Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Sunday recap: The Packers are bad

Episode Date: October 23, 2023

Matthew Coller recaps a weird Sunday in the NFL, including terrible losses by the Packers and Lions and very suspect refereeing around the league. Plus questions from Vikings fans about the team's future as we approach the deadline... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. And as we are just hours away from the Minnesota Vikings playing against the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football, figured that I would run down some of my observations from Sunday and how they impact the Vikings to give you guys something to listen to as you nervously wait for this football game. And we have to start with the Vikings and the 49ers injury reports, which I think is a little bit favorable for the Vikings, but maybe

not quite as much as they were hoping for. So Debo Samuel is out and he's going to miss a couple of weeks. So he is certainly not going to play, which is a big deal. Debo Samuel is an all pro wide receiver. He is a huge part of their underneath passing game and a yards after catch monster. They could put him in the backfield. They motion him like crazy. That one is a big win for the Vikings to not have Debo Samuel there. Now, Trent Williams is doubtful. Another W, although if Trent Williams was not going to play in any game, he would probably choose the one where he's going up against DJ Wanham and Patrick Jones because Marcus Davenport is out. So the advantage there is still big because Trent Williams is one of the all-time greatest players ever at his position. And even if he's limited and cannot be the same exact version of Trent Williams, the domination is not going to be as big as it normally would be over DJ Wanham, Patrick Jones, whoever else they line up out

there. And especially in the run game where Trent Williams is even better. I mean, it's not that the Vikings get a whole lot of pressure from their backups for Davenport anyway, but at least sometimes they stuff themselves in there in the run game. And you know, if it's Trent Williams, he's going to move bodies out of there. And if it's not, then they have a chance to do much better off that left side or the offense's left side, right side of the defense. That one's going to be worth watching during warm-ups. Is Trent Williams out there? Is he going to play and find a way?

Maybe the extra day was able to help him get out there. We will see. Doubtful usually means they don't play, though. And then Christian McCaffrey, a report from Adam Schefter, appears that Christian McCaffrey is going to play. He's a guy that's pretty used to playing banged up. He's done that for a large portion of his career. Him not being at 100%, potentially not having Trent Williams,

is positive for the Vikings, but he is really a centerpiece to their offense. And if he's in there and even 90%, 85% can still do so many things that cause problems. And it's not just that he breaks tackles and is super quick. It's that he is so highly intelligent. Remember he came in and scored, what was it like three touchdowns in a game when he first got to San Francisco, they use him everywhere in the slot, in the motions. There was some crazy pre-stab motion where he kind of slid out as the bat out of the backfield, you did this kind of gallop slide uh that that somebody was tweeting out on tape that one right there it might be the biggest of all of them uh samuel is

certainly a star but the way that they use mcafree in such a dynamic type of mode is really difficult stop so the vikings do have players who match up in some ways. I mean, what we've seen from Josh Metellus is he's out there. 90% of snap these days. Ivan pace has been very good at tracking running backs. Didn't play as much last week. I don't know why that was that he didn't play as much, maybe just the matchups. They've got some of these guys, they tackle well. They come downhill pretty well. Harrison Smith can do a lot of different things against dynamic running backs who line up in a lot of spots, but McCaffrey is one of one in the NFL. There are very few other players that do what he does at his absolute best. He's playing in a Marshall Falk type of way where he's leading the

league in rushing and playing a huge role in the passing game as well. Not having him at a hundred percent could impact the game. I still expect though, that that's going to be a tough matchup for the Vikings. And when they've played bad teams, they've been really good against the run. When they've played a one really good running team in Philadelphia, they were not as good against the run. While San Francisco is a really good running team, this will be a test for them. And if they cannot stop the run, they will not win the game because San Francisco builds everything off of their run game. That whole deal still worth watching as we get to

the start of the game is McCaffaffrey look healthy? Is Trent Williams out there? That could be a big deal. And on the Viking side, Ezra Cleveland is out, which means it's Dalton Reisner season. Everyone you've waited for it. You've dreamed about it. You've begged for it, except for it's at left guard and not right guard. But it's not like Ezra Cleveland has been some sort of superstar this year. I think he's just been better when it comes to pass blocking. He's given up way fewer pressures than he did last year. While the right guard has still been problematic in that way. And it might be because more teams are attacking the right side. It last year though, they were attacking both of the guards repeatedly and the interior is going

