Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Some JJ McCarthy optimism? Hints of Greenard return? (Part 3)

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

Matthew Coller talks about a line in Alec Lewis's most recent article about how the Vikings are optimistic that JJ McCarthy's work with a QB guru will result in major progress when he returns to practice. Also Jonathan Greenard posted in IG a reel that had a bunch of photos with him as a Viking. What does it mean? The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Purple Insider is presented by Fandul. Don't say comp pick too loud. You might summon. Oh, man. We haven't had a lot of that. We just have not had a lot of that. How does it affect the comp formula? But your team has to do something first.

So we have not had a lot of that discussion. DLM, this draft has a lot of nice mid-round wide receivers. Getting Antonio Williams or Skyler Bell would be a nice addition. Antonio Williams is my guy. Antonio Williams is my. guy first i think his quarterback has been bad i don't know people thought club nick is that his name kate clubnick was going to be something i was like i i don't understand where you're coming from there gets sacked a ton isn't very accurate but williams is fast like legit fast fast very good down the field he actually

reminds me of a jlin nailer like very good down the field i love his fit i i would go for second, well, I guess maybe third round, Antonio Williams. I would do that. I really like him. Wesley, Addison has all the talent, but not the heart. I don't even think it's the heart. I think his heart's okay. I mean, a guy that small has has to be pretty tough to play in the NFL. I don't think it's heart. I think it is off-field decision making. I think that it is common sense what he is lacking. If you have a teammate that dies in a car accident where alcohol is involved, getting behind the wheel and getting a DUI is a really freaking bad look. And not thinking that over a little bit is an astonishing lack of common sense and thoughtfulness. I mean,

not that ever getting behind the wheel is ever a good idea and you would have embarrassed your franchise and yourself regardless, but I mean, my God. And even this year, like after you've had all your problems, why are you in a casino at three o'clock in the morning? What are we doing here? That just, I know, football players live a different life than me. I get that. But what are you even putting yourself into any position like that?

That's what's lacking for Addison. I don't think it's anything on the football field. Roxanne, be curious, Roxanne, if you are often inundated with people, singing the song. I worked with a girl named Roxanne when I was in college and she did not like it. She would get very upset if you started singing the song or played the song. Very mad. Because it's, you know, the subject matter. Anyway, uh, Kyler goes in as the number one, balls out, gets injured week seven. J.J. comes in and gets injured in the third quarter. Okay, you're funny. Carson Weds comes in and brings the Vikings to the playoffs and then well and then they miss a field goal wide left roxan we've got

this all settled i did i did say that to someone it's like we know exactly how this plays out right we've seen this movie before we're all we're all kind of bored of this that's that's one of the reasons i think people were against kiler murray it's like they're sort of bored of this like oh gosh we know exactly how this plays out i i don't think that's actually true because i mean who knows right the fact that he has a chance to be long term case keigham never really happened that Sam Bradford never really had that a chance to be long term with knees that didn't work anymore and you know, Darnold did, but they dropped the old football on that one. So now you've got a chance that someone could be long term.

And you could, you could have five years. I mean, he's 28. If five years, he's 33. That's really not that old for a quarterback. I think there is a threshold for running quarterbacks, maybe more than pocket quarterbacks. So 33 might be the edge of that, but, you know, that's possible for this. It doesn't have to work out like you're saying, but it could. And that's why you have three quarterbacks. It could work out that way. BM's 12th best quarterback for $1.3 million,

a dream come true for 50 million plus pass. I agree. Josh says, I mean, it's $1 million. Like, that's just, it's crazy that it's possible. Even Russell Wilson won. a lot of games with Pittsburgh when he was there and Russ was totally cooked at that point. Josh, if Kyler wins a playoff game, re-sign him over Addison. I'm just not a fan of giving a player with a ton of off-field issues in his past a lot of money, guaranteed. It doesn't feel like a good idea to me. And I'm also not a big fan of giving number two wide receivers a lot of money either.

I think they're important, but I think you draft them. Yes, you pay number ones. I don't know that you pay number two's. Because if you pay the number two, then you're investing an incredible amount of money in three guys, your quarterback and your two wide receivers. I don't know that that's really good team building. DLM, I don't think anyone's paying Kyler Murray after one year,

50 mil after one year. No, that's totally true. Not unless he like wins the Super Bowl. No, that's, you're right about that. I would guess that Kyler would get a Daniel Jones deal if he played really well. Susan, Ben Lieber on K-Fan today discussion. You're giving me the timings to go back and listen to it. Cuts through all the gauzy explanations we got today and gives the brass tacks and how

the Vikings see JJ. Well, I wish you told me the whole thing. Maybe someone could tell me exactly what he said about how they view J.J. McCarthy. The reason why a lot of folk, including myself, I think, have with J.J. McCarthy, not wanted to dive into the deep end of he's done or what, and I don't know what Ben Lieber said, but he's done, they're finished with him, whatever it might be, is just because of how unpredictable this world is. I've told you the history. It's bad. It just is. The other day, I read all the quarterbacks who perform like this through their first 10 starts since 2010

