Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Reacting to Breer's Vikings trade-up report Part 2

Episode Date: March 23, 2024

Matthew Coller continues the discussion on Albert Breer's report that the Patriots are not interested in trading out of No. 3. Then what happens? https://surfshark.deals/PURPLEINSIDER Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you're just joining, hi, is this report from Albert Breer that the Vikings might not be able to get to number three and they were given quote polite no from the top three teams about trading up. So the debate here is, do you give up everything you got to first and maybe another first for number four to get McCarthy? Or could you wait at 11 and take Pennix or Knicks? It seems like only seems like Pennix has higher draft stock than Knicks at the moment. And when I was watching that game, actually, so I was live on the air doing a show with Manny when the game happened.

And then I had to go back and watch it. And what Penix did in that game was nothing short of miraculous. And look, if he loses that game, then that's the last impression that we have. And it would look and feel a lot different than what it looks like it feels after he played Michigan. But it's not fair to judge somebody off of the game against the national champion who beat Alabama too. I, that team was undefeated. They were a behemoth. They crushed everybody. No one really even came that close outside of, you know, Alabama. it's a fantastic team so i mean that's the only time yet you had a game like that i can't judge it off one game it's much more of the accumulation

of the last two years it's also not a one-year sample for pennix the last two years at washington he's been very good i i don't know what this says it looks like oiler but i don't know if that's your name or if it's something else. If the Texans initiated the trade, was there ever any intention by the Vikings to move up? Regardless, fans will now be disappointed if they don't. That is a good point.

And I think this is what the discussion is really about. So if now, personally, I still think they did this to trade up. So even if it was initiated by the Texans, Now, personally, I still think they did this to trade up. So even if it was initiated by the Texans, I'm sure the Texans were looking at where the Vikings were at and were like, Hey, would you just want to give us a lot of extra draft capital and we can help you get our quarterback? Because if you're the Texans, what do you care if an NFC team gets their quarterback?

You're just looking for draft capital. You're looking for more good players on rookie contracts if you're the Houston Texans. But I'm still assuming that you are looking at a trade up here. That's what they ultimately want. And if they were given polite no's, that means they asked about trading up to the top three. So I think very strongly that they still want to get up to the top four and draft their quarterback. The question that now we've sort of devolved into is, are you going to freak out? Cause you said like fans will be disappointed. Are you going to freak out if they don't? And my

answer would be ish a little, like a little bit. What happened there? Did you think you have a move? And I'll need the explanation. Maybe they'll tell us that while it was never really our intent. Although of course they'll tell us that if they don't do it, but point just being that if they came away with a quarterback that I felt like could lead them deep into the playoffs, potentially with the right circumstances that has the talent to do that. And they came away with a defensive tackle or corner, which is also a pretty big need for a shutdown corner. Then I don't think that I can say that's a bad outcome. I will say that it wasn't maybe the best or the most ideal. It wasn't the perfect outcome that they

dreamed of, but you know what? I mean, you think about how funny football is, right? If the Houston Texans win, I'm sorry. If they lose. Yes. If they lose at the end of 2022 in the final week of the season, I think they converted a fourth down for a touchdown or something in the final week of the season. Do they draft Bryce Young? Like sometimes the draft works this way that you're like, oh man, we missed out on our guy. And then you end up getting something better

because that's how odds work. Sometimes the odds between QB three and four, four and five are just not that different if they're both first round picks. Charlie thinks the Patriots are bluffing. You know what, Charlie? I think you might be right. I do think you might be right.

Why would you tell anyone if you're the Patriots? Oh yeah, we're into trading with the Vikings. Sure. You would tell them, I don't know, man. I don't know. It's kind of like the house thing. If someone comes to you and says, Hey, I'll give you a 25% more than what you paid for your house. I don't know, man. I was thinking

about maybe living here for the rest of my life with my family. How about 75% sold? I will turn the deed over to you today, right? That might be what the Patriots are trying to go for. Is the faithful says only if they take a quarterback, don't care about anything else. This is, this is where, you know what I'm going to try to do? Cause I feel the same way. As long as they get a quarterback in the first round, then I really don't care if it's a 11 or four or how much they gave up for it or, or any of those things. What I need to work on is I need to work on hot, some hot takes,

like intentionally hot takes just, just, just for fun to see what I can come up with. Because every time this comes up, I'm like, no, I'll hate it. If they pick it 11 and 23 and I'm like, well, wait a minute. I guess if they got Pennix and a defensive tackle could turn into a star, then actually I might like it. So I I've worked my way around because there's just such a good history of quarterbacks having success under good circumstances. And when we go back over recent history, Brock Purdy is one of them. Jalen hurts comes to mind. There's just a lot of quarterbacks who knew that the Texans actually were a good situation, but Bobby slow. It was their coach.

