Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Combine buzz is that Cousins will play out his contract -- do we believe it?

Episode Date: March 6, 2022

Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom talk about the general feeling coming from the NFL Combine that the Vikings are going to let Kirk Cousins play out 2022 on his contract worth $45 million on the cap. What would it say about the new leadership of the Vikings if they stuck with Cousins? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hello, welcome to the I'm Adjusting from Eastern Time back to God's time, which is central time as I have returned to Minnesota from the NFL combine. And now we get to break down everything that I heard and the buzz that's coming out of the combine with Sam Ekstrom. What's going on, Sam? How are you? Good. Welcome back. Welcome back. You survived. Is your life changed after spending a crazy rollicking three days in Indy? Let me tell you about rollicking. Okay. So Andrew Kramer and I are out the other day in a restaurant slash bar. And I understand bartenders that when I get four Diet Cokes at the bar and I'm taking up a bar seat, I know what I'm doing there.

I understand that to a bartender, that's somebody who could be spending a lot more money on beer. But usually what I do is if I'm that guy, I tip the bartender like a big tip, like 10 bucks or something just to acknowledge like, Hey bro, I, I get it. I get it. Uh, I should be sitting over there, but you know, my friend is here and Andrew, but the bartender and Indy, uh, did like, wouldn't even give me a bill sort of passive aggressively. I thought it was Midwestern. Like we're still in Indiana. So the people are the same, but I was like, Hey, you know, can I pay for this or whatever? And he's like, he's like, I'm not giving you a bill for that. same, but I was like, Hey, you know, can I pay for this or whatever? And he's like, he's like, I'm not giving you a bill for that.

And, but he said it in a very like rude way. And I just thought like, dude, I was going to tip you a lot. I get it, man. I get it.

If you're the guy who doesn't drink, you should still tip the bartender for just like his time and effort. And so Andrew and I walked out feeling very bad. So that was my, that was my rollicking as uh the rest of the nfl world was partying in indy dang that's cold that's cold you know if he if he gives you like a wink or a smile like you you take that differently you're like oh this is cool like they're raking it in and he's just letting me sit here kind of uh on the bars tab but no he had to leave you with a

sour taste right right right like what what i'm sorry man like what do you want me to do start drinking today just for you i was gonna help you out but instead gave me no opportunity so uh anyway that's that's about as uh hot as the biggest name that you came across just in passing? Because I know there was the big, was it Bull Wolf on The Athletic, sat in a Starbucks all day and logged everybody he saw. Who did you see? Well, I mean, I don't mean to like humble. Let's name drop.

Name drop caller. The first night I got there, I spent probably 45 minutes talking with Chris Collinsworth. And I don't know that you can top that. Now, that became a funny story of the swine conference there, the veterinary pig people talking with Chris Collinsworth and him signing autographs. And he could not have been nicer to all those people. And that's always been my impression of Chris. And I mean, nice enough to spend all that time

just chatting with me. And, but, you know, he was kind of the celebrity in the place, but you see all the people you would know. Mark Brunel was a good one that Steve Palazzolo for PFF got to meet him and that made his day. So that was another one. But you kind of see like everybody that you're, you know, that you see on TV with like all the coaches and things like that.

Like, oh, that's that guy. That's Andy Reid or something, you know. So I don't know. Like, I didn't spend a ton of time like going from place to place to see who I could see. But, you know, sort of usual suspects, NFL people. I did have dinner, not this time, but i did have dinner next to doug williams once and oh i also saw peter king and tom palacero having dinner at the same place that we were so that was kind of funny it was just like hey there's peter king and tom palacero you know what i mean like it's it it is it is a weird it is a weird surreal type of thing to have everybody there at once so you almost can't go into any place where you don't recognize at least someone yeah i mean i feel like you you kind of need to like review how some people look because i mean you could pass some very like influential people

and just not know who they are like the gm of X team, the odds are, I don't know what they look like, but they might be very important. I would never even know. Right, right. This happened with me with Nick Sirianni, the coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Yeah. I've only seen him on TV with a hat on,

like we haven't covered a Nick Sirianni game. And so I was walking next to him to go into the room where everybody does all their interviews and a bunch of fans there are there's this weird like pit of fans there's like this area where fans will stand and that's where all the football people go by and they'll yell out to them and get autographs and stuff i just can't really imagine spending a day that way uh but and they all kind of look like the comic book guy from the simpsons but so nick sirianni and i are walking and then they start yelling and i was like what huh and

oh oh him okay and he was wearing a philadelphia 76ers hoodie so i didn't know who that was like i figured it was somebody from the eagles but i just like was not aware of this person so anyway uh yeah there's um there's always a lot of people there. And of course Sage Rosenfels knows all of them and that makes it even more fun. So let me tell you the buzz as I left Indy and I had dozens of conversations with people that was, it's just always, always interesting because you run into so many people that all work in the same industry and they're all work in the same industry,

and they're all thinking about the same things and talking about the same topics. And everyone wanted to talk about Kirk, honestly. It's so interesting to people in the NFL to talk about Kirk because it's just sort of like this test where everybody sees it a little bit differently but the impression that i left indy with is that cousins will most likely play out the final year of his deal that is the most likely scenario i believe as we stand at this moment that could very quickly change with different quarterback trades and how people feel about this draft class which we need to discuss how the suddenly strong quarterback draft class i don't know that's kind of how it's

looking i don't know so give me your reaction then if that is what happens if the vikings say let's say they go to cousins and they say all right brother we need to lower this cap hit. How about we just tack on like one more year with, you know, no, no trade costs, wink, wink. And we just lower this thing. Or maybe we just add one void year to cut this thing in half or something. And Kirk says, no, I would prefer not. Thank you. And then his agent flips a table.

