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

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

Matthew Coller and Dane Mizutani react to Nolan Teasley's introductory press conference as the new general manager of the Minnesota Vikings. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fandul. Matthew Collar here, along with Dane Mizatani of the Pioneer Press, and we're inside TCO Performance Center as we just came from Nolan Teasley's introductory press conference. We heard from him and the owner of the Minnesota Vikings, Mark Wilf. And a lot of interesting stuff coming from this, Dane, but I think we should just begin with our very first impressions of Nolan Teasley. and then we'll get into the power structure, how he talked about the quarterback,

how he talked about working with Kevin O'Connell, and all of those things. But, Dane, what was your first impression of Mr. Teasley? Yeah, he seemed cool, calm, collected. Kind of exactly what I thought he would sound like, just having listened to some of his clips on the internet, having talked to certain people behind the scenes. But this was a guy who came across extremely confident,

not cocky, but, like, believing. in himself in his process and his journey up the ladder to this point. I actually thought the least comfortable he looked was during his stand at the podium when he was reading a speech. Like it didn't seem like he was super comfortable giving the speech. But when we got to the Q&A portion and we were just talking ball, he loosened up. He didn't give everything. But I think that's probably how a GM should operate in those scenarios.

A couple sentences, few sentences, move on. always seemed to understand what the question was and answer it accordingly, never seemed flustered. I thought he aced the press conference. There's a lot of things that he has to do now moving forward to ace the job. But when we walk away from these things, whether it's a GM, a head coach, a quarterback, a first round pick, we tend to talk about, well, how did they perform in the press conference? Nolan Teasley nailed it, I thought. I thought he was very straightforward. And that, That is something that we did not have here previously with either of the last two general managers, I would say, with Rick Spielman and Quasi Adolph-Menza, who could be quite long-winded,

and Quasi could also be quite revealing, which, you know, I might miss that we got a lot of information about what the team was going to do, how they really viewed things and so forth, and I think that Nolan Teasley is going to keep it a little more straight close to the vest and sort of straight shooter that we're going to see during the press conferences when we talk with him. But, you know, people don't really care as much about that is what's this man going to do to get the Minnesota Vikings a Super Bowl? And what's it starts with is the power structure. Because this has been something of intrigue for myself and just for the rest of the Vikings fans of,

well, how are they going to do it? Are they going to do something different? And then when the press release came out the other day and it said, well, they're going to have Rob Brzezinski involved in Kevin O'Connell, and of course there were a lot of Triangle of Authority jokes that came out. And what we realized today, I'm going to call it the tricycle of authority because you know how a tricycle is. You have one big wheel and the two other small wheels. The other small wheels are supporting the big wheel. But the person who's riding the tricycle, this is why you tuned into this podcast, is

steering the big wheel, not the back ones. And what Mark Wilf told you. us is that Nolan Teasley has the final say on the 53 man roster. I will be honest, I wasn't sure if that was going to be revealed or if Mark Wilf was going to say, well, it's collaboration and so forth because I don't recall him ever coming out and saying when Quasie was here, who exactly had the final say, who exactly was totally in charge at the end of the day. But now we know that the buck stops with Nolan Teasley and whatever decisions are being talked about, in the collaboration process and all of that, at the end of the day, he is going to be the one that says, we are drafting this player, we are making this trade. And I think that that's very helpful

to the fans and to us to know who it is. But you know who I think it's really helpful to the whole rest of the building. Because there are jobs that start at the scouting and then the directors and they report to people and so forth. And collaboration is wonderful. You should have every single one of those voices heard, you should understand everyone's asset and everything they do. But you should also understand that if that guy says yes, then it's yes. And if that guy says no, then it's no. And that is it. That is final. He is the one making the decision. So I think that the Wills did a good job here setting up the structure where Brzezinski and Kevin O'Connell are the supporting players in the roster build. But this is Nolan Teasley's job to do. Yeah, this is why people tune in. The

The tricycle really is a good way of looking at it because we've all ridden bikes. We've all ridden tricycles. And really, Nolan Teasley is steering. If the Vikings are the structure of the tricycle, Nolan Teasley is steering where this thing's going to go. He is the front wheel. He is the guiding light for where this thing is headed, good, bad, or indifferent. And I think that's an important distinction.

And you're right. I didn't think we were going to walk in here today. And Mark Wilf was going to say, yeah, he has full control of the 53. to hear that so outwardly, one, I guess, makes sense because if I'm Nolan Teasley and I work with John Snyder in Seattle, even though there's only 32 of these things, I don't know if I'm leaving if I have to just kind of fade to the back and give full control of the roster in the final, say, in the 53 to the head coach that's already in place. So it does make sense that Nolan Teesley would have that power coming in right away,

but it is still an important distinction here at the end of the. the day. And I also think when you look at it, when you kind of zoom out, and obviously things were said about Rob Brzezinski today, and he is going to continue in the organization as the executive vice president, a player personnel, he's going to stick in that role. Kevin O'Connell talked about how he's so much more than a cap guy, and that is true. He is. And he proved that throughout the process, throughout the spring, kind of picking up the pieces after Quasidofa Mentsa was fired. But he's reporting a Nolan. I think that's pretty clear. I think there was a thought, heading into today even that it was going to be a three-pronged, a little bit of Nolan Teasley

sometimes, sprinkling a little Kevin O'Connell sometimes, Rob Rezinski's going to have some say sometimes. No, Mark Wills said Nolan reports to ownership. Kevin O'Connell reports to ownership. And he didn't say it so outwardly, but he did allude to the fact that Rob Brzey is going to report to Nolan Teasley. And while I think that might create some tension in certain circumstances, I think Rob Brzezinski is going to be able to handle that as a consummate professional.

