Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Reacting to JJ McCarthy's introductory press conference

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

Matthew Coller talks with Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press right after listening to JJ McCarthy's opening press conference Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, along with Dane Mizzutani of the Pioneer Press inside TCO Performance Center, where we just got done talking with the Minnesota Vikings' new quarterback, J.J. McCarthy. What an experience, what a 24 hours that everyone here in this building has gone through, and now landing a quarterback that they appear to be very comfortable with having landed at the number 10 overall pick didn't have to trade up and I think that we should just start with our first impressions of talking to J.J. McCarthy and his answers and then we can get into everything else Dallas Turner I want to hear what you have to say about the Falcons and their approach to the whole thing and we'll go from there on what the next steps are and how much patience might be required with J.J. McCarthy.

But my biggest takeaway, Dane, is that this was not J.J. McCarthy's first press conference. It's not his first interview. And you won't find too many human beings his age as comfortable talking to a room full of people and as confident as J.J. McCarthy. This is a guy who talked about being in fifth grade and deciding to, he said, edit his life to take this approach as a quarterback. I mean, what were you doing in fifth grade? I wasn't editing my life to be a pro quarterback someday, but that is kind of who J.J. McCarthy is. Yeah, he's probably the most polished person I can imagine talking to 24 hours after the draft. I mean, the kid's 21 years old. When I was 21 years old, if you would have asked me to stand in front of a room of people with billionaires to my left, I would be a mute. And this kid, he won the press conference. There was

no doubt he was going to. And I wasn't the most insightful. It wasn't the most, you know, crazy good answers, great quotes, all that. But it was just very, very by the book, clearly knows what he's doing. And he really at least feels the part of a franchise quarterback standing up there at the podium talking and and I think that kind of matters to a degree now it doesn't like he's gonna have to show it on the field but he fits the mold of being like a guy that can be a face of the franchise just simply by talking to him yeah I, I'm trying to think of a way to describe it. It's kind of like one of those children who starts playing piano at four years old

and they know that that's all they're going to do. What are the prodigy children or something? And they have huge vocabularies and they know all the music theory by the time they're eight. And you're like, what? How the heck did that happen? Well, that's the same thing with McCarthy.

And he went to IMG Academy, which you're all going to read articles from their coach because every single one of us is going to interview this man. But I spoke with their coach this morning about McCarthy. And it sounds exactly the same as it is now that he got to IMG because they weren't playing football in Illinois that year with COVID. And he said, I mean, the guy just dove into football. Every conversation he said is about football. He just has so much Kevin O'Connell vibes. Like, I don't know what O'Connell was like at 21, but O'Connell at his present age is like J.J. McCarthy.

He's like an older version of him where it just seems to be an all-about football type of mentality, which, you know, it's actually funny because Kirk Cousins talked about this during his time here where being a quarterback is not just, oh, I'll just show up to work and we'll see what we do here today and then go home and whatever, do whatever I want. It is a lifelong commitment as long as you're in the NFL to holding down that position. But, you know, I think the other thing that stands out too is you understand why. And he talked about this. Someone asked about the emotional intelligence, which just means do you get along with people?

I don't know when it started being called that. But his connectivity with teammates, the way people talk about him, the way he immediately was even relating to reporters in the room, connecting with people in the room, you just see it. And I think it's important if you're going to be a quarterback, how you communicate with your teammates matters so much. And this guy for this age is about the best communicator I've ever seen in my life. Yeah, I would imagine if we got to walk into the Michigan practice facility today

and we asked all of his teammates just kind of how they feel about him. They would all say the same thing. You can just tell it's like a very genuine kind of interaction. And being people who talk to athletes all the time, you can tell when it's not genuine. You can tell when they're just up there kind of spouting BS or just shooting from the hip. It really feels like at least the way he was connecting, to your point,

even with the reporters today, looking them in the eye, answering the questions. I get that that's the way he probably interacts with teammates as well, and it does matter because he used it yesterday. I don't like when this is where it goes, but last night he said, every Sunday we go to war and you got to have the guy in the foxhole with you ready to fight and kill and bleed together. And, you know, I don't, that doesn't drive with me,

but I'm sure it does with teammates and just having that connection of, you know, I'm willing to go out there and do whatever it takes to win. I think that really plays in football. Just having that connection of, you know, I'm willing to go out there and do whatever it takes to win. I think that that really plays in football. And I think when you have a kid like that at 21 who's already able to kind of grasp how important it is for your teammates to see how much you care and how it's almost innate where you can tell he really does care. I think that's kind of something that can be a weapon for him

