don't just dominate from day one tristan worse and rashaun slater are

kind of breaking that a little bit but if sewell is this good year one, I would be pretty confident he can be very good in year two and jump right up that list. Slater was going to be another pick of mine too, because of how he stepped right in. But Sewell in the ceiling is pretty ridiculous. And I'm going to, I'm going to go here. Don't sleep on the lions.

Don't sleep on the lions taking a big step. I'm not saying they're going to win the super bowl, but that they have accumulated some talent in that last draft with a, a tackle and a receiver. And you add a few other guys like that. They could be fairly competitive next year. So that's kind of like my, my two hot takes of the right.

The season is over. Let me throw out some hot takes. Cause people forget about them by next year is chargers for the Superbowl and don't sleep on the lines. Charges to the Superbowl every off season. Yeah. Isn't it right? Like you have to do it, but the super bowl and don't sleep on the lines charge the super bowl every offseason yeah isn't it right like you have to do it but cap space and justin herbert do you have do you have one we will wrap on that who is your pick for next year's super bowl um pick for next year's super bowl i i don't think i mean honestly buffalo is the team that should be there they should have

got there this year they set this team up to be Kansas City. They were 13 seconds away from doing it and they shot themselves in the foot a few times. I think they should be favorites to come out of the AFC again next year. The problem is the AFC is just such a murderer's row at this point. You're actually, if you're looking for chances and Super Bowl odds, you're way better off just finding the good team in the NFC, which at this point is Green Bay, and saying the chances are they're going to be the last person standing by the end of the year. Let's go with them. Yeah, if Rodgers is back, of course, which we'll see.

Well, it'll be interesting. You know, back in the day, the Bills added James Lofton, and that was what got them over the top. So maybe they're one more receiver away to go along with Stefan Diggs. Sam, always fun, man. Go check out the list and read the list.

Don't just control F it. Highlighting the top 101 players for the NFL season. It's right in the middle of pff.com as always. Everyone knows you do tremendous work and where to find you on Twitter. So I don't have to give those things, but I always appreciate you taking the time to jump on and talk a little Vikings. Thanks,

man. Anytime, buddy. Thanks.