Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Ryan Poles picks Chicago, Vikings will reportedly hire Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as next general manager (Emergency podcast)

Episode Date: January 25, 2022

Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom get together for an emergency podcast breaking down the news that Vikings GM candidate Ryan Poles will be heading to the Chicago Bears as their general manager. That means the Vikings will go with Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, formerly of the Cleveland Browns, as their next GM. Which job is better? Where do the teams presently stand in their rebuilds? What are the immediate difficult decisions on Adofo-Mensah's plate? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

hello welcome to the emergency the vikings have a general manager and it's not the guy that we thought was going to be the general manager podcast, Matthew Collar, Sam Ekstrom here. Ryan Poles, the director of player personnel from the Kansas City Chiefs, has chosen Chicago, went for his second interview with the Chicago Bears, and he elects to become their general manager, which means that Kwesi Adafo-Mensah, the football ops vice president from the Cleveland Browns, will be the next Minnesota Vikings general manager. Sam Ekstrom, of course, here. And Sam, before we break down why Ryan Poles would have picked Chicago, which job is better, what this says for the future, and all those things, let me just tell you what I know from talking with people over the last few

days about this, which was on Saturday, I reported that Ryan Poles was the number one for the Vikings. Jason LaConfora also reported that, but he was still going to take the interview in Chicago yesterday after we had talked for the podcast, all about what Ryan Poles would do at quarterback. Uh, I was told that Chicago is so high on Poles. They don't want to let him leave the building. And from there, that was all that I heard. And then today around noon, we get the report that they indeed did not let Ryan polls leave the building. So that's that. But I would also say, I mean, that's how it went down is the Vikings liked him, the bears liked him and the

bears apparently gave him the better offer or made the better pitch. And so he is now going to become the GM of the Chicago bears. And so I would say that as we have talked about all along, both of these candidates are very well qualified. Um, they're both highly thought of around the league. It is though interesting that Ryan pulls didn't come back for the vikings second interview he went to chicago and he chose them over the vikings and by the way i'm already seeing some reports that um adafo menzo was their guy the whole time then why did they have poles coming back for a second interview i'm just saying like this is what spielman would do in the draft he would say

derrissa was our guy the whole time right we know you wanted rashaun slater okay yeah yeah no i um i've seen that too and i've thought the exact same thing there will be a little bit of a spin on this and it doesn't mean that you know questia defo mensa is still a good hire. But it's okay for us to talk about Ryan Poles maybe being the preferred option. I think I had talked myself into Poles being the preferred option of the two for reasons we laid out on yesterday's podcast, the excellence he's been around in Kansas City, the work he's done on the offensive line. It's harder to evaluate Kwestia Doflomensa

because he has an untraditional resume. He's not really a personnel guy. But the kind of buzzword on him is analytics. Analytics, qualitative metrics, models that he's building, that kind of thing. And he got snatched up by Cleveland for one year, highly sought after after a long stint with San Francisco. And he's really had a meteoric rise, less than a decade in the NFL. Former day trader, former wolf of Wall Street, if you will. And here he is now.

So this is the different hire. This is kind of the odd one out of the group. And he's got connections with D'Amico Ryans, who is also kind of the odd coach out of the group, who was a former player not too long ago. And it's very realistic that they could be the partnership here. I think there's a lot of tentacles that will be very intriguing. I think this will be someone fun to cover because he's not a traditional football guy and I can appreciate that too. So pivoting from polls now to Adolfo Mensah, some fans might be disappointed, some might be pumped. I've seen mixed reaction, but here we are. It's not official

yet as we record, but it seems like it's almost definitely going to be, uh, um, can we call him cam yet? Is that allowed? Can't, what do you mean? Cam? Cam. That's the short hand. I was like, huh? Uh, okay. Carl Anthony Towns is cat. We've got a cat in the cam. Gotcha. Okay. Sorry. Uh, GM cam. Okay. We'll, we'll have to work on that. And always people tweeting me potential puns about candidates is welcome. But when it comes to, this is the thing that I have said repeatedly on the show, is that having a hot take is impossible about the general manager candidates, because even though they had a little different backgrounds,

Poles is a former player and somebody who's worked his way up on the scouting side. And Adolfo Mensah is more toward the analytics and that kind of thing. That doesn't mean that Ryan Poles would not have used analytics. In fact, I know that he was interested in using analytics in his approach, which anyone who gets hired was going to be like, no one was going to come in and say those numbers, no way for me. Like, no, you already had that. And well, not with Spielman so much, but with the head coach. So they weren't going to hire anybody who was anti-analytics or anything like that.

And picking player value and how you build your roster is a little bit of a different story. But we also, when you talk about Adolfo Mensah, you mentioned that he comes from most of his background is in San Francisco, where they have built their team around a beastly defensive line has been most of their strategy. And then a quarterback who's good playmakers and a brilliant offensive strategy. I would also say that the Raheem Morris connection there to Kyle Shanahan would also be worth thinking about as well, that Raheem Morris connection there to Kyle Shanahan would also be worth thinking about as well that Raheem Morris was the passing game coordinator for Kyle Shanahan when they were in Atlanta.