even before he gets on the field. There's a lot to learn. He's still going to be a guy that needs some time and development to ramp way up, but one part where he won't need any sort of coaching or development is just the ability to handle the press conference, to handle standing in front of a room, to kind of be that leader of men. He's already got that. And there's no doubt about that. Yeah. I think his point was that he really values the relationships with his teammates because he knows that if you're going to win a championship with them, that you have to understand everybody. And even I'll throw this out there to a thing that subtly impressed me was he was asked about the supporting cast hey actually i may have asked it so it was like why did you want to come here so much and he ran off

the entire offense off the top of his head including offensive linemen i'm not sure that he totally knew who's playing left guard neither do we jj so we're all gonna find that out together but he without any thought it was well i mean we got this guy this guy this guy this guy including we got daresaw we got o'neill we got this and it was just obvious that he had thought about it that he had studied it that he had put work into the minnesota vikings as a team that he wanted to go to and he also even mentioned being in the midwest and liking hockey and all those things which is precious and you know we're all gonna like that and so forth oh he's one of us

and whatever but i was thinking more along the lines of if you saw did you see the cj stroud video where micah parsons was doing a podcast because everyone's got a podcast imagine having a podcast and uh micah parsons says oh, put together your dream offense. Without thinking, the dude builds a full offensive line that would win every Super Bowl. I mean, with no thought whatsoever. He's like, oh, the guy from the Ravens, Kevin Zeitler, and then this guy, and Creed Humphrey. And you're like, whoa, this guy has been studying ball. Because sometimes we run into players who are like, who do we play next week?

I don't know. Like, I just do my job. But as a quarterback, you can't be that way. You have to be very aware of, of everything. And I just, it's just one of those small things that you kind of notice about the ways handling himself, the ways presenting himself to us in his first time here. Now go, let's go back to last night though, because you were in this very room talking about, or the one next door, uh, me talking about their plan and what we thought was going to happen what i believe you thought was going to happen was they would have to trade up

to get jj mccarthy they end up not having to trade up to get jj mccarthy more than just the one spot which doesn't matter a bit to me not giving up anything more than late round draft capital were you surprised what was your face like why don't for the the video audience why don't you make your face when they were able to get jj mccarthy from last night try to recreate and then describe it for the audio audience what it was like your face when they did not have to make that big move you know the alonzo morning meme where he's on the bench and he's like looking he's kind of like a little perplexed. And then it looks like he's like, hmm, I actually could get down with that.

And he's looking perplexed again. And he's like, actually, that might work. That was me last night. As every pick went by, I was like, they're going to get this guy without having to trade up at all. This is unbelievable. And I didn't expect that I think I when we talked I said best case scenario if you miss out on Drake May is getting JJ McCarthy at 11 but I didn't think that they would get him at 11 or 10 and I agree with you like it doesn't matter that they traded a fifth round pick to move

up a spot to make sure they didn't get jumped I had in my brain there was no way they were going to be able to pull this off while holding on to 23 and and we'll talk about dallas turner later but i i thought that was really impressive restraint by by quesadilla fomento to just at that point in the night losing out on drake may and not just panicking and saying you know what what, screw it. Like, we'll go 11-23 to you, L.A. Chargers. Like, we can't miss out on J.J. McCarthy. It shows that they did their due diligence. They had a good read on the board. And I think he talked about it yesterday, minimizing regret, you know,

after he was asked, like, how do you decide not to move up or when is the right time? And his point was, like, you also, in your evaluation process, look at all the other players, all the other teams in front of you, and whether they have a need or a want to take one of these players that we think could be top-tier talents. And just to see the way that they were able to navigate this whole process and get their guy or one of their guys that they've liked all along

I mean it couldn't have worked out much better um and then you like we just talked about you see him talk today and you can just kind of get the vibe that this this guy he feels like a quarterback at least off the field and I will continue to stress like we need to see it on the field too but I'm inclined to believe you know the quarterback guru Kevin O'Connell who's put tens dozens and dozens and dozens upon hours you know throughout this process if he locked in on a guy like J.J. McCarthy and they were willing to pull the trigger it's because he believes he can get a lot out of him so throughout this process leading up to this I talked a lot about my skepticism regarding J.J. McCarthy.