to be a huge deal against san francisco they have increased the talent on their interior and they've been very good there all year i mean all the spots on the defensive line but last year they didn't get a lot of pressure outside of the edges and now they do so Reisner like welcome to the Vikings you got to run out there and go up against San Francisco this is what you got him for though you got him to be a pass blocking upgrade a player that you believe can go up against good defensive lines and hold up and that's usually been the problem for the Vikings over the years is it's not the teams who are mediocre average that are pressuring Kirk like crazy. And that's why he has big days against those teams that are mediocre and average. It's when you go up against the top D lines in the

league. We saw the Philadelphia Eagles strip sack Kirk a couple of times and they did not let the Vikings get running. Well, now with rise,isner in, let's see how this looks. And Ingram has played better in recent weeks. I thought it was a bit of a setback, though, against Chicago, where there were more mistakes. He didn't grade particularly well. Still, Reisner could be potentially an upgrade. And the way that they talked about him as a more physical player that is going to be required against San Francisco. So there's your injury update.

Now let's get to some things that you watched on Sunday. Speaking of the Philadelphia Eagles, their victory against Miami. And I know Philly had the one loss. Very, very impressive. And San Francisco is going to try to make a case against the Vikings that they are still the best team in the NFC. Philadelphia had had some unimpressive wins this year. The one against Washington comes to mind where they let Washington hang around and take that game to overtime. This was as impressive as it gets against Miami where they largely slowed down Tyree kill.

He didn't have a bunch of huge plays on offense. AJ Brown is making his case as the best receiver in the NFL with Justin Jefferson out. And they were probably always very close to neck and neck anyway, but some incredible plays from him. Jalen hurts outside of a very odd turnover that turned into a touchdown for the dolphins was excellent in that game. The tush push continues to get a first down and credit to Nick

Sirianni who continues to go for it on all those fourth downs, even some of them that were as far backed up as his own 26 yard line, but it was the right move and he goes for it and gets it. And, uh, you know, at some point we may see the NFL start to talk about whether you can push guys. But the thing about the tush push is it was already a 90% play to QB sneak. I did the research on this a couple of years ago. And when you've added this extra little element to it, it's probably a 95% chance play. They're not doing anything crazy. They're doing it really effectively because of their offensive line and their quarterback doubles as a running back.

That's part of it. They're also making those decisions to go for it on fourth down. Every time a lot of teams would punt in that situation and they're just pushing the button, go, go, go. And that's what's made it more noticeable, is that they've been confident enough in that play and Jalen Hurts in their offensive line to continue to go for it.

That's a big advantage. They're starting every first down with nine yards to go and not ten. Because if they get to fourth and one, it's going to be a first down almost every single time. It's an, it's incredible to watch how they're able to pull it off over and over, but don't let that overshadow AJ Brown. Their passing game got going. Their running game was good against a pretty violent Miami defense. And they are once again, tracking as a team to beat in the NFC after that win. As far as the Packers though, not so much, not so much a team to beat the Green Bay Packers. What a horrendous, miserable, pathetic loss to the Denver Broncos capped off by the strangest Jordan Love interception since

last week when he threw a crazy interception at the end of the game. I listen to the PFF NFL podcast a lot with Sam Monson and Steve Palazzolo. That's what I put in when I go jogging along with the Sumer Sports Show for my friend Eric Eager and Thomas Dimitrov. Those are my two go-to top football podcasts, right? And I remember Sam Monson saying early in the season or going into the year, based on the college football performance from Jordan Love, and it was years ago, but based on his college numbers, the guy looks like Jameis Winston on paper without some of the other stuff, without the off the field and so forth.

And that's what he's reminded me of with some of these decisions. But he also hasn't had the upside of Jameis Winston, who has an incredible arm and could huck it down the field and would throw for 300 yards, three touches, three picks. This is just the bizarre decision-making with not great quarterback play. Otherwise, he averaged like five and a half yards per pass against a Denver Broncos defense that gave up 70 points to a team this year. That is how bad Denver is defensively. And they've given away some of their better veteran players, yet the Packers could not move the ball against them.

AJ Dillon is the slowest running back in the league. He should be a fullback at this point, so they can't really run the ball that successfully. Christian Watson got banged up at the end of that game. Who knows what his status is and where this is relevant. I think you guys know where I'm taking this is two weeks from now, the Vikings go down to Lambeau and play a team that does not look good at all. Hey, Titletown, welcome to life after Aaron Rodgers. This is what it's like to not believe in your quarterback.

