Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Reacting to an all-time great Super Bowl and what the Vikings can take from it

Episode Date: February 13, 2023

Matthew Coller and Paul Hodowanic react to the Kansas City Chiefs winning the Super Bowl. A controversial ending, two incredible quarterback performances, two teams that were built smartly by their GMs... and what it all means to the Vikings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome into our Super Bowl reaction show here on Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, Paul Hodwanek will be joining shortly. The Kansas City Chiefs are your Super Bowl champions, 38-35, and so we've got a lot to get into. Probably starting with the end of the game and the penalty that was called on a play that maybe didn't look like it should be called in the Super Bowl and even was argued upon at the end by Greg Olson and Mike Pereira in the booth where they couldn't seem to decide whether they thought it was supposed to be a penalty or not. But I tend to lean toward what Greg Olson said, that it just didn't look like something that needed to be called at the very end of the game.

So we have one of the most epic Super Bowls of all time, two incredible performances by two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. If there's any question about whether Jalen Hurts can throw the football, I think we found out the answer to that, that Jalen Hurts is not only a complete quarterback, but was incredibly good in this game. Third downs all over the place. He ran the ball effectively, made one big miscue that turned out to be super costly

and did get the Kansas City Chiefs back in the game with the momentum, but overall could not have asked for a better performance from Jalen Hurts to put his name in that echelon of the elite quarterbacks if you had any doubts if he could be that guy and if he could sling the ball over the field and win a game with his arm. And it's really unfortunate that he did not get a chance to give it a try at the end of the game. And of course, already I'm seeing in the comments section and on Twitter and social media that there's a lot of people who are going to say, looks like the NFL wanted Patrick Mahomes to win the Super Bowl. But I also think if you were writing up the script, you would have had a potential game-winning drive by Jalen Hurts after an instant classic.

So there's two minds of this game. There's one to talk about just how amazing this was. Back and forth, Patrick Mahomes tweaks the ankle, finds space and running room in the final drive to get a first down and set them up within field goal position. Second half of the game, Andy Reid, absolutely genius. Patrick Mahomes on the mark with all of his throws. The two teams trading blows like prize fighters, just beautiful football. But there's this other side of it that, you know, the NFL doesn't ever seem to really care that it kind of mars their product, which is what's a catch. We got to play that a handful of times is a catch a fumble, or what do you need to do to catch the ball and then make football moves and then have the football knocked out first,

or can you catch it at the same time and have it fumbled? And as an enjoyer of the Super Bowl recaps from NFL films that play every year in between the end of the championship games and the Super Bowl, there are so many fumbles that would have been fumbles, catches that would have been catches in a game like this. And also, I think the NFL has some answering to do about what happened with the turf. I saw a bunch of articles about how it cost $800 million or something for the NFL to put in this super grown technological grass into that stadium. And yet it had an impact on the game that players were sliding all over the place.

We saw it on offense and defense, and it reminded me of 2015 with the Panthers against the Broncos, where Denver had a significant advantage. I didn't think that in this game it hurt or helped one team more than the other, but this is the biggest game in the NFL, and you're not even sure if the grass works. Like if that's not the most Roger Goodell era NFL stuff I've ever heard, I don't know what is. And of course coming down to a penalty at the end of the game also seems like Roger Goodell era NFL that the rules have been so over litigated. And look, there was an emphasis this year,

like it or not on holding and cornerbacks got called a lot this year for holds that were just like that. So there is a part of me that says, I guess if that's what the guy did, then you need to make that call. And I don't believe in the idea that, oh, well, it's the end of the game, so you can't make that call. I just don't think they got it right. I can see why maybe the referee thought that there was a hold there because the jersey was grabbed ever so slightly. But to me, it just did not meet the standard of what was necessary to make that call at that time. And it robbed us of who knows what after that. I mean, we could have had potential overtime. We could have had a Jalen Hurts potential game winning

drive if they get into the end zone. And we saw Hurts go down the field multiple times in this game. So I wouldn't have even counted that out, that that would have been a possibility if the Chiefs kick a field goal there, that Philadelphia goes down and they would have had plenty of time. They would have had around two minutes to go all the way down the field and score. And instead it ends with Kansas City winning the Super Bowl. But you also can't take anything away from Kansas City in this game. It was 24 to 14. They're coming out of halftime, and they need to get rolling, and they score a couple of touchdowns on just great drives all around. Patrick Mahomes was great.

They ran the football well. The offensive line of the Kansas City Chiefs needs a ton of credit for this game. I mean, they're showing the graphics of 70 sacks from the Eagles. It's the third most in history next to those Bears teams from the mid-80s. That's how dominant the Philadelphia Eagles defensive line had been. And yet in the second half of the game, Patrick Mahomes, even on his bum ankle, was extremely well protected. All sorts of guys came through for them. Juju Smith-Schuster, who they picked up for not very much money

and allowed Tyreek Hill to go in a trade to Miami. So Juju comes in, makes plays in this game, and helps get them the win. So, I mean, a lot of team-building stuff that really showed up in this game from both teams. How about another one, another like low key move, picking up Kadarius Tony for the Kansas City Chiefs. This is something that they have loved doing in recent years, which is, oh, your bust first round draft pick. You don't want them anymore. We'll give them a try. And you know what? It doesn't always work, but it certainly worked this time. Kadarius Toney with a huge punt return

that set up a touchdown for Kansas City. So, you know, I think that it's right to say that this might be a Super Bowl where the MVP played for the team that lost. And of course, he's not going to get named the MVP, but Jalen Hurts played as well as you could possibly play. It was not a defensive matchup by any means that both defenses got shredded by great offenses, but ultimately Philadelphia made a few more mistakes than Kansas City did. I mean, this was as even of a Super Bowl as we have ever seen. And I think this was reflected in the matchup. It was reflected in Vegas before the game that there wasn't one team that was majorly favored. I think the picks were pretty well split and that was

right. You had the complete team of Philadelphia, Jalen Hurts playing extremely well. You had Mahomes banged up a little bit and maybe some parts of that Kansas City defense weren't as strong as we saw in the secondary several times on big plays by Philadelphia. But it was a battle that on paper looked like it was going to be close. It looked like it was going to be a dream to watch. And for 98% of that game, it was. And the way that it ended, I think, takes a little wind out of the sails, because I think if you time in terms of entertainment value, but a fumble by Jalen Hurts and a pot return by Kadarius Toney, those are the small differences that result in the Kansas City Chiefs being your Super Bowl champions. So now we will bring in my usual

