Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Sam Darnold isn't taking the revenge game bait

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

Matthew Coller chats with Vikings fans about Sam Darnold's reaction to "revenge" game narratives and whether his turnovers were concerning toward the future and if Aaron Rodgers is still scary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

jump right in questions comments anything on your. And I wanted to start out just by talking about Sam Darnold today at the podium, in which Mr. Darnold did not want really anything to do with the conversation about the New York Jets, where he was asked about playing the Jets and whether that meant anything to him. And the answer was basically no, because there has been so much turnover with the jets organization, that it's a lot of new faces and he doesn't feel like that's facing his old team. And then he was asked about a quote from Kevin O'Connell earlier this year, where O'Connell had said he's the,

that organizations fail quarterbacks more than quarterbacks fail organizations, which is an interesting thought and worth diving into. And so he was presented with this quote from O'Connell and asked if he felt that the jets had failed him. And he just said, no, I could have played better. And then sort of looked around like, do you guys want more from me on that? Because you're probably not going to get it. And I think that Sam Darnold's approach to media this year has been much like what he

would have done in New York, which would have been to be very brief with his answers. He hasn't gone up to the podium and started revealing his soul or being like, guys, you will never believe what Adam Gase was doing there. That has not been his way. And I very much respect that he has not done that, that he has not decided to bear his soul. Every time he starts getting asked questions about what happened in the past, because that doesn't really matter to him.

It matters to everybody else because there's so much fascination with why Sam Darnold is so much better now and in the past struggled very much so with the New York jets, when he was there and he does go down as one of their biggest bus draft picks in the history of the organization. Although I think Zach Wilson had a much worse tenure, even than Sam Darnold, but that for him doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot because he's leading a team that is 4-0 and that is so much different and so far now separated from the New York Jets that what what does it even make any difference for I mean this would be like you graduate high school you go to college you get your college degree and then someone asks hey uh was your high school bad I mean maybe if you're having a drink with them and

sharing the old stories off the record, you're going to say, oh man, you wouldn't have believed my high school coach. But at this point, are you going to share with the world? Are you going to cry about what happened in high school to everybody in the world? Probably not. And as far as whether organizations fail quarterbacks or quarterbacks fail organizations, I think that there is a limit to that, that, I mean, Christian Hackenberg, for example, could not have been saved or maybe Christian Ponder. There was nothing that any coach, any coordinator, any supporting cast could have done to make those quarterbacks be good. But there's also a group of quarterbacks throughout history

that the needle could have been pushed one way or the other. And maybe somebody like Mack Jones eventually will be this guy. Gino Smith is certainly proven to be this guy. And there may be limitations to quarterbacks like that. I think that there is a ceiling on Gino Smith and what he can do with the Seahawks. I would be very surprised, and maybe it'll happen, but I'd be surprised if someone like Geno Smith could take a team to 12 wins, and maybe we'll all feel the same way

about Sam Darnold eventually, that there is potentially a ceiling on him. And some of the stuff that I saw on the All-22 tape did have me a little bit concerned about the timing of some of Sam Darnold's passes when he was struggling a little bit. And there was this hesitation to his game, but the fact that he pulled himself out of that late in the game to make some of the biggest throws to close out the game against the Packers also kind of showed you the supporting cast and the belief and what was around Sam Darnold can lift him up in those

moments. And I think that Sam Darnold would fall much more under the category of someone who was failed by an organization. He should not have been playing at 20 years old in the NFL. He clearly was not ready for that. At USC, it was so much, hey, Sam, just go use your arm. Just make crazy throws and have huge games for us. But I don't think it was a very systematic type of play that would have prepared him for the NFL. He was in over his head to

start. And then after his first year, they fire his head coach and they bring in a whole new head coach who had just ruined somebody else at the quarterback position. You can't ask for it much worse than that. And I think that if this was a year removed for Sam Darnold against the jets, that maybe he would feel a little more animosity toward what had just happened. But at this point it is so far removed. And then, you know, we know about the Carolina thing where he started to turn it around toward the second half of his time in Carolina. But by the time he was moved to Carolina, we are now talking 2021. It is 2024. It has been a long time since he was a player on the New York jets and somebody else brought up the mono thing. He seemed to go through a lot of

things with the New York jets. He did have one season where he went seven and six found a way to win some games and showed flashes. And I remember taking some time and trying to talk to anybody that I could from that side of things. And I'm going to have a Jets voice on the show tomorrow, but trying to talk to anybody with any connection with Sam Darnold and most of the people that I knew that were either Jets fans or had some sort of connection there in the NFL, the, the prevailing thought consistently was they just did not give him a chance. And, uh, where I really went back to whether it was receivers, specifically offensive line was dreadful with Sam Darnold as the quarterback. But this week, uh, Kevin Seifert from ESPN, uh, you can tell when another reporter is working on a story because he is asking the same

question to everybody, which I have been doing as well about Justin Jefferson. But I've gotten a lot of interesting thoughts from the Vikings about Sam Darnold and mechanics, which is what Seifert has been asking O'Connell and Justin Jefferson and Sam Darnold about. And one thing I was just thinking as he was talking about the mechanics and Kevin O'Connell talking about things that they've tried to improve is, well, number one, what you come in as a rookie is not what you are five years from there. Sort of like freshman year, senior year in college, when you're working to improve some of those mechanical issues, if you stick with it and you don't have an attitude problem and you don't think that you're a victim and you try to improve, which is really impressed me about Sam Darnold. There has been no

victim playing from him at all about what happened in the NFL and with the Jets. But he's continued to work on these things and you can see them specifically in his mechanics where he has improved. And I just wonder what was happening when he was with the Jets. Where was this? Where were some of the things that were pretty clear? And I went back and watched a couple of games

from early in his career where he would get up on his toes and bounce around too much. And now he has really worked to have this stability and grip into the ground to get all the torque that he can. And it's greatly improved how accurate he is with the football.

Where were these things early in his career? So I think he was let down by the Jets organization. But my question, just on the fun side, we've had a lot of revenge games to talk about. Is it a revenge game for Sam Darnold? I mean, I don't think so. It just, it's not Adam Gase. It's not somebody who drafted him. It's just a totally different situation, but maybe for him, no matter when he plays the New York jets, he's going to want to send a message that it wasn't him. And this will be a hard one to send against the very good New York jets defense sauce Gardner versus Justin Jefferson, who knows what the status is of the turf. Uh, we'll see from there. Um, so your questions,

your comments, reactions, thoughts about, uh about uh sam darnold and the other part that i wanted to talk about a little bit before i get to your questions is just are you still afraid of aaron rogers i have had a rule throughout my career that until a legend calls it quits until they go at fox sports booth or they put on a gold jacket or whatever until they're actually gone that I never underestimate the legends because even when it came to the just awful year that Peyton Manning had he won the Super Bowl he found a way to win games and came back late in that season, played really well in the first part of the playoffs or Tom Brady grinding his team to the playoffs when he had

nothing left in that team. Wasn't any good. Rogers has not looked good, but he has had a handful of throws where you go, wait, that might be it. And what we know is when a team has an absolutely miserable, God awful day that the next week they are putting all of their laser focus into fixing the things that went wrong. And that's what happened to the jets. They lost to the Broncos. They played horribly. You saw a miscommunication between Rogers and his wide receivers. You know, that they're going to spend the whole week trying to resolve those problems. And also Kevin O'Connell said today that he showed the team Rogers best throws from so far this year to basically send the message to them. Don't do not doubt this man

and do not doubt his arm talent because he is still capable of doing these things. So are you afraid of Rogers? Clearly not in the same way that everyone used to be in Minnesota because he's not winning MVPs. But even the last time we saw him in green Bay, he was not the same as he used to be with the Packers. And yet that was the 2022 turf game where he, I forget who it was, deked somebody out at the goal line to walk in, made a couple of back shoulder throws that were absolutely unbelievable. I mean, Aaron Rodgers still capable of doing things with his arm that very few human beings are capable of.

But I also could see the other side of the coin where you look at it and go Vikings defense. This guy can't move clearly is not moving the same way that he used to. He's also throwing underneath all the time. He is averaging what five and a half yards per pass attempt, make it happen. Vikings defense. If you're're truly elite shut this team down completely and do not allow Aaron Rodgers to do anything but I do think that when you're facing a team that's a bit of a wounded animal it is a little more concerning it's a it's an odd situation it's overseas it kind of evens the playing field a little bit because this would have been a home game and maybe it's not as easy for the defensive line to get after Aaron Rodgers. He's also been getting rid of the ball very quickly.