What would your reaction to that be? Okay. So I think that it is a forgivable outcome. If you let Kirk cousins finish the deal and walk having the flexibility the year after that is great. It is not the preferable outcome because a, it's going to be really hard to be competitive defensively. If you've got that contract on your books, you're going to have to cut some veterans. I mean, that's just, that's the reality. The preferable outcome to me, and people know this who listen to the show, is a trade. So I feel like that should be your first attempt. And then the fallback would be let it play out. What you're implying is that the first attempt is the extension.

And then the fallback is let it play out. I'm not convinced that things can't change. I think maybe as we speak, that might be the Vikings approach would be to try the low ball contract. And I mean, there's there's almost no situation where Kirk is going to look at that and accept it because to to meaningfully drop your salary cap, he would have to be so far below market rate. I mean, you know, you remember his original deal? Was it 84 or was it 84? That is pocket change now, right? Like imagine if he accepted an $84 million three-year deal.

That would be nothing. And it seems like Kirk is almost anticipating this exact situation because he's put it out there through various channels that he has not taken a pay cut. So if he's commanding 40 million per year, there's no way you're going to lower your cap hit enough this year to make it worth it. And you'd be right back in the same situation next year with this backloaded egregious contract. I think it would be a shame if the vikings had this asset and just let the contract expire now you do get compensatory return there is that um so you're not empty-handed but

paul and i talked about this on the purple insider extra on youtube there is a log jam right now that is being headlined by Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers needs to make a decision because if he does decide that I'd like to play, but maybe not in Green Bay or I'd like to continue, you know, or I'm going to retire, you know, that changes how Denver approaches things. There's going to be a domino effect there because I'm sure Denver is holding out and George Payton saying, we want a QB 10 out of 10.

Nathaniel Hackett is saying, come to me, Aaron. And if he doesn't, well, Denver's got to go find somebody. Maybe it's Garoppolo. Maybe it's Kirk. There are other issues here at play that could change the narrative,

the desperation of various teams. And if Kwesi is met with a first round offer for Kirk, it would be irresponsible of him not to accept that, in my opinion. So if you're telling me that the buzz is that the first plan of action is an extension offer, I think that's a mistake. I think you should be trying at all costs to trade the guy. But maybe the offer of an extension is merely symbolic. Maybe it's not even realistic because it sounds like Kirk is not going to take any hometown discounts. And I think we would both agree that Kirk doesn't really view this as much of his hometown anyway. So that's where I'm at. I think that your point is extremely valid

when it comes to the, as we stand right now versus as where we might stand in several weeks, because things can change. And I'll give you an example. I left the combine in 2020, feeling like there was almost no chance the Vikings would trade Stefan Diggs, not because of what Rick Spielman said, but just from talking to people, everyone that I asked about it was like, dude, they would be nuts to trade Stefan Diggs. He's their superstar. He's their Minneapolis miracle guy. How can you trade him? Find a way to work it out. And then one tweet changed everything. This, I think he tweeted something like, I need a fresh start. And then the Bills saw that tweet and they called the Vikings and they offered a first and then boom,

it was done. And how about even the story of Sean McVay being in Cabo and seeing Matt Stafford and then sitting down and talking football with Matt Stafford and calling the owner of the Rams saying, we need to trade for this guy. Things happen quick, things change quick. And if you are one of these teams that really feels like they can win now and these other dominoes fall and you end up on the outside. Now I did hear by the way that Cleveland is not going to be at all interested in cousins. That was one thing that people were talking about a little bit is that Cleveland is more likely to stick with Baker Mayfield for another year and

that they would actually prefer Baker Mayfield to Kirk cousins. Just interesting. I suppose. Yeah. I think that guy who worked well with Kirk. So that's pretty telling. Well, I think that,

uh, I, you know, I, I think that cousins is a decidedly better quarterback than Baker Mayfield, but Baker Mayfield gives you something very valuable, which is not a giant cap hit even on his fifth year option and flexibility in the future that you don't have to be locked into him. And there's still a belief that Baker Mayfield can make a play better than Kirk cousins. And. And so that's one team that might not be in on something with Cousins. And if we think that people who previously worked with Cousins don't want him at this price,

well, maybe that would check off Denver too. But as Jimmy Garoppolo goes somewhere, as Wilson and Aaron Rodgers lock into their situations, then all of a sudden things start to happen and things start to move and shuffle. And Kweisi Adafomensa acknowledging that teams are not particularly good at picking quarterbacks in the draft makes me think that he understands this situation and why it would make sense to draft someone, even if you're not fully sold on the allegedly weak quarterback draft, which we will get to some of those guys in the week that they have had.

But, you know, that's the thing is that as of right now, it could be their plan to because they have to have that as their plan. But when Kweisi Adafomenta talked, he left the door open for pretty much anything, which sounded to me like, but feel free to call, you know, anybody around the league. I, yeah. So I think that we are a little ways away from the possibility of teams trying to figure this out, because like you said, if someone calls and says, we're going to give you a first round draft pick, and then you talk to Marcus Mariota's agent and they say, yeah, we'd love to come to Minnesota. That's very different than where we stand right now,

which is Kirk Cousins is your only option. But, you know, I was thinking about just the way different people view different things, Sam. And one thing that's always scary, and I heard this from some people in Indy, indie of course is how are you going to do better than cousins now i usually just snark back of like wait do better than miss the playoffs three out of the last four years and not get past the divisional round but what do you mean uh but but let's just even think about how different people think of things like are you a person that needs to see it does kevin O'Connell need to see it? Does he need to see up close with his hands on it,

with him trying to coach it and him trying to do the thing that no one else has been able to do? Or can he look into the future and say, I've got the crystal ball here. It's the past. It's the skills. It's the cap hit.

