Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Should the Vikings be worried about a Bears resurgence?

Episode Date: June 15, 2020

Do we think Matt Nagy is a good coach? Is there another step for Mitch Trubisky to take or will Nick Foles win the job? If there are no fans, will Soldier Field still be a problem for the Vikings? Plus some hot routez that include Ramie's crazy hot take on Jay Cutler and where Joe Burrow will rank among QBs this year.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Subscribe. The Compound on the Blue Wire Podcast Network. All right. Welcome in to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar with you as always. And joining me, my old pal, the biggest Chicago Bears fan that I know, but also was a trained Minnesota Vikings analyst with his show on Score North. And we got fired together, so we're bonded that way as well.

Rami Makhlov, what's going on, Rami? Not a whole lot, and I mean that as much as I've ever met that Matthew Collar. Not a whole lot. Well, what I know is you've had plenty of time to look over the hot routes that I've prepared because you're doing nothing else except for raising your dog, basically, right? That's right. Just walking my dog and doing yoga yoga which nobody wants to see or hear about no definitely not please do not go into details you know what is the worst part about this

i'm sure for you is that you are a huge baseball fan and you know we got little severance packages so you could have just hung out and watched baseball like every day 24 7 and instead no baseball yes yeah i thought about that've thought like this would be a much more enjoyable experience being unemployed that is if i just had baseball to watch which in any other time in the history of america for almost 150 years now that would have been the case not in 2020 not in 2020 mat Collar that is not the case in 2020 do you just want a second here because I've got lots of football to talk with you especially we're going to focus on the Bears and then I've got some fun hot routes but do you

want a second to rant about Rob Manfred and the fact that baseball hasn't come back because I'll give you that if you want to I can't believe I can't believe it. How have they not figured this out yet? How is this a thing? This was, and I hate to put it this way, because there's a pandemic going on. People are sick. People are dying. Businesses are closing. People like you and me are losing their jobs. But in every crisis, there is an opportunity, Matthew Collar.

And the opportunity here for Rob Manford and the owners of Major League Baseball, whatever hit they would take financially in 2020, they would make back their money tenfold in what they could have done for the popularity of baseball by saving a bored nation that is desperate for sports right now and being the only game in town. Baseball could have been safely being played probably, I don't know, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, in a sportless landscape, people would have come flocking back to baseball

and thanking Rob Manford and the owners for giving this to us, for bringing this to America and saving us all. But no, no, they're being greedy. They're going to try and squeeze every penny they can possibly squeeze out of these players and these negotiations. I saw another proposal come across today that looked promising. That looked like something that the Players Association might accept. It's going to be a 72-game schedule. But the fact that this hasn't been done yet, and they haven't already been playing baseball for a couple of weeks,

is kind of ridiculous and just another sign that Rob Manford is just really bad at what he does, Matthew Collin. You feel better? You haven't really been able to do that in any sort of medium in a long time. I felt really good. Thank you for giving me the form to do that. any sort of medium in a long time i felt really good thank you for giving me the form to do that i really appreciate it it is a football podcast but you know rants are welcome so all right well let's let's get into some football here um the chicago bears are one of the most interesting teams in the nfl going into this season because you can make a case that they

still have a really strong roster and all the bones of the team that they had in 2018 that was a field goal away sorry for the reminder rami uh from advancing in the playoffs and who knows how far they go after that they would have had to go down to new orleans i think if had they won that game that would have been pretty tough for them but um still you know a lot of great players on this team a lot of great defensive players on this team, and weapons to work with. Allen Robinson does not get the credit he deserves. Tariq Cohen has become one of the most dynamic players in the league,

but they've been held back by their quarterback. So let's go on the assumption that Nick Foles is the quarterback of the Chicago Bears. Do you feel like they found something good here with Nick Foles and someone who has proven that at very least they can win with a high ceiling when things go right? Or do you look at it as, guys, you could have had Cam Newton and you went with Nick Foles? Cam Newton? I would have taken Jameis Winston.