I think he is somebody who bleeds purple and gold for this organization. I think if this was going to be a problem, we would have already known about it. So I think the fact that we know who is the final decision maker, but also the fact that we know where Rob Brzecki kind of stands in this power structure, answers that we got today that I wasn't sure we were going to. Rob has worked under multiple general. general managers, many coaching staffs with the Wilf's over all these years. And so I don't think it's going to be any sort of problem that he is continuing in a role that I'm sure he's very proud to

have, right? And there's only so many of those jobs in the NFL as well, but also keeping Rob as a valuable resource as someone who knows the inside and out. And also knows every person within this organization from the college scouting director all the way down to, you know, the, lowest level person, Rob Brzezinski is familiar with all those people, the coaching staff, and so forth. And as far as a cap person, you can't do better in the NFL than having Rob Brzezinski here. So that structure makes a lot of sense to me. And that was the main thing for me going into this is I want to understand who is at the top, not just today, but this entire process, who is at the top and how is this being delegated to each person and what their role is. So at the

end of the day you don't have this. Well, actually, it was their call and they wanted this. So we did that. It's Nolan Teasley is building a national football league team. Now, Mark Wolf also talked a lot about why they hired Nolan Teasley. And if you look through the other candidates, you'll notice something is that there's a connection everywhere. There's a connection to Kevin O'Connell with the Rams.

There's a connection to a certain era of Vikings that was a little before this. There's a connection to a more recent era of. Vikings and Nolan Teasley grew up in the state of Washington, has lived in the state of Washington for his entire life and worked for the Seattle Seahawks. So now he is joining an entire new place, an entire new building. It is fresh eyes. But where I thought it was interesting is the Wilfs really admire the teams that are good year in and year out, not necessarily a team that maybe tanks and then pops back up and then goes right back to the bottom. They admire a team like the Seattle Seahawks that did a rebuild after tearing down a Super Bowl winning team and built back up

another Super Bowl winning team. I thought that really stood out to me because we know this about the Will family and I respect this very greatly for them. Sometimes yes, I will be the one making the argument you should have lost those games to get better draft capital, but I respect and the fans should too that your ownership always wants to win. So if you're a general manager, you have to navigate that, and Nolan Teasley has already been in a situation like that in Seattle. Yeah, and I think if you were to interview for the Vikings job per se, the GM job, maybe you don't get chosen because you would probably hammer home, like, I've liked tanking. I think tanking makes sense, and in a lot of scenarios, you'd be right.

But what Nolan Teesley has is something you can point to and say, you don't need to tank to win a Super Bowl. He was hired as an intern in 2013 when they won the Super Bowl. and then they navigated kind of the murky waters. They were always pretty good, never awful, never, like, tanking bottom of the league awful. They found ways to kind of make it work towards the end of Russell Wilson's career when it was time to move on. They moved on to Gino Smith, and then obviously they hit a home run with Sam Darnold while also building an incredible defense leaning on the running game.

These are all data points we can point to, or the Wilfs can point to, and say, like, we don't need to tank. So if they don't want to ever tank as an ownership, if their goal is to always be relevant, give yourselves as many kicks at the can as possible, then it is incumbent on them to find a candidate who, one, feels like it's possible to win in that structure and that pathway forward. But two, like, not only do they have to think they can win, they have to prove that they have done it. Like, I think there are options across the league that might say, like, yeah, we can figure out a way to do this. But Nolan Teasley comes from a regime that has done it, that has done it exactly the way the wills want to do it.

So, like, I think there are arguments to be made for both sides. Like, what is the best way to build a team? There are teams that tank and set themselves up for tremendous futures. There are also teams like the Seahawks who don't need to tank and set themselves up to win a Super Bowl last year, and they're going to have a couple more kicks at the can at it here with the roster they've constructed. So I thought it was kind of like almost this good marriage of like where you can see this is what the Wilson want and the candidate that they landed on that they honed in on after an extensive process is exactly, you know, in line with the vision that they see how this thing can move forward. Well, and that was something that Kevin O'Connell, who spoke to a few of us after the press conference, he alluded to with the questions that were asked of Nolan Teasley inside those rooms.

the conversations that they had. And he kind of made reference to, hey, when do you make a move for a wide receiver like Rashid Shaheed, who Seattle traded for and then had, you know, big special teams touchdowns and big plays for Seattle down the stretch? But when Nolan Teasley answered the question about, you know, remaining competitive, one thing he alluded to is the timelines of things and understanding how you can

build sort of depth and start really with the draft. And that was something that we were interested in as well. Now, Nolan Teasley did not pull out a bunch of spreadsheets and charts and graphs to show us exactly how the Seattle Seahawks drafted. But I thought that in what I like about Nolan Teasley already is that he can say three sentences, but I get the entire message where it's not as convoluted. And when I asked him specifically about marrying the scouting and the data together, one of the phrases he used that I don't know if I've heard before, but I thought was interesting, was, he said, anchored with the data. And I think what he's referring to is having a scouting process that evaluates all of your players and then a cross-reference with the data.

