Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Ranking Vikings intriguing storylines and what would it take in 2022 to change QBs in 2023? (A Fans Only podcast)

Episode Date: July 4, 2022

Matthew Coller answers Vikings fan questions, starting with a ranking of 2022 season storylines that should be the most interesting for Vikings fans this year... is it Kevin O'Connell's offense? Justin Jefferson's potential stat line? The combo of Danielle Hunter and Za'Darius Smith? Or Irv Smith Jr.'s breakout. Also, what happens to the QB future if the Vikings come short of expectations? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and this is another fans-only podcast, taking all of your questions and answering them here on the show. It seems like after every fans-only podcast, I get a bunch more to work with, so if you've sent me one, be patient. I'm working my way through it. Keep listening. And sorry, but you have to listen through every minute of every episode to make sure that I don't get yours. No, but seriously, if you've sent me one and you didn't hear it, send me a note and I might have it in the queue. I might have it ready, or I might have answered it in an episode that you didn't hear. So feel free to do that if you sent me one and you didn't catch it on the podcast but gonna keep plowing through these questions and one of the things that i've started to notice is i haven't

rejected any questions for the show every person who has sent me a question or a prediction it's been absolutely worth talking about and i just think that that's really cool. And sometimes I will see, every once in a while, I'll see somebody on Twitter say, oh, you know, fans are the worst or whatever else. And that is just not my experience with you guys, that all of these questions are interesting and thoughtful. So my appreciation for that. All right, well, let's open the open the diet dr pepper and we can get going all right okay sorry a little bit of it went down the nose there uh okay we're good we're good

okay let's start off with this uh this comes from zach g via the email. My question for you is to rank the following in terms of how excited we should be about how they will impact the team in the year to come. The Kevin O'Connell offense pairing Daniil Hunter and Zedarius Smith, Lewis Seen and Andrew Booth Jr. or other rookies, the return of Irv Smith Jr., Justin Jefferson, and other, as in possible depth at the guard position. I mean, that's sort of a funny one to bring up, like how many fan bases would throw in, hey, you know, feel free to tell us that the guards are going to be great. But, you know, I respect what you've gone through over the last number of years with

that guard position and also not running the ball every second down and long. Now that could be one that I might have to put in here, but I'll stick to just the ones that you mentioned. Ranking these. All right. I think, you know, what's weird is that my instinct is to not rank Justin Jefferson all that high. Not because I don't think he'll be great,

but it's because I think he's just going to continue to be Justin Jefferson. So I'm not sure that there's anything that's going to be wildly different. I could be wrong about that. He could end up with 140 catches, but I think he's been absolutely fantastic over the last two years. And if he continues to do that, even Kirk Cousins said, Hey man, just keep being you and you'll end up in the Hall of Fame.

And he's absolutely right. But as far as just things that Vikings fans should be excited about, Justin Jefferson has to rank at the top because there are only a few receivers ever in the history of this game to start off their careers in the way that Justin Jefferson has. So I'm not thinking that it will be vastly different that this Kevin O'Connell offense all of a sudden is going to result in Justin Jefferson's role being wildly different and his numbers being wildly different.

But if he just continues to be him and he has 1500 yards receiving and 100 receptions i mean that is something very rarely seen anybody to do that three years in a row in fact i mean even if you are a veteran wide receiver to do that three years in a row is pretty amazing if he could start a career that way. And that would sort of solidify the idea that he is going to be one of the top five receivers in the NFL for a very, very long time. I don't think there's a reason to doubt that, that we've seen so far from his personality, from his skill set, how he wins in routes. He's a great route runner he's a smart player like there's no hole in there where you could say well you know this could kind of knock him down a peg but if he continues to do that this year i mean you're talking just about one of the better starts to a career in nfl history so that

i think should probably be at the top of your list that this franchise has so long had all-time great wide receivers and here you go here's another one in justin jefferson um let's see so i want to say the return of irv smith should probably be number two and i'm not avoiding the kevin o'connell offense here i just need to see it a little before i have any sense of how different it might be some of the things that they talk about that they want to do aside from the run first or not run first which it should be mentioned the vikings threw the same number of passes last year as the rams some of that's playing from behind i understand but i don't really believe last year because delvin cook was

banged up and not the version of himself that they really were a run first offense. I think Mike Zimmer just belly ached about it a lot. I think he wanted them to be, but they really couldn't be. They played in a lot of close games. That's the other thing too. They weren't down 20 points where you were just throwing and throwing and throwing at almost any point in the season. It was a lot of Kirk Cousins passes between, you know, seven points up or seven points down. So I think that last year they were more of a passing offense than they've been in previous seasons because Delvin cook was not as good as he was in 2020 or 2019. And he was banged up a lot. Um, so I'm not really ready to go Kevin O'Connell offense as the second part of this. So I'll go return of Irv Smith because of the way that he looked in training camp last year.