Nico Collins turned into a star. I mean, there's just like situation has just played such a big role that knowing the Vikings can give the guy a good situation shades how I feel about this so much. Let's see here. Bench 295 says, is Bo Nix the 23rd pick? Yeah, I've been mostly focusing on Pennix just because in Daniel Jeremiah's most recent mock, he had Pennix as the 13th overall pick. And that's at least significant in that Daniel Jeremiah thinks that, um, he's not always right. I'm not always right. You're not always right, whatever. But that has led me to talk more about Pennix because it's in that same range as

the Vikings. Bo Nix seems to be the guy who's fallen out of favor. We don't know that that's going to be the case, but if you were ranking all of them, Bo Nix is the guy without the one tool that would be the next level kind of guy. So he is the one that reminds you of a Jimmy Garoppolo, a Derek Carr, like second round draft picks that we've seen in the past that have a lot to like, but don't have a superpower. James says, I think that may is their guy. I think may is their guy too. That is who I have thought all along was their guy. And I guess I'm going to find out as we go along, whether that turns out to be true or not. Because I think with May,

he is the most talented quarterback, not named Caleb Williams. And I'm kind of judging that more on his, his size and his talent than necessarily, um, on like the negative parts of his tape. So I realized now that you guys are talking about Ryan leaf still in the comments for where I am, which means that I need to scroll down again, but I, I just want to stop real quick and say that I have a great appreciation for how many of you are popping in. Hopefully you're watching basketball and watching this at the same time,

having a good time should be a great tournament. Really excited about that as well. So welcome everybody. What an exciting time, right? I mean, this is just created so much fun conversation that honestly, I can't even, it's only been two weeks. It feels like it's been a very long time since Kirk Cousins decided to be an Atlanta Falcon. And someone said to me today who I can't even remember who it was said to me today, can you believe that Kirk wore the dirty bird chain? And I was like, huh? I guess he did. Okay. Some, some folks are offended by that. I don't know. I forgot about it. We, we have gotten to this point that we have just jumped so far ahead, uh, with where we're thinking about the Vikings that it never, it has not come into mind about cousins leaving or any disrespect or anything else for me, because this is the time

for this organization to move forward. And that's what's created so much fun. So I'm glad that you're all here and are enjoying having this conversation with each other and me when it comes to the comment section and so forth. I wouldn't do this if it wasn't for you guys, but you guys make it so much fun every time. Scoop 12 says hot take. Quasey thought Darnold was a starter and is now scrambling for a plan. That is a hot take. And like most hot takes, I don't think it's true. I think that especially the way that they talk about Sam Darnold in the press conference

the other day, it did not sound to me at all like this is our guys. This is our guy. I mean, like this, this is our quarterback. We got our guy. We're all set. I have not gotten that impression at all from Sam Darnold. And I saw somebody was saying, I don't know when that like, Oh, they paid $10 million for him. $10 million is one fourth of a Kirk cousins. That is a backup quarterback contract in the year 2000 and a 24. So I think that they got Sam Darnold for a pretty good reason, which is that he's been through this. And that's really why that he's been a top draft pick and he's been through this and he has talent. He's got arm

strength and he has competently played football at times during his career. Like, you know, when you go eight, nine with Carolina had a 92 quarterback rating in the final six games of 2022. Those are the games I looked at and like they were really fun. He did some crazy stuff. He's actually a really good athlete. I say it as if I didn't know that he is a very good athlete. He scrambles around. He plays kind of like a big giant case Keenum. Like he's going to be fun to watch if he has to play. And they know that he's got familiarity with a lot of concepts that Kyle Shanahan was using that, you know, Kevin O'Connell tries to use himself sometimes.

And that if he, if, if Sam Darnold needs to step in and play 17 games and he needs to get the ball out of his hands and he needs to make deep throws down the field. And, and, and I looked this up even that he was, Darnold was on a pace to throw to DJ more over that six games for like 1100 yards. He was pushing the ball to DJ more, which he's going to do to Justin Jefferson. If he plays, that's why they got Sam Darnold, not because they think he'd be a franchise quarterback and up North, of course, brings up the thing that will carry with Sam Darnold, not because they think he'd be a franchise quarterback and, uh, up North, of course, brings up the thing that will carry with Sam Darnold forever. Unfortunately, thanks to a mic'd up,

uh, does he still see ghosts out there? Oh, for sure. He does. I mean, I look, I watched that tape and went, wow, about five times. And I went, no, about five times when I was watching Darnold, there's an interception that he throws where he doesn't identify the coverage properly. He thinks he's got one-on-one. He fires it to this one-on-one coverage and the safety comes from the other side, picks it off easily because he didn't see it. He's not a great quarterback. He's not going to be, but if he plays 17 games, they can win eight or nine of them with the setup they have and the coaching they have. And also I think that he's a very stable human being that if you can go through

the stuff that he went through in New York and Carolina, and you can come out on the other side of that as the backup quarterback and you know be just a quality guy in the room and be there and be ready in case you need to start that says a lot about him and and nobody knows more about him than mccown but i don't think that anybody looked at him and said oh yeah this is franchise qb and if he stunned us and went crazy in camp and kept JJ McCarthy on the bench and became a franchise quarterback, well, more power to him. That's what the Vikings have been looking for, but we all know where that stands. Terry says, my prediction, Darnold will have a quarterback rating of 90 plus. However, many games that he plays for the Vikings, good quarterback for number two.

