Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Should Vikings fans be thinking about Josh Dobbs or the 2024 QB class?

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

Matthew Coller and Manny Hill talk about whether Vikings fans should be feeling like the attention should shift to the future or if the Vikings can get right back into the playoff mix (Note: recorded before Jake Browning's big night vs. Jacksonville) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along this evening with Manny Hill. And, you know, I was really struggling, Manny, just before we turned the old live machine on here on YouTube to come up with a headline for the show, because normally what we try to do, this is no secret, is come up with something that will show up in Google searches so we can get as many viewers as possible and so forth. And I'm sitting here thinking like, what, what is it? You know, I know what we're going to talk about. I know what I want to discuss with you and everything else, but how do I phrase this? How do I use some keywords? You got to get Vikings in there.

Josh Dobbs should probably be in there. because we're going to talk about him and the likelihood of the Vikings going with him and so forth. And then right before the show, you and I are talking about the Heisman. And it was probably the most excited either one of us has sounded talking about anything related to the Vikings, even tangentially, because of course, Jalen Daniels, Michael Pennix, Bo Nix, all quarterbacks that could be in the mix for the Vikings. And I thought instead of the headline being, does Josh Dobbs give the Vikings the best chance to playoffs, which I'm not sure is going to draw great viewership this evening.

Should I change it? Should I change it to who wants to talk about the 2024 quarterback class right now? I feel like I should change it to that. And that's what we should talk about instead. I would be all for that because I think this is, this is a pretty good class. This is a pretty strong class with, with the two guys at the top,

obviously with Caleb Williams and Drake may. And then, you know, Jaden Daniels from LSU is just a monster. The numbers are outrageous. The athleticism, you see the, the arm talent that he has. He's been fantastic, and he's likely going to win the Heisman Trophy. I'd be surprised if he doesn't win the Heisman Trophy, to be totally honest.

And they should probably even tell Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix to not even show up to New York. Just make it like a one-hour Jaden Daniels appreciation thing and then just hand them the Heisman Trophy because I can't imagine anybody else is going to win it. But, yeah, I mean, it's an exciting class. I mean, and I think, you know, if you're a team like the Vikings where you're possibly going to be in a position to take one of these guys,

I think it's really going to make things really compelling this offseason, no matter what happens, I think, going forward here as we finish out the season with Josh Dobbs. I changed it. I changed it to, should Vikings fans be thinking about Josh Dobbs or the 2024 QB class? Maybe I should change it to Dobbs versus Mullins, or the QB competition.

How about that? The QB competition now or controversy. Now, we don't have a controversy. It's really just competition. But it is a good question because it looks like at least there was a report, I think, today from someone, Diana Rossini, maybe that it looks like Josh Dobbs is going to be the quarterback for the Vikings. I think we kind of have figured this anyway. It would be, someone put it to me like a white flag to put in Nick Mullins. And I agree with that. I think that if you're putting in Nick Mullins, it just means that you want to try to limit any of the mistakes, but don't have any real high end of that. And the best you're hoping to do is just kind of not look bad, but you'll probably end up looking bad anyway, because that's what's happened when Nick Mullins has started in

the past. And then Jaron Hall, I just think is not ready to take on game after game after game of starting. So it's, it's just Josh Dobbs or bust. And I think that they could still make the playoffs with Josh Dobbs because the first three games were good enough to be able to make playoffs. And then the one game is, is pretty terrible. But if that's how it goes, where you're like, okay, well one, he's going to be good. And one or two, he's going to be like blend. You got to win at the end or something. And then another one, he's just going to be horrendous.

There's only five games left. So if there's some distribution of that that gets you to three wins, you can probably make the playoffs. But something has happened here since the Chicago game where even talking about the playoffs and then last night having the Packers win, I don't think that nobody believes that you can make the playoffs. It's more of, oh, well, okay. Maybe playoffs, I guess that, that when you see the low end of what it can look like with Dobbs and then you say, okay, well, in order to win the Superbowl, you would have to win four straight games with that guy in the playoffs. And, and, oh, by the way, did you see San Francisco at Philadelphia and the PA the Packers look like a better team than the Vikings. We'll talk about

the current playoff matchup and what it looks like right now. So there's sort of this sense of just, I don't know how they could possibly go anywhere, even if they make the postseason so meh and i don't blame anybody for feeling that way is there is there anything that would change your mind on that assuming you agree with what i just said manny is there anything that happens in the next week in the next two weeks whatever if josh jobs ends up starting that would change that feeling for you that this probably can't go anywhere? Not really. I mean, I guess if Dobbs comes out on Sunday against the Raiders and just throws for like 350 and four touchdowns and maybe like runs for like another 80 yards and just looks fantastic

and the Vikings blow the doors off of the Raiders, then maybe that might change my mind because then you're thinking, okay, the Denver game, he played well enough to win. They just had a couple of things not go their way. And then maybe you chalk the Bears loss up to just a bad, a miserable night for the offense altogether. But I think, you know, to really have a belief that this is, could be some sort of a magic carpet ride, so to speak,

with this team in the postseason. Oh, Manny, did you freeze? Manny, come back alive. You froze in such a bad pose, too. That's not what you hoped for. You got me? Wait. Yeah. Are you in such a bad pose, too. That's not what you hope for. You got me? Wait. Yeah.

Are you back? Okay. Yeah. Okay. It just was such an unpleasant face that you were making when you froze. So that was the worst part. Okay. Go ahead, though.

You're good. You're good. But I think if they go into Vegas and take care of business against a bad team that had fired their coach a month ago, you know, then you could probably feel pretty good about it. But if it goes the way I think it might go, which, hey, they might probably still win, but it's going to be a close, another one of those one possession games where they win, you know, like 24 to 20 or something like that. And Dobbs plays OK. That's not really going to change much for me as far as like this team is not. I'm not going to view this team as maybe going anywhere going forward.

But this league surprises you, man. We see weird things happen all the time. I mean, I didn't think the Packers had a shot to beat Kansas City yesterday but they did. They took care of business against a team that is, you know, trying to repeat as a Super Bowl champion. So, we've seen crazy things happen in this league but I would need to see something really, really improve from the Vikings offense on Sunday to have a to have a thought that maybe this is gonna go a little

further than I initially thought. So I do think that that's very possible. I mean, you're going to a place that's going to be a home game, almost guaranteed. I mean, you're asking Minnesotans in December to go to Vegas. That's not a very hard sell. I've gotten a lot of messages, by the way, I'm going to be at Circa from Friday and Saturday. So, you know, people who want to say hello, you know, we can try to figure that out. And there's the party at Circa Friday night. So I'll talk a little more about that when it's ad read time later in the show. But that's exciting for a lot of fans just to go out there, make that, you know, a purple game for them. The Raiders have a very mediocre passing defense.

