Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Rich Gannon's advice for Sam Darnold and more random questions

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

Matthew Coller talks about the conversation he had with Rich Gannon and then answers more random Vikings fan questions in a live chat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collard here. And I have to tell you the truth, when I scheduled a live stream for tonight, I forgot that game seven of the Stanley Cup playoffs was going on. So I have the hockey game on my TV right over here. And so you're going to see me peering over here. But luckily, we are in the intermission to start the show. So hopefully a lot of you can jump in. We could talk a little football and then I'll be watching it as continuing to talk football with you, because that is what I do this week on the show. It's been random question week. So hopefully you caught the episode with Arif Hassan. That was a lot of fun. And the other episode where I was asked to make an entire team out of fullbacks.

And I did that a couple nights ago, but I thought it wouldn't make any sense to do random question week without people coming on and randomly popping in and asking questions. So I'm going to need that from you guys here. I also have a couple of things to talk about, including my discussion with Rich Gannon for an article. It wasn't a podcast, but it was for an article that you could see over at purpleinsider.com. Had a great conversation with the former Vikings quarterback. And we talked about Sam Darnold and so forth. So I'll discuss that. And as long as we're talking random things, I'm going to throw this out there. Today I played golf and it was an elite, flawless golf day. A little bit windy, but I'm not going to make excuses. There was a nice breeze blowing through, sun out,

perfect temperature, 82 to 84 degrees while I'm out there playing. And I played with my friend, Sam Ekstrom, but we couldn't find a third and a fourth. So we just played with two randoms and the playing with randoms thing can go either way. And it worked out really well for me today where I played with two guys that were, they actually didn't know each other. They just played solo, which I respect. And they were cool guys. They played pretty well. They moved along at a good pace, but that play, if we're talking about random stuff, that's just going on in the summertime. When you play with random other golfers, you are either in great shape or terrible

shape. Sometimes I've had people who don't know how to play. Uh, one time a guy asked if it was okay, if he smoked weed while we played, but today worked out great. So anyway, since we're doing random, if you're here watching jump in the comments, ask a random football or Vikings question does not matter. There are no rules other than probably if it's, who's going to start as the quarterback at the beginning of the season, that's not really random enough. So I need more random than that.

Uh, and until you guys get some questions in the comments, that's not really random enough. So I need more random than that. And until you guys get some questions in the comments, I will. And I also have a bunch of them that are, you know, piled up from Twitter as well. So I might jump into those because I've got a lot of crazy questions there. But I want to start off just with this interview that I had with Rich Gannon for an article. And I gave Rich a text. He used to come on the radio when I was on 1500 ESPN. So I had his number and I shot him a text and just said, Hey Rich, I'm writing about Sam Darnold. What do you got? Can you help me out? Let's talk, let's talk about Sam Darnold. And so he texts me back and says, Hey, I got 10 minutes right now. So I call Rich and I said, Rich, how does Sam Darnold become

the next you? And he told a great story when he was playing for the Kansas city chief. So Rich Gannon, if you don't know, started out his career as Minnesota Vikings quarterback was pretty decent for the Vikings, but I mean, he finished with a winning record, but didn't maximize the talent on those teams. Didn't get off to an amazing start to his career. They eventually traded him to Washington. He ends up in Kansas City. And he told me a story where he threw an interception in practice that wasn't even his fault.

And Marty Schottenheimer, the legendary Chiefs coach, came over to him and said, we don't do that here. We don't turn the ball over here because Schottenheimer had this incredible record of not turning the ball over. So as someone who grew up in the 90s, you can imagine this is pretty cool for me, having this former NFL quarterback tell me a story about Marty Schottenheimer. But anyway, so he's talking about this and he called it the talk. Like he had the talk with him, but in football terms, that's about turning the ball over. And then he explained all the things that you can do as a quarterback

that will reduce the amount of turnovers that you have. And he talked about the better you understand the line of scrimmage, defenses, your play caller, the relationship with your play caller, that all of it and understand the weapons you have, the alignments, where everybody is on a given play. The more you understand how it all works in conjunction together, the better you can be at protecting the football, which has really been Sam Darnold's Achilles heel throughout his career. And so Rich took me through all these different things that went through his mind as he grew as a player in the NFL. One of them was third down and long.

And so Rich talked about how on third and long, your chances of getting it are not very high. So that doesn't mean that you check down every time. Of course, we've seen that in the past a little bit, but his point was, if it's not there right away, then make sure you're not having a negative play. And what I discovered was that Sam Darnold, the majority of his interceptions throughout his career came on second or third down and long where he was, I think, just pressing or you see, of course, more complicated coverages and blitzes but even relative to the rest of the NFL his interception rate was mostly okay on second down and third

down in less than seven but if you go more than seven Sam Darnold was so aggressive in trying to make plays and trying to do something special that he made a ton of mistakes when he was doing that. That's again, not to say he was incredible under all other circumstances, but it was a remarkable difference in how many interceptions he threw. It was something like 17 picks and 500 passes or something like that, or even more than that on third and long. And it was this very high percentage of throws that had been picked off. Whereas when he wasn't trying to press too hard, then he didn't have as many turnover worthy plays. And if he heeds the advice of Rich Gannon and turns the ball over less, then he does have a

chance to succeed as the Vikings quarterback. So again, make sure you go check that out. But I just thought it was, yeah, of course we all know that he has to turn the ball over less, but I also think that what Rich is pointing out is that Darnold has to be more aware. He has to be less trying to do it all and trying to be a hero and trying to be the guy who was drafted high. And there's a psychological effect to all of this. If you're losing games, you might press more. You might be trying if you're losing with the jets. Hey, I got to go make a play or something. If you don't feel like you have a great team, whereas maybe in Minnesota, there will be fewer of those situations, but also you have to understand the situational awareness.