He looked like one of those tight ends. I don't want to put this expectation on him to be Travis Kelsey or to be George Kittle. That's a little lofty, but he looked like he was taking that step that you talk about with tight ends where every position has a different development curve. So a running back, here you go, football, do your thing. Running backs can step in right away and be absolutely marvelous, but corners, offensive linemen, tight ends have a really tough job in this league. You often see them develop even into the middle of their careers, uh, more than early on. Like some guys who have been thrown into the fire early on, like, uh, an Evan Ingram comes to

mind for me, they really struggle right away. And then it goes, you know, it improves as they go throughout their career. So Irv Smith came in at 20 years old, did pretty well in his role. And there's a chance now that he breaks out and if healthy has a very, very good season. And I think he's got the talent to do that. So I'll put Irv Smith number two behind Justin Jefferson. The Kevin O'Connell offense can go behind that because there are areas to improve with the offense from last year. I think that 2020 and 2019, the Vikings were coordinated very well with Gary Kubiak and with Kevin Stefanski. They won a playoff game with Kevin Stefanski. They had one of the most efficient offenses in the NFL in 2020,

but started the season poorly, struggled, had a very bad defense, didn't get good quarterback performances at some of the right times, and so on and so forth in 2020. But when you look, I mean, they were one of the teams in terms of yards per play that performed the best. So I think they were coordinated well under Gary and Stefanski. Last year, though, Clint Kubiak, the opening scripts were good. As the game went on, there were struggles.

It didn't seem like he and Kirk Cousins were on the same page. And then you add some of the things that McVay is famous for. Some of the pairing the run with the pass, some of the motions going to more of a pass first offense where you're starting the game out thinking, how can we get the ball to Justin Jefferson? Not, well, let's get Delvin Cook established first, though. I still don't believe they really did that as much last year. But Clint Kubiak was a first-time coordinator, which was a very bizarre decision for a team that was desperate to win and with people's jobs on the line. And somebody told me, and I'm sorry, I forget where I heard this.

Oh, maybe it was Kalen Kaler on the show, that there weren't exactly a ton of applications put in for Mike Zimmer's offensive coordinator. And so Clint Kubiak had to step up and do that job. Well, you kind of got what you got. I don't think it was horrendous from their offense last year, but it certainly left room for improvement. So I'll put that number three, number four, Zedaria Smith and Daniel Hunter. The reason I've got it a little far down is just because of the health concerns about a specifically Zedaria Smith. Like if we get to the end of training camp, I doubt he's going to play in any preseason games. That's another thing, by the way, to be excited about

with this team that is like, who can ever be excited about their sports science of their team? But it's football. So I guess you can get into just about anything, but the commitment to sports science, as opposed to I'll listen if it suits me, which seemed to be where they were previously is a nice thing for them. I think, I don't believe Irv Smith jr. Last year would have been playing in the third preseason game. If it was under Kevin O'Connell with their current plan

and how much they talk about keeping people healthy. So let me just throw that, uh, in as an aside as part of the Kevin O'Connell bid. But if Zedaria Smith gets through the entire off season through all these training camp practices and into the first couple of weeks and looks very good and is healthy, then yes, you can bump this one up because they could be a dominant pair. And what I really like about Z'Darrius Smith is how versatile the guy is. He's given the Vikings nightmares, not just off the edge, but rushing up the middle as well in previous years. He can do just about anything.

I'm just hesitant to put that one as high as someone like Justin Jefferson because of the health concerns about Z'Darrius Smith. Lewis Seen and Andrew Booth Jr. Just being rookies, I have no idea. Back in 2016, so I moved to Minnesota right on the same day. No kidding, if you haven't heard this before. On the same day Teddy got hurt is when I moved to Minnesota to start covering the Vikings. So I didn't cover a lot of that training camp or the draft, but I remember thinking from the outside,

wow, this Laquan Treadwell guy, love him as a prospect. I mean, what a great pick for that Vikings team. That's going to be fantastic for them. And like what happens so often with rookies, I was wrong. So my first impression of Louis Seane is, oh, the kid seems like he's really got his head screwed on correctly. He's quite big when you see him in person and you really like the way he moves. But until we really see these guys play and, you know, Andrew Booth Jr.

watching his college tape, really love the way the guy tracks receivers. But until we see the guy on the field, I can't really go there and say, oh yeah, everybody get hyped. We got to see it first. I know that that's an old school approach to rookies. Like potential just means you haven't done anything yet, but that's where I'm at with all rookies forever because we've been burned so many times of, oh yeah, this guy, he's going to bring this and he's going to fill this spot and everything else.