He's a great backup. Okay. He is about as good of a backup as you're going to find in the entire NFL. Last year, they had Nick Mullins, who is not as good of a quarterback that you're going to find in the NFL for a backup. But also, I really think that his personality matters a lot here when it comes to dealing with this situation. Let's see.

Based Kirby. You guys have funny names. Orlovsky said it best. Whichever quarterback lands in Minnesota will succeed. I think JJ will be a baller in this offense, even in year one, but especially years to come. May is my favorite choice, though. It's just hard to argue against that point because we've seen, look,

once we're an hour and 20 minutes into this, we got to get honest with each other. And I've also had this delicious Diet Dr. Pepper sitting here waiting to open. So I might do that first. And then I might tell you what I'm thinking, honestly. Let me take a sip. I'll drop a take on you. Ah, over the last two years, I'm not sure that Kirk Cousins had the same physical arm strength as he did in 2018, 2019. I went back and took a look because I was kind of curious about this. And I watched that Green Bay game where he threw for 420 yards. And I felt like his velocity on his football was better than, and even though he

has never had mobility, he was a little more willing to do stuff with his legs than he was, especially last year, which wasn't much. And he had a lot more footballs float on him over the last two years. And actually his statistics were not as good as far as like quarterback rating, things like that. Um, last year in 2022, as they were under Kevin Stefanski, for example, in 2019, I think again, this is, this might be turn up the heat a little bit that what they were able to put around him and Kirk called it the best supporting cast that he had maybe ever had that what they were able to put around him, and Kirk called it the best supporting cast that he had maybe ever had, that what they were able to put around him with Justin Jefferson and so forth, and adding TJ Hawkinson to the mix, propped up Kirk Cousins over the last two years.

That is not an insult. It's only to say that it made Cousins the best version of himself because of everything they had. And if they lost players, he was doing well without Jefferson. So I'll give you that. But still had Hawkinson, still had Addison, still had the best offensive line he's had. Really, really good setup. Still had O'Connell. O'Connell matters a lot to this too.

I think that is the advantages that he was given were a part of his success over the last two years. That's the take. Maybe a big part of his success. In fact, you could actually say that for a lot of his entire career with Stefan Diggs, going back to Deshaun Jackson, the two tight ends, not an insult, not an insult at all. It's only to say that what Dan Orlovsky is talking about with their situation, I just totally agree with it. And I think that whoever plays quarterback for this team is probably the best version of themselves, except for Josh Dobbs, poor Josh Dobbs, never going to be a rhythm passer. Sorry, that's just not going to happen

michael should we beef up our defense even more so there's no way any team could ever score against us win the 2024 season on keeping opponents to zero uh no no that's not possible that is not possible unfortunately it's not because the year is 2024. That's why there's just too many good offenses to try to do that. And they're not close enough on defense. They are not two first round draft picks on defense away from, as you call it, holding teams to zero, but to being even a great defense, this is going to take another year. Like they need another piece and it's going to take another year to build themselves up.

They don't have like quite the level of ridiculous talent. Like think about if you want to know what a number one defense is, you don't have to think that far back. Think about how much talent they had in 2017. Now compare it. Do they have an Everson Griffin or a Daniel Hunter? No, they have good players, but they don't have those guys. Do they have a Linval Joseph? Oh God, no, not even close. Do they have a bar and a Kendricks? They have good linebackers, I think,

but I don't think they quite have those guys. Do they have Xavier Rhodes? Absolutely not. Do they have Harrison Smith from 2017? Maybe the defensive MVP? No, they don't. So it's got, it's got to take work to get to that place, but what's a better answer actually for this team is to do enough to be a good defense and then be in a great offense. That's usually the way that you get there. I mean, you go back and look, Kansas city this year was an outlier. They didn't score that many points in the regular season. They also have the greatest quarterback of the generation, but almost every team to reach the super bowl since 2015, when the Broncos did it on defense has been in the top five in scoring.

There's a couple that have been a shade outside of that, but that's the ticket. That's the only way to get there is to have a top five. And really it's a passing game, but it'd be nice to run the ball as well. So I thought of this the other day, based Kirby, need a 2017 season from Sam Darnold because like a Keenum season,

because Case Keenum and Sam Darnold play similarly, I definitely thought of that. And somebody in the comments the other day guaranteed that the Vikings would go to the NFC Championship this year. And my first thought was, like behind Sam Darnold, and my first thought was, if this was almost any other fan base, I'd be like, oh my gosh, what are you like doing drugs? But with this fan base, that's totally plausible because they've seen it happen