So if Adolfo Mensah wants to go with a similar type of offense, that's really working in the NFL, which of course I just got done recording a podcast about the San Francisco and Los Angeles offense as Adam Schefter and Ian Rappaport are breaking this news because every time that'll come out a little later this week. Also a conversation about, you know, Todd Bowles and his candidacy, but this could move fast and we could find out who their next coach is going to be pretty quickly, but there's no real take here of, oh, well, this guy was going to be better than that guy. I think there is two things to take away. One, Poles decided that he didn't want to come back for the second interview in Minnesota.

So we have to compare those jobs because it appears that Ryan Poles straight up picked another team. And it's not only another team, it's another team in your division. That's part of it. Also, this becomes a thing to watch for a really long time. I mean, this is a battle of the rebuilds between the Vikings, two final candidates and how these two rebuild these teams will be worth watching and studying for a really long time. So from that perspective, I'm kind of interested in how Ryan Poles and Kwefi Adafomensa decide that they're going to approach rebuilding their teams. But what do you think that it means that he decided Chicago was the better job? I think that Ryan Poles likes money. I think they all, and that's not unique to him. I think that

the Bears probably gave him more money. I think that's safe to assume. And I think if you mentioned the rebuilds, the comparison on those, what was the other problem too with the trading up for Justin Fields is that they low-balled the Panthers and they didn't make that deal. And it sounds like they didn't give enough here to secure Ryan Poles. So does it mean Chicago is more appealing? Maybe because they have the young quarterback in place. I think, though, that there is a business element to this and that maybe you don't need to read as far into sort of the organizational structure as much as you do what the offer was. And I'm speculating. I don't know for sure on that. But my guess is that, you know, when you get the first interview, you get the guy in the building and you say, these are the terms. which gives you the cap flexibility to make a lot of moves and I think that's an appealing prospect for a GM I think that Minnesota has

a lot of good pieces still so I can't really speculate on what might have been a deterrent here in Minnesota other than quarterbacks kind of a problem I guess and who knows maybe the interview didn't go well a lot of it and right we're kind of spitballing I guess. And who knows, maybe the interview didn't go well. A lot of it. And right. We're kind of spitballing here, caller, right? We're not behind those doors. We don't know as much about what's being discussed, but I just come back to, there's no over the cap for GMs. We don't know what these guys necessarily want to make, expect to make, but the bears might've ponied up a little bit more right and that from what i'm hearing that's what happened uh is that the offer was there for minnesota and chicago

said like write your own check for ryan poles but let's put that let's put that aside though and compare the two jobs anyway i mean when it comes to because look if you if you gave Ryan Poles the option to be the GM of Kansas City or Chicago, he's picking Kansas City, right? Because their roster is way better and you can win a Super Bowl and your quarterback is amazing. I think these two teams, and if you look at their records the last two years, I think they're dead even, right? Their records the last two seasons. So they're starting in a similar spot. The quarterback position is different, but they're both behind the ball. They both need to rebuild big parts of their teams. They both have a lot of holes and there's a lot of difficult decisions to be made between

these two jobs. One of the things that you see immediately when you look at the Chicago job is that they have $30 million in cap space and the Vikings start out with minus $13 million in cap space. That's a pretty big difference. And if you trade cousins, you still have to take on a $10 million hit. So you would earn 35 million that gets you back in the game and you can rework deals and things like that. So it's not like the Vikings have none, but they don't have as much to work with as Chicago. And you mentioned it. The Justin Fields part of this is really interesting because some people could look at that job and say,

well, Justin Fields, his first year was just okay, had some moments, had some bad moments, had some good games, had more bad games than good, but that's sort of common for a rookie. Or you could look at it and say, I evaluated Justin Fields and I think he's a great quarterback and he's going to be the next Joe Burrow, the next young star that emerges quickly. And that's the guy that I want to build my entire roster around. Whereas you look at the Vikings and this is where they're a step behind Chicago where if we're

talking about which team could be a legitimate contender faster the team with the rookie quarterback contract with a lot of talent and physical skill I'm not saying Fields is going to be the superstar because we don't know yet but that's the one that's a step ahead in the game from where the Vikings are where if they're going to take that route with the quarterback, they have to now trade theirs, draft another one, develop him for a year, and then get to that year two spot where you can be like Cincinnati or be like Kansas city, these teams that took the huge step in year two. And I'm not saying that that was a huge part of Ryan Paul's decision. So like, don't, don't take that.

But when we analyze these two teams versus each other in the Adafo Mensah V Pohl's rebuild bowl, Chicago just has a step ahead. I would argue too, though, that the rookie year of fields was so concerning that it almost creates another puzzle for, for polls to figure out there because now if you have another year like that, well, now you're a year behind because now you probably need to start over. You need to go find someone else because if Fields does that again, and he does not have anywhere close to the pieces on that offense, want to play a little family feud game collar? Sure. Top three answers on the board. Want to play a little family feud game? Caller. Sure. Top three answers on the board.