Sunday broadcast partner, Paul Hodowanek. Paul, the Super Bowl just came to an end. And of course, people now talking about the referees again. What is your take on the way that that ended? Yeah, I mean, it's just a really, really unfortunate way for a game like that to end, right? I mean, just one of the all-time Super Bowls that I can remember, at least in my lifetime, watching just two offenses going blow for blow. And the Eagles offense really couldn't be stopped all day long and for it to come down to kind of a ticky tack foul I think maybe by the textbook that's a play you call you see the jersey rip you can see kind of why the ref called that in that instance but in that moment you're saying why why does this game have

to come down to that they let them play for most of that game, really, through all the hand fighting that I saw. There were not many flags thrown on this day. So for that to be called in that moment is just really unfortunate. I don't if if that was me, I let that go and I let them play. I don't want that to be how you decide a Super Bowl like that. But the refs have had quite the influence on this season. So if we're talking about narratives and storylines, the fact that the refs had a major, major impact on how that game ended

kind of goes in keeping with the season. But I think just generally just a really kind of, it's a buzzkill way for that game to end because maybe the Chiefs still win that. But to not really give the Eagles a chance when they earned it based on that third down, it's a really, really spot uh for the eagles and if i was an eagles fan i am understandably upset at that call but you know at the end of the day those are just the things that kind of happen in this game of football and all those things need to break right for you to win a super bowl and they broke right for the kansas city chiefs and that's really when we

think about it long term that's all we're going're going to remember is the Chiefs winning this one and Mahomes elevating again in the face of an injury for his second Super Bowl in five years to be one of the best quarterbacks after just that short period of time. Like so many storylines. But yeah, I think just disappointment that that had to happen in that moment. That's not how, I don't think anyone wants that game to end like that. Yeah, I think that Minnesota Vikings fans who are watching do not have any sympathy

whatsoever for the Philadelphia Eagles losing a big game on a bad call, potentially. I mean, I'm sure that we'll get 100 referees who come out on Twitter and review it. And Dean Blandino will be out there doing his review and everybody else will be talking about it. And it will be one of the top debate topics, which I think is where it's most unfortunate. And if you go through history and you go through all the Super Bowls, there have been dozens and dozens and dozens of controversial calls that have shaped Super Bowls. It's not that new that this would happen. But I think that for me, it was just more

about what could have been for an ending. I mean, we could have been talking about overtime. We could have been talking about a legendary Jalen Hurts throw when he already made a number of legendary throws. I mean, his pass on third down and long to Dallas Goddard. Several downfield Goddard, just right on a string. I mean, there was just one play after the next in this game that really showed off all of the talent and skill that Jalen Hurts has as a quarterback, that Patrick Mahomes has, and I just didn't want it to end. And I also, like, I think that when we do the reviews, we're going to see some different angles of the play and probably come away with saying, all right, well, you know, maybe he did grab him a little bit more than we thought,

or a little bit more than they showed on the initial review as, as the two guys in the booth were arguing with each other. But at the same time, if there's any debate on that, then how does that end up getting called? I mean, I don't know if it's close at all. I mean, it's very possible that the referee thought when he saw the throw, because they said like, oh, the flag comes out. It kind of sounded like the flag came out as the ball was like hitting the ground. As he realized, the referee, how much that contact had impacted where the receiver was going to be. And that's an argument that maybe I would buy into if the referee, which they never answer for these. And if they do the pool thing where a pool reporter,

one reporter talks to the referee, I'm sure he'll just say, yep, that's what that call is there for. And again, it was a point of emphasis for the league that they wanted this to be called. So that is a key point that they wanted that to be called. And it was called a lot this year, a lot more than it was last year. But I think that that might be the thinking of the referee is, oh man, that contact that he had, that kept that receiver from getting that football that he might've caught a touchdown. So I've got to make this call, but either way, I'm not going to argue with anybody who's disappointed at that, or who says that that did not meet the standard of a call that you should make in the Superbowl where it's got to be really, really discerning. But if you start going down the rabbit hole of refereeing on just about anything, Paul, it's like, well, was there no holding penalties in this entire game?

All the great defensive players that played in this game, all the passes that were thrown, not a single person committed a holding penalty. That's the NFL for you. I thought that of anything, the turf issue was way more embarrassing for the NFL to have guys sliding around like crazy like that and that's where this amazing Super Bowl Paul is just kind of marred with these other elements that we're going to end up talking about for a long time yeah I mean the playing field was a disgrace like all around from the jump you saw players switching cleats you saw just visible markings on the field you're players switching cleats you saw just visible markings on the field you're seeing after the halftime show people are going to pick up

all the like uh bits of field that had got chewed up by the halftime show like just bad bad bad and it's even worse considering the nfl kind of rolled out this whole pr campaign about the grass you saw tons of articles on espn and all the major outlets talking about how they spent two years growing this grass. And it was this special blend to hold up for a week of rehearsals and practice and halftime show and play on the field. And then you're just watching A.J. Brown slip all over the place. You're watching Isaiah Pacheco slip all over the place. You're watching screens that could maybe go for eight yards or going for two yards because the guy's slipping. And you're seeing guys just visibly upset about the playing surface and that is just

not what you want on this biggest stage of the game i was i read that re-read that espn article as things were happening today and they called the the previous turf that was on the field at that arizona stadium state of the art uh yet they took that state of the art turf out to put in turf that was only going to come in for this one game and then it did that it's just it's a bad look for the nfl and it's just again another unfortunate wrinkle to this game and what was an otherworldly performance from jalen hertz another worldly performance from patrick mahomes some great plays on special teams a great defensive play like tons and tons of things can be overshadowed by that. But I mean, biggest game of the year, how are you messing up the grass type, especially after you're just touting and kind of flaunting how you had done so great with this surface?

You spoke a little soon because boy, that was a disaster out there. No, it was. And there's no excuse for that. I mean, especially like you guys have how many grass fields and you can't figure out how to put grass in the stadium. But my understanding is it's been an issue all season long with that place and the grass. And it kind of reminded me of like Lambeau in January or, you know, Soldier Field late in the season. but that's because those are outdoors. I mean, there were people that were talking about like, oh, is this the NFL trying to make sure they get to keep turf because it's cheaper in some of these stadiums as the players want to have natural grass? I don't know about all that. I just know that that's unacceptable for a game of this caliber, but I don't want to spend hours talking about the grass and the call

at the end has to be discussed. But there's a lot more to talk about here, including how this all connects to the Minnesota Vikings, which we'll kind of get to. But I want to just kind of go through this game. And I thought that Philadelphia started out so well that I thought I was going to be bemoaning the fact that Andy Reid decided to kick a 42-yard field goal rather than go for it on fourth and three. But then, interestingly enough, Nick Ceriani, who has been one of the absolute best, like the gold standard of decision makers, he called a bad timeout in the second half that ended up costing him at the end with this

because had they not blown a timeout, and it was on a third down, they went up to the line of scrimmage, the clock was counting down, and this is a well-known situation that you should just take the penalty. And they did it once and converted a first down on that amazing Dallas Goddard catch

and yet the second time as the the play clock was counting down they called timeout took everybody off the field got a short completion and and wasted a timeout that is a really big deal it's one of the I think most underrated things you can do as a coach is just make that decision that probably five yards is going to be better. And Sirianni usually does that, but it was like in the biggest moment, he thought that he needed to call a timeout and either change the play call based on the look or make sure they didn't get the five yard penalty. And so even with a matchup like this, the slightest mistakes, the slightest coaching decisions ended up playing into it. And that's why