So can the Vikings tackle effectively? Is he going to be able to identify things that Brian Flores sends at him better than anybody else could? Kevin O'Connell called him a supercomputer today because he said he's so good at identifying things and reading defenses. So let me know, is Aaron Rodgers always going to terrify you no matter what? Or do you think the Vikings should just shut him down? So let me scroll up, get to your questions, and we'll go from there. So we'll start with James.

Ideal players to trade for. Seems like offensive and defensive line should be a priority as of right now. A cornerback does come to mind a little bit. Not that they need a starting corner, but as far as the depth to Caleb Evans, it's Fabian Morrow. Those are the guys behind the corners.

If they had a chance to get somebody who they could maybe sign for the future as well, you know, that Stefan Gilmore is unlikely to be playing many more years after this and is a free agent, but defensive tackle comes to mind for me. They will get Dalton Reisner back eventually. I think that's good offensive line depth. I also think it's way easier for a pass rushing defensive tackle or for a cornerback to come into a team and play than it would be a guard. I think that that would be pretty tricky. I mean, maybe you can do it. I don't know how many teams are moving their guards.

I know that you guys mentioned Brandon Sheriff, Shreff, Sheriff, you know, Sheriff, however it's pronounced. Maybe that's somebody if the Jaguars decide to start selling, but they don't seem like they want to start selling because their owner said they have the most talented team they've ever had. So I don't know. Maybe they think that they can get back in it. We're not really there yet. I don't have a great sense for who's going to be selling at this moment

because we're still so far away from the trade deadline. And teams that are one in three are still looking at it like, hey, we could get back into it. When the trade deadline is in the middle of the season, then you're talking about teams being one in six. And that's where you start making moves. So I can't really tell you who at this moment would be making moves, but if you told me that they could get a pass rushing defensive tackle

or a younger corner who is coming off his rookie contract, who they could try to sign for the future, then I would say that would be a good plan. But I just don't have a good sense for who's going to be available at this point. The way I look at it though, as far as deadline goes, is any opportunity that they get to push themselves closer, assuming that this continues and they are six and two or five and two when they're deciding to make these moves, anyone that they could get to make this team better, they should go try to get, even if it costs them draft capital. Because just think about the number of times throughout the history of the Vikings that we have thought, oh, well, they're going to have lots more years, plenty of more years

to jump in and be great and go to the Super Bowl and all that. How many times did we think that? And yet what's the reality there is usually you kind of get your one shots. Now I think that they're set up well for the future. So I'm not saying, oh, there's no future trade everything. I think they are set up well for the future. At the same time, if you look around the NFC and you're not really that impressed with anybody, the Detroit Lions are good. I would say San Francisco is still good. New Orleans has had their moments. Washington is having their moment.

But it's not like you're saying, oh, well, you know, there's five teams that are clearly better than the Vikings or have better chances. So don't mess around and trade something like they, the Vikings, if they continue on this path could have a chance to host a home playoff game. And if you get that shot, then that means your chances to go to the Superbowl are at least realistic and you should do everything you can rather than saying, well, you know, down the road, we're looking at whatever, take a swing at it. Always take a swing at it when you get your chance, because you don't know how many you're

going to get. And if they do move on from Sam Darnold, they'll have cap space to spend in the future. Daniel says five and oh, soon. Are we excited about the balance of the pass and the run game? Yes and no, Daniel. I mean, yes. And the fact that the run game is effective for the first time under Kevin O'Connell and really the first time since 2020, I still think that they have leaned too much on the quarterback at times throughout this, but it's also been very unique where how often are you ever just winning like this as much as the Vikings have

been? That's been really my only critique. But as far as the run and pass game playing off of each other, running play actions, checking to pass plays out of run plays and getting the opposing defense to pay attention to your running game. I think that it's been massively better. And it's been one of the main reasons that this offense can hold up Sam Darnold and make him better. It's one of the main reasons that they've won is Aaron Jones. I'm a tad concerned about Aaron Jones because they played him 56 snaps against the Packers. And there was this whole idea that they were going to work the snap counts with Ty Chandler more often. And it hasn't really been that way outside of one game when Aaron Jones had to be banged up for Ty Chandler to be in there. So can they continue

to run this effectively leaning on Aaron Jones, maybe as heavy as anyone has ever leaned on Aaron Jones in his career, because most of the time when he was with green Bay, they were mixing and matching with him as opposed to just saying you're entirely the guy. So, you know, I, I just, I think that they do need to lean on Chandler more. And they also should honestly just run the ball a little bit more in some of those situations where they can use the clock to their advantage, or when you can go up 31 to seven by just getting a field goal. And instead they throw an interception. It's just, uh, that, you know, the run game has been so good that I kind of want to see them see how far they could take that run game with Aaron Jones and with Ty Chandler. And you talk about the trade deadline. Maybe you're looking at another

running back as well. Was it, who was it that the, um, the Eagles went out and got a running back from the dolphins. And I can't remember his name now. That was pretty good when they were going for their Superbowl run. And it was just effective to be able to mix and match with another running back. And maybe that's something that they'll think about doing because I think that putting it all on Aaron Jones, as great as he's been, is kind of asking for him to get worn down. I shot you 99 says, uh, I better not Aaron Rodgers throw a touchdown off of a hard count on this defense. This team has played enough against Rodgers to know his hard count game.

The cadence seems to be a real debate there. I saw that Robert Sala said today, no, there was nothing. There was no issues with us in the cadence, even though there clearly was last week with the offensive line, with the receivers. It's just kind of an odd situation there. And it seems to be tense between the head coach and Rodgers. And this is where do they sort of save each other or do they drown each other with the way that Sala and Rogers and the offense are getting along and you can't be shocked to see a Nate Hackett offense once again seeming to struggle and there was some talk of the offense kind of looking like it just wasn't was it Garrett Wilson

said it just the offense is not like it looks around the league and you could fall behind so fast in this league. If what Aaron Rogers wants to run is what was run four years ago, five years ago, and he was having success. That's just not how the NFL works. There's a lot of things that have changed for offenses to stay ahead of defenses that if you're not doing, you're just getting slowed down by opposing defenses. But to your point, the cadence is definitely a thing. I don't know what the noise is going to be like. Is it just going to be a consistent noise on both sides? Are there going to be more Rodgers fans?

But since they're overseas, they cheer when Rodgers is out there. I mean, I really don't know how it's going to look during this game. I think that though your point is he is so good at that, that he's going to get one. He's going to get one because he always does every time they play him. Kufu 21, a lot of hype around of Dexter trade of a 2025 first. Any news from you? No, there's no news for me. If if i if i knew the vikings were going to trade for dexter lawrence i would tell you i would have told you right from the start

when i was accidentally muted actually maybe that's what i did maybe i did tell you about this trade and now i'm just not going to tell you again um no i'm. But as far as trading a first round pick for Dexter Lawrence for a playoff run, I mean, who, who could argue with that? If that was something that they had an opportunity to do, then go do it. But I also don't think that in the NFL, it's as simple as just looking at other players on bad teams who are good and saying trade for them. They lucked out in getting TJ Hawkinson. So I guess they were able to do that, but I don't see any reason the New York Jets should, I'm sorry, the New York Giants should be willing

to move on from Dexter Lawrence, almost no matter what. He's one of the best players in the league. And if they're going to rebuild that thing, they're going to need him. But it's just, it's hard to get a sense right now of who might be really available as far as trades go. But if you gave me a chance to get Dexter Lawrence, then the answer is 100%. Yes, for me.