and weren't top five draft picks. It ain't good. But there's, There's always exceptions to every rule. There's always stuff that we don't expect. We're talking about injuries and things like that. I mean, if I told you that I went into my time machine and I went zoop and I went into week 17 and here's what I saw. I saw Murray got hurt in week five. McCarthy came in and they're a winning team and they have a chance to go to the playoffs

and yeah, he's not the MVP of the league, but he's done pretty darn good. Would you say absolutely no way? I mean, I don't think so. I think you'd be like, okay, I mean, I could see it. So as long as we could say that, that it is in the realm of possibility, then slow play it. Is it likely that he can work with John Beck for six weeks and then all of a sudden become the sharp shooting pro golfer that we were talking about that shoots 10 under? Or is it more likely that he stays closer to par? Well, it's more likely that he stays closer to par, but it's not impossible.

So that's why I think that a lot of us also. you know, journalism school always kind of will teach people to, you know, try to slow play things more than jump out in front and be first yelling at the top of your lungs. Not that I'm saying that's what Lieber did, but it doesn't look very good for his chances to be a Viking quarterback. But saying it's over, I think is a little too much. Now, if they trade him next week, then we'll know it's over. I just think unless you get a really good offer, that doesn't make a lot of sense right now.

But if KOC had to play a game today, I promise you, QB1 is Murray, QB2 is Carson Wentz. Well, okay, had to play a game today. It'd be Wentz because he knows the offense. If he had to play a game in four weeks and you could prepare for the game with Murray, he is easily the quarterback and Wentz is easily QB2. Over the summer, McCarthy is going to get his chance, though. uh, BM says if, uh, Kyler has the year, Matthew just described, there will be multiple teams lining up to pay that type of contract. I mean, I think that if he has, I'm talking about

basically if he has his 20, 24 year again, I think if he has that year, then he's going to feel very good about where he's at and want to stay. Now, Daniel Jones went elsewhere, but is a different situation. If Kyler has a good year, he grew up a Vikings fan. He clearly is going to like playing with that wide receiver who's pretty darn good. I mean, O'Connell always just does super well with players. I find it hard to believe that he wouldn't stay. DLM, Todd Gurley being a monster, also helped Goff. Well, golf was very good, but he also became a lot better, I think, in Detroit.

But everyone needs help. Everyone does. It's there isn't, we saw this last year from the homes. Everybody, every quarterback in the league needs help. I mean, maybe Josh Allen is the closest thing to somebody who doesn't, but everybody does. I mean, the Bengals and Joe Burrow, would he be good with anybody? Sure, he would. But would he be that good if he didn't have Chase and Higgins?

Probably not that good. No mocking Sadiq tonight. Okay. When I do the mock, I'll probably do it in a few minutes here. I've gotten behind in the comments as always, but trying to keep up. but we'll do a mock soon and I will not take Kenyon Sadiq. Here's what I'll do. I will not take Sadiq and I will not take Thinaman.

We're going to start trying different options. DLM, I don't think it's often factored into JJ. Our offensive line was a disaster. Wide receiver hurt and suspended. Those things are true for, I mean, a little bit of the early, you know, games. But as the season goes along, he's playing with healthy everything. against the Ravens, healthy everything against Chicago. I mean, those are the games that, those are the, and Green Bay.

Those are the games where it was lost. Those are the games where the faith of him getting it together disappeared. Because you win one of those games. If he even plays halfway decently in one of those games or two of those games, you can win. But he didn't. Those ones were the, they were healthy, guys were open. And it was just, this is too far away.

So there are excuses for the early part of the season, yes. And I think everyone is willing to be okay with that. But then you miss five games and you come back and have that stretch where you're just missing guys all over the place. You have eight false starts. There's really no excusing that. Josh Dobbs look good in less than a week. Yeah, that didn't last too long. Jace is what draft picks do you think we could get for JJ if we traded his?

at this moment, I think a team would come in with a third. That would be my guess. But I don't know. I mean, how desperate is somebody else? What does the rest of the league think about them? If you're Cleveland, why wouldn't you come in with a third round pick? Why wouldn't you come in with a second round pick? I think Cleveland's got draft capital.

I'm not really sure. Why wouldn't you come in with a second round pick if you're Cleveland? You spend a second round pick on a running back. last year. So maybe that. Jay will draft a center to start. Possibly, I think it's going to be Brandel and then maybe a center to develop. That's my guess. Um, Ramer says, uh, absolutely not in terms of a trade still under team control. His value is literally bottomed out, but still has upside. If you trade now, you lose any kind of leverage. Yeah, I mean, the ups. Tray lands got traded for a fourth after losing a camp battle. And that's probably what you can expect. If they hang on to him and he lose a

camp battle. Maybe someone right now would give you a third. It's worth just waiting if that's going to be the difference. Token Tomo, I pray we don't take one high. I think you mean a center. We have a much bigger needs. Um, actually high on our O line. Yeah, I think that the, well, the offensive line when it was healthy last year was good, but it just wasn't healthy very much. And getting, uh, another guy added in is a good idea, Van de Mark. And a younger guy who's kind of on the upswing. good for them if they have to use them long term. The guard position is a little suspect. Joe Huber being a backup, Michael Juergens.

