Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Athletic dives into JJ McCarthy, Max Brosmer

Episode Date: November 27, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about The Athletic's report about why the Vikings went with JJ McCarthy rather than sticking with Sam Darnold and a scout has an interesting comment about Max Brosmer/ The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider 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 Fandual Matthew Collar here, as always, just got back from TCL Performance Center, firing it up a little bit early today because, obviously, Thanksgiving is tomorrow, so a happy Thanksgiving to all of you. And I could just say off the bat, I am unbelievably thankful for all the support that you guys. give me all the listeners, all the subscribers to the newsletter to allow me to keep doing this dream job. So every Thanksgiving, I'm certainly thinking a lot about that when it comes to what I am thankful for. So let's get into the injury report for today. And then Max Brosmer, J.J. McCarthy, the situation there. We'll hear from Justin Jefferson, a couple of interesting comments. And I asked Kevin O'Connell about Max Brosmer and the power of processing. So we could just jump in right off the bat there.

The J.J. McCarthy was limited today in practice, which I think as Diana Rossini of the athletic reported, makes it pretty clear that Max Brosmer should start, will start against the Seattle Seahawks for J.J. McCarthy missing any time in practice, not being able to run with the first team. I think at his point, his career is just disqualifying to play in the game. Plus, not to mention, we're talking about concussions, which I've noticed a lot of people on the internet no longer take seriously when they can make a really funny joke about J.J. McCarthy being faked bench. So congratulations to all the LOLs and engagement that you got.

I still want to take concussions seriously because what are we doing here, right? The NFL and its history and the damage to players and all those things. Like J.J. McCarthy did the right thing by reporting his concussion symptoms. he was put in the protocol. Part of the protocol is getting back for the individual period, which he did today. So for J.J. McCarthy being 22 years old, the expectation, I know it's been a very, very tough six games is that his career is not over after these six games. So it just better overall not to push the limits on McCarthy. And then they can decide after Max Brosmer plays what they think of that. If it's going to be more max or if McCarthy's going to return to play against

Washington, to play against Dallas, none of us really knows where it's going to go from there, but a positive step for McCarthy today in the concussion protocol. But still the fact that he was not able to run the full team. I mean, Wednesday is a very important practice. Thursday is an absolutely vital practice for getting ready for the game. So we'll see about the injury report tomorrow, we are not out there tomorrow to talk to players and see the open part of practice. They're going to tighten up the schedule and make sure players can get home for Thanksgiving dinners and things like that. So it will be Friday that we'll get the announcement and then we will speak with whatever starting quarterback it is. Again, right now very much anticipating that it will be Max Brosmer and that combined with Diana Rossini's report.

I think we can pretty safely, it's like the election where like, all right, 90, percent of precincts are reporting here. We just kind of need it to be official that it will be Max Brosmer. Also, Christian Derisaw and Donovan Jackson were both missing from practice today. Max Brosmer is going to bed tonight, looking up to the heavens and asking for those two guys to get healthy before Sunday's game. Now, Kevin O'Connell did not rule it out that either one of them would not be able to play. With Christian Derisaw, it's been very much stop and start with his season.

he's gotten in there, he's played great. Then the other day, he didn't look like himself with the injury. He struggled a lot against Green Bay in a game that we would normally not expect him to. So that's, again, a wait and see on his health and his situation than an ankle for Donovan Jackson. Neither one is going to be a whole lot of fun to play against, especially for Donovan Jackson, because the interior of the defensive line for the Seattle Seahawks is absolutely elite. they've been dominant this year. Byron Murphy, who was a high draft pick

and sometimes gets mistaken for the Vikings, Byron Murphy. He has been excellent. He's taken a big step forward. Their trade for Leonard Williams a couple years ago, imagine the Jets having Leonard Williams and Quinn Williams, Quinnin Williams, and now they don't.

But Leonard is a really, really good player out there. So they have a lot to go against if Max Brosmer presumably does not have two of his offensive. lineman and it just goes back to the struggles all year long to get that offensive line completely healthy. And going into the Green Bay game, that was something we had talked about like, hey, they finally got the offensive line fully healthy and then very quickly they did not. So a tough break for whoever is under center this week. As far as other injury reports, Jonathan Granard was limited still with the shoulder injury. So very much up in

the air with him. If he can get back to practice in full, he is. the type of veteran player that maybe doesn't need to practice fully in order to get back on the field, but you'd still like to see that from somebody who is important, not just this year, but into the long term for the Minnesota Vikings as well, that if there's any risk of doing further damage to his injury, you might want to play it as safe as possible because you're four and seven. And Dallas Turner did show up with a hip on the injury report as well. Maybe something to watch.

He was limited. So, you know, it's hard to tell there what the staff. status will be for Sunday's game. So let's get into some of the things that were said, and then we'll talk about Diana Rossini's report, read a couple things there and react to those on J.J. McCarthy. I was figuring, I was waiting, like, who's going to have a long thing about J.J. McCarthy, the decision, the Sam Darnold, and all that. And we'll dive into exactly what she had to report and react to that.

So let's begin with KOC today, short conversation. with him. I know I saw a handful of people say, you know, why aren't you grilling them on this, that, and the other thing about J.J. McCarthy. And I get it because when it's going bad, everybody kind of wants their pound of flesh. They want every one of these to turn into, like, just throw in flames and that kind of thing. And I get it. But, I mean, there's not a whole lot of J.J. McCarthy questions left to ask. We asked them on Sunday. We asked them on Monday. And here we are again. And so today was kind of just about the status of certain players. And there's a lot of conversations that are going to come with the brass.

KOC does talk four times a week. So there's that. And at the end of the year, I think, is where a lot of, see, that's the difference is that for a lot of you, the end of the year was kind of last week. And that's understandable because the Vikings playoff chances went from if they win, maybe it's like 15%. And maybe there's a miracle in there to, I saw the chart today for how much the Vikings chances would increase if they won, and the answer is from 1% to 2% to make the playoff.

So for a lot of you, it ended, but those are offseason questions, who's going to be the quarterback, what do you think of the bigger picture of JJ's progress, where he stands, where he got to? They're going to be, I think, producing better answers a little bit down the road. For this week, they're playing another team, and we're kind of going to go week to week until it's time to try to get some of those bigger picture answers. I know all of us, including myself, would like some of those right now. But let's get to what Kevin O'Connell had to say about Max Brosmer today. One of the things that's really stood out to me is just how much

the Vikings players, staff, offensive coordinator, head coach have talked about the word processing with Max Brozmer. I think we all know that he is not a physical freak by any standard. But the mental part of it stood out for him right away in training camp. So I asked Kevin O'Connell about Brosmer and when they kind of realized that there was something exceptional there in terms of processing for him. There's a layer to it where you start seeing the timing click and you start seeing maybe under less ideal circumstances like in this preseason where he's got, you know, he's starting out a game against Tennessee starting defense and, you know, some pretty impactful players

making it hard on him and he's functioning and able to move the team and do some things that really solidified a lot of the things we were feeling on Max, but he, you know, he's done nothing but just attack it every day and continue to understand that maybe the, you know, the reps with Carson or JJ at different times in the season are going to be, it's going to be pretty hard to come by. So he maximizes the practice squad reps. He max, you know, the look team reps, I should say. And he maximizes the meeting time and gets extra meetings with Jordan and Josh. And I think part of him and JJ being really close has allowed the two of them to kind of prepare together in many ways. So, you know, he's done everything to be ready when his number's been

called. And he'll be ready if that's what takes place on Sunday. And I'll have a lot of confidence in him if that's what happened. So there you go. The Tennessee game, I think, really impressed everybody because they did play some of their top players. And Rosmer was pressured very quickly and was still able to get the football out. And also when you consider, when you look at his stat line, it's easy to forget that I forget the guy's name. I have to work on that. He threw a bomb in that game to an open receiver that went right through his hands and he dropped it. And that would have been 40 more yards for Max Brosber in that game. So the way he responded to some of the pressure, the way he got rid of the football quickly. And then clearly what they've seen

behind the scenes from his preparation and getting himself ready and how he takes. the mental reps and all those things. These are things that coaches are going to look at as part of their evaluation and decide, do we trust this guy to start an NFL game for our team against a really difficult opponent? I think it says a lot about Max and the way he's handled himself for that to be the case. As we know, there is no guarantees whatsoever about where it goes from here. But at very least, that part of it is beneficial for him and speaks to just why he has.

has been QB2 since Carson Wentz went down, why they didn't elevate John Wolford, who's played in the league to be QB2 or sign him to the active roster or look for somebody else that they could have brought in. They decided, nope, we're going to go that direction. I think was that before the trade deadline that maybe they could have even traded for someone if they wanted, but they've been in on Max Brosber for a while. And what was bouncing around my brain a little bit today was when Kevin Sefer wrote about how, you know, somebody in the organization kind of half joked with him that, you know, maybe the reason they don't want Brozmer to come in there in the game against the Chargers is because he would look good

and then it would put pressure on J.J. McCarthy. And I don't know, maybe we're at that spot where that ends up being the case. So we shall see on Max Brosmer. I also asked Justin Jefferson, who was able to see on the sideline Max Brosmer play in the preseason. And just what it was like having him out there today running the QB1 reps. And here's what Justin said. Justin, when it comes to just Max Brosman, how much have you gotten to know him as QB2? And what is it like to just start getting to know him this week,

just in case he has to start? Yeah, I've seen him all of, you know, training camp, just being sidelined and, you know, just kind of watching from afar. Of course, seeing him in preseason games and seeing a different. and throws and reads that he makes, he's definitely a good quarterback. So to be able to be fit in with this offense and, you know, create a spark for us, something that we really need right now. Yeah, the last part is true. It is something that they really need right now. And the fact that you're looking to an undrafted free agent rookie to provide you a spark kind of speaks to

swear everything is at at the moment, but that's how he felt. And I'll give you one more. hear from Jefferson. And sorry, the audio was very loud around Jefferson today. So there's some crackling and poppin and noises, but hopefully you can hear that okay. What Justin had to say when he was asked by Kevin Seaford about

JJ McCarthy's rookie season. It's one of you about JJ's first six games. Just kind of in total. Tough, I would say, all in all, just because it's early. He's new to the game. He's new to the NFL. So he's learning just like everyone else had to learn as a rookie.

