Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Star Tribune's Ben Goessling looks into the crystal ball at Vikings future at QB, defensive coordinator

Episode Date: December 13, 2023

Matthew Coller is joined by Ben Goessling of the Star Tribune looks into the future and talks about whether Brian Flores is destined for a job as head coach is in the near future whether there will be any influence from Josh Dobbs' struggle in what the Vikings will do at quarterback. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple insider inside tco performance center matthew collar here as always with ben gesling of the star tribune and if you are a long time listener to this show you know exactly what's coming but you might be able to see into your crystal wall what's coming that's right that's right uh and but let me, because not everybody has been listening the entire time, though they should have been. Years ago, 2017, Mike Zimmer was asked about the health status of Sam Bradford. Was that what it was? I had forgotten the specific origin of this. It was.

I looked this up after we did like five crystal ball episodes. All right. And then someone, a local fortune teller, then sent him a crystal ball. And since then, all of our episodes together have been looking into the crystal ball in the future. And when it arrives, you'll know. So let's start out, though, before we dive deep into the crystal ball and just talk a little bit about what we just saw with Vikings and Raiders and then everything going right for the Vikings following that up including the Packers losing to Tommy DeVito a punt return for touchdown for the Ravens it was almost like the forces that be

were like no we will not let you miss the playoffs, Vikings, this year, including the fact that the Raiders fumbled inside the red zone, that a quarterback standing on the sideline, maybe two quarterbacks, could have scored more than zero points for the Raiders, but they left Jimmy Garoppolo standing over there. I mean, what a strange development to come out of the weekend, Ben, and be like, no, no actually they're great somehow yeah well yeah i mean you you go from two minutes from the game heading to overtime scoreless to

them winning and then by monday night they are a full game ahead of everybody chasing them in the nfc and yes i know there are tiebreakers that play into it. If the Buccaneers don't win the division, things get tricky. I understand all that. But surely in the standings right now, they're the sixth seed at seven and six. They are one of six teams in the NFC that has a winning record. Nobody else does. So yeah, they came out of the week in better playoff position

than they entered it after winning three, nothing truly cannot predict ball. What is your take on Jordan love and what we saw last night? Because the entire universe declared him to be great quarterback. And then all of a sudden did not look so great. They didn't have Christian Watson. So that was probably a factor and then being a little banged up. But as we go down the stretch here, there's going to be a very important game, more than likely, between the Vikings and Packers, and I won't ask you to look into the crystal ball. I just want your opinion of what we've seen from Jordan Love

since he played against Brian Flores' defense. Yeah, I mean, the couple games that I've seen, obviously the Lions on Thanksgiving and then the Chiefs in primetime a couple weeks ago, he's looked better. I mean, certainly he's looked more assertive, looks like a guy that can make a lot of the throws, always has the arm strength to do it. The thing with him, he just looks like he's learned a lot of

not-so-great habits from Aaron Rodgers who learned them from Brett Favre. A lot of the footwork, a lot of the throwing off platform when you probably don't need to is seemingly part of his game. And I don't know, I haven't watched enough Utah state film to know if that was always part of it with him or if he's picked up all of that stuff from watching Rodgers who learned it from Favre.

But there are a lot of those things there that seem kind of reminiscent of those guys. And it's fine if you are a Hall of Famer, it tends to not be a great idea if you're not. So that's kind of one of the things I'm still waiting to see. And just the general, I mean, there's times where it's, if he has a seven yard throw, take the seven yard throw, he seems like he's kind of chasing the big play probably a little more often than he should. I thought even at the end of that game last night, there was some of that. So those are some of the things I still see as being an issue. He's been a lot more efficient, certainly has shown some of that first-round talent,

but what does he do against Brian Flores I think is up for debate, especially given the fact that against the Giants last night he looked like he was making a lot of the same mistakes we saw earlier in the season right and they have a defensive coordinator who sends a lot of pressure and a lot of unique looks at the quarterback so maybe declaring him to be the next Aaron Rodgers as the broadcast has loved to do yeah I do find some of the factoids to be pretty like stunning how they have the same number of yards or whatever. And apparently Rogers lost his 13th start on a field goal at the end of a

game, which is what happens to Jordan love. So that's weird. Yeah. I like weird stuff. Rogers. Farf stuff was always weird too. So there's like a weird,

some there. Yeah. Uh, Wisconsin is weird. Sorry for people from Wisconsin. I mostly like it outside of driving there. Uh, but, uh, when it comes to Jordan Love, that that will be a storyline that we're going to approach here, because I think after this week, we can be pretty sure that that game is going to be huge for the Vikings and how good he actually is is going to matter. Now, I tend to think of him doing the Rogers stuff like when I was playing Little League and I used to try everyone's batting stance so you know you try like tony batista you're like the wide open stance or

