Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The 5 most interesting games on the Minnesota Vikings 2026 schedule

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

Matthew Coller breaks down his 5 most interesting games on the 2026 Minnesota Vikings schedule and then answers fan questions, including whether the Vikings should sign Jadeveon Clowney and if it's a "true" competition between JJ McCarthy and Kyler Murray. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fandul. Matthew Collar here and today on the show, we're going to break down the most interesting matchups on the Minnesota Vikings schedule and answer your questions. Let's dive right in. All right, we're going to begin in an absolutely shocking place with week one, Minnesota Vikings against the Green Bay Packers to open the season. It's been an interesting debate within Vikings fans of whether you like the idea of opening up against the Packers because A, it brings a lot of juice.

U.S. Bank Stadium will be crazy. There's implications right off the bat. You are out of the frying pan into the NFL fire. Let's go. But then there's, I guess, the other side, which is, hey, can we just get into the NFL season a little bit first before having one of the biggest games of the entire season? You do remember that in 2022, the Vikings opened up against the Packers and it went quite well for the Vikings in that game.

But, you know, debuting a new quarterback, there could be some adjustment period for the Vikings. Maybe there's an advantage there. I don't know if there is when you're talking about the familiarity that exists between these two teams. So Vikings Packers, you have crowd at absolute peak level, which I think is a big advantage for the Vikings. Sometimes as seasons go along in US Bank Stadium, if fans are frustrated or if they're not

into the team as much, then it isn't the same type of level. I remember in 2021, Aaron Rogers commented after the game and said, you know, I'm used to it being a little bit louder in here, even though the Vikings won that game. So right off the bat, nobody has any reason to be cynical yet. Extreme excitement coming off a training camp going into the season. Should be a lot there. Could be, should be probably will be Kyler Murray's debut as a Minnesota Vikings quarterback.

And that alone. Talk about a way to step in as the quarterback of the Vikings to go up against their biggest rival. It's a break for the Vikings because Micah Parsons will likely not be there, which could be a total game changer for Kyler Murray as Green Bay tries to adjust around not having Parsons and then presumably we'll get him back later in the season. But that means a lot less running away for Micah Parsons, a lot less having to double team him, triple team him, dedicate the Max Breedestestestest. and him whatever they would have to do to try to slow him down.

They won't have to do that. And the Jordan Love versus Brian Flores battles have been so interesting to watch. Just think about even the first year that they faced off against each other. Brian Flores had Jordan Love in a total blender in his first game that he played against the Vikings. And then later on in the season at the end of the year, Love lit up the Vikings. And it's been kind of back and forth like that over the last couple of years where sometimes he hits on those deep shots down the field.

Sometimes he figures out a way to get rid of the football before the pressure arrives. And other times, the coverages, the disguise, all that sort of stuff, it gets to Jordan Love a little bit. And you end up with a more erratic performance. So those two going back and forth has just been a very interesting battle to watch. And then do you like the implications from the jump or do you not like him? because it is a little intimidating to feel like week one could matter in week 18. And I know that you have to play them sometimes. So it's not like, you know, even if you play them in week three,

that it's going to be any different for how things play out. But when you're talking about the very first time that your team is debuting and kicking off, especially in a world where there's not a whole lot of preseason action and there's even shorter training camps, there aren't two a days. this team has to come together pretty fast and it matters a ton what happens in week one because you have to at least give it this Vikings fans. The Packers are probably going to be there in the race as you go down the stretch into December and January.

They almost always are. They have been since Jordan Love got there. They've been every single year with Matt LaFleur as a head coach. They're going to be there. So you have to beat them right off of the bat. It's a little intimidating, but I also think for the Packers, They're maybe even less happy having to go on to the road to enter one of the most difficult places to play in the entire NFL versus one of the hardest defenses. I think it's actually worse for Green Bay by quite a bit than it is for the Vikings.

If you are curious on Fanduil, the Vikings are one and a half point underdogs opening up in late May here. So it'll be interesting to see how much that changes and maybe based on, I don't know, training camp reports or injuries or things that pop up. up if that will change or if it will be the Packers coming in favored, which I think is understandable because you don't really know what it's going to look like with Kyla Murray quarterback for the Vikings. But still, I think these teams are pretty darn even when you look at their strengths and weaknesses. And it's not like Murray is making his NFL debut.

