Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Thanksgiving football recap and... Tom Brady???

Episode Date: November 24, 2023

Matthew Coller talks about a rumor that took him by surprise about Tom Brady and what the Packers' win means to the Vikings' stronghold on the 7th spot in the playoffs. Plus the Detroit Lions clear weaknesses and the NFC's top 3 are now solidified. Plus Josh Dobbs' future -- is he Geno or is he Brock? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. And this is the Thanksgiving Day recap episode. And I am sorry that the Thanksgiving football was not what any of us wanted it to be. That's for sure. When I looked at the schedule for Thanksgiving Day, I thought, okay, all right. We got some games that should be interesting. Packers-Lions later in the day. We'll see what happens with the Seahawks and Geno Smith. And it was a mess.

Everything was bad. But that doesn't mean we have nothing to talk about. So I've got some takeaways from Thanksgiving Day. Also, some questions from my Friday mailbag. If you haven't checked out the newsletter, the Purple Insider newsletter, in which I send out every article that I write from TCO Performance Center

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football loving fan in your life. All right. I want to begin in a weird place that actually has nothing to do with Thanksgiving football, but instead Tom Brady. Yes, Tom Brady. So with Thanksgiving going on and the games and John Madden tributes that were awesome and all sorts of Jack Harlow and Dolly Parton and things are happening, right? There was a story that got left behind a little bit. From 98.5, the sports hub in Boston, Scott Zolak, former NFL quarterback, said on the air, and this was picked up by NBC in Boston, but I didn't see it almost anywhere else, said on the air that the Vikings reached out to Tom Brady about potentially coming back out of retirement to become their quarterback.

Now, the Vikings have not said anything about this. They haven't confirmed it. Kevin O'Connell did make several jokes about things we wouldn't believe that ended up on his cell phone after Kirk Cousins got hurt. And we were all thinking it, right? This was Tom Brady? Now, I would have expected Tom Brady would have asked the Vikings rather than the other way around, but it seems Tom Brady officially, fully, completely, and entirely retired.

If he wasn't willing to come out of retirement to join this team with Jefferson coming back, Addison, a good offensive line, and Kevin O'Connell, then, yeah, he's never coming back. Also a good offensive line and Kevin O'Connell then yeah he's never coming back also he's like almost 50 which kind of makes sense that he would be done playing football the fact that the Vikings reached out though opens up the imagination to all of the things that could have potentially happened whether it was Brady coming here and leading the Vikings to the NFC championship which can be the only option right based on Vikings history or I guess it could have been Farvian in 2010 where it ended up just being pretty sad but it would have been exciting not to

say that Dobbs mania has not been really interesting to watch the way that it's played out the last couple of weeks. And if we're being honest here, this is more of an ideal situation with Josh Dobbs because a he's probably better at playing quarterback than a mostly retired Tom Brady, who would have to come out of retirement and then attempt to play football again. And look, Brady didn't play all that well for the Tampa Bay Bucks last year after he skipped most of their offseason program, barely got them into the playoffs. I don't think it would have been a very good idea. It might actually not even be safe for Tom Brady to play football at this point in his life. And considering that he had not played all season long still though Tom Brady like imagine the Tom Brady it just said you know what guys yeah I'll do it let's go I've been throwing through a tire in my backyard I'll come and play and look the lore of this franchise is built upon

quarterbacks just showing up who you never expected to be here. Go back to the 60s, Joe Cap from the CFL, and the guy leads them to the Super Bowl, or whether it's the 80s, and we didn't necessarily expect Wade Wilson to take them to the NFC Championship. He didn't even start the first playoff game in 1987. Randall Cunningham was an all-time great quarterback who had retired before he came back in 1997 and then in 1998 has one of the best offenses of all time. Jeff George showed up here. Case Keenum. It's happened a lot.

And that's not even to mention the whole Favre thing, which no one would have ever dreamed in a million years would have happened. It would have fallen right into that same category of, look, I guess time is a flat circle. If you're a legendary quarterback, there's a decent chance you end up playing for the Minnesota Vikings. But instead, this one ultimately falls in the category, just like of Dan Marino. And Dan Marino talked about potentially signing with the Vikings. Gosh, I didn't even mention Warren Moon. Warren Moon was here. Warren Moon, an Oilers legend, ends up coming here and apparently showed up in that documentary

about Barry Sanders that the Lions wanted Warren Moon. Maybe they would have gone deep into the playoffs had they gotten him. But Marino talked about coming here to Minnesota did not Tom Brady at least it was a discussion you have to if this actually happened I want to say that again because it's Scott Zolak just saying it maybe you heard it from somebody this could be a telephone game I don't want to act like I'm reporting it I'm just saying that this came out and nobody talked about it at all. And I was like, wait a minute. The Vikings tried to bring in Tom Brady, but neither here nor there, since he does not

end up becoming the Vikings quarterback. But I guess you could, as oftentimes happens with the Vikings, just imagine what it would have been like. Probably bad, but maybe not. I don't know. there you go there's your Tom Brady report that I never expected to talk about let's get into the Thanksgiving stuff though Jordan Love and the Packers defense both look different in fact the whole team actually looks different the receivers are catching the ball Love is throwing the ball on time. Their defense pressured the heck out of the Detroit lions. And also the Detroit lions got