I'm sure that they'll say that they do and so forth. Jordan Love has shown lots of signs of competency throughout this season. He's also shown the signs of insane decision-making that results in them giving away games at the end. And this is what? Three times that they've given away close games that they should have won against Atlanta, against the Raiders, and now against the Broncos. And those aren't even good teams. The Green Bay Packers this year are going absolutely nowhere. There's not really a path to them. Even with their schedule was supposed to be pretty light this year,

it doesn't matter. If you can't beat Denver and can't put up points against Denver, you're not a good team. And if the Vikings are making this argument, when they get to 3-5, if they beat the Packers, what they're going to say is, look, we've got another game against the Bears, although Tyson Bajent was good.

We've got another game against the Bears. We've got another game against the Packers. That could be two wins. And then look at the rest. It's got Atlanta. It's got Denver. It's got Denver. It's got the Raiders. That's what I think Kevin O'Connell and the coaching staff is going to be making their

case. If the Vikings do end up at three and five, the Packers get thrown into that list with the way they're playing of a team that you would expect to beat twice. That's where they're at right now. And where they go in the future. I don't know. There's so many teams that want to draft Caleb Williams and Drake may and Quinn Ewers and whoever the heck else ends up coming out in this draft. There's so many of them. How do the Packers get themselves in that mix? Arizona, they did a good job. We'll talk about the tank wars. They did a good job staying at the top. I mean, Chicago, even if

they win games, doesn't really matter because Carolina is not going to, and here's green Bay that will probably get a couple of more wins. The rest of the way, they're not going to end up with two wins and they get to be stuck in the middle with uncertainty about their quarterback. Do not let this be lost on you. The profound nature of what has happened. And Hey, by the way, I saw tonight that there were people asking green Bay Packers reporters. I follow a good number of them. And they were asking, is Matt LaFleur on the hot seat? Isn't it just the best? Isn't it just the best?

Not that the Packers thing, you guys know that I don't care. That's more of a you thing than a me thing. What's the best is Matt LaFleur had one of the best winning percentages ever until Aaron Rodgers left. And now is two and five. And there it is. There it is again. It always comes back to that. We anoint people. This coach is this or that franchise has got this culture and everything else. And what does it always come back to when you don't have the back-to-back MVP, when you don't have one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, you get exposed for bad roster building. The fact that they can't put weapons in there,

their coach was probably just okay. And Aaron Rodgers did the rest and Devante Adams did the rest. And now they can't make up the difference for that. And they've always been kind of a mess defensively, even though they have a lot of talent and yet they run back the same defensive coordinator. Every mistake gets exposed and the Packers after today, officially a bad football team, but the result could be of them being a bad team. The Vikings not trading players away. So every action has a reaction, if you will. The Detroit Lions did not have a better day than the Packers, though, because they got destroyed by the Baltimore Ravens.

Or should I say the future AFC champion Baltimore Ravens? I don't know if that's going to be the case or not, but they certainly looked like it. Lamar Jackson playing like an MVP, not surprised. Hey, but does anybody stop and think as they're watching that game? Cause I know a lot of you, that was the local game in Minnesota. So you're sitting there saying, all right, well, let's see what Detroit is made of. And then you see them get lambasted by Baltimore. Did it ever pop into your brain that teams put out statements saying they weren't going to trade for Lamar Jackson.

Remember that day or two when there was a rumor somewhere by some insider that talked about the Vikings and Lamar Jackson. Do you ever think a little bit about it? What if that had kind of, you know, well, that maybe would have possibly. Yes. Yes. That would have been a good thing. Had the Vikings got Lamar Jackson. He is that good.

I don't know if they're going to the Super Bowl, but their defense looked great. They blitz the heck out of Jared Goff. They've also had some players emerge as being very good who maybe weren't in their primes yet. Matt Abouke, their defensive tackle was phenomenal today. Patrick Queen has become a very good player after the first couple of years, struggling a little bit, and they have a complete defense. But the way that they attacked, the Vikings do not have the talent on defense as the Ravens. But Jared Goff was really struggling against that. It will be a long time until Jared Goff faces the Minnesota Vikings. And he knows the Vikings organization and us bank stadium,

but has not played against Brian Flores. Maybe since that game where Flores started to get attention. If you remember is a deep cut, there was a game where jared goff and the rams offense was horrible horrible horrible against floris and people started to notice go this guy he's doing something really interesting with his defense down there that's kind of how jared goff looked today without the many interceptions that he had that day. But it kind of had that same look. And the thing about Jared Goff, and anybody who listens to the show knows I have a lot of respect for him.