They have one really great pass rusher, but the Vikings do a tremendous job in their offensive line of taking away teams that have one great pass rusher, like they did against Nick Bosa and have done throughout the season. So is Max Crosby going to ruin the whole game? Like probably not. And that might be famous last words. And they,

they just, they don't have much for offense either. And then you're watching Cincinnati tonight and Jake Browning is just throwing screen pass after screen pass, because why would anyone trust him to do anything else? It's Jake Browning. And that's where I have tried over the last week. Plus to not overreact to that Bears game.

But how can you not when it looks that bad? And when there were some things that I thought coaching wise that were not done well for Josh Dobbs and to help him. But I did have this thought coming out of the bye week, Kevin O'Connell would have a chance to take a deep breath and go back and actually really look closely at what they have done with Josh Dobbs and what's worked and what hasn't worked, what he can handle, what he can throw with rhythm and timing, where the areas of

the field that he can attack. And Oh, by the way, they're getting Justin Jefferson back. So there is a part of me that wants to be like, buck up soldiers. Come on. Like they're getting Jefferson back these next two weeks, they should be able to win. And then you're talking about division games for the playoffs and come on everybody. Come on. But then, you know, we started talking about Jalen Daniels and I'm like, dude, did you see that game? You know, just have you seen this man? And then, I mean, even with Pennix and Bo Nix. So, uh, let's see. Dustin asked, uh, what's the highest I've seen Jaden Daniels mocked. You don't want to know cause it's too high for you. Um, that's the problem is I have seen Jaden Daniels mocked all the way up in the top five already, that should not come as a shocker because of how many

quarterbacks that look like him have succeeded in recent years, including Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson. He's got to be the fastest quarterback since Lamar Jackson, but even Kyler Murray. And people are down on Kyler Murray. He's winning some games in Arizona, and he's looking pretty confident without Cliff Kingsbury there. So this is, I think, now a quarterback that the NFL picks high when 15 years ago they might have asked him to switch to cornerback. I don't know. But I was saying to you that we make fun of these bad quarterback comparisons, but this is what Steve McNair looks like. If power five would have let him play quarterback at LSU. And I don't, I don't think they're just going to miss

this. So, you know, we start talking about that and then it gets, then I get more excited about like talking about what they could do at quarterback in the future and trading up and so forth. So there there I'm just like conflicted about that because I don't have a whole lot of belief like anybody else does that they could go somewhere. But if you tried to make the argument to me that Kevin O'Connell is going to look at what Dobbs did and he's going to work his offense more tailored to what Dobbs does well. And they play two teams that have backup quarterbacks that are not even like good backup quarterbacks the next two weeks.

And if you go into those final three weeks at eight and six, is there anything more you could have asked for out of this situation? That's why it all hinges on this. Like, I don't want to let Chicago ruin the whole season because there's more to go. And I want to give the opportunity and leave the door open for Kevin O'Connell to really

show us something again after, you know, already kind of doing that when Dobbs first got here, but like work your magic, my man, because that's, what's going to have to happen. I think that the tone will be very different with the fan base if they win these next two games. Yeah, I agree. And especially if they look really good winning the game. Like I said, you know, even if you don't blow out the Raiders, if you can just find a way to take control of the game early and we watch the entire game and never at any point does

it look like the Raiders are going to have a chance to win. I think people will feel pretty good about that and then say like, OK, now you're seven and six. You won that game. Now you're taking on Cincinnati and they're playing a backup and you find a way to win that. You get to eight and six and now you're you're taking on the Detroit Lions at home. A division division rival, a team that's in control of the division right now, then you're amped up for that because then if you win that game, now you're 9-6 with two games to go, and then you've got the Packers coming into town, and then all the excitement juices among the fan base, I think, is really, they're really flowing at that point.

So Sunday is huge. You know, it's, I heard you say it the other day or yesterday when you went on that if they lose this game on Sunday, it's a wrap. Like, it's done. There's no more talking about, you know, what they're going to do and how they're going to win these games coming up after that and trying to still get into the playoffs. It's a wrap. So it's it's crazy to think, you know, a month after, you know, Kirk Cousins goes down that we'd be in this position of like, hey, this game against the Raiders at this point is the biggest game of the season, because it's going to kind of determine really what direction it's kind of the fork in the the road it's going to decide what direction they go in the rest of the rest of the way uh jason says no way mullins should be playing in camp this year he was always throwing behind

players no way he should play uh i mean no disagreement for me not only has nick mullins not played well outside of a couple of games in his career when he's had a chance to play, but also he's been out with a back injury. And I don't even know if he's like fully participating in practice. This seems to me that the whole thing, and maybe we'll get an announcement this week, I guess we'll see, but the whole thing seems more like, and I don't blame him for this, that Kevin O'Connell was really mad about losing to the bears because when you start to go down the logical process of deciding who's going to play quarterback here, you just can't talk yourself into any scenario where it's better.

If Nick Mullins was playing then Josh Dobbs, because we've seen the high end of Dobbs and it's, it's pretty good. You know, against new Orleans, I would say it was really good in that game. And then you're playing teams that new Orleans is a disaster on offense, but their defense is okay. And it's better than what the Raiders have. And Cincinnati's defense isn't even that good this year. So you could certainly see it, but where I keep swinging back and forth is wait, are we going to do this thing again, where they win the next two games against these backup quarterbacks? And then you go into those final three games going, Oh, okay. Just win like two out of these last three games and we're good. And then no reality ends up biting again. I don't think that it has to though, because

what I've always thought about the division games is you expect to split them most of the time. And if you do better than that, then you should be really happy. But no matter how bad the bears have been, it seems like they always split them, including this year. Uh, and that goes for the Packers. The Packers have been great. Some years, not as good. Some years Vikings way up, way down, whatever, but you're, you're oftentimes splitting. Even when Detroit had no wins, they found a way to split, uh, that, that one, you know, in 2021 with the Vikings. So that could also apply to facing Detroit again this year.

And we don't know what it's going to be like for Detroit in week 18. And I am not trying to get everyone's hopes up here because I have also been beating the drum of like the reality of backup quarterbacks, but Detroit might not be playing for anything in week 18. So can you survive and make this still exciting? And should we talk about that or should we just focus on the draft because this whole thing is over and i thought hunter said it well here in the comments i don't know what i'm rooting for like yeah that's right uh says i guess i'm just rooting for the front office to be convinced that they should move on from kirk

and start a new era and it that is such a i i think dynamic to this that interests me is I want your opinion too, Manny. What, like what do these five games influence something or not when it comes to that quarterback decision? Because in the way we talk about it, it certainly will. If Josh Dobbs goes five and oh, in these last five games, well, welcome to the 2024 starting quarterback, Josh Dobbs with his backup that's still a draft pick but you know maybe they draft uh someone in the second round instead or maybe you know whatever like or they could be thinking it doesn't matter if josh dobbs goes five and oh

we're bringing back kirk anyway or they could be riding this roller coaster too. I have no idea if these last five games matter. Yeah, because if, let's say, let's take that scenario for a second. Let's say they run the table the rest of the way for some miraculous reason, and they finish 11-6, and they're, you know, let's say they're the six or the five seed or something. Because maybe, well, actually, if they run the table, that means they beat detroit twice would they if they were on the table would they have won the division

i i don't think so because i think detroit's still gonna stay ahead of them but if they beat them twice then because now right now they are still three games back of detroit um and let's assume in order to go 5-0, Detroit would probably have to be resting starters in the last game. Maybe just make the scenario 4-1. Like 4-1 is probably the best possible situation that they could get. But would that make them be like, oh, actually Josh Dobbs can work for us if we tailor our offense more to him.