And then you just don't know the potential for both. Very, very good. Again, another, uh, you know, one that has a chance to be the thing that throughout the season becomes most exciting for Vikings fans. But if I'm ranking them as of this day, I'm not able to do that yet. So that's a great one, Zach. I really appreciate that. Good question.

All right, let's move on to the next question we have here. This comes from Mardelicious23 on Twitter. From Jim Kelly to Josh Allen and Fran Tarkenton to Kirk Cousins, who had the worst play at the quarterback position between franchise quarterbacks, the Bills or the Vikings? Surely they've both had some serviceable play in between. Which one had it worse? Oh, my friend, M friend Mar delicious. It is

not even close. The Minnesota Vikings had way better quarterback play between Fran Tarkington and Kirk cousins. Then the bills had between Jim Kelly and Josh Allen, not close. I mean, the Vikings had a ton of these great pop-up seasons. When you go from, you know, I don't want to call Tommy Kramer a pop-up season, but his one particular 1986 where he's only topped by Dan Marino in terms of quarterback rating. You've got that season. You've got Wade Wilson stepping in and taking him to an NFC championship

and then being good in 88. You get Warren Moon comes in. Heck, Jim McMahon showed up here and gave you a halfway decent season. You end up with Randall Cunningham. Brad Johnson was a pretty good quarterback for the Vikings. Even in recent years, you had Dante Culpepper was a borderline MVP, uh, Teddy Bridgewater. People can argue over Teddy and what he would have become and all that. But if I told you your second year quarterback was beloved by the franchise and won the division, you'd be pretty happy. The bills had nothing between Jim Kelly and Josh Allen. The best moment for the Bills between those times was Doug Flutie coming in and becoming a really fun story, which I've talked about a bunch of times on the show because that was right when I was 12, 13 years old and Doug Flutie was super fun,

but he wasn't a great quarterback. I mean, he had played in the CFL for years and he ran around and he was short and, you know, he made some fun plays and he had some comeback wins. They traded a first round pick for Rob Johnson. That was a disaster. Then they drafted JP Lossman. Disaster. You had Trent Edwards, who very briefly briefly bills fans thought was their next franchise quarterback disaster. I mean, it took a long time and the Tyrod Taylor, that's kind of the closest

you get to a Vikings. This quarterback semi comes out of nowhere, but Tyrod Taylor wasn't good. There were arguments. I remember when I was in Buffalo, there were arguments I remember when I was in Buffalo there were arguments about Tyrod Taylor and is he the guy and all this stuff it's like friends friends no I mean just no like he's a he's a really great backup and he's a heck of a competitor and I had a ton of respect for Tyrod Taylor great career for a guy who was picked in the sixth round but he's a 500 quarterback at best. Uh, and he was loved because of that. Cause the bar was so low, but I mean, the Vikings have five, six quarterbacks who are better than the best one. Oh, I even forgot the Drew Bledsoe. What a mess that was. Drew Bledsoe lost on the final game of the season to, I believe Mike Tomczak and the backups of the Pittsburgh Steelers to miss the

playoffs and never made the playoffs as a bill. I mean, just, just hideous, hideous, hideous, hideous stuff for the bills. So good for them. They've got their franchise quarterback and it looks like that's going to be a thing for a long time. But even though the Vikings have never had their franchise guy since Tarkington, never truly had it. Uh, you have to love those pop-up seasons. I didn't even mention case case Keenum popping up. Sam Bradford was pretty good in his pop-up season. So they've had that year after year after year. And maybe, maybe that tells you a little something about the impact of great receivers on quarterback play. We should think about that. Okay, this comes from, let's see here.

