Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Reacting to the Vikings naming Josh Dobbs as starting QB

Episode Date: December 7, 2023

Matthew Coller talks with Vikings fans about Kevin O'Connell's decision to name Josh Dobbs the starter against Las Vegas... but not longer than that Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Guess what? We finally have a quarterback decision. After so much drama, so much buildup, so much hype, so much discussion, they went back to Josh Dobbs, which we all kind of figured by this point. But Kevin O'Connell made the decision official today at the podium and talked pretty in-depth, as did Josh Dobbs, about their process to try to get the most out of Josh Dobbs. And this has become a thing that is getting said all the time at TCO Performance Center, which is play to the player's strengths. And that is not the easiest thing to do before the bye week, which is just get Josh Dobbs up to speed as much as they can with the offense,

teach them as much as you can and roll the football out there. Now that doesn't mean that they get a free pass for what happened against Chicago, because I think that Kevin O'Connell tried to put his gas, his pedal, his pedal on the gas, the foot on the gas pedal down too much with the offense that they had used all year long. And it was a little bit too difficult for Josh Dobbs to handle as someone who just got here five weeks ago and also has been a career backup quarterback. And I like that what happens with Kevin O'Connell's press conferences is there's cascades of words. If any of you have watched the press conferences, there's just sentences on sentences on sentences. And so you have to keep your ears perked to catch some little things that get slid in there that give us a little bit of an eyebrow raise.

Oh, oh, is that what you thought? One of the things that he mentioned was in watching back the tape of Josh Dobbs was that in the Chicago game, Josh could have used a problems. There was pass protection issues. There were drop passes. There's a pass that bounces off Jordan Addison's head. And I think that what happened was Kevin O'Connell following the game against Chicago was really teed off and he was not ready to be okay with going forward with Josh Dobbs after watching what he just saw. Plays being off rhythm, turnovers, sacks. It was bad. It was extremely bad. And then when he went back and watched it, and then when he went back and watched Nick Mullins,

who has started one time for the Cleveland Browns since the year 2020 and is 5-12 as a starter and has never really looked all that good in training camp or preseason. And when he went back and watched, he went, you know what? I think we do have the best man for the job, even if the best man is not perfect. So there's short and long-term implications for this that I'll go through, but very happy to answer your questions, your comments, your hot takes on this decision. Although I think a lot of people are going to be the vast majority on board with just rolling with Dobbs in the short term, they're going to play the Raiders who have a halfway decent defense,

not great, but halfway decent. And then Cincinnati, you know, the rest of the way in the NFC North division. And can they win three out of those five games? That to me is the goal for Josh Dobbs. He's won two out of four so far and played well enough in Denver to win if it were not for a fumble by Alexander Madison, but it wasn't great. It was an okay game, good enough with a great defensive performance to win. They didn't close it out. And so they end up losing that game, but they win two out of four. Can you win three out of five?

Can you win the next two against teams that at least one of the teams is just bad and the Raiders and then Cincinnati is a little bit weird, but certainly beatable. I don't know that Jake Browning week in and week out is going to do what he did the other night and thank you for those who made fun of me for the live stream on Monday night where I got off the live stream where we were just talking about well you know they can still beat Jake Browning and he he's probably only going to throw screen passes and then Jake Browning went absolutely nuts in that game would not expect that every single game that Jake Browning went absolutely nuts in that game. Would not expect that every single game that Jake Browning can operate the offense like that. And then the rest of the way, two games against Detroit where you can put up points against Detroit. I think there's something like 27th and expected

points added allowed on defense and a Green Bay defense that is still vulnerable. And if you win three out of five and get, let's even say one or two decent performances from Dobbs, one or two that's 50-50 to win the game and a stinker thrown in, and you make the playoffs after starting 0-3, fumbling everything possible, missing Justin Jefferson, having Kirk Cousins pop his Achilles. If you make the postseason after doing that, it would be, in my mind, a pretty impressive accomplishment with all the things going

against them. I was looking at this today. The highest seed in the playoffs for a team that doesn't have its quarterback is the Vikings and the Browns in the AFC. And I don't know how long the Browns are going to last. They're trying to run out Joe Flacco every week. Indianapolis also in the playoffs as well. Those are the only teams that have lost starting quarterbacks that are even in the playoffs and nobody above a number six seed that's lost their QB. And then the other thing is too,

Gardner Minshew and Tommy DeVito are the only backup quarterbacks with winning records. So again, if you can do it with Josh Dobbs and they can find a way to adjust and adapt and mold and meld and getting moving faster, getting the ball out of his hands quicker and all those things to even go nine and eight and Clifford, uh, you might be right. It might take 10 wins. Very possible. Uh, I think that, well, maybe not though, because it depends. It might depend on tiebreakers with them in the Rams. Uh, we'll see, or, or look at the Packers. Aren't a guarantee, but one it's, it's basically four teams for two spots and Seattle has a really tough schedule.

The Rams have, I think two tough games and three easy ish games. Um, but yeah, it might take 10 wins. Let's just say though, to have a winning record, even, I don't know, playoff scenarios at this moment. Uh, but if they have a winning record at the end of the year, that's a pretty darn good accomplishment for all that they've faced throughout this season. That would also leave us from a long-term perspective thinking about is Josh Dobbs the person that you want to bring back as a bridge quarterback? Or if you're nine and eight with all these things happening, what if Kirk Cousins comes back? Or do you feel like in order to go from nine and eight to the next level that you need more cap space in the future, that you need a rookie quarterback to build around.