And so, of course, last night when they draft him and I'm like, wow, that's actually a really good pick because they didn't have to trade up and they get McCarthy. Then some of the reaction from the audience is like, wait, wait, wait. You were not on the McCarthy train for most of this. Now, I'm not going to go back and say, oh, I made it all up. No, no, I do have it. But here's what I was thinking about last night. What was my holdup? What was it that was kind of holding me back from this? Because it is a really good fit, a good personality fit, and I think even a skill set fit to work with the tools that he has, which are of high quality. I mean, he throws the ball hard, he runs quickly, whatever. You all know the tools that he has. And then Kweisi Adafomensa put into one word what I had been hunting for with my discomfort

with the McCarthy idea over I don't know how long. So thanks, Kweisi, I guess, for having a better vocabulary than me because he went to Princeton and I didn't. But although shout out Brockport Golden Eagles. Anyway, unknown. The word was unknown. He said that J.J. McCarthy asked him, so why wouldn't you draft me? Like, what reason would you not draft me? And Quasey told him, it's because you're a bit of an unknown because you don't have that many passes and because it is harder to get comfortable with someone who has these unknown elements

because we can't just look at what they did in college and just without even trying and just like, Oh, look up at the TV casually and be like, Oh, first round pick. You need to go much more in depth, which I am absolutely certain that they did in this effort that they put in to make the decision with JJ McCarthy. But that the same discomfort that I had with it is the same discomfort that the general manager of the Vikings acknowledged having with McCarthy as well. And I think what this leads into, Dane, is the next big discussion about J.J. McCarthy is what?

You know what it's going to be, right? When he's going to play. When does he play? Yeah, when is he on the field? I should have given you more time. When he's going to play. And because there's so much unknown, that's because given you more time when he's gonna play and because there's so much unknown that's because he needs more reps and he needs he needs time and i'm just gonna put

this out there right now that he looks so young to me i'm getting older than they're staying the same age so everyone does but kirk is like my age like oh yeah old quarterback yeah you and me we're same age that mccarthy looks like a child he's a kid. He's a kid. I can even say that now. I'm 32. I'm 11 years older than J.J. McCarthy. Wild. And the youngest quarterback. Yep.

And I'm just going to say the word patience. Because there's unknowns, because there's a lot to work on here, because he needs to work on, touch on the football. He needs to understand that you can't just whip it past everybody like he did in college. Some of those highlight reel throws are actually not good because you don't want to just be firing it, you know, a hundred miles an hour across the field. And I'm willing to kind of step back and say, let's see how this entire process plays out without each week, each training camp practice. Is heb1 is he qb1 yet is he freaking

qb1 yet like i don't we're not gonna be that i'm not gonna be that guy let's not let's agree not to be that guy and there's gonna be enough of that i'm gonna want to be that guy yeah and i'm sure we will we can be that like behind closed doors but that we're not getting that out into and like and there's gonna be enough of that right there's to be enough of every single time Sam Darnold looks bad, and there's going to be times where Sam Darnold looks bad. It's going to be a referendum on why Sam Darnold should now go sit on the bench and hold the clipboard, and J.J. McCarthy should be under center. But patience, like Collar said.

I caution you. I can promise the fan base that there's going to be patience from the infrastructure in place here. There's no way they're going to ruin this kid by throwing him in just because Sam Darnold had a bad game or two bad games in a row, maybe even three bad games in a row.

There's going to be a time when J.J. McCarthy is deemed ready to play football in the NFL by the head coach of the football team, Kevin O'Connell. And only then will he play football in the NFL for the Vikings. And I think it's as simple as that. We don't have to, and we're going to have to probably fight against this throughout the year because there's going to be fans that want him in. There's going to be talking heads on the television saying, what are the Vikings doing? Why would you draft a guy with a 10 pick if you're not?

Patience. And that's the most important thing with this. You know what's been really an adjustment recently is talking about this team coaching staff management overall in general. As in, you know, it seems like they know what they're doing. Because for a long time there when i first got here in 2016 it seemed like mike zimmer and rick spielman had it pretty locked down and they had built an excellent team and they even adjusted on the fly pretty well to what happened

with teddy bridgewater so forth but then for a long time we were in a rut of the kicker slash punter whether they're trading a fifth round pick for a kicker or punter we're not sure chris herndon then chris herndon and they're still not filling the guard spots which get to that soon uh and they're they're just not being realistic about where they are with this kirk cousins thing and they're trying to save their jobs and they're flailing and they're desperate and i came out even with the McCarthy pick even if I'm thinking all right it's going to take some time to figure out what happens here and uh the there are certain parts of this that makes me nervous I think I can also reasonably say that in this environment and

with Kevin O'Connell and with the work that they put into this that it's pretty easy to be comfortable that they're not going to completely botch it by throwing McCarthy into the wolves and this is actually another reason to even keep Nick Mullins on the team imagine if Sam Darnold gets banged up and Nick Mullins starts people will be like bust he's a bust what are we gonna do but that might, though, to not put him in. And the fact that O'Connell doesn't have to really answer to anyone except for, I guess, the ownership of this team. And I'm guessing he's also prepared them for that with a discussion of this isn't someone we want to play right away unless he's really, truly ready. I think there's a reason to say, you know what? I think they'll do this right. Now, that doesn't eliminate the pressures that pop up,