At Vikesfan1930, fans only question if Kirk Cousins can't produce or misses the playoffs. Do you see them moving on from him regardless of the cap or relationship? I feel like at some point you have to go the rookie QB route. Yeah. I think what it comes down to for cousins is if they miss the playoffs this year, then they draft a quarterback. It's really not a complicated formula. And if they make the playoffs and lose in the first round at like nine and eight, then they draft a quarterback. Anything from that bar down, they do. It becomes more complicated if they make the playoffs and win a playoff game at like 11 and six or 10 and seven, because that means you've had a pretty darn good season and you want to

play off game. And we know the kind of excitement that goes along with that and that the Wilfs were convinced to keep Mike Zimmer, Rick Spielman, and Kirk Cousins after winning in New Orleans. So I think that they would keep Cousins through 2023 for that, try to load up the roster more and take another shot at it, at repeating what happened this year and then some. But at some point, yes, of course they have to go the rookie quarterback route just based on the age of Kirk Cousins. By the end of his contract, he'll be 35. And so, you know, if you were going to try to go into another contract from him,

you're talking about age 36, 37, 38. At some point, you have to draft a quarterback in there. It just really depends on the way that he performs in this Kevin O'Connell offense. If nothing is different and they finish with the 12th best offense and it's the same ups and downs and it's a 500 or below record, you're very much looking at drafting a quarterback in the first round. And really if you draft, Oh, I don't know, 10th,

12th, you could trade up and, and get another court, you know, get a higher quarterback. If there's teams that are not looking to pick a quarterback at the top, I mean, there's going to be a lot of options, but his future really rests on this year.

And I should mention that they can move out of Kirk Cousins contract for not an insane amount of money. That's an important part of the formula here. I believe it's 17 or $18 million dead cap. So it's not like, Oh, if they trade them, they're going to have to eat his entire contract for 2023. And I've mentioned before that I'm really uncertain about that. No trade clause. We never got details'm really uncertain about that no trade clause we never got details about what exactly kind of no trade cause that is um which makes me think that it's possible that they could still move them also if you draft a quarterback and say we're pretty much done with you kirk i mean who's going to want to stick around there anyway at that point uh okay

let's move on to another question. Let me get some Diet Dr. Pepper in me here. You know, these go 45, 50 minutes. A couple of swigs of Diet Dr. P, I mean, that'll get you through easy. Folks, that is S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. Use the promo code Purple Insider for 15% off your purchase. It is summertime. It's baseball season. They have all sorts of great Minnesota baseball gear. And if you are prepping for training camp, get your Purple People Eaters shirt,

your Can't Stop the Thielen hat, and all sorts of other great football designs. Go there. Soda stick.com S O T A S T I C K.com promo code purple insider for 15% off. Uh, okay, here we go from Dustin five, five, two, two. Is there a specific athlete or a team that influenced you most to become a sports writer and dedicate your life to it? You know what, Dustin? My life is dedicated to love, joy, people, really. No, mostly football, honestly. And taking care of my dog, basically. Those are my entire life things.

I only do like four things. I play guitar. I play chess. I take care of the dog and I write and talk about football. Those are all the things I do in my entire universe. Uh, probably because I'm just not that interesting outside of football. Is there a specific athlete or team that influenced me to become a sports writer? No, I don't think so. Um, I think, I mean, so as a little kid, my dad loved sports. I mean, sports were on TV all the time, even though for some reason we didn't have cable as a kid growing up, but the morning paper, the sports section would be pulled out specifically for me, for my dad. He would read it every day. And every NBA finals, every World Series, he was my little league coach. Every playoff game, every Bills game, every Super Bowl. I mean, everything on TV when I was growing up and I had sports illustrated and football digest and baseball digest and baseball cards. And I played Madden and video like this has just always been me.

But I did not know that I was going to be a football writer or even in the sports industry. Really from that time, that wasn't really my goal as a kid. There are some people who as a kid, they'll say, oh, you know, I, I want to be a play-by-play broadcaster or something. And that's all I've ever wanted. Now. I mean, I did have interest in it because I enjoyed, you know, John Madden, Pat Summerall, Bob Costas. And I had kind of had that thought that maybe doing this type of thing would be in my wheelhouse. So I used to play video games and I would do the play-by-play for the video games and stuff like that. So it's always kind of been there, but it wasn't until I was in my third year of college. So initially I went to college

for sports management because I thought I want to be the GM. And what I found out, and I'm sure if any of you took sports management in college, you fully understand what I'm talking about, is that most of those positions, unless you went to a very highly, you know, considered university, which I did not. But shout out Brockport Golden Eagles, though, a great university for me, but and Finger Lakes Community College, but not generally a path from there to the GM office. So what a lot of people in that major ended up doing was they would go into like ticket sales or PR or something like that. And I wanted to argue with people about