something that's big on the ken griffey with like the course i mean or the i think gary sheffield was always the other one where you come up with like the wrists over the top where you kind of do the you know yeah he's doing it he's always kind of do that thing for audio yeah i suppose the video people saw it you know what the Gary Sheffield thing looks like. If you're of a certain age, the difference is I'm not Gary Sheffield, so it didn't work. But, yeah, you always try to mimic those things. One I tried that the locals would appreciate,

or maybe throw batteries at me for, was Chuck Dahlblock, where I tried holding the bat sideways backwards. Oh, yeah. Didn't work. No, that was not good for me. I tried the Kirby Puckett leg kick for a while. That was always the big timing device in his batting stance. I feel like it's gone away.

It's just gone away a little bit. The totally absurd and probably destructive batting stance. Yeah. Because they throw so fast that you don't have time to do a lot of that stuff to bring the bat back in. That's a different discussion. You did cover baseball for a while. I did. Covered a lot of bad baseball to bring it the bat back in that's a different discussion you did cover baseball for a while i did so covered a lot of bad but oh mostly i'm hearing something oh it's the crystal ball it's back we talked about it and now it's arrived and i'm looking at it

and uh things are pretty murky actually yeah i think looks like it's seen some stuff i know very very murky it's it's all it's kind of cracked and everything because it has no idea what's going on in the future in a lot of ways but it also uh you know it can help us looking into the future and you can read it much better than i can so take a look at the crystal ball which is right down here below the table yeah you're watching yeah yeah yeah there it is. Yeah. And tell me, is that, is that Brian Flores at a podium accepting a head coaching job this off

season? I'm squinting. I can't see it. What do you see from is, is that Brian Flores getting a job this next off season or not? It's a very, very unusual. It is hard to see.

I mean, I could see it either way i think if you are seeing it if we're looking at it correctly i i mean again it's the crack in there is maybe a little hard to tell but maybe there's like a rooney standing over to the side or maybe that's maybe that's bob craft i i i kind of think those are the only ones it could be because i don't know that otherwise he's going to take one i think he's going to be picky i think he's not going to just take anything that comes along so if in fact that's what it is i think it's a job on that order where it's solid ownership group solid franchise someone he knows

and uh a place that he's like yeah i can come in here and because i mean should he be in the spot where he's having to look for opportunity number two probably not and the way that it went down and for him in miami is obviously a big problem and is going to be a continued subject of a lawsuit but like it or not this is where he is and i think he knows that you're probably not going to get opportunity number three you can't go into this assuming that you're going to get opportunity number three so if in fact he's going to take one i think he's going to be pretty selective with the opportunities to cover up i'm certain that he will get interviews yes because

when you're suing the league for not getting fair interviews yep then you're gonna get some fair interviews and he has built on his already impressive resume but there are the other things of the lawsuit and i also believe that when he was in miami and it's not the first head coach to have a first job yeah that did not go ideally and have head budding and so forth yeah uh particularly when the owner was asking you to tank, which doesn't always go over so good. People don't tend to like that so much. No, they don't. If you're going to tank, you just do it from

the front office. You don't tell the coach to throw games or try to bribe him to throw games. Allegedly. Allegedly, according to lawsuits, that's not in our crystal ball of what happened exactly there, but that will not in our crystal ball of what happened exactly there but that will factor in to other teams decisions the way that that was handled and in a way you could see a twisted way

of owners sort of siding with the other owner and being like hey if you're not going to do whatever we ask you to do even if it's like really immoral and gross, then we kind of can't have you as the head coach. And again, I know how weird that is, but also football owners don't exactly stay straight and narrow and totally rational. And they also don't break ranks a lot with each other. They don't give each other out very often. That is true.

My question is about Pittsburgh and New England is if they fire their coaches, aren't they looking for offensive coaches? I mean, probably. Yeah, I think that's probably the logical thought process there. I mean, I think if they were to go with him, you have owners in both of those cases that know him, owners that have owned those teams for a long time and have had a lot of success with those teams.