but I think that they'll have a good understanding of when it's time, is my point. Yeah, and I think I keep going back to this. When you zoom out and take a look at the last three years from a 30,000-foot perspective, everything set up for last night, every move that they made, the decisions not to extend Kirk Cousins, the decision to let him walk, all was made with the 2024 QB class in mind. Last night went about how they would want it to go when they got their guy. All of it seems

to kind of make sense step by step by step. Now that you have him, like this is the most important step and they're not going to screw that up. They did everything right to get the guy that they wanted or one of the guys that they honed in on. So there's absolutely no way that they're going to just rush and, you know, rush the rest of this process. And I think if you want to trust Kevin O'Connell at this point you should because everything that they've done has kind of lined up with what they said they were going to do now I do wonder like is there a time where J.J. McCarthy could look ready faster than than than you expect right now in April yeah I think there is maybe he does get on the field in

training camp and he's able to make some of these high-level throws and he is ready sooner than expected. That's a bonus. But to expect him to be the week one starter or anything of that nature, just don't expect it because they're not going to rush this part of the process. And I think the fact that we're able to sit here, talk about this in a pretty pragmatic way, while also saying like, yeah, they know what they're doing. Like that matters. And that's only because they've consistently been, you know, saying the same thing over and over again.

And now here we are with the guy that they hope can be the quarterback of the future, but he's only going can be the quarterback of the future. But he's only going to be the quarterback of the future if they don't break him in the present. And I don't think they will. Yeah, to me, it's until proven otherwise. They have earned so far with their process to get to this point, the belief that they have the rest of it plotted out, that they went through this process to determine

that they would pick jj mccarthy versus bo nicks is what it ultimately came down to and so they decided to go with him and then that process makes a lot of sense to how they approached it flying out meeting with these guys separately not just going off the pro days not just going off the combine putting in the effort to make the decision and And then now having a plan to handle it. I don't think that they went through this and went like, oh my gosh, we got them. Now what do we do? Right. So I'm guessing that there was from the very beginning, this conversation started way before

they even called JJ McCarthy's name. So yeah, I patience is the word, but if he beats out Sam Darnold in training camp, then his job is his. Like he doesn't have to wait. It's just preparing everyone for the possibility that he does. I was also thinking during the press conference as we were talking to Dallas Turner

that Dallas Turner probably thought he'd be doing his own press conference as a top 10 draft pick with 10 sacks this year, top pass rush win rate, a 40 and a half inch vertical, which is like Derrick Rose, like the craziest athlete and a star in college who went to the college football playoff as the centerpiece of his team's defense. And he's having to be like, yeah, I guess I did lose to JJ McCarthy.

It's like a funny situation. I thought that he was, you know, he had a lot of humility about that and sense of humor about that. But normally, Dane, this would be someone's top 10 draft pick. It's just, I don't know. Everything came together to present Kweisi Adafo-Mensah with the best possible scenario. But there is a discussion that I didn't really dive deep into in my immediate reaction of in total what they gave up to get Dallas Turner. It was a lot. And then Kweisi gave his like, take your Clark Kent glasses off and go try to get a championship player. What did you think of what it took to get Dallas Turner versus what they could have gotten by just staying and waiting until 23?

Last night when I was watching, and all of a sudden it's pick 17 and the Vikings are on the clock, and it starts to come to reality that they're going to draft Dallas Turner, who a lot of people thought was the number one defensive player. In a different draft, and this isn't hyperbolic like he might go top five in a weaker draft um he was expected to go top 10 in this draft when all of that was happening i was like holy crap this is it is a grand slam not even a home run when you zoom out and you think about everything that they gave up like i guess there can be a little bit more room for criticism because at the end of the day, what does it end up being? It ends up being a

second round pick this year, because that's what you traded along with the second round pick next year to get up to 23. And then it ends up being, so a second round pick this year, a second round pick next year, a third round pick next year, and a fourth round pick next year. I think that's what the whole trade package ends up being. And that sounds like a lot now that I say it now. But if Dallas Turner is as good as a lot of people think he's going to be, I'm not sure that it's going to matter what they gave up. And I know that's not the best way to build a team. I know it's not, yeah, we'll worry about the draft picks for next year. Next year. I know you have to have a plan.

