Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - REPORT: O'Connell sees Murray as possible long-term QB (Part 2)

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Matthew Coller talks about a Sports Illustrated article by Albert Breer in which he writes that Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell told Kyler Murray that he could see Murray becoming the long term quarterback of the Vikings. What do we think of this? Also, NFL free agency has slowed to a halt, what's next for the Vikings? Is it time for us to turn our eyes to the draft? The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Purple Insider is presented by Fandul. Clifford said, not if they're talking about Kyler being the long-term answer. He's toast in Minnesota. You're talking about Kevin O'Connell? I mean, that's, you know, that's kind of odd because Sam Darnold wasn't even supposed to be able to do anything as to start. He wasn't, according to when he signed, according to a lot of people, he wasn't even supposed to be able to win the job. So, writing it in right now what you think is going to be able to do. to happen, I think is a little bit silly, truly. We're talking about range of outcomes,

but what you think is going to happen. I think that O'Connell's track record, and maybe this is what scares some of you as big JJ people, is that Kevin O'Connell's track record points to this working, and so does Justin Jefferson's. So if you really disdain Kyler Murray and you really love J.J. McCarthy, this probably doesn't feel like a good day for you. Because I think the odds are in their favor. When J.J. or when Kyler Murray's had good situations, he's played really well in the NFL. He hasn't been perfect, but he's played very well. And he's going to have a good situation here. He also, I also think that people need to see him play. You need to, because most of the commenters, you just need to see him actually play in some of these games.

You need to see the wow plays. You need to see the accuracy. You need to see how he worked the ball to his number one target, Trey McBride. And as I was, I mean, I joked with a friend about like watching the tape back and I just said, I mean, it doesn't even, it doesn't even look like the same sport compared to what we saw from McCarthy last year. Like, he's doing so many of the routine things routinely, which is throw on time, throw accurately over the middle of the field, which I don't know where that came. When I asked Josh Weinfuss about that, who covered him, I said, was there an issue with throwing over the middle of the field? His answer was like, what are you talking about? No. I was like, oh, okay. I mean, and by.

the data there really isn't uh it doesn't it just doesn't show up so but timing to like your tight end on a checkdown or even just getting to a checkdown which j j mccarthy struggled with it's night and day that it's not really particularly close so i think what some of you are it's very similar to darnald i think what some of you are actually afraid of is it working because if it works and it doesn't win you a super bowl then i'm sure we'll hear from all the same people like i told you it wasn't going to work because they didn't win the Super Bowl, which is, again, not a way that I would want to. That's a way you can live if you want to.

That's just not. That doesn't sound like football is very fun to you, uh, that you live and die on certain takes and you just hope and dream that they're going to be right. And if it's right, then you've had a good time. And if it's wrong that you haven't, that just sounds twisted to me. So I'm not really, um, thinking about this the same way as, as some of you. But I think if we're talking about what are the odds. we should get there.

What are the odds that J. That, uh, Kyler Murray becomes the quarterback for longer than this year. I mean, I'd put it after this, after this with Albert Breer's report, I'd probably put it about a coin flip. And should you be rooting for it that we're going to find out because

if you do get stuck in middle land and that's the biggest concern here is that you do get stuck in middle land and you do struggle to build the roster around Kyler Murray to be good enough. and you end up similar, I guess, ish, to the Cardinals in some ways, like not totally because their franchise is awful, but like, you know, at least in some ways of not feeling like you could get over the top. Now, that's not a great place to be if you're just going to be competitive and it's just going to be fun over multiple seasons and that's all you could ever be. But what are the odds that this works and he plays well and he fits with Jefferson and he is

exciting and all that. I mean, they're decent. It's not 100%, but it's decent. And of all the options, the reason why I like the Kyler Murray won the best was exactly what KOC said. Interesting. That's exactly what KOC said was that one of the reasons I liked it is because this could actually be a long-term option. This could actually work. The ceiling for this is that this doesn't just work, but it works over multiple years. That was not on the table at all for Kirk Cousins. That was not on the table at all for Gino Smith or Aaron Rogers. Those guys were, as Albert Breer wrote, those were Band-Aids. Slim Bow Boogie.

If Kyler stays healthy and plays 17 games, expect 3,900 yards passing, 625 rushing, 30 total touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Now, you may be saying if you're against the move, oh, Mr. Slim Boogie, what are you out of your mind? But Mr. Boogie is really just giving the stat line for Kyla Murray from two. 2004 or close to it, where he threw for 3,800 yards, had 24 passing and 5 rushing, so 29 touchdowns. I think he had, was it 10 interceptions and ran for 500 yards.

So he's already done that recently. Skoll shadow, the NFLPA should allow teams to work with their players more during the offseason, especially for developing players. Don't they want a better product allowing more practice equals better games? Yeah, it's an interesting thought because. if you're the players, what you want is less wear and tear on your body, less time that you have to fly from wherever you live. I saw, I saw, I thought this was really funny.

Micah Parsons was being like made fun of for spending time in his home in Dallas during the off season. It was like, have you seen our weather? I wish I was with Micah Parsons in Dallas as well over the last week. But players, they all have to fly in, be away from their families for OTAs. and practice and stuff like that. So they want less of that. But I don't disagree with what you're saying.

I mean, there used to be, there used to be avenues for quarterback development. And this is where when we talk about J.J. McCarthy's results, that isn't to say that circumstances didn't play into it. It did. Circumstances played into it for sure coming off of the injury, not having that first year to develop, the system and the way it's set up to really panic,

over a rookie quarterback contract, which is what this organization did. They figured we got to make this happen in his rookie quarterback contract. So we're going to make a move where the odds are not that great that it actually works, but we've got to take our big swing and move on from somebody who just performed at a pro bowl type of level because he's in his rookie quarterback contract. It didn't used to be that way. So you have a bunch of things that used to be in favor of quarterbacks for development. Number one is that teams knew you needed to develop a quarterback, so they were more patient with them.

Number two, they used to keep three quarterbacks on their roster. You used to have got, or three or four, or whatever it was, practice squad quarterback. So you used to have guys get, you know, more reps and more time over a number of years as a backup quarterback. There used to be NFL Europe, where there's a number of quarterbacks who ended up playing in the NFL that would go over to NFL Europe in the offseason. JTO Sullivan, who does the great QB school. he was one of them. He played over in NFL Europe. And I remember listening to old broadcasts,

and I'll still do this, I'll still catch this, where you'll hear the broadcaster say, you know, he spent last year with the Barcelona Dragons or the Rhinfire of the, but they don't do this with the USFL. And they used to have two-a-day practices where you're getting a lot more reps. You're dropping back a lot more.