And, you know, he obviously had to go through the mental stage of having to overcome, you know, injury the first year. So just a tough transition for him. But I feel like just him learning these past couple games and, of course, learning the stretch of this season. I mean, I feel like he's going to bounce back in a different way than everybody else is. is want to think so. What makes you think that? Just talking to him, talking to him and seeing the arm telling that he has,

seeing his composure, seeing the confidence that he come with every single day, of course, seeing the poise that he have throughout the game. He's relentless. He's confident to go out there. You know, he just has to carry it on throughout, you know, week at a week and, you know, just show up on Sundays with that mentality that he's been having the whole entire week. So there you go.

Jefferson on JJ McCarthy's first year and there's really not a whole lot else Jefferson can say at this point other than he's a young quarterback and you're going to have to give him time. The trouble with the NFL is that it does not give you a lot of time, especially with where this organization is. And that will be the most pressing question. That's not a just the Jefferson thing. That's a above his head, head coach, general manager, ownership. There's already a lot of questions that I've gotten to my email inbox and I apologize. I cut so many over the last couple days that I haven't gotten to respond to everybody. I'll try over the next couple of days.

But the biggest question I keep getting is two things, really like what's next, obviously, but also who's to blame? And I will continue to just say everyone. everyone is to blame everyone involved in the decision because decisions are made sitting in rooms on conference calls with the owners with the general manager with the coaches with the staff and they come to a decision and in this year they came to a decision that they were going to go the direction that they had planned from the start which was the rookie quarterback contract advantage and they were going to roll the dice and they lost on that dice roll and I think

we all knew that there was a chance that that could happen because history tells you that nobody has a magic wand for quarterbacks when Kyle Shanahan can, you know, make the most out of Jimmy Garoppolo, Mack Jones, and Brock Purdy, but can't get his top three overall pick to play well. I think it tells you that this is the most impossible thing to figure out in sports and they thought they had it figured out and it turned out that they didn't. But let's get into that because that is the subject of Diana Racine. 's latest report at the Athletic.

And let's, let me pull up a couple of the things I wanted to read some excerpts from that. I'm just going to read you what she wrote and then we'll respond to each kind of paragraph that I pulled out of her report. Again, you can see that over at the Athletic. She tweeted out. So here's what Diana wrote. She said, even with the differences and opinion about the quarterbacks inside the building, most notably with some in the organization wanting to retain Darnold, they decided

collectively to back the 20-20-year-old, 22-year-old McCarthy fresh off a major knee injury that cut short his rookie year before it could begin. So she throws in there that they collectively decided, but also that there was dissent with some inside the building that wanted to go with Sam Darnold. Now, I don't think that that's particularly controversial

because, again, this is how it works. Like, they get in rooms and they have, these conversations and there will be someone that has a different opinion just like any meeting at your job. I mean, if you have an office job and you have a boss and you have meetings and you talk through, hey, are we going to do this? Are we going to do that? Everybody goes through it. The boss makes the decision. And that's the way that you go. In this case, when the quarterbacks involved, the boss is the owner. I don't think that we can just ignore the Wilf's part of this. but they hired people in Kevin O'Connell,

a expert in the quarterback realm, right? As a former NFL quarterback, working with McVeigh, the success that he had with Sam Darnold, he earned a ton of credibility last year by having that season with Sam Darnold. And he, my understanding is, had led the charge to get Sam Darnold to the Minnesota Vikings. So identifying that there was something more there with Sam

is part of that whole story and why you would believe in him. The work that he put in, the effort, the research, the going out on the visits and meeting with the quarterbacks and all the effort that went into deciding which quarterback they wanted to draft, that was also an effort led by the head coach. I would say from a bigger picture perspective, Quasi Adolph-Menzha, which I think has been his strength to get them to this point, was understanding the timeline. And I would look around this roster in locker room and say, I mean, they built the roster around the rookie contract the way that you're supposed to do it. And if you go player two through 53 against the Packers, I'd say the Vikings are just as good or better against the Lions, although they got Frank Ragnow back.

What? Congratulations to one of us, a Minnesotan for coming back to the NFL, Frank Ragnow. But still, I think, you know, Detroit has shown some flaws this year and the Chicago Bay. bears by our friends at DVOA, Aaron Schatz, formerly of football outsiders, DVOA stat, has them as the worst eight and three team ever. So, like, I don't know, if this had worked, they would all have looked very, very smart. If J.J. McCarthy had been healthy the full year and ready to go, they would all look like, wow, the quarterback whisper, the GM with the big picture analytics approach, if you

will. It's not really, but, you know, it's sort of a common sense trying to build around the rookie contract, but whatever, right? The narratives, let them, let them take off and take themselves if this one person was ready to play football. And I think the part that is, if you're in that room being the dissenting person, because I took this stance quite a bit after the playoff game, my biggest concern was what he went through last year, that in 2024 training camp, J.J. McCarthy looked like he was on the rise, continued to get better and better, looked like he had star potential by the end of the point where he got hurt. You all saw it in the preseason game. We saw consistent progress in training camp from him. He was very impressive

in 2024 camp. That's all they had to work with, though. And if you were banging the table for Sam Darnold, I think what you were saying is, are you guys sure that coming off of this injury with no offseason, really, because his offseason was spent putting the weight back on that he lost during the injury. It was spent, you know, learning how to get the footwork right again. But now with a newly constructed knee, is he going to come far enough in terms of his progress to be ready to lead a franchise that needs him a, look, if they sold the franchise today, it's going for six or seven billion dollars. Like a franchise that is worth this much that has the top receiver in the league that has paid a lot of, players that has a ton of veterans, is he coming off this injury with the only evaluation being what you saw behind the scenes and a 2024 training camp with the second team?

Like, is that enough? And clearly, the answer was no, that it was not enough. And we could tell how high Kevin O'Connell was on J.J. McCarthy's 2024 camp in Cleveland at the joint practices. Then when he said to us, I feel like we have our franchise quarterback going forward. about J.J. McCarthy. So that shows you how high he was on that 2024 camp. But missing that year of progress and then having it all put onto his shoulders, it's proved out to be just too much for J.J. McCarthy. And it's proved out that, yes, they should have franchise tagged Sam Darnold and run it back.

And in this division, taking another shot at winning the division, taking another shot of going into the playoffs. and at the same time. See, when people make it about Darnold versus J.J., they forget, like, you don't have to throw J.J. away. But this is where Diana's reporting comes back in. So I'm not surprised that I don't think it's controversial that there was someone or some folks behind the scenes,

maybe people who told Diana about Aaron Rogers, that didn't want J.J. McCarthy to start right away because organizations have people with different opinions just like you guys. And I think in another quote about Max Bro, you'll see how people in the NFL are just people, they don't have superpowers either. But here was another interesting quote from her, from Diana.

She wrote, So now what? Delay McCarthy again. I've been told there are some concerns about how another year sitting on the bench would affect him and would it even help. Even every question has a cousin and suddenly, did she throw that in there?

Because Kirk's going to be the quarterback next year. Every question has a cousin. and suddenly they're multiplying, can a raw but talented quarterback grow fast enough to match a team built to win yesterday? I would also say, as crafty of the sentences, I would say they're also built to win like next year as well. So really, they're built to win like today and tomorrow, not necessarily yesterday. That's actually part of the problem, is that they were not built to win in 2024 and

then, whoops, they did. So that's where a little bit of the wires ended up getting crawled. was that they thought they were going to be an average team going into last year and, hey, maybe we'll sneak into the playoffs. They end up winning 14. It's this magical season. So that's not when they were actually built to win, but ironically, it's when they did. And that made it even more difficult with this situation, with this season, because if you

flip the years, think about how different this would be if you flip the years, not from the quarterback perspective, but just from the Vikings. If last year, at this time, they were four and seven, I'm sure that there would be some, oh, man, what the heck is going on? Can COC call plays? Like, there would be some of that. But we would also say, well, this is kind of who they are, right? Like, this is who they were supposed to be.

And Arnold's starting and he sees ghosts or whatever. That's what you would have been saying last year. But 2025, watch out for that. And then if they won 14 games this year, you'd be like, oh, my gosh, They nailed the timeline. They are brilliant. But instead, it's gone the opposite way. And that's so much harder to deal with because you see them win all those games with a quarterback who has a top 10 season.

And now they are 31st in quarterback rating. 31st after being a top 10 passing offense last year with Sam Darnold. And no one would have seen that coming. If last year they were 31st, then yeah, we would have said, of course, yeah, you sign a, Sam Darnold, what do you expect? But it's funny how that ends up working. But the first part of that, I've been told, she said, there were some, she says,

were some concerns about how another year sitting on the bench would affect him. Now, that is interesting. Because if that is part of how they made the decision, don't love that. If that is part of how they made the decision, then it's pretty,

pretty concerning about the actual process. Because for me, the process, I get it. Like, did it make sense? It did. If Kevin O'Connell says, I think he's ready. And Quasi says, all right, I've got the plan. Let's go into free agency. Let's take some big swings.