But I think sometimes it's okay to be malleable. And like Kweisi Adolfo-Mensa said, he's a spreadsheet calculator guy. And last night he said, you know what, screw it. This guy, I feel like he can raise our floor and we can take us to another level. I'm okay with it. I asked my friend this earlier today. We were texting about the draft. He was upset because he's like, ah, they gave up way too much for 23 in the first place,

and then they gave up way too much to get to 17. And I think a lot of people are just frustrated because it feels like they didn't have a plan with 23 when they didn't use 23 to move up for Drake May. They probably tried. I said, well, what if everything with the draft worked out and you still got J.J. McCarthy right around 11-10, and then Dallas Turner's falling, and say the trade for 23 was never even made, and you thought they were done, and you learned last night that they took two second-round picks and a third and a fourth, and they went up and got a guy

that a lot of people thought. What if the 23 was never part of the equation, and they just traded two second-round picks and a couple later picks later last night, and they went up and got Dallas Turner? I think people would praise it. I think a lot of people would praise the aggressiveness of that move. So that's, I get it.

I get the trade charts don't like, the trade value charts don't like how much the vikings gave up to get 23 they don't like how much the vikings gave up to get from 23 to 17 but i keep going back to just how good this player could be and i think he could be a really really good one so last year with uh will anderson when the texans got will anderson the draft charts hated it yep the draft analysts hated it. They said, why are you giving up next year's pick? It's going to be number one overall.

How are you doing this? Of course, it was not. And Will Anderson was an immediate star for them that now plays a big role in putting them in the driver's seat to be a potential Super Bowl contender. And it doesn't have to work out like that. It might work out like Marcus Davenport, who the Saints traded everything for, and then we met Marcus Davenport and understood why that didn't work out.

And not that there's anything wrong with him. It just seemed like he didn't really have the drive. Anyway, that's last year's problems. But with Dallas Turner, there's two minds I have. One of them is, look, if you took three players, what did we say? Is it four draft picks overall? The odds that four players add up to the same value as him. So if it's a calculator type of thing and you go, all right, well, if you got a good guard and you got a good, you safety and none of them were fantastic but maybe they're

real good and then another player contributes on special teams like how much is that worth or something but one draft theory that i have despite how what some of the numbers say is that you win with greatness you don't win with good you don't win with a bunch of average or whatever you win because you have aaron donald you win because you have j or whatever you win because you have aaron donald you win because you have jaylen ramsey because you have cooper cup i know third round pick but because you have excellence so i guess aaron donald and jaylen ramsey are better examples the first round top of the draft first round picks a lot of times it takes mega star players to win a super bowl and by a lot of times i mean every time there's no super bowl

champion that doesn't have hall of famers on it and if you're looking for well look uh maybe we could get the next irv smith the tight end or maybe you can get the next running back that's delvin cook or something in the second round look those are good players and they can contribute for you but greatness at the edge rusher position is going to help you compete for a Super Bowl. And only greatness. The other thing is, too, you don't get edge rushers just hanging around. They aren't just like on the show. I went to the store and picked up an edge rusher.

I mean, what normally happens is if they're good, their team pays them $30 million a year. And you never get your mitts on them in free agency whereas guards or you know maybe even defensive tackles and some maybe not special defensive tackles usually but quality corners other positions will be available to get good players and you can fill in the good but you can't find the great so they decided this is what has a chance at greatness and his production, his pedigree, his athleticism, the fact that he's a good fit with Brian Flores. So I understand it. And I also think, well, you know, the draft is so random that maybe that second round

pick would have been better than Dallas Turner. But at this position, unlikely. If you want it, if you want that defensive line in general general you usually have to draft it at the top of the draft and just like that quote that is continues to pop up if he's great no one will ever ask what you traded up for him and if you told me that two years from now dallas turner's a double digit sack guy would anyone be the slightest bit surprised with his talent i wouldn't and would anyone care that it took a third and a fourth round pick to move up you know along with another second like no I don't think they would and I think there is reason to

believe that he could be that double digits that guy I mean you you mentioned all of his measurables and by the way he played at Alabama most of the time those guys are pretty damn good because they and he talked about this today they live that mindset, that pro mindset, you know, that lifestyle day in, day out. And it gets them ready to play in the NFL. A lot of Alabama players who come into the NFL are ready to play right away. You lost Daniel Hunter too this off season. I know you signed Jonathan Grenard, but you needed a replacement for Daniel Hunter, a star. And maybeallas turner isn't one but maybe he is and if he is i think it was worth the risk i also thought just my first impression on his personality i thought you'll fit here yeah he's great you're right i mean a personality type of guy but also

just seems to really love ball i mean he was he was getting a real kick out of telling us a story about the first time he ever played edge rusher and how he put a move on a guy and got a sack and loved it and stuff and i was like all right and he's talking about here's another sort of ball knower hint was he said yeah i mean i've studied jonathan grenard so when i got the text from him i thought it was awesome like i didn't even study jonathan grenard i mean, when they signed him, I was like, okay, I got to go learn more about this player because, you know, I only saw him play once with the Texans. And yet that's, you know, so that mindset, like you said, it just seems like it's going to be a good fit here. And if it doesn't work out, then a lot of people can go back to their draft charts. I think draft charts are a bit of a scourge on society because third and

fourth round draft picks the entire time i've been here and look sometimes you need to hit on them the entire time i've been here like how many third and fourths have ever become anything you get greatness at the top of the draft and you fill in the rest that's my opinion so uh let's talk about michael pennix you went back and watched me from the draft show and i could not breathe because i was laughing so hard at the statement from kirk cousins agent about him being taken off card and getting a call at the last minute while the falcons are on the clock like uh hey kirk um you know we got otas uh next tuesday and we're drafting a quarterback, and, you know, make sure you got your penny, the red one, so they can't hit you.

