Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Raider Nation Radio host Lindsey Brown says Vegas' defense could be a problem for Vikings

Episode Date: December 7, 2023

Lindsey Brown, a Minnesota native now working in Las Vegas, talks about where the Raiders stand going into the Vikings-Raiders matchup, why Josh McDaniels didn't work out, why the Raiders defense finally has it together and what they might do in the future. Plus she talks about her impression of the Vikings from afar and much more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here and joining me, a very special guest, Lindsey Brown, who is now the host of the Morning Tailgate on Raider Nation Radio 920 in Las Vegas. But once upon a time, we were teammates at 1500 ESPN, and I am very happy, proud of you to be talking ball. And you are also Vegas's foremost hockey expert out there in Las Vegas as well. So I'm glad that things have worked out for you out in Vegas. How are you doing, Lindsay? What's going on? I'm doing great. As you mentioned, the, the talents have certainly diversified for both of us since our glory days back at KTSP or KSTP. I don't even know anymore. It seems so long ago now, but I'm really excited for this matchup this week. I've been, you know, once the schedule came out and I saw the Raiders are getting the NFC North

and fingers crossed, the Vikings are going to be in town. And so I've, I've gotten a few text messages on our fan line about who are you going to be rooting for? Who are you going to be doing this? I'm like, I'm a professional.

I'm rooting for my notes. That's who I'm rooting for. Oh yeah, of course. Uh, but I think, I do think if Josh Dobbs leads them to victory, maybe you'll, maybe you'll have an eye twitch a little bit of like, you know,

the old days, but it's, it is funny to me though. Cause I know you you'll tweet clips sometimes you're on TV out there or something. And the hosts are always like, so what's going on with this hockey? And you're like, okay, let me explain how this all works. It's very, it's very funny. Cause I mean, of course you leave Minnesota that can never win a championship, and then you move to Titletown in Las Vegas, get to cover a Stanley Cup there.

That had to be a cool experience, especially since you're the only one there who knows what's going on. Well, I wouldn't go so far to say that, but I do have a few more bullet points under my experience in the hockey world for sure. And I will say as much as the titles have been won in this town it's not without some uh trial by fire because I show up to cover a team and then within six months their coach gets fired it happened with the with the Golden Knights it happened with the Aces it happened this year with the Raiders but uh yeah

it's it's certainly um different than what I envisioned in terms of kind of importing my hockey, my hockey skills here. But it's a unique market. And I try to work in the Minnesota charm as much as possible. There's a lot of us out here, believe it or not. Oh, I believe it. And I've also seen that the crowd is going to be very largely purple in Las Vegas. And a lot of folks going to be coming to where I'm going to be staying, which is at Circa. We're going to be having the party there Friday night.

And it sounds like the whole town is going to be painted purple. Let's start there with the Raiders. What, how weird is it when you have home field that is never home field? I mean, because it seems like this is everybody's destination. And I know Mark Davis said something about this last year. Like he kind of doesn't like that about it,

but my guy, you moved your team to Las Vegas. What did you think exactly was going to happen here? Well, the thing is, too, as we've already kind of touched down, this is a town that likes winners. And so it's harder for people to get themselves to the arenas, to the stadiums when you're not putting a product in the field that seems worthy of people holding onto those tickets. Because, you know, times are hard.

The economy is tough and it's especially tough in a, in a town like this. It's very transient. And so outside of the couple of New York games that they've had this season, it's been a largely visitor crowd. And, and it's certainly weird when you, when you have like the sea of red they had a couple weeks ago with with the kansas city chiefs or i think the game that was most apparent to me is when the pittsburgh steelers were in town because they travel very well i think it was the first time they were playing in vegas just like minnesota and everybody wants to be part of that

first impression see what it's all about and i think one of my colleagues arash wrote an article a few weeks ago i think put it so succinctly, is that Allegiant Stadium has become like a brothel for all NFL fandoms. And I'm like, as shock value as that is, and you're just like, that doesn't seem very nice. But I mean, Vegas is here to provide a certain experience for people, right? Like this is an experienced town. We're here to create that bubble for you and that includes the fan bases and so we hate to see the color differentiation but we love it when the cash is checked so you know and that's what mark davis seems to have

in terms of his mindset too and it's hard not to blame him considering where this team has been uh financially before they arrived here it hasn't worked out better As weird as it is to not have the home stadium every weekend as they start winning, that will happen. But they're selling, and that's what's important. Well, when they start winning is another discussion to have. So tell me where this team is at, because anybody who saw the Josh McDaniels experience in Denver could have seen the Josh McDaniel's experience coming.