a problem. It's called their defense. And they have stuck with the same defensive coordinator for a long time now and Aaron Glenn. And I am starting to believe more and more as we watch Brian Flores do what he's done, that the defensive coordinator position is maybe more valuable than I gave it credit for. See, my logic had been that the Vikings defense was great when they had great players, but then once those players left,

then they weren't the same under Zimmer. And this is not to say Flores is better than Zimmer, but maybe it was so extreme with how much the defense struggled to cover anybody in 2020 and 2021 that maybe there was nothing that Mike Zimmer could have done that could also be the problem with the Lions but they have stacked up a lot of talent on the defensive side and yet could not pressure Jordan Love could not cover the Packers wide receivers, allowed them to have open guys all day long, deep passes, stuff. And Packers wanted to do, they were able to do against the Detroit Lions. That was not something that I expected, though recently we have seen a different version of Jordan Love.

Really, since the breaking point of the Vikings beating the Packers at Lambeau Field seems to be the turning point for Love and the Packers. I mean, on both sides of the ball, but their defense has looked totally different. And after I walked out of Lambeau Field, I thought, I don't know how long Joe Barry is going to last, but in, I guess it sort of reminds me of Justin Fields in a way that the minute you decide it's over with him, then he has a run where he convinces you that maybe he is a good defensive coordinator. I don't know, but their front, it was really excellent against Detroit and Detroit, I guess, dealing with some injuries on the offensive line. It showed Jared Goff continues to be one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL.

And I looked up these stats. One of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL for five or six years running when he is pressured. And I mean, the guy like accelerates like a giraffe where it just you see things moving, but he's not going anywhere. And then he just throws the ball on the ground or throws the ball the other team or fumbles the ball on the ground or throws the ball the other team or fumbles the ball. And the Packers were able to put a lot of pressure on golf and cause some major, major problems for Detroit. I don't think that this game is reason to say that the Detroit Lions are frauds, that they're going to fall apart, that the division isn't theirs. Look at their upcoming schedule. Two games against the Vikings. We'll see what happens there. But their upcoming schedule, it leaves the door open for them to have a just fine ending to this season. But I think if you're evaluating it through the lens of are they an elite NFC team,

the answer is probably that they're a notch down from those other teams. That is not to take credit away from the Packers, who look like a totally different franchise over the last few weeks since we saw them play against the Minnesota Vikings. And now, as we look forward at the schedule, remember when we were talking about last week, how it's kind of how you're playing, not what the bigger sample says about your team. And we were talking about the Denver Broncos. Well, that might end up being true for the Green Bay Packers with the Vikings go down the stretch and have to play them again with the Packers coming to us bank stadium,

but also the battle for the wildcard spot. And it seems like now Seattle could fall apart here because Seattle's in trouble geno smith is hurt it's not going all that good in seattle their loss to the rams was pretty ugly so we shouldn't declare seattle's all set in their playoff spot either they're six and five just like the vikings are six and five if we assume that seattle is going to be in this mix it kind of comes down to Vikings and Packers, unless you think the Tampa Bay Buccaneers can get back in it, which if you, again, look at their schedule, not impossible.

This is why when we look at the Vikings' playoff odds, some places have them at more of 65-70% rather than 80-90%, which they would have been had they beaten the Denver Broncos, because here come the Packers and the Packers are another team that schedule is not that impressive down the stretch and could battle for this spot. As I record this podcast, the Packers are one game behind the Vikings. Now, of course, the Vikings play on Monday night. They can extend that. They won the Monday night. They can extend that.

They won the first battle. They can extend it that way by winning the second battle. But at one point, just not too long ago, it looked like who's going to catch the Vikings. I mean, they're just, there's nobody else that's even trying to compete with them. And the Packers are all of a sudden here. Now, of course, I follow a lot of Green Bay Packers, reporters, content creators, writers, and you wouldn't be surprised that there is a lot of declaring that Jordan Love is on the Aaron Rodgers path. And I even saw the stats from the first 11 starts tweeted out between Jordan Love and Aaron Rodgers, and they're pretty close, and they both

went five and six or something, no matter that it was more than 10 years ago and the NFL has changed quite a bit. But that's not the point, is that Jordan Love was throwing on time to his receivers. The first touchdown drive, okay, throws a bomb. Anybody can kind of heave it up and have your receiver catch it but also throws a rocket slant route that turns into a touchdown he just looked like he was making smart decisions protecting the ball and it's always so hard to figure out is this development from Jordan Love or is it a Lions defense is not very good and he just felt very comfortable that particular week and they had a good game plan. But you can certainly say over now a little bit of a stretch, Jordan Love has looked much more like a starting quarterback

than he looked like against the Vikings. He'll still have to face Brian Flores' defense. It's not going to be easy when he goes up against the Vikings' defense. We saw the confusion for Jordan Love when he played against the Vikings, but it's not just them. It's also how he plays against these other teams, and can they continue on a winning streak? And on their defensive side, their defensive front,

Rashawn Gary had an amazing game. They're playing good football at this moment, and at least it looks like right now it will be much more of a neck and neck race down the stretch than I would have thought two weeks ago. And that's that's a big thing with the Vikings losing to Denver and the Packers getting this win. They gain a lot of space here in that race. OK, next takeaway from Thanksgiving. Should the Vikings be worried about the Packers catching them? I wrote down the Vikings should be worried about the Packers catching them in my notes.