He's just making his Vikings debut. So I think that because it's at US Bank Stadium week one, I would probably push it a little bit more toward even or slightly on the Viking side. Again, we'll see if that changes as we go forward. All right. Next most interesting game on the Viking schedule, staying in the NFC North, week eight at the Detroit Lions. Ford Field has just been something else for the Minnesota Vikings.

And it's in good and bad ways in the KOC era, bad starting out with 2022, where they couldn't stop Detroit's offense. and they finished the game by throwing to Penh Sewell. Not so good when it came to week 18 of 2024. But then last year, the Vikings played a phenomenal game at Ford Field in that insane atmosphere where they got after Jared Gough. They stifled Detroit's offense for a large percentage of the game. And if you're looking for J.J. McCarthy optimism,

you're probably going back to that game over and over of showing everything that were the reasons the Vikings drafted him. His mobility, his playmaking, his arm strength, all that sort of stuff was there. And he came up with some great plays to beat the Lions in that game at Ford Field. But having been there for the last two in person, I can tell you, the atmosphere at Ford Field rivals U.S. Bank Stadium. They have turned that place completely upside down from what it used to be. There are not people wearing bags on their heads anymore. It is one of the most raucous atmospheres in the NFL. So the Vikings will be just two weeks separated from their by week going on the road.

This could end up being a huge game for them. And there's a lot of things that are storylines we can even project right now. Will they be able to slow down Brian Flores Blitzes with a new offensive coordinator? Will their new offensive line have a much better chance than they did last year against the Vikings when the Vikings defense completely dominated them? And it's crazy because Detroit had. a good offense the whole rest of the year, but could not find themselves at all against Flores last year without Ben Johnson there. And just in general, KOC and Dan Campbell matchups, really

from the jump, have been insane. Just, I mean, even like the Nick Mullins games were crazy. And the, I mean, going back those two years to 2024, both of those games were crazy in their own way. And then last year, I think about Christmas Day. and as miserable of an offensive performance it was, it was a nutty game overall. So you can always expect Vikings and Detroit Lions to be pretty, pretty entertaining. Next game is the most obvious one. You knew as soon as you saw the headline that this was the game I was going to. Vikings versus Buffalo Bills on Monday night football.

It is Brian Flores versus Josh Allen. It is the toughest matchup, in my opinion, on the entire schedule. if you were looking at the Viking schedule in the same way that a golf course lays it out, like what are the toughest holes? This one has the one next to it. This is the number one toughest matchup for the Vikings, not just because of Josh Allen, but mainly because of Allen. But they have also had, since Allen emerged as an elite quarterback,

a lot of really good defenses. And that's where I'm very curious about this game. They've added Bradley Chubb. They've added some veteran players. They've drafted. They've developed. But are they as good with Sean McDermott not being there as they have been in the past? Because the worst ranking for Sean McDermott since 2021 on defense is 12th.

And they were at the top of the league, just even top third in every single year he was there after, even which is more impressive, after Josh Allen got paid too. They have still maintained, despite the roster coming apart in some areas, a terrific defense. is that going to be the same under Joe Brady or do they fall off on that side? And the Monday night football atmosphere, I mean, U.S. Bank Stadium at nighttime is something else when the fans have had all day to get ready for that game and talk about drama. Both of these teams have high expectations. The bills want to prove that they are Super Bowl champion worthy. The Vikings want to get back to the playoffs.