And it's not a fair situation for J.J. McCarthy. Unfortunately, it, just isn't. In a fair world, he would have been healthy for his first year and sat behind Sam Darnold. And in a fair world, he would have built on everything that he started out with camp where he impressed everyone so much and probably been a lot more ready physically and emotionally to start for the Vikings last year. In a perfect world, Sam Darnold wins eight games. And the bar isn't that high. And if he wins nine or 10 and has some struggles, you'd feel good about it. You'd say they made progress. They were better as a roster. See, but he won

14 and that set a different sort of standard. In a perfect world, he plays 17 games and we can really look at 600 or 700 passes to say, wow, this is what JJ really is, as opposed to a half a season basically played. And worth of pass, it's not even a half a season worth of passes. It's a half a season worth of starts. It's not a half a season worth of passes. 243, double that. That's 486.

You're not even, that's most quarter. are getting over 500 passes in a season. So it's not a fair world for J.J. McCarthy. And if they did allow for more of the coaches with players in the offseason, maybe that would help with somebody like him and with younger players development. But I will go back to what I asked Kirk Cousins about development, quarterback development. And he said, you better develop yourself.

That's what he, that's what he said. And that really stuck with me, really stuck with me that he said, you really, in the NFL, you have to develop yourself. So it's on J.J. McCarthy. And if McCarthy is somehow better than Kyler Murray, then this conversation goes out the window. And that's why I think the people who are freaking out today who want McCarthy to be the starter over O'Connell saying, I could see you being the long-term guy. Well, first, it's just logical.

It's just logical. If you have a quarterback of this much talent and previous performances that have peaked at an 11-win season and a top-10 offense, yeah, of course, at 28 years old. sure, he could be the long-term option. But we don't really know where this thing is going to go. And it's on the shoulders of J.J. McCarthy to get to the point where he can compete with Kyler Murray. Because right now, having watched a lot of J.J. McCarthy and now just recently watched a lot of

Kyler Murray, my assessment is it ain't close, folks. It ain't remotely close between these two quarterbacks. Kyler Murray is much, much, much, much better than J.J. McCarthy right now. That does not mean J.J. McCarthy cannot get there. That means at this moment, a 28-year-old who's been in the NFL a long time, who's been through a lot of different stuff in the league, has changed offenses, has had lots of different supporting casts. He knows a lot more. He's grown a lot more and is the number one overall draft pick, more playmaking skill there, certainly more natural accuracy as a thrower, a guy who could have been in major league baseball, like a special athletic talent, to even be here at this height. do you know how rare that is?

Do you know how special you have to be to be here at this height? So right now it's not, there's no competition between the two if you watch them. But that doesn't mean that McCarthy can't develop himself and make a case. And just with Murray and his health situation over his career, it doesn't mean that we won't see J.J. McCarthy this year. Now, it did get brought up that, you know, maybe with this coming out, like should they just trade him? I have not. Oh, that's interesting,

Deaver that the cards offense outgained the Vikings in 2024. 2024 Cardinals offense with Murray leading the way is a good offense and he was a good quarterback. Like, there's no way around that. They went eight, nine. They had a mediocre coach in terms of game, like in game management that cost them a couple games and they did not have a great

defense and they let some get away. But they were a pretty pretty competitive. and solid football teams on offense with not a very good. I'm curious, actually, I wonder about this. What, like, where they ranked in offensive line on 2024? Maybe it was okay. No, it was pretty good. Yeah, so there you go.

That may have been a factor that helped them a lot with Kyler Murray and some of his success. So the Vikings, I mean, we all know this too. We know this. The Vikings have to get the other things right. right. They have to block. They have to run. They have to catch the ball this time. The scheme's got to work. We know that. In terms of the trade J.J. McCarthy idea, I don't think that there's a big rush that you have to do that today just because you said in an article or it came out that you said, however it got there, that Murray could be the long-term guy. That doesn't mean you have to trade J.J. McCarthy. Now, if McCarthy, goes to the Vikings and demands a trade, then you might be in a little different spot. But if you're the Vikings, like, don't you want J.J. McCarthy as your backup?

Like, don't you want someone who knows the offense, at least enough, and is expected to know it more than he did last year, knows the offense and can win some games with his playmaking if Kyler Murray were to go down? So I don't see any reason to trade J.J. McCarthy right now, unless someone came in with any sort of. of phenomenal offer. I mean, a first round pick or, you know, something like that. Okay, well, maybe you start to consider it or if he's demanding a trade and he's saying,

I'm not going to show up to OTA. And it's not happening, I don't think. But if it was behind the scenes, then you'd have to consider it. If it's not and McCarthy's being told you're going to come in and compete with Kyler Murray, then all right, well, having him as a backup's pretty darn good because he played like a high quality backup last year and was able to win a handful of games. So you'd rather have that because if you got through seven games into the season and let's say you're five and two with Kyler Murray and then he goes down for the year or something, well, you want someone to come in and be able to still start. Cobra Kai says to follow tradition, Kyler will sign a deal with the Vikings after the season simply because Minnesota doesn't have a viable option moving forward.

I do not agree with that. I think that the only reason they would sign him is if he met the boxes that were checked that I brought up earlier. And if he met those requirements, if he stayed healthy, if they won as a team, if he connected with Kevin O'Connell, if he connected with adjusted Jefferson and they were able to produce a top 10 offense, then you're signing him. I think if it's short of that, if the connection's just okay between him and O'Connell and Jefferson, if they win eight games, if you're the 18th best offense, I don't think you're signing him. I don't think it's just because they have no other option. clearly they can find other options, seeing as they got Darnold and then got Kyler Murray and someone else will be available next year. There was five quarterbacks who can start in the NFL available this year.

There probably will be next year as well. So I don't see it that way. I think the bar is high. And at least if some people are right about the draft class, then you might have a good draft class to work with as well. Norse Force says it worked out great. It was all God's plan. I'd rather have Kyler than Darnold.

That's a little bit of a weird take since Darnold won the Super Bowl this year. But I think Darnold was the perfect fit for Kevin O'Connell. I really think he was. He was mobile enough to gain some first downs if things went crazy. He could line up under center, run play actions and boots and stuff like that. But he could do anything that you needed him to do with his arm talent. And this offense, this has been asked, and I wanted to get to this, like what kind of adjustments they need to make. I think one of them is, that Sam Darnold could tune that ball up and throw it like a freaking howitzer into windows that you would not suggest for most quarterbacks.

What I saw from Kyla Murray last year was when he was asked to put touch on the ball, he was phenomenal. I mean, the touch, the touch that this guy has is special, truly special. How can I describe this? If you have like a garbage bin, 25 yards down the field and you are telling Kyler Murray drop it in that bucket that he could just do it time and time again. He's that accurate with his touch. But when he was winding up and whipping it, so like an outfielder like throw into home or whatever or a shortstop in

the hole, like really, really letting it rip, it was not the same in terms of accuracy as it was when he was putting touch on the ball. So how do you work with that? I think that that's, really one of the things they have to go with is with Donald, you can say, all right, you're, they have a, they have like a number system, a one, two, three. I forget how it works exactly with, uh, the different types of throws that you make as quarterback. So is this a one where you whip it in there, a two where you put a little touch on it or a three where you're really floating it into a spot. I think that the two and three for Kyler Murray are phenomenal. And the one is the is not where it's as accurate. I don't know if that's how they do it exactly. That's,

but I know that they have that. They've, brought it up before. And that's where McCarthy was throwing all ones and not enough twos and threes, right? So can you work with that or can you get him to be accurate with, you know, throwing the ball into tighter windows as hard as he needs to throw it? Though, because I think maybe part of that is that he's always thrown over the offensive line.