It's the whole situation. And I can say, this isn't going to work based on my crystal ball of all the data and information and i think the vikings it's very possible that they have two different types of thinkers here that even are running their team like because i think coaches always believe that they can be the one that gets the most out of the guy but the gm's job is to look into the future. And so I think that right now they might have to be like, well, no one's offering us a first or a second, so we don't really have a better option. But if that comes, uh, Kweisi Adafomensa strikes me as a guy

who thinks he can look into the future. And I mean that in a complimentary way. Yeah. And I wonder if there's a little bit of, you know, subtle good cop, bad cop here where the coach O'Connell, who's going to be working closest with Kirk is sort of planning on that until things change. He's going to be Kirk's advocate. I mean, he's going to say mostly the right things about him and he's going to approach this as if he can be the solver. Now, do I think that there's a little bit of professional hubris in anyone who thinks they can solve an issue with an entirely new scheme and a bad defense and very little cap space? Yeah, I think that's a little bit unrealistic. Again, I think you're shooting for in the hunt if you run this back without any meaningful additions. But I think that if Adolfo Mensah plays the bad cop in this situation and says,

sorry, Kevin, I know that you might be excited about this to try it out, but I've got the data. I know what the last seven years have produced, and it has not been a Super Bowl caliber team under Kirk Cousins' watch. And what did Adolfo Mensah say? He wants to build a juggernaut was the word he used. And I think he was referring to the defense, but you can kind of extrapolate that out. He mentioned it's going to take three, four, five years to get all those pieces in place. And that gave me hope that he is seeing this through the long view. Now, there's probably a hybrid where you can still have the

long view and have Kirk play this deal out. And if that's the case, then yeah, I mean, O'Connell should be focused on doing all the things to make sure it works. I would prefer that they get ahead of the game and get the ball rolling this year with sort of the next era instead of having to just squeak in under the cap once again and sit out free agency. But I recognize, too, that that decision is a lot based on factors that are out of their control, which is how busy and how active is this quarterback market? And I would say this, though, if they're willing to draft a quarterback, let's even say it's early in the second round. Let's say that they view all these quarterbacks as being very, very similar. And so they decide to take them early in the second round or trade up to the very back of the first round,

like the Ravens did for Lamar Jackson or like the Vikings did for Teddy Bridgewater and let Cousins play it out. That's just an expensive bridge quarterback and that's fine. I think that there's a better way to do that because someone like Marcus Mariota, if you look at his record, you look at his QBRs, you look at, yeah, he's not as good of a thrower, but he's a better runner. I don't know. You can't convince me that the win total is going to be massively different. If you give Mariota just the Jefferson and good coaching, uh, then it would be with cousins. And I mean that yeah, cousins is better still, but Mariota would be way cheaper. And so there's a formula there to work that out. Um, but if that was their plan is, Hey, we tried tried or we got some offers, but they weren't very good.

As you mentioned, there's a compensatory pick that's going to be a third rounder. So it has to be better than that. And Kweisi Adafomensa can't look ridiculous. He just can't trade cousins for a fifth round pick. And then, you know, I have to answer those questions and have that be the first impression like this is probably important to him and it's important to ownership too because if you trade away a quarterback that they just spent all this money on for a fifth round draft pick just to create cap space uh i'm sure that the owners are going to say wait that's all you got when we were

going to get a compensatory pick if you let it play out, right? Like there's all these other things that are factors at play. And also you can't undercut your coach and not give him a good quarterback to start with. Because if you give your coach a worse quarterback and he goes 5-12 and he's getting beat up in the media because the Vikings fell off from last year, because of course everybody thinks that last year matters to this year. Oh, well, they lost more games with O'Connell than they had with Zimmer. Like these things matter to people. And so O'Connell is going to want a concrete answer of who his quarterback is going to be.

And he wants that person to be good at football because he doesn't want his first year as a head coach to be miserable. And no one does. So there's a lot of different moving parts to this whole equation that might end up with them just sticking through it. But if they were to draft a quarterback to develop for a year and have that be the plan to transfer onto that quarterback or make another decision down the road, I think that that is a totally fine outcome for them. But I will also say that that doesn't feel different than what you just had. And that is one thing that is for people, you know, when we're talking about how different these guys are, would be hard to hear, I think. But if the whole deal is let's let it play out and offer them an extension and draft a developmental quarterback uh that sounds like what spielman and zimmer were already doing kellen mond was supposed to be that

they talked about that with kellen mond of like he's going to be the developmental guy and they made a effort not a great effort but an effort to trade up for justin fields which would have been the same sort of plan and they were going to let it play out with Kirk Cousins. It doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't feel terrible, but it also doesn't feel like next level. And that's what you're looking for for these people, right? What you're looking for is the last guys were actually pretty good at their jobs. Rick Spielman, Mike Zimmer, they were good at their jobs, but they were like six out of 10 good at their jobs. Rick Spielman, Mike Zimmer, they were good at their jobs, but they were like six out of 10 good at their jobs. Rick Spielman was not Dave Gettleman and Mike Zimmer was not Matt Rule.

