Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Stop tweeting Justin Jefferson your trade ideas, please

Episode Date: September 30, 2023

Matthew Coller and Manny Hill talk about Justin Jefferson's comments regarding fans sending him trade ideas and then Manny tries to make trade proposals Jefferson might like. They talk about how the Vikings have made heroes out of bad quarterbacks in recent years and a weekend of weirdly bad games Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everybody welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar, Manny Hill for some hot routes again on a Thursday night. Hopefully you are enjoying watching the Green Bay Packers at least so far into the game as we're recording this and going live. Not playing good at football is what has been going on. Although there's just, you know, it's not really like anything can truly be celebrated by vikings fans when the lions are playing well but i think that there's more enjoyment when it's the packers struggling but i have a question for you manny to start the show uh one time when i was in college my class went on a road trip and it was like for some school thing. And after we did all of the, whatever we

were supposed to do, presentations that we watched or meeting people in the industry, that sort of thing, everybody was kind of hanging out. Now, you know that I'm not a party guy, but I'm around as things are happening at the hotel. And several of my fellow students were playing a game called Have You Ever? And as I'm reading, I don't know, ESPN on my laptop or something, they're playing this game. And so it's have you ever done this? Have you ever done that? And people are drinking if they have and not if they didn't.

Manny, have you ever tweeted an NFL player your trade idea? Because some people apparently must be doing this. I would not have a sip of Diet Dr. Pepper in this case. I have never tweeted at an athlete my trade ideas, but apparently a lot of people are because Justin Jefferson's not that thrilled about it. I don't think I've ever... Well, okay, I take that back. I was going to say I don't think I've ever. Well, OK, I take that back. I was going to say, I don't think I've ever tweeted at an athlete, period.

I think I tweeted at Andre Iguodala one time, maybe about, I don't know, seven or eight years ago about something about him. There was a rumor that he wanted to be traded from the Warriors or something like that. And I guess he was like trolling. And I replied back like, I can't believe people believe this from you. And he actually tweeted me back like, yeah, you're back like I can't believe people believe this from you and he actually tweeted me back like yeah you're right I can't believe that but that was the only time I think I've ever tweeted out an athlete period let alone trade ideas you know it's kind of it's kind of crazy and you know with Justin Jefferson I mean I mean neither one of us and I imagine a lot of

other people are not surprised by his response to all of that stuff today I mean, neither one of us, and I imagine a lot of other people, are not surprised by his response to all of that stuff today. I mean, the three games into the season, and yeah, they're 0-3, and it's a disappointing start. But we know that Justin Jefferson is not going to punt on a season. That guy is going to show up ready to play. And, you know, he still has a belief that the Vikings can turn this season around. And why wouldn't he have that belief? I mean, that's all 53 guys in that locker room should have that belief that they can turn things around.

Now, us, on the other hand, can look at the way this team has played the first three games and look at the schedule up ahead. And what the hell, man? We're free to speculate on whatever we want to. So I think it kind of works out both ways for us and for him as well i mean it might be a motivating factor too to kind of show people like no we're we're not done yet this season is not over yeah and they have the right opponent for that to say hey we were driven to get this season back on track and beat the lowly Carolina Panthers. If you did not catch what Justin Jefferson said, here it is. Oh, I mean, you kind of got to accept it.

You got to learn from the battles that you face. At the end of the day, you know, it's not going to be perfect every time. It's things that you got to go through throughout the season to really tell if you're going to be a great team or not. Of course, we're handling the adversity earlier in the season, you know, with the turnovers and being 0-3 to start. But there's a whole bunch of more games to go. I mean, I'm tired of people saying, you know, we're looking into next season, you know, all of the trades and stuff like that. We're focused still on this season.

We have a lot more games to go and we have a lot more things to accomplish this season. So, I mean, we're still focused and we still have that same goal as we had before the season. And we just need to fix a few things. And I feel like we'll be back on track. He went on to say, Manny, that he sees all of your mentions, that if you tag him in a trade idea or whatever. So I had an idea that might be a little fun since I have a pair of Oakley's right here, Manny,

I'll pretend to be Justin Jefferson and you tell me your trade ideas and I will answer it as if I was replying back as Justin Jefferson. So go ahead. Okay. JJ, listen, man. I mean, the team is 0-3. You know, you've got a really tough schedule coming up. You know, obviously you've got Carolina coming up this Sunday, but it gets really difficult after that, man. I mean, we're talking Kansas City coming to town.

Then you've got to go to Soldier Field. The Bears stink, but Soldier Field is always a tough place to play for the Vikings. Then you've got San Francisco. I mean, it's a tough schedule. It's tough sledding coming up, man. How about a trade, Justin? How about a trade? Let's get you into a situation where you can win because you're used to winning, right?

You're used to winning national championships at LSU. What about a trade to the Kansas City Chiefs? In fact, you could get traded to Kansas City, JJ, and you won't even have to travel anywhere right away because they're coming to town anyway in a couple of weeks. So, I mean, you won't even have to travel. And then by the time you plan that game in uniform you can have your your first game with the kansas city chiefs jj

could be a revenge game how about that let's make it happen how about a trade to the kansas city chiefs let's let the rich get richer there's only one problem manny i only have 10 fingers i can't fit all the rings that we're going to win. If it's me and Patrick Mahomes. Okay. That's going to be like when Brady and Randy Moss went undefeated. Only we're going to finish the job. If you trade me to Kansas city, but here's my thing, Manny, you can't trade me for less than three first round pick. Cause I have pride. I don't know if you know this players care about what they were traded for. So are you telling me that you're going to trade me for three first round picks? That might not be a good idea for your franchise. Also, um, how's Kansas city's, uh, cafeteria because everything

at TCO performance center is pretty sweet. So I think I want to continue to play there, but three, three first round picks. That sounds like you're going to ruin your franchise, but I'm cool to go play with Patrick Mahomes. Yeah, I mean, why wouldn't you? Look, I'll take three first-round picks. You know, why not? I mean, I'll take one of those young receivers from Kansas City as well, probably back in return, but definitely three first-round picks.