Daniel says guard talk with real talk. Vikings have a right guard problem still. And our center looks hurt every game trade deadline possibilities. I think Dalton Reisner is more of your answer than a guy every game trade deadline possibilities i think dalton reisner is more of your answer than a guy at the trade deadline because reisner is a good pass protector and getting sam darnold clean pockets is the most important thing here i also think dalton reisner could do better in the screen game than ed ingram who just can't seem to figure out space and how to manage it two weeks in a row a screen pass where all he has to do,

or maybe it was the San Francisco game, all he has to do is just keep moving. And he hits a guy and they get a touchdown and he slows down. He's looking around. It's like he didn't know where he was supposed to go. He did not get manhandled against the Packers. He had his best game of the year against the Packers. And even as critical as I have been of Ed Ingram, and it's deserved because he is not

had any stretches of consistently good play throughout his career. I think that giving him the opportunity until Reisner is able to come back would give him a large enough sample size to know for sure. Do you have someone who's going to progress or do you not so far? I have seen not, but he, according to the GM started the off season, a little behind the eight ball, uh, because of an off season surgery and that put him behind from the start. Uh, who knows if he could turn the corner, but trading for a guard mid-season and throwing him in, I'm not saying they wouldn't do it or shouldn't do it. It just is maybe a little bit tricky to do as opposed. And look, Jacksonville did it last year with Ezra Cleveland. So it's not

impossible. They could do it. But the fact that they signed Reisner and he's familiar with the offense and he played right guard all the way through training camp, he would be able to just slide in there and play right guard. He's familiar with everybody that would resolve some of the issues when it comes to the pass protection. Overall, the tackles have been so excellent that the pressure has not impacted Darnold. I also think that Darnold does hold onto the ball longer than you want him to. That's one thing that I have noticed is that he holds onto the ball

and he will wait and wait and wait. And he's, he's tough. He's willing to take a hit and hang in there. Also all the route combinations are deep down the field. So they do need as good of pass protection as they could possibly get. But the fact that the Vikings said today, O'Connell, that they're not opening just yet the practice window for Reisner means that it still could be a couple of weeks until he's ready. We'll just have to see when we get there. It's not a crazy idea to make a trade for a guard, but I think the more likely outcome is that they would just have a Reisner. Uh, Wade says they didn't even give a 20 year old Darnold,

a bucket of water to put out that dumpster fire. You're right about that. You go back and you look and it's, it's the offensive line. It's the coaching. It's the situation with the coach where they drafted someone to save the franchise in one year and then just expected him to go in there and do it. And realistically, they should have just started Josh McCown the whole year. But what you see with the New England Patriots is just how hard this is to do. It is very, very difficult for an organization that is kind of in peril to say, yeah, we're just going to keep playing Jacoby Brissett until he dies on the field because he's gotten hit so many times. And then maybe we'll put in Drake May. What they're doing is right, which is playing a veteran

who could get rid of the football and protect himself rather than a rookie who doesn't know what he's doing yet and is not adjusted to the speed. But it's not easy to do when there's a lot of pressure. And I don't even think there is a lot of pressure on Gerard Mayo, but there was on Todd Bowles at that time. And then they fire him. They didn't go out and get a ton of talent. They didn't give him great blocking. They didn't give him great receivers. I think you see the reason at times with Sam Darnold as a Viking, why it didn't work out. You see hang on to the ball too long. You see some of the hero ball,

him trying to make that throw right off the bat last week on a ball. He clearly should have thrown away. When I went back and looked at the tape, the rollout that did not get intercepted was the like head on the hands, eyes popping out, Sam, don't do that type of throw that if you made too many times as a young player, it will get picked off most of the time, no matter what. But if he did that at a high volume

as a young player, trying to save the franchise, you could see why he threw so many interceptions and that is in there. And you're not going to entirely take it out because that's how he's played football his entire life. So it's going to be in there. I'm going to make a special play. I can fit the ball in that window. I can throw while rolling to my left and flip my hips around. When you go, just throw it out of bounds and you'll be totally fine, but he's never going to take a game manager mindset entirely. And so some of it, as Sam Darnold said today, it was on him with the New York jets that he didn't adjust to that fast enough.

And he didn't just try to do the job. He was always trying to do everything for that team. And so there were things that he could have done to make them better. But when you look at how badly it was constructed in the situation, you could understand how, if privately, I don't know this about Sam Darnold, but if you were just hanging out with them, I don't know this about Sam Darnold, but if you were just hanging out with

him, I don't know, water skiing that he would say, they really didn't give me much to work with there. Especially when you see Jefferson catch the ball in his back shoulder, Jefferson diving out of bounds, catching the ball. And honestly, Darnold could have thrown the ball to Jefferson five more times in that game easily. And he was open enough. There was nobody like that. There was nobody like Derrissaw. There was nobody like O'Neal. So he should be frustrated. But I also think we're so far away from that situation. Adam Gase isn't in the league. Matt Rule in Carolina is not in the league. His offensive coordinator, I think never coordinated again from the jets. It's so many different people.

He's got no beef against Robert Sala or Aaron Rogers. Blowfish. It says before this week, has anyone heard an NFL conversation with the word cadence in it? Yes. And here's, here it is. When Josh Dobbs had to come in as a part of the Vikings,

that was the time where they talked about cadence a lot because he was on the sideline trying to figure out what the cadence was. So the offensive line wouldn't jump off sides with his timing. That is the only other time I can remember a lot of discussion about cadence. Rob says a lot of the power rankings have the Vikings. Number one. Do you agree with the Vikings being the best team in football right now? Power rankings are a very much shrug thing for me because what difference does it make like oh well this person thinks you're the best team in football this other person thinks you're the seventh team in football well that's fantastic everyone's got opinions about football but i think as far as if you were

doing if you were doing a power ranking, how are you doing it? Are you doing it through the lens of this team has the best chance to win the Super Bowl this year? Or are you doing it? Who's the best team in football right now? Those are two different power rankings. I wish someone would tell me in their power rankings which one they were doing. The Vikings are the best team in football right now.

When you look at their point differential, their EPA number one on defense, their DVOA, the football outsider stat that is meant to kind of bring in everything and put it together and compare team strengths. Yeah, they're the best team. They have no losses. They have beaten the tar out of people outside of one quarter against green Bay. They have annihilated some really, really good teams. They're playing good offense, defense, their kickers making kicks. Uh, the Sam Darnold has, in my opinion, is shakiest game. And the man goes 20 for 28 with two 75 and three touchdowns. Jefferson's flying around. Addison coming back.

Hockinson's going to be here soon. But the way that they've played so far, how would there be any argument that someone has had a better start to the season? Of course, it's the Vikings. But if you're doing it, who has the best chance to win the Super Bowl? I mean, San Francisco's been in several Super Bowls recently, so you have to give San Francisco their extra credit, even though the Vikings beat them. But while we're talking about team strength over a full year, they're a little easier

to project. Just for example, Buffalo has the second best quarterback walking planet Earth. You kind of got to give it to them, even though they had a stinker against the Ravens. But the Ravens are another one, two-time MVP quarterback. I would, if you were giving me a thousand dollars to bet on teams, like I tried to do with Manny the other day, and he couldn't do the math. I mean, I'd put more on the Ravens than I would the Vikings probably. So are we doing it that way? And we'll see as the season goes along, if I would continue to say that. Um, so it really depends. I along, if I would continue to say that. So it really depends. I mean, I personally would not get too worked up over power rankings, but through four weeks, the Vikings are the best team in football. And after eight weeks,

we're going to look back and go, is that still the case? Because if it is, then you're going to see a lot more, uh, uh, everybody picking them to be the top team. And if it's not, and they go one and three in the next four, then, well, we're going to be talking a very different tune. So what they do next really matters to how strong they truly are. Tang says, KOC's system is very quarterback friendly. You just need to have arm talent to run it. Look at Nick Mullins. Even though he throws interceptions,

he could throw for 350 and three touchdowns in every game that he starts. Uh, yeah, I mean, Nick Mullins, isn't the guy I would talk about probably with arm talent. I think what Nick Mullins did so effectively was he just knew where to throw the football, uh, that Nick Mullins, uh, really understands the offense so well that he can drop back and see everything of where it's supposed to go and then throw it in the general direction of Justin Jefferson. The problem was really that consistency with accuracy was such a big problem and just doing crazy stuff like falling down to the ground and then somehow throwing an interception where you're almost on your back. I still don't understand how that happened. But as far as, you know, Nick Mullins,