Let's get some veterans. The ownership says I'm ready to sign off on this plan. It's the same plan that the Eagles use with Jalen Hertz. it's the same plan that the Rams used with Jared Gough early in his career. There's a dozen examples of this, right? Lots of examples of the rookie quarterback contract working San Francisco. San Francisco spent some, made some bad, like bad analytical moves by trading for a running back, signing older players, like, sure they did because they thought if this works for Brock Purdy,

we're going to the Super Bowl and they did. So we've seen it work a lot and the history would point to, yeah, you can elevate even a flawed or limited quarterback. Purdy is flawed. Jalen Hertz is flawed, especially in the NFC, where there is no dominant, or at least there wasn't, Matthew Stafford has been that way this year. But there's no dominant Mahomes, Alan Jackson. Those guys are all over there. So you could see where this would all line up. Where it would suddenly not line up for me is if they were so concerned about J.J. McCarthy behind the scenes of him having to develop for a year that they decided to move on from Sam Darnold to go with him? Because wait a minute. If you saw things last year

that made you so afraid of him sitting and developing behind Sam Darnold because of, and she doesn't say reasons, I don't know the reasons. Is mental state? I don't know. There's no other sentence there. I need another sentence. Like, why? What do you mean? What are you referring to?

I mean, let me read it again. I've been told there were some concerns about how another year would, on the bench, would affect him and would it even help? Well, why would it affect him so much? I mean, he's 22 years old. This is where I need, I need, I just need more. I just need to understand better. Because if that was part of the concern, then you should have brought back,

Sam Darnold for sure if you're worried about can he handle this mentally if he can't handle being on the bench and developing mentally you think he's going to handle the pressure of the national football league you think he's going to handle the pressure of getting destroyed by Micah Parsons and Aidan Hutchinson and all those things so that's that really rose some eyebrows for me both of them that's a two eyebrow riser not just the typical one this is two eyebrows oh really so that's something that I'm interested in what that means, what that means. If it means that they thought that what, he would,

that's why it's hard to figure out. Like, he just, he wouldn't put in the work because they talked a lot about the work that he put in behind the scenes last year. And if that wasn't true, then you really shouldn't have gone with him. But that was what, I mean, we sat there in Florida at the owner's meetings and Mark Wilf said to us, myself, Dane Mizatani, Andrew Kramer, Ben Gessling, Kevin Sefer, also Alec Lewis, all sitting there.

I think we were the ones that went. Sorry if I left anybody out. And so we were having a conversation with Mark Wilf about this. And that was one of the reasons he cited for why they didn't want to get Aaron Rogers and why they wanted to go with J.J. McCarthy was because what they had seen behind the scenes. So taking their word for it, that was part. of my calculation as well of all right well they've got more looks at it than i do take the like i said levar burton uh breeding rainbow fans i guess you take your word for it um so if that wasn't

the case then it becomes a very very questionable decision because we saw aaron rogers do it we saw jordan love do it we saw patrick mahomes do it there's a lot of quarterbacks who carsid Palmer, if you go back a ways, who didn't play right away, and it certainly didn't melt them, a lot of them had a lot of success doing that. So if there was concern that he couldn't handle that another year. And also, when you lose that entire first year, you can strap VR things on his head all you want. It's just not, I don't ever want to hear about that again. I don't ever want to hear about VR ever again, virtual reality. Oh, it's going to help him get ready. Obviously not. Sorry, the dog. But, you know,

So, I mean, look, there's no preparing to play in the NFL. Are you okay? Scratch his bed. Sorry. Hey, settle down. Settle down. I took the toys upstairs, so I think he's frustrated. Anyway, buddy's not intensely into this conversation.

But that, I think, raises questions, though, right there about last off season. And if they, or even throughout last season, if they really did see, what they said they saw. And if they didn't, then it's very, very questionable. If they were thrilled with his work behind the scenes last year and they were thrilled with the 2024 training camp and they believed that he was the guy. And look, I mean, she says in the headline of this article of like the reason that they, or the tease, the reason they went with McCarthy is because they believed in him. It wasn't because of money. It wasn't because Sam cost too much. It was because they bought into him.

those two things kind of conflict to me of, well, fully buying in, but then there's also concerns about whether he could handle being behind Sam Darnold. So I don't know. That one I couldn't quite exactly figure out. Anyway, so Max Brosber is going to start this week. And this kind of shows that football people are just like you. Diana Rossini wrote, I'm told by a scout who liked him in college at New Hampshire,

in Minnesota. He's not flashy, but neither was Brock Purdy, the Purple Purdy, when he got tossed in the fire and won the job. So, you know, look, I was watching Max throw after practice today. And I mean, he throws a nice ball and he looked good when he got in, didn't look over his head when he got into those preseason games. And, you know, Aaron Jones talked about working in practice with him after and just the, The work ethic is very real. So there are, at least according to Diana, even people in the NFL who are saying the same stuff as you. Like, I don't know.

Maybe it could be Brock Purdy. Let me give you the Fandul question of the day. And then we can get your reactions and thoughts on all of this and anything else. You know, there are many other players on the team. There are games. There are things going on. Anybody you want to talk about the punting? It's been fantastic.

I was thinking about writing about how good it's been. I'm guessing probably not. So the line moved on Fandul. to 11.5. Point underdogs for the Minnesota Vikings, that is where we're at right now. That's where they're at as a franchise. Will the Vikings give Seattle a run? Do you think so? Yes or no and why? That's the fan dual question of the day. Do you think, I'm not saying, do you think they'll win? Do you think that they will give them a run for their money with Max Brosmer starting 11.5 point favorites?

So let me get to your questions and thoughts. And we'll have a good conversation that we'll go. So as long as you guys like, as long as you guys want to chat. My plan is to still do a recap after the first two Thanksgiving day games tomorrow. Because why not? That's the plan. Also, Manny has pre-recorded his picking of the schedule. So we'll definitely bring that to you as well. And, you know, like what else would I rather be doing on Thanksgiving than talking more football?

So that's the plan for tomorrow if you're around. Let's start out. Let me scroll all the way back up to. to the beginning here to get to questions and comments. Zumer K.O. Says, being this wrong on McCarthy gives me zero trust in the decision makers. The roster is full of overpaid and overrated players. Every week we're not playing against the guy the Vikings screwed up on.

So, I mean, there is a part of this, like, that I get from you, which is like not trusting their decision making if they believe McCarthy was ready to lead this team and is nowhere close to actually ready to lead this team. you're right about that also one year ago they were sitting here at thanksgiving looking at the top of the division looking at giving Detroit a run looking at putting together a point differential that was similar to Super Bowl caliber teams and all those things and this just kind of speaks to how sometimes you're a genius and sometimes you're a fool when it comes to quarterback play but I can go through so many coaches that have Super Bowls who were

either genius or foolish based on quarterbacks because no one truly knows. That's the reality is no one actually really truly knows. You can have your best guess. Is Shane Steichen really smart or really stupid? I have no idea. They picked Anthony Richardson. They couldn't develop him. And now they're playing really well with Daniel Jones.

But if that falls off, then is it not, then is he a fool again? Like, I don't know. Kyle Shanahan's the one I keep going back to. There's no one better with. quarterbacks than Kyle Shanahan in the entire NFL, Sean McVey, I think gets in this too, but I think Shanahan specifically is like the best of the best. And they picked Trey Lance. Like, can we say, I mean, if you wanted Kyle Shanahan out of San Francisco because they picked Trey Lance, then you wouldn't have gone to the Super Bowl and you wouldn't be in the playoffs right now. I mean, that's, that's the hard

part about all of this is if you're going to base it on one decision, which they were forced into by winning games in the second half of the year with Josh Dobbs that put them in a position and Nick Mullins won that 3-0 game against the Raiders that put them in the position where they had to draft two players but then now look you know as you're saying there was more to it because they found a guy who over the last what two years

I should have added this up in my head maybe I can do it quickly 14 and 3 last year what are they are they 8 and 3 now is a 22 and 6 22 and 6 is that what they are? Sam Darnold over the last two years. So yeah, I mean, his numbers right now, one of the, I believe he has the top

quarterback rating in the entire NFL. So deciding that you should move on from that player, it makes it more than just picking the wrong guy. Now, the overrated and overpaid, I just don't know about that. Because follow with me here.

This is why I've always thought that quarterback wins were really telling. about an individual season and sometimes in the larger samples, and most of the time, in the larger sample size, it tells you a lot. It doesn't, it's not a quarterback rating system of wins or losses, but it tells you a lot. Like the results tell you a lot.

And with great quarterbacks, there's a trickle down. And I think these last two years are really good example of that where you get ahead against the Texans and they're jumping off sides and throwing interceptions and fumbling. and you get ahead against San Francisco and you're able to control the game and you get ahead against Green Bay and you're causing interceptions and fumbles

talking about last year. Well, why is that? Because your quarterback play is really good and the other team is panicking and everyone looks better. Jonathan Grenard looks better. Van Ginkle looks better. Blake Cashman, Harrison Smith.

Everybody looks smarter and more dangerous, Byron Murphy Jr., when you are playing from ahead. It is a completely different football game. When you're playing from behind and you're on the field the entire game and the other team never has to take a risk, never. I mean, how many risks did Jordan Love take in the Green Bay game? He had that fadeaway throw that was honestly pretty cool. And none others.

They were to the sideline. They were quick releases. Did he throw a ball downfield in the entire game? I don't think so. Why is that? Because they're winning. You make a special team's mistake. You get terrible quarterback play.

And the other team just controls the game. game. And everybody else looks bad. And so I don't, I think that a lot of these players, the defensive tackles specifically would be looking a lot better. I don't think they've been bad. I think that they would look a lot better if they got chances to pin their ears back. I think Dallas Turner would look better if he got more chances to be a dynamic rush piece instead of having to set edges all game long, which is not really the thing that they brought him here for. So the quarterback impacts absolutely everything. And you make a mistake as a special teams unit, usually that shouldn't just ruin the entire game. But it does when this is the level of quarterback play that you have.