They could probably do better than that in terms of depth. But that's how it goes sometimes with offensive line. You just have to work around it. BM, this is not a team that has depth at any position outside of quarterback and edge at this point season hinges on better than average health. I totally agree with that. Totally agree. I mean, that's, that is kind of how every season goes, though.

Seattle and Philadelphia, go look at their health track. records last year. Jay, we have a center in round three. I could see that. I could see that. Glenn, you can't judge the upside of Murray because he's never had these weapons, really only for the one season in 2021. But a weapon is the level of Justin Jefferson. I mean, you have to remember through the same amount of games, the guy had more receiving yards than Jerry Rice at this point in their careers. Like, Justin Jefferson's greatness was muted last year by throws that went nowhere close to him. And that won't happen with Kyler Murray.

So I agree on that. Norse force says strictly on talent, I'd put Murray in the top 10 quarterbacks. I think purely talent, speed thrown in there, accuracy. I don't think the arm's strength is amazing. I think he can dial it up,

but he's just not as accurate when he's dialing it up. I mean, 10-ish, 10-ish, yeah, probably. You can't ignore some of the production stuff, but 10-ish is probably right. Glenn, everyone kept waiting for Darnold to fall with this offense and never did. Oh, yeah, I mean, in that season, yeah, not until the end. Yeah, in 2024, the whole season was wins Darnold going to fall off. Yeah.

Jay says we'll draft a safety and quarterback possible. We'll look at the draft in a minute. BM somehow missed the Teddy is back. Dude just keeps getting paid. Good for him. It's mind-blowing. It's absolutely mind-blowing that Teddy is still playing football. Ten years later, guys, ten years later, I was just thinking about that today.

Ten years ago is when I got here and when Teddy Bridgewater injured his knee and altered the course of Vikings history forever. I can't believe he's still playing. I mean, Mike Zimmer told us when they were making that decision. You know Mike Zimmer wanted Teddy Bridgewater. You know he wanted Bridgewater back. he told us that they had looked at all those knee injuries that were similar, which I think it was everything. It was like dislocated this and torn that, just everything, just torn to shreds.

He said, we've looked at this injury before and we can't find more than one or two players who ever came back. Now, I guess the quarterback position is a little different. And, you know, Teddy still brings so much as a coach inside the room. I don't know if he could play. He got into the game for Tampa Bay. It was really gnarly in that. I mean, they were playing the Rams, so I don't know.

Like, what can he make of that? But just in general, the fact that he's even still in the NFL, the fact that he's still one of 64 quarterbacks that's a QB one or two in the league, it's crazy. The fact that he even came in with New Orleans and won five games or had a 500 season with a, you know, Denver team, it's incredible. His career should have been over. That guy, from my experience talking to people about him,

and I was only here when he got hurt, but it's, It's everything in terms of his personality, his leadership, his selfishness, his intelligence, his, his heart, how much he cares about football, how much he cares about human beings. It's all special. He's one of one. The fact that he still hears crazy. Rob, when Darnel arrived with the Vikings, he was 21 and 35 with a one-to-one touchdown interception ratio. Kyler has clearly much better numbers yet. clearly much better numbers no doubt about it these these offensive weapons and this coach should be

able to get kailer murray to the same level as he was at very least in 2024 if he plays all 17 games and that should be enough to have this team being very very competitive but there's a lot of things to happen before that there's inconsistency that murray has that could be frustrating there are turnovers that he has that could be frustrating, interceptions, fumbles, stuff like that, trying to scramble and make plays. So there's ups and downs with him. And how he clicks with Jefferson,

I think it's going to be really good because he's super accurate and throws. You talk about anticipation, just phenomenal. I'm just watching back his game today for an article tomorrow about his matchup with the, the Panthers. I think it was week two this year 2025. And there's just four or five throws where you go, man, that's ridiculous.

the amount of accuracy that he has. He is a very accurate quarterback, which if you are that in KOC system, you should be pretty good. And timing is something he's very good at when he decides to let loose. There are also times he's very frustrating when he has something there and pulls it down and decides to run. So how that works out,

how they close games, how they manage games, who stays healthy. There's a long way to go. But the projection is fair to say that they should win games with a quarterback of this caliber. And they didn't have to sacrifice a lot of the roster to do it. Jay, we need to draft three or four starters to complete.

Yeah, I mean, they do. You're right. I mean, center is probably not one I would say. It needs to be a starter right away. But safety corner, they have starting corners, but you need some depth. I agree on defensive tackle. And running back doesn't have to be a starter, but it has to be someone who can play. Jake Darnold's play style fits KOC better than Kyler's.

so there's that. I don't think that it's as big of a gap as you would think. Because Kyler plays from the pocket a lot and he is extremely accurate and he can run a full offense. He doesn't have to be some sort of like paired down cartoony, whatever, make him scrant. He throws from the pocket all the time on his tape. It's just those certain moments where you go, oh, you, no, you had somebody there. you didn't have to pull that down and run.