I think the answer is yes. And I will call this up right here, the Packers schedule going forward. This might be the biggest thing. Not just whether Jordan Love is improving. That's important, but you know, it can come down to when it's a one game race, who you're playing. They play Kansas city on Sunday night football at Lambeau. Now Kansas city is more vulnerable than ever, but that's going to be a hard game for green Bay. After that though, the New York giants, Tampa Bay bucks, Carolina Panthers, Vikings, and then the Chicago Bears on the final week of the season.

And who knows? And the Chicago Bears could be trying to go for draft status again like they did last year. one game of a team that's above 500 that you'd be concerned about and probably two straight up gimmies with the New York Giants, assuming that, you know, Tommy DeVito isn't going to light them up like he did Washington last week. But you and the New York Giants and the Carolina Panthers, I mean, those are as easy of games as you can get on your schedule at this time of year. So you can write in some W's for the Packers there and then playing Chicago at the end of the year. If they're playing Chicago and the Vikings are playing Detroit

on the final week of the season, that is a very different set of matchups that we're talking about potentially as it goes down to the wire. Again, I just didn't think that this would happen, but here we are with the potential for that to be the case. So should the Vikings be worried about the Packers catching them? I think the answer is very much yes. It was posed to me the question of,

now should the Lions be worried about the Vikings catching them? And this is where it's hard to say, right? Because we only have a couple of week sample size of what the offense looks like with Dobbs. Could the Vikings get hot? They sure could because they play Chicago. They play Vegas. We talk about these other schedules. The Vikings are in a control your own destiny situation where if they continue to win the games they're supposed to win, they will be fine because of the cushion that they built themselves.

If not, the Packers have a schedule that I just read off there that opens the door for them to win enough games to be right there neck and neck. If the Vikings do not take care of the Bears, if they don't show up in Vegas, if they lose both to the Detroit Lions, this is going to be a race. I think this is going to be a race where, this is going to be a race. I think this is going to be a race. Where it's not going to be a race is, for my opinion, of the top three teams in the National Football Conference. After today, who can argue this?

The Cowboys, 49ers, and Eagles, not necessarily in that order, are the best teams in the NFC. Huge gap, everybody else. And when I tweeted this out, of course, you can guess what I got. Number one is, but the Vikings beat the 49ers. I get that. I get that middle of the season game without Trent Williams or Debo Samuel. And oh, by the way, Kirk cousins was the quarterback. So yeah. All right. I'm not going to say, and they added chase young since that happened. That's kind of a big deal. That defense, that defensive line is freakish and offensively when they're completely healthy, very, very difficult to stop 49ers have everything it takes to go to the super bowl. You don't really need to make a case for the

Eagles. They were there last year. They don't look less strong this year. There hasn't been a lot of regression. The Cowboys is the one that people will debate. Well, who have they really beat? Who have they really beat? Fair enough. Fair enough.

But let's look at the roster across the board. And they aren't just beating bad teams. They're demolishing bad teams. They're taking them completely out. They have a tremendously talented defense, one of the best defensive lines, one of the best offensive lines. They're running the ball effectively. Dak Prescott is playing great. Brandon Cooks is contributing. C.D. Lamb is elevating himself. They're getting other players involved in their passing game. The Cowboys belong right there in that same discussion as those two other teams.

And then there's a big gap. And we're just talking roster strength. They all have effective quarterbacks, great defensive lines. And on this day, though it made for boring football, they're smacking people around. And I don't know how we could put the Vikings in that category without Kirk Cousins. I don't think we would have been able to anyway when you go roster for roster and the star talent that you see on those teams.

And the Vikings have some work to do to get to that position. Now, could they pull off a playoff win? Of course. Turnovers exist. Randomness exists. a playoff win? Of course, you turnovers exist. Randomness exists. Injuries exist, of course. And, you know, there's another question someone posed to me about, and maybe we'll get to this later, actually about making the playoffs, whether that's a good thing, always, always a good thing. But these three teams, it would be at this point stunning if they are not one of the teams that is representing the

NFC in the Super Bowl. We are seeing them break away from the pack, and there was more evidence of that today. Folks, I hope you've enjoyed listening to us talk about prize picks this year, but if you've missed it, here's how it works. You go to prizepicks.com, and it is simple. You pick either more or less between two and six players stat projections and that's it now you're playing so if it's x number of yards for a quarterback you just decide are they going to throw for more or less than that number of yards but it works with lots of different options receiving yards touchdowns even field goals all sorts of sports as well. PrizePix.com slash purple. Go there.