Like it's okay to punt in the first quarter or something. You don't have to try to be a hero right off the outset of the game, which I think is what Rich Gannon was getting to. So it is hard though, because Sam Darnold has so much talent that you want him to make plays. He can run, he's mobile, but also he has to understand when he can make those plays and when he can't, which is probably the key to whether he succeeds or not. Because Rich said to me in the article, I don't care what receivers you have. I don't care who your play caller is. If you turn the ball over, if you take sacks and get strip sacked on third down

or throw picks on second down and long, then you're not going to be the quarterback for all that long. So very interesting stuff. Again, purpleinsider.com, the place to go check that out and sign up for the newsletter. It's a good time to do so. So you're ready for all the training camp content that will come in July and so forth. So let me get to some of your questions. Some of them, they're going to have to dial it up more on the random scale, I think,

if we're asking Purple Insider random questions here tonight. But we'll start with JP. Lots of people saying that we should sign a veteran wide receiver three or cornerbacks or defensive tackles. I think this should be the year that we keep watch on our youngest players to see if we can count on them. Our competitive years will be next year. JP, again, I don't think that's super random, but I think it's very smart of you. I don't think that it's totally necessary that the Vikings go out and sign a Hunter Renfro or Yannick Ngakwe or something to be the extra edge rusher. It's okay if they just decide that we're going to wait and see, and we're going to find out how some of these players that

are unproven can handle the heat because if they had gone out last year and they kept Jordan Hicks but if they had gone out last year and added another veteran linebacker or something then maybe we wouldn't have found out about Ivan Pace Jr. or if they went out and added a veteran cornerback they played Josh Metellus at nickel corner out of necessity. And then it turns out that there's something there. Now this has gone the other way. Sometimes in the past Holton Hill, for example, was a time that it definitely did not go in the right direction. And the 2020 defense where they were hoping that a bunch of young corners could step up and then

they didn't so there is the possibility that if you leave the wide receiver three position to jaylen nailer etc malik knolls whoever else they cut one guy from mercer there's still one guy from mercer remaining uh on the udfa list but if you let them all kind of fight it out, like in Batman, when he throws the Joker breaks the pool stick or whatever and throws it like, there you go, fight it out. If that's how they handle some of these positions, someone could emerge that you didn't think was going to even think about Adam Thielen, the all-time UDFA example, but somebody who they let battle it out year after year. And eventually Laquan Treadwell was not what he was supposed to be. And Adam Thielen was Johnny on the spot to prove that he could actually play

when he got out there. So I don't think that's a bad take at all. I mean, if they sign Hunter Renfro, okay, fine. Maybe that means they're concerned about Jalen Naylor's health or whatever else, but I have no problem. I'm with you. I have no problem with them finding out because last year that was effective in developing some players that are key to the operation. Find out if you've got any more. Eric asks, have we heard anything on the Vikings adding or who will win the wide receiver three spot? It's wide open. Eric asks, have we heard anything on the Vikings adding or who will win the wide receiver three spot? It's wide open. I mean, that was the last question that I asked to Kevin O'Connell before we all went on our summer break and I started playing golf and so forth, which chipping

tips, email them to me. The driving was fantastic today. The chipping great so tips I need some help on the chipping but to your point Kevin O'Connell said it's wide open it's a total competition there and it's hard to even put odds on the competition for who's going to work out for wide receiver three I mean I think Brandon Powell is clearly the guy who they can rely on. And he proved that last year. But aside from that, it's just totally wide open. I've kind of got my eyes on Malik Knowles a little bit. But other than that, like Kevin O'Connell, even himself was kind of, I don't know yet, like he wants to see somebody emerge there as far as that position because he didn't really see it in minicamp.

And I think that just in general, when it comes to minicamp, a lot of times we do pick up on some wide receivers. And this is where maybe if they add someone, I'll understand it because usually we do kind of see some wide receivers. If they're going to thrive, then they'll do it in minicamp or at least start to do it like KJ Osborne did once upon a time. But you just never know in training camp, they've still got Tristan Jackson. He's been there for a couple of years now. So if they let that play out, I think that's fine. But there really

isn't any sort of update on where that's going to go other than to just say, Hey, this is a wide open competition and whoever's going to emerge is going to emerge here. Um, there is, let's see, just, just to give you, I just called this up all the people that are competing for this spot, which is why it's going to be one of the most intriguing in training camp, Trent Shurfield, Brandon Powell, Jalen Naylor, Malik Knowles, just Sean Jones, who impressed me a few times during, um, mini camp, Ty James, Tristan Jackson, lucky Jackson. And, uh, well, Nikhil Harry is still on the roster as a receiver, but technically a tight end. That's a lot of bodies. Let's see if anybody can win the job. I'm cool with that.