I also looked at that couple of games with Mullins and how well he was able to play outside of the bizarre interceptions. And you think, shouldn't some other people be able to do this and sam darnold is just much more talented than nick mullins the only thing is just that both of them kind of have this tendency to want to make something special happen all the time and it hurt nick mullins by throwing the ball down the field too much and it has slightly hurt sam darnold that hasn't cost them a game. But if you're playing, just for example, in a close game, you're down by three and you're driving and you're in position to potentially tie a game. And then you go hucking into the end zone on a

jump ball into traffic and it gets picked. You're going to lose that game because of it. So that's the one thing I come back to with Darnold. That's a little bit scary about the way he plays. It's like, it's like Nick Mullins, but more talented is kind of the way that it has looked so far, more, much more accurate, much more consistent in the accuracy. And I think it also just speaks to how good O'Connell has been when it comes to screens, play actions, deep crossers. I thought that we weren't supposed to see deep crossers because teams are playing shells. Well, the Vikings are still able to do them with the way that O'Connell has used motions,

formations. He has thrown the kitchen sink at these defenses, which is another part of it. And I think O'Connell being an NFL guy for his whole career, NFL player, NFL coach, he understands that throughout a season, you can't just do these same things or teams are going to figure out what you're doing. So he's smart enough to do that. Still, that's going to be what I'm watching for a little bit is how defenses start to counteract some of the deep cross, how they start to counteract some of the motions that they're using

because so far they're working really well and how well they battle against the screen passes because the screen passes have absolutely crushed. Uh, Tommy says, uh, Matthew, can you share any story or anecdote about the general feeling hype and energy around the locker room compared to 2022 and 2017? Yeah. I think the similarity is that the locker rooms were filled with a lot of veteran players who had been there for a long time, who had won games, who had been on big stages. That was true in 17. It was true in 2022. I mean, you had somebody like Terrence Newman. There's a lot of really experienced players on the 17 team. Even Case Keenum had been in the league for quite a while. The wide receivers, Thielen and Diggs, had been in the league for a few years at that point.

Everson Griffin had been in the league for a long time Harrison Smith was still a fairly young player but I think that was maybe his fifth or sixth season at that point so experience is a big thing professionalism that these guys are you're not wondering week to week what is this guy going to be you don't wonder what Jonathan Grenard or Blake Cash this guy going to be? You don't wonder what Jonathan Grenard or Blake Cashman is going to be or Stefan Gilmore on a week to week basis. You know exactly what they're bringing to the table, which is a big difference maker. Same went for Patrick Peterson, 2022. I think that the players helping each other and caring about each other. And when a team is winning, the egos go away. It's really when a team is struggling or is middling that you see a lot more of the egos rising to the front.

Now you don't see it with this team a lot because they've gone out of their way to try to find players who aren't like that. They've looked for unselfish type players because that's what you need in Brian Flores' system. And I'll give you an example of being unselfish. There was a sack that Patrick Jones got where Blake Cashman was essentially a bowling ball and just went smashing into two people and he gets the heck blocked out of him, but they

forget Patrick Jones and he gets the heck blocked out of him, but they forget Patrick Jones and he gets a sack. So Cashman is totally happy to get his face punched in as long as the other guy gets the sack. We see a lot of that from this team, but if you're around the league and you're getting paid and you're successful, you're probably like that though, right? You're probably willing to take this on professionally. That's maybe the biggest similarity

is that these guys are willing to do whatever it takes. And then the other thing is that they match up really well systematically and they have a say in the system. So with the offense with Pat Shermer, I remember how much discussion there was about the players feeling like they really owned that offense. When the players feel like they're as much as part of the process and game planning

and scheming and play calling as the coaches are, that's really important. There's something powerful there. Like think about if you work for a company and they just say, look, punch the clock, do what you're supposed to do and then leave. How do you feel versus if you have ownership, if you have leadership responsibility, if you feel like you're part of a team, it's different. And that's what it feels like so far. Blowfish says Ponder was okay. Just got overdrafted and way too much expectation. Okay. Is a very, very Minnesota. Nice description of someone who truly played horrendously in 2012. It was a better idea to hand the ball off than it was to drop back to pass by a significant margin. And I know that that was a historic year for a running back, but that's almost never true.

Like that's how bad the quarterback has to be. He had more moments than some other quarterbacks who are busts, but I don't think that ponder was failed by the Vikings though, that they didn't give him Randy Moss. They didn't give him just the Jeffersonfferson he might be one of the only vikings quarterbacks ever who hasn't had an elite ride receiver if i'm if i unless i'm missing what let's see but they drafted uh cordero in 2013 obviously that's not a elite receiver was that like bobby wade era but truly if i'm thinking about it correct he might be one of the only quarterbacks in Vikings history of any significance who didn't get to play with either Sammy White or Ahmad Rashad or Chris Carter or Jake Reed. So that probably hurt him. But I also don't think that he was all that confident in himself or that he saw the field very well. He actually looked like Bryce Young a lot

where it was just dropped back and nope, nope. I'm not about that noise. And there's nothing that a team can do there. I just don't think the Vikings failed him as much as he failed the Vikings. That's why I used them as an example of, it looks more like the Jets failed Sam Darnold than Sam Darnold failed them. Uh, even though he certainly could have corrected some things and played better, but they were just that bad versus, I don't think that the Vikings 2012, I know they got to the playoffs, but I, there was a, there was a good team. If they had good quarterback play, imagine how dangerous that team would have been. Um, so I think it was really just a quarterback who wasn't good enough.

And you're right about the draft status. That is true. Uh, sometimes I think it was really just a quarterback who wasn't good enough and you're right about the draft status. That is true. Uh, sometimes I still want to defend picks like that. You know, who looks like him a little bit as Bo Nix so far, by the way, uh, Daniel says, uh, Sam Darnold leads the NFL in passing touchdowns at 11. Did anyone call that? No, I did not call that. Uh, nor did I call them going 4-0 or did anybody.

But I like the way that Jeremiah Searles put it because I have seen some people in comment sections saying, oh, you guys doubted them and all those things, which of course, you know, it's part of the fun, I guess, of football. But prognostications just are what they are. They're just guesses about how it's going to turn out. but prognostications just are what they are. They're just guesses about how it's going to turn out. And one thing I've always thought about is we have a lot of fun in the off season, but as soon as they boot that old football up in the air, no one has any idea what's going to happen.

And if we did, and this is why those people are just haters of fun. If we knew what was going to happen, then why the heck would you watch the show? Why the heck would we preview games? We would just say, well, we know Vikings are going to win 31, 29 today, this week. So don't watch. We don't know. That's the fun of it is talking about what's going to happen when you don't know. And then you find out. So we spend the off season and we try to project, well, what's Darnold going to do? And if I remember, we were kind of traveling different roads. Well, what if this road leads to Darnold being great? The Jeff George scenario, we talked about it.

What about if he's just okay and they're nine and eight? Is that still a successful season? If they're on the doorstep, I thought it was. What if they're not good? What if they're really bad? What if they're horrible? What are we going to say about them? And all of those paths seemed possible because if Darnold was just awful and they couldn't win at all because he was throwing picks left and right, well, then what do you make of the management? What do you make of the coaching? If that was

the case, right? But I think going into it, if you thought they were going to win six games, I didn't think you were a crazy person. If you thought they were going to win 10 games, I didn't think you were a crazy person. That was the wide range of outcomes. Now we're seeing which one is playing out. Uh, man, juice says weird question, but how do you go about asking questions during interview times? Is it something you personally, uh, want to know? Um, oh, you mean like, is it, yeah. Something that like is on your mind. Yeah. There's a, there's a little bit that goes into it. I mean, number one is it's kind of a free for all. So you kind of have a sense for the general people that are going to ask the most questions. I would rank highly among question askers.

I think Seifert, Ben Gessling, Andrew Kramer, Dane Mizutani, Alec Lewis, all of us writers tend to ask a lot of the questions. And we're usually looking for more information than the TV people. So we kind of jumped to the front of the line for a lot of the questions. And it really is a first come first serve. It's sort of who wants to jump out and ask the first question, get this thing rolling. Sometimes the first question is a little more lighthearted. Like I asked Justin Jefferson about the Lynx game and if he had been before.

So kind of just get the conversation going. Somebody kicks it off that way. Usually I have an article idea I'm working on, but sometimes you're just asking because you want to know because you guys ask me 400 questions, which I love and I want to have answers. So I want to ask, how do you feel about this situation or why? I mean, just for example, when O'Connell was asked about some of the aggression and then he gave us the answer post game, I don't know who asked that question. I don't think I did, but somebody did. Maybe it

was Seifert. I mean, that's just something in general, as a reporter, you got to find out after that game. So there's some things you have to go into it knowing, okay, as a group, we need to find out after that game. So there's some things you have to go into it knowing, okay, as a group, we need to find this out. We need to know, Hey, when Jefferson leaves a football game with a leg injury, we got to find out what's going on with him because you guys need to know that information. And when the head coach nearly blows a 28 to nothing lead in part, because he was being overaggressive. What was his mindset? What was he thinking on that type of play? So I think we all share that responsibility a little bit. We all understand, okay, this has got to be asked about when Brian Flores gets called the

terrible person. All right. Somebody's got to ask that question. And then the rest is filled in with, okay, it's very clear I'm writing about Justin Jefferson in practice. So I asked him, O'Connell, Wes Phillips, Brian Flores. And so you'll hear that if you watch those press conferences, because that's something individually I'm looking for. And it's a mix of both. And this team, by the way, I should say, is unbelievably accommodating with all that stuff. They really are the players, the coaches. This is a phenomenal, incredible group. I would guess that this is one of the best in the NFL for answering questions, spending time in front of the media, trying to get everybody everything they need. So they do a great job with it.

