Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Super Bowl reaction; Schefter says Darnold to the Raiders?!??!

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about the Super Bowl and ESPN's Adam Schefter reporting that the Raiders will be the team most interested in Sam Darnold. Plus Aaron Rodgers is done in New York.... is Kirk Cousins going to end up with the Jets? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TD Direct Investing offers live support, so whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, the Super Bowl post-game edition in which we mostly talk about biking stuff because what the heck was that? I mean, look, next time, Roger Goodell, rig it. Rig the Super Bowl next time, Roger.

Don't let this happen again. The refs, they barely got involved. What were you doing? You could have had the refs give Kansas City a chance. All you had to do was call defensive holding and personal fouls on every single play, and maybe the Super Bowl would have been a lot better for us. Wow. That was one of the worst Super Bowls that I have ever witnessed in my entire life.

In fact, I thought that maybe I was in Arizona again watching the Vikings play the Rams, but actually the Vikings played better against the Rams than Kansas city just did against the super bowl champion, Philadelphia Eagles. And I can't imagine that that sits very well with Minnesota Vikings fans, but at least what the Eagles championship does is it provides truth. It clarifies everything for the Minnesota Vikings. It says, here is the standard. It is the Philadelphia Eagles with this roster from top to bottom. Now go chase it. Go try to match what the Philadelphia Eagles have. And the biggest takeaway from this game, hands down, all of you know exactly what I'm going to say, is the defensive line of the Philadelphia Eagles. It was basically the 2020 Super Bowl all over

again, where Tampa Bay's defensive line destroyed the offensive line of the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes, as great as he is, an all-time great quarterback, no question about it. I already saw, does this hurt his legacy? No, it doesn't hurt his legacy. There have been plenty of quarterbacks that have bad Super Bowls, including John Elway and Peyton Manning and et cetera, et cetera. And even Tom Brady came up short because of a defensive line performance. And pretty much every one of those where an all-time great quarterback comes up short

is because the opposing D-line completely dominates. Even when you look at the time Peyton Manning lost to the Seattle Seahawks, which actually was another one of the worst Super Bowls of all time, 43 to eight, I think. What did Seattle have? They had a completely stacked defense overall and a defensive line that got penetration immediately quickly put so much pressure on the

quarterback that he couldn't function. The same thing happened for Tom Brady against the New York giants. And this is just another instance of when it's one game and they've got two weeks to get everybody back to a hundred percent full health. Everybody's out there. All the game plan is laser focused on one weakness for the other team, which was the offensive line for the chiefs having to shuffle things around. They talked a lot about how Joe Tooney played left tackle, but here's the correlation with the Vikings is that Cam Robinson was a fine player to bring in for a hold up in the same way that Christian Derrissaw was. And the same thing for Joe Tooney against Josh Sweat and against the Philadelphia Eagles defensive line. If the Vikings were considering building a defense similar to how they have in the past,

which has been, I don't know how many years now of Harrison Phillips or before it was Delvin Tomlinson and just whoever is around Shamar Stephan, Jonathan Bullard, Jerry Tillery. We know the names of the guys that they've just kind of thrown out there. Kairos Tonga, just guys, right? And a lot of run stuffers in the interior. And it was really good last year for run stuffing. And it was really good for moving blockers to get blitzes to come up the middle. But if you want to have the best defense, not just a defense,

that's pretty good. And then gets beat by Matt Stafford gets beat by Jared Goff. If you want to have a defense, that's great. It's got to be everybody up there. It can't just be pressure from two guys on the edges all the time and blitzes because when you send blitzes it opens up holes and it opens up gaps in the defense it's a good thing to do occasionally but there's nothing

stronger ever and nobody knows this like the purple people eaters there's nothing stronger than having a front four that can completely dominate and take over a game. And even if you're playing one of the best quarterbacks of all time, he got sacked what three times in the first six plays or something. I mean, it was crazy how quick that pressure got to my homes. And then the other part of it too, is that, you know, Mahomes likes to scramble. He likes to make plays. He's moving around. He's trying stuff early on.

But when you have four guys doing that much damage, what does that mean? You've got all the spaces of the defense covered. And that's exactly what happened when Cooper Dijon, shout out to all the Hawkeye fans in Minnesota, Cooper Dijon could have called fair catch on that one and picked it off. And I'm not the only one to make that joke, but he was wide open. He saw it. He came into Patrick Mahomes' vision late and picks it off and runs it for a touchdown. And that was pretty much the ball game.