I mean, there is a number of quarterbacks on the market this offseason, Collar, via trades, via free agency, that I would have taken before Nick Foles. I mean, he's okay. He'll probably be better than Mitch Trubisky, but that was before we all knew exactly what the coronavirus and this pandemic was going to do to the NFL offseason. I've got to believe that with all the offseason activities that Nick Foles normally would have had to familiarize himself with the offense, to familiarize himself with the players on the offense, that right now Mitchell Trubisky has the upper hand to be the starting quarterback when the season starts I don't know how long he'll be able to hold on to that job but even

if Nick Foles wins it I don't expect a huge upgrade from from the quarterback position Nick Foles is a guy who's looked good for stretches for four to six game stretches including one very important stretch where he went and won a Super Bowl for the Philadelphia Eagles. But don't let that fool you into thinking that Nick Foles is somebody who's going to come in and change a franchise. He's not that. I still think that this Bears team really hinges on the defense and whether or not they can get lucky enough, for lack of a better term, to get the turnovers that they got a couple years ago in that 2018 season you talked about.

Because that defense was really good last year in terms of slowing down and stopping offenses. But what they didn't have and what was the difference from 2018 was that the ball just wasn't landing in Chicago Bears defensive players' hands and wasn't landing in spots where Bears players hands and wasn't landing in spots where Bears players could fall on it or scoop it up and that that a lot of the time collar you know this as well as I do is literally a matter of how the ball bounces and like I said for lack of a better term luck I think if the Bears can find the opportunities for those turnovers again you can see 2018 all over again but I don't't expect a huge jump from the offensive side of the ball,

whether it's Trubisky or whether it's Nick Foles under seven. Do you think Matt Nagy is a good coach? Because in a way, I wonder how we can really tell with as bad as Mitch Trubisky is. Because it's not just that Mitch Trubisky isn't in the right situation and he's flashed this or that. He's been inaccurate the entire time. He has been a Chicago Bear and has not taken a single step forward. So even if the offense wasn't great last year in its design or whether it doesn't fit him

or whatever other excuse you might want to make, when the guy can't drop back and throw an accurate pass to somebody who's wide open, I don't know what you're want to make when the guy can't drop back and throw an accurate pass to somebody who's wide open i don't know what you're supposed to do there as a head coach but i also remember all the goofy nonsense with the kickers and having everybody uh do the augusta silence if you recall that uh as all the kickers tried out after cody park he I mean, I'm not sure that he is a good coach. There's two parts to being a coach, especially when you're a coach who is hired because of your offensive prowess, your offensive genius, and what he did under Andy Reid

and for that Chiefs offense in his time in Kansas City. And one is to do just that and to be a really, really good offensive play caller, to be really smart and innovative in designing an offense. And the other part of it is to be a – do you have any sort of sound effect for cliches? To be a leader of men. And I think that's – That was the sound effect for leader of men and i think that that was the sound effect for a leader of men

i really think that second part he is he is pretty good at that when you look at how this season went last year and the fact that that locker room stayed pretty cohesive pretty together pretty upbeat and and had good spirits they didn't really turn on the coach. They didn't turn on each other. It never really got ugly in Chicago as disappointing of a season as it was. And they actually started to turn things around a little bit and gave some, including myself, a glimmer of hope that maybe the postseason was still a possibility.

They fell short of that. The first part that I talked about, Collar, of what he's actually doing with X's and O's and designing an offense and calling plays and developing the quarterback that they hired him to develop, I think that's where he's really failed. And yet Mitch Trubisky has his faults. But Mitch Trubisky also has some strengths, and my criticism of Matt Nagy is that he seems to want to call the offense that he wants to call, rather than calling and designing an offense based around the strengths and the weaknesses not only of Trubisky, but the other

guys on the field with Mitchell Trubisky. I think Matt Nagy sometimes called things despite of what some of the strengths and weaknesses of his quarterback and his offense were. That's where he's really fallen short, in my opinion. I do think that there's also, you have to factor in the fact that Trubisky had a separated non-throwing shoulder early in the season, and he probably didn't want to put him in harm's way and have him running around and taking a lot of hits and shots that could put him out for a longer period of time than he already was. So we'll see in 2020 what kind of offense he has drawn up and what kind of play calling we see from Matt Nagy.