If you're just joining, welcome. Feel free to ask us a totally random question. That's what we're here for. And also over here is my TV for hockey. So I hope you're doing the same thing. Top 10 people on the hot seat or under pressure this year. You can include coaches and coordinators. I don't know if you mean in the entire NFL or if you just mean here. Oh, I think you probably mean the 10 Vikings that are on the hot seat or under pressure. Well, I guess I would start making a list of 10 might be a little tricky. Is there 10 people who are deeply under pressure on the Minnesota Vikings roster? I'm not sure that there are at this point because to be under pressure, you would have to have enough of a sample size. Plus they want

something from you in the future. So who is really under pressure on this team going into camp? I mean, three, three out of your 10 can immediately be the 2022 draft picks number one, two, and three Lewis scene, Andrew Booth jr. And Brian awesome. Wah, all very much under pressure in this training camp to prove that there's something there that there's really anything there. Uh, I think anyone who's an upcoming free agent, how about cam Bynum? That's not hot seat, but that's under pressure after a very good year last year. And then he becomes a free agent. Byron Murphy Jr. The same thing, kind of a big signing.

Ty Chandler would be someone I would say is under pressure to prove that he could be a guy for the future. After last year showing flashes, Sam Darnold is number one, the most pressure of anybody, even much higher than JJ McCarthy is Sam Darnold this number one, the most pressure of anybody, even much higher than JJ McCarthy is Sam Darnold this year, because this is make or break. Everyone knows that if he can't make it here, he's not a starting quarterback. He's got the best receivers, good coaching, all that. He should be able to do it. Does Ryan Wright count to anyone? I think so. Ryan Wright's under pressure. This is the off the dome list here. I don't know if Pat Jones counts. Sorry. Now I'm looking for players

who might be under pressure. That might be kind of it. I don't really consider. Oh, how about does Ed Ingram count? Because this is make or break a little bit for Ed Ingram. As he's had those first two seasons, the first year is very rough. The second year starts off terribly, then improves, then kind of regresses, then improves a little bit again at the end. But we're still not really sure if Ed Ingram can actually play or can be an above average guard. He has this year to really show that he can do that.

So I don't know if I've gotten to 10 or not, but I think that's a, that's a pretty good list. Definitely would throw in anybody that plays corner. I mean, Shaq Griffin career as a starter is probably on the line as well. So again, I don't know. I wasn't counting, but I think that's a pretty good list. Let's see. Kyle says, do you have a favorite top 2025 prospect yet? Assuming that we pick between eight and 10. Kyle, I wish I could do something for you there, but I don't look at the draft prospects until the end of the NFL season.

I watch college football the same way you do on Saturday. When I watch the NFL, it's different from when I watch college. When I watch the NFL, I'm very locked into everything that's happening because I talk about it. When I cover a Vikings game, every single play I am dialed into and I take notes and I'm writing articles and I'm interviewing all those things. But even on a Monday night football game, even if it doesn't really involve the Vikings, I'm probably watching pretty close. A lot of times we do live stream on Monday. So I'll do the TV over here. But then after the live stream is over, I'm watching close. I'm reading what people say. I'm really like paying attention. College football is the

opposite for me. Very casual. It's on all Saturday. I'm in and out. I'm m like paying attention. College football is the opposite for me. Very casual. It's on all Saturday. I'm in and out. I'm mowing the lawn, going to the grocery store, doing whatever I need to do because Saturday is my only day off during the NFL season. So it's just kind of vibes for me. It's not, I'm going to watch every game. I'm going to study the prospects. I don't read the prospect writers and they're way too early mock drafts and stuff like that. It's just not, it's just too much for me. Um, so as I watch throughout the season, I'll catch on to a few prospects, but normally my draft work comes when the season ends. Then I start to research who is involved. And then I start to go back and watch

those guys play on highlight reels and read about them and draft analyst opinions and stuff like that. So that's a long way of saying I have no idea, but I can say this corner defensive tackle that whoever is that where the Vikings are picking that that's what they need. They need a defensive tackle in a corner. No matter what happens this year, they're going to need that. So whoever the top player is just draft them. Hey, us cellular customers. I've got some good news. So do not hit that skip forward button just yet. I'm talking about their special customer event, Us Days. What's Us Days? It means exclusive offers just for their customers just to say thanks, like $1,200 off any phone

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Uh, Daniel says, do you believe KOC will turn over play calling after this year? I don't believe Kevin O'Connell ever in his career as a head football coach will ever turn over play calling period. I don't believe he ever will. I think that he will call the plays until they take the headset off of his head and bury it a hundred feet deep in the ground. Kevin O'Connell is a former quarterback who wants nothing more than to be in the headset of that starting quarterback. He wants to be in total lockstep with that guy.