Like that's kind of the question. Or if Josh Dobbs goes four and one, he's going to need the hand of God to guide the football through those games. And they're going to know that, right? Because Case Keenum, they moved on from Case Keenum because they knew that he was a backup. Like would they do the same kind of thing? My question too is let's take that scenario.

They go four and one the rest of the way to finish 10 and seven, make the playoffs with Josh Dobbs. Are they convinced that Dobbs is a guy that can start for them in 2024? Or are they trying to convince themselves? Hey, if we did this with Josh Dobbs, what would happen if we brought Kirk back next year? You know, that kind of thing. It's hard to tell what they would actually think.

You know where I stand. I think we're both on the same page of what they need to do almost regardless of how this season finishes out. It's just hard to tell. We know that Kevin O'Connell likes Kirk Cousins. It's just going to, I don't know, it's hard to read what they're actually thinking. And it's almost a thought of you do kind of want things to kind of tailspin down the stretch because then it kind of puts them in that mode of, all right, let's turn the page and just start over. But then again, if that happens, are they thinking,

well, things kind of fell apart because we didn't have Kirk late in the season, so let's bring him back that weekend. I don't know. It's really hard to tell what they're going to be thinking, and it can go, I think, a variety of different directions. Oh, Manny froze with a slightly better face this time. So this is a funny road to go down,

and hopefully Manny unfreezes here in a second. It's a funny road to go down because if we think about a scenario, like what would the scenario have to be the most likely scenario for Kirk not to be the quarterback, but they also are like happy with how they play and how it turns out. And that is not easy to figure it out. So while Manny unfreezes himself, let me read a couple of comments here. Matthew says uh what would have been the plan if Mullins wasn't injured at the time that Cousins got hurt I'm gonna remove Manny's uh face there for a second no that doesn't work very well does it hold on everybody be

patient I'll fix this okay come on now why is there a line down my face? That's not how this is supposed to go. There we go. Okay. There we go. We'll get Manny back in a second. Matthew says, what would have been the plan if Mullins wasn't injured at the time the cousins got hurt? Would they still have gotten Dobbs? I don't think so. I think they probably would have tried to go with Nick Mullins for the rest of the season, but maybe, I mean, because Dobbs only cost a pick swap at the end of the draft in the sixth and seventh round. So if he was available either way, even with Nick Mullins, they wouldn't have necessarily wanted to trust Hall or Sean Mannion to be the quarterback. So I think that probably would have played into it. And now Manny has returned. Hi, Manny. Much better face you froze with this time.

What Matthew has asked, asked the question about what the Vikings would have done. Would they have gone with Nick Mullins? I think they probably would have just Nick Mullins and Jaron Hall down the stretch, but Josh jobs costs so little that I think he would have probably still potentially been an option for them. And there's really no reason not to get him at that point.

As far as what we should be talking about, Bradley chimes in to say the 2024 draft class, which I don't blame you. Because one of the things that I battle with for myself, Manny, is the, is the idea that like, I still want the season to carry on because I like the season. I mean, I like being in the season. I like going to the games and covering them and having them matter and playoffs and all those things. So I want them to be down the stretch into the playoffs because it's just a lot more fun that way to be talking about scenarios and who they could play and things going right for them. And you know, will it fall this way? Will it fall that way? Who are they going to play? Where are we going to travel to? What are the key factors to winning this playoff game? And then there is the, the obvious part that if they end up higher in the draft, that the chances they could get someone like Jalen Daniels are just simply higher. And it's

hard to argue against that because it's, there has been no real argument made for them that they could be a playoff team, the gap between the top three teams in the NFC, and then you put Detroit still in the middle there, but the top three is between them and the Vikings is so vast that there's just no way to talk about it as if you could go to San Francisco and beat that team with Josh Dobbs. So that that's the back and forth that I'm constantly having with myself. Yeah.

It's hard because you want this. And listen, everybody knows I'm a Tennessee Vols fan, so I have kind of a bias towards Josh Dobbs. I want to see him perform well. I love that he's been able to be in the league this long, and he's bounced around quite a bit. But I think he's done enough to at least earn himself a nice, sort of a solid journeyman type of career where he's in the league for a long time. Probably going to play for like 10, 11 teams.

But, you know, I like that he's having some form of moderate success as a professional football player. So I want to see him play well and see what this team can do, especially with Justin Jefferson coming back. But it's I also recognize, you know, where this team could potentially go if they put themselves in a position to draft a quarterback, one of these quarterbacks in the first round next spring. And all of the possibilities with the weapons that they have. All of them are healthy. You've got a really good foundation on your offensive line. Now you've got a defensive coordinator. Don't know how much longer he's going to be the defensive coordinator.

If he keeps doing as good a job as he's been doing this year. But you've got, you've got a really nice setup for a young quarterback to step in and have a lot of success, and then who knows going forward after that. So every game that they win the rest of this season is just going to make it that much more challenging to get that guy, to get a Jaden McDaniels, or Jaden McDaniels, I'm thinking Timberwolves right now, Jaden Daniels. Or, you know, I don't know.

I don't know where Bo Nix is going to fall or something like that. J.J. McCarthy, I'm kind of on the fence about. But like the further down you are in the first round, the harder it's going to be to get like the guy that you might actually want. And then, you know, if you do want to get that guy, you're going to have to pay a hefty price to trade up, you know, maybe in the top 10 or something like that to get one of those guys. And that's going to cost you draft capital that you might wish you had later on down the line. So it's hard, man. It's, it's tough. I mean, I, I think ultimately I just want to see them, you know, big picture wise, go into another direction with the quarterback position and just get everything set in stone offensively, especially under this head coach and GM. Folks, is there any better way to spend the holidays than attending sports? Knowing you guys, I'm guessing the answer is no well there is a way to get to all of the events that you want to get to during the holiday season with affordable tickets my friends you are going to want to check out the game time app it's the fast and easy way to buy tickets to everything

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Last minute tickets. Lowest price. Guaranteed. First purchase download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guarantee. You can really take yourself in circles so many times. And I feel like I need another football game to talk about because I'll just spend the rest of the week doing exactly this, which is if Josh jobs fails entirely over the next couple of weeks and the game plans are bad and, and you know,

because I think that Dobbs is talented enough that if the situation is right, he will win. If you know, they can get just the Jefferson, the ball, or I mean, maybe he doesn't win, but at least plays decently.

