Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Should Vikings offseason regrets include Trey Lance? And fans are kinda losing it at 0-3

Episode Date: September 27, 2023

Matthew Coller and Jonathan Harrison go over some of the wildest takes about the Vikings' 0-3 start they have seen so far, including a discussion about Trey Lance and even Jim Harbaugh Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. It is Hot Routes time once again. Matthew Collar along with Jonathan Harrison here. And Jonathan, it was a pretty gray day outside. Pretty gray day in the lives of Vikings fans. And I want to go through some of the things that have been suggested to me today. Because this is kind of a main topic. I want to have a little fun with the show tonight

because it's been a little heavy over the last couple of days. If you've been listening to the show here about what it means for the Vikings to be 0-3. And so in getting DMs and emails with lots of interesting takes and ideas, I was attempting to come up with, like, what's the spiciest thing I could come up with? Like, what's the hottest take for Hot Routes, of course? And what's the biggest thing I could go back and say, you know what, maybe they should have done this, and then everything would be different.

And so here's what I came up with. All right, Trey Lance. I came up with. All right. Trey Lance. I came up with Trey Lance because the Vikings had a chance to trade for Trey Lance. They had a chance in probably March, I would guess, to possibly go after him then or somewhere around the NFL combine. And then at the end of training camp, they also had an opportunity to trade for him. The Dallas Cowboys gave up a fourth round pick, which is not that much, not that hard to beat. Maybe if you were giving up a third rounder and if Trey Lance were the

backup quarterback of this team, then maybe what we would have is a situation where you could turn the ball over to a young and unproven quarterback. If things went completely sideways and hey, look, things went completely sideways. And I know the season's not over. There have been teams to go and three and make the playoffs. It's a rough ride from here. And, you know, they have a good enough offense to do it. They probably don't have a good enough offense to do it they probably don't have a good enough defense to do it but if they're oh and four if they don't win this week because brian burns gets three strip sacks or something then you're gonna look around and go there's no one to really turn the ball over to it's not like you'd be finding out if nick mullins could play jaron hall was like the fourth quarter guy uh in the preseason and is not ready to play in real NFL

games against real NFL defenses yet. So there's nothing to really look forward to. That's why that trade thing probably won't happen. So, I mean, what do you think? I don't know. Should they have traded for Trey Lansing? If you could go back in time, do you think, yeah, you know what they probably should have knowing what we know now? I think absolutely. I mean, yeah, you know what? They probably should have knowing what we know now. I think absolutely. I mean, looking like you said, knowing what we know now and how this thing is played out, if you could take a time machine and nothing else changes if you make that trade, I think absolutely because, as you said, it makes moving on from Kirk Cousins and kind of punting on this season a little bit easier because it's not like you're banking on,

you wouldn't be banking on Trey Lance being your quarterback of the future because you still have your first round pick and you get whatever you get for Kirk Cousins in return. But I mean, it allows you to move on and feel comfortable. Hey, this is, we're not going to be good this season. Let's see if we have the quarterback in the building. And if we do, great, we can use

a top 10 pick on another wide receiver or a defensive end, because we know this team needs defensive lineman at this point. I mean, it would have allowed you if Trey Lance actually turned out to be the guy, which doesn't look like he's going to be at this point in his career, but it gave you that chance to explore that opportunity and explore that possibility that he is the guy. And if it doesn't, well, then it doesn't matter. Your season was bust anyways. I mean, you, you just kind of wasted a season of Justin Jefferson. You wasted a season of Christian Darisaw, but at least you took a chance to see if this guy could be your quarterback of the future.

And you ended up with the top 10 pick and you draft your next quarterback and you don't even worry about it afterwards. I mean, I liked the idea. I mean, but I mean, looking at it from that standpoint of when the trade happened, obviously they didn't do it for very many reasons because it seemed like they were going all in on this season, but it hasn't turned out. But if you're going back in time and you know what you know, you knew, you know what you know now, I think absolutely you take the shot because it makes it a hell of a lot easier to move on from Kirk Cousins. Because right now you're not turning it over, as you said, to Nick Mullins or Jaron Hall. Because that's going to be even worse than it would be with Trey Lance.

Because there's no opportunity for that to work out in the future. I think that when it comes to Trey Lance, I could never really make it make sense. Once we got past training camp, once he struggled as much as he did during preseason with the San Francisco 49ers, and it really felt like his career is on the rocks. In March, it didn't feel as much that way. It looked a little bit more like Brock Purdy had just become Kyle Shanahan's darling and left poor Trey Lance out. And he has had so few opportunities to play. And so if you were going to say there's a regret, if you knew you were going 0-3, it would be not doing it then. Having a full offseason of Trey

Lance, being able to bring him in, actually play him, set him up with Justin Jefferson Jordan Addison TJ Hawkinson and see if anything is there and from a selfish standpoint it would have been very interesting this offseason I mean you would have been talking about every training camp practice becomes interesting every preseason probably play and we would be going can he be the quarterback of the future maybe he can maybe he can't oh look he had a good practice today. Oh, he didn't have a good practice today. You know, going back and forth on that. And then there is always the possibility that he would be surprisingly a really good fit.

Now, the thing about Kevin O'Connell and Kyle Shanahan is they run very different types of offense and maybe pushing the ball down the field a little bit more as opposed to reading short crossing routes and things like that would have worked for Trey Lance with a downfield wide receiver like Justin Jefferson or maybe it would have completely blown up and been awful but either way you would have found out now I always felt like it was better to just focus on the next draft because of Trey Lance's timeline. If he turned out to be just okay, then you had a real problem on your hands because are you going to Daniel Jones him and sign him to a $40 million contract because he's already used up several years of his rookie contract. So I could never make it all quite work together,

but I think that you would still do it because you have to exhaust every possible option at the quarterback position. I don't know why it sticks in my brain so much, but when Carolina drafted Jimmy Clawson in the second round, and then they went right back to the well and drafted Cam Newton or when Arizona drafted Josh Rosen and put out arizona drafted josh rosen and put out a tweet that said josh is our quarterback and then they drafted kyler murray like it wouldn't keep you from drafting someone the next year if you were unsure about trey lance and the other thing is too i wonder if there would have been any opportunity like with trading kirk cousins and it's you know pointed out that he had a no trade

clause and stuff like that of course this is not necessarily realistic because in practice I totally understand why they did what they did I'm not saying hey you should have traded for Trey Lance because I never really was sold on the idea anyway but kind kind of interesting. If you were able to know that you were going to start off this way, that it would have been another swing. And maybe you trade cousins and get another draft pick from Atlanta or something whose quarterback might be the worst quarterback in the entire league. If only any of us, all of us could have seen that coming for the entire off season. But if they had Kirk cousins, Atlanta would be great right now with all the weapons that they have. So there had to be at least some interest around the league after he won all those games.