And a lot of people were saying when they got down 10, nothing, okay, this is where my homes really starts, but it's even more impossible to come back in a game when you have no run game and you can't control the game by being plotting and methodical when the other team has only four guys dedicated to the Russian, everybody else can rally to the football and tackle. Everybody else can cover all those spaces in the defense. And what we end up with is a total wreckage of the Kansas City Chiefs offense and the Philadelphia Eagles with one of the most dominant and impressive playoff

performances in NFL history. And it's funny to think about the Los Angeles Rams. And I know it was weather aided, but the Los Angeles Rams who destroyed the Vikings ended up giving Philly by far their closest run, but against Washington, they demolished them against Kansas city. It was nowhere close. And that roster for the Philadelphia Eagles is going nowhere and they're playing the Vikings next year. They have all of it coming back. Milton Williams is a free agent. They might keep him. They might just resign. He might want to come back to the team that just won the Superbowl. We sort of have guaranteed that certain players are free agents, but we don't really know for a couple of weeks, the exact free agent list.

We're only working off the players expected to be a free agent, but boy, Milton Williams would look good for the Minnesota Vikings because he is another player that gets penetration, gets up the field and makes plays from the interior. And when you think about how few teams really have good guard play, and it's been the obsession of this show. It's been the obsession of the fan base because it's been so destructive to the Vikings offense. You get in games like this. This had to look so familiar to all you guys. How about Akeem Hicks? How about Kenny Clark? How about Grady Jarrett? How about all the times that the Vikings have played this exact game and lost this exact way when the chips were down, including to the Los Angeles Rams.

So it goes both ways and they're nasty. There has to be investment on the interior of the offensive line and the interior of the defensive line. And if they put every single dollar into that this off season and patched work the cornerback group. I'd be okay with it. They patchworked the cornerback group last year. They survived. I don't think that you can be a difference making defense or a dominant, truly dominant offense without the interior. And for the longest time, we have talked about these things as if they were the non-important positions. It's all corners, receivers, edge rushers, quarterback. Okay. Well, those positions are

still incredibly important, but I think that it's changing a little bit because if the defensive tackles are getting paid $30 million a year at their best 27 mil for Christian Wilkins last year. And if the defensive tackles are taking over games like this, and I know Josh sweat was incredible as well. And so was Jalen Carter and the whole D line. But if D lines are taking over, then I think it's just as important that you have players who can give you a chance to counteract that. And if the Chiefs, they had a domino effect here. If the Chiefs had an offensive tackle, then they wouldn't have to play their guard at

tackle and they would have been a little bit better on the interior. But even then, they never really had an explosive offense all season long. And then all of the weaknesses got exposed. What else did they not have this year? The Chiefs. They got to the Super Bowl without a run game that was really effective. In fact, the most effective runner that they had in the AFC championship was Patrick Mahomes. And he wasn't able to do that today.

But I think the first 20-something plays from Kansas City, maybe two were runs. They just had no run game to at least back off the Philadelphia Eagles. And Washington had that with their quarterback with Jaden Daniels. He also was able to find some short passes. But for whatever reason, Kansas City and their RPO and their screen game and all that stuff, it just got tossed right out the window. And then they were down early and tried to run on back-to-back plays.

It went absolutely nowhere. And then they try to force it and then it's turnovers. And then it's just all hell breaks loose from there. And we have this horrendous, horrendous Superbowl, but all credit to the Philadelphia Eagles with the best roster build that we've seen in a really long time. And I think Detroit did a great job of their roster build. The Vikings are on their way. There are other teams like Washington, who's going to be on their way. I think the Packers are on their way, but the Philadelphia Eagles, they're drafting and not just who they picked, but the amount of picks that they were able to

accumulate over the years to take a lot of swings at these players, the positions that they spent, they spent a lot of capital on interior linemen. They spent a lot of capital on big giant dudes from Georgia to play along the D line outside rushers. They spent smart money on Zach Bond. They made a great trade for AJ Brown, and they made the ultimate draft pick that the Minnesota Vikings could have made in Jalen Hurts. And this cannot be lost in this Superbowl that when we go back to a pivot point in Vikings history that got us to right here, I'm going to think about Jalen hurts for a long time. I know Lamar Jackson was a guy that they could have drafted,

but I always looked at that as, well, they already signed Kirk. They didn't know that Jackson was going to be available. He was considered a very raw prospect. I mean, okay, maybe that's unfair to say why didn't you draft him but the Vikings were coming off of a playoffs where they clearly weren't good enough in 2019 and then they went into an off season where they were going to have to completely overhaul their roster they traded Stefan Diggs there was every reason to let Kirk Cousins play out his contract and draft a quarterback.