You could have just thrown it. There are times like that. That happened with Kirk all the time. I really, I am not kidding. I think he's a lot like Kirk. I think he's a lot like Kirk was. And as a passer, high completion percentage when throwing to his top targets, very good, uses the tight end a ton.

But unlike Darnold is not willing to push it way deep down the field and isn't quite as good at that. Now, the point on, and it's kind of, kind of like KOC, uh, Kirk, not necessarily the play action deep bomb 2019, 20, 20, 20, 20, Gary Kubiak, Kirk. I'm talking about the KOC Kirk. I think they're going to play kind of alike, which is, it is weird to say, but it is true, the way that I've watched Kyler play. Darnold is his own thing. I mean, there's just so few quarterbacks these days who push the ball down the field as much as Darnold into the windows. does with the accuracy and velocity that he could throw the football. I mean, that's, that is different. So different, yes, fit, I think can be there, but it will be different than Darnold.

Was Darnold the best possible fit for KOC? Yes, he probably was. But if he can't make it work with somebody that's this good, then I just, it's not good. Then it's not, then it's not, then the adjustment thing is real. Then it's not going to work. If Kyler is healthy, he should be able to make it work with someone because his previous coaches, no disrespect, because I have covered Drew Petzing, I think he's a very smart

guy, but his previous coaches were Drew Petzing and Jonathan Gannon and Cliff Kingsbury, which I think COC's got a much better track record than those guys do. Josh, me and Murray are the same height, so you'll connect. You're not the same talent, I could promise you that. unless you went 42 and oh at Texas highest level football. Maybe you did. And was also drafted in the Major League Baseball. I mean, this guy, to be a number one pick at that height shows you how unique and special of a talent he is.

It doesn't guarantee it's going to work, but pure talent at football is through the roof. The mat tracker? How many other teams do you think had JJ ranked anywhere near where the Vikings did? you mean like in the draft, do the opinions going into that draft were wild. I went to the combine that year and I asked every person, because the Vikings were getting mocked nonstop with J.J. McCarthy. I asked every person I ran into in the league, media,

strangers on the street, everyone, squirrels. I asked everyone I could. What do you think of J.J. McCarthy? The responses that I got were all over the map. there were people in the NFL who loved J.J. McCarthy, who had him ranked very high. And there were others who thought he was a second round draft pick. There wasn't a whole lot of difference in opinion in the top guys. But those guys and Bo Nix, too, Bo Nix was another guy where some people were like,

I could see it as a first rounder and others who just, no way. Those middle guys, same with Pennix. I remember talking to somebody on Pennix who just was like, I don't see it at all. And then there were other people who thought, no, he's first round draft pick. So that's what often happens when you get to the kind of the middle, right, the middle rounds. Ivor, I appreciate you bringing up Jesse Pierce. I will say something about that at the end. I thought, you know, we just talked to football, but I did want to close with that.

So thank you for bringing that up in the comments. and other people who have. I appreciate those words. I was just going to wait till the end. DLM says, honestly, how many quarterbacks in year three are dropping absolute dimes with touch passes? There's a reason if a guy can layer the ball and even has decent velocity. He's, velocity is usually a topic.

This is a great point because it was long argued that you couldn't really change someone's accuracy. and then a number of guys kind of did, led by Josh Allen, but there were others who did. I tend to agree, though. You know, I watched someone like Julian Sayan play, and I go, yeah, that's, that's it. And he may never become a superstar, but the touch on the ball, the guy was like 19 starting for Ohio State. And he's immediately got touch that McCarthy doesn't happen. have. I do think it is innate to have that much touch. Like when we talk about Kyler Murray,

there is a video and I know it, whatever, it's a stupid thing, but there's a video of Kyler Murray at a Dallas Mavericks game. And he's sitting on the front row and side line. And they grab them and they say, hey, take a few shots, bro. Like, they just give him the basketball. He's in street clothes. He's wearing like boots and a like leather jacket and a hat. And he just drains two threes. Like, whatever it is. is and you know who else has this this this is this is Adam feeling Adam Thielen Adam Thielen has this freak mode type of skill where he could be a scratch golfer he can has movement skills that other people don't have can track a football somehow well

it's in the playoff game flying over his head he can't even see it reach out and grab it he's a great basketball player like I don't know some people just have this next level of physical town Patrick Peterson It's a freaking good golfer. Great basketball player. Jefferson's this way. There are just some guys. I don't know what happened.

Power lines. Aliens came down and zapped them with some skill set, hand-eye coordination that other people don't have. Kyler's one of those guys. I don't know that JJ's one of those guys. I think JJ is one of those guys that has to work super hard for a really long time to get to a baseline level, which I think he can eventually.

but I don't think that's right now at this moment. I think eventually he could get to a baseline level. Now, that we've seen a lot. We've seen Ryan Tannahill. We've seen Alex Smith. We've seen there's a number of guys who threw the ball too hard, didn't have enough touch, weren't accurate enough that did get better. So it is possible.