But the other part of it too, is everybody is now claiming that they wanted CJ Stroud. And I remember going into this off season thinking that the Raiders were at the top of the list. You move on from Derek Carr, good move. And we've seen what he's done or hasn't done in New Orleans. Now draft a quarterback, trade up, get Anthony Richardson, get C.J. Stroud, and profit from there. And that doesn't end up working out. Their draft pick this year has been horrendous. That's mean. He's figuring it out, okay?

Just give him some time, call me maybe. All this instant gratification. You've got to succeed right away. I mean, just give the kid some time. Okay, all right. But he has less than 10 QB pressures on the season, which is not very good so far, Tyree Wilson, but they don't trade for a quarterback or they don't trade up to draft a

quarterback. They go with Jimmy Garoppolo. Now it all seems like it's kind of messy. Antonio Pierce is in there. Like where do you look at this franchise sort of a, from a global perspective? Man, I can attack that question from a global perspective man uh i could attack that question from a bunch of different ways and i'll save the josh mcdaniel stuff kind of in the back because i want to start with the the draft thinking around last year because that's really when i started on raider nation radio was the week leading up to the draft and so it's like what a baptism for me but um you know the raiders are absolutely one of those teams that is searching for that franchise

quarterback if you don't have the answer that is searching for that franchise quarterback. If you don't have the answer, you're searching for that answer. My argument around that time last year is that you could go up and trade a ton of capital for CJ Stroud or Bryce Young or whoever you want to go take, but the rest of this roster is not ready to support such a talent. I'm a huge believer in sitting quarterbacks through their first year. I think that allows them to learn how to be a professional, learn the offense. It doesn't open them up as much to, well, our offensive line sucks,

so now I'm going to get the yips because I'm being chased all around. And so I personally wanted them to go out and get Christian Gonzalez or a Devin Witherspoon or something like that. I was more cornerback, but it's either cornerback or edge rusher. And the more valuable of the two, they went out and got Tyree Wilson. A lot of people will always go back and say,

why didn't you take Jalen Carter? Why didn't you take Jalen Carter? We all see what he's doing. And there's a different sensitivity in this town to certain things that have gone up in Jalen Carter's personal life. And i think it's the best place for him because he's surrounded by his guys the georgia 2.0 is in philadelphia and i think you need to be supported by the best people around you and the raiders were not that

team for whatever quarterback they could have drafted in the first round a lot of people saying well we we should have had we could have taken cj stroud and he would be great here i go are you taking what cj stroud has accomplished with Coach Ryans and then just automatically assuming that would have happened here in Las Vegas under Josh McDaniels, under Antonio Pierce, under anybody? Because this is an organization still trying to do the right thing all the time and not have so many self-inflicted wounds and so I think the potential of picking a quarterback and having a self-inflicted wound of setting him up

for a really bad start to his career I I wanted the defense to get better and they have this season like it's ridiculous how weird this team is considering how much money they've spent on the offensive side of the ball and how little they have to show for it. Because the main strength of this team is the defense. And that started out early in the season. Because whoever runs this offense, Josh McDaniels, Bo Hardigree, they can't stay on the field for more than six snaps at a time. Like, it's a challenge. And so I think when it comes to the McDaniels expectation, I'm one of the people that believes that people can change and get better. And you'd think 10

years, maybe he's taken some notes, but I just don't know if he has the social acumen to really connect with people when things aren't going well when things are when we're winning x's and o's come easy the meetings are easier it's easier to grind and he's never been able to get off to that start besides like what six games in his first season with denver right other than that it's been all tough sledding and he's not a good coach in tough sledding and so they moved on from him i i commend the raiders for doing that at the time they did. It was becoming untenable. We'd tell you about all the noise we would hear from the nation, Raider Nation. It was the most joyous day that I've been part of Raider Nation radio. It was the day that Josh McDaniels was let go.