And at this point in the season, teams are really figuring out who the bill's, they are. This one should be intense, my friends. All right. The fourth one on my list of the most interesting Vikings game on the schedule is the San Francisco game in Mexico City, number one, because it's two really, really good offensive coaches, probably the best offensive mind in the NFL in Kyle Shanahan versus a defense that has made Shanahan's life very difficult the last couple times, 2003 and 2004, that they faced off against each other. And then KOC versus maybe a little bit of a new look, San Francisco defense that should

be getting Nick Bosa back and lost Robert Sala to the head coaching position in Tennessee. So what does their defense look like? And just, you know, KOC coming into 2025 was considered a premier offensive play caller in the NFL. I know that maybe all of you in the comment section don't always agree with that. but that was how it was when we started last year. And that changed when there were a lot of struggles and injuries at the quarterback position. But we should still look at it that way if there's a veteran quarterback in there

and all the weapons that O'Connell can give some fits to the 49ers as he has the last couple times they faced each other. 2003, remember the big touchdown to Jordan Addison at the end of the half that turned that game around. and then in 2024, the 97-yard touchdown from Sam Darnold to Justin Jefferson and the offense grinded out that game and beat San Francisco a little bit at their own game in that one. So KOC has had some success against the 49ers defense, but how different will it look? And I'm just intrigued by the 49ers in general. I mean, last year, you look at their season, all the injuries they dealt with,

the coaching job that Kyle Shanahan did, and you go, Okay, I mean, they can just overcome about anything. But are they just old now? George Kittles coming off of an injury. Trent Williams is 38, which is still playing at a high level, but he's 38. Christian McCaffrey is now getting to the point where you are passing go of when running backs start to fade in their careers. And they're revamping some of their receiver room, which has not been the same since Debo Samuel and Samuel and Br, Brandon Ayyuk were at the peak of their powers.

So is Brock Purdy going to be able to carry this team? And also it should be thrown out there too that just when you look at the way the schedule plays out, by the time the Vikings get to Mexico City, which we don't know anything of what the game conditions are going to be like, what is the weather, what is the field look like, what is the atmosphere, what is the percentage of Vikings fans versus 49ers fans versus guys wearing a TJ Hushman Zada jersey because they just bought one randomly on the internet, right? Like, uh, it's, it's going to be very interesting to find all of that out. But it's also at the end of a very tough stretch for the Vikings where they have to go to

Ford Field, go to Lambo, play the Buffalo Bills, and then a generally very tough opponent to prepare for in San Francisco. And it's quite a bit separated from their byweek at that point. So how much do they have left in the 10th? tank by the time that they arrive in Mexico City to play the 49ers. Folks, if you find yourself hunting search engines for different hairstyles that might cover up your receding hairline, or if you're studying every actor and athlete you see of a certain age to see how they're handling their hair loss, well, maybe it's time to get yourself

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It could mean absolutely nothing. Both teams could be set. Both teams could be eliminated. One team could matter, the other team. So it could be interesting, but it's not a guarantee to be interesting. That will depend on how things eventually play out. So I included as my fifth, the week 14 matchup against the New England Patriots. Drake May last year played like an MVP. They did have one of the easiest schedules in the entire NFL. So is he going to continue to play like an MVP?

Or is he going to regress? And I don't think that means regress to being suddenly terrible. But it could regress to being flawed still, which is what we, we saw really in the playoffs. I don't know that at any point, Drake May was good in the playoffs. They got there with good matchups, really good defensive play, and maybe some good breaks. And that including Jared Stidham having to play for the Denver Broncos, I don't think they get to the Super Bowl if that's Bo Knicks playing. So does Drake May, when he's facing tougher teams, tougher defenses, not put together the same level of performance? Plus, the entire league is

looking at you. How good are you? you really is what they will be asking. So Drake May's regression or not is a big deal here. Also, what's the Vikings quarterback situation look like by week 14? Is Kyler Murray considered an MVP candidate? Is Kyler Murray a roller coaster? Is Kyler struggling? Has Kyler been benched?

I mean, there's a pie chart there, right? By week 14 of, I don't know, let's do it on the fly. Let's do pie chart. Maybe 20% he's an MVP candidate. 40% that he's playing really well and is maybe changing the narrative a little bit, but not necessarily MVP. Up and down roller coaster, I would go another 30%, and then 10% that he's just been benched. But there's also, you know, injury in there, which I guess would change the pie chart

because he has had injuries before. But by week 14, yeah, I mean, anything could happen by then at the quarterback position. with Kyler being such a wildcard. And the Vikings will be going to New England whether this game is going to be late into the season. You never know what you're going to be facing when you arrive there. And the Patriots still on paper have an excellent, excellent defense. Christian Barmore, Milton Williams,

but they have a great secondary as well, led by Christian Gonzalez. And they've added to that with signing Kevin Byrd. So they have a lot of talent on that defensive side. That is a tough, tough matchup. regardless of how Drake May is playing, going into that one. Okay, let's get to some Viking fan questions here. I've got five very good fan questions.