They dropped to five and two. Everybody has a bad day sometimes. It's still a really good offense and a really good team. However, if you get Goff to have to move, if he can't drop back, run a play action, throw on time, he has some trouble. And we saw that today. It's not just the running element. It's even just the throwing on the move, shuffling in the pocket.

He reminds me of how Alex Smith would struggle with that stuff sometimes. It just didn't have that as part of his game. And when you start running those blitzes from everywhere, sometimes it requires the quarterback to be able to move, or he just gets pressured and sacked and has a terrible day and loses to the Baltimore Ravens. And we know about the lions that they're a really good team, but they are behind the others. They are behind Philadelphia. They are behind San Francisco. They still could make a case that they're as good or better than the Dallas Cowboys. I would lean toward the Cowboys personally a touch to be ahead of Detroit as one of the top teams.

So they're kind of the worst best team, and they showed a lot of their weaknesses today. Their secondary still has some question marks. They do have a good defensive line that got after Lamar Jackson, but he just made play after play after play. So it's a flawed Lions team, even if they're good and they got exposed in a lot of ways

by the Baltimore Ravens. And that, you know, we'll see if those games matter. That's the weird thing about this year's schedule for the Vikings is I would normally be saying, Hey, when they played Detroit in a week or two, remember that, remember the way they attacked him and went after him and so forth. But I don't know if that's going to be the case or not because they're playing in the last couple of weeks of the season. It's one of the stranger scheduling quirks that I can remember playing them. You know, I think it's two out of three weeks at the end of the year.

So, so weird. And one of them is week 18. It might not matter for either team at that point. But we can't really say how does this match up with the Vikings? You would still very much pick Detroit to win the division. They are way up even after this loss to the Ravens. But should those games matter, then we might go back to this and say, hey, when was Jared Goff kind of exposed?

When was that offense exposed by blitzing? And it was then against Baltimore. Got some more thoughts that we'll get to in a second, but first want to remind you guys to make little Caesars, the official pizza sponsor of the NFL order online during their pizza, pizza pregame one hour before NFL games and get ready for some football and fun. Choose your favorite little Caesars pizza or pick up the toppings you crave.

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That's a lot of different stuff. Yardage, touchdowns, you can do field goals, points by field goal kickers, and lots of other sports as well. So you're going to want to check that out. All it is, more or less, it's that simple. So if you go to prizepicks.com slash purple, use the code purple for a first deposit match up to $100. Very simple. One of the reasons I love it,

you don't have to put down a huge amount of money or time. We do it on the show here in about 30 seconds. I make my picks that quickly and submit them as soon as we've contemplated and thought deeply about the picks. Very, very easy to do. Not very costly either. So it's a lot of fun. PrizePicks.com slash purple with the code purple. Daily Fantasy Sports Made Easy. All right. On to a few other things that I've been thinking about after we watched some crazy, crazy football on Sunday.

There is a problem with referees. And everybody who listens to the show knows that I like to watch a lot of old games. And I go back historically and I watch games and I see refereeing impacting old games the same way that it does now. And it's not new. And every broadcast and every year throughout football,

there has always been articles written, conversation points on TV, whatever, about the refs. Are the refs having the worst year ever? It's probably been asked every year. Here's my trouble, though. That the games I watched on Sunday, and this has happened in a number of Vikings games, they can't agree on what the rules are.

And maybe this is because there are so many rules people bring up. Should they be full time? Maybe they know the rules better, but I'll give you a couple of examples. The Colts are playing the Browns. Very compelling football game. Gardner Minshew and PJ Walker, just as the football gods intended.

It's a magical game. Lots of stuff is happening. It's crazy. John Watson gets knocked out. Gardner Minshew's throwing long touchdowns, but there's mistakes everywhere and crazy stuff, right? And at the end of this game, Minshew throws it. No, I'm sorry. PJ Walker throws it into the back of the end zone and his receiver goes back to get it. And the guy kind of grabs his arm, but the ball goes 50 miles over his head and they go to Jean or whoever it is in the booth. And he says, well, you know, I don't know. Maybe, maybe it was a little too high over his head. I'm not sure. I guess you could say so, but hard to say. All right. There's another

call just before that. There was a legal contact where Amari Cooper was not slowed down, but the guy kind of fell and stuck his arm out, but the route was still run and Walker fumbled and the Colts would have won the game. And they go to the rules analyst and he says, well, I don't know. I don't think that that was enough contact there. I'm not sure why we have these people, the rules analysts all. I mean, what are we getting out of it? Like, oh, OK, I guess we're I guess we got screwed or it's just totally subjective. And that's that guy's opinion.