And instead, because Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman were on the hot seat because they couldn't get along with each other or anybody else, they felt the need to extend Cousins in 2020 to a two-year contract and not draft a quarterback. And instead, well, they got Justin Jefferson, of course, but instead they take a corner and then we end up here. We are with Jalen Hertz being the center of this roster build for the Philadelphia Eagles. And that takes them here to the super bowl and Jalen Hertz wins the super bowl. And I think also we should not ever forget that at the NFL combine, I was there for this. Jalen Hurts was asked, are you going to do drills at other positions? Well, I mean, he should just put that on a loop in his house of being asked if he was going to do drills at other positions, because now he's a

Superbowl winning quarterback. And they were able to build a lot of this roster because of Jalen Hurts, not just because of his rookie contract, which has already gone by, but also the way that they extended him. Now in a couple of years, it's going to be a little harder with Jalen Hurts, but what they did was they created this space for a Superbowl window. And then Howie Roseman got on one of the best runs of drafting that I have ever seen in my life. And now you could say, well, the Vikings can't draft, but if you go back and look at the drafts before they did this, they drafted Sydney Jones. They drafted Jalen Rager. They drafted Andre Dillard. So in

drafting your luck might be right around the corner. So maybe that's what's next for the Minnesota Vikings. But, you know, G.R. Dunn, sorry if I'm pronouncing your name wrong, said Darnold took way too much blame. I think that what we can do rationally is separate the discussion about Sam Darnold and the Minnesota Vikings future and what to do with Sam Darnold versus what happened in the playoffs. Because now that you've watched this game, now that you've watched Justin Herbert, CJ Stroud, Patrick Mahomes, all fall victim to unbelievable defensive line play that has made it impossible for them to succeed.

And you know that the Rams sacked Jalen Hurts and beat up that offensive line. They sacked Jalen Hurts five times. That's how good the Rams defensive line was. So it is not all Sam Darnold's fault in that game. It wasn't not his fault. He missed throws. He didn't make plays the same way that Patrick Mahomes didn't make plays in this game. But when you look at how Sam Darnold played, if your entire evaluation for Sam Darnold as a quarterback is based on that one game, then I guess when we look at Patrick Mahomes, we've got to say that he's just not any good. And look, I know priors matter. Of course they do. And we're evaluating someone, but I think that it's been really unfair. Some of the reaction to Sam Darnold's 2024 season,

he played excellent, excellent football, but then a forever truth of the NFL, the forever truth is if that team is completely running over your offensive line, it is going to be darn near impossible for you to win that football game. And, you know, Phil, you could say that Darnold was holding the ball too long, but he's doing the same thing that he did all year,

which was trying to make plays just like Patrick Mahomes did in this game. Mahomes was spinning around backwards. It's worked for him so many times, but when they have a complete rush coming from all areas, pushing the pocket in closing out any escape routes, it's exactly what the Rams did. Only the Rams picked a few more spots to blitz than the Philadelphia Eagles did. I think it also shows you that Vic Fangio, you can try to copy it, but the genius of Vic Fangio is always having the sick defensive line. He had Khalil Mack.

He had a key mix. He had what Vaughn Miller when he was in Denver. And then now Vic Fangio wins a Superbowl with the Philadelphia Eagles and that defensive system that everybody else keeps trying to do. And they still end up, you know, with the Vic Fangio being the one that can do it the best. So I think, you know, I agree very much with Jonathan who says dump every resource into the trenches. I just totally agree. This was a year where I think more than ever on the defensive side, defenses fought back this year, including the Minnesota Vikings with Brian Flores defenses this year,

not really counting Fangio because he didn't have to with the Eagles, but defenses became more complicated. Think about what we saw in Arizona, all the blitzes that they sent against the Vikings, the guards and the linemen are looking around each other. Heck even Spagnuolo got Jalen hurts early in the game to throw an interception because he got them to shift the protection the wrong way. And then he ends up getting them. I think defenses with their pass rushes, the number of defensive tackles. And guess what? There's like five, six more defensive tackles in this draft that are going to come into

the league and be a problem. Defensive tackles are getting faster. They're getting quicker. They're penetrating more often. And then you have defensive masterminds who are changing coverages up, throwing blitzes left and right. And then offensive lines are having a lot of trouble if you don't have a truly great offensive line.

And the other thing is too, I thought of this, that JJ McCarthy is probably going to have to be a running quarterback to really succeed. I mean, you look at what Jalen hurts is as a quarterback. He's accurate down the field. They love he was in college. He is in the NFL. They love to throw those deep balls to AJ Brown. He's got great touch on it. He executes the short stuff pretty effectively, but if he was just a passer, and this is kind of why they lost last year because he had that knee injury. If he was just a passer straight drop back, he would still be a good quarterback, but I don't think he's holding Lombardi's trophy right now.

His running in this game cannot be overlooked. He was a problem for the Kansas city chiefs running the football. And with JJ McCarthy, I know they're going to want to have him in a glass box and they're not going to want to get their quarterback hurt, but he is fast and he is pretty big when he's at full strength. And he did run at times at Michigan. I think you have to be a running quarterback because even as good as Philly's offensive line is, they've gotten got throughout the playoffs at times.