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boop, boop on your phone. That was me getting the app to try it out. I know, great sound effects there. Test Drive, U.S. Cellular's award-winning network for 30 days. U.S. Cellular, built for us. Terms apply. Awards based on open signal, independent data. Visit uscellular.com for details a lot of you uh kind of come into the defense of bo nicks here john says go look at bo and what he's had to do he's mature and makes good decisions so the the bo nicks one is is very polarizing i think with michael pennix everyone agrees the guy has a monster arm and would probably be deserving of a top pick, but they're worried about like maybe some of the throwing technique and short stuff, but it's probably mostly, can he really hold up? Like, do you want to take a guy who's not a playmaker and might not hold up? And that's where there's

the sort of scaries about Michael Penix. The opinions on Bo Nix are all over the place. Some people love him and they think that he is a guy who is super smart and can distribute the football and make some plays. And then there are, um, you know, others who think that he's kind of a noodle arm and he's just not like really a good enough playmaker to run away, uh, from, uh, you know, like defensive tackles or defensive linemen in the NFL and that his deep ball is bad and like that he's just a mediocre prospect. I tend to lean because he was a five-star guy out of high school because I think he is a really good athlete. And how many, like, think about this when we're talking about pure deep ball, like

throw it up. You know what the percentage of deep ball, let me find this for you because I used to think of this as a big factor myself. But then I started looking at this, this number of how often quarterbacks through deep. And it actually really surprised me. So Jared golf last year through deep through 20 yards in the air or farther on 7% of his passes went to the NFC championship game. Is that really the thing that we need to focus on is the deep ball. And maybe like with Bo Nix, it's just overstated is how much that deep ball matters. Now I do think that Michael Pennix pushing the ball the way he did or Drake may matters as far as intermediate passing and the Vikings offense. Clearly the Vikings offense wants to go 18 yards dig or something like that to Justin Jefferson. But if we're talking about bombs, deep bombs, like that's

just not always a factor for every offense. And I don't know how Kevin O'Connell feels about that. Lee says Darnold has a career record of 21 and 35. And that is true. A lot of that is with very, very, very, very bad teams. And when he played on, okay, a little bit more talented team in, at the end of 2022 and last year with San Francisco, I think he lost his only start in a meaningless game. But I think that what Sam Darnold really is, is on a very good team. He's a 500 quarterback. And if that's what we're looking for for next year, then I think that you're okay with that. If that's what he is because he's filling a spot and they'd be developing another quarterback. And if he can do that and give you

time to develop the other quarterback, then he's done his job. And that's what you're looking for. Let's see. Randy says, how are you feeling about left guard? Bad Randy, bad feeling about left guard and tell you the truth. It's, it's not good. It's not a good situation because all these guards got so much money. I don't even know if the Vikings anticipated that. And if they bring back Reisner, it's fine, but hopefully you like running to the right side just because to the left is going to be pretty tough if they bring back Reisner and Dan Feeney is not an answer. Blake Brandel is not an answer. We're running out of people to talk about here. Mark Glowinski is out there. That's not a name you want to start hearing

for being a starter. It's, it is not a good situation at left guard. And by the way, is it a good situation at right guard? Not really. So the interior of the line needs, needs work. And I think the only answer now is to maybe get like four guys at small salaries and hope that one of them rises to the challenge. What do I think of Connor Williams? So yeah, I would really like Connor Williams. So he's one of, that's a good question because he's hurt. He's going to take a while before he signs, he's recovering. That scares you a little, but Connor Williams, I think, is a great option for them. He's a difference maker. He's played guard.

He's played center. For sure, I think that Connor Williams is probably the best option left. But it's not a great spot. And they might have to just go back to Dalton Reisner because he just knows the deal. Like, he knows the offense. He's been with these guys before they could bring back. Look, I mean, if you bring back a whole starting unit, you feel pretty good about that. But the, the left guard position definitely,

definitely has some work to do. And I don't know exactly what they're going to do. Charlie says the NFL doesn't allow deep throws. That's why Tyree kill is so unique in today's game. And even a lot of Tyree kill passes are on the shorter side and he runs after the catch. Yeah. That's the NFL did an amazing job defensively of making a switch in 2020, where you could see it with the average depth of target. It went down. And so that's the point because like, you have to be able to execute on time as a quarterback more than anything. It's hit the back foot, get the ball out. And then if it's not there, be able to make a play. I mean, that's really what most of the great quarterbacks

are doing and then do something special. Like sometimes you got to make an amazing throw. Sometimes you have to scramble. Sometimes you have to, you have to go an amazing throw sometimes you have to scramble sometimes you have to you have to go and make a play that nobody else can make but even Patrick Mahomes had a low average depth of target we don't question whether they can hit the deep ball because he can but even Patrick Mahomes as a short thrower was having a lot of success because he executes the offense well has all the answers that that sort of thing. Tom Brady never threw the deepest bombs. Peyton Manning never threw the deepest bombs,

or at least later in his career he didn't. So I do think that this is probably right. Up North says, when talking about arm strength, it comes into play more when throwing outside than actually going deep. Yeah, that's true. Because with arm strength, the windows close so fast that when you let it go, I mean, it's got to get there because otherwise if it floats at all, it's getting picked off, it's getting knocked away. And we've seen that, you know, we've seen even from someone like Nick

Mullins, where if it, if it doesn't get there with velocity, unless you have insane anticipation, like Drew Brees, it's going to get picked off more often than you want. And let's be honest, this happened to Kirk. Sometimes if Kirk didn't get all of it, he would float the ball. And sometimes it would get knocked away or intercepted. And part of that was because he didn't have raw arm strength. He had a generated arm strength with his whole body, like a pitcher where, or an outfielder where if he could get everything into it, he could get some gas on the football, but if he couldn't, the ball just floated.