And I greatly appreciate it. Helps me write those articles for you guys and answer the questions. Wade says, have you ever seen the team's free agent class have this many hits? It's still early, but we've got 10 plus guys playing at or above expectations. Yeah, that was something O'Connell was asked today. And hey, Judd Zolgad asked and then wrote it on his newsletter, which I subscribe to. So that's exactly a good example of Judd had this idea and he asked the question and then he wrote about it.

But to your point, there has been a thought process through the years that you shouldn't really try to use free agency to build a team. One of the first things I used to do with the old Madden games was I would get the game. I would pick a team that I was going to use. And I never had like the same team every year. I try to pick a different franchise and I would go to that free agent list and I would see what free agent was on there. I remember for Sega Dreamcast 2K3, it wasn't clear if Troy Aikman was going to retire or

if he was going to stay in the NFL. So he was a free agent and I put him on the Browns. So then I played the season with Troy Aikman on the Browns. That's what you do on a video game. But in real life, most of the time, a group of free agents is usually just one guy who's supposed to be a difference maker for a lot of money or a handful of guys that are filling places in between the stars that you've drafted. But with this particular group, they were kind of handpicked, it seems, by Brian Flores.

They were guys that he in particular bought into. They needed to get a pass rusher with Hunter going. They were sold on Blake Cashman by actually a former Gophers coach who knows Brian Flores. He sold them on Blake Cashman. And then he knew Andrew Van Ginkle. He knew Kamu Grugier Hill. The swing at Jerry Tillery, hey, the swing at jerry tillery hey the the swing at uh marcus davenport did not work out the swing at jerry tillery is working out sometimes you got to take more than one swing and be willing to fail uh but to your to your question i mean occasionally every once in a while a team does kind of go into free agency and pack it up uh the 2017 eagles actually they went into free agency and i think what elshon jeffrey maybe patrick robinson the

corner was it patrick uh they they got a bunch of free agents and stacked up that team quite a bit so it's not the first time i've ever seen it work, but maybe this mass of every one of these guys. And then the quarterback getting a free agent quarterback who is now four and O does not happen very often. Usually if there's a good free agent quarterback, you know, it doesn't happen actually that very often Tom Brady was a good free agent quarterback, I guess Kirk, but it doesn't happen very often. You can get a guy who's available for $10 million who's going to throw 11 touchdowns his first four games.

He has so hugely exceeded what they're paying for already. It's really remarkable. And Aaron Jones, that's another one. Sometimes stuff just falls in your lap. Aaron Jones just fell in their lap. So no, to your question, I don't think I've ever seen something quite like this. That's a good point. Uh, zoomer Kev, how much of a sample size do we need to see from Sam before we can say, this is what he is. That's the question, man. That is the question because, so I was just referencing the Eagles. Think about Nick Foles and his first time with the Eagles.

It was Chip Kelly. Didn't he throw 20 touchdowns, two picks, something like that. Something absolutely crazy and average 10 yards of pass. It was one of the greatest small sample sizes ever. And then Nick Foles disappears. He's a backup quarterback comes back and then wins the super bowl for them. And has one of the great runs in history. Can't predict the ball. Sometimes when it comes to these quarterbacks, I don't know how long it

needs to go. What I do know, I'll try to think, I'll try to think of like where I'll be comfortable saying it. What I do know is that it extends back to 2022, where if there was a corner that it was turned, it was in 2022. It wasn't even necessarily what's happening right now. And if he didn't have that four and two stretch where he had, I think maybe four of the six games were really good. Funny. He won one of the really bad ones, but four out of the six games were good. He averaged over eight yards of pass. He had good big time throw to turnover, where the play ratio decent enough, PFF grade, all that stuff. If he didn't have that run in Carolina away from Matt rule, then this right now, I might be a little more skeptical of, but when we go back in Sam Darnold's life to 2022, he's now got an 11 game sample size of starting where he's playing over a hundred quarterback rating. It doesn't seem as random when you put it that way, when you start to extend it out, it seems like we're getting closer and closer to being able to say, yeah, this guy's actually a pretty good quarterback

and he's grown a lot since where he was. And yes, he needs stuff around him, but this is a whole separate rant. I don't care if a quarterback succeeds because he's got good stuff around him. What is it? What do you want him to apologize? You want Joe Montana to give the Superbowl rings back for having Jerry Rice? This is great. If that happens, Oh, Jared Goff, his play caller helped him complete all those passes. Okay. That that's the job, right? That's what you're supposed to do. This isn't the contest where they went to Hawaii and put the guys in short Zubaz shorts

and had them throw at targets. This is winning games is why you have the quarterback. This isn't the quarterback ranking league. I could give a F about quarterback rankings. The idea is to win as many games and have as many points on the board at the end of the day. So if Darnold needs this to succeed, well, that's wonderful because the Vikings have it. It's a different discussion about paying quarterbacks, I think, although everyone

said don't pay Tua and then they can't move the ball at all with anybody else. So even paying quarterbacks, a hard thing to figure out who you're supposed to pay and not, but that's a separate discussion. The whole point about Darnold is if he continues to do this, I'm sure there will be a lot of discussion about, well, it's KOC. Well, it's Justin Jefferson. Well, it's Jordan Addison. But if we get to the second half of the season, I'll draw a line in the sand here. I think that the Rams Thursday night football game, that would give us four more games, right? Jets, Lions, no, three more games.

Jets, Lions, Rams. If they come out of that, and that is a tough back-to-back, and we're still saying, wow, Sam Darnold is rolling, then I'm going to think it's for real based on who they're playing the rest of the way. They don't have a lot of difficult opponents after that, aside from another game against green Bay, another game against Detroit. It's never easy to go to Chicago. Seattle's going to be a tough one, but I mean, you're talking Tennessee Jacksonville. It's still a rookie quarterback in Chicago. They will have faced the toughest

opponents that they could face almost except for the second battle with Detroit. If he's still playing this way, then I will think this is, this is going to keep going. Uh, Tang says the problem with Sam is the same thing with cousins. They both have arm talent. It's their mentality that holds them back. KOC has that mentality, but not the arm talent. So I think it's, I think it's different. I think it's very different between their mentalities. Darnold, his mentality is too risky and Cousins was not risky enough, but I think the difference between them and I, and I am not going to say at all that Sam Darnold has been a better quarterback in the NFL than Kirk Cousins, but only in this situation with these receivers and this coach right now. Sam Darnold very well may be a better fit because what you said,

arm talent. Okay. It's true. Accuracy was a really big thing for Kirk Cousins. Sam Darnold has already made five to seven passes that would be literally impossible for Kirk Cousins. Just does not have the strength to make those throws. Does not have the arm. The 97-yard touchdown is an easy walk in the park for Sam Darnold to throw it like that. It would have taken a crow hop and a jump and a run for Cousins to make that throw. And at his best in 2019, I think he did have a strong arm. I'm not downplaying Kirk's career or how good he was, but at this moment, when we talk about arm talent, that would be the reason to push Darnold and his potential higher as far as a ceiling goes than Kirk Cousins, because he does have that and mobility. And when he is on the move, he's done a great job this year of being

mobile and creating first downs where there was nothing there. Uh, Zoomer Kev says, I think your draft take about whatever a player did in college no longer matters can apply to Darnold since the situation is so different. 100% agree. We cannot forget about the fact that Sam Darnold has turned the ball over a lot in the NFL. So I, okay, put it this way. I 50% agree because even though he was playing for a situation that was different it was still the nfl and he was still turning the ball over a lot and college is like playing t-ball versus major league so he was in the majors he was playing this sport against these teams in this