And just before we dive fully into it, the fan dual question of the day, if you did not get it, is the Vikings right off the bat are one and a half point underdogs to the Green Bay Packers week one. Do you agree with that? Is that where you would have the Vikings if you were setting the line? Do you think they deserve to be? underdogs right now to Green Bay.

Also, I would love to know your lists if you want to put them down in the comment section. Most interesting Vikings game, did I miss any? Or how would you order them? You saw my order. How would you order? Although, actually, no, I went more, I went in chronological. So how would you order them in the most interesting? I just went from week one to the end of the season.

So I'd love to be able to see your orders for most interesting games on the schedule. schedule. All right, let's get into the fan questions. This one comes from JP says, feels like we have a huge hole on the edge position beside Van Ginkle and Turner. Do you see us adding a guy like Jadavian Clowny? He was still effective last year as a pass rusher and had decent pressure numbers. So, Jadavia Clowny is a very interesting case to me because he has gone to a bunch of different teams. He was in Tennessee. He was in Cleveland. He was in Carolina. And he's just bounced around like crazy and you go, well, why is that for Gidevi and Clowny? Now, it's great if you play the Immaculate Grid on Pro Football Reference where you have to find players that played for two different franchises.

So he's going to help you out a lot there for many years to come by playing for a bunch of different teams. But there has to be a reason for that, right? And not really performance-based, but then when you do look at his performance from year-in and year-out, there are a lot of jumps to it. There are some years where he is looking great and his pressure rates are great. His win rates are great and he's putting up sacks. And then there are other years where he's just kind of ineffective on the whole. And I don't know if the Vikings want to get someone who's been that volatile

through their career who hasn't stuck anywhere throughout their career. And I don't know anything about Jadavian Clowney's personality or whether he would be a character fit or something like that. but you do have to wonder if a guy performs at a certain level, why wouldn't any of these teams who need players that rush the passer decide to lock him in for multiple years, like a Carolina or a Tennessee or somebody like that? Like, why wouldn't you want to have Clowny there on a multi-year contract?

And I don't know, but there's a little common sense of there must be something to that. And he just has a little bit in the way he comes across. I don't want to make an accusation that I don't have backed by any reporting or whatever, but it comes across as a little bit of a play when I want to play type of guy, play how I want to play type of guy. And I don't know that that would work necessarily with Brian Flores and his defense. I was looking at two other old guys that have been traditional outside linebackers for a long time and have had a lot of success.

Leonard Floyd and Kyle Van Nuoy. Both of those guys, if you played them 400 to 500, snaps, rotate them in, and maybe they're looking for bigger rolls than three, four hundred snaps or whatever, but they both have still been pretty successful. Floyd was actually quite good last year. And these guys know how to play in this type of system because they've been the outside linebackers for a very, very long time. So I don't think it's a bad idea based on production of someone like Chedavian Clowny.

I just wonder about fit, where the other guys, I know that there's a very, going to fit quite well. But I think either way, they do. I agree with your first point is they do have a gaping hole there. There isn't anybody proven. And unless they're just going to roll the ball out for the second team and say, go get it, guys. Or if they're looking at waiting around to see, because they've done that at times where they waited around at the guard position and ended up getting Dalton Reisner.

They waited around at the cornerback position and ended up getting Stefan Gilmore, even last year corner. They waited and then Fabian Moreau, who when he signed, I think there was disappointment, then he played pretty well. So sometimes you can wait into training camp or even cut down day and find a guy at that position. But as far as who's out there right now, Floyd and Van Nuoy would make the most sense if those guys are going to continue to play. They're both into their 30s. All right. Next question comes from at Larry Cooper. Says, of all the players in the final year of their contract, who would you guess gets extended? So the main guys to look at, of course, are Blake Cashman and Brian O'Neill.

