Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Reacting to Kirk Cousins's COVID-related absence, Mike Zimmer's comments and Jake Browning's great night

Episode Date: August 1, 2021

Matthew Coller is joined by Judd Zulgad to talk about Kirk Cousins being forced to sit out practice due to close contact with Kellen Mond, who tested positive for COVID. Mike Zimmer expressed his agitation at the podium and called for everyone to get vaccinated. What does this conflict between the QB and coach's views on COVID mean for the Vikings? Is there any way to prevent COVID from being a problem in the future if Cousins doesn't want to get vaccinated? Jake Browning was forced to rise to the challenge for the Vikings' night practice and he did a very good job of doing so. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Pollard here sitting next to Judd Zolgat in a throwback style Purple Insider episode. Judd, we have done this in our lives so many times. We've sat here with very similar recording equipment, talking to each other about the Minnesota Vikings and about calamities and breaking news stories. And I just feel like I'm having a lot of nostalgia to be sitting here with you doing this because everything in the Purple Insider era that you and I have done together has been over Zoom. We haven't been sitting in this room at TCO Performance Center talking to each other about the Vikings being at the center of the NFL universe for something going wrong. So you are

the perfect person to be here talking about Kirk Cousins not being available to practice because of close contact with someone, Kellen Mond, who reportedly tested positive for COVID. And because Kirk Cousins is unvaccinated, he is, quote, high risk and will have to miss multiple days of practice, of which Mike Zimmer is infuriated. So just give me the Zolgad reaction to what happened here with Kirk Cousins missing praxis and Mike Zimmer being as candid as Mike Zimmer can ever be. Well, first of all, this is one where I agree with Zimmer completely, and I agree with him being frustrated. And the thing that I'm trying to get people, like, here's what I want to talk about here. OK, you've got your beliefs about politics and COVID and I've got mine. Right.

But strip it all away, because I would guess that politically I probably don't see eye to eye with Mike in life. But strip it all away. And what do we do? We cover football and it helps us if the Vikings are good. Now, it's absolutely imperative to mike that the vikings are good but just as a football discussion i mean tonight we saw jake browning honest to god if nothing else have to throw every single pass i mean this is early in training camp you have four quarterbacks for a reason right like you have guys on the roster right now to throw passes because and j Jake Browning in this night scrimmage had to throw every single pass

because, well, Mond, I believe is vaccinated, but he got COVID. That's going to happen. I get that one. Cousins is not vaccinated, despite the fact he was arguably the most important person or one of them on the team. And then, I can't explain this one, Nate Stanley, who's just a guy who's around hoping

to stick on the practice squad also is not vaccinated so those two have to quarantine now for five days and Matthew I thought this was going to happen but I really thought it was going to happen like the week of a game or the day of a game the one saving grace from this is does cousins learn and again put your political beliefs and your beliefs about COVID aside. And you know what? You might think that the vaccine's not safe, but the reality is you're being paid millions of dollars to play football. And like it or not, that's who you are. So does Cousins learn from this and say you know what i don't really like the vaccine i don't believe in where in how quick it's come or i don't know whatever he wants to say but i need to play

quarterback for the vikings like i need to be available keep in mind being exposed to mond as he was if he had the vaccine he practices tonight and so does nate stanley so we're not talking about uh uh well he's still going to be out for three days, so just shut up. It's five days instead. We're talking about a guy who could have taken part in practice. And now when training camp, as you know, it's long in time and duration, but it's not really long as far as practices go.

It's very truncated compared to what it used to be. You're going to be out until probably at least Friday. So this is a warning shot. Zimmer is exactly right to be frustrated. And my only question is, does this serve as a cautionary tale of, holy cow, what if this happens Packer week? Because you're in trouble then. So this is the really hard thing for people in our position to talk about because I'm not telling you what to do with your life. As everyone knows who listens to the show, it's not really my thing to try to dive into political issues. But from a football perspective, which where we will talk about this from a football perspective, Zimmer made it very

clear in minicamp. If you don't get vaccinated, life is going to be really hard for me for you. And I have trouble seeing how you can fully lead a team the same way that all the other quarterbacks are going to lead teams who are vaccinated if you aren't and if Kirk truly doesn't want to do this for religious reasons or whatever reasons he decides then you know that's his decision but at the same time these are the potential consequences of doing that and you could see really the frustration and even sort of the fear for that mike zimmer has that you're going to miss out on key players in big games at some point if this continues the way it's going and and here's zimmer who seems very educated on the topic, who's talking about the

Delta variant, which if you're paying attention to the news at all, you see has apparently a higher rate of spreading or spreads easier or faster. So meaning that if you're not vaccinated, there's almost a good chance, it seems, that you're going to run into it. And even people who are vaccinated, like Kellen Mann, are having this problem. And so Zimmer, who is obsessed with winning, he is one of the most competitive people that I've ever covered. I don't know how you feel about that, but I mean, I just think he's, it's like everything to him is football.