But that's not the one that matters. And if you asked 100 refs, hundred refs would see these things differently. What is the rule? What is the actual rule, how it's defined and why aren't they calling it? And those weren't the only ones. There was an incident in Buffalo, which has happened against the Vikings a number of times. And I've thought about it, which is when the clock gets to zero and the Patriots got, I don't know, a 10 yard gain or something after having the clock run out

completely to zero and they didn't call it. And then they just let it go. And then on the next play, they called it. Huh? And this is coming off of what happened last week in Buffalo, where the giants threw it into the end zone. The Buffalo guy clearly commits interference, daring the refs to call it twice. They didn't call it twice. Kind of seemed like they were back with a vengeance this week. All I would like in the year 2023 is us just to agree on the same rules. What footballs are catchable? What I mean,, it's, it, look, it's hard.

It's very hard, but everyone sees the ball fly way over the guy's head. And then the flag comes out and then the ref in the booth can't agree with the ref on the field for whether it was catchable or not. Why, why do we not know what an uncatchable ball is? Why can the referees not call when the clock has run out? Why is there not a noise when the play clock runs out? Like in basketball, is that because they want to give the offense every opportunity to run their play?

I don't understand some of these things and it happened to the Vikings a couple of weeks ago. And it happened to the Vikings a couple weeks ago. Is it pass interference? Harrison Smith against, was it the Chiefs? Harrison Smith doesn't get turned around, but doesn't really commit a pass interference. Is it always interference if the guy doesn't turn around? And was Jordan Addison supposed to sell it better? Then Josh Metellus got fined today for a hit on Justin Fields,

which looked like a normal tackle of Justin Fields that I couldn't make any sense of. So at some point every year, all of us probably get broken by the NFL's refereeing. But this week was that for me, where so many close games were decided in large part and especially that indianapolis game which was a gem decided because of some strange or hard to explain calls also a reminder it's not only your team hopefully you had that you had that reaction as well oh look other teams also have their seasons majorly impacted by calls where we just can't even agree with the rules. I'll try to keep those rants to a minimum in the future because it's not going to change. Apparently let's talk about the tank wars. We've got to talk about the tank wars. And then I

got some fan emails that I'm sorry if, if you've sent them recently and I haven't gotten to them, it's been a little crazy with lots of guests and everything else, and I apologize for that. But I've got a couple that I want to answer quickly as well. We are starting to see a couple things develop. Which teams are going to be in the tank wars and which coaches are going to be fired? Josh McDaniels, probably fired

after losing to Tyson Bajent. And that situation doesn't look like it's getting any better. Yeah, they win more when they have Jimmy Garoppolo. He's always hurt and is hurt once again. Brian Hoyer, Aiden O'Connell. These guys are not the answer. It just feels like it is going into the tank for McDaniels again. And maybe he, yeah, maybe it's a bad break where he took over one of the worst roster situations in the league. And then they didn't

trade up to draft quarterback, or maybe he's not that fit to be an NFL head coach. That is also very possible. Ron Rivera was never going to be in Washington for very long. That one is a disaster. Jonathan Allen was cussing to the media after the game. Kind of feel bad for him. He's a really, really good player. Washington has just become a mess. And I'm backing off the Sam Howell thing now. Not a great, not great.

I would also throw in there that Jahan Doxon dropped the ball at the end, but they only scored seven points against the Giants defense. That's not that great. Not, not a good time for Ron Rivera in Washington and new Orleans. Let's not let them off the hook. Brutal, brutal loss to Jacksonville in which their offense looked lost. If you watch JTO Sullivan's QB school, or if you watch Kurt Warner on YouTube, both of them were pointing out how bad some of the designs were for new Orleans. Uh, Sean Payton is not there anymore to help them. And the Derek Carr decision looks pretty rough. And Hey, by the way, some of these teams we just talked about play the Viking suit, the Packers Vegas Raiders, and, uh, you know, um, who are we just talking about? Uh,

and, oh, new Orleans. Yeah. And new Orleans. So all of them play against the Vikings pretty soon. And those are the opportunities they're going to talk about as for the tank though, Arizona reminded everyone that they are going to be at the very top of this draft. There was a little moment where Josh jobs played pretty well in a game and Arizona got a W and we said, okay, okay. Arizona looking a little spunky. Are we maybe they'll,