Those would be at the top of the list. I mean, when it comes to Hawkinson and Aaron Jones, I think they'll both run it to the end and then see, see where Aaron Jones is at health-wise, see where T.J. Hawkinson's at. They readjusted his contract to make him a free agent after this year, which I imagine if you're Hawkinson getting another chance to or getting a first chance, really, to hit the market might be interesting for you. especially if he has a big year. So I don't think that there's going to be any extension for either one of those two.

I could see Andrew Van Ginkle. But then again, they drafted Jake Golda, maybe with the thought that Van Ginkle might not be here long term. And I think with a lot of these guys, injuries have added up over the years. And you do start to wonder, can you sign them to a two or three year extension when you don't know where they're going to be physically by the end of the year?

The most obvious one would be Brian O'Neill because tackle is. is just impossible to replace. He's still really, really good. And yeah, he did have some injury issues last year, but he played great. And he's getting into his 30s, but great athletes like that who are also technicians and leaders. I wonder about the financial element of that, though, because if he gets extended and Darisaw's got his contract, how much can you pay for that position? So the number might matter there. And with Cashman, I mean, everything you've seen from Cashman, he deserves an extension.

it's really the injury that you just wonder about where he's kind of been banged up over his career a lot. So if you lock him into two, three, four more years, what does that look like after a couple more seasons? And you do have maybe Gold Day was partly to be an inside linebacker as well. But both of those guys would make a lot of sense. I think that if you're, well, they would, but they come along with risks. So it would make a lot of sense to extend them now because they're great players.

But it would also make sense to wait. it out and just see where they're at at the end of the season. And you know that maybe it's arrogance to think this for the Vikings, but you know that players want to stay with the Vikings. So even if you don't sign them to an offseason extension that you get to the end of the year and say, all right, actually, you know, things are going great. We want to keep you. There's a good chance that those players do decide to stick around.

If it was me, if I was in the Rob Brzezinski shoes of looking at the dollar figures and so forth, I would want to keep my options open rather than extending those guys right now. As much respect as I have for both players, that's just from a flat out business perspective. From a coaching perspective, I would want them extended right the heck now because those are two of the most important players on the field. Isaiah Rogers is the one that I would be looking at because even though he is in his almost late 20s, he does not have a lot of mileage on the body. He stayed very healthy last year. he is incredibly explosive.

He's a playmaker. He's a starting level cornerback that if you could get him on an extension this season or before this season, you might be able to get a deal. Kind of the way, not Mattelis's last extension, but his first contract extension, they gave to him before he played a thousand plays and got one of the best deals that there was in the NFL. So if they were to sign Rogers to, I don't know, like say $12 million a year contract extension or something in that range, he might be worth more than that by the end of the season

as a starting outside corner. And with Byron Murphy, his contract gets a little bit complex after this year in terms of the salary cap hit going up quite a bit, how much you can really restructure that. You can't really cut him, but you could do a June 1st type of thing if you wanted to. So there's at least some uncertainty on the other side. But these two have been really good fits for Brian Flores and you might want to try to keep them together if you can. But I would probably come in as the new GM and say, what great plausible deniability to not do it? If like I want to assess everybody this year before I'm starting to lay down big money and

especially Kyler Murray because you don't know if he's going to need an extension and if he does, then some other people are not going to be able to get theirs. next question comes from Carl from Lake Elmo Carl says in Dane Brugler's The Beast he notes that Tiernan, Caleb Tiernan, the Vikings third round draft pick offensive linemen, may be the best suited as a guard. Do the Vikings see it that way,

or are they set on making him a tackle? So I would start off Caleb Tiernan as a tackle. I would begin with Ryan Van Damark and Caleb Tiernan as my backup tackle. tackles because you can never have too much depth at the offensive tackle position. I think what you want to find out is could this guy be a starting tackle? Because the more I've watched him, the more I really like this draft pick. At first on draft night, first impression was, oh, I don't think I really prepped with this guy.

I mean, I just didn't see a third round offensive tackle being something that they did. So I had all my wide receivers prepared. I had memorized stats about 22 wide receivers, but I didn't get to third round tackles. Although I did think that there was a chance they could take a tackle. But after watching him play, explosiveness is very real with this guy. And athleticism is very real. And size. I mean, he's 6 foot 7 going on 6 foot 8.