They were not below average, horrendous coach and GM combination. They won a lot of football games, but you're looking for next level. You're looking to have the Ravens see you at the combine and have John Harbaugh give you a little wink, like, I see what you're doing over there. You're doing things we're doing.

You're next level. If they just let it play out, I guess I'm going to think, like, I don't know. Like, this isn't next level. This is probably exactly what the other guys would have done. Yeah, I think it would be pretty disheartening if they let it play out and didn't have the next quarterback in the building.

If they use that first round pick on a guard instead, that would be pretty disappointing. I think the Vikings maybe one month ago might have been able to convince themselves that we're going to get our pick of any quarterback we want. And I'm not sure that that's going to be the case anymore. So that would require them to be even savvier about what they do in that first round and whether they can identify the correct quarterback if some of them are already off the board. But if they let it play out, I think fans probably, I mean, if they want to get excited about the team, they can say, well, the offense is back together. It's a good offense. Maybe we can put up 30 a game and carry a leaky defense on our backs and hopefully win a lot of close games that are high scoring and might be

kind of fun to watch. Maybe you could get excited about that, and maybe the freshness of Kevin O'Connell will inject new energy into that offense. But if you don't have the future on the roster as well, someone to sort of look to, knowing full well that another year of Cousins could result in eight wins or nine wins and purgatory. If that happens and you don't have the next guy, then it feels like a directionless first year of this new regime. They need to make progress. And it's not progress if you're just letting the incumbents contract expire without improving the defense and without establishing your future passers. So I think that that's all pretty important to consider when we're evaluating this these first few months. I'm going to take a shot at a couple of metaphors here, then I want to talk about what the wide receivers did and what the rookie quarterbacks did in their workouts and some of the impressions that they've made. I would say that if the Vikings decide to stick with cousins for another year and they are basically resigned to their fate, as we felt they were going into last year, like it's not different than going into last year. You're basically resigned to your fate that you're going to be a eight to 10 win team. And whether luck goes your way or not, which some did and some didn't will depend on where you ultimately end up. It'll feel like if you're dating somebody and you think that like, oh, well, you know,

maybe I need to do something different and then they will change and they will turn around. And then you try that for six months and still end up breaking up. And then you're like, where did the last six months go? Like I just spent the last six months trying to fix something that was unfixable in this relationship. And now I lost six months of my life when I could have been going out to bars and ordering Diet Cokes and meeting nice bartenders

who will accept the tip. Okay, I don't carry cash, by the way. If someone's gonna tell me that, who carries cash? I need you to actually charge me for it. And I would have been more adamant about it had he been nice. That's not the other metaphor. The other metaphor was this. Let's say that. OK, so I used to work at a McDonald's and there was let's just call it a healthy churn of employees always coming and going from McDonald's. And so we would get new managers sometimes. And sometimes it would be a new manager who had worked in a different place, who had worked at a very good McDonald's. We were not a very good McDonald's. And they would come in and they would not talk to anybody

about how things were going. And they would have their answers of what worked in the other place. And they would say, oh, well, over there in the other town at that mcdonald's well we would do this and we would do that and inevitably they would miss some very important details of the differences and you know i think that not knowing like the culture of the locker room with cousins at quarterback and the feeling of the fan base not having been in the building for the fans to boo them off the field as they won there's something missing there with both of these guys that they that they can't understand unless they were here it's like new manager to mcdonald's you weren't here. You don't understand what this is like and the dynamic and the personalities and also how everyone feels about working here. And the same thing goes

for, you can't really understand that this fan base has watched four years of this. And so another year of nine and eight and mediocrity and rollercoaster and ups and downs and a defense that's not good enough because you can't spend on it and an offensive line that you keep telling us is going to be better this year but you can't sign Joe Tooney to make it much better I mean that you are asking to get boot off the field in week three I'm just saying like this is this is not a terrible long-term direction but if you stay with this you're asking to get boot off the field by week three or week four if you start out slow and it's the same thing and the expectations if you stay with kirk are that you better be the coach who finds the kirk thing that we don't think

is there it's just going to be an ugly first year i think if it doesn't go super well and all those things click perfectly together because i just don't know that there's an analytics or bootleggy or x's and o's way to to work yourself out of this to work yourself out of what this all means with the player versus the contract and i think that kevin o'connell and quesia daful mensa if they stay with this are asking for a very rude awakening of like, wait, why are all of you upset with us when this didn't work out? This is our first year. It's like, no, no, no, no. This is the fifth year.

Right. That's how I think a lot of people would view it. If it's not different, then it's just exactly what it was before with different looking dudes. Yeah. then it's just exactly what it was before with different looking dudes. Yeah, I think to use an office connection, I think that you're saying that Quasey and Kevin would be Charles Minor who came in and replaced Michael and the Idris Elba character that nobody liked. I think there was some talk after Stafford won the Super Bowl that, oh, this is great. Teams are going to want

Kirk to be their Stafford. This is perfect. But I wonder if the Vikings took that logic and think that Kirk is their Stafford. And especially because O'Connell came from there, could there be some thinking that, well, we can do that with Kirk and we can recapture what we had in L.A.? Who I think was an anomaly, and I think that's a dangerous way to think. But again, when you're dealing with fairly short windows to have success before you are on the hot seat. There is always urgency. I mean, I will sympathize with these coaches who, you know, even if their organization gives them nothing and their team is bad, it still kind of counts against them. Like they still are more likely to get fired quickly, even if their team is completely changing directions. So if the Vikings are looking at it and saying, okay, if we keep Kirk, 30% chance that we can make the playoffs and then see what happens, right?