I remember we asked him once about what music he listened to, and he had no idea. It was like the country station or whatever is on in my truck right but but like this this is mike zimmer for you it's a hundred percent football it's a hundred percent about winning there's so much pressure for this season on mike zimmer and to have this go on in camp and to miss precious practice time i think he has every right to be upset that a guy who could have prevented this did not prevent it and he took some very harsh shots at kirk cousins and we are starting

off on the awkwardest of awkward foots here feet between the head coach and quarterback because he he basically said you're not a team player i mean mean, he essentially came out and said, Jake Browning did this because he's a team player. Dot, dot, dot. You're not. And called Browning smart. Yeah, he called Browning smart. Which is a definite sideways shot. Three times.

Yeah. He said smart, really, really smart. He said to start off his press conference. Super, super smart. And I don't even think Zimmer is supposed to reveal who's vaccinated or not, but he just said it with Jake Browning. Because we all know he's playing quarterback tonight here at this night practice he is so uh I feel like Zimmer has every right uh to to be upset that this happened to his team and that he will be holding his breath every single day when those tests come back that this doesn't happen again and like you

said they dodged a bullet here but it's also a sign to all those players who decided not to that the potential consequences could be hurting your team. And again, that's not to say that I'm an epidemiologist or a scientist. It's only to say the reality football-wise is if you end up having to be out for two weeks because you end up with a positive test and you're not vaccinated i mean that that has the potential to really hurt your team if you're delvin cook or someone else uh and i'm not saying that i know who's vaccinated or not because they haven't told us but there's if you're

a star player on this team or a key player on this team but if you're kirk cousins you are tanking the season if you're out if you get sick and you miss six games or something like that like you have the potential to just take apart a season or as Mike Zimmer brought up if you're playing for a playoff spot so this one of the biggest questions on this Judd was could could it have the potential these different rules for vaccinated unvaccinated people could it have the potential to kind of rip apart a team? Yeah. And I think we just saw it with Mike Zimmer's press conference.

Oh, it's going to rip apart teams. We just don't know which ones. But my point about this is, okay, so this is basically a shot across the bow, right? Like, we're now seeing the ramifications. Because, like it or not, the league has decided if you're not vaccinated, you're going to pay a huge price. They're going to punish you. And again, we could get into is that right or wrong. It doesn't matter.

They've decided to do it. They are the National Football League. They can crush basically, for lack of a better term, whoever they want to crush. And they're going to make examples of people now here but here's the thing too so Kirk now has to quarantine for five days and and let's say he dodges the bullet and he is not sick okay if he doesn't get vaccinated how many more times are we going to go through this, though? Because if he is close contact, he now has to go back in. And so that's the thing in a billion dollar industry where he is. I believe I believe the Vikings are on the hook, if I'm not mistaken. Kirk, the question becomes, at what point in time do you just have to sit him down and say, we can't have this because they can't. And here's the other thing, and I don't get it from their end. It sort of confuses me.

So I'm not saying that these guys were good. But for Kirk's first three years here, they had backup quarterbacks who had taken snaps before. Like they knew, you know, I am not trying to imply that Simeon or Mannion were going to win you a ton of games. But if they had to get in, they sort of knew what they were doing, right? Well, Jake Browning, God bless his soul, has been on practice squad for two years. Nate Stanley, I think, is probably gone now. And Kellen Mahn, from what I've seen in practice, practice might be fine someday but he's nowhere near playing so you're now risking it and taking the chance of okay kirk we're going to guess that you're not going to have um a case where you're exposed which by the way now we're just seeing

once and it's what july 31st it's not even august yet so that's where i sort of come to from a football standpoint and i think the vikings i think both sides, Matthew, need to learn from this. One is it's a great it's a great lesson to cousins of no matter how I feel religiously or politically. I make a ton of money doing this in a short window. We have an opportunity. We have an opportunity to make a playoff run. And doing what I'm doing now is very counterproductive to that but the second thing is from the viking standpoint do you really just sort of sit here and be like well we still we still just got jake browning so and i'm not saying there's answers but i am saying i would be a bit concerned i mean think think about this matthew