Who are the three highest paid offensive members of the bears? That's for next year. This is for next year. Yeah. Next year. Yeah. That's a good question. See Alan Robinson's free agent,

right? Right. Right. So gosh, I don't even know. Is it a lineman? I honestly don't even know who their top three players are. Number one is a lineman. Cody Whitehair is their highest paid offensive player.

Nick Foles is number two, and Tariq Cohen is number three. Wow, Nick Foles. What? Nick Foles. Okay, I didn't see that coming. Yep, yep. Justin Fields is number four. And basically, the only kind of centerpiece that you might consider on that offense

is Darnell Mooney from a skill standpoint, who's pretty good. Other than that, there's not a lot to build around fields. Now, you use the cap space. You hopefully do some of that building this offseason. But I still think the bears have a lot of work to do. Um, so it kind of comes down to as well. What is Questy Adafo Mensah want to do with cousins now? Because I think we, we had convinced ourselves that, well, Ryan Poles has seen the transition from Smith to Mahomes, and he knows the need to make that adjustment. I don't know. Adafo Mence has also been around some successful teams like in Cleveland and San Francisco that had middling quarterback play and based around the run game. He's never been around

more of a kind of a modern spread, throw it downfield offense. So I'm not saying he doesn't appreciate that, but I'm saying he hasn't been exposed to it as much as Ryan Poles and he doesn't have quite as much experience at all. So he's going to lean on, I think, other people. And this is, he really is the collaborative candidate, right? To use that buzzword because everything I've read about Adolfo Mensah is he understands what he doesn't know. He's not going to interject with the scouting process too much, and he's going to let other people influence him. Well, if the people in the building want to stick with the same system, what does that mean for the future of this Vikings team? And then does Cousins suddenly fit what he wants to do? I guess that would be my only red flag. And we'll find out where he

stands on that pretty soon here because he'll have to make a move on it. Right. And that's going to be the very interesting thing to track as we go forward is that it won't be long. Kwesi Adafo-Mensah will be named the GM here shortly. We'll have another podcast breaking down his first comments and all those sorts of things. But question number one at the press conference, and I'm sure in his interviews with the Vikings, is the quarterback. And what are you going to do? And I agree that there's more of a chance that Ryan Poles coming from Kansas City, and this might be a stretch. I understand that, but just like based on their pasts that there would be more of a chance that he would look at them and say, look, I mean, we had this where I was and we had to change that. Whereas coming from San Francisco and going to the super bowl with Jimmy Garoppolo, like, do you tie those two things together? Or does he say,

well, look, you know, Kirk cousins numbers are very good uh so we should build around that and there's no debate that his numbers are very good but the thing that always i would come back to is the dollar figure with cousins it's just going to be high no matter what people have asked me hey uh do you think cousins would take a you know a discount to stay and build a good roster and the answer is no and the answer is absolutely not he did not do it in washington he made them franchise tag him twice rather than working out a deal to lower his cap hit their roster fell apart in 2017 and then he came here highest paid quarterback in terms of guaranteed money and worked out a contract where in his second year of the extension he was the second highest paid in terms of guaranteed money and worked out a contract where in his second year of the extension,

he was the second highest paid in terms of salary cap hit. So no, I do not expect by any means that cousins would suddenly have this change of heart. Plus it's not exactly as if he's shown so much love for the Vikings and so much care for the organization. We are on day 15 now of not talking after your coach and GM were fired. So it's not like there's any connection here. It seems for him, it's not like they've won. It's not like Brady who wants to fire it back for another Superbowl. So he takes a finger quote discount, even though, you know, they funneled him some money through his trainer,

but that's a whole different story. You can Google that one. If you want the point, just being that I don't think either one of these guys based on their backgrounds would look at the quarterback situation and say, well, look, this is a great idea to keep going with it because the thing that's really attractive about Adolfo Mensah is the number one thing on my list, which was knows the value of a football dollar. And think about this. I was doing as fiddling around and looking at the ways that teams spent their money. And it's always tricky with rookie contracts because, you know, if you draft a bunch of linemen, you're not going to spend as much money on your line and that kind of thing. Cause there's guys on rookie contracts that kind of how it works right but like the vikings were number one in linebacker spending and you just go it was that good like was that

a good idea to be number one let me tell you the other teams that are in the final four here in linebacker spending the rams are 32nd the 49ers are 27th i know they did pay fred warner uh the chiefs are 9th and the bengals are 28th and here And here's the Vikings spending all of their money on Anthony Barr. It's just like, that's not really a prudent thing to do. And it feels like that is the biggest advantage. But to circle back though, to what you said about the Bears, having that blank slate a little bit, I think is probably attractive. And I pulled up the free agent wide receivers here,

and this is a little far down the road, but Allen Robinson probably doesn't come back to Chicago, but the other free agent receivers, the list is hot. I mean, it's Chris Godwin, Devante Adams, Will Fuller, Juju Smith-Schuster, T.Y. Hilton, Emmanuel Sanders, Sammy Watkins, Mike Williams, Cordero Patterson. I mean, there is some really great players on this list for free agent wide receivers. Odell Beckham also included here that they could build pretty quickly around their rookie quarterback with the amount of money they have. And that's what you wonder is, you know, Kansas City has done that with their first year with