Make them all back-to-back-to-back, too. Three first-round picks in a row. It'll be towards the end of the first round, obviously, because you guys would be winning 14, 15 games a season. But, hey, man, I'll take three first-round picks for you. Why not? Okay, how about this? Instead of trading me, what if you just trade the quarterback

and then we kind of play with Nick Mullins for the year. But then I really see I'm a big college football fan. I went to LSU. Maybe you guys have heard that. I've been watching a lot of college football this year. I'm seeing this guy named Caleb. I'm seeing this dude named Drake. I don't know where he came from, but he's awesome.

I'm thinking that maybe even though I need to get my catches, that we should probably get a quarterback who can, you know, make a play or something or help us build a complete roster. So you guys going to trade Kirk and help us get one of those high draft picks? You know, Justin, that's a that's a pretty interesting idea. I mean, what if we listen, listen, what if we trade? What if we trade Kirk? I don't know if Kirk's in the room there with you, but what if we trade Kirk? Look, we know that these 49er rumors have been flying all over the place, right?

We've been talking about this Kirk to the 49ers for like three years, right? I know Brock Purdy's playing pretty well right now, but you never know with the 49ers. They always seem to have a quarterback get hurt. Kirk's like one of the most durable quarterbacks in the league, right? So let's move him. Let's trade him to San Francisco. Maybe get, you know, probably won't get a first round pick for him, but maybe a second, you know, maybe a third round pick. You know, we could make something like that happen. And as long as you're okay with Nick Mullins being the quarterback for the rest of the season, the Vikings are probably going to end up being, you know, three and 14 or something like that.

Or maybe, maybe they'll get to four or five wins, but you know, then they're going to be in that top five. Then you could get, you know, and I'll tell you what, JJ, you can have, if the Vikings get the number one pick, you can decide which quarterback they take. Whether it's going to be Drake May or Caleb Williams. I'll let, we'll let you decide that. We'll let you pick. Okay. I'm all in for this idea, but here's the problem. I'm looking at my pockets and I don't see enough money in my pockets right now so i'm gonna need about 35 mil a year and then whatever you guys want well how about we

sign a contract first and then we're good to go you know what as soon as kirk cousins is off the books we'll be able to make that happen because whatever quarterback you take he's gonna be really cheap to start out so we can pay you we already gave tj his deal he's locked to be really cheap to start out. So we can pay you. We already gave TJ his deal. He's locked in, playing great. We get you locked in on a pretty nice contract. The quarterback, whether it's Caleb Williams or Drake May, they'll be really cheap. So we'll be able to afford you.

We'll get you whatever you want. I think I'd rather stay here, draft the quarterback, build the defense, have it be my team and go forward and i mean those practice fields are so well perfectly cut a tco performance i want to stay i want to stay here in and msp msp i fly a lot msp is a great great airport and listen that young quarterback is going to throw to you a lot he's going to know he's going to recognize you as his safety valve. You and TJ Hawkinson, you guys are going to get almost all of the targets. You know, Jordan Addison's really good and, and, and you can be a nice, you know, mentor to him and kind

of teach him how to become a really good pro wide receiver, but you're going to get all of the targets, man. That, that rookie quarterback is going to be relying heavily on you to make it happen. Excuse me. I have to go help Kirk pack. Just give me a minute. That was too much fun. Horse feather says that you missed your, you missed your calling as a negotiator, which is pretty good. Yeah. I mean, well, your, your vocal tones enough could soothe anyone into submission um so in realistically truthfully stop tweeting

justin jefferson your trade ideas that's weird uh the first one i don't think that kansas city could afford justin jefferson with how much they're paying patrick mahomes one of those receivers they draft has to make it happen. But maybe if there is another team, they, they could do it, but don't do it. Don't do it. That's insane. That's just, that's total bat bleep crazy. I saw that they got to Kevin Seifert with this and he was cracking on Twitter with this trade Jefferson for three first round draft picks.

It's like, okay, well, you know, Laquan Treadwell, Mike Hughes, like get them Lewis scene. There you go. Three firsts, like get to it. Um, I've never believed in that for a single moment and you'll never convince me that moving on from a hall of fame player will ever be a good idea. Uh, it wasn't a good idea to move on from Randy Moss. They were kind of forced. It wasn't a good idea to move on from Stefan Diggs. And they just fell ass backwards into Justin Jefferson and got lucky there. But if they had drafted Jalen Rager instead, that would be talked about as like a Herschel Walker level,

awful, worst thing the franchise has ever done trade. And you would definitely regret it if you trade away jefferson by the way he's 25 so unless your franchise is ending like three weeks from now it's probably the best idea to keep him for a long time and figure out the rest so i immediately dismissed that idea that to me is way too hey i thought of this great idea to share at Thanksgiving with my family to get everybody worked up, but not anything you would ever realistically consider. The Kirk trade stuff, truthfully, I'm messing around not speaking for Justin Jefferson. I fully believe that that man is sitting there today thinking we're going to go to Carolina and win. We're going to upset either

KC or San Francisco. We're going to win in. And then look at the schedule. It is not that threatening. You can beat green Bay. You can absolutely beat Denver. You can be Vegas. Like we're going on a run. That's what he thinks. He is not thinking about any of those trades that you're sending him. He wants to make the playoffs. He wants Kirk to continue to be the quarterback for this season. I guarantee you that after that though, I mean, look, if, if they win eight games and miss the playoffs and three out of his first four years with Kirk cousins, as his quarterback are missing the playoffs. I get this question sometimes like, will Jefferson be upset if he's gone? Jefferson has always said, Hey, it's, it's a business and I want to win and that's it.