But he's never going to have accuracy like a Kyler Murray. If he can throw to, yeah, Matt, if he can learn to throw to open receivers, he'll be good. I mean, that goes for, you know, most guys. Most receivers aren't that open. problem with that is you have to throw them open. And that's what Murray does well. That's what great quarterbacks do well is they throw to space and let the receiver run to that space where they're going to be open. That's the hard thing. Remmer, what's your take on all of last off-season type?

There was legitimate steam that McCarthy looked ready. There was genuine excitement from everyone at camp. What happened was a peer hopium. It was not. It was not. I mean, I was at every practice. and you know, me and Judd and Seaford and Gessling and Kramer and, you know, Alec and everybody, we all stood on this metal thing looking down at the field with our phones or our notebooks, writing down every single pass. And we all wrote down the same information. We all saw the same stuff. And my understanding, I didn't listen to everybody else's podcast or read everybody else's

article every day, should have mentioned Dane. we came up with pretty much the same conclusion from watching training camp was that it got better as it went along and by the end of camp and the joint practices, it looked like he was ready to play NFL quarterback. But the difference is that it's just moving a totally different speed and the defense, you don't know the defense. And, you know, hey, if your backup tackle is in, you have to figure out a way to deal with that.

Like, they don't just give you a free, oh, well, you know, they, his backer, tackle was in, you get a win. Like, no, you have to try to win the game with a backup in, which is not what it's like in camp. And what it's like in camp is, okay, well, you know, you're just, oh, you got sacked, blow the whistle, next play, whatever. Like, that's not how it works in the game. In the game, it's a big loss.

And I also think it hurt him to not have Justin Jefferson out there for training game. I do think that that was kind of a big deal and got them behind from the outset. that we were also factoring for that. We're like, well, you know, I mean, he's throwing to Ty Felton and Lucky Jackson, who didn't even stick on the team in the practice squad. So, all right, well, you know, he's doing pretty well. If you consider that, he hit Aaron Jones a couple of times.

Like, what we saw in Chicago, none of that was a shock. In fact, what we saw in Chicago is what I thought it would look like. Yeah, it's pretty ugly. But then, oh, man, he made some plays and stuff. That five weeks, though, being injured after the Atlanta game. I think that really hurt. I think that really was a big setback for him. Because he just wasn't able to build on some momentum.

Even if he had the tough game against Atlanta, you come back against Cincinnati, you win by 30, no matter who's playing quarterback, build on some positive momentum. You'd be two and one at that point, feeling pretty good, headed overseas, you know, but it just, it didn't happen. So, you know, I don't know.

But there's always been these stops and starts. I think in terms of hype though, okay. So last year, in terms of how we actually thought about him was, okay, I remember saying, I don't think it's going to be bad, I think, which I was wrong, but I was like, I don't think it's going to be bad. I think that there will be ups and downs and he can manage some games and they can work their way through the tough times. And then we're going to see him manage a game pretty well and make some plays with his

legs. And I think it can look pretty good. I remember saying like, that's kind of my end of the campaign. conclusion. They're going to win 11 games. That's what I thought with their defense and how good it was, which we were also factoring when we were watching him at training camp. But if you told me in the middle of the season that you'd slam on the e-break and he would have to sit out five weeks where he couldn't even throw a pass and then come back and then be accurate and consistent and everything, then I would have changed my opinion because he was not able to, so that momentum was pretty real.

but here's what wasn't real was the caliber of hype i don't think that the folks at training camp because we're giving the objective here's every day you can go back and watch there's practices where i'm like it wasn't good folks there's practices where i was like he had a great day it wasn't sam bradford 2017 camp holy cow every night i'm coming in like wow uh or i guess every practice i wasn't streaming then i didn't know what streaming was then but i was why i was wowed by Sam Bradford. I was not wowed by J.J. McCarthy. I was like, oh, yeah, this should be pretty good.

But the hype outside of the building from the fans, you moved on from Darnold, this is supposed to be the guy. He's supposed to be the first real true franchise quarterback since Culpepper that you drafted and developed and he's here and it's finally. And that's where the myth Carthy came was like there was an invented J.J. McCarthy who was perfect, who just could do no wrong and was going to be the most clutch winnery winner of all time. And that was not ever going to really happen.

So there's, yeah, I set high, fairly high expectations based on the circumstances and the receivers and the coach and all that. But it got blown way up because of how it happened. You moved on from a 14-win quarterback for this guy. Of course, the expectations are going to be through the freaking roof. Josh, Kyler Murray makes the rest of the NFC North fear the Vikings. I think that Kyler was the last. least favorite thing they could have done for the other teams.