Use the code purple for the first deposit match up to $100. One of the reasons I like PrizePix, it is very simple to use. You'd see how we do it on the show real quick and easy. And then we talk about our picks and also not expensive either. You can turn $10 into $250 by nailing just a couple of picks so go to prizepicks.com slash purple the code purple daily fantasy sports made easy two more takeaways from thanksgiving day is geno smith or brock purdy more comparable to j Dobbs, Brock Purdy, Mr. Irrelevant. And nothing that he did against, you know, the Seattle Seahawks was particularly special.

He made some good throws, had open wide receivers. He's a bit of a playmaker. You see him using his legs and he was able to get the ball to all these great wide receivers and Christian McCaffrey stepping up great player and Brock Purdy's just running running the operation and they're winning and they're putting up huge point totals on the other side Geno Smith had a great run to start last season and the Seattle Seahawks got to the playoffs and then got pummeled by the San Francisco 49ers, which may or may not end up being the Vikings' fate. What's happened to Geno Smith since is that he's very much come back to earth.

And that doesn't mean he's been bad. He's still been an above-average quarterback, particularly in a year that has had a lot of bad quarterback play, a lot of backups. You take Geno Smith over a lot of quarterbacks. It has not been the same as last year. And they added Jackson Smith Najigba, who made an incredible catch down the sideline, but their offensive line is struggling. He's not getting as much time to

throw. They're not getting the ball to DK Metcalf as much. Tyler Lockett's not getting it as much. And they are a middling offense with Geno Smith, even though they have elite weapons, in my opinion. Which one of those ways would Josh Dobbs go if the Vikings gave him a larger sample size? Would it be the way of Purdy, where he's able to get the ball to those playmakers? And maybe the difference is the offensive coordinator.

I don't know about that, though. I know Geno Smith was playing banged up. He just doesn't look as sharp or effective as last year. And sometimes a guy gets on a heater and just plays really, really well for a short period of time and then regresses back to the mean. It happens in all sports all the time. Is that what's going on here? And I don't know the answer but I was thinking about

that watching the two quarterbacks because if Josh Dobbs could be Brock Purdy then you've got yourself a pretty good situation if he's Geno Smith would we take that I don't know if we would take that I mean you might take it as a bridge quarterback, but would you take it for any longer than that? That I'm not sure. And is there going to be regression after him playing well? That I'm not sure either, because both of those quarterbacks are talented, but both of them were backups for quite a long time before getting their opportunity. I don't know the answer, but it's something to think about which one of those Dobbs could be. I would probably lean toward Gino Smith more so, but situation's a big deal. And this is where we probably need to see him in a bigger sample size with Justin Jefferson, because that's the level of talent that Brock Purdy is working with. And then the offensive mind of Kevin O'Connell,

not quite on that level of Kyle Shanahan, but pretty good. Pretty good at getting wide receivers open. All right. Last thought from Thanksgiving is. Did anybody else see the moon thing? I'm not. I mean, there was a thing about the moon cycle and how every time the Lions have played with the moon cycle, they've lost. So that was weird. It's like one of those things that pops up and then they lost again so i guess the moon cycles aren't just for josh dobbs but are

also harming the detroit lines that's not actually the takeaway but that was very strange that that popped up and then they played horribly uh defensive lines if we're looking for and we do this every year hey what do the best teams do? Well, funny enough, the best teams didn't always have to draft their quarterback in the first round. You know, Dak Prescott was not taking the first round. Neither was Brock Purdy we just talked about. But what they all have is the best defensive lines. Actually, Jalen Hurts, too, second round draft pick. They have the best defensive lines. Actually, Jalen Hurts, too. Second round draft pick. They have the best defensive lines.

Freakish, scary, terrifying, ripping the opposing quarterbacks head off and beating them with it type of defensive lines. That's what we see from the elite defensive teams, the elite overall teams in the NFC especially. And as the Vikings, they should be very happy with how much they've gotten out of the players that they have. Harrison Phillips, in my mind, has been maybe, I mean, Hunter's the MVP of the defense, but next down on the list might be Harrison Phillips. He has just battled. And Jonathan Bullard's done a great job.

DJ Wanham has stepped up. This is not anywhere close to sending out Nick Bosa. Chase Young is rushing over a guard. What is going on? Right. To sending out Hassan Reddick, Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter. Like the talent is so wild. Marcus or Micah Parsons. I mean, my gosh, that the Vikings can't truly, in my mind, be a team that competes for a Super Bowl as they go along, continuing to rebuild this roster until they can have a defensive line like this. And as they discuss whether they should bring back to Neil Hunter, that might be a part of the conversation as well as you need a centerpiece to

build around. You can't let him go and then have nothing because the Vikings have blitzed like crazy. And if you look at the amount of pressure they've actually created, their pressure percentage, it's not that great. It's pretty mediocre, but they've had to do something just to find a way to get any pressure whatsoever. That's the route. That's the next big step. They've got the offensive weapons in place. We'll see what happens with the quarterback. The next big step, the defensive line, even the secondary actually looks pretty solid going forward. Makai Blackman, tough week last week, but has had a good season. Caleb Evans, the safety situation is in very good hands.