Well, they haven't won. And if they don't win this year, then I think he'd be comfortable with them, you know, moving on. But I don't think he would be happy at all with them trading Kirk cousins. I think he wants to fight until the end. And that's why all those ideas that you're tweeting him, they all, okay. I get, I get them. You get them, Manny. Like, we totally understand it. The Jets or the Falcons or whatever, all that makes sense. Except for even if you are one in five, Justin Jefferson is going to say, we can win a bunch of games. And I don't think that anybody around him wants to give up on a season

for a second-round draft pick and sacrifice him being frustrated for the whole rest of the year, losing week after week after week. If you saw him last week, he was crushed after losing that game. Despite all the numbers, he was one of the last people off the field after losing that game last week. I think you, you would rather just stick it out and also believe in the fact that there's lots of good quarterback prospects and it's not always the first guy taken. And whoever you're taking is going to come into a great situation. So I put the odds of them trading Kirk Cousins at pretty, pretty low.

Unless they lose to Carolina, I might bump it up a little bit. Then 0-4 is pretty rough. But I would put them at extremely low. So there's really no point in tweeting him who you want to trade Kirk for. Not at all and you know I think you go back to his rookie year talking about Justin Jefferson in 2020 the COVID year remember they started out one and five that season and there was so much talk about you know trading Kirk you know trading some of these other guys these other veteran players um and and tearing this thing down and starting over. And, you know, on the surface at that time, from us, you know, looking on the outside,

looking in, it probably did seem like a good idea, but he wasn't thinking that. And then look what happened. They won a few games, got themselves back to 500, and then they were back into the playoff conversation. Now, that season, they went into Tampa Bay and dropped one to Tom Brady, and then it was kind of over after that. But you cannot convince Justin Jefferson that an 0-3 start means that your season's over, or even an 0-4 start, for that matter, because he has seen evidence that a team can turn it around and get themselves back into the mix. It was just unfortunately that team in 2020 just couldn't finish the job and get over that last hump to get in.

But you're not going to be able to convince Justin Jefferson that this season is over after this start. All right, until you're eliminated, he's going to believe that. And also, I don't think he wants a backup quarterback throwing him the ball at any point um tang says uh vikings uh would like to tank for caleb the issue is that caleb may stay he wouldn't if he's going to the vikings i mean if he if you told him you could play with jefferson derisaw hockinson addison who he knows and played with jordan addison and had his breakout season with addison he's coming to. Really? The only question is if the bears want him,

would he decide to stay another year? Because then he might be like, I don't know, man, that is a graveyard. Although there's lots of teams that have gone through that. The Buffalo bills drafted JP loss, man, EJ manual, Trent Edwards, whatever. And then they land Josh Allen and it changes the whole franchise. But, you know, it's it's I OK, how about this? Well, last question on this. If you were going to tweet him a reasonable trade, like not involving him or Kirk Cousins, is there is there a trade you could tweet Justin Jefferson where he'd be like, you know what?

I actually like that. I actually like that trade. I'm going to sign off on that. It doesn't have to be anything involving him, but what would it be? Oh, man. Maybe it wouldn't be Kirk either. Gosh, that's a tough question. It's a good question, but it's a tough question it's a good question it's a tough question probably

maybe maybe you think if if if you could get a first round pick for daniel hunter maybe you could convince him of that you know it's daniel plays on the other side of the ball um obviously it would weaken a defense that is already kind of bad anyway. So in the short term, it could be kind of crippling for the defense. But if you can get a first round pick for Daniil Hunter, even if it's a late first round pick, I think you got to do it. And if you can make that happen, I don't imagine that Justin Jefferson would hate it. He probably wouldn't love it because you're saying goodbye to a teammate, but I can't imagine if you could get a first round pick out of it,

that Justin Jefferson would hate it. Yeah. Scott has a good one. I love this one. Hunter for Kyler Murray. That's now you talk about awkward. Kyler Murray comes walking in and like, who knows about the cap and everything else with something like this. Kyler Murray comes walking in. He's not going to play this year for the Vikings, but he's going to be in the quarterback room. Get to know Jefferson, Kevin O'Connell and oh, hi, Kirk. I got next. I'm leaving that door open. I'm leaving the Kyler Murray door open. But Arizona, if they overachieve through this first half, and it might have just been a blip on the radar, I remember, how about this, Manny?

This will impress you. I remember an early 90s game between the Cardinals and the Cowboys where Kent Graham beat Troy Aikman. And the announcers on a Thursday night game I think were declaring that the Cardinals had taken their next step forward as a franchise with this huge win they finished with four wins the Cowboys went to the Super Bowl so you know I still I remember that but you know it is possible they overachieve and then they want Kyler to come back and then he plays great and they want to roll with him. Like, I think that's possible. But that might be one that he signed off on to get Kyler Murray in the building. I don't know. I think that the only trade that Justin Jefferson

would actually favorite on social media would be if you said trade a late round draft pick to a team that is falling apart for a pass rusher because the marcus davenport thing has failed daniel hunters out here leading the league in sacks and nobody else is getting to the passer i think he would want improving trades i don't think that he would want anything to take away from the team which makes it pointless to actually send him his trades because that's what all of us armchair gms are always talking about when you're oh and three yeah 100 and and ultimately you know he wants to win and everybody on that roster wants to win and they're not they're not giving up on this season and so you know even if it would make some sense to you know to move on from some of the veteran players to try and, you know, maybe stockpile

some draft picks for the future, you're not going to be able to convince a lot of those guys, not just Justin Jefferson, you're not going to be able to convince a lot of those guys that, you know, that it's that, you know, to be okay with that, you know, ultimately it's a business and, you know, these things happen all the time in the NFL and in a lot of different sports leagues. But I can't imagine that, you know, you trading away a guy unless it's going to make your team better, that too many people would be thrilled about it. Jonathan says, sitting here watching the Lions dismantle the Packers, how are we not able to blow teams out like that? Yes. 24 to three. As we speak, the answer is because since the year 2019, this team has had Justin Jefferson and Kirk cousins, a good quarterback and a all worldwide receiver and a lot of holes. They, Hey, people love Swiss cheese. Cause there's a lot of good cheese but there's also a

lot of holes and that's kind of like this team and that's this is what happens when you have massive flaws but also enough talent you could be in any game and you can also keep anyone else in any game uh you know so i i think that's why but Lions, what we're seeing over these last two weeks is the roar has been restored. I mean, they pummeled the Atlanta Falcons, and now they are bashing the faces into the Packers. I mean, they lost one game. People are like, oh, maybe not. That roster's legit. And I think that what we're seeing is the gap in the roster talent between the Lions as a whole and the Vikings is, is pretty wide.