And it feels like there's a lot resting on these final five games for the bigger picture as well. And what they're going to do at the quarterback spot over the longterm. So today's decision though, at least leaves the door open for one scenario that we could have shut the door on had Josh Dobbs been benched. And that is the idea of Dobbs being the quarterback into next season, which again, I mean, if you go back and look at the first couple of games, all right, it's a disaster at the beginning of the Atlanta game, but he ends

up finding a way to win that new Orleans. He's flat out terrific, especially in the first half, but survived to win the game Denver. There's a bad play call that puts them in a terrible position for a fumble that I would not pin on him at all. Uh, if you put any quarterback as a runner position where the whole defense gets to run and smack you in the face. Not too many quarterbacks are going to be in a good spot there. The interception wasn't really his fault in that game. That was because of the pass rush getting to him. So overall, I thought he played okay against Denver and then really poorly. I mean, but if you have a quarterback that can give you three out of four games are going to give you a chance to win. And then you're still planning on drafting a quarterback. You could be talking about someone

who is a, is a bridge quarterback. And if the relationship continues to grow with he and O'Connell over these five weeks, you could also see that being a thing because an important part of what Kevin O'Connell and Josh Dobbs talked about today was after the game, Kevin O'Connell went to Josh Dobbs and said, here's the deal. I'm going to look at everything and then I'm going to make this decision. And that's how it's going to go. And Josh Dobbs said, let's get together and watch some tape. So they get together and they're, they're watching back the games that he's played. And they're talking through all the different things in the offense. What, how it's supposed to look. Dobbs is getting inside the coach's head, trying to understand the offense better.

The coach is trying to understand Dobbs better. This is a pretty good process. Like this is why you hire a former quarterback offensive coordinator to be your head coach stuff like this. And this might not work. Uh, and, and Dobbs might throw four interceptions again, because he's Josh Dobbs and he's a career backup quarterback, but that type of process gives them the best chance for this to work. And if it does, and that relationship builds, then we could be talking about somebody who's their quarterback

going forward on the flip side of that. If he doesn't play well against the Raiders, it might be over right there. I mean, there is a very wide range of outcomes that go along with this. And it was the right move, in my opinion, to keep the door open for one of them, which was for Josh Dobbs to a potentially get you to the playoffs. I don't think they're making the playoffs with Nick Mullins or Jaron Hall. I just don't think that was going to happen based on Mullins history, based on Hall's inexperience and what we saw from him in the preseason, making the playoffs with those guys would have been a huge long shot. And I'm guessing

the more tape that Kevin O'Connell watched, the more he went, yeah, I don't think that's going to work. A guy who's thrown six more interceptions than he has games started in Nick Mullins probably not going to be the choice unless you just wanted to throw underneath all game long and play for like a 12 to 10 game again. That's probably what you'd have to do. Nick Mullins did have some good starts early in his career, but this is a guy that can't even fully practice still because of a back injury. Like that just never seemed realistic to me. So leaving the door open for the possibility of

Dobbs stepping up, getting to the playoffs, working with what he has as an athlete. Also, they've been terrible running play actions with Dobbs. I think they average like four yards per pass attempt. They've been terrible running screens so far with Dobbs. What helps a quarterback more than play actions and screens? Nothing. And they have done both of them very badly in these first couple of games. So they need that. I also wanted to see Josh Dobbs play with Justin Jefferson. You're not seeing the whole version of anybody. If they need that. I also wanted to see Josh Dobbs play with Justin Jefferson. You're not seeing the whole version of anybody if you're not playing with Jefferson. And again, O'Connell sliding in quietly, subtly sliding in something the other day about, or actually today

losing track about defenses, figuring out what they were doing. Actually, no, it was Wes Phillips yesterday who mentioned this defenses, figuring out some ways to take players away as they got more of a sample size on how to play Jordan Addison. That was another subtle thing that was kind of tossed out there. And I think that's accurate too,

that we saw that from Jalen Johnson. We saw that from Chicago, that they did the best job of anybody against Jordan Addison. And then Wes Phillips said, there's no answer for Justin Jefferson. And that's absolutely true. So at least we get a look at a larger sample of Dobbs, a sample size with him and Justin Jefferson, and we get a full picture of what this guy really is, as opposed to he showed up halfway through, had some fun moments, then it was over and they went and moved on. So the correct decision, the correct process of going about it, and at least the biggest upside

of this might be that you find a bridge quarterback for the future and you make the playoffs and you go from there. And I'm sure that there is the argument that can be made that they should play Jaron Hall and they should play for draft status because they're not winning the Super Bowl. And I totally feel you. If that's your take, then it's hard to really refute that for the long term. But I would say if Dobbs plays well and you're still drafting a quarterback,

that allows you to sit that quarterback if they're not ready and develop that quarterback until they are ready to go and have somebody else that can be your starter that you know you can reach the playoffs with. That's in the absolute best case scenario of this. So, all right, let's start taking your questions, your reaction, the comment section. Do you like the decision or do you think why

bother with Josh Dobbs should have gone with a X, Y, or Z, uh, instead, uh, David says, thank God flying in from New York, top flight seats at the stadium. I'm in for a lot. And if Mullins had started, I would have been pissed. Well, you know, that's the thing, right? Is with Nick Mullins, you are really playing it as safe as you could possibly play it. And you're hoping then to just grind out wins and relying on the defense. Is this offense really a grind out wins, like run the ball, have a few play actions, hit, throw a lot of short pass. Like that's just not who they are.