So the D-line, that's got to improve. The other thing I want to bring up is I like a lot of things about Sam Howell and the way he plays football. That game got completely out of hand, but his coach punted two times on fourth and one, fourth and two in Dallas territory early in that game as Howell was playing effectively and moving the football. If he stops getting sacked as much as he's getting sacked, which may be a product of him,

may be a product of the offense, I don't know. But when the shackles of Ron Rivera are removed, I think Sam Howell might be able to be an NFL quarterback. It's not the hottest take I've ever had. But as I'm watching that game, I'm thinking this franchise in Washington is in a tough spot, but they should try this. They should go forward with this. So there is your Thanksgiving day takeaways. I wish I had more to break down about the games, more hardcore in-depth football, but they were not good games. So it is what it is.

Now I'm going to try to rapid fire through a bunch of questions. I have a lot of great questions from Vikings fans here. So I'll try to keep my answers brief. I know I really struggle with that, but I'll give it my best shot. So let me start out from at CJ McCauley on Twitter pie chart for Justin Jefferson is playing, but it's gamesmanship from the coaching staff and what they've said publicly be Jefferson isn't playing, but it's gamesmanship from the coaching staff and what they've said publicly.

B, Jefferson isn't playing, but also gamesmanship. Or C, Kevin O'Connell and Justin Jefferson are genuinely undecided. I'm going to split this one up because I really don't know. They have played this extremely close to the vest. You don't even see any of the NFL insiders putting out, oh, I'm hearing this, I'm hearing that. And I think that that has been a priority of Justin Jefferson's to not have his agency leaking things out or the team leaking things out. I don't get the sense, just based on what we saw from the contract negotiations,

that he really likes his business being put out there all the time. And so we don't have that. track negotiations that he really likes his business being put out there all the time. And so we don't have that. And we also don't have any more hints other than to have Kevin O'Connell saying, yep, we're ramping them up. We got more stuff coming today. Yep. We're going to, you know, which totally fine. I have no beef with that whatsoever. Why would you tell the Chicago Bears whether Justin Jefferson's going to play? But from my perspective of having to fill out this very difficult pie chart well i don't really know how to do it so i'm going to say 30 percent that justin jefferson is playing and it's gamesmanship to kind of you know sandbag a little 40 percent that he is not playing and they want to give him that extra break and another 30 percent that adds

up right to say that uh they don't know yet because we're still a couple of days away from the game and it might be a day-by-day thing of having him do full-on practices which i think friday this week will be the hardest practice of the week. So they might depend on just how he practices and how much he's able to go 100% without feeling any of the effects afterward. It's Monday night football. It's a really big game for them now. I mean, this is not one that you can lose with the Packers suddenly nipping at their heels. I wouldn't be surprised if Jefferson wants to take it up to that last minute to see if he can play. So I genuinely undecided is very possible.

But also there's a really good argument for, look, you have this bye week here. Play this game, beat the Bears, take the bye week, come back against Vegas and just go all in for the rest of the season with Jefferson. Let him get to whatever is beyond a hundred percent, you know, like more than healthy abundance of caution. Abundance of caution is okay in this situation, because even if you lose the Chicago, it's not like you're eliminated from the playoffs. You don't just need Justin Jefferson for today. You need Justin Jefferson for a really long time. It is better to be safe.

Still, if he's ready to go, then he's ready to go. But I honestly could not tell you which it's going to be. If he comes back, it will certainly be fascinating to watch how he integrates himself back into an offense that's operated pretty well, he has not been here. Bradley asks, how much of the playbook do you think they have in play for Josh Dobbs? I think that it's anything that they need at this point. Now, what Kevin O'Connell talked about was details. So he gave great examples on what day was that? Wednesday? Wednesday. When we talked to O'Connell he was talking about how in the previous offense for Dobbs there were times where a certain route might go to 18 yards

but here it's 15 yards and this is the level of detail in the NFL and this is why it's so hard to go from college to the NFL is so Dobbs has different footwork for an 18 yard route that might involve a little bit more time that's needed to throw it. Then he does a 14 or 15 yard route where you just let it go as opposed to taking a hitch or a step up in the pocket or whatever it might take. So those details are being hashed out on a weekly basis, but the way that game planning works, and I actually had the Vikings quarterbacks coach, Chris O'Hara, take me through this for an article. Again, purpleinsider.com. You can go check that out, find that there.

But it was very fascinating to hear him talk about the process where they come up with this group of plays for first and second down, and then they give it to Dobbs. And then they practice it. And then they get another group of plays for third downs and then they give it to Dobbs, and then they practice it. And then they get another group of plays for third downs, and they give it to Dobbs, and then they practice it. And they go through red zone, pass protections, all those things that are involved. But he has to learn the plays for that week. He does not have to learn everything that they've ever installed.

And as they go week to week, it's what is he comfortable with? What is working for him more? And what are some of the base concepts and ideas that they can put in? I think at this point, you're getting closer to him fully having control of what he needs to do. And then you consider Josh Dobbs, who he is, how he's had to do this before. I mean, this might be the most comfortable the man has been in quite some time. So, no, it's not to the level of Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins could go teach this offense as an offensive coordinator for some other team. He's so fluent in it by this point.