So I think that a lot of players, if we went through it on an individual player for player basis, yeah, I think there's a few that we could say, all right, that's not where that player expected to be. But a lot of the most expensive players on this team have played well. Clearly, Jefferson can't throw it to himself. Hawkinson can't throw it to himself. Darisaw's been banged up. Brian O'Neill's had a great year. I mean, Aaron Jones, since he's come back, has run well. Like, there's, there was an opportunity here for sure if they had had average quarterback

play to be a very good team. And they just weren't. So I can't say that just, I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater here is, I think, the right phrase. Like, I don't want to just throw everyone out and say everyone on the team stinks because you're not using any context. I think you do have to contextualize that through. the, you know, lens of having really, really bad

quarterback play. BM says there's a 99% chance that Brosmer sucks, but I'm standing on the 1%. Pie chart, who wants a pie chart? I will not go with 99 and 1%. I don't think like, and I get what you're saying, and you're being funny, but like, I don't think it's just the, we need more options than just sucks or is

amazing. So let's work with he's incredible and they win the game as our first one. Number two is that he's reasonably good and they don't win. Number three is it didn't really upgrade anything at all. And number four is, oh my gosh, don't ever rewatch that football game. I would go a 10% chance that he's just awesome. A 30% chance that it's an upgrade. And it feels really good, seeing him play and get the ball out on time and get it to the playmakers.

Hey, maybe my prediction for this game is this one. It's 2414. Brosmer keeps him in the game. Maybe there's a miscue or maybe there's a good drive by Seattle that kind of closes it out. But it's a good football game. Brosmer plays reasonably well. I'll go 30% there. I'll go 50% that it's just not a major upgrade because you've got to be reasonable there.

So that puts us at 40, 50, 9. and I'll say a 10% chance that it's just completely unwatchable. That's the way I'm going to go with it. I think that they hang in this game and they play reasonably well on an offense, but man, if Matthew Stafford couldn't move the ball effectively with all that he's got going on for him and McVeigh,

it's going to be really hard for Max Brosmer. So there's your pie chart. Yours is 99 and 1. Oh, man. Paul says, He talks four times a week, but none of you journalists actually ask him the questions you ask here. Is J.J. ever going to make it? Is he seeing real progress? Well, we've asked about JJ's progress probably 400 times over the last two years. So I'm going to toss that part out of it. Is J.J. going to make it? I suppose is a reasonable question.

But one of the things that we always try to consider is the answers. Like, do I ask the same questions as I ask here? If I'm asking as a topic type of question for us to all talk about, like, is he going to make it? And then I go through all of my numbers, history, research, what I've seen tape, QB school, Kurt Warner's tape breakdown, all that sort of thing and try to answer that question. I don't think that Kevin O'Connell is in a position at the podium to answer that in any way that is going to help us answer it. but it will happen like that will be a question that's asked for sure at some point i mean if that's the question that you want asked do you think j j's going to make it there's a different time to ask that than probably right now it will get asked that's my point is like he's not no one's going anywhere we got the same seven people who cover the team and the same coach and we're going to ask

a lot of questions about j j mccarthy i promise because i i was thinking about that earlier when i got the angry tweet maybe it was from you i was just thinking like is there are there more questions to ask about j j mccarthy are there more because we've asked every question every step of the way so is he going to make it is your question well it'll get it'll get asked but one of the problems with ask is that kevin o'connell doesn't have the full sample size to work with he doesn't have the full season to say that he's got six games which i think is probably the answer from him and i'm sure he has his opinion but he's not going to share it publicly I think we could get more insight into that later.

That would be my thought process, but, you know, other people are open to ask it if they want. I think, uh, that would be my thing. Uh, BM says, I clowned on Rossini and Chase Daniel this off season. Turns out I owe them apology. I mean, I guess like the, uh, reporting of the off season, the thing that I think for me was a little odd. And, uh, by the way, one of my really good friends, uh, actually produces their show. and loves working with them and everything else. And I respect Diana, really, of course, you know how I feel about journeyman quarterback.

So there's no disrespect. It's just like how I took this was we were reporting having been there for every step of the way that like, yeah, this was their plan. Their plan was always to go to JJ. Like this all makes sense. And I think the thing that that threw me off is probably the same thing as what I was reading earlier, which is, well, some in the building were worried if he had to sit. But on to the next sentence, you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, why?

Why? What are you saying? And there was a lot of that when the Rogers stuff came up. It was like, well, some people think they should go with Rogers because of, you know. And it was like, what? And there wasn't more. I mean, I don't think that it's turning out this way means you owe an apology. I mean, I think Vikings fans were really pining for J.J. McCarthy. And that it could have been almost anyone that they were reporting was going to come back.

because don't nobody can pretend in Viking land as far as fans that you all didn't want Sam Darnold thrown over the cliff it was trust me I mean the con go back and look at the comment sections when I brought it up I mean it was ruthless and that's why I started calling it I'm not mocking him but sort of mocking the situation and the reaction to calling him myth carthy because there was this created thing from him being out and Darnold where every time you would say, hey, maybe they should bring back Sam Darnold. The reaction was, did you know that McCarthy won a national championship? He's going to be so clutch.

You're going to hate yourself forever suggesting Darno could come back. And I'm like, oh, no, sorry. Go look. That's what happened. And so I think she could have reported anyone, anyone that would have offered any sort of competition. If Daniel Jones had stayed here and took a single first team rep, I think you guys would have gone to his house with pitchforks. That's just what was happening.

and the feeling about McCarthy that had been created. And some of that was also from Kevin O'Connell calling him the franchise quarterback. That the way they talked about him was never, guys, he's not there yet, but we can't afford Sam and we're going to go with Daniel Jones as the backup or whatever it might have been. It was, this is our guy, all in. And so I think that it's when they created that feeling, of like, this is not only going to be a good quarterback, but he's good, he has this, this extra to him beyond what Sam Darnold had.

He has these things that are better about him, that that's the reason you're, you're tossing aside someone who was so good for you, that anybody that they reported the Vikings wanted to start would have made everyone angry. I also think that it was such a bad idea. Like, her reporting that they were talking to Aaron Rogers was 100% correct. It was the framing that was odd to me just because there was this sort of disconnect between like the confidence in which it was being reported that like, wink, wink, like this is going to happen?

And I'm like, is it going to happen? Because it doesn't seem like it's going to happen. So I think that was the disconnect for me. But also, it was a bad idea. It remains a bad idea. Maybe the Vikings are six in five with Aaron Rogers. Well, where does that get you? The thing about Darnold, which is so.

different is that if he came back and they were eight and three right now and he was leading the league in quarterback rating for the Minnesota Vikings, you'd be like, you got your franchise quarterback. And sorry, J.J. McCarthy, but now that might get you a first round draft pick, right? Like, you've got your guy. He's special. He's exceptional. He's playing at that level where you sign him to a contract extension, right? Like, that's where he would be. And that's what we always talked about with Kirk. It's not that you can't ever pay anyone. It's that if you do, they've got to play at a certain level. To me, leading the entire league and quarterback rating is probably that level.

But, you know, that's why that one made sense, but Rogers didn't to me. Like, what was the ceiling on Rogers? The ceiling on Darnold coming back, he had already won 14 games. Like we saw, the ceiling is very, very high, get a better playoff matchup or something, right? I don't know, right? And I've never believed, based on the history, that some quarterbacks are just predisposed to being awful in the playoffs. There's way too many guys that have brushed a,

side that narrative. So, and also there's way too many greats who have been bad in the playoffs. I mean, you know, is Patrick Mahomes clutch? I don't know. He wasn't in 2020, but he sure was. Or is he ready for the big games? I don't know. Like, of course you could say yes, but he's also lost some in horrible fashion.

And so is Justin Herbert. And so is Jordan Love and a lot of other guys that, you know, are leading teams to the playoffs year in and year out. That's kind of the point there. But you could also see if Darnold struggled. then, okay, he's not the guy. And like, it gave you time to evaluate everybody. That was the difference.

With Rogers, it would just be like a band-aid for a season that you probably still won't get that good of play from him. So anyway, I know that that's, you know, not your point. But, I mean, look, if you feel like you owe them an apology, but I also think that there was a very clear reason why fans were not receptive to Diana's reporting in the offseason. Some of it was the framing. a lot of it was that you just, you didn't want to hear anybody else's name.

And she could have been reporting that Fav was coming out, you know, of retirement to come back. She could have, it just, it wouldn't have mattered. It was like, McCarthy's the guy. You've already bought your jerseys. You've already, you're already all in. And you didn't want to hear that Darnold was coming back. You didn't want to hear it was Daniel Jones. You didn't want to hear it was Rogers.

And that's not on you. Like, that's what was created. And he was a first round draft pick. And everything that was said about him was so. like overwhelmingly convincing even to myself and you guys, and even my own reporting from the training camp was convincing and his performance was convincing that they probably made the right move at that time.

And now here we are, you know, 12 weeks later and they didn't. So I don't know. I would say that just in general, though, like sending nasty things to people who report stuff, it's not, that's not good. That's not good. let's see let's see it can always be worse right says yeah that is true uh walter how could brosmer do any worse than j j mccarthy fair point uh i mean you're you're talking about the dead last

in the league so uh let's see bruno not sure i believe koc on anything anymore hoping max plays well yeah that's my whole point is that when you watch the game back even against the packers it's out there the opportunities are out there I wrote today, if I want to go check it out, Purpleinsider dot football. I wrote today about the clean pocket dropbacks from McCarthy. So throw out the pressured ones, throw out where they're just killing the offensive line after Derrissaw and Jackson go out. Just look at the clean pocket dropbacks.

The timing is just awful. I mean, there's no anticipation on the throws. There's hesitation. There's double clutching. There's not believing in his own read that's supposed to be there a bunch of times. And there's not a whole how you could do that. if Brosmer even throws it to the right places. And that's where I think that it feels like the regression has happened in his confidence over the last couple weeks is just, I thought that early on against the bears and against the lions that, and even I wouldn't even say it was that horrible against Atlanta, but against the lions, he was throwing to a lot of the right spots and there was some mistakes that were made.