Right. And if he's asked to do too much, if the game plan requires what it would have required against Chicago and his receivers let him down at times, by the way, then you're just going to lose. But I think that a lot of that frustration about Kevin O'Connell was that it looked like a Kirk cousins game plan for Josh Dobbs. And that just doesn't make a lot of sense. So if they have really good game plans for Josh Dobbs down the stretch, then we're going to say, well, Kevin O'Connell can game plan for any

quarterback. So he can draft somebody and then mold what he's doing to that quarterback. If they fail to put in good enough game plans for Dobbs and he struggles and they lose these games, then you're going to say, well, this does help them draft a quarterback, but are they going to be able to like work around this? Josh Dobbs is just good enough to say that. I mean, because if it was Tim Boyle or Jake Brown, and you'd be like, I don't know, Bill Walsh could come back from the dead and this guy's not doing anything, but I don't think that's the case with Josh Dobbs. And that's where the conflict comes in. Well, Bradley just wants to straight up talk about 2024 draft class, which I am all for, uh, says out of, uh, Jalen Daniels, Michael Pennix, Jr. Bo Nix, JJ McCarthy rank, uh, in your opinions, options for the Vikings, who they would potentially select hard to say about what they're thinking about all these

different quarterbacks. Because one thing that we know is that we don't know. Everyone thought that Will Levis was going to be top five or Malik Willis was going to be taken high and it just didn't happen. I think with Daniels, he is so talented that you draft him and figure out the rest. But where it gets very interesting is those other guys because they all scream second round pick to me. Penix is very slow. Uh, Bo Nix is a good athlete and was throwing to the most wide open receivers in the entire world until he faced decent defense. And then it was a problem. I think JJ McCarthy's was not even, I think he's like a third round pick personally. I think he's

like Desmond Ritter or something. I just don't see it. I don't see the physical skill. And I know Iowa's got a good defense, but he averaged five yards pass against Iowa. I don't know. I just don't see much there that says NFL starter to me. But how are you feeling about those quarterbacks and how they might fit? Yeah, I mean, Jaden Daniels, I think, is just fantastic, and I think he's been so good that, you know,

I think somebody's going to end up taking him in the top five. You're going to see Caleb Williams, Drake May, and you might see Jaden Daniels get picked in that top five as well. And a lot of that kind of depends on, you know, who's picking in that top five. But we see teams trade up all the time to try and get the guy that they want. But I think he's going to be probably in a position that might be out of reach for the Vikings, unless they, unless crazy just says, you know what?

We want that guy. We're going to do whatever it takes. We're going to give up whatever it takes to move up in position to take them. I like Michael Penix. I just worry about the mobility. When he was at Indiana, he actually could run around quite a bit. And then he just had the two ACLs that really kind of changed everything for him. And he's good in the the pocket he's got a really good arm he's accurate he throws with anticipation um but i just wonder about that mobility if you know if he's going to be able to when plays break down can he find ways to extend and make things happen um if something doesn't go well uh bo nicks i like the athleticism he's also a little bit older. I think he's like 23 already because he was at Auburn for like 20 years, it felt like. But he was really good. He was really

good for Oregon this year. He is a good athlete. He can run quite a bit. So he'll be kind of intriguing. J.J. McCarthy is so hard to read because that team around him is so good, and there were a lot of times where they would get up – Michigan would get up by four touchdowns in the second quarter, and then it's just like he doesn't have to do anything the rest of the way. So it's hard to really know like how good he actually is now he played fairly well against ohio state which i think was a legitimate challenge for him um but just overall i don't know if i've seen enough of him to even like know if he'll be good

or not because he just seems like a product of the team around him and he was he hasn't really been asked to do a whole lot because except for the ohio state game michigan's been obliterating everybody all season long so like i watched i watched them against the gophers and like he didn't do anything in that game he didn't have to they won 52 to 10 uh because they're just so loaded and so talented so i i jayden daniels is the one for me that I think is just going to be, with the overall skill set, I think he's going to be fantastic. And maybe Pennix and Nix are two guys that, if you get them in the right situation, they can have some success. And maybe they'll never be great, but you could see,

like I could see a guy like Bo Nix being a really good starting quarterback for, you know, seven or eight years, if he's in the right situation with good weapons around him and having a mild success, but it'll, it'll be,

it'll be interesting, man. I think if whoever it is, if they can, you know, get them into this infrastructure, I think they'll have, have, uh, have a lot of success. Uh, Enigma one says I'm aware of the injury history,

but looking at the structure of the Huskies offense, Pennix jr is perfect for KOC scheme. It's all about ball placement. He's incredibly accurate with executing that. And you brought up the word that I think of too, Manny, with him, which is anticipation. And everything in the NFL is about throwing with anticipation. You have to release the ball before guys come out of breaks. There's not a ton of quarterbacks who are good at it, which is why there's not a ton of good quarterbacks in the NFL. But when you watch the tape, I'll give you a good example of someone who's great at it. Dak Prescott is great at it. When you watch Dak Prescott tape, you will see a receiver who is not looking anywhere near Dak Prescott and the throw is coming out of his hands. And you're just going like where on tape, you're not even sure where the receiver's headed next. And then you see it come together. And Kirk got better at this as his

career went along. If there's one thing that I think Kirk under KOC did better, it was learning to trust anticipation throws. So a guy may be headed screaming down the field and you're releasing it to an 11 yard hitch. And you just got to believe that that receiver slamming on the brakes and hitting where you're going to be. Pennix already does that like a pro, but you mentioned, I mean, the mobility, maybe O'Connell doesn't care as much about that mobility. I mean, he wins the super bowl with Matthew Stafford, who at that point in his career was not that mobile, was kind of sitting in the pocket. Now Stafford is best, or at least his best physical shape earlier in his career was making plays all over the place. He was mobile.

He was shaking off defenders, but the Rams version of him stayed in the pocket a lot. And they had a great pass protection situation, which the Vikings have at this moment was strange enough to say, but they actually do have a good pass protection situation. And so with Pennix rookie quarterback contract, mature leader, which I think really stands out. And I think is required if he's going to be dropped right into a team. There is a lot to like there. I think that you probably want a little bit more on the playmaking side, but maybe beggars can't be choosers. If you're talking about drafting like 20th or something. What about Bob says, I'm afraid Kirk will be the quarterback from 24 to 27 surviving another full regime change.

He's like a fungus. I know I get emails about this almost every day about like people thinking that Kirk is coming back and so forth and being afraid of that outcome. This is another good question. A guy we haven't talked about, and we'll get back to the Kirk thing. Where does Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers get drafted? Is he a late first or second rounder? So I like Ewers a lot.

But I don't know where the NFL is going to stand on him. Are they going to look at him like a Will Levis where it's like arm strength, but nothing else? I think he's come quite a long way, actually, within the last year from the first time I saw him where it was just all arm and I didn't see him really playing quarterback. He might be one that does go in the first round. If he plays well in this college football championship, then I think there's a really good chance at that.