And before that, it was the day that Tyree Wilson, the top draft pick, first debuted at practice after spending the entire offseason with foot issues. So just give the kid a second. Let him figure out his environment before we ask him to master it. Okay, fair enough. But that's pretty sad, though, since you started doing Raider Nation Radio at the draft, and your best moment so far to be excited is when they fired a coach that That's not exactly going swimmingly.

Let me dive into McDaniels just a little bit more and what went wrong there. Because when he was in New England, they had very effective offenses. And it can't be ignored that Mac Jones actually played well while he was there. And since Mac Jones has been horrendous, maybe they had a little bit better of a team. And it feels like some people are just built to be coordinators. And when there is pressure on Josh McDaniels, this is also a Kevin O'Connell point, by the way, that Kevin O'Connell has not been broken by the amount of pressure and failures and ups and downs and everything else. And maybe there's an ownership element of that as well from the pressure, but it seemed like the key to being a good coach is not

just do they punt on fourth down did they make the right play call at the right time that's all important but the management of human beings there is no better example to point to of how good kevin o'connell is at it than to say look at that guy and look at josh mcdaniels it's all about communication and when i like so many of people, Vikings fans, witnessed what O'Connell was able to accomplish with Dobbs in that Arizona game where you have no preparation. This is just straight up how do I communicate to you person to person in the next 25 seconds before the ears go out.

And I think what he did was such a masterful job that shows that in the moments that are necessary, all the frills can go and I can what he did was such a masterful job that shows that in the moments that are necessary all the frills can go and I can get to you directly but the way that he's connected with that roster and of course I'm not nearly as plugged in as I was when I was living there but it seems like this team wants to fight for him this team wants to play hard for him and the people that he's entrusted in leadership be that Kirk be that Harrison Smith you know some of these guys that have been around for a very long time. But the proof is in the pudding.

And last year, he made a great first impression. No matter how many people say that they overperformed in the statistical anomaly that they were, that the Raiders were on the opposite spectrum for in terms of one-score games, that still is going to buy you a lot of time and a lot of good faith with your stars, especially with like

the Justin Jeffersons and just I I don't think that faith was ever true like lost by me by McDaniels it just seemed like he always went to the same places to look for an answer and that's where I really started questioning him early on in the season and his malleability. Because the metaphor I use is that you're in the ocean, you're swimming, you get caught in a riptide, right? How do you get out of it? Well, you swim sideways to the beach, right? You don't swim against it. You don't swim with it because it's either going to take you out to the ocean or you're going to die.

Because there's no way that you're ever going to be swim better than the actual riptide. And he just, there wasn't that imagination, that hard left turn where we're just going to try something that typically we wouldn't typically that doesn't fit our personality. And I'm still searching for that kind of imagination with the current offensive regime, because with a new quarterback, that's not Jimmy Garoppolo, it a rookie QB they've had they have this kid handcuffed and I I truly believe it that you need to let him air it out and all those people that do have chances because if you're playing scared if you're playing too conservative you're not truly giving yourself a chance to win when you're playing opponents like Miami and Kansas City like they have the last couple weeks you need to be all out aggressive because you're working with the deficiency that you're usually not in terms of talent or execution or whatever they're they're here we're here so you need to give yourself every chance to go after

that and Josh McDaniels uh would would kick field goals when he would go when he should have gone for a fourth down or he would uh give another chance to Josh Jacobson run it up the middle after it had it worked two times before the two drives prior. And so they're still searching for that. But that's where you have to take it with a grain of salt because Josh McDaniels is the one that implemented the system. And now he's not gone. He's not here anymore. You have to still roll with that because you can't just change that mid year.

I mean, it's football. It's too complicated. So they're just going to roll with Aiden O'Connell for the rest of the way, sort of hell or high water. Right. And you described this offense. It sounds miserable to watch and the production hasn't been very good. Aiden O'Connell's numbers haven't been very good and they're going to go up against a Brian Flores defense in what is more or less a home game for Brian Flores' defense. It seems hopefully the green dots on the defensive side can yell loud

or is preparing for that to communicate with the defense because it's going to be loud in there when Aiden O'Connell is on the field. Do you give them any chance to move the ball against this Vikings defense? I mean, the defense has taken a big step forward, but Devontae Adams is still on the football team. It just seems like he's just not able to have any impact despite how good he is. His efficiency has gone down every season that he's been here.