It's not at that point. But I don't think that there's anything that is holding them back with what they can do for Josh Dobbs. Nurse in Time asks, is there an in-house replacement for Brian Flores if he leaves? Potentially. The guy that I would look to would be Durante Jones, who is their defensive backs coach, has done a terrific job with these DBs.

We've seen Josh Metellus develop. Cam Bynum has suddenly become a weekly playmaker for this team. The cornerbacks have done, I think, as well as we could have ever expected, if not better than what our expectation is. The Vikings, I saw this stat today, have allowed the least amount of explosive plays in the league. And that's wild. I mean, I never would have guessed that. Like, think about last year, how many explosive plays they allowed with, you know, I think arguably better players back there. But it's been, I think, a testament to the coaching staff. Brian Flores gets all the credit as he deserves a lot of it.

But Durante Jones is also playing a big role as well. And he's a guy that's been around. I mean, he has really climbed the ladder over a long period of time. There must be some synergy there with Brian Flores. So that's who I would say is probably at the top of that list, but I don't know. I mean, that's hard to say, would they go with the outside? Because think about with Flores, they went with someone that's so experienced, but also you would want to try to recreate that because this is the best version.

Even Kevin O'Connell, I was a tad surprised. He admitted that this has surpassed his expectations. He looked at the roster, did not think it was going to be this good on defense, and it is. It is this good on defense with Brian Flores. So that is hard to recreate. But Durante Jones, in my mind would be the guy whose name comes up and we'll see if they go outside and try to look for other

similar type of approaches, but the way that Flores finds roles for everybody, that one is going to be difficult to replace. And I don't know whether he's going to get a head coaching job or not, but he has certainly earned that opportunity with what we've seen, a massive difference maker on the defensive side. All right, next question comes from akary05, says, what's it going to take for Kevin O'Connell to give Chandler the Lions' share of touches on Monday night? I think you saw it, a fumble from Alexander Madison

and also Chandler showing that he could handle what they were putting on his plate. And I know, look, I'm in the camp of people who were like, just put him in, skim the ball. And then against the Saints, I saw him go the wrong way a couple times. I was like, well, or at least what looked like that. And okay, I kind of understand where they're coming from west phillips the offensive coordinator did a great job of explaining this he said look we have to trust the guy it's a big steep hill from college where it's just line up

in the gun hand you the football you run that way and if you run a 4-3-8, you can run a long way. But in the NFL, there are what he called tracks where you're being blocked to follow for Ty Chandler, who you're blocking in pass protection, which after looking back at the tape, he did a very good job at who he was supposed to block. Maybe not necessarily sticking the block every time, but who he was supposed to block looked right. And Wes Phillips said that it was. And then there's the other details as well, where you go for route running, when you go out, when you stay in, all those things matter. It looked like Ty Chandler had a lot of those things down. And if he does, there's just no contest here. There's no contest of which player gives them a better

chance to win in the backfield. Ty Chandler clearly hands down is much quicker, much more explosive. And what I was really impressed with too, is he's more patient than I would think. Sometimes for a guy who runs that fast, they just want to go. And there were times where he slowly followed the blocks until he found his spot. He's a natural runner and they could be better because of Ty Chandler. But I think that last week was the breaking point of not only Madison fumbled cost them the game essentially, but also Chandler proved himself in a lot of ways in that game. Next question comes from TFG Football. My friend Marcus Whitman, who I do a weekly podcast with, by the way, on his YouTube channel, That Franchise Guy.

Make sure you go check that out. Great, great, great channel. And a Minnesotan, by the way. So Marcus, who I will warn you is a Packers fan, said, on which week will the Vikings surrender the warn you is a Packers fan, said, on which week will the Vikings surrender the seventh seed to the Packers? That's funny. What it may come down to is two things.

I mean, the Vikings and Packers match up, for one. If the Vikings beat the Packers at home, then Green Bay is going to have a really tough time getting by them because that's the difference maker right there. That's the tiebreaker. Obviously right now the Vikings have it, but there's another game to play. And then who knows after that, the NFL has got 700 layers of tiebreakers. I don't know. I don't, who knows who would have the tiebreaker at that point, but that might be the game that it comes down to. If the Packers

win that game and end up with just as good or better of a record, that could happen. We are a long way from there and finding out what that matchup is going to mean when we arrive at that point. But if you had said that to me just two weeks ago, I would have probably said, or after the Saints win for the Vikings, I would have said, I mean, come on. There's no way that they're going to catch him. All of a sudden, well, they are right there in that conversation again. This one from at Sean Sorrow. If Dobbs continues to impress, what's the level of average annual salary that the Vikings will offer him?

Is he a 15 to 20 million a year guy? I think it's more than that because he's quarterback. And when you look at the quarterback, it was salaries around the league simply by being one, you get much more than that. And if there wasn't already proof of that statement, Daniel Jones, $40 million, that man messed up the market quite a bit when he got that contract from the New York Giants.