if this team so let's just say for the sake of this conversation the defense is as good as we think it might be so like now Zim's got his defense it's back not saying it's the greatest but it's damn good potentially right you've got skill position guys in Thielen and Jefferson who's going to have a marvelous year you can just tell uh Dalvin Cook you've got skill position guys and an offensive line that I think should be improving some if they make the right moves and all of that's going to come unglued because of the quarterback right but does that change anything that Kirk Cousins thinks about the vaccine and I would be very surprised if it did but my question is how can it not change how he thinks about his job and

his position and the fact that he's being counted on. If Kirk Cousins was going to work at Subway or like at our jobs, I'd be like, okay, I'd probably get the vaccination. But you know what? Okay, don't do it. You have, and this is the one thing I think where we're going to get into a real, real murky situation. If this happens on a Sunday before a game game i'm going to tell you right now i think a lot of a lot of people who are applauding kirk right now possibly because they're probably as

invested or more so in the vikings than almost anything else are not going to be applauding that if jake browning has to start a game you tell me how much of this town is going to say good we love to see this k Kirk stood his ground so I'm just saying there's a lot of there's a lot of things going on here um purely from a football standpoint but it's an important sport that I think people need to consider tonight well and what it's done Judd is it's put this whole it's put Kirk Cousins and his whole team at sort of the center of a firestorm I mean even when you tweet out what Mike Zimmer said, I got a bunch of tweets very aggressively stating their opinions on vaccinations and COVID

for people who were, what do you call that, anti-vax or whatever, and then people who are very strongly for everyone getting vaccinated. And it's sort of just even just tweeting out what Mike Zimmer said created huge arguments. And it seems to be this really hot button issue. And now you have a quarterback that can't say, oh, HIPAA or whatever, which isn't even a thing. But you know what I mean? No one can hide behind, oh, I don't want to talk about my medical history not after you've had this happen because now everybody knows that you and your decision directly caused you not

to be on the field and that's the bottom line for Mike Zimmer it's the bottom line for Vikings fans and what you said about Jake Browning like I don't even want to make it about Jake Browning because every backup quarterback in the league almost unless it's a random case Keenum situation is not going to be anywhere near as good as your starting quarterback who again you pay a lot of money so are they going to pressure him they're not allowed to do that but I feel like Zimmer did that today at the time, I guess having been around Kirk for now, what this is year four, he lives in his own world. I mean, this is how he is in the locker room. This is how he has rubbed some teammates the wrong way and another organization the wrong way when he was

there. He kind of has his own tunnel vision. And it's one of the reasons I think sometimes he says stuff that frustrates people or makes people upset. Why did you say it that way, Kirk? Or why did you throw me under the bus? And I really think that he truly doesn't understand that, that he will stand at the podium sometimes and say stuff that will have a negative reaction from teammates or us or whatever, and he won't really get it.

Why are they upset with me? Because he just kind of has that horse blinder thing on to him. And I think it's this way too. It's like, and I don't know this for sure, but this is just like a speculation based on being around him is that he has the things he believes in and he's going to go with that. And he's not going to change that. And one of the reasons I think this way is after he said the, I die, if I die, I die. They had a press conference with us on it with him where he was supposed to clarify what he meant. And it was just like you couldn't really understand what he was even trying to tell us. He was just saying like, oh, that's what I think.

And we're like, like okay can you explain like not really it was it was actually kind of frustrating because you're like what do we ask him and he's not really explaining anything uh but i don't get the feeling that he's going to change his viewpoint on this which leaves the potential door open all year for for basically like walking a tightrope. But this could happen four times. Right. That's what I mean.

Like if he doesn't get sick and keeps being exposed to it, he's just you're going to have this. And then you're out for quarantine time five days. That's what I mean. You are walking a tightrope now. And so the question is, well, let's get to Jake Browning tonight. And I'll just say the question is, like, do you get someone else? Do you get Blake B like do you get blake bordles or yes i do i think they'll cut nate stanley i hope they do yeah like okay it's one

thing if it's cousins right and he's not vaxxed and that's too bad or or you applaud that i don't know but anyway nate stanley like you're lucky to have a job and now you're gonna not be able to work at your job and so and i mean again mean, again, if Nate Stanley had the vaccination, he could have practiced tonight and taken some of the load off Browning. My own personal opinion, and I've been saying this for a while, is yes, I go and get a backup. Not because I think that guy can win eight games. Like, you're right, the Keenum thing was a once in a generation type of thing for a team. That's not going to happen. But I get a guy who's just played in games because he knows how to play in games.