He had a lot of records in career best last season with Derek Carr, but if you look at the completions versus the actual targets, the efficiency was not great. And it's even worse this year. And there's the Devontae Adams. Everything has been such a fascinating narrative all season, because when you have a talent like that, you can't not go to them. Right. It's like not throwing the just a judge. Like, what are you doing? Why are you paying them to be here?

And then they'll go and they'll do like five straight looks to them and then they won't look at him until the fourth quarter and and that was true in the early goings of the season and it's semi-true now but he's still getting the targets he's still uh i think the the wider receiver most targeted in the red zone i think he's top four overall in the league uh for targets but in terms of the actual catches, they're not there. And so a few weeks ago, Aiden was, was going going deep and he missed him like three or four times against the dolphins, just a little bit too far. Aiden still figure out like that touch pass where it's not just, he's good at the lasers. He just, when you're trying to lob it,

it gets to be a little bit more of an adventure. And there's been a few plays where there should be a flag and there's not just like any other receiver. But, um, you know, if I'm him, I'm really taking a long, hard look at the situation that they're in. And the thing is, is that the Raiders are still a favorable place for him to be in terms of proximity to his family. The contract's pretty good. He has a seat at the table here.

You know, I have correspondence that he was he's been part of all of the discussions of every move that's been made this season like he's been looped in on that before they've been announced to the public and that's not something that gets extended to every player and and he's earned that he he works his ass off him and maxrosby are two sides of the same coin uh and so I think that gives him pause but at the same time you see what old bestie's doing you see how friendly he was on the sidelines with the Jets receivers core you see that anybody would maybe want to solidify their legacy a little bit more with the ring and I don't know if that's the long-term option here with the Raiders but the thing is is that because they ate their vegetables last year at the draft and they and we'll see how

those draft picks turn out but you kept some money to invest in different aspects of your defense like in the Robertsville lanes now you're in a situation where with the right quarterback with the right draft pick you could have one of those very quick turnarounds we've seen but that's the ultimate question with the Raiders. Can you pick the right people? Folks, is there any better way to spend the holidays than attending sports? Knowing you guys, I'm guessing the answer is no. Well, there is a way to get to all of the events

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Again, create an account and redeem code INSIDER for $20 off your first purchase. Download GameTime today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Usually no. Usually no. The answer is definitely usually been no uh really since the the john gruden era but actually for almost ever since rich gannon was a uh yeah a oakland raider but the davante adams situation is interesting to me because if there's one way the vikings lose

the football game it's that guy catches like 15 passes and it's been a while right you got 15 i'd be shocked i it's not gonna happen i what i like to describe this offense is it's all string no threads all string no threads this works for a second then we move away from it or we just three and out three and out there's like four three and outs per game and so there's just not enough snaps to go around not 15. Yeah well right if you have three and outs then you're not getting very many opportunities. I guess I was just thinking of and not that Aiden O'Connell can be Justin Herbert of course but the one way they've gotten beat is you know by a number one wide receiver like Cortland Sutton mosses them at the end of the game Ke Keenan Allen goes absolutely crazy in the Los Angeles Chargers game.

And maybe that's a thing because the cornerbacks, I think have been vastly improved, but is there anyone who can really hang with Devante Adams play after play after play? But then again, it's all about the quarterback. Sort of like if you had larry fitzgerald for those years where they were in between quarterbacks and it was such a struggle uh out there what what happened with with jacobs i mean because you know they had the whole contract situation and it has just been a terrible season for him yeah i really think him missing training can't put them behind

the eight ball and whoever's side was in the wrong, whatever, who cares? Because the result is you didn't get the reps necessary and you're starting with rust when everybody else is hitting their stride, or at least that's the idea when the season starts. Because I know that the NFL is always so messy for so many weeks. But when you don't have that integration with the offensive line, which has taken a step back from last season or last season with the offensive line which has taken a step back from last season or last season the offensive line just overachieved so we thought it was fine