They are a variance offense, which is why we've seen Kirk Cousins have amazing games or bad games the entire time he's been the quarterback. It is so much relies on the performance of the quarterback. And a lot of it is pushing the ball down the field. Now that could be something that they eventually change here to get the ball out of his hands faster. And something I found very interesting when I was looking at the statistics for Josh Dobbs, the PFF numbers, I noticed that when he was in Arizona, he only caused about 9% of his own sacks. So they track which lineman or the quarterback or running back is responsible for the sack. And they had 9% of his sacks were responsible for him or actually his pressures, not his

sacks, but his pressures. But it was 25% since he got to Minnesota. So one out of every four of his pressures were him holding onto the ball too long or scrambling poorly. That says to me that he was trying too hard in a lot of cases to make a play because he didn't trust what he saw, didn't fully understand where he was supposed to go with the ball and held onto it too long and created a pressure. And in the first couple of games, he found his way out of that, but eventually Chicago had a good rush plan and he couldn't.

So that might give you some confidence that he could improve on that number, not cause so much of his own pressure by getting the ball out of his hands a little bit quicker. And that just speaks to, I want to see it. I want to see what it all looks like. I don't want to just see the Chicago game and be like, oh, sucks, move on. No, I don't think that I'm ready to just throw up the white flag and play Nick Mullins because we know exactly what Nick Mullins is. And there is no potential there.

There is no upside. There is no, you could upset someone in the playoffs. If the guy gets hot, it's pretty much you're, you're just straggling to the end and that's going to be it. Uh, Todd says use Dobbs mobility for KOC is important. How to use that mobility is an important factor for sure. Are they going to use it on play action bootlegs, get him on the roll? That was effective a couple of times against New Orleans. There was one in particular where they had the three levels, somebody underneath intermediate and deep,

and he was able to hit the intermediate route while rolling full speed, running away from a defender. He can do that. Also, there was that play. Was it against New Orleans where Ty Chandler was his blocker takes the snap. He just runs a designed run game. I don't want too much of that because you don't need another injured quarterback, but mixing it in.

We saw none of it in Chicago. There has to be another part too, of when they talk about tying the run with the pass, this team just really doesn't do it. Like they talk about it, but it's really the pass game and then obligation run the past game obligation run. There could be more effort to get similar looks in the run and pass game for Josh Dobbs, including his own running, including, Hey, look, if it's RPO, that's hard to just start installing RPOs in the middle of the season. But can you mix something in that you game plan through the week to get it? So where Josh Dobbs could have a run or pass option. I don't know how much he's done of that before,

but at least something, I think it really comes down to those play actions and getting much more out of those than they have done so far. And that speaks to what you're saying is getting him on the move, rolling him to one side, rolling him somewhere where he's got a quick little out route or something to get five, six, seven yards. This offense loves explosive plays and it looks for explosive plays because it's built for Justin Jefferson. And how would you do it? Like I, right. You explosive plays score points. If you get a 20 yard play on a drive, I mean, you are very likely to score. So that's what they built it on. They didn't build it for a backup quarterback who probably needs to get the ball out quickly.

And I have compared sort of half jokingly, but not, uh, Josh Dobbs to Ryan Fitzpatrick in the past, but their playing style by the numbers is actually quite different. Josh Dobbs to Ryan Fitzpatrick in the past, but their playing style by the numbers is actually quite different. Josh Dobbs has been, when he's played a quick passer, his yards per attempt are only like six something for his career. He usually gets the ball out pretty fast. And so you're asking him to do something different. And he was describing it today to us where he said, if you don't fully understand a play, when you don't get the look, you expect where the ball is supposed to go. Then it causes an extra hesitation, an extra hitch that creates a pressure and so forth. So more quick options, more getting the ball out of them, fast motions,

bubbles, you know, stuff like that, I think would really go a long way and then looking for one deep shot here or there. But can you have Justin Jefferson line up, run a slant, run a quick out, get the ball in his hands. That, that to me is what they should be looking for rather than, Hey, let's have, you know, a double move from Justin Jefferson that requires perfect footwork, the exact right hitch, step up in the pocket, accurate throw 28 yards down the field. I mean, that stuff's hard enough for Kirk Cousins, who's good at it, much less Josh Dobbs. So, I mean, this will be a really interesting game to study how they adjusted and adapted to what they saw on tape and what feedback Josh Dobbs gave to Kevin

O'Connell. And I think that if they are able to adjust this offense on the fly while working directly with the player, I might be more impressed than what happened in Atlanta, because that's what it takes to win in my mind. That's what it takes to maximize a quarterback. And the future will probably be determined if it's not Kirk cousins at QB by how well Kevin O'Connell works with the quarterback in the future. This could speak very well to that, or we could come out of it where some of you were very upset after Chicago saying, Kevin O'Connell, what are you doing? And if we end up with kind of a game plan that looks a little muddled, that still doesn't fit Josh Dobbs, then yeah,

we might feel a lot differently about just Kevin O'Connell's ability to be a quarterback whisperer as we go forward. Clifford says Vikings fans have reportedly 54% of the tickets for the game. Yeah, I saw that. I got that. I got that email. Yeah, I mean, it's going to be a home game. It's going to be a home game. It will remind me very much of what we saw in Los Angeles in 2019, which you had to make an effort to find a Charger fan in that soccer stadium that they played in in 2019.