So you're putting touch on the ball and you're gliding it up over the offensive line. Its trajectory starts up higher. That's how he's used to throwing maybe a little bit less than I'm going to huck this thing, 110 miles an hour. So that'll be interesting there. DVegas says if KOC doesn't change his play calling and preparing for games, he will definitely, he definitely needs to be fired. Again, why are we talking about firing the coach on March 16th?

It's just, what are we doing here? Like, we don't need to, everything doesn't need to be someone that has to be fired. Like, it just doesn't. We don't have to talk about that way all the time. If, in terms of the play calling, like when you say, if he doesn't change, you know, change his play calling. I don't really know what that means. I feel like when people say that they're very, like, very vague about it. Like, just, just be, just call the plays that work, okay? In my mind, it's fitting to what Kyler Murray feels most comfortable with and then pushing him

into some areas that you know will work that maybe he hasn't done before. But when you actually look at the offense that he was running in Arizona, and I saw Ted Wynn of the Athletic tweet this out, it's not, it's not crazy different. There's a lot of, there is a lot of priest that motion stuff that they do. There's a lot of timing motion stuff that Kyler Murray was asked to do. There are a lot of downfield concepts. They ran a lot of four vertical type stuff that then he often would dump it down to somebody underneath because the defense gets pushed back.

There are a lot of timing type throws of a slant to, you know, Marvin Harrison Jr. or something that's step back, hit the back foot, hit him. There are some dig routes over the middle where it's step back, guys into his break gets behind the linebacker, you know, put it into a spot to get him. I mean, are you referring to just like the running on third down or like what, like, what are we talking about with play calling? Like, I kind of need to know the specific area I'm supposed to address or he needs to address or he's going to get fired according to you. But like is it, I mean, the third and short stuff is an abomination over his time here. And that needs to be a heck of a lot better. Um, that definitely

needs to improve. I think last year, if he didn't learn that you can just lean on a guy like, you know, like Jordan Mason on third down and short, then he missed the boat because he should, you should be able to do that when it's those short yardage situations, like, get your first downs, move forward. Maybe there's like a safer play calling that is not, it doesn't always have to be the dagger. There were too many times, you know, in 2024 and even a little bit this year where it felt like if you just play it on a little bit on the safer side, you're probably going to

win this or this is going to work for you. But it was like he couldn't do that forever. Like, okay, we've only gotten so far with this run stuff. But now I got to, you know, but here's the thing. If you're mostly focused on, well, they have to run more. They have to run more. They have to run more. I get it.

And there's there's nothing wrong with that because I agree. More successfully at least. But even more often is probably right. with Carson Wentz, you know, you can't have, you just can't have Carson Wentz. This is the difference, though. You can't have Josh Dobbs and Carson Wentz out there throwing 35 to 40 passes. But you can have Kyler Murray out there doing it. I mean, so there is a big difference.

You can have Sam Darnold out there doing it. You can have Kirk Cousins. What you'd like is for, since the moment with those guys, since the, and he really did this against the lines, it took Max Brosmer being out there to do it. Like, since that you're winning this game, if you just kind of grind the other team into the ground rather than going for the throat all the time, there's some of that. But in terms of like changing the play calling is just so vague, I mean, I don't really know.

I think of change it in terms of you can't ask Kyler Murray. This is my biggest thing. You can't ask Kyler Murray to stand tall in the pocket. He is not tall. I think we know that. And identify one, to two to three and wait and hang on to the ball and hey if you get back to this it's going to flash open and then fire it into that little gap. Sam Darnold was kind of insane and still is about

just hanging in the pocket. That guy will take any hit anytime he is very big. I know he's not, he's maybe six three, but in terms of his size, Sam Darnold is a linebacker. If you were just walking into a locker room and you didn't know who anybody was or you didn't see their name plates with their positions or anything else like that, you might not know that Sam Darnel was a quarterback. You might think he was like a strong safety or a linebacker or something the way he's built because he's so strong. And he could take those hits.

I don't think you want Kyler Murray hanging in there and taking those hits. I think you want the ball out of his hands pretty quickly. And if that is also downfield where you're throwing a slot fade to Justin Jefferson or something like that down the sideline to Jordan Addison, that's fine. But don't make him hang in and go one to two to three to one. I mean, get it to have it set up. So if he has something open right away, bang. And if it's not there, then there's T.J. Hawkinson or there's Aaron Jones. I think it's a good reason to keep Aaron Jones. So, yeah, that is, that's an interesting stat from Slim boogie there that they average 24 points a game during his career and he's only

38 and 48 they've never had a top 10 defense the entire time he was there it's not a good team it's not a good team um roger says uh i mean if we're talking about you know ed donatel i mean that's kind of with k oc like yeah he should have fired ed donatel midway through the season that's a look i mean we're going back a little ways there though uh roger in uh year five o'connell needs to win he had better change or he should be gone well this is the rule the show. This is the rule of the show. If you're going to say stuff like that, you got to tell me what. Kevin O'Connell needs to do X better. But you have to say what it is. Like, he needs to call plays better. What, what plays would you like? Like, tell me what your feedback actually is. Like,

he's got to do, he's got to do something better. Like, well, what is it? Like, what is it that you're, when you're making that comment, like, what is it that you're thinking? Because I don't, I, this is what I do here, which is to pick apart every single element of this team every day during the season and here every single game, watch back on tape and break down with all the data and everything else. So there's a lot to talk about. But these sort of vague, hey, like, you just got to better. Like, I don't know what we're, I don't know what to do with that. In terms of being year five, though, and it does linger over Kevin O'Connell. There's no doubt about it.

And if they, that they have not won in the playoffs. And it does linger over him that they moved on from Sam Darnold. A hundred percent. There's no way around that. And I mentioned this, I think, after Darnold won the Super Bowl, that it reminds me a little bit of Pete Carroll not giving the ball to Marshawn Lynch, that, well, the Seattle Seahawks were still able to have some success. And they were able to move on, it lingered.

It just stayed there. It was, and the same thing as this. Like, this was the team that decided that Sam Darnold wasn't good enough to win the Super Bowl with. And then someone else won the Super Bowl with him. So that is something that's hard to move on from as a locker room unless you immediately have success with Kyler Murray. And then you go, well, you know, hey, all's well that ends well. But if the team starts out one and three, then you can bet they're going to be looking over at Seattle. Well, what's their record?

You know, what are, what are they? you know, what, what, what are, oh, what are, what are they doing? Is Seattle winning again with Sam Darnold? The guy that we let go of, like that, that stuff happens. You think it only happens on Twitter and comment sections. It happens with, within NFL buildings, too, where people start looking around and be like, hey, wait a minute. What, why, why did we get aware of him of Sam Darnold?