so they didn't really address it in the offseason because they just assume what we'll keep building what we'll continue that progression or at least be there but the thing is everybody knows that josh jacob's really running really good at running football so he started stacking the box it's the easiest thing to do as a defender and then when you add that in addition to the lack of integration on the offensive side he wasn't hitting holes there weren't any holes to hit he was getting caught up in the backfield that's where this inconsistency in the offense is so hard to really articulate to other people and to understand what's going wrong because so many things go wrong like there's no threat like there's he'll run it to the right side and and

for one series he'll be amazing and then the next two quarters he won't be able to even fight for two yards like with with jacobs he's so much better with his with his feet under him like if he's falling forward too much I don't think he's the most well balanced of running backs but he's really good at reading things and finding those those spots to be slippery and I just don't think he's having the same um ease that he was last season and when that running game goes and we rely too much on the pass and the passing game's not working and so it's the catalyst for everything right the running game and so they keep trying to feed him and that doesn't work and then they

brought once mcdaniel's let go they tried doing more zone run concepts which certainly work there's been moments he's he's ripped off a couple of long runs but at the same time just with the lack of efficiency with this offense you have to just keep trusting it until it works well that's the only answer we're ever working to and the first time we get there is in the third quarter and so it's like we gotta there has to be a different way and not to completely abandon the run because there's some stat out there that maybe they're 10 and 1 11 and 1 or something when he gets 20 carries, like until a couple of weeks ago, they had won every game that he'd gotten at least 20 carries in. And so that's why it's like, well, we try moving everything over here.

We hope it works. And then you're like, Oh, but it's over here. Here's the problem. Like, okay, we move it here. And it's, I don't know. Like, I don't understand it because he's, he's fresh. He's, he's still young. He's a churner, but he just hasn't had a lot of space to fight for those extra yards and get that confidence this year. Right. And if there's nothing there for him and nobody has to be that concerned about him,

then you really don't have to be concerned that much about Aiden O'Connell. You're putting Aiden O'Connell in a lot of unfavorable situations, and then it all tumbles down to your offense stinks. But what's ironic and almost a sick joke is that the Raiders have a pretty decent defense. I was even going into this game thinking, oh, this is great for Josh Dobbs because he's going to start this week. Kevin O'Connell announced that today, and we already pretty much figured that out. And okay, well, this is good because you're going to play the Raiders. That's always a get right game for a quarterback and so forth and then i started pulling up the numbers and i was like oh um wow they're actually right they're actually not a bad defense it's much

closer overall to an average defense and considering that they haven't gotten any favors from the offense and are on the field a lot but max crosbyrosby is one of the top, what, five, three rushers in the entire NFL. That can be a problem. And then you have a more complete and playmaking defense than they have had since, again, I don't even know. Like it's been a really long time since they haven't ranked like 28th and everything. What's been the turnaround there?

It's – you could probably source it to the linebacker group being the most boom for the buck because at every level, this defense needed to get better at the line, in the underneath, and in the secondary. And what the Raiders have done, that a lot of teams have done in terms of, well, how do we strategically go about this?

They're going to keep the top on, so you're not going to get a lot of deep plays, but the underneath is where you can eat. And that's where it's kind of weird to say that's where the linebacker strength is because they're not a great tackling unit. But hopefully that changes because the cornerback unit has gone through a lot of new phases just in the last couple weeks as they cut Marcus Peters. They traded a few weeks prior for Jack Jones from the Patriots.

And then they have Amik Robertson, who's made a couple of big-time interceptions, who's always been basically the fourth guy in the rotation. And then rookie Ja'Cory and Bennett, who I think has done pretty well considering he's a late-round pick at a cornerback. All those guys, I've seen the Zimmer picks and the Hansy penalties for years. He doesn't really get into that. But in terms of that defense, like I said, you're not going to get the big plays.

You can eat underneath, but then when you get in the red zone, there's going to be hell to pay. There's been so many instances where I'm like, that should be six points, that should be six points, and it's zero or three. And that keeps it palatable for this Raiders offense. It just seems like I created this new statistic that's called the CMR. It's the collective momentum rating because so many people tell me momentum isn't real.