They're like, wait, wait, what was that part? Oh, you know, we're just drafting a quarterback. You know, maybe in the first round. I go, what? And so Kirk was a little surprised. I am absolutely certain, 100%, that the Vikings didn't handle that way with Sam Darnold. They've made it clear to him

for a long time that they were picking a quarterback so that was wild uh but uh is it justifiable for the falcons in your mind and give me hey how about give me a face or describe your face for for that one i'm smiling real big and widening my eyes for those who are listening. I was stunned. Quick back story. You were obviously podcasting live. I went back and watched that reaction. Beat writers were in the media room that we're normally in,

and Will Raggett, friend of the show, I know he comes on, so I can mention his name here and people will know who I'm talking about, goes, holy crap, the Falcons are going to take Michael Penix. And all of us go, what? No, yeah, no, they're taking Michael Penix. And I said, Will, I'm pretty sure you got got. I'm pretty sure like it's a fake, it's a fake thing. And he goes, no, good luck. And then all of a sudden, of course, like it starts to spread like wildfire. It was stunning. And if I squinted and was trying to spin zone this, I could maybe see how it makes sense. But at the end of the day, I think it's horrendous asset management. I think it makes no sense. And I just don't see how you could possibly

do what you did on the opening day of free agency and give a guy a hundred million dollars guaranteed coming off an achilles injury and being so sure he was the right guy and then bringing him in and having him talk about how alignment is so important with ownership and head coach and general manager and letting kirk cousins just say all these things publicly trotting him around atlanta with chains on He's at the Braves game throwing out the first pitch. He's at Atlanta United, whatever the soccer team's called, wearing chains. They're tweeting all of it. And then just to have him have egg on his face in round one

because you took his replacement, it's baffling. There is no way to – and I know people are going to be like, well, if they're really good, then they won't get a chance to draft a quarterback. Who cares? If they're really good, that means they have a chance to win a Super Bowl. I don't think that's the truth, and I think we all agree. But if they're really good, you know what would help a really good football team? A player at eight that could help the football team. Dallas Turner. Anybody. Roma Dunzey. I don't know. All the people that were available. Not someone who's going to replace the quarterback in place. It makes no sense. And I honestly, I've been a huge Kirk Cousins critic, just like this guy, over the course of his entire duration here. I don't think you can win a Super Bowl with him. I think Atlanta is going to figure that out. Maybe they already have. I felt bad for him last night. I really did

because I think, and I know some people are going to say, how do you feel bad for him? He has a hundred million dollars. And I'm like, yeah, that's fair. I don't feel that bad for him. But for a little part of me, the human side of me thinks like for the first time in his life, he was wanted. He was the bell of the ball for two months. For two months? You know, he's going to go up at OTAs. He's going to be asked about it. He's going to tell the same Holland high school story about how he didn't have offers and how he's proven people wrong. He's ready to do it again. I think he thought he escaped that entire narrative when he signed the $100 million, more than that, contract with the Falcons. And he didn't. He didn't. It's objectively hilarious too,

but baffling. There's no world in which you could actually spin zone it i know i said i could i can't i i've talked myself out of it again it's crazy so i'll try and then i'll throw a conspiracy theory at you because this is a good time to try to throw theories out there since it doesn't really make sense you could look at it as this they gave him two years worth of guaranteed money and the dead cap hits are not even that bad after those two years. If you are talking about someone who is 36, in two years they will be 38. Pretty hard to see Kirk Cousins playing much past 38 when he just had this catastrophic injury.