And I think there's things about managing games in this league that until you do it, you really don't know. And the Vikings are too good for it to become just a complete bleep show. Right. If this was an OK team, like if we didn't expect that much if we just thought that was seven games or something i might be like okay this is an ideal but who cares uh but the pressure and what's interesting is cousins is involved in this the pressure on zimmer spielman whose contracts are up after 2023 and kirk whose contract is up after 2022 and you could argue has to play well this year or things could get ugly in March there's pressure on all three and they're tied together and so if one of them sort of goes off on his own it's like well here's what I'm doing

it's interesting to me because I mean this can cost people potentially their careers and you know as good as Kirk's stats are sometimes if Kirk doesn't have a great year I don't know that Kirk's going to get the next big contract that Kirk thinks he's going to get so like because I think Kirk just thinks well I'll do it again I'll fool the Jets and get another team uh but you know I can tell you this right now. What happened today is going to be put in a file folder or something by other teams. Because if you're Tom Brady and you pull this, you're Tom Brady, right? But then, you know, Kirk's not there. So Kirk's good, but he's not great. And this is the type of thing where, like it or not, fair or not,

this shows you don't love football. You know what I mean? And what do teams like? They like guys who love football. So I think Kirk needs to realize he's sort of tied into this in a big way, that this is not just him being off by himself. This is him being very intertwined with what's going on here and if this goes sideways people will be fired and Kirk could be gone that's what I mean about

the implications of this and why Zimmer was as strong as he is about this is because he knows like his career rests on this and you know if Cousins misses two games and you miss the playoffs by one game and you lose both of those games that he's out because close contact or whatever, no one's going to go back and say, oh, you know, they missed Kirk for two games. So, Zim, you're good. It doesn't work that way. Like this happens all the time where things go wrong for a team and there are reasons. But when you do the evaluation at the end of the year, you say, this is the bottom line. What was it, Parcells? You are your record. That's what's going to matter. So if you have that mixed into your season and it ends up costing you, that's going to go on your record either way. They don't put little asterisks.

This is like with kickers, too. Oh, well, we missed the field goal at the end. Well, they don't put an asterisk, loss because you kicked a field goal or whatever right they they give you a lot real hard it's like when people say like oh well we should have won the seattle game like well great but you know at the end of the day that doesn't matter so the same thing with this if cousins and his vaccination status end up costing them games like imagine how mike zimmer feels imagine how you would feel if at your job, somebody else's vaccination status was resting for your possible future career. I mean, I think that's a position

of great anxiety for Zimmer. So I understand why he was so harsh in the way that he spoke, but I don't think a lot's going to change. So this is a thing where it's like, you better have your Tom Pellicero alerts on your phone like i do like but but what do you do then i don't know i don't know what you i think because i don't think you can just stand pat completely and be like oh too bad we can't get kirk to change his mind i don't think you can do that either i think i've got the best solution and it's it's not great you leave him at home for all the meetings and stuff like that. You make him do everything virtually that he comes to practice and he practices and that's it. And then he goes home back to his house.

Like Zimmer even opened the door for separating one of the quarterbacks, which teams did last year. That's right. Happened with a lot of teams. I think that might be him. So you so hold on. So you you have him do all of the quarterback stuff and team stuff virtually and then have them come here to practice and then just go right home and but you know but i mean you can't the best i can come up with no i know but you can't then stop it from going out which i think he does still it goes to restaurants you know what yeah i just don't i just think the whole thing i don't know what you do man but with the expectations for this team this is one of the weirdest things i've seen and

this is the vikings oh yeah yeah like i'm trying to think i'm trying to think like what do you do now i would get a veteran quarterback but i'm not saying that that's going to get you wins i'm just saying i i would i would have an alternative like they have for the past three years that's better probably than a kid that you don't know about um but, I mean, this is a team that's had cruises go awry. Bryant McKinney showed up for training camp under Les Frazier one year with his cholesterol so high that he couldn't practice, and they were afraid he might have a stroke and die. If he did, you know, we can go through the litany of things

that this team has done, bad luck that this team has had. But given this situation i am really at a complete loss if if kerchers comes in and says i'm not doing it um because it's not like you can skirt the rules that's become crystal clear right right so what the hell do you do i don't know but i do know that it has the potential to take apart a team in a way that a wide receiver or safety or kicker or whatever would not. Like the Buffalo Bills, for example, Stefan Diggs, very strongly pro vaccination. Cole Beasley has been incredibly open about not wanting to be vaccinated. But those are two receivers. And if you lose a receiver, OK, even if you lost all your receivers for a game, you could still probably win.