So if they're saying, I mean, Bill cower to mike tomlin was defensive guy to defensive guy and it's hey this is the guy that has the makeup and the in the leadership skills that we want so if if somebody felt like that about brian flores or if it's the patriots saying we want to continue that belichick tree but not with like matt patricia Maybe that's a way that that goes. He would have to certainly show in both of those jobs, in those particular cases, could he develop Kenny Pickett? Could he figure out the quarterback situation in New England? So maybe you're bringing in offensive people

that can handle that side of the ball for you, much like Brian Flores has done for Kevin O'Connell on the defensive side of the ball here. Yes, he would certainly have to answer that piece of it of how can you handle the offense how can you handle a young quarterback and Flores is a card carrying member of the Patriot way so he came his upbringing was hired there as a scout at 23 years old developed all the way through the scouting department the coaching staff held a bunch of going college at bc too right yes he's very much like that guy uh and i wouldn't be surprised if he got consideration for that and if someone is going to break rank robert craft if you're ranking all the owners

has to be as far as like most powerful way up at the top to where nobody would really be able to say what are you doing robert with somebody like him or Bobby? I don't know what they call him there, but they would. So that's possible. But if they're meeting today, are the owners meetings are today, I believe some who knows what they're talking about. Maybe they're talking about whether they're going to let Brian Flores have a head coaching job or not. But I'm seeing in the crystal ball, though, that he's here next year. Yeah, I think that I had to wipe it down a little bit. We just brought it out of storage. though that he's here next year yeah uh i think that i had to wipe it down a little bit we just

brought it out of storage i i'm i've just not been convinced that that's going to happen and maybe there's something else like an additional assistant coach role or something like that that they can tack on to it but some zeros this is right i mean this is not just your routine quality defensive coordinator job this is one of the most special jobs by a defensive coordinator anyone has done in a long time with the turnover that they had on defense, how bad they were on defense last year. And now it's not just, oh, they're pretty good. This is now like a dominant unit, which none of us saw coming. Well, the thing that's been interesting is we're having conversations.

You hear Kevin O'Connell say it a little bit on Sunday is playing to the strengths of your team. We need to not turn the ball over. We need to run it more effectively. And they've run it a lot since Kirk cousins went out because it's, we trust our defense. I mean, these sentences,

we need to run the ball. We need to not turn it over. I'm not sure I trust my quarterback. I want to lean on my defense. It's like speaking to Mike Zimmer. I mean, that's who that, that's what that feels like. It feels like Mike Zimmer era type stuff. And some of it with Flores has been, you're, you're getting back. I mean, this is the best defensive performance they've had since probably 2019, maybe even 2017. And this has been done

with a group of players that everybody thought i mean myself included we don't know what any of these guys can do he the level of development that has happened this year is greater than anything we've seen on the defensive side of the ball in a long time because one of the reasons this team was where it was defensively is they've had a lot of draft picks on the defensive side of the ball that have not panned out and yes that's been lewis seen to this point but i'm i'm thinking more of guys at the end of the rick spielman mike zimmer era pass rushers that didn't pan out jalen holmes uh you know guys of that kind of nature that they took in the third fourth round um hey janarius robinson had a sack generius rob yes i

mean guys like that guys whose names i'm forgetting because they just didn't do anything i mean in some of the corners that didn't pan out mike hughes you know a lot of these guys that jeff gladney rest in peace obviously but that didn't go well before he tragically passed away either there were a lot of those picks that mckenzie alex, a lot of these that just didn't pan out. And his ability to get Ivan Pace to turn into what he's become. Josh Metellus, who was a whole lot from previous administration. Cam Bynum, same thing there. Makai Blackman standing up to Devontae Adams at times on Sunday.

You have not seen young players on that side of the ball do this in a long time around here and i think that's a lot of the reason why this defense is where it is so a lot of credit to him for that and if he is here which i i would tend to say if i'm betting i do think he's here it's probably with a title increase and a pay raise to reflect that this show is being brought to you by BetterHelp. Folks, the holidays are an exciting time for buying gifts and spending time with family, but you have to remember that sometimes the best gift is the one you can give yourself. If you're finding the holiday season tough on you, maybe the best gift is paying a little more attention to yourself,

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is interesting to me because I also think like it's opportunity and it's evaluation. Yeah. So Brian Flores evaluating Josh Metellus and being like, you know what? You can do a lot of stuff. You're a really bright dude. You know what we should do? Have you do a lot of stuff because you're a really bright dude. You know what we should do? Have you do a lot of stuff.

And it really speaks to just coaching in general about being malleable and evaluating what you have and shaping your system to it. And nobody has done a better job than that than him. I think what Mike Zimmer wanted to do was get the exact type of players that he wanted. Yes. And what do they look like? What are their specs?