They are really making an all-in push to try to win this year because they know their division is not good, but at some point it will get better um so all right well we've got the best quarterback in the division we can get to the playoffs play him for two years but we know that that's going to be it it's just going to be two years if we draft michael pennix then we have two years to figure out what we have in him and then we have three years where he is cheap or relatively cheap so two full seasons of rookie quarterback contract Pennix who's been developed over two years with a bunch of young players who are going to be there for a long time Pitts London whoever else they draft not Roma Dunze he went to a different team but

you know what I mean right so they've got all these players together and they want to keep them together and they're the similar pocket quarterback okay that's how you try to make this work and quarterback is just always worth taking more than anything else for the long term of your franchise so that is the attempt to like justify this the conspiracy theory here we go now i heard one today somebody sent me like what if the nfl is going to take their pick away no they're not they're not going to take their first round pick away unless they really egregiously did something with the tampering here would be my thought kirk goes in for off-season workouts and they say you know kirk why don't we just see where that recovery is why don't you stick your leg in that mri machine they go oh um that looks fine everything is fine with your

achilles um it looks like it will definitely last four more years and then they go um mr general manager sir that achilles is going to hold up for about six weeks and this man is done playing football forever there has to be a legitimate fear regardless of how much they put down in guaranteed money that he will get hurt again or not ever recover from the achilles and they will need michael pennix next year it would and look our team's afraid of this russell wilson they traded for and they paid him all the dead money to go away this year so they might look at it as like we're not gonna get caught with our pants down like Denver did and have to maybe reach on Bo Nix because we just had no other options so we're gonna give ourselves a guy in case Kirk's leg explodes and he can't play ever again after this

year that is the best that i can possibly do to justify this and as far as the funny part yes i did laugh hysterically on the show last night the comedy of it is exactly what you laid out he stood in front of us so confident more confident than we'd ever seen him his entire time here and was just like it's what the dollars represent baby and he knew if somebody was going to go all in and they do it, he might have even known at that point because they were tampering. And so like, all right, you know, this guy is so confident. He gets this big deal.

He's wearing the dirty bird thing. And he just thinks exactly what he said. Someone finally signed me to the big deal, the four-year deal. They made it happen. They went full Kirk. And then they said, no, we're not going full Kirk. No, we're not. We're going three-quarters of the way Kirk.

I applaud you for your spin zone. I applaud you for your conspiracy theory. But the spin zone, it does make sense. I could see that side of the equation or that side of the coin where it's like we're gonna need a guy at some point maybe sooner than we think and let's get him now and not wait i don't i don't think deep down i can still get down with that the conspiracy thing though like if they are really worried about the achilles then why did you sign them like why did you sign them but would kirk have even provided them with

the actual medical update because they needed to make a decision that day would he have actually given him the medical update again this is this is not reporting this is me being maybe ridiculous or maybe right we'll see but i i am being i i am like half facetious on this, but regardless of the actual medical reports, I just mean in general that they know this might be a one year thing with Kirk Cousins. If other parts of that body that's been beaten up for so many years come apart and they might actually need it next year. So all of us laughing about it today, Michael, Michael Penix starting quarterback 2025 because kirk tore the other achilles and we saw this happen to cam acres yep tore the one achilles you tear the other one

and then i don't know like if cam acres is going to have a career after this that might have been what they're hedging against but they can't actually say it so they just go i don't know we just like them just like we throws it actually, I can get down with that because you are right. They can't say, well, we're worried about his Achilles, guys. He tore it last year. He's probably going to tear it again. They can't say that publicly. On the opening day of free agency, it might have been something as simple as Arthur Blank,

who's getting old, saying, guys, we're doing this because I'm getting old and I want to see a good football team. We've been mid for too long since Matt Ryan left, even for most of Matt Ryan at the end of his career. But I guess I can see that because you're not wrong. I mean, we literally saw it in practice. Cam Akers, who is maybe the most jacked in shape human being on the planet. And if he can come back from an Achilles injury and then immediately tear it again,

I would imagine a 35, 36-year-old with a lot of mileage on his body, that can probably happen. So maybe you're right. Maybe in 365 days, we're looking at the next draft class and we're saying well like there's not anyone here and Atlanta has a quarterback now and wow maybe they were visionaries um I still have a hard time in the present though looking at the decision on the surface and saying that was the right one because I think when you make the decision to sign Kirk Cousins, you sign up for all of the risk involved with it. It wasn't a secret that he tore his Achilles. You sign up for all the risk and it was a win now move. And if you're making that big of a win now move and you're paying for that big of a win now move i i think the rest of your offseason should

reflect a win now mentality and frankly that didn't like there's going to be someone there there's someone probably out there that exists that can help them win sooner than than michael pennix let me let me try this out because i'm starting to think like do i not dislike it like should i give him a shade more credit well i i don't think it was so much it was just pure shock last night i couldn't even come up with a take i couldn't even come up with the words to describe how random and accidental someone said they left auto draft on it's like that is that is so funny because like that's exactly right uh when you miss your fantasy draft and then you come back and you have four fullbacks he's like what the hell uh and so uh but let me let me just try this a little bit um what you said about the owner

wanting to win right away and all that i mean i think that is pretty important and with michael pennix what we can't forget is that what this move proves is that he's a pretty good prospect and so you have a player now that the other teams don't have. That's something. And things change so quickly in the league that one day you think, oh, well, we got Russell Wilson. We're going to compete for a championship in Denver. And then Jared Stidham, Zach Wilson, and Bo Nix are your quarterbacks.