And what I do is I measure just the swings. Like if the defense goes out there and forces a three and out with a sack on the third down, I'm going to award them like a point and a half. And then it's the offense's turn to see, can you match the energy? Can you raise the bar? And what you want is high scores for both sides and very little gap between the two. Cause that means both of them are executing at a high level and nobody's

lopsided. It's so lopsided every, every freaking week, the defense is up there. And a lot of it has to do with the relentlessness of Crosby. He's, he's hobbled right now. He's dealing with a little bit of a knee injury.

So he's going to probably take more of the outside edge routes because it's the right knee that he's having trouble with, but man, that swim move that he has is deadly. He's mastered every single move, but the swim one I think is his most effective. But the rest of that line is kind of, we'll see, right?

Malcolm Koontz can get in your face a little bit, but the interior pressure has been something to be desired. Sometimes they can be mashed at the line of scrimmage in the running game. If you're starting to get that thing going. And that's why I think the Vikings, like I'm sure every mandate for each game, don't turn the ball over.

Cause like you can, once you get things going, you can get things done with ease, but they they're opportunistic. They can turn that ball over, especially Robert Spillane. He got a opportunity with his team. He was kind of weighing in the wings with Pittsburgh. but they're opportunistic. They can turn that ball over, especially Robert Spillane. He got an opportunity with his team.

He was kind of winging the wings with Pittsburgh. They give him the full use of the ranch here. Antonio Pierce wants to build the defense around him. That's how well he's played. That's the type of spirit he plays with. But the tackling, that's the big question mark. But you're going to have to be accurate, and we know that that's a question with the minnesota vikings folks i hope you've enjoyed listening to us talk about prize picks this year but if you've missed it here's how it works you go to

prizepicks.com and it is simple you pick either more or less between two and six player stat projections and that's it now you're playing so if it's x number of yards for a quarterback you just decide are they going to throw for more or less than that number of yards but it works with lots of different options receiving yards touchdowns even field goals all sorts of sports as well prizepicks.com slash purple go there use the code purple for the first deposit match up to 100 one of the reasons i like prize picks it is very simple to use you see how we do it on the show real quick and easy and then we talk about our picks and also not expensive either you can turn 10 into 250 by nailing just

a couple of picks so go to prizepicks.com slash purple the code purple daily fantasy sports made easy it is and you mentioned not turning the ball over that is a problem as well and with josh jobs he's being pulled in lots of different directions where they're asking him to play with rhythm and timing but also make plays off of schedule but also don't ever turn the ball over don't take too many risks but also get some explosive plays. And that's what you run into when you're dealing with a backup quarterback. So that with any given Sunday with him, you could turn the ball over four times as we've seen,

or he can make plays out of structure and win the game. That's where it's hard to figure out. Let's talk about the vibes. And then I want to get your take on on the vikings as uh from uh your perspective yeah from a from afar but also fairly recently a near um but uh the vibes let's talk about the vibes the vikings were riding high after they beat new orleans and three quarters of the way through denver they're thinking we're gonna do something that's very hard to do in the NFL, which is survive losing our starting quarterback. Here we come post-season. We could

be dangerous. Everybody watch out. Then Alexander Madison fumbles, Dobbs throws a pick, they lose to Denver and all of a sudden you go, oh wait, uh-oh, here's some other teams coming for us. But all we have to do is beat Chicago. Everything will be fine and then we know what happened so the vibe the vibes are very tight the vibes are very tense of like is our season going to fall apart with a loss to this horse bleep raiders team that fired his coach i mean that has to be how they feel coming into this but at the same time the raiders are almost playing with nothing to lose and they're're playing for Antonio Pierce and just him as a coach and so forth. I don't ever like a team going to face somebody that fired their coach because it's almost like they don't care.