I think this was one of the better Super Bowls that we've ever seen. I'm not going to declare it the best ever because there's just so many that are all-time classics. But I mean, I thought that that element of it is what you kind of dream of for a Super Bowl is where you can have these like minuscule things that have ripple effects and end up playing into it at the end because they could have survived that bad penalty had they not used the timeout and still had a final drive, but instead Kansas City was able to just run it out. Yeah, I mean, it's made especially more puzzling considering I think the Eagles were 11 for 18 on third downs just

very very efficient on those downs they were converting I think there was a third and 14 conversion a third and 11 conversion a third and nine conversion in there like they were converting on those third and longs when you'd think Steve Spagnuolo would kind of pin his ears back and send that defense like those were the downs the Chiefs wanted to get into those third and mediums third and longs where they can really get kind of confusing with their fronts, how many, how much pressure they're bringing. And all day long, Hurts was for the most part, dissecting that in every way possible. So you're thinking, okay, they lose another five yards. Like that doesn't put this out of the question at all.

They have AJ Brown, they have Devante Smith, they have Dallas Goddard, all that were forces at different points in this game. And you have Jalen Hurts with his running ability, and he showed that several times today. Like you have so many different options and then you have a fourth down kind of like attitude that anytime you get within like fourth and three, you're going to go for it. Like at that point, you kind of just want to take you do want to take the delay game and see what you got. And especially with an offense that you have right there. And so, you know, I don't know how much that, that could just be kind of a moment decision where he's like, God crap. Okay. I got to take a timeout.

Like those things are so instantaneous happening on the spot that it might not have been the ideal situation he wanted, but he had just used it one other time. And he's like, can we do it again? So I don't fault him there very much, but when you look at them out, when you broaden the scope and you say both offenses move the ball with efficiency and really the only things that this came down to were that punt a punt return right on that next play that got them right down into the red zone and then that fumble like we're talking about just the most kind of random of

random plays happening a punt return and a quarterback fumble. And that was really all that kept this Chiefs team in it because when the Eagles had the ball for the most part, they were just moving with ease and they were controlling the clock and they were just kind of dominating time of possession, not allowing Mahomes to get going, even though Mahomes, when he was out there, was playing really, really well. Like the Eagles were playing their game plan about to perfection.

Everything probably was going right, especially for them on that offensive side of the ball. And then that one punt happens, and that's all Patrick Mahomes needs. That's all he needs to create something, and you let him right back in that game. And I think we all kind of knew at that point. They have the punt. That punt could have been a fair catch. I think we still have the same thoughts in point they have the punt. They could have, that punt could have gone for, uh, that could have been a fair catch. I think we still have the same thoughts in mind about what Mahomes is about to go do. The punt obviously makes it so much easier that they are able to go and score that.

So it's just, when you get to these biggest games, it's taken so many breaks for you to get to this super bowl. You're the healthiest team in the NFL. You have all these things going for you in the Eagles, and it still just comes down to one fourth down punt. Like those are the margins in this thing. And it's just crazy that that happens because the Eagles, especially from a coaching standpoint, seem to kind of fire on all cylinders all season long. And in the biggest game, they punt and it comes back to bite them.

And that's just kind of the story of this thing. It's so close, so minute. And they just didn't turn up the Eagles way. They turned up the Chiefs way. They get the penalty late. Like that's just how these things break. Folks, I'm dealing with that lull that we all have when the holidays are over and football season ends.

So I decided to try something new. It's called AG1 by Athletic Greens. Well, I'm not the type to start taking pills or weird infomercial stuff, so I wanted to try something simple to get my health going in the right direction and give a boost of energy for all those off-season articles and podcasts that are on the way. AG1 covers all the nutritional needs that I have with 75 high-quality ingredients in just a single scoop mixed with water in the morning every day. If a comprehensive solution is what you need from your supplement routine,

then Athletic Greens is giving you a free one year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. Go to athleticgreens.com slash insider. That is athleticgreens.com slash insider. That is AthleticGreens.com slash insider. Check it out. And you did remind me that after that timeout call that really stuck out to me with Nick Sirianni, that they did kick a field goal instead of going for it on fourth down, which again, all season Philadelphia had been the most aggressive team. And the last time they won the Super Bowl they beat an all-time great quarterback by going for it on fourth down a bunch of times under Doug

Peterson and fourth and short there I mean was a little bit too far to do one of the QB sneaks but definitely not too far to throw it to someone like AJ Brown orontae Smith or Dallas Goddard. And it almost, you kind of got that little bit of a sense that Nick Siriano was like, oh, I got to make sure I get points here. That he kind of got a little bit scared in that moment because the way they were moving the football, I mean, there's really no excuse. I mean, that was one of the most dominant performances. And that's the crazy thing about Patrick Mahomes that we have to sort of stop and say is just the Philadelphia Eagles did so many things right in this football game. I mean, they absolutely dominated the offensive line where there was hardly any pressure on Jalen Hurts the entire day.

They created open wide receivers. held onto the ball for 17 plays in a single drive. And the drive that we're talking about that really needed to be finished off with a touchdown there, if they were going to have a chance to put the nail in the coffin, that was where it really felt like, okay, Kansas city is going to have a shot at this after they settled for a field goal there. If you're on the Kansas city sideline, you are just elated that they decided to kick the field goal there. Thank you so much

for keeping us in this game, because if you get three yards and go score a touchdown, it's going to be really hard for Kansas City to come back with the amount of time that they just dragged off of the clock and the fact that they would have taken even more time off. They would have had the longest drive in Super Bowl history if they had converted a fourth down there and decided to play a conservative. Now, that's no guarantee that they get it. I just think that if you're the team that's playing against Mahomes, you just can't slip at all. It just I think that this is what is always shown. I mean, San Francisco to San Francisco had him pinned down in the Super Bowl before and they let it slip.

They got a couple of balls knocked down at the line of scrimmage by Jimmy Garoppolo, and that was enough for Patrick Mahomes. The Buffalo game two years ago, like same thing. You let him up for just a moment. Right. That's 13 seconds. You let him up for 13 seconds, and he will make you pay like no player I think I've ever seen in NFL history. The only player that I think is like this in pro sports history had a commercial tonight.

And that is Michael Jordan. The only player that I've ever seen that if you let the slightest little bit go, you cannot finish, finish it off. Tom Brady probably has an argument for that with the 28 to three comeback and the Panthers kicking it out of bounds and the number of Super Bowls he won. But even at times, teams figured out how to finish games and stop him at the end where it just feels like if Mahomes has the ball, that there is no stopping him unless you have just completely put him away. And I don't see that changing for a long time.