You might be laughing at them a little bit, right? I mean, so things change fast, and if you don't have any answer next year, and the other part of it too that I was going to bring up is, all right, well, Kirk wonders why they didn't get a player to help them this year. How many rookies, all right, Puka Nakua last year, how many rookies changed the fate of a franchise

for the following season, just their rookie year? I can only fate of a franchise for the following season just their rookie year i can only think of a handful ever if they drafted dallas turner does that make the difference in his first year where even edge rushers usually have a development curve in his first year does it mean difference between super bowl and not so if you're only working on the tiniest of timelines where you can only really guarantee a year of kirk and you don't even know what's going to happen next. Thinking about a year or two years out, that's something that I think philosophically wise, you would always tell teams, hey, don't draft for today. In fact, we criticized the heck out of Spielman for like we needed a zone blocking center. You're like, yeah. And then three years later, he's decent.

Oh, OK. Well, a lot of times that's how it works so i think you can i think you can get in their shoes and understand it it's actually just so random and so shocking and the way that this whole thing played out with kirk that hit so hard more than hey look if he had been drafted if he had been drafted at the 27th pick no one would have said a thing they were like oh they're getting their future quarterback. But instead, it was eighth. So that's what made it so shocking. Yeah.

So I think you've kind of talked yourself into it. I like it. Yeah. I love it. There it is. Actually, I like it because it was funny as well. I also like that the NFL liked Michael Penix because I liked Michael Penix. And why wouldn't you have liked Michael Penix, right?

We were told he's not that good. He's not going to be. All he did was be great in college. And he's not injury prone. He played two healthy seasons. He's a little old. So, like, I guess if you're going down that rabbit hole of, like, quarterback of the future, if Kirk does last two, three years of his contract

and Achilles holds up fine, then yeah, you did draft your quarterback of the future, but now your quarterback of the future is the same age like Brandon Whedon was when he entered the NFL. I don't know. I like Michael Penix. I also kind of feel bad for Michael Penix because I want to see him as soon as possible in the NFL

because I want to see him continue to prove the people wrong that don't believe in him. And now in a perfect world for Atlanta, he probably won't play for two years. But yeah, the fact that Michael Penix went eight is awesome. That's very, very cool. It's just proof that teams have different viewpoints than what the consensus is from the outside. And what happens oftentimes is that one major draft analyst has an opinion that everybody else just ends up gravitating toward,

and that includes you have to trade up to number four for J.J. McCarthy, which they did not have to do. So shocking that the draft analysis world went over how many drafts are there at figuring out what was actually going to happen on draft night. I can't believe it. But, uh, with Michael Penix, I will be interested to see how that thing plays out or if they drafted the next quarterback for the next regime after they get fired. Uh, anyway, uh, you think, last question for you, I'll leave the hottest question to the end.

So if you made it here, that means you get this. If Penix and McCarthy were on the board, who do you think the Vikings take? I wish we knew. I wish we got to know. I think they take McCarthy. I still think they do. But the more I think about it,

I think that there was probably some genuine shock in the war room when when Atlanta went Pennix at eight I think I probably there's a large part of me that thinks McCarthy because I've just been trained to think that way he's been connected to them throughout the process but when you really watch Michael Penix play the position and watch him just huck the ball downfield that sounds like an offense that or what Kevin O'Connell wants in his quarterback someone who's willing to throw that 25 yard big route up the middle that he's schemed open he has a cannon for an arm so I wish there was a world in which we could play out the string and see at 11 or at 10, both guys are on the board. Who did the Vikings actually want? I still think it's McCarthy,

but only by a nose. Somewhere, someone has the video of that in this building and tmz i am asking you to pay them to get that video out if tmz because i know they do this stuff they will go and they'll get the casino worker that has the security footage and they'll be like here's like 25 g's why don't you just leak us that footage i don't have that much money you don't have that much money maybe the star tribune guys do like they got a pretty big newspaper uh is that that not right to mention them on this? No? We should have ended the podcast earlier Seifert's got it. Let's pull it together

and see if we can get whoever was videoing that last night to leak us the footage of them reacting to Pennix going to Atlanta and then we'll really have all the answers anyway, thanks everybody for watching. We'll have so much to talk about here.

There's going to be a rookie mini camp coming up very soon and the rest of a draft that the Vikings are barely participating in, but when they do select players, we will react to those as well. So thanks everybody for watching as always. And we will catch you next time. Football.