Mahomes. They picked up Sammy Watkins and then he played a huge role in them winning the Super Bowl. That is an option that kind of doesn't exist for the Vikings in your rebuild, at least at this moment, because of their cap situation. It's not just Kirk. A lot of other things have to happen, and pieces would have to be subtracted. It isn't so much you could just, hey, we've got this cash.

Let's go spend it. Yeah, you are probably getting worse for sure if you keep Kirk Cousins because that means you're cutting several starters, probably pretty good ones to become cap compliant. And any replacement that you bring in for them is probably going to be worse. They'll be cheaper, but they'll be worse. And that doesn't include all of the openings that you have at this moment, which is a safety, several corners, a linebacker or two, an edge rusher, a right guard. You've got so many holes to fill already, and that's with your negative on the cap. I look back at some of the positional

spending too. And I'm glad you brought that up collar. You know, you look at how the 49ers Superbowl team was built, where they invest the trenches sixth in offensive line spending first in edge rushing spending. I also scratched my head. They were number one in running back spending, not a huge fan of that. But otherwise, I like the approach. Build the trenches out. I think that's smart. That was 2019, you mean? 2019. Yeah, okay.

Yep, 2019. And that's presumably where Adolfo Mensah had the most influence. After his seven years there, he had helped sort of shape the way they approach things analytically. And I'm guessing that played into sort of the efficiency of putting together a roster. I'm not going to judge what the Browns had last year because he only had one year in the organization, or was it two? It was one or two years in the organization, not really a lot of time to sort of change the way that roster was built. Also, do you want to comment on Sean Payton retiring? Oh, did that just happen? Yes. Oh my gosh. What is today? What? Hey, here's why Sean Payton retired. Let me, I'm going to count the reasons. There's one, you know, why drew breeze

doesn't have drew breeze anymore. And that is the whole key to this whole thing. It's like, if Ryan polls picked the right team with the right quarterback, he's going to be smarter. And if quest, you had awful Mensah ends up with the right quarterback. he's going to be smarter. And if Kwestia Dafo-Mensa ends up with the right quarterback, he's going to be smarter. Because I guarantee you that Sean Payton looked what life is like without Drew Brees and was like, nope, I'm going to go watch my Kevin James movie on Netflix. And I am not going to worry at all about coaching Taysom Hill for the rest of my life or Trevor Simeon. I I mean even with Bill Belichick we like the Mac Jones move I thought it was a good one for the Patriots and that might turn out to be great he might be just like Burrow next year and they might build this great team around

him but man Belichick loses Brady the next year there's seven and nine with Cam Newton throwing passes right in the ground it's just like like, like that is, that is the NFL. That is the NFL. And what will ultimately determine whether Kwesi Adafo Mensah is the smartest GM you've ever met or whether Ryan Poles made the right move in picking Chicago over the Vikings is entirely based on this quarterback decision and whether you get it right. That's it. I mean, we can look at all the spending and I like doing that and that's fun. But man, I mean, if you're talking about the difference between NFC championship and Super Bowl, maybe it's how you built the defensive line for sure. But if you want to be, there are seven teams that have great quarterbacks who every year

can win the Super Bowl and it's just incredible for their fans. They go into every season thinking this could be us and everybody else goes, but what if we got another guard? Maybe then our quarterback would go to the next level. This is new Orleans. Well, you know, we really like taste some Hill boy. He can really run around or something. Oh, I don't have drew breeze anymore.

See ya. I mean, it is really, it is really incredible how this league works. And, um, you know, that's, that is amazing incredible how this league works. And that is amazing that pretty much the minute he doesn't have Drew Brees anymore, that man is out. Yeah, I think it's clear that the pie chart, people wanted to debate, was it Belichick or was it Brady? Who was more valuable to the Patriots?

I think it's pretty clear that the pie chart, it's 80-85% quarterback, and then the head coach can give you the extra 15-20 to get you over the top. But it is overwhelmingly quarterback at this stage. So I'm with you. I'm with you. And is Sean Payton, is this one of those sabbaticals where he takes a year, mulls it over, kind of picks his spot, and then he resurfaces in a couple of years. I feel like it is. He may have a target. Like maybe there's a team, maybe it's Dallas. Maybe there's a team that he looks at and says, they're going to fire that

coach next year. And I'll just be right around the corner and sneak on in and say, whoop, I got Dak Prescott. Now I hate to see it. Oh, we're in the NFC championship. Peyton Zimmer, 2024. In Dallas? Yeah, that would really be something. But, you know, your point is exactly correct. It's like I saw people talking about, well, Aaron Rodgers only won the one Super Bowl, and they were in the NFC championship the last three years, or two of the last three years or in two of the last three years. And then in the lead late in the divisional game to go on,