I think that they couldn't really do it because he won 13 games. And if he had won nine, then they would have probably moved on from him. And I'm not sure if it would have been Trey Lance or not, but I mean, I, you know, I, I think that it's at least worth kind of wondering how you would do a do over if, uh, you had known that they were going to go Oh, and three. And then, I mean, maybe that kind of leads into the, this is why they can't really trade him and just have to kind of go for it because it's not like they would be trading him

to turn the ball over to somebody else. So even if Lance was Kirk's backup and they didn't trade Kirk, you would still have this reasoning to go, hey, we're one in four. We got to find out what this guy is. But now I think even if you start one and four, the argument will still be,

Hey, they could turn it around, look at their second half schedule. It's totally reasonable to get on a run and get back to 500. And so at least it would have given him that excuse to kind of bail and focus on the future. Yeah, absolutely.

And, and with how the Wilfs have operated this franchise, since they took over, I don't think Kwasi, especially coming off that 13-win season, was going to ever be able to convince them that, hey, yeah, that was great, but let's kind of step back a little bit so we can get our quarterback in the future. You were just never going to be able to pull that off, as you said. And yeah, having Trey Lance there and going one and four to start off the season does allow you to do that. And I think that would have been a smart play, but you would have had to know you're going one and four to start the season.

I'm fairly positive. They felt pretty confident about their first couple of games that they could have probably taken two wins out of these first three. And well, that didn't happen, obviously. But I think looking back at it, obviously, it makes a ton of sense, but it was going to always be difficult, and it probably still will be at this point, to convince ownership because this is an ownership question. This has to do with ownership. They will be involved in this if Kirk Cousins is moved eventually,

depending on what their record is. It would be a heck of a lot easier to convince them if they had someone like Trey Lance, like, hey, we're going to try and explore this and see if this is the guy, it's not going to be all bad. At least we're trying something. But if you move on from him now, you don't have anything in reserves to kind of look forward to the future other than, Hey,

we got this top 10 draft pick coming up and we don't know who it's going to be, but yeah, it keeping Kirk cousins feels like the most likely option because of how the Wilfs run things and how the, as you said, the second half schedule looks a little bit easier and looks like they could bounce back if they can kind of fix some of the turnover issues and fix a little bit of the defensive issues. Yeah. So I want to know from you, Jonathan, because you're always scouring the Internet for your work, obviously, with us, but also with our friends at Bring Me the News. I want to know what the wackiest takes you've gotten is. This is a good one. The hottest take is the Vikings running the table and winning the Super Bowl.

You know, I did see in the comment section the other day a little bit of the R-E-L-A-X from Aaron Rodgers the one year, and I was like, I don't know, man. 0-3 history is not very good. I think 0-, and two, you could say, relax. Oh, and three, you probably can't saying that you still think they could go to the Superbowl. That's pretty hot. I, yeah, I don't know if I've seen that other than right there, but what, what's the, what's the crazy, because I think that when your team's oh-2, everyone is pretty optimistic still based on the players you have that you can be pretty good. But 0-3 is kind of a major gut punch. And I think it breaks people's brains a little. Based on some of the takes about where the franchise stands and everything else have been pretty wild to me.

And I've got one that stands out that I think will shock you a little bit. But even just to talk about the front office and the direction of the team and everything else, there's a part of me that makes me want to go like, hold on, everybody. Like, all right, let's not declare the entire future of the franchise to be trash now because they started the season 0-3 and three on probably actually statistically the unluckiest start in the entire NFL. There was a chart that was put out that showed that that doesn't mean I think there'll be good going forward.

It just means that they were bound to play close games. And if it went wrong, it was going to go wrong. But their future is not worse because of what's happened in the first three games. But I've seen a lot of that. I think that's maybe a little bit of a more natural reaction. But what do you got? What's the craziest thing you've seen?

So immediately when I saw this question, I went immediately to the Vikings Reddit page because we all know Reddit, foreign boards, it's just goldmine for this stuff. So here's a couple that i found uh flora's coach sunday like an eight-year-old playing madden and then had a picture of the engage eight play on defense where it's just you blitz eight players and you send three back in coverage that was a good one i like that one okay let me let me you say them and then i'll respond to them because that's sort of true but when i I watched the tape back, I saw them play off coverage and give up slants and hooks. I've,

I saw them play tight coverage and, and, and give up slants over the middle and routes from Keenan Allen. I saw them play a lot of different stuff, a lot of different types of blitzes. Justin Herbert ran away, made great throws. They didn't blitz for like one play.

And Justin Herbert sat there for five minutes and then threw a laser beam to somebody. I like, I think it's certainly questionable about the second half to keep doing the same things. But I just think when you face a quarterback that good with as little talent as they have, that's what's going to happen. I don't, I don't know that Brian floorores lost his mind I think he just thought I'll stick with the game plan and see what happens and uh you know bad things happen so all right on to the next one well you also brought it up I think yesterday or in one of the podcasts that his first year in Miami he had the worst defense in the league and they went out and spent

a boatload of money to shore up that defense and they quickly vaulted up the defensive charts so if it's not like they had a lot of talent this year i mean they obviously got rid of a lot of veterans and they brought them in to scout out some of these guys and there are there are some promising guys but the defense overall has not looked great but i don't blame floors completely on that uh another one uh kevin o'connell to blame 100 This team is built around the offense and he is red zone challenged. Okay. The red zone the other day was brutal, but where you can separate the scheme from the players is when you watch back on the tape and you look for, were there opportunities? So there's a play in the red zone where Alexander Madison is screaming across the field wide open and i think

it's joey bosa gets there just in time and it's not a touchdown and that's a blocking issue that's maybe a kirk realizing it quicker issue but it's not scheme the guy's wide open there's another play where jefferson comes underneath the formation kj osborne goes around the back side he's open but i think that's the second read. So Kirk didn't get to it. It was just a slight bit late. How about the end of the game? Osborne's wide open and he just overthrows him by ever so slight. And let's give Kirk his props. That throw to TJ Hawkinson is a hard throw and it's on the money. My guy's got to catch it there. I mean, there is nothing that they really should

have done different on that play. Yes. They should have spiked it, but the way that the play worked out, he was there standing 10 yards away from cousins or whatever, throws it right to him, right in his arms and he doesn't bring it in. So yeah, I mean, look, I think that there's been some things game management wise. How about kicking a field goal early in the game from like the six yard line? i don't i don't endorse that um i think there has been some maybe overthinking at times but overall when you look at the the tape and also you look at the data and you see that the vikings cause more mistakes from the chargers this was another thing that came out today caused more mistakes from the chargers defense was another thing that came out today caused more mistakes