And I think this is the smartest way the teams use it. If you use all data, you're insane. And if you don't use any data, you're insane in this kind of world. So where no one's easily in Seattle had an old school GM in John Schneider, who was very much, They came up in the Packers world, like their kind of evaluation, evaluator farm that they had created for many years and that pumped out a bunch of future GMs and a bunch of great people in the NFL. But that was all on your gut elletics and what you see with your eyeballs and so forth. And it sounds like what Nolan Teasley was able to bring to Seattle was this cross-referencing type of use of the data where, okay, we like certain things about a player. but there are these red flags here.

And that might be in health, that might be in their performance, and there are predictive and non-predictive type of things that, you know, Seattle's been a forward-thinking team on. And anytime, Dane, that I go through their draft, which I've been doing a lot since they hired Nolan Teasley, I see the commonality of the two things coming together, of athleticism and scouts like certain elements, but you can always find in the data,

which I don't think was true in the, this place in recent years. So I thought that was interesting of having someone whose background is 100% in the scouting. That's the world he came through, but mentioning that that has to be a major part of this process here. Yeah. And I think the thought when they fired Quasi abruptly in January and then they eventually went on this search process was that it was going to be, well, Quasi was so analytically driven that whoever they hired next is going to be the most footballie of football guys possible. And like there is a lot of that to Nolan Teasley. He is a football guy. He is a grinder. He has come up through 13 years with the Seattle Seahawks.

He knows football. He grew up in Ellensburg, Washington, star high school football player, admitted that his college career didn't go the way he thought. But he's been around the game. He understands the game. He's a football guy at his core. But just to reduce him down to that and say because Quasi was an analytics guy, Nolan Teasley is now a football guy, I think that kind of does a disservice to kind of the way he has climbed the ladder, his process. This guy leans on analytics, and that's pretty clear just by our first conversations with him. You said anchored in data. What he said was, like, guided by evaluation, anchored in data, and they use those two things to then take to the coaching staff and say,

like, how would you use this player? And I think that's an important thing, too. Like, when we said at the beginning of the pod, Nolan Teasley has full control of the roster. That's true. Like, he is the guy. He is building this team in his vision. But he's not coming in here, like full dictatorship. I'm making all the calls. Like this guy, I think does, and it's a buzzword, but I think he does believe in that collaboration process. But it's not just kind of borne out of nowhere. It is guided by evaluation, probably what he learned from John Snyder and the keen eye he has for talent, the scouting background. But it's anchored in. data. It is something that he can point to these data points. He didn't give us all of his

analytics, nor do I expect them to at any point. But I don't think it's just driven by, that guy looks good with the football on his hands. They really dig into that part and the analytics part. And then they bring it to the coaching staff or the coach and say, like, how do we move forward here? So it will be really collaborative. But I think, yeah, it's important to note, like this guy clearly believes in analytics. I think he, he feels. He feels. strongly about him. I think it's why, frankly, Seattle had success is because they had a guy like John Schneider and a guy like Nolan Teasley. There's other people in that front office as well, but a guy like Nolan Teasley as an assistant general manager kind of helping kind of push them

into the next era with the importance and understanding the importance of analytics as well. So this guy, he kind of marries both. But yeah, I think it's important to get out ahead of this. like football guy, but also very much analytic guy. Folks, have you noticed that social media has now been around long enough to the point where you can see old posts of yourself only with a better hair line? Well, unless you're one of those genetically gifted few people with amazing hair for life, you're probably dealing with that pang of frustration that comes along with seeing your old self.

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hey, it was a coach-driven draft for the Minnesota Vikings. And one of my issues about the Vikings missing on draft picks recently was it felt like guys didn't fit with what the coaches wanted. And it felt like there wasn't a hard. whole heck of a lot of patience with certain players. And I'm not saying that guys Quasi drafted turned into megastars elsewhere, but you can certainly find them on rosters. They're not all playing in the UFL or taking marketing jobs or something. Like, there are a lot of guys the Vikings have drafted who are doing something for other teams that it felt like the

coaching staff just didn't see the same vision as the front office. And it's supposed to work that way where you have the coaches seeing what is the path to the field for the player. What do we like about the player? What does he do well? And, you know, Brian Flores has been phenomenal at finding what players do well and then putting them in the right positions to succeed. So you'd be absolutely foolish if you were not going to lean on that because you have coaches who are really good evaluators themselves. But the coaches are coaching. Well, the front office is doing most of the legwork. So the idea of presenting the coaches with, here are the players we've identified for you, now give us your feedback, I think is a good process because you want to have the coaches believe