What's going to make this great? Especially among the pass rushers. And when he had that, it was great. get the exact type of players that he wanted yes what do they look like what are their specs what's going to make this great especially among the pass rushers and when he had that well it was great there's no downplaying it but when he didn't have it it was not great yeah and i i don't have a lot of criticisms of zimmer as a defensive coach because he was one of the best for a long time but i think that was in part what happened when those picks didn't work out. And then also, there was no desperate scrambling this offseason. There was not a, oh, man, because they won 13 games, it wasn't like, oh, man, we got to go win 13. Again, it was, we're actually going to stick to our plan, and we have a little more leeway to do some stuff because now we've built up this trust with ownership and so forth.

And so they could move on from guys. And it turns out that an older defensive player like Eric Hendricks, one of the great players during his best times, but you know, a younger player who's quicker and faster and doesn't have the miles on his body might actually be a better fit like Ivan Pace Jr. has been. And so a lot of guys just simply got opportunity to show what they did. Whereas before it was, well, we've got to go get Sheldon Richardson to fill us.

We've got to go get Bashad Breeland because we don't trust this corner because he can't do every single thing that I want him to do. And that sort of thing. And so this different approach, which is very different. Shannon Sullivan last year. Right, right.

Yeah. I mean, right. We've got to go get this other guy as opposed to working the defense around to the strengths we got to get a free agent in here and a lot of times it's not that great whoa whoa the crystal ball uh-oh you know and again i will say with you looking down like that it's um yeah it's it's not the angle's not great yeah look over there that's what you put it down there before i know that was my mistake and then i looked at the camera and i was like you know what when you're looking down there and saying whoa

and people can't see that we're wearing pants yeah it looks a little weird yeah uh moving past the ball moving past that now the ball is behind the camera whoa that's where i'm looking to see it yes there it is i see it now eyesight's getting bad as i get older i am seeing i am seeing the vikings in the postseason but i can't tell where they're going or who they're playing it i'm hearing motors in the background maybe that's what it is but it could also be the sound of a cowboy saying yeehaw or those two things sound the same but it also could be an angry Eagle throwing a full beer at someone.

Ouch. A Vikings fan says he's a cowboy. Yeah. Yeah. But just the Eagles fan yelling. I mean, no, though, the Eagles fan is a screeching Eagle throwing a full beer at a Viking, which sounds like a motor which sounds sounds like the guy yes yes do you think there's gonna be any number of those things do you think they're gonna make

the playoffs and who are they gonna play uh i looking at it yes i do see them in the playoffs i gosh really yeah it looks like a motor which means i means I see myself rolling my eyes as I book a flight to Detroit for the second weekend in a row in the middle of January and asking, what else am I going to ask Kevin O'Connell about the Lions? in four weeks but yeah that's that's what it looks like i was i was hoping to see maybe somewhere warm but no uh it appears to be uh the motor city kitties so you don't think that this offense is going to be so bad that they end up falling apart and missing the playoffs is that what is that what is what you were telling me because the lions are more than likely going to be the three seed. I mean, they're like almost locked into that as long as they don't melt or as long as the Vikings don't take the north, which seems pretty unlikely at this point. There's only one way that doesn't happen. Well, a couple of ways. I mean, they could be the seven seed or they could fall completely out of this and somebody could catch them like the Rams and so forth. Because I left Vegas thinking if they play offensively like this again, this season is

over, they will lose every single game going forward. And then I also saw what happened in Chicago with Detroit and thought, well, maybe not. And I mean, we're also not being made to believe that jake browning is joe burrow right even though he's played well but if you score three points like this is why i mean the crystal ball which is now over there yes not it's just it's just very unclear but i i think they will still be able to get a cobble enough together to win what one of these games two of these games like they don't even have to win a lot done yeah because two gets it done. Yeah. Because I don't think that the rest of the NFC is very good. I mean, the Packers have an easy schedule,

but you would have said that last night too. They're playing the Giants and Tommy DeVito. They should probably go win that game if they're serious, especially after beating the Lions, beating the Chiefs. They maybe got a little high on their own supply and then go out there and get beat in East Rutherford. Schedule is easy for them, but are they going to be consistent enough to maybe win three of their last four to possibly overtake the Vikings? I don't know.

So I think they stay in that sixth seed more because the rest of the NFC is flawed deeply. I'm of the opinion more that way than I am that this offense is going to completely figure it out. Although I do think Nick Mullins gives them a better chance to at least play somewhat efficiently. And that's really all you're going to need is don't overthink it. Get the ball to Justin Jefferson, get the ball to Jordan Addison, get the ball to TJ Hawkins and let these guys run and make plays you don't have to have everything be 20 yards downfield if you get guys that can run after the catch which these guys can let me ask you a question that seems to be coming up with Vikings fans that I don't really know what to think about. So according to our colleagues who did not make the trip to Vegas,

there was a comment on the broadcast by Mark Sanchez about how Kevin O'Connell had told him that he wanted to give Dobbs one more chance because this is where everybody gave up on him in the past. And I think we saw why everyone gave up on him in the past. That game or that juncture, having a bad game? Yeah, when he had had a bad game like you had against Chicago, other teams had given up on Dobbs. So he wanted to give him one more chance. Now, that might just be something that sounds good for a broadcast.