league when he was turning the ball over all the time it does matter to some extent. It is so long ago though, that the league is different. The organization is different. Everything is completely different from what it was when Darnold was struggling as much as he did with the New York jets. So I would say throw out most of it. And as the sample size grows of recent play, we're getting more of a sense who Sam Darnold actually is. Because when I went back and watched a game, I actually went and looked for one where he was good with the Jets, and not too long ago, it didn't really look the same. I mean, he was much more bouncy in the pocket,

much more slow to figure things out, and a lot of the big plays were what made him have a good game, but he didn't look like he was executing with anywhere near the same comfort that he's been able to do with the Vikings so far. Uh, I shot you 99 says what country could you see host an NFL game that has not hosted one yet? My guess is Japan. Uh, yeah. yeah i mean having one in brazil they've done germany i think i uh i don't i don't know about that um i don't know if japan wants an nfl game or i mean what what kind of flight is that maybe australia they could probably do aust, but this whole, this whole thing, I know what they're trying to do. They probably can't ever realistically put a franchise over in England. So they're trying

to just get, I mean, the world is more interconnected. Now, if you're a soccer fan, you can follow soccer 24 seven, right? Because we're all interconnected now. So it's smart for them to try to facilitate more and more fandom overseas by doing these games. They are very difficult on the NFL schedule though. And I don't know, it's not going anywhere. So I guess Australia would be my pick, but maybe have they ever done that before? The Vikings once played a preseason game. They actually did play a preseason game in Japan once this happened because it's part of the Terrell Davis story. If I'm not mistaken, I believe it was Japan that they played an exhibition game there. Terrell Davis had this famous tackle on

special teams that made the coaches put them in the backfield. Rest is history. The Vikings also played in Sweden one time in a preseason game. So they, they've been all over the world. I don't know if they've ever played in Australia before. Maybe that's it. Uh, as far as a regular season contest, I don't, I don't know. Uh, blowfish is Aaron Rogers has more experience than the first four quarterbacks we've faced combined he has more experience than most people combined though i don't look at this as the quarterbacks that they have faced have just been inexperienced that's the problem they've all been in the nfl and had some levels of success that's what makes the start so freaking impressive on defense is daniel j Jones beat this team in a playoff game two years

ago. So he's played in the league before. And then Brock Purdy was in the Superbowl. CJ Stroud won a playoff game and Jordan Love won a playoff game last year, all playoff winning quarterbacks that they faced and they beat them all. Rogers is at a different level when it comes to picking apart defense. I don't disagree with that, but I do think that's what makes it so mind-blowing how good the defense has been, is that, I mean, you're talking about good, good quarterbacks that they've faced.

And the biggest concern that I had going into the entire season was the quarterback schedule really overall, but especially at the beginning of the year. And they have run right through it with four straight wins. Now after this, okay, Rogers, I'm not sure what to expect. And then you have Goff Stafford. That's going to be really hard after that. That's when you get into the territory of Trevor Lawrence. Isn't playing well, Mason Rudolph or or will levis we'll see at that point caleb williams is a rookie and then it becomes easier for this defense not harder it is remarkable what they've been able to do against these quarterbacks thus far all these quarterbacks are having better seasons than rogers except for

maybe daniel jones but but Rogers is not having a good time. I mean, it's probably comparable between the two. Uh, Zoomer Kev says probably the last time the Vikings will play Rogers and he has firmly cemented his legacy as one of the most overrated quarterbacks of all time. That is a very Viking podcast centric comment that I will not even begin to agree with my friend. I think when we do the all time greatest quarterbacks who are the ones that you would pick from the very beginning, all quarterbacks who ever stepped under center, who would you pick out? He's not number one, but he's not that far away he he is that good I he is that good coming back and winning two more MVPs after he had a dip in his career

and his peak when he won the Super Bowl is as great as anyone's ever played quarterback I think you all know that you've seen enough games against him that you you all you all know that there's no downplaying the greatness of Aaron Rodgers. He's one of the best ever. Is he one of the most annoying ever recently? Sure. That I would agree with. And I'm sure that all of you probably got annoyed that every time, twice a year, there was just everyone heaping praise on Aaron Rodgers. But there's a reason for that, because he was really that good. I don't know how much is left there, but I'm sticking to my rule that no one should ever overlook somebody

with that much arm talent and that much experience. Mike says, I don't buy it's a Darnold revenge game. The jets even suck with Rogers. If a future hall of famer can't do it, no one can. Yeah. That organization, they, they chased something that was not so i've been talking about this a lot i've been thinking about this a lot with the windows we talk about winning windows all the time and sometimes you have it pop up and you get a chance that you never saw coming this is vikings history right? And the Jets thought that that's where they were, that they were ready to pop. They had put together this great team. They were a very talented team overall, but they didn't have great quarterback play.

That was the Mike White year. They were still competitive. They had a great defense and they sold their soul for Rogers thinking that they could just repeat all that stuff and just do it again only with Rogers. And maybe they could have last year because their defense was still very good, but he got hurt. So now you're trying to chase two years ago and it's not going very well. They're not pressuring opposing quarterbacks. I don't think very well. Uh, they do have a very good defense and that's going to be a huge challenge for Darnold though. They have,

and I respect the heck out of Robert Sala as far as a defensive mind. I think he's very, very good, but you know, with the rest of their team, it's, it just is not the same Rogers that they thought that they were getting. Mike says,

as always, I think stopping the jets run, establish our run game. Don't turn the ball over. Need to get pressure on Rogers. First time as a favorite this year. Oh, that's true. Yeah. First time as a favorite. How about that? Pressuring Rogers won't be easy because he's getting the ball out faster than anybody in the NFL. I will be absolutely fascinated by how the Vikings approach this. Are they going to try to blitz him and try to get him moving in some way with the Achilles? Or do they know that he's getting the ball out so quickly that they're just going to play coverage? We have seen a much more versatile team this year on defense than we did last year, where

it was pretty much all or nothing. And this year it's been a lot more, I think, dynamic. And so if they want to rush for all day and play coverage, they can do that. And they very well might. I think that I would probably do that. Brees Hall and the backfield there, Allen, those guys are good. And that's, you know, something they will have to worry about. Certainly stopping the run.

But I think as far as Rodgers cutting off the lanes underneath with the short passing game is going to be such a big deal. And what, what Flores has done really well is he's caused so much confusion when it comes to the box. It's not just the deep coverages that he's showing confusion. It's who's the linebacker? Who's the mic? Who's blitzing? Who's dropping back?

Are they covering this part of the field or that part of the field? Are they playing man or zone? They've done a really, really great job with that. And that's where Rodgers that part of the field. Are they playing man or zone? They've done a really, really great job with that. And that's where Rogers wants to throw the football. Tucker, why does everyone keep talking about Rogers cadence, confusing the defense, whatever happened to not moving until the ball is snapped? Tucker easier said than done, my friend, easier said than done. Uh, he is a mastermind of mixing up the cadence. He does it in such an aggressive, it was actually really cool. Uh, because in 2020, well, there was nothing cool about 2020, except for the fact that with the stadium empty, we could hear the cadence,

which usually can't do. You could hear it a little bit on TV, of course, but as far as being in the stadium and watching it happen, it was the only time I'll ever be able to hear the quarterback's cadence and seeing him work his body language, how much he changed it up, how he aggressively did it. Think about being amped up, having all the fans there, the noise. You could just say all day long, oh, just don't go until the ball snapped. It's way harder than it sounds. That's like saying, hey, you're facing LeBron James. Just don't follow him.