Whereas if we get rid of Kirk and go with a bridge, maybe it's a 10 to 20% chance. Or if it's a rookie, maybe it's even less than that. And what we're suggesting is you go with the bridge, you develop the rookie and then you've got a 50 chance in two years that's kind of what we're advocating for is trying your best to choose correctly and build the juggernaut with a quarterback on a cheap contract and what they're saying is we're maximizing our opportunity this year we think um if we keep this guy around. But the fans, I mean, the grass is always greener

for the fans, right? So they're going to want that green grass at the quarterback position. That's why it's so important that you at least have somebody around Kirk, but over his shoulder to offer that sort of green grass optimism that the fans are looking for. Otherwise, you're right. You're right. Last year, they didn't get that from Kellen Mond, certainly. There was no hope that, all right, well, Cousins led us to nine wins, but Kellen, that didn't happen. So they need to make that happen, I think, this year for the fan base to give them some leash with what they're doing. That's a great point. And think about it this way. If the Vikings were to, and I keep saying Mariota,

but even Ryan Fitzpatrick, that one seems a little less realistic to be actually competitive. So that's why I like Mariota is that he led a team to the playoffs before and had nine win seasons. Like he can put you right there. He's good enough to do that.

And you know that he's 28 enough to do that and you know that he's 28 like Kirk Cousins began starting I believe at age 28 or 27 that's how old Marcus Mariota is now so just saying maybe there's a little Rich Gannon there I don't know or Ryan Tannehill but uh let's just say though that you bring in Mariota and you go eight and nine or you go nine and eight and you miss the playoffs or you barely make it and you draft Matt Corral. That to me is a very exciting outcome for fans because it's a transition year that has a lot to learn. Every single week will be, oh, okay. Like what is this roster? Who are these players? What are these guys going to be? The recent draft picks who their fate is not already written,

like especially the Kenny Wongwus, Amir Smith-Marset, guys like that will be assessing all of these guys and what they mean to the future. And you can take a very future approach in a year like that. And think about if last year they had all the close losses, but it was Mariota and Malik Willis behind him. And they played Malik Willis in the final week of the season. They went eight and nine.

People would be right now like, oh my gosh, the Vikings. Like, watch out. Like, they were in all those games, right? Like, they're going to be close. But if you do it again this year, you're going to feel like you spent six months with that person that you should have broken up with six months ago. And the other thing is too, if they stick with Cousins, then the way that we will assess the team is you have to win because you made a win decision.

You didn't make a future decision. Everything that we assess is about expectations when we analyze the team. So if you set the expectation that Kevin O'Connell can find something new about Kirk Cousins, then you better do it. And if you decide that you don't want to draft anyone in this quarterback class, then none of those guys better turn out to be good. Because if a single one of these guys turns out to be good that they passed on,

I'm going to rip them, right? Like, because everybody could see that it's possible that a weak quarterback class could come up with all sorts of good players because they have before. Or at least serviceable guys that can get you somewhere. The Teddies, the Jimmy G's, the Derek Carr's. Look at those guys. Those were not an elite class. Jimmy G went to a Super Bowl.

Derek Carr won 12 games. Teddy Bridgewater won 11 and won the division and was a field goal away from a playoff win. So if they decide, oh, these quarterbacks, they're not good, good enough. And it'll just be the same deal as last year. And I'll feel the same exact way. Oh, we're going to sign some free agents and fill up the defense. And I'm going to go, did I not watch this movie? And so I think that that is something. And again, that I don't know that they need to care what the fans think. I guess you just do what's best for you. The football people love to say you start thinking like the fans, you'll be sitting with them. Okay. But you know what? Fans are pretty smart. And they have had to deal with a complete drudgery over the last few years of the previous regime trying this same sort of thing so if kevin o'connell does not have the magic wand and they decide they're going to stick with cousins for this next year then they're going to feel that i think from fans whereas if they take the long-term approach um us bank stadium would be totally uh

totally fine with watching matt corral in week 18 and being excited about that and just to get a look at and what's going on in the future that's how i feel about it yeah well remember how you reacted to mac jones getting passed on then taken by the patriots that plays out. He makes the playoffs. And it's easy enough to feel a little disconnected from Jones because he's in a different conference. He's not really competing directly with you. But imagine if there were four Mac Joneses, if you pass on three first round quarterbacks and they're all starting for their respective franchises. That's going to hurt. That's going to hurt if even three

out of four of them have any measure of success and you had that opportunity. And not only did you have an opportunity, but we're like at a point in your franchise's trajectory where it would have made sense to take those. Like I'm not, I'm not one who's going to, I'm not down on the Vikings for not drafting Lamar Jackson. That would have been a pretty tough call, but that's because it didn't make sense for them at the time, but it makes sense for you to find that person. And if you pass on them, it could get ugly. So let me use that as a pivot to you. Cause I want to hear your thoughts on this ascending quarterback class, because it seems like, and this is exactly what we predicted is that people will fall in love with these quarterbacks at the Combine.