They want to be on the same page. Like honestly, they were with him and Kirk right before Kirk got hurt was as much on the same page as those two guys ever were with the play calling the understanding of the offense. He wants to recreate that with JJ McCarthy. I don't think he will ever decide to walk away from that. But that's the reason that you hire him. You hire him to be your Kyle Shanahan, your Matt LaFleur. I think Matt LaFleur calls the plays. That's what you have him for.

And that's why you need Brian Flores, because Kevin O'Connell's not going to be a defensive guy. Never, ever, ever. He is a former quarterback. That's his job. That's what he's going to be. So I don't think he'll turn over the play calling ever. Evan says, you and Kevin both said you aren't buying something about the Packers.

Oh, Kevin Seifert, right. What's one thing you are buying and one thing you aren't buying about the Bears and Lions? Well, so with the Lions, it's still their defensive coordinator, Aaron Glenn. He gets talked about all the time as if he's this great coach. I have not seen that yet. I don't feel that their defense is all that complex for opposing quarterbacks to play against. So they will improve with their personnel. But are they improving in the same way that Brian Flores improves the Vikings? I don't think so, because I don't think that they cause enough problems for quarterbacks post snap, pre snap to post snap enough confusion. They just don't seem that hard to figure out.

And maybe that's Aaron Glenn being a little antiquated, being a guy who played in the early two thousands. And so did Dan Campbell. And like, do they really know what's going on right now with the way NFL defenses are just designing their pressure packages, their coverage, you know, deception and stuff like that. So I am not buying that the lions will suddenly sign two or three players and have a great defense. What about the bears? Well, I'm buying that the bears are in a very good position to be better than they've been in a very long time. Eventually, am I buying the bears as being a great team this year? Uh, that I'm not so sold on, not so sold on their offensive line. Their running game is pretty meh. Uh, their secondary

is, is quite good, I think, but they have one guy up front. Who's really exceptional. I'm not sure that they have more than that. I guess I wouldn't buy the bears as anything more than the three seed in the division. It's really 2025 that I would, but I think that most people are not setting the bar super, super high. Maybe the one thing is that I'm not buying that Caleb Williams will be a super, super quick adaptation to the NFL. Like I think that he is going to need more work than a lot of other quarterbacks because of the way he played. He did well from a clean pocket, but when he got pressured, it was a real struggle when he got pressured.

And I think that if that's what's happening in college, then that's what will very likely happen in the NFL as well. Okay, now here, that's a good random question. Great job there. Here's another very good random question. You guys are good at this, this random question thing. Let's see, Mel Malkiel. Sorry if I pronounced that wrong. It's kind of hard to read on my screen.

Give me your all time top five NFL linebackers. Okay. So linebackers all time. Now this is what's hard about linebackers a little bit is does an outside linebacker count? Does Lawrence Taylor count as a linebacker? He's more of a pass rusher, but I would say he does. So Lawrence Taylor's the all-timer Mike Singletary, uh, Ray Lewis, junior say, oh, um, who's after that? I mean, there's some old school ones like Jack Lambert, uh, Jack ham, Derek Brooks would be another one. I'd probably throw Derek Brooks in there. I mean, if it's my, if it's just my five and then maybe you get Brian or lacquer, one of the things is, uh, sometimes it's like, was the guy a little overrated because he was a hard nose linebacker. Maybe that's or lacquer,

but I doubt it. He was pretty darn good. Uh, so I think I gave you six or seven there, but those are the first ones that come to mind for making a top five. And Derek Brooks is maybe, uh, when he was playing unbelievable. And so, you know, kind of got lost a little bit in history with those great teams and then finally got rewarded last year. So I think that that's Lawrence Taylor, single Terry, Ray Lewis, Derek Brooks. And who was the other one that I mentioned? Oh, Junior Seau, Junior Seau. One of my all-time favorite players, Junior Seau. See, including Lawrence Taylor, do we include people like Derek Thomas? More of just a pass rusher, I think.

So that's where that outside linebacker thing gets a little bit tricky. Viking Jerome asks, any change in Levi Drake, Rodriguez, or any chance, I assume you mean for Levi Drake Rodriguez making the final roster. Oh yeah. Oh, there's a chance. I mean, when you look at that defensive tackle group, it's okay. It's maybe better than it was last year, but how much different is it really? Uh, they've brought in Jerry Tillery who I thought looked pretty good in minicamp, but that's still minicamp and he doesn't have a great history. Jaqueline Roy will be battling against him. He made some noise last year. Jonah Williams is a guy that they signed, but you know, Harrison Phillips, this is not a deep, excellent group of defensive

tackles. It's kind of just a bunch of guys. So if there's something there for Levi Drake Rodriguez, then he's going to have his chance. Uh, but he's battling really the way that I made it in the 53. I think I did have him making it, you know, it was the wild card there a little bit as James Lynch, since we're doing a random podcast, James Lynch is coming off the ACL injury, but they decided they wanted to bring him back. And that must mean that they liked him enough. He was good against the run in 2022. Levi Drake Rodriguez.