And we saw a lot of interceptions and things like that because of it. He also had to throw with big time anticipation. So if a receiver didn't run exactly how he thought he was going to run, then it also got knocked away or intercepted. What about Bob says a quarterback is the craziest thing in sports, hardest to project easiest to love or hate. Amazing to watch. I mean, isn't that the reason that football is so freaking popular and why we love it so much is that this quarterback position, no matter how much we talk about it. So I read a great book. Um, it was called the making of a quarterback by Bruce Feldman, where he kind of goes behind the scenes with one of these, uh, I think it was with Trent Dilfer and a quarterback development group where they hold camps and stuff. And then

they, you know they move guys onto the next level and they evaluate the quarterbacks and they pick so many to go on to the next, whatever it is. I forget how it works exactly, but it was so fascinating where for years, colleges and NFL have been trying to look at personality traits that correlate to success and the S2 tests we just saw. And there's just all these different types of ways that teams have tried to weigh the odds in their favor. And you know what, ultimately it's very, very hard to figure out which guys are going to succeed, but that's what makes it so interesting to talk about because I might look at a quarterback differently than you

look at a quarterback and we could talk about that. And it makes for a great discussion and circumstances, what's around them, how they're coached, who they played with all of it. So interesting. Uh, Euler, I'm just going to say it that way. I'm not sure if that's intended to be Euler. Uh, you're never going to get McCarthy at 11. Should he drop as Denver, the Raiders are immediately behind us and could easily jump us even with limited ammo.

So this is what I'm talking about, about the draft is if we're talking about the different scenarios, maybe I'll try to rank them here. Right? So the most likely just based on what we know is that JJ McCarthy goes forth to somebody. Is it you? Is it the giants? Who is it? That's the most likely scenario,

but what's our confidence rating on that? Maybe like 60%. And then there's also this other world. And there are friends of mine who have this theory about like, maybe McCarthy's the will Levis this year that, and like, is that crazy based on history? That's not crazy based on history. What if the Broncos are more into Pennix or Knicks or what if the Broncos knowing that Sean Payton has so much power, what if he wants to wait? What if he doesn't want to draft one of these quarterbacks

and would prefer to play Jared Stidham and then see what happens. Like we think that he's under a lot of pressure, but think of all the money and what they gave up for him. He might not be, he might want to wait till another time to get his quarterback. We think we know, but we don't always know sometimes like, man,

I thought that Washington was going to draft Tua and they drafted chase young. I mean, we've so many times over the years have thought that X guy was going to go at Y position and it didn't work out. So is that a scenario where McCarthy drops to 11? Yes. The confidence on that might be only like 20% though, but it's, but it's there. And if the one thing that we cannot really get deep inside is what the Vikings know. So the Vikings may know a, that the Patriots might crack. If Daniels goes number two, they might know that McCarthy is being overrated by the draft

analysis world. They might know that Pennix is actually a good prospect. Like all these things are possibilities that like they might have Intel on that. We don't, that is going to impact how they approach this. Now, the fact that they tried to trade up to one, two, and three and made those phone calls would tell me that they want Drake may. And I think that our instincts are right about that. Um, that, that like they want one of those top three quarterbacks. What's really unclear is what's going to happen after that. A huge boy who is a huge Kirk boy from, uh, what I've come to understand. That's fine. Says, uh, Kirk will be better than any quarterback in this draft

the thing about that mr uh huge boy is that that's not really the game and i know that sounds weird but it's not like the game isn't does kirk cousins have more yards and touchdowns than drake may or is he better at things that the young quarterbacks aren't the game is to, and this is where I think a lot of Kirk people like lose perspective. The game is to take Mr. Lombardi's trophy and hold it over your head as a championship trophy. And Kirk cousins has routinely been better than quarterbacks who play in the Super Bowl. He's been better at times in his career than Jalen Hurts, right? I think even quarterback for quarterback, just if you put the two of them on the field in a static situation,

that Kirk Cousins outperforms Jalen Hurts, as much as I like Jalen Hurts, he's a much better thrower, and that's more valuable. And he, I think, can operate more complexity in his offense. But, now don't tell anybody in Philly I said that, because I'm getting to an important point here. But what Jalen Hurts can do with his legs, plus the roster that Philly gave him, allowed him to play at an MVP level and get to the Super Bowl. Now let's talk about Brock Purdy. Is Kirk Cousins a better quarterback than Brock Purdy? Yes, he is.

But Brock Purdy costs $800,000 and Brock Purdy can run for 20 yards on third down. The game is not whether you have the slightly better quarterback at throwing a football. The game is winning as a complete franchise. And that is something that you could very much see some of these quarterbacks in this draft doing that has never been done in Kirk Cousins entire career that he is because of his weaknesses and because of his expense was never able to get any team where they wanted to go. And I don't know what will happen in Atlanta, but it's a very, very difficult needle to thread. It's not as difficult when Jalen hurts can have this incredible team around it. And that's why

this is here. So is there a quarterback in this draft who could build an incredible team around and win more than Kirk Cousins? Yeah. Yeah, there is. No guarantees, but oh yeah. Chicago is that team. The Vikings are that team. For sure. So that's what the goal is.