They'll get them on the whiteboard. They'll see how they conduct themselves. We get viral videos of Malik Willis being a good Samaritan on the street. And suddenly we're talking about top 10 quarterbacks, when before it was like, I don't know if any are going to go in the first round. So what do you think about the state of the QB class? Kweisi Adafo-Mensah said something very smart when we talked to him and I have it right here. He said, people come through referring to quarterbacks, they improve their mechanics, they get different coaching, they get a different schemes that fit their skillsets. I'm not going to sit here and stamp that this isn't a great quarterback because I see a lot of good stuff from these.

I think he means quarterback class because I see a lot of good stuff from these guys on film. And I think that it's very smart to look at quarterback prospects and say you can really only assess the tools that are there because the tape is going to be so much different than the tape when you're in the NFL and the workouts, which are going well for several of these guys, especially Malik Willis, but also Kenny Pickett and Desmond Ritter. The workouts went extremely well and the drills went incredibly well for Kenny Pickett and for Desmond Ritter, who ran under a four or five. I did not know that Desmond Ritter was that fast. And Ritter is playing on a Cincinnati team that was talented, but not Alabama necessarily, and against competition that wasn't great, but they won all the time.

And so you're factoring all of those types of things into it. But what I think you're seeing is the rise of the quarterbacks. And I have a mock draft to confirm this. So the CBS mock draft, CBS sports mock draft here now has three quarterbacks being drafted before the Vikings. They've got Kenny Pickett going to Carolina at number six. They have Matt Corral being picked by Denver at number nine. And then Malik Willis going to Washington right before the Vikings. And there's also rumors out there that Ron Rivera is very intrigued by Malik Willis.

So I think what we're seeing is all of these guys come to Indy and go to the Senior Bowl and get everybody intrigued by them. And that's not a guarantee. I mean, they could easily go over five or they could go three or four for five. I don't know when it comes to this, but we did think that once everybody got a close look at them, that the perception would change because there's first round talents here. This is not 2013 where there were literally no first round talents. EJ Manuel was the first quarterback taken and the bills traded down and took him.

And then everyone else went second, third, fourth round and the NFL turned out to be right on that. So I think that it's very interesting that this quarterback class has suddenly captivated the NFL world. And now everybody thinks that there's going to be a bunch of quarterbacks taking malik willis feels like sort of the the big name right now i mean i think everybody is salivating over malik willis i would be stunned if he was on the board at number 12 i'd be flabbergasted um you know pickett he's got the small hands but he's got a big arm i mean that's going to intrigue people too i think each of these quarterbacks has a pretty intriguing trait whether it's mobility like several of them have arm strength ritter is known for his processing i think there's a lot that teams could get on board with.

And I assume O'Connell and Quasey confirmed this, I think, or maybe it was O'Connell, that they've talked to all of them. So the Vikings kind of have the information they need now to decide what they want to do. And the draft will play out in probably a frightening way for fans as they watch it, because how many QB needy teams are there leading up to number 12 let's decide yeah let's decide okay so let's just go through them QB needy or no and then we'll talk about the wide receiver they're promised okay so Jaguars no no uh Lions I'm gonna say no not not yet not yet. Not yet for the lines. What do you think with the lions take Malik Willis too?

That would be wild. Well, yeah, that's because certainly he's not the number two prospect, but I do view them as a QB needy team and isn't golf in his final year. Yeah. I guess I was thinking of them as more of a team that is still nowhere close to being competitive and that maybe they do the Browns thing of waiting until they're really ready to win because I think they're still probably like a six or seven win team next year but could they do it would it blow me away if they even traded back and took a quarterback no so let's put them under the maybe

uh Texans are absolutely a QB needy team, but they're insane. So who knows? But yes, so there's two. Jets are not. We agree. No. What about the Giants? You think that they would think about it? I say yes.

That's interesting. They have verbally been all in on Daniel Jones, so that would rock the boat quite a bit. Josh Rosen is our quarterback. I'm saying no. Josh Rosen is our quarterback. That's saying no. Josh Rosen is our quarterback. That's always my favorite. That's one of my favorite quotes of all time. And then the team media puts it out there with a graphic with Josh Rosen

smiling. Carolina is absolutely a QB needy team. Yep. And the giants have two picks in the top 10, by the way, which makes them even more intriguing for me. They just hired a guy who coached Josh Allen, Malik Willis, right? Like, uh, here's one Atlanta is Atlanta QB needy team. I think they are. They should be. They should. Atlanta is kind of the Vikings, right? A hundred percent. Isn't Matt Ryan's cap hit is absurd. Yes. Yeah. Yep. They're very

similar to the Vikings in that way. Denver. Yep. That's QB needy. And then jets again. And then Washington QB needy. So we got like out of the first 11 picks with seven or eight. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm right. Teams who are, who could be QB needy. And then all of a sudden I think that what the CBS sports mock is, I don't want to say accurate. Cause who knows, but like reasonable to think that now all of a sudden three could go in the top 12 picks and that if the vikings want

one they can either wait and see uh or they could try to trade up i don't know that they would try to trade up but i'd be fine with them waiting and seeing which one slips because when all of these guys are bunched like nascar four wide uh you know give me the guy on the outside or on the inside i don't care like the odds are probably the same if it's desmond ritter who gets who is available there that's just like mac jones last year i did not know ritter was going to run a four or five though that's interesting um speaking of which and it took me a long time to get here. And I apologize for that because this quarterback conversation, I'm telling you every bar, every restaurant, every hotel lobby, people are in there talking nonstop about the quarterbacks. So whether it's the draft picks or what's going to happen,