That isn't to say that Josh Dobbs would get that, but I was talking about Geno Smith earlier. What Geno Smith signed was a three-year $75 million deal with a $10 million cap hit for this year. And then it goes up to 31 and then to 33. But after the second year, the Seahawks can get out of it pretty easily with almost no dead money. If Josh Dobbs gets them to the playoffs, that sounds reasonable to me. To get him something very similar to Geno smith to say look you play great but there's still questions because it's a small sample size here is an unbelievable amount of actual cash that's also fair to you doesn't make you look silly with what you're getting versus the rest of the market but the true kind of mid-pack quarterback contract, there aren't many of them in the wild,'s really a two-year contract, even though it says three,

if they were to give Josh Dobbs that let's say he gets into the playoffs, they give him a three-year deal. That's more like two. And the first year allows for a low cap hit. That sounds, that sounds pretty good. And that sounds pretty good. That would not mean don't draft someone because that would be where they can't ignore that.

They can't just hope that Dobbs is going to continue to be really good as he has been so far. And I think we're seeing that from the Seattle Seahawks. There wasn't really anybody else the Seattle Seahawks should have drafted. So it's not like they made some big mistake, but with Gino Smith, they, by that contract, you could tell we're not all in on, this is our undisputed franchise quarterback forever. That's where the Vikings would land. But 15, 20, those numbers, those are backup numbers from now on. Those are no longer starter numbers in the league, just the facts of life of the quarterback position, uh, at Andrew D Bowers, I think is what it says there, uh, is worth, uh, is it worth sneaking into the playoffs with Dobbs

for short-term entertainment value, or is it just another brick in the middling good, never great wall of this franchise? I don't think that making the playoffs this year would be another brick in the middling, good, never great wall of this franchise. No, I don't think so. It's very different, actually, than barely making the playoffs even last year. Well, they didn't barely make the playoffs last year. But you know what I mean? Being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs last year

or being in the fight to the end and in the hunt graphic in 2021. Very different. And here's why. Because last offseason, they took the approach of a lot of rebuild-type moves. And when they did that, that changed the expectation of what is a success for the season, right? So a success was not all of a sudden, hey, it's NFC Championship or you failed. That was 2022 because you went out and got Z'Darri Smith. You went out and brought back Patrick Peterson.

You were all in on that season. You spent money. You kicked money down the road. You brought back Kirk. All those things. You were all in on that season. You spent money, you kicked money down the road, you brought back Kirk, all those things. You were all in on 2022. And when they get eliminated from the playoffs, the first round by the Giants, that's a failure. That is short of where the bar was. This year, making the playoffs, here's what we knew. If they were going to make the playoffs they would have to do it with what a lot of young players stepping up and i don't know how you can look at addison thriving ivan pace jr's a guy all of a sudden and cam bynum has improved josh mattella signed an extension

he's going to be here he's a weapon for The corners, the young cornerbacks who have played well and not given up those explosive plays and have fit well in this system, how could you look at that and say, well, that wasn't worth it? TJ Hawkinson has been great overall, overall sample. Great. Christian Derrissaw, another great year. Brian O'Neill comes back from his injury. Garrett Bradbury,

I think had a tough game against Denver, but overall Garrett Bradbury is a guy you're going to have for multiple years. These guys have all played well. And look, even Ed Ingram at right guard has improved significantly to be more of a middling player than he was last year, where it was just the floodgates were wide open for pass rushers. So you've established an offensive line, a young star weapon in Jordan Addison, players who are supposed to be good, who are young foundational pieces did not drop off. And then you have a foundation of a defense that you can add to. These are good things. And maybe even if they get to the playoffs, a quarterback who could be a bridge guy

or more hard to say, but a bridge guy at worst, if they make the playoffs and there's flexibility in that situation, how could we call that a failure? Because if they miss the playoffs, then it would have been, well, their first round receiver didn't play well. Nobody developed on defense. Somebody didn't underachieve that you're hoping for for the future. And now what? You would much prefer make the playoffs than fall a little short or even how many ever games short and have the foundation of your team be cracked because you draft a little bit higher. Look, I don't know what's going to happen in the draft. It's a long way from now. We'll worry about that when that comes up. Would it have been better overall if they won two games and drafted Drake May? Maybe. Yeah, probably. I mean, I don't know.

Depends on if the guy hits or not. But it works. It works. We know it works for rebuilding teams. To go to the bottom, stack it up. It does work, right? So you really only had two options. Option number one was that this team was good enough to make the playoffs

and a lot of young players emerged and played well. Option number two was that they didn't. And so if you're saying, would you rather win seven with players disappointing or win nine and make the playoffs with players emerging? I'm going to take the playoffs for that. So no, I don't think, I think this is a transition year into something better, potentially, potentially,

but at least on paper, that's how it looks, is transition year into something better and also a, hey hey who knows what can come next with josh dobbs i guess we'll find out uh next question from sleevy wonder 541 will dobbs be able to maximize justin jefferson's skill set not in the same way that kirk cousins can kirk cousins is one of the five most accurate quarterbacks in the NFL. And one of the things that he did brilliantly was throw deep corner outs to Jefferson, where let's say, you know, you're in the shotgun, you got two wide receivers, you have one guy run a hitch, and then it's called a slot fade.