Like there's a chance you can if you lose your quarterback. I mean, this is supposed to be the guy who really is the front face of your organization, who leads your team. I mean, he's just your quarterback is everything in the NFL. And so to not have him available for this week of practices, to have players who rely on Kirk Cousins to win games and to make Pro Bowls and to, I mean, it goes on everyone's record. Like that's how much, that's why it's so hard to be an NFL quarterback is the amount of pressure that's on you all the time. And I think with Cousins, it's funny about how like his horse blindness has, I think, played a role in his success because it doesn't seem to matter how much he gets criticized or who's mad at him.

He just isn't always Kirk. But from this case, I don't know what kind of horse blinders you could put on when the head coach is saying about your backup, he's really smart and a team player. So anyway, it's going to be a very uncomfortable situation. I will be interested to see what Kirk Cousins has to say about this. I'm sure it will sort of be prepared statement. I was going to say it's not going to be a very uncomfortable situation i will be interested to see what kirk cousins has to say about this i'm sure it will sort of be prepared statement i was gonna say it's not gonna be enlightening that's the thing about it right and it's gonna be frustrating and he won't tell you if he decides to get vaxxed he ain't gonna tell you right and i well and i think it's really

frustrating for fans too because you saw the crowd tonight and i was thinking as i was walking through the concourse just like how many people came out to see Kirk Cousins throw the football tonight and he's not here. And I don't know what to tell you. Right. I just don't know what to tell you. I like these are the rules. There's nothing you can do about it unless he decides to get vaccinated. And I don't know if that's going to happen. So I'm sure that tonight a lot of people enjoyed watching Jake Browning, but they wanted to see the star quarterback. And I don't know. This is the world we live in at this moment, and it's going to be very tense, I think, around here for a long time.

You're right, and I don't blame him. The coach who has a tendency to get tense is going to get very tense. Because this is going to screw with a lot of things he did. And if the Vikings don't have Kirk for two or three games, just for example, and Mike's defense plays lights out and they score three points and so his teams lose 10-3 or something, this is not going to go right off Zimmer's back let me tell you that well and we know that Zimmer is an all-time grudge holder which I respect as an all-time

grudge holder as you know about me yes but um I here's one thing I thought of and then I swear we'll talk about Jake Browning and what happened tonight on the field uh that the gloves might be off. Like Zimmer once said out loud that he made like a snarky comment, like someday I'll write a book and I'll just tell you guys everything that happened here or something. Or if they ever fire me, I'll just have a press conference and say everything. And I thought, I wonder if he's just going gonna say everything this year with Kirk Cousins because there were times last year where he started to let it sneak out a little yeah sometimes Kirk locks on to his first read he said after the Atlanta Falcons loss I think that Zimmer has done a really amazing job of sort of you know keeping his fists clenched in his or whatever you know

keeping his lips tight when it came to frustrating losses where the quarterback didn't show up i wonder if gloves are off because everybody knows this is it and if kirk doesn't play well enough this year they're gonna move him he's not gonna be here after this year right so i wonder if zimmer says whatever i'm just gonna say whatever i want because he let us down with this thing from the very beginning so this will be worth watching this will be definitely uh Jake Browning was terrific tonight he's just he was terrific and I think he deserves a ton of credit because this is not a guy who ever gets to play with the first team he doesn't know these receivers and he's thrown into the situation out of complete nowhere the crowd is there the stands are. There's a lot of pressure on him from

the outside of just like NFL network is here and they're showing highlights and they're, they're videotaping everything. The reporters, including myself and yourself standing on the sideline, tweeting out every throw. And he was great. I mean, he threw passes on target. He was in command. He didn't look shaken or thrown off in any way and I had the thought come to my mind of like he could be a Case Keenum type of guy big college stats not the biggest arm but the right mentality and I remember Sage Rosenfels coming to his first training camp and saying I really like what I see of this guy, of a backup quarterback, because he just has that demeanor to him. And I think we really saw that tonight.

We haven't seen it from Kellen Mond. There's been many backups that we have not seen it from in practice in years past. I was really impressed with what Jake Browning did tonight. Yeah, he looked good. Got off to a shaky start. But, I mean, of course, he did. He got thrown in there, and it's impossible to win. But, yeah, he came around.

He looked good. He looked solid. I mean, I think he knows what he's doing. I just don't know. I don't know when he gets in a real-game environment what would happen then. So I'd be curious to see that. But, yeah, he was – and, I mean, it is incredible to think that, you know, he was the only quarterback in a training camp practice.

That does not happen. Never. They're going to, I would guess for practice, at least starting, because they'll be off on Sunday, on Monday, sign one or two more? Because, like, you need arms. And I swear to God, Jake Browning probably threw 90 passes tonight. Okay, I've got how many he threw. Oh, you do?