And one of their counters has always been the running quarterback. And not only that, when you can play the run game off of the running quarterback, it's just a lot more dangerous. So if, when JJ McCarthy takes over as a starting quarterback, then I think they're going to have to lean more into the run game than Kevin O'Connell has ever been comfortable with his quarterbacks before, because this year he didn't do it at all with Sam Darnold. I get why your backup was Nick Mullins and Brett Rippin, and you don't really want to start those

guys. But I also don't see really a path to defeating defensive lines with this big of an edge. If you're not going to have a quarterback who can escape and who can run away. So the Vikings offensive, I'm sorry, the offseason plan has now become crystal clear. Now there's a lot of micro decisions and we'll talk about them in the coming weeks, but it's crystal clear outside of the quarterback position. It is putting all the resources as Jonathan said, into the best defensive tackle you can find. That's maybe a first round pick. I think because they're so sought after, there will be a ton of competition. If Milton Williams is a free agent

and also dig a Zua, I think if those guys are free agents, that there's going to be huge dollars thrown around, but the Vikings might have to play in that sandbox where you do pay a guy $25 million a year because it's worth it. And if they were to draft one and pay another one $20 plus million, I mean, it's not enough. Like any number of defensive tackles that you can tell me that can rush the passer

and get after people, it's not enough. Like any number of defensive tackles that you can tell me that can rush the passer and get after people, it's not enough. Give me one more. That's where I want this to start. Because on the offensive line, I don't know that there is one simple answer that it's easy. Like we saw Kansas City, they get an injury, they get ineffectiveness from one guy,

and they've got to move things around, and then it happens. The Vikings got a guy hurt. It happens. It's not going to be perfect. They should still invest as much as they can. But I also thought tonight they have one of the best guards in the league, Kansas city, and he couldn't do it alone. And even the best guards are at a mismatch still. And that was Trey Smith. So I don't want to see the Vikings. And I don't know if Trey Smith's even going to become a free agent after this. I don't know if Kansas city can let their top guard walk out of the building.

And if you're him, you're still playing in the Superbowl in three straight seasons, which is probably pretty good for you, but I would not be in favor of the Vikings paying one guard and then patchworking the other two positions. I think that what you'd rather do is move on from Garrett Bradbury. I think he can be good in another situation where they throw short passes, but I don't know if a team that's going to have these long dropbacks, long play actions, double and triple moves down the field that you can really ask him for 17 games, 18 games into the playoffs

to block like that. It's just not who he is. It's not what he was drafted for, Garrett Bradbury. And I think that Bradbury, I just would have liked to have seen at any point because I've been a defender. I think he improved a ton over a couple of years from what he was when he first started. And I think he's good in the run game and the screen game and the zone blocking and all that stuff. I would have liked to have seen at some point in his career for Garrett Bradbury to have guards, to be able to play with anybody that he's not teaching how

to play football. I mean, this guy has played with Oli Udo and Drew Samia and Blake Brandel and Ed Ingram and just the worst players at that position year after year after year and never really had a chance to have good players around him. So I always thought that that impacted his production. But either way, he's still undersized, and teams still man him up with their top rushers, and it's still a problem. I think they need to blow that whole thing up, let Bradbury sign with another team where he's a better fit, and get three new guys where you spend $10 million each

as opposed to $25 then use five to try to patchwork the other positions. I think we really saw that for how long I've been saying on the show. I feel like offensive line is a weak link type of thing. If you have one bad guy, you can probably work around it. If you have two, you're just completely out of luck. And the Vikings have often had two or three not playing particularly well. And, uh, Darth Bobo mentions, uh, Kevin Zeitler. Yeah. I mean, that's the type of signing that might not cost you $25 million. Like that's exactly what I'm talking about. Matt Pryor is another guy. Uh, Will Fries is another guy. I think it's pronounced fries might be freeze, uh might be Freeze, from Indianapolis. There's a number of good guards, Tevin Jenkins, who I think are more along the lines of $10

million players who they need to get. But this right here, this Super Bowl, if you're Kevin O'Connell, Kweisi Adafo-Mensa, anybody on the offensive staff, you should be in your football coach cave watching the Superbowl going. We can't walk our team out there next year against the Philadelphia Eagles and they're going to play them and against all the other teams that are going to have chances to improve. Miles Garrett was on radio row saying, you know what? Trade me to Washington. Guess who the Vikings play next year?

Washington. Guess who's back for Detroit? Trade me to Washington. Guess who the Vikings play next year? Washington. Guess who's back for Detroit? Aiden Hutchinson. You know that Green Bay is going to try to improve on the defensive line. You know, Chicago's going to try to spend money on the defensive line. So there are going to be a lot of teams on the Vikings schedule. They're going to play Baltimore. They're going to play Pittsburgh. There's a lot of teams that have dudes who are coming after your quarterback and no matter who your quarterback is, it has to be better. So as far as the Superbowl goes, there's not much else to say about it. It was a complete tail whooping that if the Vikings hadn't already decided, which I think