I mean, he has offensive tackle everything except for the arm length. And I don't think that that should just flat out disqualify. qualify somebody from the ability to potentially be a long-term starting offensive tackle. Now, does it make certain things more difficult? Do you have to be intentional with the way that you set up their past sets and their matchups and stuff like that? Because you can't just stick them out on an island like Christian Darrasaw and say, take that guy out of the game.

Okay, all set, we're good. It's not going to be that way for Caleb Tiernan, but he has real tackle traits. and whether you extend Brian O'Neill by a year or two years, that's not going to change the fact that at some point Brian O'Neill is not going to be your offensive tackle because he's into his 30s and that's the reality of the National Football League, right? Unless he's Trent Williams and is playing for absolutely ever, it's probably not going to be the case. So I think what you want there is somebody who is cross-trained at guard,

but his really main focus is the tackle. So if you have to have him pop up, in and play guard because of an injury this year, he should be able to do that. He should be prepared and ready to do that. But he should be long-term thinking, starting offensive right tackle. That should be where you train him. And then if there's an injury, Ryan Van Damark goes in, someone else gets banged up, then you have Tiernan.

I am interested in the guard position because right now they really don't have experience at backup guard. Walter Rouse is someone that they kicked around the idea of moving inside to guard. I don't think that it really got very far last year. They may commit to that similar to what they did with Blake Brandel, but they don't have anybody that is like the Joe Berger type who had been a backup guard for a long time. And I'm curious if that's something else that they want to add.

But I think that's the best route is to just say, you're going to be an offensive tackle long term, but make sure you get ready to play the guard spot. And look, if it doesn't work out and they see them in training camp for two years and go, it's just probably not a tackle because of this or that. I think he has the traits to potentially be a guard with the explosiveness. And we've seen this. You don't have to be short and stubby to be an offensive guard.

You can be six foot seven these days and it can still work out, even though there are some things that are more challenging at that position. But he's a very interesting prospect that I'm going to have my eyes on for sure. All right. next question comes from anonymous Vikings fan says it could be any of you uh says uh curious what you think the chances are of the defense regressing this year the takes i've seen on the biggest 2026 question marks assume the defense plays solid and put the wider range of outcomes on kiler and the offense but there were some real shakeups on defense as well i feel like it might be a little

overlooked well anonymous Vikings fan i completely agree with you uh that this team in general has a wide range of outcomes on the offensive side for sure because the high end is that they're a top 10 offense and they're a wagon and they're very difficult for opponents to face off with because Kyler's dish of the ball over the place and they're running much better and the offensive line is healthy and like that's a real world scenario where they could be very good on offense and there's a real world scenario where they could be very good on defense too but the boxes are a little harder to actually see getting checked from where they are on offense. Like if you told me that Kyler Murray really clicked with KOC and Justin Jefferson and was

make a play plays all over the field and the running game improved enough to be a little dangerous. Hawkinson came back to life. Joanne Jennings was a great fit. The line stayed a little healthier and they were top 10. I'd say, yeah, I mean, I could see that because all of those things have happened before. KOC has had a top passing game. Well, the running game, not so much, but I think that it could be at least a little improved by its schematics this year.

So even say last year was an average running game, say you have an average running game and that passing game, Kyler makes your running game better because he runs for 500 yards. It's not, you don't have to do any gymnastics mentally to get to a place where you could see that. In fact, I think it's a fairly likely thing to happen. On the defensive side, it's just a little harder. Now, Brian Flores deserves every bit of the benefit of the doubt because he has taken players that were not necessarily considered to be top prospects and he's put them in the right positions. Mattelis is definitely one of them. But even those guys that they signed in 2024, they all played their best football here.

Isaiah Rogers played his best football here. There's a lot of things that Flores has done to get every ounce of blood out of the stone on defense over the last few years. years. But if we go through that checkbox list and we go, well, you kind of need Caleb Banks and Dominique Orange to play a lot. So right away, there's a little bit of, well, you don't know, because we never know what rookie players are going to look like. So that's the hardest thing to project for me is what is the interior D-line going to look like. I think by the end of training camp will have a much better idea, just as we did last year that Jalen Redman and Levi Drake, Rodriguez, we're going to take steps forward.