In 11 on 11 okay because i was gonna say total he probably threw 90 to 95 want to remind you to go to sodastick.com to get your original minnesota sports inspired goods if you have not seen it yet you've got to check it out couple of my favorite designs are the duck duck gray duck and the randy moss goat which you've got to see all their apparel is screen printed here in minnesota on super soft super comfy shirts and hoodies you will love it we're going to hook you up with free shipping on your next order by the way use promo code purple insider for free shipping that's soda stick s-o-t-a-s-t-i-C-K.com. Original Minnesota sports inspired goods.

Code Purple Insider for free shipping. He went 26 of 37, according to EricSmithVikings.com. 37 passes in a practice in 11 on 11 drills is not something you would ever see even from a starting quarterback. So if you include the warmups, the seven on seven drills,seven drills, the one-on-ones, all those things, I mean, they usually have four quarterbacks throwing. Yes, for a reason. And they had one.

So, I mean, great job to him. It reminds me of like when, say, for example, a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball gets hurt in the first inning and somebody has to come in and pitch like four innings even though they never do. And if you get through it, you give your team a chance i think jake browning gave his team a chance to have a good practice he gave the fans a chance to have a good night here as opposed to oh my god this practice is horrible like this could have been really bad and instead jake browning made it good which gives me only a little bit of i guess, confidence that he could come into a game and not just completely fall apart and maybe do something. But if you're talking about track

record, what you're saying about bringing in an established quarterback is exactly right. I mean, I agree with you that you want to have somebody like a Trevor Simeon. Sean Mannion ironically signed today with the Seattle Seahawks. Maybe he'll get cut coming out of training camp. I don't know. But I just think that we can separate the two things of like, what would Jake Browning do if he had to play six games versus what he did tonight and what he showed tonight?

I think that he solidified himself as the backup quarterback tonight to show up under at least some level of bright lights and make throw i mean he made throws like downfield he only made a great catch kj osborne made a really nice you can find them anywhere on twitter like the highlights but he made really good throws he had a nice touchdown pass to irv smith in the corner of the end zone on a red zone drill like i just think that he deserves a lot of credit for being thrown into a situation that was just awful right and doing enough to like look like an nfl quarterback tonight and that is something that we haven't seen from kellen mond in practice at all and you know to to do it tonight i i think even in a regular practice it would have been good

but to do it tonight says a little bit more about his mentality and how he could handle a situation like that. So I think that this is meaningful, I think. Yeah, and this, to me, especially before Cousins and Mond went out, to me there was no question Browning is going to go into the year, unless they acquire somebody else matthew as the second qb he's going to be the backup i think they know that mond is not prepared yet i think mond's mechanics need work um i like what he does as far as as attitude and it looks like he's a

sponge which is great but i don't think he's going to be in any way prepared to play in a game in 2021. So I do think – so what we saw from Browning here tonight is probably a positive to the Vikings if their plan is what it looks to be right now, which is I think he's going to go in that they'll keep three QBs on the 53 man and that it will go Cousins, Browning, and then Ma just gets kept because he's not going to be cut, obviously. So this probably bolstered and solidified their opinion because Browning, he's not a disaster for sure. He knows what he's doing.

I have questions about actual competitive games, not training camp, not preseason games, not Kyle Slaughter games. I mean actual regular season potential games but uh yeah and he is i would guess too that with what he did it goes a long way with teammates as well yes 100 because they know the poor kid through you know 90 passes right so so like i know that that's stress on your arm and i know that that's a ridiculous ask i mean that's the thing is you're like we have no quarterbacks but one and that that one kid shows up and does everything that's a credit so i'm thinking if i'm in that locker room right now it means something to me that i saw a real character play by a guy who probably could have said what the f is going

on here? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So good for him. Or just, you know, been nervous or whatever to take on those first team reps. He doesn't throw to Justin Jefferson a lot. He doesn't throw to Adam Thielen a lot. But he did a great job with the first team offense, not just throwing to the backups against backups. A tough night for Cam Dantzler against the great receivers that, you know, Vikings corners

always look worse. That was why we weren't sure last year if they were going to be able to play or not, because they always look bad against these receivers. Um, but he, you know, he found people down the field. He had touch passes. He operated the two minute drill. Like he's been a quarterback before he operated the red zone. Like he's been a quarterback before. And maybe there's like a, like a chase Daniel comparison or something where if you need this guy to step in he could step in and maybe he wins you half the games that's the backup quarterback rule like john clayton's old backup quarterback rule can you win half the games yes and and maybe he could and maybe they feel that way after tonight um and so he deserves

credit for that and i totally agree with what you said about like the locker room and how they will rally around something like this i think this would matter a lot to them and somebody else told me just who i was talking to tonight that you know the teammates already like who he is and so i think he deserves credit for that uh otherwise tonight i don't have a lot of other things other than the kicker missed twice from 50, Greg Joseph. Yeah, I saw a wide left. There was a wide left, and there was a, of course, there was a post, too. There was a doink.