Also, I'm not usually afraid of Levi or of like losing a guy like Levi Drake Rodriguez because seventh rounder, usually they don't get picked up by another team. But with him, he might've had a lot of interest as a priority free agent. So if the Vikings do try to sneak him into their practice squad, he might get scooped up. I think they had the same concern about Andre Carter

when they put him on the roster. So I'm going to say that there is a good chance that Levi Drake Rodriguez makes it. The coaches seem to really like his mentality. So yeah, I think that there is a good shot for him. Let's see. Angel Dust Senior asks, do you have hopes that Jay Ward develops into a special teams ace or more? I'm going to say that I do have hopes for him. Last year, it was kind of like didn't get a whole lot of opportunity and he was a special teamer last year, but I don't think that that means that he won't have more chances this year. I wasn't paying very close attention to him because of the quarterbacks and so forth in mini camp to where he was playing and was he moving around and so forth, but he does have versatility to his game, an aggression to his game that we saw sometimes to a fault

in preseason last year. This is a big training camp for him because a player like that, if you can find a niche for yourself, like this guy fits in in certain positions on the defense, or this guy fits in as a nickel corner in these early down situations, but we take them off the field after that. That's really the key to making it in Brian Flores' defense is to prove that there's something there and then to do well within that role and expand from there. That's what we saw from Josh Metellus. But yeah, I mean, I want to see what's there for Jay Ward. And he might be that guy that plays special teams for two or three years. You kind of forget about him. And then all of a sudden he's there and he's playing because it's unlikely

that Harrison Smith plays a lot more years after this. So someone like Jay Ward could be that waiting in the wings guy. They could move Josh Metellus back to the regular safety position. They could let Cam Bynum go depending on his contract. So I think that, you know, drafting a guy like that in the fourth round means that there are expectations uh mel kill asks is harrison smith a hall of famer if so why i did a 3 000 or so word story on this last year where i talked to dorante jones anderson dayho anthony harris cam bynum a bunch of different people about harrison smith and his Hall of Fame case. Josh Metellus, I think too. And I believe that Harrison Smith belongs in the Hall of Fame. If you look up defensive backs in the Hall of Fame who have six Pro Bowls, there are very few who have six or more

that are not in the Hall of Fame. If he were to get to seven, then that's super rare air for Harrison Smith. But six still puts him in the ballpark of a lot of the best defensive backs ever. The other thing is, too, defensive backs are criminally underappreciated by the Hall of Fame. And that could be the challenge for Harrison Smith, that he didn't have a championship. And look, should that matter? Probably not that much, but it does historically for making the Hall of Fame that if you have a championship, it means you played in front of the Hall of Fame voters in national games and on TV and in a playoff run, and they're going to talk about you a ton.

You're going to probably make big plays in the playoffs. He just hasn't had a lot of opportunities to do that in the postseason, not really his fault at all. But that's the fact about Harrison Smith. I think he belongs, but he will have a very tough time actually getting there. The other part of it too, not a self promoter at all. I mean, he could actually be, if he wanted to, Harrison Smith could be one of the best broadcasters in the NFL. I am sure of that from all the years of talking to Harrison Smith one-on of the best broadcasters in the NFL. I am sure of that from all the years of talking to Harrison Smith, uh, one-on-one or in press conferences or whatever. I know that he is one of the smartest football people on earth and that he could really be great

at it. He has more personality than you think. Uh, but I don't think he's going to do that. That's just not who he is. So if he were to become a broadcaster and everyone fell in love with him, then he would get opportunities to be in the hall of fame. It's just the reality of how it works. Look, JJ Redick, if he's not doing his podcast, he's not on TV. He's not coaching the Lakers. You can guarantee that. So it does make a difference. John Gruden comes back to the NFL after being on TV. So that would be my suggestion for Harrison Smith. When you retire, go be on ESPN for a few years. They'll put you in the Hall of Fame after that. Deserving, but I don't think it's the most likely thing.

Maybe 50-50 shot at best. I shot you 99. What former Vikings player were you really pulling for? But things just didn't work out for them. Chad Beebe was one for me personally. Yeah, I guess when you talk about pulling for, Didn't work out for them. Chad Beebe was one for me personally. Hmm. Yeah. I guess when we talk about pulling for, I never root for stuff because it's just not in my nature.

Whatever happens kind of happens. But when I think of players who either I thought were going to work out or that I know that that guy was good enough, but didn't get a chance or got injured or something like that. You know, who actually comes to mind is Jarek McKinnon. And it's not that Jarek McKinnon didn't work out. He was a decent player for them, but I always thought that he could have been better if he had had more opportunities, better running situation in 2016. And I think he proved to some extent in Kansas city. He comes to mind as someone that I always thought this could be an RB one. He is a pass catcher. He's a blocker.