they did on the offensive line, I think they did on the offensive line, I think they did because O'Connell came out after the playoff game and said, yeah, we need better interior line, but where I want the wake-up calls to be the interior of the defensive line way, way too long. They've been treating that like you can patchwork it. Delvin Tomlinson's a nice player. He never rushes the passer. Great. Harrison Phillips, nice player, never rushes the passer. Great. You want to stop the run. It's important. They did a good job of it this year. It was important. At the end of the day, though, they didn't get after Matthew Stafford. They didn't get after Jared Goff. And there's huge holes in the defense because they're trying to blitz them all the time. Well,

look at the quarterbacks that they have to face next year. It's golf again. Of course it's Jaden Daniels. It's Jalen hurts. It's Dak Prescott. It's Lamar Jackson. I mean, there's a lot of dudes who can play quarterback and what's your only answer pressure. And the good news here, though, there is a silver lining. There's a movie about a Philadelphia Eagles fan called Silver Linings Playbook. So why don't we? Why don't we give the Silver Linings Playbook to this offseason and what we could take away from this Super Bowl for the Vikings? The silver lining is the Vikings have some of the hardest parts here already taken care of.

Jonathan Gernard emerged as one of the best players in the league. Andrew Van Ginkle was second team. All pro had double digit sacks. I think at the end of the season, we really saw Dallas Turner start to emerge to the point where you could feel like, okay, like there there's something there. He wasn't completely off the field. I know some of you guys mentioned Lewis scene is on the Philadelphia Eagles. That's tough. Uh, but, uh, anyway, Dallas Turner, he's going to get a bigger chance for next year. They've got edge players. They've got some

intriguing guys that I'm going to be watching in training camp next year. Gabe Murphy, Bo Richter. I'm going to, I'm going to probably keep saying, don't sleep on Bo Richter. I'm going to be watching in training camp next year. Gabe Murphy, Bo Richter. I'm going to, I'm going to probably keep saying, don't sleep on Bo Richter. I'm going to be saying that this off season, like he's an intriguing guy. He's a really good athlete and he was great on special teams last year. So they've got some dudes at that position and on the offensive side, they've got two tackles. I don't know if Christian Darasol will be ready week one, but I would guess so after being hurt in the middle of the season. Usually the timeline for the ACL is not that bad. And then Brian O'Neill, who I know had a bad game against the Rams while he was dealing with an injury, but still one of the best tackles in the league. They have the edges already figured out. They're not going out

and trying to get the hardest positions to find that are the most expensive offensive tackle and edge rusher. Those are all set. They know they've got two of the best pairs of tackles and two of the best, well, two of the best pairs. So tackle and edge rusher are very good pairs for them to have probably in the top 10 of the league, if not top six or seven, as far as pairs of tackles and pairs of edge rushers. So that's the hardest part. And now in a off season where there's a lot of defensive tackles who are available, and there's a lot of guards who are available, they have to put their investment there over some of the other positions, which does lead us to another

part of the conversation here tonight. Now, if you have other thoughts about the Superbowl, feel free, but wow, just all week, there was no vibe to this thing. And it was so much worse than we ever thought. The only, the only thing The only thing that's good about it is there's no ref controversy, but there was nothing else good about this. It was just absolutely horrendous. And for the team to win, to be a team that Vikings fans don't like

is sort of a cherry on top for all of you guys in the crap sandwich that we all got served in this Super Bowl. And it wasn't even a fun lead up to the Super Bowl. Sometimes it's such an intriguing matchup or there's such a great storyline. Hey, this guy needs his Super Bowl before he retires or legacy's on the line for this guy.

I mean, the three-peat, okay, I guess, but it doesn't really change anything about Andy Reid or Patrick Mahomes. There was no buzz to this thing all week long. The most exciting thing that happened at radio row in the super bowl had to do with miles Garrett and nothing to do with this. So it was a really good season. It was a really compelling and fun and entertaining season.

And I'm working on an article, purple insider dot football, everybody I'm working on an article, purpleinsider.football, everybody. I'm working on an article about everything that we learned as far as the 2024 season and just going through it. So much change. There's so much intrigue and so many exciting performances and fascinating teams. And then we get to the end and it's this. And that's why it did remind me of 1994 for all of you who are old and probably was it 2013 that, uh, was the Peyton Manning one where it just went nowhere. He fumbled, I think on the first play of the game or something. Uh, as far as, as far as the halftime show, I will leave that

opinion to all of you guys. I am a big fan of Kendrick Lamar and plan to go to his show in Minneapolis. So I am probably a little biased on that, but I thought it was a strong end of the show and exciting at the end, maybe a slow start. But if you're not a fan of the genre, then you probably weren't into it. If you weren't following his beef with Drake, then you truly didn't know what was going on and you missed a lot of this stuff. So, but you know, everybody gets to have their opinion on the halftime show. That is not my area of expertise, but let's move on to something that caught my eye today, which was Adam Schefter's reporting on Sam Darnold. So Adam Schefter was going through the, uh, the different

discussions, uh, with quarterbacks. So he's talking about Russell Wilson. He was talking about Aaron Rogers. Oh, that's another thing. Aaron Rogers done in New York. And we can all make our jokes about Rogers becoming the Vikings quarterback, but I just, I don't really get the joke. Like, okay. Oh, far doesn't make any sense at all. Not even the slightest bit, but like, okay, I guess. But Rogers has done in New York. What a shame it was to see that fail. You know, I'm heartbroken about it. I know everybody, all Vikings fans and myself here, we're all, we're all had our hearts in New York with Aaron Rogers. And what a shock it was.