Yep. That did not go in. So there's that, and I don't know what to make of that, but the 50-yarder that went wide left went way wide left, so not off to a pristine start from the kicking perspective. Yep. Other than that though, why Davis not here? And I assume that's close contact with Kellen Mond.

But when we asked about the right guard competition, why Davis was basically not even brought up. Yeah. And he has not done no first teamwork at all. Uh, the only thing, so there's two things. Well, there's three, the backup QB thing confuses me a bit, okay? The second thing is I'm really curious about going into camp and seemingly this season with Greg Joseph, who has not really kicked competitively.

He's kicked off in two years. And on this team for this coach, that's your kicker? That is very confusing. I know that Dan Bailey was a disaster at times last year, but I think the idea of going and getting a veteran was with the head coach here, with Zim. I think that was the right move. And then the third thing that's really confusing me, and perhaps you can explain this, Dakota Dozier is getting a ton of work.

Not all of it, but he's getting a ton of work not all of it but he's getting a ton of work at first team right guard what do they see as him in a right guard that they didn't see in him at left guard and one I'm a little bit confused he's even back on the roster but okay but you're really going to give him a chance to start because right now it looks that way want to remind you to go to sodastick.com to get your original Minnesota sports inspired goods. If you have not seen it yet, you've got to check it out. A couple of my favorite designs are the Duck Duck Gray Duck and the Randy Moss Goat, which you've got to see. All their apparel is screen printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super

comfy shirts and hoodies. You will love it. We're going to hook you up with free shipping on your next order. By the way, use promo code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. That's SOTASTICK, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. Original Minnesota sports inspired goods. Code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. And more likely than not, in my mind mind Dakota Dozier will outplay Ole Udo because they decided to tell Ole Udo basically the night before training camp that he was going to be a guard now which is very odd and seems like it must have been a Phil Rauscher thing

that as soon as Phil Rauscher found out he was the offensive line coach must have screamed it then yeah he uh right He's very loud. Extremely loud. Phil's voice carries. And his words are not always fit for family fun at training camp. No, I hope he doesn't do it too much near the hospitality. A lot of F-bombs coming. I mean, it's football, so it's great.

It's hilarious. But he gets very upset. Yeah. He's not very hospitable to the offensive linemen. What's your take there? Well, to me, it's not very hospitable to the Auburn linemen. What's your take there? Well, to me, it's just asking a guy to suddenly be a guard. The odds that Udo is ready to go, if that's even a thing, or if they're just trying to figure out if he could play anywhere, which is sort of my suspicion,

it all kind of points to Dakota Dozier playing right guard, which I know is the nightmare scenario for Vikings fans. But with his experience, it's just hard to see a guy adapting quick enough to start at right guard. And then Mike Zimmer mentioned even Drew Samia in the mix. Has he been with the first team at all? No. Okay. He hasn't.

I didn't think I was going crazy. But he mentioned him as part of the competition. So I don't know. But Wyatt Davis not being able to practice and then taking center snaps the other day where, I mean, he said, look, we've got a center hurt, so somebody needed to take center snaps with the third team. That's nothing to panic over. But him not getting any first-team reps by now, again, not panic, but we've seen this movie before where they just believe somebody can play

when they can't really, and that was the Pat Elfline story. We're going to put him back in at center after he got hurt. Then we're going to move him to guard. Then we're going to move to the other guard and then finally decide, OK, this didn't work. And it seems like with Dakota Dozier, we're sort of headed down that path again. And people will say to me like, oh, well, anything's got to be better than Dozier. And the answer is, well, not really, because Samia wasn't. And no, he was a disaster too so with udo like udo is definitely more physically gifted but if he doesn't know what he's supposed to do we're going to see kind of a redux of samia