what if the Vikings had a bunch of quarterbacks go high and decided that they weren't going to take one there? And the best wide receiver in the whole class is available, that there were no wide receivers taken before 12. Does that interest you or are you very much on the side of like, dude, you have no one on defense, could you? I think that having a wide receiver, it plays well for Kirk and it plays well for the next guy too. And it's arguably the next most important thing to have on offense. I mean, I know people talk about tackle, but it's kind of turning into you got to give your young quarterbacks as many weapons as possible. So whether or not they're paired with that young quarterback in year one or year two whatever it is I still think that's a good thing and I think that you know you're going to be using

more wide receivers you should not assume that you know no one's ever going to get hurt or Justin Jefferson's always going to be healthy even though he he has been. And Adam Thielen is getting a little longer in the tooth. So I don't hate that. I think that, that again, you're kind of, you're, you're damned if you do damned, if you don't a little bit, because you've got this defense that has myriad needs, like almost every position, like you have eight starting roles to fill in theory um so it's going to be tough to not try to address some of those but if you are sticking with Kirk well you may as well try to bolster the offense as much as you possibly can and just try to go for it I guess and then just you know fill in the defense with in-house options and later draft picks because

you can't solve every problem. But the wide receiver will play well for several years down the road, and wide receivers can contribute right away too, whereas a lot of positions can't. So I wouldn't hate it. I would really like it because, and this is the whole point, is when we talk about Kweisi Adafomensa and Kevin O'Connell, I wrote about how they have given hope to hopeless things. The way that they talk is very different from Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer.

They hired a guy who has a math degree and an MBA to be their in-game management coordinator. All right. So this is very different. And they at least have built their staff in sort of a different way. And they're playing a different three, four system and all these things. And I think that there's some confidence that they'll build an offensive line that can actually pass block through the whole line,

not just one or two tackles. But if they were to draft a wide receiver, it would, it would be the next level thing is like, that's, that's what I'm saying. Show me next level because I've been working with these pff people forever bringing them on the shows listening to them talk reading their analysis reading the statistics and quesia

daful mensa talks like he works at pff and he is a guy and i mean that in the most complimentary way because another part of the talk and this goes to to the like, I can't say exactly who, but somebody told me of an NFL head coach who went to them, the analytics people, and said, I can't thank you enough. I feel like I'd be blind without what your guys' data tells us on a week-to-week basis. And that's how much analytics are now influencing the NFL. So the Vikings have this perfect type of person to be at the cutting edge of the NFL. Show me that that's the case. And I don't mean that you can't draft defensive linemen.

I am strongly of the belief that you need a great defensive line to win in the NFL. But look down the road a couple of years with Adam Thielen. Look what it could mean to have Jefferson and another dude who's really good. Look how it would impact you right away for whoever is playing quarterback next year as opposed to down the road. The more weapons you have, the harder you are to stop. And boy, did Los Angeles ever take that on? I mean, they signed Deshaun Jackson. It didn't work out. They got Odell Beckham. They drafted Tutu Atwell. Oh, well, they drafted

another guy later in the draft. Like they threw so much at that wide receiver position and the Vikings previously were very much like, oh, you know, we've got number one and number two set. So we're good. Like, well, you can never be completely good receivers get hurt down the road i mean second year for receivers is usually quite big so i would be impressed actually i would be impressed if they said we're going to get some of these other players through free agency and we're going to develop them in the in the middle rounds like if you took three corners they took a receiver in three corners i'd be like all right let's see how this works out. That's cool. But I don't know. I mean, right now I would have, if it's not a quarterback defensive end, but if you're taking number one receiver off the

board, I say do it. Yeah. And that would tell me an encouraging thing that they are willing to draft best player available and not just go down the list of needs. And I think that's valuable. And I think it means that they're trying to build a top five offense. And you've laid this out brilliantly. You've been ahead of this, Matthew, how Super Bowl teams need to have that type of offensive success. So if you're sticking with Kirk, Kirk's probably not going to change too much individually. So you try to change what's around him on offense so that he cannot possibly let you down. And that would mean giving him plenty to throw to with those second and third reads where he is often more uncomfortable. OK, before we wrap, I want to ask you about your defensive free agents list.

Have you read it or do you want to guess them? I'm pulling it up right now. I wanted to guess by the way. So it is long been my belief. You mentioned about the passing offenses that passing expected points added is the best indicator of who will go deep in the playoffs and who will ultimately win the Super Bowl, right? You want to guess who was number one in passing expected points added this year? It was the Los Angeles Rams. Yeah, it was the Rams. Yep, it was the Rams.

Yep, no surprise. Since 2015, since the Peyton Manning thing, every team that has made the Super Bowl until Cincinnati was ninth has been in the top five, and every team that has made the Super Bowl until Cincinnati was ninth has been in the top five. And every team that has won the Super Bowl has been in the top five of passing expected points added. So you want to be in the Super Bowl? That's how you get there. Okay. So let me get the list. Let me give the parameters of the story first. I mean, the Vikings basically have needs at every level, right right and we know they

can't possibly address all of them in free agency but i gave options for all of them um even though they probably have to pick like one or two to address um i think this is way harder than the offensive story you you had great success guessing the offensive pieces i did this one's going to be tougher for you but um take your best shot edge rusher i've got three names oh my gosh there's so many edge rushers that are available which is maybe part of the equation with daniel hunter by the way all right you've got three names so if i'm putting myself in your head because this is about playing the player as much as it is playing the game then i have to figure out who you might think would work out here.