sports more than anything. Um, so in the sports management classes, I would just be arguing with people and debating about sports. And so when I finished up community college, I thought, you know, journalism is probably the way to go for me and I should kind of get into this. And I, and I wanted to write, but I eventually got an internship with radio and sort of just rode the wave from there. Um, but that's kind of how I ended up getting into it. I don't think there was ever a specific team or a specific athlete that made me say, yeah, I just want to, I want to be around this all the time. But when I was growing up, I did have some great teams to watch. I mean, first I wasn't a huge Jordan fan because I liked the New York Knicks, but I was right in the dead middle of Michael Jordan's prime and the comeback and we're in number 45, all that great drama. And the New York Knicks were at the peak

of their history. I just bought a book from Chris Herring about the nineties Knicks. Um, the New York Yankees, they were the local team finger quote for where I grew up. So they were on TV a lot. So I got to see, you know, Jeter and Bernie Williams and Roger Clemens and all those things. David Cohn. There was a lot of great sports going on when I was growing up. And I have said before on Twitter, if you follow me on there, that, I mean, you just can't top the nineties for football for how incredible it was during that time. You know, you had John Elway and, you know, Jim Kelly was in Buffalo and all those things. So I was really given a great sports atmosphere to immerse myself entirely in. And that's basically how I've been forever.

So a fun question. Yeah, I would, I would say probably those teams, if you're talking about, uh, which ones made me really love sports, it was probably all the things that were going on basically between like 1992 and 1998 it was a good time to be alive so thanks for that one dustin all right next one this comes from ts viking on twitter reckless idea remembering garrett bradbury's immaculate reception and the dismal packers game and Patrick Ricard's big plays against the Vikings. Is it too soon to start thinking of a position change? No offense to CJ ham. That's funny. Um, yes. Yeah. I mean, moving from a center to a fullback is probably

not a very lucrative move for Garrett Bradbury. Uh, let's just see how it plays out. I don't have a lot of confidence that it's going to be different. He doesn't look different. Not that I expected him to, as far as his size goes. I don't know that this offense does anything so differently that would help a center that is that undersized. And they're going to play some big guys pretty fast early in the season. We'll see if it's any different. I don't suspect it will be it at some point. And it's probably three to four years in with any rookie. You're just like, that's who the guy is. And now I mentioned tight ends every once in a while a tight end surprises and develops but aside from that normally you are who you are by your age and let's also keep in mind i mentioned

age something that makes it extra crazy in hindsight and probably should have at the time that garrett bradbury was their first round pick if If I gave you a guess right now, how old's Garrett Bradbury? Third year NFL player going into his fourth season. I don't think you'd say 27, 27 years old, Garrett Bradbury. I don't think that's changing. He probably won't end up with a position change, but he is a really good athlete. And that's the unfortunate part is it's just this one issue with him that the size and the strength, unless you are Tom Nalen or Olin Krutz or one of those guys where you are just

a vicious, nasty human being with unbelievable technique. If you are not that guy and you're undersized as a center, you're just getting crushed. And this was probably a mistake of the Vikings being a little behind the times when it came to this saying, Oh no, it'll be fine with this undersized center. And it hasn't been, so, you know, we'll keep an eye on it, but it's not something I'm looking at and saying, Oh, well, this is the guy to watch for this year. Last year was the year where if it was going to change,

it was going to change. But I don't think if I was his agent that I would suggest moving to become a fullback. All right. This comes from at Pat the Pingu on Twitter. I'm always hoping that none of these Twitter names mean anything gnarly. So I don't know what that means, but maybe that's your last name.

So, hey, Matt, huge fan of the show. Thank you. Fans only question. We've had some first round draft blunders from 2016 to 2019. I like the chess terminology of blunder. Which available player from those years drafts would have made the biggest impact on the team and might've helped propel us to a Superbowl appearance. I don't know that any of them would have helped propel you to a Superbowl appearance,

but I would say if you think about, well, okay, let's just go through them one by one. And if they had worked out, cause I assume you're meaning not who they could have drafted because had they drafted Lamar Jackson, maybe you're talking about that possibility. But let's say just based on who they picked. 2017, they picked nobody, so that hurt a lot. If you had picked somebody, then who knows who that could have been. But in 2016 with Laquan Treadwell if you

think about uh Laquan Treadwell and what he became which was a well below average number three wide receiver versus the upside of what he was supposed to be and how good the Vikings would have been with three great wide receivers. You've seen it before in Jake Reed, Chris Carter, and Randy Moss. They could have had a three deep. I think it's him because I mean, even in 2017, they had to go to Jarius Wright, who everybody likes and respects, but Jarius Wright is a sort of a veteran solid wide receiver, but he's not a star. If Laquan Treadwell had become a star, you could run shotgun three wide receiver, throw it all over the yard. Kirk Cousins steps in and gets that as opposed to what it was.