last year so that that situation is just flat out confusing um the only other thing that kind of stuck out to me tonight was just that um dD. Westbrook was taking punt returns. That was kind of the only thing he was doing, but he was doing that. And K.J. Osborne made another great play. We've talked about him almost every day as somebody who's been a riser. And I talked I remember talking to Lance Leipold, the former UB coach, about K.J. Osborne because he went there before he went to Miami. And he said, don't be surprised by anything the guy does. Like he's got an incredible mentality and he'll work as hard as it takes and he worked with Jarvis Landry in the offseason and Justin Jefferson and it shows man I mean he's just making plays every single day a great pitch tonight this is the thing you it's like these

football guys will talk all the time about like oh you know you guys don't know what you're looking for and we've got all these things that we review this and we look at all these numbers, everything else. A lot of times who wins jobs just comes down to who makes plays. And K.J. Osborne has been making plays. Yes. And so B.C. Johnson tore his ACL in practice on Friday. So he's gone. Right. Yet the Westbrook thing. So he is. he also tore up his knee last year at Jacksonville. I think he tore his ACL.

They're easing him back in. So I'm guessing he's going to be wide receiver three eventually. But K.J. Osborne, I think, makes the team. Yeah. And might be week one. I mean, like, the more we go along with Westbrook, the farther behind he becomes. I think the thing, though, to keep in mind is unless this offense changes mightily which it's not going to I think wide receiver three is really Irv Smith Jr who's a tight end but he has been getting the ball a ton yeah and he looks good

yes terrific and it feels like the Rudolph shackles are finally off there i think this kid i mean he's been good i think he's going to be fantastic i think so too and i remember you know seeing him up close for the first time in 2019 and thinking wow you're not very big for a tight end i mean rudolph is a mountain so of course he looks smaller compared to him now i look at irv smith up close and think you look like a tight end yes i think he's probably put on i would guess like 15 20 pounds i mean he just looks he looks like he's got a lot more muscle he looks like he's really filled out and we're talking about you're right he is the youngest tight end in the tight end room which is very odd but it's also true uh so you're talking about a guy who already showed that he can do it in the first two years.

This isn't someone who hasn't played and we're saying, well, maybe he'll go out there. Every day he makes a great catch. Every day he's getting open. And it's, you know, not pads yet, but the things sort of align. Like it takes a couple of years for tight ends. He looks bigger. He looks stronger. Yes. Takes a couple of years for tight ends. He looks bigger. He looks stronger. He clearly dedicated himself to this by going to the tight end university with George Kittle and with Travis Kelsey.

I think that if you're sort of placing a bet on anybody to take a step forward, it's him. And that's why the offensive line thing and the Kirk thing, that's why they're just so important. Because Jefferson is incredible. Thielen looks great. He's making plays every day. You know, Delvin Cook is. Oh, your skill position players are fantastic. Yeah, he's a top three running back.

Like, you've got all the pieces here. Yes. But if you play Dakota Dozier at right guard and your quarterback misses four games due to COVID protocols, I mean, it could take something apart that is a very, very good roster. And that's what what zim is concerned about yep like he has every right to what mike said today to me as a football coach so just pure football right made perfect sense like he knows there's a lot of people in this

building that we are in right now whose jobs are going to be on the line. If this does not go well, it's just there's not going to be. Well, you know, the quarterback wasn't vaccinated. So let's run it back next year. Right. Last year was disappointing. Mike has the has the now established pattern of making the playoffs every other year. This is that I think that this team needs a playoff run. I agree.

I don't know that one playoff win does it now. I think that there's going to be a demand and expectation. The only things that concern me about the line are, one, if Dakota Dozier starts at right guard, and two, I don't think there's any chance on God's green earth that Christian Derrissaw now is going to start the season at left tackle. Yep. Rashad Hill works as an ass off.

I really like him. Yep. He's a good swing backup tackle. I don't want to leave him at left tackle in perpetuity. Okay. Do you? No, of course not.

Right. But I'm just saying, but I'm just saying, I was just going to let you mic drop on that. Oh, to wrap up. but I'm just, well,

yeah, but it's your show. I'm just telling you. It makes me concerned because I, like a lot of folks, said, well, first round left tackle. Oh, yeah. You got this filled. And the one thing that people need to keep in mind, because we always talk about the offensive line sucked,

and look, there were parts of it that weren't good. Totally agree with that. But the one thing that people forget is Riley Reeve had a good season. He was great. Zero sacks. But I mean, think about the perception of him compared to what we know. Like the perception was, oh, he just a guy. Just a guy.

Yeah. He was not just a guy in 2020. Right. So. As always, a lot is happening, and i'm glad we could do this and i hope we could do it again very soon judd fun felt like a throwback we've done this many many times and uh we'll keep doing it so great to see you and uh just gonna take a deep breath because it's been a day so all right everyone take care that's it