Whose fault was that again? So, and there's a little bit of that, even in, you know, Tyler Dunn's piece that wrote about Sam Darnold and the Vikings moving on from him and Harrison Smith and Blake Cashman, they don't say it implicitly, but it's between the lines everywhere of like, why did we do that again? So, when you've got that much questioning because you botched a decision of that magnitude, the pressure is absolutely on. I agree with that. I think when it comes to Kevin O'Connell, when you talk about the long term, what you should

be rooting for if you're a Vikings fan, what you should be hoping for is that the boxes get checked and that O'Connell shows again that he could be that guy that can maximize Justin Jefferson and that can win a lot of games with a quarterback that has been flawed and on and on and on because the alternative, well, it is so much fun to fire someone. It feels really good in sports to just be like, it's your fault. You're out of here. On to the new. The new is always better.

What's the family guy thing of like, what's in the box? I hope it's a box. Like, I hope the next court. And I hope the next head coach can be voted in A from his players all the time and have double digit wins and have top passing games when he has good quarterback play. Oh, wait. That's kind of what you have in Kevin O'Connell. And sometimes perfection, chasing perfection can be the enemy of good, right?

You've probably heard that. And I also think, too, that Kevin O'Connell's not 70, that. a lot of coaches have gotten better as they've moved on and up and improved over time. You'd rather, you'd much rather as a fan of the franchise, you know, assuming that you are in the comment section, sometimes we get Packers fans who come in and want to troll. But if you are a fan of the franchise, you'd much rather find your quarterback that you know can win, keep Justin Jefferson long term, have a coach that you know can win and get you to the playoffs and put you in the driver's seat to have a chance to do something in the postseason,

then you would have this all go to hell and have no idea what comes next. Because what's behind door number two sometimes works. And sometimes it's Matt Patricia. Like sometimes you get rid of Jim Caldwell if you're the Detroit Lions because you think, well, this guy's not good enough. He can't get us over the hump. And you end up with Matt Patricia who implodes your franchise for a long time. So it's not always better on the other side of the fence.

I just caution people for that. I'm not saying that there might not be a scenario. There might be. There might be a scenario where you go, all right, the wheels came off. He lost his mind. You know, that happened with Joe Judge with the New York Giants. I think they had told them that he was going to be fine. And then he went completely crazy and they got blown out in a bunch of games.

They're like, all right, well, it's time to move on from that. But the Packers are doing this with Matt LaFleur, too. when you reach a certain standard of coaching, look at how many coaches get fired every year. It's hard to reach that standard. You'd much prefer you grow with this flawed coach right now than you would go back into the market. I mean, a team just hired Mike McCarthy again.

A credible NFL franchise just hired Mike McCarthy again. And you think, yeah, man, I definitely want to go into that coaching market and see what the hell happens. I don't know, dude. I don't know. One year ago, we're like, yeah, I mean, O'Connell's the coach of the year.

He's the quarterback whisper one year ago. T.J said, I keep seeing people say KOC needs to adapt to Murray, but we should get players to build around him shouldn't have to be done. Shouldn't we have done that with JJ? Well, they, look, they did what they could with JJ McCarthy. They did what they could. They did adjust the offense significantly. They started running on first and second down more.

they started putting in big personnel more. They tried to make that as safe of an offense. They stopped doing the timing motion, which is something that Murray easily executed in Arizona all the time, by the way. And most quarterbacks can, but McCarthy wasn't ready to do it. I didn't see any time where the team had eight full starts when I was watching Murray tape. But, you know, I guess that's all O'Connell's fault, too.

But, I mean, look, with, uh, last year, you can relitigate it any way you want. You can blame O'Connell all you want. The facts are the facts. And even if you think, even if you think that J.J. McCarthy's failure was nothing to do, was nothing to do with him. It was entirely that the offense wasn't built enough for him, which is to me just crazy talk.

But like, okay, sure. If you want to think that, okay. The fact that he had a 50 quarterback rating trying to throw to Justin Jefferson to me is a bit of a smoking gun, but if you want to say that, then all right, but here's the problem with that. That it, what is he, if he can't build an offense for J.J. McCarthy who can't execute short game at all and got sack constantly and turn the ball over all the time, if he can't build the offense somehow with magic dust for a quarterback that was struggling with that many different things, then you wouldn't ask him to go forward with that quarterback. You would ask him to try it with

somebody else when he's proven before that he can have it work with other people. And when it comes to adjusting it to Kyler Murray, it's way easier. This is a very key point. Even if you, even if I agreed with you that he couldn't adjust it to J.J. McCarthy, it's way easier to adjust an offense to a quarterback who knows what they're doing than it is to adjust it to one who doesn't. Because instead of pairing down certain things that that veteran quarterback isn't as good at or is better at in adding those things.

This is fundamental stuff. Get the team lined up. Take the snap. Throw to a wide open wide receiver on a three-step drop. I don't know what offense you just makes that work if that wasn't being executed. It's much easier to have a Sam Darnold or a Kirk Cousins or a Kyler Murray who can do the fundamental stuff that you're going to ask. And here's the other thing, too.

these offenses in the NFL, man, they are not that different. They are just not that different. When it comes to, so Stephen, that number is just not really, I don't think a very good one with the under center. I don't know where you got that number, but if you go to 2024 and add up the percentage of passes that Kyler Murray ran under center, not runs, but passes, because their run game, I think, was a lot out of the shotgun for Arizona.

The pass percentage was, I believe, 22% for Kyler Murray in 2024, and it was 27% for Sam Darnold. Also, Kirk Cousins was, and Sam Darnal were out of the shotgun all the time under KOC's offense. D. Vega, you get the award for the most clueless comment of the day. You try to sugarcoat things because you work for the Vikings organization. You might want to Google first before you say something like that. I mean, this is, I guess this is some of the, I don't know. This is something, what is this, the lashing out of like, we're just making stuff up about everything.

Now, I do not in any way, shape, or form and never have work for the Minnesota Vikings organization. If you'd like to know the background of Purple Insider, I'll give it to you. I was working in Buffalo at WGR 550 sports radio station there for five years. And then I was hired by a radio station in Minnesota called 1,500 ESPN or ESPN Twin Cities. Either one works where I worked for how many years was that? For four years. And I had a daily show and I covered the Vikings as a reporter, digital reporter and then started doing my own show.

And then when COVID happened, they showed. shut down that radio station and there are some remnants of that that still exist now, but maybe even another podcast that you know that used to be my show. So that happened. And then I started Purple Insider. So that's how I got here. And the Vikings were kind enough to continue my press credential that worked for me when I was working for the ESPN radio station when I started this.