from the chargers defense than any other team caused for the opposing defense except for one and everybody knows who it was denver versus uh you know the miami dolphins but the vikings were second like the chargers were were leaving open receivers all over the place in that game and you need to not fumble you need to catch the ball you need to whatever number of things so it's been really if we were gonna say last year was lucky we can't just ignore that this year is unlucky what's happened so far so i think that there's been a lot of people immediately trying to jump at the coach and i think that's just a reflex like there's no evidence at all that Kevin O'Connell

is a bad coach. Really? Like, I don't think so. And compare, look around the league, look at Josh McDaniels, look at the bad coaches and, and how obviously bad it is. They win a bunch of games in their first year, have the best culture that they can have. And then they do the thing that you brought him here to do, which is pass the ball over the yard and lose games on some bad luck and bad defense. And like, it's his fault. Like, I think that's maybe like a skip Bayless type of like, just let's ignore everything else and just point at somebody. But I, I mean, I'm not anointing him the next Vince Lombardi or Bill Belichick or

something. I just think that you kind of like with the Steelers where they just ride the wave. Like they don't ride the wave. If it's a down, Tomlin's our guy. If it's up, Tomlin's our guy. I think with O'Connell, unless you are way short of expectations at some point, then you have to kind of like, let's not overreact every week

to what happens with the coaching. But could his game management be better? I definitely think that it could. The running game can be better. There's definitely things in there. So yeah, long-winded response to that take. I've got two more. One, Cousins isn't the reason this team can't win

defense wins football games it's a time-worn statement that holds up i mean i think in this case so it's been a long long held thing with kirk it's been every week i mean as long as you and i have known each other it's been is it kirk's fault or not what percentage is kirk's fault is you we could do pie charts and it's always like what percentage is kirk's fault or not what percentage is Kirk's fault is you we could do pie charts and it's always like what percentage is Kirk's fault and some I mean he missed the wide open throw to Osborne he took a couple sacks that were kind of bad on third downs he bizarrely and I don't know if this was the play call but this is an O'Connell shortcoming on third and two launch the ball down the sideline I don't know what was going on there,

but that's happened too many times during O'Connell's era, like run the ball three yards or throw it to David Morgan. If he's still around or something that used to be his thing, like David Morgan, it'd be like third and two and they'd leak them out and throw them for three yards, Josh Oliver, whatever you,

whatever you want to do, Johnny months, anything but that. so I sorry I got off on the rant there oh Kirk it is Kirk's played great I mean Kirk's like I just I don't think you could expect anything better from a three-game start to the season from Kirk Cousins he threw it right into KJ Osborne's arms he got it taken away for a pick he threw it right to TJ Hawkinson he fumbled it he threw it right to himJ Osborne's arms. He got to take it away for a pick. He threw it right to TJ Hawkinson. He fumbled it.

He threw it right to him later. He dropped it. Like this is, I mean, it's, he's played good football so far and they have found ways to lose it, but it truly is not Kirk's fault. Now, I mean, defense, I don't think defense necessarily wins championships. We saw that last year in the Super Bowl. But if you have a bottom five defense, you're not winning anything.

I mean, that is just, I looked this up last year, Jonathan. I think it was, like I looked at the last 20 teams that went to the Super Bowl and most of them allowed fewer than 4,000 yards and that was 16 games, but fewer than 4,000 yards passing. Most of them allowed lower than 4,000 yards. And that was 16 games, but fewer than 4,000 yards passing.

Most of them allowed lower than a like 95 quarterback rating against. I mean, they have at least somewhere between real good and great defenses. And this is just nowhere close to that. So it's going to be very hard to overcome. And when you waste three really good performances by Kirk cousins, there's going to be days where he's not good. And then you're going to go, well, you lost it's your fault and it will be his fault, but it's like,

well, he's not going to go 17 for 17 on good games. So that's, that's what makes this a tough uphill climb. What else you got? The last one. I'm so sick of the skeptics being proven right by this team. It's embarrassing.

That's why I cringe when diehard fans pump up the team and claim they're going to win this or they're going to win that. Last year was fun, but it's starting to look like it was a smokescreen. Folks, we are going all in on prize picks this football season. And this week, I figured that Justin Herbert was going to throw for a lot of yards and nailed my pick, but I underestimated Kirkirk cousins let me explain if you haven't heard of it prize picks is the easiest and best way to play daily fantasy instead of battling against thousands of other fantasy geniuses who spend all of their time doing fantasy you just pick more or less on between two to six players stat projections and that is it so if a quarterback's number is 250 you say more or less and bang you're playing you can pick from hundreds of players and numbers this football season i

nailed my justin herbert pick going over 283.5 by a country mile but i went less on kirk cousins going 297 and uh yeah missed that one he went well over 300 yards but the cool thing is it was quick easy and does not cost an arm and a leg to play you can turn $10 into 250 with just a few taps it will fit your wallet and your busy schedule this is something we're having a lot of fun with all season long on Purple Insider so go to prizepix.com slash purple use the code purple for a first deposit match up to 100 that is prizepix.com slash purple the code word purple daily fantasy sports made easy well i mean since going eight and one they're five and seven so yeah i mean it was it was the exact opposite of what this is because that's how the pendulum swings in the nfl sometimes i mean

this team is taking it to the extreme but like sometimes you get the fumble sometimes you don't i think the chiefs went like 14 straight games without losing a fumble one year i mean it just like crazy stuff happens in the league. But when you have a really truly bad defense, they can't get after the opposing quarterback or can't stop the run against Philly or whatever. And you have a good enough offense to compete. You're just gonna, you're just gonna live or die with that. You can't really overcome anything. And I think that's a, we're a long way away from this being a good defense. I mean, if they're talking about concerning parts of the roster, that would be the biggest concern for me is how do you get from point a to point B because I'm not really seeing

it with the young defensive backs can buy them. I think it's had a good year, but like the rest, who's a, who's a centerpiece is Ivan pace, really a centerpiece, probably not more of a complimentary player. The whole defensive line might be gone. And how are you rebuilding it? So there's a lot of work to be done. But I'm going to top all that. At least two people have reached out to me to say,

should have hired Harbaugh. I mean, crown him. Crown him. That's tremendous content. That is well done. You got to give it to him. If you came up with that, if you're watching the game on Sunday and you're like, should have hired Harbaugh, I got to give it to you.

You're insane, but I love you. That's so good. That's so good. No, you shouldn't. Harbaugh's a lun lunatic they're fine with what they've got it's just harbaugh's not wouldn't have been able to fix this i'm sorry suspended self-suspended but he's back now but yeah suspended he's about to come to huntington bank stadium and wreck shop against the gophers but yeah i. But yeah, I don't think Harbaugh would have fixed this.