But it looked like the plays were being mostly executed how they were supposed to be. And as he struggled, it got worse. And that just devolved. And that's where, you know, when West Phillips said yesterday about how, like, part of being a pro athlete is working through stuff like this, I think that was a bit of a challenge to J.J. McCarthy. Like, yeah, man, like this is the league. And you can't regress and regress and regress if you're getting criticized or you're

struggling. Like, you've got to have the fortitude to battle through that. And that's why, I mean, mental toughness, man. And it's a hard thing to figure until you're actually out there. let's see just your average vikes fan did j jay regress due to brosemarks selling and hearing the talks amongst other players no i mean i think if anything uh the defenses he played got more confusing um i don't think that detroit is very confusing and i think that uh chicago was fairly straightforward in the first week like they ran some stunts and stuff at him but they also used his legs uh they got some guys wide open and they struggled for three quarters

anyway. To me, the biggest thing is, and I was looking at my friend Cody Alexander who does an amazing job, if you're a football coach and you're not reading match quarters, go, go do that because it's going to make you smarter. Cody is a former football coach who now does content breaking down defenses and it's mind-blowing. He showed one pressure where the Packers lined up in one thing and then switched to another thing and then had this variation on it. And it was like, okay. That's too much. That's too much for me. I'm out. And I mean, if you're supposed to pick that apart at 22 years old with no experience playing before, I mean, I think that's really tough. And what every team is done, whether it's the Ravens or the Bears or the Packers,

they've all just shown deceptive coverages against him. And that's been really what's caused it, I think. It's caused a lot of the hesitation is because you can't just walk to the line a scrimmage and read the defense in 2025, that is not how it works. You will not know what defensive look you're going to face. You have to figure it out after the snap, which causes hesitation. Am I really seeing Tampa 2? Am I really, which now is back, by the way. Like teams are using Tampa 2 all the time.

They didn't use that for years. So all of a sudden, this defense that was completely out is now back in. And Tampa 2 is when you play cover 2. the corners are over there on each side, but they play a zone. And then the linebacker will run back into a deep zone. And it's actually, if you look for it, it's kind of funny to watch. Like, he'll just be like, I'm going to be a linebacker. And then where's it going?

He's running back into that deep zone. And, you know, teams didn't use that a lot when the underneath and the crossers were killing it. So, you know, they now that's, you know, what they're doing. Because the reason that was put in was by Tampa Bay. to stop the greatest show on turf because they used all these like posts and stuff over the middle of the field.

So they started dropping a linebacker back into the coverage into the middle of the field to make that harder, right? For them to do. So that's, I mean, wow, right? Like that's a lot to process at that point. So I think that that's been the main thing. I don't know that it's Brozmer and him here in footsteps or whatever else it might be.

I think it's probably more just that defenses are very, very hard. to pick apart. And what you have to do in the NFL, and there's a great example of this for a play on Sunday, what you have to do in the NFL is throw to a spot where currently no one is and just believe that your receiver is going to be there. So put yourself in the helmet, drop back to pass, and then freeze. Now look around and your receiver is not out of his break yet. And there are two defenders near his, I'm describing this play. Justin Jefferson's going straight up the sideline and there's a safety over the top of him and there is a corner underneath him. Now, he's going to run an out route where he juke's inside and then breaks out.

The defender underneath him, the corner, his leverage, he is facing toward the rest of the field. So what you have to do in that moment as a quarterback is throw it to a spot where no one is currently and he's double-teamed and the two guys are right near him knowing that he's going to break out to that spot and they don't know that and he's going to be able to catch it. And how fast do you have to do it? Lightning fast. Lightning fast, you have to make that decision.

And then you've got to put enough arc on the ball so only he can catch it, but they can't catch it. but if you're putting arc on the ball, you have to throw it slower. So that means it's got to be just cruising through the air as these two defenders are right there. It's really, really hard to do. It's really, really hard to do. So what he ends up doing is then coming off that read and going back to the other side of the field for a checkdown to T.J. Hawkinson and he gets murdered. Sam Darnold makes that throw. Drew Brees makes that throw. I saw them debating it on the internet.

Connor Stallions is somehow involved. but whatever my interpretation of that just to use it as an example i don't know kevin o'connell didn't tell me this so maybe i have it wrong but i've seen this throw made in the viking system many times where they know jefferson's getting double team so they've created ways to get him away from it but it takes anticipation this is why some people have asked like why was nick mullins able to do this and not mccarthy because nick mullins believed in the throw he believed Jefferson's going to go there and get it and sometimes he threw it to the other team because it was inaccurate,

but a lot of times it actually kind of worked. BM says Justin Jefferson is a fantastic captain. And but I'm worried he's going to crack soon. You know, Justin, you could tell it was very frustrated today, for sure. He has been over the years this exact same way. 2021, I believe we gave him the media good guy. I mean, personally, I think he's made a really good case for it again because of the way he's handled all of this. I haven't decided who my vote's going to be for, but that's, there's a lot in this locker.

It's great locker room. But, you know, the way Justin's handled all this in such a, I mean, he answers the questions, but he's not throwing people under the bus. He's not, you know, getting defensive or anything like that. It's exactly how you would dream up that your star handles it. But where you're right is, like, there's only so much that a point. player of this caliber can watch Jackson Smith, the Jigba and George Pickens and these other wide receivers that he's as good as get these big numbers and everything else and be like,

oh, it's fine. I'm here for the team. Like, I think that that's more next year. I, it feels like he has, um, you know, is at a point where he is accepted kind of what happened this year. But there's a lot of pressure for next year on everybody. And, you know, we will have. a long time to talk about that. But after after this, yeah, there's a lot of pressure on every, everybody. Ryan says Kirk made it clear. KOC's offense was not easy. It was a major challenge in 2022. You know, that's true. But at the same time, Sam Darnold learned it last year. I got, you know, I think, I do think that Kevin O'Connell's offense asks a lot of the quarterback. I think we know that. But also, you have to understand, Kirk was playing in the same kind

of rooted system for a really long time and he struggled when DeFilippo came in. He struggled when KOC came in because it was a lot of different stuff. And it did take him a while. He also won 13 games the year that it took him a while. So, I mean, we can't act like he completely melted from who he was previously. You know, I think that there was adjustments made last year for Sam Darnel. Like, that was a long time before 2025. And if I had to guess, KOC probably came in with every idea he'd ever had and was like, I'm going to do it. And that's where it got to be a lot.

But my issue hasn't been with J.J. McCarthy, like, in the complexity of the offense, it's entirely for me, how long you're on a read and do you throw the ball on time? And that's why you keep hearing it, feet and eyes. But that's why I think if Max Brousmer throws the ball where it's supposed to go and the timing, it's supposed to happen, they're going to have success, at least some. But when that's not happening at all, then I'm not sure what was supposed to be done. I've watched every single pass on the all 22, probably multiple times. I've watched every single recap of all these things.

And it always keeps coming down to the same stuff. Just let me give you an example. Kurt Warner pointed this out in his breakdown, which was great. And there was some stuff about, you know, play calling in the scheme and different, like, is this the progression and stuff like that. But when he missed the screen pass to Aaron Jones, Kerr Warner pointed out that they are seven yards away from each other and McCarthy reached his arm all the way back to throw this ball like he needed to throw it 40 yards down the field. And then he just misses him. And Kurt's point was the more that you're asking

of your arm, think about a golf swing. Is it easier to hit it straight when you choke up a little and you have a short swing or is it easier when you try to bring it all the way back like, I don't know, John Daly or something, all the way back and swing, like all the way around. No, you're probably going to be more accurate, unless you're a freak like John Daly, but even he was pretty wild off the tea with all that going on, right? Whereas a lot of the best golfers today, Bryson DeCambeau, it's pretty simple. Like, yeah, he gets it back when he's driving, but it's pretty straightforward. That's a little dart that you can throw, like you saw Carson Wentz do this a few times. Like, you could just pop that right to him.

So for me, there's so many technical things that are happening there that I don't think, oh, he's just, he was lost with this complex scheme. I think it was the stuff that's right in front of us. And I actually think that about everything regarding the McCarthy situation and Darnold. I actually think that everything is kind of straightforward. Like you're asking for, you know, the McCarthy trials here during these press conferences, but it's like, what is it that we don't know? what is it that hasn't been explained, whether it was the timeline, the decision from that started in 2022 was to get to this point and draft a quarterback in 2024 to, you know, the progress that he made early on to what he showed behind the scenes according to them, maybe not necessarily according to, you know, Diana's report, but that's been set out there. And now it's like, well, what's wrong with him? What's wrong with him? What's wrong with him?

It's like it's inexperience. It's a lack of touch. It's a lack of timing. I don't know what often, after the last two weeks, I don't know what offense works where, what offense exists in the NFL where guys are running wide open out of their breaks and they're missed. And you're like, oh, that's on the play caller. It's like, he even threw it to the right place. And it was just not, you know, accurate.

So this to me with J.J. McCarthy, it's all experience. It's all how much. And this is why, like, there is a case to, you know, get them right back onto the field. you know, maybe other, depending on, like, how you feel about it, there's another angle where you could say it's just better to call it right now and play Max and see what he's got. If it's decent, just keep playing Max.

I don't know where they stand on that. But he just needs to play a lot more football in a world. This is the conundrum in a world where you don't get an opportunity. It's not like you could send him to NFL Europe or something. And they only sent like undrafted guys there anyway back in the day. there's no developmental league, there's no, the only way to do it is to do it the way that they refuse to do it, which is to develop them behind the scenes,

which now suddenly becomes the right way to do it for J.J. McCarthy. I think he's so far away that he should not start next year and take his red shirt year next year and then give it a shot. But that just doesn't work with anything. And that's why you see some quarterbacks pop up five years later after they've been given up on and suddenly they're a decent quarterback because they needed that develop it but no one had time for it. And the only time you actually see something like that is probably like 15 years ago or the quarterback like Caleb Williams or Cam Ward, they just

play through the bad times, but you can't play through the bad times here. You could do that in Tennessee. That's why there's conflicting things about this situation. Let's see. The not N-I-G-E, sorry if I have that wrong. Based on the bar, McCarthy has set, by default, Brozmer is going to play better. My question is, what do you do if Brosmer operates the offense more efficiently? Personally, I would just keep playing him. Look, this isn't a charity, man.