He's very good blocker. He's a smart player and he's got that explosiveness, but it just never seemed to come together or he was never really believed in. I'll give you another guy that falls under that same category. Cordero Patterson is somebody that, I mean, he was the best kick returner, maybe ever just pure kick returner, not punt returner, but kick returner. And he should have been getting the football in his hands as 2015, 2016 and 15. who is Teddy throwing to outside of Stefan Diggs just starting to emerge Mike Wallace they really should have been using Cordero Patterson to get them easy touches and easy yards and they just didn't do it and as far as I think that your questions may be a little more directed to guys that never did anything like Jarek and Cordero did. Um, uh, to Sean Bauer,

that's, that's a deep pull. You want to talk about random? How about that? To Sean Bauer was lanky, big giant guy. I think he may have gone to LSU. So of course the Daniil Hunter thing popped up, but in training camp and practice to Sean Bauer was so good at times that they cut Brian Robison for him in 2018 and decided to keep Bauer. It just, it just never happened. And I don't know if it was opportunity or whatever, but Bauer had, um, you know, he had a lot of things kind of go against him during his career. Uh, he had lost some family members right before he started his NFL career. He just had to, you know, some tough times to go through and was, I believe an undrafted free agent would have been a good story. Just, uh, didn't,

didn't happen. Uh, Daniel says, what's the most boneheaded NFL play you ever saw live or on film? Okay. Uh, well two nominations from Kevin O'Connell's trick plays. You guys know what they are pitching the ball from the tight end to the quarterback. No. Why? No. So that's just, no, that's just a bad one. Don't do that. Uh, throwing ball to Kirk Cousins. How about that one? That was also bad. There was no reason to throw the ball to Kirk Cousins. So that's two right off the bat. How about this?

In 2019, the Philadelphia Eagles playing the Vikings, they decided to run a trick play to have their kicker throw the ball. That was also a really terrible decision and did not work out. I think it was the end of the half was probably at the end of the half, they decided they were going to trick the Vikings and have Jake Elliott maybe throw a pass. So it's mostly trick plays that I've seen live bone. I'm trying to think of some of the craziest stuff that I've seen. I mean, the Vikings have done a lot of crazy stuff. How about, I mean, boneheaded is, is, uh, I didn't see this.

I wasn't there in Tennessee. I had just moved to Minnesota. I didn't travel to the opener in 2016, but Marcus Mariota throwing the pick six to Eric Hendricks was insane. Like they were winning the game. They were driving. They had a chance to just put it away and he throws it right to him. Oh, I'll give you my all-time favorite boneheaded play of the Kirk Cousins era. And I'm sure there were many over, you know, other quarterbacks and everything. So I'm not just, you know, putting this on him, but against the Seattle Seahawks, Kirk Cousins threw the ball overhand backward 2018. I'm sure you guys remember it. It was either Sunday night or Monday night football. He drops back. He kind of panics a little turns around and throws it overhand to Latavius Murray,

who somehow grabs it and runs for five yards and was taken down. Why any person would throw the ball overhand backward is completely beyond me. But I did see another time in Buffalo where that went even worse. And I can't remember if I was there or not. And if you're talking about on film, there's all sorts of crazy stuff. I might've been there or it might've been, I might've been just doing post game for it. Matt Sims, not Chris Sims, but as I think his brother, Matt Sims was a fourth quarterback for the bills and he was getting sacked and decided to just throw the ball and he threw it backward and it bounced. You can find this play on YouTube. It bounced like 14 times backward and went 30 yards backwards as he was

getting sacked. Uh, that's why he didn't play in the NFL for the Buffalo pills. Uh, Michael says, why not trade for Brandon? I, you, uh, would love to have Brandon. I, you, cause a Minnesota Viking don't know what they're going to trade for him or why San Francisco would give the Vikings Brandon Iuke. Trust me, if they trade Brandon Iuke, it's to the AFC. They would be nuts to trade him within the division. He's one of the best receivers in the league. Can you afford the number one most expensive wide receiver

and the number two or three most expensive wide receiver in the league. I don't know about that and what draft capital the first round pick for next year, but you're getting more than that for Brandon Iuke. And they don't have a lot other than that. They don't have a second and third for next year. Right? So in theory, I am always in favor, always, of more wide receivers, more weapons. Let's go. But in this instance, I just don't think it's plausible that San Francisco would give him to the Vikings. They seem to cross paths all the time, the Vikings at 49ers. They're going to play.

Is it week two that they're going to play? One of the early weeks of the season? I'm not giving him to a team that I'm going to play. Absolutely not. Uh, let's see. Kyle says, uh, what draft prospect you thought was going to be an absolute stud miserably failed or didn't live up to expectations. Mine was Ted Ginn or Sammy Watkins. Well, if we're just, I mean, if we're talking about ever, there's probably a lot. Um, but as far as Vikings go, let me think about it. Well, I'll start, I'll start with a two from the 2016 class, and then I'll look at the, um, the list here and see if I can dig up some other ones. Hold on. Let me type

in draft history. If I could dig up a few other ones for you. Uh, I'll give, I'll give you a, my favorite. Well, you guys have heard me talk about Josh Rosen before as far as quarterbacks, but I really thought before I was even in media, Jake Locker was going to be great. I loved how gritty he was, how tough he was, that all the football coaches talked about how, oh, this guy's a great leader. He's a battler. He's a fighter. So I thought, oh, he's going to be great. He ran with the ball. He was a lot of fun in college, but he was not a good NFL player. So as far as the Vikings go, I'm going to have to think about this. But when I first got here, I really thought, and you guys are going to laugh at this, that Laquan Treadwell was going to be a