you know, if not for a blocked punt, they've been there so many times. That's what having that quarterback does for you is it gives you an opportunity to get in a position. You're 80% of the way there to get the extra 10%, the extra 15% from roster building, coaching, all those things. But as we've seen, I mean, there are very few, you have to be lion's bad. And I wouldn't put Stafford on the level of these quarterbacks who are like taking their

teams in, you know, Rogers or something, my homes deep into the super bowl and things like that. But Stafford's a good example. You have to be that bad to not be consistently there. You have to be lions bad. And even then there are years where the lions are right there. There's an 11 and five year. There's a few above 500 years, but that's how bad of an organization you have to be. If you pick the right quarterback to not get there. And that's why this decision is so much everything. Now let's

analyze this though, from an organizational standpoint, Sam sam because i think that the vikings in terms of an organization are a little more stable and their owners a little less crazy than it seems that chicago is but with either one of these franchises you get owners who are fans more than they are going to come down and make the draft pick for you, right? So you get that freedom to do something like that. It seems there was a report that the owners wanted Justin Fields to play. I guess that does happen. But Wade Phillips told the story the other day. He was on Morton Anderson's podcast, told the story, which is true about Ralph Wilson, the owner of the bills, forcing Wade to play a different

quarterback than he wanted to play in a playoff game that that happened. Like that's how crazy owners can be. So the ownership situation is probably advantageous for the Vikings over Chicago. The rest of it though. I mean, they might build a new stadium. The facilities are good. Your history is great. I mean, I think the rest of it is kind of 50 cents or a half dollar. This isn't like Jacksonville or Detroit where you're taking over something where you go, man, I don't even know what I'm getting into. Yeah, and we've talked about yesterday how the division is appealing because of the nature of the arcs.

The Detroit arc is still very low on its trajectory. The Packers are about to hit perhaps a precipitous drop, and the Vikings are entering rebuild mode, or at least retooling mode, it seems. So it's a good time to be in the NFC North, which is probably why, you know, he was, you know, he was out. He was going to be in there either way. It was Vikings or Bears. I look, I don't know as much about the Bears front office. I look at the Vikings front office and I do see stability there, too, with Jamal Stevenson. I've been around for a long time.

Ryan Munnins been around for a long time. Rob Brzezinski is going to be, you know, your cap guy. So you do have some foundational pieces that remain. And I guess I don't know if that's necessarily a perk or not, because sometimes these guys want their own people. They would prefer to bring in folks that maybe think a little more like them or have the same sort of ideals. But then again, as someone who's analyzing it,

I think it's probably a good thing to have a little bit of healthy tension. Like if you have different views from your previous experience versus, you know, whatever quest C a dafl Mensah comes in with, that can be a good thing. So I don't want to say it's all bad, but I don't know a whole lot about the bears front office. Otherwise, other than it's kind bad, but I don't know a whole lot about the Bears front office. Otherwise, other than it's kind of been the, you know,

little bit of shambles here and their ownership seems to say things they shouldn't, which is not, not the Wilfs. So that's, that's a pro for the Vikings, I guess. Folks want to tell you about hello fresh with hello fresh.

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That's HelloFresh.com slash Insider16 for up to 16 meals free and three free gifts. That's hellofresh.com slash insider 16 for up to 16 meals free and three free gifts. Again, hellofresh.com. No, I, I agree that, uh, the Wilfs being less involved is really good when things are going good. I mean, because then everybody has the freedom to make their own decisions and when you listen to um what is it george mccaskey when you listen to him talk you're like uh this is a little this is a little off like this but you know when i was in buffalo the owner of the bills would talk sometimes and we would be like huh huh? Like what, like what is, what is this guy talking about? Like, we don't really, they're really understood. Like, does he know anything that's really going on? I think he was more of a hockey fan than a football fan. And it seemed

that he really didn't know what was happening. And so that was a major criticism until they hired the right coach, drafted the right quarterback, developed them, had them win all the time. And then now their owner is a genius. His hockey team hasn't been in the playoffs for literally 10 plus years. And yet the football team drafted the right guy. And so they're fine and everything, but the owner also was hands-off. They let their GM, you know, do what he needed to do. And that I think is more of probably more of the case in Minnesota, but I think either one of those jobs end up getting it. And I think from, from the perspective of a lot of other things of, I mean, the stadium soldier field is kind of a mess, still upset about us not getting a pregame meal there. I'll never let it go.

Um, that, that was just, uh, inexcusable. So us bank stadium has got, has got it there, but they're probably going to build a new stadium at some point. I don't know what their practice facilities are like. Like these things are very ancillary to all of it. But in terms of the franchises, both are kind of looking each other in the mirror, Sam, with, have you guys had a long-term quarterback that's won you a bunch of games? No.