You have Jefferson just go. And man, was Kirk Cousins good at dropping that ball in the bucket, just throwing up over the top, letting Jefferson run it underneath it. He was great at hitting him out of breaks, throwing with anticipation, giving him a chance to make plays. Kirk and Justin Jefferson had a pretty darn good connection. It's probably not going to be that. Dobbs just got here.

But also, Justin Jefferson can't be that hard to work with, right? I mean, when he's covered, he's open. But he's usually open anyway. And even if it's underneath, this is the thing with Jefferson. The criticism when he came out was he's a slot guy only. But he was the most dominant slot guy. Then he goes to outside. He's dominant right away there. Whatever they need him to do, he'll be great at. He runs those little short

outs. He's good at those. Runs over the middle slants. He's good at those. Yards after catch, good at that. There's nothing that Justin Jefferson's not good at. So whatever they need him to do, he should just be able to mold to do. Dobbs is not as accurate as Kirk. You should not ever expect that from Josh Dobbs, but can he be accurate enough to give him a chance? I think that he can. That's not a guarantee that it'll be the same, but it's, yeah, I think it's met. It really works the other way around. It's like Jefferson can maximize a quarterback skillset because nobody can really take him down unless they just throw it 10 yards over his head. Two more questions before we wrap up.

From Greg, what's the best use given for Anthony Barr in the current defensive structure by Brian Flores? Yeah, I think the key about Anthony Barr is that over his career, he was used in a lot of different ways himself. He blitzed up the middle. Sometimes he came off the edge. Sometimes he dropped back in coverage. Sometimes he went sideline to sideline.

And he's a highly intelligent player. One of the smarter football people you'll run into. You can use him any way, any how. If they want to blitz him off the edge, if they want to send him up the middle, if they want to drop him back in coverage, any way Brian Flores can dial up, then he's going to be able to use Anthony Barr. The only thing he probably can't do is play him like 50 snaps. That I would not suggest. Anthony Barr is over 30. He has not played in a long time. 15 to 20 snaps should kind of be that range as he continues to ramp up. But the other thing is, too, like this defensive structure, there really isn't one.

There isn't a structure that you can look at and go, oh, well, they play this 4-3 nickel, and this is this guy's role, and this is that guy's role, and they just go do it. Like we could with Zimmer. This is, you don't even know what you're looking at half the time until you see it develop post-snap. And that's very Belichickian. And, you know, I really, I mean, you talk about another guy that Anthony Barr would have been great with is probably Belichick in his prime. I had a lot of those types of players. We'll see how he's used, but I don't think he's going to have any problem finding things for Anthony Barr to do. Last question from Jeff. Why doesn't Kenny Wong

Wu get a chance at running back that I don't know? One is that he was injured for half the season. I think that they wanted him to get that chance and they wanted him and Chandler both to press for Alexander Madison's jobs, but Wong Wu missed most of training camp and Chandler didn't do enough in camp to prove to them that he deserved snaps in the same way that Madison did just with mastering the offense. I can't tell you for sure if it's mastering the offense or what it might be, if it's pass protection, if it's something else, they have a lot of weapons. So there is a part of me that says, hey, five plays a game. See if Kenny Wong can break something. But also, are you taking five plays away from Jordan Addison, TJ Hawkinson,

Justin Jefferson when he comes back? Probably not. A couple of runs maybe in the backfield. Take them away from Madison is what you're saying. I can hear it. Yeah, take them away from Madison is fine.'re saying. I can hear it. Yeah, take them away from Madison is fine. The other thing is, though, you have tendencies. If Wong was in the game and they know, well, this guy doesn't really do anything else,

he's probably getting the ball, that's harder. And it's a small sample, but he's only averaged like three and a half yards per carry when he's been in games. And part of that may be where you run to matters as much as the speed still playmaking in the running game is huge they've gotten very little of it this year i'm if you're insinuating you know that you think he should get more chances i can't be against it because kenny wong will like ty chandler two of the fastest guys you'll ever see. All right. Great stuff. We're going to have a round table as always. This time, the audio will be turned on.

I promise. I promise the audio will be turned on. And before I let you go, just want to say that on this Thanksgiving day that I am recording this in the evening, I feel especially thankful and grateful for all of you. Purple Insider has continued to build year after year, day after day, whether it's on YouTube or the sub stack purpleinsider.com, the podcast feed, it is all continued to grow and grow and grow. And that is for one reason and one reason only, that is the support of all of you Vikings fans who come here, who read the articles,

who listen to the shows, who watch on YouTube. That is why I get to do this job. Every day I am thankful for that, but especially on a day where you're thinking about, hey, what do I really appreciate? What am I really grateful for? That is Vikings fans and the support that I've gotten from all of you for so long. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Cannot thank you enough. And I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and have a very safe and happy holiday. You know where I'll be talking football here. So thank you again.

And we will talk to you later. Football.