All these great quarterbacks in the AFC, they probably feel like Roethlisberger and Manning felt every year with Brady, where it was like, we're the freaking best. And this guy keeps showing up. Well, that's going to be Patrick Mahomes. Because if he can, this is the crazy thing. If he can overcome this, I mean, without even having great wide receivers, they have draft capital from the Tyreek Hill thing.

Like Kansas City is the far and away favorite to win it again and to be back next year. But I think we should talk about just what this game says about the state of the NFL, other than A, they can't grow grass. And also that's, they aren't really sure what's a catch or what a penalty is, but that's always been true about the NFL. This isn't the first time we've dealt with this. There was just the reffing controversy two weeks ago on championship weekend. And there probably always will be some sort of reffing controversy, but I think that the big takeaway, if we, if we have to, which we kind of do after a Superbow, is that you need a quarterback who can

overcome things that happen. You can overcome the fact that Mahomes is matching you point for point, driving up and down the field if you're Jalen Hurts, and he showed that he could do that in this game. Or it was funny about the Robbie gold comment of all things, a kicker saying like, Oh, well, they just have to make him play quarterback. Well, he could play quarterback as you saw. He ran, he was mobile. He escaped the pocket a couple of times and made plays. Patrick Mahomes took off in a big situation, made plays. And of course has one of the great arms and most accurate arms in NFL history but the playmaking capability if we're tying this into the Vikings it's kind of right there in front of you

isn't it that when you need a quarterback to overcome something so often the Vikings have not had that guy and look I mean it's you look at that Giants game and the defense is horrendous just like both defenses tonight that just were giving up points all over the place. They could not stop these amazing offenses. But Patrick Mahomes finds a way and Philadelphia with Jalen Hurts finds a way to be right there at the end that if they don't call that penalty, there's a good chance they go win that game. This is what Super Bowl teams are going to look like probably for the rest of our

existence watching football. Great athletes playing quarterback with amazing physical capabilities that can make plays all over the field. That is not something the Minnesota Vikings have, and I don't know how they could watch the Super Bowl, and this kind of goes for some other teams around the NFL too. Teams that are interested in like Derek Carr or something. Like, is that really a, is that a decision you want to make? Like if you're Carolina, like, do you want, you know, do you want Derek Carr, Jimmy Garoppolo when these are the guys who are going toe to toe

in the Superbowl? I don't know how much it should influence decision-making like that, but I also don't know how you could watch this and think like, oh yeah, yeah, they can do all those same things. Yeah. I,

I, I don't know who would make the argument for that. And I think Jalen hurts looking at him. It's the argument for not always needing to take one in the top five or bust. It's it's take one. If you feel like if you're going to take one outside of that one, you need to make sure he's in a really,

really good scenario. And the Eagles very quickly last year, he looked questionable. So they said, how do we determine either he's the quarterback going forward or if we kind of feel like he is, but we need to maximize him, how do we do that? And they go out and sign AJ Brown and they make sure their offensive line is as good as it is. And they make sure they have a great scheme that works for the ways that Jalen Hurts works with.

And then you can understand, and it's reasonable to say, Hey, we don't need to be the first overall pick to say, to draft a quarterback that we feel like can take us there. It's all about situation we're seeing. And it's all about just kind of taking that chance. The Eagles didn't need to take that chance on Jalen Hurts in the second round. They had Carson Wentz coming off of an MVP season two years ago. He had shown some signs of, you know, some concerning signs and they still said, Hey, we know one, either the value of a quarterback is just so amazing that if we hit on it, we're capable of doing this. And two, even if we don't,

someone will trade decent assets to go acquire any sort of quarterback that looks like they could be promising. And man, it really, really hit for the Eagles. And you're just looking at that game and you're saying, Hurts has otherworldly talent. Mahomes has otherworldly talent. And when it comes down to it, it really just was both of them going at it. Like no matter how good that Eagles defense was, they just weren't going to stop Mahomes. And the Chiefs defense hasn't been half bad this season.

They've been about average, you know, basically what you'd hope the Minnesota Vikings defense could do. And Jalen Hurts just torched it every single chance he got so I don't know how you look at that and you say like we can get by with a middling quarterback and if if you do want to get by you need someone that's a middling quarterback that's at least cheap enough to get to get that those requisite pieces around it and that's where we always come back to with this Kirk discussion but I mean it should tell us something that we come back to this Kirk discussion in the biggest games when we're watching Mahomes and Burrow it's a it's man you need another worldly quarterback and when you watch Hurts or Purdy it's hey if you don't have one of those behemoths of the game make sure it's on a rookie deal and make sure you've put the requisite

pieces around him to make him thrive and the Vikings don't have either of those. They haven't had the cap space to put the requisite pieces around Kirk Cousins or any quarterback to really make you feel like they can take the next step. And you, Kirk Cousins just isn't Mahomes. He isn't Burrow. He isn't one of those top guys. And so you get caught in this middle ground where it just feels impossible for you to get to one of these games. It would take just break after break, which they got this season, and that season ended in the wildcard round. It feels like it shows you how far away they are. At the same time, the Eagles should give you hope that it doesn't always need to be

10, 20 years down the line, just because it's not Kirk, or just because you feel like you don't have it right now. Focus on building the rest of your roster. Make sure it's ready for whichever quarterback you bring in there. It can be, you can make this realization today or whenever you made it that Kirk isn't the guy, but it doesn't always need to mean that any sign of a Super Bowl team is eight, 10 years down the line. Like the Eagles flipped over their roster in just a matter of years.

And that should give the Vikings at least some semblance of hope given they have two bookend tackles given they have Justin Jefferson like they have the building blocks for one of these things they just need a lot of improvement in other areas and they need they need that future at signal caller and it just seems like continuing on with the status quo is going to continue them to get 13 and four seasons that ended in the divisional round or eight and nine seasons that you missed the divisional round or eight and nine seasons that you missed the playoffs. Like that's, that's where they're at. If they don't, if they don't try to do anything. Yeah. There's a few things that sort of connect to this. One is that I thought that tonight was also a victory for quarterback development because Patrick Mahomes

sat for his first year. Now, maybe if he didn't, maybe they would have won the Super Bowl that year. I don't know. He's that good. But he also said that that first year was really important for him to sit behind Alex Smith and learn as a quarterback. And one of the things that you see all the time is with Patrick Mahomes, his peer quarterback playing ability, how he reads the defense, how he delivers passes. I think that it's not just that he runs around and makes crazy plays. And that was highlighted so much by having that ankle injury because he did not play the same way. He was more of a pocket quarterback until that one run where he's like, I don't care how much it hurts. I'm going to go find a way to get this first down. But he played as a mostly pocket quarterback and moved around only a handful of times when he absolutely needed

to. But he has developed into being probably the best pocket quarterback in the NFL too. Now that Tom Brady is retired, that probably goes to him. He's the best playmaker and the best pocket quarterback, but he didn't start out that way. He started out as much more of a playmaker and continued to develop. And on the other side with Jalen Hurts, and this does not mean I think that the Vikings or every team should take second or third or fourth round quarterbacks. That's not always a winning play. And the history of second rounders isn't even that great. Carr is pretty good. Garoppolo is good. And as you mentioned on their rookie contracts, they had great seasons,

but with Jalen hurts, when you looked at his tools, he was a great prospect coming out of high school. He went to the biggest program and then went to the other biggest program where it's just a quarterback factory in Oklahoma, but came out and still was not any kind of like, you know, finished product. And this is what is going to happen probably with the quarterbacks who come out this year. And I don't know if the Vikings are targeting any of these guys or if they would even have a chance at them because all the other teams that are drafting higher, but almost all of them, if not,

all are projects in their own way. Like Bryce young likes to run around and make plays. And you know, CJ Stroud is more of a, I think complete quarterback, but plays in that Ohio state system where people are wide open all the time. And then you have, you know, Will Levis, who's a total project, Anthony Richardson, total project. But if you watch tonight, you could say both of these guys were criticized for being the same thing. And look at the way that they play quarterback now. Just an incredible showing here tonight between the Eagles and Chiefs at the quarterback position.