And I don't think they're going to have a lot of trouble winning this division. I also think that, you know, with Jordan love with the Packers every year, we declare their defense to be something special. It never is under Joe Barry and love, you know, has been good, but I haven't seen a greatness. I mean, it's kind of a week to week thing with him. And I'm not convinced yet that he can be more than competent from time to time. And we're going to have to see on that. But I mean, the Vikings could definitely still finish second in this division. I am not convinced that the Packers are like a great team, even if they do have some more talent on defense, their offensive line, Bakhtiari is out. Elton Jenkins is not playing. And this is not a quarterback who I think is

going to just snap the ball, get rid of it quick. I think he likes to hold onto the ball, which can cause some problems, especially against the Lions team that rushes the passer really well. You can respond to that Manny, but do that in in just a second because we have ad reads on the show now huh we're legit this is big time i have to read them now uh and uh it starts with pizza this is a really great place to start and you guys should make little caesars the official pizza of sponsor of the nfl part of your game day order online during their pizza pizza pre-game one hour before nfl games get ready for some football and fun choose your favorite little caesar's pizza or pick the toppings you crave

either way you win and speaking of winning everyone scores with convenient delivery or their in-store pizza portal pickup so grab some friends enjoy a few slices during the tastiest hour before kickoff not too hard man, to convince me to talk about pizza. Also, prize picks, which we love here on the show. If you missed it, we have a brand new segment on the show that we're doing every week with prize picks. It's very, very simple. You just pick more or less between two and six player stat projections.

So I've done well sometimes, not as well other times, but say that Kirk Cousins is expected to throw for 283.5 yards. You pick more or less and that's it. And you're done. And one of the reasons I love prize picks is that it only takes a second to do, and it doesn't take a second mortgage to play. You can turn $10 into 250 with a few taps. So prizepix.com slash purple with the code purple, and that will get you a match of up to $100 on your first deposit. We've had a lot of fun with that. And every time we do the pizza read, people talk about it in the comments

because everyone loves pizza. Should you be having a serious reaction to what's going on with the Lions right now, Manny? I think so. I mean, they look really legit right now. I mean, I had a little bit of doubt even after they went to Kansas City and won that game because the Chiefs were not at full strength. They didn't have Chris Jones.

He was still holding out with his contract, and Travis Kelsey was banged up. But for them to get that win is huge. Tim with Pizza Pizza, that's fantastic. Yeah, for them to get that win and then bounce back from the loss to Seattle at home with the win over Atlanta, and then they're just demolishing, absolutely demolishing the Packers right now.

They look good, man. And, you know, I think if Dan Campbell can avoid, like, the whatever perplexing coaching decision late in the season or something that might cost them a game, this team has all of the goods, I think, to certainly win this division. And depending on the matchup that they get in the playoffs, can maybe win a game or two and go on a run. And look, Jared Goff, I know Jared Goff was an easy target to make fun of

when the Rams kind of casted him off for Matthew Stafford. And obviously that worked out for the Rams winning the Super Bowl. But Jared Goff has led a team to the Super Bowl himself. He's not, you know, he was a high draft pick. He's physically talented. You know, he did a really nice job last year of not turning the ball over a lot, which he had kind of started to do in the latter part of his Rams career. But that dude, that dude is pretty good, man.

And you give him some weapons which he has you give him a good offensive line which he has and a defense that has some players too that's a team that uh the lions look pretty good they look pretty legit right now the vikings continue to struggle the packers are kind of just a meddling, mediocre team, and the Bears stink. So it's kind of setting up for the Lions to take control of this division early on and maybe run away with it. This is a hot take. I feel like Jared Goff is the most underappreciated sports player. I mean, he has led three top five offenses.

He went to a Super Bowl, and then he turns around the Lions last year with a great offense, not his fault on the defensive side. And they win a huge game at Lambeau to knock the Packers out. And then this year, they start off their role, and it looks like after this, they're going to be three and one,

save for a massive comeback. The entire franchise has been rebuilt around him and he's operating Ben Johnson's offense brilliantly. And all I ever hear about is how great the offensive coordinator is. It's like, I don't know, man, I saw this guy put up a perfect quarterback rating in LA against Mike Zimmer's defense, which is pretty impossible to do. And certainly, you know, golf has his shortcomings as a quarterback, but I mean, all he has done now with two franchises is play really well, except for the one year that they're tanking. So I don't know. I think that the Rams made the right decision, obviously winning the

Superbowl to get Stafford and he fit what they wanted to do. But at the same time, you know, golf, I think is now proving to be a pretty, pretty, pretty good quarterback. And it's not just McVay that was pulling his puppet strings or whatever, which, Hey, when we get to the playoffs, how dynamic is he going to be and all that stuff? I don't know, but you know, he's, he's got my respect for sure. I wanted to ask you, so I went through a bunch of teams. Somebody asked me in a mailbag question for the newsletter, which purpleinsider.com, if you want to sign up, then you get Friday mailbag about,

has it ever worked with teams getting to this or winning the Superbowl? If they completely tanked and tore it all apart. And the answer is in part that Brady and Mahomes have won like all the Superbowls recently. And like in the last 20 part, that Brady and Mahomes have won like all the Super Bowls recently. Like in the last 20 years, Brady has seven. Mahomes has two in the last, yeah, basically like 20 years. So that's hard. But I found a bunch of teams that became very, very competitive after being really bad,

including the 49ers, which never get talked about as a tank. They went 2- 14 4 and 12 6 and 10 like three years in a row and drafted a bunch of players that now are the center of their team but it's a little harder to find teams that were middling like the vikings and i still expect the vikings to be this year i still expect eight wins at least, you know, considering their schedule. But it's rarer to see teams turn it in a direction where it goes from middling to Super Bowl contender than it is from tank to being really competitive. Can you think in your steel trap brain, Manny, of examples of teams who have been able to go from where

the Vikings are right now to being competitive for Super Bowls? Because I've been trying to think of this kind of all day after getting this question, and I was curious to see what you thought. Yeah, the first, well, the first team that came to my mind was Kansas City because, you know, they were kind of a they were a little better than I think before they got Mahomes they were a little better than like a middling team they were a team they were going to the playoffs every year with Alex Smith but they just couldn't like get over that hump it was Alex was good enough to get them there they were winning that division the division wasn't great um and they were doing what they were supposed to do by

making the playoffs but it just wasn't with Alex. They just didn't have enough to sort of move the needle in the postseason. And then, you know, they made a decision. They drafted Patrick Mahomes because they realized, look, Alex is good, but he's not good enough. We got to take a swing at a young guy here and make something happen. And obviously the rest has been history for the last five plus years with Mahomes. But the other team I thought about was the team that the Chiefs played in the Super Bowl last year, the Philadelphia Eagles. And here's why. Now,