I don't know. I'm just quoting what Mark Sanchez said. Kevin O'Connell said, because this is a court that we can use hearsay. Yeah. So O'Connell's connection with his quarterback, there is one side of me that says, hey man, like you didn't really work anything to Josh Dobbs strengths.

And that's what your job was for that game. And that's what Zach Taylor is doing with Jake Browning. So yeah, I guess it is probably better that you go with Nick Mullins. And am I supposed to think about though, what that means for the future of working with quarterbacks? Am I supposed to criticize what it looked like in Chicago? I think so, because like, it didn't really work for Josh Dobbs and he asked him to do

a lot. What does it, what does that mean in what we've learned from the time that Dobbs had to come in and had Jaron Hall and now Nick Mullins versus what we saw with him and Kirk? Well, I think for as much as they've talked about or would want to talk about adapting the offense to whoever's here, we haven't really seen them do that i mean and you see small adjustments but nothing terribly major and it would look different i'm sure through an off season when you have time to tear it down do an install build around what you have rather than trying to do it in the middle of a season but i also think there is a way that he wants this offense run and it puts a lot on the quarterback i mean you hear him talk all the time about rhythm and timing it's not go play backyard football it's not

extending plays it's not russell wilson in his heyday throwing on the run all that kind of stuff i don't think that's the type of offense he wants in an ideal world, which then means if he's going to go draft a quarterback, is he going to go get somebody that's more like Kirk Cousins or more like Lamar Jackson? I tend to think it's more like Kirk Cousins. I think a lot of these coaches from the Kyle Shanahan tree wants the guy that just can deliver the ball on time. That doesn't do a lot of things outside

the structure of the play because they are all of a pretty strong belief that their plays work i mean you hear the the phrase all the time the plays have answers in them and that's you hear it from sean mcveigh kyle shanahan matt lafleur kevin o'connell i mean all all of these coaches have kind of gone that way and i think a lot of the concepts that he wants to run are going to be probably something that leads him towards a quote unquote pocket passer. It doesn't mean that it's not somebody that can move around, but I don't think you're going to see him go get somebody who's just throwing that philosophy out and then kind of making them change the whole thing so this opinion has sort of ebbed and flowed because when he makes plays against new orleans it's like hey maybe kevin o'connell would like somebody who could bail them out if the play isn't perfect right uh but i agreed with kevin o'connell when he said that in the NFL, you have to be able to drop straight back and make plays.

And that's for sure true. I mean, third down and eight. And Nick Mullins actually did make a couple of those throws. He tried to throw a few interceptions in the game, but there was some key deep out route that he had to hit on time with an accurate pass. And the accuracy issue is always going to be at the top of the list no matter what we're talking about like lamar jackson is more accurate than

people give him credit for and of course you know jalen hertz has become a pretty darn accurate quarterback that you can't just succeed by making plays and making it up back there and so forth um but you know i think the perfect quarterback because i've even felt like they've asked too much of kirk sometimes yeah i would agree with that where it was like so i remember in training in the first camp it was like o'connell telling him stay with the reed stay with the reed and last year it almost got the guy killed to stay with the reed yeah right they were lucky that he didn't get hurt last year about five different times and he actually was once uh you know netflix did the documentary and stuff so yeah the opening shots of that documentary are him getting drilled in the ribs while he's

staying in the pocket and staying with the reeds exactly and and of course that's played out pretty well for them the perfect quarterback for kevin o'connell won the super bowl with kevin o'connell it's matthew staff yeah because he could stay in the pocket he can make some plays out of structure when he needs to and he can throw the ball into windows that are just unfathomable yeah he's got a cannon for an arm so what does that mean for the future i mean does it mean that they go back to kirk because clearly they didn't feel fully into kirk yeah they didn't extend him already is it michael pennix because he's got the arm talent yeah like what what does this mean for the way? Whoa. What are you seeing in the crystal ball for the future with the connection between O'Connell and his future quarterback?