If they got Derek Carr, they might have been like, oh, he's okay, if not pretty good. If they had got Gino Smith, I don't think anyone would have cared if they got Gino Smith. If they got Aaron Rogers, I don't think anyone would have cared. If Kirk came back, I mean, are the lions, are the lions celebrating if Kirk comes back? No, because he had many good games against them. But they're also probably like, that's fine. Getting Kyler, there's, there had to be in the rest of the NFC North. I got really, really?

Do they have to get someone who could actually like play great against us and has in his career had stretches and had games where he's fantastic? So they, they couldn't have been thrill at that. Evan Jefferson's contract looks nice today. Well, I remember the Jefferson Wars of 2023 where we went back and forth every night about should they trade Justin Jefferson. And I always came back to I promise by year two or three this thing will look

fine and it does. But Jefferson's cap hits are about to go up enormously after this year if they don't work out an extension with him, which means this year is pretty important to Mr. Jefferson. Jim is it at all possible? JJ's hand was messed up last year and when it heals, he'll be good. Don't remember him having such an issue in training camp, just wondering why. Well, he was, yeah, I mean, his accuracy has never been good. Never at any point has it ever been good. it's been better at times and in training camp it was decent at times there were also throws that made no freaking sense i mean in those joint practices the first day he completed like six out of seven in a seven on seven drill and the the eighth pass went flying 50 yards over

everyone and was interception so he's always had this inconsistency issue since really day one but is it possible that was a factor it is also though all these things that kind of go into hey you think this mattered this they all matter but also they all happen to a lot of quarterbacks all the time you hit your hand on stuff you're a quarterback you get you banged up you have to i mean kirk in 2022 is playing with broken ribs like it there's it's tough if it was an easy sport everyone would be the quarterback but it's not so when you go back to that stuff like, yeah, there are explanations, but if they thought, oh, the only reason that he struggled with accuracy was because he hurt his hand, then they wouldn't have Kyler Murray, more likely than

not. But, well, could it have been a factor? Yeah, it could have been a factor. I appreciate that you enjoyed the golf analogy, even though you're not a golfer. Take it up. It's fun. Phil says, don't you make JJ your QB2 to increase his value before the trade deadline? I think you have your QB2 who you'd trust to come in and win you a game. If you've gotten to that point, the league already has their opinion on McCarthy and they're not going to give you something spectacular if he's QB2 or QB3. I don't think, I don't think that a team that gets their quarterback hurt that's looking for another option is like, well, yes, he was a top 10 draft pick that they moved down from

Sam Darnold and then bench for another guy, but he's QB2, not QB3. I don't think there's much of a difference there. Let's see. Rob, the pro football reference on target data thought that Darnold would be better than Vikes fans expected 2024. His accuracy in 2022 was almost the same as cousins. So that does not adjust for depth of target. If it did, it would be better. It does not adjust for depth of target. And Darnold had one of the highest depth of target in the league in 2024. And Murray does not have one of the higher depth of targets. In fact, it's one of the lower ones. So I think that that helps that number, but also when you watch, you know, him play. And, you know, Darnold would spray some

passes too. It's just he would have many brilliant ones down the field. But that does matter. I mean, if you, the on target data, if you throw a swing pass to your running back, it's counted as one of one. And if you throw a 47 yard touchdown that drops in from the sky, it's count as one of one. So it is one that you need a little adjustment for that. I think it would be higher if it did. he acted nutty at times. Yeah. Yeah. You're right.

I mean, the way you put that made me laugh, but, you know, it's very, very hard to be an NFL quarterback. And the way that he acted, I mean, you described as nutty, which makes me laugh. But it was, it was unusual for what we see because I think he wasn't ready for QB1 with that much pressure. A lot of, a lot of QB1s in their first year are like Cam Ward. like we don't even notice them. I mean, there's, there's going to be conversations about their rookie seasons,

but tell me your favorite Joe Burrow memory from his first year. You probably don't have one because he played for the Bengals. It's not often that you end up with a bunch of national TV games and two right off the bat and the amount of hype off a 14 win season. That all factor in. It definitely all factor. And it's really hard. You know, J.Mals mentions the ups and downs.

It's very hard to deal with those ups and downs. but it's even harder when you've become one of those teams that the people on TV and everyone on social media and national writers are all picking apart every single week. I don't know what Cam Moore did last year and neither does anybody else. So, uh, it's BM. Thineman, Thineman is a talented white safety. He is our birthright. That's funny. That is funny.

Uh, Evan says every time I mock on PFF, Thineman is gone by 18. It seems like his stock has gone up. Carl Eller was a Seahawk. Was he really? Did that happen? I didn't even know that. Well, thank you Vikings fans.

7203. Really appreciate the super chat. Thank you very much. Fran was a giant. Yeah, well, not only was Fran Targerton a giant. He was a giant during some of the best Vikings defensive years where they could have used him and maybe won the Super Bowl. But nonetheless.

So thank you, Paul, for making the effort to listen on 2 a.m. UK time. thank you for that. Really appreciate that. Malik says hope JJ goes to the Rams behind Stafford and wins a Super Bowl with McVeigh. We don't deserve a young franchise quarterback. We don't have one. So I don't know why you didn't, why you wouldn't deserve one. You just don't have one.