I know the Eagles, you know, people are listening right now. They're saying, well, the Eagles just won the Super Bowl, you know, five or six years ago. But let's take the Eagles post Nick Foles Cinderella Super Bowl run. All right. They were kind of a middling team that was hovering around 500. They had Carson Wentz who, you know, even though he was looking like the MVP of the league the year they won the Super Bowl and then he got hurt. After that, there were a lot of questions about like you know is Carson Wentz good enough

to get this team to keep this team in in serious contention and obviously he showed that he wasn't but they were good enough to kind of like hang around 500 and I go back to that 2019 season I think they they won the division I think they think the Eagles went like nine and seven they won the NFC East it wasn't a great division that year they get beat in the wild card round by Seattle and then you know the next year the wheels kind of fell off the the wagon a little, and they ended up, I think, 4-11-1 or something like that. And Wentz really started to decline. And, you know, in that offseason, that 2020 offseason, they drafted Jalen Hurts in the third round. And, you know, they went through that middling season.

They made a change in head coach. But, you know, they took a that middling season. They made it, they made a change in head coach. But you know, they, they, they took a swing on a young guy. They realized the guy that they had in place was not good enough. They took a swing on a young guy. And then a couple of years later, they ended up in the Superbowl on the doorstep of winning that Superbowl. If they had maybe a little bit more time on the clock, Jalen Hurts maybe marches them down the field and they end up beating the Chiefs.

So I'm kind of thinking, man, if the Vikings are – if like last year for the Vikings was like the 2019 Eagles, good enough to win a weak division, had some things go their way, couldn't quite get over the hump in the postseason, take a swing on a young quarterback and move on from the veteran guy. Maybe that's kind of a similar situation. And one of my favorite pastimes last February, early February, was to Google people's takes on Jalen Hurts. And why are they moving on from Carson Wentz when they just need this, this, this, this, and this?

Carson Wentz is a good enough quarterback to win with. Like, where does that sound familiar? I thought of a similar example that maybe hasn't come up very often, but how about the Joe Flacco Baltimore Ravens drafting Lamar Jackson? Not their first first first round pick that year Hayden Hurst uh but still they had gone in the two years before Lamar Jackson was picked in fact

you can even go back three years before 2014 they were 10 and 6 2015 Flacco got hurt and they struggled 2016, eight and eight, 2017, nine and seven. And then 2018, I think Flacco also got hurt and that's what opened the door for Lamar, but they didn't bring him back in after he was four and five. So they were like a middling type of team, but it was in Flacco's thirties. So the later part of his career, it's really a testament to how Kirk has kept himself up because Joe Flacco is only like two years older than Kirk, but it feels like he's a hundred years older than Kirk. But not the point. It's just that, you know, they went eight and eight and nine and seven in 16 and 17. They were middling teams and Flacco didn't play horribly. And people in Baltimore still defended Joe Flacco and said,

Hey, he's a good quarterback, but he was expensive. He was getting on the older side and they needed to build up the rest of that roster. And two years later, I mean, you know, you're talking about a Lamar MVP when again, there was kind of like this, Oh, I guess they're picking a quarterback, but they have their franchise guy in Flacco. So I think that that one is a pretty similar situation because their team was not terrible. When Lamar came in, they were able to get to the playoffs and then the very next year be great. And that's the thing is sometimes when we talk about a rookie quarterback, Manny, it's like, oh, well, the guy's going to come in and then just throw the ball into the stands every play until he figures out how to play.

But there have been numerous examples of guys coming into teams that were pretty good, including Brock Purdy last year. That's an extreme example because they're not pretty good. They're really good. But how about Dak Prescott with Dallas Cowboys? I mean, there's been times throughout history. Joe Flacco. Yes. Yes.

Same thing. Joe Flacco was a second round pick in 2008, went 11-5. I mean, RG3 happened where he was able to come into a situation with a great coach and some good weapons there until he hurt his knee. I mean, there are examples all the time of rookie quarterbacks coming in and having success.

And even CJ Stroud has looked good through like a couple of games. Looks like he knows how to play football. So I don't think it has to mean that you are just throwing away your future. In fact, I think of all the circumstances that any quarterback has come into, next year, a rookie quarterback being dropped

into Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and the situation they have, it might be the best circumstance that a rookie quarterback's been dropped into basically since Dak Prescott. And a head coach who is an offensive mind played the position himself. Yeah, I mean, you have and and let's let's be honest

here too the the vikings have a pretty good history especially with the under the ownership of the wilfs of treating their players really well i mean team you know guys that come here typically like to be here you know what i I mean? So even in that situation, I can't imagine that a young quarterback could come in here. Now, look, you're going to get, there's going to be more Christian ponders out here. Okay, I understand that. But I got to think that with the way the Vikings are set up,

with the way ownership is set up, with the talent that's on the team, certainly on the offensive side, a young, forward-thinking, offensive-minded head coach, I got to think it'd be setting up pretty nicely for any young quarterback to step in. Unless the kid is just a boneheaded idiot, which there've been a few of those. But most of, most of these young guys that come in that are talented, have a, have a knack for the game. It can see the game. Well, if they step into this situation with the Vikings,

I got to think they'll have some pretty early success. You're right. Flacco was a late mid late first round pick, not second round pick my bad on that. But still like, late mid late first round pick, not second round pick. My bad on that. But still, like, that's another thing. Oh, well, if we're not getting Caleb Williams, we're not going to be able to succeed. I mean, Mahomes, Allen, these guys were not the first quarterback taken. Lamar Jackson, not the first quarterback taken. And fair enough.