Uh, Kendall Wright who just got cut immediately. I mean, uh, you know, if he becomes a star, I think that's a big deal. I don't know that the upside of Garrett Bradbury makes that big of a difference. I know that a lot of the pressure came up the middle, but the guard position has also been so poor. And if we think it's a weak link system, then, well, I don't know that Bradbury succeeding would have made that big of a difference. I would say the cornerbacks who went bust,

not having corners of these last two years has been a huge deal. Mike Hughes alone couldn't have done it, but Mike Hughes and Jeff Gladney, I, it feels a little inappropriate to talk about somebody who's passed away as a bust, but the reality is he did not become what they wanted him to be. Maybe you are talking about a different outcome because the secondary was such a huge problem over the last few years. But I don't know that those guys were the difference between a Super Bowl. Laquan Treadwell is the one that probably has the biggest swing there. So that's a good question.

But yeah, there's not a lot of success. And I think that part of that is just where you draft ends up making a big difference as opposed to who you go with. But picking a center in the first round and then even going with a tight end in the second round, who is the number two tight end for the first two years of his career, those are not great decisions that the Vikings made in the draft. And that's why premium positions get talked about so much. So thanks for that question.

That's a good one. All right. This comes from at heinous canis. Oh, nine again. Always just hoping that that is just your name or something that sounds funny and not an internet joke that I don't get. All right, Matthew, I have another fans only question. If the Vikings would have won the Super Bowl when they got there first, how many Super Bowls total would we have in Minnesota? Oh, you mean like back in the sixties and seventies? Uh, the actual question

is whether the tragic history of this franchise prevented the team to win the Superbowl in the past when they got close, but ultimately fell short. It's also more of a joke question. Uh, do fans have to earn the title of friend of the show? Oh, uh, what do fans have to do to earn the title of friends of the show? I'm a happy Vikings fan. Um, uh, let's see. I'm, I'm happy that the Vikings made you stay here to cover the team when COVID hit. It was an interesting story you shared on a previous episode. I always enjoy listening to the show, especially when you invite people from PFF. Well, thank you very much. Um, the Vikings didn't make me stay necessarily. Uh, they gave me the opportunity to stay by making sure I could still be credentialed

and cover the team inside the building. So that's what I have great appreciation. It's really Minnesota that made me stay. Um, you all know this, or if you're expatriates of Minnesota, you know what it's like here. And I want to be here and I didn't want to go anywhere else or do any other job. So I'm very appreciative of that title of friend of the show usually comes from, well, one, if someone is a subscriber to the newsletter, purpleinsider.com, click on any of the articles and you can go there and become a subscriber. So if you're a subscriber, I'll probably recognize you, especially if you're a founding member. Or if you just tweet me a lot, then I'll call you a friend of the show.

So that's all you have to do. But don't tweet me too much. Then you'll be a crazy person. To your point, does the tragic history matter? You know, I don't think so. I've never really bought that, uh, because there are always teams all the time who are bucking their tragic histories to win, uh, whether it's the Chicago Cubs or the Boston Red Sox or the New Orleans saints. Like there's a lot of teams who have gone through a lot of things that once they get the right players, it happens. And I don't think that, you know, the kickers from the past got in

the head of Dan Bailey or, um, you know, anything like that. I don't, I don't think whatever happened in the past somehow, you know, leaks into thena of the current players and coaches and everything else so if fran tarkington had won that you know that's going to impact her cousins like i i don't think that that's the case but you know if there is something to it it's probably this that you know the the fan base when you win is a little more i don't't want to say forgiving, but a little more presumptive that things might go their way like this fan base. And you know how I feel about you all, but sometimes on Sundays, my gosh, folks, I mean, it'll be the third play of the game and Kirk cousins will check down to CJ ham and people on Twitter will just melt.