Like, you got to play the better player. If that's Max Brosmer, then you got to play him. I think you're disrespecting Justin Jefferson and Aaron Jones and these guys who put everything into this, Jordan Addison and are great players, if you're going to play somebody who gets 87 yards over someone who operates the offense efficiently, that's wrong.

I think that's wrong. Like if Brozmer is good, you should keep playing Brosmer. Because also, there's enough examples of the guy, freaking Kirk was one of them, right? Kirk was a guy who was better than the starter who was drafted really high, and that's how he made his career.

They had to keep, they had to keep playing. him in Washington like he's better than this guy it happens that sometimes someone else on the roster actually turns out to be better and i think brosemar does have a chance to go in there and if he gets i mean if justin jefferson walks out of seattle with 120 yards and a touchdown i can't go back to j jay mccarthy you just can't and you guys mentioned like how important jefferson is to this you just you just can't go back to somebody who couldn't get him the ball at all in any of the games. And that's another thing that's really disturbing

is that everyone who's played, you could talk about this system being complicated or not. Everyone who's played has had no problem getting the ball to 18. Like if you're a pro quarterback, you could get the ball to 18. And he hasn't been able to do it. So if Brosmer does,

then he continues to play. For me, that's how I would do it. Let's see, Zumer, K.O., the only goal for the C-Sysit is to get Jets to a thousand yards. I think Brosmer could do it. That's all right.

That's all right with me. Yeah. I mean, if that's, if he's playing better, then he should continue to play. Let me give you a reminder about that Fandul question of the day. The Vikings are now 11.5 point underdogs. Will they give Seattle a run for their money and why if you think so or not? Let's see. Zoom or chaos is we have Purple Insiders singled out signing Darnold.

So the Vikings don't deserve that much credit for him. That is actually true that when they, signed Darnold, that was in like my preview article for free agency. It was something that I had advocated. I agree. So we get the credit, actually. That's, that, it's me. I did it.

Good. No, but look, you know, there were, there were other options. And Kevin O'Connell picked the one that had upside and he was right. I think the fact that, you know, they've had multiple offenses that were right around the top 10 with quarterbacks that weren't necessarily thought of as being top 10 quarterbacks is probably something to hang your hat on. But look, I mean, you could also say, and it's fair to say, that Sam Darnold may have just been this good.

And he was so held back by his previous regimes that he had been with that it just didn't show until. And he also, here's the other thing, too, he also got way better at football himself. And this is something that Kirk said to me once. and as well, it's always stuck with me is Kirk said in the NFL, you better develop yourself. You know, we're thinking of O'Connell as the development, the QB Whisper, all that sort of stuff, but you got to develop yourself. And, you know, whether that's in the off season or, you know, learning during the season,

it's very clear that Sam Darnold developed himself and got a lot better. And now that he's doing this in Seattle, it does look bad for them because it looks like you didn't realize that this was actually him. You didn't, after watching all those games and being around him all last year, like you didn't know that this guy was this good, that this was really him, that it wasn't a fluke, that it wasn't, but that's a lot easier to do in hindsight. Because as I mentioned, like, nobody, nobody's a fortune teller. Nobody's a fortune teller when it comes to quarterbacks.

Think about, think about like Dick Vermil, one of the greatest coaches of all time, right? He started Trent Green. Didn't they trade for Trent Green from maybe Washington? he started Trent Green over Kurt Warner. Kurt Warner won the frigate Super Bowl only because he got hurt. Like that's that's one of the best stories of all time of like none of us know nothing when it comes to quarterbacks. Let's see. Bruno says,

what do you want to see from Brosmer this weekend to consider him playing again? Don't say 88 yards past. That's a good one. That's funny. 90? 90 yards passing? No, I, what I'd like to see. see for Max Brosmer is all the things that he's been talked about as being good at.

And this is the story I'm working on. I'm sure those of you who watch press conferences, notice that I asked Jefferson and Hawkinson and Aaron Jones about processing. And that's what I'm really interested in is, like, what is it? What does it mean? I know what the definition is, but how do they view it, right? The guys who are actually out there got some really great answers from those guys today. And I appreciate that.

But I want to see that come to life with Brosmer. I don't need him to throw for 250 and four touchdowns, but you'd like to see it come to life in terms of he read a defense, he delivered an anticipation ball, and the guy made the play, and they got a 14-yard gain, and then they went up to the line of scrimmage, and they ran a play action, and he made a smart decision underneath, and even if something goes wrong, he takes a sack, he fumbles, he throws a pick, gets back on the horse, makes another good decision. I have said this before about Tom Brady, I'll always believe it. The reason Tom Brady was so hard to beat was that he made right decision after right decision after right decision after right decision. There's chess players. Those of you who listen to the show all the time,

no, I like the game of chess, and I follow the high-level chess. The best chess player of all time is not exciting to watch, Magnus Carlson. He's really not. He plays the right way over and over and over and over and over again and has no ego about it. And that I think was what was great about Tom Brady.

That, look, if I have to throw a square out to Wes Welker 43 times in a row in this game and not have a single highlight, I will do it to win. And I think you'd like to see, here's my standard. Max Rosmer, play like Tom Brady. If you don't, anything else is a failure. That's a joke. You can clip that and put it on social media.

purple insider says the point is just that like for a guy like him decision making can work really really good decision making and accurate throws or even semi-accurate when it comes to these receivers can get you a long way i really think that's why kirk cousins had an NFL career because we could throw a good deep ball but i think he just made good decisions with the football and was accurate enough to get receivers the ball and then he played with Deshawn Jackson, Stefan Diggs, Adam Thielen, and Justin Jefferson. Well, Brozmer's going to have a couple good receivers. So make good decisions.

Get the ball out of your hands, especially get the ball out of your hands because his safety matters a lot as well. And that is a very dangerous team. So Jerry says if you go with Brosmer or McCarthy, Jefferson will pack his bags. Well, look, I think we've gone far enough at this point to say confidently that, they will be looking at other options this offseason. In fact, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, I need to make this for a different headline, actually. I need to make this for like to get, you know, look, we're going to, we're going to rake for clicks. It's a tough time out there with this season.

But Jeremy Fowler did say the Vikings could be interested in bringing Daniel Jones back, which, wow, right? But that's, you know, he's going to be a free agent. I think he signed a one year deal. I don't know. But, you know, to your point, it just. Justin Jefferson wants the guy that's going to give him the best chance to win. And I know that Jefferson wants a thousand yards and he wants to be the reason that they win.

And he always will be. So there's no controversy about that. But at this point in his career where he's set records and gotten a lot of accolades and commercials and everything else, I mean, the dude wants to be in the playoffs and win a playoff game. I mean, he wants yards and he wants receptions like anybody else. But I think that's what's really killing him this year is he thought that this was a year to win. and it has not been so whoever can win games for them is going to be the the person that you know he wants to be to be with at quarterback uh bm says clinkubiac has a higher rate

offense the kOC has ever had in his tenure for the vikings he does yeah uh you know that uh and we'll see how that plays out for the entire season what are they rank they're in the are they in the top five in terms of offense it's a great it's a tried and true offensive scheme. Kubiak, Shanahan, they've been doing this for years. They have mastered this thing. They've passed it through the generations. And even I would say for Clint Kubiak in 2021,

maybe it would have been better for him with the Vikings had his head coach not hated all things quarterback. Maybe that would have gone a little better for Clint Kubiak. But one thing I noticed about Clint in 2021 with Kirk Cousins is that he actually got rid of the football pretty quick. and I've noticed this, let me call this up, see if I can get the numbers on this, because I've noticed it just watching, but I want to see if this matches up, that I think that Darnold's been getting rid of the ball a lot quicker this year.

I'm going to see if that's right. It looks that way. Yeah. So, Darnold is, and this is where, this is where nobody can be totally left off, you know, the criticism or nothing. Like, I've pushed back against, hey, it's his scheme and everything else, that kind thing like because guys are open they're there to the plays are there to be made and even the throws are going in the direction they're just not hitting the guys but sam darnold is getting

rid of the ball the eighth fastest in the NFL this year i believe he was the slowest in 2024 let me check got my pff up here let me check for last year he was the third slowest in the first and second are running quarterbacks so there is something to this offense that requires the quarterback to hang on to the ball a little bit longer, I think, or that causes, causes or requires, I'm not sure which one. The other part is that Darnold made a lot of plays out of structure where he did scramble around a lot.

There are longer bootlegs where he was rolling and rolling and rolling that are going to take more time, but still, that's a big difference. 3.06 to 2.69. That's a big difference. I mean, that's a third of a second in terms of throwing the ball, which is a huge gap. So I think that they've really set things up brilliantly for him and maybe simplified it from where KOC was at to build off of the run, to put it on the number one wide receiver. They did a great job of that with when Gary Kubiak was here in 2020 of getting opportunities for Justin Jefferson.

So there's something to that. There's definitely something to that. I think what Clint comes along with is just the Shanahan background. Remember, he was with Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco. at the same time as Sam Darnold. So those two have a connection there. And like if you're running the 2023 San Francisco 49ers offense, it's a pretty good offense.

Pretty pretty pretty good. But you know, maybe there is something there. This is why it's so hard to pick apart, right? It's so hard to pick apart because is it just the quarterback playing this poorly? Is there something else? I don't think you could go from 87 yards to 250 and beating the Packers. I just don't think that's possible. And against the Bears, they built off the run.

They had a lot of simplified stuff. But is there something that they do in that Shanahan and Kubiak system to really make it very straightforward for the quarterback where he's getting rid of the ball faster? Because Darnold does tell a story there with his quicker snap to release. It's a good observation by you. Newt says, afraid of Kwayze blowing our upcoming draft. and beyond. Well, we're a long way from the draft, so, you know, we'll see on that. Look, did they pick Donovan Jackson or not? I mean, I don't know. Like, we've gone through this many, many times. But if they pick in the top 10, putting it on one person, and that's always weird to me, too, because the coaches are really involved in who to pick. And they all decided on Donovan Jackson. They picked him. He's been great. And he looks to me, this guy is like 22 years old. looks to me that in the next two, three, four years, he could grow into one of the best guards in the entire NFL.