So there is that part of it, too, that I think that the Vikings are in position to deal with that type of development if they want to. And the other part is this is probably why the Chicago bears will just draft someone great number one, or trade down a couple of spots and let somebody else draft their quarterback is when you watch Jalen hurts, he was even coming into this year. I guarantee if you go back and look at quarterback rankings coming into this year, I bet you Jalen Hurts is like 22nd on most people's list because they thought he couldn't throw the football that well. But guys who are good get better.

And that's not a guarantee that Fields will or that Zach Wilson ever will or that Josh Rosen clearly didn't as he's the number three quarterback on the Vikings at this point. But, you know, I think that it does make a case for why you need to draft guys who have skills and then try to develop them so they can look like this in the Super Bowl, because this right here was two very deserving quarterbacks playing at the top of their game against defenses that in the regular season were good. I mean, I don't think that Kansas City by any means was the 2000 Ravens, but they were solid. And what they did to Joe Burrow

in the AFC championship game was very impressive. And yet Jalen Hurts took them apart. And then the same thing happened on the other side where the Philadelphia Eagles, I mean, we saw them play against the Vikings. It was 24-7. They beat the heck out of the Vikings. They had a great defensive season. And yet here's Patrick Mahomes just taking them apart. But I also think we should talk about the entirety of these rosters

and how many people had to make a play for both teams. I mean, you needed Jerick McKinnon to make a handful of plays, Petreco in the draft. These, by the way, two running backs that they got where, oh, free agency and a seventh round draft pick, wink, wink, nod, nod. Maybe that's the right way to go about it. They benched their first round running back in the process Clyde Edwards or layer yeah uh did not play inactive today for this game uh and on the other side I mean I think that what Miles Sanders was a second round pick um but he wasn't even their best running back in this game so there is something to be said from that but I just think that when you look at the entirety of these rosters and talk about far away,

so we talked about the quarterback position and this really shows like, that's what you're going to need to win Superbowls probably in the future. And I also think in the, in the future that when you're building a roster, if you are taking a position and trying to tape it together, trying to paste it together and thinking it'll probably be okay. It's usually not. And even with Philadelphia, like think about how thin the margins are. Like they don't have the best, what like safeties and that costs them because Kansas city was able to take advantage of it. And, uh, I would say from Kansas city's perspective that their draft class was getting

a lot of hype for the seventh round corner or whatever it was. And then, of course, like A.J. Brown just goes out and takes care of that and had the first touchdown was against the first rounder for Kansas City. But even some weaknesses in the secondary for both teams were exposed in this game by great quarterback play. But so many people had to make great plays on the offensive side that I don't know how you could come out of this game and say, well, yeah, okay. Having Justin Jefferson and kind of like whatever is going to be good enough. And a tight end TJ Hawkinson is going to be good enough and a tight end TJ Hawkinson is going to be good enough because in a game like tonight the one of the best tight ends of all time his impact was still there but Kelsey didn't catch like 15 passes or something and he was not just the entire offense they had

to have a lot of guys on the offensive side for Kansas City contribute and they had to have a complete offensive line performance to make sure that Patrick Mahomes was not dealing with trying to escape while he was getting rushed. And on the other side, tremendous offensive line play, multiple players coming out of the backfield making plays, Dallas Goddard, who's essentially a wide receiver, Smith, Brown. If people don't want to talk about, and I'm sure they don't, the not a, if people don't want to talk about, and I'm sure they don't, the Kirk thing, because I don't know who wants that right after the Super Bowl.

So sorry for our last 15 minutes, but who wasn't thinking it? But if there's anything else to discuss, it's really that we've kind of been banging this drum a little bit for, you need to have many guys who can do stuff with the ball in their hands and make plays. And gosh, did this Super Bowl ever show that both quarterbacks were able to use their entire offenses? And hey, look, I am never going to be the one to tell you that offensive line isn't important. It sure as heck is. And it showed tonight. Although I do wonder if some of those defensive linemen couldn't get a grip on the field.

And that was why they couldn't get after the quarterback. But that's neither here nor there. My point just being that if you're not adding playmakers around Justin Jefferson, you think he can just do it all himself. I don't think that you saw that in this game. Yeah, I think let's just put the Kirk thing to a side for a moment like that that is obviously divisive topic and you know people can get very angry at that stuff but if you just take the quarterbacks out and compare the rosters it just comes down to the fact that

the Vikings haven't drafted well in the last three years they haven't they've hit on Justin Jefferson they've hit on Christian Derrissaw, but they have not found quality depth pieces pretty much at any point of the draft in the last three. Remember the 2020 draft when they took like 13 people or whatever it was, 14 people. It was some sort of record. Like only really usable guys they've gotten out of that is Justin Jefferson, Ezra Cleveland to an extent.

He's an average guard maybe. And then KJ Osborne has served as like a fine wide receiver three, but that's the best yeah yeah no Derrissaw in 2021 sorry I was talking specifically 2020 draft oh okay sorry yeah yes so and then 2021 you get Derrissaw but pretty much after that there's not much else in that in that draft class unless you want to go and and bang the Patrick Jones drum or something like that, or the Cam Bynum drum, which I don't think many people are doing. It's just, it's not just drafting for stars. It's just drafting guys that can come in and capably play and fill a hole for

you enough to where you're not embarrassed in the Superbowl. That's the whole thing about the chiefs cornerbacks. Like they just were able to get enough guys to where they weren't getting just destroyed every turn. Now, Devante Smith's going to get loose at some point. A.J. Brown is going to moss your guy at some point. That's just the reality of offense in the NFL. But they have drafted enough sound players to fill their gaps when they do pay their quarterback or even when they don't. Like the Eagles, they've drafted enough sound guys that they just have replacement level players that can come in and can do the job for a play or two or for a whole game or two if they need to. And the Vikings just haven't had that quality depth.