Have you guys had a long-term quarterback? I mean, if you are the, this is one benefit to either job. If you are the guy who finds the guy, you will have a statue of you with your little GM hat on outside of the facility. That's going to happen. If you are the person that picks the next Vikings quarterback or that takes Justin Fields to the next level, no one will remember that Ryan Pace picked him. It'll be, oh, Ryan Poles was the genius who built around him. Like that's ultimately what's going to determine this and why I always end up coming back to it because there's no way around it. It's what are you going to do with that situation and how it

ends up working out? And then, Hey, they'll build a new stadium. They'll build a new practice facility or whatever in Chicago. And so that's, that's what Ryan poles has to be thinking about and must be at least somewhat convinced on is that he can build around Justin Fields and make that work or evaluate it in the next year and draft his own guy. Um, I would say from the draft capital perspective, the Vikings were left a little bear in the cupboard for that. And so now as we talk about like what's next for both of these teams, I think the path is actually much simpler for Chicago than it is for the Vikings. There are hard decisions to be made in Chicago. Like you said, their top players are hitting free

agency. Some of them they're gone, you know, on defense, I think Akeem Hicks probably goes, which will have a parade here in Minnesota. I'm sure with the fans after being tired of watching him eat their souls for quest, you dothel Mensah boy, if you're ranking tough decisions, okay. Quarterbacks number one, but isn't there like five more after that, that are actually really tough decisions considering popular players with bad contracts or, or that might not carry on into the future with their high levels of play. I think that the job is more complicated in Minnesota. Even though there's a little more talent, it's more complicated than it is in Chicago. Yeah, I think that's a fair assessment.

I think when you go in with a bit of a blank canvas in Chicago, then you can really put your stamp on it right away. Minnesota's got about six puzzlers. Because the players that are attached to those contracts are pretty productive. Like Kyle Rudolph last year, that's such an easy move to make. Riley Reif was a pretty easy move. These are hard moves. Adam Thielen is super productive. Harrison Smith is still a really good player. Eric Hendricks is arguably the soul of that defense. Dalvin Cook, beloved by the fans. He's meant a lot to the organization, but he's not at an efficient position. So there's six really difficult contracts. I'm forgetting one. Oh, Michael Pierce. Michael Pierce is maybe the

easiest of them because he's got a pretty easy dead cap number. Dalvin Tomlinson, you can't cut because you backloaded it for some reason. So the Vikings are in a pickle with some of these big deals. And I think we've talked about the panacea for all of it is to get rid of the Cousins money. And then you don't have to think about it as hard. And that's why, if you're the new GM, why in the world would you try to make that work? Why would you try to short shrift yourself and the organization, have to cut these foundational players,

have to upset the fans, many of them who don't want Cousins anyway, just for the pursuit of another 500 season, that makes no sense to me. So you either make six complicated moves to tread water, or you make one big move to get some momentum, get the motor running in the right direction, and actually create some momentum, I think, toward your plan. That to me is a no-brainer So if, if Questia Daffo Mensa goes in the opposite direction, I have to like, it already makes me question the judgment, right? I mean, it's a huge tell right away as to how this is going to be approached.

Right. I agree because of their timeline, as much as anything that your timeline doesn't so much match up with, if you're doing another contract extension, it's probably going to work out similarly where when you're ready to win, really win, not go nine and eight and win the division, which you're kind of hoping if Roger steps away, that that's what happens. But to really win, you're probably talking about very high cap hits again. And you know, when there are teams that work around this, San Francisco is actually one of them. Jimmy Garoppolo's contract is very high for this year, and they've been able to work

around it for right now. But what did they do? They drafted a quarterback. I mean, this was actually the forgotten thing about Alex Smith, is that Alex Smith needed a new contract. So it wasn't just entirely about Alex Smith not being as good. It was in part to maximize what Andy Reid could do, but it's the reason, one of the reasons San Francisco drafted Trey Lance. It's one of the reasons that Alex Smith was traded away and that they brought in Patrick Mahomes is that those contracts just end up long-term being restrictive. But there's these other ones. I mean, the Daniil Hunter one is tough too, because even in Chicago, Khalil Mack is the greatest pass rusher on earth, but his contract is crazy.

And the edge rushers are getting so much money. If you have one go sideways, I mean, even think of Khalil Mack gets hurt this year and look at their defense. It just wasn't good because so much money is being poured into one guy. There's the edge rusher thing. The Raiders, it took a couple of years, but they developed Max Crosby and they signed Yannick Ngakwe. And their pass rush was really good this year. And they didn't miss Khalil Mack and they didn't have to spend that much money on edges. I mean, it's a very hard thing because defensive line, when you get to the playoffs, is absolutely necessary.