He's got that potential. They drafted him. I don't know. Dallas Turner is looking, I think, a lot better the last couple of weeks and has put together a much better season than last year. There's progress there. Like, I'm not saying that their, um, their draft record has been good because of course, it has not.

And they traded away a ton of picks. They didn't have that many. They didn't trade down after, uh, getting scared away from that in the first draft where they completely blew it, although, you know, everyone assumes they were picking Kyle Hamilton. If they picked James and Williams, it might have felt a lot different and then they wouldn't have Jordan Addison and, you know, on and on down the line. But, you know, the point is just that if you're drafting in the top 10, it's usually pretty

darn clear who the top 10 players are going to be, and you're just taking one of them and hoping, the one that you feel like fits the best for your team. So it's not one guy, dog. it's not one guy who's sitting in his office being like he emerges quacy he's in his office and he's looking and he's got the numbers and then he emerges and he says take the corner like that's not that's not how it works the odds of taking a better player if you draft in the top 10 you're never going to believe this are way better than if you pick someone at 17 so I don't know just don't trade all the way down to the back of the draft that's probably the better idea

uh let's see don says uh it would be very minnesota to finally draft a high franchise quarterback then end up with an undrafted becoming the man you are absolutely right and trust me everyone has had that thought everyone has had that thought yep yep that would be the very most thing to happen. Although, you know, I don't know, Anthony Edwards turned out pretty good. They finally drafted a number one guy who could be a franchise player. You're going to need a little more from him soon. Uh, let's see. Zach says, had to turn off your podcast with Mandy and Murph can't handle the revisionist history. Same people who were saying last year, it was an anomaly. That is a lie. That is a lie. What you just said is not true at all. This is not the

same people who said it was anomaly. That is absolutely false. These things are on the internet still. You can go watch them. That is not true at all. I was literally getting attacked nonstop for even suggesting that maybe a playoff game wasn't the best thing to evaluate an entire quarterback off of. I was not saying at all that this was an anomaly as they were beating the AFC South. Yes, that was helping. But that was not. That was not this show, bro. This was not this show. And also, it's not revisionist history to go back and be like, hey, remember that unbelievable quarterback performance you got? Maybe you should have stuck with that. That's not insane. That's not revisionist. Revisionist would be if you said, you know what, maybe they should

have taken Bo Nix. Now, that's revisionist history because J.J. McCarthy was a better prospect coming out by most people's rankings than Bo Nix. That did not seem to be a great fit for the Vikings, Bo Nix. He had thrown a ton of short passes, and I was okay with him, but, you know, if they had picked him, I would have said, all right, well, here we go. But he was not like an intermediate type, tight window type of passer. He was not super sharp down the field, and he was older. And so they decided to take the kid who had the big arm, great athleticism, and was also

more moldable and fixable than someone who was almost 25 years old. So that made sense. or however old Bo was. He was 24, 25, whatever he was. That would be revisionist if you were sitting here saying Bo Nix. You had a guy who threw for your franchise for one of the best seasons that this franchise ever seen from a quarterback and had you fighting for the division with a team that won 15 games on the last day of the season and tossed them out the window.

Like, that's not, that's not revisionist history. That's, hey, maybe that's pretty questionable. I mean, I know. I know nobody wants to hear it because all last year, uh, Vikings fans couldn't wait to get rid of Sam Darnold. And now that looks the not so good if you want to go back through it. If you want to go back through it, there, there was, there was not as much joy as there should have been during a 14 win season because

everybody actually wanted J.J. McCarthy playing because they had become convinced that he was the instant perfect franchise quarterback. Ben Gessling and I went to a. concert. Joe Bonamasa, who's a really good guitar player. We went and saw him in downtown Minneapolis. And we were chatting before the concert. We were saying, like, what's up with these fans this year? Like, man, they're winning all these games. Darnold's been really great. And like maybe they've got their quarterback. And what's, what's everybody so down on them for? And it felt like after they had beat Atlanta that, you know, there's a lot of coming around to how good

they were. And, you know, they had the point differential. And they beat Green Bay. which was the height of that whole thing. But even still, weighing over that was the people who did not want Sam Darnold to be their future franchise quarterback. Someone had said in the comments before I got froze that it sounds like I'm out on J.J. McCarthy. I think what I am out would be too strong is, one, looking at just history. It is what it is.

Like when you have quarterbacks who have played this poorly, historically, they just don't end up still getting chances. They usually end up like Anthony Richardson or Trey Lance or Josh Rosen. They don't get four or five years to keep trying it. I mean, they're usually out pretty quickly. And that's realistic to think that that might be the case here with J.J. McCarthy. Where I am is, all right, let's say he comes back and plays, say, looks a little bit better. but I have, here's where I have reached the point.

So I'm not calling him a bust. I'm not saying his career is over. What I'm saying is you've reached a point where J.J. McCarthy cannot be your only option for 2026. That's where I am. Not to say that it's over or that he couldn't make massive improvements for next year and so forth and become the guy and be a good quarterback someday. But you cannot see someone play quarterback like this for this.

for this period of time and be like, no, no, he's fine. It's still going well. He's just a young quarterback. He's going to be great. That's just, that's out the window for me. If it was after the first two games, yeah, three games, okay. The fourth game is, or the third game is really good or at least good enough. And then, you know, the next one is tough.

So, no, I mean, there was no, like, calling it or saying I'm out or it's over. It's really just we've reached the point where I'm out on him being the only one in training camp next year and I think that the odds, just how I look at everything is always kind of odds based. What are the chances of X, Y, and Z? And the odds of him not starting next year went from after the Lions game, you know, I don't know, 10% chance to 90% chance or 80 or 75% chance right now. They've shot up enormously after the way that things have played out. So that's kind of where I stand is that those odds have just really, really increased in the recent weeks. And I would be, I think, crazy to not point that out. Like, I wouldn't be doing

my job, not to point out what history says about guys who play like this. Uh, pie chart season. There you go. Uh, should I, uh, Kerplupy, should I start Addison and PPR? That's the real question. That's a great question. Um, I, I think that the answer is probably yes. I think, I think that the answer is probably yes. Because that's going to be the main goal for Max Brozmer. What everyone's going to tell them is get the freaking ball to these wide receivers.

But I also think that, you know, look, if you've got Addison and you're considering not playing him, whoever your other option is has got to be a pretty darn good player. But I think they're going to really push the ball to these guys in this game. And whether it results in huge point totals, I don't know. But I think it could result in a lot of completions, at least. And this is what Kevin O'Connell is banged the drum for us, complete passes. And Max did that in college.

He completed a lot of throws. I mean, he didn't always push the ball down the field. I think his yards per attempt was under seven yards per attempt at Minnesota. But if you average six and a half yards per attempt and you complete 25 passes in Jefferson and Addison get the football, I mean, you've probably succeeded. Um, reminder on the fan dual question of the day, Vikings 11.5 point underdogs. That line moved probably because McCarthy's not starting. You can insert your own snark there.

Uh, will they give Seattle a run and why? Uh, KFT says, uh, if Rosemort struggles behind a leaky offensive line, then they should play McCarthy next year. And if he fails, then 2027 will be loaded with some high QBs. They do not have time for that. They just truly do not have time. They just, they don't. They have to win next year.

If you have no playoff wins as Kevin O'Connell at this point, you got to be in that conversation. You got to be in the playoffs next year. So you have to pick a quarterback. And the same thing goes for Jefferson. You don't have time to just be like, hey, Justin, just wait around, wait around. It'll all be fine. Leagues, you know, careers are too short.

John, thank you so much for the super chat. Really appreciate that. Says, happy Thanksgiving. Do we need to start asking what happens if Jeff, with Justin Jefferson, how many years of his prime is he willing to throw away? Well, one thing is that he is under contract. So that matters a lot, that you don't have really a choice outside of, you know, demanding a trade.

But even then, that doesn't guarantee that the team is just going to be like, okay, let's take our most accomplished receiver not named Randy Moss, Chris Carter, and trade him away. Like, that just doesn't happen. I also have never got an indication that he wants to be trade away. I've gotten a lot of indication that he wants to win. That would be the main thing for him. But I think that when you look at his contract, the thing that it's set up to do is after

2026, it's set up for a restructure. They could even do it next year, I think, but especially set up to do after 2026. So if Justin Jefferson wanted to go, his leverage point is, sorry, guys, $43 million cap it. you got to live with it right i'm not going to i'm not going to work with you or whatever now it may be built into his contract that he has to but that's usually the pivot point of not necessarily restructuring but extending so you set it up to get to the end of 2026 okay it's got a huge cap hit the guarantees have run out both sides have set up this point to extend the contract and what justin could do is say new not going to do that so he is going to play this

year and he's going to play next year. Those are locked in. It's really after that where it could become hairy. So that's why 2026 is so, so important. Douglas says with the Wilf's desire to compete and all the money spent in 2025, I expect they'll make a big move for a veteran quarterback next spring. Of course, the question is there. Which big quarterback are we talking about and how how much cap space can you actually create to fit a quarterback in there now lots of teams do for a short period of time you just have to structure it the right way to make it a short term type of thing they they could make an expensive quarterback work which is you know maybe something to bring up when the quote revisionist history is like you can make this work if

you really want to um it's not revisionist when i actually wrote an article breaking down exactly how they could do that with the salary cap last year. But, you know, anyway, who's the quarterback? Who are we talking about? Who is the expensive quarterback? Is that Daniel Jones? Because if they go out and spend, if they go give Daniel Jones a three-year, $100 million contract like Seattle gave to Sam Darnold,

I mean, does that now put you right back in Kirkland, mostly? That would not feel like it was. a great option. So you have to look for someone that's very, very short term that gives you more chances with J.J. McCarthy or more chances to even look in the draft, more chances with Max if he's pretty good. But also, if you have to have him win the job and compete for the division, then it's okay. Can you thread that needle?