But how rational is it for the people to be afraid that Kirk Cousins will be your quarterback from 2024 to 2027? I don't know. I mean, I think I just don't, I don't know. I don't see it. I don't, I don't see it. I don't think for, for all of the praising that KOC has done with Kirk Cousins, you know, especially like after he got injured, I don't see a scenario where it,

A, I don't see a scenario in which it makes sense to bring him back. B, I don't see a scenario where he realistically comes back unless he takes a significant pay cut. And I just don't think that Kirk Cousins is going to look around at what some of these other quarterbacks are making even though he's coming off of a pretty serious injury I don't think Kirk is going to look around at what Daniel Jones is making what Derek Carr is making and say that yeah I'll take less than what those guys are making like I just don't I don't see it he's never been a guy to do that you know what I I mean? So I don't, and if it's going to take a $35 to $40 million a year contract to bring Kirk Cousins back, even if it's just like a two or three year deal, I just don't see how that makes sense for where this team, with where this team is at, with having to re-sign Jefferson, having to re-sign Christian Derrissaw, are they going to bring Daniil Hunter back?

If that happens, that's going to cost a pretty significant chunk of change as well. I mean, there's only so much money to go around, and I know the cap can be manipulated and money can be moved around and everything, but the Vikings have been doing that for the last five, six years with Kirk Cousins. And look at where it's gotten them. So to me, it just doesn't make sense to go down that route again to continue to try. Because it's like, what do you ultimately, unless you think you can go to the Super Bowl next year and win the whole damn thing, it just doesn't make any sense to me to bring Kirk Cousins back with where this team is at.

And this is an opportunity for them. I know I just got through saying it'd be really hard to trade up and get a guy like Jaden Daniels in the draft. But this is a pretty deep quarterback class coming out. And you're going to have an opportunity to get somebody, I would think. So take that opportunity. Take a swing. If you don't want to move up, you know, maybe you take a guy that can fall to you in the second round or something like that and just see what happens after that. But I just, I just don't see a scenario where it makes sense to bring Kirk Cousins at this point. And I think something tells me the Vikings really recognize that behind the scenes and that they're going to go in the right direction. I wonder how much the defense factors into this in, they probably

believed that they were two years away from having a good defense, but they have a good defense now that doesn't necessarily mean. And this is where the reason you hire Casey Duffel Mensah is that he doesn't just blow whatever way the wind is going and react to whatever he just saw and tries to factor in lots of different elements, like the fact that they've faced during this stretch where they've been much better on defense, a lot of incompetent quarterbacks, or at least at

the time they faced Jordan love, he was not very good. And that Brian Flores has reached into his bag and pulled out every magic trick in the book, but that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be able to do it again for next year and the future. Like you're going to have to have talent. That's going to drive you to be a really, truly great defense, as opposed to a defense that's squeezing every ounce of blood out of the stone, which is what they're currently doing an incredible coaching job. But I don't look at the roster on defense and go, Oh baby, super bowl. I look at it more as, wow, they've done a really good job getting a lot of players here and getting a most out of those players, but they

don't have Micah Parsons. They don't have sauce Gardner. They don't have like, they are other than Daniel Hunter being, being, you know, as great as he is, but they don't have this loaded defense. It's more of they've just sort of found a way to scheme. But if you're going to ride your defense, which you have to also do if Kirk Cousins is your quarterback, even years where he had an elite defense, they weren't able to go deep into the playoffs. And so I expect, though, that Kweisi Adafomenta understands that.

You might lose Hunter anyway, by the way, we talk about bringing them back as if it's the Vikings decision alone. It also might be Daniil Hunter's decision. They've messed around with his contract a lot. He may want to just, you know, say, I'm going to go where I'm wanted or another team might say, we really, really, really want you here is an insane amount of money that the Vikings can't match anyway, all those elements factor in, but I wouldn't just look at the way the defense has gone this year and guarantee they're a top five defense next year. That's my point. And so if we feel like more work has to be done there in order to get to that level, how would you do that

work? If you are paying Kirk cousins, what you're going to have to pay him. And if you didn't want to give him a three-year extension last year, why would you want to give him a two-year extension next year? It's the same years, only with an Achilles mixed in, right? So this is where I keep coming around to. I understand the fear, but I can't really convince myself of it. After the Bears game though, and the way Kevin O'Connell talked, I was thinking they're going back to Kirk, aren't they? So, so I really don't know because if I'm sure that people will listen to shows from the other day and go like, Hey, didn't you say it feels like Kirk's coming back? I probably did

because it did. But when we really break it down, like, you know, by the X's and O's, it's a little harder to make that work with the salary cap and everything else. But I mean, that's where I don't know if these final five games make a difference for that or not, or I think it might come down to who do they believe they could get in the draft? How would that fit with Kevin O'Connell? And what are your other options? I mean, Gardner Minshew's winning some games right now. There are a lot of quarterbacks, and I'm not saying as good as Kirk Cousins,

but I've always thought of it this way. The gap between Cousins and Gardner Minshew is there, and between Josh Dobbs, of course, is probably even more so. But Minshew is the ultimate fringe starter to me. Okay, it's a gap for sure. But the gap between him and Patrick Mahomes is larger than it is between him and Gardner Minshew.

So can you have someone else be that bridge quarterback while you have a rookie? Or does it just make sense to throw a rookie into the mix and see if he can CJ Stroud that thing? It shouldn't be forgotten that CJ Stroud's roster and offensive mind came from a similar coaching tree as Kevin O'Connell. And the roster has developed some receivers all of a sudden who could play. Unfortunately, Tank Dell is hurt, but he was good.

And Nico Collins is good. Like they have dudes who catch the ball. So could you play a quarterback right away and have him succeed? Sometimes we act like that's impossible. Let me get back to some comments here, though. This one just deserves being put on the screen for the effort from a bland toast says Dobbs play against the Bears was Apollo wing like Apollo 13. They would be lunar ticks to bench him only worth mulling over the decision.

If you want to see your rookie, he can play for the long haul H a L L. I don't know why you did that, but you did a great job there. Jason says KOC needs to blame himself more than Dobbs for that bears game. I agree with that coming out of the game. I just, after watching the tape back himself and his receivers, that was the first time this year.

I mean, Hockinson had some drops early in the year. This was the first time this year. I was like, they were not good at receiver or offensive line in that game. Uh, KOC is game plan was still for Kirk. I agree with that. Dobbs in the pocket throwing 40 times is not a winning game plan. I agree with that. Dobbs needs to be on the move to be good.