total game changer. That's what I thought. I was convinced that Laquan Treadwell was going to be a total game changer. That that's what I thought. I was convinced that Laquan Treadwell was going to be a tremendous pick for the Vikings because he had been so good in college. You look at his numbers in college that was coming off of that injury. He was fantastic. He was like, go up and get it guys. Hey, like slow Moss or something here. Uh, didn't work out. Mackenzie Alexander was kind of another one that sort of worked out, but after watching McClemson, my thought was, wow, they've got this great corner to build on. And the one that failed miserably that I was, and again, longtime fans of, uh, my old show. And then this show will remember this quite well,

really thought that Irv Smith was going to be great. He in 2019 fit into that backup role so well that he was like a wide receiver three for them. He could go down the field a little. I remember watching the film of some of those 2019 games and just saying, look at this. And he was even good in 2020. He had a stretch at the end of 2020, where he started for Kyle Rudolph. I think if I'm remembering this correctly and he was really good. And then 2021, that injury happens and it was never the same, just never the same with Irv Smith. So that's the one, that's the Viking that I was most wrong about that I felt looked really good in practice and in small sample sizes never

came to fruition. Scott says, I assume this is in response to the Brandon Ayuk wide receiver three is just a decoy. What do they get? 30 targets. Well, when you have TJ Hawkinson, it would be difficult to spread out the ball to that many people. If you also had Brandon Iuke, but no wide receiver three is a big deal. I think in an offense like this, that's going to throw 650 times wide receiver three matters. And when it wasn't great last year with KJ Osborne, it affected them that there was an injury.

Osborne had to be slid up on the depth chart. Didn't work out and it suffered. The offense suffered because Osborne didn't have a great season. I know Jake Reed didn't get a million catches in the three deep, but he was really valuable for the Vikings back then. Wide receiver three or your third weapon is very important in today's offenses because teams are good at taking number ones away when you get to facing the playoff teams, best defenses in the league. They can do that.

And you have to have multiple weapons behind it. For the Vikings, though, they clearly view TJ Hawkinson as wide receiver three. They line him up like he's wide receiver three. He lines up, I think only about 50% or less of the time as an actual tight end. So yeah, I think that he's really the guy that they look at as that position. And we talk about the depth chart. If we were just talking about it in who will have the most targets, one, two, three, four, it's probably Jefferson then Hawkinson. Well per game. Cause I know he's

injured per game. Uh, maybe even Aaron Jones and then Addison or Addison and Aaron Jones could kind of go that way, depending on how many snaps Aaron Jones gets, but that that's how they view it. So third target is very important. There just wouldn't to your point, there wouldn't really be enough room to get the ball to everybody with Brandon Iuke, but I would take my chances. If, if someone could said you could just have him and not have to give up all future draft capital and sign him to a $28 million contract. Well, you know, okay. But it's just not really feasible. Um, Marlon says Sam Darnell will have a great year. Book it. Okay book it okay could happen uh it's something that on the golf course we're talking about talking about it with former players talking about it's

the most interesting thing in training camp of course is that there's a rookie quarterback but one and one a are could this sam darnold thing be thing? And a lot of people that you talk to, a lot of people, even in the league will say, I think the guy had a bad break and I still like him. So, and if I talk to people that said, look, just don't call me about this. I don't buy it. It's not happening. Don't that happens sometimes where I'll have a stupid idea and I'll say, well, you know, what do you think of this to somebody that I know? And you know, no, no, no, no, no, let's not go there. But something like this, the feedback I keep getting from everybody that I ask most recently, Rich Gannon is no, I think something could be there. So would it be shocking? No,

it wouldn't. If he starts for the whole season, it wouldn't be shocking. But I also am trying to be reasonable based on Sam Darnold's history and not come on and tell you that Sam Darnold's going to have this top 10 season. I just say it is possible, though. Random question. Who is your favorite Viking of all time? So if we go, we would have to go before I cover the team. No favorites when covering the team other than, you know, good interview. You like players with good interviews and stuff like that. Like Latavius Murray is my favorite player to interview. Put it that way.