You tried. You just, that is what it is. He's got to prove it. Flick Murray makes me unironically excited. The J.J. McCarthy break feels like a little bit of Dalton second year. stint Bryce Young. Maybe, I mean, that was a little bit different. I mean, Bryce had hit a real serious low point and they needed to give him a reset.

So maybe that's similar to that. The team was also really bad, Carolina. That is a bit of a difference here is that this team is not really bad. Yes, I am still live. These, these go on for a while. We have good discussions here. Got the guy, a great crowd. That's what it's about, man.

but with McCarthy, I see your, your comparison. He, he does, I think he does need the, the mental reset of a year. And there is nothing wrong with being excited for Kyler Murray because he is the one quarterback that breaks away from all of those other ones that would have been, I think, kind of a drudgery. Like, if Kirk came back, it would have been, all right, here we go. The March to eight wins. I mean, I really think with Kirk at this point in his career, he should probably just go work for CBS.

With Rogers, it would have been interesting, but I don't know how exciting it would have been, but it would have been at least, okay, I guess we'll see how this goes. Gino Smith, I just, I was going to have a tough time with other than Camp. I think Camp would have been fun to see if McCarthy could beat him, but I've, man, I don't know. Like watching a guy throw 30 interceptions. I'm not sure if I was prepared for that. Murray is the one that it could actually work and they got them. So at least there's that.

All right. So what was the promise? I'm going to do a do a draft sim here in a second. What was the promise that I made for the draft sim? I think I said I wouldn't take Thinaman and I wouldn't take Sadiq. So I'll do that in just a second. I answer a couple more questions. Then I'll jump on that.

Tyler, do you think Prasinski will ultimately be the full-time GM after the draft? So I don't know. I don't think that's a bad idea if they do. The owner's meetings are coming up in Phoenix. I will be there. And we are going to ask the owner who the GM is going to be or if they have any idea what the plan is going to be for GM. What I, what I think I'd like to see is if Rob Brzezinski was the president of football operations and there was a GM hired under Rob. and they were over the head coach.

That's, I think, why I would like it, where Rob would oversee the entire organization and be the liaison to the Wilf's. So they have someone in the building who is basically the Wilf's in the building, which has been a problem recently. So you've got someone who's over everyone that is basically ownership.

And then you have your general manager and your coach who are on the same level, but they answer to Rob. And Rob and the Wills are the ones who evaluate the gene. and the coach. That's the structure I would like. We'll see if that's what they go with. Because I don't want any more of this GM and head coach on the same page, on the same level thing.

I'd like someone ahead of them. If we're talking arm talent, Caleb, Kyler, love golf. They're all, arm talent. They're all great. They're all great with arm. I mean,

I would, I would put golf very high on arm talent. But I see what you're saying with Caleb, but Caleb's inaccuracy would make me put him probably last because he's not accurate. I would definitely have golf for arm 10. He throws the ball very accurately and very hard and on time. BM, Bo necks proved me wrong. I thought he was booty.

Yeah, I mean, he's a good player. He's not a great quarterback, but he has gotten better and it's a good fit. So, but that shows you that that level of quarterback can still win. So, okay, let's do, let's do a draft sim. Yeah, I'm not ready for seven rounders. I'm ready for third for third round three rounders. That's where do I got my draft simulator here? Okay, let me get it to the big screen.

All right. Let's see. Where do we go? Vikings three round drafts and let's use, um, a random big board. Big board 4.0 consensus. Oh, consensus. All right, let's, that's good. That's great.

This is a great addition to PFF that they've added more big boards and not just theirs. So let's go consensus big board like that. And let's just leave the settings the way that they are, maybe a little more positional value and fired up. All right. Top of the draft. We always like, oh, Thinaman's gone to the lions. Top, well, we weren't going to draft them anyway.

At the top, you get Mendoza, Arvel Reese going to the Jets. Mali Noah to the Cardinals, Rubin Baines 4th. Where does Love end up to the Brown? Oh, come on, simulator. You're better than that. The Browns can't pick Jeremiah Love. You're better than that simulator. Fine.

Him in that range is all right. But I think the Browns would have to take Carnell Tate there. Switch those to simulator. Jeremiah Love to Washington makes so much more sense in Carnell Tate to Cleveland. Downs ends up with Miami. Good luck to Miami with everything. And here we are 18. So we're not picking Sadiq.

We promise we wouldn't. Jermad McCoy is the top corner who's out there. He didn't play last year, but was phenomenal in 2024. Four interceptions. We got Peter Woods. I really like Avion Terrell, Emmanuel McNeill Warren, Denzel Boston, Caleb Banks, Casey Concepcion.

This kind of seems like a trade down. Omar Cooper, Caden McDonald. Cassius Howell, let's see. Let's trade down with Cleveland or Seattle. Let's go with Cleveland because they're the 24th pick from Jacksonville. Can we get 70? Can we throw in, can we throw in a later round pick to get number 70 or just maybe move up to get number 70? Well, let's just take 107.