Our friend Chuck Aoki. Yes. The best situation since brock purdy had last year good point good point because they had a good defense russell wilson russell wilson is another one though he stepped in as a as you know he didn't even he he came in and won the starting job in camp you know probably not a super difficult task to beat matt flynn to beat out matt flynn but you know look seattle had went went and paid Matt Flynn a lot of money to be the starting quarterback. And they drafted Russell Wilson in the mid rounds and. Russell won the job and then the next year they won the Super Bowl. So it does it does happen, and I think it's happened more often than than we might than we might realize.

OK, another ad read real quick. And I think it's happened more often than we might realize. Okay. Another ad read real quick. Manny, your skin looks glorious, but it could always look more pristine like mine because everyone should try Caldera Lab. You might act tough, Manny, and pretend that you don't care about how your face looks and your skin. But we all know that you want to show up to holiday get-togethers this fall looking good. That's where Caldera Lab comes in. Over 100,000 men trust Caldera Lab because of the way their easy skincare routine turns into clearer and beautiful skin.

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Do you want to give us a prediction for Denver, Chicago? Do you want to talk about this? Like, isn't this crazy how fast this has happened? They're like looking around the league going, Oh wow. Caleb Williams bowls are going on everywhere.

What if, what if they just like not play the game and just merge the two teams. Did you see what pick what tickets are going for? No, I did not. Do you have $2 and 11 cents? Come on, come on.

Is it, is it in Chicago? Yes. A Denver reporter tweeted out that on stub up, they were listed for $2.11. Wow. Wow. It's week four. It's week four, and they're already giving tickets away.

That is, wow. I mean, maybe they really do need to combine the two teams, contract one of the teams. I don't know. Yeah, both teams were awful last week. I will say I think the Broncos will win the game. The Broncos, I don't, I didn't think the Broncos would be like contending for a playoff spot seriously but i thought they

would be better than this and i feel like they still should be better than this i mean sean payton didn't just completely forget how to coach in the year off that he took right like he couldn't have i mean that guy's won a lot of games he won a super bowl in new orleans i that what we saw on sunday was just unreal um yeah i gotta i feel like the broncos will find a way to win it's probably going to be ugly because neither team is neither team is very good um and games always seem to be ugly at soldier field but i think the broncos will find a way to win that game 25 to 22 i think it's going to be a really weird unconventional score too yeah uh what about bob asking about uh courtney cronin will absolutely be on the show when the vikings play uh chicago yeah there's no there's no question that's always gonna and i can't

wait i mean you uh yeah well man i mean we used to have some good times with you and I and Courtney on the old, whatever it was called, when we first got, was it every Friday night we were doing a show, you, me, and Courtney? Yeah. Well, I thought maybe, was it Wednesday nights? It might have been Wednesday nights. Whatever it was, yeah. Yeah. Like one day a week. Yeah, it was, I think Purple Live, I think was the name of the show.

That's right. If I'm not mistaken. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, no think Purple Live, I think, was the name of the show. That's right. If I'm not mistaken. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, no, that was a lot of fun. That ought to be – I'll be watching definitely when you have Courtney on next week. That'll be fun. That'll be some interesting conversations talking about the Bears.

Yeah, we'll definitely do that um but uh so i want to ask you one more thing just about this week's schedule we talk about oh and three is pretty much a death knell but i don't see how that's much different from one and three so which one in two team that doesn't get in the viking discussion it's so the whole record thing drives me kind of crazy. Like, well, if you go this, then your chances to make the playoffs or that it's like, okay, but if the Vikings start and three and then got to three and three, what are the playoff odds? Like, do you get them back? Like, Hey, well now we're three and three. So then it's 40% or something. And then it didn't matter like, or did it, I never understood these, But if you're one and two, you need a win pretty badly.

So in your mind, who this week needs the wins the most that's sitting at one and two? I'm going to go with Jacksonville. And the reason why is because that was pretty bad. You know, you lose that home in week two to Kansas City. I mean, I don't think there's any shame in that. But you, but you, you stay home the following week, you're bringing a Houston Texans team that has a, as a rookie quarterback, a team that doesn't really have a ton of talent, but you know, maybe they're well coached by D'Amico Ryan's. Um, and you just lay an egg at home. You get blown out by three touchdowns, by 20 points,

and you let this young rookie quarterback kind of throw the ball all over your defense. I feel like Jacksonville needs to get back on track and let everybody know that they're the favorites to win this division and they're the ones that should be taking control of this division because none of the other three teams are, you know, at least on paper, should not be good enough to win this division. I think Jacksonville taking on the Atlanta Falcons over across the pond in London on Sunday morning, I think really need a win, probably in the worst way out of all the teams

that are one and two. I think that both LA teams need it pretty bad. Although I'm not really sure if, if you're a Rams fan, maybe you lived in St. Louis before. So you just watch them on TV and you just stuck with them. I'm kidding. Mostly if you're, but if you're a Rams fan and your team is one and two and you know, it was really bad last year and it doesn't look like it's going to be great this year, do you care? I mean, this is the interesting thing about winning the Super Bowl is I feel like you get about five years before anyone really cares how it goes after that. Not that I would know, having grown up in Buffalo and moved here, but that's how it seems. Like if you win the Super Bowl for the next four or five years, everyone's kind of going to be like, oh, you know, well, we still got the ring. leaned poles and fell off or whatever happened in Philadelphia. But it was, it was probably about

that for Philly where it was like three or four years. And then all of a sudden the pressure started to build on Doug Peterson. I don't think that there's a lot of pressure on Sean McVay, even by the end of this year, if they win like six games, but it feels like if they're going to have a decent team and stay in that race, they need to win. And then the chargers, this is one of my favorite things that happens, Manny is when a team beats a bad Vikings defense, I see Kurt Warner breaking down how they did it. I see like Keenan Allen doing an interview about it. And it's like, how many times over the last three years, well, I guess going back to 2020 and now into this year, have we seen the opponent be like, wow, they had a historic day.