And it goes back to the Spielman Zimmer days when they were pushing for wins right away. And it goes back to last year, which that draft class just, I mean, you got to give it a lot more time than just one season. But after one year, you haven't come out with a ton of capable players that you feel like you're going into the future with. And it's just that part, regardless of the quarterback needs to get figured out. They could get a rookie quarterback and sign a few free agents. They still are going to need to hit on a couple of draft picks, no matter what route you want them to take hitting a couple of draft picks in the next year, two years. And for one of these, a couple of these guys from the past year to kind of figure things out those are imperative if you want to be starting because that's that's how you have one of

the worst defenses in the nfl because you just have no depth pieces to fill in those holes and instead you're going out in free agency and trying to grab guys like that is just the reality and at and at some point you kind of feel for the vikings because the draft is really random and you just kind of have come up on the random bad side of that draw. Now, I think you could argue they could put themselves in better positions by taking higher, you know, positional value positions than they have in the past, instead of taking guards and linebackers and, and, and, you know, safeties up high, like they could probably try to maximize some things, but in general, they just haven't, you know, the coin hasn't flipped on their side a couple of times in these drafts. And that's how you end up with a roster that's depleted like this.

And so if anything, you need some of those good fortunes to change and you need to just hit on just a few, a fourth rounder that can start a sixth rounder that can start that comes out of nowhere. Like where's this teams like Anthony Harris that comes out out of nowhere and is starting on a team for you playing big minutes on a T or a lot of snaps on a team that's, you know, trying to make and has playoff aspirations. Like those success stories just don't really exist. And so if the Vikings want to get to this point in the season, regardless of their quarterback, they need to find some of those. And some of that might just be random. And they just got to hope they kind of come up on the right side of that. Yeah, you're completely right that you would have thought the number of shots that

Rick Spielman took in the draft that taking like 10, 12 players a year, some guys would have become that late rounder that Stefan Diggs or, you know, like you mentioned, undrafted free agents, but we just haven't really seen that in recent years. And I think that watching this and seeing the caliber of play and seeing every single position is mostly completely strong. I mean, okay, so there's a handful of weaknesses on these teams, but even their weak players are usually guys who have been around, played in the league, decent quality players. The Vikings are just so far away with their roster right now. And one of the things that they're going to have to be really discerning about is knowing who they can move on from.

And Kansas City shows us that, that they knew they could move on from Tyree Kill. Now the Vikings cannot do something similar with Justin Jefferson. That's not the point. It's just that I think all good teams really have a understanding of that, of who you can move on from and who you need to keep around when you do rebuild things, like not moving on from someone like Lane Johnson, who's really important for them,

or Jason Kelsey, who's very important. But those things definitely become louder from when you watch a game that was played this well with so much talent on the field. So that's kind of the connection to the Vikings that I thought we would have walking away from this. If it had been a blowout, then we probably would have just said, well, it was a blowout and onto the off season and here's your off season things that are going to happen. But after watching it, so many recent draft picks from both teams on the field, the quarterback situation,

the quality of player, the weapons that they have, all of these things are necessary for the Vikings to make changes to and improve in the future. If they want to swing for this rather than just swinging to be in the tournament and then watching it from home with us when it comes to the actual Super Bowl. So let's circle back, though, to the game. Let's put aside field turf and a flag at the end of the game. What will be your lasting memory from this Super Bowl that, again, has to go down as one of the all-time greats? I think my overarching thing is just going to be on Mahomes with a bum ankle. You saw him kind of get rolled up on at the end of the first half there and look like he was in pain. I think it's pretty clear that, you know, when you have a high ankle sprain, it just doesn't go away

in three weeks. And I know some of the, you know, raw passing totals don't, you know, jump off the screen at you. He only had 182 yards passing, but they averaged 6.4 yards per play. And I think on offense passing the ball, they had a 71% success rate. So basically three out of every four passes were deemed successful passes that kept them moving, kept them out of the chains. And that was really kind of what it was. I think the longest pass he had was like 22 yards. was no game-breaking Tyreek Hill down the sideline play it was just kind of methodical we're going to stay ahead of the chains we're going to keep moving we're always going to stay in advantageous positions we're never going

to let the Eagles just pin their ears back like the Eagles never really got to Mahomes when it came to rushing the passer it was just an absolutely clinical performance by Patrick Mahomes in another major major game so I think that's one and just kind of considering where he's at already in his career with two Superbowls. Like when you look at history, at least recent history guys with two Superbowls, this kind of early in their career, it's Tom Brady and it's,

and it's Ben Roethlisberger and it's Patrick Mahomes. And if you go back to those Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger days, they were kind of getting there on the backs of their defense and their head coaching and stuff like that. Like these two Super Bowls that the Chiefs have won have been pretty much, I mean, Andy Reid obviously is a big, big part of that, but those are, they rest pretty much on Mahomes' arm. So for that to happen through two years, it's more impressive than Brady winning early in

his career. It's more impressive than Roethlisberger winning early in his career. Those were team wins and Brady and Roethlisberger certainly helped them in that but these were Mahomes wins like your defense didn't help you much at all into this game so I think my number one takeaway is just that man is incredible and I'm I'm I love watching him play and just seeing everything that he's doing like it's it's really really fantastic to watch And then I think too, just Jalen hurts kind of proving himself to me in a massive, massive stage, like so many tight window throws. He just nailed in there.

The poise that he showed, obviously his running ability is not on is, is unquestioned, but three rushing touchdowns, just all over the field, running the ball, scrambling, finding guys on third down, like hurts showed up in this this big game in this big playoff game to a level that I wasn't expecting like you you're remembering him getting benched in the college football playoff against two attacking by Loy you're remembering last year in the playoffs that game going horrendously for Jalen Hertz and you're even thinking about the games this this year so far they I think I saw some graphic they weren't trailing until like late in the fourth quarter of this game for the first time all postseason like he just wasn't put in many bad spots this year and in other spots in

college and in the pros like he's come up short in some of those aspects and so I was just really really astounded by the way that Hurts played and I think if that penalty doesn't get called and the Chiefs only kick a field goal like there's no reason for me to believe the Chiefs are stopping the Eagles based on how they were moving the ball, and that then becomes like a legacy drive for Jalen Hurts and a legacy game for Jalen Hurts. Although it's not going to go with the Super Bowl, I'm going to remember this game, this Jalen Hurts game,

as a reason of, man, that guy is really, really good at this, and for all the help that he has and how much that helps him. There were just some big-time some big time plays some big time poise from him that really really impressed me and and he's just another massive massive takeaway just how he performed in this game is incredible yeah i think um one thing that will always stand out to me is that these two teams both did unpopular things to get here. You have to go back a little ways with the Mahomes decision, but most of the draft analysis world did not like,

they thought they traded up too much for Mahomes. They thought you just went, I think they were like 12 and four. You have a good enough quarterback and so forth. Four seasons of above 500 play before they before they pick the homes yeah and i think they were also the over they like hit the vegas over for four straight seasons and the playoffs and so people wanted them to draft a whatever and uh they didn't and it doesn't always work out it certainly doesn't but uh that was unpopular trading away tyreekreek Hill was unpopular.