in the draft pick. You want them to believe in the path and then go execute it, which we've seen Seattle do in a lot of different ways. And Seattle has, of course, grabbed some real superstars, but also Seattle's just grabbed a lot of guys who played a role. And Los Angeles has been good at this too, but, you know, Seattle really stands out of they drafted a guy in the third and he's playing whatever role or what it might be. And it's not a megastar necessarily, but the NFL is a lot about the weaknesses that you have, right? So if you can have a coaching staff, take a day three draft pick or a third round draft pick and truly believe in that player. And this might be like Jacobi Thomas at some point, right, for this year. And push them forward and pour into them and

try to get the most out of that player rather than I'm frustrated that this guy's not perfect right away. Let's just move on. We'll just get Fabian Moreau again, right? Or Cam Acres again. I think that that development process and that connection between the front office and the general manager is going to be extremely important. And this team has to be rebuilt through the draft. I don't think there's any other way to talk about that. But I did want to pivot, though, to the quarterback because that's going to be pretty important. And I was very curious about how the quarterback position would be talked about by Nolan Teasley. I did look it up.

Kyler Murray certainly wishes that he didn't have to play the Seattle Seahawks as often as he did because he went two and nine against Seattle. And I think if you're Nolan Teasley, you walk in here very happy about one thing that he is not under contract next year and that you get your free. reign to evaluate Kyler close up, to evaluate J.J. McCarthy close up, and to be able to sit back with no pressure to make a decision at quarterback right now. And I thought that was very reflective in his answer. Yeah, I was curious how he, because quarterback was always going to get brought up, just like control of the 53 man roster was always going to get brought up to Mark Wilf. How do you view the quarterback position was always going to get brought up to Nolan Teasley? And when that question was asked, I think it was by Kevin Seaford from ESPN. I was curious, like, are you

going to take us on a meandering, like, journey of how you, like, trying to talk around the quarterback position? What is your strategy? Like, clearly he knew that thing was coming, and he answered it pretty quickly, very, very succinctly. I think he just said something along the lines. It sounded like the company line. Like, we've been focused on building competition in the quarterback room, and I'm really excited to see how that plays out. And it kind of goes back. And it kind of goes back to what you were saying about him earlier. Like, he can give you two sentences, Nolan Teasley, and you can get a pretty clear depiction of how he feels about the situation.

It would have been weird if he was like, yeah, I think Kyler can be a franchise quarterback in the league. It would have been weird if he was like, I really believe in J. Jim McCarthy. He's been so Seahawks-centric, so Seahawks focused his whole career that if he came in and just started banging the drum for either quarterback, I would be like, this guy's a fraud. but he didn't like he was just very like this is what we're going to do and we'll see what happens and it wasn't overly like effusive in praise but it also wasn't overly like these guys aren't mine i i can't win with them it was pragmatic it was to the point it was let's see where this thing

goes i think he's excited about the room that has been built in front of him but you're right I think if we gave him some truths here, him he's probably excited that he's not committed to any of these guys long term. If Kyler Murray wins the quarterback job, and he's awesome. Like, I think Nolan Teasley would probably feel okay giving him more kicks at the can. If he reaches a level of awesome that he could potentially reach here. If somehow, like, Kyler goes down and JJ takes over and JJ's awesome, like, I think he would feel comfortable committing to that. I don't want to put words in his mouth, but the point is, like, I think he's content to see this thing play out. But he did not tie himself or detach himself from either of the quarterbacks that are buying for this competition right now.

I mean, I think that matters. I think you box yourself in if you say, like, I love this guy. Oh, I feel like we're awesome. Then that leaves yourself room down the road to people point back at the introductory press conference and say, hey, wait a minute. This is what you said back in May, 2026. He didn't do that. He left himself a rampway forward. But yeah, I think he, like all of us, is very excited to see how this quarterback competition goes.

I just thought that he came in probably with the intent and seems like somebody who thinks things over before they go to the podium with I'm not going to show any of my cards about how I feel about the quarterback position. But you can't ask for a better spot as a G. other than having Josh Allen. If you don't have Josh Allen, the next best thing is to have flexibility, as to have the ability potentially for a draft class coming up here that is being talked about right now, no guarantees, but being talked about right now as a potentially deep quarterback draft class. And when you look at the story of the Seattle Seahawks, they go from Russell Wilson. They bail on him at the exact right time. And then Gino Smith makes them a competitive football team. But when the situation was not right for Gino Smith, whether it was the money or whether it was the fit with the type of system that they were going to bring in with Clint Kubiak or whatever it might be, they were willing to just say, all right, Gino, thanks. And we're going to move on and we're going to go with somebody in Sam Darnold that ultimately won them the Super Bowl, but was a better fit for the offense that they had and was, I think, a better financial fit for them, which will weigh heavily into this as well. because you're going to place evaluation on Kyler Murray. And if that number goes past what you want, then you have to be willing to make a change there.

And we now live in a world also where there are free agent quarterbacks becoming available all the time. So another reason to not say too much here, because I think that's truly how he feels is, well, I'm here to evaluate. And that does remind me of another question that Nolan Teasley was asked just about the situation of coming in at this time of year. And while he did not wax poetic very much about this either,

it is notable that he has time and space and is now going to meet with every person in the organization, get their ideas, see who they want to go forward with, learn about the players, learn about the coaches, how does everyone communicate and all those things, and learn about the quarterback.