It's not, does this guy have a better quarterback rating than that guy? That's not what they give out the trophy for. And that was probably one of the things that during Kirk's time in Minnesota was the most annoying to tell you the truth, because I don't cover the Minnesota Vikings, Kirk Cousins. I cover the Minnesota Vikings. So when they fail, I criticize them. And I was often told I wasn't supposed to, I was supposed to be praising the quarterback for the, on a failed team, which was never going to happen. It's not going to happen.

If you have a quarterback, who's not able to take your team anywhere, I'm not going to crown him. So that was always like a point of conflict is that for some people, Kirk cousins having good statistics, won them a championship championship but it didn't especially because most of those stats came from behind but that's something we don't have to talk about anymore which is nice folks if you don't know what a vpn is you might actually need one and not even realize it if you already know the positives you also might not be using the right product. In either case, you want to check out Surfshark. VPNs keep your information safe and anyone who tries to track what you're doing online will not be able to do so if you are using Surfshark. IP addresses, what you're searching,

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That is surfshark.deals slash purple insider. Terry says, I think Aaron Jones, as long as he stays healthy, will end up being the most significant free agent, no matter who is under center, huge signing, huge signing potentially, uh, definitely a huge signing. I really like what he can bring for the quarterback. One is just a running game is always very helpful. And then the other part is receiving screen game. He's been an impact player in the receiving game for his entire career. And let's be honest, I don't think Ty Chandler has any idea how to block anybody. They needed someone who has experience blocking for a quarterback. Aaron Jones is that guy. What I like the most about Aaron Jones though, is that the vibe that

Aaron Jones brings, I mean, it's just a star vibe. It's just a guy who comes into the room and I know he's wearing sunglasses. So, you know, like maybe that did it, but listen, how confidently Aaron Jones speaks. And you can hear the intelligence. You can hear the confidence. You can hear a star in the NFL. It's like immediate. You wouldn't even have to show me who you were talking about. Just listen to him talk. You know, he's a star. And that is the type of leadership that you're losing from Kirk cousins that a rookie might not be able to bring you. It's not his team. Aaron Jones makes the team his right away because of what he's accomplished in the league

and because of who he is as a character. So I really agree with you. I think that that's very important. All right. Few more responses here, and then we'll call it a night with another two hour marathon of quarterback talk. You guys have been fantastic. You guys have interesting angles every night, even if nothing changed,

which tonight we got this Albert Breer report, but there wasn't the move. And yet you guys have a lot of interesting ideas that I really love breaking down. So thank you for all those. John says, if we don't get into the top four picks could turn out to be a blessing given the difficulty of predicting how these guys will truly work out in the NFL. John, you are a reasonable man. And that is how I was thinking of this today, because my first instinct was to think if they can't get this number three pick, then this whole thing goes to hell in a handbasket.

And yet, the more I thought about it, and the more I looked at when it was quarterback deep drafts, the fourth and the fifth guys picked were a lot of success stories. It was like, you know what? I got to stick to my own ideal here that it's really hard to pick these guys. And if they end up with someone at 11, instead of someone at three, then the odds probably aren't as different as we all think. Loaded guitars. If the Vikings love Drake may more than McCarthy, but settle for McCarthy. They, if they still like him, is it a failure? No, no, it's not because I think

if they're making this move, then they're aware that it might not work out with new England and they might not get Drake may, but they've got to be comfortable with getting McCarthy. If that's their guy, if they don't have another plan for Knicks or panics or whoever, cause we don't know that they don't. But if the plan, as it seems, based on the fact that they made phone calls and gotten rebuffed at the top of the draft, is to pick in the top four and try to take one of these top guys, if they move up to Arizona, then we'll know for sure that they're comfortable with that.

So that'll be the proof that we will know, all right, for sure they're comfortable with whoever drops to them. Then it's not a failure to end up with JJ McCarthy because if he's being drafted number four overall, then he is a guy who they view that could be a franchise quarterback. If they're doing all this to get them, then they think that. And if they think that, then I'm good with it. Then I won't criticize it. Even if I have my own questions about, um, you know, about JJ McCarthy. So, all right. Uh, let's see. Brown fricking solo. Nice to see you. It says, uh, feels like the early nineties when the team was looking for an identity at quarterback. Only then Denny went for

experienced passers after Gannon and Salisbury couldn't do what he asked then McMahon and moon. Um, well, we're going to find out, uh, with Kevin O'Connellnell how he can work with experienced passers um you know yeah again and they tried to develop over a couple years but you know i think really what came to fruition there was uh having the having the weapons well you know and uh warren moon right they went after him if the vikings were in a position to get someone, well, they were like a Warren Moon in Russell Wilson and they decided not to. So they already made that decision versus taking the young quarterback and developing them. Then it's a better choice, in my opinion, not just based on the rookie contract, but also I want Kevin O'Connell to be in like lockstep with his guy, not coming from another place and trying to make it work and so forth. Uh, that, um, I, I want him to mold that quarterback into

how to think about quarterback play and learn it and execute it. Even if he's got some problems, that's what I want to see. Um, now you guys are, you guys are a little bit out of the Kirk thing in my scrolling. So we don't need to go over that. We had lots of time to go over that. And that was nice. Uh, we had a lot of fun along the way, but we don't have to do it anymore. That's the thing. We don't have to do it anymore. So there's always going to be a person in every chat who wants to say, you guys are screwed without Kirk. And I guess we'll see.