And the Vikings ran over that team in Los Angeles. Last time there was a lot of Vikings fans there. I expect that there will be tons. And by the way, last chance for everybody. I'm going to be at Circa Las Vegas in Las Vegas, obviously, going out there on Friday morning. And on Friday evening, there is a party that they're holding on a Friday evening inside circa. I will be there. So anybody who wants to come and say, hello, make sure you do that. And if you haven't seen stadium swim, Fremont street, all the awesome stuff where circa is and inside circa, uh, the sports book they have

that is just enormous. Uh, you're going to want to come and check it out if you're making that trip. So if you're making last second plans, come on by, I suggest going to circa lasvegas.com, the website. And if you go to where it says sports book, there's a link to huddle up at overhang. So if you click that, that will take you to where you can RSVP for the party. So that's all you got to do. Huddle up at overhang under the sports book tab. And that's where I'll be Friday night. And I have heard from circa that a lot of you have signed up, uh, and RSVP to come to the party on, on Friday night. So there's going to be like drink specials and stuff.

So make sure you come check that out if you've got a chance. Folks, is there any better way to spend the holidays than attending sports? Knowing you guys, I'm guessing the answer is no. Well, there is a way to get to all of the events that you want to get to during the holiday season with affordable tickets. My friends, you are going to want to check out the GameTime app. It's the fast and easy way to buy tickets to everything sports and also much, much more shows, concerts, all on GameTime. One of the cool parts about GameTime is that they have flash deals

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Back to your questions. Thor says, does Dobbs get benched if the las vegas game is ugly i would say that is a definite yes um hold on oh sorry having a little trouble there hold on real quick internet issue all right we're back uh yeah i i think the answer is a definite yes. If Josh Dobbs plays poorly, that they're going to try something else. Because this is giving him every opportunity here, including having his own say in the game plan. And if that's going to be the case, if he gets to work with the head coach on the game plan, they get all this time, they get the bye week,

and they come out and struggle, then Yeah. And he turns the ball over and it's the same like hesitant look we saw in Chicago. I think that he will get benched if the Las Vegas game is ugly. And David asks, is he on a short leash? I think that's even the case too, that, that they are going to give him every opportunity to earn this job the rest of the way, to succeed, to go win, to take him to the playoffs, to be one of the coolest stories in football. Honestly, like if he gets them to the playoffs, that's one of the coolest stories of the 2023 season. So you had to give him that chance. But if he throws three picks in the first half, it's Nick Mullins time. I mean, that's just, and then if they lose that game, it is borderline, uh, Jaron Hall time, because at that point, then, I mean, you are really, really in tough to try to make the playoffs. If Josh

Dobbs struggles in this game, uh, Patrick asked, when does Davenport come back? I don't know. Uh, I have seen him. He's out of his walking boot. I think he had a high ankle sprain and had surgery. That's pretty tough for a guy that needs to explode. He's also barely played this season. There seems to be a chance that Davenport could come back and the same for Jordan Hicks, but with Marcus Davenport in his history, it's pretty hard to be sure that he's going to come back and make an impact in the two games that he actually played the whole game. He was a force. He was a difference maker. So maybe even if they get him back for like 20 plays, 25 plays, and he can mix with DJ Wanham, then that's a win for them because outside of DJ

Wanham, it's been a pretty huge drop off to Patrick Jones. I remember we'd kind of paired them together, like DJ Wanham, Patrick Jones, those two are the backups, but there's been a significant difference. Wanham has taken a step forward and the more Jones has played, I think the more his weaknesses have ended up standing out. So if they could get Davenport back, that would be big for the playoff attempt for a playoff run. Thor says, get into the playoffs and anything can happen. How many starting quarterbacks have gone down this year? I somewhat agree with that. Yeah. I mean, look last year in the playoffs, Brock Purdy probably is going to the Super Bowl and then gets hurt. And a better San Francisco team loses to Philadelphia.

Not that Philadelphia wasn't good, but I thought San Francisco was a shade better. They lose and, you know, Philadelphia ends up going to the Super Bowl. I don't really think, though, there's like much of a chance. I mean, you'd have to have every quarterback get hurt. And when you look at the teams that we're talking about here, it's healthy quarterbacks for the most part. Jalen Hurts is banged up, but Dak Prescott, Brock Purdy, and there is three teams here that are, would be extremely, extremely difficult to beat. And if you had to beat two of them, you're probably not going anywhere. But I look at it as it means a lot more to a few different things. I mean, one is finding a bridge quarterback so you don't have to pay 40 plus million dollars

to Kirk Cousins. That's one thing. The Geno Smith contract to Josh Dobbs could be very favorable for the short term. If you look at that one, Geno Smith is only playing on a $10 million cap hit for this year because of the way his contract worked out. And there's, so there's precedent for sort of an unproven quarterback that might be decent for a team to sign like that middle tier and have a low cap hit right away. So there's, there's that for Josh Dobbs. And there's also just what it says about where the organization stands. If you make the playoffs, that means a lot of players have played well,

and a lot of things have gone right. And a lot of things bode well for the future. If you lose every game from here, I'm not going to say that you have no future and you should take the franchise and move it to Winnipeg. But I would say that there's maybe more work to be done than we thought when they were six and six or when they were six and four, especially maybe there's more work to be done on defense. If they don't play as well as we think down the stretch, maybe the offensive line is a little more shaky than we think. Maybe the receiving depth, you know, maybe Addison hits a rookie wall.