I don't know if that's been the case. It's almost like we've got nothing to lose. We'll just take some shots and see what happens. Yeah, I think there's a lot of care in that locker room, and there's a lot of fight for Antonio Pierce, and I think just the pride. And as much as it would be easy for a lot of the Raiders to just kind of mail it in and just kind of get better

for the rest of the year, I think because, especially on the offensive side of the ball, it's been so bad that there is like a tooth pursuit of trying to figure like we're better than this like this shouldn't be this hard we should be answering the first respectable defense they've had in this organization for years like i think there there's that pursuit and that want to show that we don't belong at the bottom of every explosive offense statistic list right like they're even worse than the patriots like in every single statistical category and so but it was weird at you know going into the buy

and losing to the chiefs because for for as as difficult of a year this has been for the raiders it's also a measuring stick to just see how far behind are we. And they have closed the gap in some areas to Kansas City, except for the most important position. But then when they lose, even though you had a chance to win, I don't think people were pissed off. I don't think people were sad. I think people were just like, yeah, we just played and we lost.

And so that searching, that's what I'm looking for because the pursuit is all that matters. It's all that matters. All that matters in life is that you try the results don't as, as much as the sports world tries to make us think. And so, and they still technically have a chance. And so I, I, I would expect a hard game, especially with characters like Max Crosby, when he is going out there working as hard as he does, being in the hospital with a potential infection in his leg, shouldn't be playing.

How do you show up at half-ass with somebody on that sideline that's fighting for every down? It's literally his life is on the line. And so I think that's there. But as the game goes on, if success isn't found, lethargy can set in. But that's human nature. Yeah, I think they're scrappy. Like if Josh McDaniels was their – yeah, right.

If Josh McDaniels was their coach, I'd be like, all you have to do is get like a seven-point lead and this thing will be over. Because they're going to give up on their coach. And we kind of saw that even in Atlanta a little bit where the Falcons got punched in the face by Josh Dobbs. And you saw them sort of be like, wait, what, what is going on here? Like Josh Dobbs is beating us and what are we going to do? And they panicked a bit.

I don't think that the Raiders will do that as much with Antonio Pierce. I think that they're going to dig in and they're also looking for reasons to feel good about themselves. And there's a lot of players that are looking for reasons to be here in the future as they're going to have decisions to make on the roster. So even though well and you have josh jobs looking like he could maybe potentially be like a bridge quarterback or a backup in the future but i think we know that franchise quarterbacks probably not in the cards what what do you think about the quarterback situation long term lindsey oh god well i know that there has been a lot of steam and probably not revisionist history, but maybe we didn't get off to the best mindset when it comes to Kirk Cousins.

I think that Netflix documentary series did more for him than any amount of football he's ever played. Because there is something to be said about somebody that is willing to take it on the chin every time and keep trying. But this team at some point has to suck like at some point you have to be okay with letting things fall by the waist and as you said they've built up like the fact they have an offensive line like what the hell matthew like where was this a few years ago where was this a decade ago i mean this is what we've been asking for and so they're in line like everybody else to go get that franchise quarterback. And at some point, you're gonna have to take that shot. And I'm not super familiar with what they're working with capital wise, like draft pick wise, if you're trying to trade up into this top, you know, seven, it's gonna cost a lot it's going to cost a lot and so I I caution teams that to do that unless they're sniffing within probably like the top 12 I would say Raiders get in the top 10 because then you can take one uh less first round pick to trade up right because you're already in that favorable position so I don't know haven't they kind of played themselves out of that conversation for

this year and if it's not this year, when you take a chance, don't you go for another bridge? And if you're going for a bridge, is Kirk the right guy versus somebody else that doesn't know the offense? I mean, what about Justin? What does Justin Jefferson want? There's so many. I'm not sure.

I'm not really sure the direction this team is heading right now because they would think, well, they're going to take a step back this year, and they did for a while, but then they won all these games. Right, and it might depend on what happens next because if they lose this game and then go to Cincinnati and lose to Jake Browning, well, you should start Jaron Hall the rest of the way and then try to end up with the highest draft pick or find something in Jaron Hall. But if you win these next two games, then it's fight tooth and nail for the playoffs And then try to end up with the highest draft pick or find something in Jaron Hall. But if you win these next two games, then it's fight tooth and nail for the playoffs.