It's hard not to follow him. It's hard not to jump. That's why he gets a couple of games. Cade says, does Sauce travel with Jets? I think so, but they don't have to do that uh they could also have dj reed play his role i don't know if sauce gardner has been the the traveling corner someone would have to look that up for me if he's been the travel type of corner or not because i think that that's mostly kind of gone away where somebody just tries to put a guy in an Island. Because the problem with that is if you are traveling,

there's so much motion in the league now that everyone's going to know what you're doing. Every single time you're motioning. I don't know that Darrell Revis could have just Island somebody because the formations used to be much more just static, much more, all right, you're going out there and maybe there's a shift somewhere, but now you're getting high speed motions behind the line of scrimmage. So that corner has to run with that wide receiver. You'll see it sometimes, but you could do it all day to the other team and that's what makes it so difficult to have someone travel i so i imagine they'll get matched up quite a few times and they'll try to do it as much as they can but the fact that they have depth with their corners is

is a factor as well uh let's see uh derrick says like many people have said darnold got his revenge on the jets in 2021 well here's the question derek do you just get revenge once if you've been wronged if we're talking about football we're talking about sports or is there extra motivation every time i think there's probably an opportunity for multiple revenge games in a career is there not the first one is maybe the biggest one, but I think that if you're Sam Darnold, you're looking over there going, it should have been better for me. It should have been better for me. I'm not, he doesn't really seem like the type that cares that much about this. Uh, he has not acted like it. It

seemed to matter to Aaron Jones a lot that he beat the Green Bay Packers. That was, it was an, I love you, but also bleep you kind of game for Aaron Jones. Did I say Aaron Rogers? I meant Aaron Jones. Aaron Jones beating the Packers was a big deal for him. We remember how important it was to Favre. After Favre had beaten the Packers the first time, you think it meant something the next time? Of course it did. I think deep inside, it will mean something to him every time he beats the New York Jets because they did let him down and they didn't do enough around him to give him a chance. And then what you have to understand too is it's not just about the Jets. It's also the abuse you take. If you are a failed quarterback in New York, oh my gosh, somebody go back and look at the

New York Post headlines and all the things that were tweeted to him and the fans probably said to him and that the radio hosts and the, I don't know how big the blogosphere was at that point, but all the different people who would have had opinions on his failure. You're not just kind of sticking it to an organization or an ownership. You're also sticking it to all the people who blamed you for all of those things. Not just, you know, who owns them? Is it Woody Johnson? Not just Woody Johnson.

Brett says, likely we will be buyers rather than sellers at the deadline. That's true. Who would have thought? I mean, I guess I would have said maybe it's possible. I was looking for two and two from this team. That was the expectation that I set. And they blew by that by the second game, by the third game, I guess. What position would help the Vikings most?

And how can we trade away with what little draft capital? It depends on, it really depends on what they're looking for. As far as the draft capital, they they've got a little but they do not uh have the fourths fifths and sixth all stacked up where you could just kind of throw out a fourth round throw out a fifth round and get a player here a player there uh could really depend on their health i what i think is if they get an opportunity to get a game-changing player who they have a chance to extend,

then they would potentially consider trading away their first round pick. Because the odds, if you're drafting 25th, the odds of your success on that pick versus just getting someone and paying them, knowing at least at this moment that you've got the rookie quarterback contract advantage coming around the corner, then you just go for it. You just do it. I mean, if they, just for example, if they needed to trade

for Devante Adams, they clearly don't, but if they did, then they would just find a way to do that. Trade for him, trade a high draft pick, sign him, try to win the Super Bowl. That's what we're all here for, right? And I think Kweisi Adafomensa's mindset has been way more aggressive than people would have expected, maybe even me, when it comes to free agents and trades. But the outside proven talent that this front office with the assistance of the coaching staff has been able to acquire is really remarkable when you throw Hawkinson in there. And then also Jones, Grenard, Van Ginkle, Cashman, Gilmore. These are all guys they just went and got who have made a big part of this.

If they could add one more, I look at defensive tackle, but let's also consider health will be an issue there. If they have a linebacker get hurt, then they would look for a linebacker. If they have a corner get hurt, they would definitely look for that corner could still be a position as really, really well as Shaq Griffin has played. They don't want to have to trust the Caleb Evans. So they might consider trying to trade for a corner. But my thought process there is you, you never know when your next chance is going to come. If you get a shot, just go for it. And if you regret it, you regret it. But you know, to me taking a shot to try to win a championship with a big move

is not something I look at as that team should regret unless it's really dumb and crazy. If it's dumb and crazy, okay. But like the Hawkinson thing in 2022, I didn't think they were Super Bowl contenders. I bet you didn't either, but well, your team was getting old and this was probably their last chance at it. Go for it. And with this, they're not getting old at the moment. They are a team that's very much in their primes, a lot of players in their primes, and you likely will have more years down the road. But by the time you draft and develop somebody two years from now, they're making a huge impact, but, but your time is now. So go for it.

If you get a chance, uh, Joe says, uh, you win here and you get Minnesota nice, uh, lose and get our nice brand of passive aggressive. Sam looks great. We need to see the games where teams adjust to our offense. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, it's a long season and there's been plenty of times in Vikings history where teams have won four games in a row, not just to start the season, but at any point during the season, it's happened many times. And the Vikings have had all sorts of different types of years throughout that. Some years they went to the NFC championship. Some years they missed the playoffs like in 2003 or 2016. And the only thing about teams adjusting to the offense is that we've never really seen that happen since Kevin O'Connell has been here. This is an edge that the Vikings have. Well, O'Connell

may be a younger coach in his age versus old school, somebody who's been around forever, like Andy Reed. He has always been in the NFL world and he was under a coach who was a master of adjustment, which is Sean McVay that Sean McVay understands as well as anybody ever has how to take the same concepts and dress them up and to just keep doing that week after week after week. This is the problem, the cliff Kingsbury problem in Arizona. And maybe it will be again, is that once things work for him, he just keeps doing it and doesn't change them. And then they figure it out. But I mean, the screen game could get figured out. Play action has never been figured out by the national football league ever. It's always worked.

It worked when I was four and it worked last week and Jared Goff ran it 12 times out of 19 passes and completed all of them. I mean, it's remarkable how effective pretending to run and then passing can still be with all the innovation and data and everything else, but that I don't think is going to change. What I really want to see from them is a short passing game to the receivers. The Vikings have three receivers who average 17 yards a catch, which is amazing and something you've probably done on a video game, but it's also kind of not great. And the reason it's kind of not great is because that means you're only pushing the ball down field to your wide receivers. And I have felt like that's what they're doing is that they are mostly just looking for downfield

passes to their wide receivers and that they are not going underneath quite enough or quite effectively enough so far. So I think that that's something that I want to see as an adjustment is get a six-yard pass to Justin Jefferson more often. Devontae Adams is the king of this. Steal from him. Put him in the slot, out, in, wide open, eight yards. Bang.

And then you go out, in, and up, and the dude is wide open eight yards, bang. And then you go out in and up and the dude is wide open. They, they are making it harder on themselves sometimes than it needs to be. Uh, Zoomer Kev says Rogers talent is always scary. The NFL isn't a talent show has an entire career of not meeting expectations, man. You're just hating. That's just hate. He's one of the goats. You're not taking me there. Nope. He's had one of the most unbelievable careers in history. Superbowl champion. No, we're not doing that. We're not calling Aaron Rogers overrated that. I mean, that's like when people used to call Derek Jeter overrated. Like what? Okay. Uh, no, we're, we're not doing that. Uh, is the faithful, I could be wrong, but this London game feels like

a trap slash let down game. Well, which one is it? Or is it both? I was wrong about them losing twice already this year. So who knows? The let down game, I think is the way I would lean toward it. I'm not sure when you play one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, I don't think it's a trap. Even if they're not playing great, you know, who's playing for the other team. You know how good their defense is. This isn't playing against the Patriots. That would be a trap game where they're horrible. And you just think you're going to cruise in there and win. I don't know that anyone thinks that about a team operated by Aaron Rodgers, but as far as the letdown, yes.

And there's a few different reasons that it could be. I will not pick the New York jets to win this game, but there's a few different reasons why it could be. Number one is that they played, I want to say 70 something snaps last week on defense. You always are concerned when a defense plays a ton of snaps in a really long football game and then has to go on the road. This is what happened to the Vikings in 2019 against the Saints in the playoffs. They played great, but they got beat up and then they had to go all the way to San Francisco, long trip,

different time zone. And San Francisco 2019 is better than this Jets team. But that's just a, like a, a theory from watching, covering the league for a long time is that it's really difficult to bounce back quickly when you've played 75 plays on offense or defense. It's just, I mean, I guess if you're doing it on offense, you had the ball a lot, but when you play one of those epics, one of those huge high scoring games, a lot of times there is on the other side of that

a little bit of a stamina factor. You add in the sleep, you add in the travel, the missed time. There's something there to even the playing field a little bit. And there's also on the other side of this, you'd have a team in the New York Jets. That's just gotta be so angry. I mean, they have to be so ticked that, uh, they have played badly to start the season that there's drama with Rogers already.