We don't feel quite as well. You know what I mean? Like if you lose these games, that means guys played bad and it's not going to feel very good and it's going to look like you've got a long way to go. If you make the playoffs, it will look much more like, all right, change X, Y, and Z, figure out the quarterback and you are a potential contender. So that I would say matters. I would put their playoff odds to win the Superbowl to reach the Superbowl very low, but I was also in Philadelphia when Nick Foles did it. He did have home field

advantage throughout that may have played a role there, but you're not, you're right. You never know. It's always possible. I just think a real win for this team would just be to go nine and eight. If you go nine and eight under these circumstances, then it's really says a lot about the whole strength of what you've built here in this competitive rebuild season. It would really be exactly what they were hoping it was going to be this year when they didn't set the bar at, Hey, we're, we're all the way in to try to win the super bowl this year. And you've got the foundation built. This will feel like a foundational year at nine and eight. If you lose every game from here, it will feel like there's a lot of cracks in that foundation. A horse feather says glad to see that they didn't throw Dobbs out after a tough game. I think he has potential.

I agree. I agree. You know, it's so funny just how much we can change. And here's what it tells you too, that the NFL is famous for overreaction. We all are. I do it. You guys do it. We try not to, we try to be rational.

At least I do. You don't have to, you could be whatever you want, but in the universe of trying to analyze what's going on, try to be rational, but how can you not overreact to football? And what I think we saw was Kevin O'Connell overreacted to football. He was so upset at how his quarterback played. And there's different versions of all the same thing. Like we talk about how different Mike Zimmer is than Kevin O'Connell, but they're both football coaches. They're both insane competitors who put so much into this. And when the quarterback lets him down, they had different reactions, but kind of the same. Right. And, uh, I think he was really let down by Chicago and it was a bit of an

overreaction to say, like, I might bench the quarterback, but then found his course and also didn't do it ever to Kirk cousins when he played poorly, but to a guy who's been a backup quarterback and everybody was thinking it as well. Right. Everybody was thinking, yeah, this, uh, this might be going badly. Um, so I don't think that it was mismanaged to kind of have this little bit of drama mixed in, but ultimately landed on the right decision. Uh, go get them says, do you think they will force the ball to JJ or take more advantage of other openings? They seem to have good success mixing it up when JJ was out. That is a good question. And ideally, I think that you want to take advantage as many times as you can of the other players around Justin Jefferson, because the matchups end up

being so favorable and what they weren't doing, I think early in the season was finding a good mix. So Jordan Addison and TJ Hawkinson had fewer yards combined than Justin Jefferson had, which is amazing if you have Jefferson on your fantasy team, but it's not amazing if you're talking about having a complete offense, which is what they're looking for. And so if Justin Jefferson ends up with seven catches for 93 yards, but they end up with 300 yards passing overall, that's much better than forcing 150 yards to Jefferson and ending up with 220, which seemed to happen a lot of times over the last two years. Everything is built to go Jefferson's way. But I think what they should

have learned along the way is these other guys can play. I mean, TJ Hawkinson led the whole NFL and targets while Justin Jefferson was out for tight ends and Jordan Addison, I mean, put up big numbers, uh, propelled himself to a top three rookie wide receiver in yards. Well, Justin Jefferson was out. Uh, It wasn't perfect for either one of them along the way, but those guys can make plays. And we still haven't seen a lot of times we count KJ Osborne completely out. And then he has like last year, a big end of the season. We haven't really seen him have that big game that we know he's capable of. So I think that you're sort of implying with the question that they really

shouldn't try to force the ball to Jefferson all the time and rather take advantage of the other opportunities underneath that will be open. And for a quarterback like Dobbs, that to me is important because cousins fitting it into a window to Jefferson can be pretty good. It could be really good. In fact, I think we hoped he did that more often even than he did because he is really accurate. Dobbs, I think you'd rather have him go to the right place with the defense, but you also don't want Justin Jefferson left out in any way. So it is a balance, but the friends we made along the way

for Hawkinson and Jordan Addison are important here in the way that they have built their confidence during the time that he's out. Blantos says, is there a long-term benefit to KOC being able to see his offense with a mobile quarterback? He's been coaching fairly immobile quarterbacks the past few years. So you're right. I mean, you go back in his coaching history and his most recent coaching history, you go back in 2017, he's with Kirk cousins. So there's that. And, uh, 2018 it's Alex Smith who was a mobile quarterback then gets hurt. Then it's Josh Johnson. Who's a mobile quarterback, but wasn't really doing a whole lot of that in

Washington, Mark Sanchez. They might've had a few other guys. Then he goes to Los Angeles and he's got Matthew Stafford, who is mobile in some ways or was, but much more of a pocket quarterback. And of course, we all know about Kirk Cousins. I'm not sure that that can really be weighed super heavily from what you see from Josh Dobbs, as much as it is from just watching the football, right? I mean, when you look around the league and you see so many quarterbacks are capable of making plays on the move out of structure, it makes you, I'm sure, happy if you're Kevin O'Connell, if you have a bad play call and nobody's open and Josh Dobbs

bails you out and runs for a touchdown. But I don't think that he like, didn't know that, you know what I mean? Um, but I, and I also don't know how much like any of this will influence their decision on what type of quarterback they're looking at so much as what type of quarterback they can get. I mean, if they succeed with Josh Dobbs, what they may be looking at is saying our offense, our coaching, our staff, our receivers, our offensive line is set up for just about anybody who can process and throw accurately. So they might look at a Michael Penix and say, I know he's not a runner and that he's got some creaky wheels when it comes to previous injuries, but we can put them in the pocket and we can pass protect for him and we can get guys open and have him be like

Kirk. Or they might look at an opportunity to get Jalen Daniels and say, Hey, you know what? That guy can run for me and we'll have them, you know, try to figure out when the right time to do that is. There was a rumor that they were talking about trading up. And of course, they didn't have the draft capital, but they at least were trying last year. And that would have been for what? I mean, all three quarterbacks. OK, CJ Stroud is not really a mobile quarterback.