So there's the whole story. They have not, I've never taken a single, a single dollar, a single dollar, a single dime from the Vikings organization. However, I have taken lunch. I got to admit it, guys, I have eaten lunch and in the press box breakfast. So they bring pizza sometimes after the game, after most games, actually home games. And I've eaten it. So in that way, you could almost say a literal sugar coating depending on the meal. If it was like pancakes, a literal sugar coating could be possible. But I think that, which is also funny too because my reputation initially was being very

harsh and critical because in Buffalo, it's a different, a little bit of a different media market in the East. But what I try to do here is as best I possibly can work with all of the facts and organize them into, well, what do I, what do I think about any situation? and what are the range of outcomes? See, what I do a little bit differently because my background is as a reporter. You can see I wrote this book here as well. As a reporter is rather than, I'm not a TV person.

So I'm not going to go on Fox Sports or something on TV, FS1, and give you this is what's going to happen in this game. This team's going to win the Super Bowl. This team made the best move of the offseason. that this team made the worst move of the offseason. I'm staking my claim, right? That's just not how I do it. I think of everything because, see the book?

It's called Football's a Numbers game. It's a lot about the data revolution in the NFL. I've always been very, very interested in data. So that's how my brain works. My brain works in percentage chances of stuff. So if we look at the data and you could say, well, that's, you know, data's not perfect and you should watch the game. Well, I also broke down all a bunch of Kyler,

film on the newsletter today. If you would like that, Purple Insider. Football. So I try to pair it all together, which is the data and being in the locker room and going to the owner's meetings, which I'm headed to in a couple weeks, or the combine or every single home game or a sampling of road games, depending on how things are going. Sometimes that's bigger or smaller, depending on the season. Every press conference, all those sorts of things.

And then talking to people that over the last 10 years around the NFL, that I have gotten to know. And what I try to do is I gather a big old bucket of information and I try to distill it into what the odds are of certain things and where I think they're going. Now, I may or may not have mentioned the Kyler Murray idea a month ago on the show because of all of that stuff, sort of put it all together. What do I, what have I heard and what do I see in the numbers and what do I see,

or what do I hear from O'Connell and from the team? and I thought there's only one guy that really makes sense for them, and that is Kyler Murray, because of what? Let's tie it all back in. Kyler Murray has the chance to be the longer term quarterback. And if you get to year two of a quarterback you drafted and the head coach of the team will not commit to that person as they're starting quarterback, the odds are not high of that person continuing to go on to be their quarterback.

It's just not when you get not a no confidence vote, but a not a vote of confidence. confidence. So somewhere in between. It was, well, we definitely want a different quarterback to use my connections to get Josh Allen. Somebody used connections to get Buffalo wings out here. That's what I want. So anyway, the whole point is that everything is odds for me. It's odds that someone performed at the level that J.J. McCart did. It's history. Five of the 19 quarterbacks that performed like him in their first 10 games ended up having any level of success. Five. That's 25 percent, five of is, 20, about one out of every five, five out of 19. And Bridgewater was like, you know, who knows what would have happened. I was even counting Bridgewater as a success. If you don't, then it would be

four. So that's a quarter of the people that have had this type of success. have ended up working out. So that's not very high, which means you need to go out and you need to find somebody else who has the potential to be your starting quarterback. And now when I do all the research on Kyler Murray and talk to the people who covered Kyler and look at all the numbers and watch all the tape, my conclusion is that this is not a perfect quarterback. You didn't just acquire Josh Allen, but you acquired somebody who could do this,

who can run this offense and who can make plays and who can make accurate throws and who can work the ball to Jefferson. And when I look at the rest of the roster, I go, at least for 2026, this is in a position where you could win the division. I know, as I mentioned, they're plus 600 on Fandul to win the division, but they can do it. I mean, where were they, where were they on Fandul in 2024? They have enough there to do it. Do they have enough there to win the Super Bowl?

It's going to take a lot going right. Is O'Connell going to prove that he can win in the playoffs? I don't know. Is Murray going to prove he can? can win the playoffs. I don't know. Is it possible? Yes. There are other quarterbacks where you would say the odds are quite low. But and look, as Leonard says, O'Connell liked Jaron Hall, which is, which is really funny. So, you may be right, BM, I was, but also one of the advantages I have over others when it comes to like, hey, I was the first on. I do a podcast.

every single day. So I may, I may have beaten people by a few days on certain things. You know what actually got me there? What really got me there was actually Troy Chapman, who does Texans cap and works for over the cap.com. When I had him on the show, I was like, so what's the deal with Kyler and his contract? And as soon as he said, you could get him for $1 million. I was like, oh my gosh, I am all in on this. One million dollars being paid like less than the long snapper. Tavier, Tom. Tom. is rich compared to what they're paying, Kyler Murray? I mean, yeah, why would you not do that?

Why would you not do that? Even if he ends up, even if, even if McCarthy beats him out and Murray doesn't play, even if he gets hurt or even, whatever, like any outcome is fine for a million dollars. And the fact that you have a million dollars and you got to keep your team mostly together, they lost two defensive tackles. That's it. For a team that was supposed to be in cap hell, they lost two defensive tackles. and they were both pretty good,

but one of them ranked like 90th out of 140 by PFF. So, you know, it's not that different of a football team than it was last year. It all just kind of lined up logically. But that's how you end up with the conversation. And so as we're here today talking about, well, should they see him as a long-term option, you put together all the things and you go, well, could he have a connection with Kevin O'Connell that maybe he hasn't with previous coaches?

what about the track records of Cliff Kingsbury or Drew Petzing, who I like, would, and I think it will do well in Detroit. But what about them is comparable to O'Connell, who won the Super Bowl as an offensive coordinator and then came here and has two seasons of 13 or 14 wins? Like, what's comparable about Kingsbury or Petzing slash Gannon to Kevin O'Connell? Like, you could see it being better. Those guys did not have Justin Jefferson. And when they did in DeAndre Hopkins, it worked out really well.

So you start going down the logical, well, could you see it? It's happened before. Could you see a quarterback coming here that nobody really wanted because they wanted J.J. McCarthy to start that had maybe had some tough times in his career working out. Like, I don't know. It's happened before. Could a team win the Super Bowl with a quarterback that they didn't draft and develop? It just happened.

So, you know, thank you, Norse Force. Yeah. No, no padding on the back. It just made logical sense to me. The Yankee and the Brit. It's crazy how some fans think they're a better judge of talent than the coaches around them and O'Connell knows quarterbacks. Oh, so that's where the Jaron Hall thing came from. Yeah.

Look, everyone, and I mean everyone, you, me, Mel Kiper, Kevin O'Connell, Bill Walsh, Mike Holmgren, every single coach, analyst, fan, ever has been wrong about quarterbacks. It is the most complicated position to evaluate in all the sports. You think about hockey or baseball, where you can look at a left winger or you can look at a pitcher or a hitter, and what factors do they have? Well, in hockey, you know, who's playing on your line with you matters a lot, but you can evaluate individual skill sets and those will usually reign supreme. A pitcher is out there, well, yeah, his fielding is going to matter, but we can factor for that, right?