Do they go 13-4 with Harbaugh last year? I mean, is his personality really that much different than Mike Zimmer's? And does that really change the culture as much as Kevin O'Connell's did? And clearly that was one of the reasons why they were as successful as they were because it seemed like there was definitely a culture shift and that worked for a lot of players last year so yeah I don't know that Harbaugh's fixing this start no I mean I just I I'm so happy someone came up with it though it never even entered my mind i mean kevin o'connell made a really good case for coach of the year last year like i don't know man uh i think that that is not the issue and

someday it might be but i don't think today is the day to decide that but that's good that's good stuff though i mean that's like when i when i came up with the the trey lance thing i was like that's pretty good but it's not that good it's not as good as the Harbaugh thing. Hey, by the way, Jonathan, we have to actually these days on our live streams, we have to pay our bills. So we are going to take just a quick one minute break to pay for a little bit of our content here. And we will be right back. Guys, I know you might act tough and pretend that you don't care about how the skin on your face looks, but we all want to show up to those football parties and holiday get-togethers looking good. That's where Caldera Lab comes in.

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from ale. Great to see Jonathan, especially after a dallas loss go ahead go ahead you can say it you know it was glorious just watching it happen sunday afternoon is as the cardinals the worst team in the nfl the team that came in wanting to go as bad as possible beating the team that had an impressive two weeks i'll hand them that i'll hand mike mccarthy that his first two weeks were impressive but then they come out and lay an absolute stinker against the worst team in the league. Arizona Cardinals got their one win of the season, and it was against Mike McCarthy. I can stand on top of this hill and never look back because Mike McCarthy lost to the worst team in the NFL. Prove my point.

It might not be the worst team in the NFL because the Chicago Bears exist, but that's totally fine. I mean, this is your day. This is your day. I will say that like every good team in the NFL has one loss. That's hard to explain. I think the, didn't the chiefs last year lose to Indianapolis. So it does happen, but gloat today because I'm not sure where that's going in the future. I would guess Dallas still turns out to be pretty good. I wouldn't change my opinion on them being good. And I also think that in January, you will also be gloating at some point

after the playoffs. So there's that. Let's see. The best dad advice says Andy Dalton is the last quarterback. You want the Vikings to face in a must-win game. I agree with that, by the way. I mean, also, hey, like Justin Herbert beat them on a bunch of quick passes. That's kind of what Andy Dalton can do these days. It's like the only thing Andy Dalton can do these days, but he can, and he kind of did that to him last year. I hope Young is good to go this week. Yeah, if they're going to turn this around, they've got to have Bryce Young in, because I think Bryce Young would probably be a disaster against Brian Flores, his defense. All the other point though, is they don't exactly have Keenan Allen, who is one of the most underappreciated great wide receivers in the NFL. And boy, did he go out of his way to prove it on Sunday? But I, with that, though, John.

Don't you think, like, Andy Dalton is such a classic end-of-your-season quarterback. Like, he did it to them in 2020. They're kind of on a roll and like, all right, you know, they're getting going. Here's Andy Dalton. They should be up. And I think he led a game-winning drive in that game. He almost won a game or led a game-winning drive against the Vikings in London last year until the kicker double doinked it. So, yeah, I mean, this is not a guy that the Vikings want to be playing,

especially with the Panthers looking to at least get a couple of wins in a week at NFC South. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see. But that's that's a really good take. A.S. says giving Kirk a no trade clause when they didn't need to do anything with his contract should be a regret, especially since they didn't even use cap space to extend JJ. Now he can block a trade as unlikely as it is. Well, so your timeline's a little wonky there with Kirk's contract situation. That was when Kweisi and Kevin O'Connell first got in, that they did an extension with him that was a short term. And i had to guess i would say that the only way that cousins would agree to the short-term extension they wanted is if he had some control and gave him the no trade clause but the no trade clause can be waived so you know if

they're oh and four or oh and five and he doesn't want to keep piling up L's on his record and wants to go play for gang green or something, then, you know, like he can do that. It's not like no trade means can never trade. It means he has to approve a trade. But the way they redid his contract, I didn't love it at the time and still don't for this year because it puts so much cap space into next year they are done with that though after next year if they don't extend him so it's kind of a give and take i mean that's that's how it goes with these uh these contracts uh ale says i think you overestimate trey lance's abilities it would have been a waste of time and starting oh and three doesn't change that well i mean his abilities are raw abilities were good enough to make him a top draft pick so you

know i mean at least you would have been giving a shot to someone who has some potential to make him that draft pick but in general i agree with that like i i thought if a team like san francisco was ready to bail then i don't think you want to touch that. It would kind of be like, if someone said before we saw Zach Wilson again, Hey, what do you think about taking Zach Wilson as like a backup now, or maybe a future quarterback? I was like, nah, nah, it's pretty bad. And now we've seen it again. But, but do you,

do you agree with that, Jonathan? Because it seemed like you kind of liked that idea of going back in time and getting trail lights. I did, but I don't think I ever viewed it from a standpoint that he could be the guy for the future because it just hasn't proven. It's just the fact that you were taking a shot and experimenting because if you're 0-3 and you go into 0-4, at that point, what's the point of keeping Kirk Cousins? Because if you can get a pick for him

in this upcoming draft and either use it as a draft or use it to help you trade up, whatnot, then why wouldn't you do it? Because it's really hard to come back from 0-4 and you are less than likely to make the playoffs. So at that point, move on from Kirk Cousins and just see. Just take the chance that there's something there with Trey Lance. But I don't think I ever viewed it from the standpoint that you're trading because he is your guy of the future. It's just to give you a more clear reason why

or a better reason to move on from Kirk cousins, because you have this opportunity to see if this guy can be your quarterback of the future. I think if there was a 8% chance, well, if you go in four or one in five or something, I mean, and taking an 8% chance that you get a good quarterback is way better than a 0%

chance of, you know, you're just going to have to, and it doesn't preclude you. And this is a Jared's point. It doesn't preclude preclude you from taking somebody else. I mean, that's kind of the point. Like Jared says that using Trey Lance for one year may have made us bad enough to draft top five. We'd have so many options and that's, I mean, that's another part of it. It's a, it is a lock dead ass guarantee that if kirk cousins stays here they will get to seven they will get because

they play denver they play vegas that in the division they'll get two against chicago i already found four like i mean it's yeah there's uh there is a lock there i think they'll take one from green bay i wouldn't be surprised if they take one from Detroit. They're getting to seven. So if you had a really bad quarterback and you are a really bad team, then you wouldn't be getting to seven. Chase says, are we not going to talk about how the front office only wanted to trade for Bryce Young?