So we will have a good idea. I think by the end of training camp, still, I mean, with rookies, as we know, if guys haven't been out there before, that's sometimes I'll still get, you know, you said McCarthy was good in camp. McCarthy had never played before, man. When it's a guy who's never played before, we have no idea what they're going to look like before they get out there. So Caleb Banks could dominate camp and then not look great or he could not look great

and then dominate when it comes to the season. I mean, we're just going to have to wait and see on that. And then there's really the secondary as a whole. Are you going to play more nickel? Where do you put Josh Mattelis? What is your depth at the edge position look like that we were just talking about? What additions do you make before now and then? Do any players emerge for you that we think,

oh, well, we didn't see Chas Chambliss coming, but now he's good. That's happened plenty of times before. And is Jacoby Thomas playing right away? Is it Theo Jackson? Is it Jay Ward? Is it somebody from the outside? Like, there's a lot more questions there. If Harrison Smith does not come back, then there are, I think, on the offensive side,

where everybody is proven to some extent on the offensive side, they just have to make it come together. But how many unproven players are there on the Vikings offense? It's, I mean, honestly, like really nobody. Demand Claiborne, who's a third running back. Everybody else, you could say Brandel at center, but he played center for almost half. the season last year.

And on the defensive side, a lot more. Jay Ward has not played a full year. Theo Jackson played half the season and then played less into the rest of the year. You know, and then you have the rookies up front. Dallas Turner has not played an entire season as a starter. So there's, yeah, a lot more questions there. And then when you look at the opposing quarterback schedule, it's hard. I'm doing something on the newsletter at Purple Insider.

dot football for tomorrow, but it's a tough quarterback schedule for the Vikings this year that is going to ask a lot of Flores. So benefit of the doubt deserved, but could they regress from where they were last year? Yes, because you're losing a lot of quarterback pressures between Hargrave, Allen, and Grenard, and a lot of experience from those guys. Even if they felt like they didn't fit perfectly, it's still a lot of football that those guys had played in the past versus guys who are much younger. on the defensive side.

Overall, that's a good thing, but in the short term, there could be some hiccups there. Okay, last question. This one comes from Evan, says, what do you think of a lot of the media saying that there's a true quarterback competition between Murray and McCarthy? So, well, number one is that everyone with the Vikings has said it's a quarterback competition. So Kevin O'Connell has said it and Justin Jefferson has said it. I saw he was doing what they call a car wash, which is. where he does a bunch of national interviews and, you know, every single one of them.

What do you think of the quarterback competition? And Justin's line, which we're going to hear probably multiple times through training camp or through the offseason into training camp is, hey, like best man win. We need competition at that position and we'll see what happens, right? So there's different roles in media and they're all blurred now because of just the internet and so forth and the fan desire for analysis. but for me, I came from the sports talk radio world, which is a lot more opinionated. Now, I do reporting a lot.

You know, I go to training camp practices and I write feature stories and, you know, sometimes I bring all that stuff into this show. But the main thing about my, the way I approach this and my background is being opinionated. And when I look at the whole picture for McCarthy, Murray, the way. these guys have played in the past, the gargantuan gap when it comes to games played, experience, all those things, and performance, peak performance from Kyler Murray is one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL. And that's not just my opinion. That's the opinion of the NFL. When Mike Sando does his tiers articles, they have consistently put him in that 10 to 15 range.

And his peak by PFF was inside the top 10. So when you have a guy who's performed, at that level previously, who very likely could have gone to other places. I wonder if Atlanta would have far preferred him to someone like Tua, just for example. So he could have gone to other places, but he decides to come to Minnesota and picks the Vikings as the place that's the best for his redemption story just doesn't seem like a spot when you have someone so inexperienced as J.J. McCarthy, who is still learning how to play football, And that is okay. That is not a, hey, they're done with McCarthy.