Quarterback, you have how many different factors go into quarterback? It's not just, well, does he have an offensive line? Does he have a running game? Does he have receivers? Does he have the right coach? Does he have the right schedule? Is his team healthy enough? Oh, by the way, like, is he healthy himself?

Or is like Baker Mayfield was trying to play through stuff when he was clean? in Cleveland and it hurt him. And then it became a conflict of him trying to play through injuries that he shouldn't be playing through. And you have the mental element of it, the not only the ups and downs, but you're looked at as the face of the franchise, the pressure, the ups and downs end up all on your shoulders all the time. When you turn on the TV every single day, you know, after a game all season long and you have Stephen A. Smith and all these former NFL players talking about what you did and everything else. like the, they're not talking about the left guard. They're talking about you. Only guard guy is talking about the left guard in our comment section, but not, you know,

not the national media. They're talking about the quarterback position. That's why I always gave Sam Darnold so much freaking credit because dealing with that all the time is so difficult. And, you know, look, Kyler Murray has dealt with a lot. And he's built up a lot of scar tissue of criticism and success at times and failure at times. and he's been through a lot. J.J. McCarthy showed you last year how hard that is, and now he's built up the scar tissue,

and now he gets to go forward and be better at dealing with that into the future. But that's what makes it so hard to predict quarterbacks. And with Kevin O'Connell, what he saw in 2024 training camp, I think there was a little bit of hoping also, like, oh, we got it. We nailed it. It wasn't just the objective analysis, but also I was there. 20, 2024 training camp was really good for J.J. McCarthy. It checked all the boxes for me like it did for O'Connell. We talked about it after his first preseason game of how, yeah, that was what it looked like in

practice every day and everything is on track. And then here's the other thing about quarterbacks. You never know when an ACL or a meniscus or something's going to blow and it's going to change everything and you get set back with your progress and all that stuff like you just don't know. And that's why when O'Connell says, you know, hey, you're the one guy I could see being a long-term quarterback. You have to say you could see it because there are some odds that you could see it and bringing it back to I do everything from a data perspective. It's a coin flip because you can absolutely talk yourself into this working and you can absolutely see all the potential pitfalls that could cause this not to work.

John says even if half of you guys or Vikings fans, y'all are wild for having such opinionated thoughts on how Kyler Murray will fare. No, I like opinionated thoughts on how Kyler Murray will fare. But I also feel like it's what I kind of do here to put in the work to look and see if those things make sense or not. Like, do when people say, well, you know, O'Connell's just going to have to completely change his offense. Like, having just watched back the last two years of Kyler Murray playing for Drew Petting, I really don't think so. I think that, I think there will be some changes. But even O'Connell said this in his press conference, he said, like, you'd be surprised at he's done a lot of things that we do.

And that's absolutely true. There's a lot of stuff that you can identify for route combinations, formations, motions, the particular throws, the quick, outbreaking throw to Justin Jefferson on time. One two, three, throw. You saw it from Carson Wentz. They're going to do that. One of the things that I think T.J. Hawkinson's got to stay healthy. and he has. But after the ACL injury,

but I mean, Hawkinson could be a huge weapon for him. Park yourself. So a lot of times with Jefferson, the zones get pushed back. Park yourself right underneath. Bang, eight yards. That's something Murray does a lot.

That's why Trey McBride got so many catches in part. So P3 says no potential addition would matter more than getting a healthy darrasaw back. 100%. 100%. There's a lot of things that have to go right, though. That's why I'd put it at a coin flip that he becomes the long-term quarterback because a lot of things have to go right. Darisaw has to come back.

As I showed you that, you know, the, in terms of the blocking, the past blocking, it was good for him in 2024. And that mattered. That helped Kyler Murray a lot. I think he helped a little bit with getting rid of the ball fairly quickly on most plays. but because his percentage of getting rid of the ball in under two and a half seconds was pretty high. But still, like, they got good blocking that year. And you saw it when they played against the Vikings that he was able to have some success from the pocket. They have to block.

They have to stay healthy. Those things go for any year. But when you have a quarterback that can kind of be pushed one way or the other by his circumstances, maybe even more than others with someone like Murray, that's an important factor. John says one of our highest draft picks should be a DT. I always like the idea of drafting defensive tackles high. My concern is actually about this draft in particular. Just feels like it's not a great draft for defensive tackles.

There's a lot of difference of opinion. Some people have Caleb Banks as being a top 15 pick, and Daniel Jeremiah's got them more like the 38th best best. player in the draft. So I honestly don't really know what to think of a guy who didn't play that much last year has physical freak talent but didn't have the production. I don't love that. So it's a little bit about who's available for defensive tackle.

I do agree, though, that if you look at who's gotten paid at that position, it's even most, most positions are like that. The first and second rounders are the guys who got paid. But you can't even find guys who weren't first or second rounders for defensive tackle. Justin Matabike was maybe a third rounder, but most of them are all first or second rounders of the highest paid players at defensive tackle. Jason said the Packers won't win the division.

I'm not saying that because I'm a Vikings fan. Well, I mean, that's, when you look at the NFC North and what are the, what's everybody's odds right now? On Fan duel, I'm kind of curious. Let's look at that. Can we see that on the screen? You can sort of see that on the screen. So Detroit is plus 160.

They're the favorites. Green Bay is plus 200. And then Chicago plus 340 and the Vikings plus 600 right now on Fanduel. I think with Green Bay, what it comes down to is their offensive line. And can they run the ball? Last year, they really couldn't. And then how does Micah Parsons come back? Like, when?

When does he come back? Because in the NFC North, if he doesn't come back, if he doesn't come back, back for the first four games and you get down a few in this division, it's pretty tough to come back from. Young cringe says, we didn't just lose two defensive tackles, also lost a safety in a center, more holes than you think. They didn't really lose the center because Ryan Kelly barely played for them last year. In comparison, what did he have, five games and safety, we don't know yet if that's what they

lost or not. Fair enough, though. I mean, on the defense, fair enough, they have to find some answers to that with the rest of the offseason, whether it's post June 1st, post-Gernard trade, post-extension. The idea, the idea that they're just running every single thing back is not true, but they do have one of the best defensive coordinators in the league. And I think it's fair to expect them to have a top defense, as long as they have Brian Flores and the amount of talent that they have. But yeah, no, it's not exactly.

I mean, Ryan Wright was big for them last year. they lost Ryan Wright. They have a very high percentage of the team that is returning. So, oh, you guys debating O'Connell and his, thank you for the compliments there, in his, whether he knows quarterback play or not or whatever. I mean, look, my point is that even as coaches and organizations, you get it wrong sometimes. And they got it as wrong as anyone has ever gotten it letting go of San Diego.

damn darnold. But we also, we can't look, you can't use the, oh, well, Brozmer wasn't ready or wasn't that good or Jaron Hall or something. Like, those are swings at guys who weren't ready to play yet, who are fifth round or undrafted type of quarterbacks. That's not who you evaluate Kevin O'Connell on. The rights are as much right as the wrongs are wrong. He was right about Daniel Jones. He gets Daniel Jones for nothing on his practice squad. And the guy is now making $44 million a year, a year later. He was right about Daniel Jones. He was really right about Sam Darnold.