That probably is not crazy expensive. So how about Charles Harris? That's my first guess. Dang nailed it. Yes. Charles Harris in a three, four last year, a rare player that instead of like having his career ruined in Detroit actually had reclamation in Detroit. So, uh, yeah, that's a good one. Very good. All right. So if you're looking for three, four guys, I don't know. I'm not, I feel like I'm going to struggle to think like a Sam Ekstrom here past this one. I just knew that when he sacked cousins, that would be on your mind from last year. He played really well against the Vikings. Seven pressures in that game. Yep. it. How about Melvin Ingram? No, didn't.

He was on the radar last year a bit for them, signed the one-year deal, and then had a big impact for the Chiefs. I was focusing a bit more on multi-year guys. Oh, okay. All right. How about Hasan Redik? Yes. 3-4, very multiple defense in in carolina he would be a definite scheme fit probably too pricey but again comes down to like what they do to shed

cap space all right one more here okay this is where it becomes a little bit tricky uh i'll tell you who would be who destroys the vikings the most that I don't think would have been on your list is Randy Gregory. But did you have him? No, I didn't think so. How about the dude from the Rams? Oh, Biana. Oh, oh, Ron. Woo.

OK, I'm sorry. I don't know. No. So, no, I don't. But you're close on that. The player is in L.A. and also has a difficult name to pronounce oh okay that is quite the hint oh okay so uh uchenna nuoso yeah yeah he was really good the second half of last year he was like top 20 in pressures and he's only 25 and he's a three four

fit and he's not that expensive so i would give give him a look. Um, and I apologize for the, I apologize for the times I've never heard those names said. And so if he comes here, I'll get it right. I promise. Yeah. I believe you defensive tackle, uh, class and free agencies really weak. Um, I think there's like one notable name that I put on the list and I've got two that I would never expect you to guess. Um, so if you want to take one, one stab or two stabs on defensive tackle, how about Solomon Thomas did not include Solomon Thomas. Yeah. I feel like I'm really in the dark on this one. So I'll take one more. I'll take one more shot at it. Yeah. How about, how about Calais Campbell? Didn't do Calais Campbell. You know, again, he's that feels like a good, like a great player, but also kind of a, a bandaid. And I'm looking for some, some multi-year guys. I went after

Malik Collins. Um, he was 12th in pressures two years ago. I mean, he obviously provides some of that pass rushing punch on the interior. And a lot of the guys in this free agents class are nose tackles, run stoppers, and the Vikings have plenty of that and not enough of the pass rushing. So I put Malik Collins and people can read the article for my two sleepers. So let's do the corners here and then we'll wrap up. And like you said, people can read the article Purple Insider dot com. OK, for corners, I think that you'll be looking for deals. So I've said before, DJ Reed is interesting to me.

Did you have him on your list? Is that the Seahawks guy? Yeah, I didn't. I do. I have two boundary guys and I have two slot guys because I think they need both. Didn't do dj reed okay how about uh chervarius ward yes yes dang age 25 um pretty good years in kansas city i don't know what he's gonna he might cost a lot of money um so but he's big physical outside corner, you know, 79 passer rating against. I like him about Kyle Fuller. No, no.

I was thinking the Fangio connection. He's played for the Broncos. Well, let me think about, uh, keep thinking along those lines. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. They're, they have a couple of guys, uh, Bryce Callahan. It's a no.

Yeah. Bryce Callahan. He's been like an elite slot three of the last five years. Coming off a knee injury, but clear Donatello connection there. The other day, Brad Spielberger said that Mike Hughes is going to be one of the most sought-after corners, and I couldn't stop laughing about that.

I believe it. I believe it. I mean, he's got the first-round label, and that's what just teams s you know slobber over but yeah he had a good year how about uh there's so many corners that are free agents how about carlton davis didn't go with davis uh that yeah that's a good option though from from tampa bay well i think since we're thinking of you know colloquial connections think about, you know, another guy who might have some familiarity with this staff. Hmm. Okay.

Well, I'm not really sure what the exactly on the connections there. So how about Darius Williams? Yeah, there you go. There you go. Darius Williams, Rams guy. He's like super short, but super physical and makes a lot of plays on the ball. And I, again, it's hard to know who's going to cost like 12 million a year and who's going to go for like eight.

But yeah, he's a high ender, I think. But your approach is smart, which is get dudes who are in their 20s and sign them to multi-year deals so you have them for as you get better and as your plan is to be very good. And then you don't have to take on huge cap hits right away or anything like that so um okay well purpleinsider.com to check the list uh good stuff so okay now we wait now we wait so we're gonna have we'll have chris chepasso on from cbs sports to give his full breakdown of like who really is winning the combine that's gonna come or maybe

i would have posted it already who knows things have been so weird with like usually i just posted in the morning but being an indie i was doing a lot of interviews and just firing them away courtney cronin is going to give her first bears report very soon which feels strange and jeremiah searles has been trying to connect with me for a podcast all week and i'll tell you one little funny thing that uh there was a bus outside of one of the hotels. There was the Dallas Cowboys bus. And Jeremiah said he had a meeting with someone on that bus.

He might be arrested. Like it's very possible. Well, yeah. I mean, what happens on the bus staying on the bus, the stories that the Dallas Cowboys bus could tell. So, all right, Sam.

Well, great stuff. And we will talk again next week, as always. And maybe we'll have some movement on things in between. And we'll have much more talk about what they should do in free agency and everything else. And the Daniel Hunter situation is coming to a head at some point. So good stuff, as always. And we will talk again soon. Yep, for sure.

Thanks, man.