All right, fine. We'll just take 107. I kind of want to maneuver here, though. I kind of want to move up to number 70 to drop down. Can I get an extra pick? Okay, let's do that. So we're going to move up from 97 to 70 and get number 107 in this trade with the Browns. It's a little convoluted, but that's what we're doing to move down to 24.

In between Avion Terrell, Kenyon Sadiq, Jamad McCoy, they all go. And Emmanuel McNeill Warren, which kind of directs us to either Denzel Boston or Caleb Banks. I think in this situation or Casey Concepcion, I think, in this situation, I would like to take a wide receiver, but I'm going to do, as you know, I would always like to take a wide receiver. But we're going to do a draft sim where we take a wide receiver tomorrow, like intentionally with Chris Trapaso. So let's take Caleb Banks.

I have no problem with that. I don't love, love, love banks because of the production, but the freakishness, you just can't, you can't find that. Okay. Second round 49. A player who comes up here, there was a report that he visited the Vikings, Anthony Hill, junior and I kind of like it and I kind of don't like it like his pass rush and his coverage grades are not that great but he's kind of played some different spots as a linebacker.

He's thought to be very skilled. He was at once, yeah, at one point you could see that from the trend line. At one point he was somebody that was thought to be a top 20 draft pick. I'm, ooh, Judarian Price is there too. But I'm trying not to draft people I always draft. So I think in this scenario I probably would draft Jerry and Price. I'm interested in Eli Stowers. Freak, freak athlete, 62 catches dominated the NFL combine.

Chris Bell is here, Jeremy Bernard, a lot of stuff that I like. But let's go with Anthony Hill. And here's why. Because Blake Cashman is in the last year of his contract. Eric Wilson is 31 and Ivan Pace is just not happening. So let's get Anthony Hill Jr. the linebacker from Texas. And with the 70th pick, falling in our lap is Mike Washington Jr.

and Elijah Surat, who I like as a wide receiver, was great for Indiana. That's actually a tough choice. Sam Hect also the center. Ooh, tough choices here. Who might drop? Let's go, let's go Mike Washington, Jr. and get the 4-3 explosiveness with the 70th pick. and Davison Igbenoson, the corner from Ohio State is interesting here.

We have Genesis Smith, a safety, Skyler Bell wide receiver, Zaki Wheatley. Also, Logan Jones. I could go Logan Jones, a center here. I'm interested in that. Let's go, let's go Logan Jones, center from Iowa with the 82nd pick and take a look at what we got. So in this draft sim, here's what we did. We moved back to get the 70th pick swapped with 97 and then add 107, which we didn't take because this is a three-round mock. So we get Caleb Banks defensive tackle from Florida, Anthony Hill linebacker from Texas, and then Mike Washington, Jr., the Arkansas running back, and Logan Jones, the center from Iowa.

so I'm not really sure what you're what you're getting at uh Casey what you're talking about there if you're if you're comparing um my early media days to j j mccarthy quarterbacking uh those things are not similar i could tell you that having done one and covered another they're not the same uh peter woods is somebody that people are just really liking uh Evan but also like the draft people like him, but not everybody. Evan screaming to trade down. Absolutely. Absolutely. Billy Garon from the wild for their operations. I don't know if he knows any football at all, but he's done a good job, a very good job over there. All right. Good stuff. Hope you guys enjoyed that.

But I did want to say before I called tonight that I did know Jesse Pierce, who as you guys know by now, passed away along with her three children yesterday. And like everybody else in this media, I was devastated not only for her family, but everybody who knows her, everybody who was ever around her, something that's come up in all the obituaries and all the tributes is just her smile

and her energy and her enthusiasm and her love for hockey. I also love hockey. I loved following what she did with Bar Down Beauty's. You know, her and I both ran into some occupational issues during the pandemic and started our own podcasts and we're trying to make it work. And we talked a lot, you know, when that was going on, like are both trying to make the podcast thing work. And she did an incredible job with it.

She built it with her huge personality and her love for the game and her passion. she put so much into everything that she did. And I am devastated like everybody else. And especially for those like my really close friends that were around the wild more than me, I wasn't around them a lot. I would chat with her, you know, DMs and stuff like that, little business things about being a podcaster. But we didn't spend a lot of,

I didn't spend a lot of time around the rink necessarily only a couple times where I met her in person. but you know, Judd Zolgad, who does a show with her is one of my best friends. And I just know how much she meant to so many people and I'm so hurt for everybody. So Jesse was loved, loved, loved, not just here, everywhere in the NHL, everyone. You see all these tributes coming out from other teams, from other coaches, from other media people, national media people. I just think it shows one person with their energy, with their joy, with their passion, with their love, how many people they could touch and how many people care.

And she will be very, very, very, very greatly missed by everyone here and everyone who knew her. So, yeah. All right. Well, thanks everybody for watching. And we'll talk to you all again soon.