Yeah, I see. I think. It looks like there's a guy going up to shake Roger Goodell's hand in the first round of the draft. Is he a defensive tackle? What do you know? He looks like a quarterback. He looks like he's now seeing ESPN getting a split screen with Jim Harbaugh. It looks like Jim Harbaugh.

It might be JJ McCarthy. Wow. And now I'm seeing analysts talk about all of the pro-style concepts that he ran at Michigan and how he'll be a good fit for Kevin O'Connell's offense. And, yeah, it looks like that's where it is. And now I'm hearing the, we'll get the general manager and the head coach down in a minute for the press conference.

And here we go. So yeah, that's what it looks like to me. And you're seeing me doing a live stream in my studio, which I will be during draft time. So set your watches to that or your Google calendars, whatever. You have a watch that gets

four months ahead they have the calendar on the watch yeah i suppose yeah i mean i don't have all the cool watches i have a cool watch but i don't think it's a calendar it syncs with a it's a running watch so it's not like a full apple watch i just it looked like it did stuff so i wasn't sure stuff but it doesn't do as much stuff as like an apple watch does okay uh so i'm sure that you haven't scouted jj mccarthy but that's an interesting thought i mean i i've watched enough of him not to be sold on him yeah because he just didn't play that well against penn state didn't play that well against iowa i don't know if that's the arm talent that we're talking about here that's why pennix is more

interesting to me yeah and there seems to be a pretty big debate already over that but i'm also what you're going to see from me in the studio when you're looking in your crystal ball is me saying finally like finally you decided to do this and i am not saying that oh they should have drafted will levis if they didn't like him but when you let first round quarterbacks go by like will Levis to me, you're just playing with fire. Like, well, you should have maybe like taking a shot or you're reducing your odds to get that guy.

And so if you're going to put like your franchise and your future, and this is where the Kirk thing comes back up because it's like, are you going to put your future as the GM and head coach on JJ McCarthy? Because that's what you're really doing. Yeah, you are. Yeah, and I think that's going to be the thing, is that whoever it is, and for the aggregators out there,

I'm not operating with a ton of great intelligence to say that they're going to take JJ McCarthy. I think there are some fits there, and they certainly have done some scouting of JJ McCarthy through the process. Guessling reports. Yeah, yeah. This is a crystal ball, not guessling reports. We're McCarthy through the process. Guessling reports. Yeah, yeah. This is a crystal ball, not Guessling reports.

We're not doing that. That's his podcast. Yes, there you go. But I do think, and I can say this with more certainty, that the way they're going to operate in this decision is they're going to take a guy they believe in. They're going to take a guy that they think can be the guy for the next 10 years. Now, if you don't have the opportunity to draft that guy,

or if you don't love the options that you have, should you still take one? I mean, this is the conversation we're having, and there is validity to the idea that you should. I mean, Ron Wolf, we were talking about this before we went on the air. Ron Wolf used to do this almost every year and hit on a lot of them. Not all of them were Hall of Famers like Brett Favre, but a lot of them turned into serviceable or better than serviceable NFL starters. I mean, Mark Brunel was a backup for them. Matt Hasselbeck was a backup for them before he took the Seahawks to a Super Bowl. And worst case scenario, if you develop those guys, they turn into draft capital because you

trade them for high picks, which then you blow on Jamal Reynolds. But you at least get the pick when you do it. So there is validity to doing that. With this particular one, though, when it's the first one, and there is going to be a statement attached to that, there is going to be a expectation attached to that, that this is the guy for them. They know that. They know that that player is going to come in with those types of expectations, those types of narratives attached to him, which I think is a lot of the reason they didn't take Will Levis last year, that they didn't feel like he was ready for that because everybody said, okay, this is the successor to Kirk Cousins.

This is going to be the future, and you have to believe fully in that guy if you're going to do it. So I do think whoever it is is going to be somebody that they think can be an elite quarterback. It's not just going to be take one to take one. We could debate whether that's the right or wrong thing to do, but I think that's how they're going to go about it. Folks, I hope you've enjoyed listening to us talk about prize picks this year, but if you've missed it, here's how it works. You go to prizepicks.com and it is simple. You pick either more or less between two and six players stat projections, and that's it. Now you're playing. So if it's X number of yards for a quarterback, you just decide, are they going to throw for more or less than that number of yards? But it works

with lots of different options receiving yards touchdowns even field goals all sorts of sports as well prizepicks.com slash purple go there use the code purple for the first deposit match up to 100 one of the reasons i like prize picks it is very simple to use you see how we do it on the show real quick and easy, and then we talk about our picks, and also not expensive either. You can turn $10 into $250 by nailing just a couple of picks. So go to prizepicks.com slash purple, the code purple, Daily Fantasy Sports made easy. Well, take one to take one would have been a good situation with will levis in my mind because you still had kirk yeah it doesn't have to be the guy like if you take him and i know what you're

saying when you draft quarterback everyone talks about that yeah it would have been a distraction through the season it would have undermined kirk but if you could tune that out there's there's benefit to that and they already undermined kirk by not extending him anyway so they already said you know and yet kirk is never bothered by. And that's one thing that's always impressive. Do you see a dollar figure in which Kirk Cousins can be brought back? because I do think he's interested in coming back. I also think he's interested in getting paid market value. We have no evidence that Kirk Cousins takes discount deals. We've never seen it. I don't think we're going to see it.