But between those two categories I think he's done well in one and having the team follow him and his leadership and all stay on the same page but I really think he's just failed in terms of being an offensive mind and a guy who was supposed to develop Mitchell Trubisky into something better than what he is I completely agree and from talking with our buddy Sage Rosenosenfels who watches a lot of chicago tape because he does chicago radio appearances he said basically the same thing is that you know when you're just calling plays and you're not thinking as closely about the skill sets of your players and how those match up then you know i i think you end up sort of with that brad childress thing that that was some of the biggest criticisms of brad childress that he didn't really have the plan to maximize skill sets which is something that

Gary Kubiak has done so effectively over his career I want you to try something here and then I want to get to the Khalil Mack trade I want you to try what I want to call the Trubisky challenge okay I'm going to do this leading up to the season where guests that I have on have to make the argument that Mitch Trubisky is somehow very good this year. Like this is like when you have debate club and they give you a subject and a side and you just have to debate it and you can't control which side you have. So tell me the argument for Mitch Trubisky somehow being good this year.

Okay. I don't think, I don't think it's totally unrealistic. I know how you feel about Mitch Trubisky. being good this year? Okay. I don't think it's totally unrealistic. I know how you feel about Mitch Trubisky. I think there's clay to mold there. Do I think he can be Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson? No, absolutely not. But the script for Mitchell Trubisky to be good this year and get the best out of Mitchell Trubisky that's there is to not ask too much of him, not ask him to be the guy who does everything and use his athleticism, but ultimately get the ball out of his hands, get it out of his hands fast, get it to Allen Robinson, get it to David Montgomery, get it to Tariq Cohen, get it to some of the weapons that they do have on offense.

You just used a first-round pick on a tight end and for some reason paid Jimmy Graham a bunch of money. Either get the ball out of his hands fast or get him on the move and using his athleticism, either running with the football or throwing the football on the move because that's where he thrives. I'm not convinced, but good try. I think that was, that was like, you may be.

I don't know that I could have convinced you that there, you know, when somebody is so just wildly inaccurate all the time, that's tough. But if they are able to use his athleticism a little more and they bootleg him out and do some of the things that Gary Kubiak has done, I just, there's no justification for not having a high rate of play action in the NFL in 2019, and they didn't last year. They were somewhere in the 18% or 19% of passes using play action. And when Sage talks about the hardest thing for an NFL quarterback is to drop back and throw,

and that's what you're asking this guy to do who's not very good, I mean, you're kind of missing something pretty big there. So, all right, well, a good attempt. Khalil Mack, when he gets traded, I will never forget the Internet's reaction. It just lost its bleep. We still can't swear on this podcast. It lost its mind when Khalil Mack was traded to the Chicago Bears because they thought, John Gruden, what are you, a psycho?

Trading away one of the best players in the NFL. However, Khalil Mack is going to make the money that a quarterback would make going forward here, and as great as he is and unstoppable as he is, and he single-handedly dominated the game in Week 4 last year that caused Stephfan digs to skip practice after khalil mac was the best player on the field that day and he does that pretty often but do you have regrets i mean if you're the chicago bears because of the way this plays out with how much money you're having to spend on a very very good defensive end

i don't i don't think so and when that trade happened as a bears fan i was very happy to get khalil mac but i also didn't think it was that dumb on the part of john gruden and the raiders i thought it was a trade that really for both where both franchises were was was a smart move for both franchises the bears were a team that was trying to take take a leap and and become contenders and become a winning team now they were in win now mode and and the raiders had just hired john gruden they were sort of tearing the whole thing down and rebuilding from the ground up and so it makes sense to get a bunch of draft picks if that's the position that you're in and like you just said a game-changing pass rusher, the likes of Khalil Mack,

that changes a football team overnight. And if you were anywhere close to being a contender, Khalil Mack sort of gets you over that hump, and we saw that in the 2018 season. I don't think Khalil Mack is what's holding you back from being a winning football team and a playoff team in in 2020 or hopefully we'll see we'll see how he ages but i don't think that's what stops you from being a a quality and and winning football team at any point in cleo max tenure here i think what's going to be the difference is what can matt nagy get out of that offense because even with the defense being what

it was last year, Collar, relative to 2018 and all the turnovers that they had, even a defense that did what they did last year, if you just have an adequate offense, we're talking about a playoff team. If you have a good offense, we're talking about a team that can make a deep playoff run. I don't think Khalil Mack holds the Bears back from being what they thought they could be when they made that trade. Before we get back to the conversation, got to take a second to thank our sponsor, SodaStick.