Sam Darnel was the perfect $10 million thread to that needle last year. Can you find that person again? Let's see. John says neither of their quarterbacks were on rookie contracts when they won. The Chiefs nuked Tyree Kill to keep their quarterback. So when you're talking about, I'm not sure who you're talking about there exactly, but Philadelphia's first trip to the Super Bowl, Jalen Hertz was on his rookie contract, and Patrick Mahomes was on his rookie contract in 18, 19, 20, 21, I think.

So he was. Yeah. And they, I also think there were other reasons to trade away Tyree Kill, maybe that have shown up in Miami. But you're also talking about Patrick Mahomes. And they have not had as much success when he's been expensive. They, they have had, I think, more, more issues since he's been expensive with the rest of their roster. Now, he's, he's that great. But, I mean, Mahomes is not a guy that we can ever really use, for examples, because he's the greatest quarterback of, uh,

the generation so you can't really well they did this or that they paid him and they still won like that's true but that's just a different different type of guy he also signed a very favorable contract for them that's a different type of guy than you ever expect to get when you're talking about like j jay mccarthy was probably not going to be patrick behomes um and sam darnold doesn't have to be patrick behomes to make a decent amount of money and still be uh on a good roster The issue with Kirk Cousins was the actual talent versus the price tag didn't match up. But when we're talking about actual talent of Sam Darnold, number three overall pick in the draft, giganto arm, like aggressive, accurate, deep down the field, all those things.

Like those are different playmaking out of structure. As we saw, you know, the plays against Atlanta or Seattle, like those things are all different than someone who was squeezing every ounce of blood out of the stone. then had a very unreasonable contract that was short and always had a giant cap hit. So there's a lot of other layers to this entire thing. So let's see. Lori says, how do you develop if you don't play, isn't playing football a hands-on job? It is.

But when you are practicing behind the scenes, the defense is going on those scout team reps, the defense is going hard. and what you're getting is a lot of throws. So just the example that I went through earlier with the double team on Jeffson Jefferson, but throwing to a spot, you're doing that every day in practice. And you're logging.

Think about the reps that you're logging time and time and time again for an entire year. So if McCarthy had not played this year, and he was behind the scenes throwing and throwing and throwing, that's a chance to develop without the pressure of getting destroyed by Micah Parsons. That's a whole year's worth of throws that would be added up to go into the following off season and then improve like it would have been a better timeline for him.

Clearly, we could say that now, that if he had spent this entire year on his fundamentals, that would have been way, way better than had he just been tossed into the fire and tried to fix them on the fly. That's the other thing is that you can work on it in practice and throw it over someone's head and go, ah, need to work on that and work on it and work on it. You can't work on it against the Packers. It's got to be there. It's got to be on point.

Can Conner Stallions throw an out route? I, I, the fact that Connor Stallions ended up in our life, maybe it was inevitable. I don't know. The fact that he ended up in our life, though, that's the moment that you know, the season is off the rails. It's officially off the rails. when a guy who dressed up as a central Michigan staffer to steal the signs of central Michigan

is trying to throw arrows at people about all 22 tape. Just crazy. Just crazy. What a time to be alive. Adrian, what do the Vikings do if Max plays well? They keep playing him. It's that simple. They just keep playing him.

If he plays well, then keep playing him and see what you have and then go into next year with him as part of the operation the same way that they did with Purdy. I mean, it's a very, very purple Purdy style is what you would do if Max plays really well and they're very happy with it. Jerry says what, when Darnold looks KOC in the eye, who blinks first on Sunday? Well, here's the thing.

I've said that this is not a revenge game. It's not. It's a thank you. Thank you game. because here, here's a point that Dane Mizatani brought up, and I think he's going to write about or he already wrote about, is this couldn't have worked out any better for Sam Darnold. And if you go back to, because I guess we're doing this tonight of just what we said in the past,

if you go back to when he was traded to the, or no, when he signed the Seahawks, when Gino was traded that made it clear that Darnold was going to Seattle, my thought was that's great. It's a really good organization. They have a top wide receiver. They've got a good defense, and I think he's in good position there. I much would have preferred him go there than Pittsburgh with that cartoon offense and that they were running last year with Russell Wilson or the Giants where people are getting fired. Tennessee, I mean, that roster is absolutely horrible.

I wouldn't have wanted to see him for that. Seattle was perfect. That's a team that can compete. Got a lot of talent. They're a good team. like go there and be you, Sam. And I know this too for a fact that Kevin O'Connell wanted that the whole time. He wanted that the whole time for Sam Darnold to come to the Vikings, succeed, and go somewhere else to be a franchise quarterback.

Like that was always the plan. There is no dislike there. I mean, of course, if you're a competitor, you're going to be like, yeah, I'm going to show the Vikings. But he wouldn't be there if not for his season with the Vikings. So all that is worked out really well. KFT says if you watch the Kurt Warner video, which I did, he points out the oddity of some of KOC's route concepts. I have been perplexed by seeing two receivers in the same space. Yeah, there's definitely a few times where that does seem to be the case where some of the details are off.

I noticed that on one of them, maybe it's the completion that Naylor kind of runs into Justin Jefferson. it was not a good-looking game by really anybody. I mean, the offensive line didn't block that great. But also, that's why I wanted to look at just the clean pocket throws. And the clean pocket throws, there was nothing clean about them from McCarthy. That's where you can kind of say, all right, yes, on the interception where the guy hits his arm, that's not his fault at all. Or, you know, this, that, or the other thing, when he's pressured, everyone I think would be

bad being pressured like he was in the second half. I don't know that they're that bad where you're getting one yard. But even the throws early in the game out of clean pockets where there's pretty clear reads, pretty clear throws, Kurt mentions numerous times, just the pure throwing of the football. You know, that there's numerous times in the video where he says, like, I just don't think that McCarthy is a natural thrower. So that's kind of the concern when it comes to that. Jay says on the fan dual question of the day,

I think the point spread is accurate. Yep. I mean, it, whenever, like from a gambling perspective, I'm not the guy to ask, but I just, I tend to know that 11.5 points sort of screams under. That's hard to do. But I think it's fair. It's definitely fair based on where both teams are.

Uh, let's see, Lucas, uh, how many sacks is the offense going to allow? I think what you're going to probably see is that sacks tend to be a quarterback stat a lot of the times, but like if they don't have Derrissar Jackson, and that might not be the case. Uh, KFT says if Brosmer is bad, do you throw him out again and potentially ruin his confidence? Well, if he's, if Brosmer is terrible and they lose 31 to Z, then you just go back to McCarthy when he's ready to go and he just ride it out from there. If Max is really good, then he plays again.

That's how I would look at it. Just your average Vikes fan. How do we as fans move forward trusting anything KOC says now? Well, this big of a gaffe, I think it puts the target on everybody. Yeah, I mean, I don't disagree with that. I think it does put a target on everybody's back for at the end of this thing. And there's still time to go. I mean, if they finish eight and nine and the quarterbacks look better and they play some really good games,

it's not going to feel quite like it feels right now. But either way, like it's over. They missed. They made a huge mistake. Sam's awesome. And this team is four and seven. So there's like that, that bell has rung. That final bell has rung.

They've held up. And the winner is the Seahawks. with Sam Darnold. So that's over. I think that what you saw over a three-year period was pretty darn effective quarterback play mostly when the starter was in. I remember I had the, what I had the stat when KOC had a starting quarterback that was not, you know, J.J. McCarthy.

It was just Sam Darnold or Kirk Cousins. What were they, 27, 31, 31 and 11, I think, with either Sam Darnold or Kirk Cousins. I mean, that's pretty convincing. So, just a reminder on the Fandul question of the day, Vikings are 11.5 point underdogs. Will they give Seattle a run? I think most of you are optimistic about Brosmer. And I appreciate you the patience.

But I probably will just, you know, call it a rap here. My wife's also on TV calling Go for Volleyball, if you want to check that out as well. So I probably will call it a wrap just because I can't get any good luck here with the internet. But, you know, my plan is to do something podcast-wise tomorrow, recap in the games and so forth. I'm not exactly sure what it'll be, whether it's going live or just recording or something. Mani Hill has already pre-recorded the picking the schedule bits.

We'll definitely have that at some point for tomorrow. But this is a really good conversation. I know it's going to continue to happen going forward. We're going to get some more results. you know, just see what happens with Max Brosmer and just kind of go from there. That's just all anybody can do right now because the different directions that this could go for the Minnesota Vikings are numerous at this point. I mean, it could be Brosmer, it could be McCarthy, he could come back and turn it around and suddenly it clicks, or it could be Daniel Jones or Kirk Cousins or Aaron Rogers or Trevor Lawrence.

or who the heck knows? Like, we're going to work through that. I did promise a mock at some point, but we'll have to get to that pretty soon to our first mock draft. Maybe I'll toss that in to tomorrow's podcast as well. But, you know, Thanksgiving means football to me, so I would be thrilled to talk some more football tomorrow.

But thanks for everybody for fighting the way through what did someone call it, the Internet Gremlins. If I didn't get to your question, I apologize for that. A lot of good comments. A lot of good thoughts here tonight from you guys. And I expect that going forward that we're going to have a lot of interesting discussions about this quarterback situation where the franchise is, who we're blaming,

how we're just viewing what goes on. And I think there's still some really interesting paths that will determine how they think about 2026 over the coming weeks. So I will be here as always for that. So thanks again, everybody. don't forget to answer that fan dual question the day. And we'll see you tomorrow. Somehow, I'm not sure exactly what. Maybe I'll go live after the second game. Well, what is it? Cincinnati and Baltimore. That's not

that interesting. Maybe I'll go live then. We'll see what happens. But it might depend on how much I eat and how much I need a nap later on. But if there's interest in people jumping on and talking to football, I'll be here. Thanks a lot again, everybody. And we will see you very soon. Football.