So you start that at OTA practice, practice, we'll be there tomorrow, like OTA practice to mini camp to training camp where he can evaluate all of those things rather than having to arrive at a team, move your family to Minnesota, evaluate all the quarterbacks and everything else, and then make decisions right away. I think it is really helpful for Nolan Teasley to have a slower process here. Yeah. And like I didn't always think that the path forward made a ton of sense. Like I'll admit it, like when the Wilfs fired Kwayce when they did in late January, and they committed to waiting until after the draft to hire another general manager, there were times where I thought,

like, is this the right decision? Like, don't you want your guy in here to kind of evaluate free agency in the draft? But I think that's why having a guy like Rob Brzeinski, like made it a palatable decision in the interim. I think Rob Brzezinski helped them get through that storm. And now we're on the other side. And like, yeah, maybe it was the best path forward because you're right. Like a lot of times, if Nolan Teasley were to get the job, they fire Quasi in January 31st. They rushed through a process and they hire Nolan Teasley late February, let's say. Then he has to kind of either just go off of previous evaluations for the draft or for free agency and then the draft.

And then he's swimming. Like it just creates a lot of opportunity for dysfunction, for mistakes. to be made. This way, the way it's been done now, Rob Resinsey got them through kind of that storm, and now Nolan Teasley has a chance to step in and really just take his time and pragmatically approach kind of everything, you know, unturn, every single stone. Like, I think it's important. I don't think he's going to necessarily just say, I'm bringing all these guys from Seattle. I think he wants to get to know, and he has the time to get to know everybody in the organization, and how everybody works.

I think the word he used was unique in terms of timeline. I think there are elements to the job where you probably wish you were here in the early spring, so you could oversee kind of the roster that you're going to put out on the field in September. But the uniqueness to this situation, I think, could be of his benefit, because it gives him time to,

before we drill down on the college portion of the year where you're turning the page and looking at or working with your college and your area scouts on the 2027 NFL draft, like you get a chance to learn the personnel department. You get a chance to talk with the coaching staff. You get a chance to talk to each individual scout if he wants to. And, you know, he told us, you know, he's going to go upstairs

and have conversations right now, and I believe him. But he can do all that without the timeline of free agency, staring him down or shoot the drafts coming up. And I have to cram for this because I've only been here for two months. So, like, while I had some... some apprehension about how this thing was going to play out. I think when we get to the other end, and I do want to, like I said, I want to give Rob Rizinski credit for the way that he's been able to kind of help steer

the ship. We'll see how the draft class turns out. But how he's been able to help steer the ship, that's allowed for now them to get to the other side and for Dolan Teasley to have this full ramp way. So we'll see. I mean, I think at this point, the way that they've kind of moved forward, they're happy and I think we'll see how it works. The tough thing about Nolan Teasley is that we love to play general manager and evaluate

everybody's general managing. I think it's going to take quite a while before we really start to see his stamp on how he wants to handle this thing. I think really the first time, okay, maybe some contract extensions, maybe they bring in an outside linebacker or something, that's not going to tell us a whole lot about Nolan Teasley. I think the next time we're going to really get a sense for how he views things is the trade deadline, where, you know, last year Seattle made kind of a little bit of a bold play. It wasn't a huge cost to get Rashid Shaheed, but they gave up draft capital to do it, sensing this is a team that could potentially win a Super Bowl, and they ultimately end up doing that. But will it also be in a position where tearing down might make sense? And if Nolan Teasley has the credibility within the building and, since the Wilf's hired him, I think there's going to be a lot of leeway to do this your way. One of the biggest mistakes I think the Vikings made over the last five years was in

23 thinking, oh, well, you know, we could really chase the playoffs and they couldn't without Kirk Cousins. So they didn't move on from certain players. And they did that in 2022. They had a silly win, 2020, I mean also. They had a silly win in Green Bay in the wind and whatever. And then they were like, oh, we can make the playoffs. Let's not trade away any players. And you'd like that to be different. You'd like that to be a little more thought out. Or on the other side of things, this team might be good. And you could see Brian Flores having a top five to seven defense. You could see the offense under Kyler Murray hovering around the top 10. And all of a sudden, you're six and two, and you've got some big games coming up. And now it's time to use some of that draft capital to go get a player. I mean, I think

that those are the things we're going to see Nolan Teasley's what he wants to do in his vision where we really won't see it until next off season. So welcome Nolan. I look forward to the podcast next March breaking down what you did. There's a little bit

of that. But for now, the get-to-know you process has a lot to do with Kevin O'Connell and the coaching staff as well. I asked about his connection with Kevin O'Connell, the fact that they don't really know each other. O'Connell said that they had met one time at the Combine. before this. I especially like that. That yes, it could be a, you know, a real learning process to

figure out how each guy operates, but this is a general manager coming in with a lot of credibility with a Super Bowl ring on his hand, being one of the greatest evaluators of the last two decades was this guy's mentor. So he's coming in with, I think, the ability to evaluate in some ways the coach and how that relationship is going to work between those two. The word he used for O'Connell is an elevator and he focused a lot on his culture, which is a natural place to begin with Kevin O'Connell. But when I say that there's tension, I don't mean tension as in like, oh, man, there are odds. I just mean that there's a tension of timelines, like a natural tension created of the GM is now kind of the captain of this ship.