And we'll deal with what's next when it comes next, but also if they play well enough, that probably means Dobbs was good enough to believe in him as a quarterback that could get you to the playoffs as a bridge. While you draft someone, it's like, this is a choose your own adventure game. And we don't know where these different paths

are going to follow you know follow down and we're going to have new paths that we typically don't because the quarterback carousel is a growingly fascinating thing every year but now there's a new edge to the market it's not just your your savvy vets that are that are going to be that bridge quarterback it's not just your young draft picks. Now you have guys like Justin Fields and Mac Jones that are just kind of coming off of their rookie deals. We're not really sure because the organization hasn't treated them right. And so there's a certain strategy that you can go where you kind of expedite finding that future piece.

Like is Justin Fields the type of guy that you'd say, you know what, in this organization, he would be a a completely different person it would be like we drafted him and he developed or like we could do that and not even go in the draft and keep some of that capital and develop it that way and so with teams like the minnesota vikings teams like the the las vegas raiders they're going to be dabbling in that new tertiary quarterback market because you're not really sure you're you know where you want to. Cause you're not really sure you're, you know, where you want to go, but you're not sure how fast you want to get there. Right. There's only a few different ways to go about this. Uh, just in general, like you either

go after a veteran quarterback or that would be Kirk bringing him back. Presumably it wouldn't be anyone else unless someone like the Raiders or like, uh, Atlanta offers Kirk $50 million a year, and then he goes there, and then you can either look at other veterans, you could try to draft someone, start them right away, and assume that Jefferson and Addison are going to raise the level of that guy's play and the offensive line. You can, as you said, look for some other quarterback that somebody discarded that you want to bring in.

I mean, you could do all of them. I mean, it is, and they very well just might. So it is very much up in the air and I don't know what way it's going to play out. Before we wrap up though, since you do hail from Minnesota and spent so much time talking Minnesota sports, you have to tell me who were your favorite players when you were here? Who did you enjoy the most watching the minnesota vikings before uh you left uh daniel hunter is my first and foremost i've had his jersey uh for years i picked up on him when i was still in my mad and playing days because i i really only understood the the defensive i'm like get to quarterback fast spin. And so I, and he, he was really successful

at it despite not being the most well-known of names. And so 99 is a near and dear to my heart. For sure. I loved Eric Kendricks. It's at least I get to see him twice a year now that he's with the chargers. But those two on the defense were certainly my, my two favorites and what I look back at Everson Griffin days, right? They all go back to like 2017 and those are some good times. Yeah, no, for sure. Well, not surprising that a former goalie would focus on the defensive side of the ball. I have a brand. You certainly do.

What's the biggest difference between living in Minnesota and living in Las Vegas? Other than the weather. The weather is obvious yards i i will never ever take for granted going home to minnesota on a plane ever again especially during the summertime because of all the green you'd be surprised how much just grass adds to the overall vibe because here you don't water the grass because there's whole there's not a lot of water to go around. And so every house is this far apart and they all look the same because they're all building right now. And so there's a lot of character and personality that is different

or at least it's located down on the strip. But the one thing that Vegas has that Minnesota can't touch, we got mountains here. I'm like, I'll take mountains any day of the week. The hiking here is unbelievable. And so I miss it though. I miss the here. I'm like, I'll take mountains. Any, any day of the week, the hiking here is unbelievable. And so I miss it though. I miss the green. I don't miss the cold. I don't imagine anyone that leaves ever does ever does miss the cold, but for some people, 110 degrees is a little excessive, but you know, it's Minnesota reverse winter. You just don't go outside. I have good practice.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, Lindsay, I'm super happy for you with the success that you've had out in Vegas with your media career. Just to give myself complete credit for your success. I remember when you first were working your way up that Judd Zolgat and I kept pounding the table for more airtime for you. So I'm glad that you've gotten it out there and had success. So happy for you. I'm just kidding about giving myself credit. That's you.

No, it's a hundred. It's a hundred percent true. I've met a lot of great people at, at during that time and Judd and you and Brendan, you all, you all push me to where I am today. And so I, I so appreciate the invitation.

You're the first person to ask me to talk about football at this level. So I'm like, I'm in the club now, but I miss you guys. And I'm so happy for all the things that you've been able to accomplish with, with your publication. It's great. And you deserve the space. You're too good to keep out of the press room. Well, I appreciate that. And we'll get together when I'm out there in Vegas. So thanks for doing this, Lindsay. Of course.