And I know it's like there's someone saying everything all the time in terms of football. You can find anyone's opinion. But in trading away Tyreek Hill, there was a thought that they were going to drop back. Wasn't my thought. And also wasn't Vegas's thought, by the way. So the betting markets did not move that much off of Kansas city. But the point is just that like, that was not popular. And I'm sure that even with Kansas city fans, it was extremely shocking. Like, what are they doing? They're moving on from a guy that you can't possibly move on from. And in Philadelphia drafting Jalen hurts.

Now that one was almost unequivocally unpopular with draft analysts. And they thought, oh, well, Carson Wentz is good enough. All you need is X, Y, and Z around Carson Wentz. It wasn't his fault. Do these things sound familiar? And so these teams did stuff, even letting their team drop back for a year was not a good situation for Philly. They fired their coach that won them the last Super Bowl.

There were some painful things that had to be involved with how these two teams got here. But I think they were rewarded for incredibly smart moves. And I've always felt like there's two games that get played. The one that just got played to end the season, and then the one that starts today, which if you if you can win and i don't mean sarcastically win the offseason but win the long game of roster building the the chess match the tetris game that is making all the pieces fit making the right decisions getting the right

coaches which both of these teams clearly have phenomenal a plus level coaches like you need everything to come together for this, and these two teams earned it. I don't think that they just sort of backed their way in to how good they were. And I also want to say that it will stick out in my mind that Andy Reid is 64 years old, and sometimes we all like the younger coach. And I think Kevin O'Connell did a really good job this year, so this is not a jab at his age or inexperience or anything else like that. And Nick Sirianni is a younger coach. So anybody can do this. But from a legacy perspective, Andy Reid, with some of the biggest moments in this game, knew exactly what Philadelphia's defensive assignments were going to be and just messed

with them to create wide open touchdowns. Patrick Mahomes, he made some amazing plays in this game, but on those two touchdowns, they didn't have to be amazing. You or I could have thrown it to those guys. They were so wide open because he designed plays that messed with their defense. And this is just one of the things that he's been so great with. And one of my favorite plays of the game was they ran a split back with two running backs in the backfield. They also had another play where Jarek McKinnon was at the fullback position in the strong eye form. So they ran a pro set split

back and ran this sweep play that I am not kidding you was like big in the nineties. They would do this all the time in the nineties would be the split back and you would have the, the fullback lead. Actually, I think the fullback wasn't on that play and it might've been the only play he was in the whole game. And Petreco takes it out to the outside and gets a big gain, big first down. It was like Andy Reed, man. I am just so impressed all the time with how he continues to come up with new ideas to mess with defenses.

And what's great about this game, and I think what I'll remember partly, is that he had to get in his bag for this one because his quarterback was not at 100% and his top receiver plays for the Miami Dolphins. And so he had to find lots of different ways to create open receivers with his mind and his arm talent of his quarterback. And he was able to do that. And after this, I mean, you have to put Andy Reid among the top, what, five, 10, wherever you want to put them. I'm not ranking coaches right now, but you have to put them among the all-time, single

all-time greatest coaches, because I think that this was as much Andy Reid as it was the rest of the team performing because he created so many great opportunities for this Kansas City team. Yeah, I think you want to identify a good play caller. It's what can they do in the red zone when things tighten up on third down, on fourth down. I mean, they were wide open open sky more was wide open on that pass like no one was on the left side of the field when he caught it with that misdirection that they run and that's just understanding andy rita understanding the eagles tendencies and big moments and finding a play that counteracts that perfectly like those plays i think the sky more

touchdown was on a third down like those are not just. Oh, let's see if we can get them here. That's we need this play right now. And we're going to dial this up and it worked as well as it did. It's, it's remarkable. And it, and it again, kind of shows reads, you know, just is just how good of a play caller he is. And I think for years and years, like the, one of the, you know, the big storylines heading into this game is obviously reads tenure with the Eagles and how he could consistently never get it done.

And it just, it goes to show you for like a Reed type or if, you know, people get worried about Shanahan because things aren't going his way in some of these big games. It's just like some of these guys, it just, you just got to wait them out and wait until they have these moments. Because Andy Reed clearly through those Eagles years showed he had what it took to to get to this game and then he gets a generational passer and it certainly makes things a lot easier but today they didn't have everything in mahomes's bag and my home like i travis kelsey is amazing but juju smith schuster is just a fine wide receiver like nothing special marquez valdez scantling is fine not great at all like they're running three tight ends on the field a lot to get these matchups that they want like just mixing things up with personnel fitting it to the roster that they have even if it's not the best roster like I agree with you this this year

was supposed to be a step back uh because of kind of the contracts they kept Mahomes's contract big they let Tyreek Hill go like this in all int and purposes, was supposed to be a reset year. And the reason it's not a reset, it didn't end up being a reset year as Mahomes. But it's also what Reed's able to do with lesser personnel. And the fact that they didn't luck into this game. They didn't find an easy opponent into this game. They beat the Bengals, a really, really good team to get here. Then they beat the Eagles, which was about the best other team

that they could play in the NFL. And yeah, I agree with you. A lot of that credit has to go to Andy Reid. He might still not go for fourth down every time that you'd like, or he might punt when you don't want him to punt, or he might blow a timeout on a challenge or something like that. But just his prowess offensively makes up for so much of that. And Mahomes makes up for such so much of that. And that's why they're just an amazing duo. And

I know Andy Reed's getting older and could probably retire at any point that he wants to, but I just want them to stay as a tandem for as long as they can go and just see how many of these things they can rattle off. Cause I truly think after this year, you set yourself up in such a good cap position they should have if not like as good a chance as they felt like they had this year they should have a better chance next year of repeating just with what they're going to be able to do with the salary cap and how it's going to become harder for the bills of the world and the bangles of the world is finally they have to start kind of paying their quarterbacks and getting some of those repercussions like chiefs are going

to be in this thing for a long long time and that's as long as they have homes and it's as long as they have reed and i hope those stick together for a while. Yeah, there will be challengers in the AFC with the number of quarterbacks that are going to be gunning for them, but it will not be easy for anybody to beat Kansas City in the future, especially it's mentioned by Derek in the comments about their recent draft and like, well, that's just more good young players for them to get a lot out of with Patrick Mahomes, by the way, just really starting his prime as a quarterback. Isn't that nuts that 27 years old, this is just the beginning of a lot of primes of quarterbacks,

just shocking, shocking stuff that he's going to have so much longer to compete for Super Bowls. And on the other side of things with Philadelphia, I think after what we saw from Jalen Hurts today, I don't want to overreact to a single game, but I would say through this entire season that he proved to be a complete all-around quarterback that probably does fall into the category of someone that you have to pay and that you want to pay. I would worry a little bit about how physical he is and is his body going to break down at some point, but today he kind of looks like peak Russell Wilson or something. Somebody who could continue to have very, very competitive seasons from here on out for Super