That's such a great leader and such a wonderful guy took down the organization from the inside, got everybody fired and then got thrown out the door. Who would have ever seen it coming anyway? So there's that that's not, has any, it doesn't have anything to do with the vikings and neither does russell wilson or justin fields though i'm kind of intrigued about where justin fields will land and if sam darnold's emergence will make someone believe that investing in justin fields might be a good idea and he wasn't terrible last year, actually for Pittsburgh. They might as well give that a shot if they're not going to go after someone like

Darnold. There still hasn't been anything about Kirk, although there was, I think, one rumor that he might end up with the Jets, which would be really funny because he used the Jets to jack up the price on the Vikings in 2018. He jacked up the price on his own team that he was going to and hurt their ability to do things in the future. Amazing, amazing business stuff from Kirk. But I guess New York would make some sense for him if he's still going to play.

And his teams are so desperate for quarterbacks that it feels like Rodgers and Kirk and Wilson are going to be playing. And they'll be bad. And their teams will regret it. And I don't know what the point is, but there's just not a lot of quarterbacks in the draft. I feel like I'd rather have Mac Jones and just, I don't know, not pay them or whatever. It doesn't matter. The update on Sam Darnold was Schefter said sort of quickly and softly, they might want to bring him back

the Vikings, but the team that's really interesting is the Las Vegas Raiders for Sam Darnold. And to hear that was sort of affirmation about my opinion about the Raiders, which has been that they make the most sense of any team for Sam Darnold, because the Raiders are bringing in experienced people. And by experienced, I mean really super old in Pete Carroll to lead them, but also experienced coaches. Tom Brady is part of that leadership group. And I don't think that the Raiders are the type of team who are going to bring in all these people. And they want so badly to be back in the playoffs, back into relevancy. It's been so long for the Raiders since anyone has had to think about them or talk about them or care about them. Oh, and also it seems like

Derek Carr might be available too. It's just a wild type of situation where it's a bunch of quarterbacks that nobody wants and that everybody overpaid over the last couple of years that are having serious regrets. It's very, it's very ironic. It's all these guys who were pretty good at a certain time and then all faded, but were expensive. And then their teams hated themselves for paying them big money. Atlanta, the saints, the Broncos, the jets, all just the, the all regret team. They should actually do in Hawaii, like an all regret team skills challenge with Derek Carr, Kirk cousins, Aaron Rogers, and Russell Wilson. And the winner gets to sign with whoever needs a quarterback. Anyway, so the point is that the Raiders make so much sense for the Vikings.

And Schefter reporting that really pinged with me because I thought, how much would the Raiders be willing to give up for Sam Darnold? And are the Vikings really considering a scenario where they would say no to the Raiders? So think about it this way. If the Vikings were to franchise tag Sam Darnold before the tag deadline, which is in early March. So they tagged Arnold and the Raiders call them and say, we'll give you a second and a 2026 third or fourth. I think the Vikings have to run to do that. They have to say yes. Like if they believe McCarthy is ready. And I've always thrown that there because that is a massive part of the discussion. And I've always been comfortable with the idea that he might not be, and that Kevin O'Connell might not think that

JJ McCarthy is ready. And if he doesn't, then they probably do have to bring back Sam Darnold, but let's just go down the road. If the Raiders are willing to give them a third and change a second and change, then you have to run to say, yes, especially because if you let Sam Darnold go, you're going to get a third round comp pick the same way they will for Kirk cousins, but you're not going to get it till 2026. And if you are talking to me about drafting a third round player in 2026. At what point does that player become good? 2028? Like you just can't think that far down the road. If they could get a second round pick for this year for Sam Darnold, then they would have a first, second, the comp pick third, and what, two fifths? And that's not terrible. That's not a terrible amount of draft capital.

You can trade down in the first, you can pick up some more, and then you feel like you've had a real draft as opposed to what it looks like right now, which is almost comical. It's like where all the picks go. Guys, if you watch the show all the time, you know that I'm a hat guy, but if you're wearing hats to cover up for your hair loss, then I've got something that can help you. It's called HIMS. If you've lost your hair, that doesn't mean you can't find it again. Try HIMS Hair Loss Solutions and you'll be joining hundreds of thousands of subscribers

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treatment options. Him.com slash purple insider results vary based on studies of topical and oral minoxidil and finasteride prescription products require an online consultation with a healthcare provider who will determine if a prescription is appropriate. Restrictions apply. See the website for full details and important safety information. We'll see how it plays out. I mean, the off season that starts now, officially, we've been in off season mode for a couple of weeks, but it really starts now. The decisions the Vikings are going to have to make. And I suggest going over to purpleinsider.football. But as far as Matt says, what comes next?