Let's interview DeAndre Swift or, you know, whoever else. It's like all the time, all the time that I was kind of laughing about that. But the Chargers are still they should look at themselves and say, we almost blew that game. Like we were that close to blowing that game. And they play Anthony Richardson returning to what might not be a terrible Indianapolis Colts team Daniel Jones man I mean he shredded the Vikings defense in the in the playoffs and it got him paid it got him paid a lot of money um yeah I mean the Chargers you know I I guess if you're the Chargers you you would feel you know a little a little bit better

about yourselves because of the the 0-2 start, and you needed that win against the Vikings last week pretty badly. But, yeah, I don't know. I just feel like with the way things have gone for them over the last couple of years with Brandon Staley at the helm, I just feel like I need to i just need to see more you know and good opponents for it to happen again you know this weekend they're at home against the raiders and you know i mean the raiders are just not good at all so you know maybe this maybe this

confidence just kind of continues for them that you know if you you get another win against the raiders um and you're two and two and then then you got dallas um on the schedule after that and then you know who knows the cowboys are kind of a hard team they're a good team but they're uh occasionally a team that will have a hiccup and you know if you're the chargers you might be feeling pretty good about that if you can win against the raiders and then you take on dallas and then now all of a sudden you've won three in a row you're three and two and you're feeling pretty good about that if you can win against the Raiders and then you take on Dallas and then now all of a sudden you've won three in a row you're three and two and you're feeling pretty good about yourself again so who knows man but um yeah that'll be that'll be interesting to see okay this just popped into my mind since we were having this conversation uh can we do like a quick off the cuff rank of since 2020, the funniest people to have great days

against the Vikings and probably just a quarterback. Cause I can't remember every running back or whatever else, but I mean, Bryce young, if he starts considering his first couple starts and how little they have on that team would rank very highly if he has a good game i but just off the top of my head the cooper rush game comes to mind in 2021 and he won some other games but you can't be serious mike white played amazing against them even though the jets lost that game andy dalton 2020 like those are the those are the first three that come to mind for me yeah i'm kind of looking back i'm looking up like the 2020 season the covet year um i'm just kind of looking through that schedule yeah what was the oh do you remember the jacksonville game in 2020 like that really bad jaguars team that i think they only won maybe

one or two games that year and v Vikings had to beat them in overtime. I remember there being a receiver or something for Jacksonville that played well. I might be thinking about a different game. So if you can name the starting quarterback of that game, I'd be impressed. I just brought it up. I'm cheating be impressed. I just brought it up. I'm cheating here, but I just brought up Mike Glennon.

Oh, my God. Oh, Glennon. Okay, yeah, you said it. All right. Because I was looking at it. But for a minute, I thought it might have been Jake Luton, but it was the Mike Glennon game. Mike Glennon in that game tried to run, which makes no sense at all.

He tried to run for a first down, and someone named Jordan Brailford strip sacked him and never played again. Like never played again. That is a wow. That's, that's incredible. I mean, you could actually, you could actually say Teddy Bridgewater twice because Teddy actually played really well. Do you remember against Carolina? Teddy hit like a 40 yard pass to set up a reasonably decent field goal chance to win the game for Carolina and the guy missed it. And then in Miami, Teddy lit them up in the second half and they were a fumble away from leading potentially a go-ahead drive late in that game and as as much

as uh you know i feel bad for teddy and what happened with his career at the point he's playing against the vikings in those games he's not like what teddy was before the knee injury that's pretty bad that's pretty bad like that i think was the teddy game when he was with the Panthers, did Matt Rule do something really stupid in that game that ultimately may have cost? I feel like there was a late timeout or something that he called or he kicked a field goal when he should have gone for it on fourth down or something. There was something from that game that I'm trying to remember

that made me just think matt rules an idiot and he should go back to coaching in college ran the ball at some point if i remember it was a or didn't or didn't run the ball i think it was something like that you're yeah i think it was they should have ran the ball because i think if they would have ran the ball they would have kept the clock going and they decided to throw it on like i don't know second down or something and it was an incomplete pass and they gave the vikings a chance okay i think i think it was something like that okay i have another terrific nomination here which is the sam darnold comeback game at carolina even though the vikings won that game sam darn, even though the Vikings won that game.

Sam Darnold was playing the worst football I've ever seen in my life. So bad, Rashad Breland intercepted a pass. And then they came back in the final moments. And I think with the clock clicking to zero, he threw a touchdown to tie that game and converted a two-point conversion. That was the K was the kj osborne winning touchdown in overtime right it was carolina yes okay yeah yes it was um matthew stafford threw three interceptions in a game the vikings lost which is actually quite funny uh

skylar thompson was the starting quarterback of that mi game. That is a, that's a good poll. Yeah. It's it's not been that hard. It's not been that hard. In fact, how about even Justin Fields having a breakout game against them? Remember he was doing terribly at the beginning of the season and then kind of found it there. So yeah. Yeah. It's been, Oh, Mac Jones, Mac Jones with like Matt Patricia calling the shots has the game of his career throwing all over the Vikings. That's right.