You got to be able to shellac the other team's offensive line to slow down these great quarterbacks. And at the same time with Hunter, you're talking about somebody who was injured, who is actually now finally of like the normal age of an adult football player forever. It was like, did you know a thought of you? Denobo is older than Daniel Hunter, which was true and remains true to this day. But you know, it was like all those funny factoids of like, did you know a Fadi Adenabo is older than Daniil Hunter, which was true and remains true to this day. But you know, it was like all those funny factoids of like, they drafted Daniil Hunter four years ago and he still can't rent a car. That's no longer the case. Like the guy is going to be 28 early in next season and has had these injuries. So that becomes a very difficult decision. Delvin cook, how much you want to pay a running back is a difficult decision. And does, if you are looking at this from the most

cold hearted, I don't care about anyone on this roster. You're all just names and numbers. You are moving on from some of these guys. You are revamping this thing pretty much top to bottom head to toe with as much draft capital and calf spaces you can get. I just don't know if that is something that the Wilfs want to see them do. And so that becomes tricky. By the way, more news is coming in. The bears are looking at Dan Quinn and Jim Caldwell. If you're the Vikings, you are rooting strong against Jim Caldwell, right? Like screw up your interview called when Quinn want, right? You want no part of that. Dan, uh, Jim Caldwell was the guy who actually made the lions a relevant franchise. And many times gave the Vikings a run for their money. When he was their

head coach, you don't want him paired with a good young quarterback. You want Dan Quinn and bringing back those 27th ranked defenses from Atlanta that, you know, didn't get an interception on every play like Dallas got this year. I saw a report too that, and I think it was from a Dallas source, that Kellen Moore is not leaving. He's not going anywhere. He's not going to get hired, which would mean in Minnesota where he interviewed. So there's another interesting tidbit and that would limit it then, if true, to then O'Connell or Hackett as the offensive candidates they've talked to. Hackett seems to be pretty far down the road with Denver. So O'Connell, maybe?

I mean, it seems like they're going defensive, which is wild to me. Also, I wanted to, before that thought, I wanted to quiz you on, of the onerous contracts right now, I guess, how would you prioritize keeping those players? Let's say the five are Hunter, Thielen, Kendricks, Smith, and Cook. How would you rank the importance of those? Folks, we've got an even better offer to tell you about from soda stick if you use the promo code purple insider one word you can get 15 off your purchase that's right at soda stick.com your place for minnesota sports inspired apparel you can get 15 off just by using the code purple

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that's 20insider at manscaped.com. 20% off with free shipping at manscaped.com, the code 20insider. Unlock your confidence and always use the right tools for the job with manscaped that's a good question i think well cook to me is of the least importance i'm sorry i know he's a great player i know he is a great player but he's also reaching the age where running backs become not great players when they once were other than adrian peterson but everybody else almost goes off the side of a cliff. And he was 19th ranked by PFF this year. It wasn't the same kind of year, multiple injuries, games missed. Running back is just not a place that my analytically savvy new GM should be

spending his money. I think to me, feeling is at the top of the list to make sure you keep, because if you are changing the quarterback situation, you want to give the guy as many wide receivers as you could possibly have. I mean, look at these groups of receivers that are in the final four. There's just playmakers absolutely everywhere. You can't be subtracting those guys. is a guy who really transitions well late in his career, route running, great hands, smarts, toughness, if you want to throw that in there. Those things like Larry Fitzgerald, light kind of deal will translate late into a career. And then you get other guys. KJ Osborne's nice, but I just read the free agent list. There's lots of other players that you can add to that mix. So reworking Thielen's contract would be the top. The Hunter thing is extremely tough because I mean, I think he's as good as everybody else thinks he is,

but we just laid out the case. If you give, if that's $20 million on the cap, that's very hard. I would put him, unfortunately, probably around where with Delvin cook. Like,

I just don't think it's a smart decision to give him a huge contract extension and they have to like, that's the way his contract is set out. It's either huge contract extension cut, or maybe trade and take a bunch of money. Harrison Smith is another one that I think could probably go as great as he has been in his career. That's not one that's trending in the right direction. Over the last two years, he has not been that all pro game changer. And Kendrick's would be at the top of my list of player to keep.

I don't think that that is a guy who fades. And I think having that linebacker like Fred Warner with San Francisco is very valuable. Bobby Wagner. If you have one of those five guys in the league who are great at coverage, you should probably keep them. So I didn't make the list exactly in order, i know feel me yeah so yeah you had kendrick's at the top followed by phelan yeah and then you kind of you didn't love hunter didn't love cook and you

had smith in the middle yeah probably probably it would go um so keep kendrick's keep feeling smith is in the middle for me because he's still playing well, but might not be worth the contract. And then it's Hunter and cook. And I know a lot of people would disagree on Hunter and say, pay the man. It's just scary when you're talking about injuries like that and money like that.

This is not, this is not the thing about running backs is even if you make the mistake of paying them, you can usually not get killed by it because they don't make a lot of money. Like, Delvin Cook's going to make 12. If you make a mistake on Daniil Hunter, you're talking 20-something that is like Frank Clark in Kansas City that's just sitting there eating up all of your cap space.