They were pretty screwed with Kirk, in my opinion, but we don't have to do that anymore. That's the nice thing about it. Dr. Truth, this better be good because you're Dr. Truth. Have you heard any rumblings about an extension with Justin Jefferson? Do you think they'll tag him after 2024? I don't think we'll get to that. I don't think we'll get to 2024. I would be absolutely shocked if they don't start the season next year

with an extension for Justin Jefferson. Have I heard that they're in route to that? No, because this is not when they would do that. Like, I mean, I'm sure that if Jefferson's agent called up and said today, I have to negotiate with you. I got to get the deal done. I'm going to Cabo. Okay. I'm sure they would do it. But most of the time they negotiate these in the summertime, that it'll be mini camp. Like I would expect that somewhere along OTAs mini camp, they start conversations. JJ will not go to any of that stuff. I don't need them to it's fine. And what

their absolute ideal, ideal scenario for Justin Jefferson is to roll him out on the day before training camp. You guys knew I was going to say this because they've done it in the past. Roll them out the day before training camp. We have signed Justin Jefferson to a four-year contract extension. JJ puts on the Oakley glasses and he says, I'm going to be a Viking for a long time. Can't wait to get out there on the practice field. That's, I would say that's a, the best case scenario and still maybe a likely scenario. The most likely scenario is that we get past the

preseason, not that he's going to play anyway, but, and right before we get into the actual preparing for the first game, that September 1st through whatever they play, 9th, 10th, whatever. That's when he signs the deal because we saw TJ Hawkinson run it to the end of camp. I brought up Nick Bosa, Delvin Cook signed the Saturday before the season. Sometimes it just takes a while and that might happen, but I would be very surprised. I'd put it at 85% right now that week one, Justin Jefferson already has that contract extension. That's where I'm at right now. I guess now that Kirk's gone, we got to start a new meter. We don't know. We haven't had a meter. I guess we have to, I guess we have to have meters for each quarterback. We have to have like a, who's going to be the Vikings pick 25%, like pie pie chart style. We'll save that. I'll

put that in the back pocket. Loaded guitars. Would you rather have Pennix and the best defensive tackle or McCarthy? Me personally, my opinion only with no input from Kevin O'Connell without asking him, I would rather have Pennix and the defensive tackle. If Kevin O'Connell told me, look, buddy, it's nowhere close for what kind of prospects they are. Penix is a third rounder. You don't know what you're talking about. McCarthy's a first rounder. Then I would say, all right, fine. Take McCarthy. My opinion from watching them both, studying them both, looking into the numbers, talking to whoever I can find to break these guys down, I would prefer Penix and the defensive tackle. And I think that every time you mention Penix, someone will say what John just said. He won't

stay healthy. You have no idea. Neither does anybody else. That's why he did the combine medicals, which according to reports came out favorably for him and football players have injuries. It happens. So I'm not as afraid of that as other people, but I also don't know his medical reports and they do. So I would rather based on throwing that out because I don't know, I would rather have that. But there are lots of players who have no medical issues whatsoever and then get injured. Like, I don't know, Kirk cousins, it happens all the time. So you can't, it's hard to avoid injuries playing quarterback in the NFL. How many of them got injured last year? A lot of them, a lot of them. So it happens. Uh, let's see. Mike says, do I know when we're

supposed to have the private workout with McCarthy? Do you know if we're scheduled to work out with may Daniels and Pennix jr. I do not remember if there, if that was reported when they were going to have the workout with mccarthy um i i i don't really know like what to do with that information i mean i assume that the answer is yes that they will have workouts but you always have to be a little bit concerned with you know the the smoke screens and so forth and like like, what does it really mean? I mean, if we hear that they have a workout with guys, then it might mean something. It might mean nothing if they're already sold on a quarterback from the combine. I'm not sure. So anyway. Yeah. I mean, this is a enigma. This is the thing I like the most is the panics gets rid of the football. And that matters to me. And I was trying to,