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Discount automatically applied at checkout. Deal ends June 20th. I want you to give me percentage chances on a couple of things. I'm just going to throw them out, and you give me percentage chances on the Bears. Percentage chance that the Bears are back in the playoffs in 2020. I actually like their chances of getting back in the playoffs in 2020. A, because I think they have some guys in their second and third year who are going to make a leap in terms of their progress.

And B, I think that defense is good enough. And C, you look at the turnover in terms of the playoff picture in the NFL year in and year out. I think the Bears are one of the teams closer to the NFC playoff picture. I want to put them at about 55%, 60 percent as they get into the playoffs in 2020 yep that would that would be i think a lot higher than where someone like las vegas would look at it or espn's football power index which i think had them more around the 40 but not crazy to think of them as a playoff team percentage chance that the vikings beat the Bears at Soldier Field

if there are no fans in the stands? I'll give them about a 35-40% shot. Because that's, for whatever reason, they just do not play well in Chicago. But obviously the fans play a part in that. I do still think there's a home field advantage, even with no fans, just the advantage of sleeping in your own bed, driving your own car to work in the morning. I think

the Bears still have a hefty advantage at Soldier Field, but the Vikings probably have a better chance than they'd have in a normal year. I'll give them about a 35-40% shot. Alright, last one. Percentage chance that Mitch Trubisky is the quarterback of the Chicago Bears 2021? Oh, 2021.

Yes. I'm going to say about 30%. It's going to take a really, really good season for me. He's going to have to win his job, first of all. And he's going to have to probably lead this team to the playoffs to come back as their starter in 2021. I like their chances of making the playoffs, but I don't necessarily think that happens with Trubisky under center. So I'm going to put his chances of being the Bears quarterback

at about 30%, 35% in 2021. Yeah, the toughest situation that they could get into is if they had the Blake Bortles season with Jacksonville where I mean he gets them to the AFC championship game and they're like well we've got to stick with Blake Bortles but he was still bad even though they got to the AFC championship and were leading the New England Patriots in the fourth quarter Bortles was not changing his stripes at that point they bring him back they decide you know Chicago gets killed for not drafting Deshaun Watson or drafting Patrick Mahomes but Jacksonville picked Leonard Fournette in that draft they deserve just as much or more

criticism than Chicago at least Chicago picked a quarterback they properly identify the Bears and their history at quarterback wouldn't that be the most bears thing ever if he was just barely good enough for them to to have a glimmer of hope and belief in him yes and bring it back in 2021 and then he reverts back to being mitch trubisky well that is exactly where i want to start our hot routes have you missed hot routes rami i miss hot routes so much everybody misses hot routes So that's why we've brought them to the Purple Insider podcast. I've just been spelling stuff with a Z just to make me think of hot routes. Just like Tupac used to on his albums. All eyes on me, E-Y-E-Z.

That's how you're doing it. So I have four hot route questions for you here and it starts with chicago since that's been our main topic of conversation i did you know were you aware that if mitch trubisky has a 4 000 yard season he cracks the bears top five all-time passers in yards and if he throws 20 touchdowns he's top three all-time bears quarterbacks if he throws 20 touchdowns, he's top three all-time Bears quarterback if he throws 20 touchdowns this year. I want you to give me, since they have such an assorted history of quarterbacks, your top three favorite Bears quarterbacks to ever play any amount of time

for the Chicago Bears. Okay, two of them are easy. Two of these came right to mind immediately i had to i had to give some thought to the third one but number one the funky qb jim mcmahon he won my team a super bowl and he was just the coolest dude in the world to five six-year-old rami growing up i had i had the sunglasses collar i had the headband i had the funky qb spike mullet i had the sunglasses, collar. I had the headband. I had the punky QB, Spike Mullet. I had the whole look going when I was a little kid. And I think Jim McMahon getting traded from the Chicago Bears was the first sports thing to make me cry, just fall as an 8- or 9-year-old child.