It's over. That's not what I'm saying. When I talk about not believing it's a real true quarterback competition, it's just that the guy's resumes are so much different. And you look at the locker room and how badly so many of these guys need to win. And as we were talking about earlier, the number of free agents that are here for 2020. I mean, there's a bunch of them and they're veterans and they're really good players and they deserve good quarterback play. They deserve someone who's ready to do this and who doesn't need the offense dumb down for them and who knows how to throw a football and is one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the league,

not someone who's got a lot of tools that you should not give up on. That's where McCarthy is to me. There's a lot of tools we saw. There's a lot of highlights we saw. But as I noticed, some people chop up a bunch of his best plays and say, see, he's going to be, you know, he's going to win this competition. I'm like, if you chop up anybody's best plays, they can look pretty darn good. But we can't forget what this really looked like.

We can't forget the history on this and the fact that he's got a similar quarterback rating over 10 games to what Christian Ponder had, that there are essentially no quarterbacks who have quickly turned it around after starts to their career like this. That's not something you're rolling the dice on if you're Kevin O'Connell. and when he said the timeline has changed, I think he really meant it. Like, he needs to win. They need to win. This group needs to win because they might not stay together.

There's not five more years. There's not this long runway. I think if you were a different team, you would be doing that. So that is an opinion of mine when I look at the landscape and say, this is what I think. I am not reporting that it's not a real competition. I'm just giving you my opinion. I think what the reporters are doing is they're giving you the information. that's been gathered.

So here's what the coach says. Here's what the players are saying. So off we go into a competition. And they will change that as information changes. So if we go into, I mean, I wouldn't judge OTAs in minicamp. I know you guys are going to want who took all the reps, but they could just go back and forth in OTAs and mini camp, all sorts of different combinations of receivers.

They do not go 11 on 11s in OTAs in mini camp. It's basically, O'Connell has even said this before. He said it's like a seven on seven passing camp is what it is. So it's really not something where, oh, well, McCarthy threw one pass to Jefferson and Murray through three. That's not going to tell us much. It's going to be either the first week or the second week of training camp where we really know. The first week where they don't have pads, you could see them kicking around different things.

But when the pads come on in training camp, it's a long time to wait. but that's when we'll really know if Murray takes every single first team rep, he's your quarterback, which is what I would expect. If there's any maybe concern about Murray through this off season, it would be pretty shocking if there was. But if there was, then maybe, or if they are just blown away by what J.J. McCarthy looks like, then maybe. But I don't think there's even enough time on the field.

I mean, like these practices for OTAs in minicamp, they were different during Zimmer. They were real hard practices. but it's just not that way for the Vikings under Kevin O'Connell. He just does things differently. So it's going to take us a little while to get that information. But I think until then, if you're just reporting on the information that's there, that's what you're going to say. So I'm not mocking anybody who reports that or who says that.

I'm just telling you my thought process is you bring in Kyler Murray to win. You don't give up on J.J. McCarthy. And it is decently likely that J.J. McCarthy plays this year. and he has to be ready and he can prove everyone wrong when he is. But the circumstances dictate if you're going to play against Jared Gough, Caleb Williams, and Jordan Love, you've got to have a real quarterback. You got to have someone who knows how to play the game. And KOC is not going to put anybody out there who can't run the whole offense.

And that was clear that he had to dumb it down last year. You are going to run the whole offense with Kyler Murray. So McCarthy has to prove that he can run it and be ready. And I think there will be a chance where he gets on the. the field, but, or maybe the early in camp, but it feels like you bring in Kyler Murray to go win with Kyler Murray and you have insurance policies in Carson Wentz and J.J. McCarthy, but that's about it. But again, that's different. So that's why there are a lot of reporters saying that, but I'm giving you my take. So there you go. All right. Thanks, everybody. Hope you enjoyed that

episode. We'll be back Monday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night, live shows, as usual, taking your questions live. Always like to get some that have been tweeted or emailed into me whenever I can. So I appreciate the folks who sent those questions into the show. And we're going to have a quarterback ranking. I'm going to rank all of the quarterbacks on the Viking schedule. That's going to come up on the show. We'll have some good check-ins with Vikings' upcoming guests.

And whenever we get an update on the GM search, my friends, we will break it down for you as well. So thanks everybody for watching slash listening. And we'll catch you later. Football.