I was talking this over with a few people today and I was trying to think, well, this is just a lie. Don't put this in my comment section. Uh, Trevor, don't put this in my, in my comment section that 80% of first rounders bust who it's just my,

my comment section is very precious to me because we tell the truth here okay that's not the truth so don't be doing that that's it's the same as bringing up ryan leaf it's like we don't look look that's not true and how like it doesn't matter anyway it's just not it's just not the case and there's always going to be some person who comes in and says whoever you whoever you pick is going to be a bust and congratulations to you i hope that made your night but it's just it's wasting everyone's space to just put nonsense like that there the vik quarterback who they pick, if it's in the first round with the situation that you give them does not have an 80% bus rate. So I'm not worried about that. Anyway, the point is, um, with Pennix, we're talking about his, uh, getting rid of the

football. I I've had this thing in my brain about timing. So because I cover so many NFL games and we sit in the press box, we could see everything. You could just get this big view of the field. And what you get used to with NFL quarterbacks is the rhythm of how they play. So all the great quarterbacks have a rhythm. They drop back

and it's either out or it's hitch and it's out or it's quick turn and it's out or it's throw it deep fairly quickly because usually you have to lead the receiver deep. You have to get rid of it quick. You can't just hang on, hang on, hang on, and then throw deep. So when I watch a quarterback that holds onto the ball for too long, I get real antsy. So this happens to me when I, when I watched Jaden Daniels and I haven't talked a lot about him. He is a possibility for the Vikings, but that's why I don't think he's a very good fit is because he just gets,

he's just antsy. Like it makes me uncomfortable. It makes me uncomfortable to watch Justin Fields because he doesn't throw the football like, hold, come on, come on. And you're sacked. And it happened with Kirk sometimes. And with Michael Penix, if pressure came, he would just throw it away. And then onto the next down.

I think you could do that in the NFL. It's not perfectly ideal. You'd rather have the guy scoop for 20 yards. But one thing that he does is he takes the ball, drops back, throws it. And you see that there's a little bit more antsiness for May because he likes to try to make plays. And with Knicks, he's very good at that dropping back quick and throwing it. So with Pennix, I think that that shapes and what that does is it probably, uh, probably like is a little bit too much influencing my opinion that, um, like I see a guy throw on time and I like that.

I see someone throw in rhythm and I respect that. And I appreciate that. And, uh, what I would say to, uh, there's always going to be in the comment section, guys, someone who comes in and reads Kirk cousins, stats and resume and tells you he's the best quarterback ever and spams us.

Uh, it's just not your quarterback anymore, man. There's a, there's a lot of Falcon shows that you can spew all that too. So it's cool. Go ahead and do that. That's fine with me, but then you're on, you're in the wrong show.

This show covers the Minnesota Vikings. So that's what I'm going to do. Not worried about, not worried about quarterbacks who don't play here. That is someone else's problem. So, yeah, you know, I got to get the, um, i'm using a little bit new software here and i don't have the button to block someone so maybe you could just block yourself and head on out but uh anyway so yeah if it people people who want to people want to rope you into Kirk Cousins debates. Not worth talking about. Not the quarterback here anymore. It's not worth it. Deplorable Neanderthal. Funny enough, Deplorable Neanderthal, a guy with

that name, is not the guy causing the problems in the chat. Funny how life works. Let's see. I fell in love with Pennix when he played Texas. Of course, I fell in love with Bo Nix when he played my youths and dissected them like no quarterback I can remember. So this is an interesting point about Bo Nix is that I've sort of counted them out of the conversation, but my friend, Terry Horstman, who went to the senior bowl and covered the senior bowl for us here at purple insider, he does a podcast on Oregon state. That's where he went. So it's his team and he

covers them he is a huge bo nicks fan because he watched them play against oregon state so you know i think that where we're at right now as of this moment is are we going to be talking about pennix and nicks or not are we going to be talking ourselves into them potentially or not uh are are we in a position to talk about the possibility that they wait and see on mccarthy because they don't want to give up everything or are they going to give up everything and that's going to be the question going forward but you know what it's not the only question going forward there is a lot to discuss with this team and uh it is a very exciting time for all Falcons fans that aren't here, but instead Vikings fans who came to listen to the show, um, can, uh, can Pennix add scrambling

to his game? Uh, I don't think that he can add scrambling to his game in a difference making fashion, but I think that getting the ball out quickly is a counter to that. So you have to have an answer and like Jared Goff has no scrambling and he wins a lot of football games. Right. So like, that's the thing. Um, but anyway, like you don't, it's never going to be, he's not going to suddenly turn into a huge runner, but can he answer the pressure is really the question. Can he find his check downs? Like Tom Brady didn't scramble either when he was 40 something years old, then he won a super bowl because of what? And I'm not saying Penix is that I'm just saying that

because he had an answer and his answer was in his noggin and he was able to find where he was supposed to go. So there will be all sorts of, uh, yeah. Oh yes. Horse feathers. Great point. After nine o'clock, I should always count on crazy stuff. So that is true. Well, look, I can't thank you guys enough for watching. There will be more of these to come, but I am very, very excited about the owner's meetings coming up.

I'm very scared that there's a snowstorm that is going to be a problem. So I think I'm going to log off here and I'm going to move my flight up. So I'm making sure that I at least have backup options for delayed flights potentially to go to Orlando, but there's going to be lots of folks down there. A bigger contingency of Vikings reporters than there has ever been. I am told, which means podcasts.

So keep those eyeballs out for more podcasts. ever been, I am told, which means podcasts. So keep those eyeballs out for more podcasts. And look, if anything changes, then there will be more live shows with you kind folks again very soon. So thank you so much again, as always, for everybody joining. Thank you for the really fun conversation and we'll do it again soon. So make sure you set those alerts, subscribes, do whatever everybody's supposed to do when YouTubers promote themselves. Take care, everybody. Football.