Here we go again. The other team scores. It's seven to nothing. Oh, my gosh. We're going to blow this. And look, I don't blame you because, you know, history says that maybe you're right. But there is a reactiveness to everything and a desperation to actually win one from the fan base that puts a lot of pressure on the team. But I think that with social media, every team feels this, all the players, all the

time, they always hear it from their fans. And I'm not sure that, you know, there's any, you know, thing that I could connect to say history made them do it more More than anything, it's that they've just never drafted Peyton Manning. I mean, I was just looking this up today. Here's for anybody who says QB wins isn't a stat. I present you with Peyton Manning. The Indianapolis Colts from 1977 to 1997 won 10 games zero times from 1999 to 2010 they won 10 or more games every year except one Peyton Manning folks they had a pretty bad history before that I mean you know okay Johnny Unitas but like for a long time Jeff George Sean Salisbury was there once. Like they just had a pretty ugly history.

Jim Harbaugh, Paul Justin. And then all of a sudden they get Peyton Manning and it all goes away. They would have told you that they were the most tortured over the previous 20 years. And then all of a sudden they got their guy. I think that's what it is for the Vikings that when you have these quarterbacks who come in and out, they can have pop-up seasons, but it's not sustainable. So if you don't win in that one season, then you end up with some not so great years after that. And you don't get the number of swings at it that a team like the Packers or the Colts would have had. But I think it's a fun question. And there are probably some people who would

think that, and maybe, I don't know, you'd have to ask some players, like if that ever gets into their head, they always say no, but maybe, um, maybe if, I don't know, maybe if it was off the record, they would admit that hearing about the history all the time, uh, wears down on them. But I think it's more of just circumstance circumstance and that's why when people say we'll never win one it'll never happen it's like well you're always either one really random year away or you're always one quarterback away from those possibilities so let me uh buzz through a few more here great question from a friend of the show if that is what you want no really appreciate uh all the support this comes uh trey via email fans only question would you have been a fan

if the vikings made a trade like chicago to draft justin fields last year and how would that look going into this year differently from if the, uh, if Justin Fields was the quarterback of the Vikings only saying this because I was a huge fan of trading up for fields last year. Well, I think that we would look at fields a lot different if he had been here rather than there, because regardless of the guard situation, get it regardless anybody no uh i feel your laughter okay so they didn't have great guards they had justin jefferson adam thielen for most of the season delvin cook in the backfield good tight end in tyler conklin a good offensive system overall wasn't play called perfectly but a good offensive system overall we would have been saying better things about Justin Fields. He was with one of the worst

coaches and one of the worst offensive lines and one of the worst sets of wide receivers. Allen Robinson did not want to play. I think he landed on just a horrendous situation and had it been better, we, I think are talking about all the high-end stuff that he showed. He still would have held onto the ball too long. He still would have had too many sacks, but the upside would have been shown more, especially with play actions and bootlegs. They just weren't using these things in Chicago because they were insane because Matt Nagy was just bad at his job. And, you know, if you're a great quarterback and your coach does not come up with an awesome system, okay, well, you could probably overcome that. But if you're a rookie who has flaws in

his game and you give him no offensive line, you're running out of the shotgun. You don't have receivers who are getting open. I mean, it's a very difficult spot for him. And he was probably played a little too early in a reactionary type of way. Um, so the Vikings would have had to, no, they would have sat him. If they had trade up for Justin Fields, Kirk Cousins still would have been the quarterback and they would have sat him. So, you know, I guess we wouldn't know unless they had traded cousins right before the season. I didn't think of that. But if they had drafted fields, he would have sat for a year and he'd be going in this year and it would be pandemonium about Justin Fields. Yes, I would have very much supported the idea

of them drafting Justin Fields. And at this point right here, you talk about most exciting franchises in the NFL. If they had traded cousins and Justin Fields was at this point right here you talk about most exciting franchises in the NFL if they had traded cousins and Justin Fields was coming in with Justin Jefferson Adam Thielen and the like you would have been saying I mean this is this is the next whatever like Mahomes or Rogers situation where the guy sits and steps in and look at all his talent and let's track every single pass in training camp. It would have, look, he might've not worked out, but it would have been super fun for this off season to talk about everything, Justin Fields and where he was going. And by the way, the Vikings

would have been able to spend a lot of money in free agency. So there would have also been that, uh, as well. If they had traded away cousins, they could have improved a lot of things about the roster around the quarterback. So yes, I think that would have been a decidedly better situation, even if I'm unsure of what Justin Fields is going to be. That's a good question. I did not think about that and how close they came to trading for Justin Fields. All right, let's get in one more here. This comes from at D Shepik. Fans only podcast question here. You get one current or former Viking

to have an unfiltered conversation with. They will answer any questions you ask truthfully. Who do you choose? And what is your first question? For me, it's probably having Zim's unfiltered response to how he feels about Kirk. But my Vikings history isn't that strong. So based on recent memory, that will do for me. Okay, well, so here's the thing about Zimmer's unfiltered response.