Spike Mullet and waking up in the morning to the news that the Bears just traded Jim McMahon. So that was easy. I love Jay Cutler. I'm a Jay Cutler apologist, always have been, will be to the day I die. I still contend Jay Cutler could have had a great career. I would even dare to say he could have been a Hall of Fame quarterback if the Bears didn't ruin him. The Bears did everything you can possibly do to ruin a quarterback. They put him in systems that were a bad fit. He had a different offensive coordinator every year. They put him behind garbage offensive lines year in and year out.

And until his last two years where they finally got him some weapons, they gave him garbage to throw the football to, including Devin Hester as his number one wide receiver for two years. So Jake Cutler could have been great. The Bears ruined him. I will stand by that till the day I die. The number one wide receiver for two years. So Jay Cutler could have been great. The Bears ruined him. I will stand by that till the day I die. The third one is tough for me. I love Doug Flutie, and I know his time in Chicago was very, very short,

but I'd love to be Doug Flutie and Matthew Cutler. But ultimately, I went with Eric Kramer, who also had a short stay in Chicago. But, man, that guy was just throwing the ball all over the football field and had probably the two best. I remember doing this with Mackie and Judd when we were talking about the history of Bears quarterbacks a while back. And I think he put up the two most prolific seasons, passing-wise, of a Bears quarterback ever when he had Marcus Robinson as his number one wide receiver.

And like I said, just chucking it all over the field for a couple of years there before he had his Bears tenure ended by injuries. But I'm going to go with those three, McMahon, Cutler, and Eric Kramer. Okay. First of all, I need to start a new bit on the show. And I'm just saying it out loud so I remember it. Like irrational love of players that you will just argue ridiculous

things because you love them so much. And Jay Cutler should have been a Hall of Famer, goes under our new irrational love bit for sure. Jim McMahon, I was just watching the other day, the 85 NFC Championship game against the Rams in which the Rams offense just wanted to go home and cry against the Bears defense. But Jim McMahon was also awesome in the game, and that's the one where he got fined $5,000 for wearing the wrong headband or something, and so he wrote Pete Rozelle's name on the headband, and it just became infamous. So Jim McMahon definitely belongs on the list. I knew that you would include Jim McMahon, so i picked some other ones here that you did not pick

cordell stewart was one of my favorite quarterbacks growing up and he was only briefly a bear and it went horribly but way ahead of his time slash playing the wide receiver i mean every video game i was using cordell stewart he'd have like 90 speed if people played the madden 04 with michael vick and they used to just take off and run all the time, well, that was me on like Madden 98 with Cordell Stewart. Just really loved watching him play. And a guy who was ahead of his time and probably in today's game, they work an offense around some of his shortcomings throwing the ball.

And it wasn't that he couldn't throw. It's just like inconsistent accuracy. I think that in today's offenses, Cordell Stewart would have been way better than he was for his career, which actually, you know, I mean Pittsburgh was pretty competitive with him as their starting quarterback. Yeah, he was a solid quarterback for a stretch there, absolutely. Yeah, and fun, and just like one of the most fun players in the nfl for a little bit uh josh mccown's brief stint of being like the goat for five weeks in what 2013 for the chicago bears is one of the most random and strange you think about this guy's career and how he's almost never won he's had a

bunch of different stretches with teams i think he had all of his kids and all of their friends wear his different jerseys. And he's always been bad, except for this five or six game stretch in Chicago. And you just have to love Josh McCown for that. And the guts that he showed last year to come into that game, and I think he got hurt in the game in Philly, his lone playoff game he's ever had. I love that. I love Josh McCown. He's one of the coolest guys ever. And how many backup quarterbacks? I picked two backup quarterbacks who once played receiver.

Josh McCown actually played receiver briefly for Detroit because their coach was so mad at the receivers. And a great, great athlete. And Doug Flutie was my other one. Again, not a Chicago Bear for very long, but what Doug Flutie did in Buffalo in the late 90s he will always be one of my favorite players of all time uh the Flutie Flakes and him you know taking the bills to back-to-back playoffs getting benched for Rob Johnson uh in a playoff game so

um always one of my favorite guys lit up the CFL I love those stories lit up the CFL and then comes back so those those are my three. How do you like my list? By the way, Josh McCown, I don't know if you've seen the highlights. He can hoop. He can play basketball, which is one of the more surprising things just looking at him. And Doug Flutie, very good drummer. Very good drummer. He's in a band. I did know that. Background information on a couple of the guys that you had there. Now, the Josh McCown thing, one of my favorite nuggets about josh mccown is there's a website

called relative athletic scores that takes your nfl combine performance height and weight and position and sort of combines it into a one to ten athletic score to compare across your your uh your peers josh mccown is one of the most athletic quarterbacks to ever play in the NFL since the combine era. He's up there. I'm not even kidding. His score is close to Cam Newton. That's amazing.