Which is fine, not a criticism. Right. It's just how it is. I mean, everybody has a different approach. That has been his approach it's that has been his approach that has been mike mccartney his agent's approach and they've used it to get a lot of contracts that have been very beneficial to them so i i don't know that i see that changing the question is going to be does he look at it and say, this is a good situation? I have an offensive coordinator, an offensive play caller that I have a history with.

Our families are friends. I have Justin Jefferson. I have TJ Hawkinson. I have all of these things that are kind of optimized for me. I can take a little bit less money and kind of try to write my legacy. And then do the Vikings say we want to go forward with it? Because the thing last year was they were willing to do a deal through 23 and 24, but they weren't willing to guarantee what he wanted for 2025. That was basically where things

broke down is that they said, we don't want to book things three years out. And that's kind of been, and Kweisi talks about this a lot, where you don't want to plan past two years. Do they still feel like that's the case because 2025 is the age 37 season? Or do they say, now it's only two years out, so we're okay with it? And does the Achilles play into this? So there's going to be a lot of things attached to this and a lot of things that are going to affect a price point. But I do expect that given the way people recover from this injury, the timetable has gotten a lot faster. I'm not sure the Cousins camp is going to go into free agency thinking we have to lower our price demands that much because of this. Well, if I'm Arthur Smith inith in atlanta i'm thinking

what is like ryan tannehill except better and look his wife is from atlanta and look at the weapons i mean they've got a lot to work with their uh kirk knows how to throw the ball to a tight end i don't know desmond ritter does they've got an offensive line that's built up they've got a running game their defense has improved the only thing that keeps coming to mind for me as we talk more and more about Brian Flores is that the Vikings and their ultimate decision makers at the very top may be watching this defense and going, man, we got a championship defense. All we need is Kirk. And then we just repeat history. Oh my gosh.

That's 2018 all over again. They did it once. They could do it again. So is that coming off of a backup quarterback taking them to the NFC title game? Oh, for sure. Going to Philadelphia? That's what we just saw in the crystal ball, right? Oh, yeah.

They beat Detroit. They go on. Well, I mean, hey, the Cowboys know how to melt in the playoffs. Yeah. So, you know. The Minneapolis miracle becomes the Arlington anointing. I don't know that. Okay.

Sure. Are we going that far where that game ends the same way the Minneapolis miracles angels in Arlington? There you go. Okay. Maybe that's it. Yeah. They've got an extra point to win the game.

The holder fumbles the ball. The Vikings win. Maybe. I don't know. So I have Cincinnati Bengals quarterbacks. Oh, good. This is a tradition even going all the way back. I might look forward to this even more than the crystal ball.

I know. I know. But I was going to ask if there was anything else that you were seeing in the crystal ball that you want to bring up? Any other predictions you would like to make or things that are on their mind before we get to the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback game? I am seeing. Oh, that's really interesting. It looks like we're back at a press conference.

Kwesi is at a podium and he's giving bro hugs. The guy next to him is very large, very well built. It looks like Daniil Hunter. Oh, I see the muscles. Oh, wow. Yeah, I mean, they're hard to miss, even though the crystal ball is kind of foggy. Yeah looks like daniel hunter signing a new contract here which that's

interesting because that doesn't really fit the quacey approach but it looks like he's starting to talk about how good of a year he had and how he fits in brian flores's defense was good low being back he's in a great fit for what we want to do so we're excited to have him back it's what it looks like that's i see that interesting yeah i you're better than seeing it than i am but i see that too uh and this is another one that goes to the top. I mean, he is such an all-time great Viking at this point that with this season really solidifying that, that I just cannot see them being like, all right, just go make whatever money.