I mean, they've, they've got to be infuriated. That's not really what you're looking for in far, as far as a team to play and Rogers has not turned the ball over. And that's where the Vikings have really been thriving on defense is taking the ball away. All those factors I would lean toward. There is a letdown game element to this. Yes let me let me scroll you guys are really on fire tonight i appreciate that great to see everybody hopefully uh i shouldn't ask for this now because maybe somebody's already asked it and i haven't got to it yet but a fantasy football question would be appreciated just for our friends at underdog fantasy. It's always helpful. Um, so let's see. Uh, Randall says, uh, Vikings have turned it over on offense seven times, pretty much as bad of a

start as last year, but the defense has 10 and that, that right there, Randall, that's a little bit of the concern. If you're talking about, okay, what could unravel the Vikings over these next three weeks in these really big games against good quarterbacks, good teams, at least one or two good defenses mixed in. I think the Rams do have a good defense. Well, it's the fact that their offense has turned it over quite a bit. And if you're relying on your defense to take it away 10 times over four games. And that's going to be pretty hard to do. Uh, that's going to be 2000 Ravens type stuff. This will be the first time. And I don't, I don't know that Aaron Rogers is not going to turn it over. I can't predict that he might have the ball fly out of his hand. Rogers is amazing at not turning the ball over. I think

there was something like he's thrown eight picks against the Vikings in his career of all the times he's faced them. I mean, it's, it's not often that he gets picked off. I think the 19 game, uh, the 16 game, he had a pick, but not many times he's very good at protecting the ball. So when this team can't take it away, what do they look like? Do they look the same on defense when they have to stop the run, when they have to have longer drives and stand up in the red zone versus, well, you know, they're just getting an interception. They're just getting a turnover. That's been so much part of it so far. Uh, is the faithful says they need to go out and crush the jets. Like they did the giants in the past.

They would have let a team like the jets play up to them when they shouldn't some sometimes. Yeah. I mean, the other thing about this is there's going to be a game around the corner at some point where it doesn't work out and this might be it. It doesn't mean that they're a fraud or that the season is over. Sometimes that just happens where things don't go your way. Turnover battle doesn't go your way. Somebody fumbles a punt like last week and you lose a game. You're not supposed to. I don't think we've quite reached the point that we did in 1998 with the Vikings when they outscored their opponents, 570 to 200 something. Uh, I don't think we've reached that point where we could say any loss is the worst thing and you're a fraud.

And like, if you know what I mean, like we, we were not going to go insane over any loss that they have and try to judge it entirely on that one game because it will happen. I just don't know when they might get beat by the lions. It might be the Rams. I don't know. They're not going undefeated. I don't think. So I don't want to put so much on this one game to say we get to decide if the Vikings are for real this Sunday. I mean, that sounds like a great wrestling promo, but probably a little unfair to evaluate it that way, or to say you're the same as you used to be there. There's one a year for every team, no matter how good they are. How about Kansas city last year when they lost to the Raiders and didn't the Raiders not complete a pass in the second

half football's weird. Sometimes I'm putting a lot on this because I think they should win. They should go to five and oh, and at that point we could say, yeah, power rank of number one, but if they, Oh, it was, uh, I'm sorry. It was Jay Ajayi earlier that I was talking about was the running back. Great call by Daniel. I appreciate that. But just, just to finish the point, uh, that this is one they should expect to win a hundred percent. They should come home five and oh, they should be talked about as the best team in football, but I don't know if they lose the game that we have to go so far as to say, ah, that's the real Sam Darnold regression. I was looking for that's this Vikings team. I didn't believe in. We'll see how it looks,

but we don't have, we don't have to go that far with putting everything on this game. That's my point, especially when it's in London. I think that the game that I really looked at as that was, it was against the Packers to say, if you can play against the Packers the way you did the previous couple of weeks, then wow. Okay. That means you can beat kind of anybody because they're getting their quarterback back, they're in Lambeau Fields, tough place to play, and they beat them. So I look at that as proving that this team

should be talked about as a real contender, but they're going to lose one that we don't understand at some point. And this is a weird week that it might happen. Sean says, against a porous run defense, I would expect dual work from Jones and Chandler. The Jets are a solid pass defense, hammer them on the ground to slow them down.

Their defensive line is just not the same. If only they could have Hassan Riddick, but they don't. Although he's more of a pass rusher, I guess. I just wanted to toss that in there because of how weird it was. Chandler needs to be in the game. I just don't really understand how it is that Ty Chandler could have eight snaps last week. You are up 28 to zero in that football game. Ty Chandler gets in, catches a screen, goes for eight or nine yards and then never sees the field again. It's almost like any run that doesn't go for at

least five yards. Kevin O'Connell takes it personally. And just, I'm sorry, I can't run you anymore. I can't, that run didn't work. We got to go right back to throwing the ball 38 yards down the field. Ty Chandler's a really good player. He's proven that he is exceptional with his speed. He could catch the football. He's blocked well enough this year when he's had a chance. But even if you only put him in on first and second downs, you put Jones or ham out there, he's got to play. And that needs to be something that they really focus on because he is

far too good to be sitting there for eight snaps against a team like green bay when you're winning by that much and you can you lean on a player like ty chandler eric says with the way detroit runs the ball i'd like to see them get a big run stuffing defensive tackle yeah uh yeah i mean they have two run stuffers that that's their main job uh for sure but adding to how you're the toughest opponent is going to play to try to counteract them is not a bad idea i personally look at defensive tackle as getting a guy who could create pressure on his own because if this team could pressure with four all the time and not even have to throw anything complicated, imagine the things that they

could do on the back end with their different coverages. If they could get someone who could create a penetration on the interior, that's how I've looked at that. But I don't think your logic is wrong. That stopping the run game is something that still we haven't seen them tested on. And maybe we will this week and we'll have a better sense of that. That is an element of the game that I think opponents can potentially take advantage of with this team. And maybe if they do get run over, they'll look at something like that. Run stuffing defensive tackles shouldn't be as hard to find as someone

like Dexter Lawrence or Jeffrey Simmons, who you guys want. Clifford said, if the QB was JJ McCarthy with the same stats and results, no one would be saying they were waiting for a letdown. Well, that is true Clifford, but think of it this way. If you had a friend that robbed banks, okay, five years ago, he's out of prison and hanging out and he was known for some of his criminal history. You might not leave a 20 on the table, but if you had a friend that had no history whatsoever and had always been trustworthy and your first impression of them as a new friend that they were trustworthy, you would leave the 20 on the table. Sam Darnold at the beginning of his career had a very bad start and lots of turnovers. Of course, you're going to want to see more than four games

to decide that the results are for real and sustainable in a long-term. Knowing someone's history is part of the discussion. I don't see how you could throw it out. I have cited the bigger sample size has really started to show what he could be as a quarterback. But when you see the way things went last week, a little bit, when he got a little bit antsy and he gets strip sack, cause he doesn't get rid of the ball on time and he throws an interception where he shouldn't have thrown the football. Then yeah, you do start to, okay, Sam, right. He almost got strip sacked against the 49ers. He threw a red zone interacked against the 49ers. He threw a red zone interception against

the 49ers. There's Sam Darnold has played amazing so far this season. I am not downplaying that at all, but some of the plays made you nervous. And is he going to become even more cautious and protective of the football? Or as he gets more confident, does he get a little more cocky with the football? Can he resolve some of the timing issues that happened last week? Does it always have to be a play action? Does it always have to be a screen pass to get him to be successful? Or can they do other straight drop back stuff where he's

going to protect the ball these are just questions to be answered along the way because as we've kind of gone over you just don't really know where something is going to go you really you really don't know where a quarterback's performance is going to go with case Keenum. I mean, I learned this right away in covering this team case Keenum had this crazy game against the bucks in, I think week three, and we all kind of laughed at it. Oh, this game is just so funny. What is this is hilarious. The bucks gave up 369 yards passing. What the heck is going on? And he comes out the next week and he struggles against Detroit. They score seven points.

Okay. That's Case Keenum. This team's in trouble. They'll never dig their way out of this. And the second half of the Bears game, he comes in, wins the game for them. It still looked ugly. I think after that they beat, I don't know, Green Bay. It still looked ugly. They went over to London. It still looked ugly. I think after that they beat, I don't know, Green Bay. It still looked ugly. They went over to London.

It still looked ugly. And each week we said, this can't continue. And then the dude got hot and he started playing great. He beat Kirk Cousins in a shootout in Washington. He played great on Thanksgiving day. And all of a sudden it was like, what? Is this guy actually good? And then he was for the most part until he wasn't in Philadelphia.

It is a crazy hard thing to predict, but it does, it does matter what's happened before for Sam Darnold. And it matters how they adjust and how they continue to approve on it of whether they can actually continue it. All of that absolutely matters.