It's insane. That's crazy. So there you go. Josh McCown facts. All right. Question number two here in Hot Routes for you, Rami. Chris Sims of Pro Football Talk does his annual quarterback countdown, which usually turns out to be ludicrous in the way that he ranks his NFL quarterbacks. But one of the toughest tasks for anyone ranking quarterbacks is the rookies. So out of 32, where would you put Joe Burrow, Tua, and Justin Herbert?

Out of 32 starters. Okay. Assuming that Tua and Herbert start, which, you know, they might not. Now, this is if I want to win a football game today, right? This isn't I'm starting a team and I pick a quarterback for the long haul. Yes. I need to win a game today. Where do these guys rank?

Yeah, 2020 season. Okay. I'm not a rank? Yeah, 2020 season. Okay. I'm not a big Justin Herbert guy. Same. Justin Herbert can't be higher than 25 or 26 on my list. There are a few bad quarterbacks in the league who I have next to no faith and less than I would even a rookie who I don't know a whole lot about or just don't

really believe all that much in. I'd put Justin Herbert at about 25-26. I think that's totally fair. I'm not as high on Joe Burrow as a lot of people are. I think Joe Burrow is probably about 20. You just don't know with rookie quarterback, Collar. You have no idea with rookie quarterback. Guys can look good at the college level, and even if they're going to go on to have really good NFL careers, they just don't necessarily look at Peyton Manning

and Troy Aikman in their rookie years and how awful that they were. I can't put Joe Burrow any higher than 20, and and two probably about 15th or 16th and i think that's even being generous for for tua and and going into his rookie year i would rank him if you're asking me i need to win a game now in 2020 i like burrow and i like tua in terms of their future i'm not a big big Justin Herbert guy, but if you're asking me who can win me a football game now,

stepping into the league and winning football games is not something a lot of guys do in this league. So putting them anywhere higher than 15 or 20 is just crazy, even if you're talking about guys the caliber of Burrow or Tua. And Justin Herbert, like I said, putting him down about 25 or 26. Before we get back to the conversation, I want to remind you that there is no shortage of action going on right now at our exclusive partners at betonline.ag. Sports are slowly making their way back,

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Bet online, your online wagering experts. Yeah, I feel the same way. I mean, Justin Herbert is the big-armed guy who didn't actually impress you that much with his college performance. So usually that doesn't work out great. I would put him in probably the bottom three to pick for the 2020 season. That adjustment to the NFL is going to be really hard for him. Tua, I love the adjustment for him if he runs the right offense. Like at Alabama, he was so good at RPOs and making quick decisions and getting the ball out that I think he could play well right away

if he gets an opportunity. My guess is that they sit him and are smart about that. The reason I would put Burrow in the top 20, a little bit higher than you is because I think he's got the weapons to work with right away. Joe Mixon, AJ green, Tyler Boyd is pretty good. All the offensive lines for these three quarterbacks are abysmal,

but the fact that he was also coming from an NFL style offense with Joe Brady is his OC and is like maybe older than you at this point. Joe Burrow. He's like 24 for a rookie, but that means he's got a little more experience, a little more life experience, and I think can probably do it. But he was a one-year wonder in college, so it's really tough to project all three of these guys. If you're putting them anywhere higher than the top 15 or 18, you're probably crazy.