That one has a downside that is pretty severe. Yeah, you're not wrong about that. It's interesting because I would have gone Hunter in the top two. I think he's kind of like Byron Buxton. He's just so important when he's healthy, and that can be a centerpiece of your defensive line, someone that can radically change your defense. So I would assume that you can lower that cap

hit at least this year and probably not going to get a great discount, even though he has been hurt, but you hope that you can save a few million because of that and not have to pay him top dollar, maybe top five, but not number one. I would put probably Cook at the bottom, but I would have had Kendricks toward the bottom too. I just don't think linebacker is a very efficient position. I'd rather invest in coverage and pass rush. And I think that Kendricks, and I wrote about the linebackers on the website for today, actually. I think that Kendricks is in like kind of a prove it year

because if he shows any kind of decline again, and he already declined last year in his tackling, his run defense, if the coverage slips, and the coverage has still been very good, if that slips again, I think you're talking about cutting Kendricks because then his dead cap is like nothing. He's in the final year of his deal. He's 30 years old, almost 31. Yeah, that might be the end of Eric Kendricks after this year.

So I think with a new coaching staff, if he doesn't kind of get back to his 2020 form, I would wonder about his future. So that's interesting. I like that we had a difference of opinion on that. Boy, players get old fast in the NFL. I mean, it's crazy to think of Eric Kendricks as a guy who's sort of approaching the second half is kind of a bizarre. I, my thought process was the run defense and tackling is more determined by your defensive line. The coverage, he is such a huge part of the coverage and how you manage teams using

crossers, play action, all those things that that is a wildly valuable, valuable thing to have. But, uh, you're right that the linebacker position, I mean, you should be drafting guys and putting them in there on rookie contracts and seeing what happens there because there's just not that many who are actually worth the dollars. But I think you could probably afford one, but I think you make a fair case. I mean, if you're talking about projecting several years down the road, that is a fair case. So anyway, well, this has been our emergency reaction podcast. The Vikings have a GM. The new regime will begin.

And we'll do another one after Kwesi Adafo-Mensah does his opening press conference. Hopefully that's in person out at TCO Performance Center. We're not Zooming with the new guy. It would be nice to meet him in person. But we'll see how it goes, man. I mean, this is the zooming with the new guy. It would be nice to meet him in person, but we'll see how it goes, man. I mean, this is the key to this entire thing. I'll just give my final thought and you can give yours is the Vikings had two candidates who were terrific. Their backgrounds really are pristine and they're both people that you would have wanted running your organization

based on what they've done based on what we can know about them and i've asked a few people about adafo mensa who had really good things to say about him and the same thing with ryan poles of course they did i mean this is like drafting the number one or number two candidate in the draft for quarterback where it's like lee for manning you hope you get manning right and they'll tell all the stories about how we knew manning was the right guy, but that is a bunch of BS that there were great cases for both. And you ended up with one of them. Ryan Poles picked it for you.

And now we see what happens next. I don't, I don't think this is one of those things and it may become this down the road, but it's not one of those things where Vikings fans go, oh, typical us. Like, yeah, I mean, I think that you have a 50-50 shot either way of this working out. And so you have a very good candidate, and now we'll see what happens. Yeah. Yeah, I think that off the top of my head, I see Adolfo Mensah as certainly a collaborator, probably good for front office culture, probably knows where to delegate, where his blind spots are. Seems like he's pretty self-aware in that area, not being a quote-unquote football guy. I guess I would worry that if that's the case, if it is like a true collaborative effort, if he is delegating a lot, then you become very tethered to what the head coach thinks and what that staff wants to do. And if what they want to do maybe doesn't align with what your values are, well, then you're butting heads, right?

I think Patrick Royce, who we both love as a writer, he pointed this out in an article in that Bill Guerin, the wild GM, does not really collaborate. He just makes cold-hearted decisions, and he's got a vision, and it's turned them into a winner. And that's obviously very – you're kind of selecting the success story there. But I think you don't want him to get bulldozed by the people that he hires. And hopefully if he hires them, there's probably mutual respect there and that they'll be able to work together. And that he's also presenting probably some fairly radical analytic ideas that might challenge sort of the football worldview of these people. And you hope that he can get through to them in that way and that they accept it and are willing to incorporate that because that is the edge. Like if you're going to run an analytically forward organization,

that can be your edge if you adopt it. And I hope that that is able to seep through with this new coaching staff. Right. There's two games that get played in the NFL. There's the wall street game that gets played in the off season, building rosters. And there's the game that gets played on the field. And that's how you grade who won the wall street game and um but i think that if you've got an edge in the wall street game which is where adolfo benza comes from then it doesn't guarantee you win a bunch of super bowls because usually the quarterback determines if you get there or not but you've got an edge like you said and that's what you're hiring for is to get the 0.5 or 1% edge on the next team to give yourself a better chance. And we'll see how it happens.

And we'll have a lot of moves to evaluate quickly. So Sam, thanks for your time on the emergency pod. Thank you all for jumping in here and listening and we'll see what happens next, but we know it'll be interesting. So we'll catch y'all later.