He's a pocket quarterback. But two of the other ones are pretty mobile. And I don't think they would have had a problem with that. So I think it really comes down to, and we see this from Brock Purdy too. Brock Purdy is a mobile quarterback, but he's not like a big time runner. And same with Patrick Mahomes, like Patrick Mahomes is not just taking off all the time, maybe more this year than usual, but mobile enough to make the defense wrong when they're right. That's what it comes down to for me. And then if you can find Jalen Daniels, well,

I mean, that's just, that's just special. That's just completely different, just completely different. Cause you know, he's going to be a huge difference maker. Then you have to rework a lot of your offense for him. Uh, Dennis says if they pull Dobbs, who do you think they'll put in at quarterback guarantee? It's Nick Mullins. Uh, Dennis says if they pull Dobbs, who do you think they'll put in at quarterback guarantee? It's Nick Mullins. Uh, if they're trying to win a game in, in Las Vegas, let's say since Vegas is really bad, uh, on offense, let's say it's 12 to 10 Vegas at halftime. And Josh Dobbs has three picks and a fumble, you're going to Nick Mullins, try to win the game. Uh, I don't even know if Jaron Hall will be active for the game when it comes to the long

term. If Dobbs were to lose against the Raiders and not play well, and they go to Mullins and he loses to Cincinnati, you might as well just play Jaron Hall the rest of the way and see, see what you got. Um, that that's kind of the way and see see what you got um that that's kind of the way that i would do it uh let's see clifford this is funny dobbs would be tickled pink to be with the same team for more than half a season yeah i know that was funny when he talked about his uh his stuff being mailed or whatever shipped his, being shipped from city to city and how he had just gotten his stuff into Arizona. It's not, it's not an easy situation. It's not an easy situation for Josh Dobbs to be in. And we also have to remember that as well, that they're still

figuring things out between each other, but at least the fact that there is communication between those two to try to figure it out, gives it a chance. That's what I think. And, and when they get to the end, whether this worked or not, if it doesn't,

they, at least they tried everything that they could. And that's really the best you could do when your quarterback goes down. And it kind of always ends up coming back to that. Luke says, there's a reason Dobbs has been a backup coming back to that. Uh, Luke says there's a reason Dobbs has been a backup most of his career. I, yeah. And I tried, I think at times during, uh, our brief Dobbs mania to prepare everyone for that. Um, that the reality is they could do everything right. And Josh Dobbs is just a career backup and it doesn't work out. That is a very possible outcome. However, a career backup, what you hope for the best possible

career backup is that they could win you three out of five when there's three winnable games. And that's all they're asking from him. So if they can get to that point, we can figure out the rest with the longterm and everything else, but that's all they're asking for him right now. There's of course a reason he's been a backup. The one difference though, with Dobbs from most career backups is that most career backups look like CJ Beathard that if you saw him the other night, where it's somebody that might not be that athletic, might not put up big numbers, just knows the offense enough to get the ball out a couple of times, give you a chance. They look like Nick Mullins. Like that's what most of them look like. Most of them are not six foot. I think he's six, three, uh, 215 pounds runs a four, six

dynamic type of runner. And I also think that Dobbs has a strong arm. Is it great when it comes to the touch? Is it great when it comes to the perfect accuracy, 25 yards down the field? No, it is not, but he throws it. He throws it like he throws it harder than you would expect for most backup quarterbacks. So you can see something more there. It's just, is he too erratic to be any sort of starter scott says kyler book it i think kyler's staying after this year i think kyler's staying in arizona and they want to try to build that team around him and there is a little precedent for that it would be detroit where detroit had a veteran quarterback who was scrutinized at times, Jared Goff, and they were able to draft high a couple of times and build things around him.

I would guess that they're going to try that rather than trading away Kyler Murray, unless they just can't stand him. But I doubt that that is the case. Clifford says, I think they'll sell the farm for Daniels. Very possible. Giuseppe says trade up for Daniels, just like the Chiefs bills chargers did for their guy. It's worth a future late first round pick. I mean, you're speaking my language with that. What scenario I think would be the best would be if Josh Dobbs played well. And I mean, maybe it doesn't make the playoffs. Maybe it does. Josh Dobbs plays well. So you bring back Dobbs and draft Jalen Daniels, and then have Jalen Daniels develop behind another mobile quarterback. Who's very smart, who really understands football that it is a veteran and has

been everywhere and is not going to ignore the other guy in the room or whatever you might get from a veteran quarterback. And who's going to help with that development to ignore the other guy in the room or whatever you might get from a veteran quarterback and who's going to help with that development process of the other quarterback. And then you ideally turn it over to Jalen Daniels, maybe at some point in his first year, depending on how it goes or in 2025. And then you've got your dynamic weapon. That's like the perfect situation, I think, for the Vikings future. But how do you actually get it there? Another problem is other teams are going to want Jalen Daniels, probably really want Jalen Daniels. So does it cost the first? Does it cost two first?