What comes next is probably a Kweisi Adafo-Menta extension, which we're still waiting on. And I have said, and will continue to say that I'm not thinking about it too much as far as, well, it might not happen or whatever until we get to the NFL combine. If Kweisi Adafomenta does not have a contract extension by the combine, then I'm going to think it's a little bizarre because it's already been what? I mean, almost a month, three weeks, has been three weeks since Kevin O'Connell signed his extension. I think probably three weeks and we still kind of have nothing, even though Schefter reported that they were negotiating. So it's not, it's not raising red flags for me. Negotiations take time.

People go on vacations. Hey, we don't have it done. We'll address it when we come back or something. But if they get to the point where everybody's in the same building, uh, and they're not getting it done, then it becomes a little bit curious. So I think that's the next thing to keep an eye out for. And then after that, uh, which probably should be an article for me, which is who's coming back because they can start negotiating with players. It's more likely to happen when we get closer to the combine or at the combine, but they can start negotiating anytime they want with their free agents. And it would, they want to bring back Bynum.

Would they want to bring back Byron Murphy? Who's coming back is also a big question. Aaron Jones is another big question. So, uh, you know, I, I mean, I think that we'll keep an eye on those things that more likely happen when we get to the combine, but that's kind of a next step. Um, Steven, do I have concerns about Dallas Turner? I mean, it's like levels of concern. I mean, certainly yes. After the first season where he does not put on the type of performance that I expected. But when we talk about, uh, concerns, it's well, I need to see his full off season. And then another year, because there are so many young players who come into the league. They're

not physically ready. He was one of the youngest players in the league this year. And then they take a big step for the next season. And all of a sudden you're sort of off and running, right? That's what I expect from Dallas Turner to get into NFL shape, to grow, to develop, to take all the things that he learned from this year and be better next year. And to step into Patrick Jones's type of role and play 40, 50 snaps a game, uh, mixing in rotating, actually give Andrew Van Ginkle a rest. Sometimes give Jonathan Grenard arrest sometimes. But it's a little awkward when you have two players that are so great at the same position that he plays in. They couldn't just let him go, you know, rep after rep after rep.

He kind of had to slide in. Brian says Bynum's too expensive for mediocre play. I don't agree with mediocre. I think he's been an above average safety for two years and he's also played over a thousand snaps. So, you know, I think he's good and a guy that I would want to resign, but I don't think that he's worth one of the top dollar figures at that position, that that would just be too difficult. And if other teams want to come in and overpay him, then unfortunately you'd probably have to move on. There's also a

lot of other safety options aside from combine them. And that has to be considered as well, that there's five, six, seven other free agents that are, that are there, um, that they could potentially go after, uh, as far as, um, you guys, as far as your trolling, I mean, I think that, uh, I use the, uh, the term trolling fairly loosely, but it really is sometimes frustrating to slam my head up against the same wall when we're talking about this and look, it's gone that way for a lot of things over the years. I mean, the Justin Jefferson trade stuff was really ridiculous last year, but every single time that I talked about it, um, it would be like a hundred people saying, no, we should trade them for draft picks.

I'm like, no, you shouldn't. So anyway, that's sort of the nature of the business. We have to talk about the same thing a lot until we get answers. Uh, as Flores back? Yeah, Flores will be back. Yep. And Bat, I know you're saying that Sam Darnold at $40 million versus $10 million is a difference, but my whole point in laying it out is that if they're going to bring Darnold back because

they don't think JJ is ready right away, that what they would try to do is sign him to a contract that would allow them to not have a $40 million cap hit for this year. It's a key part of it. It's there's a checklist that they have to go through. If they are going to do something like bringing back Darnold on a short-term deal. Like they have to be sure that they could trade him. If they felt great about where JJ was, they would have to be sure that his cap hit would still allow him to get these defensive tackles and guards were obsessing over.

Like these are, these are must haves. These are absolute musts to bring him back. And when it's still being said out there by Pellicero, by Schefter, by Fowler, there's still the insiders are leaving that door open. I can't shut the door on it when that's what's happening. And so I'm laying it out to you guys of all the different ways that this could end up playing out and how it could actually work. If the Vikings put the franchise tag on them, it's going to be very hard to fill out the roster

the way that they need to do it to actually compete. It will be, I tried it. It's going to be hard and you can restructure and you can extend and you can do a lot of stuff. And it does come back to the drafting where they haven't got these guys on these super cheap contracts that you could just throw somebody in there that's expensive. So it would need to be able to where they could still follow the general path and then plan to move on from Darnold the next season. So yeah, somebody points out that Dak is making 60. Well, that's the thing, right? He's not really making 60 because nobody's really making a quarterback on the salary cap, what their average annual value says, which is part of the discussion. Did Trey Smith's stock drop tonight? No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I think that Trey Smith, if he hits the market, will still

demand over $20 million. And I am not for that. I think he's the best free agent. He's a phenomenal player. But if you put all of your eggs in the one basket of a guard and you try to patchwork the other positions, you're still going to have the same problem of defenses attacking the other spots. It was so clear that teams were attacking cam Robinson and Blake Brandel because they hadn't played together and Brandel's a backup and that's the caliber of player he is. It's not an insult. It's just a reality. They gave him a chance to play as a starter and it didn't work out. And so teams just attack that over and over again. And they had a lot of success doing so.