But you'd start a franchise with at least two of them uh next question for sure um speaking of quarterbacks here's the guys that i consider to be in prove it years and if you disagree with them uh tell me daniel jones duane haskins josh allen uh sam darnold gardner minshu mitch trubisky baker mayfield Murray, and Drew Locke are all, even though some of them only in their second years, in sort of prove-it years, show that you can be an NFL quarterback. Which quarterbacks on that list are starting for their teams in 2021? Now, when you say prove it, you don't mean blow the doors off. You just mean good enough that their team continues to to move forward with them

as the quarterback right and the quarterback of the future right so i'll give you an example let's say kyler murray who i really liked last year let's say he throws 30 interceptions like then his team is still his team is probably thinking about moving on like they might not get rid of him but that would be in their mind like we can't run this guy out there or he might not actually be good. I mean, think about how quickly we've already decided like Sam Darnold might not be good or Baker Mayfield might not be good because they didn't take big steps in year two. I think anybody who was a rookie in 2019 has that same type of pressure. And if they were horrible, if Drew Locke is horrible, his team might move on.

So who do you think out of that list is still the quarterback for their team in 2021? type of pressure and if they were horrible if drew lock is horrible his team might move on so who do you think out of that list is still the quarterback for their team in 2021 since you mentioned kyler murray i'll start there i i love kyler murray i think he takes a step forward and and looks like one of the promising young quarterbacks in the league by the time the 2020 season is over i know a lot of people might snicker at this and he's an easy guy to write into your punchlines, but I still like Baker Mayfield, man. I think he's got a lot of the tools that you need to be a very good quarterback in this league. And I talked a lot when I had a job, Matthew Collin, about how much I like Kevin Stefanski as an offensive mind and

his work with quarterbacks. So I think that Baker Mayfield takes a big step forward this year. And you talk about weapons, that guy's got the weapons to throw to up and down. So I think Baker Mayfield takes a big step forward this year, changes the narrative around him, and you see the arrow pointing up, and he's the quarterback of the future for the Cleveland Browns. I think Daniel Jones will be good enough that people still think he can be not that people will be convinced that he is the quarterback of the future but I think he'll be good enough that people

still think he can be with with a question mark Dwayne Haskins I think probably gets exposed a little bit this year with a little bit more playing time. I'm not a big Josh Allen guy. He reminds me a lot of Mitchell Trubisky, which is to say that, yes, there are some tools there. There's some athletic ability there. But it's a very narrow path to be a winning football team with Josh Allen and to get the most out of him. I like Sam Darnold.

I'll say the same thing about Sam Darnold that I said about Daniel Jones. I think he'll be good enough that people still think he can be the quarterback they may not be convinced yet but they still think that it's it's a possibility that he can grow into that gardner minshu i think that the jaguars will have the number one pick every mock draft that i see says that the jaguars will have the number one pick in 2021. So I don't think he survives there. Mitchell Trubisky, we talked about that earlier. I don't think he'll be good enough. I think there's a slight chance that he'll be good enough

that the Bears and Bears fans can hold out some hope for him. Drew Locke, I haven't seen a lot of, but John Elway seems pretty sold on Drew Locke that I don't think even one okay or subpar year from Drew Locke is going to make John Elway seems pretty sold on Drew Locke that I don't think even one OK or subpar year from Drew Locke is going to make John Elway move off that position. I think he's sick with Drew Locke at least through 2021 before he makes a final decision on him. Elway also has no idea what he's doing when it comes to evaluating quarterbacks.

That's true. So that could be another thing, too. I like my own question here because it's a hard exercise to do, to try and look in the crystal ball. Daniel Jones, organizationally, they really put their butts on the line with Daniel Jones. So if things go wrong, they would probably fire Dave Gettleman, I'm guessing, that he would be on the hot seat here. If they win four games and Daniel Jones is horrendous,

they're firing him and they're looking for a new GM who's going to go out on the quarterback market probably. But I still think they would go the soft route, the Nick Foles route, and give Daniel Jones more opportunities. Haskins is the one that I think actually might turn out to be good. Washington has a chance to be a surprising team this year because their division is not super special their defensive line has been stacked up for quite some time and if Haskins takes a step

forward with Terry McLaurin as his number one wide receiver he's got a good shot the fact that they didn't draft a quarterback if they go 2 and 14 this year and they're drafting number one yeah sorry Dwayne Haskins is not their quarterback anymore but if they went eight and eight I think he is going forward Josh Allen is in the prove it year of all prove it years if you can't succeed with Stephon Diggs when Case Keenum can succeed with Stephon Diggs you're just gone like that's the end of you uh Darnold is is a hot one because I think that it's always been upside upside upside upside for Samarnold, and we haven't seen it yet. He could be that kind of guy where he has another mediocre year where there's great games and terrible games, and they decide, eh, fire everybody, let's move on and see what we can get