Everything there, Jason, I am 100% with you. So yeah, I know I understand my level of waffling when it comes to whether they would bring back Kirk. But every time I get to that edge of saying like, oh yeah, I think they will. I keep coming back to, but why would they extend them if they didn't already? Like not a whole lot actually changed. They were four and four. So it's not,

it's not like, it's not like they were, sometimes we act like they were eight. No, when, when he was playing well, but it's not like they were just killing it. So I don't know,

you know, maybe if they had had this, this caliber of defense all year, it would have been different. Jim says I'm over wanting to win, hoping for good games and losing by one score over the last five games over just sneaking into the playoffs. Even if we can't get our quarterback,

we need studs at other positions too. How do you feel about that? As a, as a very creative stance by Jim? I actually like the cleverness of here's what I want. I want them to not look terrible, but also still lose by one score so we can draft someone higher. That right there is a Minnesota Vikings fan response.

So basically finish 6-11 but still possibly have like a positive point differential or something like that maybe i don't know maybe they lose the last five games all by one point then i think they would be uh that would actually happen but um yeah i mean there are other there are other needs on the team i mean like we we've talked about you know maybe a another player on the defensive front that can apply some pressure from the interior it might help bolster this defense a little bit too um you know you're gonna lose you're probably gonna lose kj osborne in in uh free agency so you might want to think about you can never i don't care who the quarterback is you can never have enough weapons, right?

I mean, because, you know, who knows? Guys get hurt. We saw Justin Jefferson get hurt, and it would have been nice to have, you know, another receiver in the mix the last couple of weeks too. So there are other needs, but I don't know. It's tricky. Blake says Dobbs hasn't been confirmed as the starter this week.

This conversation could very well be outdated. Well, that happens in football all the time. Hey, if the Packers lose 48 to nothing next week, then all of our praise for Jordan Love will be outdated as well. But I would say this, that I would be completely shocked if it's not Josh Dobbs at this point and I think there was one report from Diana Rossini that said uh that that's the direction that they're leaning or or something but I just just that's my feeling is there's no real justification for Nick Mullins

to play so I I think that it just just judging off the way Kevin O'Connell has sent his messages in his own passive-aggressive way through the media as opposed to direct, like Mike Zimmer, I think Josh Jobs is starting. I'm not too concerned about this. Plus, we spent most of the time talking about Jaden Daniels anyway. Blake also says, I think KOC loves the Stafford Cousins-style quarterback more than Lamar. Has he had a chance to have that

though is the question because he was in Washington. He had Kirk and then Alex Smith briefly. And then it was, he had Josh Johnson for a minute and Mark Sanchez. And then he went to LA. It was the offensive coordinator there and had Stafford and now cousins. I mean, really, he just has, he has to believe in the guy. And there also was reports last year that they made phone calls to see if they could trade up for Anthony Richardson or Bryce young. And they obviously were rebuffed because they had no draft capital and they were drafting way too late. So I don't know if that, I don't know if he's like anti running quarterback.

Kevin O'Connell in college was a prolific running quarterback himself. I believe I could be wrong. I think when he retired or not retired, when he finished college, I guess guys have to retire now. Cause they're like 26 years old. But, um, in college, when he was done with college, he was like one of the best running quarterbacks for yardage, uhage in college history or something. I mean, I swear there was some stat like that. The man ran like a 4'6". I don't think he's anti-running quarterback or he'd be anti himself. So is that right with the stat? So I just brought up his Wikipedia page and the section where it talks about his college career at San Diego State.

It says that SDSU, where he was a four-year team captain, he started 21 games, the sixth most among SDSU quarterbacks, and ranked first in school history in career rushing yards and second in career rushing touchdowns among quarterbacks. In 2007, he led the team in rushing yards. So, he's a brother. Yeah, that's right. I mean, I don't think he's anti anti-running

quarterback. I think it's just who he's been paired with. Uh, Chuck, nice to see you, Chuck, our, uh, Paralympic medalist, Chuck Aoki. What is up? Um, that's gotta be coming up soon. Chuck's gotta be getting ready. What are you doing? Watching live streams, Chuck. You gotta be grinding. What are you doing, man? No, I'm just kidding. Chuck says, I might get called nuts, but I'm still not completely out on Dobbs. He genuinely played well versus New Orleans. Kirk had his share of random atrocious games. Chuck, you bring up Atlanta a couple of years ago. You don't really don't have to go back that far for random Kirk atrocious games. How about, I mean, even like this year, twice, Carolina, Carolina, he was awful in Carolina. And I, I think that Kevin O'Connell's offense is sort of built for that, not built for being

atrocious, but built for having these like great games and terrible games, because the farther that you send the receivers down the field, the more variants there's going to be just like Chuck, this scourge or never sleeps. Okay. Well, that's, that's good. I'm glad you're able to tune in, uh, go, I don't know, go pump some iron or something. So you're ready. Uh, but, uh, yeah, the farther you send the receivers down the field, the more chance there is for variance and hitting big plays, but also turning the ball over. And we saw this from Kirk. We saw interceptions from Kirk last season. He was one of the tops in the league in picks and we saw strip sacks. And I mean, O'Connell asks the quarterback to hang in the pocket for a long time in his system. And Stafford, Stafford is amazing at it. And so his cousinsousins. It's just hanging in, hanging in, hanging in.

The last second the ball comes out and they get blasted. But that's the system. And if you ask Dobbs to do that too much, it's going to get blasted and fumble or throw it to the other team. That's where I think there needs to be the adjustment with Josh Dobbs. Get the ball out quick. He's a good quick passer. But if you're asking him to go too much down the field,

I think you need to just do that during kind of like the bootlegs um and not too much but to to chuck's point is that is that fair though manning to say like because we spent this whole time talking about like whether michael pennix would be good for them is it fair to just say hey hey let's not let's not go crazy here let's see if there's something here with Josh Dobbs. Yeah, I think that's incredibly fair. I mean, look, he's played well at times since he's been here, and he had one awful game last week. And ultimately, we haven't seen him with this offense at full strength yet. We haven't seen him with Justin Jefferson yet.

And now that he's been with the team a little bit longer than, you know, since, you know, since he got here, now you're going to get that back, presumably this Sunday against the Raiders. So to me, I'm not ready to just completely write him off and say this is over and he's awful. You know, I want to see what he looks like with Justin Jefferson as, you know, the first option, the first, second, and third, and fourth, and fifth option in a passing game.

I'm kidding. But, yeah, I want to see that. I want to see what that looks like because you put Justin Jefferson back on the field, he instantly makes things easier for everybody else. He makes things easier for TJ Hawkinson. He makes things easier for everybody else. He makes things easier for TJ Hawkinson. He makes things easier for Jordan Addison. He makes things easier for the offensive line. He's that good. And he makes things easier for whoever the quarterback is if he's out there. So I want to see that and see how that looks against the Raiders and how it looks the following week against Cincinnati.