I think you know it and I know it, right? Do you want me to pretend to be Mike Zimmer? I can tell you, I think, with a pretty strong amount of certainty, what Mike Zimmer thought of Kirk Cousins. I don't think that Mike Zimmer believed Cousins wasn't good. Sorry for the double negative. Okay, I'll do it the right way grammatically. I think that Zimmer thought Cousins't good. Sorry for the double negative. Okay. I'll do it the right way. Grammatically. I think that Zimmer thought cousins was good at football, but I think it

drove him absolutely crazy that he wasn't the same type of leader as a Teddy Bridgewater. I think that's what it is because no matter who you are as a coach, at some point, this goes back to when I was covering the American hockey league and I was talking to their coach, a guy by the name of Chad Cassidy, who's a great guy. And I learned a ton from, and he said, we were talking about some strategy or whatever. And he said, look, here's how sports works. I can coach up a lot of things. I can develop players. I can help them become the best versions of themselves.

And I can strategize and I can out strategize the other coach and all those things. But if I'm ever going to win a championship, I need some player to do something absolutely incredible. I need somebody to break the game and just win it. Like, you know, Nathan McKinnon won the Stanley Cup. I need that guy to, I need a great player to make a great play at the biggest times. And for Zimmer, if I had to guess what he would say in an unfiltered conversation, which I think I could put together a decent guess,

that would be what he would say in an unfiltered conversation, which I think I could put together a decent guess. That would be what he'd say is I just didn't get that play enough. The great player making a great play to bail out the coach. And, uh, we were just talking about Peyton Manning. I mean, Tony Dungy, the narrative was he couldn't win the big one. Gets Peyton Manning, wins the big one. I don't know. Like, that's coaching. So, anyway, if I could pick one. I mean, Zimmer I've got a lot of other questions about. I mean, what happened with Norv? I asked him once. He didn't tell me. But he said it would be in the book.

I'm looking forward to whenever the book is coming out. But, you know, I think it's just hard not to pick Randy Moss, right? Like he's just the most interesting person to ever play for this franchise. What he accomplished, how difficult his background is. He's a very smart human being. Everybody who knows him knows how intelligent he is. And we've seen a lot of that as him as a broadcaster that's come out. But man, an hour with Randy Moss where he's just going to tell the truth and tell all

the stories, that would be super interesting. That's probably the top of my list. He's passed away, but Denny Green would be a fascinating guy to talk with, especially since, you know, the ownership back in the day was not great. And, you know, he drafts Randy Moss and all those things. He would be on my list of people to talk with. Stefan Diggs, you know, I mean, the thing about Stefan Diggs is early in his career, I had a lot of conversations with Stefan Diggs in the locker room,

but, you know, then things got complicated. And so there were less, and he's a very earnest guy and he seemed like he was telling a lot of the truth in that ESPN interview, but an unfiltered Stefan Diggs conversation would really be something. Um, but you know, the, the amazing thing, and they don't, of course, I'm not saying they tell everything that's going on. The amazing thing that I have found from covering the league is just how open a lot of people are. There are certainly a lot of players who aren't, there are certainly things that they cover up and that they don't tell you. And look, you never, you don't know these guys like off the field. You don't really know them by covering them. You know what they are in the context of the football team. Uh, but you know, as far as the stuff with the

football goes, a lot of it is, you know, a lot of it's kind of out there. A lot of it is, you know, having talked with Jeremiah Searles on the show many times about things that happened in 2016 is like, yeah,, remember when that happened or that happened and you guys just told us about it. And it was like, yeah, that, uh, a lot of times it's like that. So that's a really good question. Um, but I think that if I were picking anybody, but Moss, it's probably a mistake. Um, but I'd be interested in, in any of the, any feedback on that, any of the nominations that you would have.

So anyway. All right. Well, thank you all for another fun episode of fans only here as always, uh, purple insider.com contact us at the top right corner, go right to me or Twitter at Matthew collar, just hashtag it or whatever. Just say fans only and on the Twitter DM. So they're always open and fire away. Thanks a lot, guys.