That is not actually what I heard, but okay. Maybe that was out there. So, so far that's very concerning. Bryce Young's played two football games. I mean, I, I don't know. That's, that's a stretch. That's a stretch. That's not quite all they should have hired Jim Harbaugh stretch, but that's a stretch. He's played two games. He also doesn't have a whole lot of receivers to throw to there in Carolina. So it's not like he's got a whole lot of help on that offensive side of the ball right now right and i mean and a team another team like evaluated him and traded up for number nine to get him i mean it's not like it's not like they oh man they were all in on malik willis

number one overall and then he was taking the third round or something or it's not like they built their franchise around Desmond Ritter uh so you know liking the guy who went number one overall is really not going to give us a lot of information um you know I bet the whole league liked Jamarcus Russell but I mean that's not what Bryce he's played two games I mean that's that's ridiculous to even talk that way. I think when they get receivers, when they build their team up, Frank Reich's a good coach. Then we'll find out. Even though Stroud and Richardson have looked a little better so far. The best dad advice says it's interesting how quarterback hasn't really been

the problem lately other than money spent on the position, but our D-line is so terrible I want to go back to beefing up the roster and plugging in a rookie yeah i mean that's that's the plan that's the plan and that's why we keep talking about like don't lose sight of the plan because that's the plan i guess the concern for me is they drafted a bunch of guys isn't it remarkable jonathan i mean jalen holmes jaleel Johnson, DJ Wanham, Patrick Jones. Who am I missing? Like there's a couple of, oh, Janarius Robinson. And they kept arguing the next Daniil was on the way and none of them have worked out,

not even close. And then, you know, the Marcus Davenport move was probably maybe ignoring some injury history that was pretty serious. So I think that the lack of finding anything development from the previous regime has really left the cupboard bare more than anything. Yeah. And that's part of the reason why the previous regime is no longer here because it had,

they've been able to find, continue to find and develop that talent. They'd most likely still be here because they'd have a talented enough roster that would have been able to play around the giant massive Kirk contract or Kirk Cousins contract. Like that was part of the reason why the team started failing under Mike Zimmer's because they didn't have the ability to pay a lot of guys and pay out a lot of money because Kirk Cousins contract was so big.

It hampered their ability to load up the roster like they did in Mike Zimmer's early years here. And that is certainly coming back to bite this regime now is after they get rid of, after they got rid of a lot of veterans this last off season, they didn't have anybody to replace them. And they tried with a couple of free agents. As you said, Marcus Davenport, the injury history has gotten in the way of him doing anything for this team other than four plays in Philadelphia. But, I mean, Byron Murphy had a bad game. Other than that, he's been pretty decent at that position. Just got roasted alive by Keenan Allen, but Keenan Allen's a really good receiver, so you kind of expect it from time to time.

But, yeah, the lack of ability to find good talent in the later rounds of the draft over the later years of Rick Spielman's tenure here is really hurting this franchise right now. It's not because of one 2022 draft. Folks, you might feel like it's getting a little chilly outside, but this is one of my favorite times of the year to get out on the grill. What's better than cooking up something great in front of a hot flame with the cool fall football air around you? I love it. You know who can help you get the most out of this experience? Grill Masters Club.

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Go to grillmastersclub.com and get 50% off your first box with the code PURPLE. And while you're there, check out the member reviews to find out what others are saying about the month-to-month Grill Masters Club plan. Again, grillmastersclub.com.com 50 off your first box with the code purple i think that everybody looks dumber without cap space i mean yeah like rick spielman's a great example the defense that they built 2017 between him and zimmer was unbelievable star talent everywhere the The worst players were good. I mean, the parents Newman's like the worst player and the guys,

you know, 10 year veteran in the NFL who's proven and still could play. But they built that through signing Linval Joseph through development from actually some of the previous regimes, drafting some of their own drafting, you know, bar and Kendrickson but xavier rhodes harrison smith everson griffin they inherited those guys yeah those guys are stars i don't think that this current regime inherited anything on the defensive side so there there's

you talk about the rebuild it's like you have an offense that could compete for a championship you have a defense that is just completely barren still and they're trying to figure out it's only three games so i don't think we know about like byron murphy very tough game one thing about byron murphy just as you bring it up byron murphy was a very good nickel corner and i was under the impression during training camp that he was going to be the nickel corner with Makai Blackman outside along with the Caleb Evans. It has not been that way. They've played Josh Metellus like 75% of the snaps and Byron Murphy is being asked to be like on an island in this game.

I don't get it against one of the best receivers in the league. If there's one thing to talk about with Flores that I don't really understand. I think he's trying to play his best players and not overload McKay Blackman. So I get it, but that's not what he's best at. And no surprise. It didn't go very well. Scott says Flores a tell I think, I think if you're Ed Donatello, I don't know where he is these days, but you're probably watching that game at home. Just sipping your tea a little bit and being like, I know the feeling be flow. I know the feeling.

I think the Donatello defense, the Fangio style, whatever. I think it works with the right players. They didn't have the right players, but they also did have more talent last year than they did this year. Let's see. Rich says with KOC coming from two good coaching staffs,

why would he address? Why wouldn't he address? I assume you mean the O-line first. He has a non-mobile quarterback. I mean, they did. Like they drafted a second round guard. He's just bad like and the rest of it which part were you supposed to address i mean if you wanted to change centers in the off

season who were you going to get trust me i looked at the list it wasn't great you're not changing either of the tackles i mean i do think they should have signed dalton risner day one for whatever his price was i I agree with you. But it's not like when they got here, they didn't make any move. They tried to improve that right guard position, and it didn't work out. Here's the other thing, Jonathan. I'm going to tell you something. I want your reaction.

No one wants to hear this. Society cannot handle this. Kirk Cousins is not one of the most pressured quarterbacks in the NFL this year. He, by the numbers, the 20th most pressured quarterback and the Vikings as of last night going into the game. I can check this right now, see if it's changed and it's, it's going to upset people. They have the fourth highest pass blocking grade by PFF right now. There hasn't been that much pressure on Kirk Cousins. The problem is when he has been pressured, it's really been a problem. It's like strip sacks, third down sacks, it's ruined drives.

That's true. But the offense and the passing game and Cousins and all that, that's been good enough to win. And I think Reisner helps, but that's been good enough to win. It really hasn't been the issue, I don't think. No, it certainly hasn't.