And then we'll kind of go from there. Ultimately, do I think that Dobbs is, should they be signing him to like a five-year contract in the offseason? No, I don't think anybody really thinks that at this point, unless he goes on some miraculous run to the Super Bowl, which I don't think is going to happen. So yeah, I think you just see how this goes, see how, see how he looks with a full, with a full cupboard of, um, of options in the passing attack. And, and you kind of go from there. Folks. I hope you've enjoyed listening to us talk about prize picks this year, but if you've missed it, here's how it works. You go to prize picks.com and it is simple. You pick either more or less between two and six player stat projections and that's it now you're playing so if it's x number of yards for a quarterback

you just decide are they going to throw for more or less than that number of yards but it works with lots of different options receiving yards touchdowns even field goals all sorts of sports as well prizepicks.com slash purple. Go there. Use the code purple for the first deposit match up to $100. One of the reasons I like PrizePix, it is very simple to use. You'd see how we do it on the show real quick and easy. And then we talk about our picks and also not expensive either.

You can turn $10 into $250 by nailing just a couple of picks. So go to prizepicks.com slash purple, the code purple daily fantasy sports made easy. All right. Just before we get to the one last thing we had scheduled to talk about that I thought was going to take up more time, but this has actually turned out to be a fun conversation about whether we should be talking about Dobbs or, or draft picks. Um, you want to talk about the bears or the boat? Was it, what was that? Was that a Mike Tice who said that you guys want to talk about the bears or the boat after, after a very memorable

incident? Uh, well anyway, but I have to remind you all that, uh, I'm headed to Vegas this week. So if you're looking for your sort of last second planning, you could come join me in Las Vegas. I will be at circa Las Vegas for the weekend. Uh, I'll be doing the podcast there on Friday. Murph and I are going to get together on Saturday. So you can find me outside there at stadium swim. Very cool.

Gigantic TV. I think we're going to have Army-Navy. Is that on Saturday, Army-Navy? So imagine Army-Navy on a screen that's as big as a football field. That's what I'm going to be doing on Saturday. And if you haven't seen it before, you should Google Stadium Swim to see what this looks like. They got heated pools, so even if it's not that hot out,

you can still go out there and swim. And we're having a party at Circa on Friday night, drink specials, ticket giveaway. But you have to RSVP for the party. So a few people have asked about this. It's not hard. Just go to Circa,

Las Vegas.com C I R C A. And where it says sports book, there's a place where it says huddle up at overhangs. It's the overhang bar inside of circa go there. And you can RSVP for the party. It is also on Fremont street. If you've ever been there, it's very cool.

So if you're looking for a way to get away, circle Las Vegas.com and I will see you there. All right. Last thing, you know, what's really funny about all this discussion. The Vikings are in a playoff spot right now. Like they're not out of the playoffs yet.

So that's what a bad loss to Chicago can do for everybody's morale. I want to look at the playoffs right now, Manny. If the playoffs started today using the ESPN playoff machine, and let's talk about the matchups. Let's just talk about what this looks like at this moment and who we think would win what we like about the matchups starting with the three seed Detroit versus the six seed Minnesota Vikings. How would you feel about that? I mean, if that happens, that to me is a chance to win. If you, if you hang around in the 60, that means you want some games down the stretch. And I just don't

look at Detroit and see impenetrable. I look at San Francisco and like, Oh man, Brock Purdy is going to have to have both of his arms get messed up if they're going to lose, uh, you know, in the playoffs to the Vikings, but, uh, a Detroit matchup is by far the most favorable to going to San Francisco or going to Philly or going to Dallas. Yeah. I mean, Detroit is really good and they have been, you know, there was a lot of hype going, you know, surrounding them this season. I think a lot of people were kind of picking them to win the division and saying, Hey, Detroit's going to take this next step. And they've proven to be, you know, just that they've been very good this year. But like you said, I don't think that they're completely unbeatable. We just saw the Packers

go in and beat them on Thanksgiving day. And so, you know, I do think that it's possible for the Vikings to go into Detroit and, and win a playoff game. And if this does play out this way, they'd be playing Detroit at Ford Field two consecutive weeks, essentially, because they play them in there on week 18 as well. But it's a division opponent. The two teams would know each other really well at that point, because it would have been the third time that they played in, what, four weeks at that point. So, you know, Detroit has a lot of really talented players. I don't think that their defense is great, which I think means that you can move the ball on them a little bit. If you take care of the ball and don't turn it over, you're not giving extra possessions to Jared Goff in that offense to make plays. And I think you'll have an opportunity and there's also kind of that you know for as good as detroit has

been this year they're kind of entering uncharted territory as far as the franchise is concerned they haven't when's the last time the lions i mean forget about you know making the playoffs that much they haven't done that in the last 30 years, but, you know, they haven't had a home playoff game, I think, what, since 90, was it 93? I think it was the last time they played a home playoff game. Definitely early 90s, yeah. Yeah, so you kind of wonder, like, the lights will be even brighter, and you got to kind of wonder like okay this team that has all this hype they've lived up to it but is is this is are the bright lights going to be a little bit too much for them are they just not quite ready yet to be that team that makes some noise in the post

season you just you just never know and the vikings get that matchup if they're playing well i think late in the season i think they got a decent shot. But if you ask me to pick that game, I would probably still pick the Lions with all of that said. Oh, yeah. I mean, and Detroit will be absolutely favored unless the Vikings beat them both times or something. And who knows what the scenarios could look like.

What a scheduling quirk that would be, though, if they play the same team three times in four weeks i don't know someone's gonna have to tell me if that's ever happened it doesn't seem plausible that that's happened because usually i mean i know that teams have played back-to-back weeks it happened with the joe webb situation uh it also happened a buffalo in i think 98 was playing miami they played them in the last week of the season and then played them again in the playoffs. The Rams and Saints had that too in 2000. Oh, that's right. Yeah.

Yeah, it does. It does happen, but not usually three times in four weeks. The one thing is if there's pressure on Jared Goff, you always have a chance. And that's why it's so hard for people to ever look at Goff and say he's an elite quarterback, even though his offenses are always elite. There's those games like Thanksgiving where, uh, you know, the offensive line for them wasn't that good. And then all of a sudden he's under pressure and it's just over if he's under pressure. So you always feel like you have a chance. It's not like, Oh man, we're playing big Ben. And no matter how many times we try to sack them, the dude is going to throw touchdowns.

Like it's, it's very different than that. So, uh, that one is, is by far the most favorable matchup for the Vikings, Atlanta and Dallas would be the four and the five, uh, which I think that is now look, I defend Mike McCarthy more than almost anybody else. And look, here we are again with Dallas putting up big numbers on offense and everything else. And I think they are right in the mix for a top three team. But wouldn't it be the most Mike McCarthy playoffs thing to somehow lose to Atlanta?

Atlanta making the playoffs also is just so bad. Like, come on, really? It is. And it's just like making the playoffs, because I think they've gone back to Desmond Ritter now. Right. Cause I think he played, he played yesterday against the Jets. He sure did. I, I, that would be, it would be the most Mike McCarthy and Dallas cowboy thing of all time to just like lay an egg in Atlanta against the hapless Falcons team in the playoffs. But I think, I think the Cowboys would be too good.