you know, get Kyler Murray back. They should not play Kyler Murray a single game. They can bring them back to practice. They can get him up to speed and have them available for trade. But that team is going to be right there for either Caleb Williams or Drake May Carolina still very much the front runner, though. You do think at some point, Bryce young will have one of those games where he plays well and the defense causes a

couple of turnovers and they win that. That could be an amazing race to the finish. Not a great day for some tankers. I mean, the Giants got a win. Chicago, although they've got Carolina's pick, that helps them. And New England getting the win against Buffalo. And our tank wars are really shaping up to be fascinating as we go forward. Suddenly, Mack Jones against a really good Buffalo defense looked good and had a really strong day.

I don't know. Week to week league folks watching today. I just thought I, I respect any of you who have the passion for gambling, but if I was like you, I'd be so scared every week of referees and randomness and, and pop-up performances and winning quarterbacks, such as PJ Walker, Tyson Bajan and Mac Jones on this day, uh, that I would be terrified of that. Um, but yeah, shaping it up interestingly, I don't believe that the Vikings will be in this conversation regardless of

who they trade. That's another thing that came to me today. Watching some of the tanking teams, even when they won so bad. I mean, Tyron Taylor might play them right out of it. And Tyron's more of a 500 quarterback. There shouldn't be any surprise that he could score 14 points and win a football game. He he's been this before he was a starter before and was a 500 quarterback in Buffalo. He can play a little bit. Uh, that doesn't mean they're out of the tank wars entirely. Uh, they,

they're still in that, uh, very much, but there's so many teams now that look like they need to draft quarterbacks. If this is the fear and we'll get to this, this is the fear everyone has that these teams tank their way right past the Vikings. It also could play into why there's so much bad offensive football in the league is because there are teams that are lining themselves up for these top quarterbacks. Let me get to a few fan questions before we wrap up. And then we will be live on YouTube after the game to be myself and Dane Mizutani late nights inside us bank stadium. I love being inside us bank stadium on Monday night football, Sunday night, Thursday night.

There's just something different and they roll out incredible stuff from a in-game type of perspective the video board the music the all the sorts of stuff that they do might act tough and pretend the very top of the least the best the absolute best the u.s bank stadium so i'm looking forward to that very much for monday night looking good that's where caldera lab comes in over a 100,000 men trust Caldera Lab because of the way they give you an easy skincare routine that turns into clear skin.

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Here is a couple of quick questions. We'll start with Andrew. Says, last time I felt good about the Vikings was the 2017 NFC Championship game, which of course did not last very long. I'm 47, lifelong Vikes fan, and watched in person when Anderson missed his kick in the 98 championship

game. I don't think I've ever recovered from that. I really hope the Vikings move on from Kirk Cousins, even if it means another year or two of bad teams until we can build our defense back up and get the long awaited franchise quarterback. What you just described is what so many people feel. And it's not that the last six years have been without some really fun moments they have, and they don't take long to name the Buffalo game. I was there for that. That's one that I will never forget. Uh, same, same with new Orleans. I was in new Orleans when Kyle Rudolph caught the game winner and in the locker room after that game, the number of gutsy performances, including by Kirk Cousins to win that game. We have seen a lot would cost, and will you ever be able to build up these other parts? And I was watching Philadelphia and watching A.J. Brown, and the Vikings already have their A.J. Brown, so it's not that they need him specifically. But looking at Darius Slay intercept

the pass, and you go, how did they get him? Oh yeah, that's right. They have a quarterback on a rookie contract so they could trade for Darius Slay. And you look at A.J. Brown, you go, how did they get him? Oh yeah, that's right. They have a quarterback on a rookie contract so they could trade for Darius Slay. And you look at AJ Brown, you go, how did they get him? You go, oh yeah, that's right. They's going to be a lot harder for that team to compete in the same way because you can't tell me their amazing offensive line and incredible weapons and all the guys that they can pay on the defensive side as, oh, here's Hassan Reddick looking like a freak. Where'd they get him? Oh yeah, that's right. They went into free agency and they paid for him. And the, the advantage is profound to have the quarterback on the rookie contract. And it's not that Kirk is not a good quarterback. It's that if you could make Kirk Cousins worth $5 million on the cap, the advantage there is just so big. And we've been over that a million times. But when you watch Philly, you really feel that.