I might need to make an article about this. This is wild. Like, you should never count out any quarterback when they're playing the Vikings. Never. I think – didn't Mitch Trubisky have kind of a nice game at U.S. Bank Stadium a few years? I think it might have been the 2020, I keep calling it the COVID year,

where the Bears came in and inexplicably won at U.S. Bank Stadium. And I feel like Mitch Trubisky or David Montgomery or something had a really big day, and that ended up being the difference. I don't know. I've got it. Yeah. Mitch Trubisky 2020 had been benched for Nick Foles, by the way, and then came back after maybe Foles got hurt or lost a bunch of games in a row or whatever happened. And he went 15 for 21 with 202 yards. And I believe threw them a late interception in that game that gave the Vikings a chance at the goal line,

but still ended up running for 34 yards. And David Montgomery had a buck 46 and two touchdowns. Yeah. Yeah. It's been a time. It's so weird because my first introduction to Vikings football was when I was traded for three firsts to move to Minnesota. And I walk into the Vikings locker room in 2016 and it is Hunter Griffin roads, Kendrick's bar, Terrence Newman, still very good at that point. And I'm like,

this team's got some guys who can play football. And Mike Zimmer, of course, a tremendous defensive coach. And we're watching a week-to-week basis. Even when they were starting to slip there, they're just great. And then the second year of me covering the team, they have the number one defense. And even in 18 and 19, they were above average defenses. And it was almost like well this is just how it's going to be as long as mike zimmer is the coach and then i added this up today man this is nuts because i've mentioned this stat but i couldn't remember it exactly they've drafted

34 players on defense since uh 2015 and they have three starters on the defense right now and it's a caleb evans cam bynum and who am i thinking of maybe mckay blackman there's one other one but it's like that's not good that's if it was 20 if it was 20 if it's since 2015 that well daniel would probably be the the third one right uh yeah after that like after 15 okay gotcha yeah gotcha yep okay yep wow that'll do it yeah you gotta draft well man you gotta i mean i i know you know i i don't think that people should be panicking on you know the the 2022 draft class because that's kind of the fancy thing to do right now. But if you have multiple drafts like 2022, that can get you in trouble. That can get you to where the Vikings currently are right now.

So you got to be careful. Jonathan mentions Matt Moore, who was apparently he was a gym teacher, but he was in retirement and beat them in 19. But that, yeah, that was outside of the realm of what we were talking about, but that was, that was a classic. That was a classic. Like there used to be these games where there would be like this sort of Kirk cousins freeze up games and they don't seem to happen as much anymore. Maybe that's Kevin O'Connell. I don't know. Or maybe they're just always playing in shootouts. So if he does freeze up in the first

half, we don't notice because he puts up three 80 by the end of the game as they're playing from behind. So yeah, that was, that was definitely one of them, but oh yeah. Chase Daniel in 2019 as well. That's why we never bought into that 19 team. Cause I was thinking about how they used to actually win games by multiple scores. And I was like, yeah, that happened in 19, but that's why we never believed in them because they lost to chase Daniel and Matt Moore. What a time. What a time.

Was that, that was the week, the week after that was when Stefan Diggs went AWOL, right? And we didn't know where he was. And then that's when we got, or no, when, when did, when was there's truth to all rumors? Was that towards the end of that year? Was that during that? No, it was right after.

No, you've got it right. Yes. But my favorite part of that was that Diggs initially came out to talk to us and did a little fake cough and said that he was sick and forgot to tell them. And then looked around at us like, no one believes me, do they? And then he just answered the questions. Yes. Brandon Allen is brought up here by tang yeah that's right oh yeah that was that was the game stephon diggs went off on the sideline and uh they were getting whooped by a bad broncos team and then they came back and came back and won yeah that's right

yeah it's uh it has been a journey, hasn't it? So I guess we'll see if we add Bryce Young to the mix. Do you think that they will win, Manny? I do think they will win. I think especially if Bryce Young plays, I think they will. I think the Vikings will find a way. It's probably going to be ugly

because that's just how they roll now. It's just how they move. But I do think they'll find a way to win. The Panthers have just not looked good at all. And Bryce Young has struggled, but I think there's also just kind of a little bit of a talent gap, at least on offense. Their defense is pretty solid. They've got some guys on defense that could make things challenging for the Vikings. But I think overall, the Panthers won't have enough offensively to move even on a,

on a struggling Vikings defense. And I think, I think the Vikings will come away with a win. Yeah. And Chuck mentions Josh Allen. So that's history right there for a rookie quarterback, making one of his first starts beating the Vikings. It does tend to happen. Also good to see a starts beating the Vikings. It does tend to happen. Also good to see you, Chuck, in the comments. That's right. Yeah.

And he'll never forget that. Josh brings up a good point. This is a whole off season episode. I mean, you're right about that, but there's a part of me also that has been kind of like dragged down by this week. And so I wanted to have fun i wanted to get the shades on and make some jokes and stuff so uh did uh josh asked if davenport practiced

today he did yeah he uh but on a limited basis so i don't know what's gonna happen there it's that's that's a tough one that's a tough tough man that's that's that's hard because you would love to see how he could if he was healthy you know you'd love to see how he could fit in there i mean and they just need they need somebody else outside of daniel hunter that can get some pressure on the quarterback there's just nobody on the interior of that line that can do anything remotely close to that and that's been the biggest problem for that defense so far there's um the thing with an injured player not getting out there and frustration about not getting out there i always hate it because it's just i'm sure that the guy wants to play and when you see him practice in training

camp he is humongous and so quick and he's got so much talent and i i think he could be good for them but he just has not been able to get out there and i i don't know what to say if you're if you're a defensive end or outside linebacker ankle is a big deal i it's it's very hard to get any explosiveness off of it so it's like well you know it's just an ankle or something, but I don't, I mean, how do you get that burst if you don't have, you know, your ankle at least doing well? So that's a tough one

because I think he could be a really good player for them if he can get healthy back on the field. But sometimes these things just don't go the way they're supposed to. And Tang asked if Reisner is confirmed. He's not. I don't know. They not said if um what he's going to do so the the panthers

are terrified um they've considered not actually even showing up at the stadium because we haven't said where reisner's going to play so there's only one spot on the offensive line where Dolphin Reisner should be playing. There's only one. And we all know what that position is. Like, let's just announce him as a starter and let's go. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, we're wrapping up, Manny.

Calm yourself. But next week, if they're one and three, then we talk about Taylor Swift coming to town, and it gets a little more interesting, and then we can have less of an off-season type discussion and much more of a let's break down this game when we're talking about next week. So, Manny, always a great time hanging out with you, and all of you as well.

I feel like we're making it a tradition for people to watch the Monday or Thursday game, listen to us at the same time and have a good time. So thanks for your time and for everybody else. And we will catch you all later football.