I mean, there have been, as you said, it's the turnovers that have absolutely killed this team. I mean, they have the great, it seems like a great first drive against the chargers. That's going well until TJ Hawkinson fumbles the ball and that ruins what would have been an excellent opening to the game for the Vikings. They had Justin Jefferson running down the field in Philadelphia, looking like he's going to score a touchdown. That's going to keep that game close or put them ahead. I can't remember exactly what would have happened at the time, but he fumbles it into the end zone and turnovers turns over the ball to the

Eagles. That would have changed the game for cert for sure. I mean, they've had plenty of these turnovers that have hurt them. And it's not because of only because of the offensive line. I mean, those two examples I said were down the field. They weren't like the strip sack in against Tampa Bay. It's we we've known about the strip sack potential with Kirk Cousins. I mean, we've seen it in the past with him here over the last six years, but it it's those moments. It hasn't happened a lot because they've been doing a pretty decent job of getting the ball to his receivers and out of his hands. But yeah, it's, it's when the pressure gets in

that it really causes problems, but it hasn't happened a whole lot this season yeah i think this is more of a matter of like think about this way if you're a baseball team and you've had bad closers for like five years and you can't close out a ball game even if your closer only blows five saves in a year every one of those you're going to be like we need a new closer we need a closer because you've been hurt people have hurt you and look the right guard is as bad as you all think he is but one weak link they've been able to mostly overcome that and throw the ball a lot there's been a lot of clean pockets for kurt cousins like this has been good enough to win all three games this offensive performance uh his performance and the offensive lines has been good enough to win these games they even were good at run blocking the other day i mean i think with reisner in there it's a pretty

legit unit it's just you know i mean you can't fumble what is it nine times and lose all of them i mean there's a reason why we heard kevin o'connell get upset like for the first time in his tenure here is when he came out and said if the guys keep fumbling i'm gonna or keep if they don't fix the issue i'm gonna replace them like that's not something you normally hear or we're we've come to expect to hear from kevin o'connell over the last year and a half he does not he does not publicly call out his players but he did uh on monday and that was a very telling sign that that's probably the biggest reason why this team is 0-3 right now is those turnovers. And he's grown irritated of it. You want to hear about pizza? Let's do it. 30 seconds. Talk about pizza. Folks, I want to remind you to make Little Caesars,

the official pizza sponsor of the NFL, part of your game day. Order online during their Pizza Pizza pregame one hour before nfl games and get ready for some football and fun choose your favorite little caesar's pizza or pick the toppings you crave either way you win and speaking of winning everyone scores with convenient delivery or their in-store pizza portal pickup so grab some friends and enjoy a few slices during the tastiest hour before kickoff i'm just gonna try not to laugh at myself each time but i i'm telling you it's better this way i promise you all it's better this way so uh it's kind of odd though right like i think that when things go wrong our natural inclination is so just think about this way like if there's a random a boulder

comes down a hill and runs into your car i think if someone tells you that happened to them what's your first response is to be like why didn't you stop even that right i think the same thing happens when when it's like you don't want to accept that the fumbling has really been the issue and you're like well why didn't they have a better guard? And I agree with you, but that really isn't what's caused it in, uh, in my mind. So anyway, that's, it's an interesting subject though, just kind of how, um, you know, how we process these things when they go wrong and who we decide to point the finger to. Um, yeah, that's always, it's always an interesting discussion. Let's see.

Eugene says, I think their biggest regret should be the timing of everything that they've done waiting to clear up cap space with internal moves prior to the start of free agency and other obvious moves like adding interior offensive line help. Yeah, I agree. Don't you?

I mean, it was always kind of funky. Like why wait for Delvin cook for as long as they did? Why wait for Zedaria Smith to swap fits? Like, were you afraid the Bears were going to get him? Like, maybe that was it. But you shouldn't be afraid now. But like, yeah, I mean, I agree with that.

Like, some of the timing on everything was just kind of odd and uh waiting to clear the cap space but also timing of everything and when kevin o'connell got here with an ownership that clearly wanted to run it back and did not allow you to clear that cap space early so you could have it now so like if you had moved on from certain players before 2022 you would have had it going into 2023 and then right you know what i mean? And instead they reworked everybody's contracts and actively hurt themselves to try and win in 2022. But that wasn't the front offices, at least from what it sounds like, at least from the hints that have been laid down. It doesn't sound like that was really their first choice that they wanted to do a lot of what they

did this off season last off season. So that's a little bit of the timing issue as well, but it does set up to have cap space going into the future at some point when they move on from the quarterback. Yeah, absolutely. The timing really has, as we've said throughout the show, it has really come to bite the Vikings this season, and it's really showing in really drastic ways but yeah the timing has been questionable especially lately is uh with with the dalton reisner signing with going with trading for cam acres like i i guess uh it's a different a little bit of a different conversation than what that question was but uh those two signings now at this point really don't make sense after the

own two start and then you don't even play them uh on sunday so that makes it even more questionable because now you're in oh and three that's a very difficult hole to climb out of and you've already now you've spent the money acting or putting pushing your chips in the middle trying to win this year and you're very close to going oh and four and then the season's essentially over one week after you brought these guys in yeah uh sorry i was laughing at this from chase bry Bryce young will be a disaster. Watch this game being his come out party. Like Josh Dale in 2018. Yeah. I don't know if he's going to play. I mean, I was kind of assuming it's Andy Dalton, but I guess we will we'll,

we'll find that out. So, you know we'll, we'll see where he goes, but if, if he does play, I mean, there's no quarterback that can't have a good day against minnesota vikings and that goes for four years since 2020 it is remarkable and this is like people are talking about you know quacey drafting and you know i think he took the approach of trying to rebuild the secondary because it was so bad and i think the secondary talent is uh at the moment like okay bynum has turned into a good player. Harrison Smith's not what he used to be, but he could still play a little. And, you know, you've got two young corners, three when you add Makai Blackman like that. That to me has potential to get better as we go along, the defensive line is, I don't know how we can look at it and not say it's the previous regime's issue, right? I mean, they didn't have cap space to be able to sign anyone outside of Dean Lowry and Marcus Davenport. Davenport was considered at the time to be a good signing because of his underlying numbers.

Obviously, they're regretting that a bit right now. We'll see if that changes. But when you go back and look at the draft picks, you cannot have, and I'm not trying to pin it all on Spielman, so don't get me wrong, but when you draft, and I added this up one time, it was like 18 players since 2016, and none of them became good except for Cam Bynum. I mean, how can you do that and have a good defense or have a good defensive line?