And I also agree that it's just time to take that swing. You've run this through six simulations, and so far it hasn't worked. And we'll see what the rest of the season has to hold for us. But it is time to take that shot and see if there's something out there more because people like yourself and you are, Andrew, you are a very, you are in a very big pool of fans

who were into the 98 team, saw it, thought that it was the magical year in 2017 when they went to play a backup quarterback in Philly and were disappointed and have seen these NFC championships come so close and far and all that. And you kind of feel this this pressing of when is it that we get to have the Jalen Hurts or the Joe Burrow or the whoever, you know, a lot of different guys in the league, the Trevor Lawrence, where you're building around this young quarterback. The last time you felt that was Teddy Bridgewater after winning the division in 2015. And then immediately Vikings went full Vikings and he got hurt. You're looking for something like that again. And the fact that some players have emerged, and I know that there's discussion about the 2022 draft class as if it's like destroyed the future of

the Vikings. But when you look at the way Bynum has played, look at the way Metellus has played Ivan Pace jr. You're starting to see, and a Caleb Evans, I think has been good. Andrew Booth jr. Gets into that last game. It doesn't mean all of them are going to be great every game, but you're starting to see a little bit of the, are these some of the next players that are going to be starters for them for a while? And even if they're not superstars, that's where you use the cap space. That's where you have to hit on draft picks at some point, but you can use the cap space

to acquire people. And, and, and I think under Flores, we're just starting to see some of these guys develop and this could be blown up by monday night by the 49ers but i'm going to stick with that take that i've liked the way some of these young players have played this year especially metellus and bynum but even pace junior and evans as well and if you see development from them where they can be starters in the future for years to come, then you're talking about the defensive line potentially replacing Hunter and those things. But there's like a path there.

You need to hit on draft picks. You need to have solid players that you've picked that are there to develop over the years. And we're beginning, just beginning to get hints of that. Anyway, the whole point just being, yes, I feel you. I feel you. And that direction is where I think they want to go. That I believe that was the plan from the start of this season.

See what you have. See what's here in the young players. Move on from Cousins after this season. And we'll know. Well, we won't know for a a while but we will know at some point whether that's going to be the case or not um but i've got more questions regarding a similar topic so i'll get to that uh at the end with our last question but the next one comes from jamie actually the next question also regarding this in a bit as well uh can someone please me please tell me where

it says it's in kirk's contract that we have to play him? He is holding us hostage with the no trade clause. But if we flat out say, Kirk, good play so far, but we're going with Jaron Hall the rest of the season to see what he's like and see what we have. Why let him run up his stats so he gets a smoking free agency deal? I love the enthusiasm of this, Jamie, but there's a locker room and there's a head coach and the last head coach that benched a good quarterback to play a backup and lose on purpose got fired. That was Doug Peterson, 2020. Was it the right thing? Yes, it was. There is no way, no place on this earth where you bench Kirk Cousins to try to lose because you will lose the locker room. Your coach and your organization

will be looked at like you are out of your mind. And that's not just by the outside world because who cares about them? It's by every player. They're not going to accept that the guys that you want to be your long-term players. What a message to send them that you're going to bench a guy that gives you a chance to win. And Kevin O'Connell's not tanking. He is not tanking. He wants to make the playoffs.

He wants to have on his resume that they were one of the few teams that came back from 0-3 to make the postseason. He wants to get Justin Jefferson back and start lighting up some bad defenses. They are not thinking in the coach's offices, okay, well, we're going to accept benching Kirk Cousins. And the general manager has nothing to say about the lineup, who plays, who's the starter.

As long as Kirk's on the team, he's playing, unless it's a last game of the season type of situation. If they're eliminated from the playoffs and they do what the Raiders did with Derek Carr last year, philosophically speaking, yeah, you could do that. You could do that in some world. If that, if that's what you want it to do though, why not do it before the season? This is where they truly want it to be competitive. So you wanted to do, though, why not do it before the season? This is where they truly wanted to be competitive, so you have to just keep playing Kirk Cousins. It's a funny idea, though, and would maybe work to get them a top draft pick

because without Cousins, they don't win another game all season long, more likely than not, unless Jaron Hull's really good. Tyson Bajent won today. I don't know. From Sarah, do you think the reason we haven't seen Dalton Reisner yet is because it lit a fire under Ingram's butt to do better? I do think that. I do think that. And we are going to see Reisner because of the injury.