And before Kevin O'Connell was the captain of this ship. And ideally, you'd love them to be holding hands and prancing through the meadows and just drafting all the great players and winning three Super Bowls together. But as they go forward, I think the fact that the general manager now kind of has command of this situation is a good thing. And if Kevin O'Connell can have a trust in him, that that relationship will feel much more like O'Connell can do his job and Teasley can do his job. Yeah, and I think that was always going be kind of how we perceived the higher. It was like, is it going to be John McKay? Like the guy that

Kevin O'Connell knows from Los Angeles, is it going to be Rob Brzeinski, just the guy who was already in place? So maybe the same similar power structure would be the one they used moving into the future. With Nolan Teasley, the fact that he is like, I don't want to call him like an outsider because he's been ingrained in the NFL, but like a guy who doesn't have a ton of familiarity with the people within the organization. Like that is a good thing I think at the end of the day because it does, it creates just like a way where like both sides can kind of grow in the area of uncomfortable. Nobody's comfortable.

Nobody feels like this is my guy. I can, you know, just get him to do what I want to do. Like I think there's going to have to be moments where there are disagreements that it will be on Nolan Teasley to kind of work to build that consensus. I think there might be times where Kevin O'Connell has to give in a way that maybe he hasn't in the past or hasn't felt super comfortable doing in past regimes. So I think the fact that this guy comes in without a lot of touch points in the organization is a win at the end of the day. I wasn't confident the Vikings were going to go in that direction. but now that they have, like I think that it could make the team better in the long run. Mark Wilf gave the company line of, we got better today, or we feel like we got better through this process.

I agree with them because I think that when you kind of bring in somebody else a new set of eyes, like that's going to help the overall evaluation of this thing. But I think at the end of the day, if Nolan Teasley is driving the tricycle and he's the big wheel in front, he still has to find a way to move it through decision-making and through that process in a way that creates and builds that consensus. He can't operate as I'm the guy, I can do this, and you all listen to me. I think that's going to end up in a poor area in the long run if that's how he goes. So overall, at the end of the day, though, I think just bringing in somebody that is new,

new set of eyes is just going to help this team and move forward and hopefully chase that goal that they're trying to get. This might be a silly thing, but what I'd like Nolan Teasley to do is say, we're going to run the football successfully, and here's how we're going to build to do it. Because the Seattle Seahawks, well, some of their rushing ability was a little overstated because it showed so much at the end of the season and in the Super Bowl and the playoffs, in terms of their actual numbers and EPA and so forth, they drafted a second round running back and they leaned on Kenneth Walker and Zach Sharbon and actually drafted two second round running backs a lot. And when he mentioned about the quarterback supporting them, defense is how they won both championships

in Seattle. It kind of started there. Sam Darnold got them there with an incredible performance in the NFC championship. That needed to happen because they were playing the MVP of the league. so you needed your quarterback who could win a game in the playoffs for you. Probably always do. But, I mean, defenses always in forever when you get into those playoff games are going to make an enormous difference for you. And the Vikings have built a very good defense, I think, in large part because of who their defensive coordinator is. And they made some savvy free agent signings, really savvy free agent signings. But would we say that the Vikings have the depth of a defense where they can be extremely,

extremely multiple, would we say that if one guy goes down, they're going to be totally fine? I would not say that. And I think that's a main goal of Nolan Teasley, but it did ping in my mind of, you know, maybe there is an element of Seattle played a little bit different than the Minnesota Vikings have. The Vikings have been extremely pass-first, one of the most past first heavy teams in the NFL since Kevin O'Connell got here. And I think that's right. I think you win mostly by passing. but in a league where teams can take away a lot of stuff defensively now, everyone has watched Brian Flores and stole a lot of his ideas. I think you need to have a counterpunch that the Vikings have not had.

So I am interested to see if there is any type of shift as we go forward into, maybe it is next year drafting a running back. Maybe it is making a trade for a running back if things aren't going in a certain way. And maybe it is some sort of emphasis from a roster perspective on that angle. But I think that they can potentially complement each other. But I also think in terms of that relationship, speaking the same language is probably very, very important to having a guy who came up through, you know, the very bottom, literally the very bottom. This is somebody who got his job because he was working in marketing. Now, he was a football guy before, played in college and everything else, but it was working in marketing, sent letters to every single football team, knew somebody in the Seahawks organization, got a foot in the door.

and fought his way all the way to this position. I think that that means he has learned from the bottom up. It's been a slow progression. It's been how many years now? Basically a decade of working toward this for Nolan Teasley. And I think that comes along with respect from the head coach position. But I mean, from Kevin O'Connell's spot also, I mean, where he's at, and this is what I mean about liking this tension a little bit.