Patrick Peterson. Also, if we were making a Mount Rushmore of great players to interview Latavius Murray and Patrick Peterson would be two that I would put up there with no question. Adam Thielen also probably up on that list. And I'd have to think a little bit harder for the fourth player. Cause there's a lot, a lot of great, really smart players who are awesome to interview. So there that's one question. Uh, but those three stand way out Thielen, Patrick Peterson, and Latavius Murray as far as Terrence Newman was up there too. I enjoyed talking with him, but as far as historically, if we were going back before to when I was a kid, when I was just watching football, uh, there's, there's some that

are big stars like John Randall. It was cool to have him on the podcast. If you missed that, go check it out. Talk pass rushing with him because he was a legend when I was growing up. You know, Randy Moss, everybody liked, but I'll give you a deep cut favorite Viking player that I used to use all the time on video games and was never actually that great in the NFL. That's David Palmer, David Palmer, punt returner, running back wide receiver. You could do anything with David Palmer, David Palmer, punt returner, running back wide receiver. You could do anything with David Palmer, put them at any position on a video game. And that's where I got a lot of the appreciation for players way back in the day,

watch football on Sunday, play with every team in the league on a video game, use David Palmer all the time. I would trade for him because he always had great speed and great agility, but the Vikings just didn't use him that much. Let me scroll down a bit here. So Evan meant when we were talking about under pressure, the entire NFL. So I answered it as a Viking under pressure, like Mike McCarthy said, yeah, Mike McCarthy is definitely up there. I'd have to, I'd have to think about this for a second. It's a good random question though. So let me see if I can come up

with a couple here of players who are, I'm sorry, coaches who would belong under pressure players would be a much longer, there's so many, I mean, every year is year to year with players. I think Sean McDermott in Buffalo is one where they're selling this sort of on the fly rebuild, but the expectations are extremely, extremely high for the bills every year that they have. You know, Josh Allen is their quarterback. They moved on from Stefan Diggs, which I'm sure some of you were like, oh yeah, they did it, but they won four division titles with stefan diggs so don't make the stupid voice just yet because he made a huge difference in their offense and if

they move on from him and then it doesn't work out it's kind of like the vikings where you moved on from diggs and then missed the playoffs the next two years while his team won their division kind of tough to say aha when he was somewhere else winning the division. I know it led to Justin Jefferson. That's very important. The point just being, if you're the bills and you move on from a player like that, and you say, no, no, we've got this draft pick receiver. We're good to go. And that doesn't work out. And Josh Allen is unhappy. And if Sean McDermott's defense defense that's been so good for so long falls off, then he will be under a lot of pressure this year. Robert Sala, that one goes without saying

is Sean Payton under pressure. I don't, I don't know. They just gave him the entire franchise. Let's see. I mean, is Jim Harbaugh probably not in the first year. Kevin Stefanski, you win coach of the year you can't come back and win like three games coach of the year has kind of been a curse in the past because it sets the expectations high and then if you disappoint then you often get fired doug peterson in jacksonville is under pressure quite a bit you got to win now with trevor lawrence after you signed him to that huge contract you're right right about McCarthy, Brian Dable for sure. Is Nick Sirianni in Philly because of the nature of Philadelphia?

We probably think, well, they made the playoffs, but there was a lot of scrutiny for him down the stretch for last year. There's probably a few more, but that's where the most pressure, I think, exists. Does Atlanta, Dennis Allen, or I'm sorry, new Orleans. Does anyone even think about new Orleans when we talk about NFL teams and coaches and all that? Do we even discuss them? They've just sort of faded since breeze into being another team in the league. Okay. Todd is offering quite a challenge here because I closed the window. Uh, I think it was slowing down the internet a little.

I closed the window that was reloading and melting my computer that had the depth chart for the Vikings. So nine offensive linemen that are on the 53. Okay, off the top here. Derisaw, Brandle, Bradbury, and of course, Ed Ingram at right guard and brian o'neill so there's your starting five david questenberry will be the swing tackle uh dalton reisner and who's after that walter rouse that's eight and dan feeney bang there you go there's your nine offensive lineman would be surprised if it's anybody else uh maybe Michael Juergens, their seventh round draft pick could beat out Dan Feeney.

That's going to be hard to do. Feeney has a lot of experience. So I'm not even in training camp shape. Just reeled off the entire offensive line depth chart. That's why I'm here. That's why I do this. Matt says, aren't you watching hockey, Matt? Um, says Matt's a big hockey guy. Uh, do you have a strong feeling about the college football tournament over bowl games? I like the tournament, but it feels odd having bowl games being assigned to tournament games. I have always been in favor of a college football tournament. Uh, who was it years ago? Mike Leach years ago, went through it and talked about why it makes the most sense. Division three does it that way.

And I don't mind that. I don't mind the bowl games because what did they mean before? Even if it was a big game, oh, this is the orange bowl. What's it for? Fifth place. I, you know, uh, I love the idea of teams playing in playoff games. That's what we do in America. If this was soccer and sometimes don't certain soccer leagues.

I'm sorry. I know nothing about soccer, but I think some soccer leagues still, it's just whoever has the best record. NASCAR used to be this way. Whoever has the best record, you're the champion. Well, that's the most fair way to do it really. Or to play the world series the way they used, that's the most fair way to do it really. Or to play the world series the way they used to back in the day where it's whoever has the best record

and a ALNL you guys play world series. That's the most fair. We all know that's the most fair, but in America we want playoff games. So I want playoff games. Give me the tournament. It would, it's the larger you make the tournament, the more possibility for total madness. So make it as large as you need to make it and whittle it down to have two teams that win their sides of the bracket. I'm good with that. I also don't care about any sort of history or sanctity of college football because it doesn't care about it.

It's just complete madness all the time. So go crazy.