Does it cost three first? Like what are we talking for a price tag? That is my ideal situation. Javier says, isn't the best scenario that Dobbs plays well, but the defense loses it in the end. So we're a good team and we don't need an expensive quarterback. Yeah, maybe, maybe the absolute perfect situation for the now and later is, or I mean, I guess for the later, but now and later is if they lose on last second field goals, every game from here on out, they draft in the top 15, they trade up for Jalen Daniels, but yet still feel like they're a pretty good team. And they just argue that they were unlucky with one score losses, like they were lucky with one score wins and then everybody's happy that that yeah there you go there is there there you go there is a perfect world scenario who says nothing is perfect

in this world uh scott says none of the top three quarterbacks in the draft are attainable from the vikings position everyone else has more to offer yeah no i mean i am not thinking of it right now as realistic unless they lose all the games the rest of the way, that they could get their hands on Jalen Daniels, because I'm expecting him to be a top five to seven draft pick. And then we're discussing the others and whether there's anybody else. And people are very mixed on JJ McCarthy, but Pennix, Bo Nix, I think we know what those guys are because they're older.

And so, yeah, we have this kind of scenario. So let me let me tell you guys real quick about our friends at prize picks. I'm not going to give you the prize picks right now because I haven't made them for this week yet. So we'll do that tomorrow night with Manny. But if you haven't checked it out, very, very cool website and app, PrizePix. All it is, is you do more or less for somewhere between two and six players. I like to do three. It's yardage, it's touchdowns,

and that's all you gotta do. They give you a player, they give you a yardage or touchdown total, and you go more or less, and that's all you have to do to play. And it's very cheap. You could put down 10 bucks and turn that into 250 if you really nail it. And also you can get a little money on me if you go to prizepix.com slash purple and use the code purple for a first deposit match

up to a hundred dollars. So that's prizepix.com slash purple. Use the code purple daily fantasy made easy. All right. Here's the thing. What else is on your guy's mind? So we got about 15 minutes until nine o'clock. And, uh, of course we've been talking quite a bit about the quarterback situation here as always, but how, how are we feeling? Like, are we feeling like the Vikings are going to do this? Like there's confidence, like this could be fun. Like this could be terrible. Are you dreading it? Maybe Vikings fans just dread everything. And that's always the case. I don't know. But, uh, what other questions are on your mind? If this has dominated the conversation so much since Kevin O'Connell decided he was not going to name Josh Dobbs,

the starter, but Justin Jefferson's coming back. The offensive line's coming off a tough game. There's going to be a Max Crosby versus Brian O'Neill who had maybe his worst game as a Viking last week against the bears. There's a running game where we were sort of promised more tie Chandler. And then there wasn't more tie Chandler, which I think needs to come into play. And, you know, then on the defensive side, I asked Brian Flores the other day about head coaching positions. And he said, look, we've got 35 games left in the season. So, or not 35 games. This is what is this baseball 35 days left in the regular season. And so I'm going to give everything I can to that. Kevin Seifert asked him, so you've told your agent not to call you about openings. He said, yes,

that he, that he is not taking those phone calls right now. He's focused on this, but that's got to be on his mind as well. And I'm curious about how they approach the Raiders. Is this a game where you blitz like crazy? Is this a game where Devante Adams could be a problem? Like there's a lot else to talk about as well. But of course your quarterback comments are still welcome. As Brian says, if not Daniels, then Pennix, I am, I'm in such a weird place with Pennix. I really like him.

I've seen a lot of the games. I really like him. I think he's a great leader. I think he gets the ball out. He's got these super huge hands and he throws such a nice pass. I just wonder about the injuries and the lack of mobility. Like, ah,

you know, I, I don't know. I just don't know if that guy is going to be a franchise quarterback, but I like him a lot. I like his character a lot. He's also behind a great line, thrown to a lot of receivers that are open. I go back and forth. I waffle.

We'll talk about it a lot, probably, depending on what happens with Kirk. Clifford says dream scenarios. They win the Super Bowl and number 15 is retired. You know what? I didn't think of that, but that is true. A second dream scenarios. They lose every game by one score and draft Jalen Daniels at the top. So that is true. Uh, but you may, you make a fair point. That is the actual dream scenario, but I did not necessarily think that was a realistic. So Thor says we're going back to the playoffs, but it's going to be fun. I mean,

would you bet it right now? Their percentages are like 40% or something for the playoffs by a lot of the analytics websites. And yet if they win these next two games, it's probably going to go up quite a bit. Like that's why playoff percentages are weird because it's like, can we type in if they win the games, then what happens? Then what's their percentage? I think on the New York times thing, you actually can't do that. So maybe I, maybe I should do that. If they win the next two games, I'm going to feel like they're going to the playoffs and anybody can say, we would all say, Hey, maybe it's better to draft higher and so forth,

but this would be a very memorable year. If they are able to make the playoffs with Josh stops, Todd says, I'm still confident that Dobbs will figure it out and get us into the playoffs. I think so too. David has him finishing four and one. I got three and two. But the thing is, Cincinnati has all these playmakers. That makes you worry a little bit. Jake Browning gets the ball out of his hands. They've got some good players on defense, like two road games. It's not all that easy. Yeah, I saw that Max Crosby didn't practice with a knee injury, but it seems like he's going to play. So at least that's what from reading the Las Vegas reporters. But we'll see.

That could be a factor that he's banged up there. I look at it as they'll probably win three out of five and make the playoffs but would it surprise me if if it was two out of five like of course it wouldn't surprise me if it was two out of five that's how i feel about it right now and if they lose this week i'll completely change my mind so this this week is sort of we've done this dance all year long like hey if they lose this game and they go to one in five, it's over. They're trading to Neil Hunter or Hey, if they win this game in Denver, we are going to the playoffs or what, right? All year long.