And I want to clarify just for it. It's only based on the circumstances that I'm saying, not like, boy, they looked like they wanted to fight each other. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that if you're Kevin O'Connell, you better buy in to this guy with where you're at because you haven't won a playoff game and you've done a great job in a lot of areas and you've had some really good regular seasons. But it really behooves you to have you and your staff on the same page as your new general manager.

And usually it kind of works the other way around where a GM is making a new head coaching hire. And that's just kind of different and unique. anything else, Dane, that stood out to you from Nolan Teasley's introductory press conference? No, but kind of to go off of what you just said with Kevin O'Connell and kind of needing to find a way to make it work with Nolan Teasley. I do think it was important that he was a part of the process in landing on Nolan Teasley, too. I don't think Kevin O'Connell was driving the bus. I don't think he was telling ownership, this is the guy. We need to hire him.

But I think if you're trying to build that trust inherently from the beginning, it does help to have the head coach who has a big say in this organization. It was well respected in the organization as a part of that decision-making process. So I think they have set themselves up really well, but it's May. Like I think it's May. And it sounds really good right now. But what is it going to look like in September, in October, and November? they all talk about we want to win games in December and January and February

that's when this will really be evaluated but I think as a starting point they've done a good job I walk away from today thinking yeah I think they're in a pretty good position moving forward but with the caveat of like there are a lot of things that now need to happen to prove that they're in a good position moving forward it is interesting though if they make this higher in February or March, we get to say, well, we get to evaluate them right now. And you're right, we don't get to evaluate Nolan Teasley for a while now. I'm sure we'll see him at training camp. I'm sure we'll chat with them. We'll get to know him. I'm sure features will be written. But in terms of what we need to see it to determine whether this was a good hire or a bad hire,

that remains to be seen and that won't be seen for a little bit of time. So that is interesting. But like I said, I walk away from today feeling like they're in pretty good hands. Okay, I got two more things real quick because we've got a Fandul question for you. But also, I want to be just a shade on the corny side of this, which is to grade the higher based on his first press comments. Why not, right? This is like how I've been doing NFC rankings just because like, why not? Let's see if we could do it. Let's see if we can grade the higher.

and then explain ourselves. Okay. So I'm going to go with an A, and here's why. Well, because of course you can get an A when we don't know anything about you and how you're going to manage. But I have a process myself. Boxes to be able to check. Number one is the credibility that the person brings to the organization.

Number two would be where they came from and of whom they worked with. The fact that they worked with John Schneider was very, important to ownership. It's very important to me. You just can't find a better executive in the NFL, I think, than John Schneider with the Seattle Seahawks. I also think that after listening to him talk and being someone that has no showman element to it, I felt this way with John D. Filippo. I'm sure that this may have come up with even Quasi Adolph-Mence from the beginning. It's like, there was with certain guys, what a stray for John D. Filippo. Sorry, John. He's a fine human being. like, there is a little bit of, like, I'm trying to sell you on something to certain people in the

NFL that doesn't have to go sideways, but sometimes raises an eyebrow for me. And I'm like, okay, did you get here by selling everyone on yourself, or did you get here by grinding? And clearly, Nolan Teasley is not a salesman. He wasn't marketing, though. So I expected more of a show, but he didn't give it. The point just being that, like, somebody who does have a straightforwardness to their personality and isn't willing to come out and try to, I'm going to try to win this press conference. I'm going to try to win over the media. I think is really good there. I like the fact that there's no connection to this place and that if you see something you don't like, you can change it. And I would also give the Wilf's the Purple Insider thumbs up for telling us

this is the guy. Not Dane. I pointed at Dane, but Nolan Tiesley, this is the guy. He is the one in charge. And that's not just a message to us, I think. It's also to the rest of the organization. We hired him, and this is the person that's going to guide us going forward. And I didn't know how that was going to go. I liked the idea of Rob is a president and then the GM working for him. But what I liked about that was, I know who it is. I know who's at the top. And that is going to be Nolan Teasley. So those boxes are checked. And plus, I think if you look at roster construction from the place he came from, you just can't do it better. You just cannot do it better than the Seattle Seahawks. So I'm going to go with a big old A. I'm also going to go with a big old A here in May.

It's not May. It's June. It's June 2020. I can't wait to grade his next off season. Can we get on Madden and simulate to next year? Like, I want to see, I want to see some moves, Nolan. What, like, it's been, what has it been? It's been like an hour and a half since we talked to Nolan to do something, Nolan, so we can grade it. I'll give him an A because of the way that the Wilfs want to run their organization, he fits that. Like, they never want to tank. And I think that might be my biggest takeaway.

The Wills don't want to be bad. They want, and I respect that. Like, if you're 17 games. If you just trot out a team that is awful, kind of a disservice to your fans, whether it could build a roster or not. in a better long time. Caleb Williams on the cover of Madden today. Yeah, I know. I kind of served you up that home run.