So anyway, Lee asks, how do void years complicate the ability of a team to trade a player like Hunter? Might want to ask Brad Spielberger. I think that what happens there, if I'm not mistaken, is that the team that has the void years still ends up with the cap hit. But that is a good question you're right that might complicate it i think that they'll still be able to trade um trade hunter if they need to uh one before i die says is it possible dalton reisner could be a

long-term move also yes definitely is if he plays well he could be more than a rental i think that's part of it so um yeah it's you know it's a weird it's just a weird place it's a weird place to be jonathan because i think that when we went through training camp and the offseason everything else and you went through the moves and you said well what well what one was wrong or what one was crazy and i think there's a point in there about the timing and everything. I can't really find something that was totally illogical and maybe Dean Lowry. I don't know. Like there wasn't much left there, but like, who are you going to get for a couple million

bucks that could just play the position? I just, I have trouble thinking that there was an answer that was different than this, that there was a player to sign a player to draft when they only had a handful of draft picks and a second rounder went to tj hockinson first rounder went to jordan addison i'm not taking those back so pretty good i don't know that there was an easy answer to fix this defense outside of what massively overpaying tomlinson giving an old injured to darius smith a huge raise like Like what, what was the answer? They were just going to have to kind of live with this. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they, they tore it down for a reason. They knew that they, and they brought in Brian Flores for a reason.

They, they very, they pumped up his, his ability to scout these guys and find these guys and kind of develop these, these raw talents. And it felt like they knew that things might not be great on the defense, that it might be another step back on that side of the ball. But yeah, it just didn't feel like, especially with how little of cap space they had throughout most of the offseason before they finally got rid of Z'Darrius Smith

and finally moved on from Dalvin Cook. It just felt like the lack of cap space didn't allow them to make a whole lot of moves that would have changed anything for this season so yeah with what they were working with and how the offseason played out and considering what we were thinking about this team beforehand before this season started i can't really fault fault them for what they did it just feels like they did the best that they could with what they had. Would you probably like to time the different,

the moves for Smith and cook a little bit differently to allow you to move on from them earlier and get, got, get better or different guys in sure. But with how this thing was set up, it just didn't feel like there was a whole lot else different that they could have done. Right. I mean, usually what ends up happening is there's a couple of top free agents that can be difference makers. And then there's a lot of free

agents that are there for a reason, even if they've had good histories and the Vikings got a couple of them in Lowry and Davenport, hoping that they could throw back to a year before. And so far it hasn't worked out out and it's hard to go back and look at those lists of free agents and how much they got paid and go oh well it should have been that guy uh matthew says apparently i'm in the minority here but i like most of the moves quacey has made minus 2022 draft most important is not getting sucked into another cousin's extension the qb decision is number one yeah i to me, it's always been a, and this is why I talk about 0-3,

and that's why we went into the overreactions and some funny Reddit takes and stuff like that. But I think it's like, how reactionary do you want to be to what you just saw? Because if, just for example, I fast-forwarded you to mid-December and I told you that they're six and eight or something. If you didn't know it happened, oh, and three, you'd be like, OK, yeah, that sounds about right.

It sounds like the season I expected, maybe a little bit worse, but kind of on track. And it was probably probably a halfway fun season, but just not good enough. And that's what we expected. And on to the draft. But when it happens like it did, oh, and three, and that's what we expected and on to the draft but when it happens like it did oh and three and it's done so fast and i like to cover games too right i like to preview games i like to talk we haven't said derrick brown or brian burns more than maybe one time on the show like i want to talk about that as well i think it's so deflating that we start to look around and go i I mean, come on, man.

Like we can't even have an entertaining season here, you know, like and start to look at all those different things of, you know, should they have done this? Should they have done that? Actually, a good point. A good point brought up in the comments here from T. Kubler. There was an NFL YouTube analysis that crapped over the Vikings for not taking Will Levis. Well,

look, I mean, we're all wrong about the draft sometimes, but it's a good point that they didn't take Will Levis. So as far as like the bigger picture stuff and the direction, well, you know, I,

I think that they're, they're basically on track. If I had to guess, based on their schedule, for what we would have expected in a not great result for this year, but in the range of possibilities for what this year was going to be. Yeah, absolutely. I think there was a lot of talk that this team could win 10 games, but there was also a lot of talk that this team could have a losing record this year and be in the running for a top quarterback. And it's just the way this season has started has left a lot of sour tastes in a lot of Vikings fans' mouths right now because 0-3 I don't think was one of those expected ways that this season would start.

And so, yeah, it's just the way it started has not helped. But I think if we're all being honest, if this season comes out and they don't make the playoffs and it's a losing record and they have the ability to take their quarterback in the future, I think we'll all be happy with that result because that means they have – their plan seems to be falling into place with what they set out to do. And I think that would be great because that means you have, you have a path forward in the path towards contending because you're on the,

the rookie quarterback contract. And then we all know how well teams can build around that. Yeah. We got to get to our prize picks, but I want to make sure I get some other good comments in here from Scott. This is what a competitive rebuild looks like. It's very difficult to compete, especially with the first place schedule. Totally agree with that. These first three three games two of the teams are good you lost the one that wasn't and uh this is kind of how where you end up uh one before i die says sounds like ownership's

unwillingness to take a step back has actually set the franchise back uh they need to step back and let the football people do their job yeah i, I think that we have to remember that at the point they fired Zimmer, there are no football people. You just fire them. So they're making the call there. And then I think that the trust had to be earned from Kweisi Adafo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell, which I would say they did in their first year, especially that NFLPA survey cannot be understated how important that would

have been to ownership. And then look what they did this off season. They did a lot of rebuilding. So I think if you go back in time, there's multiple opportunities to tear it down and rebuild that would have had us in a different spot now, 2020 most notably, but yeah,

they probably just set the clock back a year. However, if that results in landing in a great quarterback draft, then maybe God shuts the door and opens a window. I don't know. From Digits, Matthew, I've been saying, address the interior offensive and defensive line all offseason. And now here we are.

I will remain a Vikings fan for life, but short-term thinking kills me. Yeah, well, look, I mean, this is the point about going back to the previous regime about the defensive line. And they tried to patchwork it with Z'Darrius Smith and Delvin Tomlinson, and those guys were good, but there's only so much that they could do. This goes back to the missed draft picks and everything else. The interior line, yeah, Reisner should have been signed. I agree with you on that.

There's no debate there. They're a different line with Reisner as opposed to Ingram, but, um, who might be, I don't know, is he Dakota? Yeah, probably like, but Dakota Dozier was a backup, not a second round pick interior D line. I mean, look, preach it to the choir, man, preach it to the choir. I have wondered why since, um, really Sheree Floyd and Tom Johnson. I mean, Sheldon Richardson in 2018. But they've just basically gone vibes on the interior. That's just not good enough. Harrison Phillips probably weighs 290. I mean, that's not a nose tackle.

That's a huge issue. I totally agree. But I think it really dates back to drafting a bunch of guys who never became anything. Matthew says what happened to Tonga thought he had a good camp. Now he's not even playing. He got destroyed by the Eagles, and I think they just wanted to try something different. I don't know. I mean, last year he had a pretty good little run, but it was playing next to some good players.