But I will say that if you look at pass rushers his age and the money they got, it's really not that bad. Is he willing to take not that bad? Like Hassan Redick, Shaq Barrett, or does he want Nick Bosa? not that bad right is he willing to take not that bad like hassan reddick shack barrett like or is he want nick bosa well he's wanted nick bosa for a long time he may have missed his window to get nick bosa i guess the question is going to be does he and his camp let that go and say well you're not 26 you're 29 and you're going to be 30 next year even though you're in great shape but that's still a reality in the nfl does he go that way or does he say i still want to

hold out for the big big big payday right yeah uh i think on his part he's come back so many times he sort of half dug his heels in and then immediately signed i i think if they offer him a decent contract he comes i think so too all right so we actually have to go to a uh kevin o'connell press conference where he's going to tell us who's playing quarterback which is weird to record a podcast before that but i think we know so anyway speaking of quarterback cincinnati bangles have a great history i would like you to name as you are prolific in this game of naming old quarterbacks like Bengals have a great history I would like you to name as you are prolific in this game of naming old quarterbacks like immaculate grid before immaculate grid

exactly all of these starting quarterbacks for the Cincinnati Bengals since Ken Anderson's last season in 1984 okay so Boomer Esiason correct um David Klingler that is correct this is by the way leading passers I I should say. Okay. Not every single quarterback. That would be insane. This is leading passers. I should have said.

Dave Klingler is correct. John Kitna. John Kitna. I'm skipping some. Is right. Yep. Yep. John Kitna for three years was their leading passer.

Jeff Blake. Correct. Yep. He was after Klingler. Yep. So was Klingler right after Boomer? Correct. Okay. So I'm now up to. Yep. So was Klingler right after Boomer? Correct. Okay.

So I'm now up to like the late 90s. And then Blake. And yes, you are in 1998 where they had one that's different than Esaias and Klingler or Blake. Carson Palmer is in there somewhere. He is, but not until 2004. So you are missing two quarterbacks in between. Akili Smith.

Akili Smith did for one year, leave them in passing in the year 2000. I don't want to mess up my, cause I'm reading off my phone to see how many yards that was, but it might've been like 1400 yards or something. But there is a quarterback mixed in there. That's very sneaky. This quarterback played in a Superbowl,

did not win, but played in a Superbowl. And but played in a super bowl and this is in the late 90s okay i think this is one of the most forgettable like you know the name for sure he was around for a while it's not trent dilfer is it's not trent dilfer he was a if i tell i think if i tell you the teams that he played for it's it becomes obvious is not it you're you're sniffing around something similar uh played for pittsburgh neil o'donnell yes yeah yeah there you go uh let's see i believe that uh we only have two more one of them is really you just haven't said a really obvious one yeah it's whoever was there well i mean joe burrow is the obvious one but well there's another one before another

obvious one which is yeah it's i mean he was there forever yeah i know oh uh andy dalton yeah andy dalton and but then there is one more there is one more we're missing and this guy is a legend for his own reasons put it that way like not a legendary nfl quarterback as in like going to the hall of fame but an absolute legend so we're talking late 2008 2008 this would be a guy that i bad teams that i am personally a big fan of personally considering a big where i grew up right where i started my media new york uh oh fitzmagic ryan fitzpatrick that is right that is right very well done i mean what a list and again that doesn't even that's actually a better list i mean in terms of like there there aren't that many just train wreck quarterbacks in there for a team that has had some lean years for a while. I guess

they went to the playoffs a lot in the Zim Marvin Lewis type years, but there are a lot of like functional quarterbacks in there for a team that kind of has been at the, at least for a lot of those years towards the bottom of the league. I think where it gets really wonky is when you go down the list and you find Scott Mitchell, Jeff Driscoll, Brandon Allen, AJ McCarron, who's still on the team. Played on Sunday. I did not know that Jay Schrader had a moment there. I don't remember that either. Nope.

Ryan Finley, senior bowl guy. Okay. Paul Justin, you might remember. A Colts. Yeah. This would have. There's a lot like Donald Hollis.is uh eric hollis i kind of remember eric wilhelm yeah yeah yeah i mean this is uh these are these are good uh immaculate grid

options for people in need i don't i can't tell you all the other teams and all these guys played on john kitten is a good immaculate grid option because he bounced around enough anthony wright our guy jto sullivan jordan palmer who i watch on food channel yeah jto sullivan's like a youtube star now he is yep exactly so uh the list the list gets weirder as you go farther everybody's does every team does but the top of it's not and we've looked at some worse ones than that oh for sure for sure anyway well we gotta go uh and talk to kevin o'connell but this was fun it was always always fun to dust off the crystal ball and talk about dusty quarterbacks crappy quarterbacks whatever we want to go we'll see what the quarterback

matchup looks like this week so thanks everybody for watching and we will catch you next time