And to this date, he has been wrong about J.J. McCarthy. He was right about more being there for Kirk Cousins in terms of a leadership perspective than we had seen before. And I mean, you can't say the backups. I just don't, I don't know. And we're going to find out whether he's right or not about Kyler Murray. The odds are not bad that he'll be right because Murray's been good before and career when he's had a good team.

Young cringe says, Kyler is better throwing outside the numbers of playing out of structure. I just don't agree with playing out of structure. This is from watching him for, I spent literally like the last two weeks just watching every day, Kyler Murray film. I don't agree that he's better out of structure. I think that he is really impressive out of structure sometimes.

When things break down, he can do stuff that very few other quarterbacks that aren't named like Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen can do. He can escape rushes. There's a play against just the Saints one is in my mind right now because I wrote about it yesterday. But there's a play where they just screw up a blocking assignment just completely botch it. And a guy comes running in. And he steps himself up in the pocket to safety and then rips the ball to Trey McBride for like a 20-yard gain. But is he better out of structure?

No, I actually think he's better when he's. he's playing on time when he's playing from the pocket and throwing accurately with those timing type of routes now the outbreaking routes that is definitely real uh his success throwing in between the numbers though is not bad from a numbers perspective in between um so i do think that uh will he make him play and he has been playing in structure i'm telling you like since he came back from the acl injury since he's had drew petting there he's been playing in the structure that's in the numbers. It's in the play actions. It's in the two and a half second throws. It's in the tape all over the place. He has played in structure a lot. There's a lot of

plays too where he will bail if the reed's not there and he will scramble or he will try to find something. But in terms of, you don't have to make him play in structure. He's been playing in structure. He can operate anything that COC has done before. Can he get it into the windows and stand and fire, that I think is more questionable. Will he stick with some of the reeds that KOC really wants him to hang on to? I think that is questionable. But can he drop back, find somebody open, hit it, throw a seam route, you know, to T.J. Hawkinson, 20 yards down the field over a linebacker in front of a safety.

Oh, yeah, he's been doing it. You don't just throw for 3,800 yards and 24 touchdowns in 2024 by, like, accident, by just scrambling all over the place. It doesn't, that's not, you can't really do that. So I, will he make him throw over the middle? He's been throwing over the middle. It's just maybe not at the rate that Kirk Cousins did when he ran this offense. And that, the rate may increase.

That could happen. If the odds are 25% you have to stick with McCarthy, 25%, which, which odds are we talking? Are we talking the odds that McCarthy could still work out? They're not 25%. It's, it's, I'm sorry. it's not. I know I said five out of the 25 worked out, but you may have missed the other part, which is that some of them didn't work out with their team or many years later. Tannahill, I was counting Ryan Tannahill and Gino Smith in the five.

Derek Carr worked out with his team, but Derek Carr's first 10 starts were for a travesty of a team that he got drafted to in the Raiders. And then he turned it around eventually after that. But his team was a horror show when he went there. They didn't have Justin Jefferson. So, I mean, when we look at that list of players who it's worked out, it's not 25%. And also the team going to Kyler Murray, the team did not, with the Raiders, change quarterback.

So they believed enough in Derek Carr so they didn't change quarterbacks. The fact that they changed quarterbacks and are talking about potentially going with someone else long term, I mean, it's, that all sinks the odds. The odds of success are not, you know, 25%. uh, Don says, didn't say JJ was good. Just blame the coach for not doing more. What, what more? That's always my question.

What more? What was it else that he was not doing? And that's not like attacking you. I like, that's, because it's always vague. His play calling's not good enough. Like, in what way? Which, which play calls are you talking about? Like, what set or what group or what theme or what, what?

He didn't do enough for McCarthy in what way, in what area? which thing was he supposed to do that was different? Because some of the stuff that gets said to that ends up being stuff that he already did, which was turn more to a run first, run a lot more play action. The second half of the season, they are a top 10 play action team for J.J. McCarthy. Use bigger personnel. Don't make it as complicated at the line of scrimmage, all that sort of stuff. Like, they did that.

Let's see. Is it Meggiar? Sorry if I have that wrong. How will they replace the defensive tackles they cut, especially if the draft is not great? That's a great question. There's a couple guys that are still out there, veterans who are in their 30s,

who may not even sign till later in the offseason, guys like Shelby Harris and Dayquan Jones. I really like the idea of Dayquan Jones. I'm going to show you guys, Dequan Jones's PFF page. Because sometimes I just end up, you know, sort of rambling on stats. And I forget that we're live streaming and I can just show you.

Let's see. I think it's D-A-Q-U-O-N or A-N. There we are. Okay. So D-E-Quan Jones has been around forever. He's 6'4, 320 pounds. And he has a really good history of being a run stuffer who can create a little bit of pressure. So last year, he had a 75.5 grade and 21 quarterback pressures for the bills in 400.

24 snaps. Solid run defender. Big giant dude who can move bodies. Big beard. 34 years old. So he's on the older side. Another guy is Shelby Harris. But there's, there's a few of these guys, like Brent Urban. I'd like it to be someone who could actually get after the passer a little bit. Shelby Harris, another 34 year old. Somehow get Callais Campbell here somebody. 19 pressures last year, 500 snaps. He's had really good seasons in the past can still play a little bit. I like the idea of a veteran defensive tackle and then drafting one somewhere if there is a chance to do so. But even the defensive tackle group, Sands, Hargrave and Allen is a lot of snaps to pick up for. But you still have, you still have some talent there. It's just, you're right that they're going to have to

add it from somewhere. So we'll see on the defensive tackle position. How about, do we want to, do we want to draft sim? I feel like we should draft him. We should probably draft sim and then call it a night. But I'm just curious if there's any other, well, yeah, I don't know what the deal is. Northland, when you ask about Christian Wilkins, I truly have no idea. There's rumors out there of what happened with him about the,

locker room that I just don't even want to get into. Very talented player. There was an injury situation. It just feels like a guy that nobody wants to touch. Don says, we'll be interesting to see how Kyler's skill does with a good offensive line, multiple weapons at a good scheme. The offensive line has to be healthy. If they're healthy, they're good. If they're not, I got questions. I mean, right now, they don't even have, like, a veteran swing tackle. The center situation, I do think we got a good sense for what Blake Brandel is at center. But it's not going to be perfect. He hasn't had all those things click.

You're right. No, he hasn't. He really truly has not in his career had all those things click. And that's why you always have to kind of factor for, like, the situation. And that's why we see so many quarterbacks bounce up and down from year to year. It's also why we see quarterbacks go to another team and sometimes have it work out when it didn't before. this trend is growing of the number of quarterbacks who are not with their original team that

ended up becoming a quote franchise quarterback. It's more common than it is the exception right now with Mayfield and Gough and Darnold, you know, guys like that and, you know, Gino Smith previously. But Scott says what positions do you think the Vikings will go in the first four picks, three rounds? That's a great interlude to a draft sim. Well, why don't we do that? Let's draft Sim.