And that's the thing. It's just like basketball. There are some dudes who can look decent playing next to really good players. But if you ask them to do it all themselves, it's not really going to work. Yes. T Kubler. We know they could have taken Kyle Hamilton or Jordan Davis. That's not new information.

And that's a mistake. Not taking Jordan Davis, especially. I mean, I like Kyle Hamilton too, but Jordan Davis. Look, you're never going to get me to say I don't want more fat people. Are you serious? I think this has been my long-held belief, lifelong belief. Ask me any

team's nose tackle who's good. I probably know who it was. It is a huge deal. There is a gigantic trickle-down effect if you can't run up the middle if you need two linemen to block one dude bill belichick is a pretty smart guy and that guy had vince will fork and alan branch and like big giant fat dudes all the time i totally agree with you i don't understand why they didn't take that draft pick at the top i i'll never understand it i will never understand it.

So you want to talk about regrets and going back in time? That's one to go back on. So anyway, well, we've got probably too many comments for me to get to all of them. Oh, it's 9 o'clock. You can't miss this one. People get their hot take. Kyler Murray to the Vikings this offseason and draft fat guys. Hey, I'm not – and I agree with you, Jordan.

Linval was the key to our good defense. He was a key, a very big key. Did you discuss the Atlanta trade? Did Atlanta make a trade, or you mean trading Kirk to Atlanta? I think trading Kirk to Atlanta because I looked, and there's no Atlanta trade that I can see. Okay. Like it. I mean, I don't Atlanta trade that I can see. Okay. Like it.

I mean, I don't know. They should. They should have. But, I mean, Atlanta, I don't understand them. But we don't have time to solve more than one team's problems. I was talking to – let's hear – oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. He's waiting for this one.

I don't have any takes. What do you got for Taylor Swift takes? I don't have any takes. If it's bringing in a whole new audience i'm all for it i mean that's exciting but i don't have any takes i know you're the one who went you're the one of the two of us that went to the concert so you let you have you let us know your takes i mean i don't know what i'm supposed to say like travis kelsey seems like a fine human being and i can't wait for the album. She writes after they break up. So that's, that would be my take. I don't, I don't know. I think, I think people like, if you get mad at it, I just don't know what you want. I mean,

we can have the game was 41 to six or something like, what else are they going to show? I mean, all the time when games like that get, get out of hand, they, they find other things to talk about to keep viewers interested because clearly the product on the field after just watching the chiefs just run up the score on just a helpless bears defense. Just, it gets a little, a little tedious after a little while, especially in the fourth quarter when Patrick Mahomes is already out.

Yeah, that was, that was, um, I would have done the that was – I would have done the same thing. I would have done the same thing. I would have talked about Taylor Swift and made jokes about it the whole game if I was calling it two because there's nothing else going on. And I just feel like getting mad at it is like taking yourself a little too seriously. So, you know. Anyway, let's take a look at prize picks.

By the way, we have been doing okay with our prize picks or me. I've been doing okay with them so far. Kind of hit or miss, as you might expect from my work when it comes to this. And by the way, if you haven't tried it, prize picks, as you've seen us do on the show, pretty fun. Prizepicks.com slash purple. If you go there, they will match your deposit up to $100 and it does not take a whole lot of money to play PrizePix. So if you're not into like putting a thousand dollars or something into some crazy fantasy league, this is great

because you just pick more or less on a player as far as yardage goes and that's all you have to do so we got to pick kurt cousins each week i was wrong last week jonathan very wrong that i i thought they'd get ahead and run the ball they did not i'm gonna go less this time though i'm gonna go less than 283 i don't think they'll need it i don't think that they will need over 300 yards from Kirk Cousins to beat Carolina, at least in an ideal world. What do you think? I think that's what you said last week and that didn't play out well. So I'm, I think until, until we see that this team can get ahead and stay ahead, I'm going to continue saying that Kirk Cousins will throw for more yards because it just feels like for this team to succeed, they're going to have to live off of that pass game. So I'm going to go more yards here.

Okay. I'm going to go Justin Fields with more than 168 yards because he's playing a team that just gave up 70 points. And I feel like this is the perfect opportunity for every time Justin Fields seems to be completely done. He'll have like a good game where all the Bears fans go like, oh, you see, it's pretty good. And that defense is so bad. I think that they're going to change things after what happened. Try to get him going a little bit and then he's going to clear 168. It's also such an obscenely low number that I'm going to go with more than 168 yards for Justin Fields.

Honestly, though, I just wanted to try to pick Justin Fields here. That's what I don't blame you. I mean, that number, as you said, is obscenely low. 168 is almost in. Yeah. Yeah. You have to go more there. There's some good ones here with with some good interesting matchups like do you go josh

dobbs over 188 against san francisco after he just had a good game that's a good question brock purdy lighting up arizona seems pretty likely after they had kind of an outlier game uh a mike mccarthy game you might say my Sam Howell run might be over after last week. Yeah, it wasn't great last week. Yeah, tough choices. Tough choices. I am going to go with the Buffalo Bills being very motivated to show Miami whose quarterback is best and Josh Allen going for more than 265 against Miami.

So my prize picks on a less for Kirk cousins than two 83.5, Justin Fields, less than one 68.5 and Josh Allen more. I'm sorry, Justin Fields, more than one 68.5 and Josh Allen more than two 65.5. So there you go. Prize picks.com slash purple. They will match up to a hundred dollars. Um, yeah. Pick Josh Dobbs. Uh,

bet you didn't have that on your bingo card a month ago. Yeah. I mean, who loves a journeyman quarterback thriving more than this show? If we could build a team, I would have a journeyman quarterback, the best nose tackle in the league and a dynamic fullback, and we will build a team, I would have a journeyman quarterback, the best nose tackle in the league, and a dynamic fullback, and we will win a championship.

So that's guaranteed. Anyway, well, give that a try. That's pretty fun stuff. And whoops, this is how it's supposed to be. There we go. And we'll go from there. We'll see. It's going to be, I mean, this week is kind of make or break

because if they win this week, we could start getting into a game of talk me into a single upset, gets them back into the season. And if they lose this week, wow, all hell is breaking loose. So Matthew says, is there an over under for Vikings turnovers per game too soon? Yeah, I don't know. Not yet. I assume miles saying I wouldn't do it is referring to Justin Fields. You're probably right, but that's the whole point of prize picks is that it doesn't cost very much. So anyway, this is really

fun. I had a great time. Hopefully this lightened things up a little bit. We had a good time. It's felt like a pretty pretty rough couple of days for Vikings fans. So thank you all for watching. Thank you as always, Jonathan Harrison. And we'll be back tomorrow with a live chat in the evening, about eight o'clock central as always.

And we will catch you all then. Thank you everybody. Football.