If you bring in Trey Smith at $20 million and you saw the Eagles do that tonight, they had matchups where it didn't even matter what Trey Smith was doing, that they had matchups that they were going to win. So I've always kind of leaned toward, I'd rather see them get two or three guys as opposed to just one. As far as tagging a Darnold, unless they have a trade in place. Well, yeah, that's what the combine is for. The combine is for having those discussions and trying to find out is a team really interested? Is the Raiders really interested? I mean, I think Adam Schefter putting it out there is no mistake. I mean, if the Vikings didn't already know, then they certainly know after Schefter reported it,

that they're interested. Are you going to tag them? Are you going to trade them to us? I mean, it's, it's out there now, if it wasn't already clear before. So they'll have those discussions and they will leave the combine. I guarantee it. They will leave the combine knowing exactly what they can get for Sam Darnold in a trade and how many teams would be interested and what would have to happen and what their potential return would be. I don't like the option of just the franchise tag and then try to ruin the cap into the future. It's possible, but it's not good. So there's really only a couple paths that this can go. It's tag him and trade him,

or it's sign a short-term contract that he's okay with potentially being traded after next season. That's, that's really it. And, you know, you guys are not wrong in making the comparison from Jeff George to Dante, Dante call pepper. And I'm sure that at that time, there were a lot of people who were hesitant about throwing Dante call pepper into the mix. Jeff George had just had a really good year. I mean, that's, it's certainly a reasonable thing. And that's the other thing is there's a lot of reasonable reasons to move on from Sam Darnold and onto JJ McCarthy.

But when it comes to, um, when it comes to the, the, the potential of Darnold coming back until, until he's gone, it's still on the table, which means that I think we need to talk about how that could potentially happen and what it

would look like and what they'd have to do. And I mean, right now I'm staying with where I was. I still think it's 60, 40 that JJ McCarthy is starting next season. I'm not moving that after Schefter reported it, but maybe it brings it more into light. Like here's a very clear team that could be making a significant offer for Sam Darnold. So we'll see. Let me just put a bow on the evening. Thank you all for tuning in, watching and listening. I appreciate it.

It's been largely an enjoyable discussion, but I'm still so disappointed by the super bowl. I mean, you know, I, if I'm not covering the Vikings in the super bowl, I would very much prefer to, I made fajitas tonight. I got, you know, the steak and I cooked it all up and had my big superbowl meal. I'm all ready to go. Got some Pringles course diet, Dr. Pepper's in the mix. And I'm all like super pumped, like everybody else to watch the game. I don't know. What point did you guys know it was over? Cause to me, it was like the first three drives, like, Oh boy, they're not going to be able to stop the Eagles and they're not going to be able to move the ball. And then it just got worse and worse and worse and worse. And there were no real upside to

anybody who's not an Eagles fan. So it was, uh, it was pretty disappointing. One of the most disappointing nights of football that I can remember. I mean, there's been bad Superbowls, but this was just, it goes up there in the annals of the all time. At very least, we don't have to talk about the refs again until another team wins a lot of games and then people think that it's rigged for them. So anyhow, yeah, the pick, the pick six, the second interception, it was just, it was just over so fast, so disappointing. And, uh, I feel bad that that's the last taste of football we get for a really long time,

but there's a lot of great, uh, and interesting things to talk about going forward. So the show never stops. The discussion never stops. The guests never stopped. I got a new intern to introduce to you guys tomorrow night. We're going to have a round table. And then at the end of that, we'll introduce our new intern. He's going to be writing for purple insider.football. So I'm excited to bring on another intern and sort of show them the way. Had a lot of success with that in the past.

So there's a lot to look forward to. We got free agency. I'm starting the draft prep. There's combine. I'll be going as always right around the corner. so there's a lot to look forward to we got free agency i'm starting the draft prep there's combine i'll be going as always right around the corner owners meetings all those things so it's uh it's gonna be pretty good but we'll have a lot to talk about and we'll have fun into the future so thanks everybody for taking the time to watch and listen and tomorrow night round table with myself, Manny Hill and Brian Murphy to kind of break down what we saw and really, really truly preview the big decisions

for the Minnesota Vikings going forward. So thanks so much everybody. And sorry, it wasn't better. And, uh, we'll talk to y'all later. Football.