Drafts him with Kyler Murray as the franchise quarterback. We're always trying to find some little nugget of, hey, we know something now. Drafts him with Adam Thielen retiring. I don't know. We'll just, we'll take a look at it. All right. So 18th overall pick, you want the first three rounds. Care for positional value.

Oh, we can choose a big board. That's interesting. Oh, is this new? We could choose a big board. Okay. I did not know we could do this. 2026 big board trending big board. Okay.

Well, let's try. So, okay, so the PFF is probably, you know, the PFF big board can be a little bit different than some others. Why don't we go, I don't know what 2026 big board is, but why don't we try that? Maybe that's like a consensus board. I don't know. Okay, this is interesting.

They're adding new stuff. A little more positional value. All right. Let's dive into it. A little more randomness. Let's see what we got here. Okay, they're adding new stuff to the mock draft simulator. All right.

Let's take a look at who got drafted at the top. We got Fernando Mendoza, Caleb Downs, David Bailey, Sunny Stiles. Jeremiah Love goes off at five. If Jeremiah Love goes off at five, Vikings have no chance of trading up. I know that's been talked about a little bit. Ruben Bain is a brown. Mackay Lemon, I'm very curious about these wide receivers. I'm going to have my eyes on the wide receivers.

on the wide receivers. Carnal Tate, Mackay Lemon, they go nine and ten. Carnal Tate to the chiefs would probably be good. This has Arvel Reese dropping to number 13.

Could happen, I guess. Jordan Tyson is 15, so the receivers kind of went fast. Jermad McCoy, 17th. That leaves us with a guard who, man, would be really good to draft,

but they kind of have that. We've got Avion Terrell, hard to pass that up. Casey Concepcion, Kenyon Sadiq, Caleb Banks, Dylan Thineman, Cassius Howell and Denzel Boston. This to me, and Emmanuel McNeil Warren, this to me screams trade down because there's a lot of players there that I would be happy with. So who, oh, the team that wants to trade down has picked 29. That would be a lot to trade down. Do we think that we could get one of these players?

because I would be happy with Terrell, Concepcion, Sadiq, Banks, although I saw Concepcion had an injury. Thineman, Howell, or McNeil Warren, or even Peter Woods, it's a lot of players to be pretty comfortable with. Maybe we should do that trade. What is Kansas City offering here? 29. Oh, wait.

I got to give, they got to give me stuff. 74? Oh, they're going to do 29 and 74. I think we got to do this. I think we got to do this trade to move down from 18 to 29 and get 74. Let's do it. That's a lot. It's far to move down.

Okay. We moved down and we missed out on a lot of the players that we liked. Sadiq, Thineman, Cassius Howell, I'm kind of, I like his production, Caleb Banks. Basically every player that I liked, Avion Terrell is all gone. But all is not lost. Denzel Boston is there. I'm not big on T.J. Parker. Emmanuel McNeil Warren at 29 overall or Colton Hood, the cornerback,

Brandon Cisei, cornerback. Got some options here. I'm also very high on this guy, R. Mason Thomas, edge rusher, if they do an edge rusher thing. Let's go with the safety, Emmanuel McNeill Warren, with our top pick at 29 into number 49. Top players, Lee Hunter defensive tackle. That actually seems like a really good idea.

DeAngelo Pons, cornerback, like him, Jeremy Bernard, wide receiver, Chris Johnson. There's some talent here, but I think it's hard to pass up going with Lee Hunter. And I know we're kind of stacking on defense, but Hunter is in this big board, the 34th overall player. And we're picking him at 49. They need a defensive tackle like we talked about. I'm just going to go with it. Lee Hunter from Texas Tech. Now we are on to pick 74.

more and the top guy on the board here, Sam Hecht, the center from Kansas State. Connor Lou, center from Auburn is also here, a couple of tight ends. Zachariah Branch and Jake Slaughter and Jonah Coleman. I might go Jonah Coleman because I like Coleman more than I think some other people. The numbers look a little bit muddled here, but when you look at his past couple of seasons, there's a pretty big sample size of Coleman playing really well. And I know people are going to say he's not a good. explosive enough.

They just had a running back visit today, by the way. Demand Claiborne, this guy, really, really super fast, crazy fast. But I kind of like Coleman as a perfect fit for the Vikings. How do we pass up on the centers, though? Let's take the center and see where we're at with running back. Let's go Sam Hacked, center from Kansas State. And now we go the running back, because that's the pick we got from Kansas City. Now we go the running back, Jonah Coleman.

or do we go with the best wide receiver? Looks like a lot of receivers came off the board. Now let's go running back, Jonah Coleman. And we have one pick remaining. Garrett Nussmeyer, maybe. Jennings Dunker is not a crazy idea here. Pick 97. He is a talented offensive lineman that you could use right away as depth and then develop.

Antonio Williams also a good route running wide receiver. That's hard to pass up. Gosh, I kind of like the offensive linemen here, though. But we're also a little short on a wide receiver. Let's go Antonio Williams, wide receiver from Clemson. Here's what we end up with. Emmanuel McNeil Warren, Lee, with the 29th pick after a trade down with Kansas City.

Lee Hunter, the defensive tackle 49th, Sam Hecht, a center from Kansas State, Jonah Coleman, the running back from Washington, and Antonio Williams wide receiver from Clemson. There you go. A draft simulation. Well, yeah. I mean,

DeAngelo Pons is a tough guy to not pick there. There were a lot of, I mean, it's a tough, if you're being asked to trade down from number 18 to 29, it's a long way to go. So you got to be sure that you're going to get stuff that you need later. I don't know if they would do that trade or not,

or if they would just want to stick and pick their favorite player, where the source. Sweet spot seems to be every time I drafts him is moving down like five spots. And then you can still get some of the guys that you like. Anyway, well, really enjoyable chat tonight. Very interesting with this nugget from Albert Breer about Kyler Murray and the potential of becoming a long-term quarterback. I would just advise that it is March and we are a long way away from Kyler Murray

becoming their franchise quarterback. But I think that it is a little bit telling about how they're viewing this situation with Murray versus where they stand with J.J. McCarthy is just sort of more on the giant pile of evidence about where they stand. That's the bottom line. But there's a long, long way to go for that to happen. So we'll see what else happens going forward into this second week of the off season, really officially, the new league year, the free agency and all that stuff. There's a lot to be resolved. and on Thursday, we're going to get the retirement press conferences of C.J. Ham and Adam Thielen, I'm looking forward to being out there at TCO Performance Center for those, and we'll see what happens.

And I've also promised on Thursday night that Manny Hill would, I'm going to make up a fake schedule for Manny Hill, and he's going to pick it with Kyler Murray as the quarterback to see how many wins we think the Vikings will really get. So we'll try to make it a fun week and see what pops up. Thanks everybody again for stopping in. and we'll talk to again very soon. Football.