It's been, we're going to feel this way if this happens. And this Raiders game is sort of the final frontier of that. It's if they win this game, you have a very good chance at the playoffs. If you lose this game, it's over, pack it up, start watching Michael Penick's junior film. Like they're not making the playoffs at that point. Uh, if that happens. So Scott says, does it matter? Simulate the last five games? Well, I mean, I'm going to the game. So, and I just booked my trip to Cincinnati. If it doesn't matter, I paid a lot of money for that flight. I didn't expect that

trips to Cincinnati would cost that much, but a little bit on the expensive side. So after I watched Jake Browning, I was like, you know what? I got to make sure I traveled to Cincinnati, but you know, simulate the last five games. Who cares? It's all about the future. Like, I get it. I get it. But at the same time, a playoff run under these circumstances, you can't deny that that's meaningful. Like, you can't tell me it means nothing. Who cares?

You know, blow up the franchise for the draft. Like that, that time has passed. And we may look back and go hey when you were one and four certainly if you traded kirk cousins to the jets and daniel hunter to the jaguars and you lost the rest of the games and you drafted drake may it would have been better but that's we can't go back to that time machine so you know the difference between if they win seven or nine isn't that much as far as draft status, at least. I mean, what is that as a couple spots? Uh, Thor says, why is no one talking about Ewers? Uh, I've mentioned

him before as somebody who intrigues me, but I think that he might be returning and he hasn't really been talked about as like a top, top draft pick. So I think he's going back to college to try to become that. But if he wins the national championship, maybe that will change. I don't know. So anyway, yeah, Scott, you're exactly right. You actually have nailed this. It sounds like Atlanta FOMO. You're right. Atlanta is the one game that I did not travel to this year on the road. I think that's it. Right. I think that's the only game that I haven't gone to. Maybe there was one other one. But then, of course, what happened in Atlanta, Josh Dobbs comes off the bench, goes crazy. And I did have extreme FOMO for not traveling to that. So, you know, same with Shadur Sanders. Yep. Yep. Shadur Sanders and Ewers will be the top guys going into this year. Uh, Brian says, I say pay Flores like a head coach to keep him on defense. He may ask for a raise if he's got a lot of interest. He may not have the type of interest that we think, um, uh, go get him says, how can we keep Floresores seems like he's going to leave us

he's going to if a team offers him a job it's a pretty big deal that he's suing the NFL and he clearly didn't want um he clearly didn't want to get into it with me, like in the press conference, he didn't want to talk about, um, you know, whether him suing the league would make a difference or not, but we've all got common sensibilities here, right? Like we all know that that could play a role. There's reporting that it won't that reporting may be coming from his side. I don't know. Uh, but you know, maybe, I mean, he certainly deserves something. I think if I had to guess, they probably paid him a lot to come here in the first place to be the defensive coordinator. Uh, but I think what you're betting on is just that he's not going to get hired by

anyone and he will remain here. Uh, Matthew says any chance that the Vikings give Flores an associate head coach position, or does that really mean anything? It will, you know, he's, he's already that as far as how he acts, I think that he's running the defensive side.

And I think he's been valuable to Kevin O'Connell as a guy with head coaching position, uh, or with, uh, experience. I mean, it would mean something as in, it would

be the organization saying like, we believe in Brian Flores at this high of a level. So where he is right there with the head coach, like, you know, coach associate coach, it's him and Flores. This is the leadership. We believe in him. so you can hire him. And he might want that after this, but I also think that he's probably got a pretty good position here. I mean, the defensive coordinator for a building defense that has really let him do it his way. You can't ask for much more than that for Brian Flores, aside from being back as a head coach. So he may, I'm sure he wants to be back as a head coach, run his organization and so forth. Uh, but it's not a bad position to be in with a bunch of young

players that he's developed, that he's implemented a scheme working with Kevin O'Connell. I mean, you could do worse than that. So if there's not an obvious head coaching job that he's being offered, then he's probably just back in the same exact role. And, uh, of course I know you guys aren't rooting against him, but that scenario is pretty good for the Vikings. So we'll see, we'll see how it plays out. But another interesting chapter, uh, in this Viking season, which has been, uh, nowhere near as wild as some of the craziest ever, but certainly has put a lot of obstacles in front of this team in their way to the playoffs. So we'll see what happens with Josh Dobbs going forward as he's the quarterback for this week. And then Kevin O'Connell was not committing to him for any longer than that.

So we'll see, but plenty of more coverage to go this week on purple insider, uh, on Friday morning, I'm flying out to Vegas. I'll be out there doing the show at circa tomorrow night, uh, live with Manny Hill and maybe even a Saturday live stream. We will see, but I'm told that I will be doing the live stream from stadium swim, where there's a hundred yard television behind me and pools and everything else. So just saying it's going to be pretty cool. Uh, Oh, uh, Breck says, which quarterback do I think that the players want? I would guess Dobbs because they've seen him win. Um, they also see him practice. They know who's more talented,

but I don't know. I mean, it's, I would assume it's the guy who's won some games for them. Uh, and one last thing, little bit of self-promotion, but if you're looking for holiday gifts for people, football is a numbers game. My book going inside PFF to tell the story of everything that they do for the NFL, uh, how they became what they are, where all these stats come from, everything else, a wild, wild story. You can see it if you're watching on YouTube right behind me.

Football is a numbers game. Amazon, wherever you get your books, go check it out and buy it for the football lover in your family or yourself because you like football. So I appreciate everybody and your kind words. And I hope that I see some of you who tune into the live stream at the party at Circa, and I've gotten a few messages of people wanting to say hello. So I'm really excited about that.

Okay. That is it for tonight, but we'll be back tomorrow night with Manny Hill, and then we'll go from there. So we'll catch y'all later. Thanks everybody. This was fun.