I do believe that when Reisner got here, there was a rise in the play from Ezra Cleveland and Ed Ingram. That could be because of the competition they faced. Kansas City's defensive line is not special. Los Angeles' defense is horrible. And they did fine against them. And Chicago, the offensive line was not great. It was just okay, but it was not great,

surprisingly, against them. And maybe some of that fire under your butt has worn off a bit. And maybe part of it is just that they want Dalton Reiser to be up to 100% before he gets in. And now he's going to have to do that. Ingram did play pretty well in the weeks following the Reisner signing. If you have to sign people to get your player more motivated, though, and I am not dismissing your point because I think it's true and I think it's real that there was a more motivation. There's more fire in his play, more physicality in his play after Reisner signed but if you got to do that you better be planning on signing like three or four guards a year like it's a like it's a booster like when um what is it like a super mario where you take you eat a

mushroom and then you grow or whatever it's like you better have like a turbo boost for your right guard every couple weeks you just sign another guy and say, yeah, see, he'll compete with you. You better go. It's not a great sign that that's the case is what I would say. I'm still willing to give Ingram more time. And I'm very interested to see if Reisner just does not give this job back to Ezra Cleveland, keeps it, and is somebody that they might want to sign for

the future as their left guard, that's something we'll be paying attention to as well. I just think that when you require something to get you started, uh, maybe, maybe not great. Like if you have to drink coffee every single morning, you need to sleep better. Right. And the same thing is for this. If you need your right guard to be motivated, he needs to be a better guard than he is. We'll see how it plays out. We'll see how it plays out. Maybe it will increase its consistency. I'm not super confident in that. It will be tested this week though. That is for sure. Two more from Alex. Actually, this is the last one from uh, from Alex, all the rest of the Vikings next 10 games are winnable.

They could easily go six and four. That's eight and nine or nine and eight. Kirk will resign with the Vikings because the Wilfs are running the show and it's what they want. I live and die with this team and I'm almost at the point of becoming physically nauseous because I already know the point of becoming physically nauseous because I already know the end of the story um yeah I mean I don't there's nothing that indicates that that's the case well the eight nine nine and eight then yeah that feels inevitable doesn't it even if they trade

to deal hunter it still feels like they're going to get to eight and nine. The other part, I just don't, I, this was like yesterday's take today, like yesterday's opinion today. So last year when the Wilfs wanted Kevin O'Connell and Kwesi Adafo Mensah to run back the roster, that was clear that they were calling that shot. That's what they wanted. They wanted Kirk to come back. They wanted to compete for the division, win now, bring back Peterson, bring in Zedarius Smith, do everything you can.

And they got 13 wins out of it and a fun season. Not enough, but still. This offseason is as loud as they could possibly yell the word rebuild. When you let all of those players go, some of which have an argument for ring of honor. And you let all of them go and don't extend Kirk Cousins because his price was too high and his length was too long. That does not say Wilfs's running the show will absolutely resign Cousins. No, because they would have done it already. They negotiated, they talked to him, but they didn't do it. And I think if they go eight and nine, you're moving on from Cousins going forward with the plan. The plan may have hiccups, but that should be the plan is to go

forward and they're going to evaluate the draft and everything else, but go forward, change quarterbacks, look for a rookie to step in and be their guy and probably bring in another veteran as well. A Gardner Minshew, if you will, and go from there and try to emulate that situation. That's what every signal says to us at this moment. If that changes because Cousins gets them into the playoffs, then they're an unserious franchise. Seriously. Then that means they're just flying by the seat of their pants.

And they did that a little bit in 2019 with bringing back everybody after they won the playoff game. But now we have a much bigger sample size at that point they they had a good team in 2019 and it looked like yeah if you could build off of this and bring in some young players and so forth that they could be back in contention very quickly that's what that's what their argument was at that time, and you could see it potentially. I wouldn't defend it because I wanted them to tear it down at that point,

but you could understand why they did it. Now, if they miss the playoffs at 8-9, the sample size is six years and one playoff win. And then an 8-9 season for, it'd be a nine-loss season for the third time in four years. And after letting all those other guys go, it's hard to see them changing that course based on that. Now, if they went on a run where they never lost again this year and went to the NFC championship game, different story. That's what I think. That's what I think the bar is that that's what I think the bar is.

So anyway, well, fun stuff and appreciate those people who went to purpleinsider.com, sent me emails. Thank you for doing that. And I will catch you all after the game. Really, really great stuff. And we'll be live then. So come in, share your comments, celebrate a 28 point victory. No, I don't know. Maybe. You never know. Anyway, thanks for listening, everybody. We'll see you Monday night.