But the Wills don't want to think. And Nolan Teasley is proof that you don't have to to win a Super Bowl. That is as a starting point why I would land on an A. But listening to him talk today, I think is why it drives home. It hammers home why this is an A. I love the guided by evaluation, anchored by data, and then bringing it to the whether it be the head coach, the defensive coordinator, or what have you, as a way to say, like, this is how we're going to work with our process. He was able to articulate the way that he says he's

going to run the team in a way that makes sense to me, in a way I think makes sense moving forward trying to win the Super Bowl. So A, because he fits the type of guy that I think the Wilf's need, but also A, because I think his vision is at least right now in June 2026, easy to see, or it makes sense. Will it result in the first Super Bowl and franchise history? That remains to be seen. But I'll go with A for the higher right now. I just like that I came out of the press conference, and I know I made a joke to Kevin Sefer and I was just like, well, our quotes are going to be shorter in the future. But here's my thing, though, is there was no, like, we knew everything in Seattle.

You guys know nothing. It was really, we did things in a certain structure, and that's what came out with the best results. And what I'd like to see, the challenge to Nolan Teasley, here's the real challenge, because the NFL will just grab you and shake you around like a, you know, I mean, like you're in a windstorm, right? I could do better than that. Like you're a W.W.E. wrestler, and when they get tired, they kind of shake each other around, right? And they just throw head blows. It's better.

The NFL will do that to you. And what I think the true test of really good teams is, can you continue to do things the way you believe in without going, oh, my gosh, we just won some games? Like, what do we do now? Which has seemed like, and this is not just a shot at Quasi, it's Rick, it's the organization in general throughout many years. has kind of been reactionary. It's been chasing. Oh, well, now we all of a sudden have arrived at something and what do we do? We spend all the money.

It does not seem like the Seattle Seahawks have been that way or Nolan Teasley thinks that way. And that's why I would say that it is a believable hire that could have success. Now, in terms of the fan duel, Dane, after listening to Nolan Teasley not answer or anywhere close about the quarterback, Kyler Murray is minus 1,000 to win the quarterback job. It could be minus 10,000 after our first OTA practice the way that that went. But what do you think the odds are that Kyler Murray is the quarterback? Because right now it's minus 1,000 on Fanduil for this year. What do you think the odds are that he will be the quarterback next year?

That's tough. You don't have to use a number. I apologize for blowing right into the mic for those listeners. No, I'll use a number. I think it's like plus 150. Like I don't think he's the favorite to be the quarterback next year. Any minus money for those of you don't know. Like minus means he's the favorite.

Plus means, but like he's not like plus a thousand. Like I don't think it's like a long shot chance that Kyler Murray is the starting quarterback of the Vikings in 2027. But I'll land on plus 150 because I think a lot has to go right. I don't think he can just be good to be the quarterback in 2027. I think he has to be really good. I think it has to be like flirt with, if not make the playoffs and win a playoff game, good for you to probably then feel comfortable paying Kyler Murray the money that he's going to demand

with the no-tag clause next year and next off season. But why I think I could land at 150 plus 150, and some people aren't going to like to hear this, I think the Vikings are going to be pretty good when Kyler Murray wins the quarterback competition. And if they're pretty good, and if they do all these things, and if they do make the playoffs, and if they do win a playoff game, you don't have to win the Super Bowl. I don't think Kyler Murray has to win the Super Bowl to be the Vikings quarterback next year. But if he's really good and he's set up to be really good with the weapons around him, if he can stay healthy, and they do make the playoffs, and they do win a playoff game. Nolan Teesley just came from a regime that gave Sam Darnold like a pretty respectable contract. I don't think, Kyler Murray is going to get the sun moon and stars. I don't think he's going to be a top five paid quarterback. But I think if the Seattle Seahawks and if his success with the Seattle Seahawks has proven anything, it's that if the guy has earned the contract, they will feel comfortable giving a guy in his late 20s a deal to prove it again.

So plus 150 because I don't think he should be considered the favorite to be the starter. I think a lot would have to go right. But I don't think it's like an overwhelming law. shot that things could go right here and he could be the guy next year. Let me tell you where I think Nolan Teasley is in a lot of trouble. Just what already right off the bat, right off the bat. I got one major concern. He basically never left the state of Washington. You're going to come here and drive in the winter. Okay. Oh man. Oh man. He's from Ellensburg. You have to go over the pass to get to Seattle. Like that that's a stretch for his drive. Stop. The ice, the ice, the

It's a treacher's drive over there. It's different here. I grew up in a place where snowstorms were quite prevalent, and I came here, and it's in a whole new experience with the amount of ice on the ground. This man does not know anything about black ice, and he doesn't know. You can't just buy a coat. This is not normal. I mean, he's going to see more sun, and that's pleasant, but, I mean, I'm concerned.

What about Kyler Murray? Kyla Murray should hire a driver. Kyler Murray has the money. Arizona is paying the bill. He should hire a personal driver who lives here, who can take him from place to place. Because I think Quasie got in a car accident when he first got here. Like, I think he had a little icy spin out. I mean, be careful out there, Nolan.

That's our advice. Be careful out there. All right. Anyway, well, this is our breakdown of a single 20-minute press conference from the new Vikings general manager. And guess what? we're going to be back in the same room, but a lot sweatier tomorrow is we're going to watch OTA practice and we will break down everything that we take away. And you know what?

I got a plan already. It's not going to be all about the quarterback. I promise you. That is the Purple Insider Promise. So thanks everybody for watching slash listening. And we will talk to you all tomorrow. Football. Football.