or maybe be in the draft here. A lot of these teams, if it goes wrong, they're at the top of the draft, and they have to pick either Justin Fields or Trevor Lawrence. Mayfield, I agree with your assessment that Kevin Stefanski is going to turn him around, and his rookie year was so good they wouldn't bail quickly. Same thing with Kyler Murray. Drew Locke, I think, probably has the highest chance of going 4-12 and then them just moving on quickly because the rest of that team is pretty good.

But a lot of quarterbacks improve at situations. Gardner Minshew doesn't have much of a chance to be their franchise quarterback, I think. All right, final hot routes question for you, Rami. This has been lots of fun. Bill Barnwell of ESPN looked at what players would be available if there was an expansion draft in the NFL, if they ever added a 33rd team. So let's say that you are no longer unemployed. In fact, you're wildly rich. And so you are starting your expansion team. Give me your city, your team name,

and the backup quarterback that you would poach to start your franchise with. All right. I'm going to right a wrong, Matthew Collar. I'm going to right a wrong, Matthew Collar. I'm going to right a wrong. I'm going to put a second team in our nation's capital, in our great nation's capital, Matthew Collar. I'm going to put a second team in Washington, D.C., where their football team's name has been a racial slur for many, many years.

I'm going to name that football team the Washington Kaepernicks and my quarterback of course he's not a backup quarterback right now but he should be in the league I'm going off the board Colin Kaepernick is my quarterback of the Washington Kaepernicks of the NFL the wokest team in the National Football League that you have found. They are taking the lead with the Washington Kaepernicks. That's funny. That's very funny. Trying to right as many wrongs as I can, Matthew. That's all I'm trying to do.

The fact that the Vikings wouldn't even answer the question about Colin Kaepernick gives you the chances of you starting a team called the Washington Kaepernicks are about the same as him having a job this year, I think, unfortunately. That is a very, very tricky situation for the NFL, but you solved it. You're like, okay, guys, I'll take them on my team because it's actually the team name. That's good. And you know I'm a problem solver. It's what I do. I love leagues that failed. a team name that's good uh i am going and you know i'm a problem solver it's what i do i love

leagues that failed so i love the ufl the usfl the aaf the xfl you know this about me my favorite team name of all time for any of those um at least in well there's i mean there's a the berlin fire was a pretty cool team for n Europe. That's pretty good. But I'm going to bring back the Sacramento Mountain Lions. And, yep, Sacramento Mountain Lions are going to be my team because I love their name. I love their jerseys. Culpepper played for them.

Denny Green coached them. Like a great connection to the Vikings. My quarterback is going to be not Josh McCown, but Luke McCown. You know why? We're tanking. We're trying to lose every game that first year. We are tanking for Trevor, and we're going to get either Trevor or Justin Fields by going 1-15 or 0-16.

That is the plan of the Sacramento Mountain Lions, to start with trevor lawrence um but if it if it wasn't him gosh i don't know i mean what backup quarterback would give you a chance right now andy dalton i guess i guess i would take andy dalton and try to win us nine games what what league what league was the sacramento mountain lions from that was the ufl oh i you know what i'll take cam let's start our team around cam newton he's still a free agent so let's go let's let's get cam healthy let's get him into our uh our our new vast health program in sacramento and get him up to 100 get him with an offensive coach and let's go let's go with cam newton and the sacramento mountain lions love it let's go with Cam Newton and the Sacramento Mountain Lions. Love it. Let's go. Oh, man.

I saw Brian Baldinger tweet out a clip from his old broadcast in NFL Europe. And I'm like, man, I always want to live in a world where there are side leagues trying to start and ultimately failing because they just have such great stories. Rami, this has been a lot of fun. And what I want to do with you is check in and get that percentage point on a consistent basis on whether you think that Chicago will make the playoffs based on different Chicago-based news items, if we can do that. So thanks for taking the time to come on, buddy. Anytime, Collin. Hit me up.