I think there's just too much firepower on offense and Atlanta's defense isn't great. They've got some nice players, but it's not a great unit. And Arthur Smith is still coaching them and he's kind of an idiot so i i would still uh say dallas would probably win that pretty handily yeah i i i mean it's always hard because if uh desmond ritter is your quarterback then your coach looks bad but i also don't really think a lot of his coaching uh the funniest possible outcome would be that the cowboys are up by six points at the end of the game. They're all set. They've won the game and in victory formation,

Dak fumbles because, uh, McCarthy has told them to go out of the shotgun and victory formation. It goes over his head. Atlanta picks it up, runs it for a touchdown, wins the game because their kicker is amazing. He wins the game on this final kick. That would be, that would be exactly it. San Francisco and green Bay could be actually quite a slug fest, but San Francisco just looks so much stronger than everybody else. The Vikings certainly played them at the right time when they didn't have Trent Williams and Debo Samuel, but if they are at a hundred percent, the way Brock Purdy is playing for them,

I just don't see any way green Bay goes out to San Francisco and beats them. That would be a fun matchup though. I think, I mean, because green Bay's defense has improved and Jordan love is playing well. So it kind of put the Jordan love hype to the test if that were the matchup. But I, I just,

man, San Francisco is just such a monster. And it would be like what feels like the 50th time that the 49ers and Packers have played each other in the playoffs. It's happened so many times. And, you know, the last handful of times, the Niners have just had their number, even when Aaron Rodgers was at the peak of his powers.

Yeah, the Niners, I think the Niners are going to go to the Super Bowl. You know, I probably wouldn't have said that two or three weeks ago. I probably would have had Philly still kind of as the front runner. But the Niners are fully healthy, and they just look unstoppable. And they look like they could go on the road if they have to go on the road in Philadelphia in the NFC title game and do it again. They're well-equ equipped to do it. So I don't think the Packers, as much as, you know, we as Vikings fans want to root against them.

It's been a pretty impressive way for them to kind of rebound from being two and five and to get back into the conversation. Because after that Vikings game, I mean, we were all writing them off. Like, yeah, this is a bad team. Jordan love might not even be the future quarterback for this team. Where are they going? They're going in a bad direction.

They turned it around. So you got to give them a lot of credit, but there's just not enough there on their part. San Francisco, I think would just be way too good. I think so too. On the AFC side right now, the playoff picture is just,

I don't, it's not what it's going to look likeFC side right now, the playoff picture is just, I don't, it's not what it's going to look like. Uh, and right now it's horrible, but I don't think it will be right now. Pittsburgh is in a playoff spot and so is Indianapolis. But if you replace them with Buffalo and Houston, this could be an incredible bracket. Uh, also Cleveland is in it right now, which I'm not sure they're going to stay in that so it's like the the teams that aren't in the playoffs at the moment in the afc the best teams that aren't in it actually would make this quite a bit better uh i don't know if denver matters but at least i think buffalo and houston have to be in the playoffs for it to be

if that's if that doesn't happen that's's going to be kind of sad. Actually, we're going to be like, then two teams are going to end up, you know, being left out of this somehow by their own doing for Buffalo, especially from losing all those close games. But that's how I think it will end up playing out is having Houston and Buffalo in the playoffs. And if you had a matchup in the first round of like Baltimore Buffalo, like that could be like upset special potentially. And maybe even Sean McDermott saving his job in Baltimore, uh, that that's up in the air. And if Houston makes the six seat, how about a matchup potentially? And I, and I haven't run this all through the playoff machine.

I'm just sort of, but how about any matchup between like Jacksonville, Trevor Lawrence, CJ Stroud or Kansas City, CJ Stroud. I mean, that has the potential to make for some very compelling football. So anyway, any thoughts on the AFC? I just think that it's not going to be Cleveland. It's not going to be Pittsburgh. One of those teams is going to be out, maybe even Indianapolis, and it's very likely, in my mind, Houston and Buffalo.

Yeah, let's hope so. Because, you know, a Jacksonville-Houston first round on wildcard would probably be the Saturday game. You know, probably be like the first Saturday game, you know, because we know how TV does. Shouldn't it be on Thursday night? Don't they have to put it on Thursday night? Like, I know there's no playoff game scheduled for Thursday night,

but they're just like, oh, actually, Roger Goodell gets to the podium. We are announcing that we've moved Jacksonville Houston to Thursday night to start the playoffs out of pure tradition that it would be two teams that only appear on Thursday night. Yeah. And, and the Texans are just so much fun. You and I were texting back and forth yesterday when Derek Stingley Jr. just made that ridiculous interception of Russell Wilson yesterday. And, you know, I'm glad to see the Texans kind of get this figured out and get it turned around pretty quickly. And you see how teams can turn it around pretty quickly when they tank, folks?

We've seen it happen a few times now. I mean, just saying, you know, tanking isn't always a bad thing. But the Texans are a lot of fun. They've got a lot of really cool young players, and C.J. Stroud is just fantastic. And D'Amico Ryans is a really likable guy, easy guy to root for with his journey and everything. So Jacksonville-Houston could be a lot of fun.

Jacksonville or Houston and Kansas City, like you said, if that's the matchup, that could be a lot of fun jacksonville or um houston and kansas city like you said if that's the matchup that could be a lot of fun um as well so i don't want to see i love me some mike tomlin i don't want to see pittsburgh in the playoffs that team is just come on they lost to the freaking cardinals yesterday like come on that team is not a team is not good the browns if if deshaun watson were healthy and playing the browns would be more intriguing i think obviously but that team they got joe flacco playing for them now like come on i don't want to see joe flacco in the playoffs anymore. Come on. Like, come on. Joe Flacco popped off his couch and dropped like eight dimes yesterday.

It was wild. I was like, what is going on? But I think they're still going to have a tough time winning with him. Plus, he's like my age, so he's got to be tired. I'm tired. I mean, imagine how tired he is. I had the bye week and I'm tired. So anyway, that, that was, that was darn impressive and weird to see him playing for the Cleveland Browns. That's going

to go back. Uh, when we like make funny references about players to each other and be like, remember when Flacco played those couple of games for the Browns. Um, so, but I, but I don't think they're going to make the playoffs. Indianapolis could, uh, Gardner Minshew is coming along there so uh anyway we will uh continue to track the least exciting quarterback controversy that i can remember uh recently which josh dobbs and whether he's going to play i just i just think it's going to be dobbs and um that more more likely than not we'll just see kevin o'connell come back this week and say all right yeah we're going back to dobbs but the leash is short and nick's ready to go. And you know, Jaron's developing and then he'll say nice things about them for like four minutes straight and then be like, but yeah, it's Dobbs.

So we'll see, we'll see where it goes. And, uh, we will know after this week, whether it's the playoffs or entirely 2024 draft conversation, but I did have fun talking about that this evening with all of you. So thanks for your time, Manny. Now get back to watching Jake Browning, everybody. And we will see you Thursday night. Same time.

Football.