Bowls. And the way that roster is built, they will lose some guys, but they draft so well, they get so much draft capital, they manage their cap so well that you have to believe that they're going to continue to be able to work around that. And the minute that they can't anymore, they'll just change it. And that's what they showed this last time so if it does happen that Jalen Hurts is too expensive at some point down the road or whatever they'll just move on but I think they have the foundation of such a good team that for at least next year and probably the year after this same group is likely going to be right at the top of the NFC East even though it it's hard to repeat. We did not feel that way about Los Angeles. Los Angeles was, it was very clear that that thing was a ticking time

bomb and they won a Superbowl before that time bomb went off, but it did eventually. And then now Los Angeles is in a very tough spot for the future, but Philadelphia, I would not say that because they have so many good young players, but you know, guys will come and go. Things will get harder and change always happens a ton. So now the Minnesota Vikings off season is official, official, official moves can start happening. People can get extended or cut or whatever. I suspect that that won't begin right away. Usually that happens after the combine,

which is in a couple of weeks. And I will be there in Indianapolis, as always for the whatever it's straight year, not counting the COVID year, we'll be in Indianapolis to cover it. But usually that's where everything gets decided of where the team will go. And next week we'll have a Brian Flores press conference. And so we'll find out about

their plans for the defense. But I would say this, Paul, that after watching the Super Bowl, it just really settled in my mind something we've been talking about for a while. This next six weeks, though, leading up to the USFL season, let's say, I'm just kidding, but like, I do like the USFL. But this next six weeks is going to lay the course for the Vikings next five years. I think the way that they handle these next six weeks will give us some idea of where this franchise is going for a very, very long time. And like, it's your show now, Kweisi, like this is it. This is it, man. Like that's a lot of pressure, but I think that it's reasonable to put that much pressure on the Vikings front office, coaching staff, ownership, everyone, because you make the wrong

decisions this off season and you could get stuck with this for a very, very long time. Yeah. And I saw some comments earlier in the chat just about Kweisi and already having question marks about him a year in. I think you certainly can have them about the way the draft went this first year, but at the same time, I'd say you got to give that a little bit of time. You look at some of the things that they did around the margin, signing Kyrie's Tonga, finding Duke Shelley at different points of the season, resigning Patrick Peterson. There are good moves mixed in there too. It's not binary.

And so I think you give him his full first off season. You hopefully give them some more time to get comfortable with the owners and kind of align maybe the timetables that you both want to be on moving forward. And you kind of see where this thing could go. But yeah, this is, this certainly is a pivotal offseason for quasi just because if it

kind of is another dud after the next year and they kind of are in a similar spot like you you already only have a four-year contract you're then in the back half of your contract and so just the way that contract is structured and way this team is structured there's a lot of pressure i don't i i can't say just after one draft and one offseason that you should feel you know you should be worried about the way that Kweisi is handling this team. It's way, way too early to do any of that talk. I just think it is just because of how all in they went this year and where this roster sits, it becomes your, because of your own circumstances that you've created, you've created more pressure for

yourself. And that's more pressure on Kweisi. That's more pressure, pressure on O'Connell as he handles his second defensive coordinator in as many years. And it's pressure on the ownership of, are you kind of steering this thing in the right direction? Are you letting the guys that are supposed to make roster decisions, are you giving them full autonomy? And then also, it was your first big move that you've made in eight years since you hired Zimmer and much, much longer since you hired Spielman. So I think every part of that organization is under some pressure this year, which makes this off season all the more interesting. Yep. People will ask like me, just in general, like, what do you think of Kwesi? What do you think the job he's done?

What do you think? I don't have opinion yet uh because i think that there's enough to say that the course was laid out for them by ownership and that there were good moves and bad moves there's ones that i would question there's ones that i would praise uh tj hockinson is a great move for them and especially with where they sat at that time that they made it where they looked like they could be in line to be a legitimate super bowl contender. Great move. Great trade. Um, but I can't decide yet because I got to see where this ship decides to turn. And I'll have an answer for you in six weeks is basically what I want to say. And I don't, is that not, it's not exactly like we got to get the draft and everything else. So maybe like, you know, a couple of months, but the draft, I don't know.

Like you, like you said, like it's so random. Can I really judge unless he does something absolutely insane? I probably won't be judging him by the next draft unless, you know, we're talking about a quarterback being involved. And then of course I would give it a big thumbs up automatically. But aside from drafting a quarterback, if they draft a defensive tackle or a corner or something, I'm not going to like, oh, wow. Okay. Well now, now I think he's a bad GM or something, or now I think he's a great GM. But really shaping what they can do as a

franchise in the future and the, the approach that they take overall, that is probably going to be judged pretty harshly, especially after watching the way that these two overall, that is probably going to be judged pretty harshly, especially after watching the way that these two teams who just played in the Super Bowl were built. So a great season ends with the greatest quarterback in the world raising the ring. And hey, you know something I wanted to say too? At the beginning of the year, the USA Today article came out with Kweisi Adafo-Menson. What did he say? He said about Kirk Cousins,

he's a good quarterback, but it's the great quarterbacks who usually win the Super Bowl. And though he probably regrets some of his comments being public, he was not wrong. And if that's how he feels, then maybe we'll see that reflected in some of the things they do in the very near future. But I just wanted to say that, that like that's not an old take exposed. Kweisi knew it and he was right. And the best quarterback won, as so often is the case in the history of the NFL. So Paul, I cannot thank you enough for all of these Sundays.

We're going to keep doing Sundays. So tune in, you know, we'll pick a time, but usually just Sunday at some point to go live on YouTube. So if you're listening to the podcast version, make sure you go check us out on YouTube. There's going to be some content there that isn't on your podcast feed as well throughout this off season, still brainstorming some ideas for that, but it has been so much fun every Sunday after games, playoffs, every game, you know, me in the press box or whatever else, uh, that, um, I just really enjoyed it this season doing these post-game press or not press conferences,

podcasts with you. I'm out of energy. It's been a long day. Um, when did the Superbowl start? Five o'clock. So five hours of football straight. Um, but anyway, so it's been, it's been great. And I can't thank you enough for taking the time. You could have had a big Superbowl party and not wanted to do the post game stream. There was all sorts of holidays that you jumped on here and everything else. You always, always ready to talk ball. So I appreciate you. Great stuff. And, and we'll carry on now. It all starts, man. Yep. Excited.

Wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else every Sunday covering Vikings or playoffs or whatever. It was a remarkable season and capped off by a really, really incredible game. So couldn't have asked for much more. I would definitely say one of the craziest seasons of my lifetime. Just start to finish, especially with the Vikings there. So thank you. And thank you to everyone who listened all throughout this season. But so much more to come in the off season.

So keep sending your fans only questions. We're getting to more episodes of those and we will go forth and have a lot of fun this off season. So thanks everybody. Hope you enjoyed the Superbowl and we'll catch you next time.